Pope is on to Capitalist Pigs & Piglets!

Attention capitalist pigs and piglets: Pope Francis is on to you. Listen to him: You still can be saved from yourselves—and others like you. His message should inspire the vast majority of people of all religions (or none), not just Catholics, to transform the world economy for the better; it isn’t just some wishy-washy plea on behalf of the poor; it identifies the root causes of poverty and assigns blame—and it ain’t a pretty picture but it’s the truth. In his November 24th Apostolic Exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium,” the Pope damns “supply-side” economics (aka Reaganomics), the destructive mantra of greed-is-good America: “some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world.” He even calls “trickle-down” a total fiction: “This opinion, which has never been confirmed by facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system.” The Pope blames the thugs of the free-market for poverty: “Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape.” He is appalled that the rich get richer at the expense of the poor: “While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few.” He condemns unbridled capitalism: “The thirst for power and possessions knows no limits. In this system, which tends to devour everything which stands in the way of increased profits, whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenseless before the interests of a deified market, which become[s] the only rule.” In short, the Pope says “No” to everything from being beguiled by consumer goods and “increasing profits by reducing the work force” to amassing private property for the sake of it. He says “Yes” to “the creation of a new mindset which thinks in terms of community and the priority of the life of all over the appropriation of goods by a few.” He asks a basic question which should stir every conscience: “How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?” The Pope is “killing the United States softly with his song.” He doesn’t mention this country by name, but he doesn’t have to: Everyone knows that it’s us. We are the villains in his indictment of the free market excesses that in recent years nearly destroyed the world economy. With a vengeance, for the past 33 years, our leaders have espoused everything to which he says “No.” The result has been an increasing number of the hopelessly poor, obscene levels of the unemployed, and a shrinking middle class. It’s so bad, that a majority of the Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court believes in trickle-down economics and hands down decisions in the interest of corporations and the rich at the expense of the rights of average Americans. A vocal, obstructionist minority of both houses of Congress would gut government at all levels and let the free market reign, no matter who suffers. The Pope is also “killing Florida softly with his song.” For the past 15 years, the Sunshine State has lived under the thrall of trickle-down economics, ever since Republicans gained control of the governor’s mansion and both houses of the state Legislature. Even now, before the next legislative session, the powers-that-be are carving up the state budget in the same-old, same-old ways: proposing tax breaks and incentives for corporations that move to Florida and promise to create jobs (which almost never materialize); looking to privatize state services to create cash cows for most favored businesses; considering subsidies for sports arenas and stadiums on the premise that they create jobs (which they don’t); reducing services for the poor and disabled. As long as there are Americans, there will continue to be pigs and piglets at the trough of the economy. As long as the Pope is the pope, I hope he will call a swine a swine. God knows, no one else will. Stephen L. Goldstein is the author of Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned! It’s available on Amazon in paper and on Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Drugged-Ayn-Rand-Damned/dp/1555717098/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1387740363&sr=8-1&keywords=atlas+drugged+ayn+rand+be+damned

Middle Class Killed in Florida

For going on 14 years, the Florida Republican Party has fiddled and belittled the middle class. It isn’t an act of God that’s destroying the American Dream; it’s petty, self-serving, greedy acts of Man, justified by a perversion of capitalism that’s the equivalent of economic rape. Relentlessly, a political, ideological mind-set has been robbing generations of their “pursuit of happiness.” Of course, the nightmare doesn’t have to continue. It is within our control to stop it—if, but only if, enough people face reality. In the meantime, as long as Floridians remain passive, their future is bleak—and getting bleaker. There will be no long-term economic recovery in this state until and unless the middle class recovers its buying-power. That’s just a fact of our consumer-driven economy. Since 1999, Florida has been the guinea pig for a failed experiment in top-down, free-market economics on a scale never seen before. The assault on the middle class began in earnest when voters elected Jeb Bush and a Republican-dominated Legislature, a consolidation of power that gave them unprecedented carte-blanche to implement year after year of elitist economics—without a peep from those getting shafted. Florida’s sorry state of affairs is well-documented in the briefing paper, “Under Attack: Florida’s Middle Class and the Jobs Crisis,” co-published by Demos and the Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy. Here’s a summary of some of its conclusions: 1. “The future of Florida’s middle class, which has been the backbone of Florida’s economy for more than half a century, is at risk.” 2. “Florida workers have fared worse than the nation as a whole in terms of wages, benefits and employment levels.” 3. The substantial gap between the median earnings of working men and women in this state has remained nearly the same for 30 years. “In 2010, women’s median earnings were $9,800 less than, or 76 percent of, men’s.” 4. Florida has one of the biggest gaps between rich and poor in the nation. 5. The percent of Florida workers who didn’t have access to health insurance through their employer jumped from 27 percent in 2000 to almost 33 percent in 2010. 6. Ironically, in the state in which so many relish retiring, “in 2010, only 45 percent of the state’s workers had access to a retirement plan at work, similar to the late 1980s.” 7. Service-sector jobs, which typically pay less and provide no benefits, grew from 29.6 percent of employment in 1980 to 45.7 percent in 2010. 8. Manufacturing jobs declined from 14.7 percent of employment in 1980 to 5.6 percent by 2010. Pick a subject, any subject—child care costs, college graduates’ debts—they prove the briefing paper’s conclusion: “for the first time in generations, more people are falling out of the middle class than joining its ranks.” Read the report at tinyurl.com/7mh39ow. The Florida Legislature has just passed and Rick Scott will sign another budget that favors corporations over people and that continues more than two decades of Republican assaults on the middle class. But ask yourself: If the same policies haven’t produced a vibrant, stable economy that benefits the vast majority of Floridians for going on 14 years, why should they do so now? And if the Legislature and the governor continue to get away with it, who are the [real ITAL] belittlers: Republican fiddlers or Floridians in the vanishing middle?#

Syphilis: Indigenous Americans' Gift to Columbus

Every child knows “in fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” But in Lies My Teacher Told Me, James W. Loewen updates it to: “In fourteen hundred and ninety-three, Columbus stole all the could see.” Columbus Day, the second Monday in October in the United States, is a day of fame and infamy. Those who don’t know the facts, or who prefer bullshit, celebrate the annual lovefest for explorer Christopher Columbus as an unqualified example of heroism, patriotism and adventure, even though he simply bumped into a landmass that he never admitted wasn’t in Asia.

            But, for those who know the truth, gold-hunting Columbus and his men are guilty of genocide: They enslaved, raped, pillaged, tortured and murdered the indigenous people, whom he claimed he “discovered,” living on their land, the land their ancestors had inhabited for thousands of years. Blaming Columbus and the Spanish, in his History of the Indies, the priest Bartolomé de las Casas writes that “there were 60,000 people living on this island [Hispaniola], including the Indians in 1508; so that from 1494 to 1508, over three million people had perished from war, slavery, and the mines.”

            The first people Columbus encountered were the Arawaks of the Bahamas. Hospitable, generous people they welcomed him and his men. But Columbus did not return the compliment, except to note that, because they were guileless, they could easily be enslaved: “With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.”

            During his four trips to the New World, Columbus went about blithely naming everything he saw. He called what is now Puerto Rico, “San Juan Bautista”; Cuba, “Juana”; the Cayman Islands, “Las Tortugas”).With the same aplomb, he had the hands, noses and ears of “the guilty” cut off for offenses from stealing corn to not bringing him enough gold. When Columbus didn’t find the gold he had promised his investors, he became a major slave trader, switching to a different form of brutality.

            With unimaginable cultural condescension, Michael S. Berliner of the Ayn Rand Institute calls Columbus Day “A Time to Celebrate,” and attacks those who “view the arrival of . . . Columbus . . . as an occasion to be mourned.” He justifies Columbus’s land grab, because “what is now the United States was sparsely inhabited, unused, and undeveloped.” For shame that they hadn’t developed shopping malls! “The inhabitants were primarily hunter-gatherers, wandering across the land, living from hand to mouth and from day to day,” he goes on to say. “There was virtually no change, no growth for thousands.” Berliner also contends that “Western culture also brought enormous, undreamed-of benefits, without which most of today’s Indians [as he persists in calling them] would be infinitely poorer or not even alive”—ignoring the fact that most Indigenous People aren’t alive to enjoy any benefits, thanks to Columbus.

            Though Columbus Day is still a national holiday, all across the country, there are more and more protests against keeping it. And, in its place, cities and states celebrate “Native American Day” or “Indigenous People’s Day.”

            In the end, the indigenous people of the Americas gave Europeans a gift that has kept on giving: syphilis. Columbus’s men carried it back with them—a reminder that there is a law of karma and that payback, though sometimes slow in coming, is painfully sweet.

           

Tea party/GOP giving us the nightmare of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged"

            John Galt, the evil genius of Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged,” is “alive and well” roaming the halls of Congress. A figment of Rand’s fevered imagination, Galt continues to do serious damage through any number of assorted tea party/GOP extremists, like Rep. Paul Ryan, Sen. Mitch McConnell, Sen. Rand Paul, Rep. Michele Bachmann, and Rep. Eric Cantor. If, like most Americans, you've asked yourself how and why a radical minority of the GOP has refused to do business with the president, Democrats, and even members of their own party, no matter how dire the potential consequences for the country as a whole, the answer is simple: As latter-day John Galts, they are actually living out the plot of a work of fiction. That’s right! They are committed to using the same destructive tactic Galt did to bring the nation to its knees--to save it. They won’t tell you that’s what they’re doing: It’s too crazy. But that’s what it all boils down to.

            Rand idolizes Galt as the perfect hero: the ultimate capitalist, a rabid anti-socialist, a philosopher, inventor, leader, independent thinker, the consummate rebel against government and bureaucratic “moochers” who stand in the way of those who he believes really create and drive the economy. Surely, you can hear echoes of the rhetoric of the tea party/GOP. Now, you know where so much of it comes from. But that isn’t the half of it.

            As the torturous pace of Rand's story unfolds (1168 pages in my paperback edition), it ultimately becomes clear that Galt isn't only Rand’s “man" but her man "with a unique plan”: "The Strike," the ultimate tactic for bringing about sweeping economic and social change, a revolution to take the country back for the 1 percent, in today's political rhetoric, from those he brands communist, collectivist, socialist leeches. To that end, Galt entices one after another of those he considers the engine-drivers of the economy, captains of industry, simply to follow his lead and stop producing. That way, those he marks as lazy lowlifes (Mitt Romney's 47 percent/Paul Ryan's 60 percent who are "takers not makers") will no longer enjoy what he considers their free ride at the expense of others.

            Eventually, Galt and his cabal retreat to a quasi-mystical, hidden valley. They watch with callous resolve as the country falls deeper and deeper into desperation. The economy collapses. It's a dream-come-true for the perpetrators--and so simple: Just say no; opt out; let things fall apart. Finally, when Galt gives the word, they return to the shambles they've precipitated, forever vindicated and presumably ready to claim the spoils of victory.

            Depending upon your literary and political preferences, Galt’s “strike” may sound brilliant, ridiculous, evil, or preposterous as social commentary and a prescription for change. But surely, you can’t imagine anyone could possibly be so unglued as to want to implement such a deranged fantasy for real.

            Think again! Most of us have been living it without realizing it! It took the election of Barack Obama—and his perceived socialistic agenda—to coalesce a group around a full-fledged, real-life equivalent of a "strike," more sophisticated and under-the-radar than Galt's original but from the same playbook. A conspiracy of Galtans in Congress has gone beyond its efforts simply to indoctrinate young minds with the narcissistic ideology of "Atlas Shrugged." (Chief acolyte Cong. Paul Ryan, who would have been a heartbeat away from the presidency had Romney won, made his staffers read it.) Their forcing the nation into a manufactured debt-ceiling crisis, holding endless filibusters, relishing sequestration, doing anything and everything to stop administration initiatives, no matter how dire the consequences--all are John Galt 2.0: the way to win elections after losing them, to destroy the economy to recreate it. It’s constitutional government replaced by the outrageous plot of a bad novel.

       I know that for some people my equating John Galt’s “strike” with tea party/GOP tactics will sound like conspiracy-theory run amok: I will be branded the kook; the real kooks will get off the hook. So, I urge everyone to slog through as many of the 1168 pages of "Atlas Shrugged" as they can endure until they see the light. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.#

      

       

What right-wing nut jobs mean by freedom

        Freedom: It's the watchword of the right-wing nut jobs who have turned the Republican Party into a looney bin, the mantra that informs the beginning, middle, and end of every speech their spokespeople deliver, the lingua franca of their narrow, calcified slice of the hoi polloi, the poll-tested word guaranteed to resonate with gullible multitudes.        
       One of their major, Koch-brothers-backed front groups calls itself FreedomWorks. It should add "with billionaires' money." If they had their way, they'd rename the Liberty Bell and Statue of Liberty--and French fries. Sen. Marco Rubio invokes a boutique brand of anti-Fidel Castro freedom. Cong. Ron Paul glorifies freedom from anything and anyone governmental, especially the Federal Reserve. Mitt Romney revels in the quasi-religious freedom of markets. State your preference: There are freedom-lovers only too willing to join your cause or to invite you to embrace theirs. No matter that it's verbal mush, they'll jump at any chance to "let freedom ring."
       Of course, as is so often the case, things--especially those with the most high-minded monikers--are never what they seem. Turns out, members of the right-wing coalition that now controls the GOP may be dedicated to demanding their freedoms, but too often do so at the expense of those of others. Here are seven deadly freedoms freedom-lovers insist fulfill the original intent of the founding fathers:
       1. Freedom to pack heat, to shoot people first and not have to answer questions later: The Second Amendment has been perverted into a guaranteed profit stream for companies that manufacture and sell weapons, as well as for the National Rifle Association, putting the "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness" of innocent Americans at the mercy of the freedom-loving trigger-happy. One false move and you could wind up in their line of fire.
       2. Freedom to slur, slander, and otherwise defame others: In the name of our founding fathers, self-proclaimed freedom-lovers will exert their inalienable right to say whatever they wish about anything or anyone, with impunity--especially in political campaigns and when they know what they allege is an outright lie.
       3. Freedom from big government nosing around in their lives: "Get government off our backs" is the liberation chant of the right wing--with some major, hypocritical qualifications: "Don't mess with my Social Security" and "Hands off my Medicare."
       4. Freedom to tell others how they may lead their lives: Because their Bible tells them so, with fervor bordering on persecution, freedom-lovers feel totally justified telling others whom and how they may love and marry, what women may or may not do with their bodies, when life begins, and other assorted private matters that arise willy-nilly.
       5. Freedom to scam the public: In the vocabulary of freedom-lovers, nothing needs to be freer than the marketplace. They defend liars, cheats, and dissemblers out to make a buck, even unscrupulously, believing that by some mysterious moral mechanism markets always self-correct and scoundrels get caught--unmoved by how many victims may be harmed in the meantime and never made whole.
       6. Freedom to speculate in financial markets without oversight or accountability: Even after the recent implosion of the global economy, freedom-lovers insist that controls in the public interest interfere with their God-given right to make billions, no matter who loses in the process. Trust no one with your money.
       7. Freedom from taxes (aka paying your fair share): Ayn Rand, high priestess of personal freedom, believed that taxes should be voluntary. Of course, she's lucky they aren't, because she depended upon Social Security and Medicare in the final years of her life. No freedom-lover has ever told me how you can run a modern, global economy without a source of revenue--or what a fair tax rate would be. Instead, they resort to espousing extremist, untenable positions.
       If you're scratching you're head now, you should be: Freedom-lovers' freedom looks a lot like hypocrisy (at best) and tyranny (at worst). When they talk to each other, they revel in coming unglued, spinning unrealistic, idealistic, even hallucinatory scenarios for saving the republic from itself. But grownups know better. They are less concerned with freedom than with understanding its limits, the extremes we are willing to back away from to live constructively with others.
       So, the next time you hear anyone wax effusive about defending freedom, tell them that you totally agree--and that, for you, it begins with being free of them.#

Stephen L. Goldstein Says . . .: Truth about Bush Family Dynasty: DISASTER for Amer...

Stephen L. Goldstein Says . . .: Truth about Bush Family Dynasty: DISASTER for Amer...:             Members of the Bush Family Dynasty who now aspire to political office have apparently concluded that it is “safe” to surface, l...

Truth about Bush Family Dynasty: DISASTER for America

            Members of the Bush Family Dynasty who now aspire to political office have apparently concluded that it is “safe” to surface, less than five years after the debacle of George W.’s presidency. George P., eldest son of Jeb, has filed to run for Texas land commissioner. Jeb Jr. is rumored to be planning to run for Congress from south Florida.

            Of course, far more important are Jeb Bush’s likely plans to run for president. (Don’t believe for a moment that he’s undecided!) And why not?  He, not his older brother, was the Dynasty’s designated heir apparent to the White House; he was deprived of his birthright. To hear national pundits, Jeb still enjoys a stellar reputation as one of the nation’s most successful governors. Recently, he said that he has “a voice” and intends to speak out on issues.

            But Jeb Bush is not the man people say or may think he is. As governor he was autocratic and presumed to impose a right-wing ideological agenda. So, it’s up to Floridians to warn the rest of the country of the disaster of his ever becoming president. Even before he formally declares his candidacy, as he uses his “voice” to promote himself, people need to ask him tough questions about his beliefs and record in office. In the words of Ricky Ricardo, he’s “got some splainin to do.” For starters, here are five positions he needs to clarify:

            War: Along with Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, “Scooter” Libby, and 20 others, Jeb signed the “Statement of Principles” of the neoconservative Project for a New American Century. Established in 1997, its goal was “to promote American global leadership”—specifically in one tragic instance, to make the case for going to war with Iraq and removing Saddam Hussein from power. Jeb needs to say if he thinks our invading Iraq was the proper thing to do—and if he still agrees with neoconservative foreign policy.

            Anti-abortion: Jeb will no doubt try to position himself as a moderate on women’s issues. He has said he thinks abortion should be permitted only in cases of rape, incest, and a threat to the life of the mother. And yet, fulfilling a campaign promise, he signed a law creating a highly controversial “Choose Life” Florida license plate.(No “Choose Choice” was allowed.) He also signed a law regulating abortion clinics, but no other outpatient facilities. He needs to be asked if, as president, he would appoint anti-abortion justices to the Supreme Court and if he wants to overturn Roe v. Wade. 

            Terri Schiavo: Jeb abused the power of his office when he sided with the family of Terri Schiavo, a brain-dead woman who had been on a feeding tube for more than 15 years, and against her husband who wished to remove it. The spectacle of legal briefs, news conferences, and a special session of the U.S. Senate drew national attention and dragged on, though Jeb and the Schiavo family lost every round. He needs to be asked if he would have handled the situation differently.

            Ending separation between church and state: Jeb does not respect the fundamental separation of church and state. The Florida Constitution prohibits direct and indirect funding of religion. But, thanks to him, there are now four faith-based prisons in the state, oddly never challenged in the courts. Recently, he was behind the (fortunately, failed) effort to pass a constitutional amendment to allow unrestricted tax dollars to fund religion. He needs to justify his position.

            Privatization: During one of his inaugural speeches, Jeb looked out at the state office buildings around him and said that it would be a sign of our maturity if they were empty. If he had his way, he would turn over to for-profit interests all government services, roads, bridges, air traffic control, and education, of course—with little or no oversight. People need to ask him what he believes are the proper roles of government.

            While Jeb is making up his mind about when formally to announce his presidential candidacy, voters need to ask if electing a third or fourth or fifth President Bush is in the best interests of the nation or if two from the Dynasty is already one too many.#