frankilin roosevelt

It's not about being liberal or conservative anymore y'all. That is a hype offered by the fascist whores who want to confuse the people with lies while they turn this country into an aristocratic police state. Some people will say anything to attain power and money. There is no such thing as the Liberal Media, but the Corporate media is very real.


Check out my old  Voice of the People page.


Gino Napoli
San Francisco, California
High School Math Teacher

jonsdarc@mindspring.com




Loyalty without truth
is a trail to tyranny.

a middle-aged
George Washington



ARCHIVES
1662 POSTS
LATEST ITEM

March 2024
February 2024
January 2024
December 2023
November 2023
October 2023
August 2023
July 2023
June 2023
April 2023
March 2023
February 2023
January 2023
December 2022
November 2022
October 2022
September 2022
August 2022
July 2022
May 2022
April 2022
February 2022
January 2022
November 2021
October 2021
September 2021
August 2021
July 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
July 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
September 2016
August 2016
May 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
September 2014
August 2014
May 2014
March 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
August 2012
July 2012
April 2012
March 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
August 2010
July 2010
March 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
August 2009
July 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
June 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
June 2005
May 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
December 2004
November 2004
October 2004
September 2004
August 2004

Tuesday, 16 April 2013 at 0h 30m 3s

Day care

In 2011, Jon Cohn wrote a story called "The Two Year Window," about new research demonstrating the importance of the first two years of a child's life. Roughly speaking, most child care that's average or better is probably OK. But down in the bottom third, conditions are often bad enough to cause permanent cognitive damage, sometimes at a biological level. One third is a lot of kids.

Appropriately, two years later Cohn is back with a follow-up, "The Hell of American Day Care." Children who get proper attention and interaction, he says, "tend to develop the skills they need to thrive as adults—like learning how to calm down after a setback or how to focus on a problem long enough to solve it":

Kids who grow up without that kind of attention tend to lack impulse control and have more emotional outbursts. Later on, they are more likely to struggle in school or with the law. They also have more physical health problems. Numerous studies show that all children, especially those from low-income homes, benefit greatly from sound child care. The key ingredients are quite simple—starting with plenty of caregivers, who ideally have some expertise in child development.


[SOURCE: Kevin Drum | Mother Jones | 15 April 2013]

So if we pay $100 billion a year for universal Pre-K, we save ourselves the expenses of later years when we will have to deal with the 30% or more of young adults who have substance abuse issues, are involved in crime, have mental or psychological health issues, or are cognitively diminished. How many of our prisons and how many of the homelessness on the street could be prevented from this kind of program?

So is it "socialism" when government provides an important community service paid for with taxes? And without the service, the community pays the costs of the lack of service two or three times more. And each of these defective people affect others in the population in often negative and life-changing ways.


Monday, 15 April 2013 at 0h 19m 32s

How to smuggle money into a state political campaign

Last fall, the California Fair Political Practices Commission revealed what it called "the largest contribution ever disclosed as campaign money laundering in California history" after it discovered that three nonprofits had funneled $11 million from Virginia to Arizona to California. This $11 million got spent against prop 30 (increasing state taxes to pay for schools) and for prop 32 (which would have made union dues deducted from you paycheck illegal). This money came from a "non-profit" in Arizona called "Americans for Responsible Leadership".

(what a misnomer? Here's a better one: self-serving greedy ideologues who hate the Middle class.)

Ah but this group got it from another non-profit, who got it from another non-profit who got it from an Alexandria, Virginia outfit called "Americans for Job Security."

But who are the "people" behind the funds? Well, that will come soon enough, thanks to a California law that requires the names of all donors to California elections.

"Investigators recently issued a dozen more subpoenas to individuals and nonprofits in connection with the case, the Huffington Post reported....After initially balking, the nonprofits are now cooperating with investigators."

Americans for Job Security, founded by Republican operative Dave Carney, who ran Rick Perry's 2012 presidential campaign, is suspected of being little more than a slush fund for donors seeking anonymity. After investigating AJS in 2009, staffers with Alaska's Public Offices Commission concluded that AJS "has no purpose other than to cover various money trails all over the country." Its M.O.: Donors give money to AJS with a cause or campaign in mind, AJS effectively scrubs the donor's fingerprints, and then it spends the money. AJS paid $20,000 to settle the Alaska case and promised not to encourage future anonymous giving in Alaska, but admitted no wrongdoing.


[SOURCE: Andy Kroll | Mother Jones | 15 April 2013]

This is how they hide the money of the uber-wealthy. They create these corporate charters and solicit donations that are used under the smooth smart sounding name of the non-profit. Actually, usually its the hired jackals who do this for them, like cleaning the kings toe-nails.

But hey, after all, these are Americans for Job "Security". They want to be Secure about those jobs, you see. That's why they don't support measures that will make government work by paying for the necessary services (prop 30). That's why they don't like unions. Because they want to be absolutely "secure" about their control over the people who are on the payroll. They don't want no back-talk from some upp-ity college grad who makes $30,000 a year typing numbers into a computer. They don't want no 40 year old engineers telling them somethings wrong with the blueprints. Are you telling me my money has stop growing because 2 plus 2 equals 4 ? This ain't about school boy logic, son (or mam). This is about taking the money now while it's still fresh and paying the tiny fine when we settle outta court later, so you just take what your master gives you and shut up. Damn unions telling us business folk what to do and when to do it. When did a union ever create a corporate charter in Delaware so it can break the laws making money in the other 49 states and have legal cover? When did a union poison the community by illegally dumping chemicals for 40 years, and then go bankrupt so it can form another corporation and not have to pay any of the legal claims of the first corporation? When did unions send legislators to extravagant vacations in Hawaii or the Bermudas or the Philippines complete with booze and prostitutes and the blackmailing pictures to boot?

It's these gat damn unions that get in our way of doing whatever we want to do whenever we want to do it. They keep reminding us that actions have consequences. That's why they gotsta go. Ya dig.


Saturday, 13 April 2013 at 19h 22m 41s

Now that's what I call a Baseball fan


Sunday, 7 April 2013 at 11h 48m 55s

Yes, it is on purpose

"Centrist Democrats" Have they been right about anything?


The "centrist" Democrats often adopt the 'liberal' line on social issues like gun control or gay marriage -- which, coincidentally or not, are also issues which have little or no financial impact on their corporate and high-net-worth individual sponsors.

But what's the verdict on the core economic issues of our time?

Prof. William K. Black Jr. was understandably displeased by The New York Times' description of the Third Way think tank as "center/left." Prof. Black writes that "Some lies will not die ... Third Way is Wall Street on the Potomac. It is funded secretly by Wall Street (it refuses to reveal its donors), it is openly run by Wall Street, and it lobbies endlessly for Wall Street."

Black adds that "Third Way, like every Pete Peterson front group, is dedicated to shredding the safety net as its highest priority and throwing the Nation back into a gratuitous recession through self-destructive austerity."


[SOURCE: Richard Eskow | Huffington Post | 5 April 2013]


Thursday, 4 April 2013 at 18h 29m 51s

Offshore Tax Havens

Offshore Tax Havens are now like what casinos used to be in the not so distant past, only much more comprehensive and powerful.

They are used to enable corruption so that officials can be bribed and kickbacks can be obtained without any scrutiny. They are also used as mailboxes so that profits can be screened from taxation. They are used to launder money and conceal the origins before the funds achieve their ultimate destination, just like the Mafia used Restaurants to legitimize money derived from illegal activity.

The leaked files provide facts and figures — cash transfers, incorporation dates, links between companies and individuals — that illustrate how offshore financial secrecy has spread aggressively around the globe, allowing the wealthy and the well-connected to dodge taxes and fueling corruption and economic woes in rich and poor nations alike.

The records detail the offshore holdings of people and companies in more than 170 countries and territories.

The hoard of documents represents the biggest stockpile of inside information about the offshore system ever obtained by a media organization. The total size of the files, measured in gigabytes, is more than 160 times larger than the leak of U.S. State Department documents by Wikileaks in 2010.


Got that. Most. Documents. EVER !!!

The extent of the scandal is incredible. So watch for the news media to be on the move to create another puffy scandal to take the scent off the real one. I sense Justin Bieber exposees coming. Or Steroid use in MLB or maybe a few small-time local politicians getting busted in a FED sting. Or maybe its an epidemic of lice that has affected the President's children. Something else will become the "official" distraction (remember Terry Shiavo). Exposing the massive and systematic international connections of global politicians being bribed by the global elite is not going to get the light of day. I hope I'm wrong.

[SOURCE: DS Wright | FireDogLake | 4 April 2013]

A slideshow from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation makes the documentation easy to access.Click here.

Hmmm. Where's the NYTimes or the Washington Post on this story?

I'm sure the headline will be something like "Documents Reveal that Wealthy Avoid Taxes in offshore bank accounts" if they have to bother with the story. If necessary, scapegoats will be found, and this will turn into individualistic morality stories with some chosen bad actors ( like Oliver North, Bernie Madoff, or Martha Stewart). They will avoid making the obvious larger connections to international finance, corporations, world politicians and government officials. The system produces it's own victims. The rhetorical virgins must be slaughtered by the high priests. The marionette strings are never revealed

However, be not confused or distracted. This is not about Tax cheats. It's about corruption larger than the scale of BCCI Banking Scandal and the Iran-Contra shenanigans during the Reagan years. Look those up.


Wednesday, 3 April 2013 at 18h 34m 20s

Driverless Cars

Who would have ever thought this discussion would ever have an actual basis? This is Blade Runner technology.

The Story below from Brad Plumer at the Washington Post, gives a good view of whether driverless cars would decrease or increase energy usage.

[SOURCE: Brad Plumer | Washington Post | 30 March 2013]


Wednesday, 3 April 2013 at 18h 23m 58s

Nothing wrong with borrowing

From Matthew Iglesias at Slate.com

just consider that there is some level of government spending that you consider appropriate. Imagine that level of spending is achieved. Zero money is being spent on wasteful or useless programs, and no good spending is being forgone. We're doing everything we ought to be doing. Now we need to finance that spending with some mixture of taxes and borrowing. The Cooper viewpoint is that it's always the case that the optimal mix is 100 percent taxes and 0 percent borrowing. But why would that be? If the future is going to be richer than the present, there's a strong prima facie case for borrowing. You don't pay 100 percent cash for your house or your college tuition, and there's no reason you should pay 100 percent cash for your national defense or vital infrastructure either. How much should you borrow? It has a lot to do with the interest rates. Not only is borrowing at a high interest rate expensive, but government borrowing at a high interest rates crowds out private capital investment. But if interest rates are low, then you don't need to worry much about crowding out, and the economic burden of repaying the interest is likely lower than the economic burden of higher taxes.

So you borrow some money. Ronald Reagan did it. George W. Bush did it.


[SOURCE: Matthew Iglesias | Slate.com | 3 April 2013]

In other words, sometimes that which is called "government debt" is really just a decision to include borrowing as a component of getting the necessary government revenue to pay for the things that we decide government should do, or the things that government should invest. Framing the argument as one of getting government to spend exactly what is raised from revenue without bothering to "envision" what it is government should be spending or investing is as ridiculous a proposition as tying a rope of unknown length around a tree of constantly changing width. The "serious" discussions of cutting government mingles with cutting taxes when the actual decisions should be agreement on what government should be spending and investing. Worry about how to pay for it once that agreement is made.

Alas, as I say all the time, this rhetoric is not serious at all. The goalposts move all the time. Cuts are made, but then "necessary" costs are added, and taxes are always cut (if only for the upper few). The overall balance of what government spends and invests is never made, but rather occurs in a myriad of byzantine subsidies or tax credits in the name of "creating jobs" or maintaining "competitiveness". Military costs and investments have almost no oversight. The budget is thus a compilation of various different interests. There is no guiding oversight.


Sunday, 31 March 2013 at 18h 10m 57s

Paul Craig Roberts is not a kook

Dr. Roberts is an American economist and a columnist for Creators Syndicate. He served as an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration. He is a former editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and Scripps Howard News Service.

So when he speaks about a 9-11 Cover up, you need to respect his point of view, and try to understand that governments and politicians form cliques and keep secrets. History is proof.

A haunting quote from the interview "If you lie to cover up incompetence, then you could also lie about complicity."

CLICK THE SOURCE BELOW.

[SOURCE: PaulCraigRoberts | The Corbett Report | ]

A brief list of histories great conspiracies:

  1. Vietnam advisors began during the Eisenhower administration
  2. Augustin Pinochet topples Salvadore Allende's Chilean government with US aid and planning assistance on September 11th ... in 1973
  3. The manhattan project during World War II
  4. The invasion of DDay -- the Germans thought it would come in Calais, 100 - 150 miles further North
  5. The USS Maine explosion in 1898 .. Admiral Dewey just so happened to have the US fleet off the coast of Manila in the Phillipines
  6. The Germans send (smuggle?) Lenin to Russia on a train, to precipitate Russian withdrawal from World War One and the beginnings of the Russian Revolution occur as an ancillary result
  7. Zachary Taylor had the American Army and Cavalry on the border of the Rio Grande, in what Mexico considered Mexican Territory and refused to leave ... under orders from President Polk who wanted to add Mexican Territory to the United States.
  8. Hawaii was turned into an American "protectorate" on January 17, 1893, in which anti-monarchial insurgents within the Kingdom of Hawaii, composed largely of American citizens, engineered the overthrow of its native monarch ... because the safety of the monarchy was in "danger" of being taken by the European "Imperialists"
  9. Julius Caesar stabbed by every Senator, called to the Senate under a ruse of national emergency -- "Et Tu Brutus" and the "Aides of March" are now legacies


Friday, 8 March 2013 at 4h 17m 7s

5 predictions for the coming MLB season

  1. The Boston Red Sox will have a better record than the Yankees
  2. The Kansas City Royals win more than 90 games and have a top pitching staff
  3. The Milwaukee Brewers will make it to the world series as Carlos Gomez has a 30-30 season and the pitching staff surprises everyone with a top 3 ranking
  4. Houston will win more than 60 games. Maybe 62.
  5. Seattle will challenge Oakland for the Western Division as both Texas and Anaheim fall apart

    Bonus prediction: the world series will be Detroit or Kansas City vs. Milwaukee


Friday, 15 February 2013 at 1h 49m 33s

Why did A New York Times Reporter Lie

This blows me away. A NY Times reporter is asked by Tesla Motors to test drive it's newest model electric car, and the reporter does everything possible to make the car malfunction and then writes a negative article about the car.

Then Tesla motors easily proves this happened by producing data from the car logs.

[SOURCE: Elon Musk | Tesla Motors | 13 February 2013]




GOTO THE NEXT 10 COLUMNS