John Stewart's Closing Remarks at the Rally To Restore Sanity

At this incredible rally, on October 30, 2010, I believe over 200,000 of America's sane people decided to make the journey, as I did, to attend this beautiful happening. Under a blue sky, on that fantastic day, people came to be in the moment of sanity, peace, fun, and more.

I believe the crowd was closer to 400,000 plus people. It was a sea to shining sea of human beings wanting so deeply to participate in a moment of sanity, and a vision of something better than what they believe currently exists.

The GOP Tea Party Whore, Psychpathetics, and Hypocrites

A Backward Movement of Regressive Delusional Corporatists.

Barack Obama Channels Mr. Wilson- Dennis’ Man Toy

What has happened to Barack Obama? What has happened to the Democratic Party? The Regressive Republicans have moved in with their Trojan Horse rolling up to the front gates of Congress. Finally, Barack has noticed! They have loaded it up with Kool-Aid sipping Tea Party voters, who appear to feel that the Koch Brothers, The Dick Armey army of lobby money, and Rupert Murdoch are just simple grassroots folk.

It seems as the election race closes in, the Democrats running against the vacuous types, such as Angle, Miller, Paul, McDonnell, and Toomey, as well as a slew of other hollow headed humbug humanoids, who believe that YOUR Social Security should have been privatized, are trying to wheel out the Keep Government Out Of My Medicare types to the polls for early voting. Former Nitwit President LilBoy Bush has come out of his dark dank hole filled with rodent feces to say out loud that his only regret was that he did not privatize Social Security, which would have slipped down into the Black Hole of financial losses had he done so during his horrendous presidency.

No regret for failing to accept the Clinton documents warning of a possible 9/11 attack, or starting two wars costing us $2T, or for allowing fraud to run wild through the financial mortgage sector, or for selling America to China, along with the jobs. No regrets. No tears good-bye.

The Kool-Aid sipping opportunistic Regressive Republican candidates running for Congress also want to cut Medicare, Medicaid, wages, benefits and taxes for the richest among us, who have significantly benefited from the upward siphoning of America’s wealth savings and debt production.

This eruption of opposition has occurred because of Barack Obama, and not in spite of him. Yes, he did cut taxes for working Americans, which included a withholding tax reduction found in the stimulus bill. He did prevent the massive sucking sound of job losses to become even louder and more pronounced as a result of the stimulus bill by funding a nationwide infrastructure repair and reconstruction program that had a significant multiplier effect. He did help families with unemployed high school graduates, and college students and post college students to remain on their parent’s health care insurance policy just in case they need it, until they reach age 26. He did make sure that if one has a pre-existing medical condition, they would not have to face the insurance company’s guillotine Death Panels.  He did reduce the number of soldiers in Iraq, although grew the number in Afghanistan.

The sad piece of all this is that Barack has finally decided to wake up from his Willie Wonka chocolate high.

On the Regressiveantidote.com site, the piece titled  “The Rickey Ray Rector President” was chock full of great lines and viewpoints. Here is a quote made by David Axelrod from the piece. “Cynthia Tucker writes that, “In an interview last week in his West Wing office, David Axelrod, one of Obama’s closest advisers, acknowledged that the administration had been surprised by the unified Republican resistance to the president’s agenda. ‘We had the idea that, particularly in a time of national crisis, there would be more of an inclination to work together. Well, I think we miscalculated,’ Axelrod said.”

That has to be one of the sorriest observations by a presidential advisor I have ever heard!! It sounded like something Dennis the Menace would say after mind-fucking with Mr. Wilson and then, misjudging the old guy’s wig flipping anger unloading on Dennis after figuring out it was that sweet blond goofball who did it to him-AGAIN! Fool me once, shame—shame on you; fool me twice, then uh, shame on me. Didn’t we hear that from another clueless menace?

Hey David, what we have are a pack of wolves that killed all but a few of the middle class chicken flocks, and now have decided to toy with the few remaining before killing them as soon as they get elected.

David, from where I sit as a progressive liberal, and am not ashamed to tag myself as one, Barack Obama came to office listening to those elites behind the curtain. The corporate elite plutocrats handed him the presidential ticket-to-ride and then told him he could get on the Magic Bus, or did he say, ‘Finally, I get a ride on the Polar Express to Santa’s house. Oh boy. Can I pick out some new toys?’

It was like Barack got to go on a field trip to Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory and have all the sweet stuff he ever wanted.

After he took office, the nation was suffering from the most dramatic national security crisis most of us have ever seen, yet he got all dressed up and went steppin’ out on the town. It was then that I realized he did not really understand the magnitude of the crisis, what you might call a Harry Truman Moment, which was what many of us out here in the real world had already figured out—that this economic collapse was no small potatoes. It was big. Really big. So big that massive foreclosures would begin to roll in like an ocean tsunami, and the dollar would find a new home down at the bottom of the stinky dry well. So big that the Too Big To Fail banksta predatory syndicate would continue to steal the nation’s wealth and hoard it, along with taking it to Wall Street’s international casino gambling arenas speculating on more currencies, real estate, foreign infrastructures, land, stocks, bonds, securities, and more. None of it was used to loosen up our frozen credit markets to get the our collapsing economy moving again.

Barack was drinking too many beers, and shooting too many hoops, while the wolves were out desperately trying to prove that Barack was a Muslim born in Kenya to aliens never becoming a US citizen; therefore impeachable meat. ‘Hey bartender, pour me another round while I shoot the shit with da’ Axel parked over here.’

All the while, the largest banking syndicate operators were pawning off worth-less mortgages to the Juice Man at the Fed—Bada Bing Bernanke—swapping the garbage for new bills to play with.

All the while, the Tea Party was revving up, and the Koch Bros, and Roo-Pert Murdoch were bankrolling the Kool-Aid drinking sloths ready to cast a vote for Christine O’Donnell and the other pinheads running as Regressives believing economic austerity was as good as Tylenol for what ails ya.

All the while, the dollar was finding new lows, 70% of all trades were being done by computers manipulating the shit out of the market; and, working class savers were getting killed with near zero interest rates on their cash stashes; and, private sector jobs needed stimulus to get going, since the Treasury and Federal Reserve gave it all to the private financial sector. Now, Bada Bing is getting ready for QE2, which will allow the banksta syndicate to pawn off more mortgaged backed worth-less crap they have been holding or recently purchased knowing that the Fed will swap it for a good price and a new pile of $500 Billion dollar bills for a big night on the town.

All the while, the largest bankstas, who crashed the economy with bogus mortgage backed securities, were buying up working class America’s delinquent tax bills through shadow LLCs they created in order to suck up huge fees from foreclosing and near foreclosing financially squeezed and down-on-their-luck homeowners who were demanding that the bankstas show up with the notarized mortgage paperwork at the foreclosure hearings.

All the while, the Regressive Republicans were doing everything they could to keep working people from getting the most out of health care reform and financial reform.

All the while, Barack Obama, himself, took the public option out of the mix because he made a sweet deal with the health care predators.

All the while, the Gulf of Mexico was filling up with oil, methane gas, and Corexit as the president and family hobnobbed around looking for fun things to do.

All the while, we continue to risk the lives of US soldiers and civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan not because they hate our freedoms, as misstated over and over again by LilBoyBush and his Regressive minions, but because we continue to occupy Islamic soil in spite of the fact that there is no functioning government in either nation.

All the while, the nation’s working classes really had no idea of all the positive things that were being done for them. But it didn’t matter because the Polar Express ride was too much fun.

Now, if the Democrats lose some power and the Regressives have a stronger hand in Congress, they will have to put up their promised regressive agenda, or shut up.

This coming election and forthcoming two years will result in stagnation, commodity inflation, dollar/asset deflation, and a trade and currency war.

Maybe the Polar Express ride IS a better choice.

This is not what we hoped for, Barack.

Thanks for reading, jerry

http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com

The United States Is Its Own Worst Enemy!

We have a congressional con-job moving full speed ahead in Washington. Both Democrats and Republicans appear to have ganged up against China’s currency policy. Nancy Pelosi and others are suggesting that China needs to revalue their currency and curtail pegging the Renminbi to the dollar, and instead, float their currency based upon the open market value. Also, we are hearing the war drum beaten for a tariff policy.

Pelosi implied with little proof that if China does the currency readjustment, and tariffs are instituted, then the United States will, once again, resume its growth in jobs and America will become an industrial giant as it had been before trickle down and supply-side economics was brought to us by the neoliberals behind the Project for A New American Century.

What is going on in congress, and the White House is a complete avoidance of reality. They want to blame China instead of blaming the way the US has managed its monetary policies, and permitted the corporate sector predators to sell US jobs to the lowest bidder.

Just think about it.

Over the last 30 plus years, the corporate predatory multi-nationals have decided that the American worker was being paid too much, their benefits too high, and the unions, which raised all wages in the country due to their collective bargaining policies, were too powerful.

At the same time, the executive management decided that to invest in more efficient facilities would commit those companies to remain in the country when China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Micronesia, Taiwan and elsewhere looked better because of rock bottom wages, no unions, and no benefit demands.

By shipping jobs overseas, the American worker would have to settle for lower paying jobs, as a whole, and if they were to maintain their previous standard-of-living, they would have to join the heavily indebted culture borrowing from their homes, and using credit cards more often floating minimum balances sinking further into serfdom.

Because congress and the guard changing presidents all serving the corporate masters who dictated the rules were embedded in the neoliberal policy dictates of the corporate giant predators who built new industrial empires in Asia growing those foreign national GDPs and standards-of-living, while those two economic indicators began to shrink in America.

In order for China to sell their exports cheaply at the company store—Walmart—they pegged their currency to the US dollar. This made sense to any foreign country that was playing host to numerous US corporations. This policy served the economic export needs of the US corporations reaping the benefits of a massive and cheap labor force overseas. Many foreign government officials got rich over this relocation by the corporate elite creating a dislocation right here in the US.

As a result of the United States swamped with cheap Asian exports being shelved across the malls of America, shoppers bought their stuff with dollars, obviously. Those dollars were then sent back to Asia, especially China. Trillions of dollars piled up in pockets of the Chinese. With those dollars, China ended up coming back to the US by purchasing treasury bonds and bills. Thus far, China owns around $850 billion worth of treasuries down from around $2 trillion. They have become our lender, and we the borrower. They are the creditor, and we are the debtor. China sold off a big portion of US treasuries in order to purchase other investments, such as gold, and other precious metals, as well as commodities, foreign currencies, and securities, as well as brick and mortar companies, whenever possible. But when it is time to pay back China when they decide to  sell off more of our treasuries, we have to pay up the initial principal, as well as the interest due because it is very likely that Ben Bernanke will try and mop up whatever they decide to sell off. That process facilitates more Quantitative Easing.

When China buys interest bearing US investments, the issuer, the US treasury, must then pay the interest when the investment comes due, as well as the principal. And because the US manufacturing sector has slipped to 11% of GDP, the country no longer has a growing GDP in relation to its own debt. And because the unemployment rate continues to be a massive drag upon the economy (25+ million un-under employed, and no longer looking), the tax revenues shrink. The government has had to pay out huge payments in unemployment compensation, child health care programs, Food Stamps, and other benefits.

As a result of the loss of sustainable industrial jobs being replaced by the growth in jobs inside the financial crime syndicate network, which is really the ultimate cause of this economic collapse, we need to be concerned when we flex our muscles in regards to trade and currency battles. The Federal Reserve, the crime syndicate’s personal printing press facility, is where the process of Quantitative Easing all began. Essentially, this was Ben Bernanke printing money to be lent out to the banksta crowd, through the various Fed Fund programs, at near zero percent interest. As Bernanke prints money through his Quantitative Easing program, the value of the dollar typically shrinks. This reinforces dis-flation (the process of reaching deflation).

Just today (10-5-10) we saw Japan lower its currency value, and the stock market climb and hold nearly 200 points on the DOW, yet, at the same time, oil climbed and the dollar dropped in value. Good times for those in the market today, but bad for those sitting out or unable to play with the big boy’z high frequency computer trades, which make up most of the trades.

This policy allowed the bankstas to lend this cheap money at 2-3% interest to the corporate investors as they spent it overseas, in China, and elsewhere, building more factories, call centers, research facilities, laboratories, buildings and more, instead of spending it in the United States rebuilding the country, which they destroyed in the first place.

With the process of Quantitative Easing, compounded interest is always having to be paid out by the Fed and Treasury because the bankstas also lend money back to the government at the 2-3% interest rate allowing them to make money just by borrowing from the Fed and turning it around selling the government’s money back to the government. Now that is crazy!

My question is why is Pelosi, Obama and others in congress wetting their panties because China is trying to protect their economic surplus and industrial empire created by the US government?

When we have a government policy that was designed to solely enrich the richest people in the country by printing money so they can use it to make more money while destroying the very economic fabric of the nation sinking all of us into a national security crisis, then we have to tell them that it is THEIR fault, and not necessarily China’s fault, which is out to protect their own interests as we had done after World War II and beyond until the late 1970s and early 1980s, and continuing on to present day.

Pelosi, Obama, and Congress don’t seem to say that the small desired increase in value of the Renminbi would not really change a whole heck of a lot for most of us. It has been reported that the Renminbi is around 25% deflated, but they have raised its value around that same amount over the last few years. The United States will likely not find itself in a rapid GDP growth spurt if China floats its currency. What might actually happen is a continuation of a treasuries sell-off, whereby more principal and compounded interest will have to be paid out increasing our debt levels.

The US has done all it could, that is Ben Bernanke, President Obama, along with his economic advisors, and Congress, to keep the dollar’s value low in hopes to sell more exports, but the fact is that this now becomes a worldwide race to the currency-devaluation bottom. No country wants to be sitting on an inflated currency. When that happens, their exports begin to cost more. What a country will end up doing is to sell off more of its own currency to lower its value, and then a competing nation will do the same. As this happens, wages get dragged down, but other work place costs, more than likely, get inflated, such as medical insurance co-pays, insurance contributions, etc.

Tariffs could help, since China places tariffs on their imports. But there is a danger when a nation, such as the US, which makes and exports very little and has to import most of its raw materials, engages in a trade war. China realizes that they are a growing nation with lots of workers willing to do it on the cheap, and with lots of raw materials stockpiled, too. They understand that they have a population that might be able to absorb the products they make. China might just begin to further disengage from the US consumer, who has already tightened their spending belts. You might say this would be a protectionist policy battle. But, the US would be placing tariffs on US corporate interests, in China, selling their stuff back to the Walmart shopper.

Whatever ridiculous policy comes out of Washington, it will only resemble a Halloween gag gift.

Pelosi, Obama and the rest of the congressional clowns are not really talking REAL CHANGE, such as the mandatory creation of state banks, which would be able to borrow from the Fed directly capturing the near zero percent interest rates that could be turned into loans that could begin to rebuild the US manufacturing industry, while competing with private sector banks which are hoarding their Fed issued cash. Of course, since it has been damaged so badly over the last 30 plus years, it might take a few more to begin to show signs of a come back.

In addition, revamping the tax structure so industry and labor are no longer taxed, but insurance, finance and real estate “rentiers” (A term Professor Michael Hudson uses to identify someone whose income is from property rents or bond interest and other investments) would be at full value. By placing the taxing structure on real estate, Professor Hudson believes that property values would be kept at modest levels where they belong. It would control the speculator who inflates property values due to low interest rates. It would allow workers to spend a reasonable percentage of their pay on their mortgage not like today. Property values would no longer bubble up. Workers would be able to afford affordably priced homes.

We don’t hear lawmakers lifting the cap on Social Security contributions, either. If the cap were to be lifted, then all wages would have Social Security contributions taken out filling the pot back up.

There is so much that needs to be done to fix our economy, but little is actually making a significant difference. All we hear now from the regressive Republican party and their dimwitted offspring-the Tea Party candidates, is that minimum wages are no good, and tax cuts for the rich are required, and budget cuts across the board must occur, except in defense, Social Security, and Medicare. But all else is fair game.

It appears the party of NO will bring about stagnation for two more years, assisted by the cowardly Democrats not willing to stand up for the average American.

Thanks for reading, jerry

http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com 

The Coming of QE2

$1 Quadrillion in Leverage!

The Coming Big Bank Collapses

A Stock Market Flag Has Been Dropped                                 

What is Progressive Liberalism?

Mr. Spectre, this blog’s most regular commenter stated that he wasn’t sure exactly what is considered liberal, or being liberal, in government today, since I have been saying what has been recently called liberal is not, in my opinion, close to being liberal. It is clear that Mr. Spectre despises both Democrats and Republicans, since as a body of representatives they have led us down into a death spiral toward hell. (I hope I have not misinterpreted his viewpoint. But I think I have it right.)

He also stated in one of his comments that if one regularly votes for a Democrat, then they must be liberal. I would answer by saying that in many cases, that assumption could be true, while in other cases, the person who consistently votes for a Democrat might actually believe that that particular candidate is more aligned with his/her political objectives than the Republican candidate in the race. As we have witnessed over the last 30 years, Republicans have migrated more to their right-wing extremist side, than Democrats migrating over to the progressive-liberal side.

An argument can be made that because Republicans have had an easier time raising corporate-financial-real estate-insurance-defense contractor dollars, that in order to compete in elections Democrats also had to woo such campaign funders just to stay in a political race, since we now see that to win elections it takes millions of dollars, or, in other words, out spend the opposition.

It is unfortunate that political races often begin 12 or more months prior to a primary and the candidate with truckloads of cash can use the broadcast media to lie, distort, and manipulate the viewer into believing the opposition candidate is part of the devil’s board of directors.

Mr. Spectre has called Barney Frank, and Paul Krugman liberals. One reason why he has disdain for Mr. Krugman is because this world renown economist once called for a housing bubble but was actually quoting another in order to further make a point, which he was allegedly in agreement with.

This is the quote taken from “Krugman’s Rearguard Apologists” (Mises.org/daily/3539):

“A few months ago the vast majority of business economists mocked concerns about a ''double dip,'' a second leg to the downturn. But there were a few dogged iconoclasts out there, most notably Stephen Roach at Morgan Stanley. As I've repeatedly said in this column, the arguments of the double-dippers made a lot of sense. And their story now looks more plausible than ever.

The basic point is that the recession of 2001 wasn't a typical postwar slump, brought on when an inflation-fighting Fed raises interest rates and easily ended by a snapback in housing and consumer spending when the Fed brings rates back down again. This was a prewar-style recession, a morning after brought on by irrational exuberance. To fight this recession the Fed needs more than a snapback; it needs soaring household spending to offset moribund business investment. And to do that, as Paul McCulley of Pimco put it, Alan Greenspan needs to create a housing bubble to replace the Nasdaq bubble. [Emphasis added.]”

Krugman added:

“Judging by Mr. Greenspan's remarkably cheerful recent testimony, he still thinks he can pull that off. But the Fed chairman's crystal ball has been cloudy lately; remember how he urged Congress to cut taxes to head off the risk of excessive budget surpluses? And a sober look at recent data is not encouraging. Despite the bad news, most commentators, like Mr. Greenspan, remain optimistic. But wishful thinking aside, I just don't understand the grounds for optimism. Who, exactly, is about to start spending a lot more? [Emphasis added.]”

The author of the above piece, J. Grayson Lilburne, wrote in response to Krugman’s written opinion: “He was clearly characterizing a housing bubble as an object of optimism, whether or not he thought it was possible. In other words, at best, Krugman could be interpreted as saying that it would be great if Greenspan could pull off a housing bubble, but that he, Krugman, doubts whether he'll be able to accomplish such a worthy feat.”

No doubt, such a Keynesian belief could be seen by many as one of Krugman’s biggest errors in judgement, since bubbling the housing market brought the biggest collapse in my lifetime and the destruction of $8 trillion in personal housing wealth for those hoping their homes, as their asset, would help them in their retirement years.

I would not call this statement by Krugman, who is typically considered a liberal thinking economist, a policy decision supported by progressive liberals, who basically believe that monetary policy should be directed toward rebuilding sustainable employment, and not the unsustainable stimulation of financial bubble economics.

To make a point about Keynes, it was his belief that during times of economic prosperity, government builds an economic surplus, and when times turn sour, that surplus is used to rebuild the economy by creating stimulus.

Now, his other question was is Barney Frank a liberal? I would have to say no. At times, he wears liberal socks but his outfit is that of neo-liberalism. Frank made his fortune from real estate, the very investment that bubbled us into the economic abyss. He has supported liberal causes and legislation, but fell short in principle, by accepting a mediocre health care bill that should have demanded, at least, a public option, and the other, a financial reform bill that lacked the legs to prevent naked selling of all types, the further growth of too-big-to-fail kleptocrats from destroy the economy in the future, limiting excessive leveraging, abandoned the reinstatement of Glass-Steagall, as well as the growth of  “monopolistic oligarchies”. Compromise should not have been accepted because now, what we have is all we will get until the next big thing hits the economic fan.

Professor Michael Hudson said in an address given to the Council of Economic Advisors to the President of Brazil just a week or so ago, “ [N]eoliberal ideology holds that the most efficient path to wealth is to shift economic planning out of the hands of government [and] into those of bankers and money managers in charge of privatizing and financializing the economy. Almost without anyone noticing, this view is replacing the classical law of nations based on the idea of sovereignty over debt and financial policy, tariff and tax policy. Ideology itself has become an economic weapon. Indebted governments have been told since 1980 to sell off their infrastructure to foreign investors. Extractive “tollbooth” charges (economic rent) replace moderate or subsidized public user fees, making economies less competitive and painting them even more into a debt corner as the surplus is transferred abroad, largely tax-free.” He went on to say, “Bankers in the North look upon any economic surplus….as a source of revenue to pay interest on debts. The result is a more debt-leveraged economy---in all countries. Foreign investment, bank lending, the privatization of public infrastructure and currency speculation is now viewed from the bankers’-eye perspective.”

Progressive liberals see such policy and practices as anti-labor, anti-American, anti-productive, and anti-community. They see what Dr. Hudson described as regressive pushing against what should be progressive. I would have to say that Republicans have championed this regressive policy, and now, the TeaBaggers have decided to continue it while dodging the questioning about what exactly defines their individual positions if they are elected into the Congress, instead of painting their views with a very broad brush, such as repealing the “takeover of health care by the government”, continuing with the Bush Tax Cuts, and cutting back on government spending, as we fight two wars, cut taxes and push working Americans into regressive austerity lifestyles. It appears that most of the TeaBagging GOPsters are full blown corporatists.

It is my belief, as a progressive liberal, that many people who feel as I do believe that the two wars have seriously drained our economic resources, as well as horribly affected the lives of thousands, if not millions, of Americans. As we have learned, Afghanistan and Iraq are not really going away. I have never heard of a partial pullout of anything! Either you are in or you are out. Halfway is not real. We are still in Iraq in spite of President Obama declaring ‘the Iraq war is over’, as 30,000 US soldiers remain and the insurgency bombs on. We need to stop the funding for this economic war stimulus package. To continue to fight the al-Qaeda boogiemen, while telling Americans to still be afraid for a bit longer just doesn’t cut it anymore. When you hear Afghanis saying they would rather have the Taliban in power than to have what the US has created under Karzi is eye opening.

Oil has continued to be harder to extract from the Earth, yet this administration, and especially the GOPsters have avoided telling the American people the truth. There will be a diminished economic return when considering the cost of extraction versus the pump price. It will eventually cost more to extract the crude than what the consumer would be willing, or be able, to pay. Progressive liberals believe in an energy tax, especially on carbon producers, to subsidize the development of alternative and sustainable anti-war energy development and production.

This should be “job-one”! In addition, a massive effort to turn down the thermostat, turn off the lights, and reduce individual energy consumption and waste must be preached to all Americans by all our representatives and energy producers.

I, for one, believe that the Federal Reserve should be nationalized and made 100% transparent. Bernanke, along with Paulson and Geithner, should be indicted for manipulating Congress into issuing a TARP bailout under threat that the commercial paper market would go silent if they failed to pass out the $700B to the largest banksta criminal-types who destroyed this economy in the first place. No contingencies or rules or regulations were attached to the free money. The bankstas did with it as they pleased, such as Goldman Sachs redeeming its AIG losses by collecting 100 cents on the dollar, and paying out huge bonuses and salary increases, along with fattened expense account allocations. The taxpayers took on the losses, while the bankstas enjoyed the gains.

The truth was revealed hours later, after TARP was issued, that Bernanke printed money for the use in the commercial paper market, when he could have done it anytime before TARP was even brought to the table. He had the power to issue commercial paper at anytime during the crisis. Bernanke should be investigated and put on trial for fraud and collusion.

A full audit of the Fed should have been “job-#”.

The Federal debt is a problem but is more a long term problem than what others appear to make it. The two wars have been a huge drain on the debt. The total cost of the wars is in the trillions of dollars. It is my progressive liberal belief that the Banksta Bailout has contributed to the debt, since these corporate elites have taken trillions of Fed Funds and special window issued dollars (and in return left Bada Bing Bernanke with garbage mortgage-backed securities---a swap of cash for trash) and invested in foreign companies, boosting foreign GDP, and gambling on Wall Street, essentially manipulating the stock and bond markets using borrowed government issued money. All of this has affected our economy dearly.

What is needed, from where I sit, is to increase the tax on the highest income earners, who have financially made out like bandits from the economic collapse, as well as during the following two years as the nation has tried to climb out of it. The bankstas make money on the way up and on the way down. They robbed around $12 trillion in household wealth through their fraudulent practices and collusion; and, $8 trillion in home price values have been lost, too. They need to pay for it! The neo-liberal philosophy of trickle-down Reaganomics has failed horribly, as has been stated by its creator, David Stockman.

The Regressive Republicans want tax cuts for the rich, an anti-progressive decision, so they can find more trickle-down-into-campaign-contribution dollars deposited into their piggybanks. They say that small businesses need tax relief so they can hire and borrow to expand. Only non-progressive liberal Kool-Aid drinkers believe in such a game changing plan. Small businesses are spent out. They are holding on for dear life to keep their dwindling customer base alive.

The UPS driver I recently spoke with said that his household route deliveries are up over the last year. That is because customers have gone on the Internet to buy what they once purchased locally through retail stores. The engorged 70% of U.S. GDP, which came about through consumer spending, has evaporated.

I believe that it is all about jobs. “Jobs-one!” The regressive Republicans believe that it is all about tax cuts for small business, which is code for the largest corporations, which don’t need tax cuts, since many are swamped in cash. Most don’t pay taxes anyway, due to the generous tax codes, and the tax-free offshore tax havens.

What is needed is a huge paradigm shift away from finance, and war, to labor and production. We need to remove the taxation from labor and production, and shift it over to real estate, insurance and finance.

We need to create legislation that allows every state to form their own state bank, which would then be able to borrow at near zero percent from the Fed, as the bankstas have done. Those state banks could issue bonds, and swap the newly issued bank bonds for Fed funds. With those funds, they would be able to lend to domestic manufacturing. The newly created state banks would then compete in the marketplace along with private banks, which are hoarding trillions of dollars of taxpayer issued cash. The state bank’s open lending policy would force private banks to loosen up their non-lending policies and begin to lend, as well.

This would begin to put people back to work, pay wages, and boost the nation’s GDP. It would continue to push down the trade, and current account deficits. A Green, sustainable manufacturing initiative is what is progressive.

Just as a public option inserted into the health care bill and the law would have offered competition to the private sector health care industry, the creation of 49 more state banks would present competition to the private banking sector, but the regressives in Washington, from both parties, reject real competition. They are serving the needs of their corporate masters. (North Dakota already has a state bank.)

If the government, which spends billions on medical research funding, were to hold all the drug patents for a period of time, then the prices of drugs would drop because the pharmaceutical industry would only be manufacturing the drugs, since the public would already own the patents.  We could begin by owning all new drug patents. This would be a progressive action.  Currently, the price of drugs includes all the costs that have incurred through the price of big pharma drug reps, advertising, and all other sales promotions.

What progressive liberals ask is what should be held in the public domain, held as a public utility, and shared by all the people, and what should be allowed to remain in the private sector with tough rules and regulations, and for violators--prosecutions. Also, what is asked is just how big should a corporation be allowed to become? There should be size limits based upon profits/revenues. Is allowing Walmart to grow into the largest retail conglomerate in the nation good for the country? Should such a corporate giant be allowed to grow so big that they force themselves into communities that don’t want them for fear that the integrity of that community would be damaged? This is the too-big-to-fail question asked in regards to the mega-banks. It should also be asked in relation to international corporate giants that grow so large that they control governments, economies, and more.

Progressive liberals also ask, are we really living in a free market when high frequency computer trading becomes the dominant force when trades are being executed? It has become even more clear that HFT occurs after the market closes, and is used to manipulate the price of stocks along with front-loading, quote stuffing and fake executions. This procedure should be illegal. The so-called free market is filled with fraud, bogus accounting practices, and collusion. This has been rampant since Reagan took office, and had been embedded into the system because of regressive Republicans, and colluding Democrats, who wanted a piece of the prize that was dominated by Republicans.

I am sure I have left out other views that define what a progressive liberal happens to be. One other that comes to mind is we progressive liberals don’t accept torture, the spying on Americans without a search warrant, the destruction of Net-Neutrality, and the idea that the United States is a Christian Nation. Progressives expect the separation of church and state, and the purging of the Christian Taliban throughout government, within the military, and in all government departments.  In addition, we hope to see a fair immigration policy put into law. We also are fully aware that in the-not-so distant future, White people will be a minority in this country. That is a reality that makes the blood of TeaBaggers very cold and clammy. This knowledge of whites becoming a minority brings out their signs reading, “We want our country back.”

One other point that progressive liberals believe is that no public official should be allowed to skate away from criminal prosecution when they engage in law breaking actions. President Obama should have investigated the actions of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and Gonzales regarding the Iraq War and the manipulation of intelligence, which brought the nation to war without a declaration of war, the lack of action on intelligence presented to them by the outgoing Clinton administration that led to the 9-11 disaster, and the use of torture and rendition on Iraqis.

I believe I covered a great deal of ground that defines the beliefs of, at least, one progressive liberal, and possibly many, many others.

One final point, Americans are frightened and insecure over their future and the future of their children. They don’t trust anymore. They don’t believe their government officials have their best interests at heart. They believe that these officials serve the needs of the corporate elite. They grab at any candidate who makes promises to them, yet, from experience these promises often fizzle away. What is sad is how stupid many Americans have become, and often don’t know what they are angry at and channel it in the wrong direction and at the wrong people. Stupid people do stupid things!

Thanks for reading, jerry

http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com