Bernie

Getting to Know Elizabeth Warren

Weekend Reading

Federal Judge Blasts Fish & Wildlife Service, Says Endangered Wolves Cannot Be Shot
Trump Suffered The Worst Midterm Loss In A Century, Says JP Morgan
Thousand Oaks Makes 307 Mass Shootings In 311 Days
Trump's Appointment Of The Acting Attorney General Is Unconstitutional
Blame Fox, Not Facebook, For Fake News
America's Problem Isn't Tribalism - It's Racism
Republicans Lost The Suburbs
Why Democrats' Gain Was More Impressive Than It Appears
In Superstar Cities, The Rich Get Richer, And They Get Amazon
When Economists Took Socialism Seriously
The Wall Street Math Hustle
Laws And Disorder
Working-Class People Are Underrepresented In Politics. The Problem Isn't Voters.

Reality: A Bitter Pill For Republicans To Swallow

Esteemed and world-renowned commentator Tomi Lahren rightly blasted Michelle Obama for claiming her husband, Barack Obama, was a great president.

Kidding.

Tomi Lahren is a right-wing mouthpiece with the depth of a Dixie cup.

Barack Obama, indeed, was a great president and Michelle Obama a great first lady.

Here's Tomi's tweet:

Here's Kathy Griffin's response to Tomi:

Let's take a look back at some of what was accomplished during the Obama administration. You know, as Democrats like to focus on, the facts.

Barack Obama is officially one of the most consequential presidents in American history

He signed into law a comprehensive national health insurance bill, a goal that had eluded progressive presidents for a century — and built it strong enough to withstand assaults from the Supreme Court and avoid repeal from a Republican administration. He got surprisingly tough reforms to Wall Street passed as well, not to mention a stimulus package that both blunted the recession and transformed education and energy policy. 

He's put in place the toughest climate rules in American history and signed a major international climate accord. He opened the US to Cuba for the first time in more than half a century, and reached a peaceful settlement to the nuclear standoff with Iran.

Barack's Increasing Stock

Labor Market Progress and the Employment Situation

Obama’s Top 50 Accomplishments, Revisited

The Republicans will, no doubt, continue their cognitive dissonance, but that doesn't change reality. Barack Obama's record is exemplary. He accomplished much for this country and did so with great dignity and statesmanship. 

Republicans' continual denial of reality and the accomplishments of the Obama administration are the last gasps of the Republican cabal of racists, nazis, bigots, hypocrites, sexists and frauds. The Republicans have done nothing for this country. They've done only for themselves and their donors. They are partisan cranks and abject failures as public servants. Their moans and cries denying this do not change that fact.

Weekend Reading

California Leads U.S. Economy, Away From Trump
Researchers Have Answered A Big Question About The Decline Of The Middle Class
Who's Watching Wall Street? The Feds Turn A Blind Eye To Goldman's Game
Simple Math Is Why Elon Musk's Companies Keep Doing What Others Don't Even Consider Possible
A New Olympics Reality: Fewer Cities Want To Host The Games
See One Of The World's Rarest Cats Captured On Camera
Disturbing Photographs Show Pollution in the Great Lakes Before the Clean Water Act

A Call For Clean Water

Trump Announces Commission To Investigate His Baseless Widespread Voter Fraud Claim

U.S. life expectancy varies by more than 20 years from county to county

Labor: Human Activity That Provides The Goods Or Services In An Economy

"If any man tells you he loves America, yet hates Labor, he is a liar." ~ Abraham Lincoln

Yet, this seems to be exactly the message of Wall Street, conservatives and capital investment, in general.

According to investors, workers don't really deserve the fruit of their labor.

What's wrong with giving out pay raises? Plenty, according to some Wall Street analysts

“This is frustrating. Labor is being paid first … again. Shareholders get leftovers,” wrote Citi analyst Kevin Crissey in a note to clients. 

Jamie Baker of Morgan Stanley downgraded American shares to “neutral” from “overweight,” saying the pay decision “establishes a worrying precedent, in our view, both for American and the industry.”

John Cotton condensed the Wall Street view:

"There’s always this tension between what companies would want for the long term and what Wall Street wants for the short term," said John Cotton, professor of management and director of the Executive MBA Program in the College of Business Administration at Marquette University. "As far as Wall Street is concerned, if you could pay minimum wage to everybody on every job, that would be great because that would leave more money for stockholder. 

...

"Wall Street, they don’t care so much long term," Cotton said. "They would rather have the company buy back stock than, say, invest in making their business more effective over the long term, because that’s not going to pay off in the next 90 days. 

"It is short-sighted, but then Wall Street almost by definition is short-sighted," he added. "If you could do something to jack up your stock price 5%, the fact that it’s going to hurt your company over the next 10 years is irrelevant."

 American Airlines CEO defended worker raises:

"As a service organization, investments in our team are investments in our product," Parker said during a conference call with analysts. "We think it's precisely this kind of investment in our people that is going to make the difference in our service. And while this won't happen overnight, we also think it's the kind of investment that will continue to drive revenue (growth) for American. And as that happens, all of you will be the beneficiaries of those returns."

For Wall Street, raises should be reserved for the CEOs that decide to fire workers and/or suppress wages.

If we want to address the increasing income inequality in our society, we need to break from this capital-worship paradigm.

"Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." ~ Abraham Lincoln

Barack Obama One Of The Most Consequential Presidents In American History

Barack Obama is officially one of the most consequential presidents in American history

He signed into law a comprehensive national health insurance bill, a goal that had eluded progressive presidents for a century — and built it strong enough to withstand assaults from the Supreme Court and avoid repeal from a Republican administration. He got surprisingly tough reforms to Wall Street passed as well, not to mention a stimulus package that both blunted the recession and transformed education and energy policy. 

He's put in place the toughest climate rules in American history and signed a major international climate accord. He opened the US to Cuba for the first time in more than half a century, and reached a peaceful settlement to the nuclear standoff with Iran.

Weekend Reading

Scott Walker, the John Doe Files and How Corporate Cash Influences American Politics
How Privatization Is Killing The Public Sector
Scaring Kids About The National Debt
Wall Street Journal Mourns The Growing Efficiency of the Banking Industry
Elizabeth Warren Asks Obama To Replace Wall Street Regulator For Brazen Conduct
Ruling Against Wall Street Watchdog Decried As Reckless and Partisan
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin Declares 'Oilfield Prayer Day' To Ask God To Protect The State's Oil Industry
Larry Summers Makes The Case For Higher Capital Requirements
Social Security Is Not The Main Driver of the Country's Long-term Budget Problem
Economics Has A Major Blind Spot
Wisconsin Among The Worst Places In U.S. To Start A Business
Talgo Coming Back To Milwaukee
Solution To False 'Benefit Crisis' Isn't Cuts - It's Better Fiscal Policies
America Isn't The Greatest Country On Earth. It's No. 28
The Undercover War Against The Parks
How The Oil & Gas Industry Awakened Oklahoma's Sleeping Fault Lines

Sunday Reading

The Case for Free Trade is Weaker Than You Think
This Study Shows How Low Corporate America's Taxes Really Are
Don't Dismantle Government - Fix It
Only About One-Quarter of Corporate Stock is Owned By Taxable Shareholders
Vast Majority of $22.8 Trillion is U.S. Corporate Stock Won't Be Taxed
America's Trickle-Down Experiment Has Failed
America Isn't Going Broke
The Most Horrendous Lie on Wall Street
New Stadium? Teams Now Want The Whole Neighborhood
The Truth About Football Stadiums: Those Supposed Great New Jobs Are Bogus
Should Retail Companies Get Subsidies?
The Suburb That Tried To Kill The Car

Weekend Reading

The Real Reason Germs Spread in the Winter
The Links Between Gut Microbes and the Brain
The Myth of Big, Bad Gluten
The Religious Right's Big Lie About the Founding of America
You're Not Irrational, You're Quantum Probabilistic
American Failure: The 401(K)
The 401(K) Crisis is Getting Worse
Inequality in Our Retirement Accounts
The Rage of the Bankers
Why Does Wall Street Want Higher Rates?
The Stock Market is Not the Economy
The Case Against Raising Interest Rates Before Wage Growth Picks Up
The Failed Reaganomics Experiment In Kansas Keeps Getting Worse
Red States Spent $2 Billion in 2015 to Screw the Poor

Warren Fires Back At Wall Street

Elizabeth Warren Fires Back After Wall Street Threats 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has a blunt message for the big Wall Street banks that may withhold campaign donations to Senate Democrats in hopes of quieting her calls to break up the banks. 

"It will not work," Warren said in a statement emailed to The Huffington Post... 

"They want a showy way to tell Democrats across the country to be scared of speaking out, to be timid about standing up, and to stay away from fighting for what’s right," Warren wrote. "... I’m not going to stop talking about the unprecedented grasp that Citigroup has on our government’s economic policymaking apparatus ... And I’m not going to pretend the work of financial reform is done, when the so-called 'too big to fail' banks are even bigger now than they were in 2008."

Walker & Republicans, Stop Lying! A $1.8 Billion Deficit Isn't Budget-Saving!

Another conservative hack was given space in the Journal-Sentinel to espouse more complete right-wing fabrications. David Fladeboe, of the Wisconsin chapter of Americans For Prosperity, referred to Scott Walker's Act 10 as "budget-saving."

A $1.8 billion deficit, for those of us familiar with arithmetic, would not be considered budget-saving.

Fladeboe blathers on, "In no universe real or otherwise were powerful labor bosses and their unions ever going to make meaningful concessions that benefited hard-working teachers and public safety workers, let alone Wisconsin taxpayers."

I don't remember the Republicans calling teachers "hard-working" during the past two election cycles. "Overpaid," I believe, was their favorite adjective for teachers back then. And, public safety workers were exempted from Act 10 -- meaning -- they can still bargain for higher wages.

Fladeboe obviously has no idea what he is talking about. He's simply repeating the misguided Republican talking-point about thuggish and greedy unions, completely unaware of the fact that, over the past decade, union members have paid more for health care and pensions, gone without raises, and taken furlough days. Again, for those of us familiar with arithmetic, these would be considered "meaningful concessions."

And the idea that public sector workers are to blame for budget deficits turns reality on its head. It was all those deregulated, tax-avoiders connected to Wall Street (whom the Republicans adore and subsidize) that drove our economy into the ditch.

[I haven't seen the counter-point to these blatant right-wing falsities in the Journal. Timeliness is of the essence in these matters. Especially during election season.]

Here again we have the right-wing lying, attempting to rewrite history, and claiming their policies are working. The Democrats, the Unions, Liberals, etc. - everything is their fault. The Republicans promised jobs and budget surpluses. Neither of those promises has materialized, but they still keep on claiming and writing about how all their policies are working. And our media, for the most part, seems to be letting them get away with it. But that doesn't change the fact - the Republicans and their henchmen are lying to us.

For Further Reading:
Wisconsin's budget deficit was created by Scott Walker's irresponsible policies

Will Gov. Scott Walker Ever Come Clean On Wisconsin's Budget Deficit?

Scott Walker's budget implodes. $1.8 BILLION in Wis deficits

Why Not Pay Everyone In Cocaine & Unicorns?

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook

For Further Reading:

Research Shows Minimum Wage Increases Do Not Cause Job Loss

Minimum Wage

Why Does the Minimum Wage Have No Discernible Effect on Employment?

Wall St Boom, Main St Bust

[source]

Weekend Reading

The Most Expensive Tax Breaks

1. Employer Paid Health Insurance - Five year cost: $760 billion
2. Lower Rate For Capital Gains, Dividends - Five year cost: $616 billion
3. State And Local Tax Deductions - Five year cost: $431 billion
4. Mortgage interest deduction - Five year cost: $379 billion
5. Tax Free Medicare Benefits - Five year cost: $358 billion
6. Workplace Retirement Saving Plans - Five year cost: $336 billion
7. Earned Income Credit - Five year cost: $326 billion
8. Child Credit - Five year cost: $292 billion

Adding Up Just How Little We Actually Move
14 GOP Congressmen Against Borrowing, Have Big Debts Of Their Own
Workers Saving Too Little To Retire
Hate Paying Taxes? Try These States
Housing Has Been Booming! Construction Jobs Haven't. Here's Why.
Stop Subsidizing Wall Street

The Untouchables: How Wall Street Escaped Prosecution

Watch The Untouchables on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

Republicans Destroyed Economy

Weekend Reading

Foreclosure Inventory Levels Still Declining
GE's Jack Welch Knows About Cooking The Books
Paul Ryan Wants U.S. To Be A Tax Shelter
The Outrageous Attack On The BLS
The Romance Of Start-Up Businesses
Romney Told 27 Myths During The Debate
Wall Street Pay Too High

Unemployment Would Even Be Lower If...

...Republican governors hadn't slashed public employment over the past few years and Republicans in Congress didn't obstruct all the jobs bills put before them.

Suzy Khimm reports, "Overall, about 600,000 government jobs have been lost since the beginning of the recession."

And, as Mark Gongloff states, "Had Congress passed the American Jobs Act last year instead of letting it die, there might have been an extra 1.3 million to 1.9 million new jobs created this year, according to estimates by Macroeconomic Advisers and Moody's Analytics, respectively. If you simply divide those estimates up by quarters -- an unscientific approach, admittedly -- you could guesstimate that the AJA would have produced an extra 975,000 to 1.4 million jobs through the first three quarters of the year (i.e., through September). Let's call it a million, just for funsies. Assuming no change in the labor force, and just subtracting that million people from the 12 million unemployed in September, you get the unemployment rate down to 7.2 percent from 7.8 percent. On top of that, you could add the 575,000 government jobs that have been cut since Obama took office in January 2009. Had the federal government not shed workers and cut off aid to the states, it's theoretically possible -- arguably, would have been preferable -- that the government could have added jobs, or at least not cut any. That extra 575,000 workers -- again, assuming no change in the labor force -- gets unemployment down to 6.8 percent. We haven't seen 6.8 percent unemployment since November 2008."

Republicans got us into this mess. Rather than seeking justice against the perpetrators, Republicans turned the blame for all of America's problems onto the backs of teachers, firefighters, and all public workers. Nevermind the bankers and Wall Street, nothing to see there, move along.

Republicans have obstructed any attempt to get us out of this financier-induced mess. They've decided, instead, to use the public as pawns in their power struggle; allowing millions to remain unemployed in a lagging economy in the hopes of winning the election by blaming the President. It's a sick and cynical politics the Republicans are practicing.

Ruinous Wall Street

"Plus, there's the fact that the entire industry continues to get preferential treatment from the government -- be it the $700 billion bailout in 2008 or the ongoing right to borrow massive amounts of essentially free money from the Federal Reserve, then turn around and loan it, risk free, to Uncle Sam at 1.5% or more per year, thus pocketing billions in easy money," reports Anthony Mirhaydari.

Wall Street is ruining America.