Posts filed under ‘Corporatocracy’
A Musical Tribute to Mitt Romney: “You’re So Bain”
This is good, via FreakOutNation:
(Note to progressives: Let’s change the language surrounding “pro-choice.” Let’s stop saying one side is “pro-choice” while the other is “pro-life.” Both sides are pro-life. One side is pro-choice. The other is anti-choice. Thanks.)
Elections in Greece Today
Greece is holding elections today. Should be interesting to see what happens because the people there are furious about the austerity measures that are crushing them but (sound familiar?) none of the bankers or politicians who caused the financial crisis are being held accountable.
Sigh.
My Tweet of the Day:
Colorado Ski Resorts — Give Money to Republicans and Slit Your Own Throat
The tireless hero Bill McKibben and his group 350.Org staged a “Connect the Dots” action today to raise awareness about climate change.
The corporate-owned media is ignoring it of course but McKibben has been tweeting pictures all day of the events that have taken place around the world. See them here.
As a Coloradoan who lives in a state that is dependent on tourism and the winter ski season, this is my fave:
In 2009, at 17,785 feet in Bolivia’s Cordillera Oriental was the
Chacaltaya glacier. Before its unexpected melting, it was home to
Bolivia’s only ski resort and the first tow-rope ever to be built in
South America. Today all that remains is a rocky mountain-top that
only receives seasonal snowfall.
photo cred:
Lauren Farnsworth
Site altitude-Wikipedia
Heads up to Aspen and Breckenridge and all the other mega-corporate-run ski areas around here. You guys better take climate change seriously or your resorts will look like this too. (I.e., Vote Republican!)
Full List of Corporations Belonging to ALEC
You might want to head on over to Common Cause. They’ve published a full list of the corporations belonging to the loathsome ALEC group, here.
If I wanted to boycott companies on the list that I do business with, I would have to change my car and home insurance, change my phone company, get a new email address, close my VISA accounts, cancel my cable television and Internet subscription, find a different place to have prescriptions filled (and thus step out of my health insurance plan and pay full price), boycott companies that send goods via FedEx and UPS and never use Yahoo!.
Holy cow.
NYPD: May Day Protestors are Terrorists
Oops. Somebody leaked the NYPD’s plans for potential May Day protests tomorrow. They’re filed under “NYPD Shield — Countering Terrorism Through Information Sharing.”
See the six page “Shield” plan here (pdf). It’s incredible what they’re freaking out about: a few bicyclists here, a high school walkout there. They’re afraid of their own shadow and their goal is to protect the corporatocracy.
High-Powered U.S. Banks Set to Put Their Foot on the Neck of the Federal Reserve
The Financial Times is really, really touchy about people cutting and pasting their stuff so I’m not going to do it. But from what I understand of the first seven paragraphs of this FT article – US banks to Put Stress Tests Case to Fed — the gargantuan U.S. banks who “own the place” ( i.e., Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorganChase, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley) are going to “meet” with Daniel Tarullo, the Federal Reserve governor next week because they’re furious that the Fed, “published the results of stress tests last month, causing consternation among the largest US banks as their capital buffers were deemed less resilient to a market meltdown than had been assumed.”
Less resilient to a market meltdown than had been assumed? What? Something less than high praise from the Fed? We can’t have that!
So the Fed’s stress test wasn’t to their liking so they’re going to step on Tarullo’s neck and threaten to bring down the US economy and/or the world economy if the Fed doesn’t issue an amended, glowing report about how wonderfully resilient they are? Or something.
Yep. They really do own the place.
I could be totally wrong about what I’m reading. Read it for yourself (link above) but bottom line is this sounds like the banks kicking the US government around, not vice versa, which is how it should be.
Obama’s to Blame for High Gas Prices?
The right would have us believe that Obama, and Obama alone, is to blame for high gas prices. That’s understandable coming from them. One, it’s an election year so everything will be Obama’s fault and two, insofar as they are the party of the corporatocracy, they’re essentially saying, hey, look over there, trying to distract our attention from inconvenient facts like this:
Exxon Makes $104 Million In Profit Per Day So Far In 2012, While Americans Are Stuck With A Higher Gas Bill
$9.45 billion profits, or almost $104 million per day in the first three months of the year.
13 percent: The tax rate Exxon paid last year, lower than the average American family.
60 percent of its first quarter earnings, or $5.7 billion, on buying back stock. Became world’s largest dividend payer by increasing dividends 21 percent.
$1,091,000: Political contributions sent to federal politicians for the 2012 election cycle, making it the largest oil and gas spender.
91% of these contributions went to Republicans.
More than $52,000,000: Lobbying for the first three years of the Obama presidency, 50 percent more than in the Bush Administration.
$34.9 million: Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson’s salary for 2011, a 20 percent raise.
$52,300: Political contributions from Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson in the 2012 cycle, alone.
No. 2: Fortune 500 list of richest companies and for highest-paid CEO.
Grasping numbers like these is like trying to grasp what it would be like to travel for a light year or how many stars there are in the sky.
Epic Battle Between the 1% and the 99% Happening at Lockheed Martin
This takes guts:
3,600 Lockheed Martin Workers Go on Strike in Texas
Strikes involving thousands of workers in the “right-to-work” state of Texas are extraordinarily rare. Yet on Monday, 3,600 Lockheed Martin workers, members of IAM Local 776 who make F-35 and F-16 fighter jets in Fort Worth, Texas, went out on strike to protest proposed healthcare and pension cuts.
Workers are upset about a proposed contract that would make workers’ pay much higher insurance deductibles. Lockheed Martin has already implemented this plan for its nonunion employees.
Workers are also upset about a plan that would eliminate defined-benefit pensions for new hires. In recent years, many other unions have agreed to this concession while retaining defined-benefit plans for current union members—a group of 15,000 GE workers agreed to a similar change for future hires last summer. Lockheed workers in Texas, however are fed up.
“The first time…, they take away pension for new hires. Next time around, when new hires [are in the union], they say ‘we are going to freeze the pension.’ Of course, the new hires that don’t have a pension aren’t going to strike, so then the pension is frozen,” says IAM spokesman Bob Woods. “Companies like Lockheed Martin simply want to eliminate defined benefit pensions plans.”
[...]
The union feels confident, though, that Lockheed Martin—the largest federal defense contractor, with $17.34 billion in federal projects last year—would be unable to operate the Texas plant without the skill of its unionized workforce.
[...]
“Every three years they want to come and take some other benefit. Everyone is sick and tired of it. These folks are prepared to be on strike for a long time” says Wood.
And there’s this just out this morning:
Lockheed Martin Profit Rises 20% as Stevens to Retire
Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT), the world’s largest defense company, reported first-quarter profit rose 20 percent as Robert Stevens, the chairman and chief executive officer, announced plans to retire.
Again, these workers must have balls of steel be really, really pissed to strike in this environment when it’s fashionable to hate unions and when replacement workers are a dime a dozen. I admire their courage.
It will be very interesting indeed to see what happens here. Not only does this involve a relatively large under of people (harder to ignore) but it is a strike against a company that sucks in Our Tax Dollars as if it’s breastfeeding. What should we require — if anything — of companies that rely so heavily on Our Tax Dollars? Seems to me that in this instance, given it’s 20% profit increase, it’s trying to shift more and more money upward by slowly but surely screwing the workers and heck, I’d rather have the workers get good pay and good pensions than give even more (of my tax) money to the honchos.
Oh, and speaking of honchos, in 2010 the CEO of Lockheed Martin (Robert Stevens, the guy who’s retiring), raked in a total compensation package of $19,118,612. $19+ million.
This is a battle between the 1% and the 99%.
I’ll keep you posted.
Obama Says He Will Veto CISPA
I am still learning about CISPA but what I know thus far, in a nutshell, is this:
CISPA could allow any private company to share vast amounts of sensitive, private data about its customers with the government.
CISPA would override all other federal and state privacy laws, and allow a private company to share nearly anything—from the contents of private emails and Internet browsing history to medical, educational and financial records—as long as it “directly pertains to” a “cyber threat,” which is broadly defined.
[...]
CISPA would give Internet Service Providers free rein to monitor the private communications and activities of users on their networks. ISPs would have wide latitude to do anything that can be construed as part of a “cybersecurity system,” regardless of any other privacy or telecommunications law.
CISPA would empower the military and the National Security Agency (NSA) to collect information about domestic Internet users. Other information sharing bills would direct private information from domestic sources to civilian agencies, such as the Department of Homeland Security. CISPA contains no such limitation. Instead, the Department of Defense and the NSA could solicit and receive information directly from American companies, about users and systems inside the United States.
What could go wrong right? So this is good news but we’ve got to hold him to it:
The White House today escalated its opposition to a cybersecurity-related surveillance bill with a formal veto threat.
In a new statement, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget said that the CISPA bill endangered Americans’ privacy and inappropriately shielded private companies from liability.
The statement suggests that CISPA — also known as the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act — goes too far by giving the National Security Agency too much power.
Mitt Romney’s “Hero,” Scott Walker, Not That Good at Creating Jobs
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, the pipsqueak who’s wholly owned by the Koch Brothers and a “hero” to Mitt Romney, is good at one thing for sure. Screwing things up. Take creating jobs for example. This would be the headline in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel yesterday: State Posts Largest Percentage Job Loss in U.S. Over Past Year.
Here’s a graph that accompanied the article. Check out the red line at the bottom. That’s Romney’s “hero’s” work.
So folks, if you like what Scott Walker’s doing in Wisconsin, vote for Mitt and all of our states will have red lines after their names. It’ll be kinda like what’s happening in the UK where they’re proving that austerity doesn’t work. British Economy Slips Back Into Recession.
The Corporate Media Pushing Romney For Prez
“Liberal media” my ass:
Romney uses a teleprompter?
Mitt Romney complained last week of a “vast left-wing conspiracy” in the media, but a study published today revealed the presumptive Republican nominee has enjoyed more positive press coverage than President Obama in recent months.
The Pew Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism found that negative coverage of Obama outweighed positive coverage in each of 15 weeks between Jan. 2 and April 15. Romney, meanwhile, had six weeks of mostly positive stories and another four in which positive and negative coverage were roughly equal.
In fact, positive stories about the former Massachusetts governor have outnumbered negative ones almost 2-to-1 since the Feb. 28 Michigan primary, which Romney won.
Romney: Please, Please, Please Pick Rubio!
If Mitt Romney picks Florida Senator Marco Rubio as his vice presidential nominee, we’re gonna have fun with this quote from Rubio today on CNN’s “State of the Nation:”
I haven’t gone through the comparison,” Rubio told CNN’s Candy Crowley. “I think that presidents serve in different times with different challenges. And so I think that George W. Bush, in my opinion, did a fantastic job as president over eight years, facing a set of circumstances during those eight years that are different from the circumstances that a President Romney would face.
Bush lied us into a war; he passed an unfunded Medicare prescription drug program (a gift to the drug and insurance companies) that could cost as much as much as $1.2 trillion; he passed the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and he let the banks crash the global economy, to name but a few of his accomplishments. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what Republicans think is a, ahem, “fantastic job.”
So, keep the video handy. If Romney does pick Rubio it’s gonna get a whole lot of airtime. If Romney doesn’t pick Rubio, we can save it and use it when Rubio runs. Heehee.
The ECB’s Klaus Masuch Can’t Say Why We the People are Bailing Out the Banks
Here is some truly amazing video. This is Irish journalist Vincent Browne (this is what real journalism looks like) confronting Klaus Masuch of the European Central Bank as to why the Irish people are bailing out the banks.
Browne asks: “You people are intervening into this society, causing huge damage by requiring us to make payments, not for the benefit of anybody in Ireland, but for the benefit of European financial institutions. Now, could you explain why the Irish people are inflicted with this burden?” Masuch’s answer? It’s breathtaking. At first there is silence, then he spews out 60 seconds of pure bullshit and then he literally fumbles around and can’t or won’t respond, claiming his line of bullshit was an answer.
Everyone in the world should see this because everyone in the world is paying for what the banks did.
It’s jaw-dropping; the most amazing thing I’ve seen in a long time. And oh to have more journalists like Vincent Browne.
(Via.)
Mitt Romney Doomed to Hell for Lying
Mitt Romney has been a devout Mormon all his life but insofar as he’s a professional liar, is he willing to spend eternity in Hell in order to win the presidency?
MSNBC host Martin Bashir on Thursday read from the Book of Mormon to make the point that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney might win the White House by lying but he would be condemned to “eternal damnation.”
“Mr. Romney seems to be having some trouble telling the truth,” Bashir explained. “In fact, yesterday Mitt the mendacious offered a hat trick of falsehoods.”
The MSNBC host pointed to disputed claims that Romney’s campaign had not sought the endorsement of Ted Nugent, that there was a “vast left-wing conspiracy” by the media to defeat him and that President Barack Obama promised to keep unemployment “below 8 percent.”
“It is something that the president had never written or said,” Bashir pointed out. “Mitt Romney prefers to tell lies, which brings us the moral codes of Mormonism that Mr. Romney claims to live by.”
According to Section 63, in verse 17, of The Doctrine and Covenants of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, “[T]he fearful, and the unbelieving, and all liars, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie, and the whoremonger, and the sorcerer, shall have their part in that lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
And the Book of Mormon’s 2 Nephi 9:34 says, “Wo unto the liar, for he shall be thrust down to hell.”
Good luck Mitt. Seems to me you’re willing to sell your soul to anyone for any price. I would love to sit down with a psychologist and take a look a your obsession with this. It’s all about proving you’re better than daddy, isn’t it?
One Guy, $10 Million
Think your $20.00 donation to a candidate or a cause counts? Think again. This is what we’re all up against.
Talk about a mega-donor. Of the $28.4 million in donations banked in 2011 by Republican outside money group Crossroads GPS [founded by Karl Rove], a whopping $10 million of it came from just one donor. That’s 35 percent. From one person, or one corporation.
Crossroads GPS, which does not disclose its donors, is the brainchild of GOP political mastermind Karl Rove. Founded in 2010, the group is technically a tax-exempt non-profit, known as a 501(c)(4), that can spend money on political advocacy so long as politicking isn’t the majority of what it does. To comply with federal tax law, Crossroads must focus most of its work on issues, not candidates; otherwise, the group would have to file as a political action committee and reveal its funders. Crossroads’ critics say the group does far too much political advocacy, and that the IRS should not grant the group permanent (c)(4) status.
Crossroads has repeatedly insisted its activities are perfectly legal, and the IRS has not given any clear indication that it is investigating the group.
We must overturn Citizens United otherwise our democracy (such as it is) is doomed.
The Too Big to Fail Banks Are Now Even Bigger
This is what happens when (1) banks own the government and (2) they know they can essentially do whatever they want because We the People will bail them out if they get in trouble:
Two years after President Barack Obama vowed to eliminate the danger of financial institutions becoming “too big to fail,” the nation’s largest banks are bigger than they were before the credit crisis.
Five banks — JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co., and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. — held $8.5 trillion in assets at the end of 2011, equal to 56 percent of the U.S. economy, according to the Federal Reserve.
Five years earlier, before the financial crisis, the largest banks’ assets amounted to 43 percent of U.S. output. The Big Five today are about twice as large as they were a decade ago relative to the economy, sparking concern that trouble at a major bank would rock the financial system and force the government to step in as it did during the 2008 crunch.
“Market participants believe that nothing has changed, that too-big-to-fail is fully intact,” said Gary Stern, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
If you think about this for more than a few minutes you’ll get really, really nervous because this is insane.
AT&T and Verizon What to Take Away Your Landline
AT&T and Verizon, knowing they can make way more money if you have a cell phone instead of a landline, want to, well, do away with landlines. Aside from that being bodacious government-by-corporation, here’s why it’s a bad idea:
The legal guarantee of landline telephone service at almost any address is quietly being legislated away. But Reuters columnist David Cay Johnston says people should fight for their right to have one: A landline telephone is vital to people’s health and safety and sometimes a cell phone just won’t do.
(Via ReutersTV.)
The “Consumer Financial Protection Bureau” Caves to the Corporatocracy
Once again, a cleverly named government agency — the “Consumer Financial Protection Bureau” (supposedly created to protect consumers) — caves to the corporatocracy:
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has decided not to challenge credit card companies on introductory fees. Credit card companies had been more aggressive in charging fees to users before they use a credit card, ever since new regulations made it so they could no longer charge more than 25 percent of the total credit limit in standard fees.
The CFPB originally proposed regulations to eliminate the introductory fees, but on Thursday relented and decided not to pursue the matter.
This agency is a joke.
I’m so glad it’s Friday.
Court Clears Way for Corporations to Take Over More of Our Media
I remember when there were no advertisements — none — on public broadcasting stations such as PBS. It was glorious. The effect of the ban was that the corporatocracy, through their ad buys, wouldn’t and couldn’t influence the programming. I.e., a station such as MSNBC, owned by defense contractor General Electric, isn’t going to knock wars or weapons production or defense contractors or the bloated Defense Department’s budget. PBS would.
But, say good-bye to those times. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals just opened the door to more corporate influence (can you believe it?) in our already corporate-saturated media:
Ban on Political Ads on Public TV Struck Down
A divided U.S. appeals court struck down a federal ban on political advertising on public TV and radio stations, a decision that could open the public airwaves to a heavy dose of campaign ads leading up to the November elections.
By a 2-1 vote, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said the Federal Communications Commission violated the First Amendment’s free speech clause by blocking public broadcasters from running political and public issue ads.
The court said the ban was too broad, and that lifting it would not threaten to undermine the educational nature of public broadcast stations.
Sad. Just sad. Noah, my neighbor’s darling 3-year-old grandson will never know what a free press is.
Maryland Bans Employers From Asking For Internet Passwords
Bravo to Maryland! As if the corporatocracy needs more power?
Maryland on Monday became the first state in the nation to ban employers from requesting access to the social media accounts of employees and job applicants.
The state’s General Assembly passed legislation that would prohibit employers from requiring or seeking user names, passwords or any other means of accessing personal Internet sites such as Facebook as a condition of employment.
The bill has its genesis in a controversy that began when Maryland Corrections Officer Robert Collins returned to work following a leave of absence taken after the death of his mother. While completing a re-certification process needed to return to duty, Collins was asked for his personal Facebook password, ostensibly to check for known gang activity. He refused, and obtained the assistance of the Maryland chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which quickly filed a lawsuit, bringing the case onto the national stage.
Xcel Energy Granted a GIGANTIC Rate Hike in Colorado
Geezus. I wonder how much Xcel Energy paid under the table for this:
Xcel Energy has struck an agreement with regulators, consumer advocates and businesses that would raise electricity rates in Colorado $114 million over three years.
The utility had originally sought a $142 million increase for 2012.
The settlement, which must be approved by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, would raise the typical residential bill, in three annual steps, by a total of $3.70 a month, or about 5.5 percent.
The original request would have raised the average monthly residential bill by $4, to $71, for 2012.
Xcel, the state’s largest utility, won the proposed rate hike in the face of stiff opposition from state regulators, businesses and consumers, and after failing to get an interim rate increase from the commission.
So Xcel got a rate increase of $114 million over three years. Here’s the kicker:
The utilities commission staff recommended that Xcel receive a $7.3 million hike. The state Office of Consumer Counsel, representing residential and small-business customers, suggested $9.4 million.
It isn’t clear whether the numbers immediately above are for one year or three, but it doesn’t matter. Xcel was cleared to hike rates $114 million over three years, hugely higher than the recommended amounts, even if they are multiplied by three.
How did this happen? How did Xcel get a hike so wildly and hugely above what was recommended?
There can be only one answer. Xcel owns some people. It’s called the corporatocracy.
Outrageous.
Banks Form SuperPac So They Can Perform “Surgical” Strike on “Enemies”
Geezus, as if the banking industry isn’t being treated well enough already:
Bankers Form SuperPac for ‘Surgical’ Strike at Industry’s Enemies
Frustrated by a lack of political power and fed up with blindly donating to politicians who consistently vote against the industry’s interests, a handful of leaders are determined to shake things up.
They have formed the industry’s first SuperPAC — dubbed Friends of Traditional Banking — that is designed to target the industry’s enemies and support its friends in Congress.
“It comes back to the old philosophy of walking softly and carrying a big stick,” says Howard Headlee, the president and chief executive officer of the Utah Bankers Association. “But we’ve got no big stick. And we should. We have the capacity to have one, we just aren’t organized.”
Think of it as an Emily’s List for bankers and their allies.
“Congress isn’t afraid of bankers,” adds Roger Beverage, the president and CEO of the Oklahoma Bankers Association. “They don’t think we’ll do anything to kick them out of office. We are trying to change that perception.”
Legalized blackmail thanks to the Republicans on the Supreme Court.
Good-bye democracy and all that of, for and by the people crap. Hello plutocracy.
I’m serious. This is chilling.
Romney Hires Lobbyist as Senior Adviser
Fitting:
Mitt Romney added former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie to his ranks of senior advisers Thursday, the campaign announced.
Mr. Gillespie is a former counselor to President George W. Bush and founded the bipartisan lobbying firm Quinn Gillespie & Associates, based in Washington, D.C. He played a central role in helping to draft the “Contract with America,” a conservative pledge in the 1994 elections that was partly credited for helping Republicans regain control of the House for the first time in four decades.
3,000 Dead Dolphins Wash Ashore Along the Coast of Peru
When 3,000 — 3,000! — dolphins wash ashore over the course of three months, Mother Nature is screaming and we should listen:
(Photo: Peru21)
So far this year, over three thousand dolphins have been found dead in various parts of the coast of Lambayeque, Peru21 reported.
Heinz Plengue, a representative at the Chaparrí Ecological Reserve, said 481 dolphins had been found on the beaches in the last few days alone.
Carlos Yaipen Llanos, science director at ORCA, said the deaths were the result of a “marine bubble,” an acoustic pocket that forms as a result of using equipment to explore for petroleum below the seabed.
“The oil companies use different frequencies of acoustic waves and the effects produced by these bubbles are not plainly visible, but they generate effects later in the animals. That can cause death by acoustic impact, not only in dolphins, but also in marine seals and whales,” Yaipen said.
Geezus. Just in the last few days we learned farmers in Colorado are competing with oil/gas companies for water to grow food, and now we find out oil companies are killing dolphins in Peru. Maybe we should make it official and admit we’re just going to turn the whole planet over to Exxon et al.
Kenneth P. Vogel: Ask Robert Greenwald About Koch Brothers’ Slam on Brave New Films?
Just read this tweet from Politico:
Which lead to this video put out on Wednesday by the Koch brothers:
Which is a kill-the-messinger response to this documentary which was officially released by Brave New Films in New York City last night:
My question to Politico’s Vogel:
I’ll let you know if I hear back. Is Vogel a tool for the Koch brothers, or not?
Most Medical Implants Not Tested for Safety
I heard a few sentences about this on the radio this morning and I just about fell on the floor:
Artificial Knee via DJOGlobal.eu
Dangerous medical devices
Most medical implants have never been tested for safety
Tens of millions of Americans live with medical devices implanted in their bodies—artificial joints, heart defibrillators, surgical mesh. And it’s a safe bet that most of them assume that someone, somewhere, tested the devices for safety and effectiveness.
But that is rarely the case. For most implants and other high-risk devices brought to market, manufacturers do nothing more than file some paperwork and pay the Food and Drug Administration a user fee of roughly $4,000 to start selling a product that can rack up many millions of dollars in revenue. Often, the only safety “testing” that occurs is in the bodies of unsuspecting patients—including two of the three people whose stories are told in this report.
As for the smaller number of high-risk products for which advance safety studies are required, government rules allow them to be sold based on studies that are smaller and less rigorous than those required for prescription drugs.
“Standards for devices exist, they just don’t make sense,” says Diana Zuckerman, Ph.D., a vocal critic of the current system and president of the National Research Center for Women & Families, a nonprofit advocacy organization.
I find this absolutely shocking. I had no idea it was this bad. Devices implanted in people’s bodies, including those that literally keep people alive, like heart defibrillators, aren’t tested for safety?! Gosh. I wonder that came to pass (here’s lookin’ at you, lobbyists for the corporatocracy).
Unreal.
Bank of America CEO Gets 600% Raise For What I’d Be Fired For
From the Associated Press:
Bank of America gave its CEO a pay package worth $7.5 million last year, six times as large as the year before. It happened while the company’s stock lost more than half its value and the bank lost its claim as the biggest in the country.
The package for CEO Brian Moynihan included a salary of $950,000, a $6.1 million stock award and about $420,000 worth of use of company aircraft and tax and financial advice.
The figures are according to an Associated Press analysis of a regulatory filing Wednesday. In 2010, Moynihan’s pay package totaled $1.2 million.
It’s a whole nother world there on Wall Street. I was a paralegal in my past life. If I’d lost the firms I worked for half their client base, I would have been kicked out the door, not handed a 600% raise.
Court Tells the FDA to Enforce Its Own 35-Year-Old Rule for God’s Sake
Translation: Back in the day when the government kinda sorta worked for We the People, the FDA implemented a rule prohibiting farmers from pumping their livestock full of antibiotics. Over time, lobbyists moved in and the corporatocracy took over and for 35 years the FDA sat on its hands and did nothing. Beings once known as investigative reporters went MIA because the “liberal media” was afraid of being called the “liberal media” and again, 35 years passed.
Meanwhile, microbes went on doing their thing while our government didn’t and this happened: Get Ready to Die From an Infected Cut.
Penicillium. Photo: Richard Edelman
Fast forward to now and finally, finally have an itty bitty glimmer of hope:
A federal court judge has ordered the Food and Drug Administration to take action on its own 35-year-old rule that would stop farmers from mixing widely-used antibiotics into animal feed, a practice which has led to a surge in dangerous, drug-resistant bacteria.
In 1977, the FDA concluded that the overuse of antibiotics in livestock, poultry and other animals weakened the treatment’s effectiveness in humans. The agency issued an order that would have banned non-medical use of penicillin and tetracycline in farm animals, unless drugmakers could show the drugs were safe. But the rule idled for more than three decades, after vigorous pushback from members of Congress and lobbyists for the agriculture and drug industries. Farming groups have long argued the drugs are needed to keep animals healthy, though many natural food producers dispute such claims.
In a ruling handed down Thursday, Judge Theodore Katz said the FDA must begin steps to withdraw approval of the two antibiotics for routine use in animals, siding with four consumer safety groups that brought a lawsuit against the agency.
I’m not holding my breath but my God, if this doesn’t illustrate how fu*ked up Washington, D.C. is, I don’t know what does.
