The evil-of-two-lessers argument

Posted on February 17, 2012 by oddmanout215

Do progressives need reminding that the current crop of Republicans are intent on scuttling New Deal legislation and pushing the country further to the right than Mussolini’s Italy?

Of course not, but this doesn’t stop “centrists” from scolding those of us who can’t stomach Barack Obama’s refusal to fight on our behalf. Yes, we’re appalled that Paul Ryan and company are trying to rip down the social safety net and reduce workers to virtual serfdom, but we’re even more appalled that Obama, instead of launching a spirited counterattack on these borderline fascists, has repeatedly given ground without firing a shot.

Bill Boyarsky of Truthdig recently conceded that Obama has disappointed “many supporters”:

He let the Republicans push him around for too long. While the nation is slowly recovering from the recession, the Obama stimulus was too small. He gave away too much to Wall Street in the Dodd-Frank financial industry regulatory legislation… But looking at his accomplishments in the face of the recession and a reluctant Congress, he’s done pretty well.

A wide gulf separates centrist Democrats from those Dems who think Obama and his friends have betrayed the principles that distinguish Dems from Republicans. Declaring that Obama has done “pretty well” compared to what a Republican would have done is like saying, “Obama’s not that good, but a Republican would have been downright evil. Is that what you progressives would prefer?”

Boyarsky defends Obama by pointing to the latter’s healthcare reform bill, which many progressives think is a disaster because it strengthens the corrupt insurance companies at the heart of poor healthcare in America. He mentions that Obama saved GM and Chrysler, but not that wages and benefits for workers at those companies were drastically slashed, or that Obama has done nothing to strengthen or even defend labor unions.

No one in recent years has done more than Obama to encourage the suspicion that there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the two major parties. Boyarsky’s pathetic arguments do nothing but reinforce this suspicion.

Posted in mainstream media, Obama, The New Depression, unemployment | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Thou shalt not cock-block the Lord

Posted on February 16, 2012 by oddmanout215

Stephen Colbert recently explained the theological underpinnings of the Church’s opposition to contraception, and warned birth control users that their sin is a grave one:

The transmission of human life is a most serious role in which married people collaborate freely and responsibly with God. You see, to Catholics, sex isn’t two drunk strangers getting their freak on at closing time. It is the mystical union of two people inspired to create new physical life while God adds a soul in a divine and ineffably beautiful three-way. So, when you use contraception, you are not only sinning, you are cock-blocking the Almighty.

Watch the video here.

Footnote: I can picture Stephen at the grade school I attended, Most Blessed Sacrament, before contraception ended the baby boom. Sister Mary Mastodon would beat have him over the head with the Baltimore catechism, then hung him by his heels out a third-story window until he repented. And so what if he fell, there were three thousand other kids to babysit.

Posted in humor | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Caterpillar calls the shots

Posted on February 16, 2012 by oddmanout215

With the election approaching, President Obama says he’s working hard to come up with incentives that will encourage American companies to bring home jobs that have been outsourced. However, an item in Reader Supported News sheds light on how badly American workers can expect to be treated by these companies:

Heavy equipment manufacturer Caterpillar Inc. has decided to shut down the 62-year-old Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD) locomotive assembly plant in London, Ontario, and relocate operations to Muncie, Indiana. The move came after a labor dispute erupted between the company and its Canadian unionized workers, who refused to accept a 50% cut in their pay and benefits. Caterpillar purchased EMD in June 2010.

By relocating to Muncie, Caterpillar is expecting to save money by employing non-union employees. In London, the average hourly wage was $34. Down in Muncie, Caterpillar’s outlay will range from $12 an hour for assemblers to $18.50 for maintenance technicians.

Between 2005 and 2010, Caterpillar’s overseas workforce grew by 15,900 employees. During this time period, the company added only 3,400 Americans to its payroll.

Once word got out that Caterpillar was coming to town with 460 new jobs, residents of Muncie applied by the thousands, with some showing up at 4 a.m., five hours in advance, outside the company’s offices.

Posted in globalization, Great Recession, mainstream media, Obama, The New Depression, unemployment | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

‘I’m Looking Through You’

Posted on February 15, 2012 by oddmanout215

I assumed for many years, because of the scorned and scornful tone of the lyrics, that this was a Lennon song. Actually, McCartney wrote most of it. The fact that he’s the lead singer should have tipped me off. John plays acoustic rhythm guitar and sings back-up.

Footnote: Paul is 69 and sounding a bit ragged (check out the Grammy Awards), but so what? The Beatles’ records will never get old.

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Mitt, they see right through you

Posted on February 15, 2012 by oddmanout215

Gertrude Stein’s famous quotation — “There is no there, there” — is as good a way an any to describe Mitt Romney, who can’t seem to make a public statement without lying and/or contradicting himself. A Huffington Post story explains why one of Mitt’s most bold-faced lies may come back to haunt him in the Michigan primary:

In his recent op-ed, Romney — who also opposed the bailout in an op-ed in The New York Times in 2008 — argued that automakers should have been left to go bankrupt on their own, letting the courts force the companies to restructure. As the son of both a previous Michigan governor and former head of the American Motors Corporation, Romney says he speaks from experience. He was born in Detroit, after all.

The bailout gave the unions too much power in the new companies, Romney argued, and gives the government a large stake in General Motors that it should divest itself of immediately.

Yet in the fall of 2008 and early 2009, there weren’t any banks willing to help GM or Chrysler through bankruptcy. If a company goes into bankruptcy without a bank willing to fund operations for a while, companies typically go out of business and are sold piece by piece.

Without someone stepping in, it seemed GM and Chrysler would sink. And Ford, which didn’t take bailout money, urged the government to come forward. If the two other automotive giants in town went under, they could drag Ford under, too, CEO Alan Mulally told Congress.

Mitt still has almost two weeks and millions of dollars to turn things around in his old home state, but it won’t be easy. Even the most gullible Republican voters can see right through him on this one.

Posted in economic collapse, Great Recession, liar, Mitt Romney, The New Depression, unemployment | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

‘Who Do You Love?’

Posted on February 14, 2012 by oddmanout215

I walked 47 miles of barbed wire/Used a cobra snake for a neck tie/Got a brand new house on the roadside/And it’s made out of rattlesnake hide/I got a brand new chimney put on top/Made out of human skulls/Come on take a little walk with me, baby/Tell me, who do you love?

Bo Diddley made “Who Do You Love?” in 1956, and many acts since then have tried to record the badass definitive version of the song. Everyone from Ronnie Hawkins (backed by the Band), to John Hammond (also back by the Band), to the Doors, to George Thorogood.

It’s a tough song to do right. You have to have a tombstone hand and a graveyard mind, you can’t mind dyin’. You have to be a romantic.

Posted in arts, pop music | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Isn’t it romantic?

Posted on February 14, 2012 by oddmanout215

The ad was shown during the Super Bowl, to make sure it reached the maximum number of sophisticates. The girl in the ad is a famous foreign model — “super-hot,” as they say on the sports radio stations. You know she’s hot stuff because the background music sounds like someone is having sex, or maybe shooting meth. The model recites the ad copy:

Guyz, Valentine’s Day izz not that complicated… Give, and you shall receive.

Subtle! Izz like this, guyz: Valentine’s Day is about goods and services. You give me the goods — cash is best — and you shall be serviced.

She was supposed to be selling flowers, but her message would be the same if she were a politician courting campaign contributors. Izz like this, guyz — you give to super PAC, I service you till next election. Then you give more. Happy Valentine’s Day night!

Posted in humor | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

‘Third Stone From the Sun’

Posted on February 13, 2012 by oddmanout215

Your people I do not understand
So to you I shall put an end
And you’ll never hear surf music again

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CivilWarLand in bad denial

Posted on February 12, 2012 by oddmanout215

A must-read piece in today’s New York Times focuses on the declining fortunes of Chisago County, near Minneapolis, and examines an interesting paradox:

The government safety net was created to keep Americans from abject poverty, but the poorest households no longer receive a majority of government benefits. A secondary mission has gradually become primary: maintaining the middle class from childhood through retirement. The share of benefits flowing to the least affluent households, the bottom fifth, has declined from 54 percent in 1979 to 36 percent in 2007, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis published last year.

And as more middle-class families… land in the safety net in Chisago and similar communities, anger at the government has increased alongside. Many people say they are angry because the government is wasting money and giving money to people who do not deserve it. But more than that, they say they want to reduce the role of government in their own lives. They are frustrated that they need help, feel guilty for taking it and resent the government for providing it. They say they want less help for themselves; less help in caring for relatives; less assistance when they reach old age…

This is called denial. These stalwart white citizens will need more help as the real economy continues to spiral downward, and they will accept this help because they want to live. But they will continue to bitch about the government that keeps their leaky boats afloat, just as they will continue to vote for morons (Rick Santorum) and phonies (Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich) who will tell them that their choice is between an “entitlement society” and an “opportunity society.”

This is what comes of 30 years of expensive right-wing propaganda extolling Reagonomics. These sorry-ass citizens are the Seeds of Ronnie — full-grown organisms now and wilting, each in his own backyard, still waiting for good jobs and other opportunities to trickle down from the people who conned them into believing taxation and regulation are the enemies of prosperity rather than its allies.

Their real choice is between a society that embraces the idea of a social contract ensuring good jobs and decent pay, and a society that rewards only those people who are rich and well-connected beyond the wildest dreams of the down-and-out.

It’s 2012. The middle class is dwindling, the poor have been abandoned, and decent, informed people everywhere (not only in Occupy Wall Street) should be shouting this question: When will you suckers wake up?

Footnote: My headline refers to CivilWarLand In Bad Decline, a short-story collection by George Saunders that examines some of the same issues as the Times piece, but from more interesting angles.

Posted in economic collapse, Great Recession, mainstream media, Mitt Romney, New York Times, Occupy Wall Street, The New Depression, unemployment | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Rats on sinking ship, no exit

Posted on February 12, 2012 by oddmanout215

Background: Danny Ciello (Treat Williams) has cooperated with a federal investigation into NYPD corruption, after being assured investigators wouldn’t go after his friends and fellow cops in the narcotics unit. He learns he made a deal with the devil as prosecutors use his information to coerce his friends, one by one, into making similar incriminating deals.

The clip opens with Ciello confronting Gus Levy (Jerry Orbach), the only cop who won’t cooperate with the feds, soon after Gus learns that Danny, with whom he was very close, is King Rat.

Sidney Lumet’s Prince of the City (1981) has its flaws — too long, sometimes too talky — but it’s a harrowing study of loyalty and betrayal that examines difficult moral questions. Is it OK to betray friends if you think there’s a higher good at stake? Is it OK if you think your friends will be protected from the consequences of your actions? If you betray your friends under any circumstances, do you not betray yourself? And so on.

Check out the second scene in the clip, in which Danny exalts over Gus’s refusal to be a rat. It’s as if Danny thinks Gus is the world’s last hope for decency.

Posted in arts, movies | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment