The Occupy movement forced the media talking heads to take a break from their obsessive concern with a recession-induced budget deficit to acknowledge the devastating social effects of 30 years of rampant growth in inequality…The national debt, during this term of President Obama, is going to increase from the just over $10 trillion he inherited from President Bush to about $16.6 trillion by the time we reach January 2013 - roughly a 66% increase. We will be well within the range of the troubled Euro zone states - and the issue / cause for all of this remains, according to the DSA - capitalism?
But will this shift in political focus continue? Only if DSA activists and other progressives help Occupy sustain itself over the winter. Come late winter and early spring, the fight over proposed state and local budgets will reinvigorate the disastrous elite narrative that we must “cut” our way out of the recession.
Of course it is - because it can't have anything to do with the moral, ethical, and fiscal failures that is socialism.
Who are the Democratic Socialists of America?
DSA describes itself as "the principal U.S. affiliate of the Socialist International" and ranks as the largest socialist organization in the United States. “We are socialists," reads the organization's boilerplate, "because we reject an international economic order sustained by private profit, alienated labor, race and gender discrimination, environmental destruction, and brutality and violence in defense of the status quo.” "To achieve a more just society," adds DSA, "many structures of our government and economy must be radically transformed. ... Democracy and socialism go hand in hand. All over the world, wherever the idea of democracy has taken root, the vision of socialism has taken root as well—everywhere but in the United States."Assisting the DSA in their 'spring offensive'? Apparently bored with just union organizing, or admiring the government policies of the People's Republic of China, the SEIU is preparing to fully embrace thuggery...
Something questionable is going on when a state chapter of the Service Employees International Union advertises on the SEIU national website a "Lead Internal Organizer/Home Care (LiA)" position paying up to $65,000 a year for somebody with the following qualifications:I suppose we've just found some of the non-government jobs that the Obama Administration has created...$65K a year to be a union thug...
• Train and lead members in non-violent civil disobedience, such as occupying state buildings and banks, and peaceful resistance.
We're seeing elements of this thuggery with some of the more recent actions by the OccupyWallStreet - like the one in New York where they seized and trashed a man's home...the owner, a single father trying to refinance his mortgage...he went to the home to confront the 'occupiers' who had 'installed' a homeless family into his home...
“[OWS] told me not to talk to them [reporters] because they [OWS] had an offer for me,” he said.
At a second meeting after the press conference, however, organizers said they would not pay him for the house. At that point, he told them to leave.
Inside the house the walls are knocked down and all of his belongings, including a stove, refrigerator and bedroom furniture, have been moved to the basement...
As reported at the link - when investigated further, the homeless family didn't reside at the house and were only used for photo-ops / propaganda sessions demonstrating that the efforts of the Occupiers were nothing more than a scam.
Another scam that's commonplace is the hypocrisy from the left in their war on religion - in particular Christianity using the meme - separation of Church and State. Demonstrating that hypocrisy is the senior Obama advisor and hard left progressive Valerie Jarrett who took to the pulpit of an Atlanta church to deliver a political speech...
On the Sunday before the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett visited Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta to give a political speech, in support of her boss (Barack Obama) and congressional Democrats:Right after the political attack speech, the Church hosted a voter registration drive. Imagine the outcry if a Republican candidate or senior political advisor did the same - or if a Church held a voter registration drive for the GOP. It wouldn't take long for the cries to end that Church's IRS exemption.
“Teachers, and firefighters, and policemen, whose jobs are now in jeopardy because Congress–well let me be specific–because the Republicans in Congress,” Jarrett told the crowd. According to the CBS affiliate in Atlanta, at this point, “Before she could finish her sentence, people in the congregation were laughing, and applauding.”
Standing right with hypocrisy, the other main Democrat tactic these days is around the race card. Specifically, it includes pandering towards minorities. The ditzy Congresswoman and Democratic National Committee Chair, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz isn't even hiding the efforts to pander based on race - calling the Democrat Party the 'natural home' for minorities. She tries to highlight that the Democratic Party stands up for the issues that are important to them....like keeping them trapped in a cycle of dependency and creating basket case cities like Detroit, Buffalo, Newark, Bridgeport, and others.
There's quite a bit of buzz from last night's GOP Presidential Debate - on Newt Gingrich's performance, on the attacks on Mitt Romney, and if the attacks did sufficient damage to halt Romney's expansion of his lead in South Carolina. One aspect of the debate that is getting some play is the demand made by Rick Perry, and then echoed by the Wall Street Journal's moderators, that Mitt Romney commit to a specific date when he will release his tax returns.
It seems a little hypocritical from both to make that demand of Romney - yet be so silent over the refusal of President Obama to release his personal information and records from Occidental College, Columbia University, and the Harvard Law School.
The latest American Research Group poll from Florida shows that Mitt Romney is still expanding his lead - now polling at 42% compared to Newt Gingrich's 25%. None of the other 3 remaining candidates are in double digits - Rick Santorum is 3rd at 9%, Ron Paul at 8%, and Rick Perry only polling at 3%.
In breaking news, Fox is announcing that 5 more dead have found on board the Costa Concordia luxury liner, raising the death toll to 11. Prior to this announcement, officials revised upwards the list of the missing to 29 - 25 passengers and 4 crew. Italian divers and rescue workers are trying to complete their search of the partially sunken ship to find the missing. Concerns were also raised about the wreck yesterday as it shifted. It was also confirmed that the Captain was in one of the first lifeboats off the ship - and was confronted by authorities who requested that he return to his ship. Instead, the Captain grabbed a cab and left the area.
Saudi Arabia has announced that they are targeting $100 per barrel of crude oil as the 'ideal' price they wish to maintain in the world's markets. What are friends for...
Today, Greece's communist / socialist unions went on strike and launched demonstrations against the austerity measures being required for Greece to receive an EU bailout for their financial challenges.
Some 10,000 protesters took part in rallies in central Athens over potential pay cuts in the recession-battered private sector. Anti-austerity strikes in the capital disrupted public transport and other services. Journalist unions also launched a 48-hour strike.
With the Greek government unable to reach a deal on austerity programs or with private investors on the amount of their investment they will lose (some percentage above 50%) - the likelihood of a default seems even higher. Fitch is saying that Greece will default on their March 20 bond payment. Demonstrations aside - Greece is broke because it cannot afford the socialistic state the politicians enacted. Marching in the streets demanding more will not solve that problem.
Europe still refuses to face the economic realities that have resulted from the mismatch of their economic policies, social policies, and fiscal responsibility. Governments are not exempt from the rules of fiscal responsibility just for being governments. At some point, there is no more road to kick that can down...
The ability to bail out troubled countries was given another setback when S&P downgraded the European Financial Stability Fund from AAA to AA+. This will make it harder / more expensive to borrow the funds needed for the Euro zone bailouts.
Hungary and EU face major confrontation on Tuesday - Brussels is expected to formally warn Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban that it will take Hungary to the European Court of Justice unless his government voluntarily changes new laws that critics say undermine the independence of the country’s central bank. Hungary is in desperate need of a €15-20 billion bailout, but the EU and International Monetary Fund have said they won’t start talks on the bailout unless the laws are changed.
On This Day in History
1950 - 11 men steal $2.7 million from the Brinks Armored Car depot in Boston. They were not caught until 1956.
1966 - A USAF B52 strategic bomber and a KC135 tanker collided over Spain's Mediterranean coast killing 7 - and dropping 3 70 kiloton hydrogen bombs near a Spanish town and one into the Mediterranean. None of the devices were armed, but 2 of the devices did have explosives go off when they hit scattering nuclear material over Spanish fields.
1994 - The 6.7 Northridge earthquake struck the Los Angeles / San Fernando Valley / Santa Clarita Valley in the early morning hours killing 54 and causing around $20 billion in damage.
1994 - Paula Jones files a lawsuit against President Bill Clinton accusing the President of sexual harassment and asking for $700,000 in damages.
Wrapping up - is this a forerunner to the new US Navy after the Obama Administration defense cuts - re-purposing a $6 billion nuclear aircraft carrier to become a $6 billion car ferry?
These are shots of CVN-76, the USS Ronald Reagan, sailing to and entering Seattle / Bremerton en route to spending the next year in the shipyard there for maintenance, upgrades, and refurbishment. The crew of the Ronald Reagan will remain with the ship, so rather than the Navy requiring the crew / families to drive their cars from San Diego to Seattle (about 1.250 miles), they carried the cars of the crew on the flight deck saving them the wear and tear of the trip.
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