OBOF TYMHM & MORE PART 14-19

WELCOME TO OPINIONS  BASED  ON FACTS (OBOF)

&

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (TYMHM)

YEAR ONE

YEAR TWO

YEAR THREE

YEAR FOUR

 

OBOF YEAR FOUR INDEX
OBOF TYMHM PART 14-01	Jan. 02, 2014
OBOF TYMHM PART 14-02	Jan. 09, 2014
OBOF TYMHM PART 14-03	Jan. 15, 2014
OBOF TYMHM PART 14-04	Jan. 24, 2014
OBOF TYMHM PART 14-05	JAN 30, 2014
OBOF TYMHM PART 14-06	Feb. 06, 2014
OBOF TYMHM PART 14-06 EXTRA	Feb. 09, 2014
OBOF TYMHM PART 14-07	Feb. 13, 2014
OBOF TYMHM PART 14-08	Feb. 21, 2014
OBOF TYMHM PART 14-09	Feb. 27, 2014
OBOF TYMHM PART 14-10	Mar. 08, 2014
OBOF TYMHM PART 14-11	Mar. 13, 2014
OBOF TYMHM PART 14-11    EXTRA	Mar. 15, 2014
OBOF TYMHM PART 14-12	Mar.  21, 2014
OBOF TYMHM PART 14-13	Mar.  29, 2014
OBOF TYMHM PART 14-14	Apr.  03, 2014
OBOF TYMHM PART 14-15	Apr.  12, 2014
OBOF TYMHM PART 14-16	Apr.  19, 2014
OBOF TYMHM PART 14-17	Apr.  26, 2014
OBOF TYMHM PART 14-18	May  03,  2014
OBOF TYMHM PART 14-19	May  10,  2014

 

Agenda

1.  We fight for animals.

2.  Warren Bufftt closing down dirtiest coal plants.

3.  Keystone XLSenate vote came crumbling down.

4.  Four Right Wing lies about inequality.

 

 

 

 We fight for animals.  Will you join the fight?

 

Subaru "Share the Love"

 

Subaru Donates More Than $2 Million to ASPCA Through

 "Share the Love" Event

 

For the sixth year in a row, the ASPCA was honored to be selected as one of five national charities to participate in Subaru of America, Inc.’s “Share the Love” event from November 21, 2013 to January 2, 2014.  More animals than ever before were helped throughout the event, as Subaru doubled its total donation to all participating charities from $5 million to $10 million and allowed Subaru retailers to designate a sixth local charity to participate in this exciting campaign. As a result, more than 50 Subaru retailers chose local animal welfare organizations.

 

During “Share the Love,” the ASPCA helped facilitate partnerships between Subaru retailers and local animal shelters. A record 176 pet adoption events were held nationwide, resulting in more than 1,200 adoptions!

 

In addition, the ASPCA allocated more than $100,000 of the “Share the Love” donation it received to fund the first ever Subaru “Share the Love”/ASPCA Rescue Rides, moving at-risk animals to shelters where they could find homes for the holidays!  These life-saving Rescue Rides saved an additional 1,400 puppies, dogs, cats and kittens.  Take a look below at some of the related activities which were posted on Twitter using the hashtag #aspcaSTL.

 

Words cannot express our gratitude to Subaru of America for making this donation possible, and to all the Subaru customers who once again helped the ASPCA become the most chosen “Share the Love” charity!

 

Thank you Subaru and Subaru owners on behalf of the countless animals you have helped!

 

Please join us in thanking Subaru by Tweeting a photo of you and your pet (with your Subaru if you have one).  Use the hashtag #aspcaSTL and be sure to tag @aspca and @ Subaru_usa.

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Warren Buffett to Close One of Nation’s Dirtiest Coal Plants in Favor of Solar Energy

 

Brandon Baker

EcoWatch / News Report

Published: Friday 9 May 2014

 

One of the dirtiest coal-fired power plants in the U.S. will soon shut down, thanks to a well-known billionaire and previously passed legislation.

 

As part of its acquisition of Nevada’s largest utility, NV Energy, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway also inherited Reid Gardner, a 557-megawatt (MW), coal-fired energy plant near Las Vegas.  The massive structure, which has a history of recognition among the country’s dirtiest carbon polluters, won’t be a lasting legacy of NV’s profile.

 

NV plans on shutting down three of Reid Gardner’s units that generate about 300 MW by the end of this year, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.  The remaining 257 MW would be closed by the end of 2017. In all, the company wants to end all of its coal operations by 2019.

 

As The Atlantic points out, the utility’s decision is tied to state legislation passed last year requiring the company to eliminate 800 MW of coal energy in favor of renewables. That passage was influenced by years of fighting for cleaner air by the Moapa Band of Paiutes, a Native American community that lives near Reid Gardner.

 

The state utilities commission has 180 days to approve the plan, which would also include a new solar project totaling 200 MW of clean energy on the Moapa Band of Paiutes reservation.  The land is about 70,000 acres and has enough to space to also support the 1.5 gigawatts of renewable energy the Moapa Band of Paiute wants to construct through a joint ventureannounced last year with Terrible Herbst Inc. and Stronghold Engineering Inc.

“This is going to provide a strong economic base for the tribe,” Sandy King, director of renewable-energy project development at Stronghold, told Renewable Energy World.

Last fall, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a limit of 1,100 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour for new coal plants. 

~~~

 

How the Senate’s Keystone XL Vote Came Crumbling Down

 

Brandon Baker

EcoWatch / Video Feature

Published: Saturday 10 May 2014

 

 

Eager to force a vote on the 830,000-barrel-per-day Keystone XL oil pipeline, U.S. senators like Mary Landrieu, D-LA, believe that it’s “time to stop studying and start building.”

 

However, partisan debates and a parliamentary maneuver prevented that from happening. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, blocked what some call a sneaky bid by supporters to include a pipeline measure in an energy efficiency bill in the Senate, The Associated Press reported. The blockage came after Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky turned down the chance to field an up-or-down on the energy bill with a promise from Reid that a separate Keystone vote would follow. 

 

On Thursday, MSNBC’s The Ed Show invited U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, D-CO, and Ring of Fire’s Mike Papantonio to examine the failure of the vote and its political implications.

 

A group of U.S. Senators previously thought it could produce enough votes—60—to approve the controversial pipeline and push it past President Barack Obama. McConnell says the group of 45 Republicans and 11 Democrats won’t stop fighting.

“Even if Senate Democrats would rather pander to the far left and shut down debate, Republicans are going to keep fighting for the middle class,” McConnell said.

~~~

The Four Biggest Right-Wing Lies

About Inequality

 

Robert Reich

NationofChange / Op-Ed

Published: Tuesday 6 May 2014

 

Even though French economist Thomas Piketty has made an air-tight case that we’re heading toward levels of inequality not seen since the days of the nineteenth-century robber barons, right-wing conservatives haven’t stopped lying about what’s happening and what to do about it.

Herewith, the four biggest right-wing lies about inequality, followed by the truth.

Lie number one: The rich and CEOs are America’s job creators.  So we dare not tax them.

The truth is the middle class and poor are the job-creators through their purchases of goods and services.  If they don’t have enough purchasing power because they’re not paid enough, companies won’t create more jobs and economy won’t grow.

We’ve endured the most anemic recovery on record because most Americans don’t have enough money to get the economy out of first gear.  The economy is barely growing and real wages continue to drop.

We keep having false dawns.  An average of 200,000 jobs were created in the United States over the last three months, but huge numbers of Americans continue to drop out of the labor force.

Lie number two: People are paid what they’re worth in the market. So we shouldn’t tamper with pay.

 

The facts contradict this.  CEOs who got 30 times the pay of typical workers forty years ago now get 300 times their pay not because they’ve done such a great job but because they control their compensation committees and their stock options have ballooned.

Meanwhile, most American workers earn less today than they did forty years ago, adjusted for inflation, not because they’re working less hard now but because they don’t have strong unions bargaining for them.

 

More than a third of all workers in the private sector were unionized forty years ago; now, fewer than 7 percent belong to a union. 

Lie number three: Anyone can make it in America with enough guts, gumption, and intelligence.  So we don’t need to do anything for poor and lower-middle class kids.

The truth is we do less than nothing for poor and lower-middle class  kids.  Their schools don’t have enough teachers or staff, their textbooks are outdated, they lack science labs, their school buildings are falling apart.

We’re the only rich nation to spend less educating poor kids than we do educating kids from wealthy families. 

All told, 42 percent of children born to poor families will still be in poverty as adults – a higher percent than in any other advanced nation. 

Lie number four: Increasing the minimum wage will result in fewer jobs.   So we shouldn’t raise it.

In fact, studies show that increases in the minimum wage put more money in the pockets of people who will spend it – resulting in more jobs, and counteracting any negative employment effects of an increase in the minimum. 

Three of my colleagues here at the University of California at Berkeley — Arindrajit Dube, T. William Lester, and Michael Reich – have compared adjacent counties and communities across the United States, some with higher minimum wages than others but similar in every other way.

They found no loss of jobs in those with the higher minimums.

The truth is, America’s lurch toward widening inequality can be reversed.  But doing so will require bold political steps.

At the least, the rich must pay higher taxes in order to pay for better-quality education for kids from poor and middle-class families. Labor unions must be strengthened, especially in lower-wage occupations, in order to give workers the bargaining power they need to get better pay.  And the minimum wage must be raised. 

Don’t listen to the right-wing lies about inequality. Know the truth, and act on it. 

NationofChange is a 501(c)3 nonprofit funded directly by our readers. Please make a small donation to support our work.

 

ABOUT Robert Reich

ROBERT B. REICH, one of the nation’s leading experts on work and the economy, is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. Time Magazine has named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century.  He has written thirteen books, including his latest best-seller, “Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future;” “The Work of Nations,” which has been translated into 22 languages; and his newest, an e-book, “Beyond Outrage.”  His syndicated columns, television appearances, and public radio commentaries reach millions of people each week.  He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, and Chairman of the citizen’s group Common Cause.  His widely-read blog can be found at www.robertreich.org.  Robert Reich's new film, "Inequality for All" is available on DVD
and blu-ray, and on Netflix in February.

NOTE:  There were 20 comments relating to this posting.  I am listing one for whatever it is worth to you.

GaryReber • 4 days ago

(1) Robert Reich is correct. The masses lack sufficient income to generate demand for production of products and services, which are increasingly produced by the non-human component, not labor. Without connecting the masses (individually) to the ownership of private sector wealth-creating, income-generating productive capital assets, income inequality results due to a tiny ownership class owning the vast bulk of those assets.

(2) Tectonic shifts in the technologies of production are impacting the market with job losses and the devaluation of the worth of labor due to "non-human" replacements and global competition with workers willing to work for far less pay than Americans. CEOs are definitely over-paid, and significantly they benefit from ownership (stock options) that workers are not privileged to and unions do not bargained for.

(3) Baloney! That is the reality. Relatively few will succeed as inventors and business entrepreneurs in the age of exponential growth of the non-human factor of production. Without extending equal opportunity for EVERY child, woman, and man to acquire ownership of FUTURE wealth-creating, income-generating productive capital assets financed on the basis that the investments will pay for themselves (as is the golden rule of the wealthy ownership class), economic inequality will continue to widen and the health of the American economy will continue to stagnate.

(4) Reich and conventional one-factor economists, who see a JOB as the ONLY source of income for "ordinary" Americans, exclude from their discussion and advocacy the necessity to broaden private sector individual ownership of FUTURE wealth-creating, income-generating productive capital assets, now narrowly owned by a tiny wealthy ownership class who own and control America's most productive corporations.

While I am not opposed to the concept of a "minimum wage," economic productivity is a bigger part of the story. Those arguing its support basically argue that labor is producing more value today, but working people aren’t seeing any of the gains. Who has walked away with the proceeds from all that productivity? But contrary to general belief, when looked at through the lens of two factors of production––human and non-human––labor is not becoming more productive; the non-human means of production is driving the productivity gains.

Whether or not raising the minimum wage is harmful and will cause less employment should be discussed within the larger scope of economic inequality. The proposed measures are at best a sedative to ease the pain of deteriorating livelihoods, but not the solution that is necessary to significantly address income disparities between the wealthy ownership class and the propertyless, non- and under-capitalized American majority.

Technological change makes tools, machines, structures, and processes ever more productive while leaving human productiveness largely unchanged (our human abilities are limited by physical strength and brain power––and relatively constant). The technology industry is always changing, evolving and innovating. The result is that primary distribution through the free market economy, whose distributive principle is “to each according to his production,” delivers progressively more market-sourced income to capital owners and progressively less to workers who make their contribution through labor.

People invented tools to reduce toil, enable otherwise impossible production, create new highly automated industries, and significantly change the way in which products and services are produced from labor intensive to capital intensive––the core function of technological invention. Most changes in the productive capacity of the world since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution can be attributed to technological improvements in our physical capital assets, and a relatively diminishing proportion to human labor. Physical productive capital does not “enhance” labor productivity (labor’s ability to produce economic goods). In fact, the opposite is true. It makes many forms of labor unnecessary. Because of this undeniable fact, binary economist Louis Kelso asserted that, “free-market forces no longer establish the ‘value’ of labor. Instead, the price of labor is artificially elevated by government through minimum wage legislation, overtime laws, and collective bargaining legislation or by government employment and government subsidization of private employment solely to increase consumer income.”

The role of physical productive capital is to do ever more of the work, which produces income. Full employment is not an objective of businesses. Companies strive to keep labor input and other costs at a minimum in order to maximize profits for the owners. Private sector job creation in numbers that match the pool of people willing and able to work is constantly being eroded by physical productive capital’s ever increasing role.

Furthermore, according to Kelso, productive capital is increasingly the source of the world’s economic growth and, therefore, should become the source of added property ownership incomes for all. Kelso postulated that if both labor and capital are independent factors of production, and if capital’s proportionate contributions are increasing relative to that of labor, then equality of opportunity and economic justice demands that the right to property (and access to the means of acquiring and possessing property) must in justice be extended to all. Yet, sadly, the American people and its leaders still pretend to believe that labor is becoming more productive.

In reality, raising the minimum wage is the equivalent of taxing employers for the work done by their employees and giving the proceeds to the workers. And that works against employment, not in favor of it, and penalizes the ownership class for their "tools" of productivity. Advocates for a minimum wage should instead be advocating for ensuring that EVERY citizen benefits from income derived by the ownership of productive capital assets, and eliminate the need for government measures that redistribute income in one form or another––through coerced trickle-down. In other words, accomplished through redistribution achieved by the rigging of labor prices, by taxation to support redistribution and job “creation,” or subsidization by inflation and by all kinds of welfare, open and concealed.

For REAL solutions to economic inequality, support the Agenda of The Just Third Way Movement at http://foreconomicjustice.org/..., Monetary Justice at http://capitalhomestead.org/pa..., and the Capital Homestead Act at http://www.cesj.org/homestead/... and http://www.cesj.org/homestead/....

See "Ownership––The Minimum Wage Replacement" at http://www.nationofchange.org/..., http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... and http://www.opednews.com/articl....

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

God Bless All of You

&

God Bless the United States of America.

Floyd

 

o