What I say here obviously doesn’t count for a hill of beans. Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine, on the other hand, knows the nitty-gritty, down and dirty details of politics and naked capitalism sleeping together. So go read her Dave Johnson’s post at her blog November 24th post if you haven’t already. Here’s a taste:
Today’s Washington Post has punch two of a one-two punch. Punch one was the Simpson/Bowles “plan” to cut Social Security, cut middle-class tax breaks and programs (and dramatically cut taxes on the rich.) Punch two is pushing this plan hard with headlines claiming this solution is actually popular, while shutting out voices who explain why we shouldn’t do this. This is full-on Shock Doctrine, wait for an emergency like the terrible recession so people are in shock and want solutions, and then change everything so fast they can’t respond while telling them how this is good for them.
She then goes on to list all the polls that show that no, Americans by large majorities don’t want social security touched as part of a deficit solution. And then she explains why the media keeps pushing the cow manure lies that we actually love what we hate:
The public hates it but the elites are pushing ahead with their campaign anyway. If you remember the “run up” to the Iraq War, opposing voices were simply shut out of the discussion. All the “serious people” were explaining why we had no choice but to invade Iraq. And all the headlines were about the terrible threat that Iraq posed to our very existence. Seriously, it wasn’t just stories about how Iraq was going to drop a nuke on us any second now. Do you remember the smallpox scare?, where you couldn’t listen to the radio, read a newspaper or watch TV without hearing about all the terrible ways Iraq was going to attack us?
The Simpson/Bowles plan is part of a pre-arranged agenda to gut the middle class and further enrich the wealthy. The media machine is working to convince DC politicians that the public wants this done. They scare people with headlines about the terrifying things that will happen because of deficits. The only viewpoints you hear are the cutters and gutters. Those presenting the ideas the public favors — like the plan offered by Deficit Commission member Rep. Jan Schakowsky that cuts the deficit but actually strengthens Social Security — are not heard. And keep telling people how popular and necessary this is.
By the way, who appointed the Catfood Commission anyway?
By the way, who appointed the Catfood Commission anyway?
So you can understand our frustration with the President?
Steven certainly does… you must be thinking of that other guy who posts.
The President ? He’s merely presiding and improving upon the Bu$h/Cheney debacle : bursting the investment bubbles and false basis for loans. Then when the security for loans is trashed – requirements for higher percentages of value against loans outstanding coincide with reduction of interest rates to zip.
No incentive to make loans because all it does is risk defaults and everybody has bled to death financially via exporting jobs offshore.
The Depression affected a rural population. This time around municipal water treatment will be the first utility privatized.
And if that isn’t bad enough Monsanto et al have killed the food supply. That and S.510
No wonder I and everyone else expect blogs to be shut down. They interfere with programming idiocies and irrelevancies : rather like partisan politics in a biPartisan Tyranny.
Healthcare not available ? Like that matters if you don’t have the Necessities of Life.
“Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine, on the other hand, knows the nitty-gritty, down and dirty details of politics and naked capitalism sleeping together.”
This particular blog post seems to be credited to a “Dave Johnson”. The guy should get credit, because he’s dead-on in his analysis.
Done. Thanks.
The instance of this tactical approach to achieving a strategic victory was election 2000. Throughout November and early December, the Washington Post had daily stories about how everyone was getting antsy to have this solved. Headlines about anonymous Europeans (the Post always goes to them for credibility) calling us a ‘banana republic.’ And yet pol after poll kept saying Americans were not antsy; that we wanted to let the process run its course and see who really won. The facts didn’t matter to the Post then, and they sure don’t matter now. I hate catfood.
Well, Steven, let’s wait and see what comes of the deficit commission in actual laws, not hyperbole from Bowles and Simpson and the Poutrage crowd that you seem to be a part of. I know it’s fun to get mad at things that haven’t happened and all, but aren’t there real issues to be concerned about and not some quaintly coined “catfood commission” that has no power and is merely offering suggestions that politicians then will never put into law. How clever of a slogan, did they get that from Frank Luntz or something?
Who appointed the Catfood Commission?
The President appointed six members, including the co-chairs and the folks who weren’t elected officials.
The majority and minority leaders of the House and Senate each appointed three members, most of them those with budget or appropriations responsibilities. For example, the Senate Democratic appointees were Kent Conrad, Max Baucus, and Dick Durbin.
The political issue for the future is getting progressives with enough seniority to become the chairs or ranking members of these committees. That’s a 10-20 year project.
Well who created it by executive order?
And Obama appointed Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles the two heads of the Beast, both equally tied to the idea of deficit reduction through a transfer of wealth from the lower 90% to the upper 10%.
My thought was that it was Kent Conrad’s price for allowing healthcare reform to pass through reconciliation.
If so, all the more reason to primary Conrad then. Which brings us this doozy(thanks to Kent Conrad and Snuffaluffagus):
Sen. Conrad: Extend All Tax Cuts; Time to Get ‘Serious’ About Deficit
You know someone in North Dakota that can defeat him in a primary and win in a general election?
The likelihood is the he will be defeated for re-election and a Republican will take his place–unless there is a dramatic change in the political climate in ND.
I don’t know .. but I’ve been asking for more information for a month. And why are the party so weak in North and South Dakota(not to mention Nebraska)?
Has something to do with farmers no doubt. And probably some to do with social conservative issues.
And lots to do with the fact that Rush and friends run wall-to-wall there on local rural radio stations, which just so happen to be owned by big companies like ClearChannel.
All we heard about was Obama and Clinton in the Dem primaries. Richardson, Biden, Dodd and the rest were window dressing. The rich know what they want and how to get it, whether its a war or a president.
The 2% for one year S.S. payroll tax cut is our thirty pieces of silver. Then make desperate people look like hypocrites because need a few dollars a week. While the elite don’t need it but will shake their heads in mock disgust as they pass laws to legalize the massive pillaging they orchestrated.
Fuck them no more tax cuts for anyone. This is what must be done. Vote on extending unemployment benefits again tomorrow and then again the next day. Make the Repugs show their true selves over and over.
Hopefully one day this will be the expression on the face of our elite:
Those presenting the ideas the public favors — like the plan offered by Deficit Commission member Rep. Jan Schakowsky that cuts the deficit but actually strengthens Social Security — are not heard.
Lefty bloggers could ensure those other plans are heard over the next year or two, instead of relinquishing the discussion to the MSM. The single most important task of bloggers on the left would be a concerted focus to educate readers and the public of the federal budget and progressive solutions to deficit reduction and income inequity. A concerted movement could change the direction of the nation.