Government Shrunk and Drowned in Bathtub of Ebola: Drip, Drip, Drip Edition

Democracy is in the balance, and the fruits of austerity are bitter like bile.  Democracy has been replaced with fascism and the effects of privatization of government services for profit have wrought the Ebola crisis.  The “capitalist” world is like a bulging dam ready to burst and all you can hear is the steady drip, drip, drip. 

According to the Washington Post, austerity killed Ebola research:

Excerpt:

NIH director: Ebola vaccine could be ready by now if not for budget austerity

Federal budget austerity slowed the development of vaccines and therapies for the deadly Ebola virus that has ravaged West Africa, killed one man in Dallas and infected a health-care worker in Texas, according to the top National Institutes of Health official.

NIH Director Francis Collins told the Huffington Post on Friday that the agency has been working on Ebola vaccines for more than a decade. But the NIH budget has shrunk by about $5 billion over the same period, after adjusting for inflation.

“Frankly, if we had not gone through our 10-year slide in research support, we probably would have had a vaccine in time for this that would’ve gone through clinical trials and would have been ready,” Collins said.

Yes, the government has been shrunk to the size it can be drowned in a bathtub of Ebola.  Our politicians have sold a bill of goods to the American people.  The bill of goods that government can’t do anything right, the private sector is “god” and all social services should be done through charities like the Gates Foundation.  So, how is this privatized national healthcare/research system working?  From Margaret Kimberly at BAR:

Excerpt:

Freedom Rider: Privatized Ebola by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

“The world of private dollars played a role in consigning thousands of people to death.”

Sierra Leone has waved the white flag in the face of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). Its meager infrastructure has buckled under the onslaught of a disease which could have been curtailed. The announcement that infected patients will be treated at home because there is no longer the capacity to treat them in hospitals is a surrender which did not have to happen. Not only did Europe and the United States turn a blind eye to sick and dying Africans but they did so with the help of an unlikely perpetrator.

The World Health Organization is “the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system.” Its very name implies that it takes direction from and serves the needs of people all over the world but the truth is quite different. The largest contributor to the WHO budget is not a government. It is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which provides more funding than either the United States or the United Kingdom. WHO actions and priorities are no longer the result of the consensus of the world’s people but top down decision making from wealthy philanthropists.

Bill and Melina Gates have more money than USA and the UK?  So, while scientists in the United States have lost their highly technical research jobs due to funding cuts, research is left to the benevolence of billionaires.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation may appear to be a savior when it provides $300 million to the WHO budget, but those dollars come with strings attached. WHO director general Dr. Margaret Chan admitted as much when she said, “My budget [is] highly earmarked, so it is driven by what I call donor interests.” Instead of being on the front line when a communicable disease crisis appears, it spends its time administering what Gates and his team have determined is best.

“Health care should be a human right, not a charity.”

Privatization of public resources is a worldwide scourge. Education, pensions, water, and transportation are being taken out of the hands of the public and given to rich people and corporations. The Ebola crisis is symptomatic of so many others which go unaddressed or improperly addressed because no one wants to bite the hands that do the feeding.

“The Gates foundation is the WHO boss, not governments.”

Ebola Lab

Wow, the world’s largest nations have sold their country’s riches and resources to billionaires for magic beans.  So our government must stand down and allow the WHO/Gates Foundation to address the Ebola crisis?  How do poor, socialist countries manage, after all their governments are so inferior to our capitalist government?  From Glen Ford at BAR: 

Cuban medical workers treating a cholera patient in Haiti

Excerpt:

Obama’s Cynical, Stilted Response to Ebola vs. Cuba’s Magnificent Mobilization by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

“After centuries of fattening the colonial bat, the Ebola-afflicted countries have almost no structural defenses against even the tiniest invaders.”

The World Health Organization is warning that the Ebola virus is now killing 70 percent of those infected in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, with new cases projected to reach 10,000 per week by December…

Millions of Africans are among the pre-dead – marked for extermination through disease, hunger, war and the myriad other components of imperialism – the beast that, like some species of bats, can only survive by gorging on the blood of others, leaving its victims weak and pathogen-ridden.

Drip, drip, drip.

NOT the three nations’ health care systems, which do not exist in any meaningful sense, but a global capitalist system that forces developing nations to eliminate public services or face economic strangulation and regime change…

Meanwhile, Cuba, a country of 11 million people with a GDP of only $72.3 billion (compared with a U.S. GDP of $17.3 trillion) fielded “the single biggest medical force on the Ebola frontline...totally showing up the United States,” according to Business Insider. 165 Cuban health workers arrived in Sierra Leone, a contingent that will soon grow to 461 – part of the 50,000 health professionals the island nation deploys in 66 countries. 

The Cubans outnumber the African Union’s 100-person health care contribution to Sierra Leone, the second largest, and will exceed the regional total of the international aid charity Doctors Without Frontiers (Médecins sans Frontières).

Yes, the evil, anti-capitalism Satan that is Cuba to the rescue.  You know that reminds me, it wasn’t too long ago that Putin visited Cuba, from NBC News:

Putin Meets Fidel Castro, Pledges Oil Exploration Aid

Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to help revive Cuba's struggling offshore oil exploration on Friday at the start of a six-day tour of Latin America as Russia aims to reassert its influence on the communist-ruled island. Putin was joined in Havana by close ally and so-called Russian oil czar Igor Sechin, the chairman of state oil company Rosneft, to finalize a deal to explore for oil off Cuba's northern coast. 

The Russian president also promised to reinvest $3.5 billion of Cuban debt with Russia into development projects on the island, part of a deal in which Russia forgave 90 percent of Cuba's debt, or almost $32 billion.

Yes, while U.S. banks are squeezing Argentina into bankruptcy to save the insane profits of the hedge fund vultures, Putin is offering real friendship and support to the Cuban people.

Both measures inject much-needed foreign investment into Cuba and demonstrate an act of defiance against the United States, which maintains a 52-year-old economic embargo with Cuba. "We will provide support to our Cuban friends to overcome the illegal blockade of Cuba," Putin said.

Putin also met with former President Fidel Castro before receiving the Medal of Jose Marti, Cuba's highest decoration. Fidel Castro, 87, stepped down for health reasons in 2008 after 49 years in power. For an hour he and Putin discussed international affairs, the global economy and Russian-Cuban relations, the Kremlin said.

And don’t forget, Cuba and Russia just KO’d the U.N. like some kind of wrestling tag team.

UNITED NATIONS -- The foreign ministers of Russia and Cuba Saturday delivered scathing critiques of U.S. support for the Ukrainian government and U.S. military action against radical Islamist terrorists in Syria.

"The U.S.-led Western alliance that portrays itself as a champion of democracy, rule of law and human rights within individual countries, acts from directly the opposite positions in the international arena," said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The West rejects "the sovereign equality of states" and is "trying to decide for everyone what is good or evil."…

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez depicted Western accounts of what's happening in Ukraine and elsewhere as a result of corporate-controlled international media that "manipulate facts."

Drip, drip, drip. 

But, while we’re in the area let’s visit Haiti.  Remember how the U.S. State Department under Colin Powell overthrew the government in Haiti?  Counterpunch:  

Excerpt:

MARCH 31, 2004

The Illegal Coup in Haiti the Kidnapping of Aristide Violated US and International Law

On February 26, the rebel army threatened to enter Port-au-Prince, and threatened President Aristide’s government and his life. The civil opposition that had been calling for President Aristide’s resignation rejected the international proposals. At this point, Colin Powell stated that the U.S. would not send troops to protect the democratically elected government until a political solution had been reached…

Later that night, the U.S. Depute Charge de Mission (DCM) in Haiti, Luis Moreno, accompanied by a contingent of U.S. Marines, met with the President. Moreno told him that only if he left at that moment, the U.S. would provide aircraft for him to leave, but that assistance was contingent on the President providing the United States with a letter of resignation…

Although both George W. Bush and Colin Powell had said they would not send U.S. troops to Haiti until there was a political solution, U.S. troops were ordered to Haiti within one hour of President Aristide’s departure. Dick Cheney denied that the United States arrested or forcibly ousted President Aristide, saying that President Aristide, who had "worn out his welcome with the Haitian people," had "left of his own free will."…

Forcible regime change violates international law.

Yes, so what’s happening in Haiti now?  Has the Obama Administration undone to wrongs of the Bush Administration?  Is the UN protecting Haiti and restoring the elected president to power?  Danny Glover doesn’t think so.

               Excerpt:

Haiti's parliamentary elections, originally scheduled for 2011, are now three years overdue and the UN and other foreign entities have repeatedly called for them to take place before the end of the year. With Aristide back in Haiti it would appear to be more difficult this time around for the government to prevent FL from participating. This is perhaps why the deposed president is once again under attack.

Last month, a Haitian judge reportedly issued an arrest warrant for Aristide. The case being mounted against him reeks of political persecution directly tied to efforts to suppress a popular alternative to the current administration of Michel Martelly, who is supported by conservative Haitian elites and the U.S.

The charges against Aristide stem from an investigation conducted by the illegal government established by the 2004 U.S.-backed coup. Under that government, human rights researchers found that some 4,000 people were killed for political reasons, while many others were imprisoned on bogus charges. Despite his powerful enemies' best efforts, and a grand jury investigation in the U.S., no evidence has been produced that could support criminal charges against Aristide.

Sounds just like Ukraine.  Drip, drip, drip.

Well, Haiti’s democracy is being stifled by the United States and the E.U.  But, let’s head over to Bolivia.  Another “enemy” of capitalism, Evo Morales.  Remember when the U.S. had the president of Bolivia’s plane hijacked to check if Edward Snowden was on board?  From CNN:  

           Excerpt:

CNN) -- Bolivian officials say their country's presidential plane had to land in Austria on Tuesday after false rumors circulated that former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden was aboard the aircraft.

Portuguese authorities wouldn't let President Evo Morales' plane land for refueling in Lisbon, Bolivian Defense Minister Ruben Saavedra told CNN en Español. French authorities also wouldn't let the plane enter their airspace, he said.

"We are told that there were some unfounded suspicions that Mr. Snowden was on the plane," Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca said. "We do not know who has invented this lie. Someone who wants to harm our country. This information that has been circulated is malicious information to harm this country."

Yes, those assholes in the Kerry State Department have absolutely no respect for any world leader that they don’t like.  Well, guess what, Evo Morales has a list of accomplishments.  Here’sa few:  

Excerpt:

1.    Since 2005 has Morales managed to help facilitate the passing of a new constitution and implement a variety of state funded social programs, which have reduced extreme poverty from 38.2 percent in 2005, to 21.6 percent in 2012.

2.    Morales’ government has adopted several macro-economic policies, to increase state revenue from the country’s natural resources in order to invest in social programs. Morales’ strategy helped increase Investment in public spending by over 750 percent over the last nine years.  

3.    Under the Bolivia Changes, Evo Comes Through initiative, Morales’ government provided small-scale infrastructure projects to many underprivileged communities, allocating over US$1 billion for over 5,000 projects throughout the country including the construction of medical clinics, schools and gymnasiums.

4.    Since Morales came to power in 2005, the Bolivian government has increased its hydrocarbon gas production from 33 million cubic meters to 56 million cubic meters in 2013. As a result, the Bolivian government estimates that it will become completely self-reliant on natural gas production by 2015.

Man, those are all things that capitalists hate, but there’s more.

5.    Another factor that has contributed to the reduction in poverty is the increase to the real minimum wage. According to International Labor Organization (ILO), the last two years Bolivia has achieved the highest increase (104% from 2005-2013) in real minimum wage than any other Latin American country.

6.    A central component of the Morales poverty reduction strategy was the creation and promotion of strong food security policies. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization he report states that as a result of inclusive and pro-poor food security policies, Bolivia saw a rapid decline of hunger by 7.4 percent during 2009-2011 and 2012-2014. The study also noted that Bolivia experienced a sharp decrease in chronic undernourishment in children less than three years of age, which fell from 41.7 percent in 1989 to 18.5 percent in 2012.

You know, here in Wisconsin and America Republicans are fighting a raise in minimum wage and slashed food for poor programs.

7.    Another main political achievement under Morales was the approval of a new constitution which incorporated many important changes including, granting Bolivian investment priority over foreign investment, and increased autonomy and political participation for the country’s indigenous population. 

8.    In 2009, the Morales administration pushed forward a new constitution, which recognized the traditional uses of the coca leaf for the first time in Bolivian history. Bolivia then successfully petitioned the United Nations for a reservation that legally permits coca growing and its licit uses within its borders. In July 2014, the United Nations issued a report, which found that that coca cultivation in Bolivia fell nine percent last year, and a massive 26 percent in the past three years.

9.    Since 2005, industrialization has become a key aspect of Morales’ economic policy, particularly in the area of transportation and energy production. The industrialization initiatives also form part of a broad strategy to transform the South American nation into a regional energy hub.

10.    From a macroeconomic perspective, Morales’ government has made significant progress. From 2005-2013, its total GDP growth tripled. Bolivia has also managed to increase its international reserves to 48 percent of its GDP.

Guess what, Morales has won a third term.  From Truthdig:

Bolivian President Evo Morales declared his re-election victory Sunday a triumph for socialist reforms that have reduced poverty. He will begin a third term that will last through 2018 with roughly 60 percent of the votes cast.

Reuters reports:

Morales, who became Bolivia’s first indigenous leader in 2006, will now be able to extend his “indigenous socialism”, under which he has nationalized key industries such as oil and gas to finance welfare programs and build new roads and schools.

“This was a debate on two models: nationalisation or privatisation. Nationalisation won with more than 60 percent (support),” Morales told thousands of cheering supporters from the balcony of the presidential palace.

A prominent member of the bloc of socialist and anti-U.S. leaders in Latin America, Morales dedicated his victory to Cuba’s former communist leader Fidel Castro.

“This win is a triumph for anti-imperialists and anti-colonialists,” Morales said.

Congratulations to Evo Morales and best wishes to the people of Bolivia.

Drip, drip, drip.  Looks like Serbia is preparing for a visit from Putin.  From ABC News:

Excerpt:

Serbia Prepares Hero's Welcome for Putin

BELGRADE, Serbia — Oct 14, 2014, 11:11 AM ET By DUSAN STOJANOVIC Associated Press

Soldiers are marching, battle tanks are rumbling on the streets and fighter jets are flying overhead. No, it's not another war in the Balkans. It's Serbia preparing to stage a hero's welcome for Russian President Vladimir Putin with the country's first military parade in 30 years.

The red carpet reception for Putin, as he arrives in Belgrade on Thursday, comes as Serbia finds itself caught in the middle of Moscow's row with the West over Ukraine. The Balkan nation is increasingly confronted with a difficult choice: to continue down its officially declared path toward European Union membership, or give up that goal and forge even closer ties with its traditional Slavic ally Russia.

I wonder when Ukraine is going to have a “hero’s welcome" for Kerry, Biden and Nuland, or Iraq have a “hero's welcome” for Bush, Cheney and the neocons.

Putin will stop by Belgrade for only six hours to mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Serbian capital, Belgrade, from Nazi German occupation by the Red Army and Yugoslav Communist Partisans. Here's a look at what's at stake:

Some Western officials have said that staging a military parade for the leader accused of fomenting the war in eastern Ukraine by sending Russian troops to help pro-Russian rebels doesn't help Serbia in its proclaimed goal to be part of Western alliances.

Yeah, well fuck them.  Want to see what the E.U. and U.S. have to offer?  From NPR:

Excerpt:

Just 1 percent of the world's population controls nearly half of the planet's wealth, according to a new study published by Oxfam ahead of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting.

The study says this tiny slice of humanity controls $110 trillion, or 65 times the total wealth of the poorest 3.5 billion people.

Other key findings in the report:

— The world's 85 richest people own as much as the poorest 50 percent of humanity.

— 70 percent of the world's people live in a country where income inequality has increased in the past three decades.

— In the U.S., where the gap between rich and poor has grown at a faster rate than any other developed country, the top 1 percent captured 95 percent of post-recession growth (since 2009), while 90 percent of Americans became poorer…

Last month, the Pew Research Center published a study that found income inequality in the U.S. was at its highest since 1928, the year before the start of the Great Depression.

Yes, unbelievable wealth for the few and nothing but crippling, deadly austerity for the rest.   From CNN:

Excerpt:

Europe's public health disaster: How austerity kills

(CNN) -- If austerity had been a clinical trial, it would have been stopped. As public health experts, we have watched aghast as a slow motion disaster arose from austerity policies in Europe, while politicians continue to ignore the evidence of their disastrous effects.

Austerity was designed to shrink debts. Now, three years after Europe's budget-cutting began, the evidence is in: severe, indiscriminate austerity is not part of the solution, but part of the problem -- and its human costs are devastating.

In the U.S., Greece, Italy, Spain, the UK and elsewhere in Europe there were more than 10,000 additional suicides from 2007-2010, a figure that is over and above historical trends, with the largest rises concentrated in the worst performing economies.

Greece, for example, is in the middle of a public health disaster. To meet budget-deficit reduction targets set by the European Central Bank, European Commission, and International Monetary Fund (the so-called troika), Greece's public health budget has been cut by more than 40%....

Greece's HIV, TB, and malaria epidemics will now cost more to control than they would have been to prevent, our research indicates.

What we have learned is that severe, indiscriminate cuts to vital social protection programs are not only economically self-defeating, but fatal.

Drip, drip, drip.

Democracy is in the balance, from Hong Kong to Wisconsin.  The bulging dam of capitalist greed is ready to burst.  Drip, drip, drip.

By Patricia Baeten

Democracy in the Balance from Hong Kong to Wisconsin

The governments of the European Union and United States are an example of what happens when political candidates are preapproved by the government.   It is a new election season in the United States and if ever there were an argument against allowing the government to control which politicians will be allowed on the ballot, it is the two-party government of the USA.  

The people of Hong Kong must look at what has happened to the people of the United States and know, democracy is in the balance from Hong Kong to Wisconsin.

Hong Kong is such an interesting case, although their “election” isn’t scheduled until 2017 they are preemptively rejecting an election of “preapproved” candidates.    From BBC News:

Hong Kong Protest

Excerpt:

Hong Kong's democracy debate

Pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong have reacted angrily after Beijing ruled out open nominations for the election of Hong Kong's leader in 2017…

Hong Kong, a former British colony, was handed back to China in 1997 following a 1984 agreement between China and Britain.

China agreed to govern Hong Kong under the principle of "one country, two systems", where the city would enjoy "a high degree of autonomy, except in foreign and defense affairs" for 50 years.

As a result, Hong Kong has its own legal system, and rights including freedom of assembly and free speech are protected….

So what has changed?

The Chinese government has promised direct elections for chief executive by 2017.

But in August 2014 China's top legislative committee ruled that voters will only have a choice from a list of two or three candidates selected by a nominating committee.

This committee would be formed "in accordance with" Hong Kong's largely pro-Beijing election committee. Any candidate would have to secure the support of more than 50% of the nominating committee before being able to run in the election.

Here in America the top legislative committee deciding which candidates the voters may choose from are the Democratic and Republican parties. 

2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver

From CBS News:

The presidential and vice presidential debates are sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates, a nonprofit corporation that mandates that a candidate have at least 15 percent support in national polls to participate. Since the CPD took over running the debates in 1988, only once has a third party candidate been allowed to participate: In 1992, when Ross Perot joined Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush on the debate stage.

The dominance of the two major parties at the debates has critics charging that the system is effectively rigged to shut out other voices. Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party nominee for president and former New Mexico governor, has sued on anti-trust grounds to be included this year. The CPD, he said in an interview, is designed "to protect the interests of Republicans and Democrats."

“Let me issue and control a nation’s money and I care not who writes the laws.” Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812), founder of the House of Rothschild.

If you want to see the tragic results of “democratic” elections where candidates are chosen by Wall Street bankers, look no further than the sub-prime auto loan industry.  You’d think after the crises caused by the sub-prime mortgage loan industry, that governments around the world would have extremely strict consumer protections against predator lenders, but you’d be wrong.

… The modern theory of the perpetuation of debt has drenched the earth with blood, and crushed its inhabitants under burdens ever accumulating. -Thomas Jefferson

From New YorkTimes:

Excerpt:

The thermometer showed a 103.5-degree fever, and her 10-year-old’s asthma was flaring up. Mary Bolender, who lives in Las Vegas, needed to get her daughter to an emergency room, but her 2005 Chrysler van would not start.

The cause was not a mechanical problem — it was her lender.

Ms. Bolender was three days behind on her monthly car payment. Her lender, C.A.G. Acceptance of Mesa, Ariz., remotely activated a device in her car’s dashboard that prevented her car from starting. Before she could get back on the road, she had to pay more than $389, money she did not have that morning in March.

Do you recall voting for debtor’s prisons?  I don’t. 

Auto loans to borrowers considered subprime, those with credit scores at or below 640, have spiked in the last five years. The jump has been driven in large part by the demand among investors for securities backed by the loans, which offer high returns at a time of low interest rates. Roughly 25 percent of all new auto loans made last year were subprime, and the volume of subprime auto loans reached more than $145 billion in the first three months of this year.

Senator Elizabeth Warren D-Massachusetts has proposed that the United States Postal Service provide loans to the unbanked.  From Think Progress:  

Excerpt:

Elizabeth Warren Proposes Replacing Payday Lenders with The Post Office

The Postal Service (USPS) could spare the most economically vulnerable Americans from dealing with predatory financial companies under a proposal endorsed over the weekend by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

“USPS could partner with banks to make a critical difference for millions of Americans who don’t have basic banking services because there are almost no banks or bank branches in their neighborhoods,” Warren wrote in a Huffington Post op-ed on Saturday.

The op-ed picked up on a report from the USPS’s Inspector General that proposed using the agency’s extensive physical infrastructure to extend basics like debit cards and small-dollar loans to the same communities that the banking industry has generally ignored. The report found that 68 million Americans don’t have bank accounts and spent $89 billion in 2012 on interest and fees for the kinds of basic financial services that USPS could begin offering.

The average un-banked household spent more than $2,400, or about 10 percent of its income, just to access its own money through things like check cashing and payday lending stores. USPS would generate savings for those families and revenue for itself by stepping in to replace those non-bank financial services companies.

All in all, Senator Warren’s proposal seemed like a good idea, except for the USPS partnering with banks.  I don’t trust that, it sounds like the old “public/private” partnerships that our “chosen” politicians are so fond of.  You know, where the public bears all the costs and Wall Street Hedge Funds reap the taxpayer subsidized rewards.

I see Gregory Palast has some reservations about Warren’s plan too, from Real News:

Excerpt:

Liz Warren Goes Postal

Elizabeth Warren must think she looks good in a sharkskin suit. There's no other way to explain her fronting for a cruel, stupid, and frightening plan to turn post offices into loan-sharking bodegas in low income neighborhoods.

As a card carrying progressive, I'm supposed to drink the water Liz walks on. But right now, she's in over her head.

The Massachusetts senator wants President Obama to issue an executive order that would put the US Postal Service into the business of "payday lending" - giving out short term loans to the desperate poor against their coming paychecks.

Her intentions are good. She wants to put private payday lenders out of business. These are the predators, centered in poor neighborhoods, who will lend you money for a few days or weeks until your next paycheck. Here's the catch: you have to sign over your paycheck in advance - and the effective interest runs an average of 391%. No kidding.

But the senator proposes to get rid of these payday predators by turning every post office into a financial fleecing factory.

And the Postal Service can't wait to jump into the shark tank. I've read the Postal Service plan's details. The USPS wants to "partner" with the very banksters now chewing on the payday poor.

The Postal governors crow that their Warren-backed scheme will bring in $8.9 billion in profit: that's $8.9 billion charged to the poorest folk in America.

And that's plain insane - and unnecessary, because there's a much better way to clean out the shark tank.

Yeah, the Post Office is a great example of the “public-private” partnership that our “chosen” politicians have legislated.  From Mike Krause at Phillyburgs:

Excerpt:

The Post Office Heist

Posted: Monday, February 4, 2013 3:30 pm | Updated: 2:29 pm, Wed Jan 15, 2014.

By Mike Krauss

What is now the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) was organized by Ben Franklin and is older than the United States. It has been self-funded since its inception and has never required an appropriation from the Congress. The cost of stamps has of course risen over time, as has everything else

But now we are told the USPS is massively broke, teetering on bankruptcy, and can only be “saved” if it is privatized. Competition from private mail and package services and the advent of the Internet for routine correspondence and bill paying are the often cited reasons for the failure; that and “inefficiency.”

It’s a scam.

Think about it. The competition from the likes of Fed Ex, Yahoo and on-line bill paying and banking is not new. And automation has made mail handling steadily more efficient. Why is the postal service suddenly broke?

Because a Republican Congress wanted it to be broke, and in 2006 required the USPS to pre-fund postal retiree health benefits for 75 years into the future, a burden no other public or private company is required to carry. Payments of $11.6 billion are due now on those obligations imposed by Congress.

Why would anyone want to intentionally bankrupt the USPS?

The answer is so that a crisis can be created, like the fiscal cliff, to justify “reforms” that are in the interest of the 1 percent who now own much of the Congress and most of the wealth of the United States, and would like even more.

If the post office can be privatized, one more union can be reduced; another cherished goal of that part of the GOP which is funded and cheered on by the likes of the Scaife Foundation, the Carthage Foundation, and the Charles G. Koch Foundation.

There is already in place what amounts to a business plan to privatize the USPS, written by the pro-privatization American Enterprise Institute in 2011, called “Return to Sender: Reforms for the Failing Postal Service.”

And on cue as Congress got back to work (Well, got back to Washington, anyway), another “independent” think tank stepped up to undertake a study of how the USPS can be “reformed” in a “public-private partnership.”

See what happens when the people are not allowed to pick their candidates for office?  Hong Kong is right to recoil at the possibility of “controlled democratic” elections.  Guaranteed Wall Street profits are written into U.S. law by “democratically elected” politicians.  What a sweet deal, a couple billion in campaign donations for tax free investments and derivatives trading in the trillions, but it’s even worse:

This time the effort is fronted by the National Academy of Public Administration. Its study team will be led by the former president and chief executive officer of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. He is a retired Wall Street baron who now leads the cheerleaders of Team Wall Street and the calls for “fiscal responsibility.”

Translation: cut Medicare and privatize Social Security.

But, you say, OK, I understand that many Republicans and even Wall Street New Democrats in the Obama Administration want to further reduce unions and privatize America. But you ask, why would anyone want to buy an enterprise doomed by the competition of new technologies?

The answer is real estate….

And if the operating company eventually collapsed, well that’s just too bad for the unionized workers. “After all, it was a sinking ship, but we tried,” the privatizers will say.

But as Reinbach points out, “The real estate company wouldn’t sink. And the deal could be used as a template for other privatizations.”

Your local school district, for instance. Lots of real estate there, too.

Even more egregious is subjugating our young people and their parents to unending slavery for wanting a higher education.  Joe Biden headed up the bankruptcy protection bill that made student loans a death sentence for America.  The privatization of the student loan industry, i.e. Sallie Mae Loans, provides guaranteed Wall Street Profits from loans that can never be forgiven.  From CBS Money:   

Excerpt:

Student loans -- if unpaid even for a short time -- lock you into the only effective debtors' prison existing in the United States. The government's collection rights are something a mobster might admire. Late fees and collection fees are ruinous. Student loans cannot be discharged in bankruptcy, so you'll drag that escalating debt forever. So will parents with PLUS loans, if they lose their jobs and cannot pay. Co-signers face the same potential fate.

Earlier this year, Democrats in the House of Representatives advanced a bill that would allow bankruptcy courts to discharge education loans obtained from private lenders, such as banks. All the Republicans voted against it. You can be sure that the new House will not take it up.

Hey Hong Kong, what’s not to love about having government decide who an acceptable candidate is?  If you don’t like the government you voted for, vote them out.  Then the banks will be happy to give you a new roster of “preapproved” candidates.  Man, it sounds like wash, rinse repeat.

So that brings me to Wisconsin.  If the people had been allowed by the two-party government to choose their presidential candidates in 2008, there never would have been a Governor Scott Walker.  In 2008 the democratic candidate, Barack Obama was chosen by the two-party government.  From NewsMax:

Except:

With accusations of voter registration fraud swirling as early voting begins in many states, some Hillary Clinton supporters are saying: “I told you so.”

Already in Iowa, the Obama campaign was breaking the rules, busing in supporters from neighboring states to vote illegally in the first contest in the primaries and physically intimidating Hillary supporters, they say.

Obama’s surprisingly strong win in Iowa, which defied all the polls, propelled his upstart candidacy to front-runner status. But Lynette Long, a Hillary supporter from Bethesda, Md., who has a long and respected academic career, believes Obama’s victory in Iowa and in 12 other caucus states was no miracle. “It was fraud,” she told Newsmax.

Long has spent several months studying the caucus and primary results.

“After studying the procedures and results from all 14 caucus states, interviewing dozens of witnesses, and reviewing hundreds of personal stories, my conclusion is that the Obama campaign willfully and intentionally defrauded the American public by systematically undermining the caucus process,” she said.

Yes the two-party government preselected Barack Obama and no voters were going to change that, after all Wall Street banks laundered three-quarters of a billion dollars into the Obama campaign.  So when the 2010 election came along, democrats in Wisconsin were so revolted by Obama and the “Reagan” democrats, they just didn’t vote.

So Scott Walker was elected Governor in Wisconsin along with a Republican majority.  The Koch Brothers now had control over the state that was the home of environmentalist John Muir.  With the election of Walker came the ALEC written set of laws that all Republican legislators would introduce into Republican controlled States. 

Through voter fraud and numerous violations of the law, the Wisconsin State Supreme Court now has a majority of Koch Brother cronies, sure to uphold the laws passed by the Republican government.  And although Republicans are in the majority, they do not represent any of the large cities.

That means, the majority of the people impacted by the laws passed by Republicans in Wisconsin, have no representation. This is true of the federal government too.  Take SNAP or food stamp cuts.  From MSNBC:

Excerpt:

On Friday, President Obama added his signature to legislation that will cut $8.7 billion in food stamp benefits over the next 10 years, causing 850,000 households to lose an average of $90 per month. The signing of the legislation known as the 2014 Farm Bill occurred at a public event in East Lansing, Mich…

Before he signed the legislation, President Obama praised it as an example of bipartisan problem-solving that would help create jobs and move the American economy forward.

How does cutting nutritional assistance to families create jobs? 

When House Republicans originally argued for a food stamp cut of between $20.5 billion and $39 billion, the White House threatened to veto both of those proposals. During his Friday speech, the president did not say whether he was satisfied with the final $8.7 billion figure, or even mention the cuts at all…

“Poor people are getting screwed by this Republican majority [in the House] and Democrats in my opinion aren’t doing enough to push back,” he said. “I wish there had been more of a fight from the White House and others.”

McGovern also admitted to being “puzzled” by the White House’s silence on hunger and food stamp cuts. He predicted that Republicans’ success in getting a several billion dollar food stamp cut meant that they would soon try again for even more.

Yes and our “chosen” politicians, at the same time they cut $8.6 billion dollars for nutrition, ended emergency unemployment benefits.  From New York Times:

The payroll tax holiday was renewed once, before it was finally allowed to lapse in January. Similarly, unemployment benefits to jobless workers for longer than the normal maximum of 26 weeks have been extended repeatedly, although the maximum duration of benefits has fallen from a peak of 99 weeks to 73 weeks.

The Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, financed by the federal government for states that meet certain unemployment and state benefit thresholds, is scheduled to end Jan. 1.

The recent fiscal showdown in Washington make further extensions less likely. And the end of these emergency unemployment benefits could create a further drag on the economy.

But not to worry, Walmart to the rescue.  From Huffington Post:

Excerpt:

Walmart Targets The Poor With New Checking Accounts

By offering low-fee checking accounts, Walmart dares to go where most big banks won't. Few major financial institutions are willing to give lower-income Americans checking accounts these days -- without exorbitant fees.

But, unlike the big banks, Walmart really needs low-income customers.

The retail goliath on Wednesday announced it would offer customers checking accounts with no minimum balance and no fees for overdrafts or bounced checks. Those who get a direct deposit of at least $500 every month -- a floor that includes many people receiving government benefits -- will have the $8.95 monthly fee waived.

Walmart’s core customers -- low-income Americans -- have been squeezed by government benefit cuts, high unemployment and stagnant wages…

Walmart needs that money. Sales at U.S. stores open a year, an important retail metric, have been flat or negative for six straight quarters. Food stamp cuts in November hurt the company's bottom line, executives said…

That Walmart is one of the few options available to poor customers looking for a cheap bank account is troubling, given the retailer's profit motive, said Wallace Turbeville, a senior fellow at Demos, a progressive think tank. Unlike the Post Office, which some have considered as an option for low-fee checking, there's no reason for Walmart and its partner bank not to take advantage of customers who have so little bargaining power, he said.

“There’s a huge number of people that are underserved or overcharged for financial services,” Turbeville said. “That suggests that it’s going to be profitable for Walmart.”

America goes to the polls November 4^th.  I don’t know what the outcome will be but I know who the winners will be. 

“It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.”

― Emiliano Zapata

So, to the people of Hong Kong, fight with everything you have for the right to choose your own destiny.  Look at America and what has happened to us since we relinquished our right to choose our leaders to the two parties. 

Remember, democracy is in the balance from Hong Kong to Wisconsin.

By Patricia Baeten