I sent out "An Essay on Corporations" last Sunday and a couple of you have asked it I wrote it - I didn't, a local lady who lives in Lake Mary did.....a talented writer indeed.
1/ Paul Krugman with another eye opening column - he is telling us solar power is on the verge of a breakthrough in pricing, which of course you or I haven't heard at all because of the corporate media blackout....
He also makes some excellent points about hydraulic fracking, which is a very dangerous procedure......
But that may be about to change. We are, or at least we should be, on the cusp of an energy transformation, driven by the rapidly falling cost of solar power. That’s right, solar power.
If that surprises you, if you still think of solar power as some kind of hippie fantasy, blame our fossilized political system, in which fossil fuel producers have both powerful political allies and a powerful propaganda machine that denigrates alternatives.
Speaking of propaganda: Before I get to solar, let’s talk briefly about hydraulic fracturing, a k a fracking.
2/ Wow - a long but fascinating primer from Tim Dickinson in Rolling Stone on what has happened to tax policy in the last 30 years, and how almost all of the changes have benefited the very rich. In fact the Republican Party is now unashamedly the party of the wealthy, and everything they do is designed to make the wealthy richer and for the middle class to pay the bill. If you read this and still vote Republican you must be a millionaire.....
The nation is still recovering from a crushing recession that sent unemployment hovering above nine percent for two straight years. The president, mindful of soaring deficits, is pushing bold action to shore up the nation's balance sheet. Cloaking himself in the language of class warfare, he calls on a hostile Congress to end wasteful tax breaks for the rich. "We're going to close the unproductive tax loopholes that allow some of the truly wealthy to avoid paying their fair share," he thunders to a crowd in Georgia. Such tax loopholes, he adds, "sometimes made it possible for millionaires to pay nothing, while a bus driver was paying 10 percent of his salary – and that's crazy."
Preacherlike, the president draws the crowd into a call-and-response. "Do you think the millionaire ought to pay more in taxes than the bus driver," he demands, "or less?"
The crowd, sounding every bit like the protesters from Occupy Wall Street, roars back: "MORE!"
The year was 1985. The president was Ronald Wilson Reagan.
..............................
Far from creating the trickle-down economics promised by Reagan, the policies pursued by the modern Republican Party are gusher up. Under the leadership of Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the House's radicalized GOP caucus is pushing a predatory agenda for a new gilded age. Every move that Republicans make – whether it's to gut consumer protections, roll back environmental regulations, subsidize giant agribusinesses, abolish health care reform or just drill, baby, drill – is consistent with a single overarching agenda: to enrich the nation's wealthiest individuals and corporations, even if it requires borrowing from China, weakening national security, dismantling Medicare and taxing the middle class. With the nation still mired in the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, Republicans have categorically rejected the one financial policy with a proven record of putting the country back on a more prosperous footing. "You hear the Republicans say that you don't dare raise taxes in a weak economy," says Stockman. "Ronald Reagan did – three times."
3/ Just watched this again, and it's one of the best rock band videos out there....Paramore with "Careful".....great editing, music, an amazing drummer and Haley Williams is as cute as a button......
4/ For you economics geeks, a primer from Simon Johnson on the euro zone's problems, and it seems they are even more hopeless at dealing with the banking oligarchs than we are.......
Is Europe On The Verge Of Another Great Depression – Or A Great Inflation?
By Simon Johnson
The news from Europe, particularly from within the eurozone, seems all bad. Interest rates on Italian government debt continue to rise. Attempts to put together a “rescue package” at the pan-European level repeatedly fall behind events. And the lack of leadership from Germany and France is palpable – where is the vision or the clarity of thought we would have had from Charles de Gaulle or Konrad Adenauer?
In addition, the pessimists argue, because the troubled countries are locked into the euro, there are no good options. Gentle or even dramatic depreciation of the exchange rate for Greece or Portugal or Italy is not in the cards. As a result, it is hard to lower real wages so as to restore competitiveness and boost trade. This means that the debt burdens for these countries are likely to seem insurmountable for a long time. Hence there will likely be default and resulting global financial chaos.
5/ Amazing footage of Joe Walsh, a Republican Congressman from Illinois having a meltdown at a couple of his constituents during a town hall meeting.......what an asshole........5 minutes.......
U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) met with some constituents in the Chicago suburb of Gurnee Sunday -- and apparently didn't like what some of them had to say about the role of big banks in the financial collapse.
The "Cup of Joe with Joe Walsh" event was held at an UNO Bar & Grill in the northern suburb, and "a number of topics were discussed," according toRound Lake Area News. But, as ThinkProgress reported Tuesday, Walsh did not like when the conversation turned to big banks and their power within government. (Watch the conversation above)
6/ Jon Stewart at his best - nailing Fox News......6 minutes......
If there's one thing Jon Stewart knows best, it's how to point out Fox News' follies. He played another round of "find the hypocritical reporting" with the conservative network on Monday night's "Daily Show," this time focusing on their defense of GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain.
7/ Here's a story to send chills down the back of your neck - the Koch brothers are creating a huge right-wing database for use in the 2012 elections......and of course we look to the foreign press to tell us about this significant story as the American media wouldn't be allowed to run this story....
The secretive oil billionaires the Koch brothers are close to launching a nationwide database connecting millions of Americans who share their anti-government and libertarian views, a move that will further enhance the tycoons' political influence and that could prove significant in next year's presidential election.
The database will give concrete form to the vast network of alliances that David and Charles Koch have cultivated over the past 20 years on the right of US politics. The brothers, whose personal wealth has been put at $25bn each, were a major force behind the creation of the tea party movement and enjoy close ties to leading conservative politicians, financiers, business people, media figures and US supreme court judges.
The voter file was set up by the Kochs 18 months ago with $2.5m of their seed money, and is being developed by a hand-picked team of the brothers' advisers. It has been given the name Themis, after the Greek goddess who imposes divine order on human affairs.
In classic Koch style, the project is being conducted in great secrecy.
8/ Funny clip from the Jimmy Kimmel show, where he challenges parents to tell their kids they ate all of the kid's Halloween candy.......great reactions from the children.....3 minutes.....
9/ Sometimes the best way to nail someone as slimy as Rick Perry is to make it funny - Gail Collins with a very amusing column with some bite as well....
I know every media outlet is counting him out after his brain fart last night but he has so much money it won't make any difference - and don't forget all across America millions of bubbas are going "it weren't so bad"......
This week in The Times, Mike McIntire reported that as governor, Perry had received $1.3 million worth of free flights in private jets from corporate executives and wealthy donors. Some of them involved trips to Washington to lobby on behalf of matters of interest to the plane owners.
This is the same Rick Perry who recently told The San Francisco Chronicle that he was the sort of leader who could go to Washington and “take a wrecking ball, a sledgehammer — whatever it takes to break up the good-old-boy corporate lobbyist mentality that is putting this country’s future in jeopardy.”
On a mission like that, wouldn’t you expect him to fly coach?
10/ The secret Supercommittee is being heavily lobbied to slide a "business as usual" farm bill through Congress - yup, more subsidies to Big Ag, Monsanto and the like, and cripple small farmers and organic producers......
The Republican-manufactured budget crisis of this past summer — remember? — resulted in a “solution” that’s hijacking what little representative democratic process we have left. Equally sad is that the so-called supercommittee — charged with creating an outline for reducing the deficit by $1.2 trillion over 10 years — may preclude full discussion of the farm bill.
It’s the farm bill that largely shapes food and agriculture policy, and — though much of it finances good programs — ultimately supports the cynical, profit-at-any-cost food system that drives obesity, astronomical health care costs, ethanol-driven agriculture and more, creating further deficits while punishing the environment.
The farm bill is written every five years. Although the current one doesn’t expire until September, the next one may be all but wrapped up by your first bite of turkey, because the leaders of the House and Senate agriculture committees — a group of four, representing Oklahoma, Michigan, Minnesota and Kansas (do you see a pattern here?) — are working feverishly to draw up a proposal in time to submit it to the supercommittee before the Nov. 23 deadline.
This leaves many advocates and progressives in the world of food, environment, health and poverty in the odd position of trying to influence the group of four’s report to the supercommittee while hoping the process fails.
11/ Funny video of two girls discussing their dinner dates......with unexpected insights from their boyfriends.....raunchy and amusing......3 minutes.....
12/ Heartwarming [if you're rich!] story about how wealthy people are driving sales of vacation homes....for cash......a lot of the story is about South Florida.....
FAIGIE RICHMAN used to tell everyone that she never wanted to live in Florida. She enjoyed visiting her husband’s family in Boca Raton, but the lifestyle simply did not suit her. She didn’t play golf or tennis and had no desire to learn either. And she and her husband already owned a second home, on a pond in Rhode Island, that their three children loved.
So she was just as surprised as anyone when she and her husband ended up with two condominiums in Miami Beach, 50 miles south of Boca Raton, this spring. They had gone to Miami Beach to look at a condo for their daughter and report back. Instead, they closed on that one and another in the building in a matter of weeks.
13/ A rarity - both the local Tea Party and the Lake County Democratic Party agree on something - the 1 mil tax that goes to the Lake County Hospitals is a complete boondoggle - Lauren Ritchie with an excellent column......
The district with taxing power charges you $1 for every $1,000 of taxable property value — that's $100 in taxes for a home on the tax roll for $100,000 after homestead exemptions — and hands over the $10 million or so that it collects to Florida Hospital Waterman in Tavares andLeesburg Regional Medical Center.
They get the cash to provide "continuing hospital services," so they spend it on whatever strikes their fancy. The hospitals claim they provide a lot more free care to the poor than they get in tax money, and they don't want this anywhere near the voters.
Oh, wah, wah, wah. The hospitals don't pay a dime in property taxes or sales taxes. Marilyn Bainter, a North Lake County Hospital District board member who wants to abolish the tax, calculated that Waterman alone would have shelled out more than $10 million in total taxes this year if it didn't have that convenient "nonprofit" designation.
They get the cash to provide "continuing hospital services," so they spend it on whatever strikes their fancy. The hospitals claim they provide a lot more free care to the poor than they get in tax money, and they don't want this anywhere near the voters.
Oh, wah, wah, wah. The hospitals don't pay a dime in property taxes or sales taxes. Marilyn Bainter, a North Lake County Hospital District board member who wants to abolish the tax, calculated that Waterman alone would have shelled out more than $10 million in total taxes this year if it didn't have that convenient "nonprofit" designation.
14/ Robyn Blumner had breast cancer, and in a two part column she tries to make sense of the "business" of our health care system through her own experiences......most interesting, and although 95% of us don't have to go through this kind of nightmare it's a compelling story.
One in eight American women will develop breast cancer in their lives. I beat the odds, though not in a good way.That said, due to the consummate skills of general surgeon Dr. Ernest Rehnke and plastic surgeon Dr. Robert Rehnke, (yes, brothers) who worked in tandem performing a bilateral mastectomy with immediate reconstruction, I am healing and am intermittently back at work two weeks after the ordeal.
Robert Rehnke and his office staff treated me as if a member of their family was stricken. As Robert said, "The problem with medicine today is not a lack of technology or pharmacology but a lack of humanity." He and his office delivered compassionate care with the highest professionalism.
But not every part of this experience has been as smooth. America spends more than any other industrialized nation on its health care system, with often worse health outcomes. Coming through breast cancer from diagnosis to cure demonstrated quite clearly to me why this is.
First, trying to be an educated consumer of health services by understanding pricing schedules is like cracking Enigma code. Second, the way the medical establishment and private insurance system is organized ensures that Americans get impersonal, redundant medical care for the highest cost, a subject I will discuss in my next column.
Today, I'd just like to share with you some of my experiences with opaque medical billing and why there is no way to comparison shop.
In the second part she analyses what the problems are.....and it's worse than we know or can imagine......
As discussed in my last column, I am recovering from a double mastectomy with immediate reconstruction. During this ordeal I have learned a great deal about breast cancer, but even more about America's health care system — most of it not good.
We have some terrific, caring doctors (and I had some), but the system of accessing appropriate care and paying for it is broken beyond belief.
15/ The always witty and lucid Carl Hiaasen with his view on the Republican primary candidates.......
When Florida's Republican 2012 presidential primary was moved up to Jan. 31, the reaction was mixed. Some voters were glad to getting past it sooner than later. Others were dismayed that the holiday season would be polluted by vicious campaign commercials and distracting barnstorm visits from candidates.
Now it's clear many of us underestimated the redemptive entertainment value of the GOP race. Floridians are in need of a good laugh, and this particular ensemble will deliver plenty of those.
Rick Perry, the Texas governor, recently denied he was drunk or high when he gave a speech punctuated by odd giggles and twitches in New Hampshire. The video has become a YouTube sensation, and it's hilarious stuff — until you consider that this goober might someday have his finger on the button that controls America's nuclear arsenal.
Todays video
You're never too old to learn something new, so watch this video and do as he says - change your car mirrors.
We did it, and it's safer and really eliminates the blind spot.
Todays little old lady joke
Two little old ladies, Dorace & Jackie were sitting on a park bench outside the local town hall where a flower show was in progress. The short one, Jackie, leaned over and said, 'Life is so boring. We never have any fun any more. For $10.00 I'd take my clothes off and streak through that stupid, boring flower show!'
'You're on!' said Dorace, holding up a $10.00 bill.
So Jackie slowly fumbled her way out of her clothes and, completely naked, streaked (as fast as an old lady can) through the front door of the flower show.
Waiting outside, her friend soon heard a huge commotion inside the hall, followed by loud applause and shrill whistling. Finally, the smiling Jackie came through the exit door surrounded by a cheering, clapping crowd.
'What happened?' asked her waiting friend.
'I won $1,000 as 1st prize for 'Best Dried Arrangement... !'
Todays deaf joke
The Deaf Wife Problem
Frank feared his wife Gloria wasn't hearing as well as she used to and he thought she might need a hearing aid.
Not quite sure how to approach her, he called the family Doctor to discuss the problem.
The Doctor told him there is a simple informal test the husband could perform to give the Doctor a better idea about her hearing loss.
'Here's what you do,' said the Doctor, 'stand about 40 feet away from her, and in a normal conversational speaking tone see if she hears you. If not, go to 30 feet, then 20 feet, and so on until you get a response.'
That evening, the wife is in the kitchen cooking dinner, and he was In the den. He says to himself, 'I'm about 40 feet away, let's see what happens.' Then in a normal tone he asks, 'Honey, what's for dinner?'
No response.
So the husband moves closer to the kitchen, about 30 feet from his wife and repeats, 'Gloria, what's for dinner?'
Still no response.
Next he moves into the dining room where he is about 20 feet from his Wife and asks, 'Honey, what's for dinner?'
Again he gets no response.
So, he walks up to the kitchen door, about 10 feet away. 'Honey, what's for dinner?'
Again there is no response.
So he walks right up behind her. 'Gloria, what's for dinner?'
'For God’s sake, Frank, for the FIFTH time, CHICKEN!'
Todays golf joke
Four old timers were playing their weekly game of golf, and one remarked how nice it would be to wake up on Christmas morning, roll out of bed and without an argument go directly to the golf course, meet his buddies and play a round. His buddies all chimed in and said, "Let's do it! We'll make it a priority; figure out a way and meet here early, Christmas morning."
Months later, that special morning arrives, and there they are on the golf course. The first guy says, "Boy this game cost me a fortune! I bought my wife such a diamond ring that she can't take her eyes off it."
The second guy says, "I spent a ton too. My wife is at home planning the cruise I gave her. She was up to her eyeballs in brochures."
The third guy says "Well my wife is at home admiring her new car, reading the manual."
They all turned to the last guy in the group who is staring at them like they have lost their minds.
"I can't believe you all went to such expense for this golf game. I slapped my wife on the butt and said, ‘Well babe, Merry Christmas!It's a great morning -- intercourse or golf course --She said, “don’t forget your sweater.”
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