All of these myth are at least partly true. Silicon Valley is a reality, spawning the development of a technological revolution that has literally changed the world.
Economic growth at a frentic pace, including the Dot Com Bubble, has resulted from this scientific, engineering marvel.
Silicon Valley has been fueled by the Universities that ring it. Stanford has led the way, followed by U.C. Berkeley, Santa Clara, CSU San Francisco, etc., etc. Brainpower has proven a substitute for the manufacturing muscle that powered the United States in the 20th Century.
And then there is Howard Jarvis, and Orville Norquist. In the 1970s the relatively high tax rates on income caused by the need to pay for WWII, and the inflationary surge that drove up property taxes, were used slyly by Howard Jarvis to lead a tax revolt.
There are two key ingredients to this revolt: 1. Taxes were characterized as too high. 2. Government spending at all levels is wasteful. The key ingredient to selling this to the voter was simply, the Republican Party saw a huge opportunity to finally turn the progress of the New Deal and regain politial parity with the Democrats.
So the formula was developed to cut taxes and raise spending. Ronald Reagan, a former Democrat, saw the opportunity to use the tax revolt to launch his political career, and ran on increasing defense spending to counter what the right wing of the Republican party had depicted as Democrats softness on national defense. This of course is the classic cut taxes, raise spending formula: Sold to stimulate the economy, really bad relative to creating huge deficits, which as we are learning, actually depresses the economy. In short, it doesn't work to stimulate the economy ast all!
Of course this all was a lie. The State Department and the Defense Department knew for decades that the Soviet Union was not near the threat that the public was fed, but it got people elected. And the Reagan tax cuts were immediately overshawdowed by an exploding federal deficit and immediate return to recession. Even Reagan saw the damage to the economy of tax cut led deficits, and disingenously quietly raised taxes to partly make up the difference, while still professing to be a "tax cutter" He then recruited Orville Nolrquist to sell the falsehood that he was a born again tax cutter, while spending like crazy, and backfilling the deficit with "tax reform" (he raised taxes eight times!). In other words, he lied to us for political reasons.
Expediency counts in politics. Lying wins!
Orville Norquist was recruited by Reagan to spread the myth that government is too "fat" (except in defense) so taxes could be cut and cut. In fact, an economist named "Laffer" even crafted a deception that cutting taxes would actually raise government revenue because the economy would grow faster. This of course never occurred, but Republicans still are chanting this lie. Norquist, a rich fascist (in the classical definition), took Reagan's charge and developed an anti-tax national movement that now forces Republicans to sign a no tax increase pledge, that directly is responsible for the huge federal deficit we see today. Norquist also is leading the secret plan to turn the United States into a fascist state (see below).
The "Super Committee" that was supposed to address the federal deficit, has predictably failed to reach any agreement, once again proving the government is deadlocked and quite literally cannot fund itself. A dysfunctional government is all part of the fascist plan to discredit the democratically elected government, and lure citizens into a plan to "fix it" by first discrediting then jailing those who disagree with them.
And then we have Bush and Gingrich. Recently Newt Gingrich, defending himself for the lobbying he most certainly did, but says he didn't, declared that he warned Freddie and Fannie (partly government sponsored mortagage organizations) not to give subprime loans to home buyers because he saw the "housing bubble". He did no such thing.....he is lying.
Conservatives try to explain away the housing bubble, that literally destroyed the middle class, as caused by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, not by the wholesale reduction of government regulations of banking led by George W. Bush.
This is nonsense, just like the tax cutting myth is nonsense. I am surprised Democrats don't use the video of President Bush's infamous "Ownership Society" speech, when he tried to sell privatization of Social Security AND deregulation of the mortgatge loan industry.
He failed miserably in "reforming " (read destroying) Social Security. He succeeded in deregulating housing loans, that in turn ruined the economy.
A ruined economy is fertile ground for fascism!
American business used the boatload of money from the tax cuts and capital gains cuts for the rich, to bankroll housing starts all over the country. The "sunbelt" particularly benefitted from this huge influx of money, and millions of homes were built in Nevada, Arizona, Texas; etc.
Of course, nobody paid much attention to the increasing heat of the summers and the dwindling water supplies. And, nobody really noticed that the housing starts were way out of proportion to the state and local economies; that there were not enough potential jobs to support all the new arrivals.
So, America was again duped, more is better they were told again and again; except when it comes to taxes. Liars loans were the standard, and millions entered the housing market, other millions began to play the housing market like a slot machine, buying houses, taking out seconds on them, and then selling them for a profit as the values went up and up.
California, thanks to good ole Prop 13, had low property taxes guaranteed by law, and greately inflated home value rates, that greatly encouraged the bubble. And, since the property taxes were now insufficient to fuel the infrastructure to support the millions of new homes, developer fees had to be used, further straining local governments. This resulted in massive cuts to local government, reducing police forces and encouraging will ultimatley encourage massive civil disobedience.
Do you detect a plan here?
In effect, thanks to Orville Norquist, government truly is being slowly drowned, starved for revenue at every level. The weaker the government, the better the chances for fascist "solutions" to grow.
There are templates for this kind of fascist revolution: read the Weimar Republic in Germany, 1917 to 1932.
The housing bubble of course burst, millions lost everything, the real estate and builder industry was destroyed, and the economy in California, Nevada and Arizona was destroyed.
And the culprit, according to Gingrich and Norquist, is "exessive government spending" . And the remedy is? You guessed it, more tax cuts; leading to more ineffective government, and the increasing call for fascist "reform".
Just today, on the news, a Republican said that we must cut, cut, cut and increasing revenue for government is "off the table".
And the economy? Well it is dead. People don't remember Bush's "The Ownership Society" speech. People in California, according to recent polls, still cling to the myth that taxes are actually too high, and government is wasteful. This myth continues while roads and bridges fall apart, schools are closed, college tuitions are raised to private school levels, police and fire are cut; etc.
On the federal level, since the "Super Committee" failed to compromise, Defense Department cuts, where the real money is, are supposed to automatically take place in 2013. Almost immediately, Republicans vowed to introduce legislation to stop these cuts; sounds just like Reagan doesn't it. Cut taxes and spend!
Ok, listen closely. IT DOES NOT WORK. IT IS BULLSHIT. THEY ARE LYING TO YOU. AND THEY HAVE A PLAN. THIS IS NOT HAPPENING BY ACCIDENT!
For months I have written countless articles on this blog, showing this truth over and over. And the fascist right in the country, with their billions of dollars, have continued lying to the American People about practically everything.
And you buy their story.
So, don't come crying when the gauntlet finally falls, and your democratic freedoms are taken away.
By the way, write this prediction down someplace:
The fascist takeover of the United States will be initiated to counter the endless demonstrations and violence by the dispossesed victims of a lopsided economy (in fact we are seeing the beginning of this with the 99 percent sit ins).
Fascists will finish the job Ricard Nixon almost accomplished, calling on "law abiding citizens" to quell the endless acts of civil disobedience. This will be coupled with the hard sell foreign terrorist threats, and will target a supposedly nuclear Iran. The Constitiution will effrectlively be suspended by a conservative Supreme Court, who will take away civil liberties. A fascist conservative President will complete the coup, being very careful to only jail "the protestors", but then will branch out as he declares martial law, to counter the millions who will be demonstrating.
The more protests go on, the more civil liberties are cut, the more repression will be justified. They are planning this right now!
So, don't complain as your standard of living continues to slide into Third World levels. Don't complain, when your son or daughter is jailed in "relocation camps" because they demonstrated against the increasing repression all around them. Don't complain when they finally come for you!
And when will this occur? It will begin in 2013 if a Republican is elected President and will take only eight years to accompliish. Oh, and I will probably be jailed as part of it, for this and other essays, along with thousands of my fellow progressives.
It is coming! You were warned!
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