distribution of wealth
- Tuning in to the election's racial frequency-
by Mikhail Lyubansky
“When it comes to African-American audiences, some have called Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential bid a ‘dual-track’ candidacy, one that seeks to prove he is in tune with the needs of the black community while also not alienating whites.”
This was the opening sentence of the John McCormick and Rick Pearson’s Chicago Tribune’s cover story July 15th and the typical way the mainstream media is covering the 2008 election. The unanswered (and typically not even asked) questions are what does he need to do in order to appeal to both of these groups, and is simultaneously appealing to both groups even possible. The purpose of this article is to provide a brief examination of these two questions.
Reporters and pundits alike often frame this issue racially – as in the example above. Nothing wrong with that. There are legitimate racial issues in this and other elections that deserve and are worthy of media scrutiny and citizen discussion. And certainly, Obama’s ability to simultaneously appeal to both White and Black voters (not to mention to other racial and ethnic minority groups) may both determine who wins the election and provide some much-needed racial unity (see my previous post on the racial implications of this election). That said, a purely racial framing of this question is much too simplistic. In the interest of space, I’ll focus on just one example: the intersection between race and social class:
- Freddie, Fannie And Friends- The wonderful world of our capitalist society, small c for the few that capitalize!
With trouble brewing inside mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, Armen Keteyian reports that the nation is learning more and more about the companies and their friends in high places.
- The US Is On The Verge Of Utter Financial Collapse And Martial Law- Rob Kall at Op-Ed News ran an interesting poll, and it does appear that Congress could dramatically improve their ratings, however, based on my personal interpretation of that poll and the subsequent comments, it appears that Nancy Pelosi allowing impeachment hearings to go forth and allow Bush and Cheney to be impeached are the key to Congress improving its ratings. It is the will of the American people, the population is tired of Bush and Cheney, their constant war rhetoric, and the destruction of the American economy while the wealthy of America are increasing their wealth - and the rest of us are going down in flames. It's no longer a matter of speculation, but documented fact that Wall Street and America's corporations, devoid of real oversight by the government, are raping and plundering the American and even the global economy.
- Expectations and Economics- It’s not what you have, but what you believe you can have that drives the American economy. We should all understand that Republican fiscal ideology is focused on benefits for the wealthy. It costs the wealthy too much to help out those down on their luck, so we shouldn’t do it is the Republican mantra. However, in marketing this to the common man the Republicans normally drop “the wealthy” modifier and change “down on their luck” to “welfare cheating scum buckets” or some other derogatory adjective.
- Jesus knows a camel when he sees one: We are NOT passing through the eye of that needle, America….- By Jason Miller Dedicated to Bobbie L. 4/3/08 In the sermon just minutes before his death, Archbishop Oscar Romero (a man who truly practiced the teachings of Christ) reminded his congregation of the parable of the wheat. “Those who surrender to the service of the poor through love of Christ, will live like the grains of wheat that dies. It only apparently dies. If it were not to die, it would remain a solitary grain. The harvest comes because of the grain that dies We know that every effort to improve society, above all when society is so full of injustice and sin, is an effort that God blesses; that God wants; that God demands of us. I am bound, as a pastor, by divine command to give my life for those whom I love, and that is all Salvadoreans, even those who are going to kill me.”
- Americans Must Be Really Stupid, or Really Afraid- I have been at this a long time. Lately I have no desire to write about what I see happening in the world because I’ve already talked about it. I saw the Zeitgeist movie this evening and there was nothing in the movie that I have not already written about. Yes we have been taken for a ride by the people that control this country and that are the International Bankers. Yes the Federal Reserve is robbing us blind and we have known that since Woodrow Wilson told us so. Yes, our education system in this country is producing sub-par graduates without the capacity for critical thing; you know that by just talking to them. We know that the media is controlled by the corporations that are controlled by the bankers who control our government. I know all that.
- I Think that I Shall Never See- I Think that I Shall Never See By David Glenn Cox I think that I shall never see a site as lovely as a tax rebate, for free A partisan platform based on greed by giving more to those who don't need To rescue the economy is not a mistake but throwing life jackets to those not in the lake?
- Tax Stimulus Rebates To Be Withheld From Those Who Need It Most- According to an article recently published on Yahoo News from AP, the final details have been ironed-out and the legislation appears to be a sure thing. As usual, Washington made sure that those most harshly affected by the recent surge in food and fuel costs who are living on fixed-incomes via Social Security would be ineligible for any of the scheduled "rebates" that comprise the economic stimulus package. The language, even in the report from AP, is contradictory and requires more than a casual read as it jumps from one thought to another:
- The Industrial Revolution Unplugged: An Interview With Author Gregory Clark-
The topic below was originally posted in my blog the Intrepid Liberal Journal as well as the Independent Bloggers Alliance, The Peace Tree and Worldwide Sawdust.
- Forget The Color Purple: Oprah’s all about the Green- By Jason Miller Thomas Paine's Corner http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/?p=277 “The other kids were all into black power,” Oprah told the Tribune in the mid-1980s. But “I wasn’t a dashiki kind of woman … Excellence was the best deterrent to racism and that became my philosophy.”
- The Last Redoubt- The Last Redoubt By David Glenn Cox Many people think of catastrophes as an exclamation point, a lightening bolt from out of the blue sky. The truth is usually that most cataclysms are a series of minor events unnoticed in their individual accounts but it is when the sums are totaled that we begin to see it before our eyes and shake our heads with disappointment in our own rekonings.
- The Non Americans- The Non Americans By David Glenn Cox The non Americans are with us, it is we who are not with them. They walk our streets and live in our communities but travel different paths and live a thousand miles away. We don’t know them and don’t want to know them for they are not the Americans like we are. Just being born here might make you a citizen but it doesn’t make you a full participatory American, they live invisible right before our eyes
- The Sermon on the (Right Wing) Mount-
copyright paul kane 2007 all rights reserved - Poverty, income, and footsie in the men's restroom- Well, it’s official. I have officially lost my sense of humor. I laughed when the Ted Haggard story came out; he was a top political evangelical with access to the White House. When they caught McCain’s Florida campaign chair offering that undercover cop a twenty to let him blow him, I did a very funny piece on it. When they caught the newly elected chair of the GOP trying to blow a guest while he slept on the couch, I did a funny piece on that. But now they caught Senator Larry Craig trying to blow an undercover cop in the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. (continued)
- Class Warfare-Making Sure That The Wealthy Get Their Share, And Yours Too - I'm on dozens of Email lists, everybody from the New York Times to Victoria's Secret (great articles over there) sends me Email and I spend way too much time scanning and deleting most of it daily. I subscribe to Email lists from news organizations, campaign committees, government watchdog groups and all kinds of public service organizations. I also get stuff addressing me as Dear One, with great investment opportunities in Nigeria and missives that promise to make me larger, but I delete them all summarily as I have nothing to invest and..., never mind.
- When For-Profit Corporations Rule The Day- By now, we've gotten used to hearing voices from lobbyists and politicians for the need to make government less costly and more efficient by outsourcing its services through awarding contracts to the private sector. All for the good of free market competitiveness, thus ensuring better services at cheaper costs - right? Among many of the dark, sad and tragic tales and lessons that the Iraq War keeps serving us, if not actually reminding us of, there is one which offers us a glimpse into the future of for-profit corporation-provided governmental services and for-profit corporation direct influence, if not control, over our lives. This future is dystopic and inhuman - frighteningly enough, this is not science-fiction but reality ... today.
- The Looting Of America- Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing
click to enlarge
- The Unraveling- The Unraveling By David Glenn Cox The unraveling has begun. Watching the talking heads, the only thing they seem to agree on is the money being pumped in by central banks around the world isn’t getting to where it needs to go. That’s an easy one, everyone wants to help the leper’s but no one wants to go do it personally.
- No One Told You When to Run- It’s incredibly hard to wake the working class, not because they are heavy sleepers or because they are lazy. But because they go to sleep tired and worried, about their kids and their jobs and their future. They are too preoccupied with the day to day struggle for life to hold intellectual arguments on class warfare.
- Bad Bosses & Pie- Cross posted at NoSlaves.com blog
A new study from Bond University says almost two-thirds of the 240 participants in an online survey said the local workplace tyrant was either never censured or was promoted for domineering ways. From Bad Bosses Get Promoted.
Even the BBC is asking what is going on with America's economic policy by the question: The end of the American dream? - Of Marx, Christ, and the Persecution of Radicals: How Will Humanity Survive the Capitalist Threat?- Thomas Paine's Corner http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/?p=168 By Jason Miller A few days ago, one of my closest friends hit me with a heavily loaded question. “Are you a Communist?” she queried. To which I replied:
- School Diversity Segregates Some. Divided Neighborhoods Isolate All-
copyright © 2007 Betsy L. Angert. BeThink.org
- John Edwards is Visiting My South- Marks, Mississippi. Marianna Arkansas. Memphis Tennessee. These are the first stops for John Edwards on a special journey that begins July 16 in New Orleans, goes up the Mississippi, across to the Rust Belt of the upper Ohio Valley states and ends in Appalachia. John Edwards is highlighting poverty in this country: The Road to One America Tour.
- "What to the American Slave is Your Fourth of July?” Black America Grieves-
- Sky Dwellers, Pie Eaters, and Their Political Enablers: Faithful Defenders of the Status Quo- In the mid-1970s the TV sitcom The Jeffersons portrayed the rags-to-riches story of a black entrepreneur living the American Dream. The pugnacious and overbearing George Jefferson (former neighbor of All in the Family’s Archie Bunker) becomes a dry cleaning magnate and leaves blue-collar Queens for swanky Manhattan. As the show’s theme song recounts:
- It is The Economy . . .-
The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don't Need copyright © 2007 Betsy L. Angert. BeThink.org - Beer and Union Busting in Pennsylvania- Cross-posted to DailyKos. Imagine the following scenario: You work a decent, well paying, union job at a local brewery. The town you live in is fairly small, and the brewery provides the majority of employment for the area. You love your job, and you need to hang on to it, in order to keep your family afloat. If you were to be laid off, you likely wouldn't be able to find anything else in the area. Certainly nothing that pays as well.
- Financially Defending Troops on the Homefront.-
Support the troops. It's something we hear every single day. It's on bumper stickers and yellow ribbons. We even have to put up with people saying that if we don't support the surge then we don't support the troops. But are we really doing all we can to support the troops and, just as importantly, the families of loved ones of those who go to fight and die abroad for our sake? I can honestly say we're not. Join me after the jump to think outside the box about something you can do to support the troops in a real and meaningful way.
- Financially Defending Troops on the Homefront-
Support the troops. It's something we hear every single day. It's on bumper stickers and yellow ribbons. We even have to put up with people saying that if we don't support the surge then we don't support the troops. But are we really doing all we can to support the troops and, just as importantly, the families of loved ones of those who go to fight and die abroad for our sake? I can honestly say we're not. Join me after the jump to think outside the box about something you can do to support the troops in a real and meaningful way.
