Gunning down the facts

Fareed Zacharia said that everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts. He put up some graphics that demonstrate that the US has by far more guns per capita and more gun violence. He also showed that the states that have greater gun restrictions have less gun violence than those with less.

At least the Daily Kos and Warren Buffet thank Uncle Sam for what he has done for us. Someone else wants us to Meet Uncle Sam Without Clothes....it's a longish piece.

Dan Rather wants Uncle Sam to save the news industry. Seems like a damn good idea to me, but he's going to need your help. After all, media matters.

It looks like I need to do some more homework and study some of David Harvey's work such as An Enigma of Capital.  And then I should go back through the Norman Goldman archives because there's lots of jems to be dug up like articles from National Geographic and the Richard Muller conversion of a climate denier.....

Here are some graphs....

Union Membership and middle class income do appear to be directly related.

It's the inequality stupid is one of the best pieces around, full of great graphics.

99 for 93

The top 1% gained 93% of the income gains in the 2010 recovery. You can read about that here, here or here. The republican leadership complains that taxing the rich at a higher rate amounts to class warfare, but they are the high ranking soldiers conducting an economic war against the vast majority of Americans.

It is time to begin a new offensive in the class war. The 99% will now call for a 93% tax rate to be imposed on the top 1%. If they want class warfare, let's give it to them.

A 93% tax rate on the richest 1% may seem unreasonably high, but if we review history we find that the top marginal tax rate was 90% or higher for more than a decade and 70% or higher for more than 40 years.

We all know that we won't get all we ask for, but this might help to educate people to some of the facts of history that remain lost to so many.

I just learned that there is a National Taxpayer Union.

Corporate Criminality

It's about BIG business, really really big business. I'm not about to trust Joe (the printer) Alivo about healthcare because he's been working against reforms since 1993 and it's unclear who he's pandering for, but that's an issue for later.

The largest lawsuit settlements under the Sherman Antitrust statue have just been paid by Visa and Mastercard. It makes me wonder how they are regulated in other countries.  Thank goodness for regulations, laws to protect the people from the crimes of corporatism.

The Business Insider created a couple of great charts depicting the current trends of public versus private sector economics. It looks like the suits are drowning Uncle Sam in the bathtub. Maybe some unemployed firefighters, cops and teachers will appear to save Uncle Sam. Or maybe some military veterans who understand the need to defend our government against domestic enemies will rally and get the job done.

It looks like federal jobs do pay better than private equivalents, but state workers come in third, according to ABC. Limbaugh, Norquist, the Koch bros....enemies of the peole...media matters.

It's hard to find good data on the public sector. Try a search for yourself and let me know if you can find historical statistics. I did find Kingdom of Fear , a consolation prize, I guess....and then there's these guys...

Sourcewatch is helping to overthrow Skank of America, good. Open Secrets, oh yeah...so much good stuff there

winning...

I made a bet with my boss. He said that stocks (and bonds) are mostly owned by average joes, the wealth distributed amongst the people. He thinks that plutocracy and oligarchy are wild conspiracy myths. Lets see what outside sources have to report....

For some reason I doubt that a university professor from California will seem like a credible source, but he does supply these nice easy to read graphics....

Maybe CBS is more credible...
"The wealthiest 1 percent of Americans owned 33.6 percent of stock market wealth, while the poorest 80 percent owned less than 11 percent, according to an analysis of 2001 Federal Reserve data by economist Ed Wolff of New York University.

The 2.7 percent of Americans with household income above $250,000 owned 40.6 percent of market value, while the 59.2 percent of Americans who make less than $50,000 held 12.1 percent of stocks.

For the poorest 60 percent of American families, stocks accounted for less than 10 percent of total assets, compared with 28 percent of total assets of the wealthiest 1 percent. "

I think I win the bet...




Looks like we're heading to another depression....how depressing.

and here's a piece from AlterNet....let's see what they say about fracking....

here's a story that should be in the news, but I just got lucky with a surf

Meanwhile, Robert Reich voiced an opinion that I've been talking about and has inspired a Love your Gov initiative...don't drown Uncle Sam...imagine a bunch of fancy siuts trying to drown Uncle Sam in a big jacuzzi tub....and then rescued by a band of vets, cops, firefighters and teachers...when they rescue him they all chorus....a real patriot protects our goverment, OF, BY and FOR The People.....
and just the vets...against all enemies, foriegn and domestic....

Oops, wrong article above...the Reich blog, Dimon in the Rough should be a segway to further thoughts concerning democratic mundialization and the construction of a new social network charging a small subscription fee for the funding of new international organizations...