Town Hall Meeting

Nouriel Roubini has been explaining basic economics for years now, and gained national prominence in 2008 when he analyzed correctly the housing sector and predicted the housing price drops. People at the time of course called him crazy when he said house prices could fall 35%. Here he explains how capitalism can kill itself: if corporations cut labor and reduce wages, it then reduces demand because people don’t have money to spend, which then leads to more cuts. The downward spiral is reinforced until everyone loses.

You can watch the entire 22 minute interview here.

These are the types of things that the military spending (50% of your federal taxes) go to each year. Note that “the troops” aren’t part of it. Most people don’t realize where the bulk of taxes go, unfortunately. I suspect our much-talked-about existential threat, the al qaeda, isn’t very worried about hypersonic missiles. Although I must admit it is an interesting engineering experiment, and possibly not as ridiculous as the Gay Bomb idea.

“The first HTV-2, launched by Pentagon bleeding-edge research arm DARPA in April of 2010, disappeared over the Pacific after just nine minutes of flight. The vehicle was never recovered.”

“tens of millions of dollars poured into the Falcon program every year”

“Lockheed Martin was paid to build two copies of the aircraft before the first was even flown. If there turned out to be a flaw in the design, correcting it might’ve been near-impossible.”

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/pentagons-mach-20-missile/

A pie chart to show the craziness in picture form….
http://www.warresisters.org/pages/piechart.htm

The “Gay Bomb”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_bomb

We now get to enjoy their economy, so this video gives thanks.

Just keeping score, I believe the economic accomplishments so far were extensions of the Bush tax cuts for 2 more years, including for millionaires and billionaires, and then slashing government spending (with only surface cuts to the bloated defense budget). Thank you so much, I can’t wait to see the unemployment rate after these changes!

The horrific bombings and murders in Norway are abhorrent. The issues underneath the headlines are pretty upsetting too. Just some basic facts: the suspect is Andrew Breivik, he wrote a 1500 page manifesto which apparently includes anti-immigrant, pro-Christian, take-back-the-government opinions on European life. Lots of hatred toward Muslims and Marxists is in there as well. Glenn Greenwald has made very good points about several prominent newspapers first reporting the bombing was done by Muslims. Then once they found out it was a white Christian, they stopped using the term terrorism! Beyond that, some prominent news media are saying he was just copying Al Qaeda, as though they invented terrorism for crying out loud. It’s amazing to sit back and watch the prism through which current events are filtered through.

Another point that I want to add is this isn’t just a one in a million crackpot, it is an ideology that is getting more and more mainstream in Europe and America. Thankfully it’s still in the deep minority, but it is getting some credibility in the US. It’s roots are in fascism from the 20th century. It’s the superior race stuff, the corporations are our friend stuff, the hatred of anything public/government. Just a reminder, because rose colored glasses make “The West” seem holy and great, that fascism was invented by “The West.” In fact, when people now use the term “Islamic Fascism” its like a slap in the face to Muslims because they were victims of Mussolini and Hitler, especially the Northern Africa nations like Libya and Morocco.

My main point is that we all must follow the law of universality: that we must apply the rules equally to all. If politically motivated murder is not terrorism when it’s a white person, then its not terrorism when it’s anyone else. If you want to condemn all Muslims for 9/11, then you must condemn all Christians for the Norway bombings.

FYI to Facebook users (Google or Yahoo! too). The interview touches on Facebook about 2 minutes in. He also touches on how the NY Times and the Guardian have broken their agreement to only redact things that save peoples lives – they now redact wikileaks info to save reputation and profit.

The interview was done by the Russia Times and the text can be found there.

On May 1st, 2011, we learned that an operation in Pakistan killed Osama bin Laden. After 10 years of war and the death of Osama bin Laden, it’s time to bring the troops home from Afghanistan. With al-Qaeda driven from the country and Bin Laden now dead, the [SLIVER OF] rationale for war has evaporated. It’s time to stop now. The swift withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan must begin immediately. If you haven’t already, sign the petition and we’ll deliver it to the White House this week.

http://rethinkafghanistan.com/

In case you feel alone as I do sometimes, here is an ABC News/Washington Post poll result on Afghanistan. Notice this is 2 months before the recent Bin Laden news…

“Do you think the United States should or should not withdraw a substantial number of U.S. combat forces from Afghanistan this summer?” 3/10-13/2011
Should
73%
Should not
21%
Unsure
5%

“Do you think the United States will or will not withdraw a substantial number of U.S. combat forces from Afghanistan this
summer?” 3/10-13/2011
Will
39%
Will not
53%
Unsure
8%

http://www.pollingreport.com/afghan.htm

That is not a typo. This was stated by Moore recently at a Wisconsin demonstration. It is true – it was fact checked by the organization Politifact. See the link below for the full explanation of how they verified it.

http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2011/mar/10/michael-moore/michael-moore-says-400-americans-have-more-wealth-/

Make sure to keep this in mind when people talk about how to deal with the deficit.

Chris Hedges writes another great article, this one about America’s schools and their teachers. He talks about how hedge funds have gotten really interested in schools once charter schools came about. And how hard it is to get good people to want to become teachers when they are treated so badly and paid so poorly and micromanaged every step of the way.

“Teachers, their unions under attack, are becoming as replaceable as minimum-wage employees at Burger King. We spurn real teachers–those with the capacity to inspire children to think, those who help the young discover their gifts and potential–and replace them with instructors who teach to narrow, standardized tests. These instructors obey. They teach children to obey. And that is the point.”

“It is better to be at odds with the whole world than, being one, to be at odds with myself,” Socrates said.

“What brings us meaning and worth as human beings is our ability to stand up and pit ourselves against injustice and the vast, moral indifference of the universe. Once justice perishes, as Kant knew, life loses all meaning. Those who meekly obey laws and rules imposed from the outside–including religious laws–are not moral human beings. The fulfillment of an imposed law is morally neutral. The truly educated make their own wills serve the higher call of justice, empathy and reason. Socrates made the same argument when he said it is better to suffer wrong than to do wrong.”

Read the entire article here

Check out this excellent testimony and discussion about the future of newspapers held in Congress May 6, 2009. Arianna Huffington made some terrible statements in this panel, including something to the effect of “Rupert Murdoch has some great ideas about the future of newspapers.” Sigh. It sheds some light on her recent decision to put the liar/distorter/race baiter Andrew Breitbart on the front page of her famous aggregator of news, the Huffington Post. If you don’t have time to watch the whole thing, at least watch David Simon’s initial remarks which occurs between minutes 38 and 48. Simon is the creator of the all time great show “The Wire.”

A song and video was made in honor of the rebellion in Egypt which officially started January 25, 2011. The hash “#” is a shout out to Twitter*. It starts with a quote from Gandhi.

*Speaking of Twitter, one interesting thought I have heard is that when Mubarak literally turned off the internet about 4 days into the protests, he essentially took people away from their homes and computers and out onto the streets. He grew the protests by doing that. It’s a very interesting point, and also shows how the internet, while helpful, can also make people passive and stay home.

“The report, “Failing its Families,” says at least 178 countries have national laws guaranteeing paid leave for new mothers, while the handful of exceptions include the U.S., Swaziland and Papua New Guinea. More than 50 nations, including most Western countries, also guarantee paid leave for new fathers.”

“Past efforts in Congress to enact a paid family leave law have floundered, drawing opposition from business lobbyists who say it would be a burden on employers. Instead, there is the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act, which enables workers with new children or seriously ill family members to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave. By excluding companies with fewer than 50 employees, it covers only about half the work force, and many who are covered cannot afford to take unpaid leave.

“In the European Union, paid parental leave varies from 14 weeks in Malta to 16 months in Sweden, which reserves at least two months of its leave exclusively for fathers. Most EU countries have maintained the provisions of their programs despite the recession….the bid to expand paid leave in the U.S. was hampered by the clout of corporate lobbyists and the relatively weak status of the labor movement. ”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110223/ap_on_re_us/us_paid_parental_leave

Unbelievable stuff…California and New Jersey are the ONLY states with paid leave programs, and its a meager 6 weeks. And before I hear the inevitable “well then move somewhere else,” remember that demanding more rights is how communities improve.

I thought you might like this discussion of Reagan after all the propaganda we get about him on a regular basis, including from Democrats….

AMY GOODMAN: Professor Chomsky, I want to ask you about former President Ronald Reagan. A very big deal is made of him now on the hundredth anniversary of his birth. Last year President Obama signed legislation establishing a commission to mark the centennial.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: President Reagan helped, as much as any president, to restore a sense of optimism in our country, a spirit that transcended politics, that transcended even the most heated arguments of the day.

AMY GOODMAN: Noam Chomsky, your response?

NOAM CHOMSKY: This deification of Reagan is extremely interesting and a very—it’s scandalous, but it tells a lot about the country. I mean, when Reagan left office, he was the most unpopular living president, apart from Nixon, even below Carter. If you look at his years in office, he was not particularly popular. He was more or less average. He severely harmed the American economy. When he came into office, the United States was the world’s leading creditor. By the time he left, it was the world’s leading debtor. He was fiscally totally irresponsible—wild spending, no fiscal responsibility. Government actually grew during the Reagan years.

He was also a passionate opponent of the free market. I mean, the way he’s being presented is astonishing. He was the most protectionist president in post-war American history. He essentially virtually doubled protective barriers to try to preserve incompetent U.S. management, which was being driven out by superior Japanese production.

During his years, we had the first major fiscal crises. During the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, the New Deal regulations were still in effect, and that prevented financial crises. The financialization of the economy began to take off in the ’70s, but with the deregulation, of course you start getting crises. Reagan left office with the biggest financial crisis since the Depression: the home savings and loan.

I won’t even talk about his international behavior. I mean, it was just abominable. I mean, if we gained our optimism by killing hundreds of thousands of people in Central America and destroying any hope for democracy and freedom and supporting South Africa while it killed about a million-and-a-half people in neighboring countries, and on and on, if that’s the way we get back our optimism, we’re in bad trouble.

Well, what happened after Reagan left office is that there was the beginnings of an effort to carry out a kind of—this Reagan legacy, you know, to try to create from this really quite miserable creature some kind of deity. And amazingly, it succeeded. I mean, Kim Il-sung would have been impressed. The events that took place when Reagan died, you know, the Reagan legacy, this Obama business, you don’t get that in free societies. It would be ridiculed. What you get it is in totalitarian states. And I’m waiting to see what comes next. This morning, North Korea announced that on the birthday of the current god, a halo appeared over his birthplace. That will probably happen tomorrow over Reagan’s birthplace. But when we go in—I mean, this is connected with what we were talking about before. If you want to control a population, keep them passive, keep beating them over the head and let them look somewhere else, one way to do it is to give them a god to worship.

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/2/17/democracy_uprising_in_the_usa_noam

Another thought on American democracy I heard from Richard Wolff: if there isn’t democracy in your workplace, and Americans spend most of their time there, how much democracy is in America?

Inflation for 2010 is about the same as it was in 2009. Remember to keep this in mind when dealing with wage increases at work, or returns on investments.

2010 Consumer Price Index: 1.5%
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/cpi_01142011.htm

2010 Producer Price Index: 4.0%
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/ppi_01132011.htm

It sounds odd and totally wrong, but there are downsides to social mobility. Some of the most famous philosophers in history have discussed it: Kant, Benthem, Aristotle. This article from BBC News discusses the downsides they give, such as physical dislocation (moving to where the jobs are), isolation from family and shallow relationships with friends due to short friendships. Also, if riches are based on merit, then you would only have yourself to blame for your own poverty. Another downside is the things that generate money may be terribly soul draining. For example a banker may make a lot of money putting them into the wealthy class, and an artist may end up poor. So assuming upward mobility is desirable, then the incentive is to have more bankers and fewer artists…is this the best possible world?

While I think that social mobility is very important and vital to human existence, it is an interesting and useful thought experiment.

Sam Cooke was a very talented musician and civil rights activist. He wrote and performed some of the most famous songs of all time. He was senselessly murdered at the age of 33, in Los Angeles in 1964. According to Wikipedia, he “had 29 top-40 hits in the U.S. between 1957 and 1964.” He is considered a major pioneer of Soul Music. He also was a trailblazer by taking control of the business side of his art too, founding his own label and publishing company.

Check out this documentary about Cooke here on youtube. It is divided into 5 parts, here is the 1st…

Make her president!

-Thanks G for the link

It’s funny because it’s true.

-Thanks G for the link!

It is the name given to the parliamentary republic of Germany from the years 1918-1933. Noam Chomsky gave some interviews in 2010 to The Progressive Magazine and Chris Hedges about the risk of U.S. fascism and mentioned “the Weimar Republic was the peak of Western civilization and was regarded as a model of democracy.” He went on to explain how quickly it failed and turned into Nazi Germany, drawing parallels to current situations in the U.S. One such parallel is Germans got sick of government wrangling and their service to the powerful. A fringe movement like the Nazi’s, who had 2% of the vote in 1928, took power by 1933. And one reason they got more support is because Germans figured they couldn’t be much worse than the leaders they had so far.

I personally don’t know much about the Weimar Republic, but it sounds like an important part of world history and the history of democracy, so the more people know about it the better. Chomsky’s explanation and this youtube video seem like a decent place to start.

Chomsky’s Weimar Republic Explanation with the Progressive Magazine

Chomsky’s Weimar Republic Explanation with Chris Hedges and Truthdig

The fast food chain Taco Bell was sued in federal court today for using the word beef to describe their meat when it contains other things called “binders” and “fillers.” The claim is Taco Bell does this to gain a competitive advantage over other restaurants who serve 100% beef because it’s cheaper to serve something that is, say 60% beef. The lawsuit says they shouldn’t be allowed to call it beef, but should they be allowed to sell this to the public at all?!!

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/health/fl-taco-bell-suit-20110124,0,6513275.story

Mother Jones magazine has a great article this month exposing the “Tea Party Patriots” organization as a pyramid scheme derived from Amway and Herbalife, whose founders are not coincidentally Right Wing, and now Tea Party activists. The idea in Amway and Herbalife is to convince others to work for you, and give you a cut of their money, and then get others to work for them, and so on, hence the pyramid. The money flows up in the billions, if you are Amway. This is also called “Multilevel Marketing.” In Stephanie Mencimer’s article, she shows how the TPP does this too, by getting activists to send them money, so they can get more activists, so they can get more money. The network itself is the product, which as we know (because its how Google and Facebook make their billions) is worth a lot of money, and of course has serious privacy implications. Another very informative point Mencimer makes is that the Multilevel Marketing pitch of “freedom from bosses, schedules, and financial worries” fits right into the Tea Party pitch.

How to Win Votes and Influence People:
Is the tea party movement’s biggest group just a marketing scheme?
Mother Jones, Jan-Feb, 2011 by Stephanie Mencimer

There’s a book Mark Meckler recommends to reporters and others seeking insight into the tea party juggernaut. Called The Starfish and the Spider, the popular business text explores the “unstoppable power” of decentralized organizations. (Cut off a spider’s head and it dies; cut off a starfish’s leg and it may grow into a new starfish.) “We’re like the starfish,” Meckler, a national coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots, the largest of the movement’s factions, remarked in February. “There is no head, there is no leader of the organization. There are thousands of starfish out there, and they are self-replicating in that way.”

Meckler, it turns out, is intimately familiar with this kind of self-replication: For years, he was a top distributor for Herbalife, a company with a long history of runins with state and federal regulators that has been accused of preying on consumers with promises of easy money and health miracles via nutritional supplements. Multilevel marketing (MLM) companies like Herbalife (and Amway, Prepaid Legal Services, and others) make the bulk of their money not by selling retail products, but by recruiting independent distributors, who then make money by recruiting even more distributors. The more people you recruit, the more income you get. Like the tea party movement, these companies tout a bottom-up approach and depend on a never-ending supply of people willing to work long hours with no assurance of pay.

Read the rest here