Posts Tagged ‘the poor’

Oboy! Another way to deal with joblessness: Debtors’ prisons

Dec 14th, 11 / 4 Comments

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Oboy! Another way to deal
with joblessness: Debtors’ prisons

Evans Community of Caring, December 14, 2011, by Meteor Blades (pen name for Timothy Lange, a featured writer on Daily Kos):

Introduction by Paul Evans: as I look around the internet for content for our readers which deals with building a caring community and nation, and about social justice and economic justice, sometimes an article stands out to the extent that I am willing to quote large portions of it, even at the risk of a certain degree of plagiarism. In this case, Meteor Blades has given me permission to publish articles in the past and we have exchanged a few emails a year or so ago, so I don’t feel too awfully bad. In fact, had I written this article, I would have wished that it was spread around the web as much as possible.

Just think of it! The Republicans have won and we are back to the age of the robber barons! Income inequality has now reached the level that it was back in the nineteen twenties. And the richest 400 men in America now own more than half of the nation’s wealth. (I wonder exactly how much more they expect that the wealthy in America can reasonably take from the poor? I mean, there isn’t much left, right? Oh, nevermind, sorry, I said reasonably didn’t I. It stopped being reasonable a number of years ago…)

If this article doesn’t make you mad, either you are very conservative, or rich (which usually amounts to the same thing….)

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Meteor Blades: What with the recent call for ending child-labor laws, the relentless assault on unions and Gilded Age levels of inequality in wealth and income, you might get the sense we’re reliving the 19th century. Stir into that toxic mix debtors’ prisons and it’s clear we’ll not soon be seeing an end of efforts on the part of the powers-that-be to return us to the good ol’ days in which we can all be Little Dorrit (PE — Think Charles Dickens), but with Facebook accounts.

A year ago the American Civil Liberties Union concluded in its year-long investigation, In For a Penny: The Rise of America’s New Debtors’ Prisons, that thousands of individuals with unpaid legal financial obligations were being jailed. This was done, in many instances, in direct contradiction of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Bearden v. Georgia nearly three decades ago.

NPR reported earlier this week that collection agencies are using tougher measures to force people pay their debt. These include filing lawsuits. When that is done, a notice to appear in court is supposed to be sent to the debtor. But the notices seem to go missing quite often. So people wind up being arrested on failure-to-appear warrants and they can subsequently wind up in jail for long periods.

Read the full article, here

See Also: Census shows 1 in 2 people are poor or low-income

Still More Fun (in a masochistic sort of manner…): The Iowa caucuses are only three weeks away, with good old Newt Gingrich settling into a decent lead over general front runner Mitt Romney. So let’s take a look at 10 of The Craziest Things Newt Gingrich Has Ever Said

Note by Paul Evans: I looked up a good article on one of the main assaults on the poor by Tea Party types. These people are actually advocating essentially doing away with voter’s rights and requiring the ownership of property in order to have the right to vote. This goes right along with their efforts to make it harder to vote early or for poor people to vote at all, and their attacks on organizations such as Acorn. I have heard several Tea Party sorts of Congressmen speak in favor of rolling back the Voting Rights Act of 1964 and going back to the good old days of the 19th century, when the rich guys controlled everything. Well, heck, we’re most of the way there now, right?

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Going Populist? Dems Put GOP On Spot Over Tax Benefits For The Super-Rich

Jul 2nd, 11 / 0 Comments

Evans Liberal Politics
July 2, 2011

 

Going Populist? Dems Put GOP
On Spot Over Tax Benefits
For The Super-Rich

Going Populist? Dems Put GOP On Spot Over Tax Benefits For The Super-Rich, Talking Points Memo, July 1, 2011, by Brian Beutler, excerpt quoted verbatim:

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Several weeks after Republicans and Democrats began high-level negotiations to slash federal spending by trillions of dollars — the GOP’s price for raising the national borrowing limit, and avoiding a catastrophic debt default — Democrats finally peeped up. New tax revenues, of some kind, of some amount, would have to be part of the deal.

The group, led by Vice President Joe Biden, had already identified nearly $2 trillion in cuts to discretionary and mandatory spending programs — nearly enough to raise the debt limit through the end of 2012 and take a contentious issue off the table this election season.

That’s when Democrats said, “your turn to give!” and put $400 billion in tax cuts on the table. Republicans balked. No tax hikes at all. Some Republicans have left the door open to closing certain indefensible loopholes. But party leaders have tried, for all intents and purposes, to take the tax code off the table. Cuts only.

The Democrats’ response, from the rank and file up to President Obama, has been a political twofer. If Republicans are taking all taxes off the table, then they’re playing reverse Robin Hood — demanding trillions in cuts to social programs while refusing to budge on preferences to unfathomably wealthy special interests. It’s class war, but in tactical sense. If they can make the GOP feel so uncomfortable that they agree to end special tax favors for the ultra-wealthy — even if those favors don’t ultimately cost that much money — then maybe they can break the anti-tax firewall and encroach on $400 billion. ….

Read the full article, here.

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Songs and Encouragement for the Working Class (Updated 2X)

May 29th, 11 / 8 Comments

Evans Liberal Politics
May 29, 2010

 

Songs and Encouragement
for the Working Class (Updated 2X)

Encouragement for Working Men and Women

Rock and Folk Music for Working People

Evans Liberal Politics, updated May 29th and 28th, 2011 and March 11, 2011, originally published September 14, 2010, by Paul Evans. While this has always been a fairly popular post, I felt it needed to be more widely distributed so I rewrote it and am republishing it, with more relevant songs for you, both folk and rock music:

The painting is called “Unveiling the Statue of Liberty.” It was painted in 1886 by Edward Moran, and is courtesy of Wikipedia.

I have always identified myself as being an ordinary guy. The people I meet and interact with in Wooster, Ohio and Akron, Cleveland and places I go around northeast Ohio are pretty much ordinary people. I have been really blessed with educated parents who took care of me, and an education from good schools such as Miami University (Ohio – class of 1980) and an all-but-thesis from The University of Akron. I have also read many thousands of books. But my mind is not all that much unusually gifted, and my hopes and dreams are those similar to normal, working class Americans: that I might live a decent, caring life, supporting myself and making my way in a society which is NOT all that caring, in an economy where it is HARD to find a good job, and in a life which a poet once referred to as “this veil of tears.”

famous painting by Edward Moran from 1886 called 'Unveiling the Statue of Liberty' from Wikipedia

One thing that always inspired me as I made my way through life is how hard ordinary people try in life. I have learned their hopes and aspirations personally through talking with many thousands of working people, as I live my life and also doing vote canvassing for the Democratic Party. I wanted to bring a message of understanding and hope to them, and to my readers – however wealthy you might be. However the post was particularly written with the working class in mind: this Bud’s for you!.

I thought about how to write something that would be helpful to working people (such as myself), and felt that words themselves lacked immediacy and lacked the strength to inspire you as I want to. We have heard the speeches of politicians, we have had the encouragement of ministers of the church. So I thought, “what about some ‘music for the masses’ or ‘music for the rest of us,’ that is to say, music for ordinary, regular people, for our enjoyment and to inspire us. For that matter, I encourage all of you to live caring, ethical and dedicated lives — and let the chips fall where they may.

Not everyone gets advantages in this life. I have known alcoholics, hard drug users, and also people of limited intelligence, who may never “make it” in this world, and it saddens me. In our society, also, I have extensive personal experience as one disabled with mental illness as to how badly the world treats people with disabilities. And I have been so poor that I often get my groceries at a food bank, and have to beg neighbors and friends for gas money to drive around town, for example to visit my father in the local nursing home. I pray to our God that he might hear our suffering, and somehow reach the hearts of our leaders, that they might change this great land of ours, and remake our society into a truly caring, loving society where government is structured so that it helps the ordinary and less fortunate people. So that it helps them DISPROPORTIONATELY.

As Ten Years After says in the song (below), “tax the rich, feed the poor, till there are no, rich nor more.” I remind my fellow Christians that Jesus did not care for the trappings of this life, that he was an ITINERANT preacher, that he was poor, that he did not care for the rich, ruling Pharisees of his society, and that he helped everyone he met. The group of people who were disciples and followers of Jesus were the outcasts of society, and “they held their goods in common” (to quote the Bible – it’s in Acts).

Anyway, without further ado, here are some songs in tribute to, and in caring support of, the working class, not just of America, but of the world, songs for ordinary people everywhere. I also want to dedicate these songs for the working class with the words with which the Stature of Liberty was dedicated. I also want to remind everyone that the playing field is not yet level. When the statue was dedicated in 1886, the Cleveland Gazette issued a protest suggesting that Liberty’s lamp not be lit until the United States became a free nation “in reality”.

For so many of us, though we count ourselves lucky as Americans to have the freedoms and blessings we enjoy, our lives are hardly free. We struggle to find work, with one seventh of Americans now living in poverty. Increasingly, the government’s hand looks like a mailed fist to us, rather than the soft gloves we have hoped for. We struggle with addictions, and we struggle as we strive to take care of our families and to make our way in a society which is not truly caring. We live lives which are hard and unforgiving. And we try like hell.

Here is the dedication poem for the Statue of Liberty, engraved on it’s base. Perhaps we need to remember that, as a liberal preacher once said, so long as there is injustice, or suffering for one of us, none of us are truly free, or, to give the title of the poem by Martin Luther King, Jr., "To Justice: Injustice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere."

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”


Emma Lazarus, 1883

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Tell Congress to Pass Needed Jobs Legislation

According to the Economic Policy Institute, if Congress would spend $75 billion on direct jobs creation, taxpayers would see a $39 billion return as newly hired workers pay taxes and no longer need such government services as food stamps. Plus, in addition to the more than 675,000 people who would be directly hired with those funds, another 150,000 jobs would be created just as a result of the increased economic activity of putting that many people back to work.

Yet 2011 is all about budget cuts and even President Obama has succumbed to the madness, having stripped half of the funds for Community Action. For shame, Mr. President.

On a Personal Note: We do not live in a Christian society because we are not caring towards each other. That’s my opinion, anyway, harsh as it may seem. My own experience might be somewhat in line with Walter Trout’s song below, “Jericho Road.” There are plenty of exceptions, but “God is not mocked” and someday the rich fat cats and people who just don’t give a damn will pay. For weeks I had ads up begging my readers to make emergency contributions to keep Evans Liberal Politics on the air, and for example, give me just a little fuel oil to heat my home. (This last winter I kept three rooms warm with electric heaters.) I have not had ONE contribution mailed to me. If you DO want to help, send a MONEY ORDER to Paul Evans, 5396 Overton Road, Wooster, OH 44691.

The songs below are NOT all nice, happy songs, just as the lives of working people are full of challenges and sometimes sorrow. They are .mp3′s made from YouTube videos that I like. I hope you enjoy them and might be inspired by them. ~ Paul Evans

See Inspirational liberal political quotes & speeches, Evans Liberal Politics, August 22, 2011, compiled by Paul Evans.

See A Simple Gratefulness: It’s Going to Get Better, Evans Liberal Politics, March 2, 2011, by Paul Evans.

Music for the Working Class

If you have any suggestions for music to add to this collection, I encourage you to leave a comment. My friend Betsy suggested more songs from the iconic folk singers of our time, so a few of those have been added, below:

Evans Liberal Politics logo as a link to launch one of our 'Songs for the Working Class,' John Lennon's 'Working Class Hero' "Working Class Hero:" WARNING: Obscenity — We start out with a really inspirational song to me by the Beatles’ John Lennon. — 3:52

Evans Liberal Politics logo as a link to launch old classic rock standard Rush's song 'Working Man,' a song that still gets a lot of airplay "Working Man:" by Rush, a group and a song that still gets a lot of airplay on the good classic rock radio stations. — 7:11

Evans Liberal Politics logo as a link to launch one of our 'Songs for the Working Class,' The Rolling Stones' 'Street Fighting Man' "Street Fighting Man:" The Rolling Stones sing it out from their European Tour in 1973. — 5:17

Evans Liberal Politics logo as a link to launch a really old song from the sixties, The Beatles singing 'Revolution,' a song which really resonates with us "Revolution:" The Beatles sing their old song from about 1968 or ’69, which really resonates with us. — 3:25

Evans Liberal Politics logo as a link to launch one of our 'Songs for the Working Class,' Gordon Lightfoot's moving folk song, 'Steel Rail Blues' "Steel Rail Blues:" We thought we’d break up our tribute to the working man with a mournful and moving folk song by Gordon Lightfoot. — 4:10

Evans Liberal Politics logo as a link to launch two songs by Bon Jovi, 'We Weren't Born to Follow' and 'Bad Name' "We Weren’t Born to Follow" and "Bad Name:" Not one but two great songs by favorite rocker Bon Jovi. We Weren’t Born to Follow is not known so well yet and is off of his 2009 album, ‘The Circle’. — 8:16

Evans Liberal Politics logo as a link to launch a funky and inspirational song about finding our way and God's salvation called 'Peace of Mind' “Peace of Mind”:A inspirational but funky R&B track about finding our way. What we’re all looking for. Some of us try our best to find happiness serving God, or Jesus, as we are led. — 4:39

Evans Liberal Politics logo as a link to launch Bruce Springsteen's 2009 hit 'Radio Nowhere' "Radio Nowhere:" Sometimes it’s easy to get discouraged and cry out for someone to talk to, here’s a hit song from 2009 by Bruce Springsteen all about that, performed in Hyde Park in London on June 28, 2009. — 3:53

Evans Liberal Politics logo as a link to launch old classic rock standard Rush's song 'Closer to the Heart' "Closer to the Heart:" old standby classic rockers Rush sing one of my very favorite songs. If only the people in power could take it to heart! — 3:26

Evans Liberal Politics logo as a link to launch a audio performance of The Waterboys performing their little-known song Spirit live in Glastonbury in 1986 "Spirit:" The Waterboys with Mike Scott perform their little-known song live in Glastonbury in 1986. — 7:22

Evans Liberal Politics logo serves as a link to launch Ten Years After performing their sixties hit 'I'd Love to Change the World' "I’d Love to Change the World:" Ten Years After performs this wonderful song from the sixties which has always served to move and inspire me. — 3:47

a recent patriotic and inspirational song by Kid Rock' "Born Free:" From an artist who has been around for a while, Kid Rock, with a song that is both patriotic and inspirational — 4:24

Evans Liberal Politics logo as a link to launch one of our 'Songs for the Working Class,' blues rocker Walter Trout's Jerico Road "Jericho Road:" A song about just how hard life can be for our poor, on highways where nobody cares, by Walter Trout, who in my opinion is one of our best blues/rock artists around today. — 4:34

Evans Liberal Politics logo as a link to launch one of our 'Songs for the Working Class,' Peter Paul and Mary's 'If I Had a Hammer' "If I Had a Hammer:" listen to the harmonizing in this song by folk legends Peter Paul & Mary. — 1:58

Evans Liberal Politics logo as a link to launch one of our 'Songs for the Working Class,' Joan Baez singing 'The Ballad of Sacco and Vanzetti' "The Ballad of Sacco and Vanzetti:" Folk icon Joan Baez sings about America’s first political prisoners, who were executed on August 23rd, 1927. — 4:35

Evans Liberal Politics logo as a link to launch one of our 'Songs for the Working Class,' by folk legend Pete Seeger, singing 'Which Side are You On' "Which Side are you On:" Pete Seeger, a legend in his own time, mainly the 1940′s through the 1960′s, sings a song about workers and union building. 2:48

Evans Liberal Politics logo as a link to launch one of our 'Songs for the Working Class,' Arlo Guthrie singing a song about soldiers making it home, alive or dead, and society's indifference, a song titled 'When A Soldier Makes It Home' "When A Soldier Makes It Home:" Arlo Guthrie of Alice’s Restaurant’s fame sings a song about our soldiers making it home, alive or dead, and society’s indifference to this. 7:38

Evans Liberal Politics logo serves as a link to launch a late 2007 Flora TV talk by New York Times columnist and Nobel economics prize winner Paul Krugman called 'Income Inequality and the Middle Class' "Income Inequality and the Middle Class:" an important talk by Nobel prize winner and N.Y. Times columnist Paul Krugman to the effect that income inequality is a completely political creation. — 7:15

Evans Liberal Politics logo as a link to launch a sermon by Trinity United Church of Christ Pastor Reverend Dr. Kevan Franklin on 'Enlightenment and Unity' "Enlightenment:" Rev. Dr. Kevan Franklin of the Trinity United Church of Christ (my good friend here in Wooster, Ohio) speaks about enlightenment and Jesus’ last wish that we might find a way to be united in love. — 14:40

Spiritual Cinema Circle

Check out Paul’s Playlist of 230 Rock and Pop Hits, and have fun with all the artists you love while you surf the web.


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Scapegoating and Our Sick, Evil & Satanic Society

May 8th, 11 / 0 Comments

Evans Liberal Politics
May 8, 2011

 

Scapegoating and Our Sick,
Evil & Satanic Society

Evans Liberal Politics, May 8, 2011, by Paul Evans:

This is a warning to anyone who might be just, who might be pure in heart, who might still try to believe in God and Jesus and live a caring life:

Our society is evil. I’m not sure which, but (if one were to judge by how life is for ordinary people), one of the two following alternatives must be true: Either Satan has essentially won and no good and decent person gets a chance in this world, or else perhaps society has set itself up as some kind of tin “God” and is fully unjust and has become increasingly evil. All that most people, at least middle class and rich people, care about is “getting ahead” and getting more. For most of those, stepping on people is either the price that has to be paid or is something that is like a game, that is actively fun. Charity is something for tax breaks.

Led Zeppelin (live)
Stairway to Heaven

This is a corrupt society, this is Rome in the third century A.D. For the rest of us, for the little man, the poor and the disadvantaged, we have kept trying, kept fighting, but we never really had a chance, and it’s just getting worse. If Paul Ryan and the House Republicans achieve any measure of success in their austerity measures (which include gutting and privatizing Medicare, for starters), life will just get that much more hellish for people like me.

In any case, I am 54 years old now. I have seen a lot in my life. And I know that whoever controls this world, it has actually become a sick, evil place where goodness, meekness, weakness and vulnerability, and yes, kindness and decency are actively punished.

If you are too good, or offend the wrong person, then you are actively scapegoated. Look in any introductory textbook on anthropology. It will tell you that ritual scapegoating is a feature of every society that has ever existed: how evil is that?

I have tried to live a good, decent and caring life. I never really hurt anyone at all. I was stupid in college and had a drinking problem and smoked too much marijuana back then, in the late seventies, but since then I have cleaned up my act and have tried hard all my life. And received nothing but heartache, pain, rejection and grief. I was bewildered by this most of my adult life, because my experience of life seemed to me to be that of a normal and in fact an educated and cultured person. I never understood why I could not succeed in life.

My problem is that in particular, I am the variety of scapegoat known as the “mentally ill.” You know us: the ones you avoid even speaking to, the ones you would never consider hiring for your business, the ones you make jokes about with your friends. The mentally ill are one of the particular targets of scapegoating in Western society.

I’ve had it. It doesn’t really matter what “they” do to me now. I put out poverty appeals on Evans Liberal Politics for a year, and in that time I received two helpful gifts from kind and decent individuals, but nothing in the mail via the donation request here except one bogus check for $1,500 and tons of email scams. Oh I WILL still keep trying, and I am actively comforted by my own spiritual life and the love that Christ and the Holy Spirit and the Father show me all the time. But my material and defacto existence on this earth is not pleasant at all. More than just a rant, I wanted to give a few readers a heads up so that they might avoid this or at least understand it.

Right now 400 people in the United States control over 50 percent of the wealth. The lower 80 percent of us now have a measly 17 percent of the wealth. And we call ourselves a Christian nation? If we were, the tax structure would be progressive and the fortunate in this land would see to it that the less fortunate were provided for. But these well off people don’t care, and I’ll bet you they are some of the most (officially, I mean) Christian people there are. Well I have news for you fat cats: you’re about as Christian as any one of these Wall Street criminals is, and it doesn’t matter how much you go to church. You people would cross your own mother for the right amount of money. You’re buying a stairway to heaven, only when you die, you CAN expect justice. Do you care about that? Apparently not much, and that makes you evil in my book. And the whole nation is going that way.

It’s like John Mellencamp says: “those who cannot connect the dots, hey, look the other way.” Well I knew all this for the last six years in particular, and my life was in a downward spiral, it in no way was my fault and that there was nothing I could do to rescue myself. Hey, jerks, if you think I am feeling sorry for myself, you’re just a piece of sh*t moron that either actively likes to dump on those less fortunate then you are, or you are actively evil.

I can come to no other conclusion but that we live in an evil society. Where is “do unto others as you would have them do unto you?” Where is “judge not, lest ye be judged”? Where is the caring society of a truly Christian people? No, either Satan has won on this earth or there is no God and there is no Satan and there are just too many people, too few resources, you would think. This is a society which has grown actively evil in a whole lot of different ways.

Personally, I am a Christian and I believe this world is THAT sort of evil, and I also think that part of the reason I have had such grief in the last few years is that I have tried to live as much as possible for me with the caring of Christ. (Apparently that is a worse “sin” than being mentally ill.) I don’t want to believe that these are the end times, I don’t want to believe that God must destroy the world in order to save it, but I’m really thinking about that. I know there is little justice now.

So LOOK OUT. NEVER allow yourself to get pigeonholed as mentally ill. Look, some people need treatment all their lives, but that is no reason tot shun us and scapegoat us. Look for some help on my page of mental health resources. I am in no way advocating avoiding treatment…. I’m just saying that the way society treats the mentally ill, as well as society’s less fortunate (the poor, the drug users, the alcoholics, etc.) in general, is an active evil.

But what do I know, I’m just a news and politics website owner, right? There’s a Gordon Lightfoot song called “Don Quixote” with the lyrics: “I have come oe’r moor and mountain…. I have seen the strong survive and I have seen the lean grow weak.”

I’m 54, they’ve got me on really strong mental illness medicines, I have diabetes and COPD, my sister died, my mother died, I never found a woman to love and don’t have any kids, and my father, a Yale Ph.D., now has to live by a judge’s order in a local nursing home. I took in two homeless people from a nearby homeless shelter and frankly, they have made my life an additional hell. At this point, powers that be, I don’t really care all that much exactly how you accomplish my final destruction. I am $15,000 in debt and I will never climb out of that hole: after my father dies, they will take our house away from me.

Ask yourselves, other than my life, which no longer matters so much to me, exactly what do I stand to lose by telling you the truth?

I “missed the starting gun” and only got well enough to really attempt a comeback six years ago. But this society does not let schizophrenic scapegoats make much of a comeback, and I was too far behind to have a chance. I made the additional “mistake” of trying to be truly caring and only got heartache for that. However, even if publication of this further destroys me, I felt that I had to give people, particularly young people, a heads up.

These are evil times, this is an uncaring, unChristian society (no matter what the church attendance is), and ordinary people really don’t stand a chance. DON’T offend the wrong people. DON’T be stupid. Survive, prepare, and work like hell from the moment you are a teenager. Then you might get to live out your miserable lives in relative decency. Maybe.

I’ve known this in it’s details for a number of years, but kept hoping something would change in my life, kept hoping somebody important would see that I didn’t deserve this, and that my life might get better. Putting this article out there DOES constitute giving up for me. I will keep going through the motions, but this is an admission and conclusion that I have never had a real, honest chance anyway… so that perhaps I could help a few people who might read this.

Look, let me give society a little lecture one more time, even though I doubt anyone listens to me: The nature of the universe (and God’s will) is such that we were meant to be caring to one another. Society’s sickness and evil in large part comes from how uncaring we are, which makes our lives a sick, evil experience. It is the reason why we feel so alienated, why nothing ever gets better and, in fact, is getting worse. Trying to show us that we need to be caring is, I believe, the reason God sent Christ to die for us. Only by being truly caring can we really know God’s love, and perhaps, this is the basis on which He will judge us one day.

This society is unChristian. This society is evil. Don’t say nobody ever warned you! ~Paul

From Riva Kiernan: “A generous heart, kind speech, & a life of service & compassion are the things which renew humanity.”-Buddha — and was that not exactly how Christ led his life too, and what most of us admire in any individual’s personal job history? (At least it USED to be that way….) Heads up America!

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Hot Rock Video: Michael Jackson – They Don’t Care About Us

Apr 21st, 11 / 0 Comments

Evans Liberal Politics
April 21, 2011

 

Michael Jackson
They Don’t Care About Us
(Official Prison Version)

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Why the Right-Wing Bullies Will Hold The Nation Hostage Again and Again

Apr 10th, 11 / 0 Comments

Evans Liberal Politics
April 10, 2011

 

Why the Right-Wing Bullies Will Hold
The Nation Hostage Again and Again

Why the Right-Wing Bullies Will Hold The Nation Hostage Again and Again, Robert Reich.org, April 9, 2011, by Robert Reich, used with permission, quoted verbatim:

When I was a small boy I was bullied more than most, mainly because I was a foot shorter than than everyone else. They demanded the cupcake my mother had packed in my lunchbox, or, they said, they’d beat me up. After a close call in the boy’s room, I paid up. Weeks later, they demanded half my sandwich as well. I gave in to that one, too. But I could see what was coming next. They’d demand everything else. Somewhere along the line I decided I’d have a take a stand. The fight wasn’t pleasant. But the bullies stopped their bullying.

Click the Peace Sign
to visit Paul’s Playlist of
230 Rock and Pop Hits
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a beautiful and artful peace sign serves as a link to Paul's Playlist of 230 rock, pop and electronic hits

I hope the President decides he has to take a stand, and the sooner the better. Last December he caved in to Republican demands that the Bush tax cut be extended to wealthier Americans for two more years, at a cost of more than $60 billion. That was only the beginning — the equivalent of my cupcake.

Last night he gave away more than half the sandwich — $39 billion less than was budgeted for 2010, $79 billion less than he originally requested. Non-defense discretionary spending — basically, everything from roads and bridges to schools and innumerable programs for the poor — has been slashed.

The right-wing bullies are emboldened. They will hold the nation hostage again and again.

In a few weeks the debt ceiling has to be raised. After that, next year’s budget has to be decided on. House Budget Chair Paul Ryan has already put forward proposals to turn Medicare into vouchers that funnel money to private insurance companies, turn Medicaid and Food Stamps into block grants that give states discretion to shift them to the non-poor, and give even more big tax cuts to the rich.

There will also be Republican votes to de-fund the new health care law.

“Americans of different beliefs came together,” the President announced after agreement was reached. It was the “largest spending cut in our history.” He sounded triumphant. In fact, he’s encouraging the bullies onward.

All the while, he and the Democratic leadership in Congress refuse to refute the Republicans’ big lie — that spending cuts will lead to more jobs. In fact, spending cuts now will lead to fewer jobs. They’ll slow down an already-anemic recovery. That will cause immense and unnecessary suffering for millions of Americans.

The President continues to legitimize the Republican claim that too much government spending caused the economy to tank, and that by cutting back spending we’ll get the economy going again.

Even before the bullies began hammering him his deficit commission already recommended $3 of spending cuts for every dollar of tax increase. Then the President froze non-defense domestic spending and froze federal pay. And he continues to draw the false analogy between a family’s budget and the national budget.

He is losing the war of ideas because he won’t tell the American public the truth: That we need more government spending now — not less — in order to get out of the gravitational pull of the Great Recession.

That we got into the Great Recession because Wall Street went bonkers and government failed to do its job at regulating financial markets. And that much of the current deficit comes from the necessary response to that financial crisis.

That the only ways to deal with the long-term budget problem is to demand that the rich pay their fair share of taxes, and to slow down soaring health-care costs.

And that, at a deeper level, the increasingly lopsided distribution of income and wealth has robbed the vast working middle class of the purchasing power they need to keep the economy going at full capacity.

“We preserved the investments we need to win the future,” he said last night. That’s not true. The budget he just approved will cut Pell grants to poor kids, while states continue massive cutbacks in school spending — firing tens of thousands of teachers and raising fees at public universities. The budget he approved is cruel to the nation’s working class and poor.

It is impossible to fight bullies merely by saying they’re going too far.

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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.

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Video: Bill Maher Says America Needs a Class War

Apr 9th, 11 / 0 Comments

Evans Liberal Politics
April 9, 2011

 

Bill Maher Says America Needs a Class War

"Dude, I’ve Already Got Your Money…"

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Robert Reich: The Principles of the People’s Party

Mar 10th, 11 / 1 Comment

Evans Liberal Politics
March 10, 2011

 

Robert Reich: The Principles of the People’s Party

The Principles of the People’s Party, Robert Reich.org, March 9, 2011, by Robert Reich, used with permission, quoted verbatim:

The following was sent to me by someone in Madison, Wisconsin, who found it in the Capitol building last week. It was obviously written in a hurry, and it carries the label “first draft.”

It’s emerging from the heartland – from Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, and Iowa — and it is spreading across the nation. It doesn’t have a formal organization or Washington lobbyists beyond it, but it’s gaining strength nonetheless. Like the Tea Party did with Republicans in 2010, the People’s Party will pressure Democrats in primaries and general elections leading up to 2012 and beyond to have the courage of the party’s core convictions. But unlike the Tea Party, which has been coopted by the super-rich, the People’s Party represents the needs and aspirations of America’s vast working middle class, along with the less fortunate.

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The People’s Party is dedicated to the truth that America is a rich nation – richer by far than any other, richer than it’s ever been. The People’s Party rejects the claims of plutocrats who want us to believe we can no longer afford to live decently – who are cutting the wages and benefits of most people, attacking unions, and squeezing public budgets. The People’s Party will not allow them to turn us against one another – unionized against non-unionized, public employee against private employee, immigrant against native born. Nor will the People’s Party allow the privileged and powerful to distract us from the explosive concentration of income and wealth at the top, the decline in taxes paid by the top, and their increasing and untrammeled political power.

We have joined together to reverse these trends and to promote a working people’s bill of rights. We are committed to:

1. Increasing the pay and bargaining power of average working people. We’ll stop efforts to destroy unions and collective bargaining rights. Protect workers who try to form unions from being fired. Make it easier for workers to form unions through simple up-or-down votes at the workplace.

2. Requiring America’s super-rich to pay their fair share. Increase top marginal tax rates and the number of tax brackets at the top. Treat income from capital gains the same as ordinary income. Restore the estate tax. Revoke the citizenship of anyone found to be sheltering income abroad.

3. Protecting and expanding government programs vital to the working middle class and the poor. These include Social Security, K-12 education, Pell Grants for disadvantaged students, public transportation, Medicare and Medicaid, and the Earned Income Tax Credit.

4. Ending corporate welfare and cutting military outlays. Trim defense spending. End special tax subsidies for specific corporations or industries – at both state and federal levels. Cut agricultural subsidies.

5. Saving Social Security while making it more progressive. Exempt the first $20,000 of income from Social Security taxes. Make up the difference – and any need for additional Social Security revenues – by raising the ceiling on income subject to the Social Security payroll tax.

6. Ending Wall Street’s dominance of the economy and preventing any future taxpayer-funded bailout. Break up Wall Street’s largest banks and put a cap their size. Link pay on the Street to long-term profits rather than short-term speculation. Subject all financial transactions to a one-tenth of one percent transactions tax.

7. Fully enforcing regulations that protect workers, consumers, small investors, and the environment. Raise penalties on corporations that violate them. Expand enforcement staffs. Provide more private rights of action.

8. Providing affordable health care to all Americans. The new health law isn’t enough. We’ll fight for a single payer – making Medicare available to all. End fee-for-service and create “accountable-care” organizations that focus on healthy outcomes.

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9. Slowing and eventually reversing climate change. We’ll fight to limit carbon emissions. Impose a ceiling on emissions or a carbon tax on polluters. Return the revenues from these to the American people, in the form of tax cuts for the working middle class.

10. Getting big money out of politics. We’ll fight to appoint Supreme Court justices who will overrule Citizens United v. FEC. Require full disclosure of all contributions for or against any candidate. Provide full public financing for all presidential, gubernatorial, and legislative candidates in all general elections.

A few of the places it’s happening:

  • Madison (ongoing).
  • LDes Moines (ongoing).
  • March 10: Indianapolis. Gather at 10am and rally at 11:30am at Statehouse, 200 W. Washington St., Indianapolis. Rallies will continue at the capitol until the impasse is over.
  • March 11: St. Louis. Downtown at 3:30 pm at Kiener Plaza. SB 1 is expected to be voted on in the Senate the week of 3/7 or 3/14.
  • April 4: In cities across America. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day – Demonstrations to show that “We Are One.”

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.

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