Debt Ceiling Ransom Delivered - Hostages May Be Shot Anyway

Sorting out the wheat from the chaff:

The President Surrenders

By PAUL KRUGMAN

For the deal itself, given the available information, is a disaster, and not just for President Obama and his party. It will damage an already depressed economy; it will probably make America’s long-run deficit problem worse, not better; and most important, by demonstrating that raw extortion works and carries no political cost, it will take America a long way down the road to banana-republic status.

Start with the economics. We currently have a deeply depressed economy. We will almost certainly continue to have a depressed economy all through next year. And we will probably have a depressed economy through 2013 as well, if not beyond.

The worst thing you can do in these circumstances is slash government spending, since that will depress the economy even further. Pay no attention to those who invoke the confidence fairy, claiming that tough action on the budget will reassure businesses and consumers, leading them to spend more. It doesn’t work that way, a fact confirmed by many studies of the historical record. Read the rest here.

Ransom Paid

Robert Reich

Anyone who characterizes the deal between the president, Democratic, and Republican leaders as a victory for the American people over partisanship understands neither economics nor politics.

The deal does not raise taxes on America's wealthy and most fortunate -- who are now taking home a larger share of total income and wealth, and whose tax rates are already lower than they have been in eighty years. Yet it puts the nation's most important safety nets and public investments on the chopping block.

It also hobbles the capacity of the government to respond to the jobs and growth crisis. Added to the cuts already underway by state and local governments, the deal's spending cuts increase the odds of a double-dip recession. And the deal strengthens the political hand of the radical right.

More here.

The Four Big Problems With - And Four Silver Linings Around - The Debt Limit Deal

Progressives are furious. Conservatives aresomewhat less furious. And for the most part all anybody knows about the budget plan is that it cuts a lot of spending over 10 years, and includes no guarantees that anybody -- particularly the well-off -- will pay more in taxes. Thus, the anger: after huge tax cuts for the rich, two unfunded wars, and a financial crisis triggered by Wall Street greed exploded budget deficits, the people asked to narrow the gap are overwhelmingly regular folks.

All of this while the economy is still reeling. It might not be as bad as this, but there's certainly a lot missing here.

So with that background in mind, here are the four worst problems with, and four silver linings around the debt limit deal. More here.

The Blame Goes Beyond Obama For Debt Ceiling Compromise

Before any critic starts in, the proposed spending cuts and debt ceiling increase is not good and will not solve the problem of increased revenue. Now that is out of the way, the appropriate question is; just what was President Obama supposed to do? Although the deal is less than ideal, it averts a disaster of epic proportions that would cripple this nation’s economy to the point that America may well have never recovered. However, that is not really the issue, but since the nay-sayers are throwing words like sellout and President Obama caves again, it is worth a brief perusal of exactly who is at fault. More here

Fact Sheet: Bipartisan Debt Deal: A Win for the Economy and Budget Discipline

From the White House Web Site

Bipartisan Debt Deal: A Win for the Economy and Budget Discipline

• Removes the cloud of uncertainty over our economy at this critical time, by ensuring that no one will be able to use the threat of the nation’s first default now, or in only a few months, for political gain;
• Locks in a down payment on significant deficit reduction, with savings from both domestic and Pentagon spending, and is designed to protect crucial investments like aid for college students;
• Establishes a bipartisan process to seek a balanced approach to larger deficit reduction through entitlement and tax reform;
• Deploys an enforcement mechanism that gives all sides an incentive to reach bipartisan compromise on historic deficit reduction, while protecting Social Security, Medicare beneficiaries and low-income programs;
• Stays true to the President’s commitment to shared sacrifice by preventing the middle class, seniors and those who are most vulnerable from shouldering the burden of deficit reduction. The President did not agree to any entitlement reforms outside of the context of a bipartisan committee process where tax reform will be on the table and the President will insist on shared sacrifice from the most well-off and those with the most indefensible tax breaks.

Mechanics of the Debt Deal

• Immediately enacted 10-year discretionary spending caps generating nearly $1 trillion in deficit reduction; balanced between defense and non-defense spending.
• President authorized to increase the debt limit by at least $2.1 trillion, eliminating the need for further increases until 2013.
• Bipartisan committee process tasked with identifying an additional $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction, including from entitlement and tax reform. Committee is required to report legislation by November 23, 2011, which receives fast-track protections. Congress is required to vote on Committee recommendations by December 23, 2011.
• Enforcement mechanism established to force all parties – Republican and Democrat – to agree to balanced deficit reduction. If Committee fails, enforcement mechanism will trigger spending reductions beginning in 2013 – split 50/50 between domestic and defense spending. Enforcement protects Social Security, Medicare beneficiaries, and low-income programs from any cuts. Details here.

There you go kids - have at it.

Look, John Boehner - Who You Jivin' With That Cosmic Debris

I know it's a little early, but don't they have Christmas in July? Dedicated to the failure that is John Boehner.



Just pass a clean debt ceiling bill already? Just do it.

One More For Sis (and me)

This is hard.

For My Sister Who Passed Away this Morning

She Hated corporate bullshit. Loved me like a son (she was 22 years older than me) and had a massive coronary. She loved music, everything from the Grateful Dead to the Beatles and Elvis. She loved Elvis. She would have loved these songs but I could never get her to accept (I build 'em) a damn computer so I could send music to her.

I love you Alice, and I will miss you so much it's hard to even think about it. The Greendayman family has had it's share of grief this year. But, no whining.

Here's some John Prine for my sister.

Happy Fourth of July

Here's Ray Charles with America the Beautiful



Grateful Dead US Blues



God, I'm Old

But wait, there's more...

The New War of Independence -- Against Corporate Politics

Via HuffPo

Excerpt:

"This is the age of corporatized politics. That means we may admire our leaders, but we can't depend on them. We're paying the price for Thomas Jefferson's unfulfilled desire to "crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country."

"That's why we celebrate July 4, not September 3, as our Day of Independence.""That will disappoint the history-challenged right-wingers whose patriotic posturing is limited to speaking in their odd pseudo-military lingo, that echolalic Esperanto for fantasy revolutionaries. They don't realize that war is a tactic, not a system of values. And "independence"? Today's "Tea Party" wasn't named for the tea-dumping patriots of Boston, but for some self-entitled commodities traders shrieking "losers!" on cable television. They were sneering at struggling homeowners, mocking middle-class people like the Tea Partiers themselves. And they were enraged at the idea that ordinary families might be rescued the same way their own financier class had been rescued."

"They won. Nobody's rescued the middle class yet. Unlike them, the Founders believed in common purpose. They shared George Washington's goal of "protecting the rights of humane nature and establishing an Asylum for the poor and oppressed of all nations and religions." They understood what conservatives don't: There's a difference between declaring independence and telling people they're on their own."

"We fought for the principles of self-representation and economic freedom. Those principles are under attack again today. But there's no place for rhetorical violence (or any other kind) in today's debate. When corporations intimidate us with economic pressure and distorted information, the best responses are communication and mobilization."

"We resisted Britain's state-sanctioned monopolies in 1776. Today's government-sanctioned corporations hang out on Wall Street, not by the chartered Thames. The spirit of the East India Company lives in the five banks which now control nearly 96% of the derivatives market in this country. Our financial oligarchs receive Treasury Department money, Federal Reserve giveaways, and get-out-of-jail-free cards for a corporate crime wave that would make Al Capone blush."

Read the rest here:

If They Want To Cut Services They Have To Raise Wages

What the fuck is wrong with these CEO asshats? Are they so profit driven that they have no humanity left? It's their fucking fault that working people are broke. They took all the money from increased worker productivity over the last 30 years and kept it for themsleves. Now they want to cut services ( through their bought and paid for Republican House) that feed people who are suffering because no-one (except hedge fund managers) can earn a living wage anymore. No labor, no unions, no minimum wage. Do we really want to be China?

How can we allow this to happen as a society? Are we not Americans? Where is that famous American Exceptionalism that we hear so much about but fails miserably when measured against facts.

People need to make money. Corporations do not want to pay money that cuts into their obscene profits. And now as a result of 30 years of conservative deregulation and tax reduction on the richest 1% Corporations have ALL THE MONEY which equals power and even free speech, according to the corporately owned SCOTUS, and the working class have next to none. Is this by design? I would hope not but the evidence is damning.

As a concerned citizen, a liberal, a patriotic American I can't help but feel that the betrayal of the social contract, a corporate conscience if you will, between the wealthy corporations that have done very well under our democratic system and the American worker has been shredded and they could care less if we fucking curl up and die. They don't need us anymore, they can sell to the newly minted middle class in China thanks to their new manufacturing base that the fucking assholes moved our jobs overseas for. They should all be lined up and shot as traitors. EVERY LAST ONE OF THE THEM. SHOT DEAD. For betraying this country. Traitors all.

Thom Hartmann explains in a less graphic way.

"Liberal talk show host Thom Hartmann went on a tear yesterday about income disparity in America, suggesting as President Harry Truman did 60 years ago that the Republican party is a wholly owned subsidiary of wealthy special interests."

“These CEOs are not job creators,” he said. “They’re stealing from the people who are the actual job creators: people like you and me, who actually buy stuff.

”Please take 5 minutes and watch this film.

A View on the Economy from the Reality Based Community

From HuffPo

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich knows what's wrong with the economy, and he says he can explain to viewers in less than three minutes.

Since 1980, the American economy has almost doubled in size. But adjusting for inflation, most people's wages have barely increased, a fact Reich notes in a MoveOn.org video on YouTube. Indeed, the average American worker in 2008 earned $400less than in 1988, when adjusting for inflation.

Concentration of wealth among the richest Americans have also drained the country of its economic resources, consequently dividing the middle class and weakening demand, Reich continues.

"The only way we can have a strong economy," Reich says, "is with a strong middle class."

This three minute video explains why the US economy is so screwed now, that DEMAND SIDE ECONOMICS is the only way to build a middle class, and more.

Elizabeth Warren is a Potential 'Serious Threat to Our Financial System'?

This is Crazy! This is Bizzarro world! This is unacceptable language coming from an elected official like Mitch (the bitch) McConnell who took an oath to serve the public and the citizens of the United States. ALL of us, not just the rich. He should be thrilled that finally someone can be on the side of 'the little guy'. What a crock of shit that line is. As read on "Evil GOP Bastards":

"Since the New Deal, Republicans have been on the wrong side of every issue of concern to ordinary Americans; Social Security, the war in Vietnam, equal rights, civil liberties, church- state separation, consumer issues, public education, reproductive freedom, national health care, labor issues, gun policy, campaign-finance reform, the environment
and tax fairness. No political party could remain so consistently wrong by accident.
The only rational conclusion is that, despite their cynical "family values" propaganda, the Republican Party is a criminal conspiracy to betray the interests of the American people
in favor of plutocratic and corporate interests, and absolutist religious groups. "

Prove.Me.Wrong.

What a sniveling weasel 'the Bitch' is.
Typical Republican in the pockets of Wall Street, he could give a shit about the people being robbed by financial institutions EVERY DAY of millions of dollars in what should be illegal tricks, spin and obfuscation. I get so disgusted watching this ignorant fuck work his way around the shit-sandwich that is a lie from start to finish that we do not need a Consumer Financial Protection Agency or Elizabeth Warren. Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Hate Media AND the MSM all serve the Financial Industrial Complex very well by adding to the negative noise. This is all about the money. They love the money.

Republicans are all about the money. No Altruism, No sharing, no community all 'Atlas' all the time. This has been my experience for years and years. This focus on money is what makes a Republican a Republican in the 21st century. Sad.

Gil Scott-Heron - Rest in Peace, Your Music Still Carries Your Message

The author of the song "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" – which helped pioneer sounds that would fuse to become rap – has died in New York City. Musician Gil Scott-Heron was 62.

Scott-Heron recorded "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" in the 1970s in Harlem.



He mixed minimalistic percussion and spoken-word performances tinged with politics in a style he sometimes referred to as bluesology. He recorded more than a dozen albums. An American poet, musician, and author known primarily for his late 1960s and early 1970s work as a spoken word soul performer and his collaborative work with musician Brian Jackson. His collaborative efforts with Jackson featured a musical fusion of jazz, blues and soul music, as well as lyrical content concerning social and political issues of the time.

As an impressionable young man in the mid-70's, I was impressed by the frank nature of his writing and song composition, edgy at the time with no fluff to be found. I hated fluff in the 70's.

Here are a couple of my favorites from Gil:

"Johannesburg" - a call to action against Apartheid.



"The Bottle" - this song hits a little too close to home for some people of all colors including white.



Thanks Gil for your work and your music. You will be missed.

Well, this Is It.

I would gladly be proven wrong about "The Rapture" if it means all the Christo-fascists disappear today.








And for your "Rapturing" weather forecast, here's Bill Maher: