GOP propaganda organ gets front row seat at White House briefing room

In what possible reverse PC universe does FOX beat out NPR as a news organization? It's amazing how the mainstream media just bends over backwards to "prove" to conservatives that it's not liberal. The Republicans, and the Republican propaganda organ, play the White House correspondents like a fiddle. Read More......

Bob Herbert: 'Treatment of workers by American corporations has been more treacherous than most of the population realizes'

I've been writing about this for a while (for example, here and here and here), as have a great many others.

Profits are up on the backs of workers, who desperately need their share of whatever wealth the country is producing. Because, frankly, if workers can't buy — if demand doesn't increase — there's no way out. Deflation, here we come.

Now Bob Herbert in his New York Times column (my emphasis):

The treatment of workers by American corporations has been worse — far more treacherous — than most of the population realizes. There was no need for so many men and women to be forced out of their jobs in the downturn known as the great recession.

Many of those workers were cashiered for no reason other than outright greed by corporate managers. . . . “I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Andrew Sum, an economics professor and director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston. “Not only did they throw all these people off the payrolls, they also cut back on the hours of the people who stayed on the job.” . . .

Having taken everything for themselves, the corporations are so awash in cash they don’t know what to do with it all. Citing a recent article from Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Professor Sum noted that in July cash at the nation’s nonfinancial corporations stood at $1.84 trillion, a 27 percent increase over early 2007. Moody’s has pointed out that as a percent of total company assets, cash has reached a level not seen in the past half-century.

In deflationary times, cash is king and "things" (what cash buys, like wages) are its footstool. More from Professor Sum, quoted in the article above:

Here’s what happened: At the end of the fourth quarter in 2008, you see corporate profits begin to really take off, and they grow by the time you get to the first quarter of 2010 by $572 billion. And over that same time period, wage and salary payments go down by $122 billion.

I can't find a link to the cited Dr. Sum paper, but Andrew Sum is this guy. (If anyone finds the original paper, please let me know in the comments; thanks.)

First, note the underlying data from Dr. Sun. It's truly treacherous.

Next, note that the conclusion to be drawn — that corps are betraying workers and the recovery — is getting more and more play. Herbert is just the latest.

In an earlier article on Blanche Lincoln, I list three things we could do in response to these times:

1. Get serious about primaries. (Did you know there's an election coming? Time to figure out where you can apply some grease — and apply some grease.)
   
   
2. Be clear-eyed to the point of madness — because being clear means staring the beast in the face and not letting him convert in your eyes into a pseudo-human. The beast is still the beast.
   
   
3. Use the fact that the Big Boys are getting careless — despite their lead, it's only the third quarter.

Well, here we are at point 3 above. Bob Herbert is calling out the Big Boys, and it really is only the third quarter. The country's being set up for liquidation; but it hasn't been liquidated yet. There's still time.

Lend your voice, pass the data to everyone you know — and use it in your own activism.

Actively yours,

GP Read More......

The Teabaggers hold a 'we're not racist, really' rally, hilarity ensues

TPMDC:

Apparently, Uni-Tea wasn't only bridging the racial gap. Brendan Kissam and Matt Hissey wandered into the event carrying signs that said "proud gay conservative" and "freedom is fabulous." They said they were "the Gayborhood's envoy to the tea party."

The pair said the tea party is welcoming to their minority group, too. "The Tea Party is accepting of everybody," said Hissey, adding that "Skin color diversity -- that's not real diversity. Everyone here has a different life experience." Hissey recognized that the tea party "might be against gay marriage," but that's ok, he said, because he is too.

Uni-Tea reached out the hand of tea party acceptance to young people, too -- in the form of white conservative rapper Hi-Caliber and a band of veterans called The Bangers. "This reaches out to the 18-34 year-olds," organizer Jeffrey Weingarten said. It should be noted that Weingarten was successful in getting at least one 18-34 year-old to join him for the day: his son, Freedom Weingarten.

David Webb, an African American top official with Tea Party Federation and the man who shamed Mark Williams and the Tea Party Express for being racist a couple weeks ago, emceed the event and told the tea party crowd that it didn't matter if only a few minorities joined the cause.

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Florida church plans a Quran burning event

Seriously f'd up. From CNN.com (they have video too):

In protest of what it calls a religion "of the devil," a nondenominational church in Gainesville, Florida, plans to host an "International Burn a Quran Day" on the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks.

The Dove World Outreach Center says it is hosting the event to remember 9/11 victims and take a stand against Islam. With promotions on its website and Facebook page, it invites Christians to burn the Muslim holy book at the church from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

"We believe that Islam is of the devil, that it's causing billions of people to go to hell, it is a deceptive religion, it is a violent religion and that is proven many, many times," Pastor Terry Jones told CNN's Rick Sanchez earlier this week.

Jones wrote a book titled "Islam is of the Devil," and the church sells coffee mugs and shirts featuring the phrase.

I understand Hitler sold coffee mugs too. Read More......

US growth slows in second quarter

From the Financial Times (my emphasis):

US growth slowed to an annualised rate of 2.4 per cent in the second quarter but robust business demand suggested that the economy would avoid a feared “double dip” that could drag the world back into recession.

Friday’s preliminary gross domestic product estimate from the Bureau of Economic Analysis [PDF] showed growth below market expectations of 2.6 per cent and down from an upwardly revised rate of 3.7 per cent in the first quarter.

Consumption growth fell to 1.6 per cent from 1.9 per cent, which reflected the lack of new jobs, and implied that the recovery still cannot sustain itself.

The weakness of growth is disappointing for this stage in a recovery. If data in the coming weeks do not show job creation fast enough to cut a 9.5 per cent unemployment rate, then the Federal Reserve will feel pressure to ease monetary policy.

It's good to get the data, but I'm not sure I buy the spin. We talked about that "robust business demand" here and here. About monetary easing, Robert McTeer at Forbes tells us what that means (again my emphasis):

[I]t boils down to ... Fed purchases of securities to expand bank lending and investing and get the money supply growing faster.

Well we know that banks aren't lending, they're hoarding. And Paul Krugman tells us that increasing the money supply did nothing to help Japan. Here's Japanese money supply from 1995 to 2005:

All that money sitting there — and deflation continued apace. I remember Taka Ito telling me that the only consumer durable selling well was … safes. When you’re in a liquidity trap, the size of the base doesn’t matter.

Thank you, professor.

GP Read More......

Sunday morning open thread

Slept on and off most of the day yesterday, and then got up today at noon. Having a nasty time with the jet lag, day 3, which is usual for me when I'm heading east. Went to dinner last night with my friend Fabien, who has appeared in my photos before. We went to a typical French place in the Marais and both got duck. The duck here really is wonderful - fatty, to be sure - but just wonderful. And it comes with potatoes that you might as well just slap on your hips and your heart.

While there, I saw on the "specials" board a dessert called "pain perdu," or "lost bread." I had heard of this, but couldn't remember what it was, so I asked Fabien. He said you take old bread, dip in a mixture of eggs, milk and sugar, and then cook it up in a frying pan. In other words, French Toast! LOL Though here they don't serve it with syrup. Last night it was topped with strawberries and ice cream. Still, I'm wondering if this is how French Toast got to be called "French," because someone was referring to pain perdu?

And now I leave with with a twitter moment:

RT @pourmecoffee: Chelsea Clinton married. Republicans vowing to repeal.

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