Is the right-wing Club for Growth funding the Gang of 12?

In a few weeks – the Gang of 12 “Super Congress” will meet to figure out a way to cut $1.2 trillion out of the deficit. So to figure out who’s going to win and who’s going to lose in a potential deal – we should follow the money – and in that case it appears Wall Street will once again make out like bandits. Banksters have given more than $11 million in campaign contributions to members of the Gang of 12 – so we might as well take closing the capital gains loophole off the table.
To make matters worse – the organizations that’s contributed the most to the Gang of 12 is the right-wing Club for Growth – a notorious anti-tax organization – headed up by Tea Party Senator Pat Toomey who someone find found a seat in the Gang of 12. So weeks before the Gang even meets – the deck is already stacked against the middle class.
Let’s hope these lawmakers look at the polls showing overwhelming majorities supporting tax increases on the rich and opposing cuts to entitlements programs – and not the billionaires who are giving them money.
Comments


Tom, The other day you said that we needed to get rid of the Blue Dog Corporate Democrats. Does that include our Blue Dog Corporate President?

Let's just go back to 2008 budgets (that was the last year Bush was at his most spendthrift year) and pledge to just stay at that level for one year and work from that base.

The fact that wealth can be redistributed is proof that the wealth creators are being robbed. Surplus wealth, the creation of the workers, is being stolen by the class that has possession of the weapons - courts, legislatures, armies, police.

Re: Securities and Exchange Commission
Didn't the Securities and Exchange Commission have it's offices in Building 7 (World Trade Center)? It seems to me that that building & the records it held may have been "shredded" as well.

President Wilson RE-segregated the military. The military was de-segregated after the Civil War. Wilson believed in separation of the races - the Negro race was (like the Slavs) not quite human.

I'm really getting tired of the same old propoganda, lies, and dysfunctional government we coward to each day. Time for a big time change......I will do whatever it takes to awaken the general public as to what is going on...........Wish me luck!

The 12 members of the Super Congress may never meet at all. There is no chance they will come up with anything that will help the situation. I expect them never to convene and kick the issue down the road to automatic cuts. The Republicans are having too much fun with this party, they do not want it to end. They believe all this delay and fighting hurts president Obama more than it harms them. They feel secure in that their financial sponsors will give them enough money to drown out the campaigns of reasonable men and women. Therefore they will keep up the fighting. Mark my words, there will be no meetings of this committee, no should there be. There is nothing in this for the Democrats. I expect the Democrats to boycott the meetings. Do you remember what happened to the peace talks regarding the Vietnam war? The parties could not even agree where they would be seated so the talks never began. Same thing different war.
On Mark Thompson's show last week, a woman said that one of the men that Nancy Pelosi put on the commission had been treated to a BIG PARTY by Wall Street. That sounds like the death choice. GOODBYE SS & Medicare. I hope I am wrong.

12 Federal Reserve Banks, 12 Gang Members. Match: The Dirty Dozen, released 6/15/1967.
TERMINALS INC Creation : 6/15/1967 : Inactive : 1/1/1978
-Kitty Carlyle

I would say the fix is in. It was in when Obama made the committee bipartisan - something that would have never happened under Bush. The fix was in with his committee (Simpson and blue dog Baucus et al) to look at social security. The fix was in when he picked Rubin, Geithner, Summers... is there even a question about which way it will go? Obama makes an empty speech pretending to protect things, then sets up the situation for others to do his dirty work and dismantle them. We are screwed, make no bones about it.
That said, the planet may end up happier, and perhaps we will too, if we can be less consumerist - which is a separate issue from having enough healthy food to eat, decent shelter, safe neighborhoods, and single payer health care.
I am happy to see the comments in the NY Times changing from running someone against Obama in the primaries to suggesting that he step down, period.
Miriam Weinstein
www.green-colleges.com

Beware of Betty Crocker!

The Wonder of It...
I wonder, Thom, at the lack of respect exhibited by Washington for what "we, the people" really want. I also wonder why these same politicians for the most part continue to be re-elected. Citizens United certainly was a low point for this democracy, but it does not have to be. More money for more political advertising should show "us, the people" for the fools we are. If the truth about anything matters, then we should not waste our time watching ads to gain it. But, alas, money-backed lies continue to win elections. And, alas, lobbyists, corporations, or spiteful billionaires are not the problem, as much as we would like to believe them to be.
"We, the people" are the problem. If we as a country are going to allow lies to win elections, then we get what the lobbyists, corporations, and the odd spiteful billionaire want us to have. I'm not sure how we get to where the people have knowledge and true understanding. I do know we need at the very least an open mind in all things we are unsure of.
That is the real challenge. How to wise up America, first!
Might I suggest we leave religion out of everyone's critical thinking as a first step. There can be no debate with dogma, and dogma should never be accepted. Then we could leave all but public money out of elections as a way of toning down on the lies as a second step. Perhaps we could even have the candidates swear an oath to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth before each debate. Then have them swear the same oath when they are taking the oath of office.
We, the people are the power. Money is only powerful if it can buy someone. We can take the power out of money by wising up to the truth in all things, or at least the things we need to know to govern a reasonable country, even if it takes a little work on our part. Ultimately, ads are only as powerful as we are ignorant, and politicians only have the power we allow them to take.
Maybe the "little work on our part" is fighting another revolution. I wonder if the poor and middle class soldiers in our army would really fire upon their mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, grandparents, or friends who were trying to take back their constitution...

good luck, marc....but be careful what you say because THEY are monitoring and looking for a few good patsies!
I was listening to the recent Guns and Butter episode where they were talking about the guy in Norway...may have been a patsy...along with another gunman...which, of course, the news media is trying to downplay...as just a lone nut....like Oswald. A patsy..not that he was innocent and framed but that he was possibly like a Manchurian Candidate...conditioned and then guided by forces that wanted to make a statement....or warning...perhaps.
And not only were there vital records of investigations of fraud on a massive scale kept in building 7 but also in that very side of the Pentagon that was destroyed were vital records that some powerful people wanted to destroy.
Also, I've read of a story of certain Black Eagle Fund bonds kept in the twin towers that were to mature on Sept 12, 2001..the day after 911. Many in power did not want those bonds to see the light of day because it would have caused quite a stir about the Black Eagle Fund and Operation Golden Lilly and the hordes of gold that we recovered from Germany and the Philippines...mostly from the Philippines after WWII.
There was so much gold that, had it been made public and put into the system...would have trashed the value of gold at the time. They used these funds over the last 60 or so years in the "cold war" efforts and their "new world order" plot.
OFF TOPIC .... Thom... In the Chicago Hour of the program today, you listed a number of "essential" books worth reading. I was wondering if you could post that list of books on this site for those who were unable to write down the books named today. I was only able to recall two of the authors after the show ended. The names I remember were Harvey Kaye, and Naomi Klein. I think having the entire list online would be a good resource. Thank you.

Strange thing about Black Eagle fund (originally as in the Nazi symbol of a black eagle) which captured from the Nazis a lot of gold and other valuable items...which were stolen from the Jews and others that the Nazis conquered...and then Operation Golden Lilly...the Japanese spent a decade, prior to WWII looting and pillaging (not to mention slaughtering) everyone from Manchuria down to Malaysia...that the US captured a lot of this wealth that was stolen from the Chinese and the Jews....and others...and never returned it to their rightful owners.
So, in essence, the wealth of the Chinese and others were pilfered and used to "fight communism" and they are still paying for our stupid wars by buying our Treasuries. Seems to me that some very wealthy people in the US have been given a free and luxurious ride on the backs of others.
A lot of that gold was put into UBS Bank of Switzerland and other stashes around the world. And Marcos also stashed a lot of it...which, I believe was later taken over by the US to add to their booty.
And it's also kind of strange that Senator Phil Gramm, after doing his damage to America, goes to work for UBS...and then the whistleblower, Bradley Birkenfeld squeals on 18,000 wealthy US citizens who have money hidden over there...and then, instead of getting metal, they throw him into prison. There's a lot very rotten in "Switzerland" and the "US".
Anyone not familiar with Operation Golden Lilly might find it quite a fascinating story. Japanese looted the far east and either sunk ships laden with gold and other valuables at known spots and used forced labor to excavate nearly 200 deep tunnels all around the Philippines where they buried rows and rows of floor to ceiling stacks of gold bars. They not only buried the prisoners of war but also their own men overseeing the excavation in those tunnels when the work was done to keep the locations secret. They then booby trapped the entrances of the tunnels with cyanide bombs.
We tortured Yamashita's driver, when MacArthur returned to the Philippines, and learned of some of the locations of the tunnels. They held a hasty Kangaroo court and hung Yamashita before he was able to say anything revealing the gold.
I read one "ships log" from a US submarine that mentioned replacing the ballast with some of the gold bars recovered. Marcos spent much of his reign as President looking, and finding, some of the tunnels that the US missed.
One young Filipino, Rogelio "Roger" Roxas, discovered a cache of gold bars and a 1 ton hollow golden Budha that had diamonds inside...which Marcos confiscated after they beat this guy to a pulp. The guy survived and later sued Marcos after Marcos was given sanctuary in Hawaii. But Roger was murdered before he could present evidence in the Hawaiian court. This is all matter of record.
I read Stirling and Peggy Seagraves' book Yamashitas Gold many years ago. They also sold a couple of CDs that had maps, photos, official documents, and other things that all help prove what he said was all true.
Lots of "treasure hunters" are still going to the Philippines in search of the gold. Some have been killed in booby trapped tunnels.. and other non-booby trapped accidents..others have just been sold fake maps and came home empty handed.

"Reports vary, but documents in the public domain suggest the recovered treasure was in excess of 280,000 metric tonnes of gold, not including jewels and diamonds."
------
280,000 metric tons at today's rates would be valued at about $18.272 trillion dollars. And that was just the gold that was recovered by the US back just after the war...and just the Operation Golden Lilly booty.
The US must have known about the 50 years of Japanese looting of Asia and must have figured in the US decision to use the atomic bomb to end the war before Russia could.
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"What happened to the Marcos gold after it was confiscated by U.S. agents in 1986 has never been reported, but throughout the early 1990s, the world gold market would be befuddled by the mysterious appearance of thousands of tonnes of gold which appeared to suppress the price of gold."
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"With an understanding of the economic war being waged on the Soviet Union, the focus needs to turn to reports that on September 11, 1991, President George Bush was responsible for issuing $240 billion dollars in secretive bonds as a part of this attack on the Russian ruble. There are six lines of evidence from eight sources that suggest this was indeed the case. Many of these instances are corroborated with documents available on the Internet, presented by those making the claims. [174]
The bonds sat for ten years, like a ticking time bomb. They had to be settled – or cashed in by September 12, 2001. The two firms in the U.S. most likely to be handling them would be Cantor Fitzgerald and Eurobrokers – the two largest government securities firms in the U.S. The federal agency mostly involved in investigating those transactions was the Office of Naval Intelligence. On 9/11, those same three organizations: the two largest government securities brokers and the Office of Naval Intelligence in the US took direct hits."

Thom you read off quite a list of polls all of which where 56% or above in favor of raising taxes on the corporations, billionaires and millionaires and protecting Social Security. Nowadays it seems the voice of the People is never heard. The Mass media controls the message, public opinion is silenced and corporate opinion is repeated like a broken record. Our Media keeps people misinformed and ignorant by keeping facts and advertising their corporate agenda. I understand the 6 Republicans on the Super Congress have signed the Grover Norquist's Pledge to never raise taxes.How can there be any resemblance of Democracy when half of the Gang is already against part of the Remedy to our ailments. I went to a Republican Representatives Town hall on Wednesday,It was full of planted people who keep the discussion in favor of everything this Representative said. I was allowed to speak and I asked why raising taxes was off the table? Why the progressive budget was not part of the mainstream debate, when it solved many of our issues and worked towards achieving a strong economy? Why she complained of inactivity and unwillingness to compromise by the Democrats, and the Senate for the road block in Government when half of the Super Congress has signed the infamous Grover Norquist pledge? I even got to ask why Alec is controlling the legislature with prefabed bills ready to vote on and mold policy in favor of the corporate interests. Her answers were rhetoric and her allegiance to the corporations and the elite drown out the true voice of the people. They see the polls but they ignore the polls.

The answer is quite obvious and I believe Thom has acknowledged this is several ways. The people are both the problem and the solution. The general public generally does not have a clue as to what is reality and what facts are. The Republicans are masters at taking the initiative to control the discussion by blaming everything on everybody else and refusing to even discuss what they might constructively do to solve unemployment, budget deficit, or slide back into a depression. The news media does a terrible job of explaining who is actually responsible for what and who is actually responsible for where we find outselves. A prime example is Obama is constantly asked to defend himself on any action he has supported to address unemployment and the deficit while the Republicans who actually created the unemployment and deficit are never asked to explain why continue to ask where the jobs are when they know they supported exporting 5 million jobs and closing 50,000 manufacturing jobs under George Bush. The expansion of 24 hr. news has produced a majority of newscasters who are not capable of doing the job or they refuse to acknowledge the Republicans are even capable of doing anything unAmerican just to gain control of our government.
At the same time, the Democrats do a terrible job of doing what the news media appears to be unwilling to do and correctly identify who is guilty of what and in effect are responsible for where we find ourselves. The Democrats are their own worse enemies. Obama has chance of being best President in years and capable of doing real good. However, Obama appears to have broken his own rule. Don't worry about re-election to the point you won't do what you know needs to be done. The Senate minorilty leader said immediately upon Obama being elected the sole purpose of the Republicans was to make Obama look bad and defeat him in the next election. Never in our history has one party ever stated it will ignore what might be in the interest of the American people in one of its most trying times in order to blame the current President for the terrible decisions they themselves made under George Bush. They lied about "Obamacare" and death squads. They lied about the size of the deficit George Bush left Obama and as a result were about a trillion short on the deficit and severa trillions on the size of our debt. They were the direct cause of nearly a Second Great Depression by allowing the banks and Wall Street to self regulate that produced a collapse of our financial system, collapse of the home mortgage business, foreclosure through fraud of millions of homes, loss of millions of jobs, loss of credit to our business community, and loss of billions in 401k accounts.The Koch Brothers own the Republican Party and the majority of the Supreme Court. They also fathered ALEC which is active in all 50 states and actually writes most of the laws introduced today by REpublicans in Congress and State legislatures. Their goal is complete domination of our political, social, and judicial way of life such that many of the protections under the Constitution would be eliminated by Withdrawing all power of the federa government and giving it to the State governments who are controlled by Corporate America. No taxes for the wealthy and corporations. Elimination of labor unions and the middle class. Privitization of Social Security, Medicare, our schools, prison systems;, etc. would follow to result in only the wealthy and the poor remaining, no middle class. Upon retiring our children will be asked to support their parents in addition to their own families. This wil be despite most jobs now being minimum wage jobs. We wil be a Third World Economy and our way of life would disappear if Republicans gain control of our govrnment. The only people who can change this is us. Yet many of us have been convinced to support the Republicans because of claiming for 50 years the goal of the Democrats is to take from the white people and give to people of color. Look at the facts and you will see how ridiculous this claim is.Others accept the lies of the REpublicans because they go unchallenged by the news media and the Democrats. It appears it usually actually takes action by the Republicans to show their true faces that ever wakes up the American people to the danger the Republicans represent to this country.There is only one answer. The Democrats must be voted into majority of both the House and the Senate and Obama reelected. with a mandate from the people that in four years we must revitalize our economy and put our people to work, invest in our future through research and education and infrastructure, alter our tax codes such that everyone shares an equal burden in financing our government. ANd our safety net for the elderly and the poor must be maintained in principle. The question is will there we enough people who wake up in time to realize the danger of where the Republicans are trying to take us at the bidding of the wealthy. Will our way of life be something of the past?

Re-electing Obama will not make things better. It will get you only...more of the same. Obama is a Wall Street Democrat ... far right of center. Obama wants to destroy social security and medicare and all the rest of the social programs. Obama is the Republican Trojan horse that slipped in to feed us hope while Wall Street screws us all.

But it was fun electing the first African American- eventhough during the debates I thought he looked like Satan.He promised us the secret $114.00 month government insurance that he and all Congress and my acquaintance Lucille receives as the widow of a deceased Civil Service member.
Eventhough she remarried, she decided to get divorced and change her name back to keep the insurance, also to be buried in Arlington, as the last wife on record of her late husband who is buried there, though he had been married before and Lucille was a trophy wife. The trick- it was actually an annulment versus a divorce from her third husband, to keep the name and benefits of the Arlington-interred gent.

The only intention of the Gang of Twelve is to take more money away from me and give it to Mitt Romney so that they can freeze up the American economy even more.
I and millions of other low-iincome Americans must be thrown under the bus. It's a necessary sacrifice for the sake of the uberrich.
Wishing you luck, and support, and contemplating joining you. as long as any activities I undertake are legal, non-violent, and at least marginally effective. Let's start by taking a que from Thom and figuring out how to fix the "9 kings" problem at the Supreme Court. Our next President will probably be the guy who appoints our next one or two Justices: If Obama, then likely a couple of left-wing idealogus, and if anyone else, probably right-wing idealogues. Under our current system, it is absolutely critical that Obama be the guy because the alternative is just too ugly to contemplate. The real problem is that we, as American voters, must make our Presidential voting decisions based on the likelihood that a Justice will retire or pass on. It just feels too much like rollin' the dice.
If we succeed in re-electing Obama (again because any realistic alternative is just too ugly), and if he successfully appoints one or two Justices, and if the result is that we see the pendulum swing to the left, we can breathe a sigh of relief. But the problem will remain. And a large portion of our population will be angry and plotting for the overthrow of the Court (and thus the country). And the future of America and the quality of our American lives are likely to continue hanging in the 5 to 4 balance of the Supreme Court. The outcome cannot be good, regardless of who the 9 are.

I think once Obama is re-elected I think he doesn't have to worry about pleasing the money people as much and could possibly get things done not having to worry about getting elected to the Presidency again. You don't really have much in the way of an alternative the way our system is currently set up.
Perhaps if you can get millions of people to write in a candidate for President kind of like what Stephen Colbert's ColbertPac was doing with his campaign using several TV commercials where he tried to urging people to write in Parry for Republican nominee for President which is the wrong spelling, instead of Perry which is the real spelling, only instead use a really person's name with a massive grassroots effort.
I think the media propaganda is designed to get people to think there is no hope, that government supposedly can't do anything right and just give up and not vote for anyone then you end up being ruled by an Oligarchy without a fight. I have seen statistics showing that no more than 30% of eligible voters vote.

Problem is that we all thought that the pendulum was swinging back to the left when we elected Obama...but he has been way too far to the right all along. Don't be fooled again and think that we have no other alternative but to vote for Obama. The only thing more horrible to contemplate is that the person we voted for and put all our hope and faith in turned out to screw us...and will continue to screw us if we vote for him again.
There are alternatives....we either primary someone else in and Obama out...or we vote Green. If we continue to think that the only votes that will matter is between Republican and Democrat then we will continue to be screwed by their crooked game because, with the exception of some Democrats, both parties are puppets of the ruling elite. We need to really shake up the system before it will change. We need to shock those entrenched fat cats and toadies for the rich who are counting on most voters to be thinking that they have no other choice but to vote for one major party or the other. We need to kick butt in our failed political system in order to change course.
But don't be fooled by organizations like Americans Elect which is not an alternative we will be happy with. I seriously doubt that whoever they decide to run will be just another right winger....someone who wants to destroy social security by privatizing it....which is what Obama wants to do. They want to get their hands on all of those T-bills that our FICA taxes bought on our behalf so that they can gamble it away in the high stakes poker game of Wall Street. They want you to believe that social security is broke...but it is not...and won't be until something like 2075 unless the reckless gamblers from Wall Street get their hands on it. And if they would only increase the FICA cap so that the high earners pay their fair share social security would never be a problem.
No, don't trust Obama...he is sneaky and is not worth betting on that he will change if he is reelected. And if he acts the way he has...why do you think he will appoint left leaning SCOTUS judges? Obama's left would still be right of center. Yes, that is still better than radical right which is what someone like Bachman or Parry (intentionally mispelled...thanks Colbert!!) would put in...she would likely adore the idea of appointing a Torquemada. But by that time most Americans would be rioting in the streets...which might just be what it takes....short of shaking up the political system by electing a third party candidate. I'd like to see a radical left SCOTUS judge to counteract some of those radical righties...and not just a namby pamby compromise.
Again, nothing will change in our crooked two party system...both sides are bought and paid for by those who have the gold. And if you look into where all of that gold from Black Eagle Trust...Operation Golden Lily...and the three major funds that were created from them...and who wound up with most of that gold....you'll discover that very right wing organizations took control of them and continue to buy power with that gold even today.
http://www.spiritone.com/~gdy52150/goldp10.html
http://www.spiritone.com/~gdy52150/gold10a.html
Will they cut corporate welfare? That's how they redistribute wealth. To each other.

I wish I had a good answer to this. I don't believe in planning for failure: failure is not an option and if all else fails most of us will be more worried about starting whatever the next life turns out to be (and I will not argue about that) than our supplies of gold bars/k rations/bullets. All that reminds me of George Carlin's rant on Saving the Earth: no, we can't Destroy the earth, just its capability to support our kinds of life. Once we've killed ourselves off, the earth will continue and make a new paradigm: the earth plus plastic. Can't say I'm all that interested in what happens after my whole species dies.
If we let it come to that we have only ourselves to blame. Someone on this board put up links to videos calling for a new Bonus Army to do in DC what progressives have done in Wisconsin. It's called the October 2011 Coalition (www {dot} October2011 {dot} org) and on youtube: /watch?v=KjXARZDKdHk&feature=related.
If I can't get anyone to give me a ride out of the Tampa area, I see that the Big Grey Dog is only $90. I am seriously considering just packing a bag and leaving the rest of my junk behind. If we don't shake loose of the deathgrip the oligarchs have on our throats, nobody will do it for us. If I had a choice I'd rather use the $90 for gas and food, than give it to a corporation, but...

Our government is hopelessly corrupt because it doesn't belong to us, it belongs to "management." Until we ban money from politics, we are subject to this abuse in our inverted totalitarian system. We think we are participating in democracy but we're not. We are being manipulated continually on the road to serfdom. See you there.

The question at hand is, will the lawmakers do what we the people want, or bow to the corupt rich people. There was a time when I would have laughed at such a question. Of course they will do as we ask them to do. However, from the elections I have seen stolen the the resent past, they don't need our votes to get elected. They simply alter the voting machines, or suddenly find a huge amount of lost votes. And when it ends up in front of a judge, he to bows to the rich corupt ones. Man oh man, this situation is seriously starting to scare me for the future of this nation. I can no longer say what should happen, WILL.

I want to share the following petition circulated by Tucson United and send kudos to Benjamin Bosley for his efforts:
The eternal struggle between right and wrong. The common right of humanity set against the divine right of kings. It is the same spirit that says, " you work and toil and earn bread and I'll eat it." No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, or from massive organized wealth organized in corrupting a democratic republic and dictating to a once free society; it is all the same tyrannical principle of despotism.
“Be it resolved that the City of Tucson hereby joins the people of Tucson, Arizona in their 'Tucsonans United For Honest Leadership' campaign for an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to abolish the fictions of corporate personhood and 'money equals speech' and return our democracy, our elections, and our communities back to America's human persons and thus reclaim our sovereign right to self-governance.”
For more information, or to sign the petition, visit:
http://signon.org/sign/tucsonans-united-for?source=s.em.cr&r_by=51029&ma...
The Real Reason the SEC Has Been Shredding Documents For Decades
SEC Attorney Reveals that Agency Has Shredded Documents for Decades to Cover Up Wall Street Fraud
What should we make of the new revelations by Securities and Exchange Commission attorney Darcy Flynn (background here, here and here) that the SEC has been shredding documents for decades?
As many commentators have noted, the SEC did this to cover up fraud on Wall Street.
The Entire Government Strategy Is To Cover Up Fraud
William K. Black - professor of economics and law, and the senior regulator during the S & L crisis - says that that the government's entire strategy now - as during the S&L crisis - is to cover up how bad things are:
The entire strategy is to keep people from getting the facts.Top Government Officials Created the Conditions In Which Fraud Would Flourish
http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/