News & Comment
Blogs and Opinion
5 Ways ‘I Wish I Was Mexican’ Mitt Reveals Contempt for Brown and Black People by Adele Stan, alternet.org | September 20, 2012
Up until this point, as I chronicled the race-baiting and bigotry of the Romney campaign, I had seen it all as a cynical strategy deployed simply to appeal to the basest instincts of the Republican base -- and not necessarily reflective of Mitt's own biases. But the video tells a different tale. There, in the well-appointed home of leveraged buyout mogul Marc Leder, Romney seems to be, at last, his authentic self, speaking in a relaxed manner before people of his own social class, giving the subtext of Romney's wish-I-was-a-Mexican remark the feel of a more authentic racial resentment. Here are five examples of ways in which Romney has demonstrated disrespect for brown and black people. read more »Romney's Backers, Romney's Brain: How Their Money Reveals Their Plan by Richard (RJ) Eskow, OurFuture.org | September 19, 2012
In a 1994 science-fiction novel called Interface read more »Romney's Backers, Romney's Brain: How Their Money Reveals Their Plan by Richard (RJ) Eskow, OurFuture.org | September 19, 2012
In a 1994 science-fiction novel called Interface read more »The Bain of the 47 Percent. by Terrance Heath, OurFuture.org | September 19, 2012
Tax Wall Street to Restore Main Street by Keith Ellison, OurFuture.org | September 18, 2012
The American public provided hundreds of billions to bailout Wall Street during the global fiscal crisis yet bore the brunt of the crisis with lost jobs and reduced household wealth. This is a phenomenally wealthy nation, yet our tax and regulatory system allowed the financial titans to amass great riches while impoverishing the systems that enable inclusive prosperity. A financial transaction tax protects our financial markets from speculation and provides the revenue needed to invest in the education, health and communities of the American people. read more »Occupy's Protest Is Not Over. It Has Barely Begun by Frances Fox Piven, The Guardian | September 18, 2012
The great protest movements of history lasted not for a moment but for decades. And they did not expand in the shape of a simple rising arc of popular defiance. Rather, they began in a particular place, sputtered and subsided, only to re-emerge elsewhere in perhaps a different form, influenced by local particularities of circumstance and culture. Movements that may appear to us in retrospect as a unified set of events are, in fact, irregular and scattered. Only afterwards do we see the underlying common institutional causes and movement passions that mark these events so we can name them, as the abolitionist movement, for example, or the labor movement or the civil rights movement. I think Occupy is likely to unfold in a similar way. read more »Occupy Is One Year Old. The Critics Are Wrong To Say There's Little To Celebrate. by Aditya Chakrabortty , The Guardian | September 18, 2012
Rarely can a movement have been so hastily obituarized as Occupy Wall Street. The campaign that has done more than any other to thrust inequality on to the political agenda of one of the world's most unequal countries turned one on Sunday – yet already a would-be priesthood is reading its last rites. True, Occupy no longer squats unignorably in the American or British political debate as it did last autumn. But that doesn't justify one of the most interesting political phenomena in years being written off by many of the same folk who never saw it coming in the first place. Indeed, each time they do so, they display a lamentable misunderstanding of Occupy's strengths and weaknesses, an ignorance of how activism ebbs and flows and a complacency about the merits of its arguments. read more »What's A Fair Share? by Digby , OurFuture.org | September 18, 2012
When this issue of the 47% not paying any federal income taxes (who also, apparently are the only ones voting for Barack Obama) came up in the GOP primary, Romney complained that "everyone needs to pay their fair share." Coming from a man who refuses to tell the American people whether he's paid his fair share is pretty rich. Here's a good chart that explains how this breaks down: read more »One Year Later, Occupy Wall Street’s Rallying Cry Still Resonates by Imara Jones, colorlines.com | September 17, 2012
One-year on from its beginning, progressives owe Occupy Wall Street a debt of gratitude. The movement’s clarion call “We are the 99 percent” has shifted the discourse on economic justice in the United States and around the world. Altered language is the first and essential step to political and policy change. When this fundamental change might happen, no one knows. But almost everyone, except perhaps those in the 1 percent, understand that it’s coming. This is in no small part to OWS’ ability, with a succinctly brilliant phrase, to highlight how and why things were so critically off course. read more »Occupy Wall Street -- Where Are They Now? by Josh Harkinson, Mother Jones | September 17, 2012
It was one year ago today that the pioneers of Occupy Wall Street first unrolled their sleeping bags in Zuccotti Park. Though the movement is long gone from the headlines, it can be credited for calling BS on our money-driven political system and launching a national conversation about class and economic inequality—one that still looms large in the presidential campaign. I showed up at the Zuccotti Park encampment in its second week for what I thought would be just a day, but I ended up reporting on the movement from New York City all through the fall and beyond. What most fascinated me were the occupiers themselves, people alternately principled and unrealistic, brave and foolhardy, idealistic and naive. For the anniversary, I decided to track down five of the folks I met in Zuccotti—from a key movement organizer to a heroin addict—to see where they're at now. These are their stories. read more »
The Latest
A culture of bullying and greed: Wanted - interns for Goldman Sachs... , independent.co.uk | October 17, 2012
WikiLeaks Is Down After Denial of Service Attacks, mashable.com | August 9, 2012
After five days of denial of service attacks, the WikiLeaks website has been knocked out. more »The Spreading Scourge of Corporate Corruption, The New York Times | July 11, 2012
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the Libor scandal is how familiar it seems. Sure, for some of the world’s leading banks to try to manipulate one of the most important interest rates in contemporary finance is clearly egregious. more »Needy States Use Housing Aid Cash to Plug Budgets, The New York Times | May 16, 2012
Vermont Legislature Passes Resolution Challenging Citizens United, commondreams.org | April 21, 2012
Goldman Sachs: Lloyd Blankfein 'disappointed' by claims of 'toxic' greed, telegraph.co.uk | March 14, 2012
Legal Fees Mount at Fannie and Freddie, The New York Times | February 22, 2012
Taxpayers have advanced almost $50 million in legal payments to defend former executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the three years since the government rescued the giant mortgage companies, a regulatory analysis has found.
Memo
To: DOJ Funky fascist America Dept
Subject: Accountability more »Apple investigates 'sweat shop' factories following suicide threat, telegraph.co.uk | February 13, 2012
The technology giant, which has faced criticism over working conditions at some of its suppliers’ plants in China, said today that it had asked the Fair Labor Association (FLA) to conduct “special voluntary audits” of several facilities, including factories owned b more »On the Trail of Mortgage Fraud, The New York Times | January 17, 2012
When is a crime not a crime?
When criminality subverts the system, challenges the system, becomes the system. From the Kleptocrats' point of view it is the systematic breakdown of each and every law which gets in their way; preventing the ascent to power of their enhanced moral values.
The Kleptocrats are really America's third political party.
Help Stop SOPA/PIPA Breaking The Internet, wordpress.org | January 14, 2012
You are an agent of change. Has anyone ever told you that? Well, I just did, and I meant it.
