Daily Archives: January 21, 2013

Heist: Who Stole The American Dream?

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RogerS lent me a copy of his DVD of Heist: Who Stole The American Dream?

The movie is best exsplained by its synopsis.

SYNOPSIS

HEIST: Who Stole the American Dream? is stunning audiences across the globe as it traces the worldwide economic collapse to a 1971 secret memo entitled Attack on American Free Enterprise System. Written over 40 years ago by the future Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell, at the behest of the US Chamber of Commerce, the 6-page memo, a free-market utopian treatise, called for a money fueled big business makeover of government through corporate control of the media, academia, the pulpit, arts and sciences and destruction of organized labor and consumer protection groups.

But Powell’s real “end game” was business control of law and politics. HEIST’s step by step detail exposes the systemic implementation of Powell’s memo by BOTH U.S. political parties culminating in the deregulation of industry, outsourcing of jobs and regressive taxation. All of which led us to the global financial crisis of 2008 and the continued dismantling of the American middle class. Today, politics is the playground of the rich and powerful, with no thought given to the hopes and dreams of ordinary Americans. No other film goes as deeply as HEIST in explaining the greatest wealth transfer of our time. Moving beyond the white noise of today’s polarizing media, HEIST provides viewers with a clear, concise and fact- based explanation of how we got into this mess, and what we need to do to restore our representative democracy.

If you know how this country got in the mess we are in, this is a good refresher course. There may be some details you missed. In that case the movie fills in some of the gaps. If you think the cause of troubles is that Social Security and Medicare are too generous for us to be able to afford, what an eye opener this movie will be for you.

The movie is so distressing, I was almost going to joke that RogerS turns out to be no friend of mine.

Massachusetts Incinerator Moratorium – Take Action by February 15, 2013 1

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The Massachusetts Chapter of The Sierra Club has an item about Backing the Ban on Incinerators.

Tell MassDEP Commissioner Kenneth Kimmell to maintain the ban on incineration and enforce waste bans. Comments will be accepted until February 15, 2013, 5pm, and sent to: John Fischer at dep.swm@state.ma.us or by mail to: John Fischer, MassDEP, One Winter Street, Boston, MA 02108. Please copy the Sierra Club on your communication at office@sierraclubmass.org.

As an example, here is the email that I wrote to the MASS DEP.

Subject: Comments about the proposed lifting of the moratorium on
incinerators
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2013 14:48:14 -0500
From: Steven Greenberg <steve@ssgreenberg.name>
To: dep.swm@state.ma.us
CC: office@sierraclubmass.org

John Fischer,

Do not lift the moratorium on incinerators in Massachusetts.

In the Tellus Report, commissioned by the Commonwealth, there is all the necessary information on why the moratorium should not be lifted. Not only did Massachusetts commission this report, but the link takes you to the report posted on the Massachusetts web site.

The department that commissioned this report owes us all an explanation of why they would take action that is contrary to the technical, environmental, and economic information that they already have at their disposal.

Until such explanation is forthcoming, the moratorium should remain or perhaps be turned into a permanent ban.

/Steven Greenberg

Sen. Mitch McConnell says Medicare, Social Security must change to fix U.S. debt

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McClatchy has the story Sen. Mitch McConnell says Medicare, Social Security must change to fix U.S. debt.

The nation’s debt is its biggest problem, and the only way to fix it is to make changes in entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell said Friday.

McConnell, speaking to several hundred people during Commerce Lexington’s Public Policy Luncheon at the Hyatt Regency, said those changes should include raising eligibility ages over time.

“Only one thing can save this country, and that’s to get a handle on this deficit and debt issue,” said McConnell, the Senate minority leader.

If there were any doubts in any peoples’ minds before, at least it should be clear to everyone now, that the Republican agenda is to cut Social Security and Medicare.  All other things serve the cutting of Social Security and Medicare.

If rich people can retire and live off their investments – rich peoples’ Social Security and medicare – why do they think it is impossible for our economy to support the eventual retirement of us all as we age to retirement age?

If in fact the economy as a whole can afford to have retirees, then the only question is how is the economy going to pay for it?  It should be entirely possible for the government to be the one to set aside (or manage) the resources to make this  happen.

If the economy cannot afford to have a bunch of retired people, then we need to face that fact and honestly say that a bunch of retirees are going to have to eat dog food, live in tents, and die when they get sick.

At least we would be facing the real issues.  The not so rich people can decide what they want to do about the situation when it is presented to them honestly.  I wonder if they will just agree to sit back and take it so that the rich people can live in comfort.