After Hurricane Katrina, the airwaves were filled with media promises to pay attention to long-neglected stories about poverty and racism. As FAIR documented(Extra!, 9-10/07), that promise didn’t amount to much; three years of newscasts(coveringSeptember 2003 through October 2006) provided just 58 stories about poverty.
On September 12, ABC World News devoted almost 100 words to the news that, according to anchor Dan Harris:
170,000 families were homeless, rather, in homeless shelters in 2009. That’s a 30 percent increase in two years. Meanwhile, the Census Bureau is expected to announce this week that as many as 15 percent of American families lived in poverty last year, up from 13.2 percent.
Harris’ set-up for this brief report–that was pretty much the whole thing–was to announce that these were “some new economic numbers that could prove troubling for Democrats trying to hold onto power in Congress.” And probably even worse news for the homeless families.
â┚¬Ã…“We weren’t wrong! We worked endlessly in 07′-08′ to make sure that things changed for the little guy. We listened to an agenda that stopped us in our tracks and made us feel important. President Obama articulated to us the best part of the human condition and touched our hearts. Why? Because he resonated to us that we are better than this! Our agenda is pure. We are not the culprits in the current â┚¬Ã…“sad state of affairs.â┚¬Ã‚ We celebrated the improbability that â┚¬Ã…“Cynical Americaâ┚¬Ã‚ would finally put their fellow man before themselves.
We, in good faith, expected that congress would fall in step with the will of the people and truly change the direction of our countries priorities. Instead of embracing a progressive agenda including reform for education, health, immigration, clean energy and financial regulations. The conservative â┚¬Ã…“Powers to be,â┚¬Ã‚ made a strategic plot to neutralize and water down our importance, by turning hope into a deafening, demeaning and ridiculous nope.
Adding insult to injury, the Supreme Court decided to favor corporations by giving them â┚¬Ã…“personhood and the awesome power of deciding the fate of elections by huge campaign contributions to upcoming hopefuls who will gladly take marching orders from conglomerates to ensure their political survival. These so-called â┚¬Ã…“personhoods’ do not have a heartbeat, a measurable conscience or the ability to feel hunger, love, or mercy. Their only objective is to make the greatest profit at the least cost.â┚¬Ã‚Â
A nice post, karenbenzer. You’re right on all counts. There’s a glimmer of hope, though. The Republicans picked a fine time to have a little fight over who’s gonna run their fucked-up bandwagon off the cliff. Will it be the Baggers, who are just a bunch of ignorant, pissed off white folks who don’t have the slightest idea of what they wan’t, or will the Old Line crack the bullwhip and send the Palinites and Beck zombies back to the hinterlands and the deepest, darkest corners of Wingnuttia wence they came? It’s probably too late now, and that’s good news. When Karl Rove is gettin’ dressed down by so great a fool as Hannity, you know there’s trouble. Rove may be a criminal and an amoral calculating prick, but he does understand electoral politics. If moderate Republicans don’t go to the polls, and Liberals get energized at the sight of an egregious dumb-tart like Chrissie O!, guess what? We are now in the second or third act of a very funny drama that might be called “Republicans: We Couldn’t Pour Piss Out Of a Boot If The Instructions Were Stamped on the Heel.” It might be fun to watch. Imagine if those greedy, resentful assholes don’t take the House–something poor Mr. Rove is thinking about right now . . . .
Karenbenzer when you yell “we weren’t wrong” who are you yelling at?I get the feeling you are seeing the expected(By we crazy conservative tea bag types) horrendous numbers flowing in and what you mean to say is how COULD we of been so wrong?WEll what can one say but you were warned that poverty will explode and explode some more.This Obama economy can not work.Tim is hoping and praying that their actually is something brewing to derail the wave of humanity that will soon sweep the Obama regime away.But I fear it is nothing really but a pea in the tracks.When you say you worked so hard for the little guy….I wonder what did you hope for -for the little guy?Certainly not a free ride at others expense.?Or unequal treatment to anyone who has realized the American dream of prosperity?Probably the same things we tea party patriots want.Government out of our lives so all can have a chance at our ultimate hopes and dreams.A return to constitutional ,and capitalist free market principles.An end to nanny State socialism. Lower taxes- and less government spending.And a lessening of the Feds power by powers of ten would be nice.A realization of state rights and individual freedoms over the collective.When that occurs you will see a rebound. Believing that only Libs have hearts and souls and minds as Tim does is not a workable mindset.
Tim N : We are now in the second or third act of a very funny drama that might be called “Republicans: We Couldn’t Pour Piss Out Of a Boot If The Instructions Were Stamped on the Heel.”
Thats the greatest line written I have read in a long long time!!!
Thanks, Chris. That line was something that LBJ once said, probably about a clown not unlike our boy m.e., who’s got piss splashed all over his shoes and pants. How about another line, maybe for a bumper sticker (m.e. loves bumper stickers): “Tea-Baggers: Give ’em the boot, and they’ll piss-off on their own!” Carry, on, liberals, and Karen, don’t worry about those reactionary dopes–they’ll screw it up, whether they win or not. It’s what they do.
Ralph Nader has been the only person who has been absolutely without corporate or political ambition to run for president since Jimmy Carter. Yet here we are still scratching our heads over “what happened to the ‘change’ we were promised?” because we can’t seem to make a clean break from the business-as-usual mindset. As long as everyone insists on voting “mainstream”, then that’s what we are going to get. And unfortunately “mainstream” these days is the 1% at the top.
Wake up everyone, there is only one political party in this country: The Corporate Party. And their logo is red and blue with both an elephant and a donkey.
Politically speaking, the last 30 years have been like the repeating days of Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. Only the names and so-called party affiliations have changed. NeoConservative, NeoLiberal. War in, War out. Derricks pumping endlessly the whole way.
I wanted to buy an electric car in the 70s and put solar panels on my roof, but even today my electric company is making excuses why they don’t do reverse-metering. Our President refuses to re-install President Carter’s solar panels. Why? Because he doesn’t understand the definition of “role model”? Unless he thinks BP needs one…
I have had 5 careers in my life and each one has been killed by corporatism in my government, starting with Ronald Reagan. Now I live on the Gulf Coast and realize I will have to move agian at age 57 and maybe start over for the 6th time in my life…
Excuse me for venting, but with all the thoughtful and sincere commentary I hear among progressives, the one thing I don’t hear is when they are gonna understand that there is no compromising with the ideaologies of power and wealth.
Chris and Tim….Um the jokes…..Um…. Not to be too harsh but um…..I got the feeling you both had no prom dates.
James of course what you say is correct in many ways.But you blame a lot on corporatism.What is this corporatism you speak of?As you see it?
I agree with James Stone the wealthy are now in control of the economy, politics, health care, and jobs.
There are a lot of people out there who are voting against their own interests and don’t even realize it.
Corporate money brain washes them everyday via TV comentators/ political ads/and news media slant.
Here’s an idea- think for yourself. After you hear a speech by Obama or any other politician, turn the sound OFF and don’t listen to the TV comentators. Don’t let them tell you what you just heard while slanting the message to their political beliefs. Don’t depend on sound bites taken out of context to help
you make up your mind. Don’t depend on talk shows to give you a fair representation of the issues.I know you are busy with your life but if you take the time to reasearch and avoid the latest internet scam, you have the time to reason out the political scams on both sides.
An informed public can rule wisely. We are the people- remember- it is true. An uninformed voter invariably elects the wrong person.
Michael would you have the poor be in charge of the economy,politics ,Healthcare and jobs?Or should it be someone else better suited?Maybe Obama?Who should it be?If not those that have risen to the top of their professions and incorporated under government rules and laws?THis idea of a cadre of rich skull and bones types and shadowy corporations really has gone far enough on FAIR.It should end tonight .It is loony.Conspiracy saw dust. But we do need someone to blame.Someone who has more than the rest of us?Always we repeat the same stupid.It is nonsensical class warfare being bandied .Dude The wealthy are you…The corporations are YOU!The battle is against ..YOU! Want proof?We need only find it in the eyes of the poor according to FAIR.
.I have traveled the world.A chicken is wealth in those countries where poverty reins.They see YOU as filthy and rich.THey see YOU as that corporate elite you pass the hat to and so despise.They see YOU as the military industrial complex. The pestilent Jew.THe filthy evil American with his Boot on the throat of the honest good poor .It is all YOU.Surprised?And you cant fob it off.Remember Americans begging for their lives as they were beheaded.No quarter given to your denials son.IT IS YOU.All you!THIs is called “blaming over the hill”And it is a distorted ,and distorting illness.Blame America first is also this.
Your last line is so important and true.It is why we have the Obama regime.
James I worked for Nadar.A great and good man who would of been a horrible president.Sorry
From the Ecopnomic Collapse Blog:
The following are 50 economic numbers from 2011 that are almost too crazy to believe….
#1 A staggering 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be “low income” or are living in poverty.
#2 Approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are living in homes that are either considered to be “low income” or impoverished.
#3 If the number of Americans that “wanted jobs” was the same today as it was back in 2007, the “official” unemployment rate put out by the U.S. government would be up to 11 percent.
#4 The average amount of time that a worker stays unemployed in the United States is now over 40 weeks.
#5 One recent survey found that 77 percent of all U.S. small businesses do not plan to hire any more workers.
#6 There are fewer payroll jobs in the United States today than there were back in 2000 even though we have added 30 million extra people to the population since then.
#7 Since December 2007, median household income in the United States has declined by a total of 6.8% once you account for inflation.
#8 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16.6 million Americans were self-employed back in December 2006. Today, that number has shrunk to 14.5 million.
#9 A Gallup poll from earlier this year found that approximately one out of every five Americans that do have a job consider themselves to be underemployed.
#10 According to author Paul Osterman, about 20 percent of all U.S. adults are currently working jobs that pay poverty-level wages.
#11 Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs. Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.
#12 Back in 1969, 95 percent of all men between the ages of 25 and 54 had a job. In July, only 81.2 percent of men in that age group had a job.
#13 One recent survey found that one out of every three Americans would not be able to make a mortgage or rent payment next month if they suddenly lost their current job.
#14 The Federal Reserve recently announced that the total net worth of U.S. households declined by 4.1 percent in the 3rd quarter of 2011 alone.
#15 According to a recent study conducted by the BlackRock Investment Institute, the ratio of household debt to personal income in the United States is now 154 percent.
#16 As the economy has slowed down, so has the number of marriages. According to a Pew Research Center analysis, only 51 percent of all Americans that are at least 18 years old are currently married. Back in 1960, 72 percent of all U.S. adults were married.
#17 The U.S. Postal Service has lost more than 5 billion dollars over the past year.
#18 In Stockton, California home prices have declined 64 percent from where they were at when the housing market peaked.
#19 Nevada has had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation for 59 months in a row.
#20 If you can believe it, the median price of a home in Detroit is now just $6000.
#21 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 18 percent of all homes in the state of Florida are sitting vacant. That figure is 63 percent larger than it was just ten years ago.
#22 New home construction in the United States is on pace to set a brand new all-time record low in 2011.
#23 As I have written about previously, 19 percent of all American men between the ages of 25 and 34 are now living with their parents.
#24 Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.
#25 According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, health care costs accounted for just 9.5% of all personal consumption back in 1980. Today they account for approximately 16.3%.
#26 One study found that approximately 41 percent of all working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt.
#27 If you can believe it, one out of every seven Americans has at least 10 credit cards.
#28 The United States spends about 4 dollars on goods and services from China for every one dollar that China spends on goods and services from the United States.
#29 It is being projected that the U.S. trade deficit for 2011 will be 558.2 billion dollars.
#30 The retirement crisis in the United States just continues to get worse. According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 46 percent of all American workers have less than $10,000 saved for retirement, and 29 percent of all American workers have less than $1,000 saved for retirement.
#31 Today, one out of every six elderly Americans lives below the federal poverty line.
#32 According to a study that was just released, CEO pay at America’s biggest companies rose by 36.5% in just one recent 12 month period.
#33 Today, the “too big to fail” banks are larger than ever. The total assets of the six largest U.S. banks increased by 39 percent between September 30, 2006 and September 30, 2011.
#34 The six heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton have a net worth that is roughly equal to the bottom 30 percent of all Americans combined.
#35 According to an analysis of Census Bureau data done by the Pew Research Center, the median net worth for households led by someone 65 years of age or older is 47 times greater than the median net worth for households led by someone under the age of 35.
#36 If you can believe it, 37 percent of all U.S. households that are led by someone under the age of 35 have a net worth of zero or less than zero.
#37 A higher percentage of Americans is living in extreme poverty (6.7%) than has ever been measured before.
#38 Child homelessness in the United States is now 33 percent higher than it was back in 2007.
#39 Since 2007, the number of children living in poverty in the state of California has increased by 30 percent.
#40 Sadly, child poverty is absolutely exploding all over America. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 36.4% of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty, 40.1% of all children that live in Atlanta are living in poverty, 52.6% of all children that live in Cleveland are living in poverty and 53.6% of all children that live in Detroit are living in poverty.
#41 Today, one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.
#42 In 1980, government transfer payments accounted for just 11.7% of all income. Today, government transfer payments account for more than 18 percent of all income.
#43 A staggering 48.5% of all Americans live in a household that receives some form of government benefits. Back in 1983, that number was below 30 percent.
#44 Right now, spending by the federal government accounts for about 24 percent of GDP. Back in 2001, it accounted for just 18 percent.
#45 For fiscal year 2011, the U.S. federal government had a budget deficit of nearly 1.3 trillion dollars. That was the third year in a row that our budget deficit has topped one trillion dollars.
#46 If Bill Gates gave every single penny of his fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for about 15 days.
#47 Amazingly, the U.S. government has now accumulated a total debt of 15 trillion dollars. When Barack Obama first took office the national debt was just 10.6 trillion dollars.
#48 If the federal government began right at this moment to repay the U.S. national debt at a rate of one dollar per second, it would take over 440,000 years to pay off the national debt.
#49 The U.S. national debt has been increasing by an average of more than 4 billion dollars per day since the beginning of the Obama administration.
#50 During the Obama administration, the U.S. government has accumulated more debt than it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that Bill Clinton took office.
The De-Evolution Of America: Lower taxes? Higher taxes? Does anyone actually think being plus or minus 5% on taxes will make a lick of difference for the U.S. economy at this stage in the game? The economy will never again work the way we all want it to work with the current account deficit at 6 or 7 percent of GDP. You cannot get unemployment even under 6% without a credit bubble, with a current account deficit as large as ours. We have not had a trade surplus since 1974. We have been in decline for 40 years and this decline has only accelerated in recent years. We closed 55,000 plants in the United States since 1980. Your politicians won’t tell you this because some of them fed you the false promise of free trade. Others don’t want to admit NAFTA has been a complete failure for America. Great for Mexico as that giant “sucking sound” Ross Perot predicted has materialized. Clinton and Gore promised the American people ever bigger trade surpluses with Mexico and ten’s of thousands of new high paying jobs. Just pass NAFTA they exclaimed! Quite laughable, really. We have gone from a trade surplus of a few billion a year to a trade deficit nearing 100 billion per annum with Mexico. Our trade situation with China, South Korea, Japan, and Germany is equally depressing. We are responsible for employing their people as our people suffer. They will not pay our bills so why are we employing them via our consumption? This must all end. America has done a terrific job of creating a low employment and low wage society, for millions. Quite sad indeed. No civilization has succeeded by consuming more than it produces. We must massively restructure. Until America decides to produce what it consumes you can forget about any long term economic recovery. The financial games all failed. The credit bubble is gone and now the U.S. economy is exposed as the biggest joke of all time. Credit bubbles have a way of masking the real issues. How do we fix the American economy? Start by making every American who has received a Nobel Prize in economics return the award. Why? because they were either 100% wrong or their work proved to be of no benefit to the American economy. Next, leave the WTO, end NAFTA, and go about setting up country-by-country trade deals that are realistic based on where America stands today. It is not 1955 anymore. The world has either matched us or surpassed us in industry after industry. We have literally become an emerging economy is some industries as we have faltered so badly. We must, for major industries such as steel and automobiles, move to a must-be-made-in-America policy. No longer allow imports of products in specific industries. They must all be made in America. We must employ our people. We can no longer employ the world via our consumption as so many Americans remain unemployed. We must use our 50 state union to our advantage. We must promote massive trade between the states. We must socialize CAPITALISM to avoid becoming a socialist state! We must reinvigorate the American people. We must manufacture. I am calling on the American Government to do a complete re-think of this myth called FREE TRADE. It has destroyed much of the middle class and has put all Americans on the road to a much lower standard of living.
What happens to a civilization when it abandons self sufficiency?
Here is a great example:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Electronic industry officials say counterfeit parts flooding the Pentagon supply chain are a “ticking time bomb.” The officials along with government investigators and company executives testified Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee. The panel is conducting an ongoing investigation into suspect electronics from China that end up in weapons systems, helicopters and aircraft. Sen. Carl Levin, the committee chairman, said China declined to send a witness to answer the committee’s questions. The committee’s investigation found about 1,800 cases of suspect counterfeit electronics being sold to the Pentagon. The total number of parts in these cases topped 1 million. By the semiconductor industry’s estimates, counterfeiting costs $7.5 billion a year in lost revenue and about 11,000 U.S. jobs.