1/ Paul Krugman with yet another excellent column titled "Oligarchy, American Style", and he points out the spin machine is trying to blur the reality that there is indeed an oligarchy......
Whenever growing income disparities threaten to come into focus, a reliable set of defenders tries to bring back the blur. Think tanks put out reports claiming that inequality isn’t really rising, or that it doesn’t matter. Pundits try to put a more benign face on the phenomenon, claiming that it’s not really the wealthy few versus the rest, it’s the educated versus the less educated.
So what you need to know is that all of these claims are basically attempts to obscure the stark reality: We have a society in which money is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few people, and in which that concentration of income and wealth threatens to make us a democracy in name only.
The budget office laid out some of that stark reality in a recent report, which documented a sharp decline in the share of total income going to lower- and middle-income Americans. We still like to think of ourselves as a middle-class country. But with the bottom 80 percent of households now receiving less than half of total income, that’s a vision increasingly at odds with reality.
2/ Speaking of at odds with reality, SNL does a 2 minute segment on the Kim Kardashian divorce, with Kristen Wiig as the mother......very funny, nails this pathetic bunch of clowns......
3/ Rachael Maddow interviews Michael Moore on the Occupy movement, and he spells out the diversity of the people demonstrating, from all classes and all walks of life. There are two parts to the interview, 8 minutes and the second clip of 6 minutes. The second one is better......
Rachael also makes the point the media isn't covering how many Occupy cities are active.....basically there are active groups in every American city.....we even had an Occupy Tavares meeting that had about 120 people!
Michael Moore makes a lot of sense....I just wish he would clean up just a little......
4/ This is an astonishing story even for some of you more jaded readers who can't be surprised by the blatant, out-in-the-open corruption in our system - BofA has pulled off a coup.....again, and transferred gazillions of worthless junk from Merrill Lynch [their problem] to Bank of America, where it becomes our problem as BofA is too big to fail.
These bastards are doing this with the tacit approval of the Federal Reserve......
An amazing tale of how the oligarchy protects itself, at our expense.....if this won't make you go down and join your local Occupy movement nothing will......
And if you bank at Bank Of America, move your damned account. You are supporting these bastards.
My good friend Nomi Prins has a great new piece out that I just caught on Zero Hedge, chronicling 10 reasons why depositors should pull out of Bank of America.
Obviously Goldman, Sachs has become the great symbol of investment banking corruption, and other companies like AIG and Countrywide have become poster children for problems with businesses like insurance and mortgage-lending. But when it comes to commercial banking, Bank of America is as bad as it gets.
The markets, of course, have lately come to agree, as B of A has lately been downgraded again to just above junk status. The only reason the bank is not rated even lower than that is that it is Too Big To Fail. The whole world knows that if Bank of America implodes – whether because of the vast number of fraud suits it faces for mortgage securitization practices, or because of the time bomb of toxic assets on its balance sheets – the U.S. government will probably step in to one degree or another and save it.
The government’s patronage of the bank was never clearer than in recent weeks, when B of A quietly decided to move trillions of dollars (trillions, not billions) in risky Merrill Lynch derivatives contracts off Merrill’s books and onto the books of the parent/retail arm, Bank of America.
This decision was done at the behest of counterparties to those transactions, who wanted those contracts placed under the aegis of Bank of America, whose deposits are insured by the FDIC. The move was made, according to reports, so that Bank of America could avoid posting $3.3 billion in collateral to satisfy the company’s creditors. In other words, Bank of America just got You the Taxpayer to co-sign as much as $53 trillion worth of dicey derivative contracts.
The FDIC wasn’t pleased by the move, but the Fed apparently encouraged it.
5/ Love a good magic act, and this one is excellent.....how do they do this stuff?
6/ Herman Cain......oh lordy, what a certified asshole.....Charles Blow takes him apart with commentary on the racial aspects of his candidacy....
There are now at least three women who have accused Herman Cain, the Republican presidential candidate, of sexual harassment. On the broad point, he has been clear. He says that he has never sexually harassed anyone. But, on the details, he’s been shaky. Typical Cain. He and granularity don’t get along.
There’s no way for me to evaluate the veracity of the claims. The details remain murky. Anyone can accuse another of anything, innocuous actions can be perceived as predatory and there can be reasons other than guilt for settling a claim. That said, the fact that there are now three accusers and only one denier must be considered. It’s not just his word again hers. It’s his word against hers and hers and hers.
Furthermore, sexual harassment charges are different from other kinds of scandals. Workplace harassment by a superior is invariably about an abuse of power. So if you aspire to be the most powerful man in the world, the answers to the questions become quite relevant.
Cain’s answers to date simply haven’t satisfied. They’ve been as ham-handed as it gets. He’s flip-flopped like a fresh-caught-fish in the bottom of the boat. Even if he didn’t remember the allegations, surely he could have gotten and read through the settlements before submitting to interviews. Right? Right?!
7/ It was a sad day when the PBS show "Bill Moyers Journal" went off the air when he retired, but here is the transcript of a recent speech he gave and his comments on the Occupy movement and the struggles of the middle class.....
Excellent.......
You can understand why. We hold elections, knowing they are unlikely to produce the policies favored by the majority of Americans. We speak, we write, we advocate - and those in power turn deaf ears and blind eyes to our deepest aspirations. We petition, plead, and even pray - yet the earth that is our commons, which should be passed on in good condition to coming generations, continues to be despoiled. We invoke the strain in our national DNA that attests to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" as the produce of political equality - yet private wealth multiplies as public goods are beggared. And the property qualifications for federal office that the framers of the Constitution expressly feared as an unseemly "veneration for wealth" are now openly in force; the common denominator of public office, even for our judges, is a common deference to cash.
So if belief in the "the dogma of democracy" seems only skin deep, there are reasons for it. During the prairie revolt that swept the Great Plains a century after the Constitution was ratified, the populist orator Mary Elizabeth Lease exclaimed: "Wall Street owns the country...Our laws are the output of a system which clothes rascals in robes and honesty in rags. The [political] parties lie to us and the political speakers mislead us...Money rules."
That was 1890. Those agrarian populists boiled over with anger that corporations, banks, and government were ganging up to deprive every day people of their livelihood.
She should see us now.
8/ A two minute video of a "Murmuration" of starlings....a rare event........nature at its finest, just wonderful.....
9/ A classic Jon Stewart.......nailing Cain and Perry.......
10/ I love these Carol Burnett show clips - this one is Burnett and Harvey Korman, called "Wrong Number".......
11/ So the latest figures show the increase in greenhouse gases are even worse than the worst case scenario estimates of 2007 - a story you won't see on Fox News.....
But who cares - it seems to be the official policy of the US government that we don't give a shit about global warming, so in the words of Alfred E. Newman "What, me worry?".....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The global output of heat-trapping carbon dioxide jumped by the biggest amount on record, the U.S. Department of Energy calculated, a sign of how feeble the world's efforts are at slowing man-made global warming.
The new figures for 2010 mean that levels of greenhouse gases are higher than the worst case scenario outlined by climate experts just four years ago.
"The more we talk about the need to control emissions, the more they are growing," said John Reilly, co-director of MIT's Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change.
The world pumped about 564 million more tons (512 million metric tons) of carbon into the air in 2010 than it did in 2009. That's an increase of 6 percent. That amount of extra pollution eclipses the individual emissions of all but three countries - China, the United States and India, the world's top producers of greenhouse gases.
It is a "monster" increase that is unheard of, said Gregg Marland, a professor of geology at Appalachian State University, who has helped calculate Department of Energy figures in the past.
12/ A raunchy [ho's in bikinis], strange [set in a junkyard], great car [Audi RS8] and gritty music video with Afrojack and Eva Simons "Take Over Control".......good dance song though.....
13/ A little stupid, but quite original......the disappearing car......2 minutes......
14/ Here it is - a concrete example of what is now the official State of Florida attitude towards the environment - we don't care.
Rick Scott and the corporations have gutted an already compliant body, our old friend the St. Johns Water Management Agency, to the point that state parks and sensitive areas are being destroyed.
Welcome to the future.
Daytona Beach and the region's main water authority went to war last year over whether the city was pumping the life out of a state forest.
The St. Johns River Water Management District feared the city's water wells were sucking dry the wetlands and lakes within Tiger Bay State Forest.
Denying blame for ailing swamps near its wells, the city sued the district, seeking to extend its right to pump 16 million gallons a day from the region's underground aquifer. A judge ordered the two sides to negotiate, and they agreed to start fresh this year on a new pumping permit.
But then newly elected Gov. Rick Scott, with the Legislature's help, cut the district's source of revenue by one-fourth and ordered it to ease up in its dealings with water utilities.
Now Daytona Beach is pressing for a permit that would last twice as long as its current one — and wouldn't hold it accountable for what's happening west of the city in Tiger Bay State Forest.
Since the Scott administration's downsizing of the region's water-management district, the refocused agency has started making permit concessions that its staff previously would have rejected as potentially harmful to Florida's watery environment.
The St. Johns River Water Management District feared the city's water wells were sucking dry the wetlands and lakes within Tiger Bay State Forest.
Denying blame for ailing swamps near its wells, the city sued the district, seeking to extend its right to pump 16 million gallons a day from the region's underground aquifer. A judge ordered the two sides to negotiate, and they agreed to start fresh this year on a new pumping permit.
But then newly elected Gov. Rick Scott, with the Legislature's help, cut the district's source of revenue by one-fourth and ordered it to ease up in its dealings with water utilities.
Now Daytona Beach is pressing for a permit that would last twice as long as its current one — and wouldn't hold it accountable for what's happening west of the city in Tiger Bay State Forest.
Since the Scott administration's downsizing of the region's water-management district, the refocused agency has started making permit concessions that its staff previously would have rejected as potentially harmful to Florida's watery environment.
15/ Speaking of our wonderful Governor, it seems his former company Solantic is closing it's office in Jacksonville and moving to Tennessee with lots of jobs lost.......what an evil bastard he is.....
TALLAHASSEE — The chain of health care clinics started by Gov. Rick Scott is moving some jobs out of Florida, a financial newspaper in Jacksonville reported.
Scott, who has staked his legacy on job creation, said Wednesday it was "disappointing" to learn his former company, Solantic, was moving an unknown number of executive positions to Nashville.
"I believe that we've put ourselves in a position that this is the best state to build businesses." Scott said. "But some people I guess don't agree with me."
Scott founded Solantic in 2001, and the company has grown to 32 urgent-care clinics around the state. Scott sold the company in June to the New York investment firm of Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe after repeated questions about how the clinics could benefit from his health care agenda.
Solantic spokeswoman Mandy Villalva told the Financial News & Daily Record in Jacksonville that the company's executive team was moving to a new corporate headquarters in Nashville and that employees had been notified.
16/ And an editorial from the Tampa Bay Tribune on how the big polluters have won again, and our water is going to continue to be degraded.....
The EPA sold us out.....they're afraid of the corporate oligarchs.......
Why is the federal government continuing to reward Florida for dragging its feet on cleaning up dirty waters? The latest gift to the state's big polluters and their enablers in Tallahassee came this week when the Environmental Protection Agency gave tentative approval to new state pollution standards. The rules are far short of what Florida waterways need — a testament to politics winning out over science.
The EPA is backing off a long-running fight at the expense of public health, the environment and tourism. In 1998, the federal government told the states to limit nutrient pollution in lakes, rivers and coastal areas by 2004 or it would do the job for them. But the deadline came and went. Environmental groups sued in 2008 seeking to compel the EPA to intervene under the Clean Water Act. The agency settled the case in 2009 under an agreement that it would draft the standards for Florida. After 11 years of stalling, new rules were on the way and expected this year.
Todays Military joke
NO SEX Since 1955
A crusty old Marine Sergeant Major found himself at a gala event hosted by a local liberal arts college.
There was no shortage of extremely young idealistic ladies in attendance, one of whom approached the Sergeant Major for conversation.
"Excuse me, Sergeant Major, but you seem to be a very serious man. Is something bothering you?"
"Negative, ma'am. Just serious by nature."
The young lady looked at his awards and decorations and said, "It looks like you have seen a lot of action."
"Yes, ma'am, a lot of action."
The young lady, tiring of trying to start up a conversation, said, "You know, you should lighten up. Relax and enjoy yourself."
The Sergeant Major just stared at her in his serious manner.
Finally the young lady said, "You know, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but when is the last time you had sex?"
"1955, ma'am."
"Well, there you are. No wonder you're so serious. You really need to chill out! I mean, no sex since 1955! She took his hand and led him to a private room where she proceeded to "relax" him several times.
Afterwards, panting for breath, she leaned against his bare chest and said, "Wow, you sure didn't forget much since 1955."
The Sergeant Major said, after glancing at his watch, "I hope not; it's only 2130 now."
A crusty old Marine Sergeant Major found himself at a gala event hosted by a local liberal arts college.
There was no shortage of extremely young idealistic ladies in attendance, one of whom approached the Sergeant Major for conversation.
"Excuse me, Sergeant Major, but you seem to be a very serious man. Is something bothering you?"
"Negative, ma'am. Just serious by nature."
The young lady looked at his awards and decorations and said, "It looks like you have seen a lot of action."
"Yes, ma'am, a lot of action."
The young lady, tiring of trying to start up a conversation, said, "You know, you should lighten up. Relax and enjoy yourself."
The Sergeant Major just stared at her in his serious manner.
Finally the young lady said, "You know, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but when is the last time you had sex?"
"1955, ma'am."
"Well, there you are. No wonder you're so serious. You really need to chill out! I mean, no sex since 1955! She took his hand and led him to a private room where she proceeded to "relax" him several times.
Afterwards, panting for breath, she leaned against his bare chest and said, "Wow, you sure didn't forget much since 1955."
The Sergeant Major said, after glancing at his watch, "I hope not; it's only 2130 now."
Todays Canadian joke
A woman from Vancouver, who was a tree hugger and anti-hunter, purchased acres
of timberland near Lake Cowichan, Vancouver Island.
There was a huge tree on one of the highest points in the tract.
She wanted to view the natural splendor of her land, so she climbed the tree.
As she neared the top, she encountered an endangered spotted owl.
It attacked her! In her haste to escape, the woman slid down the tree to the ground.
The ensuing fall incurred several splinters of wood in her crotch.
In considerable pain, she hurried to the nearest doctor, 35 minutes away in Duncan.
She told him she was an environmentalist and anti-hunter and how she came to receive all of the splinters.
The doctor listened to her story with great patience.
He then told her to go into the examining room and he would see if he could help.
The impatient patient sat, and sat, and waited for three hours before the doctor reappeared.
The angry woman demanded, 'What took you so long?'
He smiled and said, 'Well, I had to get permits from Environment Canada, the BC Forest Service and Work safe BC, before I could remove old-growth timber from a recreational area.
I'm sorry, but they turned me down.'
There was a huge tree on one of the highest points in the tract.
She wanted to view the natural splendor of her land, so she climbed the tree.
As she neared the top, she encountered an endangered spotted owl.
It attacked her! In her haste to escape, the woman slid down the tree to the ground.
The ensuing fall incurred several splinters of wood in her crotch.
In considerable pain, she hurried to the nearest doctor, 35 minutes away in Duncan.
She told him she was an environmentalist and anti-hunter and how she came to receive all of the splinters.
The doctor listened to her story with great patience.
He then told her to go into the examining room and he would see if he could help.
The impatient patient sat, and sat, and waited for three hours before the doctor reappeared.
The angry woman demanded, 'What took you so long?'
He smiled and said, 'Well, I had to get permits from Environment Canada, the BC Forest Service and Work safe BC, before I could remove old-growth timber from a recreational area.
I'm sorry, but they turned me down.'
Todays IRS joke
The IRS auditor was not surprised when Grandpa showed up
with his attorney.
The auditor said, 'Well, sir, you have an extravagant lifestyle
and no full-time employment, Which you explain by saying
that you win money gambling. I'm not sure the IRS finds that believable.'
I'm a great gambler, and I can prove it,' says Grandpa. 'How
about a demonstration?'
The auditor thinks for a moment and said, 'Okay. Go ahead.'
Grandpa says, 'I'll bet you a thousand dollars that I can bite my own eye.'
The auditor thinks a moment and says, 'It's a bet.'
Grandpa removes his glass eye and bites it. The auditor's jaw drops.
Grandpa says, 'Now, I'll bet you two thousand dollars that I can bite my other eye.'
Now the auditor can tell Grandpa isn't blind, so he takes the bet.
Grandpa removes his dentures and bites his good eye.
The stunned auditor now realizes he has wagered and lost three grand, with Grandpa's attorney as a witness. He starts to get nervous.
'Want to go double or nothing?' Grandpa asks 'I'll bet you six thousand dollars that I can stand on one side of your desk, and pee into that wastebasket on the other side, and never get a drop anywhere in between.'
The auditor, twice burned, is cautious now, but he looks carefully and decides there's no way this old guy could possibly manage that stunt, so he agrees again.
Grandpa stands beside the desk and unzips his pants, but
although he strains mightily, he can't make the stream reach
the wastebasket on the other side, so he pretty much urinates all over the auditor's desk.
The auditor leaps with joy, realizing that he has just turned a major loss into a huge win.
But Grandpa's own attorney moans and puts his head in
his hands.
'Are you okay?' the auditor asks.
'Not really,' says the attorney. 'This morning, when Grandpa
told me he'd been summoned for an audit, he bet me twenty-five thousand dollars that he could come in here and piss all over your desk and that you'd be happy about it!'
I keep telling you! Don't Mess with Old People
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