Big Money Wins in the Big Skies of Montana - Amy Goodman

Amy Goodman: Big Money Wins in the Big Skies of Montana - Truthdig 

The outstanding Amy Goodman looks at this decision. Very good -  a must read.

And these guys in Montana are fired up, and rightly so.
The Supreme Court has dissed them overturning their 100-year sensible tradition.

 John Bohlinger, Republican Lieutenant Governor of Montana:
"The United States Supreme Court blocked our state law, because they said corporations are people. I’ll believe that when Texas executes one.”

Citizen's United has to be overturned. "Four states are now on record—Hawaii, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Mexico—calling for an amendment."

"“I never bought a man who wasn’t for sale,” William A. Clark reportedly said. He was one of Montana’s “Copper Kings,” a man who used his vast wealth to manipulate the state government and literally buy votes to make himself a U.S. senator. That was more than 100 years ago, and the blatant corruption of Clark and the other Copper Kings created a furor that led to the passage, by citizen initiative, of Montana’s Corrupt Practices Act in 1912. The century of transparent campaign-finance restrictions that followed, preventing corporate money from influencing elections, came to an end this week, as the U.S. Supreme Court summarily reversed the Montana law."

 "Bohlinger said, “Now, Republicans and Democrats don’t always agree on policy matters, but there’s one thing we do agree on, and that is, corporate money should not influence the outcome of an election.” To which Schweitzer added: “Here in Montana, we have a proud, 100-year history of keeping corporate money out of our elections. Corporations aren’t people, and they should not control our government.... The United States Supreme Court blocked our state law, because they said corporations are people. I’ll believe that when Texas executes one.”

"Perhaps the only silver lining in the Supreme Court’s decision to send Montana back to the age of the Copper Kings is that a mass movement is building to assert the rights of people over the power of money in politics."

Citizen's United has to be overturned.
"Four states are now on record—Hawaii, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Mexico—calling for an amendment."
Let's keep up the effort until it is done.

Sign here  http://www.sherrodbrown.com/petition/overturn-citizens-united-g/?gclid=CPGYzKXW9rACFYUaQgodKFVgvw

And here http://www.sanders.senate.gov/petition/?uid=f1c2660f-54b9-4193-86a4-ec2c39342c6c

Barely sustainable: tasteless supermarket tomatoes. Why? (LA Times article)

I've posted several times: buy local. Fresher. Bred for taste. Local fruits and vegetables don't travel as far: less pollution costs. Supports local economies. I love heirloom tomatoes - oddly shaped and colored, and so tasty they're like a different fruit! We all know supermarket tomatoes: bland, bred to have 2 month shelf lives, picked too early, covered in thick polish wax, usually rife with pesticides, ... This is barely sustainable food production. The LA Times article has even more to say about it, a genetic decrease in sugar due to breeding for uniformity of color. See first paragraph above again. 8)

Beyond Rio: Pursuing 'Ecological Citizenship' - NYTimes.com

Beyond Rio: Pursuing 'Ecological Citizenship' - NYTimes.com 

Yes, thought provoking, modernist thought. Great ideas there.

My ideas about U.S. Constitutional amendments promoting people and health, and demoting corporate profit (Rio+20 Corporations Are Warned Post, and article linked) mesh nicely with Dobson's notions.
Let's claim our future. It, and we, are closer than we think.

On the rise: The melting Arctic VIDEO 5:10 | The Economist

On the rise: The melting Arctic | The Economist 

"Warming temperatures due to climate change are dramatically changing the environment in the Arctic; the impact will be felt around the world."

"The video... accompanying this week’s special report on the Arctic examines why the region is affected by global warming more than elsewhere, what effects this warming is likely to have on the Arctic and the wider world, and what can be done to mitigate the result of all this."

Northwest sees record returns of sockeye salmon

Northwest sees record returns of sockeye salmon - Yahoo! News 

Great news for this fishery, and sustainability.

"...Biologists credit habitat improvements in the Okanagan Basin of northern Washington and Canada, improved dam operations, and favorable ocean conditions for the numbers....

Ritchie Graves, a NOAA Fisheries Service biologist who makes sure federally owned dams are living up to their Endangered Species Act obligations not to kill too many salmon, said the survival rate for young salmon swimming downstream to the ocean has been higher than ever the past three years, hitting about 50 percent for sockeye.

Those improved dam operations have also benefited chinook, coho, chums, pinks and steelhead, said Graves. The six species combined accounted for 1.8 million salmon over Bonneville in 2010, compared to 471,144 in 1938."

BPA Linked to Brain Tumors for the First Time | Mother Jones

BPA Linked to Brain Tumors for the First Time | Mother Jones 

Not sustainable.

"The news just keeps getting worse for bisphenol A. Lab and animal research has linked it to reproductive disorders, obesity, diabetes, and cancers sensitive to hormonal activity, like those of the breast and prostate. Studies show that more than the vast majority of Americans have measurable levels of BPA in their urine...

Now a new study from China has found an association, for the first time, between human exposure to BPA and brain tumors. The kind of  tumor, called meningioma, is usually benign and occurs more frequently in women than in men...

Despite the limitations, the findings are another reminder that ubiquitous chemicals like BPA are likely to inflict significant damage before the weight of evidence finally convinces federal agencies to take greater steps to cut human exposures. As Sydney noted in her post yesterday, the FDA still thinks it's not a problem for us to ingest the chemical with our canned tomato soup."

Court Upholds EPA's Right to Regulate CO2 | Mother Jones

Court Upholds EPA's Right to Regulate CO2 | Mother Jones 

Sustainable.

"Turns out the Obama Environmental Protection Agency didn't make up all that stuff about carbon dioxide being bad for you. On Tuesday, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals upheld the EPA's determination that greenhouse gases warm the planet are dangerous for humans, as well as the agency's ability to regulate those gases..."

Flood insurance bill halted by... abortion amendment??

Flood insurance bill snag: Abortion - POLITICO.com 

How is it possible Congress is so broken and misdirected?
With floods ravaging parts of the Southeast, it's seen fit to try to shoehorn in anti-abortion amendments so we can pass flood insurance?

This is glaringly broken. Let's please demand that only relevant matters are considered in these cases. Political gamesmanship should just be out the question when basic functions of our government - such as helping us fiscally in the cases of floods - might be held up due to 'playing politics.' This is upsetting and nearly infuriating to learn about. Shame on Senator Paul, and the GOP for this asinine distraction and waste of everyone's time.

"That’s at least according to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who said Tuesday that a Republican senator is insisting on a vote on an amendment defining “when life begins.” Reid didn’t name the senator, but it was Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) who had offered the amendment.

“I think some of this stuff is just – I have been very patient working with my Republican colleagues in allowing relevant amendments on issues, and sometimes we even do non-relevant amendments,” Reid said. “But really, on flood insurance?”

“After all the work that’s been put on this bill, this is ridiculous that somebody says ‘I’m not going to let this bill go forward unless I have a vote on when life begins,’” Reid continued. “I am not going to do that, and I think I speak for the majority of senators.”"

Poll: Obama beating Romney in Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania (+video) - CSMonitor.com

Poll: Obama beating Romney in Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania (+video) - CSMonitor.com

Supreme Court Activism, Citizens United

So the Supreme Court is striking down 100-year old law in Montana. The law limited corporate spending on elections in that state. So not only are they rewriting American precedent to make less fair elections, they're messing with states rights. Talk about heinous activism from the bench. This decision will have to be overturned too.

Repost: Companies Move Toward Sustainability at Rio+20

The Observer - Companies pledge to go green at Rio+20 
Companies - Microsoft, Puma, Nike, Coca-Cola, etc. - move toward sustainability. More below.

FIVE POINT ACTION PLAN for the UK by Friends of the Earth: http://colbyallerton.blogspot.com/2012/06/repost-rio20-earth-sustainability.html

CORPORATE POWER IS WARNED AT CLOSE OF RIO SUMMIT
Human health - and by extension the life-giving health of our ecosystems - MUST come before profit. This may need to be codified as a Constitutional amendment.
http://colbyallerton.blogspot.com/2012/06/corporate-power-is-warned-at-close-of.html
Some great outtakes from Rio+20 and GOOD NEWS BRAIN FOOD at link and below!
(The dragging of feet by the U.S., China, India, and the oil industry crapping on everyone notwithstanding!)

"Microsoft committed to reduce its carbon emissions. Unilever revealed how it is launching a drive to halve the greenhouse emissions, while Nike’s target is to ensure zero discharge of hazardous chemicals along its entire supply chain, both by 2020...

 The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the UN Global Compact jointly set criteria for time-bound, measureable commitments on which corporations are required to report annually.... 1,400 business executives and over 2,700 people participated in the Rio+20 forum.

With the world facing a need to double food production by 2050, DuPont, a world leader in market- driven innovations and science, pledged $10 billion in R&D (research and development) to increase productivity, scale up nutrition and cut back on food waste.
DuPont will develop 4,000 new products along these lines by 2020.
Also looking to product development, Proctor & Gamble promises $50 billion in sales of “sustainable innovation products” by the end of this year, and the clothing house, H&M, will upgrade to 100 percent sustainable cotton, either organic, recycled, or certified in its cotton garments.

At least 45 companies, including Levi’s, Pepsi and Coca-cola are extending their commitments to water management and 23 companies pledged to transparency and disclosure on their impact on climate change. Joint campaigns are also being launched by businesses participating in Global Compact Networks in Brazil, Uruguay and Japan, among others.

Addressing a group of CEOs in February, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, challenged the business community to act now on the issue of fostering a green economy...."

And companies are stepping up. Support these efforts. Add your own.
We need all the help we can get for a cooler future.

Repost: Rio+20: the Earth Sustainability Summit diaries, Thursday 21 June | Guardian Sustainable Business | Guardian Professional

Rio+20: the Earth Summit diaries, Thursday 21 June | Guardian Sustainable Business | Guardian Professional 

GREAT READING AT LINK! There was a lack of leadership at this summit so far.

But there are great ideas, and many, many people, countries, and companies are stepping up.

Read below for some GOOD BRAIN FOOD!!
FIVE POINT ACTION PLAN for the UK by Friends of the Earth:

"• Ensure the UK's electricity market is carbon-free by 2030 by investing in clean British energy from the sun, wind and water. Reducing our reliance on dirty and expensive fossil fuels and slashing energy waste will also help protect households from soaring fuel bills caused mainly by the rocketing price of gas.

• Agree to end fossil fuel subsidies. Governments across the world are handing over almost a hundred billion dollars of tax payers' money every year to the oil, coal and gas industries.

 • Commit to a Bee Action Plan to protect dwindling bee numbers and safeguard an indispensable pollinator of UK food crops. Research commissioned by Friends of the Earth earlier this year revealed it would cost the UK £1.8 billion every year to hand-pollinate food crops without bees.

• Enable the Green Investment Bank to borrow and lend money from next year in order to kick start a clean economy and create tens of thousands of jobs.

• Limit the costs in the UK courts of fighting environmental cases to enable communities affected by environmental problems, such as air or water pollution, to bring legal action without significant financial risk."

Back Towards Fiscal Sustainability: America's Debt Levels Are Falling To Pre-Crisis Levels - Business Insider

LaVorgna: America's Debt Levels Are Falling To Pre-Crisis Levels - Business Insider

Corporate Power is Warned at Close of Rio+20 Summit

Everyone knows dirty old power will not go gracefully.
But PEOPLE come FIRST on this planet. COMPANIES came second. We NEED to establish this hierarchy.

People are the primary entity in the U.S. Constitution. Protection for each individual, their liberty and pursuit of happiness, and for the general welfare. Health and basic human rights are integrally tied to those. Human health - and by extension the life-giving health of our ecosystems - MUST come before profit. This may need to be codified as a Constitutional amendment. 

Further, the development policies of all nations must have a no net damage. For every kilowatt of old (coal, oil, etc.) energy production installed in a nation, there must be at least one green (wind, solar, etc.) kilowatt of energy production created. Thus, do 'no more [net] harm than good', should be the U.N. starting mandate. Companies are served notice.

When the next generation comes to power, pissed off most likely, one can clearly foresee oil company executive and crony politician trials. Like the war crime trials from WWII. The world is of the people, for the people. Democracy is in our Constitution, not capitalism. The next Rio or Copenhagen has to inspire the people to reclaim power and self-determination. Outdated polluting companies and outdated politicians should be put on notice. Don't mess with our future.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18561223

Obama Hits Romney on Immigration, Vows Long-Term Reform

**Romney talks tough on China, but His Bain Capital was early 'key player in outsourcing trend' - CBS News

Report: Romney talks tough on China, but Bain was key player in outsourcing trend - Political Hotsheet - CBS News 

Obama says, "...we don't need an outsourcing pioneer in the Oval Office. We need a president who will fight for American jobs and American manufacturing."

We CAN IMPROVE Population Control - Rio Summit Quiet Goal

The elephant in the room at Rio summit - CNN.com 

Please support family planning, funding, and women's health services centers. In the developing world particularly.

"Experts estimate that more than 215 million women around the world want to delay or space childbirth but are not using modern contraception. In fact, meeting this need would cost $3.6 billion per year, a small amount when you consider the enormous benefits.

Providing modern contraception also has the potential to stem population growth and relieve human pressure on the environment and natural resources. We urge governments and global agencies at Rio to make this a priority."

11 of the Fastest Growing Green Jobs - National Geographic

11 of the Fastest Growing Green Jobs - National Geographic

Answer: Number of days with temps above 95 will quadruple in parts of San Fernando Valley (Question: Why care?)

UCLA study: Number of days with temps above 95 will quadruple in parts of San Fernando Valley - LA Daily News 

It's ALREADY TOO hot in the San Fernando Valley.

Companies Move Towards Sustainability at Rio+20

The Observer - Companies pledge to go green at Rio+20 

Some great outtakes from Rio+20 and GOOD NEWS BRAIN FOOD below!
(The dragging of feet by the U.S., China, India, and the oil industry crapping on everyone notwithstanding!)

"Microsoft committed to reduce its carbon emissions. Unilever revealed how it is launching a drive to halve the greenhouse emissions, while Nike’s target is to ensure zero discharge of hazardous chemicals along its entire supply chain, both by 2020...

 The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the UN Global Compact jointly set criteria for time-bound, measureable commitments on which corporations are required to report annually.... 1,400 business executives and over 2,700 people participated in the Rio+20 forum.

With the world facing a need to double food production by 2050, DuPont, a world leader in market- driven innovations and science, pledged $10 billion in R&D (research and development) to increase productivity, scale up nutrition and cut back on food waste.
DuPont will develop 4,000 new products along these lines by 2020.
Also looking to product development, Proctor & Gamble promises $50 billion in sales of “sustainable innovation products” by the end of this year, and the clothing house, H&M, will upgrade to 100 percent sustainable cotton, either organic, recycled, or certified in its cotton garments.

At least 45 companies, including Levi’s, Pepsi and Coca-cola are extending their commitments to water management and 23 companies pledged to transparency and disclosure on their impact on climate change. Joint campaigns are also being launched by businesses participating in Global Compact Networks in Brazil, Uruguay and Japan, among others.

Addressing a group of CEOs in February, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, challenged the business community to act now on the issue of fostering a green economy...."

And companies are stepping up. Support these efforts. Add your own.
We need all the help we can get for a cooler future.

More Good News: eBay Commits to Renewable Energy for Next Data Center | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

eBay Commits to Renewable Energy for Next Data Center | News & Opinion | PCMag.com 

Nice!!! All servers should be net solar or clean-powered (even if tied to the grid, which they still would be) with solar powered battery-ready mirror backup systems.

Rio+20 Sidenote More Good Brain Food: Major cities tackle climate change while Rio summit’s outcome remains uncertain - The Washington Post

Major cities tackle climate change while Rio summit’s outcome remains uncertain - The Washington Post 

This makes the brain happy to read: some leaders are leading.
Good on New York City's Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

"“We’re not arguing with each other about emissions targets,” Bloomberg told reporters in a teleconference Monday. “What we’re doing is going out and making progress.”

The C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group — a network of 59 cities, including Los Angeles; Tokyo; Bogota, Colombia; and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — was launched in 2005 to provide support for mayors hoping to cut greenhouse-gas emissions in urban centers across the globe. The group analyzed data from 48 cities to determine a suite of policies that are now in place to cut 248 million tons of greenhouse gases, the equivalent of taking 44 million passenger vehicles off the road for a year.

The 59 cities of the group, Bloomberg added, have the capacity to cut their carbon output by 1 gigaton, or a billion tons, by 2030 compared with business as usual. That reduction, which could be achieved through steps such as the capture of methane from urban landfills and installation of more-efficient lighting and energy-efficient building codes, would be equivalent to the combined greenhouse-gas emissions of Canada and Mexico."

Rio+20: the Earth Sustainability Summit diaries, Friends of the Earth FIVE POINT ACTION PLAN

Rio+20: the Earth Summit diaries, Thursday 21 June | Guardian Sustainable Business | Guardian Professional 

GREAT READING AT LINK! There was a lack of leadership at this summit so far.

But there are great ideas, and many, many people, countries, and companies are stepping up.

Read below for some GOOD BRAIN FOOD!!
FIVE POINT ACTION PLAN for the UK by Friends of the Earth:

"• Ensure the UK's electricity market is carbon-free by 2030 by investing in clean British energy from the sun, wind and water. Reducing our reliance on dirty and expensive fossil fuels and slashing energy waste will also help protect households from soaring fuel bills caused mainly by the rocketing price of gas.

• Agree to end fossil fuel subsidies. Governments across the world are handing over almost a hundred billion dollars of tax payers' money every year to the oil, coal and gas industries.

 • Commit to a Bee Action Plan to protect dwindling bee numbers and safeguard an indispensable pollinator of UK food crops. Research commissioned by Friends of the Earth earlier this year revealed it would cost the UK £1.8 billion every year to hand-pollinate food crops without bees.

• Enable the Green Investment Bank to borrow and lend money from next year in order to kick start a clean economy and create tens of thousands of jobs.

• Limit the costs in the UK courts of fighting environmental cases to enable communities affected by environmental problems, such as air or water pollution, to bring legal action without significant financial risk."

U.N. Rio Summit on Sustainable Growth - Colby's Thoughts / Open Letter

Ethically, the United Nations MUST establish a written overriding precedence of environmental sustainability for world growth.

Because industrial England polluted prolifically during the Industrial Revolution does not mean we knew any better. It does not bestow the 'privilege' of countries - developing or not - to pollute and develop without regard to global health now that we do know better. This is not creating a more perfect global union.

We have to aid each other in our growth, and keep sustainability of the world's ecosystem and climate healthy as a given, for all actions, individually and collectively.

We need to establish this premise first, immediately, in theory and actual written binding intent and agreement. Almost like the first medical premise, 'Do no more [net] harm [to the environment] than good.'

What follows are precise, evolving negotiations on helping one another, setting and verifying goals, and lifting more people into a more comfortable standard of living across the globe. Today we must look deep into the greedless collective heart and know this is the best way to proceed, and PROCEED.

Eleven Nations With Large Fossil-Fuel Subsidies: AKA Countries Keeping Us Tied to Dinosaur Energy Systems -- Dirty and Doomed to Be Extinct (Finite, NOT Sustainable Energy)

Pictures: Eleven Nations With Large Fossil-Fuel Subsidies

Well, here's my post title again:
Eleven Nations With Large Fossil-Fuel Subsidies: AKA Countries Keeping Us Tied to Dinosaur Energy Systems -- Dirty and Doomed to Be Extinct (Finite, NOT Sustainable Energy)

Here are the eleven (there are descriptions of each on the link):
Iran
Saudi Arabia
Russia
India
China
Venezuela
United Arab Emirates
Indonesia
Egypt
Uzbekistan
United States "Fossil Tax Breaks"

JPMorgan/Jamie Dimon: Execs SHOULD GRATEFULLY GRANT Clawbacks to Aid Shareholders/Stock

News Wrap: JPMorgan Was Honest With Shareholders, Jamie Dimon Says | PBS NewsHour | June 19, 2012 | PBS 

Robber-barons ought to cough up some of their largesse after they've cracked the piggy bank. Their has to be repercussions for losing 2 billion dollars in a publicly-traded company - not just one-way ever increasing bonuses.

"REP. BARNEY FRANK, D-Mass.: You did say finally that there would be some clawbacks for compensation. You have also taken some responsibility here. Will the clawbacks for compensation -- is your compensation on the table for consideration of clawbacks?

JAMIE DIMON, chairman, JP. Morgan Chase: Yes, all of these -- this whole axis if being reviewed by the board.

REP. BARNEY FRANK: Yours specifically. Just a specific question.

JAMIE DIMON: My compensation is 100 percent up to my board.

REP. BARNEY FRANK: Is it -- Mr. Dimon, you said that there are going to be clawbacks for people responsible. Is your compensation in the pot that's going to be considered for that?

JAMIE DIMON: They will do what they see is appropriate. I can't tell my board what to do."

Gen X Asks: What Are We Thinking?? Diplomats agree on weak text for Rio+20 summit

Diplomats agree on weak text for Rio+20 summit | Reuters 

The next generation is going to ask, 'what the fuck were they thinking?'

"The text "has too much 'take note' and 'reaffirm' and too little 'decide' and 'commit'. (The) big task now for U.N. nations is to follow up" on this, she added."

Obama's Economy Speech: Fair, Honest, and Balanced

Obama laid out concrete sharing of debt reduction, increasing select revenues for the 1%, and protecting and fostering the well-being of the middle class. It is a potent and heartfelt direction for the U.S. that is just plainly sensible. If you have not read it, please do. It provides a number of answers and offers a sense of assurance.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/full-transcript-of-obamas-speech-on-the-economy-in-cleveland-ohio/2012/06/14/gJQAdY10cV_story.html

And perhaps for another post, but what the heck, here's a lead to the linked article, which is what Obama was referring to regarding Romney:

"Indeed, Romney doesn’t have a specific proposal at all. But based on the best analysis of what it includes and about what he leaves out, his plan doesn’t add up."

Rats Rajaratnam and Gupta: Shame, Greed and Crime on Wall Street & at Goldman Sachs

Gupta and Rajaratnam: more financial sector rats. Merrill Lynch has a commercial: put the needs of the client first. Goldman Sachs latest to succumb the too proximate, ripe teat of greed.

John McCain's Got Balls, and He's Right: Corporations Are Not People

He's a pretty good man. I hope it won't be too long until this is overturned. Shame on the people trying to enforce this. "Pressed by host Judy Woodruff, McCain expanded his critique to include Citizens United, which negated laws designed to curb corporate corruption of politics dating back to 1907 and the administration of Republican President Theodore Roosevelt.  He said: “Yes, that is a great deal of money (Adelson’s contribution).  And, again, we need a level playing field and we need to go back to the realization that Teddy Roosevelt had that we have a limit on the flow of money and that corporations are not people.” “That’s why we have different laws that govern corporations than govern individual citizens and so to say that corporations are people, again, flies in the face of all the traditional Supreme Court decisions that we have made — that have been made in the past.”

Stanford Sentenced to 110 Years in Jail in Fraud Case - NYTimes.com

Stanford Sentenced to 110 Years in Jail in Fraud Case - NYTimes.com

Great news. Not sustainable. Another businessman scumbag submerged in greed.

Sentence of 110 years is great. 30,000 regular investors scammed.

We need to bring the less grand of these con artists to justice - not only this and the Madoff types, but the lesser ones, and the banks, granting themselves outrageous sums and putting the well-being and money of others at risk. That behavior subverts the American notions of creating a perfect union, and people guilty of it need to be jailed and reforms need to continually and vigilantly be made until the capitalism in our Democracy restores fairness throughout America's economic spectrums.

"HOUSTON — R. Allen Stanford, the Texas financier convicted of fleecing 30,000 investors from 113 countries in a $7 billion Ponzi scheme, was sentenced on Thursday to 110 years in jail.

..."This is a man utterly without remorse,” Mr. Stellmach said. “From beginning to end, he treated all of his victims as roadkill.” 

“He went after the middle class, including people who didn’t have money to lose. People have lost their homes. They have come out of retirement.” 

A federal jury in March convicted Mr. Stanford of 13 out of 14 counts of fraud in connection with a worldwide scheme over more than two decades in which he offered fraudulent high-interest certificates of deposit at the Stanford International Bank, which was based on the Caribbean island of Antigua. 

Prosecutors argued that Mr. Stanford had consistently lied to investors, promoting safe investments for money that he channeled into a luxurious lifestyle, a Swiss bank account and various business deals that almost never succeeded.

... Mr. Stanford’s defense lawyers pleaded for a sentence effectively of time served because of the three years he spent in prison waiting for his trial. Prosecutors recommended 230 years, the maximum according to sentencing guidelines for his crimes of conspiracy, wire and mail fraud, obstruction and money laundering. He was acquitted of one count of wire fraud.

...  For Mr. Stanford, the verdict and sentencing represented the end of a remarkable career that began with a Texas fitness club venture. After it went bankrupt, he tried offshore banking and lived a life of glamour.  Mr. Stanford is now a shadow of the swaggering financier who only three years ago had an estimated fortune of over $2 billion, a knighthood awarded by Antigua and a collection of yachts and a fleet of jets. He even owned his own professional cricket team and stadium on Antigua, which according to prosecutors he treated like his personal business haven in the West Indies, with politicians in tow, through bribes and political campaign contributions"

**Most say Bush to blame for weak U.S. economy, poll finds | Reuters

Most say Bush to blame for weak U.S. economy, poll finds | Reuters 

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - About two-thirds of Americans believe Republican former US President George W. Bush is responsible for the nation's struggling economy, with a smaller percentage blaming Democratic President Barack Obama, a Gallup poll showed ..."

Are Republicans deliberately helping crash the US economy for political gain?

Did Republicans deliberately crash the US economy? | Michael Cohen | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk 

Slimy, horrifying - our elected GOP representatives putting political gain ahead of the needs of the country. Like Boehner's debt ceiling game of Russian Roulette - the stability, economy, and reputation of the U.S. can take horrible dives as long as they keep Republicans in their cozy, 1% lobbyist-proximate Washington seats. So sad, f***ing wrong.

Great article in total, some key points quoted below:

"So why does the US economy stink?...

For Democrats, perhaps the most obvious piece of evidence of GOP premeditated malice is the 2010 quote from Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell:

"The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president."

...Beyond McConnell's words, though, there is circumstantial evidence to make the case. Republicans have opposed a lion's share of stimulus measures that once they supported, such as a payroll tax break, which they grudgingly embraced earlier this year. Even unemployment insurance, a relatively uncontroversial tool for helping those in an economic downturn, has been consistently held up by Republicans or used as a bargaining chip for more tax cuts. Ten years ago, prominent conservatives were loudly making the case for fiscal stimulus to get the economy going; today, they treat such ideas like they're the plague.

Traditionally, during economic recessions, Republicans have been supportive of loose monetary policy. Not this time. Rather, Republicans have upbraided Ben Bernanke, head of the Federal Reserve, for even considering policies that focus on growing the economy and creating jobs.

And then, there is the fact that since the original stimulus bill passed in February of 2009, Republicans have made practically no effort to draft comprehensive job creation legislation. Instead, they continue to pursue austerity policies, which reams of historical data suggest harms economic recovery and does little to create jobs. In fact, since taking control of the House of Representatives in 2011, Republicans have proposed hardly a single major jobs bill that didn't revolve, in some way, around their one-stop solution for all the nation's economic problems: more tax cuts....

As Paul Krugman wrote earlier this week, in the New York Times, while a Democrat rests his head each night in the White House, the United States is currently operating with a Republican economy. After winning the House of Representatives in 2010, the GOP brokered a deal to keep the Bush tax cuts in place, which has reduced the tax burden as a percentage of GDP to its lowest point since Harry Truman sat in the White House. At the insistence of the White House, Congress also agreed to extend unemployment benefits and enact a payroll tax cut – measures that provided a small but important stimulus to the economy, but above all, maintained the key GOP position that taxes must never go up.

But as Congress giveth, Congress also taketh. The GOP's zealotry on tax cuts is only matched by its zealotry in pursuing austerity policies. In the spring of 2011, federal spending cuts forced by Republican legislators took much-needed money out of the economy: combined with the 2012 budget, it has largely counteracted the positive benefits provided by the 2009 stimulus.
Subsequently, the GOP's refusal to countenance legislation that would help states with their own fiscal crises (largely, the result of declining tax revenue) has led to massive public sector layoffs at the state and local level. In fact, since Obama took office, state and local governments have shed 611,000 jobs; and by some measures, if not for these jobs, cuts the unemployment rate today would be closer to 7%, not its current 8.2%. In 2010 and 2011, 457,00 public sector jobs were excised; not coincidentally, at the same time, much of the federal stimulus aid from 2009 ran out. And Republicans took over control of Congress.

These cuts have a larger societal impact. When teachers are laid off, for example (and nearly 200,000 have lost their jobs), it means larger class sizes, other teachers being overworked and after-school classes being cancelled. So, ironically, a policy that is intended to save "our children and grandchildren" from "crushing debt" is leaving them worse-prepared for the actual economic and social challenges they will face in the future. In addition, with states operating under tighter fiscal budgets – and getting no hope relief from Washington – it means less money for essential government services, like help for the elderly, the poor and the disabled.

This is the most obvious example of how austerity policies are not only harming America's present, but also imperilling its future. And these spending cuts on the state and local level are matched by a complete lack of fiscal expansion on the federal level. In fact, fiscal policy is now a drag on the recovery, which is the exact opposite of how it should work, given a sluggish economy.

This collection of more-harm-than-good policies must also include last summer's debt limit debacle, which House speaker John Boehner has threatened to renew this year. This was yet another GOP initiative that undermined the economic recovery. According to economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, "over the entire episode, confidence declined more than it did following the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc in 2008." Only after the crisis did the consumer confidence stabilize, but employers "held back on hiring, sapping momentum from a recovery that remains far too fragile." In addition, the debt limit deal also forced more unhelpful spending cuts on the country.

Since that national embarrassment, Republicans have refused to even allow votes on President Obama's jobs bill in the Senate; they dragged their feet on the aforementioned payroll tax and even now are holding up a transportation bill with poison-pill demands for the White House on environmental regulation...

Whether you believe the Republicans are engaging in purposely destructive fiscal behavior or are simply fiscally incompetent, it almost doesn't matter. It most certainly is bad economic policy and that should be part of any national debate not only on who is to blame for the current economic mess, but also what steps should be taken to get out from underneath it...."

Individual Sustainability Pt. 2: Running, Moderation Adds Lifespan Years

More studies and evidence that: Regular, weekly cardiovascular exercise increases lifespan 90-minutes a week may be enough, adding avg. 3-6 years Intense workouts may not help as much Moderate paced (slowish, actually) runners live years longer on average Have 15-20% less serious health complications