Saturday, December 21, 2013 10:24:12 PM
Osborne and the Stooges
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: December 19, 2013
There was, I’m pretty sure, an episode of “The Three Stooges” in which Curly kept banging his head against a wall. When Moe asked him why, he replied, “Because it feels so good when I stop.”
Well, I thought it was funny. But I never imagined that Curly’s logic would one day become the main rationale that senior finance officials use to defend their disastrous policies.
Some background: In 2010, most of the world’s wealthy nations, although still deeply depressed in the wake of the financial crisis, turned to fiscal austerity: slashing spending and, in some cases, raising taxes in an effort to reduce budget deficits that had surged as their economies collapsed. Basic economics said that austerity in an already depressed economy would deepen the depression. But the “austerians,” as many of us began calling them, insisted that spending cuts would lead to economic expansion, because they would improve business confidence.
The result came as close to a controlled experiment as one ever gets in macroeconomics. Three years went by, and the confidence fairy never made an appearance. In Europe, where the austerian ideology took hold most firmly, the nascent economic recovery soon turned into a double-dip recession. In fact, at this point key measures of economic performance in both the euro area and Britain are lagging behind [ http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/18/the-three-stooges-do-westminster/ ] where they were at this stage of the Great Depression.
It’s true that the human cost has been nothing like what happened in the 1930s. But that’s thanks to government policies like employment protection and a strong social safety net — the very policies austerians insisted must be dismantled in the name of “structural reform.”
Was it really austerity that did the damage? Well, the correlation is very clear: the harsher the austerity, the worse the growth performance [ http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/11/the-imf-and-the-gop/ ]. Consider the case of Ireland, one of the first nations to impose extreme austerity, and widely cited in early 2010 as a role model [ http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aYcEwokLJrFo ]. Three years later, after repeated declarations that its economy had turned the corner, Ireland still has double-digit unemployment [ http://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?queryid=21760 ], even though hundreds of thousands of working-age Irish citizens [ http://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/er/pme/populationandmigrationestimatesapril2013/ ] have emigrated.
The depressing effect of austerity in a slump is, in short, as clear a story as anything in the annals of economic history. But the austerians were never going to admit their error. (In my experience, almost nobody ever does.) And now they’ve seized on the latest data to claim vindication, after all. You see, some austerity countries have started growing again. Britain appears to be experiencing a significant bounce; Ireland has finally had a decent quarter; even Spain’s economy is showing faint signs of life [ http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_PUBLIC/2-04122013-BP/EN/2-04122013-BP-EN.PDF ]. And the austerians are holding victory parades.
Perhaps the most brazen example is George Osborne, Britain’s chancellor of the Exchequer, and the prime mover behind his country’s austerity agenda. No sooner had positive growth numbers appeared than Mr. Osborne declared [ http://www.euroinvestor.com/news/2013/09/09/ukaposs-osborne-claims-victory-in-austerity-debate/12487365 ] that “Those in favor of a Plan B” — that is, an alternative to austerity — “have lost the argument.”
O.K., let’s think about this claim, above and beyond the general observation that fluctuations over the course of a quarter or two generally don’t tell you much.
First of all, Britain’s recent growth doesn’t change the reality that almost six years have passed since the nation entered recession, and real G.D.P. is still below its previous peak. Taking the long view, that’s still a story of dismal failure — as I said, a track record worse than Britain’s performance in the Great Depression.
Second, it’s important to understand the history of austerity in Mr. Osborne’s Britain. His government spent its first two years doing big things: sharply reducing public investment, increasing the national sales tax, and more. After that it slowed the pace; it didn’t reverse austerity, but it didn’t make it much more severe than it already was.
And here’s the thing: Economies do tend to grow unless they keep being hit by adverse shocks. It’s not surprising, then, that the British economy eventually picked up once Mr. Osborne let up on the punishment.
But is this a vindication of his austerity policies? Only if you accept Three Stooges logic, in which it makes sense to keep banging your head against a wall because it feels good when you stop.
Now, I’m well aware that the austerians may win political points all the same. Political scientists tell us [ http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/12/are-elections-too-much-like-musical-chairs/ ] that voters are myopic, that they judge leaders based on economic growth in the year or so before an election, not on overall performance in office. So a government can preside over years of depression, yet win re-election if it can engineer an uptick late in the game.
But that’s politics. When it comes to economics, there’s only one possible answer to the absurd triumphalism of the austerians: Nyuk. Nyuk. Nyuk.
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© 2013 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/20/opinion/krugman-osborne-and-the-stooges.html [with comments]
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John Boehner’s Betrayal
Scott Menchin
By JENNY BETH MARTIN
Published: December 19, 2013
WOODSTOCK, Ga. — THERE’S a political axiom that says if nobody is upset with what you’re doing, you’re not doing your job. We’ve seen this proved time and again in the liberal attacks on conservatives like Sarah Palin and Dr. Benjamin Carson, who provide principled examples to women and minorities and are savaged by the left for doing that job so well.
But cheap-shot politics isn’t relegated to Democrats. Last week the House speaker, John A. Boehner of Ohio, attacked conservative groups who criticized the budget deal, hashed out by Representative Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, and Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, for failing to reduce spending and for raising taxes.
“They’re using our members and they’re using the American people for their own goals,” he said [ http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/12/11/ridiculous-boehner-blasts-conservative-groups-over-budget-complaints/ ], calling the opposition “ridiculous.”
In one way, Mr. Boehner is correct. The goals of groups like ours are those that congressional Republicans once espoused: smaller government, less spending and lower taxes. Alas, those who demand such things today from their elected officials face unfounded attacks.
Make no mistake: The deal is a betrayal of the conservatives who fueled the Republicans’ 2010 midterm shellacking of Democrats.
It raises discretionary spending above $1 trillion for 2014 and 2015. It reneges on $63 billion of sequester cuts. Its $28 billion in deficit reduction over the next decade is a pittance compared with the $680 billion deficit piled up in 2013 alone. And it raises taxes, particularly on airplane passengers through new travel fees.
Perhaps most troubling is that the deal locks in spending for President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, ensuring that the worst parts of Obamacare will continue unfolding to the shock of increasing numbers of Americans.
But the budget plan is about more than taxes and spending. It was a slick means by which Senate Republicans could appear to oppose the deal while in fact allowing it to sail through the chamber.
Take Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, the minority leader, who opposed efforts to defund Obamacare earlier this year while claiming to do everything possible to stop it.
After attacking conservative groups for their efforts to prevent the funding of Obamacare, Mr. McConnell, who is facing a primary challenge in his 2014 re-election race, is now seeking to portray himself as a conservative darling, championing fiscal austerity by voicing opposition to the budget proposal. (My organization has not endorsed a candidate in that race.) Doing so gives him some nifty talking points that align with most conservative groups, but it is little more than parliamentary sleight of hand.
Consider how he handled the vote on the bill. To defeat a filibuster, its supporters needed 60 senators to win cloture and move to a final vote. Instead of rallying his troops against the vote, Mr. McConnell allowed a handful of Republicans in battleground states — who needed to be seen as supporting the bill — to vote for cloture, while he and the rest railed against it, casting themselves in the role of budget hawks.
With cloture accomplished, a dozen Republicans were then free to vote against final passage if they need wiggle room when they’re confronted on the campaign trail next fall by voters demanding action on government spending. Mr. McConnell and many Senate Republicans used the vote to manipulate the system, allowing them to cast themselves as deal makers or principled conservatives, depending on their audience.
This is not principled policy making; what we’re seeing is simple gamesmanship that raises legitimate questions about which values Republicans truly hold and which are merely interchangeable with those of Democrats.
The job of Tea Party groups and other conservatives is pretty simple: to inform Americans about the need for restraint in spending, tax relief, pro-growth economic policies and individual liberty — and to support the men and women who pledge to promote these positions. To the extent that the speaker of the House and Senate Republicans are attacking such groups, it looks as if we’re doing our job.
But after this budget vote, our job expands to include informing Americans about who keeps their word in Congress and who does not.
When establishment Republicans call spending increases spending cuts, deny that raising taxes is a hike, and champion deficit reduction that doesn’t scratch the surface of our nation’s debt, it suggests a detachment from the facts. But when those who voted for them criticize their elected officials for not keeping their promises, and are then attacked for doing so, it suggests that Kurt Vonnegut was right in observing, “A sane person to an insane society must appear insane.”
Jenny Beth Martin [ http://www.jennybethmartin.net/ ] is a co-founder of Tea Party Patriots.
© 2013 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/20/opinion/john-boehners-betrayal.html [with comments]
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Good Poor, Bad Poor
By TIMOTHY EGAN
Published: December 19, 2013
On Sundays, this time of year, my parents would pack a gaggle of us kids into the station wagon for a tour of two Christmas worlds. First, we’d go to the wealthy neighborhoods on a hill — grand Tudor houses glowing with the seasonal incandescence of good fortune. Faces pressed against the car windows, we wondered why their Santa was a better toy-maker than ours.
Then, down to the valley, where sketchy-looking people lived in vans by the river, in plywood shacks with rusted appliances on the front lawn, their laundry frozen stiff on wire lines. The rich, my mother explained, were lucky. The poor were unfortunate.
Dissenting voices rose from the back seat. But didn’t the poor deserve their fate? Didn’t they make bad decisions? Weren’t some of them just moochers? And lazy? Well, yes, in many cases, my mother said, lighting one of her L&M cigarettes, which she bought by the carton at the Indian reservation. But neither rich nor poor had the moral high ground.
As the year ends, this argument is playing out in two of the most meanspirited actions left on the table by the least-productive Congress in modern history. The House, refuge of the shrunken-heart caucus, has passed a measure to eliminate food aid for four million Americans, starting next year. Many who would remain on the old food stamp program may have to pass a drug test to get their groceries. At the same time, Congress has let unemployment benefits expire for 1.3 million people, beginning just a few days after Christmas.
These actions have nothing to do with bringing federal spending into line, and everything to do with a view that poor people are morally inferior. Here’s a sample of this line of thought:
“The explosion of food stamps in this country is not just a fiscal issue for me,” said Representative Steve Southerland, Republican from Florida, chief crusader for cutting assistance to the poor. “This is a defining moral issue of our time.”
It would be a “disservice” to further extend unemployment assistance to those who’ve been out of work for some time, said Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky. It encourages them to sit at home and do nothing.
“People who are perfectly capable of working are buying things like beer,” said Senator James Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, on those getting food assistance in his state.
No doubt, poor people drink beer, watch too much television and have bad morals. But so do rich people. If you drug-tested members of Congress as a condition of their getting federal paychecks, you would have most likely caught Representative Trey Radel, Republican of Florida, who recently pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine. Would it be Grinch-like of me to point out that this same congressman voted for the bill that would force many hungry people to pee in a cup and pass a drug test before getting food? Should I also mention that the median net worth for new members of the current Congress [ http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2013/01/new-congress-new-and-more-wealth.html ] is exactly $1 million more than that of the typical American household — and that that may influence their view?
For the record, the baseline benefit for those getting help under the old food stamp program works out to $1.40 a meal. And the average check for those on emergency unemployment is $300 a week. If you cut them off cold, the argument goes, these desperate folks would soon find a job and put real food on the table. They are poor because they are weak.
I met a wheat farmer not long ago in Montana whose family operation was getting nearly $300,000 a year in federal subsidies. With his crop in, this wealthy farmer was looking forward to spending a month in Hawaii. No one suggested that he pass a drug test to continue receiving his sizable handout, or that he be cut off cold, and encouraged to grow something that taxpayers wouldn’t have to subsidize.
One person deserves the handout, the other does not. But these distinctions are colored by your circumstances — where you stand depends on where you sit.
When a million Irish died during the Great Famine of the 1850s, many in the English aristocracy said the peasants deserved to starve because their families were too big and indolent. The British baronet overseeing food relief felt that the famine was God’s judgment, and an excellent way to get rid of surplus population. His argument on relief was the same one used by Rand Paul.
“The only way to prevent the people from becoming habitually dependent on government is to bring the operation to a close,” Sir Charles Trevelyan said about the relief plan at a time when thousands of Irish a day were dropping dead from hunger.
This week, Mayor Mike Bloomberg tried not to sound like a plutocrat out of Dickens when asked about the homeless girl, Dasani, at the center of Andrea Elliott’s extraordinary series [ http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/invisible-child/#/?chapt=1 ] in The New York Times — a Dickensian tale for the modern age.
“The kid was dealt a bad hand,” Bloomberg said [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/18/nyregion/time-short-bloomberg-touts-successes-in-brooklyn.html ]. “I don’t know why. That’s just the way God works. Sometimes some of us are lucky, and some of us are not.”
And in that, he echoed my mother at Christmas. Luck is the residue of design, as the saying has it. But the most careful lives can be derailed — by cancer, a huge medical bill, a freak slap of weather, a massive failure of the potato crop. Virtue cannot prevent a “bad hand” from being dealt. And making the poor out to be lazy, or dependent, or stupid, does not make them less poor. It only makes the person saying such a thing feel superior.
© 2013 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/20/opinion/egan-good-poor-bad-poor.html [with comments]
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Rick Scott Blasted For Deaths Of 40 Children
Florida Governor Rick Scott speaks during the Governor's Hurricane Conference General Session at the Broward County Convention Center on May 18, 2011 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Posted: 12/20/2013 12:15 pm EST | Updated: 12/20/2013 4:14 pm EST
South Florida Democrats fired a stinging rebuke at Gov. Rick Scott (R) Thursday, holding him responsible for the deaths of 40 children who were known to state child welfare workers when they died during the first half of 2013.
"Clearly, your idealogical agenda of smaller government and less regulation doesn't always neatly fit with the priority of child protection, which has resulted in heartbreaking outcomes for too many Florida children," wrote Rep. Perry Thurston (D-Fort Lauderdale), leader of the House Democratic Caucus.
Thurston's letter [ http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/letter.pdf ] blasted Scott for laying off hundreds of employees [ http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2011-05-26/features/os-dcf-layoffs-20110526_1_dcf-information-technology-abuse ] with the Florida Department of Children and Families and for recommending budget cuts [ http://miami.cbslocal.com/2011/03/09/governors-budget-slashes-child-welfare/ ] to the agency.
Later, Thurston appeared at a press conference with Rep. Elaine Schwartz (D-Hollywood) and Barbara Watson (D-Miami Gardens) to lambast Scott over DCF's failures. The trio held Christmas presents that symbolized children who died on DCF's watch this year [ http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2013-12-19/news/fl-child-abuse-deaths-20131219_1_child-deaths-child-welfare-agency-miami-gardens ], according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel, and spoke specifically of three children [ http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/12/19/3827689_democrats-to-gov-scott-call-off.html ] whose controversial cases were the subject of brutal investigative reports by the Miami Herald:
• Two-year-old Ezra Raphael was whipped to death with a belt several months after being returned to his mother, a North Miami Beach prostitute and drug user. According to a Miami Herald report [ http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/01/3537629/how-the-child-safety-net-failed.html ], though the caseworker had labeled the boy at "high" risk, she closed the case and did not prevent the boy being taken from his caregiver's home by his mother.
• Three-year-old Michael McMullen died at his grandmother's house after being wrapped and tied in a blanket [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/24/boy-dies-wrapped-in-blanket_n_4151662.html ] during a bizarre and cruel punishment. Child welfare workers had placed him in the home, according to the Herald [ http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/10/28/3716608/despite-red-flags-3-year-old-under.html ], then left him and his siblings there despite "red flag" reports the children were sleeping in animal crates, had bruises, were living in the presence of their abusive stepfather, and were possibly being drugged.
• Twelve-year-old Tamiyah Audain, a disabled and autistic Lauderhill girl, lost half her body weight but remained in the care of an aunt before dying in the woman's roach-filled home of suspected starvation, her 50-pound body covered in sores including one so deep a bone was exposed. The Herald reports a private agency paid by the state failed to complete a background check and paid little attention to the case [ http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/10/08/3678478/state-records-show-pattern-of.html ] despite pleas for help from medical professionals and the aunt herself.
The cluster of deaths came after Scott said that budget cuts to DCF were necessary in order for him to grow jobs in Florida [ http://www.ocala.com/article/20110311/WIRE/110319911 ] and the agency would have to make do with less.
They also prompted the eventual resignation of DCF Secretary David Wilkins [ http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/gubernatorial/dcf-secretary-david-wilkins-resigns-amid-escalating-scandal-over-child/2132083 ], a Scott appointee in whom the governor expressed confidence even after the Herald stories ran. "I think Secretary Wilkins is doing a very good job [ http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/in-wake-of-child-deaths-gov-scott-stands-by-dcf-chief-wilkins/2128743 ]," Scott said a month before Wilkins stepped down.
A scathing commissioned evaluation of the state [ http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/report-criticizes-dcf-for-its-handling-of-child-protection/2150922 ] released last month by the non-profit Casey Family Prgrams examined 40 total child deaths, but noted they represented just "slightly more than a third of reports of child fatalities possibly related to child maltreatment [ http://www.dcf.state.fl.us/newsroom/pressreleases/docs/20131105_NovCaseyReport.pdf ]" that DCF had received from January to July 2013.
The deaths included cases of asphyxia, drowning, physical abuse, shootings, and a drug overdose. "No safety plans were developed in a number of these cases. Completed safety plans were usually not adequate to control safety threats to children in that they were inadequately resourced and highly dependent on parents’ promises. In most cases, [investigators] did not follow up on safety plans to assess their effectiveness," the report [ http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/20131105_NovCaseyReport.pdf ] found.
Thurston, who is running for Florida attorney general against a former DCF secretary under Charlie Crist, wrote to Scott that many of the system failures noted in the report are linked to "diminished resources [ http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/letter.pdf ]."
"...In light of these recommendations, it would be patently reckless to consider further budget cuts to DCF -- and it is time to invest in the needs and priorities of our most vulnerable residents," he wrote, adding that "as long as you are governor, they are your responsibility."
The Sun Sentinel reports the state was "muted" [ http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2013-12-19/news/fl-child-abuse-deaths-20131219_1_child-deaths-child-welfare-agency-miami-gardens ] in its response: "We are prioritizing spending on critical services as we craft the budget, and vital child protective services will not be reduced," said an e-mailed statement from deputy press secretary John Tupps.
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/20/rick-scott-child-deaths_n_4479988.html [with comments]
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Jesus Rebranded
by Mark Fiore
Fri Dec 20, 2013 at 06:50 AM PST
[video embedded (not {yet} at his YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/markfiore/videos )]
[sales-y voice over announcer]
Don't know what to get for this year's War on Christmas?
Tired of those Marxists pushing their anti-Capitalist ideology?
Well you can thank God because "Jesus Rebranded" is on sale now!
Help put the Capitalism back in "Christmas!"
Push his sacred heart and hear what the new, re-branded Jesus has to say!
[Jesus]
Capitalism is the reason for the season!
You can serve both God and money. Go forth and profit!
Go, sell your possessions, and use the money to . . . start a growing, profitable business! Come, follow me.
The love of money is at the root of all . . . successful entrepreneurs!
If they're hungry, sell them something to eat.
Thirsty? Sell them something to drink.
Sick and in prison? Privatize 'em!
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to . . . catch a break under Obama!
Blessed are you who are . . . rich! For yours is the kingdom of heaven! (We don't call it a kingdom for nothing.)
Yea, do unto others . . . as you want to do unto them!
Verily, the first shall be first and the last, last. Why do you think they're called first and last?
[sales-y voice over announcer]
"Jesus Rebranded!" As seen on cable news and talk radio outlets nationwide!
Putting the Capitalism back in "Christmas!"
[Jesus]
It's the reason for the season!
[sales-y voice over announcer]
"Jesus Rebranded" available at a Glorious Capitalist Retail outlet near you, created by Archangel Saint Adam Smith, buy yours today!
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http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/20/1263810/-Jesus-Rebranded [with comments]; https://www.markfiore.com/mark-fiore-blog/cartoons/jesus-rebranded.html [with comments]
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The pitchforks are coming out in Europe
by gjohnsit
Thu Dec 19, 2013 at 08:22 AM PST
When you think of governments ready to fall in Europe, you probably think of Greece or Spain.
Instead it is Italy that is warning of a violent insurrection [ http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ambroseevans-pritchard/100026297/italys-president-fears-violent-insurrection-in-2014-but-offers-no-remedy/ ].
Events in Italy are turning serious. President Giorgio Napolitano has warned of “widespread social tension and unrest” in 2014 as the Long Slump drags on.
Those living on the margins are being drawn into “indiscriminate and violent protest, a sterile lurch towards total opposition.”
The protest movement in Italy is literally called the Pitchfork Movement [ http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/Aki/English/Security/Italy-Lockdown-ahead-of-Rome-Pitchfork-protests_321006728862.html ] (Movimento dei forconi). Their demands are no less than the overthrow of the government.
The protestors, a mix of both right-wing and left-wing extremists, have called for a military junta [ http://bologna.repubblica.it/cronaca/2013/12/14/news/politici_tutti_a_casa_la_rabbia_dei_forconi_corre_lungo_la_via_emilia-73580546/ ] to replace the government.
Its roots are an anti-EU protest movement. One of its leaders was recently arrested for tearing down the European flag from the EU office in Rome.
"The wind of revolt that is blowing in Italy today is the direct result of the euro and the wrong choices made by the EU and the ECB."
- Mario Borghezio, Northern League member
Italy's economy is expected to have contracted 10% by next year. The unemployment rate is 12%.
The government has no answers for the high unemployment and stagnant economy.
To make things even worse, the depression gripping all of southern europe is now beginning to show up as deflation [ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/10495902/Europe-repeating-all-the-errors-of-Japan-as-deflation-draws-closer.html ].
Falling nominal GDP means the debt burden is rising on a shrinking base... It is why Italy's public debt has jumped from 119pc to 133pc GDP in just over two years despite draconian austerity and a primary budget surplus.
Ebrahim Rahbari from Citigroup said the policy is pushing the South into debt-deflation and is likely to prove self-defeating.
Greece is experiencing its worst deflation in 50 years [ http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/08/greece-inflation-idUSEMS1C747020131108 ]. Credit in Spain and Italy is contracting at a rate of 6 to 12 percent a year [ http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exchange/europe-is-in-deflation-denial-200223581.html ]. Soon there simply won't be any money for people to live on.
Italy isn't the only country with a shaky government.
Bulgaria may be ever further along to government collapse [ http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115954/bulgaria-crisis-2013-protests-violence-push-country-brink ].
“The situation in Bulgaria now is like that in the Weimar Republic in Germany prior to the rise of Hitler,” says Evgeniy Dainov, a political science and sociology professor at New Bulgarian University in Sofia.
Bulgaria has witnessed near constant protests for six consecutive months [ http://globalvoicesonline.org/2013/12/15/bulgaria-marks-six-months-of-continued-protests/ ].
It all started quite differently in late January, with peaceful anti-austerity protests against the previous center-right government—at the time, thousands of Bulgarians took to the streets enraged by a sharp increase in electricity prices. The initial target of their anger was the then-finance minister and former World Bank economist Simeon Djankov, who implemented one of the strictest fiscal policies in Europe, beggaring the average Bulgarian in the process. Bulgarians had been living in poverty long before his tenure, owing in part to a rough transition from communism and to policies instigated by the IMF and the EU for more than 10 years, but Djankov’s belt-tightening policies were, for many, the last straw.
There's been six public self-immolations.
Ultra-nationalist parties, including one linked to neo-nazis [ http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=155514 ] have taken advantage of the unrest.
From Denmark to Greece [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/09/world/europe/right-wings-surge-in-europe-has-the-establishment-rattled.html (at/see {linked in} http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=84115869 and preceding and following)] the right-wing is on the rise in Europe. There is even a pan-European alliance [ http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/15/far-right-threat-europe-integration ] of far-right groups. Their common goal (other than being anti-immigrant)? To break up the EU.
Much like the 1920's and 30's, Europe is drifting to the extreme right because the center-left can't find the political will to stand up to the multi-national financiers nor the political courage to admit being wrong about the EU.
11:38 AM PT: Libcom [ http://libcom.org/blog/forconi-new-pitchfork-protest-17122013 ] has an interesting perspective on the movement. Specifically it notes that the police and media are much more friendly to this right-wing movement than any of the larger left-wing protest movements Italy has witnessed in recent years.
© Kos Media, LLC
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/19/1263756/-The-pitchforks-are-coming-out-in-Europe [with comments]
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By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: December 19, 2013
There was, I’m pretty sure, an episode of “The Three Stooges” in which Curly kept banging his head against a wall. When Moe asked him why, he replied, “Because it feels so good when I stop.”
Well, I thought it was funny. But I never imagined that Curly’s logic would one day become the main rationale that senior finance officials use to defend their disastrous policies.
Some background: In 2010, most of the world’s wealthy nations, although still deeply depressed in the wake of the financial crisis, turned to fiscal austerity: slashing spending and, in some cases, raising taxes in an effort to reduce budget deficits that had surged as their economies collapsed. Basic economics said that austerity in an already depressed economy would deepen the depression. But the “austerians,” as many of us began calling them, insisted that spending cuts would lead to economic expansion, because they would improve business confidence.
The result came as close to a controlled experiment as one ever gets in macroeconomics. Three years went by, and the confidence fairy never made an appearance. In Europe, where the austerian ideology took hold most firmly, the nascent economic recovery soon turned into a double-dip recession. In fact, at this point key measures of economic performance in both the euro area and Britain are lagging behind [ http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/18/the-three-stooges-do-westminster/ ] where they were at this stage of the Great Depression.
It’s true that the human cost has been nothing like what happened in the 1930s. But that’s thanks to government policies like employment protection and a strong social safety net — the very policies austerians insisted must be dismantled in the name of “structural reform.”
Was it really austerity that did the damage? Well, the correlation is very clear: the harsher the austerity, the worse the growth performance [ http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/11/the-imf-and-the-gop/ ]. Consider the case of Ireland, one of the first nations to impose extreme austerity, and widely cited in early 2010 as a role model [ http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aYcEwokLJrFo ]. Three years later, after repeated declarations that its economy had turned the corner, Ireland still has double-digit unemployment [ http://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?queryid=21760 ], even though hundreds of thousands of working-age Irish citizens [ http://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/er/pme/populationandmigrationestimatesapril2013/ ] have emigrated.
The depressing effect of austerity in a slump is, in short, as clear a story as anything in the annals of economic history. But the austerians were never going to admit their error. (In my experience, almost nobody ever does.) And now they’ve seized on the latest data to claim vindication, after all. You see, some austerity countries have started growing again. Britain appears to be experiencing a significant bounce; Ireland has finally had a decent quarter; even Spain’s economy is showing faint signs of life [ http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_PUBLIC/2-04122013-BP/EN/2-04122013-BP-EN.PDF ]. And the austerians are holding victory parades.
Perhaps the most brazen example is George Osborne, Britain’s chancellor of the Exchequer, and the prime mover behind his country’s austerity agenda. No sooner had positive growth numbers appeared than Mr. Osborne declared [ http://www.euroinvestor.com/news/2013/09/09/ukaposs-osborne-claims-victory-in-austerity-debate/12487365 ] that “Those in favor of a Plan B” — that is, an alternative to austerity — “have lost the argument.”
O.K., let’s think about this claim, above and beyond the general observation that fluctuations over the course of a quarter or two generally don’t tell you much.
First of all, Britain’s recent growth doesn’t change the reality that almost six years have passed since the nation entered recession, and real G.D.P. is still below its previous peak. Taking the long view, that’s still a story of dismal failure — as I said, a track record worse than Britain’s performance in the Great Depression.
Second, it’s important to understand the history of austerity in Mr. Osborne’s Britain. His government spent its first two years doing big things: sharply reducing public investment, increasing the national sales tax, and more. After that it slowed the pace; it didn’t reverse austerity, but it didn’t make it much more severe than it already was.
And here’s the thing: Economies do tend to grow unless they keep being hit by adverse shocks. It’s not surprising, then, that the British economy eventually picked up once Mr. Osborne let up on the punishment.
But is this a vindication of his austerity policies? Only if you accept Three Stooges logic, in which it makes sense to keep banging your head against a wall because it feels good when you stop.
Now, I’m well aware that the austerians may win political points all the same. Political scientists tell us [ http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/12/are-elections-too-much-like-musical-chairs/ ] that voters are myopic, that they judge leaders based on economic growth in the year or so before an election, not on overall performance in office. So a government can preside over years of depression, yet win re-election if it can engineer an uptick late in the game.
But that’s politics. When it comes to economics, there’s only one possible answer to the absurd triumphalism of the austerians: Nyuk. Nyuk. Nyuk.
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© 2013 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/20/opinion/krugman-osborne-and-the-stooges.html [with comments]
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John Boehner’s Betrayal
Scott Menchin
By JENNY BETH MARTIN
Published: December 19, 2013
WOODSTOCK, Ga. — THERE’S a political axiom that says if nobody is upset with what you’re doing, you’re not doing your job. We’ve seen this proved time and again in the liberal attacks on conservatives like Sarah Palin and Dr. Benjamin Carson, who provide principled examples to women and minorities and are savaged by the left for doing that job so well.
But cheap-shot politics isn’t relegated to Democrats. Last week the House speaker, John A. Boehner of Ohio, attacked conservative groups who criticized the budget deal, hashed out by Representative Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, and Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, for failing to reduce spending and for raising taxes.
“They’re using our members and they’re using the American people for their own goals,” he said [ http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/12/11/ridiculous-boehner-blasts-conservative-groups-over-budget-complaints/ ], calling the opposition “ridiculous.”
In one way, Mr. Boehner is correct. The goals of groups like ours are those that congressional Republicans once espoused: smaller government, less spending and lower taxes. Alas, those who demand such things today from their elected officials face unfounded attacks.
Make no mistake: The deal is a betrayal of the conservatives who fueled the Republicans’ 2010 midterm shellacking of Democrats.
It raises discretionary spending above $1 trillion for 2014 and 2015. It reneges on $63 billion of sequester cuts. Its $28 billion in deficit reduction over the next decade is a pittance compared with the $680 billion deficit piled up in 2013 alone. And it raises taxes, particularly on airplane passengers through new travel fees.
Perhaps most troubling is that the deal locks in spending for President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, ensuring that the worst parts of Obamacare will continue unfolding to the shock of increasing numbers of Americans.
But the budget plan is about more than taxes and spending. It was a slick means by which Senate Republicans could appear to oppose the deal while in fact allowing it to sail through the chamber.
Take Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, the minority leader, who opposed efforts to defund Obamacare earlier this year while claiming to do everything possible to stop it.
After attacking conservative groups for their efforts to prevent the funding of Obamacare, Mr. McConnell, who is facing a primary challenge in his 2014 re-election race, is now seeking to portray himself as a conservative darling, championing fiscal austerity by voicing opposition to the budget proposal. (My organization has not endorsed a candidate in that race.) Doing so gives him some nifty talking points that align with most conservative groups, but it is little more than parliamentary sleight of hand.
Consider how he handled the vote on the bill. To defeat a filibuster, its supporters needed 60 senators to win cloture and move to a final vote. Instead of rallying his troops against the vote, Mr. McConnell allowed a handful of Republicans in battleground states — who needed to be seen as supporting the bill — to vote for cloture, while he and the rest railed against it, casting themselves in the role of budget hawks.
With cloture accomplished, a dozen Republicans were then free to vote against final passage if they need wiggle room when they’re confronted on the campaign trail next fall by voters demanding action on government spending. Mr. McConnell and many Senate Republicans used the vote to manipulate the system, allowing them to cast themselves as deal makers or principled conservatives, depending on their audience.
This is not principled policy making; what we’re seeing is simple gamesmanship that raises legitimate questions about which values Republicans truly hold and which are merely interchangeable with those of Democrats.
The job of Tea Party groups and other conservatives is pretty simple: to inform Americans about the need for restraint in spending, tax relief, pro-growth economic policies and individual liberty — and to support the men and women who pledge to promote these positions. To the extent that the speaker of the House and Senate Republicans are attacking such groups, it looks as if we’re doing our job.
But after this budget vote, our job expands to include informing Americans about who keeps their word in Congress and who does not.
When establishment Republicans call spending increases spending cuts, deny that raising taxes is a hike, and champion deficit reduction that doesn’t scratch the surface of our nation’s debt, it suggests a detachment from the facts. But when those who voted for them criticize their elected officials for not keeping their promises, and are then attacked for doing so, it suggests that Kurt Vonnegut was right in observing, “A sane person to an insane society must appear insane.”
Jenny Beth Martin [ http://www.jennybethmartin.net/ ] is a co-founder of Tea Party Patriots.
© 2013 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/20/opinion/john-boehners-betrayal.html [with comments]
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Good Poor, Bad Poor
By TIMOTHY EGAN
Published: December 19, 2013
On Sundays, this time of year, my parents would pack a gaggle of us kids into the station wagon for a tour of two Christmas worlds. First, we’d go to the wealthy neighborhoods on a hill — grand Tudor houses glowing with the seasonal incandescence of good fortune. Faces pressed against the car windows, we wondered why their Santa was a better toy-maker than ours.
Then, down to the valley, where sketchy-looking people lived in vans by the river, in plywood shacks with rusted appliances on the front lawn, their laundry frozen stiff on wire lines. The rich, my mother explained, were lucky. The poor were unfortunate.
Dissenting voices rose from the back seat. But didn’t the poor deserve their fate? Didn’t they make bad decisions? Weren’t some of them just moochers? And lazy? Well, yes, in many cases, my mother said, lighting one of her L&M cigarettes, which she bought by the carton at the Indian reservation. But neither rich nor poor had the moral high ground.
As the year ends, this argument is playing out in two of the most meanspirited actions left on the table by the least-productive Congress in modern history. The House, refuge of the shrunken-heart caucus, has passed a measure to eliminate food aid for four million Americans, starting next year. Many who would remain on the old food stamp program may have to pass a drug test to get their groceries. At the same time, Congress has let unemployment benefits expire for 1.3 million people, beginning just a few days after Christmas.
These actions have nothing to do with bringing federal spending into line, and everything to do with a view that poor people are morally inferior. Here’s a sample of this line of thought:
“The explosion of food stamps in this country is not just a fiscal issue for me,” said Representative Steve Southerland, Republican from Florida, chief crusader for cutting assistance to the poor. “This is a defining moral issue of our time.”
It would be a “disservice” to further extend unemployment assistance to those who’ve been out of work for some time, said Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky. It encourages them to sit at home and do nothing.
“People who are perfectly capable of working are buying things like beer,” said Senator James Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, on those getting food assistance in his state.
No doubt, poor people drink beer, watch too much television and have bad morals. But so do rich people. If you drug-tested members of Congress as a condition of their getting federal paychecks, you would have most likely caught Representative Trey Radel, Republican of Florida, who recently pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine. Would it be Grinch-like of me to point out that this same congressman voted for the bill that would force many hungry people to pee in a cup and pass a drug test before getting food? Should I also mention that the median net worth for new members of the current Congress [ http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2013/01/new-congress-new-and-more-wealth.html ] is exactly $1 million more than that of the typical American household — and that that may influence their view?
For the record, the baseline benefit for those getting help under the old food stamp program works out to $1.40 a meal. And the average check for those on emergency unemployment is $300 a week. If you cut them off cold, the argument goes, these desperate folks would soon find a job and put real food on the table. They are poor because they are weak.
I met a wheat farmer not long ago in Montana whose family operation was getting nearly $300,000 a year in federal subsidies. With his crop in, this wealthy farmer was looking forward to spending a month in Hawaii. No one suggested that he pass a drug test to continue receiving his sizable handout, or that he be cut off cold, and encouraged to grow something that taxpayers wouldn’t have to subsidize.
One person deserves the handout, the other does not. But these distinctions are colored by your circumstances — where you stand depends on where you sit.
When a million Irish died during the Great Famine of the 1850s, many in the English aristocracy said the peasants deserved to starve because their families were too big and indolent. The British baronet overseeing food relief felt that the famine was God’s judgment, and an excellent way to get rid of surplus population. His argument on relief was the same one used by Rand Paul.
“The only way to prevent the people from becoming habitually dependent on government is to bring the operation to a close,” Sir Charles Trevelyan said about the relief plan at a time when thousands of Irish a day were dropping dead from hunger.
This week, Mayor Mike Bloomberg tried not to sound like a plutocrat out of Dickens when asked about the homeless girl, Dasani, at the center of Andrea Elliott’s extraordinary series [ http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/invisible-child/#/?chapt=1 ] in The New York Times — a Dickensian tale for the modern age.
“The kid was dealt a bad hand,” Bloomberg said [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/18/nyregion/time-short-bloomberg-touts-successes-in-brooklyn.html ]. “I don’t know why. That’s just the way God works. Sometimes some of us are lucky, and some of us are not.”
And in that, he echoed my mother at Christmas. Luck is the residue of design, as the saying has it. But the most careful lives can be derailed — by cancer, a huge medical bill, a freak slap of weather, a massive failure of the potato crop. Virtue cannot prevent a “bad hand” from being dealt. And making the poor out to be lazy, or dependent, or stupid, does not make them less poor. It only makes the person saying such a thing feel superior.
© 2013 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/20/opinion/egan-good-poor-bad-poor.html [with comments]
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Rick Scott Blasted For Deaths Of 40 Children
Florida Governor Rick Scott speaks during the Governor's Hurricane Conference General Session at the Broward County Convention Center on May 18, 2011 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Posted: 12/20/2013 12:15 pm EST | Updated: 12/20/2013 4:14 pm EST
South Florida Democrats fired a stinging rebuke at Gov. Rick Scott (R) Thursday, holding him responsible for the deaths of 40 children who were known to state child welfare workers when they died during the first half of 2013.
"Clearly, your idealogical agenda of smaller government and less regulation doesn't always neatly fit with the priority of child protection, which has resulted in heartbreaking outcomes for too many Florida children," wrote Rep. Perry Thurston (D-Fort Lauderdale), leader of the House Democratic Caucus.
Thurston's letter [ http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/letter.pdf ] blasted Scott for laying off hundreds of employees [ http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2011-05-26/features/os-dcf-layoffs-20110526_1_dcf-information-technology-abuse ] with the Florida Department of Children and Families and for recommending budget cuts [ http://miami.cbslocal.com/2011/03/09/governors-budget-slashes-child-welfare/ ] to the agency.
Later, Thurston appeared at a press conference with Rep. Elaine Schwartz (D-Hollywood) and Barbara Watson (D-Miami Gardens) to lambast Scott over DCF's failures. The trio held Christmas presents that symbolized children who died on DCF's watch this year [ http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2013-12-19/news/fl-child-abuse-deaths-20131219_1_child-deaths-child-welfare-agency-miami-gardens ], according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel, and spoke specifically of three children [ http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/12/19/3827689_democrats-to-gov-scott-call-off.html ] whose controversial cases were the subject of brutal investigative reports by the Miami Herald:
• Two-year-old Ezra Raphael was whipped to death with a belt several months after being returned to his mother, a North Miami Beach prostitute and drug user. According to a Miami Herald report [ http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/01/3537629/how-the-child-safety-net-failed.html ], though the caseworker had labeled the boy at "high" risk, she closed the case and did not prevent the boy being taken from his caregiver's home by his mother.
• Three-year-old Michael McMullen died at his grandmother's house after being wrapped and tied in a blanket [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/24/boy-dies-wrapped-in-blanket_n_4151662.html ] during a bizarre and cruel punishment. Child welfare workers had placed him in the home, according to the Herald [ http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/10/28/3716608/despite-red-flags-3-year-old-under.html ], then left him and his siblings there despite "red flag" reports the children were sleeping in animal crates, had bruises, were living in the presence of their abusive stepfather, and were possibly being drugged.
• Twelve-year-old Tamiyah Audain, a disabled and autistic Lauderhill girl, lost half her body weight but remained in the care of an aunt before dying in the woman's roach-filled home of suspected starvation, her 50-pound body covered in sores including one so deep a bone was exposed. The Herald reports a private agency paid by the state failed to complete a background check and paid little attention to the case [ http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/10/08/3678478/state-records-show-pattern-of.html ] despite pleas for help from medical professionals and the aunt herself.
The cluster of deaths came after Scott said that budget cuts to DCF were necessary in order for him to grow jobs in Florida [ http://www.ocala.com/article/20110311/WIRE/110319911 ] and the agency would have to make do with less.
They also prompted the eventual resignation of DCF Secretary David Wilkins [ http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/gubernatorial/dcf-secretary-david-wilkins-resigns-amid-escalating-scandal-over-child/2132083 ], a Scott appointee in whom the governor expressed confidence even after the Herald stories ran. "I think Secretary Wilkins is doing a very good job [ http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/in-wake-of-child-deaths-gov-scott-stands-by-dcf-chief-wilkins/2128743 ]," Scott said a month before Wilkins stepped down.
A scathing commissioned evaluation of the state [ http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/report-criticizes-dcf-for-its-handling-of-child-protection/2150922 ] released last month by the non-profit Casey Family Prgrams examined 40 total child deaths, but noted they represented just "slightly more than a third of reports of child fatalities possibly related to child maltreatment [ http://www.dcf.state.fl.us/newsroom/pressreleases/docs/20131105_NovCaseyReport.pdf ]" that DCF had received from January to July 2013.
The deaths included cases of asphyxia, drowning, physical abuse, shootings, and a drug overdose. "No safety plans were developed in a number of these cases. Completed safety plans were usually not adequate to control safety threats to children in that they were inadequately resourced and highly dependent on parents’ promises. In most cases, [investigators] did not follow up on safety plans to assess their effectiveness," the report [ http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/20131105_NovCaseyReport.pdf ] found.
Thurston, who is running for Florida attorney general against a former DCF secretary under Charlie Crist, wrote to Scott that many of the system failures noted in the report are linked to "diminished resources [ http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/letter.pdf ]."
"...In light of these recommendations, it would be patently reckless to consider further budget cuts to DCF -- and it is time to invest in the needs and priorities of our most vulnerable residents," he wrote, adding that "as long as you are governor, they are your responsibility."
The Sun Sentinel reports the state was "muted" [ http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2013-12-19/news/fl-child-abuse-deaths-20131219_1_child-deaths-child-welfare-agency-miami-gardens ] in its response: "We are prioritizing spending on critical services as we craft the budget, and vital child protective services will not be reduced," said an e-mailed statement from deputy press secretary John Tupps.
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/20/rick-scott-child-deaths_n_4479988.html [with comments]
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Jesus Rebranded
by Mark Fiore
Fri Dec 20, 2013 at 06:50 AM PST
[video embedded (not {yet} at his YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/markfiore/videos )]
[sales-y voice over announcer]
Don't know what to get for this year's War on Christmas?
Tired of those Marxists pushing their anti-Capitalist ideology?
Well you can thank God because "Jesus Rebranded" is on sale now!
Help put the Capitalism back in "Christmas!"
Push his sacred heart and hear what the new, re-branded Jesus has to say!
[Jesus]
Capitalism is the reason for the season!
You can serve both God and money. Go forth and profit!
Go, sell your possessions, and use the money to . . . start a growing, profitable business! Come, follow me.
The love of money is at the root of all . . . successful entrepreneurs!
If they're hungry, sell them something to eat.
Thirsty? Sell them something to drink.
Sick and in prison? Privatize 'em!
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to . . . catch a break under Obama!
Blessed are you who are . . . rich! For yours is the kingdom of heaven! (We don't call it a kingdom for nothing.)
Yea, do unto others . . . as you want to do unto them!
Verily, the first shall be first and the last, last. Why do you think they're called first and last?
[sales-y voice over announcer]
"Jesus Rebranded!" As seen on cable news and talk radio outlets nationwide!
Putting the Capitalism back in "Christmas!"
[Jesus]
It's the reason for the season!
[sales-y voice over announcer]
"Jesus Rebranded" available at a Glorious Capitalist Retail outlet near you, created by Archangel Saint Adam Smith, buy yours today!
*
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http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/Decoder-Wire/2013/1214/Flash!-Fox-s-Megyn-Kelly-now-admits-Jesus-may-not-be-white
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/the-pope/10518837/Pope-Francis-gives-gifts-to-Romes-poor-as-he-denies-he-is-a-Marxist.html
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/15/1262883/-Pope-Francis-Responds-to-Rush-Limbaugh-s-Marxist-Charges?detail=email#
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/like-pope-francis-youll-love-jesus/2013/12/11/cf2d4fd8-610d-11e3-8beb-3f9a9942850f_story.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2013/12/16/pope-francis-turns-the-other-cheek/
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/12/pope-francis-through-the-years.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/16/limbaugh-pope-time-person-of-the-year_n_4454560.html?utm_hp_ref=media
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-12-16/pope-francis-says-hes-not-a-marxist-dot-others-arent-sure
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-15/why-is-pope-francis-promoting-sin-.html
http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2013/12/pope-francis-catholicismeconomics.html
http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/greg-burke-pope-pr
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2013/12/03/2926881/popes-words-are-no-more-marxist.html
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/29/muslim-scholar-reza-aslan-rush-limbaugh-and-sarah-palin-would-call-jesus-a-marxist/
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/12/15/pope-francis-rebukes-marxist-attack-from-rush-l/197273
http://mediamatters.org/video/2013/12/17/foxs-sean-hannity-the-pope-sounds-like-he-is-ag/197303
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http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/20/1263810/-Jesus-Rebranded [with comments]; https://www.markfiore.com/mark-fiore-blog/cartoons/jesus-rebranded.html [with comments]
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The pitchforks are coming out in Europe
by gjohnsit
Thu Dec 19, 2013 at 08:22 AM PST
When you think of governments ready to fall in Europe, you probably think of Greece or Spain.
Instead it is Italy that is warning of a violent insurrection [ http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ambroseevans-pritchard/100026297/italys-president-fears-violent-insurrection-in-2014-but-offers-no-remedy/ ].
Events in Italy are turning serious. President Giorgio Napolitano has warned of “widespread social tension and unrest” in 2014 as the Long Slump drags on.
Those living on the margins are being drawn into “indiscriminate and violent protest, a sterile lurch towards total opposition.”
The protest movement in Italy is literally called the Pitchfork Movement [ http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/Aki/English/Security/Italy-Lockdown-ahead-of-Rome-Pitchfork-protests_321006728862.html ] (Movimento dei forconi). Their demands are no less than the overthrow of the government.
The protestors, a mix of both right-wing and left-wing extremists, have called for a military junta [ http://bologna.repubblica.it/cronaca/2013/12/14/news/politici_tutti_a_casa_la_rabbia_dei_forconi_corre_lungo_la_via_emilia-73580546/ ] to replace the government.
Its roots are an anti-EU protest movement. One of its leaders was recently arrested for tearing down the European flag from the EU office in Rome.
"The wind of revolt that is blowing in Italy today is the direct result of the euro and the wrong choices made by the EU and the ECB."
- Mario Borghezio, Northern League member
Italy's economy is expected to have contracted 10% by next year. The unemployment rate is 12%.
The government has no answers for the high unemployment and stagnant economy.
[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gvJ1hYuSP4 (as embedded)]
To make things even worse, the depression gripping all of southern europe is now beginning to show up as deflation [ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/10495902/Europe-repeating-all-the-errors-of-Japan-as-deflation-draws-closer.html ].
Falling nominal GDP means the debt burden is rising on a shrinking base... It is why Italy's public debt has jumped from 119pc to 133pc GDP in just over two years despite draconian austerity and a primary budget surplus.
Ebrahim Rahbari from Citigroup said the policy is pushing the South into debt-deflation and is likely to prove self-defeating.
Greece is experiencing its worst deflation in 50 years [ http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/08/greece-inflation-idUSEMS1C747020131108 ]. Credit in Spain and Italy is contracting at a rate of 6 to 12 percent a year [ http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exchange/europe-is-in-deflation-denial-200223581.html ]. Soon there simply won't be any money for people to live on.
[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1cWWnvWqrU (as embedded)]
Italy isn't the only country with a shaky government.
Bulgaria may be ever further along to government collapse [ http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115954/bulgaria-crisis-2013-protests-violence-push-country-brink ].
“The situation in Bulgaria now is like that in the Weimar Republic in Germany prior to the rise of Hitler,” says Evgeniy Dainov, a political science and sociology professor at New Bulgarian University in Sofia.
Bulgaria has witnessed near constant protests for six consecutive months [ http://globalvoicesonline.org/2013/12/15/bulgaria-marks-six-months-of-continued-protests/ ].
It all started quite differently in late January, with peaceful anti-austerity protests against the previous center-right government—at the time, thousands of Bulgarians took to the streets enraged by a sharp increase in electricity prices. The initial target of their anger was the then-finance minister and former World Bank economist Simeon Djankov, who implemented one of the strictest fiscal policies in Europe, beggaring the average Bulgarian in the process. Bulgarians had been living in poverty long before his tenure, owing in part to a rough transition from communism and to policies instigated by the IMF and the EU for more than 10 years, but Djankov’s belt-tightening policies were, for many, the last straw.
There's been six public self-immolations.
Ultra-nationalist parties, including one linked to neo-nazis [ http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=155514 ] have taken advantage of the unrest.
From Denmark to Greece [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/09/world/europe/right-wings-surge-in-europe-has-the-establishment-rattled.html (at/see {linked in} http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=84115869 and preceding and following)] the right-wing is on the rise in Europe. There is even a pan-European alliance [ http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/15/far-right-threat-europe-integration ] of far-right groups. Their common goal (other than being anti-immigrant)? To break up the EU.
Much like the 1920's and 30's, Europe is drifting to the extreme right because the center-left can't find the political will to stand up to the multi-national financiers nor the political courage to admit being wrong about the EU.
11:38 AM PT: Libcom [ http://libcom.org/blog/forconi-new-pitchfork-protest-17122013 ] has an interesting perspective on the movement. Specifically it notes that the police and media are much more friendly to this right-wing movement than any of the larger left-wing protest movements Italy has witnessed in recent years.
© Kos Media, LLC
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/19/1263756/-The-pitchforks-are-coming-out-in-Europe [with comments]
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Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
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