On today’s show, Christina Davidson the Recession Roadie, and Obama’s inability to find the center.
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Split River Designs, A young couple from Christina’s travels.
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Sam Seder Joins Ring of Fire Radio!
11:21 am
Interested in Sam’s take on Obama’a rant from yesterday.
Morning everyone!
11:26 am
Mornin’ Miz McGee.
And everyone.
11:27 am
Morning all.
Big discussion today is Obama’s attitude re the Dems and Progressive base..
He and the leaders of the House and Senate need to get together more.
Seems to me like Obama is trying to rise above parties and do his own thing while having to deal with the parties.
11:33 am
Read Krugman today:
The Sorrow And The Self-Pity
11:33 am
Join the War on Christmas Before It’s Too Late!
Culture Warriors! Fight Christmas Creep!
In Charles Dickens’ day people like Bob Cratchit were lucky to get Christmas day off. That, and an extra lump of coal, and they were satisfied. When I was a boy we got off school for a week at Christmas time. Christmas had over-run it’s boarders from a single day into a week long holiday.
Now we start celebrating Christmas the day after Thanksgiving and it runs a good week into January. It’s taken New Years, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa without resistance and it’s licking it’s chops with an eye on Butterball Day. It’s taking holidays faster than Hitler took Europe. Veteran’s day is as venerable as a 1938 Austrian advent and Martin Luther King Day is looking as worried as Czechoslovakia in this blitzen blitzkrieg.
Christmas has to be stopped and America is just the country to do it! Don’t be a “Peace on Earth appeaser”. Refrain from wishing anyone a Merry Christmas if it isn’t actually December 25th, because IT’S-NOT-CHRISTMAS!
11:34 am
morning all. how are all you dfh’s doing today.
11:36 am
I hope it’s not too much to ask the show to run some music or something for 10-15 minutes before the show starts at 11:30. That way we can connect and go about our business until the show starts.
11:37 am
its a common request but they lack the hardware to do that and do the pre show setup per evan
12:09 pm
Yeah. Today we had some tech issues early, and so the front end got cut. Apologies on that. But given the equipment we have on hand we can’t sound-check while broadcasting. We try to have a minimum of a 3-minute buffer at the front of the stream, and I can try to increase that, but won’t be able to get much more than 6 or 7 minutes.
-Evan
11:38 am
Look at what CeeCee put on the other blog. Under this plan, the poorest will pay MORE.
—————-
Working the hardest, carrying the largest…
Submitted by CeeCee on Wed, 12/08/2010 – 10:28am.
and if the reThugs have their way, won’t see retirement or their social security benefits, but the working poor won’t notice because they are busy trying to survive day to day. What’s a few dollars? FOOD
Mr. President – in your rush to make a deal maybe getting your advisors to do a little “hard work”…the number crunching that the NYT did:
…The proposal does not include an extension of Mr. Obama’s signature tax cut, the Making Work Pay credit, which provided a credit of up to $400 for individuals and $800 for families of low and moderate income. Instead, the plan creates a one-year reduction in Social Security payroll taxes, which are generally levied on the first $106,800 of income. For an individual earning $110,000, that provision would reduce payroll taxes by $2,136.
Although the $120 billion payroll tax reduction offers nearly twice the tax savings of the credit it replaces, it will nonetheless lead to higher tax bills for individuals with incomes below $20,000 and families that make less than $40,000. That is because their payroll tax savings are less than the $400 or $800 they will lose from the Making Work Pay credit.
“It will come to a few dollars a week,” said Roberton Williams, an analyst at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, “but it is an increase.”
To the wealthiest Americans, however, an assortment of breaks is available…
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/08/us/politics/08impact.html?_r=1
11:41 am
If some of the fans of the show wanted to send Sam and the MR team some holiday gifts, where should we mail them?
11:43 am
Have you tried to purchase insurance lately? It’s not cheaper!
And if you have a pre existing condition, sure, you can buy imsurance now, but the cost of it eliminates many people!
11:56 am
i think a big part of the problem is that obama and the white house have totally failed to define the vision, instead outsourcing it to someone else. for healthcare, they threw it over the wall to congress. for this compromise, it was outsourced to timmeh.
11:57 am
You are also probably going to have to pay federal taxes on your Making Work Pay 2009 extra wages or refund this year, without any offset of a new credit if you are still in that kind of shape (which is at least likely as not with the economy.)
It seems to me….correct?
11:58 am
Oops. That wasn’t really supposed to be a reply to that.
11:54 am
Also what bothered me is when Obama said he’s ready for a fight next year. What about a fight now? It’s going to be the same if not worse next year so why give them a running start? Fight now! Why Wait?
They’re walking all over him!
11:54 am
Tax breaks for the rich and corporations are at an insane level. I saw a video about the Gov. of Kentucky, who gave a $40 mil tax credit to a company that wants to build a life-sized Noah’s Ark as a “job creator.” With millions on unemployment insurance, the President is in a tough corner. I think we all would have liked to see a real fight there, but we know the dangers of letting the benefits expire, as well. Somehow we need to close tax-loopholes and explore a real way of getting out of debt – not adding to it by giving more gold to King Midas. Just the sheer numbers of people who can’t find work indicates that our country is still on the brink. The corporate structure in the USA is holding the American people hostage.
3:57 pm
No the left was holding Wall St hostage and their friend Pres O just bailed them out! Those jobs probably aren’t coming back (except in Asia)!
11:59 am
samsteinhp Sam Stein
tensions flaring btw WH and Cong Dems + adm now pushing poll showing extending bush tax cuts is popular thing 2 do http://huff.to/g8nRhr
11:59 am
So the moral is, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. The more you complain the better off you’ll be. That’s what she’s saying.
12:02 pm
I think the comments of those hurt by the recession is better explained by reading Ehrenreich’s “Bright-Sided”.
In this country, complaining too much when you’re in a bad place makes you look like a loser. And it’s not all that positive. That attitude is a big part of what keeps Americans from organizing effectively.
12:07 pm
Yes. Thank you. Jinx.
12:04 pm
Lizz Winstead
Why oN EARTH would you talk to Pat Buchanan about the death of John Lennon.
12:09 pm
Payday?
12:12 pm
Why would you talk to him about anything?
Notice how R dropped him like a hot rock as soon as she knew she could?
12:06 pm
Yup. There’s always an “other than.”
Good going Sam!!
I respect that people who can survive in this atmosphere without hurting others. It shouldn’t be necessary and it shouldn’t be glorified though.
Kind of the same principle as _War is a Force…_
12:11 pm
I think the scary thing about the last guest’s story; is we all know people just like the ones she met on her journey. Living in trailers, having Grandparents help raise children, multiple jobs (>2) per family…
I’ll be the first to call BS on the ‘Virginia Republican’ interview, too.
12:41 pm
I live in VA. He ‘s real.The saddest thing about VA – he ‘s not the
worst homophobe creep.
The Commonwealth of VA is 2 VA’s. North and South.
Normal and Insane.
12:47 pm
There’s also a Central and we know here that NoVA is purty insane too… ;P
12:14 pm
its the return of dewey
12:16 pm
Oh my guy! This guy is so the stereotype of the closeted gay!
12:17 pm
This guy has to be a joke , right? aroused ? card carrying member of the boy scouts?
12:17 pm
Yes. Joke.
12:17 pm
whats all this fuss about the homersimpson agenda
12:40 pm
nevermind
12:47 pm
these knuckle dragging idiots drive me nuts.
12:25 pm
Assange could have accomplished the same thing without becoming a celebrity. He thrust himself into the public eye and that has jeportized his cause. Wikileaks would be more effective if there was no personality attached to the effort.
12:27 pm
I can’t see how the inheritance is conducive to a healthy meritocracy. What’s fair is a 100% inheritance tax.
7:29 pm
“What’s fair is a 100% inheritance tax.”
Amen, brother.
12:30 pm
When it’s just as hard to make your 101st million as your first million, then we’ll have a level playing field in this county.
12:34 pm
Here’s what Sam’s talking about:
Fiscal Tremors
by digby
Oh my:
This alert came via James Pethokoukis of Reuters:
Congressional Republicans appear to be quietly but methodically executing a plan that would a) avoid a federal bailout of spendthrift states and b) cripple public employee unions by pushing cash-strapped states such as California and Illinois to declare bankruptcy. This may be the biggest political battle in Washington, my Capitol Hill sources tell me, of 2011.
That’s why the most intriguing aspect of President Barack Obama’s tax deal with Republicans is what the compromise fails to include — a provision to continue the Build America Bonds program. BABs now account for more than 20 percent of new debt sold by states and local governments thanks to a federal rebate equal to 35 percent of interest costs on the bonds. The subsidy program ends on Dec. 31. And my Reuters colleagues report that a GOP congressional aide said Republicans “have a very firm line on BABS — we are not going to allow them to be included.”
Read More: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/fiscal-tremors.html
12:38 pm
something that needs to be done is a federal moratorium that would prevent states and municipalities from giving corporations tax breaks for moving to an area. in addition they should rollback any existing breaks. this would put an immediate halt to companys hopping from state to state in search of tax free havens.
12:40 pm
Yep.
12:45 pm
The article sam was talking about: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/12/trojan-horse-in-tax-compromise-gop-plan-to-bankrupt-states-break-union.html
12:45 pm
has anybody gotten an acknowledgement for signing up for majority report?
1:27 pm
BE a Pain in the NECK!!
———
Showdown in America email. No More Suffering In Silence:
Dear xxxx
I’d like to tell you a story about my mother, Florence Pilgrim.
A year and a half ago, my mother made her final mortgage payment to JP Morgan Chase on our family’s home in Brooklyn. You’d think that this would be the end of her interactions with Chase, but instead, it was just the beginning of her mortgage troubles.
Immediately after she made her final payment, my mom requested written acknowledgment that her mortgage was paid off in full. Instead, Chase began threatening foreclosure proceedings and engaged in a yearlong campaign of harassment for a home they no longer owned. Phone calls, personal visits to the Chase locations and letters to corporate headquarters went unanswered. Each time she talked to someone at the bank, they would say they were “investigating the problem” – but the calls and bills kept coming.
This October, my mother received another notice that her mortgage would default within 32 days if she didn’t respond. But, this time, she reached out to a community organization that I am a member of, the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition.
Only now, with the backing of a community organization and hundreds of community leaders, do we have Chase’s attention.
There are thousands of stories out there like my mother’s – about JP Morgan Chase and other big banks like Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and US Bank, who are engaging in the same type of mortgage fraud and abuse.
People wake up every day worried that they will be foreclosed on and have to leave their homes. For a year my mother suffered silently and tried to figure this out on her own. You don’t have to suffer in the same manner.
Attorneys General from all fifty states are investigating this fraud, but we can’t win the justice we need for our communities unless we tell our story.
Community Leaders are headed to Iowa on December 14 to meet with the Attorney General leading this investigation, Iowa’s Attorney General Tom Miller. We need to show him how outrageous and devastating these big bank practices have been on our families. Tell your story today and we will deliver it to the Tom Miller on December 14. I know I’ll be sending along my family’s story.
TELL YOUR STORY
Sincerely,
Desiree Pilgrim-Hunter
Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition Board Member
Connect with Showdown in America and National People’s Action on (FB, Twitter, etc.)
4:24 pm
Sorry to miss the IMs today. Just want to throw out this to Sammy…be very careful about the psycho analyzing of Obama. Bottom line, Obama is quite sane. Bush had issues.
6:40 pm
David Dayen says in his News Roundup
• No, the President was not correct about FDR and Social Security. Aside from the fact that it covered more than “widows and orphans” initially, to the extent that it improved, you can chalk that up to vociferous opposition from the left, which forced the hands of the politicians. In other words, exactly what President Obama criticized yesterday. Oh, and FDR never chartered a deficit commission.
http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/12/08/the-roundup-255/
See at link for links in text.
9:57 pm
Hi:
I do hope you realize that the Atlantic is a Republican Magazine (Harper’s is its Democratic analogue) and that people who write for it are typically Republican tools.
This may explain the surprising findings of Christina Davidson, who’s stories of hard hit people being happy are music to rich people’s ears.
2:39 pm
Your musing about Obama is getting a little racist and are starting to make me uncomfortable as a result. You can certainly opine on what you think is his over-conciliatory actions without trying to ascribe it to his being a black man in America, because you don’t know and you will never know, it’s irrelevant, and it’s fucking racist. And if you don’t know if you are being racist, just ask yourself, is this something that jackass Glen Beck would say., And yes, Sam, it’s something that jackass Glen Beck would say.
2:03 am
That was an interesting show. Christina Davidson pretty much talked about how good it is for people to lose their jobs, their homes, become destitute. (except it’s kind of a problem if they have children.)
They finally learn what is really important life, and it isn’t a job, a roof over their heads or food on the table. There are more important things in life than money, especially when you haven’t got a dime.
So I guess we should all look forward to the lessons we’ll learn when we’re financially ruined. It will be good for the character, just as the rich say about the working class.
Who did Ms. Davidson write this book FOR? Certainly not the people she wrote ABOUT. Because they’ll never have the money to buy it.