Don’t bother to ask them about their stance on various issues.  If you haven’t learned by now, you should know that they will tell you what they think you want to hear–not necessarily the truth of who they really are and what they really represent.

Addendum

More than a quarter of senators and congressmen from both parties have invested at least $196 million of their own money in companies doing business with the Department of Defense (DoD) that profit from the death and destruction in Iraq. According to the latest reports, 151 members of Congress invested close to a quarter-billion in companies that received defense contracts of at least $5 million in 2006. These companies got more than $275.6 billion from the government in 2006, or $755 million per day, according to FedSpending.org, a website of the watchdog group OMB Watch.

Generic cannabis pills planned for wide use.

I read a post tonight by Robert Reich that appeared in TruthOut:  Why Washington Isn’t Doing Squat about Jobs and Wages. I agree with everything that Mr. Reich wrote in that post; however, we part ways when it comes to offering possible solutions.  So many blogs these days like this one by Mr. Reich  are clever and informative.  However, they complain about the economy without offering suggestions that could lead to solutions.  What was that old admonition from our mothers?  Don’t complain unless you can offer something better?  We all need to think about and discuss solutions–mere complaining may be a starting point, but it is not nearly enough.

As you can see from my response below to Mr. Reich’s post, I believe it is irresponsible to not offer a least a possibility for a solution–either in the post itself in a followup discussion.  A lot of Americans are being irresponsible these days in regard to our economy.

Most FDL readers know that Wall Street is a Corrupt System:  What are you doing about it?

For example, most of us know that the huge problem is our financial system–especially the Wall Street Casino that is fueled by the greed of the rich. The economic woes of the USA are systemic and anyone with half a brain like Mr. Reich knows this.  The financial system of the USA is broken for the majority of us.  It scams and robs us daily.  Wall Street is a corrupt system that works for the rich few, for 12% of Americans while it is destroying the economy of our nation and American lives with it for the rest of us who compromise the majority.

And yes, that number is 12%, not 1%.  The 1% could not do what they are doing to the rest of us without the willing assistance of the other 11% of the wealthiest who are invested in Wall Street. The only solution for America is for Americans to take all their investments out of Wall Street and invest them locally in their communities NOW before it is too late.  If you think that Wall Street can be improved working from the inside out, then you are either uninformed or totally in denial.

The Chief Operating Officer of the SEC enforcement division is Adam Storch  a former Goldman Sachs employee.   For the five years prior to his appointment by the Obama administration in Oct of 2009, Storch worked at Goldman Sachs, most recently as vice president in Goldman’s Business Intelligence Group.  The position, along with the division, was created as a reaction to the subprime mortgage crisis.  If Storch is not a fox in the henhouse, there has never been one. If you think that the system can or will be improved from the inside out, you are dreaming.

Furthermore, its operations are based on broken economic cliche drivel that was originated over 50 years ago in the late 1950′s by a Chicago economist by the name of Milton Friedman.  This economic ideology for the rich is so entrenched in our culture that many Americans equate it with our founding fathers instead of a loud-mouthed economics professor from the University of Chicago in the late 1950′s.  It’s time we had an economic ideology that works for the world–not just the rich from DC, New York and Chicago.

In closing, don’t tell me that you are a “progressive” or a “liberal” if you own Wall Street stock because I might resort to calling you a hypocrite.  True progressives and liberals do not own Wall Street Stock.  The difference between Wall Street stock owners and someone like Lloyd Blankfein is only by degree, not underlying substance. It’s on the magnitude of comparison to say: “Hey I just murdered one person while Mr. Blankfein murdered millions [with the Goldman wheat commodities scam in 2008].  Sell  your stock in Wall Street and bring the insanity to an end so we can replace this corrupt system with a financial system that is not skewed for the top 12%.

That is part of the scam of the owners.  They want us to believe that the problems are so complex that it will take years to unwind and solve them–during which time they continue to steal from us.  STOP THEM NOW BY FORCING REAL SOLUTIONS TO THE FOREFRONT.

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Elizabeth BerryMr. Reich, you have indeed described the problem. And where is your solution? It’s not enough for writers to identify problems. We should also be accountable for at least making suggestions regarding solutions–otherwise pieces such as the one above that you wrote serve what purpose other than to complain or to smugly show the world how bright you are for having identified the problem?  I already know that you are clever, sir.  I don’t need any further proof.I’ll be impressed when I read solutions from your column that offer promise of workable solutions.

America needs solutions NOW. America needs leaders who will help them put those solutions into practical action. We don’t need greedy multimillionaire politicians like John Boehner, Paul Ryan, and Mitch McConnell playing their games and we don’t need clever pundits and writers who care more about showing off their erudition than they do with solving problems. The American people need real help from real people who really care and we need it now.

Poll Snapshot taken Monday May 16, 2011 [from poll at iflizwerequeen that I"ve had open to the public for over a year now]

Get an eyeball of what Americans want. It’s not the status quo that the plutocrat buffoons from Congress are telling us that we want.

It’s public option or better.   72% of Americans want public option or better.

AND WHY DON’T WE HAVE SINGLE PAYER INSURANCE OR AT LEAST PUBLIC OPTION SINCE 72% OF AMERICANS WANT THOSE SOLUTIONS?

I’ll tell you why we don’t have it.  We don’t have it because we have 261 millionaires in the Senate and House–all of whom are on the take from Wall Street Corporate corporations who rip off the American people.

We don’t have public option or better because that would reduce the value of their stock portfolios. And Democrats are as bad as the Tea Party/Republicans.

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Do you really believe there is even a hair’s difference between any of the plutocrats?  If so, please allow me to dispell that myth for you with a trip down memory lane.

In the summer of 2009 Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont) proposed a $4 billion tax on medical-device firms to help offset the cost of health-care reforms.

Senator John F. Kerry (D-Mass), a multmillionaire liberal from the Northeast warned that the tax could undermine companies developing “new technology that save lives and money.”

Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin) a conservative multimillionaire from the Midwest cautioned that the tax would “harm our distrits’ ecnomies, impede innovation and ultimately deny access to lifesaving medical devices.

What do Kerry and Sensenbrenner have in common?
Millions of dollars of family wealth invested over the years in the companies that make medical devices.  [Source:  Washington Post]

FURTHERMORE, the Washington Post  article from November 2009 (the year of the jobless recovery) reports that the number of lawmakers trading stock jumped from 91 in 2001 to 259. That includes 68 lawmakers who, as of the beginning of 2008, individually owned more than $100,000 in stock, not including mutual funds.

Here is another example of plutocrat fraud in our Congress: General Electric, a corporation that made over $5 billion profit in 2009 and then another plus $5 billion profit in 2010 paid zero income tax for both years.  Guess how many members of Congress own GE stock?  If you guess 82, you are correct.

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YES STOCK OWNERSHIP DOES INFLUENCE VOTES ON LEGISLATION.

NO THESE VOTES USUALLY DO NOT REPRESENT THE BEST INTEREST OF THE MAJORITY OF AMERICANS.

DON’T VOTE FOR MILLIONAIRE PLUTOCRATS!

Two questions to ask candidates in 2012:

1)  Are you are millionaire?

2) What is the current value of your stock portfolio?