How can we take it back?

[Skarekrow]

Well, jealous is contagious...i see something on TED about it...besides what makes you feel those people right now dont deserve to be up there...are they vile and greedy?

Not all of them are vile and greedy…it actually is a small percentage of people who are.
But with that wealth comes power…the power to change laws that prevent you from making even more money…it’s usually at the expense of another group of people though, and that is what I have a problem with. If someone works hard, and makes a lot of money, I say good for them.
But to make your money by shitting on the working class is flat out wrong.

 

[Average]

Not all of them are vile and greedy…it actually is a small percentage of people who are.
But with that wealth comes power…the power to change laws that prevent you from making even more money…it’s usually at the expense of another group of people though, and that is what I have a problem with. If someone works hard, and makes a lot of money, I say good for them.
But to make your money by shitting on the working class is flat out wrong.

Is there even any money in the working class. As whats his name says.....the divine hand of God is at work....whatever thats suppose to mean.

If you earn money....you start to treasure it...if you have power, you will try keep it. If such people existed that exploit the working class, it would not be foe money. it will be for order because there's a bunch of them.....so if we wanted to take power from them, we need to be in a position of power.

 

[Kanamori]

George Soros is dumping his shares in the major banks

This is likely a sign that there is a major shake up on the horizon

I just hope that people will actually take advantage of it, and be more active about this stuff... my guess is cold fusion, but it's really just a guess. An eventual boom from 3D printing with lower oil prices? Of course, those who consider themselves knowledgeable about this stuff, and have their fingers on the buttons, are not really... they've had 40+ years to transition off of it but were only interested in continuing to gouge people. All of the real capital will still be there. When will people figure out that money is just the abstraction of value, several steps removed from the real thing?

 

[Kanamori]

Well, jealous is contagious...i see something on TED about it...besides what makes you feel those people right now dont deserve to be up there...are they vile and greedy?

Maybe it's disgust and the last thing is jealously about being an incredible jackass? If you're going to sit on hundreds of millions to billions of dollars w/o doing anything useful with it, you're being worse than useless.

 

[Skarekrow]

Is there even any money in the working class. As whats his name says.....the divine hand of God is at work....whatever thats suppose to mean.

If you earn money....you start to treasure it...if you have power, you will try keep it. If such people existed that exploit the working class, it would not be foe money. it will be for order because there's a bunch of them.....so if we wanted to take power from them, we need to be in a position of power.

Here…maybe this will help…lol.

The top 1% and some of the top 10% have made a wealth grab since the Wall Street collapse at the end of 2008…while everyone else was long their retirement savings and feeling the burn of the American’s taxpayer money going to bail out these swindlers who gambled away their money…..some of them we actually using this collapse to their advantage…and hey, that is great if you can make money during a time when the economy is terrible…but they did it under the pretext that they would use it to create more jobs in the US - have they? Absolutely not. Has anyone done anything about it - no. Have any of these bankers who stole Billions and Billions of dollars of the working class people’s money even seen a courtroom? Nope…not one.
Since the early 1980’s the middle class or working class group of people in this country have seen their median wage stagnate…it hasn’t moved at all…meanwhile, inflation keeps going up…things like gas prices, food, education, healthcare, etc.. cost more and more…so those groups are actually getting poorer and poorer..
The thing of it is though, it doesn’t have to be this way…while the working class saw their wages just sit there…the CEOs of companies and executives pay has gone us in the thousands of percentile in some cases. And while certain groups like to call them “job creators” that isn’t what is happening in reality…they have been sending the jobs to other countries…cutting pay, cutting benefits…(having an actual retirement plan is now a thing of the past).
The working class is reaching a point to where they have no more disposable income to spend on goods and services….what this means is this -
If the working class here in the US (or anywhere) can no longer afford to go out and shop, to service their car, get their haircut, etc. etc…then those businesses will start to do poorly…causing them to fire people, or make cuts to wages or benefits…which in turn causes people to have less money…and less to spend…the thing is though, it is for the benefit of the rich that the middle class is strong and able to spend money…these are the businesses that are their bread and butter too.
Lately though….all they have been concerned with is making as much as possible as fast as possible even if that means they will go out of business in the long run.
It’s insane and sad.
There are those working from positions of power…but money corrupts…not everyone…there are some out there genuinely trying to help make a difference.
Here is a short video that illustrates what I have been talking about.
I don’t think we should level the playing field by any means…there should and will always be rich and poor and everyone in the middle…but there shouldn’t be a double standard of laws that must be followed…taxes that should be paid…etc.
It is really true that one of these 1% guys pays a lower percentage of taxes than his own secretary does…who needs that money more?
Why should he pay less? What has he done that she/he hasn’t to deserve paying less?
[video=youtube;21DrOfLH5WQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=21DrOfLH5WQ[/video]

 

[Skarekrow]

[MENTION=7550]Average[/MENTION]

This video is really great…it explains a lot, you should check it out.
[video=youtube_share;vttbhl_kDoo]http://youtu.be/vttbhl_kDoo[/video]

 

[Average]

erm.....im not involved.

 

[muir]

I just hope that people will actually take advantage of it, and be more active about this stuff... my guess is cold fusion, but it's really just a guess. An eventual boom from 3D printing with lower oil prices? Of course, those who consider themselves knowledgeable about this stuff, and have their fingers on the buttons, are not really... they've had 40+ years to transition off of it but were only interested in continuing to gouge people. All of the real capital will still be there. When will people figure out that money is just the abstraction of value, several steps removed from the real thing?

I think the penny will drop for many people when they learn that the same people who control the big banks (and the central banks) also control the big oil companies

What two things are always involved in war? OIL and war LOANS.....oil and banking

Both are run by the same cabal and that is why we are always at war!

They don't want to switch us from oil at the moment because they control oil...that's why they murdered TESLA and stole his papers, because his technology was a rival to the oil/banking industry

You know the name that always comes up with this stuff? ROCKEFELLER

The rockefellers were behind Rockefeller Standard Oil and Chase Manhatten Bank. These companies have mutated but the banking part owns many shares in the federal reserve bank

These guys not only control the banking and oil they also control universities eg the Rockefeller University and they also control the central bank (the federal reserve) and therefore they set the interest rates and control the money supply ie printing presses

Once people understand this they can then understand how our society is so corrupt, why our government is so utterly controlled by the corporations and why we are always at war

 

[Skarekrow]

6 Bad Things That Have Happened to Greedy Walmart Recently


Lawsuits, divestments and weak sales–oh my!

​

Millions in wage theft fines. Federal prosecutions. Divestment from the first big city. These are some of the things Walmart has brought upon itself due to its corporate greed. And the world's largest private employer will likely continue to create massive backlash if it maintains its hunt for endless profit.

Here are six reasons the corporation is currently feeling the heat.

1. Walmart agrees to a settlement in a massive wage theft lawsuit.

Last week, Walmart and Schneider Logistics, Inc., agreed to a $21 million settlement for a decade’s worth of federal and state labor violations at a Walmart warehouse at Riverside County, CA. The violations had affected 1,800 workers who loaded and unloaded boxes of goods on their way to Walmart. These employees sued the Walmart and Schneider because they often worked for less than minimum wage, without required breaks, benefits or overtime compensation. While Walmart tried to claim it had no knowledge of these conditions, a judge ruled that the presence of up to two-dozen Walmart managers at the warehouses made them both aware and liable for the conditions at the warehouse.

This settlement isn’t its first. In 2011 and 2012, Walmart’s contracted warehouse facilities were fined for labor violations. Staff from Warehouse Workers United, a campaign demanding better working conditions for warehouse workers, first identified the violations at Schneider. Director Sheheryar Kaoosji said, “Walmart has denied its control of its subcontracted warehouses time and again, despite the existence of their own Standards for Suppliers document that prohibits wage theft, health and safety violations, and retaliation. Whenever workers in Walmart’s supply chain have stood up, Walmart has attempted to deny responsibility. Only through a responsible contractor policy and by allowing workers to have a voice at work without retaliation will these cases be prevented, rather than repeatedly going through slow and costly litigation.”

2. Government begins prosecution of Walmart for illegally firing workers.

Speaking of lawsuits, Walmart is facing another one – this time with the government of the U.S. of A. Back in November, the National Labor Relations Board found that the corporation violated the rights of dozens of workers when it “unlawfully threatened, disciplined, and/or terminated employees” for both “having engaged in legally protected strikes and protests” and “in anticipation of or in response to employees’ other protected concerted activities.” The trial began for nearly 70 workers in Oakland, CA on Monday. If Walmart is found liable, workers may receive back pay, reinstatement and a reversal of disciplinary actions.

John Logan, a labor and employment studies professor at San Francisco State University, stated in a press release:
This trial is historic and will have implications for workers nationwide when they speak out for better jobs. … The government’s charges against Walmart are sweeping: this is the largest ever NLRB complaint against the company in both size and scale. Walmart isn’t above the law, and it must be held accountable for its actions. Walmart acted illegally when it systematically fired workers, and the company must end the illegal retaliation now.

3. Portland becomes first city to divest from Walmart.

Joining other investors fed up with the corporation’s abuse of workers’ rights, Portland, Oregon has become the first city to divest from Walmart. As part of its adoption of socially responsible investment principles this past fall, Portland’s city council decided to discontinue its investment in the corporation. Portland’s Commissioner Steve Novick stated in a press release, “I’m hopeful other cities and states take note and adopt similar investment principles to hold companies accountable and align our investment policies with our values.” The last of Portland’s Walmart bonds will mature in April 2016, at which point the city will have rid $36 million invested in the company.

4. Walmart blames weather on poor first quarterly sales.

Walmart’s sales for the first quarter of the year are weak, with the stock down 3 percent in pre-market trading and customer traffic falling 1.4 percent. Like last year, Walmart blamed its weak sales on bad weather. But labor advocates blame its low pay, which doesn’t allow for its own employees to shop there. They also point to customer dissatisfaction with the store that it is often understaffed and therefore chaotic.

John Marshall, a financial analyst for United Food and Commercial Workers, which backs the OUR Walmart campaign, wrote in a statement:
Does cold weather hurt a company that derives most of its sales from the grocery and consumables category? Many analysts understand that inclement weather typically results in an increase in food-at-home purchases as consumers stock up on groceries and other consumables. In fact, by late March, as weather patterns were normalizing, Credit Suisse analysts declared an end to the “weather benefit,” citing a decline in the Nielsen Supermarket Sales index from its above normal growth levels during the previous three months.

5.Walmart pays executives big bonuses for poor performances.

Despite Walmart’s weak sales, top executives still received big bonuses – bonuses they were only supposed to receive if sales grew by 2 percent. But sales only grew by 1.8 percent in fiscal 2014. Instead of denying these executives the incentive pay they didn’t earn, a New York Timesreport found that Walmart made what it called “adjustments” to the company’s sales in order to give William Simon, CEO of Walmart in the U.S., his bonus. For Simon, Walmart adjusted sales by eliminating the decline factor of the government’s cut of food stamp benefits in November. Because many of Walmart’s customers use food stamps, this cut decreased sales. But Walmart acted like this cut never happened, and instead Simon walked away with a $1.5 million bonus.

As ThinkProgress pointed out, this means a CEO can get an 11 percent bonus for a poor performance while the highest bonus a Walmart employee could receive is 8 percent. Walmart worker Mary Pat Tiff told the Times: “Walmart associates are having their hours cut because of declining sales but executives are still getting their bonuses… It’s ridiculous that they can keep receiving their compensation because they keep moving the numbers around.”

6. Organizers call out Obama for visiting Walmart to talk about renewable energy.

Environmentalists were baffled when President Obama recently visited a Walmart in Mountain View, Calif. to speak about clean energy. Thirty environmental and labor organizations released a statement slamming the president for his venue choice. After all, a new report recently found the corporation runs on only 3 percent of wind and solar energy, while some of its fellow retailers, such as Kohl’s, already use 100 percent.

In addition, Walmart is known for being one of the worst contaminators of the environment in the world, ranking right behind Chevron on the list of biggest climate polluters. Much of its pollution is caused by the transporting of goods to stores and then to homes. Walmart also supports political candidates who block action to climate change. Hundreds of protesters rallied outside the Mountain View store to point out both the president’s and Walmart’s hypocrisy.

 

[Skarekrow]

McDonald's CEO Insists Workers Are Paid 'Fair Wages' as Protesters Rally


Over 100 protesters have been arrested near McDonald's headquarters.

McDonald's offers “real careers” and “competitive wages”, CEO Don Thompson told shareholders on Thursday, as hundreds of protesters chanted for better pay outside the fast-food giant’s annual meeting.

As demonstrators staged a second day of protests against the company’s wage scale outside the company’s suburban Chicago headquarters, Thompson told shareholders: "We believe we pay fair and competitive wages.”

“I know we have people outside,” said Thompson. “I think that McDonald’s provides more opportunity than any other company … We continue to believe that we pay fair and competitive wages,” he said.

Thompson said the company offered opportunities to young people, and the training for them to build careers. “McDonald’s has done that throughout time, and will continue to do that,” he said.

Outside the meeting, from which journalists were barred, protesters called on the company to raise its wages to a minimum of $15 an hour. On Wednesday, 139 people, including 101 fast-food employees, were arrested after staging a protest outside the company’s headquarters.

McDonald’s closed the largest office on its campus beforeo the protest, sending 2,000 employees home for the day, citing traffic concerns.

Outside the meeting, protesters chanted: “We work, we sweat, put $15 on my check." Workers from Detroit chanted: “Hey hey, ho ho, $7.40 has got to go,” referring to their minimum wage salaries in Michigan.

The protests were the latest in a series by fast-food and retail workers in the US, who have been campaigning for a raise in the minimum wage and the right to join unions without recrimination. Earlier this month, fast-food workers in dozens of cities walked off their jobs in a day of protest over wages.

Thompson comfortably survived a vote questioning his $9.5m pay package for 2013. The “say on pay” protest vote was organised by Change to Win Investment Group (Ctw), which recently won a similar vote at Chipotle, which is now reviewing executive compensation.

Thompson was also quizzed about the company’s marketing to tactics to children. In the meeting Casey Hinds, a mother from Lexington, Kentucky, said Ronald McDonald was " the Joe Camel of fast food." The company was also accused of being “predatory” in its marketing to children.

“We are not predatory. It’s the truth,” said Thompson. He said the company’s marketing was “not intended to be anything other than fun for kids.”

“We are people. We do have values at McDonald's. We are parents," said Thompson. He said the company offered healthy choices and had sold over 1.1bn apple slices. “My parents eat McDonald’s and they are here today — they are quite healthy,” he said.

Dominic Rushe is the US business correspondent for the Guardian.

 

[Skarekrow]

The Shock Doctrine (Documentary)

The Shock Doctrine is a documentary adaptation of Naomi Klein's 2007 book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.
The bestselling author shows how the global “free market” has exploited crises and shock for three decades, from Chile to Iraq. An investigation of disaster capitalism, based on Naomi Klein's proposition that neo-liberal capitalism feeds on natural disasters, war and terror to establish its dominance.

[video=youtube;7iW1SHPgUAQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7iW1SHPgUAQ[/video]

Based on breakthrough historical research and four years of on-the-ground reporting in disaster zones, The Shock Doctrine vividly shows how disaster capitalism -- the rapid-fire corporate re-engineering of societies still reeling from shock -- did not begin with September 11, 2001.

Whether covering Baghdad after the U.S. occupation, Sri Lanka in the wake of the tsunami, or New Orleans post-Katrina, she witnessed something remarkably similar. People still reeling from catastrophe were being hit again, this time with economic “shock treatment,” losing their land and homes to rapid-fire corporate makeovers.

The Shock Doctrine retells the story of the most dominant ideology of our time, Milton Friedman’s free market economic revolution, which produced many of the leading neo-conservative and neo-liberal thinkers whose influence is still profound in Washington today.

In contrast to the popular myth of this movement’s peaceful global victory, the film shows how it has exploited moments of shock and extreme violence in order to implement its economic policies in many parts of the World, from Latin America and Eastern Europe to South Africa, Russia, and Iraq.

New, surprising connections are drawn between economic policy, shock and awe warfare and covert CIA-funded experiments in electroshock and sensory deprivation in the 1950s, research that helped write the torture manuals used today in Guantanamo Bay. At the core of disaster capitalism is the use of cataclysmic events to advance radical privatization combined with the privatization of the disaster response itself.

The Shock Doctrine follows the application of these ideas through our contemporary history, showing in riveting detail how well-known events of the recent past have been deliberate, active theatres for the shock doctrine, among them: Pinochet's coup in Chile in 1973, the Falklands War in 1982, the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Asian Financial crisis in 1997 and Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

 

[Skarekrow]

Krugman: How American Capitalism Fails–and Northern European 'Socialism' Succeeds–at Job Creation

And why that's not a story the mainstream media likes to tell.

Paul Krugman wrote his column this morning in the New York Times from Europe, a place which–conservatives like Paul Ryan would like you to believe–demonstrates the complete failure of the welfare state. That's because, as Krugman points out, "Our political discourse is dominated by reverse Robin-Hoodism – the belief that economic success depends on being nice to the rich, who won’t create jobs if they are heavily taxed, and nasty to ordinary workers, who won’t accept jobs unless they have no alternative."

France, a country that the American media and conservatives particularly love to bash, is having particular success in employment rates. Krugman reports this "startling, little-known fact: French adults in their prime working years (25 to 54) are substantially more likely to have jobs than their U.S. counterparts."

Hmmm. There's a story you won't hear told in the mainstream media.

He continues:

It wasn’t always that way. Back in the 1990s Europe really did have big problems with job creation; the phenomenon even received a catchy name, “Eurosclerosis.” And it seemed obvious what the problem was: Europe’s social safety net had, as Representative Paul Ryan likes to warn, become a “hammock” that undermined initiative and encouraged dependency.

But then a funny thing happened: Europe started doing much better, while America started doing much worse. France’s prime-age employment rate overtook America’s early in the Bush administration; at this point the gap in employment rates is bigger than it was in the late 1990s, this time in France’s favor. Other European nations with big welfare states, like Sweden and the Netherlands, do even better.

​

​

What about young people? Doesn't America, with all of its problems, still kick France's ass when it comes to the employment rate of those younger than 25. Yes, Krugman concedes. Then he wonders if that is something we should be bragging about, since it is certainly due in part to the fact that French students receive a lot more financial aid for their education than American students do, so they are not immediately saddled with huge debt to work off, much less work their way through school.

"Is that a bad thing"" Krugman wonders.
Us too.
Also, the French take more vacations and retire earlier than we do.
How horrible! Who would want to live in a place like that.

But, getting back to Krugman's main point: "On the core issue of providing jobs for people who really should be working, at this point old Europe is beating us hands down despite social benefits and regulations that, according to free-market ideologues, should be hugely job-destroying."
In fact, he writes, our "cruel experiment" in depriving so-called lazy unemployed Americans of their long-term benefits so they will get off their asses and look for work has been an abject failure. Did people in terrible straits find jobs?

"No – not at all," Krugman replies. "Somehow, it seems, the only thing we achieved by making the unemployed more desperate was deepening their desperation."
Will people listen to the European example? Krugman is doubtful.

He concludes:

I’m sure that many people will simply refuse to believe what I’m saying about European strengths. After all, ever since the euro crisis broke out there has been a relentless campaign by American conservatives (and quite a few Europeans too) to portray it as a story of collapsing welfare states, brought low by misguided concerns about social justice. And they keep saying that even though some of the strongest economies in Europe, like Germany, have welfare states whose generosity exceeds the wildest dreams of U.S. liberals.

But macroeconomics, as I keep trying to tell people, isn’t a morality play, where virtue is always rewarded and vice always punished. On the contrary, severe financial crises and depressions can happen to economies that are fundamentally very strong, like the United States in 1929. The policy mistakes that created the euro crisis – mainly creating a unified currency without the kind of banking and fiscal union that a single currency demands – basically had nothing to do with the welfare state, one way or another.

The truth is that European-style welfare states have proved more resilient, more successful at job creation, than is allowed for in America’s prevailing economic philosophy.
​

​

 

[Skarekrow]

9 Questions Billionaires Disparagingly Ask About the People They Exploit

How the 1% willfully misunderstands the 99%.

​

Last year eight Americans -- the four Waltons of Walmart fame, the two Koch brothers, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett -- made more money than 3.6 million American minimum-wage workers combined. The median pay for CEOs at America's large corporations rose to $10 million per year, while a typical chief executive now makes about 257 times the average worker's salary, up sharply from 181 times in 2009. Overall, 1% of Americans own more than a third of the country’s wealth.

As the United States slips from its status as the globe's number one economic power, small numbers of Americans continue to amass staggering amounts of wealth, while simultaneously inequality trends toward historic levels. At what appears to be a critical juncture in our history and the history of inequality in this country, here are nine questions we need to ask about who we are and what will become of us. Let's start with a French economist who has emerged as an important voice on what’s happening in America today.

1) What does Thomas Piketty have to do with the 99%?

French economist Thomas Piketty’s surprise bestseller, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, is an unlikely beach read, though it’s selling like one. A careful parsing of massive amounts of data distilled into “only” 700 pages, it outlines the economic basis for the 1%-99% divide in the United States. (Conservative critics, of course, disagree.)

Just in case you aren’t yet rock-bottom certain about the reality of that divide, here are some stats: the top 1% of Americans hold 35% of the nation's net worth; the bottom 80%, only 11% percent. The United States has such an unequal distribution of wealth that, in global rankings, it falls among the planet’s kleptocracies, not the developed nations that were once its peers.

The mathematical measure of wealth-inequality is called "Gini," and the higher it is, the more extreme a nation's wealth-inequality. The Gini for the U.S. is 85; for Germany, 77; Canada, 72; and Bangladesh, 64. Nations more unequal than the U.S. include Kazakhstan at 86 and the Ukraine at 90. The African continent tips in at just under 85. Odd company for the self-proclaimed “indispensable nation.”

Piketty shows that such inequality is driven by two complementary forces. By owning more of everything (capital), rich people have a mechanism for getting ever richer than the rest of us, because the rate of return on investment is higher than the rate of economic growth. In other words, money made from investments grows faster than money made from wages. Piketty claims the wealth of the wealthiest Americans is rising at 6%-7% a year, more than three times as fast as the economy the rest of us live in.

At the same time, wages for middle and lower income Americans are sinking, driven by factors also largely under the control of the wealthy. These include the application of new technology to eliminate human jobs, the crushing of unions, and a decline in the inflation-adjusted minimum wage that more and more Americans depend on for survival.
The short version: A rising tide lifts all yachts.

2) So why don't the unemployed/underemployed simply find better jobs?

Another way of phrasing this question is: Why don't we just blame the poor for their plight? Mention unemployment or underemployment and someone will inevitably invoke the old "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" line. If workers don't like retail or minimum-wage jobs, or if they can't find good paying jobs in their area, why don’t they just move? Quit retail or quit Pittsburgh (Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis) and...

Move to where to do what? Our country lost one-third of all decent factory jobs -- almost six million of them -- between 2000 and 2009, and wherever "there" is supposed to be, piles of people are already in line. In addition, many who lost their jobs don't have the means to move or a friend with a couch to sleep on when they get to Colorado.

Some have lived for generations in the places where the jobs have disappeared. As for the jobs that are left, what do they pay? One out of four working Americans earn less than $10 per hour. At 25%, the U.S. has the highest percentage of low-wage workers in the developed world. (Canada and Great Britain have 20%, Japan under 15%, and France 11%.)

One in six men, 10.4 million Americans aged 25 to 64, the prime working years, don't have jobs at all, a portion of the male population that has almost tripled in the past four decades. They are neither all lazy nor all unskilled, and at present they await news of the uncharted places in the U.S. where those 10 million unfilled jobs are hidden.

Moving “there” to find better work isn't an option.

3) But aren't there small-scale versions of economic “rebirths” occurring all over America?

Travel through some of the old Rust Belt towns of this country and you’ll quickly notice that “economic rebirth” seems to mean repurposing buildings that once housed factories and shipping depots as bars and boutiques. Abandoned warehouses are now trendy restaurants; a former radiator factory is an artisanal coffee shop.

In other words, in a place where a manufacturing plant once employed hundreds of skilled workers at union wages, a handful of part-timers are now serving tapas at minimum wage plus tips.
In Maryland, an ice cream plant that once employed 400 people with benefits and salaries pegged at around $40,000 a year closed its doors in 2012. Under a "rebirth" program, a smaller ice cream packer reopened the place with only 16 jobs at low wages and without benefits.

The new operation had 1,600 applicants for those 16 jobs. The area around the ice cream plant once produced airplanes, pipe organs, and leather car seats. No more. There were roughly 14,000 factory jobs in the area in 2000; today, there are 8,000.

General Electric’s Appliance Park, in Louisville, Kentucky, employed 23,000 union workers at its peak in 1973. By 2011, the sputtering plant held onto only about 1,800 workers. What was left of the union there agreed to a two-tier wage scale, and today 70% of the jobs are on the lower tier -- at $13.50 an hour, almost $8 less than what the starting wage used to be.

A full-time worker makes about $28,000 a year before taxes and deductions. The poverty line for a family of four in Kentucky is $23,000. Food stamp benefits are available to people who earn up to 130% of the poverty line, so a full-timer in Kentucky with a family still qualifies. Even if a worker moved to Kentucky and lucked out by landing a job at the plant, standing on your tiptoes with your lips just above sea level is not much of a step up.

Low paying jobs are not a rebirth.

4) Can't people just get off their couches and get back to work?

There are 3.8 million Americans who have been out of work for 27 weeks or more. These are the country’s long-term unemployed, as defined by the Department of Labor. Statistically, the longer you are unemployed, the less likely it is that you'll ever find work again.

Between 2008 and 2012, only 11% of those unemployed 15 months or more found a full-time job, and research shows that those who do find a job are less likely to retain it. Think of it as a snowball effect: more unemployment creates more unemployable people.

And how hard is it to land even a minimum-wage job? This year, the Ivy League college admissions acceptance rate was 8.9%. Last year, when Walmart opened its first store in Washington, D.C., there were more than 23,000applications for 600 jobs, which resulted in an acceptance rate of 2.6%, making the big box store about twice as selective as Harvard and five times as choosy as Cornell.
Telling unemployed people to get off their couches (or out of the cars they live in or the shelters where they sleep) and get a job makes as much sense as telling them to go study at Harvard.

5) Why can't former factory workers retrain into new jobs?

Janesville, Wisconsin, had the oldest General Motors car factory in America, one that candidate Obama visited in 2007 and insisted would be there for another 100 years. Two days before Christmas that year and just before Obama's inauguration, the plant closed forever, throwing 5,000 people out of work.

This devastated the town, because you either worked in the plant or in a business that depended on people working in the plant. The new president and Congress quickly paid for a two-million-dollar Janesville retraining program, using state community colleges the way the government once used trade schools built to teach new immigrants the skills needed by that Janesville factory a century ago.

This time around, however, those who finished their retraining programs simply became trained unemployables rather than untrained ones. It turned out that having a certificate in “heating and ventilation” did not automatically lead to a job in the field. There were already plenty of people out there with such certificates, never mind actual college degrees.

And those who did find work in some field saw their take-home pay drop by 36%. This, it seems, is increasingly typical in twenty-first-century America (though retraining programs have been little studied in recent years).

Manufacturing is dead and the future lies in a high-tech, information-based economy, some say. So why can't former factory workers be trained to do that? Maybe some percentage could, but the U.S. graduated 1,606,000 students with bachelor's degrees in 2014, many of whom already have such skills.

Bottom Line: Jobs create the need for training. Training does not create jobs.

6) Shouldn't we cut public assistance and force people into the job market?

At some point in any discussion of jobs, someone will drop the nuclear option: cut federal and state benefits and do away with most public assistance.

That'll motivate people to find jobs -- or starve. Unemployment money and food stamps (now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP) encourage people to be lazy. Why should tax dollars be used to give food to people who won't work for it? “If you’re able-bodied, you should be willing to work,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said discussing food stamp cuts.

The problem with such statements is 73% of those enrolled in the country’s major public benefits programs are, in fact, from working families -- just in jobs whose paychecks don’t cover life’s basic necessities. McDonald’s workers alone receive $1.2 billion in federal assistance per year.

Why do so many of the employed need food stamps? It’s not complicated. Workers in the minimum-wage economy often need them simply to survive. All in all, 47 million people get SNAP nationwide because without it they would go hungry.

In Ohio, where I did some of the research for my book Ghosts of Tom Joad, the state pays out benefits on the first of each month. Pay Day, Food Day, Mother’s Day, people call it. SNAP is distributed in the form of an Electronic Bank Transfer card, or EBT, which, recipients will tell you, stands for “Eat Better Tonight.” EBT-friendly stores open early and stay open late on the first of the month because most people are pretty hungry come the Day.

A single person with nothing to her name in the lower 48 states would qualify for no more than $189 a month in SNAP. If she works, her net monthly income is multiplied by .3, and the result is subtracted from the maximum allotment. Less than fifty bucks a week for food isn’t exactly luxury fare. Sure, she can skip a meal if she needs to, and she likely does.

However, she may have kids; almost two-thirds of SNAP children live in single-parent households. Twenty percent or more of the child population in 37 states lived in “food insecure households” in 2011, with New Mexico (30.6%) and the District of Columbia (30%) topping the list. And it's not just kids. Households with disabled people account for 16% of SNAP benefits, while 9% go to households with senior citizens.

Almost 22% of American children under age 18 lived in poverty in 2012; for those under age five, it’s more than 25%. Almost 1 in 10 live in extreme poverty.
Our system is trending toward asking kids (and the disabled, and the elderly) to go to hell if they're hungry.
Many are already there.

7) Why are Walmart and other businesses opposed to SNAP cuts?

Public benefits are now a huge part of the profits of certain major corporations. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Walmart was oddly blunt about what SNAP cuts could do to its bottom line:

“Our business operations are subject to numerous risks, factors, and uncertainties, domestically and internationally, which are outside our control. These factors include... changes in the amount of payments made under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Plan and other public assistance plans, [and] changes in the eligibility requirements of public assistance plans.”

How much profit do such businesses make from public assistance?
Short answer: big bucks. In one year, nine Walmart Supercenters in Massachusetts received more than $33 million in SNAP dollars -- more than four times the SNAP money spent at farmers' markets nationwide. In two years, Walmart received about half of the one billion dollars in SNAP expenditures in Oklahoma. Overall, 18% of all food benefits money is spent at Walmart.

Pepsi, Coke, and the grocery chain Kroger lobbied for food stamps, an indication of how much they rely on the money. The CEO of Kraft admittedthat the mac n’ cheese maker opposed food stamp cuts because users were “a big part of our audience.” One-sixth of Kraft’s revenues come from food stamp purchases.

Yum Brands, the operator of KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut, tried to convince lawmakers in several states to allow its restaurants to accept food stamps. Products eligible for SNAP purchases are supposed to be limited to “healthy foods.” Yet lobbying by the soda industry keeps sugary drinks on the approved list, while companies like Coke and Pepsi pull in four billion dollars a year in revenues from SNAP money.

Poverty is big business.

8) Should We Raise the Minimum Wage?

One important reason to raise the minimum wage to a living one is that people who can afford to feed themselves will not need food stamps paid for by taxpayers. Companies who profit off their workers' labor will be forced to pay a fair price for it, and not get by on taxpayer-subsidized low wages.

Just as important, people who can afford to feed themselves earn not just money, but self-respect. The connection between working and taking care of yourself and your family has increasingly gone missing in America, creating a society that no longer believes in itself. Rock bottom is a poor foundation for building anything human.

But won't higher wages cause higher prices? The way taxpayers functionally subsidize companies paying low-wages to workers -- essentially ponying up the difference between what McDonald's and its ilk pay and what those workers need to live via SNAP and other benefits -- is a hidden cost squirreled away in plain sight. You're already paying higher prices via higher taxes; you just may not know it.

Even if taxes go down, won't companies pass on their costs? Maybe, but they are unlikely to be significant.
For example, if McDonald’s doubled the salaries of its employees to a semi-livable $14.50 an hour, not only would most of them go off public benefits, but so would the company -- and yet a Big Mac would cost just 68 cents more. In general, only about 20% of the money you pay for a Big Mac goes to labor costs. At Walmart, increasing wages to $12 per hour would cost the company only about one percent of its annual sales.

Despite labor costs not being the most significant factor in the way low-wage businesses set their prices, one of the more common objections to raising the minimum wage is that companies, facing higher labor costs, will cut back on jobs.
Don’t believe it.

The Los Angeles Economic Round Table concluded that raising the hourly minimum to $15 in that city would generate an additional $9.2 billion in annual sales and create more than 50,000 jobs. A Paychex/IHS survey, which looks at employment in small businesses, found that the state with the highest percentage of annual job growth was Washington, which also has the highest statewide minimum wage in the nation.

The area with the highest percentage of annual job growth was San Francisco, the city with the highest minimum wage in the nation. Higher wages do not automatically lead to fewer jobs. Many large grocery chains, including Safeway and Kroger, are unionized and pay well-above-minimum wage. They compete as equals against their non-union rivals, despite the higher wages.

Will employers leave a state if it raises its minimum wage independent of a nationwide hike? Unlikely. Most minimum-wage employers are service businesses that are tied to where their customers are. People are not likely to drive across state lines for a burger.
A report on businesses on the Washington-Idaho border at a time when Washington’s minimum wage was nearly three bucks higher than Idaho’s found that the ones in Washington were flourishing.

While some businesses could indeed decide to close or cut back if the minimum wage rose, the net macro gains would be significant. Even a small hike to $10.10 an hour would put some $24 billion a year into workers' hands to spend and lift 900,000 Americans above the poverty line. Consumer spending drives 70% of our economy. More money in the hands of consumers would likely increase the demand for goods and services, creating jobs.

Yes, raise the minimum wage.
Double it or more. We can't afford not to.

9) Okay, after the minimum wage is raised, what else can we do?

To end such an article, it’s traditional to suggest reforms, changes, solutions. It is, in fact, especially American to assume that every problem has a "solution." So my instant suggestion: raise the minimum wage.
Tomorrow. In a big way. And maybe appoint Thomas Piketty to the board of directors of Walmart.

But while higher wages are good, they are likely only to soften the blows still to come. What if the hyper-rich like being ever more hyper-rich and, with so many new ways to influence and control our political system and the economy, never plan to give up any of their advantages? What if they don't want to share, not even a little more, not when it comes to the minimum wage or anything else?

The striking trend lines of social and economic disparity that have developed over the last 50 years are clearly no accident; nor have disemboweled unions, a deindustrialized America, wages heading for the basement (with profits still on the rise), and the widest gap between rich and poor since the slavery era been the work of the invisible hand.
It seems far more likely that a remarkably small but powerful crew wanted it that way, knowing that a nation of fast food workers isn’t heading for the barricades any time soon.

Think of it all as a kind of “Game of Thrones” played out over many years. A super-wealthy few have succeeded in defeating all of their rivals -- unions, regulators, the media, honest politicians, environmentalists -- and now are free to do as they wish.

What most likely lies ahead is not a series of satisfying American-style solutions to the economic problems of the 99%, but a boiling frog’s journey into a form of twenty-first-century feudalism in which a wealthy and powerful few live well off the labors of a vast mass of the working poor. Once upon a time, the original 99% percent, the serfs, worked for whatever their feudal lords allowed them to have.

Now, Walmart “associates” do the same. Then, a few artisans lived slightly better, an economic step or two up the feudal ladder. Now, a technocratic class of programmers, teachers, and engineers with shrinking possibilities for upward mobility function similarly amid the declining middle class. Absent a change in America beyond my ability to imagine, that's likely to be my future -- and yours.

Peter Van Buren blew the whistle on State Department waste and mismanagement in his book We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People. A TomDispatch regular, he writes about current events at his blog,We Meant Well.
Van Buren’s next book, Ghosts of Tom Joad, A Story of the #99Percent, is due out in March 2014.

 

[Skarekrow]

This is exactly what is going on right now...

 

[Skarekrow]

 

[Skarekrow]

Our Economy Wants You to Be In Debt: 5 Things You Can Do to Take Charge


Here are some tips from the Debt Resisters' Operations Manual to help you get cope.



Last month PM Presspublished the Debt Resisters' Operations Manual –also known as “the DROM.” But don’t let that menacing-sounding acronym fool you: this is a book written in plain English and filled with tips and tactics for dealing with debt.

The book has been available online since September 2012, but this publishing marks the first time the manual has been printed, bound, and sold. Don't worry, you can still find a free copy online. But, hopefully, getting this book into stores will help its message reach more people–however ironic it might seem to buy one with a credit card.

"Everyone is a debtor so there’s no limit to the audience" said Andrew Ross, a member of the Occupy Wall Street offshoot called Strike Debt, in an interview with Guernica Magazine. Although Ross has gone public, most of the authors of the Debt Resister's Operations Manual have chosen to remain anonymous.

The book explains how creditors, big banks, and other lenders operate and how debtors can navigate both in and outside of the system.
"From a young age, we are conditioned to feel that being in debt is shameful and worthy of punishment," the manual's anonymous authors explain.

Debtors shouldn’t feel that way, the DROM argues, because the situation is largely unfair and out of their control. "The reason you have tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills is that we don't provide medical care to everyone," the authors write. "The reason you have tens of thousands of dollars of student loans is because the government, banks, and university administrators [are] … driving college costs through the roof."

All that debt adds up. About 75 percent of Americans are in debt right now and owe a total of more than $11.5 trillion, according to Forbes magazine. That's about three times the amount of spending the Obama Administration requested in its 2015 federal budget.

And it’s not necessarily spent on expensive handbags, sports cars, and vacations. A2012 studypublished by the left-leaning thinktank Demos found that 40 percent of American households in debt use their credit cards to pay for living costs like rent, food, and utility bills. Additionally, about half of household debt comes from medical bills.

While the authors clearly worked hard to make the manual’s language accessible, that doesn't mean it's a quick read. If you lack time or patience to sit down and wrap your head around how FICO credit scores are generated, here are five tips from the DROM that you can start using today.

1. Avoid payday loan services and other "fringe" finance.

Stay away from paycheck loans, pawnshops, prepaid cards, nonbank check cashing, and rent-to-own agreements. These alternative financial services–known in the industry as AFSs–may appeal to those who don't want or can't have a checking account, but these institutions often prey on their customers through hidden fees and high interest rates.

The scale of the problem is huge: According to a survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2009, about 9 million American adults have no bank account, and 66 percent of these unbanked Americans say they use alternative financial services.

And just how bad are those services? According to Gary Rivlin, author of Broke USA: From Pawnshops to Poverty, Inc., the average family with an annual income of $30,000 or less pays $2,500 in fees and interests to the AFS industry every year.

If you need money in a pinch, consider more community-based short-term loans. Ask a friend or a family member, or check to see if your employer can extend an advance. Credit unions often offer short-term loans at better rates than companies in the AFS sector. Another option is selling your unwanted stuff (either online or at thrift stores) to make some quick cash.

2. Make them an offer.

If you're part of the 75 percent of working Americans who say they live “paycheck-to-paycheck” (defined as not having enough in savings to cover six months of expenses), then it’s not an option to pay past-due credit card, medical, or student debt with savings. But there may be an appealing alternative to the racking up endless interest and fees: Tell whomever you owe that you can't afford to pay in full–and then make them an offer.

"Remember," the DROM says, "even if we offer them ten cents on the dollar, that's more than they would be getting if they sold [the debt] to a collection agency."

This process of renegotiating debt is called debt settlement, and can begin with something as simple as a frank phone call with your credit card company. Be aware that there are many scams out there in this sector, according to the DROM, so it’s a good idea to avoid companies or lawyers who claim to be able to achieve a debt settlement for you. Instead, consider applying for a debt settlement yourself.

The same process can be transferred to medical debt, and even the IRS has a program that can cut down your tax debt based on your income. It’ll cost you $150 to apply, but if you owe a lot the risk might be worth it. Additional information on how to pursue your own debt settlement can be found here.

3. Know your rights and be prepared to defend them.

The Fair Debt Collections Practices Act, passed in 1977, includes a long list of rules that collection agents must follow. Examples of illegal behaviors include using a fake company name, lying when trying to collect debt, or saying that you will be arrested if you don't pay your debt. The act also lets you put an end to insistent phone calls from “unknown numbers” by making a formal request that collectors contact you only during certain hours. Calling outside of the requested time is a violation of the FDCPA.

Review all the rules listed in the act so you'll be able to recognize any mishandling of your account. Keep copies of all correspondence between you and any credit collection agencies. If collectors break these rules and you decide to report it, you must take action within one year of the violation.

You can report violations to multiple places, including: your state’s Attorney General's office, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The collection agency can be fined if it’s found to have violated regulations, but it won’t change how much you owe.

If you want to try to get your debt reduced or erased, you'll have to sue the collection agency. But Rozie Hughes, a financial advisor who helped develop the Financial Integrity Instructors Guide, said that complaints to the FDCPA are unlikely to reduce debts. "The road to such an end would actually be … lengthy and laborious through the civil court system."

If you feel you have a strong case against a collector, and the time and resources for a lawsuit, reducing your debt in a courtroom is a possibility. On the other hand, simply reporting violations is an action every debtor can take to put an end to intimidation and hold collectors accountable for misconduct.

4. Consider alternatives to a credit check.

Credit checks are one way that debt can affect more than just your bank account. Landlords regularly use poor credit score ratings to deny rental applications, and employers are increasingly using credit checks to screen potential employees as well.

If your credit score is a problem, offer to bring in a personal portfolio instead. Include references from current landlords and employers, as well as bank statements and paycheck stubs. Putting in the effort to create a portfolio can show you are a responsible and trustworthy person and may prove to be more important than a number on a credit report.

5. Shift your values.

Some of the things the DROM suggests you do to survive with little to no money are pretty radical. These include wearing only free clothes, getting food from shelters, and squatting in abandoned buildings.

But if those options are too hard-core for you, don't worry. There are some other options too. The DROM suggests you look into bartering networks and gift economies in your area. These alternatives are great because they allow you to trade your extra items, time, or skills for things you need without the exchange of cash. Large-scale examples of this include websites like Swap Right, Trash Bank, and the “free” section of your local Craigslist.

And when you need services rather than objects, consider joining your local time bank–a service that allows you to trade your own time for a carpenter’s, plumber’s, or whoever’s time you need.

It's important to acknowledge the cultural change that’s involved in moving away from the cash economy and toward swapping, bartering, and other alternatives.

"Finding ways to live outside of [our current debt cycle] is an absolute necessity for many, but can also be rewarding and give you a glimpse of what life might be like in a world without debt," the authors of the DROM explain.
"It will require cultivating personal values and taking actions that often stand in stark contrast to the ones our consumers culture promotes so aggressively."

 

[Kgal]

I tried to find a thread to put this piece of incredibly good news. I hope this spot is ok.

It's further proof of the fall of the Dark Side Power Mongers Elite.

Texas - which I consider one of the heads of the US "Hydra" - has indicted it's own Governor! Woot! This is amazing news! AMAZING news and indicative of the turning tide. There were 7 others indicted as well the week before for other various charges.

They happened to be Republicans....but the crooked Democrats are next. You have to understand Texas is a RED state - ALL republicans....well...except for me. Heh heh....and they STILL arrested their Republican Governor.

This state is the home and breeding ground of all of the Bushes - Papa and the Shrub - and Jeb baby over in Florida. Perry is one of their own.

I repeat: This is amazing news.... unprecedented news....stand up and cheer kind of news.

Here's a facebook conversation from an Author and well known political satirist I keep up with. She lives over in Lubbock TX and has been gleefully following the events leading up to his indictment. :bounce:


Here is Perry not understanding he is treading on quicksand doing his usual power bullying play - threatening the jury etc.

[FONT=&amp]This guy doesn't learn his lessons well, does he?[/FONT]



[FONT=&amp]Judge suggests Rick Perry may have threatened grand jury

[/FONT]

[FONT=&amp]A state district judge from [/FONT][FONT=&amp]Austin[/FONT][FONT=&amp] said Thursday that she intends to protect members...[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]mystatesman.com

[/FONT]

Top of Form
[FONT=&amp]You can see the rest of the article (without a subscription), here: http://www.dailynewsen.com/local/judge-warns-against-perry-grand-jury-threats-h2564299.html[/FONT]

[FONT=&amp]Judge warns against Perry grand jury threats[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]www.dailynewsen.com[/FONT]

[FONT=&amp]A state district judge in [/FONT][FONT=&amp]Austin[/FONT][FONT=&amp] mentioned Thursday that she intends to guard me... See More[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]M B[/FONT][FONT=&amp] if you read his statement it sounded threatening. if i had been a juror i'd be scared. big bully is what he is.[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]CC[/FONT][FONT=&amp] He thin[/FONT][FONT=&amp]k[/FONT][FONT=&amp]s he's above the law since he's spent the last 14 years filling positions with "his" people.[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]EM[/FONT][FONT=&amp]He made the investigation panel go away and I expect he thin[/FONT][FONT=&amp]k[/FONT][FONT=&amp]s the grand jury will, too.[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]WD[/FONT][FONT=&amp] In the posted comments/reactions there are a number who defend Perry's language, suggesting "accountable" is open to interpretation and is a phrase often used by politicians. Yes, the use is frequent among pols who want to sha[/FONT][FONT=&amp]k[/FONT][FONT=&amp]e a stic[/FONT][FONT=&amp]k[/FONT][FONT=&amp] at terrorists and murderers, but it was totally out of place in the environment in which Perry chose to ma[/FONT][FONT=&amp]k[/FONT][FONT=&amp]e his threat. It's li[/FONT][FONT=&amp]k[/FONT][FONT=&amp]e the schoolyard bully who gets caught in the act and - under his breath - threatens his victim that he'll be bac[/FONT][FONT=&amp]k[/FONT][FONT=&amp]. If it were me, I'd assign an armed bodyguard to every member of the grand jury - certainly to ma[/FONT][FONT=&amp]k[/FONT][FONT=&amp]e a point - but also to protect them from the rabid wing nuts that seem to abound in [/FONT][FONT=&amp]Texas[/FONT][FONT=&amp].[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]KW[/FONT][FONT=&amp] Filthy.[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]LG[/FONT][FONT=&amp] Remember, he's [/FONT][FONT=&amp]New Apostolic Reformation, and they only answer to Jesus Christ and not the laws of man.[/FONT][FONT=&amp]
[/FONT][FONT=&amp]
Bigoted arrogant buffoon.[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]T.G.C[/FONT][FONT=&amp] Just more proof why he was indicted![/FONT]

Bottom of Form​

 

[Skarekrow]

I tried to find a thread to put this piece of incredibly good news. I hope this spot is ok.

It's further proof of the fall of the Dark Side Power Mongers Elite.

Texas - which I consider one of the heads of the US "Hydra" - has indicted it's own Governor! Woot! This is amazing news! AMAZING news and indicative of the turning tide. There were 7 others indicted as well the week before for other various charges.

They happened to be Republicans....but the crooked Democrats are next. You have to understand Texas is a RED state - ALL republicans....well...except for me. Heh heh....and they STILL arrested their Republican Governor.

This state is the home and breeding ground of all of the Bushes - Papa and the Shrub - and Jeb baby over in Florida. Perry is one of their own.

I repeat: This is amazing news.... unprecedented news....stand up and cheer kind of news.

Here's a facebook conversation from an Author and well known political satirist I keep up with. She lives over in Lubbock TX and has been gleefully following the events leading up to his indictment. :bounce:


Here is Perry not understanding he is treading on quicksand doing his usual power bullying play - threatening the jury etc.

Very interesting stuff!
Do you think they will actually get a conviction from him?

 

[Skarekrow]

Remember, Remember, The Fifth of November...
Civil Disobedience Through Peaceful Protest.
See You On November 5th, 2014 On The Streets ALL OVER THE WORLD!

 

[Kgal]

Very interesting stuff!
Do you think they will actually get a conviction from him?

I hadn't thought that far. I try not to hold on to my expectations nor attach myself to any of my ideas or beliefs. This comes from having practiced vipassana meditation for years....and it is serving me very well in my walk of ascension. I find just as I manage to integrate one concept and knowing - another one comes along. It seems the more I let go of being attached to my ideas the more knowledge and wisdom I download. Also...I am happier and more joyful. At any rate - I don't always manage to let go - but I realize it's a practice.

From my perspective down here in the trenches of social services in TX - the government is in extreme flux and chaos at the moment and continuing to move further into chaos.

There are many signs of change some towards lack and stinginess and some towards compassion - which is surprising but wholeheartedly embraced.

So I guess it depends on the people who are gathered around to push this conviction.

Nevertheless - the very fact they obtained an indictment in a court in Texas is very telling indeed. ....very very telling... That would not have happened a year ago.

Change. Is. Happening.