Chicago Nato Protests 187 by Michael Kappel

Of all the angles that the Huffington Post could have gone with on the NATO protests in Chicago, they have to publish this?

But that’s exactly what happened when the newly wed couple exited the church on the eve of Chicago’s NATO Summit, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.

Leaving no time for confetti and celebrations, occupy protesters filled downtown Chicago’s streets interrupting the bride and groom’s photos.

Yes of course the Chicago Sun-Times are fools as well. Is the story of the NATO protests so boring to you people that you have to look for these ridiculous “human interest stories” to add to the regular reporting of what’s happening in Chicago?

Kinda Like a Chorus Line by M.V. Jantzen

Is your underwear made in the USA?

Well thanks to a TED talk by Nick Hanauer we should all hopefully realize that the 1 percent aren’t necessarily job creators. Actually, it seems consumers are the real job creators; more to the point it’s the middle class who put their earnings back into the economy that are the ones keeping people at work.

I’d like to add to this whole anti-establishment economic thinking by talking about USA made products. Conservatives attempt to chide the president or anyone who attempts to say buy USA made instead of the alternative. Out of Pennsylvania comes the story of an underwear company called Flint and Tinder, that has been highly successful. Now we learn that the packaging company for Flint and Tinder, called Fessler USA expects to add more jobs this year.

So what does this tell us? Maybe we should really think about making things in the United States again? Sure we probably can’t and won’t bring all the manufacturing back, but we can be doing a lot better than we are now.

Wall Street by Oceanik

Who’s the real criminal? The protesters in Chicago voicing their opposition to the NATO summit or Merrill Lynch?

“Fuck the compliance area – procedures, schmecedures,” chirps Peter Melz, former president of Merrill Lynch Professional Clearing Corp. (a.k.a. Merrill Pro), when a subordinate worries about the company failing to comply with the rules governing short sales.

Is this what executives at investment banks are like?

Dolphin by JP Sangria

The problem I have with the WTO is that it can interfere with a nation’s lawmaking ability. The power to legislate can be usurped by the World Trade Organization and it’s not always for a good reason either.

Take this mind-boggingly bad ruling on dolphin-safe tuna:

The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) final ruling today against U.S. dolphin-safe labels on tuna cans deals a major blow to consumers’ ability to make free and informed decisions about how our food was caught and processed, Public Citizen said. This is the third time the WTO and its predecessor General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade have ruled against America’s dolphin protection policies.

Safeway by phrenologist

First, let me say that Giant and Safeway took UFCW Local 400 down a very bloody path in contract negotiaions; almost forcing them to call a strike. A contract was finally ratified back in April. Now, I’m hearing about Safeway firing an employee who is basically a hero?

On April 21, 2012, Safeway employee Ryan Young intervened when he saw a customer assaulting his pregnant girlfriend. The incident took place in a Safeway store located in the city of Del Rey Oaks, California. Local law enforcement stands behind Mr. Young’s actions (source) but despite this Safeway has since suspended Mr. Young without pay.

Corporate policy can be utterly ridiculous. You know who else is notorious for doing things like this? Yes, that’s right Wal-mart.

The poster case for government persecution of the down-and-out would have to be Edwina Nowlin, a homeless Michigan woman who was jailed in 2009 for failing to pay $104 a month to cover the room-and-board charges for her 16-year-old son’s incarceration. When she received a back paycheck, she thought it would allow her to pay for her son’s jail stay. Instead, it was confiscated and applied to the cost of her own incarceration.

via Tomgram: Barbara Ehrenreich, Looting the Lives of the Poor | TomDispatch.

IMG_8811.1.web by rawEarth

This is something you would find the Taliban or some other fundamentalist religious regime, in a third world country doing. This is exactly what I’m comparing the Michigan’s state legislators and it’s executive to. If they had any honor I would expect them to be insulted.

If you wanted to buy some shares in Facebook as a regular Joe forget it.

Regardless, individual investors can forget about paying $45 a piece. Retail brokerages don’t have any more shares available for the public at the insider price, leaving the rest for so-called institutional investors. If you’re waiting to get Facebook stock at the same price as the big guys, you’re going to be disappointed.

First TED wanted to keep this video unpublished, but due to the pressure on the Internet they’ve relented.

I found this to be an interesting example of how effective public financing of candidates can be.

In New York City:

In Chinatown, 23 times as many residents gave to city candidates as to state candidates. In Upper Manhattan and the Bronx, 12 times as many did.

The city’s system turns a $25 donation into $175 with a six-to-one match. That makes candidates care more about donations from regular people and less about the ones from deep-pocketed special interests. So more regular people donate.

Imagine if Howard Dean had something like this in place when he ran for president in 2004? Or President Obama in 2008? This is one way to give small donors more power and corporate interests less.

Debated on @Larry_Kudlow mutli-millionaire TJ Rogers who complained O is discriminating against super-rich like they're a racial minority.

— Robert Reich (@RBReich) May 17, 2012

Larry Kudlow is a tool anyway. He’s the corporation’s man on TV.