How old is English? How the Right's Lame Attack on Occupy Wall St. Shows the Poverty of Conservative Ideology A new NBC/ poll finds that among those with an opinion, twice as many Americans support the Occupy Wall Street Movement than oppose it. The movement -- with its defining message of standing with the 99 percent of Americans who don't have lobbyists working for them – appears to have tapped into a deep vein of discontent among working people whose economic security has been savaged by decades of upward redistribution of the nation's wealth. The right, in keeping with its habitual knee-jerk defense of the privileged, has tried, with little success so far, to push back on that message. Their answer – or one of them – is a Tumblr account called We Are the 53% , an unimaginitive take-off of Occupy Wall Street's We Are the 99% . The site is the brain-child of Erick Erickson, a toxic right-wing idiot hired by CNN in a futile attempt to deflect conservative charges of “liberal bias.” The lie Erickson offers is simple. Many hard-working Americans pay no federal income taxes.
In Less than a Minute Alan Grayson Explains Occupy Wall Street to the 1% While on Real Time with Bill Maher former congressman, and future 2012 House candidate, Alan Grayson explained to the panel the 1% what Occupy Wall Street is all about. Here is the video: The latest edition of Real Time featured one of Bill Maher’s patented balance things out with three Republicans and a Democrat panels, but the Democrat was Alan Grayson. While P.J. fellow panelist P.J. O’Rourke broke out his bathing and hippie jokes, former Rep. Grayson schooled him on Occupy Wall Street. O’Rourke claimed that the Occupy Wall Street people flunked econ, and Grayson said, “No, listen Bill, I have no trouble understanding what they are talking about.” Alan Grayson demonstrated why all the media complaint’s about the unclear message behind Occupy Wall Street is nonsense. The right and many in the media will continue to make jokes and play dumb, but while they are laughing it up, a movement is growing.
How To Increase Immune System My Soapbox Advice to the OWS Movement and then some I may not know much, but I know a lot of it. So I decided to share my opinions and thoughts on what I would do if the OWS movement either elected me Grand Poobah or asked for my advice: 1. Every CEO tells the same great white lie. Great CEO White Lie = “We are acting in the best interests of shareholders.” When a CEO utters this lie, everyone automatically forgives whatever they do. The problem is that unless the company is losing money and it is the only way to keep the company alive, in this era of 9.1pct unemployment it NEVER is in the BEST INTEREST OF SHAREHOLDERS. Shareholders , whether they own shares directly or through mutual funds or pensions do not live in a corporate vacuum. If OWS really wants to change corporate structure and impact the economy, talk to shareholders. You might even consider buying a share of stock. 2. We should make all investment banks become reporting partnerships (meaning they still have the same reporting requirements they have today ). 3. Crazy ? 4.
What If We Paid Off The Debt? The Secret Government Report : Planet Money Planet Money has obtained a secret government report outlining what once looked like a potential crisis: The possibility that the U.S. government might pay off its entire debt. It sounds ridiculous today. But not so long ago, the prospect of a debt-free U.S. was seen as a real possibility with the potential to upset the global financial system. We recently obtained the report through a Freedom of Information Act Request. The report is called "Life After Debt". This was seen in many ways as good thing. "It was a huge issue ... for not just the U.S. economy, but the global economy," says Diane Lim Rogers, an economist in the Clinton administration. The U.S. borrows money by selling bonds. But the U.S. has been issuing bonds for so long, and the bonds are seen as so safe, that much of the world has come to depend on them. Banks buy hundreds of billions of dollars' worth, because they're a safe place to park money. Mortgage rates are tied to the interest rate on U.S. treasury bonds.
Building a better brain: Strengthening your mental muscle According to the newest theory of aging and memory , you can build your brain power through a process called "scaffolding." As we get older, some of our neural circuits don't work as well they used to. You probably know that painful little brain blip when you're trying to remember the name that goes with a person you haven't seen for a while or when you walk into a room and forgot why you went there. It feels like something just isn't clicking the way it should. It turns out that successful brain agers do have these experiences but they find clever ways to overcome them by switching on new circuits when old ones fail. For many years, proponents of the "plasticity" model of brain aging have been at war with the "neural fallout" advocates. We also know that aging spares the vital function known as "procedural memory," which is your ability to remember how to perform many of the actions that make up your daily activities. But it's not only your mental muscle that you need to exercise.
How Republicans Convinced Fundamentalists To Support Their Corporatist Agenda There are many religious people who believe that their god controls every aspect of their lives, and for them, relinquishing control of their existence to a deity makes sense. The problem is that it also excuses them from any form of self-responsibility as well as giving their religion’s leaders power to manipulate them to behave and choose a particular political ideology based on their faith. It is unfortunate that in America, fundamentalist Christians support conservative economic policies that are against their own self-interests because Republicans portray the government as an overreaching entity that is in competition with the bible and its prohibition on gays, women’s rights, and freedom of religion. Republicans and their teabagger minions use anti-government rhetoric to convince fundamentalists that corporations and the wealthy are being overtaxed and over-regulated by the godless government and it has fostered support for conservative ideals that are destroying the economy.
'Deadly Monopolies'? Patenting The Human Body In 1980, the Supreme Court ruled that living, human-made microorganisms could be patented by their developers. The ruling opened the gateway for cells, tissues, genetically modified plants and animals, and genes to be patented. In the past 30 years, more than 40,000 patents have been granted on genes alone, says medical ethicist Harriet Washington. In her new book, Deadly Monopolies, Washington details how our tissues and genes are increasingly being patented by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Those firms, she argues, are focused more on their profits than on the medical needs of patients. Restrictive patents on genes prevent competition that can keep the medical cost of treatment down, says Washington. "[The patient] was told that he had to come to [the physician's] lab for tests ... in the name of vigilance to treat his cancer and keep him healthy," says Washington. The Relationship Between Universities And Pharmaceutical Companies "Edward R. hide caption
The Demographics Of Occupy Wall Street Coverage of the technology at Occupy Wall Street focuses on the neat-o, young-people elements such as Twitter, Facebook, live streaming video, and a sleepover atmosphere. But Occupy Wall Street also employs the kind of heavy-duty data crunching and analysis found at marketing firms and universities. In fact, two of the volunteers, business analyst Harrison Schultz and professor Hector R. Some of the results are to be expected. Among the findings: They aren’t all kids. It’s not all students and the educated elite. “Get a job!” “Tax the rich!” It may be a party, but not that kind. Not everyone tweets. While interesting, the survey is still a rough cut, with some gaps. And so far, according to the survey, Occupy Wall Street would qualify as stuff white people like. On a personal note, I have noticed plenty of both at the park and the marches.