Disqus - Friends of coleenrowley

Re: Fallout in the Sahara: Did the War in Libya Play into the Hands of al-Qaeda? - TIME

Bill Rood — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 01:33:45 -0000

Y'all need to relax. This is all going according to plan. The whole purpose of the intervention in Libya was to sow instability to justify further military expenditures to profit the MIC. For most of the decision makers, this is not done consciously. They really believe they're doing it for "humanitarian" reasons, for "democracy," or some cynically for access to or control of oil or other geopolitical reasons. But they're really serving the interests of the institutions involved, the DoD, CIA, State Department, military contractors and weapons suppliers. The primary interest of these institutions is self preservation and aggrandizement, so any policy that creates more and more justification for their existence is encouraged. Those advocating a more peaceful, less militaristic foreign policy are weeded out of decision-making roles one way or another.

Re: Sitting Duck? USS Enterprise, in the Persian Gulf of Tonkin

Bill Rood — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 00:04:06 -0000

The whole point of the article is that there's no way the Iranians will attack the Enterprise unless the US has already unambiguously entered the conflict, and maybe not even then. If the Enterprise is attacked we should assume an Israeli false-flag operation. Israel does have subs, and of course we would claim the torpedoes came from an Iranian sub or patrol boat.

Re: The Drone-Happy President: Obama Escalates in Yemen – Again

Bill Rood — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 23:46:06 -0000

I am reminded of the 1963 movie, "The Victors." US troops come upon a German pillbox and surround it. Soon, the Germans inside run a white flag out one of the gun slits, but just then a group of Free French arrive on the scene. They begin firing at the pillbox. The white flag is withdrawn and the Germans return fire. The French commander says to the US commander, "Good. Now they are resisting." The French then manage to deploy several grenades into the pillbox, killing all inside.

Re: European, US Austerity Drive is Suicidal: Nobel Economist Stiglitz

Bill Rood — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:22:39 -0000

BS. I attend caucuses every year, usually with the Democrats, although this year I attended Republican caucuses to support Ron Paul. In whichever caucus I attend, I support only genuine peace candidates who would vote to decrease military spending. In the Democratic caucuses, I supported firmly pro-peace candidates for Senate in 2006 and 2008. They were not endorsed and did not win their primaries. I also supported Kucinich in 2008. I do not just attend caucuses. I've also contributed to local forums and Yahoo! groups associated with our county and district Democratic Party.

Candidates who do not support military spending and the continuation or start of the war du jour, such as Paul, Kucinich and the Senate candidates I have favored, are ignored, belittled and ultimately completely marginalized by the corporate/elite media as unlikely to win the general election because they aren't "centrist" enough or because they have no "name recognition." Well, duh! If the media refuses to cover them, they'll have no name recognition. If the media labels their policy positions "radical," they scare the sheeple away.

At least with the Democrats, delegate selection is fair (in my state), apportioned on a proportional basis through what's called "subcaucuses". With the Republicans, the party hacks all meet beforehand and agree to a slate of delegates which are then rammed through the county caucus with the justification that these are the people who have supported the Party forever. Newcomers are not welcome, and no I will not steadfastly support a political party that regularly violates political and social principles I hold dear.

Re: European, US Austerity Drive is Suicidal: Nobel Economist Stiglitz

Bill Rood — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:00:19 -0000

"Sharply limit inflation resulting from this action by increasing the
fractional reserve requirement of commercial banks, up to 10% per year,
until reaching 100% reserve requirements for all lending."

Yes, yes, yes. The fractional reserve fraud is what leads to a boom/bust cycle. As banks increase leverage to generate more interest profits, the situation becomes more and more unstable until some event, which would be truly innocuous if not for the excessive leverage, occurs that results in a small decrease in value of a bubble asset. This small decrease in the bubble asset, possibly as little as 2-3%, completely wipes out the equity of leveraged investors, who then face margin calls or a similar demand that they put up additional capital. This results in rapid de-leveraging, panic and deflation.

The above cycle itself is neither inflationary nor deflationary, but the bankers then agitate for creation of a central bank to "smooth out" the business cycle (that they themselves created with their fraudulent practices) and bail them out when they are caught in panic mode. Of course they don't ban fractional reserve banking, which is the source of their wealth. The result is bailouts and the inflation of central bank issued currency whenever the fraudulent "money" resulting from fractional reserve banking enters a deflationary period. Of course, there's no need to deflate the central bank currency when the fraudulent "money" re-enters an expansionary period. After all, the bankers aren't losing money at that point. The result is a gradual inflation of the currency created by the central bank over decades.

I recently emailed Michael Hudson asking if this is how things work, and he replied that he though I had a pretty good handle on things.

Remember, inflation is bad for society in general, but very good for the direct recipients of the new money that's being created. It's really a form counterfeiting. This is one of the ways the "free market" is skewed to benefit the wealthy financial class to the detriment of workers, the middle class and even manufacturers and other business that create real wealth.

Re: The People Behind the Lawmakers Out to Destroy Public Education: A Primer

Bill Rood — Thu, 03 May 2012 01:08:19 -0000

Actually, teachers and other public employees are NOT paid more than private sector workers if you compare apples to apples. Of course teachers make more than retail clerks or bank tellers. Clerks and tellers do not have the training required of teachers. Even county social workers are college educated; you're unlikely to find a job if you don't have a Masters in Social Work.

If you compare the pay and benefits of these public workers to what a computer professional or nurse makes, public employment doesn't sound so good anymore. They are being scapegoated and you are buying into it.

Re: The People Behind the Lawmakers Out to Destroy Public Education: A Primer

Bill Rood — Thu, 03 May 2012 01:19:31 -0000

And many of them work 50-60 hours per week, unless you don't believe grading papers and preparing lessons is work. In addition, they often have to attend meetings or "professional development" during the summer. I was a teacher 38 years ago. It was the same then as now. We were constantly being scapegoated. That was one reason I got out. I now earn twice as much as most teachers (but not as much as school administrators) and I'm sure the total hours I put in per year is less than what I did as a teacher.

Re: The People Behind the Lawmakers Out to Destroy Public Education: A Primer

Bill Rood — Thu, 03 May 2012 01:39:11 -0000

Workers in the private sector are not "summarily dismissed." If there is not a generalized layoff, there must be cause for dismissal. If there is a general layoff, the employer is supposed to be able to show there was no age discrimination. At least that's the way it is where I work, and my employer has been drastically cutting back its US work force and aggressively off-shoring to India and China.

There is no reason why incompetent teachers can not be fired today. All the school administration has to do is document the teacher's failings. If it isn't done, it's a failure of administration and management, not the teachers' union. Tenure is really nothing more than a guarantee that layoffs will be done according to seniority. The push to do away with it is really designed to 1) allow more experienced teachers, who are also more expensive, to be laid off first even if they are better teachers than someone fresh out of college, 2) allow school administrators to fire teachers for their personal beliefs or just because the administrator doesn't like them and 3) to target union activists.

Here in Minnesota, the Republican legislature voted to freeze teacher salaries after years of teachers accepting voluntary freezes and cuts in benefits. When one of the Democratic legislators offered an amendment to the bill that would have capped superintendent pay at no more than the Governor's pay, the Republicans ruled it "not germaine." I wonder which party superintendents generally contribute to?

Re: A Bad Case of PIISD: Private Insurance Induced Stress Disorder

Bill Rood — Thu, 03 May 2012 02:03:16 -0000

I was diagnosed with cancer in May, 2010, and underwent surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. I had 33 identical radiation treatments. Even though my employer is self-insured, about 1/3 of these were initially denied by Empire Blue Cross, the administrator of my employer's program. I guess it just depended on which clerk processed the claim. They eventually paid up, but meanwhile I had this additional stressor at a very bad time.

The lesson here is that even when an employer is self-insured, there's still incentive in the system for the insurance company that administers the program to invalidly deny claims. Employers bid these contracts out, and contractors that have a track record of keeping their "medical losses" low are more likely to get these contracts.

A recent Money magazine article talked about denied claims. Patients only appeal about 50% of them. Most patients just go ahead and pay without appealing denials, but about 80% if the denied claims that are appealed end up being paid by the insurance company or corporate plan. In fact, most of the time, the insurer or administrator pays the claim on internal appeal, without even going to a neutral party, because they know damn well the claim should never have been denied in the first place.

Re: US Drone Program Fuels Global Dismay with Obama Presidency

Bill Rood — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 01:01:15 -0000

Indeed. It is truly disheartening to read the comments on other sites. In the past, I comforted myself with the thought that people were misled into supporting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but how many times does that excuse hold up? The recent article made it clear that all males of military age killed in drone strikes are labeled "militants," even though we don't even know their names. I am so ashamed.

Re: US Drone Program Fuels Global Dismay with Obama Presidency

Bill Rood — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 01:06:35 -0000

Speaking of Stewart, he had a segment on the drone murders last night. He expressed disapproval of labeling all military age males as "militants" and righteous kills and feigned initial approval of all the politicos criticizing the program, then surprise and dismay that they were only condemning the leak.

Re: The CEO Plan to Steal Your Social Security and Medicare

Bill Rood — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 00:46:25 -0000

No real effort was ever made to discipline DINOs, but freshmen progressives were told that if they didn't vote the corporate, war-mongering line they'd never see a dime from the DCCC for their re-elections. The national Democrats hide behind the DINOs and the filibuster.

Obama had tremendous political capital in early 2009 and could have used it to claw back or at least cap salaries at the TBTF banks. People were clamoring for that, and he could have made hay of any Republican obstructionism, but he chose not to. Just look at his first appointments. It was all quite obvious even before the 2008 election when he accepted more money from Wall Street than any other candidate.

Wake up!

Re: Saddled with Student Debt? Welcome to America's Screwed Generation

Bill Rood — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 00:34:34 -0000

I'm a baby boomer. My parents and I paid for my college (about 50-50) and I graduated without debt. Based on my computer programmer salary, I had enough saved to help my kids with college if they wanted it and were capable, but I told them repeatedly I did not want them taking student loans.

Based on the engineers and programmers I've seen laid off and off-shored in the past 20 years, I've concluded that college is not always a good investment when you consider the lost income and potential career growth during those 4 year. I believe the correlation between college graduation and higher income is not always a cause-effect relationship. The same personal characteristics that lead to college graduation will also lead to career advancement. That's what I tried to tell my kids.

I paid for my daughter's cosmetology school out of pocket, and she has no student loans. My son is mentally ill. He was in and out of prisons and treatment programs for 10 years, and when he finally came off parole, I advised him to get a job, get on his feet and possibly take one or two evening courses before attempting school full time. Against my advise, he was taken advantage of by a local for profit college, who got $10,000 in tuition payments paid for with student loans that he is totally incapable of paying back, probably ever. It should be illegal to grant a loan in cases like his.

While I believe I gave my children good advice, I don't blame other baby boomers in the 99% for falling for the propaganda, nor do I blame the kids that took their advice. Loans made with no possibility of being paid back are a fraudulent conveyance and should be considered illegal. They are just one more trick employed by the Joker banksters to obtain rent. Our children are being allowed and encouraged to sell themselves into slavery. What's even more shameful is that much of the interest on these loans goes into the Federal Treasury, which is why there was such reluctance in Congress to reduce the interest rate.

Re: Saddled with Student Debt? Welcome to America's Screwed Generation

Bill Rood — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 00:49:33 -0000

My ex-wife was having some bleeding problems and was advised at an internationally one of the top 3-4 clinics nationally to have exploratory surgery and possibly a hysterectomy depending on what was found. There was some discussion it could be the big C.

As she did not have insurance, she was in a quandary. Fortunately, because of her financial situation, she was assigned to a nurse practitioner who reviewed many years of her medical records and found 3 previous instances of such bleeding. In all 4 cases, the bleeding was preceded by a cortisone shot.

Additional years of training do not necessarily make a better medical provider.

Re: A Wall Street Devil Gets Religion ... and an Apt Epitaph

Bill Rood — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 01:04:19 -0000

Romney with at least one house of Congress in Democratic hands will likely do less damage than Obama already has.

Personally, I plan to vote for Jill Stein if she's on the ballot here in Minnesota.

Re: RNC: You Didn't Build That

Bill Rood — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 17:18:18 -0000

Really? You don't think growth of the Socialist Party from 1928 to 1932 had anything at all to do with New Deal policies?

Re: Michael Moore: Mitt Romney Will Win In November

Bill Rood — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 13:52:35 -0000

Many posters here seem to be criticizing MM for saying that money controls everything and failing to recognize that one of the reasons Obama may lose is that he deserves to lose. It's basically an excuse, to blame the loss on money and not on an endless betrayal by Democrats in general, not just Obama. Ie, if their base is not energized, it's they who have failed to energize it.

The only way for posters with this position to prove their point, that Obama will lose not because of money but because of his betrayals, is to go to the polls en masse in November and vote for Jill Stein (Green) or Rocky Anderson (Justice). This is the only way to force Democrats to begin paying attention to their base, or elevate someone else to take their place.

Re: The Third-Party Dilemma

Bill Rood — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 14:38:03 -0000

Bingo. I will not be complicit in evil, neither the lesser nor the greater.

Re: We're One Crucial Step Closer to Seeing Tony Blair at The Hague

Bill Rood — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 22:11:27 -0000

If Obama got the US to recognize the ICC, he'd be signing his own indictment.

Re: Playing Patent Games -- And Cashing In Big

Bill Rood — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 22:31:33 -0000

Yeah, our courts would likely bring a judgement against God for infringing a Monsanto patent.

Re: Lifelong Democrat Ready for Fight in Charlotte over School Reform

Bill Rood — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 23:15:49 -0000

"The citizenry, to the degree it CHOOSES to be ill-informed ... holds a measure of complicity."

I think that's exactly the point Tom Carberry was making. Furthermore, those who are AWARE of Obama's war crimes and KNOWINGLY vote for evil deserve to have their schools destroyed and their Constitutional rights nullified.

Some say that direct action and protest are the only true path to change, but civil disobedience is effective only to the extent that those in power fear that it might lead to their removal, which in the US is through elections.

The most powerful message you can send is to take the time to vote in November and vote 3rd party.

Re: Will the GOP Steal America's 2012 Election?

Bill Rood — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 23:03:32 -0000

Very perceptive.

Re: Democratic Leaders Undermine Israeli-Palestinian Peace and Their Own Procedures

Bill Rood — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 23:20:53 -0000

I was never going to vote for Ombomer, but now I'm going to be very hard-pressed to justify voting for ANY Democrat.

Vote for Jill Stein (Green), Rocky Anderson (Justice) or Gary Johnson (Libertarian) in November.

Re: Why We're Striking in Chicago

Bill Rood — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 01:20:34 -0000

The strike is not over pay, at least not at the surface. The issue is the right to a tax funded, quality public education for all our children. Let's take it point by point.

Teacher evaluation and standardized tests: Low test scores are being used 1) to demonize teachers, who have no control over the child's home and neighborhood life and 2) as an excuse to close neighborhood schools in poor areas and replace/convert them to charter schools and/or private schools with vouchers. See below for an explanation of what's wrong with that.

Greater "principal control" vs seniority recall: This is simply a stealth effort to get rid of highly paid, experienced teachers and replace them with cheaper novices. Seniority prevents unfair discrimination based on salary level attained, union or other political activity or simply the "old boy" network. It encourages highly qualified people to enter the profession for the job security it promises and to stay in the profession, benefiting the system with skills attained through years of practice.

Charter schools: http://credo.stanford.edu/r... (note the Stanford affiliation) reports, "...a decent fraction of charter schools, 17 percent, provide superior education opportunities for their students. Nearly half of the charter schools nationwide have results that are no different from the local public school options and over a third, 37 percent, deliver learning results that are significantly worse than their student would have realized had they remained in traditional public schools." Let me paraphrase that. Only 17 percent of charter schools outperform public schools, while 37 percent do worse than public schools. One reason for this is that charter schools do not pay as well, so they don't attract quality staff.

Vouchers: Vouchers are simply a tax subsidy to people who want to send their children to private schools. If all children are provided the same voucher amount, wealthy parents will supplement the voucher and send their kids to Andover, while the children of the poor will send their children to chronically underfunded "choices" in the inner city.

So, in a sense the struggle is all about money after all. It's about wealthy people wanting to minimize their taxes. It's about "entrepeneurs" wanting to make a buck by opening charter and private schools with low-paid, dumbed down staff while being reimbursed at the same per pupil rate as public schools. It's about professional, public school educators and many informed parents wanting public school students to have the best teachers available by offering salaries and benefits sufficient to attract and retain the best.

Tax funded public education is what made America the "melting pot". Perhaps the children of immigrants didn't get to go to school with Vanderbilts, but at least they got to send their children to schools funded to the same level as middle and upper middle income folks. If we destroy our public schools, we will be on the path to a caste society. Is that what we really want? The Chicago Teacher's Union is fighting to save public education as we know it all over America, not just in Chicago, but by example also in Joliet, Aurora, Springfield, Des Moines and Los Angeles.

Our children need you to support their teachers, not scapegoat them.

Re: Why We're Striking in Chicago

Bill Rood — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 01:31:42 -0000

I fear you may be correct. I'm sure Obama would love to have a Sista' Soldier moment.