Foreclosure abuse rampant across U.S., experts say | Reuters
By Tim Reid
LOS ANGELES | Fri Feb 17, 2012 12:34pm EST
(Reuters) - A report this week showing rampant foreclosure abuse in San Francisco reflects similar levels of lender fraud and faulty documentation across the United States, say experts and officials who have done studies in other parts of the country.
via Foreclosure abuse rampant across U.S., experts say | Reuters.
"It is expected that the $25 billion settlement will include no admission of wrongdoing by the banks."
Totally normal, totally natural. Does anyone still doubt that we live in a Plutocracy?
-Rob
Kucinich proposes public financing to overturn Citizens United ruling
By Eric W. Dolan
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) introduced a constitutional amendment to the U.S. House on Thursday that would overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. the Federal Elections Commission.
…
“Because of the decision by the Supreme Court majority in the Citizens United case, more money was spent on campaigns in the 2010 election than has ever been spent in a mid-term election,” Kucinich said. “Because of the Citizens United case, more money will be spent ithe 2012 elections than has ever been spent in an election in the history of our country. Because of the Citizens United case, American democracy has been put up on the auction block.”
Let me just say, I *like* Dennis Kucinich, he fights the good fight. But he makes the same mistake *EVERY* liberal makes, and that is not recognizing that the United States Empire is a Plutocracy. It was founded as such and has always been such.
Our nation was founded by a group of racist power-elites for the sole purpose of exploiting the new worlds wealth potential without having to pay a foreign power for the privilege.
Nothing will change until the entire system is dismantled and every Oligarch is shot dead in the street.
-Rob
Anti-Union NLRB gives the working class a break, a very very small one | Labor board gives U.S. unions a rare victory | Reuters.com
"This rule is about giving all employees who have petitioned for an election the right to vote in a timely manner and without the impediment of needless litigation," said NLRB Chairman Mark Pearce, a Democratic appointee of President Barack Obama.
What this effectively means is that union-busting law firms wont have as much time to crush organizing efforts. And of course they’re pissed about it.
Lawyers for the largest business lobbying group, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, filed a lawsuit in Washington to try to block the rule, which is scheduled to take effect on April 30. They say election periods could become so short that they could "ambush" employers and violate their free-speech rights.
Why and how the fuck do Corporations have “free-speech” rights?
Oh right America is a plutocracy, I almost forgot for a minute.
Even though this is a half measure, closer to a quarter measure, in todays political climate of a pansy Democrat in the White House and a congress that enjoys bending over being buggered by Tea-Party endorsed candidates, we still have to count this as a victory.
-Rob
BBC News – Christopher Hitchens dies after battle with cancer
Christopher Hitchens dies after battle with cancer
British author, literary critic and journalist Christopher Hitchens has died, aged 62, according to Vanity Fair magazine.
via BBC News - Christopher Hitchens dies after battle with cancer.
All I can say is good-riddance. The man who was right on so many issues but so fundamentally wrong on others can be described as nothing better then a jack-ass.
I’ll spare you a dissertation concerning his discognitive politics suffice it to say, he changed his views to suit the political winds as often as I change underwear, E.G. the so-called “war on terrorism” and Empire America’s brutal and oppressive foreign policy.
And no one give me any guff about “speaking ill of the dead” the man himself had an unhealthy preoccupation with Mother Teresa, after she had passed.
So again good-riddance to the drunken slob.
-r0b
Time names The Protester 2011 Person of the Year | Reuters
"Is there a global tipping point for frustration? Everywhere, it seems, people said they'd had enough," Time Editor Rick Stengel said in a statement.
via Time names The Protester 2011 Person of the Year | Reuters.
I’ve always held the notion that the center cannot hold. That sooner or later everyday people are going to wake up to this cluster-fuck of materialism and superficiality we cling to as modern society.
I really, really, really wish this could be that moment – yet I fear it is not.
The Arab spring had a coherence driven by years of mutual oppression we have nothing close to that in this country. The Occupy movement is tapping into something very real and very profound and I support it 100%, but it lacks a message, it lacks an actual narrative. Unlike the astroturfed “Tea Party” movement the Occupy movement has yet to find a platform that can actually be manifested as policy.
What it has managed to do is put the discussion on the national radar screen, to start a dialogue. let us hope this doesn’t get hijacked by the political establishment and turned into lukewarm half measures like we’ve seen so many times in the past.
I am not optimistic.
Things That Never Happened In The History Of Macroeconomics – NYTimes.com
These days, you constantly see articles that make it seem as if there was a great debate in the 1930s between Keynes and Hayek, and that this debate has continued through the generations. As Warsh says, nothing like this happened. Hayek essentially made a fool of himself early in the Great Depression, and his ideas vanished from the professional discussion.
Things That Never Happened In The History Of Macroeconomics - NYTimes.com.
Libertarian evangelists please take note.
-r0b
Group calls for Bush arrest | POLITICO 44
I would say it's about fucking time.
The human rights group issued a statement Thursday calling for the governments of Ethiopia, Tanzania or Zambia to take the former president into custody. According to Amnesty, the 43rd president is complicit in torture conducted by the United States during his administration and should be held pending an international investigation.
Unfortunately were such a thing to happen said country would inevitably find it’s self at the hands of the American Death Machine annihilating the living shit out of it.
Remember world Do As You Are Told.
-r0b
Batshit Bachmann gets pwned by an 8 year-old
Michele Bachmann’s had plenty of uncomfortable moments on the campaign trail, but wait until you see this: At a South Carolina book signing, an 8-year-old boy named Elijah whispered to Bachmann, “My mom is gay and she doesn’t need fixing.” Bachmann responded with a blank expression, then waved to him as he ran away. The person who filmed the event told Chicago Now that Elijah’s mom had been standing in line to speak to Bachmann herself, but decided she was too nervous. Elijah insisted that they stay so he could give Bachmann the message himself.
God that Bachman Harpy is some funny shit!
-r0b
Critiques Of Libertarianism: The demands of continuous existence.
My friend Mike Huben of Critiques of Libertarianism asks a good question:
Here's a question for economists out there.
Would economics examples be significantly different if we start off understanding that people have a continuous demand for consumables such as food with no elasticity as we approach starvation?Critiques Of Libertarianism: The demands of continuous existence..
-r0b --a recovering Libertarian.