Little Comment

I make the following remarks in view of the huge protests by Israeli citizens over the cost of living and their economic status. When times become so difficult people on a scale of millions, one quarter million to one million people in Israel, easily in the hundreds of millions globally, demonstrate against poverty and economic conditions, we here should take note. Maybe your part of the United States doesn't have economic difficulties, and everyone is comfy cozy. Everywhere I go there is hardship. The news shows just how bad things can get, and just how far people are willing to go to get a fair shake. Maybe one day we can truly say our nation is above such problems, but right now quite frankly it is not.

While some of us who care deeply can find little reason to continue exposing the hordes of fanatic Republicans, their idols continue spewing misinformation to millions of people everyday. Rush Limbaugh went on roaring about Americans who do not pay income taxes this week to his brainwashed fans, not mentioning the wide variety of other taxes the poor can not avoid. He failed to note the wealthiest entities and many of the wealthiest people avoid income tax altogether as well, and can avoid the other taxes. Exxon-Mobil deducts taxes they pay to other governments from their income tax to the United States, and they wind up paying nothing. It boggles the mind to consider that Limbaugh fans actually consider the poverty stricken of this nation more beholden to the Federal Treasury than multi-billion dollar corporations.

The Republican attitude isn't new at all, and is not surprising, just ghastly. They holler about poor people being what's wrong with our country and our economy. Poor people are the result of what's wrong, and not vice versa. Not paying taxes is a horrible thing. It means deep despair and lack of funds almost all the time. How this could be described as some sort of tactic is just completely deranged. No, wait, it's a normal GOP talking point.

It feels very strange to comment more about LSU football than current events and political ideology, but doing so is less disturbing to local morale. While the current administration has worked wonders in a Great Society sense, job creation and economic expansion have nosedived, and Obama's bipartisan idealism is like flypaper for optimistic thoughts. Just to imagine it drains positivity.

The whole point of the community reform movement of 2008 was not to extend federal assistance programs ala Great Society and welfare, but instead level the playing field for jobs and earning with robust progressive reforms. Those hopes died when Obama's centrist post-partisan comments turned out to be his character defining statements, and so too did I cease to loudly advocate for aggressive socioeconomic reform. Instead, for now, I am advocating that LSU be forthwith ranked #1 in college football.

As the next election year looms there will be much time in the spring and summer to rally voters to once again seek more effective leadership, to stop the bipartisan fiasco. Intelligent, viable reforms have absolutely nothing to do with leftist ideology and everything to do with common sense and social survival for a mass percentage of United States citizens. Many of our people are confronted with never making it out of the lower middle class, or watching their portion of the middle class disappear altogether. Leveling accusations with terms hinged on the right side or the left side oversimplifies the discussion for the sake of stifling high level dialog. It is what is to be expected next year. Nothing good on a vast scale happens without work and struggle, and accomplishing what needs to be done to make our country's economic stage fair is a great goal indeed. Duck calls will not affect the outcome of this debate...

I am anxious to hear the President's new job initiative due out next week. The GOP Tea Party movement has managed to curb spending until the economy came to a standstill again, so the damage has to be countered. We take one step forward and two steps back when the public forgets about "trickle down economics" and how badly working people had it under that system. The Midterm election was just as disastrous as expected. The jobs initiative could at the very least help staunch the bleeding.