Mike Lux tells us;
"The Ryan budget, Cantor's quote, and Scott Walker's war on unions are just the latest examples of radical conservatism's war on the American middle class. Conservatives want a country where the wealthy and powerful are free to do what they want when they want. They want unbridled capitalism with all restraints taken off, the way America was in the 1920s -- no, better make it the Social Darwinist 1880s, before Teddy Roosevelt came along and did too much trust-busting, food safety legislation, and national park creation. Conservatives want an America where there is complete "freedom" for the rich and powerful, but if you aren't in that category you are on your own. This battle is for the future of the American middle class, and we'd better win it. "
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-lux/the-cal-coolidgepaul-ryan_b_845762.html
Monday, April 11, 2011
The budget
Mike lux, over at huffington post, formerly of open left, has some great arguments about Paul Ryans budget proposal. Which, in a nut shell, is aimed at far rich, millionaire constituents.
"The Ryan budget is a remarkable document: all of its budget cuts hammer working class families, seniors, and students -- while all of its tax cuts go straight to millionaires. It does almost nothing to deal with the deficit, yet still manages to deal a death blow to virtually every member of the working middle class and everyone trying to work their way into it
The good news, for those who are millionaires? They get so many economic benefits it will be hard to keep track of them all.
You can easily balance the budget in less than 10 years, even including those interest payments, simply by cutting the waste in military spending, reforming the government contracting procedures, ending tax loopholes for investment bankers and offshore companies, ending subsidies to oil companies and big agribusinesses, taxing speculative financial trades, and having millionaires pay taxes at the same rate they did under Ronald Reagan.
You can easily balance the budget in less than 10 years, even including those interest payments, simply by cutting the waste in military spending, reforming the government contracting procedures, ending tax loopholes for investment bankers and offshore companies, ending subsidies to oil companies and big agribusinesses, taxing speculative financial trades, and having millionaires pay taxes at the same rate they did under Ronald Reagan.
The Ryan budget has nothing -- not a single frickin' thing -- to do with cutting the federal deficit. It is all about income redistribution"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-lux/ryan-gop-budget_b_846907.html
"The Ryan budget is a remarkable document: all of its budget cuts hammer working class families, seniors, and students -- while all of its tax cuts go straight to millionaires. It does almost nothing to deal with the deficit, yet still manages to deal a death blow to virtually every member of the working middle class and everyone trying to work their way into it
The good news, for those who are millionaires? They get so many economic benefits it will be hard to keep track of them all.
You can easily balance the budget in less than 10 years, even including those interest payments, simply by cutting the waste in military spending, reforming the government contracting procedures, ending tax loopholes for investment bankers and offshore companies, ending subsidies to oil companies and big agribusinesses, taxing speculative financial trades, and having millionaires pay taxes at the same rate they did under Ronald Reagan.
You can easily balance the budget in less than 10 years, even including those interest payments, simply by cutting the waste in military spending, reforming the government contracting procedures, ending tax loopholes for investment bankers and offshore companies, ending subsidies to oil companies and big agribusinesses, taxing speculative financial trades, and having millionaires pay taxes at the same rate they did under Ronald Reagan.
The Ryan budget has nothing -- not a single frickin' thing -- to do with cutting the federal deficit. It is all about income redistribution"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-lux/ryan-gop-budget_b_846907.html
Friday, April 8, 2011
What defecit?
Read a great post on the openleft.org blog, that is sadley closing its doors. I really enjoy their writing. They always back up their arguments with real world facts, so it was a great place to learn from.
They are saying its not the deficit stupid. There is no deficit. The wealthy land owning aristocracy that built and still run this nation along with their apprentices in Congress are finally doing what they always wanted to do, take more away from everyone who is not a millionaire, and give more to millionaires. Makes perfect sense. If you dont think about it.
Watch my actions not my words.
We are told their is a war on terrorists and our nation is in danger, we get two wars in the middle east. But a contradiction is that we had no real investigation into the 9/11 attacks, or how 20 something levels of security all fell asleep behind the switch board, resulting in 9/11. Plus we have an extremely porious southern border that is not a concern to our leaders. This says to me we are not really in danger.
We have an economic collapse not seen since the Great Depression. We are told if we do not give trillions of dollars to the banks that caused the collapse, interest free, than our economy will be in trouble. But when millions lose their jobs, and are kicked out of there homes, and taxes cannot be paid, and the drain on social safety net services increases, we do nothing.
Now how can we be so concerned about one section of the economic model, and turn our shoulder to the other. It looks like our leaders could careless about the state of the economy, as long as they survive.
So call me crazy, but when i see our leaders in washington, whome all happen to be millionares, tell us our nation spends too much money and we need to conserve, right after they pass a tax cut, i have to burst out laughing.
You see where I am headed, no? So if you lost your job, and no one is hiring, and want unemployment, your probably not going to get it, because they tell us we have to tighten our belts.
You say your in a union and you want to negotiate as a large group to get better pay? Not in Wisconsin you can't. We need to tighten our belts.
Your a senior and you get medicare, sorry again, you will have to get less.
But if your a millionaire and you want a tax cut, you bet your sweet ass your going to get one. Because no millionaire should have to sacrifice in these times.
That article I read said if our leadrs claimed their was a dangerous green cheese on the moon they would argue the only way to protect the country would be by cutting medicare, union pensions, and tax cuts for the rich.
They are saying its not the deficit stupid. There is no deficit. The wealthy land owning aristocracy that built and still run this nation along with their apprentices in Congress are finally doing what they always wanted to do, take more away from everyone who is not a millionaire, and give more to millionaires. Makes perfect sense. If you dont think about it.
Watch my actions not my words.
We are told their is a war on terrorists and our nation is in danger, we get two wars in the middle east. But a contradiction is that we had no real investigation into the 9/11 attacks, or how 20 something levels of security all fell asleep behind the switch board, resulting in 9/11. Plus we have an extremely porious southern border that is not a concern to our leaders. This says to me we are not really in danger.
We have an economic collapse not seen since the Great Depression. We are told if we do not give trillions of dollars to the banks that caused the collapse, interest free, than our economy will be in trouble. But when millions lose their jobs, and are kicked out of there homes, and taxes cannot be paid, and the drain on social safety net services increases, we do nothing.
Now how can we be so concerned about one section of the economic model, and turn our shoulder to the other. It looks like our leaders could careless about the state of the economy, as long as they survive.
So call me crazy, but when i see our leaders in washington, whome all happen to be millionares, tell us our nation spends too much money and we need to conserve, right after they pass a tax cut, i have to burst out laughing.
You see where I am headed, no? So if you lost your job, and no one is hiring, and want unemployment, your probably not going to get it, because they tell us we have to tighten our belts.
You say your in a union and you want to negotiate as a large group to get better pay? Not in Wisconsin you can't. We need to tighten our belts.
Your a senior and you get medicare, sorry again, you will have to get less.
But if your a millionaire and you want a tax cut, you bet your sweet ass your going to get one. Because no millionaire should have to sacrifice in these times.
That article I read said if our leadrs claimed their was a dangerous green cheese on the moon they would argue the only way to protect the country would be by cutting medicare, union pensions, and tax cuts for the rich.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
brooksley born
Saw a great documentary last night produced by PBS Frontline, called the Warning, about one person in Government regulation who saw the economic collapse of 2008 coming way back in the Clinton administration.
Brooksly Born was a derivitive attorney for 20 years before being tapped by Bill Clinton to head up a financial regulatory agency that dealt specifically with Derivatives, the same items that caused or greatly enhanced the crash.
Her most reasonable argument, to make a law so the regulators would know the activity of hundreds of trillions of dollars of financial, derivative transactions was not only disagreed with by Clinton's other financial advisers but was vehemently attacked.
His other advisers were Alan Greenspan, Robert Rubin, and Larry Summers, all of whom worked for and loved private enterprise, to the point that during Alan Greenspan's first meeting with Born, he told her he thought the markets needed zero regulation.
All the parties mentioned were brought in front of Congress to discuss the ideas of not only new regulation, but just to have this new market report in, as to see what was going on. Born was murdered, in Congress, by Greenspan, Rubin, Summers, and many in Congress. Her hands were tied.
Even after a hedge found imploded because Born's advise was not followed, she was still chased out of Washington for here crazy idea of wanted to watch over a huge unchecked area of the market.
Ten years later the entire market suffered a blow that would tsunami around the world, all because free market radicals who were in bed with corporate America refused to watch over or enforce any type of normal rules on a section of the market.
Its like street level crime, imagine some rapists were so organized that they lobbied for laws that would prevent anyone from calling the police when a rape was committed. It makes as much sense as that. Both wall street non-regulation and decriminilazing rape would hurt communities and people alike.
So every time you hear a story about deregulation regarding wall street or economic markets, substitute the word Rape for economic markets.
Example; We cannot regulate wall street after the crash it will hurt the markets
Substitution; we cannot criminalize rape just because many people are being raped, it would break of the family unit.
Did i convince you?
Watch the front line
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/
Brooksly Born was a derivitive attorney for 20 years before being tapped by Bill Clinton to head up a financial regulatory agency that dealt specifically with Derivatives, the same items that caused or greatly enhanced the crash.
Her most reasonable argument, to make a law so the regulators would know the activity of hundreds of trillions of dollars of financial, derivative transactions was not only disagreed with by Clinton's other financial advisers but was vehemently attacked.
His other advisers were Alan Greenspan, Robert Rubin, and Larry Summers, all of whom worked for and loved private enterprise, to the point that during Alan Greenspan's first meeting with Born, he told her he thought the markets needed zero regulation.
All the parties mentioned were brought in front of Congress to discuss the ideas of not only new regulation, but just to have this new market report in, as to see what was going on. Born was murdered, in Congress, by Greenspan, Rubin, Summers, and many in Congress. Her hands were tied.
Even after a hedge found imploded because Born's advise was not followed, she was still chased out of Washington for here crazy idea of wanted to watch over a huge unchecked area of the market.
Ten years later the entire market suffered a blow that would tsunami around the world, all because free market radicals who were in bed with corporate America refused to watch over or enforce any type of normal rules on a section of the market.
Its like street level crime, imagine some rapists were so organized that they lobbied for laws that would prevent anyone from calling the police when a rape was committed. It makes as much sense as that. Both wall street non-regulation and decriminilazing rape would hurt communities and people alike.
So every time you hear a story about deregulation regarding wall street or economic markets, substitute the word Rape for economic markets.
Example; We cannot regulate wall street after the crash it will hurt the markets
Substitution; we cannot criminalize rape just because many people are being raped, it would break of the family unit.
Did i convince you?
Watch the front line
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Deficit
A lot of heat has been coming out of Washington DC and other states lately about the deficit. We need to cut spending is the mantra. So where do we cut from , a) everywhere as to be fair b)from the poor and middle class because they do not fund elections c) from the rich who got us into this economic turmoil and who are not suffering from it anymore. BBBBBBBB
Why would we stick it to the still suffering poor and middle class? The mantra on tv is because those damn unions. They are getting paid too much, they are taking advantage. Its bs.
Its bs because the first logical place to get money, in an economic crisis, is to see who caused the crisis, Wall Street, and the mortgage industry. Next lets see if any group has rebounded from the economic crisis, and once again we see Wall Street, hmm. Than I would look at those who dont pay any taxes, like the vast amounts of corporations.
Just to recap, we have one group who caused an economic meltdown, yet that same group recovered from the meltdown while most in the country have not, and we also have many corporations not paying their fair amount of taxes. We also spend more than we take in. So the answer to solve this should not be to take it out of the unions and middle class, by attacking pensions, social security, and medicare.
But attacking pensions, social security and medicare does fit in with 30 years worth of public policy to slowly whittle away the middle class, according to Dean Baker;
"And this upward redistribution (of wealth over the past 3 decades) was brought about by deliberate policy. We pursued a trade and high dollar policy that was intended to put downward pressure on the wages of manufacturing workers. The Federal Reserve Board deliberately kept unemployment higher than necessary in order to weaken workers bargaining power. We extended patent monopolies to allow drug companies to jack up prices, raking in hundreds of billions a year. And, we gave the Wall Street banks the benefit of "too big to fail" status so they can borrow with a government subsidy."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dean-baker/the-deficit-hawks-target_b_841732.html
Why would we stick it to the still suffering poor and middle class? The mantra on tv is because those damn unions. They are getting paid too much, they are taking advantage. Its bs.
Its bs because the first logical place to get money, in an economic crisis, is to see who caused the crisis, Wall Street, and the mortgage industry. Next lets see if any group has rebounded from the economic crisis, and once again we see Wall Street, hmm. Than I would look at those who dont pay any taxes, like the vast amounts of corporations.
Just to recap, we have one group who caused an economic meltdown, yet that same group recovered from the meltdown while most in the country have not, and we also have many corporations not paying their fair amount of taxes. We also spend more than we take in. So the answer to solve this should not be to take it out of the unions and middle class, by attacking pensions, social security, and medicare.
But attacking pensions, social security and medicare does fit in with 30 years worth of public policy to slowly whittle away the middle class, according to Dean Baker;
"And this upward redistribution (of wealth over the past 3 decades) was brought about by deliberate policy. We pursued a trade and high dollar policy that was intended to put downward pressure on the wages of manufacturing workers. The Federal Reserve Board deliberately kept unemployment higher than necessary in order to weaken workers bargaining power. We extended patent monopolies to allow drug companies to jack up prices, raking in hundreds of billions a year. And, we gave the Wall Street banks the benefit of "too big to fail" status so they can borrow with a government subsidy."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dean-baker/the-deficit-hawks-target_b_841732.html
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Fox news
Some idiot on the news yesterday was talking about power plants, nuclear ones and said any problem that occurs in the US with them can be blamed on regulation, because what the hell does the government know about nuclear power plants. He went on to argue that the best regulation is self regulation by industry, because if there is a disaster only they will lose out in revenue and no company wants that, so that is there motivation.
This is the most laughable argument in the world.
There was no such thing as self regulation on Wall Street ever, which lead to the economic meltdown in 2008.
There was no such thing as self regulation on the Oil Rig in the Gulf.
In both instances industry took blatantly dangerous risk, knowing full well the worst case scenario would hurt many people even entire nations, no one cared.
Wall Street lost a lot of money but who cares because the individual CEO and his board made a killing, and the tax payer was forced to bail out the institutions.
With BP oil we see the same thing, billions in damages that they will fight paying for decades.
The Exxon Valdez never paid there lost lawsuit for there spill 20 years ago.
Microsoft lost an anti-trust lawsuit to the Clinton administration, and Bush came in and threw out the case, The case was already over. Microsoft lost. The only part left was to cut the check to the government. And Bush went all Brooklyn and sad fughetaboutit.
Corporations and CEO's and boards have zero obligation to the United States, if they could make a buck burning the country to the ground they would. As they have with my few examples.
This is the most laughable argument in the world.
There was no such thing as self regulation on Wall Street ever, which lead to the economic meltdown in 2008.
There was no such thing as self regulation on the Oil Rig in the Gulf.
In both instances industry took blatantly dangerous risk, knowing full well the worst case scenario would hurt many people even entire nations, no one cared.
Wall Street lost a lot of money but who cares because the individual CEO and his board made a killing, and the tax payer was forced to bail out the institutions.
With BP oil we see the same thing, billions in damages that they will fight paying for decades.
The Exxon Valdez never paid there lost lawsuit for there spill 20 years ago.
Microsoft lost an anti-trust lawsuit to the Clinton administration, and Bush came in and threw out the case, The case was already over. Microsoft lost. The only part left was to cut the check to the government. And Bush went all Brooklyn and sad fughetaboutit.
Corporations and CEO's and boards have zero obligation to the United States, if they could make a buck burning the country to the ground they would. As they have with my few examples.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Japan
We think about our health all the time. Eating good food, drinking clean water, detoxing our system from the junk in the air that we cannot control, and now Japan is being flooded with toxic radiation. U.S. Navy helicopters have detected radiation 60 miles north of the site, and aircraft carriers have detected radiation 100 miles east.
on democracy now's website explains the situation like this;
"When the reactor shuts down, what that means is that the uranium atom doesn’t split anymore. But these pieces that are left behind are still radioactive, and they generate about five percent of the reactor’s heat. And you’ve got to dump that heat for as long as a year or two or three. So, what’s happened is that there has been no way to remove that heat, and that’s caused the nuclear fuel to hit 2,200 degrees. At that point, the nuclear fuel begins to suck up the oxygen atoms in water. Water is H2O. And that gives off hydrogen gas. So the hydrogen explosions that we’re seeing at two of these reactors are an indication that the water is being stripped of its oxygen and creating hydrogen. So, the cores are uncovered, and when the cores are uncovered, unfortunately, that’s what happens. Now, the problem in the long haul is that now that these cores have been uncovered and there’s no way to cool them, they will have to continuously vent these containments. And as the Times said, you’re not going to get back into these villages in the next week or two. It could easily be months, if not years, before these villages can be inhabited again."
Some information i have found posted on facebook by Earth Nourished Women;
"Nutritional support for radiation exposure - Turmeric, triphala, whole grains, sea vegetables, miso, dandelion root, sulfur rich vegetables like broccoli and dark leafy greens, medicinal mushrooms, spirulina & chorella, Rosemary." (from Barefoot Gardeners Organic Central Florida)
I wrote something on here about another energy disaster in Tennessee where a natural wall of earth containing a pool of toxic chemicals broke and flooded a small town. The very minimal regulations created by corrupt politicians who worked hand and hand with the industry they were supposed to be supervising were being minimally followed and no one took notice. Well actually activists took notice, locals took notice, but leaders and governments officials did nothing.
That article had me research and learn about the entire coal power plant industry and that from every stage in the process of removing coal from the ground, delivering coal to power plants, and burning the coal into the air, it is an unsafe and unhealthy process. Now we learn that the new technology that was supposed to replace coal is even more unsafe.
Maybe we need to rethink our whole energy paradigm. We have a Tennessee power plant disaster a few years back, Gulf oil drilling disaster last year, Japanese Nuclear disaster this year, once a year a coal mine collapses and a dozen souls die, this is all the direct things we here about. We can also include all the rivers and air and drinking water and bathing water that is being poisoned.
Maybe power plants should not be on the planet. maybe we need to switch to green types of energy, like solar, wind, and waves. Maybe everyone needs their own solar/wind generator at home and on their cars.
And to all the people that think this is unreasonable ask yourself this, would you like work in a nuclear power plant where the core is melting? Would you like to dig in a coal mine a mile deep in the earth, breathing in that shit, and being prone to mine collapses? Would you like to live in a community downwind of a coal power plant, breathing in that thick coal dust?
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/14/japan_facing_biggest_catastrophe_since_dawn
on democracy now's website explains the situation like this;
"When the reactor shuts down, what that means is that the uranium atom doesn’t split anymore. But these pieces that are left behind are still radioactive, and they generate about five percent of the reactor’s heat. And you’ve got to dump that heat for as long as a year or two or three. So, what’s happened is that there has been no way to remove that heat, and that’s caused the nuclear fuel to hit 2,200 degrees. At that point, the nuclear fuel begins to suck up the oxygen atoms in water. Water is H2O. And that gives off hydrogen gas. So the hydrogen explosions that we’re seeing at two of these reactors are an indication that the water is being stripped of its oxygen and creating hydrogen. So, the cores are uncovered, and when the cores are uncovered, unfortunately, that’s what happens. Now, the problem in the long haul is that now that these cores have been uncovered and there’s no way to cool them, they will have to continuously vent these containments. And as the Times said, you’re not going to get back into these villages in the next week or two. It could easily be months, if not years, before these villages can be inhabited again."
Some information i have found posted on facebook by Earth Nourished Women;
"Nutritional support for radiation exposure - Turmeric, triphala, whole grains, sea vegetables, miso, dandelion root, sulfur rich vegetables like broccoli and dark leafy greens, medicinal mushrooms, spirulina & chorella, Rosemary." (from Barefoot Gardeners Organic Central Florida)
I wrote something on here about another energy disaster in Tennessee where a natural wall of earth containing a pool of toxic chemicals broke and flooded a small town. The very minimal regulations created by corrupt politicians who worked hand and hand with the industry they were supposed to be supervising were being minimally followed and no one took notice. Well actually activists took notice, locals took notice, but leaders and governments officials did nothing.
That article had me research and learn about the entire coal power plant industry and that from every stage in the process of removing coal from the ground, delivering coal to power plants, and burning the coal into the air, it is an unsafe and unhealthy process. Now we learn that the new technology that was supposed to replace coal is even more unsafe.
Maybe we need to rethink our whole energy paradigm. We have a Tennessee power plant disaster a few years back, Gulf oil drilling disaster last year, Japanese Nuclear disaster this year, once a year a coal mine collapses and a dozen souls die, this is all the direct things we here about. We can also include all the rivers and air and drinking water and bathing water that is being poisoned.
Maybe power plants should not be on the planet. maybe we need to switch to green types of energy, like solar, wind, and waves. Maybe everyone needs their own solar/wind generator at home and on their cars.
And to all the people that think this is unreasonable ask yourself this, would you like work in a nuclear power plant where the core is melting? Would you like to dig in a coal mine a mile deep in the earth, breathing in that shit, and being prone to mine collapses? Would you like to live in a community downwind of a coal power plant, breathing in that thick coal dust?
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/14/japan_facing_biggest_catastrophe_since_dawn
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