By Ernest Smith via Wikipedia, Public Domain, Link
Dandelion Salad
March 13, 2023
with Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader Radio Hour on Mar 11, 2023
In a jam-packed program full of abundant insight, Ralph first welcomes back Dahr Jamail to discuss his work We Are the Middle of Forever: Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth about what we can learn from indigenous people who have survived incredible disruptions to the climate to their families and to their way of life.
Image by Daniel Huizinga via Flickr
by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page, June 17, 2022
June 18, 2022
Since January 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives has passed 412 bills (See: Congress.gov) and sent them to the Senate. Unfortunately, the Senate hasn’t acted. “What?” you say, “don’t the Democrats control both Chambers of Congress?” Sure, by the barest of margins. Handcuffed by the filibuster, a Senate rule (not a federal law) requires 60 votes to pass legislation in what Senators of yore called the “world’s greatest deliberative body.”
Image by frankieleon via Flickr
by Jim Kavanagh
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Polemicist
August 21, 2020
On August 8th, Donald Trump took four executive actions on coronavirus relief. One was a memorandum deferring, to the end of the year, payment of the employee portion of the payroll tax for employees making less than $4000 biweekly. (Employer payments had already been deferred in the CARES act.)
Image by Martin Thomas via Flickr
with Chris Hedges
RT America on Apr 6, 2019
The fertility rate in the United States has been steadily falling, so much so that without immigration our population would be declining. This is the seventh straight year fertility rates have fallen. In 2017, the nationwide fertility rate was 1,765.5 births per 1,000 women of childbearing age—well below the rate of 2,100 births per 1,000 women necessary to keep the population stable. Only two states—South Dakota and Utah—had birth rates above replacement levels.
Image by Light Brigading via Flickr
Updated: Jan. 22, 2015
Brave New Films on Jan 21, 2015 Continue reading
Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr
by Michael Hudson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
michael-hudson.com
January 11, 2015
US 2015 budget anti pension law, January 2, 2015.
On the Senate’s last day in session in December, it approved the government’s $1.1 trillion budget for coming fiscal year.
Few people realize how radical the new U.S. budget law was. Budget laws are supposed to decide simply what to fund and what to cut. A budget is not supposed to make new law, or to rewrite the law. But that is what happened, and it was radical.
Image by Fifth World Art via Flickr
by Kathy Durkin
Workers World
April 20, 2013
What will happen to our Social Security benefits? This question is being asked by the program’s 56 million recipients in response to the Obama administration’s proposal to cut the annual cost-of-living raise for all who receive these monthly checks, as part of his 2014 budget.
Image by David Sachs @ SEIU International via Flickr
by Michael Hudson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
michael-hudson.com
Apr 11, 2013
TheRealNews on Apr 11, 2013
Michael Hudson: Obama’s “bargain” on social security reform will push more retirees into poverty in exchange for a minor increase in high end income tax – a class that receives most revenue from capital gains.
Image by aflcio via Flickr
TheRealNews – Apr 13, 2013
Joseph Minarik (former chief economist of the Office of Management and Budget for eight years during the Clinton Administration) and economist Richard Wolff take on President Obama’s proposed changes to Social Security.
Image by Truthout.org via Flickr
Joe Friendly·Feb 21, 2013
Erik Laursen, author of The People’s Pension, The Struggle To Defend Social Security Since Reagan, describes the three decade long war against Social Security, beginning with its origins in the bowels of the Reagan administration, and the dynamics behind an effective long-term strategy, a look at the decades-long ideological attack on this all-important program, the hydra-headed campaign to cut and kill Social Security, conducted over decades by rightwing bankers, foundations, economists and politicians.
Image by Canucklibrarian via Flickr
with Noam Chomsky
LeighaCohen·Feb 8, 2013
In a country where the common attitude seems to be “every man for himself,” students need to band together to fight for their education among other public programs, said Noam Chomsky addressing more than 800 students at East Stroudsburg University on February 6, 2013.
Society, or the common good, as Chomsky called it, encourages people to focus on themselves and their own success. Programs such as public education and Social Security, which are now under attack, are based on a different perception.
“They are based on the perception that we should care about other people….That’s a dangerous perception. It means you should be a human being and not a pathological creature.”
Mr. Chomsky also gives an a long historical perspective to the educational system and how it has been used not for the common good but rather for the special interests of those who have power and money.
Image by peoplesworld via Flickr
by Michael Hudson
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
http://michael-hudson.com
December 28, 2012
How today’s fiscal austerity is reminiscent of World War I’s economic misunderstandings
When World War I broke out in August 1914, economists on both sides forecast that hostilities could not last more than about six months. Wars had grown so expensive that governments quickly would run out of money. It seemed that if Germany could not defeat France by springtime, the Allied and Central Powers would run out of savings and reach what today is called a fiscal cliff and be forced to negotiate a peace agreement.
Image by David Sachs @ SEIU International via Flickr
democracynow·Dec 28, 2012 Continue reading
Image by AFGE via Flickr
by Dennis Kucinich
WASHINGTON, D.C.
December 20, 2012
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today strongly objected to a proposal to cut Social Security benefits. The White House suggested a reduction in Social Security to cut costs as part of the so-called “fiscal cliff” negotiations. The proposal called the “Chained Consumer Price Index” would result in a reduction of benefits for Social Security recipients even though Social Security does not contribute to the debt and should not be part of debt reduction negotiations.
by Michael Hudson
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
http://michael-hudson.com
August 31, 2012
Image by badlyricpolice via Flickr
Why Bondholders Can’t – and Shouldn’t – be Paid
The pace of Wall Street’s war against the 99% is quickening in preparation for the kill. Having demonized public employees for being scheduled to receive pensions on their lifetime employment service, bondholders are insisting on getting the money instead. It is the same austerity philosophy that has been forced on Greece and Spain – and the same that is prompting President Obama and Mitt Romney to urge scaling back Social Security and Medicare.
Dandelion Salad 