OBOF TYMHM & MORE PART 23

   WELCOME TO OPINIONS  BASED  ON FACTS (OBOF)

&

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (TYMHM)

YEAR THREE

 

Name	Published
OVERVIEW
OBOF & TYMHM PART 14	Dec  18, 2012
OBOF & TYMHM PART 15	Jan.  02, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 16	Jan.  08, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 16 EXTRA	Jan.  11, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 17	Jan.  15, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 18	Jan.  22, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 19	Jan.  29, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 20	Feb.  05, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 21	Feb.  14, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 22	Feb.  20, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 23	Feb.  27, 2013

 

 

IN THIS ISSUE

 

1.  What about Sequester?

2.  Republicans warn against Greece - BUT.

3.  Obama's four steps for manufacturing.

4.  Showdown fatgue.

 

 

 

 

 

WHAT ABOUT SEQUESTER

&

WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH IT?

 

 

Let us start today by trying to see where we are and how we got here.  As I am sure most of you know, Friday, March 1, 2013 is the date that Sequester takes effect, if Congress does nothing to stop it.  Yes, Congress is the one place that has both the authority and responsibility to act.  I use the word "act" instead of Govern, because I am not sure Congress knows what the word "Govern" means.

 

First, what is Sequester and how did it come about?  In August 2011, after a long and difficult battle over raising the Debt Ceiling, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R), put together a deficit reduction plan, so terrible, that no one would ever let it happen, but would let everyone allow the Debit Ceiling to be raised at the time.  That plan is called "Sequester."

 

While everyone, back in August 2011, thought it would never happen, it now appears as though the Republicans are planning to let it happen.  They claim that it is President Obama's plan and that he has not put forth any plan to override Sequester.

 

That just isn't true.  The President has put forth a plan that is a BALANCED PLAN.  That means that there are spending cuts and some revenue enhancement.  The revenue enhancement portion is made up of closing some tax loopholes for oil companies and others that making so much profit that they simply do not need these loopholes.  Speaker Boehner, says that the President got more revenue when the Bush tax cuts expired.  He says that the Government will receive more revenue now than ever. 

 

That simply is not true.  It is true, that dollar wise, there will be more dollars, BUT, when applying inflation, it is nowhere near more revenue than ever before.  Besides that, the President compromised on the Bush tax cuts and let them become permanent for everyone that made up to $400,000 a year, instead of the $201,000 it originally was to be. 

 

Speaker Boehner said today, the 26th, that the House had put through two bills on this budget and he wasn't going to put through a third until "the Senate gets off their ass and does something."  The truth is that those bills were put through last year and did not relate to the Sequester.  Bills, of this type, have to be started in the House of Representatives. 

 

The Republicans in the House of Representatives say, that the President had not put forth any plan when he actually has.  The real problem is that they will not accept a balanced plan that has new revenue in it.  They simply are making up lies.

 

It should be noted that President Obama has already cut $1.2 trillion in spending over ten years and has offered another $1.8 trillion in his balanced plan. 

 

The 2012 House of Representatives spent less time in-session than any House of Representatives in our history.  What is happening, in this regard, in 2013?  They are going down the same road.  On February 26, 2013 they came back to session after a 10 day recess.  They are scheduled to close the session at 3:00 P.M. on Thursday, February 28th.  After a 10 day recess, they come to work, if you can call it that, three days and adjourn, probably, as it looks now, on the 26th, without doing anything to stop Sequester. 

 

Nancy Pelosi, Democrat Minority Leader in the House of Representative, said

 

‘At Some Point We’ve Got To Do Some Governing’

 

What an apropos statement at the right time.

At this point, the night of the 26th, nothing is happening and nothing is scheduled to happen.  The President has said again today, that his door is open.  Boehner will not talk to the President.  As of now, it certainly appears that Sequester will take effect.  After that, later in March, comes the next battle over Extended Resolutions to keep the Government running, providing there is something left to run.  Then sometime around July or August, there will be another battle about raising the Debt Ceiling.  Lot's of fun ahead ha ha.

Last week, I told you, along with information from Dr. Allen W. Smith, about Ayn Rand and her philosophy.  Since then, I have purchased three of her books - "The Virtue of Selfishness," "Return of Primitive - The Anti-Industrial Revolution," "Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology." Needless to say, I have not yet read these books, but I have read enough to know, that in a few words, she does not believe in Democracy and that Government should be handled by a small group of people. 

All of the Republican policies and actions fit right in to what she believes and proposes.  Keep in mind that we know that Speaker Boehner, House Republican Leader Eric Cantor, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Congressman and past Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan, and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas are all known to be students of Ayn Rand.  Their actions tend to lead us right down her path of professed Government.     

~~~

 While Republicans Warn Against ‘Greece,’ That Is Exactly Where Austerity Budgeting Will Lead US.

 

FROM FLOYD:

 

What will happen if Sequester is allowed to occur?  Well, I have heard a number of various takes on this question, as probably you have too.  Fortunately, there is positive proof as to what will happen.  Europe is going through the results of the same,  extreme, austerity that the Republicans are trying to put us through, by deliberately letting Sequester occur. The following, very vividly, lays out what will happen and why this is the wrong road to take.  All of Europe is reeling through austerity, instead of growth.  You really need to read this and keep it in mind.  

 

February 26th, 2013

 Joe Conasonas

 

Indebted America is in danger of turning into destitute Greece, or so congressional Republicans and conservative commentators have been warning us for years now.  For many reasons, this is an absurd comparison – but it may not always be quite so ridiculous, if Washington’s advocates of austerity get their way.

The Republicans actually want to impose Greek-style budget-slashing on the United States. And the federal budget sequestration scheduled to take effect this week could represent the first serious step here toward the kind of fiscal policies that have proved so ruinous not only in Greece — raising unemployment, destroying hope, and encouraging extremism — but across Europe.

Nearly every day, House Speaker John Boehner or Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell or Senator Rand Paul or Rep. Paul Ryan, or almost any other prominent Republican insists that the only way to improve the economic prospects of the American people is to impose drastic budget cuts on them. While these Republican leaders don’t love the sequester budget,  because it cuts too deeply into defense programs, they are eager to impose similar cuts or worse on every domestic function, from health care and education to food safety and infrastructure.

Unwilling as they usually are to name specific cuts, the Republican plans that have emerged lately are indeed similar in scope and impact to those imposed by European central bankers on Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and other beleaguered states across the continent (and imposed by the British government on the United Kingdom itself).

Enacting the same fiscal policies in this country would, presumably, induce the same effects. Yet despite their enthusiasm for extreme austerity the Republican, Tea Party, and assorted media soothsayers almost never want to discuss what has happened in Europe as a result of those same policies. It is not always possible to ignore the unhappy reality of renewed recession, from England to Italy.

Just last weekend, the British were jolted by news that Moody’s had downgraded investments in their country’s sovereign debt from its traditional AAA status.

Why would the bond rating agency do something like that? Principally because the miserable budgeting of Tory Prime Minister David Cameron’s government has mired the United Kingdom in negative growth, with no prospect of reducing its debt, which keeps growing. So the scheme that was supposed to improve the fiscal outlook for the British has merely lowered their credit rating. That wasn’t supposed to happen — in fact, the austerity plan was designed to preserve Britain’s AAA rating — but it was inevitable, as soon as Downing Street chose budget-balancing over growth.

The same downward trajectory can be marked wherever the leaders of dominant Germany have forced austerity plans onto indebted governments.

So damaging has this process become for all of Europe that the Germans finally began suffering the ironic consequences in the last quarter of 2012. Their export-led growth strategies cannot work when their neighbors, reduced to poverty, can no longer purchase German goods. If German exports pick up again this year, it will only happen because customers in the U.S. and China remain exempt from the effects of austerity.

Until now, the United States has escaped the fate of Europe, remaining the “sole bright spot” of steady growth in the global economy, because President Obama resisted the fiscal extremism of his Republican adversaries, and contrived to ward off recession with necessary spending.  Now sequestration, with all of its dire social and economic effects, will provide a taste of what is to come under Republican austerity: a shrunken nation with a dim future.

~~~

Obama’s Four Steps

For Manufacturing

 

Dave Johnson

Campaign For America’s Future / Op-Ed

Published: Sunday 17 February 2013

 

 

The President has opened the doors to discussion of manufacturing policy.

 

In the State of the Union (SOTU) speech President Obama emphasized the importance of manufacturing to our economy. Wednesday in Ashville he expanded on his plan, outlining four steps in particular.  The President has opened the doors to discussion of manufacturing policy.  The question is, how much can be accomplished over Republican and “deficit hawk” obstruction?

In the SOTU, President Obama talked about manufacturing’s importance to our economy, saying,

The American people deserve a tax code … that lowers incentives to move jobs overseas and lowers tax rates for businesses and manufacturers that are creating jobs right here in the United States of America.[. . .] Our first priority is making America a magnet for new jobs and manufacturing.”… There are things we can do, right now, to accelerate this trend.  Last year, we created our first manufacturing innovation institute in Youngstown, Ohio.  So tonight, I’m announcing the launch of three more of these manufacturing hubs, where businesses will partner with the Departments of Defense and Energy to turn regions left behind by globalization into global centers of high-tech jobs.  And I ask this Congress to help create a network of 15 of these hubs and guarantee that the next revolution in manufacturing is made right here in America. We can get that done.

Wednesday the President visited Asheville, North Carolina the President outlines his manufacturing proposals in more detail, describing four steps in particular.

Excerpts from Remarks by the President on Manufacturing — Asheville, NC,

After shedding jobs for more than 10 years, our manufacturers have now added about 500,000 jobs over the past three years. (Applause.)  And I mentioned this last night — Caterpillar, which I know you guys supply, they’re bringing jobs back from Japan. Ford is bringing jobs back from Mexico.  After placing plants in other countries like China, Intel is opening its most advanced plant here in the United States. Apple is starting to make Macs in America again.  (Applause.)[...]

 

 There are things we can do right now to accelerate the resurgence of American manufacturing.  Number one — we can create more centers for high-tech manufacturing in America. Last year, my administration created our first manufacturing innovation institute. We put it in Youngstown, Ohio, which had been really hard-hit when manufacturing started going overseas. And so you have a once-shuttered warehouse — it’s now a state-of-the art lab where new workers are mastering what’s called 3-D printing, which has the potential to revolutionize the way we make everything. That’s the future. And there’s no reason that those same kinds of projects can’t take root in other cities and towns.

 

So last night, I announced the launch of three more institutes. And I’m calling on Congress to help us set up 15 institutes –- global centers of high-tech jobs and advanced manufacturing around the country. (Applause.)

 

The second thing we need to do is make our tax code more competitive. Right now, companies get all kinds of tax breaks for moving jobs and profits overseas, but companies that stay here get hit with one of the highest tax rates in the world. That doesn’t make any sense. So what I’m proposing is that we reform our tax code, stop rewarding businesses that ship jobs overseas, reward companies that are creating jobs right here in the United States of America. That makes sense. (Applause.)

 

Number three — if you’re a manufacturing town, especially one that’s taken a hit — that’s seen a company close up shop or a plant shut down — I want to partner with local leaders to help you attract new investment. Because once that investment starts coming in, things can start turning around. And that means infrastructure gets modernized and research facilities get built, and suddenly a community that was knocked down is getting back up, and they’re attracting new manufacturers who want to come and expand and hire.…

 

Number four — we’ve got to help our workers get the training to compete for the industries of tomorrow. At least a couple of the guys that I had a chance to meet as we were taking the tour told me they were out of work for a year — in one case, two years — in part because we kept unemployment insurance in place so folks could get back on their feet, they were able to go back to school, and now are gainfully employed. No job in America should go unfilled because somebody doesn’t have the right skills to get that job — nobody. (Applause.)So if there is a job open, we should train those folks right away, so that they can do the job. And that’s why I’m proposing a national goal of training 2 million Americans with skills that will lead directly to a job.…

 

So those are four common-sense steps that we can take right now to strengthen manufacturing in America. There’s no magic bullet here. It’s just some common-sense stuff.

~~~

SHOWDOWN  FATIGUE

 

Robert Reich

NationofChange / Op-Ed

Published: Saturday 23 February 2013

 

If the spending cuts go through next week, our fragile economy will slow further, causing more unemployment and misery.

 

We’re one week away from a massive cut in federal spending—cuts that will hurt millions of lower-income Americans who’ll lose nutrition assistance, housing, and money for their schools, among other things.  The cuts will furlough or lay off millions of government employees, reduce inspections of the nation’s meat and poultry and pharmaceuticals and workplaces.  It will eliminate the jobs of hundreds of thousands of people working for government contractors and, according to Leon Panetta and other military leaders, seriously compromise the nation’s defenses.

Bad enough, if the spending cuts go through next week, our fragile economy will slow further, causing more unemployment and misery.  When consumers don’t have the money to buy enough to keep the economy moving and government pulls back this much, businesses can’t justify keeping people on.

 

Yet the silence is deafening.  Republicans won’t deal.  Obama has already cut $1.5 trillion out of the budget but Republicans insist on far more. They want the White House to propose major cuts in Social Security and Medicare.

 

Meanwhile, the Bush tax cuts have been extended permanently to everyone earning up to $400,000.  Only the richest 2 percent have to pay at the rate they did under Bill Clinton, which was far lower than rich paid before 1981.  That will generate $600 billion—less than half of the cuts Obama has accepted.

No one in their right mind would call this a balanced approach to deficit reduction.  Yet Republican’s won’t even consider raising taxes on the most fortunate members of our society.  They won’t limit deductions and loopholes that have driven down the super-rich’s tax rates to single digits (remember Romney’s “carried interest” loophole for private-equity mavens?).  So where’s the outcry?  Why aren’t more people, up in arms?  Why aren’t big businesses (including major military contractors) and Wall Street screaming into the ears of the GOP?  Where’s the outrage from Mainstreet?

I suspect most Americans are suffering showdown fatigue.  After all, we got through the debt-ceiling showdown of August 2011 and the fiscal-cliff showdown on January 1, and the world didn’t end.  So most people figure Washington will find a way out of this one, too.

From Floyd:

Most Americans need to know and realize what has caused the cuts that are scheduled to take affect Friday, March 1, 2013.  It is, because of the debt-ceiling showdown in August 2011.  At that time,  Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, put forth a plan that was so bad, if implemented, that no one would let it happen.  That plan is the Sequester cutting that we are dealing with now. 

So, you see, we didn't get through the debt-ceiling showdown at all, instead we just kicked the can on down the road to March 1, 2013.  That's what we are dealing with now.  As far as the fiscal-cliff is concerned, the President compromised, and agreed to allow the Bush tax cuts to become permanent for everyone having an income up to $400,000.     I don't think, and I hope, that the President will not compromise anymore than he already has. 

Others have bought the Republican-Fox News lies that the deficit is our biggest economic problem, and government spending is to blame.  So a massive, abrupt, and indiscriminate cut in spending seems okay, it’s not okay.  It will hurt the most vulnerable members of our society, and much of the middle class.  Yet it would be even worse if Obama and the Democrats were to give in to Republicans, and not demand more from those who have never been wealthier. Inequality is widening again. All the economic gains since the Great Recession have gone to the top. The richest 400 have more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans put together. Why not limit the mortgage interest deduction to $25,000 a year, so the rest of us don’t have to subsidize mansion mortgages? Why not a wealth tax on assets in excess of $5 million to pay for early-childhood education? Why not a small tax on financial transactions (as Europe is now instituting) to finance better schools? Why not the loophole that private-equity and hedge-fund moguls live off of, to finance child nutrition and social services for the poor? It’s no time for showdown fatigue. It’s time to fight.

~~~

If the good Lord is willing and the creek don't rise, I'll talk with you again next Tuesday March 5, 2013.

God Bless You All

&

God Bless the United States of America.

Floyd

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OBOF TYMHM & MORE PART 22

   WELCOME TO OPINIONS  BASED  ON FACTS (OBOF)

&

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (TYMHM)

YEAR THREE

 

Name	Published
OVERVIEW
OBOF & TYMHM PART 14	Dec  18, 2012
OBOF & TYMHM PART 15	Jan.  02, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 16	Jan.  08, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 16 EXTRA	Jan.  11, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 17	Jan.  15, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 18	Jan.  22, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 19	Jan.  29, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 20	Feb.  05, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 21	Feb.  14, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 22	Feb.  20, 2013

 

 

IN THIS ISSUE

1.  Opening comments.

2.  How would you describe Congress.

3.  Crisis, Crisis, Crisis.

4. Ayn Rand:  Have you heard of her? 

          This one is real          important.

5.  Important matter that Rand teaching is affecting.

6.  Bill Moyer - - Democracy for Dollars.

7.  Climate movement & tar sands pipe line. 

          Don't miss this one.            In fact, most in this

           posting is real important for you.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OPENING  COMMENTS

 

Not yet perfect, but I'm improving on the time of my posting.  Last week I was two days late and this week just one day late.  Maybe next week, I can get it to you on time, which is suppose to be on Tuesday.  Personal note, which probably is of no interest to you, but my Son got a knee replacement last week.  He is doing real good, for which I am very thankful.

 

Folks, the content of this posting is really important.  You need to really read all of it.  In fact, part of it is possibly the most important news that I have ever brought to your attention. 

~~~

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE

CONGRESS?

 

By Floyd Bowman

Publisher "Opinions Based on Facts"

Published February 19, 2013

 

Did you ever stop to think that you really don't know anything?  You don't even know your own name.  Somebody told you that was your name and you just believed them. 

 

Did you ever stop to think that there actually is no such thing as weather seasons?  You see, there is no winter, because it is just a lack of summer and there is no summer, because it is just a lack of winter.  There is no autumn or spring, because they are made up of a combination of summer and winter and since there is no summer or winter there can't be an autumn or spring. 

 

Now, none of that makes any sense at all, does it?  Well I think that is a good description of Congress.  They don't know anything and it shows everyday.

~~~

CRISIS   CRISIS   CRISIS

 

Yes, crisis and crisis, one right after another.  That is what we, as a Government, have been facing for the past four years and into the fifth.  If you go back and check facts, unbiased facts, you will see that, without exception, the crisis has been caused due to the refusal of the Republican Party to compromise, even a little bit.  The United States Government is the largest business in the world.  There is no business anywhere that can function successfully, by facing a continual crisis. 

 

Anyone, even Republicans, if they will honestly look at facts, will know that the Legislators of the Republican Party definitely care more about trying everything they can to make President Obama look bad and fail, than they care about the good of our country.  I think I know why and what is behind this "Govern by Crisis" policy of the Republican Party.

 

    

 

ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH

AYN RAND

OR

HAVE YOU EVEN HEARD OF HER?

 

First, and I hate to say it, but many believe as I do, that they just can't accept a black man as President, so, they try everything they can to be able to say that a black man just can't handle this job.

However, I think there is something more profound behind the scene.  More importantly, Allen W. Smith Ph.D. thinks, Ayn Rand's philosophy and teaching is the basis for what is happening to the Republican Party and our country.

 

So, what is Ayn Rand's philosophy and who is she?  Dr. Smith recently wrote me a basic introduction to Ayn Rand and it is enough to excite and create a tremendous curiosity in me.  I first heard a little bit about her back in September or October 2012, when she was mentioned relating to Vice-President candidate Paul Ryan and his thoughts.

 

I am providing Dr, Smith's short introduction to you now and I am going to pursue more detail information in this regard.  I am going to get the book "The Virtue of Selfishness" and as I learn more about her scary thoughts, I will be passing them on to you in the future.  Better yet, you might want to think about getting the book yourself.  This could be the basis for overthrowing Democracy.

 

Following from Dr. Smith: 

 

I have recently discovered a new avenue to research that helps explain the thinking of the crazy extreme conservatives?  Do you know who Ayn Rand was?  She was born and raised in Russia before coming to the United States when she was 21 years old.  She founded a philosophy and movement called Objectivism.  That philosophy argues that man's greatest purpose in life is to achieve happiness for himself.  She denounces the moral principle of altruism and said that nations must abandonee it if they are to survive.  She argues that we are not our brothers' keepers and opposes anything that is designed.  She is an avowed atheist who turns Judeo-Christian values upside down.    

 

I will paste below some of my other writing about her. 

 

 

 

The greatest threat to Social Security is the fact that there is a strong, well-organized movement to get rid of Social Security.  These Social Security haters are determined to destroy Social Security, just as they would kill a poisonous snake.  Most of them are disciples, of Ayn Rand, whose novels Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, along with her nonfiction book, The Virtue of Selfishness, have garnered a very large following, including Paul Ryan, who almost came within a heartbeat of becoming President of the United States.

 

Alan Greenspan, who was an associate of Ayn Rand for 20 years, first brought the movement to Washington when a fellow Rand associate, Martin Anderson, recommended Greenspan to Nixon for the position of Economic Advisor to the President.  Given their closeness, it is not surprising that Greenspan had Ayn Rand standing beside him during his swearing in ceremony at the White House.

 

          Greenspan later chaired The National Commission on Social Security Reform where he helped lay the foundation for the great Social Security theft.  Still later, Greenspan served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve System for more than 18 years.  Among other mistakes, during his tenure at the Fed, Greenspan is widely blamed for contributing to the Financial Meltdown of 2008 by keeping interest rates too low for too long and allowing the housing bubble to grow. 

 

During his years with Ayn Rand, Greenspan wrote articles for her periodical, The Objectivist.  He wrote the following words in an article in July 1966:

The welfare state is nothing more than a mechanism by which governments confiscate the wealth of productive members of society to support a wide variety of welfare schemes.

 

Other prominent people who have expressed admiration for Ayan Rand and her ideas include: Ronald Reagan, John Boehner, Senator Ron Johnson, Ron Paul, Senator Rand Paul, Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, Sean Hannity, Newt Gingrich, Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell, and many others. 

  

Ayn Rand died in 1982, but the movement based on her philosophy is even stronger today than when she was still alive, and it is picking up steam.  Ayn Rand’s 1964 book entitled, The Virtue of Selfishness, sold 400,000 copies during the first four months after publication.  Half a century later, in 2013, it is still selling at a hefty pace.  In 2011, Atlas Shrugged sold 445,000 copies, the second strongest sales year in the novel’s 54-year history.

 

Floyd, the above examples should give you an idea of the philosophy currently being expounded by right-wing conservatives.  I recently read a new biography about Ayn Rand, and I am currently reading Rand's book, The Virtue of Selfishness.  Her ideas are shocking.  Even more shocking is the fact that people like Alan Greenspan, Paul Ryan, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Justice Clarence Thomas and many others follow her ideas. 

 

Friend Allen

~~~

 

ANY IMPORTANT MATTER

THAT IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW

THAT FALLS IN LINE WITH AYN RAND

TEACHING?

 

In just nine (9) days, the sequester will go into effect, if Congress does nothing to stop it.  President Obama has given them a good plan to save all the terrible problems that are going to occur, if they don't move.  He has said "I will talk with anyone that wants to, but time is running out."

 

What will happen if they don't act?  First, it devastates the middle class, which is right down the line of Rand teaching.  President Obama laid it out plain today as to what the results will be.

 

He said "These cuts are not smart, they are not fair, they will hurt our economy.  They will add hundreds of thousands to the unemployment role.  People will lose their jobs.  Emergency responders, like the ones that are here today, their ability to communities to respond to and recover from disasters, will be degraded.  Border Patrol agents will see their hours reduced.  FBI agents will be furloughed.  Federal prosecutors will have to close cases and let criminals go.  Airport Controllers and airport security will see cut backs, which means more delays at airports across the country."

 

In addition, we are talking about thousands of teachers laid off across America, cuts in primary health care, preventive care will be taken off the list.  Military reductions are also, going to add to unemployment as contracts are cut back.  Military will be hit the hardest.  I happen to think the Military can well withstand some cut back. 

 

The President continued, "We have a few days.  Congress can do the right thing.  We can avert just one more Washington manufactured problem that slows down our recovery.  This is something that is in our capacity to solve.  It doesn't take that much work.  Outside of Washington, no body seems to understand that this is a repeat pattern, over and over again.  They expect our leaders to proceed on their behalf, so do I."

 

Republicans in Congress continue to make artificial deadlines and refuse to meet them. 

~~~

Bill Moyers Essay:

 Democracy for Dollars

February 15, 2013

Welcome.  At the State of the Union speech, there’s always more than meets the eye.  Just out of sight is the reality of how we are governed. The House of Representatives, where Congress gathers to hear the President, used to be known as “The People’s House.”  But money power owns the lease now and runs the joint from hidden back rooms.

You're looking at the most expensive Congress money can buy. The House races last fall cost over one billion dollars.  It took more than $700 million to elect just a third of the Senate.  The two presidential candidates raised more than a billion a piece. The website Politico added it all up to find that the total number of dollars spent on the 2012 election exceeded the number of people on this planet -- some seven billion.

Most of it didn’t come from the average Joe and Jane.  Sixty percent of all super PAC donations came from just 159 people. And the top 32 super PAC donors gave an average of 9.9 million dollars.  Think how many teachers that much money could hire.

We’ll never actually know where all of the money comes from. One third of the billion dollars from outside groups was “dark money,” secret funds anonymously funneled through fictional “social welfare” organizations.  Those are front groups, created to launder the money inside the deep pockets.

And don't let anyone ever tell you the money didn't make a difference.  More than 80 percent of House candidates and two-thirds of Senate candidates who outspent their general election opponents won, and were present and counted as the new Congress prepared to hear the President.  Remember, money doesn't necessarily corrupt legislators, but it certainly tilts them.

HOUSE SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER at the State of the Union: Members of Congress, I have the high privilege and distinct honor of presenting to you, the President of the United States.

BILL MOYERS: So let's share some snapshots from the State of the Union.  That’s Speaker of the House John Boehner, of course.  He's led his party to protect Wall Street from oversight and accountability.  The finance, insurance, and real estate industries gave him more than three million dollars last year.

Eric Cantor is the Republican majority leader in the House. Among his biggest donors--Goldman Sachs, masterminds of the mortgage-backed securities that almost sank the world economy.  Cantor’s also the third largest recipient of money from the National Rifle Association in the House, which is one reason he's such a "big gun" there.

Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, may be in hot water.  He's currently under investigation for allegations that he improperly intervened with government agencies on behalf of a big donor.

And there's Fred Upton, Republican from Michigan, chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Committee.  What a coincidence. The oil and gas industry is one of his top donors, helping him raise the four million dollars he spent last year to win re-election.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrats of New York, have Wall Street as a constituent and patron.  Her biggest contributors include JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and law firms that have advised them.  His top donors include securities and investment firms, lawyers and legal firms, and lobbyists.

And there are fleeting glances of some familiar faces here tonight seen recently on our broadcast. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader in the Senate, Republican Orrin Hatch of Utah, and Democratic Senator Max Baucus of Montana.  All cited by "The New York Times" as suspects in that mysterious migration of half a billion dollars from taxpayers over to the bottom line of drug companies, especially the pharmaceutical giant Amgen.  Would it surprise you to learn that over the past five years, Amgen has been one of the top ten donors to McConnell, Baucus, and Hatch?

As for our president--by attending a fundraiser on the average of every 60 hours during his bid for a second term, he once again broke the record for bringing home the bacon.  Although the money power that controls Congress could thwart everything Obama proposed in his State of the Union address, there was not a single word in his speech about taming the power of private money over public policy.

And, so it goes: The golden rule of politics.  He who has the gold, rules.

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Climate Movement Overlooks People Who Live Near Tar Sands Refineries

Ngoc Nguyen

New America Media / Interview

Published: Tuesday 19 February 2013

 

Editor's Note: As many as 40,000 protesters from 30 states participated in rallies Sunday in Washington, D.C., urging President Obama to curb pollution from fossil fuels, including tar sands; nix the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would bring more tar sands crude from Canada to refineries in Texas; and take bold action to address the climate crisis.

 By some estimates, it was the biggest protest march for climate change action in the nation's history.  NAM’s Ngoc Nguyen spoke with Denny Larson, the executive director of Global Community Monitor, who was at the rallies in D.C. with members of a tar sands refinery coalition whose members live near oil refineries.  Larson says tar sands crude is already being refined in the U.S. and increasing pollution and health problems.

 

 

Why did you and other members of the Tar Sands Refinery Collaborative participate in the climate rallies on Sunday?

We want to make sure that people who are part of movement for fixing the climate problem understand that number one, tar sands are already in the U.S. and affecting millions of people even without the Keystone [XL] and most people within the climate movement still don’t understand that.  So, we want to get everyone in the climate movement educated and on board to support the tar sands refining community.

It’s not just about stopping the Keystone [XL] pipeline…which we all support. We need the climate movement to start paying attention to people of color communities on the fenceline of tar sands refineries, because we need a lot of action out of the EPA enforcement division and Department of Justice, because we believe a lot of the pollution impacting the neighborhoods is illegal and perhaps criminal and deserves bold action on the part of the community.

Where is tar sands crude currently being refined in the U.S.?

The Midwest right now is the hub of where most of the stuff is processed and then with the reversal of some of the lines in Texas…places like Port Arthur and Houston are beginning to receive significant amounts of tar sands, but they are waiting for the southern leg of the Keystone [XL] to be completed so that they can bring more in.

What about in the San Francisco Bay Area?

 [Forest Ethics] identified that Chevron [in Richmond] and Tesoro [in Martinez] have received tar sands crude.  The Phillips refinery up there in Rodeo… they’re trying to get permission to increase tanker traffic…These tanker routes are relatively new…a lot of tar sands comes in via pipeline that we know about…  [so when there’s] news that…oh geez, they want to bring more tankers in, well, you know that means that they want to bring in a source of heavy crude oil that can’t be brought in by an existing pipeline, and that pretty much means tar sands.

Why now?  What opportunity exists now in terms of pushing Pres. Obama to address climate change?

He has four years now where he doesn’t have to worry about election politics…obviously that was a big problem that hindered a lot of environmental initiatives including a number by [U.S. EPA Administrator] Lisa Jackson.  Now they don’t have that excuse. They also have the opportunity to create the legacy...so it’s that legacy opportunity for the administration. We have four years to hold their feet to the fire so they can’t come back to us and say yeah, yeah but the election.

What actions should he take?

We want to define his broad statement about doing something about the climate.  We want that to say 1) no Keystone [XL]; 2) crack down on tar sands oil refineries processing the stuff right now; and look very seriously at expansion permits for doing tar sands.  And consider the types of environmental requirements put upon them to truly make them safe and clean… The third thing is, we need to reverse the flow, it’s flowing in today on rail and ship and pipeline and we need to set a course to send it back and we’re not going to take it anymore…we’ll get it from somewhere else because we’re going to bring our consumption of oil dramatically down and increase our clean energy to replace it.

I’ve heard it argued that even if the U.S. rejects tar sands, it will be bought and processed elsewhere in the world, such as Asia, so we wouldn’t reduce carbon pollution overall, and we’d miss the opportunity to cash in on the boom.

We’re going to miss out on an opportunity to poison millions of people and I think that’s an opportunity we should pass on.  I don’t think it’s an opportunity at all.  It’s an opportunity for destruction.  We shouldn’t be cashing in on stuff like that that pollutes and tears apart communities.  Like in Detroit, that expansion [of the Marathon refinery] there has literally torn apart the community.  It got so bad [Marathon] started to have to buy up neighborhoods from the solutions in the refinery, but then they are drawing a line in the community.  [They say] these two blocks, we’ll move you out and these two blocks you have to stay.  It created an incredible amount of social problems in southwest Detroit for the community.

You want the president to take specific actions, but what about broader climate change legislation such as the cap and trade proposals that failed in 2010?

What they need in those refinery communities is, for example, they need EPA to really come in and investigate and crack down on what’s happening there in the way of toxic releases, the fires, explosions, flaring, wastewater discharges traveling underneath the neighborhood burping up benzene in the sewers.  There are very real, immediate emergency room stuff that needs to be done immediately so that’s the primary importance to people in their day to day life.  The climate change legislation is great and I’m sure we will support it but it’s always the stuff at the fenceline that kind of gets forgotten, particularly when the big movement starts and people think about the big picture, the long term…but they tend to leave the fenceline stuff behind and forget about it….these are the people most at risk from tar sands.

There are many people who live around industrial polluters, so who are the “fenceline” communities? How many people are affected?

Back in the late 1990s, the U.S. EPA looked at all the … polluting types of industries…paper mills, power plants, everything, and they ranked them on objective criteria…based on the toxic release inventory, toxicity of releases, proximity of people and permit violations and by far and away, oil refineries outranked all other industries as being the worst.

Here’s the names of some cities that have a lot of refineries…Houston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area, Philadelphia, a whole bank down the East Coast…there’s a lot of people near refineries.

How does processing tar sands crude increase pollution that harms health?

When you bring in tar sands, you bring in additional pollution, additional accidents, additional flaring, additional dumping of toxins into the wastewater, additional solid waste pollution because tar sands contains more contaminants than other crude oil, so you have to pull out and dump them on somebody so it’s dirty in, dirty out.

What impact does this have on the people who live there?

[You see] more asthma attacks, respiratory problems, heart attacks, strokes, because of extra particulate pollution, cancers, childhood cancers…adult onset asthma. A whole variety of health problems.  Also, it is reaching further, reaching neighborhoods that weren’t impacted before. It’s getting out and creating more problems for more people, because you’ve got more impact.

The president has said he wants to tap our domestic sources of oil and gas.  Should we be moving toward cleaner-burning natural gas?

That investment is going in the wrong direction…it’s going into fossil fuels, it shouldn’t be going into gas production, it’s not really a clean energy source, because if you go into the production areas, you’ll see how contaminated they are.  The contamination from the production of gas, it’s just as dangerous and now with fracking…I’d argue more than oil production, so if you add in the life cycle of gas, it’s a dirty fossil fuel like the rest of them.  We shouldn’t be investing in that.  We should be investing solar, wind and truly renewable clean energy.

2 comments on "Climate Movement Overlooks People Who Live Near Tar Sands Refineries"

H.G.Wells

February 19, 2013 9:45pm

 

NationofChange fights back with one simple but powerful weapon: the truth. Can you donate $5 to help us?

ooh, ooh that smell, can"t you smell that smell, when i grew up in Holyoke Massachusetts, every sunset you would see the Monsanto pesticide factory start spewing out this stinky pollution.  This smelled like burning plastic, and the burning would go on ,all night, every night, and this is after the EPA had come into being, I guess the deal was ,as long as the people don't see the pollution, then it did't happen; right????

 

CASnyder

February 19, 2013 12:22pm

The indigenous nations of North America have some of the poorest people in the world, who are hungry for income.  They are also located in prime concentrations of these energy "reserves" or in the prime pathways for moving the energy to market via pipelines. If the tar sands and fracking industries were even as clean as they claim, you can bet those nations would be allowing those industries in so they could lift people out of poverty.  But those industries are accidents waiting to happen, and indigenous nations value clean air, clean water, and clean soils more, for once you've lost those, you have nothing. All money is transient, the earth is eternal, and we must preserve it in a habitable state for future generations.  Clean burning gas isn't clean when it poisons aquifers where it is mined.

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If the good Lord is willing and the creek don't rise, I'll talk with you again next Tuesday February 26, 2013.

God Bless you all

&

God Bless the United States of America.

Floyd