Student Debt Nearly Tripled In 8 Years, New York Federal Reserve Reports

If the United States was wise it would pay for Americans to take their education as far as it would lead them, for that translates as enumerable benefits for the nation as a whole.



The United Negro College Fund had the motto "A mind is a terrible thing to waste", and with the current cost of colleges that sentiment could easily be applied to all the children of America now, but for the most well off.



A Progressive and Wise America would recognize that it is impossible to know where the next breakthrough to propel the nation forward will come from ... a child born with a silver spoon in their mouth, a child born into poverty, or any child in between. Monetizing education undermines the United States competitiveness, and saddling emerging graduates with decades of debt as punishment for the desire to learn is the most self defeating policy a supposedly advanced nation can engage in.
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Student Debt Nearly Tripled In 8 Years, New York Federal Reserve Reports

Don't forget that since you can't discharge Student Loan Debt through bankruptcy it is a Secured Debt ... which means Wall Street takes it, securitizes it, slices it up into derivatives, and re-invests it in the Market the same way it did with sub prime mortgages. In fact, it is pretty obvious that Student Loans have replaced sub prime mortgages for this purpose.



Remember the key rule of Wall Street fraud ... one crashing bubble must be replaced with a new bubble.
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Student Debt Nearly Tripled In 8 Years, New York Federal Reserve Reports

That massive amount of student load debt makes those encumbered a potent political force ... they could crash the US Economy if, together, they cared to. Wall Street had better wipe the self satisfied smirk off its face, and Washington had better come up with solutions to ease Student Loan Debtor's burden.
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John Boehner Compares Tax Proposals Of White House To Stealing (VIDEO)

To Wealthy Individuals and Corporations who don't want to pay their fair share of taxes I say ... Get Lost ... The United States doesn't need you and would do better without you.
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This Is How Wars Start

"Forward" is not a synonym for "Surrender" ... and you're correct, Howard, this is war.
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Voting Rights Act Supreme Court Case: Scalia Condemns The 'Perpetuation Of Racial Entitlement'

Justice Scalia doesn't recognize that the Rich WASPs he fronts for have as much contempt for Italians as they do Blacks.
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Neil Heslin, Father Of Newtown Victim, Testifies At Senate Assault Weapons Ban Hearing

No sane person needs a gun.
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Arkansas Gun Legislation: State Senate Passes Bill To Allow Concealed Weapons On College Campuses

So, in other words, Arkansas is not the place to send your kid to college if you don't want them subjected to armed stalkers in their dorms.
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Wall Street Records Biggest Profit Since Before The Financial Crisis

Multiple sets of books definitely helps.
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JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon: 'We Actually Benefit From Downturns'

I think JPMorgan Chase, and other TBTF Banks, benefit far more from being allowed to hold trillions in toxic assets off book, and not having to account for them to their stock holders. That's much better than a downturn, because the toxic asset obfuscation allows them to pretend they actually haven't miserably failed as a business, and profit handsomely at the Corporate Executive level.
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John Boehner: Sequester Requires Senate To Get 'Off Their Ass' (VIDEO)

Speaker Boehner has presided over a House more interested in Performance Art and Vacations than productivity, and he has the nerve to tell the Senate to get "off their ass"? Humorous.
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Ron Johnson: John Boehner Would Lose Speakership If He Caves On Taxes To Avert Sequester

Senator Johnson speaks for the Koch Brothers, so I am sure there is some legitimacy to his claim, but let's try this on for size ...



The Tea Party deposes Boehner, and the Democrats agree to aid him in retaining his Speakership in exchange for dumping the Hastert Rule and forming a coalition of moderate Republicans and Democrats to get legislation passed. In other words, leave the Tea Party emasculated in the House until the 2014 elections ...



It could be done ... and turnabout is fair play.
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Sequester Cuts Outlined By Obama White House As March 1 Deadline Looms

The People of the United States have been suffering under Republican Austerity Measures since the President was sworn in in 2009, and the Republicans decided the most important thing they could do was insure Obama only served one term, and sabotaged the economy via tactical obstruction to achieve that aim.



So what the Sequester is is a new phase of Austerity not the beginning of Austerity.
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Sequester Cuts Outlined By Obama White House As March 1 Deadline Looms

Since these austerity moves are coordinated at least in the US, EU, and Britain, we need to understand that these decisions are being made at a pay grade above elected officials ... including Presidents and Prime Ministers. The People need to identify and confront directly those behind these draconian measures and not waste precious time on proxies.
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How Bob Woodward's Book Debunks His Big Washington Post Op-Ed

Russ Baker's "Family of Secrets" take on Bob Woodward is worth the read. Completely changed my opinion of him.
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Voting Rights Act Provision Defended By Obama Administration, Civil Rights Groups

If the Conservative Judicial Terrorists on the Supreme Court keep dismantling US Democracy to satisfy the craven wants of the Plutocrats, President Obama should make the move to pack the court ... as FDR did in the 30's. FDR backed off because of public pressure, not because he didn't have the power to do it. Add a new Justice to the court for every Justice currently over the age of 70, and let the Supreme Court return to its nine Justice status quo through attrition. Turn the Supreme Court for these Conservative Justices from Activist Catbird Seat to Neutered Ideological Prison.
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Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Demands Telecommuters Report To The Office

Me thinks Ms Mayer might be paranoid.
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Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us

Eliminate the "Owner Class" from Health Care Delivery. Excise the investors. For Profit Health Care and Pharmaceuticals is unethical and immoral. Rooting for a fellow countryman to go bankrupt on healthcare costs so you can take the profit from their pain via your stocks to take a ski trip to Aspen makes you an evil person. Unambigiously.



The United States needs Comprehensive Universal Single Payer Health Care and the Investor Class needs to be flushed down the toilet on this one.
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Showdown Fatigue

"Showdown Fatigue" is a good term for what is happening, but I think the reason the American People are unlikely to fight goes deeper. The United States has been reduced to being an Operant Conditioning Chamber, or "Skinner Box". There is the well known experiment of the cat in the Skinner Box, with an electrified bottom. in The initial stages of the test, when the Researcher applied current to the bottom of the cage, the cat would leap about it until the current would shut off. A certain duration was established and the cat was conditioned to leap about the enclosure in anticipation of the current being shut off. On one test, however, the current wasn't shut off. The cat leapt about the cage to the point of exhaustion, finally lying down on the bottom of the cage allowing the full charge of electrical current to flow through its body. The cat had given up fighting the inevitability of being shocked, and in further tests it would not leap about the cage when current was applied ... it would just lay on the bottom of the cage and accept its fate without fight or complaint.



I'm afraid the American People have become the cat in the "Skinner Box", due the the delivery of one crisis after another to them, like current to the bottom of their cage, since the attacks of September 11, 2001.
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Ray LaHood Warns Sequester Will Cause Air Travel Delays

See, the problem we have is a large amount of the American population gets all their information about the world from Right Wing media outlets, who focus on the imaginary uselessness of Government. So the brainwashed listeners believe any money spent by the Government is illegitimate, even though they can't identify how. Right Wing media flatters its low information listeners and viewers to believe that they are actually experts in whatever Right Wing meme is being pushed at the time. That is why it is almost impossible to reason with these people, because the propaganda they have been poisoned with is tied to their ego and sense of self worth.



This Sequester stuff is bad, but Right Wing Media consumers have been convinced it isn't a big deal in order to take the heat off the Republicans for the mess they have created. The thing is, you don't explain pain you feel it ... and there are a lot of folks in Red States that have pain coming on March 1st they are not prepared for due to the on air Right Wing personalities they trust.



You'd think after being duped into believing Mitt Romney was going to win in a landslide last November they would know better than to trust what comes out of the Right Wing Media Hive now. I guess not.
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David Brooks, Obama Plan Birther -- Daily Intelligencer

Dealing with these folks is like dealing with an overtired, belligerent child ...



"I want a peanut butter sandwich!!!!"



Mom holds out a peanut butter sandwich wrapped in a paper towel ...



"Here you are, dear."



"I want a peanut butter sandwich!!!!"



"This IS a peanut butter sandwich."



Mom removes paper towel revealing peanut butter sandwich.



"I want a peanut butter sandwich!!!!"



Mom opens sandwich revealing peanut butter.



Child pauses.



"I DON'T WANT a peanut butter sandwich!!!!"
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Is Senator Ted Cruz Our New McCarthy?

Ted Cruz is a Clown. Stop giving him credit for being more than that, you're just masturbating his ego.
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Arkansas 12-Week Abortion Ban Advances In House

It's Unconstitutional to inflict Christian Morality on the General Public that isn't interested in having public policy dictated by someone's archaic Holy Book. I know wandering into 1st Amendment territory on this issue is frightening and distasteful for many, but you prove in court this is a case of a Religion jumping the separation between Church and State and these laws go bye-bye fast.
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GOP-Tea Party Challenges Lead Senators To Tread Carefully

Let's clear up who the "Tea Party" actually is. It isn't a bunch of seniors in tricorn hats waving the "Don't Tread on Me" flag. What it is is the Koch Brothers, and other Right Wing Septuagenarian Cold Warrior Billionaires, pushing what amounts to the John Birch Society doctrine. The Establishment Republicans would never be afraid of a bunch of mechanicals in costume. What terrifies the Establishment GOP Senators is that these Bircher Fascists ( let's not mince words here) are engaged in a Holy War against the United States of America. These guys have money, an array of dimwitted, ambitious right wing proxies who will do anything to play "Bigshot Senator", and have the sands in their life's hourglass running out ... meaning they have no patience with any GOP "Statesmen" that stands in the way of their aspirations of completing their hostile takeover of the United State's Government before their curtain falls.



The GOP Senators have two choices ... cave to the Geriatric Bircher Lords demands ... or get trampled out of political existence.
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Louie Gohmert: Second Amendment Is Necessary Because...Sharia Law?

Sharia Law? This empty inkwell was Chief Justice on Texas's 12th Court of Appeals from 2002 to 2003. The horror.
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Double Ultrasound Bill In Indiana Passes Out Of Senate Committee

At some point the Pro Choice side need to bring a 1st Amendment Case against those obstructing Abortion. This is a religious issue. What informs these anti-abortion zealots is their religious convictions, which have nothing to do with the function of Government.



Demand that the anti-abortion zealots explain the origins of their position in a court of law. If it resolves to being a position based on faith ... then it is unconstitutional what these State governments are doing to impede access to a medical procedure the Supreme Court has found legal.



Who will be brave on this?
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Lindsey Graham: Drone Strikes Have Killed 4,700 People

Why did we get so upset about the deaths of Americans on 09/11/2001, if Senator Graham is correct and sometimes innocent people just get hit? Shouldn't we have just shrugged it off?
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John Boehner: Sequester Is Product Of Obama's 'Failed Leadership'

Sorry Speaker Boehner, the Sequester is part of the 98% you wanted in the Debt Ceiling Deal, that cost the US its AAA Credit Rating for the first time. Also, the only way we have a Sequester issue now is because Republicans in the House and Senate passed the Bill for the Sequester the President signed.



Mr Speaker, Republican finger prints are all over the Sequester ... so, now, let's discuss your failed leadership.
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Pat McCrory, North Carolina GOP Governor, Signs Law Slashing Unemployment Benefits

I'm so glad I'm in California & have Jerry Brown as my Governor. Some States have regressed to the Dark Ages
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Joe Heck Walks Back Suggestion That Gabrielle Giffords Was Used As A 'Prop' For Gun Control Advocates

Tea Party Caucus must have some perverse contest to see who can make the most despicable statement.
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Apple Computers Were Hacked By Same Hackers Who Targeted Facebook: Reuters

Since Chinese Stocks are now globally traded, one can only imagine the degree of penetration Chinese Hackers ... in the guise of traders ... have in the computerized, algorithmic trading that is the foundation of the Global Markets.
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Obama Sequester Speech: Republicans Are Putting Economy At Risk To Help The Wealthy

Let's be clear why Earned Benefits programs are in the cross-hairs in economic talks. The Private Sector requires the mandated payroll cash flow to keep otherwise moribund business and markets buoyant.



Another reason? Wall Street knows it has massive crashes in its future. If it can tie the Social Safety Net to itself, it knows that whenever a crisis hits the US Government would be obligated to come to its rescue lest the bottom fall out of American Society,



I am a firm believer that "Free Market" means free to fail and go bankrupt as well ... even for the wealthy and global corporations. I think putting training wheels on an irresponsible private sector, by ceding the Social Safety Net to it, is not in the interest of the American People.



As we have learned, all to well, since the Administration of President Reagan in the 1980's ... The Private Sector is not a solution to our problem, the Private Sector IS the problem.
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Mary Sue McClurkin, Alabama GOP Lawmaker, Claims A Baby Is The 'Largest Organ In A Body'

I once took an Anatomy class. Even examined a cadaver. Never saw, or learned about "a baby" as an organ.
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The Second-Mortgage Shell Game

This is due to the Federal Government exempting the Financial Sector from Moral Hazard. We'll ultimately pay.
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Newt Gingrich: Democrats' 'Super Bowl Team' Beats GOP's 'Mid-Level College Team' On Technology

It doesn't matter how you compete with technology if your product is garbage. The People are interested in living in the United States of America, not the United States of Strife, Sickness, Poverty and Squalor the Republicans are offering.
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Obama's Guantanamo Is Never Going To Close, So Everyone Might As Well Get Comfortable

If you connect the dots you see why these "non-persons" of Gitmo will likely die there of old age. Al Qeada, and it's affiliates, are all borne from the same seminal event ... The Afghan Mujahedin's war against the Soviet occupation in the 1970's and 1980's. In those days, it was the policy of the US ... under Carter's National Security Adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski ... to empower radical Islamists to confront the Soviet Union in the Afghanistan Theater of the Cold War. It was at this time Osama Bin Laden, considered a "Prince" within the House of Saud, due to his father's relationship with the King, was sent to work with the Afghan Mujahedin as a Saudi representative. Due to the close relationship of the CIA/ISI and Afghan Mujahedin ... Reagan's "Afghan Freedom Fighters" ... many of Al Qeada were affiliates of the CIA, and trained up by the US to confront the Soviets.



This is why many of these individuals are now inmates of Purgatory in Gitmo. This is why Public, Open Trials are forbidden. This is why top Al Qeada prisoners were tortured to the point of mental incompetence ... to obliterate the connection of these individuals with US Intelligence.



For instance, who trained Al Qeada to bring down our Blackhawk Helicopters with shoulder fired missiles in Mogadishu? We did.
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Bernie Madoff Emails CNBC: 'I Wish I Went To Trial'

Oh, is that all? I thought Madoff was going to say he was the lovechild of Rick Santelli and Larry Kudlow.
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Christopher Dorner Conspiracy Theories Abound Over Body In Cabin (VIDEO)

I don't think it is a conspiracy "theory" when you hear members of law enforcement screaming to burn the cabin down via a scanner. It sounds like both an extrajudicial killing of Dorner, and arson of the Cabin he was holed up in.



I understand members of law enforcement were outraged that one of their own had set out to slaughter them, but that doesn't excuse vigilante justice on law enforcement's part. Wearing a badge means you represent The Law, not yourself. Dorner was cornered in a cabin with no place to go. Had he come outside, guns a blazing, I would understand law enforcement taking him out, but burning him alive in the cabin? That's not justice, that's something else entirely.
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Sequester State Of Play: Real Negotiation Won't Happen Until It Hits

Again. The Federal Reserve was able to whip up $26 trillion dollars to bailout the Private Sector in the wake of the 2008 crash ... $26 trillion dollars in addition to the TARP and Stimulus programs that Congress passed and were a pittance in comparison. So, let's be clear, when our Government wants to find the money, it has no problem doing so in a heartbeat.



In other words, the record shows this entire crisis is a con, to cover the implementation of a failed policy of Austerity, that Rich Ignoramuses, in throes of elitist infantilism, have latched onto like it was John Galt's udder.
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Republicans Mounting Filibuster Against Chuck Hagel: Harry Reid

This is Senator Reid and the Democrat's fault, They knew what was coming without filibuster reform.
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Lugar Calls Out Tea Party As GOP Weakness (VIDEO)

If you aren't a paleface who can goosestep in formation there is no place for you in the GOP today.
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Christopher Dorner License: Driver's ID Found Alongside Burnt Body In Cabin

If the suspect burned to death due to an accidental fire at the cabin, that's one thing, if, however, law enforcement made a premeditated choice to burn down the cabin then, unless a Judge signed off on their approach, we have just entered the realm of extrajudicial killing by the authorities.
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Barbara Boxer Pushes Voting Reform With LINE Act (VIDEO)

The Federal Government should take complete control of Federal Elections. If the States want to play around with their State elections that is their choice, but Federal Elections should be beyond the reach of the type of State political corruption we are seeing now, and the voter experience should be uniform in application across the United States.



Also, a commission to address the voting issues headed by a couple of political hacks? Come on, Mr President, you can do better than that.
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Sequester Could Cost U.S. 750,000 Jobs, CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf Says

The Federal Reserve was able to find $26 trillion dollars ... above and beyond the TARP and Stimulus programs passed by Congress ... to bail out the Private Sector in the wake of the 2008 crash, but can produce zero money to bailout Main Street and provide jobs for the American people through the US Government (that, for the record, creates jobs all the freaking time).



So let's be clear with all this economic nonsense. Forcing the American people into debt, poverty and unemployment is a policy choice, not an accident.
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VAWA Vote: Senate Overwhelmingly Passes Violence Against Women Act

What makes me smile is that Republicans have convinced themselves Marco Rubio is the answer to their "Hispanic Problem"
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Mitch McConnell: Sequester Will Take Effect On March 1

It makes me chuckle to see Senator McConnell try to frame this as "The President's Sequester", when the only possible way the President had the chance to sign in Sequester Deal is because the Republicans in the House and Senate allowed him to by passing the legislation.



The Republicans could have prevented the Sequester from occurring but, instead, they empowered the President to make it law.



Fancy that.
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Obama Drones Memo Disclosure Could Change FOIA Cases

Obviously the only way we are going to get information out of the US Government is if concerned citizens turnover information for publication via organizations like Wikileaks. It seems what FOIA requests resolve to at this point is Requesters pointing the Government to information they didn't even know they had, which allows the Gov to obfuscate or delay the release of requested information. So, in a very odd Catch-22 way, the Requesters are insuring their access to information being blocked merely by requesting it from an agency that didn't even know they had it to start with.



That's why anonymous dumps of data resolves to a more effective way to get access to the arcana of the US Government, sadly.
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In VAWA Vote, Senate Overwhelmingly Passes Violence Against Women Act

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Marco Rubio sold as a "Tea Party Darling" at one point, like Rand Paul is a "Tea Party Darling"? Doesn't that mean that the Tea Party actually has two responses to the President tonight and the GOP ... none?
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Obama's Mortgage Crisis Working Group Falls Short Of Billing

Something that won't be mentioned in the SOTU Address tonight is that for a fraction of the $26 trillion dollars the Fed provided in Private and Financial Sector bailouts as a result of the 2008 crash we would likely have full employment today and millions of Americans wouldn't have lost their homes.



Priorities.
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Who Will Be Next Pope After Pope Benedict XVI's Resignation?

I'm not religious in the least, but what does it say when the man, who is God's representative on Earth, resigns?
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