How the Dark Side of Supply Side Unleashed the Zombie Apocalypse

The giant sucking sound came without warning, the sound of 1,400 jobs moving from Indianapolis, Indiana, to Mexico. “We recognize the impact on employees, their families, and the community,” announced the president of Carrier Corporation, the HVAC Division of United Technologies.

“Yeah, [expletive deleted],” an angry voice shot across the room.  Following three consecutive years of record earnings, plus a $12 billion stock buyback, the layoff was a shock, an act of betrayal. The giant sucking sound hardly made the evening news; but we hear it everyday in communities across America:

“Monday, Monday, so good to me;

Monday morning, it was all I hoped it would be.”

The kids, the car, the home, how will you pay bills without a job and keep your family afloat?  Desperate to find work, any work, part-time or full time, neighbors put off weekend chores to Monday.  Why Monday but no other day of the week, you ask?  Sometimes it just turns out that way.

Job or no job, good lawn mowers make good neighbors.  Cutting grass keeps up appearances and keeps peace in the neighborhood. Witness this exchange of greetings when neighbor meets neighbor at the mailbox:

“Good morning, Mr. Briggs. How are you today?”

“Mighty fine, Mr. Stratton. And yourself?”

How and when our fortunes changed is a tale of greed and deception run amuck. It started years ago when corporations and their political slush funds, also known as PACs, won the right to be treated as real people with full rights of personhood.

Suddenly, Lampposts, Manholes, and Utility Poles United sprang to life with special powers and privileges. Little did we know what was to be.

In short order, Manholes lobbied for tax cuts. As job creators, they claimed, tax cuts for Manholes would promote investment, economic growth, and jobs for everyone. No doubt, those tax cuts made Manholes rich; but no job falling into an open manhole has ever been seen again.

Tax cuts for Manholes have meant less revenue for our town.  To cover years of shortfalls and deficits, Lampposts in league with Utility Poles told the town council to cut services, slash payroll, and raise property taxes (which forced Mr. Briggs to sell his beloved home).

Years ago, when a Lamppost burned out, a service truck came to the neighborhood and replaced a bulb. This year, they say: “Buy your own bulb and replace it yourself.” Last year, Lampposts traded in their service truck for a Lexus. This year, they’re driving a Rolls Royce (and still demand a raise, a bonus, and more tax cuts).

Zombies United turned neighbor against neighbor. Manholes and Utility Poles persuaded the homeowners on Magnolia to scorn the homeowners on Dogwood — especially those who don’t look like, talk like, or vote like "their kind of people.”  Our once tranquil community, now divided in acrimony, no longer finds common ground to unite in common cause.

Legal but non-living persons now rule the neighborhood.  They failed to create a single job but reserve the right to shine flashlights in our bedroom windows at night.  These days, Lampposts wield more power and influence than real citizens whose votes no longer count.

Meanwhile, weeds have grown taller than utility poles, and ’for sale’ signs litter the neighborhood.  Enough, we say!  Forget the Lampposts, Manholes, and Utility Poles.  Forget those broken-down, trickle-down blues.  How I yearn for the smell of fresh cut grass, E Pluribus Unum, and friendly neighbors exchanging friendly greetings at the mailbox again.

“Monday morning, you gave me no warning of what was to be.

Oh, Monday, Monday, how could you leave and not take me?”

This ends our tale of how the American Dream left the station, leaving our middle class behind.  Reminder: Tuesday is the day we bring our trash to the curb … and head to the polls.

Mowing on Monday

By (O)CT(O)PUS

Last week, this income inequality report failed to get the attention of our mainstream media.  In a nutshell, the gap between rich and poor widened again – this time reaching record levels unseen in almost a century.  Top wage earners - the so-called 1% - raked in 19.3% of all household income during 2012, surpassing the previous all-time record of 18.7% last set in 1927.  The remaining 99% earned a mere 1%.  Why is this report so damning – and shocking?  History has shown: Income inequality drives Depressions and Recessions and brings massive social unrest.  Not a word on the evening news, but we see it everyday in our communities.

Every other day of the week is fine, yeah

But whenever Monday comes, but whenever Monday comes

You can find me mowin’ all of the time.

For some reason, everyone in my neighborhood prefers to relax on Sunday and mow the lawn on Monday.  For obvious reasons, I prefer to mow my lawn with the sprinkler system running – no explanation necessary.  Why every Monday but not Tuesday, you ask?  Bizarre, I have to admit. Perhaps it just turns out that way.

Good lawnmowers make good neighbors.  We keep up appearances and keep peace in the neighborhood.  Witness this daily exchange every time neighbors meet at the mailbox:

“Good afternoon, Mr. Briggs. How are you today?”

“Mighty fine, Mr. Stratton. And yourself?”

Although everyone in my neighborhood mows the lawn on Monday, not everyone mows in quite the same way.   Here is the odd part: Some of us aim our lawnmowers in straight parallel lines, while others tend to meander, zigzag, or form contour circles around their homes. Why should Euclid matter as long as the grass is cut!  Folks of different strokes, notwithstanding, good lawnmowers make good neighbors. We keep up appearances and keep peace in the neighborhood.

Until a strange thing happened! Suddenly Lampposts, Manhole Covers, and Utility Poles won the right to be treated as legal persons.  Then they secured easements that granted them special access rights and privileges.

You would think homeowners in the neighborhood might find common ground to form a Monday grass cutting alliance.  Oh no!  The Lampposts, in league with the Manhole Covers, started a PR campaign that warned the homeowners on Magnolia Street to beware the residents of Hawthorn, who now regard the residents of Dogwood with suspicion and sneer at the residents on Elm, who scorn the residents on Elder.

In short order, Lampposts convinced the homeowners on Magnolia to love the neighborhood more than their neighbors who dwell on Hawthorn, Dogwood, Elm, or Elder – all of whom no longer look like, act like, or think like ‘real’ neighbors, they claim.

The Manhole Covers think of themselves as ‘Job Creators’ (although any job that has ever fallen into an Open Manhole quickly disappears – never to be seen again).

Utility Poles accuse lawnmowers of engaging in class warfare.  Cutting grass no longer levels the playing field, they insist; and the teachers, nurses, and other working folks living on Elm are oppressing the Lampposts and Manhole Covers, they claim.

Meanwhile, the Lampposts and Utility Poles say: “If the residents on Elder lose their healthcare or pension benefits, they should consider themselves ‘empowered.’

Legal but non-living persons now rule the neighborhood.  They never created a single job but reserve the right to trample on our bushes and shine flashlights at night through our bedroom windows.

Years ago when a Lamppost burned out, a service truck came to the neighborhood and replaced a bulb. This year, the Lampposts say: “Buy your own bulb and replace it yourself.”  Then they demand a bonus, a pay raise, and a tax cut.  Last year, their service truck morphed into a Jaguar.  This year, their Jaguar morphed into a Rolls Royce.

The situation has set neighbor against neighbor, and I am starting to think garden vegetables now speak on behalf of homeowners.  Today, you can hardly tell the difference between a Lamppost versus a real person anymore.

Meanwhile, the neighborhood has gone to pot.  Everywhere ... overgrown grass, weeds taller than Utility Poles, short sales and bank foreclosures, and neighbors no longer talking to neighbors.  If there is one lesson to be learned, forget the Lampposts, Manhole Covers, and Utility Poles.   Forget the polemics, stalking points, and dog whistles. Oh, how I yearn for the smell of fresh cut grass, E Pluribus Unum, and a friendly neighbor exchanging friendly greetings at the mailbox again.

Oh, Monday morning, Monday morning couldn't guarantee

That Monday evening you’d still be here with me.

Reminder:  Tomorrow is Tuesday, the day we bring our trash bins to the curb.

Wisconsin is where Chicken Little crossed the road …

By Octopus

(This post started as a comment in response to three fine articles by our esteemed colleagues, Sheria, Nameless Cynic, and Shaw Kenawe. The subject is important enough to merit more commentary.)

Three decades ago, political scientist Theodore J. Lowi authored a ‘themed’ textbook titled, American Government: Incomplete Conquest. Although it received little attention at the time, its main ideas have special relevance today:

If the first problem facing our cave-dwelling forbearers was survival, the second, according to Lowi, was government.  No matter how enlightened any form of government appears in theory, all governments have a primordial mean streak, an instinct to lash out and violate their own laws and principles - especially in times of war or national emergency.  Consider the suspension of habeas corpus  during the Civil War, the internment of Japanese-Americans  during World War II, and the concept of eminent domain, as examples. Make no mistake. All governments reserve the right to violate your rights or confiscate your property.  Furthermore, no matter whom you elect, someone will control your life; and your choice at the ballot box is a choice between competing visions of governance.

This weekend, I watched an interview of Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels on MSNBC - keeping these ideas of Theodore Lowi in mind.  Here is the gist of Daniels: A Chicken Little argument on deficits and spending framed as existential threats to freedom and prosperity. When the interviewer suggested a moratorium on social issues, Daniels invoked the words of Ronald Reagan: “Results, not rhetoric.”

Daniels gave a sky-is-falling, no compromise, non-negotiable performance that embodies his vision of authoritarian control.  It is the same script followed by GOP governors in Ohio, New Jersey, and Wisconsin, among others.  Between the lines, there is a master strategy at work framed long ago in the shadowy backrooms of GOP think tanks.

A Chicken Little argument is a coin with two sides. The side facing up is the fear factor warning of dire consequences and demanding urgent action. The facedown side masks the intent behind the fear: To preclude an open and honest debate and stifle dissent. In other words, when the sky is falling, there is no time to discuss the legitimacy of the claim.

On closer examination, is the sky actually falling? If the state of emergency is about the state of the budget, why are fiscal conservatives pushing a radical social agenda such as this? Which comes first: Chicken Little’s eggs or the almighty dollar?

H/T to Shaw Kenawe for this Joel Pett cartoon

In retrospect, we know the union-busting controversy in Wisconsin is not about budgets. We know Governor Walker’s predecessor forecast a $121.4 million budget surplus. We know Walker created a bogus shortfall by giving tax breaks to employers at levels far too low to spur real job growth (source). A classic Republican tactic, Walker eviscerated tax revenues as an excuse to gut a traditional Democratic power base.

In due course, Wisconsin Republicans forced union-busting provisions through the state legislature by stripping them from the budget bill, thus sidestepping a quorum requirement. This tactic exposed the deception behind the rhetoric:  Union-busting does not balance state budgets … confirmed by none other than Wisconsin GOP Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald in this astonishing admission:

If we win this battle, and the money is not there under the auspices of the unions, certainly what you’re going to find is President Obama is going to have a much difficult, much more difficult time getting elected and winning the state of Wisconsin.

As Lowi reminds us, citizens go to the polls to choose between competing visions of governance, and freedom is in the eye of the beholder.

Let us put naivety aside as we consider the rivalry between Democrats and Republicans. If the contest seems asymmetrical to us, it is because the GOP conducts politics with a primordial mean streak as if it were a sovereign entity engaged in actual war.  No longer a contest between rivals, politics has devolved into a contest to win by any and all means necessary (even in violation of democratic principles); and the weapons of partisan warfare are fear, deceit, pandering, legislative chicanery, and ruthless guerilla assaults against the assets of the opposition party.

Consider the asymmetry between union busting and the Citizens United decision. If Citizens United opened the door to unlimited corporate funding of political speech, events in Wisconsin have closed the door on union funding for Democrats. All told, union busting, Gonzo-gate, voter caging, voter ID cards, and the smear of Acorn are manifestations of a GOP master plan to eliminate traditional bases of Democratic support.

In theory, true democracy is predicated on choice, and choice connotes a policy debate between rivals. If one party, however, employs ruthless tactics to cripple the opposition beyond viability, what we have left is essentially a one party system with only token opposition. In other words: A democracy in name only. Wisconsin is where the GOP changed the dynamics of democratic engagement from contest to conquest. Wisconsin is where Chicken Little crossed the road to fascism.

Resources for political action:

1. Contribute to Act Blue
2. Join Working America, an advocacy group for non-union members who support the labor movement.
3. National Conference of State Legislatures: Recall Information Page
4. Website to Recall the Republican Eight
5. Website to Recall Scott Walker

CITIZENS UNITED

Credit:  The Wizard of Whimsy.

If not us, who?  If not now, when?

The invitation reads: “That question was posed by a member of our network of business and philanthropic leaders who are dedicated to defending our free society. We cannot rely on politicians to do so, so it is up to us to combat what is now the greatest assault on American freedom and prosperity in our lifetimes” [my bold].

The secret meeting will be held January 30-31, 2011, at the Rancho Las Palmas Resort in Rancho Mirage, California.  Among the rumored list of attendees:

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas
Charles Koch (Koch Industries)
David Koch (Koch Industries)
John Childs (hedge fund trader)
Cliff Asness (hedge fund trader)
Steve Schwarzman (hedge fund trader)
Ken Griffin (hedge fund trader)
Phil Anschutz (AEG and diverse energy holdings)
Rich DeVos (co-founder of Amway)
Stephen Bechtel (Bechtel Corporation)
Kenneth Langone (Home Depot)

What are they planning?  Another White House Putsch?  This is not your friendly poker game.   Maybe more like cashing in their chips.

The White House Blog: No Corporate Takeover of Our Democracy

Source: The White House

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