Category Archives: economy

Farm Bill

by

I’m late with this, but it’s nice to know others are out there fighting for those of us most affected by this.  The cuts in food stamps…i.e., the “Eat Shit” campaign of those compassionate conservatives who think all life is precious…as long as you’re a conservative and wealthy….poor people should just dry up and blow away and “decrease the surplus population…”

From the email sent to the organic advocates group I belong to:

Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH) and other hill champions are coordinating Members
of Congress to make ‘one minute’ speeches in opposition to the House Ag
Committee’s proposed cuts to SNAP. When you call your Members of Congress
today, ask him/her to speak out on the House floor in support of SNAP
tomorrow, *July 10 at noon or on Wed., July 11th at noon*. If interested,
House offices should contact LaDavia Drane (ladavia.drane@ mail.house. gov)
in Rep. Fudge’s office. “One Minutes” are first come, first serve.

~~~~~~~~~~~
“House Republicans think a working poor household with $2,000 in assets
shouldn’t be getting food stamps – an average of $1.50 per meal – but they
don’t seem to have problems with far wealthier insurance companies and
agribusiness getting much bigger handouts from the Farm Bill,” noted Dunlea.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the House bill would cut spending
over ten years by more than $35 billion, the Senate bill $23 billion.****

“****America* ***’s children, seniors and 1.5 million veteran households
facing a constant struggle against hunger deserve better from Congress,”
said Senator Gillibrand of the House bill.****

The House bill does not include several amendments attached to the Senate
bill, including one that required those getting subsidized crop insurance
to comply with conservation requirements and another that reduce by 15
percentage points the share of crop insurance premiums the government pays
for farmers with adjusted gross incomes of more than $750,000. Currently
the government bears an average 62 percent of crop insurance premiums

~~~~~~~~~

The quote from Henry Kissinger popped in my head. Link Here:

http://www.corporate-aliens.com/quotes/getquote.php?Henry-Kissinger&quoteid=1427

Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world.
Yeah, that about sums up the disaster the world is in right now, doesn’t it?
~~~~~~~~~
A really good article here on conventional versus organic farming.  I take issue with the yields being 25 percent more in conventional farming–I’ve read differently–especially when it comes to drought conditions.  Rodale did a comparison of conventional versus organic farming and found that the crop loss from bugs, etc., was minimal, and when they were in a drought, the organic soil was better able to retain moisture, helping the crop to survive.  If you look at the soil samples in the article, it’s plain to see the difference in soils. I used to have a compost bin at my house, and it was so amazing to put food scraps in the bin, along with leaves, sticks, and stuff, and see it magically transform into rich compost.  Compost is amazing in that it can help break up clay soils and will also help sandy soils to hold moisture.
In the ecology textbook I’m reading, they bring up an important point:  pesticides not only kill the bugs the farmers don’t want on the crop, but they also kill off beneficial bacteria in the soil which the plants need to thrive.  Also, I’ve read that the outbreaks in salmonella and e. coli could easily have been avoided with organically grown food–the beneficial bacteria love to eat them.
Here in the corn belt, we are experiencing a severe drought.  They have pretty much given up on the corn crop, and are unsure about soybeans.  Again I wonder at the wisdom of so much land being devoted to grains, instead of growing nuts, which don’t require chemicals to grow, and the trees help soil erosion.
Also, people are watering their lawns, which drives me up a wall–they cut the grass to two or less inches, and then wonder why the grass dies.  Grass should be grown to at least 3 inches so the roots will grow deeper, allowing it to find moisture when it’s dry out.  I never had a problem with my grass dying when I still had my house/lawn.  But you never, ever hear about this when they’re talking about people watering their lawns.
Finally, I like the idea of subsidizing farms based on how much carbon they leave in the soil.  Great idea.  Probably won’t go anywhere if Monsanto doesn’t like the idea…

DN! today

by

DN has this up today.

Let’s only hope that the carbon emissions news is followed by actual, you know, action.  Because if anything this administration is famous for–it’s tough words with no backbone.  The other day, I was listening to Limbaugh rant about the immigration law and Arizona and how the Obama Administration was instituting an “800” number for anyone observing a police officer violating someone’s civil rights.  Limbaugh was all for civil rights and said it was about time that they started doing something about it.

bwahahaahahahahahaha. *snort*

Um, okay, he really didn’t say that.  He was incensed that the Obama administration was actually trying to provide a way for folks to speak up.  He immediately said it would be the sniveling liberals who would be calling in and the police officers would be afraid of lawsuits, yada, yada, yada.

My heart was lifted at the news of an “800” number…but then I recalled all the past “strong” words by this administration, followed by…no action.  So, yeah, unless there is a full time staff behind this 800 number, and the people at the other end of the phone are actually empowered to DO something, well, I don’t see it providing much help.  And it might even hurt someone who calls in thinking they are doing a service for the community, give their name, phone number and they themselves are harassed.  I’m just saying this is a possibility.  An administration that allows illegal wire-tapping against the Fourth Amendment leaves me doubting the sincerity of this program.  Why now? Especially after record deportations?

Onto the other stories on DN:

The Tar Sands pipeline being once again pushed by Big Oil and the Obama Administration going along is another red flag that this administration continues to say one thing and do another.  I’m just cynical enough to wonder if the sudden decrease in gas prices has anything to do with the Administration’s agreeing to Tar Sands?

Lawmakers making money off of legislation? No way. They’re the most fine, upstanding individuals ever to walk the Earth. /snark

You see, entitlement only applies to little old ladies trying to collect Social Security and the poor trying to collect food stamps to eat.   They make the laws, so members of Congress are entitled to make profits off of it.

Sorry to see Nora Ephron has passed.  I was watching “When Harry Met Sally…” last night.  Peace to her.

Fairy Tales by the World Bank

by

According to this article: http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/education/poor-education-unemployment-caused-arab-spring-claims-world-bank

… World Bank would like to blame the Arab Spring on the lack of college education…while saying that unemployment could be helped by education.

Yeah….that isn’t playing out so well over across the pond, where unemployment of college educated folks is the highest ever, according to this blog:http://www.econmatters.com/2012/05/first-time-ever-most-of-unemployed-are.html

Although I don’t agree with the author’s assertion that the “solution” is to do away with college loans (can you say rightwing?), but rather, to…you know, this will sound crazy….but the solution isn’t to deny college education, but to actually change the economic policies by Friedman economists who believe that unemployment is actually good for the country…(as James Medoff and Andrew Harless asserted in their book, The Indebted Society.)

Friedman and his followers believe in a convoluted policy called “Natural Rate of Unemployment” which embraces the neocon mindset of greed is good.

Here’s a great blog on the subject.

From the blog below the first:

…the whole story is starting to feel like a comedy routine: yet again the economy slides, unemployment soars, banks get into trouble, governments rush to the rescue — but somehow it’s only the banks that get rescued, not the unemployed.

[italics mine]

~~~~~~~~~

You know, whenever I read the financial theories, I come back to the thought that the way that we do business is set up to go against the best interests of Mother Earth: use up resources without giving back.

That’s a self-defeating proposition.

The bigger question is how can we have jobs or some form of support that is in tune with nature?  Is that possible?

News from Wisconsin, ALEC, and more…

by

Center for Media and Democracy has this post up on the slanted nooz for Wisconsin taxpayers…and, sadly, there are too many folks who will believe what is written…because it’s written.  See, they think that anyone who puts their name next to an article is actually taking pride in that article and that they’re are trying to report the news fairly.  They don’t understand that news is created, and that the newspaper editors (along with news directors) get to decide what news is reported, and HOW it’s reported….they are gatekeepers.

~~~~~~~

Next, we have the story on Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp being a member of ALEC.  I’m shocked, shocked, I tell you! /snark

I was also shocked that Murdoch is joining in the destruction of public schools with the financial free-for-all that’s going on with these greedy bastards.

From the article:

Last November, News Corp. dropped $360 million to buy Wireless Generation, a Brooklyn-based education technology company that provides software, assessment tools, and data services. “When it comes to K through 12 education, we see a $500 billion sector in the US alone that is waiting desperately to be transformed by big breakthroughs that extend the reach of great teaching,” Murdoch said at the time.

Um…what “big breakthrough” could possibly be beyond the “reach” of great teaching…?

More from the article:

Last year, when New Jersey lost out on millions of federal education funding due to a screw-up on its grant application, the company landed at the center of the debacle. The state, after all, had reportedly paid the firm $500,000 to ensure the accuracy of its application, among other things.

Okay, schools having to apply (beg) for money for grants for the children’s education irritates me to no end.  I tried to look up exactly when the whole schools-begging-for-money-through-grants-thing started, but I couldn’t find it.  If I recall correctly, it was when my kids were in elementary school, some twenty years ago (I just noticed CMD has stated this started about twenty years ago, but I don’t have time to read the link).  It seems that the grants and No Child Left A Mind have combined to transform our good school systems into the soulless, art-less, music-less robot creators they are…schools had to play nice in order to get needed money.

Here’s one school that stood up against this shady bullying.  Good for them. I love that they questioned the ranking, especially when they had been rated as a good school just prior to the failing ranking.  I love that someone also mentioned the faults of testing–it’s been given a golden status as the true measurement of one’s intelligence, when it should be a tool, but not the concrete answer of the question of intelligence.  And, as I’ve mentioned previously, testing was originally devised to help a child in trouble…but the eugenics crowd leaped on it to use as a tool to decide who is worthy and who is not.  I saw this as a Substitute Teacher–the kids were tested, and based on that test, were labeled–and that label will follow them all of their school career.

A side note~ I remember one time when I was subbing for a teacher that I didn’t know.  It was one of the first experiences I had as a sub.  There was one particular child who was having great difficulty with the Math lesson, so I used more time to devote to the lesson–going over it three times and then helping him individually with it.  He finally “got it”.  However, this meant that I didn’t get through all of the lessons for that day.  The teacher came in the room at the end of the day, and her face turned red with anger as I explained that I didn’t get through her entire plan.  She was furious because I had taken so long with the Math lesson.

With NCLB, there isn’t time, really, for the kids that are having difficulty with lessons.  Your time is tightly controlled to cram everything that is required in.  It is so controlled that a teacher is not able to teach creatively.  It also puts such pressure on the little ones to complete a task in a given number of minutes, and if they fail, they’re labeled as dummies.  And if they do successfully complete a task, this doesn’t in any way mean that they’ve actually learned anything–they’re just repeating what they’ve memorized, because, basically, that’s what NCLB is all about–not learning creative skills, critical thinking skills, thinking outside the box–it’s about repeating what you’ve been told.  There’s a reason that teachers “teach to the test”….if their school does not show “improvement” they lose the $$.  It’s all for show, folks…

~~~~~

On to other things…

Gotta love this. 

Rahm Emanuel is apparently afraid the renegade nurses would start…I dunno, giving out free health care…?

From the story:

 

In the lead up to the eventful weekend in Chicago, NNU had a hard time securing permits for their rally and march from the mayor of Chicago, and former chief of staff to President Obama, Rahm Emanuel. At the last minute, Emanuel tried to move the rally and kick Morello off the bill, but the nurses would not yield. After much negotiation, they were allowed to rally, but not to march, so the nurses decided to take a stroll, walking on the sidewalks, stopping at red lights and courteously maintaining a path for passers-by. Despite their decidedly well-behaved march, they were followed by watchful police officers from countless agencies, in the streets and on the rooftops.

Nurses, folks.  Emanuel is afraid of nurses exercising their right to assemble and have their grievances addressed…hmmm…now I *know* I’ve read that we have the right somewhere…oh, yeah, the Constitution….hmmm…

There’s more on CMD, but I’m out of time here.  More tomorrow.

 

Farm bill 2012

by

Environmental Working Group’s take on Farm Bill 2012. (hat tip to organic consumers)

Instead, legislators created an expensive new entitlement program (called “shallow loss”) that guarantees nearly 90 percent of the income of farm businesses already enjoying record profits. It also leaves untouched a bloated $9-billion-a-year crop insurance program that pays about 60 percent of farmers’ crop insurance premiums, no matter how large the farm, and sends billions to crop insurance companies and their agents.

Most of the benefits of these proposed programs would flow to the big five commodity crops (corn, soy, cotton, rice and wheat) that provide feed for livestock, raw material for processed food and corn ethanol fuel for our cars. Not only would these proposals be highly inequitable and wasteful, but the new revenue guarantees, combined with unlimited insurance subsidies and high crop prices, will create powerful new incentives for growers to plow up fragile wetlands and grasslands and erase many of farming’s recent environmental gains.

 

I like that it at least adds monies for food stamp recipients to purchase locally grown food at farmer’s markets.  Great idea.  I actually made the suggestion to our housing authority folks to help us get some land to plant our own vegetables to raise organically.  *crickets*

 

Link to Craig Cox, of Environmental Working Group’s statement on it here.

Afghan killings, the poor, bankers, etc.

by

Common dreams has this link up on yet another killing of innocent Afghanis’ who were minding their own business. Meanwhile, support for the war from the people who are paying for it, is at a new low.  Where’s my representation, again…?

~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, the repubs continue their “Eat Shit” campaign against the poor, elderly, and disabled in this country…because, you know, we have to be over in Afghanistan or whatever country has our oil in it, and we can’t be bothered with either creating jobs or feeding people if there are no decent paying jobs available so they can feed themselves….

The comments section brings up the involuntary servitude of the Prisons for Fun and Profit scheme.

The most telling paragraph is this one in the Reuters clip:

The Ryan bill also takes aim at financial reforms, eliminating the government’s powers to shut down large financial institutions, as well as cutting funding for the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. A tort reform plan to end frivolous lawsuits included in the measure would lead to lower health care costs, according the CBO.

There is the heart of this, folks.  I’m reading The Indebted Society by James Medoff and Andrew Harless in which they assert that the economy of this country has been manipulated by the bankers/financial institutions for their own benefit.  Bankers need low wages so that people will borrow.  The book stated that wages have remained stagnant (which we already knew) and that people were borrowing just to maintain their lifestyles as far back as the eighties.  However, those things they were borrowing money for–luxury items–were not necessary for life and if they had to let them go back to the bank for lack of payment it wasn’t a big hardship.  However, with this current economic situation, the borrowing was not for luxury items, but just to survive–they refinanced their homes, or borrowed on credit cards to buy groceries and needed items…that sort of thing.  And that is why we saw so many folks “hit the wall”.  Their wages were no longer able to meet the very basics of life.

Medoff and Harless are blaming the Federal Reserve for not wanting inflation to rise–bankers don’t like inflation because it hurts their bottom line.  And they heavily influence the Fed, as much as the Fed would like to deny it.    Medoff and Harless say that there has been too much emphasis on consumption, and not enough on investment.

~~~~~~~~~~

And, just to shed light on the media campaign by the sociopaths–I was flipping through the radio the other night, and there was Sean Hannity.

Hannity actually made the claim that “socialist spending has gotten us into this economy.”   Say whaaat?  No, it’s not taxing the top 1% at a fair tax rate, and even reducing their taxes while starting not one, not two, but three military conflicts and/or wars, it’s feeding the poor and the elderly!  God these people drive me crazy.

Oh, and they’re quick to bring God into the conversation to justify their un-Jesus-like selfishness:

Overheard on a rightwing station here in FW (they’re pretty much all rightwing, just some to a lesser degree)–

“Be obedient to God–get out and vote.  Be obedient to God–politically you’re either conservative or liberal.  You have to decide which way is obedient to God. ”

Yeah, so wouldn’t following  “Thou Shalt Not Kill” and “Thou Shalt Not Covet thy neighbors’ stuff” (this includes oil, folks) be obedient to God?   How about “Do unto others as you would have done unto you?”

 

 

 

Stephen King on the one-percenters

by

….is also Mad as Hell…so refreshing to read a one-percenter going off on his own…

“I’ve known rich people, and why not, since I’m one of them? The majority would rather douse their dicks with lighter fluid, strike a match, and dance around singing “Disco Inferno” than pay one more cent in taxes to Uncle Sugar”

Hilarious.  And really, not too far from the truth-that’s the scary part.

From the article, it appears that King was stating that Mitt Romney had pulled himself up by his bootstraps. Perhaps I’m reading it wrong, but that’s the way that it reads to me.  Romney was never poor, as his father, George Romney, made $$$ by cheating the poor while he was head of HUD.  (See reference to Barlett and Steele’s investigative reporting on the subject.Interestingly, a quick scan doesn’t mention George Romney’s having properties deeded in his name after the poor abandoned the properties.)  Romney was born rich and couldn’t care less about the poor.

….and Mitt would like to abolish HUD altogether.  Great.  Toss more folks into the streets.  A glaring omission in the article below is the fact that HUD provides monies to Housing Authorities for them to provide decent housing to folks who cannot afford to pay the high rents nor could they afford mortgages.

Link here:http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbarro/2012/04/16/romney-is-right-abolish-hud/

 

ALEC, jobs, and decent pay

by

Center for Media and Democracy has posted this article on the next target of ALEC:  fair wages, jobs, and workers compensation.

The article notes ALEC’s support of the for-profit prison industry– link here.  I have to wonder if Dick Cheney is in on this….and whatever happened to that indictment…?  If you read the entire article, Scott Walker is knee deep in this–sponsoring bills that required inmates to serve their entire sentences, regardless of good behavior or counseling.

From the link on allowing employers’ access to medical records:

Section 3. Employers’ shall be allowed access to all relevant medical information,
without the express authorization or consent, of the employee in all cases in which an
employee files a claim under employer provided workers’ compensation insurance or any
other employer provided entitlement . The insurance carriers or administrator shall
provide and discuss relevant documents of the claim file that shall affect the employer’s
premium with the employer, and shall supply copies of the documents that affect the
premium.

(Italics mine)

Big Brother, anyone?  Good Grief.  An employer could use this personal information in any number of ways to discredit an employee.

Here’s a page “explaining” why employees might file false claims:

http://www.insurancefraud.org/workers_comp_scams.htm

If you click on the “About Us” link, it is full of insurance companies’ sponsorship.  Hmmm….no bias there, eh?

~~~~~~~~~

On to other matters–

ALEC is also trying to interfere with the EPA’s regulation of coal ash, a serious health hazard.  I followed the CNN link about the devastating effects on homeowners’s health and exposure to Uranium, which is believed to be coming from the coal ash ponds.  These unfortunate individuals have suffered terribly, while their houses are secretly bought and the evidence (house) is destroyed.

Unbelievable.

~~~

And if poisoning your home, denying your valid worker compensation claim aren’t enough, we’ll put the nail in the coffin by feeding you Mad Cow.  Warning: don’t read this if you’re eating your lunch/dinner…might make you toss your waffles.

~~~

Lastly,  here’s a story on the 7.5 million, er, 200,000 tab on the damage done by the protestors in the Wisconsin uprising…while ignoring the damage done by the staff.  I think they ought to send the bill to Scott Walker and his ALEC supporters, whom, it would seem, have plenty of money to throw around…