Wealth Defense Industry: The Real Reason America's Oligarchs Can Squeeze the Rest of Us | News & Politics | AlterNet

Wealth Defense Industry: The Real Reason America's Oligarchs Can Squeeze the Rest of Us | News & Politics | AlterNet
"In 2005, Citigroup offered its high net-worth clients in the United States a concise statement of the threats they and their money faced.

The report told them they were the leaders of a “plutonomy,” an economy driven by the spending of its ultra-rich citizens. “At the heart of plutonomy is income inequality,” which is made possible by “capitalist-friendly governments and tax regimes.”

If the Other Shoe Drops, I Want Medicare | Common Dreams

If the Other Shoe Drops, I Want Medicare | Common Dreams
"Medicare for all, for life is not an impossible dream.  Support the American Health Security Act of 2011, S915/HR1200, and ask your elected officials to do the same.  We can do better for one another.  And we must."

Oil Speculator Bankrolls Latest Karl Rove Attack Ad

Oil Speculator Bankrolls Latest Karl Rove Attack Ad
"The latest anti-Obama ad, which blames Obama for rising gas prices, is being financed in part by a hedge fund manager who has pumped up the price of oil through excessive speculation."

Bush Tax Cuts Leave Stinging Legacy

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

On ALEC: ‘This agenda is out of sync with the values of American people.’

EXCLUSIVE: Shareholders Call On Companies To Disclose ALEC Ties

EXCLUSIVE: Shareholders Call On Companies To Disclose ALEC Ties: The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) faces a run on its membership as Kraft, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Intuit, the Gates Foundation and, as of yesterday, McDonald’s broke ties with the conservative organization. While some companies are refusing to distance themselves from ALEC’s involvement in Voter ID legislation and support for the “stand your ground” laws that [...]/p

Taxing Wall Street Speculation

Taxing Wall Street Speculation
"There's another, better way to go after the 1 percent than the Obama administration's proposed "Buffett rule."

Why It Will Be Hard For Romney To Claim That Obama Is Waging A War On Women

Why It Will Be Hard For Romney To Claim That Obama Is Waging A War On Women: As part of Mitt Romney’s ongoing attempt to project all of his weakness onto President Obama, the presumed GOP nominee is accusing his general election opponent of waging a “war on women.” Democrats have used the same charge to highlight Republicans’ systematic attacks on women’s rights, but Romney flipped the claim at a rally last [...]/p

The 1% don't want the poor to eat...unless it's out of a trashcan

Group Mobilizing Big Anti-Fracking 'Earthquake' | Common Dreams

Group Mobilizing Big Anti-Fracking 'Earthquake' | Common Dreams

"If we stay silent, special interests will win; if we speak out together we have a chance."

- Common Dreams staff

Top 10 Koch Facts | AlterNet

Top 10 Koch Facts | AlterNet
"Everyone seems to be investigating Charles and David Koch lately, with exposés of their corrupt political behavior popping up in places like the New Yorker,AlterNet, ThinkProgress, and Brave New Foundation’s film Koch Brothers Exposed."

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, McDonald's Drop Support of ALEC | Common Dreams

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, McDonald's Drop Support of ALEC | Common Dreams

Activists continue push for sponsors to drop "corporate leviathan"

Paul Ryan Cites Catholic Social Teaching To Defend Budget That Ignores It

Paul Ryan Cites Catholic Social Teaching To Defend Budget That Ignores It: When House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) released his latest “Path to Prosperity” budget last month, it was immediately admonished as an “immoral disaster” that “robs the poor” by Catholic religious leaders. That echoed the backlash Ryan received last year, but it hasn’t stopped him from attempting to use Catholic social teaching to support [...]/p

Gates Foundation Announces It Will Withdraw Funding From ALEC

Gates Foundation Announces It Will Withdraw Funding From ALEC
"Good news indeed, as the movement to defund the American Legislative Exchange Council gathers momentum. Too bad we couldn't pull this off before ALEC managed to impose its toxic legislative agenda on so many Republican-controlled states, but at least we're doing it now. Congratulations to everyone who worked so hard to stop this gang of corporate thugs."

ALEC Iowa Rep. Says ‘Nuts To You’ To Critics Of Right-Wing Voter Suppression Group

ALEC Iowa Rep. Says ‘Nuts To You’ To Critics Of Right-Wing Voter Suppression Group: Iowa Republican State Rep. Ralph Watts is a proud member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). And amid the rapidly growing national backlash against the corporate-funded conservative advocacy group, Watts is doubling down on that support. Last week, Progress Iowa asked Hawkeye State legislators to cut ties to ALEC in light of its work [...]/p

The "Suicidal State" and the War on Youth

The "Suicidal State" and the War on Youth
"In spite of being discredited by the economic recession of 2008, market fundamentalism has once again assumed primacy as a dominant force for producing unprecedented inequalities in wealth and income, runaway environmental devastation, egregious amounts of human suffering and what Alex Honneth has called an "abyss of failed sociality."(1) The Gilded Age is back with big profits for the ultra-rich and large financial institutions and increasing impoverishment and misery for the middle and working class."

Olivia Wilde, Penn Badgley, & Zoe Kravitz for THE99SPRING.COM

The Liars Club

26 Major Corporations Paid No Corporate Income Tax For The Last Four Years, Despite Making Billions In Profits

26 Major Corporations Paid No Corporate Income Tax For The Last Four Years, Despite Making Billions In Profits: pLast year, Citizens for Tax Justice found that 30 major corporations had made billions of dollars in profits while paying no federal income tax between 2008 and 2010. Today, CTJ updated that report to reflect the 2011 tax bill of those 30 companies, and 26 of them have still managed to pay absolutely nothing over [...]/p

Wisconsin State Senator Says Women Are Paid Less Because ‘Money is More Important For Men’

Wisconsin State Senator Says Women Are Paid Less Because ‘Money is More Important For Men’: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) quietly repealed his state’s equal pay law last week, a decision that will make it harder for victims of wage discrimination to sue for lost earnings and back wages. The law was enacted primarily to address the massive pay gap that exists between male and female workers, which is even [...]/p

The Science of Fox News: Why Its Viewers are the Most Misinformed | Media | AlterNet

The Science of Fox News: Why Its Viewers are the Most Misinformed | Media | AlterNet
"The surveys also find that those who watch Fox are more likely to be misinformed, their views of reality skewed in a right-wing direction. In some cases, the studies even show that watching more Fox makes the misinformation problem worse."

How Conservatives Think

Major Bank CEO Slams Wall Street For Paying Big Bonuses And Fighting New Regulations

Major Bank CEO Slams Wall Street For Paying Big Bonuses And Fighting New Regulations: Ever since the Dodd-Frank financial reform law was signed by President Obama in 2010, the financial industry has been trying to delay, change, and otherwise obstruct it, claiming that its costs are too high or that it puts U.S. banks at a competitive disadvantage. One of the highest profile targets has been the Volcker rule, [...]/p

The Real Health Care Debate | Common Dreams

The Real Health Care Debate | Common Dreams
"Medical bills already lead to 62 percent of personal bankruptcies, and nearly 80 percent of those declaring personal bankruptcy because of medical costs had insurance. The U.S. spends twice as much per capita on health care as other industrialized nations, $8,160. Private insurance bureaucracy and paperwork consume 31 percent of every health care dollar. Streamlining payment through a single, nonprofit payer would save more than $400 billion per year, enough, the PNHP estimates, to provide comprehensive, high-quality coverage for all Americans."

Local Media Fail To Cover Climate Denial, ALEC Link

Local Media Fail To Cover Climate Denial, ALEC Link
"ALEC "Exists To Bring Business-Friendly State Lawmakers Together With Lobbyists For Corporations." 

Single Payer Doctor Carol Paris Packs It Up | Common Dreams

Single Payer Doctor Carol Paris Packs It Up | Common Dreams
"Dr. Carol Paris is a psychiatrist. She’s practiced for 13 years in southern Maryland. And she’s fought hard for a single payer system"

Top 50 Things Accomplished by President Barack Obama | News & Politics | AlterNet

Top 50 Things Accomplished by President Barack Obama | News & Politics | AlterNet
"A look back at Obama's first term."

Corporations Flee Right-Wing ALEC: Yet Another Win for Progressives | Activism | AlterNet

Corporations Flee Right-Wing ALEC: Yet Another Win for Progressives | Activism | AlterNet
"Recently there have been several instances in which the public spoke out loud enough that a major organization or company had to back down, David and Goliath-style."

Intuit, Kraft pull support of ALEC

Intuit, Kraft pull support of ALEC
"Now that the real political agenda of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is becoming publicized, companies who've been members and financial supporters of the group are thinking twice about being associated with it."

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Overturns Law Meant To Prevent Pay Discrimination Against Women

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Overturns Law Meant To Prevent Pay Discrimination Against Women: pWisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) quietly signed a bill last night that repeals a law that gave women and others more power to challenge wage discrimination. The Equal Pay Enforcement Act, passed in 2009, gave employers more power to press charges against employers to challenge unfair pay practices, allowing people to plead their case in [...]/p

100,000 Strong (The 99% Spring)

Students and parents from New York to Seattle are fighting corporate education reform agenda

Students and parents from New York to Seattle are fighting corporate education reform agenda
"Kids and parents don't have the money to put into their protests that the corporate reformers have to put into the agenda being protested. But at least they're speaking in their own voices, not trying to claim to speak for someone else to cover up a profit motive."

Bankers Form Super PAC: A New Vortex of Evil Opens in Fabric of the Universe | AlterNet

Bankers Form Super PAC: A New Vortex of Evil Opens in Fabric of the Universe | AlterNet
"Congress isn't afraid of bankers," adds Roger Beverage, the president and CEO of the Oklahoma Bankers Association. "They don't think we'll do anything to kick them out of office. We are trying to change that perception."

How Exxon Mobil Finances The Republican Party

How Exxon Mobil Finances The Republican Party: The Senate minority who last week blocked a vote on ending Big Oil subsidies received more than four times the oil and gas contributions than the 51 senators voting to end them. Exxon Mobil, the world’s most profitable corporation, has helped preserve these and other loopholes for oil and gas by building a Washington force [...]/p

Elizabeth Warren's Massachusetts

Banks More Likely To Let Foreclosed Homes Fall Apart In Black, Latino Neighborhoods

Banks More Likely To Let Foreclosed Homes Fall Apart In Black, Latino Neighborhoods: Foreclosed homes in predominately white neighborhoods are more likely to be maintained by the banks that own them than homes in predominately African-American and Latino communities, according to a report released by the National Fair Housing Alliance. Failure to keep up foreclosed homes can drive down home prices, lead to higher crime and vagrancy rates, [...]/p

The Regulation Killers » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

The Regulation Killers » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
"The Republican Party has a sense of humor, however inadvertently. It’s ardent advocates regularly accuse the Obama Administration of heavy handed regulation of business."

A Bunch Of People On A Rooftop With A Very Strong Message

Hundreds of Angelenos unite to oppose "Citizens United vs FEC" - the 2010 Supreme Court decision that allowed corporations to make unlimited/undisclosed political contributions. Join our call for real campaign finance reform. Please share this video and Like "Stop Citizens United" on fb to help spread the word: http://facebook.com/StopCitizensUnited

Report: 15 Million Would Have Received $2 Billion In Rebates If ACA Provisions Were Enacted In 2010

Report: 15 Million Would Have Received $2 Billion In Rebates If ACA Provisions Were Enacted In 2010: About $2 billion in health insurance rebates would have been issued to over 15 million American consumers if the Affordable Care Act’s new medical loss ratio (MLR) rules had been in effect in 2010, a new study from The Commonwealth Fund reveals. The MLR rules, which were enacted in 2011, require a minimum percentage — [...]/p

Finance Expert: Oil Price Increase Is Being Driven By ‘Gamblers Wearing Wall Street Suits’

Finance Expert: Oil Price Increase Is Being Driven By ‘Gamblers Wearing Wall Street Suits’: Republicans have been trying to pin the blame for the recent rise in oil prices on President Obama, relying on the false claim that if Obama just allowed more drilling for oil on U.S. lands, prices would magically decline. Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) has “instructed fellow Republicans to embrace the gas-pump anger” [...]/p

Deciphering Right-Wing Code: What Conservatives Are Really Saying When They Seem to Spew Nonsense | Visions | AlterNet

Deciphering Right-Wing Code: What Conservatives Are Really Saying When They Seem to Spew Nonsense | Visions | AlterNet
"Whether the proposals will be to revoke their charters, close campuses, or sell off their facilities to for-profit colleges, you can bet that ALEC already has the bills in the can, and will be introducing them in state legislatures presently."

The New Face Of Poverty

Capitalism's Dirty Secret: Corporations Don't Create Jobs, They Destroy Them | Economy | AlterNet

Capitalism's Dirty Secret: Corporations Don't Create Jobs, They Destroy Them | Economy | AlterNet
"For the last four decades, U.S. corporations have been sinking our economy through the off-shoring of jobs, the squeezing of wages, and a magician’s hat full of bluffs and tricks designed to extort subsidies and sweetheart deals from local and state governments that often result in mass layoffs and empty treasuries."

BofA Up To Old Tricks: Peddling Falsified Debt Documents To Collection Firms

BofA Up To Old Tricks: Peddling Falsified Debt Documents To Collection Firms
"Yes, just as Bank of America did with its mortgage documentation, they simply made it up as they went along. The problem we have here is that, just as they did with the fake mortgage papers, some judges are accepting these lying affidavits as original source documents — which they're obviously not."

Wisconsin Gov. Walker: 'Collective bargaining is not a right.' Actually, Scott, it is.

Wisconsin Gov. Walker: 'Collective bargaining is not a right.' Actually, Scott, it is.
"First of all, let's get one thing straight: union members are hardworking taxpayers. But beyond that, Walker has said this before, which means he's had the opportunity to learn that he is factually wrong."

Progressive Movement Compels Coca-Cola To Pull Support From ALEC Over Voter Suppression Efforts

Progressive Movement Compels Coca-Cola To Pull Support From ALEC Over Voter Suppression Efforts: pPrompted by a petition campaign by the progressive advocacy group Color of Change, Coca-Cola has pulled its support from ALEC, a right-wing corporate-funded front group which has been pushing voter restriction efforts around the country. The company released this statement moments ago: The Coca-Cola Company has elected to discontinue its membership with the American Legislative [...]/p

American Rights At Work Launches 'Union Shop' Website to Spotlight Union-Made Products

American Rights At Work Launches 'Union Shop' Website to Spotlight Union-Made Products
"Labor group American Rights at Work launched a new website this week, "Union Made," designed to spotlight products made by unionized companies."

California Students Pepper-Sprayed While Protesting Tuition Hikes Caused By Budget Cuts

California Students Pepper-Sprayed While Protesting Tuition Hikes Caused By Budget Cuts: Santa Monica College, a public community college in California, has been so strained by cuts to state education funding that it has had to turn away students, increase tuition, and charge higher fees for classes. The school recently announced a plan to raise prices on its most popular courses, creating an unequal, two-track cost system [...]/p

Whose Corporations? Our Corporations! | Economy | AlterNet

Whose Corporations? Our Corporations! | Economy | AlterNet
"Corporations are not working for the 99 percent. But this wasn’t always the case."

Santa Monica Student Protesters Pepper-Sprayed on Campus | Common Dreams

Santa Monica Student Protesters Pepper-Sprayed on Campus | Common Dreams

30 people, including a 4-year-old, were sprayed outside trustees meeting

Black Cop Shot 28 Times by White Cops Charged With Attempted Murder. Really. | Common Dreams

Black Cop Shot 28 Times by White Cops Charged With Attempted Murder. Really. | Common Dreams
"An incredible - and grossly under-reported - story out of Chicago"

U.S. Corps are no longer businesses...they're extraction machines

Auto sales up again. Count on Mitt Romney to say it was all his idea

Auto sales up again. Count on Mitt Romney to say it was all his idea
"What it comes down to is that Romney would have been happy to let the ailing U.S. auto industry go out of business, costing a million jobs or more. And now that the industry is back on its feet, he would be happy to screw the taxpayers out of billions."

Here’s What An ‘Extraction Economy’ Looks Like

Here’s What An ‘Extraction Economy’ Looks Like: pJ. Henry Fair is a photographer who snaps beautiful and unsettling images of industrial scars. I was recently turned onto this work, and stumbled upon a TED talk he gave last fall in Berlin on the impact of energy extraction on the environment. At a time when many American politicians are stepping up rhetoric in [...]/p

What Will Occupy Do In The 2012 Election?

What Will Occupy Do In The 2012 Election?: p“Should Occupy get involved in electoral politics?” was the question that kicked off a panel today on “Occupy and electoral politics,” part of a national Occupy forum happening in DC all this week. No, seemed to the short answer from most of the speakers and attendees here. And while any Occupier will say no one [...]/p

80 Protesters Arrested During ‘One Of The First’ Occupy Actions Of 2012

80 Protesters Arrested During ‘One Of The First’ Occupy Actions Of 2012: p80 Occupy Wall Street protesters were arrested in San Francisco yesterday, during what New York Magazine called “one of the first real occupations of 2012,” after they took over a building belonging to the city Archdiocese. The Nation’s Allison Kilkenny reported that “police in riot gear stormed the two-story building Monday afternoon after breaking through [...]/p

PERRspectives: Romney-Ryan Plan is the Real 2012 Republican Platform

PERRspectives: Romney-Ryan Plan is the Real 2012 Republican Platform
Here, then, is an overview of the Romney-Ryan Plan, also known as the 2012 Republican Platform.

• Massive Tax Cuts for the Rich
• Ending Medicare as We Know It
• Shredding the Safety Net
• Increased Defense Spending
• What Loopholes Get Closed? That's a Secret!
• Trillions in New Debt

Undercover Study Finds That Financial Advisers Put Profits Ahead Of Their Clients

Undercover Study Finds That Financial Advisers Put Profits Ahead Of Their Clients: Former Goldman Sachs trader Greg Smith publicly resigned three weeks ago, decrying the firm’s “toxic and destructive” culture in a scathing New York Times editorial. But it isn’t just traders at America’s biggest investment bank that view their clients as “muppets,” at least according to a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research. [...]/p

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace Part 1

Terrific BBC doc from Adam Curtis,documentary film maker.

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace Part 2

Terrific BBC Doc.

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace Part 3

Terrific BBC Doc

Supreme Court OK's Strip Searching for Minor Offenses | AlterNet

Supreme Court OK's Strip Searching for Minor Offenses | AlterNet
"Some potential offenses for which you might be strip-searched, according to Breyer: violating a leash law, failing to pay child support, or driving without a license. And it probably goes without saying that protest-related arrests would count. And since the point of strip-searching is to hunt down "contraband" it's pretty clear that drug-related arrests (including the many from racist stop-and-frisk policies) would count as well."

How American Corporations Transformed from Producers to Predators | Economy | AlterNet

How American Corporations Transformed from Producers to Predators | Economy | AlterNet
"Over the last 30 years, corporations have turned on the 99 percent. Here's how it happened and how to fight back."

Five Preposterous, Persistent Conservative Myths | Common Dreams

Five Preposterous, Persistent Conservative Myths | Common Dreams
"With the mainstream media in the hands of the mostly conservative wealthy, it's difficult for average Americans to learn the truth about critical issues. The following five conservative claims are examples of mythical beliefs that fall apart in the presence of inconvenient facts:"

The Death Of The Middle Class

National Occupation of Washington, DC Begins with Demonstration at the EPA

The 99 Percent Spring: The People Are Not Powerless | Common Dreams

The 99 Percent Spring: The People Are Not Powerless | Common Dreams
"In the coming weeks, millions of Americans will take to the streets as part of the "99 percent spring," echoing last year's "Arab Spring."

At the root of this discontent are the extreme inequalities of income, wealth, and opportunity that have emerged over the last four decades."