October 21, 2013

Contrary to the opinion of our RW poster, above, it is a brilliant article...

...and we need many more like it, exposing the disinformation and sneering "neo-liberal" propaganda of the Econo-myst and all of its Associated Pukes brethren (the entirety of the corpo-fascist press).

The article, by William Black, quotes extensively from the Econo-myst.

Here is one example of William Black's analysis. First he quotes the Econo-myst:

"Mr Correa is popular, thanks to an economic boom engineered by higher public spending, paid for by raising oil royalties and Chinese loans."

So much bile and misleading innuendo in a single sentence! Note that when The Economist praises Texas and other states with Republican governors that have benefited from surging energy prices it has never dismissed their accomplishments as the products of increased oil prices. Does The Economist deny that Correa should be praised for raising oil royalties? No, this is simply innuendo designed to imply that something virtually everyone believes was desirable and successful is somehow suspect. Is The Economist claiming that nations should not borrow from China? No. Is it claiming that Ecuador is paying an excessive rate of interest to China? No. Is (the Economist) claiming that Ecuador's foreign debt under Correa has grown to dangerous levels? No. The CIA states that Ecuador has one of the lowest pubic debt ratios in the world. Of the 155 total nations for which the CIA reports data on public debt, 125 nations have higher ratios of debt than Ecuador. In fact, The Economist is not making any substantive attack on Correa's actions in raising oil royalties or on Ecuador borrowing from China. Instead, it has deliberately engaged in clumsy innuendo because it has no substantive argument. --from the OP (my emphasis)

I was particularly impressed with Black's understanding of the oil/environment swap that President Correa offered to wealthy nations--that tiny, poor Ecuador could preserve this oil-rich region from drilling if the wealthy nations, who are causing the great bulk of environmental damage worldwide, would pay them to preserve it.

Black has fingered THE most sensitive issue for the Left in the modern era: the economy vs. the environment. And he brilliantly explains this excruciating and tragic dilemma, for which there seems to be NO solution--yet Correa came up with a solution, which was rejected by the wealthy, heavily polluting countries of the world (including our own).

This article is not only well worth reading, it is well worth thinking about in depth. How do we solve this problem of the economy/development vs. the environment/life on earth? ESPECIALLY in a region--Latin America--with so much poverty?

We should APPLAUD the use of a resource--such as oil--to help the poor, to provide education and health care, and good jobs and pensions for the elderly, and new school buildings and roads, and so on. This is what Leftists are doing in the Latin American countries that have honest, transparent election systems and thus leaders who are truly "of, by and for" the People: They are using the oil, for instance, in the best way possible for the benefit of all.

Yet, yet, yet, we KNOW that global warming is caused mostly by the burning of fossil fuels, that this is KILLING the planet, and that we MUST convert to non-polluting energy.

Don't expect the Econo-Myst, nor its Associated Pukes brethren, to help solve this problem. THEIR goal is to get that oil wealth back into the pockets of the 1%. They are cynical purveyors of CRAPASS LIES on behalf of the uber-rich. They are JERKS.

Mr. Black brilliantly exposes them!

Now just imagine if this kind of analysis was the norm in our newspapers, news magazines and TV/radio media, rather than virtually non-existent. INTELLIGENT analysis, from the perspective of THE PEOPLE, discussing tragic economic/environmental dilemmas--of which there are many--and examining proposed solutions.

We would have a quite wonderful revolution. And we would start solving problems!

October 10, 2013

This may explain the "Mad Tea Party" insanity in Washington DC...

...I mean, besides ES&S/Diebold--a corporation with far rightwing connections that would make your hair stand on end--controlling 75% of the vote 'counting' in the U.S., using 'TRADE SECRET' code (code that the public is forbidden to review), and with half the states doing NO AUDIT AT ALL (automatic check of machine totals against ballots) and the other half doing only a miserably inadequate 1% audit.

Besides THAT, the 1% have weighed their lifespans against their vast riches, and figured they can ride out the death of planet earth, living lives of luxury, while the rest of us fry and drown, and what do they care? Predatory capitalism produces these sorts of royal fascist billionaires, with egos the size of Jupiter, who DON'T CARE about the future, DON'T CARE about humanity, DON'T CARE about the poor majority, DON'T CARE about other critters, DON'T CARE about society, from which they are insulated by their vast riches, and DON'T EVEN CARE about their own children and grandchildren. Sociopaths.

And they now control our government, which is why our government is WASTING TIME and MONOPOLIZING all political discussion with this PHONY DEBT CRISIS, while the planet burns!

Deep down, these 1%-er sociopaths are PANICKED but, being who they are, they manifest their panic by GREED. They want ALL THE MONEY NOW, to purchase, stock and secure their insulated "biospheres" and whatever they think will need, or will need to control, as the planetary meltdown gets worse. And they have seized control of the political discussion, and have put THEIR office holders in place, through various and multiple means (of which ES&S/Diebold is the latest and, I think, final blow to our democracy), to prevent even "trickle down," insurance-corporation-run helps to the poor like Obamacare (which includes subsidies to the very poor who can't afford even minimum health insurance). They want ALL THE MONEY. Get it?

This "Mad Tea Party" so-called debt crisis is as insane as anything Lewis Carroll thought up. The pity is that it appears to serve Democratic leaders as well, who get to bloviate against this truly treasonous outrage and get everybody to think that Obamacare must be great because the "Mad Tea Party" hates it so much. But it's really and mainly the greatest boon to the insurance corporation 1%-ers ever, forcing all the millions of uninsured to now pay insurance premiums!

What SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED is extending Medicare to all, or some other form of single-payer health care, along with vast reforms of for-profit medical care.

WHAT SHOULD BE HAPPENING--if our democracy had not been hijacked by these sociopaths--is REFORM in all spheres--BIG reforms, such as the total elimination of private money, and especially corporate money, from political campaigns; a new "Fairness Doctrine" to beat corporations into providing REAL journalism; vast and deep investigations into the war profiteers; serious questioning of the Forever War and the maintenance of a standing military; busting up of all monopolies--the banksters, the media, the Wall Street fraudsters, the crap food chains, the Chinese-manufactured crap product stores; punishment of the outsourcers of jobs; restoring a progressive tax system, and so much more. So many reforms desperately needed--perhaps the biggest one of all, and the most desperately needed: vast reform of U.S. environmental policy!

Do you see ANY of this being done? Do you see ANY of these even being talked about?

NO! They're all talking about a NON-EXISTENT "debt crisis." You know what? If we had just a few of the above reforms, there would be no debt. The debt has been created by the 1%-er sociopaths not paying their fair share toward the common good and hijacking our government and our military to their purposes--for instance, controlling the world's oil--and by a system of outrageously corrupt private contracting and lobbying. THEY created the debt! And now they're USING the debt to create an ENTIRELY PHONY 'discussion' and raging 'crisis' to mask their greed--while the planet burns!

What we need to ask is HOW DO THESE 'MAD TEA PARTY' AGENTS OF THE UBER-RICH even get a forum in our country, let alone the power to shut down our government? And how do our allegedly elected Democratic leaders play along, and why? I say "allegedly" because not one of them--NOT ONE!--can prove that he or she was actually elected. Maybe some of them were. I think Obama was. But I don't know--and NOBODY knows--for sure, except the far rightwing executives at ES&S/Diebold and the programmers in their basement.

That is the situation--as our people are plagued with increasing poverty, our "Commons" is destroyed, our democracy is OBVIOUSLY not working--and the planet burns!

The 1%-er sociopaths are panicked--and that panic may be spreading to others, for instance, to the nutcases with assault rifles shooting up nursery schools and movie theaters and workplaces and bombing sporting events. CRAZINESS!

THAT doesn't even get talked about, in any real way. WTF is wrong with us?

Understand this. This "debt crisis" is completely phony. It doesn't exist. We have debt, yes--which is EASILY handled by common sense policies. We do NOT have a "debt crisis." It is an INVENTED PLOY by the uber rich to disguise their greed--just like their phony bullshit about the U.S. Post Office or Social Security. That is the reality. But we are having a hard time, as a people, dealing with reality these days. An awful lot of our people have just hunkered down, in complete bewilderment at this madness, and have gone "head in the sand" (I hear this at work--people bragging that "I don't vote&quot and are focusing on survival, for themselves and their families. They've GIVEN UP participating because nothing makes sense to them. They are right about nothing making sense, but of course wrong about choosing the easy way out--ignoring it all.

The 'Mad Tea Party' has been unleashed on our land. We need to climb out of the "rabbit hole" and look around at the real world and re-establish common sense--for instance, if you have a far rightwing corporation tabulating most of the votes with 'TRADE SECRET' code, you are NOT going to get adequate, or even sensible, representation--let alone GOOD representation--by your office-holders. You are going to get 'mad hatters' acting for uber rich sociopaths, to your great peril and the peril of the country--and, given the REAL crisis of global warming that we now face--peril to all life on earth.