MooPig Memo Department :: "The Historical Powell Memorandum"

[Picture LINK]

In this Era of Secret Emails: Remember the Secret Memorandum?
Matriculated articles mashed by Pat Darnell  |  Oct 27, 2015  |  Bryan TX

"A Memo to explain American economic system under attack," yes, that is the opening to the Powell Manifesto. Powell's assumption that there is an American Economic System should be the preamble to Powell's ramble. The American financial System is basically a "Boom/Bust" cycle that repeats ad nauseam. Is that a secure system?

Powell Memo also known as the Powell Manifesto or Powell Memorandum: Found in the Memo:  ..."Perhaps the single most effective antagonist of American business is Ralph Nader, who — thanks largely to the media — has become a legend in his own time and an idol of millions of Americans. A recent article in Fortune speaks of Nader as follows: “The passion that rules in him — and he is a passionate man — is aimed at smashing utterly the target of his hatred, which is corporate power. He thinks, and says quite bluntly, that a great many corporate executives belong in prison — for defrauding the consumer with shoddy merchandise, poisoning the food supply with chemical additives, and willfully manufacturing unsafe products that will maim or kill the buyer. He emphasizes that he is not talking just about ‘fly-by-night hucksters’ but the top management of blue chip business."... (EGBERTO WILLIES. DECEMBER 26, 2013. LINK )
'via Blog this'

Were Ralph Nader not so passionate, he would be sage for us who inherit all of Corporate Dog Ass-ity in America. What a mess in 2015, corporations take from a locale and give absolutely nothing back. And if they advertise that they give back, it is a gambit that you will believe them in their lies.

That's not the only attacker of the American economic system. In his obvious paranoia, Powell claims attacks from:

"...The most disquieting voices joining the chorus of criticism come from perfectly respectable elements of society: from the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and sciences, and from politicians. In most of these groups the movement against the system is participated in only by minorities. Yet, these often are the most articulate, the most vocal, the most prolific in their writing and speaking..." (ibid. Willies)

Then with another broad brush stroke Powell identifies the crux of this bizkit that in 2015 has come to a head:

".. Favorite current targets are proposals for tax incentives through changes in depreciation rates and investment credits. These are usually described in the media as “tax breaks,” “loop holes” or “tax benefits” for the benefit of business. As viewed by a columnist in the Post, such tax measures would benefit “only the rich, the owners of big companies.”
It is dismaying that many politicians make the same argument that tax measures of this kind benefit only “business,” without benefit to “the poor.” The fact that this is either political demagoguery or economic illiteracy is of slight comfort. This setting of the “rich” against the “poor,” of business against the people, is the cheapest and most dangerous kind of politics...." (ibid. Willies)

The Powell Memo/Manifesto is kaputz. Powell is a Corporate Putz. His Memo is a piece of crap. Anyone who believes this Memo has no credit as they are so far out of the loop of reality, that there is no hope for them.

Powell too often defaults "...survival of what we call the free enterprise system, and all that this means for the strength and prosperity of America and the freedom of our people..." as if American Economy is an established form of business worldwide. Bollocks! If I may, the most recognized form of business world wide is probably "barter." Powell is delusional in his broad stroke discussion of American business. I can only speculate he has no business experience. He was an elitist lawyer politician. Poor old Powell, he thinks America is a nation of collective minded worker bees, who work only to please the "system."

CONCLUSION
The world would be a better place if  Lewis F. Powell, Jr.had not written this secret Memo to the Chamber of Commerce back in 1971. The very system Powell thinks he is defending, American Economic System, has in 2015 developed into a plutocracy, fascist system that takes what it needs from regions and gives nothing back, all for the eternal dividend it pays its stockholder.

SOURCES
Here are the sources listed at the end of Powell's Memo:
"...Although origins, sources and causes are complex and interrelated, and obviously difficult to identify without careful qualification, there is reason to believe that the campus is the single most dynamic source ..." (ibid memorandum. Willies)

Conclusion (Powell's)

"It hardly need be said that the views expressed above are tentative and suggestive. The first step should be a thorough study. But this would be an exercise in futility unless the Board of Directors of the Chamber accepts the fundamental premise of this paper, namely, that business and the enterprise system are in deep trouble, and the hour is late."

 Footnotes (Powell’s)

Variously called: the “free enterprise system,” “capitalism,” and the “profit system.” The American political system of democracy under the rule of law is also under attack, often by the same individuals and organizations who seek to undermine the enterprise system.
Richmond News Leader, June 8, 1970. Column of William F. Buckley, Jr.
N.Y. Times Service article, reprinted Richmond Times-Dispatch, May 17, 1971.
Stewart Alsop, Yale and the Deadly Danger, Newsweek, May 18. 1970.
Editorial, Richmond Times-Dispatch, July 7, 1971.
Dr. Milton Friedman, Prof. of Economics, U. of Chicago, writing a foreword to Dr. Arthur A. Shenfield’s Rockford College lectures entitled “The Ideological War Against Western Society,” copyrighted 1970 by Rockford College.
Fortune. May, 1971, p. 145. This Fortune analysis of the Nader influence includes a reference to Nader’s visit to a college where he was paid a lecture fee of $2,500 for “denouncing America’s big corporations in venomous language . . . bringing (rousing and spontaneous) bursts of applause” when he was asked when he planned to run for President.
The Washington Post, Column of William Raspberry, June 28, 1971.
Jeffrey St. John, The Wall Street Journal, May 21, 1971.
Barron’s National Business and Financial Weekly, “The Total Break with America, The Fifth Annual Conference of Socialist Scholars,” Sept. 15, 1969.
On many campuses freedom of speech has been denied to all who express moderate or conservative viewpoints.
It has been estimated that the evening half-hour news programs of the networks reach daily some 50,000,000 Americans.
One illustration of the type of article which should not go unanswered appeared in the popular “The New York” of July 19, 1971. This was entitled “A Populist Manifesto” by ultra liberal Jack Newfield — who argued that “the root need in our country is ‘to redistribute wealth’.”
The recent “freeze” of prices and wages may well be justified by the current inflationary crisis. But if imposed as a permanent measure the enterprise system will have sustained a near fatal blow.
(ibid. Willies. h/t Reclaim Democracy)

_______________________Reference
http://egbertowillies.com/2013/12/26/powell-memo-business-powell-manifesto/
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/12/26/powell-memo-gop-blueprint/
http://billmoyers.com/content/the-powell-memo-a-call-to-arms-for-corporations/

MooPig Stall Tactics Department :: "McConnell Pushes Back... on what, we do not know"

Congratulations McConnell, you are now Main Stream Politician
Mixed Martial Articles by Pat Darnell  |  Nov 29, 2014  |  Bryan TX


In Leaked Tape Mitch McConnell Admits The Koch Brothers Are Running The Republican Party: "In a leaked audio tape of the Koch brothers top secret June 2014 retreat, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) not only admitted that the Republicans would be lost without the Kochs, and revealed who the real power is in the GOP."

'via Blog this'

I tried to listen to this monologue by McConnell, I really tried. I got to about 11 minutes in, out of a 23 minute long tape. Blah, blah, blah... McConnell is obsessed with not being able to say what he wants to say. It sounds like a childhood abuse case. Who beat him up so much and didn't allow him to speak when he was a child?

He refers to the Koch assholes by their first names. Are they his "found" daddy figures?

Then at 14 minutes McConnell opens up questions from the floor. The first question is about engaging in war and "is their anything in the Obama administration" that keeps us from going to war when attacked?

McConnell hims and haws and says a bunch of hucksterisms, and doesn't answer the question. McConnell talks like he has a mouth full of marbles. Then he circles the wagons, HA!, and tries to move into foreign policy on the poor confused questioning women named Cheryl. Then the whole crowd laughs about something.

Then David Koch gets on the microphone and mumbles something about Supreme Court stuff, and blah, blah, blah ... [inaudible corporate-ese shit]. And old man McConnell jumps right back into freedom of speech monologue and says that even Ted Kennedy voted against it "fifteen years ago." Invoking the dead is like talking to the dead, Mitch, they really can't fight back, you know.

Dear readers, all six of you, used to be seven but one retired, we are up against century long feuds between addle-brained career politicians who cannot even speak clearly.

Then at 20:54 McConnell is trying to itemize what we should do, and he says something peculiar. If the Republicans control the two houses "that means we can pass the spending bill. And, I [Mitch] assure that in the spending bill, we will be pushing back against this bureaucracy by doing what's called putting riders in the bill ... We're going to go after them on healthcare, on financial services, on the Environmental Agency across the board ..."

Then at 22:41 McConnell admits to insanity by pulling out the abused old saw from Einstein, "...the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result..."

When McConnell talks about "THEM" he is talking about "YOU AND ME." YIKES!

CONCLUSION
If you want to be a politician, you had better be prepared to be the last person on earth that anyone wants to talk with. You will be a billionaire's bitch, and will have to learn to take in in the ass.



SUGGESTION: Listen to this tape if you like to puke.


_____________________Reference
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/08/27/leaked-audio-tape-mitch-mcconnell-admits-koch-brothers-running-republican-party.html#.VF6VT9xv-7k.facebook

MooPig Evolving Budget Department :: "The Military Budget Deal"

How to Spend a Couple of Hundred Billion in an Afternoon
Mashed MoJo articles by Pat Darnell  |  Dec 15, 2013  |  Bryan TX

[Picture LINK] Awase Meadows Golf Course was built in 1948 by the U.S. Army and was most recently operated by Marine Corps Community Services. It was closed in February and turned over to Japanese control in June as part of a 1996 agreement to return 21 percent of the U.S. military property on the island.



Mother Jones Magazine has been around for about 40 years. I was on Trinity University campus "on its inception in 1970-1973, Mother Jones operated with an editorial board, and members of the board took turns serving as managing editor for one-year terms." They had a unique way of marketing; they gave free monthly copies away the first year to all us students in the dorms. Mother Jones would show up in my mail box each month. It also littered the mailroom floor as many students just threw their free copies there. Since then I have subscribed to Mother Jones once. But now I can read it online, HERE. MoJo tells me it is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and we rely on YOU to support our fiercely independent reporting.

TIME and NEWSWEEK were also pushed on the student body during my years at college. I also subscribed to them at the student rate, 19 cents a copy. I also subscribed to Mother Earth News during that time.

As MoJo is reporting military spending, Young Turks network also reports "the pentagon has apparently misplaced or can't account for 8.5 trillion dollars in the last decade and a half ..." in this youTube HERE.

The Budget Deal Is a Big Win for the Pentagon | Mother Jones: "Until Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) rode to the rescue this week, Pentagon brass and their allies had been issuing dire warnings about the nation's military readiness: The armed services were being decimated, they said, by sequestration—the automatic budget cuts that were set to trim $1 trillion from the Pentagon budget over the next decade. "It's one thing for the Pentagon to go on a diet. It's another for the Pentagon to wear a straitjacket while dieting," grumbled Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.). The message got through: The House overwhelmingly approved the Ryan-Murray plan just two days after it was introduced."

'via Blog this'

Like everything else, if I think too hard about this subject, I will get dizzy and feel old. The Pentagon has re-framed the military budget again just recently with a unanimous YES vote in Congress. Both parties saved military budget cutbacks with emergency legislation, right before they go for their own month and a half holiday break. Said MoJo: "... The House overwhelmingly approved the Ryan-Murray plan just two days after it was introduced ..."

" ... The Department of Defense expects its total 2014 budget, including supplemental war funding, to be more than $600 billion. (MoJo. 12/2013. HERE)..."

Recently, the government had resorted to the action of taking legal possession of assets until a debt has been paid or other claims have been met. This is called sequestration. The entire legislature is run by lawyers. Every Senate and Congress Person and every intern has a law degree. And they also therefore are officers of the courts. [Even Michelle Bachmann has a law degree]. So, every thing those government types do is always "lawyerly." There is no bigger cock blocker in the world than a high powered lawyer politician, believe you me. There are no beekeepers, pharmacists, MBA's, nor doctors in government. If there are other non-lawyer types in government by popular election, they end up being labeled "whack jobs."

" ... According to Lawrence J. Korb, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, the Pentagon could reduce its budget by $100 billion a year without undermining its readiness. The sequestration cuts for 2013 amounted to $37 billion. (MoJo. 12/2013. ibid) ..."

[Graphic LINK]

Our military can not abide a "sequestration" so they are let off the hook again this year by our lawyer leaders of the Legislature, Courts, and Executive Branch ... no audit, no accountability, just systems normal: all fouled up, SNAFU.

" ... David Vine who teaches at American University in Washington D.C. who has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Guardian, attempted to find out himself the cost of the more than 1,000 U.S. military bases outside of the United States and is currently completing a book on the subject.

Vine talked to budget experts, and both current and former Pentagon officials, among many others in his attempt to gather relevant data. Many interviewed said that Vine's task was hopeless because of the huge number of bases involved, the secrecy of Pentagon budgets and the often fictional nature of Pentagon figures. The Department of Defence Vine notes is the only federal budget yet to pass a financial audit. (Ken Hanly. Dec 16, 2012. HERE)..."

"The 2009 U.S. military budget accounts for approximately 40% of global arms spending. The 2012 budget is 6-7 times larger than the $106 billion of the military budget of China, and is more than the next twenty largest military spenders combined.(Ken Hanly. Dec 16, 2012. ibid.)..."

CONCLUSION

• The Pentagon employs 3 million people, 800,000 more than Walmart.
• The Pentagon's 2012 budget was 47 percent bigger than Walmart's.
• Serving 9.6 million people, the Pentagon and Veterans Administration together constitute the nation's largest healthcare provider.
• 70 percent of the value of the federal government's $1.8 trillion in property, land, and equipment belongs to the Pentagon.
• Los Angeles could fit into the land managed by the Pentagon 93 times. The Army uses more than twice as much building space as all the offices in New York City.
• The Pentagon holds more than 80 percent of the federal government's inventories, including $6.8 billion of excess, obsolete, or unserviceable stuff.
• The Pentagon operates more than 170 golf courses worldwide.

NEXT WEEK: ...Now if the US military is SNAFU, what is the condition of all the other nations' military?




__________________________Reference
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/12/pentagon-budget-deal-charts-cuts
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/7/26/exclusive_fired_army_whistleblower_receives_970k?fb_action_ids=606208336081746&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_ref=.UqzVMTsFDmg.like
http://youtu.be/68A_HPYGdlk
http://youtu.be/kUIrSAznMbM
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/14249/malaise-over-syria
http://youtu.be/fjOG_huEY70
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_deployments
http://digitaljournal.com/article/339184
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/12/20121213122226666895.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1nd0z8/eli5_why_dont_other_countries_have_military_bases/
http://moopigwisdom.blogspot.com/2013/12/moopig-budget-department-how-many-us.html

MooPig Sunday Funnies :: "MEMES -- do they Count?"

MooPig FWD Email Department :: "A Funny Thing happened today on my way to Work..."

Gub'mint Shutdown, Day One
mashed articles by Pat Darnell  |  Oct 1, 2013  |  Bryan TX


EXCERPT  |  " ... The mild market reaction is probably justified if the shutdown only lasts a few days. The impact will grow more-noticeable with time.

The furloughed workers are the tip of a potentially much-bigger iceberg. For example, Wall Street analysts rely on federal agencies like the Bureau of Labor Statistics to help feed their economic models with new information. Data-starved models, of course, are useless.

And now, the monthly employment report covering September that’s due to come out this Friday probably won’t.

Remember, the Federal Reserve is on the edge of a major policy change that depends on employment data. A slight delay may not matter since their next policy meeting isn’t until Oct. 29-30 — but we may never get an October jobs report. The raw survey data will not exist if the federal workers who collect it are still off the clock in mid-October.

Housing is another big question mark. Home prices are already dealing with higher mortgage rates. Now the Federal Housing Agency is down to "essential" staff only. Getting a mortgage just got harder.

The same is true for all sorts of federally backed loan programs. SBA small-business loans, USDA farm loans and others are all affected. Delays won’t help people waiting on loan approvals so they can move into new homes or expand their businesses.

One agency that won’t close down is the Federal Reserve Board. The Fed is "self-funding" and actually makes a profit from its monetary policies. They will carry on business as usual — but business will grow less and less "usual" if the shutdown drags on. (Brad Hoppmann | October 1, 2013. LINK) ... "

UPDATE :: from faceBook

Nina Gray Facts: I know some people cant wrap their heads around this word so I will try to use as little words as possible.

Say you make $11 an hour at your job. But you know someone that makes less than you. You know what the ACA is now going to require? The lowest salaried persons in YOUR workplace is the deciding factor on your weekly premium. Let me put that into perspective. Where I work, our premium is around $35 a week. I make $11 an hour. If someone there makes $9.50, their salary is used to consider if my healthcare is affordable.

At 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, said person makes $19760. The cap set forth by ACA is 9.5%. So what that means is their premium cant exceed that. So that means their yearly premium cant go over $1877.20 ($36.10 a week cause I know most get theirs nailed on a weekly basis). But at the same time, my premium cant go above that either because its a flat rate for the company.

Tell me how this is wrong?

Another thing that is happening, at least in Maine, adults are going to be phased out of Maine care. So they have to go get jobs and get insurance or face fines. And there are other states imposing that too. Also, illegal immigrants cant get insurance. No SS#, no insurance.

Tell me how that is wrong?

Oh and if you have a pre-existing condition, you cant be denied coverage. Women cant pay more than men now (cause multiple studies have been done that show women paying more). 80% of what you pay NEEDS to go to your care now instead of lining your insurance companies pockets. Kids can be covered to 26 which I think is great if they are continuing school. I would rather have to pay for my insurance and know she can concentrate on school instead of her trying to balance work and school in an effort to keep insurance.

Tell me how that is wrong?

So there are multiple people that are losing benefits and pay. Thankfully the president signed a bill at the last minute last night that ensured that the 1.4 million active duty military still get paid. Thank you president.

Tell me how that is wrong?

There are 100 people in the senate. 99 of them make $174,000 a year while the leader gets $223,500. Thats a grand total of $17,449,500. Just for the Senate. The house of representatives is another 432 people at $174,000 each (a couple make more but Im low balling for measure). Thats another $75,168,000. Altogether, our "congress" makes close to 1 billion every year. And the kicker? They work about 120 days a year. And in this shut down those fuckers still get paid.

Tell me how that is right?


__________________________Reference
http://www.uncommonwisdomdaily.com/government-slim-down-day-1-stocks-gain-gold-loses-17211?FIELD9

What do you know about the Top Tax Rates?

How did this Report get Past Us?
Retrieved by Pat Darnell | Mar 25, 2013 | Bryan TX

As early as September, 2012, a report made by the Congressional Research Service, CRS, pointed out that taxes were not correlated to GDP in the way that Republican ideologues preach it. In fact the opposite was true.

The report was "taken down" before the elections in November, 2012. The report was re-published by Democrats HERE.

" ... The top income tax rates have changed considerably since the end of World War II. Throughout the late-1940s and 1950s, the top marginal tax rate was typically above 90%; today it is 35%. Additionally, the top capital gains tax rate was 25% in the 1950s and 1960s, 35% in the 1970s; today it is 15%. The average tax rate faced by the top 0.01% of taxpayers was above 40% until the mid-1980s; today it is below 25%. Tax rates affecting taxpayers at the top of the income distribution are currently at their lowest levels since the end of the second World War. (CRS. Thomas L. Hungerford. Specialist in Public Finance. September 14, 2012. HERE) ... "

Non-Partisan Congressional Tax Report Debunks Core Conservative Economic Theory-GOP Suppresses Study - Forbes: "“The reduction in the top tax rates appears to be uncorrelated with saving, investment and productivity growth. The top tax rates appear to have little or no relation to the size of the economic pie. However, the top tax rate reductions appear to be associated with the increasing concentration of income at the top of the income distribution.” (Rick Ungar, Contributor. 11.02.2012. HERE)"

'via Blog this'

The conclusion?

"Lowering the tax rates on the wealthy and top earners in America do not appear to have any impact on the nation’s economic growth. (Ungar. ibid.)"

Apparently, solid, well researched data no longer matters—at least not when it comes to the Congressional Republicans. They got the report pulled, somehow. Republicans didn't like some of the wording: "Bush tax cuts" and reference to "tax cuts for the rich."

This is some real sad shit.

" ... While a spokesperson for the C.R.S. refused to comment on the discussions between the Senate Republicans and her agency, she did confirm that the report was no longer in ‘official circulation’. However, the New York Times reports that a source requesting anonymity confirmed that the decision to pull the study was done against the advice of the economics division and that the author, Mr. Hungerford, stood by the report’s findings. (Rick Ungar, Contributor. 11.02.2012 HERE) ... "

Republican tax strategy? Debunked; total failure.

___________________Reference
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/11/02/non-partisan-congressional-tax-report-debunks-core-conservative-economic-theory-gop-suppresses-study/
http://www.dpcc.senate.gov/files/documents/CRSTaxesandtheEconomy%20Top%20Rates.pdf
http://www.decisionsonevidence.com/2012/10/debunking-the-myth-that-tax-rates-are-at-historic-high-levels-for-the-wealthy/

Hillary Clinton to be back at work Monday - Channel NewsAsia

The Only Thing Left for Hillary is to pose for Playboy
by Pat Darnell | Jan 9, 2013 | Bryan TX

[Picture LINK] " ... She told Obama a long time ago that she would not return to serve as Secretary of State in the President's second term. So what is a former first lady and Senator to do with a bunch of time off? ... Hillary has a Situation-like threefold plan: GNC. Yes, that stands for Gym, Nap, Chill. (Myles Tanzer. NOV 11, 2012 2:09 PM. HERE)... "

Hillary Clinton to be back at work Monday - Channel NewsAsia:

'via Blog this'

Sometimes people who are bombastic and have inflated egos do actually grow out of it, and into a more stable human being. Narcissism has its purpose in lives of leaders. How else could anyone have the nerve to jump out ahead of others while walking all over those who propel them to high office.

What has Hillary Clinton done that makes her anything more than butterball politician of the month? She was some sort of half-wit socialist in college. She backed a bunch of politicians who lost their campaigns. She married Bill Clinton. She became a mother.

While in the White House she is said to have tantrums about Bill Clinton's affairs, both public and private. And while Bill was treasonous with his appetite for country girls, Hillary was busy researching and writing a health care bill.

Our Oak Park, Illinois girl pushed her way into the Senate, [D-NY, 2001-2009], on her way to run for president, POTUS. Along comes the chosen one, Barry Obama, who is the Bilderberger candidate of choice, and Hillary is prompted by then Senator Ted Kennedy to compromise.

Those, elite of the Democratic party, at the time before the 2008 election met with Ted Kennedy who set them all straight. Obama will be POTUS, Hillary will be Secretary of State,and her Healthcare bill will be pushed through.

It was obvious to this writer what happened. Others will of course have their own perspective.

My view is that Hillary Clinton has grown out of her bombastic ways because she has run and won by herself a Senate race for New York, where she never lived. She has run for POTUS, and won herself the Secretarial position. She has been manic in her zeal to do a good job ... by standards of precedence for the office she holds.

" ... Clinton has been sidelined for four weeks, since she was taken ill on her return from a trip to Europe on December 7, and briefly hospitalized for a few days in New York last week.

It has been a rare absence for the normally indefatigable Clinton, who in her four years in office has traveled almost a million miles, visited 112 countries and spent close to 400 days in a plane. (-AFP/ac. 07 January 2013. HERE) ..." 

Soon she will step down and John Kerry will take over that appointed position.

See, Politics is Simple. But if you want to be a politician, you have to be an outrageous, careless, bombastic, loquacious, attention grabbing, sidekick to another politician who is more so amoral ... then you get to a point in the "career" where you "GNC: Gym Nap Chill."


__________________________Reference
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/1246413/1/.html
http://gawker.com/5959581/hillary-clinton-just-wants-to-take-a-nap-get-jacked-and-watch-hgtv

Facebook Friend :: "Today on the faceBook ... JOBS Bills"

[Picture LINK]

Jobs Bills are not Jobs Bills After all ...
Snag by Pat Darnell | July 22, 2012 | Bryan TX

Mark A. Brown I looked into this. I got tired of righties telling me that the Republican House has put out 30 jobs bills that are stalled in the Senate because of Harry Reid. I finally got a rightie to give me the list (it's on Congressman Ryan's website) and I looked up each and every one. These are not jobs bills. In fact, many of them are job killers. I posted my findings elsewhere but it is a very long post. I'd post it here but I am not sure of the limitations of these comment fields. Any suggestions on how I could post it here or where I could put it that I can link to (I don't have a website)?
3 hours ago · Like

Liz Hay Tapping my foot...well???
3 hours ago via mobile · Like · 1

Mark A. Brown OK. I don't know if this will work, but here goes.
3 hours ago · Like

TheObama Teoli Liz, I hate to tell ya my friend, but your poor foot is going to get tired.
3 hours ago · Like · 1

TheObama Teoli ‎Kevin Feeney, would you like to provide any examples? Surely with the daily concern you show for the unemployment rate, you must have some information about the party that you vote for.
3 hours ago · Like

Mark A. Brown Apparently there is an 8,000 character limit to the comment fields. I'll have to post it in parts.
3 hours ago · Like · 1

TheObama Teoli This is going to be good!
3 hours ago · Like · 1

Liz Hay Now my foot will start going in circles...maybe hide behind the other one...or shoot out and try to trip a Dem...Bring it on Kevin!
3 hours ago via mobile · Like · 1

Mark A. Brown Part One

OK. I checked them all out. Only a handful of them might be considered jobs bills. Almost every single one of them is designed to roll back loads of environmental protections and pet peeves the Republicans have had for years. It's a full fledged attack on the EPA and everything they stand for. Basically, they are givaways to industry in exchange for potential widespread environmental disaster. Jobs are a tertiary consideration. if at all.

H.RES.72 - Review of Federal Regulations

Directing certain standing committees to inventory and review existing, pending, and proposed regulations and orders from agencies of the Federal Government, particularly with respect to their effect on jobs and economic growth.

While this is probably not a bad idea, it is not a jobs bill. Changing regulations that it turns up might be considered jobs bills but most llikely the report will get done and moulder on a shelf somewhere.

H.R. 872 - Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act of 2011

Had a good laugh over that one. This is a bill to prohibit the EPA from requiring a permit to dump pesticides in the waterways. Jobs bill? Really? LOL!

H.R. 910 - Energy Tax Prevention Act

Prohibits the EPA from regulating, taking action regarding, or even considering the emission of greenhouse gases to address climate change.

H.J. RES 37 - Constitutional Amendment - Requires marriage in the United States to consist only of a legal union of a man and a woman.

Jobs bill? Really?

H.J.RES.37 - Disapproval of FCC's Net Neutrality Regulations

LOL! A bill to express Congress' disapproval of something, a jobs bill? So, if passed, this will create jobs? Are these righties nuts or what?

H.R. 2018 - Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act

Essentially prohibits the EPA from revising the water pollution standards for a state if the state doesn't agree with the EPA that it would be necessary.

H.R. 1315 - Consumer Financial Protection Safety and soundness Improvement Act of 2011

Ammends Dodd-Frank Bill regarding rules for running the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. A 2/3 majority vote can set aside any new rule, require a commission to head the bureau instead of a single director (no more than 2 members of that commission to be of the same party), time limits for petitions to stay regulations, etc.

Scabbed on to the end of this bill is the termination of the FHS Refinance Program that helps people in trouble with their mortgages.

Jobs bill? I don't think so.

H.R. 2587 - Protecting Jobs From Government Interference Act

Bars the NLRB from ordering an employer to close, relocate, or transfer employment under any circumstances.

This stems from the labor union lawsuit that was filed against Boeing charging that they violated Federal law by retaliating against the union for striking (a Federal crime). The NLRB is supposed to uphold Federal law so they asked for a stay on the move until the issue was decided. It became a mote point when the union reached an agreement with Boeing (THROUGH COLLECTIVE BARGAINING) and withdrew their lawsuit. This Bill will effectively prevent the NLRB from upholding Federal law.

Jobs bill? The outcome would have been either jobs in Washington or jobs in South Carolina, not no jobs. With this bill companies could violate Federal law with impunity and continue driving wages in the country to the bottom.

H.R. 2401 - Transparency in Regulatory Analysis of Impacts on the Nation Act

This is essentially an attempt to stall and/or gut the coming changes in EPA air pollution standards. The net effect being to allow industry to continue to pollute at will.

Industry claims it will be too expensive to comply. This is what they say for every new rule but so far has been historically proven that most of these claims turn out to be a false claims. The losses in public health due to the pollution outweigh the costs to comply to the regulations. In fact, a study conducted by the University of Massachusetts, Amherst http://www.ceres.org/resources/reports/new-jobs-cleaner-air shows that there will be a net increase of 1,457,885 direct and indirect jobs in the pollution controls and new generation capacity complying with the new EPA standards. The new jobs and health benefits from the new EPA standards provide $4 to $8 dollars benefit for every dollar invested in compliance.

This looks like a jobs and people killer bill to me.
3 hours ago · Like

Mark A. Brown Part Two

H.R. 2681 - Cement Sector Regulatory Relief Act

This bill extends the time to comply with new EPA pollution regulations for the cement industry. Although cement plants are one of the heaviest air pollutors and the biggest source of mercury pollution, cement is essential for construction however. In the current economic atmosphere I can agree that giving them a little more time to spread out the costs of compliance is not something I would object too as long as the compliance is done.

H.R 2250 - EPA Regulatory Relief Act

Sorry but this is not a jobs bill. All this bill does is rescind the regulations governing commercial boilers and incinerators. It would allow your local neighborhood trash burners to freely burn, plastic, tires, solvents, oil sludge, or whatever with no oversight or restrictions.

H.R. 2273 - Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act

This removes restrictions on coal ash dumps. This is some pretty toxic stuff. This bill would allow this stuff to freely blow in the wind, seep into the water supplies, and occasionally flood a community when one of their neglected dikes breaks on a pond.

Jobs bill? I don't think so.

H.R. 3094 - Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act

Yet another bald-faced attack on unions. The NLRB is set up to protect worker's rights and has recently passed rulings (finally) which sought to curtail the employer's heavy handed tactics to delay and obstruct the formation of a union. This bill is to rescind those efforts and bring us once again back to the emplyer intimidation and obstruction of the past and allow them to drag out the union election process for months to years while wearing down the potential union members.

Not a jobs bill but an anti-union bill

H.R. 3010 - Regulatory Accountability Act

An unneeded overhaul of the 65 year old Administrative Procedure Act which injects Congress into a more active role in rules and regulations formation. This allows Congress to inject it's foot-dragging incompetence into the process of creating regulations potentially extending implementation of ANY legislation additional months to years. The Bureau of Labor Statistics data ( http://www.bls.gov/news.release/mslo.t02.htm ) shows that only 0.3% of layoffs in 2010 were caused by government regulations anyway. The righties want you to believe it causes 90% of the layoffs though. They want to remove all regulations and stall new regulations to increase profits at the expense of everyone's health and livelihood. As if Congress didn't have enough to do already, let's get them deeply involved in the minutia of implementing the bills they pass too.

Not a jobs bill.

H.R 527 - Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act

LOL! This one ammends the previous Regulatory Accountability Act to include economic impact statements to each new regulation. Yeah that ought to speed things up. With this bill and the previous bill that ought to bring Congress down to passing 4 or 5 bills a year and spending the rest of the time debating over the regulations to implement them.

H.R. 10 - REINS Act

More involvement of Congress in rule-making. This is meant to ceed more executive power to Congress. Any regulation that has a $100 million dollar or more economic impact must be approved by both chambers of Congress. Currently they can already quash a regulation by a joint resolution of disapproval. Now we could further bog down Congress with literally hundreds or thounds of new things to debate and vote on.

I think these last thre bills taken together would be definate job killers. Congress would be so bogged down they would have little time left to work on legislation to keep the country running let alone helping produce jobs.

H.R. 1633 - Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act

This one's really hilarious. It prevents the EPA from making any regulations controlling dust created by farming operations. This dispite the fact that the EPA has no plans to make any such regulations. How much taxpayer money did the House spend pushing THAT one through.

Not a job bill and a complete waste of taxpayer dollars and Congress' time.

H.R 1837 - Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Water Reliability Act

The continued California fight over rights to water. This bill attempts to redefine anadromous fish flows and repeal the hard-fought San Joaquin River Restoration Settlement Act (which provided a balanced distribution of water for farmers and fish). What it boils down to is who gets more right to water, farming and industry or nature and fish.

Maybe important for California but not for the rest of the country. I suppose if we kill off all the fish they could produce more farm jobs to exploit migrant workers with.

H.R. 2087 - Land in Accomack County, Virginia

Finally, a jobs bill! A bill to remove land use restrictions on a 32 acre parcel adjacent to a NASA airstrip in Accomack County, Virginia. This wouuld allow the county to build a technology and research facility.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/mslo.t02.htm Table 2. Reason for layoff: Extended mass layoff events, separations, and initial claimants for unem
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2 hours ago · Edited · Like · 1

TheObama Teoli Reading through these scares the living shit out of me for if Romney wins!
2 hours ago · Like · 1

Mark A. Brown Part Three

H.R. 9 - Small Business Tax cut Act

Oh come on, it might look good on the surface, a 20% deduction of a small businesses income. Then you get to the part where they describe a small business as a business that employs less than 500 people. Get real. That includes Oprah Winfrey, George Soros, and Donald Trump for crying out loud. They need to include a criteria for income levels first.

H.R. 1904 - SE Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act

This is a land swap. The Federal government gets 5,344 acres of land owned by Resolution Copper and Resolution Copper gets 2,422 acres to mine for copper.

This would create mining jobs so I would have to say it's a jobs bill. How many is unknown and the trade-offs to the environment and the indians is questionable and also unknown.

H.R. 4402 - National Strategic and Critical minerals Production Act

Deems that a domestic mine that will provide strategic and critical minerals to be called an "infrastructure project."

How anyone can consider this a jobs bill is beyond me

H.R 3012 - Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act

This bill would eliminate the per-country numerical limitations for employment-based visas and increase the numerical cap for family-based immigrants

Republican Senator Grassley has had a hold on this bill up until he struck a deal with Senator Chuck Schummer a little over a week ago. It is expected that another Senator will now put a hold on it. There is apparently a line of Senators waiting to put a hold on the bill. Don't expect it to go anywhere soon

H.R. 1230 - Restarting American Offshore Leasing act now

The reason this is being held up is because it is nothing more than giving the bum's rush to start up drilling in particular lease holdings in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic. These are areas with deep water issues that exacerbated the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The rules regarding safety of operations in those areas have not been fully addressed yet. Key is the as yet unestablished methods for dealing with another similar spill. The righties don't care. Drill, baby drill!

You could say this is a jobs bill as it will put drill riggers to work

H.R. 1229 - Putting the Gulf of Mexico Back to Work Act

More bum's rush to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling. Much like the previous bill. Puts a limit of 30 for approval of permits to drill.

This could also be termed a jobs bill in that it employs drill riggers

H.R. 1231 - Reversing President Obama's Offshore Moratorium Act

Yet another bill for the same thing as the previous 2. I suppose that you would have to call this and the previous two bills really only one bill. It would be a jobs bill though, but not times 3.

H.R. 2021 - Jobs and Energy Permitting Act

Gives Shell oil a free pass to pollute the air at will in the offshore drilling areas around Alaska. Apparently, freedom to pollute the air creates jobs. Just different jobs than those who manufacture and install the pollution abatement equipment. So this is a bill to create dirty jobs instead of clean jobs.

H.R. 1938 - North American-Made Energy Security Act

Essentially a bill to expedite the Keystone pipeline project. This is not really a jobs bill as building the pipeline creates jobs (albeit only a few thousand to build it then only a few hundred remaining to run it after the builders have gone) not speeding up the building.

H.R. 3408 - Protecting Next Generation Energy Security (PIONEERS) Act

A bill to remove many pesky regulations restricting oil shale development, open up drilling in ANWR, open up offshore drilling in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf of Mexico, and force the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. In otherwords, a standard collection of the GOP's energy wish lists. Damn the torpedos. Drill baby drill! We've got to sell that stuff to other countries and enrich the oil companies.

H.R. 2842 - Hydropower Development and Rural Jobs Act

A bill to exempt small hydropower installations from review under the National Environmental Policy Act. This would be for hydropower projects in ditches & canals. I have mixed feelings on this. This seems like a land use planning problem in that without any review nobody would be looking at the big picture for the impact of a large number of units, some even questionably built, on a given area. The consequences of uncontrolled proliferation could be detremental to the area but nobody would know it until the problems started cropping up. I much prefer oversight and planning.

H.R. 2578 - Conservation and Economic Growth Act

A collection of 14 bills regarding roll-back of many environmental protections on numerous wilderness areas and protected lands. Examples being allowingn timber harvesting in the protected Tongrass Wilderness, increasing grazing on protected public lands, opening protected beach areas to dune buggies, among many. There is also a portion that turns over a 100 mile strip of all borders to complete control of the Department of Homeland Security, who has stated they don't need that control. This is not a jobs bill it is just an excuse to roll back restrictions on protected lands.

H.R. 4480 - Domestic Energy and Jobs Act

Another collection of bills designed to gut the Clean Air Act, emasculate the EPA, open public lands to oil drilling (when they already are sitting on73 million acres, 45 million of which is inactive), inhibit the use of the Stratigic Petroleum Reserve, and many other roll-backs of all kinds of environmental protections. Basically a giveaway to the oil industry. As we all know, gas prices are determined by the world market so even brining in loads of oil from public lands will have little effect on gas prices.

H. Con. Res. 112 - Budget for Fiscal Year 2013

Paul Ryan's laughable and horribly destructive Federal Budget proposal. Enough has already been said about this. This is a straight out attack on Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare. This is a job, people, and economy killing bill.

H.Con. Res. 34 - Budget for Fiscal Year 2012

Ryan's previous laughable job, people, and economy killing bill.

H.R. 2560 - Cut, Cap, and Balance

Harry Reid said it best, "One of the worst pices of legislation ever placed on the floor of the United States Senate." This was a joke with absolutely no chance of passing, let alone being signed into law.
3 hours ago · Like · 1

TheObama Teoli ‎Tom Jones, read through these and give it your best shot. Paul Sanis, this ought to be good. Thank You Mark for providing the FACTS!
2 hours ago · Like · 1

Mark A. Brown No problem. I question EVERYTHING. It's how I was raised
2 hours ago · Like · 2

TheObama Teoli That's a good way to be!
2 hours ago · Like · 1

Liz Hay Thanks for all this Mark.
2 hours ago via mobile · Like · 1

Patricia Williams I have so much respect for people like you Mark who taqke a great deal of time to actually investigte and research the facts.. It would be great if you would put it all in a note, so we can all have access to it. Or TheObama Teoli on your group page. This is the time to do it before the election... I am with The Obamma Teoli...it scares the crap [ out of me if Romney is elected...There is a whole lot more to be afraid of also...
57 minutes ago · Like

Tom Jones Only the private sector creates jobs that actually produce goods, if the govt want jobs created the only thing it can really do is set an environment conducive to job creation.
20 minutes ago · Like

Politics and Politicians :: A Conversation about Brinkmanship

Retrieved from faceBook by Pat Darnell | July 10, 2011 | Bryan TX

Anthony Teoli
Since the CBO says that ending the Bush ERA tax cuts would alone balance the budget by 2015, I hope that Democrats stand firm. If the Republicans trash the economy, thier friends suffer to. I doubt like hell that the Tea Baggers are going to provide the cash that the rest of thier friends do. Even the piece of shit Koch brothers will lose some dough. STAND TALL DEMOCRATS!
21 hours ago via Mobile Web · Like ·
2 people like this.

Cheryl Petrovich They ARE!!
13 hours ago · Like

Patrick Darnell Somewhere I read "entitlements and taxes" ... doesn't this belie the real players in this debate debacle? These plush pussy politicians will 'hemmm-hawww" until the cows come home. Delay tactics and acting all balustrade make me want to throw up my dinner.
The real players are people like the "sons of millionaires, and Parisk Hiltons" who make it cozy for the amber loving Politicians. Next year we will still be wondering what the frakk happened to the budget ... blistering away in here about taxes and "real entitlements" that should have been taken care of "this weekend!!!!!" BASTARDS AND TURDS.
24 minutes ago · Like

Anthony Teoli Patrick you are so right. There will suspense for a while. After the debt celing is raised, then we have the 2012 budget to look forward to. Remember the White House budget for 2011 before the right wing brinksmanship about closing down governmnet, the white house wanted to cut 50 percent out of home heating assistance. I am not jumping to conclusions, but I really think for the poor, things are going to get tougher in this country. The rich, how the hell are they going to know the difference one way or the other. The meak may be promised the Earth, but in America the meak get to choose one side of power and defend it, while demonizing the other. The joke is on us.
16 minutes ago · Unlike · 1 person

Patrick Darnell Brinksmanship ... cool word. I hate as much as anyone to be the brunt of jokers... yes I do actually hate it... the real issue is "how to micro-manage Poverty" for the next decade? as you point out.
I am caught in the MIDDLE, like a gasping newborn calf, trying to find my legs before I am devoured by wolves. YIKES!
Your summary: "The joke is on us." well said.
11 minutes ago · Like · 1 person

Patrick Darnell Q: Why is an elephant gray?

A: So we won't mistake him for a bluebird.
2 minutes ago · Like

Anthony Teoli Sometimes some blue birds have a great memory and a trunk. Thats when I get nervous.
4 minutes ago · Like

[PICTURE LINK]

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Political Parties

Most Horrifying Thought for Today -- February 26, 2009 9:16 AM

I can think of no more horrifying news than this: Earth's oceans are polluted. There is not anywhere in the seas that is not without some kind of synthesized poly carbons floating in it.

This brief moment in lowered expectation has been brought to you by the Anti-Demographic League of America, and Rudderless Politicians Up a Creek.

Reference
Vasudha Narayanan; 2001 by The American Academy of Arts and Sciences. retrieved here: Daedalus: Water, Wood, and Wisdom: Ecological Perspectives from the Hindu Traditions

Parks & Recreation information, outside of NYC call 212-NEW-YORK Copyright © New York City Department of Parks & Recreation: retrieved HERE.

Empowered to do something about National Pork

Since we are keeping it real... or surreal... I have a big question for the Presidential Debates this coming week.

For Barack Obama: "Do you eat pork?"

For John McCain: "Do you use and endorse Viagra?"

That's all I want to know; really. I wonder if ever anyone will ever actually look at the spirit of the debate this year. What I see is that the candidates keep going around thinking they are conducting business as usual. What is different?

Pressure on these candidates; does it come from political ranks? NO.. pressure is coming from MySpace, FaceBook, WordPress, and all the GoogleMegaPlex Tools. Yep, that's right!

My thirteen year old is putting pressure on Executive / Judicial / Legislature. The beginning of a voice of the people is finally arrived over two hundred years after it was written into our cherished balance of power documents of USA.

Poor, tired, rudderless politicians; I can see it in their faces at every new dawn, at each turn of a page. Hiding all his papers from his past, Obama is certainly on a trail of self-destruction. A savvy eighth grader can find voids in the path to his candidacy for Prez.

McCain, you have been so long in the saddle -- you don't even know that cover-up, and scratch my back I'll scratch yours politics are not part of the bylaws of the US government. In the near future your busy schedule could be put on hold all day by one call about a 3 minute YouTube v-log article.

You two can run, or jog, but you will not be able to hide anymore. You are very, very brave -- or total socio-paths -- to run for Prez in this decade...

Fellows, you are either extremely advanced or extremely ignorant. Hannity's America, check it out... Campaign Connections.