Powerful diary re: The Future of the Middle Class

Submitted by flowerfarmer on Wed, 04/22/2015 - 10:58am

written by arendt on Big Orange ...
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/23/1374754/-The-Future-of-the-Midd...
'...It is not hyperbole to call this a final solution. The goal here is to destroy the New Deal middle class by destroying or privatizing every governmental function that supports that middle class. And, even worse, by destroying the social ethos which said that Americans care about community, the poor, the elderly, the disadvantaged, the little guy. The goal is to turn America into "Pottersville", a Social Darwinistic hellhole.

The program of destruction, along with the glorification of greed and callousness, is now out in the open. Not a day goes by without some rightwing politico or rightwing thinktank declaring yet another fundamental governmental function to be obsolete, "inefficient"(the USPS is the posterboy for this kind of knee-capping), promoting "moochers", or threatening someone's religious "freedom" or their religious right to bear arms.

The solution? Always the same: privatize it, deregulate it, or kill it. I cannot do anywhere near as good a job of summing up the treasonous malevolence of this assault as the inimitable Charlie Pierce. See his piece: Going For Broke: The Republicans Throw Long On The Budget...'

I just don't know what to feel anymore.

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Submitted by Roger Fox on Wed, 04/22/2015 - 9:47pm
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FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.

Submitted by Unabashed Liberal on Wed, 04/22/2015 - 11:04pm
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the diary that you linked to at DKos, but will shortly.

I saw mention of the Postal Service, and noticed that during some of the Grand Bargain negotiations [quite some time back], I almost never saw any mention of the Democrats, as in the Administration, being in favor of cuts to the Postal Service, although Bai reported that they had agreed to cuts.

And both of the USPS Postmaster Generals who've served under President Obama, have been in favor of privatization of the Postal Service and various cuts to the Postal Service--such as dropping Saturday delivery, etc.

From a Matt Bai piece during the negotiations:

. . . It’s a remarkable snapshot of the moment, not for the points of contention it exposes, but rather because it illustrates how much agreement Obama and Boehner had actually managed to find.

They had agreed to reduce discretionary spending — meaning both the defense budget and money used to finance the rest of the government — by about $1.2 trillion over 10 years; it would be up to Congress to figure out how. They also agreed to a list of programs from which they could cut at least $200 billion more in the coming decade.

(My paragraph indention.) These included an estimated $44 billion from pensions for civilian and military employees of the government; $30 billion from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; $33 billion from farm subsidies and conservation programs; and $16 billion from reforming the Postal Service.

Look forward to reading the other diaries.

There's been so many new members here in the past couple of days, I'm honestly not sure if I've welcomed you.

So, "Welcome!"

Wink

Mollie

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

Submitted by Unabashed Liberal on Thu, 04/23/2015 - 3:52pm
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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

Submitted by JtC on Wed, 04/22/2015 - 10:55pm

how did your diary get posted so far down the queue? Was it scheduled? That's weird.

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Submitted by JayRaye on Thu, 04/23/2015 - 12:05pm
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My diary pub'd based on the time I saved the draft, rather than by the time I hit publish. Took me a while to figure out where it went!

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Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth.-Lucy Parsons

Submitted by JtC on Thu, 04/23/2015 - 12:25pm

save as a draft, it will publish at the time you saved it and will fit into the diary queue accordingly. If you schedule it it will publish at the top of the diary queue at the time you set the scheduler. Is that what you mean or do you mean you scheduled it and it still went down the queue?

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Submitted by JayRaye on Thu, 04/23/2015 - 12:56pm
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I'll schedule it next time!

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Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth.-Lucy Parsons

Submitted by JtC on Thu, 04/23/2015 - 1:04pm

now that I'm aware that that happens with saved drafts, I'm going to look into fixing it so they go to the top of the queue. Thanks for bringing that to my attention, JR.

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Submitted by JayRaye on Thu, 04/23/2015 - 1:10pm
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to improve the site!!!

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Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth.-Lucy Parsons

Submitted by dkmich on Thu, 04/23/2015 - 5:46am

Wish I could run over to tip and recommend, but I think I'm in a stand-off with a bot over at dkos. I can't enter a stroke without acknowledging an email that says I posted something that was HR'd to hell and back and doesn't meet their community standards. For that to be true, I must have said something really nice. It says if this is an error, contact the help desk. Yeah, right. I left a message at the empty pit, and as expected, not a word from admin. Others have dropped in to remark, but that's it. I don't know how long I plan to argue with a bot; it's been a few days so far. If nothing else, sunshine is a good disinfectant, and I should feel better in a few days.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Submitted by lotlizard on Thu, 04/23/2015 - 11:35am
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Deep Texan:

(10+ / 0-) Recommended by NoFortunateSon, Bring the Lions, aitchdee, raptavio, Kincaid Brock, Tortmaster, caryltoo, Whimsical, high uintas, Susan G in MN

i'm pretty much left of center
if that looks too far to the right to you, that's because you're so far to the left you can't see clearly.

dkmich:

(1+ / 9-) Recommended by kharma
Hidden by NoFortunateSon, kat68, Yasuragi, Its the Supreme Court Stupid, poco, fcvaguy, Tortmaster, fou, Victor Ward

Given that your comments are
so personal and aggressive, I'd say you been nailed. Not only are you a conservative, I'd bet you use to be a Republican.

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