Recommended reading: "The Wrecking Crew" by Thomas Frank.

I am going to try to recommend books on this blog since there are many people who can understand and explain the predicament the United States is in much better than I can.  Even if you do not want to read my stupid blog, you should really check-out the authors that I will be recommending as required reading.

I am not a professional writer, I am not a professional anything really.  I am a poor working schlub who is disheartened by the current economic decline and how the wealthy bullies of the world have stacked the cards of the game of life against us.

I wanted to start a blog because I felt that not enough people are talking about these issues and the corporate controlled media is disturbingly silent about the causes of our economic decline. 

Also I felt that there are not enough people who are looking to help working class people and/or shine a light on the devious right-wing activities that have the United States as we know it on a path to ultimate destruction.

I have found an author who is trying to do just that, it is Thomas Frank.  And the only talk show that I have seen him on is on Bill Moyers Journal on PBS.  I wonder why he is not on more main stream talk and news shows.

In his book "The Wrecking Crew," Frank describes how the wealthy corrupt government with their money and then turn around and complain that the government is corrupt and must be reduced in size or come as close as possible to be eliminated altogether.  Ronald Regan and the two Bushes ran up big spending deficits, cut taxes on the wealthy and then complained that government spending was out of control and big government needed to be reigned in.   And as James Carville put it, "The rich want small government for the same reason criminals want fewer cops on the street, so they can get away with murder. [This quote I got from the Internet and is probably paraphrased]" 

Frank goes on to explain how the lobbyists of Washington DC's K Street are the ones who are truly running the United State government and through this abuse of the constitutional rights America has become a plutocracy.

He also tells of the horror story of Saipan, a small island that is a United States territory.  In the 1990's was turned into basically a corporate controlled labor camps where guest workers had no rights and extremely low wages.  And all to keep the "Made in America" label on clothing.  The factories were eventually shut down for humanitarian reasons.  I believe what happened in Saipan is what the rich have planned for all American citizens eventually.

You must read this book is order to see the horrors that right-wingers like John Boehner have planned for us.  Even if you do not care for my blog, Please read this book.   The link to purchase it from Amazon is below:

Buy a Copy of "Wrecking Crew" from amazon.com

Congress and Budget Blithering

I can't believe I haven't posted here at all this year. Just like many of the people who would take the time to read this post, I am a working stiff. I have work off-the-books overtime just to keep my job, and I have to enroll in courses and study just to prepare for the time when I may no longer have a job, which may be soon. The economy isn't getting any better, and I need to brace myself for when I have to start collecting unemployment just like many of you are or will be.

I am only posting here now because I am so upset about the banter between President Obama and Speaker of the House John "Bonehead" Boehner over raising the debt ceiling and passing a budget. President Obama has been very weakly trying to get across the message that we need to tax the wealthy, while Boehner very loudly states he just wants budget cuts, cuts and more cuts.

Boehner's Congressional District suffers over 9% unemployment just like the rest of the country, how high does unemployment have to get before someone runs against this Bozo and takes his seat away from the Nazi Republicans out to destroy this country.

Federal budget cuts will just amount to more unemployment. The government needs to step in an create jobs, not take more jobs away. Already the US Post Office plans to cut thousands of jobs, and if Boehner gets his way more Federal jobs will just disappear, but no one is calling him a "job killer" the label that House Republicans put on the health care reform bill. Let's face it private industry is not going to pick up the slack for all of the government jobs we are going to loose with the substantial budget cuts that Republicans pose.

Actually, private industry will wind-up suffering as well, as budget cuts result in the end of government contracting, and laid-off federal employees will stop spending money in the retail and food markets which will beget more lay-offs. The unemployment that the budget cuts will create will cause such a great feedback loop of more unemployment that the economy will have no other recourse but to crash again, this time probably harder than before.

In their book "Aftershock: Protect Yourself and Profit from the Next Global Meltdown," authors, David and Robert Wiedemar and Cindy Spitzer predict that government jobs will be a safe haven from the next big ecnomic downturn which they predict will befall us within the next couple of years. (They were right about the real estate bubble in a previous book published before the crash, but who couldn't see that coming?) With all of the Federal spending cuts coming their will be no save haven in Federal jobs or any government jobs for that matter.

Let's face it, there is a huge budget deficit and the only way to close the gap is raise revenue and tax the crap out of the rich and add large tariffs to imported goods, something Congress and the President are very reluctant to do because the rich have them in their pockets.

You know the wealthy have Boehner in their pocket because he comes from a fairly rural district with 9% unemployment. A few of his siblings are even unemployed according to Wikipedia. With his background he should really be a Democrat, but you know the wealthy and the corporate interests are bank rolling him, so he will keep fighting to run this country into the ground.

If the Republicans have their way and all we have is cuts, cuts and more cuts to the budget in a time where the Federal government really needs to step in and spend money to create jobs, you are going to see an economic collapse greater than the one we saw in 2008.