Bill Moyers on Saul Alinsky
February 6, 2012 in Class War
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Austerity for those who can least afford it as an economic strategy has failed in Romania
February 6, 2012 in Class War, Corporations, Economy
What part of “nothing left to lose” aren’t the Rich understanding?
Like the USA and other nations all over the world, the majority in Romania are rising up against the investor class and their globalization (worker slavery schemes). Romania’s Prime Minister Emil Boc resigns after austerity protests.
Mr Boc had imposed a 25% cut in public sector wages and a freeze on pensions. Sales tax was also increased to 24%, in a country seen as Europe’s second poorest.
The rich seem to think that a flat rate tax or a sales tax are “fair” taxes. That’s because they are clueless to think beyond the own boundaries of their extreme greed and selfishness.
If you remove 25% of the income of a poor person with a sales tax, combined with a 25% cut in their income, you are making a 50% cut in their income. The plutocratic leadership is not removing the ability of the majority to take a vacation cruise, or to buy that second vacation home in Hawaii. They are removing the ability of the majority to put a roof over their heads, and in some cases to even feed themselves and their family.
And why were these measures being implemented? Look no further than the IMF. Romania said it needed to implement the measures to qualify for the next instalment of a 20bn-euro ($25bn; £17bn) bailout loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
As more and more citizens are reduced to the state of “nothing left to lose” you can expect to see more of them in the streets.
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Most people don’t understand how the International Monetary Fund IMF really works. It is just another racket, another get rich scheme designed by and for the rich. by the millionaire investor class plutocrats who run our government.
This is how it works.
First of all, the taxpayers of Western nations provide the funds for IMF. Of course, if you don’t know by now that the rich use other people’s money to make themselves richer, then you have not been paying attention. Not only do we not get to vote on whether we give the IMF money to fund the rich and their schemes, the leaders of our government actively work to hide these huge taxpayer donations to IMF. For example, in June of 2009, the White House hid a several billion dollar donation to IMF within the folds of a military appropriations bill. After all, we know that no American is going to look too closely at a military appropriations bill. The corporate propagandists and war profiteers have made such a great case for war that to be against war is to be against America.
The USA is a 17.72% shareholder in the $950 bn IMF fund. What that translates for us in the USA 99% is a little more than $168 billion of our taxpayer money is currently in the IMF fund. [Source] Timmy Geithner manages that fund for us. How’s that for a warm fuzzy?
IMF comes in and pulls down the panties of a nation to that rich corporations can come in and rape the nation. A perfect example of this happened to Indonesia in 1998. Former-Indonesian President Suharto signed a letter of agreement with IMF in 1998. The letter spelled out major reforms and austerity measures linked to a massive bailout of the Indonesia economy. The fund demanded a king’s ransom from Indonesia as the price for its $40 billion assistance package.
Indonesia was told to raise taxes on state-owned companies;cancel 12 road, bridge and port projects; remove protections on dairy farmers; and eliminate price controls on cement – part of a long list that at one point included 140 items.”
Do you get the picture? raise taxes on state-owned companies so they are less competitive with the private Wall Street Companies that the IMF wants to help import into the country. Infrastructure? Forget about that too! Just like the USA. By the way our crumbling infrastructure in the USA is going to continue to cost even more American lives as our Congress drains the government tax coffers for revenues to pay for it. Raise taxes on the rich–not likely. Not as long as 44% of members of our Congress are multimillionaires.
The Real Tax Burden is borne by those in the USA who can least afford it–not people like Mitt Romney..
February 4, 2012 in Class War
it’s true that the Federal income tax is progressive, although it’s not nearly as progressive as it once was and it’t not at all progressive for many like Mitt Romney from the 1%.
However, the part that the politicians neglect to mention is that other kinds of taxes are not progressive at all. For example, there are payroll taxes. Payroll taxes are not progressive, they are actively regressive. The poor and middle class pay higher rates than the rich. Social security tax is another tax that soaks the working poor and middle class. We pay social security tax on 100% of our income while those who earn in excess of $106,000 a year don’t pay a dime of Social Security tax on income earned above $106,000. Thus a person earning a million dollars a year only pays Social Security tax on 10% of his/her income with the majority of Americans pay Social Security tax on 100% of their income.
What conservatives don’t seem to get through their thick skulls is that a flat tax is an unjust tax. If I have an income of $500,000 a year, paying 15% or 35% of my income in taxes does not affect whether I will be able to feed my family and put a roof over their head. However if I am the head of a household earning $35,000 a year and must pay 20% of my income in federal taxes, that amounts to $7,000 a year and this means that cuts will come–not from how many vacations my family can afford to take but from whether we can have two or three meals a day or whether we can afford to pay the rent, buy clothes or put gas in the car. Such a tax burden on the poor cripples them and keeps them in poverty. A flat tax unfairly burdens those who can least afford it.
Then there are state income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes and other fees. State taxes are not progressive at all. The Corporation for Enterprise Development recently released a scorecard for all 50 states.
Here are the top 20 states. Look at the tax burden by income.
Questions for the bottom 77% to be asking Candidates in 2012
January 23, 2012 in 2012 Elections, Class War
You will notice that I have made a different dividing line from that of Occupy who have drawn a line in the sand between the 99% and the 1%. I don’t believe it works out quite that way. I believe there is a buffer group in between the majority of us and the 1%. Based on a few studies, I think the line in the sand would more accurately be drawn at 80/20. This buffer group are what make it possible for the 1% to stay in power. Without their assistance, it would not be possible for the 1% to control the 99%. This buffer group consists of people who still are doing OK. This is a theory that I’ve been writing about and diagraming long before Occupy was born.
For example, below is one of my many diagrams on this topic of economic class division in the USA. This particular one I created in August of 2011, but there are others prior to that time. This one was created from my prior diagrams to illustrate my indignation about the political class in Washington DC telling the American people that “we all must make sacrifices.”
The real problem, folks, is that the loudest cheerleaders for the 1% are members of the 5% who occupy all the seats in Congress. That is why I say: They ALL must go. I use the pyramid to illustrate the economic trending here in the USA because I believe that a pyramid (as in pyramid scheme) best represents the Wall Street, Milton Friedman economic ideology that is driving the bus and has been for about 50 years. Since 77% of all Americans today are living from paycheck to paycheck, to obtain a picture of how fragile the economic stability of our nation really is, imagine that those 65.7% who are in the designated spot for the middle class are treading water. They are living in debt and from paycheck to paycheck. Some of them have lost their jobs and are living on the credit cards. It’s only a matter of time.
In regard to the following questions, while it is recommended to ask them of the candidates in 2012 (particularly incumbents), it is always advisable to follow up on their answers as all this information is public information. It only takes the slightest of effort to uncover the truth. In other words, don’t take the word of any member of the political class without checking up on it.
Start vetting the candidates yourself.
Don’t depend on a millionaire corporate sponsored pundit to do the job. You should already know by now the kinds of questions they ask: ”What about that 15 second sound bite of your minister a couple of years ago? Why don’t you wear a flag pin? What do you have to say about your ex-wife’s accusation that you wanted an open marriage? . . . . ” It’s up to the American people to ask the questions that matter.
1. What is your net worth?
2. Beginning with your tax filing in 2009, until today, how much has your net worth increased? [Note: While a study issued by CareerBuilder January 2011 found that 77% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and have a negative net worth, the same cannot be said of those who represent us. The average wealth of our Senators is $13.6 million and the average wealth of the House of Representatives is $3.4 million and their average net worth, unlike the majority of Americans over the last two years has increased, not decreased.]
3. What are the top three Wall Street Corporations in which you are invested and how much do you have invested in each?
[Note: Here were the top three choices for Congress as a whole in 2009:
#1 GENERAL ELECTRIC – 106 total Investors 52 Democrats and 54 Republicans
Wonder why GE did not pay a dime of federal income tax in 2009 and 2010 despite billions of dollars in profit? Congress doesn’t give a rats behind. They got that money back in dividends. Wonder why GE’s CEO Jeffrey Immelt is one of President Obama’s financial advisors? Do you think Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of a rich income tax evading corporation gives a damn about 77% of Americans? Do you think that he is making suggestions to President Obama that benefit the top 12% or the bottom 77%?
#2 Procter & Gamble 78 total Investors 35 Democrats and 43 Republicans
#3 Cisco Systems 73 total investors 34 Democrats and 39 Republicans
#3 Bank of America 73 total investors 35 Democrats and 38 Republicans SOURCE]
4. Have you ever voted on any legislation that directly affected the profitability of the stocks that you own?[For example, if you own BP stock, have you ever, like Joe Barton and James Sensenbrenner (both of whom own thousands of dollars of stock in BP) voted on BP's behalf and against the best interests of the majority of Americans? Note: In June of 2010, Sensenbrenner owned 3,400 shares of BP stock and yet refused to recuse himself from a House committee investigating BP.]
5. Have you ever publicly defended these or any Wall Street corporations in which you own stock? [ Note: Don't make any assumptions that a liberal from the establishment of political class is that much different from a conservative from the establishment of the political class.
“Oh but John Kerry is a liberal Democrat and James Sensenbrenner is a rabid right-wing conservative!” Yes, that is their corporate sponsored media image. But what is the truth of these two men when it comes to legislation that makes a difference in our lives? NO DEGREE OF SEPARATION! In the summer of 2009 Max Baucus proposed a $4 billion tax on medical-device firms to help offset the cost of health-care reforms. John Kerry and James Sensenbrenner bellowed like two stuck hogs. Why? Because Kerry and Sensenbrenner have something in common that supersedes any party alliance or lack of it: They each have millions of dollars of family wealth invested over the years in the companies that make medical devices.] Stop thinking that the labels of “liberal”, “conservative” or “Tea Party” have any real meaning in terms of how these people vote. Most of the Tea Party “of the people” candidates elected to office in 2010 are millionaires.]
6. Do you receive donations from any of the top three Wall Street Corporations in which you are invested?
The Bain Ad is the truth of Romney and those like him in the rawest form
January 11, 2012 in 2012 Elections, Class War
Unless something very unusual happens Romney is likely to place third in South Carolina. This is brilliant. It shows people who have been hurt by people like Romney. Perhaps a few more Americans will wake up to the fact that this is a class war.
Note: The fact that these women in this video understand how Wall Street shysters like Romney and the 44% of Congress make money off their investments is huge and spells big trouble for all of the “investors” in our Congress.
Until recently, most Americans did not pay that close attention to the actual process of how WallStreet crooks make their money off the investments. Now, as evidenced by this video, they are. The get it. Wall Street does not create jobs. They make their money by cutting costs–firing workers and selling off assets.
Do you know what the American people need? Usury laws.
January 6, 2012 in 2012 Elections, Class War
Charles Ponzi has a lot in common with Wall Street Banks of today–like Ponzi, they are in the business of fleecing Americans.
Yes, their games are different, but the end result to the victims is the same: They are robbed.
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I was visiting a friend who has just taken over the responsibility of assisting her elderly mother in managing her money on a monthly basis. No, this woman does not have stocks and bonds to manage, only social security of $1,200 along with about $1,000 more a month from rental income.
Her mother has a credit card account with Bank of America, but this could have been any Wall Street bank and the story would have been the same. In case you don’t know, on the second page of the monthly statements (because banks don’t want you to read the information)is a little block labeled “Payment Information”. If you have credit card debt, you should read your monthly statement sometime.
This woman’s mom owed a balance total of $6,554.14
According to the payment information on her statement, if her mom only makes the minimum payment of $206.00 a month, it will take her 27 years to pay off the balance of $6,554.14. She will likely die first.
If she does live to pay off her debt, the woman will end up paying Bank of America $20,614.20–almost three times the value of the loan in the first place. Bank of America will make at least $14, 060.00 –yes there will be nominal costs for the bank on maintaining the account, but it is highly doubtful that these costs exceed more than a thousand dollars over the life of the loan. Additionally the interest is not the only money that the bank may collect on this debt. If the women is one day late on paying the debt then she is assessed a “late fee” of $35 and the APRs may be increased up to the Penalty APR of 29.99%.
Each month, on her $265.85 payment, the woman pays $142.73 in interest–more than half her monthly payment.
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Why is this outrageous system allowed to exist in a Democracy?
Democracy should not mean giving license to people to rip other people off and then calling them stupid for falling for the scheme. (Unless of course the marks are rich as most of Madoff’s victims were which explains why he is in jail and people like Lloyd Bankfein are not.) Is there any reader out there who actually believes that the usurious interest rates in effect on credit card debt that enable banks to collect more than three times the value of the original loan are moral and just? Should we have laws on the books that allow banks to charge interest to customers that amount to three times the value of the original loan?
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So why is it legal for Wall Street Banks to rip off Americans and people like Charles Ponzi and Bernie Madoff go to prison for ripping people off?
It is legal for banks because the people that we currently have “representing” us in the U.S. Congress allow it. They are the ones who write the laws. They could write a one page law this morning to end this all if they wanted to represent the majority. They actually could and in less than an hour and in less than a full page. The law would simply state that it is not legal to collect more interest than the total worth of the original loan.
Yes, it is that simple. There is nothing complicated about putting a ceiling on the amount of interest that a financial institution is allowed to charge. No brain surgeon skills required. It could be done quite easily.
Well why don’t they pass such a law?
They don’t pass such a law because the majority of shysters that we currently have in Congress (Democrats and Republican/Tea party jerks) own Wall Street stock in these financial institutions and they personally profit from the misfortune of Americans like my friend’s mother. Yes, it is exactly as simple as that. No brain surgeon skills required. In addition to owning stock in these financial institutions, their political campaigns are funded by these banks and financial institutions. A report from 2008 stated that since 2001, eight of the most troubled firms had donated more than $64.2 million to congressional candidates, presidential candidates and the Republican and Democratic parties.
Nearly every member of the House Financial Services Committee, who in February 2009 oversaw hearings on how the $700 billion of TARP bailout was being spent, received contributions associated with these financial institutions during the 2008 election cycle and most of them owned Wall Street stock in at least one of these financial institutions and many of them owned stock in several of these financial institutions. Go read the facts on your elected officials in Open Secrets.
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What can we do about it?
We can throw the entire House of Representatives out of Washington DC in 2012 along with the White House and we can elect a President who is neither a Democrat nor a Republican/Tea Party jerk. We can elect non-wall street investors from the 99% to represent us.
Or we can continue to pretend that we have a “two-party” system and that we are “throwing our votes away” if we don’t vote for a Democrat or a Republican.
The truth is that we ARE throwing our votes away if we vote for either a Democrat OR a Republican.
Response to an ILWQ Reader Regarding the “falsely maligned” 1%
January 4, 2012 in 2012 Elections, Class War
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The Comment From the Reader: You know I could care less about Ron Paul or any other politician but your post seems a bit poor in the reasoning department. What seems most off to me is the implication that making lots of money is morally suspect.
I will say however that is always wise to remember that men are never perfect and politicians always suspect. I’m not sure calling some politician a hypocrite is helpful (or accurate in this case). I could be wrong (it wouldn’t surprise or upset me much to find out that any politician was a hypocrite).
I think a thing that stands out is that once certain accusations are leveled they almost require (in the reader’s mind) support. I know it was a short post and you cannot say everything within such constraints.
But I wonder– do you think the “1%” are guilty of something just because they are in the 1%?
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ILWQ RESPONSE: No I don’t think people of the 1% are “guilty merely because they are rich.” And nothing is wrong with my reasoning.
This is the standard response of the 1%. ”Just because I’m rich, that doesn’t make me guilty. I shouldn’t be punished just because I’m rich. Why should I be punished for being successful? etc.”
No, I don’t think the 1% are automatically guilty merely because they are in the 1% of the wealthiest in the nation. This is a typical strategy of Wall Street investors–to pretend that they are victims. Are you perhaps a Wall Street investor? Note: It’s also a standard propaganda technique (Ad hominem) to personally attack people as you did by slyly insinuating that something must be wrong with my reasoning.
I think the 1% are guilty not because they are rich, but because of how they got their wealth. You show me one member of the 1% whose wealth has not been dependent on their Wall Street investments for the past 4 years and I’ll be glad apologize to them.
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And how has Wall Street made its money for at least the past four years as Americans have been losing their jobs and homes?
Well we all can agree that it hasn’t been by creating jobs. During the 8 years of George Bush we had zero job growth and it’s not much better under Obama. So that begs the question as to how have Wall Street investors from the 1% made millions over the past four years while the most of Americans have been sliding off into an economic hole? Did you ever think about that? Did you ever really give it any reasoning as to how this is possible?
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Wall Street corporations have made their investors richer by the millions (44% of them multimillionaires in Congress) by “cutting costs”. And how have they “cut costs”? By firing American workers and selling off assets.
And this is the part that makes them guilty. Now do you get it? The 1% have literally gotten richer these past four years especially off the backs of people who work for a living. Then many of the 1% have the unmitigated gall to call workers “lazy” and to pretend that they did not make their wealth by stealing from those who can least afford it. They continue to pretend that they have nothing to do with the current economic crisis when in fact, they are the root cause.
Not only do I think that many of the 1% are “guilty”, I think that some of them like CEO Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs should be tried for crimes against humanity for what the traders of the Goldman Sachs commodity index did in 2008. By artificially inflating the price of wheat on the world market in a year that represented the largest wheat production in 100 years, Goldman Sachs literally starved millions more human beings to death than those who on average die of starvation each year. Yes, all the 1% are“guilty” of at least willful blindness, if not more.
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Several questions remain: How long will the American voters will continue to play the fake two party game and choose “sides” with a Democrat candidate or a Republican candidate when in fact they are members of the same party–The Wall Street Investor party for the rich. How long will the American voters continue to believe that their hands are “tied” and they must vote for one or the other and try to choose the lessor of two evils? How long will the American people pretend that there are not other better candidates to vote for–even for president we have Jill Stein running. How long will the American voters continue to participate in the fake primaries across the USA–all staged by the 1%? How long will they continue to believe that this is the only way, that this is the “American process” and that to buck it is “unAmerican”?
However long that time is will be exactly how long poverty will continue to increase in in the USA and the middle class will continue to move toward extinction.
What kind of “reasoning” makes you think that a multimillionaire Wall Street investor like John Kerry, Eric Cantor, or John Boehner represent you? These are the people who increase their personal wealth by voting for trade agreements like the Korean Trade Agreement that will ship 169,000 American jobs overseas and increase the trade deficit by $16 billion within 7 years. These are the people who vote to make sure that the democratic process is shut down by voting almost unanimously to defund ACORN–an organization whose only “crime” was to empower poor people by registering them to vote. The rich don’t want the poor to vote–and it doesn’t matter if they are Republican or Democrat. ACORN was defunded with a Democrat majority in BOTH houses by an almost unanimous vote solely on the testimony of a sleazy and well known right wing operative by the name of James O’Keefe.
Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana, Michigan, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, and Wisconsin–What are you waiting for?
December 29, 2011 in 2012 Elections, Class War
YES, IT IS WORTH THE EFFORT TO RECALL THESE PEOPLE–ESPECIALLY THOSE IN THE SENATE–many of whom have as many as four more years to continue their damage to our nation and its people!
Nine states may not sound like many. However it represent 18 Senators and 50 members of the House. Recalling these people would help to change the balance in BOTH Houses. Furthermore, it would be a huge wakeup call to those who remain in Congress.
As reported earlier, Montana has begun efforts to recall all its federally elected officials. The eight other states that allow citizens to recall federally elected officials are; Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana, Michigan, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, and Wisconsin.
My question is: What are the rest of you waiting for? Start recall efforts now. Wisconsin, you already have practice with Scott Walker. Expand your effort to include the shysters in Washington DC as well!
If the other 8 states who are able to recall their federal officials were to do so, this would make a difference in the balance of Congress. Perhaps a few of them are good guys, but if you know anything, you know that the majority of them are not. They are liars and Wall Street sycophants who don’t care about the 99%.
The net worth estimates below are all, because of reporting requirements, likely to be on the low end. Most of these shysters are much more Wall Street wealthy than they admit. Also keep in mind that approximately 50 million Americans live in poverty today–interesting, isn’t it? 50 million is also the number of Americans who are estimated to be without health insurance but who will be required by law to purchase junk health insurance from Wall Street corporations in 2016 to satisfy legal requirements.
Keep in mind that while millions of Americans were losing their jobs and jobs over the past three years, the bums in Congress, were making hundreds of thousands (and in some cases, millions of dollars) from the Wall Street investments. For the past 4 years Wall Street has made money for its investors by firing American workers and selling off assets and hoarding over $3 trillion dollars that doesn’t even belong to them in the first place.
Note: all the ones with a double asterisk sold you out by voting for the H.R. 1540 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal year 2012. These should all be recalled now before they can do more damage. As far as the Senators go, suffice it to say that of all these states that allow recall, only the two Senators from Oregon stood up for the people and said no: Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon; Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon. When you look at the votes of those who voted your civil rights away, please notice the “bipartisan” quality of the votes. Forget about “Democrat” or “Republican”. They are one party–the Wall Street party.
According to H.R. 1540 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal year 2012, the US military will have the power to detain Americans suspected of involvement in terrorism without charge or trial and imprison them for an indefinite period of time. Application of the law could almost completely destroy civil rights of Americans. Representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) regard the new act as unprecedented assault on the rights and liberties of US citizens.
Arizona–Need reasons?
Google these people and see what they have done for you besides voting to remove your constitutional rights.
1. **John McCain – Net Worth at over $16 million
2. **Jon Kyl Net worth at over $708,000 – In 2010 his financial record shows that he had personal financial transactions of over $500,000. You can bet that Kyl’s net worth is more than $708,000. (Kyl is proven liar who made false statements that abortions make up “well over 90% of what Planned Parenthood does.” The truth is that federal money cannot be used for abortion services at the women’s health clinics and Kyl knows this and lies anyway. Planned Parenthood does not use a dime of federal money for abortions, nor are abortion services 90% of what Planned Parenthood does.)
3. Paul Gosar (R)
**4. Trent Franks (R)
**5. Ben Quale (R)
**6. Ed Pastor (D)
7. Jeff Flake (R)
8. Raul Grijalva (D)
9, Gabriella Giffords (D)
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Colorado, Need Reasons?
Google these people and see what they have done for you besides voting to remove your constitutional rights.
1. **Michael Bennet (D)
2. **Mark Udall (D) $2, 126,000
3. Diana DeGette (D)Net worth: $1, 810,0000
4. Jared Polis (D) Net Worth: $228,492
5. Scott Tipton (R) Net Worth: $510,819
**6. Cory Gardner (R) Net worth $221,999
**7. Doug Lamborn (R) Net Worth: $210,000
8. Mike Coffman (R) Net Worth $1, 749,998
**9. Ed Perlmutter (D) Net Worth, $1, 422,000
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Louisiana, Need Reasons?
Google these people and see what they have done for you besides voting to remove your constitutional rights.
1. **David Vitter (R) Net worth: $2, 480,000
2. **Mary Landrieu (D) Net worth: $3, 340,000
**3. Steve Scalise (R) Net Worth $20,999
4. Cedric Richmond (D) $86,998
**5. Jeffrey Landry (R) $13,084,997
**6. John Fleming (R) Net worth: $17,689,760 – In 2008, Mr. Fleming’s net worth was $11,882,090. During this recession while thousands of his constituents have been losing their homes and jobs and having their state polluted by the likes of Global corporations like BP, Mr. has made almost $6 million from his Wall Street investments.
**7. Rodney Alexander (R) Net Worth: $665,000
**8. William Cassidy (R) Net Worth: $3,094,999
**9. Charles Boustany (R) Net worth $1, 716, 441
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Michigan, Need Reasons?
Google these people and see what they have done for you besides voting to remove your constitutional rights.
1. **Carl Levin (D) Are you kidding? Net Worth $2, 360,000 (in 2008 his net worth was a mere $1,698, 553. Levin has made over a million bucks off his Wall Street investments during this recession.
Another member of the Congressional Wall Street party. You couldn’t find a better poster child to prove the phoniness of the two-party system than Carl Levin. In 2006, 61,000 of the total population of Mr. Levin’s district were in poverty. In 2010, 96,000 were in poverty.
Levin voted yes for H.R. 4853 the extension of the Bush Tax Cuts for the rich.
The 2010 extension of tax cuts didn’t just continue the tax cuts for billionaires and millionaires enacted under George W. Bush. It expanded those tax cuts, allowing inheritance of estates of up to 10 million dollars tax-free and deepening special tax favors for investors. The legislation also undermined the integrity of Social Security by creating a new standard of low funding for the Social Security trust fund, exposing Social Security to new charges of being unsustainably funded.
Levin voted yes on Motion to Concur on Patriot Act
On February 25, 2010, the House of Representatives passed an extension of Patriot Act provisions for spying on Americans without establishment of probable cause or so much as a demonstration that the person being spied upon is even tangentially connected to terrorism. This reauthorization of the most controversial of Patriot Act powers made it through the House hidden within Medicare legislations and contained no reforms whatsoever.
Levin co-sponsored the Korean Trade agreement (sponsored by Eric Cantor)–another unbalanced trade act that will ship 169,000 American jobs overseas and increate the trade deficit by $16 billion.
2. **Debbie Stabenow (D) Net Worth: $15,000
**3. Dan Benishek (R)
4.Bill Huizenga (R)
5. Justin Amash (R)
**6. Dave Camp (R)
**7. Dale Kildee (D)
**8. Mike Rodgers (R)
9. Gary Peters (D)
**10. Candice Miller (R)
**11. Thaddeus McCotter (R)
**12. Sander Levin (D)
13. Hansen Clarke
14. John Conyers (D)
**15. John Dingell (D)
**16. Frederick Upton (R)
17. Tim Walberg (R)
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Nevada, Need Reasons?
Google these people and see what they have done for you besides voting to remove your constitutional rights.
1. **Dean Heller (R) Net Worth $2, 578,110
2. **Harry Reid (D) Net Worth: $10, 309,999 In 2008 Reid’s net worth was $6,358,000. Thus in the past three years of our deepening recession, Reid has made about $4 million dollars on the backs of American workers with his Wall Street investments.
**3. Shelly Berkley (D)
**4. Mark Amodel (R)
**5. Joe Heck (R)
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North Dakota, Need Reasons?
Google these people and see what they have done for you besides voting to remove your constitutional rights.
1. **Kent Conrad (D) net worth: $3, 461,000.
2. **John Hoeven (R) Net worth: $55,317,999 Even with this wealth, Hoeven ranks 14th richest in the Senate.From 2009 to 2010 Hoeven made over $2 million from his Wall Street Investments.
**3. Rick Berg (R) Net Worth: $54,979,033 - Even with this wealth, he ranks 10th in the House. Do you think that Rick has a clue how the majority in North Dakota live? Further more, do you think he gives a damn?
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Oregon Need Reasons?
Google these multimillionaires and see what they have done for you besides voting to remove your constitutional rights. Note; to their credit, the two multimillionaire Senators did not voted against the bill that authorizes the police to hold American citizens indefinitely without recourse to the courts.
1. Jeff Merkley (D) $2, 750, 996 -
2. Ron Wyden (D) $7,960,004 In 2008 Wyden’s net wroth was at $5,850,000 so he has made a little over $2 million dollars in his Wall Street investments during the recession. Still, to his credit, Wyden voted agains the draconian bill to increase the powers of the already growing police state in the USA.
**3, Kurt Schrader (d)
**4. Greg Walden (R) $4,110,000 In 2008 Walden’s net worth was $3,170,000 so he has made almost a cool $1 million dollars from his Wall Street investments so far this recession.
5. Earl Blumenauer (D) Net worth: $7,390,993
6. Peter DeFazio (d)
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Wisconsin Need Reasons?
Google these multimillionaires and see what they have done for you besides voting to remove your constitutional rights
1. **Ron Johnson (R) $37,718,000 Johnson’s net worth in 2009 was $34, 566,596. He has made over $3million from his Wall Street investments in the last two years of our recession.
2. **Herb Kohl (D) He is the third richest in the Senate. with a net worth of $259,847,994
**3. Paul Ryan (R)
4. Tammy Baldwin (D)
**5. Ron Kind (D)
6. Gwen Moore (D)
**7. James Sensenbrenner (R)
**8. Thomas Petri (R)
**9. Sean Duffy (R)
10. Reid Ribbie (R)
Continued War and Wall Street Profits for the Rich? You decide in 2012 with your vote.
December 19, 2011 in 2012 Elections, Class War
Congress Cuts Winter Heating Aid for the Poor while Boosting the Defense Budget
ThinkProgress reports that
Poverty in America is only getting worse, with data showing rising income inequality and the startling fact that half of all Americans are now either in poverty or considered low-income. Were it not for the government programs that comprise the social safety net, those numbers would be even worse. More than a quarter would live in poverty without the safety net, according to one study, and Social Security alone kept 14 million out of poverty last year. Despite that, Congress — and particularly Republicans in Congress — have made cuts to various programs meant to aid the poorest Americans.
Congress reached a deal Thursday to avert a shutdown that would have begun at midnight tonight, and in doing so, Republicans found another low-income program to target, cutting funding for subsidies that help the poor stay warm during the winter by nearly 25 percent. At the same time, however, the Pentagon’s budget is getting a 1 percent boost . . . MORE
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ILWQ COMMENTS
It doesn’t have to be this way. However, it will continue to be this way as long as 44% of our Congress are Wall Street millionaires who personally profit from such votes. As long as you continue to vote for these people, that’s how long the majority will continue to drift into poverty as the crooks get richer.
Please wake up in 2012.
STOP VOTING FOR DEMOCRATS or REPUBLICANS.
STOP VOTING FOR MILLIONAIRES.
STOP VOTING FOR WALL STREET INVESTORS.
YES, YOU DO HAVE OTHER CHOICES.
Deconstructing Thomas Friedman
December 9, 2011 in Class War
The Imperial messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work by Belen Fernandez
Sandra Siagian has an excellent book review in todays Asia Times – A new book on the influential New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman sets out to debunk his hawkish, neo-liberal views, accusing him of overt racism, factual errors and skewed judgments on issues ranging from the United States invasion of Iraq to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Deconstructing one of the country’s highest-paid journalists, Belen Fernandez’s The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work presents a comprehensive overview of the man – and three-time Pulitzer Prize winner – she describes as “characterized by reduction of complex international phenomena to simplistic rhetoric and theorems that rarely withstand the test of reality”. Read the entire review here.
The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work by Belen Fernandez. Verso (November 1, 2011). ISBN-10: 1844677494. Price US$16.95, 240 pages.
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ILWQ Comments: Perhaps we should alert President Obama. Thomas Friedman is no “accident.”
I recall him mentioning last year that he was reading one of Friedman’s books,
According to the author, after finishing her research for this book: ”I realized how truly criminal his [Friedman's] behavior is, whereas before I had thought of him more as a somewhat amusing purveyor of mixed metaphors who had by accident ascended to the post of New York Times foreign affairs columnist.”
