An Open Letter to Hillary Clinton

FYI:  Wally is still insisting that he is ready for Hillary, but the real question: Is Hillary ready for him and those like him?

Dear Hillary,

I’m a lifelong Democrat, but of late, have been feeling betrayed by my leaders.   The hope and change I was looking for recently got snuffed out with the passage of a budget (CRominbus) through both houses of congress.  And it looks like the high testosterone folks on Wall Street and the financial services sector won again.  Granted, it cost them a lot of money but this upfront investment is what will make their long con work, and the fact that, unless we get a congress or administration both willing and able to stop to it, this is the kind of con that can go on until the end of time.   And although able, neither a Democratic Senate nor President were willing to stop it.

They did, however, express sincere distress and dismay over their decision to do nothing.

Despite it all, I’m pretty happy with what President Obama has accomplished, so far, during his time in office.  Being African-American and all, I really appreciate what he and the Attorney General have done as far as the killing of unarmed black men by police, civil rights, voter suppression and immigration are concerned.  And let’s not forget our recovering economy, unemployment, LGBT rights, a change in relations with Cuba and so much more.

On the other hand, Obama and other Democrats have allowed cuts in programs for the middle class and decreased pensions for workers, while cutting taxes for the top one percent and allowing speculators on Wall Street to continue making dangerous bets without fear of consequences.   If they win they keep all of their nearly tax free profits.  But if their gamble goes south, we cover Wall Street with our FDIC tax money.  Heads, Wall Street wins.  Tails, the rest of us loose.  This is one reason why folks on Wall Street always think of themselves as winners.  Wonder what they think of the rest of us?

And that, dear Hillary is the question.  What do you and your high end donors, think of the rest of us? 

Were you Madam President, would you have been in favor of that piece of crap, so full of special interest riders, the bill had to be edited in secret without anyone knowing its final contents.  What a victory for political transparency.  Would you have sat back and let that bill poison bill float through congress? 

And what about the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP)?  As I recall, Bill Clinton was total freak for free trade agreements.  Those free market commerce arrangements killed both American unions and jobs.  And instead of less financial regulation, consider holding the top one percent more accountable for what their greedy and destructive behavior wreaks upon the world.

Hillary, I am at a loss.  In so many ways I believe you’d make a great president.  More to the point, I truly believe in you.  You’ve got the experience and won’t make many of the mistakes Obama has made and continues to make.  It took Obama several years to realize how ruthless and deceptive his enemies really are.  Even now, he seems to have trouble believing what he sees.

Meanwhile, you’ll hit the ground running and already knowing how and whom to fight.  Better yet, you’ll be a quick study of foreign and security issues.  Question is, what are you going to do about the rip offs perpetrated by Wall Street, big banks and the continuation of economic inequality?

You, like Obama, seem very much tied to the culture of Wall Street and the financial sector.  And that is my main, if not only, reason to even think about a third party or look at alternative Democratic candidates.  Thus far, I would really like you to be my next president.  But if you’re strongly aligned with the Wall Street culture, then I need to start considering other options.  Where are you on economic inequality?

Please Madam Secretary, talk to us.   Tell us about your vision and let us know who you are.  We already know who Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are.  And now it’s your turn.

Sincerely,

Wally 

For additional comments on this post, go to Daily Kos.

Learn to Think Like a One Percenter

A rising tide lifts all boats, “But,” according to Wally, “if you’re among the very competitive top one percent, the less boats crowding the water, the more enjoyable and expansive your view.

“And fishing will always be fun.”

One percenters have a totally different view of the world than the rest of us.  And while the rising tide theory may make sense to the rest of us, the very wealthy have a different take.  “Not only is more for me better, less for others also works.” 

“I’d laugh in the face of Keynesian Economics,” Wally declared to friends, “and proudly let people know that my boats’ are already afloat and then ask, ‘and I should care about your boat because…?’”   

For toppers, economic inequality is a good thing.   More for them and less for the rest of us means that what they have is worth even more, simply because the rest of us have so much less.   Although things may eventually return to balance, it will be a while before that happens.  Meanwhile, the more inequality there is, the more vulnerable politicians become and more open to immense campaign contributions.  And the more politicians that toppers control, the more the laws, legislation and regulations will go their way.

“These days, were I in the top one percent,” Wally recently told fellow attendees at a Denver Inequality Teach-in, “my job wouldn’t be to create wealth like in the old days.  My job now days would be to snatch as much wealth as I can from people less clever than myself.  And that would mean most everybody else.”

Wally went on to explain to the horrified group how lifting all boats is probably a silly idea to a one percenter.  “Their idea is to keep as many boats as possible stuck in the mud and out of lake,” he said. 

Another attendee, having heard enough of Wally’s craziness, challenged him with, “Good thing you ain’t rich because you’d be a real dick.”

“To be in the top one percent, I’d have to be a sociopath,” Wally shot back.

“Ok.” the other attendee asked calmly, “suppose you actually had to look some of those people you fucked over in the eye.  What would you say to them?”

“Have a nice day and thanks for all the fish.”

The Paul Ryan Budget Explained

Vote Like Your Life Depends On It

At some point soon, it just might.  

Weird Wally (that would be me) didn’t get serious about blogging until 2007.   And that was about the time he got his head out of his butt and took a look around.  Something was up, but not yet obvious and Wally took to blogging to help him figure it out.  Although nothing more than an online journal, he learned to question authority, and in the process, finally started paying attention.  A lot of other people also started paying attention, but we could not believe what we were seeing.

Besides the irrational tax cuts and big bank deregulation that no one really wanted, we also saw a gigantic increase in corporate welfare, billion dollar no-bid government contracts, and a senseless war in Iraq.  And not too long before the financial crises of 2008, President Bush and other Republicans were pushing hard to privatize social security and hand the money over to Wall Street.  Fortunately, that didn’t happen.  But would President Obama be sitting in the Oval Office today, were it not for the financial meltdown of September 2008?  

For a while, we believed that our votes actually made a difference, but as Obama’s first term progressed, he didn’t stand up for much and many began forgetting what he once stood for.  Nobody from Wall Street went to jail, foreclosures continued, wages remained stagnant and the rich kept getting richer.

Meanwhile, with the help of a super-secret society, known as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), many states were busy finding ways to keep minorities, single moms, seniors and single women in general, away from the polls, and voter suppression was just a start.  ALEC also promoted cutting state taxes for large corporations, fighting unions and keeping worker wages as low as possible.

In Washington, DC, things were equally as bad.  The Supreme Court had gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, immigration reform stalled and in Congress, the House voted over 50 times to repeal “Obamacare” and Republican politicians cowered to talking heads like Rush Limbaugh and people on Fox News and denied that they were all just bunch of women hating racists, anyway.

But as things started getting uglier, Wally could not yet believe how ugly things already were.  Black men and women who were unarmed were getting shot by cops and regular citizens alike.  Seems like, if you shot and killed an African-American, all you have to say is, that person was “black and I feared for my life,” and if you’re white, you might just get away with it.

Even as Obamacare shows major signs of success and the president is getting his mojo back, no one from Wall Street has gone to jail and the “too big to fail banks,” continue to keep private their profits and make public their loses (by way of the tax code, monetary policy and government subsidies), I’m pissed, but will vote this November in spite of it.

Had Romney been elected in 2012, he and his administration would have ignored ALEC and its attempts at voter suppression and a lot of states would be throwing people off voter rolls unhindered.   As it is, it’s an uphill struggle. 

So if we don’t vote in November, there’s a good possibility we won’t ever have to stress about it again.  A lot can happen in only two years.  Meanwhile, keep an eye out and please pay attention, because you never know.

Will Economic Inequality Turn Us Into A Bad Science-Fiction movie?

We’ve all seen them a time or two.  Those science-fiction movies where everything is gloom and no one’s gonna get out alive, yet life isn’t quite worth living.  And with the exception of a few matriarchs or patriarchs of well-armed and sociopathic families and communities, there are no old people.  Everything is covered with grey ash while trash fires burn in the streets, as lone adults walk along with heads bowed and every man and every woman are for themselves.  All the children, meanwhile, have banded into small gangs just to survive and, there are no families, and bandits roam the country side.

Welcome to the freedom and free market loving of a possible New America.  Everything is privatized and out of reach.  There are no police.  Neither is there a post office.  If you wanna send a letter more than twenty-five miles you either hire a smuggler, or pay the matriarchs and patriarchs whatever they might demand.  And forget about healthcare.  If you’re in an accident or come down with an illness, you’re screwed. 

Back in the day, when politicians said, “if elected I’ll run this (country, city, state) like a business,” little did voters who did not possess a Masters of Business Administration (MBA), realize what that would eventually look like.  It only made sense that if you’re going to run things like a business, you might as well become a businessperson.  At least the mission and goals become clear and concise, increase profits for shareholders, first and foremost.

Those old science-fiction movies always seem to have the same theme, the rich separate themselves from the rest of us and, over time there is total separation.  The rich know nothing of our lives and we know little of theirs.  Now we are separated only by gated communities and distance.  Tomorrow, the rich may live in a ring of luxury, circling high above us, upon which we can gaze only at night. 

Right now, it may all seem like silly science-fiction, but that kind of future is possible.  Between recent Supreme Court decisions that allow states to take away rights, deny health care to its citizens and take away most all limits on how rich people and corporations (also said to be people) can spend their money in our political process, we may well be heading in that direction

But it would be both a sin and a shame, to have our democracy end up looking like something from a bad science-fiction movie. 

Another good reason to get out and vote.  And if you don’t, things will only get worse.

Walter Lide

The Hungry Oligarchs

If you’re not scared of the hungry oligarchs yet, you haven’t been paying attention.

According to a study scheduled for release later this year, it’s the economic elites and well-connected business people who are running the country and us average voters don’t really count for much.

Worse yet, even when we organize into citizens and public interest groups, “we have much less influence than corporations or and business-oriented groups,” a Professor of Decision Making at Northwestern University, one of the study’s authors. Page and his co-author, Marten Gilens, a politics professor at Princeton University are hinting that our democracy may have morphed into an oligarchy without us even noticing. 

If recent efforts to enact background checks for potential gun buyers is any example, things are only going to get worse.  "The Supreme Court's recent decisions, which have removed most legal limits on big financial contributions to politics, are likely to increase the political clout of wealthy individuals and leave average citizens with even less influence than they have now," said Page. "I find this very troubling. The Court's view that political donations constitute 'speech' protected by the First Amendment opens the door to money-driven politics and a distortion of democracy."

Which brings to mind an old saying, “money talks and bullsshit walks.”  In the case of our devolving democracy, however, money may talk and our votes may walk; straight into oblivion. 

Walter Lide