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[Frenchfry]

Who really won Wisconsin?
by Jim Hightower

"Scott Walker Wins Wisconsin," screamed headlines across the country after the labor-bashing incumbent governor hung onto his job in the June 5 recall election.

Well, yes... but no. Walker will get to stay in office for the rest of his term, but he did not win the election ­ money did. This was a victory for the Citizens United edict issued two years ago by a five-man corporatist majority on the Supreme Court. Their anti-democracy ruling opened the door for unlimited sums of corporate cash to barge into our national, state, and local elections... and take charge. Walker is the first
ugly sprouting of that alien seed.

He sacked up some $30 million from corporate interests ­ nearly eight times the money that his Democratic opponent had to spend ­ and two-thirds of Walker's stockpile came from out-of-state interests. Bob
Perry, for example, an anti-labor, anti-government Texas tycoon, put more than half-a-million bucks into his Wisconsin soul mate's campaign. Likewise, the far-out DeVos family from the Amway fortune gave a quarter-million
dollars, as did Las Vegas casino baron Sheldon Adelson.

Then came the insidious, secretive, "outside" campaigns that the Supremes green-lighted, allowing corporations to dump mountains of their cash into elections. The multibillionaire, laissez-fairyland Koch brothers, for example, shoved at least $3 million behind Walker ­ practically all of which went to vituperously-negative attacks on his opponent.

So ­ some victory! Honest conservatives might take cheer that Walker still clings to the governor's chair, but there can be no joy in the fact that money rules. That's the lesson of this election, and that's the real fight. To join it, go to Public Citizen's grassroots rebellion: www.democracyisforpeople.org.

"A Brutal Night in Wisconsin,"
www.progressive.org, June 6, 2012.

"Right-Wing Media Disappear Fact That Conservative Money Swamped Union
Message in Wisconsin,"
www.mediamatters.org, June 6, 2012.

"Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest: Scott Walker survives recall, but
Democrats take state Senate,"
www.dailykos.com, June 6, 2012

"Legal Cloud gathers over Scott Walker as recall election approaches,"
www.thedailypage.com, June 3, 2012.

"GOP outplaying its Wisconsin hand,"
www.dailykos.com, June 6, 2012.
http://www.jimhightower.com/node/7764

[Frenchfry]

A big bank's big lies

In the realm of prevarication, there are deceivers, fibbers, liars... and Bank of America.

For weeks, this financial behemoth has been running a nationwide PR blitz, portraying itself as a loveable bunch of public-spirited bankers ­never mind its two taxpayer bailouts, constant fee gouging, illegal foreclosures on homeowners, firing of 36,000 employees, etc. Before you believe a word that these "truth adjusters" say, note that they've even been caught lying outright to their own shareholders, the owners of the bank!

Following the 2007-2008 Wall Street collapse, not only did BOA get a $15 billion bailout, but it was also allowed to get bigger by snapping up the foundering investment giant, Merrill Lynch. To win shareholder approval of this merger, the bank's top executives issued a rosy assessment of the takeover, promising golden profits within a year or so.

Court documents in a shareholder lawsuit, however, recently revealed that the honchos, including the CEO, knew at the time of the shareholder vote that the numbers were "materially false" and that swallowing Merrill would choke the owners with billions of dollars in losses. Moreover, the deal struck by the geniuses at the top was so bad that they knew they would have to get a second federal bailout of $20 billion to stave off total collapse. Shareholders, who were told none of this, unwittingly voted to okay the merger.

Even BOA's top lawyer was kept in the dark. When he learned of the big lie two days after the shareholder vote, he tried to talk to top executives about the need to admit the ruse. Instead, the next day, the lawyer was summarily fired and escorted from the bank without even being allowed to collect his personal belongings.

Forget the PR perfume that BOA's now spritzing around, Bank of America stinks to its core.

"Merrill Loses Were Hidden Before Merger," New York Times, June 4, 2012.

"Bailed out banks,"
www.cnn.com

"CNNMoney.com's bailout tracker,"
www.cnn.com
http://www.jimhightower.com/node/7767

[Frenchfry]

Plumbing the depths of right-wing h*ll

If you've followed the bouncing political ball through the past 30 years, you know that it has led us straight down the rabbit hole of right-wing extremism – from Ronald Reagan's almost-quaint conservatism to today's kooky, Koch-headed, right-wing fanaticism.

Surely, you might think, this dive has finally bottomed out, that it's both physically and metaphysically impossible to plunge any deeper into the darkness of political screwballism, right? Well, buckle up, for here comes Dr. James Kroll, trying to bore through the bottom and suck American politics down into the abyss of rabid, mad-dog right-wingism.

Kroll is a wildlife biologist from (where else?) Texas, and he's preaching that the problems with the Koch brothers' anti-government, laissez-fairyland extremism is that it just doesn't go far enough. Privatizing Social Security and public schools, says the professor, is child's play – but what about hunting?

Kroll is on a tear to eliminate the abomination of allowing hoi-polloi hunters to pursue game on public lands. If you want to hunt, he howls, you should pay to enter posted corporate preserves that are bounded by eight-foot fences and even-higher fees. He disparages those who support public parklands as "cocktail conservationists" and says hunters who want access to such lands are people who're "pining for socialism." Even worse, asserts Kroll, are government efforts to assure sustainable game management on public lands, calling it "the last bastion of communism."

Lest you think he's just a loopy voice in the nettlesome wilderness of privatization, Kroll's rabid right-wingism is already being embraced by the governors of Texas and Wisconsin. So look out, apparently the depths of no-government ideology go all the way down to right-wing hell.

"Public Game Management Is The Last Bastion Of Communism" Dr. James Kroll-Walker Appointed Deer Trustee!!" www.lodivalleynews.com, April 17, 2012.
http://www.jimhightower.com/node/7774

[Frenchfry]

Time to focus on the "Doug Jones Average"

To measure how our economy is doing, media outlets keep a constant eye on the Dow Jones Average. But they're like cats watching the wrong mouse hole, for the great majority of Americans have between zero and next-to-nothing in the stock market.

The economic measure that matters most to most folks is the Doug Jones Average. The Doug is concerned about such key indicators as the pump price on a gallon of regular, the subprime value of today's seven-and-a-quarter minimum wage, and the impact of global inflationary pressures on the cost of a six-pack.

So, how're Doug and Dottie Jones doing? The number crunchers at the Federal Reserve have just answered that for us: not well, not well at all. In its latest Survey of Consumer Finances, the Fed found that from 2007 to 2010, all but the wealthiest 10 percent of American households have been downwardly-mobile. The median net worth of U.S. households tumbled in these four years by a startling 39 percent, falling to the lowest level in 20 years.

In short, Americans are not merely feeling poorer ­ they are. Foreclosures, lost jobs, wage declines, and other reductions (combined with rising costs of everything from gasoline to child care) have become the norm, shoving many proud middle-classers into poverty. Yet, Washington remains fixated on the Dow Jones Average and the stock market elite, with Republican leaders even clamoring for a return to the disastrous policies of tinkle-down economics that caused this decline.

Meanwhile, three-fourths of Americans today have more invested in their aging cars than in stocks ­with the consumer economy busted, America's cars are now, on average, 11 years old. Restoring American prosperity begins with restoring the Joneses to the middle class ­ percolate up economics, not tinkle down.

"Drivers hang on to aging vehicles," Austin American Statesman, June 18, 2012.

"Details of the plight of the lower 90%," Austin American Statesman, June 17, 2012.
http://www.jimhightower.com/node/7777

[Frenchfry]

A crass betrayal of America's middle class

To know which way the economic winds are blowing, just check such newspaper headlines as these: "Underemployed and Underpaid," "Shrinking Consumers," "Economy Leaving Lost Generation."

This devastating economic hurricane is not the natural product of market forces, as the financial elite want us to believe. Rather it's a direct hit from the ethos of plutocratic greed that now prevails among a cabal of our country's corporate and governmental decision makers. They keep putting the short-term, selfish interests of the few over the future well-being of America's many -­ national interest be damned.

Another recent headline offers a galling example of this shortsighted avarice in action: "China Takes Tech Tips from Silicon Valley." The story behind the headline is that Chinese officials have launched a crash program to zoom their country into the lead of the world's "knowledge economy," by surpassing our country as the entrepreneurial innovator and owner of the high-tech future. And, guess who's helping them make this Great Leap Forward over the USA? Our own venture capitalists, corporate executives, and university officials, that's who.

You might recall that only a dozen years ago, America's middle-class workers were told not to worry about the offshoring of their good-paying manufacturing jobs, because their future lay in the new knowledge-based economy. As we now see, that was a lie, for Silicon Valley itself is presently hightailing it to China.

China. Chasing quick profits for themselves, U.S. firms are transferring our technical knowledge, competitive edge, and middle class future nearly 7,000 miles away from us. Why is this crass betrayal of America's workaday families not even being talked about in this year's elections? To help raise hell, go to: www.AmericanManufacturing.org.

"China takes tech tips from Silicon Valley," Austin American Statesman, June 17, 2012.

"Economy leaving 'lost generation,' Austin American Statesman, May 29, 2012.

Lost in Recession, Toll on Underemployed and Underpaid, New York Times, June
19, 2012.
http://www.jimhightower.com/node/7779

[marilyn.monroe]

Good article, FF.

The top banner on the American Manufacturing site reads:

"The Bay Bridge 100% Foreign Steel"

And that was an "American" bridge. Think what they will do to us in Detroit!

[Frenchfry]

Plutocratic political hacks now rule the Supreme Court

"Two wrongs don't make a right," as my old Texas momma used to say. But apparently, five of the justices on our Supreme Court didn't have mommas with such ethical sensibilities – or perhaps they're just ignoring their mommas' wisdom now in order to impose their extremist political agenda on you and me.

That agenda became astonishingly clear in 2010 when the black-robed cabal of Alito, Kennedy, Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas hung their infamous Citizens United edict around America's neck. It allowed unlimited sums of corporate cash to spew into our elections, effectively legalizing the wholesale purchase of America's elected officials. In his decision, Supreme joker Anthony Kennedy drew from his deep well of political ignorance and judicial arrogance to declare that these gushers of special interest money "do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption."

Is he on the Court or in a comedy club? Not only were Kennedy and his fellow corporatists wrong on the substance of their decree, but also ridiculously wrong on the politics. You don't need a law degree to see that CEOs are presently flooding the presidential and congressional races with hundreds of millions of corporate campaign dollars, gleefully corrupting the political process to buy government policy for their own gain.

And now the same five judicial extremists have added a third egregious wrong to their agenda of turning The People's rights over to soulless corporations. On June 25, they struck down a century-old Montana law (enacted directly by the people through a 1912 initiative vote) that banned corporate money from corrupting that state's elections.

These five are not merely judicial activists – they’re dangerous political hacks fronting for corporate power to pull off a plutocratic coup on America.

"Court stands firm on political spending rule," Austin American Statesman, June 26, 2012.

"Montana seeks to preserve its election finance system," Austin American Statesman, June, 2012.
http://www.jimhightower.com/node/7782

[Frenchfry]

The tacky "Yard Sale" of our public spaces

Question of the day: Should the people's property – by which I mean such basic public items as police vehicles, subway stations, and fire hydrants – be rented out as commercial billboards for hyping corporate products? Answer: Of course not!

But it's happening anyway. For example, after Littleton, Massachussets, made an "advertise with the good guys" pitch, a supermarket chain bought ad space on the town's police cars. Philadelphia has rebranded its Pattison subway station as the "AT&T Station," even plastering the telecom giant's logo on each turnstile. And in Syracuse, the sheriff's office plans to adorn its rescue helicopters with ads.

Who benefits from this crass commercialization of public spaces? Corporate sponsors, for sure. As one ad executive bluntly noted, we're always seeking "another place for eyeballs to be looking at [ads]." And, of course, public agencies get a bit of extra cash from these sell-out deals – but at what price? A sheriff's official in Syracuse admits that "some people are a little put off by the idea that we're getting sponsorship for what used to be a government duty."

Yes – count me as one of those people! AT&T, for example, didn't pay for that subway and has no right to treat it as its private billboard. Government officials rationalize this tacky "yard sale" as a way to get revenue without raising taxes, but that's just a political dodge, for providing adequate tax revenue for essential government services is their job. Gut it up – instead of privatizing a piece of the public for a pittance of AT&T's self-promotion money, tax AT&T! You'd get the same level of funding or more, while protecting the public's trust in the integrity of public service.

To learn more, go to Public Citizen's Commercial Alert Project: www.CommercialAlert.org.

"Your Ad Here, On a Firetruck? Broke Cities Sell Naming Rights," The new York Times, June 25, 2012.
http://www.jimhightower.com/node/7786

[Frenchfry]

The pouty GOP's farcical hissy fit

By gollies, you've got to hand it to those Republicans in Congress – they're a tenacious bunch! No, not tenacious. More like dogmatic. Obstinate, and obtuse, too. Pigheaded – yeah, that's it.

Once again, on July 11, GOP lawmakers threw a group hissy fit on the floor of the House over the Affordable Care Act that President Obama and the Democrats passed two years ago – a law the Supreme Court has just recently ruled to be constitutional. The House Repubs hate, hate, hate that law. So, all 244 GOP members pursed their lips in a collective pout and voted in lock step to repeal the blanket-blank ACA. That'll show Obama who's boss, they crowed!

Well, not really, since their "repeal" won't pass the senate, much less get past the President's veto pen. But these pouty solons are not really interested in legislating – they're into political peacocking, putting on a show for the fans in the far-right-wing bleachers. And apparently it's an interminable farce, for this was the 31st time that they've voted to repeal the law! Thirty-one replays with the same do-nothing result. Don't they have real work to do? At some point (probably back at about vote number 20 or 25) they crossed over from appearing ideologically steadfast… to just plain stupid.

They snidely assailed the health care reform as "Obamacare," as though that's a pejorative. But as the law has begun taking affect, more and more Americans are liking it, because it produces real benefits for us. Thirty million people who've had no coverage now will get it. Millions of seniors will get help in affording prescription drugs, plus all of us will get some relief from insurance company. "Obamacare" is fast becoming a label of pride.

If I was Obama, I'd run on it – and go after the petty politicos who're trying to take away the benefits it provides for people.
http://www.jimhightower.com/node/7796

[Frenchfry]

The hidden ugliness behind Romney's gleaming smile

What a blessing to have Mitt Romney as the Republican nominee for president!

It's a blessing because he is a living portrait of Mr. Wall Street Man, and, as his candidacy unfolds, it's allowing us commoners to get a peek into how the privileged few rig the rules for their own gain – at our expense. Romney is, of course, a full-fledged initiate in the Uppermost One-Tenth of 1-Percenters Club, with at least a quarter-billion dollars stashed away, and apparently much more that he's trying to hide from voters. It's not his wealth, however, that's troubling – we've had many rich politicians who've become admirable servants of the common good. Rather, it's how he got his… and where he's put it.

The "how" has now been well documented: Romney's corporate takeover outfit, Bain Capital, practiced the hocus-pocus of legalized Wall Street robbery known as private equity deals. Bain continues to put millions in Mitt's pocket, even as it has bankrupted companies, cut thousands of jobs, and slashed workers' pay.

But where did he put his booty? We don't know about all of it, for Romney keeps playing hide-and-seek with it, refusing to release his tax returns or fully report his holdings on legally-required disclosure forms. Good investigative reporters, however, are now digging out some rich nuggets, such as his secret, $3 million Swiss bank account that has been used to bet against the U.S. dollar. That's legal, I guess, but not nice.

Also uncovered is his tax shelter in the Cayman Islands, where he uses a tricky dodge called a "blocker corporation" to shield his IRA investments from business taxes… and from public scrutiny. Other assets turn out to be hidden in offshore accounts and tax havens in Australia, Bermuda, Luxembourg, and elsewhere.

How sneaky! As the old saying goes, Romney can run, but he can't hide.

"Mr. Romney's Financial Black Hole," The New York Times, " July 11, 2012.

"Do You Own A Secret Corporation In Bermuda?" www.thinkprogress.org, July 5, 2012.
http://www.jimhightower.com/node/7797

[Frenchfry]

Let's consider the GOP's health care plan

Here's some useful advice from an old country saying: Never try to teach table manners to a pig – it doesn't work, it'll wear you out, and it just annoys the pig.

The same advice goes for anyone who thinks they can teach even a bit of common sense to the preening political ideologues who've taken over the Republican Party and the U.S. House of Representatives. As we've seen in their incessant, pigheaded attacks on the new health care bill, their minds are not merely fogged up with extremist anti-government theories, their heads are impervious to rational thought.

They failed to defeat Obamacare in 2010, despite using the despicable (and false) scare tactic of telling people the law authorized "death panels" to euthanize "grandma." Now they're trying to repeal the law by getting people to swallow their hogwash that it contains "a massive tax hike on the middle class." Really? No. One, it's not massive; two, it's a payment for a direct benefit that people will receive, namely decent health care coverage; three, very few people will have to pay the so-called "tax" at all; and four, many people and small business will get tax credits and federal assistance to offset the cost of their payments.

The greatest failure of these Repubs, however, is that they offer no alternative to Obamacare. During the debate on their latest attempt to repeal the law a Democratic lawmaker asked for a copy of the GOP's health care plan so he could read it aloud to other members. Silence in the chamber. They have no plan.

The Republicans' political slogan has been to "repeal and replace" Obama's reform, but they've since dropped the replace part, saying they can't offer an alternative until they complete the repeal.

No surprise – I doubt this bunch can walk and chew gun at the same time.

"GOP propels repeal bill through House," Austin American Statesman, July 12, 2012.
http://www.jimhightower.com/node/7798

[Frenchfry]

Who needs Wall Street giants?

JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and the other Wall Street behemoths that dominate American banking – who needs 'em?

After enduring years of insatiable greed by the slick-fingered hucksters who run these gambling houses; after watching in dismay as their ineptness and avarice drained more than $19 trillion from America’s household wealth since 2007 and plunged our real economy into financial crisis; after seeing them get trillions-of-dollars in taxpayer bailouts to save their banks and their jobs; and now after learning that they've returned to paying multimillion-dollar bonuses to themselves – we have to ask: Huh!?!

Oh, no-no, cry the banking titans, don’t even think of looking behind the curtain! Trust us, for we are essential to juicing the economy with our complex abracadabra investment schemes.

In fact, however, those schemes just move money around, siphoning real investment capital from the grassroots up to superrich global profiteers. Shell games at carnival sideshows are more honest than big-bank trading houses, for the hustles of JPMorgan, Goldman, BOA, etc. are based on financial illusions, off-the-books accounting, illegally-leveraged borrowing, ridiculous tax subsidies, and hide-the-pea secrecy.

The obvious truth is that these high-flying, high-tech, high-speed emporiums of high finance serve themselves, not us – so we have no obligation or need to keep serving them. Of course we need banks – to lend to us consumers and our productive businesses, to handle our commercial transactions, to manage our savings and provide financial advice, etc. But that’s not what the leviathans of Wall Street do. So, rather than protecting them, let’s decentralize America’s capital, reinvesting our public trust in community banks and credit unions that actually serve it... and deserve it.

"The Modest Worth of Big Banks," www.nytimes.com, May 23, 2012.
http://www.jimhightower.com/node/7799

[Frenchfry]

Cleaning up the stench of Washington lobbyists

Even a hog must sometimes gag at the stench of its own sty. Maybe that's why some corporate lobbyists have launched a campaign to spiff-up K-Street, Washington's corridor of shameless high-dollar influence peddlers.

The pay-to-play profession is so soiled and stinky that even the odious Newt Gingrich couldn't stand it, claiming in his hapless presidential run this year that he's a corporate "consultant" – NOT a lobbyist. Adding to the industry's reputation for ick is the sight of Jack Abramoff, the convicted sleazeball lobbying hustler who's now on a "Remorse Tour," charging groups across the country $10,000 a pop to hear him talk about – get this – ethics reform!

Sad to say, but lobbying is a huge, and hugely profitable industry. There are 535 members of Congress, one president, and 23 cabinet officers in charge of our national government, but they are constantly swarmed by 12,000 registered Washington lobbyists! These hired guns hauled in $3.3 billion last year for helping Big Oil, Big Banks, and other Biggies gouge us.

Unsurprisingly, the American people are disgusted by them. So, the head of the American League of Lobbyists (yes, lobbyists have their own lobbying group) now says that a spritz of magnolia-scented Glade or maybe one of those pine-tree-shaped air fresheners is needed to improve K-Street's smell. Would he include actually staunching the stench by banning lobbyists from doling out campaign cash to lawmakers they're hustling? Oh, gosh no – that might actually work! Instead, the lobbyists' lobbyists is proposing less pungent reforms like giving "ethics training" to those in the trade. Wow – imagine how that would've changed Jack Abramoff!

To make real change in this corrupt system, check with the people's watchdog group, Public Citizen. Go to www.citizen.org.

"Tired of 'Tainted' Image, Lobbyists Try Makeover," The New York Times, May 4, 2012.
http://www.jimhightower.com/node/7801

[Frenchfry]

The spreading corporate crime wave

Can it really be a surprise that four out of five Americans have little-to-zero trust in big banks, that 62 percent of us believe corruption is widespread across Corporate America, and that three-fourths of us sense that business corruption has increased in the past three years? We have these views because we keep having their ugliness thrust in our faces.

Even after the scandalous greed that crashed Wall Street five years ago, the epidemic of fraud and finagling continues, with Bank of America, Barclay, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase among the blue-chip names just recently in the news for gross violations of fundamental ethics by their top executives. Yet, not a single one of these felonious profiteers has had to do a perp walk. Add BP, ExxonMobil, the Cayman Island tax dodgers, and the wholesale corporate purchase of our government – and the only wonder is how even 20 percent of the public can retain any trust in these rapacious outfits.

This ethical devolution is not about a few (or even many) rogues, but about a whole corporate culture of entitlement, thinking they're above both the law and common morality. Check out a recent survey of 500 senior financial executives. A hundred and twenty-five of them – one fourth! – said they thought that engaging in unethical or illegal behavior on the job was sometimes necessary to be successful. Twenty-six percent said they had firsthand knowledge of executive wrongdoing, and 30 percent said the way they get paid creates incentives to violate ethical standards and the law.

The injustice is not just in the crimes, but also in the lack of punishment. If this corporate crime wave consisted of simple street robberies, Washington would declare martial law to deal with it! But, even if caught, these muggers get off with a corporate fine. The scandal will keep spreading – until someone has the guts to start jailing the culprits.

"The spreading Scourge Of Corporate Corruption," The New York Times, July 11, 2012.

"Wall Street Executives Believe Employees Need To Engage In Illegal Behavior To Succeed," www.thinkprogress.org, July 10, 2012.
http://www.jimhightower.com/node/7802

[Frenchfry]

"Double-S.O.B.s" keep making a killing

It's true that America's working stiffs are mostly stuck in the muck of depression these days, spinning their economic wheels with low wages that can't even keep pace with inflation. Still, though, there are some good news stories about some who're doing well – such as David Simon.

Through good' ol American ingenuity and hard work, Dave quintupled his pay last year, pocketing $68,500! An hour. In the previous year, poor Dave was only paid about $13,000 an hour, but apparently he really applied himself in 2011 and was rewarded with an annual paycheck of $137 million. See, the American dream is still alive for those who believe in it (and who happen to be CEOs of corporations with compliant boards of directors that lavish shareholder money on the chief).

David is honcho of Simon Properties, a shopping mall operator, and he topped the list of last year's most-richly rewarded executives. While typical American workers saw their pay barely inch up by a meager one-percent in 2011 – a sum totally eaten up (and them some) by the price increases for gasoline, groceries, rent, and other essentials – the typical corporate chieftain socked away $9.6 million. It would take 244 years on the job for a typical employee to make what those bosses hauled off in one year.

Especially galling is the sight of such CEOs as Brian Moynihan cashing in. The boss of Bank of America, Moynihan's pay jumped by 600 percent last year, even as his bank was foundering. BOA's stock value has plummeted by 81 percent on his watch, some 36,000 employees are getting pink slips, and the bailed-out behemoth has become widely despised for ruthlessly (and often illegally) foreclosing on people's homes.

Such gross inequities, caused by CEO greed and narcissism, is why more and more Americans spell "boss" backwards: Double-S.O.B.

"CEOs earned more in 2011," Austin American Statesman," May 26, 2012.

"The Bank at America," Austin American Statesman, May 13, 2012.
http://www.jimhightower.com/node/7804