Politics What is happening????

Speed_Gibson · Jul 30, 2014

Interesting looking thread. Might try to read through all 23 pages here at some point.

rogue49 · Aug 7, 2014

The 1% May Be Richer Than You Think, Research Shows

For U.S. Middle Class, Neither Savings Nor Safety Net

Let me state right here...I'm a capitalist and I enjoy the idea of people making the most that they can.
However, I do understand when the balance is off...and there some issues and dynamics to address.

That being said, right now the laws and leverage of society are overly leaning to corporations and the higher stratus.
There is not a benefit of the doubt given to the average person who are losing more and more of their ability to manage and deal with a much more dynamic life than previous generations.
The balance is currently skewed to give the benefit of the doubt to entities and those in position of higher status.

Not to threaten them...but bring it back to a more normalized environ for everyone and give the ability to manage lifestyle and account for change by your all citizens.

This is not just happening in the US, but around the world. Yet the US has some big holes too.

This is not just me...but many are saying they can't keep up juggling all the things being thrown their way...you are penalized before you know it...and have to track everything. Playing whack-a-mole.
You cannot budget or prepare well for this...no matter what your income...unless you're well off enough to have others to focus on it for you. Or have the time & mind, which most working people, don't.

Also, most don't mind if people are wealthy...but they don't think it's fine to hide assets...or to leverage your position to disadvantage others.

And don't think you can "get away" with it...people will sooner or later figure it out. And see where the imbalance and issues are.
Because they feel like they're "anchored" in life...even productive people...and those at the top are given "balloons" and "golden parachutes".

The need to stop the now constant "leakage" of fees and funds policy from terms these days.
And start giving the benefit of doubt to consumers...not trying to "get away" with things to disadvantage them and overly maximize profit.

If you're wondering why they're NOT spending on shopping anymore...it's because they don't have it to spend...all of it is being used on constant fees being thrown at them.
And they don't want to get caught in a trap of dependency of credit or the system...because these may fail as shown in the past few years. There is no more "illusion" of reliability.

And transparency and accountability needs to be enforced more.

Bring it back into balance...give your average joe a sane "doable" life...I don't think they're asking for much.

rocnrichy · Aug 7, 2014

Roque, you say you are a capitalist, well so am I, but what we have here in the America is capitalism run amuck. Corporations making big profits is a good thing, but damnit at least make them pay taxes on it. You'll hear that the corporate tax rate is too high, but in reality the efective tax rate loopholes is only about 12% and some of the most profitable companies like EXON and GE pay no taxes at all. Not to mention the new corporate strategy is to aquire a smaller foreign company in an effort to evade even more taxes, called inversion, Don't look for things to change anytime soon, since the republicans have gerrymandered the districts to a point where the corporate puppets will be blocking tax reform for quite some time. Change will have too come from a grass roots movement, a revolt of sorts, when the 99% finally get fed up and VOTE.

rocnrichy · Aug 7, 2014

rocnrichy said: ↑

Roque, you say you are a capitalist, well so am I, but what we have here in the America is capitalism run amuck. Some how in this country we believe all we have to do is work harder to get ahead , which used to be true in the past but is no longer. Yes the deck is stacked against the little guy. Take a look at Germany which is considered a capitalistic county, but it also has socialistic laws that provide for a better life for there citizens, medical, trade unions, vacation time, and eropean corporate CEO make a fraction of what the American Corporation pay their CEOs, making big profits is a good thing, but damnit at least make them pay taxes on it. You'll hear that the corporate tax rate is too high, but in reality the efective tax rate after loopholes is only about 12% and some of the most profitable companies like EXON and GE pay no taxes at all. Not to mention the new corporate strategy is to aquire a smaller foreign company in an effort to evade even more taxes, called inversion, Don't look for things to change anytime soon, since the republicans have brain washed into believing that anything that can be branded socialistic is a bad thing. They havegerrymandered the districts to a point where the corporate puppets will be blocking any reform to benefit the working man for quite some time. Change will have too come from a grass roots movement, a revolt of sorts, when the 99% finally get fed up and VOTE.
Click to expand...

rogue49 · Aug 8, 2014

uhh...I think that's what I said, bascially
BTW...it's not just your citizens/people that are unbalanced.
It's also happening in the corporate world...where the top businesses are getting it all and the remaining 80% aren't doing as hot.

Noted in the article below...
Corporate 1% in U.S. Gets Wealthier While Cash Piles Up

Need to start balancing it out a bit more.
Oh yeah...and btw, it's been proven that more competition and less monopolies make more for the nation.

I don't mind players at the top...they just need to play by the same rules. People or Corporations.

ottopilot · Aug 9, 2014

The clever always manage to find the right buttons to push. Reactions are predicted and scenarios projected. To what end? If we only eat what we're fed or what we like, then we shouldn't look surprised waking up with a cancerous bias. flesh-tone bandaids can be badges of honor.

rogue49 · Aug 10, 2014

The most corrupt states in America

If this is true...why aren't more going to jail???

rogue49 · Aug 19, 2014

I was having a discussion with an associate of mine, who was noting how difficult it is to keep up with everything IRL these days.

I attributed it to two growing and existing trends in business these days.

People are "fee'd" to death...or death by thousand cuts...or drowning/flooding because of leaks...financially.
A new "technique" for creating income for business is to attribute a fee for everything. There is no way to budget for this...and they can be added at any time.
And even if wrong, it means YOU have to note it, YOU have to correct it. (AND the burden of proof is on you...not them)
-

A new "unwritten" policy, or informal/unofficial...or at least not "advertised" is companies are doing everything they can to piecemeal any outgo of funds.
So this means, they will play every trick in the book to keep from giving you money...or the longer they can keep it, the better for their money pool.
Every rule, used to leverage...every hole, used to deny...every policy, used to rationalize...anything for you to not get your money back or them to pay.
And again, even if wrong, YOU have to track it, YOU get the notices, YOU have to hunt down and order the correction.

So it's now every Jane & Joe has to be their own full-time HR dept and Accounting Dept.
Checking and rechecking EVERYTHING.
And anything missed...is another penny out of your pocket....and it ALL adds up.

So if you can't put your finger on it...but you "know" something is wrong...and you can't seem to have as much as you did before...and you're playing "wack-a-mole" chaos.
It's not you...you're not going insane.
It's just the new way of doing business.

To the point that you grateful, when something is simple, straight-forward...and people do what you would expect.

And THAT is just your output...what you're spending.
Your income is languishing too...in comparison to the past.
Only Rich Know Wage Gains With No Raises for U.S Workers (not just FT work, but PT, Seasonal, Contractual too...)

Now, to give the benefit of the doubt for your small business, they aren't getting love either...in the corporate world, it's top heavy too. The Big Boys are happy, but not the rest.

But now you know why you aren't getting a leg up...and you're swimming all the much harder.
And even if you're successful...there's still "another thing" you have to chase down.
It all counts.

rogue49 · Sep 16, 2014

So the subtle translation of the difficulties with keeping up with things ...makes it just as difficult to just get started or get to goals.
And time keeps on moving whether you get to them or not...

I don't think the solution is taking from the 1%...the solution is balancing out those policies that have crept in as a "normal part of business" and how revenue is raised.
The credit industry lock...you HAVE TO have good credit. Otherwise Nada. (and BTW...anything and anyone can get dinged, even the pros, so it's not just "lazy" or "irresponsible" people.)
And the incessant fees leaching everything from someone.
And so on...

The burdens keep piling up...the requirements keep adding up...yet nothing is returning value as much.
So how are you to live life if you constantly anchored down??
Just one more thing...

Many life milestones are out of millennials’ reach
By Catherine Rampell - September 15

We want to move out. We want to own our home. We want to marry. We want to work.

The problem is, many of us can’t.

Catherine Rampell is an opinion columnist at The Washington Post. View Archive
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America’s young adults have gotten a lot of flak for missing many of the milestones that earlier generations checked off with ease.

We aren’t getting even entry-level jobs, which could enable us to pay our own bills. Not only are we not buying houses, many of us aren’t renting, either: About a third of millennials still live with their parents, earning us the irksome epithet “boomerang generation” — a play on “boomer generation,” the presumed victim here.

We’re hanging out in our beleaguered parents’ basements rather than marrying and starting legally recognized unions of our own. Marriage rates have skidded downward, with a little more than a quarter of 18- to 35-year-olds ball-and-chained in 2012, compared with about 40 percent at the dawn of the millennium, according to calculations from the president’s Council of Economic Advisers. Partly as a result, more than half of the country is presently single, the first time this has been the case since the government began keeping track in 1976. (Singlehood hasn’t stopped many of us from continuing to reproduce, of course.)

To some, this arrested development is evidence of a prolonged adolescence and a rejection of self-sufficiency, perhaps encouraged by indulgent “helicopter parenting.” According to a recent Reason-Rupe survey, about threequarters of America’s young adults consider millennials to be “responsible” and “hard-working,” while just half of older adults agree. If character isn’t the issue, perhaps it’s misplaced preferences: We millennials have set aside the ideals of an “ownership society” in favor of the hippy-dippy values of a “sharing economy.” We rent, borrow or share our textbooks, cars and even dinner leftovers, so why would we bother buying a home or permanently attaching ourselves to a single romantic partner?

Recent data, though, suggest that these standard, American-dream-style signposts still retain an incredibly strong hold over young people’s desires and aspirations. What’s changed is that basic goals such as getting married, having a secure job and owning a home have drifted further out of reach.

Even as marriage rates have plummeted — particularly for the young and the less educated — Gallup survey data show that young singles very much hope to get hitched. Of Americans age 18 to 34, only about 9 percent have both never been married and say they do not ever want to marry.

“Although there is now a growing class divide in who gets and stays married in America, there is virtually no divide in the aspiration to marry,” says W. Bradford Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia. “It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, white, black or Hispanic. Most Americans are married or would like to marry. The challenge, then, facing the United States is bridging the gap between the nearly universal aspiration to marry and the growing inability of poor and working-class Americans to access marriage.”

On to housing. Young Americans are substantially less likely to own homes than their counterparts a generation or two ago, with their homeownership rates reaching record lows this year.

But survey after survey shows that young people would love to be deed-owners. Fannie Mae’s National Housing Survey, for example, asks respondents whether they think it’s better to own or rent to achieve various goals (such as feeling safe, building wealth, feeling engaged in their communities, etc.). On almost every point, young adults — just like their older brethren — say that owning is better. The vast majority of millennials also say they’ll buy at some point, if they haven’t already, and they believe that the best reasons for owning are not financial but the “broader security and lifestyle benefits of homeownership.”

So what’s keeping young people from buying, even as mortgage rates appear relatively cheap, and from marrying, even though possible mates are plentiful?

Economic opportunity has a lot to do with both. Unemployment rates for the youngest adults remain high, and they look far worse when you include people who aren’t actually looking for work but still say they want a job. Student loan debt also seems to be weighing on young people’s ability to buy, as documented by the economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, among others.

Perhaps preferences for these kinds of life milestones will eventually change, too, as norms evolve out of economic necessity. But in the meantime, don’t malign millennials for “rejecting” milestones that remain out of their reach.
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redux · Sep 17, 2014

A little diversion to recognize the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964 signed into law by LBJ protecting 9 million acres of federal land "for the permanent good of the whole people.."

"A wilderness, in contrast to those areas where man and his works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain."

I wonder if today's Republicans would vote for such an act, given their lack of concern for the environment and their desire to privatize and commercialize as much of the US as they can.

Fortunately, with additions over the years, 109 millions acres in 44 states are designated as wilderness areas.

rogue49 · Oct 8, 2014

And just like that...Keystone becomes a moot point in the US...and Canada has got a new angle.
Keystone Be Darned: Canada Finds Oil Route Around Obama

Hmm...America isn't the only one that can play the oil game, kids
Frankly, if this helps Europe and others get more oil and away from the manipulations of Putin...then I'm all for it. (man, if he figures this out, he'll be fuming)

ASU2003 · Oct 8, 2014

Train derails in Saskatchewan, catches fire | KSL.com

And this is what happens...

rogue49 · Nov 4, 2014

In honor of election day...
You know the phrase, "You get what you pay for"?
Well, you also get what you vote for. (or don't vote, too)

The year of living stupidly
By: Roger Simon - November 4, 2014

‘Democracy is a device that insures that we shall be governed no better than we deserve. Whose fault is it? … It is the fault of you the people. Your public servants serve you right; indeed, often they serve you better than your apathy and indifference deserve.”

Tough talk. No pol would say such a thing today. But Adlai Stevenson II said it some time after he had lost his second race for the presidency in 1956. So you can read those words as courageous or just bitter.

Me, I read them as true. How proud are we today of the congressional campaign that has just played out before our eyes?

How proud are we of campaigns based on deception, half-truths and outright lies?

If you live in a state that had a hot contest, I cannot believe your TV set still works. I cannot believe you have not rammed a lamp through the screen by now, or ripped out your cable box and thrown it out the window.

I was in Iowa some weeks ago and the ads on TV were distinguished by three things: They were nauseatingly negative, they were written at the intellectual level of a schoolyard taunt, and they were unworthy of a great nation.

They were also inescapable. They ran show after show, ad block after ad block, hour after hour, day after day.

And whatever outrage they were supposed to elicit from voters against a certain opponent, that outrage was so dulled by constant repetition that the ads served only to make anyone with an ounce of sense stop listening altogether. And stop participating in politics.

We get the campaigns we deserve. So I guess we deserve this one. Because we don’t demand better.

America’s turnout of registered voters in midterm elections usually ranks below Malta, Chile, Austria, Iceland, New Zealand, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Argentina, Brazil, the Netherlands, Romania, Bulgaria, Israel, Poland, and I could go on and on.

But I think I understand why some Americans drop out and stop paying attention to politics. Their indignation has turned to disgust and their disgust has frozen into apathy.

Personally, I am disgusted with the amount of money squandered on political campaigns.

In mid-2003, Rep. Dick Gephardt, a Democrat from Missouri, told me he spent seven to eight hours a day, seven days a week making fundraising calls. I was so shocked that I asked him to repeat those numbers just to make sure I had heard him right.

I had heard him right. I was following him around as he was considering a serious run for the presidency and no matter where he was — in the back of a car, waiting at an airport, sitting in a restaurant — he was always dialing for dollars.

An estimated $4 billion has been spent on this dismal congressional election, about $2.4 billion of it on political ads, many of which were so vitriolic they could turn one’s stomach.

So if some citizens are now sick of politics, is it not the politicians who have made us so? More than 50 years have passed since Stevenson told us politicians serve us better than we deserve. In that 50 years, it is entirely possible the quality of politicians has deteriorated to the wilted crop we have today.

According to a recent national survey by the Pew Research Center, “neither party is especially popular with voters as they head into the midterms.”

Only 39 percent of registered voters view the Republican Party favorably, while 55 percent view it unfavorably.

Some 47 percent view the Democratic Party favorably, and 48 percent view it unfavorably.

Both parties, in other words, spend billions of dollars on ads that turn people against both parties.

But important things are at stake, I read. Whichever party controls the Senate, I read, is of critical importance to the future of America at least for the next two years.

I doubt it. Neither party is going to get 60 seats in the Senate, which means neither party can block a filibuster on its own. And neither party, or even a bipartisan group of disaffected legislators, can summon the two-thirds vote required in both Houses of Congress to override a presidential veto.

I suspect that no matter who wins control of the Senate, the next two years will be pretty much like the past two years: paralysis interrupted by moments of crisis, which will be resolved by kicking the can down the road as far as it can be kicked.

Is it our fault? Yes, partly. We keep reelecting the same yahoos, expecting the results to be different.

But it is also the fault of the candidates. They believe enough money will buy enough attack ads to ensure them a victory. So public service is reduced to gathering bucks to pay for the next empty campaign

Stevenson thought about that, too.

“The hardest thing about any political campaign,” he said, “is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning.”
And, this year, how many candidates proved themselves worthy?

Roger Simon is POLITICO’s chief political columnist.

© 2014 POLITICO LLC
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rogue49 · Nov 7, 2014

OMG! Finally. Yes.
And all it took was an Independent Socialist to propose it. (yes, kids...Bernie is a real socialist...not just called one as a name or rhetorically)

Makes sense, the two main parties would never allow anything to change the status quo. Even if it potentially hurt them.

Bernie Sanders Wants To Make Election Day A National Holiday
Posted: 11/07/2014

WASHINGTON -- Frustrated with the historic number of voters who chose not to participate in this year's midterm elections, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Friday announced his intention to introduce legislation that would make Election Day a national holiday to give Americans more opportunity to vote.

"In America, we should be celebrating our democracy and doing everything possible to make it easier for people to participate in the political process. Election Day should be a national holiday so that everyone has the time and opportunity to vote. While this would not be a cure-all, it would indicate a national commitment to create a more vibrant democracy," the progressive senator said in a statement.

Turnout in Tuesday's elections clocked in at a paltry 37 percent, compared to about 41 percent in 2010, according to data from the United States Elections Project. If that projection holds, it would be the lowest voter turnout since 1942.

The voters who did show up to vote largely skewed older, whiter and more male compared with other election cycles, and the results were obvious. Republicans picked up control of the Senate, gained seats in the House, won key gubernatorial posts and greatly expanded their hold on state legislatures. Younger and minority voters, on the other hand, largely stayed at home. Voters in the 18-29 age range made up only 13 percent of the electorate, compared with nearly a quarter that were seniors, who tend to support Republicans.

President Barack Obama acknowledged the matter in a press conference on Wednesday, saying, "To the two-thirds of voters who chose not to participate in the process yesterday, I hear you, too."

But the number of people who vote in midterm elections isn't the only problem according to Sanders. The Vermont independent also called typical levels of turnout in presidential elections "an international embarrassment." The number is higher in presidential years, but the U.S. still ranks behind 120 other countries in average turnout.

"We should not be satisfied with a 'democracy' in which more than 60 percent of our people don't vote and some 80 percent of young people and low-income Americans fail to vote," he added. "We can and must do better than that. While we must also focus on campaign finance reform and public funding of elections, establishing an Election Day holiday would be an important step forward."

Sanders said he would file the bill, titled ''Democracy Day Act of 2014," once Congress reconvenes next week.
Click to expand...

Can we expand that to a Constitutional Amendment to add a few things???
Money in Elections (no more, this is "free speech")
PACs
Corporate donations (no more, corporations are people too)
Gerrymandering
Voting Rights
and so on...

redravin · Nov 7, 2014

I've been pushing the idea of making voting day a national holiday for years.
It only makes sense.

redux · Nov 7, 2014

I would like to see a model like Oregon's voting exclusively by mail or at some point voting mail/online.

Oregon's "turnout" is always among the top since it was enacted.

redux · Nov 10, 2014

The net neutrality war is heating up.

Obama came out with his strongest support to-date.

And today, Ted Cruz responded:

"Net Neutrality is Obamacare for the Internet; the Internet should not operate at the speed of government."

The Oatmeal felt a need to explain Net Neutrality so even Cruz can understand.

rogue49 · Nov 10, 2014

redux said: ↑

And today, Ted Cruz responded:

"Net Neutrality is Obamacare for the Internet; the Internet should not operate at the speed of government."
Click to expand...

The man's brain is on cruise control...

redravin · Nov 14, 2014

Funny or Die has a great response using porn stars to explain Net Neutrality.
Sort of NSFW

Porn Stars Explain Net Neutrality from Alex Chance, Mercedes Carrera, Nadia Styles, Darren Miller, Travis Helwig, Alex Richanbach, Jason Carden, Eleanor Winkler, Funny Or Die, BoTown Sound, Aaron Ulrich, and Michael Burke

rogue49 · Nov 18, 2014

There are many factors that have come into play to reduce a typical person's worth and income over the years.
Whatever Happened to Overtime?

Salaries,
"At Will" laws
Benefits
Job definitions
24/7 business cycles
Utilities
Food prices
Gas prices
and so on...

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