Category Archives: US Government

Divided Divided Government

Normally, in a “divided government” scenario, we see only the Presidency and one or both houses of Congress in the hands of different parties. This time around, the Presidency is in the hands of the Democrats and the House and the Senate aren’t. No party can get anything out of either house.

In the Senate, the Republicans are able to filibuster anything the Democrats suggest and the Democrats can vote down anything the Republicans suggest. In the House, the Democrats can do nothing to stop the Republicans from voting down every one of their measures… but the Republicans themselves are divided and unable to lead. All they can agree upon is that they don’t like the Democrat proposals.

It’s not like we have any pressing issues we need to deal with OH WAIT THERE IS THE FISCAL CLIFF AND THE DEBT LIMIT AND THE ONGOING DEPRESSION HOW DID THIS HAPPEN WE MUST NOT BE VERY GOOD AT GOVERNMENT IN THIS COUNTRY…

Universal Health Care and the Mayan Apocalypse

Yes, they’re related. To understand this, you have to understand the Mesoamerican concept of “the end of the world.” It wasn’t a sudden cataclysm that wiped everything out. It was a process that could take a few years but, at the end of that process, the old world would be totally gone and a new one ready in its place. When the Aztecs predicted an end of the world in 1519, it showed up right on schedule in the form of the Spanish army and a smallpox epidemic. By 1521, the Aztec world lay shattered and a new world, dominated by the Spanish, lay before them.

In that new world, there were a series of devastating epidemics. The first two were smallpox, but then the Aztecs began to complain of other ailments whose symptoms were more in line with some bizarre hemorrhagic fevers from the native jungles. The reason why the Aztecs were now more vulnerable to them was because of the hard conditions they faced: poor nutrition, harsher working conditions, and general displacement. The first waves of smallpox killed 50% of the Mexican population: the succeeding epidemics killed off sufficient numbers to keep the population total of natives in 1690 roughly a tenth of what it was in 1519.

We’ve got some people now saying the end of the world will come to us on 21 December, 2012, according to one interpretation of a Mayan calendar. Maybe it will, who knows? But if the Mayans are in charge, it won’t be a massive, sudden shift. It’ll be a process. Maybe it’ll have something to do with the lack of accessible health care in the USA and the increasingly marginal conditions the people of the USA find themselves in.

Let’s face it, as long as corporate interests have their hooks in Congress, the people of the USA won’t get a fair shake on anything, and that includes health care. The food companies give us fattening junk and won’t let Congress change that situation. The drug companies will use their influence in Congress to make sure their profits stay large. Similarly, the health care industry practically wrote the health care bill passed a few years ago. It suits their needs perfectly and leaves the people in the USA that can’t access health care now forced to pay a tax for not being able to afford health care.

The banks have turned us out of our houses while the multinationals have gone Galt and enslaved other people, leaving us without decent jobs. With the trifecta of an overburdened health care system that places a priority on corporate profits, the people of America are becoming more and more vulnerable to an actual plague, let alone increasing incidence of diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.

If we didn’t have a Congress beholden to corporations and if we didn’t have corporate directors that were beholden to the almighty dollar, we’d be able to do something about it. As it is, though, we’re ripe and ready for the Mayan Apocalypse, whenever it actually does happen.

Paralysis and Shock, Part II

I earlier posted that paralysis can lead to the breakup of a nation or increased authoritarianism. There is one other path, rarely taken, but highly successful: a constitutional convention. The French have done it, as have the people of the USA under the Articles of Confederation.

But what to include in a possible new suite of amendments or a rewrite of the constitution?

Eliminate corporate personhood. Corporations are not people, and that doctrine was based upon perjury.
Eliminate corporate donations to candidates, parties, and advertising. They’re not people, so they should not have civil rights or civil liberties.
Eliminate the electoral college. Elect the president with a national vote. This reduces federalism, but it makes individual votes matter more.
Stipulate that corporate directors have a duty to community that supercedes fiduciary duties: the corporation needs to be the servant of society, not the master.
Allow for federal and state money to support religious schools’ education activities, as is done in India. That will keep the anti-science fundamentalism from imposing their will on science education in the USA.
Specify rights and clarify them, as is done in the Swiss constitution.
Limit the ability of the government to tax and spend. Emergency allowances have to be watched carefully, as well. The Swiss constitution places a limit on the power to tax. We have to have provisions to require the government to pay back what it owes when times are good so that it can be ready to deal with bad times when they hit.

That’s a start, but it can give us a renewed hope for the future. A new set of rules gives us a fresh start. They can be corrupted in the future, but that process takes time. This also sets the precedent to reset the system periodically in order to give the nation a new lease. My ideas are not entirely new: some are as old as Jefferson and Locke.

Horserace Analysis

Yesterday, I said that Virginia and Florida would go for Romney. I got the other 48. Nate Silver of the New York Times called 49 out of 50 states, so I’m almost as accurate as he is. Karl Rove, on the other hand… he revealed himself to be a partisan blowhard even when he was pretending to be a non-partisan blowhard. So much for whatever credibility he had after calling 49 of 50 states in 2008.

OK, so why did the GOP lose Senate and Presidential elections? I can identify three big reasons. GOP guys can win local races. Statewide races and national races are where they run into trouble. The biggest problem for the GOP is that a hard stance on pro-life will not win the presidency or a statewide race with this USA. The hard stance – no abortion in the case of rape or incest – will lead to a rape comment trap, and that’s their biggest gotcha. One GOP hardliner’s comments will stick to the other candidates and sink them. If the pro-life party line allowed for exceptions to the rule of no abortion to include cases of rape and incest, then GOP candidates would do better. Until then, they are going to almost ensure that women in general will mobilize to vote for a Democrat.

Second problem: immigration. The GOP has not woken up to the fact that the anchor babies of the wave of immigration in the 80s are voters today. These children of illegal immigrants are themselves legal citizens – citizens with some closely-held views on immigration. The fact that strong opponents of immigration find a welcoming home in the GOP is not lost on minorities. When GOP candidates talk about anti-immigration measures, that cuts close to the hearts of those anchor baby voters. They would vote against the GOP out of fear of what would happen if the nation’s government turned more openly hostile to immigrants.

Third problem: free speech. Not for the opponents, for the candidates. The GOP did a fantastic job of inserting shoes between their bicuspids in this election cycle. Aiken and Mourdock had their rape comments. For Romney, it was the comical combination of Big Birg, binders, and bayonets. These guys need some massive coaching on how to answer questions without coming across as medieval popes, insane hockey moms, or pompous windbags. I have worked with pompous windbags as an AcDec coach, and there are ways to help those guys not come across as such.

Both sides did a potent job of pandering and negative campaigning. The Democrats simply did a better job of not angering women, terrifying minorities, and sounding like arrogant ideologues. It doesn’t matter what a candidate is, deep down inside. It’s the appearance that counts, and the Democrats’ candidates made for better appearances.

Paralysis and Shock

When nations arrive at a state of paralysis, they do not recover their former resilience. Instead, they endure shocks that produce undemocratic or hyperdemocratic results.

China, Russia, and Cambodia went Communist. They lacked a developed industrial base, so peasant uprisings behind Communist vanguards succeeded in taking over the apparatus of state. Russia later endured a second paralysis after its Communist period and went Fascist under Putin – after fracturing into 15 nations. China is enduring paralysis right now, but I cannot determine if it will go Fascist or break apart into smaller units. I should note that Communism is not an option for a developed nation. The big threat to developed democratic and liberal ideals are national dissolutions or fascist movements. India has a decent shot at going Communist because of its massive rural population. China, too, could have a second Communist revolution. Russia won’t be going back to Communism: it’s too industrialized.

Mexico in 1910 went in a leftist direction, not entirely Communist. In the 1990s, paralysis gave Mexico a rightward shift that was incomplete: drug lords have now fractured the Mexican state.

Weimar Germany, postwar Italy, and 1930s Spain endured paralysis that produced fascist states.

Yugoslavia’s paralysis produced a fractured state, as did Czechoslovakia.

Iran’s paralysis under the Shah led to a fascist-religious state under the Ayatollahs. It is enduring another round of paralysis. Arab states emerging from recent revolutions are also leaning towards fascist-religious states after paralyzing secular fascism. Syria is fractured and Lebanon perennially fractures under the stress of paralysis.

Japan’s paralysis in the 1930s gave them militaristic fascism. They are also enduring another phase of paralysis.

European nations and the USA are also in paralysis, to one degree or another. Spain and Italy look set to fly apart: Greece is capable of anything. Other nations’ situations are developing.

So, whither the USA? Fascism or dissolution? I think the lessons of 1861-1865 are clear and that dissolution is not a viable scenario, except in the case of an extreme sequence of events. Fascism is already nascent, with interest groups exerting influence on both the major parties favorable towards a fascist setup. The Tea Party is a vanguard of American fascism – it truly is, even though not all Tea Party supporters are fascists – and the rest of the Republicans are impotent in opposing their influence. By turn, the radical elements in the GOP produce a more radicalized Democrat party, which compounds the paralysis of government.

That paralysis is ultimately to the benefit only of Fascist movements.

Another Shame on the GOP

40 Republican senators blocked the passage of a bill that would have given job training benefits to veterans. The bill would have cost $1 billion over five years to help those that put their lives at risk for the benefit of Koch Industries, Bechtel, Halliburton, ExxonMobil, Chevron, and other great über-rich American corporations.

How can only 40 senators block a bill, when it takes 51 to vote it down? Easy. They threaten a filibuster. It takes 61 votes to halt a filibuster, and 100-40=60. The same Republicans that will go ape if one so much as points a finger at a defense cut decided a mere billion dollars over five years is too much for the people that have done their duty.

Disgusting. These Republicans are War Pigs, to borrow a line from Black Sabbath. Here are the names of the War Pigs, the men that worship the God of War, but desecrate the soldiers returning home:
Alexander (R-TN)
Ayotte (R-NH)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Blunt (R-MO)
Boozman (R-AR)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coats (R-IN)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Enzi (R-WY)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johanns (R-NE)
Johnson (R-WI)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Lee (R-UT)
Lugar (R-IN)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Moran (R-KS)
Paul (R-KY)
Portman (R-OH)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rubio (R-FL)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Thune (R-SD)
Toomey (R-PA)
Vitter (R-LA)
Wicker (R-MS)

Only two had to switch their vote for cloture, and the bill would have passed. Their protests that it would not have worked are asinine. The bill itself was revenue-neutral. The GOP Senate leadership ran away from reporters wanting answers about this. Cowards. Ungrateful, slimy, reprobate COWARDS. They can’t stand up to banks or major defense contractors, but it’s easy for them to crush a few little veterans, coming home from wars they voted for.

No wonder Colin Powell endorsed Obama. General Powell cares about the veterans.

And if any Republican wants to step up and try to defend his party’s stance on veterans, feel free to do so, but I’m going to revile you if you try and defend outright moral cowardice. You’ve got freedom of speech, and so do I. Don’t try and offer some bland qualification for the bill: that’s party spew, and you know it. The truth is simple: There is a Gang of Forty Thieves in the GOP senate caucus, and they’ve stolen from our soldiers. Shame on them and shame on those who stand with them and shame on those who buy their votes.

The Handmaiden’s Candidates

First, there was that GOP guy in Missouri with his “legitimate rape” thinking. Now there’s a GOP guy in Indiana with “it’s something God intended.” One guy might – might – be an isolated incident. Two guys start to form a pattern.

Little quips about Big Bird, binders, and bayonets are par for the course in politics. Trying to find some way to justify rapes, no matter how finely worded those justifications may be, are beyond the pale. Here in North Texas, a state race is hinging on how one candidate rejected legislation that would increase prosecution against rapists. Guess what party he’s a member of? Like I said, a pattern.

This is not a time for GOP people to react with indignation that all Republicans are being tarred with the same brush. This is a time for the GOP to put its house in order. Romney still presents a sane view on rape: he’s against it and he does not oppose abortion in the case of rape. He won’t win Democrat votes with that stance, but at least he won’t turn the USA into a bizarre theocracy with his views.

I find it ironic that the people most likely to fling poo at Romney for being “part of a cult” are also those most likely to themselves be part of a misogynistic cult that has hijacked a good part of the Republican party. There are crazed demagogues in the Democrat party, but at least they hold the view that women are equal to men as far as rights and liberties go. The GOP used to be a party that tried to claim that it was tough on crime. A fine stance, in my view.

But being tough on crime except rape? Unacceptable to me and any other sane person, in or out of the GOP.

Debate a Blahfest

There were no surprises in the debate last night. There were no slip-ups, no gaffes, and no real zingers. I sat through the whole thing last night and the only memorable moments were when Jim Lehrer sounded like he wanted a killswitch for the microphones as both candidates went long on their time. Here’s a sample of what I remember:

Lehrer: President Obama, tell us about your economic plan.

Obama: First let me say blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah jobs blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

Lehrer: Governor Romney, what is your response?

Romney My plan is to blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah jobs blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

Lehrer: Oh mercy sakes please make them stop.

I know they established that they were different in their policies. No surprise. I know that the differences were minor, at best. Also no surprise. I know that Romney said he’d go after the “Too Big to Fail” banks and I laughed hard. I know that Obama defended his economic plan and I cried a little on the inside.

Here’s the problem: Medicare. Here’s how to fix it: gut it or cut it way back. We can’t afford it in its current state. If the government is going to provide health care to people, it’s going to have to limit it. It can’t be unlimited. Romney claimed the middle class is gettin’ crushed, but then did an about-face and said they could afford health insurance. That’s flat-out ignorant. Obama was saying his horribly convoluted plan would work. Also, flat-out ignorant.

Romney kept claiming he would be fiscally responsible, but offered no cuts in any of the areas that make up the majority of federal spending: social security, medicare, military, and treasury support of those TBTF banks. Obama said he’d make cuts in the military and that somehow the others would be fine.

BOTH of these guys have no real plan to deal with the next pending financial crisis. The global economy is going to go through some convulsions. There is going to be a massive wave of Marxism in the wake of a financial sector crisis. Workers in critical industries, trucking and mining in particular, know that they can hold nations hostage. They will strike, and they will win. They can’t be easily replaced, so their demands must be met or the nations will grind to a halt. South Africa is experiencing a wave of strikes in critical industries right now. We could be next.

What would *my* plan be? Take a page from Otto von Bismarck’s playbook and institute socialism on conservative terms before it is instituted on radical terms. Blood and iron, baby, blood and iron.

Katrina Aid and Racism

So Fox News decided to re-air an old video of Obama making an accusation that the aid in the wake of Katrina may have been tainted by racism. I think he has a valid point. Areas of public housing that were untouched by floods got condemned… and they just so happened to be on prime property between the commercial sector and Bourbon Street. Watch all of Greg Palast’s “From Big Easy to Big Empty” for all kinds of details in that regard. Palast does his homework right, and the story he uncovers is shocking and disgusting. Full video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bkpv6rpJEI8&feature=relmfu

The refineries got saved, all right – and Greg Palast got fined for filming the refinery for his documentary under the PATRIOT Act – and so did the downtown areas. The aid for the poor blacks of New Orleans, though, did not rebuild their homes. It did not rebuild their lives. They got stuck in concentration camps with daily trips to a nearby Wal-Mart, and little else.

And why was Katrina such a disaster? Let me steal a bit of the thunder from that Palast report to say that the person that tossed the LSU evacuation plan aside and put in her own total lack of a plan was a major Bush campaign donor. She had zero experience in emergency response planning, but she wrote a big check to Bush and that was good enough. In return, she got a $500,000 contract to sit on her thumbs and hope no hurricane happened. That’s a real good return on investment, by the way… And after her gross criminal negligence that resulted in people having to watch the water go past their noses… that resulted in preventable deaths of fellow Americans… she faced zero criminal charges. In fact, she wrote another check and got another $500,000 government contract: to investigate her own negligence.

Bush had a history of helping his cronies duck responsibility. This is one of those stories. If those poor blacks voted Republican, they wouldn’t have drowned in a Bush administration, I can guarantee you that much.

Two More Years of Gridlock, At Least…

This goes for either guy because, let’s face it, if Romney were running on what he really believes, he’d split the Democrat vote and all the GOP base would stay home in a funk. No matter who wins in November, the President is going to be in for a tough time, come January.

It looks like the GOP will get a majority in both the House and Senate. Before anyone of the elephantine persuasion starts dancing on tables, look at that Senate number again. The GOP won’t have 60 votes. That means the Democrats can block everything they want to block, just like the Republicans did in this session of Congress. If Romney wins and tries to pass stuff that his party wants, it won’t clear the Senate. If Romney or Obama win and try to pass things close to their hearts, that stuff won’t make it out of the House alive, let alone the Senate.

We look set to have another two years of kicking the can down the road, at least. Hate to disappoint, but them’s the facts as I see ’em.