Submitted by BuzzFlash on Thu, 10/06/2011 - 9:09pm.
MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) took to the Senate floor this week to denounce how Bank of America is gouging Americans through excessive charges on debit card "swipe fees."
Debit card swipes, according to the Federal Reserve Bank, cost at most 12 cents (as low as 4 cents) to process, but the banks have historically charged, according to Durbin, on average 44 cents to the retailer. On October 1, a new law went into effect that put a ceiling on the swipe fees at about 24 cents. So, the Bank of America and other banks "too big to fail" are still getting at least a 100 percent profit for every debit card transaction, which is crippling some small businesses.
Moreover, the Bank of America represents the greed that is at the heart of Wall Street by not being content with a 100 percent profit. To circumvent the cap on grossly excessive swipe fees, the Bank of America is now going to charge customers $5 a month as a debit card "use fee."
"Bank of America customers, vote with your feet," Durbin urged in outraged reaction to the new "service charge."
"Get the heck out of that bank," Durbin exhorted. "They are overcharging their customers even for this new debit card reform. It is hard to believe that a bank would impose [such a fee] on customers who simply are trying to access their own money on deposit at the Bank of America."
"After helping to drive our economy off the cliff's edge in 2008, Bank of America was happy to accept a $45 billion dollar federal bailout for their stupidity, their greed and their mistakes," the senior senator from Illinois said with disdain. "And it was just as happy to take that money and hand out $3.3 billion dollars in employee bonuses in the same year 2008."
Remember that if you have a savings account - unless you have a ton of money - in many cases you are earning no interest or just pennies, even though the bank is lending out your cash and getting double-digit returns in loan interest.
Furthermore instead of investing in America, the Bank of America is gouging the nation. On top of that, according to the Los Angeles Times, "Bank of America said it would cut 30,000 workers over several years."
This is legalized criminal behavior. The New York Police Department is arresting the wrong people down in southern Manhattan. What's going on in the Bank of America and many other New York City financial institutions is the looting of the United States.
****
If you'd like to receive these commentaries daily from Truthout/BuzzFlash, click here. You'll get our choice headlines and articles too. ...
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Thu, 10/06/2011 - 11:36am.
FINDING A VOICE by Ann Davidow
Some years back an article in The New Yorker posited that there was one tired old man at the CIA making policy for the entire country. Their reasoning was that, although times changed and leaders came and went, there was something so consistent about our country's conduct of foreign policy the only sensible explanation was that a worn out old man in the bowels of the Pentagon was pulling the country's foreign-policy strings.
In the current overheated political environment strenuous efforts are made by the various pretenders to the White House throne that, according to campaign rhetoric, only they have the ability to change the way we do business in foreign lands even if upon closer examination it is clear we continue to engage in the same imprecise meanderings to which we have grown accustomed. Amazingly enough foreign policy is rarely on debate agendas nor is it addressed in substantive fashion in those snipey little intramural attacks that have taken the place of meaningful debate.
In fact all things considered, we rarely get very deeply into some of the most important issues of the day, informed for the most part by a random sampling of 'experts' who leave us grasping at the straws of truth, never fully satisfied and only modestly well informed. For all the books, articles and lectures delivered for our consumption we are left in the main with partisan rants and superficial conclusions. Given the state of our information highway we are a nation foundering in the shallow waters of factual shortcomings that ten to overwhelm our better nature as a people.
Read More
...
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Thu, 10/06/2011 - 11:18am.
SHAMUS COOKE FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
At a time when the country is demanding that Wall Street pay up, Democrats and Republicans are insisting that China be punished instead. In a rare case of bi-partisan unity, the Senate voted 79 to 19 in favor of opening discussion on a punitive trade bill that would shut out Chinese products coming into the U.S. Another highly provocative incident showcased U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, Admiral Mike Mullen, accusing the Pakistan's intelligence service, the ISI, of giving official support to the Haqqni terrorist network. This would make Pakistan an official state sponsor of terrorism, opening it up to a possible military invasion. After reading all the patriotic chest thumping in the mainstream media, it would be possible to forget that there are large anti-Wall Street protests emerging all over the nation. This is precisely the point.
Of course most Americans are completely bored with terrorist talk. They simply do not care who is currently leading Al-Queda, and are especially uninterested who their number 2 and number 3 are; many people doubt the very existence of these groups, or at least think that their power is incredibly exaggerated. Nevertheless, the U.S. government will continue to obsess about terrorists while assassinating anyone who earns the label, minus any evidence or trial. Why? Terrorism is the new communism, i.e., a reason to justify the U.S. wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya; a reason for U.S. military power to expand further yet; a reason to give this nation - both working people and the incredibly rich - a banner to unite under instead of fighting each other.
As the economy enters a double dip recession, be certain that the U.S. government will try to use the military as a way to compensate for an economy in decline. The military is excellent at opening new economic opportunities for U.S. corporations; to exploit additional new oil resources and the new foreign consumers that will be compelled to buy U.S. corporate goods. Also, U.S. military hardware remains one of the strongest U.S. industries, thanks to the enormous sums of taxpayers money that the U.S. government funnels to the major defense contractors.
When it comes to threatening China with economic sanctions the motives are the same. The poor U.S. economy is forcing corporations to their knees, and the U.S. government is eagerly responding. Increasing exports is an excellent way to boost corporate profits, but the options are limited. Mass unemployment is forcing down wages, making U.S. products cheaper on the world market, but demanding that China lower the value of its currency is another tactic. Keeping Chinese products out of the U.S. market is viewed by China as an act of economic warfare, and it is. China will likely retaliate, leading to the possibility of a trade war.
...
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Thu, 10/06/2011 - 10:05am.
BILL BERKOWITZ FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
"It's been a good year for faith-based films,' writes film critic Roger Moore: Given the pre-opening weekend outreach to churches across the country, the Kendrick brothers' new movie, Courageous, had an extraordinary opening weekend.
It was a fabulous opening weekend for Courageous, the Kendrick brothers' new "action-dramedy" movie. While Dolphin Tale, Brad Pitts' Moneyball, and Lion King 3D battled it out for the top three spots nationally, Courageous and 50/50 were basically tied for fourth and fifth place. The opening of Courageous, which was shown in half the theaters as the cancer dramedy 50/50, and brought in $8.8 million, and "ranks fifth all-time for a Christian movie, and only trails [Mel Gibson's]The Passion of the Christ and the three Narnia movies," according to Box Office Mojo.
In fact, the Orlando Sentinel's Roger Moore pointed out, the pre-premiere outreach "aimed at churches" paid off. As fandango.com reported, Courageous led in the "pre-sales race" for this past "weekend's new openings," selling more than $2 million in tickets.
And, in Kinston, North Carolina, where the Kendrick brothers' marketing strategy worked like a charm, the Bethel Free Will Baptist Church bought over 1,000 tickets, guaranteeing 5 sell-outs for the film.
Prior to its Friday, September 30, premiere, the Associated Press reported that producer and co-writer Stephen Kendrick "says God has done more with the films [that he's produced] than they could ask or imagine."
Stephen Kendrick, whose brother Alex co-wrote, directed and plays a lead role in the film, told AP that "we've come to him and said, 'God, what is your storyline? Would you help us? Would you guide the production? Would you help us in the editing? Would you connect the movie to the audience?'"
With Courageous (http://www.courageousthemovie.com/), Stephen Kendrick said that he hopes to "rock the nations" and convince men to "become the providers, the protectors that their kids need."
Kendrick told AP that "We're going after the issue of fatherhood. [In] this movie you follow four sheriff's deputies in Albany, Georgia, and then an Hispanic man who is a construction worker, and they are tackling the issue of trying to figure out what it means to be a great dad."?
The Kendricks' also have a new companion book, called "The Resolution for Men," which provides "a vision of fatherhood from birth to death," Stephen Kendrick told The Funhog Family blog. "We talk about breaking the chains of the past ... .and then we talk about manhood, what does God's word say about what it means to be a man.... In Chapter 4 ... we break out in scripture; between puberty and twenty you have a seven year window ... [to claim] the attributes of man." The book also talks about fathers "winning the hearts of your kids, blessing them and discipling them."
Courageous, rated PG-13 for violence and drug content, was made for $1 million, largely used volunteers, and is the fourth film from Sherwood Pictures, a ministry of Albany, Georgia's Sherwood Baptist Church, where the Kendrick brothers are Assistant Pastors.
"With volunteers no one is watching the clock and we're all in it together," Alex Kendrick told Time magazine.
According to OneNewsNow, a news service of Donald Wildmon's American Family Association, "Sherwood has shared sneak peeks of Courageous with churches and community leaders across America."
"What we're hearing from people who've seen some of the early screenings is that this is a strong challenge that's very much needed in our culture," Executive Producer Jim McBride said. "That's what we've been praying for -- not just a movie that people would walk out and say, 'Boy, that was a great movie,' but a movie that would impact the culture, that would challenge men to step up and make a bold and courageous step toward being the godly leaders that they should be."
There's a "Take Action" link on the film's webpage, which asks several burning questions: Who in your community will work to get Courageous distributed? Who will "step up and buy out a show time, providing 200-250 tickets for your congregation and the people they influence?" Which churches or businesses will "purchase 50-150 tickets to hand to people you reach out to every day?" And "will you personally purchase 25 tickets for the people in your neighborhood, Sunday school class, or couples small group?" ...
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Thu, 10/06/2011 - 8:34am.
MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
With the price of milk rising so high that many low-income New Yorkers can't afford it anymore, it's hardly comforting to know that - as BuzzFlash at Truthout detailed yesterday - the priority of the multibillionaire mayor of New York is "helping the banks."
In a rambling radio interview last week that reeked of royal aristocracy, Bloomberg asked workers to ask not what they can do for themselves, but what they can do for their companies. BuzzFlash is not making this up:
And people in this day and age need support for their employers. If the banks don't go out and make loans we will not come out of our economic problems, we will not have jobs so anything we can do that's responsible to help the banks do that is what we need.
Except the banks aren't making a lot of loans, and there is little demand anyway because there are fewer dollars around for Americans to spend. The banks are still gambling with our money; giving no interest for savings accounts; investing overseas; and handing out big, fat bonuses for their financiers who bet against the US economy. ...
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Wed, 10/05/2011 - 11:10am.
FINDING A VOICE by Ann Davidow
It is a disturbing feature of our society that truth has devolved into a rare commodity, most especially when election time rolls around. Somehow it has become the practice to allow lies and innuendoes to permeate political debate as if they had the same legitimacy as actual facts.
In the aftermath of debates and conferences there may be some retro-fitting of statements but at the time of their utterance they pass muster among pundits and partisans who maintain an air of polite deference to fellow participants. Thus, truth is often sacrificed in the heat of the moment to keep things moving and to allow the ridiculous to cavort among the more learned and deserving thought merchants. But it isn't only the innocent idiots who find their way to media stardom and who, despite the ridicule they encounter at times from their betters, maintain a certain presence. It is the menace inherent in their writings and speeches that defines them as something other than free-speech practitioners. Theirs is a special brand of hate and partisanship that seeks only to expand their fifteen minutes of fame and roil the waters of honest debate.
On the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks we were reminded of bravery about which our country can only stand in awe for what was accomplished in our name. There are many stories that touch us but none more than the leadership of Todd Beamer on United
Airlines Flight 93 whose words "Let's roll" led the assault on the high-jackers in the cockpit and brought the plane down short of its mission to attack Washington DC. In light of his singular leadership and communications from others who lost their lives on that day there is something particularly repellent about Ann Coulter's observations as she wrote about them in her column.
The natural inclination of those who experience great loss is to pursue the causes to their logical conclusions. But Ann concluded that the grief-stricken widowed pilots' wives were 'enjoying' their widowhood tremendously, an observation prompted no doubt by Coulter's own publicity-seeking persona and a culture that says you can say anything about anyone and chalk it up to the constitutional guarantee of free speech. At the time I assumed we wouldn't be hearing from Coulter any more because the American people would reject her poisonous prose, but she's still around appearing at conservative causes, writing books and spreading her noxious reflections across the land - - a sad commentary on the depths to which we have sunk as a nation.
And this is a condition that permeates all phases of our body politic and infects the minds of the public. One has only to consider the speeches of Sarah Palin, among others, who consistently misstate and deliberately muddy the waters of honest debate. Health care restructuring becomes socialized medicine and financial reform threatens to bring down the entire free-market infrastructure, no matter what damage has been done to our well- being in the name of these twisted versions of events. Somewhere along the line truth is lost and we fall prey to someone's personal vision of power.
Discussions of everything from national security to health care are so steeped in political rhetoric there is little room for rational discussion. In perfect Orwellian cadence, for instance, Buck McKeon, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, advanced the notion that in order to establish peace the US must undertake "a proliferation of power." His description of what we need to bring our armed forces up to snuff includes a wide-ranging assortment of weapons systems that may or may not be relevant to the kinds of conflicts in which we are currently engaged. Once again truth falls victim to the perceptions of a "dug-in" partisan who may have called the shots a touch too long.
It may be a tall order to keep after the truth, but it is a necessary exercise whenever the opportunity presents itself. We should be getting after media 'analysts' who allow guests to torment facts into unrecognizable shapes. This is not the time to be so damn polite. Truth is at times rude and intrusive
Read More
...
Submitted by mark karlin on Wed, 10/05/2011 - 10:22am.
MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
Mayor Michael Bloomberg is threatening to shut down democracy on Wall Street.
You might expect that from a man who is the fourth-wealthiest person in America, with $19.5 billion dollars in his pocket. Moreover, Bloomberg made a lot of money as a Wall Street financier, but he catapulted into the multibillionaire category by revolutionizing financial market information and selling a specialized terminal and access services to the financial industry (followed by Bloomberg media services).
In short, his fortune is directly integrated into the Wall Street status quo.
That may be why he told a New York City radio show host last week that "New Yorkers need 'to help the banks.'" The Village Voice headlined its story on the plutocratic pronouncements of Bloomberg, "Mayor Bloomberg: 'We'll See' If The City Will Let Occupy Wall Street Continue."
Bloomberg seemed in a baronial haze, claiming, "The protesters are protesting against people who make $40-50,000 a year and are struggling to make ends meet. That's the bottom line." Is the mayor mainlining Fox "news" as his source of information? He royally added, "so anything we can do that's responsible to help the banks ... that is what we need."
Yesterday, BuzzFlash at Truthout wrote that there is little doubt that law enforcement officials - at the behest of corporate-backed politicians - are infiltrating and planning ways to discredit the Wall Street autumn of democracy.
In his plutocratic cloud of personal financial interest and self-serving disdain for the right of assembly, Bloomberg resembles a monarchist, not a mayor.
If the Occupy Wall Street movement spreads and grows, you can count on Mayor Bloomberg to pull the curtains down on this exercise in America's basic right of redress.
As Thom Hartmann noted in a book excerpted on Truthout, Thomas Jefferson warned that "the artificial aristocracy is a mischievous ingredient in government, and provision should be made to prevent its ascendancy."
Bloomberg is just waiting to snap the mouse trap shut on democracy.
****
If you'd like to receive these commentaries daily from Truthout/BuzzFlash, click here. You'll get our choice headlines and articles too. ...
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Tue, 10/04/2011 - 3:57pm.
DANNY SCHECHTER FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
There had been rumor on Friday that the band Radiohead would be dropping by the #Occupy Wall Street encampment.
They had just been on the Colbert Report, and their fan base is huge among the very demographic of younger people drawn to the protests now beginning their third week.
And so more people came than organizers expected. Loads of people! Except, alas, for Radio Head. The band had reportedly called to express support that led some to conclude that they were on the way. ...
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Tue, 10/04/2011 - 3:41pm.
TONY PEYSER FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
This is a Christian university in Tennessee
So this is an honor & impressive title:
Distinguished alumni include Minnie Pearl
And four finalists for "American Idol." ...
Submitted by mark karlin on Tue, 10/04/2011 - 9:42am.
MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
Of this you can be sure: the New York Police Department (NYPD), Mayor Bloomberg (who made his fortune on Wall Street), the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the White House are doing everything possible to keep the occupation of Wall Street from reaching an "Arab Spring" tipping point.
Populist uprisings are lauded overseas, but they are perceived as a threat to elite corporate governance in the US.
You can be sure that the governmental and law enforcement forces at the highest levels in the US are consulting with Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD on how to keep the Wall Street protest from bursting into a national movement.
If history is any guide, contingencies include infiltrators into the protest movement who will try to entrap supporters of Occupy Wall Street. This is such a common police and FBI tactic that it would take too long to list examples, but you might start with the compelling documentary, "Better This World." It details how an FBI "informant" entrapped two young idealists from Texas into becoming prosecution targets, thus helping to portray all protesters at the 2008 Republican Convention in Minneapolis as being "radicals."
The corporate mass media that has virtually ignored the protests in lower Manhattan - although the same media will give endless coverage to a couple of Tea Party advocates with misspelled signs blathering on a street corner - will blare sensational headlines if the protesters are perceived as committing even one act of violence, such as throwing a brick through a window.
But imagine if an NYPD or FBI informant, acting as an infiltrator, bombs a Bank of America branch office at night. The entire movement to expose corporate America as legal thieves would be discredited.
Right now, the NYPD - and the FBI - are engaged in low intensity corralling of the protesters. They are playing a waiting game, hoping that the protest will exhaust itself.
But if the participants grow - as appears to be the case with the increasing support of unions and the enhanced credibility of the movement - watch for a law enforcement "false flag" operation.
You'll know about it instantly, because it will probably be the first time you'll see any serious interest in the Wall Street protests on TV. The revolution won't be televised; but the government takedown of democracy and peaceful assembly will be.
****
If you'd like to receive these commentaries daily from Truthout/BuzzFlash, click here. You'll get our choice headlines and articles too. ...
|
