Monday, June 29, 2015

If you care about the Confederate flag either way, you are a chump

The rich and powerful continue their no-holds-barred assault on the working class of the United States.  It’s now official that enough Senators and Representatives have been bought, and they have voted to enable legislation that they have not even read – really the only reason for an elected representative to vote for something that they don’t know what it is, is because their vote has been paid for.  

Although from wikileaks and what one would expect from a corporate whore like Obama, and a piece of legislation that has been crafted in secret by corporate lobbyists, I think we can be pretty sure what's in it.  Stay tuned for being ruled by unaccountable corporate lawyers meeting in secret, whose decisions can be neither appealed nor amended by democratic actions, who make their own rules, and whose judgments have unlimited authority.  It’s not looking pretty.

Yes just like the German enabling acts of 1933, where the parliament signed away its power to legislate and democracy died, the US Congress is in the process of irreversibly signing away its powers to a bunch of corporate lawyers.  (If there is a bright side to this, it’s that as the power of Congress goes away, the going rate for bribing them will also decline.  What if a US senator offered to sell out the national interest for money, and they didn’t get any takers?  Oh, the humanity!)

So what’s in the news?  Obviously – GAY MARRIAGE!  Oh, and the Confederate flag.  This is obviously a ploy by the well connected to distract us from what really matters with flashy nothings.  

So it’s true, the Confederate flag was never the official flag of the Confederate states.  Instead, it was the battle flag of one of the Confederate armies – whose officers had betrayed their republic, and who fought a bloody civil war against their fellow Americans in defense of human slavery.  Later on the flag was taken up by the KKK.  So maybe not a great start there.

However that was a long time ago.  Today it seems more like a harmless symbol of the American South.  Remember: any flag has, at one time or another, been flown over good things and bad.  What counts is what you do with it today.  But.  IT DOES NOT MATTER EITHER WAY.  IF YOU ARE PAYING ATTENTION TO THE CONFEDERATE FLAG ISSUE THEN YOU ARE NOT PAYING ATTENTION TO OBAMATRADE/TPP/ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION/CORPORATE WELFARE etc.etc.etc.

We are being trolled, baited, and tricked into wasting our energies on ephemera while our enemies go straight for the carotid.  This a game that we cannot win.  Faced with a heads-they-win tails-we-lose scenario, the only sane response is not to play.

1. Suppose the rednecks all go ‘well I didn’t mean anything hurtful, but I can see how people might be offended so I’ll give up the Confederate flag and stick with the classic Old Glory.’  It would yield nothing.  Blacks would still have their jobs taken by illegal immigrants and outsourcing to low-wage countries, they still would not be able to support a family through honest work, and poverty and social collapse will continue apace.  And it would not settle the issue!  Having seen how easily we can be baited, the rich will move on to statues of George Washington, or apple pie, or streets named Washington, or the American flag itself…  the more ridiculous the better to rile us up.

2. Suppose the rednecks win and they get to keep their Confederate flag.  So as you are reduced to third-world levels of poverty, and one of your kids dies of a curable disease because you couldn’t afford the drug costs, and the other two are scrawny and malnourished, and you had to kill your dog the other day because you couldn’t afford to feed it, well, you can still paint a Confederate flag on the hood of your broken down rusted pickup truck out back.  This is a victory, how?

The only way to stop these bogus debates is to ignore them.  The rich are only playing games with us because they know they can manipulate us.  

So here’s something you can do.  Forget about the Confederate flag.  Look up how your Representative and Senators voted for fast-tracking Obamatrade.  If they voted against, call and thank them for their service.  If they voted for, call and politely express your displeasure that they would sell you out, and vow to never vote for them again.

And if they mention gay marriage or the Confederate flag, just laugh.

SENATE:  (YEA=traitor, NAY=patriot)
YEAs —62
Alexander (R-TN)
Ayotte (R-NH)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bennet (D-CO)
Blunt (R-MO)
Boozman (R-AR)
Burr (R-NC)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Capito (R-WV)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Cassidy (R-LA)
Coats (R-IN)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coons (D-DE)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Cotton (R-AR)
Crapo (R-ID)
Cruz (R-TX)
Daines (R-MT)
Ernst (R-IA)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Fischer (R-NE)
Flake (R-AZ)
Gardner (R-CO)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hatch (R-UT)
Heitkamp (D-ND)
Heller (R-NV)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johnson (R-WI)
Kaine (D-VA)
Kirk (R-IL)
Lankford (R-OK)
McCain (R-AZ)
McCaskill (D-MO)
McConnell (R-KY)
Moran (R-KS)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Perdue (R-GA)
Portman (R-OH)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rounds (R-SD)
Rubio (R-FL)
Sasse (R-NE)
Scott (R-SC)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Sullivan (R-AK)
Thune (R-SD)
Tillis (R-NC)
Toomey (R-PA)
Vitter (R-LA)
Warner (D-VA)
Wicker (R-MS)
Wyden (D-OR)
NAYs —37
Baldwin (D-WI)
Blumenthal (D-CT)
Booker (D-NJ)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Casey (D-PA)
Collins (R-ME)
Donnelly (D-IN)
Durbin (D-IL)
Franken (D-MN)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Heinrich (D-NM)
Hirono (D-HI)
King (I-ME)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Leahy (D-VT)
Lee (R-UT)
Manchin (D-WV)
Markey (D-MA)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Merkley (D-OR)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murphy (D-CT)
Paul (R-KY)
Peters (D-MI)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schatz (D-HI)
Schumer (D-NY)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Udall (D-NM)
Warren (D-MA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)

Not Voting – 1
Enzi (R-WY)




HOUSE:  (YES=traitor, NOES=patriot)


                                                       —- YES   219 —
Abraham
Allen
Amodei
Ashford
Babin
Barletta
Barr
Barton
Benishek
Bera
Beyer
Bilirakis
Bishop (MI)
Bishop (UT)
Black
Blackburn
Blum
Blumenauer
Boehner
Bonamici
Bost
Boustany
Brady (TX)
Brooks (IN)
Buchanan
Bucshon
Calvert
Carter (GA)
Carter (TX)
Chabot
Chaffetz
Coffman
Cole
Comstock
Conaway
Connolly
Cooper
Costa
Costello (PA)
Cramer
Crawford
Crenshaw
Cuellar
Culberson
Curbelo (FL)
Davis (CA)
Delaney
DelBene
Denham
Dent
DeSantis
DesJarlais
Diaz-Balart
Dold
Duffy
Ellmers (NC)
Emmer (MN)
Farr
Fincher
Fitzpatrick
Fleischmann
Flores
Forbes
Fortenberry
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gibbs
Goodlatte
Gowdy
Granger
Graves (GA)
Graves (LA)
Graves (MO)
Grothman
Guinta
Guthrie
Hanna
Hardy
Harper
Hartzler
Heck (NV)
Hensarling
Herrera Beutler
Hice, Jody B.
Hill
Himes
Hinojosa
Holding
Hudson
Huelskamp
Huizenga (MI)
Hultgren
Hurd (TX)
Hurt (VA)
Issa
Jenkins (KS)
Johnson (OH)
Johnson, E. B.
Johnson, Sam
Kelly (PA)
Kilmer
Kind
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kinzinger (IL)
Kline
Knight
LaMalfa
Lamborn
Lance
Larsen (WA)
Latta
Long
Loudermilk
Love
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Marchant
Marino
McCarthy
McCaul
McClintock
McHenry
McMorris Rodgers
McSally
Meehan
Meeks
Messer
Mica
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Moolenaar
Mullin
Murphy (PA)
Neugebauer
Newhouse
Noem
Nunes
O’Rourke
Olson
Palazzo
Paulsen
Peters
Pittenger
Pitts
Poe (TX)
Polis
Pompeo
Price, Tom
Quigley
Ratcliffe
Reed
Reichert
Renacci
Ribble
Rice (NY)
Rice (SC)
Rigell
Roby
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rokita
Rooney (FL)
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross
Rouzer
Royce (CA)
Ryan (WI)
Salmon
Sanford
Scalise
Schrader
Schweikert
Scott, Austin
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Sewell (AL)
Shimkus
Shuster
Simpson
Smith (MO)
Smith (NE)
Smith (TX)
Stefanik
Stewart
Stivers
Stutzman
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Tiberi
Tipton
Trott
Turner
Upton
Valadao
Wagner
Walberg
Walden
Walker
Walorski
Walters, Mimi
Wasserman Schultz
Weber (TX)
Wenstrup
Westerman
Whitfield
Williams
Wilson (SC)
Womack
Woodall
Yoder
Yoho
Young (IA)
Young (IN)
Zinke
                                                                            —-NOES    208 —
Adams
Aderholt
Aguilar
Amash
Bass
Beatty
Becerra
Bishop (GA)
Boyle, Brendan F.
Brady (PA)
Brat
Bridenstine
Brooks (AL)
Brown (FL)
Brownley (CA)
Buck
Burgess
Bustos
Butterfield
Capps
Capuano
Cárdenas
Carney
Carson (IN)
Cartwright
Castor (FL)
Castro (TX)
Chu, Judy
Cicilline
Clark (MA)
Clarke (NY)
Clawson (FL)
Clay
Cleaver
Cohen
Collins (GA)
Collins (NY)
Conyers
Cook
Courtney
Crowley
Cummings
Davis, Danny
DeFazio
DeGette
DeLauro
DeSaulnier
Deutch
Dingell
Doggett
Donovan
Doyle, Michael F.
Duckworth
Duncan (SC)
Duncan (TN)
Edwards
Ellison
Engel
Eshoo
Esty
Farenthold
Fattah
Fleming
Foster
Frankel (FL)
Fudge
Gabbard
Gallego
Garamendi
Garrett
Gibson
Gohmert
Graham
Grayson
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Griffith
Grijalva
Gutiérrez
Hahn
Harris
Hastings
Heck (WA)
Higgins
Honda
Hoyer
Huffman
Hunter
Israel
Jackson Lee
Jeffries
Jenkins (WV)
Johnson (GA)
Jones
Jordan
Joyce
Kaptur
Katko
Keating
Kelly (IL)
Kennedy
Kildee
Kirkpatrick
Kuster
Labrador
Langevin
Larson (CT)
Lawrence
Lee
Levin
Lewis
Lieu, Ted
Lipinski
LoBiondo
Loebsack
Lofgren
Lowenthal
Lowey
Lujan Grisham (NM)
Luján, Ben Ray (NM)
Lummis
Lynch
MacArthur
Maloney, Carolyn
Maloney, Sean
Massie
Matsui
McCollum
McDermott
McGovern
McKinley
McNerney
Meadows
Meng
Mooney (WV)
Moore
Moulton
Mulvaney
Murphy (FL)
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal
Nolan
Norcross
Nugent
Pallone
Palmer
Pascrell
Pearce
Pelosi
Perlmutter
Perry
Peterson
Pingree
Pocan
Poliquin
Posey
Price (NC)
Rangel
Richmond
Rohrabacher
Rothfus
Roybal-Allard
Ruiz
Ruppersberger
Rush
Russell
Ryan (OH)
Sánchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schiff
Scott (VA)
Scott, David
Serrano
Sherman
Sinema
Sires
Slaughter
Smith (NJ)
Smith (WA)
Speier
Swalwell (CA)
Takai
Takano
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Titus
Tonko
Torres
Tsongas
Van Hollen
Vargas
Veasey
Vela
Velázquez
Visclosky
Walz
Waters, Maxine
Watson Coleman
Webster (FL)
Welch
Westmoreland
Wilson (FL)
Wittman
Yarmuth
Zeldin
                                                                           
                                                                       —- NOT VOTING*    8 —
Byrne
Clyburn
Davis, Rodney
Gosar
Jolly
Kelly (MS)
Payne
Young (AK)


Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Voting for Fast-Track TPP Obamatrade is Treason


The leaks about Obama’s secret TPP corporate-governance agreement continue fast and furious, and with every revelation the full scope of the corruption becomes larger and larger.  Make no mistake: this deal is utterly toxic, it basically is a corporate coup d’etat.  American sovereignty would be essentially eliminated, and there would be de-facto rule by unaccountable foreign lawyers meeting in secret, who will mostly be working for the same corporations they are ruling on, and whose judgements will have NO APPEAL and NO LIMITS.

It’s important to realize: it’s not just the law that matters, but who gets to interpret the law.  If the letter of the TPP says that there will be exceptions for national security, and the secret TPP courts get to determine what is or is not a legitimate national security interest, with no possibility of appeal or overturning by a democratic process, then no, there is no exception for national security.  Or for anything – labor laws, human rights, the environment, child slavery – no exceptions, not on anything.  The big multinational corporations, because they will define how the law is to be interpreted, will be able to do ANYTHING.

And of course the TPP is full of all sorts of rubbish about how the Congress gets to be involved in setting 'negotiating points.'  So the Congress could express its desire that a foreign industry not be allowed to import slave labor into the continental United States (I know, banning slavery will be condemned as slavery by many modern conservatives - people should be free to choose to employ slave labor! - but bear with me), and this desire will then be communicated on official looking documents to an international tribunal, which will then ignore them.  Or something like that.  You get the idea.

Remember also: the TPP is a 'living document'.  Once signed, the multinationals will be able to revise it and add new members or change the terms etc. without having to go back to a democratically elected legislature.  

It’s really like the German enabling act of 1933, where the legislature gave up its power to write or amend legislation to the central executive.  At that point the legislature became irrelevant, and democracy died.

Now some people will claim that nobody can criticize the TPP etc. because they don't really know what's in it (because it's secret).  Therefore they reserve judgement until more is known.  Cretins.  Suppose I said that you have to sign a contract with me, and that you can only know what you have contracted to after you've signed it.  Do you:
1. Say: Hey, I can't PROVE that the contract is bad (because it's secret), so therefore I have no way to judge it.  Therefore I'll sign it and only then will I be able to judge it.
2. Say: "Bite me."

The bottom line: when someone is trying to get you to sign a contract without your reading it first, standard legal practice is to assume the worst-case scenario.  It's the only sane approach.

Already fast-track has passed the US Senate.  Astonishingly, most of the senators who voted for fast track – which is also a vote for the TPP and all other such related toxic fascist treaties – did not even bother to read these agreements that they were voting for!  (They didn’t even have their staffs try to analyze them). 

Now think about this: why would an elected representative vote for a law that they had not even read, that they did not know what it was?  There is only one reason: because they are corrupt.  Because they have sold out their nation for money.  Because they don’t care what they are voting for, only what they are getting paid (if not explicitly in cash, then certainly in connections, business opportunities, campaign funding, after-public-office speaking fees, whatever). 

Now some say that voting for the fast-track process is not the same as voting for specific agreements like TPP.  False.  Any member of congress who votes for fast-track is voting for the TPP (and all related toxic laws).  Period.  They may not be voting for TPP right now – but if they are voting to make it easier for the TPP to pass, then they are voting for it. 

Suppose that a Senator votes for fast-track.  Then the Senator reads the text of the TPP, and goes ‘oh my goodness I had no idea how horrible this thing is now that I do of course I will vote against it’ – but because of their previous vote for fast-track, now the TPP can pass with just 50% of the vote, instead of 67% (vice-president Joe Biden, previously known as ‘The Senator from Mastercard’, gets to cast a tie-breaker).  If the TPP passes with fewer than 67 votes, the Senator in question is responsible for it.  In this case: the Senator voted for the TPP when his/her vote mattered, and against it when it didn’t.  That’s fake.  And voting for something when you have no idea what it is, and then later on going ‘oh how terrible I had no idea that Obama would do something so bad!  I feel betrayed’ – well, it’s called crocodile tears.

Suppose you hired a lawyer to help you evaluate a contract.  Normally such a person would read the contract very carefully, right?  Suppose your lawyer advised you that ‘neither you nor I need to read the contract, just sign it’.  Surely you would think, either the lawyer is utterly incompetent, or the lawyer is not really representing your interests.  Correct?

Here are the listings of the Senators who voted for and against fast-track TPP Obamatrade.  Don’t forget.

TRAITORS TO THE RUPUBLIC.  NEVER FORGET: THESE SENATORS VOTED FOR TPP AND EVERY OTHER TOXIC TRADE AGREEMENT IN THE SIX YEARS THAT FOLLOW MAY 2015.
YEAs —62
Alexander (R-TN)
Ayotte (R-NH)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bennet (D-CO)
Blunt (R-MO)
Boozman (R-AR)
Burr (R-NC)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Capito (R-WV)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Cassidy (R-LA)
Coats (R-IN)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coons (D-DE)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Cotton (R-AR)
Crapo (R-ID)
Cruz (R-TX)
Daines (R-MT)
Ernst (R-IA)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Fischer (R-NE)
Flake (R-AZ)
Gardner (R-CO)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hatch (R-UT)
Heitkamp (D-ND)
Heller (R-NV)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johnson (R-WI)
Kaine (D-VA)
Kirk (R-IL)
Lankford (R-OK)
McCain (R-AZ)
McCaskill (D-MO)
McConnell (R-KY)
Moran (R-KS)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Perdue (R-GA)
Portman (R-OH)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rounds (R-SD)
Rubio (R-FL)
Sasse (R-NE)
Scott (R-SC)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Sullivan (R-AK)
Thune (R-SD)
Tillis (R-NC)
Toomey (R-PA)
Vitter (R-LA)
Warner (D-VA)
Wicker (R-MS)
Wyden (D-OR)

?? A STEALTH SELL-OUT?
Not Voting – 1
Enzi (R-WY)





STILL GOT SOME DECENCY LEFT.  REMEMBER YOUR FRIENDS.  ESPECIALLY THE FIVE REPUBLICANS, AND MOST ESPECIALLY SENATOR JEFF SESSIONS.
NAYs —37
Baldwin (D-WI)
Blumenthal (D-CT)
Booker (D-NJ)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Casey (D-PA)
Collins (R-ME)
Donnelly (D-IN)
Durbin (D-IL)
Franken (D-MN)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Heinrich (D-NM)
Hirono (D-HI)
King (I-ME)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Leahy (D-VT)
Lee (R-UT)
Manchin (D-WV)
Markey (D-MA)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Merkley (D-OR)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murphy (D-CT)
Paul (R-KY)
Peters (D-MI)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schatz (D-HI)
Schumer (D-NY)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Udall (D-NM)
Warren (D-MA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)

Now it moves into the House.  Will the oligarchs be able to bribe the Representatives as easily as they have bribed the Senators?  Stay tuned. 

But if you have a few minutes, CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE NOW AND DEMAND THAT THEY VOTE AGAINST FAST-TRACK/TPP/OABAMATRADE.  Forget blogging: it’s fun (I do it, obviously – but I put calling my senators and representatives as of an even higher importance) but right now the only thing standing up against organized money is how hard the public yells.  It may be the most important phone call that you ever make.