The tangled deficit web

While the 99% continues to camp out, speak out and stand up, the powers-that-be are busy doing what they do best: bantering back and forth.

It seems a sad red thread for many movements and governing forces in this country: little to no organization and in-fighting that effectively neuters progress.

Now, I have to hand it to Congress, they have made in-fighting into a sick, twisted art form. This super committee in charge of cutting $1.2 trillion from the federal deficit over the next decade is coming up on the November 23rd deadline. What's the update? Nothing here, back to you.

Last week, the Democrats proposed an over-achieving plan that would cut $3.2 trillion from the deficit by cutting $500 billion from entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security and adding $1.3 trillion in tax revenues. The Republicans, led by Boehner, predictably retorted with the stone cold blocking of any and all new taxes. His plan rebuttal? A $2.2 trillion plan that would source largely from entitlement cuts and a few tax code revisions. Democrats scoffed at that plan due to its complete negation of new incoming revenue.

Let me start off by saying this: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, let me continue by saying that the naming of these revenue sources is way off point. They are not entitlement programs, they are already bought and paid for social services. You pay out of your check for social security - where does that go? Well, fuck me, it's supposed to go into the social security bank account...guess that's been dipped into before the golden years even got a subtle sheen. You don't get a bill when you call the cops, do you? Oh holy shit - how socialist of us!

And unless Republicans are marking corporate loopholes for the chop block (which of course they aren't), any tax code revision is totally superfluous. You don't raise a country up from the trenches by slicing and dicing the only thing standing between them and poverty, sickness, hunger and homelessness. You raise a country up by offering job opportunities (cough - new deal - cough, cough), taxing people based on their income, not how much they effect your political outcome, and putting money towards what the PEOPLE need and want, not what the Koch brothers and friends lobby for.

Sound too simple? Well in reality - it is.

I stand by the first motto this blog ever had: move forward, not left or right.

Republicans will never forsake big business or their ideological tenet of no new taxes. Democrats will wildly fling exorbitant numbers around and arbitrary new taxes. Neither party will address the fundamental issue: economic reform.

Why? Because the source of that fundamental issue is also the source of their private jet ride, their family vacay to Cancun and their sweet corner office once they finish with politics: corporations.

So, what happens if this supposed fix-it super committee doesn't do dick?

Sequestration.

Sounds like a warm up at a horse show, but what it means is this: if no plan is reached by November 23rd, it would trigger $1.2 trillion across-the-board cuts to the federal budget from 2013 onwards. This would include about $454 billion from defense and $123 billion from Medicare. Sound scary? Not really. Some argue that that's probably our best option, since genuine reform is unlikely at this point.

Others say it would be disastrous, particularly for troops still in overseas conflicts, already struggling with aging hardware and gear.

I hate to sound like the BIGGEST cynic but I don't think it matters either way. The fact of the matter is, that the way our government is set up, laws like this sequestration rarely move forward untouched. Congress has a rich (pun intended) of fiddling and revising federal budget amendments long before they go into effect. So, although this across-the-board threat sounds scary, it's really just the nightmare equivalent of seeing a coat hanging on the door and thinking it's Freddie Kreuger. The real Freddie is as always, the total lack of organization and reform happening here.

Whether this goes through in a few weeks doesn't matter. Either way, the decision or lack thereof will meet with changes, waivers, cuts and amendments - like putting band aids on cancer.

All we're doing is wasting more time - more precious time that continuously moves us closer and closer to all out economic failure.

And the worst part about that? The ones responsible, won't feel a thing.

We, the people will.

That's fucked up.

Let's not let that happen - please. Look beyond this toddler like tiffs to the source, and let's fight that source - this corporate rule.

Think. React. Do Something.

The Diet Occupation

This is actually my first commentary on the Occupation in LA. I've taken quite some time to gather my thoughts, take in the various vibes, events and stories. End result: It's a diet occupation.

How fitting for LA to have a light, sugar free, decaf version of a political movement. Mind you, I don't want to completely discount it. There are some people that are working very hard to get things done, and to move forward. But...it's not moving forward. It's actually not really moving - it's a quite stationary movement.

Occupy LA is disorganized, discombobulated and too varied to make an impact. And that really sucks.

I live downtown and I've been down to the "campsite" several times. As you walk towards it, a myriad of signs and messages blast you. And they are all different. The Ron Paul fanatics have their chem trails signs searing blue against the dirty, grimy tents. You have the greenies hoisting tibetan prayer flags and imploring people to love their mother earth and recycle. You've got anarchists, socialists, communists and an arbitrary drum circle all clouding the political stage outside city hall that's already rank with compost, weed and B.O.

I spoke to three different tents regarding a presentation on corporate control and personhood that I wanted to give. It was like being on the phone with, ironically, a corporate help center. You need to talk to this person - oh, no not me, talk to this person - you know, whatever's cool, we're open to ideas, but talk to this person...AHHHHH!

I don't care how equal and PC you wanna be, but movements have to have a centralized leadership. The General Assembly that they hold every night at 7 is more like a come and air out your issues support group. No one is taking responsibility for this movement. No one is in charge. And in that same vein, this movement has no central focus.

Now, everyone has an issue that is the most important to them, that they feel trumps all others. That's fine. But understand the source of your issues. And no, I don't mean mommy and daddy. I mean corporate America. All issues: environment, education, health care, foreign policy, infrastructure, economy can all be traced to the corporate control of our government. Sound too simple and a little too conspiracy theorist? I don't want you to believe me. I want you to find out for yourself. Don't trust me - you don't even know me.

Ask Google. Ask Noam Chomsky. Ask Naomi Klein. Ask Amy Goodman. Ask former politicians, bankers, economists. Ask people that have more experience, more knowledge. I'm always searching for more information - always questioning the "facts." Read up and dig in. It's our country and that's our duty - to know what's going on with it.

And again, if on your way you find an issue that speaks deeper than others. Awesome. But know where it comes from, know the source.

Don't put a band-aid on cancer by screaming at politicians over troops in the Middle East. Understand that this thinly veiled democratic corporate crusade began on September 11, 1973 in Chile and has been ongoing ever since. Similar patterns arise in all the aforementioned issues.

This source connect, this common goal, is starkly missing from the Occupy movement. If leadership does not step up and claim a straight direction, this movement will fester and die in the muddy grass outside of City Hall.

And that would be a damn shame. Bringing people together is a feat, but mobilizing and effecting change is another battle that needs to be waged. And it needs to be waged now, before fleeting momentum crumples and the drone of nay-sayers and dark chuckle of corporate kings drowns out the intentions and passions of we, the people.

Greatest country in the world?

I usually peruse a few sites and headlines before deciding on one story to cover. Today I couldn't choose just one...
-US to send 1,400 more Marines to Afghanistan
-Hedge Funds spend $10 Million to help GOP win election
-Census: 48 million Americans living in poverty.
As I read through these three, I had a brain aneurysm. I was somewhere in the hellish purgatory between the emotional states of anger, disbelief and sadness. How? Why? What the fuck is going on? Who the fuck is letting all this shit happen? Who authorized - how could they - 48 million? 1,400 more - after the bloodiest year on record? $10 million? Who's responsible for all this?
That's when I got that sick feeling in my stomach - like I'd scraped the cheese off a large pizza and slid it down my throat all at once. Yep, it's our fault.
Not to get too Catholic, and self deprecating, but let's be honest. We have disintegrated fast. No one forced us to stand and watch as our country spiraled into a shit hole, clawing at our rights and freedoms as it got sucked into the vortex of liberty's lamentation.
1 in 6 Americans now lives in poverty. Ummm...what? A significant number over the age of 65 due to the rise in medical costs. Simultaneously, if you head on over to costofwar.com, you can see that our Middle East check is above $1,134,426,550,000 and climbing rapidly. Is that trillion? Fuck, I don't think they even taught us how to abstractly count that high in calculus. Then again, I was privileged enough to get a good education - the poor kids coming up these days probably will never know what calculus even means. It will be just as abstract and distant as the thought of socialized medicine and getting to see their grandpa's 80th birthday, because we will have become too poor, fat, diseased and apathetic to make it much further.
They'll get a half rate education and then be sent away to offer their lives at the altar of corporate gains, hoping at least to get a few semesters of free education out of it. And if they do make it to the other side, they'll come home to flag waving dick sticks who pocket $10 million so that they can reciprocally keep the cycle of top 1% wealth, arrogance, and back stabbing thievery going.
God bless the USA!
Fuck!
Really?! How the hell did this happen? When did we get to the point, as a people, that we allow our own government, to kill our children, financially torture almost 50 million people and use our hard earned money to finance a corporate playground of deceit and destruction? Are we really OK with this?
Can we glance over these headlines without stopping to think...to question...
Is this right?
Is this normal now?!
Is the extent of corporate influence only matched by the extent of our apathy?
How many more headlines do we have to read before our brains disallow this behaviour?
Alone, it doesn't seem like we can do a damn thing. But, after all, it's WE the people, isn't it? You don't have to have a precise, day by day plan as to how to overthrow the evils of the world, but for fucks sake, something...Do something.