Posts Tagged ‘wealth’

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The Ponzi Scheme of Commons Exploitation

Sunday, November 6th, 2011

The Ponzi Scheme of Commons Exploitation
by
David Schlecht

We’ve posted before regarding the need to protect our commons and the damage caused by allowing the greedy to exploit our commons for profit.

I’m glad to see that others are beginning to recognize the unavoidable destruction that comes from the greedy exploitation of our commons.

This is such an important issue that it has to be addressed immediately.

We are allowing some to get rich by mining our minerals, and drilling our oil. I say “our” because everything in the ground belongs to all humans, all of us. Anything and everything we take from the Earth is limited. Sooner or later everything will run out unless we make rules, right now, today, to prevent the extraction of anything that is not replaced at the expense of those benefiting from the taking.

But, stop. Think about this a minute. Aren’t you and I benefiting from having cars to drive and oil and gas to burn to keep us moving and keep our heaters and air conditioners and air filters working? I’m guessing we will all say, yes, we are all benefiting from exploiting our finite resources.

What happens to our kids and grand kids when we’ve used up all those resources? Haven’t we effectively stolen the resources from future generations?

It’s time we started realizing that this Ponzi scheme will only last so long before it will all come crashing down. What will happen to our economy when all the oil is gone? It will be the biggest economic crash we’ve ever seen and it will last the rest of time.

What happens when we’ve used the last of the rare earth minerals that make our technology run? No new computers, no new pace makers, no new technology. What do you think that will do to our economy?

Sure, there’ll be a whole new industry of little Chinese slave labor hands stripping the guts out of our old technology trying to scrounge up enough to make a new computer. What will that do to our computer industry? What will that do to our entire technology industry? It’ll be a disaster like we’ve never seen before.

Sure, we might not run out of oil today and we might have enough rare earth minerals to last a few more years, but sooner or later it will all be gone. We have to start conserving today. We need to start finding alternatives to our limited resources. We need to stop the greedy from exploiting our commons for money. When it runs out, it will be you and me that suffer. It’ll be our kids and grand kids. The greedy will already have their money.

Now, don’t expect the greedy 1% to willingly stop making money stripping away our commons. It has to be you and me to pass the laws that require that our commons be cared for. The only way to protect our commons from the greedy and from ourselves it to educate everyone of the train wreck right around the corner and to pass laws that protect our commons, right now, today.

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The Commons and the Resources

Saturday, October 29th, 2011

The Commons and the Resources
by
David Schlecht

We’ve discussed the need to protect the commons in prior posts. Still, there are many people who don’t grasp the importance of protecting our commons. I’ll illustrate an important aspect of protecting the commons by looking at the crime of exploiting our resources for greed and profit.

In our example we’ll use the idea of exploiting oil even though this applies to all of our resources.

Let’s take the position that I am an oil tycoon and am spending millions of dollars each month to ensure that people continue to use my oil and continue to make billions of dollars in profit for me. Let’s say that I’m even pathological enough to discourage people from believing the catastrophic truth about the negative effects of using my products.

In 40 years I pass my empire on to my children and they pass it along to their children and on and on until it’s the year 2500 and every drop of oil is gone.

Along comes 2501 and the world is faced with a disaster that only oil can resolve.

What I have done as well as my children and grand children is steal the resources from our future children. I’ve taken something from the earth that belongs to every one of us and exploited it to make me stinkingly rich, here, now, today. I have taken the resources away from any future generation that may actually have a use for them that could help everyone.

We all need to start to expect that there should be restrictions on exploiting our non-renewable resources for greed and profit, expect that we would all find it important to protect our resources, especially the ones we can’t get back once they’re squandered.

Even renewable resources need to be protected. Our water supplies are renewable but no one should be allowed to make money by selling something that we all need to survive on this planet. This foolishness will only lead to a shortage of water while some have it all. It always comes to pass that those things that are in the most demand are owned, hoarded, exploited, and controlled by the wealthy.

Resources such as food or lumber are renewable but are also of limited quantity. There is only so much lumber we can grow and so much food.  Both of these must come from the earth which we are all responsible for. If we leave it up to the greedy to strip the land of all ability to grow food and lumber we will be allowing them to get rich while all the rest of us will have to deal with the barren, toxic wasteland the greedy will leave behind.

Sooner or later we will all begin to realize that we are all responsible for this earth we share. And the only way to be responsible for it and to protect it is to have reasonable limitations on how it can be exploited for profit.

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Does America Need Manufacturing?

Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

Does America Need Manufacturing?
by
David Schlecht

A stick of wood has little or no inherent value. Have someone carve it into an ax handle and you have created value. The person with the ax handle has value, as does the business he works for, as does the neighborhood and town he is in as well as the country. For every ax handle made, value is added to the country.

When America abandons it’s manufacturers, it is abandoning the golden goose. No more value is added to the country.

Sure, we now have a “service” driven economy, but it ads nothing of value. Do you want fies with that? Is that adding any value? I’ll mow your lawn, you fix my car. Is any value added? Of course not. In fact, if all you have is service, eventually all the value of the country will be depleted. Every time the money has to change hands, someone takes some out to live on, some of it goes to pay for the roads and street lights.

Obama is planning to put another trillion dollars into a stimulus package, but it will all go away just like it did ten years ago when we no longer make anything anymore.

We’ve lost over 40,000 factories in the past 10 years. That’s a whole lot of value that is gone. What little manufacturing we have left is not enough to offset the value lost in the “service industry”. The stimulus will all go away unless our representatives start to realize where it’s going.

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Job Creators, Job Creators, Where are the Job Creators?

Thursday, August 25th, 2011

Job Creators, Job Creators, Where are the Job Creators?

Dave Speck

Every time I turn around I hear another Republican politician explaining how the rich, who are sitting on three trillion dollars are the job creators and we need to give them more money.

Who are the job creators?

If it was the rich, we’d be in fat city right now because the so called job creators would have nothing but money to magically make more jobs.

If the businesses and the wealthy were the job creators, there would never have been the great Republican depression of the 20s. They had all the money and America, the real America, still starved to death.

Who Are the Job Creators

The businesses will only hire if there are customers needing something to buy. The best way to kill an economy is to stop people from buying.  If people have money to spend, businesses will hire. The customers are the job creators.

The Customers are the Job Creators

Got that? The customers.

If a business is doing well, it can stream line and increase their profits. When the streamline, they lay off people. Who is the job creator? The business is the job killer. The bigger the business, the more streamlined it is and the bigger job killers they are.

Bringing in more customers will mean they have to hire more people, even if they’ve streamlined the business. The customers are the job creators.

When a billionaire buys a company and moves it over to China to cut costs, the billionaire is the job killer. It’s not the customers, it’s not the regulations, it’s not the taxes, it’s the greedy billionaires who are the job killers.

So, who are the Job Creators?

You got it. The customer. Give the people a union and a reliable income and our economy will flourish. If we give more money to the so called Job Creators that the Republicans tell us about, we will lose more and more jobs.

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Who Owns the Deficit

Thursday, July 21st, 2011

Who Owns the Deficit
Dave Speck

So we hear the republican chanting over and over how the sky is falling if we don’t balance the budget, even if it means we have to take food out of the mouths of our elderly and sick and weak and poor. The world will end. Why all the noise?

The Republicans voted to raise the debt ceiling 18 times during Reagan’s administration. Got that? 18 times. During that time Reagan increased our nation’s deficit by three trillion dollars, more than all the previous presidents combined.

Where did all that money go? It went to tax breaks for the rich, mostly. That and to the military budget and his failed Star Wars program.

Then, along came Clinton and he balanced the budget and had a surplus that would have paid off the deficit in 10 years.

Where did all this money come from? Clinton ended “Welfare as we know it.” In other words, he stole it from the poor. He also raised taxes on the wealthy a couple percentage points.

Then, Bush added almost five trillion dollars to the deficit and the republican voted seven times to raise the debt ceiling.

Where did all that money go? Tax breaks for the rich and two illegal wars.

Then the economy crashed, as it always does when you lower taxes on the rich, and Bush pushed through another trillion dollars to the banker crooks.

Now, Obama wants to add a small fraction to the debt, less than 8%, and the Republicans are threatening to bring the entire country down unless we take more money from the poor.

Do you see any sort of pattern here? The republicans ran up almost all of the 10 trillion dollar debt and they don’t want to pay for it. They want the poor and the weak and the elderly and the sick to pay for their big party.

The republicans and the rich have been living large for the past 30 years at our expense and now they want you and me to pay for the bill.

What would you say about a political party that does this? What would you say about a party that is willing to crash our economy if they don’t get their way on everything? We’re in this mess because of the tax breaks to the rich and the republicans are saying they will destroy the country if we don’t give more tax breaks to the rich.

What party does big business own?

US Debt per GDP

 

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Class Warfare?

Tuesday, July 19th, 2011

Class Warfare?
Dave Speck

Class Warfare

America’s middle class has been doing with less and less over the past 30 years while the rich have been getting richer and richer. There has been a class war going on for 30 years folks, and it’s time we started waking up to the reality. Not only are the rich making more than they ever did before, but they already own most all the wealth in the entire country.

It’s time to wake up, America. There’s a class war going on and you’re getting killed.

Listen to Senator Bernie Sanders.

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Balanced Budget Amendment

Tuesday, July 19th, 2011

Balanced Budget Amendment
Dave Speck

We’ve been hearing a lot of commotion lately by the Republicans about how we need a balanced budget.

At first blush, this might sound like a great idea. After all, don’t you and I have to balance our checkbook at the end of each month?

No, actually, we don’t. We can go out and borrow any time we feel like it.  In fact, if our federal government becomes hamstrung with a limitation like this, it would be the best thing for the billionaires and the worst thing for you and me. That’s why the Tea Baggers are all over this. Their billionaire leaders (behind the scenes) are telling them how important it is that the government can’t borrow money.

But, let’s look at what would have happened if our founding fathers were as stupid as a Tea Bagger. Without being able to spend more money than they had, we would never have been able to protect ourselves from attack as a young nation. In fact, we wouldn’t even be able to protect ourselves from Hitler during the second world war if we hadn’t been able to borrow money.

Imagine what we would have done during the Republican Great Depression of the 1930s. Without being able to borrow money to get our people back to work, this great country of the USA would have gone broke. We wouldn’t have been able to start up all the jobs programs that saved us from republican stupidity.

Here we are, a century later and the Republicans are trying to destroy our country again. When will America ever learn not to listen to the Republicans?

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Religious Matters

Saturday, April 23rd, 2011

Religious Matters
What Moral Matters Matter to America
by
Paul Johnson

The latest US budget designed and approved by almost every single Republican in the House of Representatives takes food right out of the mouths of the starving and gives it to the millionaires and billionaires.

This action has horrified America enough that we are beginning to realize that we are voting for the party that is as opposite our religious and moral values as possible.

How could we have voted for this immoral party? How could we have been made into such suckers that we have voted against all that we know to be right and voted for those intent on giving our country away to the greedy and the rich?

If we don’t stop and figure out how we got here, we’ll never be able to avoid it in the future.

What went so wrong that we got the party of the greedy running our government?

I can’t speak for everyone who has accidentally voted for the party of the greedy, but I can speak for those I know and I can be pretty sure that this is the same mistake made by almost all of those voting for the Republicans.

Wedge Issues

The easiest way to get people to vote against their own best interests and against the best interests of the country is to get them to vote primarily on wedge issues. A wedge issue is an issue that can be used to drive as a wedge between political parties. The Republicans can’t run on providing for the poor, because it would be a a lie, so they need to find something that will get people riled up enough to go and vote for a lousy candidate if he would just address the wedge issue.

The Republican voter is typically a single issue voter. This means that they are the most susceptible to being used as tools in wedge issues.

Effective Marketing

The Republican party has become experts at marketing destructive policies to the American people. Why else would you have a Tea Party out there chanting for more rights and lower taxes on the multinational corporations and billionaires? The Tea Party was created with money from the billionaires and is sponsored by billionaire dollars and marketed with billionaire money all for the purpose of getting Tea Party candidates elected who vote against the interests of Americans and all for the corporations.

Few people even realize that the original Tea Party was a revolution against multinational corporate power and now they’re out there chanting for more power and more money for the multinational corporations. You can’t tell me that’s not pretty darned impressive marketing.

Lies and Deceipt

The percentage of people who are foolish enough to be Tea Baggers is low enough that the Republican party needs more. Hence, the need to lie about what they are and what they plan to do for the billionaires.

This is not a problem limited to the Republican party. There are a few Democrats who run on Progressive principles and then vote straight ticket with the Republicans.

But, this isn’t really all about how bad the Republicans are. This essay is about how some unethical politicians and greedy billionaires can corrupt our political system. It’s not all about Republicans or Democrats. It happens to be the Republican party they have infected, but it could have just as well been the Democratic party. In fact, they’re spending billions of dollars right now, trying to corrupt that party as well.

Taking Back our Country

How on Earth are we ever going to fix this mess with so much money lines up against the American voters? How will we wrestle the media away from big money? How can we change the campaign finance laws when the Supreme Court is so obviously pro-billionaire?

This almost looks like a perfect storm. It may be too late for us to take back the country peacefully, but hopefully we will at least try before it’s too late.

The Real Issues

As I’ve pointed out, political parties don’t run on real moral issues, they run on wedge issues. This means that we voters are stuck without real issues upon which to vote.

What are the most important moral issue to you? Think about it before reading further. What is really important to you morally? Do these moral issue matter enough to affect your voting? In other words, do your morals affect your “real” life or are they just something to talk about at church?

For the vast majority of Americans, moral issues affect their daily lives. Most people try to keep morals in their lives.

Here is a short list of my moral issues. I have a much longer list but it’s not important what mine are, what matters is what your moral list looks like.

  1. Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, housing the homeless, curing the sick. You know, those things Jesus says need to be part of our lives.
  2. Turn the other cheek. This includes reducing the steel heel of oppressive laws in America and reducing the oppressive governments of other lands. This means no wars. Fix the system where the vast majority of those in our prisons are minorities and poor. You know, the things Jesus said we should keep in our lives.
  3. Discouraging greed. Wow! There’s no end to where this could go. It’s time to get the money changers out of our religions and out of our politics.

There are plenty more, but this is a good start for discussion. Do yourself a favor and come up with your own personal list of important moral issues.

Now ask yourself, how many of those issues on your list are things you actually vote on? How can there be such a great disconnect between what you think is moral and how you vote?

Now, here is a list of wedge issues that are important but are not anywhere near the top of my list and I bet they’re not at the top of yours either:

  1. Abortion. This is not a moral issue. Nowhere in the Bible does it say we need to vote on abortion. Abortions are horrible but if they’re at the top of your morals list, you might want to stop and take a second look at your morals.
  2. Hate the Gay. How many times does your religious book refer to defending the downtrodden compared to the number of times it says we need to disenfranchise gays? This is a big wedge issue but is also a big moral issue as well. Should we be taking rights away from gays? What would your common sense tell you?
  3. Religion in schools and in government. This wedge issue really as no place in a Christian’s political view. Christianity is opposed to the combination of politics and religion. So are our country’s founding documents. So, why would you vote based on this issue? Don’t get me wrong. There are some religions that think that politics and religions should be the same. But most Americans opposed to Muslim laws regarding this.

What are your most important wedge issues and is it wise to vote based on them while excluding the most important moral issues on your list?

Happy Easter!

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Posted in Politics, Religion | 3 Comments »

Tea Baggers for Billionaires

Sunday, April 17th, 2011

by
Matthew K.

I drove past the Nevada capitol Friday and found a handful of people gathering around a sign that said, “Americans for Prosperity”.

Two important things are illuminated by this:

  1. The billionaire Koch brothers, known for being the money behind Americans for Prosperity, could only pay a handful of people to gather, and
  2. Even though this was slated as a Tea Party rally, it was mostly just workers and volunteers for billionaires.

Why are these issues important? First off, this was a vividly open event to support billionaires against the American people. The signs said right out in the open that these are people supporting the destruction of the middle class and the poor.  There’s really no hiding the fact and no reason to try to hide it.

And, secondly, it was obvious that the vast majority of the Tea Party has realized that they are being used as fools to support legislation that is bad for them and bad for America.

Sure, the Tea Party members know something is wrong with the state of America but they’re beginning to realize that their little Tea Party is created and funded by billionaires and their agenda isn’t America’s agenda, but an agenda to cut the already low taxes of the billionaires.

These are both very big deals. Now that the veil is off the Americans for Prosperity control of the Tea Party, people are coming to their senses.

Now, don’t think this is the beginning of the end of the Tea Baggers. There are millions of Americans out there who don’t know any better than to believe the propaganda and will be signing up with the same anti-American crowd when they start seeing the marketing again.

It’s not just sad but I find it quite disgusting that one of America’s major political parties is so unethical to take advantage of the Tea Baggers. But, what would one expect from a political party that does all the rest of the things the Republican party is known for.

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How to Tell if Your News is Biased

Tuesday, April 5th, 2011

How to Tell if Your News is Biased
Matthew K.

How can you tell if your news source is biased? How can you tell if you need to turn off your news TV or radio and find something more honest? I’ll give you some simple guidelines.

  1. Is your news source coming from a multi million dollar corporation? Well then you can guarantee that it wouldn’t be in their best interest to get the poor and working class all up in arms about multi million corporations, now would it? This is the first and most obvious indication that something is wrong with your news.
  2. Are your news casters paid more than $106,000 per year? If so, you can be sure it’s not in their interest to give you the truth about taxes on the wealthy now is it?
  3. Does your news source clump Social Security expenses in as part of the general federal budget? If so, turn off your lying news right now. This is an obvious lie that has been disproven so many times it’s sad, but the liars keep repeating it.
  4. Did your news have a piece on the thousands of picketers who marched in front of the Koch industries headquarters? No? Never heard of it? You know what that means. But I’ll bet you know about every single Tea Party gathering.
  5. Does your news source explain how taxes on the rich have caused the budget deficit? No? Didn’t think so. Turn them off.
  6. Does your news source explain how the rich, making more than $106,000, pay ZERO social security tax on every penny over that? No, I suppose not. I never hear any of them talking about that. Social Security would be in fat city if the rich just paid their fair share.
  7. Does your news source explain how demand drives an economy and giving money to the fat cats is what’s caused this problem?

This is just a few of countless distortions and lies that come out of the major corporate news.

So, what can a person do to get the real news? Well, let’s start by turning off the corporate news and start looking for independent news and look for better alternatives. I’m not going to tell you what to listen to, you have to decide that on your own, but here are some great places to check out.

  • The Thomm Hartmann radio/TV show. You can get it on the Web and on Dish TV. He has lots of great guests, liberals and conservatives, debating the issues.
  • Think Progress is a great think tank that is current on all the goings on in politics.
  • Daily Kos is a great website with lots of daily news.
  • Democratic Underground is another great news source.
  • The Nation has a great newspaper and online news source.
  • Check out The Guardian and the BBC, two British news sources.
  • You can even check out Al Jazeera for news not quite as biased as Fox.

You may have noticed, but I’m not giving you links. You can find these and more by doing a little googling. Get in the habit of doing some research and finding news sites that are actually good for you and good for America.

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Where Nevada’s Revenue Comes From

Saturday, April 2nd, 2011

Where Nevada’s Revenue Comes From
by
David Schlecht

Here is a graph of Nevada’s Revenue stream. Check it out. While looking at it, remember that Nevada comes in dead last in almost every area that matters, from health to intelligence to poverty.

Where Nevada's Revenue Comes From

Take a look at the slice of the pie that is the largest – sales tax. Sales tax is one of the most regressive types of tax because it affects the poor and middle class the most.

So, in Nevada, we see an example of what it’s like when the rich are not expected to pay their fair share. Do you see any income tax on the wealthy? Any taxes on billion dollar bankers? Any taxes on billion dollar mines? No? Me neither.

So the rich get a free ride and the poor and middle class are saddled with everything.

Well, Nevada, how is that working for you? Does it attract business having no income tax? No, I guess not.

When will you ever learn, Nevada?

But the bigger question is what on earth are we doing trying to bring the rest of the country down to Nevada’s level by following their tax structure and giving the billionaires a free ride while expecting the poor and middle class to work for less and carry a greater portion of the cost?

When will America ever learn? It’s time to throw out the failed Republican policies. We’ve been here before, America, it was called the Great Depression and it didn’t work so well back then.

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Posted in Finance, Politics | 2 Comments »

Does Supply Drive an Economy or Does Demand?

Sunday, March 20th, 2011

Does Supply Drive an Economy or Does Demand?
by
David Schlecht

We’ve discussed supply side economics many times on this blog and there are countless websites that compare the two economic models, Keynes vs Friedman. But this time I’m going to add a bit of history to the discussion. After all, if we can’t learn from our mistakes, we’re doomed to repeat them, and repeating them we are.

Supply Side Economics

Probably the best way to describe Supply Side Economics is Voodoo economics. This is the idea that if you give money to the rich, they will hire people and pay a good wage and the heavens will open and the angles will sing and leprechauns will dance. It’s also referred to as trickle-down economics.

In other words, people will run out and buy just because the stores are full.

Keynesian Economics

This is the old model of economics where demand drives the economy. In other words, when people have money they will buy.

Now this is obviously just broad strokes and there is a whole lot more involved in each of these models of economics. You may find yourself interested enough to learn economics and get into the nuts and bolts of these, but this is as technical as I plan to get.

Alright, so here’s the little bit of history I promised you. Neither of these perspectives of economics is new. Since the beginning of economic times, the concept of supply and demand has been the fundamental core of the study of economics.

However, back in the early days of America, the concept of unfettered free trade was the approach the government took and this freed up the companies to be as greedy and they could. This allowed America to become quite wealthy, or at least our wealthy became wealthy.

Of all the leading countries, we were becoming the most wealthy. This seemed to convince many people that if a little free is good, oh my gosh, totally free trade must be the be-all end-all of wealthy. So, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, America decided to pull all the plugs and let the rich get as rich as they wanted.

So by the 1920s we saw the roaring 20s when the wealthy were insane with their greed and wealth. At lease back then, they were smart enough to protect our industries through tariffs.

Then, the big crash.

Following the Great Depression, many economist admitted that the whole idea of completely unregulated greed was bad for America. At this time, Keynes came back to the idea that maybe really, demand drives the economy. This wasn’t the first time economics thought of this, but it was back in vogue.

Then, about 50 years ago, Friedman brought back the greed and supply side economics.

So, fast-forward to today and we’re all the rage back into supply-side economics and unfettered free trade. Of course, we’re also seeing the return of the economics of the Great Depression.

When will we learn from history? When we start exposing the idiots who keep pushing failed economic policies on us. When we eject the same people who got us in the First Republican Great Depression. The Republicans.

Unfettered Free Trade doesn’t work. All it does is impoverish a nation and make a handful of greedy people insanely rich.

Free trade doesn’t work.

Supply Side Economics don’t work. It’s a myth.

Voodoo Economics always brings disaster. Read your history.

 

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Posted in Finance, Politics | 2 Comments »

Welfare for the Rich

Sunday, March 13th, 2011

Welfare for the Rich
by
Captain Jack

This table is a wonderful example of welfare for the rich.

Class Warefare

Where are your taxes going? To the rich, of course.

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Posted in Finance, Politics | 2 Comments »

The Demise of the Democratic Party

Tuesday, March 8th, 2011

The Demise of the Democratic Party
by
David Schlecht

The billionaires and multinational corporations own the Republican party and they are doing everything they can to destroy the Democratic party, everything from destroying Acorn, who helped register real Americans, and helped them get out and vote, to attacking trial lawyers, the only legal profession to donate to the Democratic party, and they’re even trying to destroy the workers, the unions, and the middle class.

But, the Democratic party has held together because it is the only true party that represents the people, it represents the poor, the underprivileged, the working class, the average American.

No, all the underhanded and deceitful attacks won’t destroy the Democratic party as quickly as they will destroy themselves.

The Democratic party is losing touch with its base and is abandoning the progressive principles that have made the party strong. Today’s Democratic party is partly owned by blue dog democrats (aka corporate democrats), partly controlled by conservatives who support anti-American principles like indefinite imprisonment without trial, support giving tax breaks to the billionaires and then cutting services for the poor to pay for them.

No, the liars and billionaires won’t destroy the Democratic party. The Democratic party will destroy themselves if they can’t get back to their progressive roots and get back to representing the people.

Want to see the Democratic party strong, again? Stop the free trade disasters, increase services for the people, and demand fair taxes on the rich.

Anything less will make this a single-party country. Sure, they’ll keep both the names so as to fool the fools but it’ll be the same old party no matter if it’s Democrat of Republican.

How can we Americans save our country? Get out there and get active. Talk to your friends and neighbors. Call and write your representatives, write letters to the newspapers, and more than anything else, turn off your network news. The only news that is trustworthy is locally owned.

Time is running out, America.

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What The Tea Party Wants

Monday, March 7th, 2011

What The Tea Party Wants
Dave Speck

It is very hard not to hear the voices of the billionaires behind every single tea party request.

The Tea Party Requests

  • Fewer regulations on the oil companies
  • Drill baby drill
  • Lower taxes on the billionaires
  • Welfare for Billionaires
  • Lower benefits for the middle class
  • Smaller government
  • Kill the unions

… and on and on it goes.

Who Votes Against Their Best Interests?

It takes a real fool to be out there chanting against the middle class and against the workers and against regulating big business and against fair taxes on the rich, against their own best interests.

But, the Republican party if full of fools.

So, tea party, what, exactly, do you want, other than what the billionaires want?

You want smaller government? Tell me what small government country you want to be like. Somalia, maybe? Haiti? There isn’t a single one out there I want to be like. Tell me what big government country you don’t want to be like. The bigger the government, the bigger the benefits to the tax payers. Of course, we all want to clean out waste from our government but making it smaller isn’t the solution. It only helps the billionaires.

So, tea party followers, please, tell me, what do you want that the billionaires haven’t told you to want?

Who Fixed the Last Great Depression?

During the last Great Depression, America voted for progressives to fix the country and Germany voted for a conservative, Hitler. Who are you voting for? Since I know that you will refuse to admit it to yourself, I’ll help you out. You’re voting for the conservatives.

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We Still Need Unions

Thursday, March 3rd, 2011

We Still Need Unions
by
David Schlecht

It is not just a coincidence that the middle class has shrunk as the unions have shrunk. There’s no coincidence that the percentage of the country’s wealth going to the greedy billionaires goes up as union membership goes down.

It doesn’t get much plainer than this graph.

The lower the union membership the lower our wages

Does a free country need labor unions?

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Who Owns Them

Tuesday, March 1st, 2011


Who Owns Them
Matthew K.

By now everyone knows about how the governor of Wisconsin betrayed his people and rather than negotiating with his voters and finding solutions to the shortfall he caused by the tax giveaways to corporations and billionaires, he sold out to the billionaires. Well, I should say everyone except the poor naive viewers of Fox. I wouldn’t expect them to know anything about how corrupt the Republicans are.

Governor Scott Walker took what he thought was a direct call from the billionaire who put him into office with his multi-million dollar contribution, David Koch. Imagine a governor taking a call from a billionaire when he won’t even negotiate with his state’s employees.

This was so disgusting that the majority of his state has lost confidence in him and the country is horrified at the blatant ownership of our elected official. He’ll take a direct call from his billionaire owner but not from his people.

In poll after poll, Americans are disgusted with this. Well, again, poll after poll as long as it’s not on Fox which doesn’t even cover this. Got that? America despises a candidate who is a prostitute for billionaires. You know, like oil billionaires like the Koch brothers?

Well, it’s not just Walker. It’s much worse than that. Check out this article showing that the entire GOP in the House of Representatives has voted to protect the tax breaks for the oil billionaires. Got that? 100% of the GOP in the House voted against America and for the oil billionaires.

Sure, some fools on the corrupt Right will say, oh, it’s not just them, there was a democrat in there somewhere so it’s okay if 100% of the Republicans are scum.

Well, you know what? He’d be right. It’s okay so let’s just all forget about it and let the billionaires take over our country. We don’t need unions. We don’t need a middle class. Let the billionaires decide what’s best for us.

Well, actually, it’s not okay and it’s not true that both parties are completely owned by big money. Sure, there are a few Democrats who voted for it too. There are a few Democrats owned by big money, too. But not 100%.

100% of the Republicans voted against the best interests of the people, AGAIN! Disgusting!

 

 

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Where the Deficit Comes From

Monday, February 21st, 2011

Where the Deficit Comes From
by
David Schlecht

Maybe you’ve seen this before but you really need to check out this graph and let it sink in. Do you have any idea whatsoever where the deficit is coming from? Check it out!

The Deficit

Where the Deficit Comes From

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Nevada Solidarity Rally

Monday, February 21st, 2011

Nevada Solidarity Rally
by
David Schlecht

In Nevada’s capitol, Carson City, today, we were honored with the sight of hundreds of Nevada workers, showing solidarity with the workers of Wisconsin.

I’m not an expert at guessing crowd sizes but it seemed to be at least 180 people gathering in solidarity, cheering, carrying signs and making their voices heard.

Imagine that , 180 Nevadans getting together to send a message to their representatives about standing together with the middle class and with workers. Too bad the local news stations put such little effort into fairly reporting. I’m sure that if half that many tea baggers were in all of Nevada, the news would be crawling all over it and we’d be hearing about it for weeks.

Still, I’m proud to see Americans standing together to beat the tyranny of the ruling class. Well, all except the poor tea baggers down at the end of the street, still frightened and angry and hateful of their government and the workers of America.  I’m guessing they don’t even realize what they’re picketing against. You’re picketing against America, you fools.

Of the signs of solidarity, there were endless words of support from many different groups and organizations. On the end of the street, there were those condemning workers’ rights, condemning their high taxes, the lowest they’ve been in over 50 years, and bemoaning a great country and a great government.

So, who, again, benefits from a smaller government? Not the people, that’s obvious when you look at countries with small governments, like Somalia. It’s the multinational corporations you fools. Who benefits when the workers get the shaft? It’s not we the people, you fools.

Nevada, I’m proud to see all of you out there giving up a day off and freezing in the cold to try to save your state and our country.

Check out the pictures of the event. See true patriots sacrificing for the sake of saving our country. Oh, and see a handful of fools saving the poor downtrodden billionaires.

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Egypt in Chaos

Monday, January 31st, 2011

Egypt in Chaos
by
Dave Speck

Egypt has been in the news a lot lately. Do you know what’s been missing from the news?

Many analysts say one of the driving causes is the tremendous disparity between the wealthy and the rest of the country. That has been the root of revolutions since the beginning of time.

Do you know what developed country has a greater disparity? America! Yes, we have let this country get more out of control than Egypt and we’re not even voting in great numbers yet. Will we take this country back from the greedy by vote or will we wait till our votes are worthless like Egypt’s before we revolt?

I hope we come to our senses soon and start voting because I would really hate to see revolution come to our country again.

Should America back the Egyptian people or their dictator?

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