The GOP embraces OWS?
Coburn decries "welfare for the well-off" and Limbaugh rails against the 1 percent
OMG! WTF? Driving to work this morning I heard David Sirota stating that he agreed with Rush Limbaugh, I was intrigued. I turned up the volume, and yes indeed, David played clips where the disgusting gob of spit indicated that he actually understands the 99% message. Of course he was using it to bash Chelsea Clinton, so I don't think that he actually heard what he was saying.
Mr Sirota kindly gave his permission to repost his Salon.com story here. Enjoy!
Bill Gates Champions A Financial Transactions Tax: ‘This Money Could Be Well Spent And Make A Difference’
By Tanya Somanader on Nov 3, 2011 at 12:01 pm
While Republicans resist any attempt to address growing income inequality, more and more of America’s wealthy are asking to pay their fair share. Joining billionaire Warren Buffet, Microsoft founder Bill Gates recently issued his support for “millionaires and billionaires” paying more in taxes.
Now, Gates is taking it a step further and traveling to the G-20 meeting in Cannes, France today to champion the “Robin Hood tax” — a small financial transaction tax on each stock and bond trade — in order to help financially strapped developed nations meet their global aid pledges to the poor. Aware that countries like the U.S. are not currently receptive to this or any taxes, Gates told the Guardian that hopes his “credibility” lends credence to the idea that such taxes work:
WashTech Supports the 99%As we have been witnessing, Occupy Wall St. and the occupy movements that have grown from it have issued many statements and declarations expressing issues of concern for 99% of our nation. While these issues are varied and diverse one point stands out above all others, these people are speaking truth to power in expressing the many difficulties caused by the abuses of the financial industry, and control of our governmental policies by that same industry. Our mission statement says “We are a visionary community of activists and a leading voice for our members in the global economy.” WashTech cannot be absent from this watershed moment for the labor movement and for America. The Planning Council has adopted the following resolution: “Be It Resolved that WashTech/CWA Local 37083 endorses and supports the Occupy Wall St. movement and the movements that have grown from it: Occupy Seattle, Occupy Tacoma, Occupy Olympia and Occupy Together. Be It Further Resolved that WashTech/CWA Local 37083 stands with the 99% against the 1% and the corrupt system that has been the cause of hardship and suffering of our membership and all others so situated. And Be It Finally Resolved that WashTech/CWA Local 37083 will continue to endorse and support our membership and working people (the 99%) for now and the future.” You might need a union if. . .Back in 2000 when Amazon.com customer representatives in Seattle were trying to form a union, the company conducted what the New York Times described as an aggressive anti-union campaign. A recent investigative report by the Morning Call, the daily newspaper in Allentown, Pennsylvania, may explain why Amazon was so fearful of its workers organizing. According to the Morning Call, which interviewed 20 former and current workers at the Amazon warehouse located in the Lehigh Valley in eastern Pennsylvania, the workers “offered a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what it’s like to work in the Amazon warehouse, where temperatures soar on hot summer days, production rates are difficult to achieve, and the permanent jobs sought by many temporary workers hired by an outside agency are tough to get.” |
Welcome to Middle-Class Poverty— Does Anybody Know the Way Out?By Sara Horowitz REUTERSMany years ago, Freelancers Union ran ads on the NYC subway that read, "Welcome to Middle-Class Poverty" - a nod to the fact that health insurance is often prohibitively expensive for the self-employed, who don't benefit from an employer subsidy. We thought we were being provocative, but the last year made us prescient. Since that ad campaign ran, we've seen two trends emerge: significant growth of the independent workforce and growing income disparity. Combined, they have created something that seems paradoxical and should be impossible in the United States: Middle-Class Poverty. Call it New Mutualism: We need laws that protect the growing swath of independent workers You've probably seen middle-class poverty, if not experienced it firsthand. It's a young woman a college degree and crippling debt. It's a young man with a dream job but no health insurance. It's owning a smartphone to keep up with clients when you can barely keep up with rent. Read the ArticleThe Movie "The Constant Gardener" explains what’s wrong with Free Tradeby Stan Sorcher In a somewhat contentious Town Hall meeting, some of my Congressmember’s constituents (including me) were challenging his adherence to free trade policies. In his defense he said, "Go watch The Constant Gardener.” So I did. Many scenes are shot in Africa, with vivid images of urban slums and timeless poverty, where people express dignity, strength and courage every day. A foreign pharmaceutical company conducts drug trials using legions of Africans as test subjects. The experimental protocol ignores the villagers' interests, killing many of them, providing none of the protections we would normally expect of clinical trials in a Western democracy.
The African city has no institutions of civil society (other than the inherent good nature of the people) - weak and distant government, bribery, police corruption, overwhelmed hospitals, a primitive public health agency, no scientific community, no free press or journalism, organized social or political activity … except for the local police who serve the drug company. Every mother, father and child in the clinical trial is reminded of his or her own insecurity. Everyone dreads being singled out for anti-corporate behavior. Things go badly, as you might imagine.
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