October 30, 2015

Say It Ain’t So, Hillary Clinton—You’re Open to the Idea of Raising the Retirement Age?

Say It Ain’t So, Hillary Clinton—You’re Open to the Idea of Raising the Retirement Age?

At a forum in New Hampshire on Wednesday, Hillary Clinton stood by her support for the death penalty, which made headlines. But her remarks about Social Security that day didn't get as much attention.

She offered a lot of the same rhetoric many Democrats are now saying, that we need to look at how the poorest Social Security recipients are faring and think about how to shore up payments there. But she also left the door open to raising the retirement age if there were a way to exclude people who are not working labor-intensive jobs, while at the same time not fully endorsing simply raising the tax cap, which would ensure the system is fully funded going forward.


TRIANGULATION....AGAIN. How do you justify this from a "Democrat"?

I simply do not trust her to keep Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, ACA etc, out of the grubby hands of her Third Way DLC Wall Street Buddies.





http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/say-it-aint-so-hillary-clinton-youre-open-idea-raising-retirement-age

October 29, 2015

Remember when the League Of Women Voters Moderated Debates?

The Debates were better.

Isn't it TIME for the LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS to moderate at least SOME of the debates of BOTH Parties Again?!

http://lwv.org/

The League of Women Voters was founded by Carrie Chapman Catt in 1920 during the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. The convention was held just six months before the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, giving women the right to vote after a 72-year struggle.

The League began as a "mighty political experiment" designed to help 20 million women carry out their new responsibilities as voters. It encouraged them to use their new power to participate in shaping public policy. From the beginning, the League has been an activist, grassroots organization whose leaders believed that citizens should play a critical role in advocacy. It was then, and is now, a nonpartisan organization. League founders believed that maintaining a nonpartisan stance would protect the fledgling organization from becoming mired in the party politics of the day. However, League members were encouraged to be political themselves, by educating citizens about, and lobbying for, government and social reform legislation.

This holds true today. The League is proud to be nonpartisan, neither supporting nor opposing candidates or political parties at any level of government, but always working on vital issues of concern to members and the public. The League has a long, rich history,that continues with each passing year.

October 16, 2015

NYT - What Could Raising Taxes on the 1% Do? Surprising Amounts

When it comes to paying taxes, most Americans think the wealthy do not pay their fair share.

There is a sharp divide, however, between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to taxing the rich, who provide most of the cash for political campaigns.

All the Republican tax proposals, in fact, cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans. Democrats, on the other hand, are prepared to raise taxes at the top, though they have not been very specific about how they would do so.

(snip)

It is “absurd” to argue that most wealth at the top is already highly taxed or that there isn’t much more revenue to be had by raising taxes on the 1 percent, says the economist Joseph E. Stiglitz, winner of the Nobel in economic science, who has written extensively about inequality. “The only upside of the concentration of the wealth at the top is that they have more money to pay in taxes,” he said.

(Snip)

Raising their total tax burden to, say, 40 percent would generate about $157 billion in revenue the first year. Increasing it to 45 percent brings in a whopping $276 billion. Even taking account of state and local taxes, the average household in this group would still take home at least $1 million a year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/17/business/putting-numbers-to-a-tax-increase-for-the-rich.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=1

This assumes that you also kill their tax loops holes and actually make them PAY!

September 16, 2015

Chilling New Poll Finds GOP Fascism Is Very Real

A shocking number of Republicans say they can conceive of a situation in which they'd sympathize with a military coup.

[snip]

According to this new YouGov poll, these same patriotic Republicans still love the military passionately but are no longer attached to that moldy old concept of civilian control:

“Republicans (43%) are more than twice as likely as Democrats (20%) to say that they could conceive of a situation in which they would support a military coup in the United States.”

More to the point, only 32 percent of Republicans state unequivocally that they would not conceive of a situation in which they would support a military coup. One would be tempted to think this is simply a matter of partisanship, but there is no evidence that Democrats have ever entertained the notion of a military coup, no matter who was president, even one as widely loathed as George W. Bush. It’s as “un-American” as it gets.

For years the right has accused the opposition of being unpatriotic and failing to properly love America. And here they are, endorsing something that’s only seen in Banana Republics and totalitarian police states.

Sorry - forgot the link; http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/chilling-new-poll-finds-gop-fascism-very-real

June 26, 2015

Former Keystone XL lobbyist just joined Team Hillary

Clinton's newest hire has environmentalists questioning her commitment to fighting climate change

Hillary Clinton’s newest campaign consultant is Jeffrey Berman, the strategist credited with her 2008 primary defeat and who, in the time since, has worked as a lobbyist for TransCanada, the company behind the Keystone XL pipeline. Environmentalists have a right to be concerned.

The pipeline, which would transport oil from Alberta’s tar sands to Gulf Coast refineries, is an incredibly controversial topic, one on which President Obama has still refused to make a definitive call — though his rhetoric, as of late, has become more and more antagonistic to the idea. Clinton, as can be expected, flat-out refuses to address the question, which has left those hoping to divine her intentions left grasping at any small signs of which way she may be leaning.

[link:http://www.salon.com/2015/06/26/a_former_keystone_xl_lobbyist_just_joined_team_hillary/|


Well, now we KNOW her position on XL ........


http://www.salon.com/2015/06/26/a_former_keystone_xl_lobbyist_just_joined_team_hillary/

January 23, 2015

Is John Boehner a Traitor?

[link:http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2015/01/john-boehner-traitor|
http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2015/01/john-boehner-traitor]

Is John Boehner a Traitor?

On Wednesday, the Speaker of the House confirmed that he had invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to come speak to Congress, “on the grave threats radical Islam and Iran pose to our security and way of life.”

The announcement just so happens to come as Republicans in Congress are pushing for new sanctions against Iran, which threaten current diplomatic negotiations with that country.

As of now, Netanyahu is expected to speak to a joint session of Congress in March, while he’s in the U.S. for the annual AIPAC conference. So, why is Boehner’s invitation to Netanyahu such a big deal?

First off, it’s a HUGE violation of protocol and MASSIVELY disrespectful to President Obama and


NOw that you mention it. How about Reagan and HW Bush for the Iran Hostage Crisis?
TO late to prosecute Nixon

January 22, 2015

Republicans vote, and Decide that Reality is Real! ....but not quite

Must have been painful

[link:http://www.alternet.org/environment/senate-republicans-admit-climate-change-real-deny-humans-cause-it|
http://www.alternet.org/environment/senate-republicans-admit-climate-change-real-deny-humans-cause-it]

Senate Republicans Admit Climate Change Is Real, But Deny Humans Cause It
They even cite "biblical evidence."

In a surprise move, US Senate Republicans joined Democrats and went on record Wednesday acknowledging that climate change is real.

The symbolic amendment, attached to a controversial bill authorizing construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, was approved 98-1 after Senator James Inhofe, seen as the top climate change denier in Congress, announced he was supporting the legislation.

Inhofe however strongly rejected any suggestion that human activity was responsible for climate change.

January 21, 2015

TTP Isn’t the Only ‘Trade’ Takeover Busting Our Sovereignty

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/01/20/troubled-ttip-isnt-only-trade-takeover-busting-our-sovereignty

Even as controversial ‘trade’ deal, TTIP, sputters, other deals to give corporations as much power as countries are being negotiated even more secretively.

Billed as the biggest trade agreement ever, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is in trouble. Started in July 2013, negotiators hoped to have it wrapped up by the end of 2014. The deadline has now slipped to the end of 2015, but that too looks unlikely. So far the talks have achieved little in terms of reaching agreement for specific market sectors. And they are facing increasing scepticism because of TTIP’s plans to deregulate goods and services like health through “harmonisation” of EU and US standards – something that in practice usually means leveling down.

The most contentious area is undoubtedly that of Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) which enables companies to sue for alleged losses caused by government actions. Originally, these were intended to cover physical expropriation, but companies now use ISDS to make claims for “indirect expropriation” of future profits. This might be something as simple as bringing in plain cigarette packs or health warnings, or refusing to grant a patent for medicines.

ISDS not a new idea: it has been included in bilateral trade agreements for decades. But those were generally between Western nations looking to invest in developing countries that were keen to attract foreign companies. The ISDS mechanism was there to protect investments in regions where legal systems were often weak and governments capricious.

January 20, 2015

DNC MIA?

Where's Debbie?



Does she still have the job? (Hope not)

I may have missed it but I don't recall hearing ANYTHING from her prior to November Last year. Sure as hell haven't heard anything from her since. We should at least get an apology.

Where does our our fearless leader stand, (on anything) now?

Schultz should be on every TV show she can get to, Beating the drum. I see no news on the DNC or that "leadership"

BTW don't bother posting a link to their website. I'm looking for soapbox/Bully Pulpit related stuff.

What Am I missing here?

January 19, 2015

New ‘Charlie Hebdo’ editor scolds Chuck Todd: When you blur our cover, ‘you blur out democracy’

Hear, Hear!



http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/01/new-charlie-hebdo-editor-scolds-us-press-when-you-blur-our-cover-you-blur-out-democracy/

On Sunday’s edition of Meet the Press, Charlie Hebdo‘s new editor-in-chief admonished American media outlets for blurring the cover of this week’s issue of the controversial satirical magazine.

After recounting what it has been like for the magazine’s editorial staff in the days and weeks since the attack, Gerard Briard was asked by Chuck Todd about the Pope’s statement that “you cannot provoke, you cannot insult other people’s faith, you cannot mock it,” and that “freedom of speech is a right and a duty that must be displayed without offending.”

“Every time we draw a cartoon of Muḥammad,” Briard replied, “every time we draw a cartoon of the prophet, every time we draw a cartoon of God, we defend the freedom of religion. We declare that God must not be a political public figure, but that he must be a private figure.”

(snip)


“What they must understand,” Briard continued, “is that when they blur it out — when they decline to publish it — they blur out democracy, secularism, freedom of religion, and they insult the citizenship.”