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News, analysis, commentary, social trends, culture, politics, government, books, movies, travel, cycling and other stuff
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Facts first, logic always, truth before everything
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ONE of the biggest problems right now in America is not the future of Social Security, Medicare or federal deficits. NO. It doesn’t involve all the political screaming from the left and right in Washington, either. Not even the roadblocking tactics of the Republicans in the House and Senate. It is the fact that American corporations have not seen fit to share the wealth created by American workers with those workers: low pay.
The trend has long roots. It actually started in the 1980s when inflation was high. The management and executive staffs managed to keep up with and go ahead of inflation for their own compensation. The workers were just left out for a number of years (which fueled the desire to advance or maintain a lifestyle with debt, which came in massive amounts later). Gradually, the workers were given small raises and most of them felt pretty good about it. If you were making 150% of what you’d made ten years earlier, it seems like a good deal, but it wasn’t. Inflation had put the value of the dollar at 200% and executives were getting 300% or more in dollar terms. (I am not using actual numbers from specific periods, just using these numbers as rough examples.)
In the 1990s, downsizing swept through corporate America. That meant that hundreds of thousands of people were losing jobs. Who is going to push hard for extra pay when you are fearful of being dumped out on the street? Not many. The idea was to get more done with fewer bodies, which in turn meant either lowering the quality of products and services while keeping the price high. Try reaching “customer service” these days if you think that downsizing hasn’t had a huge impact in America. Then, of course, offshoring of jobs took an even greater toll.
During all of these years, the role of Wall Street in American business life became greater. Executives pay was tied to stock performance (a very bad idea), so laying off 10,000 people meant the executive was rewarded by a higher stock price. How’s that for a deal? Screw the employees, get a big raise. Companies became wedded to the idea of unreasonable levels of growth to please the shareholders (often big institutional shareholders with hundreds of thousands or millions of shares). There are limited ways to get growth in mature businesses and two major paths are to cut back on quality and keep wages low.
Along the way, unions were weakened. While unions in many cases made unreasonable demands that contributed nothing to productivity, they helped to keep wages higher generally in the areas of the country where they were strong. If a union job pays 30 dollars an hour, then other employers have to at least try to keep up. Weak unions have meant that everyone suffers to some degree.
That’s more or less where we are now. Workers get next to nothing in wage increases, barely keeping up with inflation, the management gets whatever it wants, and the shareholders are happy. Henry Blogett posted a detailed commentary about these tends on Linkedin and you can read it here.
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The “Boehner Rule” is being used once again being used as a means to roadblock legislation on Capitol Hill. Here is a link to the NY Times for the fuller story:
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FROM THE NY TIMES:
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In an interview with World Net Daily radio on Monday, Representative Dana Rohrabacher, Republican of California, said Mr. Boehner “should be removed as speaker” if, on immigration, he violates the “Hastert rule” an unofficial principle named for J. Dennis Hastert, a former Republican speaker who would rarely allow a vote on a bill that did not have the support of a majority of his conference.
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“All I can say right now is the US Government is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or murdering me. Truth is coming, and it cannot be stopped.”
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DEFICIT SPENDING SHRINKS...DRAMATICALLY
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FROM THE NEW YORKER MAGAZINE:
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“...the Congressional Budget Office announced that, with the economy expanding, tax revenues rising, and federal spending being restrained, the budget deficit is set to fall to about four per cent of Gross Domestic Product this year, and to 3.4 per cent next year. The latter figure is pretty close to the average for the past thirty years. At least for now, the great U.S. fiscal scare is over, not that you’d guess that from listening to the public debate in Washington.”
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These emerging facts back up what The TerryReport has been saying for the last several years: it was impossible to judge the depth of America’s “budget problems” while the country was in a deep recession. Clearly, the Republican right wanted all of us to believe that what was happening in 2008 and ‘09 represented the future for America and that future was grim. Too bad, guys, that didn’t work out. Things were never as bad as the Congressional Republicans wanted us to believe. Never.
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HERE is a link to the informative article in the New Yorker, which deals at length with why austerity is killing the European recovery and pushing it back into recession.
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DEFICIT SPENDING SHRINKS...DRAMATICALLY
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Where is the “scandal” in the IRS targeting Tea Party groups, in the IRS or in the law that allows obviously political groups to qualify for tax exempt status? Here is a clip from an article by ByKurt Eichenwald, a contributing editor of Vanity Fair magazine:
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I’m not all that outraged that the I.R.S. held up applications by Tea Party groups for tax-exempt status. I’m outraged that any of them,or their liberal counterparts,qualify for that status at all.
Unfortunately, given the way this I.R.S. scandal slid so easily into ideological definitions, I fear that few non-politicos are recognizing the real disgrace here: that the federal government, Congress, the White House, the tax agency, and the Supreme Court, ”has created a situation where blatantly political organizations are able to legally break the law by pretending they’re something that they’re not.
The key to this obscene state of affairs is an entity known as a 501(c)(4), named for the section of the tax code that created it. Supposedly, these are civic associations or organizations devoted to social welfare, which can operate tax-free, but whose donors aren’t allowed to deduct their contributions. Fair enough.
But then comes the loopholes that politicos have used to drive not only a truck through the intention of the law but a whole fleet. Unlike a wholly charitable organization, a 501(c)(4) can engage in political activities, so long as it is not its primary purpose. In other words, I could form an organization that spends 49.99999 percent of its time, energy, and money on politics and still be deemed tax exempt. In other words, you, me, every American citizen, can be providing a tax subsidy to groups that (theoretically) are spending almost half of their money on politics. It’s worse than that. Under the law, a 501(c)(4) can spend an unlimited amount of money on lobbying, so long as it is related to its “primary purpose”.€¯ So, in truth, an organization can be fully political under any rational interpretation of the meaning of that word, yet be deemed not to be primarily political under the law.
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More at this link:
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The House Futility Caucus, which consists of all 232 Republicans and 3 Democrats in the House of Representatives, has decided, once again, to vote down “Obamacare”. You gotta hand it to those guys and gals. They really know how to not get things done, repeatedly.
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IN THE NY TIMES:
By JEREMY W. PETERS
A vote planned for this week will be the 37th time House Republicans have tried to curtail or eliminate the law.
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The NY Times has a commentary (5.15.13) by Neal Gabler saying that Barbara Walters was the major factor in moving television news away from “serious” topics, blending entertainment stories into straight news.
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BARBARA WALTERS’S announcement this week that she would soon bring her long career to a close elicited the obligatory tributes to her as a trailblazer for women and an exemplary figure in broadcast journalism.
But those plaudits may not go far enough. Whether or not Ms. Walters was exemplary, she may be the single most important TV personality of the last 50 years, just not for the reasons we’ve heard. More than any other journalist, she tore down the wall separating news from entertainment, the serious from the frivolous, the public figure from the celebrity. |
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The link to the Times:
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By Eugene Robinson, Thursday, May 2, 9:07 PM
President Obama had the opportunity this week to make an irresponsible Congress face the consequences of its own dumb actions. For reasons I cannot fathom, he took a pass.
Rather than use the veto pen that must be gathering dust in some Oval Office drawer, Obama signed legislation that cushions air travelers from the effects of the crude, cruel budget cuts known as the “sequester.”The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is now allowed to shuffle funds around to avoid furloughing air-traffic controllers, thus avoiding flight delays.
At his news conference Tuesday, Obama said he agreed to sign the measure because the alternative was to “impose a whole bunch of delays on passengers.” That’s true and it’s precisely why the president should have vetoed this quick-fix bill.
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From the League of American Bicyclists, new rankings on the best states for riders, cycling, safety and enjoyment.
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May 1, 2013
We’re celebrating the first day of National Bike Month with our new Bicycle Friendly States ranking. For the sixth year in a row, Washington continues to lead the nation, with high performance in all categories. But up-and-coming states, including Delaware, Illinois and Arizona, charged up the ranking in 2013, shaking up the top 10. [...]
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FROM MS-NBC
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American job prospects make for dim May Day celebration
Ned Resnikoff, @resnikoff
7:00 AM on 05/01/2013
Arizona union supporters gather in support of comprehensive immigration reform outside the Arizona State Capitol building on March 11, 2013, in Phoenix. The rally, organized by the AFL-CIO, was the last of a national tour in support of immigration reform which protects workers’ rights. Photo by John Moore/Getty Images
For working America, the trend over the last few decades has been toward lower wages, fewer workplace rights, and diminished voice in the public sphere.
The relative obscurity of the annual May 1 International Workers’ Day celebration in the United States is perhaps emblematic of just how marginal working class concerns have become to the country’s political order.
The very first Labor Day, or International Workers’ Day (also known as May Day), took place on May 1, 1886, as a celebration of the burgeoning American labor movement and its long battle to institute the 8-hour work day. But 127 years later, the United States is one of the few developed nations not to observe Labor Day on that particular date.
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PLEASE (news media, everyone) STOP using the term lockdown. It is a meaningless word. It comes from prison where inmates are sometimes confined to their cells because of disturbances or violence in the prison. It has NO meaning in a free society where people cannot be forcibly confined to their residences. Besides meaningless, it is stupid. It sounds dramatic and interesting, but it is just stupid.
We have not yet been made prisoners in our own nation, hiding out in fear of what might be around every corner. The decision of the elected officials to ASK people to stay in their houses will be fairly and openly debated. Calling it a lockdown makes it sound like it is a normal procedure. In a democracy, it is not. We don’t have lockdowns, we don’t have martial law, we don’t have military rule. This is not a case of worrying too much about rights when people are in danger from gunfire and bombs. We have to be aware and maintain basic rights, even in times of challenge. Freedom means that adults are free to make their own decisions about when to stay inside, when to go out. That’s basic. SEE EARLIER STORIES
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From Nation of Change:
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Police State on Display
By Dave Lindorff
Boston offers a grim preview of coming attractions.
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A ROCKET OVER THE EAST COAST: One of the largest missile launches ever from Wallops Island, Virginia, occurred Sunday (4.21.13) with the success of the Antrares rocket. This photo is from Flicr. Cloudy weather prevented most people in Maryland from seeing the rocket pass above. Wallops is southwest of the DC area on the Atlantic coast. Launches have taken place there for decades, usually much smaller rockets.
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The TerryReport has ceased efforts to raise funds on behalf of Jeff Bauman, Jr., because there are numerous efforts underway through crowd funding websites that are raising significant funds for him and other victims of Monday’s bombings in Boston. We are exploring the possibility of moving the effort to one those sites.
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FROM THE WASHINGTON POST:
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One critical element in saving victims Monday, several experts said, was the use of tourniquets in the field. Joseph Blansfield, a nurse practitioner and program manager for the trauma center at Boston Medical Center, said the loss of life could have been greater if emergency medical crews had not used them to tie off the bleeding wounds of some patients as they were transported to the hospital.
“Tourniquets are a difference maker. Tourniquets can save a life,” Blansfield said. “They proved their value yesterday.”€¯ Tourniquets are part of standard care for Boston Emergency Medical Services personnel, Blansfield said. He knows because he helps train crews. Boston police, however, don’t carry them, a spokeswoman for the department said Tuesday.
Two years ago, the professional societies for surgeons and emergency physicians recommended that all ambulances carry tourniquets.
“I hope if there is a silver lining in all of this, it is that tourniquets will be more widely available across the United States,”€¯ said John B. Holcomb, chief of the Texas Trauma Institute in Houston and a retired Army colonel. “Every police officer, every firefighter and every medic should carry a tourniquet. That is the lesson from the war that the United States needs to implement.”
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This, of course, is a lesson for us all. The very “first responders” to traffic crashes and other emergencies are not the police or EMTs, they are all of us, civilians. In the absence of a formal tourniquets, almost anything that can be wrapped around a leg or an arm and then tied can be used. A belt. A shirt. A piece of a skirt. Even the leg of your pants. (Is it worth it to save someone’s life and maybe their leg, too? Yes, you can survive a little embarrassment.) Anyone who spends a lot of time on the highways should have an emergency kit in their car. Something that can be used as a tourniquet would also be a good idea.
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One of the most important parts of responding to an emergency is your mental state. In most circumstances, we automatically tell ourselves, “There is nothing I can do”. In an emergency, the first question should be: “What can I do?” Immediately after an event, no answer might come to mind, but one will likely appear within a few seconds or a minute or two. The key is to think about it beforehand. When you pass the scene of a car crash and are focused on what happened, this is a good time to consider what it was like immediately after the crash and think about the process of responding.
Of course, it is very important to avoid doing harm. Don’t try to move people unless it is clear their lives are in danger unless you do (like a burning car). Don’t try to help people up, either, because if they are severely injured, they might injure themselves more by trying to stand and walk. There are plenty of sites on the Internet with more detailed advice.
I know from my several bike crashes and other experiences that the first reaction of people generally is to try to help someone to their feet. This is a mistake. Getting up is not a priority. It proves nothing and lying down might be the best step. The first thing someone injured needs to do is to assess themselves or, if they are too severely hurt, then for others to assess their injuries and respond. Don’t immediately try to assist people to their feet, as the photos from the bombing in Boston show. Additional injury and trauma can occur.
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An 11 member civilian panel created by The Constitution Project is coming out with a report today (4.16.13) on the use of torture by the United States after the 9-11 (2001) attacks on the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon. The New York Times got an advance look at the report, which confirms that torture was used and, over 577 pages, it goes on to condemn the practice:
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The use of torture, the report concludes, has “no justification” and “damaged the standing of our nation, reduced our capacity to convey moral censure when necessary and potentially increased the danger to U.S. military personnel taken captive.” €¯ The task force found “no firm or persuasive evidence” that these interrogation methods produced valuable information that could not have been obtained by other means.
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Things have gotten really horrid on commercial airlines in recent years. On many airlines, everyone on the aircraft is treated as if they were jerks until proven otherwise (by getting off the plane at the destination). With the virtual police powers given to those in charge, any encounter can turn into a matter for law enforcement. Be careful.
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copyright, 2012
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Gray Matter (FROM THE NY TIMES)
Relying on GPS devices can erode our ability to develop mental maps.
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B.B. KING AND HIS GUITAR IN THE 1980s.
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The TerryReport is edited by Doug Terry, a former reporter in Washington, DC, for NPR who has appeared on more than 100 network affiliated television stations across the US as a Washington correspondent. He has also reported for the CBC in Canada, Israeli (English) Radio, The North Carolina News Network. Book reviews by Terry have appeared in the Phildelphia Inquirer and he his reporting work for radio has appeared in two books of collections of distinctive reporting as heard on NPR. Terry began his career in television news at WFAA-TV, Dallas, Texas, one of the leading local/regional news stations in the United States. (MORE) (LESS)
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