I have an ongoing (mostly one-sided) dialogue with the Denver Post. Their letters section is typical newspaper fare, boring beyond words, absorbed in politics and sniping from the two permissible viewpoints: Democrat and Republican. I send in letters now and then, but it’s a big city, so the odds are long anyway, but beyond that, my letters don’t fit within the proscribed framework.

I do occasionally get a call saying that my letter “might” be printed, and then it isn’t. That tells me there is some sympathy in the lower levels there for my words, but that the editor, typically someone who ascended the ranks due to predictability, vetoes it.

Anyway, here’s the latest, and for this one I can assure you that there will not even be a perfunctory phone call and a “might.” This one crosses three boundaries: It violates D/R; it criticizes the Post, and it is disrespectful of American journalism.

President Obama’s visit [to Colorado] created a flurry of press coverage, as intended.

Obama is doing what any politician would do given leeway. He professes devotion to high ideals while working against them behind the scenes. His public words and private actions do not square up.

Example: His administration is in court in New York attempting to preserve the executive power to arrest and indefinitely detain American citizens without formal charges or even a day in court. This attack on habeas corpus started with President Bush. Obama has flanked Bush’s right wing by extending it to American citizens.

The Post is all over his stump speeches. We need to know about his real activities. It’s called “journalism.”

A politician can speak in favor of any high-falutin’ notion while running for office. But speeches are not governance. Actions are what matters. Journalists need to report to us on activities, and not just words.

The kerfuffle noted below between Democrats and progressives over minimum wage is exemplary of the larger rift in our society between a captured party and the remnants of what used to be called “the left.” Each bears its own share of responsibility for the dysfunction of our political system.

Democrats bear most of the brunt, but I’ll deal with progressives first.

We are like soldiers outside a castle shelling it with small rocks from decrepit catapults. The old ways are done, ineffective, long since under management by the right. Protests are routinely ignored by the media, and when effective, are infiltrated, marginalized, and otherwise gelded.
Continue reading “Progressives and Democrats are each ineffective in their own ways; eminent domain as a solution to the housing crisis; political nihilism exemplified” →

This story is fairly predictable. It is from the Russian news outlet “RT.com” (Russian Times*). I was told by Polish Wolf that Obama’s wars, as opposed to Bush’s, were smarter, better waged, kinder and gentler … something like that.

So we bombed Libya, murdered its leader, and the liberals now have all moved on to more murder and mayhem in Syria. (Some things never change. It was the liberals who initiated the Southeast Asian wars, and the millions killed there.)

In the meantime .. I love the last line of this story:

However, if the new Libyan authorities fail to bring peace to the country, that wouldn’t become an obstacle for the US to control its vast oil reserves, believes Richard Spencer, founder and co-editor of AlternativeRight.com.

“I think the US is very happy if Libya becomes a chaotic place where there is no real central power opposing anything they do,” he shared adding that “political stability and having the oil flow are two very different things.”

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*The Washington Post, demonstrating its acute self-awareness, referred to RT as the “Russian propaganda outlet.”

Social Security,like the Postal Service, is under attack, perhaps the most deadly such attack in its history. Where Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush launched a full frontal attacks, President Obama is more clever. Reagan’s defeat was so sound that he, for perception’s sake, became a supporter of the program. George W. Bush merely changed the subject, but each attack took its toll.

Obama is working behind the scenes to undermine Social Security by defunding it, claiming that in so doing he is providing a tax break for the middle and working classes.

(OK guys. Democrats have left the room now. We can speak freely.)

The ruse is easily uncovered. If Obama wanted to provide a tax break for the middle and working classes, he could do so without tapping Social Security revenues. It’s a choice he made, and so exposes him as yet another enemy of the program.

The American tax system is a mystery to ordinary people. It is neither simple nor transparent. The owning classes, now known as the 1%, understand it well enough to play it to their advantage, and so have a huge advantage over the rest of us. Obama could not pull his defunding stunt in an informed environment.

What follows beneath the fold is intended for readers who are interested in the actual workings of the Social Security program – non-partisan people of curious mind.

Continue reading “The Social Security program explained …” →

WARNING!!! This article contains shrill language and images. Parental discretion is advised.

I never cease amazement at the despicable ruin our country is falling into, institutions one after another succumbing to our owning/investing class. These are the rent seekers. They provide a useful service – reallocation of capital – and otherwise live quite well off the efforts and savings of others. They call themselves “investors,” “job creators,” “hedge funds,” “capital management firms,” and have even absconded with the honorable word “entrepreneur.” In normal times they are useful to us, but given too much power become predators rather than servants.

Wall Street banks have fallen. Financial ratings agencies wear tarnished badges, and can no longer be trusted.* Poor people have been targeted with credit card debt, and home owners saw their savings disappear in the 2007 meltdown. Even college students are now an indentured class, owing mountains of debt for which there is never, ever an escape clause.**

The latest institution targeted is the Postal Service.

Continue reading “The game is afoot” →