kpete
kpete's Journal“The most important chart about the American economy you'll see this year”
Pavlina Tcherneva's chart showing the distribution of income gains during periods of economic expansion is burning up the economics internet over the past 24 hours and for good reason. The trend it depicts is shocking:
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http://www.vox.com/xpress/2014/9/25/6843509/income-distribution-recoveries-pavlina-tcherneva
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/26/1332513/--The-most-important-chart-about-the-American-economy-you-ll-see-this-year
Colin Powell: GOP Headed For A 'Brick Wall'
General Colin Powell sat down with Bill Maher on "Real Time With Bill Maher" recently for a chat. Bill Maher asked him "what has happened to your party?" And, General Powell answered with facts that most of us here already know. The GOP has taken a hard turn to the right. The party does not appeal to minorities (or most women). And, the GOP is likely to hit a "brick wall" fairly soon if it does not change, because minorities will be the majority in about twenty years or so.
The GOP has remained stubbornly resistant to changing (in any meaningful way), which is just fine with me as a democrat. I'd like nothing better than for them to hit that metaphorical "brick wall."
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/25/1332333/-Colin-Powell-GOP-Headed-For-A-Brick-Wall
Awesome! Rolling Stone Outs the Kochs!
By Tim Dickinson | September 24, 2014
Together, Charles and David Koch control one of the world's largest fortunes, which they are using to buy up our political system. But what they don't want you to know is how they made all that money
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The enormity of the Koch fortune is no mystery. Brothers Charles and David are each worth more than $40 billion. The electoral influence of the Koch brothers is similarly well-chronicled. The Kochs are our homegrown oligarchs; they've cornered the market on Republican politics and are nakedly attempting to buy Congress and the White House. Their political network helped finance the Tea Party and powers today's GOP. Koch-affiliated organizations raised some $400 million during the 2012 election, and aim to spend another $290 million to elect Republicans in this year's midterms. So far in this cycle, Koch-backed entities have bought 44,000 political ads to boost Republican efforts to take back the Senate.
What is less clear is where all that money comes from. Koch Industries is headquartered in a squat, smoked-glass building that rises above the prairie on the outskirts of Wichita, Kansas. The building, like the brothers' fiercely private firm, is literally and figuratively a black box. Koch touts only one top-line financial figure: $115 billion in annual revenue, as estimated by Forbes. By that metric, it is larger than IBM, Honda or Hewlett-Packard and is America's second-largest private company after agribusiness colossus Cargill. The company's stock response to inquiries from reporters: "We are privately held and don't disclose this information."
But Koch Industries is not entirely opaque. The company's troubled legal history – including a trail of congressional investigations, Department of Justice consent decrees, civil lawsuits and felony convictions – augmented by internal company documents, leaked State Department cables, Freedom of Information disclosures and company whistle-blowers, combine to cast an unwelcome spotlight on the toxic empire whose profits finance the modern GOP.
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The Koch brothers get richer as the costs of what Koch destroys are foisted on the rest of us – in the form of ill health, foul water and a climate crisis that threatens life as we know it on this planet. Now nearing 80 – owning a large chunk of the Alberta tar sands and using his billions to transform the modern Republican Party into a protection racket for Koch Industries' profits – Charles Koch is not about to see the light. Nor does the CEO of one of America's most toxic firms have any notion of slowing down. He has made it clear that he has no retirement plans: "I'm going to ride my bicycle till I fall off."
Much More, really juicy - i can only post 4 paragraphs.....)
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/inside-the-koch-brothers-toxic-empire-20140924
via:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/25/1332440/-Awesome-Rolling-Stone-Outs-the-Koch-s
Let’s not be burning new carbon reserves. Leave that coal in the ground-Leave that oil in the ground
Cruickshank and I spoke in the middle of the exhibit hall, which explains the background sound. The interview is clear however. I started, as usual, asking about “burnable carbon” and the climate crisis — which, if you haven’t noticed, is already upon us. His reply was simple — no burnable carbon, period. Good to hear, and good to hear the reasons:
But we know that profit incentive for burning carbon is so high, that even if you set up a system that looks to us like it could work, it’s going to be gamed and exploited and used by people who want to profit off of burning carbon.
So I think for climate activists, the “ask,” to me, is what it has always been. Let’s go on the path to reducing carbon emissions. Let’s not be burning any new carbon reserves. Leave that coal in the ground. Leave that oil in the ground. And instead spend our money building things that will put us [on a path to] sustainable infrastructure.
Audio & More:
http://americablog.com/2014/09/five-questions-robert-cruickshank.html
A Message From Jesus Christ On The Targeted Killings
THU SEP 25, 2014 AT 07:07 AM PDT
A Message From Jesus Christ On The Targeted Killings
by Paul Bibeau
You already kind of know what I'm going to say, don't you? Love your enemies, do unto others, all that stuff about the least of your brothers... I've gone on record about how you should treat each other. Sure, I didn't actually tell you, "Don't fire a mess of Tomahawks through someone's living room." I didn't think it would be necessary to spell it out. You Americans have a country absolutely packed to the ceiling with people who claim to follow me. But you are really, really comfortable with dropping high explosives on people.
Now we're going to talk about whether I was a pacifist, aren't we? I mean, what if you come across a bunch of bad guys who are going to do some harm to an innocent person? What if violence is the only way to prevent more violence? This is your way of dodging the question. Because you look reasonable if you make the choice between doing absolutely nothing in the face of evil... or airstrikes, home invasions, and encircling the world with a network of military bases. It's dishonest, and you know it. You guys say you're all about me, but you really act like the people who did that hilarious thing with those thorns. Enhanced interrogation, right? I sure know all about that. They were laughing while they did it. It was just like those news reports you don't think about. Like a prank gone too far. They were exactly the type to take selfies afterwards.
No, you always pretend this stuff is necessary. Always. You always excuse it. The pacifist thing is a way to make the job impossible. So that you can stop trying to be good. So that you can do all the terrible things you want to do. And you do want to do them. You're addicted to violence. Violence is your country's last and greatest export.
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Forget I'm Me. Just consider the obvious. You've completed a 20-year cycle of escalating missile attacks, kidnappings, interventions, and turning your country into a giant prison. The result, they tell you, is that now the threat is even greater than before. And the solution? Let's do all the same things that worked so well the first time.
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the rest:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/25/1332295/-A-Message-From-Jesus-Christ-On-The-Targeted-Killings
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VIDEO RELEASED: SC trooper charged with felony in shooting at traffic stop over seat belt violation
VIDEO RELEASED: SC trooper charged with felony in shooting at traffic stop over seat belt violation
BY JOHN MONK
Sept. 4, 2014 traffic stop by Trooper Sean Groubert of a motorist for a seat belt violation. The motorist was shot during the traffic stop. THE STATE NEWSPAPER Lance Cpl. Sean Groubert Sean Groubert
COLUMBIA, SC — An S.C. trooper who stopped a man for a seat belt violation outside Columbia and then shot him – apparently without provocation – was arrested Wednesday and charged with assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature.
Sean Groubert, 31, a lance corporal who was fired from the Highway Patrol after the shooting incident, now faces 20 years in prison if convicted of wrongfully shooting the driver, Levar Jones.
Groubert was booked Wednesday evening at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center. He was fired from the patrol last Friday.
Wednesday night, in a hearing at the jail, Magistrate Ethel Brewer set Groubert’s bond at $75,000.
Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2014/09/24/3702695_sc-trooper-charged-with-felony.html?sp=/99/132/&rh=1#storylink=cpy
Obama Admin to pay Navajo Nation $554 million in largest settlement with single Indian tribe
In the largest settlement with a single American Indian tribe, the Obama administration will pay the Navajo Nation $554 million to settle claims that the U.S. government has mismanaged funds and natural resources on the Navajo reservation for decades.
The settlement, to be signed in Window Rock, Ariz., on Friday, resolves a long-standing dispute between the Navajo Nation and the U.S. government, with some of the claims dating back more than 50 years.
The sprawling Navajo reservation, located in parts of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, is the largest and most populous Indian reservation, with 14 million acres of trust lands, which are leased for farming, grazing, and oil, gas and other mineral extraction. The land is also leased for businesses, rights-of-way, easements and housing.
“This landmark resolution ends protracted and burdensome litigation,” Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said in a statement provided to The Washington Post on Wednesday. “This demonstrates the Justice Department’s firm commitment to strengthening our partnerships with tribal nations.”
MORE:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-to-pay-navajo-nation-554-million-in-largest-settlement-with-single-indian-tribe/2014/09/24/4dc02cc6-434e-11e4-9a15-137aa0153527_story.html
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