Categories
Observations Politics

“John Boehner Wants You To Be Afraid…” –MoveOn.org

Email from MoveOn.org

Republicans, led by House Speaker John Boehner, want to scare Americans into accepting yet another extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% and deep cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. So they’ve created a “fiscal cliff” boogeyman.

Unfortunately, if you’re following the media story, you may believe Republican claims that the world’s about to end. But the only thing going off a cliff on December 31 is the ability of Republicans to hold our economy hostage for the sake of the rich (read below to find out why!).

That’s why we have to spread the truth, so our friends and family don’t fall for the Republican myth about the fiscal cliff. We’ve put together a 5-point guide on what this fiscal showdown is really all about. Check it out and then share it on Facebook or Twitter, or just forward this email.

5-Point Guide To The Fiscal Showdown

The “Fiscal Cliff” Is A Myth. As Paul Krugman put it, “The looming prospect of spending cuts and tax increases isn’t a fiscal crisis. It is, instead, a political crisis brought on by the G.O.P.’s attempt to take the economy hostage.”

1. Republicans are manufacturing this crisis to pressure Democrats to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and accept painful cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. The Bush Tax Cuts Finally End December 31. If Congress does nothing, the ax will fall on all the Bush tax cuts on New Year’s Eve.

2. Then, on January 1, the public pressure on John Boehner and House Republicans to extend the middle-class tax cuts (already passed by the Senate and waiting to be signed by President Obama) will become irresistible.

3. So the middle-class tax cut will eventually get renewed, and we’ll have $823 billion more revenue from the top 2% to do great things with.

4. The Sequester. The sequester is another political creation, forced on Democrats by Republicans in exchange for lifting the debt ceiling last year to avoid crashing our economy.

5.  It’s a set of cuts (50% to a bloated military budget and 50% to important domestic programs) designed to make both Republicans and Democrats hate it so much that they’d never let it happen.

6. And the cuts can be reversed weeks or months into 2013 without causing damage.

7. The Big Three. Nothing happens to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits on January 1—unless Republicans force painful cuts to beneficiaries in exchange for tax increases on the wealthy, which are going to happen anyway if Congress does NOTHING.

8. So, there’s literally no reason benefits cuts should be part of the discussion right now.

We Should Be Talking About Jobs. The real crisis Americans want Congress to fix is getting people back to work. And with just a fraction of that $823 billion from the wealthiest 2%, we could create jobs for more than 20,000 veterans and pay for the 300,000 teachers and 52,000 first responders, which our communities so desperately need.9 That’s not to mention jobs from investing in clean energy and our national infrastructure.
Please share this with your friends and family—and talk about it at the dinner table next week. The first step to winning this showdown is making sure we’re all armed with the facts.

Thanks for all you do.

–Ilya, Emily, Mark, Tate, and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. “Hawks and Hypocrites,” The New York Times, November 11, 2012
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=284476&id=57918-7249980-zlWyqox&t=5

2. “Bush-Era Tax Cuts,” The New York Times, November 9, 2012
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=284477&id=57918-7249980-zlWyqox&t=6

3. “Boehner Is Bluffing,” Slate, November 9, 2012
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=284478&id=57918-7249980-zlWyqox&t=7

4. “CBO: Ending High-Income Tax Cuts Would Save Almost $1 Trillion,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, August 24, 2012
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=284479&id=57918-7249980-zlWyqox&t=8

5. “The sequester, explained,” The Washington Post, September 14, 2012
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=284480&id=57918-7249980-zlWyqox&t=9

6. Ibid.

7. “Let’s Not Make a Deal,” The New York Times, November 8, 2012
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=284484&id=57918-7249980-zlWyqox&t=10

8. “How the Across-the-Board Cuts in the Budget Control Act Will Work,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, April 27, 2012
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=284489&id=57918-7249980-zlWyqox&t=11

9. “Veterans’ Jobs Bill Blocked in the Senate,” The New York Times, September 19, 2012
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=284488&id=57918-7249980-zlWyqox&t=12

“Jan Schakowsky Announces New Budget Plan With Focus On Jobs,” The Huffington Post, August 10, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=263135&id=57918-7249980-zlWyqox&t=13

“Fact Sheet: The American Jobs Act,” The White House, September 8, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=264021&id=57918-7249980-zlWyqox&t=14

Categories
Observations Politics

Republican Reality Check – It’s still a lie even if you believe it.

Right, Radical Republicanism Rejected By The Majority of Americans.

Each time they loose an election Republicans just can’t understand it.  They go around acting as if they won or try to ruin the government of who ever did win.  Some form of aberrant denial. President Obama has beaten both McCain and now Romney. McCain has never gotten over it and in his senile, spiteful way continues to do take swipes at the President and his administration.  Romney is starting out the same way with mean spirited derisive behavior. Romney has recently repeated basically the same things he said in the famous “47 percent video!

At a time when the Senate and the Congress should be focusing on the economy, creating jobs, budget and reducing the deficit all certain Republicans can do is try to create scandals, embarrass the President and the administration and obstruct.

As the presidential election approached Republicans were working on conjuring up an “October Surprise” to “bring down the President.”  Romney was so anxious to find something that he came out criticizing the administration before the facts about the Benghazi attack in Libya were even known. He basically shot himself in the foot.  Shortly after that Republican Congressman Inofe started a congressional investigation, but it seems that mother nature had her own October surprise, it was called “Sandy.”  Had it not been for this hurricane combining with other weather conditions hitting the east coast Republicans would have been pushing harder to turn the attack in Libya in to a foreign policy scandal.  The fact is Republicans voted down money the State Department requested to beef up security at our  embassies and consulates around the world. If Republicans has passed these appropriations there might have been security at the consulate in Benghazi. Is this really another example of what Republican obstruction and partisan politics has done?

Meanwhile an FBi agent, Fredrick Humphrey, known to be a Republican conservative, who was not assigned to the case, tryed to escalate a matter he reported about a woman friend of his getting threatening emails. When things don’t seem to be moving fast enough to create a scandal before the presidential election, he went to a Republican Congressmen claiming the FBI was dragging their feet for political reasons.  This doesn’t pan out before the election but results in General Petraeus resigning as head of the CIA, after the election.  It’s clear that Republicans were desperate for a scandal to embarrass the President before the election.  Now that the election is over, they are trying to use the same “red herrings” to hurt the President and distract the public from the real problems facing the nation. This is unpatriotic and shows disdain for the democratic process.

These crazy Republican distractions are flooding the airwaves. The media loves a scandal.   It’s a scandal that Republican politicians and operatives are wasting their time and our tax dollars pushing.  It’s obvious partisan politics. The press should call them out on this and not just go along with their agenda. In addition to the politicians ugly behavior we have nut case tea party members and others getting up petitions to secede from the union because they lost the election.  This insanity is being fanned by irresponsible, right wing radio and television hacks.

Senator McCain, someone who once had the respect of many people, has turned into a senile blowhard who should just resign from the Senate before he further ruins his reputation and makes a fool of himself. Other Republicans should be called to task for failing to work on constructive projects to improve the economy and create jobs for Americans.

There is no “smoking gun” in Benghazi.  The consulate was hit by terrorists on September 11th because they saw an opportunity. It probably was planned. Apparently our security had no knowledge of the impending attack. One has to wonder why the Ambassador was there without a security detail.  Was the mission in Libya underfunded because of the Republican Congress? The CIA and the State Department need money to gather intelligence.

The whole can of worms around General Petreaus, General Allen and the women involved so far has not been something that jeopardized national security. This agent who tried to politicize this matter should be reprimanded and/or fired from the FBI. He should have let the FBI do it’s work before going public with classified information.

It is no coincidence that the Republican Congress is trying to create problems for the administration now, before the President’s second term even begins.  They want to discredit him through members of his administration to, among other things, hinder him and reduce the mandate he has received from the American people who elected him.  The majority of Americans rejected the far right wing Republican party. But these traitors to the country are still trying to get power no matter what it costs the average American. What they fail to realize is that the Republican presidential candidate was a pathetic liar and panderer.  Americans sooner or later can recognize BS.

Americans need to show support for the President in anyway possible. This will blunt the attack on him and the administration. It will silence all the crazies who are running around getting petitions signed to secede from the union or impeach the president, because they lost the election. But more than anything it will allow everyone to focus on the real issues facing the country.

 

 

 

Categories
Observations Politics

BLAME GAME

BLAST FURNACE US STEEL 1984 – WRAPPED IN STEEL DOCUMENTARY FILM

I read a post this morning that blamed the decline of a working class neighborhood on the Southeast side of Chicago on “the progressive socialists.”  I have no idea who these “progressive socialists” are, but let’s continue.  These progressives, many of whom appear to be minorities, are somehow responsible, as far back the 1980’s, for the closing of the steel mills by their corporate owners like US Steel, who closed their mill in South Chicago, and started buying steel from China, while investing in Marathon Oil.  All of this, the post claimed, is the fault of immigrants and minorities who feel “entitled” to things not named. “Things” that the writer of the post believes that minorities and immigrants are not entitled to get. Seems like the same kind of rhetoric used in the 2012 elections.

During the recent Presidential election the twisted mantra of entitlement, in some form, was promoted by all the right wing Republican politicians, which means the entire Republican Party.  A party now pretending to try  to figure out why  they lost the election  so badly. Pretending to want to reinvent itself to appeal more to Latino and Asian immigrants (they don’t seem to mention African American citizens very much). They talk  about how they can get their message over to people, sugar coat it, so minorities and others will vote against their own best interests. Republican surrogates talk about having Senator Rubio, the Cuban American Senator from Florida, go out to pitch Hispanics, as if they were some monolithic group who would automatically vote Republican because there was one Latino politician pitching them.

Republicans, including Ronald Reagan, have used the technique of turning working class white people against minorities of all persuasions. First they take away jobs that white working class people have and then blame minorities and immigrants for taking those jobs. Republicans promote racial and ethnic animosity to Americans who are predisposed culturally to this tendency. Republicans have taken over a block of southern states building on the civil rights movement that did away with segregation.  The voting rights act was used to  further anger white southerners who had been suppressing minority voting up to that point. Midwestern and Northern working and middle class whites have been taught to fear minorities.

Democrats may have won the majority of the battles in the current election cycle. But as far as the Republican party is concerned this is just one battle in a war that has been going on for a very long time. For Republicans and their plutocratic puppeteers this is a war of attrition. Plato must have had Republicans in mind when he wrote about a cave where prisoners are chained to a wall so they can only look in one direction,  unknowingly seeing only shadows, cast in front of a fire by puppeteers they cannot see. The prisoners perceive the shadows cast on the wall as reality.

Democrats must organize and prepare for the next election cycle. Credible candidates need to be found to run against tea party and far right leaning  obstructionist politicians in the senate and congress. Democrats should help the President explain the Affordable Heath Care Act and other achievements of Democrats and the administration.  The  Republican propaganda machine is at work every day trying to win over anxious and frustrated Americans in any way possible.  Democrats need to counter this with a campaign that promotes facts and reality to counter the propaganda and lies.

The Republican Party of today is not the party of moderate conservatives it once was.  It seems many of those moderates have become “Blue Dog Democrats” or centrist, conservative Democrats.  Even though the cable news pundits don’t talk about it, the coalition that elected the President for both terms, included a sizable number of middle and working class white voters.  This includes men, women and younger voters. The President and others down ticket could not have been elected without white voters. The press and others by failing to describe the Democratic coalition of voters properly are playing into the hands of the far right who will make it seem that the Democratic party is the fabricated reality of “minority and immigrant progressive socialists.”

by J R Martin

 

Categories
Observations Politics

History’s Magic Mirror

This article posted on the Truthout Blog is well worth reading.  It covers, in part, the scary direction in which the United States is headed. Interestingly the Tea Party and other right wing groups have been running around projecting the kind of fascist government they knowingly or unknowingly support.  Even if President Obama is reelected it may only slow up this far right agenda. Well worth reading.

History’s Magic Mirror: America’s Economic Crisis and the Weimar Republic of Pre-Nazi Germany

Thursday, 01 November 2012 13:35 By Charles Derber and Yale Magrass, Truthout | Op-Ed

Germany’s economic crisis of the 1930s led to the rise of far-right populism and the Nazi Party, fueled by the corporate and military establishment. An American version of this “Weimar Syndrome” could emerge as the far Right closes its grip on the Republican Party.

Contrary to common wisdom, the ascendancy of the Tea Party, Christian fundamentalist, militarist, anti-feminist, anti-immigrant and other racially-coded right-wing elements in the Republican Party – that could gain preponderant influence over the nation in a Romney/Ryan Administration – is not new. It is the most recent example of the “Weimar Syndrome,” where liberal and Left parties fail to solve serious economic crises, helping right-wing movements and policies – that lack major public support, but are groomed and funded by the corporate and military establishment – to take power.     More…

 

Categories
Arts News Poetry

Windows – suzanne m steiner

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Autumn dancing in
the honey locust, clinging
still to golden days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

© suzanne m steiner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now naked branches
Prepare their slender state,to
Dance frosty tangos

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© susanne m steiner
© suzanne m steiner

 

 

 

Chubby, cherry-red doves
Inside on this snowy day
Warm and toasty we.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SuzanneS1967

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

suzanne m steiner –  photo by Jim Martin

Categories
Observations Politics

President Obama Has Succeeded

At the Democratic Convention this year President Clinton emphatically stated that no one, not him nor any other President could have fully turned the economy inherited by President Obama in four years. The economy was bleeding profusely in 2008 and 2009. Despite obvious organized political obstruction from the Republican Party from day one of his administration, President Obama has managed to not only stop the hemorrhaging, he has turned the economy around and we are experiencing slow but steady growth that is gaining momentum.

Unemployment numbers have dropped to 7.8 percent. The housing market is turning around, consumer spending is up, the auto industry is doing well again, the stock market is higher than ever, the affordable health care act is helping people including those from various levels of the middle and working classes, we are producing more oil and gas domestically then in the previous administration, developing wind and solar and women can look forward to equal pay for equal work to name a few of the Presidents achievements domestically.

President Obama’s foreign policy has brought the United States back into the community of nations.  We are no longer hated around the world. We are out of Iraq and working on getting out of Afghanistan. We are working on diplomatic initiatives around the world rather than rattling swords.  Terrorism against this country is being thwarted worldwide; Osama Bin Laden is dead.

So the question is why are many Americans so cynical about this President?  Why would they even consider changing administrations for some vague plans offered by the Republican Candidate? Why vote against their own best interests? Why all the vitriolic rage and hatred on the part of some people who know little about the government and politics. It makes no logical sense even if you think of it as a basic ideological difference between Democrats and Republicans up until now.

If you look back to the 2008 election you will find the seeds of the hatred. The haters and the “birthers” did not believe that a mixed race person, an African American, could actually win the presidency. They thought everyone really thought as they did in racial terms. When President Obama actually won they went into a psychotic frenzy of hatred and fear.

The far right, the neo-cons, the billionaire establishment, plutocrats and national aristocracy saw an opportunity to get back the government they had controlled under G W Bush. Even before President Obama took office the Republican politicians in Washington had a meeting with a Republican lobbyist and strategist.  In this meeting they vowed to do everything possible to obstruct and make this a one-term presidency.  This effort began with a push to get control of the congress in 2010.

Part of the strategy was to do everything possible to demean, stir fear and fan racial animosity against the President.  The “birther” movement was encouraged to continue to question the Presidents birthplace.  Others continued to accuse him of being a Moslem.  The cable right-wing propaganda machine, known as Fox News, cranked out daily conspiracy theories and lies about the President. It is important to note that Fox News is owned by Rupert Murdock who is far to the right and the paper is run by Roger Ailes who’s history as a Republican strategist and media consultant is well known. The latest strategy is to have business owners warn their employees not to vote for President Obama, like they are going to close down their businesses, and stop making money, cut off their noses to spite their corporate faces.

The Affordable Health Care Act was turned into a whipping boy. Republicans are always against any type of social legislation but this time they were being paid in massive campaign donations to fight this legislation tooth and nail. Whether they were able to defeat the legislation or not was not the most important objective. The goal was to link the Presidents name to failure and incompetence.  The same thing is evident with the stimulus bill and the rescue of the auto industry. The fact is both the stimulus bill and the auto industry rescue worked.  The stimulus bill would have been more effective if Republicans in Congress had not watered it down.

Listen to all the things Republicans complain about and you will find legislation they filibustered, voted against or watered down to stop from improving the economy. The President tried bi-partisanship at every turn. He proposed Republican ideas and they shot them down. They became the party of “NO” to everything the President proposed. Their only goal was “to make President Obama a one term President.”  Screw the country and the economy. Make everyone suffer so they will vote against Obama.

Despite all the right wing maneuvering President Obama has succeeded. Given a second term with Democrats in a majority in congress, he will move the country forward. The economy will improve and jobs will continue to grow. The far right establishment doesn’t care about the mess that will be created by reverting to policies that failed under G W Bush. They are more interested in controlling the government of the United States. President Obama represents middle class control of the country.

There is another important reason to reelect President Obama.  The person that won the Republican nomination for President, Willard Mitt Romney, is a potential disaster for this country from a number of standpoints.  His record, as a one term governor of Massachusetts is not a good one and it has been misrepresented by his campaign. His business experience was about making money, “harvesting investment opportunities,” not building anything. Romney is not a team player he’s a boss. A rich kid who got to be a Bishop in the Mormon Church, a possible conflict between church and state.  A rich kid who had to start life with only a million dollars and work is way up from there. It has been said that Americans need to decide if they want a President or a Boss.

J R Martin

 

 

 

Categories
Arts Poetry

Poems by LInda Rubin

Poems by Linda Rubin

Oh ocean
I do hear you
Your message beats the rocks
Who would contain you
You keep coming
Barriers withstand  your pleas
To be heard amongst the noise
Sometimes birds or maybe ships
All at once demand attention
What importance holds your message
Only that you’re here

 

LRubin

Cradling trees
Tall and majestic
Lost inside limbs strong
Crumpled leaves rest for a moment and away
Blows through your wooden arms
I pass through now
Tunneling into your darkness
A pattern of light
Peeks from afar
The headlights of my mind
Guide my way
Out the other side
Briefly sheltered by you
Out again on my own
Thankful for the moment

Categories
Arts News Poetry

PAUSED IN THE SHADE

By Linda Rubin

©JRM

Paused in the shade
The knowing ivy drinks in the moisture I only smell
Rich with green life
Whose gift flows through stems and leaves
Makes for me a canopy
Shades the sun, cools the earth beneath
Simply nature at home
Taking its place among the neighborhood of trees and bushes and grass
I walk only through it
Am I of it
I feel but a guest
Invited to look
Nay to keep

Categories
Arts News Poetry

Morning and Time – Two Poems by Linda Rubin

Morning

by Linda Rubin

Time-always marked

This morning

Christmas

Reflections-like a mirror

Stomachs still full

Digesting the memories

Hearts full as stomachs

Emotions, contact, meaning

Ties, bonds, commonality

Across space

Intersecting

Heartening

Full

Another year

Memories

Next

 

Time

Photographs©JRM

By Linda Rubin

time stands

in front of me

behind it sits

my move

always

it seemed

starting new

not before

all ahead

fresh

rebirth

forward

ready

 

Categories
Arts Film Fine Arts News

BEAUTIFUL LOSERS – MAKE SOMETHING FROM NOTHING

Beautiful Losers begins with archival footage shot as early as the 1980’s.  It tells the story of outsiders who came together and found common ground in a small New York City storefront gallery. These individuals, with diverse backgrounds, including sub cultures like skateboarding, hip hop, surf, graffiti and punk began to invent their art.  With no real training they established trends in pop culture based on their Do It Yourself (DIY) backgrounds.  Today many of these non-traditional artists have become mainstream in the Pop Culture area and are sought after for various types of projects including art exhibits and by advertising agencies. Shepard Fairey, Ed Templeton, Harmony Korine, Mike Mills, Barry McGee, Chris Johansoon, Geoff McFetridge, Jo Jackson, Magaret Kilgallen, Stephe Powers and Thomas Campbell are names you may or may not recognize.  However, their work is unmistakable in style and content.

This documentary is unique in that the artists seen in Beautiful Losers, turned filmmakers and documented themselves along the way. Aaron Rose uses that footage along with interviews to create a history of the artists, their progress and ultimate notoriety and success.  This is mainly a linear journey which at times seems to slow the very interesting and informative film down.  Beautiful Losers is not very cinematic in it’s storytelling approach.  There is no real sense of beginning and middle, although it does build up in the last minutes to an inspirational end.  This is not to say what is presented isn’t interesting and valuable.   There is a pattern of talking heads illustrated with archival “B” roll that feels redundant in what it has to say about the process these artists went through.  What the documentary lacks is very much action. In some respects it feels like it was edited to fit a 90 minute time frame.

The editing in Beautiful Losers is a mundane mix of interviews, archival footage taken over the years, of varying quality, and “B” roll.  Beautiful Losers is essentially a compilation documentary building on archival footage taken by the artists of themselves over the years. The footage does give you a feel for what it was like for these since they came together in the eighties but it does slow down the film. Ken Burns as said that sometimes it’s good to slow things down, so that the intent of the shot becomes apparent, “that meaning accrues in duration.”  Unfortunately that idea only works when the footage speaks for itself.  In some cases the archival footage does speak for itself  but there is so much of it that the pace stops being engaging. However, the interviews themselves are good and the artists involved project their personalities, views and ideas. The interviews combined with seeing the  work is the best quality of this documentary.

Despite these storytelling difficulties Beautiful Losers is worth seeing because it ultimately has a message that creative people in the arts will be able to relate. The work of Fairey, Tempelton, Margaret Kilgallen and others is seen over time becoming more sophisticated. Their thoughts about their work and how they relate to main stream art is also important. In the end their work is setting trends in the advertising of many products that you may be surprised to see. They face becoming mainstream and part of the establishment. and not rebels in their Pop Culture world. Some seem to enjoy the new fame and fortune others eschew it but can’t turn down the money.

If you are involved in any area of the arts this is a documentary well worth seeing. Beautiful Losers is both entertaining and informing.

REVIEW WRITTEN BY J R MARTIN,.  AUTHOR CREATE DOCUMENTARY FILMS, VIDEOS AND MULTIMEDIA  Also Director of the Documentary Course at Full Sail University.  See other documentary reviews by James R Martin at http://www.jrmartinmedia.com/reviews

BEAUTIFUL LOSERS -2008 – 90 MINUTES – DIRECTED BY AARON ROSE

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Beautiful Losers

Create Documentary Films, Videos and Multimedia: A Comprehensive Guide to Using Documentary Storytelling Techniques for Film, Video, the Internet and Digital Media Projects.