Fitzwalkerstan, Cracks in the Facade

While not one inclined towards optimism the past week seems to hold some hope that the charade of lies, BS, and general criminality may be showing signs of fracture in the once great state of Wisconsin. The Journal Senntinel for once gets it right:

Gov. Walker's rockiest week since the recall culminated with the release Thursday of documents containing allegations by prosecutors that he was part of “a criminal scheme” to bypass state election laws. But the story that in the long run may represent a more fundamental political challenge for the governor was the batch of new jobs figures also out Thursday painting an unflattering picture of Walker’s first three years in office. Wisconsin ranked 35 of 50 states in private-sector job growth between 2010 and 2013, trailing all its closest Midwest neighbors — even Illinois, the state the governor has repeatedly bashed for having a hostile business climate. This wasn’t just another mundane jobs report. It contained the most accurate and thorough pre-election portrait we’re going to get of how Wisconsin’s job performance compares with that of other states during Walker’s first term. Between these two “bad news” stories for Walker last week, the allegations about illegal campaign coordination were a lot more sensational. They made national headlines, thanks to Walker’s status as a possible 2016 presidential candidate. They raise real issues about how campaigns are financed. But where they lead is anyone’s guess. No actual charges have been filed. The legal questions are complex and fiercely disputed. And the investigation is tied up in court and may never be completed.

I would like to be optimistic but living in Fitzwalkerstan the reality of a unitary one party state leads me to belive this is yet another oppurtunity for the Democrats to lose. We don't so much live in a country as much as a collection of competing scams masquerading as a super power. Sergei Shnurov has an accurate , if Russian, take on things.

I Want to Rob a Bank

Sounds like a reasonable thought in an Oligarchic Kleptocracy. At this point I don't give a rip about Ukraine Iraq Afghanistan or Iran. If we can't liberate Wisconsin what can we do?

The Lost Continents Presidential Endorsement with Excuses

Well it is now time to announce the highly unsought Lost Continents Presidential Endorsement however before doing so let us take time to ruminate on the words of an undisputed expert on flawed, opaque, fraudulent elections, Vladimir "The Magician", Churov:

"The U.S. presidential election is not direct, not universal and not equal, and it does not safeguard the secrecy of voting," Churov, who heads Russia's Central Election Commission, wrote in the government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta's online edition. "The electoral system and electoral laws in the United States are far from perfect. They are contradictory, archaic and do not correspond to the democratic principles the United States has declared as the basis of its foreign and domestic politics." He cited a long list of shortcomings such as U.S. methods for registering and identifying voters, vote monitoring which he said was inefficient and mechanisms for casting ballots which he described as questionable."

Having put the election in its proper perspective, choice of who to vote for is not an easy one. President Obama is clearly a representative of the Oligarchic Kleptocracy who has no interest in due process, supports extra judicial assassinations, has deported more undocumented people than George Bush ever thought about, and made whistle-blowing a high crime just for starters.

His opponent from the other half of the duopoly if anything is even worse on these matters with the added attraction of belonging to the Mormon Church which is the equivalent of the Alawites of Islam, a secretive paranoid group whose most visible representative is Bashar Assad of Syria. The other major turn off is the undisguised racism of the followers of the Republican party who are demographically doomed.

There is of course the option of the multiple third party candidates of whom Jill Stein of the Green Party is probably the leading example. I agree with about everything the Greens stand for however their lack of actual governing experience is unnerving and they lack a certain sociopathic viciousness which seems to be necessary to succeed in American political life. If Citizens United is ever overturned there may be a future for Dr. Stein and her party. In the meantime they need to battle it out in city councils and state legislatures. Besides being from Wisconsin I am sick of lost causes.

So in my final analysis my vote is based on a calculus of suffering and who is likely to inflict the least. It may be a nebulous approach but if you are someone who isn't killed, denied healthcare, or imprisoned it is a big difference. Obama has gotten my nauseated, jaundiced stamp of approval.

"Political Fraud" by ClassWarFilms

tell me again-- who are you and why am I here?

Janesville/ Bainport

I spent part of the afternoon today in Janesville WI visiting with some folks from Freeport IL who are having their jobs outsourced to China courtesy of Bain Capital. The gathering took place at the now defunct GM plant which is quite literally the smoldering crater of what was Janesville's once vibrant economy. It was a spirted if somewhat short rally which ended when the police "suggested" we move along...nothing to see here..The Downward Spiral has the gruesome details of the Romney induced calamity and is well worth reading.

Fighting Bob Madison WI 9-15-12

The 11th annual Fighting BobFest was held in Madison Wisconsin at the Alliant Energy Center. The speakers that I saw included Jim Hightower, Gwen Moore, Juan Cole, Phil Donahue, Mike Papantonio, Norman Solomon, and Greg Palast. Also caught part of the breakout with Bill McKibben. All and all a very revitalizing experience made even better by talking with fellow attendees and realizing the interconnectedness of seemingly unrelated struggles. A common theme was the angst of what to make of President Obama. I think Jim Hightower expressed it best when he described re-electing Obama as trying to carry a sack of concrete over the finish line. A note about the venue; I realize Baraboo was off the beaten track for some but it had a certain agrarian-populist charm. The Coliseum (Alliant Energy Center) has a much weirder vibe which comes in part having an essentially anti-corporate gathering in a corporate owned public place. Enjoy The Raging Grannies and the Solidarity Singers, two musical-cultural institutions who sustained us throughout the Wisconsin Uprising.

THE DOORS - STRANGE DAYS (THIEVERY CORPORATION REMIX) Post July 4th Musings

Its been 102 F the last 2 days in Wisconsin/Fitzwalkerstan. For some reason this song seems to capture the mood.

Wisconsin Autopsy of a Recall

If you are of a progressive state of mind and live in what is truly Fitzwalkerstan the past week has been one of unhappy ruminations. I guess I can't say I was totally surprised but hope springs eternal even though there were warning signs, such as the plethora of giant Walker and Fitzgerald signs in the rural areas where I live and which I heard later land owners were paid to put up. There are some with more pithier views which deserve repeating and thinking about: From Mark Vorpahl from Counterpunch:

"The main reason behind the recall’s defeat is political. It wasn’t enough to recall Walker. Someone from the Democratic Party had to be elected to replace him. The Madison uprising had started as a movement that put forward its own demands, rather than whittle away at them in order to make them more palatable for the Democratic politicians. While some union officials talked about concessions in the spirit of “shared sacrifice,” this attitude was not reflected in the great numbers filling and surrounding Madison’s Capitol. Therefore, the shift from mass collective action to an electoral campaign accelerated the movement’s degeneration from an inspiring expression of independent working class fight-back to an example corporate co-optation by the Democratic Party. The Democrats and Barrett The Wall Street funded Democratic and Republican parties do not fundamentally differ in their aim to fix the deficit by making workers pay for it rather than the 1%, whose bailouts, federal loans, and tax breaks have increased as the deficit has grown. The Democrats are no more capable of countering austerity than the Republicans because that would require that they bite the hand that feeds them – the corporations, banks, and economic elite. In fact, they are aggressively pursuing policies that will greatly exacerbate the historic divide between the rich and working people. For instance, the bi-partisan supported and Obama designed Simpson/Bowles measure, that will likely go into effect shortly after the presidential election, will slash hundreds of billions from Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security while providing the rich with even more tax breaks. In addition, the recall election in Wisconsin demonstrated an even further distancing between the Democrats and the interests of Labor and working people in general. The Democratic National Committee was largely missing in action for most of the campaign. Not only did Obama fail to do anything to support the recall other than write a supportive tweet, he bypassed a trip to Wisconsin in order to speak at an event on June 3rd with Honeywell CEO Dave Cote in Minneapolis. (1) Honeywell is currently attempting to bust unions in three different labor disputes. Obama and the Democratic Party could not have made their priorities more clear with this slight. They value standing shoulder to shoulder with an anti-Labor CEO than with the unions. The Democratic candidate that ran against Walker, Tom Barrett, is a typical corporate party man. That is, he is no legitimate friend of the unions and workers. As mayor in Milwaukee he attempted to take over the city’s public school district, angering the cities African-American community. (2) He is also a supporter of charter schools and has said this is an area where he can work together with Walker. (3) During the uprising, he proposed an alternative budget to Walkers that extended its cuts to benefits and pensions to police and fire fighters as well, in opposition to the aspirations of those protesting at the Capitol. (4)",

Jeffrey Sommers, also in CounterPunch, gives another penetrating analysis:

Ultimately, however, the bottom line is that Walker was able to capitalize on the very crisis and long-term economic decline Republicans helped engineer over the past thirty years–with no small help from the Democrats. UCLA’s Robert Brenner described how the Republicans managed to jujitsu the crisis of the 1970s to the GOP’s advantage by turning people’s economic distress over declining living standards to electoral victory. The key was to shift the public’s concerns over the private economy and move them onto government. Ensuring that wage increases match levels of economic growth in the economy is difficult. It requires organizing and unions. In the US only a minority of workers have ever been unionized. This made it difficult to address stagnant wages during the 1970’s crisis, but still possible with union efforts. The GOP innovation was to provide an easier route to fattening one’s wallet: tax cuts. This was first achieved in 1978 through Proposition 13 in California that slashed property taxes, thus providing short-term relief to taxpayers. While people could not control their wages (at least not easily) they could determine their level of taxation, and thus their take home pay. The long run cost of this delusion was the destruction of the state’s educational and transportation infrastructure. Before Proposition 13 California’s schools were ranked number one in the US. They are now typically ranked in the bottom 10% and California’s finances are a mess. Reagan successfully campaigned, and rode to victory on this model in 1980. Scott Walker has privately declared he takes his inspiration from Reagan. Walker asserted in his now notorious Koch call that Reagan’s strike against the PATCO union workers early in his presidency was his defining moment in office and history. Walker emphasized that this was vital not only to reign in labor, but also to demonstrate to the Soviets that Reagan was no pushover. In Walker’s view curbing labor and displaying his resolve (others say intransigence) are the keys to understanding his agenda and his unwillingness to back off. If Walker survives the John Doe investigation he might be under, he will simply roll over the compromise inclined Democrats and advance his program at any cost. And, he has the financial means to do it. Yet, Walker, while committed and smart, is hardly deep. His understanding of economics, history, and politics are thin. While he takes at face value the narrative of tax cuts as the key to Reagan’s success, he fails to recognize that Reagan gave up on the cost cutting enterprise as hopeless within two years of assuming office. Indeed, Reagan’s early austerity policies further depressed the economy. Thus, Reagan “corrected” and launched a massive military Keynesian debt-fueled binge that pulled the economy from its torpor. Meanwhile, given the US success in 1970s of getting oil priced in dollars, Reagan was able to press the pedal to the floor on both government spending and the dollar printing presses alike. As Dick Cheney infamously noted, “Reagan proved deficits don’t matter.” For Scott Walker, however, “the Gipper” was an austerity icon. Walker is in for a rude shock when he discovers his austerity policies will only exacerbate recessionary conditions. With no Central Bank at his disposal to create dollars, he will be forced to either admit his error (not his strong suit) or launch even further divisive attacks to, in the fashion of the 1930’s USSR, that define and then hit out at “wreckers” responsible for undermining his policy. Further, in the fashion of Mao, he will launch an attack against educators as “elites” parasitically feeding off the people. Meanwhile, just as Reagan’s Director of the Office of Budget and Management, David Stockman, noted early on that it was “feeding time at the trough” for Reagan’s backers at the public trough. That too will continue under Walker’s billionaire, special interest funded Governorship. Walker’s hardcore followers, however, are zealots. They are aggressive in the extreme and will turn hard on all enemies when their ideology is exposed as a failure for not producing broad-based prosperity. Whatever motivates Walker, it is clear his hardcore supporters represent a kind of aggressive freikorps that one would find in the backrooms with Joseph McCarthy or Richard Nixon. What makes Walker dangerous is that at minimum he is comfortable in both attracting and using these elements, while he himself appears to many as a decent and reasonable person who much of the public would not imagine Walker associating with. That said one has to understand Wisconsin in order to further appreciate the broader appeal of Walker’s message. Ironically, under the long Reagan Revolution that Walker has displayed fealty too, Wisconsin disproportionately suffered. For example, its urban workers had wages were 29% over the national average before Reagan took office. Presently, they are under the national average by roughly similar percentages. The Paul Volcker shock Reagan continued to kill inflation and made many of Wisconsin’s industrial exports uncompetitive as the dollar rose. Globalization and NAFTA then buried many of the remaining survivors. For this minister’s son from Wisconsin, however, these reasons are ignored for explaining Wisconsin’s economic decline. Walker instead defaults to the Reagan faith. The crisis is a consequence of government regulation and taxation: provide relief from both and the confidence fairy will return to Wisconsin. Walker’s comic-book narrative is much easier to grasp than any serious economic analysis. Moreover, Walker is an effective salesman for it. He has carefully cultivated his image for years, presenting himself as the plucky working-class kid made good that still carries a brown-bag lunch to work. It’s a throw back to Frank Capra central casting, and the image works for a public generally desiring an honest politician they can identify with. Much of the suburban and rural population has bought into it. Rather than a tool of billionaires, Walker is perceived as the people’s hero that has enlisted the “job creators” (billionaires) to take on the special interests in the public sector. Thus, merely exposing Walker as on the hook to billionaires will not enlighten them to who he really represents. Walker’s constituency desperately needs a hero. Who are they? Overwhelmingly, they were the white working classes with no college education. By and large they have lost these benefits. They may have not seen raises in years. The public sector is an inviting target for them. It’s one of the few places where the working and middle class still receive decent benefits (medical, retirement, etc.). This makes them suspect to a population that has largely lost these. Yet, rather than ask why they too no longer enjoy these, instead, Walker’s supporters want to know why the people in their employ (the public sector) still have them? Walker’s supporters largely assume that “we are broke.” They fail to recognize that the US economy is larger than it has ever been, but that wages have not risen with economic growth since Reagan. Everyone must tighten his or her belts. Moreover, the public sector has disproportionately people of color, thus playing on the racial divide.

"On this note the Kinks inform us again from 40 years ago:

Born in Xixax by Nina Hagen

One day Wisconsin will be free.

Massive Hog Lot Waste Lagoon Collapses, 53% of Wisconsin Drowns in Pig Shit

In what experts are calling the largest catastrophe of its kind, the failure of a hog waste containment lagoon has drowned 53% of the the population of Wisconsin in pig shit. The failure at the Koch Brothers Swine Factory and Nuclear Facility located in Waukesha county occurred without warning even though activists had suggested the site was a ticking time bomb. While Dane county and 9 others were largely unscathed the remainder of the state has been inundated in pig waste. According to the Borowitz Report Canada is bracing for an influx of refugees:

"The Canadian coast guard was on alert today, preparing for what it fears could be a massive invasion of boat people from Wisconsin. Conor McGlindon, commander of the Royal Canadian Mounted Coast Guard (RCMCG), said that satellite photos had revealed a “substantial flotilla” in the making, as Wisconsinites prepared to flee their state for their neighbor to the North. “Word has gotten around that we have policemen, firemen, and basic school lunches up here,” Mr. McGlindon said. “You can’t blame these boat people for seeking a better life. But we are under orders to intercept them....Mr. McGlindon offered reporters a look at satellite photos showing the boat people larding their vessels with wheels of premium cheddar cheese, possibly in the hopes of bribing Canadian officials on Superior’s northern shore. “We are telling all of our men that under no circumstances should they accept offerings of cheese,” he said. ”These boat people are desperate and they will try anything.” Reports of the looming refugee crisis coincided with the release of a new poll showing that Gov. Scott Walker is now the most hated man in Wisconsin, narrowly edging Brett Favre. Speaking at the state capitol, Gov. Walker seemed philosophical about his legacy: “I’m not worried how history will remember me, because if I have my way there won’t be any history teachers.”

Wisconsin Recall: Will Money Talk?

The recall in Wisconsin is now days away and the outcome by no means certain. In the meantime the corruption investigation which has been simmering for months shows signs of having the potential of overshadowing the recall itself as new information comes to light on almost a daily basis. This article in Salon highlights some of what has developed:

The two-year-old corruption investigation into Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker reached a major inflection point just days before his recall election next week when it came out that Walker had transferred $100,000 of campaign money to his legal defense fund and seemed to acknowledge that he is the center of the probe.... The probe reportedly started with a single staffer who had worked for Walker when he was Milwaukee’s county executive, but it has since grown much larger, touching almost everyone who has worked for Walker, and even the governor himself, and producing several arrests and convictions. Documents made public last night show prosecutors requested the secret investigation after they found Walker’s office “unable or unwilling” to provide information. “It may be the county executive’s office is reluctant to provide information to investigators due to a fear of political embarrassment,” an assistant DA wrote to a judge in May 2010. Walker has maintained that he has cooperated with prosecutors all along, so the document casts doubt on his story of the proceedings. Asked about the stonewalling last night, he essentially called the report untrue.

The whole subject of Walker's criminal defense fund itself raises many, at this point unanswered questions.

Walker, thus far, has maintained that he is not the target of the investigation. But under Wisconsin law, politicians can only use their legal defense funds for themselves or their staffs, and Walker said this week that none of the money from the fund would go to his staff, suggesting it would be used only to defend himself. Democrats seized on the comment as an admission from Walker that he is personally a target. Walker had already contributed $60,000 to the fund — which comes from campaign donors whom he refuses to name — before this week’s transfer, bringing his total legal war chest to $160,000. He claims the money is being used to help turn over documents to investigators, but some experts point out this amount of money suggests a more sophisticated legal defense representing hundreds of hours of attorney work. There are also email records suggesting that Walker was personally involved in trying to stem the bleeding when the first allegations came out.

One of the most disconcerting aspects of the recall has been the the obscene amounts of money involved in what is a demonstration case of what post-Citizens United politics are going to look like. Watchdog.org gives an accounting of the fund raising in what is arguably the most expensive political undertaking in Wisconsin history:

Walker, in the fight of his political life, raised $5.9 million along between April 24 and May 21, according to finance disclosures posted at the Government Accountability Board website. He has raised around $31 million since he took the oath of office in early January 2011. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Walker’s Democrat challenger in next week’s unprecedented gubernatorial recall election, took in $3.4 million more than the most recent five-week reporting period, and has raised $4.2 million since jumping into the race in late March. Walker’s totals to date are record-setting by every measure, with the governor far outpacing his previous campaign finance high-water mark of $11 million-plus in 2010. Critics have knocked Walker for his legal ability under Wisconsin recall law to raise unlimited campaign funds through the first stage of the recall campaign. But Walker in recent week still has dwarfed his challenger in the money chase.

I close with the Kinks:

Fitzgerald, welcome to the 21st Century

I live in senate district 13 in SE Wisconsin where Lori Compas is waging a heroic struggle to unseat one of the more despicable accomplices of Scott Walker, Scott Fitzgerald. Mr Fitzgerald distinguished himself by essentially throwing legislative protocol out the the window in ramming Act 10 through the legislature thus precipitating our current sad state of affairs. As the Duke of Wellington described the battle of Waterloo, this looks to be a close run thing, but no one can deny that the hearts of her supporters are in it even if the DNC isn't.

Utah Phillips- There is power in a union May Day 2012

An excellent song from a great artist. Here in Wisconsin we gird ourselves for the conflict which may define our lives for the foreseeable future.

Enough Is Enough The GOPs War On Women (and everyone else for that matter) Rally In Madison

A rally to draw attention to the GOP's outrageous policies towards women in particular and people in general was held at the state capitol in Madison on Saturday. Sponsored by United Wisconsin it featured an impressive group of speakers including Mark Pocan, Sarah Finger, Kathy Utley, and John Nichols. They addressed a diverse, very focused crowd of approximately 2,000 on a cold damp day. In other words the equivalent to a gigantic Tea Party event that would normally warrant a couple of pages of coverage in the Wisconsin State Journal or Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Also present were Kathleen Falk and Arthur Kohl-Riggs, a thoughtful young man running in the Republican primary against the Gubernator.

Paul Ryan Billboard Of The Day

Taken in Janesville WI on Milton Ave. One can only imagine some anti-Walker adds with similar impact. Hope to see them soon.

Fitzwalkerstan: The Economic Degradation Continues

The figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, shown above, paint a bleak picture of job loss in Walker's Wisconsin. While the Recall obviously has garnered national attention, the economic reality of Walker's policies of rewarding the oligarchs while imposing harsh austerity on workers and the middle class has caught national attention as well. The San Francisco Chronicle made the following observation:

"Scott Walker, the Republican governor facing a recall vote in Wisconsin, traveled over the Illinois line to argue that the tax increase backed by his Democratic counterpart Pat Quinn is killing jobs even as the Midwest rebounds from recession. "Is it any wonder because of choices that were made right here in the state's capital?" Walker, 44, said in an April 17 speech in Springfield. "When you raise taxes on businesses, that wealth and opportunity and those jobs more often than not go somewhere else." A broader snapshot tells a different tale. Illinois ranked third while Wisconsin placed 42nd in the most recent Bloomberg Economic Evaluation of States index, which includes personal income, tax revenue and employment. Illinois gained 32,000 jobs in the 12 months ending in February, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found. Wisconsin, where Walker promised to create 250,000 jobs with the help of business-tax breaks, lost 16,900."

In the meantime the state lost 4,500 jobs in the month of March of which 4300 were in the private sector. Blogging Blue gives a good synopsis of the facts. It is amazing that the Republicans tout Walker's policies as some sort of model in the face of ongoing failure. However acknowledging, let alone dealing with, reality has never been their strong suit.

Weird Wisconsin And The Political Armageddon To Come

After a brief hiatus from the blogosphere, during which the Republican Carnival came and went leaving Rick Santorum twitching in the dust and a Planned Parenthood Clinic attacked by a right wing wacko representative of the Republican base, I return to reflect on the biggest political event in a generation, the recall election. When the recall was conceived during the heady days of the Wisconsin Uprising over a year ago it was a noble dream with no details. Since then gazillions of dollars of corporate money are now faced off against a genuine grassroots effort to a large degree run by newly politicized people of all walks of life. Regardless of the outcome political life in Wisconsin will never be the same for either party.

The Democrats have come up with a slate of four candidates which in many ways mirror the strengths and weaknesses of the party in general. There are two time proven losers,Tom Barrett and Kathleen Falk, who could be accurately described as centrists and close to the party centers of power. They have organization and experience in their favor and are widely seen as the most likely contenders. To the left of them would be Kathleen Vineout who lacks name recognition but has gained notice in progressive circles and has a compelling personal history. Not to be left out is Doug La Follette who has a familiar Wisconsin name and is running on civility and maturity. With all due respect he is not seen as a strong contender.

The Republicans have Scott Walker, the most polarizing figure in Wisconsin politics since Joe McCarthy and beneficiary of Citizens United's unregulated corporate largess. He taps into a base made up of social conservatives, wannabe corporate oligarchs, and the genuinely rich and powerful. Fear is a big factor in the lives of his non billionaire supporters whether its creeping Socialism, the perceived threat of unionism, or general social breakdown and uncertainty. It's not clear how committed the actual Republican voters are given that Walker's agenda was a sort of bait and switch scheme and may have alienated some of the middle class base.

The consequences of this election could see either party rendered irrelevant for years to come. For the Democrats a loss, especially if Barrett or Falk are involved, would call into question the logic of appealing to centrist values when the outcome is due to perceived lack of passion for progressive values.Negotiating with a group of take no prisoners Republicans is a no win proposition as America's national stalemate abundantly illustrates.

For the Republicans a defeat could symbolize the awakening of the majority of the populace to the fact they have no interest in the greater good and the concept of shared sacrifice. Another likely outcome may be the death of so-called bipartisanship which for anyone who has been paying attention has been DOA for years. Hold onto your hats, Armageddon in Wisconsin is coming.

Wisconsin and The Struggle Against Zombification

As Wisconsin prepares for the recall struggle with Walker and now three State senators it is sobering to understand what stands in the way. While to most progressives it's obvious that Walker and his fellow corporate supported colleagues are proxies for the oligarchic kleptocracy, it's necessary to understand that the corporate media fog machine has succeeded in converting a considerable portion of the population into fact impervious zombies.Corporate money pours in to keep the low information, social conservative part of the populace in a permanent state of delirium with issues such as Obama's citizenship and religion, gay marriage, abortion, and of course, guns. With this in mind here is a cheery article on the subject of The(Psycho)Pathology of The American Voter from Dissident Voice:

What is going on in this country? Have the citizens of the U.S. gone totally mad? The U.S. Congress has an approval rating of less than 10%. Greedy, unprincipled billionaires own virtually all of the wealth of the nation, and pay a lower percentage for taxes than the poorest worker. We imprison a greater percent of our population than any nation on earth. We spend more on vicious, unwarranted wars than the 15 top military spending countries combined. We are the greatest purveyor of murder and destruction internationally than anyone else. Our public school system is under attack, and becoming obsolete. A college degree has become so expensive as to be unavailable to middle class families. The safety net for the old and infirm is being torn asunder. Our immigration policies are so degrading and inhumane that there is a mass exodus from the U.S. by peoples who used to flock here. Health care is a national disgrace, and is fast becoming unaffordable to any person in need of hospitalization. Homeland Security looks more like the German Gestapo every day. The list of failures and problems facing the country is unparalleled, and the public knows it. Everything from cartoons to serious news shows bemoan the catastrophic decline in this country’s standard of living, and recognize the incompetence and inhumanity of those in power. This is so, even though the public media is little more than a propaganda tool for the oligarchy. What is the most astonishing fact, though, is that there are no candidates or possibilities for new leadership on the horizon anywhere! Obama is the best of the pack of wolves and thieves who are actively destroying this nation. 95% of those in Congress who are running for re-election are are certain to retain their status. How in the world is that possible? Any rational person would expect the electorate to throw these pandering, posturing politicians out on their keesters, and elect a set of representatives who would radically change the picture. But instead, we are about to re-affirm the failed, dying programs that have transformed this country into a violent, disrespected second-rate nation. What a contradiction in logic and reality! What kind of national pathology is causing the electorate to allow the oligarchy to engage in this unadulterated rush to destroy everything of value in this country? Like lemmings, rushing into the sea to commit suicide, the voters will once again endorse the same fools who have immobilized Congress for decades, will do nothing to control a run-away Pentagon, and its maniacal weapons manufacturers, and will accept Wall Street’s unregulated destruction of our wealth and resources. There is simply no rational explanation for the inability of the American people to find alternatives to the elected gangsters who bow to every billionaire that comes before them. It is apparent that the voting public in the U.S. feels so disenfranchised from the process that it has for all intents left the spoils to the thieves. By abandoning any process by which there can be meaningful change in the policies of this government, the people have accepted the fact that there are no meaningful differences between the Democrats and the Republicans. The wars will continue, the repression will expand, the rich will get richer, and the rest of us are on our own.

Madison Labor Rally March 10 2012, Taking It to a New Level

A crowd estimated at 60,000 plus assembled at the state capitol in Madison Wisconsin to commemorate Governor's attack on the working class one year ago and also flex some political muscle. Speakers included the president of the state AFL-CIO as well as other union officials and political luminaries including Lori Compas, whose campaign to unseat Scott Fitzgerald has taken on additional importance in the effort to realign and reform the state's political landscape. A rousing speech was given by John Nichols who never fails to impress with his historical perspective and oratorical skills. As the union president noted, "We're back!" Hopefully we never leave.

Wisconsin Crisis: Why it matters to Alberta

This is a great piece about the Wisconsin Uprising from a Canadian perspective. While by and large Canada has a rather robust labor movement compared to the U.S. they are rightly concerned that events in Wisconsin will be used as a laboratory for union busting world wide. It would be a huge leap forward if people not only in North America could break through their self imposed nationalist bubbles to cooperate for the betterment of all. One unintended side effect of globalization is the realization that boundaries between workers in the so-called developed world and non developed world are artificial constructs.