US Sleeping Giant in Solar

With enough solar-generating capacity in the American southwest alone to meet the nation’s electricity needs seven times over, the U.S. is the sleeping giant of the global solar industry.

Clipped from www.sungevity.com

Green Jobs

Home Solar creates green jobs.

One bright spot in the US economy over the past few years has been the growth in green jobs. In 2009, the solar industry created 17,000 new jobs in the USA alone. California, in particular, has seen much of this upside. According to Next 10, a non-partisan think tank, California has enjoyed 36% green job growth, compared to 13% overall job growth, since 1995. In 2007-08, green job growth in California grew by 5% while total jobs fell 1%. Read more at www.sungevity.com

 

Renewable Energy is Key to TBTF

The Solar industry could be the key to eliminating too big to fail - that is the industry is a better fit for small and local businesses rather than large mega corporations and banks

Check out this podcast on iTunes:

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=135363982

Replace CFTC's Dunn @barackobama

http://www.plattsenergyweektv.com/story.aspx?storyid=117396&ca...

 

 

Pledge Allegiance to the Corporate State

URL:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-moore/america-is-...

 

 

Did you support the Big Transfer of Wealth to the 400? 400 people have 50% of America's wealth. 6 banks control an unheard of percentage of the US assets.

Goldman Bonus Contracts Are Sacrosanct

URL:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/07/state-pension-...

 

 

When news of Goldmanesque bonuses first sparked public outrage, both Wall Street and the White House combated the criticism with a persistent argument: Yes, it might be deeply frustrating to see taxpayer dollars used to further enrich already wealthy bankers, but these bonus deals were were contractual obligations and America is a nation of laws. You just can't tear up contracts, the argument went. So, with few exceptions, the bonuses stayed.

Yet now, with state leaders planning pay cuts for teachers, firefighters and other public workers, contracts aren't described as so sacrosanct anymore...

Yes. OUTRAGE IS NECESSARY!!!

Why are Goldman compensation contracts sacrosanct when pension plans and collective bargaining rights for teachers are not??

Civil War in Ex Colonies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_war#Civil_wars_in_the_19th_...

 

 

Following World War II, the major European powers divested themselves of their colonies at an increasing rate: the number of ex-colonial states jumped from about 30 to almost 120 after the war. The rate of state formation leveled off in the 1980s, at which point few colonies remained.[20] More states also meant more states in which to have long civil wars. Hironaka statistically measures the impact of the increased number of ex-colonial states as increasing the post-WWII incidence of civil wars by +165% over the pre-1945 number.[21]

Global Ideological Warfare

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_war#Civil_wars_in_the_19th_...

 

 

The two major global ideologies, monarchism and democracy, led to several civil wars. However, a bi-polar world, divided between the two ideologies, did not develop, largely due the dominance of monarchists through most of the period.

The monarchists would thus normally intervene in other countries to stop democratic movements taking control and forming democratic governments, which were seen by monarchists as being both dangerous and unpredictable.

The Great Powers, defined in the 1815 Congress of Vienna as the United Kingdom, Habsburg Austria, Prussia, France, and Russia, would frequently coordinate interventions in other nations' civil wars, nearly always on the side of the incumbent government.

Given the military strength of the Great Powers, these interventions were nearly always decisive and quickly ended the civil wars.[16]

Buried Secrets About Lincoln Exposed

URL:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_lincoln_colonization

 

 

I mean buried on purpose to hide the truth. Wow. This is serious. The Civil War COULD NOT have been fought over slavery if freedom was the warning...

Read on:

Abraham Lincoln's ... jarring remarks in 1862 to a White House audience of free blacks, urging them to leave the U.S. and settle in Central America.

Lincoln continued to support colonization, engaging in secret diplomacy with the British to establish a colony in British Honduras, now Belize.

Lincoln even referred to colonization in the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, his September 1862 warning to the South that he would free all slaves in Southern territory if the rebellion continued

Would GOP rid NFL of its Union?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Football_League_Player...

 

 

MegaCorps: Destroying The Middle Class

Why Aren't Corps Paying Their Taxes?

This is a great podcast - as always from Chris L Hayes. A similar conversation was started in the "Your Call" broadcast with Rose Aguilar, KALW

Clipped from www.thenation.com

The Breakdown: Why Aren't Corporations Paying Their Taxes?

While pressure mounts for both sides of the aisle to pursue more fiscally responsible budget plans in Washington and around the country, many are rightly wondering why generating more revenue from uncollected corporate taxes isn't on the agenda. There's even a citizens’ movement called US Uncut afoot to hold corporations accountable for their tax evasion. On this week's episode of The Breakdown, DC editor Chris Hayes talks with Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist David Cay Johnston about the manifold maneuvers corporations carry out in order to avoid paying their share of contributions to civil society.  Read more at www.thenation.com

 

Democrats Outnumber Republicans 72m to 55m in Registered Voters

Wow. Didnt know that.

Clipped from en.wikipedia.org

Political party strength in U.S. states From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Registered Democrats, Republicans and independents in the United States as of January 2004.[1] Throughout most of the 20th century, although the Republican and Democratic parties alternated in power at a national level, some states were so overwhelmingly dominated by one party that nomination was usually tantamount to election. This was especially true in the Solid South, where the Republican Party was virtually nonexistent for the best part of a century, from the end of Reconstruction in the late 1870s to the 1960s. Conversely, the New England states of Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire were Republican bastions, as were some Midwestern states like Iowa and North Dakota. However, in the 1970s and 1980s, the increasingly conservative Republican Party gradually overtook the Democrats, whose support had been eroded by the Civil rights movement and its perceived liberal social policies. In the 1990s, the Republicans finally overtook the Democrats in holding majorities in statehouses and governorships in the South. In New England, the opposite trend took place; the former Republican strongholds of Maine and Vermont became solidly Democratic, as did formerly Republican areas of New Jersey, New York, and other states. Currently, the majority of the overall number of seats held in the state legislatures has been switching between the two parties every few years. As of the U.S. gubernatorial elections of 2010, the Republican party holds an outright majority of approximately 440 with 3,890 seats (53% of total) compared to the Democratic party's number of 3,450 (47% of total) seats elected on a partisan ballot.[2] Of the 7,382 seats in all of the state legislatures combined, independents and third parties account for only 15 members, not counting the 49 members of the Nebraska Legislature, which is the only legislature in the nation to hold non-partisan elections to determine its members. Due to the results of the 2010 elections, Republicans took control of an additional 19 state legislative chambers, giving them majority control of both chambers in 25 states versus the Democrats' majority control of both chambers in only 16 states, with 8 states having split or inconclusive control of both chambers (not including Nebraska); previous to the 2010 elections, it was Democrats who controlled both chambers in 27 states versus the Republican party having total control in only 14 states, with eight states divided and Nebraska being nonpartisan.[3] Read more at en.wikipedia.org

 

NRA and Guns in the USA

Another disgraceful problem in the US cause by the fear mongering right wing political apparatus that supports this unhealthy hobby of owning a gun.

Clipped from en.wikipedia.org

Gun violence in the United States From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This article is about gun violence in the United States. For gun violence globally, see Gun violence. 1901 assassination of President William McKinley by Leon Czolgosz, using a revolver, at the Pan-American Exposition reception in Buffalo, New York. McKinley died eight days later from his wounds. Gun violence in the United States is an intensely debated political issue in the United States. Gun related violence is most common in poor urban areas and in conjunction with gang violence, often involving juveniles or young adults.[1][2] Gun violence is not new in the United States, with the assassinations of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865, and of Presidents James Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy. High profile gun violence incidents, such as the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and, more recently, the Columbine High School massacre, the Beltway sniper attacks, the Virginia Tech massacre, and the 2011 Tucson shooting, have also fueled debate over gun policies.[3] Read more at en.wikipedia.org

 

Is Corporate Tyranny Destroying America? Pt 3

Although the United States has the second highest statutory corporate tax, the background paper reports that U.S. corporate income tax revenue (federal and state) as a percentage of GDP paradoxically is much lower than the OECD average — 2.2 percent in the United States versus an OECD average of 3.4 percent — over the 2000-2005 period. In short, the OECD data present a conundrum — the United States has the second highest combined statutory corporate tax rate among OECD countries, yet is tied with Hungary in raising the fourth lowest amount of combined corporate income tax revenue relative to GDP in 2004

Clipped from www.taxanalysts.com

The Corporate Tax Conundrum by Peter R. Merrill In conjunction with a conference on business taxation and global competitiveness, the Treasury Department on July 26, 2007, released a background paper on the taxation of business income in the United States. The background paper describes the taxation of corporate and noncorporate businesses in the United States, compares the U.S. corporate tax system with that of its major trading partners, and describes the major economic distortions caused by the U.S. rules for taxing income from capital. The background paper reports that the United States has the second highest combined (federal and state) statutory corporate income tax rate among the 30 member countries of the OECD. At 39 percent, the U.S. combined statutory corporate tax rate is reported to be 8 percentage points higher than the OECD average. More recent data collected by the OECD show that the OECD average corporate tax rate has fallen to 28.4 percent in 2006, almost 11 percentage points below the U.S. tax rate. This gap continues to widen. Legislation has been enacted further reducing corporate tax rates in Germany (from 38.9 percent to 29.8 percent), the United Kingdom (from 30 percent to 28 percent), and Denmark (from 28 percent to 25 percent). Read more at www.taxanalysts.com

 

Is Corporate Tyranny Destroying America? Pt 2

Why do larger corporations pay fewer taxes as a percentage of their revenues than smaller businesses?

Walmart not only squeezes its supply chain so hard they cannot generate a profit and end up going out of business or getting acquired until there are only 2-4 players in that sector, but they also force small local businesses out of business by pricing them out of the market. There are at least 5 billionaires in the wealthiest 400 Forbes list that are from the Walton family. Thousands of small entrepreneurs forced to their knees so that the pwoer and wealth can be concentrated in the hands of a few.

How does this happen? Lobbyist. Consultants paid for by large companies influence the laws in the favor of the large companies.

High Corporate Tax Rate Is Misleading - Investing - Economy - SmartMoney.com

URL:  http://www.smartmoney.com/investing/economy/high-corpor...

 

 

Between 2000 and 2005, U.S. corporate taxes amounted to 2.2% of the GDP. The average for the 30 mostly rich member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development was 3.4%

Is Corporate Tyranny Destroying America? Pt 1

We seem to be complaining a lot lately about these items:

Healthcare - costs are skyrocketing as corporate profits are on the rise

Salaries, Benefits, and Work Opportunities for Middle America - pensions, unions, real wages are under fire as the financial crisis puts pressure on govt budgets

Wellness - sedentary lifestyles, extensive travel,

Food Quality - lower quality food caused by corporations seeking to strengthen profits by increasing production.

Environmental pollution - for example that caused by bp's oil spill in the gulf

Public education - maybe not caused by corporate tyranny :) unions could be to blame more than anything. The Race to the Top program supporting charters is a step in the right direction. Interesting how the education budget is always a target and military spending is not.

Workplace Safety - mining incidents as a result of cuts for better profitability and a cost relationship between the Govt agency that is supposed to be a watchdog, not a facilitator.

Lobbyists affect on congress and the laws may explain Govts poor performance in these areas.

Reagan said Govt is the problem and since then the GOP and supply side trickle down economics have rule the day, only creating a massivy widening gap between the rich and the poor.

Socialism is Successful? South America's Middle Class Boosts Economies : NPR

URL:  http://www.npr.org/2011/03/01/134154387/South-Americas-...

 

 

Remember all the bad press about all the socialist dictators booting our DEA and oil companies from their countries, you know the same countries that we looted with our special consultants and the IMF and World Bank...

Now they are seeing progress. Rising middle class, despite the efforts of the right wing elites who have been in power since the Spaniards left.

Libya - Like Egypt or Like Venezuela? - Must See a film by Oliver Stone

URL:  http://southoftheborderdoc.com/

 

 

South of the Border - a film by Oliver Stone - Extremely relevant documentary about Latin America. Watch the movie. Hear how South american leaders are depicted, then read this news from today.

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/01/134154387/South-Americas-Middle-Class-Consumers-Boost-Economies

Halliburton - Pure Evil

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halliburton

 

 

Why dont the deficit hawks take a chunk out of Halliburton's contracts to cut the US govt deficit?