This video raises an interesting question for educators and lawyers alike. These students at B. Bernice Young Elementary School in Burlington, NJ are being taught to chant and sing praises of President Barack Obama. Is that an appropriate exercise in a public school or does it smack of the type of cult of personality that we see in other nations?
The United States has always prided itself in the fact that we select citizens to lead for limited periods with limited powers. The President does not solely exercise the power of the United States, but exercises that power with two other branches. The training of students to chant or sing his praises seems out of place in our system and threatens to mix politics with education — particularly for children so young. I doubt many liberal families would be delighted to hear their children singing about George Bush in the same way.
The same controversy arose when a middle school teacher in Missouri arranged the video below. She was later suspended:
There is a considerable difference between the two tapes.
The lyrics and chant are certainly less militant:
Mmm, mmm, mmm, Barack Hussein Obama
He said all should lend a hand to make the country strong again
Mmm, mmm, mmm, Barack Hussein Obama
He said we must be fair today, equal work means equal pay.
Mmm, mmm, mmm, Barack Hussein Obama
He said take a stand, make sure everyone gets a chance
Mmm, mmm, mmm, Barack Hussein Obama
He said red, yellow, black and white, all are equal in his sight
Mmm, mmm, mmm, Barack Hussein Obama
Yeah! Barack Hussein Obama
…Hello Mr. President, We honor you today
For all your great accomplishments, we all do say hooray
Hooray, Mr. President you are No. 1
The first black American to lead this nation
This is not exactly a North Korean “Dear Leader” chant and certainly people like Michele Malkin appear to have taken this to an extreme of claiming indoctrination and fanaticism. However, I must confess that I feel uncomfortable with public school kids learning songs and chants for individual sitting presidents. It tends to reaffirm a type of cult of personality that we have seen with some prior presidents like George W. Bush and now Obama. I am also not comfortable with public school kids being taught to sing that a president is “No. 1″ given the opposition of some parents to his election or his policies.
This is why I love Constitution Day. It celebrates what really makes our nation strong: not our all-powerful or all-loving leaders but a document that allows citizens to protect themselves from tyranny. I find that these type of songs send the wrong message.
What do you think?
Prof. Turley,
I have to disagree with your comments on this video. First of all, it was set up by Fox News and it has been edited from its original version. I have included a link to a Raw Story posting that discusses what was cut out of the video. http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/09/fox-news-deleted-mention-of-death-threats-against-principal/. Fox News blew up the entire speech to the students issue way out of proportion and the use and editing of this video are just continuations of that insidious policy.
If you got about (45) minutes and want to hear rambling.
To eniobob:
Is this the interview in which Beck says that Obamab is doing a better job as president than McCain would have?
JP:
Not sure.but you can fast forward it,At about the (25) minute mark Couric is really busting him.This is the opposite of rafflaws comment where fox doctored the tape of the kids.This is bust city for beck.
Michelle Malkin IS PAID well to be extremely extreme and, admittedly, is being a flawless corporate cog here. If similar had happened, and probably did, for Bush, she’d have been THE picture of cuddly sweetness and light.
I would hope the Prof would, if he in not pulling our collective, electronic leg here, would please refrain from basing ANY serious analysis on what Ms Malkin has to say.
I suggest reading the lyrics of every other line, skipping the “Mmm, mmm, mmm, Barack Hussein Obama” one. I thinks that’s the “wrong” message to which the negative reaction is actually being directed. Imagine ideologically defenseless children being brainwashed into accepting the notions that
1) we should all lend a hand in America
2) “we must be fair today, equal work means equal pay”
3) “take a stand, make sure everyone gets a chance”
4) “red, yellow, black and white, all are equal”
All from “The first black American to lead this nation.”
Totally outrageous! Put them back on the “Channel One,” beginning of the school day, hour-long indoctrination to corporate branding !!!
(Maybe the school will have new songs praising Congress and the SCOTUS.
Would that absolve them?)
Der Fuhrer and zee Motherland would NOT be amused. Sig Heil, Sig Hiel.
Personally as a conservative, I have been worried about partisan politics in public education since I was old enough to understand. Public schools that I have been to in Missouri, including public university, have had a palpable left ward slant. To me it appears that way wherever I go. You all get upset watching Fox News, I get upset watching Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow and Nina Brzezinski.
Personally I doubt I would like a world where all ultra conservative views were implemented and I doubt you would like a world where all progressive/left views were implemented. We both may want it, but I doubt we would like it. The tension between these 2 opposing ideologies keeps the baser natures of each in check.
I think the construct of the song the teacher chose to modify, Jesus Loves the Little Children (replace “Jesus” with “Obama” and “precious” with “equal”), speaks to where her head was and the messianic message she intended to install in the little minds she is shaping.
I see no argument this should be considered acceptable in a public school. It is just as dangerous as the abuses of religious indoctrination that undermine critical thinking development of our children. In fact, it is even worse for implying that children should memorize their role to serve and praise the Ruler of the State! From the perspective of these young children, this activity went far beyond support of the President into outright worship. Truly revolting.
“I’ve seen films like this before. They were just harder to understand because the narration was in German.” – George Carlin
Buddha,
You are starting to annoy me. That is my place on this list. I am deeply offended, Live to be of service and I will annoy. Then you fat green man you won’t have any problems. I’ll have to report you to the authorities. Understand?
Wawhol, Herr Anonymously.
But might I ask, what kind of name is “Anonymously” anyway? Perhaps while I am being interrogated by the SS I’ll mention that suspiciously non-German name . . .
Byron:
“You all get upset watching Fox News, I get upset watching Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow and Nina Brzezinski.”
******************
I get no upset watching Fox News. I find the shows hilarious like a Benny Hill skit – done with all seriousness but absurd to the core. The latter shows you cite (and the Daily Show, too)are the opposite – done in jest, but serious none the less.
Fox news may not be the most “stellar” form of journalism, but they sure do have some pretty ladies presenting it.
Byron,
I have to agree with mespo. FOX doesn’t make me angry. It inspires something more like humorous disgust. On the other hand, I have a similar reaction to KO and MSNBC. And CNN. And the Networks. And WaPo. And HuffPo.
Hey . . . I think I’m starting to see a pattern here.
Byron,
And her first name is “Mika”. I will have to stipulate I am a bit upset by her. I am upset because I cannot figure out why an otherwise seemingly intelligent presenter who is actually capable of understanding the difference between journalism and what she does would work with a dyed in the wool douchebag like Joe S. He and his vapid nature come close to actually pissing me off. (Thanks, Starbucks! Just another reason not to give your shops business.)
Mespo:
come on be honest, you do like Geraldo don’t you?
Even I like him, he may be left of center but he seems honest. Hannity and Beck I wonder about, Beck because he is a Mormon and I cant put much stock in a man thinking he can become a god. A little too out there for me and worrisome if he goes nuts. Hannity does some good, he raised the issue of the San Joaquin Valley and the water. But most of the time I can count on you and Buddha to give me the straight skinny.
And as billy said above the Fox news ladies are pretty assume. Sex does sell and it is front and center on Fox(y) News. You watch Fox news for the same reason I used to read Playboy… the superb intellectual content.
Buddha:
Nina, Mika, they all look alike to me. Same on Fox news all those blonds with large “intellects”.
I don’t much care for Joe either, but probably not for the same reason’s.
Byron:
Geraldo is my favorite comedian. I still chuckle over the famous Capone’s Vault gag! Hannity is in second place now because he fooled us all when he “forgot” to tell us they turned the water on in the San Joaquin Valley in June. What a kidder!
This is wrong. There are messianic meanings to this song. Here is the religious lyric to “Jesus Loves the Little Children”: “Red and yellow, black and white, they’re all precious in His (God’s) sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world.”
From the Obama song: “He said red, yellow, black and white, all are equal in his sight”.
Not only is the messianic, it is factually inaccurate and it puts an emphasis of what are good things as an attribute of one person instead of things we might all do.
I believe an sound argument could be made that Obama represents any of the attributes in this song. This is a cult of personality. It’s interesting because Obama and crew have been sucessful in completely defining the terms in which he is discussed, by both the left and the right. I don’t believe I have ever seen this level of sucessful branding before. The only difference in left and right is that the right hates these supposed attributes, (socialist, peacemaker, justice bringer, cares about the poor/working/middle class) while the left approves of them. Scarily, Obama is/does absolutely none of these things. He actively works in the opposite direction of peace (check out what’s happening with Iran today), Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq–show me the peacemaking. Show me the concern for the economic welfare of anyone but the top 2 % of our population. Show me the justice of Obama’s civil liberties. Show me the equality of Obama’s war on drugs. Show me Obama’s concern for the brown people being tortured in Gitmo and Bagram.
Education isn’t about unquestionning obediance to a leader. Talk about those ideas in the song. Have a discussion about Obama and his policies. Those are great ideas. The song is cult material and has no place in education except as a study of successful propaganda and branding of political figures.
I meant to say that a sound argument can be made that Obama represents none…
Mespo:
they did? those fields looked dry to me, but then I am not a farmer.
Is the water on fully or is it being rationed? What is the real story on this issue?
If he was showing fields that were already harvested and waiting to be re-planted I would call that propaganda.
mespo,
Let us not forget Geraldo’s Greatest Hit(s).
Blessed be the Great Mother Video! She is a comedy goddess of infinite bounty!
And he’s such a responsible journalist.
bUDDHA:
how come you dont like Geraldo? He has done some good work. Didnt he expose deplorable conditions that people with mental health issues were living in under state control and other such things?
To paraphrase when “a Bentsen bagged a Quayle” (Quail)’
Mr. U.S President Obama, I have read of The President of the People’s Republic of China, Chairman Mao. I did not know Chairman Mao personally. Chairman Mao was not a friend of mine nor of the United States. Mr. President you are no Chairman Mao…and we *do not* want you to become a Chairman Mao. Unfortunately, our chanting, impressionable little children are making the comparison.
________________________________
Quote:
“Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.”] Quayle responded by saying, “That was really uncalled for, Senator.” Bentsen responded, “You’re the one that was making the comparison, Senator.”
_________________________________
This is wrong. So’s forcing children to say the pledge.
I do feel that the myth of liberals taking over education is greatly exaggerated. I have never heard of any substantiation to the claim that liberal organizations are planning how to infiltrate the school system so that they could mold kids in their own image. Instead, once every few years some individual makes a bad decision and is shown as proof that there’s some sort of conspiracy going on.
Now compare that to the all the very public campaigns by Conservative groups to change curriculum that they don’t agree with.
Byron,
I’ll stipulate that Geraldo played at being an actual journalist at points in his early career, but that journalistic credibility ship sailed long before the chairs started flying.
Gyges,
OFF TOPIC: You should check out Rodrigo y Gabriela. Some serious acoustic playing. I suggest their disc “11:11″. It’ll make chills run up and down your spine.
Gyges:
I think that people only see what they dont agree with, the rest is just backround in the pattern of their lives. We are all guilty of it. But getting small children to sing praise to the Pres. to the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic is a bit much.
Gyges,
I think you are making a straw man argument here. I didn’t see anyone saying hordes of liberals were trying to take over our schools. That teacher doesn’t sound like a liberal to me.
Conservatives have indeed worked very hard and gotten themselves on school boards. I would suggest liberals take a page out of this book and get elected to school boards.
As for myself, I am saying that there is a very successful propaganda campaign going on to convince people that Obama is a number of things which he demonstrably is not. I don’t think the govt. contacted this teacher and asked her to do this. However, we cannot close our eyes to the many, many direct attempts, be they by the pentagon or the nea, to present ideas about Obama and what is happening politically which aren’t true. We ignore this at our peril.
Michele Maulkin has no business complaining about the indoctrination of children because she applauded it when it was done on behalf of Bush. We should not take her as a role model and minimize it when it is done on behalf of Obama.
BIL,
OT: I found them about 2 or 3 years ago. Check out the Rosenberg trio some time, his guitar playing is stunning. Of course there’s always Django.
You also may want to check out a bass player named Rabbath, he makes Edgar Meyer look clumsy.
Jill,
Sure you do: “Personally as a conservative, I have been worried about partisan politics in public education since I was old enough to understand. Public schools that I have been to in Missouri, including public university, have had a palpable left ward slant. To me it appears that way wherever I go.”
There’s been a campaign since Regan to portray the schools as strongholds of liberalism, bent on turning out generation after generation of mindless drones. Read the local newspaper letters to the editor when there’s a controversy involving public schools, I bet the claim that liberals are taking (or have taken) over schools comes up at least once.
What I’ve never been able to figure out if it was part of the over all demonetization of intellectualism, or a complimentary parallel campaign.
It’s a separate issue from what we’re talking about now, but since Byron brought it up, I’d thought I’d address it.
Gyges,
I did miss Byron’s earlier comment and agree that many conservatives believe there is a left wing bias to education which I personally see little evidence for.
Jill’s points are well taken. These lyrics ad method leap over the line into outright propaganda. If this became more commonplace, it could simply be called indoctrination, much like one would see in Cuban classroom.
Gyges – I agree. This concept simply builds upon the group chanting and compliance of individuals in a mass meeting that already exists with the pledge… a ritual compelled by the government in our classrooms, along with the size and quantity of flags.
Gyges:
“What I’ve never been able to figure out if it was part of the over all demonetization of intellectualism, or a complimentary parallel campaign.”
I cannot speak for the rest of the right wing but I am opposed to the burning of books. However we on the right believe the same thing about the left, namely that they are anti-intellectual and unwilling to look at broader or diverse issues except through the prism of class struggle.
For example I have a friend who has a daughter going to Mt. Holly Oak and is studying economics, she and I have talked at length and she has never had a class on anything other than Keynesian or Marxist economic theory. I had a young lady that worked with me who has a masters degree in economics from some university in another country, I asked her if she had ever heard of Von Mises or Hyaek or any other free market economists, she had not, again it was all Keynes and Marx.
In college (granted it was 20 plus years ago), I tried to take some philosophy classes but the teachers were all pushing the same Marxist rhetoric. There are many other philosophers besides Kant, Hegel, Marx, Sartre, and Plato that have something to say. Why do they take up so much space? There is more than one point of view on how to live ones life, the left does not have all of the answers.
Most people on the right go into business and the sciences so we can avoid what is taught in the liberal arts colleges and we read on our own what we would have liked to have taken classes on but don’t want the one sided view.
As I stated above we don’t notice what we agree with and what we do notice is like a tack in our chair.
Granted their are people on the right (more like tyrants) that want to burn Huckleberry Fin and Catcher in the Rye but there are others that would be happy if both sides were taught and analyzed.
For Christ sake even Marx started out praising capitalism in the Manifesto.
Here’s an example of Bush indoctrination song I surmised above must exist:
“Today at the White House Easter Egg Roll, dozens of children “from the stricken Gulf Coast region serenaded First Lady Laura Bush with a song praising the beleaguered Federal Emergency Management Agency.” To the tune of Hey Look Me Over, the kids from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama sang:
Our country stood beside us
People have sent us aid. Katrina could not stop us, our hopes will never fade.
Congress, Bush and FEMA People across our land
Together have come to rebuild us and we join them hand-in-hand!”
Reported in 2006 originally at:
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/04/17/katrina-song/
And dredged up today @:
http://atlargely.com/
I’ll leave it to other interested readers to locate and report on the extreme right temper tantrums caused by this cute ditty.
(Of all topics, Katrina !!??!!)
John Puma:
that is just as bad, actually worse, they should be learning how to take care of themselves not depending on the government.
We can do it yes we can, we don’t need a helping hand.
We can build and prevail all we have to do is pound that nail……..
“The tension at B. Bernice Young Elementary School escalated to such a degree Thursday that the school was placed temporarily on lockdown after its principal received DEATH THREATS over a YouTube video that showed nearly 20 children being taught songs lauding the president, though back-to-school night events continuing as planned Thursday night at the school.” (my emphasis)
http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/09/fox-news-deleted-mention-of-death-threats-against-principal/
Byron,
We’re on different slightly different topics here. There’s a difference between not teaching certain philosophers and demonizing education and critical thinking.
How are smart kids in general portrayed on Sitcoms? Lonely and weird. In pop culture college has long since stopped being a place where people go to an education, and instead is a place where people go to party with friends. Anyone who deviates from that is portrayed as being abnormal and boring. There are countless variations on Faust and Frankenstein, all saying the same thing “this is how much man is supposed to know, no more.” Look at political campaigns, instead of bragging about their educations, most politicians do their best to down play them, to look like “just one of the guys.”
I think it’s a much more cultural thing then a political one, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be exploited by politicians.
Byron, if government, as you suggest, should NOT assist citizens hammered by a class five hurricane then there is NO place for government at all.
(I’m assuming, again, here that your post was serious.)
Before this rabbit goes too far down the hole, could I point out the fallacy of false distinction. What you are talking about is the marketplace of ideas. To frame it in the form of left versus right is a false dichotomy. When evaluating ideas, they should all be evaluated factually and logically before applying a value loading filter like the pure political distinctions of “left” and “right”. That’s propaganda language. I submit that Byron may be seeing something valid but coming to an incorrect conclusion as to causation. There is a correlation between education and liberalism. But is that relationship solely causal to the curriculum or is it related to the process of learning how to be a critical thinker proper? Remember, the goal of a properly administered education is to create rational critical thinkers. Which is more causal to a liberal outlook – the books one has read for assignment or the conclusions one comes to about the truths of the world based on the skills gained in the process of reading which are by necessity not limited by one’s school experience and must incorporate outside learning to varying degrees?
Which is more transformative? I’d have to say that which carries over into the most realms of life possible and allows integration of that broader spectrum of knowledge to create a more well rounded individual – the skills learned are of greater impact than the material used to impart them. The material is somewhat, well, immaterial.
That the college curriculum in most schools is a bit stodgy and dated (I’ll admit that much) but I also contend there is more variety presented than you portray. The guys you name are heavy hitters. That’s why they’ve been in the batter’s box so long. Good ideas win in an open market free of as many filters as possible. And yes, the bookshelf could use a little modernization. But I submit a more likely reason the “old timers” get so much time aside from the whole “they are just plain good arguments” or the “they are Left/Right writers” argument: laziness. Simple human nature. The new requires effort. So the effect is two-fold. Slow process combined with a certain amount of intellectual sloth. Professors spend a lot of time acquiring knowledge and building models based on that knowledge. New information has a cascading effect. I think that has more effect on the selection of material than a directed “left wing bias”. As much as herding liberals can be like cats, herding academics is twenty times more difficult. The idea of a “left wing conspiracy” in academia is quite frankly ridiculous. You couldn’t get that buncha yahoos to agree water is wet much less on a conspiratorial plan.
I think what you see has some validity as an observation. I just think the solution is simpler than conspiracy.
Gyges:
good points.
Buddha,
Well said. Like I said, the “anti-intellectual” movement is a different subject then what’s not getting taught.
I can see why the issue got confused though, I didn’t clarify that I was making an observation about something I viewed as separate from the “Liberal conspiracy” that I was speaking of primarily.
Also, I should clarify that by and large the curriculum I see Conservative groups trying to alter is in primary education. Specifically, in history and science classes.
John Puma:
I honestly don’t know how I feel about government helping in a case like this. Personally I think it should be on a local level. Maybe government can supply funds but the local authorities should be the ones to make the decisions on resource allocation as they have a much better vantage point on what needs to be done. Assuming of course they are not crooks and have the required training to do the job.
I guess all of those empty trailers is a testament to good intentions but bad implementation.
Buddha:
I don’t think there is an out right conspiracy, but there is bias. And it can be systemic. For example if I wrote a paper on some free market concept in an economics class there is a good chance that I would get a D or a C because of the teachers bias. Students who believed in free markets would most likely go into other areas of interest where they could do well. So there may not be a conspiracy but there is bias that self perpetuates. What you are left with is economists that generally think in lock step. Any differing views are dismissed as fringe elements by the academy and the press.
I think that argument can be applied across all endeavors and political spectrum’s.
To Byron,
Thanks for the reply but we are way off topic here.
John Puma, you’re The Man! One quick blog comment, and we now have a definitive lesson in political paranoia.
Folk Hero President Nachiavellian Dictator
praise spontaneous praise directed
praise isolated praise orchestrated
praise honest and heartfelt praise false and overblown
target is a racial minority target is racial majority
reaction immediately publicized reaction marginalized
So, yeah, I can certainly understand why seeing this video would cause a bit of anxiety and discomfort. Even if you aren’t white. But, well, this is what happens when a President is also a Folk Hero. You don’t get to marginalize how important his election is, just because it’s already happened, and you don’t get to say that his fans aren’t allowed to point out how noble and good his actions are, just because he’s also President.
“He said all should lend a hand to make the country strong again”
Some say it is socialism, others remember “ask not what your country can do for you…”
“He said we must be fair today, equal work means equal pay.”
Lilly Ledbetter. Google it.
“He said take a stand, make sure everyone gets a chance”
Okay, not everything can be entirely fact-based. No worse than when conservatives try to take credit for being the only ones interested in low taxes or minimizing legislation.
“He said red, yellow, black and white, all are equal in his sight”
I’m afraid to think how arrogant this sounds to some people, the claim that “his sight” is somehow superior to ours, just because he got elected as the first black President of the United States in our history.
“…Hello Mr. President, We honor you today
For all your great accomplishments, we all do say hooray
Hooray, Mr. President you are No. 1
The first black American to lead this nation”
Yes, and that is what it is like to have a Folk Hero President. You’re going to be seeing a lot more of this kind of thing during the course of the next (knock wood) eight years; some more inept and embarrassing than others. As soon as there is even a wisp of evidence that they are not entirely spontaneous and undirected by any political authority, then you will have a reason to consider this suspicious or dangerous. Until then, if this makes you feel insecure, you should make yourself a sign to wear around your neck that says “I’m Racist”. If seeing this makes you think of totalitarianism, but Free Speech Zones didn’t, it isn’t politics that is driving your thoughts, such as they are.
Sorry for that formatting; stupid blog software –
Here’s the chart more readable.
Folk Hero President:
praise spontaneous
praise isolated
praise honest and heartfelt
target is a racial minority
reaction immediately publicized
Nachiavellian Dictator:
praise directed
praise orchestrated
praise false and overblown
target is racial majority
reaction marginalized
…and just catching up on the thread:
There are two things which suggest the bias is in your perceptions rather than their behavior. First, I can’t say precisely what you mean be “free market”, but if it is different at all from what the teacher in your economy course means, then you are the one in error, not them. Second is the more obvious point that I can’t honestly envision an economist that doesn’t ‘believe’ in free markets quite a bit.
I would agree that students who believed, contrary to evidence, that regulation of markets by government is unnecessary for “free markets” would find another line of work than economist, as that is the science which disputes that same notion. Their ideological preferences for delusional facts would be less hindrance in some other occupation. Religion and politics come to mind.
Byron,
I think there is a bias as well. You simply think it comes from the material and I say it’s more a result of acquiring the critical thinking skill set.
I’d like to point to your own awakening as it were as an example. You did not reach your epiphany by reading the same books that I or any other regular did in school. You’re an engineer. That’s a specific set of skills and, by nature of desire for safety, a skill set that seeks certainty. This is fine when designing a building, in fact, it’s ideal unless you like collapsing buildings. But in analysis of the larger universe, especially in systems of greater complexity, math isn’t always like it is in engineering – neat, linear, compact. It’s often fuzzy and chaotic. Relationships can be counter intuitive. It’s that way in many of the varied disciplines you’ll find in the regulars here. Your epiphany didn’t happen because of your reading list. You were shown the skills as a distillate of conversations you had with the regulars in all your Bron98 postings leading right up to the one where you said, “Ah, ha!” and took the Red Pills. As an engineer, you fortunately had enough logical skills in your toolbox to make that leap though with just the distillate. You yourself know the value of a change in perspective and you know it’s sometimes not easy.
This being the case, I’m not sure you are appreciating the scale of the impact of teaching critical thinking skills versus teaching information. It’s the difference between teaching a man to fish and giving him a fish. The later is good and tasty in its own right but the former is of endless utility.
tmaxPA:
“I would agree that students who believed, contrary to evidence, that regulation of markets by government is unnecessary for “free markets” would find another line of work than economist, as that is the science which disputes that same notion. Their ideological preferences for delusional facts would be less hindrance in some other occupation. Religion and politics come to mind.”
There are many economists that believe that government regulation is not necessary and actually destructive of an economy.
Buddha:
I understand perfectly the distinction and that is why I made the comment about systemic bias.
The universe is not chaotic or we would not be able to discover it’s secrets. I know you have quantum mechanics in mind, but the reason I think we don’t understand it yet is that we do not know enough. At some point it to will yield to our curiosity and we will be cavorting across the universe as easily as we go to the store for a gallon of milk.
The universe works on principles, that we have not determined all of them does not mean it is chaos. Ancient man used to fear lightening, we use it to run our world. We do that through principles of electricity that we have learned through research and experience. If electricity did not follow certain principles it would be beyond our ability to control.
Wow! From a silly little song, we have posters claiming that the kids are being indoctrinated. Doesn’t a governmental unit have to be involved in the design or authorizing of the activity for it be considered indoctrination? This was a case of a teacher trying to get the kids to understand what is going on in the country in a way that they can understand. There was just an article that informed us that only 25% of high school students knew who the first President was and we are running around with our hair on fire because of a song.
Update:
Materialist Analysis of the Obama Regime
PART 1: Abolishing Social Security and “Healthcare Overhaul”
Obama is Nothing But a Right-Wing Black Being Provided Contant
LEFT-COVER by Republicans and a Huge Capitalist Media Pump
As He Begins to Lose Credibility Among his Constituencies!
How and Why the Demagogue OBama Was Elected President! Since
Watergate the Outcomes of All Presidential Elections have been
Rigged in Advance By Agreement between the Candidates!
The U.S. capitalist dictatorship of millionaires and billionaires required that a Democrat win the presidency in 2008 because it could not achieve its reactionary objectives with Bush and the Republicans who had very little credibility because of those very reactionary objectives. Obama was elected in order to ram down our throats the very Fascist policies which Bush could not implement because Bush was opposed by all Democratic Party constituencies which form the bulk of the U.S. population, and because Bush was the most hated and despised “president” in all U.S. history, followed closely by Ronald Reagan. (Note that Bush was NEVER the president of the U.S. but only a usurper because the 2000 and 2004 “elections” were a continuing coup d’etat.) See below. The capitalist dictatorship calculates that because Obama campaigned as supposedly being “opposed to Bush” and that because he was able to get “elected” using such insultingly phony deceptive nebulous slogans such as “Change We Can Believe In” and “Yes We Can” and believes that Obama’s supporters are so stupid and so ignorant that they will not mind or not notice that his policies once in office are far worse than those of George Bush! Obama’s policies are in fact far to the right of Bush and leave Bush in the dust! Bush is a choirboy compared to Obama! Since taking office Obama has reversed virtually all of his “anti-Bush” campaign promises with the exception of a few minor conciliatory gestures to his Democratic constituencies. Obama’s role is to string people along with non-stop lies, while carrying out policies which are a continuation, exacerbation and acceleration of the “Bush” policies, all of which simply represent the one-way dynamic of capitalism. Prime examples include the tiny phony “stimulus” program which Obama knowingly and falsely claims will “take 2 years to work” and the baseless assertion (Big Lie) by the Obama Regime that “the ‘recession’ is over,” while the Economic Crisis deepens by the day with over 30 million unemployed and mortgage foreclosures accelerate with no end in sight. Over half of those polled now smell a rat meaning that they oppose Obama! That represents a quick comedown from his baseless post “election” popularity! In order to counter Obama’s increasing unpopularity the Obama Regimes uses the “media blitz” combined with the Big Lie to claim that his fraudulent tiny “stimulus program” contains “already-in-place programs” that he says “help spur innovation and transform the U.S. economy.” “Innovation?” What a bad joke on the U.S. Working Class!
Obama has continued all of the Bush Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and has continued the U.S./NATO military exercises right on the border of Georgia and the build-up of the Georgian military in preparation for further provocations and yet another possible invasion of South Ossetia/Russia. Obama has even directed its Georgian Proxy Saakashvilli to block and impound shipping to Abkhazia! (New York Times, September 10, 2009) Obama’s temporary abandoning of the so-called “missile shield” in Poland and the Czech Republic on September 17, 2009 was only done to lull the Russian Federation and get them into missile reduction agreements where the U.S. retains the strategic advantage and does not for one second mean that the U.S. has abandoned its goal of trying to force Russia into a Second Russian Surrender. (See below.) The U.S refusal to allow Russia into the World Trade Organization, Cold War restrictions on technology transfers and the NATO advance to the border of the Russian Federation demonstrates that this U.S. move is only a temporary tactic. In addition, Obama is using the Big Lie of a nuclear armed Iran to try to ran through UN economic sanctions and/or bombing of Iran by the U.S. Proxy, so-called “Israel,” despite the combined National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that Iran had ended its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and the fact that Iran has NOT enriched ANY of its uranium to bomb-grade level and the report that Iran had even ended its enrichment program entirely in May 2009! (Associated Press, August 25, 2009)
Note: The September 21, 2009 public DISCLOSURE BY IRAN—NOT THE UNITED STATES—to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of a second nuclear enrichment plant 100 miles southwest of Tehran, which the U.S. and other nuclear powers were totally unaware of, despite their false claims to the contrary that they supposedly knew of it all along, demonstrates that the purpose of Iran’s revelation was to demonstrate at the auspicious moment of the September United Nations Meeting of the General Assembly that at this second plant also that no uranium had been enriched to bomb-grade level, which subsequent IAEA inspection will certainly confirm as it did previously for the Natanz plant! Proof that the U.S. had not idea whatsoever of the existence of this second nuclear plant is demonstrated by: 1.) IF the U.S. HAD actually known about that 2nd plant why are they suddenly making such a big deal about it right by declaring: “We got the drop on you now! It’s time that Iran comes clean about its nuclear program,” and 2. The statements by numerous “pundits” such as Lew Dobbs that “the Russians UNDOUBTEDLY KNEW ABOUT THAT PLANT! Now will they stand in the way of stepped-up sanctions against Iran?’” If the U.S. had actually known about the 2nd nuclear plant they would have used that information before they did!
The U.S., France and Britain only found out about Iran’s Monday disclosure on Friday and immediately Obama made an off-topic speech at the Pittsburgh G-20 Meeting! These 3 nuclear imperialists immediately tried to use Iran’s disclosure against Iran with another Big Lie media blitz of threats and intimidation. The Iran “nuclear threat” is another false Bush-type “Weapons of Mass Destruction” pretext which will be used this time to wage economic war through sanctions or even to bomb Iran! Unless the Russian Federation and China firmly oppose it! On September 25th Russia announced President Medvedev’s correct response on RT Television: “Russia will do its utmost to help the IAEA to investigate on Iranian nuclear programme while continuing to support Tehran’s efforts for peaceful nuclear energy.” The most recent fabrication of “computer file evidence” against Iran is being used to try to pressure the IAEA just exactly like Bush did to try to pressure Mohamed ElBaradei to support the “Weapons of Mass Destruction” Big Lie against Iraq! (New York Times, August 26, 2009) ElBaradei refused to go along with Bush and so far has equivocated on this most recent Bush/Obama rubbish. Obama, usually hides behind a solid wall of denial and has continued and actually accelerated virtually all the Bush programs and policies, many of which were rejected outright when first proposed by Bush including the “private accounts” attempt to eliminate Social Security beginning with an executive decree on September 5, 2009 mandating compulsory “automatic” employer-sponsored “savings accounts” and the previous permanent termination of the yearly Social Security Cost-of-Living Adjustments on April 22nd. See below.
Note: Part II will include additional analysis of the origins of the Economic Crisis, the details of the U.S. Swine Flu Biological Warfare Program, the Final Stage of Capitalism: Permanent War and State Terrorism, the fraudulent so-called Mideast Peace Process, U.S./Russian relations and the Bush/Obama Wars. And despite all denials, the Obama Regime will continue the use of torture through the program of EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION, the purpose of which is to transport political enemies to foreign countries for torture! Part II will also include more material on Provocations and the escalating attack on all social programs and public education at the elementary school and college level.
From the advent of imperialism, which correlates approximately with the beginning of the twentieth century every U.S. presidential administration has been to the right of the one which preceded it, whether it has been Democratic or Republican. This is due to the one-way dynamic of capitalism-imperialism which leads inexorably to Fascism, barbarism and the end of civilization The only exceptions were the administrations of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who designed the New Deal and the two New Dealers who followed him: Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower. The New Deal came about only under the pressure of a million-strong Communist movement in the United States, which later disintegrated primarily because of the false and sabotaging leadership of Joseph Stalin, who was not actually a Communist, (See below) and because the U.S. government either crushed or took over the leadership of all “left” groups in the United States. Today the New Deal has been almost entirely demolished by the hardening U.S. capitalist dictatorship. Obama was elected in order to finish that demolition by first targeting Social Security, where within 100 days of taking office he immediately and permanently abolished the yearly Social Security Cost-Of-Living Allowance, while simultaneously giving away 4.7 $trillion in Bank Bailouts backed up by $23.7 trillion “if necessary” (Associated Press, July 20, 2009), the real purpose of which was actually to DIVERT money away from social spending. Thus began the process of terminating the primary function of Social Security: to keep older people alive! (Computer Search: “US Financial Market Bailout Tab Hits $4.7 Trillion.”) And the Obama Regime pretends to be so concerned about the Federal deficit. (See below.)
The Worldview
Today we live in a world of nation states. All nation states are dictatorships of one class over another class, either the capitalist class over the working class or vice versa. (These are the only historically destined classes.) There is no “democracy” at the present time, not even for the capitalists themselves. Capitalism has a dynamic or development sequence of its own which at this point is almost entirely ONE-WAY. This one-way dynamic, or dialectic is largely independent of the wills of the capitalists and politicians and leads to a constantly hardening capitalist dictatorship finally to Fascism, barbarism and the end of civilization. Now, due to the beginning of the Runaway Greenhouse Effect, that means the end of all life on Earth! (See Materialist Analysis of Biofuels and the Runaway Greenhouse Effect on the Internet.) Within the framework of the class dictatorship there can either be a hard or a soft dictatorship. The hard dictatorship of capitalism is known as Fascism, which has several historical variants. Today the United States is a military, bureaucratic police state, a form of hard capitalist dictatorship known as Rule by Decree (a form of Bonapartism), which is hardening and growing more naked by the day! Rule by Decree is a step short of Fascism. Actual Fascism requires the full and organized support of the petit-bourgeoisie (the middle class), the organization of armed gangs with specifically targeted scapegoats. The actions of U.S. leaders define them as Fascists, including Obama, because they continually work to support the constantly hardening capitalist dictatorship. Capitalism is fundamentally based on war, mass murder and crime to steal new resources and new markets in order to increase private profits and today is in its Final Stage of Permanent War and State Terrorism. Politicians like Obama, and all capitalist politicians, rise to the top based on the extent which they express and further the one-way dynamic of capitalism. Communism is a stateless society, which has never been practiced and can never be practiced until capitalism is abolished worldwide beginning with a Socialist Revolution in its center—the United States.
The steps required to carry out a Socialist Revolution in the United States are briefly outlined at the end of this Part I Analysis. Remember that the United States is NOT our country! It is the country of the capitalist dictatorship of billionaires and millionaires. WE JUST LIVE HERE! That means we must give no support to the U.S. military except in the case of MUTINY, which is the ONLY way to disarm the capitalist dictatorship and which we must call for as a prerequisite first step toward a Socialist Revolution in the United States. See below. Remember that U.S. patriotism-chauvinism-jingoism means being willing to die for the capitalist warmongers and exploiters and super-exploiters. We should never be sucked into saying “we” or “our” in referring to United States policy or actions! That opportunistic choice of words deceives the speaker into thinking that his or her interests coincide with the interests of the capitalist dictatorship and is wrong in the first place because the United States is not “our country.” In addition, such an opportunistic choice of words immediately implicates the speaker in the crimes of U.S. capitalism-imperialism against the entire world and against its own citizens. We are having class warfare waged against us as the U.S. capitalist dictatorship escalates its economic, biological/military and propaganda warfare against its own domestic population and the entire world. The Working Class is NOT presently organized to fight back. Only a Socialist Revolution in the United States will make this OUR country!
Given the choice, 95% of New Yorkers and the overwhelming majority of Americans agree that we need a new system based on human need not private profit. That system is Socialism and requires a Socialist Revolution in the United States, because capitalism cannot be turned into Socialism through “elections” or achieved through “election reform” such as “paper trails,” etc. or any other type of reform of capitalism. History proves this beyond a shadow of a doubt. Elections and “election reform” under capitalism are simply a ruse, the Primary Weapon of Capitalist Deception, designed to permit the capitalist ownership and structure of the state to remain intact and ensure a continuation of the hardening capitalist dictatorship. “Democracy” under capitalism is simply a euphemism for capitalist dictatorship and enslavement. That is why the capitalist class must be expropriated of all of its wealth, all of which has been stolen from the Working Class through various forms of exploitation, super-exploitation and other crimes. This is known as the expropriation of the expropriators, an example of the negation of the negation and is possible only through a Socialist Revolution. The Socialist Revolution will extend globally almost simultaneously once it begins in the United States.
The Socialist Revolution on the other hand does NOT involve a coup d’etat used extensively by the capitalists, but relies primarily on patient explanation and the avoidance of provocations. Patient explanation and winning over the masses to support a new economic-political-social system involves a genuine grass roots organization. The 1917 October Russian Revolution did not take place until the Bolsheviks, the smallest political party after the February Revolution, had grown to win the support of 70% of Working Class and 30% of the peasantry, which included the all-important army which was already in MUTINY. Mutiny Saves Lives! Provocations on the other hand are invariably orchestrated and led by the capitalists themselves to both discredit the Working Class and lead it to take steps prematurely before there is the overwhelming popular support which is required to take state power. Patient explanation is necessary in order to achieve the popular support and organization necessary to end the dictatorship of billionaires and millionaires and establish a new system where everyone can actually live like a millionaire. There is more than sufficient wealth in the United States to achieve this! Remember that all of the capitalists’ wealth was originally expropriated and stolen from the labor of the Working Class—through expropriation of Surplus Value. Only after class society is abolished through a Socialist Revolution can there be free speech and genuine democracy for the Working Class and everyone else. This analysis is intended as an aid to help progressive people consciously deprogram themselves from the capitalist brainwash which targets the masses every day from every direction and to provide a basis to help organize the Socialist Revolution in the United States. Socialism will abolish the basis of all wars and set the stage for solving the entire complex of problems created by capitalism-imperialism. In the final analysis all wars are won and lost on morale and every movement begins with the call. This analysis is part of that call.
The Explanation of the Big Lie Technique
And the Definition of Propaganda:
While following the moves of the Obama Regime and the media it is important to understand the Big Lie Technique. There are 2 parts to the Big Lie: 1.) The first part of the Big Lie is that the lie must be BIG, because most people only tell little lies and are entirely unprepared for a Big Lie. 2.) The second part of the Big Lie Technique is to repeat the lie over and over again from every media and “educational” source even including textbooks and movies until it is accepted as truth or accepted at least as partly true, when it is most invariably entirely false. In addition, lies may be lies of commission or lies of omission. They are equally unacceptable. The media is a privatized arm of the U.S. “intelligence agency,” a vast army of legions of professional liars and so-called “comedians” working in service to the capitalist dictatorship. The U.S. media is very similar to Blackwater, Dyncorp, Custer Battles and Triple Canopy, etc. the armed military contractors in Iraq, except that the media has always been privatized.
The Definition of Propaganda
The capitalist dictatorship has also given a falsely pejorative and automatically negative connotation to the word “propaganda” and uses the word to be synonymous with false information. But the word “propaganda” does NOT automatically mean false information and is defined by Merriam Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary is “the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or hurting an institution, a cause, or a person.” Propaganda is thus more accurately defined as persuasive ideas, information, or rumor, which may be either 100% true, or 100% false and everything in between. As always the reader must use his or her best judgment to decide whether information is true or false. Capitalist media is an example of propaganda so defined!
Despite the Fact that the “Election” of Obama Simply Represents a
Continuation of the Capitalist Dictatorship Obama’s “Election” has
One Very Important Potential Organizational Advantage!
While it is undeniable that the “election” of Obama simply represents a continuation and hardening of the capitalist dictatorship his “election” holds one potential organizational advantage IF THE MASSES REALIZE IT AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT: Obama’s “election” proves that the primary division which exists in the United States is NOT on the basis of race. The primary division that exists in the United States is the CLASS DIVISION! This is important because it provides an even stronger basis for Black and white Unity of the Working Class and its allies versus the capitalist dictatorship and its servants and bootlickers represented by the Obama Regime. If Hillary Clinton had won the Democratic primary she would also have won the “election” but that would have been a retrograde step. There would be the complaint that what we need is a “Black” president! So Obama’s election eliminates this extra step and has the potential to more rapidly raise the awareness of the masses enough to increase racial unity against the capitalist dictatorship. The enormous media hype, which was designed not only to pump up their Obama demagogue but also to intimidate those who see through it, is falling flat. Obama is rapidly losing his “popularity” and “political capital”! So don’t be intimidated! Obama is just a balloon, a con man and demagogue trying to string the masses along while setting them up as targets of economic warfare, biological warfare and propaganda warfare. As the prime example of trying to string the people along using the Big Lie Technique Obama and Bernanke announced on September 15, 2009: “The recession is over!” The “recession” is NOT over. There is no such thing as a “Jobless Recovery!” See below.
Racism Is An Integral Part of Capitalism and
Therefore Cannot Be Abolished under Capitalism!
Only a Socialist Revolution in the United States can abolish racism because racism is an integral part of capitalism and cannot be abolished within the framework of capitalism! The reason for this is contained in the definition of racism: Racism is defined as that systematized set of false beliefs in the racial inferiority of Blacks and other People of Color as a false pretext to justify the exploitation and super-exploitation of Blacks and other People of Color. Racism is thus simply a brainwash used to justify economic exploitation and super-exploitation, which began with slavery and exists now as wage slavery. Note that neither Obama nor any of the fake Black leaders, who have been left in place after the assassination of the real Black leaders in the 1960’s and 1970’s have provided this explanation and definition of Racism. This truth is also covered up by the fake “left.” Communists oppose exploitation and super-exploitation of U.S. born Workers employed in so-called “McJobs.” Communists also oppose super-exploitation of immigrants. Immigration is being used by the capitalists to drive down the wage scale of U.S. Workers and fragment the U.S. Working Class. The Big Lie is that immigrants presently perform low-paying jobs supposedly because “Americans don’t want to do that sort of work.” The reality is that Americans would gladly perform ANY work presently performed by Latin American immigrants, for example, if they received a salary of $40,000 to $50,000.00 a year to do it! Low skilled immigrants are brought into the United States precisely because their “illegal” status forces the to agree to be super-exploited because that is better than what existed in their home countries! Despite this glaring reality Immigration can be and must be supported by simultaneously calling for the union wage scale and equal status for all Immigrants as well as all U.S. born workers!
In order that no false illusions are raised by deceptive claims that capitalism can be reformed, equal focus must be placed simultaneously on the reality that such objectives of equality and freedom also cannot be achieved under capitalism, but only after a Socialist Revolution in the United States, after which the main economic motivation for mass immigration of workers will largely disappear, because the Socialist Revolution will take place worldwide and with it the end of exploitation and super-exploitation in all countries! All progressive white people and also Black people should be reminded never ever to use the word nigger! Use of that word reinforces racism whenever and wherever it is used. That is the reason the capitalist dictatorship pushes creeps like Chris Rock, whose every other word is “nigger,” in order to reinforce racism among the Black population his primary audience. Isn’t he funny! Hahaha! Very funny! Reject such “humor!” Capitalism offers a world with no future and no longer works and can not be reformed! The reversal of Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 Supreme Court Decision reversing segregation was overturned on June 28, 2007 and indicated that organized support for Racism had increased—not decreased—in the hardening U.S. capitalist dictatorship. Obama said not a word when Brown v. Board of Education was reversed! No comment either from Hillary Clinton or the openly Fascist George Bush or McCain! In other words Obama provided passive support for that reversal with his silence! When he began his presidential campaign Obama even ridiculed the Civil Rights Movement, saying: “We have done that. We must go on!” Only when he started to receive enormous adverse comment because of his outrageous statements did he change his line and show up at a commemoration march in Selma. This demonstrates that Obama is a total opportunist even on the question of race. See below.
Obama is for all intents and purposes nothing but a (technically) Black Bush! “Technically Black” is a description used by the Black Panther Party to describe someone like Obama. Obama is “Black” like Kindasleezy Rice is “Black” or like Colin Powell is “Black” or like Clarence Thomas is “Black” or like “Black” news anchors and commentators are “Black.” That’s not Black! Black is Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Junior, preferably after he finally took a position against the Vietnam War in April 1967, and of course the Black Panther Party and especially its leaders, Mark Clark and Fred Hampton. Fred Hampton said: “The answer to white capitalism is NOT Black capitalism. The answer is Socialism!” The reason that we know for a fact that Obama never at any point had any intention of changing anything for the better is that politicians rise to the top based on their ability to express and further the one-way dynamic of capitalism, a dynamic which leads to Fascism, barbarism and finally the end of civilization. Now with the Runaway Greenhouse Effect having begun, that means the end of all life on Earth because capitalism intends to do nothing serious to combat Global Warming and treats that threat the very same way the capitalist dictatorship “reforms the economy” or “reforms healthcare,” meaning that they are just going through the motions despite Obama’s phony propaganda slogans claiming to represent nebulous “change”! Note that Obama propaganda never specifies what kind of “change” it is that we can believe in. “Yes we can” Obama trumpets! Do what? Those slogans were carefully designed to say nothing! Obama means a continued change for the worse! Obama understands that his role is to deceive the masses and he clearly enjoys that role! Obama’s role is to string people along and placate the masses with his supposedly “golden rhetoric,” while carrying out the dismantlement of as many social programs as possible, and trying to demolish what is left of the New Deal. Obama is actually not even a very good speaker either technically or in substance, primarily because he is selling poison and he knows it, not that he has any conscience, but the media pumps him up and tells us that he is “the great leader” and that is supposed to fill the gap! Despite the huge media campaigns heralding “change,” business on all levels will continue as usual except for a few possible superficial reforms.
The only “change” which can actually occur under Obama is the continued hardening of the capitalist dictatorship! Obama has been chosen for his ability to deceive the masses regarding that actual dynamic, development sequence and direction of capitalism. Obama is a slicker, a con man, a demagogue out to bamboozle the unsuspecting victims of capitalism: the Working Class and its allies primarily. Obama openly brags: “My job is to make the tough choices, to make the hard decisions!” (CNBC, September 15, 2009) Those are euphemisms for decisions taken against the best interest of the Working Class and the Poor. And Obama is correct; having to make “hard decisions” and “tough choices” means that capitalism can never again offer an improvement in standard of living but only a worsening! Under capitalism all news is bad news! Obama’s book, “The Audacity of Hope” was written initially to demonstrate to the capitalist dictatorship that he was best able to perpetuate false hope in capitalism-imperialism. Only after he became a candidate did public curiosity increase sales enough among the duped masses to make Obama himself a millionaire. “Hope in capitalism” is also what Jesse Jackson meant when he introduced his slogan: “Keep Hope Alive!” Much earlier Martin Luther King publicly reviled Jesse Jackson to his face with numerous witnesses as “nothing but an opportunist.” For anyone following the presidential campaign and “elections” it should have been obvious that McCain was only running as a foil to take a fall for the Democratic candidate, whoever it would be just like in TV wrestling. See below.
THE CAPITALISTS ARE WAGING ECONOMIC WAR AGAINST US!
The Obama Regime Has Immediately Taken Steps to Begin to Abolish
Social Security as a Means to Reduce the Population of Today’s Senior
Citizens and Eliminate Any Genuine Future Security for Young People!
The Obama Regime Decided to Introduce Bush Private Accounts in Two
Stages! 1.) On September 5, 2009 Obama Decreed by Executive Order that
Private Accounts are Now “Automatic” for Almost All Businesses in Order to
Put Pressure on Business 2.) To Demand Legislation or Another Executive
Order to Make Social Security OPTIONAL and Force Workers to Ultimately
“Choose” Between a 401K –Type Plan and Social Security!
Obama’s Executive Order Designed to Abolish Social Security and Overturn
The New Deal Supposedly Does Not Require a Vote by Congress! Congress
Demonstrates its Unanimous Passive Support with its Deafening Silence!
On September 19, 2009 Obama stated that he will continue the Economic Embargo against Cuba. The Embargo is simply a euphemism for ECONOMIC WARFARE which has been carried out against Cuba since 1960. The U.S. also wages economic warfare against many other countries and with the abolition of the Progressive Tax Structure and the termination of the New Deal social programs by Clinton and by Obama the U.S. capitalist dictatorship is waging economic war against its own domestic population! In his very first speech to a joint session of Congress on February 24, 2009 Obama demonstrated that his population reduction objectives coincided precisely with those of George Bush when he made clear his intention to implement the George Bush “tax-free universal savings accounts for all Americans.” “Private accounts” had been widely recognized and rejected under Bush as simply a clumsy and extremely costly $1 trillion scheme to end Social Security by DIVERTING money away from Social Security into the totally erratic stock market, where the capitalist dictatorship assumes hopefully that most of it would be lost, as 401K Plans and Pensions did in fact become worthless in the 2008 Stock Market Crash (see below), hopefully bringing Senior Citizens to crushing poverty and an earlier death and thus helping to reduce the so-called “population demographic.” This is a codeword for mass murder.
On September 5, 2009 Obama followed through on his threat to introduce Bush private accounts by using Rule by Decree just like Bush to introduce compulsory “automatic employer-sponsored private savings accounts…which does not require new legislation from Congress…(and) which “goes into effect immediately” making it difficult for employees to opt out by BRIBING workers with a $1,000 tax credit! (Blipped in the New York Times, September 6, 2009) Obama’s Private Accounts Decree was thus designed to simultaneously undermine and abolish Social Security by putting extreme pressure on businesses, which are ALSO forced to pay for Social Security, to demand that Social Security be made optional! Workers and employers both pay 6.2% of the workers’ earned income into the Social Security Trust Fund. Obama’s decree was combined with the false propaganda campaign “media blitz” pushing the so-called “healthcare Overhaul” to try to keep the masses confused and pump up support for the most oppressive policies in all U.S. history. This conspiracy/scheme to abolish Social Security by not allowing any Congressional vote was nevertheless supported by passive support from Congress with a UNANIMOUS DEAFENING SILENCE, where NOT ONE Congressman or ONE Senator said a single word opposing this conspiracy/scheme or exposing it and demanding a public discussion just like on the fraudulent “Healthcare Overhaul.” The New Deal required votes by Congress and so should its repeal! This is one more proof that capitalism cannot be “reformed” and that capitalism has a one-way dynamic of its own to Fascism, barbarism and finally the end of civilization. The only solution is not to be intimidated and carry out a Socialist Revolution in the United States. See below.
The 2008 Stock Market Crash Wiped Out Many Employer-
Sponsored 401K Plans and Many Stock-Based Pension Funds!
Obama and his Regime have such total contempt for our intelligence that they believe that we will forget the fact that the 2008 Stock Market Crash caused the value of employer-sponsored 401K Plans to be reduced by at least half with a significant percentage becoming TOTALLY WORTHLESS! PENSION FUNDS which had invested heavily in the stock market also had their stock holdings reduced by more than half and many were completely wiped out! The most recent 2008 Stock Market Crash only one year ago on September 30, 2008 caused a 777.65 point drop (7%) in the Dow Industrial Average and a loss of 40% in one year. The recent Bear Market Rally will also collapse sending the market down even further because consumer spending, which accounts for 70% of the U.S. economy can not be maintained because of the loss of private jobs combined with the Obama Regime’s refusal to create huge Federal jobs programs to put people back to work. A large-scale Federal Jobs Program is the ONLY WAY TO STIMULATE DEMAND, THE ENGINE OF THE ECONOMY! Unemployment totaling over 30 million has destroyed demand! The capitalist dictatorship does not mention that the Social Security obligation of the United States Government the result of the New Deal was NOT effected at all except by the loss of Social Security deductions due to the loss of millions of jobs. The Social Security Trust Fund has had an enormous SURPLUS for years and has been used as a slush fund to fund U.S. wars around the world. But the U.S. government also has another option to back up Social Security, which they refuse to use or even mention: reintroduction of a Progressive Tax Structure. See below.
On April 22, 2009 Obama Eliminated the Social Security Cost of
Living Adjustment (COLA), while Simultaneously Giving $4.7 Trillion
To the Banks! The False Report that Social Security Will Soon
Be Totally Insolvent by 2016 and Completely Depleted by 2037
Indicates that the COLA Elimination Will Be Permanent!
Obama’s first step was to begin the elimination of the FUNCTION of Social Security. On April 22, 2009 the Obama Regime eliminated the Social Security Adjustment COLA for 2010 and 2011, while simultaneously giving $4.7 trillion (!) to the banks, brokerages, insurance companies, hedge funds, groups, private equity groups and car companies. The elimination of the Social Security Cost-of-Living will become permanent in practice with the claim of “no more dollars” due to the $4.7 trillion Bank Bailout and Economic Crisis and “the high cost” of the Obama Health Insurance Plan ($1 trillion to $1.6 trillion over 10 years), for example, claims which have already been made to justify COLA elimination in the first place! In order to telegraph this future claim of “no more dollars” the elimination of the Social Security COLA was followed on May 13, 2009 with the announcement that the Social Security Trust Fund will be “insolvent” by 2016 and “totally depleted by 2037!” This contrived scenario, which was falsely declared with fanfare by the Congress to be “UNSUSTAINABLE” and supposedly requires “shared sacrifice through reduction of Social Security benefits,” was made possible by using the Social Security Trust Fund as a slush fund for other Federal spending including the funding of the wars against Afghanistan and Iraq and Pakistan.
The complete abolition of the progressive tax structure in the United States (see below) is simply an expression of the one-way dynamic of capitalism, and is what forced the capitalists to resort to the Social Security Trust Fund as a slush fund to pay for war. According to a report from the Government Accountability Office (Associated Press, August 12, 2008) 66% of U.S. companies paid no federal income taxes and 68% of foreign companies doing business in the United States paid zero corporate taxes between 1998 and 2005, while reporting $2.5 trillion in sales! This includes 1.2 million U.S. companies and 38,000 foreign companies. The ONLY taxes which remain today are regressive taxes meaning that they target the Working Class and Poor primarily. Examples of regressive taxes include: 1.) The sales tax, 2.) the value-added tax, 3.) the excise tax, which will target those with comprehensive health insurance as a “luxury tax” (!) in the so-called “Healthcare Overhaul,” 4.) a Flat Tax called for by assorted Fascists, 5.) Increases in the subway and bus fares and tolls and 6.) Increases in stamp prices and combined with the most recent outright cuts in services and delivery even in the U.S. Post Office and 7.) The system of fines, which the Bolsheviks abolished entirely in 1917, is even being ridiculously increased for every conceivable crime and administrative code violation and will be used to raise up to $52 billion targeting those who fail to comply with the government mandate to pay for the new health insurance, which is to increase by 10% even for all those who have insurance!!! See below!
The Tiny “$250 stimulus checks” Sent out to Social Security Recipients
Were Strictly a One-Time Event, a BRIBE Used to BUY THEIR SILENCE in
Response to the Obama Regime’s elimination of the Social Security COLA!
If BUSH had actually tried to eliminate the Social Security COLA, or actually issued an executive decree requiring private employers to automatically set up private accounts for all employees and bribed workers with a $1,000 tax credit to join an employer-sponsored private savings plan, or cut healthcare to the bone with maximum healthcare rationing and raised healthcare insurance costs by at least 10% for everyone and levied fines of $1,000 for individuals to $2,000 for families who did not buy healthcare insurance, all of which have been done by the Fascist Barack Obama—and within the period of his first 7 months in office—there would have been a HUGE PROTEST! But because Obama is a Democrat who took advantage of his early election support based on false promises which is now rapidly eroding, there has beenNO organized protest whatsoever except by the Republicans! The recent decrease in Obama’s popularity is due to the masses’ increasing awareness that Obama has betrayed all his pre-election promises and that Obama is no different than, and much, much worse than, the Fascist George Bush, his good buddy and the Fascist Reagan, who Obama never fails to praise as a “great president.” (!) The tiny “$250 stimulus checks” sent out to Social Security recipients were strictly a one-time event, a bribe used to BUY THE SILENCE of Social Security recipients in response to the Obama Regime’s elimination of the Social Security Cost of Living Allowance, which will be permanent, and in order to keep Senior Citizens CONFUSED while he takes further steps to abolish the function of Social Security and wage economic war on the masses from every conceivable angle while falsely talking about “the (jobless) economic recovery” and falsely claiming that HE Obama has “pulled the economy back from the brink.” Another Big Lie repeated in the media everywhere!
There is No Such Thing as a “Jobless Recovery!”
The economy is NOT “back from the brink,” the “Recession” is NOT over and THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A “JOBLESS RECOVERY.” The capitalist dictatorship admits that over 30 million Americans are actually now unemployed if all categories are included and even more when those who fall into no official category are included. The stock market has experienced a Bear Market rally only through stock market manipulation achieved through: 1.) huge lay-offs of millions of workers which temporarily improve the bottom line of corporations by creating over-valued stock prices based on unsustainable “increased profits,” 2.) new high-frequency trading programs used by the large investment banks, hedge funds, private equity groups and insurance companies and 3.) A Big Lie propaganda campaign falsely claiming that the economy is “recovering” and “back from the brink,” which it is NOT! (See below and Part II, which will be posted next.) The Bear Market rally began to fall apart in late August 2009 “on speculation the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index’s 52% rally since March isn’t justified.” (Bloomberg, August 27, 2009). But once again “the financials” have been able to employ market manipulation to hold the market almost flat and not permit a large drop! Yet even on September 15, 2009 Bernanke continued the Big Lie brazenly stating: “The recession is probably over.” (Associated Press) At a certain point demand will decrease to such a degree, because of the tens of millions of unemployed which increase by over 550,000 every week (first-time unemployment applications), and millions of foreclosures, that the market will undergo another even more catastrophic collapse. The capitalist dictatorship states that the recovery will include continued unemployment and “persistent weakness in consumer spending which accounts for 70% of the U.S. economy” (New York Times, August 30, 2009) as part of “The New Normal.” In other words the “Great Recession” is supposedly over but its effects will be permanent! “The recession is over” is one more Big Lie! An unsustainable Big Lie! There is no such thing as a “Jobless Recovery”! It is significant that in China there is an economic recovery under way due to a strong stimulus program, where the government is not trying to reduce its population. About 30% of the previously unemployed Chinese workers are being put back to work, but that recovery may not continue if there is no U.S. recovery because “China needs the United States to buy its goods, and the United States needs China to continue to buy its debt.” (New York Times, September 18, 2009)
In addition to the immediate and permanent direct reduction in Social Security Benefits the capitalist dictatorship’s so-called “Social Security Overhaul,” which is scheduled to be implemented following the so-called “Healthcare Overhaul,” will in addition to including the Bush/Obama Private Accounts (see above), undoubtedly also include a big switcheroo from wage-based indexing which is used to calculate the original Social Security Benefit amount, to price-based aka inflation-based indexing, which will also help to permanently abolish the FUNCTION of Social Security. (See further below for an easy solution proposed by Representative Robert Wexler (D) of Florida to make Social Security solvent forever.) The capitalists still intend to retain Social Security for appearances but to use it NOT for its original purpose to keep older people alive, but primarily to maintain it as a slush fund to pay for various U.S. wars as it is already! Meanwhile as mentioned the progressive tax structure in the United States, which would eliminate ALL the financial problems associated with the funding of social programs, has been permanently abolished. See below. In its place we hear gobbledygook nonsense about “closing loopholes.”
The ONLY REASON that the Economic Crisis has NOT YET assumed the form of the Great Depression is because of reforms instituted under the New Deal which are still in place such as Unemployment Insurance, Social Security and the FDIC insuring banks deposits. Unemployment insurance also can be ended at any time and is under enormous pressure from the Republicans. The Obama Regime’s so-called Public-Private Investment Program, which is part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) money supposedly to be used by the Federal government to buy toxic assets in the toxic derivative market which includes securitized subprime mortgages, credit default swaps and collateralized debt obligations, etc. (see below), is to be backed by the $700 billion bank bailout fund, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp! The FDIC!!! Whaaaat? So far the banks have not wanted to sell their toxic assets, but the FDIC is what backs the individual accounts in banks to $100,000, now supposedly increased to $250,000. The U.S. capitalist dictatorship is perfectly willing to sacrifice the FDIC reserves for the security of OUR bank accounts! After all, the FDIC was part of the New Deal, and is therefore fair game! This is deliberate economic warfare against the U.S. masses! Actually the government claims of insuring individual accounts by the FDIC are all fiction in the first place. See below. If there were actual bank runs as in the 1930s Great Depression there would be no money at all for most Americans! (See below.) There would be a total collapse of the U.S. standard of living and poverty greater than in the Great Depression! In late August 2009 market analysts Richard Bove and Meredith Whitney stated that they “expect 150 to 300 small bank failures in the next 12 months” and revealed that the large banks profit from failure of the small banks! Buying back toxic assets by the U.S. government is yet one more PHONY PRETEXT to divert money from social spending and demolish what remains of the New Deal!
This analysis was confirmed on August 11, 2009 when it was reported in the New York Times: ‘The nation’s banks continue to hold on their books billions of dollars in assets about whose proper valuation there is a dispute (?) and that are very difficult to sell. (Because ‘toxic assets’ are indeed entirely worthless!) As a result, many banks could find themselves short of capital if the economy suffered another downturn and their losses on troubled loans soared.” Based on the results of the so-called stress tests in April 2009 the report stated that 18 of the 19 biggest bank holding companies would probably have enough capital even if economic and financial conditions deteriorated more than they have already. The report warned that thousands of small and medium-size banks, which it defined as those with assets of $600 million to $100 billion, might find themselves short a total of $21 billion if the conditions matched its worst-case assumptions.” Deliberately allowing the economy to contract is designed to do the maximum damage to millions of people. (Parenthesis and emphasis added.)
The Real Reason for the Bank Bailouts:
Bank Bailouts Were Unnecessary and Unwanted and
Used as a Pretext to Divert Money From Social Spending!
The OBAMA BANK BAILOUTS were thus both 1.) unnecessary and 2.) unwanted by the banks and have had NO part in any falsely claimed “green shoots/jobless economic recovery” which has NOT occurred in the first place despite the capitalist dictatorship’s Big Lie propaganda campaign to the contrary! The reasons that the banks said that the so-called Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) money was unnecessary is that the banks simply have simply written the TOXIC ASSETS off their books by scrapping mark-to-market accounting thus making the toxic assets supposedly NONTOXIC. (!?) For real!! The banks have even steadfastly refused to sell their toxic assets to the U.S. Treasury Department insisting that the prices offered were too low and that they would take “the long view” and wait. The bank bailouts were also unwanted because those banks which accepted TARP money had to agree to conform to any new financial regulations or laws. Demonstrating once more that he is simply the corrupt puppet of the banks and the capitalist dictatorship of billionaires and millionaires, Obama announced that he had allowed the 10 largest banks to escape future reforms and regulations simply by repaying only $68.3 billion, which represents only a quarter of the $239.4 billion Bank Bailout money they have received (!), and thereby exit the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)!
In addition, instead of DELAYING GOVERNMENT ACCEPTANCE of these piddling repayments until the supposedly “broad regulatory reform proposals were announced in another week” or however long it might have taken to be passed by Congress, Obama accepted the money early in order that those 10 largest banks would NOT have to submit to any serious banking regulation or oversight or salary caps! (New York Times, June 10-11, 2009). Those banks have been allowed to keep the remainder of the $239.4 billion, TARP money which is simply stolen, primarily from the working class, money which has been brazenly and deliberately diverted away from social programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the new “Healthcare Overhaul” and public education thus serving the same economic/political purpose as Supply-Side economics. And it should be noted that $4.7 trillion have been turned over to the banks NOT merely $billions! See below. As an indication that the large banks are fully in the loop and understand that the U.S. economy is to be deliberately permitted to contract in accordance with Globalism and in order to reduce a “redundant work force” and reduce the overall population, the banks are NOT EVEN LENDING TO SMALL BUSINESS or individuals using either the bank bailouts OR Obama “stimulus” money ($255 million) expressly directed to the Small Business Administration! (New York Times, August 13, 2009) GLOBALISM means capitalist competition on a worldwide basis to the bottom for workers with the lowest salaries! The masses, who have no genuine representation under capitalism, and who have been inoculated against Socialism—the only solution to the entire complex of problems which have been created by capitalism—are expected to simply nod their heads “OK” in passive brainwashed acceptance.
Open Fascists Take Over Town Hall Meetings and
Organize Marches Against “Big Government!”
The enemy of my enemy is my friend and the friend of my enemy is my enemy. This is an example of inductive reasoning, the reasoning of science. We should not forget that our greatest enemy is the capitalist dictatorship of millionaires and billionaires. The Town Hall protests against the Obama Healthcare Overhaul were taken over by the Republicans and other assorted Fascists with heavy media focus on shills planted in the audience. The open Fascists, such as Dick Armey and Freedom Works organized the September 12th “Tea party Demonstration” at the White House supposedly “opposed to big government” with most carrying placards and signs stating that they opposed “Obama Socialism,” “Communist-Fascism” and “government take-over of medicine,” slogans designed to provide Obama with Left Cover and to keep the masses confused (Because a confused person cannot act!). While providing Obama with LEFT COVER among his constituencies, the Town Hall Takeovers are of course designed to move the entire political process to the right. Note that for all intents and purposes the “Healthcare Overhaul” was written by the insurance companies: “The (healthcare) industry has been the leader in creating the proposals everyone is about to endorse” according to the CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans the industry trade group, Karen Ignagni. (New York Times, September 11, 2009) Obama Care has absolutely NOTHING to do with Socialized Medicine and is indeed an example of medical Fascism not Socialism!
Some of those attending the town hall meetings and the September 12, 2009 anti-big government Tea Party White House demonstration carried signs portraying Obama as another incarnation of Adolph Hitler. While Obama’s actions do indeed define him as a Fascist (see above) he is not yet a NAZI. The signs portraying Obama as Hitler indicate that while the Fascists have been able to co-opt and take over grass-roots opposition and have been able to falsely portray Obama as a “Socialist” many understand that Obama is actually a Fascist. Liberal Sen. Olympia Snow said that Obama was not a “Socialist” but “the opposite.” Snow knows that the opposite of a Socialist is a Fascist! The few signs given huge media coverage labeling Obama a “Communist-Fascist” are deliberately designed by the U.S. “intelligence community” to falsely conflate the 2 opposites of the political spectrum to keep people confused. The majority of those attending the Town Hall meetings and probably even a significant percentage of those attending the White House demonstration are nevertheless actually opposed to the private insurance/HMOs and would support a so-called Single-Payer Health Plan, which is a form of socialized medicine. Most people at the Town Hall Meetings attended because they opposed Obama’s sell-out of the Single Payer Plan.
Media-Hyped Racist Attacks on Obama Indicates that the U.S. Capitalist
Dictatorship Intends to Ram their Fascist Policies Down Out Throat and
Blame it on the (technically) Black Obama the Scapegoat in Order Divert
Focus Away from the Hardening Capitalist Dictatorship and to Reinforce
And Increase Racist Hatred and Division in the United States!
The false claim by Jimmy Carter and others that the September 12, 2009 White House Tea Party March was supposedly simply racist opposition to a (technically) Black president was a clear attempt to sabotage and discredit the overwhelming opposition to the substance of the Obama “Healthcare Overhaul,” and his other Fascist programs as simply being due to racism! But the Tea party March and Jimmy Carter’s false claim do telegraph the plan by the U.S. capitalist dictatorship to use claims of “racist opposition” 1.) to ram the “Healthcare Overhaul” down our throats and 2.) blame it on the (technically) Black Obama as a willing and eager scapegoat in order to divert focus away from the hardening capitalist dictatorship which is waging economic war of extermination against its own citizens and 3.) enormously increase racial hatred and division in the United States! Divide and Conquer is an important rule of capitalist statecraft! So far unfortunately the present correlation of class forces, where the capitalist dictatorship is still much stronger than the unorganized forces of the Working Class and its allies, permits the U.S. masses to be easily misled and manipulated against their own best interests.
Obama is Much More Dangerous and is Much Worse than Bush!
It should be noted that Clinton, also a Democrat, abolished the first part of Social Security—Welfare, something which Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush could NEVER have done that because they were so hated and despised by the Democratic constituencies which form the overwhelming majority of the U.S. population. In addition, Clinton deliberately turned control of the Congress over to the Republicans in the 1994 Midterm “elections” in order to make that possible. See Part II. For those with short memories Clinton also presided over the division and subjugation of Yugoslavia by the U.S. and NATO, bombed Belgrade in Serbia, deliberately bombed the Chinese Embassy there as a form of intimidation and bombed Iraq continuously almost every day of his entire administration! Obama is subsequently far more dangerous than George E. Bush ever was because the Democratic constituencies which voted for Obama do not yet understand or suspect what the capitalist dictatorship has planned and they do not understand the one-way dynamic of capitalism and mistakenly still think in terms of individuals, bad guys versus good guys—cops and robbers—rather than understanding that what happens is due to the natural one-way development of the economic-political system of capitalism!
The Real Purpose of the So-called “Obama Healthcare Overhaul” is to Abolish
Medicare and Medicaid in Practice by Cutting $400-$500 Billion of “Savings” from
Those Government Programs to “Help Pay” for the $900 Billion to $1.6 Trillion
Obama Healthcare Plan, while Turning Over All Healthcare to the Insurance
Companies and HMOs under the False Slogan of “Healthcare for All”! Do NOT Fall
For the Massive False Advertising Media Blitz! Healthcare Rationing Will be Mandatory
Mandatory for Everyone but the Super Rich and Means that the Insurance Companies—
NOT YOU AND YOUR DOCTOR—Make ALL FINAL Healthcare Decisions!
The Capitalist Dictatorship intends to Use the so-called “Healthcare Overhaul”
To Escalate Economic Warfare Against the Working Class and the Poor!
The Objective is to Reduce the Population by Increasing the Price of Healthcare
For ALL, while Simultaneously Denying and Rationing Healthcare for ALL
In Order to Bring a Greater Number of People to an Earlier Death!
Any “Public Option” Will be Limited to Only a Few and Will be Designed to Profit
From Human Illness and Disease Just Like the Private Insurance/HMO Parasites!
Re-introduction of a Progressive Tax Structure Would Easily Pay Entirely for
Single-Payer Government Run Health Care and Pay for Social Security Forever!
But the One-Way Dynamic of Capitalism Prevents This! Socialism is the Answer!
Don’t fall for the “Obama media blitz” falsely claiming that the 1.) “Healthcare Overhaul does not mean a government takeover of medicine” accompanied by the Big Lie: “the only people who make healthcare decisions will be you and your doctor!” The U.S. government is taking over all health care and giving it to the insurance companies and HMOs! The United States government, the insurance companies and HMOs make ALL final medical decisions by denying and rationing your medical care! You and your doctor do NOT make the final medical decisions regarding treatment! Only under the Veterans’ Administration, Medicare and Medicaid, all government programs did you and your doctor make medical decisions! The real purpose of the Obama “Overhaul” is to turn over all healthcare to the insurance companies and HMOs while ending the government programs of Medicare and Medicaid by cutting $400 billion to $500 billion in “savings” from those programs, which the capitalist dictatorship will undoubtedly later simply fold into so-called “Obama Care”.
The Obama Regime covers up this reality by saying that Obama Care will EXPAND Medicaid and “cover millions of more people but with greatly reduced coverage!” “With greatly reduced coverage?” That is NOT an expansion of Medicaid. “Greatly reduced Coverage” means denial of healthcare and healthcare rationing and means that you and your doctor no longer make the healthcare decisions. The insurance companies and HMOs will make the final decisions! That is an economic fact! That is what the reduction of Medicare and Medicaid will actually mean in practice! Complaints about Medicare and Medicaid will increase not decrease under the so-called “Healthcare Overhaul” and will be due to the so-called “savings” which are merely a euphemism for the Obama Regime’s CUTS and enormous increase in healthcare rationing and enormous increase in heathcare insurance for ALL! Demonstrating once again that he is not afraid to use the Big Lie right to the face of his victims, Obama stated at a town-hall type meeting organized by the treacherous AARP: “Nobody is talking about cutting Medicare benefits.” (New York Times, July 29, 2009)) Cutting Medicare Benefits is EXACTLY what the Obama Regime intends to do! Obama has frequently promised to “rein in spending on retirement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.” (New York Times, January 8, 2009). And that is what the so-called “Healthcare Overhaul” is all about. Being “deficit neutral” means cutting government healthcare programs with the private insurance companies supplying even more reduced coverage than the present system of parasite insurance companies and HMOs, where ALREADY for example 40% of health insurance claims in California are denied!
In another Big Lie the Obama Regime announced: “it would not try to cut the short-term deficits until the economy recovers enough that businesses and consumers resume their spending and investment.” (New York Times, August 26, 2009) But the economy is NOT going to recover and CAN NOT RECOVER unless the government institutes huge Federal Jobs Programs equivalent to 37% of GDP, which is the only possible way to sufficiently stimulate DEMAND, the engine of the economy. Instead the plan by the capitalist dictatorship of millionaires and billionaires is to DELIBERATELY ALLOW THE ECONOMY TO CONTRACT according to the dynamic of Globalism! See below. After the Big Lie that HE Obama has “pulled the economy back from the brink” and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s announcement on September 15, 2009 that: “The Recession is very likely over” that is the signal that “cutting short-term deficits,” meaning cutting even more social spending will soon be on the agenda! On July 31, 2009 the government reported that the GDP was negative for the 4th successive quarter! Officially it takes 6 negative quarters of GDP growth to define a depression. But the capitalists will falsify the numbers as they already do routinely in order to never permit that truth to appear. The truth is that without large-scale Federal jobs programs the equivalent of New Deal/WWII spending to the level of 37% of GDP there will be NO recovery! Period! The economy will simply continue to contract. That’s NOT recovery! That’s a Big Lie targeting the still credulous U.S. masses. Only Socialism can supply the jobs that people need!
Meanwhile the false “Grandma Death Panels” issue is a deliberately designed but easily discredited distraction used to divert focus away from this central objective of eliminating Medicare and Medicaid in practice as part of the “Healthcare Overhaul” and turning everything over to the insurance companies and HMOs. The $400 billion to $500 billion cuts to Medicare/Medicaid will definitely cut end-of-life treatment for Seniors, who really will in many cases simply be sent home to die! The reason that Obama has delayed naming a new head for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is because the Obama Regime does NOT want ANY focus on Medicare and Medicaid or anyone speaking in support of those government programs, which Obama has now scheduled for huge cuts and eventual elimination. In fact the reason that Obama had filled only 43% of his top policy making positions by September 2009 (New York Times, August 24, 2009), which he could easily get confirmed by his Democratically controlled Congress, is that the Obama Regime wants to appear weak and unable to function and this would not be possible if those policy positions were filled and those new Democratic Party policy chiefs were out there speaking forcefully and building support for a genuine Public Option, for example!
In other words not all of these future policy chiefs can be brought into confidence on Obama’s reversal of his anti-Bush campaign promises. It should also be noted that whenever possible Obama tries to appoint Republicans rather than Democrats to key policy-making positions thus further undermining the will of the voters! On August 25th Obama reappointed the Bush criminal Ben Bernanke to send the message that it will be BUSINESS AS USUAL and that there will be no restoration of the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act officially abolished by Clinton or restoration of banking regulation abolished under Reagan! See below.
During his campaign Obama promised that “everything is on the table” in reforming health care. As soon as he was elected Obama stated that “The Single-Payer Health Plan,” where the government, rather than the insurance companies/HMOs, directly pay the healthcare providers was “OFF THE TABLE.” Social Security, Medicare and the Veterans’ Administration are the most popular government programs, where the government makes NO actual medical decisi
I agree with rafflaw. Just a few weeks ago school districts were refusing to show Obama’s address.
Swarthmoe,
Thanks. I almost couldn’t find your posting after the dissertation by William Depperman! The Right is intent on delegitimizing Obama’s administration at all costs and this attempt by Fox to play up this silly song is just one more example of that effort.
Byron,
I think this exposes a flaw in your thinking that relates directly to your training, your grounding in the linear.
I am not saying that their are no knowable principles, only that knowledge itself is imperfect and inherently incapable of being complete (the incompleteness theorems). You are taking what I said to the absurd. Sure, there’s chaos everywhere. It shapes the world around us from the quantum up. Literally. But that does not mean chaos is everything over order nor did I say as much. Only that perhaps because of your background in the linear.
You like finites. You don’t mind polarity, but you don’t like needless complexity. It’s in the nature of what engineers do – take scientific principles and define a structure that’s predictable if not inherently stable. It’s your acceptance of duality as being simply 0 and 1 that is tripping you up. But it’s a bi-modal lens, just like “left/right”. Stable/unstable. Can bear a load/failure. That’s why it’s not an appropriate filter for evaluating an idea at ground level in the marketplace of ideas. It’s not as complete as it can be. The universe isn’t binary. If you must insist on such a simple filter for basic sorting, the universe is more accurately trinary (for the limited sake of this argument).
Examples
Game Theory: simple games have the following results – 1,0, or -1 (positive outcome, zero outcome, negative outcome). This consequently shows in the results of any form of combat being classified as win, loss or stalemate when discussing strategy.
The Atomic: particle physics would be very difficult without neutrons to help wrangle those pesky electrons and protons.
Electricity: I’m no engineer, but I’m no monkey when it comes to things electric. The ground is often just as important as your hot and not.
You see a bias in the academic world that you see as coming from the left wing and that it’s in the material selection. That your error. That perception. The cause, not the bias. You seek a binary answer using a binary filter. It only presents you with two options: 1) leftist conspiracy (which you are thankfully too smart to believe), 2) “bad” or leftist material since it’s not the people. I’ll tell you flat out that last is simply not true. In college, you are taught how to be logical and methodical as engineers. It’s not the same skill set as critical thinking. It’s related, but not the same as both require logic. It’s why you were able to make the leap. But to get the skills required to be a critical thinker, one must have contrast in information. What I mean by this it you overstate the liberal bias in materials presented in college level courses because it is impossible to talk about liberal ideas without discussing conservative ideas. It’s distinction that makes learning possible. If all data were uniform, this universe would be a flat plane.
It’s more complicated than that. You neglect that third way, the – since you brought up the word – systemic causes that I proposed as an alternative out of hand. It didn’t fit your predefined bi-modal filter. Well sometimes the world is neutral and the causes are systemic. Anyone here who has spent prolonged time with or in academia will back up that what I have said about the nature of the percolation of ideas and the inherent laziness of humans is exactly what the academic ecosystem is like. That causes the slow uptake of new thinkers into the, for lack of a better term, Pantheon of Great Thinkers, but not the liberal nature of the material itself. If there is a disproportionate number of liberal thinkers on that top shelf, then they rose to the top via natural selection or – if you must – market forces. The term “belabor the point” was invented to describe academics so rest assured, all sides were heard from. Your complaint seems to be largely a lack of conservative ideas and thinkers in the “top shelf” of academic brand names. Ok, there’s a shortage, I won’t argue that. But it is the marketplace of ideas, not the marketplace of simple polarity. The goal is to find the best ideas from ANY source.
I see a liberal bias too. That liberal material is taught is irrelevant because conservative materials are used as contrast in a proper curriculum. The goal is critical thinking. Not what information to think. The first is the skill of active learning and adaptive analysis. By its nature this requires a diversity of materials. The more information the better (up to the point of overload). The second is simple brainwashing – programming for regurgitation of data upon command. A certain amount of this happens in any education, but it’s best and most often utilized for simple factual data, not complex ideas, models or concepts.
I see the liberal bias that results in general from higher education coming from exactly the acquisition of the critical thinking skill set much more so than any of the materials proper although I’ll admit (and you will too if you’re going to be fair about it) some liberal bias is built in to the concept of education period as modern education as we know it is a direct result of the Enlightenment – that most liberal of all movements.
But humor me and assume I’m right for a minute – that the slow rate of change in materials is due to the systemic causes I pointed out and that the marketplace to date has determined the top shelf. This would be your chance to bypass that percolation process. You claim a lack of talent you perceive as required from the strictly conservative perspective?
Find us a great conservative idea to present.
One that will improve people’s lives in a concrete measurable manner and/or improve the state of their freedom and liberties. Hell, it can be from anywhere. Even those weasels at AEI. I promise not to prejudge the idea by it’s author’s current affiliation (within reason, no American Nazi Party or the like), but listen to how this plan can do either one, but preferably both, of those things.
Personally, what I’ve seen come out of most conservative think tanks is simply fascism, theocrats or some blend thereof. Talking heads who are great ideologues but real short of practical ideas that don’t relate to them or their masters directly making a profit. Conservative thought isn’t being taught as much because much of it simply isn’t worth teaching. It’s outmoded and what they have tried to put into application has been a disaster. There are nothing left but Neocons in the power centers. There are no great traditional conservatives today. This is not an easy task. If you can find a great, purely conservative idea that you can encapsulate for presentation here for evaluation that can do those two things and withstand the the furnace of logic this blog can be when several regulars attack it from different angles?
I’d be glad to hear you out. I’m thinking mespo would probably sign on for some of that action as would some of the others. Because right now you are verging on just being anti-intellectual and anti-liberal for the sake of political polarity. I thought you’d matured past that fallacy. It’s also a hallmark of the “F” word and I don’t mean the fornication word (think goose stepping). But if you can make a case for a better mouse trap? Let’s hear it.
I also agree with Rafflaw.
This happened in FEBRUARY!!
Why get your panties in twist now?
To me this is a non story except to the extent it demonstrates the pernicious pathology of the Faux noise network creating Faux outrage. (I loathe the Murdoch machine; can you tell!)
I believe the fallout from the spin on this story is much more offensive then the actual offense.
This public school employee made a mistake, a relatively small error in judgment in presenting this overly partisan program.
She may be a very proud supporter of President Obama and lost a sense of objectivity in this years celebration.
She was acting alone; it is easy to forgive her failure to curb her enthusiasm!
I feel less gracious to those who are exploiting the very innocent children and using this as another occasion to stir up hate and fear.
I’m suspect of the parents who are now so shocked and disturbed they must all jump on the “Let us all be outraged bandwagon!”
(Although if they are so easily manipulated no wonder they worry so much about the risk of indoctrination.)
Where was the outrage in February; don’t they ask their very young children what they did in school that day?
Or are they just now noticing the very deleterious effects of this hagiolatry!
P.S. William H. Diapperman, could that be you bdaman?
Rafflaw wrote:
This was a case of a teacher trying to get the kids to understand what is going on in the country in a way that they can understand.
How is rote, mindless memorization and chanting real learning? It is certainly not conceptual learning, to be sure. It’s like any sing-along tool, in this case leveraging the brain’s ease of absorbing melody and lyrics to sear false praises of Obama into young minds. The more I have thought about the incident, the more I see it as a form of outright child abuse.
This is Worship. Cultish. Adulation. Glorification. Idolatry. Assimilation. Reverence. Propaganda.
It surpasses the last shocking incident involving schoolchildren in 2006, where children were forced to sing praises to Laura Bush:
“Our country’s stood beside us
People have sent us aid.
Katrina could not stop us, our hopes will never fade.
Congress, Bush and FEMA
People across our land
Together have come to rebuild us and we join them hand-in-hand!”
CEJ,
You could be correct about the possible alias!
Buddha,
I hope your saving some juice for your book!
Your most recent post and the one @ 2:55 on this thread were as excellent as always. I noticed on another thread you brought up the book Shibumi by Trevanian; that was one of the most enjoyable books I’ve ever read. I believe you could write something just as interesting and as entertaining!
Rafflaw,
I hope I’m wrong and that was just a one hit troll!
Here is Bill Maher on the Bush / FEMA song in April 2006:
http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2006/04/kim_jongbush.html
puzzling,
“The more I have thought about the incident,the more I see it as a form of outright child abuse.”
Your kidding, right?
CEJ,
Thank you very much. I appreciate the vote of confidence.
CEJ,
This is blatant manipulation of emotionally and intellectually immature children. What else should we call it?
Many religious believers insist that children be inculcated with religious ideas as young as possible. This tells us something about religion.
Your welcome, Buddha!
CEJ,
That one hit was longer than a years worth of trolls!
This DOES remind me of the ‘Dear Leader’ in North Korea. Anyone who does not take offense to this should just substitute the words “Barack Hussein Obama” with “George W. Bush.” If you still aren’t convinced, take a trip to Cuba and see REAL socialism without dissent (equals communism).
Thanks for listening,
777denny
Puzzling and Denny,
I agree that this partisan presentation was inappropriate and offensive but I don’t think it rises to the level of alarm you and many others are suggesting.
If the President, the White House, the Secretary of Education, or the school Principal had sent “Our Wonderful Leader Songs” set to the music of christian hymnals to All public schools and ordered or even suggested that they be sung I would join the protest.
This seems to be maybe one wacky teacher (not school wide sanctioned) who implemented a not so well thought out idea.
I stand by my post @10:23pm and don’t think we are on the slippery slope to socialism.
Puzzling,
“It surpasses the last shocking incident involving school children in 2006, where children were forced to sing praises to Laura Bush.”
Again your kidding right!
As John Puma posted @2:21pm where were all “the extreme right temper tantrums caused by this cute ditty.(Of all topics, Katrina!!???)”
At least the 2006 incident which was staged as a very public presentation and was very well organized in comparison, the parents who gave prior consent, had every expectation they might be opening up their children to potential public ridicule.
Denny,
I visited your site and found it as you might say “creepy, shocking and disturbing.” Nah! Actually it made me laugh!
If you want an example of truly outrageous indoctrination how about the federally funded absurd Abstinence Only sex-ed programs!
P.S. “When I think back on all the crap I learned in …”
CEJ:
I tried to teach my kids that, I don’t think it worked. A buddy of mine says I am going against a couple of million years of human evolution. But we are sentient beings and do have will power, we are not controlled by the lizard brain.
With that being said I think you should teach both or neither.
It actually isn’t up to the state to be teaching human sexuality. They can certainly teach human sexual biology as part of a biology class but human sexuality is complex and better left to the family and the individual.
Byron,
I think it is always good public policy to have our schools teach useful information. Facts about sex are useful.
Supporters of abstinence only (until marriage) sex education programs say it promotes the only method that is 100% effective in preventing pregnancy and STD’s.
Critics say the abstinence only programs don’t deter teens from having sex and leave teens without crucial information on avoiding STD’s and pregnancy; and in some cases the programs provide false information about contraceptives generally, and efficacy in particular.
While some studies do show teens who took “virginity pledges” as part of abstinence only programs, started sexual activity later and had fewer partners then did their peers; they were just as likely to contract STD’s and get pregnant. These teens tended not to use contraceptives regularly when they did become sexually active, and engaged in oral and anal sex in the belief that such activity did not violate their “pledge”.
Many conservatives have argued that just giving teens information about birth control and how to avoid STD’s is to encourage teenage sex. Contrary to the tenets of abstinence only until marriage programs, premarital sex is nearly universal.
The federal government has funded these programs with hundreds of millions of dollars for years is it money well spent?
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/gpr/10/2/gpr100202.html
I still feel strong revulsion in how this singular event 7 months after its occurrence became so exploited in the media(fox). It was one foolish teacher acting who it has been reported retired at the end of the school year.
It seems appropriate to quote William Safire today:
“Insist on columns taking on only the truly powerful, and then only kicking them when they’re up.”
Last night John Stewart covered in the segment titled AMERICA: Target America, the ACORN, NEA, and the “creepy” schoolchildren singing scandals. Enjoy!
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-september-28-2009/america–target-america
Tonight on Countdown: “Right wing craziness uses children.”
“According to the school, the parents were not angered by the performances but were angered by having their children’s privacy violated.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/ns/msnbc_tv- countdown_with_keith_olbermann#33080515
hello there and thank you for your info I have certainly picked up something new from right here. I did however expertise a few technical points using this site, as I experienced to reload the web site a lot of times previous to I could get it to load correctly. I had been wondering if your web host is OK? Not that I am complaining, but sluggish loading instances times will sometimes affect your placement in google and can damage your quality score if advertising and marketing with Adwords. Well I’m adding this RSS to my e-mail and could look out for much more of your respective exciting content. Make sure you update this again soon..