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.#

           

Democrats are wusses; Republicans are wolves: Filibuster reform

            Bold, energetic, progressive—Republican Teddy Roosevelt believed it was best to “speak softly and carry a big stick,” especially when negotiating with others around the world—and it worked for him. He was the force behind the development of the Panama Canal and negotiated the end of the Russo-Japanese War. He busted Big Business monopolies with a passion. He said and did what he meant.

            The Barack Obama corollary to T.R. is “first, emphatically to declare what you’re willing and not willing to do, then cave in, sometimes even before anyone challenges you—and pretend what you originally said didn’t matter.” Chronically, the president suffers from Spineless Democrat Syndrome (SDS), which appears to be incurable.

            Surely, you remember the (eventually scuttled) “public option,” the originally touted sine qua non of Obama’s health insurance reform. It would have been offered by the federal government for anyone who couldn’t afford, or who had been rejected by, private insurance. Does the president think we wouldn’t be outraged that he walked away from one of the best and most attractive features of his plan because of what had to have been a backroom deal?

            Surely, you remember that, for months while he was campaigning, the president said he would absolutely, positively, never sign a bill that would keep us from going over the “fiscal cliff” unless it raised taxes on families making $250,000 or more—but then he caved in to Republicans and some members of his own party, and set the bar at $450,000. Does the president think he can continue to bait and switch with impunity?

             In addition to the White House, there is a recent, virulent case of SDS in the U.S. Senate. Much has been made of Harry Reid’s having been an amateur boxer. But I hope he scored better punches in the ring than he has in politics in recent days. For months, he huffed and puffed and said he would blow the overused-by-Republicans filibuster in the Senate down. But, in the end, he turned out to be a bag of hot air.

           

             Reid and Senate Democrats should have made sweeping changes in the way legislation is debated, passed, or obstructed. They should have passed the so-called “talking filibuster,” making senators who want to torpedo legislation defend their (likely untenable) position live on C-SPAN. They should have ended a single senator’s ability to stop a nomination for office. They should have lowered the 60-vote requirement to stop a filibuster.

            Instead, they passed an embarrassing bunch of procedural tweaks that still let the tea party/GOP hijack the Senate and obstruct Obama’s second term agenda. But, if the tea party/GOP were in the majority, its members would never have behaved so weakly. Democrats are wusses; Republicans are wolves.

            I understand Democrats’ short-sighted, self-serving reasoning: If and when they are again in the minority, they want to be able to do to Republicans what Republicans have done to them. In addition, reforming the filibuster would be a hollow gesture: The tea party/GOP-dominated House will block almost everything passed in the Senate. Obama will have to mobilize the public to put pressure on members of Congress and govern by executive order if he wants to get anything done.

            But, by looking out only for themselves and thinking only about legislation, Democrats have put the future of the nation at risk for generations. Presidents come and go in four to eight years, but justices may affect history for decades. Arch-conservative Antonin Scalia has dominated the Court since 1986.  From one to three Supreme Court justices may retire during Obama’s second term. But, without filibuster reform, the president’s (likely liberal) nomination(s) will be bitterly fought, almost certainly stopped. Crafting legislation requires compromise. No one gets everything (s)he wants. But lifetime appointments to the highest court in the land need to be fought tooth and nail. Because the president suffers from SDS, he is likely to sell out on Supreme Court nominees—with disastrous consequences.

             Obama 2.0 needs to channel Teddy Roosevelt with a twist: speak loudly, carry a big stick—and use it. But I am not optimistic that he and Democrats will recover from SDS anytime soon. So, why did we elect them?#

           

             

Conservatism is an (incurable?) illness!

 email Stephen L. Goldstein: trendsman@aol.com

After careful, thoughtful, longtime, objective, clinical observation, I have come to the inescapable conclusion that “conservatitis,” the mutant of mainstream conservatism that is epidemic today, is a certifiable illness—curable only by a protocol of extra-strength liberalism. But I get ahead of myself out of pity and my desire to give hope to the afflicted. First things, first: Victims and those who care for them need to understand the exact nature and extent of the seven “deadly” symptoms of “conservatitis” before taking or administering “the cure.”

1. Lack of empathy: Congressional tea party/Republicans have opposed extending unemployment benefits. Defrocked presidential candidate Herman Cain said that if you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself—not Wall Street or big banks. Newt Gingrich suggested that poor people are lazy and have no work ethic. Mitt Romney justifies doing away with thousands of jobs to create thousands more of them.

2. Paranoia: Victims of “conservatitis” fantasize about enemies and threats to their health everywhere, particularly in election years. One year, it’s same-sex couples who want to get married. The next year, it’s illegal immigrants. There’s always someone or something out to get them. This year, it may be the tooth fairy conspiring with the Easter bunny.

3. Hallucinations: The “conservatitis” epidemic has disproportionately affected tea party/GOP governors and state legislatures that have enacted sweeping, draconian measures to combat voter serious fraud—which doesn’t exist.

4. A neurotic desire to live in the past: A failed Republican primary candidate for the U.S. Senate from Nevada suggested that, “in the olden days,” “our grandparents” paid doctors with chickens—and we should do the same.

5. Selective morality: Newt Gingrich says he cheated on his wife “for love of country”—and God has forgiven him. I say she isn’t fooled—and hasn’t.

6. A neurotic commitment to failure: It has been said that the difference between a rat in a maze guessing that a wrong door has the cheese behind it and a human in the same predicament is that the rat will eventually move on to a different door. Republican prez wannabes persist in claiming that lowering taxes raises revenues when it doesn’t. Wrong door, rotten cheese.

7. An abnormal desire to pledge: Even in its mildest form, “conservatitis” leaves victims unable to think for themselves. Grover Norquist boasts that 238 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, 41 U.S. Senators, and more than 1,100 state officeholders have signed his no-taxes pledge—an impeachable offense.

The jury is out on whether “conservatitis” is an acquired disease or the result of a genetic predisposition. Either way, there is hope. Experiments at McGill University and the University of Chicago suggest that rats have empathy for each other. Perhaps they could supply the missing gene for tea party/GOP with “conservatitis.” Science has also proven that the neurochemical oxytocin makes people trustworthy and moral. So, it could be the basis for a vaccine to treat symptoms of “conservatitis.” For others, substituting Judeo-Christian teachings for the Godless rants of Ayn Rand may suffice. Liberalism is founded upon the ethical and moral teachings of the Old and New Testaments. Read for their original intent, they could heal ailing conservatives.

For victims of “conservatitis” who are untreatable or unwilling to take the cure, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do”—and vote Democratic!#

Liberal agenda for Florida--and the nation--for 2014

by Stephen L. Goldstein, op-ed columnist and author of Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned!

from The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, January 6, 2012

            After the 2012 Election, you don’t have to be a weatherman to know that the political wind is blowing liberal in the Sunshine State: For the tea party/GOP, there’s a storm brewing, and it’s more than a tempest in a teapot. It turns out that Florida voters can only be lied to for so long. Since 1999, Republican governors and a Republican-dominated Legislature, now taken to kookdom by tea party members, have enacted mean-spirited policies that favor corporations and hurt average citizens. Two months ago, disgusted voters finally said enough is enough.

            But there’s no rest for the politically savvy. In less than two years, on Nov. 4, 2014, Election Day, Floridians need to repudiate the failed past by firing Gov. Rick Scott,  electing more Democrats to the Legislature, and paving the way to a promising future by putting on the ballot and passing constitutional amendments that would . . . 

            1. Legalize same-sex marriage: In June, the U.S. Supreme Court will rule in two cases involving same-sex marriage. But liberals should prepare to put an amendment legalizing it on the 2014 ballot—in case the Court renders a less than sweeping decision. A recent Quinnipiac University poll reports that 45 percent of Florida voters oppose gay marriage (down from 50 percent since May) and 43 percent support it. An amendment could energize support, especially among young voters.

            2. Decriminalize marijuana: In defiance of federal law, The District of Columbia and 18 states have passed laws legalizing medical marijuana. In November, Colorado and Washington became the first states in the nation to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. A pot amendment would bring out hordes of liberal voters, including the young and seniors whose arthritis, glaucoma, and Parkinson’s may be helped by medical Cannabis.

            3. Provide for the recall of all elected officials: Once in office, too many elected representatives pander to special interests and thumb their noses at voters. We can’t afford to wait until the next election. All of them should be subject to recall.

            4. Establish an independent election review board: Appointed by the Florida Supreme Court, the board should establish and enforce statewide standards, policies, and procedures for elections. After their voter suppression efforts in 2012, the governor and the Legislature have no credibility.

            5. Make it harder for the Legislature to put constitutional amendments on the ballot: The tea party/GOP-dominated Legislature has played fast and loose with amendments, principally to get its “base” to vote. This amendment should require a two-thirds vote of both House and Senate in two successive sessions to put their amendments on the ballot; the number of legislature-originated amendments should be limited to three in any given year; and to pass, an amendment should have to receive support equal to 30 percent of all voters in a given election, or 60 percent of those who vote on a specific question, whichever is greater.

            6. Restore all ex-felons’ rights automatically: From his precarious moral perch, Gov. Rick Scott, former CEO of a company that paid the largest Medicare/Medicaid fine in U.S. history, made it harder for felons who have served their time to get their rights restored. Ex-felons permanently lose their civil rights—including the right to vote, hold public office, serve on a jury, and hold certain types of state occupational licenses—unless they are restored by the governor and Board of Executive Clemency after a lengthy process. But there’s no guarantee. Non-violent felons must wait five years before applying for reinstatement; violent felons, seven years. Florida leads the nation with 1.5 million disenfranchised ex-felons. Twenty-three percent of the voting-age black population can’t vote because of a felony record. Passing this amendment would help ex-felons lead productive lives.       

            7. Establish that life begins at birth: Florida has waged a war on women’s reproductive freedom for years. In 2008, 72 percent of Florida counties had no abortion provider. The “Women’s Health Freedom” amendment should state that decisions about a woman’s health and reproduction are matters of privacy between her and her doctor or her chosen other health professional(s).

            In November, 2012, Florida voters soundly rejected draconian Constitutional Amendments that members of the Legislature put on the ballot. But as sure as weathermen will tell you that the sun rises in the East, the tea party/GOP is planning to hatch another slew of them in 2014—likely some of those that were defeated, repackaged better to fool voters. So, it’s time for liberals to eclipse them, rain on their parade, and let weathermen deliver the good news about which way the wind is blowing.#

Self-impeach: Time for Florida governor and legislature to go!

by Stephen L. Goldstein, author of Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned!

       Florida Governor Rick Scott and the tea party/GOP members of the state Legislature should "self-impeach." But because they haven't got a scintilla of integrity among them, for high crimes and misdemeanors against representative government, I'll start the process myself. And I know I'm not alone: If impeachment or a recall were permissible citizen initiatives in Florida, the whole gang would already have been swept out of office like pond scum, no offense to algae. Here are my charges against Scott and the Legislature:
       1. As legitimate as removal from office for voter suppression is, Rick Scott's active role as a card-carrying member of the national conspiracy of Republican governors to keep likely Democrats from voting is just his most recent, obvious, and egregious abuse of power. The governor became the governor but has never been the governor. He must have had his fingers crossed when he took the oath of office. In his nearly two years in office, I can't think of a single instance when he has acted on behalf of the citizens of Florida. Instead, he practices unprotected commerce. He sees himself as the leader of corporate interests, the CEO-in-chief of Florida, Inc. If he had his
way, public assets (bridges, schools, roads, hospitals, etc.) would be sold to for-profit companies, and public services would be converted to point-of-purchase transactions. Your kid is drowning? Pay the lifeguard on-the-spot or he won't swim out to save her. He's the original "privatize FEMA" guy. Next to him, Mitt Romney at his most mean-spirited looks like Mother Teresa.
       In addition, in the ultimate cynicism of power, the governor has used "the people's" money to deprive Floridians of their rights, most notably suing the Feds to overturn Obamacare--even refusing to implement it after the Supreme Court upheld it. Finally, his support of the partisan removal of three state Supreme Court justices is the pièce-de-résistance in an unblemished record of his executive branch gone wild.
        2. Ditto for tea party/GOP members of the Florida Legislature for going along with so much of the governor's bad stuff. They actually have the power to impeach him, but won't, of course--because in some ways, they're even worse than he is. If all 11 Constitutional Amendments the tea party/GOP members of the Legislature placed on the November ballot had passed, they would have constituted a bloodless coup that would have destroyed the separation of church and state, diminished the power of the judiciary, violated women's rights, robbed state government of critical resources.
        The lesson here is neither to forget nor forgive, but to act. Sad fact is: No matter what candidates say they'll do if elected, once they're in office they can do whatever they please--or what pleases lobbyists. Floridians are powerless to do anything about elected officials guilty of abusing their power--except vote them out of office, which is usually too little too late: They can do too much damage in the meantime, and too often even the worst incumbents are re-elected.
        "The people" of Florida need to put a Constitutional Amendment on the November 2014 ballot to allow the recall of all elected officials. Otherwise, we'll be guilty of  "self-impeaching" and continuing to let the bad guys win.#
     

       

The anti-Reagan: Mitt Romney

By Stephen L. Goldstein, author Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned!

            Turns out, Mitt Romney is the anti-Reagan. With his “honesty”—Suspend your disbelief!—he may unwittingly have propelled the Gipper onto the ash heap of history, where he belongs. CEO Romney, who admitted relishing the chance to fire people, went a sweeping step further when he proposed eliminating FEMA, turning its responsibilities over to the states, and ideally privatizing all relief efforts. He was positively Reaganesque in his insistence that government (especially the big, by definition bad, federal government) is not the solution but the problem. Romney, who knew his audience at one of the presidential primary debates would lap it up, was in his glory.

            That was then; the weather was good. This is now—after Hurricane Sandy devastated the Northeast and sandbagged Romney. To federal, state, and local officials struggling to coordinate massive, complex relief, search, and rescue efforts, Romney’s vision of businesses charging dazed victims for goods and services on-the-spot is sinister and bizarre, not to mention impractical: Would everyone who uses a road in a neighborhood have to pay before it could be cleared? And how would anyone know who they were? Not to be macabre, but business is business in Mittland. Would there be a discount for removing two dead bodies? Would they take a check or only cash or credit card? Anyone with even a modicum of empathy recoils from such illogic and obscenity.

            In typical fashion, Romney walked back his words after the press pounded him. As president, he promised FEMA would receive the funds it needs. But which Romney should Americans pay attention to? As it turns out, both! And we should thank both of him, too. With Romney’s doubletalk about FEMA, he has done the greatest service to the nation of his entire political career. Make that his life! Since Ronald Reagan declared government persona non grata, the country has been engaged in a debate over the proper role(s) and limitation(s) of the public sector. And the anti-government faction has been winning hands-down. Grover Norquist has arm-twisted countless members of Congress, as well as members of state legislatures, to sign no-tax pledges to starve “the beast” of government. Even Bill Clinton once declared the era of big government over.

            Thanks to Romney, no one is gonna listen to such garbage talk any longer. Hurricane Sandy may have been a perfect storm. But Mitt’s words may have been more consequential, forever turning the tide of public opinion. His hot air may have warmed the otherwise cold hearts of Americans by revealing the absurdity of dismantling and privatizing the federal government. The weathercock is finally about to swing in the direction of appreciating the role of government, if it hasn’t already.

            When we fully come to our senses as a nation, we’re sure to reaffirm that we don’t live in an either-or world. The reality is: It isn’t either that government does everything or that the private sector does; it’s both. In some areas they overlap; in others, they are complementary; in still others, there should be a firewall between them. We need to restore our lost balance, no longer tolerating political hacks who want to gut government and redistribute its proper roles so business can bag bucks when Americans are hurting. If not, keep trying to “win one for the Gipper” and see how Mother Nature gets even next time.#

           

Scary: Paul Ryan's Toxic "Day 1" ALREADY BEGUN

by Stephen L. Goldstein
Op-Ed columnist, author of Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned or "America according to Paul Ryan"
Follow on Twitter @drslgoldstein
Email: trendsman@aol.com

       No "Day 1" for Mitt Romney! No fear that he'll be able to undo all of Obama's "good." He can superintend the building of his car elevator--or fire the workers, just for the fun of it. Or maybe he can watch one of Ann's horses dance so he can deduct the dollar equivalent of his doing so as a business expense. Whatever! We have nothing to fear from a politically defanged Romney. He'll probably lick his wounds and take out what's left of his aggression by taking over a company and moving it to China.

       Not so for Paul Ryan. HIS "Day 1" has ALREADY begun. To be sure, he has to deflect whatever blame he'll get for the Romney/Ryan defeat: He only branded 30% of Americans moochers and deadbeats, compared with Romney's 47%. But he was as mean-spirited as Mitt in suggesting that the federal goverment should have little, of any, role in disaster relief. Ryan's "days" promise to be toxic for average Americans. His ideal America is New Orleans after Katrina--Hurricane Sandy without Sandy: a free market paradise for profiteers to scalp victims.
       Ryan is the consummate example of an adolescent whiz kid who was drugged on Ayn Rand’s Kool-Aid but never weaned from it, fancies himself John Galt—and grew up to be a second-tier technocrat on the taxpayer payroll, who is now raised to national prominence by a third-rate candidate for the presidency. There’s abundant evidence to poke holes in his-delusional and frightening dystopia for the nation. “The Ryan Plan” (aka the GOP federal budget) is a roadmap for disaster, a war on the poor and the middle class. The Koch brothers couldn’t have written it better—probably tweaked the draft. The case against Ryan is laid out by ThinkProgress (thinkprogress.org). 
       Here are highlights from it

            1. Ryan wants to raise taxes on the middle class, cut them for millionaires.

            2. He would extend the Bush tax cuts, but not President Obama’s for those with the lowest incomes.

            3. Ryan would virtually eliminate programs that benefit the lower- and middle-classes.

            4. He would end Medicare and replace it with a voucher system, raise eligibility to 67, cost enrollees more than $5,900 annually by 2050.

            5. Ryan thinks Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme” and wants to privatize it at the mercy of stocks and bonds, which he apparently believes are always safe bets.

            6. The Economic Policy Institute estimates Ryan’s budget would result in 4.1 million lost jobs in two years.

            7. He wants to eliminate Pell Grants for more than 1 million students.

            8. Ryan supports $40 billion in subsidies for big oil.

            9. He co-sponsored a “personhood” amendment, which would outlaw abortion, some forms of contraception and in vitro fertilization.

            No one in his right mind would want to live in the America of Paul Ryan, except Mitt Romney. Many of Ryan’s supporters deny biological, survival-of-the-fittest Darwinism, but embrace dog-eat-dog social Darwinism, where unbridled greed is the greatest virtue and morality is determined by a dollar sign. But sadly, Romney isn’t trying to appeal to all Americans. Ryan, Mitt hopes, will make his candidacy acceptable to the tea party. He may fool them, but most Americans know “the fruit” of both those lemons “is impossible to eat.”

            "Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned!" is available in bookstores nationwide, through www.barnesandnoble.com,www.amazon.com, and other online booksellers. Order it NOW from Amazon (paperback or Kindle):http://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Drugged-Ayn-Rand-Damned/dp/1555717098/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344306781&sr=8-1&keywords=atlas+drugged+ayn+rand+be+damned

No to atheistic Atlas Shrugged/Yes to Judeo-Christian Atlas Drugged

by Stephen L. Goldstein, author of Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned!

Ayn Rand was a twisted sister--and Mitt Romney's Paul Ryan is her nephew. She left Bolshevik Russia, pissed that her family's property has been confiscated. Can't blame her. But instead of seeking psychiatric help, she went on a literary and philosophical tirade, most famously in Atlas Shrugged--a tiresome, 1100 page heap of some of the worst-written in the English language. She glorified people she felt were the REAL drivers of the economy. She vilified others as moochers. She railed against government. She became the prophet of "greed is good."

Had Rand lived she would have been astonished at how many people fell for her pseudo-thinking. Published in 1957, the virulently anti-Communist/fiercely pro-Capitalist message of Atlas Shrugged pandered to the chauvinism of its day--and well into our own. But had she lived any longer, she might have had to backtrack a bit on her hatred of government intrusion/squelching of individual's lives and initiative: The poor dear--who am I to call her a raging hypocrite?--depended on Medicare and Social Security in the last years of her life.

Like other impressionable, narcissistic, self-serving adolescents, Romney's VP Paul Ryan fell for Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged--and NEVER outgrew its twisted philosophy. The case AGAINST its mean-spirited message and FOR Judeo-Christian morality is made in Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned!

"Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned!" is available in bookstores nationwide, through www.barnesandnoble.com,www.amazon.com (paperback and Kindle), and otheronline booksellers. Order it NOW fromAmazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Drugged-Ayn-Rand-Damned/dp/1555717098/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344306781&sr=8-1&keywords=atlas+drugged+ayn+rand+be+damned

Bestselling dystopia PREDICTED US w/o FEMA a la REAL Romney: "Victims of Sandy, to hell with the 47%"

Of course he now denies it, but Mitt Romney called federal disaster aid "immoral." He said he would do away with FEMA, "return" its responsibilities to "the states." Ideally, he said it should be privatized. That's right, for-profit businesses would provide disaster relief--but only to those who could pay for it.

Well, there's an uncanny account of the "American without FEMA" Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, who idolizes Ayn Rand, want to create. In the dystopia Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned! (See below) by Stephen L. Goldstein. Florida is totally devastated by a monster storm. But there's NO help from the government/FEMA. USA has become Corporate States of America, government is dismantled, services are abolished or privatized--and average Americans are left completely helpless.

During a press conference, the governor of Florida and president of the Corporate States of America emphasize that government has NO role to play in assisting victims of natural disasters. Here's the give-and-take between a reporter and the governor:

Malcolm Scott of Floridanews.com: "Governor Cott, four days after the most devastating hurricane in U.S. history has destroyed at least two-thirds of Florida and left an estimated twelve million people homeless, destitute, and cut off from the rest of the country, no help has been forthcoming from the state. Victims are desperate. There are reports of riots and looting in affected areas. What is your plan of action to help them?"

Governor Cott: "Mr. Scott, your question suggests that help in some form should be coming from the state, that whenever and wherever there's a problem, government is going to come to the rescue. So, I'm delighted to be able to set the record straight: Government has no role to play. Anyone who think it does is guilty of a pre-Galtian, socialist, inhibiting, looter mind-set. The overwhelming majority of the country has evolved way beyond it. You and others who think like you are a tiny minority of reactionaries. Storm preparation is a personal matter for families and individuals, which they can address by being responsible and buying appropriate good and services from for-profit businesses. The same applies to the aftermath of any disaster. It's the law of the marketplace. The state has no role in it."

"Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned!" is available in bookstores nationwide, through www.barnesandnoble.com, www.amazon.com (paperback and Kindle), and other online booksellers. Order it NOW from Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Drugged-Ayn-Rand-Damned/dp/1555717098/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344306781&sr=8-1&keywords=atlas+drugged+ayn+rand+be+damned

83 outright lies Mitt Romney's told you

Hard to believe ANYONE would vote for this lying SOB.

32: Here are 32 outright lies PolitiFact verifies from the mouth of Mitt Romney:
http://www.politifact.com/personalities/mitt-romney/statements/byruling/false/

Here are the 5 biggest lies Romney told during the first debate, as verified by Rolling Stone:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-first-debate-mitt-romneys-five-biggest-lies-20121004

12 Mitt Romney lies analyzed by Politicusa:
http://www.politicususa.com/12-lies-mitt-romneys-debate-performance-mostly-fiction.html

7 biggest debate lies of Romney--from The Nation:
http://www.thenation.com/blog/170623/romneys-seven-biggest-debate-lies

27 myths Romney told in 38 minutes--from ThinkProgress:
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/10/04/958801/at-last-nights-debate-romney-told-27-myths-in-38-minutes/?mobile=nc

CEOs (Romney!) make GREAT fascists/BAD presidents

            by Stephen L. Goldstein, columnist/author of Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned!, dystopia that warns about threat/horror of corporate takeover of America (Look it upon on Amazon.com)

            The United States is in the middle of a devastating epidemic of “Obsessive CEO Syndrome” (OCS), a debilitating condition in which victims’ are deluded into thinking that the chosen people at the top of organization charts have the best minds, all the answers to all of our problems, and, should they choose to abandon the rarefied air of their boardrooms, make the best public servants/elected officials.

            In other words, OCS is borderline insanity. So, in order to return the nation to mental health as early as possible, all of us need to be able to recognize the bizarre logic and assumptions of people who may suffer from OCS and know the best protocols to save them—and us, from them. Here are examples of some of their most twisted thinking:

            1. Government can do no good: Most victims of OCS fell under the noxious spell of actor-turn-presidential-impersonator Ronald Reagan—or others who did. For eight years, the best gig of his career—no matinees!—he repeated the mantra that his corporate cronies gave him. But the last time I checked, NASA, the U.S. military, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Hurricane Center were government agencies, among others. Would anyone say they are “no good”?

            2. Business can do no evil: Eve is the patron saint of business. It’s not just a few bad apples; season after season, business reaps harvests of illegalities that are the stuff of daily newspaper headlines: Medicare and Medicaid fraud; securities, investment, and banking crimes; consumer rip-offs; ponzi schemes. Remember Enron?

            3. The Founding Fathers were capitalists who framed the Constitution to promote corporate interests: Contrary to the Sarah-Palin-made-up-classic-comic-book version of America history, our FF’s were largely former British royalist-loyalists, land-and-slave-holding aristocrats who never envisioned this country serving business interests on a scale they could never have imagined.

            4. The government should be run like a business by businesspeople and for the benefit of businesses: Calvin Coolidge observed, “the chief business of the American people is business.” But that doesn’t mean that the government should be taken over by business interests. The proper role of government is to provide a supportive environment in which business can thrive—but not at the expense of the public interest. No matter what they think, the Koch brothers don’t own America.

            5. The private sector creates job, but the public section doesn’t: Hogwash! Most major businesses “create” jobs through government contracts (taxpayer money). Historically, the public sector creates jobs—police, fire, and fire rescue personnel; teachers; members of the armed forces. Believing the unproven claim that for-profit businesses can provide better services more cheaply than government, proponents of privatization want to give them guaranteed revenue streams. More hogwash!

            6. Markets should be self-policed and free of regulation: 1929 & 2008: Nothing need be said!

            7. CEO’s make the best public servants/elected officials: Former CEO-governor Rick Scott has not created the jobs he promised and has violated his oath of office by routinely putting business interests above those of “the people.” When CEO-governor Mitt Romney left office, Massachusetts was 47^th in job-growth, burdened with a $1 billion deficit, and had seen an increase in state and local taxes.

            The cure for OCS is facing reality: Businesspeople know nothing about running government. CEO’s should stick to business, succeed or fail, and stop messing with “the people’s” bottom line.#

                          

BREAKING News: Hurricane Sandy: Tea party/GOP want GVT Handout

by Stephen L. Goldstein, columnists/author of Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned!

     Hurricane Sandy threatens much of the East Coast. So, I'm waiting for all the government-is-the-problem-not-the-solution hypocrites to start SCREAMING for help from FEMA. The Virginia governor has already declared a state of emergency, no doubt so he can get federal dollars. It's EVER the SAME.
       In Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned!, I describe what could happen if corporate interests eventually take over the whole country COMPLETELY. There's a devastating account of a hurricane, Florida is ravaged, but the governor and U.S. president say no help is coming for average people (i.e. "Go to hell)--unless you can pay for it. Yesterday, I read in The New York Times that, as a result of mismanagement and cutbacks, we don't/won't have the weather satellites to warn/track storms as we've had in the past. It's the dystopia of Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned! ALREADY! Too often, people don't see how bad things can get--until it's too late. Atlas Drugged will show them--or they'll regret not opening their eyes.
       Here's the link to Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned! on Amazon.com. It's what's happening to us now--and how much worse things can get: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_13?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=atlas+drugged+ayn+rand+be+damned&sprefix=atlas+drugged%2Caps%2C0.#

President Paul Ryan: Scare YOU Sh*tless?

by Stephen L. Goldstein, columnist/author of Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned!

       Here's something to destabilize you--and make you want to tell EVERYONE to vote for President Obama! Romney/Ryan are elected, which is horrific enough. But then, at some point, for some reason, Romney can't serve--and extremist Paul Ryan becomes president. Imagine HIS Supreme Court nominees, HIS assault on women's rights, HIS voucherizing of Medicare and privatizing of Social Security, the list goes on. He'll foist Ayn Randian economics/greed-is-good on all of America.
       If you don't believe me, read my scathing indictment of Ryan/Rand, Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned! It's a fast-paced, well-written novel that is "eerily prescient" (a reader's comment) about where we are today and where people like Romney/Ryan might take us. I'm not just plugging my book; I'm trying to get people to see beyond their noses--and to smell the stench that's out there. There's lots about Atlas Drugged at www.aynrandbedamned.blogspot.com --and still time to get its message to people BEFORE the election.
       Here's the link to Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned! on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_13?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=atlas+drugged+ayn+rand+be+damned&sprefix=atlas+drugged%2Caps%2C0  It's in paperback and on Kindle. Before the election, please read it and try to get as many others to do so as you can. It may sway voters to keep the bad buys from taking over the country.#