When The Republican House Can’t Even Pass It’s Own Bill, You Know Which Party Is The Problem In Congress

Even the most callous, ignorant, unconcerned citizen can’t ignore this. One can blame all Congress for it’s inaction. This Congress going on vacation now, has worked the least of any Congress in modern history up to this point. Just 142 public bills have become law in this current Congress (2013-2014) – down from the 906 the 80th “Do-Nothing” Congress passed in 1947-48, and the 333 that were enacted during the Newt Gingrich-led 104th Congress of 1995-96.

When a major crises hits our border, and is all over the air waves for two weeks, and every Republican goes before a TV camera and blames the President for causing the crises, and the President gives Congress his plan to solve it and it passes the Senate and the House REFUSES to vote on it, and instead offers their OWN contorted bill, which gets pulled because there are not enough votes in their OWN party to EVEN pass it…

It is obvious where the problem lies. Those people blaming Obama, who are so dysfunctional, they can’t even get THEIR OWN legislation passed in THEIR OWN controlled chamber….

It shows exactly where the dysfunction lies… No one buys a car that won’t run. No one keeps a refrigerator that won’t work. No one put up with a spouse who doesn’t help contribute to the running of the house… The dysfunction lies solely with this ONE party in this ONE house…

It played exactly the way the shut down the government last October. America, you have to stand up and do something about it… You can only blame yourselves…..

The New War…..

The enemy has been building its forces surreptitiously for some time now…  It is moving its forces into position to invade and strike a knockout blow…. Ironically we will be the ones who open the gates of the city, willingly, and let them in….  They are mankind’s oldest enemy.  They are resplendent through out all ancient texts.  They controlled European civilization for a thousand years….

They took a set-back in the Great Depression.  Democracy out-foiled them.  It has since taken 80 years for them to grow back… But they are here….. Camped right outside our gates!

It’s the idea that people exist for wealth’s sake… and not, that wealth exists for people…..

Although phrased differently in different languages through out man’s civilization, today it can be encapsulated in today’s term: …. corporations….

Ha, ha. YOU laughed…. didn’t you?  🙂 That means one simple thing…  You do not know.

In your defense, you aren’t supposed to know… Which is why it is all being done in secret, behind closed doors, among lobbyists, free trade activists, and legislators often put in office by corporate financing.   Financing which under Citizens United is so broad that legislators verily feel threatened to stand up for people anymore…

Of 100 of the world’s largest entities, 44 are corporations… If you stretch that to the top 150, 59% of all are corporations…..

From a historical perspective, corporations have always been powerful…. John Jacob Astor would have owned the world, but unfortunately chose the Titanic to ride home on.  Corporations controlled Caesars during the Late Roman periods. Corporations were a big influence propelling Elizabeth’s England and the Hanseatic League,,,,

But people were cheap back then.  Killed at will. Imprisoned their whole lives as slaves. Used for sex.  Expendable, I think is the proper word we are looking for….

Such consequences are the price of making more money…  And since there were no laws to protect people, money mattered; people didn’t…

Right now, negotiations are being taken across the world by these 59% of the world’s largest entities to insure that no nation-state can go against these corporations… Not to tax them. Not to legislate damages against them. Not even ban them….

What’s up for grabs in the innocuously named “Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership” (TTIP) which is nothing short of handing over the control and ownership of virtually every governmental sector and public service in both Europe and the U.S. over to privatization….

The treaty seeks to (among many other things):
•    “Lock in” the privatisations of services – even in cases where private service delivery has failed – meaning governments can never return water, energy, health, education or other services to public hands.
•    Restrict a government’s right to regulate stronger standards in the public’s interest. For example, it will affect environmental regulations, licensing of health facilities and laboratories, waste disposal centres, power plants, school and university accreditation and broadcast licenses.
•    Specifically limit the ability of governments to regulate the financial services industry at exactly the time when the global economy is still recovering from a crisis caused by financial deregulation..

This is about enforcing the minimization of people’s rights. These documents will give corporations the higher pecking order…. It gives a signed, stamped piece of paper buried in a filing cabinet hidden somewhere in the state of Delaware, a paper signifying a small fee has been paid, far more power than all of us in unison combined….

This leads to very unstable societies. Instead of having our armed service currently fighting for America’s self-interests, they will be perversely fighting for perhaps Wal*mart’s, or BP’s, or Mirage’s, or Gasprom’s interests…. We might even go back to being drafted since who would volunteer for such a service?

It also leads to necessary governmental services being assessed from those most stricken, and not properly paid by those wealthy who are easily able to pay them… The investors get richer, the people get poorer….

As an intellectual example, let us say that a government is duly elected by the people and then attempts to make changes… As one proper example, an African nation wanting zero oil spills, moves to require a higher corporate investment in environmental safety and a higher rate per barrel on oil drawn from its waters…

Each and every one of those U.S. firms will now be able to launch expensive legal battles, potentially for billions of dollars, in the name of foregone profits.

Suing for lost profits?… Have you ever heard of such a thing? What ever happened to …. risk?

No problem you say. Surely a national court will decide for its people over potential profits…. But … you see, it doesn’t go to national court… It goes to arbitration… The case would not be heard in a court of law, under the scrutiny of a judge and jury, but rather in front of arbitration panels made up of three professional arbitrators — one representing the company, one representing the country and the other chosen by the first two to sit as president of the panel.

No citizen of any affected country can demand leverage or accountability over the proceedings.

To put it simply, if a doctor is sponsored by a pharmaceutical company, we might question whether the medicine prescribed is the best for our health; if a public servant receives money from a lobbyist, we might question whether the policies they promote are in the public interest. In the same vein, if an arbitrator’s main source of income and career opportunities depends on the decision of companies to sue, we should wonder how impartial their decisions are.

The intent of these treaties glossed over as “trade deals” is to make Corporations immune from any government meddling. In their marketing, they stress that this frees up business from being toyed with by totalitarian or corrupt governments… But what their marketing never mentions, is that this sword cuts two ways… It also insulates corporations from actions requested by the people in those nations who are also full-fledged democracies. If these documents are ever signed, we will wake one day, and find our wishes simply no longer matter.

We can see it everywhere today… Put in a power plant in downtown Newark. Good for investors; people don’t matter. Put in a corporate Common Core educational program that is bullshit. Good for investors; people don’t matter. Dump sludge from Delaware City’s refinery into the marsh. Good for investors; people don’t matter. Sell the Wilmington Port to Kinder-Morgan. Good for investors; people don’t matter. Get rid of prevailing wage. Good for investors; people don’t matter. Get rid of unions, especially the teacher’s union. Good for investors; people don’t matter. Make corporations hide their owners. Good for investors, people don’t matter. Build a giant shopping center in Barley Mills. Good for investors; people don’t matter. Tear down historic buildings and barns to make into a trailer park. Good for investors; people don’t matter. Don’t give mobile home owners any rights. Good for investors, people don’t matter. Don’t tax the top 1% to rebuild a broken bridge. Good for investors; people don’t matter. Get rid of Obamacare. Good for investors; people don’t matter. Mainstream special-ed students. Good for investors; people don’t matter….

Everywhere you look… it is there… You can’t escape it… The funny thing is that after WWII, when the GI’s came home, we had a nation that KNEW people really mattered. They saw with their own eyes what happens when the top in governments do what they wish, with impunity. They saw with their own eyes both dead and broken people who no longer mattered… They knew that people who by luck had the benefit to still be living, really do matter a lot…

They made a cannon of laws to protect those people still living… Giving us the right to make the final decisions to decide our own fate… Since the election of 2000 that has slowly and consistently eroded. We are losing control over our lives… to something as silly as money. Of that they print more everyday. Forget that a person is one in a trillion. There can never be, nor will ever be, an exact copy made….

So never, never open the gates to them. Nor accept their Trojan Horses. They are conquerors; we are the bounty. It is the same war that has been waged ever since man first discovered the power of money. Mankind has been this conquest’s loser over most of history… Do not let the advantage we won in 1932 now go to waste… It is so close to slipping through our fingers. We will not get it back in our lifetimes nor our children’s… For they have been and will be, waging their war across centuries; we today are stupidly living our lives in fear of pissing them off….

Piss them off and put them back into their box. Get moving now.

Here is where we need to be: … We, the People, will allow you the opportunity to make money, but it must be done to our benefit and our rules... The End.

If Corporations Are People Too, Then Their Owners And Heads, Can Be Sued For Damages

The argument for Hobby Lobby is thus…

The owners of a corporation should be able to impose their religion upon its policy… That means that the owners or family of a corporation can use their values to determine a corporation’s policy….

Therefore if his case is decided in Hobby Lobby’s favor, the head of the corporations will now be responsible for those actions and results of those actions, so therefore, they can be personally sued for any damages their corporation creates….

This rents the curtain that has separated an individual’s accountability from that of his LLC. corporation… One could always sue Freedom Industries, which as a corporation is now bankrupt so what’s the point; the assets were already transferred to its owner. , But now, if Hobby Lobby opens the door so a person and corporation are the exact same thing, all those damaged by corporations, can now go after the assets of any individual behind that corporation…. Because that discrepancy now works both way….

What do you think?

America Shuns Big Business

In the Reagan era it was different.  Big Business was the ticket up.  Not so in the 60’s when Big Business was what got us into Vietnam, messed up Iran, made us embargo Cuba, and then proceed with a lottery which based on birthdays, picked who would go across the Pacific and die….

But under Reagan, Big Business was the panacea against the liberalism the 70’s caused…  The terrorists, the welfare scum, the petty criminals, the horrible 70’s TV series….

The tide is changed.

Big Business candidate Mitt Romney drummed down in a humiliating electoral landslide.  Occupy Wall Street rallying America against the 1%.  Business interests being stymied across the United States…

America hates Big Business.

The Business Roundtable announced last month that its #1 priority is the full adoption and implementation of the Common Core standards. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is likewise making a full-court press to advance the Common Core. Major corporations have taken out full-page ads to insist that the Common Core must be adopted. Many leading figures in the Republican party, like Jeb Bush, have led the charge for Common Core, as have entrepreneurs like Joel Klein. And the project has become a centerpiece for President Obama’s Department of Education.,,,

America hates Big Business….

Now look at the reality….

Yet in New York, the first large state to implement the tests associated with the new standards, students, parents and principals are expressing grave concerns about the realities of the Common Core. Common Core proponents like Arne Duncan have been quick to ridicule critics as misinformed ideologues or delusional paranoiacs. Defenders of the common standards, like Duncan and Commissioner John King in New York, insist that only members of the Tea Party oppose the Common Core. In spite of this, the opposition is growing, and as more states begin to follow New York’s lead, resistance is sure to grow.

America hates Big Business.

And now we have the NSA tapping all phone calls, and storing every single thing we write, speak, or send in a photo.  Not to protect us from terrorists.  But to sell, to Big Business.

America hates Big Business.

Delaware just threw the head of their Chamber of Commerce out of the state. She was promoting “Big Business” and insisted on smashing every opponent in the mouth with her fist. (figuratively)

Delaware hates Big Business…

In Delaware, despite low employment, Newark residents are up in arms over having a GIGANTIC SPEWING POWER PLANT just 200 feet from their back fences.   It doesn’t help that they were lied to.  “oh, it will be like one of those little things on top of an IKEA store, you know, an auxiliary power plant…”

Newark hates Big Business.

In lower New Castle County, there was huge opposition against the refinery, which the Big Business administration of Jack Markell and Alan Levin had allowed to bypass the Coastal Protection Act….

New Castle County hates Big Business….

Big Business was  back in the eighties allowed back to make its contribution to society.  It had previously been barred because it refused to comply to game rules…  Once comfortable and settled in, it has returned to its old habits….

America hates Big Business…..  and all those politicians kowtowing to them for a few crumbs…..

 

 

Cut Your Losses!

By now it probably goes without saying, but I’m saying just in case you weren’t paying attention.  Get out of the financial markets first thing tomorrow.

Stay out until the US House of Representatives regains their senses.  This uncertainty, coupled with the very disappointing returns over summer by most corporate stock, should cause last Friday’s stock drop to continue indefinitely.   If you haven’t been paying attention, all this summer’s economic signs are in the gutter primarily over a decrease in top line revenues.  Hurt Americans spend less then economically healthy Americans.

Hopefully you are already out.  If not, get started.

Build a Charter: Get A Green Card

Foreign investors are jumping into the charter game.  Last year it was revealed that a group from Turkey was our biggest investor in our Charter School network.  Wealthy individuals from as far away as China, Nigeria, Russia and Australia are spending tens of millions of dollars to build classrooms, libraries, basketball courts and science labs for American charter schools..  in Florida, state business development officials say foreign investment in charter schools is poised to triple next year, to $90 million.

Under a federal program known as EB-5, wealthy foreigners can in effect buy U.S. immigration visas for themselves and their families by investing at least $500,000 in certain development projects…. Where is the NSA when you need them?
Anyone can buy a visa for $500,000.

The largest Charter Network in the US, 135 schools with 45,000, is owned by a secret cult from Turkey.

In 2006 our Istanbul consulate noticed that a large number of Turkish men, suspected to be GM-affiliated, were seeking visas to work at charter schools.

Profits from these charters are mostly sent back to the investor’s home country.

“The charter school movement also includes hundreds of small, one-of-a-kind schools, often started by parents seeking a different educational environment for their children. Those mom-and-pop startups have always had a hard time securing funding to build their schools. Many have had to make do with makeshift classrooms in strip malls or church basements.”

These small schools usually fail, taking the education of their students down with it. But large foreign investments are large enough to make a go. One late night comedian got a laugh mentioning it…. ” It used to be our 7-11′s. Then it was our Dunkin’ Donuts.. Now, they’ll be running all our Charter Schools!” The audience roared while he continued teaching math in and Indian accent.

Many Public schools have been around for hundreds of years. Charter Schools are volatile hit or misses.

Missouri regulators shut down six campuses run by Imagine Schools, one of the nation’s largest for-profit charter chains, because of poor academic performance. A judge in California ruled that Aspire Public Schools, a large non-profit chain, hadn’t secured the proper approval for six of its schools and would have to get permission from local boards of education to continue running them. Local officials yanked the charter of a high-achieving middle school in Georgia over concerns about mismanagement.

All told, about 15 percent of the 6,700 charter schools that have been launched in the United States in the past two decades have since closed,

Smart people would think considering all these factors, throwing away public money into the fire of Charter Schools would be a waste, especially considering that Public schools have been doing the job for generations…

And Fox News Brings Back The Laughter Curve–Oops– Laffer Curve

Today in order to capitalize upon the fact that the fourth quarter economy sank (even though it was because of the downward pressure due to the threat of sequestration forced upon Congress by the Tea Party), they wheeled out Arthur Laughter Laffer to make a dire predictions….

He is on their short list of who-to-call-when-we(FOX News)-NEED-a-dire-prediction…..

Because….. He is well known for making “dire predictions”..

“Economist Arthur Laffer told his clients on July 26, 1982, that (Ronald Reagan’s) Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act, which raised taxes by about one percent of GDP, “will stifle economic recovery,” “retard economic growth,” and undercut “the economy’s ability to enter into a period of expansion.” On August 20, 1982, he told his clients that TEFRA, Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act, “will tend to lengthen and deepen the recession.”

Instead, ….. No one could have been more wrong…

“Looking at real gross domestic product, it grew 4.5 percent in 1983 and 7.2 percent in 1984 – an exceptionally strong performance. The stock market had one of its best years ever in 1983 – both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Index rose 35 percent. There was no increase in the rate of inflation, which was exactly the same in 1983 and 1984 as it was in 1982. The unemployment rate fell from 10.6 percent in December 1982 to 8.1 percent by December 1983 and 7.1 percent in December 1984.”

On August 20, 1993, Laffer told his clients, “Clinton’s tax bill will do about as much damage to the U.S. economy as could feasibly be done in the current political environment.” He said that interest rates would rise and the stock market would fall.

Once again, it would be hard to find a forecast that was more completely wrong….

“The unemployment rate fell from 7.1 percent in January 1993 to 5.4 percent by December 1994. Real GDP growth rose from 2.9 percent in 1993 to 4.1 percent in 1994. Stock prices rose and interest rates fell. More importantly, the 1993 tax increase and accompanying spending controls, which were opposed by every Republican in Congress, laid the foundation for the phenomenal growth of the late 1990s that actually produced budget surpluses before Republican tax cuts in the 2000s dissipated them.”

And now! Today,… well, there he goes again….

“You have the whole output of the economy shrinking. Not just expanding more slowly, it`s absolutely shrinking,” (lol, see by how little, below)… Laffer told Fox News’ Eric Bolling…

“That’s catastrophic,” the former adviser to President Ronald Reagan added. (Did anyone else catch the stupendous irony of that? Oh, Wow. You can’t make stuff like that up).

“You can explain some of that by sequestration, and defense spending was down lot and all that. But you still have a rotten economy. And it’s still too bad. We know how to fix it, by the way, a low rate flat tax, spending restraint, sound money, free trade.” (See George Bush’s Economic Record.) Laffer was responding to reports Wednesday that the U.S. economy contracted 0.1 percent in the last quarter of 2012…

Yes. Laffer was responding to reports Wednesday that the U.S. economy contracted 0.1 percent in the last quarter of 2012. Quote: “You have the whole output of the economy shrinking. Not just expanding more slowly, it`s absolutely shrinking,”

Recalling his years as one of Reagan’s top economic advisers, Laffer said Reagan actually cut the highest tax rates (From 70%-50%; they are 35% now) He said “we made a mistake” by phasing in the cuts, which he said caused the 1981-82 recession. But he said the economy took off in 1983* when the cuts (and 1%GDP tax increase) went into full effect. *

“This place just went like a rocket ship,” he said. “I think we had 7.5 percent growth in 1983 and 5.5 growth in 1984, just this boom that lasted for years and years.”* (*lol)

(Conversational excerpts provided by Newsmax)

So Who Does Privatization Benefit? Not the Taxpayers; Look at Delaware’s Prisons

In 2005, the Delaware Department of Correction signed a contract with the company Correctional Medical Services (CMS) to provide medical services to inmates in state prisons. The promise of cost savings quickly evaporated, and the state was left with low quality healthcare for inmates. Inmate health deteriorated under the new contractor and several deaths resulted from lack of adequate medical care. The contractor’s performance has forced the state to spend extra time and money associated with litigation arising from the substandard care.

Today the Port of Wilmington faces the same fate… as it is about to be privatized by a large oil/gas conglomerate: Kinder Morgan

LET US BRIEFLY REVIEW THE MYTHS REGARDING PRIVATIZATION.

Myth #1: Privatization saves money.
The Truth: Privatization often raises costs for the public and governments.

Myth #2: Private companies do a better job than the public sector.
The Truth: Many examples show declines in service quality under private contractors.

Myth #3: Privatization allows governmental entities to better anticipate and control budgetary costs.
The Truth: Cost estimates are extremely unreliable and privatization can cause result in unforeseen budgetary consequences.

Myth #4: Privatization allows governmental entities more administrative flexibility.
The Truth: Privatization requires substantial administrative resources for monitoring and oversight.

Myth #5: The public still maintains control over a privatized asset or service and the government retains the ultimate ability to make related public policy decisions.
The Truth: Privatization can bind the hands of policymakers for years, allowing private companies significant control of a privatized asset or service and the ability to dictate important policy decisions.

Myth #6: If anything goes wrong, the government can easily fire the contractor or adjust the contract.
The Truth: Reversing privatization involves huge costs and service interruptions.

Myth #7: Companies are chosen for privatization contracts on the merits, not based on political or financial connections.
The Truth: Government for profit opens doors to unscrupulous behavior by politicians and businesses.

These were compiled by the group In the Public Interest and if you wish further information or explanation, I would suggest a deeper reading here.

The one truth coming out of all privatization plans, is that privatization winds up costing taxpayers more, as well as disrupt the services we need to survive.

Super Pac’s November 30th Totals Are Out….

This is from open secrets.org. It has accumulated evidence throughout the election how much money superpacs have collected….

This money is just from the SuperPac’s. It does not include money given directly to the candidate…

Over all, during the election of 2012, SuperPacs collected total receipts of $663,014,402 and total independent expenditures of $680,716,540 in the 2012 cycle. Notice the $17 million deficit for which revenues still must be acquired….

Briefly put, here are the donations broken down by industry…..

Agribusiness…….. 23 million
Communication/Electronics…….. 25 million
Construction………15 million
Defense.………….14 million
Energy/Natural Resources……….29 million
Finance/Insurance/Real Estate…..65 million
Health.……………55 million
Single Issue……….60 million
Labor……………..64 million
Lawyers/Lobbyists…..16 million
Misc. Business……..38 million
Other……………..01 million
Transportation……..21 million

Keep in mind this is over and beyond what may have personally been given to the candidates and filed with the FEC….

One begins to see what’s behind some rather peculiar pieces of legislation we have had thrust upon us…. Oddly, the balance for the most part was even between Democrats and Republicans…

Obama’s “Tricksy” Predicament

Under Obama, private sector jobs have risen; government jobs have fallen.

The unemployment piece of the puzzle is still unfinished. We need more jobs.

It appears the Corporate jobs have maxed out. We have unlimited income pouring into corporate coffers, and no attempt by them to reinvest. They took the money and ran.

Therefore, considering the corporate entities do not want to pay for hiring more people, the government must.

This is not a plug for government hiring. This is a plug for achieving full employment with higher wages for all.

We all know that corporations need watched over. They’d weaken your grandmothers pills without watchdogs looking over their shoulders every second of production.

They could hire people to watchdog for themselves. It actually would save them money in future lawsuits. They don’t. They say they can’t afford it, it is the government’s job, and meanwhile, they report profits higher than have ever been reported under the current accounting system which was implemented post WWII….

So you see, they certainly can hire more people. They won’t, and because of their default, it becomes the governments job.

Right now, to achieve full employment, which should be our national goal, we need more people hired. Period. If the corporate side won’t, then we need to hire government workers to do the necessary jobs for which the corporate entities refuse to hire: those jobs of watching out for what is best for the American people.

Obama’s “tricksy” predicament is to make those government hires, without causing the current private jobs we have go down….

Consider it as an investment. Do you put all YOUR investment eggs into one basket? If you do, you need to fire your investor. Diversity is strength. Heaven help us with our current dependence upon private sector jobs, if another crisis precipitates another gigantic loss of net worth, then unlike the last time, we will have zero means to keep some money flowing into the economy….

We can see from the chart, that we need more government jobs to do what the corporations should be hiring to police themselves. They could solve this themselves. They haven’t. They won’t.

We need jobs and the Government now has no choice but be the last resort, make up the deficit, and send the bill in the form of increased taxes to corporations…

When they get Duffy to yell, we will all remind them, … it was their fault.