Thursday, July 23, 2015

Jeffrey Folks - OBAMA-CLINTONomics and the DEATH of the AMERICAN MIDDLE-CLASS - Between 1900 and 1999, U.S. GDP expanded by 1,000%.  Never in human history has a major economy expanded at such a rate for so long.  At the end of the 20th century, the average American enjoyed ten times the standard of living as the perso...


Welcome to the Whatever Economy

 
Between 1900 and 1999, U.S. GDP expanded by 1,000%.  Never in human history has a major economy expanded at such a rate for so long.  At the end of the 20th century, the average American enjoyed ten times the standard of living as the person living in 1900.  Nearly everyone owned a car (a promise Warren Harding had made in his 1920 campaign), and nearly everyone had cable TV, internet, and a cell phone besides.  Life was good in 1999.
But will life be better in 2199?
 
According to the latest BLS report, U.S. productivity in the first decade of the 21st century dropped to a level just ahead of inflation.  Since 2008, productivity has gone negative, an ominous sign for future living standards.  The past five years have shown productivity gains stuck at or below 2%.

The most recent numbers show economic growth falling off a cliff.  Manufacturing continues moving offshore, corporations are relocating abroad to avoid U.S. corporate taxes, and in 2014 small business startups fell to a 30-year low.  It’s no coincidence that the absolute number of small businesses has been shrinking since 2009, just when Obama took office.  Obama is killing entrepreneurship in America, just as he is driving American companies overseas.  He also has created a workforce that is demoralized, with less productivity growth than any cohort since the Jimmy Carter recession of 1981.

June numbers showed a 5.3% unemployment rate, which sounds good until you look at how many Americans are working part-time and how many have dropped out altogether.  Obama is the first president in postwar history under whom full-time employment has failed to reach new highs.

Sorry to disappoint my liberal friends, such as they are, but this is not George Bush’s fault.  Under Obama, the labor participation rate fell to 37-year lows, and it remains below what it was when he took office – as of March 2015, it was 62.8% vs. 65.7% in January 2009.

What’s happened is the greatest productivity bust since the Great Depression.  In less than seven years, Obama has transformed the labor market from a place where men and women worked hard and expected to work until they reached full retirement age to this: a workforce in which younger workers expect to spend just over two years in a position.  That is hardly long enough to make a real contribution to a company or to society.  It is one reason why productivity gains have declined since 2008.

What explains the willingness of younger workers to change jobs so frequently?  The answer may be the withdrawal of moral hazard.  With Obamacare and other benefits, there is less fear of quitting a job.

As Nancy Pelosi predicted in March 2012, Obamacare will “liberate” workers to quit their jobs and become “a photographer or a writer or a musician, whatever.”  No need to worry about losing employer-sponsored health care – Obama has your back.  Pelosi even thought that was a good thing.  Like the world really needs more creative types.  Meanwhile, I have trouble finding a plumber.   

The net effect of fewer and less productive workers is less production, and the effect of less production is a lower standard of living.  Greece is facing the consequences of a generation of unproductive or sham workers.  The cost of labor in Greece, relative to production, is several times that in Germany.  Greece faces a stern choice: restructure so as to become more productive, or face a significant cut in living standards.  Next, it’s our turn.

Obama’s expansion of the welfare state has reduced the incentive to work.  The solution is to repeal those negative incentives and to replace them with positive ones.  The greatest positive incentive would be a reduction in the marginal tax rate.

With federal and state individual tax rates averaging close to 50%, not counting payroll taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, and death taxes claiming another 20% to 40%, there is little incentive for skilled workers to work harder or longer.  Instead, the incentive is to stash as much cash as possible in tax-free and tax-deferred retirement accounts, earn a decent pension, and retire early.  That’s just what 11.4 million workers have done (as of August 2014) since Obama took office.

The loss of those workers shows up in stagnant wages as well as in stalled productivity.  Average wages, adjusted for inflation, have not increased since Obama took office.  As of January 2014, median household income had fallen 4.6% since 2008.  That’s not because greedy CEOs and Wall Street investors are stealing from workers.  It’s because workers have less incentive to work.  Every time a seasoned 50-year-old leaves the workforce and is replaced with an inexperienced 20-year-old, wages and productivity decline.  That has happened 11 million times under this president.

The disincentives to work may be even greater among young college graduates.  Many are dropping out even before they get started.  According to a recent report, it seems that among Silicon Valley types, the creation of a free app that locates the nearest latte or arranges a late-night hookup is characterized as a productivity gain.  Most of these “advances,” however, are directed toward expanding opportunities for leisure, not for productivity.  Downloading a videogame or commenting on a friend’s latest dining experience may be an enjoyable diversion, but these create nothing of value for society.  They are simply distractions from work or study.  A society that puts most of its efforts into trivial diversions will have a hard time defending itself against its enemies when advanced weaponry and hardened soldiers are required.

On every visit to my local library, I see rows of young men sitting for hours at public computers.  These men, in the prime of what should be their working years, are not searching for employment or studying to improve their minds; they are playing worthless videogames filled with brain-numbing violence and mindless action.  These games, I assume, are the product of Silicon Valley or of some other tech center.  I cannot see how they are making us better or more productive as a nation.      

Unfortunately, this administration has shown no interest in creating the kind of incentives that might get these young men back to work.  Instead, like Nancy Pelosi in her “whatever” comment, it celebrates indolence while it bashes the profit motive, attacks companies and individuals for their success, and teaches the young that wealth is a dirty word.  Inevitably, young people believe it.  Among the class of 2014, according to a respected national survey, the “opportunity for personal growth” ranked first among job attributes.  “High starting salary” ranked toward the bottom, well below “friendly co-workers” and “ability to improve community.”  That doesn’t sound like a very ambitious workforce. 

The private sector has now become second to government and non-profits as the preferred career choice for graduating college seniors.  Jobs that produce nothing aren’t going to raise the national standard of living, especially when many of those jobs result in more regulations and more enforcement.  America doesn’t need more environmental inspectors or gender equality police.  It needs more workers producing goods and services of real value.

Fifteen years into the 21st century, there is little evidence to suggest that future generations will be much better off than in the past.  They may live longer due to advances in medical research, but will they live better?  At this point, the answer is no, and the reason is government disincentives to work.

Jeffrey Folks is the author of many books on American politics and culture, including Heartland of the Imagination (2011).
 
Between 1900 and 1999, U.S. GDP expanded by 1,000%.  Never in human history has a major economy e
expanded at such a rate for so long.  At the end of the 20th century, the average American enjoyed ten times the standard of living as the person living in 1900.  Nearly everyone owned a car (a promise Warren Harding had made in his 1920 campaign), and nearly everyone had cable TV, internet, and a cell phone besides.  Life was good in 1999.


But will life be better in 2199?

According to the latest BLS report, U.S. productivity in the first decade of the 21st century dropped to a level just ahead of inflation.  Since 2008, productivity has gone negative, an ominous sign for future living standards.  The past five years have shown productivity gains stuck at or below 2%.

The most recent numbers show economic growth falling off a cliff.  Manufacturing continues moving offshore, corporations are relocating abroad to avoid U.S. corporate taxes, and in 2014 small business startups fell to a 30-year low.  It’s no coincidence that the absolute number of small businesses has been shrinking since 2009, just when Obama took office.  Obama is killing entrepreneurship in America, just as he is driving American companies overseas.  He also has created a workforce that is demoralized, with less productivity growth than any cohort since the Jimmy Carter recession of 1981.

June numbers showed a 5.3% unemployment rate, which sounds good until you look at how many Americans are working part-time and how many have dropped out altogether.  Obama is the first president in postwar history under whom full-time employment has failed to reach new highs.

Sorry to disappoint my liberal friends, such as they are, but this is not George Bush’s fault.  Under Obama, the labor participation rate fell to 37-year lows, and it remains below what it was when he took office – as of March 2015, it was 62.8% vs. 65.7% in January 2009.

What’s happened is the greatest productivity bust since the Great Depression.  In less than seven years, Obama has transformed the labor market from a place where men and women worked hard and expected to work until they reached full retirement age to this: a workforce in which younger workers expect to spend just over two years in a position.  That is hardly long enough to make a real contribution to a company or to society.  It is one reason why productivity gains have declined since 2008.

What explains the willingness of younger workers to change jobs so frequently?  The answer may be the withdrawal of moral hazard.  With Obamacare and other benefits, there is less fear of quitting a job.

As Nancy Pelosi predicted in March 2012, Obamacare will “liberate” workers to quit their jobs and become “a photographer or a writer or a musician, whatever.”  No need to worry about losing employer-sponsored health care – Obama has your back.  Pelosi even thought that was a good thing.  Like the world really needs more creative types.  Meanwhile, I have trouble finding a plumber.   

The net effect of fewer and less productive workers is less production, and the effect of less production is a lower standard of living.  Greece is facing the consequences of a generation of unproductive or sham workers.  The cost of labor in Greece, relative to production, is several times that in Germany.  Greece faces a stern choice: restructure so as to become more productive, or face a significant cut in living standards.  Next, it’s our turn.

Obama’s expansion of the welfare state has reduced the incentive to work.  The solution is to repeal those negative incentives and to replace them with positive ones.  The greatest positive incentive would be a reduction in the marginal tax rate.

With federal and state individual tax rates averaging close to 50%, not counting payroll taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, and death taxes claiming another 20% to 40%, there is little incentive for skilled workers to work harder or longer.  Instead, the incentive is to stash as much cash as possible in tax-free and tax-deferred retirement accounts, earn a decent pension, and retire early.  That’s just what 11.4 million workers have done (as of August 2014) since Obama took office.

The loss of those workers shows up in stagnant wages as well as in stalled productivity.  Average wages, adjusted for inflation, have not increased since Obama took office.  As of January 2014, median household income had fallen 4.6% since 2008.  That’s not because greedy CEOs and Wall Street investors are stealing from workers.  It’s because workers have less incentive to work.  Every time a seasoned 50-year-old leaves the workforce and is replaced with an inexperienced 20-year-old, wages and productivity decline.  That has happened 11 million times under this president.

The disincentives to work may be even greater among young college graduates.  Many are dropping out even before they get started.  According to a recent report, it seems that among Silicon Valley types, the creation of a free app that locates the nearest latte or arranges a late-night hookup is characterized as a productivity gain.  Most of these “advances,” however, are directed toward expanding opportunities for leisure, not for productivity.  Downloading a videogame or commenting on a friend’s latest dining experience may be an enjoyable diversion, but these create nothing of value for society.  They are simply distractions from work or study.  A society that puts most of its efforts into trivial diversions will have a hard time defending itself against its enemies when advanced weaponry and hardened soldiers are required.

On every visit to my local library, I see rows of young men sitting for hours at public computers.  These men, in the prime of what should be their working years, are not searching for employment or studying to improve their minds; they are playing worthless videogames filled with brain-numbing violence and mindless action.  These games, I assume, are the product of Silicon Valley or of some other tech center.  I cannot see how they are making us better or more productive as a nation.      


Unfortunately, this administration has shown no interest in creating the kind of incentives that might get these young men back to work.  Instead, like Nancy Pelosi in her “whatever” comment, it celebrates indolence while it bashes the profit motive, attacks companies and individuals for their success, and teaches the young that wealth is a dirty word.  Inevitably, young people believe it.  Among the class of 2014, according to a respected national survey, the “opportunity for personal growth” ranked first among job attributes.  “High starting salary” ranked toward the bottom, well below “friendly co-workers” and “ability to improve community.”  That doesn’t sound like a very ambitious workforce. 

The private sector has now become second to government and non-profits as the preferred career choice for graduating college seniors.  Jobs that produce nothing aren’t going to raise the national standard of living, especially when many of those jobs result in more regulations and more enforcement.  America doesn’t need more environmental inspectors or gender equality police.  It needs more workers producing goods and services of real value.

Fifteen years into the 21st century, there is little evidence to suggest that future generations will be much better off than in the past.  They may live longer due to advances in medical research, but will they live better?  At this point, the answer is no, and the reason is government disincentives to work.


Jeffrey Folks is the author of many books on American politics and culture, including Heartland of the Imagination (2011).


Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/07/welcome_to_the_whatever_economy.html#ixzz3gkNEoJMx
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A NATION RULED AND LOOTED FROM WALL STREET


On the Democratic side, the same essential reality prevails, albeit masked by the pretense that the Democratic Party is the party of working people, and the populist rhetoric of some of the Democratic challengers to former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.



NATIONAL DEBT

CRONY OBAMANOMICS – HOW OBAMA SQUANDERED AMERICA FOR HIS LOOTING WALL STREET BANKSTERS!

 

 

http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-reality-of-obamas-crony-capitalism.html

 

$3.39T Quantitative Explosion: Fed Owns More Treasuries and MBSs Than Publicly Held Debt Amassed From Washington Through Clinton.

 

 

JUDICIAL WATCH:

OBAMA RANKS AS THE MOST CORRUPT PRESIDENT IN MODERN AMERICAN HISTORY

BARACK OBAMA and the DEATH of the AMERICAN MIDDLE-CLASS.


WITH THE MIDDLE-CLASS DEAD AND BURIED, WILL THE MEXICAN FASCIST PARTY of LA RAZA “The Race” HELP OBAMA BUILD HIS DICTATORSHIP? Do a search for Obama and La Raza Fascism!

 

CRONY CAPITALISM and the FALL  of A DEMOCRATIC NATION

OBAMA’S LOOTING BANKSTERS AGREE TO FUND HIS DICTATORSHIP…. They owned him from day one!


“The vast sums of money pocketed by bank executives are bound up with activities that range from borderline legal to flagrantly illegal. Nearly all of the CEOs included on the list head banks that have been the subject of multiple investigations and fines related to the rigging of global interest and foreign exchange rates, mortgage fraud, money laundering, tax evasion and other crimes.”

OBAMA-CLINTONomics:

CEO PAY 300 TIMES GREATER THAN WORKERS…. AMNESTY WILL MAKE THOSE FIGURES SOAR HIGHER!

 


 

“Historically speaking, the rise in CEO compensation is tied to the global decline of American capitalism and the increasing financialization of the economy. In 1965 the ratio of CEO to worker pay was 20 to 1. By 1978 the ratio had only grown to 30 to 1. It was only in the 90s that CEO pay reached absurd heights, rising from 59 to 1 in 1989 to 376 to 1 in 2000.”

*

“In 2014 the Russell Sage Foundation found that between 2003 and 2013, the median household net worth of those in the United States fell from $87,992 to $56,335—a drop of 36 percent. …While the rich also saw their wealth drop during the recession, they are more than making that money back. Between 2009 and 2012, 95 percent of all the income gains in the US went to the top 1 percent. This is the most distorted post-recession income gain on record.”

 

 
 
 
 
OBAMA-CLINTONomics: the final death of the American middle-class
 
AMNESTY: IT’S ALL ABOUT KEEPING WAGES DEPRESSED.
"While it is not spelt out directly, the BIS critique of the present policies is an expression of the fact that, in the final analysis, the source of all forms of profit is the surplus value extracted from the working class. Therefore, the only way for capital to overcome its crisis and restore stability is a massive increase in exploitation."
 
While the growth of social inequality has dramatically accelerated following the 2008 crash, this is a continuation of a decades-long process. The report notes, “Top 1 percent incomes grew by 80.0% from 1993 to 2014. This implies that top 1 percent incomes captured almost 60% of the overall economic growth of real incomes per family over the period 1993-2014.”

OBAMA: SERVANT OF THE 1%

Richest one percent controls nearly half of global wealth

The richest one percent of the world’s population now controls 48.2 percent of global wealth, up from 46 percent last year.
 
 
The report found that the growth of global inequality has accelerated sharply since the 2008 financial crisis, as the values of financial assets have soared while wages have stagnated and declined.
OBAMA’S CRONY BANKSTERS DESTROY THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
OBAMANOMICS: The escalation of global financial parasitism
 
In fact, the US government’s response to the 2008 crash has been dedicated to inflating the wealth of the super-rich while driving down incomes for the vast majority of the population. The White House has protected Wall Street executives from legal prosecution, while the Federal Reserve has handed out trillions of dollars in cheap money through “quantitative easing” programs, leading share values to triple on major US exchanges.
 
OBAMA’S CRONY BANKSTERS DESTROY THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
OBAMANOMICS: The escalation of global financial parasitism
 
In fact, the US government’s response to the 2008 crash has been dedicated to inflating the wealth of the super-rich while driving down incomes for the vast majority of the population. The White House has protected Wall Street executives from legal prosecution, while the Federal Reserve has handed out trillions of dollars in cheap money through “quantitative easing” programs, leading share values to triple on major US exchanges.
 
 
OBAMA’S CRONY BANKSTERS DESTROY THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
OBAMANOMICS: The escalation of global financial parasitism
 
In fact, the US government’s response to the 2008 crash has been dedicated to inflating the wealth of the super-rich while driving down incomes for the vast majority of the population. The White House has protected Wall Street executives from legal prosecution, while the Federal Reserve has handed out trillions of dollars in cheap money through “quantitative easing” programs, leading share values to triple on major US exchanges.
 
AMERICAN BANKS and the CATASTROPHIC DEATH OF AMERICA
 
The 2008 crash and subsequent developments have revealed certain fundamental realities about American society. All of the official institutions, including the presidency, the courts, Congress and the financial regulators, have worked single-mindedly to shield the banks and the financial elite and enable them to grow even richer.
 

 

SANTORUM STANDS TALL FOR THE AMERICAN WORKER - Rick Santorum in the Crosshairs of MundoFox

Rick Santorum in the Crosshairs of MundoFox



SEN. RICK SANTORUM:

“Part of the problem, Santorum said, has been the arrival of millions of unskilled immigrants — legal and illegal — in the United States. "American workers deserve a shot at [good] jobs," Santorum said. "Over the last 20 years, we have brought into this country, legally and illegally, 35 MILLION  mostly unskilled workers. And the result, over that same period of time, workers' wages and family incomes have flatlined." SEN. RICK SANTORUM


 

SINCE 2000 ALL JOBS GO TO ILLEGALS

AMERICA the failed Nation that Invited Mexico to Invade and loot and then Handed Amnesty to 40 Million Invaders




OBAMA-CLINTONomics: the final death of the American middle-class


 

AMNESTY: IT’S ALL ABOUT KEEPING WAGES DEPRESSED.

"While it is not spelt out directly, the BIS critique of the present policies is an expression of the fact that, in the final analysis, the source of all forms of profit is the surplus value extracted from the working class. Therefore, the only way for capital to overcome its crisis and restore stability is a massive increase in exploitation."
 
 

PATRICK BUCHANAN: OBAMA’S ASSAULT  ON AMERICA BEGINS AT OUR BORDERS


“Yet nothing that happens on these borders imperils America so much as what is happening on our own bleeding border with Mexico.” Patrick Buchanan

DEPORTATION LIES: MORE ARE CLIMBING OUR BORDERS, JOBS AND WELFARE DAILY!


He added, “Immigration enforcement is not supposed to be a game of Russian roulette where we release habitual immigration violators into U.S. communities and hope and pray they don’t go on to commit additional criminal offenses.” SEN. JEFF SESSIONS

 

An estimated 87 percent of illegal immigrants in the United States will not face a threat of deportation from the U.S. and have “a degree of protection” due to President Obama’s executive actions on immigration enforcement, the Migration Policy Institute concludes in a new report.

The MPI report, issued Thursday, highlights the impact of the new policy guidance on immigration enforcement on the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. — namely the Obama administration’s move to replace the Secure Communities program with the Priority Enforcement Program (PEP).

“MPI estimates that about 13 percent of unauthorized immigrants in the United States would be considered enforcement priorities under these policies, compared to 27 percent under the 2010-11 enforcement guidelines,” the report reads. “The net effect of this new guidance will likely be a reduction in deportations from within the interior of the United States as DHS detention and deportation resources are increasingly allocated to more explicitly defined priorities.”

MPI further estimates that the priority shift will reduce interior deportations from the U.S. by 25,000 annually.

It speculates that there are 1.4 million illegal immigrants with criminal convictions that would make them priorities for enforcement — lower than the 3 million MPI estimated under the 2010-201 guidelines.

“While much of the attention to the president’s executive action announcement has focused on the deferred action programs, which MPI has estimated could grant relief from deportation to as many as 5.2 million unauthorized immigrants, implementation of the new enforcement priorities is likely to affect about 9.6 million people,” Marc Rosenblum, report author and the deputy director of MPI’s U.S. immigration policy program, said.

The report comes as sanctuary cities are in the national spotlight following the murder of Kathryn Steinle, allegedly by a multiple deportee, multiple felon illegal immigrant who was released from custody due to San Francisco’s sanctuary policy of not honoring immigration detainers.

Administration officials have argued that PEP will help to encourage more sanctuary jurisdictions to comply with detainers. Republicans have had harsh criticisms of PEP saying it will result in more criminal immigrants in the U.S.

“By defining its ‘priorities’ to exclude large categories of illegal immigrants, including those who have already been ordered deported or those who illegally reenter after having been deported, PEP ensures that countless more dangerous aliens will be released into U.S. communities—allowing otherwise entirely preventable crimes, including some of the most violent and egregious, to occur,”

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)

80%

 

said earlier this month of PEP.

He added, “Immigration enforcement is not supposed to be a game of Russian roulette where we release habitual immigration violators into U.S. communities and hope and pray they don’t go on to commit additional criminal offenses.”

Read More Stories About:

 


SOMEDAY IS HERE TODAY!

A NATION SURRENDERS TO LA RAZA SUPREMACY!

HOW MANY ILLEGALS WERE DEPORTED FROM YOUR COUNTY?

A county by county chart:              


 

Click on LOS ANGELES COUNTY which deports 37,000 MEX CRIMINALS YEARLY.  This same county hands out ONE BILLION DOLLARS YEARL in welfare to illegals. Not one LEGAL voted to be looted by Mexicans.

 
A GLIMPSE OF MEX CRIMINALS IN LOS ANGELES ALONE:

200 MOST WANTED (MURDER) CRIMINALS IN LA RAZA-OCCUPIED LOS ANGELES:

 

COP CRIMES IN AMERICA - The police murder of Sandra Bland

The police murder of Sandra Bland

The police murder of Sandra Bland

23 July 2015
The July 13 death of Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old African-American woman, in an East Texas jail cell has once again brought the issues of police violence and attacks on democratic rights to the forefront of political life in the United States.
At this point, it is unknown precisely how Bland, a vocal opponent of police violence, met her death. But one thing is clear: no credence can be given to anything coming from official channels about the circumstances of her death.
According to the official narrative, the newly employed young woman used a trash bag to hang herself “in a semi-standing position” from a wall partition post not much taller than her own height. Only an hour before she supposedly took this drastic action, she spoke to jail staff about making a phone call. There was, conveniently, no video of the hall leading to her jail cell in the hours before she died—according to police because the cameras are set off by motion detectors.
A comment in the New York Times by columnist Charles Blow points to a number of additional discrepancies in the official account, including the fact that video of Bland’s cell after her death shows a trash can with the garbage bag still in it. Moreover, a bible in the cell appears to have been opened to a page referencing suicide sometime after Bland was killed.
Bland’s family immediately rejected any possibility that Bland had committed suicide, noting that she was excited about her new job. Adding to the uncertainty surrounding the case was the revelation yesterday of glitches in the official dashboard camera video depicting Bland’s arrest, which Texas officials attributed to technical errors.
Whatever the physical cause of her death, criminal responsibility lies with the police. On July 10, Bland was driving in her car to begin a new job when she was stopped by a cop who threatened and brutalized her, and then arrested her without cause. The actions of this officer set into motion a series of events that ended in her death three days later.
The video footage that does exist of Bland’s arrest provides a picture of the daily outrages perpetrated by police in the United States. The young woman was stopped for a minor traffic infraction—supposedly failing to use her turn signal. When she questioned demands from police officer Brian Encinia to put out her cigarette (an unlawful demand), she was ordered out of the car. When she protested this outrageous treatment, she was threatened with a Taser by Encinia, who yelled, “I will light you up!”
After being forced out of the car, Bland was told by Encinia that she was under arrest. When she sought to use her phone to record the incident and asked what she was being arrested for, Encinia brutally attacked her. In a cell phone video, Bland is heard complaining loudly that her face had been slammed into the ground.
Given the vast amount of information available to police on the political views and activities of the American population, it is likely that Encinia had at his disposal records indicating Bland’s vocal opposition on social media to police violence and her likely participation in protests against police killings. The video shows the officer taking a more provocative tone after checking her license and looking up her records in his squad car. The episode leaves the distinct impression that Bland was deliberately targeted for her political views.
In line with the standard modus operandi of US police departments, Encinia has not been charged with any crime. He has merely been consigned to desk duty.
Sandra Bland’s death is impossible to understand apart from its context: three decades of social counterrevolution in America, accompanied by the militarization of the police and the integration of police departments into what has come to be called the “total army.”
The evolution of the police into heavily-armed occupation forces in working-class communities is a central feature of the domination of political reaction over all aspects of US society. Over this period, the methods employed by the US military in its wars abroad have been used ever more directly to deal with explosive social tensions within the United States.
Thuggish actions such as those carried out by Encinia are deliberately encouraged in America’s police forces, which attract the most backward and violent social elements. This type of brutality is promoted at the highest levels of the state, beginning with the presidency. President Barack Obama boasts of “taking out” alleged terrorists by means of drone assassinations.
Police officers are trained to respond with extreme aggressiveness to any questioning of their authority. When an officer commits an act of violence or even murder, the entire political apparatus springs to his defense. He or she is given the most favorable possible coverage on the news, while prosecutors maneuver to avoid bringing charges.
The Obama administration, while posing as an opponent of excessive force by the police, does everything in its power to prevent the bringing to justice of killer cops.
The White House has not brought federal civil rights charges against officers in any of the high-profile police murders in recent months, including the killing of Freddie Grey in Baltimore last April, the murder of Eric Garner in New York City in July of 2014, the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in August of last year, and the killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland last November. The administration has taken the side of the police every time a police violence case has come before the Supreme Court.
Police in the US have killed 647 people so far this year—an average of more than three per day. This follows the 1,100 deaths in 2014, according to one database.
While thousands of people have been killed at the hands of police over the past decade, only 54 officers have been charged for killing people in the line of duty, of whom only 11 were convicted, receiving mostly wrist-slap sentences, according to a recent analysis by the Washington Post.
The Obama administration has facilitated the militarization of the police, having transferred billions of dollars in military hardware to local police departments. This steady flow of advanced weaponry has continued unabated despite mass protests against police killings over the past year.
The death of Sandra Bland has once again produced popular shock and anger that such things should happen in America. Not only do they happen, they occur with nauseating regularity. Every new killing produces nothing but empty expressions of concern and self-serving rationalizations by the political establishment. No one is held to account. Nothing is done to prevent such outrages from happening again.
The daily horror of police violence in the US is one of the most visible symptoms of a deeply diseased society.
Andre Damon