Big Finanice is Not your friend

Unless you are one of the 1%.

If you are one of the 99% there are many stories explaining why you and I are screwed. Why we have been screwed and why we will continue to be screwed. About as bad as it gets.
Here is one that explains most all of it.
What the wall street protesters are angry about

Screw the big banks

Move your money.

It's that simple.
The big banks are going to continue to thumb their noses at the unwashed masses no matter what. They are going to continue to screw us, nickle ($5) and dime ($25) us to death. And they don't care if you go broke or die, all they want is your money.
It is not that hard to move but if enough of us do that the big banks will notice. Probably still won't care but so what. At least you won't be helping to keep them in the business of screwing their customers, one of which is you.
If you keep your money in a big bank move it to a credit union, smaller regional bank  or from what I hear USAA is pretty good, if you qualify. I'm sure there are other banks like USAA, I just don't know of them.

99%

If you have not seen We Are The 99% you should. If it does not get your blood boiling then you are part of the problem.

Here is the post that so far has gotten to me the most.

 

My name is Allison, I’m a 13 year old 8th grader. I only get a few hours of sleep at night, but I don’t tell my parents because they don’t need to know that I need sleeping pills. I’ve been showing symptoms of Schizophrenia but we can’t afford for me to go see a doctor about it. My parents get really scared when they have to pay the morage because it really cuts down on our money. I’ve stopped eating alot so there’s more food for everyone else.
My parents don’t know that I know we’re the 99%.

A play on words, but no one is playing

 Poster jon at balloon-juice comes up with a great one.


It’s a death tax when the Federal Government takes some portion of the estate before it goes to the heirs.
It’s not a death tax when the hospital takes all of it.

We really are screwed.

 Over at Hullabaloo both digby and thereisnospoon have been getting right to the heart of the chief issue we face today. The worlds financial situation. Or maybe that should be the worlds financial implosion. Here is the takeaway graph from thereisnospoon today:

"It's high time that economists worldwide begin to envision a different way forward: a way for sovereigns to bypass reckless financial institutions and survive in the interdependent global economy without their help. A way, in other words, to truly allow banks that are too big to fail, to fail. A way to allow nations to tell investors that they will have to accept the consequences of their having taken the risk that comes with making money off interest with no labor involved. If not, the moral hazard of an increasingly powerful and unaccountable global investor elite will continue destroy sovereign nations socially, economically and spiritually. It's only going to get worse from here."

 As long as the people are slaves to the big banks we will continue to be at risk for an epic depression, that looks to be much worse than the 1930's. At the time many more people worked in agrarian jobs and could, if not be totally self-sufficient, survive. And there were bread lines and a good percentage of people were continuously hungry. Now most food in the industrial countries comes from large corporations, owned by investors. They will not provide food for those who have no jobs, without being paid. Most of the supermarkets are owned by large corporations and they will not give away food. So when the depression hits the hardest and there are no jobs, savings are gone and a large segment of the population is starving and homeless, it will be chaos. A dangerous chaos.

The big problem as thereisnospoon pointed out is that the investment class has changed the definition of risk. It's no longer a position of possible loss, it is a position of permanent wealth.

Digby gets it right once again.

The 2 most important graphs:

"Confidence? You'd be a fool to have confidence in the future. According to all of our most sagacious national commentators, the best case scenario is that our political leaders get past their minor differences on the scope of the cutting and come together to destroy the safety net. If they don't, well ... apparently it will be very, very bad.

Uncertainty? Average people don't have uncertainty. As far as they are concerned they're screwed no matter what happens. Our leadership demands that people buy into the silly notion that giving up their personal financial security is a patriotic duty and that high unemployment and underwater mortgages are niggling little problems that will be solved by putting more of their "skin in the game."

My questions are simple:

How long can we hold on?
How long are we expected to hold on? 
Or are we expected to just fold and go away silently?
What does our government think is going to happen?


Someone stated the other day that it took 12 years to get over the depression. So, we learned those lessons, how to fix the economy, so why do we have to spend another 12 years doing it again? Are we really that stupid?
And the answer seems to be yes, we are just that stupid.
All that highfaluting Ivy league education our betters have, shot to hell. What a fucking waste.

Waiting for rain

I''m waiting to see exactly what the debt ceiling bill actually does before I freak out. It sounds bad. Not as bad as it could be, so maybe better to say not so good. But what are/were the options?

Mostly it sounds like we kicked the can down the road and under the bus. That's sure not a horrible place to be when one has to play adult games with 4 yr olds. And not just any 4 yr old. These conservatards are stupid 4 yr olds. With an unreasonable attention span, a 1/4 track mind and pre-school run by morons.

So how do we win? We can't win, we can only survive till the children get sent to bed without supper. We let them make decisions and this is what we get for it.

So I'm waiting for rain, hoping that will cool things down a bit and that these children don't like to play in the rain.

Cops

EBM posts another great one.
Cops. For most of us that should be a word that does not make one flinch, raise one's blood pressure, cause alarm, or most importantly piss you off. How many can say that word, cops, any more and not have one or more of those reactions? Not many people I know or see posting on websites. Not even some that work around cops. They don't trust cops. And we are not talking about criminals. We are talking about everyday people. When you see a cop car do you feel safer? I don't anymore. I feel a gut level fear. Because I don't know what they will do at any moment or situation. I know cops who have used deadly force. Said he didn't want to but the person knocked him down and attacked him with a chefs knife. From the sound of it he had no choice. But what about the person in EBM's post? A 17yr old on his bike? Who is handicapped and the officer knew it? Because the boy did not pay the officer enough respect? That's just bullshit, no other way to say it.
I have been around long enough and have paid enough attention to know that cops have been this way for a long time. Maybe since the beginning of time. It's time for this country to grow up. It's time for the cops to grow up. The government is in a declared war with  it's citizens. It's called the war on drugs. It is also bullshit. It has not worked, it is not working and will never work. And it has created a situation where the cops think they are all on the correct side and we the citizens are on the wrong side. We are all guilty and it's only a matter of them catching us. At something. It is no longer a government of the people, by the people and for the people, it is a war. And we are combatants, like it or not.

Getting somewhat real.

Reading some responses to the first rethug "debate" I am just amazed.


The stunning number of people who have no clue how modern societies exist and operate floor me. Not that they need to understand every intricate detail it's that they just seem to lack any overview whatsoever. Along with the lack of a  view of history from a practical perspective.
They seem to want to go back to a time when everyone scratched out an existence from the ground, lived in little more than huts and quite a number of their kids died before puberty. It's such an appealing concept.
Yes money may be the root of all evil. It is also the root of a modern society. That doesn't make the argument for removing money, it makes the argument for removing evil. Not that that will ever happen but at least that should be the goal. What we have now is exactly the opposite.

Money and health beats poor and not.

Came across this link from commenter Silver on Balloon-Juice.

It is a very good look at the health care system from an insider on why the free market is anything but and why it does not work at all for health care.

The New World Order

We have to not only block this asshole Ryan's plan to kill old people. And I don't mean over 100 yrs old. I mean 55 and older. Talk about your death panels. Talk about healthcare rationing. As always the things that conservatives yell about the loudest are exactly the things they want to do to everyone other than themselves. We have to defeat these assholes. And they are ASSHOLES.
I am ashamed that people like Ryan actually get elected in this country in the 21st century. What's more the largest group of people that voted for him are the ones to be the most affected.

I used to think we were better than this. I'm not so sure about that any more. Hell, I am sure. We aren't better, we suck as a people. We have one of the largest economies in the world. California by itself is in the top ten economies. And all we can afford to do is to kill people. We supposedly can't feed ourselves, house ourselves, provide health care but we sure as fuck can kill people. It's what we do. We are the 24/7 death and destruction country. That's what we do. We kill other people. Up to now. And because it costs so much to do it to others we are now going to save money and do it here. Conservatives are trying to have our government do what it does best right here at home. Not with bullets or bombs but with selfishness and greed.


Kevin Drum. Short and to the point.

You don't know how glad I am not to have kids that would have to live in this kind of a world.

Libya

In the end it is all about money/oil. We have put up with 40 yrs of rule of this ass. We killed one of his kids and almost him and it made no real difference inside his country although it seemed to have made him a slightly better neighbor. But we are staring down peak oil anywhere from now till a couple of decades and that’s scary to a country without the resources(us).
You want a large military? It uses a huge, huge amount of oil. You think your SUV gets crappy mileage, try a ship. Destroyer I was on during Vietnam would take on 20,000+ gallons every 2-3 days. There were over 600 ships in the navy at the time. (As of today 288 ships, 152 underway)
I’m sorry people this is about oil. Yes we are willing to pay for it but we want it, no 2 ways about it. We are not willing as a nation to conserve so we need a pretty large supply of oil. If it were about the crappy government of an asshole there are plenty of those around. Some have our stamp of approval on them, some do not. But we are going after the ones with the oil and doing nothing about the others.

It’s not about oil prices. Not in the way of controlling them. It’s about oil availability. Can we get what we want and can we maintain that for the foreseeable future?
Certainly there are political factors at work here. But with us foreign policy works in the realm of oil. My next door neighbor growing up was an 85 yr old retired Standard Oil executive who spoke 5 languages and traveled around the world securing oil access. He did this for most of the first half of the last century. From his stories I would say the only thing that has changed is some of the players and the amounts of the oil. Standard Oil knew 50-75 yrs ago that the US would in the not too distant future, not be an exporter of oil. And that has come to pass sometime ago. (We import over 13 million barrelsl/day. #1 in the world of oil importing)(We export 1 million barrels/day # 17)
Why do you think oil is not the issue?
We have all of a sudden gotten the freedom/democracy bug for everyone else? Our better angels are singing louder? Sorry I don’t buy it. World trade and world finance depend on oil. Oil for the freighters and planes that carry all the goods. Oil for all the plastics that the crap we buy is made from. Oil for all the cars, tanks and planes. Oil for the medicines. Oil for the fertilizers to grow the food. We cry about the rich/poor ratios here but the truly wealthy take a global view. They don’t just want everything of ours, they want everything.
And in our modern world oil is everything.
Oil touches everything. A hundred years ago it was railroads and oil was plentiful, in our back yards even. Today oil is what makes our world possible. Oil is what creates world and especially US security today. And it is getting worse for a couple of reasons.
1. For all intents and purposes the US does not conserve in any meaningful way.
2. With a good portion of the country being batshit crazy, number one will not change in the foreseeable future.
I asked the other day what if history doesn’t repeat itself? There are things drastically changing in our world that were not counted in the mix in the not too distant past. Peak oil for one. Freer travel and communications. Better health care.(not everywhere, like here, for sure) These are all things that have or should have affect on policy. What if all the short term thinking in the financial markets is because they don’t see the markets growing for much longer. Why do long term if you see long term as bad/non existent? Wouldn’t you then feel short term would be the only solution? I am of course talking short term in the relative sense of 10-30 yrs.
So history may repeat it self because people keep responding the same way to different stimulus. But the reaction may be different because the rules are changing.

Life in America

We rant about history repeating itself but what if it actually doesn’t? Do you think the Kochsuckers don’t have a pretty good idea about how much oil is in the ground or how many trees it takes to make toilet paper? These are not stupid people, although they are evil. If they know approx how soon we run out of oil and they know the rest of the rich know what is keeping them from working with the rest of the rich to control resources? Getting as much as they can now, knowing that when the brown hits the whirlies they will have control and you and I will have nothing. That is different than history. We are at some point going to run out of the stuff that makes our lifestyle possible if we don’t get better at not using it up. These guys know this as well as you and me. Probably better because they own/control a lot of what is left. And they know very well how fast we are using it.

Hidden Taxes

How Republicans Could Dramatically Undermine Health Reform Law Without A Fight

Read the above link. Read it and think about it. Read it and understand that this is not about taxes, adding or cutting them. It's about getting rid of the 1099 reporting. In other words it is about removing one more place to collect taxes from. It will lower tax revenues. So to offset this the republicans want to tax health care. Specifically they want to tax provisions of the new health care law that is being phased in over the next 3 years. From the middle class.
More tax for you, less tax for them. And the democrats seemingly want to go along.
Call. Call now. This is how they win. They beat around the edges long enough until there is no center left. You will be screwed. This is how politicians work, they seldom attack head on, that creates a fight. Chew at the edges, remove the benefits, until they get their greedy hands on every fucking thing.

Onward Wisconson

I have not been posting in a while, because I am close to burnout.
But.
I have to link to Kay at balloon-juice and I am also going to post the entire wonderful thing here. I own a business, a very small business without employees. In the past I have owned another business with employees and I have managed many others in jobs. I am sure that I was not always able to treat my employees or those I managed with the same concept espoused here but I tried to. Employees are what make a business work. Or not work. They are the engine, not the spare tire.
Kay writes a brilliant piece here but I think it really is or should be about all employees, not just unions.

Ironworkers Local 8

by Kay

I was reading about the protests in Wisconsin, and I saw this photo. The gentleman on the left is a member of Iron Workers Local 8. That number made me stop and think. That number has meaning to me, because I know the history of labor unions in this country. It means nothing to conservative pundits or the vapid giggling morons who comprise the brain trust on Morning Joe, and it means nothing to the Governor of Wisconsin, but it resonates with me.

Eight is a low number. It’s a low number because that local was chartered a long time ago.

How long? This long:

Our official celebration was based on the charter issued by the International Association of Bridge and Structural Ironworkers of America on February 1, 1901 to the Housesmiths and Bridgemen’s Local Union No. 8 of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Although the words “Housesmith’s and Bridgemen’s” were dropped long ago, that charter still hangs proudly in the board room of Local 8’s office in Milwaukee.

If you go to that local’s site, you’ll read this:

“Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor and could not have existed had not labor first existed. Labor is the superior of capital and deserves much the higher consideration.”
-Abraham Lincoln

This is the dictionary definition of collective bargaining:

Method whereby representatives of employees (unions) and employers negotiate the conditions of employment, normally resulting in a written contract setting forth the wages, hours, and other conditions to be observed for a stipulated period (e.g., 3 years). The term also applies to union-management dealings during the term of the agreement.

The phrase collective bargaining has a much larger meaning than “benefits”, and to watch Scott Walker with his vacant ideologue’s stare reciting bullet points over and over is to realize he has no idea what it means.

It means workers have a seat at the table. It’s a simple idea but it’s incredibly powerful. That’s what they’re defending.

Tens of thousands of people don’t get off their couch and camp out in a capitol building because of a dispute over paying 15% towards health insurance or paying 20%. Conservatives and their media allies would like to convince us they do, they’d like to convince us that this is about budget numbers or contract terms or benefits, but it isn’t.

Scott Walker is threatening to take away something very valuable. He’s telling them two things: your long labor history doesn’t matter, and you haven’t earned a seat at the table. They know better than that.

President Obama used the word “assault” because it’s accurate, within the history and context of labor unions. If you’re a person who is willfully or lazily pig-ignorant of that history, or a person who believes this country began with the election of Ronald Reagan, you’ll miss that, and you’ll start reciting deficit numbers and health insurance co-pays of union members as compared to non-union employees. But if you do that, you’ll be missing the point.

Negotiation is to unions what diplomacy is to nations. It’s what they work like hell at before they fail, and go to war. Union members aren’t proud of their ability to stop working and strike. Any idiot can start a war. A strike means negotiations failed. They’re proud of their ability to negotiate. They’re proud of that fact that they’re sitting in a hard-won seat at the table, and dealing as equals with the other representatives sitting at that table.

Scott Walker wouldn’t sit down with them. He denied them their history and the hard-won agency and dignity that comes with a seat at the table and in doing so threatened something much more valuable than wages or benefits. He refused to use diplomacy; refused to grant them the respect that dealing with them as equals confers, and went right to war. They know that. It’s why they turned out. President Obama chooses words very carefully. He knows it too.

We have come home

John Cole does a what were you thinking post and does it ever get hot and heavy.

One of the comments,from tomvox1@48 writes we have become a nation of whiners. What has happened is that the Ugly American has decided to stay home. We are now inflicting the Ugly American syndrome on each other as well as the rest of the world.

Now you know why they like us so much. Not only do we strut, preen, shout and start wars everywhere else, we do it at home now.

Another Voice, Different Vantage

My last post may be reflective of my mood which has been going downhill for a while, getting darker and darker.
If I actually look around I see that we have actually made a fair amount of progress in the last 2 years, but we have a long way to go and I am running out of time, not that quickly but it is going at a notable pace. I'd like to see some repudiation of the last 30 60 years of the political warfare that makes up this country. And looking back I do see some, but it has been a war and I am tired of warfare. There has been declared warfare, The War on Poverty(which we are losing/lost), The War on Drugs(also losing), and undeclared warfare, civil liberties, presidential power, media war on truth(being won with bullshit, so losing), financial controls, more commonly known as money rape(all but the most wealthy are losing). I'm sure I left out something but isn't that enough war?
And now I read a post from someone I've never read or heard of and maybe, just maybe this will allow me to believe that the end is a little lot farther away than I envisioned. That is the resilience of the oppressed, to stay in the fight and to, if not win, at least continue to make progress. After all that's why we are called progressives, we want to continue to move forward, even at a snails pace. A rear view mirror never shows the whole picture, only what we can focus on. So if backing up to a better time is your thing, remember you are never going to see the whole picture going in reverse and that better time really was not so much.

You can't stop progress, you can beat on it, you can slow it down, but contrary to what looks like your views you can't stop it. Because time runs only one way.
Forward.


H/T ABL at Balloon-Juice, Earthbound Misfit

Woe, oh woe is me

I truly believe we are seeing the beginning of the end of our country. I suspect that we can get through the tough times ahead and that I am once again full of shit, but I wouldn't want to bet money on this country being anything like most of us hope it could be any time soon. We are seeing the government taking liberties with what's left of our liberties, we are seeing a country that is on the verge of bankruptcy of the ideals the made it a good place to immigrate to, legal or not. Those ideals that everyone has an opportunity to have a decent life, that we will protect those that are not there yet or never get there. We are seeing unprecedented greed from people that if their fortunes were cut 90% they would still have so much more than most of us. We are seeing politics (always a dirty underhanded sport) used as if a game at which there are few real life consequences for the pure power of it. Many of our neighbors seem to be so ignorant they can not see or accept facts or reality. The country is becoming more and more divided along the have and have not lines, with a lot of the have nots believing that the need to protect the haves or what little comes their way will be gone.
I give it 50 years. I hope I'm wrong. I most likely won't be here to see the disaster if it goes the way and takes the time I think it will because I will have passed my worm food date by then.
But maybe someone will come along and be a powerful enough force to make this work as a actual democracy.

It Really is Simple

Vote.

Vote Democratic.

Practice War, What is it good for?

There have been many posts flying around about the nazi war reenactors, brought on by the idiot running in Ohio.
This is my take, which I posted as a comment at Balloon-Juice.

Study history. I can absolutely see that, there’s quite a bit to learn, if one tries. But reenact war? War is brutal, war is inhuman(not that we’ve let that stop us), war is not just death, it is also maiming and life altering for a very large percentage of the participants and spectators. War should be studied to see how not to have to do it, not to see how glorious it never, ever is. I do not understand how one learns this from reenacting battles without the bleeding. So what does one learn from reenacting?

How much fun wars are?
Wars are grave inhuman atrocities that sometimes have to be fought to keep them from being bigger and worse than they end up. Nothing more.