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Are conservative Christian theology and liberal politics compatible?
Saturday, 23 October 2010
It's about time Kansas quit treating mental illness as an ongoing crime: Constitutional Ballot Question No. 2
Topic: Political and economic

Article 5, section 2 of the Kansas Constitution now reads:

Disqualification to vote. The legislature may, by law, exclude persons from voting because of mental illness or commitment to a jail or penal institution. No person convicted of a felony under the laws of any state or of the United States, unless pardoned or restored to his civil rights, shall be qualified to vote.

The state constitution thus  obviously authorizes the state legislature to disenfranchise anyone who is being treated for any mental illness diagnosed by a properly licensed medical provider--even common depression or "religious psychosis" (a daignosis some would apply to anyone who is serious about religion).  But just as disturbing is the fact that this constitutional provision also includes all mental illnesses in the same class as crimes.  That is, it treats all mental illnesses as ongoing crimes, punishable, should the legislature so choose, by the loss of the right to vote.

 The mischief that might be possible under the current langauge  in only a slightly more toxic political climate is also noteworthy. The same legislature that could deny  psychiatric patients the vote because they are diagnosed (for legitimate therapeutic reasons) with schizophrenia or common depression could also deny the vote to citizens who are diagnosed by properly-qualified medical personnel for political reasons with such contrived maladies as "religious psychosis," "pathological socialist thought disorder" (remember the McCarthy era?) or "homosexual behavior disorder." I consider leaving this invitation in the state constitution dangerous.

 However, Constitutional Amendment Question No. 2 will give Kansas voters the opportunity to remove the words "mental illness or" from this section of the Kansas Constitution, and so to remove mental illness from the same constitutional class as crime.

It's about time.  Vote yes on Ballot Question No. 2.  

Further information about the ballot question can be found in this Ballotpedia article.


 

 

 


Posted by ian_j_site2 at 3:44 PM EDT
Updated: Saturday, 7 June 2014 11:00 PM EDT
Monday, 18 October 2010
Why the Obama coalition collapsed--it abandoned its foundation
Topic: Political and economic

It's not hard to answer the question the press has been raising in recent weeks about why the Obama coalition collapsed.  It collapsed because it abandoned its foundation of actually trying to collaborate WITH the public. 

During the campaign and the transition, the emphasis was on networks of small, local groups that asked for input on major public issues and gave the appearance (false, as it turned out) of actually tring to listen to public input.  The form of the campaign and transition got large nmbers of people to work for the President by giving the foot soldiers an effective illusion of real influence.  It appeared the candidate, later the President-elect, was actually listening.

But something went wrong shortly after the inauguration.  The President stopped listening, even to the public input he had appeared to receive so well before the inauguration.  On issue after issue, once Congress was in session, he preferred politics as usual--though with a Democratic majority that hasn't been seen in some years--over the real change in the very way of doing things in Washington he had previously seemed to promise.   Admittedly, he was aided in reneging on his apparent promise by a Senate which could not do ANYTHING without 60 votes, where the President's party only had 59.  Nevertheless, he stopped listening.

This is not to say that the local groups were disbanded. No, they were preserved, to the extent they could be held together, and the individuals who had enrolled in them to this day continue to receive several e-mails per week urging them to contribute money or contact members of Congress to implement the President's program.  (I know.  I receive these e-mails!)  But the President has quit listening to the small groups, and now focuses on his party's corporate benefactors.

One result of this has been an economic recovery program that very quickly stopped trying to help distressed individuals in favor of an application of the Democratic version of trickle-down economics.  The underlying theory of the Democratic version of trickle-down is the same as the Republican version--if we give enough money to our big corporate friends, eventually they will let some of it trickle down to create some jobs.  Only the list of big corporate friends and the preferred means of making the gift differ, a little bit, between the two parties.  (Republicans tend to favor relieving their friends of taxes others pay, whereas Democrats tend to favor taxing everyone  and giving the money back to their friends directly). The problem with trickle-down, in either partisan form, is that the bigh corporate friends of those in power are only too happy to use the money to create jobs in other countries, where labor is cheaper.  So the effort to build employment through trickle-down is doomed to failure until American labor "catches down" with labor in the Third World.  This is not what the President's supporters wanted, if he had really been listening two years ago.

Another result of this was the health care reform package that was actually enacted.  While it has many good aspects, fundamentally it is designed not to provide affordable health care to normal people but to guarantee the profits of the health insurance industry.  Its centerpiece is its requirement that everyone buy the health insurance industry's product after 2013. The industry, meanwhile, is to be left free to collusively set the price of that product.  (The indutry kept its anitrust law exemption).    This also is not exactly what most of the President's supporters expected two years ago.  

These are only two examples of politics as usual winning out, and the President not listening to the people who elected him.  It is not hard to see why his defunct coalition is not helping him keep control of Congress this year.

   

  

 


Posted by ian_j_site2 at 11:43 PM EDT
Updated: Tuesday, 19 October 2010 8:29 AM EDT
Tuesday, 27 July 2010
The corporate conscience and the end of the U.S. middle class
Topic: Political and economic

This posting is in response to the Yahoo Finance article entitled "The Middle Class in America is Radically Shrinking.  Here are the Stats to Prove it."  The problem identified is that the American middle class is disappearing, resulting in a polarization of the US population into the very rich 1 or 2 percent and the 99 percent poor service sector servants.  The Yahoo commentator, it seems to me, has a part of the cause right, but has not completely identified the causes.  The prmary cause, as I see it, is the transition from the historic situation in which the economy was run by rich people to the current situtation in which the economy is run by rich corporations.

There was a reason the framers of the Constitution, and nearly everyone in the Federal and various state governments in the U.S. until about 1870, deeply distrusted corporations. In the early days of our republic, corporations could be created only by a special act of Congress or a state legislature, and were created only for carefully limited purposes for a set period of years.  The framers distrusted corporations because they are not human. Individual wealthy people, like the framers of the Constitution themselves (all of whom were wealthy and influential men) have consciences and normal human ties to their community and nation.  Corporations are artificial people that have no conscience, no ties to the community, and no motives except their own continued existence, expanding power, and, above all, profit.  We are seeing the fruit of going completely and unreservedly corporate in the destruction of our middle class and the impoverishment of almost all of us for the benefit of immortal corporations. 

See my Warning Concerning Idolatry, first posted October 8, 2000, for a related warning about trust in corporations.  I've been saying this for some time!  

 


Posted by ian_j_site2 at 1:55 PM EDT
Updated: Wednesday, 28 July 2010 9:51 AM EDT
Sunday, 18 July 2010
Christians should pray that Muslims' daily prayers will be answered!
Topic: Positive prayers and posi

Observant Muslims offer Salat prayers five times a day, repeating the same core prayer each time, with some variable additions from the Qur'an.  At the heart of the Salat prayers is Al Fathihah, the first Surah of the Qur'an, which I present here in Yusuf Ali's English understanding:

(1)In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful;

(2)Praise be to God,
the Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds;

(3) Most Gracious; Most Merciful;

(4) Master of the Day of Judgment.

(5) Thee do we worship,
thine aid do we seek.

(6) Show us the straight way,

(7) The way of those on whom
Thou hast bestowed Thy Grace
Those whose (portion)
Is not wrath,
and who go not astray.

Qur’an, Surah 1.

I believe as Christians we should pray that, as our Muslim friends, and Muslim world leaders, pray this prayer sincerely, God would graciously answer their prayers.  In this regard, note particularly ayas 6 and 7: "Show us the straight way, the way of those on whom Thou hast bestowed  Thy Grace, those whose (portion) is not wrath, and who go not astray."  On its face, this is a prayer for wisdom, a prayer to be shown the right way.

Of course, the Bible speaks to prayers for wisdom.  James tells us that "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him."  James 1:5 (KJV). This text doesn't distinguish between Christians and others, it says that God is willing to give wisdom to anyone who asks.  The next few verses explain that the only qualification for asking and receiving direction from God is being willing to listen and obey:

But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

Bible, James 1:5-8 (KJV).

Bible, James 1:6-8.

God promises wisdom, if we will follow it. But He doesn't give advice.

Jesus himself also said that the only qualification for knowing the truth is willingness to follow it:

Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.

Bible, John 7:16-17 (KJV).

Bible, John 7:16-17 (KJV).

So, it would appear that, as Muslims pray to be shown the straight path, we should pray that God will answer these prayers.  May the best understanding of God win! 

 


Posted by ian_j_site2 at 6:41 PM EDT
Updated: Sunday, 18 July 2010 6:50 PM EDT
Wednesday, 10 March 2010
A psalm speaking to politics, politicians and their promises
Topic: Where in the Bible

Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men who cannot save.  When their spirits depart, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing.

Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them--the Lord, who remains faithful for ever. 

He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry.  The Lord sets prisoners free, the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous. 

The Lord watches over the alien, and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

The Lord reigns forever...

Psalm 147:3-10a (NIV). 

 


Posted by ian_j_site2 at 8:29 PM EST
Updated: Wednesday, 10 March 2010 8:37 PM EST
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
Taxes levied by private corporations: A constitutional question, now that health care reform is officially dead
Mood:  sad
Topic: Political and economic

My constitutional question is this: Is it within the enumerated powers of Congress to delegate to a group of private corporations the power to lay and collect a Federal tax for their own benefit? 

Now that all proposals for real health care reform are officially dead, I will raise a constitutional question that I would not have dared to raise while there was still any chance of real reform.  I support real reform, and would not wish my constitutional question to prevent it from occurring.

It seems to me that all of the proposals that were on the table after the death of the public option, by requiring almost everyone to purchase health insurance from private corporations, created taxes for the benefit of those private corporations--the health insurance companies.  That the payment of premiums was to have been, in effect, a tax for the benefit of the insurance companies is demonstrated by the fact that, under all proposals, nonpayment of premiums was to be subject to punishment by the federal government, starting with administrative monetary penalties (collected by the IRS!) and progressing to the threat of criminal prosecution and imprisonment.  The political rhetoric often likened the tax to the requirement to maintain proof of insurance to be licensed to drive.  However, that analogy breaks down because no one is actually REQUIRED to maintain auto liability insurance on threat of criminal penalty.  One only need maintain auto insurance if one chooses to drive--and it is possible to live without driving (many people do it).  The health insurance tax was to be made a condition of simply living.  The choice not to drive is not at all analogous to the choice to commit suicide.

I will grant that such a tax for the benefit of the insurance companies by itself would clearly have been within the powers of Congress under its taxing power (Art. I, sec. 8, cl. 1) and the "necessary and proper" clause (Art. I, sec. 8, cl. 18) IF the proposal had been for the Federal government to collect a tax, in an amount set by Congress, and pay the proceeds over to the health insurance companies to provide coverage. 

However, none of the proposals that died after the Senatorial election in Massachussetts did this.  Instead, all of them merely required individuals to pay the insurance companies directly, in an amount to be determined by the insurance companies themselves.  Moreover, the insurance companies and their premium-setting processes would remain regulated by state law, rendering the amount of this tax geographically non-uniform.  But the most potent objection to this arrangement is simply that it would have given the insurance companies, private entities, the power to determine the amount of the tax without any further action on the part of Congress, that is, the power to lay and collect a tax enforced by the federal government.

According to Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 of the Constitution:

The Congress shall have power

To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States...

The Constitution gives the power to lay and collect taxes to Congress--and only to Congress.  The Sixteenth Amendment gave Congress the power (formerly denied it by Art. I, sec. 9, cl. 4) to impose proportional income taxes on individuals, but it did not change the fundamental principle that only Congress may lay and collect Federal taxes. Neither did it change in any way the requirement of Art. I, sec. 7, cl. 1, that all bills for raising revenue must originate in the House of Representatives and be concurred in by the Senate.  So bills setting tax rates are to originate in the House, also pass the Senate, and be signed by the President or enacted by Congress over his veto. (Art. I, sec. 7, Cl. 3). 

Congress has in the past on several occasions attempted to delegate some of its Constitutional powers to the Executive Branch, and been rebuked by the Supreme Court for attempting to do so.  Perhaps most relevant to this discussion is the Supreme Court's opinion in Clinton v. City of New York, 524 U.S. 417 (1998), in which the Court invalidated the Line Item Veto Act--which directly involved Congress' powers to raise and spend money--as impermissibly delegating Congressional powers to the President.

If Congress may not delegate a part of its power to spend tax revenues to the President, it seems inconceivable that the courts would permit it to delegate a part of both its taxing and spending power to private corporations that are not subject to the will of the electorate at all.  (Remember the great slogan of the Revolution: "Taxation without representation is tyranny!") 

These constitutional objections would be competely eliminated by going to a Federal single-payer system (which I have supported).  Under a single-payer system, Congress would both levy the taxes to support health care and determine how to appropriate the resulting revenues.

These constitutional objections would also probably be overcome by a system in which individuals could choose either private insurance or a public option.  Such a system could be analogized to a uniform tax, from which individuals could exempt themselves by taking the appropriate actions (purchasing private insurance).  Much of our present income tax law already operates in this way.

But if I were a gambler, I would wager money that the only, or nearly the only, part of health care reform that WILL survive the Massachussetts election will be the requirement that nearly everyone buy health insurance--at whatever rates the insurance companies want to demand.  The companies will gladly let this part of the proposal pass, because they really WANT the subsidy! 


Posted by ian_j_site2 at 9:26 PM EST
Updated: Wednesday, 20 January 2010 9:28 PM EST
Sunday, 10 January 2010
Zimri ben Salu, a true modern American in ancient Israel
Topic: Where in the Bible

The story of the modern American who had the misfortune of living among the Israelites during the lifetime of Moses is found in the Bible in Numbers 25.  The Moabites, and, as is stated later, the Midianites, attempted to defeat Israel by seducing its young leaders--first into sexual immorality with foreign women, then into worship of their new girlfriends' gods.  The result was predictable: "and the Lord's anger burned against them." Numbers 25:3.  Because God's wrath was burning, there was a plague among the people.  Numbers 25:8.

God instructed Moses to end the plague by exposing publicly the men who had joined in worshipping false gods, and commanding the judges to put these men to death.  Numbers 25:4-5. 

Nevertheless, a family leader named Zimri brought a Midianite woman to his family right before the eyes of Moses while the people were mourning.  Numbers 25:6. 

However, it is Flavius Josephus who adds a description of what Zimri said on this occasion that makes him sound like a true modern American:

"Yes, indeed, Moses, thou art at liberty to make use of such laws as thhou art so fond of, and hast, by accustoming thyself to them, made them firm; otherwise, if things had not been thus, thou hadst often been punished before now, and hadst known that that the Hebrews are not easily put upon; but thou shalt not have me one of thy followers in thy tyrraanical commands, for thou dost nothing else hiterto, but, under pretense of laws, and of God, wickedly impose on us slavery, and gain dominion of thyelf, while thou deprivest us of the sweetness of life, which consists in acting according to our own wills, and is the right of free men, and of those that have no lord over them.  Nay, indeed, this man is harder upon the Hebrews that were the Egyptians themselves, as pretending to punish, according to his laws, every one's acting what is most agreeable to himself; but thou thyself better deservest punishment, who presumest to abolish what every one acknowledges to be what is good for him, and aimest to make thy single opinion to have more force than all the rest; and what bI do now, and think to be right, I shall not hereafter deny to be according to my own sentiments.  I have married, as thou sayest rightly, a strange woman, and thou heares what I do from myself as from one that is free, for I truly did not intend to conceal myself.  I also own that I sacrificed to those gods to whom you did not think fit to sacrifice; and I think it right to come at truth by inquiring of many people, and not like one that lives under tyranny, to suffer the whole hope of my life to depend on one man; nor shall any one find cause to rejoice who declares himself to have more authority over my actions than myself."

Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book IV, Ch. 6 (W. Whiston, Tr.) (italics added).

While the writings of Josephus are not Scripture, Josephus' account of Zimri's speech shows Zimri to be a true American, concerned above all things with what he wanted, felt, and believed to be right.  Zimri's self-centered attitude is highly prized in America.

Moses, however, did not prize Zimri's attitude, and neither did God.  The plague among the people ended when Phinehas, son of Eleazar the high priest, followed Zimri into his tent and put a spear through Zimri and his new wife together.  Numbers 25:7-9. 

 

See also, Substantive Errors Involving Individual Believers.


Posted by ian_j_site2 at 9:21 PM EST
Updated: Sunday, 10 January 2010 9:32 PM EST
Announcement of two updated pages

Two pages on the site hosted "behind" this blog have been modified, one substantially, the other one only slightly.  The two pages are:

Some Biographical Information about Ian B. Johnson, which is links to biographical information.

Clear Creek (Iowa) Bible as Textbook Referendum, 1981, which presents the text of a historic document in which I was involved, with some discussion and links.

The curious are invited to look at these pages and guess which one was changed substantially, and which one was changed only slightly!


Posted by ian_j_site2 at 2:33 PM EST
Wednesday, 30 December 2009
OK, I know what is wrong with the picture I painted in the last post
Topic: Political and economic

OK.  I confess that I really know what is wrong with the picture I painted in the last post.  The problem is that many of the wealthy and powerful (note that I said "many," not "all") worship wealth and power, live for it, and are willing to sacrifice anyone ELSE, besides themselves and their friends, to get it.  Wealthy oppressors have been around as long as man, as, for instance, the Apostle James wrote

Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you.  Your wealth has rotted and moths have eaten your clothes.  Your gold and silver are corroded.  Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire.  You have hoarded wealth in the last days.  Look!  The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you.  The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.  You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence.  You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.  You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you.

James 5:1-5 (NIV).

Those who really believe they are "pulling the strings" that run the world (because God is presently leaving them in that delusion) worship power, and those they have set up as public figurehead leaders in government, the economy, the media, the arts, and the other areas of life, worship wealth (material "progress") and sensual pleasure and urge us to do likewise.  But all such worship is idolatry.  (Ephesians 5:5).  They also, incidentally, urge us to view other human beings as expendable for our own collective purposes, and the visible Church itself has largely adopted this view.  (See, The Human Expendability Fallacy ). I saw more than nine years ago that the end of this would be an economic collapse that would ultimately be so deep that the Church will be absolutely forced to rely on God rather than on the means of this world, and those who refuse to do so will perish.  See my

Warning Concerning Idolatry

first posted October 8, 2000.  The collapse started only a few months after I issued my warning, and is now visibly approaching its climax.  The solution is still what I said nine years ago: the Church must repent! 

What I didn't see nine years ago, however, was that the "elite," the small group of very wealthy people whom God permits to labor under the delusion that they are in control, are orchestrating the final disaster DELIBERATELY and WITH CAREFUL CALCULATION, believing that sacrificing the rest of the world will gain them even more wealth and power.  I picked up this piece of the puzzle from a quite lengthy video presentation

The World Elite, Testimony of Lindsay Williams.

Pastor Williams claims to have inside information, from a member of the world's real ruling elite, to the effect that the United States will be put through an economic collapse from which it can never recover, in approximately two years' time (i.e., about 2011). He also predicts that a great war that will start in the Middle East, likely with Iran (and a few others) and Israel, that will precipitate the entire world into war, at about the same time.  The real, hidden objectives of this economic disaster and great war will be 1) the complete impoverishment of the U.S.A. and the enslavement of its citizens; and 2) the great increase in the wealth of the elite.  Some whole nations of people-notably Israel and Iran-will likely be sacrificed tomake the enslavement of the rest of us possible.

I do not know Pastor Williams, and it is possible that he has misunderstood his sources or been deliberately misinformed about the details.  But, regardless of the accuracy of the details of Pastor Williams' predictions, the MECHANISM he believes will lead to the great disaster is entirely cosistent with what the Bible says about the behavior of the wealthy and powerful, behavior which will become increasingly prominent as the end times approach.  But the "joke" will be on the powerful, as God will bring them violently out of their delusion:

Why do the nations conspire, and the peoples plot in vain?  
The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers gather together, against the Lord and against his Anointed.
"Let us break their chains," they say, "and throw off their fetters."
The one enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.
Then he rebukes them in his anger, and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,
"I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill."

Psalms 2:1-6

 

 

 

 


Posted by ian_j_site2 at 8:43 PM EST
Updated: Wednesday, 30 December 2009 9:40 PM EST
Saturday, 26 December 2009
2009: Bailouts, record profits, profiteering but no jobs: What is wrong with this picture?

Here are a few political, economic and personal financial notes from 2009:

At the end of 2008, the previous administration started the process of pumping a record amount of new money into the financial and insurance industries, mostly earmarked for very large entitites that were publicly declared to be too large to be permitted to fail.  We were assured that the industry was on its last legs, and would promptly collapse if not granted a massive, almost no-strings-attached, bailout.  Job losses and home losses had started already, and we were told that the bailout was necessary to reverse this.

At the beginning of this year, the new administration pumped another record amount of new money into the economy, some of it also bound for the financial industry.  This money had some strings with it, but the strings appear now to have been largely ineffective restrictions added for show.  This second economic bailout was supposed to buy jobs.

The job market has not yet recovered.  Indeed, job losses continue in many industries.  But, according to published reports, the financial industry reported RECORD PROFITS in 2009.

A year ago, there was much hopeful talk of health care reform that would benefit average people.  The insurance industry--the same insurance industry that our taxes had just so massively bailed out--threw a lot of money (money the taxpayers had recently indirectly given them!) into a massive PR campaign opposing any "new regulation" of the "free market" in health care and health insurance.  However, to those who really understand the health care market, the insurance companies' propaganda defending the "free market" really resembled the old folk story about Br'er Rabbit and the briar patch.  "Please, PLEASE!!!," Br'er Rabbit begged, "DON'T THROW ME IN THE BRIAR PATCH!!!"  But the briar patch was Br'er Rabbit's home.  Likewise, heavy, anti-competitive state regulation is the home of the health insurance industry.  The insurance industry does not really object to regulation, or even to uniform federal regulation, as long as the regulations that are made all profit the industry at the expense of consumers.  The health insurance industry is not at all opposed to a law that requires EVERYONE to buy their product, as long as they get to collectively agree among themselves to set the price and no real competition is permitted.  So they held out for a health care bill that was everything they wanted--mandated coverage, with no antitrust restrictions, no public option and no nonprofit cooperatives.  Business as usual, except that now everyone will be REQUIRED to buy their product.  The Senate health care bill will produce RECORD PROFITS for the health insurance industry, when it goes fully into effect in four years.  The industry will continue to publicly oppose it because, somewhere in the 2000 pages of the bill, there are a few details that aren't preceisely what they would prefer.  But they are really crying all the way to the bank.

Finally, at the beginning of this year there was a lot of talk about regulating the greed of credit card companies.  Of course, credit cards are provided by banks--often the same banks that received bailout money in 2008.  In May 2009, Congress enacted the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009, which, on its face, at least, limited a few of the credit card issuers' most notorious methods of entrapping honest customers into additional fees and penalty interest rates.  However, the law does not go into effect until February 22, 2010.  This gives the industry plenty of time to put the screws to its existing customers before the law goes into effect.   And, as I have learned in the last month, the banks--the same banks that had record profits this year due to my generosity in bailing them out--are doing exactly that.  In spite of a good payment record, my credit cards have increased, or soon are increasing, my interest rate to 24.49% or 24.99%.  These used to be PENALTY rates.  Now, they are the NORMAL rates, and penalty rates are even higher.  So, the banks also have thanked the American people for their generosity, in giving the banks a record profit year, by ripping us off.  

But this is still a "jobless recovery," very profitable for rich corporations and their insiders, but very hard for everyone else. 

What's wrong with this picture?    


Posted by ian_j_site2 at 2:52 PM EST
Updated: Saturday, 26 December 2009 3:00 PM EST

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