News & Articles

One public service that people really like and count on is the post office – which literally delivers for us. Antigovernment ideologues and privatization dogmatists, however, hate the very word “public,” and they’ve long sought to demonize the US Postal Service, undercut its popular support, and finally dismantle it. Their main line of attack has been to depict it as a bloated, inefficient, outmoded agency that’s a hopeless money loser, sucking billions from taxpayers. Never mind that USPS doesn’t take a dime of tax money to fund its operation – it’s actually a congressionally-chartered, for-profit corporation that earns its revenue by selling stamps and services to customers. And here’s something that will come as a surprise to most people: The post office makes a profit – expected to be more than a billion dollars this year. Yet, the media keep reporting that the USPS is losing billions of dollars each year. What they fail to mention, however, is that those are phony paper losses manufactured by Congress at the behest of corporate privatizers. Late in 2006, the lame duck Republican Congress rammed into law a cockamamie requirement that the Postal Service must pre-fund the retiree health benefits of everyone it employs or expects to employ for the next 75 years. Hello, that includes workers who’re not even born yet! No other business in America is required to pre-fund such benefits for even one year. To add to Congress’ cockamamie-ness, the service is being forced to put up all of that money within just 10 years – which has been costing USPS more than $5 billion a year. That artificial burden accounts for 100 percent of the so-called “losses” the media keep reporting. It’s like tying an anvil around someone’s neck, throwing the person out of a boat, and saying, “Swim to shore, sucker.”

How Koch-headed billionaires plan to “save” America

The Koch boys live in their own special world, enshrouded in a rarefied atmosphere created by the fumes emanating from their family’s enormous stockpiles of wealth.
Thus, Charles and David have always felt very special, and they also expect those of us in the down to Earth world to treat them as special. The boys were born rich and right-wing, and they parlayed Daddy Fred Koch’s millions into a huge industrial conglomerate that has made each of them überbillionaires. This has further bloated their sense of self-importance, while also giving them the financial muscle to try transforming our democratic world of egalitarian ideals into their fantasy world of laissez-fairy, social Darwinism, ruled by supermen like… well, like them, of course.
Twice a year, the Kochs convene a secret summit of superrich supermen to plot strategy and pledge millions of dollars to their political efforts. In June, about 300 of the billionaire brotherhood gathered with Charlie and Dave at the St. Regis Monarch Bay Resort on the Southern California coast. As investigative reporter Lauren Windsor wrote in The Nation, the Koch confab, which bore the heroic title of “American Courage,” took over the entire luxury resort for three days, costing nearly a million bucks.
David Koch provided a keynote talk, modestly titled “Saving America,” and attendees were treated to a FeedFest of right-wing boilerplate from a gaggle of GOP congress critters summoned to the summit. The billionaires were especially delighted to hear Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell assure them that he would defend to his last sour breath their right to buy our elections. Then, reports Windsor, the 300 Koch-headed Supermen pledged to do just that, promising to put up $500 million this year to turn the US senate over to Republican control.

“Exclusive: Inside the Koch Brothers’ Secret Billionaire Summit,” , www.thenation.comJune 17, 2014.

“The Koch Brothers’ Secret Billionaire Summit,” www.scribd.com,” June 17, 2014.

“Koch Brothers Unveil New Strategy at Big Donor Retreat,” www.thedailybeast.com, June 13, 2014.

Perry goes from callous to disgusting

Great news for you lovers of Wild West, shoot-’em-up, pulp-fiction tales: Rick “Rootie-Toot-Toot” Perry is making a one-man stand on the Texas-Mexico border! A political stand, that is. He’s been tongue-lashing Obama for not doing enough to seal the border by dispatching a human line of armed National Guard troops to protect America from… well, from what? Children, that’s what. Nearly 60,000 terrorized, impoverished, and traumatized little ones have fled their hellish existences in Central America – where rape, murder, conscription into drug cartels, and hopeless poverty is their future –trekking all the way to the USA for a chance at something better.
No way, shouts Sheriff Perry. This guy routinely flaunts his Christianity for political purposes, but he seems to have forgotten that Jesus said: “Let the little children, come to me, and do not hinder them.” Instead, the presidential wannabe bellows for their immediate deportation, claiming they’ll commit crimes, bring diseases, and burden taxpayers with welfare costs. Burden taxpayers? Perry’s “Grand Stand on the Border” will cost taxpayers about $20 million a month to cover the state police and 1,000 National Guard troops he has deployed to the border. It’s a political stunt cynically exploiting children trying to escape unspeakable violence and poverty. But it’s not his money, so what the hell?
It is, however, his morality. He’s so morally stunted that he’s willing to militarize a humanitarian crisis and summarily send children back to their death. But it’s not their future that concerns Perry. Rather, this whole show is about his own political future, for he’s playing to the fear and loathing of tea party extremists who’ll dominate the upcoming Republican presidential primaries.
Perry is not just callously ambitious, he’s disgusting.

“Perry to dispatch troops to the border,” Austin American Statesman, July 22, 2014.

“Perry overstates homicides by immigrants,” Austin American Statesman, July 25, 2014.

“Young Refugees Are Seeking Protection, But Some Communities Are Afraid,” Austin Chronicle, July 25, 2014.

“Texas Governor Bolsters Border, And His Profile,” The New York Times, July 22, 2014.

“National Guard in Texas Could Get Arrest Power,” The New York Times, July 25, 2014.

“Murders help fuel exodus,” Austin American Statesman, July 20, 2014.

“Fear, hope prompt journey,” Austin American Statesman, July 18, 2014.