OWS

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Vrede too
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Re: OWS

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Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
-- the interweb, paraphrased
1312. ETTD.

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Vrede too
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Re: OWS

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U.S. Justice Department to appeal approval of AT&T acquisition of Time Warner

Comment:
I agree that these mega mergers need to stop, but this DoJ appeal has nothing to do with public interest. This is all about the President not wanting CNN getting a stronger platform. The WH and DoJ are even endorsing the Disney/Fox merger so what's different with the ATT/TW deal. The ATT/TX deal has a pretty strong case because it's a content distributor buying a content producer. Both Disney and Fox produce content so that is an anti-trust violation.
Could be, but I'm inclined to oppose the merger, regardless.
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
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Vrede too
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Re: OWS

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Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
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1312. ETTD.

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Re: OWS

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The new gilded age
Income inequality in the U.S. by state, metropolitan area, and county


What this report finds: Income inequality has risen in every state since the 1970s and, in most states, it has grown in the post–Great Recession era. From 2009 to 2015, the incomes of the top 1 percent grew faster than the incomes of the bottom 99 percent in 43 states and the District of Columbia. The top 1 percent captured half or more of all income growth in nine states. In 2015, a family in the top 1 percent nationally received, on average, 26.3 times as much income as a family in the bottom 99 percent.

Why it matters: Rising inequality is not just a story of those on Wall Street, in Hollywood, or in the Silicon Valley reaping outsized rewards. Measured by the ratio of top 1 percent to bottom 99 percent income in 2015, eight states plus the District of Columbia, 45 metropolitan areas, and 139 counties had gaps wider than the national gap. In fact, unequal income growth since the 1970s has pushed the top 1 percent’s share of all income above 23.9 percent (the 1928 national peak share, according to Piketty and Saez) in five states, 30 metro areas, and 78 counties....
What does inequality look like in your state?

Explore inequality by state, county, and metro area in this interactive feature.

United States: The top 1% make 26.3 times more than the bottom 99%.
North Carolina: The top 1% make 20.6 times more than the bottom 99%.
South Carolina: The top 1% make 19.7 times more than the bottom 99%.
Florida: The top 1% make 39.5 times more than the bottom 99%.

Ratio of top 1% income to bottom 99% income for all U.S. counties, 2015

Henderson County, NC

Average income of the top 1%: $528,777
Average income of the bottom 99%: $39,951
Top-to-bottom ratio: 13.2
Rank (by top-to-bottom ratio, highest ratio is #1): 1487 (out of 3061)
What we can do to fix the problem: The rise of top incomes relative to the bottom 99 percent represents a sharp reversal of the trend that prevailed in the mid-20th century. From 1928 to 1973, the share of income held by the top 1 percent declined in every state for which we have data. This earlier era was characterized by a rising minimum wage, low levels of unemployment after the 1930s, widespread collective bargaining in private industries (manufacturing, transportation, telecommunications, and construction), and a cultural, political, and legal environment that kept a lid on executive compensation in all sectors of the economy. We need policies that return the economy to full employment and keep it there, return bargaining power to U.S. workers, increase political participation by all citizens, and boost public investments in child care, education, housing, and health care. Such policies will help prevent the wealthiest few from appropriating more than their fair share of the nation’s expanding economic pie.

Key findings

In 2015, the top 1 percent of families in the U.S. earned, on average, 26.3 times as much income as the bottom 99 percent—an increase from 2013, when they earned 25.3 times as much.

Eight states plus the District of Columbia had gaps wider than the national gap. In the most unequal—New York, Florida, and Connecticut—the top 1 percent earned average incomes more than 35 times those of the bottom 99 percent....

Looking at the residence of families with incomes above the 2015 national threshold of $421,926 for entering the top 1 percent, we find:

Of all the income received by the national top 1 percent in 2015, half accrued to families in five states: California, New York, Texas, Florida, and Illinois. These five states accounted for about 40 percent of all income in the U.S. (the sum of all incomes including the bottom 99 percent and top 1 percent).

We find the largest concentrations of national top 1 percent income in New York, Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, District of Columbia, California, New Jersey, Nevada, Wyoming, and Illinois....

Examining the growth of income over the past century, we find growth was broadly shared from 1945 to 1973 and highly unequal from 1973 to 2007, with the latter pattern persisting in the recovery from the Great Recession since 2009: ...

The top 1 percent has steadily captured a growing share of the benefits of America’s economic growth, with the share of all income going to the top 1 percent moving closer in 2015 to its 1928 peak. ...
Hmmm, what happened in 1929?
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
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Vrede too
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Re: OWS

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Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
-- the interweb, paraphrased
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Vrede too
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Re: OWS

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Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
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Vrede too
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Re: OWS

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Image

Petition to Congress:

"End the culture of corruption that corporate cronies in both parties have enabled for far too long. Support Sen. Elizabeth Warren's Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act."
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
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Vrede too
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Re: OWS

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CEO compensation surged in 2017

... in 2017 the average CEO of the 350 largest firms in the U.S. received $18.9 million in compensation, a 17.6 percent increase over 2016. The typical worker’s compensation remained flat, rising a mere 0.3 percent. The 2017 CEO-to-worker compensation ratio of 312-to-1 was far greater than the 20-to-1 ratio in 1965 and more than five times greater than the 58-to-1 ratio in 1989 (although it was lower than the peak ratio of 344-to-1, reached in 2000). The gap between the compensation of CEOs and other very-high-wage earners is also substantial, with the CEOs in large firms earning 5.5 times as much as the average earner in the top 0.1 percent....

CEO compensation has grown far faster than stock prices or corporate profits. CEO compensation rose by 979 percent (based on stock options granted) or 1,070 percent (based on stock options realized) between 1978 and 2017. The corresponding 637 percent growth in the stock market (S & P Index) was far lower. Both measures of compensation are substantially greater than the painfully slow 11.2 percent growth in the typical worker’s compensation over the same period and at least three times as fast as the 308 percent growth of wages for the very highest earners, those in the top 0.1 percent.

Why it matters: Regardless of how it is measured, CEO pay continues to be very, very high and has grown far faster in recent decades than typical worker pay. Higher CEO pay does not reflect correspondingly higher output or better firm performance. Exorbitant CEO pay therefore means that the fruits of economic growth are not going to ordinary workers. The growth of CEO and executive compensation overall was a major factor driving the doubling of the income shares of the top 1 percent and top 0.1 percent of U.S. households from 1979 to 2007. Since then, income growth has remained unbalanced. Profits and stock market prices have reached record highs while the wages of most workers have continued to stagnate.

Over the last several decades, CEO pay has grown much faster than profits, the pay of the top 0.1 percent of wage earners, and the wages of college graduates. CEOs are getting more because of their power to set pay, not because they are more productive or have special talents or more education. If CEOs earned less or were taxed more, there would be no adverse impact on output or employment.

How we can solve the problem: Policy solutions that would limit and reduce incentives and the ability of CEOs to extract economic concessions without hurting the economy include the following:

Reinstate higher marginal income tax rates at the very top.
Set corporate tax rates higher for firms that have higher ratios of CEO-to-worker compensation.
Set a cap on compensation and tax anything over the cap.
Allow greater use of “say on pay,” which allows a firm’s shareholders to vote on top executives’ compensation.
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Leo Lyons
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Re: OWS

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In the 1950s, a typical CEO made 20 times the salary of his or her average worker.
Last year, CEO pay at an S&P 500 Index firm soared to an average of 361 times more than the average rank-and-file worker,
or pay of $13,940,000 a year, according to an AFL-CIO's Executive Paywatch news release today. --- May 22, 2018

However...
Sears CEO Eddie Lampert only gets a salary of $1 a year to run the troubled retailer. But he does get a stock bonus, and for 2017 that bonus increased by $850,000, giving him a 24% raise. Lampert's compensation package was reported in a company filing Thursday. ---- Mar 29, 2018.
$1 a year.; and I still lost my ass in Sear's stock.

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Vrede too
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Re: OWS

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Accountable Capitalism Act

The Accountable Capitalism Act, 115th Congress (2017-2018) S. 3348 is a proposed federal bill introduced by Senator Elizabeth Warren in August 2018. It would require that employees elect 40% of a board of directors of any corporation with over $1 billion in tax receipts, and that 75% of shareholders and directors must approve any political spending. Corporations with revenue over $1 billion would be required to obtain a federal corporate charter. The Act contains a "constituency statute" that would give directors a duty of "creating a general public benefit" with regard to a corporations stakeholders, including shareholders, employees, and the environment, and the interests of the enterprise in the long-term.
Image

Petition to Congress:

"Raise wages and fight inequality by forcing corporations to be accountable to employees and communities, not just shareholders. Support Sen. Elizabeth Warren's Accountable Capitalism Act."
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
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Vrede too
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Re: OWS

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Why Does Wells Fargo Still Exist?
The bank isn’t just “too big to fail.” It’s too big to fix.

Shut down criminal megabanks like Wells Fargo

Image

Wells Fargo should not exist. Wall Street cops punished the megabank 43 separate times since 2008. Wells launched three separate ad campaigns begging Americans to believe it turned a corner, and it keeps breaking the law.

Now, new reports claim the feds are investigating Wells Fargo's wholesale banking unit. The news came right after female executives blew the whistle on gender bias within the bank, which occurred right after reports that the bank was scamming even its wealthiest clients, which we learned soon after Wells Fargo came under fire for profiting off the private prison companies running Trump's immigrant jails, which became a scandal on the heels of the company admitting it foreclosed on 400 homes absolutely without reason, which happened right after...

You get the idea.

Tell Congress: Shut down criminal megabanks like Wells Fargo.

Rep. Maxine Waters' bill would shut down Wells Fargo and other criminal megabanks. Federal regulators have the power to crack down on criminal megabanks and even revoke their federal corporate charters, but have utterly failed to do their job. Rep. Waters' bill would force regulators like the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve to use every tool available to shut down megabanks that repeatedly abuse consumers and to hold bank executives responsible.6

Just a few of Wells Fargo's recent greatest hits include: ...

Instead of rewarding criminality and failure, it is time to shut down Wells Fargo once and for all.

Tell Congress: Shut down criminal megabanks like Wells Fargo....
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
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Vrede too
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Re: OWS

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Even petitions to Dolt .45's Federal Communications Commission have an impact.
Vrede too wrote:
Thu Jul 05, 2018 11:07 am
billy.pilgrim wrote:
Sun Mar 11, 2018 9:10 am
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2077&p=83590&hilit=Sinclair#p83590

The main four channels in my area

2 Sinclair
1 Fox
and one sort of normal channel

The two Sinclair channels are speaking truth to local power and corruption, or so they say.

Local news anchors trash new Sinclair propaganda plan: 'Manipulative.' 'Everyone was uncomfortable.'
Tell the FCC to Deny the Job-Killing Sinclair-Tribune Merger
The Sinclair-Tribune merger is dead

Tribune Media is withdrawing from the $3.9 billion merger with Sinclair Broadcasting. Its decision comes more than a year after the merger was announced. In that time, the merger went from being a seemingly sure-thing, with friendly regulatory and political environments, to a serious issue for Sinclair, the largest broadcaster in the US.

The merger would have resulted in a broadcast behemoth, harming localism, reducing viewpoint diversity, and killing jobs. It would have given Sinclair the ability to push its political spin into more than 70% of US television households.

Despite these dangers, the merger seemed likely to succeed. FCC Chairman Pai gutted media ownership rules just prior to the Sinclair-Tribune merger announcement, raising questions among lawmakers and investigators inside the FCC. And even though the FCC is supposed to be an independent agency, President Trump’s friendship with Sinclair’s CEO is well-known, and when the merger was first announced, Politico reported that Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and top adviser, told a group of business leaders that the Trump campaign made a deal to provide Sinclair access to the president. In exchange, Sinclair would broadcast Trump interviews without commentary. Sinclair later hired a Trump spokesman.

But even in this friendly environment, the deal started to stall as Sinclair failed to gain regulatory approval. The merger faced significant opposition from across the political spectrum, including from NABET-CWA, which represents 10,000 employees across the broadcast industry. “The proposed Sinclair-Tribune merger would result in job cuts at dozens of stations across the country and would harm the ability of local stations to broadcast information vital to their communities in a responsible and unbiased manner,” said NABET-CWA President Charlie Braico. “This merger is not in the interest of broadcast industry employees and is not in the interest of the American people.” ...
Sinclair, Evil Little and Big Shits, FCC Chairman Pai - 0
Americans, at least one Canadian, free press, NABET-CWA (Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO, CLC), workers - 1

:---P
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
-- the interweb, paraphrased
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Vrede too
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Re: OWS

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Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
-- the interweb, paraphrased
1312. ETTD.

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Vrede too
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Re: OWS

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Elon Musk and America’s Toxic Cult of the CEO
He could have been banished for securities fraud, but the government feared the consequences for Tesla's shareholders.
Tell the SEC: No CEO is too big to fail

The settlement with Elon Musk creates a dangerous new doctrine, that a CEO is too big to fail. And he's already shown how little he respects that deal with his tweetstorm earlier this week. The SEC must reject this in future settlements and ensure that if a CEO breaks the rules, the punishment should include losing their job.
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
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Vrede too
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Re: OWS

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Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
-- the interweb, paraphrased
1312. ETTD.

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Vrede too
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Re: OWS

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Heidi Cruz Didn’t Plan for This
She had her whole future mapped out when she met Ted Cruz, starting with her dream job in Washington. This is the story of what came after.


... “I really feel mission-driven on what he’s accomplishing,” she clarified. But “it does take some supportiveness, you know. Six to seven years in it, with me being the primary breadwinner—it’s like, ‘Uh, yeah, this is when people say thank you. I’ll now take that appreciation.’” She laughed. “Yeah, we’re seven years into this, and we’re not buying a second home anytime soon." ...
Heidi Cruz Torched Over 'Tone-Deaf' Lament About Ted Cruz's 6-Figure Senate Salary

... Her husband’s Senate wage alone is almost four times the $46,000 U.S. average. Goldman Sachs managing directors likely earn more than $500,000, including bonus, according to the jobs site Glassdoor.
Heidi Cruz insists that "we won't be buying a second home any time soon" on husband Ted's 174K salary, pinpointing the Republican Party's central, hardhitting issue: the second homeless#HeidiCruz
Heidi Cruz complains about not having a second home while more than half a million homeless Americans live and die on the streets and her husband strips health care and Social Security from everyone.
wow poor Heidi Cruz, enduring the unimaginable indignity of only owning one home while her husband is away in Washington working his hardest to make life more difficult for people who can barely afford to pay rent
Our thoughts are prayers are with you. I’m so sorry you can’t get your second home. Most people don’t even own one but we won’t hold your lack of a second house against you.
Only having one house is a horror I can't even imagine. What sacrifice. What suffering.
Heidi Cruz whines about how her & #LyinTed can't afford a 2nd House on his income of $174,000 /yr and her income from Goldman Sachs. THAT is elitism ! #TodaysGOP
This poor Heidi Cruz! Such a hard life. Ted only make 4 times what the average American does. How can you afford a second home on that? Even the tax scam didn't help enough. No house in the Hamptons this year. So much sacrifice! I'm tearing up reading this. Out of touch much?
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
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Vrede too
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Re: OWS

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Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
-- the interweb, paraphrased
1312. ETTD.

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Vrede too
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Re: OWS

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Image

Petition to Congress:

"Support the new Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Exist legislation from Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Brad Sherman to break up big Wall Street banks that are larger than ever."
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
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Vrede too
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Re: OWS

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Senate Confirms Kathy Kraninger As CFPB Director (50-49)

:roll: :x

I spotted something that the article and apparently the Senators did not call her out on:
She mentioned the value of the free market in her opening statement, noting she spent time in the then-Soviet Union as a member of the Peace Corps. There, she said, she saw "firsthand the devastating impact of communism, the economic consequences of central planning, and the absence of free markets and the rule of law."
Kathleen Kraninger was 16 when the Soviet Union ceased to exist on 26 December 1991. In fact, her Peace Corps service was years later in the post-commie Ukraine, from September 1997 until November 1999.

I know that prospective AGs and SCOTUS candidates are interviewed under oath. Is it the same for CFPB and other agency heads? If so, could she theoretically be held accountable for lying?
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
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Vrede too
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Re: OWS

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No holiday tax handouts for Wall Street

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Petition to Congress:

"Americans resoundingly rejected Republican tax policy in November. Congress should block the Brady tax bill, which is full of holiday handouts for wealthy special interests and preserves the Trump Tax Scam's incentives for outsourcing jobs."
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
-- the interweb, paraphrased
1312. ETTD.

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