Banks, Schell, Gates, jobs, businesses, work force, AWOL,Koch, stocks, Palin

Banks and corporations prosper based on government money loaned at zero percent

By: Abby Schultz
Special to CNBC.com
Banks rose ahead of major earnings releases, beginning with JPMorgan's on Friday.
The positive tone comes as investors realize corporations are well positioned to take advantage of a strengthening economy, said Marc Pado, market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald.
In the fourth quarter, corporations kept costs low and inventories down as sales rose, Pado said
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No trickle down here. Where are the free loans for homeowners like the ones banks get from government.

msnbc.com news services
Banks repossessed a record million homes in 2010 and this year is set to be even worse with 5 million borrowers at least two months behind on mortgage payments.
More homeowners are expected to start missing payments as they struggle with job losses and loans worth more than their home's value, industry analysts forecast.
"2011 is going to be the peak," said Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at foreclosure tracker RealtyTrac Inc.

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In Fate of the Earth, Jonathan Schell asked if we had the right to destroy the world with nuclear weapons

Wynne Parry
LiveScience Senior Writer
Thu Jan 13, 9:00 am ET
Even if humans stop producing excess carbon dioxide in 2100, the lingering effects of global warming could span the next millennia. The results? By the year 3000, global warming would be more than a hot topic - the West Antarctic ice sheet could collapse, and global sea levels would rise by about 13 feet (4 meters), according to a new study.
Using a computer model, researchers looked at two scenarios - an end to humans' industrial carbon dioxide emissions by 2010 and by 2100 - stretched out to the year 3000.

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Gates is getting it

by Mathieu Rabechault Mathieu Rabechault – Thu Jan 13, 10:35 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP)
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has warned the cost overruns cannot continue. "The culture of endless money that has taken hold must be replaced by a culture of restraint," he said recently.
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More educated people than jobs. More businesses than business. Replace fiction with balance

by Catey Hill
Friday, January 14, 2011

When Joyce Kalivas-Griffin, 57, saw a job opening at a private school nearby, she immediately sent in her resume. She was hopeful — the description matched her skills almost perfectly — but heard nothing. Then, she noticed that the job had been posted again, so she tweaked her resume to obscure her age and resubmitted it. This time, the school called her in for an interview. Kalivas-Griffin says she nailed it, but she didn't get the job: She believes that when the interviewer met her and realized she's no 30-something, her age tipped the scales against her.
Kalivas-Griffin will never know for sure, but as the workforce gets grayer, age bias is likely to increase, experts say. Roughly 25% of employers said they were reluctant to hire older workers, according to a 2006 survey by the Center on Aging and Work at Boston College

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Keeping the restive workforce in line--not sharing shared success. That sentiment captures the coming problems

BILL VLASIC and NICK BUNKLEY, January 13, 2011
DETROIT — The sweeping overhaul and surprising recovery of the American auto industry is about to pay off handsomely for the blue-collar workers at Ford and General Motors.
While the payouts — expected to top $5,000 at Ford — underscore the turnaround being celebrated at the Detroit auto show this week, they also foreshadow the enormous challenge awaiting the rebounding companies: how to maintain and build on their financial health while keeping their historically restive work force in line.

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War comes first


Public Pressure Delays Deployment of Wounded Soldier
As reported by Sarah Lazare and Ryan Harvey
Jeff Hanks, a soldier out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, was deployed to Afghanistan early last year and returned in September 2010 in need of treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. Hanks was denied treatment by two separate military bases for his traumatic injuries and was forced to go Absent Without Official Leave in order to get medical attention from civilian professionals. After surrendering himself at Fort Campbell, he was set to redeploy to Afghanistan yesterday, despite concerns for his fitness for combat. However, a joint campaign called Operation Recovery, organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War and the Civilian-Soldier Alliance, mobilized volunteers in support of Hanks and, as of yesterday, Hanks was not deployed on his scheduled date. Hanks still faces deployment or a dishonorable discharge, but details of his current status are unknown.

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Tea Party Billionaire David Koch Denies Climate Change, Shrugs Off His Carbon Pollution
Lee Fang, ThinkProgress: "This week, ThinkProgress conducted an impromptu interview with David Koch - one of the richest men in America, co-owner of the conglomerate Koch Industries, and a top financier of right-wing front groups - after we found him leaving the swearing-in ceremony for Speaker John Boehner (R-OH). In the first part of the interview, Koch said that he 'admire[s]' the Tea Party movement, and that 'the rank and file are just normal people like us.'
Asked why Koch’s Americans for Prosperity focuses so much on denying climate change, Koch said it was because “regulating CO2 excessively … really damage[s] the economy.” _______________________________________________

Attacks against people’s employment rights unabated. What’s wrong with this picture?

Understanding the Attacks on Public Employees
Dave Johnson, Campaign for America's Future: "You can barely open a newspaper or turn on a radio without hearing about states and local governments bankrupted by high-paid public employees, their pensions and their unions. How much of what you are hearing is really true, and how much is just one more Wall Street-funded campaign to turn people against each other and our government?"
Stocks are soaring, corporate profits are way up, Wall Street gets trillions in bailouts and pays millions upon millions in bonuses. But regular people are having a hard time making ends meet and unemployment is still through the roof.

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Palin sticks her foot in it again

Jewish groups respond to Palin’s use of ‘blood libel’
By Zachary

We wish that Palin had not invoked the phrase 'blood-libel' in reference to the actions of journalists and pundits in placing blame for the shooting in Tucson on others. While the term 'blood-libel' has become part of the English parlance to refer to someone being falsely accused, we wish that Palin had used another phrase, instead of one so fraught with pain in Jewish history."
The National Jewish Democratic Council, a group of Jewish Democrats, said:
"Instead of dialing down the rhetoric at this difficult moment, Sarah Palin chose to accuse others trying to sort out the meaning of this tragedy of somehow engaging in a 'blood libel' against her and others. This is of course a particularly heinous term for American Jews, given that the repeated fiction of blood libels are directly responsible for the murder of so many Jews across centuries — and given that blood libels are so directly intertwined with deeply ingrained anti-Semitism around the globe, even today. [...]

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Where is the oversight on corporations?

Is Lockheed Martin Shadowing You?
William D. Hartung, TomDispatch: "Have you noticed that Lockheed Martin, the giant weapons corporation, is shadowing you? No? Then you haven't been paying much attention. Let me put it this way: If you have a life, Lockheed Martin is likely a part of it. True, Lockheed Martin doesn't actually run the U.S. government, but sometimes it seems as if it might as well.
It’s involved in surveillance and information processing for the CIA, the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the National Security Agency (NSA), the Pentagon, the Census Bureau, and the Postal Service.

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Cutting off employment opportunities for generals

Solution: Fixing General Disgust
Dina Rasor, Truthout: "I suggest that the Congress pass a law that allows generals to work for any corporation that they want when they retire, but they must wait ten years before they are allowed to work or consult for any company that interacts with the DoD or gives financial advise on buying defense contractor stock. After ten years, most of the contacts in DoD will be gone so that they can no longer pressure their former colleagues and they will be giving advice based on their military knowledge, not the influence they had in the Pentagon while they were there."

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Life sometimes the luck of the draw--as in Timothy McVeigh Loughner

TUCSON, Ariz. – A wildlife officer pulled over the suspect in the assassination attempt against an Arizona congresswoman less than three hours before the deadly attack, authorities said Wednesday as they pieced together more details of a frenzied morning.