Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Leslie H. Gelb Argues That Neocons Like Bill Kristol Are Back to Warmongering - The Daily Beast
They’re back! The neoconservatives who gave America clueless, unpaid-for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus a near doubling of military expenditures, during the Bush years have risen from their political graves. Someone, maybe a media tiring of President Obama’s interminable plight, pulled the stake from their heart. Now they’ve returned to the op-ed pages, the talk shows, the think-tank discussions, and the advisory ranks of Republican presidential candidates.
Leslie H. Gelb Argues That Neocons Like Bill Kristol Are Back to Warmongering - The Daily Beast
Leslie H. Gelb Argues That Neocons Like Bill Kristol Are Back to Warmongering - The Daily Beast
Cenk Uygur: How To Regain Our Democracy
Our politicians are bought. Everyone knows it. Conservatives know it just as much as liberals do. And libertarians have probably known it all along. The Democrats are bought and the Republicans even more so. They don't represent us. They represent their donors. We have taxation without representation. Our democracy is in serious trouble.
Cenk Uygur: How To Regain Our Democracy
Cenk Uygur: How To Regain Our Democracy
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Occupy Wall Street-How I see it Also as a 99%
My college age daughter is attending the Wall Street Protest in New Orleans. Her eyes are open to what is happening to our Democracy, along with the other young people in her college group.
Since I can't go to the New Orleans Protest and I feel I should do my part-- I will do what I like to do best---Write.
Here is ---How I see it and what I have seen for a while now.
Occupy WallStreet October 2011
The financial chaos in 2008 began with Wall Street. However, this did not happen overnight. It took years of policies (under Democrats & Republicans) that has led us to where we are today by changing the basic structures of banking. There used to be a very well-defined division between commercial banks and investment banks. The biggest political decision and banking reform was in 1999, when parts of the Glass-Steagall Act were repealed. Now we have big banks which are too big to fail and rich hedge fund managers gambling with the money. They gambled big in the years up to 2008 and lost big. The American people (99%ers) bailed out the banks, many people (99%ers) lost their homes, many of us (99%ers) lost money in our IRA’s & 401k’s, and big business lost money and started firing workers (99%ers). The bubble burst in 2008 and the American economy went with it.
The figures in 2009, state, 400 Americans have more wealth than half of all Americans. Much like in Cairo, and in London, and in Athens-the protests are about too many Have Nots.
The problem is NOT –I repeat--- The problem is NOT the Teachers or Laborers, or the Unions, or the Poor, or Immigrants, or the Working Class with their earned income credit, or spending on Entitlements, it is not the Middle Class or your mom on Social Security or your grandfather on Medicare. Money and most important the Political power in the hands of the few is the injustice. It is not the 99%ers that are in charge but the 1%ers. The middle class continues to shrink, and the number of poor has grown.
The Haves have the money, has the power, and have too much political power to buy our politicians and our Democracy. Is anyone asking why nothing gets done in Washington? Because the HAVES like it that way! Until there is Banking Reform, Tax Reform and Trade Reform, nothing in America will change. And I don’t think the Haves want large and sufficient modification in Banking Reform, Tax Reform and Trade Reform. Big corporations sit on $2 Trillion holding back the money as they wait for the 2012 elections, while the American economy slows and the 99%ers suffer.
Until we get the money out of politics nothing will change. And things are only going to get worse. The Supreme Court ruling of Citizens United is an awful ruling, which will put more money into politics and elections. In the election of 2012--the 99%ers will not even know who is giving money to whom.
Billionaire Warren Buffett recently remarked that the class war is already over; his class won. They win elections, they win getting their way, they win with the tax code, they win with weak banking rules and they win the politicians. They employ successful Lobbyist to keep the rules in their favour, hence the repeal in 1999 of the Glass-Steagall Act and the recent Supreme Court ruling of Citizens United.
In America we have a very resilient and robust Wall Street; and a downcast and depressed Main Street. And the object of the game is to keep the downcast Main Street (99%ers) ignorant to what is going on. They keep the low information voters busy with the stupid stuff, the crazy political issues that are not real issues at all. Instead of doing their political homework they inadequately attempt to entertain and persuade with simplistic talking points and slogans and misinformation email forwards. This is an intellect insult to the ones that know better -- the ones doing their political homework. But more importantly, unbeknownst to the unaware, it is an intellect insult to them too.
It takes a lot of work to be politically savvy—to be in the “know” – with each informative magazine & article read, with each intelligent TV Program watched, with each rational and sensible Political Talk show viewed, with each illuminating newspaper read-- gathering more and more information is needed to figure-- What THE HELL is going on! Don't think you can do it watching one political News Cable Channel. If you think so--you are deceiving yourself. This unfairness taken place is to ourselves and to our country.
And now finally we see the protest on Wall Street and in many other cities around the country attended by many of our young people. This new generation is showing us the way. By their demonstrations and protests they obviously see the dilemma. Finally, the real problem will come out of the darkness and the young will lead us into the light.
The protest called Occupy Wall Street is not about begrudging the rich. Although, I have seen and heard recently, many people begrudging the poor. This is not about beating up on capitalism. This is about fairness and injustices. It is about American’s Democracy eroding away for the 99%ers. It is about losing our Democracy to Corporate Governance.
The Government is not the root of the illness, its infection of dysfunction is the symptom. Through the years, our governmental systems, our politicians, and the office of the Presidency is held hostage to big money- rich special interest- corporate bought system. Pay to Play is the norm. They are caught in this system with no way out until the 99%ers apply the pressure needed to change the process.
"At the root of America’s economic crisis lies a moral crisis: the decline of civic virtue among America’s political and economic elite. A society of markets, laws and elections is not enough if the rich and powerful fail to behave with respect, honesty and compassion toward the rest of society and the world." ~ Jeffrey Sachs -The Price of Civilization
The media (Corporate Media) for far too long have not informed the people well and kept us pretty much in the “unknown” for a reason. I am sure we will hear the media reporting the protesters are young people, lazy and don’t want to work, or they are hippies, or their arresting them because they are trouble makers. Don’t believe it! Don’t be fooled!
These are the people conscious and responsive to what is going on in America. They see the damages of inequality--they have done their homework. They know the root of the breakdown IS not and WERE not the results of the 2008 Presidential election, which immediately and quickly spurred protest with vitriol anti-government rhetoric.
It is this young generation, the ones that care, the ones with their eyes open to what is really happening in the world, these are the ones that will change the things that need changing.
Change does not happen from the Top--they change from the Bottom---from the people----the 99%ers!
There would be no Honey without the Bees.
SusanThur A 99%
Go 99%ers, I am with you in Spirit
Since I can't go to the New Orleans Protest and I feel I should do my part-- I will do what I like to do best---Write.
Here is ---How I see it and what I have seen for a while now.
Occupy WallStreet October 2011
The financial chaos in 2008 began with Wall Street. However, this did not happen overnight. It took years of policies (under Democrats & Republicans) that has led us to where we are today by changing the basic structures of banking. There used to be a very well-defined division between commercial banks and investment banks. The biggest political decision and banking reform was in 1999, when parts of the Glass-Steagall Act were repealed. Now we have big banks which are too big to fail and rich hedge fund managers gambling with the money. They gambled big in the years up to 2008 and lost big. The American people (99%ers) bailed out the banks, many people (99%ers) lost their homes, many of us (99%ers) lost money in our IRA’s & 401k’s, and big business lost money and started firing workers (99%ers). The bubble burst in 2008 and the American economy went with it.
The figures in 2009, state, 400 Americans have more wealth than half of all Americans. Much like in Cairo, and in London, and in Athens-the protests are about too many Have Nots.
The problem is NOT –I repeat--- The problem is NOT the Teachers or Laborers, or the Unions, or the Poor, or Immigrants, or the Working Class with their earned income credit, or spending on Entitlements, it is not the Middle Class or your mom on Social Security or your grandfather on Medicare. Money and most important the Political power in the hands of the few is the injustice. It is not the 99%ers that are in charge but the 1%ers. The middle class continues to shrink, and the number of poor has grown.
The Haves have the money, has the power, and have too much political power to buy our politicians and our Democracy. Is anyone asking why nothing gets done in Washington? Because the HAVES like it that way! Until there is Banking Reform, Tax Reform and Trade Reform, nothing in America will change. And I don’t think the Haves want large and sufficient modification in Banking Reform, Tax Reform and Trade Reform. Big corporations sit on $2 Trillion holding back the money as they wait for the 2012 elections, while the American economy slows and the 99%ers suffer.
Until we get the money out of politics nothing will change. And things are only going to get worse. The Supreme Court ruling of Citizens United is an awful ruling, which will put more money into politics and elections. In the election of 2012--the 99%ers will not even know who is giving money to whom.
Billionaire Warren Buffett recently remarked that the class war is already over; his class won. They win elections, they win getting their way, they win with the tax code, they win with weak banking rules and they win the politicians. They employ successful Lobbyist to keep the rules in their favour, hence the repeal in 1999 of the Glass-Steagall Act and the recent Supreme Court ruling of Citizens United.
In America we have a very resilient and robust Wall Street; and a downcast and depressed Main Street. And the object of the game is to keep the downcast Main Street (99%ers) ignorant to what is going on. They keep the low information voters busy with the stupid stuff, the crazy political issues that are not real issues at all. Instead of doing their political homework they inadequately attempt to entertain and persuade with simplistic talking points and slogans and misinformation email forwards. This is an intellect insult to the ones that know better -- the ones doing their political homework. But more importantly, unbeknownst to the unaware, it is an intellect insult to them too.
It takes a lot of work to be politically savvy—to be in the “know” – with each informative magazine & article read, with each intelligent TV Program watched, with each rational and sensible Political Talk show viewed, with each illuminating newspaper read-- gathering more and more information is needed to figure-- What THE HELL is going on! Don't think you can do it watching one political News Cable Channel. If you think so--you are deceiving yourself. This unfairness taken place is to ourselves and to our country.
And now finally we see the protest on Wall Street and in many other cities around the country attended by many of our young people. This new generation is showing us the way. By their demonstrations and protests they obviously see the dilemma. Finally, the real problem will come out of the darkness and the young will lead us into the light.
The protest called Occupy Wall Street is not about begrudging the rich. Although, I have seen and heard recently, many people begrudging the poor. This is not about beating up on capitalism. This is about fairness and injustices. It is about American’s Democracy eroding away for the 99%ers. It is about losing our Democracy to Corporate Governance.
The Government is not the root of the illness, its infection of dysfunction is the symptom. Through the years, our governmental systems, our politicians, and the office of the Presidency is held hostage to big money- rich special interest- corporate bought system. Pay to Play is the norm. They are caught in this system with no way out until the 99%ers apply the pressure needed to change the process.
"At the root of America’s economic crisis lies a moral crisis: the decline of civic virtue among America’s political and economic elite. A society of markets, laws and elections is not enough if the rich and powerful fail to behave with respect, honesty and compassion toward the rest of society and the world." ~ Jeffrey Sachs -The Price of Civilization
The media (Corporate Media) for far too long have not informed the people well and kept us pretty much in the “unknown” for a reason. I am sure we will hear the media reporting the protesters are young people, lazy and don’t want to work, or they are hippies, or their arresting them because they are trouble makers. Don’t believe it! Don’t be fooled!
These are the people conscious and responsive to what is going on in America. They see the damages of inequality--they have done their homework. They know the root of the breakdown IS not and WERE not the results of the 2008 Presidential election, which immediately and quickly spurred protest with vitriol anti-government rhetoric.
It is this young generation, the ones that care, the ones with their eyes open to what is really happening in the world, these are the ones that will change the things that need changing.
Change does not happen from the Top--they change from the Bottom---from the people----the 99%ers!
There would be no Honey without the Bees.
SusanThur A 99%
Go 99%ers, I am with you in Spirit
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Government Private Contractors Hinder Fight on Terrorism - The Daily Beast
New reports of the shocking number of private contractors working on secret U.S. government programs challenge the belief that they save money—and mock transparent government. Reporter Dana Priest says we need a full accounting if we’re going to continue to fight terrorism successfully.
Government Private Contractors Hinder Fight on Terrorism - The Daily Beast
Government Private Contractors Hinder Fight on Terrorism - The Daily Beast
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Phony Fear Factor - NYTimes.com
The good news: After spending a year and a half talking about deficits, deficits, deficits when we should have been talking about jobs, job, jobs we’re finally back to discussing the right issue.
Phony Fear Factor - NYTimes.com
Phony Fear Factor - NYTimes.com
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Whatever Happened to the American Left?
To paraphrase the labor martyr Joe Hill, the left should stop mourning its recent past and start organizing to change the future
Whatever Happened to the American Left?
Whatever Happened to the American Left?
Is the GOP a Religion?
If you ask why I remain such a strong Obama supporter, it is because I see him as that rare individual able to withstand the zeal without becoming a zealot in response, and to overcome the recklessness of pure religious ideology with pragmatism, civility and reason.
Is the GOP a Religion?
Is the GOP a Religion?
Friday, September 23, 2011
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
FOCUS: America's Lost Decade
The sad truth is that the past decade has been the worst for this country in 100 years.
FOCUS: America's Lost Decade
FOCUS: America's Lost Decade
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Friday, September 16, 2011
Monday, September 12, 2011
Who owns America? Hint: It's not China – Global Public Square - CNN.com Blogs
Here's a quick and fascinating breakdown by total amount held and percentage of total U.S. debt, according to Business Insider:
•Hong Kong: $121.9 billion (0.9 percent)
•Caribbean banking centers: $148.3 (1 percent)
•Taiwan: $153.4 billion (1.1 percent)
•Brazil: $211.4 billion (1.5 percent)
•Oil exporting countries: $229.8 billion (1.6 percent)
•Mutual funds: $300.5 billion (2 percent)
•Commercial banks: $301.8 billion (2.1 percent)
•State, local and federal retirement funds: $320.9 billion (2.2 percent)
•Money market mutual funds: $337.7 billion (2.4 percent)
•United Kingdom: $346.5 billion (2.4 percent)
•Private pension funds: $504.7 billion (3.5 percent)
•State and local governments: $506.1 billion (3.5 percent)
•Japan: $912.4 billion (6.4 percent)
•U.S. households: $959.4 billion (6.6 percent)
•China: $1.16 trillion (8 percent)
•The U.S. Treasury: $1.63 trillion (11.3 percent)
•Social Security trust fund: $2.67 trillion (19 percent)
So America owes foreigners about $4.5 trillion in debt. But America owes America $9.8 trillion.
Who owns America? Hint: It's not China – Global Public Square - CNN.com Blogs
•Hong Kong: $121.9 billion (0.9 percent)
•Caribbean banking centers: $148.3 (1 percent)
•Taiwan: $153.4 billion (1.1 percent)
•Brazil: $211.4 billion (1.5 percent)
•Oil exporting countries: $229.8 billion (1.6 percent)
•Mutual funds: $300.5 billion (2 percent)
•Commercial banks: $301.8 billion (2.1 percent)
•State, local and federal retirement funds: $320.9 billion (2.2 percent)
•Money market mutual funds: $337.7 billion (2.4 percent)
•United Kingdom: $346.5 billion (2.4 percent)
•Private pension funds: $504.7 billion (3.5 percent)
•State and local governments: $506.1 billion (3.5 percent)
•Japan: $912.4 billion (6.4 percent)
•U.S. households: $959.4 billion (6.6 percent)
•China: $1.16 trillion (8 percent)
•The U.S. Treasury: $1.63 trillion (11.3 percent)
•Social Security trust fund: $2.67 trillion (19 percent)
So America owes foreigners about $4.5 trillion in debt. But America owes America $9.8 trillion.
Who owns America? Hint: It's not China – Global Public Square - CNN.com Blogs
GOP and Obama's jobs plan: Do Republicans oppose the president's economic policies for ideological reasons or political ones? - By Jacob Weisberg - Slate Magazine
You can't stop President Obama from reaching out to Republicans; it's what he does. In Thursday night's speech, he tried two separate maneuvers—reminding them of their support for stimulus measures in the past and accepting the good faith of their opposition. "Now, I realize that some of you have a different theory on how to grow the economy," he said. "Some of you sincerely believe that the only solution to our economic challenges is to simply cut most government spending and eliminate most government regulations."
GOP and Obama's jobs plan: Do Republicans oppose the president's economic policies for ideological reasons or political ones? - By Jacob Weisberg - Slate Magazine
GOP and Obama's jobs plan: Do Republicans oppose the president's economic policies for ideological reasons or political ones? - By Jacob Weisberg - Slate Magazine
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Speculators swamping oil, grain markets
In the sharpest criticism yet of excessive speculation in oil markets, the head of a key regulatory agency presented data Thursday showing that almost nine in 10 traders betting that oil prices would rise were financial speculators, not actual end-users of oil
Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/06/09/115551/key-regulator-speculators-swamping.html#ixzz1VudJA9gc
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/06/09/115551/key-regulator-speculators-swamping.html
Corporate Power Decried By Former Lawmaker
Because [corporations] have become so international and global in nature, it's highly questionable whether governments can actually control corporations to a sufficient degree to prevent them from controlling governments,"
Corporate Power Decried By Former Lawmaker
Corporate Power Decried By Former Lawmaker
"What Was Really Great About The Great Society" by Joseph A. Califano Jr.
Without such programs as Head Start, higher-education loans and scholarships, Medicare, Medicaid, clear air and water, and civil rights, life would be nastier, more brutish, and shorter for millions of Americans.
"What Was Really Great About The Great Society" by Joseph A. Califano Jr.
"What Was Really Great About The Great Society" by Joseph A. Califano Jr.
Concerns About the Religious Right Are Not Overblown | Psychology Today
In a Washington Post On Faith column a few days ago, Lisa Miller, a senior Newsweek religion writer, makes a rather puzzling argument, saying that concerns of secular progressives about the influence of conservative religion in presidential politics are overblown. "Here we go again," she complains. "The Republican primaries are six months away, and already news stories are raising fears on the left about 'crazy Christians.
Concerns About the Religious Right Are Not Overblown | Psychology Today
Concerns About the Religious Right Are Not Overblown | Psychology Today
Monday, August 15, 2011
TIME: Fareed Zakaria-The Pragmatic President
Obama’s temperament was eloquently expressed by the late Bart Giamatti, a former president of Yale and former baseball commissioner, when he urged students not to fall prey to ideology from the right or left and to celebrate the democratic process that balances the two extremes. “My middle view is the view of the centrist,” he said, before quoting law professor Alexander Bickel, “who would ... fix ‘our eyes on that middle distance, where values are provisionally held, are tested, and evolve within the legal order derived ... from the morality of consent.’ To set one’s course by such a centrist view is to leave oneself open to the charges, hurled by the completely faithful of some extreme, of being relativistic, opportunistically flexible, secular, passive, passionless ... Be of good cheer ... To act according to an open and principled pragmatism, to believe in the power of process, is in fact to work for the good.”
TIME: Fareed Zakaria
TIME: Fareed Zakaria
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Is Standard and Poor’s Manipulating US Debt Rating to Escape Liability for the Mortgage Crisis? | Firedoglake
Whatever S&P’s agenda, it has nothing to do with avoiding default risks or putting the US on sound fiscal footing. It appears to be intertwined with their attempts to absolve themselves from responsibility for their role in the 2008 financial crisis, and they are willing to manipulate not only the 2012 election but the world economy to escape the SEC’s attempts to regulate them.
It’s time the media and Congress started asking Standard and Poors what their political agenda is and whom it serves.
Is Standard and Poor’s Manipulating US Debt Rating to Escape Liability for the Mortgage Crisis? | Firedoglake
It’s time the media and Congress started asking Standard and Poors what their political agenda is and whom it serves.
Is Standard and Poor’s Manipulating US Debt Rating to Escape Liability for the Mortgage Crisis? | Firedoglake
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Oh, you want a dictatorship! | Norbrook's Blog
The far Left and the far Right both have some things in common. They both have an innate belief that they, and only they, know the “truth” and want to “save the country.” The other thing they have in common is a complete inability to understand the Constitution, although they’re more than willing to use it as a convenient justification. Virtually everything they say circles around it. Read them, and you hear the same things. The President should have “forced” Congress to do something, the President should “demand” they do this, the President should have “done” that by Executive Order. He needs to be strong and forceful. Reading all those comments, either in favor if their party is in the Presidency or worrying about it if their party isn’t, just tells me one thing: They don’t want the system of government we have.
Oh, you want a dictatorship! | Norbrook's Blog
Oh, you want a dictatorship! | Norbrook's Blog
Thursday, August 4, 2011
The Tea Party, the debt ceiling, and white Southern extremism - War Room - Salon.com
The debt ceiling crisis is the latest case in which the radical right in the South has held America hostage until its demands are met. Presidents Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln refused to appease the Southern fanatics. Unfortunately, President Obama and the Democrats in Congress chose not to follow their example and instead gave in. In doing so, they have encouraged the neo-Confederate minority in Congress to find yet another opportunity in the near future to extort concessions from America's majority by sabotaging America's government.
The Tea Party, the debt ceiling, and white Southern extremism - War Room - Salon.com
The Tea Party, the debt ceiling, and white Southern extremism - War Room - Salon.com
The Crisis in Washington: Where We Are and How We Got Here - Jared Bernstein, The Atlantic - NationalJournal.com
But mostly, it's a story of destructive ideas (self-regulation, supply-side economics) amplified by powerful political forces to claim an ever-growing share of national output, such that by the end of this period, the share of income held by the top one percent--over 20 percent--was more than double its level before this brief history began. And this is, of course, a zero-sum calculation. Their gains in share were the bottom 99 percent's losses.
The Crisis in Washington: Where We Are and How We Got Here - Jared Bernstein, The Atlantic - NationalJournal.com
The Crisis in Washington: Where We Are and How We Got Here - Jared Bernstein, The Atlantic - NationalJournal.com
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
The Willful Ignorance That Has Dragged the US to the Brink | Common Dreams
The Tea Party version of the American Revolution is not just fundamentalist: it is also Disneyfied, sentimentalized, and whitewashed. It rests on a naïve, solipsistic and exceptionalist faith that for America it will all work out in the end, because America is "the greatest nation in the world". They take solace in tautology: America is great – this they know – because Fox News tells them so.
The Willful Ignorance That Has Dragged the US to the Brink | Common Dreams
The Willful Ignorance That Has Dragged the US to the Brink | Common Dreams
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Monday, August 1, 2011
Debt Deal: How Obama Helped Himself in 2012 Campaign - The Daily Beast
Disenchanted liberals may eventually think better of Obama, especially if the next stage of the deficit deal produces some of that 'shared sacrifice.'
Debt Deal: How Obama Helped Himself in 2012 Campaign - The Daily Beast
Debt Deal: How Obama Helped Himself in 2012 Campaign - The Daily Beast
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Deficits: There never was a surplus | The Economist
The Bush tax cuts did the opposite: $3 trillion worth of tax cuts were predicated on the premise that we were returning the people "their" money. As it turned out, the money wasn't there to return. Even without the tax cuts, the wars, or anything else, the government would have entered 2011 with $1.3 trillion in debt, not $2.3 trillion in savings. Basically, in the grip of careless enthusiasm about the economic future, we borrowed $3 trillion from bond markets and handed it out to citizens in rough proportion to how rich they already were. In the middle of a recovery. This is not a useful thing for the government to do.
Deficits: There never was a surplus | The Economist
Deficits: There never was a surplus | The Economist
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Friday, July 29, 2011
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
How to Turn Republicans and Democrats Into Americans - Magazine - The Atlantic
An insider’s six-step plan to fix Congress
How to Turn Republicans and Democrats Into Americans - Magazine - The Atlantic
How to Turn Republicans and Democrats Into Americans - Magazine - The Atlantic
Friday, July 22, 2011
Does Washington have a spending problem or an income problem?-FactCheck.org
Does Washington have a spending problem or an income problem? FactCheck.org: http://bit.ly/p3H1cZ
Fiscal FactCheck | FactCheck.org
Fiscal FactCheck | FactCheck.org
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
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