It Takes Two

The recent LSU vs. Alabama football game was an intense engagement between the two contestants.  No matter how you feel about the outcome (Go Tigers !!!!), it clearly was a classic example of a hard-fought competition. 

My question is: How come conservatives, who are always beating us over the head with their phony demands for competition in the market place, don't even understand the meaning of the word competition?

The Picayune today reports that the Jindal administration was opposed to the $80 million grant (read, gift) from the Feds to provide broadband service to rural schools, libraries, health care facilities, and homes, because they couldn't figure out a way to cut their cronies in on the deal fast enough.  Seems the Feds pulled the moola before the Jindal crime syndicate could paste and glue together enough private/public partnerships to make off with the dough.  Commissioner of administration Paul Rainwater said allowing the state to go forward with using the grant to provide the service on its own, would unfairly "compete with private business."  Of course, the obvious point here is that there is no competition from the private sector for this rural service because they do not deem it sufficiently profitable.

This is the same brain dead and, I thought, long buried idea that conservatives advanced to trash the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) and REA (Rural Electrification Authority) during the New Deal.  The utility companies were happy to leave 90% of all rural households in the dark at that time because it was not profitable enough, they said, to provide the service.  They added that the government's involvement would unfairly compete with private business.

They were wrong.  They still are.  Competition requires at least two.  But when it comes to the provision of essential services neglected by the private sector, one will do.

The Ghost Of A Chance

There is a ghost haunting the worldwide collapse of capitalism.  It is the opposite of the evil, empty spirit of unbridled greed, gluttony and abuse.

It is the enemy of today's worst international criminal enterprises -  zombie banks, rigged financial systems, and multi-national slavers corporations which operate in the Asian concentration camps and other third world labor mills.

It is the bright light of historical truth which sears the scales of phony propaganda from the eyes and exposes the vile, hollow, intellectually vapid claims and economically parasitical practices of the advocates for rapacious unregulated markets, the bullies of disenfranchised workers, and the political puppets of emasculated democratic governments.

It is Liberalism.

It is the weapon Franklin Roosevelt wielded against those he rightly called "economic royalists" in the 1930s.  It is the political and economic framework for a just and prosperous society.

It always serves in the cause of freedom for the oppressed; democratic rights and opportunities for the citizen. 

It has the muscle, power and will to rise up and stand down the worst abuse of any era.  It whipped the Nazis and Soviets, it can handle the punks and plutocrats of Wall Street and the ECB, as well as the IMF/World Bank.

It is in the streets and on the move again.  And it scares the hell out of those punkster patricians, without even having to say, Boo!

Crazy Numbers

Steve Jobs, whiz-kid folk hero-cum-legend, was, in the end, just a bad apple.  He was a huckster of the first order, who developed a deep and dedicated cult following.  Millions of Americans, especially young ones, became persuaded that his line of ever slicker and smarter products had forever freed them from the demands of intellectual rigor and productive effort, traditionally associated with wealth creation.  They became convinced that they could escape the burdens of real work by somehow keystroking their way to economic nirvana in the new high tech era.

The globalization mantra of equally slick politicians like Bill Clinton promoted this fallacy ferociously, and even facilitated the production of these myriad miracle devices themselves in old style sweat shops, housed on foreign soil.  Such factories are typically operated according to the strictures of exceedingly oppressive societies characterized by tiny omnipotent elites and masses of powerless and impoverished  workers ( much as we are fast becoming for believing this crap).  The Apple Computer Company produces its products in such circumstances.   click here and read the sad story of iPads made in China by Apple

Apple sells an iPad for $499.00 in this market, and pays only $9.00 for the labor to make it in China. How's that spread for a potential profit margin?  It's certainly easy to see how they've managed to stack-up almost $60 billion in Swiss bank accounts, but not so why we should allow it to be moved here tax free.  After all, just think how many hundreds of thousands of desperately needed jobs Mr. Jobs easily could have created here at those product prices, if only he had given just 2 cents about this country.

Crazy Poor

These people are crazy.  The poor?  No, the dolts who define and write about the poor.  The morning newspaper carries an Associated Press piece reporting:  "Poorest of the poor in U.S. hits new high."  That classification is pegged at income below 1/2 of the official poverty level.  Some 6.7% of the population is now subsisting on that little, according to the Census Bureau.  That is the highest percentage found in the 35 years the Bureau has compiled such data.

Such news is enough to drive anyone crazy.  But wait, it's even worse.  The report says that 1/2 the poverty level comes to $5,500 a year for an individual and $11,157 for a family of four.  It follows then that $22,314 is the official poverty level for a family of four.  Listen, I really don't mean to offend anyone, but if you, or even the "official" number crunchers, believe that a family of four trying to make it on even, um ... let's say $35,000 a year, isn't poor in this country, then you and they are all crazy.

It Ain't The Players, It's The Uniform

I am not a scientist.  I don't even play one on TV.  And I didn't sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night, or any night for that matter.  But I do have a theory, and I challenge you to disprove it.

The current crop of potential Republican presidential nominees is being collectively laughed off the stage by the public at large, and it is happening not because each one of them is exceptionally clownish (of course, they are) in his or her own way, but because they are all true Republicans.  There it is.

They are all on the same ideological team, running the same plays, following the same game plan, trying to score points the same way.  Yes, some are hot dogs (think Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich), some are stodgy linemen (think Mitt Romney and Rick Perry), some are free agents (think Herman Cain and John Huntsman), there is a reserve utility player (think Rick Santorum), and at least one is on the practice squad (think Michele Bachmann).  But they are all suited up for team Plutocracy.

The common playbook reads as follows:  Codify rule by the rich, legislate free ride tax breaks for billionaires, shred the social safety net, screw public education, destroy unions, starve the workforce into servitude and penury, and grind the rest into permanent submission to a life of destitution and poverty.

But it is so tired and predictable that even the most formerly committed or even clueless fans have figured it out.  And they know it only gets us all thrown for big losses, every play.  Many have even started to leave the stadium at half-time (think the Occupy movement) and most others stopped buying tickets last season.

All we need is for our signal caller to get on the same page with the rest of us, and stay out of their huddle (think Obama).

Bull's ... Eye?

Now, this is rich.   Perhaps not as rich as Herman Cain himself, or as you could be, according to Herman anyway, if you just weren't so damn lazy and committed to remaining poor or simply average.

Pizza star/would-be gospel singer turned political newcomer presidential candidate, Herman Cain, is upset and feeling abused.  He finds there suddenly is a very large bull's eye on his back.  And he took his complaint to the National Press Club yesterday.  Not surprisingly, there was no settlement.

You see, in politics, having a bull's eye on one's back is part of the gig.  There is no place for the aggrieved party to file a complaint.  And, we would hope, most especially not with the National Press Club.  So, all and all, however large the bull's eye Herman is wearing may be, it surely can't compare with the bull s... that comes out of his mouth.

Poor Herman.  He just can't get any justice, unlike the two women who filed charges against him for sexual abuse.  Undisputed reports say they both were awarded five figure sums as compensation for Herman's bad behavior.

Say what you want about men in general, but there is something about these self-proclaimed Christian conservative guys that stands out.  Like U.S. Senator David Vitter  and world famous TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggert with their prostitutes, as well as Clarence Thomas and Herman Cain with their subordinates, there is an undeniable pattern of abuse which depends on buying or bullying women into sexual submission.  So, one can be forgiven for concluding that those who most loudly profess their own moral rectitude, probably need most closely to be watched.

What we know

Here's an old line that always makes me smile, especially on weekends:  "Beer is proof that God exists, and wants us to be happy and enjoy life."   Maybe it's the German or the New Orleanian or the  New Orleans Irish Channel St. Patrick's Day Marching Club member in me that has always responded to that saying, or maybe just the imp.  Nevertheless, at the end of the day, we know there really is no proof. Oh, calm down.  For I also know it is the Catholic in me that insists so; insists, in fact, that we take belief on faith.

We know from the historical record, however, that human social progress is possible.  We know that it has occurred in fits and stops, and, yes, has at times slipped backwards most regrettably.  But the darkest of times have only proven that a new breakout of enlightenment is never foreclosed.  The problem arises from social progress being possible and not foreordained, as things are proclaimed to be in the supernatural sphere.  Hence, it always takes a push.  And I mean a push from us, real people, not beneficent merciful overlords of the eternal ether.

That's where you come in, my friend.  Unless, you for some reason have laid your human heritage and endowment on side the road, there is more to do than eat, breathe, and exist.  The other creatures with which we share this planet know nothing of these things, and so are subject to unaddressable abuse from members of their own orders, as well as ours.  We all know how ugly that can be.  And, unfortunately, we also see how ugly and punishing we can be to one another. 

So, if you can't bring your smug and satisfied self to join or support the activists in the commons today, at least have the decency not to kick them.  They're the only real friends you have.  Just thought this was something you should know.