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The Truth Nobody Seems to Want to Talk About

Evans Liberal Politics
August 12, 2011

 

The Truth Nobody
Seems to Want to Talk About

Evans Liberal Christian Politics, August 27, 2011 (rewritten and republished); originally published August 12, 2011, by Paul Evans:

I’ve been dancing around (yet trying to avoid) the bitter truth since soon after I started this blog immediately after the election of 2008.

I was willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt when he appointed Summers, Geithner and Bernanke as heads of his economic team, but now I believe that I was duped, as were many who worked to elect Obama as an agent of change. Will somebody please show me just what has improved in the actual lives of ordinary Americans since Bush?


I’ve seen quite a few other journalists and columnists doing the same thing – dancing around the truth with reluctance to make the cognitive leap towards an inescapable reality. I guess my favorite economics author who tells it like it is, is Bob Swern (bobswern) over at Daily Kos. But few seem to want to connect the dots and really summarize what is going on, so allow me try to make my own attempt.

Politics is depressing. The article which opened my eyes to this and resonated with me is, “Across the Universe: The Power of Disillusionment and the Politics of Despair,” OpEdNews, March 15, 2011, by Chris Floyd. A young man is disillusioned, somewhat depressed, and even contemplating drinking or suicide because his Mom’s hero Barack Obama is complicit in so much that is wrong. Instead of simply making a comment of some encouragement, Chris Floyd makes this commentary in its own article, of which I wish to quote part:

You have to remember that politics is a toxin. It will make you sick, taint your mind, poison your soul, blight your life if you let it. One has to deal with politics as a form of waste management, just as you need to have some kind of sewage system in your home or community to prevent disease.

Politics — the machinations of the stunted, damaged souls and third-rate minds who hanker for power — is just a small part of life. It entirely lacks the tragic element; nothing tragic or depthful about politics and power, it’s just brute force, greed, ignorance and spite. So there is no deep meaning to be found in it. No tragedy; no real joy either. Even the greatest moments, the epiphanies — and they do happen in politics on rare occasions, one must admit — will lead very quickly back into the sewage. And that’s OK, that’s the way it is; sewage, waste management — it’s part of life. But it’s not where meaning, joy, tragedy, the salt and savor of existence can be found. So why let the evil done by third-rate goobers drive you to despair of life itself? By hook, crook, lies and murder they’ve already amassed all kinds of power; why give them power over your very soul?

Very well put, don’t you think?

Still, it’s all very well to talk about politics not ruining our outlook or our lives, yet, isn’t that exactly what it’s doing?

It’s always been the very wealthy versus the rest of us. It’s just that once in a great while, usually following one of those periodic implosions we call a depression or even a bad recession, the Democrats manage to come up with enough populist leanings and legislation to make the playing field a little more level. “Equal” never really gets anywhere near to meaning “equality.” But with a few handfuls of beads thrown to the populous, there can be a minimal compression of inequality so that emotions are tamed long enough for the rich to resume their systematic plundering the puny earnings of ordinary Americans.

What are we talking about, put in a contemporary example? Let’s look at the Waltons, owners of that ubiquitous chain of Chinese goods, WalMart. Sam Walton used to be worth about 60 billion dollars. Then he died and three of his children inherited. Each of the three today is worth at least $20 billion. That’s enough to put two of the three in the top ten wealthiest people in America.

There are some different figures out there about just how bad the inequality is today. The most damning set of facts I’ve come across perhaps came from Michael Moore’s website, although I’m not sure. The claim is made that 400 very lucky people in this fair land own more than half of America’s wealth. Oh, and also, the lowest 80 percent of us own the shrinking sum of 17 percent of the wealth. This level of inequality is the worst, economists say, since the days of the old robber barons of the nineteen twenties.

Recently on Daily Kos, Bob Swern gave us some further proof of what’s been going on, specifically from 1992 to 2008, in NYT to Obama, Congress On Jobs: “Bad Policy, Craven Politics.” Buffett: “Stop Coddling Super-Rich”:

“…Referencing I.R.S. data and putting this all in context, Buffett tells us that, at the very highest income level for the 400 most successful Americans that submitted returns to the I.R.S. in 1992, they had total income of $16.9 billion and they paid federal taxes of 29.2%. By 2008, the income of the top 400 people reporting to the I.R.S. had risen to $90.9 billion, but they only paid federal taxes of 21.5%.”

It is instructive to look at Wall Street and the investment banks during and “after” the last recession (which some say isn’t over). While Goldman Sachs got ten billion from the bailout — the one Congress voted on, which was only a fraction of what the Fed actually handed out (some 2.4 trillion) — and also 19 billion from AIG bailout money that AIG owed Goldman, don’t worry, everything is hunky dory for these fine executives. The Goldman execs in 2009 got to split 23 billion in bonuses.

Now, Goldman Sachs owns Burger King. Many of these workers work 70 hour weeks and often do NOT even get paid for their overtime hours with commensurate pay. But $23 billion would give every single Burger King worker extra pay amounting to $18,000 a year. As if to rub salt in the wound, after the Obama administration’s “fiscal reforms,” last year Goldman gave out even more in executive bonuses.

What I am talking about is that, for the first time in history, after an economic nosedive which was the second worst in our recent history, there has been this really good recovery. I mean for rich people. ONLY for rich people. Yes, through the magic of a bought Congress and some really great lobbyists, plus the best computer programming money can buy and the connivance of the Federal Reserve, the economy is great for the rich, and yet really, really lousy for the rest of us. And that’s the way the rich set up this recovery. I can’t prove it, but I feel deep down in my bones that Washington and the various economic elites set it up this way on purpose, in order to solely benefit the elite and well to do.

You say, let me have some data to back that up. Here are some figures that were floating around last February which are telling: The fact is that as of that date, for those making $100,000 a year or more, the unemployment rate was a very livable 3.2 percent. However for those of us making $20,000 a year or less, the unemployment rate stood at 31 percent. There seems to be a now-permanent underclass and upward mobility seems frozen. Not only do the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, but if you ARE poor, there is very little chance you will ever be counted as a thriving member of the middle class.

So we are screwed, and maybe even a fair number of the underclass now understand this, yet even the Democrats who get elected are mostly far from liberal on economic issues. With the “compromise” that Obama and the Democrats made to get the debt ceiling raised, about which Boehner crowed that the Republicans got 98 percent of what they wanted, I really believe we should all consider just giving up and moving to Europe or Canada. The game seems over here in America. Greed and evil seem to have triumphed and to be fully in control of the future. I cannot imagine Congress, Obama or anyone else saving ordinary Americans from the suffering and anguish that have recently been imposed on them by the powers that be. I pray that the future proves me wrong. But I don’t think so.

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Posted on August 27, 2011 by , Reply

The President’s Bold Jobs Bill (Maybe)

Evans Liberal Politics
August 18, 2011

 

The President’s Bold Jobs Bill (Maybe)


Robert Reich.org, August 17, 2011, by Robert Reich, used with permission, quoted verbatim:

The President is sounding like a fighter these days. He even says he’ll be proposing a jobs bill in September – and if Republicans don’t go along he’ll fight for it through Election Day (or beyond).

InformIT (Pearson Education)

That’s a start. But read the small print and all he’s talked about so far is extending the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits (good, but small potatoes), ratifying the Columbia and South Korea free trade agreements (not necessarily a job-creating move), and creating an infrastructure bank.

An infrastructure bank might be helpful, depending on its size.

Which is the real question hovering over the entire putative jobs bill – its size.

Some of the President’s political advisors have been pushing for small-bore initiatives that they believe might have a chance of getting through the Republican just-say-no House. They also figure policy miniatures won’t give aspiring GOP candidates more ammunition to tar Obama as a big-government liberal.

But the President is sounding as if he’s rejected their advice.

That’s good policy and good politics.

Good policy because any jobs bill has to be big enough to give the economy the boost it needs to get out of the gravitational pull of the Great Recession.

Right now all the old booster rockets are gone. The original stimulus is over. The Fed’s “quantitative easing” is over.

Combine the budget cuts state and local governments continue to make with the slowdown in consumer spending, the reluctance of businesses to expand or hire, and the magnitude of unemployment and under-employment, and you need a big new booster rocket. I’d estimate the shortfall in aggregate demand to be $300 billion to $500 billion this year alone.

A bold jobs plan is also good politics. With more than 25 million Americans looking for full-time jobs, the wages of people with jobs falling, and an economy on the verge of a double dip, the President has to come out fighting on the side of average people.

Besides, Republicans won’t go along with any jobs initiative he proposes – even a tiny one. Better they reject one that could make a real difference than one that’s pitifully small and symbolic.

If Republicans reject it, Obama can build his 2012 campaign around that fight. Maybe he’ll even call Republicans on their big lie that smaller government leads to more jobs.

What would a bold jobs bill look like? Here are the ten components I’d recommend (apologies to those of you who have read some of these before):

1. Exempt first $20K of income from payroll taxes for two years. Make up shortfall by raising ceiling on income subject to payroll taxes.

2. Recreate the WPA and Civilian Conservation Corps to put long-term unemployed directly to work.

3. Create an infrastructure bank authorized to borrow $300 billion a year to repair and upgrade the nation’s roads, bridges, ports, airports, school buildings, and water and sewer systems.

4. Amend bankruptcy laws to allow distressed homeowners to declare bankruptcy on their primary residence, so they can reorganize their mortgage loans.

5. Allow distressed homeowners to sell a portion of their mortgages to the FHA, which would take a proportionate share of any upside gains when the homes are sold.

6. Provide tax incentive to employers who create net new jobs ($2,500 deduction for every net new job created).

7. Make low-interest loans to cash-starved states and cities, so they don’t have to lay off teachers, fire fighters, police officers, and reduce other critical public services.

8. Provide partial unemployment benefits to people who have lost part-time jobs.

9. Enlarge and expand the Earned Income Tax Credit – a wage subsidy for low-wage work.

10. Impose a “severance fee” on any large business that lays off an American worker and outsources the job abroad.

Some of these won’t cost the federal government money. Others will be costly in the short term but lead to faster growth.

Remember: Faster growth means a more manageable debt in the long term. Which means the President could tie this (or any other jobs bill of similar magnitude) to an even more ambitious long-term debt-reduction plan than he’s already proposed.

A bold jobs bill is good politics and good policy. Let’s wait to see what the President actually proposes.

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Robert Reich was the nation’s 22nd Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton and is Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations. In 2008, Time Magazine named him one of the Ten Most Successful Cabinet Members of the century. He has written eleven books, including “The Work of Nations,” which has been translated into 22 languages. His recent book is “Supercapitalism.” For Professor Reich’s book page for Supercaptialism at Amazon, go here. Reich’s newest book, Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future has been released September 21, and is available for ordering at this link (Amazon.com). The above article is from Reich’s new blog, and can be viewed here.

Robert Reich’s commentaries are available for listening to at Publicradio.com. Watch the video Aftershock: The next economy and America’s future (about his new book). Thanks to Professor Reich for permission to publish his articles on an ongoing basis.

Posted on August 18, 2011 by , Reply

Abbreviated Pundit Round-up for July 7, 2011

Evans Liberal Politics
July 7, 2011

 

Abbreviated Pundit Round-up for July 7, 2011

Abbreviated Pundit Round-up, Daily Kos, July 7, 2011, by DemFromCT, used with permission, quoted verbatim:

NY Times:

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Mr. Obama, who is to meet at the White House with the bipartisan leadership of Congress in an effort to work out an agreement to raise the federal debt limit, wants to move well beyond the $2 trillion in savings sought in earlier negotiations and seek perhaps twice as much over the next decade, Democratic officials briefed on the negotiations said Wednesday.The president’s renewed efforts follow what knowledgeable officials said was an overture from Mr. Boehner, who met secretly with Mr. Obama last weekend, to consider as much as $1 trillion in unspecified new revenues as part of an overhaul of tax laws in exchange for an agreement that made substantial spending cuts, including in such social programs as Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security — programs that had been off the table.

EJ Dionne:

Here’s why getting to a deal on the debt ceiling is so complicated.President Obama’s main goal is to get through this fight with the government still running and his support from the political center intact, even if this means substantial concessions to Republicans.

House Republican leaders want to get by without inciting a revolt among right-wing Tea Partyers, which means they’re having trouble accepting Obama’s concessions.

And the Senate — well, the Senate resembles the Balkans without a peacekeeping force.

WaPo:

To their credit, Romney’s senior aides were up-front about his fundraising for the quarter — they said he would come in between $15 and $20 million — but still struggled beneath the heightened fundraising expectations for the nominal frontrunner in the race.“I think they learned an organizational lesson here,” said one senior Republican strategist. “Pledges are meaningless, and they need to pick up the collection efforts…

“I think it is relative,” said Mike Murphy, a Republican media consultant who has worked for Romney in the past but is not affiliated with him this time around. “It’s less than 2008, but the competition he faces is the crowd he has now, not then.”

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Mitt Romney fundraising sparks Republican fears

Ah, cutting to the chase.

The Hill:

Former Bush political guru Karl Rove said Wednesday that he thinks Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) will run for president.Rove, who enjoys longstanding and deep ties to Texas Republican politics, said he expects Perry to jump into the race for the GOP nomination — and raise big bucks if he does so.

“I think you’re right that he’s going to run,” Rove said on Fox Business Network.

Politico:

Former President Bill Clinton Wednesday compared GOP efforts to limit same-day voter registration and block some convicted felons from voting to Jim Crow laws and poll taxes.In a speech to liberal youth activists Wednesday, the former president called out proposals in battleground states like Florida and Ohio that could limit the voter rolls.

Now, that’ll make for some competition for both Romney and Bachmann, even if he doesn’t win. Also-rans Pawlenty and Huntsman will be starved for media oxygen and we might actually see more stories written that their campaigns don’t measure up and they won’t be winning.

This was from Matt Bai last month:

Republicans talk about something called “Bush fatigue.” It almost always comes up in relation to Jeb Bush, the brainy and politically talented brother of George W. Bush, who was himself the popular governor of a pretty sizable state. It’s a common theory in conservative circles that while Jeb (everyone calls him Jeb) might be the most formidable candidate out there to challenge President Obama, he is nonetheless cursed by his last name.That’s because a lot of Americans, and no small number of Republican primary voters, reminisce about the last Bush presidency the way they might about, say, once having contracted shingles. The sullied family brand is thought to be a deal breaker, at least for the moment.

When I interviewed Jeb Bush last year, he told me that he didn’t worry about the brand and wouldn’t hesitate to run for president if he really felt like it. And I’ve never been entirely sold on the Bush fatigue theory, either. Jeb Bush bears little resemblance to his older brother physically or temperamentally, and you can imagine him dominating Republican debates in a way that would quickly differentiate him.

In Mr. Perry’s case, however, the biographical and visceral similarities to Mr. Bush might actually prove harder to ignore.

So what’s changed? Nothing. A combo of blind ambition and wariness of Romney will likely prove those predicting a Perry run to be correct. And that Perry might run is more evidence of Romney’s weakness than his fund raising.

NY Times on Rupert Murdoch’s problems in the UK:

Line-skirting has always been part of doing business for Rupert Murdoch, but a voice-mail hacking scandal poses a new type of threat to News Corporation’s image.

Not all the news is bad.

Connecticut has become the first state to require companies to provide employees with paid sick leave with legislation signed into law by Gov. Dan Malloy (D), who announced his action Tuesday.The measure requires businesses in the service industry with 50 or more employees to allow workers to accrue one hour of sick time for every 40 hours worked. Backers estimate that between 200,000 and 300,000 workers will benefit. Opponents said the law will make Connecticut less competitive.

The Onion:

Final Minutes Of Last Harry Potter Movie To Be Split Into Seven Separate Films – Warner Bros. will recut the last four minutes of “The Deathly Hollows: Part 2″ and stretch it into seven films so fans can enjoy the Harry Potter franchise for another decade.

Rumor has it Harry, Ron and Hermione have already destroyed the first three, but the last four will be harder to find.

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DemFromCT is a longtime member of the Daily Kos community with interests ranging from polling to Iraq to bird flu, and has graciously agreed to allow us here at Evans Liberal Politics to publish his articles on an ongoing basis. He is a founding editor of Flu Wiki (www.fluwikie.com) and its sister site, the Flu Wiki Forum (www.newfluwiki2.com). Since its inception in June 2005, Flu Wiki has grown into an international clearinghouse of pandemic influenza information and links.

You can view his diaries at Daily Kos, here. DemFromCT is a featured writer at Daily Kos, and you can read more about him here. You are invited to email DemFromCT.

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Posted on July 7, 2011 by , 2 comments

In Afghanistan Speech, Obama Offers Token Troop Withdrawals While Maintaining the “War on Terror” Mindset

Evans Liberal Politics
June 23, 2011

 

In Afghanistan Speech, Obama Offers Token Troop Withdrawals
While Maintaining the “War on Terror” Mindset

In Afghanistan Speech, Obama Offers Token Troop Withdrawals While Maintaining the “War on Terror” Mindset, AlterNet, June 22, 2011, by Phyllis Bennis, excerpt quoted verbatim:

President Obama passed up an opportunity to recognize our democracy and respect the views of the vast majority of the American people.

President Obama’s speech (last night) violated one of his most important campaign promises: to “end the mind-set that leads to war.”

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To the contrary, his announcement of a token shift of 10,000 soldiers leaving by the end of 2011, and maybe another 23,000 in another year, makes clear that his claim tonight that “the tide of war is receding” remains untrue. The enormous current deployment of 250,000 U.S. and allied military forces (100,000 U.S. troops, 50,000 NATO troops and 100,000 Pentagon-paid contractors) in Afghanistan continues, and reflects not an end but an embrace of the mind-set of war, even with this small shift of soldiers. This was an opportunity for President Obama to recognize our democracy, to acknowledge and – dare I suggest? – even respect the views of the vast majority of the American people. Sixty-four percent of the people of our country believe the war is not worth fighting. When this war began in October 2001, only about 12% of people in the U.S. did not support it. So 64% opposition means a lot of folks have come to that realization now after years of escalating Afghan civilian and U.S. military casualties, years of a collapsing economy, and yes, years of hard-fought anti-war organizing.

The American people are way ahead of the government on this one – Congress, the White House, the Pentagon, all of them. A few members of Congress are starting to get it – those in the Progressive and Out of Afghanistan Caucuses. Rep. Barbara Lee of California has introduced an amendment to the pending $560 BILLION Pentagon authorization bill (that one doesn’t even include the costs of the actual wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Yemen and beyond…) that would prohibit any money being spent on the war in Afghanistan except for the cost of a quick and safe withdrawal of all the troops. The U.S. Conference of Mayors just passed their first anti-war resolution since the height of the Viet Nam War in 1971, calling for a quick end to the war in Afghanistan and for the war dollars to be brought home to rebuild U.S. cities. The mayors get it, unemployed people across this country get it, many of the troops being forced into their third, fourth, fifth or even more deployments get it. And that’s why the president’s speech tonight focused – however inadequately – on how many troops are being pulled out, not how many more are being sent in.

But it’s not good enough. What President Obama announced tonight is not a strategy, there still is no clear definition of a “military victory” in this endless war. In the first weeks after his inauguration, the new commander-in-chief announced he was sending 21,000 more troops to Afghanistan, and “then” he would decide on a strategy. Talk about backwards reasoning!

That 21,000 was followed, after months of discussion, another 33,000 (it was first going to be 30,000, but you know how it goes…) that made up the official “surge.” The first 21,000 apparently weren’t to be counted at all. So in his first year in office, President Obama escalated the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan from a little more than 30,000 to almost 100,000 troops (along with the 100,000 mercenaries) – tripling the troop numbers. With a token pull-back of 10,000 troops over the next six months, and maybe another 23,000 by the end of 2012 (presumably timed for maximum pre-election publicity) that still will leave almost 70,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan for years ahead – almost twice the number there when he took office. Not to mention the 100,000 Pentagon-paid contractors and 50,000 NATO soldiers, who apparently aren’t going anywhere. And this for the first president to call an existing war “stupid” and to call for “an end to the mindset that leads to war.” ….

Continue reading this article, here.

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Posted on June 23, 2011 by , Reply

What I Have to Say to God in Heaven, Whether It Matters or Not

Evans Liberal Politics
June 3, 2011

 

What I Have to Say to God in Heaven
Whether It Matters or Not

A Christian Response to Poverty, Injustice and Suffering
And A Challenge for Each of You

Evans Liberal Politics, completely revised June 3, 2011 and May 23, 2011, originally published May 21, 2011, by Paul Evans:

I don’t give a damn. I don’t give a damn about any of this, about anything You put me through — whether God or Satan or the evil, sick society we live in. You made Socrates drink hemlock, and you killed Jesus. Gandhi, JFK, MLK, RFK — all martyred. I guess that is a complaint to God. If I so chose to, I could make almost an indictment or accusation. Free will, of course, yet ALL of those wonderful people gone. All of them and more like them. If you are omnipotent, how could you "let" that happen?


I wonder at the suffering in life — suffering I see each day on the news, suffering I see among people, and my own – and I do not understand why it must be. And yet, I am not starving, and I have a roof over my head. This morning driving into town I saw a tall black man walking towards town with a bag in hand. I damn well should have picked him up. And there are supposed to be ONE BILLION people in the world without access to clean drinking water. Why do you allow this, God?

I am powerless. Everyone on God’s green earth is absolutely powerless. All I can do… All we can do — logically — is to suffer our fates, live truly caring lives as we are able to, beyond all reasonableness, and try to hope. In other words, fight. Fight not simply for ourselves, but for each other. That is what we should all do, in whatever way we understand life. It is the proper logical response to life. To the near-meaninglessness that God Himself, for some reason inexplicable to me, enforces upon us. Perhaps — in fact I am saying, pretty definitely — it is not so much enforced on us as it is the result of our collective and individual failures to lead logical and caring lives.

A Word About Logic and Caring: The better you get with logic and the more caring of a life you try to live, you will see that it is impossible to be fully logical without living a fully caring life to the extent of sacrifice. Those people who claim, al la Ayn Rand and others, that selfishness is logical, have not thought out the matter fully, nor actually tried to live caring lives. And isn’t it amazing how all these Ayn Rand followers are these real big Christians, or say they are?

Leading a truly caring life is actually all we can do to make a logical response to the world in which we find ourselves. LOGOS, the logical order of the universe considered philosophically, has only one value, and that value is caring. (Or so thought the ancient, pre-Socratic Greeks and later the early Christian church, which remade Logos into a philosophical representation of the second person of the Holy Trinity, or Jesus.) You cannot be very logical and not be very caring.

These Republicans — and most all of my liberal friends too — talk about personal responsibility in life. That’s Bullsh*t. They’ve never been down and don’t know what they’re talking about. Like the song says, “when you’re down that’s where you’ll stay.” Oh, I know, you read the success stories, and the press and TV play them up, but that’s NOT real life for almost all of the poor and downtrodden.

What I would like to see, personally, is a lot of the money that now goes into prisons and law enforcement instead go into drug treatment facilities, and adult education. Did you know that fully 27 percent of African Americans have been in jail at least once for marijuana crimes (whatever a marijuana crime is…). If one switched from punishment to treatment as our priority, there would be plenty of money here to give those who need it a subsidized job. That would be the caring way to proceed. Many criminals see no way out for their lives and families, and so they revert back to criminal acts. Treating them, educating them and providing subsidized jobs with a living wage is the best alternative to prison, so far as I can see. It is certainly the caring, Godly way to help them and thus help society.

I was speaking above of “real life” for the poor and how few who have not been here can truly understand how degrading it is. Real life is wondering if you can get someone to give you some money for gas to go into town to the charity organization so you can get food to eat. And of course, you do realize that begging is illegal, right? Yes, the police have made me aware of this three or four times in the last year, while I was trying to get a little gas money at the gas station, through begging it off of people. Yes, many people will rat you out and turn you in to the police if you are resorting to this. Real life is hoping and praying that your car holds together for a few more thousand miles. Real life is helping your housemates with gas to drive 40 miles and back, so the woman can visit her children, even though helping her that way means that there will be zero money left for the rest of the month. O.K., here’s some real life that no one without an addiction can understand: real life is picking up a nice, juicy cigarette butt off of the sidewalk, because that is just how addicted to them you are and you have no money to buy any kind of smokes. Degrading, isn’t it? Real life is also begging for help from your friends until both the help and the friendships stop. If only ALL your friends would help, it would not be a hardship for any of them, would it? And yet — I know from firsthand experience — you really are going to lose all your friends if you keep asking for help. And real life is trying to keep the lights on and heating just a few rooms in your home by means of electric heaters through the winter so that your water pipes don’t freeze up and burst… and then trying to pay the huge electric bill.

At first your friends help, but it is not too long before there are “reasons” why not. They talk about things like that “personal responsibility” and “sustainability” and not being my bank. Yet so many of them, before they dropped me as their friends, were and are people of means, to whom $10 or so every second or third day means very little. Or at least they are a lot better off than I am. Yes, caring has these limits, you see — except for one person: Jesus, and I follow Him. Now, in my experience, almost all of these “Christians” who go to church each Sunday have shown themselves to be hypocrites. I believe there was a strong metaphor in an explanation Jesus gave… Something about a camel and the eye of a needle, am I right?

But of course many understand — and it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter that I understand, at all. In many ways, for the common man, life sucks. And the only reason that this “got out there,” that I was allowed to think this through and to rewrite it and put this out on the internet for you is that — I think — despite the rambling, somewhat incoherent rant that this constitutes, God just wanted you people to "think about it" and realize about the way each of us is called to not judge each other and to lead a fully caring life. I do know this: personally, you can’t be at peace otherwise.

Oh, and the title of this article? It does matter…. but perhaps not in the long run, or in terms of us changing anything, or in terms of God allowing or causing the world to somehow be different than it is. Yet in our own lives, in terms of the peace we need in our own hearts, and for our friends and families and loved ones — and for the stranger we meet alongside the road — of course leading a caring life is what we are called upon by all the is decent and good in our hearts and in the world to do. For me, and for some small number of people in the world, to live in any other way is unthinkable. I challenge each of you to think logically about what is right and decent and “what Jesus wants” when confronted with poverty, suffering and injustice, and then to make changes in your life.

I have suffered a lot in my life, especially lately, what with mental illness, poverty, and various thus-far rather mild diseases, seeing all my loved ones die off and losing my friends because I stood up for what I believed the correct and Christian thing to do is (in terms of refusing to stop opening my home to sheltering two homeless people). They are homeless no more – now this is their home too. I do not have gas to drive into town, and am out of food. I beg from my friends, and have lost almost all of them as friends because of all of this. At this point, I now refuse to struggle any longer at all in terms of my own spiritual gifts and what that itself means I must go through. At this point, like the Tom Petty song below, “you can stand me up at the gates of hell, but I won’t back down.” All I can do is live my life in terms of what seems just and right to me. I am powerless and it is in God’s hands, and I cannot do other than I am now. God’s response is up to Him.

That is about all I have to say in words, not that it really matters, but here is a musical response to the experience of life that my viewers may appreciate, I hope:

What the response of Jesus might be. (For Anita)

My own response to mankind’s fate and the difficulties we all have in our lives is, in part.

Please join me in a short prayer for our President, Barack Obama: God, actively help and guide this man who shapes so much of our destiny. Spare him and grant him wisdom and health to work for all the people. Amen.

InformIT (Pearson Education)

The Black Crowes
She Talks to Angels

Third Day
King of Glory

Collective Soul
Heavy

Tom Petty
I Won’t Back Down

Posted on June 3, 2011 by , 3 comments

Buzz Around the Internet has Republicans on the Run over Ryan Plan to privatize, phase out Medicare

Evans Liberal Politics
May 30, 2011

 

Buzz Around the Internet has Republicans
on the Run over Ryan Plan to privatize, phase out Medicare

News and Analysis on the Ryan Plan to Dismantle Medicare

Evans Liberal Politics, May 30, 2011, compiled with commentary by Paul Evans:

Senate Rejects House GOP Medicare Plan by 57-40 Vote, NY Times on Truthout, May 25, 2011, by Jennifer Steinhauer:

Washington – Less than 24 hours after their upset victory in the race for a vacant House seat, Democrats sought to press their advantage on Wednesday, forcing Republicans in the Senate to vote yes or no on what is emerging as the defining issue in the early stages of the 2012 campaign, the plan advanced by House Republicans to reshape Medicare.

The Republican plan was defeated by a vote of 57-40, with five Republicans abandoning their party to vote against the plan. The five Republicans voting against were Senators Scott Brown of Massachusetts; Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine; Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rand Paul of Kentucky.

In fact, the reason Rand Paul voted against the Republican plan was that, in his opinioon, it didn’t go far enough. Presumably there would still be too many grandmas getting medical care to suite Mr. Paul’s taste.

Medicare overhaul proposal causing GOP stress, AP on MSNBC, May 25, 2011, by David Espo:

WASHINGTON — Little more than a month after they backed sweeping changes to Medicare, Republicans are on the political defensive, exhibiting significant internal strains for the first time since last fall’s election gains.

Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., says he is open to changes in his plan.

Considering the recent history of Republican willingness to compromise, a statememt to the effect that Ryan is open to changing the G.O.P. proposal represents an unusual concession, signaling that the Republicans are on the run on this issue.

an image of an empty wheelchair at the base of a flight of stairs with white light beaming down highlights this article on the Republican Party's attempt to privatize and phase out Medicare

View a vote breakdown on the vote to halt the Republican plan, at NY Times Inside Congress.

See Democrats Put G.O.P. on Spot as Medicare Plan Fails, May 25, 2011, by Jennifer Steinhauer.

With polls and angry town hall meetings suggesting that many voters were wary of a Medicare overhaul if not opposed, party unity and optimism have given way to a bit of a Republican-on-Republican rumpus.

House leaders have made clear they will not try to pass Medicare legislation this year. Some Republican candidates and elected officials have moved to distance themselves from the plan, even as others remain in chin-out defense of it and others still are declining to commit themselves one way or another.

See Senate Rejects Ryan Budget, The Huffington Post, May 25, 2011, by HuffPostHill:

"The Republican plan to kill Medicare is a plan to make the rich richer and the sick sicker," Harry Reid said before the vote, channelling his inner Alan Grayson, repeating the phrase "Republican plan to kill Medicare" over and over. GOP moderates Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Scott Brown and Lisa Murkowski broke ranks and voted against the Ryan proposal, along with Rand Paul….

Sharing Costs Is No Way to Fix Medicare, Bloomberg, May 24, 2011, by Peter Orszag:

While more consumer cost-sharing would help reduce unnecessary care, the plan would not live up to its billing in cutting health costs for America. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, it would do the opposite. That’s right: The CBO found that the Ryan Medicare proposal would substantially increase total health-care spending.

Also in the News on Medicare and Health Care

Medicare: “Biggest Deficit Driver” or “Solution” to Economic Recovery?, Daily Kos on Truthout, May 29, 2011, by Michele Swenson.

Republican governors move ahead on health exchanges, Politico, May 29, 2011, by Sarah Kliff.

What You Should Know About What Republicans Want To Do To Medicaid, Campaign for America’s Future, May 27, 2011, by Terrance Heath.

Also See Paul Ryan: The Republican budget isn’t unpopular, just misunderstood, Daily Kos, May 11, 2011, by Joan McCarter:

Earlier this week a “senior Republican strategist” declared that the problem wasn’t that Republicans wanted to end Medicare, but that “Republicans haven’t messaged it well.” See, just fix the message on abolishing Medicare and it’ll be fine.

Apparently that’s the narrative that Republican’s have settled on to explain away their Medicare debacle.

No. Sorry Repugs. You don’t have a communications problem. As the folks over at AMERICABlog correctly conclude, you have a political problem. A big political problem wherein your stance on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security is going to come back and bite you in the ass. That kind of problem. ~ Paul Evans

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Posted on May 30, 2011 by , Reply

Cornel West: Obama ‘cussed me out’ for attacking his policies

Evans Liberal Politics
May 19, 2011

 

Cornel West: Obama ‘cussed me out’
for attacking his policies

Cornel West: Obama ‘cussed me out’ for attacking his policies, The Raw Story, May 17, 2011, by David Edwards, used with permission, quoted verbatim, photo by Brian Velenchenko: Evans Liberal Politics is pleased to partner with The Raw Story to bring you cutting edge news:

Dr. Cornel West is shedding some light on why he has been so tough on President Barack Obama recently.

In an interview published by TruthDig Monday, West told Chris Hedges that he felt snubbed by the president after doing 65 events during the 2008 campaign.

black and white photograph of Cornel West by Brian Velenchenko

“I used to call my dear brother [Obama] every two weeks,” he explained. “I said a prayer on the phone for him, especially before a debate. And I never got a call back.”

“I said, wow, this is kind of strange. He doesn’t have time, even two seconds, to say thank you or I’m glad you’re pulling for me and praying for me, but he’s calling these other people. I said, this is very interesting. And then as it turns out with the inauguration I couldn’t get a ticket with my mother and my brother. I said this is very strange. We drive into the hotel and the guy who picks up my bags from the hotel has a ticket to the inauguration. My mom says, ‘That’s something that this dear brother can get a ticket and you can’t get one, honey, all the work you did for him from Iowa.’”

But the Princeton professor insisted that the betrayal that occurred on an ideological level was even more disturbing.

“[I]t became very clear when I looked at the neoliberal economic team. The first announcement of Summers and Geithner I went ballistic. I said, ‘Oh, my God, I have really been misled at a very deep level,’” West lamented. “I figured, OK, given the structure of constraints of the capitalist democratic procedure that’s probably the best he could do. But at least he would have some voices concerned about working people, dealing with issues of jobs and downsizing and banks, some semblance of democratic accountability for Wall Street oligarchs and corporate plutocrats who are just running amuck. I was completely wrong.”

West recalled that Obama “cussed me out” after a speech about charter schools at the Urban League in 2010. It was the last time they had personal contact.

“He just lets me have it. He says, ‘You ought to be ashamed of yourself, saying I’m not a progressive. Is that the best you can do? Who do you think you are?’ I smiled. I shook his hand… I wanted to slap him on the side of his head.”

West alleged that the president has never truly felt at home in African-American culture, so he’s not surprised that Obama has not fought “against the greed of the Wall Street oligarchs and corporate plutocrats.”

“I think my dear brother Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men,” he said. “It’s understandable. As a young brother who grows up in a white context, brilliant African father, he’s always had to fear being a white man with black skin. All he has known culturally is white.”

“It’s a tension, given the history. It can be overcome. Obama, coming out of Kansas influence, white, loving grandparents, coming out of Hawaii and Indonesia, when he meets these independent black folk who have a history of slavery, Jim Crow, Jane Crow and so on, he is very apprehensive.”

“He feels most comfortable with upper middle-class white and Jewish men who consider themselves very smart, very savvy and very effective in getting what they want,” West added. “Larry Summers blows his mind because he’s so smart. He’s got Establishment connections. He’s embracing me. It is this smartness, this truncated brilliance, that titillates and stimulates brother Barack and makes him feel at home. That is very sad for me.”

As president of Harvard in 2000, Summers reportedly rebuked West for missing classes to working on personal projects. In 2002, West left Harvard for Princeton.

In interviews with Russia Today and MSNBC last month, West said that Obama had sold out and become a “puppet” of powerful interests.

West echoed those remarks in his latest interview, telling Hedges that he believes Obama is “a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats. And now he has become head of the American killing machine and is proud of it.”

Watch video: African-American Scholar: Cornel West’s Critique of Obama ‘smacks of Birtherism’, The Raw Story, May 17, 2011, by Eric W. Dolan.

Cornell West Speaks
at The American Holocaust Memorial Museum

the Evans Liberal Politics logo serves as a link to launch a speech on racism and morality by Cornel West at the American Holocaust Memorial Museum Cornel West Speaks at the American Holocaust Memorial Museum, saying we need to admit our racism before seeking a higher moral ground.

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Posted on May 19, 2011 by , Reply
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