Paul Soglin: Waxing America

Why We Lost The Cold War

As a child growing up in the nineteen fifties there were plenty of reminders about the never-ending battle against Soviet Communism.

In and out of the classroom we knew of the value of our democracy, the freedoms we enjoyed as Americans.  We had open and free elections, though blacks could not vote in the South where the poll tax ensured the rule of whites. We could travel across our great country without having to show identification or answering to anyone as to our purpose, so long as there was no probable cause to stop us.

The differences were not limited to democratic values.

The virtues of capitalism were everywhere. In Poland, peasants stood in line for hours for a loaf of bread. In Moscow it took weeks, no months, to have a telephone installed. And the Soviet airline Aeroflot was a joke, United States Airlines Compete With Aeroflot - And Win :

At the height of the Cold War, Americans indulged in self congratulations when comparing our airline industry to the Soviet's Aeroflot. The rickety communist propelled travel provided images of a sweaty, husky commissar boarding an oversold but underfueled airplane, burdened with packages and a bottle of carry-on borscht.

As he worked his way into the seat, storing his chickens in the overhead compartment and his goats under the seat in front of him, he settled in next to an equally husky and sweaty peasant with a crying, soiled child -one  under each arm. If they were lucky, they would arrive at the scheduled destination city, and perhaps within twenty-four hours.

Onward

After the first of the year I was shopping at a big box store. The lines indicated it would take a half hour to check out. I asked the manager why there were so few clerks, "With the holidays over, no help to be had?" The response was frank and honest, "No, after the new year, we were instructed by regional to reduce our staffing to these levels."

My Facebook friends know that I spent over an hour on hold Monday with a life insurance company, a health insurance company, and a telephone company.

It was my fault trying to reach them on the first Monday after the holidays. Of course, I tried reaching them last week to no avail. There are only so many minutes one can waste on a cell phone.

Maybe the free-everything capitalists are right. We need competition. We need competition from the Communists. Then American corporations will start providing service.

Some of my friends probably think that the destruction of our Constitution under the second Bush reign with warrant-less search and seizures is a disaster. They probably think the telephone company turning over their phone records to the government without any legal authority is a travesty.

Screw the Bill of Rights.

The real travesty is the telephone company not answering the phone.

Praise Nordstroms. Praise the local Sundance 608 movie theater. Praise the Nitty Gritty. Praise the local Sentry.

 

 

 

Milwaukee Talk Radio

Bruce Murphy nailed it in his summary of the Milwaukee talk radio tempest, Why We Went after Talk Radio:

Conservative talk radio is a different animal entirely. Both Sykes and WISN afternoon host Mark Belling, the two top rated such hosts in town, have expressly declared they are entertainers and not journalists, and have no obligation to present both sides of an issue. Their appeal arises precisely from a lack of good will toward certain segments of the community...

Following the national format used by Limbaugh and the others dating back to the 1980's, these formerly effective mouthpieces built an audience on two bases, the extreme right wing, and undecideds who were looking for intelligent political commentary to guide their decisions.

The last four years through a variety of techniques from providing an alternative progressive radio voice to public exposure of these charlatans the base diminished.

Murphy notes, relying on Dan Shelley's original article, "Secrets of Talk Radio", that the hosts of right-wing talk radio have no intention of engaging in rational dialog.

The nice thing is that the audience for Sykes and Belling is diminishing to the point where no one listens to them, except the true believers and those of us looking for an occasional chuckle or fodder for our blogs. 

Bailout: Bernanke Blunder and Betrayal

It is now evident that those of us who supported the bailout of greedy financial services companies were betrayed -along with the millions of Americans who opposed the bailout. Maybe the opponents were correct - these creeps cannot be trusted.

As reported by Bloomberg News, Fed Defies Transparency Aim in Refusal to Disclose:

(originally)...Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking system. Two months later, as the Fed lends far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn't require approval by Congress, Americans have no idea where their money is going or what securities the banks are pledging in return.

As AIG receives its second infusion of public money, bringing the public commitment to $150 billion, fed chief Bernanke and his cohorts at Treasury refuse to divulge the amounts provided to other key financial services companies that were operated by thieves masquerading as prominent wall street financiers for so many years.

Bloomberg is upping the ante with its lawsuit deigned to throw sunlight on the debacle, Bloomberg suing Fed to disclose bailout details

"The Fed has lent $1.5 trillion to banks, including Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., through programs such as its discount window, the Primary Dealer Credit Facility and the Term Securities Lending Facility. Collateral is an asset pledged to a lender in the event that a loan payment isn't made.

"The Fed made the loans under 11 programs in response to the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. The total doesn't include an additional $700 billion approved by Congress in a bailout package.

 

The Greatest Danger to the Republican Party: Sarah Palin

The Republican Party is in serious trouble. So is the United States.

For the first time since the 1930's there is a charismatic  American political leader with a populist bent who can lead a viable political movement towards fascism.

She is already following in the path of Charles Coughlin who linked arms in the 1930's with Charles Lindberg to build a 'peoples movement' focused to drive out the dual demons, Wall Street and the Communists.

With life imitating art and art imitating life, what comes to mind is Sinclair Lewis' It Can't Happen Here, the Frank Capra motion picture, Meet John Doe with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck, and Phillip Roth's The Plot Against America (2004).

The problem for the Republicans is that Palin owns the "god, guns, and gays" element of the Republican Party. She locked up the base the way John McCain, Mitt Romney, George W. Bush or even Ronald Reagan could only pretend to embrace. They engaged the abortion issue, guns, and the religious right, and the hatred for American institutions becasue it was politically exepedient.

Sarah Palin is a true believer and the base can tell the real thing.

Now she can lock up a presidential nomination for 2012. Even if the moderate Republicans can hold her off, Palin can bolt, and form her own Populist Party, and relegate the GOP to third party status.

The Neocons are at a loss as to what to do with her. Wall Street must be saved and they know that Communism is a phony issue.

For the rest of us, the challenge is stopping her and a movement with deep roots in American history that claims to appeal to the average Joe, Jane, or John Doe, be they plumber or not.

Author's note:

In his New York Times book review of The Plot Against America, Paul Berman reminds us that Jack London wrote about the topic, though fascism did not exist in 1908, the year The Iron Heel was published:

''The Iron Heel,'' in 1908, from the period before the word ''fascism'' even existed (though fascism was plainly what London had in mind, in the form of a plutocratic-Republican trade union dictatorship). Nearly 30 years later, Nathanael West produced a variation of his own called ''A Cool Million,'' which the Library of America resurrected not long ago — a freaky picture of an America taken over by murderous right-wing screwballs.

Wisconsin Pays for Sarah Palin's Communist System

Wisconsin pays for Sarah Palin's Communist ways in Alaska. Stalin, move over.

The irony of the redistribution of money from one set of states to another is that the receiving states are generally Red States. The result is a taking of hard earned money from states like Wisconsin and sending those dollars to Alaska.

Here are some of the example of the redistribution of wealth that Palin and her pinko fellow travelers support:

• Interstate Highways. The construction of the federal interstate highway system, supposedly for national defense purposes, was financed by us northeners. Tax dollars from Illinois went to Alabama, from New York to Texas and from Wisconsin to Alaska. States too cheap to build their own highways saw new expressways financed by the industrial North and Midwest.
• Rural Eelectrification. We all know the story of the financing of the TVA. The north paid to bring electricity to the rural south. The way the south paid back the north was by opening non-union factories.
• Postal Service for Alaska.  Anyone who watches late night TV knows that shipping to Alaska and Hawaii costs more. To send a first class letter from Alaska to the lower forty-eight should require a doubling of the first class rates. Sarah Palin insists that Jill the Plumber pay for subsidizing mail to Alaska.
• Family travel. When I was in public office the public never paid for Sara or the kids' travel or lodging expenses. Making Joe the Plumber pay for $240 night lodging or $700 apiece airline tickets for her kids is the ultimate in Communism. Maybe she thinks taking from the poor and giving to the rich makes it OK.
• Federal gas-tax money. Alaska Thanks You.

According to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a non-partisan watchdog group in Washington, that breaks down to $1,150 for every Alaskan in "earmark" funding for in-state projects alone, 25 times what the average American garners for his or her home state.

That comes to $6.60 paid to Alaska for each dollar paid in. Wisconsin does a little better than breaking even getting back $1.05.

• All Taxes. Alaska ranks between 3rd and 5th over the last five years in receiving federal tax dollars. They get back about $1.85 for every dollar they send to Washington. Wisconsin gets back $0.84; we rank about 45th.
• The Bailout of AIG and Lehman Bro's. Enuf said.

Throughout her entire political career, Sarah Palin, Communist and fellow traveler, has had no problem taking redistributed wealth.

She has no problem with redistributing the wealth.

She never asks if the redistribution results in investment in infrastructure and human capacity that is environmentally sound and the best way to stimulate private investment.

Sarah Palin knows that even before the adoption of the flat federal income tax in 1894, the United States government has redistributed wealth. The movement of money from one group of taxpayers to another was advanced by the adoption of the Sixteenth amendment to the Constitution, the advent of the automobile on American roads, and accelerated by the Great Depression.

AIG, Chase, Will Again Buy Congress, This Time With More of Our Money

As the Congressional hearings begin, Congress Begins Mapping Financial Reform,  as to how to reconstruct regulations in the financial services industry, one critical element is ignored.

To date, no one is discussing how to prevent the salvaged corporations, run by greedy, unpatriotic, egotists, from making corporate contributions that end up supporting the election of those Members of Congress who supported the bailout.

Elements of greed were identified:

...a decade-long surge in leverage, risk and mortgage-lending abuses that produced a bonanza for a handful of elite investors...

Self serving gems were offered:

"...never again have the taxpayers pay for Wall Street's mistakes," said Illinois Republican Rep. Judy Biggert

The obvious was repeated:

"There should be a moratorium on it, on bonuses, yes,"

The unregulated pirating must end:

Lawmakers at the hearing called for more disclosure by hedge funds and private equity firms, as well as more openness in markets for credit default swaps.

No one addressed what got us into this mess: the long arm of Wall Street reaching into bloated wallets and spreading the money around the United States Congress.

It allowed them to purchase our Congress with our money in an excessive and vulgar manner and:

• donate directly to campaigns.

• send the money to the United States Chamber of Commerce or All Children Matter who used it to directly influence campaigns.

• send the money to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce who funneled into front groups to indirectly influence campaigns.

• send the money to directly to front groups to directly influence campaigns.

Not one dollar of the bail out, or one dollar belonging to bailed-out companies, can be sent to any organization that attempts to lobby Congress directly or indirectly, or that attempts to influence elections, directly or indirectly.

They can have their free speech, but for now, there is no free speech for bailouts. If they want their free speech, they can reject the bailout.

Last time Wall Street purchased Congress, they used obscene profits. This time they will use our tax dollars.

Economic Disaster That A Fool Could Forecast

Like most states, we are caught up in the cruel torture of national policies that are driven by greed, imperialism, and stupidity. Readrers of Waxing America will recall that in the spring of 2007 I forecasted a stock market crash and repeated it last January, Another War; Another Recession. Whatdidyah Expect?

Last  spring I used my limited abilities in forecasting the economy and predicted a stock market crash... For the second time in my lifetime a stupid, foolish war built on lies not only wrecked havoc with another country but it is destroying the American economy.

It does not take a rocket scientist to get it right... Go on take 10% of your income and set it on fire, throw it down the toilet, or just rip it up. And just for good measure, borrow a lot of money and rip it up too.

It is so simple. You cannot destroy your resources and your assets. Imagine the homes and schools that might have been built. Billions of dollars - now that is stimulation for the economy.

I am not a genius in these matters; it is that I am not driven by blind ideology in arriving at conclusions about the ecomony. A few years experience in the public and private sectors, an understanding of history and a willingness to distance myself from bad public planning, or lack of planning, no matter how politically popular the proposal, do help.

As the fall elections approach, candidates for the Wisconsin legislature and Congress from both political parties will warm your frontal lobes with cuddly promises of 'no tax increases,' cutting fat from the budget, and reducing spending.

If you are attracted to those soft sweet sounds, complete the job and instead of voting, just get a lobotomy.

If you want a candidate who will  provide a lump of coal to warm you in your decrepit retirement, and a dull knife so you can remove your spouse's appendix by candlelight in your toothless waning years, I suggest looking for the following promises:

• A pledge to the business community to provide an educated, trained workforce, not lower taxes.
• A pledge to increase spending on education from kindergarten through the University of Wisconsin and Voc-Tech Systems.
• A commitment to spend money on infrastructure that places a priority on the environment, health, and safety.
• A commitment to regulate where appropriate and needed.
• That infratstructure will be funded through borrowing as should any reasonable capital budget item.
• The operating budget, unlike the capital budget, will be funded by general purpose revenues, and only general purpose revenues. No borrowing here.
• It will be necessary to increase taxes. The increase will be progressive and will fall on wealthier taxpayers.
• A commitment to regulate where required for health and safety.
• A declaration that international trade which exports great jobs and imports poisonous pet food and baby formula is not working.
• There will be no reductions of state revenue payments to local units of government. These reductions only end up with increase in the property tax which has the impact of shifting taxes from the wealthy to the middle class.
• On the national level there will be increases in the income tax- progressive increases.
• If we fight a war, there will be honest talk. It is impossible to have guns and butter. If we fight a war there must be sacrifices at home as well as on the battlefield.
• If the candidate tells you they are highly regarded by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC), tell that candidate to move to Alaska.

 

 

It does not take a rocket scientist to get it right... Go on take 10% of your income and set it on fire, throw it down the toilet, or just rip it up. And just for good measure, borrow a lot of money and rip it up too.

It is so simple. You cannot destroy your resources and your assets. Imagine the homes and schools that might have been built. Billions of dollars - now that is stimulation for the economy.

Wall Street Bought the House, House GOP Bites the Hand that Fed It

The financial meltdown and the economic and political crisis are the result of the twenty year relationship between House of Representatives' Republican leadership and the financial services industry, which includes every major bank, insurance company, and brokerage house in the United States.

The deal orchestrated in the 1990's by the extreme right wing House Republicans and the banks was simple. The banks provided the money to elect House Republicans, who would pass legislation to end regulation in the financial services industry.

The money was spread around to Republicans, both moderates and fanatical right wingers, without distinction.

That was key to the deal. The banks and insurance companies could not question the Republican House candidates on other issues.

It made no difference what the financial people thought about choice, protectng the nation''s infrastructure, funding stem cell research, or education. They got the Republicans selected by the GOP leadership.

Now these ideological thugs with a large enough presence in the House are threatening any kind of reasonable resolution to the pending economic crisis.

The operation is not much different than the relationship bewteen Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) and their last remaining foothold in the State Capitol, the Republicans in the Assembly.

In Washington, the right wing is biting the hand that fed them for two decades without regard for the nation or thier own political future.

It would be interesting to look into the records of major Wisconsin insurance companies, borkerage houses, and banks to see the flow of cash that went either directly to these candidates or indirectly into front organizations for the United States Chamber of Commerce and their trade groups and then funneled to so called issue committees.

Frankly, I would ask for my money back.

It's time for payback.

 

Solving the Financial Crisis. A Modest Proposal

As much as it disgusts me, the bailout of the financial institutions run by greedy, egotistical managers and executives presents a less devastating result than letting them go under.

Ten years from now, my family, my friends, the working people who make this country great and ask for nothing more than a fair shake, will be better off with a properly structured loan to an industry run amuck.

Before we get into the details, the first thing we must understand is that bailout or not, the Republican Party, the author of this ideological meltdown, is responsible for the biggest tax hike and the biggest waste of taxpayers dollars in history.

For a bailout to work:

• There must be a return to Glass-Steagall, the Depression-era body of law that provided safeguards against these excesses.
• No foreign banks deserve one cent of American money. If their respective nations wish to save them, they can bail them out. They already made enough money in the past decade.
• A special investigator should be appointed to look into the relationship of banking lobbyists and the principals responsible for this former disaster, special financial guru to John McCain, former Texas Senator Phil Gramm, and hit man Newt Gingrich, who thinks the solution to this problem is eliminating the capital gains tax.
• Any borrower should be allowed to extend their home loan one month for each year left on the mortgage and those deferred payments should have a maximum interest rate of 3%.
• No executive of a bailed-out company shall be compensated more than $1 million annually, and that will include company cars, homes, boats, contributions to retirement plans and life insurance. Life insurance can be taken out on the executive if the United States government is the beneficiary until the institution's loans are paid off. Frankly I am being too generous, but I cannot stand to see pirates cry.
• Labor, real work that contributes to the growth of the economy has to be recognized as being more honorable, more noble, and more essential, than flim-flam paper exercises that are nothing more than speculation in industries that are exporting jobs to countries where workers are paid less than $5 a day.
• For every million dollars a financial institution receives, they must repay the entire amount at an interest rate of 3.75%.  All loans must be repaid within a decade.

  
   

Who Is Responsible for the Economic and Financial Crisis?

The present crisis is the culmination of a series of events that go back to the election of Ronald Reagan as President and flowed through the subsequent years as the right wing mastered modern day communications, particularly cable TV.

The pinnacle was in 1999 with the repeal of Glass-Steagall, the Depression Era legislation that brought regulation and some degree of consumer protection to the financial marketplace. The public would not be wandering the dark hall of manipulators, oil speculators, and other creeps who took the art of capital formation to a new low, making money by pushing paper and never creating anything of value.

The Reagan Administration gutted regulation administratively in key areas of commerce and finance and was followed by the Republican control of the Congress and the ascendancy of Newt Gingrich, culminating in the adoption of the Financial Modernization Act of 1999.

This piece of legislation was drafted in 1998, and over the next year the Republicans overcame all opposition. To understand what happened it is necessary to examine the legislative process and the political climate of the time.

The Republicans were dominant and the Democrats were on the run. Fearful of losing more Congressional representation, the Democrats often capitulated, fearful if they stood up to  Gingrich, they too would lose their next election.

True Believers:   Lead by the bill's principal author, Phil Graham, this group were cronies of the oil interests and the speculators. It included reactionaries from Gingrich to Grover Norquist.

The Supporters:  These were all of the Republicans and one Democrat in the Senate accompanied by a similar alignment in the House of Representatives, though there were more blue-dog Democrats who joined the GOP. The critical vote came when the Senate version of the bill was adopted.

On  May 6,1999, the Senate adopted its version of the bill on a vote of 54-44.  Supporting that bill was John McCain; in opposition were all Democrats except Hollings of South Carolina. Joe Biden wisely voted 'no.'

For a more detailed explanation see this post, The crisis is so bad the financial press turns bolshie, February 17, 2008.

After the House vote, the bill went to conference committee.

The Negotiators. In conference committee, negotiators  from both Houses of Congress worked out their differences. President Clinton got involved realizing that with final passage there would be a veto proof majority. The final version of the bill was adopted by the Senate in November by 90-8. Joe Biden again voted 'No.'

John McCain, in the most blatant example of cowardice, refused to vote for or against the bill. He voted 'present.'

 

For more detail: John McCain's lying is contagious