Robert Scheer's Latest Article in The Nation

"Financial Fascism", here.

Hooray for Golden Parachutes

Here. That's awesome:

Step 1: become a CEO of a major corporation
Step 2: make fantastically wreckless gambles in the hopes of gaining short-term profits
Step 3: bail out with a 60 million dollar golden parachute, leaving a wake of financial carnage.

And what makes it even more precious is that, given massive deregulation and lax policing of the system, you can do it with impunity.

No worries, though, if the corporation goes bankrupt. Taxpayers will bail you out with a giant smile on their faces, and will never, ever, call you on it. We have no problem with corporate socialism. You're like our irresponsible teenage daughter: you run up your credit card, and mommy and daddy will pay your tab. The only time we hate to spend our tax dollars is when they're used to improve our lives. That's a waste of "our" money. Yuck. I hate health care, road repair, the fire and police departments, public transit, public parks, and all those other "commie" thingies. The only good commie thingies are giant debts caused by irresponsible CEOs that put more money in their pockets and less in mine.

And don't get me started on raising taxes. It makes much more sense to borrow money we don't have and then spend it than to gather money we do have and then spend it.

The Nation's William Greider on Paulson's Bailout Plan

Here.

Must Read This

(Princeton economist) Paul Krugman's latest commentary on the impending Paulson/Bernanke bailout plan, here.

The End of the Ideology of Deregulation

here.

The money passage:

Along the way, they have cast aside the administration’s long-held views about regulation and government involvement in private business, even reversing decisions over the space of 24 hours and justifying them as practical solutions to dire threats.

“There are no atheists in foxholes and no ideologues in financial crises,” Mr. Bernanke told colleagues last week, according to one meeting participant.

That's right, Bernanke said that.

Recession-Plagued Nation Demands New Bubble To Invest In

The Onion reports.

WASHINGTON—A panel of top business leaders testified before Congress about the worsening recession Monday, demanding the government provide Americans with a new irresponsible and largely illusory economic bubble in which to invest.

"What America needs right now is not more talk and long-term strategy, but a concrete way to create more imaginary wealth in the very immediate future," said Thomas Jenkins, CFO of the Boston-area Jenkins Financial Group, a bubble-based investment firm. "We are in a crisis, and that crisis demands an unviable short-term solution."

Privatized Profits, Socialized Costs

America: the home of corporate state socialism. See the Huffington Post piece here.

The Republican dream -- privatize profits, socialize costs -- is now the norm. This will be the trend for the foreseeable future. Corporations will be backed by tax dollars. Those who reap the billions will pay little or no tax. Those who reap none of the profit will pay all of the tax. Despite all of this, these corporations are still allowed to play without any rules, and make as many reckless moves as they want, with our money, without penalty. This is now the reality with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This is also what Mussolini called 'fascism':

"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.

Informative Investigative Report on Universal Health Care

at NPR, here. The interactive graphic, which allows you to compare the health care plans of various Western European countries with that of the U.S., is especially helpful.

Seymour Hersh on Covert Operations in Iran

on Fresh Air with Terri Gross, here.

Why Deficits Matter

A helpful piece over at Mother Jones.

A Refutatation of the Key Thesis of The Tipping Point

I Feel Sorry for the Factory Workers, Etc.; Not So Much for the Execs

Here. Bye-bye, stupid SUV producers, with you're lack of foresight.

Deepening Cycle of Job Loss Seen Lasting into '09

See the NY Times piece Here.

Quick Summary of the Disasters and Criminal Acitivity of the Bush Admin. Over the Last Seven Weeks

From Hendrik Hertzberg at the New Yorker:

"In the seven weeks since the previous Clinton-Obama debate, the death toll of American troops in Iraq had reached four thousand; the President had admitted that his "national-security team," including the Vice-President, had met regularly in the White House to approve the torture of prisoners; house repossessions topped fifty thousand per month and unemployment topped five per cent; and the poll-measured proportion of Americans who believe that "things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track" hit eighty-one per cent, a record."

-HT: Dailykos

Scientific Studies Establish a Clear Link Between Smog and Premature Death

Here -- Contrary to the pronouncements of the Bush Administration, who want to deny the link for the sake of business. Yet another piece of the Bush narrative that puts profits over people.

What's Sad Is That Many Real-Live American Grownups Think This Strategy Is Reasonable.

McCain's super fucktarded economic plan. Same plan, different retard. Yeah, let's lower taxes, so that we'll be in an even worse position re: balancing the budget and restoring infrastructure, paying for unemployment, healthcare, education, etc. Let's tax less, and just spend money we don't have. The last 8 years didn't convince you that this experiment doesn't work, huh? Or when Bush Sr. did it and it fucked everything up? Or when Reagan did it and it fucked everything up? Contrast that with FDR's New Deal Years, the Clinton Years, and the last 10 years in most Western European countries, where unprecedented growth and prosperity results from mixing capitalism with -- gasp -- governmental regulation and social safety nets. There just is no contest.

I'm sorry but if you're over 25 and still think like Bush and McCain re: economic policy, you're clueless.

Two Incongruities

Incongruity #1: citizens are up in arms about foul play in various sports cases (e.g., players using hormones, lying about their age, etc.), to the point that they want federal court cases about them. On the other hand, the Bush Administration lies about the case for war in Iraq, about wiretapping, ignored threats of terrorist attacks before 9/11, enabled the conditions for economic crisis, etc. But nobody seems willing to do much about it.

Incongruity #2: People who doubt the consensus expert testimony of scientists that global warming is real, but who were utterly convinced by the shitty case for Iraq having WMDs.

Pentagon Records Detail Prisoner Abuse by US Military

Here.