Wednesday, January 27, 2016
DOMESTIC TERRORISM AND WEAK GUN CONTROLS
A bad combination. Allowing armed citizens intending to do harm and threatening the government of the United States (it's citizens) should not be tolerated anymore than other forms of terrorism form outside our borders. As any "constitutional zealot" will tell you, this is a country that abides by the Rule of Law.
These clowns seem to have forgotten that.
These clowns seem to have forgotten that.
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
IS AMERICA A SOCIAL DEMOCRACY OR DONOR PLUTOCRACY?
Bernie Sanders calls himself a "democratic socialist" who in a
"representative democracy" is elected by, and represents, the American
(voters) "people."
The people that understand what Bernie Sanders stands for are, young, smart, and more passionate than the previous generation.Young Democrats Prefer Bernie Sanders, New Poll Finds
The "Millennials" are determined to take America back from what has come to be known as the "shadow" government that is now in power; A new book further explores the "red thread" that connects the war on terror, the militarization of America's foreign policy, rising inequality and the dysfunction that plagues our government.
These Americans believe that America is not for sale and that it's time for a political revolution in order to rescue the country from the Oligarchs that are devouring it for their own self-gain.
His opponents; mostly Republicans claim this is bad for Americans, but who are the Americans they represent? The Plutocrats Are Winning! The vast inequality they are creating is a death sentence for government by consent of the people.
These power brokers are known as the "donor" class;
Ah, yes. The donor class! Those deep pockets flung open even wider by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision just six years ago, permitting the richest of the rich to pour even more of their fortunes into control of our electoral process. Brooks was saying openly what many of them are thinking privately: Only we can save the party from the megalomania of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz and protect our precious status quo.
How best to do this? Brooks suggested that panicked “state legislators who are Republicans, congressmen, senators, local committeemen” should join with the donors “so they don’t send the party into suicide.” Makes sense — many of those very same folks already are deep in hock to the donors, their contributions often laundered via entities with high-falutin’ names – ALEC, for one, the American Legislative Exchange Council that lends a helping corporate hand to legislators eager to write favorable laws, provide tax breaks, dismember public employee unions and privatize government services.
The people that understand what Bernie Sanders stands for are, young, smart, and more passionate than the previous generation.Young Democrats Prefer Bernie Sanders, New Poll Finds
The "Millennials" are determined to take America back from what has come to be known as the "shadow" government that is now in power; A new book further explores the "red thread" that connects the war on terror, the militarization of America's foreign policy, rising inequality and the dysfunction that plagues our government.
These Americans believe that America is not for sale and that it's time for a political revolution in order to rescue the country from the Oligarchs that are devouring it for their own self-gain.
His opponents; mostly Republicans claim this is bad for Americans, but who are the Americans they represent? The Plutocrats Are Winning! The vast inequality they are creating is a death sentence for government by consent of the people.
These power brokers are known as the "donor" class;
Ah, yes. The donor class! Those deep pockets flung open even wider by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision just six years ago, permitting the richest of the rich to pour even more of their fortunes into control of our electoral process. Brooks was saying openly what many of them are thinking privately: Only we can save the party from the megalomania of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz and protect our precious status quo.
How best to do this? Brooks suggested that panicked “state legislators who are Republicans, congressmen, senators, local committeemen” should join with the donors “so they don’t send the party into suicide.” Makes sense — many of those very same folks already are deep in hock to the donors, their contributions often laundered via entities with high-falutin’ names – ALEC, for one, the American Legislative Exchange Council that lends a helping corporate hand to legislators eager to write favorable laws, provide tax breaks, dismember public employee unions and privatize government services.
Monday, January 25, 2016
CAN-U-FEEL-IT ????????
WANT TO FEEL THE BERN? CLICK HERE; to watch and share this short video now so we can help show the country why folks are so excited about Bernie Sanders’ bid for the presidency?
Sanders said, “The truth is, you can’t change a corrupt system by taking its money. It’s called a rigged economy, and this is how it works. Most new wealth flows to the top 1 percent. It’s a system held in place by corrupt politics where Wall Street banks and billionaires buy elections. My campaign is powered by over a million small contributions from people like you who want to fight back.”
Sen. Sanders is putting the money raised by his 800,000 small donors to work spreading the message that America’s corrupt campaign finance system is the mechanism that is allowing income inequality to grow. If elected officials are accountable to their big donors instead of voters, the government stops belonging to the people.
The Bernie Sanders presidential campaign is dangerous to Wall Street and the billionaires because they aren’t owned by big money donors. Sanders doesn’t belong to the billionaires, which means that he is free to speak the truth. The truth is that our current political system is being corrupted by outside money and the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision.
These ads can inform the public and for that reason Wall Street and billionaire oligarchs should be very afraid.
Sunday, January 24, 2016
ELECTING REPUBLICANS; A FORMULA FOR DISASTER
Electing Republicans to political office is a disaster waiting to happen. Here's why.
The Republicans have a formula for governing that can be broken down in 3 ways;
#1: CUT TAXES for the rich, of course which has the disastrous affects of creating INCOME INEQUALITY where the rich get richer while the working middle class gets poorer.
If you have 5 minutes to spare it might be worth your while watching this video;
According to statistics from 1990 to 2005, a
new state or federal correctional facility was built in the United
States once every 10 days, amounting to around 544 new prisons over 15
years.
More about US prisons:
You might say the US Congress is a bit compromised.
The same lucrative financial ties that exist between politicians and the "health-care" industry exist between politicians and for-profit prison companies, oil companies, gun companies, sugar companies, other big agribusiness and Wall Street's bankers, advisers, and hedge fund and private equity managers.
Congress is inundated with money spent by very large corporations in
return for political action designed to maximize corporate profits.
Pfizer, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, gave $2,217,066 in political campaign donations during the 2014 election cycle (the most recent year for which data is available), and $9,483,000 more in political lobbying. As of 2014, 40 members of Congress held stock in the pharmaceutical giant.
Congress also happens to be doing nothing to stop Pfizer from charging Americans some of the highest drug prices in the world.
Bristol-Myers Squibb is another pharmaceutical behemoth charging Americans inflated drug prices while funneling money to Congress. In 2014, the company spent $259,450 in campaign contributions, and $2,745,000 in lobbying. Twenty-five members of Congress hold stock in Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Another Big Pharma company, Johnson & Johnson, gave $757,788 in political campaign contributions in 2014, and spent $5,980,000 more in lobbying. Forty members of Congress hold stock in Johnson & Johnson.
While millions of Americans fight to afford their medications, 11 corporate leviathans (all of which donate to or lobby Congress) have wrested more than $711 billion in profits for their investors.
As members of Congress constitute some of those investors, the lax regulation that allows the American people to be extorted is actually good for the politicians in charge of representing the best interests of the people.
This throws into light the reason why, unlike any other body of legislators in the world, US federal lawmakers do not regulate or restrain massive pharmaceutical companies from engaging in predatory pricing practices.
As instance after instance shows, Congress does not, in fact, represent the people of the United States, but rich CEOs. On both sides of the aisle, campaign donations, super PACs and corporate lobbying have morphed this country into an oligarchy, controlled by the wealthy few.
As Sanders says, the issue is not that "the Republicans and Democrats hate each other. That's a mythology from the media."
The real problem, which Sanders has correctly identified, is that "Congress is owned by big money and refuses to do what the American people want them to do."
The Republicans have a formula for governing that can be broken down in 3 ways;
#1: CUT TAXES for the rich, of course which has the disastrous affects of creating INCOME INEQUALITY where the rich get richer while the working middle class gets poorer.
If you have 5 minutes to spare it might be worth your while watching this video;
Wealth Inequality in America
# 2: CUT THE BUDGET which for Republicans means cutting and/or reducing "not for profit" social programs like healthcare, where a large number of RED states have refused to expand healthcare services to the working class and poor; (Here's a look at the 50 states health care coverage.)
Weaken consumer and environmental protection agencies that result in disasters like we are seeing in Flint MI where again the working class and poor are targeted;
Michigan’s pollution crisis
Republicans have no problem with a bloated budget when it comes to "for profit" projects like the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) that funds a juggernaut military machine that is larger than the military of most of the rest of the world's developed countries "combined."
Another "for profit" program Republicans support and fund is the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC)
where the focus is on "retention" and "recidivism" (keeping the beds full) in order to make a profit;
More about US prisons:
- Twenty-five percent of the total world prison population is comprised of US prisoners, even though the US makes up just 5% of the total global population. In 2013, there were about 2.2 million adults in local, state, or federal custody in the United States.
- There are 770,000 people who work for US prisons in some capacity (such as parole officers, prison guards, construction, health care, and more) - almost as many as work in the automobile manufacturing industry.
#3: CUT GOVERNMENT which for Republicans means weakening our "representative" Democratic form of government" and strengthening an "elitist" Plutocratic form of government.
In a true democracy big and strong government that represents ALL of it's citizens; rich, working, and poor, alike is a prerequisite to a strong and productive society. A small weaken government that panders to a select elitist few (the rich) is the preferred choice for Republicans who have been diligent on degrading the political system with things like Gerrymandering and Citizens United.
It's not that Republicans are anti-government more than they are anti-democratic.
It's time Americans stop and think about what Republicans mean when they say they want to cut taxes, reduce the budget deficit, and rid us of big government. Because it's not so much what they say, but what it means to the average American that's important if we are to preserve our way of life.
It's all about money:
The same lucrative financial ties that exist between politicians and the "health-care" industry exist between politicians and for-profit prison companies, oil companies, gun companies, sugar companies, other big agribusiness and Wall Street's bankers, advisers, and hedge fund and private equity managers.
Pfizer, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, gave $2,217,066 in political campaign donations during the 2014 election cycle (the most recent year for which data is available), and $9,483,000 more in political lobbying. As of 2014, 40 members of Congress held stock in the pharmaceutical giant.
Congress also happens to be doing nothing to stop Pfizer from charging Americans some of the highest drug prices in the world.
Bristol-Myers Squibb is another pharmaceutical behemoth charging Americans inflated drug prices while funneling money to Congress. In 2014, the company spent $259,450 in campaign contributions, and $2,745,000 in lobbying. Twenty-five members of Congress hold stock in Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Another Big Pharma company, Johnson & Johnson, gave $757,788 in political campaign contributions in 2014, and spent $5,980,000 more in lobbying. Forty members of Congress hold stock in Johnson & Johnson.
While millions of Americans fight to afford their medications, 11 corporate leviathans (all of which donate to or lobby Congress) have wrested more than $711 billion in profits for their investors.
As members of Congress constitute some of those investors, the lax regulation that allows the American people to be extorted is actually good for the politicians in charge of representing the best interests of the people.
This throws into light the reason why, unlike any other body of legislators in the world, US federal lawmakers do not regulate or restrain massive pharmaceutical companies from engaging in predatory pricing practices.
As instance after instance shows, Congress does not, in fact, represent the people of the United States, but rich CEOs. On both sides of the aisle, campaign donations, super PACs and corporate lobbying have morphed this country into an oligarchy, controlled by the wealthy few.
As Sanders says, the issue is not that "the Republicans and Democrats hate each other. That's a mythology from the media."
The real problem, which Sanders has correctly identified, is that "Congress is owned by big money and refuses to do what the American people want them to do."
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