Category Archives: Blogging

5 Signs the Rich Have Way Too Much Money

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I have an article up at alterNet: 5 Signs the Rich Have Way Too Much Money,

Here’s something to read after you get done trying to figure out how to make the mortgage or the rent or the car payment this month. It’s a little story about how the other half lives. Well, maybe not the other half, exactly. More like the obscenely wealthy .01%.

What do you do when you just have too darn much money? Let’s say you already have your mansion(s), your jet, your yacht, your cars, your $50,000 watches, and you’ve still got too much money left over. (Yes, this really is a problem some people have.) While many, many Americans are struggling to get by, and a very few ultra-wealthy have too much money, here are five signs that the rich are just too rich.

Click through to read 5 Signs the Rich Have Way Too Much Money.

Don’t Cut — Lower the Retirement Age and Open Up More Jobs

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I have a post up over at Bill Moyers’ website: Don’t Cut — Lower the Retirement Age and Open Up More Jobs. The main points are:

1) Lowering the retirement age opens up jobs and,

2) Lowering the Medicare eligibility age takes the most expensive people out of the private insurance pool, which lowers everyone else’s premiums, and these people then become the lease expensive people in Medicare, which lowers the cost-per-person.

Virtually Speaking Tonite 6pm PT – 9pm ET

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Virtually Speaking Sundays – 6p PT/9p ET

Listen live or later http://www.blogtalkradio.com/virtuallyspeaking/2013/10/21/dave-johnson-cliff-schecter-vs-sundays

Dave Johnson & Cliff Schecter offer a counterpoint to the Sunday morning media shows. Jay Ackroyd hosts. Likely:

• The return of the austerity and grand bargain narratives, including the appointment of New Democrats Chris Van Hollen, James Clyburn and Nita Lowey to the budget negotiation committee.

• GOP in disarray. Are the Teahadists chastened or emboldened by the loss?

• PPACA. Particularly the tension between identifying problems and defending it from attack

Plus satirical commentary from Culture of Truth.

Follow @DCJohnson @CliffSchecter @JayAckroyd @Bobblespeak

The VS Media Panel: Avedon Carol, Cliff Schecter, Dave Dayen, Dave Johnson, Dave Waldman, Digby, Gaius Publius, Joan McCarter, Marcy Wheeler & Stuart Zechman.

Listen live or later http://www.blogtalkradio.com/virtuallyspeaking/2013/10/21/dave-johnson-cliff-schecter-vs-sundays

Virtually Speaking Tonite 6pm PT – 9pm ET

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Virtually Speaking Sundays – 6p PT/9p ET

Political & social commentators Dave Johnson & David Waldman & Jay Ackroyd offer a counter point to the Sunday morning talk shows. Plus political satire from Culture of Truth.

This week: #Gunfail in the NYTimes. Obamacare launch. Republican infighting. War vs diplomacy.

Follow @dcjohnson @kagroX @JayAckroyd @Bobblespeak

The VS Media Panel: Avedon Carol, Cliff Schecter, Dave Dayen, Dave Johnson, Dave Waldman, Digby, Gaius Publius, Joan McCarter, Marcy Wheeler & Stuart Zechman.

Listen live or later http://www.blogtalkradio.com/virtuallyspeaking/2013/09/30/dave-johnson-dave-waldman-virtually-speaking-sundays

Virtually Speaking Sundays: Girls Gone Wild! 6p PT/9p ET

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Virtually Speaking Sundays: Girls Gone Wild! 6p PT/9p ET

Political & social commentators digby and Susie Madrak, offer a counter point to the Sunday morning talk shows. They compare notes from their observations, investigations and considerations of the past week. Culture of Truth satirizes the Sunday Morning talk shows. Sherry Reson moderates.

Chuck Todd – the relationship between gov’t and media

Grand bargain rising: Defunding Food stamp, Obamacare

Dept Ceiling Trainwreck

Guns as Acts of God

Follow @digby56 @SusieMadrak @Sherry_Reson @Bobblespeak

Listen Live or Later: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/virtuallyspeaking/2013/09/23/digby-susie-madrak-virtually-speaking-sundays

Virtually Speaking 9ET / 6PT – Me, Gaius Publius, Stuart Zechman and Jay Ackroyd

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6p PT/9p ET – Listen live or later: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/virtuallyspeaking/2013/09/06/gaius-publius-dave-johnson-stuart-zechman-w-jay-ackroyd

Who are ‘we the people’? How might clear majorities of people prevail given that all the electeds (mostly) are against us? Dave Johnson, Gaius Publius, Stuart Zechman and Jay Ackroyd consider the political environment often described as left, right, center and the inverse relationship between the views of the people with power and the general populace.

For example, large majorities in both Republican-supporting voters and Dem-supporting voters favor No Cuts to Education, Medicare and Social Security.

How do we bring this popular coalition together in a way that wins? What are our best strategies for doing that?

Virtually Speaking Sundays: Marcy Wheeler & Dave Waldman

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Do you know about Virtually Speaking?

Tonite (Sunday) at 6p PT / 9pm ET you can listen to Marcy Wheeler and Dave Waldman discuss current events with Jay Ackroyd. Plus satire from Culture of Truth. Syria? Gunfail?

Follow @emptywheel @kagroX @jayackroyd @bobblespeak

Listen live or later: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/virtuallyspeaking/2013/09/02/marcy-wheeler-dave-waldman-virtually-speaking-sundays

You can get all virtually speaking podcasts for iTune at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/virtually-speaking-blog-talk/id305728848

Virtually Speaking Tonite (And You Can Listen Later)

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The GREAT DAVE JOHNSON & GAIUS PUBLIUS • VS SUNDAYS 9ET 6PT

Political & social commentators Dave Johnson & Gaius Publius compare notes from their observations, investigations and considerations of the past week. Jay Ackroyd moderates.

Listen live and later: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/virtuallyspeaking/2013/08/19/dave-johnson-gaius-publius-virtually-speaking-sundays

Content details & background here.

Virtually Speaking Tonite at 9ET/6PT

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I’ll be on Virtually Speaking at 6PT with Americablog’s Gaius Publius talking about a number of things. Gaius has a great writeup over at Americablog: Programming note: Gaius & Dave Johnson on Virtually Speaking Sundays tonight

6p PT/9p ET Listen live or later:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/virtuallyspeaking/2013/07/29/dave-johnson-gaius-publius-virtually-speaking-sundays

Details:

Time: 9pm ET tonight (Sunday)
Who: Dave Johnson, Jay Ackroyd, myself; satire by Culture of Truth
Where: Virtually Speaking at Blog Talk Radio

6 Unbelievable Ways the Big Banks Are Scamming You

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I wrote this for AlterNet:

6 Unbelievable Ways the Big Banks Are Scamming You

Five years since the crash, the big banks continue to screw over their customers.

It is going on five years since the financial crash and three years since President Obama signed the meager Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and the big banks are still scamming and conning and ripping off their customers. What a huge surprise.

After the financial crash, we heard about a laundry list of abuses and frauds that ranged from small things, like hidden fees, to pushing minorities into subprime loans and then switching them into more expensive mortgages at signing time, to huge things like selling trillions of dollars in complicated CDO schemes and making bets on derivatives of derivatives without having the reserves to pay off what they owed when the bets went bad.

Of course, no one at the top was prosecuted and the banks were allowed to settle a host of charges (which meant that their shareholders, not the executives who made the decisions, paid the fines). The bad behavior gave these giants a competitive advantage, driving out what good companies there were. So the costly and destructive bad behavior, schemes, cons and scams continue.

1. Falsifying Paperwork, Blitzing, Lying About Payments to Force Homeowners Into Foreclosure

Read the rest at AlterNet

Watch Netroots Nation Panels And Events

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Keynote schedule is here: http://netroots.me/12a06Cl
Room 210 AE schedule is here: http://netroots.me/11K53lD
Room 210 BF schedule is here: http://netroots.me/11wDYDy
Room 210 CG schedule is here: http://netroots.me/101eAIq
Room 210 DH schedule is here: http://netroots.me/19gYqgY

Main player (Keynotes and Room 210 AE Panels)

Room 210 BF Player

Room 210 CG Player

Room 210 DH Player