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Thursday Reads: Poverty and Joblessness *Are* Social and Political Issues

Posted: August 11, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Foreign Affairs, Global Financial Crisis, Great Britain, jobs, Media, morning reads, poverty, U.S. Economy, U.S. Politics, unemployment | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , |44 Comments

Guess who said this:

“There are pockets of our society that are not just broken, but are frankly sick.

“It is a complete lack of responsibility in parts of our society, people allowed to feel the world owes them something, that their rights outweigh their responsibilities and their actions do not have consequences. Well, they do have consequences.”

You’re darn right! The global elites have gone too far! The banksters have stolen trillions from ordinary taxpayers, and then demanded and received massive government bailouts. Politicians have lost any sense of responsibility toward their constituents, only listening to their corporate masters and their lobbyists. Yes there are consequences and these wealthy elites will discover there are consequences for their corrupt and immoral actions.

Oh wait. That was Prime Minister David Cameron talking about the poor and jobless young people who have been rioting in the streets of London and other British cities for the past five days. I’ll bet he has absolutely no clue how ridiculous it is that he is chastising these people for looting after he and other global elites allowed banksters to steal and loot trillions with absolutely no consequences. From Raw Story:

The U.S. Federal Reserve gave out $16.1 trillion in emergency loans to U.S. and foreign financial institutions between Dec. 1, 2007 and July 21, 2010, according to figures produced by the government’s first-ever audit of the central bank.

Last year, the gross domestic product of the entire U.S. economy was $14.5 trillion.

Of the $16.1 trillion loaned out, $3.08 trillion went to financial institutions in the U.K., Germany, Switzerland, France and Belgium, the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) analysis shows.

Additionally, asset swap arrangements were opened with banks in the U.K., Canada, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, Norway, Mexico, Singapore and Switzerland. Twelve of those arrangements are still ongoing, having been extended through August 2012.

Out of all borrowers, Citigroup received the most financial assistance from the Fed, at $2.5 trillion. Morgan Stanley came in second with $2.04 trillion, followed by Merill Lynch at $1.9 trillion and Bank of America at $1.3 trillion.

Lambert has been highlighting the hypocrisy of the global elites on the riots. Yesterday he linked to this article in the Guardian.

This scepticism toward the potency of democratic politicians – and therefore democratic politics itself – is oddly echoed by the looters themselves. Certainly no one outside the Iranian state media is calling them “protesters”, but even “rioters” seems the wrong word, carrying with it a hint of political purpose. For some, especially at the start in Tottenham, there was clearly a political dimension – with the police the prime focus of their anger. But many of the copycat actions across London and elsewhere have no apparent drive beyond the opportunistic desire to steal and get away with it. It’s striking that the targets have not been town halls or, say, Tory HQ – stormed by students last November – but branches of Dixons, Boots and Carphone Warehouse. If they are making a political statement, it is that politics does not matter.

Lambert notes that at least these looters didn’t steal $16 trillion from the U.S. Treasury.

And while the revulsion at the looting has been widespread and bipartisan – with plenty of liberals admitting to “coming over all Daily Mail” at the ugliness of the vandalism – that sense of the impotence of politics is widespread, too. One aspect of the phone-hacking scandal that went deep was its revelation that those we might think exert authority – police and politicians – were in fact supine before an unelected media corporation. The sheer power of News Corp contrasted with the craven behaviour of those we elect or entrust to look out for us.

But elected officials are supposed to protect all citizens–even the poor, the unemployed, and the elderly–aren’t they? Yet in the U.S. and Europe, the burden of the economic crisis is falling on those with the least ability to pay, while the wealthy continue to receive their government handouts. When people are pushed to the point that they feel they have nothing to lose, this is what happens. Why it is coming as such a surprise to the comfortable elites is the real mystery.

Let’s take a look at what some of the rioters themselves have said about the meaning of their actions. From Yahoo News:

The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, making deep cuts to public services to tackle a record budget deficit, has been quick to deny that the unrest was linked to austerity measures, calling the disorder “pure criminality.” [….]

Public anger over the widespread looting of shops appears to have strengthened the government’s argument, with stolen goods ranging from the expensive — televisions and jewelry — to the absurd — sweets and bottles of alcohol.

However, community leaders and rioters themselves said the violence was an expression of the frustration felt by the poorest inhabitants of a country that ranks among the most unequal in the developed world.

“They’ve raised rates, cut child benefit. Everyone just used it as a chance to vent,” one man who took part in unrest in the east London district of Hackney told Reuters.

Surprise, surprise. Cutting social services to pay for the bankers’ failures has real life consequences. Austerity measures create more unemployment, and people who don’t have jobs get hungry and scared. When you take everything from people who can least afford it, they get angry. What on earth do these people expect? What planet are they living on anyway? And no, I’m not condoning violence. I’m just saying that it’s going to happen when you push people too far.

Here are some quotes from two young women who participated in the British riots:

Two girls who took part in Monday night’s riots in Croydon have boasted that they were showing police and “the rich” that “we can do what we want”.

From The New York Times: London Riots Put Spotlight on Troubled, Unemployed Youths in Britain

“I came here to get my penny’s worth,” said a man who gave his name as Louis James, 19, a slightly built participant in the widening riots that have shaken London to its core. With a touch of guilt on Tuesday, Mr. James showed off what he described as a $195 designer sweater that he said he took during looting in Camden Town, a gentrified area of north London.

Politicians from both the right and the left, the police and most residents of the areas hit by violence nearly unanimously describe the most recent riots as criminal and anarchic, lacking even a hint of the anti-government, anti-austerity message that has driven many of the violent protests in other European countries.

But the riots also reflect the alienation and resentment of many young people in Britain, where one million people from the ages of 16 to 24 are officially unemployed, the most since the deep recession of the mid-1980s.

Don’t these politicians, police, and other observers understand that poverty and jobless *are* sociopolitical issues? Just because people are acting out of desperation or even opportunism doesn’t mean that their actions are not political. Just because someone is young and poor does not mean he or she isn’t aware that government and corporate corruption have caused much of their distress. Back to the NYT article:

In many ways, Mr. James’s circumstances are typical. He lives in a government-subsidized apartment in northern London and receives $125 in jobless benefits every two weeks, even though he says he has largely given up looking for work. He says he has never had a proper job and learned to read only three years ago. His mother can barely support herself and his stepbrothers and sisters. His father, who was a heroin addict, is dead.

He says he has been in and out of too many schools to count and left the educational system for good when he was 15.

“No one has ever given me a chance; I am just angry at how the whole system works,” Mr. James said. He would like to get a job at a retail store, but admits that he spends most days watching television and just trying to get by. “That is the way they want it,” he said, without specifying exactly who “they” were. “They give me just enough money so that I can eat and watch TV all day. I don’t even pay my bills anymore.”

Jonathan Portes, the director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research in London, says that Mr. James’s plight reflects a broader trend here. More challenging students, Mr. Portes says, have not been receiving the attention they should as teachers, under pressure to meet educational goals, focus on children from more stable homes and those with greater abilities and social skills. Disillusioned, those who cannot keep up just drop out.

The Los Angeles Times in an opinion piece searches for the reasons for the violence and asks if it could happen here.

The Tottenham riots that blindsided Britain were sparked by the fatal police shooting of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old black man. Over the past few days, they’ve continued and spread, turning into what has largely become youths’ looting and destroying parts of London. But no one is exactly sure why they’re doing it. Prime Minister David Cameron called it “criminality, pure and simple.”

But why have the riots continued day after day?

The riots are neither politically or racially fueled, wrote Doug Sanders of the Globe and Mail. They’re the result of a “lost generation” of youth under 20 who have little to lose and a bleak future. Here’s an excerpt:

Whether the thousands of rioters actually did express disillusionment — some did say they were angry at police or the world, but many appeared gleeful or greedy — it is clear that most had nothing else to do with themselves, and no reason to fear or feel responsible for the consequences of their actions.

This is a chronic problem in Britain, which has a “lost generation” of young high school dropouts far larger than most other Western countries’.

It’s so simple-minded to expect that youthful rioters are going to calmly explain their behavior in a reasoned, intellectual manner or that they are not going to act euphoric once they let go of restraint and begin acting out as part of a mob. None of that means that the reasons for their behavior are not political.

It seems to me that masses of young people who have “little to lose and bleak future” is in fact a powerful political issue for any society. And when people are powerless, there are few ways for them express their anger. Violence is one way to get attention from the powerful.

Can it happen here? You bet it can. As long as the President and Congress continue enacting austerity measures and ignoring unemployment and general misery among ordinary Americans, it’s guaranteed the U.S. will see riots in the streets–as we have in the past. When it happens here, will our elites be as dumbfounded and out-of-touch with reality as those in Great Britain? Probably.

I posted this in a comment yesterday, but I’m going to put it up again here. It’s an interview of writer and broadcaster Darcus Howe by a clueless BBC “journalist.”

—————————————-

That’s my suggested reading for today. What do you recommend?

UPDATE: I found a piece in the Guardian that reflects my thinking.

Seumas Milne: These riots reflect a society run on greed and looting

It is essential for those in power in Britain that the riots now sweeping the country can have no cause beyond feral wickedness. This is nothing but “criminality, pure and simple”, David Cameron declared after cutting short his holiday in Tuscany. The London mayor and fellow former Bullingdon Club member Boris Johnson, heckled by hostile Londoners in Clapham Junction, warned that rioters must stop hearing “economic and sociological justifications” (though who was offering them he never explained) for what they were doing.

When his predecessor Ken Livingstone linked the riots to the impact of public spending cuts, it was almost as if he’d torched a building himself. The Daily Mail thundered that blaming cuts was “immoral and cynical”, echoed by a string of armchair riot control enthusiasts. There was nothing to explain, they’ve insisted, and the only response should be plastic bullets, water cannon and troops on the streets.

We’ll hear a lot more of that when parliament meets – and it’s not hard to see why. If these riots have no social or political causes, then clearly no one in authority can be held responsible….If this week’s eruption is an expression of pure criminality and has nothing to do with police harassment or youth unemployment or rampant inequality or deepening economic crisis, why is it happening now and not a decade ago? The criminal classes, as the Victorians branded those at the margins of society, are always with us, after all. And if it has no connection with Britain’s savage social divide and ghettoes of deprivation, why did it kick off in Haringey and not Henley?

…To refuse to recognise the causes of the unrest is to make it more likely to recur – and ministers themselves certainly won’t be making that mistake behind closed doors if they care about their own political futures.

44 Comments on “Thursday Reads: Poverty and Joblessness *Are* Social and Political Issues”

  1. northwestrain's avatar northwestrain says:
    August 11, 2011 at 6:17 am

    Yes — this could happen here.

    Jobless recovery — how the hell can there be a “recovery” and anemic jobs. Recent college graduates are still working as waiters and clerks.

    And these kids know where the money went — into the pockets of the parasite class.

    • WomanVoter's avatar WomanVoter says:
      August 11, 2011 at 9:58 am

      This won’t improve until some of those that are benefiting, the BANKSTERS, after robbing us, they got bonuses and tightened up credit for small business/working people, are held accountable. The tough talk of holding an eleven year old accountable as an adult in the UK riots is a bit shocking when NONE of the BANKSTERS or Billionaire Hackers have been given the same tough talk.

      In the US there is no trickle down of the Billions given for the recovery and the people are asked to give up more (Even Social Security which has contributed not a penny to the deficit), while the Billionaires/Millionaires get to keep their Bush Tax Cuts and low rate of 15%, while workers pay more.

      The Bail Out of Wall Street never trickled down, the fact that congress and Obama didn’t write in where and for what the money was to be fore, was not an oversight, they were taking care of WHO they see as important. Congress and Obama are clueless, they simply don’t get it or CHOOSE not to get it, as everyone in HR knows one thing, that the most important product a company has is ‘Its WORKERS!

  2. minkoffminx's avatar Minkoff Minx says:
    August 11, 2011 at 7:01 am

    Awesome post BB, It reminds me of the line of BS James Carey gave recently, about the White House does not create jobs…Tapper Peppers Carney: What Is Obama Doing To Create Jobs? | RealClearPolitics

    I don’t think you have this linked in your post: How America criminalised poverty | TomDispatch | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

    Nationally, according to Kaaryn Gustafson of the University of Connecticut Law School, “applying for welfare is a lot like being booked by the police”. There may be a mug shot, fingerprinting, and lengthy interrogations as to one’s children’s true paternity. The ostensible goal is to prevent welfare fraud, but the psychological impact is to turn poverty itself into a kind of crime.
    How the safety net became a dragnet

    The most shocking thing I learned from my research on the fate of the working poor in the recession was the extent to which poverty has indeed been criminalised in America.

    Perhaps the constant suspicions of drug use and theft that I encountered in low-wage workplaces should have alerted me to the fact that, when you leave the relative safety of the middle class, you might as well have given up your citizenship and taken residence in a hostile nation.

    Most cities, for example, have ordinances designed to drive the destitute off the streets by outlawing such necessary activities of daily life as sitting, loitering, sleeping, or lying down. Urban officials boast that there is nothing discriminatory about such laws: “If you’re lying on a sidewalk, whether you’re homeless or a millionaire, you’re in violation of the ordinance,” a St Petersburg, Florida, city attorney stated in June 2009, echoing Anatole France’s immortal observation that “the law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges.”

    In defiance of all reason and compassion, the criminalisation of poverty has actually intensified as the weakened economy generates ever more poverty. So concludes a recent study from the National Law Centre on Poverty and Homelessness, which finds that the number of ordinances against the publicly poor has been rising since 2006, along with the harassment of the poor for more “neutral” infractions like jaywalking, littering, or carrying an open container.

    The report lists America’s 10 “meanest” cities – the largest of which include Los Angeles, Atlanta and Orlando – but new contestants are springing up every day. In Colorado, Grand Junction’s city council is considering a ban on begging; Tempe, Arizona, carried out a four-day crackdown on the indigent at the end of June. And how do you know when someone is indigent? As a Las Vegas statute puts it, “an indigent person is a person whom a reasonable ordinary person would believe to be entitled to apply for or receive” public assistance.

    Read more at the link…

    Is anyone going to watch this?

    Iowa Showdown: Five Stories To Watch In Tonight’s GOP Debate | TPMDC

    Just wondering…

    • minkoffminx's avatar Minkoff Minx says:
      August 11, 2011 at 7:27 am

      I got one more link for y’all: Rick Scott Pays $360 a Year for State Health Insurance | Mother Jones

      Last year, political neophyte Rick Scott spent $73 million of his own money to bring the tea party’s anti-government, pro-privatization agenda to the Florida governor’s office. Today, the former executive pays just $30 a month for health care—and lets taxpayers cover the rest.

      The governor, a proud bearer of the Republican Party’s deregulation standard, has spent his first half-year in office decrying government waste: He’s laid off thousands of Sunshine State employees, slashed their benefits, turned down (most of) the federal government’s health care dollars, and put extra financial pressure on Florida retirees and Medicaid recipients. But Scott and his dependents pay one-fifth what a janitor in the state Capitol pays for health insurance… and less than 3 percent of what a retired state trooper pays for life-saving coverage.

      When asked about the double standard, a spokesman for Scott declined to comment, calling his family’s cheap state coverage “private matters.”

      Hmmm, what is a word you can use to describe the feelings of hopelessness and being so totally pissed off that you want to slap these politicians for being so callous.

    • bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
      August 11, 2011 at 7:30 am

      Wow! Amazing article on the criminalization of poverty. How can that not lead to deep resentment and eventually violence if people are pushed too far?

      • minkoffminx's avatar Minkoff Minx says:
        August 11, 2011 at 7:42 am

        Yup, and when you think of the numbers of people who are now trapped in unemployment quicksand, the ones who have been unemployed for so long…they (a) are less likely to even get a job and (b) are going to loose the extended unemployment pay, this article really gets you thinking. WTF are these people going to do?

        Oh, did you see this over at Guardian: These riots reflect a society run on greed and looting | Seumas Milne | Comment is free | The Guardian

        It is essential for those in power in Britain that the riots now sweeping the country can have no cause beyond feral wickedness. This is nothing but “criminality, pure and simple”, David Cameron declared after cutting short his holiday in Tuscany. The London mayor and fellow former Bullingdon Club member Boris Johnson, heckled by hostile Londoners in Clapham Junction, warned that rioters must stop hearing “economic and sociological justifications” (though who was offering them he never explained) for what they were doing.

        We can’t be ordered to police in a certain way

        Hugh Orde

        Now is not the time for police to use water cannon and baton rounds, writes Sir Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers

        When his predecessor Ken Livingstone linked the riots to the impact of public spending cuts, it was almost as if he’d torched a building himself. The Daily Mail thundered that blaming cuts was “immoral and cynical”, echoed by a string of armchair riot control enthusiasts. There was nothing to explain, they’ve insisted, and the only response should be plastic bullets, water cannon and troops on the streets.

        We’ll hear a lot more of that when parliament meets – and it’s not hard to see why. If these riots have no social or political causes, then clearly no one in authority can be held responsible. What’s more, with many people terrified by the mayhem and angry at the failure of the police to halt its spread, it offers the government a chance to get back on the front foot and regain its seriously damaged credibility as a force for social order.

      • minkoffminx's avatar Minkoff Minx says:
        August 11, 2011 at 7:47 am

        Also from the Guardian link:

        While bankers have publicly looted the country’s wealth and got away with it, it’s not hard to see why those who are locked out of the gravy train might think they were entitled to help themselves to a mobile phone. Some of the rioters make the connection explicitly. “The politicians say that we loot and rob, they are the original gangsters,” one told a reporter. Another explained to the BBC: “We’re showing the rich people we can do what we want.”

        Most have no stake in a society which has shut them out or an economic model which has now run into the sand. It’s already become clear that divided Britain is in no state to absorb the austerity now being administered because three decades of neoliberal capitalism have already shattered so many social bonds of work and community.

        Damn BB, you are so timely with your post…you get the thoughts out before the “pros” do…

      • bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
        August 11, 2011 at 7:52 am

        Minx, GMTA! I just updated my post with that article by Seumas Milne right before your posted your comment.

    • northwestrain's avatar northwestrain says:
      August 11, 2011 at 7:55 am

      I had a State senator who’d send out right wing propaganda — cut off the poor from any and all help — they’ll be better off — she’d write. She also had lying stats to back up her propaganda. This was back in the 80s. That was when the state Republican party was taken over by right wing religious nuts. Poverty is a sin — a sign from their God. No wonder I have no use for organized religion. These people have little churches along the road and in strip malls. They clog the roads on Sunday mornings and then go out for Sunday lunch. The waitresses have told me that they are the nastiest crowd all week. No tips and rude behavior are the hall marks of these haters.

      Seems like this cult has spread to the National level. Or “The Family” has spread the word that God loves the very very rich.

    • madamab's avatar madamab says:
      August 11, 2011 at 8:12 am

      Aweome find, Minx, and great post, BB.

      I would watch the GOP debate, but I’m all out of anti-nausea meds. 😉

    • WomanVoter's avatar WomanVoter says:
      August 11, 2011 at 10:04 am

      WOWZA BB,

      You covered it and examined it and I agree totally. I tweeted it a couple of times, because I think the points in this post need airing and need further discussion, beyond putting 11 year olds in jail as adults.

      I also wonder if in the midst of the riots some other elements slipped in and caused the bigger damage…fires etc. One video showed a mobster and I wonder about Gaddafi.

  3. paper doll's avatar paper doll says:
    August 11, 2011 at 7:08 am

    Thank you for this post!!

    I’ll bet he has absolutely no clue how ridiculous it is that he is chastising these people for looting after he and other global elites allowed banksters to steal and loot trillions with absolutely no consequences

    we see how Media is being used frame reality and how it will be used when and if it happened here . and how the power elite of both sides will compete with each other to add their voices . The bankers finally found an answer to the Arab spring….make it seem like an episode of ” Party Heat ” The media here is sooooo ready to do the same

    Amazing how the announcer kept interrupting the guy on the street….I’m sure if the sound was high enough you can hear her producer scream “stop him !” out of her ear piece . He was speaking of the police brutality…that has been stepping up of late, trying to provoke this it seems . Well Murdoch and the rest of the power elite’s complicity in his sandals is no longer in the head lines and Cameron gets a free hand to do as he likes to restore “order” .

  4. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    August 11, 2011 at 7:46 am

    I updated the post with an excerpt from this article from the Guardian that reflects my thinking. Finally some truth-telling in the mainstream British media. Highly recommended!!

  5. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    August 11, 2011 at 8:05 am

    James Galbraith: Stop Panicking About Our Long-Term Deficit Problem. We Don’t Have One.

    http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/93365/no-long-term-deficit-problem

  6. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    August 11, 2011 at 8:06 am

    Cameron says he may use the army in future riots. Yeah, that’ll reduce the social unrest….

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/11/britain-riots-cameron-idUSL6E7JB19P20110811

  7. minkoffminx's avatar Minkoff Minx says:
    August 11, 2011 at 8:07 am

    Over at Cannonfire:

    The viciousness of the official animus toward the indigent can be breathtaking. A few years ago, a group called Food Not Bombs started handing out free vegan food to hungry people in public parks around the nation. A number of cities, led by Las Vegas, passed ordinances forbidding the sharing of food with the indigent in public places, leading to the arrests of several middle-aged white vegans.

    The Supreme Court has ruled that corporations can donate to political candidates because money is free speech. If money can be free speech, why not food?

    Citing that article from Guardian by Barbara Ehrenreich, which has also been published on Salon. (This is the article Cannon links to btw.) How America turned poverty into a crime – U.S. Economy – Salon.com

  8. minkoffminx's avatar Minkoff Minx says:
    August 11, 2011 at 8:15 am

    Jobless Claims are out: Unemployment claims fall to 4-month low – chicagotribune.com

    And then this from Susie Madrak:

    Sen. McCaskill is Not For Extending Unemployment Benefits Because Republicans Are Against It | Crooks and Liars

    I know what tender feelings our elected officials have, but there’s no friendly way to point out that someone is a coward — and yes, that’s what Sen. Claire McCaskill is. Rather than make the case for the many, many unemployed people of her district, rather than rub the Republicans’ noses in the fact that they have all the money in the world for tax cuts but none for the single most useful stimulus available, Claire simply throws up her hands and says, “But the Republicans won’t let us!”

    What kind of Democrat isn’t even going to try to help her constituents unless the Republicans first give her permission? Is this a game of Mother May I? And is this what passes for leadership in the political class?

    Some good post today, finding links left and right!

  9. Pat Johnson's avatar Pat Johnson says:
    August 11, 2011 at 8:54 am

    Reading some of this stuff I am surprised they just don’t refer to us as “serfs”.

  10. Miss Ayn Thrope's avatar Miss Ayn Thrope says:
    August 11, 2011 at 9:24 am

    Looting is only mindless criminal thuggery when the little people do it.

    • WomanVoter's avatar WomanVoter says:
      August 11, 2011 at 10:38 am

      I won’t hold my breath, as in London the police was helping the Murdoch company, but for what it is worth. Gosh, if only Eliot hadn’t been a naughty boy, he is so brilliant and what a legal mind.

      Countdown with Keith Olbermann 08-09-2011 6 – Murdoch Family Ties, with Eliot Spitzer
      FBI investigating News Corporation for racketeering under RICO
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBhQozB4rEk

    • WomanVoter's avatar WomanVoter says:
      August 11, 2011 at 1:01 pm

      Ann Coulter is calling for KILLING based on poverty/ austerity for the youth of England, in an Op Ed piece:

      “A few well-placed rifle rounds, and the rioting would end in an instant. A more sustained attack on the rampaging mob might save England from itself, finally removing shaved-head, drunken parasites from the benefits rolls that Britain can’t find the will to abolish on moral or utilitarian grounds. We can be sure there’s no danger of killing off the next Winston Churchill or Edmund Burke in these crowds.”
      http://motherjones.tumblr.com/post/8781025246/a-few-well-placed-rifle-rounds-and-the-rioting

      The above is beyond shocking, frankly I question who would give this hater a platform to press for mass killing of children, children who have every right to due process is sending a hate pro kill message to Europe.

      • minkoffminx's avatar Minkoff Minx says:
        August 11, 2011 at 1:10 pm

        Yes, this is exactly the kind of stuff that scares the crap out of me!

      • madamab's avatar madamab says:
        August 11, 2011 at 1:31 pm

        That’s why I call anti-choicers “pro-death” and say that Austerity=Murder. The type of “thinking” that goes on in the heads of “conservatives” these days is basically that poor people are worthless and expendable. If they were worth something, Gawd would have gifted them with worldy treasure.

        It’s entirely possible that not one of them has ever actually read the Jesus portions of the Bible.

  11. Allison's avatar Allison says:
    August 11, 2011 at 9:51 am

    There are a couple of good articles (fairly quick reads) at Guernica:

    Bruce E. Levine: 8 Reasons Young Americans Don’t Fight Back: How the U.S. Crushed Youth Resistance
    http://www.guernicamag.com/blog/2950/bruce_e_levine_8_reasons_young/

    Noam Chomsky: Public Education Under Massive Corporate Assault—What’s Next?
    http://www.guernicamag.com/blog/2958/noam_chomsky_public_education/

    Very interesting takes on how American youth are being lobotomized. I sometimes think our answer here in the U.S. – to the threat of dangerously poverty-stricken and rebellious youth – is to give them plenty of drugs and then lock them up.

  12. Pat Johnson's avatar Pat Johnson says:
    August 11, 2011 at 10:55 am

    God really must have a twisted sense of humor. After listening to Rachel Maddow expose the “fundies” who are urging and supporting a run by Rick Perry, a sense of foreboding has taken root.

    If you listen to any one of these GOP candidates, they are all obeying a sign from God. Pawlenty, Bachmann, Santorum and now Perry have all been “messaged” to run for president. How can that be?

    Hopefully the MSM will begin to expose more of these radical fringe group Evangelicals whose agenda is rather clear cut: a Global Domination of Christian theology led by a singular leader speaking on behalf of God. This much was gleaned when the agenda of the C Street and “The Family” was held up for scrutiny but Rick’s group is even more so on the fringe of reasonable thought. These were the organizers of his religious rally “The Response” that was held last week.

    This stuff is scary to say the least. Rick stands with those who referred to Oprah as the “harlot goddess” and who also declared that the Japanese emperor has carnal relations with this “harlot” which resulted in the tsunami that engulfed that nation. Sick stuff.

    I’m not sure what it will take for people to wake up and pay attention to the insanity that seems to engulf these candidates. But it certainly is frightening to think that these same candidates are standing shoulder to shoulder with crazy people spouting psychotic lies and hoping to gain a foothold within the halls of government.

    • joanelle's avatar joanelle says:
      August 11, 2011 at 11:14 am

      Wow, in the past when scary guys and gals got “messages from God” they were condemned as insane.

      Hmmmm. 😕

    • WomanVoter's avatar WomanVoter says:
      August 11, 2011 at 11:52 am

      C-Street MEN have no issues with their own committing adultery…very scary bunch of ‘judgementalists’ if you ask me.

    • minkoffminx's avatar Minkoff Minx says:
      August 11, 2011 at 12:40 pm

      What gives me chills is that as the people are moving even more into the direction of desperation, the desire for strong leadership from anyone allows for one of these crazy nut jobs to get into the white house…and moving toward an extreme religious dictatorship like those we have seen countless times in countries around the world.

      • WomanVoter's avatar WomanVoter says:
        August 11, 2011 at 1:20 pm

        Exactly what happened in England, the youth seeing no leadership from the community followed those that appeared strong, and it took them straight into rioting/looting, and the message got lost. Today, the community leaders are coming out and speaking trying to organize meetings with police/youth to address their grievances.

    • minkoffminx's avatar Minkoff Minx says:
      August 11, 2011 at 1:24 pm

      Pat, you must have see this:

      Bachmann’s Mentor Calls On Christian Leaders To Bring Biblical Law To America Or Face God’s Judgment | Right Wing Watch

      He goes on to say that America is facing “political and economic decline” as a result of “moral decay” and God’s judgment because of the government’s failure to embrace biblical law. Eidsmoe argues that unless Christians that follow his Reconstructionist positions enter politics, God will judge America in the same way he judged Judah before exiling the Jews to Babylon:

      We should add that this political and economic decline is a natural and logical consequence, but it is also a supernatural consequence. It is the result of God’s judgment (Leviticus 26:14-29).

      I believe the political and economic decline that grips America today is the result of moral decay. I believe God is calling upon believers today to lead the spiritual awakening that can overcome that moral lapse. That’s how believers can truly be the salt of the earth, preserving their nation from divine judgment.

      After decrying the sin of Judah, their oppression and robbery, their vexation of the poor and needy and the sojourner, God declared in Ezekiel 22:30, ‘And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it.’

      God is looking for believers today to ‘stand in the gap,’ to assert themselves in the political arena and transform America’s political institutions.

      But I omitted the last four words of that verse: ‘…but I found none.’ The Lord continued in the next verse, ‘Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord God.’

      God’s judgment indeed came upon Judah: seventy years of exile in Babylon.

      That was true of Judah. I pray it won’t be true of America. Will you do your part, as others have done theirs? (p. 68)

  13. joanelle's avatar joanelle says:
    August 11, 2011 at 11:13 am

    If they were serious about deficit reduction they’d put the wars on the table – we’re never going to dig ourselves out of this hole if we keep spending overseas, whether in wars or Fed Reserve give aways.

    We are just about at the tipping point and these fools don’t see it. They can’t even learn from what’s happened in foreign countries –

    • Pat Johnson's avatar Pat Johnson says:
      August 11, 2011 at 11:34 am

      Defense is not going to take a much needed “hit” since most of the money these fools accept are from contractors who are getting rich off the proceeds of “war”. And with a volunteer army that protects their kids from having to serve there is no longer a rush to extract ourselves from this burden when the money spigot is making these greedy pigs wealthier by the day.

      The cuts will be forced on the social programs they have always wanted privatized. What better way to ensure their coffers are front loaded even more so than telling the public the only way to “balance the budget” is by eliminating these programs and buying into whatever plan they have ready and waiting for approval?

      They will also make recommendations toward eliminating industry regulations as another means of “saving” the nation which will only put us at futher risk. These are the proposals that have been lingering for years and the time is “ripe” to ensure implementation with a House tipped in their favor and a president who lacks balls.

      We are beginning to appear more and more like a nation under the auspices of “generals” who have been put in charge of herding us into insolvency with a president whose only task seems to be one of showing up long enough to write his approval onto whatever useless piece of paper they shove under his nose.

    • Allison's avatar Allison says:
      August 11, 2011 at 1:34 pm

      Saw this earlier today at Correntewire:

      “The USA should invade the USA and win the hearts and minds of the population by building roads, bridges and putting locals to work.”

      http://correntewire.com/the_mouse_that_roared

  14. minkoffminx's avatar Minkoff Minx says:
    August 11, 2011 at 1:02 pm

    BB, check this out:

    Tavis Smiley Cornel West | London Riots | ABC Video | Mediaite

    Tavis Smiley and Cornel West are not holding anything back in their media blitz, first suggesting President Obama declared war on the poor, then revealing how they aren’t on the White House guest list, and now predicting the London riots could definitely happen in America because of this country’s great wealth disparity. Smiley sums up his frustration with Obama by offering a bit of advice: “enough with the speeches about now it’s time to focus on jobs.”

    In an interview with Jake Tapper on ABC’s Nightline, Smiley warned why riots in America would be possible:

    “One percent of the people owning and controlling more wealth than 90% of Americans, that’s unsustainable. That math won’t hold up long-term. There is a bubbling, there is a restlessness.”

    And West chimes in too with an analogy that might ring a few unpleasant bells with some observers:

    “If you don’t treat poor and working people with dignity now, chickens are going to come home to roost later. And it won’t be about love and justice. It will be about revenge, hatred, and then we all go under.”

  15. Rikke's avatar Sima says:
    August 12, 2011 at 1:44 am

    BB, this post, with its following comments, has been one of the most important I’ve read in months. Bravo.

    Your insight on this sobering subject is cutting edge. I have been floundering towards such thoughts myself, but you cut straight to the point and crystallized everything for me. Thank you.

    Now, I’m off to read all the associated links.

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