You would think the recent sacrifice to the financial industry King Kongs would appease the monsters but you would be wrong.
Simon Johnson, 13 Bankers, estimates the economic meltdown took a $23.7 trillion dollar toll on our economy. Several trillion were “loaned” to the very perpetrators behind the meltdown. Throughout the entire episode their ridiculous salaries and even more ridiculous bonuses never missed a step.
Crisis? What Crisis? Average Bank Pay Kept Rising at the Same Rate
http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/crisis-what-crisis-average-bank-pay-kept-rising-at-the-same-rate
The U.S. Chamber doesn’t speak for me
Public Citizen
Issue #56 • April 8, 2011
Stunning Statistics of the Week:- $3.5 million: The amount spent by outside groups on TV ads in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, as of Tuesday, April 5
- $3.38 million: The amount spent by outside groups on TV ads in a 2008 state Supreme Court race. At the time, it set a record.
Millions of dollars were spent on ads in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, but because they weren’t “express advocacy” ads, the huge sums didn’t trigger the state’s public funding mechanism. The public money was supposed to be available if special interest groups attacked. Meanwhile, it looks as though some of the money that came from outside groups can be traced back to the Koch brothers.
Boehner blasted for fundraising despite looming government shutdown
The government might shut down, and you are a key player in the negotiations to stop it from happening – or getting things up and running if a shutdown occurs. So do you cancel that fundraiser, which is so inconveniently timed? Not if you are House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). Boehner is being blasted for not cancelling the event, scheduled for Saturday night, at which donors will have to cough up $250 to attend, $2,500 to get a photo with Boehner and $5,000 for a special VIP meet and greet.
Home Depot shareholders may get say on company’s political spending
People who own stock in Home Depot will vote on whether they can have a say over the company’s political spending, the Securities and Exchange Commission has decided. The SEC sent a letter to Home Depot in response to that company’s attempt to keep a shareholder resolution on corporate spending off a proxy statement. Likely other companies will see keep this in mind when putting their proxy ballots together.
Public financing of elections bill reintroduced
Standing alongside actor Alec Baldwin, Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) this week reintroduced the Fair Elections Now Act, a bill that would give public money to congressional candidates who decline to take huge corporate donations but instead rely on small donations from voters. Public Citizen sent a letter of support, saying, “At no time in history has a strong congressional public financing program been so sorely needed – and so demanded by the American public.”
Meanwhile … Obama likely to forgo public financing
Once again, it appears that President Barack Obama is going to run a presidential campaign without tapping into the public financing system. In fact, experts predict that no candidate will use the public funds for the general election.
Strip club visit, improper reimbursements uncovered in Fiesta Bowl investigation
A $1,200 visit to a strip club, a $30,000 birthday party, improper reimbursement of more than $46,000 campaign expenditures to lawmakers including Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl – these are some of the problems identified by details by a panel investigating potential campaign finance violations of Fiesta Bowl executives. As a result, the president of the Fiesta Bowl has been fired. McCain has donated the contributions to charity.
Money in judicial races is harming integrity, lawyers say
More money than ever is being poured into judicial races, and that is having a detrimental effect on judicial independence and integrity, according to a new report from DRI, an organization of corporate defense attorneys. They recommend more disclosure of who pays for attack ads and disqualification of judges who receive too much money.
Paul, recipient of coal money, leery of new coal miner protections
U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) isn’t sold on the need for more protections for coal miners. That shouldn’t be too surprising given that his campaign benefited from millions of dollars of expenditures from the coal industry.
Visit DemocracyIsForPeople.org to learn more!
Simon Johnson, 13 Bankers, estimates the “meltdown” cost the U.S. economy at least $23.7 trillion dollars. Much of that, trillions went to Wall Street. Money never just disappears---unless going into someone’s pocket counts .
Goldman Sachs' Long History Of 'Money And Power'
http://www.npr.org/2011/04/11/135246269/goldman-sachs-long-history-of-money-and-power
William Cohan, author of Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World, says that the Wall Street firm's involvement in financial scandals isn't anything new, even if people don't seem to remember past incidents.
"For many years, the firm was constantly in and out of trouble," he tells Renee Montagne on Morning Edition. "In 1929-1930, they created the Goldman Sachs trading corporation that nearly bankrupted all the investors that invested in it; it was a bit of a ponzi scheme.
Cohan says that in the 1940s the firm was involved in an antitrust lawsuit by the Justice Department that could have put them out of business had the decision gone the other way, and it was also involved in the bankruptcy of Penn Central railroad in 1970.
http://www.npr.org/2011/04/11/135246269/goldman-sachs-long-history-of-money-and-power
Those who profit most from the shananigans of the Wall Streeters, the tiny top 1% of wealth in the U.S. worth more than the bottom 95%, also hold sway with the legislators they put in office.
GOPers are quick to point out that there is a growing deficit. No one is arguing with that. Hey, let’s let those who have benefited most pay additional taxes commensurate with their disproportionate wealth.
While that would seem fair---it’s apparently not about fairness. It’s about making certain the top 1% don’t have their tax bracket go from 35% to 39%. God forbid.
So those family value, compassionate conservative Christians are all about robbing the poor. Any cuts to balance the budget of Texas Red and or the U.S. will be made to programs, policies and or processes that help the “tired, …poor, …huddled masses yearning to breathe free”, you know like it says on the Statue of Liberty.
From Texas Red: a cratered landscape of prisons, deplorable apartheid public education, lack of healthcare and politicians and majority population intent on keeping it that way…
Hasta Siempre,
More:
San Antonio greatly affected if proposed budget is signed into law
Texas House Approves 2-Year Budget
Budget Makes Massive Cuts To Public Education, Health Care For Poor
http://www.ksat.com/politics/27418257/detail.html
13 Bankers
Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer--and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class
Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future
PEW religion and democracy in the U.S
Bill Moyers on Plutonomy
A People's History of the United States – Howard Zinn
Women’s Reality: An Emerging Femail System
The Conscience of a Liberal
Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism, and the Economics of Growth and Prosperity
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