Our very own old white guys

Seems Ed Rendell (former Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, a fact about three ordinary Americans that live outside Pennsylvania know) went out of his way to fellate the Third Way this week, saying our party had economic populists like Elizabeth Warren and Bill de Blasio, and economic realists like himself who are more than happy to watch our party go down to defeat as long as they get to keep kissing the asses of Corporate America and Wall Street (and one assumes, accept their checks).

Alas, Mr. Rendell did not think so much of we economic populists, claiming di Blasio would soon fall back to earth and Warren couldn't even get 20% in a Democratic Presidential primary.

Really?  Because with the Liberal bent of our overwhelming youth vote, I'm pretty sure that tired old farts like Ed Rendell are a lot more likely to go the way of the Dodo Bird than is Elizabeth Warren or Bill de Blasio.

Shouldn't this tiresome fucker be a republican?  He sure sounds like one.

Peace,
emaycee

Happy fucking holidays, asshats

One in six Americans living below the federal poverty line.  One in five Americans not having enough money to buy food.  Unemployment is still at 7%, with the U6 at 13.2%. Our bridges and roads are crumbling.

And what is the Republican National Congressional Committee concerned about?




I'm a Liberal.

I work in retail, where it's traditional to give a seasonal greeting at the end of each sale.

Want to guess what mine will be?

Happy Holidays!
emaycee

On Nelson Mandela

Don't really need to add much to that.

Peace,
emaycee

The next Joe Lieberman?

Seems the Third Way, a "democratic" group whose sole function is to fellate Wall Street, had an editorial in The Wall Street Journal this week that denounced the agenda of economic populism championed by the likes of Elizabeth Warren and New York City Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio. In their genius, they have decided that looking out for 99% of Americans will be a disastrous political strategy and that we should do as they do and fellate those on Wall Street in the hopes that we can win in 2014.  Sen. Chuck Schumer, himself a long- time fellator of Wall Street, chimed in that left-wing blogs were the mirror image of the Tea Party, only they had less credibility and clout.

Are you fucking serious?  As the number three Democrat in the Senate (and boy, that doesn't fill me with much confidence going into 2014), someone ought to boot Schumer in the ass and see if they knock his brain back up into his head.

Though it would surely be a tall order, one can only hope that somewhere in the great state of  New York there's a true progressive salivating at the thought of winning Schumer's seat.

With enough pressure, we eventually sent Joe Lieberman packing, and we can do the same to Chuck Schumer.

Peace,
emaycee

Clueless

"No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."  Matthew 6:24

What's funny watching the kerfuffle over Pope Francis' remarks on income inequality is the reaction of Catholics.  No surprise the maggots of unfettered capitalism have declared the Pope wrong (Jon Stewart last night on Stuart Varney's reaction is classic), but it is stunning how little the more conservative Catholics know about their own religion.  The only change Pope Francis has made from Popes John Paul II and Bendict XVI is to remind Catholics that serving the poor is equally as important to the tenets of their faith as are hating on the gays and their war on women.

While I salute Pope Francis for prioritizing the economic needs of the poor and the middle class, Catholic Church doctrine is still exactly the same as it was before the puff of white smoke from the Sistine Chapel declared the election of this new Pope last March.

Of course, considering that the more conservative Catholics are wont to scream like wounded warriors over abortion and not bat an eye when some poor bastard is executed (in Church doctrine all life is sacred, and that means the death penalty is no more acceptable than abortion), it probably shouldn't be that surprising.

Peace,
emaycee

Sometimes I get it right

Nearly two years ago, on December 14, 2011, I wrote a post called "The Big Payback" in which I advocated attacking Citizen's United by turning it around on corporations through lawsuits by forcing them to not only have free speech rights individual citizens have but every right we as citizens have.

Ahem.

In today's Daily Kos, Meteor Blades makes virtually the same argument.

What the fuck--as the old saying goes, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and again.

Peace,
emaycee

The bare minimum

The New York Times has run an infographic on what today's minimum wage would be if it had kept up with the pace of the increase in earnings of the top 1% of earners.

It would be $22.72.

Given the pschopathic tendency of a lack of empathy which envelops many of our corporate leaders and Wall Street moguls, that the minimum wage hasn't kept up with their earnings isn't particularly surprising.

What is surprising is the notation from Think Progress (same link above) that since 1968 worker productivity  in America has more than doubled, and that if wages had kept up with the increases in worker productivity, last year the minimum wage would have been $21.72.

What are the chances Wal-Mart and McDonald's would be watching their employees walk out if they were getting paid over twenty dollars an hour?

On his first comedy CD, Chris Rock did a bit about working for minimum wage, and in it he notes that minimum wage means "if I could pay you less I would."

If your wages don't share at all in the gains your productivity made, one supposes Mr. Rock absolutely nailed it.

Peace,
emaycee