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"That's why I attacked you at once. Because I considered you a Republican spy, trying to confus."
I came here to discuss these critical issues, not thinking a "Progressive" site would have their dogs out to "attack" anyone who disagrees with them. How "preciously Progressive" of you. Is your job on here to "attack" new posters who took the time to get here? Is this the way Thom runs his business? I didn't realize it was only open to those that agree lock stock and barrel. And the rest you "attack" and run them off? Once again sadly, how progressive of you.
I'm certainly not from the right Sweetie, but so far to the left you don't recognize it.And I was fighting this fight before you were born, so it is a tad insulting to be so flippently "attacked" on the ubber-progressive - NOT site.
But Thom is running his show like only one of the two faux parties is guilty of anything. The Democrat party is in danger because of their leadership, period. "Oh we really want to, or I love this one "make me do it". No Obama, I did my job, now I'm waiting for you to do yours, anything but roll over and give the right all it wants. See how it works? They both profit, and the nation is not governed.
Medical pricing is insane. We all know that some items, like car batteries, mattresses and furniture are almost always heavily discounted. But retail prices on anything medically related are pure fantasies that only suckers (the public and Medicare for prescriptions) actually pay. As an example, my wife just had her left thyroid removed. Billed price: $29,538.50. Price negotiated by insurance company: $3,091.82.
This system promotes mass confusion, distorts price analysis and royally screws people without insurance.
What effect did Obama promising Billy Tauzig in his first few weeks in the White House, Obama would not allow the US people to be able to negotiate affordable drugs.? It doesn't matter if we are stuck in a private agreement with the Prsident and Tauzig(sp) if the prices will be artificially high to honor POTUS's agreements with the lobby?
In response to the soldier that went on a shooting spree. As well as the other atrocities that have been committed by American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is no surprise to me that they happened. The surprise is, and it is a great tribute to the men and women of our armed forces, that there isn't more of it. We teach our children about fair play. We teach them, "Love thy neighbor." We teach them to protect the weak and lift up the poor. We teach them, "Thou shalt not kill."
Then we take these same children, barely out of adolescence, we teach them that certain people are "THE ENEMY." They are not people. They deserve to be killed and we teach them the most efficient way to kill them. We send them to places where there is no clear enemy. Where they can't tell the innocents from those who attack them. Even women and children will strap on a bomb or shoot from hiding. Day after day they patrol to protect people who want them gone. Their enemy appears to have no sense of honor or fairness. Day after day they see their friends, bunkmates, brothers-in-arms killed or maimed. Even in their camps and compounds where there should be some safety, some respite, they live in danger of attack. There has been much talk of the cost of war. This a price our citizens pay that I have never heard discussed. That there hasn't been more of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers engaged in wars around the globe going berserk and committing more unthinkable acts is a tribute to the courage and honor of our people in uniform. Thank you for your consideration.~;^}>
If you miss the way it used to be- then tax a millionaire, support a union, and buy American.
the patent laws heavily favor big corporations over small businesses and individuals. unethical corporations occasionally disregard the laws and purposely infringe copyrights and patents, because they know that smaller companies do not have the resources to battle them in court anyway. so often times, the patent laws are just protecting the big corporations from each other or smaller interlopers.
Goldman Sachs is an indicator of everything that is abysmal about American politics, economy, attitude, and conditioning. The economy, entitlements, foreign policy, and education -- all are tied by the tactic-led strategy that considers each of these in the same regard (and toward the same intent of outcome) as if they were financial instruments, to be twisted and manipulated, intertwined and obscured, so that the only talking point becomes, "where's the profit and how much?". The fundamentals of what holds value, its integrity, and how and from where it is derived must bear the greatest emphasis in our discourse and our actions.
Right on! Yes, we need to get the hell out..now! And then we need to concentrate on prosecuting the war criminals who started this illegal war...Bush, etal, and those gutless wonders in the Obama administration. War criminals...all!
Based on the grammar and spelling of your reply,you proved our liberal point explicitly. Yes, those non life sustaining living wages are meant for entry level part time kids in high school. Yes those wages are not meant for someone trying to take care of his/her family. That doesn't mean that those people I mentioned don't get those lousy wages anyway. What Reagan did was kill our labor movement which significantly buoyed labor's wages and kept them up to date over the years. If you crack a book once in a while you would understand the relationship explicitly.
Casino Economy: We lost!
Interview of Michael Hudson, the economist, on a recent Renegade Economist podcast (recorded March 7th):
My transcript of part of the interview:
RE: What is the big play going on between US banks and the Euros in the world of shorting, and can you explain what shorting means?
MH: Shorting is when you promise to deliver a stock, or security, (sum?) for a bond for a given price. Say, I will sell you Greek bonds for 50 cents on the dollar. And that means that if the price of Greek bonds plunges, and they default, you can buy them for 25 cents on the dollar and sell them at 50 cents on the dollar and make a market. The way this plays out between America and Greece, apparently a few months ago, US treasury secretary Tim Geithner, went over to Europe.....(ah, Europe had told Greece.."you're going to have to write down the debt..you obviously can't pay the debts..write them down to about 25 cents on the dollar.") Well, Mr. Geithner went over and said "wait a minute, folks, US banks believed that you are going to bail out Greece and lend them the money...ok...so they've all made counter-parties to bets...they bet that Greece was going to have to pay 100 cents on the dollar...and if your banks in Greece and France and Germany have all taken out insurance...they've bet that the price would go down and they've taken out insurance on the Greek bonds so if Greece defaults, we Americans are going to have to pay, maybe, $50billion on losing bets. We would like you to please do what Europeans are supposed to do...will you commit financial suicide...will your leaders support the US banks against your own banks so that we won't lose money? Otherwise, we'll make sure you don't win elections because we'll pour our American money into your opponents...and we'll put in a puppet government that will do whatever we want. So it's your money, or your life...you'd better do what America tells you to do and bail out Greece. Well, I was told by German bankers that they told him: 'Get the hell out of, you bastard!' And they just threw him out. And the result is that Greece is probably going to default in two days. Mr. Geithner said: 'Look, if we go under...I'm going to make sure that we really screw Europe. And we're going to do everything we can to hurt you.' Then he said...'But, I'm going to give you the money...we'll just have our Federal Reserve just print up tons of money..tens of billions of dollars...we'll give you the money to bail out Greece, at tax-payer's expense, so that our main campaign contributors, the Wall Street banks, won't lose the money. So, in other words, you have the Obama administration and the Secretary of Treasury loading down the American taxpayers with debt in order for yet another giveaway to the banks that has made really bad judgement. And they are trying to make Europe lose too. And, this threatens to...uh, today in America, the market fell 200 points by the Dow Jones Average because they realize the game is up...and this rip off is going to stop and this Obama administration has shamefully, essentially, double crossed the electorate. ...Greece has asked all the banks, that hold it's bonds, to save the American gamblers from losing by saying..'Well, you voluntarily write down the debts by 75 percent. Will you lose 3/4 of your money, voluntarily, so that the American banks won't get angry...and come over an shoot us?' That was the words used by German bankers...that 'the Americans would shoot them'. They are afraid for their lives. That's the real war going on..and it frightens them. So, the Greeks said 'Look, if you don't, voluntarily, write down the debt of the bonds to 25 cents on the dollar...we are going to announce that we are in default. That happens on Thursday. And if they are in default then all of the American casinos, that have guaranteed against default, are going to have to pay the French banks, the German banks, and the Greek banks, and all the other banks...100 cents on the dollar...because that's what these banks have paid for...that's what a derivative..and an insurance policy..or a credit default swap is all about...it's a guarantee. Like most American and British insurance companies, Wall Street doesn't want to pay. We've had quite a criminalization of the financial market here in the United States. And actually, there has been a Nobel Prize given to Akaloff, for describing the financial sector as a criminalized sector. And that was an economics prize. It's pretty much recognized in academia that Wall Street is corrupt.
http://michael-hudson.com/2012/03/geithner-turfed-out-by-eu-bankers/
update: Obviously, this was from about 8 days ago...and Greece has not yet defaulted....yet. And Wall Street is trying to make lite of it all with an upbeat...don't worry...be happy! But it ain't over by a long shot. Lookout, Portugal!
Michael Hudson, the economist, was interviewed by RT yesterday:
RT: Today's news was viewed as positive by a lot of people. But last month was the worst monthly deficit in history, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The deficit is already more than half a trillion dollars. Do you think this should concern the American people?
MH: What should really concern them is where the money is going....all this money is going to bail out the banks...it's not going to the people..it's not helping the economy...it's going directly into President Obama's campaign contributors. A month ago, Mr. Obama gave them 45 billion dollars....and promised not to send them to jail. So, not only are they being bailed out...the Justice Department is refusing to prosecute the crimes and said 'we can't prosecute you because if you go under then you couldn't spur the recovery...so, we're not going to prosecute you, we're going to give you $45Billion..so would you please start lending it out again?' And the banks are not doing it! They are handing out bonuses. They are increasing their own salaries. They are sending money abroad. But the drain on the economy...it's to Wall Street and the real estate sector...it's not going into the economy. In fact, the position of the Obama administration is that you have to reduce wages by 30 percent. As soon as he is re-elected, you can be sure, that he is going to push the unemployment rate way up because he's basically the same kind of neoliberal that they had in Greece and in Europe. So, I think you might look at Greece as a dress rehearsal for what will happen here.
http://michael-hudson.com/2012/03/jobs-commentary/
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So, what is continuing to happen is the banks are continuing to be bailed out, not lending the money, giving themselves big bonuses and salary increases....just like before during the initial $700billion bailout. I think it is called "Moral Hazard". They know they will continue to be given lots of money by the tax payers and can go unchecked and unpunished for not following through with loaning the money out like they are supposed to. Obama administration won't punish them and will continue to give them our tax money and continue with a policy of reducing wages while creating more very low paying jobs and crowing that they have reduced unemployment. I wonder if any of those Bubba Muppets realize all these things when he or she goes to the polls to pull the lever for Obama?
We're still wasting money, big time, letting our war mongers have their fun murdering babies in Afghanistan while Wall Street, Banksters, and the MIC rip us off...in step with the tune Yankee Doodle Dandy. You can argue that Bush started these wars and the initial bailouts but you can't argue that what Obama has done has helped to reverse the murder and corruption that is still happening.
The Ponzi schemers are still given a free hand in ripping off the tax payers....all under Obama's watch! Our war criminal empire's leaders and top brass create the situations that cause such massacres as what recently happened in Afghanistan and then they use the soldier who finally flips out as a scape goat...and the leaders use idiotic propaganda to disassociate themselves from culpability. Do you think that these politicians will wake up and pull us out of an illegal and immoral war killing babies or do you think they will continue using crocodile tears and evasive rhetoric and shifting blame to lowly and abused soldiers?
I noticed that that oft shown video of the old Afghani man and woman sitting in the back of that vehicle with a covered body on CNN and other main stream media....but I saw the same video with the blanket removed showing a little child, dead, and legs were charred. They don't show these kinds of videos in the US when the US is culpable but they sure do when Syria or other US enemy has been responsible for the atrocity. Our news media tries to make it look like they are being on the side of good taste in not showing the really bloody things unless it was caused by someone other than the US. But in reality, they are being propagandists.
So, should we reward Obama for his bad behavior and failure to stand behind the people who voted for him the first time? He has obviously schemed to defraud those of us who voted for him the first time obviously believing us to be his useful idiots...his muppets. And, I guess we will prove he was right if we vote for him this time around.
But, having said that, what other choice do we really have? A Republican? Unthinkable! A Green...unachievable....unless the masses are out in the streets, like in Greece, and they all have a like mind of voting for a Green...I don't think it will happen. I sure would love for it to happen. But, I think that a violent revolution will eventually happen because things just will not get better for the 99%. And FDR would never have turned things around if it had not been for the massive uprisings and strikes. Things had to get really bad before the people finally realized that they had to get a lot more aggressive.
Writing and calling your representatives only gives them fodder for ridicule and butts of jokes because they know who their real constituents are...the ones with the money to buy propaganda air-time....and because the muppets are too meek to seek a real solution in the streets and keep voting for the same old lying politicians we will never be able to reverse our situation. And I can tell you this muppet will probably just continue the fallacy of voting for Obama because I hate Republicans...and, without a true movement...we are nothing anyway. But then, there are a lot of dishonest wolves waiting to eat you for lunch in pretending to be a valid movement. There are a number of pretend liberal or progressive sounding groups that are trying to trick you into believing they are on your side. But they are opportunist scalawags who are likely more Republican than you would even guess.
One of the HUGE factors in the rise of food prices is ethanol. No way can ethanol comete with gasoline, so the goverment has to subsidize the entire industry. And the corn that used to go into feed now goes into your gas tank. And the price of food goes up.
Yet another example of the goverment messing with the free market and look at the problems it casues.
The big monied corporations and banks have a stranglehold on the political system for their own benefit. Few people are elected who are not beholden to them. If we would elect only people who promised to fight against legalized bribery (lobbying) by making it illegal, and to work for a constitutional amendment to prevent big money in campaigns, that would work, but don't hold your breath until you will find such a candidate. So let's hit the corporations where it hurts, in their profits. Let's shop and do business whenever possible with small independent businesses, cooperatives, credit unions, and fair trade organizations. Let's stop looking for the greatest bargain or deal, and instead look for the greatest value.
VoterID supporters should be asked if they would agree to requring everyone to sign up to vote on an annual basis, in person and with original supporting documentation. Further, they should be required to wait for a bus, which will show up at their home at an agreed upon time, which they will be responsible for scheduling. Oh, and the ride may come within a four hour window.
This is what they are asking the people most impacted by this law to do. It should be become apparant that it is a burden and will impact voter participation.
You're really a whimpering toddler. It's ridiculous. Do you think Thom reads your queer stuff?
Thom is a freelancer who can make his program as he likes it. You can whimper and stamp your little feet as much as you can take. You're just killing your time, as the other nutjobs before you. LOL
I like Thom's program (please don't change it Thom!). How about looking for another station that makes ya really happy?
I still think, it was directly after WWII when the American people decided to go the path of materialism, stupidity, superficiality and ignorance. The 1930s sophistication suddenly was out : being critical and emancipated seemed ridiculous in the late 40s and throughout the 50s.
Actresses like Marilyn Monroe represented that new silliness. Just compare them to 30s actresses like Jean Arthur or Carole Lombard -- the spirit totally changed. The philosophy of the 40s and 50s is pretty much "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" (you can buy any girl?!?) and the uncritical film "High Society". The civil rights we got in the 60s are important, but all the 60s and 70s revolt did not end that Hollywood silliness. The decadent and materialistic "High Society" mentality survived -- it even intermingled with 70s fashion.
You can easily fraud people who all the time consumed this silly, materialistic 'philosophy'. People who go conform with the 'philosophy' of "High Society" (uncritically admiring the rich and beautiful) are the ideal Wall Street victims.
Sadly, those banksters are right : the average American is a muppet. If we look to the south, we have a bunch of major muppets.
Frankly, I would be very happy, if I could spark an extended 1930s revival. Not just dancing jitterbug....
We Muppets should also beware of "new products" being pushed by the "investors" of our 401Ks, which are the "rip-off" mechanisms they use to enrich themselves. Ordinary people are consistently sold junk products which whittle away any gains made by a healthy 401K. Ever wonder why your 401K seems to just putter along, even during strong markets? The wealthy enjoy a "different class" of investments (hedge funds/drivatives, etc: bets made against the junk products sold to the rest of us) while the rest of us get something else entirely: discount brokers (the junk).They bet against the success of the crap they sold us.
I thank God every day that we did not hand over Social Security to Wall Street--can you imagine the devastation? Who would stop them or make them pay?
Our 401K investor is constantly sending out literature for "new" products; thus far we have ignored its advice and have held steady on our own course. Be smart Muppets: Don't fall for the "new" products/rip-offs. Read about the markets in the news and on the internet, espesically investigative reporting--all the info is there for you to make informed and self-preserving decisions.
If you talk like "...if George Bush had done what Obama is doing...", you make yourself automatically a target, because this sounds like right-wing-nut-job. That's why I attacked you at once. Because I considered you a Republican spy, trying to confuse. And still I'm not sure, whether you are or not.... I think you're just revolting and you want your way. The rest looks like fake to me. I don't think you really believe what you'e raving about. I think you're not the type who is very much concerned about any fellow human. You're just fussing, but it doesn't mean anything. Or briefly: I don't believe you.
Financialization is the result of disfunctional government. Functional government is needed to regulate our economy so that it remains a system that works for all. There is no "free market" capitalism. When the wealthy hold there hands out to be bailed out, it is no longer free. We paid for it. We paid for it with our jobs, our pensions, our homes and future security. To feel uncomfortable around the homeless is living in denial. You could be next.
What we need is a new economic system. We need a socially responsible form of capitalism. The market does work most efficiently but we cannot cut down all the trees and print up money and store it in a cement vault and think that we won. This is most illogical. We must develop the green economy with green energy systems. Conservation technology is the cornerstone for this economy. We can develop a sustainable economy this way.
We can stop financialization by setting limits on leverage amounts required for speculation. We did this for gold. We can do this for oil and food. If, we the people, (govt) can provide subsidies to these industries then we can regulate the financial transactions. We can also regulate who can profit on speculation by allowing only municipals and certain pension funds to speculate on food for example.
It will be important to break up the big agriculture corporations. We must give equal employment rights to farmworkers. Smaller farm operations are economically more efficient and are better at water conservation which is being fought for in CA right now. It is reported that if CA ag operations were converted to drip and other conservation practicies they could fill up the Hetch Hetchy resovoir (Yosemite) over 50 times! If we are to stop global financialization we must make certain that we the people retain control of the water.
Monsato is producing pulp blobs that we use to know as trees. They genetically engineer the plant with added lignan so the mutant tree pumps out pulp for paper. Imagine a forest of mutant frankenstein trees of goulish pulp blobs? They genetically alter food and if their seed drifts downwind they have been confiscating farms and running small farmers out of business. They plan to patent certain cannabinoids from cannabis. If anyone grows cannabis with these cannibanoids then instead of rogue federal agents robbing us of our prescription medical marijuana, we will be at the mercy of corporate raiders? We must not allow multi-national corporations to patent food or cannabis. Nature is not for them to control.
Goldman Sachs is a major player for the ruling upper class power elite. GS is a big tool to leverage and strengthen their control of the global economy with financialization. GS were instrumental to Greece entering the Eurozone. They leveraged their outstanding debt with bonds or the Euro nations would have rejected their entry. The question is will Greece be held to prior aggreements with GS or default by 40% like they did the Germans? If GS is taking a haircut like the rest then I see the beginning of a lot of executives at GS bailing out. Just like rats from a ship.
Hi Thom - Just finished listening to yesterday's podcasts, and I have the name of someone who committed politically motivated voter fraud for you!
James O'Keefe
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/13/1074005/-James-O-Keefe-proves-once-again-that-when-you-commit-voter-fraud-you-ve-Committed-Voter-Fraud
Do I win? :-)
Who was that man? He sounded like a twelve year boy. And someone who just talks and runs over people. I just took my widow's benefits this past month. I waited 10 years to make sure I got the full amount. It will make an enormous change in my life. I lost my job two years ago and it's been a struggle but things are improving. This will be a foundation that will keep me going many years.
To me, SSI is a woman's issue. I wish so much that it was framed that way. That little man will die long before many women in his life do. It's just a fact of life. So attacks on SSI is an attack on mothers, sisters and widows. Along with the attacks on our health, the loss of SSI in any tweaking will put us right there with women in Afghanistan.
And look at the people on the floor of the old Board of Trade in Chicago. The men all in gold Mardi Gras beads and braclets, just like at the Carnival.
Watch movies like "Boiler Room" or "American Psycho" to see what kind of people we are dealing with. Most of the high producers are compulsive liars, street level con men, carnival barkers, low IQ hustlers who got into the "money" business at the bottom and worked their way to million dollar bonuses because they are good at what it takes to make money.
The idea that Wall Street is all super-intelligent ivy league educated types is a myth.
What else did you expect?
Thom, every time you have Peter Ferrara from the Carleson Center for Public Policy as a guest, I come very close to turning the radio off. His lack of ability to engage in civil discourse is beyond what any of your other guests even come close to.
I truly wish you would scratch him from your list of guests. He apparently thinks that you owe him ten minutes to give a speech when you have him on and he makes the most absurd claims that I've ever heard.
Back during Bush's world tour to privatize SS, I went to my local congressman's town hall on the subject. The person heading the meeting was from the treasury department and he was peppered with questions about SS and its solvency. He explained, just as you always try to explain to Mr Ferrara, that the SS trust fund is invested in bonds and yes, that bond money has been used for other purposes but the good news is that the bonds are collecting interest and that interest further increases the balance of the SS trust fund. The bad news, of course, is that the trust fund is counted towards our national debt. But since we owe the money to our own citizens who were the source of the money in the first place, it's not so bad.
Also, as I told the meeting that day - I already have a private, government sponsored savings account. It is called a 401k and I lost the better part of that investment twice in the last two decades.
Now I'm retired and I'm living partially off annuities purchased from the 401k and although I had invested the maximimum that I could in that program over the years, the amount I get from that investment is half of what I collect from SS.
The solidarity of bankster support for both factions of the wholly owned by corporate persons corporate (R) & (D) party is most clearly evident in a comparison of the early (current) "contributions" to corporate party campaigns by Goldman Sachs and Bain Capital:
Goldman Sachs has distributed its "contributions" thusly:
27% to the corporate party's Democrats
73% to the corporate party's Republicans
Bain Capital has distributed its "contributions" thusly:
71% to the corporate party's Democrats
29% to the corporate party's Republicans
http://www.opensecrets.org/overview/topcontribs.php
Obama Democrats and Romney Republicans are playing together for the same team, because they are both owned by the same team.
The "progressives" are the liberals who keep voting for the corporate party's Democrats so they can keep protesting against what they keep voting for.
Jill Stein for President:
http://www.jillstein.org
GOOD vs (D) EVIL
www.chenangogreens.org
You need to remind these SS critics every time they claim that the SS trust fund - 100% invested in Treasury bills - is not there, nonexistent, then The Entire National Debt - also 100% Treasury Bills - is just as nonexistent. If they are right, that is GREAT NEWS because then there IS NO NATIONAL DEBT! We are free and clear!