General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFive Major Scandals the Media isn't Obsessing About
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2013/05/17/2026851/5-major-scandals-the-media-isnt-obsessing-about/2. The devastating impact of sequestration on kids, cancer patients and first responders. On Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office reported that the budget deficit will shrink to its smallest level since before the Great Recession in 2013, and it will continue to decrease through 2015. But despite the smaller deficits, Republicans remain focused on spending reductions even as the most recent round of cuts has kicked children out of preschool, left cancer patients without needed screenings, undermined public health and fire safety, and gutted programs that help low-income Americans in a variety of ways. Those cuts have also threatened to derail the economic recovery, which has sputtered along despite the headwinds created by a consistent focus on deficit reduction.
3. Massive cuts to food stamps for the most vulnerable Americans. The House Agriculture Committee approved a farm bill late Wednesday night that would cut federal food stamps by $20.5 billion more steeply than any legislation since the welfare reforms of the 1990s. Earlier this week, the Senate Agriculture Committee also agreed to a $4.1 billion reduction. The program keeps hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Americans out of the deepest pits of poverty, and even as the Great Recession swelled SNAP rolls, the program continued to push its erroneous payments rates to record lows.
4. 1100 workers die in garment factory collapse in Bangladesh and most American retailers plan business as usual. Since a factory collapsed in Bangladesh, killing 1,100 clothing industry workers, American retailers have been hesitant to adopt safety plans that could prevent similar tragedies. Abercrombie & Fitch announced it would sign a safety upgrade plan that has been approved by six major European retailers and one other American company, but many other manufacturers including Walmart and Gap are holding out. Although some retailers fear the costs of upgrades, they could pass them on entirely to consumers and only raise prices by 10 cents per garment.
And the four paragraph limit kept me from including the 4,150 GUN DEATHS SINCE SANDY HOOK!
niyad
(113,074 posts)actually journalists or something?
HughBeaumont
(24,461 posts)6) America's Plutocracy and wealth inequality are the worst they've been in 85 years, and America's plutocrats have very little interest, just as their 1920s counterparts didn't, to change this system with any meaningful measures . . . other than squeezing the workers by cutting wages, laying them off and reducing their benefits.
Of course, there's relatively very little even millions of workers can do to remedy this problem. The wealthy got so wealthy, they purchased the media AND Washington D.C. Voting means little when all three parties that have any kind of funding are in the bag for the One Percent, so scratch any meaningful taxation by millionaires owned by billionaires from happening.
Corporations are so scattered and have heightened security, strikes and sit-ins would be nearly impossible to pull off at once. Protests ring hollow with a bought media that learned it's lessons of the 1960s and would either minimize the impact or just plain won't broadcast it. At least 47% of us are still hooked on this Horatio Alger fantasy drug and shudder at the idea of the smart thing to do - raise revenue from the wealthy to cover the astronomical debt THEY rang up.
You don't want to say "give up", but to pretend that this mountain isn't a great deal larger than it was in the past is folly.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022854815
That's a bigger scandal (not of six, but relative to what it would be) given the first item in the OP.
dotymed
(5,610 posts)Followed by in depth coverage of the relationship between the very wealthy commerce secretary and Obama.
IDC if he calls himself a democrat. The wealthy advisers and Holder should be forced to resign under present economic hardships for the majority. They have all shown that protecting the wealthy is their goal.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)pretending that we have a representative government, or two parties that stand for different things, or any party that is actually working on our behalf.
spanone
(135,792 posts)evilhime
(326 posts)because the right cannot blame it totally on the left! One thing I have learned very well over the years - the right is dogged in their pursuit of revenge, and the left not so much. The right I believe are the original descendants of the Hatfields and McCoys - vengeance is MUCH more important than getting the job done right, er correctly.
dotymed
(5,610 posts)Liberal_Dog
(11,075 posts)K & R
Initech
(100,040 posts)After all, it might make their profit margins lag.
smallcat88
(426 posts)Most of congress is owned by the same people making money off of these problems. They're not about to put a spotlight on them. That's why we have to! Thanks Scuba!