Sara Robinson On Virtually Speaking

-- by Dave Johnson

This week I had a conversation with Sara Robinson on Virtually Speaking. It went very well, and I invite you to listen to the recording.

We talked about the early days of the blogosphere, how the bloggers were right while all the corporate-mainstream pundits were wrong, the threat from and meaning of fascism, how close we came under Bush, how that is changing, what happens if Romney wins, what future studies is and how it relates to the progressive movement, Sara's project at AlterNet and many other subjects.

Dave Johnson Sara Robinson Virtually Speaking 05/22 by Jay Ackroyd | Blog Talk Radio

-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:27 AM PST on May 26, 2012.

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At Shareholder Meeting Amazon Drops ALEC, Dodges Tax Questions

-- by Dave Johnson

At today's Amazon shareholder meeting in Seattle the company announced that it is dropping support for ALEC, while fudging questions about its taxes and voting down proposals to report its efforts to address climate change and to disclose its political spending.

The Meeting

Amazon's annual shareholder meeting took place in Seattle this morning. It was a brief, pro-forma event that took place in a small auditorium in an art museum and lasted only about 45 minutes. The general meeting was run by two corporate communications staffers, with CEO Jeff Bezos appearing (in jeans) for a brief presentation. There was a brief "mic check" disruption at the close of the meeting and a crowd outside protesting the company's practices.

These shareholder meetings are often displays of corporate arrogance and near-defiance of government requirements to hold public meetings. Amazon's meeting today was notable, with the company announcing the results of shareholder balloting even as the ballots were being collected from attendees. The real voting had already taken place; the shareholders who count -- the 1% owns 50.9% of all stocks, bonds and mutual funds, the next 9% own another 39.4% -- had already spoken.

Build Me Up Buttercup, Republicans Are NUTS!

-- by Dave Johnson

I have "Build Me Up Buttercup" stuck in my head and I think I figured it out.

President Obama is coming to Redwood City today (and I am fleeing, heading to Seattle to cover tomorrow's Amazon shareholder meeting.) Look at the marquee at the downtown Fox Theater:

ABBA THE CONCERT

PRESIDENT OBAMA

AIR SUPPLY

So I was thinking, is he going to perform "Waterloo"? And so I got Waterloo stuck in my head:

But then I realized, this is the same song as Build Me Up Buttercup!

And that put Build Me Up Buttercup in my head. I can't get it out.

And THAT made me realize that something is going on -- I think the right wingers are blasting the vicinity with secret frequencies, that are affecting people's THOUGHTS!

But I have the solution:

Here Is The Problem

That was fun. The problem is that I'm having fun, but this crazy and paranoid is the starting point of the current Republican party!

Crazy: WSJ: Obama's Place of Birth a Ballot Issue in Arizona,

The issue of President Barack Obama's place of birth, which had largely faded from national view, is flaring up in Arizona after its secretary of state last week said Mr. Obama might not be on the November ballot there if Hawaii doesn't verify it has his birth certificate.

Paranoid: Paul Krugman, Paranoia Strikes Deeper,

Finally, there’s the paranoia, the belief that liberals in general, and Obama administration officials in particular, are trying to make driving unaffordable as part of a nefarious plot against the American way of life. And, no, I’m not exaggerating. This is what you hear even from thoroughly mainstream conservatives.

... In fact, the conspiracy theories are proliferating so fast it’s hard to keep up. Thus, large numbers of Republicans — and we’re talking about important political figures, not random supporters — firmly believe that global warming is a gigantic hoax perpetrated by a global conspiracy involving thousands of scientists, not one of whom has broken the code of omertà. Meanwhile, others are attributing the recent improvement in economic news to a dastardly plot to withhold stimulus funds, releasing them just before the 2012 election. And let’s not even get into health reform.

Crazy: Here is a Republican Presidential Debate where the candidates say Obama is a "socialist"

Crazy: Robert Borosage: 9 Crazy Things Mitt Romney Believes

Paranoid and crazy: Study finds Republican base paranoid, delusional

Leave a comment and add your own examples of paranoid and crazy.

-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:52 AM PST on May 23, 2012.

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Web Ads And The Facebook IPO

-- by Dave Johnson

I am SO SICK of web ads that follow me around, putting up ads for things I recently looked up on Google, on every web page I visit, It is creepy.

Now it's worse. The web ads are for things like Aston Martin cars and other high-end crap.

You see, I live a few miles from Facebook, and I guess the web targeters know that.

And yes, I am seeing things around like the new Aston Martin at the car wash, and then a Maserati with the sticker still in the window, lots of things like that around. And the 2br 2ba down the street is up for $795,000. The 2br house across the street that sold 3 months ago for 400-something is now "flipped' and offered at 600-something. Gonna have to move when the lease runs out I guess.

-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:49 AM PST on May 22, 2012.

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Lee Camp Video: "Is The Path To Happiness Being Kept A Secret?"

-- by Dave Johnson

"Somewhere around 40 million people suffer from depression or anxiety each year in the US. Is there a way out of this? Is there a happier way of life?"

-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 3:26 PM PST on May 18, 2012.

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Will Conservatives Support American Companies ... Or Chinese?

-- by Dave Johnson

Which is better for an economy: millions of future jobs and trillions of future dollars, or a few people making a quick buck today by selling out their country? For decades America's 1%-backed conservatives have chosen the latter course, and we can see the results all around us. Now the Obama administration has imposed stiff tariffs on Chinese solar panels because China was "dumping" -- selling below cost -- to drive American manufacturers out of business. Will conservatives support their country and our companies or will they continue to side with our country's competitors?

US Imposes Stiff Tariffs

The Commerce Department yesterday concluded that Chinese solar panel companies are “dumping” product – selling below the cost of production – into the US market, and imposed stiff tariffs. NY Times, U.S. Slaps High Tariffs on Chinese Solar Panels,

The United States on Thursday announced the imposition of antidumping tariffs of more than 31 percent on solar panels from China.

... The antidumping decision is among the biggest in American history, covering one of the largest and fastest-growing categories of imports from China, the world’s largest exporter.

Industry Of The Future

Again and again technology revolutions come along and disrupt economies. Countries that jump on new technologies are the countries that win the industries and jobs and revenue. This is how the United States became the world power that it is was. Railroads, steel, automobiles, airplanes, electronics, semiconductors, computers, the Internet, pharmaceuticals, biotech and software are a few examples. And in every case our government helped these new industries get off the ground. When these industries took root the payoff was enormous.

Green energy is one such technology of the future. Producing solar panels, wind turbines, etc. will bring millions and millions of jobs and trillions of dollars, and several countries are competing to win a share of this new industry.

China is fighting hard for those jobs and dollars. They are being smart and they are also pushing past the limits of the rules. From the NY Times story,

Alan Price, a partner who heads the international trade practice at Wiley Rein, the law firm representing the United States companies in both the solar and wind cases, said that China posed a particular threat to America’s developing green energy sector.

“China’s method is straightforward: it sets forth industry-specific Five-Year Plans and then uses all forms of national and local subsidies and other governmental support to quickly transfer jobs, supply chains, intellectual property and wealth, to the permanent detriment of U.S. and global manufacturers,” he said. “China’s ability to ramp up and overwhelm an industry is unique and particularly devastating with new and emerging technologies, where global competitors may be less established and can be knocked out more easily and quickly.”

To compete for a share of this new industry we need to be proactive. We need national efforts to develop the industrial commons, or ecosystem, that will foster green-tech industries. We also need government policies that promote a market for these products until they take hold, just as our defense industry did for aircraft and other new technologies. And we need to enforce the rules for international economic competition, which is what has happened with the tariff decision.

Decision Not Political

The NY Times story points out that this was not a political decision by the Obama administration,

The American decision was made by civil servants in a quasi-judicial process that is heavily insulated by law from political interference and does not represent a deliberate attempt by the Obama administration to confront China on trade policy. But that distinction has been largely lost in China, where the solar panel issue has been one of many causes embraced online by the country’s vociferous ultranationalists, who put heavy pressure on Chinese officials to respond forcefully to perceived snubs to China.

The rules say that if a country is dumping, then we must impost tariffs. The Commerce Department investigated and concluded that China has been dumping so they had no choice. If we do not enforce trade rules, they are meaningless and countries that cheat gain an advantage, driving out the honest players. That is how cheating, accountability and enforcement work. (Hint: this also applies to banking fraud laws.)

In the case of solar-panel tariffs, we were losing companies and jobs and facing losing the possibility of losing the entire industry to China. From Tariffs On Chinese Solar Might Help Prevent The Next Solyndra,

You have probably heard about a solar-energy company named Solyndra, but probably what you have heard is a bunch of negative, conspiratorial, anti-alternative-energy, anti-Obama stuff from the corporate/conservative spin machine. The real story is that our government is trying to help us capture some of the new green energy industry that will create the jobs of the future. But China is, too. And China doubled down, and then quadrupled down on government support. They even directly subsidize their companies so their products cost less. This helped put Solyndra out of business. But the Obama administration is doing something about it.

China cheats, and we don't usually do anything about it. They let companies pollute, don't do much about worker safety, pay low wages, and make people work long hours. So-called "free trade" lets companies cost us more than 50,000 factories in the Bush years, and millions of jobs. And it empowers companies here to tell their workers to shut up and behave and accept wage and benefit cuts, or they'll send their jobs to China, too. We continue to just let China take jobs, factories and industries because powerful interests, like Wall Street, make tons of money off of it.

So the decision is made, our country is engaging in the economic war that has been underway against us. Will our country's conservative take our country's side?

Solyndra, Chevy Volt And The Anti-Green Propaganda Campaign

Oil-backed conservatives have been waging a campaign to discredit green energy, trying to stop government efforts to move us away from dependence on oil and coal. (Please click the links.)

They have used the failure of solar-panel manufacturer Solyndra -- partly due to Chinese dumping -- to paint green tech in general as a bad investment. They have even tried to turn the public against the Chevy Volt, claiming that it "ran out of juice in the Lincoln Tunnel" when it actually just kicked over to the gas-engine charger, and that the car is "flammable" because on test battery got too hot -- as compared to cars that run on gasoline! (Gasoline car-fire data at the link.)

These anti-dumping tariffs change the dynamics of this oil-backed anti-green campaign. Now when conservatives slam Solyndra or the Chevy Volt and otherwise join in this anti-green-energy campaign they are taking China’s side against American companies at a time when the country is engaged in economic conflict. This presents a tough choice to the conservative movement, do they continue to accept oil and coal company funding and side against their country and support China, or will they return to their pro-American roots and side with their country in a time of conflict.

Installers Hit Hard?

Low prices from trade-cheaters are always attractive. But if we want a slice of the jobs, factories, industries and economy of the future we have to fight back when our competitors cheat.

The solar-installer industry is worried they will be hit hard by this because prices for solar panels could increase sharply. BusinessWeek: U.S. Solar Tariffs on Chinese Cells May Boost Prices,

The tariffs “will increase solar electricity prices in the U.S. precisely at the moment solar power is becoming competitive with fossil fuel generated electricity,” Shah said in a statement. “This new artificial tax will undermine the success of the U.S. solar industry.”

[. . .] The U.S. decision to impose import duties on Chinese solar panels will raise their price to $1.11 per watt, according to calculations by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, a London-based researcher owned by Bloomberg LP. That price is 17 percent higher than the current spot price of non-Chinese panels.

Forbes: Solar Installers Caught In Cross Fire Of Escalating China Trade War,

On Thursday, the U.S. Commerce Department issued a preliminary decision levying steep tariffs against Chinese solar manufacturers, finding they illegally dumped cheap photovoltaic cells on the American market. But the companies that install those solar panels on residential and commercial rooftops – and which have benefited from a 75% plunge in photovoltaic prices in recent years – are split over the impact of the tariffs on their burgeoning business.

The government could remedy the impact on domestic customers and installers several ways, including:

- by using the new tariffs to fund tax credits and other incentives that help homeowners and businesses make the move to solar power,

- by imposing a large "carbon tax" that is refunded on a per-capita basis. This would mean high users of carbon-based fuels would pay in, the revenue is divided up evenly to everyone over 21 and paid out with a monthly check, and people could use this money to both cover their own added energy expenses and to purchase solar and other alternative energy products to lower their carbon-energy footprint,

- and by setting a national renewable energy standard, requiring power producers to use a certain percentage of solar, wind and other alternatives, creating more of a market for green tech.

Oil And Coal And "Buggy-Whip" Technologies

Of course the oil and coal companies will continue to fight this shift from their "buggy-whip" technology, and will use their tremendous influence over our government to try to hold off the inevitable. But the tide is shifting. The fact that China is fighting so hard and putting so much investment into this sector shows its value to the world economy in the future. The fact that our government is responding shows that we have a chance to win a share of the jobs and revenue that green tech promises to bring.

This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture. I am a Fellow with CAF.

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-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 2:47 PM PST on May 18, 2012.

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Shorter David Brooks

-- by Dave Johnson

Shorter David Brooks:

Billionaires, defense contractors and oil and tobacco companies paid to elect Reagan and then Bush. They cut taxes and massively increased military spending. Therefore people can't be trusted with democracy and we have to cut the things government does for We, the People.

Except he left out the part about Reagan and Bush and where this huge budget deficit came from.

And he's sneaky. He says governments made promises they can't afford to fulfill so we have to cut back. He doesn't mention that the reason we can't afford to fulfill them is low taxes for the rich, government favors to billionaires and giant companies, and the huge military budget.

-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:11 AM PST on May 18, 2012.

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More Indicators A Nasty, Say-Anything Republican Campaign Is Coming - And See Updates

-- by Dave Johnson

There is a news report that yet another right-wing billionaire is going to spend even more millions to run even more poisonous, divisive, racist, degrading, insulting, lying, character-assassination ads designed to turn people against government and democracy. And an added bonus (for Republicans) will be turning people away from even voting. They're going to do this because it works -- for them and the billionaires who back them.

NY Times: G.O.P. ‘Super PAC’ Weighs Hard-Line Attack on Obama,

A group of high-profile Republican strategists is working with a conservative billionaire on a proposal to mount one of the most provocative campaigns of the “super PAC” era and attack President Obama in ways that Republicans have so far shied away from.

... The $10 million plan ... includes preparations for how to respond to the charges of race-baiting it envisions if it highlights Mr. Obama’s former ties to Mr. Wright...

The group suggested hiring as a spokesman an “extremely literate conservative African-American” who can argue that Mr. Obama misled the nation by presenting himself as what the proposal calls a “metrosexual, black Abe Lincoln.”

Obama is black, black, black, black, black. And in case you miss it, here is Republican Strategist Lee Atwater explaining the Republican strategy:

You start out in 1954 by saying, "Nigger, nigger, nigger." By 1968 you can't say "nigger"—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.

It Works

Just lying -- making stuff up and blasting it out there -- works. In 2010 Republicans spent millions and millions on ads saying “Democrats cut half a trillion from Medicare" and captured the senior vote for the first time, throwing the House over to them. It worked, they spent millions broadcasting lies, they took the House -- and then voted to turn Medicare into a voucher program.

From the post, "Half A Trillion In Cuts To Medicare"

In the 2010 election campaign Republican groups ran millions and millions of dollars of ads promising not to cut Medicare, and to increase Social Security. They campaigned against Democrats for "cutting $500 billion from Medicare" and not increasing Social Security cost-of-living. As a result, for the first time the senior vote went to Republicans.

Here are just a few of the ads that saturated the airwaves, saying that Democrats should be thrown out for cutting Medicare:

And voters were sent flyers like this: (click for larger)

The Obstruct-And-Lie Strategy

Republicans have a huge “noise machine” and they know how to use it. And they really, really don’t care if they are telling the truth or not, they say what they need to say to win.

After years of blocking President Obama's efforts to try to create more jobs, Repubicans are campaigning saying Obama didn’t create more jobs.

After running up huge deficits -- Clinton left behind a surplus, Bush left behind a $1.4 trillion deficit -- Republicans are campaigning that Obama has run up huge deficits.

This summer when student loan rates double because Republicans blocked efforts to keep them from doubling, Republicans will blast out that Obama doubled student loan rates.

Negative Ads Suppress Turnout

The point of running negative ads is not to get people to show up and vote for someone. Negative ads are about turning people off from voting. Negative ads tell people they should not have hope, that anyone they think could be a leader is actually a scoundrel, etc. The point of the millions and millions of dollars that will be spent by Republicans on negative ads this year is to try to keep the kind of surge election that brought so many people out to vote in the 2008 election from happening this time.

The Media Enablers

Republican media outlets like FOX News, the Wall Street Journal and Rush Limbaugh will go ahead and repeat the party line (when they aren't out front creating it). They reach a lot of people, and the rest of the Republican "noise machine"' is very skilled at echoing the lies until they become "truthy." But the rest of the media does not serve as a counterweight, bringing people the facts. As a result almost everyone -- consumers of the right's propaganda and people who think they aren't -- is left misinformed in ways that serve Republicans and their billionaire backers and hurt everyone else.

Greg Sargent wrote the other day in, How Mitt Romney gets away with his lying,

If you scan through all the media attention Romney’s speech received, you are hard-pressed to find any news accounts that tell readers the following rather relevant points:

1) Nonpartisan experts believe Romney’s plans would increase the deficit far more than Obama’s would.

2) George W. Bush’s policies arguably are more responsible for increasing the deficit than Obama's are.

[. . .] The two bullet points above could not be more central to the debate over the debt that Romney’s big speech set in motion yesterday. Yet the vast majority of news consumers who now know that Romney has accused Obama of lighting a “prairie fire of debt” that threatens to engulf our children and our future haven’t been told about either of them.

Sargent writes about how the "mainstream media" for one reason or another won't call out the Republican machine for spreading lies. Again, the result is that almost everyone -- consumers of the right's propaganda and people who think they aren't -- is left misinformed in ways that serve Republicans and their billionaire backers and hurt everyone else.

Update: How Citizens United Is Leading To More Racism In TV Campaign Ads

Update 2: Huge headline at The Drudge Report reads: 'BORN IN KENYA'

Update 3: Rep. Mike Coffman: Obama in his heart 'not an American'

Update 4: Ben Stein speaking on FOX: Ben Stein: Obama's not very smart

Update 5: Romney accuses Obama of character assassination: "Character assassination has become the nature of his campaign," Romney said.

These updates are all from just today, and this is only May.

This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture. I am a Fellow with CAF.

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-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 1:22 PM PST on May 17, 2012.

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I'm Co-Hosting Fairness Radio Today 10-12am PT

-- by Dave Johnson

Edward Canard, former Bain Capital partner, multimillionaire 1%er and major donor to Romney campaign will be on at 2:15 pm ET to argue for more inequality in American. Dave Johnson is substitute co-hosting, so give him a call at 424-675-6806 and talk to Canard.

Do you have something to say to a man who gave Mitt Romney $1 million? Listen at www.cyberstationusa.com (click LISTEN LIVE) or WWW.blogtalkradio (search for Fairness Radio).

Linda Killian, writer for Politics Daily, The Atlantic, US News and World Report, Newsweek and the Daily beast is on at 1:15 pm ET talking about her new book The Swing Vote. call in questions, comments at the same number and help Dave fend off the conservative co-host, Chuck Morse

-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:37 AM PST on May 16, 2012.

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Fighting Wells Fargo Can Be Too Much For Some

-- by Dave Johnson

This is a tragic story. I wrote it up for AlterNet: Wells Fargo Has Blood on Its Hands: Desperate Man Commits Suicide After Shocking Foreclosure Mistreatment | | AlterNet

-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 6:39 AM PST on May 16, 2012.

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