Midday open thread

post from Daily Kos on 19 August 2012 03:00:04 PM. © Daily Kos

Arguably folks should be out in the streets over the blatantly systematic efforts to suppress votes in Democratic strongholds by now, but failing that, at least we can keep track of them a little better now: There's an app for that, thanks to the heroes and sheroes at Election Protection. So get the app here, and spread the word.
If you like many continue to ask yourself "Why Can't We End Poverty in America?" Georgetown professor and overall great guy Peter Edelman explains it in language even politicians can understand?if they can stand to look at themselves in the mirror that long without feeling shame.
CEO compensation between 1989 and 2012If you are a low wage worker busting your butt harder than ever before for a large corporation, you've probably just wanted to say to the Man, "Show me the money!" Here's why most of them won't: They continue to keep a lot of it for themselves. Forbes confirms that Fortune 500 CEO compensation is still "gravity defying," thanks to an average increase in compensation of 16.2 percent last year while workers were thanking the heavens that they just kept up with inflation at three percent. But don't feel bad; the investors are getting screwed, too?and this handy interactive chart shows why. From an average $2,548,000 in total comp in 1989 to an average of $10,502,000 in 2012 (a 312 percent increase, or a 13.5 percent raise a year) ain't too shabby. Especially compared to the cumulative seven percent increase that low-wage workers have gotten since 1973. Mo money, mo money, MO money!
Fortunately some folks (such as the policy wonks at the Economic Policy Institute) are not afraid to call a spade a spade, when it comes to the United States economy, and public ask the ugly question in ugly words: Are we are heading towards a servant economy?
Speaking of ugly, imagine a world filled with butterflies that don't look like butterflies anymore, and you can't help but cringe at horror reading about the ecological impacts already being seen just 18 months after the Fukushima meltdown. If this is what has happened just three butterfly generations after the meltdown, ask yourself what we will see after three human generations have been born.
Acceptance of DACA [Deferred Action for Child Arrivals] applications began this week at USCIS, implementing President Obama's executive order stopping removal actions for those brought into the United States as children without legal immigration status. DACA allows a two-year deferral and work authorization for any young person under the age of 31 that otherwise qualifies for relief. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, no doubt still butt hurt from the spanking her SB1070 got from SCOTUS earlier this year, is doubling down on the hateful quotient and has issued an executive order refusing drivers' licenses and "other public benefits" to those who qualify for DACA relief. God bless her racist hating heart.
If you are one of the many who ask yourself why, oh why, nobody has really been called to answer for what happened to the economy, you need look no further than the federal courts, which continue by and large to dismiss lawsuits alleging corporate negligence and malfeasance when it came to the mortgage and securitization practices that almost took down our economy. This week's beneficiary of judicial largesse? Goldman Sachs, which won dismissal of a suit alleging that it not only tolerated robosigning and other predatory servicing practices by Litton Mortgage Servicing (which Goldman acquired in 2007), but that it deliberately pulled out of its TARP commitment early just so it could raise executive pay. Adding insult to injury Goldman made its money off Litton's malfeasance then last year sold: Litton's $42 billion mortgage portfolio to well-known predatory lender Ocwen Financial (which actually believes that changing its name from Ocwen Federal to Ocwen Financial is going to fool anyone who follows predatory mortgage and servicing companies)?just to keep the "make a fortune by screwing homeowners party" going, I guess.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is going to be soaking up the sun in Ecuador, which granted him asylum despite pressure from both the U.S. and Great Britain not to grant him that status. Some argue that both countries should have seen it coming, despite the very real questions about whether Assange is guilty of committing sexual assault on two women in Sweden, as yet another reminder from Latin America that "[first world]" nations ain't the boss of me." Now, Assange just has to find a way get out of the London embassy he's been hanging out at for the past two months without the British government arresting him the second he steps foot on the sidewalk, given its Foreign Minister's statement that it will refuse to recognize "diplomatic asylum."
$25 baggage fees. $150 ticket change fees, and the usurious prices you have to pay to get some stale cheese and crackers on a flight is going to feel like nothing if other airlines take the lead shown by Air France this week and start hitting up the passengers hostage for gas money.