Category: Economy

The so-called “Super” Congress tasked with finding a means of cutting the deficit is a pure and simple joke. A joke few, if any, are likely to fall for. It is most simply designed to further the austerity agenda and steal from the poor of this country in order to further fund this stumbling empire’s tragic mistakes. If these wise old members of our congress fail to come up with spending cuts and revenue increases by late November, the cuts get made anyway, though they are across the board. The whole arrangement is the most obvious attempt at planned dead-lock I have ever seen. Who seriously believes that this group will come up with an agreed upon solution, or that if they do, it will be passed by their peers in congress? Or beyond that, that any measures that would possibly be passed by this monied body would be satisfactory to any portion of the working classes? Maybe 9% of Americans that still approve of Congress do.

With a legislative body only known for its inability to do anything, they have finally found a process which uses that inability to further the agenda of Power. I mean, look at the “solutions” these idiots are providing us. This isn’t a hard task, the deficit is not a complicated subject – no matter how much it is mystified and obscured for us. Stop the wars, close the bases, end the funding of death, tax the shit out of the rich, invest in our infrastructure, forgive people’s debt. But because the debt is such an important weapon against the poor, it goes directly against the interests of those in power to even fix it. We are in a position where the U.S. government can not right this ship because this is a country designed to cannibalize our poor in order to aid corporate-wealth. It is the same people warning us that the ship is sinking all the while hacking away at the hull.

The Occupy movement is a movement of class consciousness in America that is directly against those interests creating structures like the “super” Congress. It shows that we have entered a period of rebellion against the interests, but it doesn’t necessitate the working classes’ victory. This movement, like all liberation movements, will be attacked, will sustain attempts to hijack it, will have to fend of usurpers from the Power classes. The most important strategy will be understanding that those who have previously attempted to speak for the “people,” like the Democratic Party, are not allies to the Occupiers. Liberals, Progressives, Democrats do not have agendas that are compatible with liberation, but only seek to put a more friendly face on the crimes perpetrated against workers.

If in control, these forces will direct the massive energy of the Occupy movement into the process of our government, a place where all good ideas go to die. Like the Wisconsin union protests, if directed into a ballot-box, the Occupy movement will wither and accept a loss. A loss which will be portrayed as a victory by its new leaders, when they tell us not to be enemies of the “good.”

The “21st century” always sounded like a futuristic utopia to me as a child. Being in my late twenties now, I was certainly still a child when the tired 20th century finally gave up the ghost, but the utopia I had always imagined springing forth didn’t seem to be anywhere I looked. In fact, this century seems to be one characterized by constant war and bloodshed. I feel cheated somehow, because of all the promise and potential we as a species hold. Perhaps it is time I come to terms with the fact that this century will be an incredibly bloody century as we finally run out of oil and kill for strategic advantages over every last drop. America’s wars will increase and will always be resource based and involve permanent occupation as a strategy. These events ensure that I will die in a world much different from the one I was born in. The final question seems to be whether that world will be one I regret leaving or not.
Read more »

We have discussed already that our nation’s debt is used as the rulers’ greatest asset. It is the ever-present excuse to why again and again our social safety-net is slowly being destroyed by those rich enough to never need it. The tax-cuts made to benefit the rich and the U.S. government’s multiple forever-wars ensure that a debt is maintained for this very purpose. We will see this again very soon with whatever comes to us as a “deal” to raise the debt limit our country can take on. To prevent default, the U.S. government will of course cut some more of the remaining strings of our already barely-there safety net. The discussion surrounding this “deal” will never be whether to cut them or not – but rather how many and how much to cut.
Read more »

It is the garnish on every politician’s platform. The repeated refrain in every speech listing America’s woes. Not a day goes by where it is not held over our heads, this ominous figure far too large for the human mind to really comprehend. It is the standard excuse for why Americans “can’t have nice things” like even a meager social safety net for its most susceptible citizens. The debt. The huge, disgusting debt. But what if, by some miraculous sequence of events we were to manage to erase this monumental debt of America’s? Would that mean we could finally enter the modern era in regards to welfare for our citizens? For that matter, would these politicians, the ones who constantly beat us over the heads as we cower at their feet, even allow this blight on the land to be removed? Of course not.
Read more »

In what can only be described as a coming together of the Property Party to further fuck the humbled masses, a “deal” was forged to “save” us from a government shutdown. With an election season dawning on the horizon, the events of last week are a perfect example of the futility of voting for the “lesser evil” and the extent to which the Republicans and Democrats are representative of the same class interests. At no time was the budget argument about whether to cut or not, but rather how much to cut. Nor was it ever a discussion of who to cut from, the obvious choice had always been the poor, minorities, and women. This was, from the very beginning, a discussion about how much they could take from you and I – yet again.
Read more »

The unions have been busted. Scott Walker, with the helping hand of the establishment, has stripped public unions of their collective bargaining rights. The rights of unions in this country have been won inch by inch with the blood of thousands of workers, and to see them stripped so easily from us speaks to the traitorous and naive leadership that labor has entrusted with its interests. Nothing should be moving in Wisconsin right now, general strikes should be shutting down everything in the state in order for workers to stand in solidarity with these public unions. We wont see that simply because our labor leaders are just as much a part of the status quo as Walker.
Read more »

2011 is shaping up to be the beginning of a period of revolution and redefinition for the Middle-East. Governments that defined themselves by decades of inhuman cruelty to the most vulnerable of their citizens are seeing those very people rise-up and chasing them out of their palaces. The beginnings of these revolutions are being sparked by rises in food costs, shrinking wages, disgusting conditions, oppression, and a lack of real democracy. With these numerous examples being acted out every day, showing what the desperate masses are capable of, Obama hands down a budget proposal that only furthers strengthens these motivations and will make a desperate people more desperate.
Read more »

Obama’s state of the union address last night was simply another monologue singing the praises of the “capital of conservatism“ and meant to assure Americans (who even bothered to listen) that the status quo is alright, there are no problems with the system as is. Obama’s ability to speak as an intelligent person may contrast with his predecessor, but the message was the same, as it always is. When the applause is over and the chamber is emptied, America is still left with a system that is failing by design – and in the most painful ways possible.
Read more »

Laughing tears is how I’d describe my reaction today to the morning’s news. I mean this shit is so predictable that I guess it’s pretty unsurprising when it actually happens, but a part of me always expects to be wrong; so when I am right I can’t help but be a little shocked. Now, what is it that is eliciting such a reaction from me on this fine December morning? Well, our sage president, guardian of hope, sentinel of change, has reached a “deal” with congressional Republicans regarding Bush’s tax cuts (set to expire in just a couple weeks) and benefits for the millions of workers unemployed by those receiving Bush’s tax cuts. The measures of said deal are so unapologetically classist in favor of bourgeoisie interests that I’m having trouble understanding how this in any way constitutes a “compromise” as it is being hailed by the powers that be. 
Read more »

An eventful holiday season this seems to be! Right now, I seem to hear about the evils of Wikileaks from almost everywhere. Liberal blogs froth at the mouth, furious at the privilege of receiving more information on what their cherished Obama administration is really up to. I think it’s an anger analogous to someone refusing to be woken up in in the morning after a late night of drinking. The alarm goes off, but the rude reality – that it is indeed morning – is angrily denied and the alarm is silenced, or smashed. The ever-growing infamy of Julian Assange has become dangerous around the world. I wonder if he will take Ecuador up in their offer of residency? Will he be silenced?
Read more »