US Senate Greasing Skids for Next Bank Crash

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Sunday March 11, 2018 · 10:08 AM PDT

2018/03/11 · 10:08

On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate voted to begin floor debate on a bill (S. 2155) that would weaken regulations of banks, large and small, and grease the skids for the next bank crash. After the severe bank crash of 2008, in order to guard against future such crashes, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank law, which enacted the regulations the bill would now weaken. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) scored the bill for budget costs, and figured $671 million over ten years. But the CBO said its estimate was "subject to considerable uncertainty" due to a "slightly greater" "probability in any year that a systemically important financial institution (SIFI) will fail or that there will be a financial crisis." However, in 2008, we saw what some of the real cost to the country could be: $821 billion to the federal government, plus $3.4 trillion in real estate wealth and 5.5 million jobs lost.

The banking bill started out with an aim to aid small community banks and credit unions. But soon lobbyists pushed in terms aiding big bank profits. And so the bill became known as the "Bank Lobbyist Act." A few of the more risky terms would:

hungeski

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Sunday December 31, 2017 · 11:37 PM PST

2017/12/31 · 23:37

December 28, 2017. Cleveland is in a deep freeze. It seems to have come about a month early this winter. The weather service forecasts the cold spell to run for at least another week. I am driving through icy, slushy streets. But it's mostly sunny, though by the rays of a low-arching winter sun. I see one car that looks like it has just been washed. The rest have a road salt glaze.

I am driving from a Target store to the next stop on my shopping run. The shoppers at the store seemed fairly cheerful. A family went by, the children chattering. A boy, guided by his father, had found a good toy for his Christmas money. A man walked in front of me, and said, "Excuse me." A floor clerk directed me to the perfume department, and called ahead to have another clerk meet me there. The other clerk researched and found that the store didn't carry what I was looking for, but that it was available on Amazon. These are Americans, my people. We live in "the land of the free."

hungeski

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Sunday December 17, 2017 · 9:05 AM PST

2017/12/17 · 09:05

Pigskin Latitudes

By Julius Hungeski

(Apologies to Jim Morrison)

When the referees conspire with cameras
And their sullen and aborted
Flags breed tiny monsters,
True football is dead.

Awkward instant
And there must be indisputable video evidence,
Sponsors furiously pumping
their cash green gallop,
And heads nod down
Bored
Commercial
Pause
Consent
In mute spectator agony
Carefully reviewed
And mulled over.

~~~

(From The Paragraph.)

* * *

By Julius Hungeski, TheParagraph.com, Copyright (CC BY-ND) 2017

Tricky Trump FCC Chair Set to Snuff Internet Freedom

hungeski

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Thursday November 30, 2017 · 10:40 AM PST

2017/11/30 · 10:40

Ajit Pai drinks from his big Reese's mug.

Judging by his big Reese's mug, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai seems to like, as do many, chocolate, peanut butter and coffee. But, he seems to hate, as do only a very few, internet freedom. In 2015, the FCC issued an order, which secured that freedom. The order changed the classification of internet service providers (ISPs) from information services to telecommunications services. As a telecommunications service, an ISP must not interfere with the content a person chooses to receive or send. That ISP must follow FCC net neutrality rules to not throttle or block lawful data based on its origin or content. When Donald Trump got elected, a Republican majority on the FCC became inevitable. Shortly after, Pai gave a speech, and recounted how, on the day the FCC issued its order to secure net neutrality, he said that he believed "its days are numbered." He said, "Today, I am more confident than ever that this prediction will come true." And, as it has unfolded, Pai himself has become FCC Chairman, and is leading the charge to snuff net neutrality.

But, as a commissioner since 2012, Pai must know that net neutrality is very popular. And he would know that millions of internet denizens posted four million comments to urge the commission to secure net neutrality. Not long after, the FCC issued its order to do so. In cutting against that popularity, Pai has been less than forthright, and has used tricks in getting to his goal. Let's look at some of Pai's tricks.

hungeski

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Tuesday November 14, 2017 · 7:06 PM PST

2017/11/14 · 19:06

The House Freedom Caucus of the U.S. Congress has built a reputation for bullheaded pursuit of far-right policy, but not for pursuit of freedom, as its name would indicate. It has pushed federal government shutdown, caused the speaker of the House to quit, and scuttled the Republican bill to cut health care for not cutting enough. But, measured against the four freedoms once set down by President Franklin Roosevelt, the caucus seems more in pursuit of serfdom than freedom.

In his "Four Freedoms" speech, given eleven months before the nation's entry into World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt set down a standard of freedom:

In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression – everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way – everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want – which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants-everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear – which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor–anywhere in the world.

Let's see how the caucus measures up to those four essential human freedoms.

hungeski

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Friday July 14, 2017 · 6:48 AM PDT

2017/07/14 · 06:48

Despite cutbacks and financial stress in the industry, the mainstream daily newspaper is still on the job, reporting corruption in public office. For example, here are a few boiled-down summaries of reports that I found over the past month in the local daily I subscribe to.

Involuntary manslaughter among charges filed in Flint water crisis

(The Detroit Free Press, June 14.) The wheels of justice slowly, surely turning ...

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announced the fourth round of criminal charges in the Flint water crisis. The state charged five persons with involuntary manslaughter in the death of Robert Skidmore by Legionnaire's disease. An outbreak of the waterborne disease, which killed 12 and struck dozens more, followed the switch of the city's water from the Detroit system to the Flint River.

Among those charged are Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon and former Flint emergency manager Darnell Early. Lyons is accused of failing to alert the public to the outbreak of the disease for a year after he became aware of it. He is also charged with misconduct in office for instructing an official to stop study that would help find the cause of the disease outbreak.

The state also charged Michigan Chief Medical Executive Dr. Eden Wells with obstruction of justice and lying to a police officer. The obstruction of justice charge alleges that Wells threatened to withhold funding for the Flint Area Community Health and Environment Partnership if it did not stop its investigation into the source of the disease outbreak.

hungeski

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Thursday June 22, 2017 · 8:43 PM PDT

2017/06/22 · 20:43

In a concert at the riverside pavilion in Cleveland last week, Paul Simon gave the crowd a tour-de-force -- and a sermonette.

The tour-de-force was made up of a strong choice of songs from Simon's 53-year-long career. Five Simon and Garfunkel songs, five songs from the lush "Graceland" album, a couple from last year's "Stranger to Stranger," and 13 more carried the crowd through a 2 hour and 10 minute musical trip. Throughout, Simon hit the right notes, while his band put out striking strong rhythms and soaring psychedelic sounds.

The sermonette came just before the last song:

I feel a little bit funny about saying these things, but I'm giving, I'm allowing myself the privilege of it due to my advanced age. For years it is my observation: Anger is addictive. And we are becoming a nation of addicts. Ask yourself, "Who are the dealers? Who are the pushers? Where, where is that anger coming from?" And be aware of -- when you hear it, when you see it -- be aware of its source. It's not, it's not that we aren't gonna have reasons to be angry. Of course we do. But decision-making and best choices are made with a cool and a calm mind. And in a well-knit community, practice kindness.

Then he played, in acoustic solo, "The Sound of Silence."

hungeski

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Thursday June 15, 2017 · 5:02 AM PDT

2017/06/15 · 05:02

Ohio slay these gerrymanders. Sign initiative petition.

(To circulate petitions, go to ohfairdistricts.com.)

Ohioans are set to finish the job. In 2015, Ohio voters resoundingly passed an issue to slay statehouse gerrymanders. Now many are signing petitions for a ballot issue to slay Congressional gerrymanders.

Gerrymanders are irregular legislative districts drawn to favor one political party. The 2015 statehouse anti-gerrymander redistricting issue passed with 71% of the vote. It establishes a bi-partisan commission that must have at least two votes from representatives of each of the two biggest parties to adopt a district map.

The new Congressional redistricting issue uses the same commission and follows nearly the same procedures and map-drawing criteria as the statehouse redistricting law. Its map-drawing criteria are:

compliance with law,
contiguousness,
no party favoritism,
avoidance of splitting counties, cities and townships,
representational fairness (based on statewide partisan preferences of voters), and
compactness.

hungeski

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Monday June 05, 2017 · 8:26 PM PDT

2017/06/05 · 20:26

Without Net Neutrality - Blocked! — Without Net Neutrality, your ISP may send your request to the bit bucket.

Simply stated at whatisnetneutrality.org: "Net Neutrality is the principle that the company that connects you to the internet does not get to control what you do on the internet."

That principle protects one's freedom to communicate and to choose information sources, without being throttled or blocked by one's internet service provider (ISP). In this information age, that freedom becomes more-and-more widely recognized as a right. And it becomes more-and-more crucial for citizens of a constitutional democracy in keeping informed and active.

A like principle was in effect for the nation's telephone system. Our government deemed the telephone system a "common carrier" -- a public utility that must treat all messages (phone calls) equally, and not interfere with them. In the dial-up ISP days, that principle carried over to the internet, which then grew rapidly.

Later, big telephone and cable TV companies gathered most of the ISP market. And during the Bush II administration, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) classified those ISPs as "information services," which are not common carriers.

Eager for the easy money to be had by just turning the valve to slow or speed data transmission, big telecoms lobbied against net neutrality. Courts struck down FCC tries at applying the net neutrality principle to ISPs classified as information services. An outcry -- including 4 million comments to the FCC -- came from the internet-using populace. And at last, in 2015, the FCC reclassified ISPs as "telecommunciation services", which are common carriers.

Now, having near-total control of our federal government, Republicans are acting to quash net neutrality and internet freedom. Already, Republican Congressmen and President Trump have repealed the privacy rule. No longer does an ISP have to get your explicit consent before it can use or disclose your browsing history, app usage or content of your messages. That repeal was done using the Congressional Review Act, and so was not subject to a Senate filibuster. Also, nine Republican Senators have introduced a bill to kill net neutrality and ban the FCC from ever adopting it again.

After the election, commissioner Ajit Pai seemed to relish his coming appointment as chairman of a Republican-majority FCC. "We need to fire up the weed whacker and remove those rules that are holding back investment, innovation, and job creation," he said. But Pai and the other Republican commissioner have taken the weed whacker to the flower garden. In spite of hundreds of thousands of new comments to the FCC in favor of keeping net neutrality, they have voted to hold a rulemaking session aimed at undoing its protections.

hungeski

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Thursday March 16, 2017 · 5:58 AM PDT

2017/03/16 · 05:58

MoveOn petition language: "Don't help GOP steal a SCOTUS seat!" — MoveOn petition language.

(Analysis.) Many liberal thinkers have put forth good reasons for senators to reject President Trump's nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. People for the American Way, one of a coalition of groups that delivered block-Gorsuch petitions with one million online signatures, cited his ...

troubling views and record when it comes to siding with wealthy and powerful interests, over the rights of working people, women, and the disabled.

And the Daily Kos action page sizes up Gorsuch as

a right-wing ideologue ... who, based on his record and writings, would likely:

end a woman's right to choose;

eviscerate what remains of the Voting Rights Act;

send clean water and clean air laws to the scrap heap;

uphold extreme Republican gerrymanders; and

give corporations unchecked power.

Those are good arguments to use in a normal Supreme Court nomination. But this is not a normal nomination -- this is theft of a Supreme Court seat in progress.

Republican senators shirked their Constitutional duty by denying, for nearly a year, even a hearing to Merrick Garland, President Obama's pick for this Supreme Court seat. They should not now be rewarded by getting to seat their own Supreme Court judge -- not Gorsuch, nor any other.

As Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) wrote:

Filling this stolen seat with any individual other than Judge Garland will destroy Americans’ respect for the court.

Treating this nomination like the others that came before Judge Garland would effectively ratify the theft of the seat. That’s why I’m determined to vote against Judge Gorsuch and to maintain the 60-vote threshold met by President Obama’s two court nominees, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.

If Democratic Senators of the Judiciary Committee are also determined to vote against Gorsuch, or any Trump pick, then they should not waste time by attending the confirmation hearings. The best way forward now may be for President Trump to withdraw his nominee, and put forth one approved by Democrats. The Democratic senators of the Judiciary Committee could provide a helpful list.

The issue is not the qualifications or political slant of the nominee. The issue is justice.

CLICK TO SIGN PETITION

MoveOn petition: "Democratic Senators: Don't let GOP steal a SCOTUS seat."

CLICK TO SIGN PETITION.

(From The Paragraph.) [Sources & Notes]

* * *

By Quinn Hungeski, TheParagraph.com, Copyright (CC BY-ND) 2017

Righteous Locals Help Syrian Refugee Family Settle in Pennsylvanian Town

hungeski

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Wednesday March 01, 2017 · 6:21 AM PST

2017/03/01 · 06:21

Cross Lady Liberty comforts refugee child. Seen in London at rally against Trump's travel ban, 30 Jan 2017. — Cross Lady Liberty comforts refugee child. Seen at London protest against Trump's travel ban, 30 Jan 2017.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. -- Jesus of Nazareth

On January 27, President Donald Trump issued an order banning entry to the U.S. of persons from certain Muslim-majority countries, and of all refugees. The sudden enforcement of that order drew 1000's of people to the nation's airports, and elsewhere around the world, to stand against religious discrimination and for due process of law, and to support refugees and those blocked by the travel ban. It also drew this comment from one person who has been working to help refugees settle:

“When I see refugees now being shut off like that, I think, ‘How on earth can we be so hardhearted,’ ” said Harley Kooker, who first worked with refugees in Vietnam as a conscientious objector to that war. “I was always taught that we love whoever regardless of ethnicity, race, religion, you know, that’s who my Jesus is, that’s what my Jesus taught.”

hungeski

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Sunday January 22, 2017 · 5:44 PM PST

2017/01/22 · 17:44

U.S. Constitution, Page 2, Emoluments Clause

By taking the office of U.S. president Friday, Donald Trump has also taken a big step towards impeachment. That fact has crossed the mind of at least one member of the House. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), who is a constitutional law professor at American University in Washington, D.C., and the director of the university’s Program on Law and Government Leadership, said:

"Right now (January 18) it looks pretty obvious that [Trump]'s on a collision course with the Emoluments Clause" ... "He has refused to divest himself of tens or hundreds of millions of dollars of business interests he has around the world doing business with foreign governments."

...

"[The Emoluments Clause] says that no elected official, either member of Congress or the president of the United States, can accept a gift, an emolument or any payment at all from a foreign government." ... "He [Trump] just simply refuses to accept that reality. So if he goes into office and he refuses to divest himself, the moment that the first conflict comes up, that's going to look like an impeachable offense."

Poll

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When will Trump be impeached?

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When will Trump be impeached?

Within 1 month

4 votes

1 to 3 months

4 votes

3 to 6 months

16 votes

6 months to 1 year

37 votes

1 to 2 years

19 votes

2 to 4 years

7 votes

4 to 8 years

0 votes

Never

30 votes

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RSS

US Senate Greasing Skids for Next Bank Crash

Through Knowledge Peace

Pigskin Latitudes

Tricky Trump FCC Chair Set to Snuff Internet Freedom

The House Serfdom Caucus

Mainstream Daily News Still on the Job

Paul Simon Gives Tour de Force and a Sermonette

Ohioans to Finish Job, Slay Congressional Gerrymanders

GOP Whacking Internet Freedom

Basic Reason to Block Trump SCOTUS Pick: Justice

Righteous Locals Help Syrian Refugee Family Settle in Pennsylvanian Town

Trump Takes Big Step towards Impeachment