Yesterday, Missouri lawmakers began a special session during which Republicans will try to pay for a business tax cut by eliminating a tax credit that benefits more than 100,000 senior citizens and disabled people.
Missouri Republicans are just the latest in a long list of state legislatures that are funding more corporate tax breaks on the backs of low- and middle-income residents. In this case, Republicans are targeting a property tax credit that helps offset higher rent for some of the state’s most vulnerable citizens:
At stake is a tax credit that provides up to $750 for lower-income elderly and disabled people. Called the “Circuit Breaker,” it is designed to be an offset for the property taxes included in the rent paid by people with incomes of $27,500 or less. The tax credit costs $53 million annually. Repeal is part of a package that also would impose limits and sunset dates on credits targeted to developers. The Circuit Breaker tax credit is the only credit slated for repeal.
“The real issue is that many people with disabilities simply can’t own their own homes because they live on a subsistence income,” said Edward Duff of Joplin, a member of the Governor’s Council on Disability. “It really is a sort of parity to offer these renters this shelter.”
Once again, Republicans have shown they are not averse to raising taxes, as long as they are on the poor. The “circuit-breaker” tax credit is such an important aid for low-income residents that 29other states offer property tax circuit-breakers or similar programs, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Killing the credit would raise taxes on groups including disabed vetsand senior citizens by up to $750 a year.
The proposal has drawn criticism from a diverse range of groups, from conservative anti-tax crusaders to liberal groups. Opponents include the AARP, the Association of Retired Missouri State Employees, the liberal-leaning Missouri Budget Project and the conservative United for Missouri, as well as agencies that work with the disabled on the local level.
The Post-Dispatch reports that Republicans have faced such a backlash for trying to repeal the tax credit that the tax-credit package they crafted may be unraveling.
MORE: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/09/07/313244/missouri-gop-wants-to-raise-taxes-on-100000-seniors-and-disabled-citizens-to-pay-for-corporate-tax-break/
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Rick Perry Got His Conspiracies Backwards
The other day, Rick Perry accused climate scientists of participating in a grand conspiracy to force an ‘unproven’ theory of global warming on the public simply to gain grant money.
Said the nicely-coiffed Governor, "I do believe that the issue of global warming has been politicized. I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects.”
Oh, no doubt that the issue of global warming has been politicized. This issue has been politicized by R/W politicians who are funded by the oil industry. An industry that stands to lose money if they were to be held accountable for their role in climate change.
As Thomas Friedmann pointed out tonight on Piers Morgan, Rick Perry’s comment is silly because the typical climate scientist must spend weeks typing out a proposal in order to win maybe $25,000 over 10 years from the federal government to study climate. Meanwhile, Big Oil has contributed over $11,000,000 to Rick Perry during his career in politics. You be the judge as to is manipulating what to keep the dollars rolling in.
It is of more than a passing note that Rick Perry’s Texas is burning. The state is bone dry, hot, and on fire. This is exactly the type of condition predicted by the global warming model.
I believe in the ole adage, “money talks and bullshit walks”. In Rick Perry’s case, it’s obviously Big Oil money doing the talking whenever he opens his mouth about climate change.
The true conspiracy about global warming emanates from the mouths of well-funded global warming deniers who are simply doing the bullshit walk of their corporate sponsors.
I am nowitall, and I approved this message…
Said the nicely-coiffed Governor, "I do believe that the issue of global warming has been politicized. I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects.”
Oh, no doubt that the issue of global warming has been politicized. This issue has been politicized by R/W politicians who are funded by the oil industry. An industry that stands to lose money if they were to be held accountable for their role in climate change.
As Thomas Friedmann pointed out tonight on Piers Morgan, Rick Perry’s comment is silly because the typical climate scientist must spend weeks typing out a proposal in order to win maybe $25,000 over 10 years from the federal government to study climate. Meanwhile, Big Oil has contributed over $11,000,000 to Rick Perry during his career in politics. You be the judge as to is manipulating what to keep the dollars rolling in.
It is of more than a passing note that Rick Perry’s Texas is burning. The state is bone dry, hot, and on fire. This is exactly the type of condition predicted by the global warming model.
I believe in the ole adage, “money talks and bullshit walks”. In Rick Perry’s case, it’s obviously Big Oil money doing the talking whenever he opens his mouth about climate change.
The true conspiracy about global warming emanates from the mouths of well-funded global warming deniers who are simply doing the bullshit walk of their corporate sponsors.
I am nowitall, and I approved this message…
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Republicans To Oppose Tax Cut For Working People
Tax cuts have become the panacea of conservative economic thinking, but curiously, the AP reports Republicans are now lining up to raise taxes on nearly half of all Americans. In his radio address this weekend, President Obama called for an extension to the payroll tax holiday he signed into law last year, which benefits every working American, lowering the 6.2 percent tax that funds Social Security to 4.2 percent. The tax cut will expire in January, and many of the same Republican lawmakers who fought tooth and nail to preserve the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy are now coming out against an extension of the payroll tax holiday.
“It’s always a net positive to let taxpayers keep more of what they earn,” says Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), “but not all tax relief is created equal for the purposes of helping to get the economy moving again.”
Hensarling, the House’ fourth-ranking Republican, is right — some tax cuts do more than others to “get the economy moving again.” He just has it backwards about which cuts do that. Tax cuts for wealthy, such as those in the Bush tax cuts, are the single “least effective way to spur the economy and reduce unemployment,” according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, because wealthy Americans were more likely to save their money than spend it.
HERE and HERE
“It’s always a net positive to let taxpayers keep more of what they earn,” says Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), “but not all tax relief is created equal for the purposes of helping to get the economy moving again.”
Hensarling, the House’ fourth-ranking Republican, is right — some tax cuts do more than others to “get the economy moving again.” He just has it backwards about which cuts do that. Tax cuts for wealthy, such as those in the Bush tax cuts, are the single “least effective way to spur the economy and reduce unemployment,” according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, because wealthy Americans were more likely to save their money than spend it.
HERE and HERE
Thursday, August 18, 2011
RICK PERRY IS A DEEPLY RELIGIOUS PORN MOGUL
The DallasVoice.com reported: “In 1995, Rick Perry purchased between $5,000 and $10,000 worth of stock in Movie Gallery, a huge distributor of pornography that later became the target of a boycott by the American Family Association, which of course funded Perry’s recent day of prayer.”
THE STORY HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, AND HERE.
"Popovers... when you want to put something that's not your foot in your mouth!"
Inside the café, Gail Mitchell and a companion grilled him: “You said Social Security was unconstitutional.”
“Social Security’s going to be there for those folks,” Perry answered his inquisitors, making reference to the elderly.
“But you said Social Security is unconstitutional,” Mitchell repeated.
“I don’t think I — I’m sorry, you must have,” Perry said before stopping himself.
Instead of elaborating, Perry stuffed a generous piece of popover in his mouth. (Perry called them “pop ups.”)
“I’ve got a big mouthful,” Perry said and then ordering a glass of water. He later tripped over one of the women standing at his side pressing him on Social Security.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” Perry said to her.
STORY HERE
Monday, August 8, 2011
World In Crisis
London Riots Rage On For Third Day
Violence and looting spread across some of London's most impoverished neighborhoods on Monday, with youths setting fire to shops and vehicles, during a third day of rioting in the city that will host next summer's Olympic Games.
Skirmishes broke out between police and groups of youths across Britain's capital, and also spread to the nation's central city of Birmingham – where police said dozens of people were involved in damaging shops across the city center.
In the Hackney area of east London and districts in the city's south, vehicles and buildings were set ablaze as authorities struggled to halt groups of rampaging young people.
Hundreds of youths attacked shops and set fire to cars in Hackney, while police in riot gear were pelted with fireworks, bottles and lumps of wood.
Thick smoke billowed from a high street in the Peckham district of south London, where a building was set ablaze along with a bus – which was not carrying passengers. In nearby Lewisham, lines of cars were torched.
HERE
Dow Jones Industrial Average Closes Down More Than 630 Points, Sixth-Worst Point Loss Ever
Stocks plunged Monday as anxiety overtook investors on the first trading day since Standard & Poor's downgraded American debt.
The Dow Jones industrials fell 634.76 points. It was the sixth worst point decline for the Dow in the last 112 years and the worst one-day drop since December 2008. Every stock in the Standard & Poor's 500 index declined Monday.
Investors worried about the slowing U.S. economy, escalating debt problems threatening Europe and the prospect that fear in the markets would reinforce itself, as it did during the financial crisis in the fall of 2008.
"'What's rocking the market is a growth scare," said Kathleen Gaffney, co-manager of the $20 billion Loomis Sayles bond fund. "The market is under a lot of stress that really has little to do with the downgrade." Instead, Gaffney said, investors are focused on "how Europe and the U.S. are going to work their way out of a high debt burden" if economic growth remains slow.
HERE
Ohio Shooting: 8 Killed In Rampage, Gunman Among Dead
A northeast Ohio man ran through his small town neighborhood Sunday shooting eight people, including his girlfriend and her brother, before he was shot and killed in an exchange of gunfire with police, authorities said.
Eight people, including the gunman, were killed. Witnesses told reporters at least one of the victims was a child.
Police did not have a motive and did not release the names or ages of the gunman or the victims but provided a chronology of the shootings that began around 11 a.m. in a middle-class neighborhood of Copley, a town of about 14,000 west of Akron.
"A person running through the neighborhood and firing a gun" prompted calls to police, Copley Police Department said in a news release late Sunday. At a home, the gunman shot his girlfriend, ran to a home next door and shot her brother and four others, then chased two people through some yards and shot one of them, police said.
He went into a third home and shot another person before leaving and exchanging gunfire with a police officer and a former police officer.
HERE
Violence and looting spread across some of London's most impoverished neighborhoods on Monday, with youths setting fire to shops and vehicles, during a third day of rioting in the city that will host next summer's Olympic Games.
Skirmishes broke out between police and groups of youths across Britain's capital, and also spread to the nation's central city of Birmingham – where police said dozens of people were involved in damaging shops across the city center.
In the Hackney area of east London and districts in the city's south, vehicles and buildings were set ablaze as authorities struggled to halt groups of rampaging young people.
Hundreds of youths attacked shops and set fire to cars in Hackney, while police in riot gear were pelted with fireworks, bottles and lumps of wood.
Thick smoke billowed from a high street in the Peckham district of south London, where a building was set ablaze along with a bus – which was not carrying passengers. In nearby Lewisham, lines of cars were torched.
HERE
Dow Jones Industrial Average Closes Down More Than 630 Points, Sixth-Worst Point Loss Ever
Stocks plunged Monday as anxiety overtook investors on the first trading day since Standard & Poor's downgraded American debt.
The Dow Jones industrials fell 634.76 points. It was the sixth worst point decline for the Dow in the last 112 years and the worst one-day drop since December 2008. Every stock in the Standard & Poor's 500 index declined Monday.
Investors worried about the slowing U.S. economy, escalating debt problems threatening Europe and the prospect that fear in the markets would reinforce itself, as it did during the financial crisis in the fall of 2008.
"'What's rocking the market is a growth scare," said Kathleen Gaffney, co-manager of the $20 billion Loomis Sayles bond fund. "The market is under a lot of stress that really has little to do with the downgrade." Instead, Gaffney said, investors are focused on "how Europe and the U.S. are going to work their way out of a high debt burden" if economic growth remains slow.
HERE
Ohio Shooting: 8 Killed In Rampage, Gunman Among Dead
A northeast Ohio man ran through his small town neighborhood Sunday shooting eight people, including his girlfriend and her brother, before he was shot and killed in an exchange of gunfire with police, authorities said.
Eight people, including the gunman, were killed. Witnesses told reporters at least one of the victims was a child.
Police did not have a motive and did not release the names or ages of the gunman or the victims but provided a chronology of the shootings that began around 11 a.m. in a middle-class neighborhood of Copley, a town of about 14,000 west of Akron.
"A person running through the neighborhood and firing a gun" prompted calls to police, Copley Police Department said in a news release late Sunday. At a home, the gunman shot his girlfriend, ran to a home next door and shot her brother and four others, then chased two people through some yards and shot one of them, police said.
He went into a third home and shot another person before leaving and exchanging gunfire with a police officer and a former police officer.
HERE
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
How Recession Is Hastening the Wal-Martization of America
A new report finds that the vast majority of the jobs created in the so-called recovery have been low-wage jobs. That's a recipe for continued economic pain.
THE STORY HERE
THE STORY HERE
Monday, August 1, 2011
Fukushima Plant Now Leaking Highest Radiation Levels Since Tsunami
In case you forgot, one of the worst disasters since the advent of nuclear energy is still underway. And although the initial shock has worn off, the radiation levels sure haven't: TEPCO measured 10,000 millisieverts/hour—that's fatal.
This figure's 3,900 times higher than the naturally-occurring cosmic radiation we soak up every year—only it's leaking from the paralyzed plant every hour. These levels disperse dramatically with distance—so, say, Tokyo isn't in any danger—but the news should be startling, and proof that the plant is still an enormous hazard to the people of Japan, who are still grappling with contaminated beef, poisoned by the hemorrhaging reactor.
OH, DAMM
This figure's 3,900 times higher than the naturally-occurring cosmic radiation we soak up every year—only it's leaking from the paralyzed plant every hour. These levels disperse dramatically with distance—so, say, Tokyo isn't in any danger—but the news should be startling, and proof that the plant is still an enormous hazard to the people of Japan, who are still grappling with contaminated beef, poisoned by the hemorrhaging reactor.
OH, DAMM
Republicans Just Trying To Save Face
The current debt ceiling debacle is sputtering its last coughs. While Republican leaders are tinkling their victory triangles, a more nuanced view reveals that Obama and Dems are the ones who outplayed the GOP.
MORE
MORE
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
After Norway The Crazy Lone Wolf Excuse Isn’t Going To Fly This Time
For years now the Right has been fighting reality with such esteemed help that they managed to get the Bush administration’s Department of Homeland Security report warning of the increasing threat from Right Wing domestic terrorism withdrawn soon after Obama took office. The DHS’s warning was specifically about the imminent danger of Right Wing domestic terrorism being on the rise in the United States, but in the face of Right Wing outrage, it was withdrawn. No facts had changed, but it was withdrawn. The report was drawn up by a conservative Republican.
Every time a “crazy” person kills people, the Right hyperventilates trying to show that they aren’t responsible for the violence. It doesn’t matter to them if the shooter listened to their hate speech or claimed to be inspired by it or had simply absorbed it as a part of our culture. The only thing the Right appears to care about is seeing to it that they are not blamed, and if they are blamed, they’re going to make sure they take everyone else down with them, regardless of their actual participation and/or guilt. This often involves trying to paint the shooter as a Leftie, in spite of the evidence to the contrary.
As it became apparent over the weekend that the alleged Oslo shooter was heavily influenced by Right-Wing, anti-Islamic American bloggers and writers, the Right drew its “best defense is a good offense” drawbridge again. They’ve taken their knee-jerk defense so far as to suggest that the shooter was a Leftist liberal and the children’s camp a “Hitler youth camp”. Eighteen percent of Americans believe President Obama is a Muslim. The same people think he is a “Marxist Socialist”. Just who gave them that idea and where did we see signs proclaiming he was the “enemy”? The Oslo suspect was on a jihad against Marxist Muslims. When you see hyper defensiveness being engaged in, there’s often guilt in play, though that guilt can be either real or imagined.
HERE
HERE
HERE
HERE
Every time a “crazy” person kills people, the Right hyperventilates trying to show that they aren’t responsible for the violence. It doesn’t matter to them if the shooter listened to their hate speech or claimed to be inspired by it or had simply absorbed it as a part of our culture. The only thing the Right appears to care about is seeing to it that they are not blamed, and if they are blamed, they’re going to make sure they take everyone else down with them, regardless of their actual participation and/or guilt. This often involves trying to paint the shooter as a Leftie, in spite of the evidence to the contrary.
As it became apparent over the weekend that the alleged Oslo shooter was heavily influenced by Right-Wing, anti-Islamic American bloggers and writers, the Right drew its “best defense is a good offense” drawbridge again. They’ve taken their knee-jerk defense so far as to suggest that the shooter was a Leftist liberal and the children’s camp a “Hitler youth camp”. Eighteen percent of Americans believe President Obama is a Muslim. The same people think he is a “Marxist Socialist”. Just who gave them that idea and where did we see signs proclaiming he was the “enemy”? The Oslo suspect was on a jihad against Marxist Muslims. When you see hyper defensiveness being engaged in, there’s often guilt in play, though that guilt can be either real or imagined.
HERE
HERE
HERE
HERE
Why the Wealthiest Americans Are the Real 'Job-Killers'
The top 1 percent takes in more than twice the share of national income today than they did 30 years ago, and that's a big reason why consumers are tapped out.
That the wealthy are “job creators,” and therefore have interests that must be defended by the public at large, is a talking-point that, however facile, is so popular it slips effortlessly from the lips of conservatives every day.
It can be deployed for any purpose – not only in calling for more tax breaks for the rich, but also when opposing public interest regulation, consumer litigation and worker protections. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minnesota, even used it to deflect attention from the "gay rehabilitation" services her clinic allegedly offers. When asked about it by ABC News, Bachmann merely acknowledged, “we do have a business that deals with job creation.” When pressed, she stuck with it: “As I said, again, we’re very proud of our business and we’re proud of all job creators in the United States.”
It's also complete nonsense; the opposite of the truth. Sure, the wealthy create a few jobs – people who offer exclusive services or sell them high-end goods. But the overwhelming majority of jobs in this country are “created” by ordinary Americans when they spend their paychecks.
HERE
That the wealthy are “job creators,” and therefore have interests that must be defended by the public at large, is a talking-point that, however facile, is so popular it slips effortlessly from the lips of conservatives every day.
It can be deployed for any purpose – not only in calling for more tax breaks for the rich, but also when opposing public interest regulation, consumer litigation and worker protections. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minnesota, even used it to deflect attention from the "gay rehabilitation" services her clinic allegedly offers. When asked about it by ABC News, Bachmann merely acknowledged, “we do have a business that deals with job creation.” When pressed, she stuck with it: “As I said, again, we’re very proud of our business and we’re proud of all job creators in the United States.”
It's also complete nonsense; the opposite of the truth. Sure, the wealthy create a few jobs – people who offer exclusive services or sell them high-end goods. But the overwhelming majority of jobs in this country are “created” by ordinary Americans when they spend their paychecks.
HERE
Why Conservatives Behave More Like a Bizarre Religious Cult, Than a Legitimate Political Entity
It's ... important to remember the big picture. The big picture is that America is being held hostage by a conservative movement that behaves much more as a bizarre religious cult, than a legitimate political entity. It is perhaps the most dangerous cult to have ever held sway over a major nation-state in modern times.
It is a cult founded on a number of dogmatic beliefs that have no basis in reality. These are people who believe that the inflection point of the Laffer Curve is somewhere in the low single digits, and that cutting taxes to insanely low levels will magically lead to revenue increases. These are people who believe that government itself is basically unnecessary but for a private property protection scheme, and that the unfettered market will provide all that society needs, and will dole out the appropriate price for all goods, wages and services with zero inflation through the magic of the market. These are people who believe it is impossible for humans to affect the climate, and that it is better for humans to attempt to magically adapt somehow to a much hotter world than to do anything to even curb the behaviors that might be making it hotter. These are people who believe that the proper way to punish corporate evildoers is to not punish them at all, because people will simply stop purchasing from corporations that poison their water and air and crash their economies--because the average consumer presumably has the secret market-given wisdom, and magic powers necessary to make financial choices to punish Koch Industries and Goldman Sachs if necessary. These are people who view Objectivism as a legitimate and serious philosophical discipline, and the fictional works of Ayn Rand as gospel to live by.
The fact that no country on earth has attempted to operate by these principles in the modern era is irrelevant. These people do not operate according to facts, but according to a deep and abiding faith in a wholly untested set of principles that can only be put into place upon the destruction of the current order.
HERE
It is a cult founded on a number of dogmatic beliefs that have no basis in reality. These are people who believe that the inflection point of the Laffer Curve is somewhere in the low single digits, and that cutting taxes to insanely low levels will magically lead to revenue increases. These are people who believe that government itself is basically unnecessary but for a private property protection scheme, and that the unfettered market will provide all that society needs, and will dole out the appropriate price for all goods, wages and services with zero inflation through the magic of the market. These are people who believe it is impossible for humans to affect the climate, and that it is better for humans to attempt to magically adapt somehow to a much hotter world than to do anything to even curb the behaviors that might be making it hotter. These are people who believe that the proper way to punish corporate evildoers is to not punish them at all, because people will simply stop purchasing from corporations that poison their water and air and crash their economies--because the average consumer presumably has the secret market-given wisdom, and magic powers necessary to make financial choices to punish Koch Industries and Goldman Sachs if necessary. These are people who view Objectivism as a legitimate and serious philosophical discipline, and the fictional works of Ayn Rand as gospel to live by.
The fact that no country on earth has attempted to operate by these principles in the modern era is irrelevant. These people do not operate according to facts, but according to a deep and abiding faith in a wholly untested set of principles that can only be put into place upon the destruction of the current order.
HERE
Monday, July 25, 2011
Republican Party Held Hostage By Tee Partay
The Cut, Cap, Balance Coalition, which boasts hundreds of Tea Party groups and more than 100 GOP lawmakers in its membership, is citing two provisions in Boehner's proposal that amount to deal-breakers: its call for creating a Congressional Commission and its inclusion of a balanced budget amendment that, according to the group, is only for show.
HERE
Paul Krugman On Stuff
The thing that strikes me is that this administration just keeps on making the same mistake. Again and again, policy is predicated on the notion that Republicans will act reasonably; again and again, they don’t. And yet Obama and company never seem to learn.
Is it too early to start drinking?
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/25/the-fatal-delusion/
Sometimes it looks as if the Europeans and the Americans are in a contest to see who can do the most to mess up an economy that should be very strong. Today, surprisingly, the Europeans seem to have won a round.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/25/guess-whos-tanking/
No matter how badly Republicans behave, they don’t draw condemnation from the Very Serious People. All you get is tut-tutting about how politics is awful, and if only we had a third party to install Mike Bloomberg asdictator president all would be well.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/25/clive-crook-is-drowning-america/
Is it too early to start drinking?
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/25/the-fatal-delusion/
Sometimes it looks as if the Europeans and the Americans are in a contest to see who can do the most to mess up an economy that should be very strong. Today, surprisingly, the Europeans seem to have won a round.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/25/guess-whos-tanking/
No matter how badly Republicans behave, they don’t draw condemnation from the Very Serious People. All you get is tut-tutting about how politics is awful, and if only we had a third party to install Mike Bloomberg as
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/25/clive-crook-is-drowning-america/
Nobel laureates, leading economists express opposition to balanced budget Constitutional amendment
In a letter released publicly to President Obama and Congress on Tuesday, a group of renowned economists outlines the reasons why writing a balanced budget requirement into the Constitution would be "very unsound policy" that would adversely affect the economy.
Economic Policy Institute
Economic Policy Institute
America The Doomed
America's deadly weekend: String of family shooting sprees claim 14 dead and 53 wounded as gunmen kill wives and children
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2018381/14-dead-53-wounded-string-deadly-weekend-shootings.html#ixzz1T97m9yTG
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2018381/14-dead-53-wounded-string-deadly-weekend-shootings.html#ixzz1T97m9yTG
Sunday, July 24, 2011
21st-Century Slaves: How Corporations Exploit Prison Labor
In the eyes of the corporation, inmate labor is a brilliant strategy in the eternal quest to maximize profit.
There is one group of American workers so disenfranchised that corporations are able to get away with paying them wages that rival those of third-world sweatshops. These laborers have been legally stripped of their political, economic and social rights and ultimately relegated to second-class citizens. They are banned from unionizing, violently silenced from speaking out and forced to work for little to no wages. This marginalization renders them practically invisible, as they are kept hidden from society with no available recourse to improve their circumstances or change their plight.
They are the 2.3 million American prisoners locked behind bars where we cannot see or hear them. And they are modern-day slaves of the 21st century.
It’s no secret that America imprisons more of its citizens than any other nation in history. With just 5 percent of the world’s population, the US currently holds 25 percent of the world's prisoners. In 2008, over 2.3 million Americans were in prison or jail, with one of every 48 working-age men behind bars. That doesn’t include the tens of thousands of detained undocumented immigrants facing deportation, prisoners awaiting sentencing, or juveniles caught up in the school-to-prison pipeline. Perhaps it’s reassuring to some that the US still holds the number one title in at least one arena, but needless to say the hyper-incarceration plaguing America has had a damaging effect on society at large.
How convenient for a corporatocracy to create a vast slave labor pool to increase profits!
They are the 2.3 million American prisoners locked behind bars where we cannot see or hear them. And they are modern-day slaves of the 21st century.
It’s no secret that America imprisons more of its citizens than any other nation in history. With just 5 percent of the world’s population, the US currently holds 25 percent of the world's prisoners. In 2008, over 2.3 million Americans were in prison or jail, with one of every 48 working-age men behind bars. That doesn’t include the tens of thousands of detained undocumented immigrants facing deportation, prisoners awaiting sentencing, or juveniles caught up in the school-to-prison pipeline. Perhaps it’s reassuring to some that the US still holds the number one title in at least one arena, but needless to say the hyper-incarceration plaguing America has had a damaging effect on society at large.
How convenient for a corporatocracy to create a vast slave labor pool to increase profits!
How the Soaring Price of Bread Will Shake the Foundations of the Global Economy
So much current conflict in the world is not the result of "resource conflicts" but can be more accurately described as bread-triggered upheavals.
What can a humble loaf of bread tell us about the world?
The answer is: far more than you might imagine. For one thing, that loaf can be “read” as if it were a core sample extracted from the heart of a grim global economy. Looked at another way, it reveals some of the crucial fault lines of world politics, including the origins of the Arab spring that has now become a summer of discontent.
Consider this: between June 2010 and June 2011, world grain prices almost doubled. In many places on this planet, that proved an unmitigated catastrophe. In those same months, several governments fell, rioting broke out in cities from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, to Nairobi, Kenya, and most disturbingly three new wars began in Libya, Yemen, and Syria. Even on Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, Bedouin tribes are now in revolt against the country’s interim government and manning their own armed roadblocks.
And in each of these situations, the initial trouble was traceable, at least in part, to the price of that loaf of bread.
HERE
The answer is: far more than you might imagine. For one thing, that loaf can be “read” as if it were a core sample extracted from the heart of a grim global economy. Looked at another way, it reveals some of the crucial fault lines of world politics, including the origins of the Arab spring that has now become a summer of discontent.
Consider this: between June 2010 and June 2011, world grain prices almost doubled. In many places on this planet, that proved an unmitigated catastrophe. In those same months, several governments fell, rioting broke out in cities from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, to Nairobi, Kenya, and most disturbingly three new wars began in Libya, Yemen, and Syria. Even on Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, Bedouin tribes are now in revolt against the country’s interim government and manning their own armed roadblocks.
And in each of these situations, the initial trouble was traceable, at least in part, to the price of that loaf of bread.
HERE
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