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thinkahol *

The Threats of Business and the Business of Threats | Truthout - 0 views

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    More and more, we hear that nothing can be done to tax major corporations because of the threat of how they would respond. Likewise, we cannot stop their price gouging or even the government subsidies and tax loopholes they enjoy. For example, as the oil majors reap stunning profits from high oil and gas prices, we are told it is impossible to tax their windfall profits or stop the billions they get in government subsidies and tax loopholes. There appears to be no way for the government to secure lower energy prices or seriously impose and enforce environmental protection laws. Likewise, despite high and fast rising drug and medicine prices, we are told that it is impossible to raise taxes on pharmaceutical companies or have the government secure lower pharmaceutical prices. And so on.
thinkahol *

Actually, "the Rich" Don't "Create Jobs," We Do | Truthout - 0 views

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    You hear it again and again, varia­tion after varia­tion on a core mes­sage: if you tax rich peo­ple it kills jobs. You hear about "job-killing tax hikes," or that "tax­ing the rich hurts jobs," "taxes kill jobs," "taxes take money out of the economy, "if you tax the rich they won't be able to pro­vide jobs." ... on and on it goes. So do we rea­l­ly de­pend on "the rich" to "create" jobs? Or do jobs get created when they fill a need?
thinkahol *

Lowering America's War Ceiling? | Truthout - 0 views

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    On July 25th, for instance, while John Boehner raced around the Capitol desperately pressing Republican House members for votes on a debt-ceiling bill that Harry Reid was calling dead-on-arrival in the Senate, America's new ambassador to Afghanistan, Ryan Crocker, took his oath of office in distant Kabul.  According to the New York Times, he then gave a short speech "warning" that "Western powers needed to 'proceed carefully'" and emphasized that when it came to the war, there would "be no rush for the exits." If, in Washington, people were rushing for those exits, no chance of that in Kabul almost a decade into America's second Afghan War.  There, the air strikes, night raids, assassinations, roadside bombs, and soldier and civilian deaths, we are assured, will continue to 2014 and beyond.  In a war in which every gallon of gas used by a fuel-guzzling US military costs $400 to $800 to import, time is no object and -- despite the panic in Washington over debt payments -- neither evidently is cost.
thinkahol *

Congresswoman Lee Introduces Bill to Repeal the Authorization to Use Military Force | T... - 0 views

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    Congresswoman Barbara Lee, like Jeanette Rankin before her, bravely stood alone in Congress against a vote for war, the vote in 2001 for the so-called Authorization to Use Military Force, a Constitutionally dubious passing of the war decision buck to President Bush and his successors.  A majority of…
thinkahol *

Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult | Truthout - 0 views

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    A couple of years ago, a Republican committee staff director told me candidly (and proudly) what the method was to all this obstruction and disruption. Should Republicans succeed in obstructing the Senate from doing its job, it would further lower Congress's generic favorability rating among the American people. By sabotaging the reputation of an institution of government, the party that is programmatically against government would come out the relative winner.
thinkahol *

Infrastructure Cuts Would Make the Unthinkable Unsurvivable | Truthout - 0 views

  • "it's cheap­er to strength­en a brid­ge that's stand­ing than re­pair one that's fall­en down."
  • [I]t is es­timated that every $1 bi­ll­ion in­ves­ted in nation­al in­frastruc­ture creates 35,000 jobs and generates $6.1 bi­ll­ion in economic ac­tiv­ity.
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    "it's cheaper to strengthen a bridge that's standing than repair one that's fallen down."
thinkahol *

Lesser-Evil Math Doesn't Compute: Freedom Plaza Has the Same Name as Tahrir Square | Tr... - 0 views

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    In an electoral system corrupted by money, media, and parties, the US people are offered a choice every four years between two hideously awful candidates for an office that increasingly resembles an imperial throne. And increasingly the primary motivation of voters is to oppose the candidate they believe is the greater evil.
thinkahol *

Can the Fed Prevent the Next Crisis by Eliminating Interest on Student Loan Debt? | Tru... - 0 views

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    Among the demands of the Wall Street protesters is student debt forgiveness - a debt "jubilee." Occupy Philly has a "Student Loan Jubilee Working Group," and other groups are studying the issue. Commentators say debt forgiveness is impossible. Who would foot the bill? But there is one deep pocket that could pull it off - the Federal Reserve. In its first quantitative easing program (QE1), the Fed removed $1.3 trillion in toxic assets from the books of Wall Street banks. For QE4, it could remove $1 trillion in toxic debt from the backs of millions of students.
thinkahol *

Ten Reasons Not to Bank On (or With) Bank of America | Truthout - 0 views

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    Charging customers for a debit card is just one reason not to bank at BoA. Recent Occupy Santa Cruz Bank of America incident illustrates how sensitive B of A is to protest.  This "too big to fail" bank may collapse like a house made of junk bonds and become a taxpayer burden. Here are a few other reasons why you shouldn't bank with them.
thinkahol *

American Democracy Beyond Casino Capitalism and the Torture State | Truthout - 0 views

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    With all due respect to Charles Dickens, it appears to be the worst of times for public and higher education in America, if not democracy itself; public schools are increasingly viewed as a business and are prized above all for customer satisfaction and efficiency, while largely judged through the narrow lens of empirical accountability measures. When not functioning as an adjunct of corporate value or a potentially lucrative for-profit investment, public schools are reduced to containment centers, holding institutions designed to largely punish young people marginalized by race and class.
thinkahol *

Higher Education Under Attack: An Interview With Henry A. Giroux | Truthout - 0 views

  • by June of 2012, outstand­ing student loan debt will reach $1 tri­ll­ion in the U.S.?
  • As John Dewey and many oth­ers have poin­ted out in a de­moc­ra­cy, our first ob­liga­tion is to ques­tion and our second ob­liga­tion is our wil­ling­ness to care for oth­ers. These ob­liga­tions are not dis­con­nected and mutual­ly in­form the other.
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