OLIGARCHY
It was a big win for Scott Walker and a big wake-up call for Democrats. The Wisconsin governor survived a recall effort that received more than a million signatures by gaining more votes in this special election than he did in 2010. The policy implications of Walker’s victory will echo across the country as governors realize that they can take on public-sector unions and not face electoral oblivion. The political implications for the presidential election will be overstated over the next few days—Wisconsin is still unlikely to break its 24-year Democratic streak this fall. But there are plenty of lessons to learn from what DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz infamously called “a dry run” for the general election.
Top Three Conclusions From Wisconsin Recall Election
Earth/Environment/Agribiz
June 5, 2012 T he high unemployment rate ought to be a national emergency. There are millions of people in need of jobs. The lost income as a result of the recession totals hundreds of billions of dollars annually, and the longer the problem persists, the more permanent the damage becomes . Why doesn’t the unemployment problem get more attention? Why have other worries such as inflation and debt reduction dominated the conversation instead?
The Growing Unemployed: A Case of Benign Neglect
What this transition meant, however, is that jobs and livelihoods on the farm were being destroyed. Because of accelerating productivity, output was increasing faster than demand, and prices fell sharply. It was this, more than anything else, that led to rapidly declining incomes. Farmers then (like workers now) borrowed heavily to sustain living standards and production. Because neither the farmers nor their bankers anticipated the steepness of the price declines, a credit crunch quickly ensued.
Joseph Stiglitz: “A Banking System is Supposed to Serve Society, Not the Other Way Around” | Politics
Exit from comment view mode. Click to hide this space Comments View/Create comment on this paragraph NEW YORK – America likes to think of itself as a land of opportunity, and others view it in much the same light. But, while we can all think of examples of Americans who rose to the top on their own, what really matters are the statistics: to what extent do an individual’s life chances depend on the income and education of his or her parents? Comments View/Create comment on this paragraph Nowadays, these numbers show that the American dream is a myth.
"The Price of Inequality" by Joseph E. Stiglitz
If you’re a justice of the Supreme Court, ignore the first sacrament of a democracy and suspend the counting of ballots in a presidential election. Appoint the candidate of your choice as president. If you’re the newly anointed president, react to a terrorist attack by invading a nonterrorist country.
Unexceptionalism - A Primer
The First Amendment Upside Down. Why We Must Occupy Democracy You’ve been seeing this across the country … Americans assaulted, clubbed, dragged, pepper-sprayed … Why? For exercising their right to free speech and assembly — protesting the increasing concentration of income, wealth, and political power at the top. And what’s Washington’s response?
The First Amendment Upside Down. Why We Must...)
This Is What Revolution Looks Like Posted on Nov 15, 2011 By Chris Hedges
Chris Hedges: This Is What Revolution Looks Like - Chris Hedges' Columns
Powell Memo: Text and Analysis
The Powell Memo was first published August 23, 1971 Introduction In 1971, Lewis F. Powell, then a corporate lawyer and member of the boards of 11 corporations, wrote a memo to his friend Eugene Sydnor, Jr., the Director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The memorandum was dated August 23, 1971, two months prior to Powell’s nomination by President Nixon to the U.S.
The 1 Percent Solution - Jim Tankersley
Seattle—Nick Hanauer toddled through his early years in a cramped Greenwich Village apartment. His mother waited tables at the Bitter End. His father worked low-level jobs on Wall Street and as an editor at a publishing house.
When Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission was first argued before the Supreme Court, on March 24, 2009, it seemed like a case of modest importance. The issue before the Justices was a narrow one.
How John Roberts Orchestrated Citizens United
Why Screwing Unions Screws the Entire Middle Class
Illustration: Jason Schneider Read more: The 10 richest members of Congress, CEO pay vs. American worker pay, and more infographics on the new gilded era . IN 2008, A LIBERAL Democrat was elected president. Landslide votes gave Democrats huge congressional majorities. Eight years of war and scandal and George W.Magazine - The Rise of the New Global Elite
F. Scott Fitzgerald was right when he declared the rich different from you and me. But today’s super-rich are also different from yesterday’s: more hardworking and meritocratic, but less connected to the nations that granted them opportunity—and the countrymen they are leaving ever further behind.Frank Rich on How Conservative Donors are Buying This Presidential Election
I f you want to appreciate what Barack Obama is up against in 2012, forget about the front man who is his nominal opponent and look instead at the Republican billionaires buying the ammunition for the battles ahead. A representative example is Harold Simmons, an 80-year-old Texan who dumped some $15 million into the campaign before primary season had ended. Reminiscing about 2008, when he bankrolled an ad blitz to tar the Democrats with the former radical Bill Ayers, Simmons told The Wall Street Journal , “If we had run more ads, we could have killed Obama.”Thomas Jefferson Feared an Aristocracy of Corporations | The Nat
Thomas Jefferson's name gets thrown around quite a bit these days by the Tea Partisans, which is a good thing. A populist movement of the right or the left that neglected Jefferson, the most radical of the first presidents, would be a sorry affair indeed. Jefferson's distrust of concentrated and consolidated power was such that he left a legacy for any and every dissenter against the state.Cognitive Regulatory Capture