Tuesday, September 9th, 2014
Stephan: I have had a series of emails from readers over the past couple of weeks describing the growing poverty of themselves, and people they know. Mostly they seem to be middle aged not quite senior level businesspeople who were laid off, and have been unable to find work despite years of searching. As this Harvard study points out this is an unsustainable dynamic.
Photograph: MCT /Landov / Barcroft Media
The widening gap between America’s wealthiest and its middle and lower classes is ‘unsustainable”, but is unlikely to improve any time soon, according to a Harvard Business School study released on Monday.
The study, titled An Economy Doing Half its Job, said American companies – particularly big ones – were showing some signs of recovering their competitive edge on the world stage since the financial crisis, but that workers would likely keep struggling to demand better pay and benefits.
‘We argue that such a divergence is unsustainable,” according to the report, which was based on a survey of 1,947 of Harvard Business School alumni around the globe, and which highlighted problems with the US education system, transport infrastructure, and the effectiveness of the political system.
Some 47% of respondents in the survey said that over the next three years they expected US companies to be both less competitive internationally and less able to pay higher wages and benefits, versus 33% who thought the opposite.
The results marked an improvement […]
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Tuesday, September 9th, 2014
BILL MOYERS and MICHAEL WINSHIP, - AlterNet (U.S.)
Stephan: The story gives a clear picture of the almost complete corruption of the Congressional system, particularly on the Theocratic Right. And the same could be said of the Rightists on the Supreme Court who seem to see no problem socializing with the uber rich, accepting fees for speaking and overwhelmingly voting for their benefit. Clarence Thomas' wife is a Theocratic Rightist political operative! A democracy cannot long endure when corruption reaches these levels.
There shall be eternal summer in the grateful heart, a poet wrote, and as this year’s summer winds toward its end and elections approach, gratitude is indeed what our politicians have flowing from that space where their hearts should be.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is grateful to his friend Rick Anderson, the CEO of Delta Airlines. In late July, a week after McConnell treated him to breakfast in the Senate Dining Room, checks for McConnell’s super PAC came winging their way from Anderson and his wife, as well as Delta’s political action committee.
‘This is the kind of rare access that most of us will never experience.” That’s Sheila Krumholz, executive director the Center for Responsive Politics, the campaign finance watchdog. She was talking to National Journal [2]about Delta’s boss dining in first class with McConnell: ‘Who makes a good enough breakfast companion for a sitting senator in a highly competitive reelection campaign to take time out of their busy day? It never hurts if the person can follow up with a donation, and all the better if it can be a sizable one.”
McConnell’s even more grateful to the Brothers Koch, and so are some other conservative Senate candidates – Tom […]
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Monday, September 8th, 2014
DAVID FERGUSON, - The Raw Story
Stephan: Long time readers will remember that for several years SR has been following the Christianization of the military, particularly the Air Force. Read this story carefully and realize what was done when they changed the regulations. This Theocratic Rightist co-oping of the military is a dangerous trend.
Raw Story
An atheist U.S. Air Force member is being denied the opportunity to reenlist because he refuses to swear to God to uphold his duty.
The Air Force Times reported that an unnamed airman at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada was denied reenlistment in August because he crossed out the words ‘so help me God” on his contract before submitting it.
American Humanist Association attorney Monica Miller wrote to the generals of the Air Force and of Creech AFB on Sep. 2 saying that the airman should be able to sign up to serve his country without having to pledge to any deity. The AHA believes that a secular enlistment form should be available to enlistees.
The organization is prepared to sue the Air Force if it doesn’t make the options available for secular servicemen and women. The AHA said that on Aug. 25, the airman was presented with only two options, sign the oath as written and recite it aloud upon his reinstatement or leave the service.
‘The government cannot compel a nonbeliever to take an […]
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Monday, September 8th, 2014
MICHAEL SALLAH, ROBERT O’HARROW JR., STEVEN RICH, - The Washington Post
Stephan: This is a particularly good article on the seizure forfeiture issue, as well as a presentation in its defense. I think the preponderance of evidence makes it clear, this is a dreadful program, and part of the police state trend.
Click through to see the graphs, maps, and videos.
The Washington Post
After the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the government called on police to become the eyes and ears of homeland security on America’s highways.
Local officers, county deputies and state troopers were encouraged to act more aggressively in searching for suspicious people, drugs and other contraband. The departments of Homeland Security and Justice spent millions on police training.
The effort succeeded, but it had an impact that has been largely hidden from public view: the spread of an aggressive brand of policing that has spurred the seizure of hundreds of millions of dollars in cash from motorists and others not charged with crimes, a Washington Post investigation found. Thousands of people have been forced to fight legal battles that can last more than a year to get their money back.
Stop and Seize: In recent years, thousands of people have had cash confiscated by police without being charged with crimes. The Post looks at the police culture behind the seizures and the people who were forced to fight the government to […]
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Monday, September 8th, 2014
RANDA MORRIS , - Addicting Info
Stephan: Anyone who reads SR knows that I have very mixed feelings about President Obama's administration. But credit must be given where it is due. I am surprised more has not been made of this news. The best story I could find was on this small site.
Image Credit: kids4barackobama.com
A new economic report, published by Forbes.com on September 6, 2014, clearly shows that President Obama is the best economic president in modern times. It’s not an opinion, it’s a fact, based on all of typical the economic indicators, including jobs, investments, growth and expansion, even the rate of inflation. In all of these areas President Obama’s record outperforms that of every other modern president, including conservative idol, Ronald Reagan.
Under President Obama’s leadership, the unemployment rate has now decreased to 6.1 percent, the lowest it’s been since 2007, when the economy began gushing jobs under the failed leadership of then president George W. Bush.
Typically, republicans have tried to detract from the president’s accomplishments. When it comes to the falling unemployment rate, they claim that it is somehow related to large numbers of people just dropping out of the workforce. This would almost be believable if the economy wasn’t creating new jobs at a rate that coincides perfectly with the falling employment rate, but it is. There have been six […]
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