Advertise on more than 70 progressive blogs! |
The Long Road to Democracy - Archives
 Obama's Budget Betrayal - Questions and AnswersQ: The national debt is at $14 trillion. Doesn't Obama have to do something decisive now?
A: If you assume that reducing the national debt is the primary challenge facing the nation, yes. But why do we have out of control spending? Social Security pays for itself. If Obama truly wanted to help Medicare, he would lift the ban on medicare negotiating 40% to 60% discounts on prescription drugs.
If the president wanted to cut the budget now,everything would be on the table. He would cut military spending and end the wars. He would demand an end to outsourcing and the multilevel scheme to give away the jobs of the citizens of the United States. He won't even consider and discuss these high yield options. Without any doubt, the president would never have allowed the Bush tax cuts to carry forward, if he wanted new revenue from those who could pay. He is not serious about lowering the national debt.
Triumph of the Money Party!!! Warren's role downgraded, reports to Geithner
Michael Collins
September 16, 2010
The White House snatched back one of the few bones it's thrown to the people outraged at the looting of the United States Treasury by failed financial concerns - the big banks and Wall Street. The promised appointment Elizabeth Warren as head of the new agency to protect consumers from the financial services industry has been seriously downgraded. Instead of running the Consumer Finance Protection Agency, Warren's role has been diminished to that of special assistant to the president and adviser to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.
"President Obama, sidestepping a possibly heated confirmation battle, will appoint Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren as a special advisor to the Treasury Department to launch the government's powerful new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to two Democratic officials familiar with the decision." LA Times, Sept 15
An interim appointment would have given the no-nonsense Warren the full authority to structure consumer bureau in the interests of the people.
Snip
In the case of Warren, a fake drama was created whereby the White House could get credit for appointing Warren for full Senate approval while snatching back both that appointment and an interim slot; all in the name of political necessity. Whose necessity? Who benefits?
All involved in this destructive drama should be ashamed. But they won't. They don't care because they don't have to care. They're above the law and the real world consequences of a truly open political system. ...
Chalk it up as another big triumph of The Money Party.
Link: http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/tr...
The Wisdom of the People - the Populist Rationale
By Michael Collins
The citizens of the United States have excellent judgment. They have shown it consistently over time. When that judgment shifts briefly allowing a failed policy, it is a result of the vilest forms of propaganda by a small clique of liars. (Image: PS-OV-ART)
The people were right about the invasion of Iraq
The people were right about the bailout
Who pays attention to the public? Not our leaders. There was a time when ordinary people rose up and offered a declaration based on the people's wisdom.
A Populist Manifesto
One of the earliest populist declarations applies directly to the challenges we face right now. It represented a bold assertion from those denied the benefits of their labor. These were not experts. They were, by and large, farmers. They were not Ivy League graduates. But their education was sufficient to generate a revolutionary statement addressing the massive inequalities of their time.
The 1892 Populists argued that a small group of individuals and entities within society controlled the majority of wealth and power. This cabal of the very few manipulated the system to serve their will leaving the people with varying degrees of nothing. The 1892 platform of the Populist Party crystallized this argument:
"The conditions which surround us best justify our cooperation; we meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political, and material ruin. Corruption dominates the ballot-box, the Legislatures, the Congress, and touches even the ermine of the bench."
How did this happen. The populists had an answer:
"The newspapers are largely subsidized or muzzled, public opinion silenced, business prostrated, homes covered with mortgages, labor impoverished, and the land concentrating in the hands of capitalists." 1892 platform
More at Economic Populist: http://economicpopulist.org/content/wisdom...
Questions for the Money Party: What's with negative job growth for 11 years?
By Michael Collins
Negative job growth for eleven years is the best evidence concerning our economic troubles. There were 135 million jobs in 2000 for a workforce of 144 million. Today, there are 139 million jobs for a workforce of 154 million. That represents negative job growth when you factor in population growth.
Job growth in this economy hit a dead calm in 2000 and is now moving backwards. If the issue isn't raised, how can we address the phenomena?
What is the Money Party doing about Negative Job Growth?
The solutions offered by congressional Republicans are packed with their favorite programs (House and Senate versions). Unfortunately, their proposals don't have much to do with increasing jobs.
More at Economic Populist
http://economicpopulist.org/content/questi...
It's all about the jobs. Nothing gets taken care of until we put 12-15 million able bodied, hard working citizens back to work in decent jobs. This is short and sweet. Send it to your state and federal representatives as a reminder or call them. It's time this is issue #1. Removing Jobs as Job #1
Economic Populist
By Robert Oak
Have you noticed despite the never ending jobs crisis, Jobs are removed from the political dialog? The unemployed are no longer mentioned? Or if they are, we get absurd nonsense policy that will actually do the opposite? Ship more jobs overseas and lose jobs?
No net new jobs since 2000, adjusting for population growth
While a WPA is a worthy goal, and the public works from the Great Depression are proof positive it works, we need more than that. We need to make things again and structure the economy, in particular reform trade to be Buy American and Hire America. to get the economy of scale required to put America back on the right course.
http://economicpopulist.org/content/removi...
Source: McClatchyBy Greg Gordon | McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON — Buried in FBI laboratory reports about the anthrax mail attacks that killed five people in 2001 is data suggesting that a chemical may have been added to try to heighten the powder's potency, a move that some experts say exceeded the expertise of the presumed killer. The lab data, contained in more than 9,000 pages of files that emerged a year after the Justice Department closed its inquiry and condemned the late Army microbiologist Bruce Ivins as the perpetrator, shows unusual levels of silicon and tin in anthrax powder from two of the five letters. Those elements are found in compounds that could be used to weaponize the anthrax, enabling the lethal spores to float easily so they could be readily inhaled by the intended victims, scientists say. The existence of the silicon-tin chemical signature offered investigators the possibility of tracing purchases of the more than 100 such chemical products available before the attacks, which might have produced hard evidence against Ivins or led the agency to the real culprit. Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/05/19/1144... Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/05/19/1144...
Greg Gordon hit it out of the park with this one. Later on, he says: But the FBI lab reports released in late February give no hint that bureau agents tried to find the buyers of additives such as tin-catalyzed silicone polymers.
The apparent failure of the FBI to pursue this avenue of investigation raises the ominous possibility that the killer is still on the loose.
That's true. What is also true is the ominous nature of a tanked investigation, one in which it was known there were other/better suspects.
Will the NY Attorney General Bring Doomsday Charges Against Wall Street? If So, How Long Will He Survive? Michael Collins  Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times just published one of the few feel good stories in months following the 2008 financial crisis. She describes a possible day of reckoning for the perpetrators of the 2008 crisis and much of the pain that has followed. ... Morgenson indicated where the attorney general might be heading - securitization fraud: "Some litigants have contended, for example, that the banks dumped loans they knew to be troubled into securities and then misled investors about the quality of those underlying mortgages when selling the investments."
"The possibility has also been raised that the banks did not disclose to mortgage insurers the risks in the instruments they were agreeing to insure against default." New York Times, May 16 ... Nexus between Cuomo 2009 Charges against Bank of America, Schneiderman's Investigation, and the Senate Report on "Wall Street and the Financial Crisis" On February 4, 2009, then New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed a complaint against the Bank of America, Kenneth D. Lewis, and Joseph L. Price. "The bank and the two named executives are charged with failing to inform the bank's board of directors and shareholders of the major red ink on Merrill Lynch's books prior to the merger. CEO Lewis, CFO Price, and other BofA officers and professionals chose to hide $16 billion of Merrill Lynch known pre tax losses prior to board approval. That's fraud, plain and simple." Michael Collins, Economic Populist, February 8, 2009 If wishes were horses… If wishes were horses, we'd all take a ride. Spitzer's investigations blew up after a personal scandal. Cuomo's gubernatorial campaign interrupted his Bank of America case of 2009. ... But you never know. Success is often a matter of timing. This attorney general is certainly attacking Wall Street and the big banks at the right time. Link: http://economicpopulist.org/content/will-n...
Strong Unions - The Worst Nightmare for the Financial Elite by Michael Collins
The antiunion movement in the United States keeps us underpaid and represents a serious impediment to economic growth. Yet antiunion sentiment remains strong among the political establishment and their patrons. Why?
Worker rights and a decent wage represent a toxic brew to the ruling elite. In the past, they expressed their antiunion position in a crude fashion. From the 1870's through the 1920's, industrialists fought union growth with hired thugs and complicit law enforcement officials. Organizers and union members were harassed, maimed, and killed throughout the country for simply acting on the right to organize and participate in a union.
When union power and public decency prevailed, the elite shifted their efforts. The right to work movement emerged. Restrictive laws making it harder to organize unions became the main thread of crony capitalist efforts. Antiunion propaganda ran parallel to this backroom strategy. The image of the lazy worker and corrupt union boss became a mantra of right wing puppets. When unions did succeed, the elite offered union leaders the benefits of insider status in order to moderate their positions.
The tactics varied around the world, but the strategy remained the same: reduce the size an influence of unions as a means of keeping wages low and profits through the roof. The tactics worked.
Economic Populist: http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/st...
Libya, Gas Prices, and the Big Payday at Your Expense
Image
We have the usual suspects looking for hot money. The fast-money types, as Moenning calls them, smell another victory in the air. Their market activity is driving prices in a self-reinforcing cycle of increases that are highly profitable when you get in and out at the right time (and if you pull the strings for the market, that's easy).
Everyone who benefits will raise prices because they can.
They have no concept of enough and there is nobody standing in their way.
Link: http://agonist.org/michael_collins/2011030...
The Money Party on the Road to Ruin
Michael Collins
The Money Party is destroying the United States. For ten years, there have been no new jobs with flat income. Unemployment and poverty are making a big comeback. The party consists of those who own and control concentrations of great wealth and the select few who serve them (their Mandarins). Based on the efficiency of the demolition job, you have to wonder, is this is by design? If greed, ignorance, and paranoia constitute a plan, then they are master planners. (Image)
Look at the glaring problems below. Then ask yourself, has there been one single program implemented to address any of these problems, just one? ...
There have been no net new jobs since 2000. The minimal growth from 2000 to 2010 disappears when you factor in 10% population growth over the same period.
You would think that somebody in charge would take this seriously. New jobs with decent pay represent the key to many of the other problems we face. Yet nobody bothers to do anything about it or even starts a serious effort to seek solutions.
Income has been flat for 10 years.
How are people supposed to survive, raise their families, pay their medical bills, etc. if income remains flat while inflation eats away at existing resources?
More - Link: http://www.apj.us/index.php?option=com_con...
 Michael Collins
The most creative sector of the business community has a dagger at its heart in the form of the relentless, unyielding, and over burdening cost of health insurance. The self-employed and very small businesses have seen their insurance premiums climb 20% to 75% since 2009. To purchase an adequate family plan, a self-employed person will pays an amount 50% to 70% of the nation's median, $32,000 a year, for family health plan. This includes premiums, deductibles, and out of pocket expenses. That is twice the cost for relatively generous plans at medium to large size companies. Very small businesses, two to twenty employees, pay about the same (Image: Paul Henman)
Wasn't health reform supposed to take care of just this sort of inequity? Didn't the title of the bill say it all? The Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act. There is no protection for the self-employed when they have these stark choices facing them due to unaffordable insurance rates. They can give up working for themselves; buy adequate insurance and take a huge hit to income; buy a substandard plan and hope that whatever comes up is covered; or, abandon insurance at real risk to their health and, in some cases, their lives.
More at Economic Populist
Department of Defense spokesperson claims Dr. King would have understood and endorsed the current wars.
Is there a lie to big to tell?
Apparently not.
The Money Party Deficit Reduction Scam and Social Security By Michael Collins President Obama announced the new National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform on February 18 to address astronomical federal budget deficits. There has been considerable speculation that this commission will target current and future benefits for Social Security recipients to achieve its goals. Why would this be the case? We need look no further than the treatment of major retirement funds over the past 20 years to get the answer. When the mob needed cash, it looted the Teamsters retirement fund. When large corporations or government entities get in trouble, they effectively borrow from their employee retirement funds by delaying required payments or otherwise gaming the programs. This provides a source of ready cash, a quick vehicle to cover management errors, or jack up their bonuses. Think of the Social Security Trust Fund (trust fund) as the most lucrative retirement fund in the country, the ultimate pot of gold, and you'll immediately understand why it is that for decades, big business has plundered the trust fund. How does this happen? The Biggest Retirement Fund Rip Off EverMore: http://www.apj.us/index.php?option=com_con... 
Heathens Hold the Line as California KO's Corporate Takeover
By Michael Collins
The corporate takeover of California is on hold, according to the latest polls out of the nation’s largest state. Just nine days before the election, the Los Angeles Times and University of Southern California poll shows a nearly impossible uphill battle for the big business ticket of former eBay CEO Meg Whitman and former HP CEO Carly Fiorina.
Snip
People who "never attend church" will elect the next Governor and Senator
There are 1501 respondents in the sample for this variable - "How often do you attend church?" If you take the sample and create a running total starting with "More than once a week", by the time you get "Monthly or less", total of all church goers are split as follows. Brown is up only 27.75% to 27.05% over Whitman, a virtual dead heat. Boxer trails Fiorina by 2.5 points, 29% to 31.5%.
Data from Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research Oct 10-20, 2010 pages 274-5
But when those who "Never" attend church are added to the running total, a miracle of sorts takes place. Brown ends up pulling ahead with a sizable 12% lead and Boxer surges to an 8% advantage. These margins are the same as those cited by the LA Times article on the poll. We had to go 274 pages into the details of the poll to find out who the new power brokers are in California politics.
Let's assume that those who "Never" go to church are secular humanists and who are sick and tired of little to nothing accomplished to relieve the depression-like conditions. I may be wrong, but regardless of the accuracy of the heathen hypothesis, there's a certain poetic justice, a conceit, so to speak, commenting on the tedium of religion in politics over the last few decades.
Link: http://www.apj.us/index.php?option=com_con...
|
Visitor Tools
Use the tools below to keep track of updates to this Journal.
|
