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In his first conversation in front of an audience since his disclosures began making global headlines last year, Edward Snowden will appear via live video next Monday at SXSW Interactive
The panel will take place on March 10 at 11 a.m. Central Time. A live stream will be available on The Texas Tribune’s website, and the video will be available here afterwards.
source: ACLU
It has been widely circulated by the lazy corporate media that Ralph Nader cost Al Gore the 2000 election. It’s a lie that won’t die. It is STILL being promulgated by the lazy media, as illustrated in this article by Ben Adler urging Bernie Sanders to run as a Democrat.
The premise: Ralph Nader, a Green Party candidate, drew enough votes from Democrats in Florida to allow Shrub Bush to win in Florida (and the country). Nader got 97,488 in Florida.
“Nader cost Gore the election” is a lie, and it’s propaganda from the Democratic Party (they want to discourage would-be Democratic voters from ever again voting for a third-party candidate).
In fact:
There’s only one way to send a message to both the Democratic Party and the Republican party that we’re tired of “politics as usual”. There’s only one way to break the cycle of having to vote for the least-worst of only two candidates. We need viable third parties.
Bernie should NOT run as a Democrat.
Bernie should run as an independent or a Green.
Because Bernie has the name recognition and established support to send the message which need to be sent to the two corrupt political parties which have been screwing us for years.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics February employment report is out. It reports 175,000 new jobs.
Included in the report:
As talking heads voice jubilation, here’s something that’s not mentioned: The could only find part time work number continues to increase:
November, 2013: 2,499,000
December, 2013: 2,592,000
January, 2014: 2,571,000
February, 2014: 2,692,000
In a word: Stagnant
Not satisfied having control of state lawmakers, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is now targeting cities and towns:
Now the council is looking to take its blueprint for influence over statewide lawmaking and drill it down to the local level. It has already quietly set up, and is making plans for the public launch of, an offshoot called the American City County Exchange (ACCE) that will target policymakers from “villages, towns, cities and counties”.
The new organisation will offer corporate America a direct conduit into the policy making process of city councils and municipalities. Lobbyists acting on behalf of major businesses will be able to propose resolutions and argue for new profit-enhancing legislation in front of elected city officials, who will then return to their council chambers and seek to implement the proposals.
Bernie Sanders
Here’s a petition asking Bernie to run as the Green Party candidate (the Green Party accepts no corporate contributions).
It’s explained, in all its simplicity, here, and be sure to check out the links in the story.
Related:
Staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which has been aggressively promoting and approving spying, was (gasp!) spied upon by the C.I.A.
Or so says the Senate. The C.I.A. will, no doubt, say, “I know nuttink”.
Yes, Faux News could have been involved in preparing Paul Ryan’s “screw the people” budget. According to several researchers, Ryan cherry-picked data, ignored data, and neglected to mention the overall effect of some programs.
But then, Republicans wouldn’t have it any other way.
When Republicans bash “government”, what they are really saying is “We don’t trust the concept of ‘We The People’”. Rather, they favor “We The Corporations” and money-based morality.
Thanks to NM, who sent a link to this story about the city of Richmond, California, proposing using the power of eminent domain to take possession from the banks of homes with underwater mortgages.
A summary of what has happened and what is proposed:
What happened:
The banks sidestepped financial regulations by “bundling” mortgages (putting together a package of many mortgages), then selling those bundled packages to investors. It’s analagous to buying a bond, anticipating it will pay dividends and may increase in value. The mortgages in the bundled packages were called “securitized mortgages”.
The problems: This allowed banks to avoid government requirements of maintaining adequate capitalization (money) by selling pieces of mortgages to others, rather than carry those mortgages on the books. Another problem: Mortgages are overseen by states, not the federal government. Mortgages must be recorded at the county courthouse. The “securitized mortgages” were never recorded.
When banks tried to foreclose on homeowners, some of those homeowners went to court to demand the bank produce the recorded mortgage, in order to prove the bank owned the mortgage. The banks, having sold pieces of all those mortgages to investors, couldn’t show proof of ownership. When that happened, the bank lost in court and couldn’t foreclose. However, going to court is expensive — something many homeowners can’t afford.
What is proposed:
Gayle McLaughlin, the City of Richmond’s mayor (who is a member of the Green Party–which accepts no corporate payola) has proposed that the city use its power of eminent domain to take possession of houses with underwater mortgages (the homeowner owes more to the bank than the house is worth).
It’s a beautiful form of poetic justice: The banks caused the collapse of 2008 largely because of their shady mortgage practices. Yet they were bailed out by the taxpayers and now they expect underwater homeowners to eat all the losses. Richmond’s proposed action would place the pain for the bank’s fraud where it belongs — with the banks.
P.s. This is one more reason to vote for a Green Party candidate: No corporate payola, no political IOU’s.
Republicans — especially Texas Republicans — have raved about the success of right-wingerism in creating what they have called “the Texas miracle” (improved economy, more tech jobs, low taxes, etc.).
At “The New Yorker”, Phillip Longman demonstrates it’s a lie.
The increase in jobs is largely attributable to the increase in the oil industry, taxes (in typical Republican style) are structured so the biggest burden is on the middle class to benefit the 1%. Other Texas propaganda about such things as all the people moving to Texas neglect to mention that nearly as many people leave as arrive.
In effect, the assertion there’s a “Texas miracle” is all hat and no cattle.
Mike Whitney writes, at Counterpunch:
Obama’s Dumbest Plan Yet
The United States helped defeat Nazism in World War 2. Obama helped bring it back.
As you probably know by now, Obama and Co. have ousted Ukraine’s democratically-elected president, Viktor Yanukovych, with the help of ultra-right, paramilitary, neo-Nazi gangs who seized and burned government offices, killed riot police, and spread mayhem and terror across the country.
This is the price paid throughout the world for American intervention, and it has happened in numerous places, usually with disastrous results
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American corporations pursue profit — seeking ever-increasing profit. Often, to increase profit corporations lay off workers.
IBM is in the midst of one such layoff. It’s not necessitated by falling profits. Rather, IBM promised shareholders a dividend of $20 earnings per share by 2015. Right now, it’s just shy of $15.
Anxious to meet their self-announced profit goal, IBM is laying of an estimated 13,000 workers.
The layoffs are NOT necessitated by IBM’s financial circumstances. The layoffs will be made, rather, to further increase profit. The shareholders will be served. The employees will be screwed. Employees are, in effect, serfs, their welfare and well-being subject to the whim of highly-paid corporate executives whose sole motivation is increased profit.
Does this make sense? A strong, viable, profitable company should, it seems to me, be content with its situation. The company’s doing well. The shareholders are doing well. The employees have a job. There’s no reason, in a rational world, why this scenario shouldn’t be satisfactory to all involved.
But it’s not satisfactory to the rich executives or to the stockholders. So they decide to inflict pain on the workforce for their own financial profit.
This is capitalism.
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