Digging up those Facts ... for over 9 years.

Digging up those Facts ... for over 9 years. http://www.dailykos.com/user/jamess/rss/index.xml News Community Action Copyright 2005 - Steal what you want Sat, 20 Aug 2016 14:42:46 +0000 Sat, 20 Aug 2016 14:42:46 +0000 Daily Kos rss@dailykos.com (Daily Kos) Daily Kos rss@dailykos.com (Daily Kos) DWS Unwittingly told us the 'Truth', according to the DNC http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/04/28/1520906/-DWS-Unwittingly-told-us-the-Truth-according-to-the-DNC Debbie Wasserman Schultz "accidentally" told the truth about the purpose of Super-delegates in the Democracy Party -- and it has very little to do with promoting grassroot democracy -- just the opposite actually. Super-delegates exist to control and diminish grassroot democracy, from ever threatening the Party elite's tenuous hold on power. And the way the Media constantly confounds (and combines) the unpledged delegates with the pledged delegates in their Democratic "delegate" Totals, it would seem the DNC's "true purpose" for them, is well founded. Here's <a href="http://www.salon.com/2016/02/13/un_democratic_party_dnc_chair_says_superdelegates_ensure_elites_dont_have_to_run_against_grassroots_activists/">the accidental quote</a> from the DNC Chair back in February this year, during 'the pre-game show' to a Democratic Debate, when asked by CNN's Jake Tapper, to explain the idea of "super-delegates" to new voters: <blockquote>DWS: Unpledged delegates [super-delegates] exist really to make sure that party leaders and elected officials don’t have to be in a position where they are running against grassroots activists. We are, as a Democratic Party, really highlight and emphasize inclusiveness and diversity at our convention, and so we want to give every opportunity to grass-roots activists and diverse committed Democrats to be able to participate, attend and be a delegate at the convention. And so we separate out those unpledged delegates to make sure that there isn’t competition between them. --- TAPPER: I’m not sure that that would — that answer would satisfy an anxious young voter, but let’s move on. </blockquote> Here's a longer version of that exchange: CNN's Jake Tapper calls out DNC Schultz as she "clarifies" Superdelegates <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=QkkDC9dTrno" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QkkDC9dTrno" data-height="315" data-width="560">YouTube Video</a> </div> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkkDC9dTrno">link</a> It seems particularly "separating" {segregating} -- when the corporate media frequently goes to some length to explain that the GOP Unpledged Delegates, are "free to choose" any candidate, even right up to the convention. Yet they rarely make that same distinction for the Dems Super-delegates -- and bother to explain that they too are "free to choose" any candidate, even right up to the convention. No with Dems, our corporate media lumps in the Unpledged with the Pledged, as if they are so complex in "purpose", the Audience would never be able fathom it. ... Just Look at that Clinton 'Delegate Lead'! Grudging thanks to Wasserman Schultz however, for helping us out with her "clarifying" remarks. ... Which were never to be repeated by the corporate media again. Ooops! rss@dailykos.com (jamess) abrokenclock AgendaSetting CNN CorporateMedia DebbieWassermanSchultz DemocraticParty DNC doublestandards ForegoneConclusions GOP JakeTapper riggingthesystem SuperDelegates unpledgeddelagates _1520906 Thu, 28 Apr 2016 02:10:06 +0000 Dialing for Dollars -- a Major way in which Congress is Broken http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/04/25/1519647/-Dialing-for-Dollars-a-Major-way-in-which-Congress-is-Broken No wonder only 14% of the people think Congress is doing a good job. Because as Sixty Minutes reports, they spend most of their time on the Hill, NOT actually doing their jobs -- of representing us. They’ve got other responsibilities that are first on the To-Do List ... <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="" src="http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t106/OnlyObvious/Casino_Economy/SixtyMinutes_Dailing_for_Dollars_zpsoa8xkafc.jpg"> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> <div> View More: <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/60-minutes/" title="">60 Minutes News</a>|<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/live/">Live News</a>|<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/">More News Videos </a> </div> --- April 24, 2016 — Link to <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/dialing-for-dollars/" target="_blank">Video</a>. <blockquote> Stop fundraising, start working, says Fla. Rep. David Jolly, who is seeking to ban federal-elected officials from dialing for dollars. Norah O’Donnell reports. </blockquote> Stunning Facts uncovered by this investigation: • Congress reps have to make on average $18,000 a day, to get re-elected. • The Parties recommend Congress reps spend 30 hours a week raising this money. • The schedule of Congress is based around these 30 hours of "Dialing for Dollars". • Congress reps are given Telemarketing Scripts to guide them in their cold calling work. • Since such calls are illegal from the halls of Congress, each Party has dedicated nearby Call-Centers where this “work” can be done. ... Simply incredible. Watch the Report. rss@dailykos.com (jamess) BrokenCongress callcenters CitizensUnited DailingForDollars JobOne moneyinpolitics RepresentingThemselves SixtyMinutes SupportAndDefend _1519647 Mon, 25 Apr 2016 02:52:22 +0000 The Fugitive Methane from Fracking makes it Dirtier than Coal http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/04/24/1519454/-The-Fugitive-Methane-from-Fracking-make-it-Dirtier-than-Coal So much for those “Bridge Fuel to Future” claims that rationalized the ongoing high-tech transfusion of proprietary Toxic formulas, for the ground water that nobody needs. All for sake of the EZ-profits that heralded “cleaner than coal” shale gas would bring. So we were told then, when the “all of the above” energy strategy became the policy of the land. More recently scientists are telling us that “Bridge to Future” is more like an “Expressway to the Past”, given the little-monitored, little-measured, little-captured Methane that escapes routinely in the normal course of shattering the Earth, for the sake of ‘gold rush’ profits. <h3> <a href="http://www.wayneindependent.com/article/20110411/NEWS/304119997" target="_blank">Study</a>: Methane leaks make fracked gas 'dirtier' than coal, oil</h3> A new Cornell University study suggests that natural gas produced using the hydraulic fracturing process contributes the same or larger amounts of greenhouse gas emissions than coal or oil. by Kevin Zwick, wayneindependent.com — Apr 11, 2011 <blockquote>A new Cornell University study suggests that natural gas produced using the hydraulic fracturing process contributes the same or larger amounts of greenhouse gas emissions than coal or oil. The new study says "fugitive methane" — vented gas that escapes from flow-back and leakage — is a major contributor to the greenhouse gas footprint of shale gas. [...] “The take-home message of our study is that if you do an integration of 20 years following the development of the gas, shale gas is worse than conventional gas and is, in fact, worse than coal and worse than oil,” Howarth stated in a press release. “We are not advocating for more coal or oil, but rather to move to a truly green, renewable future as quickly as possible. We need to look at the true environmental consequences of shale gas.” The warming impact of methane is 105 times more (pound for pound) than carbon dioxide, Howarth says, adding that even small leaks make a big difference. The report shows that roughly 3.6 to 7.9 percent of methane from shale-gas production escapes to the atmosphere in venting and leaks over the life-time of a well, causing emissions that are 30 percent more than and perhaps more than twice as great as those from conventional gas. </blockquote> Here’s a few conclusions from that Cornell University <a href="http://www.acsf.cornell.edu/Assets/ACSF/docs/attachments/Howarth-EtAl-2011.pdf" target="_blank">study</a>: <blockquote> <div>8 Conclusions and implications</div> <div></div> <div></div> <div>---</div> <div> The GHG footprint of shale gas is significantly larger than that from conventional gas, due to methane emissions with flow-back fluids and from drill out of wells during well completion. Routine production and downstream methane emissions are also large, but are the same for conventional and shale gas. Our estimates for these routine and downstream methane emission sources are within the range of those reported by most other peer-reviewed publications inventories (Hayhoe et al. 2002; Lelieveld et al. 2005). Despite this broad agreement, the uncertainty in the magnitude of fugitive emissions is large. Given the importance of methane in global warming, these emissions deserve far greater study than has occurred in the past. We urge both more direct measurements and refined accounting to better quantify lost and unaccounted for gas.</div> <div></div> <div></div> <div></div> <div></div> <div>---</div> <div> The large GHG footprint of shale gas undercuts the logic of its use as a bridging fuel over coming decades, if the goal is to reduce global warming. We do not intend that our study be used to justify the continued use of either oil or coal, but rather to demonstrate that substituting shale gas for these other fossil fuels may not have the desired effect of mitigating climate warming.</div> </blockquote> ScientificAmerican echoes these Fugitive Shale Gas concerns: <h3> <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fracking-would-emit-methane/" target="_blank">Fracking Would Emit</a> Large Quantities of Greenhouse Gases</h3> "Fugitive methane" released during shale gas drilling could accelerate climate change by <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/author/mark-fischetti/">Mark Fischetti</a> , scientificamerican.com — January 20, 2012 <blockquote> [...] When water with its chemical load is forced down a well to break the shale, it flows back up and is stored in large ponds or tanks. But volumes of methane also flow back up the well at the same time and are released into the atmosphere before they can be captured for use. This giant belch of "fugitive methane" can be <a href="http://www.psehealthyenergy.org/resources/view/198782" title="">seen in infrared videos</a> taken at well sites. [...] Currently, pipeline leaks are the main culprit, but fracking is a quickly growing contributor. Ingraffea pointed out that although 25,000 high-volume shale-gas wells are already operating in the U.S., hundreds of thousands are scheduled to go into operation within 20 years, and millions will be operating worldwide, significantly expanding emissions and keeping atmospheric methane levels high despite the 12-year dissipation time. Howarth said he is particularly concerned about fracking emissions because recent data indicates that the planet is entering a period of <a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2011/12/06/two-degree-global-warming-limit-is-called-a-prescription-for-disaster/">rapid climate change</a>. He noted that the average global temperature compared with the early 1900s is now expected to increase by 1.5 degrees Celsius within the next 15 to 35 years, which he called "a tipping point" toward aggressive climate change. More and more fracking would speed the world to that transition or undermine efforts to reduce emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. The notion, Ingraffea said, that shale gas is a desirable "bridge fuel" from oil to widespread renewable energy supplies several decades from now "makes no sense" in terms of climate change. [...] </blockquote> <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="" src="http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t106/OnlyObvious/ClimateChangeData/Well_Neighborhood-564x270_zpsafvwybj4.jpg"> <figcaption>What a lovely shade of beige.</figcaption> </figure> And the Industry response: Out of sight, out of mind … What Fugitive Shale Gas problem? Come out to the drilling rig — and show us. <a href="http://www.texassharon.com/2013/03/09/emissions-video-marathon-sugarhorn-central-facility-in-eagle-ford-shale/" target="_blank">OK</a> … <blockquote> This video was taken at Marathon’s Sugarhorn Central Facility in Karnes City by TCEQ on August 15, 2012 and September 5, 2012 in response to a landowner complaint. <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=6YhThpw0yEg" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6YhThpw0yEg" data-height="315" data-width="420">YouTube Video</a> </div> Marathon failed to submit a reportable emissions report for these two events until late December. The emissions report for the 12-hour August 15th event noted a release of 42.06 pounds of benzene among many other toxic chemicals. The report for the 11-hour September 5th event noted 26.63 pounds of benzene along with many other toxic chemicals. An analysis of the TCEQ’s investigation and Marathon’s report was done by Wilma Subra and can be found <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/i4ppw89u84n7klc/Wilma%20-%20Karnes%20County%20Air%20Samples.pdf?dl=0">HERE</a>. On Monday, March 4th and Tuesday, March 5th, IR video taken by <a href="http://www.shaletest.org/">ShaleTest</a> shows the emissions continue at the same level at this facility. </blockquote> And if you are among the camps that discount the effects of Climate Change, rationalizing that those are really someone else’s problem further on down that “future bridge” road — then consider the the simple real world impacts that “fugitive toxics” can have on the local neighborhoods, NOW. --- <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder vimeo dk-embed" href="//vimeo.com/111669362" data-src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/111669362" data-height="360" data-width="640">Vimeo Video</a> </div> <a href="https://vimeo.com/111669362">Roger M. Richards CineReel-Dear President Obama film excerpts</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/rogermrichards">Roger M. Richards</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>. --- <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="" src="http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t106/OnlyObvious/Casino_Economy/erie-golf-course-gas-drilling_zpsgghi8zke.jpg"> <figcaption>Hmmm … Smells like money.</figcaption> </figure> Think of the children … exposed to these “unseen threats” on a “routine basis” … for that sake of what exactly? … a little examined policy of “All of the Above”? And so many people thought the poisoning of Flint was/is bad — how is this kind of poisoning worthy of only shrugs, simply because it is a bit harder to measure and see. The eyes and lungs and immune systems of locals — are the ‘canaries’ that no one is listening to, even now. <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="" src="http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t106/OnlyObvious/CleanEnergy/oilrigfortcollins_zpsqeo5fljf.jpg"> <figcaption>Kids, pay no attention to that drilling rig in the backyard. Don’t forget your air-masks ...</figcaption> </figure> rss@dailykos.com (jamess) AirQuality AlloftheAbove BigOilFirst BridgeToThePast ClimateChange CornellUniversity DearPresidentObama DirtierThanCoal eKos EminentDomain Environment Fracking FugitiveMethane GHGfootprint Science ScientificAmerican ShaleGas TheOtherFlints waterquality _1519454 Sun, 24 Apr 2016 15:57:40 +0000 Fracking Opponents now have a powerful new Movie -- documenting its many Impacts http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/04/23/1519097/-Fracking-Opponents-now-have-a-powerful-new-Movie-documenting-its-many-Impacts <blockquote> <a href="https://twitter.com/dearobamafilm?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" target="_blank" title="">Dear President Obama</a>: The Clean Energy Revolution is Now documents stories from fracking/fossil fuel hotspots in US & the citizen-led fight for clean energy. <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"&gt;&lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en"&gt;15 min into watching &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/dearobamafilm"&gt;@dearobamafilm&lt;/a&gt; ... speechless! &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CleanRevolution?src=hash"&gt;#CleanRevolution&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ClimateAction?src=hash"&gt;#ClimateAction&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ClimateJustice?src=hash"&gt;#ClimateJustice&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FeelTheBern?src=hash"&gt;#FeelTheBern&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BernieorBust?src=hash"&gt;#BernieorBust&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EarthDay?src=hash"&gt;#EarthDay&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;— jacquelynn garofano (@jkmgarofano) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/jkmgarofano/status/723728589984808961"&gt;April 23, 2016&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;'> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> 15 min into watching <a href="https://twitter.com/dearobamafilm">@dearobamafilm</a> ... speechless! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CleanRevolution?src=hash">#CleanRevolution</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ClimateAction?src=hash">#ClimateAction</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ClimateJustice?src=hash">#ClimateJustice</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FeelTheBern?src=hash">#FeelTheBern</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BernieorBust?src=hash">#BernieorBust</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EarthDay?src=hash">#EarthDay</a>— jacquelynn garofano (@jkmgarofano) <a href="https://twitter.com/jkmgarofano/status/723728589984808961">April 23, 2016</a> </blockquote> </div> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"&gt;&lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en"&gt;&lt;a href="https://twitter.com/MarkRuffalo"&gt;@MarkRuffalo&lt;/a&gt; Just watched &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/dearobamafilm"&gt;@dearobamafilm&lt;/a&gt;. Extremely impactful. I hope those who can enact change see it and are moved to act. Thank you. 🌎&lt;/p&gt;— Jill K (@Jedi_Jill) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/Jedi_Jill/status/723724396335140864"&gt;April 23, 2016&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;'> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkRuffalo">@MarkRuffalo</a> Just watched <a href="https://twitter.com/dearobamafilm">@dearobamafilm</a>. Extremely impactful. I hope those who can enact change see it and are moved to act. Thank you. 🌎— Jill K (@Jedi_Jill) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jedi_Jill/status/723724396335140864">April 23, 2016</a> </blockquote> </div> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content="&lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"&gt;&lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en"&gt;We&amp;#39;re screening &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/MarkRuffalo"&gt;@MarkRuffalo&lt;/a&gt;'s &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/dearobamafilm"&gt;@dearobamafilm&lt;/a&gt; on 4/28 but you can see it tonight @ 8pm on &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/VICELAND"&gt;@VICELAND&lt;/a&gt;! &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/jonbowermaster"&gt;@jonbowermaster&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://t.co/T69077gNTo"&gt;pic.twitter.com/T69077gNTo&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;— CaliforniaLung (@CaliforniaLung) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/CaliforniaLung/status/723614117978771456"&gt;April 22, 2016&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> We're screening <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkRuffalo">@MarkRuffalo</a>'s <a href="https://twitter.com/dearobamafilm">@dearobamafilm</a> on 4/28 but you can see it tonight @ 8pm on <a href="https://twitter.com/VICELAND">@VICELAND</a>! <a href="https://twitter.com/jonbowermaster">@jonbowermaster</a> <a href="https://t.co/T69077gNTo">pic.twitter.com/T69077gNTo</a>— CaliforniaLung (@CaliforniaLung) <a href="https://twitter.com/CaliforniaLung/status/723614117978771456">April 22, 2016</a> </blockquote> </div> </blockquote> <blockquote> <div> <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-ruffalo/dear-president-obama-the-clean-energy-revolution-is-now_b_9484460.html" title="">Dear President Obama</a> addresses these contradictions, but more importantly it gives voice to some of the many Americans who have become the non-consenting victims of the president’s “all of the above” energy policy that has so often meant everything belowground, no matter the costs of extraction. In many cases that has meant poisoned drinking water, polluted air, sick families, and communities torn apart. More than 17 million Americans now live within one mile of an oil or gas well, and more still are affected by associated infrastructure such as pipelines, air-pollutant spewing compressor stations and bomb trains. </div> <div> Most importantly, the film is about the future. It serves as a call to President Obama, in the remainder of his term, to help the Americans who have been harmed, and to get us on a swift path to the clean energy future starting today. </div> <div> There’s still a lot President Obama can do before he leaves the White House in January. He can finally meet in person with Americans, who have been harmed by oil and gas drilling and fracking, and hear their stories firsthand. He can direct his EPA to investigate the many cases of reported water contamination across this country with the same emergency powers that EPA used in investigating Flint, Michigan. And he can stop all drilling on federal lands, which would prevent harm and do a great deal to truly address climate change by keeping fossil fuels in the ground as climate scientists agree we must. [...] </div> </blockquote> <div> <h3>Director Jon Bowermaster</h3> <div> <div> <div> <div> picks up where Josh Fox left off. --- ‘<a href="http://www.fwweekly.com/2016/04/20/dear-president-obama-screening-thursday-night/" title="">Dear President Obama</a>’ Screening Thursday Night <blockquote> [...] The movie, narrated by three-time Academy Award nominated actor Mark Ruffalo, looks at the oil and gas industry’s impact on society, highlighting contamination crises, stories from victims, and the boom-and-bust economic impacts on communities. Interviews with scientists, economists, health professionals, geologists, and whistleblowers provide the core narrative. </blockquote> (it also aired tonite on Viceland channel) ------- DEAR PRESIDENT OBAMA (Trailer) <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=zHfOu63us20" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zHfOu63us20" data-height="315" data-width="560">YouTube Video</a> </div> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHfOu63us20" target="_blank" title="">link </a> The impacts of these Special Interests on the local populations — in terms of Health, Land Values and Quality of Life, are very real — just ask the locals in Pennsylvania how they feel about the Fracking Fallout that was foisted upon them, by well-compensated local Politicians — <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/04/22/1518883/-Pennsylvania-A-Fraccident-waiting-to-happen" target="_blank" title="">who received millions</a> from industry to look the other way. When fracking inevitably harms the local way of life. </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <hr> ... Here’s the Facebook page <a href="https://www.facebook.com/dearobamafilm" target="_blank" title="">Dear President Obama</a>. It has more content and more clips. The Vimeo page has a much <a href="https://vimeo.com/111669362" target="_blank" title="">larger video segment</a> of the Documentary. rss@dailykos.com (jamess) AlloftheAbove BernieSanders BigOil BigProfits CleanAir CleanEnergy CleanEnergyRevolution CleanWater DearPresidentObama eKos EminentDomain Environment Fracking FugitiveMethane Grassroots JonBowermaster JUSTSAYNO Lobbyists MarkRuffalo NoAccountability OutOfSightOutOfMInd profitsbeforepeople SpecialInterests TheOtherFlints toxicair toxicfallout ToxicLand ToxicWater USHotspots Viceland _1519097 Sat, 23 Apr 2016 06:41:20 +0000 Pennsylvania, A 'Fraccident' waiting to happen http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/04/22/1518883/-Pennsylvania-A-Fraccident-waiting-to-happen From earthjustice.org: <div> <h2><a href="http://earthjustice.org/features/pennsylvania-and-fracking" target="_blank">Pennsylvania and Fracking</a></h2> </div> <div></div> <div> <div></div> <div></div> </div> <div></div> <blockquote> The Marcellus Shale that runs beneath most of Pennsylvania has been a key target for the oil and gas industry; it currently accounts for <a href="http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=17411" target="_blank">nearly 40 percent of U.S. shale gas production</a>. Between 2011 and 2015, the state approved <a href="http://energyjusticesummer.org/pa-gov-wolf-issued-73-fracking-permits-in-two-weeks-on-pace-for-7300-in-first-term/" target="_blank">more than 12,000 permits and almost 6,000 fracking wells</a>, forever altering the landscape of northeastern and southwestern Pennsylvania. In Pennsylvania, the gas industry has deep ties with the state’s legislators. <a href="http://www.conservationpa.org/marcellus-money-natural-gas-industry-has-spent-49-million-to-influence-pa-elected-officials-since-2007/" target="_blank">Between 2007 and 2014</a>, the industry reportedly gave $8 million to elected officials and spent $41 million lobbying the state legislature. A report by the Public Accountability Initiative in 2013 <a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/news/state/2013/03/10/Fracking-s-revolving-door-draws-a-warning/stories/201303100186" target="_blank">revealed that 45 current or former Pennsylvania state officials</a> have ties to energy industry and fracking regulation, including 28 who ultimately traded their government positions for industry jobs. [...] </blockquote> That page also has a well-done Interactive map that shows where and what ‘Fraccidents’ happened, across the once pristine Pennsylvania, when all Fracking-caution was summarily thrown into the wind. <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="" src="http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t106/OnlyObvious/Casino_Economy/Fraccident_Map_PA_750jpg_zps83kcagk7.jpg"> <figcaption>What — Could possibly go Wrong!?</figcaption> </figure> Here’s are few local PA tales, that demonstrate what happens when Special Interest “Accidents” are allowed to happen to good people. I encourage you <a href="http://earthjustice.org/features/pennsylvania-and-fracking" target="_blank">click this link</a>, to read about more of them: <blockquote> Centre County, PA Donal Ludwig, who lives near an NCL gas well, found that his water had been contaminated with high levels of barium, manganese, iron, arsenic and lead. He showers at a nearby campground and hauls his own clean drinking water. When Ludwig tried to shower at his home, he experience headaches and extreme ringing in his ears. When he used the dishwasher, his eyes watered uncontrollably and swelled shut. <hr> Muncy, PA The subsidiary of energy giant ExxonMobil Corp. halted operations in the county and provide the water well owners with potable water when flammable gas was found in five water wells in Lycoming County and in the nearby Little Muncy Creek. Although multiple past incidents have prompted the DEP to fine Chesapeake Energy and Cabot Oil & Gas, companies drilling in Pennsylvania counties, they have not assumed responsibility for the pollution. XTO may be another corporation to add to the list. <hr> Branchburg, NJ In May 2013, a flash fire at a natural gas pipeline compression facility, Transco Pipeline, sent two construction workers to local hospitals and caused minor injuries to 13 other workers. Three emergency fire crews were needed to extinguish the fire. <hr> Susquehanna County, PA In March 2012, an explosion at a natural gas compressor station in Susquehanna County blew a hole in the roof of the complex holding the engines, shaking homes as far as a half-mile away and drawing emergency responders from nearby counties. The Lathrop station pressurizes and dehydrates natural gas from Marcellus Shale; gas was leaked after the explosion before the valve was shut off. <hr> Wyoming County, PA In April 2013, 9,000 gallons of fracking fluid spilled from a well site owned by Carrizzo Oil and Gas. According to the Department of Environmental Protection, a faulty hose came loose at the site. A Wyoming County oil well, operated by the Texas-based Carrizo Oil and Gas, spewed more than a quarter million gallons of highly pressurized fracking wastewater, causing evacuations of nearby homes and buildings in March 2013. Methane gas leaked out of the well, prompting EPA to test the water and air quality in the area. </blockquote> What — Could possibly go Wrong? Now you know. And that’s not the half of it. --- And that wind-socking, caution-shedding did have its rather serious “political price tags” attached, unfortunately for PA residents. From wikipedia: <h2><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Pennsylvania_and_fracking" target="_blank">Pennsylvania and fracking</a></h2> <blockquote> <h2>Lobbying and donations</h2> A 2012 press release by MarcellusMoney.org stated that the "natural gas industry and related trade groups have now given nearly $8 million to Pennsylvania state candidates and political committees since 2000.... Top recipients of industry money given between 2000 and April 2012 were Governor Tom Corbett (R) with $1,813,205.59, Senate President Joseph Scarnati (R-25) with $359,145.72, Rep. Dave Reed (R-62) with $137,532.33, House Majority Leader Rep. Mike Turzai (R-28) with $98,600, and Sen. Don White (R-41) with $94,150.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Pennsylvania_and_fracking#cite_note-19">[19]</a> The 2011 Common Cause report, <a href="http://www.commoncause.org/atf/cf/%7BFB3C17E2-CDD1-4DF6-92BE-BD4429893665%7D/Pennsylvania--Deep%20Drilling%20Deep%20Pockets%20Nov%202011.pdf">"Deep drilling, deep pockets, in Washington and Pennsylvania,"</a> found that "from 2001 through June 2011, the fracking industry gave $20.5 million to current members of Congress and spent $726 million on lobbying." Two Pennsylvanians, Rep. Tim Murphy, and Sen. Pat Toomey, ranked among the leading recipients in Congress in gas industry donations (10th and 28th respectively). Murphy has received $275,499 and Toomey $160,750. Other PA recipients included Rep. Jason Altmire (D) with $65,365; Rep. Jim Gerlach (R) with $60,800; Rep. Bill Shuster (R) with $59,000; Rep. Charles Dent (R) with $56,500; and Rep. Glenn Thompson (R) with $52,000. The natural gas industry contributed about $1.6 million to Gov. Corbett’s political campaigns from 2001 to 2011, about $1.1 million of that for his campaign for governor.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Pennsylvania_and_fracking#cite_note-20">[20]</a> <h3>Revolving door</h3> The 2013 Public Accountability Initiative report <a href="http://public-accountability.org/2013/02/fracking-and-the-revolving-door-in-pennsylvania/">"Fracking and the Revolving Door in Pennsylvania"</a> identified 45 current or former Pennsylvania state officials who have links to the energy industry and gas drilling and fracking regulation, including 28 who have left to take industry jobs. [...] <h3>MARC 1</h3> In January 2012, Central New York Oil & Gas Co., LLC went to court to condemn nearly half the properties along its <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/FERC">FERC</a> approved 39-mile natural gas pipeline through northern Pennsylvania, despite the company's assurance to federal regulators that it would minimize using eminent domain. Eminent domain would give the company the right to excavate and lay the 30-inch diameter pipeline on private property. Landowners would not lose their properties and would be compensated. Landowners say the company steamrolled them by refusing to negotiate in good faith on either monetary compensation or the pipeline's route, which cuts through the state's pristine Endless Mountains. The MARC 1 pipeline is seen as key infrastructure for tapping into the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Marcellus_Shale">Marcellus Shale</a>, as the high-pressure steel pipeline will connect to major interstate pipelines and the company's own natural gas storage facility in southern New York state. Central New York Oil & Gas hopes to start construction soon and finish by July 2012, but awaits permits from Pennsylvania environmental regulators and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The EPA has expressed concern that the pipeline will cross dozens of pristine waterways.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Pennsylvania_and_fracking#cite_note-29">[29]</a> </blockquote> --- What do the Democratic Candidates say about Fracking? From <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/03/hillary-clinton-debate-fracking" target="_blank">motherjones</a>: <blockquote> Hillary Clinton, though, needed more time to outline three conditions in a more nuanced answer on fracking. She's against it "when any locality or any state is against it," "when the release of methane or contamination of water is present," and "unless we can require that anybody who fracks has to tell us exactly what chemicals they are using." Until those conditions are met, "we've got to regulate everything that is currently underway, and we have to have a system in place that prevents further fracking." [...] Bernie Sanders had a simple answer: "No, I do not support fracking." </blockquote> Fracking is not only a concern to the residents of PA, other states’ citizens do not appreciate the Fracking Industry’s “steam-rolling” ways, either. <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="" src="http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t106/OnlyObvious/Casino_Economy/Fraccident_Maps_650_zpszukexlte.jpg"> <figcaption>Hydraulic Fracturing, still the keepers of a proprietary Secret Formula, after all these years. Thanks to ‘Toxic’ Cheney.</figcaption> </figure> I encourage you <a href="http://earthjustice.org/features/pennsylvania-and-fracking" target="_blank">click this link</a>, to learn more about them — your fellow-residents who are in search of a seriously Greener <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nwRiuh1Cug" target="_blank">America</a>. Maybe one day the EPA will actually start protecting us, and not just the <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/natural-gas-politics-526" target="_blank">Toxics that Be</a>. rss@dailykos.com (jamess) BernieSanders BigOil cheneyenergytaskforce CheneysLegacy eKos EminentDomain Environment EPA Explosions FossilFools Fraccidents Fracking frackingfallout FugitiveMethane groundwater HillaryClinton industrialaccidents JUSTSAYNO Lobbyists MARC1 MarcellusShale Pennsylvania ProPublica simplesolutions SpecialInterests toxicfallout ToxicFormula wastewater _1518883 Fri, 22 Apr 2016 19:59:18 +0000 This is what SuperPAC democracy Looks Like ... http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/04/22/1518749/-This-is-what-SuperPAC-democracy-Looks-Like Got to give the Brock-man kudos for admitting it, that the way to reverse those underwater <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/h-a-goodman/favorability-ratings-show-hillary-clinton-is-unelectable_b_8388316.html" target="_blank" title="">trustworthy numbers</a> is to pay professional media messengers, to do the “social reversing”. That kind of positive PR can’t be bought! … or wait a minute, maybe it can … --- <h3> <a href="http://correctrecord.org/barrier-breakers-2016-a-project-of-correct-the-record/" target="_blank" title="">Barrier Breakers 2016</a>: A Project of Correct The Record</h3> Task force will help Clinton supporters push back on online harassment and thank superdelegates <a href="http://correctrecord.org/" target="_blank" title="">correctrecord.org</a> <blockquote> Anonymous online attacks, from both sides of the political spectrum, have sought to spread lies and misleading narratives about Secretary Hillary Clinton. Hillary’s supporters are <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/190343/trump-clinton-supporters-lead-enthusiasm.aspx" title="">more enthusiastic</a> than Sen. Bernie Sanders’ supporters, yet oftentimes are discouraged from engaging online and are “<a href="http://time.com/4290265/hillary-clinton-millennial-new-york-primary-voters-brooklyn/" title="">often afraid to voice their thoughts</a>” because of the fear of online harassment. Many of Hillary Clinton’s female <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/bill-clinton-bernie-sanders-hillary-218916#ixzz3zaKxbmXc" title="">supporters</a> in particular have been subject to intense cyber-bullying and sexist attacks from swarms of anonymous attackers. Among the many Hillary Clinton supporters attacked online, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/some-democrats-accuse-sanders-supporters-of-harassing-convention-delegates/2016/04/12/0dd97d60-fff4-11e5-9203-7b8670959b88_story.html" title="">superdelegates</a> have been subject to vicious attacks for supporting her. Even the director of MoveOn, which has endorsed Sen. Sanders, <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-dem-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/04/superdelegate-harassment-moveon-ben-wikler-221881" title="">denounced</a> this harassment. In response to these attacks on supporters and superdelegates, Correct The Record is launching the Barrier Breakers 2016 digital task force. While Hillary Clinton fights to break down barriers and bring America together, the Barrier Breakers 2016 digital task force will serve as a resource for supporters looking for positive content and push-back to share with their online progressive communities, as well as thanking prominent supporters and committed superdelegates on social media. Correct The Record will invest more than $1 million into Barrier Breakers 2016 activities, including the more than tripling of its digital operation to engage in online messaging both for Secretary Clinton and to push back against attackers on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and Instagram. Barrier Breakers 2016 is a project of Correct The Record and the brainchild of David Brock, and the task force will be overseen by President of Correct The Record Brad Woodhouse and Digital Director Benjamin Fischbein. The task force staff’s backgrounds are as diverse as the community they will be engaging with and include former reporters, bloggers, public affairs specialists, designers, Ready for Hillary alumni, and Hillary super fans who have led groups similar to those with which the task force will organize. Lessons learned from online engagement with “Bernie Bros” during the Democratic Primary will be applied to the rest of the primary season and general election — responding quickly and forcefully to negative attacks and false narratives. Additionally, as the general election approaches, the task force will begin to push out information to Sanders supporters online, encouraging them to support Hillary Clinton. The task force currently combats online political harassment, having already addressed more than 5,000 individuals who have personally attacked Secretary Clinton on Twitter. The task force will provide a presence and space online where Clinton supporters can organize and engage with one another and are able to obtain graphics, videos, gifs, and messaging to use in their own social spaces. Additionally, the Barrier Breakers 2016 task force hopes to embrace the creativity of Hillary Clinton’s supporters by sharing their efforts and content with other groups. THANK A DELEGATE WEBSITE: <a href="http://www.thankadelegate.com/" title="">www.thankadelegate.com</a> EXAMPLE GRAPHICS: [...] </blockquote> Something smells … like astroturf around here. And now we kind of know why. We have it first-hand from a very “trust-worthy” source. This is a very sad commentary on our new Citizens United’s America — where Money and ‘Manufactured’ Free Speech are no object. ... I’m sure the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/poll-voters-dont-trust-hillary-clinton-2015-5" target="_blank" title="">Independents can’t wait</a> to be schooled like this in their Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook feeds. Afterall who doesn’t enjoy a persistent troll or two, in their daily media stream? rss@dailykos.com (jamess) Astroturf barrierbreakers2016 BernieSanders BerniesSuperPACisUs CitizensUnited CorrecttheRecord davidbrock HillaryClinton imagecorrecting positivecampaigning PRcampaign socialengineering SocialMedia SuperPACdemocracy SuperPacs trustworthiness Truthiness _1518749 Fri, 22 Apr 2016 15:21:11 +0000 Bernie does (and did) know How to Break up the TBTF Banks http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/04/17/1516581/-Bernie-does-and-did-know-How-to-Break-up-the-TBTF-Banks <div> Since the recent lines of attack on Sanders (that he has no idea how to Break up the Banks), have now become fodder for SNL, I felt that a few reality-based Fact-Checks might be in order. --- <h3><a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/text-of-bernie-sanders-wall-street-and-economy-speech-2016-01-05" target="_blank">Text of Bernie Sanders’ Wall Street and economy speech</a></h3> </div> <div> <div> <div></div> </div> </div> marketwatch.com — Jan 5, 2016 <blockquote> [Bernie Sanders: ] If a bank is too big to fail, it is too big to exist. When it comes to Wall Street reform that must be our bottom line. This is true not just from a risk perspective and the fear of another bailout. It is also true from the reality that a handful of huge financial institutions simply have too much economic and political power over this country. If Teddy Roosevelt, the Republican trust-buster, were alive today, he would say “break ‘em up.” And he would be right. And, here’s how I will accomplish that. Within the first 100 days of my administration, I will require the secretary of the Treasury Department to establish a “Too-Big-to Fail” list of commercial banks, shadow banks and insurance companies whose failure would pose a catastrophic risk to the United States economy without a taxpayer bailout. Within one year, my administration will break these institutions up so that they no longer pose a grave threat to the economy as authorized under Section 121 of the Dodd-Frank Act. </blockquote> That was back in January, where Bernie Sanders explained how he would break up the TBTF Banks, under the Authority of Dodd-Frank. --- <h4>TRANSCRIPT: <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/transcript-bernie-sanders-meets-news-editorial-board-article-1.2588306" target="_blank">Bernie Sanders meets with the Daily News Editorial Board</a>, April 1, 2016</h4> <div>New York Daily News — April 4, 2016</div> <blockquote> Daily News: And then, you further said that you expect to break them up within the first year of your administration. What authority do you have to do that? And how would that work? How would you break up JPMorgan Chase? Sanders: Well, by the way, the idea of breaking up these banks is not an original idea. It's an idea that some conservatives have also agreed to. You've got head of, I think it's, the Kansas City Fed, some pretty conservative guys, who understands. Let's talk about the merit of the issue, and then talk about how we get there. Right now, what you have are two factors. We bailed out Wall Street because the banks are too big to fail, correct? It turns out, that three out of the four largest banks are bigger today than they were when we bailed them out, when they were too-big-to-fail. That's number one. Number two, if you look at the six largest financial institutions of this country, their assets somewhere around $10 trillion. That is equivalent to 58% of the GDP of America. They issue two-thirds of the credit cards in this country, and about one-third of the mortgages. That is a lot of power. And I think that if somebody, like if Teddy Roosevelt were alive today, he would look at that. Forgetting even the risk element, the bailout element, and just look at the kind of financial power that these guys have, would say that is too much power. Daily News: Okay. Well, let's assume that you're correct on that point. How do you go about doing it? Sanders: How you go about doing it is having legislation passed, or giving the authority to the secretary of treasury to determine, under Dodd-Frank, that these banks are a danger to the economy over the problem of too-big-to-fail. Daily News: But do you think that the Fed, now, has that authority? Sanders: Well, I don't know if the Fed has it. But I think the administration can have it. </blockquote> That was early this month in April, where Bernie Sanders STILL explained how he would break up the TBTF Banks, under the Authority of Dodd-Frank. It was the Daily News questioner who brought up the possibility of the Fed [Federal Reserve] as “a way to get it done” — Not Bernie Sanders. Sanders continued to insist that the Administration, through the Secretary of Treasury, has the authority to break-up the TBTF Banks — by the authority of Dodd-Frank. To claim that he does not know how to “break them up” is disingenuous, at best; and veiled ageism at worst. Just check Bernie’s Wall Street Speech of January 2016, for proof that he actually knows all about the authority given the executive branch, to prevent any systemic risk that those six <s>speculative</s> financial institutions (worth over $10 Trillion and 58% of the Economy), may in fact <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/04/12/1514048/-Once-again-TBTF-Banks-demonstrate-Their-business-model-is-Fraud" target="_blank">be imposing on</a> the overall economy. If <a href="http://www.americanbanker.com/bankthink/goldman-settlement-shows-some-banks-still-too-big-to-punish-1080455-1.html" target="_blank">recent history</a> be any guide of future results. ….. The real question should be: Who is actually prepared to use that Authority — within their first hundred days of their Administrations? … And who is not? rss@dailykos.com (jamess) artfulsmears BernieSanders BerniesWallStreetSpeech BreakThemUp breakupthebanks characterattacks DoddFrank firsthundreddays NewYorkDailyTimes Progressiveplatform Recommended SNL SystemicRisk TBTF TeddyRoosevelt TooBigToExist treasurydepartment TrustBusters _1516581 Sun, 17 Apr 2016 21:23:51 +0000 Bill really should Quit trying to Help http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/04/16/1516233/-Bill-really-should-trying-to-Help Once <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/04/07/1512117/-Bill-Clinton-Just-Attacked-BLM-Protesters-At-A-Rally" target="_blank">again</a> the presumptive ‘First Dude’ is trying to insert himself into the headlines, ala Trump-bambastic statements: <h3> <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/276542-bill-clinton-sanders-fans-would-shoot-every-third-person" target="_blank">Bill Clinton</a>: Sanders fans would ‘shoot every third person on Wall Street’</h3> <div></div> by Mark Hensch, <a href="http://thehill.com" target="_blank">thehill.com</a> — April 15, 2016 <blockquote> [Bill Clinton: ] “One of the few things I really haven’t enjoyed about this primary: I think it’s fine that all these young students have been so enthusiastic about [<a href="http://thehill.com/people/hillary-clinton">Hillary Clinton</a>'s] opponent and [Sanders] sounds so good: 'Just shoot every third person on Wall Street and everything will be fine,’” Clinton said in Fort Washington, N.Y., according to <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/15/politics/bill-clinton-bernie-sanders-shoot-wall-street/index.html?sr=twCNN041516bill-clinton-bernie-sanders-shoot-wall-street1058PMVODtopPhoto&linkId=23503748" target="_blank">CNN</a>. [...] Clinton said after the event on Friday <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/bill-clinton-jabs-sanders-cracks-joke-wall-streets-expense" target="_blank">said</a> that the quip illustrates Sanders’s focus on blaming the financial industry for America’s woes. “It’s a joke,” he told MSNCB. "It’s a total joke. It’s meant to point out that’s the unilateral explanation for everything that’s wrong with America. You know, we all need to lighten up here, have a little sense of humor.” </blockquote> Thing is, Senator Sanders (and the vast majority of his supporters), talk about making Wall Street speculators paying “their fair share” in taxes; and holding Wall Street CEOs and Managers “accountable” when they break our Laws, by knowingly <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/07/1004367/-60-Minutes-uncovers-the-blatant-Fraud,-behind-Mortgage-Foreclosure-Document-Mills" target="_blank">selling fraudulent investment</a> scams to the unsuspecting — BUT no one is advocating for “shooting every 3rd person on Wall Street”, despite what the former president quipped. The implications of this “joke” are insulting, and distorting, and totally misstates the Sanders position on the Wall Street behemoths: These Too-Big-To-Fail corporation interests, are EVEN BIGGER NOW than they were when they nearly collapsed the world economy, because of their <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/10/28/1030963/-MERS-turning-Mortgages-into-Monopoly-Money-for-over-a-Decade" target="_blank" title="">untangleable</a> <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/28/612752/-Hedging-their-betsabout-exactly-WHO-owns-your-Mortgage" target="_blank">shell-game</a> <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/13/955968/-Judges-find-Strawman-behind-Wall-Streets-House-of-Cards-Securities" target="_blank">shenanigans</a> back then. As such, they should broken up (ala the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakup_of_the_Bell_System" target="_blank" title="">AT&T break-up</a> of recent history). No guns required. Even the presumed Democratic Nominee, the wife of the Joking Dude, was outraged enough by the dangers these Too-Big-To-Fail Wall Streeters posed BACK THEN, that she went down the citadels of finance, to <a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=77081" target="_blank">call-them-out</a> on their <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/02/22/1489014/-Clinton-s-Cut-it-Out-Speech" target="_blank">excesses</a> ... <blockquote> [Hillary Clinton: ] And certainly borrowers share responsibility as well. Homebuyers who paid extra fees to avoid documenting their income should have known they were getting in over their heads. Speculators who were busy buying two, three, four houses to sell for a quick buck don't deserve our sympathy. But finally, responsibility also belongs to Wall Street, which not only enabled but often encouraged reckless mortgage lending. Mortgage lenders didn't have balance sheets big enough to write millions of loans on their own. So Wall Street originated and packaged the loans that common sense warned might very well have ended in collapse and foreclosure. Some people might say Wall Street only helped to distribute risk. I believe Wall Street shifted risk away from people who knew what was going on onto the people who did not. Wall Street may not have created the foreclosure crisis, but Wall Street certainly had a hand in making it worse. [...] I urge Wall Street and the mortgage industry to voluntarily agree to the following three steps: First, we need a moratorium of at least 90 days on foreclosures of subprime, owner-occupied homes. The moratorium will stop foreclosures until lenders and servicers have contacted borrowers and frozen mortgage rates. It will also give financial counselors time to work with families. Second, we need to freeze the monthly rate on subprime adjustable rate mortgages, with the freeze lasting at least five years until the mortgages have been converted into affordable, fixed-rate loans. [...] Third, the mortgage industry must provide status reports on the number of mortgages it is modifying. Accountability is essential. Despite all the media coverage, despite all the hearings, despite the Secretary of the Treasury, despite all that has gone on in the last 30 to 60 days, the mortgage industry has only modified about 1 percent of at-risk mortgages this year. That' is simply not enough. Now, I hope everyone will voluntarily agree to these steps, because we cannot fail at this. The costs are just too high. If we cannot reach a voluntary agreement, I will consider legislation to address the problem. </blockquote> Funny, Hillary Clinton’s stern tone towards The Street’s “partial responsibility” in the Mortgage Foreclosure Crisis, while pointed, did not call for summary executions, either. “Voluntary Agreement” to cut-it-out, was more the exhortation of the day. (Should Bernie be toning it down in the same way, Bill?) Too bad, not a single Wall Street CEO has gone to Jail yet since then — even though those TBTF Banks are more than happy to saddle their current Investors with <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/04/12/1514048/-Once-again-TBTF-Banks-demonstrate-Their-business-model-is-Fraud" target="_blank">Multi-Billion Dollar fines</a> in settlement judgments for their own past misdeeds. Routinely ‘skating on the Scam of the Century’ warrants our on-going concern and oversight, NOT our joking laugh-it-off ridicule, as the presumed First Spouse is all too quick to do, out on the campaign trail and wherever else he might end up ... rss@dailykos.com (jamess) BernieSanders BillClinton BreakThemUp cutitout ForeclosureCrisis Goldmansettlement HillaryClinton LaughingItOff StillTBTF TheDudeAbides VoluntaryCompliance WallStreet wallstreetspeeches _1516233 Sat, 16 Apr 2016 20:24:32 +0000 Breaking with the "Obama Legacy" on Syria http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/04/16/1516130/-Breaking-with-the-Obama-Legacy-on-Syria For better or worse, President Obama has taken a strong limited-involvement stance on Syria — one that has avoided getting American troops directly drawn in and involved in another Foreign Conflict of unknown length and duration. This policy of U.S. restraint in Syria, is being directly challenged by many of the 2015 presidential candidates, including a very direct and vocal challenge, by someone from his own Party. ... <h4>Obama up against growing support for a <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/obama-up-against-growing-support-for-a-no-fly-zone-in-syria/" target="_blank" title="">no-fly zone in Syria</a> </h4> by Rebecca Kaplan CBS News — October 5, 2015 <blockquote> [...] <h3> Who opposes it? [a no-fly zone in Syria]</h3> For one, the person who matters the most - President Obama himself. "What we have learned over the last 10, 12, 13 years is that unless we can get the parties on the ground to agree to live together in some fashion, then no amount of U.S. military engagement will solve the problem," he said Friday. Late last month, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest reiterated that the administration was still not considering a no-fly zone because it raised a complicated set of logistical questions about what would be enforced and what kinds of resources would be needed. The president has less and less company these days. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, said last week that he does not support a no-fly zone because it "could get us more deeply involved in that horrible civil war and lead to a never-ending U.S. entanglement in that region." </blockquote> Bernie Sanders is not breaking the measured and restrained response to the Syrian Civil War situation. One quagmire that now has Russia “stepping up its <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-airstrikes-syria-us-russian-military-backing-opposing-sides-war/" target="_blank" title="">involvement in the Syrian civil war</a> — culminating in airstrikes last week that may have targeted not just ISIS, but also rebels opposing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.” Well Candidate Clinton would break with this Obama policy on Syria — not build on it — if she were elected to succeed him. In the most recent <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/04/14/the-brooklyn-democratic-debate-transcript-annotated/" target="_blank" title="">Democratic Debate</a>, Secretary Clinton reiterated her plan for Syria: <blockquote> [Hillary Clinton: ] And, yes, I do still support a no-fly zone [in Syria] because I think we need to put in safe havens for those poor Syrians who are fleeing both Assad and ISIS and have some place that they can be safe. </blockquote> I say “reiterated her plan” because back in last December’s <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/12/hillary-clintons-insane-plan-for-a-no-fly-zone.html" target="_blank" title="">Debate</a>, Secretary Clinton went to some lengths, explaining the rationale and geo-political strategy behind this U.S. ‘skynet’ plan slated for the skies of Syria: <blockquote> [...] But one position advanced by former Secretary of State and current frontrunner Hillary Clinton was so hawkish, so cavalier, that even Raddatz felt compelled to push back. After Clinton said she supported a no-fly zone in Syria in the context of fighting ISIL, Raddatz <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/12/19/3rd-democratic-debate-transcript-annotated-who-said-what-and-what-it-meant/" target="_blank" title="">skeptically followed up</a>: <div> <blockquote> RADDATZ: Secretary Clinton, I’d like to go back to that if I could. ISIS doesn’t have aircraft, Al Qaida doesn’t have aircraft. So would you shoot down a Syrian military aircraft or a Russian airplane? CLINTON: I do not think it would come to that. We are already de-conflicting airspace. […] I am advocating the no-fly zone both because I think it would help us on the ground to protect Syrians; I’m also advocating it because I think it gives us some leverage in our conversations with Russia […] The no-fly zone, I would hope, would be also shared by Russia. If they will begin to turn their military attention away from going after the adversaries of Assad toward ISIS and put the Assad future on the political and diplomatic track, where it belongs. </blockquote> </div> </blockquote> Well at least she’s making a more palatable argument this time around, moving from getting some “leverage over Russia” to, please think of the ‘plight of the poor Syrian refugees’. Given Obama’s stance on this situation however, I doubt he’s pleased with this proposed “Legacy extension.” I must say I agree with Obama’s core assessment here: “that unless we can get the parties on the ground to agree to live together in some fashion, then no amount of U.S. military engagement will solve the problem.” Obviously, Secretary Clinton has come to a different conclusion, one that seems to say that we can force peace on a region, by simply asserting a ‘constant threat’ from above. I hope Russia is not too ‘put out’ by this Clintonian tactic, should it ever come to pass. <hr> <hr> -- Note: <a href="http://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2015/05/everything-you-need-know-about-no-fly-zones/111898/" target="_blank" title="">defenseone.com</a> explains there are significant costs and risks involved in setting up and supporting a “simple” No Fly Zone, here: … Everything You Need To Know <a href="http://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2015/05/everything-you-need-know-about-no-fly-zones/111898/" target="_blank" title="">About No-Fly Zones</a> I find some of their concluding statements rather ironic, in an Obamatonian sort of way: <blockquote> <h3>How Will It End? [a no-fly zone]</h3> The logical ending to a no-fly zone is when the situation on the ground changes so that it is no longer necessary. We will probably not be able to force this change, as there is generally not a direct link between implementing the no-fly zone and achieving lasting political outcomes. </blockquote> Who knew? … No one could have ever foreseen this result. rss@dailykos.com (jamess) BarackObama BernieSanders ClintonDoctrine EndlessWar ExperienceVsJudgment FirstStrikeDoctrine foreignpolicy FutureWars GOPMiddleGround HillaryClinton Isis MiddleEast MilitaryMight MoreUnintendedConsequences NoMoreQuagmires Obamalegacy Russia Syria SyrianNoFlyZone TheDaysAfter warispeace WorldsPolicemen YouBreakIt _1516130 Sat, 16 Apr 2016 16:12:30 +0000 The Heated Debate on Climate Change http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/04/15/1515869/-The-Heated-Debate-on-Climate-Change <h3><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/04/14/the-brooklyn-democratic-debate-transcript-annotated/" target="_blank">The Brooklyn Democratic debate transcript, annotated</a></h3> by Team Fix, washingtonpost.com -- April 14, 2016 <blockquote> (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLITZER: Welcome back. Let's turn to another critically important issue. Senator, Secretary, the issue of energy and the environment. Secretary Clinton, Senator Sanders has said you are in the pocket of the fossil fuel industry. You say you're sick and tired of him lying about your record. What are his lies? CLINTON: Well, let me start by saying we need to talk about this issue and we should talk about it in terms of the extraordinary threats that climate change pose to our country and our world. And that's why for the last many years, both in the Senate and as secretary of State, it's been a big part of my commitment to see what could be done. But there has never been any doubt that when I was a senator, I tried -- I joined with others to try to get rid of the subsidies for big oil. And I have proposed that again, because that's what I think needs to be done as we transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. CLINTON: And everyone who's looked at this independently, "The Washington Post" and others, who give us both hard times when called for on facts, have said that this is absolutely an incorrect false charge. So, we both have relatively small amounts of contributions from people who work for fossil fuel companies. Best we can tell from the reports that are done. But, that is not being supported by big oil, and I think it's important to distinguish that. And, let's talk about what each of us has proposed to try to combat greenhouse gas emissions and put us on the fastest track possible to clean energy. BLITZER: Thank you. We're going to get to that to, but I want you to respond, Senator. SANDERS: It is one thing, as the Secretary indicated, to talk about workers. I'm sure I have contributions, you have contributions from workers in every industry in the country. But, as I understand it, 43 lobbyists for the fossil fuel industry maxed out, gave the maximum amount of money to Secretary Clinton's campaign. (APPLAUSE) SANDERS: Now, that's not saying -- and, then some people say, well, given the hundreds of millions of dollars she raises it's a small amount. That's true. But, that does not mean to say that the lobbyists thought she was a pretty good bet on this issue. Now, what I think is when we look at climate change now, we have got to realize that this is a global environmental crisis of unprecedented urgency. (APPLAUSE) (CHEERING) And, it is not good enough. You know, if we, God forbid, were attacked tomorrow the whole country would rise up and say we got an enemy out there and we got to do something about it. That was what 9/11 was about. <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/12/1384135/-Some-unheeded-National-Security-Threat-warnings" target="_blank">We have an enemy out there</a>, and that enemy is going to cause drought and floods and extreme weather disturbances. There's going to be international conflict. (APPLAUSE) I am proud, Wolf, that I have introduced the most comprehensive climate change legislation... BLITZER: .... Thank you... SANDERS: ... Including a tax on carbon. Something I don't believe Secretary Clinton supports. (APPLAUSE) (CHEERING) BLITZER: Secretary Clinton, go ahead and respond. CLINTON: Well, let's talk about the global environmental crisis. Starting in 2009 as your Secretary of State, I worked with President Obama to bring China and India to the table for the very first time, to get a commitment out of them that they would begin to address their own greenhouse gas emissions. (APPLAUSE) I continued to work on that throughout the four years as Secretary of State, and I was very proud that President Obama and America led the way to the agreement that was finally reached in Paris with 195 nations committing to take steps to actually make a difference in climate change. (APPLAUSE) And, I was surprised and disappointed when Senator Sanders attacked the agreement, said it was not enough, it didn't go far enough. You know, at some point putting together 195 countries, I know a little bit about that, was a major accomplishment... BLITZER: ... Thank you... (APPLAUSE CHEERING) CLINTON: ... And, our President led the effort to protect our world and he deserve our appreciation, not our criticism... BLITZER: ... Go ahead, Senator... SANDERS: ... Let's talk about that. When you were Secretary of State, you also worked hard to expand fracking to countries <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/09/hillary-clinton-fracking-shale-state-department-chevron" target="_blank">all over the world</a>. (CHEERING) SANDERS: The issue here -- of course the agreement is a step forward, but you know agreements and I know agreements, there's a lot of paper there. We've got to get beyond paper right now. We have got to lead the world in transforming our energy system, not tomorrow, but <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/04/03/1509796/-The-Status-Quo-approach-to-Climate-Change-has-NOT-been-Fast-Enough" target="_blank">yesterday</a>. (APPLAUSE) And, what that means, Wolf, it means having the guts to take on the fossil fuel industry. Now, I am on board legislation that says, you know what, we ain't going to excavate for fossil fuel on public land. That's not Secretary Clinton's position. BLITZER: Thank you. [Sanders: ] Let us support a tax on carbon... BLITZER: ... Secretary Clinton... SANDERS: ... Not Secretary Clinton's position. BLITZER: ... Go ahead and respond. (APPLAUSE) CLINTON: Well, I'm a little bewildered about how to respond when you have an agreement which gives you the framework to actually take the action that would have only come about because under the Obama administration in the face of implacable hostility from the Republicans in Congress, President Obama moved forward on gas mileage, he moved forward on the clean power plant. He has moved forward on so many of the fronts that he could given the executive actions that he was able to take. (APPLAUSE) And, you know, I am getting a little bit -- I'm getting a little bit concerned here because, you know, I really believe that the President has done <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/254770-obama-i-should-have-acted-sooner-on-climate-change" target="_blank">an incredible job</a> against great odds and deserves to be supported. (APPLAUSE) (CHEERING) CLINTON: Now, it's easy -- it's easy to diagnose the problem. It's harder to do something about the problem. And... (APPLAUSE) BLITZER: Thank you, Secretary. We'll continue on this. Errol -- Errol Louis, go ahead with your question. SANDERS: Wolf. Wolf. BLITZER: We're going to continue on this. Errol, go ahead. LOUIS: OK. Secretary Clinton, as secretary of state, you also pioneered a program <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/10294" target="_blank">to promote fracking</a> around the world, as you described. Fracking, of course, a way of extracting natural gas. Now as a candidate for president, you say that by the time you're done with all your rules and regulations, fracking will be restricted in many places around the country. Why have you changed your view on fracking? CLINTON: No, well, I don't think I've changed my view on what we need to do to go from where we are, where the world is heavily dependent on coal and oil, but principally coal, to where we need to be, which is clean renewable energy, and one of <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fracking-would-emit-methane/" target="_blank">the bridge</a> <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/04/02/1509444/-Some-Fracking-Fallout" target="_blank">fuels</a> is natural gas. And so for both economic and environmental and strategic reasons, it was American policy to try to help countries get out from under the constant use of coal, building coal plants all the time, also to get out from under, especially <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/09/hillary-clinton-fracking-shale-state-department-chevron" target="_blank">if they were in Europe</a>, the pressure from Russia, which has been incredibly intense. So we did say natural gas is a bridge. We want to cross that bridge as quickly as possible, because in order to deal with climate change, we have got to move as rapidly as we can. That's why I've set big goals. I want to see us deploy a half a billion more <a href="http://solarexpert.com/2013/11/07/how-many-solar-panels-are-needed-for-a-2000-square-foot-home/" target="_blank">solar panels</a> by the end of my first term and enough clean energy to provide electricity to every home in America within 10 years. (APPLAUSE) So I have big, bold goals, but I know in order to get from where we are, where the world is still burning way too much coal, where the world is still too intimidated by countries and providers like Russia, we have got to make a very firm but decisive move in the direction of clean energy. LOUIS: Thank you, Secretary. All right, Senator? SANDERS: All right, here is -- here is a real difference. This is a difference between understanding that we have a crisis of historical consequence here, and incrementalism and those little steps are not enough. (APPLAUSE) Not right now. Not on climate change. Now, the truth is, as secretary of state, Secretary Clinton actively supported fracking technology around the world. Second of all, right now, we have got to tell the fossil fuel industry that their short-term profits are not more important than the future of this planet. (APPLAUSE) And that means -- and I would ask you to respond. Are you in favor of a tax on carbon so that we can transit away from fossil fuel to energy efficiency and sustainable energy at the level and speed we need to do? (APPLAUSE) CLINTON: You know, I have laid out a set of actions that build on what President Obama was able <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/president-obama-alaska-warns-were-not-moving-fast-enough-climate-change" target="_blank">to accomplish</a>, building on the clean power plan, which is currently under attack by fossil fuels and the right in the Supreme Court, which is one of the reasons why we need to get the Supreme Court justice that President Obama has nominated to be confirmed so that we can actually continue to make progress. I don't take a back seat to your legislation that you've introduced that you haven't been able to get passed. I want to do what we can do to actually make progress in dealing with the crisis. That's exactly what I have proposed. LOUIS: OK, thank you, Secretary Clinton. CLINTON: And my approach I think is going to get us there faster without tying us up into <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/05/24/1211518/-The-baseless-Hoax-that-is-Climate-Change-Denial" target="_blank">political knots</a> with a Congress that still would not support what you are proposing. (CROSSTALK) LOUIS: Senator Sanders, you've said that climate change is the greatest change to our nation's security. SANDERS: Secretary Clinton did not answer one simple question. LOUIS: Excuse me, Senator, Senator, Senator, Senator, Senator… SANDERS: Are you for a tax on carbon or not? LOUIS: I have a question for you. You've said that climate change is the greatest threat to our <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/02/kerry-calls-climate-change-a-national-security-threat/445293/" target="_blank">nation's security</a>. You've called for a nationwide ban on fracking. You've also called for phasing out all nuclear power in the U.S. But wouldn't those proposals drive the country back to coal and oil, and actually undermine your fight against global warming? SANDERS: No, they wouldn't. Look, here's where we are. Let me reiterate. We have a global crisis. Pope Francis reminded us that we are on <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/06/26/1396961/-Pope-Francis-Encyclical-on-the-Environment-Some-Excerpts" target="_blank">a suicide course</a><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/06/26/1396961/-Pope-Francis-Encyclical-on-the-Environment-Some-Excerpts" target="_blank">.</a> Our legislation understands, Errol, that there will be economic dislocation. It is absolutely true. There will be some people who lose their job. And we build into our legislation an enormous amount of money to protect those workers. It is not their fault... SANDERS: It is not their fault that fossil fuels are destroying our climate. But we have got to stand up and say right now, as we would if we were attacked by some military force, we have got to move urgency -- urgently and boldly. What does that mean? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator -- senator, jobs... SANDERS: Yes? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- jobs are one thing, but with less than 6 percent of all U.S. energy coming from solar, wind and geothermal, and 20 percent of U.S. power coming from nuclear, if you phase out all of that, how do you make up... SANDERS: Well, you don't phase... UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- that difference? SANDERS: -- it all out tomorrow. And you certainly don't phase nuclear out tomorrow. But this is what you do do. (APPLAUSE) SANDERS: What you do do is say that we are going to have a massive program -- and I had introduced -- introduced legislation for 10 million solar rooftops. We can put probably millions of people to work retrofitting and weatherizing buildings all over this country. (CHEERING) SANDERS: Saving -- rebuilding our rail system. (APPLAUSE) SANDERS: Our mass transit system. (APPLAUSE) SANDERS: If we approach this, Errol, as if we were literally at a war -- you know, in 1941, under Franklin Delano Roosevelt, we moved within three years, within three more years to rebuild our economy to defeat Nazism and Japanese imperialism. That is exactly the kind of approach we need right now. BLITZER: Thank you. (APPLAUSE) SANDERS: Lead the world. BLITZER: Thank you, Senator. (APPLAUSE) </blockquote> <blockquote> [...] Well, my friends, that conference was in 1992. And it is stunning how little the conversation has really changed since then. When I think about the array of global climate – of global threats – think about this: terrorism, epidemics, poverty, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction – all challenges that know no borders – the reality is that climate change ranks right up there with every single one of them. And it is a challenge that I address in nearly every single country that I visit as Secretary of State, because President Obama and I believe it is urgent that we do so. And the reason is simple: The science of climate change is leaping out at us like a scene from a 3D movie. It’s warning us; it’s compelling us to act. And let there be no doubt in anybody’s mind that the science is absolutely certain. It’s something that we understand with absolute assurance of the veracity of that science. No one disputes some of the facts about it. Let me give you an example. When an apple separates from a tree, it falls to the ground. We know that because of the basic laws of physics. No one disputes that today. It’s a fact. It’s a scientific fact. Science also tells us that when water hits a low enough temperature, it’s going to turn into ice; when it reaches a high enough temperature, it’s going to boil. No one disputes that. Science and common sense tell us if you reach out and put your hand on a hot cook stove, you’re going to get burned. I can’t imagine anybody who would dispute that either. So when thousands of the world’s leading scientists and <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/publications_and_data_reports.shtml" target="_blank" title="">five reports</a> over a long period of time with thousands of scientists contributing to those reports – when they tell us over and over again that our climate is changing, that it is happening faster than they ever predicted, ever in recorded history, and when they tell us that we humans are the significant cause, let me tell you something: We need to listen. </blockquote> <a href="http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2014/02/221704.htm" target="_blank" title="">Remarks</a><a href="http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2014/02/221704.htm" target="_blank"> of John Kerry</a>, Secretary of State <div> Jakarta, Indonesia — February 16, 2014</div> <div> <hr> </div> <div></div> <div>…</div> <div>We need to listen — like Yesterday! </div> rss@dailykos.com (jamess) BanOnFracking BarackObama BernieSanders BigOil BridgeFuel CarbonTax ClimateChange DemocraticDebate Disease Drought Fires Floods FossilFuels Fracking globalthreats HillaryClinton IPCC JohnKerry Lobbyists NationalSecurity OnePlanet PopeFrancis RussianAggression SecretaryofState SlowAndSteady ThisisWar timeforaction UrgentResponse _1515869 Fri, 15 Apr 2016 22:24:04 +0000 Putting the Syrian Toothpaste back in the Tube -- or the latest reason for the Syrian No-Fly Zone http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/04/15/1515656/-Putting-the-Syrian-Toothpaste-back-in-the-Tube Link for intro image: <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/195420-syria-no-fly-zone/" target="_blank">www.rt.com/…</a> <hr> <hr> ... From <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/12/hillary-clintons-insane-plan-for-a-no-fly-zone.html" target="_blank">america.aljazeera.com</a>, and last December’s Democratic debate: When Hillary Clinton explained her plan for a No-Fly Zone over Syria, Martha Raddatz of ABC News challenged the foreign policy implications of her plan. <blockquote> [...] But one position advanced by former Secretary of State and current frontrunner Hillary Clinton was so hawkish, so cavalier, that even Raddatz felt compelled to push back. After Clinton said she supported a no-fly zone in Syria in the context of fighting ISIL, Raddatz <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/12/19/3rd-democratic-debate-transcript-annotated-who-said-what-and-what-it-meant/" target="_blank">skeptically followed up</a>: <div> <blockquote> RADDATZ: Secretary Clinton, I’d like to go back to that if I could. ISIS doesn’t have aircraft, Al Qaida doesn’t have aircraft. So would you shoot down a Syrian military aircraft or a Russian airplane? CLINTON: I do not think it would come to that. We are already de-conflicting airspace. […] I am advocating the no-fly zone both because I think it would help us on the ground to protect Syrians; I’m also advocating it because I think it gives us some leverage in our conversations with Russia […] The no-fly zone, I would hope, would be also shared by Russia. If they will begin to turn their military attention away from going after the adversaries of Assad toward ISIS and put the Assad future on the political and diplomatic track, where it belongs. </blockquote> </div> Raddatz moved on, but this exchange illustrates the absurdity of Clinton’s support for a “no-fly zone.” A no-fly zone over Syria, as<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/23/help-syria-not-add-more-military-david-petraeus" target="_blank"> all parties understand</a>, is a tacit declaration of war not only against Syria, but also against their longtime ally Russia, whose air force is currently flying over Syria to defend the government of Bashar al-Assad against both ISIL and various rebel groups, some overtly or covertly backed by the United States. </blockquote> <div> <div> <h4><a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/12/hillary-clintons-insane-plan-for-a-no-fly-zone.html" target="_blank">Hillary Clinton’s insane plan for a no-fly zone</a></h4> </div> </div> The Democratic presidential frontrunner is calling for war against Russia over Syria and hoping no one notices by Adam Johnson, america.aljazeera.com — Dec 29, 2015 <hr> <hr> ... “I do not think it would come to that” — the shooting down of Syrian or Russian planes. — Then why declare the No-Fly Zone in first place? … “Leverage”? Are you kidding me. ... No one in the Bush Administration “thought” their Iraq Invasion, would last longer than “six weeks, six month tops!” Were they kidding us? When it comes to Foreign Wars, “wishful thinking” can get you into a world of hurt, and mired in the land of “unintended consequences” — with real harmful “unfortunate” results, for hundreds of thousands real families, try to live their real lives. Or at least, they once were … before the ‘foreign invaders’ lay claim to their lands (and air). And never left. --- In last night’s Democratic Debate, Hillary Clinton once again <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/04/14/the-brooklyn-democratic-debate-transcript-annotated/" target="_blank">went there</a>. This time working the Syrian refugees, into her No-Fly rationale: <blockquote> And, yes, I do still support a no-fly zone [in Syria] because I think we need to put in safe havens for those poor Syrians who are fleeing both Assad and ISIS and have some place that they can be safe. </blockquote> It seems, she really does wants that “muscular U.S. show of force” in the middle of the Mid-East conflicts. Be careful what you wish for people — you just might end up getting it, unintended consequences and all. The whole unforeseeable Ka-bang. Sometimes the excess toothpaste, just does not go “back into the tube” — no matter how hard we try to force it to. Wishful intentions, notwithstanding. rss@dailykos.com (jamess) BushDoctrine DemocraticDebate EndlessWar ExperienceVsJudgment FirstStrikeDoctrine foreignpolicy HillaryClinton Isis MiddleEast MilitaryAdvisors MilitaryMight MoreUnintendedConsequences Russia Syria SyrianNoFlyZone TheDaysAfter WarInSyria wishfulthinking WorldsPolicemen YouBreakIt _1515656 Fri, 15 Apr 2016 15:16:33 +0000 Once again TBTF Banks demonstrate "Their business model is Fraud" http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/04/12/1514048/-Once-again-TBTF-Banks-demonstrate-Their-business-model-is-Fraud <div></div> So called “breaking news” as reported by CBS Evening News ... <h3>Inside the $5.1B Goldman Sachs subprime <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/inside-the-5-billion-dollar-goldman-sachs-subprime-mortgage-settlement/" target="_blank">mortgage settlement</a> </h3> by Dean Reynolds, CBS News — April 11, 2016 (with Video) <blockquote> [...] In February, Morgan Stanley settled for $3.2 billion, Wells Fargo agreed to pay $1.2 billion, <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/jp-morgan-chase-feds-agree-to-13-billion-settlement/" target="_blank">J.P. Morgan Chase</a> paid $13 billion three years ago, and <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/bank-of-america-to-pay-nearly-17b-in-mortgage-pact/" target="_blank">Bank of America</a> coughed up a whopping $16.6 billion in 2014. [...] When one transaction manager was asked by Goldman officials "How do we know that we caught everything," he answered: "We don't." Another responded it "depends on what you mean by everything." And when an outside analyst wrote a positive review of Countrywide, the head of due diligence at Goldman wrote in an e-mail: "if they only knew." [...] "Millions of people were thrown out of jobs, millions of people lost their homes, communities were destroyed -- all because of their wrong doing. Yet they are escaping any criminal accountability, it seems." [...] </blockquote> No wonder Bernie Sanders says “their business model is fraud” ... <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"&gt;&lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en"&gt;When Wall Street regulates Congress, when their business model is fraud, it becomes obvious that Wall Street doesn’t play by the rules.&lt;/p&gt;— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/667532859733876736"&gt;November 20, 2015&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;'> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> When Wall Street regulates Congress, when their business model is fraud, it becomes obvious that Wall Street doesn’t play by the rules.— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/667532859733876736">November 20, 2015</a> </blockquote> </div> ... Because settlement after settlement, proves indeed — It Is. <div> ---- <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=z4kcH42oxYw" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/z4kcH42oxYw" data-height="412" data-width="740">YouTube Video</a> </div> ---- H/T to igualdad for that Bernie Sanders clip. </div> rss@dailykos.com (jamess) 5BillionDollarFines BernieSanders BrokenJustice CBSNews ClassWar EstablishmentWays ForeclosureCrisis FraudSettlement fraudsters GoldmanSachs MortgageScam NoCriminalAccountability nojustice Recommended speedingtickets StillTooBigToFail TaxWriteoff TBTF ToRichToJail TwoAmericas WallStreet WelfarefortheWealthy WhiteCollarCrime _1514048 Tue, 12 Apr 2016 02:10:31 +0000 U.S. Leading the World in ... http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/04/10/1513429/-U-S-Leading-the-World-in That’s probably one statistic, that should make more of us sit up and take notice. And perchance, wonder Why it has happened … that U.S. Incarceration rates exceeded the bounds of that chart, by such a phenomenal amount? … <h3>U.S. incarceration rate sickening, disgraceful and far <a href="http://www.americusumterobserver.com/u-s-incarceration-rate-sickening-disgraceful-and-far-exceeds-that-of-every-other-nation/" target="_blank" title="">exceeds that of every other nation</a> </h3> americusumterobserver.com <blockquote> U.S. exceptionalism is no new concept. It dates back to the time before the grandparents of anyone now alive were born. Politicians, whether they actually believe the U.S. is exceptional or not say that it is to prove their patriotism. It meshes with the view that America is No. 1 in the world. Unfortunately, when it comes to many issues of importance, America is nowhere near No. 1: for instance, infant survival rates, per capita income and the percentage of the populace with healthcare coverage. In a couple of arenas, however, we do lead. We spend more on our military than the next nine to 13 nations combined, depending on how one counts. And we incarcerate people at a far higher rate than any other nation. Hardly something proud to be exceptional about. Currently, some 2.2 million people are doing time in our nation’s prisons and jails. That is a phenomenal 500 percent increase in four decades. The reason for this surge has not been a surge in crime rates. Rather it’s been a change in sentencing policies. The consequences have been prison overcrowding — and an attempt to relieve it with one of the worst ideas ever to get widely adopted in the States: private prisons. <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="" src="http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t106/OnlyObvious/Entitled/Incarceration_RatesNato_Countries_zps1u3esw7z.png"> <figcaption>Incarceration Rates among NATO founding members (per 100,000 population).</figcaption> </figure> As anyone who has paid even cursory attention to this situation is aware, the huge proportion of the increase in imprisonment has been because of drug crimes, and the vast majority of those are marijuana-related. Indeed, nearly <a href="http://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_offenses.jsp">half</a> the federal prison population have been sentenced for drug crimes — currently 98,000 inmates — with more than a fourth of that number being marijuana-related. In 1970, that 48.7 percent total incarcerated for drug crimes was just 16 percent. [...] </blockquote> Let these non-violent Drug-offenders go! ... <h3> <a href="http://www.prisonpolicy.org/articles/notequal.html" target="_blank">Incarceration</a> is not an equal opportunity punishment</h3> by Peter Wagner, prisonpolicy.org — Updated August 28, 2012 <blockquote> At the end of 2010, there were 2,266,800 people in U.S. prisons and jails. For the second year in a row, the total prison population fell slightly, although some states and the federal system continued to increase the number of people incarcerated. As of June 30, 2010, the U.S. incarceration rate was 732 per 100,000 residents. But when you break down the statistics you see that incarceration is not an equal opportunity punishment. The graphs that follow illustrate that the young, the male, the Black and the Latino are disproportionately incarcerated. Put those factors together and you have almost 9% of Black men in their late 20s behind bars. By race and ethnicity: <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="" src="http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t106/OnlyObvious/Entitled/Incarceration_rates_by_race_zpshw6louyi.jpg"> <figcaption>United States Incarceration Rates, by Race and Ethnicity, 2000. (people incarcerated per 100,000 people in each group).</figcaption> </figure> [...] Globally unprecedented: <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="" src="http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t106/OnlyObvious/Entitled/globalprisonerspercentage_zpslnfacxr9.jpg"> <figcaption>Red indicates 22.05% — 23.20% of the World’s Prisoners.</figcaption> </figure> </blockquote> Is this really a global contest, that we want to win? ... <h3><a href="http://spiritofcontradiction.eu/rowan-duffy/2012/07/28/race-and-class" target="_blank">Race and Class</a></h3> <div> by <a href="http://spiritofcontradiction.eu/author/rowan-duffy">Gavin Mendel-Gleason</a>, spiritofcontradiction.eu — 07/28/2012</div> <blockquote> [...] The end of the civil rights movement was in some way the rise of a more advanced form of capitalism. A capitalism that was really starting to make true on its promise of a complete formal civil equality. We can see the movement has continued in this direction even to the present day, and we will surely see LGBT civil rights become the norm in our lifetime. Yet for many, and for African Americans in particular, this story is belying one which is somehow more sinister. The facts on the ground paint a fairly dire picture for the average African American. <div> <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="" src="http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t106/OnlyObvious/Entitled/IncarcerationBlackVsWhite_zps24nks4ge.jpg"> <figcaption>Incarceration rates by race</figcaption> </figure> </div> By the 1980s the incarceration rate for African Americans began to climb precipitously. This climb has to also be seen in the context of a wage stagnation that has been occurring since the early 80s. This correlation is no mere accident. This was precisely the turning point in the battle between labour and capital where labour began to lose decisively. The unions have been in a state of near permanent retreat since the beginning of the 1980s. [...] African Americans do not need more politeness. Neither is the formal legal equality sufficient. They need social justice and, primarily, economic justice. Anti-racism simply is not achieving real material benefits and historically it has been class based institutions which have made real substantial improvements. </blockquote> America needs to examine the impacts of Mandatory-Minimum sentences. Especially the disproportionate way in which it was applied, due to Racial-profiling. THEN, America needs to correct these Injustices, and exonerate those unjustly impacted by these Institutionally-biased policies. We need much in terms of jobs and education, and much less profiling and incarceration. rss@dailykos.com (jamess) BlackLivesMatter BrokenJustice Charts classwars Crimebill drugoffenders economicjustice incarcerationnation incarcerationrates institutionalracism leadingtheworld MandatoryMinimums prisoninc PrivatePrisons RacialProfiling SocialJustice _1513429 Sun, 10 Apr 2016 16:35:41 +0000 The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade -- to be featured at Tribeca http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/04/09/1513180/-The-Shadow-World-Inside-the-Global-Arms-Trade-to-be-featured-at-Tribeca <h3>The Takeaway: Shining a Light on the Global Arms Trade</h3> <blockquote> Forty percent of the world's corruption is estimated to begin with arms trade. A new film aims to expose just how entrenched it is in our current political environment. --- The Takeaway, hosted by John Hockenberry, provides a breadth and depth of world, national, and regional news coverage that is unprecedented in public media. </blockquote> <a href="https://www.wnyc.org/radio/#/ondemand/594219">Listen</a> to this Podcast from wnyc.org --- The Takeaway: Shining a Light on the Global Arms Trade <blockquote> <a href="http://www.wnyc.org/story/shining-light-global-arms-trade/">If there's one thing</a> we learned from this week's revelation of the Panama Papers, it's just how internationally interconnected illicit shadow money is. A corrupt Brazilians politicians goes to a law firm in Panama, and then builds a couple of skyscrapers in Miami, for example. --- And much of that web, an estimated 40 percent of it, originates with global arms deals, which is the subject of a timely new film premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival: "Shadow World." Andrew Feinstein wrote the book the film is based on. He stumbled into the world of the arms industry when he was a politician in South Africa, a member of the ANC Party under Nelson Mandela, and then began an investigation into a 10 billion dollar arms deal made by his party. He found that $300 million were bribes, much of which went to government officials. [...] </blockquote> "Just about everywhere -- takes guns 'as money'." "Now we have a situation in the world today, where the Trade in Bananas is more heavily regulated, than the Trade in Weapons. Now the reality is that Weapons are a hell of a lot more dangerous than Bananas." --- <h4>2016 Tribeca Film Festival</h4> <h4> <a href="https://tribecafilm.com/filmguide/shadow-world-2016">Feature Documentary</a>: Shadow World -- Directed by Johan Grimonprez</h4> <blockquote> Film Information Section: Spotlight Year: 2016 Length: 94 minutes Language: Arabic, English, Spanish Country: USA, Denmark, Belgium Premiere: World --- Haliburton may be the shining example of an out of control arms industry, where the profit is billions of dollars and the loss is human lives. In Shadow World, based upon the 2011 book by Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade, there are other weapons manufacturers, world leaders, arms dealers, military leaders, and behind-the-scenes movers that come under director Johan Grimonprez's (Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y) scrutiny in an eye-popping assemblage of news and archival footage. Accompanying the images are comments from Feinstein, a slippery arms dealer, former New York Times writer Chris Hedges, and New Yorker investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, retired US Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, and other once-willing participants in the business who decided to speak out. Grimonprez spares no one to expose a shadow world of corruption, slush funds, drones, illicit bed partners, and a whole lot of lies and greed from the early 80s up to the present. The aim is to perpetuate war in order to generate more cash, no matter what the expense. -- Brian Gordon </blockquote> --- The Shadow World -- Author Andrew Feinstein <div class="center-block dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=yG09qjWYwuk" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yG09qjWYwuk" data-height="315" data-width="560">YouTube Video</a> </div> Penguin Books UK -- Oct 10, 2011 Link to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG09qjWYwuk">video</a> <blockquote>Pulling back the curtain on the secretive world of the global arms trade, Andrew Feinstein reveals the corruption and the cover-ups behind weapons deals ranging from the largest in history - between the British and Saudi governments - to BAE's controversial transactions in South Africa, Tanzania and eastern Europe, and the revolving-door relationships that characterise the US Congressional-Military-Industrial Complex. He exposes in forensic detail both the formal government-to-government trade in arms and the shadow world of illicit weapons dealing - and lays bare the shocking and inextricable links between the two. --- The Shadow World places us in the midst of the arms trade's dramatic wheeling and dealing, ranging from corporate boardrooms to seedy out-of-the-way hotels via far-flung offshore havens, and reveals the profound danger this network represents to all of us. </blockquote> "Show me who profits from War -- and I'll show you how to the stop the War." --- For a clip from the Film, featuring Representative Cynthia McKinney challenging Donald Rumsfeld on the Trillions of Dollars in unaccounted for and missing Iraq War funds, click <a href="http://widehouse.org/film/the-shadow-world/" target="_blank">here</a>. Or for the Trailer here: <a href="http://shadowworldfilm.com/" title="">shadowworldfilm.com</a> ….. "It is the disease of 'permanent war' that destroys the Middle East -- not Islamic Fundamentalism." "Once you start a War, you open up a sort of Pandora's Box. You don't control it -- it controls you." --- Screenings of Shadow World in selected theaters are listed <a href="http://shadowworldfilm.com/screenings/">here</a>. rss@dailykos.com (jamess) ArmsDeals howtostopwar JohnHockenberry legalizedbribery MIC missingfunds permenantwar RevolvingDoor shadowmarkets shadowworld thetakeaway trebecafilmfestival unregulatedindustry warforthesakeofwar waronanidea WaronTerror WarProfiteering _1513180 Sat, 09 Apr 2016 20:27:00 +0000 What Kind of 'Predator' would Walter White be? http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/04/09/1512973/-What-Kind-of-Predator-would-Walter-White-be Here’s a social commentary, Rorschach test for you, assuming you are familiar with the main character of AMC’s <a href="http://www.amc.com/shows/breaking-bad/talk/2014/08/breaking-bad-wins-five-primetime-emmy-awards-including-outstanding-drama-series" target="_blank">award-winning</a> series Breaking Bad (Primetime Emmy Awards). And have ever marveled his spiraling descent into “badness” — which of course, was often due to circumstances “beyond his control”. And sometimes, not ... <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="" src="http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t106/OnlyObvious/Casino_Economy/WalterWhite_zpsqizyjl7w.jpg"> <figcaption>Tungsten, also known as wolfram, is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_element">chemical element</a> with symbol W and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_number">atomic number</a> 74.</figcaption> </figure> And yet somehow Walter keeps seeming to ‘get away with it’ — despite his best of intentions to one day to make a “clean break” out of the drug-crime scene, and finally ‘set up his kids for life’, financially speaking of course. <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="" src="http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t106/OnlyObvious/Casino_Economy/breakingbad_skylerwaltmoney_zps1tynss9q.jpg"> <figcaption>The stuff of American Dreams.</figcaption> </figure> Needless to say, that simple plan (of providing for his family, long after Cancer had run its course), ran into more than a few speed-bumps along the way. ... Oh the ripples we leave on the world. ... rss@dailykos.com (jamess) AMC archetypes beyondthelaw BreakingBad brokeneconomy BryanCranston Crimebill dogeatdogworld drugcrimes fortheloveofmoney Gettingawaywithit humanwreckage itsonlyamovie SocialPredators TheOtherAmericanDream TVDrama VinceGilligan WhiteCollarCrime _1512973 Sat, 09 Apr 2016 08:21:35 +0000 Cenk explains Nevada http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/04/07/1511677/-Cenk-explains-Nevada --- <h3>Bernie Sanders Makes Epic Comeback To Win Nevada</h3> <div class="center-block dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=Hc-vbFNu628" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Hc-vbFNu628" data-height="315" data-width="560">YouTube Video</a> </div> Link to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc-vbFNu628" title="">video. </a> Published on Apr 4, 2016 — The Young Turks <blockquote>Hillary Clinton won Nevada by about five points a while back. WRONG! Bernie Sanders comes back at the convention in a yuuuge way, and takes the state. Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks, breaks it down. Tell us what you think in the comment section below. "Weeks after Democratic voters in Nevada held their presidential caucus, the result changed in the favor of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders during the party's convention Saturday — and now appears poised to win the state. Even though his opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was declared the winner after the February 20 election, the convention this weekend determined which delegates go to another convention in May — and Sanders hit the jackpot by taking away Vegas from Clinton's win column.”* <a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/338263-bernie-sanders-wins-nevada/" title="">Bernie Sanders set to win Nevada after delegates switch</a> rt.com </blockquote> The 3rd NV Convention shoe is still waiting to fall, sometime in May, when delegate elected this past weekend decide what NV Delegates will get sent to the Convention, and how many will represent whom (according to Cenk). --- Cenk explains other important stuff here <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1yBKRuGpC1tSM73A0ZjYjQ" title="">The Young Turks</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwDJmCD6iDA&feature=youtu.be" title="">here</a>. FWIW ------- <div> <div> <div><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/4/3/1509965/-There-was-no-Overturning-the-voters-in-Nevada-It-s-a-Caucus-State-Learn-more-here" title="">There was no "Overturning the voters" in Nevada. It's a #Caucus State. Learn more here...</a></div> <div></div> </div> </div> <div> by<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/user/Angela%20Marx" title=""> Angela Marx</a> — Apr 03, 2016 </div> rss@dailykos.com (jamess) BernieSanders CenkUygur DelegatesUnplugged HillaryClinton momentum Nevada Nevadacaucus TheYoungTurks UncorporateMedia _1511677 Thu, 07 Apr 2016 01:29:24 +0000 The Status Quo approach to Climate Change -- has NOT been Fast Enough http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/04/03/1509796/-The-Status-Quo-approach-to-Climate-Change-has-NOT-been-Fast-Enough --- Even President Obama has said as much himself — that we’re not moving fast enough on Climate Change. <h3>Obama in Alaska warns ‘<a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/president-obama-alaska-warns-were-not-moving-fast-enough-climate-change" target="_blank">we’re not moving fast enough</a>’ on climate change</h3> by Tony Dokoupil, MSNBC.com — 09/01/15; Updated 09/01/15 <blockquote> President Barack Obama late Monday issued a blunt, borderline apocalyptic call for global action on climate change, rallying world leaders to reach an agreement this year or “condemn our children to a world they will no longer have the capacity to repair.” “Climate change is no longer some far-off problem; it is happening here, it is happening now,” the President said in Anchorage, Alaska, addressing an international conference on the Arctic. “I have come here today, as the leader of the world’s largest economy and its second-largest emitter, to say that the United States recognizes our role in creating the problem, and we embrace our responsibility to help solve it.” [...] “If we do nothing to keep glaciers from melting, and forests from burning we will condemn our children to a planet beyond their repair,” the president said, summing images of “entire industries of people who can’t practice livelihoods, desperate refugees, political disruptions that could trigger conflicts around the world.” “Any leader willing to take a gamble on a future like that,” he continued, “any so-called leader who doesn’t take this issue seriously or treats it like a joke is not fit to lead. On this issue, of all issues, there’s such a thing as being too late.” [...] </blockquote> --- NOW — that president Obama is putting the finishing touches on his Executive Legacy as president, it seems he may have a bit of buyer’s-remorse — regarding his decision to ‘wait for Republicans to get on board with Climate Change legislation’ … <h3>Obama: <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/254770-obama-i-should-have-acted-sooner-on-climate-change" target="_blank">I should have acted sooner</a> on climate change</h3> by Jordan Fabian, theHill.com — 09/24/15 <blockquote> President Obama says he should have "moved faster to a nonlegislative strategy" to address climate change after Congress killed cap-and-trade legislation in 2009. [...] The collapse of the cap-and-trade bill, which would have taxed companies for carbon pollution as an incentive to cut emissions, was one of the biggest legislative failures of Obama’s presidency. The <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/115501-mcconnell-pronounces-cap-and-trade-dead">2009 cap-and-trade bill</a> passed the House but was never brought to the floor in the Senate, were it ran into opposition from Republicans and some centrist Democrats, who argued it would hurt energy producers. Environmental groups criticized Obama during his first term for not acting quickly enough on climate change. But Obama defended his push to court Republicans to back the cap-and-trade bill, saying their votes were necessary to pass the legislation. [...] </blockquote> Over six years waiting for Republicans to support cap-and-trade? It should have been clear that after the first year or two — THAT was never going to happen. Yet, status quo priorities always seem to trump, urgent scientific and environmental and economic goals. If were lucky, one day when those postponed priorities fail to pan out, the priority-pickers ‘wake up’ — and come to sad realization, that they may not actually be leaving their children ‘that Better World’ they had planned — despite the most hopeful of good intentions. Once again president Obama, seems to be trying to make up for lost time, with respect to that last-on-the-list priority, sometimes colloquially referred as “doing something about Climate Change”. <blockquote> [President Obama speaking, at <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/09/01/remarks-president-glacier-conference-anchorage-ak" target="_blank">the GLACIER Conference</a> -- Anchorage, AK: ] [...] This year [2015], in Paris, has to be the year that the world finally reaches an agreement to protect the one planet that we’ve got while we still can. So let me sum up. We know that human activity is changing the climate. That is beyond dispute. Everything else is politics if people are denying the facts of climate change. We can have a legitimate debate about how we are going to address this problem; we cannot deny the science. We also know the devastating consequences if the current trend lines continue. That is not deniable. And we are going to have to do some adaptation, and we are going to have to help communities be resilient, because of these trend lines we are not going to be able to stop on a dime. We’re not going to be able to stop tomorrow. But if those trend lines continue the way they are, there’s not going to be a nation on this Earth that’s not impacted negatively. People will suffer. Economies will suffer. Entire nations will find themselves under severe, severe problems. More drought; more floods; rising sea levels; greater migration; more refugees; more scarcity; more conflict. That’s one path we can take. The other path is to embrace the human ingenuity that can do something about it. This is within our power. This is a solvable problem if we start now. [...] </blockquote> Now if only we had that kind of resolve, “to solve Climate Change”, at the beginning of the Obama Administration — instead of at the end of it — then maybe the Obama Legacy could have actually shaken off that “Status quo” moniker. Maybe our “one planet” would actually be on the path to becoming that ‘Better Place’ for those young folks who will follow us — instead of only the weak initiation, of such a place. rss@dailykos.com (jamess) Alaska antiscience BarackObama Capandtradebill ClimateChange ClimateChangeIsReal coddlingrepublicans compromise Environment GLACIERConference HappeningNow InactionIsUnacceptable incrementalism LeadFollowOrWait LeavingaBetterWorld NotFastEnough Obamalegacy PathNotChosen priorities regrets RepublicansAreAHoax ScienceFacts StatusQuoFail WaitingOnTheGOP _1509796 Sun, 03 Apr 2016 15:41:22 +0000 Some Fracking Fallout http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/04/02/1509444/-Some-Fracking-Fallout Nothing to see here … out of sight, out of mind. What’s a little spilt toxics, among frenemies ... <blockquote> [...] According to data obtained from leading oil- and gas-producing states, "more than 180 million gallons of wastewater spilled from 2009 to 2014 in incidents involving ruptured pipes, overflowing storage tanks and other mishaps or even deliberate dumping," AP reports, tainting agricultural land, poisoning drinking water, and sparking the mass die-off of plant and animal life. Most of the incidents involved the spill of <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/tag/fracking">fracking</a> wastewater, which is a combination of underground brine mixed with a slurry of undisclosed chemicals. As the story notes, "A big reason why there are so many spills is the sheer volume of wastewater" produced, which according an organization of state groundwater agencies, amounts to roughly 10 barrels for every barrel of oil, or more than 840 billion gallons a year. The report details a sampling of incidents, which help illustrate the scope of the problem. In one instance, a roughly 1 million gallon spill in North Dakota in 2006 caused a "massive die-off of fish, turtles and plants in the Yellowstone River and a tributary." In another case, a decades-long seepage of toxic brine onto Montana's Fort Peck Indian Reservation polluted a river, private wells, and the municipal water system, making the water "undrinkable." [...] </blockquote> <h3> <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/09/08/fracking-fallout-new-analysis-reveals-over-100-million-gallons-toxic-wastewater" target="_blank">Fracking Fallout</a>: New Analysis Reveals Over 100 Million Gallons of Toxic Wastewater Spilled Since 2009</h3> Associated Press investigation finds more than 180 million gallons of fracking byproduct spilled from 2009 to 2014, tainting agricultural land, poisoning drinking water, and sparking the mass die-off of plant and animal life. <div> <div>by<a href="http://www.commondreams.org/author/lauren-mccauley-staff-writer" target="_blank"> Lauren McCauley, staff writer</a>, commondreams.org — September 08, 2015 <div>---</div> <div></div> <div>That’s all tainted water under some shareholders bridge — so pay you no nevermind …</div> <div></div> <div> </div> <div>How big a 1 million gallons anyways? Well not THAT big, really — if you compare to an Ocean, or <a href="http://www.browndailyherald.com/2012/04/16/pool-features-fast-technology/" target="_blank">something</a>.</div> <div> <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="" src="http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t106/OnlyObvious/CleanEnergy/Pool_56x9%20meters_1million%20gallons_zpsqjuqtknv.jpg"> <figcaption>The new pool is 56 meters long and nine meters deep, and it holds one million gallons of water.</figcaption> </figure> Chalk it up to the “price of progress” … about 180 times. <blockquote> [...] Opposition to the hydraulic fracturing of deep shales to release natural gas rose sharply last year over worries that the large volumes of chemical-laden water used in the operations could <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fracking-evolving-truth-natural-gas">contaminate drinking water</a>. Then, in early January, <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=ohio-earthquake-likely-caused-by-fracking">earthquakes in Ohio</a> were blamed on the disposal of that water in deep underground structures. Yesterday, two Cornell University professors said at a <a href="http://216.250.243.12/shalegasghgreport.html">press conference</a> that fracking releases large amounts of natural gas, which consists mostly of methane, directly into the atmosphere — much more than previously thought. Robert Howarth, an ecologist and evolutionary biologist, and Anthony Ingraffea, a civil and environmental engineer, reported that fracked wells leak 40 to 60 percent more methane than conventional natural gas wells. When water with its chemical load is forced down a well to break the shale, it flows back up and is stored in large ponds or tanks. But volumes of methane also flow back up the well at the same time and are released into the atmosphere before they can be captured for use. This giant belch of "fugitive methane" can be <a href="http://www.psehealthyenergy.org/resources/view/198782">seen in infrared videos</a> taken at well sites. [...] Currently, pipeline leaks are the main culprit, but fracking is a quickly growing contributor. Ingraffea pointed out that although 25,000 high-volume shale-gas wells are already operating in the U.S., hundreds of thousands are scheduled to go into operation within 20 years, and millions will be operating worldwide, significantly expanding emissions and keeping atmospheric methane levels high despite the 12-year dissipation time. Howarth said he is particularly concerned about fracking emissions because recent data indicates that the planet is entering a period of <a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2011/12/06/two-degree-global-warming-limit-is-called-a-prescription-for-disaster/">rapid climate change</a>. He noted that the average global temperature compared with the early 1900s is now expected to increase by 1.5 degrees Celsius within the next 15 to 35 years, which he called "a tipping point" toward aggressive climate change. More and more fracking would speed the world to that transition or undermine efforts to reduce emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. The notion, Ingraffea said, that shale gas is a desirable "bridge fuel" from oil to widespread renewable energy supplies several decades from now "makes no sense" in terms of climate change. [...] </blockquote> <h3> <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fracking-would-emit-methane/" target="_blank">Fracking Would Emit</a> Large Quantities of Greenhouse Gases</h3> "Fugitive methane" released during shale gas drilling could accelerate climate change by <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/author/mark-fischetti/">Mark Fischetti</a> , scientificamerican.com — January 20, 2012 --- Well “25,000 high-volume shale-gas wells are already operating in the U.S., hundreds of thousands are scheduled to go into operation within 20 years, and millions will be operating worldwide” … What’s not to like about that $$$ ??? Except in terms of climate change, all that Shale-gas is really a “bridge fuel” to nowhere. Ooops. --- Well, maybe the Exxon CEO, who in the past <a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/business/energy/20150527-exxon-ceo-holds-line-on-climate-change-at-annual-meeting.ece" target="_blank">has hinted </a>that climate change ‘might be real’ — maybe that mover-and-shaker, has some keen insights about the real-world value of Fracking ??? <div class="center-block dk-editor-embed"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder dk-x-embed" href="#" data-src="http://player.theplatform.com/p/7wvmTC/MSNBCEmbeddedOffSite?guid=n_hayes_Ffrack2_140225" data-height="500" data-width="635">Embedded Content</a> </div> <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/all">All In with Chris Hayes</a> — MSNBC 2/25/14 <h3>The <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/the-fracking-fallout-continues-170631235783" target="_blank">fracking fallout</a> continues</h3> <blockquote> Director and producer of "Gasland" Josh Fox and author Jim Hightower discuss Rex Tillerson's argument against a fracking water tower near his property. </blockquote> Doncha just love it, when Big Oil CEOs say: “Hell No! Not in my Backyard.” It proves they’re only human. Somehow I think the irony of it all, is lost on them though. </div> </div> </div> rss@dailykos.com (jamess) 180MillionGallions BigExcuses BigOil bridgetonowhere ClimateChange CostOfBusiness eKos Environment ExxonMobil Fracking frackingwastewater FugitiveMethane GasLand GreenhouseGas JimHightower JoshFox MSNBC NativeAmericans NotInMyBackyard PriceOfProgress RexTillerson Science ScienceIgnored ScientificAmerican ShaleGas ToxicBrew Undrinkable _1509444 Sat, 02 Apr 2016 16:04:49 +0000 Bernie takes on the Media's coddling of Donald Trump on the Issues http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/31/1508486/-Bernie-takes-on-the-Media-s-coddling-of-Donald-Trump-on-the-Issues This epic-rant happened when Bernie was telling Rachel Maddow, 'what he really thinks' about the Corporate Media's <s>kid-glove</s> 1-dimension treatment of Donald Trump when it comes to his positions on the Issues. This happened at Sanders' recent Townhall event on MSNBC, with Ms Maddow moderating. --- MSNBC Town Hall: The BEST Line Was... <div class="center-block dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=5XOdREUeKng" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5XOdREUeKng" data-height="315" data-width="560">YouTube Video</a> </div> The Young Turks -- Link to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XOdREUeKng">video.</a> --- [partial transcript, Bernie Sanders speaking: ] <blockquote>You know you mentioned a moment ago Rachel, that the Media is paying attention to Donald Trump. Duh! No kidding. Once again every stupid remark will be broadcast for the next 5 days. What is Donald Trump's position on raising the Minimum Wage? Well, he doesn't think so. What is Donald Trump's position on Wages in America? Well, he said in a Republican Debate, he thinks wages are too high. What is Donald Trump's position on Taxes Well, he wants to give Billionaire Families like himself, hundreds of billions of dollars in Tax Breaks. What is Donald Trump's position on Climate Change? Oh, he thinks it's a Hoax, perpetuated -- shock of all shock -- by the Chinese. On and on, it goes. --- Everyday he comes up with another stupid remark, absurd remark. Of course it should be mentioned -- but so should Trump's overall position. How much talk to we hear about Climate Change, Rachel? And Trump? Any? --- He knows how to manipulate the Media, and you say an absurd thing and the Media is all over it. And my concern is that today in America, you've got millions of people who are struggling economically. They want know: How were going to expand the Middle Class. Overwhelmingly, people think we should raise the Minimum Wage. A vast majority think Climate Change is real and a threat to our Planet, and they want to do something about that. What do we do? A vast majority think that the Wealthiest people in this country should start paying their fair share of Taxes. But if we don't discuss those issues, it creates the climate for people like Donald Trump to do MUCH better than he really has a right to do. </blockquote> Could this recent New York Times article on all the Free Media that has been given to Trump gratis, have anything to do with Senator Sanders impassioned answers? Could be. --- <h3><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/upshot/measuring-donald-trumps-mammoth-advantage-in-free-media.html?_r=1" target="_blank">Measuring Donald Trump’s Mammoth Advantage in Free Media</a></h3> by Nicholas Confessore and Karen Yourish, The Upshot, nytimes.com — Mar 15, 2016 <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="" src="http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t106/OnlyObvious/Capitalism/BoughtVsFreeMedia_zpslvlbycht.jpg"> <figcaption>The Media’s darling, is “winning” the race for free airtime.</figcaption> </figure> No wonder Sanders seems <s>pissed-off</s> agitated, with the very one-sided Media coddling (aka favoritism) like that — we all should be. rss@dailykos.com (jamess) BernieSanders ClimateChange CorporateMedia DonaldTrump DoubleStandard FreeMedia MediaCoverage MinimumWage MSNBC RachelMaddow RiggedSystem Taxbreaksfortherich TheUnfairnessDoctrine TheYoungTurks townhall WhatIssues _1508486 Thu, 31 Mar 2016 14:54:42 +0000 Joe and Mika wonder What it will take ... http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/29/1507415/-Joe-and-Mika-wonder-What-it-will-take … for Bernie Sanders to get some Respect? (from the Corporate Media.) --- March 28, 2016 — Morning Joe, MSNBC <div class="center-block dk-editor-embed"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder dk-x-embed" href="#" data-src="http://player.theplatform.com/p/7wvmTC/MSNBCEmbeddedOffSite?guid=n_mj_seven_160328" data-height="500" data-width="635">Embedded Content</a> </div> --- The Bernie Phenomena and its general discounting by the DNC was discussed on Morning Joe, this morning. Here’s a comprehensive <a href="http://usuncut.com/politics/morning-joe-blasts-dnc-rigging-primary-bernie-sanders-video/" target="_blank">summary</a> of that (ie. the above clip). Spending those several minutes giving Sanders a healthy dose of “<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/26/1506449/-These-days-Media-coverage-is-not-given-It-s-Earned" target="_blank">Earned</a>” Media (ie Free), is a indeed a dawning recognition that the Media “keeps missing the Bernie story”, as Mika puts it. Well, Duh. Largest Crowds, Largest Small Donor Funding, Consist Progressive-Populist <a href="http://feelthebern.org/" target="_blank">platform</a> going back decades … Nothing to see here people. Move along now. … Say those who decide <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/21/1504253/-Amy-Goodman-on-Reliable-Sources-blast-the-Media-for-its-Manufactured-Consent-of-Trump" target="_blank">what’s News</a>. rss@dailykos.com (jamess) BernieSanders CorporateMedia DNC earnedmedia JoeScarborough MediaFilters MediasMissingTheStory MikaBrzezinski MorningJoe MSNBC Norespect PickingTheWinners Questions _1507415 Tue, 29 Mar 2016 01:36:08 +0000 This is what Third Way Incrementalism looks like http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/28/1507166/-This-is-what-Third-Way-Incrementalism-looks-like This just in from <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/california-eyes-15-minimum-wage-why-matters-130927199.html" target="_blank">news.yahoo.com</a>: <blockquote> California could have a $15-an-hour statewide minimum wage, the largest statewide minimum wage by far, by 2022, a state senator has said, but only if state lawmakers and labor unions can get the tentative deal through the legislature. [...] But there remains opposition to raising the minimum wage. Some studies suggest it would <a href="http://www.capitalpress.com/20150224/minimum-wage-hikes-hurt-more-than-help-study-says" target="_blank">hurt low-wage workers</a> more than it helps them by triggering layoffs. Republicans in Congress have made similar arguments in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2014/04/30/senate-republicans-block-minimum-wage-increase-bill/" target="_blank">blocking recent efforts</a> to raise the federal minimum wage. [...] A law passed this month in Oregon seeks to <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2016/0303/Oregon-s-nearly-15-minimum-wage-law-tests-tiered-raises-video" target="_blank">address that issue</a>, slowly raising the minimum wage for six years along three tiers: to $14.75 an hour in urban areas, $13.50 in smaller cities, and $12.50 [everyone else]. Similar policies around the country, Third Way wrote in its report, "would ensure that a cashier in Manhattan is essentially earning the same minimum wage in real terms as a cashier in Carbondale, Ill., and largely addresses fears that a big city minimum wage would destroy jobs in low-cost small towns." </blockquote> Divide and conquer. Pit small towns against Mega-cities. Set those wealthy cashiers against those more frugal cashiers. And make sure everyone is deathly afraid — that asking for a living wage is paramount to losing their wonderful jobs. THAT is the Third Way of conducting Business in America. We mustn’t upset that Chamber of Commerce apple-cart. (So pay no attention to the cart owners ...) --- <h3>Doing the Right Thing, the Right Way: <a href="http://www.thirdway.org/report/doing-the-right-thing-the-right-way-a-regional-minimum-wage" target="_blank">A Regional Minimum Wage</a> </h3> by <a href="http://www.thirdway.org/about/team/joon-suh">Joon Suh</a>, thirdway.org/report — February 11, 2016 <blockquote> [...] We propose to replace the single federal minimum wage with a regional minimum wage based on average hourly wages and regional cost variations, with readjustments every three years. To do this, we would establish different regional wages — for low-cost regions, high-cost regions, and regions that are at parity with the national average. If implemented today, we estimate that regional minimum wages across the country will range from $9.30 per hour to $11.90 per hour. [...] The cost differences between one area of the country and another are aggregated by the Bureau of Economic Analysis at the U.S. Department of Commerce and reported in the form of Regional Price Parities (RPPs).13 RPPs are expressed as a percentage of the national average of the cost of common consumer goods and services. A score of 100 on the RPP represents the national price average. So, an area with an RPP of 110 experiences costs that are 10% higher than the national average. Residents of an area with an RPP of 85 experience costs that are 15% lower than the national average. RPPs can be used to calculate purchasing power, which is what a dollar of wages in one area of the country is worth compared to another area of the country, given differences in local prices.14 </blockquote> Sounds like a lot like implementing an <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/12/23/1173443/-What-about-using-CPI-E-the-Elderly-Index" target="_blank">Austerity-ratcheting</a> mechanism to me. What’s to ensure that “common basket of consumer goods and services”, actually reflects the real world costs and expenses that working people <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/28/1507061/-Millennial-Sanders-Supporters-Aren-t-Looking-In-The-Mirror-They-re-Looking-At-Us" target="_blank">are confronted with</a> everyday? Costs like Tuition; costs like Health care Deductibles; costs like quality Day Care; costs like quality elder-care; costs like every-rising rents, well beyond the “local” rates of inflation. Do those Third Way formulas for “down-sizing our expectations” — one Demographic Segment at a time — ever take into account those intangible Quality of Life factors like those listed above? Or would they rather just shame us into being compliant, uncomplaining, worker drones … happy with whatever profit-crumbs they episodically might throw our way. If we’re lucky, and the next trade deal doesn’t take our meager jobs away first. Or as yet another Third Way booster <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/sanderss-and-trumps-backward-looking-plans-wont-help-the-working-class/2016/03/21/7aa119d2-ef8f-11e5-85a6-2132cf446d0a_story.html" target="_blank">puts it</a> … <blockquote> [...] The populists are right that important institutions have been woefully unresponsive to these changes. A <a href="http://www.aecf.org/blog/too-many-young-readers-still-arent-making-the-grade/">recent Casey Foundation report </a>found that 82 percent of African American and 79 percent of Latino fourth-graders are reading below proficient levels. How are they being prepared for the new economy? Nearly <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/01/28/us-eu-neet-population/">10.2 million young people in America </a>are not in school or in the workplace. How did they fall between the sidewalk cracks of American life? Colleges and universities in the United States graduate only about <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=40">half the students who enter</a>, leaving many in debt and without a diploma to show for it. What is Sanders’s liberal populist answer to these challenges? He wants to <a href="https://berniesanders.com/issues/strengthen-and-expand-social-security/">increase Social Security benefits for everyone</a>, including the wealthy; he wants free college education for everyone, without a serious emphasis on quality; he wants to break up the big banks; and he wants a single-payer health-care system. <div></div> “What kind of guts does it show to promise people free things?” asks <a href="http://www.thirdway.org/about/board/jonathan-cowan">Jonathan Cowan</a>, president of <a href="http://www.thirdway.org/">Third Way</a>, a moderate Democratic think tank. The centerpiece ideas of the Sanders campaign could have been proposed by Hubert Humphrey in the 1960s. Sanders would massively expand the commitments of 20th-century liberalism, defiantly un-updated for 21st-century challenges. His campaign is progressive nostalgia in concentrated form. </blockquote> So in other words, dare not to dream of a equitable society, Progressives. Dare not to demand better, ever. Dare not to expect <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/03/1382058/-Sanders-wants-to-Help-Workers-in-way-that-might-Surprise-you" target="_blank" title="">profit-sharing</a> for a lifetime of scrimping and saving, and mind-numbing labors, for the benefit of the owners. Perish the thought. Dare to only aspire to what’s practicable, what’s saleable to the Powers that Be. Trust the Third Way president, to negotiate for you, what you really need — what you really deserve. Let the Third Way think-tankists define your RPP’s Life’s worth, in their eyes. And be happy for their efforts, or we might not even get those. It’s not like we “<a href="http://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/" target="_blank">deserve it</a>” or something — you nostalgic dreamers: <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="" src="http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t106/OnlyObvious/EconomicTrends/EPI_Productivity_vs_Compensation.jpg"> <figcaption>Compensation-levels since the 70’s have flat-lined, Stat! … there goes the American Dream.</figcaption> </figure> Now get back to work, you slackers! Or those <a href="http://www.thirdway.org/about" target="_blank">Third Way thinkers</a>, just might re-calibrate their goals, for your labors, and not for the better either. rss@dailykos.com (jamess) AppleCartEconomics austerity BasketOfGoods BernieSanders BlametheVictims California CorporateWay DivideandConquer DownsizingExpectations FightforFifteen FreeStuffPaidFor incomeinequality incrementalism MinimumWage PopulismRising PopulistEconomics ProductivityBelongsToTheOnePercent Progressiveplatform QualityofLife Recommended RegionalPriceParities RegionalTiers taxingtherich TheThreatsOfOwnership ThirdWay TopOnePercent WealthSiphon wedgepolitics WhatWeDeserve _1507166 Mon, 28 Mar 2016 16:43:55 +0000 These days, Media coverage is not given -- It's "Earned" http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/26/1506449/-These-days-Media-coverage-is-not-given-It-s-Earned That tan outline is The Donald’s down-sized expenditures for self promotion these days. Unlike most of the others, The Donald is already a ‘household name’ ... <h3><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/upshot/measuring-donald-trumps-mammoth-advantage-in-free-media.html?_r=1" target="_blank">Measuring Donald Trump’s Mammoth Advantage in Free Media</a></h3> <div> by Nicholas Confessore and Karen Yourish, The Upshot, nytimes.com — Mar 15, 2016 <blockquote> Of all the ways <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/us/elections/donald-trump-on-the-issues.html?inline=nyt-per">Donald Trump</a> has shocked the political system, one of the most significant is how he wins primary after primary with one of the smallest campaign budgets. He still doesn’t have a <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/campaign_finance/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier">super PAC</a>. He skimped on ground organization and field offices. Most important, he spent less on television advertising [...] than any other major candidate [...] But Mr. Trump is hardly absent from the airwaves. Like all candidates, he benefits from what is known as earned media: news and commentary about his campaign on television, in newspapers and magazines, and on social media. Earned media typically dwarfs paid media in a campaign. The big difference between Mr. Trump and other candidates is that he is far better than any other candidate — maybe than any candidate ever — at earning media. <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="" src="http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t106/OnlyObvious/Capitalism/BoughtVsFreeMedia_zpslvlbycht.jpg"> <figcaption>Not paying, to Play.</figcaption> </figure> </blockquote> What is “earned media” and how does one go about earning it? Does simply being the biggest asshat in the crowd, translate to guaranteed coverage — cause afterall their audacity has ‘earned it’? Well wikipedia gives a few sidebars around this disturbing <s>new</s> Media-distribution concept … <blockquote> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earned_media" target="_blank">Earned media</a> (or free media) refers to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publicity">publicity</a> gained through <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promotion_%28marketing%29">promotional</a> efforts other than advertising, as opposed to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paid_media">paid media</a>, which refers to publicity gained through advertising.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earned_media#cite_note-1">[1]</a> [...] Owned media is defined as communication channels that are within one's control, such as websites, blogs, or email; while paid media refers mostly to traditional advertising. Earned media, on the other hand, is generated when content receives recognition and a following outside of traditional paid advertising, through communication channels such as social media and word of mouth.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earned_media#cite_note-Marketing_Land-2">[2]</a> Earned media often refers specifically to publicity gained through editorial influence, whereas <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media">social media</a> refers to publicity gained through grassroots action, particularly on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet">Internet</a>. The media may include any <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_media">mass media</a> outlets, such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspaper">newspaper</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television">television</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_programming">radio</a>, and the Internet, and may include a variety of formats, such as news articles or shows, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_to_the_editor">letters to the editor</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editorial">editorials</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_poll">polls</a> on television and the Internet. Critically, earned media cannot be bought or owned, it can only be gained organically, hence the term 'earned'. </blockquote> So both Earned Media and Paid Media are about “gaining Publicity”. One channel is about paying for exposure, and one about driving the content that creates the exposure. I think this can basically be boiled down to the old idea of being a “household name”. Or as the Cambridge dictionary <a href="http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/household-name" target="_blank">puts it</a>: “a famous person that most people know of”. --- Some people are ‘just famous, for being famous’ … and the more famous they are, the more they can ‘earn’ (ie claim) their Free-Media way. They’re already part of its celebrity culture. Which makes them Newsworthy is in the eyes of the captive audiences. Whether or not in their eyes, fame can ever be turned to infamy, is one Media script-turning cycle, that’s still yet to be seen. --- By the way, the Google Dictionary <a href="https://www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&q=infamy&spell=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi0wb6h0t7LAhUM0mMKHQw6AMQQvwUIGigA&biw=1771&bih=913" target="_blank">defines</a> infamy as, “the state of being well known for some bad quality or deed.” And that’s the more charitable definition that’s out there. Even though, it would seem that Candidate Asshat, has more than a few of these infamous “qualities” — the Media “worm has not yet turned” — to make him pay his own publicity way. What gives? Could it be that for some celebs, their bank-vaults of “fame” actually trump their so called “bad qualities” — which afterall all good <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AntiHero" target="_blank">anti-heroes</a> necessarily have to have, by definition, these days? --- It is our flaws that give us “character” afterall — any novice screenwriter knows that, and knows how to leverage it too, for all that it’s worth. “No one’s Perfect” … least of all, our free publicity-seeking presidential hopefuls. The Media Coverage numbers don’t lie, they only gravitate to ‘the story’ of the day. Helluva a way to pick the leader of the free world, eh? Flittering from one outrage to the next, like a moth chasing a scattering wildfire flame. </div> rss@dailykos.com (jamess) AgendaSetting AntiHeroes BernieSanders CelebrityCulture ChasingFluff CorporateMedia DonaldTrump earnedmedia FameTrumpsInfamy FreeMedia FreePublicity grassrootmovements HillaryClinton HouseholdNames InstantStory MediaCoverage MothsCantBeWrong PaidMedia SoCalledJournalism SocialMedia TheRaceForEyeballs _1506449 Sat, 26 Mar 2016 15:58:45 +0000 Jon Stewart Interviews Bernie Sanders in 2011 about his Filibuster http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/26/1506303/-Jon-Stewart-Interviews-Bernie-Sanders-in-2011-about-his-Filibuster --- Who does that? Stands on the Floor of Senate and speaks for over 8 hours on the Xmas gifts-to-the-wealthy, tucked away in yet another last-minute Budget Bill? (ie. the extension of the GWB Tax Cuts to the Rich.) Senator Bernie Sanders does. That’s who. --- Exclusive — Bernie Sanders <a href="http://www.cc.com/video-clips/wjezpa/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-exclusive---bernie-sanders-extended-interview-pt--1" target="_blank">Extended Interview</a> Pt. 1 <div> <div> <div class="center-block dk-editor-embed"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder dk-x-embed" href="#" data-src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/embed/mgid:arc:video:comedycentral.com:3d2e34d0-ed01-11e0-aca6-0026b9414f30" data-height="288" data-width="512">Embedded Content</a> </div> --- </div> </div> The Daily Show with Jon Stewart <blockquote> <a href="http://www.cc.com/video-clips/wjezpa/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-exclusive---bernie-sanders-extended-interview-pt--1" target="_blank">April 27, 2011</a> — Bernie Sanders In this unedited, extended interview, Bernie Sanders believes the Republican plan to cut social programs while extending tax cuts for the wealthy is insane. (6:39) </blockquote> rss@dailykos.com (jamess) BernieSanders BerniesTranscript BudgetBill BudgetGiveAways BushTaxCuts consistency dedication FightingForUs FightingForWhatsRight Filibuster GreenEggsAndCongress HandsOffSocialSecurity HealthCareisaRight incomeinequality JonStewart SunsetProvision SunsetProvisionCancelled Transparency _1506303 Sat, 26 Mar 2016 00:43:40 +0000 What an Uncorporate Media Interview Looks Like http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/25/1505949/-What-an-Uncorporate-Media-Interview-Looks-Like If you haven't seen it yet -- invest a few minutes. If only the Corporate Media would ask serious issue questions, and then give the Candidate the time to actually answer, like Cenk Uygur does here. Instead of trying to paint the Candidate with their own preconceived framing in the briefly allotted time, as Cenk aptly demonstrates as well. --- Bernie Sanders -- The Young Turks Interview <div class="center-block dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a href="false" title=""><a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=ggFitmOTSok" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ggFitmOTSok" data-height="315" data-width="560">YouTube Video</a></a> </div> --- The Young Turks — Published on Mar 23, 2016 <blockquote> Cenk Uygur interviews Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders. Tell us what you think in the comment section below. </blockquote> --- Help make this video go viral. We need to see MORE Uncorporate Media Interviews, like the one above, like Yesterday! rss@dailykos.com (jamess) AboutTheIssues AgendaSetting BernieSanders CandidateInterview CenkUygur CNNPoll ConflictsofInterests CorporateMedia EducatingCitizens Electability FramingTheDiscussion IgnoringClimateChange IgnoringTheFacts KeepingUsEntertained noncorporatemedia SocialMedia TheYongTurks UnriggingtheSystem _1505949 Fri, 25 Mar 2016 02:44:33 +0000 Amy Goodman on Reliable Sources blast the Media for its "Manufactured Consent" of Trump http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/21/1504253/-Amy-Goodman-on-Reliable-Sources-blast-the-Media-for-its-Manufactured-Consent-of-Trump <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2016/03/amy-goodman-rips-cnn-for-airing-trumps-empty-stage-instead-of-sanders-speech/" target="_blank">Amy Goodman rips CNN for airing Trump’s empty stage instead of Sanders’ speech</a> by David Edwards -- rawstory.com, 20 Mar 2016 <blockquote> [...] On Sunday’s edition of CNN’s Reliable Sources, Goodman called out CNN for broadcasting an empty stage in anticipation of Donald Trump’s press conference on election night last Tuesday without ever mentioning that Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders was giving a speech to his supporters at the same time. [...] “Where was Bernie Sanders?” she wondered. “Well, in fact, Bernie Sanders was in Phoenix, Arizona before thousands of people and as the networks were waiting for Donald Trump and waiting and all the pundits are weighing in, they don’t even say that Bernie Sanders is about to speak.” [...] Using a term often used by political activist Noam Chomsky, Goodman said that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent" target="_blank">the media</a> “manufactures consent.” </blockquote> --- <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J8-LPPRxao" target="_blank">Amy Goodman calls out CNN</a>: 'The media manufactures consent' of Trump <div class="center-block dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=5J8-LPPRxao" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5J8-LPPRxao" data-height="315" data-width="560">YouTube Video</a> </div> rss@dailykos.com (jamess) 23xTheCoverage AgendaSetting AmyGoodman BernieSanders CarnivalBarkers CNN CorporateMedia DonaldTrump emptychair emptystage manufacturedconsent MindlessCoverage MSM NoamChomsky NoIssuesNews PickingTheWinners preferredcoverage TheMainRigging ThumbsOnTheScale UnequalTime _1504253 Mon, 21 Mar 2016 02:37:40 +0000 Another Deregulation "Benefit" of the TPP -- Wall Street empowerment, via the International Backdoor http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/20/1504025/-Another-Deregulation-Benefit-of-the-TPP Trade Benefits, like Beauty, are in the eye of the beholder. So too are the need for “tough Financial Regulations” apparently, if this TTP trade agreement — written by an army of corporate lawyers — every becomes the international law of the western hemisphere. <blockquote> In the wake of the worst financial crisis and economic recession since the Great Depression, governments around the world are re-regulating financial firms, seeking to reverse the extreme deregulation that led to foreclosed homes, bank bailouts, lost jobs and collapsing economies. Incredibly, the <a href="http://www.citizen.org/tpp">Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)</a> would provide big banks with a backdoor means of watering down such efforts to re-regulate Wall Street. TPP rules, <a href="http://www.citizen.org/documents/FinanceReregulationFactSheetFINAL.pdf">written under the advisement of banks before the financial crisis</a>, would require domestic law to conform to the now-rejected model of deregulation that led to financial ruin. The TPP would undermine bans on particularly risky financial products, such as the toxic derivatives that led to the $183 billion government bailout of AIG. It would threaten policies to prevent banks from becoming "too big to fail" and the use of "firewalls" to prevent banks that keep our savings accounts from taking hedge-fund-style bets. The TPP would also restrict capital controls, an essential policy tool to counter destabilizing flows of speculative money. Even <a href="http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/2012/12/imf-endorses-capital-controls-while-us-tpp-negotiators-try-to-ban-them.html">the International Monetary Fund has recently endorsed capital controls as legitimate</a> for mitigating or preventing financial crises. And the deal would pose new hurdles to taxes on Wall Street speculation, such as the proposed Robin Hood Tax that would generate billions of dollars' worth of revenue for social, health, or environmental causes. The TPP would <a href="http://www.citizen.org/investorcases">empower foreign financial firms to directly attack</a> these and other financial stability policies in foreign tribunals, demanding taxpayer compensation for regulations that they claim frustrate their expectations and inhibit their profits. </blockquote> Source: The Trans-Pacific Partnership: <a href="http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=6474" target="_blank">Undermining Wall Street Reform</a> from <a href="http://www.citizen.org/TPP" target="_blank">Public Citizen</a> — Protecting Health, Safety and Democracy. --- The following, little-noticed press release is decidedly a risky bet, in terms of giving U.S. consumers the same toxic assets — and more — that nearly crashed the world economy, not so very long ago: --- <div>For Immediate Release: Nov. 18, 2015 — from <a href="http://www.citizen.org/documents/analysis-tpp-financial-services-chapter-november-2015.pdf" target="_blank">Public Citizen</a> </div> <blockquote> TPP Financial Stability Threats Unveiled: It’s Worse than We Thought <div></div> <div>---</div> <div>First U.S. Pact Negotiated Since Global Financial Crisis Fails to Remedy Past Pacts’ Deregulatory Terms and Grants Firms New Rights to Challenge Financial Policies</div> <div></div> <div>---</div> <div></div> <div></div> <div>Although the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is the first U.S. trade deal to be negotiated since the 2008 financial crisis that spurred a global recession, it would impose on TPP signatory countries the pre-crisis model of extreme financial deregulation that is widely understood to have spurred the crisis. After nearly six years of negotiations under conditions of extreme secrecy, the Obama administration has only now released the text of the controversial deal after it has been finalized and it is too late to make any needed changes. The TPP financial services and investment chapters provide stark warnings about the dangers of “trade” negotiations occurring without press, public or policymaker oversight.</div> <div></div> <div></div> <div>---</div> <div> • Unlike past pacts, the TPP would empower financial firms to use extrajudicial tribunals to challenge financial stability measures that do not conform to their “expectations.” [...] The TPP explicitly grants foreign investors new rights (Article 11.2.2) to launch attacks on financial policies using the extremely elastic MST standard [the guaranteed “minimum standard of treatment”] that ISDS tribunals [extrajudicial investor-state dispute settlement tribunals] regularly interpret to require compensation if a change in policy undermines an investors’ expectations.</div> <div></div> <div></div> <div>---</div> <div> • Despite the pivotal role that new financial products, such as toxic derivatives, played in fueling the financial crisis, the TPP would impose obligations on TPP countries to allow new financial products and services to enter their economies if permitted in other TPP countries (Article 11.7).</div> <div>---</div> <div> • The TPP constrains signatory governments’ ability to ban risky financial products, including those not yet invented, via rules designating a regulatory ban to be a “zero quota” limiting market access and thus prohibited (Article 11.5). TPP rules also would jeopardize efforts to keep banks from becoming too big to fail and to firewall the spread of risk between types of financial activities.</div> <div>[...]</div> </blockquote> If the financial wizards who gave us ‘liar loans’ and and mortgage-backed-securities (MBS), which became worthless, once all those ARMs reset — just imagine what they can do with the Billions in the product pipelines of electronics, and smart phones, and <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/19/1503719/-Another-Deregulation-Benefit-of-the-TPP-A-new-regime-of-Food-Safety" target="_blank">unlabeled food</a>, and the newly TM-protected <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/19/1503273/-TPP-right-on-Track-sort-of" target="_blank">life-saving drugs</a>. Who will be the wiser? Sadly far-too-many Americans would rather not know how or where, their Walmart/Target goods are made, even though majorities of them would buy American-made products — IF we only had a consistent way to locate and easily check those <a href="http://www.citizen.org/documents/COOL-repeal-December-2015.pdf" target="_blank">Countries of Origin</a>. Once again the TPP will do away that Consumer ‘luxury’. rss@dailykos.com (jamess) ALawUntoThemselves BackdoorProvisions ByCorporationsForCorporations CapitalRequirements CapitalRequirementsBeGone CorporateCharters corporatecourts CorporateRights CorporateRules Deregulation EndRunAroundDemocracy environmentalstandards ExpectedProfits ExtraJudical FairTradeNotFreeTrade IllegalTradeBarriers InternationalStandards ISDS LabelsBeGone NoPublicReview PollutersBestFriend ProtectingSpeculation PublicCitizen TheRightToProfit TheyThinkWereStupid TimeToGiveaDamn ToxicAssets TPP WallStreetReform WorseThanWeThought WTO _1504025 Sun, 20 Mar 2016 15:51:27 +0000 Another Deregulation "Benefit" of the TPP -- A new "regime" of Food Safety http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/19/1503719/-Another-Deregulation-Benefit-of-the-TPP-A-new-regime-of-Food-Safety Trade Benefits, like Beauty, are in the eye of the beholder. So too are our “food safety standards” apparently if this TTP trade agreement — written by an army of corporate lawyers — every becomes the international law of the western hemisphere. <blockquote> <a href="http://www.citizen.org/tpp">The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)</a> would require us to allow food imports if the exporting country's safety regime is deemed "equivalent" to our own, even if it violates our food safety laws. These rules would effectively outsource domestic food inspection to other countries. Under the TPP, any U.S. food safety rule on pesticides, labeling or additives that is higher than international standards would be subject to challenge as "illegal trade barriers." The U.S. could be required to eliminate these rules and allow in the unsafe food under threat of trade sanctions. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration already inspects less than 1% of all seafood imports for health hazards. Entering into the TPP with Malaysia and Vietnam, both TPP negotiating parties and major seafood exporters, would increase seafood imports and further overwhelm inspectors' limited ability to ensure the safety of our food. Some TPP countries have serious shrimp and fish safety issues. For example, even with the minimal inspections, <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/shrimp-safety-questions-pose-jumbo-problem-trade-deal-31687206" target="null">high levels of contaminants have been found in Vietnam's seafood</a>. Under the TPP, food labels could also be challenged as "<a href="http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=788" target="_blank">trade barriers</a>." [...] </blockquote> Source: The Trans-Pacific Partnership: <a href="http://www.citizen.org/tpp-food-safety-facts" target="_blank">Undermining Food Safety</a> The TPP would require us to limit food labeling and to import meat and poultry that do not meet U.S. food safety standards from <a href="http://www.citizen.org/TPP" target="_blank">Public Citizen</a> — Protecting Health, Safety and Democracy. --- The following, little-noticed press release is decidedly Not-COOL in terms of giving U.S. consumers the ability to make informed, environmentally responsible Food-purchasing decisions: --- <div>For Immediate Release: Dec. 18, 2015 — from <a href="http://www.citizen.org/documents/COOL-repeal-December-2015.pdf" target="_blank">Public Citizen</a> </div> <blockquote> <div>Hidden in the Omnibus: </div> <div></div> <div>---</div> <div>To Comply With World Trade Organization, Congress Kills Country-of-Origin Meat Labels — That 90 Percent of Americans Support</div> <div></div> <div>---</div> <div>Obama Claim That Trade Pacts Can’t Undermine Public Interest Policies Disproved, Further Complicating Future of His Trans-Pacific Partnership Push</div> <div>---</div> <div></div> <div></div> <div>WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congress’ elimination of country-of-origin meat labels (COOL) for pork and beef that consumers rely on to make informed choices about their food is a glaring example of how trade agreements can undermine U.S. public interest policies, Public Citizen said today.</div> <div></div> <div></div> <div>---</div> <div>A week after the World Trade Organization (WTO) approved $1 billion in annual trade sanctions against the United States unless and until the policy was terminated, a provision to kill the popular consumer labels for beef and pork was tucked into the omnibus package passed today. Three weeks ago, the WTO also issued a final ruling against U.S. dolphin-safe tuna labels, ordering the elimination of the popular environmental policy.</div> <div></div> <div></div> <div>---</div> <div>Claims that trade pacts cannot harm U.S. consumer and environmental policies are a mainstay of the administration’s effort to build support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which faces opposition from an unprecedentedly diverse coalition of organizations and members of Congress.</div> <div>[...]</div> </blockquote> No wonder the “work” of Congress, is often compared to the “Making of Sausage” … They tuck in the most unpalatable of rules, under the cover of darkness, and the rush of year-end get-er-done, grind-it-out budgetary legislation. Who will be the wiser? Sadly far-too-many Americans would rather not know how their Legislation is made, even though 90% of them would disagree with the ingredients — IF we only had a Label of Origin and Contents, that we could somehow easily check. rss@dailykos.com (jamess) BarrierstoTrade BuyerBeware ByCorporationsForCorporations CountryOfOrigin Deregulation Dolphins DolphinSafe DolphinSafeNoLonger environmentalstandards FairTradeNotFreeTrade foodlabels FoodSafety IllegalTradeBarriers InspectionRegimes IntelligentLife LabelsBeGone NotCOOL Obamalegacy OmnibusBill PublicCitizen SubjectToInternationalStandards TheyThinkWereStupid TimeToGiveaDamn TPP TunaNets WeDontNeedNoStinkingLabels WorseThanWeThought WTO WTOLegislation _1503719 Sat, 19 Mar 2016 16:02:25 +0000 TPP right on Track, sort of http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/19/1503273/-TPP-right-on-Track-sort-of The SE Asia “Domino” nations have all seemed to fallen in line, and are now “resigned to its passage” — now if only the USA can get its corporate ducks in a row. And our paid-representatives could get on board with that new corporate agenda, even if there might be a “few bumps” in the profiteering road <s>at first</s> for years to come. --- <a href="http://thediplomat.com/2016/03/why-vietnam-loves-the-trans-pacific-partnership/" target="_blank">Why Vietnam Loves the Trans-Pacific Partnership</a> <div> <div>by Dien Luong, <a href="http://thediplomat.com" target="_blank">thediplomat.com </a>— March 16, 2016 </div> <blockquote> <div> When trade ministers from 12 countries convened in Auckland, New Zealand for the formal signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement on World Cancer Day on February 4, Public Citizen, a Washington-based advocacy group, organized a protest before the D.C. headquarters of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, an influential drug industry-lobbying group. Protestors decried TPP, a mammoth free trade agreement whose 12 members comprise nearly 40 percent of global GDP, as “the worst deal ever” and a “<a href="http://www.citizen.org/tpp-public-health" target="_blank">death sentence</a>” for cancer and HIV patients, among others. But on the other side of the Pacific, those fighting for the rights of Vietnamese patients likely to be impacted negatively by the trade deal were resigned to its passage and have argued against public protests. “We had indeed hoped for the death of the TPP,” Nguyen Anh Phong, a coordinator of the Vietnam Network of People living with HIV, said in an interview. “But we now know Vietnam desperately needs the TPP. Its benefits for the future of the entire country should outweigh the damages sick people stand to suffer.” [...] But with the Vietnamese media being so gung-ho about the rosy future of the post-TPP era, its coverage has eschewed some of its negative ramifications. One issue that has remained unexplored is that Vietnam, along with the other 11 signatories, would have to respect patents protection of major pharmaceutical companies for between five and eight years. This could make it impossible for sick patients suffering from potentially fatal diseases like HIV or cancer in Vietnam to afford the drugs they need. There are around <a href="http://www.unaids.org/en/regionscountries/countries/vietnam" target="_blank">250,000</a> Vietnamese suffering from HIV/AIDS; the country also logs around <a href="http://www.who.int/cancer/country-profiles/vnm_en.pdf?ua=1" target="_blank">150,000</a> new cases of cancer annually, more than half of which prove fatal, according to the World Health Organization. </div> </blockquote> Where does PublicCitizen get off, spreading anti-corporate “accusations” like that, about the negative side-effects of the TPP on real people? What gives <a href="http://www.citizen.org/TPP" target="_blank">them</a> the right to object in such a vocal manner ... <blockquote> Secret TPP Text Unveiled: It's Worse than We Thought In early November 2015, after seven years of close-door negotiations with the public, press and policymakers locked out, the final TPP text was released. In chapter after chapter, the final text is worse than expected, with the demands of the 500 official U.S. trade advisers representing corporate interests satisfied to the detriment of the public interest.The <a href="http://www.citizen.org/documents/analysis-tpp-text-november-2015.pdf">text reveals</a> that the pact <a href="http://www.citizen.org/documents/tpp-nafta-on-steroids-infographic.png">replicates many of the most controversial terms of past pacts</a> that promote job offshoring and <a href="http://citizen.org/documents/prosperity-undermined.pdf">push down U.S. wages.</a> If passed, the TPP would: <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=6475">make it easier for big corporations to ship our jobs overseas, pushing down our wages and increasing income inequality</a>,</li> <li> <a href="http://www.citizen.org/tpp-food-safety-facts">flood our country with unsafe imported food</a>,</li> <li> <a href="http://www.citizen.org/tpp-public-health">jack up the cost of medicines by giving big pharmaceutical corporations new monopoly rights to keep lower cost generic drugs off the market</a>,</li> <li> <a href="http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=5411">empower corporations to attack our environmental and health safeguards</a>,</li> <li> <a href="http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=5414">ban Buy American policies needed to create green jobs</a>,</li> <li> <a href="http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=6474">roll back Wall Street reforms</a>,</li> <li> <a href="http://www.eff.org/issues/tpp">sneak in SOPA-like threats to Internet freedom</a>,</li> <li>and <a href="http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=6587" title="">undermine human rights</a>.</li> </ul> </blockquote> Oh well, such is the price of Corporate progress. It often leave human statistics, in its wake — aka the “con side” of those ‘pros and cons’ equations. Besides even though they once wanted the TPP dead, the spokespersons in Vietnam now seemed resigned enough, to accept its inevitability. In spite of the messy consequences. <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/13/1500642/-Free-Trade-with-China-has-NOT-Raised-our-Standards-of-Living" target="_blank">Poor countries</a> could always use the extra work, afterall. <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/07/1383012/-Swoosh-Just-Don-t-Do-It" target="_blank">Rich corporations</a> are always glad to oblige.</div> rss@dailykos.com (jamess) angryelectorate BarackObama BernieSanders cancerdrugs ClimateChange Corporateagenda CorporateProgress CorporateRules CostOfBusiness Deregulation DrugPricesProtected FixingTheTPP genericsgone HillaryClinton HIV HumanRights Outsourcing PharmaLobby PracticalResults ProgressivesUnderTheBus PublicCitizen RacetotheBottom SherrodBrown SideEffects TPP tradepolicy Turnthepage Vietnam WrittenByCorporations WrittenForCorporations _1503273 Sat, 19 Mar 2016 00:41:44 +0000 Does Senator Sherrod Brown know something about the TPP Deal, that he expects to see in 2017? http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/16/1501959/-Does-Senator-Sherrod-Brown-know-something-about-the-TPP-Deal-that-he-expects-to-see-in-2017 I caught this seemingly 'impromptu' Live Interview of Sherrod Brown yesterday, when I was channel-surfing for Political News, and happened to land on MSNBC. Since I used to like Sherrod Brown, I stopped surfing and tuned in. By the time he got to the end of his few minutes though — I could NOT believe what I was hearing. And I couldn't believe he dared to speak so bluntly about his hopes of "Fixing the TPP" — and at such an early point in the election. I was dumbfounded and frankly still am, about the implied back-tracking of his preferred candidate. I just found that video, which just 'made the rotation' on the All In site, with Chris Hayes. Unfortunately, the Senator Brown interview does not start until about 2 minutes in on the following clip. PS. I transcribed the text below, in case you have issues playing or finding the right clip. ---- <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/all" target="_blank" title="">All In</a> with Chris Hayes -- March 14, 2016, 5:23 PST <a href="http://on.msnbc.com/1Rj0LLR" target="_blank" title="">Democrats make final case before Ohio</a> <blockquote> Chris Hayes talks to Democratic Senator of Ohio Sherrod Brown and former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner about the final hours before voting begins in their state. </blockquote> <div class="center-block dk-editor-embed"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a href="false" title=""><a class="iframe_placeholder dk-x-embed" href="#" data-src="http://player.theplatform.com/p/7wvmTC/MSNBCEmbeddedOffSite?guid=n_hayes_bohio_160314" data-height="500" data-width="635">Embedded Content</a></a> </div> <blockquote> Starting Time Mark: 1:55 Chris Hayes: “Joining us now is Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who has endorsed Hillary Clinton for President. And Senator earlier today, with my colleague Chris Matthews, Hillary Clinton said of Sanders, about 'his approach to Trade Deals is that he is against everything -- even with International implications -- even before they're done'. Is that fair?” Sherrod Brown: "Aaah, yeah that's fair, but so am I -- I've been against these Trade Policies too. But I think the issue is, what are we doing to try to change our Trade Policy. And you know, Hillary has very specifically laid out a much more detailed in-depth manufacturing plan; what to do about Trade, with the special trade prosecutor on currency; on issues like non-market economies -- what to do about designation there with China. You know I just think there's a depth of understanding, and I've worked with Hillary on some of the plans on this. Bernie's been against it [Free Trade], and I've applauded him and stood with him when he did that. But I don't know if I've seen, and I don't want to be critical of him because I don't think that is what this race is all about. But I want to look forward on how we put together a Trade Policy that works. Because were going to trade, there is going to be Globalization, but we need to do it under terms, under rules that work -- as rules work for our Domestic Economy on the dynamics of Capitalism. You need to do Trade in the same way -- and I think Hillary Clinton understands that. So that's why I like it, the direction she wants to take us in." Chris Hayes: Let me ... I'm going ah, present to you a cynical case and you tell me why I'm wrong. Democratic Politicians come to Ohio every Election every 4 years, and they critique Trade Deals. I remember in 2008, in the run-up to the Ohio Primary, Barack Obama was attacking Hillary Clinton from her left, as a supporter of NAFTA. He gets elected President. He's now passing the TPP. They say it is much better, that it has stronger safeguards than NAFTA ever did. But the cynical view is basically: in the week before the the Ohio Primary, everyone 'gets Religion' on Trade Deals -- then as soon as they become President, they push for more. Sherrod Brown: "Yeah, I hear that cynicism. I kind of shared that back in 2008, when I heard both Candidates then say something I wasn't really convinced of. But I've seen something different -- first of all I've seen the input she's welcomed. She's let me, and worked with me, in helping formulating Trade Policy. I think the world is different, and I think Sec. Clinton knows that. I see all four presidential candidates the leading four, Cruz, Trump, Sanders, and Clinton all oppose TPP. And Hillary can cite 'chapter and verse' about what's wrong with it -- AND How to Fix it. And I will be standing with her, as she does that, when I'm Chairman of the Banking Committee in 2017, and sit on the Finance Committee that works on Trade Deals. And I think we'll see a very different Trade Policy, a very different Tax Policy. No more of this whole business plan, which has become the way companies do things now -- you shut down production, in Mansfield Ohio and Sandusky Ohio, and you move it to China. Sell products back into the US. That just doesn't work for our country anymore. I think Hillary Clinton has an acute understanding of that, and how you fix it." Chris Hayes: Alright Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, thank you for joining me. </blockquote> I’ve highlighted the most surprising parts to me, with bold and italics. I guess that implied run ‘back to the center’ could not come soon enough in some circles. Is Senator Brown angling for VP? Time will tell. With up-front work like that, you never know. rss@dailykos.com (jamess) ArtoftheDeal ChapterAndVerse ChrisHayes CorporateProfits DynamicsOfCapitalism FakePromises FixingTheTPP GettingStuffDone GoingToBeGlobalization HillaryClinton NAFTA Ohio Outsourcing SherrodBrown TheyCanFixThat TheyThinkWereStupid TPP TradeDeals tradepolicy VoterCynicism WhatPragmatismLooksLike _1501959 Wed, 16 Mar 2016 01:57:06 +0000 lowest common denominator television http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/15/1501400/-lowest-common-denominator-television <blockquote> <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LowestCommonDenominator" target="_blank" title="">When</a> applied to fiction, the term Lowest Common Denominator means appealing to as many people at once as possible. </blockquote> So what does it mean when Lowest Common Denominator is applied to the genre of television? <blockquote> <a href="https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20141217214246AAhv18O" target="_blank" title="">It means</a> most of the garbage that is on TV, like the Kardashians, Real Housewives, Bad Girls Club, etc. It is programming that appeals to the least intelligent viewers, but for some reason, smarter people will also watch it. Eventually, it dumbs down everyone. </blockquote> And why in the world would Television Execs want to “dumb down” their audiences, on a mass level? <blockquote> It's a name [<a href="https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20141217214246AAhv18O" target="_blank" title="">lowest common denominator television</a>] for a mass media production strategy in which programming is produced, not to create the strongest possible response, but rather simply to offend as few people as possible. The idea is that material that creates a strong response, that is, which is very much liked, is also likely to alienate at least part of the wider audience. So you get a loud applause, but from fewer people. By contrast, mediocre material, which does not challenge or criticize too much and so on, as long as it is slickly produced and provided in an invariably cheerful manner, will get at least some attention from a much larger segment of the total audience, even if it does not particularly impress any of them. Mass media of course is mainly interested in just getting the highest number of eyeballs on the ads. It doesn't care about making the eyeballs especially interested in what they're seeing. </blockquote> Here’s the related corollary to that programming philosophy … <blockquote> What does lowest common denominator television mean? Have the type of programs that do not require much serious thought. </blockquote> What does lowest common denominator television mean to you — the Viewer? rss@dailykos.com (jamess) AdvertizingRevenues AgendaSetting DeepThoughts HowManyEyeballs informingtherubes Infotainment Literature lowestcommondenominator MassMedia MSM ProductionStrategy Questions targetaudiences Television televisionads televisionprogramming TheAgeOfTelevision TheyThinkWereStupid TVeee _1501400 Tue, 15 Mar 2016 02:51:38 +0000 Free Trade with China -- has NOT "Raised our Standard of Living" http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/13/1500642/-Free-Trade-with-China-has-NOT-Raised-our-Standards-of-Living According to <a href="http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2004/05/why-america-needs-to-support-free-trade" target="_blank">heritage.org</a>, Free Trade is “good for America” because ... <blockquote> Free trade, however, is good for America, and for a very simple reason: It allows American workers to specialize in goods and services that they produce more efficiently than the rest of the world and then to exchange them for goods and services that other countries produce at higher quality and lower cost. [...] There are at least five important reasons for continuing to support free trade. <a name="pgfId-1113690"> </a>REASON #1: Higher Standard of Living [...] REASON #2: Competition and Innovation [...] REASON #3: Economic Growth [...] REASON #4: Stronger Institutions and Infrastructure [...] REASON #5: Peace [...] </blockquote> Millions of Americans who have lost their livelihoods, their hopes, their dreams, to Free Trade would probably disagree with those rosy flat-world rationales … <h3> <a href="http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/warnings-trade-deals-ignored-congress-1999-5752" target="_blank">Warnings on Trade Deals</a> Ignored by Congress in 1999</h3> by <a href="http://www.economicpopulist.org/users/bud-meyers">Bud Meyers</a>, economicpopulist.org -- May 15, 2015 <blockquote> [...] The whole concept of American multinational corporations opening up "emerging markets" to sell their products to foreign consumers with the claim of wanting to be "globally competitive" is premised on the myth that American workers in the U.S. would also benefit. In theory, if American companies were manufacturing goods at home and selling their goods (or providing their services) to foreign markets, that would indeed benefit American workers. But that's not what's been happening over <a href="http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/new-study-shows-13-jobs-prone-offshore-outsourcing" target="_blank">the past four decades of outsourcing/offshoring</a>. And the latest reports of <a href="http://bud-meyers.blogspot.com/2015/05/study-exposes-reshoring-myth.html" target="_blank">"reshoring" is just a myth</a> [...] Say, for example, if an American company <a href="http://manufacturingmap.nikeinc.com/" target="_blank">builds a factory</a> in Vietnam or China, or uses <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn" target="_blank">a foreign contractor</a> to manufacture its goods (that <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/2890032/foxconn-expects-robots-to-take-over-more-factory-work.html" target="_blank">may or may not be using robots</a>) for sell in those markets, that would be one scenario. But when American companies manufacture their goods in foreign countries and then IMPORT their goods back to the U.S. to sell here in America, they displace American workers and drive up our trade deficit. (Note to Congress: If you're going to put American humans out of work, we'd rather use American-made robots built by American citizens for production in the U.S.) [...] While reading Robert Scott's testimony from 1999 (below), think of our current state of the affairs regarding jobs, wages, manufacturing, the debt and the trade deficit. His words were almost prophetic: <blockquote>[...] The growth in the trade deficit over the past two decades has destroyed millions of high-wage, high skilled manufacturing jobs in the U.S., and pushed workers into other sectors where wages are lower, such as restaurants and health service industries. When I appeared before this committee last spring, I summarized EPI forecasts that the Asia Crisis would lead to the elimination of one million jobs in the U.S., with most of the losses concentrated in the manufacturing sectors of the economy. </blockquote> </blockquote> Unfortunately, those unheeded warnings became reality for millions of highly-skilled Manufacturing workers, earning a high-wage Living — right here in the United States of America, a place where politicians always promise to “bring back jobs” to the under-employed and discouraged — but rarely follow through on <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/06/17/1393894/-Obama-s-New-BFF-makes-sure-the-TPP-won-t-get-in-the-Way-of-Climate-Change" target="_blank">those promises</a>. --- Trade With China Has Cost the U.S. 2.7 Million Jobs <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="" src="http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t106/OnlyObvious/JobsTradedAwayToChina_zpsbroguws8.jpg"></figure> <a href="http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/trade-china-has-cost-us-27-million-jobs" target="_blank">www.economicpopulist.org</a> --- Here’s an idea. Why not STOP creating the conditions (and Tax incentives) that encourage those high-wage Jobs from leaving America in the first place. When are pro-Jobs Politicians ever going to take those practical steps? When asked if she supported the pending legislation to formalize Permanent Normalized Trade agreement with China, at a CNN forum in April 2000, here is what then Senate-candidate Hillary Clinton <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2008/apr/21/barack-obama/a-distinction-without-a-difference/" target="_blank">said</a>: <blockquote> Said Clinton: "I share the concerns that many of my supporters in organized labor have expressed to me, because I do think we have to make sure that we improve labor rights, we improve environmental standards in our bilateral and our multilateral trade agreements. "But on balance, I've looked at this, I've studied it, I think it is in the interests of America and American workers that we provide the option for China to go into the WTO (World Trade Organization). Right now, we are trading with China. We have a huge trade deficit with China. The agreement that has been negotiated between our two countries would open their markets to us in a way that they are not yet open, and in fact, for many large manufactured products, like automobiles, we would have the first chance to really get in and compete in that marketplace." </blockquote> --- When confronted with the reality of EVEN MORE high-skilled, high-wage American Jobs, being shut-down and “replanted” into those newly opened low-wage markets in China, here is what then-Representative Bernie Sanders did and <a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r109:H09FE5-0052:" target="_blank">said</a> on the floor of the Congress: <blockquote> Mr. SANDERS: Mr. Speaker, I am announcing today that along with 61 cosponsors, 45 Democrats and 16 Republicans, I am introducing legislation that will repeal Permanent Normal Trade Relations, PNTR, with China. Anyone who takes an objective look at our trade policy with China must conclude that it is an absolute failure and needs to be fundamentally overhauled. There really can be no other conclusion. Today, as part of our overall record-breaking $600 billion trade deficit, we have an estimated $160 billion trade deficit with China. Incredibly, this trade deficit with China has increased by 29 percent over the last year alone and almost 50 percent since the passage of PNTR in 2000. Very few experts in this area doubt that the trade deficit with China will continue to escalate in the years ahead. In industry after industry, corporate America is shifting our manufacturing plants, our good-paying jobs to China where desperate people are forced to work for wages as low as 20 cents an hour. Anyone who went Christmas shopping this year knows that more and more products on the shelves are made in China: toys, bicycles, computers, televisions, shoes and sneakers, all kind of clothing and hats, telephone, furniture, auto parts and even artificial Christmas decorations. Ironically, the little American flags that Members of Congress wave around are often made in China. In the last 4 years, the United States has lost 2.7 million manufacturing jobs, over 16 percent, of our entire manufacturing sector. In my own small State of Vermont, we have lost 20 percent of our manufacturing jobs during that period. PNTR with China and our disastrous trade policies in general are one of the key reasons for that, but we should be very aware that PNTR with China is not only leading to the destruction of traditional manufacturing and blue collar jobs. It is leading to the loss of millions of high-tech, information technology jobs as well. These are the jobs that we were told would be there for our kids and would secure them with a place in the middle class. The question that the American people have to ask is why it is that corporate America, with the active support of the President of the United States and the congressional leadership, is selling out the American people and making China the economic superpower of the 21st century. Not only is China rapidly becoming the manufacturing center of the world; it is quickly becoming the information technology hub as well. Andy Grove, the founder of Intel, predicted last year that the United States will lose the bulk of its information technology jobs to China and India over the next decade. John Chambers, the CEO of Cisco, was typical of many high-tech leaders when he said, “China will become the IT center of the world. What we're,'' at Cisco, “trying to do is outline an entire strategy of becoming a Chinese company.'' At a time when poverty in America is increasing, the gap between the rich and the poor is growing wider and most of the new jobs projected for the future are low wage with minimal benefits, the great economic struggle of our time is whether the middle class of America can be saved. Will we be a country in which ordinary workers have bright futures with good-paying jobs and decent benefits, or will we continue to move in an oligarchic direction in which the rich get richer and most everyone else gets poorer? To a significant degree, the answer to that question will depend on whether Congress has the courage to make fundamental changes in our trade policy, including PNTR with China. The word has got to go out loud and clear to companies like Wal-Mart, GE, GM, IBM and dozens more, as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, that they cannot keep sending America's future to China. Trade is a good thing, but must be based on principles that are fair to American workers. The U.S. Congress can no longer allow corporate America to sell out the middle class and move our economy abroad. It is not acceptable that Jeff Immelt of General Electric, the CEO, says, “When I am talking to GE managers, I talk China, China, China, China, China.'' It is not acceptable that Thomas Donahue, the CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce “urges'' American companies to send jobs overseas. It is not acceptable that Bill Gates, the wealthiest man in America, tells us that Communist authoritarian China has created “a brand new form of capitalism, and as a consumer it's the best thing that ever happened.'' We need to repeal PNTR to China. </blockquote> That was in 2005. Yet the race to the bottom in terms of Wages, continues; as does the race to the top, in terms of Profits. But as is plain from the previous speech, of Bernie Sanders did not “just get religion” on the real world impacts of Free Trade, on real world American Jobs. --- Manufacturing wages in TPP countries <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="" src="http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t106/OnlyObvious/TPP_Wages_600_zpssblk8y1d.jpg"></figure> <a href="https://atlas.qz.com/charts/4yRob0sJl" target="_blank">atlas.qz.com</a> That race to bottom, has one rather unpleasant outcome, if taken to its logic, status quo conclusions. <blockquote> [Continuing from the intro Bud Meyer <a href="http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/warnings-trade-deals-ignored-congress-1999-5752" target="_blank">piece</a>: ] --- NAFTA was bad. PNTR with China was worse. And TPP would be the ultimate trade disaster (not to mention, <a href="http://www.aflcio.org/Issues/Trade/U.S.-EU-Free-Trade-Agreement-TTIP" target="_blank">TTIP with Europe</a>). As it is now, it's very difficult to "Buy American" (Made in the U.S.A.) when so many of the things we rely upon these days are produced overseas — it requires a Herculean effort — even when using a <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/go4-usa/id582113929?mt=8" target="_blank">"Buy American" iPhone app</a>. Sometimes, even though the final stage of production or assembly (or value added*) could be attributed to U.S. workers in some cases, the majority of the items used in the overall production (including raw materials) could originate from somewhere else offshore. [...] Sanders said on the floor of the House of Representatives, “Anyone who takes an objective look at our trade policy with China must conclude that is an absolute failure and needs to be fundamentally overhauled.” Bernie had noted how the U.S. trade deficit had increased and the number of American jobs being lost to our overseas "competitors". But who is America competing against? And for what? Are we trying to win a race to the bottom? And unlike most of our current political candidates, Senator Sanders has always stood firm behind American workers. And it's not just trade policies, but also tax laws and a long list of other issues as well. Just as it was back in 1994 (NAFTA) and 2000 (PNTR with China), it's apparent that most of our elected officials in 2015 still don't represent the THE PEOPLE'S interest, but only those of the top 0.01%. </blockquote> NOTE: <a href="http://fortune.com/2015/05/05/trade-deficit-china/" target="_blank">as of 2015</a>, the monthly U.S. Trade Deficit with China “reached an all time high” — $51.4 billion. Which according to the advocates of Free Trade, is entirely the wrong outcome. Ooops. That ‘finish-line’ is looking closer all the time. Sadly it’s a race that few Americans would choose to win … Indeed few of us “would even choose to” compete in, such an ‘unfair’ Lowest Wage contest, in the first place. --- <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="" src="http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t106/OnlyObvious/Capitalism/inequality-p25_averagehouseholdincom_zpsiiwyoptq.png"> <figcaption>Many more Americans are losing this S.O.L. race, than are winning it.</figcaption> </figure> rss@dailykos.com (jamess) BernieSanders BudMeyers ChamberofCommerce CorporateDemocrats CorporateProfits DownsizingTheAmericanDream fairtrade FreeTrade HeritageFoundation jobslost LiftingOnePercentBoats LowestWage OpportunitySomewhere Outsourcing PNTRChina Progressiveplatform RacetotheBottom RustBelt SinkingAllBoats StandardofLiving TheirPredictionsWereWrong TheyThinkWereStupid TradeDeals TradeDeficit _1500642 Sun, 13 Mar 2016 18:49:20 +0000 What Democratic Socialism means to Sanders http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/12/1500350/-What-Democratic-Socialism-means-to-Sanders <a href="https://berniesanders.com/democratic-socialism-in-the-united-states/" target="_blank">Link</a>: <blockquote> Democratic socialism means that we must create an economy that works for all, not just the very wealthy. Democratic socialism means that we must reform a political system in America today which is not only grossly unfair but, in many respects, corrupt. [...] In my view, it’s time we had democratic socialism for working families, not just Wall Street, billionaires and large corporations. It means that we should not be providing welfare for corporations, huge tax breaks for the very rich, or trade policies which boost corporate profits as workers lose their jobs. It means that we create a government that works for works for all of us, not just powerful special interests. It means that economic rights must be an essential part of what America stands for. It means that health care should be a right of all people, not a privilege. This is not a radical idea. [...] Democratic socialism means that [...] the right to go to a public colleges or university tuition free. This is also not a radical idea. [...] Democratic socialism means that our government does everything it can to create a full employment economy. [...] Democratic socialism means that if someone works forty hours a week, that person should not be living in poverty: that we must raise the minimum wage to a living wage [...] Democratic socialism means that we have government policy which does not allow the greed and profiteering of the fossil fuel industry to destroy our environment and our planet [...] Democratic socialism means, that in a democratic, civilized society the wealthiest people and the largest corporations must pay their fair share of taxes. [...] Democratic socialism, to me, does not just mean that we must create a nation of economic and social justice. It also means that we must create a vibrant democracy based on the principle of one person one vote. [...] </blockquote> --- <blockquote> So the next time you hear me attacked as a socialist, remember this: I don’t believe government should own the means of production, but I do believe that the middle class and the working families who produce the wealth of America deserve a fair deal. I believe in private companies that thrive and invest and grow in America instead of shipping jobs and profits overseas. I believe that most Americans can pay lower taxes — if hedge fund managers who make billions manipulating the marketplace finally pay the taxes they should. I don’t believe in special treatment for the top 1%, but I do believe in equal treatment for African-Americans who are right to proclaim the moral principle that Black Lives Matter. I despise appeals to nativism and prejudice, and I do believe in immigration reform that gives Hispanics and others a pathway to citizenship and a better life. I don’t believe in some foreign “ism”, but I believe deeply in American idealism. I’m not running for president because it’s my turn, but because it’s the turn of all of us to live in a nation of hope and opportunity not for some, not for the few, but for all. [...] </blockquote> --- Senator Bernie Sanders on <a href="https://berniesanders.com/democratic-socialism-in-the-united-states/" target="_blank">Democratic Socialism</a> in the United States <div class="center-block dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=eQcmzGIKrzg" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eQcmzGIKrzg" data-height="315" data-width="560">YouTube Video</a> </div> November 19, 2015 — Georgetown University — <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQcmzGIKrzg" target="_blank">Link</a>. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH1dpzjCEiGAt8CXkryhkZg" target="_blank">Bernie 2016</a>. --- That is what Democratic Socialism means to Senator Bernie Sanders. That our nation needs to invest in us — ALL of us. Were all in this together. We need to start setting our National Priorities like these sentiments are more than just rhetoric — but rather, like we really believed them. Like Bernie has … <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAFlQ6fU4GM" target="_blank">every day</a> of his hard-working life. rss@dailykos.com (jamess) americanidealism AmericanRights BernieSanders DemocraticSocialism GeorgetownUniversity investinginamerica investinginamericans whatamericastandsfor whatdemocraticsocialismmeans _1500350 Sat, 12 Mar 2016 22:58:52 +0000 Latest "Anonymous" attack on Bernie, is Rated FALSE by Snopes http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/12/1500201/-Latest-Hillary-camp-Bern-attack-is-Rated-FALSE-by-Snopes I can’t decide if this is just sad or desperate? Maybe it’s both ... --- A misleading web <a href="http://www.snopes.com/sanders-bank-speeches/" target="_blank">rumor</a> claimed Bernie Sanders gave the same sort of highly-compensated speeches to Wall Street for which he criticized Hillary Clinton. <div> by<a href="http://www.snopes.com/author/kim/"> Kim LaCapria</a>, snopes.com — 3/11/2016 <blockquote> Claim: Bernie Sanders has not released the transcripts for speeches he gave to major financial institutions, despite calling on Hillary Clinton to do so. [SNOPES says that claim is:] FALSE --- Origin: On 10 March 2016, the web site DailyNewsBin published <a href="http://www.dailynewsbin.com/news/bernie-sanders-just-gave-a-speech-sponsored-by-bank-of-america-will-he-release-the-transcripts/24088/" target="_blank">an article</a> claiming that Bernie Sanders "gave a speech to Bank of America" and asked when he would "release the transcripts", referencing a campaign controversy about fellow Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who (according to public disclosures) earned millions in paid <a href="https://theintercept.com/2016/01/08/hillary-clinton-earned-more-from-12-speeches-to-big-banks-than-most-americans-earn-in-their-lifetime/" target="_blank">speeches</a> to the financial industry. DailyNewsBin maintained that Sanders, who has repeatedly <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/why-wont-clinton-release-the-transcripts-of-those-paid-speeches/2016/02/07/e76bdea0-cdc3-11e5-b2bc-988409ee911b_story.html" target="_blank">called</a> for Clinton to release the transcripts from her speeches, hypocritically gave similar speeches without doing the same: [...] </blockquote> <a href="http://www.c-span.org/video/?404257-1/politics-eggs-breakfast-bernie-sanders" target="_blank">C-SPAN</a> recorded and posted that Sanders speech in question: <blockquote> February 5, 2016 Politics and Eggs Breakfast with Senator Bernie Sanders Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), a candidate for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, spoke to the press and responded to questions at a Politics and Eggs breakfast. He responded to questions from members of the audience about the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary the next week and his campaign. He said in his campaign he had been able to widen the focus to include topics such as equality and poverty. Senator Sanders said that it “stinks” that politicians do not talk about poverty because poor people do not vote. Topics included reforming Wall Street. “Politics and Eggs” Breakfasts are regular forums for political figures. The breakfasts are hosted by the New England Council and by the New Hampshire Political Library. </blockquote> C-SPAN even has a Transcript of that Sanders speech available for <a href="http://www.c-span.org/video/?404257-1/politics-eggs-breakfast-bernie-sanders" target="_blank">searching</a>. To all the curious voter’s content. --- <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l32Da6aY-JQ" target="_blank">YouTube</a> also has a slightly shorter copy of that Politics and Eggs Breakfast speech: Bernie Sanders Politics & Eggs Breakfast 2/5/2016 <div class="center-block dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=l32Da6aY-JQ" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/l32Da6aY-JQ" data-height="315" data-width="560">YouTube Video</a> </div> --- There you go. Will Hillary now follow suit? We all can guess the answer to that question, after <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/02/19/1487801/--Looking-into-it" target="_blank">looking into it</a> for about 5 minutes. --- Vets for Bernie say: <a href="http://vetsforbernie.org/2016/02/petition-hillary-clinton-release-speech-transcripts/" target="_blank">Release the Transcripts</a>. As do many other <a href="https://www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&q=release+the+transcripts+petition&oq=release+the+transcripts+petition&gs_l=serp.3..0.11396.14593.0.15129.11.10.1.0.0.0.170.813.9j1.10.0....0...1.1.64.serp..0.10.738.FTas6VSwLTA" target="_blank">organizations</a>. </div> rss@dailykos.com (jamess) BankofAmerica BernieSanders EverybodyDoesntDoIt falseattacks HillaryClinton LookingIntoIt NothingtoHide OppoResearchFail PoliticsAndEggBreakfast releasethetranscripts snopes SomethingToHide SpeechesToBanks vetsforbernie WallStreet _1500201 Sat, 12 Mar 2016 16:59:49 +0000 Take Two: Second time's the Charm on NBC http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/12/1499966/-Take-Two-Second-time-s-the-Charm-on-NBC As has been reported <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/3/11/1499771/-Hillary-Clinton-credits-Reagans-as-a-positive-influence-on-AIDS-HIV" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/3/11/1499835/-Is-Hillary-Clinton-Running-a-Real-Campaign" target="_blank">here</a>, Hillary Clinton made a major mistake earlier today, while being interviewed by Andrea Mitchell on the her memories/tributes of the Reagans. For whatever unfathomable reason, Hillary credited them for their bravery in speaking-out for AIDS and HIV research — when no one else wanted to discuss the subject. But what is perhaps even more amazing than that, is that after the public and twitter out-roar concerning that factually incorrect statement, NBC gave Ms Clinton a second try at the interview with Mitchell to get the story correct, before her out-of-touch mis-statement got totally out of hand. This link has their updated new story labeled <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/nancy-reagan-honored-funeral-memories-laughter-tears-n536831" target="_blank">Nancy Reagan Laid to Rest After Funeral In California</a>, but somehow inexplicably, Clinton now credits Nancy Reagan for her out-reach on Alzheimers research (instead of AIDS and HIV research) as she had said earlier: <blockquote> <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="" src="http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t106/OnlyObvious/candidates/ClintonPraiseForNancy_TakeTwo_zpshjqvqkjb.jpg"> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> [Around TimeMark 1:40, Hillary speaking to Andrea: ] “It was very brave of her, to take a political stand on behalf of research, that she thought might help, prevent or cure Alzheimers.” </blockquote> That is what NBC National News just broadcast as the National News (for their western edition). With NO Mention of the earlier faux pas given anywhere in the entire 3-minute piece. None. …….. If I did not check the Stories here at the Daily Kos, I would have thought … It’s just like — the faux pas never happened. Because according to NBC News — it hasn’t. rss@dailykos.com (jamess) AboveItAll AIDS Alzheimers CorporateMedia CorrectingTheTape DeathofJournalism HillaryClinton HIV InsideTheDCBubble Inthetank ManufacturingTheNews MSM NancyReagan NBCNews Recommended ResearchStonewall RevisonistHistory RonaldReagan TheyThinkWereStupid _1499966 Sat, 12 Mar 2016 02:22:53 +0000 Since Clinton is willing to conflate Sanders with Despotic acts, Why not Kissinger's Misdeeds? http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/11/1499769/-Since-Clinton-is-willing-to-conflate-Sanders-with-Despotic-acts-Why-not-Kissinger-s-Misdeeds In the recent Univision Debate, Secretary Clinton went to <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/3/10/1499479/--Responding-to-Clinton-Barb-Sanders-Blasts-US-Imperialism-in-Latin-America" target="_blank" title="">some lengths</a> to conflate Senator Sanders' 1980’s Latin American visits (and indeed Sanders' current "revolution") with the abuses of dictators and depots: "that you oppress people, you disappear people, you imprison people or even kill people for expressing their opinions" … Here’s the latest <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/03/09/transcript-the-post-univision-democratic-debate-annotated/" target="_blank">Clinton conflation</a> which feels a lot like a pre-prepared right-wing red-baiting attack to me: <blockquote> CLINTON: [...] And I just want to add one thing to the question you were asking Senator Sanders. I think in that same interview, he praised what he called the revolution of values in Cuba and talked about how people were working for the common good, not for themselves. I just couldn't disagree more. You know, if the values are that you oppress people, you disappear people, you imprison people or even kill people for expressing their opinions, for expressing freedom of speech, that is not the kind of revolution of values that I ever want to see anywhere. </blockquote> She failed to mention however, that she does NOT apply the same disingenuous “disappearing” critiques to Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who often deployed/fostered these same deplorable tactics himself, as part of America’s Foreign Policy. To him, she’s quite willing to turn one-blind-eye … that is, if her continuing defenses of Henry in each new debate are any indication. Hillary Clinton apparently understands the duality of Henry Kissinger and is fine with it, and she “chooses” to focus only on the positive aspects of his long and tortured track record. If only the world were that simple — that you get to wipe the slate clean whenever (or wherever) you might have made a colossal interventionist blunder. Sadly in a world without journalism (or least a serious scarcity of same), the political dynamic is becoming just that simplistic, more so all the time. It’s like those mistakes of yesteryear — never even happened. ….. <h4> <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/hillary-clinton-cozies-henry-kissinger-her-own-peril#">Hillary Clinton cozies up to Henry Kissinger at her own peril</a> (w Video)</h4> by Adam Howard, msnbc.com -- 02/12/16 <blockquote>[...] “I am proud to say that Henry Kissinger is not my friend. I will not take advice from Henry Kissinger,” Sanders <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/02/11/bernie-sanders-henry-kissinger/80269302/">added</a> on Thursday. ”And in fact, Kissinger’s actions in Cambodia, when the United States bombed that country, overthrew Prince Sihanouk, created the instability for Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge to come in, who then butchered some three million innocent people, one of the worst genocides in the history of the world. So count me in as somebody who will not be listening to Henry Kissinger.” --- Meanwhile, Clinton stood by her man so to speak, highlighting one of the least controversial portions of his resume, his diplomatic ties with China. “I think it is fair to say, whatever the complaints that you want to make about him are, that with respect to China, one of the most challenging relationships we have, his opening up China and his ongoing relationships with the leaders of China is an incredibly useful relationship for the United States of America,” she said. Clinton had previously praised Kissinger in her 2014 memoir and de-facto campaign manifesto, “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/in-hard-choices-hillary-clinton-opens-up-about-world-leaders-and-what-she-got-right/2014/06/09/b4ecc0d2-efeb-11e3-bf76-447a5df6411f_story.html">Hard Choices</a>,” during which she fondly recalled watching Kissinger’s 1972 trip to China on television. There are in essence <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/the-case-for-henry-kissinger-1773365.html">two Henry Kissingers</a>. There is the respected and influential elder statesman, who shaped U.S. foreign policy as national security adviser and the secretary of state for eight years. He was indeed credited with helping open diplomatic relations with China in 1972, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating the 1973 Paris Peace Accords, which eventually led to the end of the Vietnam War. And then there is the other Kissinger, who is far more insidious as far as progressives are concerned: A man who played a significant — and some would argue decisive role — in prolonging the Vietnam War at the needless cost of thousands of American and Vietnamese lives. A man who encouraged former President Richard Nixon to wiretap and intimidate his political enemies. A man who supported the secret bombing of Cambodia and Laos, killing thousands of innocent civilians. A man who masterminded an illegal 1973 coup in Chile and other covert politically motivated military interventions in countries like Rhodesia, East Timor and Argentina. [...] </blockquote> Henry did not “oppress people, disappear people, imprison people or even kill people for expressing their opinions" — NO he was doing those kind of things for the sake of extending America’s Military Footprint, and strengthening American worldwide Dominance. Extending it all corners of the down-trodden and under-defended world. It’s our never-explained Birth-Right afterall, to exploit the resources of others, for some still Unquestioned, and god-forsaken reason(s). ..… <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/henry-kissinger-hillary-clintons-tutor-in-war-and-peace/">Henry Kissinger, Hillary Clinton’s Tutor in War and Peace</a> by Greg Grandin, theNation.com -- Feb 5, 2016 <blockquote>[...] Let’s consider some of Kissinger’s achievements during his tenure as Richard Nixon’s top foreign policy–maker. He (1) prolonged the Vietnam War for five pointless years; (2) illegally bombed Cambodia and Laos; (3) goaded Nixon to wiretap staffers and journalists; (4) bore responsibility for three genocides in Cambodia, East Timor, and Bangladesh; (5) urged Nixon to go after Daniel Ellsberg for having released the Pentagon Papers, which set off a chain of events that brought down the Nixon White House; (6) pumped up Pakistan’s ISI, and encouraged it to use political Islam to destabilize Afghanistan; (7) began the US’s arms-for-petrodollars dependency with Saudi Arabia and pre-revolutionary Iran; (8) accelerated needless civil wars in southern Africa that, in the name of supporting white supremacy, left millions dead; (9) supported coups and death squads throughout Latin America; and (10) ingratiated himself with the first-generation neocons, such as Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz, who would take American militarism to its next calamitous level. Read all about it in Kissinger’s Shadow! --- A full tally hasn’t been done, but a back-of-the-envelope count would attribute 3, maybe 4 million deaths to Kissinger’s actions, but that number probably undercounts his victims in southern Africa. [...] </blockquote> Many voters in America are disgusted with these “<a href="http://www.libertylawsite.org/2016/01/12/the-use-and-abuse-of-american-foreign-policy-doctrines/" target="_blank">Monroe Doctrine</a>” policies, tactics and hemispheric-interventions, that somehow continue to embolden our leaders to view the world as their own personal chessboard — with its so-many pawns to be sacrificed, as the issues of <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/02/12/1484124/-So-much-for-the-War-as-a-Last-Resort-commitment" target="_blank">the day</a> demand. Senator Sanders is not a fan of such American exercises of military intervention and undemocratic regime changes, as was made patently obvious once again in the latest Democratic debate: ..... <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/03/09/transcript-the-post-univision-democratic-debate-annotated/" title="">Transcript: The Post-Univision Democratic debate, annotated</a> by Team Fix, washingtonpost.com -- March 9, 2016 <blockquote>[...] SALINAS: In South Florida there are still open wounds among some exiles regarding socialism and communism. So please explain what is the difference between the socialism that you profess and the socialism in Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela. --- SANDERS: Well, let me just answer that. What that was about was saying that the United States was wrong to try to invade Cuba, that the United States was wrong trying to support people to overthrow the Nicaraguan government, that the United States was wrong trying to overthrow in 1954, the government -- democratically elected government of Guatemala. Throughout the history of our relationship with Latin America we've operated under the so-called Monroe Doctrine, and that said the United States had the right do anything that they wanted to do in Latin America. So I actually went to Nicaragua and I very shortly opposed the Reagan administration's efforts to overthrow that government. And I strongly opposed earlier Henry Kissinger and the -- to overthrow the government of Salvador Aliende (ph) in Chile. I think the United States should be working with governments around the world, not get involved in regime change. And all of these actions, by the way, in Latin America, brought forth a lot of very strong anti-American sentiments. That's what that was about. [...] SALINAS: In retrospect, have you ever regretted the characterizations of Daniel Ortega and Fidel Castro that you made in 1985? SANDERS: The key issue here was whether the United States should go around overthrowing small Latin American countries. I think that that was a mistake... </blockquote> And in the recent PBS debate, we got a glimpse of what a ‘Hillary Doctrine’ might be like — you know, given that it’s such “a big, complicated world out there” that a president must reserve the right to “pick and choose” just who they listen to, when. Even if such “choosing” ends up soliciting the advice of Nobel Prize winner Henry Kissinger. (Nevermind all that ‘bad stuff’ he supposedly did, that’s all water under history’s bridge … Because of … China, and Henry’s open-market accomplishments there). Hillary Clinton explained her “pick and choose” strategy in the PBS debate, which presumably would allow her “choose” the counsel of Kissinger, if the complexity of the pinned-down chess pieces demanded it. (It was in her reply, to Sanders blanket dismissal of such counsel.) Bernie Sanders went to great length to assure Americans, that Kissinger’s regime-changing knowledge would NOT be sought out in a Sander’s Administration. Hillary made no such assurance. ..... <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/12/us/politics/transcript-of-the-democratic-presidential-debate-in-milwaukee.html?_r=0">Transcript of the Democratic Presidential Debate in Milwaukee</a> by nytimes.com -- Feb 11, 2016 <blockquote>[...] WOODRUFF: Just a final word. --- SANDERS: Where the secretary and I have a very profound difference, in the last debate — and I believe in her book — very good book, by the way — in her book and in this last debate, she talked about getting the approval or the support or the mentoring of Henry Kissinger. Now, I find it rather amazing, because I happen to believe that Henry Kissinger was one of the most destructive secretaries of state in the modern history of this country. (APPLAUSE) I am proud to say that Henry Kissinger is not my friend. I will not take advice from Henry Kissinger. And in fact, Kissinger’s actions in Cambodia, when the United States bombed that country, overthrew Prince Sihanouk, created the instability for Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge to come in, who then butchered some 3 million innocent people, one of the worst genocides in the history of the world. So count me in as somebody who will not be listening to Henry Kissinger. (APPLAUSE) IFILL: Secretary Clinton? CLINTON: Well, I know journalists have asked who you do listen to on foreign policy, and we have yet to know who that is. SANDERS: Well, it ain’t Henry Kissinger. That’s for sure. CLINTON: That’s fine. That’s fine. (LAUGHTER) You know, I listen to a wide variety of voices that have expertise in various areas. I think it is fair to say, whatever the complaints that you want to make about him are, that with respect to China, one of the most challenging relationships we have, his opening up China and his ongoing relationships with the leaders of China is an incredibly useful relationship for the United States of America. (APPLAUSE) So if we want to pick and choose — and I certainly do — people I listen to, people I don’t listen to, people I listen to for certain areas, then I think we have to be fair and look at the entire world, because it’s a big, complicated world out there. [...] SANDERS: I find — I mean, it’s just a very different, you know, historical perspective here. Kissinger was one of those people during the Vietnam era who talked about the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domino_theory">domino theory</a>. Not everybody remembers that. You do. I do. [...] And then, after the war, this is the guy who, in fact, yes, you’re right, he opened up relations with China, and now pushed various type of trade agreements, resulting in American workers losing their jobs as corporations moved to China. The terrible, authoritarian, Communist dictatorship he warned us about, now he’s urging companies to shut down and move to China. Not my kind of guy. (APPLAUSE) [...] </blockquote> ‘Desperate times, sometimes require desperate measures’ — I seem to recall some Torture-enabling Administration, in the not so distant past, “picking and choosing” just who they were willing to listen to too, that ‘all options were on the Table’. Yes, and that “complicated, big world” advice, and its resulting Bush Doctrine — worked out so very well for them too. Umm … NOT! But, at least they got to “wipe their slates clean” of all that bad stuff. So …. let’s not dwell in the past, shall we? Someone’s got to “Turn that next page” of unaccountable History … that’s still yet to be written. Let’s hope it’s someone who still respects the innate sovereignty of people-driven democracies, wherever in the world it inevitably springs up. And let’s hope America’s future Foreign policy, actually include paying those nascent democracies a “fair price” for their resources (assuming they are willing to sell) — instead of just assuming we have the Right to Take Them (simply because we have the Power to do so). The horrific era of such regime-change tactics, needs to be over — Like, yesterday! rss@dailykos.com (jamess) BernieSanders BushDoctrine doublestandards foreignpolicy ForgottenHistory GlobalResources GoodWithTheBad HenryKissinger HillaryClinton ItTakesARevoluton Mightmakesright MilitaryInventionism MonroeDoctrine OpenMarkets RegimeChange TheDeathofJournalism TheKissingerDoctrine univisiondebate WipingTheSlate _1499769 Fri, 11 Mar 2016 20:03:41 +0000 The Missing Ingredient in far too many Media Polls http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/10/1498913/-The-Missing-Ingredients-in-Not-so-Modern-Polling Before you read the article, you may want to take a guess — or even take the poll — as to why in the world Media Pollsters just keep on under-estimating (and under-counting) Bernie Sanders widespread and solid support. <h3>Sanders’ Michigan Win Shows Pollsters <a href="http://www.wired.com/2016/03/sanders-michigan-win-shows-pollsters-bernie-blindspot/" target="_blank">Have a Bernie Blindspot</a> </h3> by <a href="http://www.wired.com/author/ilapowsky/">Issie Lapowsky</a> — Business, wired.com — 03.09.16 <blockquote> [...] Throughout this election cycle, Sanders has been perpetually underestimated. That’s not an opinion. It’s a fact. Just as the media easily dismissed Donald Trump’s campaign as a sideshow to the Republican party’s main event last summer, it did the same to Sanders. The only difference was, the press gave Sanders a fraction (or a <a href="http://television.gdeltproject.org/cgi-bin/iatv_campaign2016/iatv_campaign2016?filter_candidate=&filter_network=NATIONAL&filter_timespan=ALL&filter_displayas=RAW" target="_blank">fraction of a fraction</a>) of the same coverage. The polls predicted that ignoring Bernie was okay, though, because it looked unlikely Sanders would win any primary states aside from New Hampshire and Vermont anyway. [...] The fact is, these misses are no fluke. Instead, it seems that pollsters across the board have something of a Bernie blind spot. One key reason for that—though not the only reason— is that Sanders supporters are overwhelmingly young, and lots of pollsters still haven’t found a way to reach young voters where they are: their smartphones. <h3>A New World of Polling</h3> Polls have traditionally been conducted on landlines, not only because that was the prevailing method of reaching people for decades, but also because recent regulations have made it illegal to robocall cell phones, a practice that’s still allowed for landline polls. That makes polling cell phones far more expensive to conduct, because it requires more human labor. While larger operations like Pew Research and Gallup have moved predominantly to cell phone polls, other cash-strapped operations, forced to churn out an ungodly number of polls to accommodate the news cycle, often defer to landlines. That may explain, for instance, <a href="http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/Mitchell-FOX2DetroitMIPollDEM3616.pdf" target="_blank">this landline poll</a> from a Detroit Fox affiliate that shows Clinton trouncing Sanders in Michigan 66 percent to 29 percent. The pollster for that report justified the methodology, writing, “Because likely Primary voters are older, 54 percent are 60 or older and 86 percent are older than 50, we believe there are sufficient land line voters to get an accurate sample.” [...] </blockquote> I personally think Media Outfits put waaay too much stock in Polling (especially polling that relies on last centuries techniques). This reliance on Polling (and Sound-bites) — lets them play the echo the expectations game — which they love; and lets them avoid reporting on and comparing the Candidates issues and records — which they hate. Grumble grumble, that latter is actual work — and they don’t get paid 95% wages — to DO THAT! Besides the Polls say such and such and so and so — What could possibly go wrong? Hiding behind that. rss@dailykos.com (jamess) BernieBlindSpot BernieSanders DeathofJournalism DistortionWithMath MediaBarkers Michigan MSM OoopsTheyBotchedItAgain Polls TheMostReliableDemo TheRevolutionwillnotbeTelevised undercounted UnderCovered UnderEstimated Wired _1498913 Thu, 10 Mar 2016 01:55:20 +0000 Johnson Controls Fact-check http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/09/1498278/-Johnson-Controls-Fact-check My Moms worked for Johnson Controls (auto-parts supplier) for decades — they were never in trouble, in all that time that I ever heard of. Mom did very well on their Stock-sharing plan, as well. <h3>Johnson Controls CEO: <a href="http://www.freep.com/story/opinion/contributors/2016/03/07/johnson-controls-ceo-supplier-never-received-auto-bailout-money/81457292/" target="_blank">Supplier never received auto bailout money</a> </h3> <div> Alex Molinaroli, Detroit Free Press — March 7, 2016 </div> <blockquote> <div> [...] That is simply not true. Johnson Controls did not request and did not receive aid from the government during the financial crisis. Nor did the company declare bankruptcy. In fact, Johnson Controls did not even request an appearance before Congress on this subject. Rather, we were asked by customers and the Senate Banking Committee to testify in 2008 on behalf of automotive suppliers on proposed government support to U.S. automakers, who were struggling due to the financial crisis. As a representative of the broad supply chain, our president and chief operating officer at the time, Keith Wandell, encouraged Congress to support the automakers, noting that failure of even one of them would have devastating consequences for the entire industry. Johnson Controls was not in financial distress and did not request aid from the government. [...] </div> </blockquote> That article goes on to explain how Johnson Controls itself, “bailed-out” another company that was further on down its “supply-chain” — and which had “failed and went into bankruptcy.” That’s how sound a company JC was. ….. Another Michigan journalistic outlet does another Clinton Fact-check, of interest to auto-workers, and finds there was some serious “distortion” going on, with her misleading claims about the Auto Bailout. <h3>Truth Squad: Hillary Clinton fouls Bernie Sanders <a href="http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/03/truth_squad_clinton_fouls_sand.html" target="_blank">on auto bailout</a> </h3> by <a href="http://connect.mlive.com/user/aj-Jones/posts.html"> The Center for Michigan | Bridge Magazine</a>, Mlive.com — March 08, 2016 <blockquote> The call: Foul A lot of claims were made from the stage in Flint, and this was a debate, with time limits and, realistically, not much time to discuss nuances of policy and current events. But Clinton distorted Sanders' record on the auto-industry bailout, potentially a lethal blow in a state like Michigan. She later acknowledged indirectly that what Sanders objected to was the Wall Street component to the aid package that also helped automakers, but only after being confronted by Sanders. A clear foul. </blockquote> Too bad they don’t do such “fact-checking” during the course of a Debate, eh, when the mis-statements are first made (to an audience of millions). rss@dailykos.com (jamess) AutoBailout autoworkers BernieSanders DemocraticDebate DistortionMatterOfCourse FactCheck FlintMichigan HillaryClinton JohnsonControls Michigan realjournalism RustBelt _1498278 Wed, 09 Mar 2016 02:08:59 +0000 What Clinton has said to promote two Trade Deals besides NAFTA http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/08/1497770/-What-Clinton-has-said-to-promote-two-Trade-Deals-besides-NAFTA <h3><a href="http://www.epi.org/publication/briefingpapers_pntr_china/" target="_blank" title="">PNTR WITH CHINA</a></h3> Economic and political costs greatly outweigh benefits by Jeff Faux, Economic Policy Institute — epi.org <blockquote> The Clinton Administration and the Republican congressional leadership are urging Congress to ratify the trade and investment pact the administration recently negotiated with China. The agreement is one of a series China is negotiating with members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in order to join that body. Approval by Congress would, among other things, grant China Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) — thereby surrendering Congress’ existing right to an annual review and renewal of the United States’ trade relationship with China. [...] Trade severed from worker and environmental standards. Granting PNTR to China will signal to the world that the United States has, in effect, abandoned the cause of putting worker rights and environmental standards on the agenda of international trade and financial institutions. Given the public rhetoric of the president, the vice president, and the U.S. trade representative in support of this cause, congressional ratification of the China trade pact will reduce America’s credibility on the issue to zero. [...] </blockquote> …... <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511406420" target="_blank" title="">China trade deal</a> cost 3.2 million American jobs. Here's what Hillary said about it at the time: <div class="center-block dk-editor-embed" data-twitter-content='&lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"&gt;&lt;p dir="ltr" lang="en"&gt;pntr w/ china led to the loss of 3.2 million american jobs. here’s what sec. clinton said about it at the time: &lt;a href="https://t.co/Tz9xGwiWpj"&gt;pic.twitter.com/Tz9xGwiWpj&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;— mike casca (@cascamike) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/cascamike/status/705434240280862720"&gt;March 3, 2016&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;'> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> pntr w/ china led to the loss of 3.2 million american jobs. here’s what sec. clinton said about it at the time: <a href="https://t.co/Tz9xGwiWpj">pic.twitter.com/Tz9xGwiWpj</a>— mike casca (@cascamike) <a href="https://twitter.com/cascamike/status/705434240280862720">March 3, 2016</a> </blockquote> </div> Here’s what those “on balance” interests of American workers amount to, after PNTR with China forced them to “get in compete in that {global} marketplace” for a few years … Trade With China Has Cost the U.S. 2.7 Million Jobs <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="" src="http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t106/OnlyObvious/JobsTradedAwayToChina_zpsbroguws8.jpg"></figure> <a href="http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/trade-china-has-cost-us-27-million-jobs" target="_blank" title="">www.economicpopulist.org</a> That’s some serious competing and losing. All thanks to the PNTR (Permanent Normal Trade Relations) with China. Welcome to the new “Normal”, aka the little discussed ‘Race to the Bottom’. rss@dailykos.com (jamess) autoworkers China CorporateProfits CorporateRules DavidSirota dreamslost EconomicPolicyInstitute GlobalMinimumWage HillaryClinton HollowPromises ItsaSmallWorld jobslost LivingWage MillionsAndMillions NAFTA Outsourcing PNTR RacetotheBottom Recommended RustBelt SouthKorea StarvationWages TheyThinkWereStupid TradeDeals _1497770 Tue, 08 Mar 2016 04:04:37 +0000 Clinton and Sanders go after those 'Rust Belt' votes http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/06/1497098/-Hillary-and-Bernie-go-after-those-Rust-Belt-votes Things are heating up in the industrial Midwest, a region decimated by “free trade” policies of current and prior Administrations. Their very real needs have been neglected for decades. I know, I’m one of the “economic refugees” who had to pull up my Midwestern roots, and head elsewhere. It is in this battle ground that Candidate Clinton is making a bold new promise, to the hard-pressed, under-employed workers of the area: <h3>The Clinton-Sanders <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/05/politics/clinton-sanders-trade-michigan/index.html" target="_blank">trade war</a> </h3> by <a href="http://www.cnn.com/profiles/eric-bradner">Eric Bradner</a>, CNN — March 5, 2016 <blockquote> <div> [...] Friday, Clinton said that her approach is based on more than ideology. "When it comes to trade deals, here's my standard: I won't support any agreement unless it helps create good jobs and higher wages for American workers and protects our national security," she said. "I need to be able to look into the eyes of any hard-working American anywhere in our country and say this deal will help raise your income." </div> </blockquote> Sounds heart-felt and sincere. So sincere in fact there was no need to bother those weary workers with the pro-Trade audiences, that Hillary Clinton has “entertained” in the last few years: <h3> <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/clinton-earned-more-than-25m-speaking-groups-lobbying-trade/" target="_blank">Groups lobbying on trade</a> paid Hillary Clinton $2.5M in speaking fees</h3> by Julianna Goldman, CBS News — May 18, 2015 <blockquote> [...] According to the disclosures released by the campaign on Friday evening, the former secretary of state earned at least $2.7 million from speeches at companies backing the <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/senate-finds-a-path-forward-on-trade-legislation/" target="_blank">trade promotion authority</a> (TPA) that President Obama has been seeking in order to "fast track" approval of trade deals. While that's a fraction of the <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hillary-and-bill-clinton-earned-over-25-million-since-january-2014/" target="_blank">$25 million Bill and Hillary Clinton earned from paid speeches</a> from January 2014 to present, they nonetheless open the presidential candidate to criticism. [...] A number of Clinton's appearances before the organizations lobbying on trade were among her most lucrative speeches. Clinton earned $335,000 from Qualcomm for a speech in San Diego on October 14, 2014; $335,000 from the Biotechnology Industry Organization on June 25, 2014; and $325,000 from Cisco Systems for a speech in Las Vegas on August 28, 2014. According to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, both tech companies lobbied in support of TPA in 2014 and 2015. They're also members of the Trade Benefits America Coalition, which in November 2014 <a href="http://tradebenefitsamerica.org/resources/trade-benefits-america-coalition-urges-passage-bipartisan-trade-promotion-authority-tpa" target="_blank">sent a letter to congressional leaders</a> saying, "As members of the Trade Benefits America Coalition, we write to urge passage of bipartisan Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) legislation this year....Congressional action on TPA is needed to help ensure high-standard outcomes in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, which the United States and 11 other Asia-Pacific countries are striving to complete." That letter was also signed by General Electric and Xerox, companies that paid Hillary Clinton to give speeches in 2014. Clinton earned $225,000 from GE on January 6, 2014 and $225,000 from Xerox Corporation on March 18, 2014. In total, she earned at least $1.4 million from companies signing that letter. [...] </blockquote> Taking millions from Out-sourcers will in no way effect her ability to Stop all this Oursourcing — unless American workers income increases from such a Deal. Just trust her. (Pay no attention to that Trade deal with China, please.) <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="" src="http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t106/OnlyObvious/JobsTradedAwayToChina_zpsbroguws8.jpg"> <figcaption>Candidate Clinton Voted for this result. Candidate Sanders did not.</figcaption> </figure> Meanwhile for his part Candidate Sanders is trying to remind Midwestern Voters, that he has always stood with them against Trade Deals — not just when he needs their votes: <h3>Bernie Sanders cites momentum <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/mar/3/sanders-calls-clinton-outsourcer-in-chief/" target="_blank">going into Michigan primary</a> </h3> by <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/staff/sa-miller/">S.A. Miller</a> - The Washington Times — March 6, 2016 <blockquote> [...] [Sanders] said trade policies supported by <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hillary-clinton/">Mrs. Clinton</a>, including the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement that was signed by her husband, President Bill Clinton, and most-favored nation trading partner status granted to China [<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_normal_trade_relations" target="_blank">PNTR</a>], have “decimated communities all over Michigan, all over Illinois, all over Ohio.” “I have helped lead the opposition to here disastrous trade agreements. Secretary <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hillary-clinton/">Clinton</a>, by and large, has supported them all. It’s going to give us a lot of momentum here in the Midwest,” he said. [...] </blockquote> <h3>The Clinton-Sanders <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/05/politics/clinton-sanders-trade-michigan/index.html" target="_blank">trade war</a> </h3> by <a href="http://www.cnn.com/profiles/eric-bradner">Eric Bradner</a>, CNN — March 5, 2016 <blockquote> [...] Clinton's history, Sanders argues, is clear. "The real question is was she right to support NAFTA? Was she right to support permanent normal trade relations with China? The answer is, she was very, very wrong and millions of families around this country have been suffering as a result of those disastrous trade agreements," Sanders said Thursday in Lansing, Michigan. He added: "These trade agreements were pushed and written to a significant degree by corporate America for corporate America and the results are clear. We're not talking about some academic debate here. The results are clear when you look at Detroit, you look at Flint, you look at my own state of Vermont. We have lost thousands and thousands of decent-paying jobs." [...] </blockquote> <div> <div> Funny thing about those “sincere promises” — they’re just so easy to make, depending on the circumstances of the day … <h3><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/3/4/1495818/-Clinton-to-Indian-Audience-Outsourcing-has-Benefited-Many-Parts-of-Our-Country">Clinton to Indian Audience: ‘Outsourcing has Benefited Many Parts of Our Country’</a></h3> <div></div> </div> </div> <div> by<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/user/geebeebee"> geebeebee</a> — Mar 04, 2016 </div> <blockquote> [...] [Member of the] Audience [in India]: Good morning ma’am, I’m also a part of the youth advisory council of the US government. So I have [inaudible] questions the first one is: with the possible cut down on outsourcing, [inaudible] protectionism, and [inaudible, will you do anything] about the jobs? And uhh Host: Okay let’s take one question at a time so we can get other people to respond. Clinton: So you’re talking about outsourcing from the United States to India? Outsourcing from the United States to India? Well you know it’s been going on for many years now, and it’s part of our economic relationship with India, and I think that there are advantages with it that have certainly benefited many parts of our country and there are disadvantages that go to the need to, you know improve the job skills of our own people and create a better economic environment, so it’s, like anything it’s, you know, got pluses and minuses. <div class="center-block dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=ycYJDiu" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ycYJDiu_EaA" data-height="315" data-width="420">YouTube Video</a> </div> </blockquote> Was Secretary Clinton employing her new ‘outsourcing standard’ there: "I need to be able to look into the eyes of any hard-working American anywhere in our country and say this deal will help raise your income" ??? Was she thinking of that standard, when she was explaining the “Pros and Cons” of Outsourcing, to one of America’s main beneficiaries of Outsourcing? You know the <s>need</s> ‘benefit’ for Americans to improve our skills, so we can compete with the those overseas workers, quite anxious to takeover our jobs, for well less than half the pay? <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="" src="http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t106/OnlyObvious/Minimum-wage_around_the_worldpng_600_zpscdwzw2bu.jpg"> <figcaption>This is what the ‘Race to the Bottom’ is all about. Midwesterners have experienced it first-hand, for years.</figcaption> </figure> That’s a funny ‘new’ way of looking the “American workers” in the eye — no matter where they might actually reside. She feels ‘their’ pain alright. Her multi-national sponsors demand it. rss@dailykos.com (jamess) BernieSanders CorporateFees CorporateProfits doublestandards ElectionPromises FakePromises FreeTrade HillaryClinton Illinois India Lobbyists Michigan Midwest minimumwages NAFTA Ohio Outsourcing PayDifferential PNTRChina RacetotheBottom RustBelt StarvationWages TPP TradeDeals TradePromotionAuthority _1497098 Sun, 06 Mar 2016 23:21:32 +0000 Some Budget Math that Most Politicians will never to Do http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/06/1496973/-Some-Math-that-Most-Politicians-never-to-Do <h3> <a href="http://www.cheatsheet.com/politics/this-is-what-1-6-trillion-bought-in-the-u-s-global-war-on-terror.html/?a=viewall" target="_blank" title="">What $1.6 Trillion Bought</a> the U.S. in Global War on Terror</h3> <div> <div>by <a href="http://www.cheatsheet.com/author/meghan-foley/">Meghan Foley </a>— May 08, 2015</div> <blockquote> <div> In the 13 years since the September 11 terrorist attacks, the United States has spent a total of <a href="http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL33110.pdf" target="_blank">$1.6 trillion</a> financing military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other theaters of the global war on terror — according to calculations made by the Congressional Research Service. The U.S. government’s massive spending sum includes the cost of military operations, the training of security forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, reconstruction, weapons maintenance, base support, foreign aid, embassy costs, and veterans health care. This $1.6 trillion figure may seem small compared to some estimates that have been made. <a href="https://research.hks.harvard.edu/publications/getFile.aspx?Id=923" target="_blank">Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government</a> forecast in 2013 that the decade-long wars in the Middle East would eventually cost American taxpayers as much as $6 trillion. […] But it is important to remember that the $1.6 trillion has already been spent. The $6 trillion sum is a long-term estimate that includes such considerations as the lifetime medical costs of the 2.5 million veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq, many of whom served multiple deployments, survived injuries that would have been fatal in other U.S. wars, and now face huge mental and physical challenges. […]</div> </blockquote> Contrast that “National Priority” with this next one: <blockquote> <h3>NCI Budget <a href="http://www.cancer.gov/about-nci/budget" target="_blank">and Appropriations</a></h3> NCI receives its budget from the United States Congress as part of the federal budget process through appropriations for the Department of Health and Human Services and NIH. <a href="http://www.cancer.gov/about-nci/organization/obf">The Office of Budget and Finance</a> supports the NCI Director and senior NCI staff on budget-related activities. <h3>Current Fiscal Year (FY 2016) Budget</h3> NCI’s allocation in the 2016 Consolidated Appropriations Act is $5.21 billion, an increase of $260.5 million over fiscal year 2015. NCI’s budget for FY 2015 (October 1, 2014, through September 30, 2015) was $4.95 billion. The NCI budget has been relatively flat in recent years. During the period from 2005 through 2013, the NCI budget averaged $4.9 billion per year. </blockquote> NCI stands for the National Cancer Institute by the way. Compare its average $5 billion budgets to those GWOT budgets in the Trillionsphere. Money well spent right? Well when you consider the total number of Victims each “terror” actually takes each year, one might conclude we need a serious change in “National Priorities”. <blockquote> • [In 2001] Total number of people <a href="http://www.statisticbrain.com/911-death-statistics/" target="_blank">who died</a> in the 9/11 attacks: 2,996 • In 2015, there will be an estimated 1,658,370 new cancer cases diagnosed and 589,430 <a href="http://www.cancer.org/research/cancerfactsstatistics/cancerfactsfigures2015/" target="_blank">cancer deaths</a> in the US. </blockquote> That is almost a 200 to 1 ratio in actual real world deaths attributed to those competing threats. (In other words, try to imagine 200 9/11s happening EVERY year — that is the toll that Cancer takes.) Funny how the Budget allocations to FIGHT each of these scourges, will spend 1200 times more on fighting a Global Idea, than they will to battle an actual real-world USA disease, impacting millions of Americans. Seems like we have some seriously misplaced priorities, to me. …… If only politicians responded to real world suffering and misery, as much as they do trumped-up fear-generating rhetoric, eh? <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="" src="http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t106/OnlyObvious/GovtDocs/War-on-Cancer-1970_zpstn2ooble.jpg"> <figcaption>If only Cancer wore the garb of a Terrorist, eh?</figcaption> </figure> <div> <div> <div> <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/3/4/1495866/-Cancer-Therapy-has-Discovered-a-new-Genetic-Roadmap">Cancer Therapy has Discovered a new Genetic Roadmap</a> — by<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/user/jamess"> jamess</a> — Mar 04, 2016 </div> </div> </div> <div> …….. If only the brilliant scientists in that post, could get a healthy slice of that GWOT Budget Pie, then maybe, just maybe, American families wouldn’t have to suffer the indignity of nearly 600,000 actual real-world life-shortening Cancer deaths per year. Instead of seeing those National Priorities dollars going to chase phantoms and scoundrels, and “accidentally creating” the <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/02/28/1492787/-More-Ground-Troops-and-a-No-Fly-Zone-in-Syria-What-could-Possibly-go-Wrong" target="_blank">next generation</a> of Terrorists, in the process. </div> </div> rss@dailykos.com (jamess) ActualTerror BinLadensDead BrokenCongress BudgetSlices Cancer EndlessWars FunWithMath GlobalWaronTerror HumanSuffering MIC misplacedpriorities NationalCancerInstitute nationalpriorities OopsWhatAboutISIS R&D RealWorldThreats RhetoricalThreats USBudget waroncancer _1496973 Sun, 06 Mar 2016 18:24:18 +0000 Why did Warren give that Speech about Glass-Steagall? http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/05/1496468/-Why-did-Warren-give-that-Speech-about-Glass-Steagall <h3>Warren pushes for <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/15/politics/elizabeth-warren-hillary-clinton-glass-steagall/" target="_blank">return of Glass-Steagall</a> after Clinton adviser says she won't back measure</h3> by <a href="http://www.cnn.com/profiles/dan-merica-profile">Dan Merica</a>, CNN — July 15, 2015 <blockquote> <div> Washington (CNN) Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren <a href="http://itk.thehill.com/policy/finance/247093-warren-mccain-introduce-bill-to-bring-back-glass-steagall" target="_blank">pushed for the reinstatement</a> of a major Depression-era banking law on Wednesday, emailing her large list of supporters to push for the measure. </div> …... The plea from the progressive icon comes two days after an economic adviser to Hillary Clinton's campaign said the presidential candidate wouldn't reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act if elected. <ul> </ul> "Wall Street spent decades -- and millions of dollars -- to repeal the original Glass-Steagall Act, and you can bet they'll do whatever it takes to keep it from being reinstated," Warren wrote in an email titled "Let's get real." "We need grassroots support from all across the country if we're going to fight back to make our financial institutions smaller and safer." The email asked supporters to sign a petition supporting Warren's <a href="http://www.warren.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=872" target="_blank">"21st Century Glass-Steagall Act,"</a> which was introduced by the senator -- along with Republican Sen. John McCain -- last week. [...] </blockquote> <h3>Liberals Roar As <a href="http://www.politicususa.com/2015/07/17/liberals-roar-bernie-sanders-joins-elizabeth-warren-bill-reinstate-glass-steagall.html" target="_blank">Bernie Sanders Joins Elizabeth Warren</a> On Bill To Reinstate Glass-Steagall</h3> by <a href="http://www.politicususa.com/author/jasoneasley-2-2-2-2-2">Jason Easley</a>, politicususa.com — Jul 17, 2015 <blockquote> Two of the most prominent liberals in the Senate have joined forces to take on the big banks as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has announced that he is teaming up with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) to co-sponsor her bill that <a href="https://berniesanders.com/issues/reforming-wall-street/" target="_blank">would reinstate</a> the Glass-Steagall Act. In a statement, Sanders said: I strongly support Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s bill to reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act. <blockquote>On July 1, 1999, while Congress was voting on the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act to permit commercial banks, investment banks and insurance companies to merge, then-Rep. Sanders said: “I believe this legislation, in its current form, will do more harm than good. It will lead to fewer banks and financial service providers; increased charges and fees for individual consumers and small businesses; diminished credit for rural America; and taxpayer exposure to potential losses should a financial conglomerate fail. It will lead to more mega-mergers; a small number of corporations dominating the financial service industry; and further concentration of economic power in our country.” Allowing commercial banks to merge with investment banks and insurance companies in 1999 was a huge mistake. It precipitated the largest taxpayer bailout in the history of the world. It caused millions of Americans to lose their jobs, homes, life savings and ability to send their kids to college. It substantially increased wealth and income inequality and it led to the enormous concentration of economic power in this country. [...] </blockquote> </blockquote> Just watch the Movie The Big Short, if you want see how accurate Senator Sanders predictions were, regarding this Clinton-led De-regulation: <blockquote> Change vs. Status Quo: The <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/what-the-big-short-gets-wrong-213535" target="_blank">ultimate takeaway</a> of The Big Short is that the status quo has prevailed. “The big banks lobbied Congress to kill big reform,” Gosling says. “Eight million Americans lost their jobs. Six million lost their homes.” </blockquote> And how important Senator Warren’s warnings, currently are: <div class="center-block dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=mS8Vv6RDrfQ" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mS8Vv6RDrfQ" data-height="315" data-width="560">YouTube Video</a> </div> <div class="center-block dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=M6rnsLNvXzM" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/M6rnsLNvXzM" data-height="315" data-width="560">YouTube Video</a> </div> <div class="center-block dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=Wit0scZ5ew4" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Wit0scZ5ew4" data-height="315" data-width="560">YouTube Video</a> </div> …... And guess what, those CDO bet-takers, that nearly crashed the world economy a decade ago — They’re Back! With shiny new packaging that few have yet to notice … (except again, the producers of The Big Short, in their closing summary statements ...) <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/02/26/1491455/-They-re-Back-CDOs-with-a-New-Name-But-under-the-same-old-Management" target="_blank">They're Back -- CDOs with a New Name, But under the same old Management</a> …... Just remember, we’ve been <a href="https://youtu.be/CZbC_IqWEJY" target="_blank">warned</a> … the next time the Unthinkable, becomes our TBTF Reality. rss@dailykos.com (jamess) BernieSanders BespokeTrancheOpportunity CDO cutitout Deregulation ElizabethWarren GlassSteagall OtherPeoplesMoney Progressiveplatform TBTF TheBanksownthePlace TheBigShort WallStreet _1496468 Sat, 05 Mar 2016 18:34:21 +0000 Bernie Speaks to Northern Michiganders Today about Trade http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/05/1496195/-Bernie-Speaks-to-Northern-Michiganders-Today-about-Trade LIVE : Bernie Sanders @ The Streeter Center in Traverse City, MI (Mar 4) <div class="center-block dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=NET4fB-fDMI" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NET4fB-fDMI" data-height="315" data-width="560">YouTube Video</a> </div> link to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NET4fB-fDMI" target="_blank">video</a> Bernie starts talking about 13:20, earlier today to a very enthusiastic Michigan crowd. …... More Trade-related charts <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/03/1494898/-Four-Charts-that-explain-How-Trade-Deals-really-work" target="_blank">here</a>. rss@dailykos.com (jamess) BernieSanders DownsizingTheAmericanDream Michigan Outsourcing TradeDeals TraverseCity _1496195 Sat, 05 Mar 2016 02:54:04 +0000 Cancer Therapy has Discovered a new Genetic Roadmap http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/04/1495866/-Cancer-Therapy-has-Discovered-a-new-Genetic-Roadmap Some hopeful news for anyone who has suffered the pain and injustice, of this destructive rouge Disease. In my view (having lost my Mom [2012] & step-Dad [1994] to Cancer), Science Professionals cannot turn these genetic-immuno discoveries, in practical real world treatments -- fast enough. ..... <h3><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/04/health/cancer-treatment-research-breakthrough/">Breakthrough in cancer research could spawn new treatments</a></h3> by Holly Yan, CNN -- Mar 4, 2016 <blockquote>[...] Researchers discovered that even though cancer cells mutate wildly within a person's body, the cancer cells within each patient also have common mutations -- ones that could be isolated and fought off by certain immune cells. ….. Think of it this way: A patient's cancer cells all start off with the same tree trunk, but then grow different kinds of branches. The new research shows certain immune cells can "chop the tree at the trunk rather than just pruning the branches," Dr. Sergio Quezada told CNN. [...] "The body's immune system acts as the police trying to tackle cancer, the criminals. Genetically diverse tumours are like a gang of hoodlums involved in different crimes -- from robbery to smuggling. And the immune system struggles to keep on top of the cancer -- just as it's difficult for police when there's so much going on," he said. "Our research shows that instead of aimlessly chasing crimes in different neighborhoods, we can give the police the information they need to get to the kingpin at the root of all organized crime -- or the weak spot in a patient's tumor -- to wipe out the problem for good." [...] </blockquote> ..... <h3><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/health-35718491">Scientists 'find cancer's Achilles heel'</a></h3> by James Gallagher Health editor, BBC News website -- Mar 4, 2016 <blockquote>[...] Researchers at University College, London have developed a way of finding unique markings within a tumour - its "Achilles heel" - allowing the body to target the disease. ….. But the personalised method, reported in Science journal, would be expensive and has not yet been tried in patients. [...] However, the researchers, whose work was funded by Cancer Research UK, believe their discovery could form the backbone of new treatments and hope to test it in patients within two years. [...] There are two approaches being suggested for targeting the trunk mutations. The first is to develop cancer vaccines for each patient that train the immune system to spot them. The second is to "fish" for immune cells that already target those mutations and swell their numbers in the lab, and then put them back into the body. [...] </blockquote> ..... <h3><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/03/how-to-unleash-the-immune-system-against-cancer/472062/">The Most Promising Cancer Therapy in Decades Is About to Get Better</a></h3> Tumors contain the seeds of their own destruction. We just need to work out how to activate them. by Ed Yong, theatlantic.com -- Mar 3, 2016 <blockquote>[...] As tumors expand, they accrue mutations in their genes that fuel their growth, and that distinguish them from normal, healthy cells. These mutations also change molecules called neoantigens that are displayed on the surface of the tumor cells. To our immune system, neoantigens are red flags that say “There’s something weird, foreign, other about these cells.” It responds by producing targeted weapons — T-cells that specifically recognize the neoantigens and attack whatever carries them. ….. Quezada and Swanton’s team, including Nicholas McGranahan, Andrew Furness, and Rachel Rosenthal, found that lung tumors carry anywhere from 80 to 700 neoantigens. They also found, after studying 150 lung cancer cases, that people with more of these red flags tend to live longer. That makes intuitive sense: More neoantigens means more potential targets for the immune system, which means a better chance of controlling a tumor. [...] <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.aaf1490">Quezada and Swanton’s teams found that</a> patients had better survival rates if their tumors have lots of trunk neonatigens, but not branch ones. They also responded better to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pembrolizumab">pembrolizumab</a>, one of those checkpoint inhibitors that works by unleashing the immune system (and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/dec/06/immunotherapy-drug-jimmy-carters-cancer-cure">the drug Jimmy Carter recently took</a>). The team studied 34 patients and found that almost everyone whose tumors had a wide trunk and sparse branches responded well to the drug. By contrast, the poorest responders almost all had thin trunks and luxuriant branches. They found the same pattern among 64 melanoma patients treated with two different drugs. This makes total sense. The immune system only has a limited armada of T-cells at its command. If it deploys these against branch neoantigens, it is “wasting resources on the branches,” says Quezada. And you can’t chop down a tree by pruning back the branches. You need to go after the trunk. “Our data tell us with absolute certainty that if we want to target every single cell on the tumor, we need to find the trunk mutations.” [...] </blockquote> ..… In my view, Science Professionals cannot turn these genetic-immuno discoveries, in practical real world treatments -- fast enough. If only Health Care and Science and Wellness, weren't so cynically disparaged by those who manage the levers of power (and research dollars). Somehow they can always find the gumption to come up with the funding for the next Trillion-dollar Military mis-adventure, EVERYTIME -- But finding a Trillion-dollars to fight this War on Cancer, well what the hell have you people been smoking? (something to treat your chemo nausea?) Government must maintain its status-quo "priorities" -- doncha know? <pre></pre> NOTE: each of the above articles is well worth the read, if you care about using Science for the betterment of all people. My snippets do not do the new Discovery justice, and were simply meant merely to spur your curiosity. Maybe give you a glimmer of hope, to start to replace that aching void, of actually losing someone (to arcane therapies, with minimal odds of actually working). NOTE: This is not yet a workable therapy, not even in clinical trials. When it does become a workable therapy (est 2 years) it expected to be very expensive due to all the individual gene targeting involved. Same as it ever was, Wars against everyday human problems, move at the speed of molasses. That is, if they even, EVER move at all. Same as it ever was. That is what makes the status quo, the status quo. rss@dailykos.com (jamess) BigMedicine Cancer discoveries GeneTargeting HealthCare HumanSuffering HurryUpAndWait LeveragingImmunity personalizedmedicine PrioritiesLost R&D Science SocietysPriorities TargetingRootCause ThePaceOfProgress TrimmingTheFamilyTree TrimmingTheGeneticTree waroncancer wellness _1495866 Fri, 04 Mar 2016 23:01:34 +0000 Four Charts that explain How Trade Deals really work http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/03/1494898/-Four-Charts-that-explain-How-Trade-Deals-really-work ….. <pre></pre> Manufacturing wages in TPP countries <figure class="image-captioned width-xl"><img alt="" class="width-xl" src="http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t106/OnlyObvious/TPP_Wages_600_zpssblk8y1d.jpg"> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> <a href="https://atlas.qz.com/charts/4yRob0sJl" target="_blank" title="">atlas.qz.com</a> <pre></pre> Minimum wages around the world <figure class="image-captioned width-xl"><img alt="" class="width-xl" src="http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t106/OnlyObvious/Minimum-wage_around_the_worldpng_600_zpscdwzw2bu.jpg"> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/a-look-at-minimum-wages-around-the-world-2013-8" target="_blank" title="">www.businessinsider.com</a> <pre></pre> Trade With China Has Cost the U.S. 2.7 Million Jobs <figure class="image-captioned width-xl"><img alt="" class="width-xl" src="http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t106/OnlyObvious/JobsTradedAwayToChina_zpsbroguws8.jpg"> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> <a href="http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/trade-china-has-cost-us-27-million-jobs" target="_blank" title="">www.economicpopulist.org</a> <pre></pre> Child Poverty Rates <figure class="image-captioned width-xl"><img alt="" class="width-xl" src="http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t106/OnlyObvious/Child_Poverty_by_Countries_600_zps1glcpx17.jpg"> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> <a href="https://berniesanders.com/issues/income-and-wealth-inequality/" target="_blank" title="">berniesanders.com</a> <pre></pre> ….. and PostScript and extra credit: <div> <div> <div><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/5/13/1384634/-Fast-Tracking-the-TPP-Pay-No-Attention-to-the-Fine-Print-on-Child-Labor" title="">Fast Tracking the TPP -- Pay No Attention to the Fine Print ... (on Child Labor)</a></div> <div></div> </div> </div> <div> by<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/user/jamess/history" title=""> jamess</a> — May 13, 2015 </div> rss@dailykos.com (jamess) BernieSanders ChildLabor ChildPoverty JUSTSAYNO MinimumWage NAFTA Outsourcing PNTRChina RacetotheBottom TheyThinkWereStupid TPP TradingAwayHope TradingAwayJobs TradingAwayOpportunity _1494898 Thu, 03 Mar 2016 03:26:44 +0000 The Five Reason Bernie Sanders Voted "No" to going to War in Iraq http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/02/28/1492836/-The-Five-Reason-Bernie-Sanders-Voted-No-to-going-to-War-in-Iraq This is what exercising wisdom and judgment — and yes even restraint — actually look like and sound like: …... <h3>The Five Reason Bernie Sanders Voted "No" to going to War in Iraq</h3> <div class="center-block dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=NdFw1btbkLM" data-src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/NdFw1btbkLM" data-height="315" data-width="420">YouTube Video</a> </div> <a href="http://www.sanders.senate.gov/video/flashback-rep-bernie-sanders-opposes-iraq-war">Link</a> to video and complete transcript. Senator Bernie Sanders ... [Timemark 5:35] <blockquote>[...] Mr. Speaker, in the brief time I have, let me give five reasons why I am opposed to giving the President [George W. Bush] a blank check to launch a unilateral invasion and occupation of Iraq and why I will vote against this resolution. ….. One, I have not heard any estimates of how many young American men and women might die in such a war or how many tens of thousands of women and children in Iraq might also be killed. As a caring Nation, we should do everything we can to prevent the horrible suffering that a war will cause. War must be the last recourse in international relations, not the first. Second, I am deeply concerned about the precedent that a unilateral invasion of Iraq could establish in terms of international law and the role of the United Nations. If President Bush believes that the U.S. can go to war at any time against any nation, what moral or legal objection could our government raise if another country chose to do the same thing? Third, the United States is now involved in a very difficult war against international terrorism as we learned tragically on September 11. We are opposed by Osama bin Laden and religious fanatics who are prepared to engage in a kind of warfare that we have never experienced before. I agree with Brent Scowcroft, Republican former National Security Advisor for President George Bush, Sr., who stated, "An attack on Iraq at this time would seriously jeopardize, if not destroy, the global counterterrorist campaign we have undertaken.'' Fourth, at a time when this country has a $6 trillion national debt and a growing deficit, we should be clear that a war and a long-term American occupation of Iraq could be extremely expensive. [As of 2013, the Cost of War Project estimates the war has cost $1.7 trillion -- <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/press-past/2013/03/20/the-underestimated-costs-and-price-tag-of-the-iraq-war">nearly 30 times the pre-war estimate</a>. That cost doesn't factor in future costs of veterans' care, which push the total to more than $2.1 trillion.] Fifth, I am concerned about the problems of so-called unintended consequences. Who will govern Iraq when Saddam Hussein is removed and what role will the U.S. play in ensuing a civil war that could develop in that country? Will moderate governments in the region who have large Islamic fundamentalist populations be overthrown and replaced by extremists? Will the bloody conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Authority be exacerbated? And these are just a few of the questions that remain unanswered. If a unilateral American invasion of Iraq is not the best approach, what should we do? In my view, the U.S. must work with the United Nations to make certain within clearly defined timelines that the U.N. inspectors are allowed to do their jobs. These inspectors should undertake an unfettered search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and destroy them when found, pursuant to past U.N. resolutions. If Iraq resists inspection and elimination of stockpiled weapons, we should stand ready to assist the U.N. in forcing compliance. </blockquote> PS. That is Speech that Bernie is always telling us to “go listen to” when gives answers on his “judgment” with respect to Foreign Policy, in interviews and during debates. Such bellicose restraint <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/2/28/1492787/-More-Ground-Troops-and-a-No-Fly-Zone-in-Syria-What-could-Possibly-go-Wrong" target="_blank">is rare</a>, in an era of bomb-em first, ask questions <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/02/23/1489577/-Some-of-the-Unintended-Consequences-of-Unnecessary-Wars" target="_blank">later</a> — about whatever shall be done about those worrisome “messes” that U.S. interventions have a strange habit of leaving — after the fighting is over. rss@dailykos.com (jamess) BernieSanders CountingTheCost DointTheRightThing EndlessWars GrowingMoreTerrorists InterventionMesses IraqWar JudgmentVsExperience JUSTSAYNO LastResorts LeavingChaosBehind NotPolicemanOfTheWorld Quadmires SenatorSanders SparingNoExpense StatusQuoResults thevalueoflife WarsOfChoice _1492836 Sun, 28 Feb 2016 20:01:01 +0000 More Ground Troops and a No Fly Zone in Syria -- What could Possibly go Wrong? http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/02/28/1492787/-More-Ground-Troops-and-a-No-Fly-Zone-in-Syria-What-could-Possibly-go-Wrong Not much has been made of Candidate Clinton’s calls for a serious increase in the U.S. War efforts, in Syria. This is a mistake, given how much the country has ‘enjoyed’ our endless War efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Elections have Consequences. Wars do too. ….. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/nov/19/hillary-clinton-isis-strategy-ground-troops-airstrikes-no-fly-zone-syria" target="_blank" title="">Hillary Clinton calls for more ground troops as part of hawkish Isis strategy</a> ‘Our goal is not to deter or contain Isis, our goal is to defeat and destroy Isis’, Clinton said by Dan Roberts in Washington, Lauren Gambino in New York, theguardian.com -- 19 Nov 2015 <blockquote> Hillary Clinton distanced herself from Barack Obama’s strategy for defeating Islamic State extremists on Thursday in a sweeping foreign policy speech that called for greater use of American ground troops and an intensified air campaign. [...] “The United States has been conducting this fight for more than a year; it’s time to be begin a new phase and intensify and broaden our efforts,” Clinton told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. [...] She called on Silicon Valley to stop viewing the US government “as the enemy” and urged the tech industry to design encryption tools that can balance privacy and yet still allow for state surveillance. Taking questions afterward, Clinton said her speech called for an “intensification and acceleration” of the Obama strategy, rather than a major change to it. </blockquote> What’s so bad about that? ISIS is bad news — someone needs to DO something about them. Well as this next analysis explains, for one thing a No Fly Zone “requires at least 70,000 ground troops to set up a No Fly Zone.” Worse yet, a No Fly Zone could lead to WWIII — since Putin is already there fighting ISIS, because ISIS shot down one of his country’s Airliners [as stated by the video analysis, below]. Mistakenly, or otherwise, shooting down one of Russians warplanes in a U.S. No Fly Zone over Syria would not be treated lightly. Or simply shrugged away … like might happen with a third world country. Hillary Clinton Calls For Ground War In Syria & Iraq <div class="center-block dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=C" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/C_1-eoNXVoQ" data-height="315" data-width="560">YouTube Video</a> </div> link to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_1-eoNXVoQ" target="_blank">video</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCldfgbzNILYZA4dmDt4Cd6A" target="_blank">Secular Talk</a> -- Published on Nov 21, 2015 <blockquote> Hillary Clinton distanced herself from Barack Obama’s strategy for defeating Islamic State extremists on Thursday in a sweeping foreign policy speech that called for greater use of American ground troops and an intensified air campaign. Though ruling out deploying the tens of thousands of US troops seen in Iraq and Afghanistan, the former of secretary of state made clear she would take a notably more hawkish approach than the current administration if she is elected president... </blockquote> Be careful what you wish for, war-weary Americans. Elections have Consequences. Wars do too. Some Wars even end up “creating” worse enemies — than those you started out with. More dedicated terrorists too. Bombing people and villages, as a matter of policy, tends to have an adverse effect on those who somehow manage to survive. That’s why it’s called a “slippery slope” — such 1-Dimensional policies of going “all out” to “eradicate the ‘bad guys’.” rss@dailykos.com (jamess) ArmingTheRebels bombanythingthatflies ClintonDivergesFromObama CollateralDamage EncryptionBackDoor EndlessWars EstablishmentResults FogofWar foreignpolicy goodnewsforJohnMcCain HillaryClinton IraqWar Isis learningfrommistakes MiddleEast MoppingUpTheMopUp moregroundtroops morequaqmire NoFlyZone Recommended RegimeChange Russia seculartalk slipperyslopes Syria Syrianwar thenextiraq TheyThinkWereStupid UnclingingFromObama WarHawks WhatWouldHenryDo WorldsPoliceman WorseCaseScenario WWIII _1492787 Sun, 28 Feb 2016 18:49:42 +0000 Hillary "strongly supports" The Fight for Fifteen, fliers say http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/02/27/1492080/-Hillary-strongly-supports-The-Fight-for-Fifteen-fliers-say Hmmm, that’s odd ... <blockquote> [...] “Hillary Clinton supports our fight for $15 and a union,” read the <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-dem-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/02/hillary-clinton-service-employees-international-union-219541" target="_blank">SEIU fliers</a>, which were distributed in <a href="http://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000153-0049-d7cd-af53-08fb3c8a0000" target="_blank">English</a> and <a href="http://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000153-0048-df27-a9f3-85ea7abf0000" target="_blank">Spanish</a>. The literature also featured quotes from Clinton supporting New York’s proposal to raise wages for fast-food workers to $15 an hour. “As president, I will work to raise the federal minimum wage back to the highest level it’s ever been — $12 an hour in today’s dollars — and support state and local efforts to go even further,” Clinton wrote last week on Medium. She wrote that she “strongly” supported the efforts of low-income workers to fight for $15 an hour. </blockquote> <div style="text-align:left"> There were snippets such as this, from those pivotal <a href="http://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000153-0049-d7cd-af53-08fb3c8a0000" target="_blank">NV SEIU fliers</a>: <blockquote> <div>Hillary Clinton has spoken out in support of the movement for $15 and a union:</div> <div></div> <div></div> <div> “Across the country, thousands of low-income workers, with the support of SEIU and others, have come together to fight for $15 an hour and the right to form a union. I strongly support those efforts.”</div> <div>— Hillary Clinton, Medium.com, 02/12/16</div> </blockquote> BUT only if you can get that wage on your own. You’re certainly free to try ... Good Luck! Back in the November <a href="http://time.com/4113499/democratic-debate-minimum-wage/" target="_blank">Debate</a>, Hillary Clinton said that her “support” for our “national wage <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/17/opinion/hillary-clinton-should-just-say-yes-to-a-15-minimum-wage.html?_r=0" target="_blank">floor</a>” standard does have its limits: <blockquote> Clinton was more restrained, pushing for a $12 minimum wage. “If we went to $15, there are no international comparisons, that is why I support a $12 national federal minimum wage,” she said. “That is what the Democrats in the Senate have <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-minimum-wage-bill_us_55afbbd1e4b0a9b9485332eb" target="_blank">put forward</a> as a proposal, but I do believe that is a minimum, and places like Seattle, like Los Angeles, like New York City, they can go higher.” </blockquote> Sure thing — they COULD go higher to $15 — and she supports them if they do somehow manage it on their own. Heck if they somehow manage to get a $20 dollar an hour minimum wage — she would “support that” too. They are certainly “free to try” … It’s a free country! Heck why stop there, by that logic Clinton “supports a $30 an hour minimum wage too,” if THEY can Fight for it — and if THEY can somehow get it passed. Whatever their local markets will bare … More power too them. To show how “serious” Hillary is on this limitless Minimum Wage topic, she recently <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/05/opinions/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-young-voters-cupp/" target="_blank">quipped</a> “Because that’s what they offered” — when it came to her own minimum wage, which was in the neighborhood of <a href="http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/high-fashion-expense-hillary-travel" target="_blank">$225,000</a> per hour. She “supports” that wage too. Nice work if you can <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/02/22/1489014/-Clinton-s-Cut-it-Out-Speech" target="_blank">get</a> <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/02/19/1487801/--Looking-into-it" target="_blank">it</a>. SOOO she supports a “much MUCH higher minimum wage” than her own “official” <a href="https://aspe.hhs.gov/2015-poverty-guidelines" target="_blank">Poverty-level</a> $12 per hour, but only if workers are clever enough, to know how to finagle it on their own. The sky’s the limit to what we can make, and she definitely “supports” our efforts to reach it ...That 1% stratosphere, if we dare. ……. Whatever the markets will bare … Just remember she “support” our goals. The GOTV Fliers say so. </div> rss@dailykos.com (jamess) doubletalk FakePromises FightforFifteen FightingForUs-SortOf HillaryClinton isitsnark LawsAreForSuckers LivingWage LookingIntoIt MinimumWage Nevada PovertyWage Recommended SEIU seiufliers StarvationWage ThatsWhatTheyOffered TheyThinkWereStupid Truthiness TwelveEqualsFifteen WereOnOurOwn WhatTheyArePaying _1492080 Sat, 27 Feb 2016 02:51:09 +0000 Just how deep is that Clinton "Support" for a $15 Minimum Wage? http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/02/26/1491851/-Just-how-deep-is-that-Clinton-Support-for-a-15-Minimum-Wage "Hillary supports a $15 Minimum Wage." This statement was used a last minute ploy to boost the Nevada turn-out in Clinton-favored areas, and within the <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-dem-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/02/hillary-clinton-service-employees-international-union-219541" target="_blank" title="">SEIU workers</a> Union. "Hillary supports a $15 Minimum Wage." MSNBC Reporter Joy-Ann Reid says this frequently as political commentary on MSNBC "analysis" shows and panels -- with nary a challenging question, concerning how deep that Clinton "support" really is. <pre>...</pre> Just before that NV Caucus at a Townhall event, Clinton herself explained her very "conditional" support for a $15 Minute Wage, like this: <h3><a href="http://lasvegassun.com/news/2016/feb/18/clinton-sanders-campaigning-for-edge-in-tight-neva/" title="">Clinton, Sanders make pitch to sway voters at Las Vegas town hall</a></h3> by Chris Kudialis, Megan Messerly, Ricardo Torres -- Feb 18, 2016 <blockquote>[...] A member of the audience asked Clinton if she would support a minimum wage of $15 per hour. ….. "I support states going higher than the federal minimum wage,” Clinton said. The former secretary of state pointed at New York, Seattle and Los Angeles as examples of cities raising their minimum wage for workers. “I will support that as a floor and encourage states that can afford to go higher to do so." [...] </blockquote> Good news, if you ALREADY live in places that already managed to convince your local governments of the need for economic fairness, when it comes to eliminating poverty wages. Not so good news, if you don't happen to live in one of those politically active places like New York, Seattle and Los Angeles -- Not so good news for say the residents of Nevada, who were cynically told at the last minute, yeah but: "Hillary supports a $15 Minimum Wage." … SOOOOOO … Get out and Vote for Hillary! <pre>... </pre> Even the New York Times Editorial Board -- who some claim are 'in the tank for Hillary' -- even they say Clinton is on the wrong side of this 'income disparity' issue: <h3><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/17/opinion/hillary-clinton-should-just-say-yes-to-a-15-minimum-wage.html?_r=0" title="">Hillary Clinton Should Just Say Yes to a $15 Minimum Wage</a></h3> by THE EDITORIAL BOARD NYTimes.com, -- Feb 17, 2016 <blockquote>[...] Mrs. Clinton has argued that $15 might be too high for employers in low-wage states, causing them to lay off workers or make fewer hires. There is no proof for or against that position. There is solid empirical evidence showing that moderate increases in the minimum wage do not harm employment. But there is no similarly rigorous research on the effects of large increases, mainly because there haven’t been very many, either in the United States or internationally. [...] Her minimum-wage proposal is also inconsistent with her larger agenda to increase middle-class wages. Historically, a robust minimum is one that equals at least half the average wage for typical workers, recently $21 an hour. [...] [...] But instead of embracing $15, Mrs. Clinton fights on for $12, saying that states could set their own, higher minimums. That is cold comfort. Experience has shown that without a robust federal minimum, state minimums also tend to be inadequate. Today, 21 states still do not have minimums higher than the federal level, and of the 29 that do, none have minimums high enough to cover local living expenses for an individual worker. Worse, Mrs. Clinton’s stance misses the big picture, which is that the risk in keeping the minimum too low is bigger than the risk of raising it too high. One reason a third of Americans today live in or near poverty is that many jobs in the United States do not pay enough to live on. This is due in part to the steady erosion in the minimum wage — even as labor productivity, corporate profits and executive compensation have gone up. A raise to $12 an hour in 2022, or a mere $24,000 a year for a full-time job, would only lock in that dynamic. Even a $15 minimum works out to only $31,000 a year. [...] </blockquote> If your establishment “friends” are telling you <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/01/31/1477821/-One-of-the-Main-ways-the-System-stays-Rigged" target="_blank" title="">how short-sighted</a> your wage targets are — it may be time for bold action and a change in your policy goals, instead of less-than-truthful slogans … like "Hillary supports a $15 Minimum Wage." rss@dailykos.com (jamess) BernieSanders dignityofwork FactChecking FederalMinimum HillaryClinton incomeinequality LivingWage MinimumWage NationalFloor povertywages Questions QuestionsNotAsked SEIU SettingTheStandard StatesRights TheyThinkWereStupid _1491851 Fri, 26 Feb 2016 19:11:47 +0000 Economist who supports Clinton, says that Sanders Plans will result in a 5.3% Growth Rate http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/02/26/1491611/-Economist-who-supports-Clinton-says-that-Sanders-Plans-will-result-in-a-5-3-Growth-Rate <h3>Imagine that — well targeted government spending can be a serious force for growth in a Economy. Who knew? These 170 educated <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/01/18/1471553/-170-Top-Economists-endorse-the-Sanders-Wall-Street-Reform-Plan" target="_blank">professionals did</a>.</h3> 1. Robert Reich, University of California Berkeley 2. Robert Hockett, Cornell University 3. James K. Galbraith, University of Texas 4. Dean Baker, Center for Economic and Policy Research 5. Christine Desan, Harvard Law School 6. Jeff Connaughton, Former Chief of Staff, Senator Ted Kaufman 7. William Darity Jr., Duke University 8. Eileen Appelbaum, Center for Economic and Policy Research 9. Brad Miller, Former U.S. Congressman and Senior Fellow, Roosevelt Institute 10. William K. Black, University of Missouri-Kansas City Those are the top 10 economic professionals who endorsed Sanders plans. And there are <a href="http://www.inquisitr.com/2709907/170-top-economists-feel-the-bern-endorse-bernie-sanders-wall-street-reform-plan/" target="_blank">160 more</a>. <pre></pre> <h3> <a href="http://observer.com/2016/02/liberal-economists-defend-bernie-sanders-against-a-chorus-of-critics/" target="_blank">Liberal Economists Defend Bernie Sanders</a> Against a Chorus of Critics</h3> by <a href="http://observer.com/author/ross/">Ross Barkan</a>, www.observer.com — 02/24/16 <blockquote> [...] The economists defending Mr. Sanders, including Robert Reich, a former secretary of labor in the Bill Clinton administration, said the Vermont independent’s far-reaching plan, which calls for a single-payer healthcare, free college tuition, infrastructure investments and higher taxes, is “absolutely critical for the future.” “One of the biggest reasons for this kind of success coming out of the Sanders plan has to do with the magnitude of the plan,” Mr. Reich argued in a conference call organized by the Sanders campaign. “There is nothing unrealistic about it.” The Sanders campaign was on the defensive after several economists <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/18/the-economist-who-validated-bernie-sanders-big-liberal-plans-is-voting-for-hillary-clinton/" target="_blank">criticized</a> an analysis by Gerald Friedman, an economist at the University of Massachusetts, that projected Mr. Sanders’ policies would eventually boost middle class incomes and fuel economic growth at a stunning rate of 5.3 percent a year. The growth would provide the tax revenues for the Sanders administration’s ambitions, according to Mr. Friedman, who said he actually supports Hillary Clinton for president. [...] </blockquote> Gerald Friedman has been attacked by the Clinton allies, for simply taking Sanders plans and crunching them through a “standard economic model.” Nevermind that he is an actual Clinton supporter himself — and merely acting as an impartial professional. <pre></pre> William K. Black who has a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_K._Black" target="_blank">distinguished</a> and credible career — having been “a central figure in exposing Congressional corruption during the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savings_and_Loan_Crisis">Savings and Loan Crisis</a>” of the 80s and 90s — a defrauding of the American people, where Bankers actually DID go to Jail. This Doctor of Law William K Black — Executive Director of the Institute for Fraud Prevention — had this to say about Bernie Sanders game-leveling government spending plans: <blockquote> William K. Black looks at this attack on Sanders, through Friedman, at New Economic Perspectives in “<a href="http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2016/02/krugman-gang-4-need-apologize-smearing-gerald-friedman.html" target="_blank" title="">Krugman and the Gang of 4 Need to Apologize for Smearing Gerald Friedman</a>“: [...] Orthodox economists just hate the results of Friedman’s model, for the results support Bernie, rather than Hillary. Worse, they show that orthodox economists’ claims that the government can do little good is a myth. They set out to kill the messenger, Friedman, even though Friedman shares their support for Hillary. [...] Friedman’s modeling of Bernie’s plan is so terrifying … because it shows — under the orthodox economic models – that the government can be a powerful engine of producing “huge beneficial impacts.” What is required is that our President has the nerve to junk the orthodox economic myths. … Notice that they do not claim that Friedman’s “arithmetic” is inaccurate in the sense of making a computational or data input error. Nor do they attack his use of the conventional models they embrace. No, their criticism is that they hate the results of Friedman’s accurate arithmetic. [...] </blockquote> <div> from: <h4> <a href="http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/what-mainstream-media-wont-tell-you-about-bernie-sanders-economic-plan" target="_blank">What the Mainstream Media Won't Tell You</a> About Bernie Sanders' Economic Plan</h4> </div> <div> <div> <div> <div>Leading economist's study shows the plan would create a stimulus, but the mainstream media isn't covering it.</div> </div> </div> </div> <div>by <a href="http://www.alternet.org/authors/dave-johnson-0">Dave Johnson</a> / OurFuture.org; alternet.org — February 23, 2016 </div> <div> <div> <pre></pre> Something tells me the attackers of Gerald Friedman’s study, which has a finding a %5.3 growth rate under a Sanders Administration, won’t be apologizing to their fellow Clinton supporter any time soon. And the MSM won’t be honestly reporting these findings any time soon either. Because afterall when it comes to providing democratic, fact-based information — our American electioneering process, as is conducted by our Corporate Media, is still very much ‘stacked’ to favor a status-quo results. No Big Ideas please. Outside the Beltway types, with their non-corporate funders (aka. Citizens) — need not apply. And if you do, don’t expect fair treatment. That is not how their attack the Messenger game is played. And they do all that, under the guise of “entertainment-journalism”. New Ideas (ie. Democratic values prior to the establishment of DLC) must be shunned at all costs. New Rules. </div> </div> rss@dailykos.com (jamess) AgendaSetting Attackthemessenger BalancingthePlayingField BernieSanders BoostingTheEconomy BottomUpGrowth CorporateRules CrunchingTheNumbers DeanBaker DemocraticSocialism EconomicGrowth Economy GeraldFriedman incomeinequality InvestingInOURNation JamesKGalbraith MediaFilters mediasilence MSM MultiplierEffect RobertReich SavingAndLoansCrisis StandardModel TheDeathofJournalism TheG-InTheirEquations TheyThinkWereStupid WilliamKBlack _1491611 Fri, 26 Feb 2016 07:49:46 +0000 They're Back -- CDOs with a New Name, But under the same old Management http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/02/26/1491455/-They-re-Back-CDOs-with-a-New-Name-But-under-the-same-old-Management The Wall Street “invention” that let them off-load the Risk of thousands of bundled Mortgages, to unsuspecting investors like Pension Funds and Municipalities, under the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/entertainment/truth-teller-the-big-short-trailer/2016/02/23/c310e142-d97e-11e5-8210-f0bd8de915f6_video.html" target="_blank" title="">fraudulent stamp</a> of AAA Securities, in exchange for “trough-like” income streams — They’re Back! CDO-type risk-shifting contracts are being pedaled to the greedy and unsuspecting, as a sure-fire way to beat the Treasuries market. And <s>people</s> high-roller investors are buying them. Because they are new and improved with a shiny new Name (BTO), customized just for the individual “investor’s” desired outcomes. Surprise! ….. <h3><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-04/goldman-sachs-hawks-cdos-tainted-by-credit-crisis-under-new-name" title="">Goldman Sachs Hawks CDOs Tainted by Credit Crisis Under New Name</a></h3> by Lisa Abramowicz, bloomberg.com -- Feb 4, 2015 <blockquote>[...] Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is joining other banks in peddling something they’re referring to as a “bespoke tranche opportunity.” [BTO] That’s essentially a CDO backed by single-name credit-default swaps, customized based on investors’ wishes. The pools of derivatives are cut into varying slices of risk that are sold to investors such as hedge funds. ….. The derivatives are similar to a product that became popular during the last credit boom and exacerbated losses when markets seized up. [...] “A tranche of a bespoke portfolio of credits can offer exposure to diversified risk with the possibility of leverage, credit enhancement and enhanced returns,” according to a Jan. 23 e-mail message from a Goldman Sachs employee, reviewed by Bloomberg News. It went out with the header: “Goldman: BESPOKE TRANCHE OPPORTUNITY.” </blockquote> And the best/worst part about this new BTO investment for “off-loading” Bankers’ everyday Risks — they aren’t subject to the ‘watered-down’ regulations of Dodd-Frank, that target the CDO’s that caused the last Wall Street disaster ... rss@dailykos.com (jamess) BanksOwnthePlace BespokeTrancheOpportunity BTO CDO Derivatives DickDurbin DoddFrank GlassSteagall GoldmanSachs MERS MortgageScam OtherPeoplesMoney pensionfunds PoolsOfDerivatives robosigners TBTF TheBigShort TheyThinkWereStupid TooBigToExist TradingAwayRisk WallStreet _1491455 Fri, 26 Feb 2016 01:24:34 +0000