Shakin' It Up-- For the Elites, Education for the 99% Is Not Part of the Plan. Ever notice how the country's attitude toward some things changes over time? It used to be we hated Native Americans. In fact, for much of our history it was official US policy to wipe them out. In the words of Civil War hero and noted Indian-killer, General Philip Henry Sheridan, "the only good Indian is a dead Indian. " Not so much anymore. Nowadays we honor Native American traditions by romanticizing genocide (in films like Pocahontas and Dances with Wolves White Men), distorting history (with racist sports logos and demeaning nicknames), and continuing to exercise control over Native American culture (800,000 "objects" in the Smithsonian alone). It used to be we hated African Americans. Not so much anymore. It used to be we hated people from Mexico. Not so much anymore. But sometimes it's not just people we change our minds about.
Take public education. No so much anymore. This explains why W.' At this point a reasonable person might ask why. The Fraudulent Media Campaign To Scandalize Obamacare's Passage. Fox News dishonestly claimed that MIT economist Jonathan Gruber's comment that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) "was written in a tortured way" to minimize criticism proves that the law was passed deceitfully. In fact, Congress routinely crafts bills to fit legislative rules and politically acceptable limits, and health care reform was transparently debated for years with input from Republicans. Gruber Says That Obamacare Was Designed To Ensure Passage Into Law Gruber Explains Law "Was Written In A Tortured Way" To Get Passed.
A recent video highlighted comments by MIT economist Jonathan Gruber, who provided data and developed a microsimulation model that the administration used to estimate effects of various ACA provisions, made in 2013 about the bill's passage: The bill was written in a tortured way to make sure CBO did not score the mandate as taxes. If [CBO] scored the mandate as taxes, the bill dies.
Okay, so it's written to do that. Bill O'Reilly: Obamacare "Was A Fraud. " Sen. Here Comes the Sun: America's Solar Boom, in Charts. This post first appeared at Mother Jones. Sunrise at Shirahama Ohama Beach, in Shirahama, Japan. (Photo: Izu navi/flickr CC 2.0) Last week, an energy analyst at Deutsche Bank came to a startling conclusion: By 2016, solar power will be as cheap or cheaper than electricity from the conventional grid in every state except three.
That’s without any changes to existing policy. In other words, we’re only a few years away from the point where, in most of the United States, there will be no economic reason not to go solar. If you care about slowing climate change or just moving toward cleaner energy, that is a huge deal. And solar energy is already going gangbusters.
Still, solar is a bit player, providing less than half of 1 percent of the energy produced in the United States. So what’s the holdup? Some numbers that tell the story: Sources (Image credits: Shutterstock (Earth, USA); Maurizio Fusillo/Noun Project (solar panel); Okan Benn/Noun Project (car); Q. The US and China Just Announced a Huge Deal on Climate — and It's a Game Changer. This post first appeared at Mother Jones. US President Barack Obama, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands following the conclusion of their joint news conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2014. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) In a surprise announcement Tuesday night, the world’s two biggest economies and greenhouse gas emitters, the United States and China, said they will partner closely on a broad-ranging package of plans to fight climate change, including new targets to reduce carbon pollution, according to a statement from the White House.
The announcement comes after President Obama met with Chinese President Xi Jinping today in Beijing, and includes headline-grabbing commitments from both countries that are sure to breathe new life into negotiations to reach a new climate treaty in Paris next year. Tuesday’s announcement is equally remarkable for China’s commitment. Obama Can Reform Dark Money With a Stroke of a Pen. This post first appeared at Republic Report. President Barack Obama at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Oct. 17, 2014 in Washington DC. (Rex Features via AP Images) There’s a powerful solution for disclosing the secret money sloshing around in our political system.
It does not require an act of Congress or action from any of the effectively toothless campaign finance watchdogs, like the Federal Elections Commission. President Barack Obama can issue an executive order today that requires government contractors to disclose their dark money campaign contributions. Why doesn’t he? In 2011, following the first wave of undisclosed campaign money in the 2010 midterms, the administration floated such an executive order.
The U.S. The order wouldn’t impact every dark money donor. However, the order would likely impact dozens of firms. Republicans on Capitol Hill have cried foul on the disclosure idea, claiming that the executive order would exempt unions. Elizabeth Warren: It’s time to work on America’s agenda. (J. David Ake/AP) By Elizabeth Warren November 7 at 6:51 PM Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, represents Massachusetts in the Senate. There have been terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Election Days for Democrats before — and Republicans have had a few of those, too. Such days are always followed by plenty of pronouncements about what just changed and what’s going to be different going forward. But for all the talk of change in Washington and in states where one party is taking over from another, one thing has not changed: The stock market and gross domestic product keep going up, while families are getting squeezed hard by an economy that isn’t working for them.
The solution to this isn’t a basket of quickly passed laws designed to prove Congress can do something — anything. It’s not about big government or small government. The American people want a fighting chance to build better lives for their families. Americans understand that building a prosperous future isn’t free. Did Voting Restrictions Determine the Outcomes of Key Midterm Races? This post first appeared at The Nation. A voter fills our a provisional ballot by hand for the midterm elections at a polling place in Annapolis, Maryland, Tuesday, November 4, 2014. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) Bryan McGowan spent 22 years in the US Marine Corps, including four tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. When he was stationed at Camp LeJeune in North Carolina from 2005 until 2010, McGowan used same-day registration to register and vote during the early voting period in the state.
He relocated to Georgia in 2010 because of his military service and returned to North Carolina in 2014. Sadly, McGowan’s story was not atypical this election year. In the North Carolina senate race, Republican Thom Tillis, who as speaker of the North Carolina General Assembly oversaw the state’s new voting law, defeated Democrat Kay Hagan by 50,000 votes. (Photo: The Nation) Leslie Culbertson arrived at her polling place in Charlotte’s Eastover Elementary School expecting to quickly cast her ballot. Dark Money Fuels Election Wins for Climate Deniers. This post first appeared at EcoWatch. In what turned out to be a bad midterm election for the environment, climate deniers won a slew of races across the country, fueled by big spending from fossil fuel interests such as the Koch brothers.
Their money overruled increasing public support for reigning in carbon-spewing industries to address climate change. The Koch brothers conceal much of their money in so-called (501)(c)(4) organizations, a form of nonprofit that can spend unlimited amounts of “dark money” without revealing its funders. (Photo: EcoWatch) Dirty energy money also overshadowed the heaviest pro-environmental spending yet from climate-friendly billionaire Tom Steyer and his organization NextGen Climate. Some of the media are spinning this as a big defeat for Steyer and environmentalists. But it was more a matter of more money drowning them out — and how much more is unknown. New head of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee?
“But don’t be fooled. Gerrymandering Rigged the 2014 Elections for GOP Advantage. This post first appeared at Republic Report. Bow Stanley, from Silver Lake, Kansas, votes at the Prairie Home Cemetery building, Tuesday, November 4, 2014, in Topeka, Kansas. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) In the midterm elections, Republicans appear to have won their largest House majority since the Hoover administration. Republicans won on the weakness of Democratic candidates, a poor resource allocation strategy by Democratic party leaders, particularly DCCC chair Steve Israel, and an election narrative that did little to inspire base Democratic voters. That being said, in many ways, the game was rigged from the start. As Rolling Stone reported, GOP donors plowed cash into state legislative efforts in 2010 for the very purpose of redrawing congressional lines. Here’s an example from the election last night. A similar dynamic played in North Carolina, another state in which GOP control in 2011 created intensely partisan congressional boundaries.
Money Won on Tuesday, But Rules of the Game Changed. This post first appeared at OpenSecrets blog. Republican Senate candidate and North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis speaks to supporters at an election night rally in Charlotte, NC, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2014, after defeating Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton) Republicans made the most of their fundraising advantage and routed Democrats in Tuesday’s midterms, but they seized the majority in the Senate and built their lead in the House even as fewer donors participated in the process and more of the dollars came from secret sources.
Democrats weren’t swamped when it came to the money game, but the GOP clearly had the upper hand. The real story of the election’s campaign finance chapter was not which side had more resources, but that such a large chunk of the cost was paid for by a small group of ultra-wealthy donors using outside groups to bury voters with an avalanche of spending. (Graph: OpenSecrets.org) None of those trends are new or terribly surprising. Records topple. The $9 Billion Witness: Meet JPMorgan Chase's Worst Nightmare. She tried to stay quiet, she really did. But after eight years of keeping a heavy secret, the day came when Alayne Fleischmann couldn't take it anymore.
"It was like watching an old lady get mugged on the street," she says. "I thought, 'I can't sit by any longer.'" Fleischmann is a tall, thin, quick-witted securities lawyer in her late thirties, with long blond hair, pale-blue eyes and an infectious sense of humor that has survived some very tough times. She's had to struggle to find work despite some striking skills and qualifications, a common symptom of a not-so-common condition called being a whistle-blower. Featured News From Fleischmann is the central witness in one of the biggest cases of white-collar crime in American history, possessing secrets that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon late last year paid $9 billion (not $13 billion as regularly reported – more on that later) to keep the public from hearing.
Thanks to a confidentiality agreement, she's kept her mouth shut since then. This billionaire thinks the Fed is missing the hyperinflation in the Hamptons. Hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer is pretty clueless about economics (Remy Steinegger/WEF) Never underestimate the ingenuity of inflation truthers. Every time it seems like they've hit rock bottom intellectually, they manage to come up with new and even more ridiculous reasons for why inflation is supposedly higher than the official numbers say it is. But, of course, like any conspiracy theory, it all starts off sounding plausible enough. First, they say the government understates inflation when it adjusts for the quality of goods and how people substitute for similar but cheaper ones.
Which brings us to Paul Singer. Check out London, Manhattan, Aspen and East Hampton real estate prices, as well as high-end art prices, to see what the leading edge of hyperinflation could look like. That's right: Paul Singer thinks Weimar-style inflation might be coming because he has to pay more for his posh vacation homes and art pieces. Matt O'Brien is a reporter for Wonkblog covering economic affairs. The Inside Story of How Republicans Gaffe-Proofed Their Candidates.
Corporate Triumphs, Progressive Victories and the Roadmap for a Democratic Revival. (Image: Flickr/ TaxRebate.org.uk) Tuesday’s Republican wave of election victories did not reflect public opinion or the public mood. Instead it was the result of the GOP’s triumph in changing the rules of democracy to favor big business and conservative interest groups, including the triumphs of corporate money and voter suppression.
But while Democrat candidates were going down to defeat, liberals and progressive won some impressive but little-publicized victories on important issues — including minimum wage hikes — especially in red and purple states, suggesting that voters are not as conservative as the pundits are pontificating. One of the most significant victories occurred in Richmond, California, where progressives defeated a slate funded by Chevron, the nation’s third largest corporation, which poured at least $3 million (about $150 for each likely voter) into this municipal election in this working class Bay Area city of 105,000 people.
Progressive Victories Minimum Wages. Gerrymandering Rigged the 2014 Elections for GOP Advantage. The complete guide to every public eyewitness interview in the shooting death of Mike Brown. Mike Brown was shot and killed by Officer Darren Wilson in broad daylight on a hot Saturday afternoon in Ferguson, Missouri. Consequently, eyewitnesses were standing at virtually every angle to observe exactly what happened that day. Seven have come forward publicly. Many gave interviews in the immediate aftermath of the shooting on Canfield Drive. Below is an annotated list of every public interview and video given by each eyewitness. Dorian Johnson Dorian Johnson is an essential eyewitness. . • Here is the video interview with Johnson still on the scene soon after Brown was killed in which he describes everything he saw. • Here is the same video from Johnson, but from a different camera angle. • A very detailed 12-minute interview with Johnson by Al Sharpton in which he recounts every detail he could remember. • Here Johnson does a video interview with the local press in which he recounts the story, the same as he said when he was on the scene.
Tiffany Mitchell Piaget Crenshaw Michael Brady. Poverty Denialism in a Culture of Cruelty: Bashing the Poor as Right-Wing Amusement. In 1981, Texas Senator Phil Gramm lamented: “We're the only nation in the world where all our poor people are fat.” It was, to Gramm, clear evidence of how exaggerated the problem of economic hardship in America was, and how horrible the nation’s welfare state had become. Apparently, poor people aren’t really suffering or deserving of much sympathy until their ribcages are showing and their eye-sockets have all but swallowed their eyes.
If the poor are fat, it’s not because so many of the cheapest and most readily available foods in poor communities are high in empty calories, sugar and non-nutritional ingredients---or because, in general, the U.S. food supply is overly-processed and unhealthy---but rather, it must be because poor people have it too good and are able to do a lot of fancy eating at public expense. America's culture of cruelty has long been fed by this kind of thinking: namely, the belief that the poor and unemployed really aren’t suffering that badly.