April 6, 2012
It Is CRUCIAL That You Watch This
-- by Dave Johnson
If they get away with this in Michigan, they will do it everywhere. Watch the video in this post! Daily Kos: Michigan takes voter suppression to unbelievable lengths
-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 4:29 PM PST on April 06, 2012.
Only 120K New Jobs
-- by Dave Johnson
Under Bush we were losing 800K jobs a month. Now disappointing jobs report of 120K gain. We need to go back to Republicans! Or something.
-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:43 AM PST on April 06, 2012.
April 5, 2012
Sympathy For The Palin
-- by Dave Johnson
Since watching HBO's Game Changer I have sympathy for Sarah Palin. She was in way over her head - not really her fault.
The "old" GOP didn't understand that today's GOP could elect someone who really "doesn't know anything." So they assumed a Governor would at least read newspapers and not just right-wing blogs, watch FOX and listen to Rush Limbaugh. The new GOP just reads right-wing blogs, watches FOX and listens to Limbaugh.
A Palin, and now the problem of a government that is destroying the country, its infrastructure, its courts, all the things that businesses rely on, this is the GOP/corporate establishment's fault. This is corporate money and careerist politician/lobbyists, just using "the base" and nurturing this culture, because they use the ignorance.
It's also the corporate short-term thinking thing. Yeah, it was great to get tax cuts and neglect the infrastructure. Great to get people believing there's no climate change. Great to pile up cash for yourself but let the country pile up debt.
And now it's "later." If you aren't one of the very few who piled up enough cash to fly your jet off to your private island, you're fucked along with the rest of us, in a country rules by Sarah Palins.
-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:39 AM PST on April 05, 2012.
Republican Focus Groups
-- by Dave Johnson
must be showing some traction from accusing Obama of threatening judges. Usually the Republicans are threatening judges... next week they'll be back to threatening judges...
-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:37 AM PST on April 05, 2012.
April 4, 2012
The Most Important Thing The President Said About The Republican Budget
-- by Dave Johnson
The most important thing the President said about the Republican Budget in his big speech Tuesday was when he described just some of the damage it does, and said, "This is not an exaggeration. Check it out yourself." Seriously, do that, and see if you can get your friends, relatives and especially your right-wing bother-in-law to do it, too. Seriously.
Republicans Counting On "Low-Information" Voters
The secret of the Republican technique is that they count on lots of people being tuned out, apathetic and largely uninformed. They put up a lot of misinformation and smoke and mirrors and diversion and distraction, often claiming that what they are doing is the opposite of what they are doing, to trick people into accepting what they are doing, or at least not getting involved and working to stop them. And then they go ahead with their hidden agenda, usually involving handing over tax cuts, public money or property, favors, contracts, deregulation, get-out-of-jail cards, etc., to the highest-bidding contributor, or the company/lobbyist/etc. promising the most lucrative "jobs" or "speaking fees" etc., after government service is completed...
Another technique is accusing the other side of doing what they themselves are doing, as "cover." (It's called inoculation.) They won the majority in the House by running ads telling seniors that Democrats had cut $500 billion from Medicare, and a majority of seniors voted Republican for the first time. It was enough to swing control of the House. Now in office they are not just cutting Medicare, they are privatizing Medicare, phasing it out for those now under 55.
(Update: See: Romney Accuses Obama Of Taking ‘A Series Of Steps That End Medicare As We Know It’)
They are using another inoculation tactic to mask what they are doing, confusing people by portraying Obama as extreme and divisive for saying the Republican budget is extreme. Really, if you try to explain to regular people what is in this Republican budget, they will think you are an insane extremist for saying such things! (See Who Is The Crazy Person In The Room?)
Don't Trust Me - Find Out For Yourself
The antidote is to get informed. Do not just trust what I write here, go find out for yourself what the Republicans have voted to do. Go visit several news sources and learn about this Republican budget. I'm not going to tell you where to go (except that FOX is not a news source.) Make an effort. Use the Google. And this is what you will learn:
They really are privatizing Medicare.
They really are claiming to "cut deficits" but extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich, costing $4.6 trillion.
They really are cutting taxes on the rich by another $4.6 trillion!
They really are giving millionaires an average $187,000 tax cut.
They really are dramatically cutting corporate taxes.
They really are denying health insurance to up to 17 million children with pre-existing conditions.
They really are dramatically cutting Medicaid by as much as 75%, with as many as 27 million people losing coverage.
They really are cutting 1,311 federal agents immediately from the Dept of Justice and another 4,587 agents each year over the next decade.
The cuts really do cost 4.1 million jobs.
They really are cutting 60,000 children out of Head Start immediately, and another 200,000 a year out each year for a decade.
And those are just some of the cuts. Food inspectors, work safety inspectors, education, infrastructure, police, courts, environmental protection ...
They really are counting on most of the the public to stay distracted, apathetic and largely uninformed. YOU can help do something about that. Learn the facts and spread the word.
This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture. I am a Fellow with CAF.
Sign up here for the CAF daily summary.
-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:47 AM PST on April 04, 2012.
California Taxpayers Financed A New Chinese Competitor!
-- by Dave Johnson
American tax dollars should employ American workers and build American companies. But the Bay Bridge project not only didn't do that, it paid to build up a new Chinese state-owned competitor that will bid against American companies on future projects! Let's not make that mistake again. Jeeze!
Should Be Made In America
Last week I wrote about the Should Be Made In America project. A coalition of American companies and labor organizations has launched this campaign to let taxpayers know when their state sends jobs out of the country. This is an effort to get state governments to buy steel and supplies from American companies when they do infrastructure projects. If they do not, there will be a PR campaign to shame the elected officials and state procurement agencies who made the decision to outsource American jobs with taxpayer dollars.
The New San Francisco Bay Bridge Project
The new San Francisco Bay Bridge is underway. The eastern span of the new bridge is called the self-anchored suspension span (SAS), which will have a single 525-foot-tall tower and uses a single mile-long cable to support the deck, which is two side-by-side steel roadways. The cable is made up of 137 strands of steel which are being pulled across the bridge one-by-one right now. The 1,542 ft span is the largest span of its kind in the world. (Lots of info is available here.)
They Turned Down Federal Dollars So It Could Be Made In China!
The cable and key sections of the tower and deck were outsourced to China. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration wanted this done in China, saying the low wages and lack of environmental regulations would lower the cost. Federal procurement rules require that taxpayer dollars be spent here, so Schwarzenegger turned down federal funds for the job, in order to be able to outsource the work. Never mind the cost of lost tax revenues, unemployment benefits, food stamps and other "safety net" programs for the lost workers and bankrupted companies that resulted. And never mind the cost to the larger economy and country from the foreclosures, closed businesses, lost jobs, etc. Those larger costs to the larger economy and country were not Schwarzenegger's problem
Built Up A Competitor!
Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries got the job -- even though they had never done a job like this before. Until now the company manufactured cranes and ship loaders. But, thanks to California's tax dollars, they can now. California paid for this Chinese state-owned company to build its capacity to do major infrastructure projects like this one. And they will be bidding against American companies on project in the United States and around the world from now on.
Here is Scott Paul from the Alliance for American Manufacturing, talking about the Should Be Made In America project, on KQED's show Forum. Skip to around 16:00.
"What it has done now unfortunately is established a competitor to these American firms, that has been subsidized by the taxpayers of California, that will compete on future infrastructure projects. And California taxpayers have given this state-owned firm inCaliforniaChina the knowledge and the know-how to do this. And that is not fair to other private-secotr firms in the United states."
(Note, at 16:18 Scott says the Bay Bridge project has "given a state-owned firm in California" the obviously meant to say China.)
So one agency of California "saved money" by outsourcing a project to China. But the state government overall probably lost money when you add in all the costs to other state agencies who lost tax revenue and have to pay out "safety net" expenses. And the national government and larger economy certainly lost out from the lost jobs, closed businesses and loss of steel and manufacturing capacity. American businesses certainly lost out.
At least now as other states look to future infrastructure projects the Should Be Made In America project will be there to remind them of the larger costs that come from "saving money" by sending taxpayer dollars out of the country.
P.S. here is the video from the Should Be Made In America launch event:
This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture. I am a Fellow with CAF.
Sign up here for the CAF daily summary.
-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:45 AM PST on April 04, 2012.
April 3, 2012
Obviously This Is What They Want
-- by Dave Johnson
Whining about the downturn in Europe that results from austerity.
OK, here's the thing. They aren't stupid, they are just saying one thing (austerity brings growth) but really following an agenda that suits them. Obviously the austerity isn't supposed to lift their economies. Everyone knows it will raise unemployment, etc. Obviously it is about privatizing and plundering. I mean, duh!
At what point does it become obvious that the "cut taxes for the rich, cut the things governments do for everyone else" agenda is NOT abou growing economies? Duh?
"You said if we gave you our money for these magic beams that a huge plant would grow with money for leaves, but all that is growing is tomatoes. Hey, where did you go?
"Stop! You said that if we brought you all the gold in town, you would user it to cure everyone's illnesses -- why are you riding away with it?"
"Hey, wait, you said we were going to a Halloween party when you got us all dressed up as bandits. Why are we robbing this bank?"
-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 2:29 PM PST on April 03, 2012.
April 2, 2012
Afraid
-- by Dave Johnson
OK, what are we supposed to be afraid of this week?
-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:43 AM PST on April 02, 2012.
Deficit Trouble - Right Here In River City!
-- by Dave Johnson
River City faces a terrible deficit, and if we don't cut spending on the things We, the People do for each other right now, there will be trouble. We gotta do some austerity! We gotta eat that seed corn. We gotta stop taxing the 1% and stop paying for things the 99% need!
It's a con as old as the hills. Whip up the people with fear, and then offer them the ready-made "solution." In his post, Ya Got Trouble — A fresh look at an old con, Tom Sullivan nails it with a scene from The Music Man. For those not familiar with The Music Man, here is the lead-up: "River City ain't in any trouble." "Well, we're going to have to create some." Then the Republican Congressman Music Man goes out and whips the town into a state. He does it to sell them. (The following is from a local production, which YouTube allowed to be embedded here. To see the clip from the movie click here.)
.
From Sullivan's post:
Trouble with a capital “T”
And that rhymes with “P”
and that stands for pool!In one, short speech — building intensity as he goes — Professor Harold Hill gathers a crowd of onlookers and rattles off a litany of big city sins “the right kinda parents” worry about corrupting their children and their small town: sloth, drinking, gambling, being “stuck-up,” smoking, loose morals, and indecent pop culture. In a fevered crescendo, Hill warns parents of “shameless music • That’ll grab your son, your daughter • With the arms of a jungle animal instink!”
Sullivan explains the con:
Hill presses every button the people of River City, Iowa have to press, plus appeals to patriotism and God to create a city-wide moral crisis that four minutes earlier the townspeople didn’t know they had. Sound familiar?Now strike pool. Insert contraception, voter fraud, death panels, or a half dozen other right-wing bogey men and the grifter’s pitch works the same. Today, Harold Hill would be working for Fox News or Americans for Prosperity. He’d be running American Crossroads, and making a lot more money.
This con has been perfected in recent years as The Shock Doctrine, forcing entire countries into debt or other crisis, then stepping in to plunder and privatize their resources, like what is happening to Greece right now.
Whipping Up Deficit Hysteria
This "con game" is what is happening to our own country as well, with the whipped-up terrification over deficits. The Reagan plan was cut taxes and increase military spending to force the country into debt, and then use the debt to force privatization of public resources into the hands of a few. George 'W' Bush said after cutting taxes on the rich and raising military spending that the resulting transformation of Clinton's budget surplus into huge budget deficits was "incredibly positive news" because it would force us into near-bankruptcy. Yes, he said that.
But the solution offered -- the current Republican budget that phases out Medicare and guts our government -- doesn't even cut the deficit! The Republican "austerity" budget starts with $10 trillion in tax cuts for the 1%! Then it guts most of what We, the People do for each other.
Don't be fooled, it is just one more conservative con game.
This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture. I am a Fellow with CAF.
Sign up here for the CAF daily summary.
-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:54 AM PST on April 02, 2012.
Oil Companies and Banks ...
-- by Dave Johnson
are following the tobacco business model. Paralyze the victim with propaganda, and then hold tight, sucking the money out of them until they die. Move on to new victim.
-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:52 AM PST on April 02, 2012.
