…as is the way these days, the CEO’s of powerful corporate tax dodgers are twisting the meaning of words to mean something other than the public perception. Note that one of the founders was Erskine Bowles, former Chief of Staff for Bill Clinton, and Senator Alan Simpson, who was supposed to be non-biased in handing a decision on Social Security/Medicare–chosen by President Obama.
What a freaking dog and pony show…
Congratulations, President Obama. Big Bird lives on…:)
I know better, but I was listening to the rightwing radio last night and they were painting a dim picture of Obama’s win. I turned it off and went to bed to read…thinking we were going to get Bush III…
Indiana voted in Mike do-nothing Pence for Governor, and now has a super majority in the legislature…<sigh>
…well, at least I am spared Richard my-sperm-is-a-gift-from-God Mourdock…
The news on the reaction in the Middle East. I hope this means a peaceful movement in Israel is underway….
DN! has this up on the elections. Elizabeth Warren is animated after her win. Thank God.
Unfortunately, the GMO lobby won and Californians defeated the measure requiring GMO labeling. Shit.
O”Reilly had a nice take on why Obama won–because people want “stuff” and Obama was going to give it to them…
Well, now…Romney has the gov’t pay $77,000 for the care and housing of his horse…has money in offshore accounts and John McCain has so many houses he can’t even remember how many he has…all because they don’t pay their fair share of taxes…now who feels entitled?
Is it entitlement when one wants to eat? Have a roof over their head? Get medical care? I’m confused.
They went on to talk about the shift away from the standard–now women and minorities are getting their voices heard. The boys of the old school are threatened…and it will probably get uglier before it’s all done.
To my sisters who were the power behind getting President Obama re-elected: Thank you. We can move mountains when we focus on what’s important to us and fight for it.
I want to say, though, that women have been characterized as of “one mind”–that any woman who manages to get before a microphone speaks for all women. They don’t.
This is one of the reasons that the middle-of-the-road women backed away from the Feminist Movement–they were treated as if they spoke for all women. Women who wanted to stay home with their children were characterized as dull twits who lacked ambition. Women who didn’t believe in abortion but believed in equality were marginalized, also.
And the 70s Feminists who fought against alimony because it…well, I’m not really sure why they were fighting against alimony…but as this quote by Barbara Seaman, amongst others, puts it quite well–this is something that I lost out on when I divorced. I also got less than half of the assets (with a mortgage to pay off) and my ex got away with only paying one-fifth ($20,000) of his income to support his three children. Although I had stayed home for eleven years, the judge did not allow for that, and had instead computed the amount of support as if I had a job!! Yes, I had a lousy lawyer–whose partner still smirks at me to this day whenever I have to trudge back to the place I grew up in…I’ve always wondered what that smirk means….
Anyway, I hope that with the election that women and minorities will do their homework, and support thoughtful politicians who approach the legislative process with the “Do unto others…” mindset…it would make life so much easier and just might bring about Peace…
…your grocery bill, gas bill, etc. will go up by 25 percent…/snark
See, this is what I don’t get–they were just saying not two months ago that this was one of the worst droughts on record and our grocery bills were going to be severely affected–but this article states that food prices have pretty much stayed the same.
Ahem.
Like I’ve noted in my personal grocery bills, I’ve seen several items jump $1 or $2 per item in a month’s time, which really adds up if you’re on a restricted budget, as folks on S.S. are. They know that every time there’s a S.S. increase, it isn’t enough, and the prices will go up accordingly. (No, I’m not on S.S. or disability.)
I’ve done a quick search of several articles, and they all insist, via the Consumer Price Index that grocery prices have remained the same.
I looked up the table they publish: http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpid11av.pdf for the 2010-2011 price list…and somebody ain’t telling the truth, here…
You have to scroll down to get specifics, and looking at something that most poor folks purchase: ground beef went up 11%. Eleven freaking percent in one year! White bread 5%; Cereal 3%; Bacon 13%; Fresh Fish and Seafood 8%; Eggs 9% Milk 9%; Potatoes 12%; Coffee 14%; Butter 14%; Peanut Butter 6%….and non-food: fuel oil 30%; water and sewage 5%; motor fuel 26% and on…
(note that medical care only went up 3%…well, now, the oil companies aren’t getting nearly as much attention from the politicos as the medical community’s medical costs increases…hmmm…twenty-six percent should garner a little more attention, dontcha think?)
But they’ll give you a 1% increase…
…so you can try to make that can of dog food go a little further…after all, the top 1% need those tax breaks so they can…feed and house their horses…and John McCain needs another house…
David Cay Johnston has this excellent post up on the soundness of Social Security. (Be sure to read the post below the first–also an excellent one.)
I was searching for an analysis of the losses of Social Security funds due to the stagnant wages of the past twenty years…I was wondering how much of an impact on the amount now in the bank? How many millions or billions have been lost because wages did not increase at the same rate as previously?
I found some hints of an article like that–one blurb on a site said that Boomers were deferring their retirement because they didn’t have the money due to stagnant wages….but when I tried to find the article mentioned, I came up empty.
I did find this, however: http://money.usnews.com/money/business-economy/slideshows/10-industries-with-stagnant-pay/5
It’s interesting that not all people working in banks have gotten the windfall.
Paul Krugman has this up on Chris Christie…*fiscally conservative* towards the 99%…but a whole ‘nother view towards the one percenters…
….and this on Paul Ryan...
You just can’t make this stuff up:
In March, explaining his cuts in aid for the unfortunate, he declared, “We don’t want to turn the safety net into a hammock that lulls able-bodied people into lives of dependency and complacency, that drains them of their will and their incentive to make the most of their lives.”
~~~~~~~~
…while ignoring that most people who are dependent on not only food stamps but are dependent on disability/social security are there because of a health issue?
So if someone is on disability from a stroke, how is that person a moocher? Or someone who is on oxygen and cannot work? I see a building full of people with health issues…so tell me again how we can get these damn moochers off of welfare/disability and working until they freaking drop?! /snark
I personally got a college degree so I would not be in the situation I’m in now…I got mercury poisoning and had undiagnosed Celiac that caused my health to deteriorate, which had a domino effect on the disaster that is my life. I drove up and down a two lane highway for three and a half years, through wind and rain and dark of night so I could get my degree. I studied every night for two to three hours after taking my kids to baseball, softball, ballet, etc., and fixing dinner and whatever else needed to be done…so don’t tell me that I’m lazy or unmotivated.
LG said it best:
I always wondered why people always become “dependent and complacent” and lose “their will and their incentive to make the most of their lives” right after a financial crises…
…for being on welfare. That would make it sooo much easier for people to spot me on the street and hurl insults. Really, I can’t get enough of it from grocery store clerks who give me the *look* when I pull out my card….I need to have it from everyone I meet so they, too, can feel self-righteous about not being poor.
Here’s a news flash: nobody likes being poor. Nobody.
Your life is not your own.
You’ve lost your autonomy.
I lost my fucking house and the $10,000 I put into it.
Back in the day, when the government actually called a Depression– a Depression — the homeless lived in “Hoovervilles”. A group in Tampa, Florida has dubbed an encampment “Romneyville”. A funny “Bad Lip Reading” video on the site.
In all accuracy, though, they should be dubbed “Congressvilles”…because they are the ones responsible for not raising the minimum wage to a livable wage, for not raising taxes on the 1%, for allowing banks to consolidate, for gutting banking regulations, for passing NAFTA and every other Free Trade agreement…I could go on and on…
organic consumers has a link to a documentary Bitter Seeds on the suicides in India. Even the short trailer is emotionally gripping…keep the kleenex handy.
Remember what I said a few posts back about the poor not being able to take even a simple vacation like camping…?
Well, I have to retract that, because apparently the austerity measures are the conservative’s attempt at vacations...only they’re extended…clear through winter months, as well.
What?? Vacations are meant for the warmer months? Oh….
Eagle 
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