Monday, October 25, 2010

The rich get richer

The number of Americans making $50 million or more, the top income category in the data, fell from 131 in 2008 to 74 last year. But that’s only part of the story.


The average wage in this top category increased from $91.2 million in 2008 to an astonishing $518.8 million in 2009. That’s nearly $10 million in weekly pay!

The total income brought home by the over-$50 million club more than tripled from 2008 despite having fewer members. Those seventy-four people brought home more money than the bottom 19 million American workers combined

http://www.cjr.org/economic_crisis/the_50_million-a-year_club_boo.php

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Foreclosure

Banks are in a pickle at the moment over foreclosures. They were cheating the system, those banks were. They were not even taking the time to read the paperwork, just signing foreclose after foreclosure. One bloak is said to have paid for his house in cash, and never had a morgtage, yet the banks would not be stopped and foreclose on his home they did.

One of the problems is that when the mortgages went to wall street they were chopped up to distribute risk. So 1000 individuals owned part of the mortgage. An article came out some time ago argueing that the banks would have a hard time foreclosing, because by law banks need the deed on the house to foreclose. Because of the complexity of the securitization process of these mortgages they were lost in the wind. Good for the screwed masses, bad for the banks. Great news right?

But this puzzle can reverse the winners and losers, as i was just reminded by a commenter on a post i read. What happens when a homeowner doing the right thing, finally pays off his mortgage, does he get the dead of the house? How can he if it is lost in the wind?

Sometimes the comments from an article have more information than the original article.

War

"Indeed, Robert Baer – a former senior figure in the CIA – says the agency now prefers to kill a suspect than capture them and assess their guilt or find out what they know. "Targeted killings are easier for the CIA or for the military to deal with than taking someone prisoner," he explains. "No one really ever questions a killing, but when you take someone prisoner, then you are responsible for the person and then the headaches come. We have a logic which leads to more and more targeted killings."


Another shame of humanity.




http://www.johannhari.com/2010/10/15/obamas-escalating-robot-war-in-pakistan-endangers-us-all

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

New drilling rules in effect

Thats just wonderful, new rules for offshore drilling rigs to ignore. If they ignored the last batch of rules and no one was held accountable what the bleep are new rules going to do?

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Welfare State

If you cry about the welfare state here in the USA you better check yourself. Many people i meet love to cry about the welfare state, but they only cry about half of the welfare, the part that goes to low income families for say rent control or food stamps or Medicaid, or to illegals, who people say "are draining our system.

If you listen to these people you are hearing only half or a third of the story. The other two thirds is the welfare that rich people get. Rich people get by far more welfare than the poor. While the rich pay more in taxes they also get a ridiculous amount of write offs. I was just reading yesterday about one government program that gives back 400 billion a year to encourage home buying and business spending, and 40% of this money is given to the richest 1%, clearly uneven distribution toward the top.

But its really no surprise that the story is the told the way it is. That the rich worked hard for theirs, while the poor or sucking the system dry. The story is always told by the winner. Think about it. All the owners and lead anchors for every major news outfit in America is rich. Every Senator and President is rich, and so is most of Congress. So why wouldn't they govern from what they know, the rich. The rich fund their compaigns, and the rich get more beneficial laws passed.

So next time someone tries to feed you garbage about the welfare in this country being out of control yet they only mention the story of those damn poor people on welfare you will know they only have part of the story.

Home burns down, Fireman watch

Have not written in awhile, because its the same old news, the 50 Rich guys that run American and own congress pass laws to funnel more money and power to themselves thus taking it away from all of us, and somehow the public fights of the scraps and yells at the other political party with name calling like your a socialist or your a fascist.

So socialist, everyone calls President Obama a socialist. His damn socialist healthcare. Our damn socialist fire department. Well a town in Tennessee did something about their damn socialist fire department and now the everyone home in town pays a fee to get fire service, no fee no service. Well this played out beautifully this week. Better than any poet could have spoke about, when a home burned down as the fire department stood by and watched. You see the home did not pay their 75$ fire fee, and were thus added to a list of homes the fire department was to not service. So they showed up of course, to protect the homes of the neighbors who paid their fire tax. This is pretty crazy. What if someone died? What if a baby died in that home? Thats OK with everyone? Everyone is cool with this? This is what this town in Tennessee had in mind when they made this law? This sounds like perfect community to raise a warm loving family. Where everyone is on their own. Kids have to learn sooner or later right? We might not be able to provide you with a job, we might not be able to lend you money to go to college, we might not be able to fix your roads or bridges, we might not be able to heal you if you get sick, we might not be able to ensure the safety of your water or food, or anything that you buy, your on your own good luck,

Sincerely
The United States of America
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/firefighters-let-home-burn-after-finding-owner-didnt-pay-annual-fee/19662595?icid=main|main|dl1|sec1_lnk3|175641