Government

Inside The December Jobs Report

Last month’s jobs report shows not only that job creation has relapsed once again, but that weak job creation is not the only problem with the US labor market. While only 74,000 jobs were created, the labor force in the US shrunk by a further 347,000 workers in December as well. Hundreds of thousands of workers have been dropping out of the labor force in recent months. Both indicators—weak job creation and massive labor force exiting—reflect a labor market in deep trouble still, after nearly five years of so-called recovery. The 347,000 exits from the labor force in December follow another, even greater exodus of 700,000 in October. Even if half of that number may be due to the government shutdown event of that month, it’s still another 350,000 exits. What the last three months shows, therefore, is that at least as many workers are leaving the labor force, as there are jobs are being created. A kind of a ‘churn’ is therefore taking place.

We Need A Democracy Movement To Fix This Sh*t (video)

January 17, 2014 Dennis Trainor Jr, www.PopularResistance.org Resistance Report Activism, Amend the Constitution, Citizens United, Climate Change, Corporate Personhood, Corporatism, Finance and the Economy, Food and Agriculture, Foreclosures, Fracking, Government, Move To Amend, Overturn Citizens United

As the late populist and journalist Molly Ivins once said: “It is possible to read the history of this country as one long struggle to extend the liberties established in our Constitution to everyone in America.” Extending those liberties and constitutional protections to corporations is antithetical to the principles of Democracy. While the Supreme Court has been slowly granting rights of persons to corporation for over 100 years, the phrase “Corporate Personhood” entered the popular lexicon soon after the January 21, 2010 Citizens United v. FEC Supreme Court Case.

Steve Lipsky Responds To Report Clearing EPA Of Wrongdoing

January 13, 2014 Julie Dermansky, www.truth-out.org Educate! Energy, Environment, Food and Agriculture, Fracking, Government

"Steven Lipsky's phone was busy on the morning of Christmas Eve. The Environmental Protection Agency’s Inspector General had just released its report concluding the EPA was justified in intervening to protect drinking water from hydraulic fracturing in Weatherford, Texas, despite assertions to the contrary from the oil and gas industry and Congressional Republicans. In 2010, Mr. Lipsky alerted the agency to his contaminated well water and the fact that he could light his water on fire. An EPA investigation determined that Range Resources' hydraulic fracturing activities caused the contamination[…]So does Mr. Lipsky feel vindicated? No, he does not, and he says he won't until the entire story is told and the truth is completely revealed. Additionally, Lipsky wants to see an end to the $3 million defamation lawsuit filed by Range Resources against him. When I spoke to Lipsky on Christmas day, he told me the findings in the Inspector General report are just the tip of the iceberg. His neighbors are still in a perilous situation and no specific actions are being taken to provide a remedy for explosive contaminates in their water. "

First Time Most Congress Members Are Millionaires

January 10, 2014 Communications, www.opensecrets.org Educate! Finance and the Economy, Government

For the first time in history, most members of Congress are millionaires, according to a new analysis of personal financial disclosure data by the Center for Responsive Politics. Of 534 current members of Congress, at least 268 had an average net worth of $1 million or more in 2012, according to disclosures filed last year by all members of Congress and candidates. The median net worth for the 530 current lawmakers who were in Congress as of the May filing deadline was $1,008,767 -- an increase from the previous year when it was $966,000. In addition, at least one of the members elected since then, Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), is a millionaire, according to forms she filed as a candidate. (There is currently one vacancy in Congress.) Last year only 257 members, or about 48 percent of lawmakers, had a median net worth of at least $1 million.

TX Supreme Court Favors Landowner Over TransCanada

January 9, 2014 Staff, www.tarsandsblockade.org Resist! Climate Change, Energy, Environment, Government

The Texas Supreme Court ruled in favor of landowner Julia Trigg Crawford, ordering TransCanada to submit information by Feb. 6 as the justices weigh arguments to hear the case regarding eminent domain abuse. Texas’s highest court delivered a clear victory for pipeline opponents and landowners fighting TransCanada’s overreach on property rights. At the heart of Crawford’s case is the ability of TransCanada, a foreign corporation, to use eminent domain under the state’s “common carrier” clause since their pipeline transports 90% Canadian tar sands and 10% North Dakota oil. There is no on ramp for Texas oil therefore violating the definition of a common carrier under Texas law. Crawford said she looks forward to her family’s day in court, “As a landowner, property rights are key to my livelihood and family legacy. A foreign corporation pumping foreign oil simply does not qualify as a common carrier under Texas law. "

NSA Refuses To Say It Is Not Spying On Congress

January 6, 2014 Ray Pensador, www.dailykos.com Educate! Democracy, Government, NSA

Senator Bernie Sanders wrote the NSA to ask if it was spying on members of Congress. If they were not spying on elected officials, the answer would have been simple: "No, we are not spying on Members of Congress." If anything, the vague response by the NSA indicates they are indeed gathering information from elected officials Internet and telephone activities. In the 'open letter' to Senator Sanders re-printed below, Ray Pensador urges Sanders to go further. Is the NSA keeping files on elected officials? Does it have information that could be used to blackmail them? We also wonder if they are spying on judges (especially judges of the FISA court that 'oversees' them), military officials or members of the executive branch, including the president.

We Stand With The Majority Of Americans

January 6, 2014 Kevin Zeese, www.popularresistance.org Educate! Democracy, Government

The broad agenda for Popular Resistance is to end corporatism and militarism and shift power to the people, so necessities can be met. In addition to stopping the machine we also want to show the “new world” we want to see. The seven issues above are part of our agenda, each of these issues are discussed below, primarily in relation to showing that according to polls, large majorities of Americans support each issue and in many cases have done so for years. While our agenda is based on fact, science and the type of world we want to see, not on polling, it is useful to know that the American people are in favor of the types of reforms PopularResistance.org is advocating. We share these polling results to show that in all of these critical areas the government is going in the opposite direction than the people want the country to go. PopularResistance.org is on the side of the people.

Four Tips To Follow The Money In Your State

January 5, 2014 Andy Kroll, www.truthout.org Educate! Corporatism, Government

Not since the Gilded Age has money dominated American politics as it does today. Untold millions move through political action committees and their steroidal siblings, super PACs, through opaque nonprofit groups run out of PO boxes, much of it intended to keep average voters in the dark about who is influencing their elections. And as the 2014 election year begins, with control of the House of Representatives, the US Senate and 38 governorships at stake, you can expect ever more of this campaign cash — secret and not — flooding into local, state and federal races. As the “dark money” reporter for Mother Jones, it’s my job to shine as much light on this cash bonanza as I can. I do this using every tool and trick at my disposal: databases, experts, plugged-in sources and good old-fashioned door knocking. Here are four easy-to-use tips for following the money in your state — and throwing some sunlight on the mega-donors trying to sway your elections.

Self Employment: An Effective Path For War Tax Refusal

January 2, 2014 National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee, www.nwtrcc.org Resist! Government, Wars and Militarism

Many people want to refuse payment of Federal income taxes because of conscientious objection to military spending. Rather than pay military taxes, war tax refusers contribute directly to social needs that are often neglected by government. The Internal Revenue Service continually tightens and improves its computerized system to withhold, assess and collect taxes. This system is based on mandatory reporting by businesses and institutions that make any kinds of income payments to individuals. Each year it seems more difficult to prevent assessment and collection of taxes, particularly for people who work for wages and salaries. While it tightens its system for taxing reported income, the IRS seems less able to notice or tax income payments that don’t get reported in its automated systems. The human beings at IRS are watching computer screens. If it doesn’t show up there, they usually don’t know it exists.

Public Sector Unions Win When They Preach ‘Tax the Rich’

January 2, 2014 Mark Brenner, www.labornotes.org Strategize! Government, Labor

Congress is forcing federal workers to pay more toward their pensions while allocating almost nothing for cash-strapped cities and states. Mayors and governors are gearing up for their own round of budget wrangling over cuts versus taxes—the fifth since the financial meltdown. More than 700,000 city and state jobs have been cut since 2008. And politicians have more bitter medicine in store. Most public sector unions have failed to counter the conservative message that public workers’ pensions and pay are to blame for yawning budget gaps. Too many have offered preemptive concessions, hoping to fend off more severe cuts. Too few have been willing to defend their job standards or the services they provide, much less tackle the third rail of U.S. politics—raising taxes.

Make NYC Ungovernable: Lesson For Age Of deBlasio

December 31, 2013 Arun Gupta, www.truthout.org Organize! Activism, Government

One lesson is to keep up the street heat. After being elected in 2008, Obama ditched progressive rhetoric for austerity policies: protecting banks, dithering on the home foreclosure crisis, calling for Social Security and Medicaid cuts and deficit reduction. It was only thanks to Occupy Wall Street that the national debate was flipped from austerity to economic inequality. Occupy has faded but its impact is still felt in low-wage worker organizing, minimum-wage initiatives, climate-justice organizing, and the elections of Kshama Sawant to the Seattle City Council and Bill de Blasio, who will be inaugurated on January 1, 2014, as the 109th mayor of New York City.

Why Won’t West Call Out Saudi Persecution Of Democratic Activists?

December 30, 2013 Andy Fitzgerald, www.theguardian.com Educate! Government, Human Rights, Saudi Arabia

Saeed is a member of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (Acpra), an organization documenting human rights abuses and calling for democratic reform. He is its fourth member to be sentenced to prison this year. In March, co-founders Mohammad Fahad al-Qahtani (who I have met in the past, and previously wrote about) and Abdullah al-Hamid were sentenced to prison terms of 10 and 5 years on charges such as "breaking allegiance with the ruler" and running an unlicensed political organization – despite repeated attempts to obtain a license. Not surprisingly, there has been no strong public statement from the Obama administration regarding Saeed's sentencing. Following the conviction and sentencing of Qahtani and Hamid, the strongest language came from the obscure United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. It took a direct question at a press briefing to prompt a canned statement from the State department, claiming "concern" at the arrests and sentences, and asserting that the US makes "strong representations for human rights activists" wherever our diplomats are.

Report: EPA Justified In Protecting Drinking Water From Fracking

December 25, 2013 Earthworks, www.ecowatch.com Educate! Food and Agriculture, Fracking, Government

“Regulators shouldn’t have to be pressured into doing their job to protect people like me from drilling impacts,” said Shelly Perdue, a Parker County resident with drilling-polluted drinking water. “If what has happened to me is happening to others, I completely understand why communities across the country are voting to ban fracking and drilling.” “Releasing this report at noon on Christmas Eve shows the Obama administration is obviously embarrassed by its findings,” said Earthworks energy program director Bruce Baizel. “As they should be. The withdrawal of Obama’s EPA is an abject failure of its mission to protect Americans’ health and environment.”

Inequality: Government Is Perp, Not A Bystander

December 24, 2013 Dean Baker, www.truthout.org Educate! Austerity, Finance and the Economy, Government, Poverty

In his speech on inequality earlier this month President Obama proclaimed that the government could not be a bystander in the effort to reduce inequality, which he described as the defining moral issue of our time. This left millions convinced that Obama would do nothing to lessen inequality. The problem is that President Obama wants the public to believe that inequality is something that just happened. It turns out that the forces of technology, globalization, and whatever else simply made some people very rich and left others working for low wages or out of work altogether. The president and other like-minded people feel a moral compulsion to reverse the resulting inequality. This story is 180 degrees at odds with the reality. Inequality did not just happen, it was deliberately engineered through a whole range of policies intended to redistribute income upward.

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