How can we take it back?

[the]

I dont know where I read it at but I agree with the idea that the masses and the rebels alike do not understand how to wield power. So they can never displace the current system with the new system. The new 99% group just makes the masses angry until they are so exposed that they are desensitized and disinterested.

 

[Skarekrow]

I dont know where I read it at but I agree with the idea that the masses and the rebels alike do not understand how to wield power. So they can never displace the current system with the new system. The new 99% group just makes the masses angry until they are so exposed that they are desensitized and disinterested.

This is true when you look at the Occupy Movement.
I think what it was originally outraged at was highjacked by drum circles and every sort of “left out” group or person.
They became a hive of crybaby whining and effectively lost their initial momentum.
Now they pussyfoot around because they are too stoned to push for significant change.

However…saying that one group put in charge would be immediately corrupted by the position isn’t true and is exactly what those in power would want us to think and believe.

 

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Time to Unslave Humanity: Ethos

[video=youtube;WTQVnXmAT7s]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=WTQVnXmAT7s[/video]

Ethos lifts the lid on a Pandora's box of systemic issues that guarantee failure in almost every aspect of our lives; from the environment to democracy and our own personal liberty: From terrifying conflicts of interests in politics to unregulated corporate power, to a media in the hands of massive conglomerates, and a military industrial complex that virtually owns our representatives.

With interviews from some of today's leading thinkers and source material from the finest documentary film makers of our times Ethos examines and unravels these complex relationships, and offers a solution, a simple but powerful way for you to change this system.

Ethos is a 2011 documentary film directed and written by Pete McGrain and hosted by Woody Harrelson.

The main point of the film is to encourage people to engage in ethical consumerism.​

 

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Putin Warns Of Risk Of Major Conflict, Says Dollar Losing Reserve Currency Status

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-...ct-says-dollar-losing-reserve-currency-status

Having been relatively quiet for a while, Russia's leader Vladimir, speaking in Sochi (following meetings with Middle East crown princes who confirmed Russia as a key partner - "isolated"?), has unleashed his most aggressive statements with regard the failing world order:

• *PUTIN SAYS U.S. DOLLAR LOSING TRUST AS RESERVE CURRENCY
• *PUTIN: WORLD WITHOUT RULES IS POSSIBILITY; ANARCHY GROWING

Adding that the risk of major conflicts involving major countries is growing, as well as the risk of arms control treaties being violated, Putin exclaimed that the US-led unipolar world is like a dictatorship over other countries and that "US leadership brings no good for others," and calls for a new global consensus.

Having met Crown Prince Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi in Sochi, who confirmed that Moscow “plays a very important role in the Middle East," and added that he had no doubts that his country and Russia “arebound by a privileged relationship," it appears Russia is less "isolated" than the West would have many believe.
As Bloomberg reports:

• *PUTIN SPEAKS AT MEETING OF VALDAI CLUB IN SOCHI
• *PUTIN SAYS WORLD GROWING LESS SECURE, PREDICTABLE
• *PUTIN SAYS NO GUARANTEE OF GLOBAL SECURITY
• *GLOBAL SECURITY SYSTEM IS WEAK, DEFORMED: PUTIN
• *COLD WAR ENDED WITHOUT PEACE BEING ACHIEVED: PUTIN
• *PUTIN SAYS COLD WAR `VICTORS' DISMANTLING INTL LAWS, RELATIONS
• *U.S. HAS WORSENED DISBALANCE IN INTL RELATIONS: PUTIN
• *PUTIN SAYS U.S. ACTING LIKE NOUVEAU RICHE AS GLOBAL LEADER
• *PUTIN SAYS WORLD LEADERS BEING BLACKMAILED BY `BIG BROTHER'
• *U.S. LEADERSHIP BRINGS NO GOOD FOR OTHERS: PUTIN
• *PUTIN SEES GLOBAL MEDIA UNDER CONTROL, UNDERMINING TRUTH
• *PUTIN SAYS WEST CLOSED EYES TO INTL TERRORISM ENTERING RUSSIA
• *PUTIN CALLS U.S. SELF-APPOINTED LEADER
• *PUTIN: UNIPOLAR WORLD LIKE DICTATORSHIP OVER OTHER COUNTRIES
• *PUTIN SAYS MANY COUNTRIES DISENCHANTED W/ GLOBALIZATION: PUTIN
• *PUTIN SAYS U.S. DOLLAR LOSING TRUST AS RESERVE CURRENCY
• *RUSSIA WON'T BEG FOR ANYTHING: PUTIN
• *SANCTIONS UNDERMINING WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION RULES: PUTIN
• *RUSSIA ISN'T WALLING ITSELF OFF FROM WORLD, PUTIN SAYS
• *RUSSIA READY FOR DIALOGUE ON NORMALIZING ECONOMIC TIES: PUTIN
• *PUTIN: WORLD WITHOUT RULES IS POSSIBILITY; ANARCHY GROWING
• *PUTIN CALLS FOR NEW GLOBAL CONSENSUS, INTERDEPENDENCE
• *PUTIN: CONTINUED USE OF FORCE IN UKRAINE MAY LEAD TO DEAD END
• *PUTIN SAYS U.S. CAN'T HUMILIATE ITS PARTNERS FOREVER

* * *
Fighting talk?
* * *
Escalation? It seems sabre-rattling is picking up as The Washington Times reports,

Russian military provocations have increased so much over the seven months since Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine that Washington and its allies are scrambling defense assets on a nearly daily basis in response to air, sea and land incursions by Vladimir Putin’s forces.

Not only is Moscow continuing to foment unrest in Eastern Ukraine, U.S. officials and regional security experts say Russian fighter jets are testing U.S. reaction times over Alaska and Japan’s ability to scramble planes over its northern islands – all while haunting Sweden’s navy and antagonizing Estonia’s tiny national security force.



“What’s going on is a radical escalation of aggressive Russian muscle flexing and posturing designed to demonstrate that Russia is no longer a defeated power of the Cold War era,” says Ariel Cohen, who heads the Center for Energy, National Resources and Geopolitics at the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security in Washington.

“The more we retreat, the more we are encouraging Russia to behave in a more aggressive way,” Mr. Cohen said. “We need to be engaging more deeply with our Central Asian allies, but instead we are in the process of abandoning turf to Russia, and it’s wrong – it’s against our interests geopolitically to let Russia feel that they all of a sudden have won all the turf withou firing a shot.”

​

 

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Economists Say We Should Tax The Rich At 90 Percent
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/22/economists-tax-rich_n_6024430.html
America has been doing income taxes wrong for more than 50 years.

All Americans, including the rich, would be better off if top tax rates went back to Eisenhower-era levels when the top federal income tax rate was 91 percent, according to a new working paper by Fabian Kindermann from the University of Bonn and Dirk Krueger from the University of Pennsylvania.

The top tax rate that makes all citizens, including the highest 1 percent of earners, the best off is “somewhere between 85 and 90 percent,” Krueger told The Huffington Post. Currently, the top rate of 39.6 percent is paid on income above $406,750 for individuals and $457,600 for couples.

Fewer than 1 percent of Americans, or about 1.3 million people, reach that top bracket.
Here is the conclusion from the report, charted:

​

What you’re seeing is decades of a more or less strict adherence to the gospel that tax cuts for the highest income earners are good.
The trend began with President Kennedy, but his cuts were hardly radical.

He lowered rates when the American economy was humming along, no longer paying for World War II and, relative to today, an egalitarian dreamland.
To put things in perspective, Kennedy cut rates to around 70 percent, a level we can hardly imagine raising them to today.

The huge drops -- from 70 percent to 50 percent to less than 30 percent -- came with the Reagan presidency.

In comparison to decades of cuts, Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama each raised taxes at the top by a historically insignificant amount.

Obama also proposed modest tax increases, raising taxes on families making more than $250,000 from 33 to 36 percent, and on individuals making more than $200,000 from 36 to 39.6 percent.
These increases failed in the House.

A 90 percent top marginal tax rate doesn’t mean that if you make $450,000, you are going to pay $405,000 in federal income taxes.
Americans have a well-documented trouble understanding the notion of marginal tax rates.

The marginal tax rate is the amount you pay on your income above a certain amount.
Right now, you pay the top marginal tax rate on every dollar you earn over $406,750.
So if you make $450,000, you only pay the top rate on your final $43,250 in income.

A very high marginal tax rate isn’t effective if it’s riddled with loopholes, of course.
Kindermann and Krueger's paper is also focused solely on income, not wealth, and returns on wealth are how the truly superrich make a living.

Despite these limitations, Kindermann and Krueger say that a top marginal tax rate in the range of 90 percent would decrease both income and wealth inequality, bring in more money for the government and increase everyone’s well-being -- even those subject to the new, much higher income tax rate.

“High marginal tax rates provide social insurance against not making it into the 1 percent,” Krueger told The Huffington Post.
Here’s what he means: There’s a small chance of moving up to the top rung of the income ladder, Krueger said.

If rates are high for the top earners and low for everyone else, there’s a big chance you will pay a low rate and a small chance you will pay a high rate.
Given these odds, it is rational to accept high income tax rates on top earners and low rates for the rest as a form of insurance.

This insurance takes the form of low-income people paying dramatically less in taxes.
“Everyone who is below four times median income” -- that’s about $210,000 for households -- “pays less,” Kruger said.

The paper assumes that tax rates won’t stop a future Bill Gates from wanting to start Microsoft.
Instead, what it finds is that labor supply among the 1 percent would decline -- translation, they would work a little less -- but it “does not collapse.”

That’s because of who the authors assume makes up the top income bracket: celebrities, sports stars, and entrepreneurs -- people with innate talents that are hugely rewarding, but only for a short period of time.

They only have a few years to use their skills to make most of the money they will ever make.
High tax rates don’t lessen their degree of desire to be productive, the authors said.

Krueger described the phenomenon like this: “How much less hard would LeBron James play basketball if he were taxed at a much higher rate?
The answer is not much. “James knows he only has five years,” or so of peak earning potential, Krueger said, and so he will work to make as much as he can during that time.

If high income tax rates robbed the would-be 1 percent of their stick-to-itiveness, the paper’s conclusions would change.

(LeBron James responds to a 90 percent top marginal tax rate)
​

And so whether you agree with this paper’s conclusion comes down, to a certain extent, to what you think of the 1 percent of income earners: who they are and why they make so much money.

Over the last few decades, a huge portion of the rapid growth of the very highest incomes relative to the rest of us has been driven by rising executive and financial sector pay.

The question, then, is if confronted with a vastly higher tax rate, would Jamie Dimon still behave like LeBron James.

​

 

[Skarekrow]

Anyone have any clue about the nature of this??


[video=youtube;b2_ggLDXUVw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=b2_ggLDXUVw[/video]

 

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[video=youtube;uqc9mII1LpE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=uqc9mII1LpE[/video]

 

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[video=youtube;xsWXCKWMCrY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=xsWXCKWMCrY[/video]

There is a new documentary about the billionaire brothers, David and Charles Koch, that some Republicans do not want you to see.
On Monday, Republican Rep. Candice Miller of Michigan tried to block an event at the Capitol unveiling the film, "Koch Brothers Exposed: 2014 Edition."

Miller claimed the documentary could violate House rules and "cross the line into partisan politics."
She unsuccessfully argued that showing the documentary was an inappropriate use of taxpayer-funded facilities.

On Tuesday evening, the film event proceeded as planned. The updated documentary shows how the Koch brothers have used their vast fortunes to oppose government programs such as Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, as well as obstruct efforts to raise the minimum wage, tackle climate change and expand voting rights.

We are joined by the film's director, Robert Greenwald, founder and president of Brave New Films.

 

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[video=youtube;pA3HP9e3PrA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=pA3HP9e3PrA[/video]

 

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Voter Disenfranchisement That Right-Wing Media Said Wouldn't Happen Is Definitely Happening

This Election Day, a number of states are implementing strict new voter ID laws and registration policies in a high-turnout election for the first time.
These measures have been found to have the potential to disenfranchise thousands of voters -- typically people of color, young voters, and women -- who are unable to obtain select forms of ID or are caught in flawed voter purges, but right-wing media figures frequently argue that these laws do not suppress the vote.

The right-wing media have repeatedly claimed that these laws are not racially discriminatory, do not affect minority voter turnout, and maintain the integrity of the election system.
Fox News has referred to recent court decisions striking down voter ID laws as illegal or unconstitutional "setbacks" and questioned the timing of the courts' intervention on behalf of the right to vote.

Right-wing media have also railed against attempts to stop voter purges, despite the fact that reports have discovered "Hispanic, Democratic and independent-minded voters are the most likely to be targeted" in these methodologically unsound attempts to find ineligible voters.

Repeatedly discredited National Review Online contributor Hans von Spakovsky has been particularly vocal in his support of these unnecessary and redundant election measures, dismissing concerns of "chaos at the polls" even though hundreds of thousands of voters are at risk.

On the November 2 edition of Fox News'America's News HQ, von Spakovsky again promoted strict voter ID laws and registration checks and claimed that "this idea" that voter ID laws can "suppress minority voters, we know is not true":

But qualified voters are already being turned away from the polls or purged from the rolls in states that have enacted these new Republican-pushed measures, despite right-wing media's promises that such laws would have no negative effect.

1. Voter ID Blocks Eligible Voters
2. Voter "Crosschecks" Purge Eligible Voters
3. Provisional Ballots Are Not Preventing Disenfranchisement

Voters Turned Away After Failing To Obtain The Select Kind of Identification Needed To Vote

Brennan Center for Justice: Texas' Voter ID Law Has Already Disenfranchised Voters. The Brennan Center for Justice is already compiling examples of voters in Texas who have been turned away from the polls. Jesus Garcia will likely not vote in the 2014 election because he "is not sure he will be able to afford [the] documents" needed to get ID, a price for voting that has already been found to be an unconstitutional "poll tax":

Jesus Garcia was born in Texas and lives in Mercedes. He was unable to vote with his driver's license, which expired about a year ago. He went to the Weslaco Department of Public Safety (DPS) office twice and both times was unable to get an ID. His birth certificate was stolen and he does not have a copy. He wants to get identification, but to get both a replacement birth certificate and a new ID would be more than $30 combined. He is working a lot of hours, but money is tight. With rent, water, electricity, and everything else, Mr. Garcia is not sure he will be able to afford those documents, much less before the election.
Even if he does have the money, he will need to go through the whole process of getting the documents and going to the office again, when he has already tried to vote once and gone to a DPS office twice. Mr. Garcia thinks it is unfair that he cannot vote with the documents he has. He was born here and he has an ID with his picture on it; it's just expired. He has a voter registration card, and voted in past elections. [Brennan Center for Justice, 10/28/14]

​

The Guardian: "For The First Time In His Adult Life, Eric Kennie Will Not Be Allowed To Participate."Despite the fact that Eric Kennie is a native Texan and has voted in previous elections, The Guardian reports that he will not be voting this year. Kennie does not have the right type of ID to vote, and despite repeated trips to the department of public safety (DPS), he has been unable to obtain it:

Eric Kennie is a Texan. He is as Texan as the yucca plants growing outside his house. So Texan that he has never, in his 45 years, travelled outside the state. In fact, he has never even left his native city of Austin. "No sir, not one day. I was born and raised here, only place I know is Austin."
You might think that more than qualifies Kennie as a citizen of the Lone Star state, entitling him to its most basic rights such as the ability to vote. Not so, according to the state of Texas and its Republican political leadership. On 4 November, when America goes to the polls in the midterm elections, for the first time in his adult life Eric Kennie will not be allowed to participate.
Ever since he turned 18 he has made a point of voting in general elections, having been brought up by his African American parents to think that it is important, part of what he calls "doing the right thing". He remembers the excitement of voting for Barack Obama in 2008 to help elect the country's first black president, his grandmother crying tears of joy on election night. "My grandfather and uncle, they used to tell me all the time there will be a black president. I never believed it, never in a million years."
He voted again for Obama in 2012, and turned out for the 2010 midterm elections in between. But this year is different. Kennie is one of an estimated 600,000 Texans who, though registered to vote, will be unable to do so because they cannot meet photo-identification requirements set out in the state's new voter-ID law, SB14.
[...]
Each trip to the DPS office involved taking three buses, a journey that can stretch to a couple of hours. Then he had to stand in line, waiting for up to a further three hours to be seen, before finally making another two-hour schlep home.
In one of his trips to the DPS last year they told him he needed to get hold of a copy of his birth certificate as the only remaining way he could meet the requirements and get his [election identification certificate]. That meant going on yet another three-bus trek to the official records office in a different part of town.
The cost of acquiring a birth certificate in Texas is $23, which may not sound much but it is to Kennie. He is poor, like many of the up to 600,000 Texans caught in the current voter ID trap. [The Guardian, 10/27/14]

​

ThinkProgress: 93-Year-Old Veteran Turned Away From Polling Place In Houston. ThinkProgress reported that an election judge in Texas had to turn away a 93-year-old veteran because he had an expired driver's license and had never gotten a veteran's ID card. According to the judge, although the veteran had "all sorts" of other forms of photo ID, none is considered valid under Texas' new law:

In the six days that early voting has been underway in Texas, election judge William Parsley on Sunday said he has only seen one potential voter turned away at his polling location, the Metropolitan Multi-Services Center in downtown Houston.
"An elderly man, a veteran. Ninety-three years old," Parsley, an election judge for the last 15 years, told ThinkProgress. "His license had expired."
Under Texas' new voter ID law, one of the strictest in the nation, citizens are required to present one of seven forms of photo identification to vote. The identification can be a Texas-issued driver's license, a federally-issued veteran's ID card, or a gun registration card, among other forms. Licenses can be expired, but not for more than 60 days.
The man Parsley said he had to turn away was a registered voter, but his license had been expired for a few years, likely because he had stopped driving. Parsley said the man had never gotten a veteran's identification card. And though he had "all sorts" of other identification cards with his picture on it, they weren't valid under the law -- so the election judges told him he had to go to the Department of Public Safety, and renew his license.
"He just felt real bad, you know, because he's voted all his life," Parsley said. [ThinkProgress, 10/27/14]

​

MSNBC.com: Voters In Texas "Faced Massive Hurdles In Casting A Vote" Because Of New ID Law.MSNBC's Zachary Roth spoke with a group of Texans who had been turned away or faced other hurdles in their attempts to legally vote. Some of the voters who tried to navigate the "astonishing bureaucratic thicket," as Roth called it, eventually gave up and will not vote in this year's election:

Lindsay Gonzales, 36, has an out-of-state driver's license, which isn't accepted under the ID law. Despite trying for months, she has been unable to navigate an astonishing bureaucratic thicket in time to get a Texas license she can use to vote. "I'm still a little bit in shock," said Gonzales, who is white, well-educated, and politically engaged. "Because of all those barriers, the side effect is that I don't get to participate in the democratic process. That's something I care deeply about and I'm not going to be able to do it."
As Texas prepares for its first high-turnout election with the voter ID law in place, the state has scrambled to reassure residents that it's being proactive in getting IDs to those who need them, and that few voters will ultimately be disenfranchised. But those claims are belied by continued reports of legitimate Texans who, despite often Herculean efforts, still lack the identification required to exercise their most fundamental democratic right.
The U.S. Justice Department announced Monday that it will send election monitors to the Houston area, as well as Waller County, Texas and 26 other counties across the country, to protect access to the ballot.
Next to Gonzales sat Adam Alkhafaji, a student at the University of Houston, who turned 18 in September and was excited to vote for the first time. But to prove his residency and get a Texas ID, he needed a residential housing agreement, a birth certificate, and a Social Security card, none of which he had. Overwhelmed with school, he ran out of time. "It's almost like a milestone in your life: You take your first steps, then you get your driver's license, and then you exercise your right to vote," Alkhafaji said. "I'm more than disappointed." [MSNBC.com, 11/3/14]

​

Advancement Project: Voters "Would Have Been Disenfranchised If Wisconsin's Voter ID Law Had Gone Into Effect." In October, the Supreme Court blocked Wisconsin's restrictive voter ID law from going into effect for the 2014 election. As a result, a number of voters who would have otherwise been turned away will be able to vote:

Alice Weddle, 59, was born at home in Mississippi, delivered by a midwife, and was never issued a birth certificate. Ms. Weddle, who moved to Wisconsin with her family when she was three years old, never had a driver's license and is a regular voter. Without a birth certificate, however, she has not been able to obtain the state-issued ID now required to cast a ballot.
Rickey Davis, an Army veteran who served as a sergeant in the 82nd Airborne and was honorably discharged in 1978, also testified about his difficulty to obtain a state-issued photo ID. When he twice attempted to get a Wisconsin ID a few years ago, having moved from Illinois in 2006, he presented several forms of documentation, including his veterans ID card, military discharge papers, and a Social Security card. Yet Mr. Davis was turned away because he did not have a copy of his birth certificate.
Rose Thompson, a longtime voter who was born at home in Mississippi, does not have a birth certificate and cannot obtain a state-issued voter ID. Although she attempted multiple times to receive a copy of her birth certificate from Mississippi -- even sending money to state offices in her birthplace of Jackson -- she has been unsuccessful. The 79-year old would have been unable to vote under Wisconsin's voter ID law.
Melvin Robertson, 84, was born in Milwaukee, but has no birth certificate and no way of obtaining one. He was never issued a birth certificate and never had a state issued driver's license or ID card. Mr. Robertson, a regular voter who voted as often has he could, learned about Wisconsin's voter ID law through Anita Johnson of Citizen Action. She was conducting voter education outreach at Robertson's residence in Hadley Terrace. Johnson took Robertson to the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Vital records to help him obtain an ID, but they were unsuccessful because he did not have the necessary underlying documents. Robertson would have been disenfranchised if Wisconsin's voter ID law had gone into effect. [The Advancement Project]

​

ThinkProgress: "In Last-Minute Decision," Alabama Attorney General Decides Public Housing ID Not Acceptable Under Voter ID Law. As reported by ThinkProgress, four days before the election, Alabama officials ruled that public housing ID could not be used as voter identification. On Election Day, this interpretation of the state's voter ID law was also apparently used to deny another voter who had identification from the shelter he was staying in:

At least three Alabama citizens apparently have been denied their right to vote thanks to the state's voter ID law. Deuel Ross, an attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund who is working on voter protection efforts in the state, told ThinkProgress he had encounted three voters in the past day who have been rejected due to lack of "valid identification."
"One was a 92 year old woman with public housing ID," he said, who was rejected thanks to a last-minute decision by the state that such identification was not valid proof of identity, and "another gentleman had ID from a shelter, but nothing they considered valid." [ThinkProgress,11/4/14]

​

Redundant And Unnecessary Registration Obstacles Put Tens Of Thousands Of New Voters In Limbo

Wichita Eagle: "More Than 21,000 Kansans' Voter Registrations In Suspense Because Of Proof Of Citizenship." As The Wichita Eagle reported, a new Kansas law requires voters to provide additional verification of citizenship when they register to vote. This law has put over 21,000 voter registrations on hold because those voters haven't yet proven their citizenship, and some voters have been turned away or forced to cast provisional ballots that ended up not counting:

De Anna Allen has served on a jury. She has served her country.
So she was surprised when she couldn't vote.
Allen went to cast a ballot in the primary election in August and poll workers couldn't find her name among the list of registered voters. She did cast a ballot, but it was provisional and did not count.
Allen was among 27,131 people statewide who had signed up to vote but whose registrations were considered in suspense, or limbo, as of Oct. 14, the last day to register before the midterm election. Most of them -- 23,026, including Allen -- had not yet provided proof of citizenship. By Friday, the state had whittled that number to 21,473.
Sedgwick County had the second-highest number of people on the suspended list behind Johnson County. Johnson County had 4,781 on the list, while Sedgwick County had 4,735.
The numbers of Kansans with incomplete registration because of citizenship are highest among the young and unaffiliated, an Eagle analysis found. Statewide, 12,327 people who identified as unaffiliated had their registrations suspended because of lack of proof of citizenship, compared with 4,787 who identified as Republicans, 3,948 who identified as Democrats and 361 who identified as Libertarians. Not all who applied identified a party, records requested by The Wichita Eagle from the state show.
The number of men and women with suspended registrations was split pretty evenly.
"It just caught me off guard that I was not registered," Allen said. "I served for a week on a jury trial, which basically told me I was a registered voter. I'm a disabled veteran, so it's particularly frustrating. Why should I have to prove my citizenship when I served in the military?" [The Wichita Eagle, 10/31/14]

​

Al Jazeera America: Discredited System To Find Illegal Double Voters Across The Country Is "Disturbingly Inadequate." Utilizing the Crosscheck system, "election officials in 27 states, most of them Republican," are attempting to purge voters from state rolls who are also registered in other states. However, the data sets and criteria used for identifying double voters "commonly" produces false positives, and "minorities are more likely to be tagged as double voters":

There are 6,951,484 names on the target list of the 28 states in the Crosscheck group; each of them represents a suspected double voter whose registration has now become subject to challenge and removal. According to a 2013 presentation by Kobach to the National Association of State Election Directors, the program is a highly sophisticated voter-fraud-detection system. The sample matches he showed his audience included the following criteria: first, last and middle name or initial; date of birth; suffixes; and Social Security number, or at least its last four digits.
That was the sales pitch. But the actual lists show that not only are middle names commonly mismatched and suffix discrepancies ignored, even birthdates don't seem to have been taken into account. Moreover, Crosscheck deliberately ignores Social Security mismatches, in the few instances when the numbers are even collected. The Crosscheck instructions for county election officers state, "Social Security numbers are included for verification; the numbers might or might not match."
In practice, all it takes to become a suspect is sharing a first and last name with a voter in another state.
[...]
Mark Swedlund is a specialist in list analytics whose clients have included eBay, AT&T and Nike. At Al Jazeera America's request, he conducted a statistical review of Crosscheck's three lists of suspected double voters. According to Swedlund, "It appears that Crosscheck does have inherent bias to over-selecting for potential scrutiny and purging voters from Asian, Hispanic and Black ethnic groups. In fact, the matching methodology, which presumes people in other states with the same name are matches, will always over-select from groups of people with common surnames." Swedlund sums up the method for finding two-state voters -- simply matching first and last name -- as "ludicrous, just crazy."
Helen Butler is the executive director of Georgia's Coalition for the Peoples' Agenda, which conducts voter drives in minority communities. Any purge list that relies on name matches will contain a built-in racial bias against African-Americans, she says, because "We [African-Americans] took our slave owners' names." The search website PeopleSmart notes that 86,020 people in the United States have the name John Jackson. And according to the 2000 U.S. Census, which is the most recent data set, 53 percent of Jacksons are African-American. [Al Jazeera America, 10/29/14]

​

The New Republic: 40,000 Voter Registrations Filed By Voting Rights Advocates "Probably Lost Forever." The Georgia chapter of the NAACP and the New Georgia Project, a nonpartisan voter education group that has sought to expand the electorate in the state, have been unable to get an accounting from the Republican secretary of state of almost 40,000 missing new voter registrations. As The New Republic reported, because the Senate race is so close, "[t]he loss of tens of thousands of voter registrations is a big deal":

I spoke with Georgia NAACP President Francys Johnson to figure out how 40,000 registrations could simply go "missing." In Georgia, when a person registers to vote, his application is matched against two data systems to verify his identity. The first is the Georgia driver's license system, which keeps records for every person in Georgia with a license. The second is a data system with the social security numbers of every Georgia resident. If neither of these systems yields a match, the registration application goes on a pending list, which is supposed to prompt a notification to the would-be voter that their application needs additional identification. Unfortunately, according to Johnson, many of these letters were never sent, and because a person on the pending list is removed from the system after 30 days, the registration of such an individual goes "missing."
Whether or not this system is a logical means of verifying identity, it undeniably disadvantages certain kinds of people. Matching a registration against driver's license data won't work for any would-be voters who can't afford to get a license and renew it, let alone buy a car; live in an urban area with public transportation and don't need a license; are elderly and have lost driving privileges; are young and haven't yet taken some of the traditional first steps of adulthood, like getting a full-time job, that may require having a car. (Federal law does not require a driver's license to vote.) Basically, such a requirement puts many socio-economically disadvantaged (and likely ethnically diverse), urban, younger, and older people -- most of whom the Republican Party is not overwhelmingly popular with -- in a bad position.
The second data system check is even easier to fail simply because most voters aren't even aware of it. Federal law does not require the last four digits of a person's SSN to vote, and so this field is optional on voter registration forms. In fact, Johnson says that the last four digits of a person's social security number is the "least likely piece of information [you] get from a voter at a registration drive." [The New Republic, 11/3/14]

​

And Provisional Ballots Are No Panacea -- Voters Of Color Are Disproportionately Pushed Into This Flawed Safety Net

Center For American Progress: Provisional Ballots Have A "Propensity To Not Be Counted." According to a new report from the Center for American Progress, "the use of provisional ballots is more frequent in counties with higher percentages of minority voters." This is a problem because provisional ballots are not always counted, meaning that the use of provisional ballots could be yet another way that people of color are disenfranchised from the political process:

Of the more than 2.7 million provisional ballots that were cast in 2012, more than 30 percent were not fully counted or rejected all together. Moreover, according to this first-of-its-kind analysis, in 16 states, the use of provisional ballots is more frequent in counties with higher percentages of minority voters.
Beyond their propensity to not be counted, provisional ballots may serve as a proxy for breakdowns in the election process because they are issued when there is some type of problem precluding a normal ballot from being cast. While voter error may be the reason for the issuance of some provisional ballots, cumbersome voter registration procedures, restrictive voting laws, lack of voter education, poorly maintained voter registration lists, and mismanagement by election officials all contribute to voters casting provisional instead of regular ballots. This report, however, does not attempt to identify the institutional root causes of why provisional ballots are issued. Instead, it is a first-of-its-kind analysis that critically evaluates the issuance of provisional ballots in counties across all 50 states during the 2012 election with specific attention to whether minority populations were more affected by the use of provisional ballots.
After controlling for population and examining county-level data in each state, we found that during the 2012 election, voters in counties with a higher percentage of minorities cast provisional ballots at higher rates than in counties with lower percentages of minorities in 16 states. Those 16 states are Arizona, California, Colorado, Kansas, Maryland, Montana, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Utah.
Our findings raise serious questions about the health and integrity of the voting process in these states. Since nearly one-third of provisional votes are eventually rejected, the finding that minority voters may be more affected by the use of provisional ballots gives rise to concerns of whether minority voices are being properly heard in these 16 states. Although there are legitimate reasons for provisional ballots to be issued -- and some such ballots are properly rejected -- these statistically significant correlations between provisional ballots and minority populations are deeply troubling. [Center for American Progress, 10/29/14]


​

 

[Skarekrow]

 

[Skarekrow]

How much clearer does it need to be? I guess we have to fucking spell it out to everyone! This is not a democracy!

 

[Skarekrow]

Guess Which President Did Take Away Your Guns?
Would You Believe It Was A Republican?


If you listened to the NRA, any Democrat in office is planning to go door to door, seizing any and all firearms they can find. And if you listened to them, any Republican in office is there to secure your rights to own even military grade firepower without even checking if you are capable of handling it.

Yet, if you check the record, the last president who actually oversaw the seizing of firearms was none other than NRA favorite, George W. Bush.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the authorities issued commands which required the confiscation of any and all personal firearms in the areas in and around New Orleans, all while under the guiding hand of the Bush Administration and his FEMA director, Michael Brown.

Under these orders, the local police, U.S. Army National Guard soldiers, and Deputy U.S. Marshals were sent out to confiscate all civilian-held firearms. According to New Orleans Police Superintendent Eddie Compass,

“No one will be able to be armed,” Compass said. “Guns will be taken. Only law enforcement will be allowed to have guns.

​

And they continued to do so despite the howls of protest from the NRA. The US District Court of Louisiana ultimately had to step in for the government seizure of firearms to stop, almost a month after it began. But the matter was not settled finally until 2008, when the courts finally ordered the return of the seized weapons.

Yet, this chapter is conveniently forgotten by the gun rights groups.
Instead, if you listened to them, President Obama is the one who is about to go door to door to take your firearms.

While the president has shown some support for reforms on arms manufacturers and dealers, he has not endorsed any proposals which went as far as that in New Orleans — to seek out and seize personal firearms from private citizens.

So, when the NRA tells you that the GOP is friendlier on guns rights, remember those gun owners in Louisiana who woke up to the FEMA directed authorities knocking on their door — and who was the President who oversaw all of it.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/11/03/gun-rights-bush/

 

[Skarekrow]

5 Facts About How America Is Rigged for a Massive Wealth Transfer to the Rich
http://www.alternet.org/economy/5-f...nsfer-rich?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark

Meanwhile, there is a solution so that the wealthy can pay their fair share.


A recent posting detailed how upper middle class Americans are rapidly losing ground to the one-percenters who averaged $5 millionin wealth gains over just three years. It also noted that the global 1% has increased their wealth from $100 trillion to $127 trillion in just three years.

The information came from the Credit Suisse 2014 Global Wealth Databook (GWD), which goes on to reveal much more about the disappearing middle class.

1. Each Year Since the Recession, America's Richest 1% Have Made More Than the Cost of All U.S. Social Programs

In effect, a reverse transfer from the poor to the rich. Even as conservatives blame Social Security for being too costly.

Much of the 1% wealth just sits there, accumulating more wealth. The numbers are nearly unfathomable. Depending on the estimate, the 1% took in anywhere from $2.3 trillion to $5.7 trillion per year. (All numeric analysis is detailed here.)

Even the smaller estimate of $2.3 trillion per year is more than the budget for Social Security ($860 billion), Medicare ($524 billion), Medicaid ($304 billion), and the entire safety net ($286 billion for SNAP, WIC [Women, Infants, Children], Child Nutrition, Earned Income Tax Credit, Supplemental Security Income, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and Housing).

2. Almost None of the New 1% Wealth Led To Innovation and Jobs

In 2005, for every $1 of financial wealth there was 66 cents of non-financial (home) wealth. Ten years later, for every $1 of financial wealth there was just 43 cents of non-financial (home) wealth.

What happens to all this financial wealth?

Over 90% of the assets owned by millionaires are held in low-risk investments (bonds and cash), the stock market, and real estate. Business startup costs made up less than 1% of the investments of high net worth individuals in North America in 2011. A recent study found that less than 1 percent of all entrepreneurs came from very rich or very poor backgrounds. They come from the middle class.

On the corporate side, stock buybacks are employed to enrich executives rather than to invest in new technologies. In 1981, major corporations were spending less than 3 percent of their combined net income on buybacks, but in recent years they've been spending up to 95 percent of their profits on buybacks and dividends.

3. Just 47 Wealthy Americans Own More Than Half of the U.S. Population

Oxfam reported that just 85 people own as much as half the world. Here in the U.S., with nearly a third of the world's wealth, just 47 individuals own more than all 160 million people (about 60 million households) below the median wealth level of about $53,000.

4. The Upper Middle Class of America Owns a Smaller Percentage of Wealth Than the Corresponding Groups in All Major Nations Except Russia and Indonesia.

The upper middle class in the U.S., defined as everyone in the top half below the richest 20%, owns 11.9 percent of the wealth. Indonesia at 10.5 percent and Russia at 7.5 percent are worse off, but in all other nations the corresponding upper middle classes own 12 to 27 percent of the wealth.

America's bottom half compares even less favorably to the world: dead last, with just 1.3 percent of national wealth. Only Russia comes close to that dismal share, at 1.9 percent. The bottom half in all other nations own 2.6 to 10.2 percent of the wealth.

5. Ten Percent of the World's Total Wealth Was Taken by the Global 1% in the Past Three Years

As in the U.S., the middle class is disappearing at the global level. An incredible one of every ten dollars of global wealth was transferred to the elite 1% in just three years. A level of inequality deemed unsustainable three years ago has gotten even worse.

Solution: A Financial Transaction Tax (FTT)

More appropriately called a Financial Speculation Tax, it would help to limit the speculative trading that contributed to the financial meltdown in 2008.

The FTT has extraordinary revenue-generating potential, on a global scale. The Bank for International Settlements reported in 2008 that annual trading in derivatives had surpassed $1.14 quadrillion. Just one-tenth of one percent of that is a trillion dollars.

It's also a fair tax. While average Americans pay up to a 10% sales tax on shoes for the kids, millionaire investors pay a zero sales tax on financial purchases. They pay just a .00002% SECfee (2 cents for every thousand dollars) for a financial instrument.

In addition, the FTT is easy to administer and difficult to evade. Clearing houses already review all trades, and serve as collection agencies for transaction fees.

And as evidence of its suitability, three of the top five countries on the Heritage Foundation'sIndex of Economic Freedom are Singapore, Hong Kong, and Switzerland, all of whom have FTTs.

People in the U.S. and around the world are being rapidly divided into two classes, the well-to-do and the lower-income majority. This severing of society will change only when progressive thinkers (and doers) agree on a single, manageable solution that will stop the easy flow of wealth to the privileged few.


Paul Buchheit teaches economic inequality at DePaul University. He is the founder and developer of the Web sitesUsAgainstGreed.org, PayUpNow.org and RappingHistory.org, and the editor and main author of "American Wars: Illusions and Realities" (Clarity Press). He can be reached at paul@UsAgainstGreed.org.

 

[Skarekrow]

What a sad state our Nation is in…people aren’t as stupid as they think they are…they know damned well that money has bought each and every member of Congress and the Presidency.
There are fewer than 100 people in the US who are so rich that the huge cities-full of people who are getting the shit-end of the stick will rise up and take back what has been earned by the sweat of hard-work yet lacking in paycheck zeros.
Then we’ll see who is so powerful.
It is not those very rich few.

[video=youtube;5IvPIWzQcUY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5IvPIWzQcUY[/video]​

 

[Skarekrow]

Happy Guy Fawkes Day!

 

[muir]

It makes you wonder what they expect to happen when they behave in such a corrupt way

Or do they just not care? Are psychopaths just not able to think about tomorrow?

I saw a piece recently about how the military industrial complex needs constant war but there isn't enough out there in a finite world ie they've saturated the market for war

So now they have to look at the domestic market; and you can see it with the militarisation going on within the US and UK

Dick Cheney said the next hit on the US is going to be bigger than 911...makes you wonder what that sick fuck knows

[video=youtube;NjBjHYm12-Q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjBjHYm12-Q#t=28[/video]

 

[Lark]

This is true when you look at the Occupy Movement.
I think what it was originally outraged at was highjacked by drum circles and every sort of “left out” group or person.
They became a hive of crybaby whining and effectively lost their initial momentum.
Now they pussyfoot around because they are too stoned to push for significant change.

However…saying that one group put in charge would be immediately corrupted by the position isn’t true and is exactly what those in power would want us to think and believe.

Although the left wing is always like that, inclusive to a fault.

Its how communists and others in the US have been repeatedly embarrassed by the fact that pedophiles have infiltrated their groups or become affiliates under some banner about civil liberties or the like.

And they mock the RCC about its infiltration by the same elements.

 

[Lark]

Do you ever watch the Boondocks [MENTION=5045]Skarekrow[/MENTION]? I think you'd like it, or maybe identify with Huey Freeman.

Uncle Ruccus reminds me of Muir.