Archive for January, 2012

Climate Change Alert – The Essentials

Jan 30

Posted by Michael Collins in Big Money, Climate Change, Environment | Comments off

By Jill

James Hansen provides an eloquent statement of a problem that is critical to humanity. This may help you talk to reasonable people who have heard too much from the disinformation machine and not enough from the science community.

Climate change is real, it’s man made, and it’s a threat to the environment that supports human life. Dr. James Hansen, probably the preeminent climatologist in the United States, has made a statement to that effect in his article “Cowards in Our Democracies: Part I”.

The threat of human-made climate change and the urgency of reducing fossil fuel emissions have become increasingly clear to the scientific community during the past few years. Yet, at the same time, the public seems to have become less certain about the situation. Indeed, many people have begun to wonder whether the climate threat has been concocted or exaggerated.

Public doubt about the science is not an accident. People profiting from business-as-usual fossil fuel use are waging a campaign to discredit the science. Their campaign is effective because the profiteers have learned how to manipulate democracies for their advantage.

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Tags: climate change, Halocene, James Hansen, pollution

Cowards in Our Democracies: Part I

Jan 29

Posted by Jill in Big Money, Climate Change, Environment, Justice | 3 Comments

By James Hansen PhD
(Published with the author’s permission)

(27 January 2012 ) The threat of human-made climate change and the urgency of reducing fossil fuel emissions have become increasingly clear to the scientific community during the past few years. Yet, at the same time, the public seems to have become less certain about the situation. Indeed, many people have begun to wonder whether the climate threat has been concocted or exaggerated. (Image: NASA JPL)

The scientific method requires objective analysis of all data, stating evidence pro and con, before reaching conclusions. This works well, indeed is necessary, for achieving success in science. But science is now pitted in public debate against the talk-show method, which consists of selective citation of anecdotal bits that support a predetermined position.

Why is the public presented results of the scientific method and the talk-show method as if they deserved equal respect? A few decades ago that did not happen. In 1981, when I wrote a then-controversial paper (http://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/abs/ha04600x.html) about the impact of CO2 on climate, the science writer Walter Sullivan contacted several of the top relevant scientific experts in the world for comments. He did not mislead the public by dredging up and highlighting contrarian opinion for the sake of a forced and unnatural “balance”.

Today most media, even publicly-supported media, are pressured to balance every climate story with opinions of contrarians, climate change deniers, as if they had equal scientific credibility. Media are dependent on advertising revenue of the fossil fuel industry, and in some cases are owned by people with an interest in continuing business as usual. Fossil fuel profiteers can readily find a few percent of the scientific community to serve as mouthpieces — all scientists practice skepticism, and it is not hard to find some who are out of their area of expertise, who may enjoy being in the public eye, and who are limited in scientific insight and analytic ability. Read the rest of this entry »

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Tags: big money, climate change, Environment

The United Corporations of Gingrich

Jan 23

Posted by Michael Collins in Big Money, Corruption, Populism | Comments off

Newt Gingrich has adopted a populist stance starting in New Hampshire and reaching a peak, of sorts, in South Carolina. They fell for it there, turning against Romney because he was an investment banker.

There’s nothing wrong with that. Romney is the bionic candidates, the one who spouts the line of The Money Party whenever his lips are moving.

But please, Newt, you are the great Whore of Babylon when it comes to coddling the financial elite. There isn’t a regulation you won’t bend for your pals. You raise money by the millions from gambling interests, while you shop at Tiffany’s.

The “New Newt” may sell with South Carolina Republicans but the rest of us know what you are – a made man in The Money Party.

END

This article and image may be reproduced with attribution of authorship and a link to this article.

The Money Party

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Tags: corruption, gingrich, liar, Populism, primaries, Romney

Behold a pale horse … Mitt’s fatal flaw

Jan 22

Posted by Michael Collins in Big Money, Elections, Populism | Comments off

By Michael Collins

Bionic candidate Mitt Romney went from inevitable to simply evitable thanks to South Carolina Republican primary voters. With 600,000 voting, turnout was up 34% over 2008. Ninety eight percent of voters were white. This is even less representative of the nation than Iowa and New Hampshire. But that’s how things work in this democracy

The South Carolina exit poll (sponsored by the mainstream media) had a new question for voters as they left their polling places. They were asked if they had a positive or negative opinion of Mitt Romney’s background as an investor. Investor refers to Romney’s time as an investment banker with Bain Capital and can be taken as a proxy for a pro or anti-Wall Street/financial elite stance.

The results indicate what may turn into a fatal flaw in the Romney campaign. Sixty four percent of voters had a positive view of Romney as an investor with 28% negative. However, Gingrich won 50% of those who had a negative view of Romney’s wheeler-dealer days as an investor. Romney took only 3% of voters who had a negative view of his role as an investor. Mitt can’t buy an anti-wall Street vote.

Gingrich’s skillfully applied phony populism produced around 80,000 votes based on the results for the investor question. His margin of victory over Romney was 76,000. The issue is potent and will be repeated in upcoming contests.
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Tags: anti-Wall Street, financial elite, gingrich, Populism, primary, republicans, Romney, South Carolina

Just Short of Treason in Georgia and Kansas

Jan 21

Posted by Michael Collins in Big Money, Criminal Justice, Justice | Comments off

By Michael Collins

It’s official. The crazies have arrived for the 2012 presidential race, florid in their deviant and repulsive rhetoric. Andrew B. Adler, editor of The Atlanta Jewish Times, called on Israel’s President Benjamin Netanyahu to “Order a hit on a president in order to preserve Israel’s existence.” This reference to President Barack Obama appeared in the print edition of the paper on January 13 and was first published online by Gawker on the 20th (alternate links here and here).

Right wing Republican Mike O’Neal, speaker of the Kansas House of Representatives, forwarded an email referring to the president that quoted (approximately) Psalm 109.8: “Let his days be few and brief; and let others step forward to replace him.” The Lawrence Journal World noted that the very next verse, 109.9, indicates how the president should be replaced: “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.” (Image SND)

The First Amendment is ignored when reactionary mayors want to stop the free speech and assemblies of Occupy Wall Street. However, free speech is expanded beyond the limits of the law when religious extremists in Atlanta and Kansas step well outside of the boundaries of U.S. Code. Read the rest of this entry »

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Tags: Andrew Adler, assassination, Atlanta Jewish Times, Faithful America, hate speech, Kansas Republians, Mike O'Neal

Goldman Swindle Continues – Huge Bonuses

Jan 19

Posted by Michael Collins in Big Money, Corruption, Criminal Justice, Wall St | Comments off

HOW ABOUT JAIL TIME INSTEAD OF BONUSES from The Guardian

Goldman pays out bonuses of £8bn

Investment bank’s pay and bonuses for the year equal to the size of Albania’s GDP

January 19
(guardian.co.up)Goldman Sachs, the City of London and Wall Street totem, will divvy up a $12.2bn (£7.9bn) pay and bonus pool among its staff, despite public and political anger and in the face of crumbling revenues and profits.

Even though the investment bank said it had cut its remuneration bill – salaries, bonuses and benefits – by more than a fifth, it still came out to about the size of the GDP of Albania and prompted an outcry from unions.

The figures were revealed alongside Goldman’s latest annual results, which showed how post-credit crisis regulations and volatility in the eurozone are hurting bank profits. Revenues fell 26 per cent in 2011, the bank said, and profits slumped by 47 per cent to $4.4bn.

Some 42.4 per cent of revenues will go to employees, in the form of salaries, bonuses and benefits, the company said, up from 40.5 per cent last year, though a bank spokeswoman said that an increase in basic pay and benefits was the main reason for the increase.

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Tags: bonuses, Goldman Sachs, wall street