February 28, 2017: State of Disunion, A National Obscenity, Quintessential ‘Boomer’

Donald tRUMP is much more than a national embarrassment; he is a national obscenity"

                            ----from "The Quotations of Chairman Joe"

Following the election, Time magazine published a cover photo of Donald tRUMP over which was written the headline “President of the Divided States of America”.   And so, he is. 

To be fair to our Caesar Disgustus he did not create these divisions but, like any Rescumlican worthy of the name, he has done his level best to exploit them.  Divisions of race, class, geography; black and brown vs. white, rich vs the rest of us, town vs country and the coasts vs the interior ‘heartland’.  Many of these divisions have been eternally with us bedeviling the republic since before its inception, race and class being a legacy of our colonial heritage.  tRUMP, as Nixon, Reagan and the Bushes before him has been the happy beneficiary of the politics of divide and rule; but the divisions now are so marked and run so deep as to fragment the very foundations of the republic itself. 

Again, it is hard to lay responsibility for all this upon the sorry head of Disgustus.  The Democrats, by encouraging international trade agreements and ‘free markets’ as well as whoring after the moneyed interests on Wall Street have now become the party of the coastal states.  Is it any wonder then that one would find Obama pushing the secret TPP as well as an equally secret European trade deal, despite clearly predictable consequences for the middle class and what is left of organized labor?  The Democrats have likewise become a party ossified by layers of special interests representing narrow bands of the electorate and increasingly narrower bands of national territory.  It is not mere happenstance that upon election the first casualty of the Obama administration was Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean who had envisioned and worked assiduously to broaden the party’s popular and geographic support, taking the Democrats deep within Republican territory.  Instead new leadership in the form of Tim Kaine assumed control, an alumnus of the Clinton-led DLC and firm believer in transforming the Democrats into America’s second Rescumlican Party.  The results where wholly predictable with Americans consistently opting, when given the choice, for the genuine article—as in the last presidential election.  Again, tRUMP had nothing to do with these developments, but he was the happy beneficiary thereof.

What tRUMP did do was conduct himself in such a manner as to demean the process by which we choose who will represent us, and now threatens to demean the process by which we govern. 

The tragedy of 2016 was clearly demonstrated by the second presidential debate featuring tRUMP fresh from allegations of serially sexually abusing several women facing the Clintons with several of Bill’s paramours featured prominently in the audience looking on.  The national tragedy was that neither of these aging “Boomers” could, unlike, for instance, the far more qualified Gary Hart, be shamed from the national stage.  Instead the nation was forced to endure what became an openly pornographic contest for the nation’s highest office; a contest which tRUMP did his level best to lose but, unfortunately for the nation and perhaps the world, lost the race to the bottom by an even more suspect opponent.  Indeed, on election day more people trusted Disgustus than our former First Lady.  

The damage done to our politics by such a spectacle is difficult to measure but it is becoming increasingly clear that the longer this ‘Generation of Swine’ has its hands about the throat of the republic, the greater the risk of its survival. 

tRUMP is the quintessential “Boomer”, willfully ignorant, narcissistic, paranoid, thin-skinned, self-serving, greedy and with a propensity to vandalize whatever he touches.  He is, in fact, the ‘Boomer’s” end game; a national obscenity and now titular head of a movement hell-bent upon, perhaps, destroying the republic itself.    

February 26, 2016: The Monk of Clairvaux, Depth of Decline, Know Not How to Govern

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) (1) in a letter to his disciple Eugenius had this to say about the vices and Tumults of Rome:

“Who is ignorant”, says the monk of Clairvaux, “of the vanity and the arrogance of the Romans? A nation nursed in sedition, cruel, untractable, and scorning to obey, unless they are too feeble to resist.  When they promise to serve, they aspire to reign; if they swear allegiance, they watch the opportunity of revolt; yet they vent their discontent in loud clamors, if your doors or your counsels are shut against them.  Dexterous in mischief, they have never learned the science of doing good.  Odious to earth and heaven, impious to God, seditious among themselves, jealous of their neighbours, inhuman to strangers, they love no one, by no one are they loved; and while they wish to inspire fear, they live in base and continual apprehension.  They will not submit; they know not how to govern; faithless to their superiors, intolerable to their equals, ungrateful to their benefactors, and alike impudent in their demands and their refusals.  Lofty in promise, poor in execution: adulation and calumny, perfidy and treason, are familiar arts of their policy.” (2)

This account of the sorry state into which the once proud Romans had degenerated by the 12^th century could easily describe contemporary America and the malaise currently gripping the American psyche.  Nothing, better describes attitudes and behaviors of the contemporary United States currently in the grip of the narcissistic Boomers, the ‘Generation of Swine”; and nowhere is this malignancy more manifest than in the mischief presently perpetrated by the knuckle-dragging conservative movement which releasing itself from the bonds of reason has proceeded to make a mockery of not only public policy but the very legitimacy of governance itself.  History, it appears, has run its course on the American Empire as the cancer that is the American Conservative movement works its way through the body politic.

Across this land one hears a constant chorus of ‘it can’t be done’.  We can’t afford health insurance; we can’t afford to invest in infrastructure; we can’t afford to invest in our people and our labor force; we can’t afford the new technologies necessary to save ourselves, and perhaps the planet, from the devastating demands being imposed upon mother nature by modern civilization. This has become the Mantra of the Swine.

This isn’t a recent development.  It began precisely at that junction when the “Boomers” came, politically speaking, ‘of age’.  Just as the ‘Can-Do’ attitudes of our fathers put a man on the moon the “Boomers”, having chased a President from office and about to vote for the first time, added to their critique of war and peace the questioning of our investments in the space program.  The argument, so it went, was that we couldn’t afford the program.  And so Nixon, always with his ear to the ground, cut the funding for NASA eliminating at least two more moon missions and relegating the space program for decades to the continual circling of the earth in low space orbit.  The era of “Can’t-Do” had arrived.

And so began the not-so-slow downward spiral as one program after another suffered budget cuts and America began a serial disinvestment in its future and in itself.  The “Boomers”, embracing a conservative and libertarian creed, have by degrees hollowed out not only the industrial economy of a once great nation but it’s very soul; to the very point where we now “know not how to govern” and, indeed question the very legitimacy of governance itself.   

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(1). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_of_Clairvaux

(2). Gibbon, Edward “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”.  Methuen & Co

            London 1914. Volume VII, page 228

June 18, 2015: The Great Boar, Losing His Squeal, Better for It

 

 

Rush Limbaugh, the greatest ‘boar’ on talk radio, has been haranguing audiences for well over a quarter century parlaying vituperation into millions of dollars.  In so doing he has not only given ‘honor’ to ignorance but has transformed himself into the mouthpiece of a generation.  He has become the very squeal of the swine.

 

Eric Boehlert, writing in “Salon”, comments on the impending demise of the reigning conservative oracle:

 

“Limbaugh’s ongoing major market woes can be traced to his 2012 on-air meltdown over Sandra Fluke, where he castigated and insulted the graduate student for three days on his program, calling her a “slut” and suggesting she post videos of herself having sex on the Internet. (Fluke’s sin in the eyes of Limbaugh was testifying before Congress in favor of contraception mandates for health care insurance.)

The astonishing Limbaugh monologues sparked an unprecedented advertiser exodus, which means selling his show has become a major lift for the affiliate stations that pay a hefty fee for the right to carry his program. The Wall Street Journal has reported on the millions of dollars in advertising revenue that Limbaugh’s host stations lose because of the talker’s stigma on Madison Avenue.” (1)

He’s lost KLN in Nebraska (2), his spot on Indianapolis’ flagship talk radio station, WLS in Chicago and his premier place in the Boston radio markets.   The great boar is losing his squeal not simply because of disgraceful on-air commentary, but because the Boomers are getting older and, it appears, increasingly irrelevant.

Jason Easley, in an essay appearing in “Politicususa” has given other reasons why the full-throated squeal is being reduced to a mere whimper: The advertiser boycott touched off by Limbaugh’s unseemly assault on Sandra Fluke brought public attention to the sewer that conservative talk radio has become.

“[B]ut as Republican Daryl Parks wrote when rumors of Limbaugh getting moved to a smaller station in Chicago surfaced, radio station executives don’t want Limbaugh, but literally can’t give him away, “The Chicago rumors come as no surprise to me, as three different Cumulus executives have told me on different occasions they wish they could get rid of Limbaugh’s show and they can’t sell it.” ‘(3)

“Parks also explained why these stations are stuck with Limbaugh, “Premiere Networks and its owner Clear Channel Media + Entertainment iHeart Media has crammed down Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck on its talk stations, not allowing local stations to make needed changes to their programming, changes that could provide some hope of staying relevant. It was a great business model…in the 20th century! In business speak it’s called “vertical integration.” The company produces the product and then uses its distribution arm, its radio stations, to broadcast the shows. Guaranteed clearance, plus in Limbaugh’s case and some of Hannity’s stations, the local stations have to pay a “rights fee” in addition to the barter commercial inventory they broadcast from the network. There was no negotiation whether to broadcast the show or what fee was to be paid. Here’s the number you pay was the only conversation during the budget process. This, as you can imagine, affected cash flow and coupled with the increasing demands for talk stations to generate more profit, it forced local stations to lay-off other talk hosts, producers and gut news departments. Talented people left the radio business and the death spiral for talk radio began. It began years ago.”

“The radio stations don’t get a choice. They are being forced to carry Limbaugh while paying for the privilege of giving three hours of airtime to a host whose audience is even older than those who watch Fox News.” (3)

Rush Limbaugh and Conservative talk radio have become the bane of the industry in nearly all the major markets.  The Sandra Fluke scandal, of course, sparked a national outcry with groups like “Flush Rush” working to organize an effective national boycott of his sponsors. 

But this is only half the story.  There is another, more significant, reason that Conservative Talk has fallen beneath Sports and Limbaugh now has a smaller audience in New York and Los Angeles than Spanish radio stations (3).  His audience is getting older and, increasingly, irrelevant.  

“Younger people across the political spectrum don’t listen to talk radio. Stations that carry Limbaugh are losing both listeners and money.” (3)

 When Indianapolis’ flagship station WIBC announced it was dropping Limbaugh, Charlie Morgan, executive of Emmis Communications acknowledged the damage resulting from the Fluke Scandal and the departure of national advertisers.  But he also said the decision was about “the long-term direction” of the station. (4)  With similar demographics, conservative talk-radio is selling at roughly half the income of conventional music formats. (4). 

As Limbaugh’s empire unravels the remaining stations in his broadcast network will be looking to dump him as soon as their contracts expire with few eager step in (1).  Meanwhile he is being moved from flagship stations, as in the case of his Boston affiliate, to a station that has .06 percentage of the market share; the cellar-dwelling outpost of WKOX. 

These are welcome events, demonstrating not only the power of grass-roots organization and protest, but the loss of audience and impending demise of the most egregious mouthpiece of the generation of swine. Both radio and the republic will be the better for it. 
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(1).  See Boehlert, Eric. “Rush Limbaugh’s downward spiral continues: Another demotion, another step toward irrelevancy” http://www.salon.com/2015/06/18/rush_limbaughs_downward_spiral_continues_another_demotion_another_step_to_irrelevancy_partner/

 

(2) See Salzillo, Leslie. “Rush Limbaugh Plagued With Deserting Radio Stations, Sponsors, And Now - Dead Air?” http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/27/1324916/-Rush-Limbaugh-Plagued-With-Deserting-Radio-Stations-And-Now-Dead-Air#

 

(3).  See Easley, Jason. “Rush Limbaugh’s Ratings Are So Bad That Radio Stations No Longer Want His Show” http://www.politicususa.com/2015/04/27/rush-limbaughs-ratings-bad-radio-stations-longer-show.html

 

(4). See Carusone, Angelo.  “Rush Limbaugh Dropped By Longtime Indianapolis Station” http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/04/13/rush-limbaugh-dropped-by-longtime-indianapolis/203265

 

March 23, 2015: Malignancy of Swine, Turning of the Screws, Marrow of the Republic

The malignancy that is the modern conservative movement has been growing and mestasticizing for over 30 years now. The country, once strong and prosperous, has become weak, fragile and, increasingly poor. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in my beloved state of Michigan.

Susan J. Demas is Publisher and Editor of Inside Michigan Politics, a nationally acclaimed, biweekly political newsletter. In an essay published yesterday on mlive, a Michigan website hosting all the state’s major newspapers, Demas graphically illustrates the state of malignancy.



"If you're not basking in the warm glow of Michigan's economic

"Comeback", you’re not alone", she writes.

"The median income in Michigan has shrunk by a startling $13,278 this century, according to data newly released from the Pew Charitable Trusts. In 2000, the median income was $61,551, but that tumbled to $48,273 by 2013.

That's a staggering drop". Indeed it is.

"There are certainly some visible signs of an improving economy here.", she adds, "Unemployment is down from 10.7 percent in January 2011 to 6.6 percent in January 2015 (although it remains well above the national rate of 5.7 percent)." And, according to the Tax Foundation, Michigan is the 13^th best business climate among the states in their collective ‘race-to-the-bottom’ to see who can best shine the shoes of their corporate paymasters. But, she rightly concludes, when median income takes such a big hit and thousands of families fall from the middle class, it takes awhile for people to feel an economic recovery."

Michigan, alas, is not alone for "All 50 states have seen their middle class ranks shrink, Pew reports". "The percentage of middle-class households dropped in Wisconsin by 5.7 points, in Indiana by 4.4 points and in Ohio by 5.2 points." None, however "saw such a dramatic drop in median income as Michigan did, however".

The trend is, indeed a national trend, with states that are doing relatively well like North Dakota where unemployment has been the lowest still reporting a 5.1% decline–higher than Michigan’s–in median household income.

" The number of people calling themselves "middle class"(nationally) has dropped significantly. A January 2014 Pew Research study found 44 percent identify as middle class, compared to 53 percent in 2008, at the start of the recession." (1)

America is beginning to perceive in measurable terms what has been the economic reality for some time now. We were informed about this, over a quarter of a century ago, with Kevin Phillips’ work "The Politics of Rich and Poor" in which the fallacies of Reaganomics were laid bare, but the country, governed by swine, paid no heed.

This is beginning to change, as the polling by Pew, here reportedly demonstrates. What this translates into politically is another matter; for we have learned from the fascist experiments in Europe that not all middle class political revolts are liberal or, for that matter, democratic. And, nowhere has this been better illustrated than electing and then re-electing a hedge-fund vulture capitalist governor. Snyder rewarded the ‘populist’ revolt by waging war on organized labor and the workingman, raising taxes on the middle class, and cutting taxes on his rich friends. None of this is new but with each ‘turn of the screws’ the middle class shrinks just a little bit more.

The cancer has spread from the delusions of a Russian emigre, and the scribbling of truculent economist to the stink-tanks funded by the billionaires across the airwaves of their paid minions into the halls of every corridor of power. The cancer that is the modern conservative movement is now spreading through the body politic into the very marrow of the republic itself. This is the legacy of the "Generation of Swine".
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(1) http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/01/rick_snyder_state_of_state_2.html

March 20, 2015: Old Man’s Lament, So Much Older Then, I Cannot Write Act III

"My faith was so much stronger then
I believed in fellow men
I was so much older then
When I was young
When I was young”

                  ----- The Animals “When I Was Young” (1)

It is, perhaps, the lament of every generation that life has reached it’s zenith, perhaps civilization its apex, when ‘I was young’.  Age, it seems, not only brings a catalogue of ailments and declining abilities but an increasing sensation that the polished brass of youth has grown rather tarnished and tawdry. Life begins to ape one’s aching body and society, in short order, follows the trajectory of body and soul. In any case, it appears to be a near universal human experience that life was better all those years ago.  I was so much older then, when I was young.

2014 marked a century since the outbreak of the “Great War” when Europe became a killing field and the United States emerged as a world power.  It also marked the end of the “American” century as, it was announced last December, China has now overtaken the United States as the world’s largest economy.  The United States, the “Arsenal of Democracy”, which had held the pre-eminent position as the world’s largest economy since the administration of Ulysses S. Grant, has now relinquished its place as the world’s greatest economic engine, with political and military power soon to follow.

This, too, is the legacy of the “Generation of Swine” who have managed in a span of 30 years to squander the national trust..  We have witnessed the wholesale gutting of the industrial base, the disinvestment in our workforce, our schools, our infrastructure, ourselves.  We have engaged in a ‘every-man-for-himself’ race to the bottom.  We no longer believe in government because we no longer believe in our fellow men.  No longer do we heed Jeremy Bentham’s dictum of the ‘greatest good for the greatest number’ but charity, as well as public policy, are increasingly defined as, my wife would say, to “me, my four and no more”.

Life has become base, crude, uncivilized and tawdry. Rap music and ‘pants to the ground’.  Television after you subtract out the 4 channels broadcasting, at any given time, ‘the world’s greatest pillow’, the religious howlers, and the conspiracy channels one is left holding an empty bag.  The “History” and “Discovery” channels, which formerly broadcast content that at least had the pretense of scholarship are now nothing more than programs about witches, goblins, haunted houses, and conspiracy theories. There is the standard daytime fare: Jerry Springer and his imitators in which the lower intestines of American culture are daily flushed into the living rooms of the nation, if not the world.  Then there is the news.  Where once stood Murrow, Cronkite, Blair, Rather, Severied,  Huntley and Brinkley, and a host of professional reporters we are now presented with the likes of O’Reilly, Beck, and a whole network of babbling buffoons.  Jane Curtin, reprising her role on “Weekend Update” for NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” was moved to quip “40 years ago I was the only dumb blonde on television delivering fake news...now we have a whole network”, referring, of course, to the debasement of the industry by the likes of Rupert Murdock.  And let’s not even talk about radio where hate speech is the order of the day, where either one is inundated with diatribes belittling the poor, minorities, women and those who struggle under ‘the new world order’, or with infantile paranoid conspiracy theories spun by the likes of Glenn Beck and Alex Jones where we are led to dance on ramparts.  Once we could take matters in hand, as we did at the Pettis Bridge in Selma and march for freedom, today we huddle fearing anyone and everyone.  Increasingly my country feels like my aging body, where once we marched in confidence, today we recoil and huddle in pain and fear waiting for the next blow from the hopelessly juvenile, cretinous, knuckle-dragging Tea-baggers,as they do the bidding of their corporate masters.  We were so much older then, when we were young.

“I have left Act I, for involution
And Act II. There, mired in complexity
I cannot write Act III.”

----Senator Eugene McCarthy “Lament for an Aging Politician” (2)
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1. http://www.metrolyrics.com/when-i-was-young-lyrics-the-animals.html
2. http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eugene_McCarthy

March 11, 2015: Generation of Swine, Mendacity of the Swine, Deeply Offensive Performances

“Never underestimate the mendacity of the swine”
            ----From “The Quotations of Chairman Joe”

It has been a bit over two months since the Rescumlicans have taken control of both houses of Congress and in that brief time they have launched an assault on Social Security by making it more difficult to transfer funds from the general Social Security account to the Social Security Disability Fund threatening thereby draconian cuts in the near future.  Additionally, after promising not to threaten to shut down the government they proceeded to do just that (unsuccessfully this time) to the Homeland Security Department by using funding as a weapon in an attempt to override the President’s executive action on immigration.  The last 10 days, however, have seen political dysfunction unprecedented in our national experience.

Last week Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke before a joint session of Congress urging the United States not to reach an agreement with Iran over nuclear arms. It was the first time a foreign head of state has been invited to speak to Congress with the express purpose of sabotaging our stated national policies.  He spoke at the invitation of the Speaker of the House, one John Boner of Ohio who, seeing an opportunity to stick a thumb into the eye of this President, offered the invitation without consulting or clearing the action with either the State Department or the White House.   This set off a firestorm in this country as many rightly perceived this action to be an act of political and diplomatic mendacity the likes of which we have heretofore never witnessed.  Many in congress, including Senator Al Franken (himself a Jew) refused to attend, so deeply offensive was this performance.

Every time the Rescumlicans win control of the House of Representatives the newly anointed Speaker immediately begins to conduct himself as if he is Prime Minister.  When Newt “Baby Huey” Gingrich ushered in the last Republican era so arrogant was he that President Clinton had to remind the press that the President was ‘still relevant’.  The result was a long national nightmare ending in bogus impeachment proceedings, trivializing politics and poisoning the political well.  Now we are confronted with a newer form of the rabid beast this time posturing as ‘tea party’ patriots and the speaker once again conducting the business of the House as if he were head of state.  He is not.

In a Constitutional Monarchy as in Britain, the crown is head of state, in this case Queen Elizabeth.  In Britain it is unthinkable for the government to host a state visit without first clearing it with the Palace.  In France the French President is head of state and speaks for the country internationally, the Prime Minister, as in Britain, is a separate office who runs the government and is involved in foreign affairs but always with the consultation with the constitutional ‘head of state’. 

The American Presidency is a unique office.  The president is not only the head of his party, but also the Chief Executive Officer, Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, and head of state.  This was made clear early in our history with the passage of the Logan Act in 1799, a law passed by the founding fathers clearly stating that it is the president who speaks for the country and he alone (or through his agents) who negotiates treaties and understandings.  The law made it illegal for any citizen to engage in foreign negotiations unless empowered by the Chief Executive to so do.  The President is not only Chief Executive officer (Prime Minister as it were) but also the head of state of the nation.  For the speaker to usurp this function is an act of unprecedented arrogance, violating not only the Logan Act and long-standing historical precedent, but the spirit and letter of the Constitution.

Following Netanyahu’s performance 47 Rescumlican Senators, in yet another act of unprecedented political mendacity, signed an open letter to the Iranian government purporting to ‘instruct’ the Iranians on American Constitutional and International Law.  Stating that any subsequent President could nullify the agreement ‘with a stroke of the pen’ the group suggested that bargaining with this President would result in, at best, a transient agreement that will be quickly nullified by the succeeding Administration further stating that executive agreements are not binding in international law and all such understandings must be ratified by the United States Senate in order to take effect.  So here you have it: nearly half the United States Senate sending an open message to the hard-liners of an international adversary saying that their country cannot put stock into any agreement reached with this administration. 

The letter was drawn up by newly minted Senator Cotton of Arkansass who, having served less than 70 days in office and still wet in his Senate seat purports to treat this as if the administration is first, negotiating bi-laterally that is one-on-one with Iran and, secondly, that the President is negotiating a treaty.  Both assumptions are wrong.  The negotiations include the United States, Iran, 5 member nations of the Security Council of the United Nations and Germany.  To attempt to sabotage these proceedings undercuts the stature and standing not only with the Iranians but with the world diplomatic community.  Secondly, this is not a treaty negotiation but an attempt to reach agreements on nuclear developments involving pledges by the Iranians concerning their ongoing programs as well as some kind of inspection and verification regime.  In any case the Rescumicans are flat wrong on the issue.  Executive agreements carry the weight and importance of formal treaties in International Law and are just as binding. 

The Iranian Foreign Minister Dr. Javad Zarif issued a blistering response to the cretins on Capitol Hill:

"In our view,” he responded, “this letter has no legal value and is mostly a propaganda ploy. It is very interesting that while negotiations are still in progress and while no agreement has been reached, some political pressure groups are so afraid even of the prospect of an agreement that they resort to unconventional methods, unprecedented in diplomatic history. This indicates that like Netanyahu, who considers peace as an existential threat, some are opposed to any agreement, regardless of its content.

Zarif expressed astonishment that some members of US Congress find it appropriate to write to leaders of another country against their own President and administration. He pointed out that from reading the open letter, it seems that the authors not only do not understand international law, but are not fully cognizant of the nuances of their own Constitution when it comes to presidential powers in the conduct of foreign policy.
Foreign Minister Zarif added that "I should bring one important point to the attention of the authors and that is, the world is not the United States, and the conduct of inter-state relations is governed by international law, and not by US domestic law. The authors may not fully understand that in international law, governments represent the entirety of their respective states, are responsible for the conduct of foreign affairs, are required to fullfil the obligations they undertake with other states and may not invoke their internal law as justification for failure to perform their international obligations.

The Iranian Foreign Minister added that "Change of administration does not in any way relieve the next administration from international obligations undertaken by its predecessor in a possible agreement about Iran`s peaceful nuclear program." He continued "I wish to enlighten the authors that if the next administration revokes any agreement with the stroke of a pen, as they boast, it will have simply committed a blatant violation of international law.

He emphasized that if the current negotiation with P5+1 result in a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, it will not be a bilateral agreement between Iran and the US, but rather one that will be concluded with the participation of five other countries, including all permanent members of the Security Council, and will also be endorsed by a Security Council resolution.

Zarif expressed the hope that his comments "may enrich the knowledge of the authors to recognize that according to international law, Congress may not modify the terms of the agreement at any time as they claim, and if Congress adopts any measure to impede its implementation, it will have committed a material breach of US obligations.

The Foreign Minister also informed the authors that majority of US international agreements in recent decades are in fact what the signatories describe as "mere executive agreements" and not treaties ratified by the Senate.

He reminded them that "their letter in fact undermines the credibility of thousands of such mere executive agreements that have been or will be entered into by the US with various other governments.

Zarif concluded by stating that "the Islamic Republic of Iran has entered these negotiations in good faith and with the political will to reach an agreement, and it is imperative for our counterparts to prove similar good faith and political will in order to make an agreement possible.” (1)

The national reaction was far less reserved and pedantic.  Former Chairman of the Democratic Party and Vermont Governor Howard Dean has called these action ‘borderline treason’ and the New York Daily News has this front page header:



If the Rescumlicans think they can further the cause of Israel, middle east peace, or increase the standing of this country internationally by the use of these cheap-jack tactics they are quite mistaken.  But these are not their real interests. These actions are simply crass appeals to a cretinous political base which has become so extreme that even some Faux News hosts have openly criticized along with Congressman Steven King and the New York Daily News.  As LBJ one said about Viet Nam “If we’ve lost Cronkite, we’ve lost the country” so the Grand Ole Prostitute, having now lost the New York Daily News, may now be in peril of perhaps having cast one too many false pearls before altogether too many real swine.
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1.  The Daily Kos, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/09/1369700/-BREAKING-Iran-s-Foreign-Minister-responds-to-the-letter-from-47-Republican-Senators

March 2, 2014: Mantra of the Swine, Quite Beneath Them, Genuflecting before the Angry Gods of Greed

In the summer of 2011 I was doing some work for a client in Athens, Georgia, a property management company specializing in rental properties in this university town.  Jim and I got into a discussion about the auto bail-outs.  I made the point that the Obama Administration should have met with the corporate boards of GM and Chrysler and made it clear that as a condition of providing the required financial aid that not only would the top executives have to go, without a golden parachute, and that the production facilities built overseas and the jobs that went with them would have to return to the territorial United States.  Jim heartily agreed with that.  Then I said that these jobs would, as a requirement for Federal assistance, be unionized.  That’s where we parted company.  “Oh no” was the response, “we don’t need unions”. 

 This has been, by and large, the mantra of the generation of swine.  I cannot relate how many times I’ve engaged in similar conversations with my peers over the years and elicited the same response.  For reasons having to do with the prosperity into which we were born, the shameless education we received, and the collective greed and ignorance we have brought to bear, the Swine have, almost to a man, repeated the mantra of their collective corporate paymasters when it comes to issues surrounding the work place.  My response to Jim was, as it has always been, a polite variant of the question “What have you got against the middle class”? 

 It is not often taught in the schools anymore, in this sanitized version of our collective history organized as it is around performance testing; but today’s post-industrial middle class is a product of a combination of political will and organizing the labor force in the work place.  As the old middle class, founded on the family farm, was fading into history, the New Deal consciously replaced it with a new industrial middle class by not only instituting a far more progressive tax code, establishing the 40 hour work week, creating unemployment insurance but by also making it easier, with the Fair Labor Standards Act, to organize the work place.  Granted the power, instead of facing the opposition of government to bargain Americans by the millions joined unions creating higher wages, safer working conditions, vacations, pension programs and a relatively secure purchase on the growing American Middle Class.   

 No more.  In the last 40 years union membership has continued to decline as a percentage of the workforce.  Boomers, bidding a farewell to the stigmata of the “blue collar”, thinking that such collective associations too “working class” and quite beneath them, shunned the very idea of walking into a union hall.  This is America, they declaimed, where the individual stands alone.  Here one makes it with one’s own grit, determination, and character, it was proclaimed.  Here we stand or fall on our own merits.  And so, by the end of the century, the great American Middle Class, shorn of its collective voice and standing naked and alone before the angry gods of greed, finds itself under assault and driven to the point of looming extinction.

 Here is a graph, compliments of MSNBC’s “The Ed Show”, and published by the center for American Progress, showing the relationship between the decline of Union membership and the decline in the share of the national wealth held by the Middle Class:  Corker knew what he was doing when he stood on the Senate floor and demanded the diminution of the benefits of organizing the workplace.  He was simply genuflecting to his corporate paymasters, the angry gods of greed.