Quote of the Day -- On Fair, Living Wages

Missouri Senator Eric Greitens?

Eric Greitens wants to be our next Missouri US Senator?

--He sexually abused and tried to exploit and blackmail his hairdresser; --He stole from his Veterans' charity and from taxpayers; --He resigned hours after a judge ordered him to reveal his dark money donors. No. Heck no. Hell no.

Forget Trying to Prove What This President Did--What We Already Know About Donald J Trump

• Inherited approximately 493 million dollars from his father
• Declared bankruptcy at least 6 times
• Had to pay back 25 million dollars because of illegalities with his self-named Trump University
• Took money illegally--stole?--2 million dollars from a charity. For himself. And the charity was to help American military Veterans
• Cheated on his first wife with the person who would become his second wife
• Cheated on his second wife to get with the person who would become his third wife
• A minimum of 25 separate women have publicly accused him of sexual assault
• Asked the head of another, foreign nation to investigate a private American citizen. Oh, and that private American citizen just happened to be the son of his foremost political rival in the coming national election for his very job

All this we know. We already know it's all true. It's fact. Verifiable. It's history.  Provable and not debatable.

Yet this is the man people support as the head, the leader of our nation.

This is the man people in his political party defend---all so they can maintain power.

I submit to you, ladies and gentlemen, that is stunning.

That and Richard Nixon was a piker, by comparison.

Links:

Federal court approves $25 million Trump University settlement

The 25 women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct 

Two Headlines That Say It All

You've maybe read or heard that the retail chain Toys R Us is going out of business shortly, right? Going bankrupt? It can't keep up with online toy sales so it's having to shut down, right?

With that in mind, check out these two headlines on that subject. They say everything. Here's the first.

Bankruptcy judge approves $14M 

Toys R Us executive bonus payout

And here, here's the second.

31,000 Toys 'R' Us employees: 

No job and no severance

Oh yes.

The deck is stacked, ladies and gentlemen.

And it's stacked, severely, against most of us.

Not done there, here's another beauty.

What scandals? Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan 

gets $4.6M raise

Wells Fargo bank has untold scandals and so, fines, from the government, for scamming their own customers out of millions of dollars but what does the CEO get? 

A huge pay raise.

Because, sure, that makes sense.

You or I would be fired, forget about a raise.

Republicans, Right Wingers, Corporations, the Wealthy and "Small Government"

The types of people the voter ID laws effect

Let's see, female, check; handicapped, check; elderly, check; possibly even Hispanic--that way they'd get a four-way win.

The Republican strategy:  If you can't get 'em to follow and vote for you, take away their vote.

Here's your real IRS scandal, ladies and gentlemen

That phony, bogus, trumped-up IRS scandal that's going around right now by the Republicans and "All Who Hate Obama"?

That's just what it is, phony.

George W. Bush had just the same situation and his administration went after far more groups, too.

And forget that this same IRS, now, also went after Liberal groups. Sure, forget or ignore that.

Here's the real IRS, America--it's companies not paying taxes, period and cheating you and I:

Another aspect of the real tax scandal that's being ignored: Google, Amazon, Starbucks, every other major corporation, and every big Wall Street bank, are sheltering as much of their U.S. profits abroad as they can, while telling Washington that lower corporate taxes are necessary in order to keep the U.S. "competitive." Baloney. The fact is, global corporations have no allegiance to any country; their only objective is to make as much money as possible -- and play off one country against another to keep their taxes down and subsidies up.

I'm in London for a few days, and all the talk here is about how Goldman Sachs just negotiated a sweetheart deal to settle a tax dispute with the British government; Google is manipulating its British sales to pay almost no taxes here by using its low-tax Ireland subsidiary (the chair of the Parliamentary committee investigating this has just called the do-no-evil firm "devious, calculating, and unethical"); Amazon has been found to route its British sales through a subsidiary in low-tax Luxembourg, and now receives more in subsidies from the British government than it pays here in taxes; Starbucks' tax-avoidance strategy was so blatant British consumers began boycotting the firm until it reversed course. 

As global capital becomes ever more powerful, giant corporations are holding governments up for ransom -- eliciting subsidies and tax breaks from governments concerned about their nation's "competitiveness" -- while sheltering their profits in the lowest-tax jurisdictions they can find. Major advanced countries need a comprehensive tax agreement that won't allow global corporations to get away with this."

--Robert Reich, economist, author, professor, columnist for The New York Times

The least corporations and the wealthy could do--the least--is pay some minimum amount, say, 10% of profits, at least, no matter what other deductions they take so we can pay, as a nation, for our schools and infrastructure and so they can have access to our markets.

But that would make sense.

Links:

Robert Reich - Wikipedia

Robert Reich | Facebook

Quote of the day

Chinese ignorance and hypocrisy in full flower

Last weekend, Sunday's New York Times had two full-page advertisements in it, I noticed.

One was from, by and for Saudi Arabia, so we'd like them more and, I'm sure, so our business people would invest more in their country.

The second was for the same reasons and was by and for China.

It struck me as interesting at the time and I very nearly wrote about the two ads just because I thought it interesting and unusual.

I got busy and now I write about one of them--the Chinese one--for completely different reasons that happened to break late yesterday. This is it:

China Blocks Web Access to Times After Article

While this is the article they're blocking:

Billions in Hidden Riches for Family of Chinese Leader

It is unclear how much Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, who has staked a position as a populist and a reformer, knows about the $2.7 billion in assets his family has amassed. (Links at bottom)

How ironic--and even hypocritical--is that?

First the Chinese are spending what I'm sure is big money to impress us Americans to invest in their country and think of them differently and then this. They shut down a report on the possible or even likely corruption of one of their leaders.

Considering this, that there is no freedom of the press--or, likely, any real freedom there--and that businesses can be and sometimes are taken over by the government, no questions asked, how can they advertise to us like that?

You want us to invest in your country why?

And how?

Link: https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=new+york+times+china+news&btnK=

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/business/global/family-of-wen-jiabao-holds-a-hidden-fortune-in-china.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20121026

"60 Minutes" on Goldman Sachs: Matt Taibbi is (somewhat) vindicated

Last evening, CBS' "60 Minutes" had a segment on a Goldman Sachs executive, one Greg Smith, and his leaving the company because of their low internal standards and lack of respect for clients in a rather famous op/ed in The New York Times last year.

There are a few things about this, too, that need to be pointed out, I think.

First is that it's amazing, to an extent, that it ever came out on CBS News at all, unfortunately. This kind of coverage from the "Big 4" networks just doesn't occur any more, it seems. As a kind of "gentlemen's agreement" between big corporations, one doesn't reveal much or anything of other companies if it's negative. It's the kind of thing Edward Murrow warned us of, so many decades ago, that the television networks would be about profit and profits and not on reporting what's important to the people, nation and world.

It's disgusting.

Second, it needs to be said that the reporter, Matt Taibbi, over at Rolling Stone has been reporting on various companies and their involvement in the huge 2008 financial collapse, for years now. His reporting seems to be lost to anyone and everyone who doesn't read this music/reporting, unconventional magazine.

It's a shame, too, since Mr. Taibbi's coverage has been both scathing and important, given the millions of people across the world that were hurt financially by this fleecing of America and the world.

The third thing about last evening's report from CBS is that it was the 2nd story.

The first story of the evening--what you'd t hink was the most important story of the show--was about medicinal marijuana. One of the biggest financial thefts in the nation's history, it nearly brought down the nation's economy and then the world's, yet it was relegated to the 2nd show of the evening. The last story before the "fluff piece" of the night. Nearly unbelievable.

Finally, the thing about this story being told last evening is that it involves one of the biggest banks in the nation and world, the theft was large scale in both dollars and people and nations that were effected by this debacle and stealing yet this is the bank that is still and has been for years in the White House.

Does this make sense to anyone who isn't in Goldman Sachs?

Links: www.cbsnews.com/8301.../goldman-sachs-vp-explains-why-he-quit/

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/20/business/why-i-left-book-about-goldman-falls-short.html?pagewanted=all

http://youtu.be/tOpUM3Uvz7U

Missouri bank bailout money not repayed

I just found this video last evening:



Yikes.

Let's put pressure on this clown. Here's the link:

http://paybackthebailout.com/

You want unfettered, deregulated business?

For anyone who still clamors for unfettered and unregulated business--yeehaw!--take yourselves to our good friend's country of China. They give us yet one more example of how great an idea unregulated Capitalism really is right now:

China’s Bridges Are Falling Down

Early Friday morning, just before dawn, four trucks were driving on a 10-month-old ramp to a bridge in Harbin, a major city in northeast China, when the deck suddenly tilted and collapsed, sending the trucks crashing to the pavement almost 100 feet below.
Three people were killed, and five were injured. Photos of the accident indicate that the trucks were carrying heavy cargoes, including stones, and were likely overloaded. But accounts by journalists and photos from the scene also suggest serious problems with the bridge itself. Some images show that key structural components were stuffed with sticks, pebbles and bags of unidentified materials.

Nobody in China was surprised by this. Since 2007, China has experienced at least 18 bridge collapses resulting in 135 deaths and untold economic hardship, according to records aggregated by the South China Morning Post, the leading English-language newspaper in Hong Kong. These are not mere footbridges: They are major, expensive spans connecting key corridors. The almost 330-foot-long section that collapsed on Friday, for example, is part of the more than 9-mile-long, nearly $300 million Yangmingtan Bridge, a span that connects the two banks of Harbin, a city of 10 million people.
What is causing this epidemic of collapse? In Harbin, some authorities were quick to blame the overloaded trucks and then -- in an act of revealing bureaucratic cowardice -- to claim that they couldn’t locate the contractors responsible for the span (statements subsequently denied by higher-ups).

China’s netizens, accustomed to bureaucratic double-talk, were hardly inclined to believe the local government’s explanation, no matter what it was. Instead, they turned to what is almost uniformly the explanation for everything that goes wrong in China these days: corruption. “Every time I walk down the street and see a new project about to break ground, I know that several billionaires are about to be made,” wrote Li Chengpeng, a well-known blogger and agitator, on Monday (as translated by Tea Leaf Nation, an English-language blog). “In this country, the completion of an infrastructure project lays the groundwork for the beginning of an anti-corruption project.”

So there's your answer, all you Tea Partiests and Libertarians. China. Unfettered Capitalism, no Environmental Protection Agency--everything you'd want in a country and government.

But nothing the people want.

And if you want no government at all, take the now-old suggestion and move your sorry body to Somalia.

You'll love it there.

Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-29/china-s-bridges-are-falling-down.html

Goldman Sachs: Getting away with grand larceny, lies and lying about it all

It's been widely reported now that Goldman Sachs is, indeed and in fact, getting away with theft--large scale theft, at that:

Goldman Sachs Won't Be Prosecuted In Fraud Probe

A Senate panel found last year that Goldman Sachs marketed four sets of complex mortgage securities to banks and other investors, but failed to tell clients the securities were very risky. The Justice Department said the "burden of proof to bring a criminal case" could not be met.

And while this should surprise no one, however much it dissappoints us, the following has to be acknowleded:

First, Goldman Sachs is in the White House and has been for some years. Timothy Geithner, the Treasury Secretary, comes from there as former CEO, no less, in one of the worst examples and there are plenty of others.

Second, it's an election year and this president--and all candidates for that office--want and need the big Wall Street firms on their side, if not also putting money in their campaign coffers. It seems clear nothing was going to happen here, no matter what the SEC found.

That said, perhaps the people examining this huge firm should go back and read even just some of writer Matt Taibbi's articles and columns over at Rolling Stone. It seems there's enough evidence in them alone to indict the company in general and specific employees of the firm. (See links below).

Forget that Goldman Sachs paid a $550 million fine (that's a little over one-half billion dollars, folks) to the SEC in 2010 for fraud in the subprime mortgage debacle. Forget that. That doesn't really mean they're guilty, right?

As if this all isn't enough to make you cynical, get this, from the New York Times: "News of the settlement sent Goldman’s shares 5 percent higher in after-hours trading, adding far more to the firm’s market value than the amount it will have to pay in the settlement."

So not only did Goldman steal millions of dollars from people and not only did they then also lie about it but when their fine of $550 million dollars was handed out, since it was such a small share of the $13.35 billion profits they made the previous year, their stock actually went up on that news.

They won.

They won big and they keep winning.

Why wouldn't you keep winning when, after all, you virtually--if not actually--own the government?

We have to also forget that the financial collapse that Goldman Sachs and Countrywide Mortgage and Citibank (or Sh*ttybank, as Bill Maher refers to them, rather appropriately) and others nearly brought the nation--and the world, actually--to very near total financial collapse back in 2008 with their lies and theft. Forget that.

The government says we don't have enough to prosecute.

Right.

Got it.

Links: http://www.npr.org/2012/08/10/158547458/business-news

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Geithner

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-people-vs-goldman-sachs-20110511

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/business/16goldman.html

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405

Jax County Court Administrator blows through $25.000?

Here's an excellent and simple case showing how a government office could and should, frankly and easily, be run like a business so things are done right, first of all, but secondly, so people don't just out-and-out steal.

Here's the article from the Star Monday:

Former court administrator used funds to buy $25,000 in gift cards

Jackson County's former court administrator used her court-supplied credit cards to purchase more than $25,000 in gift cards in the last 18 months of her service.

The thing about it is, I've worked for plenty of companies where someone--someone--was always put in a position to evaluate expenses as they come through in an obvious and clear effort to keep expenses down and under control.

For someone to charge an office for "...spa visits and purchases at a women's clothing store and an area optical shop..." and not be caught seems nearly unfathomable.

Was there NO ONE doing any oversight on their costs and expenses and charges?

That's the question now, for the past.

But for the future, has this been handled, now?

Is there now, for pity's sake, someone in place to make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen again and no one can put through expenses for virtually anything and we find out months or years later?

Would someone--anyone--answer me this?

Please?

Link: http://midwestdemocracy.com/articles/former-court-administrator-used-funds-to-buy-25000-in-gift-cards/

Our current election system

Thank you, Republican Party.

The Sprint Company and Insanity

Did you see the article yesterday in The Star?: Spring increased CEO Hesse's compensation 31% last year Is that a sweet, sweet deal or what? Here's why it's lousy for Sprint, their employees and their shareholders, however and why it MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE: "Sprint Nextel Corp boosted Chief Executive Officer Dan Hesse's compensation 31 percent last year even as the Overland Park wireless carrier reported its fifth straight annual loss." Ain't 'dat a beauty? The company you're running, the company you're responsible for, the company you're supposed to either make or keep--or both--profitable actually LOSES MONEY FOR THE 5TH STRAIGHT YEAR but your buddies, the ones you appointed to the Board of Directors VOTE YOU A PAY RAISE. And forget about, oh, I don't know, a 3% or 5% or 7 or 10% raise! They give you a whopping 31% raise in pay. And at what you were making before, this ain't chicken feed. And people wonder why there is an "Occupy" movement or why stockholders get angry. Sheesh. You'd think Mr. Hesse and all these CEOs would be embarrassed. Wait. What am I saying? Who am I kidding? Besides, it seems like EVERY Sprint CEO takes gross advantage of that organization when they're at the top of it, starting with Bill Esrey, at least, to Gary Forsee and now this. It's just more of the same. Sure, it's ugliness but they just keep on doing it-fleecing the company, the employees and the stockholders. Shameful. Link to original story: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/03/27/3518998/sprint-increased-ceo-hesses-compensation.html

One more thing you can't steal

Much as so many people love these things, these Apple iPhones, it's clear now, it's one more of two thing you can't steal. From local news today: Police Use iPhone To Track Robbery Suspects It seems a young man got his iPhone stolen this morning on the way to work. He later thought about the tracking device already on it so he phoned police and got with them. They tracked the phone from the Missouri side of town to KCK and voila'--one iphone returned and two men in custody. It reminded me of the story a couple years ago of the men who stole a new Cadillac, as I recall. The problem, for them, was that it had OnStar on it. The victim, again, got with the police and they tracked the car--within 10 minutes I believe they said--and found the car and the men who stole it, inside their house, eating dinner. Isn't technology wonderful? Link: http://www.kmbc.com/news/30003402/detail.html

Quote of the day

"If..." President Obama's..."troop to al Qaeda militant ratio in Afghanistan had been employed during World War II in fighting Germany and Japan, the United States would have deployed 3.5 billion military personnel abroad..." --Bruce Fein, Author, 'American Empire: Before the Fall". Links: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-fein/president-obamas-politica_b_889539.html

Stealing computers from the Joplin schools?

From The Kansas City Star today:

KC man accused of stealing computers from Joplin schools

I'm thinking an awful lot of people will think there's a "special place in hell" for this guy if he's guilty.

Two things I'll never understand

I've written here before how, for one, I'll never understand how people in Pakistan or Afghanistan or any other country, for that matter, could or would blow up--or even attempt to blow up and kill, maim and harm--their fellow citizens, no matter what they see as the cause or issue.

Yet not only does it happen but it happens again and again.

I can't see how they think they're somehow progressing any such cause.  It seems true insanity to me.

And then to do it to people, too, who practice the same faith as you, possibly--Muslim--but just because they're a different sect.

That takes some twisted, sick beliefs right there.

And here, today is the other thing I can't possibly fathom, far closer to home and more immediate:

In Joplin, Looters Prowl For What Twister Didn't Take

I heard this on the way in to work this morning on KCUR/NPR, perhaps you did, too.  (Thanks, again, Frank Morris!)

The people of Joplin, Missouri have been put through nearly unimaginable circumstances, what with having suffered an F5 tornado, so many people being killed, homes destroyed, workplaces leveled, cars mangled and who knows what all yet some people have the chutzpah to go through, afterward and try to steal things from the rubble.

No, sorry.

I can't imagine how anyone could possibly be so low or destitute or unfeeling or selfish and/or whatever that would take to even have that option occur to you.

But that's me.