Dying Middle-Class = Dying American Greatness

Is THIS a message that should resonate with our frustrated and angry Tea Party brothers and sisters? 

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For decades, the American middle class has been working harder/harder to get less/less (stagnant wages). Big, moneyed interests have a LOT to gain by pitting working Americans against EACH OTHER, scrabbling over the same, shrinking piece of pie. The more we give in to that, the less we are likely to actually bring economic prosperity back to the American Middle Class, which is what made our country so great in the decades post WWII. Dying middle class = dying American greatness.

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SOME READING:

http://robertreich.org/post/3353591266

http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/16/news/economy/middle_class/index.htm

http://www.ips-dc.org/reports/executive_excess_2010

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2011/02/are_wisconsins_state_and_local.html

Tea Party vs. the Grand Old Party

The schisms btw the "new" Tea Party ethos and the old GOP powers that be are causing some interesting fissures on issues like the Patriot Act and...more surprisingly, maybe, abortion.  Tho this topic is covered in a variety of blog entries, it seems to me that this is a developing/ongoing story that deserves its own tracking.

Maddow is out front on this/watch (from Feb 8 2011):

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

(More on the Patriot Act split is under the "Civil Liberties" entry).

TP v GOP on Abortion (!)
(on the abortion as wedge issue more generally, see "Culture Wars" entry)

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

(Feb 8, 2011)

• y, the GOP never had any intention of addressing the economic concerns of the tea partiers, (3/2011)
• Wisconsin: the Tea Party's Waterloo? (3/2011, Salon)
• ORCs vs YATs (budget showdown btw GOP/TP- 2/10/11)
• Dkos not so sure it's a TP/GOP split (2/9/2011)
• Libertarians heckle Cheney/Rumsfeld at CPAC (2/2011, Alternet)
• Tea Party wants Boehner to be primaried 3/2011

hmmmm....

Class Warfare (Wealth inequality, etc)

Mitt Romney flashing those benjamins

Also:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
World of Class Warfare - Warren Buffett vs. Wealthy Conservatives
www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor & Satire Blog

The Daily Show on Facebook

("World of Class Warfare: Warren Buffett vs. Wealthy Conservatives", Aug 18, 2011)

Distribution of Wealth

• Why the truly alarming economic trend is not income inequality. It's the Wealth Gap, Stupid | Mother Jones (2/13/2012) 
• The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office confirms that the rich have been getting richer. : CBO | Trends in the Distribution of Household Income Between 1979 and 2007 (10/25/2011) 
• Young Turks covers this CBO report

From CBO report, Oct 25 2011

(chart from MoJo's "It's the Inequality, Stupid")

Growing Pie? shrinking pieces for 99%

• How the McEconomy Bombed the American Worker | MichaelMoore.com  (May 10, 2011)
• Divide and Conquer; convince you that you have to fight for an ever smaller piece of the pie.  (robert reich, "The Republican Strategy" (Feb 2011) 
• "They pit average working Americans against one another, distract attention from the almost unprecedented concentration of wealth and power at the top, and conceal Republican plans to further enlarge and entrench that wealth and power."
• ONE | Catholic bishops to US House: ‘Make the poor a top priority’  (4/14/2011)

Poverty, Income inequality...

• Corporate Profits Just Hit An All-Time High, Wages Just Hit An All-Time Low - Business Insider - (6/22/2012) http://goo.gl/yk4jh
• As Big Bank Stocks Plunge, CEOs Continue To Reap Huge Salaries | ThinkProgress (1/2/2012) 
• Bottom Line - CEOs rake in huge sums when their companies go bankrupt (1/27/2012) 
• Wall St. Record pay when regular Americans facing unemployment, stagnant wages (2/4/2011)--the study is by Wall Street Journal: $135 billion in compensation. Exec payouts = 1/3 of the total Wall St bank bailout ($417billion)
• Review: The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett | Books | The Guardian (3/13/2009)
• the life-diminishing results of valuing growth above equality in rich societies can be seen all around us. Inequality causes shorter, unhealthier and unhappier lives; it increases the rate of teenage pregnancy, violence, obesity, imprisonment and addiction; it destroys relationships between individuals born in the same society but into different classes; and its function as a driver of consumption depletes the planet's resources.
• Wilkinson, a public health researcher of 30 years' standing, has written numerous books and articles on the physical and mental effects of social differentiation. He and Pickett have compiled information from around 200 different sets of data, using reputable sources such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the World Health Organisation and the US Census, to form a bank of evidence against inequality that is impossible to deny.
• 21 CEOs With $100 Million Golden Parachutes | Mother Jones (1/18/2012) 
• Thirty Years of Unleashed Greed | Truthout (10/28/2011) 
• Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1% - Vanity Fair (5/2011) 1% of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation’s income—an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret.
• The Forgotten Truth That Conservatives Created The Welfare State Ray Medeiros/Politicus 2/2011 ( Low wages push ppl onto welfare) 
• Executive Bonuses Bounce Back - WSJ.com  (3/18/2011)
• Executive Excess 2010: CEO Pay and the Great Recession - IPS (Sept 2010)
• Executive Excess 2011: The Massive CEO Rewards for Tax Dodging - IPS (Sept 2011)
• The Rich Get Richer: CEO Bonuses Skyrocket; Worker Pay Flat | Mother Jones 3/18/2011
• War On The Poor: Minnesota Republicans Want To Bust Poor People Who Carry Cash | Crooks and Liars (3/2011)
• "250K Isn't Rich If You're A CEO But 50K is Rich If You're A Teacher":  Ray Medeiros 3/2011
• "It's the Inequality, Stupid" -MoJo 3/2011, great CHARTS AND GRAPHS abt income inequality
• Poverty Scorecard: 2010 scorecard analysis 
• "Executive Excess 2010: Exec Pay and the Great Recession", 9/2010, Institute for Policy Studies
• the CEOs who slashed their payrolls the deepest took home 42 percent more compensation than the year’s chief executive pay average for S&P 500 companies.
• American workers, by contrast, are taking home less in real weekly wages than they took home in the 1970s 
• Politifact:True: , just 400 Americans -- 400 -- have more wealth than half of all Americans combined," (Michael Moore statement in Wisconsin 3/2011)

"Redistribution of Wealth! Communist!"

• On redistribution of wealth : Does The Bible Mix Religion and Politics? - The Christian Left Blog (6/2/2011) 

There's a War on the Middle Class

• House moved to kill HAMP/Obama Mortgage Plan (CNN Money) - Mar. 29, 2011 
• Robert Reich (The Republican Strategy) 2/17/2011 
• - split the vast middle and working class – pitting unionized workers against non-unionized, public-sector workers against non-public, older workers within sight of Medicare and Social Security against younger workers who don’t believe these programs will be there for them, and the poor against the working middle class.
• How the middle class became the underclass (And how the DECLINE OF UNIONS hastens the decline of the middle class)- CNN Money Feb. 16, 2011
• Gov Walker's threat to American political stability (Huffpo, Steven Cohen, 3/2011)
• The American middle class owes its existence to the fact and threat of union organizing. That is why the attack on public workers' right to collective bargaining is an attack on the middle class
•  Michael Moore, "The Smug Wealthy Have Gone Too Far", Alternet 3/6/2011
• 400 obscenely rich people, most of whom benefited in some way from the multi-trillion dollar taxpayer "bailout" of 2008, now have more loot, stock and property than the assets of 155 million Americans combined. If you can't bring yourself to call that a financial coup d'état, then you are simply not being honest about what you know in your heart to be true
• Michael Moore: We Face a Global War on the Middle Class, AlterNet 3/2011 
• "Foreclosure Follies" House Republicans have introduced bills to eliminate four federal antiforeclosure programs and replace them with — nothing - NYT Ed, 3/2011
• The American Dream is Disappearing for This Generation! - Brian Conners, 2/2011 (compares our econ. situation to Egypt)

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Men of a Certain Wage - Money Talks
www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor & Satire Blog

The Daily Show on Facebook

("Men of a Certain wage - Money Talks")

[this post was getting too long; I've split off the UNION links to its own blog post]

(related content on Unions and Wisconsin at "Middle Class Fights Back" and "It's the Economy, Stupid" posts)

Tea Party

I am fascinated by the Tea Party, in micro and macro forms.
(when you have 4 minutes, definitely check this link out: Truth for tea baggers | Under the Mountain Bunker-- a collection of political cartoons, commentary)

Deregulation! Free Markets!

• Gingrich Admits Deregulation Of Wall Street In The '90s Was 'Probably A Mistake' | ThinkProgress  (Nov 2011)

Stateless in Somalia, and Loving It - Yumi Kim - Mises Daily (2/21/2006)

Liberty! Freedom! Limited Government

• "Teapartyers Don't Actually Care About Liberty", Salon, 1/2011
• "The Tea Partyers' fiery hatred of redistribution and resentment of societal "leeches" is certainly real, but it's apparent at this late date that most self-identified Tea Party supporters are libertarians in sound bite form only, and certainly no supporters of "liberty" as broadly defined by Reason magazine and the Cato Institute. The Tea Parties believe "liberty" means "not being governed by Democrats" -- a sentiment most libertarians would probably agree with -- but they don't seem to get the whole "live and let live" part of the deal."

Perceptions/Polls

• CNN Poll: Unfavorable view of tea party on the rise (3/2011)

Enemies from the Chalkboard

• See this post: so. blog.: Enemies from the Chalkboard

Birthers

• "Donald Trump, birther" - David Weigel, Slate (also: "Orthodox" vs. "reform Birtherism"  (3/2011)
• HI lawmakers intro bill to charge $100 for copies of birth certificate (1/28/2011)
• "HI's governor said the birth certificate doesn't exist!" -- No, he did not say that. (1/30/2011)
• MoJo: The Birthers have a Plan..And it May Not Be Crazy (1/30/2011)

The GOP 2012 Pres Campaign+Teaparty

• Mitt Romney will pretend Teaparty doesn't exist (1/2011)

Facts Have a Well-Known Liberal Bias

• Columbia Journal Review fact-checks the fact-checkers (post SOTU 1/2011)

Libertarians, Ayn Randism, The Market, and  Other Inconsistencies

Great listen--just audio, press play and browse in another window while you listen.

Racism in Progress: Rush Limbaugh, post-Tucson, and "The Chinese Threat" 

(1/21/2011)

Tea Party vs. Grand Ol' Party

• See separate posts: Tea Party vs. the Grand Old Party and Keeping Track of the GOP/Teaparty Leadership in 112th Congress 
• GOP Chair of CO quits: "Sick of the crazies" (TPM, 2/7/2011)

Tea Party Welfare Queens

• News Corpse » Palin’s Canceled Reality Show Gets Millions in Gov Subsidies (3/2011) 
• Yasha Levine: Michele Bachmann: Welfare Queen - Truthdig (12/2009) 
• Tea Party Hypocrisy? - ABC News (3/2011)  , at least 23 current members of congress or their families have received government money for their farms -- combining for more than $12 million since 1995

(3/2011, ABC)

Heavy handed, but fun/satisfying: Newsroom: American Taliban
//

Ask Democrats, Obama to toughen up

Two worthwhile petitions that cut to the heart of what people like me have been fretting over for a long time... the overability of Democrats/Obama to defer to Republicans and the inability to take hard stances and fight for our agenda.


Yes, Tea Party Republicans took over the House (but as I noted, it's hardly a mandate, and today brings another poll that emphasizes the non-mandate nature of the elections)--

But we, the American People, also elected Democrats in 2008 and it is still the 111th Congress.  Let's get moving and pass some REAL legislation, no compromises!, during the lame duck session!

Sign this petition and edit the cover letter to your point of view.

Amidst signals that Obama is ready to compromise with Republicans re: extending the disastrous, deficit-making Bush tax cuts for the top 2% of earners (see  my post below)...

Sign this Credo petition and tell him to NOT extend the Bush Tax Cuts.  It's a winning issue for Dems--but if and only if Obama takes leadership and fights the case.

There is also the Progressive Change Campaign version of the same petition.

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UPDATE:  Others are picking up the chorus:

Michael Moore has taken to the airwaves and the blogs to argue for sweeping Democratic legislation to be passed during the lame duck session.

Blue Mass Group bloggers plead: "Mr. President, do not learn the wrong lesson from the midterms"