Last friday, the Omaha World-Herald printed the following letter I wrote in its Public Pulse section:

Universal health care = liberty

The time has come for the United States to join the modern world by adopting a universal health insurance system similar to Canada’s single-payer system. Those who say that this type of system will curtail our freedoms have it backward.

Many children and adults in the United States now face a lifetime of poverty and government dependence solely because the price of their needed medication is over­whelming. Right now, health care is rationed in the United States, based upon economic status. Thousands die every year because they cannot afford health insurance. How free are they?

The ridiculous cost of health care in America is hurting the competitiveness of our businesses in the global market. It is crushing the entrepreneurial spirit of our citizens, causing needless deaths and mak­ing it impossible for people to lead produc­tive lives. Drastic change is needed.

Donald Kuhns, Omaha

As if to prove one of my points, the World-Herald on Tuesday printed an astounding article describing health care rationing right here in Omaha on its front page.

“We can't provide (care) fast enough,” said Skolkin, CEO of OneWorld Community Health Centers.

Patient counts continue to increase at federally funded health centers in Nebraska and Iowa, which primarily serve the uninsured and low- to moderate-income people with insurance.

Although there are signs that the economy is recovering, clinics in the region say the gains have not caught up to patients who lost jobs and health coverage during the recession.

Each month, OneWorld turns away more than 250 people seeking first-time appointments, up from 50 per month two years ago. The health center tells them to call back in several weeks. Patient volume is so high that keeping a waiting list is impractical.

Such patients at the Council Bluffs Community Health Center wait a month to get in for an appointment, twice as long as a few years ago.

New patients without insurance are waiting six to eight weeks for appointments at the People's Health Center in Lincoln. Waits most likely will increase this year, said Deb Shoemaker, the center's executive director. (Waits are shorter for those with private insurance because slots for those patients don't fill up as fast.)

But don't you dare call it rationing.  This is America.

Take 'Em Down

It's payback time.

donate to the recall campaign here.

Conservatives Love The '80s. (The 1880s, that is)

Sorry for the gap.  I've been on vacation for the last week.

Missouri State Senator Jane Cunningham took a lot of heat this month for introducing a bill to gut child labor laws in that state.

the bill’s own official summary decribes it thus(emphasis added by Think Progress):

This act modifies the child labor laws. It eliminates the prohibition on employment of children under age fourteen. Restrictions on the number of hours and restrictions on when a child may work during the day are also removed. It also repeals the requirement that a child ages fourteen or fifteen obtain a work certificate or work permit in order to be employed. Children under sixteen will also be allowed to work in any capacity in a motel, resort or hotel where sleeping accommodations are furnished. It also removes the authority of the director of the Division of Labor Standards to inspect employers who employ children and to require them to keep certain records for children they employ. It also repeals the presumption that the presence of a child in a workplace is evidence of employment.

 She has since removed the controversial bill from consideration but, according to Think Progress, Ms. Cunningham is not alone in her zeal to roll back worker rights and protections:

In a lengthy lecture delivered before his election to the U.S. Senate, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) praises a discredited 1918 Supreme Court decision declaring child labor laws unconstitutional. That decision, which Lee holds out a model for his tenther vision of the Constitution, was unanimously overruled by the Supreme Court in 1941.

The tea party agenda can be summed up in a single word:  Regression.

Now That's Class Warfare!

While Michigan's new conservative governor Rick Snyder has been taking heat this week for his plan to declare economic martial law in Michigan, Think Progress and others have noted that his tax prescriptions are equally extreme:

Gov. Rick Snyder (R-MI) has proposed ending his state’s Earned Income Tax Credit, cutting a $600 per child tax credit, and reducing credits for seniors, while also cutting funding for school districts by eight to ten percent. At the same time, as the Michigan League for Human Services found, the state’s business taxes would be reduced by nearly $2 billion, or 86 percent, under Snyder’s plan:

Business taxes would be cut by 86 percent from an estimated $2.1 billion in FY 2011 to $292.7 million in FY 2013, the first full year of the proposed tax changes…Taxes on individuals from the state income tax would rise by $1.7 billion or nearly 31 percent, from an estimated $5.75 billion in FY 2011 to $7.5 billion in FY 2013, the first full year of the tax changes.

Saturday Morning Cartoons

Way to go, assholes!

Small government conservatism in action:

Deaver had four months to go in her pregnancy when she lost most of the amniotic fluid that cushions the fetus and helps its development, she said in an interview Sunday.
Doctors told the Deavers the loss of fluid stopped the baby’s lung development and would lead to deformities of the head and limbs. Their baby was given less than a 10 percent chance of surviving delivery; less than a 2 percent chance of ever managing basic functions, like eating.
“The odds were awful,” Danielle Deaver said. “It just wasn’t there.”
But devastating as that blow had been, what followed turned out to be at least as excruciating.

The Deavers thought over the possibilities and made a decision. They didn’t want to continue putting their unborn baby through what they feared was agony, so they asked the doctors to induce labor early.
“We were seeking to have the inevitable happen,” Danielle Deaver said. “We in no way, shape or fashion were seeking an abortion.”
But they were soon told the Nebraska abortion law stood in their way.

(...)

Specialists at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the couple’s primary care doctor in Hastings, Neb., agreed that they could risk their medical licenses and prison time if they did the procedure, so the Deavers were sent home to wait.

Danielle Deaver was told to watch for signs of infection, a potential complication of losing amniotic fluid. And she agonized every time she felt the baby move, knowing that the child no longer had any protection from the uterine muscles.
“I told Robb I don’t know what to pray for,” she recalled. “Do I pray for a miracle or do I pray that I get sick enough that we can end this?”
Deaver finally went into labor on her own on Dec. 7. The baby, named Elizabeth, was born the next day at 3 p.m., weighing 1 pound, 10 ounces.
The Deavers took turns holding her while she gasped for air. But her undeveloped lungs could not inflate and no ventilator could have made a difference.

Elizabeth was pronounced dead at 3:15 p.m. The Deavers cremated her and had a family service.

Recently they decided to speak out about their experience in the hope of making a difference for other families in similar situations. They have not decided whether to mount a legal challenge to the Nebraska law.
“We should have been able to make this decision,” Danielle Deaver said. “This was not about abortion or politics or anything. This was about two parents being able to make an excruciating decision."

Emphasis added.

Update:  Mike Flood, speaker of the Nebraska legislature, was on Omaha right wing radio station KFAB's morning show to defend the law against that stalwart defender of women's rights Scott Voorhees. I guess the guys at KFAB deserve some credit for at least bringing up the subject.  Voorhees even called the new law "an anti-common sense mother and family grief law".  Ouch!  That's gotta sting.

Speaker Flood expressed his deep, deep sympathy for the Deaver family, but said that the law was working as it was intended and he sees no need for revisions.  Prick.

Update 2:  The interview with Speaker Flood can be heard at this link.  I have written more on this topic at  New Nebraska Network.

Update 3:  I forgot to mention that the Des Moines Register had the original scoop on this story.  They also have a moving video interview with Mrs. Deaver. 

The Big Pension Lie

This article at McClatchy Newspapers lays out some facts that may prove inconvenient to those claiming that government employee pensions are bankrupting our states:

Pension contributions from state and local employers aren't blowing up budgets. They amount to just 2.9 percent of state spending, on average, according to the National Association of State Retirement Administrators. The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College puts the figure a bit higher at 3.8 percent.

Though there's no direct comparison, state and local pension contributions approximate the burden shouldered by private companies. The nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute estimates that retirement funding for private employers amounts to about 3.5 percent of employee compensation.

Nor are state and local government pension funds broke. They're underfunded, in large measure because — like the investments held in 401(k) plans by American private-sector employees — they sunk along with the entire stock market during the Great Recession of 2007-2009. And like 401(k) plans, the investments made by public-sector pension plans are increasingly on firmer footing as the rising tide on Wall Street lifts all boats.

Just like Social Security in the private sector, state government pension funds, which are on pretty decent footing, are being lumped in with health care costs, where the real problems lie. The profit-based health care industry is literally dragging our entire country into poverty,  social chaos and disgrace, with the help of some opportunistic class warriors. 

The Glaring Hypocrisy of Class Warriors

Stewart lays waste to the slimeballs at Fox:

The Daily Show - Crisis in Dairyland - For Richer and Poorer - Teachers and Wall Street
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Who Knew?

Turns out populism is popular. Will someone please inform the Democrats?

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Republican Class Warfare

Damn straight!

I just chipped in a few bucks to keep this powerful ad running in Wisconsin. It's sponsors, Democracy For America and The Progressive Change Campaign Committee, are very near to reaching their goal of $150,000 in donations. Awesome job, guys.



Donate here.

So That's How You Rally The Troops

NDP Chairman Vic Covalt blames union workers for the Democratic bloodbath in 2010:



Vic, I can't peer into the mind of a union man like yourself, but I'd guess that if what you say is true, it happened because a lot of union members may have been asking themselves "What has the Democratic Party done for me and my union lately?" They might even have it in their heads that Democrats only support the labor movement when it is politically convenient.

I got to the rally a little late, but I don't recall seeing any prominent Nebraska Democratic politicians there to show their support for labor. Has a single one of them pledged their allegiance to the Madison Movement? I'd sure like to know.

On the Wrong Side of History

Media Matters caught Fox News in another one of those unfortunate mistakes that coincidentally favor their conservative worldview:

On Fox & Friends, co-host Brian Kilmeade claimed, along with an on-screen graphic, that a recent USA Today/Gallup poll found that "61 percent" of Americans are in favor of taking away collective bargaining rights from public unions. In fact, Fox aired the results of the poll completely backward: the Gallup poll found that 61 percent of Americans are opposed to taking away collective bargaining rights.(emphasis added)

I think we're going to have to change all those old Pollock jokes into Teabagger jokes, because unlike the yahoos at Fox, the Poles know damn well which end is up.

Remember Solidarnosc, the Polish trade union federation that battled the totalitarian Soviet empire in the 1980s and won freedom for Poland? If anyone would have a hatred for BIG GUMINT, it would be these guys, right? Well guess who they're backing in the Madison melee:

Piotr Duda addressed a letter to the American trade union AFSCME supporting their struggle against the recent attempts to reduce workers’ and trade unions’ rights and cut down wages in the public sector in the State of Wisconsin by Governor Scott Walker.

The letter reads:

“Dear Sisters and Brothers,


On behalf of the 700,000 members of the Polish Trade Union NSZZ “Solidarnosc” (“Solidarity”) I wish to express our solidarity and support for your struggle against the recent assault on trade unions and trade union rights unleashed by Governor Scott Walker.


We are witnessing yet another attempt of transferring the costs of the economic crisis and of the failed financial policies to working people and their families. As much as some adjustments are necessary, we can not and must not agree that the austerity measures are synonymous with union busting practices, the elimination of bargaining rights and the reduction of social benefits and wages.


Dear Friends, please rest assured that our thoughts are with you during your protest, as we truly do hope that your just fight for decent working and living conditions, for the workers’ rights will be successful.


Your victory is our victory as well.
We will continue to watch the developments there and please keep us informed of any other ways, you think we could be of assistance.


In solidarity,


Piotr Duda
President
NSZZ “Solidarnosc"
(emphasis added)

As these courageous freedom fighters in Poland know, the protestors in Wisconsin aren't just fighting for their rights.  They are fighting for our rights.

A Class Act

Take ‘Em Down – The Dropkick Murphys stand with Wisconsin
Hey Everyone the Dropkick Murphys would like to take a moment to acknowledge the struggles of the working people of Wisconsin and to pledge our support and solidarity by releasing the song “Take Em Down” from our upcoming album. We think it’s appropriate at the moment and hope you like it.

We have also created a limited edition “Take ‘Em Down” t-shirt which will be available for sale shortly at www.dropkickmurphys.com/merch. Proceeds from the “Take ‘Em Down” t-shirt sales will benefit Workers’ Rights Emergency Response Fund (https://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4002/wi-response).

We’ll see you in Wisconsin in a few days,

The Dropkick Murphys Stand With Wisconsin !!!!!

The new song is nice, listen to it at the DKM's website. 
The T-Shirt is wicked:

See DKMs live in Kansas City March 2 or Des Moines March4.
Tip 'o the scally to Bastard Rob.

Freeloaders

So Rush Limbaugh thinks teachers and other hard-working public employees, who have the gall to peacefully stand up for their rights, are nothing more than a bunch of bottom-feeding freeloaders.



Sadly no, Rush. This chart by Paul Rosenberg shows who the real freeloaders are:

Let's Do The Madison

As everyone should be aware by now, Wisconsin has this month become ground zero in America's ongoing class war.  I've been looking for a report that would adequately explain what is really going on there so that I wouldn't have to do much heavy lifting on this topic, and today I found it.  The following monologue by Rachel Maddow just blew me away.  As she explains, class warfare is an important part of Governor Scott Walker's union-busting budget plan, as he seeks to please his corporate masters donors by destroying, as Paul Krugman puts it, "one of the few remaining checks on oligarchic influence".  Equally important, weakening the unions will take away a major source of Democratic Party power and funding.  Busting the unions would be a big win/win for rich Republicans, and a big kick in the groin to what's left of democracy, and the middle class, in America.  let's watch:

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The thing I find really ironic about conservative union busting is the fact that unions are what has long kept the boogeyman SOCIALISM from gaining more than a toehold in America.  Let me explain.  Capitalism may be the best economic system we have discovered, but saner folks would agree that it has flaws.  One of those flaws is a tendency toward speculation, which leads to bubbles and economic calamity. Another flaw is inequity in compensation.  That is where unions provide a vital stopgap by not only keeping their members compensated fairly, but improving conditions for workers throughout the non-union economy as well.

It is not hard to see that as union influence has waned in America, wage inequity has risen.  Where companies once provided health care for their retirees due to the influence of unions, Medicare has now become essential.  As the wage gap widens, the middle class shrinks, and the gulf between rich and poor grows larger, the need for the government to redistribute wealth becomes ever more acute.

Some folks don't see wage inequity as a serious problem.  Their utopia is a nation without unions or any form of socialistic redistribution.  The more fortunate of these folks will hole up in their gated communities if their libertarian dream should come to pass, as chaos and misery once again grips this land.  The rest of them will have to fend for scraps with the rest of us.


Update:  Whenever I think about what a libertarian conservative utopia might look like, The movie Gangs of New York always comes to mind.  If you didn't quite get my gist in that last paragraph, do check it out.

Classic Fear-Mongering From the OWH

The Omaha World-Herald's wingnut cartoonist Jeff Koterba is still on vacation, so the editors decided to pull some old Koterba wingnuttery from the vaults.  Surprisingly, this cartoon was first published February 23, 2006, after America had overwhelmingly rejected President Bush's attempt to privatize Social Security.

Ahh, the classics.  Here's another classic comedy bit from that era(emphasis added by me):

Mary Mornin: Okay, I'm a divorced, single mother with three grown, adult children. I have one child, Robbie, who is mentally challenged, and I have two daughters.

President George W. Bush: Fantastic. First of all, you've got the hardest job in America, being a single mom...You don't have to worry.

Mornin: That's good, because I work three jobs and I feel like I contribute.

Bush: You work three jobs?

Mornin: Three jobs, yes.

Bush: Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is fantastic that you're doing that. (Applause.) Get any sleep? (Laughter.)

Mornin: Not much. Not much.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Social Security has been a prime target of the class warriors for decades, and their ceaseless onslaught of false propaganda against America's greatest and most successful social benefit program is starting to pay off. I frequently hear younger people worrying that Social Security won't be there when they retire. It is a fear based mostly on lies. The system will always be funded because Social Security benefits for retirees are paid for by the payroll taxes of those currently working.

These are the only ways Social Security won't be there when our young people retire:
a)The U.S. Government ceases to exist in its current form
b)Top-down class warriors succeed in "reforming" the program out of existence.
c)People stop making babies a la "Children of Men"

The retirement of baby-boomers does present a challenge to the system, and that is why the Social Security Trust Fund was established.  This is a collection of U.S. Treasury securities that the class warriors like to dismiss as nothing but "worthless IOUs" and "money we owe ourselves".  If one is to believe that the Trust Fund is worthless, as the class warriors claim, one must also believe that every Treasury bond held by a U.S. taxpayer is also worthless.

It is more accurate to say that the Trust Fund is money owed by rich Americans to working class Americans.  Why is this so?  The money that makes up the Trust Fund is collected through payroll taxes. The payroll tax is a regressive tax, meaning it is slanted toward lower income workers. The income tax, on the other hand, is a progressive tax. The higher your income, the more income tax you supposedly pay. At the same time the government was increasing payroll taxes to create the trust fund, it was lowering income taxes, primarily for the wealthy. These cuts to the income tax, enacted over the last 30 years, are the primary reason for our massive national debt. Americans are now paying the lowest taxes they have since 1950. The reason wealthy class warriors like the Koch Brothers would like to pretend the Trust Fund does not exist is that they know they owe you that money, and they just don't want to pay it back.

The primary way class warriors are now attacking Social Security is to lump it in with Medicare and Medicaid as an all-encompassing "entitlement crisis". Here is a video of The Nation's Chris Hayes ably debunking that nonsense:

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Unlike Social Security, which should remain financially sound for at least the next twenty years, Medicare and Medicaid do have huge funding problems due entirely to the outrageous price of health care in America. Any "deficit hawk" who is not working for a major overhaul of our dysfunctional health care "system" is either not serious about reducing deficits, or they simply don't care if sick and elderly people suffer.

Limbaugh Lays It Bare

This excerpt from Rush Limbaugh's Radio Show, featuring a call from blogger/troublemaker Mike Stark, is highly revealing of the right wing's aims with regards to labor unions. First we hear Limbaugh trying to stir resentment in his listeners against unionized public employees by listing many of the ways unions bargain with employers to increase the standard of living of their members.

Now let me ask you, those of you who are not members of a union, are you allowed to negotiate the length of your shift?  Are you allowed to negotiate when you start and when you finish each... Are you allowed to negotiate your vacation schedule and time..and length?  Are you allowed to negotiate your sick days?  Are you allowed to participate in whatever the disciplinary priocess at your company is?

I think Rush makes a very good case why everyone should join a union, don't you?  Of course the average dittohead, being trained to accept subservience to his or her master employer, is supposed to think "Why should they have what I can't have?". A progressive like me, on the other hand, might start to think "What can I do to get what those guys have got?" So who are the ones peddling resentment, despair and jealousy? Right-wingers like Limbaugh. Who is inspiring hope for a better life? Progressives.

For me, the most interesting and revealing part is Rush's Orwellian rant against the word "worker" later in the video. Limbaugh's claim that usage of the term is some kind of communist plot is patently absurd of course, so what's really going on here? Rush is training his listeners to accept the notion, gleaned from the philosophical ramblings of twisted sociopath Ayn Rand, that business owners are the only true workers. This philosophy is authoritarian to the core.  Employment is not a contract between equals but an act of charity bestowed upon you by the sole creators of wealth, the bosses.  Worker benefits such as insurance and retirement security are not the right of everyone who works, but a reward to be meted out or taken away by employers at their own discretion.

This is what conservatism is all about, folks: Making sure the unwashed masses know their place.  Judging by some of the comments I've read about the happenings in Wisconsin, they appear to be learning quite well.

Welcome

This is my second attempt at a political blog.  The first attempt failed because I found that I did not have the time to research and write lengthy posts, so I'm going to try to be a little lazier in my approach this time.

This blog is primarily about class warfare.  The term "class warfare" is used almost exclusively by our media institutions to describe the act of a politician trying to gin up popular resentment towards the wealthy for his own political advantage. Rarely is the term used to describe actual acts of warfare perpetrated every day by the wealthy and powerful against those of us in the middle and lower classes of society.   My goal is to point out as many instances of this top-down warfare as I can, so that people can see the wide breadth of  the class war and the powerful negative effect it is having on our daily lives.

I am not a politician, nor is partisan political gain my purpose.  While there are a few politicians in our nation that I greatly respect, it is only through collective grassroots action, the banding together of ordinary citizens, that this decades-long, ever-worsening class war will be thwarted.