Tag: Manipulation

It’s The Economy, Right?

I was watching CNBC the other day and the anchor got all bubbly because the market went up over 100 points and the GDP figures were in and it expanded by 2.5%, which is pretty good since the last two quarters sucked bad…..

The US’ total economic output shot up 2.5% from July through September, after two dismal quarters of rising just 0.4% and 1.3%, according to a new GDP report released today. Consumers amped up their spending on both durable goods and services, and business investments soared 16.3%—indicating that we may not be in for a second recession after all.

The numbers were also boosted by federal government spending, though drops in state government spending dampened that effect. And there’s some more moderately positive news: New jobless claims fell 2,000 this week, after dropping 7,000 last week. But that still leaves claims at 402,000—economists think claims must fall below 400,000 for job growth to outpace job losses.

All the pundits are jerking off at the news….but there is still no jobs!  There are still millions of Americans that are unemployed!  Then for whom is all this good news?  Apparently, investors and by investors I mean hedge funds and by hedge funds I mean the same thieves that help tank the economy in the first place……those figures will be seasonal adjusted……which means in the final analysis….it will NOT be as good as they want it to be….

Let’s review……..0.1% of the population controls 34% of the country’s wealth, and owned as much much money as the bottom 42%.  Corporate profits are up by 62%, and the earnings of the top percentage almost doubled, while the average raise for workers only rose about 9%.  The Prez and the Congress gave massive tax cuts and even the Supreme Court got involved in politics………(pause here to re-read)……Wait!  That was the crash of 1929, not 2008!  And just like 1929 the economic crisis spread worldwide…..

My point here that all this has happened before and for the same reasons, well almost the same reasons, The Prez was Coolidge in1926….and the Supreme Court got involved in the process by ruling the minimum wage law was unconstitutional (they were controlled by business kinda like today and the ruling in the “People United” thing)…..why allow the same things to occur over and over and do nothing to change the vicious cycle?

And just like the crisis in 1929….Tax cuts and deficit debate will do NOTHING to repair the failing economy…..Bold new ideas must be found and I do not see that possible with a Congress owned by special interests….and yes…that could mean a bit of socialism….

I suggest if you truly want change then find another path….they are there…you just have to want it!

Why Democrats Lose

This is an interesting turn that is covered in  George Lakoff’s new book, “The Political Mind”.

Lakoff blames “neoliberals” and their “Old Enlightenment” mentality for the Democratic Party’s weakness. They think they can win elections by citing facts and offering programs that serve voters’ interests. When they lose, they conclude that they need to move farther to the right, where the voters are.

This is all wrong, Lakoff explains. Neuroscience shows that pure facts are a myth and that self-interest is a conservative idea. In a “New Enlightenment,” progressives will exploit these discoveries. They’ll present frames instead of raw facts. They’ll train the public to think less about self-interest and more about serving others. It’s not the platform that needs to be changed. It’s the voters.

The basis of Lakoff’s theory is simple: the mind is the brain. Any connection that forms between your thoughts also forms between your neurons. As you internalize a metaphor, a circuit in your brain “physically constitutes the metaphor.” This parallel development continues as mental complexity increases. “Narratives are brain structures,” he proposes.

The general idea makes sense: brain and mind are dual aspects of the same thing. But Lakoff seems to forget that the language of mental construction is itself a metaphor. He describes how synapses are strengthened, neurons “wire together,” “neural binding” fuses “permanent circuits” and a worldview solidifies through “long-term bindings to the core.” With these elaborations, he mechanizes the brain-mind relationship. The brain’s structure and dynamics don’t just embody thought, he says; they physically constrain it.

To Lakoff, this explains why conservatives win elections. They manipulate us more effectively. They’ve been “preparing the seedbed of our brains with their high-level general principles so that when ‘tax relief’ was planted, their framing could take root and sprout.” And “as a result, progressive messages don’t take root.”

And there is the key to wining elections–manipulation!