Yesterday morning, an estimated 400 or so union members, activists, students, and just regular old folks visited Wal-Mart stores in Hyattsville and Laurel, Maryland, in surburban DC, to protest in solidarity with Wal-Mart workers striking nationwide over pay, benefits, and the management intimidation of workers speaking out about the issues they face every day while working at Wal-Mart.

Find out more at ForRespect.org.

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Well, folks, it’s time once again for our Crisis Of The Month Club, this month featuring a slab of lame kabuki theater called “The Fiscal Cliff”, yet another round of cheap drama to provide cover for the Democrats’ and GOP’s collusion on the dismantling of Social Security and Medicare. And, of course, you know what this means, everybody — time to PANIC! GO ON, PANIC! FREAK OUT! CRAP YOUR DRAWERS! SCREAM AND CRY! RUN AROUND LIKE HEADLESS CHICKENS! OH GOD WE’RE GOING OVER THE CLIFF! AAAUUUUUGGGGHHHHHHHHH!

Sigghhh… oh for Christ’s sake, get a goddamn’ grip, you stupid rubes. It’s not a cliff; hell, it’s not even an outcropping. Fiscal Cliff? Fiscal Rut, more like. Here, check out this article from the Institute for Public Accuracy, get your facts straight, and calm the hell down already:

“Once again, it’s all about politics, not about the stuff that actually matters — a reality that becomes more obvious with the next two obstacles. There’s a bundle of expiring provisions in the tax code — known esoterically as ‘tax extenders’ and the Alternative Minimum Tax ‘patch’ — that benefit corporations and upper-middle class Americans, respectively. Congress will likely extend these expiring provisions without much discussion, just as they’ve done in the past.

“Next obstacle: health care. The Affordable Care Act — Obamacare — includes a handful of new taxes that will go live in 2013… These taxes will likely go into effect right on schedule, but they’re so small they’ll have next to no discernible impact on the economy…”

Instutute for Public Accuracy: “It’s Not A Cliff”, November 13, 2012

Now, then… now that you drama queens have gotten your heart rates back down to normal, here’s something you really need to get wound up about:

“We all knew the election was a minor diversion because no matter who won, the first order of business would be to gut the social safety net. The ‘fiscal cliff’ was always part of the plot line, to stiffen the will of Democrats to reverse the progressive stance it had taken since the time of Roosevelt. Pete Peterson’s billions bought both parties and now it’s payback time. Don’t be duped by the dopes in Washington — there is no deficit and debt crisis now or looming in the distant future. The electorate must hold the feet of politicians to the fire: keep your darned hands off my Social Security and Medicare…!”

“The president’s own proposed budget cuts of $4 trillion over ten years average out to $400 billion a year. In other words, the Obama Cliff is almost as large as the fiscal cliff that everyone dreads. Whatever the precise mix of tax increases and spending cuts, $4 trillion is too big a cliff…”

Institute for Public Accuracy, “‘Cliff’ Part of Ploy to Target Social Security and Medicare”, November 14, 2012

Now, there’s something to get all freaked out about. That ought to be something to get your blood boiling and your lazy asses off the sofa and into the streets — a real honest-to-god crisis, not some cheesy good cop-bad cop routine with a bunch of politicians on TV hollering “wolf!” and mouthing beat-assed clichés like “kicking the can down the road”.

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Continue reading "Cliff? What Cliff?" »

A couple of mornings ago, I heard what had to have been the ten millionth utterance of the phrase “kicking the can down the road”, emitted by some hack Congressman being interviewed on MSNBC. It’s bad enough that the Donkeycrats and Rethuglicans are contriving these phony crises to provide cover for their collusion on the dismantling of Social Security and Medicare, but do they have to add insult to injury by dragging out these tired, hackneyed clichés and beating them to death on TV?

If I ran the revolution, one of my first acts would be to round up every politician and media pundit who said “kicking the can down the road” so much as a single time, and have them publicly hanged. I realize that my more lenient comrades would prefer to simply imprison them, but only the threat of summary execution can truly deter the surviving politicians and pundits from assaulting the public with shopworn clichés such as this.

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Remember back in school, when the class bully would dump your books, shove you into your locker and try to shake you down for your lunch money, and you’d say “hey, c’mon, quit it!”, and the bully would get up in your face and sneer “make me”? Well, that’s the mental image I get when I hear Pwogwessives and Liberals talking about what they need to do to get Obama to honor his promises and implement more progressive policies, and they say that they need to “hold his feet to the fire” and “make him do it”.

Trouble is, they had their chance to put pressure on Obama and the Donkeycrats, but once again, they pissed it away — in the recent so-called election, when they could’ve organized a boycott, withholding their support and sending a message to the Donkeycrats in the only language they understand: defeat at the polls.

Instead, the Pwogs and Liberals spent four years pissing and moaning about how Obama went back on all his promises and pretty much continued all of Bush’s policies of warmongering, imperialism and attacks on civil liberties — and then turned right around and voted for him again. Christ, that’s got to be the most retarded thing I’ve ever heard of — real, honest-to-God short-bus-riding, helmet-wearing-in-class, drooling-in-your-lap deep-down retarded.

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At Chris Floyd’s Empire Burlesque: Napalm in the Morning (Drones in the Afternoon): The Smell of Victory Stirs Progressives to Action

Continue reading "Yer Liberals, Episode 2: “Make Him Do It”" »