Bernie Sanders Is Terrified. You Should Be, Too!

I know we don't have an election in the near future, but now isn't the time to be asleep at the wheel. Bernie Sanders is still leading the charge against Citizens United and corporate spending, but he needs help. Call your senator. Let 'em know. Move To Amend has the one of the best solutions I have seen. 

 

 

Senator Bernie Sanders is an Independent Senator from Vermont. He is the longest serving elected politician serving at the national level and he is not afraid to tell it like it is.......we should listen.....Republican John McCain said: "Citizen's United was the worst Supreme Court decision EVER" & Democratic President Obama said: "Citizen's United was the worst Supreme Court decision in decades. Imagine the power this decision will give special interests over politicians".......we should be listening.......movetoamend.org/ has the only solution I have seen....we should be listening. Check it out at:

 

http://movetoamend.org/

 

         

 

It is my impression that the Republican Party of today isn't anything like the Republican Party that I grew up with. This Republican Party Platform, from when I was 6 years old, 1956, shows the amazing change that has take place with the Republican Party in recent years.

The 2012 Republican Executive Summary has over 300 bullet points and can be viewed here: http://www.knoxviews.com/node/18952

Notice the hidden language and the emphasis on corporate control, permitting environmental deregulation based on state’s rights and local control.

Notice the use of “overhaul” and “restructure”, “wind down”, and “reform”, “downsize”, and “privatize” when they actually mean “eliminate”.

Notice the focus on reducing all taxes, estate (they call it “death taxes”), and across the board 20% tax reduction that would eventually have to be made up with increased taxes on pay as you go taxes and middle income taxes.  They call for the elimination of capital gains taxes and interest income taxes and alternative minimum taxes.

How are Fox and MSNBC doing since the election?

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/02/18/1188103/-Fox-News-is-going-down-down-down?fb_action_ids=437965652947392%2C437965099614114%2C437952102948747%2C437587202985237&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_ref=social_fblike&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%22437965652947392%22%3A353327958115699%2C%22437965099614114%22%3A209303952549393%2C%22437952102948747%22%3A478186622248943%2C%22437587202985237%22%3A10150259846914408%7D&action_type_map=%7B%22437965652947392%22%3A%22og.likes%22%2C%22437965099614114%22%3A%22og.likes%22%2C%22437952102948747%22%3A%22og.likes%22%2C%22437587202985237%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7D&action_ref_map=%7B%22437587202985237%22%3A%22social_fblike%22%7D

Congressman Rick Nolan introduces "Move To Amend" Legislation to our House of Representatives on Monday, February11, 2013!

Check it out below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=kjIvIFWhtvs

 Republican John McCain said: "Citizen's United is the worst Supreme Court Decision EVER!

Democratic President Obama said: "Citizen's United is the worst Supreme Court decision in DECADES! Imagine the power this gives to special interests over our politicians!"

Independent Bernie Sanders said: "A handful of billionaires own a significant part of the wealth of America and have enormous control over our economy. What the Supreme Court did in Citizens United is to say to these same billionaires: “You own and control the economy, you own Wall Street, you own the coal companies, you own the oil companies. Now, for a very small percentage of your wealth, we’re going to give you the opportunity to own the United States government.” That is the essence of what Citizens United is all about – and that’s why it must be overturned.”

 
The Green Party says: "The Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling will make the Democratic and Republican parties into subsidiaries of corporporations."

Passage of "Move To Amend" language should be a "done deal"...right? Just watch the impact of special interests on our politicians on this issue! Follow the bouncing ball......FOLLOW THE MONEY!

This is so necessary, so important.  I hope they are not just blowing smoke!



http://www.nolabels.org/problem-solver-pins-state-union-a

A VERY GOOD CASE COULD BE MADE THAT THE BEST 12 YEARS, EVER, OF THE U.S ECONOMY MAY BE THE LAST 12 YEARS UNDER A DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENCY (8 years of President Clinton along with the last 4 years under President Obama) AND ONE OF THE WORST 8 YEARS OF THE U.S. ECONOMY MAY BE 8 YEARS UNDER A REPUBLICAN PRESIDNECY, THE LAST 8 YEARS UNDER PRESIDENT BUSH.
Here are some articles related to our economy.
It ...seems like things are going in the right direction?
Published February 11, 2013, 12:00 AM
Healing home market: Signs point to continued recovery in Duluth area!
Yolande Jenny’s experience selling her Duluth home last year is one of the success stories.
By: Candace Renalls, Duluth News Tribune
Yolande Jenny of Duluth stands in front of her former Duluth home, which sold in just two days for $10,000 more than her asking price. (Bob King / rking@duluthnews.com)
Yolande Jenny’s experience selling her Duluth home last year is one of the success stories.
In the midst of a housing rebound last spring, she sold her house in just two days.
“I was amazed,” said the retired University of Minnesota Duluth professor. “I put it up in May. I expected to spend the entire summer there.”
After 37 years in the house, she decided to sell because she also has a cabin to keep up, and she wanted less yard work. She also feared her pocket neighborhood, tucked between UMD and Arrowhead Road, might shift to student rentals.
With three purchase offers coming in the first day of the house’s listing, the sale to a couple offering $10,000 over the asking price was a quick one. Jenny hadn’t even found a condominium to move to yet. But working with the same real estate agent, she found one the next day in the nearby Aspenwood housing community. Within a few weeks, she had moved in.
Chalk up two home sales for Duluth.
As confidence returned to buyers last spring, listings were up, sale prices were up, and foreclosures were heading downward in Duluth.
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Want to Make More than a Banker? Become a Farmer!
Farmers accross the country are enjoying the best economy in over 40years.
Stephen Gandel/Grand Island
Tools of the trade surround John Willoughby on his 2,000-acre (800 hectare) plot outside Grand Island, Neb.
If you want to become rich, Jim Rogers, investment whiz, best-selling author and one of Wall Street's towering personalities, has this advice: Become a farmer. Food prices have been high recently. Some have questioned how long that can continue. Not Rogers. He predicts that farming incomes will rise dramatically in the next few decades, faster than those in most other industries — even Wall Street. The essence of his argument is this: We don't need more bankers. What we need are more farmers. The invisible hand will do its magic. "The world has got a serious food problem," says Rogers. "The only real way to solve it is to draw more people back to agriculture."
It's been decades since the American heartland has been a money pump and longer since farming was a major source of employment. Old rural towns have emptied as families — and the U.S. — have moved on. Technology, service jobs and finance have been the basis of the economy since at least the 1980s. Farming became the economic equivalent of a protected species — supported by a mix of government handouts, lax regulation (agriculture is one of the few industries shielded from certain child-labor laws) and charity concerts. (See pictures of urban farming around the world.)
But in the past few years, thanks to a wealthier (and hungrier) emerging-market middle class and a boom in biofuels, the business of growing has once again become a growth business. At a time when the overall economy is limping along at an anemic growth rate of 1.9%, net farm income was up 27% last year and is expected to jump another 20% in 2011. Real estate prices in general are again falling this year. But according to the Federal Reserve, the average farm has doubled in value in the past six years. Farmland is quickly emerging as one of the year's hottest investments on Wall Street. "We've been doing this for a number of years, long before anyone thought this was sexy," says Jeff Conrad, who heads Hancock Agricultural Investment Group. "Now we are getting a lot of calls, and we are noticing more competition. There's a lot of interest in New York."
These days, a trip to Grand Island, Neb., a city of 48,500 surrounded by farms, is a trip to an economic bizarro land. Business is booming. None of the half-dozen or so local banks in town have failed or even come close to failing. In fact, profits are up. "A lot of local banks are sitting with a lot of cash," says Colby Collins, Grand Island branch manager for Five Points Bank. The largest local manufacturing plant, which makes combine harvesters, is at full capacity. Case IH plant manager Bill Baasch has hired 130 workers in the past nine months. Sales at Global Industries, a company based in Grand Island that makes grain-storage bins and other building materials, are up 130% since 2003. Tom Dinsdale, who owns the local General Motors car dealership, says 2010 was the best year he's ever had. Customers who would normally buy a Chevy Suburban are buying a Cadillac Escalade. Dinsdale is adding an infinity pool to his nearby riverfront second home. "Business is good," he says.
Even housing has done well in the past few years. Realtor Lisa Crumrine says her office has sold 48 homes in Grand Island in 2011 and that prices are up slightly. Greg Baxter, a cattle rancher and real estate developer, says he has sold six lots so far this year in a development just off Grand Island's commercial strip. Local homebuilders are busy constructing custom homes on the properties. That's one reason Nebraska's unemployment rate is 4.1%, the second lowest in the country behind that of mining-heavy North Dakota. Iowa's unemployment rate is a slightly higher 6%, still far lower than California's 11.7%, New York's 7.9% or the national average of 9.1%. (See TIME's photo-essay "Nebraskaland: A Tale of Two Farms.")
But some experts believe agriculture can do more to fuel job growth. Chuck Fluharty of the Rural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri sees a possible renaissance in farm towns. As money flows back into those areas, he predicts, farmers will need somewhere to invest. As they did with ethanol, he says, farmers will put their money in new industries that will create uses for their crops, like biodegradable plastics or other kinds of biofuels. The result will be more jobs. "Agriculture is the most critical story in our economy today," says Fluharty. "It will affect the future of the world."
The Growing Corporate Cash Hoard!
By BRUCE BARTLETT
The tendency of corporations to stockpile cash abroad, rather than bringing it home, paying taxes and distributing it to shareholders, is a growing problem.
Last week, the investor David Einhorn sued Apple, in which his hedge fund has a large stake, over how the company can issue preferred stock. At the heart of the dispute is the $137 billion pile of cash that Apple has accumulated, and whether it could be used to better reward shareholders.
Today’s Economist
Perspectives from expert contributors.
Mr. Einhorn’s action highlights a growing problem: many corporations are holding vast amounts of cash and other liquid assets, using them neither for investment nor to benefit shareholders. These assets are largely earned and held overseas, and not subject to American taxes until the money is brought home.
Such tax-avoidance techniques, while legal, have come under increasing political attack. On Thursday, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont introduced legislation to end deferral and force multinational companies to pay taxes on their foreign-source income.
According to the Federal Reserve, as of the third quarter of 2012 nonfinancial corporations in the United States held $1.7 trillion of liquid assets – cash and securities that could easily be converted to cash.
By any measure, corporate cash holdings appear to be high and rising.

According to the Federal Reserve, nonfinancial corporations historically held liquid assets of 25 to 30 percent of their short-term liabilities. But this percentage began rising in 2001 and now tends to be in the 45 to 50 percent range. In the third quarter of 2012, it was 44.9 percent.
If this same money were in the hands of workers, local banks, and credit unions, it would be spent to buy food, build houses, pay taxes, buy cars, buy furniture, etc. which, in turn would be reinvested in the economy over, and over, and over again and would stimulate the United States economy seven to ten fold compared to sitting in oversea banks.
What do you think?

https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=10152531501330531&set=a.10150693772595531.700958.423436625530&type=1&theater

This man knows what is really important in our country.  Senator Bernie Sanders is the longest serving legislator in the United States.  He does not answer to Democrats, or Republican's, or corporations, nor the very, very wealthy!  He is honest.  He is sincere.  He is a statesman.  It's 25 minutes of truthfulness, it's worth the time it takes.  He knows what is important  He says it like it is:
http://video.pbs.org/video/2332647491http://video.pbs.org/video/2332647491

It isn't this simple but it does point out how mega-corporations are running the economic and political show in the Untied States. We need to do something about it! I don't know a better solution than Move To Amendhttps://movetoamend.org/ President Obama and Republican leader, John McCain agree that the 2010 Citizen's United was the worst decision in decades. Republican McCain went on to say it was the worst Supreme Court decision EVER. https://movetoamend.org/

https://movetoamend.org/

These are a couple of stories from this week’s paper that are an indication of the improving U.S. economy. It looks like things are headed in the right direction and that the economic data from the end of 2012 was too pessimistic.

REPRORT: U.S JOB MARKET LOOKS SURISINGLY STRONG!

By PAUL WISEMAN and CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER | Associated Press – 17 hrs ago

Associated Press/J Pat Carter - In this Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013 photo, job seekers fill a room at the job fair in Sunrise, Fla. U.S. employers added 157,000 jobs in January, and hiring was much stronger at the …more end of 2012 than previously thought, providing reassurance that the job market held steady even as economic growth stalled, according to Labor Department reports, Friday, Feb. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter) less

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. job market is proving surprisingly strong and raising hopes that the economy will be resilient enough this year to withstand a budget standoff in Washington and potentially deep cuts in federal spending.

Employers added 157,000 jobs last month, and hiring turned out to be healthier than previously thought at the end of 2012 just as the economy faced the threat of the "fiscal cliff."

Many economists focused on the steady job growth — especially the healthier-than-expected hiring late last year. The Labor Department revised its estimates of job gains for November from an initial 161,000 to 247,000 and for December from 155,000 to 196,000.

The department also revised its figures for all of 2012 upward — to an average of 180,000 new jobs a month from a previously estimated 150,000.

"The significantly stronger payroll gains tell us the economy has a lot more momentum than what we had thought," Joseph LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank, said in a research note.

The government frequently revises the monthly job totals as it collects more information. Sometimes the revisions can be dramatic, as in November and December.

The January jobs report helped fuel a powerful rally on Wall Street. Stock averages all jumped more than 1 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 14,000 for the first time since October 2007, two months before the Great Recession officially began.

Beyond the job market, the economy is showing other signs of health. Factories were busier last month than they have been since April 2012. Ford, Chrysler and General Motors all reported double-digit sales gains for last month, their best January in five years.

Home prices have been rising steadily. Higher home values tend to make Americans feel wealthier and more likely to spend.

Housing construction is recovering, too. Construction spending rose last year for the first time in six years and is expected to add 1 percentage point to economic growth this year.

The housing rebound appears finally to be producing a long-awaited return of construction-industry jobs, which have typically help drive economic recoveries. Construction companies added 28,000 jobs in January. Over the past three months, construction has added 82,000 jobs — the best quarterly increase since 2006. Even with the gains, construction employment is about 2 million below its housing-bubble peak of 7.7 million in April 2006.

Health care employers added 28,000 jobs in January. Retailers added 33,000, and hotels and restaurants 17,000. The job growth in retail, hotels and restaurants suggests that employers have grown more confident about consumer spending, which fuels about 70 percent of the economy.

The government uses a survey of mostly large businesses and government agencies to determine how many jobs are added or lost each month. That's the survey that produced the gain of 157,000 jobs for January.

It uses a separate survey of households to calculate the unemployment rate. That survey captures hiring by companies of all sizes, including small businesses, new companies, farm workers and the self-employed. From month to month, the two surveys sometimes contradict each other. Over time, the differences between them usually even out.

Some economists had feared that federal budget standoffs might chill spending, investing and hiring. They worried that companies wouldn't hire and consumers would scale back spending in November and December because big spending cuts and tax increases were to take effect Jan. 1 if the White House and congressional Republicans couldn't reach a budget deal.

It turns out, the fears were overblown. In the midst of the budget fight late last year, employers kept hiring.

And Friday's jobs report showed that average hourly wages — up 4 cents to $23.78 in January — were staying ahead of inflation. They had generally failed to keep up with prices since the recession ended in June 2009.

"It looked like the Great Depression," he said.

Yet the burst of hiring at the end of 2012 has raised hopes that the recovery from the Great Recession is finally strengthening.

"This could be a breakout year for the economy," Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at the Economic Outlook Group, wrote in a note to clients. "The economy, sales, employment and the stock market are all higher in spite of the bickering and rancor in Washington."

Kaltura, a New York-based online video software company, plans to hire 100 people in 2013, which would bring their staff to 300. The company has 17 open jobs.

DOW TOPS 14,000, PUSHED BY HIGHER JOBS REPORT!

 Feb 1, 2013

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. jobs report pushed the stock market forward on Friday, putting the benchmark Dow Jones industrial average above 14,000, a milestone it hasn't reached since before the financial crisis.

Overall, the government's jobs report was mixed, but traders chose to focus on the positive. The U.S. said it added 157,000 jobs in January, which was in line with what traders had been expecting. Unemployment inched up to 7.9 percent from 7.8 percent in December. But, encouragingly, the government also reported that hiring over the past two years has been higher than it originally thought.

The jobs number is based on a survey of employers, and the unemployment rate is based on a separate survey of households, which is why they can diverge.

The index rose as high as 14,000.97 in early trading. The index last traded above 14,000 in October 2007.

The Dow has gained 6.7 percent since the start of the year.

The Dow hasn't closed above 14,000 since Oct. 12, 2007. That time, more than five years ago, was almost a different era — before signs of the devastating financial crisis were apparent to the average observer.

In all, the Dow has closed above 14,000 only nine times in its history.

President Obama and Republican, John McCain, Agree!

When two of the most respected, most powerful, people in the free world, from opposite sides of the political spectrum, agree on something, shouldn't we take notice! Democratic President Obama and Republican presidential candidate, and Sena...tor, John McCain, agree that the Supreme Court's decision in 2010, "Citizen's United", is the worst decision in decades. Senator McCain goes on to say that it was the worst decision, EVER! Why are people afraid to talk about this issue? Most Tea Party members, most Fox viewers, the most extreme factions from the Republican Party, agree, on this particular issue, with the most liberal factions from the Democratic Party, and most MSNBC viewers. Why are people so afraid to expect our politicians to do something about this issue? Is it too bold, too extreme, to expect our politicians to do something about this issue, at least talk about it?
https://movetoamend.org/