1/. Some of you may listen to Thom Hartmann on his radio show, but here he has written a warning story of what's coming for the middle class....servitude.
I have often wondered about the end game of this assault on working people in the US - what do the elites want? Why are they so relentlessly gutting the middle class?
This is the answer - they want a nation of frightened, indentured and compliant wage slaves to make them richer....Hunger Games indeed....
A 21st-century form of indentured servitude has already penetrated deep into the American heartland
Corporations want to make sure that laborers never again have the power to tell big business how to treat them
(Credit: Reuters/Chris Keane)
This article originally appeared on AlterNet
Indentured servitude is back in a big way in the United States, and conservative corporatists want to make sure that labor never, ever again has the power to tell big business how to treat them.
Idaho, for example, recently passed a law that recognizes and rigorously enforces non-compete agreements in employment contracts, which means that if you want to move to a different, more highly paid, or better job, you can instead get wiped out financially by lawsuits and legal costs.
In a way, conservative/corporatists are just completing the circle back to the founding of this country.
Indentured servitude began in a big way in the early 1600s, when the British East India Company was establishing a beachhead in the (newly stolen from the Indians) state of Virginia (named after the “virgin queen” Elizabeth I, who signed the charter of the BEIC creating the first modern corporation in 1601). Jamestown (named after King James, who followed Elizabeth I to the crown) wanted free labor, and the African slave trade wouldn’t start to crank up for another decade.
So the company made a deal with impoverished Europeans: Come to work for typically 4-7 years (some were lifetime indentures, although those were less common), legally as the property of the person or company holding your indenture, and we’ll pay for your transport across the Atlantic.
2/. Trump gave a speech to the Boy Scouts this week, and the Scouts were outraged at the tone of his remarks - this was probably the substance you have heard or read about this weird speech.
But watch this segment from Stephen Colbert to see the sheer craziness of what he actually said.....Colbert makes it a very funny six minutes, but you realize Trump is deeply troubled and who knows, probably clinically insane....
It's most disturbing....
President Donald Trump delivered one of his oddest speeches yet to the Boy Scouts national jamboree on Tuesday, a speech so deranged that satirist Stephen Colbert did not even have to provide that much commentary. “The Late Show” just rolled the tapes.
“It’s no surprise he went to the Boy Scouts,” the comedian said during his opening monologue Tuesday. “With all his scandals, he needs someone good at putting out fires.”
“This is an event for children from all over the country, and it is completely a non-partisan event,” he explained further,”so Trump left the politics and just talked about his hopes for their future. I’m just kidding.”
Some of the highlights from the speech included the time the president started boasting of his crowd size — a peculiar thing to celebrate, considering the Boy Scouts of America were hosting the event themselves.
“I cannot believe all these people turned out to for the Super Bowl just because I am here,” Colbert said in his Trump voice. “I also am very honored there are 7 billion people on Earth right now, just to see me.”
3/. And don't look to Democrats to help you against the oligarchs.....they are in cahoots with them in many ways....
Six months into Donald Trump’s term, and Democratic politician’s ability to be an opposition party is, in a word, pathetic.
When the poll came out saying that “Democrats stand for nothing more than opposing” Trump, I thought to myself, ‘If only that were true!’” But they can’t even do that well. When House Democratic Caucus chairman Joe Crowley was asked by the Associated Press just what his party’s core message was, he “hesitated” and then said, “That message is being worked on.”
It was as tone deaf (but honest) an answer as when Mother Jones writer Kevin Drum – as sycophantic a representative of the Democratic party in the punditocracy as there is – wrote about how people would have to be “crazy” not to “have a reflective disgust” of people who are homeless and mentally ill.
Considering homeless people are also disproportionately black, LGBT, disabledand, of course, poor, Drum managed to reveal the disdain the liberal elite has of wide swaths of Americans.
Indeed, many of the most powerful Democratic politicians and donors seem to hate the sick and poor almost as much as Trump does.
4/. A very funny Seth Meyers on many topics from the news.....eleven minutes well worth watching, he's on form in this segment.......
“Late Night” host Seth Meyers did not hold back Monday while discussing President Donald Trump’s new communications director, Anthony Scaramucci.
Scaramucci, a former hedge fund manager who was once shut down in the most presidential way by Barack Obama, appeared before the media during a news conference Friday. He gushed about how much he “loves” Trump and bragged about the president’s athletic abilities.
Meyers wasn’t buying any of it.
“He’s a human pinkie ring,” Meyers joked. “He’s the human embodiment of a double-parked BMW. He looks like the guy who leaves a doo-wop group over creative differences.”
5/. And this is the result of story #1 and #3, the elites' attack on the poor with minimal opposition from the Democrats - desperate, sick Trump voters lining up for basic health care....an excellent photo journalism piece from the Times...
WISE, Va. — Anthony Marino, 54, reached into his car trunk to show a pair of needle-nosed pliers like the ones he used to yank out a rotting tooth.
Shirley Akers, 58, clutched a list of 20 medications she takes, before settling down to a sleepless night in the cab of a pickup truck.
Robin Neal, 40, tried to inject herself with a used-up insulin pen, but it broke, and her blood sugar began to skyrocket.
As the sun set in the mountains of southwest Virginia, hundreds of hurting souls were camped out or huddled in vehicles, eager for an early place in line when the gates swung open at 5 a.m. for the nation’s largest pop-up free clinic.
6/. The Donald Trump Jr. meeting may be last weeks news, but it's worth seeing Stephen Colbert's very funny spin on it.....2 very good minutes....
Stephen Colbert examined the “varied cast of characters” who attended Donald Trump Jr.’s Russian lawyer meeting on Friday’s “Late Show.”
And he came to an entertaining conclusion about the people who gathered together in June 2016 after Trump Jr. was offered dirt on his father’s Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.
According to Colbert, the rendezvous of the “rag-tag team” bore a striking resemblance to a “heist movie.” In particular, “Ocean’s Eleven.”
“‘Collusions Eleven,’” he jokingly titled this new (spoof) movie. “Coming this summer to a federal investigation near you.”
7/. Interesting story, and it tries to explain why the Dems keep losing in Florida, and it doesn't even mention the rigged voting machines in the red counties and the voters summarily struck from the rolls in blue ones....
Incompetence plus sabotage means Republicans running everything...
© Getty Images
8/. "The Mooch" is the latest clown in Trumpland, and Stephen Colbert fills you in on why this guy is a certified asshole....11 funny minutes....
Stephen Colbert has already got his impression of President Donald Trump’s new communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, down to a tee.
On Monday’s “Late Show,” Colbert debuted his impersonation of the former hedge fund executive’s address to reporters on Friday, following Sean Spicer’s resignation as White House press secretary. And it’s hilarious.
After referencing a report in which White House staffers had labelled Scaramucci as “a joke” who “isn’t qualified for the job,” Colbert quipped that those were the actual “qualifications for the job.”
9/. The Mooch! Good cartoon from our Mount Dora local Taylor Jones....
10/. Matt Taibbi on why the banksters are salivating about the next present the Trump is going to give them - Fannie and Freddie.
Taibbi really has his finger on the financial pulse.....and you won't hear or read about this in the mainstream media....
In August 2012, a few months before Barack Obama told Mitt Romney the Eighties had called and wanted their foreign policy back, the U.S. government made a momentous and little-discussed decision. It unilaterally changed the terms of the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, seizing all of the companies' profits.
The government originally insisted on a 10 percent annual dividend in exchange for what ultimately became a $187 billion rescue. In 2012, the government quietly changed that 10 percent deal to one in which the state simply seized all profits. Government regulators euphemistically described this as "fully capturing financial benefits." The press paid almost no attention to this event.
"New Bailout Terms for Fannie, Freddie," wrote the Washington Post, in a page-8 yawner. "Treasury Pinches Fannie and Freddie," sighed the Philadelphia Inquirer, in 439 words on page 7.
This was not, however, an inside-pages news story. It was one of the most important decisions of the bailout era.
11/. Above and Beyond with "You Got To Go", from the live concert at Porchester Hall.....featuring Zoe Johnston and the full orchestra, including a harp and a broom.....it's wonderful to watch some of the worlds best musicians play such lovely smooth jazz....
12/. Do you know what the Republicans have done to Florida's education system? Thought not......read on, and wonder why we keep putting up with the blatant corruption and stupidity.....
President Trump speaks to fourth-grade students as he tours St. Andrew Catholic School in Orlando on March 3, with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, second from left, as well as White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, left, and Ivanka Trump. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)
The K-12 education system in Florida — the one that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos likes to praise as a model for the nation — is in chaos.
Traditional public school districts are trying to absorb the loss of millions of dollars for the new school year that starts within weeks. That money, which comes from local property taxes, is used for capital funding but now must be shared with charter schools as a result of a widely criticized $419 million K-12 public education bill crafted by Republican legislative leaders in secret and recently signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott — at a Catholic school.
Critics, including some Republicans, say the law will harm traditional public schools, threaten services for students who live in poverty and curb local control of education while promoting charter schools and a state-funded voucher program.
Todays oldie joke
An old fella was celebrating 92 years on this earth.
He spoke to his toes. "Hello toes.", he said. "How are you? You know, you are
92 today. Oh the times we've had! Remember how we walked in the park in the
summer every Sunday afternoon. The times we waltzed on the dance floor?
Happy Birthday toes!"
"Hello, knees.", he continued. "How are you? You know you're 92 today..
Oh, the times we've had! Remember when we marched in the parade?
Oh, the hurdles we've jumped together. Happy Birthday, knees."
Then, he looked down at his crotch. "Hello Willie! You little bugger. Just think.
If you were alive today, you'd be 92.
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Todays parenting joke
A woman and her ten-year-old son were riding in a taxi. It was raining and all the prostitutes were standing under the awnings.“Mum," said the boy, "what are all those women doing?"“They're waiting for their husbands to get off work," she replied.The taxi driver turns round and says, "Geez lady, why don't you tell him the truth? They’re hookers, boy! They have sex with men for money.”The little boy’s eyes got wide and he said, "Is that true, Mum?"His mother, glaring hard at the taxi driver, answered in the affirmative.After a few minutes, the kid asked, “Mum, what happens to their babies?"“Well, Son, most of them become taxi drivers," she said.
Todays blond joke
A blonde, a brunette, and a redhead all work at the same office for a female boss who always goes home early.
"Hey girls," says the brunette, "Let's go home early tomorrow. She'll never know."
The next day, they all leave right after the boss does. The brunette gets some extra gardening done, the redhead goes to a bar, and the blonde goes home to find her husband having sex with the female boss!
She quietly sneaks out of the house and returns at her normal time.
"That was fun," says the brunette. "We should do it again sometime."
"No way," says the blonde. "I almost got caught!"
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