Defaultgeddon: More good articles

The articles I post here pretty much show for certain that there wont be a default but still, for ease of lumping the topics together I've kept the same title

Yesterday I posted a short FAQ that was one of the best explanations of the debt ceiling farce so far. In a discussion on Buzz I was caused to ask if there are any longer form articles that give a description of a similar quality. Thanks to a mix of hanging out in a Something Awful thread and checking various sites I regularly do a day later I have an embarrassment of riches on the subject.

This fairly short article by Dean Baker explains how the debt ceiling arguments are just being used as a cover by both Republicans and Democrats, especially Obama, to force austerity measures on America and gut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security at the behest of their corporate overlords.

Given the stealth Bi-partisan support for this Americans really are screwed.

Michael Hudson has written a longer piece that focuses on the great amount of effort Obama has put in to destroying as much of FDR's legacy as he possibly can.

Speaking of FDR, Richard D Wolff has written an article examining the nature of the Keynesian softening of Capitalism that was required to save Capitalism. Essentially the Welfare State and the New Deal were part of a system to keep Capitalism going and protect the rich from popular anger when the system is experiencing one of its' major crisis. However in order to maintain this buffer and protect the rich governments incurred greater deficits because the rich and powerful didn't want to pay the tax necessary to maintain it. Now public debt has gotten so large the elite want deficit reduced. Thus the buffer that keeps people relatively safe and relatively quiet is being removed. Interesting times loon.

The IMF gets to play to the home crowd.

Over the years the IMF has gotten to fuck over a lot of countries and bring misery and death to countless poors but this is the big one, the IMF is going to do the biggest gig of all, the home crowd. We all knew it was coming but finally they're starting to hype it up for the fans.

And as they receive a ticker tape along the newly privatised streets the IMF's open topped limo will be blaring out a very special anthem:


Make your peace with your Gods non-millionaire Americans.

Defaultgeddon: a couple of points.

Firstly I would like to thank Amber for bringing something important to my attention. I had assumed renaming welfare programs as "entitlements" had been a slow creeping shifting of the narrative. Amber however pointed out the shift has occurred very rapidly only starting earlier this year with Paul Ryan's slash and burn budget. And I quote:

first instance of "Roadmap for America" plan being introduced: May 21, 2008 with a revision in January 2010.
check this google trends data:
http://www.google.com/trends?q=entitlement&date=all&geo=usa&ctab=0&sort=0&sa=N
Talk about controlling the narrative...

It is pretty terrifying how much and how rapidly the right wing control the narrative.

Secondly I found this LA Times article that sums up how much damage the Gang of Six proposals and other compromises Obama is willing to back will do to America. He really has sold us down the river.

As an aside there is an article by Jeffrey Sachs doing the rounds at the minute explaining why America is in such a bad state and it is fairly trenchant but thanks to someone in the comments (comments are weird like that, a lot of dross and then some very worthwhile stuff) pointed out Sachs is one of the creators of shock doctrine and was personally responsible for turning Russia into the Oligarch run hellhole it is today.

There are a lot of false friends out there.

Shame on Obama.

Why on earth did Pex have to be so goddamnn right?

Less Americans have access to basic necessities than when Obama was elected.

Goddamn scum.

Bernie Sanders is a good Senator.

Hell probably the only good senator:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5OtB298fHY

Chomsky talks about the latests Wikileak (and other stuff)

Democracy Now! have spoken with Noam Chomsky on a range of topics related to the cables leaked by Wikileaks. It covers a range of topics, notably the nature of the cables consistently supporting USA biases. If they are legitimate Chomsky points out that while Arab leaders, who are dictators to a man, may see eye to eye with the US in wanting to attack Iran the actual Arab populace not only view Israel and America as far bigger threats a majority, 57% actually view the prospect of a nuclear Iran positively. For some reason Arabs think only Israel having nukes in the region is dangerous.

A lot of other excellent points are made and he draws inferences and connections between various things that are obvious when he says them but very unlikely to occurred to most of us.

Please watch it: Part 1 and Part 2

thanks jonny

As an interesting post script the wikileaks twitter highlighted a cable from the leaks describing Prince Andrew. He seems like an absolute fucking idiot.

Bankers always win but this time they've won even more:

Found here.

So yeah America's Plutocratic Aristocracy is incomprehensibly rich and able to spend as much as it wants on elections. Things are going to get a lot worse for everyone on earth bar that tiny elite.

McDonalds franchise owner gives glimpse of America's future.

Just to be extra clear this is not (yet) McDonalds central policy, just one scumbag in Ohio but thanks to corporate power mushrooming the pesky laws preventing this sort of thing will likely be gotten rid of by bought and paid for candidates soon enough. What is this sort of thing? Well employees at an Ohio McDonalds got a note in their most recent paycheck telling them who to vote for or else. So the libertarian dream of those who are richest getting to make all the decisions gets one step closer!



thanks jonny

Doctor's union speaks up for the NHS.

Of the many plans of the Tory government to privatise the public sector one of the more prominent is the stealth privatisation of the NHS. The plan is relatively simple, under cover of all sorts of positive buzzwords Health Secretary Andrew Lansley is pushing for GPs to take on control of chunks of the NHS's budget but GPs are busy enough as it is so it is very likely they will pass on these duties on to private contractors. The motivation to do this is a big pay raise, big enough that it will absorb the fee GPs will pay the contractors and still leave them better off.

This was a pretty clever plan, doctors, in the main, certainly didn't get into their profession to help people or at least people who aren't themselves. But maybe even their greed has a limit. While this could be a holdout for an even bigger bribe it would seem the doctor's union isn't too fond of the plan calling it a slash and burn approach. I don't know if this is going anywhere but Doctors potentially turning down more money is a pretty big thing in itself.

Sometimes the unfairness of the world makes me very angry.

This is one of those times:


(apologies about the MS Paint highlighting that was put on before I got it)

thanks jonny

Your knowledge of salaries.

BBC Radio 4 have made a fun little quiz where you look at 12 jobs and see how much you think they're paids and how much they should be paid then you get to see their actual salary. Worth the five minutes it takes, especially for the salary comparison you see if you do all 12.

Upbeat article of the day: "Matecrime" against those with learning disabilities

Its not just the Conservatives who want to abuse those with special needs it is apparently a loathsome pursuit that transcends class boundries.

There appears to be a growing trend of people taking advantage of people with learning disabilities to make money off them, from stealing to forcing them into prostitution, or to simply bully them for fun, sometimes to the point of murder, all the while they think those abusing them are their friends because they're lonely or naive. Hence "matecrime".

Why are these vulnerable people being put in such a dangerous situation? Well Thatcher's government realised it was cheaper to have social services look after people in the community than to maintain expensive institutions and care programs. Thus care in the community was born. Of course Thatcher and subsequent governments didn't bother to adequately fund this new scheme and large government cuts looming it is likely even more vulnerable people will be turfed out on to the streets. Yay.

Tories gain another excuse to abuse the weakest and most vulnerable!

Breaking the chain already with a current news story but I think its worth pointing out. Essentially Ofsted (national school inspection body) has very conveniently for the government published a report today that lots of schools are stating that schools claim more children have special needs than actually do. That is entirely possible but it also means that funding for special needs children (which is higher than for other pupils) can be cut. In the aftermath of the cancellation of a lot of school building and repairs and the creation of "free" schools, all of which undermine the state school system one has to greet this latest possibility for cuts with some scepticism.

In addition I am reminded of the piece that I know I linked before but was probably back when I was on Buzz. It is Johann Hari's report from before the general election in which he looked at a Tory controlled council which was held up during the Tory election campaign as a model for what they wanted to do to the country. One of the things the council did to save money was find every possible excuse to cut funding for services to the needy and disabled for instance:

Each year since the Conservative council was elected, the pressure on the housebound has increased. Meals on Wheels brings one good, hot meal a day to people who can't get out. The council jacked up the charges for it by £527 a year – so half of the recipients had to cancel it. A local Labour councillor documented that the council rang up a 79-year-old woman with dementia, and when she seemed to say she didn't need any food, they cut off her meals.

Which does make me rather dubious about this sudden discovery that schools are getting more money than they should to help children with special needs.

A short summary of how unequal the distribution of wealth in the US is.

Please note, I am really quite lazy and have allowed a huge backlog of tabs I intend to read and then link to accrue so I am now trying to clear that backlog (I have strongly considered just closing all the tabs and starting from scratch but a) they're good pieces of info and b)thats just a bit too Pol Pot for my tastes). Because of this for the next few days (my aren't I optimistic) you may get quite a lot of "old" news with brief summaries. Nonetheless if I have kept it around this long its probably pretty useful stuff.

I have had the 2007 Striking it richer guide for quite a while, so long in fact that the 2008 revision has come out. If you only look at one look at the 2008 one but comparing the predictions in 2007 (pretty much the first few paragrapghs) and the outcome in 2008 is quite worth looking at.

The Striking it Richer guide is produced annually by the economics department at UC Berkley with a lag time on the data it covers of two years. It examines how the gap between rich and poor is growing in the US and also who among the rich is benefiting most and by what means they are gaining their increased share of the national wealth. Not fun reading but interesting summaries.

Oh do be sure to look at fig 1 (PDF Page 7 in 2008) and then wave your fist at Reagan's legacy.

American elites like totally annoyed about Qur'an burning.

Yeah so some shitty little 50 member congregation church in Florida is going to burn some Qur'ans because gubmint wont let them burn crosses where black folk live no more. Its an unpleasant but minor act of intolerance in a state, heck a nation, which sees a good deal of unpleasant acts of intolerance. But the "great and the good" are falling over themselves to condemn it, heck General Petraeus has entered the public sphere to boost his image for a presidential run taken a break from killing Afghanis and Pakistanis to publicly complain about this minor event and how it threatens the TRoops"

Of course this is because the powerful in the US care about the lives of the poors they send off to die in the middle east and how their favourite punching bag minority is treated. What they certainly aren't doing is deliberately making a big deal about this in the hopes it inflames anger among Muslims around the world (which it has) and makes westerners afraid of Muslims and their possible retaliations, people who are divided, afraid and angry and thus unable to realise their common interests are certainly not something they find desirable. Of course the absolute worst case scenario they'll do everything in their power to prevent is this anger over a storm in a tea cup leading to another terror attack, the further curtailment of civil rights this would force our leaders to impose is something that turns their very stomachs to think about.

Unemployment benefits are federally taxed in the US.

Thanks Reagan

thanks jonny (hes not responsible for federal taxation, just for linking this)

Privatised water means less water for the poor

Sure the UN might think it's a basic human right but what those bureaucrats don't realise is that the pursuit of profit at the expense of all human life and dignity is the most basic human urge, at least if you ask the elite. So we see Manila's poor going without water and the Philippine government nearly using the army to protect a private company's profits all because said private company had skimped on maintenance so as to have bigger profits, still what more can you expect from a de facto US colony?

Let us hope that Philippine citizens are able to mobilise in a similar manner as Bolivians did a decade ago.

thanks jonny

Tory attempt to privatise the UK school system an offensive farce.

Michael Gove as Education secretary is all about climb downs, first the election pledge of all children having a reading age of at least eleven when they left primary school stopped being mentioned and now his "free school" mission (privatisation by the back door) has been reduced from initial claims of hundreds of school champing at the bit to be free of the national curriculum to sixteen schools that will be "free" by the start of the 2011 academic year. Still, these sixteen harbingers of free market manufactured ignorance do manage to cram a great deal of awfulness in.

For one thing they're definitely preparing children to be able to function in the modern world:

The government backed plans for the West London Free School, which includes the journalist and author Toby Young on the steering committee. The school will have compulsory Latin for pupils aged 11 to 14, and a choice of either Latin or classical civilisation at GCSE

I mean sure people are moaning not enough people are taking foreign language GCSEs for living languages but our kids really need to know a dead one (yes pedants a small population in Switzerland does still speak something akin to Latin, this hardly justifies it as a GCSE). The reality however is an attempt to wag the dog, private schools in the UK still teach latin and the classics (a throwback to when it was considered a decent way to learn about ancient history) so by teaching children these two things it is hoped that they will be as socially mobile and as well educated as private school children, which is patently absurd. For a good example of the perception poshness /success being connected to knowing latin and the classics watch this video:



We also get the further entrenchment of faith schools, in Britain you don't need to home educate to warp your child and protect them from reality:

There is a distinctly religious strand to the first wave, with seven of the 16 having faith affiliations. Among those expected to open next September will be two Jewish schools in London, a Hindu school in Leicester, a Sikh school in Birmingham and three with a Christian ethos.

It should be noted than in none of these schools is there a requirement for the standard type of RE lesson, wherein children are educated about world faiths with (at least in theory) no overt bias towards any particular one. In faith schools the RE requirement can be met simply with lessons from the scripture of the schools' chosen religion.

Well into the article we also get a carefully worded hint about the true aim of these "free" schools:

The new schools, many more of which are expected to be approved in coming years, could also pose a challenge to the teaching unions because they emphasise raising standards through longer hours and more flexible teaching. Both methods could prove contentious.

and then a little bit later on

Two schools in London will be run in partnership with Ark, an academy sponsor backed by hedge fund money – and at least one of these will also be backed by the Sutton Trust, set up by the millionaire philanthropist Sir Peter Lampl.

Why I'm sure these rich folks with their hedge funds are undermining teacher's rights for the good of the kids, there can't be any aspiration to private profiteering from these ventures now can there? That was sarcasm btw

This is what proper journalism looks like.

Enjoy a rare chance to see such a precious thing. The Exiled explains it better than I can but I will give you an interesting question to ponder. Aside from simple whineyness, you have to wonder how much of the reason she complained Ratigan was a bad moderator was because she was, like most of us, used to "journalists" weakly accepting both sides of the argument as equally valid and how much it was because she believed it is bad journalism to disagree with her. Now obviously you lean towards the latter but she is so deer in the headlights by the end of things you do have to wonder.

Trust no one, denounce everyone.

Sure that image gets broken out a lot by foreigners who like to deflect away from the erosion of their own civil liberties but in this case its hard to view this as anything but a portent of things to come.

The Association of Chief Police Officers have put out an advert that encourages you to denounce and report people for inoffensive actions that are not in any way illegal.

It is interesting given the article I linked yesterday that one of the warning signs is not using a credit card thus linking being poor to terrorism.

Listen here.