PERRspectives: The National Debt? Republicans Built That

PERRspectives: The National Debt? Republicans Built That
"President Bush added $5.1 trillion in red ink to the national ledger. But while the debt has grown by over $5 trillion during Obama's first term, less than $1 trillion can be attributed to new programs he put in place. The rest is the result of the tax revenue loss from the deep recession which began in December 2007 and the continuation of policies inherited from George W. Bush."

American Commitment: Of Koch, By Koch and For Koch

American Commitment: Of Koch, By Koch and For Koch
"Now that the final FEC reports are in for Election 2012 and we can survey the damage, it's clear that the Kochtopus has grown, spread, and infected everything from state redistricting initiatives to the national races."

The Financial Elite's War Against the US Economy | Common Dreams

The Financial Elite's War Against the US Economy | Common Dreams
"Today’s economic warfare is not the kind waged a century ago between labor and its industrial employers. Finance has moved to capture the economy at large, industry and mining, public infrastructure (via privatization) and now even the educational system. (At over $1 trillion, U.S. student loan debt came to exceed credit-card debt in 2012.) The weapon in this financial warfare is no larger military force. The tactic is to load economies (governments, companies and families) with debt, siphon off their income as debt service and then foreclose when debtors lack the means to pay. Indebting government gives creditors a lever to pry away land, public infrastructure and other property in the public domain. Indebting companies enables creditors to seize employee pension savings. And indebting labor means that it no longer is necessary to hire strikebreakers to attack union organizers and strikers."

The GOP Has Taken America Hostage -- Is There a Downside for Them? | Alternet

The GOP Has Taken America Hostage -- Is There a Downside for Them? | Alternet
"Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the fiscal cliff "negotiations" is that there is essentially no downside for Congressional Republicans in holding the country and its economy hostage. Democrats are less than two months removed from having resoundingly won the Presidency, gained seats in the Senate, and earned over a million more votes for House candidates than did Republicans. Due to gerrymandering, however, the Republicans still have a narrow majority in the House. Due to the Senate's ungovernable filibuster rules, Republicans can also control the balance of legislation in the Upper Chamber as well."

Why It's a Privilege to be a Progressive in 2013 | Common Dreams

Why It's a Privilege to be a Progressive in 2013 | Common Dreams
"We enter the new year with a degree of optimism, because Americans, except for Congress and the uninformed, are beginning to realize that cooperation transcends self-centeredness as a means of national betterment. Here are some of the specific reasons to be proud of our progressivism"

Foreign Policy Mag's 'Top 100 Global Thinkers': A Rogue's Gallery of Imperialists, Billionaires and Cheerleaders of Capitalist Domination | Alternet

Foreign Policy Mag's 'Top 100 Global Thinkers': A Rogue's Gallery of Imperialists, Billionaires and Cheerleaders of Capitalist Domination | Alternet
"Given the neoliberal presentation of the mission statement, it's not surprising to find corporate apologists well-represented in the marketplace. Global Thinker no. 65, for example, is US economist Paul Romer, whose crusade to revive the practice of colonialism in the world is creatively euphemised by FP into a "novel idea for persuading a developing country to sign away a parcel of land to be governed by a foreign power as a model for economic growth"."

FBI Docs Redact Threats to Assassinate OWS Leaders

FBI Docs Redact Threats to Assassinate OWS Leaders
"Naomi Wolf gives an excellent in-depth analysis of those newly released documents that reveal the FBI's counterterrorism monitoring of Occupy Wall Street, and points out the assassination by sniper fire threats against OWS leaders that the FBI never bothered to inform anyone in the movement about."

Americans For Job Security: Conduit For Right Wing Dark Money

Americans For Job Security: Conduit For Right Wing Dark Money
"After Citizens United, attention has been paid to the sheer amount of money the right wing poured into elections and how that money has influenced public opinion, debate, and outcomes. But for the most part, attention has been placed on the so-called SuperPACs and their participation. While American Crossroads and others were certainly big players on the national landscape, little attention has been paid to how they operate on a state by state basis, and how they are used to launder money across state lines in order to subvert even the mildest disclosure requirements. In this post and ones to follow, I'll be putting the spotlight on these organizations and how they operate together to subvert democracy."

Economic Plunder in Recent History » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

Economic Plunder in Recent History » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
"In the mid 1990s Republican New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman re-directed contributions from the pension fund for state employees to the state general account while giving tax cuts to wealthy state residents. By purposely under-funding the pension plan Ms. Whitman was able to ‘balance’ the state budget while cutting taxes. And through pension accounting loopholes, the move provided the illusion the pension plan was adequately funded as massive deficits accrued.

Cut to 2011, current Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and the New Jersey legislature pass bi-partisan pension ‘reform’ that ‘solves’ the systematic looting of the pension plan by cutting promised payouts to pensioners."

America’s Deceptive 2012 Fiscal Cliff » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

America’s Deceptive 2012 Fiscal Cliff » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
"Wall Street lobbyists blame unemployment and the loss of industrial competitiveness on government spending and budget deficits – especially on social programs – and labor’s demand to share in the economy’s rising productivity. The myth (perhaps we should call it junk economics) is that (1) governments should not run deficits (at least, not by printing their own money), because (2) public money creation and high taxes (at lest on the wealthy) cause prices to rise. The cure for economic malaise (which they themselves have caused), is said to beless public spending, along with more tax cuts for the wealthy, who euphemize themselves as “job creators.” Demanding budget surpluses, bank lobbyists promise that banks can provide the economy with enough purchasing power to grow. Then, when this ends in crisis, they insist that austerity can squeeze out enough income to enable private-sector debts to be paid.

The reality is that when banks load the economy down with debt, this leaves less to spend on domestic goods and services while driving up housing prices (and hence the cost of living) with reckless credit creation on looser lending terms. Yet on top of this debt deflation, bank lobbyists urge fiscal deflation: budget surpluses rather than pump-priming deficits."

FBI Ignored Deadly Threat to Occupiers » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

FBI Ignored Deadly Threat to Occupiers » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
"New documents obtained from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security by the Partnership for Civil Justice and released this past week show that the FBI and other intelligence and law enforcement agencies began a campaign of monitoring, spying and disrupting the Occupy Movement at least two months before the first occupation actions began in late September 2011."

Plea From Chinese Worker Found In Kmart Halloween Decoration

Plea From Chinese Worker Found In Kmart Halloween Decoration
"We tend not to see the connection between our consumption of cheap Chinese crap and human rights abuses, but after reading this story, I guarantee you: It's going to be a lot harder to maintain that state of denial."

Lindsay Graham: I Will Destroy America’s Solvency Unless The Social Security Retirement Age Is Raised

Lindsay Graham: I Will Destroy America’s Solvency Unless The Social Security Retirement Age Is Raised: Although official Washington is currently fixated on the so-called “Fiscal Cliff,” the biggest threat to American prosperity is the debt ceiling, which must be raised in February to prevent economic catastrophe. If Republicans refuse to reach a deal on the so-called cliff, the Congressional Budget Office predicts that they will spark a new recession in [...]/p

5 Ways GOP Tried to Subvert Democracy in 2012 -- And They'll Try Again | Alternet

5 Ways GOP Tried to Subvert Democracy in 2012 -- And They'll Try Again | Alternet
"Creating barriers to voting, demonizing communities of color, attacking voting rights laws and their defenders, unleashing billionaires who financed candidates like an extreme sport, and hiding corporate donors behind opaque front groups—these were the chapters in the Republican Party’s electoral playbook in the 2012 election cycle."

Crown Thy Good, America | Common Dreams

Crown Thy Good, America | Common Dreams
"Dennis Kucinich leaves office next week after 16 years in Congress, vowing  he'll serve to the end "with great energy....The whole concept of a lame duck doesn't work with me. I am not lame. I am not a duck. I am an eagle, and I'm still flying high." As a fond farewell, the great 2002 anti-war speech/prayer he offered "with hope for our country... with the understanding that freedom stirs the human heart, and fear stills it"."

How Corporate Interests Killed Common Sense

How Corporate Interests Killed Common Sense
"All in all, $40 million was spent to defeat a measure which would have expanded food labels. Food labels! Here is the million-dollar plus Hall of Shame, much of it reported after the election:"

Presenting America's Top Ten Greediest of 2012

Presenting America's Top Ten Greediest of 2012
"Most of them wear power suits and dart in and out of the executive suites that sit high atop America’s most elegant corporate towers. Year in and year out, these greedy grab ungodly rewards for their own labor — and deny their employees anything close to decent compensation for theirs."

The Ten Most Outrageous Economic Calamities of 2012 | Alternet

The Ten Most Outrageous Economic Calamities of 2012 | Alternet
"It was another year of Wall Street treachery. Those who took down our economy still have not been held accountable. Instead, Wall Street successfully lured the political establishment into a phony fiscal cliff/austerity debate. So instead of creating programs to put millions of Americans back to work, Washington is debating how much more to take away from the poor and the middleclass. Let's take a closer look at the most disastrous economic events from 2012. 

Here's our countdown:"

Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi on the biggest Wall Street story of the year: Libor

GOP Senators Want To Take Debt Ceiling Hostage In Order To Raise Retirement Age

GOP Senators Want To Take Debt Ceiling Hostage In Order To Raise Retirement Age: Two Republican senators want to use the threat of an economic meltdown to raise the retirement age and cut Medicare. Sens. Bob Corker (R-TN) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) introduced a plan today that would raise the federal debt limit by $1 trillion in exchange for $1 trillion in cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, [...]/p

The Ruling Party of Billionaire-istan

Thom Hartmann makes his case for a 100 percent tax on income over $1 Billion.

Massive East Coast Dock Strike Averted; Washington Sighs in Relief | Alternet

Massive East Coast Dock Strike Averted; Washington Sighs in Relief | Alternet
"At close to the 11th hour, federal mediators hammered out a tentative agreement between employers and the dockworkers union that avoids the crippling of 14 East Coast ports."

Congress Delays Aid Bill as Sandy Victims Suffer

As U.S. Infrastructure Crumbles, China Opens World's Longest High-Speed Rail Line

As U.S. Infrastructure Crumbles, China Opens World's Longest High-Speed Rail Line
"as we're seeing U.S. infrastructure crumble due to Republican intransigence, China continues to leave us in the dust: Jobs and innovation, leaving the station:"

Banks Paid Nearly $11 Billion In Fines In 2012

Banks Paid Nearly $11 Billion In Fines In 2012: Major banks this year paid $10.7 billion in fines for a host of transgressions, including money laundering and foreclosure fraud. As CNN Money noted, “Slightly more than half of the fines were related to improper mortgage practices.” However, those fines won’t put much of a dent in the financial sector’s bottom line, as “Thomson Reuters [...]/p

Constitution Puts Burden Of Budget Blame On Boehner

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Robert Scheer: Cerberus Collected Ex-Government Opportunists - Truthdig

Robert Scheer: Cerberus Collected Ex-Government Opportunists - Truthdig
"How fitting that Dan Quayle, a bumbling excuse for a vice president of the United States, should end up as a top executive of a $20 billion private equity firm mired in controversy. Quayle, who signed on with Cerberus in 1999, was with that company during its takeover and subsequent bankruptcy of Chrysler, questionable military contracting deals in Afghanistan and, most recently, manufacturing the assault rifle used in the Newtown, Conn., massacre."

The Progressive Honor Roll of 2012 | The Nation

The Progressive Honor Roll of 2012 | The Nation
"he Nation’s annual Most Valuable Progressives Honor Roll has been going strong for the better part of a decade, and its alumni are moving up. Elizabeth Warren is now a senator-elect. Keith Ellison and Raúl Grijalva co-chair the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Two of our most valuable state legislators were elected to Congress on November 6: Wisconsin’s Mark Pocan and Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema. Ed Schultz has a prime-time show on MSNBC. The Dream Act dreamers spoke from the podium of the Democratic National Convention, and President Obama and Vice President Biden hailed their courage. But after a long election season and a hopeful outcome, there is still work to be done. Here are some of the Americans doing it."

Whaddya Know? Professional Economy Wrecker Alan Greenspan Is at the Heart of the Insidiious 'Fix the Debt' Campaign | Alternet

Whaddya Know? Professional Economy Wrecker Alan Greenspan Is at the Heart of the Insidiious 'Fix the Debt' Campaign | Alternet
"Alan Greenspan will go down in history as the person who has done more damage to the U.S. economy and society that anyone who was not a foreign enemy. In fact the destruction he wreaked through his incompetence would also exceed the damage caused by almost all would-be enemies as well.

Greenspan accomplished the remarkable feat as Fed chair of ignoring the growth of the $8 trillion housing bubble. This bubble could not have been easier to see if it had been 500 feet high and lit up with huge neon signs saying "Huge Housing Bubble." But Greenspan insisted the bubble was not there. And Greenspan somehow didn't recognize that the collapse of this massive bubble would devastate the economy."

What You Need To Know About The Impending East Coast Port Strike

What You Need To Know About The Impending East Coast Port Strike: Unless a deal is reached with management, some 14,000 East Coast port workers plan to go on strike on Sunday, affecting ports from Boston to Miami. Here’s what you need to know about the impending strike: 1) Management wants to cut workers’ pay. The largest sticking point in the negotiations between the port workers and [...]/p

Chick-fil-A’s Latest Horror -- Children's Book Loaded with Propaganda to Conceal the Horrors of Corporate Agriculture | Alternet

Chick-fil-A’s Latest Horror -- Children's Book Loaded with Propaganda to Conceal the Horrors of Corporate Agriculture | Alternet
"This is not an overstatement. Chick-fil-A, like most fast-food companies, is the retail expression of the factory farming industry — an industry whose  hideous treatment of animals, vertical integration and rooting in monoculture is the opposite of the diversified family farm so beautifully glorified in “The Jolly Barnyard.” Perhaps worse, as a primary buyer — and, thus financial supporter — of the factory-farmed products, Chick-fil-A is one of the major fast-food players responsible for the demise of “Jolly Barnyard”-esque family farms.

But rather than own up to its record with a children’s book about its odious business model, Chick-Fil-A (not surprisingly) wants kids to think of it through a much more pleasant story."

How Big Business Poisons Academic Research | Common Dreams

How Big Business Poisons Academic Research | Common Dreams
"Yet public funding for that kind of research has eroded over recent decades, and these schools have turned to corporations to augment their budgets. The consequences of increasing dependence on profit-driven research in academia are becoming troublingly clear. The recent exposure of numerous sham scientific reports generated by biased individuals at supposedly objective institutions should draw intense public scrutiny to this new era of corporate-funded science."

Matt Taibbi on the Biggest Wall Street Scandal of 2012 | Alternet

Matt Taibbi on the Biggest Wall Street Scandal of 2012 | Alternet
"16 biggest banks in the world fixing global interest rates -- that's hard to beat."

Don't Cut Social Security -- Double It | Alternet

Don't Cut Social Security -- Double It | Alternet
"Fiscal cliff chatter about slashing the venerable program ignores its fundamental potential and underlying strength."

Payback! Hundreds of Homeowners Associations Threaten Banks with Foreclosure | Alternet

Payback! Hundreds of Homeowners Associations Threaten Banks with Foreclosure | Alternet
"Florida is one of the states hardest hit by foreclosures, and there are nearly a half-million foreclosed houses now standing vacant and often slowly deteriorating. When a bank forecloses on a house, evicts the family and then repossesses the property, it also assumes responsibility for maintaining the home and yard and paying homeowner or condo association fees. Yet, some of the nation’s largest and richest banks have been unable or unwilling to upkeep their properties—prompting neighbors across Florida to declare enough is enough."

Fix the debt? How about fixing private pensions first

Fix the debt? How about fixing private pensions first
"While America's CEOs are fretting about the government's so-called "fiscal cliff," millions of American workers face a financial disaster that gets much less media attention. There's a half-trillion-dollar deficit in the nation's worker retirement benefits."

11 Pieces Of Pro-Voting Legislation For 2013

11 Pieces Of Pro-Voting Legislation For 2013: The past two years have not been kind to voting rights. Across the country, the Tea Party wave of 2010 led to new restrictive voting measures, including photo identification requirements and cuts in early voting. In total, these changes had the potential to disenfranchise more than 5 million Americans. However, with progressive victories in the [...]/p

CNBC Anchor Bartiromo Attacks Sen. Cardin Over 'Fiscal Cliff' Negotiations

CNBC Anchor Bartiromo Attacks Sen. Cardin Over 'Fiscal Cliff' Negotiations
"Bartiromo is being paid pretty well to make sure the interests of the 1 percent in this country are protected, and she's got that feigned outrage down pat just like a ton of Republicans we sadly get treated to on the air these days. If anyone isn't sure what a hissy fit looks like about the fact that it's possible their taxes might go up, all you have to do is watch the clip above.

Bartiromo is being paid a salary of $1 million a year and has a net worth of about $22 million. It's a shame that information isn't run in the chyron under her name on the air every time she opens her mouth so the viewers would be made aware of her conflict of interest with her so-called "reporting" every time she starts carping about taxes on the rich going up. It's her own taxes she's complaining about."

Minimum wage indexing protects nearly a million low-wage workers this New Year | Economic Policy Institute

Minimum wage indexing protects nearly a million low-wage workers this New Year | Economic Policy Institute
"On Jan. 1, nearly a million workers in 10 states will see the value of their paychecks preserved against inflation. Workers in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington are protected each year by automatic indexing of their state’s minimum wage."

Meet the Grandfather of the Fiscal Cliff: He Works for ALEC | Alternet

Meet the Grandfather of the Fiscal Cliff: He Works for ALEC | Alternet
"Arthur Laffer, author of the discredited trickle-down economics of the Reagan administration, is back with a vengeance, selling his snake oil to state legislatures across the nation."

The 7 Worst Things About McDonald's | Alternet

The 7 Worst Things About McDonald's | Alternet
"McDonald’s has become synonymous with food that’s terrible for you, low-wage jobs and overzealous marketing to children. Largely that’s because of McDonald’s scale; the company serves more customers each day than the entire population of Great Britain, and it hires some one million workers each year (reportedly one in eight Americans have been employed by McDonald’s).

This is all to say that there’s a lot to hate about McDonald’s. As such, here is a not-comprehensive list of some of the more outrageous facts about McDonald’s, past and present."

Lindsey Graham Continues His Hostage Taking Threats on the Debt Ceiling

Lindsey Graham Continues His Hostage Taking Threats on the Debt Ceiling
"Here we go again with Lindsey Graham continuing to threaten to use the debt ceiling to inflict pain on the working class, or as he calls it, "saving Social Security and Medicare." Graham made this exact same threat almost a year ago where he was a little more specific about his plans for our social safety nets."

AFSCME president on the ‘war on working families’

PERRspectives: The Fiscal Cliffs of Dover

PERRspectives: The Fiscal Cliffs of Dover
"That doesn't mean the world will end if the U.S. goes over the cliff on January 1st. After all, Congress and the Obama administration can take action any time before or after December 31, 2012 to avoid the new recession inaction would likely produce. But whatever agreement President Obama reaches with Congressional Republicans cannot slash the debt too fast too soon. Economic growth and job creation, not deficit reduction, must be the top priority for the United States.

This week, the Washington Post summed up what premature austerity looks like. "Fiscal cliff?" Anthony Faiola asked, "Britain has already jumped." And we know what happened after that leap."

What Would a Country Without Labor Unions Look Like? » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

What Would a Country Without Labor Unions Look Like? » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
"Yet you still hear people—not just conservative pundits and free market fundamentalists, but regular working folks—blame the unions for our problems.  It’s true.  Regular, good-hearted working folks are now hostile to the only institution capable of representing their interests.  How bizarre is that?"

Washington's Austerity Plan Threatens the 50 Million Americans Already in Poverty | Common Dreams

Washington's Austerity Plan Threatens the 50 Million Americans Already in Poverty | Common Dreams
"A modest tax Wall Street on speculation, embodied in HR 6411, authored by Representative Keith Ellison, could generate up to $350bn every year, an amount that could save over 1.7m homes from foreclosure, or finance 9m new jobs at current average wage levels. Or it could fund the food plans of 24m families of four for a year, or lift all 3.8m female-headed households out of poverty for nearly a decade.

Increasingly, the "Other America" is becoming all of us. It is up to all of us to end this disgrace."

Front Group for Military-Industrial Complex Pushes Hard to Slash Social Programs and Avoid Pentagon Cuts | Alternet

Front Group for Military-Industrial Complex Pushes Hard to Slash Social Programs and Avoid Pentagon Cuts | Alternet
"As the so-called fiscal cliff negotiations drag on in Washington with the media covering Repubican House Speaker John Boehner’slatest temper tantrums, a bipartisan coalition of former government officials with deep ties to the defense industry and Wall Street are ratcheting up the pressure to cut retirement programs while sparing military contractors."

What If All the World’s Debt Just Went Away | Common Dreams

What If All the World’s Debt Just Went Away | Common Dreams
"What you may not know is that debt arose recently on the human stage.  Throughout more than 99% of our history we have not even had a concept for debt."

Let the Bush tax cuts expire, there are better options | Economic Policy Institute

Let the Bush tax cuts expire, there are better options | Economic Policy Institute
"the Bush tax cuts are pretty poor policy; in a decade of existence, they have accomplished none of the goals they were intended to achieve. In fact, judging the Bush tax cuts based on their economic impact, distributional impact, and cost, they have been an outright disaster."

Crime-Ridden Oakland Lays Off 200 Police Officers While Giving $17 Million To Pro Sports Teams

Crime-Ridden Oakland Lays Off 200 Police Officers While Giving $17 Million To Pro Sports Teams: Cities and states have seen their budgets decimated during the Great Recession, as revenue plunged due to dropping home prices and high unemployment. They had to make some desperate choices to save funds, including laying off scores of public safety workers (or even turning off their streetlights). Oakland was no different, laying off 200 police [...]/p

End Of The Auto Rescue

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

PERRspectives: Treasury Wins Big on GM Bailout

PERRspectives: Treasury Wins Big on GM Bailout
"It's no wonder The Economist, which opposed the $82 billion auto bailout, admitted "an apology is due to Barack Obama: his takeover of GM could have gone horribly wrong, but it has not." And last month, voters in Michigan, Ohio and across the nation reached the same conclusion. Even with likely losses from the government's sale of GM and Chrysler shares, the rescue of Detroit was a very sweet deal for the Treasury--and people--of the United States."

House Republicans Cut Food Stamps, Obamacare, And Wall Street Oversight In Ill-Fated ‘Plan B’

House Republicans Cut Food Stamps, Obamacare, And Wall Street Oversight In Ill-Fated ‘Plan B’: House Republicans today, in addition to voting on Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) so-called “Plan B” — which extends the Bush tax cuts on income up to $1 million — will also vote on a bill to replace the spending cuts scheduled for the end of the year. As The Hill reported, the bill closely mirrors [...]/p

Boehner’s ‘Plan B’ Cuts Taxes For The 1 Percent, Raises Them For The Poor

Boehner’s ‘Plan B’ Cuts Taxes For The 1 Percent, Raises Them For The Poor: Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) is forging ahead with his plan to vote on his so-called “Plan B,” a bill that would extend the Bush tax cuts on income up to $1 million. Boehner is calling the bill a “net tax cut,” but as ThinkProgress noted yesterday, it will raise taxes on millions [...]/p

Interest Rate Rigging By Big Banks May Have Cost U.S. Taxpayers Billions Of Dollars

Interest Rate Rigging By Big Banks May Have Cost U.S. Taxpayers Billions Of Dollars: UBS and Barclays have both been fined more than $1 billion by regulators for manipulating the LIBOR interest rate, a key global benchmark. UBS bankers were caught in emails bragging about the “fu*king humongous deals” they were arranging by gaming LIBOR. LIBOR rigging could have affected Americans of all stripes, sucking funds from the cities [...]/p

CHART: The Global Corporate Tax Rate Plummeted In The Last Decade

CHART: The Global Corporate Tax Rate Plummeted In The Last Decade: Evidence that the global corporate tax rate has dropped significantly in the past decade counters a conservative myth that corporations suffer from too-high taxes. As several countries — most prominently the UK — renew scrutiny over tax dodging, a Deutsche Bank report illustrates how the global effective corporate tax rate has dropped significantly in the [...]/p

Glenn Greenwald: Woman Imprisoned for Life for Minor Drug Offense; Banking Giant Immune to Justice for Massive Drug Laundering | Alternet

Glenn Greenwald: Woman Imprisoned for Life for Minor Drug Offense; Banking Giant Immune to Justice for Massive Drug Laundering | Alternet
"The US is the world's largest prison state, imprisoning more of its citizens than any nation on earth, both in  absolute numbers  andproportionally. It imprisons people for longer periods of time, more mercilessly, and for more trivial transgressions  than any nation in the west. This sprawling penal state has been constructed over decades, by both political parties, and it punishes the poor and racial minorities at overwhelmingly disproportionate rates.

But not everyone is subjected to that system of penal harshness. It all changes radically when the nation's most powerful actors are caught breaking the law."

Education Privatization Group Tries to Justify Silence on Michigan Gun Law | Common Dreams

Education Privatization Group Tries to Justify Silence on Michigan Gun Law | Common Dreams
"Despite later statements trying to make up for earlier failures, StudentsFirst—a group closely allied with the bill's most ardent and vocal supporters in the state—cannot be considered part of that noble chorus.

Perhaps a more fitting name for the group would be: SchoolPrivatizationFirst, PoliticsSecond, StudentsNext."

Pro-Capitalist, Anti-Government Extremists | Alternet

Pro-Capitalist, Anti-Government Extremists | Alternet
"A new breed of investment consultant mixes dubious financial advice with anti-government propaganda."

Thanks To Budget Cuts, U.S. Remains Unprepared To Combat Future Public Health Emergencies

Thanks To Budget Cuts, U.S. Remains Unprepared To Combat Future Public Health Emergencies: Despite numerous public health threats over the past decade — including bioterrorism threats like anthrax attacks, the spread of airborne diseases like the swine flu epidemic, and extreme weather disasters like Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy — a new report finds that states across the country still have serious gaps in their emergency preparedness plans. The [...]/p

Emails Show How Corrupt Financial Traders Bragged About Rigging Global Markets

Emails Show How Corrupt Financial Traders Bragged About Rigging Global Markets: The Swiss bank UBS will pay $1.5 billion in fines to international regulators for manipulating the LIBOR interest rate, which helps set rates on financial products across the world. UBS is the second bank, after Barclays, to pay fines for messing with LIBOR. According to emails released by the British Financial Services Authority, UBS traders [...]/p

Welcome to Canada Inc., A Subsidiary of the American Empire & Co. | Alternet

Welcome to Canada Inc., A Subsidiary of the American Empire & Co. | Alternet
"Should Canada cooperate with the US in the wholesale plundering of the world?"

4 Key Tax Provisions That Expire At The End Of The Year

4 Key Tax Provisions That Expire At The End Of The Year: Most of the ink spilled over negotiations surrounding the so-called “fiscal cliff” — the year-end set of tax increases and spending cuts — has covered the impending demise of the Bush tax cuts. But several other important tax provisions will also expire, some with severe impacts for the middle-class: – The payroll tax cut. A [...]/p

A Grand Swindle: What We Don’t Need Now Is a Bad “Grand Bargain” | Common Dreams

A Grand Swindle: What We Don’t Need Now Is a Bad “Grand Bargain” | Common Dreams
"It seems that since Nov. 6, many politicians forgot that the people they represent used their voice at the polls to stand up for working families and the programs they rely on. Democratic lawmakers should resist any “grand bargain” on the budget that protects the wealthy at the expense of the rest of us."

With Gov. Chris Christie, It's Corrupt Business As Usual

With Gov. Chris Christie, It's Corrupt Business As Usual
"Although he sells himself that way, Gov. Chris Christie is not a "reformer." He simulates being candid, but uses that illusion to cloak a host of crooked problems he'd be hard pressed to explain. And he's the big hope of the Republican party?"

Corporate-Occupied Government: A 'Redistribution Machine' for the Wealthy | Common Dreams

Corporate-Occupied Government: A 'Redistribution Machine' for the Wealthy | Common Dreams
"In the first article of the series, published Tuesday, Reuters traces the ways in which the federal government has acted as a wealth redistribution machine, not towards those in need, but upwards towards the already wealthy. According to the report, an analysis of decennial Census data, the federal government has "emerged as one of the most potent factors driving income inequality in the United States - especially in the nation's capital."

The report cites public policy decisions, government 'outsourcing' of projects to private firms, weakened unions, a shift in labor demand from low-skill jobs to high-skill professions and, most broadly, sweeping tax cuts, particularly during the Bush administration, that largely benefit top income earners and the corporations, lobbying firms, and law firms they work for."

Big Banks Want Stronger Legal Protections From Mortgage Lawsuits

Big Banks Want Stronger Legal Protections From Mortgage Lawsuits: The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act that grew out of the housing crisis and financial collapse includes new homeowner protections and a rule aimed at ensuring that borrowers can repay their mortgages. The qualified mortgage rule, also known as “ability-to-repay,” requires lenders to consider whether someone can afford to repay the mortgage before it is [...]/p

How Online Giant Amazon Prevents Workers From Receiving Unemployment Insurance

How Online Giant Amazon Prevents Workers From Receiving Unemployment Insurance: If Congress doesn’t act, two million workers will see their unemployment benefits disappear at the end of the year due to the expiration of emergency measures put in place during the Great Recession. The expiration will be the first time Congress has ended federal benefits with unemployment so high. But Congress is not the only [...]/p

Conservative Group Tells Republicans To Hold Hurricane Sandy Relief Package Hostage

Conservative Group Tells Republicans To Hold Hurricane Sandy Relief Package Hostage: Club For Growth, a conservative advocacy group, is urging Republicans to vote against the $60 billion Hurricane Sandy relief package that the Senate plans to take up this week, according to a statement on its web site. The group, which scores congressional votes to document lawmakers’ conservative stances, issued a “Key Vote Alert” this afternoon [...]/p

The Corporate War Against Teachers as Public Intellectuals in Dark Times

The Corporate War Against Teachers as Public Intellectuals in Dark Times
"Right-wing fundamentalists and corporate ideologues are not just waging a war against the rights of unions, workers, students, women, the disabled, low-income groups and poor minorities, but also against those public spheres that provide a vocabulary for connecting values, desires, identities, social relations and institutions to the discourse of social responsibility, ethics, and democracy, if not thinking itself."

Meet Five CEOs Who Prove That Lower Corporate Taxes Don't Equal More Hiring | Alternet

Meet Five CEOs Who Prove That Lower Corporate Taxes Don't Equal More Hiring | Alternet
" Several of the CEOs pushing this idea actually run companies that pay extremely low corporate tax rates, well below the statutory 35 percent rate—or pay none at all. So, via the invaluable Institute for Policy Studies, let’s see what kind of job creation these folks did while enjoying very low corporate tax rates:"

9 Horrible Gun Laws Backed by the Right Wing | Alternet

9 Horrible Gun Laws Backed by the Right Wing | Alternet
"The corporate-backed American Legislative Exchange Council works hand-in-glove with the National Rifle Association."

Banks Look To Roll Back Nevada Law Preventing Foreclosure Fraud

Banks Look To Roll Back Nevada Law Preventing Foreclosure Fraud: In 2010, the nation’s biggest banks were caught systematically forging foreclosure documents in order to speed the foreclosure process along and unlawfully oust homeowners. The resulting scandal led to a $25 billion settlement between the federal government, state attorneys general, and the five biggest banks. Nevada — arguably the epicenter of the foreclosure crisis — [...]/p

4 Reasons Why Boehner’s Latest Tax Offer Is A Bad Deal

4 Reasons Why Boehner’s Latest Tax Offer Is A Bad Deal: Politico reported yesterday that Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) has proposed a tax increase in income in excess of $1 million as part of the ongoing negotiations to avert the so-called “fiscal cliff.” In exchange, the Ohio Republican reportedly wants changes to entitlement programs, including cuts to Medicare benefits. This is the first [...]/p

Trade Deficit Dots Connect to Billionaires

Trade Deficit Dots Connect to Billionaires

• Giant companies get tax rules that give them breaks for moving production offshore to low-wage countries where workers have no rights. The giant companies use the breaks to funnel even more money to the billionaires at the top.
• China in essence pays corporations to move production to China, offering up low-wage workers living in dorms, free facilities, subsidies, etc. because they want to control key strategic industries of the future. The giant corporations use the breaks to funnel even more money to the billionaires at the top.

Pack Your Bags: Ethical Traveler Shares 10 Best Destinations for 2013 | Alternet

Pack Your Bags: Ethical Traveler Shares 10 Best Destinations for 2013 | Alternet
"The annual list looks at how developing countries stack up in terms of environmental protection, human rights and social welfare."

Why You Can Kiss Public Education (and the Middle Class) Goodbye | Alternet

Why You Can Kiss Public Education (and the Middle Class) Goodbye | Alternet
"All around us, our public institutions are disintegrating, and the most important public institution of all – our public education system – will likely be the next to go."

How an Astounding New Right-Wing Lie About the Economy Is Born | Alternet

How an Astounding New Right-Wing Lie About the Economy Is Born | Alternet
"There's a new economic myth that's now being amplified by the conservative media. It demonizes vital public services and suggests that the poor are doing just fine thanks to the largesse of the country's “makers.” Conservatives are being told that the United States is now spending vast fortunes combatting poverty – more than we dedicate to national defense, Social Security and Medicare.

This new spin is notable not for its mendacity – although it is completely divorced from reality – but because its origins are easily traced, allowing us to see how these kinds of distortions come to be."

Democratic Senator Compares Private Student Loans To Dickens-Era Of Debt Prisons

Democratic Senator Compares Private Student Loans To Dickens-Era Of Debt Prisons: The inability of Americans to discharge student loan debt in bankruptcy proceedings creates a system of indebtedness like the one that existed during the era of Charles Dickens, when people who couldn’t afford to pay their debts were routinely tossed into prisons, a top Democratic senator declared this week. Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin (D) has [...]/p

Mary Bottari: Michigan Anti-Union Law Drafted by ALEC

CEO Who Led Nation’s Biggest Subprime Lender Says He Has ‘No Regrets’

CEO Who Led Nation’s Biggest Subprime Lender Says He Has ‘No Regrets’: During the buildup of the housing bubble, one subprime lender stood above all others: Countrywide, which issued $97 billion of subprime loans, nearly $17 billion more than the next largest lender. The bank blew itself up via these loans, and was bought by Bank of America in early 2008. The $40 billion in losses and [...]/p

Prisons Will Consume 30 Percent Of Justice Department’s Budget By 2020

Prisons Will Consume 30 Percent Of Justice Department’s Budget By 2020: The latest numbers from the Urban Institute add a budgetary reason on top of the human reasons to reform the United States’ massive rates of incarceration: at current trends, spending on prisons will take up 29 percent of the Justice Department’s budget by 2020. Given the possibility of cuts to federal spending from either the [...]/p

The Government, Corporations or the People -- Who Should Control the Internet? | Alternet

The Government, Corporations or the People -- Who Should Control the Internet? | Alternet
"That question rests uneasily at the center of debates this week at the World Conference on International Telecommunications in Dubai."

Dean Baker: The Biggest Myth in Obama-GOP Spending Showdown is the So-Called "Fiscal Cliff" Itself

Surprise! New Michigan Law May Not Affect Government Workers

Surprise! New Michigan Law May Not Affect Government Workers
"You mean after all that, they didn't even bother to have their new law checked against existing legislation? Ha, ha! Boy, the Kochs really should be more careful about the quality of the handmaidens they buy:"

Democratic Senator Wants Corporate Tax Revenue Included In Budget Deal

Democratic Senator Wants Corporate Tax Revenue Included In Budget Deal: There have been lots of ideas kicked around for inclusion in a deal that would avert the so-called “fiscal cliff,” the tax increases and spending cuts scheduled for year’s end. But Democratic Sen. Carl Levin (MI) wants one more item placed onto the table — corporate tax revenue: Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) pushed Friday for [...]/p

Updated and Previously Suppressed Report Still Finds: Tax Cuts for Rich Only Help the Rich | Common Dreams

Updated and Previously Suppressed Report Still Finds: Tax Cuts for Rich Only Help the Rich | Common Dreams
"The US trend to continually lower tax rates for the country's wealthiest in the name of economic growth is deeply flawed, says an updated non-partisan government report that shows tax cuts for the rich—most recently exemplified by the Bush-era tax cuts—serve mostly to increase income inequality by redistributing wealth to the top while doing little or nothing to help the broader economy."

Analysis of Flawed Right to Work Legislation Shows Governor, Republican Legislators, Had Never Reviewed Language Prior to Signing it Into Law

Analysis of Flawed Right to Work Legislation Shows Governor, Republican Legislators, Had Never Reviewed Language Prior to Signing it Into Law
"Less than 24 hours after Governor Snyder signed his damaging “Right to Work” legislation into law, analysis shows that the flawed legislation may not even have the result the Governor claimed it would, raising serious questions about whether the Republican leadership even read the language of the bills before voting it through and signing it into law."

Michigan Adopts the ALEC Model for Diminishing Democracy | Common Dreams

Michigan Adopts the ALEC Model for Diminishing Democracy | Common Dreams
"They simply did as they were told.

The ideas, the outlines and the words themselves came from the American Legislative Exchange Council, the right-wing “bill mill” that produces “model legislation” at the behest of Koch Industries, Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp, ExxonMobil and the corporate cabal that is always looking to “buy” states."

Michigan Republicans Re-Pass Anti-Union Law That Voters Repealed Just Six Weeks Ago

Michigan Republicans Re-Pass Anti-Union Law That Voters Repealed Just Six Weeks Ago: Not content to push through an anti-union “right-to-work” law, new restrictive abortion policies, and an anti-Sharia law, Michigan Republicans are now pursuing a revamp of a law voters rejected at the polls barely more than a month ago. Michigan’s House Republicans today passed a new version of the “emergency manager” law that voters repealed via [...]/p

American Gallery: There is No One Face of Hunger

American Gallery: There is No One Face of Hunger
"Hunger is faced by people in every neighborhood in our community, every day - young and old, working and unemployed. Today 16 percent of Californians struggle with how they'll afford their next meal. Meanwhile Congress debates and passes bills that make massive cuts in nutrition programs."

Rein In The Rich: How Higher Taxes Could Lift The Economy | The New Republic

Rein In The Rich: How Higher Taxes Could Lift The Economy | The New Republic
"But bringing down the deficit should not be the principal objective right now. What’s important is to continue the recovery from the Great Recession and to take measures to prevent future crises. Supply-siders were right about one thing: the best way to reduce the government deficit is to create economic growth. Obama’s proposal to raise taxes on the wealthy and to transfer those revenues to workers and the unemployed isn’t just the fair thing to do; it is exactly what’s right for the economy."

‘Small business’ and top marginal rates: Tax filers affected by proposed rate increases are not necessarily small, or businesses, or job creators | Economic Policy Institute

‘Small business’ and top marginal rates: Tax filers affected by proposed rate increases are not necessarily small, or businesses, or job creators | Economic Policy Institute
"The way that small businesses are defined for tax purposes has been put to use in this debate in a manner that is misleading. The default definition of “small business” in the tax debate can often identify many entities that are neither small nor even businesses."

What if money was no object?

A powerful clip narrated by the late Alan Watts. This should be mandatory viewing for all students – for that matter, all adults.

Republican Lawmaker's Proposal Exempted Husband from Michigan 'Right to Work' Law

Republican Lawmaker's Proposal Exempted Husband from Michigan 'Right to Work' Law
"A Republican state representative in Michigan proposed an amendment to exempt her husband's job from the so-called "right to work" law which limits the ability of unions to collect dues."

Speaker Boehner Doesn’t Understand The Debt Ceiling, But Takes It Hostage Anyway

Speaker Boehner Doesn’t Understand The Debt Ceiling, But Takes It Hostage Anyway: The Obama administration’s initial offer to avert the so-called “fiscal cliff” included a provision that would end the ability of Congress to use the debt ceiling — and thus the creditworthiness of the United States — as a hostage to demand other policy outcomes. Employing a process invented by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), [...]/p

We Lost Michigan | Common Dreams

We Lost Michigan | Common Dreams
"One of the horrendously unfair things about a right-to-work state is that it allows non-union employees to get a free ride. As everyone knows, union wages and benefits are, across-the-board, roughly 15-percent better than non-union wages and benefits. Plus, union facilities, by and large, have better safety records than non-union facilities. That’s because safety rules and department safety committees are written into union contracts."

Dethrone ‘Filibuster King’ Mitch McConnell - In These Times

Dethrone ‘Filibuster King’ Mitch McConnell - In These Times
"Mitch McConnell, the minority leader of the U.S. Senate, has for six years wielded the filibuster as a weapon in his rebellion against a founding principle of the United States of America: self-governance by majority rule."

NPR Stumps Michigan Governor By Asking How Union-Busting Will Help His State’s Economy

NPR Stumps Michigan Governor By Asking How Union-Busting Will Help His State’s Economy: Michigan Governor Rick Snyder was happy to sign the union-busting “right-to-work” bill this week, saying that the law would help create jobs in his state. But in an interview with NPR on Thursday, Snyder was hard-pressed to give good reasons for why, exactly, the bill would inspire companies to move into Michigan and create new [...]/p

The Rich, Conservative Push for Right-to-Work (Video) - Truthdig

The Rich, Conservative Push for Right-to-Work (Video) - Truthdig
"What appears to be an impromptu shift in Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s stance on the right-to-work bill he signed into law this week was a consequence of months of planning supported by the Koch family and the behind-the-scenes conservative lobby group ALEC."

Too Big to Jail: Big Banks Can Finance Terrorists and Walk Away Scott Free | Alternet

Too Big to Jail: Big Banks Can Finance Terrorists and Walk Away Scott Free | Alternet
"The New York Times reports this week that megabank HSBC has escaped criminal prosecution for money laundering that probably funded terrorists and narcotics traffickers. Why? Because regulators and prosecutors were petrified that an indictment would undermine the entire financial system."

HSBC, Too Big to Jail, and the US Two-Tiered Justice System | Common Dreams

HSBC, Too Big to Jail, and the US Two-Tiered Justice System | Common Dreams
"The US is the world's largest prison state, imprisoning more of its citizens than any nation on earth, both in absolute numbers and proportionally. It imprisons people for longer periods of time, more mercilessly, and for more trivial transgressions than any nation in the west. This sprawling penal state has been constructed over decades, by both political parties, and it punishes the poor and racial minorities at overwhelmingly disproportionate rates. But not everyone is subjected to that system of penal harshness. It all changes radically when the nation's most powerful actors are caught breaking the law."