That is exactly what our President needs to do. Raise the limit himself with an Executive order. That's why we voted him

This government has been violating our constitutional "rights" for decades now so what's so different about yet another violation of our "rights"?f

_libertarian_lie_ayn_rand_income_inequality_and_the_fantasy_of_the_free_market/

Reich says rules that define the playing field of today’s capitalism don’t exist in nature; they are human creations. Governments don’t “intrude” on free markets; governments organize and maintain them. Markets aren’t “free” of rules; the rules define them. “In reality, the ‘free market’ is a bunch of rules about 1) what can be owned and traded (the genome? slaves? nuclear materials? babies? votes?); 2) on what terms (equal access to the Internet? the right to organize unions? corporate monopolies? the length of patent protections?); 3) under what conditions (poisonous drugs? unsafe foods? deceptive Ponzi schemes? uninsured derivatives? dangerous workplaces?); 4) what’s private and what’s public (police? roads? clean air and clean water? healthcare? good schools? parks and playgrounds?); 5) how to pay for what (taxes, user fees, individual pricing?). And so on.”

Atheists are skeptics, but atheist libertarians evidently check their skepticism at the door when it comes to corporate power and the self-regulatory willingness of corporations to act in the interests of the common good. In the mind of an atheist libertarian, both religion and government is bad, but corporations are saintly. On what planet, where? Corporations exist for one purpose only: to derive maximum profit for their shareholders. “The corporation’s legally defined mandate is to pursue, relentlessly and without exception, its own self-interest, regardless of the often harmful consequences it might cause others,” writes Joel Bakan, author of “The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power.”

Corporations pollute, lie, steal, oppress, manipulate and deceive, all in the name of maximizing profit. Corporations have no interest for the common good. You really believe Big Tobacco wouldn’t sell cigarettes to 10-year-olds if government didn’t prohibit it? Do you really think Big Oil wouldn’t discharge more poisons and environmentally harmful waste into the atmosphere if government regulations didn’t restrict it? Do you really believe Wal-Mart wouldn’t pay its workers less than the current minimum wage if the federal government didn’t prohibit it? If you answered yes to any of the above, you may be an atheist libertarian in desperate need of Jesus.

That awkward pause that inevitably follows asking a libertarian how it is that unrestricted corporate power, particularly for Big Oil, helps solve our existential crisis, climate change, is always enjoyable. “Corporations will harm you, or even kill you, if it is profitable to do so and they can get away with it … recall the infamous case of the Ford Pinto, where in the 1970s the automaker did a cost-benefit analysis and decided not to remedy a defective gas tank design because doing so would be more expensive than simply allowing the inevitable deaths and injuries to occur and then paying the anticipated settlements,” warns Niose.

In the 1970s, consumer protection advocate Ralph Nader became famous for helping protect car owners from the unsafe practices of the auto industry. Corporate America, in turn, went out of its way in a coordinated effort, led by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell, to destroy Nader. The documentary “Unreasonable Man” demonstrates how corporate CEOs of America’s biggest corporations had Nader followed in an attempt to discredit and blackmail him. General Motors went so far as to send an attractive lady to his local supermarket in an effort to meet him, and seduce him. That’s how much corporate America was fearful of having to implement pesky and costly measures designed to protect the well-being of their customers.

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/an-unreasonable-man/

Hey no problem, Greenthumb. Preach away.

Like various other corporate fascist agendas, this one conveniently ignores the impact to be had on the environment and people’s health. Just one more variation on the same old theme: profits before people, wildlife and the environment. We’re being set up like guinea pigs or pawns on a chessboard.

Citizens United is indeed a major culprit. But underlying this entire humungous friggin’ racket is corporate crony capitalism, or corporate fascism. And voila! Now there's a billionaire class.

Replcing do-nothing senators with ones who will remove the “invisible hand” of corporate fascism from matters of governace is hit-or-miss. Maybe they’ll do what they said they’ll do, maybe they won’t. We don’t really know ’til they’re in office. - AIW

Fifty seven percent of eleigible voters turn out for presidential elections but only 40% turn out for mid terms. Most voting districts throughout our nation are configured to deliver either a democratic or republican representative without contention. Most political ads don't really matter since most districts are already decided before the election. The problem is voter apathy and no political ads (funded by tax breaks for the wealthy) will stimulate that.

I believe that only a BIG CRISIS will get Americans' attention. Otherwise they'll continue to be distracted by anything else than politics or other unpleasantness - and our media provides a HUGE MENU of endless diversions to keep the voters pleasantly distracted.

When these crises enventually come (and they will), I can already hear the whining chorus of Americans screaming, "WHY weren't we warned??? Why weren't we told about this???" But, if a message is delivered over and over again and "no one is listening ... does it make a sound?"

I really appreciate such an attentive choir to preach to. Thank you for listening.

Thom writes about toxic chemicals causing causing cancers to the first responders at ground zero. Others comment that this was an inside job demolition using nano-thermite.

Just Google "nano-thermite cancer" and more than a million hits will indicate some causative connection. The high incidence of cancers will prove the use of thermite which indicates INSIDE JOB.

I think that the incident of cancer among first responders to 911 in New York could easily be much higher than for those who work in asbestos mines and similar dangerous lines of work. Those statistics would be proof that the nano-thermite is far deadlier than asbestos mining is for mine workers. Here is your smoking gun for those who need proof that 911 was an inside job.

This is why some people in the government want us to forget about the plight of those who responded to the attacks on the world trade center. Thorough cancer screening for those living and working near ground zero would generate conclusive statistics. That statistical base will probably never be developed.

God bless the first responders.

Totally agree, DAnneMarc!!!

Palindromedary ~ Thanks for that link! I never heard of Gladio before. That Sibel Edmonds is one brave lady! The public knowledge of Operation Gladio and Operation Northwoods forces us to question the official story in any provocative terrorist attack. After all, these groups were both formed for the purpose of creating terrorist attacks to kill innocent civilians for political reasons long before Al Qaeda ever existed. Only a fool would dismiss the notion that 9/11 could have been an inside job!

End the war? Not hardly. The US started this war for a very good reason. Destabilizing the Yanukovych government was a piece of cake, and something at which the US is very experienced and good. Establishing a puppet government went less well, as it usually does. The US did not recognize, in its usual self-absorbed way, that some Ukrainians might not accept a Nazi government. (These are not neo-nazis, these are the same old Nazis. Their fathers and grandfathers guarded death camps and fought for their Fuhrer.)

But the US will not let go; Ukraine is a very juicy prize. A base there not only threatens Moscow and Tehran, but it would give the US a first strike capability. Missiles fired from Kiev could destroy Moscow in five minutes, to quicky for the Russian Army to react, the Empirium believes. They also believe they can win a nuclear (nukular to W) war. So with a US base in Ukraine, the US can push Russia to the breaking point, then nuke it with impunity, or so the US Emperor, David ][, believes. Recall that Caligula (Little Boots) was the third Roman Emperor; why would anyone believe that the third US Emperor would be any saner?

And, by the way, this is not a new cold war, it is the same old cold war that never ended. The Sitzkreig did not end WW II, after all.

"Is war the answer?" Of course. Bashir al Assad dared to let the Russian Navy use the port of Latakia as a base if the Russians helped rehab the port. By working with the (evil) Russians, Assad made himself a mortal enemy of the US. So the US sponsored guerillas, including ISIL, to bring down Assad, a typical US tactic. But ISIL failed. So the US must do it itself, under the cover of crushing ISIL. Just another step on the road to world domination and the totalitarian enslavement of humanity. Gott mit uns! Seig Hiel! Exceptional Amerika uber Alles!

Roland

Thom Hartmann is spot on with calling out the voters on their need to prosecute our war criminals, since our failure to do so has essentially created ISIS and made everything much worse IMHO.

The Berkeley law students and National Lawyers Guild has a petition going to remove Prof. John Yoo from a special chair due to his complicity in the torture memos which led, at least in part, to the current revenge-killings and other captives being tortured. However, if Americans are really against torture and the war that retributive practices predictably brings, this public outcry would be getting much more attention and support. In what kind of world is Yoo even allowed to teach law students at one of our nation's top universities? Maybe the world's impression of us as violent bullies and imperialists is correct, which is a logical conclusion when the hawks consistently outshout the doves and get their war mongering people into office. How about sharing this appeal everyone and asking ten of your friends to sign it. The only serious reform we ever see in Calif. comes from lawsuits. By supporting this small effort by the Berkeley law students and National Lawyer's Guild, we could perhaps tone down some of the international hatred and stop revenge killings and encourage them to do more. Well worth a few minutes to arm legal eagles with the public outcry that they need, one that we all suffer by neglecting. Petition: Don't Honor Torture
https://www.change.org/p/dean-sujit-choudhry-don-t-honor-torture

Sadly, according to Dawn Stover, contributing editor at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, even if we do manage to go green: http://thebulletin.org/myth-renewable-energy.