Tuesday, July 28, 2015

OBOF TYMHM & MORE Vol 15 - No 15


OPINIONS  BASED  ON FACTS (OBOF)

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (TYMHM)

YEAR ONE

YEAR TWO

YEAR THREE

YEAR FOUR

YEAR FIVE

 

OBOF YEAR FIVE INDEX
 
OBOF TYMHM
Jan. 07, 2015
OBOF TYMHM Vol 15 - No 1
Jan. 19, 2015
OBOF TYMHM Vol 15 - No 2
Feb.  03, 2015
OBOF TYMHM Vol 15 - No 3
Feb.  23, 2015
OBOF TYMHM Vol 15 - No 4
Mar.  02, 2015
OBOF TYMHM Vol 15 - No 5
Mar.  06, 2015
OBOF TYMHM Vol 15 - No 6
Mar.  13, 2015
OBOF TYMHM Vol 15 - No 7
Mar.   23, 2015
OBOF TYMHM Vol 15 - No 8
Mar.  28,  2015
OBOF TYMHM Vol 15 - No 9
Apr.  13,  2015
OBOF TYMHM Vol 15 - No 10
May  02,  2015
OBOF TYMHM Vol 15 - No 11
May  09,  2015
OBOF TYMHM Vol 15 - No 12
May  19, 2015
OBOF TYMHM Vol 15 - No 13
May  26, 2015
OBOF TYMHM Vol 15 - No 14
May  29, 2015
OBOF TYMHM Vol 15 - No 15
July   28, 2915

 

Agenda


 

                                                                                                                                                             

Note re. this posting.

 

This posting is extremely long.  I hope you will read it all in one, two, or three settings.  It all is important to our future, particularly the very last article.

 

Floyd

1. FROM FLOYD

TO

ANY OF YOU WHO MAY STILL BE OUT THERE.

 

2. Bernie Sanders Draws Biggest Turnout for Maine Democratic Rally in 25 Years

 

3.  10 Reasons Bernie Sanders Is ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’

 

 4.  Bernie moves to Phoenix, Arizona

 

5.  The Rally to Economic Populism

 

6.  Over 11,000 attend Bernie's Phoenix, Arizona rally, his largest to date


 

7.  Hillary Clinton’s Glass-Steagall

 

 

 

 

 

 

FROM FLOYD

TO

ANY OF YOU WHO MAY STILL BE OUT THERE.

 

A BIG hello to any of you who may still be out there.  I have not been able to provide any postings since May 29, 2015.  I have had a pretty good reason for this dry spell.  I suffered a stroke.  Thank goodness, it was what they call a minni stroke.  It affected my left leg, foot, arm, and hand.  They have pretty much recovered now, with the exception of my left leg and foot.  However, I am now able to get around and I am going to try to get back to my postings.  I am sure I have lost most of you, but maybe the word will get out again and once again you will join me. 

 

I just checked to see if any of you had been checking in to see if I had any new postings.  To my surprise, 86 of you have checked in during the past month.  Of those 17 were from Russia, 3 from Poland, 2 from France, 2 from Portugal, and 1 from Ukraine. 

 

 

2016 ELECTION

 

Sometime ago, I said that I wasn't going to get into the 2016 election discussions until about June 2016.  I simply was turned off by all that was taking place. 

 

WELL THAT HAS REALLY CHANGED for me.  I don't know how many of you are familiar with Senator Bernie Sanders (I) Vermont.  I have followed him for years.  He, of course started in the House of Representatives.  He is now in his second term in the Senate.  In all his tenure his voting record is consistent.  Most of this posting lets you know who he is and what has been happening.  He has declared as a candidate for President.  Since he could not get on the ballot in all 50 states as an Independent, he has declared as a Democrat.  During his total career in the House and Senate, he has always, Caucused with Democrats. 

 

Currently, in polling, he is ahead of all Republicans and in second place with Democrats.  He is drawing larger crowds than any other candidate. 

 

I URGE YOU TO TAKE A LOOK AT THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES.

 

~~~

 

Bernie Sanders Draws Biggest Turnout for Maine Democratic Rally in 25 Years

 

  Author: Craig Brown

 | EcoWatch | News Report

Published: July 15, 2015

 

 

The Sanders campaign originally booked Portland’s Ocean Gateway, a venue that holds about 800 people standing.  Soon, thousands of RSVPs were pouring in and the event was moved to the much larger Cross Insurance Arena.

 

The Cross Arena (formerly Cumberland County Civic Center) is Maine’s largest concert venue, seating up to 9,500.  (In 1977, Elvis Presley was due to kick-off his new concert tour here but was found dead at his Graceland Mansion the day before).

 

An hour before the rally’s scheduled 7 p.m. start time, long lines snaked through downtown Portland with thousands waiting to get in. (The Common Dreams offices are just a block away).

 

Bernie packed the house.  The Bangor Daily News reported:

 

The 2016 election may be 16 months away, but you wouldn’t know it from the thousands of people who turned out Monday evening to cheer on Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland.

 

What was scheduled as a town hall forum had become a full-blown rally by Monday night.  Sanders’ speech was delayed by 20 minutes as organizers let in the throngs of people still awaiting entry.  Estimates pegged the crowd at 8,000 to 9,000 people.

 

(At 7:15 p.m., several of our staff writers were turned away at the doors to the then-full arena; a couple hundred seats behind a curtain were blocked off keeping the turnout number below the 9,500 figure).

Maine political circles are still buzzing about the gathering—not just the size of the audience, but the crowd’s youthful energy and intensity.

 

It was epic. And, as Bernie Sanders says, “This campaign is catching fire for a simple reason, and the simple reason is we are telling the truth.”

 

No one we spoke with could remember a recent Maine Democratic rally that could compare.  We decided to do some research and found that all the large rallies over the past 25 years were either for sitting U.S. Presidents or just before General Elections/Presidential Caucuses. Here’s what we found:

 

The biggest Democratic rally in Maine’s history appears to be the 1960 Election Eve visit to Lewiston by candidate John F. Kennedy on Nov. 6/7, 1960.  The Lewiston Evening Journal reported that 14,000 came out for the scheduled 9 p.m. speech and that 8,000 remained when Kennedy arrived at the rally just before midnight.

~~~

10 Reasons Bernie Sanders Is ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’

 


 | EcoWatch | News Analysis

Published: July 13, 2015 

 

It’s hard not to #FeelTheBern these days, that is the Bernie Sanders energy that is storming the nation. Just last week Sanders had the largest turnout of any presidential candidate so far in this primary race with nearly 10,000 people attending his speech in Madison, Wisconsin.

 

Clearly, people are finding it refreshing to actually believe the campaign promises being touted by a candidate.  A self-described "democratic socialist," Sanders, 73, is a U.S. Senator for Vermont and has been in Congress for more than 22 years.  1He has a 95 percent lifetime score for voting in favor of protecting the environment and is a longtime supporter of immediate action on climate change.

 

I had the chance to see Sen. Sanders in Denver, Colorado on June 20.  More than 5,000 people came to hear Sen. Sanders speak at the University of Denver.

This event was just days after Donald Trump announced his run for president while playing Neil Young’s classic tune “Rockin’ in the Free World.”  The next day, Young released a statement saying, “Yesterday my song ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ was used in an announcement for a U.S. presidential candidate without my permission … Music is a universal language.  So, I am glad that so many people with varying beliefs get enjoyment from my music, even if they don’t share my beliefs.  But had I been asked to allow my music to be used for a candidate—I would have said no.”

 

However, Young, a Canadian citizen, “is a supporter of Bernie Sanders for president of the United States of America,” according to Rolling Stone. So no wonder why Neil Young’s songs were blasting from speakers in the Hamilton Gymnasium at the Richie Center in Denver and, “Rockin’ in the Free World” was featured as Sanders entered and exited the stage.  It was truly epic, especially for those that are longtime fans of Young, like I am.

 

"This campaign, proclaimed Sanders, is about a political movement of millions of people who stand up and loudly and proudly proclaim that this nation and our government belongs to all of us and not just a handful of billionaires.”

 

The crowd finally settled down after a very warm welcome.  Sanders began by saying, “This campaign is not about me. It’s not about Hillary Clinton.  It’s not about Jeb Bush.  It’s not about any other candidate.  This campaign is about you, your kids and your parents.  It is about creating a political movement of millions of people who stand up and loudly and proudly proclaim that this nation and our government belong to all of us and not just a handful of billionaires.”

Sanders went on to talk about democracy.  He said, “Democracy is not about the last election in which 63 percent of the American people and 80 percent of young people did not vote.  That’s not democracy. Democracy is when people from one end of this country to the other, stand-up and say that there is nothing that a great nation can not accomplish.”

 

“This country today, in my view,” Sanders continued, “faces more serious problems in any time since the great depression, and if you add to that the planetary crisis of climate change it may well be that today, in our time, we face more challenges than anytime in the modern history of this country

 

Sanders then dug deep on many issues, including income inequality—which he calls the greatest moral, economic and political issue of our time—health care, outrageous costs for a college education, unemployment rates, low minimum wage, gender inequality, LGBT rights, paid sick leave and the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.

 

Next he tackled what he calls “one of the worst decisions in the history of our country.”  He said, “By a 5 to 4 decision, the Supreme court said to the wealthiest people in our country, ‘okay guys, you already own much of America, we are now going to give you the opportunity to own the United States government.’  And people like the Koch brothers … they said ‘hey that’s great’ … and what Citizens United allowed is for these people to spend billions of dollars to buy candidates to make the rich richer and everyone else poorer.”

 

He explained, “This issue of campaign finance reform is so important because it impacts every other issue of concern.”

And that is why the one campaign promise Sanders has made so far is that he will have a litmus test for his nominees for the Supreme Court and, as Sanders said, “that litmus test is that anybody I nominate will make it clear to this country that they will rehear Citizens United and vote to overturn it.”

 

“The Koch brothers alone—second wealthiest family in America, an extremely rightwing family,” Sanders continued, “will spend more money on this election cycle than either the Democratic or Republican parties … This is not democracy.  You are looking at an oligarchy form of government.”

 

And, as everyone expected, Sanders then launched into his pledge to fight climate change.  “We have the moral responsibilities to make sure that the climate that we leave to our kids and grandkids is habitable.  The debate is over, maybe with the exception of Fox television.  

 

Other than that scientists have almost unanimously agreed that A, climate change is real, B, it is caused by human activity with the emission of carbon, and C, it is already causing devastating problems here in our country and around the world.”

 

“And they have said that while the problems are very serious right now,” Sanders continued, “they will only get much, much worse if we don’t seize a short window of opportunity to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy.”

 

“If we continue business as usual, if we do not transform our energy system that, by the end of this century, the planet Earth will be between 5 and 10 degrees Fahrenheit warmer.  What that will mean is more and more drought, more flooding, more extreme weather, more acidification of the ocean, more rising sea level.  It will also be a huge national security issue for the entire world.”

 

Sanders then blessed Pope Francis “for speaking out in a way that nobody in Congress would ever speak out about what money and inequality is doing to people all over the world, and now he’s speaking out on climate change.”

 

He finished by saying, “If we stand together.  If we do not let people divide us by race, by whether we were born in America or born in Mexico, whether we are gay or whether we are straight … we can create the political revolution that this country needs.”

 

And then, “Rockin’ in the Free World” enveloped the gymnasium.

~~~

 

Tue Jul 14, 2015 at 06:58 PM PDT



  

 

UPDATE @BernieSanders moves #PHX town hall Saturday to @PhoenixConvCtr room 3-4x size. Campaign reports 8K RSVPs.

Bernie said he "needed a bigger room."

 

 

Maybe Madison was just another "liberal college town."  Maybe Portland was just another "liberal New England city."

 

 

But what about Phoenix?  Yeah, the Phoenix, Arizona with the crazy right-wing sheriff that forces prisoners to live in tents in the desert and has a right-wing governor who wags her finger in the face of Barack Obama.  Just another "liberal" city, right?  Bernie certainly has no "mainstream appeal," right?  Well, look at this, my friends.

 

Folks, I'm getting excited. Very excited.  Bernie's "town meeting" has become a convention center rally. And the "town meeting" -- excuse me, convention center rally -- isn't even happening until this Saturday, July 18.  Perhaps we'll see 10,000?

 

Live in Phoenix and care to join the political revolution?  Please RSVP here.

~~~

The Rally to Economic Populism—Thanks to Bernie + Organizing. Hillary?

 

  Author: Roger Hickey


Published: July 14, 2015

 

 

It seems like overnight.  Americans’ attitudes are changing on social issues – like gay marriage and the flying of the Confederate flag at state capitols.  But the changes seem fast only if you ignore the centuries of slavery, Jim Crow, and repression, before that rapid “overnight” change.  The flip in public opinion (or at least awareness) was often purchased by blood – and by decades of organizing.

 

But what about economic change?  How long until all African Americans – and whites and Latinos – can get a good job with a future?  When will all gay and lesbian Americans – and everyone else – be able to encourage their kids to go to college, confident that they won’t have to burden them with debt, like indentured servants?  And will change come fast enough to America’s carbon-intensive energy system, which now worsens climate change with every day that action to retool our economy is delayed?

 

Now, seemingly overnight, a new populist movement addressing those economic issues is dominating the political debate. The immediate reason is the presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders, who is drawing huge crowds, raising serious money, and rising dramatically in the public opinion polls.  But Bernie is also campaigning on a platform that has been developed, tested, and put on the national agenda by a generation of progressive thinkers, political leaders like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and generations of organizers. Just as with the “overnight” changes in attitudes on social issues, activists have been working hard for years to elevate the issues of economic inequality, full-employment and economic growth, retirement security, and the question of who owns our democracy.  While more controversial, because the economic agenda challenges the power of corporations and big banks, polls show the agenda of the new populist movement gains the support of the great majority of Americans.

 

 In April, at a national conference of grassroots organizers, three large organizing networks joined with the Campaign for America’s Futureto release the Populism 2015 Platform for People and the Planet. The 12 planks of that platform are based on the wisdom gleaned from years of organizing by the National People’s Alliance, USAction, the Alliance for a Just Society and CAF.  But it also reflected the work of activists and community leaders mobilizing people around big, society-shaping economic changes that can transform the economy in the direction of justice and sustainable prosperity.

 

Please endorse the Populism 2015 Platform for People and the Planet and take it into the 2016 debate – and keep fighting for it after the election.  And use the platform to judge Hillary Clinton’s economic policy speech to be delivered on Monday.  Below each of our 12 planks, we show (indented) the corresponding work of the following:

·                          Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Economic Agenda for America: 12 Steps Forward (Dec. 2014).

·                          The MoveOn-Robert Reich Big Picture video series – Twelve Ideas to Save the Economy

·                          and the Roosevelt Institute’s Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy, by Joseph Stiglitz.

Populism2015: Building the Movement for People and the Planet


1. Rebuild America for the 21st Century and Create Jobs for All.


America’s public infrastructure – from roads to rail to water and energy systems – is increasingly dangerous to our health and a drag on our economy.  National investment in rebuilding America will create millions of high-quality jobs, bid wages up, help close the racial jobs gap, and make America a better place to live and work.

 

Sanders Platform #1. We need a major investment to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure: roads, bridges, water systems, waste water plants, airports, railroads and schools.  (Sanders has since introduced a bill that would invest $1 trillion over several years to rebuild America.)

Sanders Platform #3. We need to develop new economic models to increase job creation and productivity.  Instead of giving huge tax breaks to corporations which ship our jobs to China and other low-wage countries, we need to provide assistance to workers who want to purchase their own businesses by establishing worker-owned cooperatives.

 

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Bring us to full employment, by increasing investments in our future.

 

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Provide genuine economic security and opportunity for all Americans by expanding access to the essentials of middle-class life.

 

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Reform monetary policy to prioritize full employment.

 

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Reinvigorate public investment and invest in large-scale infrastructure renovation.

2. Raise Wages, Empower Workers and Reverse Inequality.


 

Inequality has reached new extremes, as more and more jobs become contingent and part-time, with low pay and few benefits.  We should lift the floor under every worker by guaranteeing a living wage, paid sick and vacation days, and affordable health care.  We should empower workers to form unions and bargain collectively. We must curb perverse CEO compensation policies that give executives personal incentives to plunder their own companies.

 

Sanders Platform #4. Union workers who are able to collectively bargain for higher wages and benefits earn substantially more than non-union workers. We need legislation which makes it clear that when a majority of workers sign cards in support of a union, they can form a union.

 

Sanders Platform #5.  Raise the federal minimum wage to a living wage.  No one in this country who works 40 hours a week should live in poverty.

 

The Economic Policy Institute’s Raising America’s Pay project outlines an array of policies to raise wages. But they say the best way to deliver broadly shared wage growth is “through monetary and budgetary policy that prioritizes full employment—thereby tightening the labor market so that employers have to offer pay increases to get and keep the workers they need.”

 

Reich/MoveOn: Watch Strengthen Unions here. Bob show strengthening unions is a key way to attack economic inequality.

 

Reich/MoveOn: Watch Fight for $15 here. Bob joins a growing movement to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

 

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Reform the labor market to ensure that everyone benefits from an economy that is working at full steam.

 

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Strengthen the right to bargain.

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Restructure CEO pay.

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Increase funding for enforcement and raise penalties for violating labor standards.

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Raise the minimum wage and raise the income threshold for mandatory overtime.

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Governments should grant public contracts only to corporations that meet high labor standards.

3. Invest in a Green Economy.


Catastrophic climate change is a clear and present danger.  The United States should lead the global green revolution that builds strong and resilient communities.  Public investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency can create jobs and opportunity, particularly in communities of color that have borne the worst consequences of toxic corporate practices.

 

Sanders Platform #2. The United States must lead the world in reversing climate change and make certain that this planet is habitable for our children and grandchildren.  We must transform our energy system away from fossil fuels and into energy efficiency and sustainable energies.  Transforming our energy system will not only protect the environment, it will create good paying jobs.

 

Reich/MoveOn: Watch Make Polluters Pay here. Reich says instead of investing in dirty fuels, let’s divest from polluters, start charging them for poisoning our skies, and then invest the revenue so that it benefits everyone.

4. Eliminate Institutionalized Racism to Open Opportunity to All.


 

In a society of increasing diversity, ending systemic racial disparities is vital to building economic prosperity. This begins with comprehensive immigration reform, expanded voting rights and an end to mass incarceration and the systematic criminalization of people of color.

 

Reich/MoveOn: Watch End Mass Incarceration here. Bob says our criminal justice system is racist – and it’s a disaster for our economy.

 

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Reform the criminal justice system to reduce incarceration rates.

 

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Reform immigration law by providing a pathway to citizenship.

 


5. Guarantee Women’s Economic Equality.


 

We will ensure that women are guaranteed the same pay, protections and opportunities as men in the workplace and in society. Families must have access to high-quality child care and paid leave from the workplace for childbirth, illness and vacation. Women must also be guaranteed affordable health care and a secure retirement – with Social Security credit for work in the household.

 

Sanders Platform #6. Women workers today earn 78 percent of what their male counterparts make. We need pay equity in our country – equal pay for equal work.

 

Reich/MoveOn: Watch Help Working Families here. Reich outlines key policies that will help working families succeed economically, including universal child care, paid family leave, and ensuring equal pay for equal work.

 

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Promote pay equity.

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Subsidize child care.

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Protect women’s access to reproductive health services.

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Legislate paid sick leave and paid family leave.

 


6. Provide a High-Quality Education to Every Child.


Every child must have the right to high-quality, free public education from preschool to college. This requires providing the basics – preschool, smaller classes, summer and after-school programs, and skilled teachers. Free four-year, post-high school education should be available for all who seek it. We must also provide relief to the generation now burdened with a student debt that they may never pay off.

 

Sanders Platform #8. Quality education in America, from child care to higher education, must be affordable for all. Without a high-quality and affordable educational system . . . our standard of living will continue to decline. Make college free.

 

Reich/MoveOn: Watch Reinvent Education here. In Reinvent Education, Reich lays out six “to-dos” to fix a broken education system.

 

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Invest in early childhood through child benefits, home visiting, and pre-K.

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Increase access to higher education through more public financing, restructuring student loans, and increasing scrutiny of for-profit schools.

7. Expand Shared Security for the 21st Century.


No child should go hungry in America.  Health care should be a right, not a privilege.  Every worker deserves a secure retirement.  A job should be available to everyone willing and able to work. We will strengthen and expand America’s shared security programs – Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment, food support and housing assistance. Greater shared security makes the economy more robust by enabling entrepreneurs and workers to take risks, knowing that they can survive failure.

 

Sanders Platform #10. The United States must join the rest of the industrialized world and recognize that health care is a right of all, and not a privilege.  We need to establish a Medicare-for-all, single-payer system.

 

Sanders Platform #11.  We must strengthen the social safety net, not weaken it.  Instead of cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and nutrition programs, we should be expanding these programs.

 

Reich/MoveOn: Watch Expand Social Security here. Bob explains it’s time to “scrap the cap” so we can expand Social Security.

 

Reich/MoveOn: In The Medicare Solution, Bob makes a stellar case for Medicare for all!

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Make health care affordable and universal – and control health care costs by allowing government bargaining.

 

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Increase retirement security by reducing transactions costs and the exploitation of retirees, and expanding Social Security.

8. Enforce Fair Taxes on Corporations and the Wealthy.


Our tax code rigs the rules to favor the few. Multinationals pay lower tax rates than small domestic businesses.  Billionaire investors pay lower rates than their secretaries.  Top income tax rates have been lowered even as working people face ever-higher sales taxes and fees.  It is time for the rich and corporations to pay their fair share of taxes so that we can invest in an economy that will work for all.

 

Sanders Platform #12.  At a time of massive wealth and income inequality, we need a progressive tax system in this country which is based on ability to pay                         It is not acceptable that major profitable corporations have paid nothing in federal income taxes, and that corporate CEOs in this country often enjoy an effective tax rate which is lower than their secretaries.

 

Reich/MoveOn: Watch End Corporate Welfare here. No more handouts for Big Oil, no more special tax breaks for Wall Street.

 

Reich/MoveOn: Watch Raise the Estate Tax here. Reich makes the case for reducing inequality and generating an additional $448 billion in federal revenue over ten years from the wealthiest Americans by restoring the estate tax to the level it was in the late 1990s.

 

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Enact pro-growth, pro-equality tax policies.

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Enact a financial transactions tax.

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Raise the top marginal rate.

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Enact a ‘Fair Tax’ by taxing all forms of income at the same rate,

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Encourage U.S. investment by taxing corporations on global income.

9. Forge a Global Strategy that Works for Working People.


Our global trade and tax policies are rigged by multinational companies to drive down pay and worker protections while harming the environment. We need more but balanced trade, global standards that protect the rights of workers, consumers and the environment.  That requires a crackdown on tax havens, currency manipulation, and deals that allow corporation to trample basic labor rights here and abroad.

 

Sanders Platform #7.  We must end our disastrous trade policies (NAFTA, CAFTA, PNTR with China, etc.) which enable corporate America to shut down plants in this country and move to China and other low-wage countries. We need to end the race to the bottom and develop trade policies which demand that American corporations create jobs here, and not abroad.

 


 

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Restore balance to global trade agreements.

 


10. Make Wall Street Serve the Real Economy.


 

Financial deregulation has devastated our economy and protected banks that are too big to fail, too big to manage and too big to jail.  The financial casino fosters ever more dangerous speculation, while investment in the real economy lags.  The resulting booms and busts devastate families and small businesses. We need to break up the big banks, levy a speculation tax, and provide low-income families with safe and affordable banking services. We should crack down on payday lenders and other schemes that exploit vulnerable working families.

 

Sanders Platform #9.  Financial institutions cannot be an island unto themselves, standing as huge profit centers outside of the real economy.  The greed, recklessness and, illegal behavior of major Wall Street firms plunged this country into the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.  They are too powerful to be reformed.  They must be broken up.

 

Reich/MoveOn: Watch Tame Wall Street here. Reich lays out the case for busting up the big banks.

 

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Fix the Financial Sector. End ‘too big to fail’.

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Reform Federal Reserve governance.

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Regulate the shadow banking sector and end offshore banking.

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Bring transparency to all financial markets and enforce rules with stricter penalties.

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Reduce credit and debit card fees.

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Expand access to banking services through a postal savings bank.

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Rebalance the rules for bankruptcy by expanding coverage to homeowners and students.

 


11. Change Priorities to Address Real Security Needs.


Our current national security policies commit us to policing the world.  The result costs lives and drains public resources.  We need a real security policy that makes military intervention a last resort, and focuses on global threats like climate change, poverty and inequality.  We should reduce military budgets and properly support humanitarian programs.

 


12. Fight for Democracy and Curb the Power of Big Money.


From big-money politics to the assault on the right to vote and a corrupted lobby culture in Washington, our democracy is under assault.  It is no accident that the assault has escalated as a new majority of people of color, young people and working women has begun to emerge.  We need to close the revolving door between Wall Street and Washington, and expose the entrenched interests that buy our legislators.  We need public financing of elections that bans corporate and big money.  We must guarantee the right to vote, with easy access to registration and the polls.

 

Reich/MoveOn: Get Big Money Out of Politics! – the piece of work that will make everything else possible. We celebrate the work of Public Citizen, People for the American Way, and Common Cause—and thank them for all their help this last Big Picture video

 

Stiglitz/Roosevelt: Reform political inequality.

– – – –

In a May 13 article, entitled The Progressive Challenge, my colleague, Robert Borosage described the work of various think tanks and organizing groups in outlining a progressive agenda:

·                          New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “Progressive Agenda,” aimed at income inequality.

·                          The Center for Community Change’s Putting Families First: Good Jobs for All.

·                          The Economic Policy Institute Project on Raising America’s Pay.

·                          And of course, the Progressive Caucus’ The People’s Budget.

·                          The Roosevelt Institute offered “Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy,“ written by Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz,

·                          The Center for American Progress’ Commission on Inclusive Prosperityreport, chaired by former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.

Borosage writes,

“All of these are bold efforts to address the central issue of the day: an economy of increasing inequality that does not work for working people.  All call for major long-term public investment to rebuild America’s infrastructure and put people to work.  All advocate progressive tax reforms to hike taxes on the rich and corporations.  
 
Virtually all want a new trade policy that will deal with currency manipulation.  All call for extensive reforms to insure that the rewards of growth are widely shared: raising the floor under workers (hiking the minimum wage, guaranteeing paid sick days, vacation days and family leave, adjusting overtime, etc), empowering workers to form unions and bargain collectively and, rolling back the excesses that have bloated CEO pay packages.  All put basic equity at the center of economic growth – immigration reform, an end to mass incarceration, pay equity for women.  
 
Virtually all call for major investment in education from universal pre-K to affordable college. Most envision an expansion of Social Security, affordable health care, and other shared security programs.
These platforms are bold progressive calls for government action to fix the rules that have been rigged to favor the few.  All argue that inequality is not inevitable, not an act of nature, but a product of policy and of power.
 
And no matter who gets elected progressives are going to have to keep pushing hard – and building a movement – around the evolving comprehensive economic agenda for justice and prosperity.

~~~

Sat Jul 18, 2015 at 08:23 PM PDT

Over 11,000 attend Bernie's Phoenix, Arizona rally, his largest to date



 



Well, tonight, in Phoenix, Bernie drew his biggest crowd yet: over 11,000 excited individuals.  Yes, he continues to draw the largest crowds of any presidential candidate -- Republican or Democratic. For context, Bernie's rally tonight was about three times larger than Donald Trump's recent hate-filled rant in Phoenix.

Tonight more than 11,000 friends and I sent a powerful message to the billionaire class: You can’t have it all!

~~~

Hillary Clinton’s Glass-Steagall

 

  Author: Robert Reich

 | NationofChange | Op-Ed

Published: July 15, 2015 

 

Hillary Clinton won’t propose reinstating a bank break-up law known as the Glass-Steagall Act – at least according to Alan Blinder, an economist who has been advising Clinton’s campaign. “You’re not going to see Glass-Steagall,” Blinder said after her economic speech Monday in which she failed to mention it. Blinder said he had spoken to Clinton directly about Glass-Steagall.  This is a big mistake.

 

It’s a mistake politically because people who believe Hillary Clinton is still too close to Wall Street will not be reassured by her position on Glass-Steagall.  Many will recall that her husband led the way to repealing Glass Steagall in 1999 at the request of the big Wall Street banks.

 

It’s a big mistake economically because the repeal of Glass-Steagall led directly to the 2008 Wall Street crash, and without it we’re in danger of another one.

 

Some background: During the Roaring Twenties, so much money could be made by speculating on shares of stock that several big Wall Street banks began selling stock along side their traditional banking services – taking in deposits and making loans.

 

Some banks went further, lending to pools of speculators that used the money to pump up share prices.  The banks sold the shares to their customers, only to have the share prices collapse when the speculators dumped them.

 

For the banks, it was an egregious but hugely profitable conflict of interest.

 

After the entire stock market crashed in 1929, ushering in the Great Depression, Washington needed to restore the public’s faith in the banking system. One step was for Congress to enact legislation insuring commercial deposits against bank losses.

 

Another was to prevent the kinds of conflicts of interest that resulted in such losses, and which had fueled the boom and subsequent bust.  Under the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, banks couldn’t both gamble in the market and also take in deposits and make loans.  They’d have to choose between the two.

 

“The idea is pretty simple behind this one,” Senator Elizabeth Warren said a few days ago, explaining her bill to resurrect Glass-Steagall. “If banks want to engage in high-risk trading — they can go for it, but they can’t get access to ensured deposits and put the taxpayers on the hook for that reason.”

 

For more than six decades after 1933, Glass-Steagall worked exactly as it was intended to. During that long interval few banks failed and no financial panic endangered the banking system.

 

But the big Wall Street banks weren’t content. They wanted bigger profits.  They thought they could make far more money by gambling with commercial deposits.  So they set out to whittle down Glass-Steagall.

 

Finally, in 1999, President Bill Clinton struck a deal with Republican Senator Phil Gramm to do exactly what Wall Street wanted, and repeal Glass-Steagall altogether.

 

What happened next?  An almost exact replay of the Roaring Twenties. Once again, banks originated fraudulent loans and sold them to their customers in the form of securities.  Once again, there was a huge conflict of interest that finally resulted in a banking crisis.

 

This time the banks were bailed out, but millions of Americans lost their savings, their jobs, even their homes.

 

A personal note.  I worked for Bill Clinton as Secretary of Labor and I believe most of his economic policies were sound.  But during those years I was in fairly continuous battle with some other of his advisers who seemed determined to do Wall Street’s bidding.

 

On Glass-Steagall, they clearly won.

 

To this day, some Wall Street apologists argue Glass-Steagall wouldn’t have prevented the 2008 crisis because the real culprits were nonbanks like Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns.

 

Baloney.  These nonbanks got their funding from the big banks in the form of lines of credit, mortgages, and repurchase agreements.  If the big banks hadn’t provided them the money, the nonbanks wouldn’t have got into trouble.

 

And why were the banks able to give them easy credit on bad collateral? Because Glass-Steagall was gone.

Other apologists for the Street blame the crisis on unscrupulous mortgage brokers.

 

Surely mortgage brokers do share some of the responsibility.  But here again, the big banks were accessories and enablers.

 

The mortgage brokers couldn’t have funded the mortgage loans if the banks hadn’t bought them.  And the big banks couldn’t have bought them if Glass-Steagall were still in place.

 

I’ve also heard bank executives claim there’s no reason to resurrect Glass-Steagall because none of the big banks actually failed.

 

This is like arguing lifeguards are no longer necessary at beaches where no one has drowned. It ignores the fact that the big banks were bailed out.  If the government hadn’t thrown them lifelines, many would have gone under.

 

Remember? Their balance sheets were full of junky paper, non-performing loans, and worthless derivatives.  They were bailed out because they were too big to fail.  And the reason for resurrecting Glass-Steagall is we don’t want to go through that ever again.

 

As George Santayana famously quipped, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.  In the roaring 2000’s, just as in the Roaring Twenties, America’s big banks used insured deposits to underwrite their gambling in private securities, and then dump the securities on their customers.

 

It ended badly.

 

This is precisely what the Glass-Steagall Act was designed to prevent – and did prevent for more than six decades.

 

Hillary Clinton, of all people, should remember.

 

~~~

Well folks, if the good Lord is willing and the creek don't rise, I'll try hard to talk with you agian next Friday July 31, 2015.

 

God Bless You All

&

God Bless the United States of America

Floyd

 

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