My state is on the verge of a mass execution. It’s an execution that will be carried out by a Democratic governor on behalf of the richest people in the state. It will be applauded by the traditional press, which will, in its collective willingness to ignore facts, bless the execution as the path to "fiscal stability".

   It will be an unconscionable execution of innocent, hard-working people. It will leave a legacy that we will not easily repair for a generation or more–long after the hired-gun, poodle-for-the-rich governor moves on to the next step in his political career.

   Let me paraphrase Jay Gould: It’s clear that the richest people in the state can hire a Democratic governor to get one group of people to kill the other group, while the richest people laugh all the way to the purchase of their next Picasso.

   Let’s examine the insanity that we are about to descend into: the people of this state, and this country, have been robbed. Our economy has been drained of its great wealth by a systematic looting that has gone on for 30 years. In the most recent chapter of the economic crisis, a group of incompetent, greedy financiers obliterated trillions of dollars of wealth and cast millions of people out of their jobs.

   And who should pay for this robbery, this foolishness, this immoral behavior?

   The people who got screwed. The people who had nothing to do with triggering the economic crisis and were innocent by-standers.

   You. Cannot. Make. This. Up.

   Our hired-gun, poodle-for-the-rich governor has a plan: freeze pay for the people who got screwed but don’t ask for any sacrifice from the people who are filthy rich. Cut pensions for the people who have worked for decades at 9-5 jobs, who packed their own lunches and ate out on the streets, in parks, or in souless cafeterias–but don’t ask the people who were served by the soon-to-be-executed people who got screwed to pay a bit more in taxes–such a relatively small amount that those people could still be assured that they would continue to dine in those hushed dining rooms with fine wine, play golf at the exclusive members-only country clubs and board their private planes to the tropics while the working stiffs stay home to count their pennies.

   Let’s be clear. We have a fiscal deficit for two reasons: the economic depression we are in and the slow but relentless unraveling of a progressive tax system in this state. The first is a short-term fact–that is likely to stretch much longer than we think–and the second is a 30-year process, aided and abetted by both parties.

   Check this out:

   New York State has the biggest divide between rich and poor in the entire country. When it comes to income distribution, as the Fiscal Policy Institute puts it:

New York state is the most polarized among the fifty states, and New York City is more polarized than the state overall and is the most polarized among the twenty-five largest cities in the United States.

   For all those New Yorkers, particularly Democrats, who like to feel proud of the state and look down at some other state…you know which state has the least polarization between rich and poor? Alaska. Hey, Sarah Palin, now there’s a talking point for you.

   The idea that taxing the rich hurts the economy is complete bullshit. There is virtually no data that supports this. We have simply been sold this complete nonsense–by Republicans and Democrats–for several decades and we nod and accept this as if it is fact. You don’t believe me? Fine. Maybe we can believe a radical observation from a well-know left-wing revolutionary: Bill Gates Senior.

   Gates was an ardent supporter of imposing a state income tax in Washington on individuals earning more than $200,000 annually or households earning more than $400,000 annually. Here’s what he said on "60 Minutes" in an interview with Leslie Stahl:

"Businesses are saying they’ll leave," Stahl pointed out.

"Yes. But the real truth of the matter is that the people that own businesses are the people who will be paying the tax. And my analysis is they don’t want to pay the tax," Gates said. "The rich guys don’t want to pay the tax."

"Are you saying you just think they’re greedy?" Stahl asked.

"No," he replied. "They’re defensive. I guess you could call it greed, I suppose. Wanting to not write another check, sure," Gates said.

"Steve Ballmer?" Stahl asked. "He’s worth $14 billion. You don’t think he…"

"He’s a very fine guy, too. The fact of the matter is there are 43 states in this country that have a state income tax. And in those states, the Microsofts or the ABCs, whatever, have not fled the state. I mean, it’s just a gross exaggeration," Gates said.

   This has nothing to do with competitiveness.

   It is all about greed. Gates knows these people: they just don’t want to pay. And the hired-gun poodle-for-the-rich governor needs these people for his future political career.

   The fact is, as the Fiscal Policy Institute says:

The people who have benefited so richly from the extraordinary concentration of wealth documented here should have no difficulty in paying their fair share of taxes and still maintaining a very comfortable lifestyle. While it is true that top earners pay the most in taxes, they are paying less than their proportionate share given their extraordinarily high income.

   Where I agree with the hired-gun, poodle-for-the-rich governor is that we have a deeply dysfunctional government. But, it is not a dysfunction born of the moral decisions to pay people a decent wage and make sure that they had something to live on in retirement.

   No, the dysfunction comes from living with a political leadership that is morally corrupt to an astonishing degree. The indictments for actual corruption are a distraction. The worse corruption comes from the vast majority of political leaders who are largely disinterested in engaging in policy (one could actually be accurate and say that they are just dumb, incurious and incapable of grasping an idea) and strive for political office because, like the mountain, it’s there–as a career.

   In this context, it’s no surprise we find ourselves facing the public execution being teed up by the hired-gun, poodle-for-the-rich governor.

   So, the real question, then, is how do we respond? What will the leaders of civilized society do?

   First off, we need people not to be cowed into submission and to believe the self-generated public relations by the hired-gun, poodle-for-the-rich governor that he is operating with a mandate. That is a mirage.

   Aside from having the good fortune of running against a certifiable nut-job, the hired-gun, poodle-for-the-rich governor was the same recipient of a "mandate" that has been afforded to the beloved candidates of the Tea Party. They are all playing on and exploiting the same passion: anger, disgust, frustration. Those feelings come, in my humble opinion, whether recognized or not, from victims of the greatest class warfare we have seen in decades.

   So, the "mandate" was a cry to get the boot of our necks–even if people don’t know whose is applying the boot or are pointing the fingers in the wrong direction. So, do not buy this "mandate" crap.

   Step One: we need to figure out how not to be divided. And, certainly, someone needs to get the labor movement to act as one voice and in unison. Right now, there is a distinct possibility for long-lasting, deep, wounding fissures in the labor movement with long-term damage for mobilization to oppose the unrelenting class warfare in the country. So we understand: the hired-gun, poodle-for-the-rich governor will throw anyone under the bus once that union ceases to be useful to him.

   Step Two: Massive, peaceful civil disorder is called for.

   I think of a reverse Salt March if you will. More than 80 years ago, Mahatma Gandhi led a long march in protest to a tax on salt imposed by the British. Salt was symbolic because everyone used it.

   We need a march, or a series of marches and rallies, that instead are in protest for the failure to impose a tax: a tax on the wealthiest New Yorkers.

   We should all carry salt as a symbol: of the impoverishment of people who will be economically challenged to even buy the basics for themselves and their families, AND as an expression of what is being rubbed into the economically raw wounds of all the people who are being crushed by forces beyond their control.

   We should march to the high-end restaurants and the private country clubs, with salt in our pockets, carrying pictures of loves ones who will be hurt by the public execution ordered by the hired-gun, poodle-for-the-rich governor. Let’s fill the jails.

   If you think that is extreme, let’s compare the options: allowing a public execution of thousands of people, and flushing down the drain any semblance of a fair society, versus a little inconvenience and public disruption.