Who Rules America? An Investment Manager Breaks Down the Economic Top 1%, Says 0.1% Controls Political and Legislative Process. Article Sent in by G. William Domhoff, author of Who Rules America? [3] This article was written by an investment manager who works with very wealthy clients. I knew him from decades ago, but he recently e-mailed me with some concerns he had about what was happening with the economy. G. I sit in an interesting chair in the financial services industry. Work by various economists and tax experts make it indisputable that the top 1% controls a widely disproportionate share of the income and wealth in the United States. The Lower Half of the Top 1% The 99th to 99.5th percentiles largely include physicians, attorneys, upper middle management, and small business people who have done well.
Until recently, most studies just broke out the top 1% as a group. I’ve had many discussions in the last few years with clients with “only” $5M or under in assets, those in the 99th to 99.9th percentiles, as to whether they have enough money to retire or stay retired. The Upper Half of the Top 1% Dylan Ratigan Blasts U.S. Political & Banking Ties and the Partisan Hacks’ Excuses (Video) The Obama Administration's "Secret Law" to Spy on Americans. During last spring’s run-up to the reauthorization of three expiring provisions of the USA Patriot Act, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) charged that the administration and the FBI was relying on a “secret” interpretation of law to vacuum-up exabytes of data, including cell phone location records and internet data mining that target Americans. In March, a written statement to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security by Justice Department official Todd Hinnen confirmed that the administration had used Section 215, the so-called “business records” section of the Act “to obtain driver’s license records, hotel records, car rental records, apartment leasing records, credit card records, and the like.”
Further confirmation of Wyden’s charges came from an unlikely source: a White House nominee for a top counterterrorism position. If confirmed, Olsen will replace Michael E. White House Stonewall So far, the administration has refused to release the memos. Got that? Gay-wedding push for Bert and Ernie stirs controversy. Aug. 11, 2011 03:12 PM Associated Press NEW YORK -- An online petition calling for the nuptials of Muppet flat-mates Bert and Ernie has sparked comment, controversy and lots of tweets. But don't bet on wedding bells to ring. Chicago resident Lair Scott, who posted the petition, is seeking matrimony for the "Sesame Street" chums as a way to make gay and lesbian kids who watch the show feel better about themselves, and to promote tolerance for people who are different. The marriage could legitimately happen, he reasons, since Sesame Street is located in New York, where gay marriage became legal in June. Others agreed. By Thursday afternoon, Scott's petition had collected 5,800 signatures.
But there were alternate petitions also waiting on the website, Change.org. Or you could just tweet about it. One tweet wondered why so much attention was being showered on Bert and Ernie's domestic status, when poor Oscar the Grouch remains on the curb, dwelling in a garbage can. But getting hitched? Systems Collapse When The Irrational Is Considered Rational. Photo: Agamisudo (CC) Oh thank you, Wikipedia, for this definition: “Irrationality is cognition, thinking, talking or acting without inclusion of rationality. It is more specifically described as an action or opinion given through inadequate reasoning, emotional distress, or cognitive deficiency.
The term is used, usually pejoratively, to describe thinking and actions that are, or appear to be, less useful or more illogical than other more rational alternatives.” And what about this one? Market Psychology? This term is defined in the Investopedia this way: “The overall sentiment or feeling that the market is experiencing at any particular time. Q: What do we have when we put the two together? A: The current madness and market mayhem.
S&P’s downgrade is being blamed for the market panic even though all the business media expected a downgrade and initially minimized its potential impact. The Comedy Channel’s Jon Stewart’s sensible reaction: “are you f*cking kidding me?” Yes, all of us! Stop. Whom the U.S. owes. Why the Christian Right Becomes More Extreme As America Grows More Tolerant | Belief. July 25, 2011 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. The rigidity of Christian Right politics has been a complicating factor in governing the United States for the past several decades, stripping away flexibility needed to negotiate on issues as diverse as policies in the Middle East, abortion, health care and the federal budget. Gone is the more practical approach of assessing government actions based on what might help the country the most – and compromising with those who have differing opinions.
Adding to this religious style of politics has been a deep sense of victimhood among right-wing Evangelicals, as if Christians were some persecuted minority in the United States, threatened by all-powerful Muslims imposing Sharia law or secular humanists banning Christmas. Repeated endlessly on right-wing talk radio, these paranoid messages have become real to millions of these religiously inspired voters.
8 Reasons Young Americans Don't Fight Back: How the US Crushed Youth Resistance | Activism & Vision. Traditionally, young people have energized democratic movements. So it is a major coup for the ruling elite to have created societal institutions that have subdued young Americans and broken their spirit of resistance to domination. Young Americans—even more so than older Americans—appear to have acquiesced to the idea that the corporatocracy can completely screw them and that they are helpless to do anything about it.
A 2010 Gallup poll asked Americans “Do you think the Social Security system will be able to pay you a benefit when you retire?” Among 18- to 34-years-olds, 76 percent of them said no. Yet despite their lack of confidence in the availability of Social Security for them, few have demanded it be shored up by more fairly payroll-taxing the wealthy; most appear resigned to having more money deducted from their paychecks for Social Security, even though they don’t believe it will be around to benefit them. How exactly has American society subdued young Americans? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. The 10 Worst Things About Rick Perry (And Why It Would Be Really Bad If He Runs for President) August 1, 2011 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. "Next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be president of the United States, please pay attention.
" - Molly Ivins Texas Governor Rick Perry has been flirting with the idea of running for president for months now. While the three-term Republican has danced around an official announcement, ads calling him “a better option” are already airing on Fox News (naturally) in Iowa, funded by the political action committee “Jobs for Iowa.” Related super PACs have been created in South Carolina and Florida. The governor Molly Ivins called “the Coiffure” has claimed he's brought jobs to Texas, passed a laundry list of conservative dream legislation, and managed to become the longest-serving governor in the history of the state. 1. Perry's message on the event's website reads: Allan E. So much for religious tolerance. It's even more out of line if said governor wants to be president. 2. Trapped in Economic Hell: Tales from the New Great Depression | Books.
August 28, 2011 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. The following is an excerpt from Someplace Like America: Tales from the New Great Depressionby Dale Maharidge (University of California Press, 2011). My America is one of iconic landscapes, places of lost dreams and hard-lived lives. The Deep South: abandoned cotton gins and vine-covered shacks of tenant farmers. My America is also seen up close in the eyes of its people. The eyes of a Michigan woman who has fallen from upper-class privilege and is now standing in a charity food line are still proud and hurting a year after she lost the big home. There are so many more, named and nameless, thousands of eyes. Some say that Americans are no longer able to stand up to tough times the way the “greatest generation” of the 1930s Depression and World War II did.
Romney: ‘Corporations Are People, My Friend’ Meet the Right-Wing Hatemongers Who Inspired the Norway Killer | Tea Party and the Right. August 2, 2011 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. Few political terrorists in recent history took as much care to articulate their ideological influences and political views as Anders Behring Breivik did. The right-wing Norwegian Islamophobe who murdered 76 children and adults in Oslo and at a government-run youth camp spent months, if not years, preparing his 1,500 page manifesto. Besides its length, one of the most remarkable aspects of the manifesto is the extent to which its European author quoted from the writings of figures from the American conservative movement.
Breivik may have developed his destructive sensibility in the stark political environment of a European continent riveted by mass immigration from the Muslim world, but his conceptualization of the changes he was witnessing reflect the influence of a cadre of far-right bloggers and activists from across the Atlantic Ocean.