The Big Ass Second Term/Politics thread part VI: There's an election this year?

[KevinNYC]

The Republicans have a shot at taking control of the Senate:

NY TIMES (http://www.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2014/senate-model/): Coin Flip. Republicans currently have a 53 percent chance

Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dre/politics/election-lab-2014): Republicans are likely to take control of the Senate.
82% chance as of today

538 (http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/fivethirtyeight-senate-forecast-toss-up-or-tilt-gop/): Toss up leaning toward GOP
The new forecast is for a Republican gain of 5.7 seats. So it

[Norcaliblunt]

30 MILLION PRODUCTIVE JOBS TO REBUILD US INFRASTRUCTURE, INDUSTRY AND AGRICULTURE: THE PROGRAM TO END THE ECONOMIC DEPRESSION

The US and the world are gripped by a deepening economic depression. There is no recovery and no automatic business cycle which will revive the economy. This bottomless depression will worsen until policies are reformed. The depression results from deregulated and globalized financial speculation, especially the $1.5 quadrillion world derivatives bubble. The US industrial base has been gutted, and the US standard of living has fallen by almost two thirds over the last four decades. We must reverse this trend of speculation, de-industrialization, and immiseration. Current policy bails out bankers, but harms working people, industrial producers, farmers, and small business. We must defend civil society and democratic institutions from the effects of high unemployment and economic breakdown. We therefore demand:

1. Measures to reduce speculation and minimize the burden of fictitious capital: End all bailouts of banks and financial institutions. Claw back the TARP and other public money given or lent to financiers. Abolish the notion of too big to fail; JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Citibank, Wells Fargo and other Wall Street zombie banks are insolvent and must be seized by the FDIC for chapter 7 liquidation, with derivatives eliminated by triage. Re-institute the Glass-Steagall firewall to separate banks, brokerages, and insurance. Ban credit default swaps and adjustable rate mortgages. To generate revenue and discourage speculation, levy a 1% Tobin tax (securities transfer tax or trading tax) on all financial transactions including derivatives (futures, options, indices, and over the counter derivatives), stocks, bonds, foreign exchange, and commodities, especially program trading, high-frequency trading, and flash trading. Set up a 15% reserve requirement for all OTC derivatives. Use Tobin tax revenue and a revived corporate income tax to provide immediate tax relief to individuals, families, the self-employed, and small business by increasing personal exemptions and standard deductions. Stop all foreclosures on primary residences, businesses, and farms for five years or the duration of the depression, whichever lasts longer. Set a 10% maximum rate of interest on credit cards and payday loans. Re-regulate commodities markets with 100% margin requirements, position limits, and anti-speculation protections for hedgers and end users to prevent oil and gasoline price spikes. Enforce labor laws and anti-trust laws against monopolies and cartels. Restore individual chapter 11.

2. Measures to nationalize the Federal Reserve, cut federal borrowing, and provide 0% federal credit for production: Seize the Federal Reserve and bring it under the US Treasury as the National Bank of the United States, no longer the preserve of unelected and unaccountable cliques of incompetent and predatory bankers. The size of the money supply, interest rates, and approved types of lending must be determined by public laws passed and debated openly, passed by the congress and signed by the president. Stop US government borrowing from zombie banks and foreigners -- let the US government function as its own bank. Reverse current policy by instituting 0% federal LENDING with preferential treatment for tangible physical production and manufacturing of goods and commodities, to include industry, agriculture, construction, mining, energy production, transportation, infrastructure building, public works, and scientific research, but not financial services and speculation. Issue successive tranches of $1 trillion as needed to create 30 million union-wage productive jobs and attain full employment for the first time since 1945, reversing the secular decline in the US standard of living. Provide 0% credit to reconvert idle auto and other plants and re-hire unemployed workers to build modern rail, mass transit, farm tractors, and aerospace equipment, including for export. Extend 0% federal credit for production to small businesses like auto and electronics repair shops, dry cleaners, restaurants, tailors, family farms, taxis, and trucking. Maintain commercial credit for retail stores. Create an unlimited rediscount guarantee by the National Bank for public works projects to provide cash to local banks for bills of exchange pertaining to infrastructure and public works. Repatriate the foreign dollar overhang by encouraging China, Japan, and other dollar holders to place orders for US-made capital goods and modern hospitals. Revive the US Export-Import Bank. Set up a 10% tariff to protect domestic re- industrialization. Nationalize and operate GM, Chrysler, CIT, and other needed but insolvent firms as a permanent public sector. Maintain Amtrak and USPS.

3. Measures to re-industrialize, build infrastructure, develop science drivers, create jobs, and restore a high-wage economy: state and local governments and special government agencies modeled on the Tennessee Valley Authority will be prime contractors for an ambitious program of infrastructure and public works subcontracted to the private sector. To deal with collapsing US infrastructure, modernize the US electrical grid and provide low-cost energy with 1,000 fourth generation, pebble bed, high temperature reactors of 1,000 to 2,000 megawatts each. Rebuild the rail system with 50,000 miles of ultra-modern maglev Amtrak rail reaching into every state. Rebuild the entire interstate highway system to 21st century standards. Rebuild drinking water and waste water systems nationwide. Promote canal building and irrigation. For health care, build 1,000 500-bed modern hospitals to meet the minimum Hill-Burton standards of 1946. Train 250,000 doctors over the next decade. The Davis-Bacon Act will mandate union pay scales for all projects. For the farm sector, provide a debt freeze for the duration of the crisis, 0% federal credit for working capital and capital improvements, a ban on foreclosures, and federal price supports at 110% of parity across the board, with farm surpluses being used for a new Food for Peace program to stop world famine and genocide. Working with other interested nations, invest $100 billion each in: biomedical research to cure dread diseases; high energy physics (including lasers) to develop fusion power and beyond; and a multi-decade NASA program of moon-Mars manned exploration, permanent colonization, and industrial production. These science drivers will provide the technological spin-offs to modernize the entire US economy in the same way that the NASA moon shot gave us microchips and computers in the 1960s. These steps will expand and upgrade the national stock of capital goods and enhance the real productivity of US labor. Return the federal budget and foreign trade to surplus in 5 years or less.

4. Measures to defend and expand the social safety net: Restore all cuts; full funding at improved levels for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, jobless benefits, WIC, Head Start, and related programs. Offer Medicare for All to anyone under 65 who wants it at $100 per person per month, with reduced rates for families, students, and the unemployed. Pay for this with Tobin tax revenues and TARP clawback, and by ending the Iraq and Afghan wars. Seek to raise life expectancy by five years for starters. No rationing or death panels; savings can come only by finding cures. Quickly reach a $15 per hour living wage. Repeal the Taft-Hartley Act and affirm the right to organize. Pass card check to promote collective bargaining.

5. Measures to re-launch world trade and promote world recovery: Create a new world monetary system including the euro, the yen, the dollar, and the ruble, plus emerging Arab and Latin American regional currencies, with fixed exchange rates and narrow bands of fluctuation enforced by participating governments. Institute clearing and gold settlement among member states. Replace the IMF with a Multilateral Development Bank to finance world trade and infrastructure. The goal of the system must be to re-launch world trade through exports of high-technology capital goods, especially to sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia, and the poorer parts of Latin America. Promote a world Marshall Plan of great projects of world infrastructure, including: a Middle East reconstruction and development program; plans for the Ganges-Bramaputra, Indus, Mekong, Amazon, and Nile-Congo river basins; bridge-tunnel combinations to span the Bering Strait, the Straits of Gibraltar, the Straits of Malacca, the Sicilian narrows, and connect Japan to the Asian mainland; second Panama canal and Kra canals; Eurasian silk road, Cape to Cairo/Dakar to Djibouti, Australian coastal, and Inter-American rail projects, and more. American businesses will receive many of these orders, which means American jobs.

This program will create 30 million jobs in less than five years. It will end the depression, rebuild the US economy, improve wages and standards of living, re-start productive investment, and attain full employment with increased levels of capital investment per job. Most orders placed under this program will go to US private sector bidders. Because of the vastly increased volume of goods put on the market, inflation will not result.

[Norcaliblunt]

http://www.taxwallstreetparty.org

Our Program

A One-Two Punch for Economic Recovery:

1% Wall Street Sales Tax

Wall Street speculators

[Norcaliblunt]

http://danfornebraska.com

About Dan


Abraham Lincoln famously warned that

[Norcaliblunt]

http://www.taxwallstreetparty.org/content/about-tax-wall-street-party


A New Party Is Born

The two-party system has become an intolerable straitjacket on the hopes and dreams of the American people. More than ever, we need a viable alternative to a future of budget cuts, unemployment, despair and war.

Who Will Pay for the Depression? Working People or Wall Street

We have been told that our nation is approaching a

[Norcaliblunt]

Tax Wall Street Party hopes to shake up Nebraska Senate race

05/16/2014
Lincoln, NE: Just days after the primary victories of Ben Sasse (R) and Dave Domina (D), a new voice is entering the race for US Senate in Nebraska.

Dan Buhrdorf, a resident of Lincoln, has announced his candidacy with the Tax Wall Street Party. This is the first US Senate race for the Tax Wall Street Party, which in 2013 ran Randy Credico for mayor of New York City.

Buhrdorf

[Norcaliblunt]

http://www.credico2014.com

Randy Credico for Governor of New York

[Breezy]

Part of me wants you to get all that just so I can have the satisfaction of saying I told you so as the nation goes down in flames.

[KevinNYC]

Yesterday might have been one of the more consequential days in the Obama presidency.


CIA searched Intelligence Committee computers

A behind-the-scenes battle between the CIA and Congress erupted in public Tuesday as the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee accused the agency of breaking laws and breaching constitutional principles in an alleged effort to undermine the panel’s multi-year investigation of a controversial interrogation program.

Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) accused the CIA of *secretly removing documents, searching computers used by the committee and attempting to intimidate congressional investigators by requesting an FBI inquiry of their conduct — charges that CIA Director John Brennan disputed within hours of her appearance on the Senate floor.

http://www.newsweek.com/cia-pushes-b...-senate-231600

CIA Pushes Back Against Accusations That it Spied on Senate

Remember that fight in between the Senate and the CIA in March? Now they did an internal report and the the
CIA admits spying on the Senate Intelligence Committee (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/01/world/senate-intelligence-commitee-cia-interrogation-report.html?_r=0)


C.I.A. Admits Penetrating Senate Intelligence Computers

An internal investigation by the Central Intelligence Agency has found that its officers improperly penetrated a computer network used by the Senate Intelligence Committee to prepare its damning report on the C.I.A.'s detention and interrogation program.

The report by the agency’s inspector general found that C.I.A. officers created a fake online identity to gain access on more than one occasion to computers used by members of the committee staff, and tried to cover their movements as they rooted around the system, according to an official with knowledge of the investigation’s findings.

A statement issued Thursday morning by a C.I.A. spokesman said that John O. Brennan, the agency’s director, had apologized to the two senior members of the intelligence committee and would set up an internal accountability board to review the issue. The statement said that the board, which will be led by former Senator Evan Bayh, an Indiana Democrat, could recommend “potential disciplinary measures” and “steps to address systemic issues.

[KevinNYC]

So far the head of the CIA still has a job. He apologized to Senators this week. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-director-john-brennan-apologizes-for-search-of-senate-computers/2014/07/31/28004b18-18c6-11e4-9349-84d4a85be981_story.html)

Members of the Senate Intelligence Community expressed vindication but some made clear that their animosity toward Brennan persists. One, Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.), said he had “lost confidence in John Brennan,” citing “the unprecedented hacking of congressional staff computers,” damaging leaks about the committee’s interrogation probe and Brennan’s “abject failure to acknowledge any wrongdoing by the agency.”

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said President Obama supports Brennan and disputed that the CIA director’s reversal on the clash with Congress had damaged his credibility. “Not at all,” Earnest said, noting that Brennan had initiated the inspector general review.

“He currently is operating in a very difficult environment to ensure the safety of the American public,” Earnest said. “He is somebody who has a very difficult job, who does that job extraordinarily well.”

The thing that saves him might be he wasn't at the CIA when the spying occurred.

[Dresta]

Walls and walls of imbecility from Norcaliblunt. The misinformation and self-delusion is quite mind-boggling.

[Norcaliblunt]

Walls and walls of imbecility from Norcaliblunt. The misinformation and self-delusion is quite mind-boggling.

What's your policy initiative? The same as Andrew Mellon? "Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate farmers"? Deregulation then a deflationary crash? Take your ass back to Austria with that bull shit you unAmerican bastard.

And KevinNYC quit fronting like a liberal and be one by supporting Randy Credico for Governor of New York.

[Patrick Chewing]

http://www.credico2014.com

Randy Credico for Governor of New York

LOL

[Norcaliblunt]

Help fight austerity!!!!!

http://againstausterity.org

The goal of the UFAA is to advance a program of radical economic reform, based on The American System of Political Economy, as practiced by Alexander Hamilton, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy.

[Norcaliblunt]

All the New Yorkers, Randy Credico for Governor 2014!!!

SEND WALL STREET A MESSAGE: PUT THE ‘TAX WALL STREET PARTY’ ON THE NOVEMBER BALLOT!


https://www.facebook.com/pages/Randy-Credico-for-Governor-of-New-York-2014/111174312385339

FOR A WALL STREET SALES TAX
FOR A NEW DEAL JOBS PROGRAM
FOR A FAIR MINIMUM WAGE
FOR INFRASTRUCTURE BONDS
FOR MEDICARE-FOR-ALL
FOR FREE CITY COLLEGE
AGAINST “STOP AND FRISK”

[gigantes]

interesting article from ABC news...


Worse than Watergate: New revelations from Nixon tapes 40 years after resignation

How bad a president was Richard Nixon?

On the 40th anniversary of his resignation, a new documentary takes a fresh look at the Nixon tapes to make the case that the already vilified 37th president was not as bad as you may think. ... He was worse.

"The most interesting thing that the American people aren't aware of is the kind of the dirty tricks he pulled on those good events, the things he would hold up as great achievements," said Peter Kunhardt, the director and producer of "Nixon by Nixon: In His Own Words," which debuts Monday on HBO.

"When you begin hearing the behind-the-scenes maneuvering to make those great achievements happen, they were as dirty as the Watergate episode," he continued.

Ken Hughes, the author of a new book about Nixon, "Chasing Shadows," joined Kunhardt for an interview with "Top Line" and said that one of the most shocking recent revelations about Nixon is that he intentionally prolonged the war in Vietnam for political gain.

"He realized if Saigon fell before Election Day 1972, it would take his chances of a second term down with it," Hughes said. "You can hear him discussing that in his keeping the war going, sending more Americans to fight and some to die; and it's for political reasons."

The documentary lays out which aides to Nixon were aware they were being recorded and those who were unaware. Among those who were unaware: Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

"There is I think an extra degree of openness and candor with the people who don't know they are being taped," Hughes said. "Henry Kissinger clearly did not know he was being taped and was very angry about being taped."

Though Kissinger stayed loyal to Nixon until the end, Kunhardt said, the film demonstrates the "awkward position" that Kissinger navigated in his dealings with the "thin-skinned" president.

"He was put in this awkward position of having to be kind of a 'yes man,' and at the same time do his hugely important job at the same time," Kunhardt said.

In one recording featured in the film, Nixon can be heard asking an aide to have Kissinger's phone lines bugged after it's believed the then-secretary of state talked to a reporter without the White House's permission.

"When you watch Nixon turn on him and let his own suspicions and paranoia question Kissinger and whether they're on the same page, you feel sorry for the guy," Kunhardt said of Kissinger. "You realize that Nixon was all about what he believed in, and if you veered of course, you were kind of left to the side."

For more about the new revelations of Nixon's dirty dealings, and to find out what question Hughes would ask Nixon today if he could, check out this episode of "Top Line."
funny... nixon sounds sort of ahead of the game and behind the game at the same time. i mean, it certainly worked out better in iraq and afghanistan, this time around.


side note-- fairly recent research in psychology seems to suggest that one's own neurological makeup and life experience tends to determine political party choice far more than rational thought. go figure, right?

obviously there are a lot of ins and outs, maude, but at this point it seems like we might be pre-programmed upon our stances, just a bit.

[KevinNYC]

So there's like an election next month.

According to 538
Republicans have a 60.4% chance of winning a majority.

NYTimes has various predictors giving these possiblities

72% Rep.
60% Rep.
67% Rep.
66% Rep.
58% Rep.
68% Rep.
95% Rep.

[KevinNYC]

Big NY Times story (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/14/world/middleeast/us-casualties-of-iraq-chemical-weapons.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=Banner&module=span-ab-top-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0) on soldiers injured by old pre-1991 chemical weapons in Iraq.
[QUOTE]The discoveries of these chemical weapons did not support the government

[KevinNYC]

Biden's son just got kicked out of the Naval Reserve for doing coke. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/10/16/report-bidens-son-discharged-from-navy-after-positive-cocaine-test/)


Vice President Biden's son Hunter was discharged from the Navy Reserve after testing positive for cocaine, a source familiar with the matter confirmed Thursday.

The source spoke anonymously because no permission had been given to speak publicly about a personnel issue.

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Biden was discharged earlier this year after failing a drug test in June 2013. A lawyer and former lobbyist, Biden was commissioned as an ensign in the Navy Reserve in 2013. He applied for a commission in the reserve as a public affairs officer at age 42. Because of his age, Biden needed a waiver to apply. The Journal reported that he needed a second waiver because of a drug-related charge when he was younger, a request that is not unusual.

He was probably only in the Naval Reserve to help jumpstart a politcal career.

[KevinNYC]

Washington Post poll (http://www.washingtonpost.com/page/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2014/10/19/National-Politics/Polling/release_368.xml) finds that Romney still Leads 2016 GOP race. 2nd place? Jeb Bush.

Q: (AMONG LEANED REPUBLICANS) I'm going to read a list of possible candidates for the Republican nomination for president in 2016. If the 2016 Republican presidential primary or caucus in your state were being held today, for whom would you vote? Which candidate would you lean toward?

Mitt Romney
21

Jeb Bush
11

Mike Huckabee
9

Rand Paul
9
Chris Christie
6
Marco Rubio
6
Rick Perry
6
Ben Carson
5
Paul Ryan
5
Ted Cruz
3
Rick Santorum
3
Bobby Jindal
2
John Kasich
1
Scott Walker
1

[KevinNYC]

538 says the most likely outcome for the Senate is 52 Republicans and 48 Democrats.

[GimmeThat]

so certain lobbyists and funding groups won this year

cool

[Jailblazers7]

I really hope Mitt does run again. I'd be interested to see him get to run for president in an election where he isn't forced to be the anti-Obama. Obama was pretty much the worst opponent for him because it forced him to run against himself.

[GimmeThat]

I really hope Mitt does run again. I'd be interested to see him get to run for president in an election where he isn't forced to be the anti-Obama. Obama was pretty much the worst opponent for him because it forced him to run against himself.

so you think Mitt can get non-whites to vote for him, while having those non-white voters to be against that of their own racial profiling?

and that the republican platform can come up with policies to support such strategy?

[KevinNYC]

I really hope Mitt does run again. I'd be interested to see him get to run for president in an election where he isn't forced to be the anti-Obama. Obama was pretty much the worst opponent for him because it forced him to run against himself.

What do you mean by that?

From my POV, he ran more against himself during the primaries than the general. And I don't see that dynamic changing.

Also interested because he would be a good president or interested because it would be interesting to watch.

[KevinNYC]

so you think Mitt can get non-whites to vote for him, while having those non-white voters to be against that of their own racial profiling?

What?

[Jailblazers7]

What do you mean by that?

From my POV, he ran more against himself during the primaries than the general. And I don't see that dynamic changing.

Also interested because he would be a good president or interested because it would be interesting to watch.

I think Mitt stays out of the game long enough to avoid a lot of the bloodshed in the primaries that will allow him to prevent a big shift right that ****ed him last time around. He will be able to be himself more because Republican voters will see how shitty the field is compared to Mitt. Without the looming threat of a run against Obama, I think it will be a lot easier to sidestep that type of criticism.

[GimmeThat]

What?


re-defining america in good times and bad times

[GimmeThat]

What do you mean by that?

From my POV, he ran more against himself during the primaries than the general. And I don't see that dynamic changing.

Also interested because he would be a good president or interested because it would be interesting to watch.


I think it would depend on how much he put his religious point of view on the line in terms of policy making.

if that's where he pick his battle with the senate.

it could drive some Americans away from the republican party.



again.



there's no knowing to how he would/may have budged had he been in office.

[KevinNYC]

I think Mitt stays out of the game long enough to avoid a lot of the bloodshed in the primaries that will allow him to prevent a big shift right that ****ed him last time around. He will be able to be himself more because Republican voters will see how shitty the field is compared to Mitt. Without the looming threat of a run against Obama, I think it will be a lot easier to sidestep that type of criticism.

It's an interesting strategy, but I don't think it would work.

The Utah Primary is Feb2. Would he skip that?

Then a month later some giant states are up for grabs. (I didn't even notice this the first time I read it, but this also includes the state he was governor of.)
Could he skip Utah and Massachusetts and win?

Florida
Massachusetts
Oklahoma
Tennessee
Texas
Vermont
Virginia

This means by early March something like 500 of 2300 delegates are already gone. You need almost 1200 to win. So if he stayed out as long as April, he would have to win 2/3 of all delegates going forward. And he wouldn't be the frontrunner.

Also to have a viable run, he would probably have to lock down Republican staffers by probably July 2013, the latest. There would be no way to hide his campaign, I don't think.


This is the schedule so far. It might even get more frontloaded.

January
Monday, January 18 Iowa caucuses
Tuesday, January 26 New Hampshire
February
Tuesday, February 2 Colorado caucuses
Minnesota caucuses
Missouri
Utah
Saturday, February 6 Nevada caucuses
Saturday, February 13 South Carolina
Tuesday, February 16 North Carolina
Tuesday, February 23 Arizona
Michigan
March
Tuesday, March 1 Colorado caucuses
Florida
Massachusetts
Oklahoma
Tennessee
Texas
Vermont
Virginia
Tuesday, March 8 Alabama
Hawaii Republican caucuses
Mississippi
Ohio
Tuesday, March 15 Illinois
Saturday, March 19 Louisiana
April
Tuesday, April 5 Maryland
Washington, DC
Wisconsin
Tuesday, April 26 Connecticut
Delaware
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
May
Tuesday, May 3 Indiana
Tuesday, May 10 Nebraska
West Virginia
Tuesday, May 17 Kentucky
Oregon
Tuesday, May 24 Arkansas
June
Tuesday, June 7 California
Montana
New Jersey
New Mexico
South Dakota
Tuesday, June 28 Utah (tentative if law doesn't change to Feb 2)
States with no tentative dates: Georgia
Kansas
Maine
New York
Wyoming
Last update: 5/7/14

Read more at http://www.uspresidentialelectionnews.com/2016-presidential-primary-schedule-calendar/#v44S2BMkmZW5RPkI.99

[Norcaliblunt]

A real progressive New Deal Candidate running for the 5th district of California. An alternative to the Wall Street Democrats.

http://hintonforcongress.com

http://hintonforcongress.com/sites/default/files/download/nextnewdeal.pdf

The Next New Deal


James Hinton

[Norcaliblunt]

Tame Wall Street

Wall Street is no longer a source of productive investment, but a danger to the real economy. We must reduce reckless speculation, make Wall Street pay its fair share of taxes, and encourage investment in 21st century farms, factories and small businesses.

I WILL DEMAND:

A 1% Wall Street Sales Tax, like the one recently passed in Europe. This will prevent another financial crisis and put tens to hundreds of billions back into the US Treasury.

End all bailouts of banks and financial institutions.

Claw back the TARP and other public money given or lent to financiers.
Abolish the notion of too big to fail; Bank of America, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Citibank, Wells Fargo and others are insolvent and must be seized by the FDIC for chapter 7 liquidation, with derivatives eliminated by triage.

Re-institute the Glass-Steagall firewall to separate banks, brokerages, and insurance.

Re-regulate derivatives markets to ban the most dangerous speculative instruments prevent oil, gasoline and food price spikes.

Set a 10% maximum rate of interest on credit cards and payday loans: restore state and federal anti-usury laws. Ban adjustable-rate mortgages.

Restore individual chapter 11.

[Norcaliblunt]

Take Back the Fed

TO FINANCE AN ECONOMIC RECOVERY

The American Society of Civil Engineers reports that America needs to invest $3.6 trillion in its infrastructure over the next 10 years. Imagine the impact of such a program

[Norcaliblunt]

Protect Our Businesses and Farms

How can American businesses compete in the era of

[Norcaliblunt]

Medicare for All

NATIONAL, SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH INSURANCE

The debate over

[Norcaliblunt]

Social Security

PROTECT RETIREMENT WITH DIGNITY

Social Security, a hard-won achievement of the New Deal, is the only thing standing between many seniors and poverty. Our community elders deserve a dignified retirement. We must reject attempts to delay retirement, reduce benefits, and privatize this public treasure.

Social Security has continued to function with a surplus despite decades of economic decline. In the robust economy made possible by my program, Social Security will continue to deliver at improved levels for America

[Norcaliblunt]

Education and Housing

RECLAIMING OUR ECONOMIC RIGHTS

In recent decades the cost of higher education and housing, and the resulting burden of household debt, has far surpassed the ability of the
population to pay. This situation is not only putting working families on the street, it is putting the American Dream out of reach.

Student loan debt is up over 500% since 1999. Average tuition rose over 8% in 2010 alone. Nearly 23% of US homes are underwater, 2/3 of Americans are hounded by debt collectors, and home sales remain stagnant despite the ever-rosy outlook of Washington forecasters. In this situation, the government must stand between the people and the moneychangers; offering protections, write-downs and refinancing.

I propose to use the Federal Reserve System to offer low interest loans to students and homeowners, on the model of Sen. Elizabeth Warren

[Norcaliblunt]

Protecting Civil Rights and Waging Peace
Wall Street wrecked the American economy. Now they're turning our military into the policemen of the world, and our own police against the American people. It doesn't have to be this way.

I WILL BE A LEADING VOICE FOR:

Legalization of marijuana. Marijuana is no more harmful than alcohol, and has untapped potential as medicine. Marijuana should be legal, regulated, and removed from Wall Street as a source of dirty money.

Rollback of the prison/industrial complex. Nothing is more perverse than a private prison. We can't fund our schools, but there seems to be a cornucopia of tax dollars to incarcerate (disproportionately black and brown) people for petty crimes. It costs more money to imprison a person for a year than to send him or her to Stanford. We need to make our justice system more accountable to the public interest, and focus on job training, rehabilitation and treatment rather than imprisonment for drug addiction.

Net neutrality and privacy. Like radio waves and water, the internet should be considered a public utility, and blocked from corporate takeover. I will support efforts to keep the internet free, open and safe for Americans.

A war on poverty. The best affirmative action we can take is economic development. I will promote direct development of and job creation in our urban and rural areas, using interest-free public credit to grease the gears of the American economy.

AND I WILL BE A LEADING VOICE AGAINST:

War and interventions. Syria, Libya, Ukraine, Iraq and other military interventions are none of our business. We need to stay out of wars and conflicts, most of which are engineered for the benefit of banks and multinationals. Rather, we should pursue diplomatic engagement with China, Russia, Iran and other nations around the globe.

[KevinNYC]

Washington Post poll (http://www.washingtonpost.com/page/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2014/10/19/National-Politics/Polling/release_368.xml) finds that Romney still Leads 2016 GOP race. 2nd place? Jeb Bush.

Bush family is pushing Jeb to Run (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/us/the-bushes-led-by-w-rally-to-make-jeb-45.html?_r=0)

[kentatm]

Bush family is pushing Jeb to Run (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/us/the-bushes-led-by-w-rally-to-make-jeb-45.html?_r=0)

Clinton v Bush :lol :facepalm :applause:

[KevinNYC]

It's Election Day.

The last two years of this presidency are going to be interesting.

[KevinNYC]

It's Election Day.

The last two years of this presidency are going to be interesting.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B1ouKILCcAIHEVu.jpg