Life and Reality

The Washington shutdown is real. This is the first time such a shutdown transpired since 1995. The battle has been about the budget, the health care, etc. Tea Party Republican fanaticism characterized some of the events as well. It or the shutdown commenced on October 1. This is a sign of dysfunction in Congress. About 800,000 workers will be furloughed. Critical services from food stamps to food safety inspections, etc. will face disruptions. The Democratic controlled Senate rejected funding bill sent by the GOP House. Those bills delayed the implementation of the health care law. The Tea Party fanaticism refuse to accept the fact that government spending legitimately is not evil at all. The GOP extremists need to realize that a total privatization of the health care system will not work. It is predicted that the GOP will retreat and pass legislation without trying to totally gut the health care law. The Democrats are known for caving too. There is the issue of the debt ceiling coming up in mid-October as well. If that doesn't occur, then the federal government will go into default with unknown dire consequences for the world financial system. The Republicans and the Democrats try to blame each other for the crisis in the first place. Yet, their words obscurers the fact of how far more reactionary both parties have traveled over the years. Both parties agree more than they disagree. They both agree on executing sweeping cuts in most government programs though not the Pentagon and they just differ on how deep the cuts should be. They agree with a health care system where the medical-pharmaceutical-insurance complex calls the shots; they differ about parts of a law designed to preserve the industry's profits and power. They agree on a system where Corporate America piles up record profits by driving down the living standards of working-class people; they disagree only on the details of how that system should operate. The Republicans have lost many elections, but they have been on the offensive most of the time. There is a pattern of the Republican advocating draconian cuts and other reactionary policies and the Democrats offer to meet them halfway (or start with neoliberalism and austerity in the first place). Many Republicans try to gut the Affordable Care Act not because of altruistic justification, but because they do not want health care legislation that deals with some government intervention. The GOP hatred of the ACA reflects Corporate America's aggressive hatred of any radical health care solution and the embrace of neoliberalism. The ruling class concedes nothing in this debate while the working class including the poor concedes all of the time. The Affordable Care Act in reality is a mixed bag of some positive legitimate provisions (like the expansion of the Medicaid system and long-overdue regulations on the insurance industry's worst practices) with errors. It has an individual mandate requiring those without insurance to buy insurance from private insurers (a lot of which are expensive and defective). The long term effect of the health care law is the rationalization of the health care industry or to quell revolutionary changes in that system (while some health care prices will continue to be in exorbitant prices). Drs. David Himmelstein and Stephanie Woolhandler, cofounders of Physicians for a National Health Program and long-time advocates of a government-run "single payer" health care system, point out that the plans that will be available through the state "insurance exchanges" set up under the ACA will have lower-than-expected costs--but only because they sharply restrict choice of doctors and medical facilities, and include prohibitively high deductibles and co-pays. Plus, there's "nasty news for those who aren't forever young," say Himmelstein and Woolhandler--premium costs for a Silver plan in New Jersey, for example, are $3,030 for a 27-year-old, but $8,535 for a 63-year-old. We must not support Tea Party extremists, but we should want better than the ACA indeed. The Tea Party clique is in league with Big Business. The Republicans are in the offensive, because the Democrats know that they are being forced to cut government spending while refusing to raise taxes on the super-rich. Austerity politics is bipartisan. The GOP wants attacks on social programs and the growth of tax windfalls for big business. The uniformed military, the CIA, the National Security Agency, the Department of Homeland Security and the rest of the agencies involved in US imperialist aggression and subversion abroad and domestic spying and repression at home will be virtually unscathed. The Federal Reserve will still pump billions of dollars to Wall Street interests. Museums and nationals parks are forced to close because of the government shutdown.  D.C. is suffering too. The Washington region already lost 26,500 net jobs in August as a result of sequester cuts and furloughs. So, the reality is that the political establishment is using this evil shutdown as an excuse to advance austerity and neoliberalism in society. Both parties are complicit in that agenda.

The Affordable Care Act is here. There is a website that deals with healthcare exchanges in the marketplace. There has been years of promotion, lobbying, and political wrangling on this issue. The law was open for business on October 1, 2013. Coverage for enrollees is set to begin in January 1, 2014. The insurance exchanges are real. The catch is that billions of dollars are going to be sent into the coffers of the private health insurers. Still, the system will leave tens of millions insured and others with vastly deteriorated medical services. The health care law was originally meant to allow no insurer to be allowed to deny coverage to a sick child or an individual with a preexisting condition, no family would go bankrupt or hungry due to health care costs, and that insurance companies would be held to account. Now, we see an imperfect law called the Affordable Care Act. Many progressive parts of the legislation has been stripped or dominated by other error filled parts of the law. We should fight for the improvement of the medical care of all Americans. Now, we see a heavily class based system of health care delivery. Some believe that Medicare was harmed by the establishment of this law. The public option is not in the law. There were concessions to the law made to big business. Only companies with 50 or more employees would have to provide insurance, only those working 30 hours or more had to be covered. Bare-bones, “skinny” plans—without hospitalization and surgery coverage—would be considered “adequate” employee-sponsored plans. Those businesses that do not comply would face minimal penalties. Human beings without coverage via their employer or from a government program (like Medicare and Medicaid) would make up a fresh pool of captive, cash paying customers who must fend for themselves on the insurance exchanges. Today, those browsing the offering of the new marketplace will confront a confusing array of plans. There is one common feature of it. The least expensive plans offer the lowest levels of coverage with limited choices and the highest out of pocket costs. There is not real oversight over what the insurance companies can charge for coverage. If there is an insufficient number of young, healthy people sign up, the insurers can be expected to jack up premiums even higher to gain their cash flow. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the health care overhaul will leave an estimated 31 million people—about a tenth of the US population—uninsured by 2023. Undocumented workers and their families are barred from purchasing coverage on the exchanges. Due to a “family glitch” in the law, businesses are only required to provide “affordable” insurance to their employees, not to their employees’ families, so those family members will not receive subsidies to purchase coverage on the exchanges. Some of the poorest will be ineligible in some states. Some states have struck down expanding Medicaid expansion in 21 states. Some companies and municipalities are dumping folks into the exchanges. Private insurance exchanges dominate the ACA. Health care is a human right in society. The ACA is heavily influenced by the Heritage Foundation and other corporate interests. The wealth and technology does exist now that we can provide affordable, universal, and quality health care to every American.

In the African Diaspora, we should connect more with our Brothers and our Sisters. Jennifer Tosch is a Surinamese American who founded the successful Black Heritage Amsterdam Tour in the Netherlands. This tour all over the city documents the contributions of African Diaspora to Dutch society from the 16th century to the present. She gave an interview with Dutch Amsterdam City Channel AT5. She talks about her identity. The reporter Claric Gargard visited her home. She talks about this being about African history and how it relates to world history. When her mother was dying as terminally, she was on a quest to find her family. Also, Jennifer shed tears over the plight of our ancestors. She wanted to bridge the gaps in her life. She teaches human beings about the black African influence in the continent of Europe. She wants to continue to research and continue on her journey in her life. Black Heritage Tours in Amsterdam continue and they are a great thing as well. Black human beings made great contributions in the world. There are many gifted, strong Black British writers as well. One author is named Zadi Smith. Others include other promising black British writers by the names of Taiye Selasi, Nadifa Mohamed, and Helen-Oyeyemi. Taiye Selasi was mentored by Toni Morrison and she was endorsed by Saman Rushsdie. She wrote an 2005 essay called What is an Afropolitan? that gave a face to a class of sophisticated cosmopolitan young Africans who defy downtrodden stereotypes. She has written about Chana and other issues as well. Nadifa Mohamed was born in 1981. Her family came into London from Somalia in 1986. Her debut novel “Black Mamba Boy” is based on her father’s tales of his youthful peregrinations in East Africa and Europe during the 1930s and ’40s. In an Granta interview she also speaks about her arrival from Somalia, growing up in Tooting and how she believed from a young age that cats were spies for the government. Helen Oyeyemi is the daughter of Nigerian immigrants. She reads her stories in a London par. She wrote many books like the Icarus Girl and the Opposite House. She wrote many awards for her literature like winning the 2012 Zora Nealse Hurston and Wright Foundation Award for the book entitled, Mr. Fox. Even centuries ago, we do realize that there was a strong Black African presence in Renaissance Europe. The Walters Art Museum exhibition talks about this as well many months ago. We know about the presence of Black Africans being farmers, artists, diplomats, and other jobs. Yes, the evils of slavery existed in Europe too.

 

The late President John F. Kennedy's last 100 days was a very important of American history. The late President John F. Kennedy did a lot of accomplishments in the last 3 months of his Presidency. He did some remarkable things at home and abroad. UN Chairman Dag Hammarskjold and JFK dealt with the Congo crisis. There is the book made by Susan Miller entitled, "Who Killed Hammarskjold?" The book makes the argument that foul play could influence the death of Hammarskjold. There is the situation of Achmed Sukarno. He was the President of Indonesia of 1963. He was a man that John F. Kennedy understood and appreciated as a leader of the Non-Aligned nations movement. This movement wanted nations during the Cold War era to maintain their sense of independence and not worship America or the Soviet Union. This movement was a movement that Kennedy respected and was in agreement with. John F. Kennedy had a more progressive approach to the nations of Asia and Africa. There are three books that document this reality.  Even though there have now been three crucial books written on the subject: Richard Mahoney's JFK: Ordeal in Africa in 1983, Philip Muehlenbeck's Betting on the Africans, and Robert Rokave's Kennedy, Johnson and the Nonaligned World, the last two both published in 2012. Kennedy has transformative views on many issues before 1963 even. He broke with Eisenhower's policies in Congo and Indonesia in 1961. JFK in 1963 wanted to use back channels as a means to end the conflict or tension between America and Cuba. Then Senator Kennedy visited Saigon in 1951. He visited the American diplomat Edmund Guillion. Guillon told the young congressman that the French attempt to recolonize Vietnam would not succeed. The reason is that the Vietnamese as a strong desire to be free from imperial influence and it was extremely strong. This influence John F. Kennedy to rebels against the Orthodox views of the Democrats (like Dean Acheson) and the Republicans (like John Foster Dulles). So, President John F. Kennedy was not some radical Cold War Warrior. He never sent combat troops for massive, extensive missions at all for colonizing lands. And, in fact, Clarke later uses a revealing quote from National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy in this regard. Bundy told his assistant Marcus Raskin, "You know there are only two pacifists in the White House, you and Kennedy." (p. 217). Gibson understands that Kennedy actually liked Juan Bosch of the Dominican Republic. He even advised him on how to run his economy. Once Bosch was overthrown by the rightwing powers on the island with the military in cahoots, Kennedy immediately spearheaded a program of diplomatic and economic sanctions against the new regime. It actually began within hours of him hearing about the overthrow. Kennedy actually led this growing hemisphere wide movement which was picking up steam at the time of his death. Within one month, the Dominican Republic was wincing at the isolation Kennedy had condemned them to. (Gibson, Battling Wall Street, pgs. 78-79). Bundy, who should know, also told author Gordon Goldstein for the book Lessons in Disaster, that Kennedy did not buy into the domino theory. That book was published in 2009. The late President John F. Kennedy signed the 1963 nuclear test ban treaty in 1963. Kennedy told Ted Sorenson that he would have gladly forfeited his reelection bid as long as the treaty passed. And once it was secured of passage, Soviet foreign minister Andrei Gromyko wanted more agreements made with the Russians. President Kennedy in turn suggested a mutual cooperation in the space race. JFK ordered Webb to seek cooperation with the USSR in space. He furthered followed detente by having the 1963 wheat deal to the Russians that Kennedy had rammed through. Then Senator John F. Kennedy believed in immigration as he wrote a brief book called A Nation of Immigrants.  In fact, Kennedy concluded the book with a rapier attack on the 1958 status of American immigration laws. He first quoted the famous words on the base of the Liberty Bell: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Kennedy added to this by saying that until 1921 this was relatively accurate. But after then, it was more appropriate to add, "as long as they come from Northern Europe, are not too tired or to poor or slightly ill, never stole a loaf of bread, never joined a questionable organization, and can document their activities for the last two years." (p. 157). So, Kennedy wanted immigration laws to be fair to Asians, those from Eastern and Southern Europe, etc. His views influenced the passage of an Immigration bill in the 1960's. Also, Clarke and James Blight's Virtual JFK book talked about China.  It was commonly known through Kennedy's diplomatic corps that, in his second term, President Kennedy had planned on extending an olive branch to communist China. As Clarke notes, "His intention to change U.S. China policy was not a secret. He had told Marie Ridder that it was on his agenda for his second term, and Dean Rusk said they often discussed it, and he thought Kennedy would have reached out to the Chinese in 1965." (p. 320). JFK worked with Walter Heller, who was Kennedy's chair of the Council of Economic Advisors. JFK wanted the economy to grow in high gear after he thought that the Eisenhower years were sluggish in economic performance. He and Heller brainstormed on how to get a Keynesian stimulus into the economy as the lowest possible cost to the consumer and the producer. They first discussed a large government-spending plan. It would be hard for Congress to vote for their plans. They finally decided on a tax cut on the marginal rates of income. Heller said this might produce a short-term deficit but it would eventually produce a long-term surplus. What made this proposal even more daring was the fact that the economy was already growing when Heller proposed it. Further, unemployment was only at 5%. In other words, many other presidents would have been satisfied with what they had. But as Clarke notes, Kennedy was determined to double the growth rate of Eisenhower, "preside over 8 recession free years, and leave office with the nation enjoying full employment." (p. 178). The package worked extremely well. It eventually brought down unemployment to 3.8% in 1966. And tax revenue actually increased in 1964 and 1965. Heller's design worked marvelously until President Johnson decided to greatly expand the Vietnam War without raising taxes. Heller knew this would cause an inflationary spiral. So he resigned. Heller despised Milton Friedman and his acolytes; he used to poke fun at them. When Heller proposed the tax cut, marginal rates were at over 90%. He brought the top rate down to 70%. The bottom 85% got almost 60% of the benefits of the cuts. Therefore, it was not a cross the board tax cut. And it was not supply side oriented; it was demand oriented, since most of the benefits went to the middle and working class. That is a far cry from what Ronald Reagan proposed and passed. In fact, the top rate was twice as high after Heller's cut than what the Reaganites proposed. Reagan's cuts really were supply side oriented since most of the benefits went to the top end. Laffe style across the board tax cut only benefits the rich and ultra-rich now. Further, there was still an effective corporate tax rate in 1963, and a significant capital gains tax. In other words, with Heller's plan, the money saved in taxes would really go into consumer spending and investment. Kennedy's economic views rewarded reinvestment and expansion of business. Even JFK originated the War on Poverty not Johnson. He knew that tax cuts alone would not alleviate poverty.  In fact, he made the specific point about this in his State of the Union address in 1963. Heller was also concerned with this issue and warned JFK that America was experiencing a "drastic slowdown in the rate at which the economy is taking people out of poverty." (p. 243) Heller decided this could not be remedied unless a specific program was devised to address it. About this proposed program Kennedy said, "Walter, first we're going to get your tax cut, and then we're going to get my expenditure program." (ibid) He then told Heller, that the attack on poverty would be a part of his 1964 campaign. The book also reminds us that Kennedy's Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, Anthony Celebrezze, presented a Medicare Plan to congress in November of 1963. (p. 311) And Clarke goes on to add that, in large part, Johnson's Great Society was a compendium of leftovers from Kennedy's proposals and initiatives. (p. 355). Kennedy was good friends with Republican Senator Everett Dirksen and he already targeted him as the key vote for the Civil Rights bill.   In fact, this was all known back in 1964. Because Look magazine had done an extensive survey about whether or not Kennedy's program was going to pass if he had lived. This survey including dozens of interviews and the result showed that the Kennedy program was going to pass in 1964. It may have taken a bit longer, but there was little doubt it was going to pass. So, President John F. Kennedy was a great President and his true legacy was cut short by a tragedy. We can use JFK's like as inspiration to move forward in advancing justice, progressive foreign relations, and true equality among all humankind.

 

One of the strangest pictures of the establishment comes from the famous 1972 Rothschild ball. On December 12, 1972, Marie-Hélène de Rothschild held a Surrealist ball at Château de Ferrières, one of the family’s gigantic mansions. These events were very secretive. Yet, photographs of the Ball have surfaced on the web. The images look similar to the movie from the Eyes Wide Shut masked ball and it is similar to a Lady Gage style pop video. Much of the images mask the obvious with fun and games. Yet, the big picture is that there is an occult elite that loves MK Ultra themes, occult symbolism, etc. that is found in so many music videos, movies, and other media in real life. The Rothschild invitation is written in reverse. You must have a mirror to read it. Inversion is a big deal in many occult circles. The Château de Ferrières was lit in red to make it appear as if it was on fire. Scenes from Roman Polanski’s movie about Satan “9th Gate” were filmed there. In “Eyes Wide Shut”, the occult ritual takes place in another Rothschild mansion, Mentmore Towers in the UK. There is one guest wearing a multiple faced mask. A similar mask can be seen in once against the Eyes Wide Shut movie (a film based on Rothschild balls). Debauchery has been done by the super-rich elite for thousands of years. Designs of birdcages are found everywhere. One human being wears a horned head, which is typical of the elite. Another person wears horned antlers on her head. There is Salvador Dali doing his Dali face in front his famous depiction of Mae West. Salvador Dali is an innovator of surrealism and surrealism and the occult have many ties or relationships. Many masks are shown. Also, on the dinner table, there are dismembered dolls and cracked skulls. This imagery is found in music videos now. It is about the occult elite loving dehumanization, MK Ultra culture, and other decadent perversions. There is some sick mannequin cadaver thing on the dinner table too. The images from the parties are serious stuff. It is disturbing to say the least. History repeats itself because of these same parties back in 1972 exist now in 2013. Many of the elite hate real morality, so they use eccentric behavior as a means to compensate their wicked deeds. This is unbelievable, but this stuff is very real. So, truth is stranger than fiction.

 

 

By Timothy