Wow. I can’t remember the last time I totally agreed with Matthews. I hope Obama listens, but don’t expect him to. He has essentially abandoned the bottom 90% of Americans.

I apologize, but this might go away:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sfrm=1

Until he gets rid of his “economic” team nothing will change.

I wonder if Tweety is going to yank his Barry commercial..

Obama is great on rhetoric and false words of hope for the 90%.

Isn’t it amazing that polls say 80% are for the rich paying higher taxes, 67% are for the public option, majority are against the wars and against reducing social security, medicare, and medcaid benefits but our elected leaders always ignore its citizens wishes.

Could it be that the Corporations, elites own our Politicians???????? They do not listen to us. If we paid each of our leaders $10 million a year, would they listen to us “little people?”

We only have the power of voting, but it does not matter who we elect. The Dems/Repugs are feeding at the same $$$Trough$$$.

Good Morning and Thank You for those words of hope, BT.

A little late for you state the obvious but thanks anyway Chris.

Obama is half listening…he’s passed out the shovels.

Boxturtle (If you can’t dazzel them with brilliance…)

If he does get rid of his economic team, nothing will change unless he goes with them. Remember, they’re doing EXACTLY what he wants them to do.

Boxturtle (Do not be angry at the fist, it is the brain that directs the punch)

The 2011 economic crisis is fundamentally different from that of 2008, virtually the opposite. In 2008, the wilful stupidity of lending institutions unexpectedly led to near breakdown of the economy. In response to this event, the corporate elite came up with a carefully stage managed solution that consolidated and extended their wealth and power.

The 2012 began with carefully stage managed solutions to consolidate and extend the wealth and power of the corporate elite (drastic spending cuts in the U.S., privatization of the Greek economy). Economic reality caused these “solutions” to quickly blow apart in both continents.

Thus, in 2008, chaos preceded the corporate “solution”, and in 2012, chaos followed it.

We only have the power of voting

We have the power of not consuming.

Strike and Boycott

I keep hearing this bill being compared to FDR in ’37. Back then we had a substantial manufacturing and export base to return to when the depression was over. What do we have now? Just a lot of people speculating and lending money to one another.

It’s unlikely that this will end well for us 90%ers.

Well goody, f’ing goody, the futures are that the “market” will jump up today due to good job news…lol Freeaking manipulation. Somebody made a ton of money yesterday.

Sorry to be off-topic, but last night on the Tonight Show, Roseanne Barr (yes the comedienne, who’s now an organic macadamia nut grower in Hawaii) announced she’s running for President in 2012. Her slogan is “Isn’t it time we had a president with some nuts?” and “Finally a politician who can’t get a maid pregnant”. When she said she wasn’t running as a Democrat or a Republican because “both parties suck, and they’re all criminals”, my heart melted! So seriously, that’s who I’m voting for in 2012 instead of O-Bummer (assuming Feingold or Sanders won’t challenge in the primary).

John Kerry, impassioned on growing jobs. Talking clear concise truth about the minority faction in the House, green jobs that can be done without big money.

MoJo: ho-hum, segue to commercial.

The NYT headline/front page appears to be an historical edition on global market crashing. We had a similar situation 2008. This will exacerbate all the pain from the deficit cuts by the 12 member catfood commission.
We are in for lifestyle changes. The natural resources are in short supply and the easy economic fixes have been used up. I see an slow but steady erosion. Wealth looks less obtainable as the middle class shrinks and the have nots become a larger part of USA. WE are moving towards third world. No jobs weak economy.

Doing it now. Boycotting union busting American Crystal sugar in ND.

Mornin’, BT, pups

If the corporate state is making record profits each quarter with close to 20% of the workforce either under- or unemployed what incentive does the corporate state have to add workers to their payrolls? The financial sector produces nothing yet it’s laying workers off. Profit over people.

The unemployment rate fell partly because some unemployed workers stopped looking for work and is now at 9.1 percent – so the business news today is this is an “optimistic sign after the worst day on Wall Street in nearly three years”.

The Labor Department says employers added 117,000 jobs last month (July).

The economy needs twice as many net jobs per month to rapidly reduce unemployment. The rate has topped 9 percent in every month except two since the recession officially ended in June 2009.

an “optimistic sign” …..

Sorry, all I get is my own FB news feed. What is it?

And good morning, everyone.

We need a change of the guard in DC.,Chris Matthews and the News Media has been misleading the USA Citizen for 40 years.Worse than Lobbiest and Pollitcian.People like chris matthew the benedict arnold of real news,insider.

We have so many homeless people in our county that want to work. The WPA and CCC (Civilian conservation Corp) would get homeless people food for there kids. Today we have a fund raiser for them for the dilapidated shelter that allows laundry, pet kennel, case management, internet access, phones, showers and other help. The depression is traumatizing this large group. It is illegal for them that have vehicles to sleep in them! The insanity is pervasive.

Matthews is going with the flow, like dead fish, as the saying goes. The tipping point was last week, when the obvious impact of the disastrous kabuki over the debt ceiling became clear to everyone. It’s not that people like Matthews did not get a basic course in Macro 101. He just conveniently forgot it to prattle on about the politics. Now it is coming down to crunch time. His audience understand what is happening. No amount of happy talk is going to tell them that their personal economy is in great shape.

Man, talk about selective representation. Over a million people filed for unemployment in July. The private sector added 117K jobs. In old math that’s a net loss of almost 900K jobs. Only by using DeeCee math can this be seen as “optimistic.”

Yves has started a new series ‘Bank of America Death Watch’.http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/08/bank-of-america-death-watch.html over at her place. If B of A goes under, it will make for a wonderful Democratic Convention in Charlotte next summer, surrounded by empty buildings and hoards of unemployed. A fitting context for Barry’s renomination. Hoover ran the second time under similar conditions. Will there be ‘Obamavilles’?

You know it’s bad when Tweety gets startled . He’s about as third way as it gets.
I’m wondering if this is some sort of propaganda form the so-called left. But then, I’m so cynical these days, I don’t trust ANYTHING on TEEVEE.
As Lily Thompson said ” No matter how cynical I get I just can’t keep up”

The only thing I can figure is that Matthews is worried about his portfolio and well he should be. Seems pretty clear to me that as Obama et all take money from the bottom, Wall Street would engineer another crisis to steal more from the middle too……again.
How many people will lose their homes because of this little correction, I wonder?

Meanwhile the price of a barrel of oil is down. Your gas should be about $2.20 a gallon. Let’s see if Obama keeps Exxon from windfall profit taking while he’s “pivoting towards jobs”
He didn’t say WHOSE jobs, now did he?
I’m betting the next punch will be three new trade deals

It’s too late one way or the other. Even if he changed course, which is unlikely, the Republicans would never give him any slack. Remember, they are staking the country against their being re-elected in 2012. We are in catastrophic territory.

Krugman this morning comments “It’s now impossible to deny the obvious, which is that we are not now and have never been on the road to recovery.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/05/opinion/the-wrong-worries.html?_r=1&hp
They have misled everyone with false data so people have not been prepared for the pain of austerity and loss of economic opportunity. The backlash to this may not be containable any longer.

The Labor Department says employers added 117,000 jobs last month (July).

That is a disastrous report. Pay no attention to the unemployment rate. This is catastrophic. Anything under 150,000, which is already terrible, means the economy is sinking faster than people anticipated. This is not good news, to say the least.

“It’s too late, one way or the other.”

It certainly is. If he wanted to try to turn this around, he lost that chance in the mid-terms. When he came in, only an idiot would believe that the GOP would help him, and when he had the clout and the support of the voters to ram that change down the throats of the repubs, he laid down like a cur dog. The mid-terms were the end of any real chance for a salvage operation. He’s now the lamest lame duck president we’ve ever had. A fact which, ironically, I think is scaring the living shit out of Wall Street.

Time to break up the monopolies.

“I’m betting the next punch will be three new trade deals.”

Not a bad guess, Kassie.

I’d throw in the successful jawboning of Maliki and the Iraqi “government” for continuing the occupation of Iraq indefinitely, and you’ve got the bushCo plan, straight-up.

Off to swim in the great capitalist cesspool.

US KIA Afghanistan: 1,689

US KIA Irak: 4,474

Iraki, Afghan and Pakistani casualties: estimates vary to over 1.5M

US MBS 2011: 26,784 and counting

We Can’t Make It Here

No war but class war

Never. Give. Up.

Be good to yourselves, and all other living things

Namaste

Sorry…here it is..E-trade Baby Loses Everything:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4hfdaC7eL4

My 2 cents is that Wall Street wants to buy all the assets of the USA for pennies on the dollar. This is Shock Doctrine nothing more. Iraq was plundered beyond belief etc. etc. We are headed for the same result. Privatize everything is the goal IMHO.

Shovels? For preparing the mass graves of the poor and middle class?

The first thing O should have done was change the tax code. Too many tax free non profits. It’s time now for all to pay taxes and all to pay the same amount and no one should EVER pay over 25%, not ever! Spread it out evenly and fairly. Simplify the tax code and get rid of 3/4 of the IRS.
O wasn’t very smart tackling health care or any thing else with out first tackling the unjust tax system.

Including the churches, synagogues,temples, mosques etc.. Since so many, particularly, the Christian churches, want to play in politics it’s time they ante up.

Those shovels can also be used as clubs.

Second that!

Probably what my Millionaire brother is saying today. He TRUSTS the markets. Thinks he knows what he’s doing.
Well, they ain’t moving in with ME when they lose their leveraged min-mansion!

Only in Stalinist Russia……..
I wonder when the wholesale will begin? Probably not until we “elect” Genghis Khan.
Will it be after another softening up Obama second term or in ’12? Inquiring minds want to know.

He’s not an idiot but he is a trickle downer.

Just as soon as the Min Wage is a liveable wage enough to secure a middle class life.As long as we pay slave wages the real benifits go to that small business owner in turn that small middle class business owner has to pay higher taxes to cover the cost of low wages.Lets Tax those who pay poverty wages everything thay own or ever will own.

The PTB should be concerned about giving the peasants and serfs shovels lest they use them against the PTB.

Morning BT & Pups of Fire:

Guess I’m unfashionably late this morning. I did bring a “Dear Barack” letter from Rude, however.

I agree! The mega churches are a walmart them selves selling so many things from Bibles to jewelry, books, vitamins, movies, etc.

And all political non profits should pay taxes too.

Every one should pay taxes, no more elite groups that use the gov services without paying their fair share.

And rich people should pay the same amount of taxes on their dividends, stock profits, etc, instead of paying a lower rate. It must be nice to own thousands of shares of stock, get mucho amount of free money through dividends and pay such a measley amount of taxes on it.

You got that right!

Well, that was very funny, but sad at the same time!

The only thing I can figure is that Matthews is worried about his portfolio and well he should be.

Bingo! If Tweety is singing outta the other side of his mouth, it’s bc he’s worried about himself, alone. Tweety is a whore, who’ll do what it takes to stay on the Villager party A list so that he can rub shoulders with the powerful and think it’s all rubbing off on him. Ptoui!

he’s worried about himself, alone

His wife is an exec at Marriott, so they probly have a fair amount tied up in options, profit-sharing or other Marriott corporate slush fund which will shrivel up when U.S. biz travel shrivels up when the oligarchs suddenly realize we 90%-ers have gone on strike.

Oh! And, of course, Tweety must be worried about his stock/options in General Electric, which he piled up during his 20+ years at NBC while it was owned by GE. GECC is still a massively fucked up bank, IIRC, and GE’s earnings still depend far more on financial manipulations than on actually manufacturing anything.

should say financial manipulations services

I didn’t think this was all that OT. Actually, it would be a laff riot! Maybe you should dig up a little more about Roseanne’s financial liabilities, back taxes, drug addictions, that kind of stuff, and do a separate diary on “Could Roseanne Barr Be A Viable Political Candidate?”

Personally, I think she should start with a more manageable project, like running for a seat on her local county board of supervisors and campaigning from that seat to force her county to hire workers directly to rebuild county infrastructure. Financed by a property tax surcharge on million-dollar mansions.

The natural resources are in short supply

Not so bleak as that. Not only are we the world’s largest freaking economy but we have our own natural resources coming out the yin-yang that we have not developed. Solar power, geothermal power, wind power. Food crops.

and the easy economic fixes have been used up

No. This just falls for the propaganda being churned out at a hysterical pace this week that austerity is the only strategy left, that — as that oligarch apologist from FT Gillian Tett said on PBS last night — the government has no tools left to produce economic stimulus. All lies.

The preznit could declare an economic emergency next week (give him a long weekend after his birthday). The preznit’s powers in an economic emergency are legion. He can act regardless of Congress. The massive power of the “unitary executive” has been tapped only sporadically in the past two years (bailouts of GM & Chrysler, releasing oil from strategic reserve, etc.). There are awesome powers the White House could exercise which would have the same effect as direct hires of construction workers to rebuild critical national infrastructure. Preznit could nationalize a railroad and a few steel mills, fer chrissake; he could accelerate demobilization of military troops and recommission them as a revived Civilian Conservation Corps. He does not need permission from Congress. He can apologize later, if the courts tried to obstruct a national recovery.

Last seven grafs of Krugman’s column online last night and in today’s print edition:

To turn this disaster around, a lot of people are going to have to admit, to themselves at least, that they’ve been wrong and need to change their priorities, right away.

Of course, some players won’t change. Republicans won’t stop screaming about the deficit because they weren’t sincere in the first place: Their deficit hawkery was a club with which to beat their political opponents, nothing more — as became obvious whenever any rise in taxes on the rich was suggested. And they’re not going to give up that club.

But the policy disaster of the past two years wasn’t just the result of G.O.P. obstructionism, which wouldn’t have been so effective if the policy elite — including at least some senior figures in the Obama administration — hadn’t agreed that deficit reduction, not job creation, should be our main priority. Nor should we let Ben Bernanke and his colleagues off the hook: The Fed has by no means done all it could, partly because it was more concerned with hypothetical inflation than with real unemployment, partly because it let itself be intimidated by the Ron Paul types.

Well, it’s time for all that to stop. Those plunging interest rates and stock prices say that the markets aren’t worried about either U.S. solvency or inflation. They’re worried about U.S. lack of growth. And they’re right, even if on Wednesday the White House press secretary chose, inexplicably, to declare that there’s no threat of a double-dip recession.

Earlier this week, the word was that the Obama administration would “pivot” to jobs now that the debt ceiling has been raised. But what that pivot would mean, as far as I can tell, was proposing some minor measures that would be more symbolic than substantive. And, at this point, that kind of proposal would just make President Obama look ridiculous.

The point is that it’s now time — long past time — to get serious about the real crisis the economy faces. The Fed needs to stop making excuses, while the president needs to come up with real job-creation proposals. And if Republicans block those proposals, he needs to make a Harry Truman-style campaign against the do-nothing G.O.P.

This might or might not work. But we already know what isn’t working: the economic policy of the past two years — and the millions of Americans who should have jobs, but don’t.

The reason jobs were ignored for nearly three years is that Obama was too busy using the economic crisis to push through shock doctrine welfare programs for the wealthy oligarchs, and shielding them from any accountability. It’s safe now for Matthews to bring attention to the jobs problem now that the oligarchs have gotten theirs.

I have problems watching Chris’s show because he asks questions but interrupts the speaker with new questions before he gets an answer. This line is the best I’ve heard from him. Obama and his rancher BLM buddy are giving out plenty of work but to the wrong people. “Help those who help you” I say. He’s spending billions in AZ and TX, and other red states which will never vote for him. I say we should give only to the blue states which actually send more money to Washington than they get in federal support.

If it sounds like Matthews is making sense it probably means he stopped drinking for a week or two.

Ya, every once in a while Tweety spittles out some populist rhetoric but he broadcasts by the polls (ratings) just as Obama governs by polls./s

I’ve read (sorry no linky) if you include HS and college grads entering the full time workforce the monthly number needs to be over 221,000 to be a net gain and that that would have to continue for at least several months for a real recovery to be sustained. Some have even said 250K is more realistic. We’re at about half of either number. I doubt even 150K would put much of a dent in the UN number.

Well, it’s taken, what, 3 years for the establishment to recognize that joblessness is bad for the economy. So I figure it’ll probably take another 5 years before we actually hear people in the establishment start seriously advocating for a real stimulus bill.

And in other news:

‘Rent is Too Damn High’ man being evicted

http://www.upi.com/#ixzz1UBjqEXFu

So There goes the fellow out of action – the only one that I thought would primary Obama