Change
is guaranteed, improvement is not.
Kinder,
Gentler: While
Hillary is running around promising ponies to the blacks in South
Carolina, Bill
Clinton's dismantling of the welfare state is entering its last
lap. Starting appropriately on April Fool's Day at least 20 states
will implement rules that say no single person without dependents or
disabilities will be able to get food stamps for more than three
months out of every three years. Can't find a job, starve. Can't
find a job that will pay enough to put a roof over your head and eat,
live on the street or starve. Best estimate that this will toss at
least half a million people into the gutter, just so a few folks can
gloat over the punishment being handed out to Them, the freeloaders.
Congratulations.
Four
Republican Monkeys:
No to confirmation. No to a vote confirmation. No hearings no
matter who the nominee is. No meetings with the nominee, not even as
a courtesy. They have even
put it in writing. They are so damned adamant that it seems
quite possible that they are trying to convince themselves, not us.
Sowing,
Reaping: For
24 years and counting the Clintons have simultaneously courted Wall
Street, fleeced the American public and managed to pretend be the
enemies of the former and friends of the latter. Bill's big
achievements were crippling the welfare state, ending Glass-Steagall
(thus letting banks gamble with your money) and passing the Commodity
Futures Modernization Act (deregulating derivatives, like the
sliced-and-diced mortgage foolishness) , and passing NAFTA and with
it shipping 9 million US jobs abroad. For which they have been
handsomely rewarded. Bill is worth $80 million, Hillary another $45
million – all from working for the citizens and giving speeches.
Right.
Unclear
On The Concept:
The UK likes everything about the
European Union except
the part about European union.
The
Quote: “The
senator [Bernie
Sanders] is upset with
a political and economic system that is often rigged to help the
privileged few at the expense of everyone else, particularly the
least advantaged. He believes that we have a two-tiered society that
increasingly dooms millions of our fellow citizens to lives of
poverty and hopelessness. He thinks many corporations seek and
benefit from corporate welfare while ordinary citizens are denied
opportunities and a level playing field. I agree with him.”
Charles G. Koch
Asked
& Obvious:
When it comes to political discussions, do facts matter? No. The
misinformed, presented with objective facts, become even more
entrenched in their misbegotten delusions.
Secret
Sauce: To
recap: Barak Obama
began his presidency
promising the most transparent and open administration in history and
delivered the most secretive and paranoid. We'll never know what
turned the suave, cosmopolitan and intelligent man with a penchant
for sardonic humor into one of the most secrecy-obsessed mandarins in
our history. But that he is: Whistleblowers? Jail 'em. Emails?
Read 'em. Phone calls? Listen in. Citizens? Track 'em. Muslims?
Drones, of course. Wall Street crooks? Pay the blackmail.
Caste
Cast: If
the 590,000 white men
(who represent 1.2% of
the 25 to 54 year old)
who are
institutionalized (jail,
mostly) were counted as unemployed, which they are, the unemployment
rate would be 6.4% not 5.0%. If the 7.7% ob black men of the same
age were counted, the unemployment rate for blacks would be 19%.
Black men are
imprisoned at six times the rate of white men. There
are more young black high school dropouts in prison than have jobs.
Add in local jails,
which are not included in these statistics, and things are worse,
much worse. On in nine black kids has a parent in jail. There are
more young black male high school dropouts are behind bars than have
jobs. One in 13 black adults cannot vote because they have criminal
records. They don't get jobs for the same reason, or if they do they
are minimum wage and short hours. We jail so many blacks that it
skews our social statistics.
A
Parting Shot:
'Westron
wynde, when wilt thou blow...”