Those of us who are old school Kennedy (as in JFK) liberals, have watched for decades as the party of FDR and JFK has degenerated into corporatist pussies before our very eyes. We pretty well knew the writing was on the wall after Jimmy Carter became a one termer, and a new mutant breed of Dem emerged that sucked on the corporate teats and longed to be more like the new "king on the block", Ronnie Raygun. Never mind Reagan single- handedly converted this nation into a massive debtor with his reckless armaments spending even as his ruthless social brutality increased the number of homeless by five-fold merely by tossing all the mentally ill out of their hospital beds.
How ANY Dem, president or other, could in any way hold up Reagan as an exemplar is beyond me and shows how far this country's political duopoly has gone into the crapper. But for a lot of that we can thank two corporate arms of the Democratic Party that shill for the Corporatocracy: the DLC or "Democratic Leadership Council" and "The Third Way". These mutants can call themselves whatever the hell they want but what they really are is Neoliberal puppets. And if Neoliberal at all, they are degenerates of mind and outlook.
Because of their entrenched position and now even directing all future vision, I predict that within ten years - maybe sooner- we will see a political schism within the Democratic Party into a corporate breed of DINO Dems, and a new breed of truly Progressive Democrats. At that point, I may well rejoin the Dems via the latter.
My ire now is directed at some of these D-corporate ass-suckers who are trying to make the REAL liberals-progressives look like "hair on fire" freaks in a frenzy because we have called out Barack on going back on his campaign promises. We've also called out the corporate poseur "Dems" for trying to ply us with utter bullshit that the Chained CPI is "not a real cut". I refer to tools such as a character calling himself "Deaniac 83" who scribbled this blog post entitled Dear Liberals, Chained CPI is NOT a “Cut” to Social Security. Get Over It
No fucking way will I "get over it", buddy boy! Not now or ever. And no amount of soft-soaping PR from a shill (maybe on hire by the Third Way or DLC) will cause me to! You little bastards are responsible for wrecking the party, either driving people out of it like you did me, or simply causing others to cease voting entirely - understanding that corporate hegemony trumps votes every time.
It's those like Deaniac 83, DINOS for sure, that give all Dems a bad name. One heholds this smug, self-described “progressive” sneering that the chained-CPI benefit cut has “set off more alarm bells on the Left’s media than Pearl Harbor.” Well, maybe because this could well be the Democrats' "Pearl Harbor". Because if Obama goes through with the Chained CPI, while he has the Reepos' backs against the wall, he will damage the Dem brand forever.
As blogger Richard Eskow describes the effluent from this fool.......errrrrrr.....TOOL:
"The piece’s blend of arrogance and misinformation typifies the new style of the corporate-Democratic loyalist, with rhetorical ploys straight out of the Pete Peterson playbook: Benefit-cut opponents are “zealous liberals” and “ideologues” who speak with “hair-on-fire” hysteria. And this is not a cut in benefits."
But as I noted in a previous blog the chained CPI would lower benefits for the typical Social Security recipient (who retires at age 65) by $653 a year at age 75 and by $1,139 a year at age 85 If this isn't a CUT what the hell is? The bottom line is that the affected senior has less and less to live on each year, even as costs will likely shoot through the roof (especially when the roof collapses on oil, and Peak Oil rears its full brunt). As Eskow notes:
"The “chained CPI" .... lowers the rate at which benefits are increased by factoring in the reduced consumption of certain items – reductions that would be driven by cuts in benefits!"
In other words, those like my 90-year old mom, whose income will fall to $915 per month if she reaches 95, will barely be able to afford kibbles and low grade cat food. But see, these Chained CPI Scrooges insist that there's never any cutting because the sensible senior just ratchets down his diet and expectations as the costs go up! So s/he ain't really losing! So, if beef soars, you go to pork chops. If pork soars you go down to chicken. If chicken soars you then ratchet down to tuna. If tuna soars you go down to sardines. If sardines soar, you go to the giant bag of kibbles. If kibbles soar.....well, I guess the senior has to eat shit.
Or as Richard Eskow puts it:
"This would quickly become a death spiral to the financial security of the elderly and disabled financial: They can’t afford beef so they buy chicken. They can’t afford chicken so they buy cereal. Then they go from cereal to Fancy Feast. From Fancy Feast to Purina. And so on and so on, ad infinitum, Ad nauseum."
Meanwhile, economists Kathy Ruffing and Paul Van de Water (not Pareto-based economists), who compared the U.S. Social Security benefits with those of similar programs in other countries noted that:
"Social Security benefits in the United States are low compared with other advanced countries. Future retirees already face lower benefits (relative to their past earnings) than current retirees as a result of a rising Social Security retirement age and escalating Medicare premiums."
Ruffing and Van de Water found that Social Security benefits in this country provide 41.3 percent a retiring worker’s income on average, while those in other developed countries provide 60.8 percent. That’s roughly one-third less than other nations’ program — and yet this “liberal” argument claims that our cost-of-living calculations are so lavish that they must be slowed down.
DO these smug, self-satisfied turds like "Deaniac83" care? Hell no! All they care about is pumping out their loopy, obfuscating, pro-corporate, pro -plutocrat rhetoric and expecting the rest of us to swallow it. "Now be a good little do -be, and understand that Barack had no choice what with all those crazy people on the Hill!'" Sorry, bozo, don't buy it! Barack needs balls (or maybe a shot of 'T' or some Androgel), and if he had half the balls of John Kennedy, he'd teach those Teapee twerps, dysfunctional Reepos a thing or two. One example: He could have opted to use the 14th amendment last year to increase the debt ceiling on his own, as opposed to allowing the insane sequestration that now looms, unnecessarily I might add. But invoking the 14th would have required some balls. He didn't do it, now we have even more of a mess as this "fiscal cliff" evolves.
Sure it might have invited a constitutional crisis, but that is the price when you must confront insane nuts who somehow managed to get elected and are wreaking havoc - holding the nation hostage - by using the same ploy as leverage when they weren't taught properly not to do so the first time!
The difference between these wussie -ass, corporate-puppet Dems and the old line liberals like me, is we are still prepared to take the other side to the mat, not sit down with them and make tea....and give them everything they want.
If there is to be a Democratic Schism, I say bring it on! The sooner we get rid of the DINOS in the D- party, the once upon a time party of fearless men like FDR and JFK, the better off we all will be. Then we can leave the corporatists behind!
If corporatism, on the other hand, is the only game to be left in town, then count me out as being any future contributor to its advancement.
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