The GOP Economy - Bad News for Most of Us

With much of the world economy looking posed to fall back into recession, the GOP is hell bent to inflict more of the economic policy that has failed globally.  The outlook, if this happens, is not good for anyone except perhaps the ultra- wealthy who can weather the economic gloom.  Even more maddening is the refusal of the media to stop merely parroting GOP sound bites.  And then there's Obama and the Democrats timidity in placing blame where blame belongs: at the feet of the GOP.  Paul Krugman has a column in the New York Times that looks at the GOP's disingenuous con job and what it could mean for the future.  Here are highlights:

What should be done about the economy? Republicans claim to have the answer: slash spending and cut taxes. What they hope voters won’t notice is that that’s precisely the policy we’ve been following the past couple of years.

[T]he Republican electoral strategy is, in effect, a gigantic con game: it depends on convincing voters that the bad economy is the result of big-spending policies that President Obama hasn’t followed (in large part because the G.O.P. wouldn’t let him), and that our woes can be cured by pursuing more of the same policies that have already failed. 

For some reason, however, neither the press nor Mr. Obama’s political team has done a very good job of exposing the con.

What do I mean by saying that this is already a Republican economy? Look first at total government spending — federal, state and local. Adjusted for population growth and inflation, such spending has recently been falling at a rate not seen since the demobilization that followed the Korean War. 

Over all, the picture for America in 2012 bears a stunning resemblance to the great mistake of 1937, when F.D.R. prematurely slashed spending, sending the U.S. economy — which had actually been recovering fairly fast until that point — into the second leg of the Great Depression. .  .  .   .  responsibility for the policy wrong turn lies with a completely obstructionist Republican majority in the House. 

That same obstructionist House majority effectively blackmailed the president into continuing all the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, so that federal taxes as a share of G.D.P. are near historic lows — much lower, in particular, than at any point during Ronald Reagan’s presidency. 

Republicans have been warning that we were about to turn into Greece because President Obama was doing too much to boost the economy; Keynesian economists like myself warned that we were, on the contrary, at risk of turning into Japan because he was doing too little. And Japanification it is, except with a level of misery the Japanese never had to endure. 

So why don’t voters know any of this? 

Part of the answer is that far too much economic reporting is still of the he-said, she-said variety, with dueling quotes from hired guns on either side. But it’s also true that the Obama team has consistently failed to highlight Republican obstruction

At this point, however, Mr. Obama and his political team  .  .  .  .  Their best bet, surely, is to do a Harry Truman, to run against the “do-nothing” Republican Congress that has, in reality, blocked proposals — for tax cuts as well as more spending — that would have made 2012 a much better year than it’s turning out to be. 

[W]e have already seen the Republican economic future — and it doesn’t work. 

Religion and a Non-White American Future

For far too long the "public religion" if you will in the USA has focused on white conservative Christianity.  Now, with the USA headed towards becoming a minority white nation within a few decades, the "public religion" will be facing increased pressure to cease granting special rights and special deference top the white Christianist who have long sought to impose their religious beliefs on all of American society.  It is a pretty safe bet that these religious extremists who hold little but hatred and bigotry towards non-whites and anyone deemed "other" and that they will not peacefully and willingly give up their special status.  Indeed, it is more than likely that that increased hatred and acrimony will be the hallmarks of the process that ensues as the white Christianist ultimately assume minority status in America. Moreover, we can expect to see anything but "godly behavior" as the Christofascist struggle to hold on to their dwindling power.  A piece in Religion Dispatches looks at the coming conflict as the white Christofacsists slide to minority status.  I for one, have absolutely no sympathy for the white modern day Pharisees as they slide to a minority position that they have long deserved given how they have utterly perverted Christ's Gospel message.  Here are some article highlights:

The U.S. Census Bureau, never one to rush to judgment, has now made it official: fewer than 50% of the babies born in the United States during the year ending in July of last year were white.

That’s right: among the nursery set, certifiably white bundles of joy are now in the minority, and this trend is considered irreversible in view of the higher fertility rates among immigrant groups already living here and a virtual end to the in-migration of whites from abroad.

This observation implies that younger people of color might take counsel among themselves and decide that it’s not such a great idea to subsidize old white people. Myself, I think it’s much more likely that the old white people will use their undue political influence to squeeze more from those whom they were once pleased to refer to as “the minorities” (and other less polite terms).

Seeing the end in sight, conservative white Californians began more than three decades ago to implement a series of voter-enacted restrictions on the raising of any new taxes or fees.

Taken together, these restrictions created the ironclad supermajority requirements that now block the California legislature and all local elected bodies in this state from raising adequate revenue to support the education of kids who (surprise!) don’t look like “us” anymore. The effects of the revenue chokehold are plain to see: K-12 schools in California now rank at or near the bottom on various national scales, and California’s once-vaunted high-quality, low-cost public higher education system has been almost entirely trashed. 

 America’s most visionary spirits (e.g., Walt Whitman in “Democratic Vistas”) always expected the idea of American democracy and the idea of a new and blended population to lift people above any form of tribalism. Alas, this is not that kind of sane culture. Tribalism, especially white tribalism, still runs deep. And as religion has everything to do with this particular form of insanity, religion is where we should look, both to gauge the scope of the problem and to scan for possible pathways to sanity. 

The distinctly American hierarchical system, the comprehensive system of economic and social control that James Lawson tellingly refers to as “plantation capitalism,” has long been thoroughly bonded to a white supremacist ideology. Bad religion functions as the binding agent, sanctifying hierarchy and validating racial subordination. No one, then or now, seems to catch the irony of Christianity—a distinctly un-tribal religion in its origins—becoming a primary vector for raw white tribalism on American soil. 

  

[J]ust consider (if you please) the seamlessness lying within the old expression “white Christian nation.” When world-bestriding figures like Theodore Roosevelt spoke of “the nation” or “the national interest,” he did not need to spell out (although he often did) that he was referring to white Christian people, particularly white Christian men.

More than a century beyond Roosevelt’s day, one does not often hear the words “white Christian nation” uttered out loud any longer. What one does hear, however, amounts to code for the same thing. Thus, R.J. Rushdoony’s still-influential ideas about forging a godly nation—a nation organized according to biblical law—take it pretty much for granted that godly social organization has whites on top. Rushdoony, who lived into the current century, condemned interracial marriage as “unequal yoking.” 

Un-dead David Barton, another hugely influential figure and hero to the religious right, doesn’t really need to say anything at all about retaining white hegemony   .   .   .   But it’s there by implication when Barton assaults church-state separation as a heathenish imposition upon the Founders’ original plan to build the new nation on Christian principles and to keep (white) Christians in charge. 

  To be clear, again: this openly racist view is no longer trumpeted in the public square in the plain light of day.  . .     So, for example, laws and practices known to subjugate and suppress the political voice of millions of African Americans via mass incarceration remain, on their surface, race-neutral.  .  .  .   But does anyone doubt that the threat to white hegemony (both economic and cultural) plays a major role in creating such legislative monuments?

 [T[he implied continuing linkage of “American” to “white Christian” also accounts for a good bit of the obsession with Obama as an outsider: neither a true American (where is that birth certificate?), nor a true Christian.  .   .   .  Here’s a proposition: if breaking the grip of plantation capitalism and its political enablers requires the empowerment of immigrant communities and communities of color, then white liberals who are serious about wanting a significant progressive shift in the way this country is governed must offer maximum strategic support for the organization and mobilization of non-white people and non-white movements.

White skin privilege among educated elites is every bit as persistent as white tribalism among non-elites—and in some ways more destructive.

The power struggle will be ugly.  I expect non-whites to ultimately win.  But along the way it will become painful obvious that the white Christianists are anything but true Christians who  embraces the Gospel message.  Hatred, lies, untruths and vile behavior will likely be their main attributes.  The world will be a far better place when their claim to being the arbitrators of morality is ended.

Memories of My Late Parents

Today would have been my late parents' 62nd wedding anniversary.  Ironically, the boyfriend's parents were married on the same day in the same year and at roughly at the same time of day as my parents.  We took his parents out to dinner last night in honor of their 62nd anniversary.  We had a great time, but it was a little bitter sweet since I couldn't help but think of my parents who stood by me when I need them the most and who accepted me completely when I finally "came out."

Sunday Morning Male Beauty

Conservative Wants to Disenfranchise Yonger Voters

Demonstrating that conservative professions of a love for democracy is lip service at best, the National Review’s Jonah Goldberg has admitted that he wants the voting age increased to disenfranchise younger voters.  While he won't say what age he wants the minimum voting age increased to, he confesses that in his view it should be "much higher."   In short he wants to be able to send young soldiers to their needless deaths in fool's errand wars like the Iraq War, but these individuals who represent cannon fodder for old white men should have no vote concerning the nation's course.  One could argue that given the current state of the country, one might better argue that its the elderly who ought to be disenfranchised. Think Progress looks at this latest far right batshitery.  Here are highlights:

The National Review’s Jonah Goldberg is claiming that 18-year-olds should be denied the right to vote because they are “so frickin’ stupid about so many things.” In a video first posted by the Daily Caller, Goldberg laments the culture’s obsession with youth and argues that conservatives should “beat out” young people’s belief that “socialism is better than capitalism.” Goldberg is the third National Review writer in two months to face controversy:

GOLDBERG: Personally, I think the voting age should be much, higher, not lower. I think it was a mistake to lower it to 18, to be brutally honest….[I]t is a simple fact of science that nothing correlates more with ignorance and stupidity than youth. We’re all born idiots, and we only get over that condition as we get less young. And yet there’s this thing in this culture where, ‘Oh, young people are for it so it must be special.’ No, the reason young people are for it because they don’t know better. That’s why we call them young people. [...]
The fact that young people think socialism is better than capitalism. That’s proof of what social scientists call their stupidity and their ignorance. And that’s something that conservatives have to beat out of them. Either literally or figuratively as far as I’m concerned.

Mitt Romney - A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

This image via Facebook sums up what a Romney presidency would represent in my view.

The GOP and "Obamacare" - Be Careful What You Ask For

The demagogues within the GOP and the party's Christofascist/Tea Party base rant and whine about "Obamacare" yet have no real plan as to how to address the nation's horrible lack of access to health care for millions of Americans.  Unlike virtually every other developed industrialized country, the USA still treats its citizens as disposable trash and leaves countless millions without access to health care, especially in terms of preventive health care.  We spend more than any other country on a per capita basis yet have the most inefficient health care delivery system.  True, if you're Mitt Romney and able to buy whatever health care you want - or a member of Congress with a Rolls Royce health care plan - then America has a wonderful health care system.  For the rest of us, many still have to think whether or not they should go to the doctor and pay their out of pocket co-pay or deductible.  Now, with the U.S. Supreme Court possibly handing down a decision on the challenge to "Obamacare,"  the GOP has to face the music: if Obamacare is struck down, what will they propose to the millions of Americans who will either lose coverage completely or see significant curtailments to their health care coverage.  Right now, the answer is nothing.  And that is something that could give Obama a club with which to beat the GOP over the head in the run up to November.  Talking Points Memo looks at the sudden realization coming over the GOP demagogues.  Here are highlights: 

Over the last week, the signals have been abundant that congressional Republicans are pivoting from their total opposition to “Obamacare” toward supporting the more popular chunks of the law.

It’s an election-year strategy to mitigate the fallout if the Supreme Court grants them their wish and strikes down the law next month. The House GOP is weighing a replacement plan to reinstate its more popular components, such as guaranteeing coverage regardless of pre-existing conditions, letting people under 26 stay on a parent’s policy and closing the Medicare “doughnut hole.” The idea is also percolating among Senate Republicans.

“I think it is all part of the fact that repeal was so far away in 2010 and even in 2011. Now, as the possibility arises that part of the law could be repealed is only a month away, there is some disorder,” said a well-connected health industry lobbyist and former GOP aide.

Republicans don’t want to be accused of throwing a swath of disabled people, young adults and seniors to the wolves if they succeed at scrapping “Obamacare.” But those fixes were made possible thanks to the unpopular provisions that accompanied them, most notably the individual mandate. Forbidding insurers to turn away sick customers is ultimately unworkable without a provision to expand coverage to healthy people. Health policy experts — and policy-savvy Republicans — recognize this economic reality.

In other words, Republicans are offering voters an implausibly rosy proposition: Enjoy the popular pieces of the Affordable Care Act but don’t worry about the unpopular components. But if the GOP actually tries to put that plan into effect, they’ll run into a world of problems — not least of which would be an all-out assault from the insurance industry, which will feel the hardest pinch from the GOP’s “have your cake and eat it too” proposal. That raises questions as to how serious Republicans are about the replacement plan.

“Market reforms won’t work without a mandate,” said an insurance industry source. The industry has been at pains to explain the inextricable link between guaranteed coverage for pre-existing conditions and a mandate to purchase insurance.
 
As a short-term political posture, it has served them well. But now that the Supreme Court might give them what they want, they’re forced to deal with the reality of what it would mean. And that’s a huge wake-up call for the party, especially one without a clear leader to herd the cats as they figure out their next move.

As one Republican health care aide put it to TPM, “I do think some Republicans are finally starting to realize they could be the dog that caught the car.”

I for one would love to see the GOP's demagoguery bit it in the ass big time.   It would also be delicious to see the party that wraps itself in religiosity be firmly tied to throwing the poor and elderly to the wolves - which is what the Christianists love to do to anyone who doesn't subscribe to their poisonous beliefs.. 

Conservative Jewish Group Approves Gay Weddings

I continue to believe that anti-gay laws - such as DOMA and DADT before its repeal - and bans on gay marriage are unconstitutional violations of the right to freedom of religion for all, not just Christofascists.  None the less, conservative Christianity continues to enjoy illegal special rights by forcing its religious dogma (one based principally on hate, fear and bigotry) on all of American society.  Adding fuel to the argument that bans on same sex marriage improperly impact on religious freedom of non-Christianists, the Conservative branch of American Judaism has formally approved same-sex marriage ceremonies.   But the Christofascists continue to believe that their beliefs get to trump all others.  It makes me want to vomit.  Here are highlights from Fox News of all places: 

 The Conservative branch of American Judaism has formally approved same-sex marriage ceremonies, nearly six years after lifting a ban on ordaining gays and lesbians.

The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards issued the ruling Thursday on a 13-0 vote with one abstention, said Rabbi Elliot Dorff, the committee chairman. The panel of scholars approved two model wedding ceremonies and guidelines for a same-sex divorce. Rabbis can adapt the marriage ceremonies for the couples.

"We acknowledge that these partnerships are distinct from those discussed in the Talmud as 'according to the law of Moses and Israel,' but we celebrate them with the same sense of holiness and joy as that expressed in heterosexual marriages," the legal opinion states.

Conservative Judaism is the second-largest Jewish movement in North America and holds a middle ground between liberal and traditional groups. The Reform and Reconstructionist branches accept gay relationships, while the stricter Orthodox Jewish movement does not. The Conservative law committee lifted the ban on gay ordination in December 2006.

Called the "Covenant of Loving Partners," the Conservative same-sex marriage document bases the ceremonies on Jewish partnership law. In the covenant, the couple pledges to be faithful. A ring ceremony binds the pair.

"The result is still a Jewish marriage," the legal opinion on gay marriage states.  Dorff, an author of the ruling, said the committee's discussions with gays and lesbians as the ceremonies were developed found a split in opinion that led the two templates for same-sex marriage. One adheres more closely to the traditional Jewish ceremony, while the other doesn't.

Of course we all know what the Christianists and far right evangelicals really think of those of Jewish descent:  their only purpose is to help bring about Armageddon at which time almost all of them will be annihilated.  Thus it baffles me as to why pro-Israel Jews in this country don't grasp the fact that the Christianists are NOT their friends.  In fact, they despise them and only are using them for their own horrid purposes.

The Real Cause of America's Decline

Click on chart to enlarge

The GOP and the far right lament what they describe as America's decline in terms of its place in the world and in terms of economic dominance.  What they fail to recognize is that it is their open embrace of ignorance and religious based idiocy that are perhaps one of the biggest threats to the nation.  While most of the rest of the world is embracing science and knowledge, the GOP and the Christianists want America guided by the writings of ignorant wandering herders from 2000+ years ago.  Here are highlights from a new Gallup survey that show the frightening level of ignorance that is far too widespread in this country:

Forty-six percent of Americans believe in the creationist view that God created humans in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years. The prevalence of this creationist view of the origin of humans is essentially unchanged from 30 years ago, when Gallup first asked the question. About a third of Americans believe that humans evolved, but with God's guidance; 15% say humans evolved, but that God had no part in the process.

What's equally frightening is that Republicans in states around the nation want creationism taught in schools as if it were a form of science.  Sometimes I feel that we are engaged in a form of national suicide.   We might as well have government mandated lobotomies for all if creationism and its Neanderthal like advocates aren't pushed back to the religious nutcase fringe in our country.

Hampton Tornado Update

This video was filmed in front of one of our friend's home and is where we worked most of yesterday helping with clean up.

As a number of readers have gathered, tornadoes are very unusual events in this part of Virginia.  We are accustomed to northeasters, tropical storms and hurricanes - all of which have plenty of advanced warning associated with them - so Friday night's event caught everyone by total surprise.  The National Weather Service has confirmed that Friday night's tornado was an EF1 with winds of 98 miles per hour.  A small event by Mid-West standards, but again something that rarely is seen here.  The tornado came ashore about 2 miles to the east of our home on Chesapeake Avenue in the Old Wythe neighborhood first slamming into Chesapeake Avenue where it continues after a brief break in the Merrimac Shores neighborhood (all the news coverage mentioning Chesapeake Avenue caused us to receive a deluge of calls checking on our safety).  The storm then roughly followed the west bank of the Hampton River up into downtown passing over the Crowne Plaza Hotel before a brief jump to the east side of the river.    The map below shows the curse of the storm track.  

Click image to enlarge

Two of our good friends - the owner of the shop beneath the boyfriend's salon (which was totally fine) and Hampton's mayor, Molly Ward - live in the Park Place area of what's called Little England from the name of the colonial era estate that once encompassed the area which was very hard hit.   The boyfriend and I helped move a totally destroyed aluminum john boat that had come to rest on the shp owner's front steps - we never did figure out where it had come from.    The tree damage at the Ward residence and the adjoining home of the late mayor's mother was horrific: several 100+ year old live oaks uprooted, half of a giant magnolia down, and tree sized limbs ripped off of other century old trees.  The homes suffered relatively minor damage all things considered most likely because they were built in the 1800's when houses were built to truly last.  The boyfriend and I spent over 6 hours yesterday helping these two friends clean up the huge mess, with the boyfriend wielding a chain saw and yours truly dragging limbs and chunks of tree trunk to the huge pile that quickly developed on the corner of the park in the center of the neighborhood..  While a number of other friends assisted in the effort, some total strangers that none of us had previously met also pitched in to help.

The City of Hampton estimates 206 single family homes and 99 multi-family homes were damaged to varying degrees.  WTKR-TV (which filmed me briefly while I was hot and dirty!) reports that the two hardest-hit neighborhoods, Merrimac Shores and Victoria/Park Place are still without power as of last evening. Many poles were snapped and lines are down and both neighborhoods are blocked off to vehicles (even residents and we parked and walked in to Park Place) while power crews replace poles and lines.  We saw one friend that lives right near the Hampton Yacht Club who said their roof had blown off.  Below are some photos:

Near the yacht club

Hampton Yacht Club - friends were there went the tornado hit

Tree damage

Amory's Seafood plant near downtown