Feb 012012
 

Yesterday I went to get a haircut, but my barber was out, so I reset for Friday.  I worked on end of the month record keeping, and put up a new poll.  I’m current with replies.  Today I’ll do the data collection for Thursday’s Monthly Report.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 4:15 (average 5:50).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From CNET: A new online petition is demanding that Apple clean up its act overseas in time to make its next iPhone “the first ethical iPhone.”

Watchdog group SumOfUs last week put up a petition asking Apple to “make the iPhone 5 ethically,” referring to the company’s use of overseas manufacturing from companies such as Foxconn, which have recently come under fire for their working conditions and practices.

While I can’s see myself ever purchasing an I[anything], I signed and support the petition.  Apple makes such huge profits that they don’t need to support wage-slavery to increase their profit.

From LA Times: Congressional Democrats, more liberal since the 2010 elections thinned out moderates’ ranks, are embracing the populist agenda President Obama outlined in his State of the Union speech. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada is planning votes all spring and summer in an attempt to end the tax breaks that corporations and wealthy individuals like Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney enjoy.

Good!  Congressional Democrats are more representative, since the Blue Dog massacre of 2010.

From Think Progress: Massachusetts Senate Candidate Elizabeth Warren (D) published an op-ed today criticizing her opponent, Sen. Scott Brown (R), for his opposition to the Buffett Rule, a proposal by the Obama administration to implement a 30 percent minimum tax on millionaires.

Republicans want YOU to pay higher taxes, so millionaires can pay even less.

Cartoon:

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  12 Responses to “Open Thread–2/1/2012”

  1. Thanks for including the petition, and while I do have an iphone (3something) it was a gift – I couldn’t afford it! I also have the smallest computer known to man – with a host of problems and can’t afford any spyware so I’m beginning to experience even more probs – I’m open to suggestions if anyone knows free spyware for a Eee PC with about 0 bites of memory or less! I’m not too tech savvy – obviously!

    I’ve just been reading about the “Jobs” jobs – that apple created in sweatshops in China, each of those i phones are made by hand (generally small hands ie children or women that spend 60-80 hrs a week and live in dormitories) – I treasure my i phone – and respect it far more with the knowledge that it comes at great human expense!!

  2. 4:40

    Signed the petition. TY for posting it.

    All I can say about voting for Pres. Obama’s proposals in Congress is Good Luck! The RepublicanTs will block everything every step of the way.

    This is from Open Secrets:

    Scott P. Brown (R) *

    Raised: $5,325,218
    Spent: $1,974,045
    Cash on Hand: $10,537,386
    Last Report: September 30, 2011

    legend PAC contributions $785,146 (15%)
    legend Individual contributions $4,130,891 (78%)
    legend Candidate self-financing $0 (0%)
    legend Other $409,181 (8%)

    Elizabeth Warren (D)

    Raised: $3,155,306
    Spent: $119,213
    Cash on Hand: $3,036,092
    Last Report: September 30, 2011

    legend PAC contributions $32,649 (1%)
    legend Individual contributions $3,122,620 (99%)
    legend Candidate self-financing $0 (0%)
    legend Other $37 (0%)
  3. 4:16  So close…yet so far!

  4. Ok, now that I have lost everything yet again, let’s try one more time to get to print!

    Apple — I heard just a week ago or so that Apple made the largest profits ever in their last quarter, the quarter following Steve Jobs’ death.  I don’t know what the rise in sales is attributable to — product, reaction to Jobs’ death, or ??? — but they were clearly almost obscene.  So how is it that a company can justify making such enormous profits off the backs of workers, mostly women and children, in countries like China?  Apple needs to look at how it awards contracts and make a living wage and decent working conditions part of it’s contracts.  No slavery!  Second, Apple should be bringing some of those jobs back to the US where the domestic employment picture could do with the help.

    Democrats — From the LA Times article:

    “We’re going to have a robust debate [sic knock ’em down, drag ’em out political brawl] about whose vision is more promising for moving this country forward,” Obama told House Democrats at their annual retreat Friday in Cambridge, Md.

    Nothing against the wealthy, the president added — “Everybody wants to be rich.”

    “The question is how do we pay for that?” Obama said about the costs of keeping those tax breaks in place. “Because when you give me a tax break that I don’t need and the country can’t afford, two things happen: Either the deficit increases or, alternatively, somebody else has to pay the tab — that senior, or that student, or that family who’s struggling to make ends meet.”

    I agree on most eveything Mr Obama said except that I have no desire to be financially rich.  Just as ‘power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’, so does being riich as worn by so many of the 1%.

    I am under no illusions — I would like to see the Buffet Rule passed into law;  I would like to see the tax code rewritten to be fairer; I would like to see reform of the election finance rules to get money out of politics; and I would like to see more concern for the environment and climate change.  That won’t happen with this Congress, and maybe not the next.  But it will never happen if Americans don’t stop pulling in different directions, diluting the support needed for such programmes.

    Elizabeth Warren — from Elizabeth Warren’s op-ed piece

    “Senator Brown told a newsapaper that higher taxes would hurt millionaires. . . .  

    Things are so out of control that a recent report (highlighted on BMG) found that 30 corporations pay more for lobbyists than they pay in federal taxes. I think that’s wrong.”

    Elizabeth Warren is calling for changes to the tax code to make it more fair, and a good place to start is the Buffet Rule.  Scott Brown wants to preserve the status quo and let the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.

    Cartoon — Oh, so Cain is with another brother by a different mother.  How does that idiot do it?!  I was waiting to hear who Cain had thrown his support behind, and remember that he said people would be surprised.  So I guess the answer is Newty!  No real surprise — they’re both certified lunatics and they both play in the same sand box with the girls of their choice.  Not a scruple between them!  And waiting to find out who Trump is endorsing.  I heard on the radio that ‘The Hair’ was going to announce who he would endorse.  Who cares — they’re all losers anyway!

     

  5. Thanks for joining the call for Apple to make the next iPhone ethically!  Thanks TomCat

     

    999  Palin now Cain  Guess who didnot indorse Newt Bachmann

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