We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, July 19, 2012

New report foreshadows post-election assault on pensions, social programs in US

Click here to access article by Jack Hood from World Socialist Web Site. 

The author reviews a recently released report from the State Budget Crisis Task Force organized by, and consisting of, some very prominent members of the ruling One Percent. Once again we see clear evidence that elections don't matter, because whichever candidates wins the contests for president and Congressional seats, you lose! People on this task force are solid representatives of the ruling class situated in both parties, some have close relations with the labor aristocracy. 

And...
The report ignores the real causes of the fiscal crisis. In the nearly 100-page document nothing is said about how state, local, and federal government coffers have been emptied by corporate tax giveaways, multi-trillion dollar bank bailouts, and multiple wars and overseas interventions. The economic breakdown that followed the Crash of 2008 hardly merits a mention even though it led to a plunge in tax revenues as millions lost their jobs, home values plummeted and small businesses, starved of loans, went bankrupt.