Holiday Gatherings - What Theme that is being ignored by the MSM was gaining traction at your gatherings?

[wayiwalk]

Had a nice Christmas dinner with family this weekend. My sisters and brother-in-law, and I, are all involved with engineering, science, or technology for a living (3 engineers and 1 marketer). All mid to senior level mgt or specialists in what we do....but not corporate management in any shape or form.

So like all all family gatherings, everyone breaks off into smaller groups in their own discussions at some point, in different rooms at different times.

What was surprising was that independently everyone explored the same theme.

This year was kind of unique, it seemed like a common theme - but in this case, a meme "of the people", is emerging.

Simply put - the gov't, wall street, and the upper echelons of our corporations - are in it for "them", and not us....but, that, we're measurably tired of it, and are no longer able to ignore it.

Duh.

This is nothing new - but there was a calm sense that "this year will be different", in terms of what we can all accept going forward.

Any interesting ideas shared at your gatherings?

[don]

Re: Holiday Gatherings - What Theme that is being ignored by the MSM was gaining traction at your gatherings?

This is nothing new - but there was a calm sense that "this year will be different", in terms of what we can all accept going forward.

If we see austerity from above I think it will be different. That may be mitigated by the election. If not, the conventions could become magnets for pushback. And that's only at the national parties level - to many increasingly no longer relevant. Labor, in the broadest sense, may push back as well. Salaried professionals, blue collar, students - a common-cause alliance dreaded by the 1%. A slice and dice vs broad coalition agenda for 2012.

[jpatter666]

Re: Holiday Gatherings - What Theme that is being ignored by the MSM was gaining traction at your gatherings?

My family gatherings are interesting in that my parents (ex-military) are hard-core Republican (i.e. Fox News and Rush Limbaugh) while my brother and his wife are if not hard-left, certainly solid Democrats. My wife and I trend Libertarian/Independent.

After the second bottle of wine (I created and enforce a rule years ago that politics *will not* be discussed until after the second bottle so we all can eat in peace) the political battles started. My wife and I despise both national parties, but what I did notice was my brother making a cutting comment on how we could possibly not consider voting Democrat.

My wife shot back, "we want what's best for the country, not best for any party".

Normally, this is where we'd put our heads between our legs and hope for the best, but for once, everyone went dead-silent and then the conversation switched out to some of the most honest and interesting I'd ever heard in all our gatherings.

It does seem like there are some sea-changes brewing.

[chedir007]

Re: Holiday Gatherings - What Theme that is being ignored by the MSM was gaining traction at your gatherings?

OK- so are the Canadians as usual behind the curve from US or , this time, truly decoupled? :-)


I tried to pulse my joyfully smug and quite content Canadian families at the gatherings and all I am getting is continued ignorance:


- No one has heard of MF Global

- I mentioned story about Gerald Celente encountering some trouble extracting his money from HSBC- I was told that type of issue exists only in US Branches

- Continued earful about how Gold was a bubble and has burst. ( Sigh! I have one more gathering tonight and after today's gold slaughter, it will be have to "on rocks").

- One piece of news that did seem to resonate with them was the UK royal family or something had to cancel their ski trip to be in line with the UK economic situation (?)- this was news to me.

[wayiwalk]

Re: Holiday Gatherings - What Theme that is being ignored by the MSM was gaining traction at your gatherings?

OK- so are the Canadians as usual behind the curve from US or , this time, truly decoupled? :-)


I tried to pulse my joyfully smug and quite content Canadian families at the gatherings and all I am getting is continued ignorance:


- No one has heard of MF Global

- I mentioned story about Gerald Celente encountering some trouble extracting his money from HSBC- I was told that type of issue exists only in US Branches

- Continued earful about how Gold was a bubble and has burst. ( Sigh! I have one more gathering tonight and after today's gold slaughter, it will be have to "on rocks").

- One piece of news that did seem to resonate with them was the UK royal family or something had to cancel their ski trip to be in line with the UK economic situation (?)- this was news to me.

Not our Royal family - they're in Hawaii this week!

[lektrode]

Re: Holiday Gatherings - What Theme that is being ignored by the MSM was gaining traction at your gatherings?

along with several dozen members of the aristocracy, who've left their private jets scattered all over maui and kona...

but at least they pay for the jetfuel...

and its just a bit less than fair that all these people get to bypass the TSA's new toys at the airports, where all of a sudden every last scrap of paper in ones pockets must now be removed, else one gets the 'special attention'

[lektrode]

Re: Holiday Gatherings - What Theme that is being ignored by the MSM was gaining traction at your gatherings?

wonder if we'll be seeing any pushback on this???


http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics...ss-get-richer/

As Americans Get Poorer, Members of Congress Get Richer
Dec 27, 2011 12:10pm




Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

While millions of Americans saw their incomes decrease, their job opportunities dissipate and their home values drop as the economy dipped, the 535 men and women they elected to represent them in the U.S. Congress were not only shielded from the economic downturn but gained during it.

The average American’s net worth has dropped 8 percent during the past six years, while members of Congress got, on average, 15 percent richer, according to a New York Times analysis of financial disclosure. The median net worth of members of Congress is about $913,000, compared with about $100,000 for the country at large, the Times’ analysis found.

This wealth disparity between lawmakers and the people they represent seems to be continually growing. Nearly half of Congress — 249 members — are millionaires, while only 5 percent of American households can make the same claim.

Even among the super rich, members of Congress fare better than other wealthy Americans. While the net worth of the richest 10 percent of Americans has remained stagnant since 2004, lawmakers’ net worth has seen double-digit growth, the Times reports.

Members of the House have fared especially well. From 1984 to 2009, the average net worth of the 435 House reps more than doubled, from $280,000 to $725,000, not including home equity, according to a Washington Post analysis of financial disclosures.

And while lawmakers in the “people’s house” grew significantly richer, the people they represent became slightly poorer, with the average wealth of an American household dropping from $20,600 to $20,500 over the same time period, the Post reports.

This growing disparity may be due, in part, to the rising cost of campaigning, which may deter less-affluent citizens from seeking public office.

To win a House seat, candidates spent an average of $1.4 million in 2010, four times as much as was spent in 1976, according to the Federal Election Commission. Winning a Senate seat is nearly 10 times as expensive, with the average successful Senate campaign shelling out nearly $10 million in 2010.

and some have remarked about/wondered why i refer to them as the Political Aristocracy ?

and love her or hate her, its really difficult to argue with her on this:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...463191222.html

• NOVEMBER 18, 2011

How Congress Occupied Wall Street

Politicians who arrive in Washington as men and women of modest means leave as millionaires. Why?


By SARAH PALIN

Mark Twain famously wrote, "There is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress." Peter Schweizer's new book, "Throw Them All Out," reveals this permanent political class in all its arrogant glory. (Full disclosure: Mr. Schweizer is employed by my political action committee as a foreign-policy adviser.)
Mr. Schweizer answers the questions so many of us have asked. I addressed this in a speech in Iowa last Labor Day weekend. How do politicians who arrive in Washington, D.C. as men and women of modest means leave as millionaires? How do they miraculously accumulate wealth at a rate faster than the rest of us? How do politicians' stock portfolios outperform even the best hedge-fund managers'? I answered the question in that speech: Politicians derive power from the authority of their office and their access to our tax dollars, and they use that power to enrich and shield themselves.


Associated Press

The money-making opportunities for politicians are myriad, and Mr. Schweizer details the most lucrative methods: accepting sweetheart gifts of IPO stock from companies seeking to influence legislation, practicing insider trading with nonpublic government information, earmarking projects that benefit personal real estate holdings, and even subtly extorting campaign donations through the threat of legislation unfavorable to an industry.

The list goes on and on, and it's sickening.

Astonishingly, none of this is technically illegal, at least not for Congress. Members of Congress exempt themselves from the laws they apply to the rest of us. That includes laws that protect whistleblowers (nothing prevents members of Congress from retaliating against staffers who shine light on corruption) and Freedom of Information Act requests (it's easier to get classified documents from the CIA than from a congressional office).

The corruption isn't confined to one political party or just a few bad apples. It's an endemic problem encompassing leadership on both sides of the aisle. It's an entire system of public servants feathering their own nests.

None of this surprises me. I've been fighting this type of corruption and cronyism my entire political career. For years Alaskans suspected that our lawmakers and state administrators were in the pockets of the big oil companies to the detriment of ordinary Alaskans. We knew we were being taken for a ride, but it took FBI wiretaps to finally capture lawmakers in the act of selling their votes. In the wake of politicos being carted off to prison, my administration enacted reforms based on transparency and accountability to prevent this from happening again.

We were successful because we had the righteous indignation of Alaskan citizens on our side. Our good ol' boy political class in Juneau was definitely not with us. Business was good for them, so why would they want to end "business as usual"?

The moment you threaten to strip politicians of their legal graft, they'll moan that they can't govern effectively without it. Perhaps they'll gravitate toward reform, but often their idea of reform is to limit the right of "We the people" to exercise our freedom of speech in the political process.

I've learned from local, state and national political experience that the only solution to entrenched corruption is sudden and relentless reform. Sudden because our permanent political class is adept at changing the subject to divert the public's attention—and we can no longer afford to be indifferent to this system of graft when our country is going bankrupt. Reform must be relentless because fighting corruption is like a game of whack-a-mole. You knock it down in one area only to see it pop up in another.

What are the solutions? We need reform that provides real transparency. Congress should be subject to the Freedom of Information Act like everyone else. We need more detailed financial disclosure reports, and members should submit reports much more often than once a year. All stock transactions above $5,000 should be disclosed within five days.

We need equality under the law. From now on, laws that apply to the private sector must apply to Congress, including whistleblower, conflict-of-interest and insider-trading laws.

(never mind on healthcare, social 'security' and bouncing checks!)

Trading on nonpublic government information should be illegal both for those who pass on the information and those who trade on it. (This should close the loophole of the blind trusts that aren't really blind because they're managed by family members or friends.)

No more sweetheart land deals with campaign contributors. No gifts of IPO shares. No trading of stocks related to committee assignments. No earmarks where the congressman receives a direct benefit. No accepting campaign contributions while Congress is in session. No lobbyists as family members, and no transitioning into a lobbying career after leaving office. No more revolving door, ever.

This call for real reform must transcend political parties. The grass-roots movements of the right and the left should embrace this. The tea party's mission has always been opposition to waste and crony capitalism, and the Occupy protesters must realize that Washington politicians have been "Occupying Wall Street" long before anyone pitched a tent in Zuccotti Park.

my HOPE for CHANGE for 2012?

that this movie may gain the recognition - by the general public - it so thoroughly deserves and has been nearly ignored to the point of being covered-up by the lamestream media and the chattering class

and a HAPPY NEW YEAR to 'tulipers everywhere!

[davidstvz]

Re: Holiday Gatherings - What Theme that is being ignored by the MSM was gaining traction at your gatherings?

My dad is a die hard republican and solidly neo-conservative. He has a genuine fear of terrorism and happily listens to fox news and limbaugh. He also reads Reason magazine since I got him a subscription. I'm fully independent at this point. I went from conservative to libertarian, but have to consider myself independent now because I can several problems that libertarianism can't address or fix. For example, if climate change is a real problem that we should be addressing, it isn't going to get addressed via the emergent behavior of the free market. If we should be encouraging energy efficiency now before we "use up" all of our fossil fuels, the market won't force us to do that until much later when prices are going up significantly. Again, better to be early and there is no way for laissez-faire to accomplish that.

So I try to pull my dad back to the left a bit, but he can't stop bitching about Obamacare. His general opinion is that we're headed for financial disaster... however, that's probably what Limbaugh is saying to get all the scare votes out against Obama. I don't know if it's based on good fundamentals.