Daily Archives: December 6, 2013

Evangelii Gaudium, Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis

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The Vatican web site has posted APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION EVANGELII GAUDIUM OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS TO THE BISHOPS, CLERGY, CONSECRATED PERSONS AND THE LAY FAITHFUL ON THE PROCLAMATION OF THE GOSPEL IN TODAY’S WORLD.

53. Just as the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say “thou shalt not” to an economy of exclusion and inequality.
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56. While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few. This imbalance is the result of ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation. Consequently, they reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control. A new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules. Debt and the accumulation of interest also make it difficult for countries to realize the potential of their own economies and keep citizens from enjoying their real purchasing power. To all this we can add widespread corruption and self-serving tax evasion, which have taken on worldwide dimensions. The thirst for power and possessions knows no limits. In this system, which tends to devour everything which stands in the way of increased profits, whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenseless before the interests of a deified market, which become the only rule.

No to a financial system which rules rather than serves

I must admit I haven’t read all 288 pages yet, but having the link here will make it easier to read more of what the Pope has to say.  I am sure that there will be many misinterpretations of his words that will be published in the faux news media in the future.  To check if they are true to his intentions or not, you can always come back here to read the words yourself.

Perhaps this exhortation has given President Obama courage to say what is reported in my previous post Obama Gets Real.

I have classified this post under Greenberg’s Law of Reverence so that you know why I think this exhortation is important. Hover over the previous link to see the law.

Obama Gets Real

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The New York Times has Paul Krugman’s article Obama Gets Real.

And there was this: “When it comes to our budget, we should not be stuck in a stale debate from two years ago or three years ago.  A relentlessly growing deficit of opportunity is a bigger threat to our future than our rapidly shrinking fiscal deficit.” Finally! Our political class has spent years obsessed with a fake problem — worrying about debt and deficits that never posed any threat to the nation’s future — while showing no interest in unemployment and stagnating wages. Mr. Obama, I’m sorry to say, bought into that diversion. Now, however, he’s moving on.

Emphasis added by me in the above excerpt. And of course he doesn’t mean the people think the rapid shrinking of the deficit is the problem the right complains about.  What he means is the huge size of the deficit is what they complain about, and even that is rapidly shrinking.  He fails to mention that the rapid shrinking of that deficit is one big cause for the failure of the economy to recover.

If the President is ready to move on, will the Hillary Clinton wing of the Democratic Party also move on?  The previous post, Huh, so it IS a coordinated Wall Street Democrat campaign, seems to indicate that this wing is trying hard to fight moving on rather than embracing it.

Thanks to MardyS for posting a link to this article in a comment he made in a previous post.

 

Political Scene: The Politics of Income Inequality 5

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The New Yorker magazine has the brief introduction to the pod cast Political Scene: The Politics of Income Inequality.

The rhetoric used to discuss income inequality, the Affordable Care Act, and the nascent push to raise the minimum wage may possibly be standing in the way of reducing America’s wealth gap. For one thing, we talk about them as though they are three distinct issues. “The biggest thing which Obama has done to reduce inequality, if it all goes through and works properly, will be Obamacare,” John Cassidy explains. “It’s not just a health-care initiative; it’s also a big redistributionary initiative.” Cassidy and George Packer join host Dorothy Wickenden on this week’s Political Scene podcast to assess President Obama’s recent speech on inequality and the politics of the wealth gap. Packer simplifies the issue in a way the President did not: “It’s a really profound moral as well as economic issue: Should you really be below poverty level if you work full time?” 



This podcast is a nice complement to my previous posts, Huh, so it IS a coordinated Wall Street Democrat campaign and The Pathology of the Rich – Chris Hedges on Reality Asserts Itself pt1.


If, as I believe, the 2016 Presidential election will be a contest between the Hillary Clinton wing and the Elizabeth Warren wing of the Democratic Party, these posts of mine indicate that Hillary’s wing ought to be the losing wing in this contest.  If Hillary doesn’t stop trying to tamp down the morally and politically correct fight against the current day robber barons, then I will find it very difficult to support her.  I will find it  very easy to support someone who is running out of the Elizabeth Warren wing, and it doesn’t have to be Elizabeth Warren.  This fight is for the soul of the Democratic Party and the soul of the nation.