I will return to education on Monday, but I want to use this weekend to speak to the Democratic Convention. It is disturbing to watch Bill Clinton brought on stage as a party stalwart especially as many of the democratic base understand that he is the reason the country and people are in the situation they are today. Not by accident.....by intent. I have written many of the political pundits scheduled to work the mainstream convention coverage challenging them, after four years of silence, to out Bill Clinton as an imposter. Below you see my letter to EJ Dionne of the Washington Post. He is always used as the Democrat in these worthless political exchanges we hear on TV and radio. EJ is a Brookings Institute member.....Third Way political pundit. I wanted to make the disturbing illusion he and the media have created clear while also making clear that the democratic base is not fooled. It is true there are some who have been effectively blocked from this information, but those numbers are falling fast.
The book to which I refer was a political ode to the progressive wing written in 1996, Clinton's last term. He and Clinton are placing themselves as the spirit of progressives. Clinton had by that time formed the Third Way caucus and was moving forward much of the policy that would bring down the unions and the middle-class........Clinton publicly declared, "The Glass-Steagall Act is no longer relevant."[6] My reference to retaking the democratic party from the Third Way brings the topic to the present.
MY LETTER TO E J DIONNE:
I was looking at your book on the resurgence of the progressives next election (1996) and I agree with you....we will take back control of the Democratic Party from the Third Way corporate democrats.
It was odd seeing Clinton as the introduction and it is odd that you would write it. The Brooking Institute is the Third Way think tank working for the 'New Economy' which has most Americans either at third world poverty competing with immigrants or migrants themselves as forced to work overseas just as the Asians and Africans do now. None of this policy ends well for the Americans.
Clinton and Third Way killed unions, killed middle-class, killed public education, created income inequity, mega-banks and corporations that now run the country. The point is none of this is progressive.
Why is a Third Way columnist writing this and a Third Way President commenting on it?
Cindy Walsh
Citizens Oversight Maryland.com
As a REAL progressive this is my take: This is a sports analogy that describes this Third Way Corporate Democrat lovefest.....Reagan era makes the game play, Clinton provides the loaded golf ball and tees it, Bush Jr wacks it with a Tiger Woods force, and Obama, the official at the point of landing watches the loaded ball disappear into high grass and declares he sees no foul and drops the new ball neatly on the green so as to not hold up play by looking for the loaded ball.The Democratic core of the party understands that corporate politicians have the leadership of the party but try as they and mainstream media might, we all know the truth. You cannot put lipstick on these pigs. I was glad not to see Russ Feingold on the speakers list........he will, after all be the next Democratic President.
It was telling that the next time I heard EJ Dionne on the convention coverage he did not speak in heightened rhetoric of Bill Clinton......it was his Republic counterpart that hailed Clinton......as was appropriate.
PLEASE WORK HARD TO VOTE ALL OF THE THIRD WAY FARM TEAM AT THE STATE AND LOCAL LEVEL OUT OF OFFICE AS WE WORK TO TURN THIS AROUND!!!
I want to bring the media coverage into show with one more point. Yesterday I shared a great article on education by New York Times that made this statement:
IN March, a task force organized by the Council on Foreign Relations (a corporate lobby) tried to reframe the problems of the nation’s public schools as a threat to national security. “Large, undereducated swaths of the population damage the ability of the United States to physically defend itself, protect its secure information, conduct diplomacy, and grow its economy,” it warned, while also referring to students as “human capital.”
This morning we have this from a very corporate NPR NEWS:
Violence Seizes French Port City by Eleanor Beardsley NPR NEWS
Audio for this story from Weekend Edition Saturday will be available at approx. 12:00 p.m. ET
text size A A A September 8, 2012 The French port city of Marseilles is in the grip of gang warfare, as young men fight for control of drug trafficking, often using sophisticated weapons left over from the Balkan wars. The gangs are pushing professional criminals and syndicates aside. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley describes the mood with host Scott Simon.
If you listen to this story you will hear the same description of the masses as criminal and roving. Remember, it is the criminal actions of the wealthy and politicians who have created this environment of extraordinary poverty and crime. THESE WEALTHY AND POLITICIANS ARE THE PROBLEM AND RULE OF LAW IS THE ANSWER TO BRINGING MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF MONEY STOLEN THROUGH FRAUD BACK TO GOVERNMENTS SO AS TO SUPPORT THOSE HARMED AND REBUILD THE ECONOMY. THIS IS THE SOLUTION.
NPR goes on to use what is standard for them.....France's socialists are going to send in the army to control to port of Marseilles. They acknowledge that sending in the army is not a socialist thing to do. NO IT ISN'T GIVEN THE PROBLEM AND SOLUTION LIES WITH THE RICH AND POLITICIANS. I would like to think the NPR before this NEWSWEEK CEO may have provided journalism rather than propaganda. France's Hollande is a Social Democrat, but, as with politics across Europe and the US, he is a product of elite schools.....he is not a socialist and to say so is sinister. Eleanor Beardsley and Scott Simon.......you are being sinister in your reporting!
This report combined with the New York Times article showing the attitude at the top of US politics shows that the politicians in place are gearing up for a war against the people, not for a Rule of Law solution to massive criminal and corruption at top levels of government and corporations. We see this happening already at the local level. The laws passed making protest a crime, heightened police brutality and surveillance, and a captured media all preface a move towards a repressive government. WE ALL KNOW IT IS NOT A TARGETED GROUP THAT WILL FEEL THIS OPPRESSION.....IT WILL BE CLASS-DRIVEN. THE 5% FEELS THREATENED BY THE 95%.
The last point I'd like to make today has to do with the media's attempt to make it appear that most people are just fine. It is just those without a college degree that are struggling. THIS HAS BECOME A MANTRA AND IT IS FRAMING A LONGER-TERM DYNAMIC.....WHO WILL BE ABLE TO GET THAT COLLEGE EDUCATION IN THE FUTURE? WE KNOW THE THIRD WAY CORPORATE DEMOCRATS ARE WORKING HARD TO BE SURE THAT MOST OF US WON'T!
The truth is that most people are not doing fine. We all know that tens of millions of workers are in jobs that won't support them.....college grads included. We know that large numbers of young college grads are heading into the military......you know that isn't their dream. WHEN YOU HEAR MEDIA TELLING YOU MOST PEOPLE ARE DOING JUST FINE WITH THIS UNEMPLOYMENT RATE AT 8.1%........THEY ARE GIVING YOU PROPAGANDA NOT NEWS. As Paul Krugman, a liberal economist said a few years ago......the way your incumbent is handling this recovery, there will be a structurally high unemployment rate........he is right. Why do you send college grads into the military as you are decrying a shortage of qualified workers needing immigrants to be brought in?
THIS IS UGLY FOLKS AND YOUR INCUMBENT KNOWS WHERE THIS IS TAKING AMERICA!!!!
VOTE YOUR INCUMBENT OUT!!
FROM MARKETPLACE/NPR.
........if you talk to economists, most jobs in the next several decades won't be owning small businesses or being educated, white-collar professionals. Most of the jobs will be in the service sector -- janitors, home health care workers, restaurant servers. So the real trick is to turn those jobs that the bulk of Americans will have into middle class jobs.
SEE WHY HERE IN BALTIMORE THERE IS A TOTAL DISREGARD TO THE SMALL BUSINESS OWNER AND THE PUSH TO VOCATIONAL 'COLLEGES?
DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE THIS???????
Most Americans feel satisfied with their jobs
Adam Berry/Getty Images Marketplace/NPR
Gallup's latest polls reveal only 1 in 10 Americans say that they are dissatisfied with their jobs. It's a major jump from the results from two decades ago.
Tomorrow the government will tell us how many jobs were created last month and what the new unemployment rate is. And there will be a lot of talk about the millions of Americans who are still looking for work.
But what about the people who have jobs -- are they satisfied? That was the topic of today's Attitude Check, our weekly partnership with the polling firm Gallup.
"Forty-seven percent of Americans are completely satisfied with their jobs," said Frank Newport, editor-in-chief at Gallup. "Another 42 percent are somewhat satisfied. You put that together -- you've only got about one out of 10 Americans who tell us at any rate, who are working, that they're dissatisfied." Newport said that in 1989, only 28 percent were completely satisfied with their jobs.
Newport said Gallup pollsters broke down satisfaction into 13 separate categories and asked people whether they were completely satisfied with those parts of their jobs. It turns out the thing that Americans are least satisfied with are on-the-job stress -- only 29 percent.
"But the other things that Americans are less satisfied with at work are the amount of money they earned, retirement, chances for promotion, health benefits -- all those kind of tangibles are what workers are least satisfied with," said Newport.
What workers are most happy with? According to Newport: The physical safety of workplace conditions, and intangible things like coworkers -- and interestingly, their bosses.
As for whether these numbers might affect the election in the fall, Newport said there was absolutely no difference in job satisfaction between Republicans and Democrats.
"So we don't have one group of people out there, politically speaking, who are in angst about their jobs and are going to rush to a voting place to try and do something about it. Satisfaction is very equal. The people who are less satisfied with their jobs are Independents -- and of course, they're less likely to vote."
About the authorFrank Newport, Ph.D., is the editor-in-chief at Gallup and appears regularly on Marketplace.
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