Brad Friedman: Thumpers revolt!
“This is just too hilarious!
“Over the weekend religious activists met somewhere in Texas to try and agree upon a 'conservative' non-Romney to coalesce behind in hopes of stopping the former Massachusetts Governor's 'inevitable' GOP nomination. After three ballots, reportedly, the group of some 150 religious activists finally agreed to throw their support behind Rick Santorum.
“Or did they?”
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=9069#more-9069
Ainsworth takes a vacation:
“A Greyhound Lines driver who ordered an Occupy protester off his bus at a weekend stop in Amarillo has been removed from duty while officials investigate, a company spokeswoman said Monday.”
http://amarillo.com/news/local-news/2012-01-16/greyhound-eyes-incident-i...
Upside down, like your mortgage
“And to think that most of them had been born into a nation of prosperity, with low unemployment and a budget surplus, a nation relatively at peace. Now, barely into their 20s, the world had been turned upside down.”
More upside down: IMF begging for more of your cash
“The Washington-based lender currently has about $385 billion available to lend and wants to lift that to $885 billion after identifying the potential for a $1 trillion global financing gap in the next two years, the person said. To incorporate a cash buffer, that means asking its membership for $600 billion.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-18/imf-said-to-seek-1-trillion-boo...
Is there ever going to be enough money to satisfy the appetites of the 1%? At what point are the rest of us toiling for nothing except to keep their business model propped up, constantly teetering on collapse?
Imagine for a moment an alternative scenario, where the trillions of dollars that were handed to irresponsible, corrupt and sometimes criminal banking industry, was instead used to benefit those that have been victimized by their criminal tendencies?
For instance, this simple formula will add some perspective. A stimulus package that handed 30 million of the poorest Americans a government check for $10,000. This money could go to stave off foreclosure, housing for the homeless, vehicles and transport for those that could move somewhere to find work, and any number of purchases that would immediately stimulate an anemic economy.
Cost of this sort of “bailout” packaged as a stimulus plan would be exactly $300 billion, less than half of what the banks usually require to keep their doors open due to their own irresponsibility and criminality. Half of what the IMF will have to come up with to keep the Euro zone from collapse according to the article above and the money would go directly to local businesses that are also suffering from the antics of the banking and financial services crooks.
No, that would be called welfare, un-American, anti-capitalist, socialist and so on. But when the banks ask for that kind of cash, it is something else? Somethng is seriously wrong with this picture, but we know that corporate welfare will never end as long as your money is used to pay the lobbyists that make sure it continues.
Prosecute Bank of America, not the victims:
What a surprise:
“Countrywide Financial Corp. co-founder Angelo Mozilo may have directed the lender to extend preferential treatment on a 1998 loan to Republican Rep. Howard McKeon of California, according to a letter released Tuesday by a senior House Democrat.”
“Separately, a person familiar with the investigation said another senior House Republican, Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas, received a $1 million loan in 2007 through the VIP program, which at times offered loans at rates unavailable to the general public. The loan terms aren't known.”
So I guess this is supposed to be some sort of revelation to those who understand trickle-up, pay-to-play economics as it applies to government officials. Worth noting that Mozilo escaped prosecution with the usual claim that he was ignorant of all that was going on around him. Wonder if he noticed how the toxic mortgage-backed securities that caused the 2008 meltdown were the result of his alleged “ignorance” on the subject.
Chinese strike: Miscrosoft exploitation of labor continues
SEATTLE, Wash. (CBS Seattle) –“Some 300 Chinese Foxconn employees who manufacture X-box 360 machines said they would throw themselves from their Wuhan, China, plant if demands for lost wages were not met.”
Imagine workers so fed up with being exploited they are willing to jump to their deaths. This is a completely new take on a general strike. I mean, when these people go on strike, it's permanent, ya' know? Microsoft of course, has always been known as an exploitation-prone company. Gates and Co. have often tried to monopolize the PC and OS markets, using tactics that have been judged to be illegal and anti-competitive in the past.
They aren't alone either. American corporations have cut millions of jobs for the opportunity to exploit cheap labor overseas, the profits benefitting them but causing all kinds of damage to the job market in the U.S.
But we get the satisfaction of knowing we will have an opportunity to be trampled to death at Wal-Mart on Black Friday each year, as poverty-stricken Americans try and compensate for the job losses by saving a few bucks at contrived events that now begin in the middle of the night.
Wonderful. Maybe Don Ainsworth can get a job as one of those goofy greeters at Wal-Mart after he hangs up his bus-driver hat. “Hi! Welcome to Wal-Mart!”
Head count: Occupy Congress
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIyQwiCFahg&feature=youtu.be
And here's a bit more for the sake of perspective: More to come
Grumpy
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