By all means...call! Write letters! Send Emails! Tweets! It might make you think you are going to make a difference. But it won't!!! There is only one thing (well, maybe a couple of things) that will make a difference. And those things won't fall into the category of making our politicians and their puppet masters, the rich and powerful, chuckle at all of the fools they have under their control. They wouldn't laugh if the entire nation really did something useful about it. They wouldn't laugh if the entire nation figuratively (or even literally) broke out the guillotines and went after the criminals who are doing this to us. The rich are just playing psychological games with us, like a cat toying with a mouse just before they eat it. They know they can get away with this because they know that all we will do is "call the White House or their Senators", or write letters or emails...all fodder for a good chuckle. They don't fear us because the game is rigged...democracy is dead.

They use liberal or progressive democratic sounding names of their organizations, or infiltrate the once honorable institutions with traitors, to throw us off-guard.

Democrats, liberals, and progressives are suppose to be about peace and human rights and not war-mongers like the Republicans. So what do they do? The ruling elite, the cats, send in their pretend Democrats, liberals, and progressives who speak the language we all want to hear and then they slowly infuse the language of our exploiters, our real enemies. People like Obama. People like Suzanne Nossel. Chris Hedges has even resigned from PEN in protest against Suzanne Nossel being appointed head of PEN. He knows what she is and what she really stands for.

Quote Chris Hedges:
The appointment of Suzanne Nossel, a former State Department official and longtime government apparatchik, as executive director of PEN American Center is part of a campaign to turn U.S. human rights organizations into propagandists for pre-emptive war and apologists for empire.

Nossel, who was deputy assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs under Hillary Clinton in a State Department that was little more than a subsidiary of the Pentagon, is part of the new wave of “humanitarian interventionists,” such as Samantha Power, Michael Ignatieff and Susan Rice, who naively see in the U.S. military a vehicle to create a better world.

She was running Amnesty International USA when the organization posted billboards at bus stops that read, “Human Rights for Women and Girls in Afghanistan—NATO: Keep the Progress Going.”

The current business of human rights means human rights for some and not for others.
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Physicians for Human Rights, the Peace Alliance, and Citizens for Global Solutions are all guilty of buying into the false creed that U.S. military force can be deployed to promote human rights. None of these groups stood up to oppose the invasion of Iraq or Afghanistan, as if pre-emptive war is not one of the grossest violations of human rights.

The creed of “humanitarian intervention” means, for many, shedding tears over the “right” victims. Its supporters lobby for the victims in Darfur and ignore the victims in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Gaza. They denounce the savagery of the Taliban but ignore the savagery we employ in our offshore penal colonies or our drone-infested war zones. They decry the enslavement of girls in brothels in India or Thailand but not the slavery of workers in our produce fields or our prisons. They demand justice for persecuted dissidents in the Arab world but say nothing about Bradley Manning.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_hijacking_of_human_rights_20130407/

"Just about everybody in between knows that eventually there will be more spending cuts and higher taxes. Smart Americans will plan for it." ---from that article.

Yeah, smart Americans will plan to buy more guns and stock up on hollow points.

"It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!" --Emiliano Zapata

If they steal the contributions you have put into Social Security or if they steal right out of your savings accounts you have as much right to use force as any cop does in going after bank robbers. And it won't be long before they will be Cyprus-izing our bank accounts.

This is just the tip of the iceburg. About 80% of the private pension funds are underwater And they are going to drag company after company under with them. I don't no how you think you can put $500.00 a month for 25 years into a pension fund and expect get $4,000 to $6,000 out for 30 years the numbers don't add up. Look what it did to General Motors.

Louise Hartmann wrote ~ "And with the decline of pensions, we saw a rise in 401(k) retirement plans, however that experiment has been a complete disaster. According to Alternet, “401(k)s are volatile, complicated, expensive, and inadequate,” and they don't provide retirement security for workers. "

Were just figuring that out now? Well thank you Captain Obvious! Anyone with a calculator can figure that out. I once sat down and figured with my 401k I could easily retire at the age of 65 and continue to live my present life style. The only problem was the I would have to get a raise totaling 7 times what I made at the time, and put every dime of it into the plan. Right!

A far better approach to retirement is to create a savings account in a proved high yield, low risk mutual fund. At least then you eliminate the middleman and always have direct control of your savings in case of an emergency. However, even this won't be adequate in most cases because people live paycheck to paycheck. Only Social Security has the ability to payout a substantial amount for average people. The problem here is that the fund needs to be expanded by putting it to work for the future recipients in the form of government loans and investments.

It's a crime the way we Americans mismanage our resources!

President Obama stated: “What’s at stake is whether this will be a country where working people can earn enough to raise a family, build a modest savings, own a home, and secure their retirement.” But the reality is that fewer and fewer Americans will be prepared for their income needs during retirement as their savings are and will continue to be meager, pension plans will be less secure and viable, and 401(k) retirement plan investments will become more risky. Why, because there is a significant paradigm shift occuring in the economy that academia, economist, and national political leaders are oblivious to. That is, tectonic shifts in the technologies of production are destroying and devaluing the worth of jobs, and replacing people with "machines" as the primary means of producing products and services needed and wanted by society.

As long as working people are limited by earning income solely through their labor worker wages, they will be left behind by the continued gravitation of economic bounty toward the top 1 percent of the people that the system is rigged to benefit. The tiny minority is the prosperous ownership class who own and control most of the productive capital wealth of the nation. Without policies to ensure that FUTURE productive capital economic growth is financed to create new owners, broadly including EVERY citizen as individual owners, working people and the middle class will continue to stagnate, resulting in a stagnated consumer economy. More troubling is that this continued stagnation will further dim the economic hopes of America’s youth, no matter what their education level, and, of course, dampen prospects for economic security in retirement. The result will have profound long-term consequences for the nation’s economic health and further limit equal earning opportunity and spread income inequality. As the need for labor decreases and the power and leverage of productive capital increases, the gap between labor workers and capital owners will increase, which will eventually result in upheaval. Thus, it is imperative that we set a corrective course to put us on the path to prosperity, opportunity, and economic justice.

In this essential respect, President Obama is failing the American people by allowing the limited financial securities present today to be siphoned off without the prospects for building stronger, more self-reliant alternative financial security. The ONLY way this can be accomplished is to create the means for viable ownership of productive capital by EVERY American and not just for the tiny elite who now own our corporations, and thus effectively the nation's productive asset wealth.

The proposed Capital Homestead Act would make it possible for every American to become a viable owner of FUTURE productive capital. According to its architects, it would “enable every man, woman, and child to accumulate wealth and receive dividend incomes from newly issued shares in new and growing companies, without being taxed on the accumulations (including property and shares gained through inheritance, savings, and arrangements like Employee Stock Ownership Plans/ESOPs, Community Stock Ownership Plans/CSOPs, and Community Investment Corporations/CICs). In addition to serving as a source of capital credit for corporate workers, CHAs would also provide an ownership-building account for individuals who do not work for profit-making enterprises, such as school teachers, civil servants, military personnel, police, and health workers, and for individuals who have no remunerative employment, such as the disabled, the unemployed homemakers and children.”

Under the Just Third Way and Capital Homesteading more just and simple tax system, the following is proposed:

• Eliminate all tax loopholes and subsidies,

• Provide an exemption of $100,000 for a family of four to meet their ordinary living needs,

• Encourage corporations to pay out all their profits as taxable personal incomes to avoid paying corporate income taxes and to finance their growth by issuing new full dividend payout shares for broad-based citizen ownership,

• Eliminate the payroll tax on workers and their employers, but

• Pay out of general revenues for all promises for Social Security, Medicare, Medicare, government pensions, health, education, rent and subsistence vouchers for the poor until their new jobs and ownership accumulations provide new incomes to substitute for the taxpayer dollars to fill these needs.

• The tax rate would be a single rate for all incomes from all sources above the personal exemption levels so that the budget could be balanced automatically and even allow the government to pay off the growing unsustainable long-term debt, but the poor would pay the first dollar over their exemption levels as would the hedge fund operator and others now earning billions of dollars from capital gains, dividends, rents and other property incomes which under some tax proposals would be exempted from any taxes.

• As a substitute for inheritance and gift taxes, a transfer tax would be imposed on the recipients whose holdings exceeded $1 million, thus encouraging the super-rich to spread out their monopoly-sized estates to all members of their family, friends, servants and workers who helped create their fortunes, teachers, health workers, police, other public servants, military veterans, artists, the poor and the disabled.

• The Federal Reserve would stop monetizing unproductive debt, including bailouts of banks "too big to fail" and Wall Street derivatives speculators, and

• Begin creating an asset-backed currency that could enable every man, woman and child to establish a Capital Homestead Account or "CHA" (a super-IRA or asset tax-shelter for citizens) at their local bank to acquire a growing dividend-bearing stock portfolio to supplement their incomes from work and all other sources of income.

• The CHA would process an equal allocation of productive credit to every citizen exclusively for purchasing full-dividend payout shares in companies needing funds for growing the economy and private sector jobs for local, national and global markets,

• The shares would be purchased on credit wholly backed by projected "future savings" in the form of new productive capital assets as well as the future marketable goods and services produced by the newly added technology, renewable energy systems, plant, rentable space and infrastructure added to the economy.

• Risk of default on each stock acquisition loan would be covered by private sector capital credit risk insurance and reinsurance, but

• Would not require citizens to reduce their funds for consumption to purchase shares.

The end result is that citizens would become empowered as owners to meet their own consumption needs and government would become more dependent on economically independent citizens, thus reversing current global trends where all citizens will eventually become dependent for their economic well-being on our only legitimate monopoly –– the State –– and whatever elite controls the coercive powers of government.

Support the Agenda of The Just Third Way Movement at http://foreconomicjustice.org/?p=5797

Support Monetary Justice at http://capitalhomestead.org/page/monetary-justice

Support the Capital Homestead Act at http://www.cesj.org/homestead/index.htm and http://www.cesj.org/homestead/summary-cha.htm

2950-10K ~ wrote: "Stop holding out the olive branch and fight the scoundrels!"

Personally, I couldn't agree more. However, if you ask me, that option isn't written into the script. This Government seems as though it is being run by a Hollywood Director since the Administration of President Ronald Wilson (666) Reagan.

If you are waiting for rhyme and reason, my brother, I would suggest that you do not hold your breath.

10 K you are bewildered let me help you out. Obama wasted trillions on failed chosen projects that he got sucked into "investing" in And now that he spent 5 trillion dollars and has nothing to show for it he has to find a way to pay for that wasted spending. He got his 39% tax on the rich he told everyone would fix everthing (Bush Tax break) and of course it changed nothing. He is failing and doesn't want to go down in history as the President who blew trillions . Hope yet hat helps you out.

I once reviewed my retirement assets in our company's Wall Street Retirement Plan. It had been increasing nicely; however when I took out the effect of my pay-check contributions, I discovered all my "investment gains" had been eaten by management fees. "Plan Returns" had been flat.

So when I retired, the fastest thing I did was remove my retirement funds from the Wall Street Plan, and put them into my own managed retirement accounts --> broadly diversified (Total Stock and Bond Markets) low-fee Indexed ETFs and Mutual Funds. It has worked very well; I slept through the 2007 crash and recession, and am now fully recovered.

I'm recommending to kids: If you are 45, planning to retire at 65, living until 85: HALF of your present income MUST be set-aside (at a reasonable CPI-growth-rate) to fund your Retirement Years. Note: Your house, and Social-Security and various retirement plans are (or might be) part of the mix. HOWEVER, If you ain't saving HALF your income now, for later -- you're gonna be living poor ("S.O.L." as they say on the streets). Don't tell me you can't afford to save; you can't afford NOT to save. Cut your lifestyle to what you can really afford, and save what you MUST -- even if it is a huge change.

BTW: Pulling big chunks of money out of a traditional IRA later can incur a big-shock Income-tax liabilities. Buyer Beware.

Obama's "Chained CPI" says that if someone is eating steak, they will substitute chicken. Please ask our fearless, persecuted President, what if someone is already eating chicken? Are you saying they should switch to cat food? And what if they're already eating cat food?

His agenda has consistantly promoted austerity, pure and simple, same as the plutocrats. Everything, and I mean everything else, is just a distraction. He was elected, they took him in the back room and showed him the mother of all power-points, now he has seen the(ir) light.

All his back-room negotiations to reach various compromises are intended to hide the debate from the public. What happened to the "Transparancy" administration? A ruse, nothing more. Only a Democrat could provide that kind of cover for the rent-seekers, to subvert real democracy. A Republican president with Obama's policies would have been stopped by an outraged populace.

HalFonts ~ Half your present income? Well, it sounds like we are both on the same page in this book. However, the kids today aren't going to listen to your sage advice as sincere as it may be. Regardless, thanks for offering these poor kids some sincere sage advice. ;-) God Bless them all!

What god do you think is going to pull our asses out of the fire we are now in? I have seen no proof of any action that some deity is out their working for our good. Just the opposite as far as I can ascertain! Just bugs the hell out of me, excuse the reference to hell, when people sit on their butts and think all will be well if god blesses us one and all. Since we all share freedom of speech, for now anyways, I felt compelled to make this statement. I am not saying you should not believe, that is your choice in life; just do not expect some god to fix things for this country. Our forefathers knew better than to include god into our politics. I am not angry at your god, I just doubt his or her existence and any impact that he or she has made on mankind. Those of us who are kind and good do so because we believe that is the right thing to do, not because we are ordered to do so by doctrine written by other men eons ago. Have a good night....

Oops I thought the Bush tax break took the top earners from 39 % to 36% and they let that expire so they back to 39. Sorry ill read more into it.

Oh by the way go ahead and tease me about my frozen north. I am Scottsdale AZ Golfing after a long cold winter. I sure liked it better when they called it global warming. Ever since they changed it to climate change I have been freezing my butt off And my back is killing me from shovelling snow. Nice to here from you again. Are you a grandpa yet?

ccarfan and others write: "Obama's 'Chained CPI' says that if someone is eating steak, they will substitute chicken."

First, it's not Obama's "Chained-CPI" and it doesn't say folks will just substitute chicken for steak. See: http://www.bls.gov/cpi/ http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpiqa.htm http://www.bls.gov/cpi/superlink.htm

"Chained-CPI" (C-CPI-U) was developed by statisticians at Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLI) as a refinement to more accurately measure the inflationary values of the dollar over time. CPI's are various INDEXs (of many) which may or may not be used by various groups or agencies for many various purposes tracking dollar-values over time. The trend towards Chained-CPI algorithms is inline with international statistical standards.

Various CPI Indexes go back to 1913, and the "Chained-CPI" was proposed after several decades in 2002, as a fine tuning of the baskets of goods and services tracked.Whether Chained CPI results in more or less over time is irrelevant if the result is a more accurate index. It's the responsibility of users (SSI, Contracts, you, me, etc) to adjust our Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) algorithms, using the most accurate CPI's available. Not tweek the messenger.

CPI measures what happens; not what people think should happen. It's the difference between science (reality) vs opinion (fantasy). It's like rejecting increasingly-refined, more-accurate global temperature measurements or models, simply because they differ with people's second-hand faith-based opinions about climate change (up, down or whatever).

But: In political discourse: "Don't confuse opinions with facts; my mind is already made up."

Ken ware ~ Your points about God are well taken. However, why do you feel God owes anything to this Nation? What has this Nation done so far to it's people that compares to what this Nation has done to the rest of the world with the blessing of it's people? People like you!

How much objection have you offered to the violence perpetrated on other countries by the United States that may gain favor from God? Please tell, God is waiting for your response! So am I!

The truth is this nation hasn't begun to experience what it has asked for or what it deserves from a just and benevolent God! I am here only as an adviser from the Most High. I can tell you right now that with an attitude that violence will solve your problems, you can expect that this will only escalate those problems to levels that you cannot comprehend.

To summarize the situation, until this nation humbles itself, repents from it's Sins, and embraces God for the Power of Love that He is, this Nation will continue to tumble into the abyss of despair as soundly as water in a toilet is flushed. Do enjoy the ride!

Chained CPI? When everyone switches to chicken (or even cat food..eventually) the price of chicken (or cat food) will shoot up to the price of steak. An increase in demand will elicit an increase in price. We are all going to be "chained" right into our death beds. Soylent Green anyone?

It's not a good idea to eat steak anyway...I sure don't and haven't for about 10 years (no beef or pork..or road kill of any kind...just chicken, turkey, or fish and, of course fruits, nuts, and vegetables..lots and lots of garlic, onions, and lots and lots of Tabasco sauce). I just hope the FrankenFish doesn't cause me to mutate...or the cheaper non-range chicken cause me to get cancer. And I don't even want to know how they make Tabasco sauce.

I just heard that L-carnitine, found in red meats, causes heart diseases. It was the Mad Cow Disease that scared me away.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/08/l-carnitine-heart-disease-red-m...

I agree with most of what you say, Ken, except that I am not "calling" for people to do anything. I'd kinda like to stay out of a cell. I am just saying what I think is necessary for real change...and that history has shown that things won't change when the game is rigged; and, that it was only when people raised up against the crooked system and scared the crooks, who rigged the game, that there was meaningful change. Yes, lots of brave or desperate people got hurt but they fought back and eventually won a change in the system.

Most of us have been very lucky because we have all lived in the good times. But now the times are eroding and we are all starting to see the same kind of suffering that some of our Grandfathers/mothers, or Great Grandfathers/mothers experienced. I believe that masses of people are on the verge of a very terrible hardship and when they reach that point of desperation they will react violently. We are already seeing a rise in violence...home invasions, shootings, bank robberies. It's too bad it is not all directed toward those who really deserve to be targeted rather than upon one another. But when things become so uncomfortable for the ruling elite, when they begin to fear the wrath of the people once more, change in favor of the people will eventually happen...as it has in the past.

I agree that all hell should be raised in regards to the Presidents proposed budget cuts to social security and medicare.

However, I do not believe that republicans will even consider anything Obama offers as long as new revenue is included.

President Obama could offer to privatize the safety net along with new revenue and regressive republicans would turn it down. It is President Obama's gambit

In the lead up to 2014 the President must repeatedly expose the regressive, destructive (support the wealthy) intent of republicans to America.

President Obama has proven that there is a majority of sane Americans. It is that majority that rejected the utter insanity of the Iraq war and elected our first Black president.

Only by vividly exposing the racist, regressive 'anti American' nature of wealthy conservative republicans to America can the sane majority be motivated to act.

We can not allow this contemporary crop of republicans( neo cons, tea party and ignorant) to control our government on any level.

I had to read your post twice - HALFONTS - since the first time made my blood boil. The second read was still aggravating but I was able to understand your point much more clearly.

I am not "wishing" for a blood bath between Left and Right political "belief systems". More so I am encouraging of ALL of us - Left and Right - to work together in regaining control of our government from the corporations.
I don't support political or social belief systems that take "sound ideas" and turn them into absolute belief system.
I see that both sides are to close to the elephant to realize it's an elephant. We all need to take a step back "together"; only then will we have a Eureka...That moment of Ah-Ha...like when we discovered the world was round - and look at each other and see that We are ALL in this together; when one side suffers we all suffer. As I have said before; 1% + 99% = 100% ACCOUNTABLE. We need each other...Just like a THRIVING bee hive, we all serve a valuable purpose; LIFE IS NOT CHEAP, no one as a human being is worthless.

Without a hive we suffer.
Without worker bees we suffer.

OR...As Danile Quin states in his book "Ishmael"; "With Man gone, will there be hope for Gorilla?" "With Gorilla gone, will there be hope for Man?"

Sooooo Halfonts, my question to you is; What is your answer?

Love2Fish ~ Your points are well taken. Mr. Jones certainly has instilled the same reactions in myself over time. However, I refuse to allow unbridled paranoia to run my life. I respect the Government; I don't fear it. I consider it a tool that serves me. I do not fear people. I only fear God. This gives me a unique perspective on things that Alex lacks.

You see, he looks at the facts and concludes the worst. He might be right, but he might also only be partially right. FEMA camps and thousands of body coffins could also be created to deal with national emergencies. After all, FEMA is the Federal Emergency Management Agency, right? If these resources were under the jurisdiction of the army, and were shrouded in secrecy instead of left out in the open and visible from Google Earth, I would be very concerned. But this is FEMA.

Remember, fear God not man.

Off the coast of Africa is an set of islands known as the Canary island. There is a huge mountain that is attached to a volcano by viscous and loose dirt. It is a known geological fact that a minimum jolt of energy, such as from the volcano trembler or eruption, is all it would take to send that mountain plunging into the sea and create a tsunami that would destroy the entire east coast of the United States. It is not a question as to if it will happen, but when it will happen.

The island of Japan is sitting on a overhang of its tectonic plate. This is why it is so prone to catastrophic earthquakes. Geologist have theorized, and Prophets (most notably Edgar Cayce) have prophesied that a major earthquake could cause the overhanging plate that Japan sits on to split in two resulting in a large portion of that island plunging into the sea. There is good reason to believe this will trigger a tsunami of Biblical proportions that will destroy the west coast of the United States. It is not a question as to if it will happen, but when it will happen.

Sitting in the heart of the United States is a Super Volcano called Yosemite. Geologists recently have monitored disturbing amounts of seismic activity near the caldera. The floor has swollen several feet and the local animals are dropping dead from released sulfuric gas. The scientific community isn't sounding any alarms yet, however this volcano is already overdue for a massive eruption. Such an event would destroy the United States. It is not a question as to if it will happen, but when it will happen.

As recently as two months ago three large asteroids simultaneously passed uncomfortably close to the Earth. Fortunately, only one of them, a smaller chunk took a dive into the atmosphere over Russia. Despite is small size it exploded in the atmosphere causing a concussion blast over a city that sent over 100 people to the hospital. NEO's (Near Earth Objects) are occurring far more frequently now than ever. (Of course, our ability to detect them is also better than ever.) However, it has been speculated by some astronomers that we may be currently passing through a rock rich area of space. According to un fulfilled Biblical prophecy we are due for several noteworthy asteroid impacts that will have catastrophic effects worldwide. Regardless of this significance, it is generally believed by the science community that clear evidence exists that major asteroid impacts have occurred in the past. It is also believed that they will occur in the future. It is not a question as to if it will happen, but when it will happen.

If any of these events were to occur, FEMA camps and body bags would be direly needed to help save the survivors from the ravages of the aftermath. That is why they do not concern me.

When you lift up your head and look at the world around you one sees a United States that sits surrounded by highly unstable geographic and natural weapons of mass distruction pointed directly at it. Despite all of its military, wealth, and technological might, the United States is quite helpless to defend itself from these dangers. Only God can sway the impending doom that we as a people actually face. Also, only God has the ability to pull the triggers of these natural weapons of mass destruction. No gun, no tank, no rocket and no bomb is going to help any of us if God decides, "You know what, I've had enough of this bunch of losers. Time to take this place to the cleaners."

Not to distract anyone from the seriousness of the problems at hand; but, seriously, lets keep them all in perspective. If we paralyze ourselves with fear, nothing is going to get done. Remember, everyday that is unfettered from disaster is a great day--for it is testimony that God still loves us. With God anything is possible! Never give up hope! ;-)

Obama cares about his vested interests not ours. They all do after they are elected. For us no deal is better than a bad deal. For him a bad deal is better than no deal.