2013 / THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

The tide is rapidly closing in on this year but there is still time to reflect on the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of 2013 ~ which I summarize as the Good with the political emergence of Elizabeth Warren, the Bad reality of the growing poverty and social inequality of America and the persistent Ugly eye sore and continuing injustice of Guantanamo: Allen L Roland

I'm glad 2014 is coming to a close ~ I'm tired of living on the edge, of watching the poor get poorer and the rich get richer, of witnessing the seeming triumph of selfishness over altruism, of experiencing the slow erosion of the planet through climate change and global warming as well as the common deep disappointment in our political leaders ~ that is until now.

These words of truth from T.S. Eliot give me hope going into 2014 for the changing tide of time always brings new voices ~ and one of the bright populist voices of 2013 is Elizabeth Warren. She is also my early leading candidate for president in 2016.

Warren's recent support for raising Social Security benefits is exactly what we need to shift the national discussion on retirement income from the negative to the positive. As Dean Baker correctly writes in AlterNet ~ " While Social Security does keep most seniors out of poverty, the $1,300 average monthly benefit is certainly not enough for a comfortable retirement for people who lack another source of support. A modest increase in benefits to retirees in the bottom half of the income distribution would make a big difference in their standard of living at relatively little cost to the program."

Here's her recent short speech on the Senate floor on the retirement crisis ~ "This is partly about math, but it's partly about our values. This is about what kind of a people we are, what kind of a country we are trying to build."  6 minute video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O99siSbqTX8&feature=player_embedded

The BAD of 2013 is the crippling poverty that exists throughout America ~ Poverty, joblessness, and economic insecurity are a daily reality for the vast majority of the American population. According to WSWS ~ By one survey, four in five Americans have lived in near-poverty, been unemployed, or used welfare for a year or more during their lives and replacing one big-business politician with another will do nothing …   " and the only way to address the vast social problems of poverty and social inequality that loom over contemporary society is to build a political party that represents working people, armed with a program of reorganizing society on the basis of meeting social needs, not the enrichment of the super-wealthy."

See article ~

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/11/04/pers-n04.html

And get this, Nearly 40 percent of all workers in the country made less than $20,000 last year, according to data from the Social Security Administration ~ and more than 50% made less than $30,000 a rear which doesn’t include figures on benefits such as health insurance or pensions. That’s below the federal poverty threshold for a family of four and close to the line for a family of three. On average, these workers earned just $17,459.55.

Twelve years too long. Of the 779 prisoners kidnapped and subjected to extraordinary rendition by the United States government, 693, or 89%, have been freed because there was no evidence against them. 79 more prisoners have been cleared for release years ago but are still being held. (photo: Reuters)

The UGLY is the continuing injustice of Guantanamo ~ A testament to the shame and disgrace of the 9/11 official story as well as the ongoing isolation, torture as well as civil rights violations of the prisoners of Guantanamo ~ the vast majority of who are innocent.

Everyone has heard of Guantanamo and most people know it's bad ~ but you have no idea that it is well beyond bad and is still America's ugliest symbol of moral injustice.

Video BBC : 47 minute must see Video

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/24876.html

So there you have it, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly as the tide of change erases 2013 but voices are being raised, and true leaders of the people are emerging as America faces a mid-term election in 2014 as well as another opportunity to return to our true moral values, and very possibly change history.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Allen L Roland

http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/2013-good-bad-and-ugly.html

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and transformational counselor Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private Skype consultations allen@allenroland.com

 

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his web log and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

SENIORS, VETS UNITE / OBAMA IS PUSHING US OVER THE CLIFF

Seniors and vets, it's happening before our very eyes ~ President Obama, not Paul Ryan, is pushing our highly dependable Social Security benefits program over the cliff while playing politics with the Republicans and over the wishes of 87% of those over 50 years of age who oppose any cuts to social security benefits: Allen L Roland

"Social Security...is not a dole or a device for giving everybody something for nothing. True Social Security must consist of rights which are earned rights ~ guaranteed by the law of the land." Harry S. Truman, August 13, 1945

Voters should know that Social Security is not an entitlement but rather a system of wage replacement insurance, which we, as workers, pay for in payroll taxes throughout our working lives. The system provides benefits when workers stop receiving wages due to retirement, disability or premature death. And voters should also know that Social Security is solid and dependable; it hasn't missed a payment in 77 years, is currently running a surplus of $2.7 trillion, and is solvent for the next quarter century. In an economy that continues to be sluggish, with unemployment unacceptably high, Social Security is the solution, not the problem ~ and it must now be strengthened, if not increased, and most certainly not undermined by millionaire politicians who answer to the financial elite and ignore the public.

Social Security is built to last and here's a short 4 minute video that demonstrates that reality. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHAcy4SNVbo

As Thom Hartman correctly wrote in his blog on Monday ~ There is nothing Grand about Obama's grand social security bargain ~ " Despite the fact that Americans want Medicare and Social Security protected, President Obama has once again included cuts to the vital programs as part of his new budget proposal. As he's done previously, the President has offered up a change to cost of living increases - called the chained CPI - which reduces benefits paid to seniors, veterans, and the disabled… A new report from AlterNet highlights several facts that the President should consider before asking the poor to bear the brunt of more budget cuts. According to the report, half of American workers are "not at all confident" that they will be financially stable in their retirement, and only 57% have managed to save $25,000 or less."

Call the White House right now and tell President Obama: No cuts to Social Security benefits.

So what does CPI stand for and what's the bottom line on this latest Obama betrayal ?

CPI stands for consumer price index, a formula that looks at how the prices of stuff we need (food, for example) change over time. It's used to make cost-of-living adjustments in programs such as Social Security, veterans benefits and food stamps.

The chained CPI is a twist on that: It measures living costs differently because it assumes that when prices for one thing go up, people sometimes settle for cheaper substitutes (if beef prices go up, for example, they'll buy more chicken and less beef).

The Bottom line is  Cost-of-living adjustments would be lower with the chained CPI than with the plain old CPI. So depending on which formula is used, the amount of your Social Security payments could negatively change over time.

As Richard Eskow explains in Common Dreams ~ "What makes the chained CPI particularly unkind is the fact that millions of Americans have already had their Social Security benefits cut.  Benefits are determined based on a person’s lifetime earnings, so any significant loss in income now results in a benefit cut later. (More details here.)

Long-term unemployment is a benefit cut. A stagnating wage is a benefit cut. Wealth inequity is a benefit cut.

How many more cuts can the American people stand? A Deep Cut

How big is the President’s chained-CPI cut? For someone who retires at 65, it would be:

a 3.7 percent cut at age 75;
a 6.5 percent cut at age 85;
and a 9.2 percent cut at 95.

What about the dollar cost of the President’s cut? For the average earner, cumulative benefits would be cut by:

$4,631 – more than three months of benefits ~ by age 75;
$13,910 – nearly a year of benefits ~ by age 85;
and $28,004 – more than a year and a half of benefits ~ by age 95.

Unless the President’s budget excludes the chained CPI from IRS calculation, it would also lead to tax increases for all income except that in the highest tax bracket. So his Social Security cut would also be a middle-class tax hike."

Read full article ~ http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/04/08?nocache=1

It should be obvious that the formula for calculating Social Security's COLA's should realistically reflect the actual increases in beneficiaries' living expenses over time. The chained CPI fails that test because it assumes that when one particular product becomes more expensive, consumers can simply substitute a cheaper one. But the cost of health care, especially medication, is a major expense for seniors and it's not accounted for.

George Carlin knew the big picture on who really owns America ~ that education sucks as well as the mass media and that eventually they would come after our social security ~ three minute video  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dpcd0woY2KY

The movement that all Americans should get behind now is the Move to Amend Movement that states " We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling and other related cases, and move to amend our Constitution to firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights." https://movetoamend.org/

Before President Obama’s second term began, the World Socialist Web Site warned that Obama was preparing an unprecedented attack on the bedrock social programs. On the day of Obama’s second inaugural address, the WSWS warned, “It is already clear that the second term will mark an intensification of the right-wing policies of the first. The byword in domestic policy is austerity, targeting the core programs remaining from the 1930s and 1960s ~ Social Security and Medicare… The actions of the Obama administration in its second term are a confirmation of what was already clear from the first term: that the political system in the United States, whether headed by a Democrat or a Republican, is impervious to the needs and interests of the vast majority of the population, the working class. It is a system completely subordinate to the demands of the corporate and financial elite." See report http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/04/08/pers-a08.html

The future is here, people ~ and there is no change without action. The survival of our Republic is at stake. It's We the people, not we the corporations.

Allen L Roland

http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2013/04/seniors-vets-unite-obama-is-pushing-us.html

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private Skype consultations (allen@allenroland.com )

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his web log and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net