Haves, Have Nots, and Have Mores

Thomas Frank has an article in the February issue of Harper’s entitled "Servile Disobedience" well worth a read. I am sure Frank is not the only member of the non-elite class in America who at some point wistfully has envisioned the members of the privileged class breaking down and actually exhibiting empathy for us poor slobs struggling in the merciless economic quicksand they created for us. There is the rub.

Frank doesn’t mince words:

“The rich are different from you and me. They are ruder and less generous. They don’t get what others are thinking and apparently they don’t really care.

... People don’t craft poisonous collateralized debt obligations by calling on what they learned in Sunday school.”

Read below the fold...

Even the wealthy can get in over their heads, real estate-wise. But if you default on a seven-figure mega-mortgage in the 90210 zip code, you're a lot less likely to end up on the sidewalk. In fact, you'll probably be able to continue living in the house -- rent and tax free -- for years!! Read below the fold...

Lincoln wouldn't be your first choice to accompany you to a party, even a political party.

By all accounts, he was a dark brooding man although not so much is written of his disposition prior to the death of his ethereal love, Ann Rutledge. Despite his hatred of slavery, he eventually married Mary Todd, a slave owner's daughter, after an on-again-off-again courtship. After the nuptials were scheduled, his answer to a casual question of his intended whereabouts was:

“To hell, I guess.” Read below the fold...

This is just a quick hit, but I think Chris Hedges' article from 1/3/11 nails it (with a big assist from perpetually controversial Ralph Nader). (Please note: I am committed to non-violence. I don't know if Hedges is or not, but I do think we can take our country back peacefully.)

Here is a choice excerpt: Read below the fold...

Patrick Martin writes:

In a society which took seriously the value of human life and the future of its children, the spectacle of 50 million people at risk of hunger, including 17 million children, would be a social emergency. Given that the United States once boasted of its ability to feed the planet, the indifference to the growth of hunger at home is a national scandal.

Read below the fold...

Raising the retirement age to a whopping 70 is more than a twinkle in the eyes of Obama and his Gucci-loafered-Austerian-Commission-sadists from both sides of the aisle. They are about to stick it once again to all of us, but particularly to struggling low-income older women in physical jobs!

It just keeps on getting uglier and uglier. Sharon Johnson in this article in womensenews spells out how exceptionally cruel it is to the plight of women. Read below the fold...

Seems that my website "disappeared." Not sure if I'll try to find it or use its demise as a way to start anew, be born again, rise from the ashes, reboot and retoot.

For six years I tried like heck to "be part of the solution" by becoming active in the Democratic Party. I worked on two presidential campaigns, one US.Senate campaign, and one local state representative campaign. I became a County Chair, I was a delegate to the 2004 convention, I attended rallies, and state conventions and state dinners. I had dinner with the governor. Read below the fold...

Red Queen, propietress of the awesome blog, Elizabitchez, has run into a situation that has made her current living situation untenable, and she needs help scrambling the funds together to get the hell out of Dodge, ASAP!

So go over there and throw her some funds, if you've got'em.

And if you aren't reading her blog, do it now. You will not find a more unique perspective on feminism, poverty, and the inevitable intersections thereof. Read below the fold...

My first Corrente post. Just an observation of what is becoming glaringly obvious, and not a prescription.

Americans are angry, and rightly so. Since the start of the century, we have seen our health, our livelihoods, and our rights systematically being stripped away by politicians in collusion with the mega-rich. The people-in-charge of this looting should be quaking in their well-shod feet at the wrath of regular Americans, but they have employed the traditional prophylactic against "revolting peasants"-- the designated hate target. Read below the fold...

[And I'm leaving this sticky since I don't think CD's the only one. In fact, I know she's not. --lambert]

I won't lie to you: I could use more money. I'm not a slob (well, mostly; don't look in that lower floor toilet right now, m'kay?) and I like working hard. Not hard like certain Bread-licking dykes from the Left Coast, of course /naughty/, but still, hard work and I are old friends. Like most of you, I am experiencing personally just how bad this economy sux, and how difficult it is to manage health care realities with paying the bills on time. Read below the fold...

I'll make it simple and short. How much time and effort should we spend, as individuals, caring for our elder (or younger, or more helpless) relatives who are caught in the meat grinder of the American Health "care" system?

My options:

1. Give up. Move on. Let them die. But, letting them die, probably have a degree of financial and professional "success" I can't have if I'm caring for others.
2. Try to balance 4.5 jobs, as opposed to 3.5, and try to support some dying, sick old folks related to me, giving them a degree of comfort they can't manage on their own. Read below the fold...

We live in the age of Big Numbers We Don't Understand. To put Google’s annual revenue in more context, if Google were a sovereign nation, it would have the 90th largest economy in the world, below Panama and above Cyprus. Put another way, Google is worth two Albanias, four Haitis, or eight (!) Mongolias.

This in reference to a measly 149BN market cap.

Any suggestions for whose GDPs we can line up for the Big Shitpile?

Or another edifying context? Read below the fold...

If you are rich enough, famous enough, or connected enough, there is no crime of which you cannot expect to escape conviction, apparently. The Swiss government today set Roman Polanski free, refusing a US request to extradite him for raping a 13-year-old girl to whom he gave alcohol and Quaaludes in 1977. Read below the fold...

By

Warren Mosler and Joseph M. Firestone

Paul Krugman agrees that “We're Not Greece.” But he only appears to have a glimmer of an understanding of the most important reason why this is so. We hope this commentary on his op-ed piece improves his understanding, and that of other deficit doves who appear to disagree with the deficit terrorists, but who in the end share their false basic assumptions about deficits, national debts, fiscal responsibility, and fiscal sustainability.

It’s an ill wind that blows nobody good, and the crisis in Greece is making some people — people who opposed health care reform and are itching for an excuse to dismantle Social Security — very, very happy. Everywhere you look there are editorials and commentaries, some posing as objective reporting, asserting that Greece today will be America tomorrow unless we abandon all that nonsense about taking care of those in need.

Read below the fold...