Jul 13 2010
Ed Schultz was stunned by the recent about face of BP —
First they promise to make everyone whole —
Now they are saying hold on, there a minute partner —
Where are your Papers?
Ed Schultz — BP: Broken Promises — Fisherman Not Getting Paid
summarized transcript over the fold
Jul 04 2010
“This is an impressive crowd: the Have’s and Have-more’s. Some people call you the elites. I call you my base.”
“It is not the creation of wealth that is wrong, but the love of money for its own sake.”
“Being rich is having money; being wealthy is having time.”
lest we forget …
Jun 10 2010
Although no crime was committed, Minnesotans and other people across America are being locked up because they owe money to some corporation. This is another example of our emerging corporatocracy — Where the power of the state is just another tool for business.
The Star Tribune has published an investigative piece about the return of debtors’ prisons, “In jail for being in debt“.
It’s not a crime to owe money, and debtors’ prisons were abolished in the United States in the 19th century. But people are routinely being thrown in jail for failing to pay debts. In Minnesota, which has some of the most creditor-friendly laws in the country, the use of arrest warrants against debtors has jumped 60 percent over the past four years, with 845 cases in 2009, a Star Tribune analysis of state court data has found.
Here is what is happening now to people who fall behind in paying their bills. Joy Uhlmeyer, for example, is a 57-year-old patient care advocate. She was arrested by a sheriff’s deputy and no one would tell her why, despite her pleas.
Uhlmeyer spent a sleepless night in a frigid Anoka County holding cell, her hands tucked under her armpits for warmth. Then, handcuffed in a squad car, she was taken to downtown Minneapolis for booking. Finally, after 16 hours in limbo, jail officials fingerprinted Uhlmeyer and explained her offense — missing a court hearing over an unpaid debt.
“They have no right to do this to me… Not for a stupid credit card.”
Uhlmeyer ‘crime?’ She “defaulted on a $6,200 Chase credit card after a costly divorce in 2006.” She ignored the collection agency because she “didn’t recognize the name”.
May 31 2010
I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless.”
— U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864
(letter to Col. William F. Elkins)
Ref: The Lincoln Encyclopedia, Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY)Bold text added by the diarist
(Note: The authenticity of this quote has been disputed, but I believe it is worthwhile to discuss nonetheless. The link I have provided is my proof of the validity of this quote, but I leave it to you, the reader, to decide.)
Almost 150 years later . . .
More below the fold
May 29 2010
We are in the mist of not only a total devastating, ongoing, tragedy for the Gulf Coast area’s as well as the ecological damage being done in the Gulf Waters and the Coastal area’s that will effect Everyone for nobody knows how long! We are also in a collapsed economy still, high unemployment, twos still ongoing Wars and Occupations of Choice, still infrastructure demands for fixes, immigration that is still and has been allowed to ignore the laws already on the books and sooooo much more!!
How many of you will not only see your representatives, or their staffs, but hear anything about what they are doing while ‘on vacation’ from their 24/7 jobs of representation!
May 27 2010
MAKING MONEY!!!!
And that’s ALL, that’s what the whole business economy is geared to and who pays when they aren’t regulated and that creates huge problems, like the criminal enterprises many have become, everyone does but them and their investors!
And it’s not only what’s going on in the Gulf and oil companies and their so called best of the best…………………………… executives, it’s across the board in every big industry and big business model, MONEY is their only concern and not long term growth, getting as much as they can as quickly as they can and hope for the best and when something happens blame everyone else for their extreme failures!
May 09 2010
Michael Moore’s new film puts spotlight on Petaluma company
By Jeremy Hay, Press Democrat
In “Capitalism: A Love Story,” which opens today around the country, Moore takes aim at what he characterizes as a capitalist culture run amok.
He holds up the bakery – with 117 employees and $24 million in annual revenues – as an example of a successful capitalist alternative, where workers are as powerful as executives, profits are shared equally and workers are valued for more than their labor.
“This could be potentially a new model,” said Cory Fisher, a field producer and researcher for Moore. “A way for workers to feel engaged and not marginalized, and that they have a stake in their future.”
[…]“They stood out,” she said. “They’re successful, their workers are able to make a living wage, they seem empowered and happy and you just start to look around and wonder, “Why aren’t other companies doing this?”
Why aren’t other companies doing WHAT?
Starting their own, Employee Owned Business.
Apr 29 2010
Healthy Economies are based on Minimizing Costs, while Maximizing the Social Benefits. Or at least they should be.
Yet our Corporate-driven Economic system, far too often focuses on Discounting the Costs, while Maximizing their Profits. Profits for the enlightened owners, NOT for Society at large. Both the long-term and local Costs, generally get swept under the rug, in such a competitive landscape.
And that is a recipe for long-term Planetary Disaster.
Every economic transaction is some sort of trade-off between Cost vs Benefits. Problems arise however, when most of those Costs (to the Planet and to Society) remain Hidden, just below the surface — completely “External” to any quick-hit P&L calculations and Statements.
The accurate Pricing of such “External” factors — both short-term and long-term — is KEY to whether or not, WE leave the world a better place than we found it.
“Externalities” have a way of creeping up on you, and “extracting payment”, sometimes when you least expect it.
Apr 25 2010
Warren Buffet gave a prophetic pronouncement back in 2003 about the Derivatives market, seeing the exponential dangers of this “paper-thin” type of investment.
Buffet did not mince words. He called them “financial weapons of mass destruction“:
Buffett warns on investment ‘time bomb’
BBC – 4 March, 2003
The derivatives market has exploded in recent years, with investment banks selling billions of dollars worth of these investments to clients as a way to off-load or manage market risk.
But Mr Buffett argues that such highly complex financial instruments are time bombs and “financial weapons of mass destruction” that could harm not only their buyers and sellers, but the whole economic system.
[…]Some derivatives contracts, Mr Buffett says, appear to have been devised by “madmen”. […]
Apr 19 2010
“The state calls its own violence law, & that of the individual, crime.”- Max Stirner
Apr 16 2010
If you were mad at all about Bush’s violations of civil liberties when he was president, this will get you fuming:
In a rare legal action against a government employee accused of leaking secrets, a grand jury has indicted a former senior National Security Agency official on charges of providing classified information to a newspaper reporter in hundreds of e-mail messages in 2006 and 2007.
The official, Thomas A. Drake, 52, was also accused of obstructing justice by shredding documents, deleting computer records and lying to investigators who were looking into the reporter’s sources.
“Our national security demands that the sort of conduct alleged here – violating the government’s trust by illegally retaining and disclosing classified information – be prosecuted and prosecuted vigorously,” Lanny A. Breuer, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s criminal division, said in a statement.
This is not just a single instance of outrage. It is a microcosm of the Obama presidency, the political success of corporate America, and the failure of its opposition.
Mar 15 2010
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside
And it is ragin’
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’.
—Bob Dylan, “The Times They Are A-Changin'”