Friday, December 30, 2011

Social Security Has Nothing To Do With The Deficit


That's right. It's true.

Social Security is basically a pension plan combined with old-age insurance. Each person contributes money while working and gets back money in retirement. The government just does the accounting. To balance the Social Security budget, we only have to decide if we want more insurance (higher payments, same benefits) or less insurance (same payments, lower benefits). That's a decision we should make on its own, based on how much risk we want to pool.

Medicare is guaranteed health insurance that you pay for in advance. Eliminating Medicare wouldn't suddenly free us from a burdensome tax: seniors would still want health insurance, and since Medicare is better at cost control than the private sector, they would have to pay more for it. The real question is how much insurance we want and whether we want a guarantee today that we will be insured in old age. The amount we should pay for that insurance has nothing to do with the rest of the government. Instead, it depends on how much we would have to pay for health insurance otherwise--a lot and growing each year.

With both programs, there's no magical budget constraint that limits how much Social Security or how much Medicare we can have. We can have a generous program funded by high contributions or a meager program funded by low contributions or no program at all.

The crucial thing is that with Social Security and Medicare, we're not just hoping the government does something useful with our tax money. We are pooling our money to share specific risks across a large population, and that money comes right back out as pensions and health care payments. The size of these programs should depend on how much risk we want to pool, and nothing else.

Given that most Americans don't save enough for retirement and most working Americans with health insurance will lose it when they retire, I think most people will want more insurance, not less. We shouldn't be forced into less insurance by the delusion that government does one thing and has one size, let alone that it has to be smaller. Extending Medicare to all Americans would eliminate the plight of the under insured and uninsured, and it would be good for the economy. 

Let There Be Funky Gyrations

Nancy just received her new stereo, which plays MP3s, CDs, and most importantly to her, cassettes! Here we celebrate...



Thursday, December 29, 2011

Bernie Sanders Knows What Needs to be Done in 2012

We Need This Now
2012: Where do we go from here?



By Sen. Bernie Sanders
December 29, 2011
I want to take this opportunity to wish all Vermonters a very happy holiday season and a wonderful new year.
The year 2011 has been a tough one for Vermont and our country.  The recession caused by the greed, recklessness and illegal behavior of Wall Street continues.  While Vermont is doing better economically than much of the country, too many of our friends and neighbors are unemployed or underemployed or are earning less than they need to adequately support their families. 
Further, in Vermont we have had to deal with the devastation of Hurricane Irene, which caused so much hardship for individuals and businesses.  We should all be grateful for the efforts of state and local officials, first responders, the many hundreds of volunteers, and members of the National Guard who all did such an extraordinary job in the cleanup and recovery effort.
It is no secret that the people of our country are angry and frustrated with Washington and their government.  They correctly perceive that we face enormous problems: a collapsing middle class, increased poverty and a growing gap between the very rich and everyone else; sky-high unemployment; 50 million Americans without health insurance; a deteriorating infrastructure;  the continued loss of our manufacturing capabilities; the ongoing mortgage and student loan crises, and the planetary challenge of global warming.  And on top of all of that, we have a $15 trillion dollar national debt.
The American people want action.  They want their government to start representing the 99 percent, not just the top 1 percent.  With that goal in mind, let me say a few words about some of the issues that I will be working on when Congress reconvenes in January.
With more than 24 million Americans unemployed or underemployed, 15 percent of our workforce, we must be aggressive about creating the millions of new jobs we desperately need.  It is simply not acceptable that high school or college graduates are not able to find work as they try to begin their careers.  It is horrific that millions of older workers, who were looking forward to secure retirements, find themselves unemployed and facing the possibility that they may never again have a job. 
One of the fastest ways to create jobs is to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure - roads, bridges, railroads, airports, water systems, wastewater plants and aging schools.  While we spend 2 percent of our GDP on infrastructure, China spends 9 percent and Europe spends 5 percent.  We also need to make sure that Vermont and all of rural America gets the quality broadband and cell phone service that we deserve in order to be able to compete in the 21stcentury.  When we rebuild and improve our infrastructure we not only create a significant number of jobs, we make our country more efficient and productive.  I will continue to fight for a substantial federal investment in infrastructure.
Another important way to create jobs - while we protect our environment, address global warming and prevent new wars - is to transform our energy system away from foreign oil and fossil fuels and into energy efficiency and sustainable energy.  In Vermont, we already lead the country in energy efficiency, but much, much more can be done.  We can create many new jobs weatherizing homes and buildings while, at the same time, we cut greenhouse gas emissions and save consumers money on their fuel bills.  This is a win, win, win proposition.  We must also be more aggressive in moving toward such job creating sustainable energy technologies as wind, solar, geothermal and biomass.   
When we talk about the economy and jobs, we cannot forget about the need for real Wall Street reform.  After all, it was the outrageous behavior of Wall Street which caused this recession in the first place. Incredibly, after we bailed out the behemoth banks that were "too big to fail," three out of the four are now even bigger than before the financial crisis. Within the next several months I will be introducing legislation which would bring fundamental change to the Federal Reserve as well as the way that largest financial institutions in this country are run.    
While we focus on job creation and the economy, we cannot forget about some of the most vulnerable people in our country - the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor. As chairman of the Defending Social Security Caucus, I intend to do all that I can to protect Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the needs of our veterans. 
Last but not least, this country faces a major deficit as a result of two wars that were not paid for, tax breaks for the rich, and reduced revenue because of the recession. The deficit crisis must be resolved but in a way that is fair to the middle class.  As part of any deficit-reduction package, the wealthiest people in this country, many of whom are doing phenomenally well, must be asked to pay their fair share of taxes.  We must also do away with the hundreds of billions in corporate loopholes that currently exist, which enable many large and profitable corporations to pay little or nothing in federal taxes.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Climbing The Walls

This past year with Nancy in my life has been marvelous. In the Autumn of 2010, she moved into my flat just outside of Boston, and the unsettling loneliness and languor of single life was replaced with the excitement and terror of cohabiting with another human being. We knew a lot about each other, but naturally a lot of lessons had to be learned. We turned one of the bedrooms into an office for her to use, and it is packed with papers, folders, books and pill bottles. Shortly after she moved in, I made the mistake of cleaning her office and organizing her papers. Her reaction to this cemented one of our new rules into my mind forever; never, ever try to clean up Nancy's office. I'm not bright, but I learn lessons like this quickly. Training comes easy to me.

The year before Nancy arrived I had settled into the nadir of my life, and the end seemed to be in sight. Hope had gone out the window. The walls of my bedroom had thoughts and poems penciled upon them, perhaps because it helped me fill the empty space, like Edmund in the Chateau D'If. An ill-fated relationship with an older woman had just ended (a very poor match), and racing thoughts (a bipolar thing) which had previously been somewhat tempered with expensive but efficacious medicines, returned with a vengeance. For the first time in years I found myself banging my head on the wall for relief, the firewall, no less. A wooden wall is recommended for that sort of thing. Epileptic seizures, minor ones except for one grand mal, made me lethargic and cranky. Depression pulled me into the Sarlacc pit, despite the use of positive thinking that I learned about in therapy. It made me want to leave a flaming bag of dog-shit on the steps of my former therapist's office.

The Summer of 2010 really sucked.

As I type this, I'm sitting in the same room that had Longfellow's The Psalm of Life written on one of its  walls, along with a Punnet's square, D'arcy's Face Upon the Floor (a wonderful parlor poem), a taxonomy chart of apes, a recipe for popovers, and some random thoughts about love, illness, nature, cats, sex, and courtship. Nancy's phone number was on the wall near the bedroom door. Before she moved here, we must have spent 1,000 hours on the phone. Sometimes we spoke all night, for 6 or 8 hours, night after night after night. I had to switch my listening ear every few minutes due to the sweat pouring down my cheek.

Now that Nancy and I are here together, with a Nor'easter raging outside (rain, not snow), both of us in matching Forever Lazy pajamas (a Christmas thing...we're not proud, but they are just wicked comfortable), and an adoring bevvy of pets (four cats, of course, and a dog), this room may as well be in another flat, in a different building, on an exotic island far, far away. Nancy has made this flat a home. She is my wife now, and while we have some spectacular fights, I can't imagine ever going back to that room in the Summer of 2010. That hot room, with me going bat-shit in the middle of it. It took a slap in the face to get me out of there, and Nancy slapped me vigorously, as a comrade in the battle against ones' own mind. Then I happened to fall in love with her, and her with me. How convenient!

Some nights I awaken with a start, usually after a nightmare, to find my beloved sleeping next to me. She is often surrounded by pets, usually Annie, Impy and sometimes Ghost and Panther. It's a good thing, even if it has her sneezing and hacking like a TB victim every morning due to pet allergies. It used to piss her off, the way the cats and Annie insist on cuddling up to her tender nasal passages, but now she complains while cooing over the adorable furry little fuckers. Poor girl.


I think I'll saunter across the floor and give her a squeeze. 

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Happy Festivus!

As you celebrate the birth of the Messiah by trampling children on the way to buy a pair of retro Michael Jordan sneakers, and gain 10 pounds snarfing down snickerdoodles and turducken, consider that perhaps Christmas isn't the holiday that it used to be. Mainly because you're not six anymore, but also because a holiday that is all about giving gifts, combined with feral capitalism, has led to an orgasm of consumerism and gluttony that would make Caligula blush. And let's not forget the forced mirth.

Enter Festivus, the story of which is told here:



Merry Christmas, everyone. And for my Jewish friends, may your General Gao's chicken be delicious, and not too spicy. A donation has been made on behalf of everyone to The Human Fund: Money for People. And Happy New Year!

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Obama Is My Man, Warts And All. Why?

I support Obama with a vengeance. He's far from perfect, and part of my enthusiasm for him does come from fear of his potential opponent (Gingrich, Romney, et al). There is nothing wrong with supporting the "lesser evil," and my progressive friends need to understand that. Simply put, if a Republican gets into the White House it will be devastating for tens of millions of Americans, and for America herself. It would worsen economic injustice and the most unfair tax system we've ever had in this country. America will be turned into a banana republic, with no middle class to speak of and a chasm between the small amount of very, very wealthy and the vast majority of people who will live in poverty. This issue alone compels me to support Obama, with vigor.

An analysis of Gingrich's plan (similar to every other Republican presidential candidate) by the Tax Policy Center says households making more than $1 million a year would see their taxes drop by an average of 62%. Federal revenue would drop by an estimated $850 billion by 2014, a figure that would dramatically worsen the budget deficit unless it is offset by unprecedented cuts in virtually every program designed to help the poor, disabled, seniors, and fix our crumbling infrastructure. Why? Just so 0.5% of the population can get away with not paying taxes. A bunch of bums with a spine of spit and sawdust, for whom no amount of money is ever enough.

Republicans would greatly reduce or even eliminate taxes on capital gains, dividends and interest, and reduce the corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 0 - 12.5 percent. This "trickle down" economic policy has been shown, again and again, to be a fraud. It's a grift. There are no data to support Supply Side economics, what even George Bush the First once called, "Voodoo economics." Large corporations, those with the most lobbying power, are making more profit than ever before, but they are not hiring in this country. The "trickle down" theory is total, absolute and complete bullshit. For the Republican clowns, however, it's canon. The laissez-faire approach to economics, with an invisible hand of the marketplace maintaining a modicum of fairness, has been shown to be unworkable, undesirable and pure bunk. An unregulated marketplace self-destructs faster than Amy Winehouse with a full liquor cabinet.

Republicans would make it even more difficult for Congress to reduce the federal budget deficit, which was $1.3 trillion in the budget year that ended in September, according to the study. The deficit is not the real target for these greedy, spineless people, social programs are...they are social Darwinists, pure and simple.

Slashing the top tax rate and eliminating taxes on investments would provide a huge windfall to the top 1%, according to the study. To quote the study, which analyzes Ginghrich's plan specifically (again, all the Republican plans are similar):

A household making between $40,000 and $50,000 would get an average tax cut of 12.1 percent, while a family making between $200,000 and $500,000 would get a tax cut of 27.3 percent. Households making more than $1 million would see their federal income taxes reduced by an average of $607,000 the study said.

The Republican approach is stupid, irresponsible, and amounts to class warfare. President Obama, despite his many flaws, has the moral scruples and intellect to understand that this money grab by the very wealthy can't be allowed to happen, and that the debt needs to be paid down by everyone with as little an impact on needed social programs as possible.

Also consider that chicken-hawk Republicans are enthusiastic about a possible war with Iran, but are too cowardly to openly consider a draft or raise taxes to actually pay for the costs of it (including keeping up funding of TRI-Care for veterans). They would be happy to see a small number of professional soldiers and their families carry the burden yet again. A profile in courage may be difficult to find in the Democratic Party, but they are non-existent in the GOP. These yellow war-profiteers make me wretch.

Gingrich made a fool out of himself and stoked the fires already burning in the Middle East by stating that, "The Palestinians are not a people, they're just Arabs living inside an invented border." This is painfully ignorant talk by a self-described, "scholar and intellectual." John McCain, back in 2008, declared, "We are all [Soviet] Georgians now!" after violence broke out between the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Georgia. Within a few months, Georgia did withdraw from the CIS. If John McCain had his way, we would have been involved in that skirmish against Russia, Ukraine, et al. Republicans love unfunded and undeclared wars, tax inequality, social injustice, class warfare, and bowing to their corporate masters. The Democrats are almost as bad, but if there are any politicians who understand the need for social programs, economic justice, health care for all, and less war, you can be sure that he or she is a Democrat. I'm thinking of Bernie Sanders of Vermont (who caucuses with the Democrats and has begun the fight for an amendment to eliminate "corporate personhood" and the terrible "Citizen's United" Supreme Court decision), Al Franken, Debbie Stabenow, Barney Frank, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Dennis Kucinich, and the late Robert Byrd, who passionately spoke against the pointless Iraq War in his final days:


Today I weep for my country. I have watched the events of recent months with a heavy, heavy heart. No more is the image of America one of strong, yet benevolent peacekeeper. The image of America has changed. Around the globe, our friends mistrust us, our word is disputed, our intentions are questioned. Instead of reasoning with those with whom we disagree, we demand obedience or threaten recrimination. (Senator Robert Byrd, March 19, 2003)


Republicans, to a one, stand in lock step behind the elephant and the hawk. They obey, and they are wrong on virtually every issue. Their only principles are about principal. They shape-shift to get elected in a way that at least some Democrats never have .

One last thing, about Ron Paul. He is supposedly a Libertarian, but he is opposed to a woman's right to choose. Many of my friends are Libertarians (and in the Libertarian Party) and find that absurd and ridiculous, as I do. The big defender of freedom, Ron Paul, just cares about lowering taxes and is full of shit on civil liberties. Yes, he is against the wars, and that wonderful. But he is, too, a spineless clown. His "supporters" need to spend a little more time reading about him. If you feel that taxation is theft and that the government has no right to establish a fire department with tax money, how the fuck can you argue that abortion should be illegal. It's nonsense.

These are just a few of the reasons that this Red is not going to pull the lever for a 3rd party candidate this year. Obama is my man, warts and all.

Thursday, December 01, 2011

He was as tall as a 6′3″ tree.


Washington Post Analogies Contest Winners

Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the center.

He was as tall as a 6′3″ tree.

Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM.

The lamp just sat there, like an inanimate object.

McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at asolar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.
Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.

Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan’s teeth.

He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River.

Even in his last years, Grand pappy had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it hadrusted shut.
He felt like he was being hunted down like a dog, in a place that hunts dogs, I suppose.

She was as easy as the TV Guide crossword.

She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.

The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

“Oh, Jason, take me!” she panted, her breasts heaving like a college freshman on $1-a-beer night.

It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.

It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the period after the Dr. on a Dr Pepper can.

Her eyes were like limpid pools, only they had forgotten to put in any pH cleanser.

Her date was pleasant enough, but she knew that if her life was a movie this guy would be buried in the credits as something like “Second Tall Man.”

The thunder was ominous-sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play.

The red brick wall was the color of a brick-red Crayola crayon.

She caught your eye like one of those pointy hook latches that used to dangle from screen doors and would fly up whenever you banged the door open again.

Her pants fit her like a glove, well, maybe more like a mitten, actually.

Fishing is like waiting for something that does not happen very often.

They were as good friends as the people on “Friends.”

Oooo, he smells bad, she thought, as bad as Calvin Klein’s Obsession would smell if it were called Enema and was made from spoiled Spamburgers instead of natural floral fragrances.

The knife was as sharp as the tone used by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) in her first several points of parliamentary procedure made to Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) in the House Judiciary Committee hearings on the impeachment of President William Jefferson Clinton.

He was as bald as one of the Three Stooges, either Curly or Larry, you know, the one who goes woo woo woo.

The sardines were packed as tight as the coach section of a 747.

Thanks to Bethany Amanda!