1/ How do the uberwealthy divert attention from any efforts to tax them properly? By demonizing the poor, muddling any discussion of the gross inequality of US society and repeating over and over how the rich deserve their wealth......
Paul Krugman tells us how they do it.......
The Undeserving Rich
The reality of rising American inequality is stark. Since the late 1970s real wages for the bottom half of the work force havestagnated or fallen, while the incomes of the top 1 percent havenearly quadrupled (and the incomes of the top 0.1 percent have risen even more). While we can and should have a serious debate about what to do about this situation, the simple fact — American capitalism as currently constituted is undermining the foundations of middle-class society — shouldn’t be up for argument.
But it is, of course. Partly this reflects Upton Sinclair’s famous dictum: It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it. But it also, I think, reflects distaste for the implications of the numbers, which seem almost like an open invitation to class warfare — or, if you prefer, a demonstration that class warfare is already underway, with the plutocrats on offense.
The result has been a determined campaign of statistical obfuscation. At its cruder end this campaign comes close to outright falsification; at its more sophisticated end it involves using fancy footwork to propagate what I think of as the myth of the deserving rich.
For an example of de facto falsification, one need look no further than a recent column by Bret Stephens of The Wall Street Journal, which first accused President Obama (wrongly) of making a factual error, then proceeded to assert that rising inequality was no big deal, because everyone has been making big gains. Why, incomes for the bottom fifth of the U.S. population have risen 186 percent since 1979!
If this sounds wrong to you, it should: that’s a nominal number, not corrected for inflation. You can find the inflation-corrected number in the same Census Bureau table; it shows incomes for the bottom fifth actually falling. Oh, and for the record, at the time of writing this elementary error had not been corrected on The Journal’s website.
O.K., that’s what crude obfuscation looks like. What about the fancier version?
I’ve noted before that conservatives seem fixated on the notion that poverty is basically the result of character problems among the poor. This may once have had a grain of truth to it, but for the past three decades and more the main obstacle facing the poor has been the lack of jobs paying decent wages. But the myth of the undeserving poor persists, and so does a counterpart myth, that of the deserving rich.
2/ Stephen Colbert watched football this Sunday, but has some cautionary words for the Superbowl teams.......as usual, one of the best four minutes of comedy out there......
Stephen Colbert noticed a strange coincidence about this year's Super Bowl: Each team, the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos, hail from a state that has legalized recreational marijuana. And this is an alarming trend for Colbert.
"Pot and football do not mix," he said. "They're like oil and water, or baseball and excitement."
Watch as he points out how this will totally change the Super Bowl experience if they try to cater to stoners. "All the Super Bowl commercials are going to be for munchies, and all the ads are going to have freaky talking babies and animals!"
3/ This is an astonishing story........
Richest 85 boast same wealth as half the world
Eighty-five people control the same amount of wealth as half the world's population.
That is 85 people compared with 3.5 billion.
A new report from Oxfam has been published in time for the World Economic Forum in Davos this week.
It shows the world's ultra-wealthy have not only recovered from the global financial crisis, they have positively blossomed.
The report shows the wealth of the 1 per cent richest people in the world is worth about $US110 trillion, 65 times the total wealth of the bottom half of the world's population.
It also shows the world's richest 85 people control about $US1.7 trillion in wealth, equivalent to the bottom half of the world's population.
And far from hindering the wealthy, the political response to the global financial crisis - including the actions of central banks and the austerity measures introduced by national governments - has made the rich fabulously richer.
In the US, the wealthiest 1 per cent of the population grabbed 95 per cent of post-financial crisis growth between 2009 and 2012, while the bottom 90 per cent became poorer.
But an Oxfam survey of six countries - the United States, UK, Spain, Brazil, India and South Africa - has found that the majority of people believe laws and regulations are skewed in favour of the rich, so people are noticing.
It has called on the world's powerful meeting in Davos to try to stem the tide of rising inequality.
It says seven out of 10 people live in countries where economic inequality has increased in 30 years.
''Given the scale of rising wealth concentrations, opportunity capture and unequal political representation are a serious and worrying trend,'' the report says.
''This massive concentration of economic resources in the hands of fewer people presents a significant threat to inclusive political and economic systems.''
4/ This Footlocker commercial may be airing during Superbowl, but it's worth a preview just for the originality.......and the sports stars in it........the Mike Tyson bits achieve the impossible, liking the bastard.....one amusing minute.......
Kyrie Irving stars in Foot Locker's recent commercial promoting the "Week of Greatness," as FootLocker states is "a week of the most premium shoe releases that can right all the world's wrongs." Mike Tyson apologizes to Evander Holyfield and returns his ear, Brett Favre realizes he has to walk away, Dennis Rodman purchases a one-way ticket to North Korea and Craig Sager burns his wardrobe. #Amazing.
5/ This Tea Party lunatic is running for Governor of California....he has no chance, but have a look at his three minute web ad......the strangest political message ever.....
That's not his wife - it's Maria Conchita Alonso......
California Republican Assemblyman Tim Donnelly almost certainly won’t succeed in his quest to become the Golden State’s governor, but give him this much: He’s made what’ll probably be the most bizarre political ad of the 2014 cycle.
Donnelly’s three-minute Web ad, titled “The People United,” is strange in a few ways. For one thing, Donnelly apparently decided that the best way to win back California’s Latino community — whom he has no doubt thoroughly alienated with his Minuteman vigilantism — is to have Cuban-born actress and singer María Conchita Alonso join him in the ad, translating (and sometimes reinterpreting) whatever he says into Spanish. This leads to a few weird moments, like when Alonso challenges Donnelly’s contention that his wife is the sexiest woman in California, or when she implies that he has big testicles — “big ones,” as she puts it.
6/ Just because you haven't heard much from the abortion loonies doesn't mean they haven't been hard at work behind the scenes at the state level. This is an excellent article from Rolling Stone detailing how the anti-abortion zealots are winning in many of the stupid states......
The Stealth War on Abortion
While more Americans support upholding 'Roe v. Wade' than ever, the Tea Party and the Christian right have teamed up to pass hundreds of restrictions eviscerating abortion rights in GOP-controlled state legislatures across the country
On the morning of December 11th, Gretchen Whitmer, the charismatic 42-year-old minority leader of the Michigan Senate, stood before her colleagues in the Statehouse in Lansing, and told them something she'd told almost no one before. "Over 20 years ago, I was a victim of rape," she said. "And thank God it didn't result in a pregnancy, because I can't imagine going through what I went through and then having to consider what to do about an unwanted pregnancy from an attacker."
No one in the gallery said a word. Instead, with just hours to go before it broke for Christmas recess, Michigan's overwhelmingly male, Republican-dominated Legislature, having held no hearings nor even a substantive debate, voted to pass one of the most punishing pieces of anti-abortion legislation anywhere in the country: the Abortion Insurance Opt-Out Act, which would ban abortion coverage, even in cases of rape or incest, from virtually every health-insurance policy issued in the state. Women and their employers wanting this coverage will instead have to purchase a separate rider – often described as "rape insurance." Whitmer, a Democrat known as a fierce advocate for women's issues, described the new law as "by far one of the most misogynistic proposals I've seen in the Michigan Legislature."
And it's not just Michigan. Eight other states now have laws preventing abortion coverage under comprehensive private insurance plans – only one of them, Utah, makes an exception for rape. And 24 states, including such traditionally blue states as Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, ban some forms of abortion coverage from policies purchased through the new health exchanges. While cutting insurance coverage of abortion in disparate states might seem to be a separate issue from the larger assault on reproductive rights, it is in fact part of a highly coordinated and so far chillingly successful nationwide campaign, often funded by the same people who fund the Tea Party, to make it harder and harder for women to terminate unwanted pregnancies, and also to limit their access to many forms of contraception.
7/ This is a four minute video of the Alpine Coaster in Mieders, Austria........think of a bobsled on rails, but faster! Looks like fun.......Mary - how much is a r/t to Vienna?
8/ Welcome back Bill Maher! He nails this closing segment with his New Year resolutions....an excellent five minutes of Bill on great form....
Bill Maher ended his first show of the new year with some resolutions for America, ranging from the War in Afghanistan to a more productive Congress toDuck Dynasty, especially to “stop hanging onto stupid stuff long after it’s relevant just because it’s tradition” like the penny, the Drug War, Daylight Savings Time, and having two Dakotas.
Maher compared Afghanistan to a bad relationship, suggesting it’s like “dating a girl for thirteen years who tried to kill you every day.” He also took on Congress for being less productive than ever and the country at large for being behind the rest to the point where “there are girls on 16 and Pregnant who aren’t this consistently late.”
9/ A very well made mini-documentary from a San Diego TV station, detailing the absolute madness of our food production system. They go into how fish, meat, vegetables and fruit make it into the supermarket, and how the relentless drive for efficiency has cost us the integrity of what we all eat. This is not a heavy expose of nasty factory farms - it's fact based and quite entertaining with an emphasis on Southern California farming and ranching.
But while I was watching this very good primer on our food system, I was conscious of the fact the farmers in the West are about to be hit with major water shortages, and wonder how much longer they can keep producing a lot of the country's supply of produce.
Very good indeed - 26 minutes.....
"Food" is a 26-minute documentary that investigates how demand for more and cheaper food has dramatically altered the entire food chain. Today, food production revolves around efficiency—the ability to produce more for less. The ramifications of this mindset are wide-ranging and far-reaching...
As KPBS’ Joanne Faryon reports, “the food chain no longer looks like it used to.” Fish no longer eat other fish, and cattle eat very little grass, which is their natural food source. Instead, cattle eat corn, chickens eat corn and fish, and fish eat cows and poultry... Similarly, fresh produce like fruits and vegetables are primarily sold to foreign markets.
California oranges, for example, are exported to far flung places like Japan, while Americans eat oranges from Australia—presumably because Americans prefer the deeper orange color of Australian oranges, and the fact that they’re easier to peel. As a result, the carbon footprint of most foods sold in your local grocery store is massive, having made its way thousands of miles from where it was grown.
10/ I love Neil Degrasse Tyson - he really tells it like it is, but this message won't be popular with certain people......you know who you are!
Five minutes of no BS......
Neil deGrasse Tyson: Science and Religion Are Not ‘Reconcilable,’ So Stop Trying
America’s favorite astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson sat down with PBS’ Bill Moyers Friday for an extended conversation about science, religion and the universe. Addressing science teachers who want to teach creationism in the classroom, Tyson said they can worship whatever God they want as long as they “keep it out” of the classroom.
Tyson said he does not believe that faith and reason are “reconcilable” so he refuses to give credit to those who are trying to do so. “The track record is so poor,” he said, “the going forward I have essentially zero confidence that there would be fruitful things to emerge from the effort to reconcile them.” He went on to explain that as more scientific discoveries are made, the more “figurative” religious texts like the Bible become.
“Educated religious people are perfectly fine with that,” he said. “It’s the fundamentalists who want to say that the Bible is the literal truth of God and want to see the Bible as a science textbook who are knocking on the science doors of schools… Enlightened religious people are not acting that way.”
11/ The big boys know the truth about climate change and the energy companies realise their business model wrecks the planet, but even though they know the damage they are causing not only are they ploughing ahead with more drilling, fracking and coal mining, they are funding the climate denier industry.
How do these bastards sleep at night?
Climate skeptics in Congress, and oil and coal industry lobbyists like the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the American Coal Council (ACC) may be preventing any significant action in the US on reducing this country’s emissions of carbon into the atmosphere, but at the Pentagon, and in the executive suites of the oil industry giants, there is no doubt about the reality of climate change.
As Admiral Robert J. Papp of the US Coast Guard wrote in 2012 in the magazine of the US Naval Institute:
“The world may seem to be growing smaller, but its seas are growing bigger—particularly in the great North, where a widening water-highway beckons both with resources and challenges.”
Admiral Papp didn’t futz around. Without any caveats or bows to corrupted scientists on the payroll of the Koch Brothers, he wrote:
“The Arctic Ocean, in the northern region of the Arctic Circle, is changing from a solid expanse of inaccessible ice fields into a growing navigable sea, attracting increased human activity and unlocking access to vast economic potential and energy resources. In the 35 years since I first saw Kotzebue, Alaska, on the Chukchi Sea as a junior officer, the sea ice has receded from the coast so much that when I returned last year the coastal area was ice-free. The shipping, oil-and-gas, and tourism industries continue to expand with the promise of opportunity and fortune in previously inaccessible areas. Experts estimate that in another 25 years the Arctic Ocean could be ice-free during the summer months.”
How can executives of these companies, whose scientists are assuring them that there’s big money to be made tapping the vast oil and gas reserves known to lie beneath the shallow Arctic waters now being relieved of their ice cover for the first time in millions of years, be simultaneously lobbying Congress and paying for propaganda campaigns designed to sow doubts among the public about the true climate-change situation? How can Congress and the Obama administration, who know that the Navy is gearing up to patrol and defend a whole new coast line and vast new stretches of heretofore inaccessible territorial waters north of Alaska -- even contemplating confrontations and boundary disputes with a newly assertive Canada -- be failing to adopt even minimal efforts to slow rampaging climate change by working to significantly limit the burning of fossil fuels in the US?
http://www.nationofchange.org/
12/ Superstar DJ Gareth Emery has crafted an incredibly good EDM song, "Concrete Angel", sung by the lovely Christina Novelli.......an interesting video, using lights in buildings in sync with the music, and stop motion....
This is a foot tapper......
13/ West Virginia is a stupid state, but this story argues the cowed citizens will accept any abuse handed out to them because they are partially brainwashed into believing they are "special".....
They're special all right.....
After decades of suffering environmental torture at the hands of polluting industries, West Virginians might regard a chemical spill that poisoned the drinking water of 300,000 residents — and is still scaring folks after the dangers have presumably passed — as a last straw. But there never seems to be a last straw for them.
Though some state legislators have called for reforming the state's famously lax regulations, the general response has been to yell at the media and outsiders. The battle cry: Others don't appreciate the personal sacrifices West Virginians make to provide the nation with chemicals and coal.
It is true. Outsiders don't appreciate them and, furthermore, don't respect them. They can't understand why anyone would let absentee landowners level their mountains and bury their streams in waste. Birds don't dirty their own nests.
The hard-luck people of Appalachia deserve their reputation for physical courage and a strong work ethic. But they suffer more from servility than from bad luck. Outsiders wince when the natives angrily declare their independent spirit and then cringe before corporate polluters, however tawdry.
14/ And speaking of stupid states, let's not forget Floriduh.........why is this story not surprising......
Just remember, they don't all live in the Villages, they're everywhere....
Study: Florida leads nation in tea party membership
A study by a liberal advocacy group says Florida leads the nation in tea party members and organizations.
The study, done by the Seattle-based Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights finds Florida, the nation’s third-largest state, edges out the top two, California and Texas, because of the number of tea party members per capita and number of tea party organizations.
The study said Florida has 36,423 tea party members compared to California’s 40,508 and Texas’s 39,442. But Florida outranked them in members per capita, and also scored high in the number of tea party organizations, 69.
The study found that even though sympathy for the tea party has declined somewhat since last fall’s government shutdown controversy, “core membership in the national Tea Party factions remains high, at over half a million people.” The number of tea party supporters, based on social media comments—tweets and Facebook “likes”—rose during 2013.
It also said the gender breakdown among tea party sympathizers has remained steady since 2010, about two-to-one male.
Todays video - how to adjust your side view mirrors. If you are an average driver, you've always done it a certain way, but it's probably the wrong way. Mary and I both watched this, and changed all of our side mirrors....and it works!
Todays oldies jokes
Getting old in FLORIDA
Two elderly ladies are sitting on the front porch
in Longboat Key, doing nothing.
in Longboat Key, doing nothing.
One lady turns and asks, 'Do you still get horny?'
The other replies, 'Oh sure I do.'
The first old lady asks, 'What do you do about it?'
The second old lady replies, 'I suck a lifesaver.'
After a few moments, the first old lady asks,
'Who drives you to the beach?'
'Who drives you to the beach?'
******************************
Three old ladies were sitting side by side in their
retirement home in Anna Maria Island, reminiscing.
The first lady recalled shopping at the green grocers
and demonstrated with her hands, the length and
thickness of a cucumber she could buy for a penny.
retirement home in Anna Maria Island, reminiscing.
The first lady recalled shopping at the green grocers
and demonstrated with her hands, the length and
thickness of a cucumber she could buy for a penny.
The second old lady nodded, adding that onions
used to be much bigger and cheaper also, and
demonstrated the size of two big onions
she could buy for a penny a piece.
used to be much bigger and cheaper also, and
demonstrated the size of two big onions
she could buy for a penny a piece.
The third old lady remarked,
'I can't hear a word you're saying,
but I remember the guy you're talking about.
'I can't hear a word you're saying,
but I remember the guy you're talking about.
******************************
A little old lady was sitting on a park bench in
On Top Of The World, a Florida adult community.
A man walked over and sits down on the other end of the bench. After a few moments, the woman asks,
'Are you a stranger here?'
On Top Of The World, a Florida adult community.
A man walked over and sits down on the other end of the bench. After a few moments, the woman asks,
'Are you a stranger here?'
He replies, 'I lived here years ago.'
'So, where were you all these years?'
'In prison,' he says.
'Why did they put you in prison?'
He looked at her, and very quietly said,
'I killed my wife.'
'I killed my wife.'
'Oh,' said the woman. 'So you're single?'
******************************
Two elderly people living in Candler Hills,
he was a widower and she a widow,
had known each other for a number of years.
One evening there was a community supper in the Clubhouse.
he was a widower and she a widow,
had known each other for a number of years.
One evening there was a community supper in the Clubhouse.
The two were at the same table, across from one another.
As the meal went on, he took a few admiring glances at her and finally gathered the courage to ask her,
'Will you marry me?'
As the meal went on, he took a few admiring glances at her and finally gathered the courage to ask her,
'Will you marry me?'
After about six seconds of 'careful consideration,'
she answered 'Yes. Yes, I will!'
she answered 'Yes. Yes, I will!'
The meal ended and, with a few more pleasant exchanges, they went to their respective places.
Next morning, he was troubled.
'Did she say 'yes' or did she say 'no'?'
Next morning, he was troubled.
'Did she say 'yes' or did she say 'no'?'
He couldn't remember.
Try as he might, he just could not recall.
Not even a faint memory.
Try as he might, he just could not recall.
Not even a faint memory.
With trepidation, he went to the telephone and called her.
First, he explained that he didn't remember as well
as he used to. Then he reviewed the lovely evening past.
As he gained a little more courage, he inquired,
'When I asked if you would marry me,
did you say 'Yes' or did you say 'No'?'
as he used to. Then he reviewed the lovely evening past.
As he gained a little more courage, he inquired,
'When I asked if you would marry me,
did you say 'Yes' or did you say 'No'?'
He was delighted to hear her say,
'Why, I said, 'Yes, yes I will' and I meant it with all my heart.' Then she continued, 'And I am so glad that you called, because I couldn't remember who had asked me.'
'Why, I said, 'Yes, yes I will' and I meant it with all my heart.' Then she continued, 'And I am so glad that you called, because I couldn't remember who had asked me.'
******************************
A man was telling his neighbor in Port Charlotte,
'I just bought a new hearing aid.
It cost me four thousand dollars,
but it's state of the art. It's perfect.'
'I just bought a new hearing aid.
It cost me four thousand dollars,
but it's state of the art. It's perfect.'
'Really,' answered the neighbor.
'What kind is it?'
'What kind is it?'
'Twelve thirty.'
******************************
Todays military joke
But the old soldier insisted and confirmed his choice provided that the measurement is taken by a military doctor.
Military doctor arrived and asked the Sergeant Major to drop his pants, which he did.
The doctor placed the tape measure on the tip of the penis and proceeded backwards ..'My God!' said the doctor, but where are your testicles?
The old sergeant major replied calmly:
"In Afghanistan! "
Todays hospital joke
HOW IS NORMA?
A sweet grandmother
Telephoned St. Joseph's Hospital. She timidly asked,
"Is it possible to speak to someone who can tell me how a patient is doing?"The operator said,
"I'll be glad to help, dear. What's the name and room number of the patient?"The grandmother in her weak, tremulous voice said, Norma Findlay, Room 302."The operator replied,
"Let me put you on hold while I check with the nurse's station for that room."After a few minutes, the operator returned to the phone and said,
"I have good news. Her nurse just told me that Norma is doing well. Her blood pressure is fine; her blood work just came back normal and her
Physician, Dr. Cohen, has scheduled her to be discharged tomorrow."The grandmother said,
"Thank you. That's wonderful. I was so worried. God bless you for the good
News."The operator replied,
"You're more than welcome. Is Norma your daughter?"The grandmother said, "No, I'm Norma Findlay in Room 302. No one tells me shit."TRUE STORY
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