Motley Moose – Archive

Author’s preface:

Written by an American expat living in the E.U. (who holds an M.B.A. degree). This diary is a review of the Spiegel article entitled “Has America Become an Oligarchy?” written from the perspective of a business librarian.  

My email is: democratsramshield@yahoo.com

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Spiegel quote: 2002 and 2007, 65 percent of the income gains went to the top 1%

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Late last year this mainstream German news outlet asked, has America become an Oligarchy?Has America stopped being a mixed economy?

Spiegel quote: “A generation ago, the United States was a recognizable, if somewhat more unequal, member of the cluster of affluent democracies known as mixed economies, where fast growth was widely shared. No more. Since around 1980, we have drifted away from that mixed-economy cluster, and traveled a considerable distance toward another: the capitalist oligarchies, like Brazil, Mexico…

Clearly, the subject matter presented by the article asking if America has turned into a Oligarchy is not news to American elites, who in fact not only know all about it already, but the truth be known simply put they like it that way. The Spiegel article which may be shocking to the sensibilities of the American plutocrat owned media correctly portrays an American society which has become essentially speaking depoliticized, wherein elections have become by way of sophistry a meaningless public relations extravaganza that has been bought by private capital in support of a legalized robber baron system of theft.  

(crossposted from Green Mountain Daily)

Nota bene: It doesn’t matter how many of you there are. It doesn’t matter what legislation you manage to get passed. Being in the majority may make you a majority, but it doesn’t make you right.

When voters in Arizona elected Jan Brewer, that didn’t make her a moral paragon. It simply meant that a bunch of dirtbags elected one of their own.

When voters in Virginia, during my time there, passed the Marshall-Newman amendment to that state’s Constitution forever denying same sex couples equal rights to marriage, neither their majority, nor their religion, conferred any sort of moral rectitude.

It simply meant that there were enough dirtbags there to enshrine hatred and bigotry into the constitution of the Commonwealth.

Stopped-clock-right-twice-a-day moment:

“Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).” -Ayn Rand

This was the deal the LAST time North Carolina amended their Constitution with respect to marriage:

Hey, North Carolina: If your marriage is so weak it’s threatened by what gays do, you don’t need a Constitutional amendment, you need marriage counseling.

To those accusing me of being random in my ire… “there are so many other states”… and uneven in my sense of injustice… “what about your own state of California”… you’re right. It’s random and uneven and even a little bit of a hissy fit. And… so fucking what. A vast majority of North Carolinian primary voters tonight suck rodent balls and I for one feel like tell them to chew on snot. So there.

Maurice Sendak passed away at 83.  I call my 5 year old son “little bear” because he reminds me of Sendak’s illustrations of that series.  My older kids have both worn a Max costume (from Where the Wild Things Are) for Purim that my mother sewed.

He was an avowed atheist with no belief in any afterlife, but forgive me if I imagine him gnashing his terrible teeth and rolling his terrible eyes and shouting “LET THE WILD RUMPUS BEGIN!!!”

MCA and Sendak in the same week.  My youth seems to be slipping farther and farther into the past in fits and starts these days.

Today, at a rally in Ohio, Mitt Romney was asked by a female African-American teabagger.

She prefaced her question by stating that President Obama was operating outside the Constitution (which statement drew much whooping and cheering.)

She added that she agreed (apparently with a comment that a fellow bagger near her made while she was framing her question) that President Obama should be charged with treason.

She then asked Mighty Mittens what he would do to restore Constitutional balance to our government.

Mittens’s reaction, as compared to that of John McCain in a similar situation in 2008, is quite a study in contrasts.

(crossposted from Green Mountain Daily)

• What a guy he was. (clip will start at 6:35)
  
  
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• Oh, this oughta be good:

  “You’re on, motherf****r.”
  
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• Couldn’t pass this up:
  
  
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• Conspicuously missing: Jake Perkinson
  
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• Skype: the newest tool for avoiding grand jury subpoenas.
  
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• The winning bidders for the auction of bankrupt Nassau Broadcasting’s properties have been revealed.
  

  The remainder of the stations in Maine, as well as all of Nassau’s properties in New Hampshire and Vermont were sold to a partnership of Bill Binnie and Jeff Shapiro for $12.5 Million. Shapiro previously operated many of those stations when he co-ran Vox Radio Group.

  Total: 29 sticks, including but not limited to:

  Vermont – Talk 1450 WSNO Barre, Country 1490 WIKE Newport, Hot AC “Moo 92” 92.1 WMOO Derby Center, Country “95.3 & 107.1 The Wolf” WXLF Hartford and WZLF Bellows Falls, Country “Froggy 100.9” WWFY Berlin, Classic Rock “101.5 The Fox” WEXP Brandon and 100.7 WTHK Wilmington, Classic Hits “Oldies 104.3” WWOD Hartford and 96.3 WFYX Walpole, NH, Classic Hits “107.1 Frank-FM” WORK Barre

  UPDATE: Or not…….

  Interesting. I’ll never forget the day I was told Vox (who I worked for in Bennington at the time) was selling Barre/Montpelier. He saved that one for last, with a pause thrown in. I was in Virginia not too long after that.
  

Okay. Your turn to ramble….well, I got one more thing on the jump…..

UPDATE: During an interview with ABC’s Robin Roberts on Thursday President Obama came out in favor of same-sex marriage:

In an interview with ABC News, Obama said, “I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.”

snip

   “I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.” http://2012.talkingpointsmemo….

This wasn’t easy at least politically-speaking.  And we can debate whether or not it was smart or whether or not VP Biden’s remarks on Sunday were pre-planned or not.  At this point, today, all I want to say is, “Thank you, Mr. President.”

The Obama team is waiting far too long to respond to this orchestrated talking point.  Repetition makes it conventional ‘wisdom.’  By not responding with detailed and targeted ‘Hell yeah we can,’ it makes it seem as if Obama doesn’t want to.  It’s not the easiest of sells, given the economy.  But there’s got to be more to it than “GM is Alive and Osama is Dead.”  There needs to be a counter-punch.  I’d recommend every liberal pundit and every democrat with a mouth piece begin repeating:

They say Obama can’t run on his record because they can’t come out and say they want us to return to the Bush policies that got us into this mess in the first place.  No one will buy that.  And that’s what they want to do.  Not because it’s good for the economy.  Not because it’s good for the nation.  But only because it’s good for their elitist patrons.  Obama has worked hard to stabilize our economy for rich, poor, and middle class alike.  He’s shown willingness to include conservative proposals.  But they’d rather obstruct approaches that don’t serve their ideology and clientele and even those that do in order to paint him as a failure.  In the face of organized and zealous obstruction, this President has always sought to do what is right for the American people.  Cutting taxes even further on the so-called job creators will not get them to start investing the capital they are hording in the Cayman Islands and Swiss Bank accounts.  It will only give them more money to squirrel away in their tax shelters while the middle class continues to struggle.  What will encourage them to actually invest in job-creating endeavors is the stabilization of the middle class so that demand in the market will lessen the risk of new endeavors.  When the middle class is buying, investors will capitalize on that demand even if their tax rates are slightly higher.  President Obama’s record shows he supports the policies that will ensure opportunity for all Americans to prosper, from the top to the bottom.  Where he’s been able to implement those policies, we’ve seen success.  Far from a big government socialist bogeyman with a failed record, his record reveals a prudent, pragmatic, and principled American approach to an economy that only thrives when both the private and public sectors fulfill their functions.

The previous two posts in this serious dealt with what would happen if Canada’s electoral votes were added to the United States. This post will examine what would happen if the same occurred with Mexico.

A note to all Mexican readers: this post was written for serious political analysis along with it. It is not meant to offend, and sincere apologies are offered if any offense at all is taken.

Mexico is a lot bigger than Canada. Canada has a population of 34 million; Mexico has a population of 112 million. Indeed, it’s one of the most populous countries in the world. The effect of adding Mexico to the United States would have far more of an impact than adding Canada.

More below.