Displaying 1,201 To 1,230 Of 5,146 Comments LIVE BLOG – GOP Debate at 5:00 PM PST in SC – 1/19 He wants a world ruled by new feudal fiefdome of corporations. » Posted By choicelady On January 19, 2012 @ 5:16 pm OK – how is government IN the way? We actually have a sound currency -great for exports. And the rich NEED to pay unless they decide NOT to take. Can’t have it both ways! PAul is a jerk. » Posted By choicelady On January 19, 2012 @ 5:15 pm Oh damn, I am gonna miss Perry. He was so much FUN! Since he was anointed in August last year, does this mean that God doesn’t love ANY of them? (I’d not be a good person to ask. My answer is – NO.) » Posted By choicelady On January 19, 2012 @ 5:14 pm It’s the Libertarian version of Pinocchio. He shrinks as he lies. » Posted By choicelady On January 19, 2012 @ 5:12 pm BTW Cher – LOVE the eels. They also remind me of Fozz E Bear who tells a joke and then has the same, “Bah-Boom!” look on his Muppet face waiting for a laugh. Cheered me right up seeing those pix and your interpretation! With all the rest of the news, this was a great pick-me=up! Romney? Not so much. » Posted By choicelady On January 18, 2012 @ 8:43 pm Amen, KQ -amen! » Posted By choicelady On January 18, 2012 @ 2:00 pm I used to teach a course in the legal and political foundations of global capital back East as an adjunct at a major university. Mostly I taught union folks,and this worked -and resonated – with them as a way of explaining what many of them had experienced and watched happen. Stock market investor as slumlord really makes things pretty clear. The idea that Wall Street is a “job creator” is absolutely FALSE. » Posted By choicelady On January 18, 2012 @ 1:59 pm That makes no sense, really – Canada could export it from their refineries. And even if we do, it balances what we import, though I actually doubt we’ll do it unless it’s sweet crude to nations without it. I have concerns about the safety issues, Sandhills matter to me, but we live with millions of miles of pipeline much LESS safe now. I’m not sure where the angst is coming from IF environmental protections to the Ogalalla aquifer are in place. THAT is more significant than even the Sandhills. » Posted By choicelady On January 18, 2012 @ 1:55 pm GOOD FOR OBAMA – AND WISE! I just want to make one REALLY firm point on the Romney 15% tax rate issues. The stock market does not generate capital for companies after the first Initial Public Offering (IPO) which brings in the money. If you buy stock from someone else, not a dime goes to the company BUT you get either the dividend (payout from the company profits) OR the increased value of the stock (if it goes up) or both – but YOU have contributed nothing. First – the stock market is mostly gambling, throwing your money around without actually creating anything – but it’s also like being a landlord. Build a house and keep it in good repair, you create value. Sell it to someone who has not interest in it, puts nothing into it, and just takes rent money, and do that over and over and over, and you have capital deterioration (house falls into disrepair) but riches for the owner (rents and sales. Finally, if there is no one to invest in it with repairs, the only thing left to do is burn it for the insurance money (closing businesses to get the federal tax write off and walk away.) The stock market generates richs, not wealth. To reward someone for being a business-based slumlord is absurd. Those who do invest in the improvement of a business should indeed get breaks. Those who flip the “house” (businesses) without putting anything in it should not. They should be penalized if their riches cost jobs and that burden falls on the taxpayers, too in unemployment, pension and health pickups – why should we pay for the owners’ negligence? Mr. Romney is the manifestation of the class warfare that has transferred riches UPWARD without any responsibility for the slums he left behind, the “tenants” (employees) he displaced or devalued, the shifting of burdens to taxpayers and stiffing of other interests in bankruptcy. » Posted By choicelady On January 18, 2012 @ 11:26 am Morning Cher – GREAT compilation of important things as usual. Don’t apologize – you’re not “late” at all! The Sacbee is often late, you’re not. I’d like to focus on the issue of income inequality and the decline of pay for American employees. During the so-called “Gilded Age” (and with the renaissance of conspicuous consumption such as the diamond-studded business cards I guess it’s back) American Robber Barons justified the huge wealth and income disparities with Social Darwinism founded by Herbert Spencer. This posited a “survival of the fittest” highly simplistic mentality that if you’re rich it proves you’re superior and NOT just the Biggest Bully on the Block. It took no account of highly disparate laws that favored the rich and thus, in a very non-Darwinian sense, supported those who, in fact, could NOT make it on their own without that intervention. David Cay Johnston has written two profoundly important books about the renewal of such “life supports” of corporations and their managers today. “Perfectly Legal” and “Free Lunch” show that legislation has altered the logical outcomes of “fitness” by propping up otherwise shaky corporate actions and feeding it with our tax dollars. Welcome to the new Robber Barons. What lies at the heart of this really lousy philosophy is that wealth, especially garnered via governmental supports in law and money, masks the losses of human contributions from those who are brilliant at what they do. This is not an assertion of the UNusual contributions but of the USUAL ones. Working people from order clerks to steelworkers to low-level bureaucrats have eternally used their understanding of their work and its projected outcomes to make things more efficient, more rational, more productive. Left to their own devices, they can produce profits better many times than managers ever dreamed. Buffalo Brass is a case in point – about to be closed by Anaconda/ARCO, five Buffalo capitalists bought it – and turned it over to the employees to run. Freed from arbitrary rules and egotistical managers, the company folks figured out their own “best practices” and moved it from a losing proposition to a multi-million profitable one all in just over ONE year. Eastern Airlines had not made a profit or paid a dividend from 1969 to the late 80s when the IAM machinists union got, through stock ownership, a seat on the Board and proposed letting machinist innovate. Again – their ideas generated the first profits in almost two decades. That was SO repellant to management they kicked the union off the board, sold the company to anti-union Frank Lorenzo, and generated a strike designed to kill the company – all to “show” the union it did not know its place. In business after business, in agency after agency, most people if given the chance will work their collective and individual butts off helping that workplace succeed. It was knowing this during WW II and post war years that generated respect for WORK not RICHES and led us to the highest standard of living most equitably shared maybe in all history. And that was the goose that laid the golden egg – work counted, work mattered, and work was valued because it produced. Can’t have that, now can we? WE have seen the growth of unequal compensation and have commented on it for a long time, well before we got the common focus of “the 99%”. What we LOST and are not talking about is that we no longer discuss that work MUST pay the worker – a job should be sustainable. Employees are NOT commodities, worker benefits are NOT just things to shed, contracts with those who MADE the company’s riches cannot be the only contracts we void. Work was once valued more than unearned income from stocks and bonds – but we are not renewing that argument. Oh work has been elevated indeed – it’s a duty, a burden, a moral test of your fitness to even eat. Jobs have been reduced almost to the status of grudging welfare – CEOs: “we hire you because we have to, but it’s charity, not a right. Be grateful and shut up.” Some of that comes from the Dominionist view of The Elect (the rich born agains or even NOT born agains are the elect) and some from a throwback to the Gilded Age and the New Social Darwinism. We are not going ahead very far if we talk about “redistributing income” without positing that it is JUST COMPENSATION for the wealth working people produce. It is their SHARE of the vitality of any enterprise including public sector work that they and they alone have created. In his Message to Congress, December 3, 1861, President Lincoln said: “It is not needed, nor fitting here (message to Congress in re the civil war) that a general argument should be made in favor of popular institutions; but there is one point, with its connections, not so hackneyed as most others to which I ask a brief attention. It is the effect to place capital on an equal footing with, if not above, labor, in the structure of government. It is assumed that labor is available only in connection with capital; that nobody labors unless somebody else, owning capital, somehow by the use of it induces him to labor. This assumed, it is next considered whether it is best that capital shall hire laborers, and thus induce them to work by their own consent, or buy them, and drive them to it without their consent. Having proceeded thus far, it is naturally concluded that all laborers are either hired laborers or what we call slaves. And further, it is assumed that whoever is once a hired laborer is fixed in that condition for life. Now, there is no such relation between capital and labor as assumed, nor is there any such thing as a free man being fixed for life in the condition of a hired laborer. Both these assumptions are false, and all inferences from them are groundless. Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights.” If the GOP cannot endure the ideas of its iconic founding president, we must REMIND them of this. Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed.” As we work on global and national inequality, we have to remember this – work is not charity, employees are not fungible commodities, people matter more than money, and democracy is served only when equity is restored. » Posted By choicelady On January 16, 2012 @ 11:29 am Weekend Music Thread – A Tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. Come back and share more thoughts with us! » Posted By choicelady On January 14, 2012 @ 3:18 pm Hi GirlWoutWest – I have a friend who was from Springfield, she of a mixed race background, whose appearance was white. She also fought in SW MO and the Ozarks against the racism that was and is so prevalent there even though she could have walked away – no one realized she was partly Black. Although she knew how hateful MO could be, she knew people like your family, too, and it got her through a lot of dark days. Thank you for saying all this – your family is the light of change. All of us here try to be like you. » Posted By choicelady On January 14, 2012 @ 3:17 pm kes – Lift Every Voice is considered to be the “Black National Anthem” in a POSITIVE way – not separatist, not defiant, just knowing the hard road they’ve walked. I love it. Thank you for posting it! This is the first video version I’ve seen – and it just reduced me to tears, it’s SO powerful and full of pain and hope! Beautiful! BTW – the United Methodist Women, an integrated group, has adopted this to sing at their meetings. » Posted By choicelady On January 14, 2012 @ 3:07 pm Bernie Madoff: Defending Mitt Romney and Free Enterprise Wow – you got THAT right. Who notices? » Posted By choicelady On January 12, 2012 @ 2:23 pm “Free enterprise” is free only because taxpayers subsidize it. Free to the rich, burden to the rest of us. Let’s have some personal responsibility from fictitious persons, not just human beings. » Posted By choicelady On January 12, 2012 @ 2:22 pm I seriously believe you smuggled Bernie’s essay out of prison, cleverly disguised as TP, AdLib. I can see him writing away with his Montblanc pen, huddled in his cell, wrapped in his meager down comforter (with a paltry 600 thread count Egyptian cotton cover), with only the light of his small 1885 Tiffany lamp, making this heartfelt call to stand for and with the last of America’s oppressed. He’s so right (anyway you mean that) to appeal to the nation’s self sacrifice! He nailed it when he said the poor, the unemployed, the don’t-haves are just selfish and that it’s all “I-I-I!” Where is the national compassion for those in greed – uh – need of being able to sustain their way of life, keeping profits rolling in, so they can hire – sometime in 2018 or beyond? We must thank you for your selfless risk in smuggling out this document. It makes “Letters from a Birmingham Jail” look like child’s play by comparison. Who can ignore the clarion call to righteousness on behalf of this remaining minority of oppressed people??? We thank you for making this public. It should provide all the fodder we need for our NEW Civil Rights Act protecting the Wealthy. I imagine Bernie and his ilk are always wondering why the selfish downtrodden don’t rise against them if they are so indifferent to the weight of massive responsibility the rich have for our economy. It must mean that secretly each unemployed or impoverished person really admires the wealthy and aspires to BE one of them soon. Don’t you think that’s really what’s behind all this griping? Envy! That has to be the answer, and if that’s the real story, why then the wealthy will have nothing to fear! Yet… » Posted By choicelady On January 12, 2012 @ 12:56 pm KT – yes, but how far is that from WMD in Iraq? People of sober mind (meaning serious not just not inebriated) say it’s at least a decade before Iran would be close to a weapon. Interviews on NPR today said the death of one man who was involved in procurement of materials would have NO impact on Iran’s program if, indeed, there IS a program. There are thousands more. So is Israel’s fear, grounded in poorly developed factual information, justification for murdering one man – or worse? These are the moral and political conundrums that depend entirely on where you stand in the world. I’m not living next door to Iran. Israel is. Doesn’t make them right – does change the view. » Posted By choicelady On January 12, 2012 @ 7:49 pm OK – but it ALL beats the “drive in” funeral parlor. That tops the list of really bad taste! I’d rather forgotten this film and how incredibly spot on it was about the ways we pretend death can be prettified! » Posted By choicelady On January 12, 2012 @ 7:44 pm Santorum harks back to the 19th century when families photographed parents holding their dead infant (and sometimes older children, even adults). The resulting photo was the Memento Mori – the death memory. Went along with jewelry made from the hair of dead people. I thought that was sad enough, but taking a dead baby home to show your kids – that goes that extra step toward totally gross and creepy. Yeah – “Tia” the NY folks named the fetus. Put her in a bucket that they wrapped in a large garbage bag. Then they’d drag her out and stick her in people’s faces to gross them out about the evils of abortion – even though the fetus was NOT aborted. Great way to show “respect for life” IMHO. » Posted By choicelady On January 12, 2012 @ 2:32 pm I think it’s part of global reality. It’s the conundrum people faced RE: the SS, Nazis, the assassination attempt on Hitler. If you cannot stop sheer evil before it acts, then what other choice DO you have when it does? I limit this to clear and present danger, however, and think the real slippery slope is that it admits two kinds of “White Rose” groups – those who rose against a global mass killer, Hitler, and those who today assume the name and kill individual abortion providers. State sponsored terror or mass killing as in the Sudan and Congo – is rather a big difference from individual women making individual decisions with individual doctors. But that’s MY distinction, not that of the anti-abortion foes…so that is the slippery slope I worry about. » Posted By choicelady On January 12, 2012 @ 1:12 pm Yeah – I’d agree. But the fetal parts are as likely to be from spontaneous miscarriages as anything. Miscarriages are horrible, too – but without any human intervention. The contractions can tear a small fetus apart, so the idea that miscarriage is OK but abortions are awful is pretty much not given to these distinctions. Terry and his NY state allies got hold of a dead baby probably stillborn NOT aborted, and they carried it around (yuck) claiming it was an aborted child – which it was waaay to developed to be in NY state. It had been found in the river – probably dumped by a teen mother – and for whatever reason, the coroner gave it to them since they SAID they were going to provide a funeral which they never did. They pickled the body instead. But the coroner said it was NOT aborted. So never EVER assume that what you see is real or as claimed. » Posted By choicelady On January 12, 2012 @ 1:07 pm As Cher noted, he’s b-a-a-a-a-c-k. He’s been in and out of jail so often they installed a revolving door. He’s only happy when he’s a martyr. I’d not mind if someone decided to extend his martyrdom though… » Posted By choicelady On January 12, 2012 @ 12:59 pm Revelations of a 24-Hour MSM Cycle That’s what we REALLY like about Cricket’s – the people! They’re funny and nice and kind, salt of the earth types indeed. I think good people gravitate to places like that. Glad you got to work in one! C’mon back any time – this time, they won’t ring the bell for ya! (And never tell them it’s your birthday – it’s beyond humiliating…even though it’s funny! If you’re not the one, of course.) » Posted By choicelady On January 13, 2012 @ 5:59 pm I think I’m relieved on two counts – one, that you did NOT sit, glassy eyed, for the whole 24 and that, knowing you this is not a surprise, you found the humor in it! I will add my voice and vote to those who’d love to see you do this again. And doing it with a chocolate croissant? Oh, drool… But you can always come back up here – we will got to Crickets for a decent, if not great, hamburger, my treat! Hugs-Your Sacramento choicelady friend » Posted By choicelady On January 13, 2012 @ 11:25 am Girlfriend! This 24-hour experiment was like volunteering to be waterboarded! The news you report is amazing in its awfulness, but even MORE amazing is that you’re spot on coherent enought to WRITE about it! When I read your beginning – 24 hours of TV – I figured that and the picture meant your babble would be “Washed my brains today and can’t do a THING with them!” This is above and beyond the call of duty. A gift to and for us that is truly AWESOME. Now, all I wish you is 24 hours of peace and quiet and no TV save for what YOU want to see. You are an amazing woman, dear friend. Thank you for your sacrifice! PS – Just remember that chocolate is brain food. » Posted By choicelady On January 12, 2012 @ 7:58 pm I’m not sure I would if it were still AOL. But it would be hard to have the H in HP if Ms. H left. What WOULD it be called???? » Posted By choicelady On January 11, 2012 @ 8:07 pm Oh Cher – it was the wholesale defection of ALL people of color who wrote for it. The vile and disgusting racism against several commentators was beyond awful. The rebellion was matched by a number of white supporters who ALSO left in solidarity as well as disgust with the KOS racists. Apparently the sheer drop in “visits” was palpable, the criticism was accurate, barbed, and insightful, and it DID make Mr. Former CIA Operative Markos sit up and take notice. He did not want to have happen to Kos what happened to AOLHP – almost bankrupt due to the SAME people defecting from her. So even online rebellion works! These supposed spokespeople for the 99% got shot down as the 1% OF the 99% and who have their collective heads wedged. The protest and critiques apparently made some difference. » Posted By choicelady On January 11, 2012 @ 8:06 pm DAmn, Sally. I was hoping a new pair of glasses would take 20 years off my face and not just $200 out of my wallet. You mean this is a fool’s venture? Rats! » Posted By choicelady On January 11, 2012 @ 8:00 pm KQ – Beautifully done, bravo!!! » Posted By choicelady On January 11, 2012 @ 7:58 pm Well – one has to have SOME standards! AOLHP has nothing to offer at this time. Should that change (when donkeys fly) I’m sure you’ll use things from there. But it would take a sea change, and none of us who FLED that site see that happening unless Arianna is turned to stone. Not that anyone would notice… » Posted By choicelady On January 11, 2012 @ 2:50 pmComments Posted By choicelady
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