Corporate Domination
Wealth Inequality in America - The top 1% own 40% of all wealth. The bottom 80% (that’s you and me) own 7% of the wealth. The richest 1% take home 24% of all income. In 1976, it was 9% of all income, tripling in the last 30 years. The top 1% own 50% of all stocks, bonds and mutual funds. The bottom 50% (again, you and I) own 0.5%. The average CEO earns 380 X what the average worker makes - not the lowest paid, but the average worker. The reality in this country is not at all what we think it is. Sources are Here and Here and Here and Here.
5/15/13
Electronic Frontier Foundation: Secretive TPP Talks Re-Commence in Lima, Peru
5/13/13
Agence France: Whore Court Finds for Monsanto
5/9/13
Common Dreams: Obama in Plunderland - Regarding choices for Commerce Secretary and head of the FCC.
5/8/13
Yes Magazine: Why TPP Is A Bad Trade Deal - This is essentially a new set of laws that would supersede the national laws of participating countries. There are 26 chapters in the trade agreement, but only 2 have anything to do with trade. The rest have to do with corporate avoidance of environmental, labor and financial regulations and taxes. If central governments do anything that the corporations see as detrimental to their profits, the corporations appoint 3 arbitrators and can force the taxpayers of the offending country to pay unlimited damages. Search this page for “TPP” or see entries of 4/3/13, 11/21, 9/18, 9/10, 9/6, 9/5, 8/29, 8/27, 8/8, and especially 6/14/12.
NYTimes: An Industry Man for the FCC and Commerce Sec. and Common Dreams - So much for Obama’s 2007 promise that corporate lobbyists would not finance his campaign or run his administration.
5/6/13
Counter Punch: How Occupy Builds Popular Resistance - The MSM loves to ignore the many actions and demonstrations that are going on all around the country and then ask the rhetorical question Whatever Happened to Occupy? This article is a great run down of some of the most recent actions and a schedule of those upcoming.
5/2/13
The Nation: May Day in NYC and Around the Country: Youth and Immigrant Rights Activists Demand Reform - And Here and Here and Here and Here and Here and Here and Here.
NYTimes: Airport Exposes Class Divisions in Silicon Valley
5/1/13
Common Dreams: ‘The Gilded Age’ Statistics Corporations Don’t Want Anyone to See - Dodd-Frank still not working.
4/29/13
The Nation: Occupy May Day Protests
4/26/13
NPR: Koch Bros.’ Newspaper Takeover Could Spark ‘Culture Clash’ - See entry of 4/20.
Hartford Courant: UnitedHealth Group CEO Takes Pay Cut Down to $34.7 Million - Plus $7 Million in stock.
4/25/13
Reuters: Exxon Quarterly Profit $9.5 Billion - No taxes due. No worries about having to pay for its oil spill in Arkansas that has killed wildlife and wiped out an entire subdivision.
4/24/13
Common Dreams: Pew/Census Report: Wealthy Thrive While Poor Dive As Inequality Surge Continues
4/22/13
The Nation: Elites May Finally Realize Austerity Isn’t the Answer
4/21/13
Paul Krugman: The Jobless Trap - We live in a neo-feudal society, characterized by 1. A small, ruling nobility; 2. A standing army at their beck and call; 3. A large exploited underclass - the subject of this article.
4/20/13
NYTimes: Koch Bros. Turn Their Focus to Newspapers - Some day soon we’ll remember the good old days before the Koch’s owned all news outlets.
4/15/13
The Nation: Congress Refuses to Allow USPS to Fix Its Budget - In 2002, 2003, Congress took USPS’s pension fund away. Then in 2006 it forced the USPS to create and fund 100% of a $60 Billion retiree health fund over a 10 year period. Now it says USPS is bankrupt and refuses to take any meaningful action. This is about the 1%’s aversion to a government service that serves many disadvantaged people and employs over half a million union members. See also Here.
4/10/13
Counter Punch: Without Unions the Bullies Will Always Win
4/9/13
UK Independent: Police Scan Social Media to Identify Likely Prospects For ‘Pre-Emptive Arrests’ - I’ve been telling you to get off Facebook. ;-)
4/8/13
MoJo: How Walmart, ExxonMobil, and Coke Buy Latino Friends in Congress
4/5/13
National Nurses United: Robin Hood Rides in DC on April 20
4/3/13
Counter Punch: Trans-Pacific Partnership Has Become Neoliberal Overload - TPP has continued to morph for the worst over the last few months - in total secrecy. 600 US corporate advisors have full access to the proceedings, but US Congressman are forbidden. Paramilitary teams patrol the premises. Sen. Wyden (D-OR), chairman of the congressional committee with trade agreement oversight has been denied any access/documentation. Current proposals according to leaked documents: corporations will have an unlimited right to demand compensation from signatory country treasuries for supposed undermined future profits plus legal fees and legal costs; Big Pharma will regain patents over generic drugs; environmental and worker health and safety regulations can be ignored; offshoring of jobs will be incentivized; ISPs will police user activity and treat small scale individual downloads as large-scale for-profit violators with prosecution and internet-termination; what little financial regulation we have will be rolled back; signatory nations may not pursue independent monetary policy; signatories must permit the free flow of derivatives, currency speculation and manipulative financial instruments; corporations will not be accountable to signatory governments for the havoc they wreak, but the governments will be accountable to the corporations through arbitration before corporation designated attorneys - thus bypassing the US court system. See entries of 11/21, 9/18, 9/10, 9/6, 9/5, 8/29, 8/27, 8/8, and especially 6/14/12 or just search this page for “TPP”.
4/2/13
4/1/13
In These Times: Domestic Insurgents - Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance changes the face of the labor movement.
The Nation: Thousands Protest the UK Government’s Austerity
3/31/13
NYTimes: Wall St. Bank Boards’ Pay Soars Amid Cutbacks
3/28/13
Natural Society: Obama Signature on Monsanto Protection Act Ignites Massive Activism - See related entry of 3/24.
NYTimes: “Common Ground” On Medicare - As the ‘debate’ continues, Dems continue to give ground on Medicare, while Rethugs refuse to budge an inch on revenue. A strange way to negotiate.
NYTimes: All Markets Hit New Highs As American Austerity (Sequester) Kicks In - Obama “reluctantly” signed austerity into law on 3/1. There is no fight in this dog.
3/27/13
Waging Non-Violence: Occupy Sandy Builds Worker Power
The Nation: Chicago Board of Education Erects Barricades in Anticipation of Mass Rally
3/26/13
Truth Out: Occupy Strike Debt Kicks Off Second Debt Buy-Up With March for Universal Care
3/24/13
Natural Society: Senate Passes Monsanto Protection Act - Even if a crop - not just a GMO crop, any crop - is found to be a danger to society Monsanto can continue to sell, plant and/or harvest the crop with immunity from any sort of US court or law. Here’s Obama promising to label all GMO foods sold in America - now made moot.
3/22/13
The Nation: Strike The Debt Abolishes $1.1 Million of Medical Debt
Bill Moyers: How Worker-Owned Companies Work - US Federation of Worker Cooperatives
3/19/13
Occupy Monsanto: Monsanto’s Death Grip on Your Food
3/15/13
Salon: How Monsanto Outfoxed the Obama Administration - “The public will suffer the costs of Monsanto’s capture of almost total control over much of the U.S. seed business. Since 2001 the company has more than doubled the price of soybean and corn seeds, whose crops are used in foods ranging from cereal and pizza to chocolate and soda. In 2008 Monsanto officials said farmers should expect seed prices to keep rising.”
Nation of Change: Monsanto Protection Act Reappears
3/13/13
Open Secrets: Final Price Tag for 2012 Election: $6.3 Billion
3/11/13
AlterNet: New Study Finds the Wealthy Are Different - F. Scott Fitzgerald said it best.
3/6/13
The Nation: Strike the Debt Declares Healthcare Emergency: It’s A Matter of ‘Life or Debt’
Bill Moyers: One Economy, Two Americas - Corporate profits have been rising at a 20% annual rate for 4 years. Average household incomes: 1/4%. 24 million Americans are looking for full time work. 15+ million American children go to bed hungry every night. The rich keep getting richer at everyone else’s expense.
Philadelphia Enquirer: Another Jury Acquits More Occupy Protestors in Philadelphia Protest
3/3/13
NYTimes: Corporate Profits Soar; Worker Incomes Decline
and in a related note:
NYTimes: As Automatic Budget Cuts Go Into Effect, Poor Will Be Hit The Hardest
CNBC: Obama Renews Offer to Cut Social Safety Net - This was always meant to be the end game in this ongoing Kabuki play.
UK Daily Mail: Goldman Sachs Renews Tradition of Lavish All Night Parties for Top Execs - Let the good times roll.
3/1/13
Village Voice: Jury Finds OWS Protestor Innocent On All Counts
CNN Money: Americans See Biggest One-Month Decline in Income in 20 Years
2/27/13
Organic Consumers: Monsanto: Patents On Life?
NYTimes: Our Debt, Ourselves - Retired MIT econ professor echos what Paul Krugman, and every other rational economist, has been saying for the last several years. Now is not the time for austerity. Now is the time for stimulus. Too bad neither the Dems or Rethugs are listening. They are only listening to the super-rich.
Case in point...
WSJ: Former Bailed-Out Citibank Exec Confirmed New Treasury Secretary - Just as Lew left Citibank in 2009, it was bailed out and part of that taxpayer money went towards his bonus. He has stated that one of his top priorities at Treasury will be to reduce the cost of ‘entitlement programs’ such as Medicare. Not sure what that has to do with the work at Treasury, but that’s what the man said. I’m sure we’ll find out after it’s too late. Maybe the Catfood Commission will be resurrected?
CREDO: To MSNBC: Disclose Ed Rendell’s Conflict of Interest
Counter Punch: Monsanto University
2/26/13
Nation of Change: It’s Time For MoveOn to Move and Stop Blocking Change
2/25/13
The Nation: The Weird Blend of Apolitical Denial and Shameless Propaganda at the Oscars
2/24/13
Paul Krugman: Austerity, Italian-Style - Solid proof that the idea of austerity as a solution for an ailing economy is delusional.
2/21/13
Daily Show: Despicable Drone Memos
2/20/13
Counter Punch: Liberal Fascism In America
2/19/13
Yes! Magazine: The Cooperative Way to a Stronger Economy
Open Secrets: Monsanto: Big Guy on the Block When It Comes To Friends in Washington
2/18/13
Ag Professional: Monsanto vs A Farmer Who Stepped ‘Over The Line’ Heads to the Whore Court - Monsanto is on the verge of controlling the entire food supply of the world and we all sit back and let it.
2/16/13
New Republic: The One Percent Gobbled Up the Recovery, Too and NYTimes - See entry of 1/31.
2/14/13
NYTimes: Confidence On The Upswing in 1%’er Land, Mergers Make A Comeback - We’re all so glad for them. See entry of 1/31.
2/11/13
The Nation: Seniors and Vets To Crash ‘Fix the Debt’ Party Hosted by Honeywell CEO
2/7/13
Bernie Sanders: Bernie Says Lets Go After The Tax Dodgers - No need to raise corporate rates, just collect all that is due. You have to wonder how any politician could come out against this idea.
2/5/13
2/4/13
Nation of Change: Capitalism’s Endgame - All the wealth is increasingly concentrated into the hands of fewer and fewer, while the rest of us have to fight over the scraps.
2/1/13
Waging Nonviolence: Occupy Sandy’s Collective Recovery - Not waiting on the government and not being covered by the MSM.
1/31/13
UC Berkeley Study Updated: Top 1% Got 121% of Income Gains 2009-2011 - Meaning they got all of the gains, plus an extra 21% out of our hide. See “Income Inequality in US, 1913-1998 as updated 2013” under “Income and Wealth Inequality.” As printed in the Quarterly Journal of Economics. If you made (net income) $1.4 Million or more last year, then you are in this group. Congratulations!
1/30/13
IPS: Congressional Research Service: US Firms Stash $$$ Tens of Billions in Tax Havens - Which is why there’s no money for the safety net. Bring on the Catfood Commission.
ProPublica: Obama’s Flip-Flops on Money in Politics
1/27/13
HuffPo: US Income Inequality Worse Than Many Latin American Countries
1/23/13
Bloomberg: Yahoo, Dell Swell Netherlands’ $13 Trillion Tax Haven
1/17/13
National Nurses Union: Exec. Director DeMoro To Appear On Tavis Smiley Debate - Against Newt Gingrich ;-0. This should be good. Here’s her interview with Bill Moyers a few months ago.
Bloomberg: Corporate Profits Up 171% Under Obama - ...more than any president since WWII; at their highest level relative to GDP since the government started keeping records; more than 2X as high at the peak during the Reagan Admin.; more than 50% higher than the 1990’s internet boom, but worker pay relative to GDP is falling; and Here.
1/16/13
CBS News: US CEOs Push Plan to Raise Full Retirement Age to 70 - Pushed by guys with golden parachutes and cadillac private retirement plans. Let everybody else work for CEO profits until they are too old and sick and then they can just go find a ditch, lie down and die.
1/15/13
Waging Nonviolence: The Walmart Labor Struggle Is Going Global
1/12/13
Nation of Change: On-going Efforts of Occupy
1/11/13
Bill Moyers: Paul Krugman Explains the Keys to Our Recovery - 4 million Americans have been without work for over one year - unprecedented since the Great Depression. The solution is very simple, and could be very quick.
AlterNet: Tom Tomorrow On Washington’s Endless Series of Contrived Crises
1/9/13
YES! Magazine: Idle No More: Indigenous Uprising Sweeps North America
Counterpunch: The Progressive Caucus: Enabling Obama’s Rightward Moves
1/7/13
The Nation: Occupy Steubenville: Anonymous Takes On Ohio Sheriff
1/2/13
CNN: Look Beyond the Fiscal Cliff - The deficit is not the problem and never was the problem. Anyone who is concerned about ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’ would be advocating for more stimulus - what FDR did in 1936 - not austerity. The deficit hysteria that has become part of the conventional wisdom in DC is really just a way for wealthy elites and corporate interests (and their agents on Capitol Hill) to push for austerity and end programs that benefit most Americans.
ProPublica: World Bank ‘Fights Poverty’ With Loans to 5 Star Hotels - Not!
12/30/12
Paul Krugman: Brewing Up Confusion - How right wing groups (mostly funded by Peter Peterson) are using bogus arguments concerning the ‘fiscal cliff’ as a way to drum up ‘grassroots’ support for tax cuts (for the righ) and cuts to safety net programs.
12/29/12
Democracy-NOW!: The FBI vs. Occupy - The FBI was wiretapping and infiltrating before there even was an Occupy. Most surprising thing of all: Many (if not all) of the black shirted ‘anarchists’ were in fact FBI agents or ‘contractors’ whose sole purpose was to provide the excuse to crack down on peaceful protestors. The Partnership For Civil Justice was relentless in their demands for these documents.
UK Guardian: How The FBI Coordinated the Violent Crackdown on Occupy - The “Domestic Security Alliance Council” - a combination of FBI, DHS, the big banks and local law enforcement throughout the country. “New documents show that the violent crackdown on Occupy last fall – so mystifying at the time – was not just coordinated at the level of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and local police. The crackdown, which involved, as you may recall, violent arrests, group disruption, canister missiles to the skulls of protesters, people held in handcuffs so tight they were injured, people held in bondage till they were forced to wet or soil themselves –was coordinated with the big banks themselves.” The documents show “a nationwide meta-plot unfolding in city after city in an Orwellian world: six American universities are sites where campus police funneled information about students involved with OWS to the FBI, with the administrations' knowledge (p51); banks sat down with FBI officials to pool information about OWS protesters harvested by private security; plans to crush Occupy events, planned for a month down the road, were made by the FBI – and offered to the representatives of the same organizations that the protests would target; and even threats of the assassination of OWS leaders by sniper fire – by whom? Where? – now remain redacted and undisclosed to those American citizens in danger, contrary to standard FBI practice to inform the person concerned when there is a threat against a political leader.” Hints that the Obama Admin. has been coordinating these unConstitutional crackdowns has been circulating for months, but it now becomes very clear. No Republican could ever get away with this.
12/24/12
Waging Nonviolence: Occupy Homes, One Year On And Growing Daily
12/23/12
HuffPo: FBI Investigated ‘Occupy’ As Possible ‘Terrorism’ Threat and Common Dreams - “Coordination between the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and Corporate America” Your tax money at work. If they weren’t wasting so much time and money on this and framing young men with funny names, they might actually have been able to identify the Times Square bomber, or the underwear bomber, or the shoe bomber - the only actual terrorists caught (and they by the public) so far.
12/22/12
NYTimes: The War Against Too Much of Everything
12/21/12
Robert Reich: The President’s Unnecessary Concessions
Nation of Change: Obama Playing to Lose?
12/20/12
Yes Magazine: No Room At The Inn? How Occupy Won Over Religion
12/19/12
HuffPo: Pelosi Says Cuts to Social Security Would ‘Strengthen’ The Program - Sounding just like a Republican. “Her remarks come a day after she said that liberals in Congress who are unhappy with Obama's concession to the GOP would nevertheless support them.” Glenn Greewald called this exact order of events the day after the election.
Alternet: The Pain of Cutting Social Security
12/18/12
Nation of Change: No Deal: Boehner Proposal An Insult
NYTimes: More Young Americans Living On The Street - And yet the Republicans and Democrats are debating which austerity measures to impose.
12/17/12
Glenn Greenwald: New Press Freedom Group is Launched
12/14/12
Democracy-NOW!: Biggest Myth in Obama-GOP Spending Showdown is the “Fiscal Cliff” Itself
12/13/12
YES! Magazine: The “People’s Bailout:” What’s Next?
12/12/12
Yes Magazine: Occupy Sandy Provides Relief for More Than Just A Storm - The media was more interested in covering the inconvenience of being without a smart phone than the life-threatening plights of the hardest hit.
12/11/12
WashPo: Raising Medicare Age Will Leave Hundreds of Thousands Uninsured
Robert Reich: The Real Battle Over Inequality Has Nothing To Do With The Fiscal Cliff
12/10/12
Bloomberg: Google Revenues of $10 Billion + Sheltered in Taxless Bermuda
12/9/12
Common Dreams: Walmart Relentless as Thousands Set to Lose Health Benefits
12/6/12
Paul Krugman: The Forgotten Millions - This site has been using the ‘Class Warfare’ term since 8/09 (and a few months before that in emails to some friends). The social acceptability of that term is now complete - just sayin’.
12/5/12
NYTimes: Citigroup to Cut 11,000 Jobs, Take $1 Billion Charge
Bill Moyers: Bernie Sanders on Why Big Media Should Not Get Bigger - Sanders: “Why the Obama Administration is doing something that the Bush Administration wouldn’t do is beyond my understanding.” See also entries of 11/26 and 11/28/12.
Bloomberg: Walmart Nixed Paying Bangladesh Suppliers to Fight Fire That Killed 100+
12/3/12
Think Progress: Corporate Profits Hit Record High While Worker Wages Hit Record Low and CNN Money - The 1% have monopolized 93% of income gains since 2008.
Glenn Greenwald: Progressive Media Claims They’ll Be ‘Tougher’ on Obama Now
12/2/12
In These Times: Foodies Get Wobbly
11/30/12
CBS News: American Household Net Worth Hits 43-Year Low
11/29/12
11/28/12
Esquire: Rupert Murdoch’s Whopping Christmas Present
11/27/12
The Nation: Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Sandy and Occupy Red Hook Coordinate Actions Against NYCHA
11/26/12
TruthOut: Will the FCC Give Rupert Murdoch the Powerful Gift of Media Consolidation? - Probably.
Examiner: Republican Makes $42 Million in One Year, Says Union Workers Are Too Rich
11/24/12
WashPo: As Drug Industry’s Influence Over Research Grows, So Does The Potential For Bias
11/23/12
The Nation: With Biggest Strike Against Biggest Employer, Walmart Employees Make History Again
11/21/12
Occupy.com: Why So Secretive? Trans-Pacific Partnership As Global Corporate Coup
Yes Magazine: Big-Tent Coalition Readies for Fight Against TPP
11/20/12
The Nation: Occupy Walmart: Workers Plan Black Friday Protests and Here - Walmart has received over $1 Billion in government/corporate welfare. In addition, we the taxpayers pay health benefits for many of their employees who are only allowed to work part-time, and thus remain on Medicaid.
11/19/12
TruthDig: Chris Hedges: Elites Will Make Gazans of Us All - Domestic drones and the ‘Fiscal Cliff,’ among other things, working together.
11/18/12
Paul Krugman: The Twinkie Manifesto - Economic justice and economic growth are compatible.
NYTimes: Boehner Tap Ryan to Lead Budget Talks - This is Step 2 in the liberals’ and Democrats’ acquiescence to everything the 1% want.
11/15/12
Village Voice: Occupy Strikes a Nerve With Rolling Jubilee
11/14/12
Democracy-NOW!: General Strike Sweeps Europe As Millions Reject Austerity and Here - Quite predictably, we don’t hear anything about this from the US MSM.
11/12/12
The Nation: Occupy Ramps Up Rolling Jubilee - The law is on their side, but the banks are not, and may make illegal attempts to thwart the new Occupy program. Wonder whose side Obama will be on.
CorpWatch: Argentine Judge Freezes Chevron Assets to Pay $19 Billion Fine - To see what this is all about, rent the movie ‘Crude’ sometime.
11/9/12
Think Progress: Occupy Wall Street Launches ‘Rolling Jubilee’ To Buy and Forgive Debt - Wonder why neither the Dems, nor the Rthugs thought this up.
AFL-CIO: Another Poll Shows 70% of Americans Reject ‘Grand Bargain’
Village Voice: Human Rights Body Criticizes NYPD For Violence Against Occupy
11/7/12
UK Guardian: What Will Progressives Do With Their Big Election Victory? - It’s called self-disempowerment, in 6 steps. The ‘Grand Bargain’ that all liberals are now claiming they will never accept is all but assured - and by their own doing.
11/5/12
Democracy-NOW!: After Sandy, Occupy Movement Emerges as Relief Hub for Residents in Need
11/2/12
Politico: Liberals Fear Grand Bargain Betrayal if Obama Wins - Ya think? Poor “liberals” fear Obama but Romney is even ‘scarier.’ No matter which way they turn, life is very scary. Wouldn’t want to be one. The difference between liberals and progressives.
10/31/12
The Nation: Occupy Wall Street Helps Storm Victims
AlterNet: The Small Group of Companies That Have Enormous Power Over the World
10/29/12
UK Independent: Top Bank of England Director Admits Occupy Movement Has A Point
10/25/12
Nation of Change: Three Ways Big Oil Spends Its Profits to Defend Oil Subsidies, Defeat Clean Energy - and defeat efforts at climate change mitigation. Summary: The most profitable business in history, with about $100 B in profits per year, gets $4 Billion annually in tax subsidies, shelters most of its profits overseas and spends about $100 Million in lobbying activities, plus another $150 Million in climate-change-denial and other types of misinformation campaigns. Oil production on public land is up 240 million barrels/year under Obama, with an additional 20 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico yet to be developed. They will be announcing their 3rd quarterly profits beginning today. Shell, Exxon ($45 Billion Profit/year), ConocoPhillips, Koch Brothers, BP ($25 Billion Profit/year). To admit the validity of human caused climate change would mean they would have to write off $20 Trillion in reserves, which would devastate the most profitable business in history. This article focuses on the contributions to Republicans, but I don’t see Obama or the Democrats making any substantial noises in favor of climate change mitigation or the removal of the $4 Billion annual government welfare for the oil companies.
10/24/12
Demos: What is a Corporation? - A good, short discussion, illustrating the reasons why corporations are not people and deserve much more regulation as to their political, and all other activities.
10/23/12
Nation of Change: The Election Not Even Over, and Wall Street Has Already Won
NYTimes: Race For President Leaves Income Slump in the Shadows and Graphic - “For the first time since the Great Depression, median family income has fallen substantially over an entire decade. Income grew slowly through most of the last decade, except at the top of the distribution” ...which of course went through the roof..., “before falling sharply when the financial crisis began. By last year, family income was 8 percent lower than it had been 11 years earlier, at its peak in 2000, according to inflation-adjusted numbers from the Census Bureau. On average in 11-year periods in the decades just after World War II, inflation-adjusted median income rose by almost 30 percent.” Also not mentioned in any debate: climate change, poverty, endless war, the surveillance state, continued evisceration of the Constitution, job killing free trade agreements such as TPP, refusal to prosecute Wall Street, the prison-industrial complex.
10/20/12
Common Dreams: Over 100,000 March in London for ‘A Future That Works’
10/19/12
Bill Moyers: How The Plutocracy Will Go To Extremes to Keep the 1% In Control and NPR
10/16/12
Democracy-NOW!: Debate Contract Reveals Obama and Romney Campaigns Control Questions, Exclude Third Parties and Common Dreams
NYTimes: Income Inequality May Take Toll on Growth - While the ‘major’ parties debate, the income gap continues to grow wider. The top 1% of earners captured 93% of the income gains in the first year of ‘recovery.’
10/15/12
The Nation: Worldwide Debt Protests - Occupy!
10/14/12
NYTimes: Occupy Protest in London
10/13/12
Natural Society: 7 Nasty Effects of Pesticides In Foods
10/12/12
Democracy-NOW!: Expanding the VP Debate
10/9/12
Wired: Whore Court Lets Telecom Immunity Stand and AP
10/8/12
KY Post: Atlanta Occupy Joins With Atlanta Police (For the 2nd Time) To Stop Retired Police Officer Eviction and The Nation - The police are starting to realize that they too are part of the 99%.
10/5/12
Open Debates: Three Corporations Withdraw Sponsorship of Bogus ‘Commission on Presidential Debates’
Nation of Change: Expand the Debate: This Is What Real Democracy Sounds Like
Nation of Change: Top 10 Most Astonishing Police Brutality Videos
10/4/12
Seed Daily: Superweeds Linked to Rising Herbicide Use in GM Crops - Counterintuitive? Not at all.
UK Guardian: The Debates’ Illusion of Political Choice - Summary: Subjects excluded from the debate: Climate Change (the biggest threat to our economy and our world - a much larger threat than ‘terrorism’), the for-profit Prison Business, Drone Attacks, the evisceration of the Constitution by indefinite detention, the end of Habeas Corpus, extra-judicial assassinations of anyone including American citizens, the domestic surveillance state, systematic and thuggish police behavior towards, and mass arrests of Americans peacefully exercising their Constitutionally guaranteed free speech rights, job-killing free trade agreements (especially TPP - see Corporate Domination), the absolute refusal to prosecute Wall Street criminals on even the slightest charges. And even in those issues that are debated, such as Healthcare Reform, all but the most centrist positions are off the table for debate. These are not ‘debates,’ they are propaganda pure and simple. And this is why third parties are forbidden to participate. To do that would clearly show just how similar the R’s and D’s have become and how little real choice the American voter has.
10/3/12
Democracy-NOW!: How The Dems and Rethugs Stole Control of Presidential Debates from the League of Women Voters and Why - The ‘Debate Commission’ is now co-chaired by two insider lobbyists and completely controlled by the two parties to make sure only they are included, only soft-ball questions are asked and the audience is hand picked. It’s basically an illusion designed to make us think we have a choice. Brought to you by Bud-Light.
History:
1980: The League of Women Voters defied the Democratic Party and allowed independent presidential candidate John Anderson into the Carter/Reagan debate whereupon Carter refused to appear. 55 million Americans watched Anderson debate Reagan.
1984: The Reagan and Mondale campaigns vetoed 80 moderators proposed by the League, because the two parties wanted only softball questions. The League stood up to the two parties and the public backed them. The Dems and Reps were forced to take the moderators appointed by the League.
1988: Bush I vs. Dukakis: The two parties drafted a secret ‘debate contract’ which they passed on the to League. The League refused to implement the contract, made it public and called it a fraud and an attempt to hoodwink the public.
The two parties then created the “Commission on Presidential Debates,” implemented the contract and created their own debates supplanting the League. The Commission is funded by Anheuser-Busch and other large corporations. The two parties meet behind closed doors to dictate the terms of debate, the composition of the audience, and the soft-ball questions to be used. The two co-chairs of the Commission are former Republican and Democratic Party Chairmen respectively.
The Onion: Romney Jots Down Notes for Concession Speech While Obama Talks - The corporate candidate ‘debate’ was...BOOOOORING!!! Even worse is the continuous pre-debate buildup and post-debate analysis. Be sure and focus strictly on the two figureheads who have been pre-selected for you. Do not waver from that focus!
10/2/12
10/1/12
The Nation: Occupy Shuts Down K Street
9/30/12
NYTimes: Payroll Tax Cut Unlikely to Survive - Even though “the payroll tax cut has a stronger stimulative effect on the economy than many others,” Geithner’s response: “This has to be a temporary tax cut. I don’t see any reason to support its extension.” The 1% has spoken.
9/29/12
Young Turks: Obama Admits He’s A Blue Dog - And Admits at 3:17 in the tape: “I am willing to move on entitlement reform — even if my own party is resisting, and I will bring them along” and Politico.
Huff Po: Obama Will Do ‘Safety Net Reform’ During Lame Duck Session
9/28/12
UK Guardian: France’s 75% Millionaire Tax - Is It A Viable Option For US?
Moyers & Co.: United States of ALEC
9/25/12
The Nation: Thousands Converge on Spanish Parliament to ‘Occupy Congress’
9/22/12
NYTimes: Theories in Favor of Astronomical CEO Pay Found to be Totally Bogus
NPR: The 47 Percent In One Graphic - When 23% of people are hard working poor, when 1% of the people own almost half of all assets, when almost 40% are in poverty, then there is something very wrong with the social structure. “Poverty is the opposite of Justice.”
9/20/12
Forbes: Richest 400 People’s Net Worth Up 13% and Here - Ours? Not so much.
Nation of Change: Shale-Shocked Citizens Fight Back
Reuters: BOA to Cut 16,000 Jobs By Year End, 30,000 by 2013 - So the conventional voter now has the choice of voting for either a president who can’t save jobs because of his insistence on compromise to the point of capitulation, or a president who has become a billionaire by cutting thousands of jobs as his life’s work. Hmmmm......
9/19/12
The Examiner: American Airlines Lays Off 11,000
9/18/12
McClatchy: New Trans-Pacific (TPP) Trade Deal Ignites Fears of Job Losses - See also entries of 9/10, 9/6, 9/5, 8/29, 8/27, 8/8, and especially 6/14/12. The perfect example of why there is not one spec of difference between the two ‘major parties.’
9/17/12
National Nurses Union: Inclusive Prosperity Act Introduced
Democracy-NOW!: OWS Swarms NYC Financial District
UK Guardian: Occupy Is One Year Old With A Lot to Celebrate
Nation of Change: Why We Occupy
9/16/12
TomDispatch: Occupy Your Victories
9/14/12
TPM: 65 Years of Tax Cuts For the Wealthy Has Created Record Inequality, Not Prosperity and Common Dreams
The Nation: Is America Broke? Not With A Robin Hood Tax
9/13/12
Nation of Change: Amy Goodman: Mayor Rahm-Ney’s Attack on the Chicago Teachers Union - Will become a template for breaking unions across the country. Emanuel is taking the same exact position as Gov. Walker in Wisconsin. The two major parties are becoming identical.
and related...
Open Secrets: Teacher’s Strike Could Affect Dems’ Cashflow
9/12/12
McClatchy: Incomes Drop in 2011, Divide Deepens Between the 1% And The Rest of Us and Democracy-Now!: Tavis Smilley and Cornell West Poverty Tour 2.0 - “Poverty is the new norm in America.” Poverty is the opposite of Justice. Per West: If Romney is elected it would be “catastrophic.” If Obama is elected it will be “disastrous.”
Bloomberg: US Poverty, Inequality Grow
9/10/12
The Nation: Year One: Occupy Wall Street Anniversary Protest
9/6/12
Amnesty International: TPP Must Not Trade Away Free Speech and Health
9/5/12
Occupy.Com: A Thief Lurks in the Shadows - The thief? TPP. Final negotiations are being completed in secret in Washington, DC suburb as the final major party convention winds down. By the time the public wakes up, it will be too late. See entries of 8/29, 8/27, 8/8 and 6/14.
Nature: TPP to Curb Generic Drug Use
8/29/12
ACLU: TPP: The Biggest Threat to Free Speech and Intellectual Property Rights You’ve Never Heard Of
8/27/12
UK Guardian: The Pacific Free Trade Deal That’s Anything but Free - More on TPP. See also entries of 8/8 and 6/14.
AlterNet: Farmer Debunks Corporate Propaganda Against GMO Labeling
8/23/12
8/19/12
ProPublica: How ‘Nonprofits’ Spend Millions On Elections Anonymously
8/14/12
Waging Non-Violence: Occupy Showdown Brewing Against Fracking Pipeline in NYC - See entry of 6/21.
8/13/12
TruthDig: Criminalizing Dissent
8/10/12
NYTimes: The Wealthiest 400 Taxpayers - In the ‘50s, they would have paid taxes at a marginal rate of 98% and America was at the zenith of its power and potential.
8/9/12
Nation of Change: US Leadership Increasingly Serves Big Corporate Donors
The Villager: NYPD Officer Who Pepper-Sprayed Women Will Not Be Defended in Court by NYPD
8/8/12
Citizens Trade: Help Drag TPP Out of the Shadows - This could be the most insidious power grab by the 1% yet. It would, among other things, make large multi-nationals literally above the law. Workers’ rights, anti-trust laws and environmental protections would become totally non-existent. See entry of 6/14.
8/7/12
ThinkProgress: 10 Most Profitable Corporations Paid A 9% Tax Rate in 2011 - Oil companies and Wall Street Banks
Yes!: 5 Good Ideas From Occupy’s National Gathering
8/6/12
Open Secrets: Shadow Money Groups Spending Hits 3 X 2010 Level - And rising.
8/1/12
Think Progress: A Day In The Life of Big Oil - $14.4 Million profit Every Hour. $270,000 in tax breaks paid by the American people Every Hour. $140 Billion profit per year. $7B+ tax credits and write offs every year. $170 Million in Congressional Contributions per year (1/10 of 1% of profits). Obama now says ‘Drill Baby Drill.’ House Republicans want to Double their tax breaks. Global Warming? What’s that? See entries of 1/24, 1/5/12.
7/2/12
Truthdig: Chris Hedges: Time To Get Crazy
6/29/12
AlterNet: Corporate Profits At All-Time High, Wages At All-Time Low: Can We Call It Class War Yet? - And how long has TimeLines been calling it Class War? Thank you.
6/27/12
The Nation: Robert Reich: Mitt Romney and the New Gilded Age - Romney “brazenly epitomizes the excesses of casino capitalism that has nearly destroyed the economy and overwhelmed our democracy.” Today “the richest 400 Americans own as much as the bottom 150 million.” And these top 400 are now “buying the 2012 election - and with it the American democracy.” “Connect the dots of casino capitalism and you get Mitt Romney.”
6/25/12
CBS News: Whore Court Doubles Down on “Citizens United” and LATimes
6/21/12
The Villager: NY Trust Board Approves Gas Pipeline After $2.7 Million Kickback - And pressure from the Bloomberg Administration. The mayor’s sweetheart Diana Taylor also voted for the permit. The pipeline company, Spectra, has a horrible safety record, having killed 10 people in 2010 in a San Bruno explosion.
6/19/12
AlterNet: Wage Gap Between CEOs and Workers Gets Wider - Dodd-Frank is “only a facade.”
ProPublica: JPMorgan’s Connections to the House Finance Committee - See entry of 6/11.
6/18/12
Greenpeace: Duke Energy Funding Democratic Convention...and ALEC
6/15/12
Rolling Stone: Senators Grovel, Embarrass Themselves at Dimon Hearing
6/14/12
Democracy-NOW!: Breaking ’08 Pledge, Leaked Trade Documents Show Obama Helps Corps Avoid US Law and Common Dreams - “Trans-Pacific Partnership” (TPP), a new trade pact between the US and currently 8 Pacific nations would allow corporations operating within these countries to avoid national regulations and laws and appeal rulings to a court that does not abide by any US or other nations laws. “This is a ‘one-percenter’ power tool that will rip up” laws pertaining to worker and human rights, anti-trust laws and environmental regulations. The Obama administration has kept the negotiations and documents completely secret up until this leak in direct violation of pledges he made during ’08 campaign.
6/13/12
Robert Reich: Why the Economy Can’t Get Out of First Gear: The Rich Have Sucked It Dry
6/11/12
Daily Agenda: Senate Banking Committee Will Question Its Top Donor
6/8/12
NYMag: NYPD Officials Pretending Journalists Weren’t Arrested At OWS
6/7/12
NYTimes: 3/4 of Americans Realize It’s A Whore Court
6/6/12
Open Secrets: FCC Disclosure Rule Defeated By Republicans and ProPublica - All of whom received significant corporate bribe money.
6/4/12
Bloomberg: AIG Chief Sees 80 As Proper Retirement Age - ...when reached at his seaside villa. He’ll be receiving $7 Million + bonuses annually.
5/30/12
Open Secrets: SOPA Friendly Corps Help Lamar Smith Win Texas Primary
5/29/12
Mercola: First Super Weeds, Now Super Insects Courtesy of Monsanto
5/24/12
AlterNet: Has the FBI Launched A War of Entrapment Against OWS? - Why not? It has worked very well against Muslim Americans. And once they clean out OWS, you are next.
5/23/12
Chicago Now: 70 Reports of Police Misconduct at NATO Protests - “Heads bashed in, teeth knocked out, broken arms and collar bones...”
5/22/12
AlterNet: The 10 Major Corporations That Control Everything You Buy
5/19/12
You Should Read This Book: The Rich and The Rest of Us
5/14/12
Counter Punch: Is Obama Directing the Nationwide Police Crackdown on Occupy?
Truthdig: Chris Hedges: Colonized by Corporations - The revolution is coming...slowly.
5/11/12
Bill Moyers: RoseAnn DeMoro On The Robin Hood Tax - A 0.5% tax on financial transactions = $350 Billion for jobs and homes. A tax that was in place in the US from 1914 - 1966. Also a great discussion of why unions have lost so much power over the last 30 years and how they can easily get it back.
5/9/12
Open Secrets: Monsanto’s Deep Roots in Washington - With revenues of $11.8Billion last year, it’s $6.3Million in Washington lobbying is a pittance, and money well spent. Right now it’s not even possible to get GMO food labeled. The head of the House Agricultural Committee has already received $20,000 from Monsanto and deliberations on the next farm bill have not even started yet. Members on that committee have so far received $77,500 from Monsanto. Monsanto Lobbying Efforts
5/6/12
Paul Krugman: Those Revolting Europeans - An excellent read that clearly explains why ‘austerity’ is not the answer to the problems within the Eurozone, using empirical observations of countries that have and have not tried it.
5/3/12
Paul Krugman: Plutocracy, Paralysis, Perplexity - Our current political dysfunction is because of the transformation of the Republican party into an extremist force that is dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition. Political polarization closely tracks income inequality. The takeover of our political spectrum by the 0.01% has made any sensible discussion of a solution impossible. The Republican party is dominated by fringe doctrines and it is unpersuaded by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science. The key to economic recovery lies in getting past the malignant influence of billionaires.
5/2/12
The Nation: Tens of Thousands March in Oakland, NYC for May Day - But judging from the MSM, you’d never know it.
ThinkProgress: As the Richest Americans Get Richer, The Rest Are Drowning In Debt
4/30/12
Truthdig: Chris Hedges: Welcome to the Asylum - Capitalism is an essentially religious phenomenon. Capitalism calls on human societies to embark on a ceaseless and futile quest for money and goods. This quest perpetuates a culture dominated by guilt, a sense of inadequacy and self-loathing. It enslaves nearly all its adherents through wages, subservience to the commodity culture and debt peonage. The suffering visited on Native Americans, once Western expansion was complete, was soon endured by others, in Cuba, the Philippines, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. The final chapter of this sad experiment in human history will see us sacrificed as those on the outer reaches of empire were sacrificed. There is a kind of justice to this. We profited as a nation from this demented vision, we remained passive and silent when we should have denounced the crimes committed in our name, and now that the game is up we all go down together.
4/27/12
AlterNet/Public Citizen: Corporate Legal Rights Grow As Whore Court Blocks Pro-Consumer Class Action
4/22/12
NYTimes: Conservative Non-Profit ALEC Acts As Stealth Business Lobbyist - See entries of 3/25, 1/7/2012, 12/5, 12/1, 8/6, 8/5, 8/1, 7/22, 7/21, 7/14, 7/12/11, and ALEC Exposed.
4/18/12
4/14/12
WCNC: Coalition Announces Massive March in ‘Wall Street of the South’ - Precursor for Democratic National Convention
4/13/12
Democracy-NOW!: OWS Springs to Life
ProPublica: Behind Closed Doors, Broadcasters Battle Online Disclosure of Political Ad Buys - Less than a year ago he was sat on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation which overseas broadcast related legislation. Now former Oregon Senator Gordon Smith is President of the National Association of Broadcasters and earns 7 figures ($1.4 Million) to sit down with the head of the FCC behind closed doors and lobby to keep the the names of the people who buy political TV a secret.
4/12/12
Reuters: Exxon CEO Pulled Down $35 Million in 2011
NYTimes: Presidential Campaigns Plan Max Push For Money - By far “the most moneyed campaign in history.” Both candidates, including SuperPACs, will come close to the $1 Billion mark. Average people will get lip service, but nothing more.
4/11/12
AlterNet: OWS Spring Awakening
AlterNet: Millions Against Monsanto - The only people fighting for and winning our right to know what we’re eating are Occupy and OCA. If we wait for the politicians, it will never happen.
4/9/12
Citizens for Tax Justice: Big No-Tax Corps Keep On Dodging
Think Progress: US Corporations Return to Pre-Recession Profits - Average revenue per employee: $420,000, up from $378,000 pre-recession. Class warfare pure and simple.
AlterNet: White House Shelves Executive Order On Federal Contractor Disclosure
4/8/12
Paul Krugman: The Gullible Center - The GOP/Ryan Budget proposal would result in $4.6 Trillion (yep, that’s a T) in lost revenue over the next decade from tax cuts for the corporations and the rich, in addition to the Bush tax cuts, as per the Tax Policy Center; and would remove health insurance from at least an additional 14 million people plus many other cuts in the safety net programs.
4/7/12
NYTimes: CEO Pay: A Rich Game of Thrones
4/5/12
Tomgram: How We All Subsidize The Energy Giants To Wreck the Planet
4/4/12
AlterNet: Monsanto Intimidates Vermont Legislators
3/31/12
AP: US District Judge Says Groups Can’t Shield Campaign Donations
3/25/12
Paul Krugman: Lobbyists, Guns and Money - The murder of Trayvon Martin should bring ALEC into laser focus. ALEC, funded by Koch, Exxon Mobile etc., literally wrote the law, which legislators then voted in verbatim. Florida is one of 21 states with such a law. ALEC’s stated goal is limited government, but what it really seeks is privatized government, where corporations get their money not from the market, but from taxpayers through government outsourcing. It’s all about crony capitalism, not free markets, and scandals abound throughout efforts to privatize government. In this case, the privatization benefit of the ‘Stand Your Ground’ legislation goes to the penal-industrial complex. Any law that sends more people to prison is a benefit to that complex. This would also include draconian immigration laws and of course non-violent drug statutes.
3/23/12
Democracy-NOW!: OWS Activist Describes NYPD Brutality - Her fellow activist, Jen Waller, describes it best: “It is when we speak out against the 1 percent and defy them by fighting for public space that we are brutalized. On Saturday night as I simply sat in a park, I was violently arrested with my friends and watched as bloodthirsty cops stomped on their faces, knelt on their necks, pulled them by their hair, and slammed them into windows. I watched as one friend was treated as a battering ram as they carried him into an MTA bus, slamming his head on every step and seat as they went along. I watched as a young woman’s rib was broken, as she hyperventilated, convulsed and seizured in the middle of the street.” This interview article is with the woman who seizured.
3/22/12
Public Citizen: California Passes Resolution to Overturn Citizens United
3/20/12
UK Guardian: OWS Joins Local Community Groups Calling for NYPD Commissioner To Resign and AlterNet and TruthOut and Care2 - Unprecedented levels of police brutality, even by NYPD standards, towards peaceful protestors.
3/17/12
NYTimes: OWS Back In Action and USA Today
3/14/12
Colorado Independent: 70% of Americans Believe SuperPACs Should Be Outlawed
3/12/12
The Nation: Progressives Mount Campaign To Disclose Corporate Super-PAC Donors
3/9/12
Hartford Courant: Whore Court Justice Scalia Met With Protest at Wesleyan College
3/7/12
HuffPo: $38,000 Per Delegate - That’s all you need to spend and you too can be a presidential contender. But it’s well worth it in terms of bribes that you’ll be able to extract from corporate lobbyists once you’re in office. And it’s well worth that to the corporations employing the lobbyists in terms of tax breaks and regulatory avoidance that you can provide for them in return. What a country!
Vermont Digger: 63 Out Of 65 VT Towns Vote to Challenge Corporate Personhood
3/5/12
HuffPo: Top 1% Account For 93% Of Recovery Income Gains
3/2/12
UCBerkeley: Striking It Richer: The Evolution of Top Incomes In the US Updated With 2009 and 2010 Estimates - Conclusion: The top 1% have monopolized 93% of income gains of the entire US since the 2008 meltdown.
3/1/12
Politico: What Happened to Obama’s Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax? - It was quietly dropped right after it was announced.
2/28/12
HuffPo: Whore Court Will Rule That Corporations Are People Except When They Commit Murder
2/23/12
Green Party: Jill Stein: Obama’s Populist Rhetoric Masks Policies That Favor the 1% - The Foreclosure Fraud deal allows the big banks to pay pennies in protection money instead of facing jail. It only encourages similar behavior in the future. The Social Security tax cut empowers those who would like to destroy it. Obama’s budget is in fact an austerity budget when what we need is massive stimulus.
Alternet: New GA Bill Includes $10,000 Fine For Picketing, Protest - Here’s the Bill.
2/22/12
Robert Reich: Corporations Don’t Need A Tax Cut, So Why is Obama Proposing One? - The American people are hurting. Corporations are sitting on $2Trillion in cash. Corporate taxes are the lowest they’ve been in 40 years. Clearly lower taxes are not spurring them to create new jobs - at least not in the US. Obama’s suggestion doesn’t even make sense as a bargaining maneuver.
NYTimes: Obama Offers to Cut Corporate Tax Rates Even More - He’s also proposing to cut out loopholes and disallow deductions on ‘off-shore’ profits - which is great, but it has not one chance of being passed by Congress. This is strictly for electioneering purposes.
LaTimes: SuperPACs Profit From Lack of Oversight
2/17/12
HuffPo: Occupy Atlanta, Unions Join to Begin New Encampment
2/13/12
HuffPo: Eric Cantor’s Wall Street Insider Trading Loophole
Raw Story: NM Legislature Calls On Congress to Overturn Citizens United via Constitutional Amendment
Public Citizen: 10,000 Californians Call For Constitutional Amendment
2/6/12
AlterNet: Occupy vs. Monsanto: Activists, Farmers Fight The Corporation That Could Take Over Food and Farms In America - A fairly short article that clarifies the basics of this issue.
2/2/12
Bloomberg: Super Bowl Lands on Taxpayers’ Backs - Socialism for the rich. The rest of us have to pay.
Sky: Shell Oil Profits Double in 2011, $28.6 Billion
2/1/12
The Eagle: Super PACs Reveal Donors
NYTimes: Secrecy Surrounds Super PACs
1/31/12
WSJ: Exxon Qtrly Profit Up 2% at $9.4 Billion
1/30/12
MoJo: Super PACs Dominate GOP Primary Campaign Spending
National Lawyers Guild: Police Violence Targets Occupy Oakland
1/29/12
MoJo: Story From Inside Mass Arrests of Occupy Protestors in Oakland
1/27/12
WashPo: 7 Examples of Former Lawmakers Now Working for Groups They Previously Steered Earmarks To - Typical Ex: Trent Lott as a congressman, sent at least $1.6 Million to Northrup, now works for them at $600,000 per year.
Bill Moyers: How the Political and Financial Class Shifted All of the Benefits of the Economy To The Top, and Shifted All of the Costs to Everyone Else - In short: When Clinton, Gramm and the rest got rid of Glass-Steagall and put the regulators to sleep.
1/24/12
USA Today: Obama Calls for Offshore Oil Drilling and Clean Energy - Obama makes his ‘commitment’ to drill anywhere, everywhere, all the time. Despite the fact that all economic studies indicate that more drilling will do nothing to lower prices at the pump and everything to increase the profits of big oil. Here’s the ‘old’ Obama, when he was still smart. See entry of 1/5 below for a run down on oil company profits and taxpayer give aways.
1/25/12
Democracy-NOW!: Ralph Nader Reviews Obama’s SOTUS
1/22/12
TomDispatch: Occupy Fracks Corporate America - Begins with a brief overview of Halliburton history. Goes on to describe the fracking process which injects Trillions of gallons of wastewater containing a nasty chemical mix into the last fresh water available to Americans, poisoning ground water, sickening people and killing livestock and wildlife. In most parts of the country, protests are occurring after the damage is done, but in New York state it’s a different story. There’s a quiet little revolution of regular people that is creating a new way of looking at corporate greed. Clean water has a way of bringing a cross-section of Americans together. Also see entry of 1/10, interview with Occupy organizer Yotam Marom.
1/20/12
Yes!: Corporate Rule Is Not Inevitable - We can bring it down for the same reasons and using the same tactics as apartheid was brought down in S. Africa.
NYTimes: Whore Court Does The Bidding of Rethuglicans Again
1/19/12
YouTube: Pentagon Drones Flying Domestic Missions - And we aren’t allowed to know when, where, why or what information they are collecting on whom.
The Hill: Bain Capital Gives More Money to Dems Than Rethugs - Wait, what?
1/18/12
Roll Call: Congress People Taking More Privately Funded Junkets Than Ever
NYTimes: Boeing Yanks 83 Year Old Plant From Wichita - And the one from Seattle. All because they don’t like unions. Just hope the people of Charleston don’t find out the true cost of the incentives given to the company to relocate there. The taxpayers of Charleston and of South Carolina may be on the hook for nearly $1 Billion - but nobody really knows for sure. One wonders what kind of improvement in schools (currently ‘08-09 ranked last in terms of teacher salaries) and infrastructure SC could have bought with that kind of money.
1/16/12
TruthDig: Chris Hedges: Why I’m Suing Barack Obama - “But I suspect the real purpose of this bill is to thwart internal, domestic movements that threaten the corporate state...This demented ‘war on terror’ is as undefined and vague as such a conflict is in any totalitarian state. Dissent is increasingly equated in this country with treason...The supine and gutless Democratic Party, which would have feigned outrage if George W. Bush had put this into law, appears willing, once again, to grant Obama a pass. But I won’t. What he has done is unforgivable, unconstitutional and exceedingly dangerous...why, a decade after the start of the so-called war on terror, do these draconian measures need to be implemented? Why do U.S. citizens now need to be specifically singled out for military detention and denial of due process when under the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force the president can apparently find the legal cover to serve as judge, jury and executioner to assassinate U.S. citizens?”
1/15/12
Bill Moyers: Income Inequality in the USA Since 1970 in Graph Form - What more evidence is needed of the class war going on in the US since 1970. See Corporate Domination Background Page for explanatory detail.
1/12/12
Paul Krugman: America Isn’t A Corporation
1/11/12
NYTimes: Where Did They Get All That Money?
Rolling Stone: Revolving Door: From Top Futures Regulator to Top Futures Lobbyist
1/10/12
Common Dreams: OWS: Why Now? What’s Next? - Interview with one of the original organizers. The discussion includes: the prerequisites that were necessary for it to come about; why it is necessary for it not to dictate specific policy; how the greed-based economic model under which we now live is the perfect target for a science-based environmental and anti-globalization movement, attempting to gain economic equality for all, to aim at; the next steps in OWS development.
MoJo: The 20 Biggest Donors of the 2012 Election Cycle So Far - 2008 was the biggest election cycle ever in terms of money donated at $5.3 Billion (Billion, really?) but 2012 should put that to shame with these 20 people leading the way. Goodbye Democracy.
1/9/12
1/8/12
Krugman: America’s Unlevel Field
1/7/12
NYTimes: Recent Republican Push For ‘Right To Work’ Laws a Product of ALEC - The organization that makes the case for repeal of Citizens vs FEC. Here’s how you buy a law. Truly a secret society. Spending more than $38 Million on state politics in 2010 cycle. Step by step guide to understanding how they work. LSU students fight back. In depth interview by Terry Gross on Fresh Air.
1/6/12
The Atlantic: Super PACS: The WMDs of Campaign Finance
San Francisco Chronicle: Ecuadoran Court Upholds $18 Billion Judgement Against Chevron and JD Journal - When was the last time you heard of an American court rendering such a judgement against a large American corporation? The Academy Award for Best Documentary and Sundance Film Festival winning movie “Crude” is all about this case.
1/5/12
TomGram: Buying Congress in 2012 - Some of these numbers are really flabbergasting! Big Oil makes about $140 Billion (with a B) Profit (not gross revenue, but net profit) per year. They give Congress about $170 million per year (1/10 of 1% of profits), and receive $7 Billion per year in tax credits/write-offs - that’s your money we’re talking about. Another tid-bit: The US Chamber of Commerce spent more money on the 2010 elections than the Republican and Democratic National Committees combined and 94% of those dollars went to climate-change deniers. Occupy!!! And start being ‘dangerously naive.’
YouTube: Foreign Policy and War Profiteering - This is an old video but is still very appropriate in understanding the corporate control of our state of permanent war. Congress not only receives money from war corporations in the form of campaign donations, most members also are heavily invested in those same corporations.
1/4/12
AlterNet: Big Winner in Iowa: Super-Pacs and Citizens United
1/3/12
AG Professional: Judge to Hear Arguments in OSGATA vs. Monsanto - Monsanto has driven out of business and then bought out thousands of small family farmers across America who, totally by accident, create ‘Round Up Ready’ plants of many varieties. For the first time in history the Whore Court has allowed a corporation to ‘patent’ plant species. If you happen, even by accident, to grow such a species on your own property, the Monsanto essentially has the right to take your property away from you. From the food consumer’s point of view, Monsanto is well on its way to control of what you get to eat, how it is raised, and how much about that you get to know. OSGATA has decided to contest this situation. The judge’s ruling paves the way for the next step. Monsanto was really hoping this wouldn’t happen. See also the OSGATA web site and Organic Consumers Assoc.
