Interview of Dennis Kucinich by Peter Scheer on on Truthdig...8/04/11

Dennis Kucinich: Well, I think that this idea that somehow the White House was forced into a bad deal is politically naive. When we saw the White House signal early on that it was ready for cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid by actually setting aside bedrock principles that the Democratic Party has stood on for generations, that signal indicated that they were ready for a deal that would involve massive cutting of social spending, and increasing or locking in increases for war, and helping further the ambitions of the Defense Department, not touching the Bush tax cuts. And that’s exactly what happened.

The Pentagon can continue to load money into wars which we are told are winding down, and at the same time as they do that, money that is not spent on those wars can be backfilled into the Defense Department budget. So they’re going to benefit twice. Not only are they getting $50 billion more than they had been expecting over a decade, but they’re going to be able to plus their base budget by an accounting trick that lets spending for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, or any overseas contingency operations, continue beyond any discretionary caps in the budget.

...the American people are having impressed upon them an IMF-type structural adjustment in the guise of a deficit-cutting initiative. This is being done, quote, “voluntarily,” unquote. If you look at what’s happening all around the world, the IMF is using a punishing structural-adjustment regimen that is creating a backlash in countries like Greece, where people are facing sharp reductions in their standard of living—reductions in social spending for health care and retirement security, among other things. And why is this being done? In order to further the interests of an investor class. And frankly, I think this same … you know, the bottom line with respect to the United States of America—the bottom line is: Protect the investment class to the detriment of the rest of the country.....

Peter Scheer:....what you’re suggesting seems to be that he wants to give away the store, that he …

Dennis Kucinich: Well, I don’t think the president of the United States ever accepted a deal he didn’t want.

Peter Scheer: Right.

Dennis Kucinich: And in this case, I think that the telltale sign was when he put Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid on the table—which, by the way, when the commission, the super Congress commission comes into effect, will become extremely vulnerable. So the idea of President Obama somehow being incapable of negotiating—excuse me. He knows exactly what he’s doing. If he had been in a political trap here, he would have immediately, as a constitutional scholar, resorted to the 14th Amendment. It says in section 4, “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.” And it goes on. But the 14th Amendment, section 4, basically empowered the president, if he had been put in a box by the Republicans, to play a trump card. He didn’t do that, and he never intended to do that. He got the deal he wanted. And that’s something that people need to think about, what the implications are of that.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/page4/kucinich_says_obama_got_the_deal_he...

What puzzels me is how the republicans (The party of the very rich) get the support of so many middle class working men and women. Many of these people that I have encounterd are well .educated. Leading me to wonder? Is the entire education system designed to favor people who are easyly trained and used to create good republicans.

The Constitution also does not prescribe "capitalism" as the sole economic form as well. In fact a brief history of American economics from the Colonial Period to the freak monster capitalism has taken today would be welcomed.

Enigmaramously Ugly

Getting back to more basics, the Oil Pipeline plan and the related wars - extolled and indulged by both Republicans and Democrats, presently and significantly by Mr. Obama continuing where Mr. Bush left off - corporate-manufactured for Afghanistan, or take your pick for the next imperial frontier - is driving the whole US economy and its latest downturn. Other then ALEC, massive unemployment feeds “slave-shop-wages” for-profit private prisons and of course the armed forces that feature well-fed bodies and other perks for indigents and starvelings that will help to perpetuate the fight waged by the oil and gas and pure water magnates and their minions who will not stop killing tribes, men, women, and children, in order to accomplish pivotal land grabs for the sake of business driven by the greed of those among them who must have the most expensive conversation piece, perhaps a famous Monet painting making an elaborate living room, or an imprisoned (showcased) guitar once owned and played by Stevie Ray Vaughan, or a Bentley once occupied by Jack Benny, to impress their guests, in party chats, who will then top them in the brag department the next time everyone is invited to a party at their house. Some protoplasm is horribly wasted.

An aside to those of you who may take Thom’s advice to attend Democratic meetings to influence those meetings of your local Democratic party: You had best gather forces organized en masse to attend meetings or you will be, in all probability and in typical fashion of traditional town and county meetings, plagued and thwarted with the many faces of indifference and avoidance and treated as “should be” gagged and ostracized individuals, by the top dogs and mucky mucks of the party and the Chamber of Commerce. These long-standing members linked in personal purpose, guarding their hard-won territory, can make it very difficult for individuals as well as groups especially if you are speaking against the Corporatocracy (remember the US Chamber of Commerce is a lobbyist organization).

Be organized enough so that the above inhabitants and their pets will have a hard time pushing the buttons of your group which is usually a very easy thing to do. With the help of influenced government institutions and influenced media they can distract, disrupt, divide and conquer easily especially if government agencies and offices, police institutions, legislators, courts and the media are on their side which seems to be mostly the case these days and has been the case for instance in Nye County, including the Democratic Party especially during the fight to stop the precarious location of the for-profit private prison in Pahrump. Think unified, organized grass roots with rules of decorum to follow or it may turn into a big free for all slanderous mob-like mockery with pointing wagging trigger fingers. Seek advice from seasoned community organizers and research.

In the early seventies if you happened to be an individual hitchhiking through South Dakota in the rural vicinity of Rapid City and a car stopped and before you attempted to get in, one of the armed several riding in the car asked whether you were for the Traditionals or for Dickey Wilson (the infamous, and purportedly dubiously elected chairman of the Pine Ridge Rez), your fate might have been dire if you answered for either one side or the other.

I’m not saying that an individual can not effect change through knowledge of and reporting of the facts, and through cleverness and a heart of gold. Just remember, those you are trying to influence think the same of themselves and their friends even if they do bend the truth for their cause. Numbers generally speak louder than just the words – especially large numbers.

Be careful of what you say and do out there. If you spread your common sense where people are having fun you may have the best success. Informing bliss just may help to eradicate ignorance. In the meantime, as Thom advocates, becoming a precinct captain in the Democratic Party, if they’ll let you, appears to be the advantageous move.

Amy Goodwin:.....Now, let’s be clear on what this commission is and what’s going to happen to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security. Michael Hudson?

MICHAEL HUDSON: The commission is going to be composed of three people, suggested by the House leader, Republican and Democratic leaders each, and the Senate Republican and Democratic leaders. The Republican—six Republican appointees to the commission are already pledged no taxes, and especially no closing of loopholes, nothing that will increase the money paid by their campaign contributors to the Republican Party. We don’t know who the Democratic appointees are going to be. But in the last commission that Mr. Obama appointed, the deficit reduction commission, they were all Democrats who were in favor of cutting Social Security. They were Wall Street Democrats, or what used to be called the Democratic Leadership Council. So the worry is that the Democrats are going to push their own tax cutters and that really there’s not going to be very much difference between the Democrats and the Republicans in what they propose for Social Security and Medicare. Mr. Obama had threatened that there wouldn’t be enough money to send out Social Security checks, and that simply isn’t true. The Social Security Administration has its own holdings of Treasury bills, just like an individual would hold their own savings. Of course they could have cashed in the Treasury bills.

AMY GOODMAN: What about the credit agencies, the rating agencies?

MICHAEL HUDSON: They have played a very bad role in this. Here’s what happened. Under the Frank—the bank reform—

AMY GOODMAN: With Congress Member Frank.

MICHAEL HUDSON: —the credit rating agencies were changed. The government was very angry at them for giving AAA ratings on junk, and their defense in courts saying, "Well, yes, we gave AAA ratings on junk mortgages, but they’re legally only opinions." So the Dodd-Frank bill said, "You rating agencies are liable for your opinions." Well, that—the rating agencies said, "We want to make money on selling our opinions, and we don’t want to have to take any responsibility for them, so we’re going to get you. We’re going to threaten to downgrade the U.S. government, until you say, 'OK, we don't want to hear your risk assessments anymore, because you’re hurting us.’"

But the proper response is to say, look, the rating agencies are just out to make money selling their opinions that are up for sale. The rating agencies are trying to get brownie points with Wall Street for opposing Social Security, for essentially yelling fire when there isn’t any fire. And at the same time, they want to weaken the Dodd-Frank bill so that they don’t have to ever be liable for making a warning about a country and they can continue to go back to giving AAA ratings for junk, which is how they make their money.

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/2/after_months_of_partisan_wrangling_...

Re: Consider why we give horses and beasts of burden off on Sunday.

Because Old Testament Jewish Law prohibits working on the Sabath?

Gambling used to be considered very "dirty", a sin, and even illegal in many states. It wrecked homes and bankrupted a lot of people. Only a couple of places in the US were held as gambling reservations that were tolerated..mostly in Nevada...Reno...Las Vegas. These "sin cities" were created and run largely by gangsters. As it spread...Atlantic City...and Indian reservations around the US...silly people could go around and lose their shirts.

The stock market has always been a sanctified way of gambling...oh, excuse me..."investing"! And they were bestowed with the pseudo religious moniker of "capitalists". All bow down to Mammon the god of money and wealth! And the "evil" communists, looking through their TJ Ekleberg glasses, dared to besmirch, criticize, and complain of the hypocritical money maggots who exploited the working classes.

When there were government controls it might have been more like investing...but without government controls...more like gambling...reckless gambling. And the worst part is gambling with other people's money and losing it all.

Wall Street is a one-armed bandit run by crime-world figures that we used to find filthy and disgusting. When they invented and started using "creative tools" like derivatives...that not many people really understands...and use super computers to get the advantage...most smaller players, who are trying to use the traditional way of analyzing the markets..if even that, are easily victimized.

When the government, "bought off" by these financial behemoths, make the rules that favor them and creates money out of thin air to dump into the market in order to make the average investor, or just those who watch the market, think that all is well with the "economy", then it is all smoke and mirrors, voodoo, or junk economics. In fact it is not really economics at all just a one-sided casino that is raking in all the wealth of the nation from a gullible and withering population of losers who chose to play the game and lost.

I heard one talking head on CNBC make an incredibly stupid remark...something to the effect that we need to ease up on banking regulation even more....yeah, right, let them throw all our savings into the grand slot machine. These capitalist gambling addicts need to put into straight-jackets.

Michigan does not have a progressive tax rate, so an increase in taxes in Michigan hit those who make the least hardest. I guess that shows support for the millionaires too! The SBT (Small Business Tax) was recinded and a tax increase passed on to residents to cover that loss. In addition, Snyder decided that a Pension is an asset and needs to be taxed! So retired people will see an increase in taxes!

This all makes it seem like Republicans have decided not to represent those who make too little or have retired. Punishing those that don't fit the Republican idea of 'deserving Americans'!

The use of Geothermal energy makes me nervous. Where there are sites suitable for this energy, there are uncontrollable volcanic possibilities. The Yellowstone Caldera has a violent history.

If we can grab that energy without putting people at risk (i.e. get the energy without having people living too closely) the potential balances well.

Iceland has been fortunate in its use of Geothermal Energy, so far.

Bernie or Thom,

What do you say to people that respond if you raise taxes to the wealthy and corporations they will move their businesses out of the US?

Thanks,

Elyse

Rawesome Food Raid > for a laugh Colbert Report > Rawesome food raid >> http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/361307/october-06-2010/rawesome-foods-raid