Sometimes you find a supportive voice where you don’t expect to find one. I have to admit that I have a soft-spot for Jim Cramer….Beyond the fact that he autographed a book for my Dad shortly before his death….he does try to make Wall Street explicable to those of us who have not spent quality time on the floor of the stock exchange. He had words of wisdom about the #occupy Wall Street movement and highlighted the concerns of many about “direction.” Cramer has a unique opportunity to shape that focus the movement…by reaching out to them He certainly had enough to say about justice not being done…
Bravo Mr. Cramer!
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Perhaps one of the biggest elephants in the room from #occupy wall street movement is that many of the protesters have done a 180 degree turn on that “self determination” thing.
Real estate agents are independent contractors and we are often coach and cajoled into believing that “you make it happen and YOU are in 100% control of your destiny.” That works until it doesn’t. You can be as aggressive as you want - but if consumer demand has completely dried up very few will survive. Like selling coals in Newcastle - selling houses in the biggest recession since the great Depression is about as easy as selling ice to Eskimos.
Never mind that the Tea Party has no idea about what the real Boston Tea Party was about. Forget about the fact that almost all members of the Tea Party have benefited from portion of our social contract that they call “socialism”. If they enjoyed paved roads and indoor plumbing through a public provider - they are sucking on the government teat - even if they don’t understand that they are. The Tea Party and the radical right share an ideology that is almost completely fact-free.
You are not entitled to your own facts….
Trying to get any kind of common sense through that wall is impossible. Its as if people living in the Fox News Bubble have all bought a top-of-the-line “white noise” machine that selectively blocks out any and all facts. Daniel Patrick Moynihan was fond of pointing out “You are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.” These days the latter does not appear to be true. We are inundated political pablum on the right that appears to be 100% fact free. Junk science abounds - with political operatives filled to the brim with all the pseudo-science the oil and gas companies could possibly provide…
After Nov. 2010 - I thought we were through with the “silly season” of politics for a while. We had quite a time - between Carl Paladino wielding a baseball bat, Sharon Angle and her “second amendment solutions, and Christine O’Donnell - who reportedly still is not a witch. For a trip down memory lane with some prose and videos you can go to BOO!!! The Silly Season of Politics Turns Scary! or Concession Speeches dos and dont’s.
As entertaining as all this was - the specter of would-be public representatives behaving this was uniquely disturbing. The reprieve from lunacy ended abruptly with the Iowa straw polls where the politics once again descended from the merely absurd and dangerous to the insane and surreal. Once again - you can’t make this stuff up.
Ed Schultz - of MSNBC’s “The Ed Show” reported that Michelle Bachman is now promising that if she became president, gasoline would return to levels not seen I was earning my Ph.D. (I think we went north of $2.00/gallon in about 2002). Promising gasoline prices less than $2.00 a gallon which would be achieved by a “drill baby, drill” policy of off-shore drilling. According to Bachman , this would increase our production by 500,000 barrels a day by 2030 - magically creating a glut of oil and lowering prices. Hmmm…..500,000 barrels a day is a drop in the bucket - no pun intended. And 2030 is almost 20 years away last I checked. Ed Schultz rightly pointed out that the price of gasoline is driven by world demand and that gasoline prices below $2.00/gallon would require a world wide economic melt-down. But then again - may be that’s the whole point. A Bachman presidency might but the catalyst to do just that. I’m just sayin’…..
They say that truth is stranger than fiction. I have been watching HBO’s A Game of Thrones - an epic fantasy along the lines of the Lord of the Rings. But compared to this latest corporate gambit - the specter of humans hatching dragon’s eggs seems almost plausible, even logical. The terrifying thing about this big business ploy and those in Congress that support it -is that the request is not a fantasy nightmare.
The repatriation holiday is a simple enough concept - The US would drop the corporate profits tax from 35% to 5.25% for one year. Since the large corporates are sitting on piles of profits abroad - that would ostensibly STAY abroad should the holiday not be enacted - could be used to create jobs. But COULD is the operative word. No one ever said the word “would”.
David Kocieniewski of The New York Times reported this storyalong with a cautionary tale about what happened the last time we gave the corporates a repatriation holiday. The video below was presented with the article and offers an excellent explanation as to how corporations offshore to avoid the 35% corporate tax.
The Book of Cletis wrote a very compelling post on the disconnect between the Christian right and their support of such supply -side economic policies that reek of the “let them eat cake” mentality. How on earth does the worship of Ayn Rand square with Christianity, the Golden Rule and teachings of Christ as portrayed in the four Gospels? The Gospels are replete with numerous parables and teachings that leave no room for doubt as to how Jesus would have responded to the likes of Rand. After all it was Christ who said - “And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”
Apparently everyone likes the the new CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) except the big banks and some members of Congress. A certain contingency of the Republican party has had the long knives out for Elizabeth Warren for a long time. Accusing the agency of having “unprecedented power” and of “over reaching”. Oh horrors - someone might be pushing back to protect the consumer! That can’t be allowed.
Its been a while since I posted - and I’m trying to get back into the swing of things.
Its a scary world when we get some of our best information from the likes of Comedy Central. But Jon Stewart made me aware of a bizarre amendment to the 911- First Responders Bill. Of course this twist is so bizarre - perhaps this is the most appropriate place for such a report. Apparently a late amendment to the bill forces first responders to prove they are not terrorists before receiving benefits.
The republicans have basically branded themselves as the anti-Obama. They aren’t for very much except low taxes low taxes on the wealthy and corporations. So they have to frame their rhetoric around what they are not. Bill Maher in his “New Rules” segment has decided that only solution to this hypocrisy is for the republicans to own their rhetoric lock stock and barrel and have as their presidential nominee a true anti-Obama Karab Amabo is Bill Maher’s choice for the Republican nomination. After all, even the name is Barack Obama spelled backward.
In the wake of the Wisconsin protests that seem to have spread across the rust belt - there appears to be a glimmer of hope that the public has finally awakened from their stupor of complacency.
This is in part happening because the props holding up the middle class have been knocked out from under them. Easy access to credit - GONE! How about cashing out some of the untapped equity in your home? You’ve gotta be kidding me - WHAT equity? (more…)
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