Opens Today

See this movie.

For all the Obama haters out there

And keep in mind, this isn't including more recent improvements since 2008. This is a partial list of benefits for and to America (click on picture for easier viewing).

On Our American Priorities

The Robin Hood Tax and why we should get behind it

"Wall Street banks and corporations are raking in record profits while our communities continue to suffer job losses and cuts to public programs. Instead of lining the pockets of corporate fat cats, this money should go to our children’s Head Start programs, Grandma’s retirement, and fixing our broken healthcare system.

It’s time for the administration to stand with the people and TAX WALL STREET. Join us April 20 as we march to the White House and Treasury Department to demand a financial transaction tax on Wall Street trades so we can put the money toward global health needs, addressing the climate crisis, jobs, and education."
Sign up to support here:

http://www.robinhoodtax.org/get-involved

On KCPT and PBS tonight at 9

There is an extremely important documentary on PBS this evening that lots and lots of Americans should see this evening at 9 pm.

In their own words: "FRONTLINE investigates why Wall Street CEO's have escaped prosecution for mortgage fraud:

The Untouchables | FRONTLINE | PBS

 

 

Did you see in the Star over the weekend, how a man poached deer locally and got a $150,000 bond he had to set?  Yes, it happened. Those are his accusations and that's what he's gotten so far.

 

These people fleeced thousands of people--America, really--for millions of dollars and they don't have so much as one charge against them.

 

This is important.

 

These are things we need to know.

Reminder for tomorrow

Noted economist Joseph Stiglitz on the "Occupy Wall Street" protests

"You are right to be indignant. The fact is the system is not working right. It is not right that we have so many people without jobs when we have so many needs that we have to fulfill. It’s not right that we are throwing people out of their houses when we have so many homeless people. Our financial markets have an important role to play. They’re supposed to allocate capital, manage risks. But they misallocated capital, and they created risk. We are bearing the cost of their misdeeds. There’s a system where we’ve socialized losses and privatized gains. That’s not capitalism; that’s not a market economy. That’s a distorted economy, and if we continue with that, we won’t succeed in growing, and we won’t succeed in creating a just society." --Joseph Stiglitz, Economist to the "Occupy Wall Street" protesters. Links: http://dangerousintersection.org/2011/10/06/economist-joseph-stiglitz-speaks-to-the-wall-street-occupiers/; http://www.kansascity.com/2011/10/09/3196907/hundreds-march-in-kc-occupy-movement.html#storylink=omni_popular

If you haven't seen the movie "Inside Job"

As an American, you need to see this film. It documents what people, companies and our government did up to, during and after the 2008 financial meltdown that emanated from Wall Street. It tells very clearly what the "Occupy Wall Street" people are either fighting or should be fighting. It is fascinating and disturbing, at least. It is also further proof of what I've said for some time, too. It's documented and documentable proof that we need to get Goldman Sachs--and everyone like them--out of our government, along with "campaign contributions." Then, after you've seen it (rent it?), get out there and have a great weekend. Enjoy that beautiful, comfortable Autumn weather. Link: http://www.insidejobmovie.com.au/

Quote of the day

“There are no excuses left,” Chris Hedges writes in a piece reprinted from the site Truthdig, where he has a regular column. "Either you obstruct, in the only form left to us, which is civil disobedience, the plundering by the criminal class on Wall Street and accelerated destruction of the ecosystem that sustains the human species, or become the passive enabler of a monstrous evil." Link: http://www.truthdig.org

Campaign contributions: finally, it seems people are "getting it"

Out of the current "Day of Rage" that's going on as a protest to Washington, Wall Street and the corruption between the two of them--that doesn't seem to be getting enough coverage, I might add--finally, finally, an organization is pushing for campaign finance reform. And thank goodness. They're calling for: "One citizen. One dollar. One vote. 1.Only citizens should make campaign contributions. 1.Campaign contributions by citizens should not exceed $1 to any political candidate or party." Good for them. Good for us. Maybe, hopefully, this is the beginning of constructively, peacefully but powerfully taking our government and so, our country, back. Here's hoping. Link: http://www.usdayofrage.org

The latest SEC and government scandal America needs to know

A story breaking this week but that, I think, is getting far too little press tells of the SEC doing some preliminary investigations of Wall Street firms, then shutting them down and--worst of all--destroying any evidence. And why would this happen, you might ask? Well, because those very same SEC employees then get cushy, high paying jobs with the very companies they're supposed to be overseeing and regulating. And it's been going on since 1993, at least, apparently, and repeatedly. Goldman Sachs, anyone? It reminds me, once again, of the quote by Tim McIlrath: "If you're not angry, you're not paying attention." Read about it here: http://www.npr.org/2011/08/18/139758303/sec-documents-destroyed-employee-tells-congress; http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/is-the-sec-covering-up-wall-street-crimes-20110817

Quote of the day---and you're still voting Republican?, Part III

Decline of the Middle Class as Metaphor for the Decline of America: 'Disproportionate' is the freighted word that shackles our society. Over the past few years some two-thirds of the gain in national income has gone to the top one percent of Americans. ...too much of our political system is bought and paid for. Too much of our political system is self serving, responsive to the wings of our two parties and indifferent to the day to day concerns of middle Americans in spite of the incessant lip service extended to them. Yes, there is limp Wall Street reform, but no clawback of the exigencies that drove the nation to the brink. Yes there is a stimulus program, but faltering shamelesly through lack of clear direction. Yes, there is an alternative energy program without clear mandates nor meaningful results as the transfer of billions to the oil providers continues unabated. Yes, there are our soldiers dying in fragmented nation states far away without a modicum of sacrifice being asked of the home front. Yes, there are moneyed interests both domestic and foreign who have access to those who govern, without limitation and a shameless Congress ready to do their bidding in spite of the promises made in Presidential campaigns to curtail their influence. Yes we have courts of law who, through judicial minutiae rather than pragmatic sense of national welfare have given these moneyed interests even greater influence by striking down financial restraints on the powerfully funded in election laws, that make the middle class even more disenfranchised. Yes, there is talk of restraining government spending while special interests with access to government and its earmarks are encumbering the nation into ever greater indebtedness. Yes, while Main Street and middle class Americans continue to lose jobs, the pay checks on Wall Street and corporate boardrooms continue in their unabated and inflated manner while middle class Americans are absorbing pay cuts or shortened work weeks if they have any jobs at all, while teachers, the backbone of the nations future, police and firemen are losing their employment. And so it goes, leaving the nation with a Frankenstein system whose core objective of governance has become self preservation of power and personal influence. This, while governing for the greater good of the nation has become a secondary and distant gerrymandered priority leaving the great body of the American electorate virtually without meaningful representation and forestalling and diminishing America's middle class' engagement with its government with every passing day. --Raymond J. Learsy, Scholar and author, "Over a Barrel: Breaking Oil's Grip on Our Future"