Everyone - read #1.....
1/ Are you middle class? Do you think you can afford to keep being middle class?
You need to read this column in it's entirety.....5 minutes will open your eyes.....
The middle class is finally on its knees. Jobs are scarce and good jobs even scarcer. Government and corporate policies have been whacking working Americans every which way for the past three or four decades. While globalization and technological wizardry were wreaking employment havoc, the movers and shakers in government and in the board rooms of the great corporations were embracing privatization and deregulation with the fervor of fanatics. The safety net was shredded, unions were brutally attacked and demonized, employment training and jobs programs were eliminated, higher education costs skyrocketed, and the nation’s infrastructure, a key to long-term industrial and economic health, deteriorated.
While all this was happening, working people, including those in the vast middle class, coped as best they could. Women went into the paid work force in droves. Many workers increased their hours or took on second and third jobs. Savings were drained and debt of every imaginable kind — from credit cards to mortgages to student loans — exploded.
With those coping mechanisms now exhausted, it’s painfully obvious that the economy has failed working Americans.
So - angry yet?
If you read Bob Herbert's column, then you may read/hear/see the Republican Senate minority as recently as today standing firm on extending the tax cuts for the wealthy. You really have to admire the Republicans - for decades they have persuaded over half the country to vote against their own [middle class] economic interests by using social wedge issues that get older [dare we say stupider] people inflamed against the "liberals".
Issues like gay marriage, illegal immigration, race and now for this election cycle Islam. It's a distraction that get's the voters attention while "the boys" give more tax cuts for the wealthy, and giant corporations get pampered as a reward for giving huge contributions to both political parties, but especially the Republicans.....
The Tea Party anger is understandable, but misdirected - they are mad at the wrong target. We need better and smarter government that works for ALL people, not less government......we all need to be angry at the oligarchy that has purchased and corrupted all three branches.....Congress, Executive and the Supreme Court.
2/ China - time for sanctions, tariffs, whatever against the Chinese. They are screwing us and indeed the world by manipulating their currency to keep their exports cheap, but the government is terrified to do anything in case they stop buying our debt. Paul Krugman argues we must act, and says there will be minimal consequences.
You see, senior American policy figures have repeatedly balked at doing anything about Chinese currency manipulation, at least in part out of fear that the Chinese would stop buying our bonds. Yet in the current environment, Chinese purchases of our bonds don’t help us — they hurt us. The Japanese understand that. Why don’t we?
Some background: If discussion of Chinese currency policy seems confusing, it’s only because many people don’t want to face up to the stark, simple reality — namely, that China is deliberately keeping its currency artificially weak.
3/ The Chinese again - the Italian designer label you are buying may be made in Italy, but not by Italians. A large colony of illegal immigrant Chinese are working in Italian cities making clothes.....kind of gives you a bitter taste about the Italian label, doesn't it? Just not the same.
On this same vein Mary and I went to the Burberry factory in Wales in 2002 just as it was closing - we got some great deals as they were selling off the inventory, but they closed the Welsh operation two weeks later and moved it all to China, so all of your Burberry clothes are now Chinese made. The local Welsh community was devastated....some of the people had worked there for 40 years......
Needless to say we'll never buy Burberry again.......
.......The city is now home to the largest concentration of Chinese in Europe — some legal, many more not. Here in the heart of Tuscany, Chinese laborers work round the clock in some 3,200 businesses making low-end clothes, shoes and accessories, often with materials imported from China, for sale at midprice and low-end retailers worldwide.
It is a “Made in Italy” problem: Enabled by Italy’s weak institutions and high tolerance for rule-bending, the Chinese have blurred the line between “Made in China” and “Made in Italy,” undermining Italy’s cachet and ability to market its goods exclusively as high end.
4/ Bit of history from the 60's I had certainly forgotten - when the CIA accidentally overthrew the government of Costa Rica....old press conference video from C-Span Onion News.....2 minutes.....
5/ Politicians - if there's one of the scum in Congress that typifies what's wrong with this once respected institution it's John Boehner. He is a certified asshole, purchased by many corporations to push their agenda. Corrupt, lazy, crafty and could care less about doing what's right for this country.
Aaaarrrrrrrggghhhhh.......
And don't be fooled by his recent grudging acceptance of the bill to extend the tax cuts for the middle class but not the wealthy - the House may pass it, but the Senate Republicans vow to stop it, which they can, so it's a cynical Boehner ploy as usual. And after he made that so-called concession he was killed by the right-wing blogosphere and has since withdrawn the offer.
He maintains especially tight ties with a circle of lobbyists and former aides representing some of the nation’s biggest businesses, including Goldman Sachs, Google, Citigroup, R. J. Reynolds, MillerCoors and UPS.
They have contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to his campaigns, provided him with rides on their corporate jets, socialized with him at luxury golf resorts and waterfront bashes and are now leading fund-raising efforts for his Boehner for Speaker campaign, which is soliciting checks of up to $37,800 each, the maximum allowed.
Some of the lobbyists readily acknowledge routinely seeking his office’s help — calling the congressman and his aides as often as several times a week — to advance their agenda in Washington. And in many cases, Mr. Boehner has helped them out.
TV ad - Boehner Land......his ties to lobbyists....30 seconds...
The Golf ad.....Boehner plays three or four times a week....think about it - these are five hour chunks of time, and he's the Minority leader of the House! Do YOU have time to golf three times a week?
Great ad.....30 seconds
6/ MiFi from Virgin Mobile - a follow-up on this story - I bought the Virgin Mobile $79 version that works with just a laptop - no contract, good connection, decent speed and my $10 purchase of 100MB lasted three days, so it's pretty good value. The next time I need to use it you just sign on, buy the $10 package and use it up.The 100MB is valid for 10 days then it expires, but this really works great if you are travelling. The unlimited data deal is $40 for a month.....
A DDD's personal recommendation folks!!!
All of the other broadband connectors for your laptop need a contract and are MUCH more expensive......
7/ Monty Python and the Holy Grail - "French Taunting"
When King Arthur and his Knights arrive at a strange castle only to face abuse from the French......5 minute MP classic.....
8/ Social Security starting at 70....
The Republicans [Boehner again!] have proposed SS benefits start at 70 - instead of full benefits at 66 that is the current retirement age. This hits less educated workers who do jobs that require physical labour like lifting baggage, moving boxes etc., sometimes out in the full heat and the cold which puts a toll on older bodies.
For office workers sitting at a desk retiring later may be fine, but not for a lot of the working poor who have to do physical labour.....
After years of debate about how to keep Social Security solvent, the White House has created an 18-member panel to consider changes, including raising the retirement age. Representative John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio and the House minority leader, has called for raising the age as high as 70 in the next 20 years, and many Democrats have endorsed similar steps, against opposition from some liberal groups. The panel will report by Dec. 1, after the midterm elections.
Mr. Hartley says he feels like the forgotten man. Discussion has focused mostly on the older workers who hold relatively undemanding jobs at desks and computers that can be done at age 69 or beyond. But hard labor is not a thing of the past for older workers, who are on the whole less educated than younger ones.
9/ Music video - "Paramore - the Only Exception"
Love this one, great song, beautiful singer and clever story.....enjoy....3 minutes.....
10/ Book Review that is very timely indeed, considering the big wins in Delaware and New York this week for the Tea Party candidates....
“The Backlash: Right-Wing Radicals, High-Def Hucksters, and Paranoid Politics in the Age of Obama,” by Will Bunch
A decent review......
As Mr. Bunch sees it, there are three main reasons for the rise of the Tea Party:
1. “Genuine anger and panic by rank-and-file conservatives” who were deeply frustrated by the election of Barack Obama, and who “suddenly saw a world in which — thanks to a growing electoral base that did not think or look like them — their Reaganist conservative philosophy might be shut out of power for good.”
2. “The electronic media” — including the likes of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and local talk radio imitators, as well as social networking forces likeFacebook and Twitter — which have enabled “like-minded Obama naysayers” to come together “without actual journalists intervening to filter out untrue information like the canard about the president’s birth certificate.”
3. “The ever-circling capitalists — the policy pushers who saw a new grass-roots movement as a back-door way to revive the big-business agenda” that had thrived from the 1980s through the George W. Bush era, along with “the pure-profit hucksters” eager to cash in on voter anger.
Mr. Bunch seems to have spent a lot of energy looking into Reason No. 3:
Todays video - the best seat belt commercial....ever.....this gives me tingles every time I see it.....so here it is again.....
Todays blonde jokes
A blonde and a redhead went to a bar after work for a drink, and sat watching the 6 o'clock news. A man was shown threatening to jump from the Brooklyn Bridge, and the blonde bet the redhead $50 that he wouldn't jump.
Sure enough, he jumped, so the blonde gave the redhead $50. The redhead said,
"I can't take this, you're my friend."But the blonde insisted saying,
"No. A bet's a bet."
Then the redhead said
"Listen, I have to tell you that I saw this on the 5 O'clock news, so I can't take your money."
The blonde replied
"Well, so did I, but I didn't think he would jump again!"
..............................
A blonde was walking down the road with a healthy looking pig under her arm. As she passed the bus stop, someone asked,
"Where did you get that?"The pig replied,
"I won her in a raffle!"
Todays ladies joke
A woman was sitting at a bar enjoying an after work cocktail with her girlfriends when Steven, a tall, exceptionally handsome, extremely sexy, middle-aged man entered.
He was so striking that the woman could not take her eyes off him.
This seasoned yet playful heartthrob noticed her overly attentive stare and walked directly toward her, as any man would.
Before she could offer her apologies for staring so rudely, he leaned over and whispered to her,
"I'll do anything, absolutely anything, that you want me to do, no matter how wild and crazy, for $20.00.....on one condition..."
Flabbergasted but intrigued, the woman asked what the condition was.
The man replied, "You have to tell me what you want me to do in just three words."
The woman considered his proposition for a moment, and then slowly removed a $20 bill from her purse, which she pressed into the man's hand along with
her address.
She looked deeply and passionately into his eyes, barely concealing her anticipation and excitement, and slowly and meaningfully said...
"Clean my house."
Todays guy joke
THE PERFECT HUSBANDSeveral men are in the locker room of a golf club. A cellular phone on a bench rings and a man engages the hands-free speaker function and begins to talk. Everyone else in the room stops to listen.MAN: 'Hello'WOMAN: 'Honey, it's me. Are you at the club?'MAN: 'Yes'WOMAN: 'I am at the shop now and found this beautiful leather coat. It's only $2,000. Is it OK if I buy it?'MAN: 'Sure, go ahead if you like it that much.'WOMAN: 'I also stopped by the Lexus dealership and saw the new Models. I saw one I really liked.'MAN: 'How much?'WOMAN: '$90,000'MAN: 'OK, but for that price I want it with all the options.'WOMAN: 'Great! Oh, and one more thing...the house I wanted last year is back on the market. They're asking $980,000'MAN: 'Well, then go ahead and give them an offer of $900,000. They will probably take it. If not, we can go an extra $50,000 if it's really a good deal.'WOMAN: 'OK. I'll see you later! I love you so much!'MAN: 'Bye! I love you, too.'The man hangs up. The other men in the locker room are staring at him in astonishment, mouths agape.He turns and asks: 'Anyone know who this phone belongs to?'
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