Know This About Amazon and Jeff Bezos and Union Organization

Amazon: --World's 4th biggest company --$21 billion a year in profit --Owner Jeff Bezos is worth $184B, up $70B in a year

--Sends workers 5 anti-union messages a day --36,000+ employees are on food stamps and Medicaid --Cost to lift them from poverty? 2% of annual profit --Dan Price @DanPriceSeattle

Democratic vs Republican Economic Policy and Recent, Obvious Results

Things that happened under President Barack Obama and his economic policies. All these reports came out just this week.

 

Americans' household wealth rises to $89.1 trillion

Income and Health Insurance Coverage in the US Rise as Poverty Drops

The number of people on food stamps is plummeting at the fastest rate ever

Missouri incomes grow at fastest rate in years

Imagine how much better our economy would be if we and President Obama had 2 houses of Congress that worked together, with the President, for the betterment of this same economy and the American people. Imagine if they weren't trying to block any and every good thing he's tried to do.

Meanwhile, in sharp, sharp contract, Republican, "trickle down economics" is famously getting these results, right next door, in Kansas.

Ignore Brownback's delusions: New report shows jobs down, unemployment up

An acquaintance of mine has insisted for the last 7 years, and still does, to this day, that President Obama is out to destroy the United States. If that's the case, he's surely going at it completely backwards.

It seems clear who to vote for this November and who to vote against.

Calling Gwyenth Paltrow

An open lesson for and to Gwyneth Paltrow on her now-failed attempt to take on the "Food Stamp Challenge."  That is, living on $29 per week.

Gwyneth Paltrow flubs $29 food stamp dare

A not particularly shamefaced Gwyneth Paltrow has admitted she failed to survive for seven days on $29 (20 quid) for food as part of the #FoodBankNYCChallenge, which invites participants "to walk in the shoes of 1.7 million New Yorkers who rely on SNAP (formerly Food Stamps)."

So here's the thing. Here's what Ms. Paltrow should have done if she wanted to survive on a paltry $29 per week worth of food.

First thing?

Consult someone who does it.

That is, get with some man or woman---likely a woman?--who's been doing it. They could tell you how.

Second?

Throw all the ideas about elitism or freshness and fresh vegetables and gourmet and/or healthy this or that out the window. It just isn't going to work.

Here, then, is what you do in order to make a $29 budget work for one person for one week.

Step one:

Go to a "box store." Preferably not Walmart but pick one. Aldi's or Food for Less (also known as "Fight for Food") or wherever. Pick one. Again, if you don't know where to go, ask the person already doing it.

Step two:

Buy fourteen of these:

Yes, that's right. TV dinners.

They can be had for 98 cents each. That's just about 14 precious dollars total. That covers every lunch and dinner for all 7 days. That's making it work. And they have this, of course, with a turkey dinner and a salisbury "steak" dinner and spaghetti with meatballs and all kinds of things so you can get some variety. Again, it's not gourmet--or fresh--but that's not what you get on $29/week, is it? No, it's not.

Step three:

Buy 7 bananas and a half gallon of orange juice. The bananas will set you back about one dollar, give or take and the orange juice, $2.00.

The total? 

$17

So you still have $12 left for week.

You could buy some coffee and filters---again, not the gourmet variety but coffee--and/or other things, to make it work.

So you see, Ms. Paltrow? 

It can be done.

You just have to try.

Here's Your Welfare in America

The food stamp president?

You know how Rep. Vicky Hartzler voted to kill the food stamp program?

Yes, she did: 
  

These Republicans Who Voted To Cut Food Stamps Personally Received Large Farm Subsidies

So she voted to cut 40 billion dollars out of food stamps that are, as we know, for the poor--oh, and the military, they get food stamps too:

Food Stamps: Military Families Redeem $100 Million A Year

But get this.  If you read that article, above, you realize good ol' government-hatin' Rep. Hartzler be lovin' herself some gubmint largesse:

Another Republican congresswoman who voted to make cuts to the food stamp program was Rep. Vicky Hartzler of Missouri. Her farm received more than $800,000 in Department of Agriculture subsidies from 1995-20102. In 2001, her farm received $135,482 in subsidies.

Check that out.

Ol' Vicky be hatin' on gubmint but not so much she can't take more than three-quarters of a million dollars from 'em.

I mean, from you and me.

Go get 'em, Vicky.

 

People on food stamps are the problem?

Some facts and one moral truth:

It's not the poor man that's the problem with our nation or debt or deficits, ladies and gentlemen.

Great question

“Why is it that if you take advantage of a tax break, you’re a smart businessman, but if you take advantage of something---he was referencing food stamps---you need to not be hungry, you’re a moocher?”

--Jon Stewart, last evening, in his mock debate against Bill O'Reilly

Links: http://popwatch.ew.com/2012/10/06/jon-stewart-bill-oreilly-rumble-top-lines/

http://news.yahoo.com/oreilly-stewart-tangle-mock-debate-014019527.html

On Paul Ryan (guest post)

"More than any other politician today, Paul Ryan exemplifies the social Darwinism at the core of today's Republican Party: Reward the rich, penalize the poor, let everyone else fend for themselves. Dog eat dog.

"Ryan's views are crystallized in the budget he produced for House Republicans last March as chairman of the House Budget committee. That budget would cut $3.3 trillion from low-income programs over the next decade. The biggest cuts would be in Medicaid, which provides healthcare for the nation's poor -- forcing states to drop coverage for an estimated 14 million to 28 million low-income people, according to the non-partisan Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.

"Ryan's budget would also reduce food stamps for poor families by 17 percent ($135 billion) over the decade, leading to a significant increase in hunger -- particularly among children. It would also reduce housing assistance, job training, and Pell grants for college tuition.

"In all, 62 percent of the budget cuts proposed by Ryan would come from low-income programs.

"The Ryan plan would also turn Medicare into vouchers whose value won't possibly keep up with rising health-care costs -- thereby shifting those costs on to seniors.

"At the same time, Ryan would provide a substantial tax cut to the very rich -- who are already taking home an almost unprecedented share of the nation's total income. Today's 400 richest Americans have more wealth than the bottom 150 million of us put together."

— Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration

(Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/paul-ryan-social-darwinism_b_1769827.html)

What chutzpah

You might have seen this in the news in the last 24 hours:

Defiant lottery winner still uses food stamps

Here's another loophole they need to close.

Thank goodness it's Michigan.

But, oh, yeah, YOU just voted Republicans back in the House

From Alternet today:

10 Signs That Our Nation Is Becoming Poorer


The Working Poor Families Project has discovered that the number of working poor in the United States is higher than ever and it continues to increase at a staggering pace.


#1 In 2009, total wages, median wages, and average wages all declined in the United States.

#2 Since the year 2000, we have lost 10% of our middle class jobs. In the year 2000 there were about 72 million middle class jobs in the United States but today there are only about 65 million middle class jobs. Meanwhile, our population is getting larger.

#3 As 2007 began, only 26 million Americans were on food stamps, but now 42 million Americans are on food stamps and that number keeps rising every single month.

#4 Since 2001, over 42,000 U.S. factories have closed down for good.

#5 One out of every six Americans is now enrolled in at least one anti-poverty program run by the federal government.

#6 Half of all American workers now earn $505 or less per week.

#7 The number of Americans working part-time jobs "for economic reasons" is now the highest it has been in at least five decades.

#8 Ten years ago, the United States was ranked number one in average wealth per adult. In 2010, the United States has fallen to seventh.

#9 In 1976, the top 1 percent of earners in the United States took in 8.9 percent of all income. By 2007, that number had risen to 23.5 percent.


#10 According to one recent study, approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010.

Corporate America--and the wealthy of the country--thank you.

Link to original post:  http://www.alternet.org/economy/149405/10_signs_that_our_nation_is_becoming_poorer?page=entire

Quote of the day--guns vs. butter

"Why is nobody talking about the Afghanistan adventure as a cause of our plunging recession? Or at least citing the 30-year-old endless war as a major contributory factor in wasting our money to "nation-build" in the Hindu Kush while our own country falls to pieces on food stamps, foreclosures and child poverty – one in five kids – that would put the world's poorest nations to shame?" --Clancy Sigal, from The Guardian, "America: Hooked on War and Getting Poorer" Link here: http://www.alternet.org/economy/147567/america:_hooked_on_war_and_getting_poorer/