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Paul Ryan – the best lawmaker Plutocrats can buy! Why would a politician threaten the source of their re-election contributions? Plutocracy: Government by the Wealthy. Vote for Plutocracy. Vote Republican!
The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. -- Plato
When the earthquake hit, I looked at the Gasland website for the U.S. map of states with Fracking:
http://gaslandthemovie.com/
I think I got one--helminthiphobically. Is that "with a fear of worms"?
What exactly is the "testing" in means testing?
Could'nt agree more
http://storyofstuff.org/
Check this website out.
Libertarian Anticapitalism
FREE MARKETS AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
http://bleedingheartlibertarians.com/2011/08/libertarian-anticapitalism/
Thom,
These folks may make an interesting interview.
The only way the we're guaranteed to lose this fight is not to fight it.
D'oh. Colbert's on vacation. I think you'll have to wait until after Labor Day for him to buy Paul Ryan.
More Soma, please.
I was quite surprised when some of my classmates, normally well reasoned folk, took up the banner for Barry Goldwater. They would post signs in our school that just said "AuH2O."
At that time, I began wondering how our politics had gotten so bad, and now look longingly to the times when my mother would explain politics and money to me. It's just gotten insane; beyond explanation to people who have had their attention spans surgically removed.
Vote for Paris Hilton.
All anyone has to do to see how much of a problem outsourcing has become is call the customer service department of either their cable company, cell phone company, and so on. Most are based outside of the United States.
The casino en ligne world offers great slot machines that you can wager at 24 hours a day and there are more casinos on the way.
There should be no tax breaks for any corporation unless they are truly creating jobs for the American people and keeping those jobs within American borders. Those corporations that are honest and honestly report those jobs could get a tax break equaling to the amount of jobs kept within the United States. The reason I just stated 'equaling' is because a corporation would have 80% of their jobs outsourced to slave labor countries. Tax breaks should serve as an incentive to create and keept jobs within the US only. Aside from that, all corporations should never again receive a tax break, especially tax breaks amounting to 3 trillion American dollars.
I have put forth the idea to my Reps about campaign donations coming from the people, such as everyone contributes $1.00 and it is pooled and evenly distributed among candidates so that they have an even playing field. I think that would also help rid us of lobbyists who influence our Reps on behalf of the big money interests. I also like your idea of a ban on external PAC's, which this would accomplish. We need "fairness" put back into the media. This would go a long way towards getting the big money out of politics and our Reps back to representing the people who elected them. The big money does not elect them, we the people do.
How about this:
When anyone is elected to congress or the White House or appointed to the cabinet or staff of those elected officials or retained as independent contractors, all of their financial holdings and records- and those of their families as well- are published in all of the major newspapers in every state. And when America's financial health declines for any reason whatsoever, none of those people receive any present or deferred compensation or contributions of any kind from any source. And if America's finances decline by, say, 25% in one year, then 25% of the assets of all of those people are irrevocably seized and put into the general fund of the Treasury. When the personal finances of those self-centered traitors and chicken-hearted wimps are irrevocably tied into America's financial well-being, then all of that tea party, republican, and democrat idiocy will stop in about one and a half minutes.
It should be a crime for any corporation to in any way harm America's financial well-being, and any corporation caught doing so, has all of its assets seized and sold and the proceeds put into the general fund, including foreign-based assets and off-shore accounts, and 95% of the assets of the boards of directors and other executives should be seized and those executives are never allowed to work in any capacity for any corporation for the rest of their lives. And any corporation not willing to submit to these terms should not be allowed to sell anything in America.
If America goes to war, all of the draft-age family members of every congressperson who votes for the war or who abstains from voting, and of the president and vice president and all of their staffs and of every corporate executive of every corporation that provides any goods or services that are directly or indirectly related to the war, and of every member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and every upper-etchelon Pentagon official are drafted and put on the front lines. And I'm talking about cousins three times removed and all the rest of their immediate and distant relatives who are draft age. And only when all of those people have been killed in the war, should the lives of any other American military personnel or citizens be put at risk. I mean, come on: either the war is worth it, or it's not.
I would lump our "Dead Beat Billionaires" in with these American Corporations as they collectively are NOT hiring American workers at anywhere near the rate as they are hiring workers in foreign countries. They are all practicing something that I call, "TREASONOMICS" ( - see the definition in my blog elsewhere here on Thom's site).
I've contributed the following thoughts to Paul Krugman and Nicholas Kristof at the New York Times, and submitted the suggestion to Senator Sanders. The main point is that our leaders in Congress can prove or disprove this "job creation theory" of lowering taxes on billionaires:
"We've got a deadbeat billionaire problem in America". We keep giving billions in tax breaks to billionaires and meg-millionaires with the expectation they will "create jobs" with their massive personal fortunes. But they haven't followed through with their end of the deal. No jobs are being created! What? How can this be? The Republican's Vast Right Wing Echo Chamber continuously proclaims as Gospel that the super rich need special tax treatment because they are the only ones who create jobs.
I see the one way to get to the bottom of this perplexing enigma is for the Senate to subpoena every billionaire and mega-millionaire to Washington to testify under oath, before congress, with cameras running, and transcripts recording. And demand that each of them tell us exactly HOW MANY jobs in AMERICA they've created with their PERSONAL FORTUNES for each year they were among the super rich.
We will then know with clarity and precision the concrete past results of the Republican's bedrock mantra-policies of, "low taxes on the rich creates jobs", "tax cuts on the rich will create jobs", and "avoiding job killing tax increases on the rich..." I'd wager to conclude they are all falsehoods upon which no policy can ever be based: If an insufficient number of jobs have been created by relying on deadbeat billionaires and mega-millionaires, then restore the higher tax rates of the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s to bring down our nation's debt, fund rebuilding of our nation's infrastructure, secure our safety net programs of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and put the money back into the economy where proven demand driven forces will create jobs.
And higher tax rates will finally give the top earners an incentive to become more productive. Attaining their personal financial goals will either take a little longer - like it used to, or they'll decide to do as the super rich once did - to figure out how to produce more to increase their income.
They will need to hire more people to produce more to meet the demands from the demand-driven economy, they'll have to work harder and smarter to accelerate their new product development, they'll invest their company's revenue towards expansion and growth instead of pocketing it as they now do, and figure out how to become more efficient.
Okay Congress: the time for you to do this is now.
Please stop spreading lies.
Fannie and Freddie, by definition, were underwriting conforming loans, also called prime loans. Which were not sub prime. Sub prime were also called non-conforming, which included subprime and jumbo loans.
We need an American Spring where the 90% need to demand justice. It is time to wake up and smell the tea, roses, and the coffee. Let's take back our Democracy. Today I viewed,' END:CIV' and 'Capitalism a Love Story', they were a refresh of our cannibalistic capitalistic system. People need motivation and a good movie really puts me in a positive mood. I am anxious to support The Protest against the KeyStone Pipeline and I am excited there are the Days of Rage and October Movement planned to begin more civil disobedience and dissent of the Status Quo. We need courage to stand up and insist another World is possible. When today's headlines consist of Presidential candidates and the majority of Republicans continue to deny mankind's contribution to climate change, the Security Exchange Commission is shredding evidence of the Financial meltdown, Congress charges for access instead of conducting Town Halls, I reflect on Our Nation and consider our people's history and how we have consumed more than our fair share of the planet's resources and interfered with every Democracy to ensure a select few corporations could extract the other nations wealth for corporate profits. Now we can see the tables have turned and now instead of feeling a trickle down we are experiencing the sucking vacuum as our livelihood is being extracted by trans national coporations. It is time to realize that with any corporation it is profit over patriotism. The loss of the manufacturing base is leaving the U.S. and us with the short end of the stick. Wallstreet is the biggest casino with this Country's remaining wealth being wagered and plundered by the Financial Institutions.Transnational's enjoy the protection of the U.S. military, they utilize the infrastructure to conduct business, and as Senator Bernie Sanders points out received tax rebates while recording Billions of Record profits. Enough is enough, why do we continue to allow this? We need to Moveon, Move to ammend, and move to act to fight this oligarchic corporatism. Rebuild the American Dream is a platform for the American people, a plan to do the what is best for the welfare of the people and the planet check it out and spread the word. Peace
The American public is childlike in their belief in our political system. They believe that out wretched national condition is the result of incompetence or accident. Nothing could be further from the truth --- Obama and his cronies are very efficiently carrying out the will of their handlers: unemployment, floods of cheap labor, real estate bust, depression, war - - all for the international super rich. Unfortunately, almost the same scenario would have happened under McCain since the electoral process of both parties is owned by the same group.
Our money supply is tied up by the super rich, leaving far too little in circulation. Solution: put enough new money in ciculation to replace that stored by the money hoarders - - - make sure it is put in the hands of spenders not hoarders. Debt reduction is the enemy - - - every dollar of debt reduction by removing goods and services to the middle and lower classes is a dollar less in circulation --- same effect by taxing them. The government must force the money hoarders to place their money in circulation or else it will be confiscated through taxation.
There is enough stuff for everyone to have a good life. Dollar constipation results in poor distribution of the stuff of life as well as lost productivity as a legacy to out children.
Remember, Government bills are paid by printing money not by taxes.
Rating agencies labeled JUNK mortage loans As Triple A That used to be called fraud but no more Its ' legal' under GOP Reagan deregulation of 1981. Reagan gave total amnesty in 86 but left border wide open TO get lots of cheap illegal labor . That was Like a sign " WELCOME AMIGO'S
as a long time Realtor Let me say it was much More than Fannie & Freddie Problem was US lived 29 yrs under Reaganomics deregulation of robber barons aka corps/ Wall St- big banks- energy - airlines & trucking industries & Bush 1-2 Cheney's sweet oil deals led to crash / edge of depression / Paulsons 700 billion TARP joke on taxpayers.. we paid 100 cents on the dollar for their worthless JUNK ! Gave them zero interest loans We were duped-scammed , screwed & conned every which way Tea Bagger GOP are doing the same demanding more corp cuts - loopholes while cutting our kids education, Pell grants, disabled, sick & old on medicaid. Trying to kill SS as we know it works . Workers paid SS taxes for that. Perry / Bachman vow to gut EPA so corps can dump more toxic chemicals in our water . Sound good to you folks ?
The only problem with taxing speech, defined as truths or lies by our government, is the most important Amendment to our Constitution - the First.
Shall we repeal the First Amendment? Has it become such a burden? The fact that it has been assaulted so often tells me that it is a vital part of democracy, and should be strengthened by eliminating the Supreme Court's usurpation of power via the unilateral claim of judicial review.
What should be done? How about everytime greedy business owners take advantage of the Republican backed tax break to move American jobs to the slave market countrys, the workers left behind organize their own business cooperatives making the same product. Hell they already do all of the work anyway and without owners and executives bogarting all of the profits there would be enough left for decent wages, health insurance, and a retirement. Lets see, if the average CEO makes 400 times more in one year than the average worker, you could replace him alone with hundreds of new employees. I'm sure the absentee owners are making even more so do the math. Tell the greedy basta....ds not to let the door hit them in a....s on the way out .
Thanks to Senator Sanders for pointing out how unregulated oil speculation "WEALTH WITHOUT WORK" screws all of us "WORKING FOR A LIVING."
News Flash ... it's not a secret any more!
The amount of corporate sludge filling up the community well of discourse in the form of daily misinformation, innuendo and slander has reached DeepWater proportions. If SCOTUS sees fit to protect this as valid 'free speech' we need to see to it that their excess is properly accounted for and addressed!
Like all human activity that leads to excess, it needs to be moderated by means of a SIN TAX. All the corporate payoffs that are laundered through Kstreet and media ad purchasers should be taxed at a sufficiently high level to fund a Super clean up fund that would be up to the task of cleaning up their Toxic waste.
If taxes are enough to drive away this kind of sin full activity, let it be. Move Kstreet to Mogadishu. I am sure they will find it's Libertarian accommodations liberating. There they'll be able to wallow in their own sludge in the open.
Let all the Media moguls run away from this SIN TAX and leave us to our own devices like Truth telling and Fact finding.