They're. Laughing. At. Us.

[leftstreet]

Homelessness Up 50% In New York City

Published : Monday, 30 Aug 2010, 11:39 AM EDT

If you think you've been seeing more people sleep on city streets, statistics back up the perception. The homeless population living on New York City streets has gone up 50 percent in the past year, according to city statistics reported by the HellsKitchenLife.com blog.

The New York City Department of Homeless Services conducts a yearly survey of the streets of the city to count the number of homeless who are not in shelters. The HOPE survey was conducted in January 2010.

The number of homeless in the borough of Manhattan was up 47 percent in the past year, according to the count. The 2010 count had 1,145 people living in the streets. That is up 368 from 2009.

http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/local_news/nyc/homelessness-up-in-new-york-city-20100830-lgf

Texas Considers Dropping Medicaid as States Face Budget Crisis

December 6, 2010 at 5:00 PM EDT

For 45 years, the states and federal government's Medicaid program has provided health care to low income children, pregnant women, seniors and disabled adults. Today, Medicaid covers about 50 million Americans.

But the traditional health care safety net for some of America's most fragile citizens is in trouble like never before.

The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that in fiscal 2010 "states were still in the midst of the worst economic downtown since the Great Depression with high unemployment, severely depressed revenues and increased demand for services." That's why last year almost every state cut spending on Medicaid to help close budget shortfalls. The 2009 federal stimulus program infused about $87 billion into state coffers to help stabilize Medicaid programs. But that money will dry up next June with no promising prospect for more.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/12/texas-considers-dropping-medicaid-as-states-face-budget-crisis.html

Unemployment rate for college grads is highest since 1970

4 Dec 2010
Last month's increase in unemployment was especially discouraging for the well-educated.

The jobless rate for Americans with at least a bachelor's degree rose to 5.1%, the highest since 1970 when records were first kept, reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics. October's 4.7% rate was up from 4.4% in September. Meanwhile, the national unemployment rate last month rose to 9.8% from 9.6%.

Joblessness among those with advanced educations probably drove the overall rate higher, as that group makes up 30% of the labor force, the single biggest sector, says Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics. The government's figures show there were 2.4 million unemployed people last month with bachelor's degrees and higher.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/employment/2010-12-06-collegegrads06_ST_N.htm

Credit Squeeze Threatens to Swell March to Bankruptcy

Dec 1, 2010

Many struggling companies tapped robust debt markets this year to stave off final reckonings. But a flurry of recent bankruptcy filings suggests the corporate carnage set off by the financial crisis isn't done yet.

The U.S. default rate, which peaked at nearly 15% in November 2009, according to Moody's Investors Service, has since fallen below 4%. Credit markets are coming back, helping finance firms that seemed on the brink just 12 months ago. But many of these companies remain saddled with too much debt.

Despite welcoming credit markets, smaller companies remain constrained, unable to tap new financing as easily as large corporations. These firms in some cases are more reliant on banks or other financial institutions to stay alive, a dependency that can prove difficult amid current market conditions.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703865004575649151723520176.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Colorado Food Banks Report 'Staggering' Increase In Need As State Struggles With Food Stamp Delivery

11-18-2010
Colorado food banks have been struggling with a "staggering" increase in demand over the last two years, a problem that, as the Denver Post reports, is likely to only get worse over the next few years while the economy slowly improves.

"The worst news is that we continue to hear that even if the economy (goes) back to pre-2008 levels, there may be a gap of 18 to 24 months," Kevin Seggelke, president and chief executive of Food Bank of the Rockies told the Post.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/18/colorado-food-banks-repor_n_785422.html

US homes lost to foreclosure up 25 pct on year

Thu Sep 16, 2010 9:17 am ET
LOS ANGELES – Lenders took back more homes in August than in any month since the start of the U.S. mortgage crisis.

The increase in home repossessions came even as the number of properties entering the foreclosure process slowed for the seventh month in a row, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.

In all, banks repossessed 95,364 properties last month, up 3 percent from July and an increase of 25 percent from August 2009, RealtyTrac said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100916/ap_on_bi_ge/us_foreclosure_rates

[Initech]

1. I'm really beginning to see why the Bolsheviks revolted.

[provis99]

11. the bolsheviks revolted against the Mensheviks and socialists, not the czar.

It hasn't gotten to the Bolshevik stage, yet.

[formercia]

16. That's where Left and Right came from

The Bolsheviks sat on the Left side of the Duma:

In 1905 Nicholas II faced a series of domestic problems that became known as the 1905 Revolution. This included Bloody Sunday, the Potemkin Mutiny and a series of strikes that led to the establishment of the St. Petersburg Soviet. Over the next few weeks over 50 of these soviets were formed all over Russia.

Sergi Witte, the new Chief Minister, advised Nicholas II to make concessions. He eventually agreed and published the October Manifesto. This granted freedom of conscience, speech, meeting and association. He also promised that in future people would not be imprisoned without trial. Finally he announced that no law would become operative without the approval of a new organization called the Duma.

As this was only a consultative body, many Russians felt that this reform did not go far enough. Leon Trotsky and other revolutionaries denounced the plan. In December, 1905, Trotsky and the rest of the executive committee of the St. Petersburg Soviet were arrested.

The First Duma was elected on the basis of indirect universal male suffrage. The peasants, the townsmen and the gentry all elected their own representatives. Delegates from all the provinces met in the provincial town and chose the members of the Duma.

The first meeting of the Duma took place in May 1906. Several changes in the composition of the Duma had been changed since the publication of the October Manifesto. Tsar Nicholas II had also created a State Council, an upper chamber, of which he would nominate half its members. He also retained for himself the right to declare war, to control the Orthodox Church and to dissolve the Duma. The Tsar also had the power to appoint and dismiss ministers.

The First Duma had a left majority consisting of Socialist-Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, Bolsheviks, Octobrists and Constitutional Democrat Party. At their first meeting, members of the Duma put forward a series of demands including the release of political prisoners, trade union rights and land reform. Nicholas II rejected all these proposals and dissolved the Duma in July, 1906.

--snip--

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSduma.htm

[JackRiddler]

25. You're off by 128 years.

There's no evidence of what you say in the quoted text. I hope the Spartacus site at least knows that left and right as political descriptions came from the seating of parties in the French constitutional and national assemblies, starting in 1789. French Revolution. Not Russian. Sorry.

[JDPriestly]

52. Actually, it came an earlier era in France as far as I know.

The terms Left and Right have been used to refer to political affiliation since the early part of the French Revolutionary era. They originally referred to the seating arrangements in the various legislative bodies of France, specifically in the French Legislative Assembly of 1791, when the king was still the formal head of state, and the moderate royalist Feuillants sat on the right side of the chamber, while the radical Montagnards sat on the left.<1> This traditional seating arrangement continues to be observed by the Senate and National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic.

http://www.worldlingo.com/ma/enwiki/en/Left-right_politics#History_of_the_terms

The Russians may have copied the French or just decided on the same arrangement themselves by coincidence. I don't know the Russian history myself.

[readmoreoften]

17. No they revolted against the czar. They stood with the Mensheviks against the czar

and then when the Mensheviks behaved the same way as the czar--continuing the pointless war, siding with Cornilov and monarchists, etc.--then they revolted because they'd had enough of nationalist war and hopes of the "slow route to change". They did not revolt against "socialists", they revolted against the social democrats who took the name of "socialist" while supporting capitalist policies. Much like socialist organizations today do not support the so called "socialist parties" in Greece and Spain who are in power and who just do whatever the neoliberals tell them to do.

[JVS]

38. +1 You win todays session of "Remembering the origins of Leninism"

[socialist_n_TN]

55. As usual read, you are spot on..............

"...when the Mensheviks behaved the same way as the czar......." Sound familar?

[Taverner]

15. [phone] eom

[TBF]

18. Word. nt

[Starry Messenger]

2. You are so right. k&r

[unkachuck]

3. a big, healthy, K&R....n/t

[WCGreen]

4. Wonderful visual...

Thank you...

[flvegan]

5. Stop looking behind that curtain!!!

[Goldstein1984]

6. The laughter isn't a joke

The Republicans I work with were literally laughing today when Obama's "deal" was announced.

Obama is now, officially, a joke. Or maybe just a clown.

[defendandprotect]

53. Right ... was just watch McConnell obviously aglow with the victory ....

it is a joke -- who is left that will believe this --

Obama should be packing his bags --

[inna]

7. (completely unilateral) class warfare in action.

sure, they're laughing.

[leftstreet]

12. !!

Nice pic!

[inna]

13. Have you seen this nice new lovely little stat, btw?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=9603294&mesg_id=9605069

[leftstreet]

14. :puke:

That's just sickening.


Hey, thanks for that link. I missed it before

[valerief]

58. Wow!!! I'm repeating your link here, just to limit the click to one.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/taxes/top-us-incomes-grew-five-fold-in-2009-to-a-519-million-average/19688820/

[socialist_n_TN]

56. It's not a class war until we begin to fight back.............

it's a class massacre.

[Ruby the Liberal]

8. Powerful. K&R

Thank you.

:cry:

[Bluerthanblue]

9. well- it may seem that way, but

a very wise man said:

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” MGandhi

in the end they are the losers. always.

[glitch]

10. Laugh while you can, monkey boys.

Do they really think they'll be immune?

[hobbit709]

19. It's time for another Great Shortening.

[GoCubsGo]

20. To be fair...

Warren Buffett opposes the tax cuts for the uberwealthy. I don't think his photo belongs with that crowd. I think Bill Gates may agree, but I'm not positive about that. The rest of it, however, is spot on.

[progressoid]

22. Yep - and Gates Sr. too.

[TwilightZone]

34. No, no, they're all the same.

We. Must. Stereotype. Everyone.

Buffett is giving the vast majority of his fortune to charity - tens of billions worth. Yet, apparently he's exactly the same as the Koch brothers.

[Scurrilous]

21. I hate the laughter.

:cry: :cry: :cry:

[bvar22]

23. Who is laughing?

What are the they going to do?
Vote for a Republican?
Hahahahahahahahahaha!

[Carni]

45. That photo reminds me of bratty W

The arrogance is very apparent.

Makes me sick.

[pleah]

24. K&R :( n/t

[BzaDem]

26. They're laughing at you -- because their strategy of getting you to blame Obama for their actions is

working masterfully.

[JackRiddler]

27. They have a strategy of getting me to blame Obama for Obama's actions?

Dastardly.

[BzaDem]

31. They have a strategy of getting you to blame Obama for REPUBLICANS' actions. n/t

[JackRiddler]

36. Oh no, I blame the Republicans for those.

Poor Obama. Blamelessly letting himself get railroaded on every major question by the Republicans.

(Is that the image you prefer for your idol?)

[Jakes Progress]

62. It's the only image they have left.

Had they joined progressives months ago instead of enabling and addiction to compromise, perhaps together we could have convinced this administration to save it's soul.

[elehhhhna]

44. I blame Obama fro his Republican-y actions.

[leftstreet]

29. There's nothing in the OP about Obama

There's a Gates, a Buffett, an Ellison, three Waltons, and a Koch

[Carni]

47. Yeah, right

I'm sure that's it... (WTF?)

[frylock]

54. move along..

yeahhhhhhh.... somebody here is being jedi mind tricked, to be sure.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

28. Damned straight...

:mad:

[Mike Nelson]

30. Point well made...

...and I think we should be prepared for more bad.

[TwilightZone]

32. Yeah, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates are giving away tens of billions of dollars to charity.

Fucking hilarious!

[cali]

33. You picked the wrong man to depict in that first photo.

[TwilightZone]

35. They're all the same.

Spend hundreds of millions getting hard-right Republicans elected == giving tens of billions to charity.

It's the new math.

[leftstreet]

37. I know, I know...Buffett is a kinder, gentler Capitalist

He has 'feelings'

I can't help it if he's standing next to Gates

:cry:

[cali]

41. uh, no. Buffett supports ending the tax breaks for the wealthy

I have no idea where gates stands, though I do know that his father is one of the most vocal proponents of the wealthy paying much more.

[leftstreet]

50. Then he should definitely run for public office n/t

[w8liftinglady]

39. I read this with tears in my eyes.I gave a woman and three kids a ride today

saw them walking down a busy street in Ellis County(No public transportation).
She looked like she was starving,and they all had hollow eyes.She was going to a friend's apartment.i asked her and the kids if they wanted "a snack".we stopped by the dollar store,and I bought her a bag of groceries,and a little toy for the kids.She cried,was ashamed.i hugged her,gave her some beads and told her we were all sisters,and it's what sisters do.

This is inhumane-in the fucking United States.we are no better than most third-world countries.

[sarcasmo]

40. The Corporate States of America sure are laughing at us.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

42. K&R

[MichiganVote]

43. Seriously, they don't even bother laughing. We're just dirt to them.

[TheUnspeakable]

46. K AND R

[SaveAmerica]

48. Buffet and Gates were on This week recently, IMO they don't belong

on your list of laughers.

http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/billionaires-buffett-gates-tax-us/story?id=12259003

"If anything, taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper middle class should even probably be cut further," Buffett said. "But I think that people at the high end -- people like myself -- should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we've ever had it."

The billionaire brushed aside Republican arguments that letting tax cuts expire for the wealthy would hurt economic growth.

"They say you have to keep those tax cuts, even on the very wealthy, because that is what energizes business and capitalism," anchor Amanpour said.

"The rich are always going to say that, you know, just give us more money and we'll go out and spend more and then it will all trickle down to the rest of you. But that has not worked the last 10 years, and I hope the American public is catching on," Buffett explained.

[w8liftinglady]

49. kicking-excellent post.

[Wednesdays]

51. You forgot one.

Edit: and some others joining in on the mirth...

[Just-plain-Kathy]

57. My sister has taken in a jobless/homeless friend. ...And so has a friend of hers.

My brother who still lives in the home we grew up in, told me how there are eight people on "our" block who have lost their jobs.

[McCamy Taylor]

59. Very good!

[leeroysphitz]

60. A catalog of despicable animals And their crimes.

And if things keep going in this direction then I think that many of these parasites will be taught to regret their greed and Crapulence.

[jotsy]

61. Let 'em. It ain't funny, it won't last and they'll know how funny it ain't then.

What's worth winning is the battle between hardened and heartier hearts. I've seen your commentary around and suspect yours runs as deep as necessary to be a part of the good that sees us through. Try to hold it together in the meantime.

Edited to add punctuation in header, late afternoon mocha makes for frolic in the fingers.

[blindpig]

63. Big ol kick

Wish I had seen this earlier, well done.

[HughBeaumont]

64. And why shouldn't they?

They get to pull the strings on pretty much everything while we eat our own and each other. It's a flawless plan, really. And more than half of the country thinks just like THIS:

"Oh, you musn't HATE the wealthy. You musn't be JEALOUS of them. They worked far harder than you did to be successful! If you work infinitely harder, you can be JUST LIKE THEM!"

Eyes on the BALL, people. Eyes on the BALL. The have-too-littles and the government are NOT your problem. THEY are.

[maryf]

65. Kicking...

this, sorry I missed it...(I'd like to kick some teeth...)