GOOD GUYS - BAD GUYS - ANGRY GUYS - CRAZY GUYS - GUNS
They all have one thing in common; killing people.
WASHINGTON — The FBI says the number of shootings in which a gunman opens fire on a crowd of people has increased in recent years.
The bureau released a report Wednesday analyzing 160 mass shootings between 2000 and 2013.
The report focuses on what the FBI calls “active shooter incidents,” or cases in which a gunman tries to kill multiple people in a confined space.
According to the report, an average of six shootings occurred in the first seven years that were studied. That average rose to 16 shootings in the last seven years of the study.
Examples of the killings studied include the 2012 deadly shootings at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado and at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Saturday, September 27, 2014
FEDS BEHAVE LIKE PROSTITUTES
Government agencies pandering to the people they regulate is business as usual and comes to light when someone blows the whistle.
In this case the Fed lays down to big banks; not because they are too big to fail but because these government employees look forward to retirement and a cushy deal working for the banks they regulate.
The Federal Reserve is among the most powerful institutions in the nation and also among the more private. But new audio tapes secretly recorded by a former employee provide a rare look into meetings involving officials from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
In them, you hear officials considering how to oversee Goldman Sachs, and specifically, they discuss a financial transaction that one official describes as "legal but shady."
In this case the Fed lays down to big banks; not because they are too big to fail but because these government employees look forward to retirement and a cushy deal working for the banks they regulate.
The Federal Reserve is among the most powerful institutions in the nation and also among the more private. But new audio tapes secretly recorded by a former employee provide a rare look into meetings involving officials from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
In them, you hear officials considering how to oversee Goldman Sachs, and specifically, they discuss a financial transaction that one official describes as "legal but shady."
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Football IS Domestic Violence
And it should come as no surprise that the violence goes where these clown go; on or off the field.
Americans spend billions of dollars and devote countless hours feeding their "blood lust" which get's passed off as entertainment.
Since when did scrambling peoples brains, breaking bones, and drawing blood become a form of entertainment?
So, why kid ourselves and stop with the surprise and shock reaction when see these gladiators in tights bludgeon a woman or beat a kid during off hours. These clowns are trained to be violent and are rewarded millions to be good at it. The nastier they are the more their fans love them.
The problem is, they just can't turn it off when they step off the field. What we see on the filed is what we get off the field.
Americans spend billions of dollars and devote countless hours feeding their "blood lust" which get's passed off as entertainment.
Since when did scrambling peoples brains, breaking bones, and drawing blood become a form of entertainment?
So, why kid ourselves and stop with the surprise and shock reaction when see these gladiators in tights bludgeon a woman or beat a kid during off hours. These clowns are trained to be violent and are rewarded millions to be good at it. The nastier they are the more their fans love them.
The problem is, they just can't turn it off when they step off the field. What we see on the filed is what we get off the field.
Maybe it's something to think about next time you grab a 6-pak and plant yourself in front of your flat screen and start screaming for blood.
Saturday, September 13, 2014
ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY 101
On remote Deer Isle, Maine, the movement for a more just and democratic economy won a major victory this summer. More than 60 employees of three retail businesses - Burnt Cove Market, V&S Variety and Pharmacy, and The Galley - banded together to buy the stores and create the largest worker cooperative in Maine and the second largest in New England.
Now the workers own and run the businesses together under one banner, known as the Island Employee Cooperative(IEC). This is the first time that multiple businesses of this size and scope have been merged and converted into one worker cooperative - making this a particularly groundbreaking achievement in advancing economic democracy.
Now the workers own and run the businesses together under one banner, known as the Island Employee Cooperative(IEC). This is the first time that multiple businesses of this size and scope have been merged and converted into one worker cooperative - making this a particularly groundbreaking achievement in advancing economic democracy.
THE DEBT TRAP
How Many Americans Have Unpaid Debts?
More than 35% of Americans have unpaid debts that have been turned over to debt collectors, according to a 2014 study by the Urban Institute. Most of these debts are from credit cards or hospital bills, but also include student loans, auto loans, and mortgages, which account for nearly $11.4 trillion USD in total American consumer debt. Based on records from September 2013, the average debt turned over to collection agencies was reported at $5,178 USD.
More about debt:
- American households average over $15,000 USD in credit card debt.
- More credit card companies are offering rewards cards, where cardholders earn points for using their cards and in turn get to use those points for rewards or cash back deals. However, rewards cards average an interest rate of 17.83% which is higher than non-rewards cards that average 15.48%.
- Between 2009 and 2011, 7.6 million American homes went into foreclosure.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
US ATTACKED BY SAUDI ARABIA ON 9/11
SAUDI ARABIA ATTACKS US ON 9/11 And the US responds by invading Iraq and Afghanistan?
So, how does that work?
Of the nineteen hijackers who attacked this nation on September 11, 2001, fifteen were Saudi Arabian. Moreover, each and every one of the nineteen hijackers was personally chosen and provided with training and financing by yet another Saudi native – Osama bin Laden. Yet from that day to this, in spite of these disturbing and incontrovertible facts, members of the Bush administration have glibly and incessantly insisted that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of our closest friends and allies in the War on Terror. Fifteen Saudis murdered nearly 3,000 Americans on live TV, all at the behest of one of the Kingdom’s prodigal sons. How can these basic facts about 9/11 possibly be mere trivia?
A Second Look at the Saudis
So, how does that work?
Of the nineteen hijackers who attacked this nation on September 11, 2001, fifteen were Saudi Arabian. Moreover, each and every one of the nineteen hijackers was personally chosen and provided with training and financing by yet another Saudi native – Osama bin Laden. Yet from that day to this, in spite of these disturbing and incontrovertible facts, members of the Bush administration have glibly and incessantly insisted that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of our closest friends and allies in the War on Terror. Fifteen Saudis murdered nearly 3,000 Americans on live TV, all at the behest of one of the Kingdom’s prodigal sons. How can these basic facts about 9/11 possibly be mere trivia?
A Second Look at the Saudis
Saturday, September 6, 2014
MOVERS and SHAKERS
Some good.......Some bad...............Some Bat-shit-crazy.......but all playing a part in creating this failed experiment we call civilization.
Our list of the thinkers, doers and dreamers who really matter in this age of gridlock and dysfunction.
THE POLITICO 50
Our list of the thinkers, doers and dreamers who really matter in this age of gridlock and dysfunction.
Friday, September 5, 2014
SCORE; 3% 54.4 - 90% 24.7
SCORE; 3% 54.4 - 90% 24.7
That sucking sound you hear is the richest 3% insatiable appetite for more of our countries wealth and the destruction of this countries middle class; not to forget the poor
Fed: Gap Between Rich, Poor Americans Widened During Recovery
The median net worth of American families tumbled during the recession years. While the situation has stabilized, families haven't regained their lost ground, Thursday's report revealed. Median net worth fell 2% in 2013 from 2010, while average net worth was basically flat.
Wealth inequality has deepened over time. The top 3% held 54.4% of all wealth in 2013, up from 44.8% in 1989. The bottom 90% held 24.7% of wealth last year, down from 33.2% in 1989.
The vast majority of Americans own assets of some kind. But ownership rates for most types of assets—stocks and retirement accounts, cars and homes—fell between 2010 and 2013, indicating that "many more families now hold fewer different types of assets," the report said.
Some 65.2% of families owned their primary residence in 2013, the lowest homeownership rate since 1995. The share of families owning a business fell to 11.7%, the lowest level recorded in the survey's 25-year history.
The share of families that own stock continued to decline, though nearly all families in the top 10% owned shares. As a result, they may have benefited the most from the stock market's surge in recent years. "The narrower concentration of wealth gains may explain why wealth effects appear smaller in this cycle than in past cycles," J.P. Morgan Chase economist Michael Feroli said in a note to clients.
That sucking sound you hear is the richest 3% insatiable appetite for more of our countries wealth and the destruction of this countries middle class; not to forget the poor
Fed: Gap Between Rich, Poor Americans Widened During Recovery
The median net worth of American families tumbled during the recession years. While the situation has stabilized, families haven't regained their lost ground, Thursday's report revealed. Median net worth fell 2% in 2013 from 2010, while average net worth was basically flat.
Wealth inequality has deepened over time. The top 3% held 54.4% of all wealth in 2013, up from 44.8% in 1989. The bottom 90% held 24.7% of wealth last year, down from 33.2% in 1989.
The vast majority of Americans own assets of some kind. But ownership rates for most types of assets—stocks and retirement accounts, cars and homes—fell between 2010 and 2013, indicating that "many more families now hold fewer different types of assets," the report said.
Some 65.2% of families owned their primary residence in 2013, the lowest homeownership rate since 1995. The share of families owning a business fell to 11.7%, the lowest level recorded in the survey's 25-year history.
The share of families that own stock continued to decline, though nearly all families in the top 10% owned shares. As a result, they may have benefited the most from the stock market's surge in recent years. "The narrower concentration of wealth gains may explain why wealth effects appear smaller in this cycle than in past cycles," J.P. Morgan Chase economist Michael Feroli said in a note to clients.
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
WHAT DO THE KOCHS AND HERPES HAVE IN COMMON?
First and foremost, you just can't get rid of them. Now that the country is infected the best we can do is try to keep it from spreading. The Koch's infect our political system much like how herpes infects one's body. It hides in a network of "non" profit shell organizations that are specifically designed to do whatever it takes to attack the democratic system to ensure that their agenda is the last one standing.
Charles and David Koch, ages 78 and 74, are billionaire brothers who helped create a broad network of nonprofit groups that control hundreds of millions of dollars flowing into politics. Through their deep pockets, they are reshaping politics with an uncompromising agenda of reducing regulation, advancing libertarian ideas, promoting free-market Republican candidates and ousting Democrats. [Associated Press, 8/25/14]
Financial filings show that the network of politically active nonprofit groups backed by the Kochs and fellow donors in the 2012 elections financially outpaced other independent groups on the right and, on its own, matched the long-established national coalition of labor unions that serves as one of the biggest sources of support for Democrats.
The resources and the breadth of the organization make it singular in American politics: an operation conducted outside the campaign finance system, employing an array of groups aimed at stopping what its financiers view as government overreach. Members of the coalition target different constituencies but together have mounted attacks on the new health-care law, federal spending and environmental regulations.
[...]
But they have substantial firepower. Together, the 17 conservative groups that made up the network raised at least $407 million during the 2012 campaign, according to the analysis of tax returns by The Washington Post and the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks money in politics. [Washington Post, 1/5/14]
Charles and David Koch, ages 78 and 74, are billionaire brothers who helped create a broad network of nonprofit groups that control hundreds of millions of dollars flowing into politics. Through their deep pockets, they are reshaping politics with an uncompromising agenda of reducing regulation, advancing libertarian ideas, promoting free-market Republican candidates and ousting Democrats. [Associated Press, 8/25/14]
Financial filings show that the network of politically active nonprofit groups backed by the Kochs and fellow donors in the 2012 elections financially outpaced other independent groups on the right and, on its own, matched the long-established national coalition of labor unions that serves as one of the biggest sources of support for Democrats.
The resources and the breadth of the organization make it singular in American politics: an operation conducted outside the campaign finance system, employing an array of groups aimed at stopping what its financiers view as government overreach. Members of the coalition target different constituencies but together have mounted attacks on the new health-care law, federal spending and environmental regulations.
[...]
But they have substantial firepower. Together, the 17 conservative groups that made up the network raised at least $407 million during the 2012 campaign, according to the analysis of tax returns by The Washington Post and the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks money in politics. [Washington Post, 1/5/14]
Monday, September 1, 2014
THE DESTRUCTION OF THE AMERICAN WORKER
Profits before people. Investors before workers. Maximum labor - Minimum wages. That's the business model used by the 1% in the United States which in turn results in the 1% hoarding 45% of the wealth produced by the American workforce.
American workers are "insecure, underpaid, highly stressed, and generally unhappy at work," researchers found.
The report, "Unhappy, Worried, and Pessimistic: Americans in the Aftermath of the Great Recession," details the results of a national survey conducted by the school’s John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development. Researchers at the university have been taking stock of public perception on the effects of the recession since it ended in 2009, and honed in on the American workforce ahead of Labor Day weekend.
The survey, which included 1,153 people over a two-week period in July and August, found that Americans’ perspective on the damage wrought by the recession has only gotten worse. Seventy one percent said the recession caused permanent change, compared to the 49 percent who believed so when researchers first conducted their survey in 2009.
The Rutgers report also gave respondents a multiple-choice quiz, with a dozen words and phrases, asking them to choose all that applied to American workers.
The top two choices were "Not secure in their jobs" at 70 percent, and "highly stressed" at 68 percent. Rounding out the top three was "takes pride in work," but "happy at work" fell at the very bottom, with just 14 percent.
American workers are "insecure, underpaid, highly stressed, and generally unhappy at work," researchers found.
The report, "Unhappy, Worried, and Pessimistic: Americans in the Aftermath of the Great Recession," details the results of a national survey conducted by the school’s John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development. Researchers at the university have been taking stock of public perception on the effects of the recession since it ended in 2009, and honed in on the American workforce ahead of Labor Day weekend.
The Rutgers report also gave respondents a multiple-choice quiz, with a dozen words and phrases, asking them to choose all that applied to American workers.
The top two choices were "Not secure in their jobs" at 70 percent, and "highly stressed" at 68 percent. Rounding out the top three was "takes pride in work," but "happy at work" fell at the very bottom, with just 14 percent.
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