Posted by  thepete
on Wednesday, October 12th at
1:28 PM. [link]
friendlyatheist:
robertreich:
THE SEVEN BIGGEST ECONOMIC LIES
The President’s Jobs Bill doesn’t have a chance in Congress — and the Occupiers on Wall Street and elsewhere can’t become a national movement for a more equitable society – unless more Americans know the truth about the economy.
Here’s a short (2 minute 30 second) effort to rebut the seven biggest whoppers now being told by those who want to take America backwards. The major points:
1. Tax cuts for the rich trickle down to everyone else. Baloney. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush both sliced taxes on the rich and what happened? Most Americans’ wages (measured by the real median wage) began flattening under Reagan and have dropped since George W. Bush. Trickle-down economics is a cruel joke.
2. Higher taxes on the rich would hurt the economy and slow job growth. False. From the end of World War II until 1981, the richest Americans faced a top marginal tax rate of 70 percent or above. Under Dwight Eisenhower it was 91 percent. Even after all deductions and credits, the top taxes on the very rich were far higher than they’ve been since. Yet the economy grew faster during those years than it has since. (Don’t believe small businesses would be hurt by a higher marginal tax; fewer than 2 percent of small business owners are in the highest tax bracket.)
3. Shrinking government generates more jobs. Wrong again. It means fewer government workers – everyone from teachers, fire fighters, police officers, and social workers at the state and local levels to safety inspectors and military personnel at the federal. And fewer government contractors, who would employ fewer private-sector workers. According to Moody’s economist Mark Zandi (a campaign advisor to John McCain), the $61 billion in spending cuts proposed by the House GOP will cost the economy 700,000 jobs this year and next.
4. Cutting the budget deficit now is more important than boosting the economy. Untrue. With so many Americans out of work, budget cuts now will shrink the economy. They’ll increase unemployment and reduce tax revenues. That will worsen the ratio of the debt to the total economy. The first priority must be getting jobs and growth back by boosting the economy. Only then, when jobs and growth are returning vigorously, should we turn to cutting the deficit.
5. Medicare and Medicaid are the major drivers of budget deficits. Wrong. Medicare and Medicaid spending is rising quickly, to be sure. But that’s because the nation’s health-care costs are rising so fast. One of the best ways of slowing these costs is to use Medicare and Medicaid’s bargaining power over drug companies and hospitals to reduce costs, and to move from a fee-for-service system to a fee-for-healthy outcomes system. And since Medicare has far lower administrative costs than private health insurers, we should make Medicare available to everyone.
6. Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. Don’t believe it. Social Security is solvent for the next 26 years. It could be solvent for the next century if we raised the ceiling on income subject to the Social Security payroll tax. That ceiling is now $106,800.
7. It’s unfair that lower-income Americans don’t pay income tax. Wrong. There’s nothing unfair about it. Lower-income Americans pay out a larger share of their paychecks in payroll taxes, sales taxes, user fees, and tolls than everyone else.
Demagogues through history have known that big lies, repeated often enough, start being believed — unless they’re rebutted. These seven economic whoppers are just plain wrong. Make sure you know the truth – and spread it on.
Although it is not religious in content this was too good to not reblog.
-FA
GOOD STUFF.
So frustrating that this kind of thing even needs to be presented in this way. Truth is so obfuscated by agenda-ized politics that people need to be handed the truth on a silver platter, with it all pre-cut-up into bite-sized pieces for easy consumption and digestion. It’s like we’re all fucking 2 year-olds* not yet eating solid foods.
*I don’t know how old children are when they stop eating baby food. Please don’t send nasty emails, thanks.
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Posted by thepete
on Sunday, October 9th at
7:51 PM. [link]
It’s hard to do it because you gotta look people in the eye and tell ‘em they’re irresponsible and lazy. And who’s gonna wanna do that? Because that’s what poverty is, ladies and gentlemen. In this country, you can succeed if you get educated and work hard. Period. Period.
Bill “Poverty is a lack of hard work” O’Reilly, for Fox News
(via reallyfoxnews)
When are people going to realize how ignorant this statement is? Social mobility is becoming more and more limited each day, and poverty has nothing to do with hard work. It is blatantly obvious that,
1. Bill O’Reilly has never had a service job in his life
2. inherited wealth, and
3. has never studied sociological theory or any sociology related topic in his life, or else he might actually understand the concepts of social mobility and oppression/greed.
(via killtvmakestuff)
I wonder how many of his fans he just called “irresponsible and lazy” in this?
(via feministslut)
A guy who gets paid millions for working an hour a day gets to call full-time minimum-wage workers irresponsible and lazy?
[animated image: Judge Judy sits in her courtroom in front of an American flag and New York state flag. She glances to towards the right side of the image and gives an incredulous smirk.]
(via afunnyfeminist)
The 99% posters I see MOSTLY complain about this lie. This piece of shit we all get fed that “getting educated” will put us on the path to success. Now we all took out student loans to pay hyper-inflated tuition prices for bullshit degrees that don’t matter when there are NO JOBS you can put that degree to work with.
of course he’s insulting his fans and dissenters alike, but the difference is his fans will agree with him. They’re the 53%-ers, the ones who think it’s okay to work 100 hours a week to make ends meet. Because they believe this bullshit myth of “hard work.”
Newsflash: The people telling us we just have to “work hard” have no fucking idea what that really even means. It’s just like being told you didn’t pray hard enough for something to come. If you’re provided for, you’re working hard enough, whether that means broadcasting one hour a day on television or working 100 hours a week with no benefits. If you’re not provided for, then you’re not working hard enough. Even if you’re working 110 hours a week.
Just like God can’t lose, Capitalism can’t lose either. Corporations can’t lose. It’s not their fault when the economy collapses, it’s not their fault when they don’t create any jobs for people to “work hard” at. It IS their doing when things are going well, though.
(via sonic-hip-attack)
Fuck this fucktard. Poverty is not a lack of hard work. It’s a lack of luck. Fuck you rich people and fuck you Bill O’Reilly.
(via simplyopinions)
It’s opinions and attitudes like O’Reilly’s that will raise the collective temperature of the lower class to a boiling point. History shows us that poor people, if pushed, will turn to violence to quench their thirst for “justice” or “fairness” when, really it will be about jealousy and revenge. But what you call it won’t matter. Back during the late 1800s and early 1900s, rich people’s homes were sacked in cities like New York. Rich people hired guards to make sure no one would burn their homes down. See—they weren’t common thieves—they wanted revenge and it’ll happen again, just like back then (read Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” for more on this—it’s a brilliant history book as it is told from the loser’s point-of-view).
But the thing is, the attitude of the rich isn’t entirely inaccurate—if you work hard you are more likely to do well. After all, success is when preparation meets opportunity. So the rich are right in this way. Of course, they don’t talk about the lack of opportunities. Also, just because the rich are partially right doesn’t give them license to be douchebags about it. And the bigger the douchebag they are, the more anxious the “unprivileged” will be to pop that bag and shower in that vinegar and water goodness (sorry, metaphor went off the rails there).
Now, when the rich get all uppity about “class warfare” they’re just Orwellian-style doublespeaking. In other words, when rich people talk of “class warfare” they’re doing it to distract us from noticing that they, themselves are committing acts of class war.
When a rich person says to a jobless, homeless or penniless person (JHP), “work hard and you will succeed!” that is class warfare. The rich person is withholding all aid and resources from this “JHP” person. Now consider what you do to your enemy in a time of war: you cut off their resources.
Therefore cutting funding to social programs, health programs, libraries and education is literally class warfare. It’s wonderful since they get mad when they’re accused of class warfare, but they don’t have a problem accusing everyone else.
And capitalism is JUST like God, as one of the rebloggers above said. And it’s just as impossible to have a rational conversation with someone who has an irrational belief in something.
The system is failing us—and it will continue to fail us because of this absurd faith in the magical properties of capitalism. So, until something dramatically changes, the system will continue to fall apart because the people in charge are just ignoring the problems, even denying they exist—as though belief is enough. They’re like economic Christian Scientists.
Idiots. (Source: brainyquote.com)
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Posted by thepete
on Wednesday, October 5th at
12:28 PM. [link]
motherjones:
It’s like they’re not even pretending anymore.
Rich folks need to keep talking like this. Seriously.
They need to keep talking like this so when they finally get punched in the face or their home burned to the ground, they’ll be able to blame themselves.
Aw, who am I kidding? They’ll still blame us for everything. Even though they’ve got our money (who do you think bought all those pizzas, Herman?) they still think that they don’t owe us anything, yet they still expect us to keep buying their shit (we can’t afford pizzas, anymore, Herman!).
I still think rich folks need to keep talking like this though. It’ll just speed things up more.
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Posted by thepete
on Monday, November 8th at
10:44 AM. [link]
 NPR: The Fed’s $600 Billion Statement, Translated Into Plain English (Can’t believe they did this—now everyone will know! OK, now every NPR listener/reader will know. So like five people?)
But seriously, this is awesome—not only is NPR covering that the Fed is literally creating money from nothing, but they’ve done it in such a blatant way no one can misunderstand them.
What’s also nice about the above capped piece (you can click on it to go to the article) is that they took Fed Chairman, Ben Bernanke’s statement about inventing $600 billion from nothing and translated it into plain English, line-by-line, so you can actually understand what the cagey fucker is talking about. Here’s an example:
“Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in September confirms that the pace of recovery in output and employment continues to be slow.”
becomes:
“The economy still sucks.”
another:
“Longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable, but measures of underlying inflation have trended lower in recent quarters.”
becomes:
“Inflation has gone from low to super low.”
Of course, nowhere do they explain why the rate of inflation going up is good, but hey, at least a fairly mainstream news source is doing us the favor of actually reporting facts that inform us about one of the most important, life-changing things in our life:
Money…
…and how it’s actually worth nothing at all, since some white guys in suits can just conjure it from the aether—like Zero Point Money or something. Zero Point Energy is a theoretical type of electricity you’d create from nothing. It’s widely viewed by physicists and engineers as impossible because energy must come from somewhere. Similar physical laws exist for money, as well (the more you have the less they’re worth), but no one seems to mind the consequences, for some reason. This allows the Fed to just tappity-tap on their computers and VOILA—$600 billion. Just like they did back in 2008.
They don’t even need to mix a potion in a boiling cauldron or cast a spell or sign their souls over to the devil. Well, hopefully, they had to do that last part.
So, how does it feel knowing that while you work your ass off to make money, a group of rich guys in posh offices work to take value away from that money?
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Posted by thepete
on Friday, November 5th at
2:15 PM. [link]
Oh, man—this guy is saying exactly what I’ve been thinking ever since CoalSpeaker first pointed out the Fed’s latest action to “save” our economy (which they decided to do right while we were distracted with the election). Anyway, so here’s a cutting from an article at Bloomberg.com from today:
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s decision to pump a further $600 billion into the economy shows his grasp of economics is weak, said investor Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings.
“Dr. Bernanke unfortunately does not understand economics, he does not understand currencies, he does not understand finance,” Rogers, 68, said in a lecture at Oxford University’s Balliol College yesterday. “All he understands is printing money.”
“His whole intellectual career has been based on the study of printing money,” said Rogers, who predicted the start of the global commodities rally in 1999. “Give the guy a printing press, he’s going to run it as fast as he can.”
I’m continually surprised that most people who are aware of how the Fed works and yet aren’t upset by the fact that there’s a bunch of unelected white guys in suits someplace who can just print up more money while the rest of us have to work for it.
What’s really scary here is that Bernanke’s plan to print up a fresh wad of bills, totaling $600 billion, will devalue our currency even more (they did this before, back in September of 2008 while all eyes were on Congress while they debated how to save the economy, and gosh it really saved us?). $600 billion is a huge amount of money.
I’m not sure how else to describe this aside from mass devaluation.
I think the idea is to encourage foreign investment and make it super cheap for domestic businesses to borrow money. Since that money won’t buy much, what are businesses supposed to do with it? Hire new employees and pay ‘em!
That’s the hope, I suppose. In the meantime, our money buys less. The other irony is that the inflation rate will go up and make your savings accounts useless or even costly to you. Think about it. The inflation rate this year has fluctuated between 1 and 2.6(ish)%. What’s your savings account interest rate? If it’s not more than that window, you’ve already taken a hit.
Don’t have a savings account? Good boy! Shove that cash under the mattress or buy stuff with it. You’re probably better off.
That’s just my ¥2, of course.
Go read the Bloomberg article for all the details. Sure, Rogers has a book to sell, but his logic is sound, sadly.
UPDATE: And I just read this in another article on Bloomberg about Japan’s economy:
No matter how much yen the Bank of Japan pumps into the economy, deflation deepens. It’s all about confidence, of which there is virtually none. Companies don’t trust that growth will return and so they avoid investing and hiring and trim salaries. Households fret about the future.
Was puzzling about that article is that it talks about deflation being the cause of a race to the bottom for prices. He cites Hooters as an example because they sell cheap food and cheap alcohol. But does that mean deflation? How many wings is the Yen actually buying? Hm, maybe it’s that we’re switching positions with Japan. We’ll all be making more money (if this plan works) but the money won’t buy as much so we’ll have to spend more to get the same stuff.
But injecting money into the economy in Japan hasn’t worked and has inspired price-drops across every sector because the money injection didn’t work. So, maybe we’re seeing into our own futures?
Geh… why does money have to be so confusing?
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Posted by thepete
on Tuesday, November 2nd at
7:10 PM. [link]
The Federal Reserve’s policy-setting panel began a crucial two-day meeting Tuesday, poised to cast aside its long-held reluctance to micro-manage the economy in a bid to avoid a lost decade of growth.
The central bank’s open market committee (FOMC) is expected to approve massive stimulus spending not seen since the depths of the economic crisis.
At the conclusion of the meeting Wednesday, the Fed is expected to announce it will resume the large-scale purchase of long-term US bonds — essentially printing billions of dollars — in the hope of boosting a weak recovery.
I wonder if this actually happens if it’ll show up on the MSM.
Funny how the Fed has tried things very similar to this before and it hasn’t worked. It didn’t work the time before that, either. It’s so funny how these allegedly intelligent people keep doing the same thing, thinking it will yield different results.
The BIG problem here is they’re essentially loaning money to themselves—at least, if I understand this whole thing correctly. Usually, they loan money they create from nothing to banks. Again, that’s assuming I understand this correctly. This means they’ll be able to loan more and profit more.
Whether we’re voting for political leaders who we pretend care for our interests or use money that we pretend has actual value, we are living in a virtual virtual reality.
Kinda scary when you realize this is the other side of the looking glass.
Forgot to say: found via: CoalSpeaker.com
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Posted by thepete
on Friday, September 24th at
6:01 PM. [link]
Very puzzling video—can anyone please explain to me how 12 year-old girl can be the solution the world needs right now? According to this video, I mean. Because I don’t get it.
Found via poptech:
The clock is ticking… See how a 12-year-old girl could be the solution the world needs right now.
(via Girl Effect)
And even poptech’s explanation doesn’t help.
I’m all for helping kids in poverty but there doesn’t seem to be anything logical in this video that explains why girls are victimized anymore than one would expect them to be. Usually videos like this bring to light a problem people don’t really think about. I don’t think anyone would say they weren’t aware that teen-pregnancy hampers the careers of girls. And, tell me what the problem is that the 12 year-old girl in the video solves?
And, on a side note, exactly *how* does she go from *maybe* surviving childbirth to maybe being forced into prostitution? I’m sure it happens, but does it always happen? And I love how the worst thing that comes of her after she is forced into prostitution is that she might get and spread HIV. Jesus Christ, this is supposed to help us care for little girls in poverty? I can avoid HIV by being monogamous with someone else who is monogamous. Luckily, I have a soul and understand child prostitution has psychological effects on the girls.
BUT IT’S OK: We can go back in time to when she’s 12 again! We can inexplicably make sure she goes to the doctor! And that she stays in school! Where nothing bad can happen to her! And at 18, she uses her education to smash down all the walls and glass ceilings that have held woman back for centuries!! Oh. I mean, she earns a living (because really, that’s all a girl from poverty should expect to do—aim high, little poverty girl!)
Now she’s calling the shots!
And
It
Looks
Something
Like
This:
She can avoid HIV (unless she is raped by someone with HIV).
She can marry (like all good women should want to do).
And have children (again, like all good women should want to do).
And her children are healthy, like she is (because nothing ever goes wrong once you’re earning a living!).
Now imagine this continuing generation after generation. Um, I can’t. Well, I can, but I’d have to use my imagination since that’s just not reality.
Nah, I don’t get the picture.
50 millions 12 year-old girls in poverty equals 50 million solutions.
REALLY? So, we should keep them in poverty?
50 million girls in poverty is the power of the girl effect?
Maybe I don’t get this video because an adult male?
Also, do 12 year-olds have boobs at all? I don’t know these things, but it seems like the pig tails would have been enough of tip to know she was a girl.
Also, also: WHAT’S WITH THE YELLING? IS YOUR CAPS LOCK BROKEN, MR. CAPTIONING VON YELLYPANTS?
Also, also, also: this whole thing reminds me of this pro-Obama video that Demi and Ashton did where they and a stack of other pro-Obama celebs pledged their allegiance to Barack Obama. Much like many Republicans did for Bush, which was much like what many Hitler Youth kids did for Hitler.
Sigh…
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Posted by thepete
on Friday, September 24th at
5:41 PM. [link]
underpaidgenius:
For people among the ranks of the unemployed, underemployed and those who love them, we need new strategies to face the changes.
One approach has been to form unemployment groups and common security clubs for the purpose of overcoming isolation, providing mutual aid, and taking action together to work for policies that increase economic security and create the jobs of the future.
Breaking out of the isolation that often accompanies unemployment is the first step. “The jobless in the United States lose far more than their paychecks; they also lose precious social support,” wrote sociologist Arlie Hochschild in the Los Angeles Times in article about common security clubs that serve as a lifeline for the unemployed. “Research has found that the health of those who lose jobs is likely to decline and the risk of dying rises. Many not only lose daily contact with factory and office friends, they also retreat from other social interaction.”
I think we should be taking to the streets, but meeting together is probably a first step.
Huh. I’ve not had stable/continuous employment for years and I don’t have any of those problems. Why, just ask my friends—??
ohhhhhhhhhh….
;(
All right, where do I sign up?
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Posted by thepete
on Thursday, September 23rd at
5:40 PM. [link]
coalspeaker:
And anyway, the pesky recession ended a whole summer ago! …right?
Good point—and Obama should tell that to the >10% of America who are out of work, like… —>me<—
sniff-sniff… smells like the Absurd Disconnect again.
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Posted by thepete
on Monday, September 13th at
1:29 PM. [link]
Today in Why America is Over: Newt Gingrich, John Boehner and everyone else.
From officialssay:
“What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anticolonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]? That is the most accurate, predictive model for his behavior… This is a person who is fundamentally out of touch with how the world works, who happened to have played a wonderful con, as a result of which he is now president.”
—
Newt Gingrich, a Republican and former House speaker, giving National Review Online his take on President Obama.
From CSMonitor.com reported on why Boehner may let tax cuts for the wealthy expire:
“I don’t think that’s going to help our economy,” said Boehner on “Face the Nation” on CBS on Sunday.
Republicans have long insisted that keeping taxes low on those at the top of America’s income scale is the best way to help the private sector generate new jobs.
That said, why would Boehner vote for a tax approach he still believes to be flawed? Several political theories come to mind.
He’s getting ready to be speaker of the House. With many polls showing it likely that the GOP will make big gains this fall, it’s possible that Boehner will become speaker in the next Congress. That’s a very different job than the one he now holds. The speaker has more responsibility for governing the nation – and that means more responsibility for actually getting bills passed.
SIGH. Example #1 shows us how the Republicans are still accusing others of what they, themselves are guilty of. Not to mention, they’re also racist, xenophobia-mongers, happy to point out “the other” even if that “other” got elected into office by an overwhelming majority. Gingrich looks like a fool doing both this and when he accuses others of being out of touch (oh and the mostly white, male, suit-wearing, Republicans are in touch?) and also by clearly being out of touch himself. However, the moderate Republicans (if there are any) and the Democrats (I’m pretty sure there are some around) both let these loudmouth A-holes get away with it. Then there’s the media, I’ll get to them in a second.
Example #2 of why America is over is Boehner’s bonehead machinations. He’s caving not because he wants to, not because he thinks it’s the best thing to do for America, he’s doing it to protect his chances for being SoH when the Republicans take over.
“Fuck America, it’s about my job,” he seems to be saying and it’s obvious to anyone paying attention.
Meanwhile, the media is only encouraging him by doing a truly horrible job of holding the USG’s feet to the fire. It’s the media’s responsibility to challenge everything the government does. How often do you see this? These polls that point to a Republican win in November exist only because we are an almost completely misinformed public.
If most of us knew the truth, third party candidates would sweep the country since both parties are killing America with their petty, stupid, back-biting and infighting. America is dying for several different reasons and so far no one is willing to face this reality.
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The idea is that all of human society is based on a power structure that enslaves the trusting/ignorant and rewards the greedy and the dishonest. From government, to business to our individual lives, all of our actions are tailored to further support a system that exploits all of us and wastes our lives in the process. Website666.com endeavors to explain how. Shape-shifting lizards aren't running the world, but they might as well be. Only a sociopath would think they deserve to run things.
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webmaster website666.com,
effyou.org, dntlk.com, and thepete.com
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