The government shutdown continues. The Republicans and the White House are discussing ways on how to resolve the shutdown and the debt ceiling issue. Each side seems to want to cut social programs out as part of a potential deal. Both sides are moving closer to an agreement. The deal relates to extending the U.S. debt ceiling for 6 to 8 weeks. The catch is that there might be a slashing on spending on Medicare, Social Security, and other social programs. “We had a useful meeting. We agreed to continue discussions,” Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said after leaving the White House. “We will continue tonight and hopefully we will have a clearer path forward.” Republican officials said that they would be amenable to a short term extension of the debt ceiling. The President agreed with this goal. The President just wants an immediate end to the government shutdown in the process. This proposal of increasing the debt ceiling could come soon. The meeting was between the White House and 20 leading Republican members of the House including Speaker John Boehner. There is the prospect of ending the debt ceiling through November 22 in exchange by the White House to have budget negotiations with the Republicans. If the debt ceiling deadline comes and no deal comes about, the U.S. government is scheduled to exhaust its ability to raise funds. The government should raise its debt ceiling in order to prevent that from happening. Republican House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said that Obama “didn’t say yes, didn’t say no,” to the Republicans’ proposal, but “agreed to continue talking and continue negotiating.” He added, “We put an offer on the table. We had a long, frank conversation about it. We agreed to continue talking and continue negotiating.” The meeting transpired for over an hour. Each side wants to make progress on the discussions. The Republican proposal does not include measures to defund or delay the Affordable Care Act (a law with strengths and weaknesses). It does contained limitations on the Treasury's ability to raise funds in future negotiations over the debt ceiling that the White House objected to. Both sides may agree to extend the debt ceiling under the guise of cutting social programs. Stocks have grown in Wednesday in response to the discussions. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by 323 points, or 2.2 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite Index rose by 2.3 percent. The jump in stock values was the highest since January and followed a plunge of more than 500 points by the Dow since mid-September. Wall Street and big business want the default threat ended. Some of them loved the Republican offers. Dan Veru, the chief investment officer of Palisade Capital Management, told Bloomberg, “You’re taking the nuclear option off the table, the fact that we’ll blow through the debt ceiling, that’s not going to happen.” He added, “This continues to put pressure on lawmakers to get a deal done because they’re seeing that just in fact talking is what markets want them to.” The discussions now do not involve an end to the government shutdown. Now, there are many furloughed government workers. Many regulatory agencies and government institutions have lost workers excluding those in the military industrial intelligence surveillance complex. Some bipartisan groups of Senators have been working on a proposal that would extend the debt ceiling for a year and fund the federal government (along with modifications to the Affordable Care Act in line with Republican demands. These demands are about the repeal of the revenue-raising tax on medical devices, and more restrictive eligibility requirements for receiving government subsidies for health insurance premiums). Both parties use this crisis as a means to cut social programs. The leadership of both parties seeks to cut hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicare, Social Security, and other programs. The Federal Reserve pumps $85 billion per month into the U.S. financial system. Quantitative easing have not worked massively to help the economy either. It appears that Janet Yellen will easily become the new Federal Reserve Chairman.
The economic depression of 1873 harmed the Reconstruction movement. It was a massive economic downturn in American society. It caused economic troubles in the North, South, Midwest, and the West Coast. There was political and economic corruption as well in that time period. There was the growth of the consolidated American state. Thousands of miles of railroad tracks were laid in the South and the West. Some states subsidize the costs of labor and materials. There was a growth of cynicism about government. Some railroad bosses paid out thousands of dollars in bribes to get the lucrative deals involving state subsidized railroads that would be controlled ultimately by private enterprise. Many states spent millions in tax dollars to subsidize railroads even when the work was not guaranteed. The federal government hypocritically back then was hesitant to give land to freedmen black Americans and poor whites, but it gave more than 180 million acres of land to railroad companies by the end of the nineteenth century. Those in the North and the South were outraged by the open corruption and bribe taking. Reconstruction was in trouble. The Depression of 1873 lasted until the end of the decade. It harmed the poor and the workers all across the States. It caused strife and labor disruption. In some Northern mining and railroad towns, officials called up soldiers from the South to put down strikes in the North. Vagrancy laws were passed across the North—not for the purpose of controlling labor but more to remove the “rebellion” of the unemployed. The events created a political vacuum. The Southern ruling class came in to seize more power. This planter class relied on the terrorism of the white supremacist groups like the KKK to harm human rights. There were another wave of murders and assassinations. In 1871, the Ku Klux Klan Acts and the Enforcement Acts were passed, which called for legal and military assistance in rooting out the Klan. They were remarkably successful. Hundreds of Klansmen were arrested, prosecuted, and imprisoned. Republicans were influential in getting the laws passed in Congress as they wanted to maintain electoral power if disenfranchisement of Blacks came in the South. 4 years later, the government retreated from trying to stop the Klan. Ulysses S. Grant had economic scandals. The Southern elite continued to use assassination, murder, and political coups. In 1875 in Vicksburg, Mississippi, armed whites calling themselves the Whites Party—led by the political elite—struck during municipal elections to oust Republicans and install Democrats. Whites patrolled the streets, shooting Blacks on sight. Within a couple of days, 300 Blacks were killed. Many racist whites united to intimidate Republicans and blacks from voting. Ballot votes were stolen and stuffed with ballots for Democrats. The Whites Party harmed the Republican vote. When the racist whites could not win the vote, they shot and killed black officeholders and replaced them with white men. The racists scapegoated Black freedmen for the economic problems during Reconstruction. With the federal government refusing to intervene, the racist had a green light to harm the South in Mississippi, South Carolina, etc. There was the electoral compromise of 1877. In the presidential election there were contested Electoral College votes. The compromise was that the Democrats would throw the election to the Republican, Rutherford B. Hayes, if they were guaranteed that Reconstruction would end. Since Hayes ran his campaign on ending Reconstruction, the deal was struck. Hayes was President. He withdrawn the last remaining troops form the South. Reconstruction was a revolutionary era, but it was not an era filled with total justice. The oppressor harmed African Americans, workers, poor whites, Native Americans, and others during that time period and afterwards. After Reconstruction, Jim Crow segregation grew and many courageous human beings fought for liberation. It would not be until decades later until Jim Crow would be finally defeated overtly. The Second Reconstruction ended overt Jim Crow by the 1960's. We still are fighting battles now in 2013.
We know that the government shutdown is a product of bad policies done by both major parties. There should be no massive shutdown at all. Even some of the Founders rejected excessive partisan agitation in society. There are many reasons why we have this budget crisis in the first place. One is the Internet economy is harmed via mass surveillance. Some of this unjust surveillance has even harmed Internet companies in Silicon Valley, California and throughout the entire U.S. economy. That is why Facebook lost 11 million users as for April mainly due to privacy concerns even before the Snowden revelations. Another reason why things are the way they are is because the elite encouraged American businesses to move abroad for decades. This outsourcing have sucked money out of the U.S. economy and injected it in foreign economies. There is deindustrialization. Another reason is the evil war on terror. This war on terror has been horrible for the economy and many unjust wars have not massively benefited us morally or economically. It has stolen resources and the war on terror is not necessary to protect us from an imminent attack. There has been the creation of too big to fail banks, which have stagnated economic growth. The giant banks have received massive, record subsidies. The big banks are saved at the expense of us taxpayers and the political establishment has chosen the banks over the regular person. The elite do not massively help Main Street, but they throw trillions of dollars to the giant banks. A large percentage of the Wall Street bailouts are sent into foreign banks, which is highly immoral. Money has been thrown at corporate elites, which is about the advancement of corporate welfare. There have been massive subsidies sent to the doomed nuclear industry. Bondholders are strengthening while the economy is still suffering. There has been a refusal to prosecute criminal fraud made by Wall Street or anyone else that is harming the economy. The massive quantitative easing that drains the government resources harms the economy including regular Americans. It does not offset massive savings from budget cuts in other areas. A large portion of the money from quantitative easing goes into foreign companies, which is immoral. When there is a redistribution of wealth from the regular citizens to the super rich, it will grow economic inequality and do damage to the overall economy. Allowing an over financialized economy lead into depressions without safeguards. We have to reject runaway fraud, waste, and corruption in the world. There has been a huge spending large amount of money on a failed drug war. Giant corporations have escaped paying taxes and some are allowed to get tax refunds while slamming the small business owners and the regular folks. Small businesses create a lot more jobs in the States than big businesses. There should be fairness and social justice too. Many GOP extremists are happy that this shutdown is happening where folks are being harmed economically, socially, and psychologically. They hypocritically blame government for stagnating economic growth, but direct government investment in research and development projects influenced the development of the iPhone, the Internet, GPS, touchscreens and cellular communications. According to Mazzucato, citing the research of health care expert Dr. Marcia Angell, fully 75 percent of the truly innovative drugs brought to market by the pharmaceutical industry were discovered in national laboratories funded by the state. What's more, explains Angell, author of The Truth about Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do about It, in an interview for Mother Jones, the industry spends 2.5 times more on marketing and administration than it does on research and development. They claim to hate the state, but want the government to fund the military industrial complex and even some of their health care services. See, the political elite only dislike government spending when they aren't the beneficiaries. That is why they hate welfare spending that benefits the poor. The corporate titans are pleased as punch about welfare spending that serves the interests of Big Business--such as the many forms of government investment in tech innovation that allows venture capital firms to later swoop in and make massive profits after the government has absorbed all the risk by funding the research. The Tea Party crowd is hypocritical to love neoliberalism, but want trillions of dollars to benefit their interests. Record loopholes now have allowed record corporate profits.
Brazil is an interesting country. It is the largest country in South America. Now, its current 1988 Constitution describes it as a federal republic. Brazil has the union of the Federal District, 26 states, and 5,564 municipalities. Brazil has the world's seventh largest economy in the world. Its nominal GDP is huge and it is the seventh largest by the purchasing power parity as of 2012. It is a member of the BRIC group or a collection of expanding economies. These are some of the world's fastest growing economies in the world. Brazil's national development bank or BNDES played a role in the country's economic growth. Brazil is made up of many ethnic groups like Native Americans, Africans, Europeans, Asians, etc. Brazil has a large degree of cultural diversity and assimilation of cultures in its history. Many Europeans in Brazil are heavily of Portuguese descent since Portuguese imperialists conquered Brazil centuries ago. Many Africans in Brazil are related to the Yoruba, Ewe, Akan, Bantu, etc. Tupi, Guarani, and other Native American groups still live in Brazil. Many Afro-Brazilians heavily live in Rio de Janeiro, Espirito Santo, Minas Gerais, Goias, Mato Grosso do Sul, and in the Federal District (or in the mid southern states of Brazil). The southern part of the country is heavily European with Germans, Italians, and Polices found in Rio Grande Do Sul, Santa Catarina, Parana, and the most populous areas of Sao Paulo. The coast also have many Afro-Brazilian Brothers and Sisters too. The city of Salvador da Bahia is considered one of the largest black cities of the world. In the Northwest (covering largely the Brazilian Amazon), a great part of the population has distinguishable ethnic characteristics that emphasize their Amerindian roots. Other ethnic groups have merged with the Indigenous tribes there. Over 60 million Brazilians possess at least one Amerindian ancestor, according to a recent mitochondrial DNA study. This region is not densely populated, and "caboclos", people of mixed native and European descent, are a small part of the entire Brazilian population. About 1.5 million Japanese-Brazilians live in Brazil and most of them live in São Paulo. Some Chinese and Korean human beings live in certain locations of Brazil as well. Most of the Chinese came from mainland China and some came from Taiwan including Hong Kong (plus from Portuguese speaking Macau). Today, there are about close to 300,0000 Native Americans living in Brazil now as compared to about 5 million when the first Portuguese came into Brazil in 1500. Brazil is about 63.20 Roman Catholic, 23.45 Protestant (that includes Baptists too), 0.31 percent Afro-Brazilian religions, and the rest are no religion or others. Black Brazilians are defined as people who are solely, or mostly, descended from former African slaves, or immigrants. According to the 2010 census, there are 14, 517, 961 Afro Brazilians, which make up 7.61% of Brazil's population, although a larger number of Brazilians have some degree of African ancestry. Salvador, Bahia has a largest percentage of Afro-Brazilians. There is a huge influence of African cuisine in Brazil. In the state of Bahia, there is great cuisine. There is the dishes like Vatapa and Moqueca (both with seafood and dende palm oil). This heavy oil extracted from the fruits of an African palm tree is one of the basic ingredients in Bahian or Afro-Brazilian cuisine, adding flavor and bright orange color to foods. There is no equivalent substitute, but it is available in markets specializing in Brazilian or African imports. Yes, the capoeira martial arts was formed by African slaves that came mostly from Angola or Mozambique. It was used as a form of dance and a form of martial arts as well. It is a very cultural part of the nation of Brazil.
George Will is a disgrace. It would be one thing if he would have outlined dissent with the ACA and be done with it. Yet, he involved slavery and the Fugitive Slave Act, so he should be rightfully condemned for his words. The Fugitive Slave Act kidnapped black human beings. It harmed human rights and it harmed society a harsh way. That act was part of the overall system of slavery. The system of slavery was an abomination and it was much worse than the ACA. Will is a reactionary and folks like that are reminding us what they think of us. George Will is not going to say a single word on bailouts sending money to Wall Street and foreign banks. He will outline nothing on criminal actions made by Wall Street and the military industrial complex in a fierce way. We need revolutionary solutions not Tea Party talking points. He will not say a single word on record income inequality or how some of the super-rich use loopholes and subsidies as a means to avoid paying taxes. He will not say a single word on how privatization has harmed society and he omits how deindustrialization & other economic regressive policies have harmed Detroit (beyond cultural things. Yes, I reject some theocracy. Folks like Will use coded language as a means to advance their agenda when black teen pregnancy rates and overall crime has gone down in the States). He will not say a single commentary on how corporate exploitation and environmental injustices have harmed the black community. So, he is a distraction. The real truth is that the ACA has strengths and weakness. The ACA should not be the final word on a health care solution. We need more solutions and more actions done in the States. We should continue to fight for better health care for all Americans. Industrialized nations with a more progressive health care system than us have greater health indicators than America. Dr. Ben Carson did a lot of good for medicine. I respect his legitimate accomplishments as a doctor. I don't hate the Brother. I wish the Brother the best in his life. Yet, he needs to be careful of what he wishes for since FOX News is known for its deception, reactionary agenda, and baiting commentaries on issues. Many FOX News reporters had to retract or apologize for their lies about society in general. FOX News is an instrument of Rupert Murdoch and many of them there love the evil agenda of the Koch Brothers. FOX News is notorious for its errors. Black human beings, the poor, etc. should never be made scapegoats for the economic recession or all ills of Western society at all. It is not evil to advocate workers' rights, to have love for the environment, to fight for human civil liberties, to oppose the War on Drugs including mass incarceration of our Brothers & our Sisters, to disagree with imperialism, and to love freedom. I do not know why Dr. Ben Carson would join such a network. As black human beings, we do not have ally with a reactionary network to be free or independent ideologically. FOX News has issued many distortions about minorities, the poor and other members of the human family. As a people, we can maintain strongly our political independence without cooperating with a reactionary network like FOX News (whose leadership loves the war on terror and does nothing to address the record economic inequality inside of the States). You will notice that FOX News will do nothing to discuss pan Africanism or talk about real, beautiful culture of black human beings. We can just love our black being, follow Black Unity, and advance justice for humanity. Ben Carson is dead wrong to say that the ACA is the worst thing since slavery. I respect his medical accomplishments, but he is in error here.
By Timothy
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