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When Roger West first launched the progressive political blog "News From The Other Side" in May 2010, he could hardly have predicted the impact that his venture would have on the media and political debate. As the New Media emerged as a counterbalance to established media sources, Roger wrote his copious blogs about national politics, the tea party movement, mid-term elections, and the failings of the radical right to the vanguard of the New Media movement. Roger West's efforts as a leading blogger have tremendous reach. NFTOS has led the effort to bring accountability to mainstream media sources such as FOX NEWS, Breitbart's "Big Journalism. Roger's breadth of experience, engaging style, and cultivation of loyal readership - over 92 million visitors - give him unique insight into the past, present, and future of the New Media and political rhetoric that exists in our society today. What we are against: Radical Right Wing Agendas Incompetent Establishment Donald J. Trump Corporate Malfeasence We are for: Global and Econmoic Security Social and Economic Justice Media Accountability THE RESISTANCE

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

De-Americanized world?

GOP SCREWING AMERICA AND THE WORLD


NFTOS shall be going through a system upgrade the next 24 hours. In lieu of a NFTOS blog for Wednesday October 16th,  we have chosen to cross post from Maddowblog Steve Benen:

When there’s a global economic crisis, investors from around the world have spent the last several generations doing one thing: they buy U.S. treasuries. The reasoning, of course, is that there is no safer investment, anywhere on the planet, than the United States of America – which has the strongest and largest economy on the planet, and which always pays its bills.

All of these assumptions, of course, were cultivated over generations, and pre-date the radicalization of the Republican Party.

But what happens when U.S. treasuries are no longer considered safe, Americans can no longer be counted on to pay its bills, and the nation’s most powerful economy chooses to default on purpose? The world starts reevaluating old assumptions, that’s what.

In Britain, Jon Cunliffe, who will become deputy governor of the Bank of England next month, told members of Parliament that banks should be developing contingency plans to deal with an American default if one happens.

And Chinese leaders called on a “befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanized world.” In a commentary on Sunday, the state-run Chinese news agency Xinhua blamed “cyclical stagnation in Washington” for leaving the dollar-based assets of many nations in jeopardy. It said the “international community is highly agonized.”

I know I've been pushing this thesis in recent weeks, but it’s important to remember the unique role the United States plays in global leadership and the extent to which Republican antics in Congress will change the dynamic that’s been stable for the better part of the last century.

No major western power has defaulted since Hitler’s Germany, so this week may add some history to the potentially catastrophic economic consequences, and the world is watching closely.

Indeed, try to imagine explaining this ongoing crisis to a foreign observer who doesn't fully appreciate the nuances of domestic politics. “Yes, we have the largest economy on the planet. Yes, we want to maintain global credibility. Yes, the process of extending our borrowing authority is incredibly easy and could be completed in about 10 minutes. No, some members of our legislative branch have decided they no longer want the United States to honor its obligations and pay for the things they've already bought.”

I suspect global observers would find this truly inexplicable. As it happens, I’d agree with them.

Ezra Klein added yesterday that to the rest of the world, “the United States looks insane right now.”
They’re dealing with real problems that their political systems are struggling to solve. The United States’ political system is creating fake problems that it may choose to leave unsolved. 
“The United States was the one bright spot in the world recovery,” says OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria. “It was leading the recovery! Leading the creation of jobs! This unfortunate situation with the budget and debt happens at the moment it was looking good.” […] 
At best, the United States is slowing its recovery – and that of the rest of the world. At worst, it’s going to trigger another global crisis. That’s why, Gurria says, his concern isn’t that the United States’ economy is weak, but that its political system is.

It’s heartbreaking that so much of the world is now laughing at us, not because we have a crises we can’t solve, but because members of one party – the one that lost the most recent national elections – insist on manufacturing new crises to advance their unpopular agenda.

To reiterate what we discussed last week, there’s a global competition underway for power and influence in the 21st century. Americans have rivals who are playing for keeps. We can either be at the top of our game or we can watch others catch up.

And it’s against this backdrop that House Speaker John Boehner and his Republican colleagues shut down the government, threaten default, fight tooth and nail to strip Americans of their health care benefits, and keep spending levels so low we’re kicking children out of Head Start centers while our global competitors invest heavily in education.

It’s as if some have a vision in which we no longer lead and we aim for second place on purpose.

Great nations can’t function the way we’re struggling to function now. The United States can either be a 21st-century superpower or it can tolerate Republicans abandoning the governing process and subjecting Americans to a series of self-imposed extortion crises.

It cannot do both.

China is talking about “a de-Americanized world.” It’s time for Republicans to decide whether they intend to help them.




NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief
Roger West

Most Hated People in U.S. Deciding Fate of World



GOP: Grand Orwellian Party.

Rep. Morgan Griffith (Virginia Teahadist) offered a curious analogy this weekend, comparing the impending default to the American Revolution.

Griffith was asked about the fast-approaching debt ceiling, which if not raised, threatens to drag the U.S. economy back into a recession. He told The Hill on Saturday that he is not concerned with the economic consequences so long as he and his party get their way.
“We have to make a decision that’s right long-term for the United States, and what may be distasteful, unpleasant and not appropriate in the short run may be something that has to be done,” he said after a meeting of the House GOP, joining a long list of Republicans who have dismissed the consequences of blowing through the debt ceiling and causing a default on the nation’s payments.

But he offered a novel explanation for why he believes this kind of economic brinksmanship is necessary: because our founding fathers did it too:
“I will remind you that this group of renegades that decided that they wanted to break from the crown in 1776 did great damage to the economy of the colonies. They created the greatest nation and the best form of government, but they did damage to the economy in the short run.”

Griffith made no mention of the revolutionary war that proceeded the colonies’ act of economic vigilantism.

In recent days, some Republicans have backed away from plans to hold up a budget agreement unless Obamacare is defunded. The move came as business groups and conservative organizations like Heritage Action and the Koch Brothers acknowledged that default would bring about economic catastrophe.

The American Revolution led to establishing a democratic republic, whereas the right-wing nut jobs aspire to establishing a plutocratic fascist state.

Meanwhile, Rule by Law is still fundamental to the American system of government and justice.

Theoretically these terrorists are abdicating their duties as members of the U.S. House of Representatives in favor of undermining the U.S. Government and the welfare of all American citizens. And they are working not with President Obama but rather, they are owing their allegiance to their surrogate leaders—Koch’s, Heritage, ALEC, and so on. They are committing the premeditated crime called sedition.

Repeating from previous writings: Treason is legally defined as citizen's actions that violate allegiance to one's sovereign or state, to help a foreign government overthrow, make war against, or seriously injure the parent nation. These right-wing nut jobs have not attained the status of a "foreign government", so in legal terms, we must accuse them of sedition. Legally, treason and sedition are very close cousins, and anyone could make a strong argument, based on existing sedition laws (Alien Registration Act, 1940) that would land these terrorists fired and better yet, in prison for 20 years.

If Congressional GOPers will honor their oaths and do their jobs, in return, we the people won't demand that they be removed from office, and we won't demand that they and their surrogate leaders be charged and tried for sedition.

Protect our republic, yourself, and all Americans from the politically irrational who enable the extreme minority.

NEW LAW: If your going to run for congress you have to be actually smarter than a fifth grader. This blogger thinks that the tea baggers take civil war and revolutionary reenacting too seriously.

Fear not readers, there is still plenty of time to accomplish nothing today.




NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief
Roger West