A New Gilded Age Threatens The State Of Our Union

[marmar]

Howard Fineman

A New Gilded Age Threatens The State Of Our Union
Posted: 01/23/2014 9:38 am EST


WASHINGTON -- The numbers are shocking -- assuming that we still have the capacity for shock -- and they will form the backdrop for President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday.

The president will declare himself a foe of “income inequality,” with good reason: As a nation, we have climbed out of the deep hole of the Great Recession, but we have not done so as a whole people.

For the first time since precise recordkeeping began a century ago, 10 percent of Americans take in more than half the country’s income.

In the last 40 years, the income of the top 1 percent of Americans has quadrupled, while incomes for everyone else have stagnated.

Billionaires such as the Koch brothers and Michael Bloomberg, empowered by the Supreme Court, spend fortunes to influence politics, just as J.P. Morgan and California railroad magnates once did. ......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/23/gilded-age-state-of-the-union_n_4647348.html?ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000037

[jsr]

1. Recommend

[BootinUp]

2. Hopefully people are paying attention

[godevil10]

3. Well it is for damn sure has this got to end.

History is replete with examples of what happens when this is not "rightened."

[Cryptoad]

4. That Funny,,,

the GOP claims the Poor are poor because they are lazy.! Sadly , Most of working poor believe this to be the Truth.... if they just work harder for less and make the Super Rich and Corps more, that they some day will be Super Rich!

[jwirr]

7. We have forgotten a truth the Robber Barons of yesterday taught us. Those barons got rich on the

backs of the workers and not their own hard work.

[WillyT]

5. K & R !!!

[kairos12]

6. This post sizes things up pretty much. It is outrageous.

[cali]

8. fineman, you asshole, you're late, late, late to the party.

idiot. they've already taken over.

[certainot]

9. it will get worse as long as left ignores the 1%'s giant megaphone- the rw radio monopoly

the 1% has successfully been using 1200 think tank-coordinated radio stations for 25 years to destroy any efforts for meaning reform. reaching 50 mil a week they can completely short circuit and distort any national discussion that might result in the democratic feedback we need for meaningful reform. those ALEC/koch/devos/GOP think tanks can create made to order constituencies for anything they want- the tea party is the talk radio party.

and amazingly, much of it depends on our 'liberal' universities. as many as 30-40% of those megaphones pay a pittance to rent our state funded college sports team logos to piggyback the community cred that comes with them. over 28%+ of 600 limbaugh stations https://sites.google.com/site/universitiesforrushlimbaugh/

and the whole thing depends on the left continuing to ignore RW radio, like it has for the last 25 years- the biggest mistake in political history.

[pscot]

12. What's the solution?

You're probably right, but how do we put that particular genii back in its bottle?

[certainot]

13. 2 main things. RW radio depends heavily on college sports and that needs to stop. if a few colleges

are pushed by students, faculty, communities, etc, to honor their mission statements and move the radio portion of their licensing contracts to a political radio stations others will follow and it will hurt the monopoly severely. just announcing the intent to not renew will start a needed discussion and scare off advertisers.

also, RW radio works, especially on the local level, because the left doesn't know what they're saying about their issues and candidates and aren't responding directly in their communities to the lies and swiftboating and distortions. the new transcription function possible with any new apple computer (2011 and on) that can update to mavericks, can be used to monitor the main state local blowhards- those are the voices of ALEC and the RW think tanks and they need to be monitored and responded to. it won't happen until dems start putting the lies in readable/searchable form so summaries can be done and quotes can't be taken to media. there is no excuse for dems not to do it.

[Laelth]

10. k&r for the truth, however depressing it may be. n/t

-Laelth

[BelgianMadCow]

17. Hey Laelth

had been thinking about not seeing you post for a while, and wondered whether you were OK.

So, glad to see you posting. And that is not depressing

[Laelth]

18. All's fine.

Nice to see you as well.



-Laelth

[Dustlawyer]

11. They did not make the money fairly and honestly!

They bought the politicians and rigged the game at every turn, that's how they did/do it! Fuck them!

[xchrom]

14. du rec.

[bvar22]

15. Certainly a BIG change from the "Time to Eat Your Peas" SOTU.

Thank You, OWS.

[Enthusiast]

16. +1