Descending into Marxism?

I regularly receive tons of spurious, unsubstantiated emails riddled with manufactured outrage. Many of the links to opinion pieces like this one, masquerading as journalism but failing to provide facts, data sources or even a semblance of objectivity.

In the style of Hannity, O’ Reilly, Limbaugh and Beck it’s all about characterizing. To hell with the facts, get the people stirred up and fearful and you can convince them that their way of life is in jeopardy. I wonder how people feel when they read that piece. Do they feel that they're living at a turning point in history, with time running out? After investing a bit of time for fact checking, most of these vacuous opinion pieces can be easily dismissed or at least heavily discounted. Once the source can be discounted, you can save yourself a lot of time weeding through the bullshit. In this case it is worthwhile to consider the possibility that Stanislav Mishin may not even be a real person.

Op-eds are not news. The highly-charged rhetoric, that sells papers and books, is distilled from viewing the world through colored, one-way glass. These pieces are typically written in a fashion that evokes an emotional response and reinforces the beliefs of reader AND writer. It’s the old adage “Don’t confuse me with the facts, my mind is already made up.”

In the history of American politics you can find this kind of political paranoia, in the anti-Masonic movement, the anti-Catholic movement, in abolitionists who regarded the United States as being in the grip of a slaveholders’ conspiracy, in Mormon alarmists, in some populist writers constructing a great conspiracy of international bankers, in the exposure of a munitions makers’ conspiracy of World War I, in the popular left-wing press, in the contemporary American right wing, and on both sides of the racial debates. There is a certain archetypal character to this kind of fear.


Cries of Marxism, socialism, etc. etc. are nothing new, but are ridiculous on their face and should be relegated to throw-away status. Fear messages are deserving of no serious discussion or review by objective news organizations, elected officials or the majority of reasonable citizens. Every once in while a particularly egregious example surfaces and we all talk about it for a little while. OK. So we look at it and ask if this one went too far etc. For my money, that’s the extent of the usefulness of this type of propaganda. Yes it is propaganda.

The basic elements of contemporary right-wing thought includes the idea of a sustained conspiracy, to undermine free capitalism, to bring the economy under the direction of the federal government, and to pave the way for socialism or communism. The second contention is that top government officialdom has been so infiltrated by socialists that American policy has been dominated by men who are shrewdly and consistently selling out American national interests. Finally, the country is infused with a network of socialist agents so that the whole apparatus of education, religion, the press, and the mass media is engaged in a common effort to paralyze the resistance of loyal Americans. Really? Is there a red under your bed?

To the specifics of this piece. It is strange to blame Wall Street for supporting Communism. It smells funny and raises the sensitivity of my internal bullshit detection system.

The whole premise for the socialism argument has no substance. GM came to Washington with their hand out and now their recovering. Health care reform is not socialism, there are built in choices and the government is not the insurer. Bank bailouts made during this administration are being repaid with interest, unlike the TARP monies that GWB gave away, or as he said it “Putting $700 billion dollars of American taxpayer money at risk.” That was beyond risk, that was truly socialism. Privatized profits and socialized losses. We got ass-raped. Were you outraged by that?

Much of our current economic and financial trouble dates back to deregulation started by Ronald Reagan, followed by the Bush’s and to a smaller degree Bill Clinton. Government control, in the form of regulating bodies, serves a useful and necessary purpose. Deregulation does not come from the minds of bureaucrats, it comes from corporate donors. If you are going to be afraid of something, start with the Supreme Court ruling allowing corporations to have the same rights as people when making campaign contributions.

Slightly behind the curve

Furthering yesterday's "lest we forget" message, I need to make a point of posting informative, helpful links more often. Like this one.

Lest we forget

During the silly season, several criticisms of the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress surfaced as the electoral motivators for "taking back our country" from the of the brink of socialism.

Chief amongst these criticisms was the "Obamacare" health care reform legislation, that according to Republicans and particularly tea-partiers - "the American people" didn't want. Bringing up 2nd and 3rd places, not necessarily in this order, were the auto industry bailout and the stimulus plan. Unemployment got tossed in there but didn't fall into the socialism bucket.

Obamacare

What has come to light in the past six months is the enormous popularity of the individual benefits of health care reform. Among other things "the American people" like that:

1. health plans can no longer limit or deny coverage simply because the child has a pre-existing health condition. This provision does not mean that such coverage will be inexpensive, but at least coverage will be available.
2. health plans can no longer set a lifetime dollar limit on benefits, which can be particularly important for those with expensive medical conditions.
3. an insurance company cannot retroactively cancel a policy if you failed to accurately disclose required information on the insurance application. Under the new law, the insurance carrier must prove that the information was left off the application by reason of fraud before canceling the policy.
4. insurance companies cannot deny claims without appeal
5. new health plans are now required to offer access to preventive services such as screenings, vaccinations and counseling at no charge, including no copay, co-insurance or deductible.
6. under the new rules, coverage of dependent children is extended to age 25 if they don’t already have coverage through their job. The new rule applies even if the child does not live at home or is married.
7. with new health plans, you can now choose the pediatrician or primary care doctor or you want from your health plan’s provider network. You can also see an OB-GYN doctor without getting a referral from your primary care doctor.
8. patients may use the nearest emergency room without penalty

Auto Industry Loan

This week GM reported its best quarter since 1999, setting the stage for them to begin selling shares to the public again. GM earned nearly $2 billion in the quarter, compared to a loss a year earlier when it was still in the process of emerging from bankruptcy. It's the third straight quarter GM has reported a profit. The last time they reported a profit this large was the first quarter of 1999. Wednesday's earnings report puts GM in position to post its first annual profit since 2004. GM said it expects to be profitable again in the fourth quarter.

The earnings report came about a week before GM will start selling shares to the public for the first time since it emerged from bankruptcy in July 2009. The company expects to raise about $13 billion selling shares, putting it on course to be the third-largest initial public offering in U.S. history. That stock price target would value the company at about $52 billion.

Most of those stock sale proceeds will go to its existing shareholders, not the company, with the Treasury Department receiving a bit more than half of the shares. Treasury, which provided a $50 billion bailout to keep the company alive through its bankruptcy process, holds 61% of its common shares today, although that will fall to just over 40% once the initial sale takes place.

Treasury intends to space out the sale of its remaining GM shares over upcoming years so as not to flood the market with shares and drive down the price. Taxpayers may not make a profit on GM's "bailout" as it will take a near doubling in share price from the initial price target in order for taxpayers to break even.

A break even should be considered a win.

The Stimulus Plan

Take a look at the map at the recovery.gov website to see how the recovery monies have been spent. Make up your own mind about the usefulness and effectiveness of the funding.  It's pretty damned impressive.

Socialism

Do any of the above government interventions actually equate to, or even approach socialism? Short answer: No.

...and Unemployment?

After shedding over 750,000 jobs in January 2009, the trend has reversed in a not insignificant fashion. Last month saw a net increase of 160,000 private sector jobs. Job losses, that had been climbing month-to-month since the summer of 2008, and peaking at about the time Obama was sworn into office, are now hopefully in our past as we set about the hard work of recovery.

With a couple of months of lame duck power and influence, Congress can do even more good things before the lunatics begin running the asylum.

I'm proud to say "I'm a Liberal"

If by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties — someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal." - JFK

Which side of the debate will look good through the prism of history?

Why do seemingly intelligent and otherwise reasonable people give credence to whacked-out conspiracy theories and alarmist messages of death panels, illegitimate presidents, reds under the bed, etc., etc.?

More than any other time in my living memory, we have been witness to the transmutation of crazy fringe ideas into mainstream info-tainment as late-night, oxycontin-inspired rants, set up a clash of civilizations as they make their way from the hate-filled blogosphere to the morning news and prime time TV.

At the Rally for Sanity this past weekend, Jon Stewart attempted to make America aware of the crazy. The Daily Show does a good job of this on a day-to-day basis by simply juxtaposing the ranters against themselves as they say stupid shit, in their own words and then contradict themselves with even more stupid shit.

There's not really a point to this, other than to say, as I vote I'll be thinking about how rational and sane my chosen candidate has appeared to be during this, the silly season.