SeevsPlace » Politics http://mcseavey.org/blog The leaves have grown on the trees. Hot is the wind. Summer is coming! SUMMER IS HERE! Sun, 29 Aug 2010 14:39:48 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Where’s the Recovery? http://mcseavey.org/blog/2010/08/27/wheres-the-recovery/ http://mcseavey.org/blog/2010/08/27/wheres-the-recovery/#comments Fri, 27 Aug 2010 13:14:14 +0000 Mardé http://mcseavey.org/blog/?p=2541 Paul Krugman hits the nail on the head again with his Op-Ed this morning, This Is Not a Recovery. He points out we need 2.5% GDP growth just to keep unemployment from rising, and instead, the latest figure out this morning for the second quarter is 1.6%! Instead of treading water with a 2.5% growth we’re being swept backwards, as though in a Pakistan flood, with a mere 1.6% growth.

Here’s the most popular comment, twice as many votes as the next most popular, on Krugman’s article:

As enlightening as your commentary always is, it assumes that policy makers have the interest of the average American, and in particular the unemployed, at heart.

The name of your blog is quite revealing here: you indeed appear to have a conscience, and as a liberal (and further as one freely admitting to the same) you possess a small healthy dose of naivete about your fellow man, generally believing in good intentions. I’m afraid the same can not be said about the majority of those at the Fed or otherwise controlling the reigns of the broader economy.

As an economist, you really should know better than anyone: whenever an inexplicable behavior arises, the best way to find an explanation is always to simply “follow the money”. So who stands to benefit from high unemployment?

If you look at the last ten years of US economic history, you see repeated rises and falls that all follow a similar pattern: when the economy is growing, the average worker fails to benefit. When the economy falls, the worker always loses the most, in terms of both buying power and job security. The benefit to large business owners, who control the majority of wealth and political power in the US, is substantial. The shakier the labor market, the more workers worry about their job security and the less compensation they are willing to work for. Eventually most workers are simply happy to have a job at all and are forced to settle for less and less.

What other explanation, for example, in the government’s complicity in allowing US jobs to be shipped increasingly overseas?

The political and the wealthy in the US are well enough intertwined to form a well-oiled machine. The working class is increasingly powerless. The federal officials you seem to hope for see things in terms of what is most beneficial for them, and increasingly this is to work in alignment with the very wealthy, who contribute most to their election and who stand to offer most in the private sector when they cycle back out of government.

As long as labor is weak and nervous, with the promise of better times always around the corner, unrest is kept at bay enough to permit the rich to keep getting richer with little or no downside.

As nice as it would be to believe in a government with the interests of the little guy at heart, it’s about as much based on hard evidence as Santa Clause. Let’s grow up and either decide to stop complaining about it or talk about some way to fight back.
Recommended by 548 Readers

Yes, this is a pretty cynical comment, but unfortunately it may in very large part be true. The question is, How do we fight back?

Thanks to “Klark, New York, NY” for the comment in red.

]]> http://mcseavey.org/blog/2010/08/27/wheres-the-recovery/feed/ 2 Mama Grizzly says Lamestream Media! http://mcseavey.org/blog/2010/07/31/mama-grizzly-says-lamestream-media/ http://mcseavey.org/blog/2010/07/31/mama-grizzly-says-lamestream-media/#comments Sat, 31 Jul 2010 18:25:08 +0000 Mardé http://mcseavey.org/blog/?p=2505 And she’s right! Never thought I would agree with Sarah Fucking Palin on anything, but in this case…..

Did you watch the president’s weekly address today?? Probably not. I didn’t either but I read about it later. He’s demanding an up or down vote on the small business aid bill.

This is another sign that he’s beginning to fight back. He can demand all he wants but Mitch McConnell holds the votes. Somehow that bastard has every little Republican under his thumb, even our sometimes moderate senators Susan and Olympia. How does he do it?

The blatant hypocrisy and duplicity of the way the Republicans blocked this bill by adding totally irrelevant controversial amendments which in all rights should require separate legislation should be obvious to any fair minded person. Why isn’t the media helping to shed light on this? Why aren’t they exposing this crap?

Because, as Momma Grizzly says, they are lamestream! It’s a lamestream media!!

]]> http://mcseavey.org/blog/2010/07/31/mama-grizzly-says-lamestream-media/feed/ 2 AHA, Here’s a Good One! http://mcseavey.org/blog/2010/05/10/aha-heres-a-good-one/ http://mcseavey.org/blog/2010/05/10/aha-heres-a-good-one/#comments Mon, 10 May 2010 12:36:51 +0000 Mardé http://mcseavey.org/blog/?p=2414 While reading Paul Krugman’s excellent piece, Sex & Drugs & the Spill, in the NYT this morning, I came across this comment. It pretty much sums up the way I feel. But it’ll probably take another hundred years, if we make it, before it’s realized in this increasingly right wing country. Thanks, Dim from Texas, whoever you are.

It has become clear that we need much stronger regulations of many industries and to make those regulations work we need a good competent government, I completely agree with you there. When the Soviet Union collapsed this was portrayed as a definitive proof that capitalism, or market economy, is superior to socialism. Of course, Soviet Union was rotten from the inside by over-regulation much much earlier, but events in recent years indicate that market economy is not that superior. Russia was just a wrong country to set an example. If socialism, or even communism, first took root in a country like Germany or Japan the result would have been quite different (no, I didn’t not forget about East Germany which was forced into a soviet type system). I feel Karl Max was right and we will all eventually end up in an economic system that is a healthy hybrid of socialism and market economy. And the role of socialism will be played by strong regulations, channeling the energy of the market economy toward common good, a system which is more fair for all, with checks and balances, not rigged so much to benefit the insiders – Wall Street, corporations, politicians – as it is now.

]]> http://mcseavey.org/blog/2010/05/10/aha-heres-a-good-one/feed/ 0 The Axis of the Obsessed and Deranged http://mcseavey.org/blog/2010/02/28/the-axis-of-the-obsessed-and-deranged/ http://mcseavey.org/blog/2010/02/28/the-axis-of-the-obsessed-and-deranged/#comments Mon, 01 Mar 2010 01:20:46 +0000 Mardé http://mcseavey.org/blog/?p=2326 This is the title of the Op-Ed by Frank Rich today in the New York Times.

I’ve been reading through the over 800 comments on his piece, and here’s one by a Pauline from NYC that struck a special chord with me. The most popular comment, with over 1300 recommendations, is excellent as well. But none that I’ve read so far has hit the note of this one. But then again I’ve read only about ten of them.


Frank, the reality is that this anger has been building since last year, and it is not only the Tea Partiers.

As dangerous and deranged as these people are, people of every stripe are full of rage at the conditions in this country. For mostly valid reasons.

Quite apart from economic suffering, the daily assault of what life is becoming in America today renders people helpless — and that is the greatest incubator for rage.

The contemptuous dishonesty of the banks, to which anyone who has a checking account or credit card is subject; the corporate stranglehold on everything that touches our lives; the constant wars; torture as a regular topic of discourse; a destructive health care system in the hands of a corrupt, predatory industry; abysmal and worsening education standards and opportunities.

And all of this abetted, supported and kept in place by a platoon of corrupt, bribe taking political hacks.

This is not some crackpot interpretation!!! It is the reality that life in the USA is, and the average middle class person is being bled dry, daily.

LIFE IN AMERICA, FOR PROBABLY 30% OF THE POPULATION, HAS BECOME A BRUTAL, PITILESS EXPERIENCE.

Who would not be enraged? It is in fact astonishing that it has taken this long. But the saddest thing is that it’s the wingnuts who are making the noise.

If the mainstream, who are suffering badly, would in their own way make their voices felt, and stand up to the corporate/state union, they might stave off what all this portends: a slide toward fascism.

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]]> http://mcseavey.org/blog/2010/02/28/the-axis-of-the-obsessed-and-deranged/feed/ 2 A Lot To Say http://mcseavey.org/blog/2010/01/26/a-lot-to-say/ http://mcseavey.org/blog/2010/01/26/a-lot-to-say/#comments Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:03:35 +0000 Mardé http://mcseavey.org/blog/?p=2279 and no time to say it. I’m off at 8:45am to the Eyecare Medical Group in Portland for my left cataract removal. I sit here with no breakfast rather grumpily. And I read about Obama’s three year freeze in discretionary spending (I guess John McCain agrees — how nice) and note his lack of leadership on health care. I’ve about given up on Obama. His plans for solving the job problems in America are piddling, in addition to the budget freeze not helping jobs at all. The Republicans will take over. But I’m looking forward to getting this cataract removed and doing without glasses, although they say I’ll need them for reading. OK, now I gotta go and start taking eye drops. Kate will be over soon and the three of us, Kate, me, Cynthia will head out for Portland at 8:45am.

]]> http://mcseavey.org/blog/2010/01/26/a-lot-to-say/feed/ 0 Had to Mention… http://mcseavey.org/blog/2009/11/15/had-to-mention/ http://mcseavey.org/blog/2009/11/15/had-to-mention/#comments Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:08:35 +0000 Mardé http://mcseavey.org/blog/?p=2174 …. the fact that our country is once again falling into a morass if not an abyss, namely Afghanistan. Not that it makes much difference what I say here. My loyal readership has dropped down to a precious few, while most of it, such as it is, comes from people searching for Frank Zappa, Pearl Harbor Day, or other things largely irrelevant to the present moment. How did I ever set up this blog for such an outcome?

Anyway, getting back to Afghanistan, Frank Rich in the NYT today has a block buster of an Op-Ed called “The Missing Link From Killeen to Kabul”. I think this is a must read for everyone, even those searching for Frank Zappa. (By mentioning Frank Zappa here, maybe some in their searching will chance upon this post?)

Here is the number one comment by readership popularity on Frank Rich’s article:

Fort Hood is an example of how religious doctrine can be used as an excuse for mentally unbalanced people to assume the role of the God they claim to worship. It’s not only Muslims who fall in this category, but Christians who blow up Federal buildings and murder abortion doctors. It also applies to ultra-Orthodox Jews who assassinate Israeli prime ministers.

There are hotheads of all types and sizes looking for a holy war. Cooler heads should prevail.

Afghanistan is the latest chapter in America’s attempt to play God in another fashion, by recreating the world in our own image. It’s time to quit wasting our soldiers’ lives and our resources and focus on what it will take to finally bring the U.S. infrastructure, education, and social safety net into the 21st century.

This comment, by Aredee of Madison, WI, is getting 560 reader recommendations with the second most popular getting 367. Practically all of the many comments on Frank’s article are for America getting out of Afghanistan. Check ‘em out, after you read the article.

]]> http://mcseavey.org/blog/2009/11/15/had-to-mention/feed/ 11 Obama’s Nobel http://mcseavey.org/blog/2009/10/12/obamas-nobel/ http://mcseavey.org/blog/2009/10/12/obamas-nobel/#comments Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:10:30 +0000 Mardé http://mcseavey.org/blog/?p=2151 It’s probably true, as Minds Erased says, that the Nobel Peace prize is really like a Grammy Award, not based on merit, just a popularity contest, and only meant as a form of encouragement. Hendrick Hertzberg in the latest New Yorker (Oct. 19) pretty much agrees with this view. But that old foreign policy guru, Zbigniew Brzezinski, while admitting that Obama needs to earn the prize, deserves it nevertheless. Why? Here’s what he says:

He deserves it because, in the course of less than a year, he really has refined America’s relationship with the world. He has grandly improved America’s image in the world. He has committed America to a series of policies designed to resolve conflicts and to deal in a non-unilateral fashion with key issues. And he has committed America to grand goals in the area of nuclear weaponry, global problems and so forth.

What do I think?

Well, I think Iran is really not a threat and that if Obama can’t figure out how to talk to them, he’s not earned much, and he really should get out of Afghanistan. At least it appears now that he may drop the idea of routing out the Tailban. That’s a step forward.

But what do I think about Obama getting the prize?

Well, I don’t think he should have rejected it, but I’m sure it’ll be an additional burden for him to carry. It’s good that he at least is donating the proceeds to charity.

]]> http://mcseavey.org/blog/2009/10/12/obamas-nobel/feed/ 0 See the Crazies in Action! http://mcseavey.org/blog/2009/09/14/see-the-crazies-in-action/ http://mcseavey.org/blog/2009/09/14/see-the-crazies-in-action/#comments Tue, 15 Sep 2009 02:49:41 +0000 Mardé http://mcseavey.org/blog/?p=2122 Go do the masochism tango and watch the crazies spewing garbage over at Minds Erased’s This is what happens when drinking water isn’t filtered! The video gets into the middle of the crazies weekend love fest down in Washington D.C. Questions are asked of the crazies, but they can answer none of them. Like, Fascism, Communism, Smashism who cares, they’re all Obama to them.

But did I hear one woman say she wanted Medicare expanded? She no doubt thinks it’s not a government program. Ignorance in America runs rampant!

UPDATE: Frank Rich this morning doesn’t quite dismiss these kooks and their nutty hero Glenn Beck. They represent deep down some real frustrations for which there is some justification. At least that’s what Rich claims and I think I agree.

]]> http://mcseavey.org/blog/2009/09/14/see-the-crazies-in-action/feed/ 2 Joe Wilson – Then and Now http://mcseavey.org/blog/2009/09/11/joe-wilson-then-and-now/ http://mcseavey.org/blog/2009/09/11/joe-wilson-then-and-now/#comments Fri, 11 Sep 2009 12:34:12 +0000 Mardé http://mcseavey.org/blog/?p=2094 Juan Cole has a nice piece on the contrast between the two Joe Wilson’s, one called Bush a liar for stating Iraq bought yellowcake uranium from Niger, and the other called Obama a liar for stating that the health reform would not cover illegal immigrants. Well, the first Joe Wilson was right: Bush lied when he said Iraq bought yellowcake uranium, and for pointing out that lie Joe Wilson was vilified by his government. The second Joe Wilson was wrong: Obama told the truth when he said illegal immigrants will not be covered. (In fact, the illegal immigrants will pay but will receive no benefits, just as happens when they must pay into social security.) Obama accepted the second Joe Wilson’s apology. Bush, especially Cheney, never accepted the truth and tried to destroy the first Joe Wilson’s reputation. Read Juan Cole’s excellent analysis of this, and see the funky graphics by Befunky.com.

]]> http://mcseavey.org/blog/2009/09/11/joe-wilson-then-and-now/feed/ 1 Fired UP! Ready to GO! http://mcseavey.org/blog/2009/09/07/fired-up-ready-to-go/ http://mcseavey.org/blog/2009/09/07/fired-up-ready-to-go/#comments Mon, 07 Sep 2009 21:35:47 +0000 Mardé http://mcseavey.org/blog/?p=2081 Hey, ya gotta see this. Talk about your Fired Up! Ready to go!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLnoctztjh0[/youtube]

Fired Up! Ready to go!

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