OBOF TYMHM & MORE PART 59

WELCOME TO OPINIONS  BASED  ON FACTS (OBOF)

&

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (TYMHM)

YEAR THREE

 

	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
Gbtre  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
OBOF & TYMHM PART 23 0SPECIAL	Mar.  06, 2013
saOBOF & TYMHM PART 24	`
OBOF & TYMHM PART 25	Mar.  12, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 25-EXTRA	Mar.  14, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 26	Mar.  19, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 27	Mar.  26, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 28	Apr.  02, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 29	Apr.  08, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 30	Apr.  17, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 31	Apr.  23, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 32	Apr.  30, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 33	May  07, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 34	May  18, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 35	May  21, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 36	May  30, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 37	June 05, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 38	June 11, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 39	June 18, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 40	June 25, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 41	July  02, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 42	July  09, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 43	July  16, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 44	July  23, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 45	July  30, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 46	Aug.  06, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 47	Aug.  14, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 48	Aug.  20, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 49	Aug.  27, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 50	Sept. 05, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 51	Sept. 11, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 52	Sept. 18, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 53	Sept. 26, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 54	Oct.  02, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 55	Oct.  09. 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART  56	Oct.  16, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 57	Oct.  23, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 58	Oct.  31, 2013

 

 

IN THIS ISSUE

 

1.  My ramblings.

2.  From Senator Bernie Sanders.  He really lays it out.

3.  From Snator Sherrod Brown.  Like Sanders,

           he too lays it out.

4.  The Trans - Pacific Trade Agreement.  Better known

          as the way for the rich to get richer.

 

 

JUST A LITTLE BIT

 OF MY RAMBLINGS

Floyd Bowman.

November 6, 2013.

 

Well Friends, I hope I can call all of you my Friend.  I capitalize Friend, because I feel that strong about the word "Friend."  As I started to say, our country just seems to continually jump out of the frying pan into the fire.  During the next four month's we are going to see more upheaval, more corruption, more things than I can even think about.  Our country has never, in modern history, as they say, been in such an intolerable situation.

 

As Senator Sanders points out, in the first article below, and I quote:

 

Today, in America, real unemployment is close to 14%, youth unemployment is over 20% and over 40% of African-American youth are unemployed.  In recent years, 95% of all new income went to the top 1% and there has been a huge increase in the number of millionaires and billionaires.  Meanwhile, 46.5 million Americans live in poverty -- the highest number ever -- and more and more of our people are going hungry.  Tragically, we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country -- with one out of four kids living on food stamps.

The economic crisis in this country -- the collapse of the middle class, the increase in poverty and the growing gap between the very rich and everyone else -- is easy to see.  The political crisis is more complicated.        Here’s how I see it.

Add, to all that he has said above, the fact that the budget agreement is only good to January 15, 2014, the Debt Ceiling was raised only till February 7, 2014, and both parties have committed themselves to negotiate a long term budget plan by the middle of December 2013.  Also, throw in the ballyhoo about the Affordable Care Act (ACA)  aka "Obamacare." 

Add just one more little item, an election that will be one of the most important election years since last year, which was the most important election since 1992. 

So, you can see, there is much to be accomplished in 2014 and it is going to a strong unified Democratic Grassroots.

~~~

FROM SENATOR

BERNIE SANDERS

Independent Progressive

from Vermont.

November 6, 2013

 

FROM FLOYD:

I have a great deal of respect for this man and what he has done in the past and is doing now.  A week or two ago, I defined what a United States Senator was.  That was in my description of the greatest Wascko of them all.  My definition is that a U. S. Senator is a Senator for all the people of the United States.  They, of course, look out for their State too, but their first responsibility, is to the United States Senate, and to serve all of people.  This man fits that definition.

I think you will find the following very interesting.  He is a committed man.

 

Dear Floyd:

We need a political revolution in our country today.  It is simply not acceptable that in many so-called "red states" throughout our country, there are few if any candidates fighting for working families and standing up to Big Money interests that dominate their communities.  We need to have a progressive presence in 50 states.  Please work with me to make that happen.

Let’s be clear: The United States is well on its way to becoming an oligarchic form of society, a nation in which a handful of billionaires control the economic and political life of the country.  The very rich get richer, and almost everyone else gets poorer.  Billionaires pour unlimited amounts of money into our elections in support of the right-wing candidates of their choice while ordinary Americans give up, in disgust, on the political process.

Today, in America, real unemployment is close to 14%, youth unemployment is over 20% and over 40% of African-American youth are unemployed.  In recent years, 95% of all new income went to the top 1% and there has been a huge increase in the number of millionaires and billionaires.  Meanwhile, 46.5 million Americans live in poverty -- the highest number ever -- and more and more of our people are going hungry.  Tragically, we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country -- with one out of four kids living on food stamps.

The economic crisis in this country -- the collapse of the middle class, the increase in poverty and the growing gap between the very rich and everyone else -- is easy to see.  The political crisis is more complicated.       Here’s how I see it.

The most important political reality of our time is that, over the last 25 years, the Republican Party has moved further and further to the right.  What was once a center-right party has rapidly evolved into a right-wing extremist party.  Currently, powerful forces in the Republican Party, under the influence of the Koch brothers, other billionaire families and the Tea Party, are calling for the privatization of Social Security, converting Medicare into a voucher program, massive cuts in Medicaid and food stamps, and the elimination of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Education and the Energy Department.

Incredibly, instead of raising the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, they want to end the concept of the minimum wage -- and create a situation where workers in high-unemployment areas could be forced to work for $3 or $4 an hour.

Not content with the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision, they are working hard politically and in cases before the Supreme Court to eliminate all campaign finance regulations so that billionaires can simply, without disclosure, buy and sell the candidates of their choice.  State by state, they are also making it harder for lower-income people, college students and seniors to vote.

What about the Democrats?  In my view, as an Independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats, they have done a reasonably good job in a number of areas.  Unfortunately, they have been very weak in other areas.  

A major concern of mine is that the national Democratic Party has essentially turned its back on large parts of this country -- leaving them in the hands of right-wing Republican members of Congress, governors and legislatures.  Rather than putting resources into the South and other "red states," they are focusing virtually all of their attention on "battle-ground" states.  This is a mistake -- from both a public policy and political perspective.

I feel very strongly that if progressives and Democrats are going to take back the House and protect the Senate in 2014, and become a strong national movement into the future, we need to take our progressive message to all corners of the country, including the South and some very red sates.

 

Several weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit with progressives in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. At these meetings, which had great turnouts and a lot of enthusiasm, I met with trade unionists, progressive Democrats, Independents and others to talk about the economic issues facing America.  We discussed how we create millions of livable wage jobs, stop cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, make sure our kids have access to an affordable college education, and how we build a progressive movement in the South and throughout the country to challenge Wall Street and the Big Money interests. We also discussed how we can convince white working class voters in the South to stop voting against their own self-interests.

There are some very good people in the South who are working hard to take on the right-wing -- the people who dominate the politics in their states -- and it is time that progressives and Democrats give them a hand.  That is exactly what I was doing in the South and what I intend to do through my Leadership PAC, Progressive Voters of America (PVA).

We cannot continue to turn our backs on huge parts of this country which are dominated by right-wing governors and legislatures. We should be educating, organizing and supporting good candidates in every state in the country, and at every level, where working people are struggling to survive economically -- including the deep South. As progressives we must do this in 2014 -- and into the future. Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and other "red" states will never become "battleground" states unless we work with our allies there -- and give them the support they need.

Please contribute today to my Leadership PAC, Progressive Voters of America, so that we can support progressive candidates in the South and all across this country.

If progressives want to win in 2014 and beyond, it is imperative that we bring our message to middle-class and working-class voters throughout the country, including the South. There is no shortage of billionaires willing to bankroll extreme right-wing candidates, and we must respond.

I am asking now for your help to expand this effort.  Please contribute to Progressive Voters of America (PVA).

It will take a long-term commitment to bring our message to all corners of the country.  Please help me work with Americans in all 50 states to build a strong progressive movement which elects progressive candidates, at every level of government, who are prepared to take on Big Money interests, change our national priorities and fight for working people.

These are tough times for our country.  Let’s go forward together.  Thanks for your continued support.

Sincerely,

Senator Bernie Sanders

~~~

FROM SENATOR

SHEEROD BROWN

Democrat from Ohio

November 6, 2013

 

FROM FLOYD:

 

What I said above about Senator Bernie Sanders goes double for this man.  They both fight for the same things and for all people. 

 

Dear Floyd:

Social Security is a favorite punching bag in Washington -- anywhere you look, someone is trying to privatize the program or otherwise cut it.

There are plenty of ways to improve the Social Security that nearly 2 million people in Ohio rely on -- like lifting the income cap, or calculating benefits in a way that better accounts for the expenses seniors face. And neither of those involves cutting benefits.

That’s why today I’m announcing that I’m teaming up with Tom Harkin and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee to grow a progressive grassroots movement devoted to expanding Social Security -- and I want you to join us.

Support the expansion of Social Security? Say so. Sign the petition today.

There’s been talk of tying Social Security benefits to a “Chained CPI.”  But really, that’s a fancy Washington way of saying “let’s cut into people’s benefits over time.”

We need to expand Social Security, not cut benefits.

Our seniors have paid into Social Security all of their lives.  And they deserve to see the benefits they’ve been guaranteed.

This isn’t negotiable. Generations of Americans have had Social Security to secure their retirement.  It’s a promise we make -- and I refuse to see it end with us.

Join the grassroots movement to expand Social Security. Add your name right now.

Thank you for your support.



Sherrod

~~~

The Trans-Pacific Partnership: A Trade Agreement for Protectionists

 

 

Dean Baker

Center for Economic and Policy Research / Op-Ed

Published: Tuesday 29 October 2013

 

 

 

Rather than being about advancing free trade, the TPP is the answer to the question: "How can we make the rich richer?“

 

 

 

People gather at Peace Arch Park to oppose the U.S.-led Trans Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP). (Photo: Caelie_Frampton)The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          is that this agreement is part of the never ending quest for freer trade. The evidence from what we know of this still secret pact is that the TPP has little to do with free trade. It can more accurately be described as a pact designed to increase the wealth and power of crony capitalists.

At this point, with few exceptions formal trade barriers, such as tariffs and quotas, are not very large.  If lowering or eliminating the formal barriers that remain were the main agenda of this pact, there would be relatively little interest. Rather, the purpose of the pact is to use an international trade agreement to create a regulatory structure that is much more favorable to corporate interests than they would be able to get through the domestic political process in the United States and in the other countries in the pact.

The gap between free trade and the agenda of the TPP is clearest in the case of prescription drugs.  The U.S. drug companies have a major seat at the negotiating table. They will be trying to craft rules that increase the strength of patent and related protections.  The explicit purpose is to raise (as in not lower) the price of drugs in the countries signing the TPP.

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Note that this goal is the opposite of what we would expect in an agreement designed to promote free trade.  Instead of having drug companies at the table, we might envision that we would have representatives of consumer groups who would try to negotiate rules that could ensure safe drugs at lower prices. Instead of using a “trade” agreement to try to push drug prices in other countries up, we could actually use trade to bring the price of drugs in the United States down to the levels seen elsewhere.

Insofar as this creates problems for the model of government granted patent monopolies as the main tool for financing research, we could even look to promote methods of research financing that don’t have their origins in the medieval guild system, like patents. Everyone, including the drug companies, seems to think that the $30 billion we spend on research each year through the National Institutes of Health is extremely valuable.  This suggests that there are other ways to finance research.

We could also look to have freer trade in doctors.  The doctors’ lobbies have erected numerous barriers to keep qualified foreign physicians from practicing in the United States. There are enormous potential gains from eliminating these barriers.  If we got the pay of doctors in the United States in line with doctors’ pay in other wealthy countries, the savings would be close to $1 trillion over the next decade.  That comes to around $7,000 per household.

It is striking that we openly make deals to bring in foreign nurses to lower the pay of nurses in the United States, but can never even discuss doing the same with doctors.  The potential benefits to the United States from importing doctors are certainly much larger than for importing nurses.

In fact the potential gains from bringing in foreign physicians are so large that we could tax a portion of the earnings of foreign doctors to repay their home countries, and allow them to educate 2-3 doctors for every one that comes to the United States.  This would ensure that everyone benefits from freer trade in physicians’ services.  The lack of interest in this sort of free trade likely has something to do with the fact that doctors make up a large chunk of the richest one percent.

There are many other areas where we could envision freer trade bringing real gains to the bulk of the population. However, this is not what the TPP is about.  The TPP is about crafting rules that will favor big business at the expense of the rest of the population in both the United States and in other countries.

For example, we can expect to see limits on the ability of national and sub-national governments to impose environmental restrictions, such requirements that companies engaging in fracking disclose the list of chemicals they use.  There may also be limits on the extent to which governments can restrict the sale of genetically modified foods, with rules on labeling.  And, the TPP may prevent governments from imposing restraints on financial firms that would prevent the sort of abuses that we saw during the run-up of the housing bubble.

The world has benefited from the opening of trade over the last four decades.  But this opening has been selective so that, at least in the United States, most of the gains have gone to those at the top. It is possible to design trade deals that benefit the population as a whole, but not when corporate interests are literally the negotiators at the table. Rather than being about advancing free trade, the TPP is the answer to the question: “how can we make the rich richer?

 

Dean Baker is a macroeconomist and co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC.  He previously worked as a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute and an assistant professor at Bucknell University.  He is a regular Truthout columnist and a member of Truthout's Board of Advisers.

~~~

If the good Lord is willing and the creek don't rise, I'll talk with you again next Wednesday November 13, 2013.

 

GOD BLESS YOU ALL

&

GOD BLESS the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

 

Floyd