Hell yes, it's class warfare...get used to it...

A report released this week showed that the average American’s income has declined 6.7% since 2009.  That’s the fundamental backdrop of the Occupy Wall Street protests that are scaring the shit out of the right wing and their corporate masters, and the reason the leaders of the republican party are soiling themselves attempting to broad-brush the protestors as nihilistic hippy anarchists and serial litterers.   Me thinks they protest too much, though, because they are being ridiculed and repudiated by everyone from Jon Stewart to Paul Krugman.   The more the Mitch McConnells and Eric Cantors stand and – with a straight face – try to play the class warfare card, the more they call attention to the salient facts in the debate and sound like a spoiled Thurston Howell the 3^rd wet nursed by Eva Peron.  And the facts have been laid out quite clearly:

·         The top 1% of income earners own 40% of the wealth of the country. 

·         The top 1% takes home 24% of the nation’s income.

·         The top 1% own fully 50% of all stocks, bonds and mutual funds.

·         The top 1% have only 5% of the nation’s debt

·         The top 1% take home a higher percentage of the nation’s income than at any time since the 1920’s

Now we have these same ruling class warriors whining about the Dodd Frank financial reform act, an emasculated shadow of what it should be but which contains a major reform provision – called the Volcker Rule – that is set to roll out in the 4^th quarter and which is putting the fear of the proletariat into the masters of the universe, specifically our favorite criminals, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, whose half-mad spree of ultra speculative investments was facilitated by their ability to play with the house money and who now are being forced to moderate their heretofore risky investment strategies in favor of protecting depositors from massive losses.   Gee, how unfair is that?  

Why would the government restrict the trading abilities of these geniuses?  Here’s is an explanation from an article in Fortune Magazine; it states that the Volcker Rule “would also bar them from engaging in trading schemes that would be considered to be a “material conflict of interest” between the bank and its customers”.  In other words, no more advising customers to do one thing and then investing their own money in a bet against them.   Sound familiar?  Like maybe the sub-prime mortgage market derivatives these evil carnival barkers were selling to every greed crazed speed freak investor from Iceland to LA. 

What pisses people off about these guys is that in 2008 they decided to become bank holding companies so they could have access to the government bailout programs and now they are bank rolling the republican clown posse that has been railing against the whole idea of bailouts and whose most enthusiastic backers are the intellectually incoherent tea party.  They somehow are against government bailouts of the most powerful forces behind the candidates they now support and who have them intoxicated and confused with rants about gay marriage and military service, questions of who is the most sincerely and authentically Christian and which is more of a job killer: the EPA or the Department of Education. 

At the Dartmouth debate tonight, Newt Gingrich, in a blast of righteous reverse class warfare, suggested throwing Barney Frank and Chris Dodd in jail and firing Ben Bernanke, apparently not understanding that the Fed chairman serves as set term and can’t be fired.  I think poor Newt is in the throes of a last wrenching grasp at staying alive in the race and, like a number of the others who are ostensibly still running, he has to make a splash in the next few of the seemingly endless succession of debates.   His wide-eyed, slightly off kilter rants sure don’t give him any presidential cred to me but maybe the book’s not selling and he needs whatever works to keep the benjamins coming in so his wife doesn’t bail on him.

Regardless of these exercises in jabbering non sequiturs, the fix is in; now that Christie has endorsed Romney this thing is just going to play out over the next couple of months as an amusing sideshow.  For better or worse, the big money in the republican party has settled on Mitt as the one guy – 25% favorable rating or not – who they want to carry their firewood to the village square for the Obama roast and if he can’t manage it, well fuck it; there’s always 2016 and by then the damned terrible negro will probably have things so screwed up they could run Bachman and Palin on the same ticket and win.   Romney flips positions like an insomniac but as feverishly as the desperate others try, they can’t make anything stick.  He was pro-choice and then pro-life.  He wanted to privatize social security and now ridicules Perry for calling it a ponzi scheme.   Romney has no real positions; has no zealously defended ground staked out except laissez faire capitalism.  He’s an empty suit who doesn’t make a fool of himself very often and can be counted on to press the agenda of lower taxes and party hats for the 1% and that’s why he’s going to be the nominee.  He’s not who they wanted; he’s not great, but he’ll have to do.