Corporats vs The Common People

[Robert Reich - Why Washington isn't doing squat about jobs and wages.]

But there’s a third reason for Washington’s inaction. It’s not being talked about — which is itself evidence of the problem.

The unemployed are politically invisible. They don’t make major campaign donations. They don’t lobby Congress. There’s no National Association of Unemployed People.

Their ranks are filled with women who had been public employees, single mothers, minorities, young people trying to enter the labor force, and middle-aged men who have been out of work for longer than six months. You couldn’t find a collection of people with less political clout.

The wealthy-corporate elite, the Corporat, is our only real political party. Democrats and Republicans are just the different wings of the Corporat party that we're allowed to choose from. Vote either way and the common people lose.

We need that "none of the above" choice on the ballot.

tnb

The Debt

The Baseline Scenario sums it up.

When people hold certain ideological beliefs strongly enough, no amount of facts will get in their way. If you believe that the current deficit is the result of excessive government spending (passed by Democrats, even though they only controlled Congress and the White House for four out of the past thirty years*), no pile of charts will be big enough to convince you otherwise — just like if you believe that tax cuts increase tax revenues, that the deficit has produced high interest rates, or that Barack Obama was born on Mars, no amount of evidence will convince you otherwise.

This is just fine if you are my daughter, who is four years old — although, actually, she admits it when she makes a mess (and helps clean it up). But if you are a legislator in the most powerful country in the world –and the one whose debt is the definitionally risk-free asset against which the yield of every other financial asset in the entire world is measured — it’s not good enough.

tnb

They first came for the Communists

A current take on the "They came first for....." statment of Nazi Germany fame, from the always good GinAndTacos ginandtacos.com - Turntables

Here's a reworking of the original by tnb.

First The Original, found here: First they came ...

"They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up."

Updated for US for today (by tnb, inspired by the GinandTacos link above)....

"They came first for the Welfare Queens because they were destoying the country and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Welfare Queen.

Then they came for the unions members because they were destroying the country and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a union member.

Then they came for the poor and the immigrants because they were destroying the country and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a poor or an immigrant.

Then they came for "Civil servants. Teachers. Middle management and Anyone with a pension or benefits" becasue these things were destroying the country and by that time no one was left to speak up for me."

tnb

US vs Pakistan

Remember, "They hate us for our freedoms".

As Pakistan-US Tensions Mount, Tankers Burn and Obama Administration Suggests Coup | The Seminal

The Rude Pundit - Nails It.

Speaking of Americans "yearning to be free" and to self-determine shit, the Pledge says, "Whenever the agenda of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to institute a new governing agenda and set a different course." Hey, you know what, Mike Pence and the rest? We did vote to institute a new governing agenda, Obama's. Senate Republicans have prevented its passage. Maybe you could complain if we were, you know, being governed by it.

The Rude Pundit

Robert Reich: Why Boehner's Blaming Bureaucrat

I generally don't like Robert Reich's blogging all that much, he's a little too much of an Old-School liberal for me, sort of stuck in the 70's, but this is pretty good.

Robert Reich: Why Boehner's Blaming Bureaucrats

I especially liked this paragraph. I rarely see the left use good, clean, simple arguments like this.

As far as I can tell, all Republican want to do is to privatize Social Security, extend the Bush tax cuts to the richest 3 percent of Americans, and deregulate. But none of this seems particularly relevant to the task at hand.

Obama - Anti-Business ?

The anti-business president's pro-business recovery

Those Crazy Republicans

Another assault on Republican fiscal policies, from a republican.

Stockman: How the GOP Destroyed the U.S. Economy

Is there a push from moderate Republicans to take back their party from the religious right, wing-nut, Teabaggers or is this just a ploy to look somewhat reasonable to attract the middle in the coming election?

Our Debt - Who's Responsible?

From the Booman Tribune

Here's some historical fact. In the Roosevelt/Truman term from 1945-1949, public debt dropped twenty-four percent. During Harry Truman's full-term (which included most of the Korean War), public debt dropped twenty-two percent. During Dwight Eisenhower's two terms, public debt dropped by 11% and 5%, respectively. During the Kennedy/Johnson term, public debt dropped eight percent, and it dropped 8% during LBJ's full term (which included the beginning of the Vietnam War). During Nixon's first term (which included the remainder of our major involvement in Vietnam), public debt dropped three percent. It wasn't until the Nixon/Ford term from 1973-1977, that our debt rose, and it rose a meager 0.2 percent. Jimmy Carter dropped the public debt 3.3%, despite a very weak economy.

This was our history until Ronald Reagan came to power. During Reagan's two terms our public debt increased eleven percent and nine percent, respectively. Under George H.W. Bush, our debt increased fifteen percent. This was rectified under Bill Clinton, whose two terms delivered a one percent and seven percent reduction in our public debt. And then came George W. Bush.

In Bush's first term, our public debt increased seven percent. During his second term, our debt increased by a post-war record of twenty-percent.

For those of you reading along, the history is that no Democratic administration in the post-war era has ever completed a term in office with the public debt higher than when that term began. The same can be said for Dwight Eisenhower. However, public debt rose during every Republican term since Nixon's first ended in 1973.

The Blame Game

Yeah, I think our system is Broken.

The Blame Game from Political Irony

The Rich.

See,.. if we cut taxes on the rich, they will take that money and invest it in ways that are good for the US and it will eventually trickle down to you poor bastards.

or,...  "Regulation, we don't need no stinking regulation"

US regulators on Thursday charged Samuel and Charles Wyly, two billionaire brothers whose interests range from software to restaurants, with reaping more than $550m in undisclosed gains by trading shares in companies on whose boards they sat.

The Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that the Wylys created a “elaborate sham of trusts and subsidiary companies” in off-shore jurisdictions to sell $750m in stock in Michaels Stores, Sterling Software, Sterling Commerce and Scottish Annuity & Life Holdings. The brothers held board seats on all four companies.

Are They Serious?

John Malone - Liberty Media

Here New-Doom, here WSJ-Google Cache and here FutureofCapitalism

WSJ: What are you doing to protect against the weak American economy?

Mr. Malone: Well, my wife, who is very concerned about these things, moved all her personal cash to Australia and Canada. She wants to have a place to go if things blow up here.Canada has a lot more fiscal and bank responsibility than most places in the world and lots of natural resources.

We have a retreat that's right on the Quebec border. We own 18 miles on the border, so we can cross. Anytime we want to we can get away.

It would probably be illegal but we could go. Actually our snowmobile trail goes right on the border.

Mr. John Malone of Liberty Media, number 400 on the Forbes 500 list, with a net worth of 2.4 Billion, is worried that he might have to ride his snowmobile across his ranch, which has an 18 mile border with Canada, to escape the collapse of the US economy. His wife has been moving her money to Australia and Canada.

I thought this was an Onion spoof when I first read it.

Mr. Malone is worth about 2.4 billion according to Forbes. That's $2,400,000,000. One-half of all US households have total wealth less than 93,100 (2004 - link). Let’s put those numbers together for comparison.

John Malone's wealth --->    2,400,000,000.
Median US Household --->               93,000. ---> 50% of US is less than this.

Mr. Malone's wealth is equal to 25,778 of these median US families.

Mr. Malone was educated and built his fortune in the US. I'm sure he believes he's earned it and is entitled to every penny but the US system played a huge role is his ability to gather wealth. Our educational system, laws, economic and financial structures all made his career possible. If Mr. Malone had been born in the Sudan it is highly unlikely that he would have amassed his fortune. Like it or not he was lucky. The US helped make him. Now, when he thinks things look bleak for his type, the US-Big-Business-Elite, he's ready to cut and run.

I wonder what he thinks about the US kids that went to Canada rather than be sent to Vietnam?

The Mess We're In

A good article about Wall Street capturing our government.

The Atlantic - The Quiet Coup

Some comentary on the Atlantic article here:

Naked Capitalism

Wall Street Reform Passes

Here's a pretty good overview of what's in the bill and a little about the process that created it.

Wall Street Reform Passes

This bill may help protect the economy from the greedy elites but i'm not holding my breath. Bankers have a way of working around regulation and after a few years they'll have their people in all the right "regulatory" positions and will be gaming the system again.

Also, I liked this line.

A team of Goldman Sachs analysts predicted in a Tuesday research note that the legislation will annually cost Bank of America about $4.4 billion, Citi about $3.7 billion, JPMorgan about $5.3 billion, Morgan Stanley about $900 million, and Wells Fargo about $2.2 billion....

I wonder how much it will cost Goldman Sachs?

Corporations vs The People

Another take on the Corporations capturing government from Political Irony.

Gaming the System

Though Democrats are guilty too.

Republican/Democrat Party is the Problem?

I like this site, "Politcal Irony", a lot and this post is pretty good, but again, it lays the blame on the Republicans and though they are a problem, the Democrats are not really any better. Both parties are led by powerful elite groups, have a lot of coruption, care mostly about the same groups,... big business, big medical, etc. Both claim to be for "the people" but their actions are more for themselves and their friends in power.

We need a "none-of-the-above" option in all our elections.

Political Irony › The Republican Party is not the solution to our problem; the Republican Party is the problem

Thoughts for the July 4th Holiday.

Here is a good post from the Booman Tribune. I agree with much of it but I think too many on the left argue this is a Democrat-Republican thing when, I believe, it goes deeper than that. Sure the Republicans support business/corporations at the expense of people but are the Democrats really any better?

The Republicans talk small government but typically produce a big government that favors big business including big oil, big media, big medicine, big finance and big religion. The Democrats (of last 30 years anyway), talk a little more about the plight of the people, but they also produce a government that favors big business including big oil, big media, big medicine, and big finance. They may throw in a little more for the common man but in practice there's not a lot of difference between the two.

Our government has been captured by the rich and powerful from both the corporate and special-interest lobbies and no longer really works for “We the People”. Both parties support mostly the same business interests, the un-ending wars in the middle-east, and I'm not sure you're even allowed to participate in American government unless you pledge un-dying support for Israel. The parties work together to squash third party candidates and, with the help of the corporate media’s endless stream of mindless crap designed drive ratings but not really affect the system, work to keep their supporters in a rage against the other side over little shit like whether Obama is a citizen or Sarah Palin is an idiot, while they run the place into the ground just to increase their wealth and power.

Democrat or Republican, “We the People” are screwed.

U.S. Congress passes tough unilateral sanctions against Iran

From this....

U.S. Congress passes tough unilateral sanctions against Iran - Haaretz Daily Newspaper Israel News

I though this was funny...

"One provision added in final House-Senate negotiations specifies that foreign
banks interacting with the Revolutionary Guard or certain Iranian banks will be shut out of the U.S. financial system."

a few thoughts..

Since the US Financial system nearly wrecked the world economy over the last few years some foreign banks may prefer working with Iran.

I don't think they could ever make this stick. If the greedy financial elites think they can make a profit, i'm guessing they'll find a way to work with foreign banks even if they are working with Iran.

How do the teabagger, free-market types feel about this government restriction on business?

Those darned deficits...

A county can spend its money and resources on its own people or on blowing the hell out of other people. We chose the latter.

TAPPED Archive | The American Prospect

"America, we used to be the good guys."

End US support of Israel.

Ask your Indiana representatives to stop sending your tax dollars to Israel (about 3 billion last year).

Mike Pence -

Richard Lugar

Evan Bayh - Your senator from Wellpoint