It's easy to mock John McCain for his comments on wealth in American society. Or Phil Gramm's comments that we are suffering from some kind of mental recession, I thought it would be a bit of a laugh to point out a few gems of "class-based" comedy that point to greater truths. Hope it lightens your day while we all wait for the VP pick. (I couldn't bring myself to write about that after watching diaries scroll by for days).

  Well, it never gets old--watching the reality unfold that contradicts what the blind advocates of so-called "free trade" and "liberalization" want people to believe. One of the great lies of the globalization scam is that, hey, don't worry, if we just educate people more and have them do higher-skilled jobs, not to worry, everyone will be just fine and globalization will be that warm and fuzzy trend that just makes everyone feel better. Unfortunately, the facts keep getting in the way.

Josh Holland at Alternet writes:

^{Big business has prepared a war chest of at least $150 million to stop progressive economic legislation that would seriously tax the rich}

...it may be a bill that many Americans have never heard of that sparks the most pitched battle Washington has seen since the Civil Rights Act. It's called the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) -- a measure that would go a long way toward guaranteeing working people the right to join a union if they so choose -- and it has the potential to reverse more than three decades of painful stagflation, with prices rising and paychecks flat, for America's middle class and working poor.

The Chamber of Commerce, D.C. lobbyists, firms that rely on cheap labor and a host of "astroturf" front groups are building a war chest that could reach hundreds of millions of dollars in an effort to build a firewall against EFCA and other efforts to put a check on corporate power and rebuild a declining middle class. ...

According to a report in the National Journal that received less attention, "several business-backed groups ... (including) two fledgling coalitions fighting labor-supported legislation and the conservative political group Freedom's Watch are trying to raise $100 million for issue advocacy and get-out-the-vote efforts to benefit about 10 GOP Senate races."

It's the EFCA -- the idea that working people who want to join a union can -- that has corporate America quaking in its collective boots. The bill passed the House easily in 2007 -- by 56 votes -- and had majority support in the Senate. But it didn't reach the 60 votes required to kill a GOP-led filibuster, and that massive war chest being amassed by the corporate Right is, in part, an attempt to maintain a firewall of at least 41 anti-union senators -- mostly Republicans joined by a few corporatist Dems -- to kill the bill in the 2009 Congress. President Bush threatened to veto the legislation if it had passed in 2007, but this time around, they fear that a Democrat will be sitting in the White House. Obama was a co-sponsor of the 2007 legislation; McCain opposed it.

The prospect of a filibuster-proof majority that's sympathetic to the needs of ordinary working Americans, according to the National Journal, is making "business groups jittery."

It would nice if "business groups" were as jittery as people who live paycheck to paycheck.

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The Overnight News Digest is posted, with ample material on the war in Georgia and this story, Afghan president urges military action in Pakistan.

My friends over at the Huffington Post brought up Toby Keith's song that sounds like it celebrates lynching.  And you betcha, the resentment I have observed by working class white folk over successful people of color is astonishing.

  Just when you thought the greed and outrageous behavior of corporate America could get no worse, the leaders of companies have sunk to a new low: they are using workers' pension money to fund CEO pensions. No this is not a joke.

Conservatism is a serious dysfunction that is destroying the fabric of society in this country and undermining its economy. It can never be eradicated completely, but must be contained and made publicly unpalatable to the point it never can infect policy overtly.

We label conservatives as dumb, knuckle-dragging troglodytes, mean-spirited ignoramuses, and many other negatives. One or the other of these may very well be true in most cases, but few conservatives exhibit all these traits. In fact, there are many educated or relatively high-IQ conservatives, and there used to be some kind and gentle ones, although they become harder to find as the movement sheds more and more disgusted followers and radicalizes.

My point of view is that these traits are just manifestations of the same dysfunction which is part mental, part social:

A conservative invariably craves a social order based on inequalities. Everything else follows from that.
 
Follow me below the fold for a brief, completely reversible journey into a mind like that.

  With the backdrop of the collapse of the global trade talks (a good thing), here's something to consider: the great, wonderful benefits of so-called "free trade" or "liberalization" have cost 2.3 million U.S. workers their jobs between 2001 and 2007, according to a very, detailed fact-based (as opposed to rhetorical promises from pro so-called "free trade" advocates). But, there is even more, and deeply disturbing trends, behind these numbers and how they are a crucial link in the collapse of a decent economic future for Americans.

  There will be a lot of chatter about today's hike in the minimum wage. We should be happy for the people who will get another seventy cents an hour in their gross pay. But, we should keep in mind that, at the grand new sum of $6.55 an hour, the minimum wage is a disgrace and a sad commentary about the state of our social safety net, the economy and our political system.

  The robbery of our country by a small elite has continued, unabated, for the past eight years. That may sound like a radical statement. But, it is simply a fact--a fact reported today by that radical, left-wing publication, The Wall Street Journal...

  There seems to be an emerging consensus that so-called "free trade" is dead. Even the business press is beginning to accept the inevitable. So, maybe we can now begin a rationale debate about trade, without meaningless marketing phrases like "free trade".

  For the life of me, I can't figure out why political leaders like John McCain are continuing to embrace a dying, discredited theology called "free trade". As a new national poll shows, by hinging his economic message in large part on support for so-called "free trade", McCain has punched another hole in his campaign appeal to large numbers of working-class voters.

  A couple of weeks ago, I noted that corporations were now beginning to think that China, with its rising prices and increasing wages (relatively speaking), wasn't cheap enough. And, so, comes another report via Reuters:

   The result is higher prices at U.S. stores like Wal-Mart and Target that have increasingly filled their shelves with Chinese-made goods. It may also mean thinner profit margins for a wide swathe of Corporate America, which for years looked to China to drive down costs. And it is beginning to spur a global treasure hunt for the world's next low-cost factory.

  Intuitively, a lot of people understand that war and a fragile economy are related. But, nothing brought home the connection better than the death of Andrew Seabrooks. His life, and death, speak more about what we face than any politician's rhetoric.

It's refreshing to see that some businesses are doing well in today's economy.  Perhaps the most success venture going today is the pawn shop.  From Peoria to Pasadena,  pawn shops are seeing a boom in clients.

  Yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled against unions in an important case. In the decision, the Court made clear that it wants to encourage more tension in the workplace rather than promote workplaces that are harmonious and productive. It's a case that should make even more clear what the stakes are come November.

  Yesterday, Sen. Obama made comments to a business reporter that leave the impression that he is already shifting his stated position on NAFTA and, by extension, so-called "free trade". It is worth looking at as a sign where Sen. Obama really intends to lead us on trade if he wins the White House.

  I meant the "breaking" as a snark, in case it wasn't obvious. For everyone but the pro- so-called "free trade" crowd (economists, elites and too many Democrats), it's been crystal-clear that the driving force behind trade is wages, not efficiency, a better product, lower prices for consumers and all the other nonsense you read. Today, even some business people are admitting it, albeit, not intentionally.

  I almost broke my pledge of sanity not to blog on the weekends when I read Roger Lowenstein's monumentally stupid article on trade in the Sunday Times Magazine. The piece was so moronic as to...well, let's go to the text.