A Town Without Pity

A Town Without Pity

Sunday, August 11, 2013
A Town Without Pity


------ Original Message ------
From: Alan Gilbert
Date: 8/11/2013 1:58 AM
To: democratic-indv@du.edu;
Subject: [Democratic-indv] An elite without pity...

An elite without pity...


In America, a fabulously wealthy elite, more swollen than the robber barrens, eats unceasingly - takes food stamps from the poor - and scorns those who suffer, here and abroad. In the New York Times, Charles Blow has a true - and therefore remarkable - column on Washington as "A Town Without Pity." In it, he speaks of the Congressional representatives and others as "pariahs," as people who blame, he says, the very poor. That a tendency like this exists among the leaders of a supposed affluent society - a society whose representatives trumpet their Christianity while scorning the poor (Jesus preached for the poor, as his own words and the great philosopher Hegel remind us) - is repulsive. The rich are parasites or exploiters (even those innovators who also make some important contributons). They live off the labor of others and dominate the government as a particular tyrannical - oligarchic in Aristotle's terms - interest.

In addition, they are often sociopaths who have no concern for and blame others ("blaming the victim" - with indigenous people, the enslaved, the poor, the unemployed and the homeless as emblems - is a widespread elite trope). America is rapidly becoming, in high places, an odious society. (see Paul Krugman's reflections, invoking Michal Kalecki, on the war against Keynsian policies - science be damned - instituted by the rich here).

***

Obama has been forced by Edward Snowden to call for some balancing of the spying Bush-Obama apparatus he now heads (the Times says here, echoing an elite attempt to evade the law, that he has eschewed only "brutal interrogations" - the right word is torture which American and international law bars; again, it is remarkable that Blow's words appear in the Times. Still, Obama has concern for ordinary people and his Presidency is pretty well all that holds the American elite, in itself, from the starkest villainy.

***

Occupy - and in the future, hopefully a much stronger version - are the only things that will reestablish a modicum of wellbeing in America. We are a society which has always progressed through such movements from below (the Revolution, the abolitionists led by John Brown and Frederick Douglass, the women's suffrage movement, the union movement, the civil rights movement, the anti-war movements and the like).

***

Blow cites a Wall Street Journal poll and a study by Susan Fiske at Princeton alleging:

“'The stereotypes of poor people in the United States are among the most negative prejudices that we have. And people basically view particularly homeless people as having no redeeming qualities — there’s not the competence for anything, not having good intentions and not being trustworthy.'”

Fiske's report, as recounted by Blow, makes prejudice too democratic (though speaking unclearly or ambiguously this central issue, she also speaks very well on prejudice and her relationship with Gordon Allport's work here). But most of us want health care. Most of us want decent jobs, Most of us know that the danger of poverty is one accident, one hospital bill, one lay-off away...

The elite has manipulated elections, gerrymandering districts and often disenfranchising the poor. The right to vote is not actually a right, not sacrosanct (one major party from the very white Justice John Roberts to every Republican state legislature/Governor is a standing attack on it).

Perhaps this turn away from the condescension of the elite (as human beings, the elite need to be stopped and require pity) is why Blow's article made the Times.

***

Nonetheless, "A Town Without Pity" makes the need for movements from below glaring.


‘A Town Without Pity’
By CHARLES M. BLOW
Published: August 9, 2013

America was once the land of Lady Liberty, beckoning the world: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Today’s America — at least as measured by the actions and inactions of the pariahs who roam its halls of power and the people who put them there — is insular, cruel and uncaring.

In this America, people blame welfare for creating poverty rather than for mitigating the impact of it. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll in June found that the No. 1 reason people gave for our continuing poverty crisis was: “Too much welfare that prevents initiative.”

In this America, the House can — as it did in July — pass a farm bill that left out the food stamp program at a time when a record number of Americans, nearly 48 million, are depending on the benefits.

In this America, a land of immigrants, comprehensive immigration reform can be stalled in The People’s Branch of government, and anti-reform mouthpieces like Ann Coulter and Pat Buchanan can warn that immigration reform will be the end of the country.

And in today’s America, poverty and homelessness can easily seep beneath the wall we erect in our minds to define it.

A December report by the United States Conference of Mayors that surveyed 25 cities found that all but 4 of them reported an increase in requests for emergency food aid since 2011, and three-fourths of them expected those requests to increase in 2013.

The report also found that 60 percent of the cities surveyed had seen an increase in homelessness, and the same percentage of cities expected homelessness to increase in 2013.

But poverty isn’t easily written off as an inner-city ailment. It has now become a suburban problem. A report this week by the Brookings Institution found that “during the 2000s, major metropolitan suburbs became home to the largest and fastest-growing poor population in America.”

Nor can economic insecurity be written off as a minorities-only issue. According to survey results published last month by The Associated Press:

“Nonwhites still have a higher risk of being economically insecure, at 90 percent. But compared with the official poverty rate, some of the biggest jumps under the newer measure are among whites, with more than 76 percent enduring periods of joblessness, life on welfare or near-poverty.”

How did we come to such a pass? Why aren’t more politicians — and people in general — expressing outrage and showing empathy?

Part of our current condition is obviously partisan. Republicans have become the party of “blame the victim.” Whatever your lesser lot in life, it’s completely within your means to correct, according to their logic. Poverty, hunger, homelessness and desperation aren’t violence to the spirit but motivation to the will. If you want more and you work harder, all your problems will disappear. Sink or swim. Pull yourself up. Get over it. Of course, that narrow conservative doctrine denies a broader reality: that there are working poor and chronically unemployed — people who do want and who do work and who do want to work, but who remain stuck on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder.

In this regard, Republicans have all but abandoned the idea of compassionate conservatism and are diving headlong into callous conservatism.

But another problem may be more broad-based: the way that many Americans look at the poor with disgust.

As Susan Fiske, a Princeton professor who has studied people’s attitudes toward the poor for more than a decade, told me on Friday:

“The stereotypes of poor people in the United States are among the most negative prejudices that we have. And people basically view particularly homeless people as having no redeeming qualities — there’s not the competence for anything, not having good intentions and not being trustworthy.”

Fiske’s research shows that people respond not only to the poor and homeless with revulsion, but they also react negatively to people they perceive as undocumented immigrants — essentially anyone without an address.

If some people’s impulse is to turn up a nose rather than extend a hand, no wonder we send so many lawmakers empty of empathy to Congress. No wonder more people don’t demand that Congress stand up for the least among us rather than on them.

As Fiske so aptly put it: “It seems like Washington is a place without pity right now. A town without pity.”

***

For the table on attitudes accompanying Blow's article, see here.
Alan Maki

9:48 AM (1 minute ago)


to uniting_people, ZZZ, Karen, chblow, Alan, rep.phyllis.ka., rep.tom.anzelc, sen.david.toma., Alice, Andrea, Andrew, Anna, Barb, Ben, Bob, Bob, Bob, Brian, Bud, Carlos, Carly, Carolyn, Chris, Cindy, Connie
I want to thank Robin Hensel for bringing this to our attention.

Just so we are all on the same page... this discussion revolves around this article, A Town Without Pity" and the links included:

<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/10/opinion/blow-a-town-without-pity.html?_r=0>

And note; I have sent this to Charles Blow.

Several important points I think Alan Gilbert misses here. Plus what Charles Blow, writing in the New York Times, doesn't tell us about these numbers and the very important number of "8%" that Charles Blow leaves out for some reason (a "reason" kind of like a New York Times' "reason?").

First of all, if you add up all the numbers from the chart Blow provides, less the 24% (all the numbers add up to 87%; what happened to the other 13%?) you get a very good figure that 63% of the American people do have a very good grasp of poverty.

But; and this is a very important "but." But Charles Blow leaves out the number "8"--- 8%. 8% is the number of people who feel that ALL the reasons minus the 24% are responsible for poverty--- so, 71% of the people have a very good grasp of what causes poverty and demonstrate an empathy for the poor.

Most likely if one were to include the 24% this majority would say they are part of the problem, too. If you have to scratch your head thinking about this you probably aren't going to understand much about poverty.

We aren't told the races (nor class) of the people interviewed since the numbers indicate there is an almost complete lack of understanding of the relationship between racism and poverty... if you don't have a job or you have a poverty wage paying job you are going to be poor. Well, guess what? Because of racist discrimination in employment practices without Affirmative Action being enforced people of color, in a society dominated by racism, are going to be poor.

One should read this article by Charles Blow directly from the New York Times' website <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/10/opinion/blow-a-town-without-pity.html?_r=0> and follow through on EACH and EVERY link encountered in order to get a better understanding of the issue itself--- plus, get an understanding why one has to "read between the lines" and question every single article or op-ed piece that appears in the New York Times and "how polls are conducted" in a tainted way to begin with.

For instance; why weren't people asked if capitalism creates poverty?

Why weren't people asked if so few people being so extremely rich causes poverty?

Why weren't people asked if these dirty wars are creating poverty?

Something happened to 5% of the people in this poll--- what is with this? Is it possible 5% of the people wanted these other three questions asked before they answered the pollsters?

Charles Blow could have referred to the last article written by his former colleague at the New York Times, Bob Herbert; why didn't he? He didn't want to get the ax like Herbert did? An interesting question when it comes to what kind of "freedom of the press" we have in this country since the New York Times makes the boast that it is the best reflection of "freedom of the press" and apparently a lot of people buy into this hype because we all use the New York Times as a point of reference more often than not.

But, here is what Charles Blow missed:

Losing Our Way by Bob Herbert...

<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/opinion/26herbert.html?_r=0>

Now, Minnesota politicians in the state legislature--- Democrats (with their huge super-majority) and the minority Republicans who have been relegated meaningless and without any decision-making status what-so-ever except what the Democrats grant to them which is essentially acceptance of the Republican agenda!--- have a kewl and nifty little committee they call "Ladder Out Of Poverty."

But, their perverted sense of what a "ladder" is leaves much to be desired because their "ladder" has only missing rungs and rotten rungs. If one can reach the first rung of their "ladder" the rungs breaks and they fall back down to the bottom and it becomes harder and harder to reach another rung.Charles Blow correctly points out, these politicians don't understand poverty and have no empathy for the poor.

Wars kill jobs just like they kill people; and these dirty imperialist wars, as anyone can see, also kills freedom and democracy--- one reason why the New York Times columnist, Charles Blow, can conveniently get away with not discussing these issues like his fellow columnist Bob Herbert did. People who are involved in the struggles for peace, full employment, universal health care, equality and defense of democracy are not permitted in the proverbial "public square." Remember, Occupy Wall Street was chased out of the "public square" and silence by billy club swinging police and police firing tear gas and rubber-covered steel bullets at them not to mention the little fact that the Obama Administration unleashed a force of over 500 FBI "Special Agents" to disrupt and disorient the Occupy Movement from within.

Charles Blow never adds up the figures because he would have to explain why, in a country which boasts--- and the New York Times has been the biggest boaster for decades--- that we live in the world's greatest bastion of democracy--- that not only a bunch of uncaring, insensitive politicians are making the decisions in this country, but these politicians--- Obama especially--- are bribed by Wall Street to work for these wealthy parasitical vultures who profit from exploitation to begin with, there profits get a big boost from racism and they reap fabulous super profits from war and they have even managed to profit from the very poverty they create by all kinds of schemes from cutting food stamps and transferring the funding to the lucrative Military-Industrial Complex to enabling Wall Street bankers to reap huge profits just for issuing the plastic debit cards that are now food stamps.

It is not only as Charles Blow states that these politicians are an uncaring and non-empathetic bunch of morons and insinuates they have screwed up priorities; it is because they work for their Wall Street masters whose one and only concern is the bottom line--- PROFITS.

How else can one explain why the billionaire Democratic Governor of Minnesota, backed by the Rockefeller family's wealth, leading a Democratic super-majority would leave the state's Minimum Wage at $6.25 an hour--- lower than Wisconsin with Walker at the helm, and lower than Mississippi or North Carolina--- only Georgia, Wyoming and Puerto Rico have lower Minimum Wages. Even the Virgin Islands have a higher Minimum Wage than Minnesota!

Any little school child can figure out that workers without jobs are going to be poor. And these same schoolchildren understand that workers receiving poverty wages are going to be poor--- concepts that Wall Street bribed politicians and billionaires like Mark Dayton not only don't understand--- but they don't even want to hear this.

What would poverty wage workers workers receive from the Obama Administration and Governor Dayton's Administration if they took to the streets demanding justice? Most likely, instead of the raise America needs, the sharp blow over the head from the policeman's bill club, tear gas and steel covered rubber bullets--- not exactly what one can feed a family on but the way Wall Street intends to try to survive.

Say, has anyone thought to look into the Full Employment Act of 1945 as proposed by liberal Democratic Congressman Wright Patman to see what became of that?

Why is it that not one single member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus would provide me with a copy of the Full Employment Act of 1945 and a transcript of the Hearings--- not even for a fee?

Is there a reason why politicians fixated on "jobs, jobs, jobs" when they want our votes refuse to make themselves accountable for not having full employment? Something to think about, eh? Especially when one considers the callousness of this 24%.

Which begs the question:

Why hasn't the Congressional Progressive Caucus brought forward real Full Employment legislation?

Perhaps if they don't know how to draft Full Employment legislation someone else should and they should run on this legislation as part of their platform for peace, which like poverty, is another word no one among this 24% wants to hear about.

Peace, Full Employment, Living Wages and Full Equality are like four peas in a healthy pod; wars, unemployment, poverty and racism are like four peas in a moldy, rotten pod... the rotten peas in the pod are going to cause the entire pod eventually rot... any home gardener should be able to understand this simple concept even if Obama's "economic advisers" from Wall Street don't understand.

Keep in mind that here in Minnesota, not only did billionaire Dayton and his Democratic super-majority not raise the Minimum Wage at all... they also refuse to enforce Affirmative Action even when it comes to two huge billion-dollar public works projects: the Viking Stadium and the Bridge over the St. Croix--- a joint project with the Scott Walker's Republican super-majority in Wisconsin. Dayton and these Democrats might be able to get away with "blaming the Republicans" for not enforcing Affirmative Action on the billion dollar Bridge over the St. Croix River; but, what is these Democrat's excuse for refusing to enforce Affirmative Action in the building of the billion dollar-plus Viking Stadium? Same excuse for not raising the Minimum Wage to a real living wage? Just what is the excuse? Does the excuse have anything to do with corporate profits and the super-profits derived from racism?

I take it that no one will mind me providing a Marxist viewpoint; after all, the New York Times' Paul Krugman just encouraged people to read a Marxist point of view: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/09/opinion/krugman-phony-fear-factor.html?ref=paulkrugman even though Krugman is more enamored with Keynes.

Anyways; I look forward to further discussion of all of this. And who knows; further discussion might lead to the kind of grassroots and rank-and-file working class mass action that might lead to at least some kind of miserly increase in Minnesota's shameful poverty Minimum Wage. Anyone ever thought of legislatively tying the Minimum Wage to all "cost of living" factors with regular increases that would lead to an improved "standard of living" of living beyond just keeping up with the "cost of living?"

Come on; it's not like I am suggesting Minnesota State Legislators should include casino workers under the protection of the States "Freedom to Breath" legislation and their right to work in smoke-free workplaces like all other workers or extend the protections of state and federal labor laws to workers employed in the Indian Gaming Industry.

Alan L. Maki

--
Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell: 651-587-5541

Primary E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net
E-mail: alan.maki1951mn@gmail.com

Blog: http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

A Town Without Pity

Check out this blog post I made:

http://ideasideology.blogspot.com/2013/08/a-town-without-pity.html

Racist bigot and corrupt politician Roy Schmidt goes free, again.

Democrats and Republicans in Michigan work together to spin a web of racist corruption...

Racist bigot Roy Schmidt gets off, again:
http://www.freep.com/article/20130809/NEWS06/308090097/Bolger-Schmidt-election-scandal

The real crime here that is even worse than what these two corrupt politicians did that has been "investigated" is that a bunch of opportunist Democrats--- including Steve Petska and Ed Kettle recruited, and then foisted, Schmidt onto voters as a Democrat when Schmidt never was a Democrat in the first place... Roy Schmidt always has been an extreme right-wing, racist Republican whose views are in line with the KKK, Nazis and the John Birch Society.

This is not the first time Schmidt has escaped prosecution. Schmidt was one of the primary instigators of racist violent hate during the integration of Union High School for which he should have been prosecuted.

Democrats believed they could get the votes of racists by running Schmidt in the first place and this is the real tragedy in this entire episode.

Even the NAACP shamefully endorsed Schmidt right along with the UAW and AFL-CIO and a whole host of Democratic Party politicians and worthless hacks like Ed Kettle who endorsed Schmidt knowing that Schmidt is a virulent racist and anti-Semite.

The Democrats played a dirty game and lost and now they want to blame everything on the Republicans--- this should be enough to convince everyone that the Democrats and Republicans are both worthless without any scruples or principles.

To get the Democratic Party's nomination, Roy Schmidt claimed to repent his past violent racist activities that were criminal in every respect. The only reason he wasn't prosecuted for his violent racist activities at Union High School was because the Grand Rapids Chief of Police, William Johnson, and the Kent County assistant prosecuting attorney, Donal Zerial, were both avowed and open members of the racist and anti-Semitic John Birch Society.

Roy Schmidt and his racist friends, wearing football helmets, beat black students with baseball bats as they got off the bus during court ordered integration of Union  High School in Grand Rapids, Michigan. All of this was on video shot by a WOOD-TV news crew, ABC, NBC and CBS national news crews.

Both Ed Kettle and Steve Pestka were aware of Roy Schmidt's extreme racist right wing views when they recruited him to run as was the NAACP and the UAW... shame on this entire stinking bunch of worthless politicians.

Ed Kettle's dad was the head of the Kent County Welfare Department for many years and his pride and joy was denying black and Hispanic people the welfare they were entitled to.

Those Democrats working for the United States District Attorney's Office and United States Department of Justice in West Michigan were all well aware of Schmidt's most disgusting views and activities as was Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm.

No one can deny knowledge of any of this because i reminded all these worthless politicians of Roy Schmidt's views and activities when they first brought him forward posing as a Democrat because they were afraid Schmidt was going to win a seat in the Michigan State Legislature should he run as a Republican.

By the way... at least six victims of Roy Schmidt's racist gang violence at Union High School were subjected to a living hell in the most malicious prosecution at the hands of Kent County Assistant Prosecutor, Donald Zerial a self acknowledged member of the John Birch Society and these victims of racist violence spent time in jail and prison--- did Roy Schmidt ever apologize to them? Hell no.

Worthless political hack Ed Kettle and AIPAC supporting Steve Pestka advise us that we should, "forget the past." How quaint of them to offer such advice since looking into the past tells us everything we need to know about them.

Notice: Anyone who adds me to any FaceBook page without my permission first is going to be blocked.

Notice: Anyone who adds me to any FaceBook page without my permission first is going to be blocked. I don't add anyone to any page. If you want to inform me about a page and ask me to check it out that is fine.

But, people are adding me to all kinds of pages without my permission and I am finding that many of these "people" are not even real people but creations of Democrats trying to build up pages with real people in order to gain credibility for their Dumb Donkeys.

For days I have battled with two groups of Hillary Clinton supporters. I dealt with them the same way I deal with anyone who adds me without my permission--- I state my views on their page and then they get mad and start calling me names.

Now I find myself supporting Democrat Keith Ellison's re-election bid. I received an e-mail from Tim Carpenter of the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) asking me to sign a petition in support of legislation Ellison is pushing to tax Wall Street (a good idea but Ellison is using it as a re-election campaign gimmick knowing he doesn't intend to build a movement supporting the legislation). Anyways, I go to look at the link Carpenter sent me and there I see myself as a supporter of Keith Ellison's re-election. Now, I really don't care if Ellison is re-elected or not. But, I don't support him. I never allowed anyone to add me to his re-election FaceBook page. Will I remove myself? No. I will post my opinions there. And no doubt Keith Ellison will call me again crying that, "I am your friend, not your enemy." Come on, get real; Keith Ellison isn't my friend. Keith Ellison has never lifted a finger to support or defend casino workers. Keith Ellison is not our friend; the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association finances his campaign--- there is a reason the employers' organization, and not casino workers, back Kieth Ellison. Because Ellison has opposed the right of casino workers to organize; Ellison has voted for the "Compacts" creating this hideous Indian Gaming Industry from which only a bunch of racist, rich, white mobsters profit; Ellison supported excluding casino workers from "Freedom to Breath" legislation which prohibits smoking in all places of employment in Minnesota with only one stated exception--- the Indian Gaming Industry; Ellison supports casino workers being excluded from the same state and federal labor laws protecting all other workers.

I could go on and on about how Keith Ellison has refused to join the struggle for the enforcement of Affirmative Action on public works projects in Minnesota; how Keith Ellison opposed a resolution to rescind the racist, anti-worker "At-will hiring; At-will firing" legislation on the books here in Minnesota.

I could go on about how Keith Ellison refused to lend his voice to defend our largest freshwater aquifer from peat mining.

I don't give a goddamn who supports Keith Ellison but don't go posting me as a backer of Keith Ellison.

The number one question I get from people is: How is your garden doing?

 Raspberries

 Zucchini and Kohlrabi

Potatoes, Beets, Kohlrabi 

Green Beans, Yellow Beans, Peas,
Cherry Tomatoes

A chicken my grandchildren raised

The Detroit Bail-In Fleecing Pensioners to Save the Banks

"A Safer, Saner, More Equitable Model

Interestingly, Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, Snyder’s Democratic opponent in the last gubernatorial race, proposed a solution that could have avoided either robbing the pensioners or scaring off the bondholders: a state-owned bank. If the state or the city had its own bank, it would not need to borrow from Wall Street, worry about interest rate swaps, or be beholden to the bond vigilantes. It could borrow from its own bank, which would leverage the local government’s capital into credit, back that credit with the deposits created by the government’s own revenues, and return the interest to the government as a dividend, following the ground-breaking model of the state-owned Bank of North Dakota."

From: Mike Krauss <mike@publicbankinginstitute.org>
Date: Tue, Aug 6, 2013 at 5:15 PM
Subject: The Detroit Bail In: Fleecing Pensioners to Save the Banks
To: Mike Krauss <mike@mikekrausscomments.com>

PBI Chairperson Ellen Brown explains:

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/08/06/fleecing-pensioners-to-save-the-banks/

The Detroit Bail-In

Fleecing Pensioners to Save the Banks

by ELLEN BROWN

The Detroit bankruptcy is looking suspiciously like the bail-in template originated by the G20’s Financial Stability Board in 2011, which exploded on the scene in Cyprus in 2013 and is now becoming the model globally. In Cyprus, the depositors were “bailed in” (stripped of a major portion of their deposits) to re-capitalize the banks. In Detroit, it is the municipal workers who are being bailed in, stripped of a major portion of their pensions to save the banks.

Bank of America Corp. and UBS AG have been given priority over other bankruptcy claimants, meaning chiefly the pensioners, for payments due on interest rate swaps they entered into with the city. Interest rate swaps – the exchange of interest rate payments between counterparties – are sold by Wall Street banks as a form of insurance, something municipal governments “should” do to protect their loans from an unanticipated increase in rates. Unlike ordinary insurance, however, swaps are actually just bets; and if the municipality loses the bet, it can owe the house, and owe big. The swap casino is almost entirely unregulated, and it is a rigged game that the house virtually always wins. Interest rate swaps are based on the LIBOR rate, which has now been proven to be manipulated by the rate-setting banks; and they were a major contributor to Detroit’s bankruptcy.

Derivative claims are considered “secured” because the players must post collateral to play. They get not just priority but “super-priority” in bankruptcy, meaning they go first before all others, a deal pushed through by Wall Street in the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2005.

Meanwhile, the municipal workers, whose pensions are theoretically protected under the Michigan Constitution, are classified as “unsecured” claimants who will get the scraps after the secured creditors put in their claims. The banking casino, it seems, trumps even the state constitution. The banks win and the workers lose once again.

Systemically Dangerous Institutions Are Moved to the Head of the Line

The argument for the super-priority of derivative claims is that nonpayment on these bets represents a “systemic risk” to the financial scheme. Derivative bets are cross-collateralized and are so inextricably entwined in a $600-plus trillion house of cards that the whole financial scheme could go down if the betting scheme were to collapse. Instead of banning or regulating this very risky casino, Congress has been persuaded by the masterminds of Wall Street that it needs to be preserved at all costs.

The same tortured logic has been used to justify the fact that the federal government deigned to bail out Wall Street but not Detroit. Supposedly, the mega-banks pose a systemic risk and Detroit doesn’t. On July 29th, former Obama administration economist Jared Bernstein pursued this line of reasoning on his blog, writing:

[T]he correct motivation for federal bailouts — meaning some combination of managing a bankruptcy, paying off creditors (though often with a haircut), or providing liquidity in cases where that’s the issue as opposed to insolvency – is systemic risk. The failure of large, major banks, two out of the big three auto companies, the secondary market for housing – all of these pose unacceptably large risks to global financial markets, and thus the global economy, to a major industry, including its upstream and downstream suppliers, and to the national housing sector.

Because a) there’s not much of a case that Detroit is systemically connected in those ways, and b) Chapter 9 of the bankruptcy code appears to provide an adequate way for it to deal with its insolvency, I don’t think anything like a large scale bailout is forthcoming.

Holding Main Street Hostage

Detroit’s bankruptcy poses no systemic risk to Wall Street and global financial markets. Fine. But it does pose a systemic risk to Main Street, local governments, and the contractual rights of pensioners. Credit rating agency Moody’s stated in a recent report that if Detroit manages to cut its pension obligations, other struggling cities could follow suit. The Detroit bankruptcy is establishing a template for wiping out government pensions everywhere. Chicago or New York could be next.

There is also the systemic risk posed to the municipal bond system. Bryce Hoffman, writing in The Detroit News on July 30^th, warned:

Detroit’s bankruptcy threatens to change the rules of the municipal bond game and already is making it more expensive for the state’s other struggling towns and school districts to borrow money and fund big infrastructure projects.

In fact, one bond analyst told The Detroit News that he has spoken to major institutional investors who have already decided to stop, for now, buying any Michigan bonds.

The real concern of bond investors, says Hoffman, is not the default of Detroit but the precedent the city is setting. General obligation municipal bonds have always been viewed as a virtually risk-free investment. They are unsecured, but bondholders have considered themselves protected because the bonds are backed by the “unlimited taxing authority” of the government that issued them. Detroit, however, has shown that the city’s taxing authority is far from unlimited.  It already has the highest property taxes of any major city in the country, and it is bumping up against a ceiling imposed by the state constitution. If Detroit is able to cut its bond debt in half or more by defaulting, other distressed cities are liable to look very closely at following suit. Hoffman writes:

The bond market is warning that this will make Michigan a pariah state and raise borrowing costs — not just for Detroit and other troubled municipalities, but also for paragons of fiscal virtue such as Oakland and Livingston counties.

However, writes Hoffman:

Gov. Rick Snyder dismisses that threat and says the bond market is just trying to turn Detroit away from a radical solution that could become a model for other struggling cities across America.

A Safer, Saner, More Equitable Model

Interestingly, Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, Snyder’s Democratic opponent in the last gubernatorial race, proposed a solution that could have avoided either robbing the pensioners or scaring off the bondholders: a state-owned bank. If the state or the city had its own bank, it would not need to borrow from Wall Street, worry about interest rate swaps, or be beholden to the bond vigilantes. It could borrow from its own bank, which would leverage the local government’s capital into credit, back that credit with the deposits created by the government’s own revenues, and return the interest to the government as a dividend, following the ground-breaking model of the state-owned Bank of North Dakota.

There are other steps that need to be taken, and soon, to prevent a cascade of municipal bankruptcies.  The super-priority of derivatives in bankruptcy needs to be repealed, and the protections of Glass Steagall need to be restored. While we are waiting on a very dilatory Congress, however, state and local governments might consider protecting themselves and their revenues by setting up their own banks.

ELLEN BROWN is an attorney and president of the Public Banking Institute.  In Web of Debt, her latest of eleven books, she shows how a private banking oligarchy has usurped the power to create money from the people themselves, and how we the people can get it back. Brown’s latest book is The Public Bank Solution. Her websites are http://WebofDebt.com, http://EllenBrown.com, and http://PublicBankingInstitute.org. 

-- 

Alan L. Maki

Director of Organizing,

Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

 

58891 County Road 13

Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Phone: 218-386-2432

Cell: 651-587-5541

Primary E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

E-mail: alan.maki1951mn@gmail.com

Blog: http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

Today is Hiroshima Day; Fukushima is out of control and the Plowshare Three sit in jail awaiting long prison sentences.

Today is Hiroshima Day... and the Fukushima reactor is out of control spewing its atomic poison.

And, as we come together to say "never again," the nuclear question continues to plague Japan and haunt the rest of world as if humanity has learned nothing.

Perhaps the greatest lesson from the barbaric and savage atom bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and now the Fukushima disaster, has yet to be learned: that we cannot allow these hideous creatures of the secretive corporate world the most dangerous of them all from the Military-Financial-Industrial Complex at the helm in the most "advanced" countries to dominate human society any longer because their one and only concern is for the bottom line of maximum corporate profits.

"Ironic" doesn't seem like the proper word to use but there is something horrible and horrific and terribly wrong in the fact that as the peoples of the world come together to insist that nuclear war shall never be unleashed on any peoples anywhere for any reason ever again, the same grouping of industrialists who profit from keeping this insane nuclear arms race spiraling out of control are the very same parasitical profiteers who have created this nuclear mess in Fukushima without the common people having had any say but in the end getting stuck with the consequences--- and the bill--- while TRYING to clean up this mess.

Another irony is that our fellow concerned citizens, members of the Plowshares Movement, are sitting in jail facing very long prison sentences for taking the initiative to draw the consequences of this nuclear insanity to our attention hoping we will join them in action:

http://transformnowplowshares.wordpress.com/

There is something wrong with the picture here--- those who have made the decisions to carry out the most barbaric and savage acts of intentionally dropping atomic bombs on two huge civilian populations and those corporate heads who have bribed corrupt politicians to give them the "right" to knowingly build an unsafe nuclear power plant which now contaminates large areas of the world's oceans, the air we breath, the water we drink and the land food grows on... these corporate criminals walk away free--- and richer.

The entire business class should be the ones sent into Fukushima to clean up this mess not poor working people for whom this rotten capitalist system has no other employment for.

Put the entire business class in shackles and chains and march them off to their deaths trying to clean up the mess in Fukushima. This is the just punishment they deserve... no cold, dark prison cells, unsafe coal mines or sped-up factory assembly lines for them.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/08/03/national/huge-leak-of-tritium-feared-in-fukushima/#.UgDsOG0iW0Q

After declaring on FaceBook that I will never support another Democrat I received hundreds of private messages and e-mails; this is my response--- I don't have the time nor inclination to answer each one individually.

I got so many private messages regarding this last comment I don't know if I will ever be able to respond to each one individually. But the gist of most is that I should never shut the door on the Democrats since they are our only hope for salvation.

I can't believe the number of people who wrote me to tell me that I was being too hard on the Democrats in saying I would never vote for or support another Democrat. I will respond here to all of those who wrote me in this vein because it would take me days to respond to all the private messages and e-mails.

We, the Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council, have been engaged in a struggle to organize workers employed in the Indian Gaming Industry for over ten years in the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. And only once, has any politician stood to support our struggle and this was a Republican woman in the Michigan state legislature who declared that she understood that there is a serious health issue involved with forcing people to work in smoke-filled casinos and she said she understood the effect of the noise on people's hearing and their mental health. Because of her vocal public concern she was pilloried by both her Democratic and Republican colleagues to the point where she broke down and cried.

I want this understood that this hideous Indian Gaming Industry which forces human beings to work in such unsafe and unhealthy working conditions at an imposed poverty wage amidst such fabulous wealth is an intentional creation of these politicians who reap huge campaign contributions and all kinds of "perks" ranging from free hotels/motels and dinners to prostitutes from a bunch of rich white mobsters who own every facet of the Indian Gaming Industry except for the debt which the Indian Nations incur--- which mires the Indian Nations and peoples in never-ending poverty.

These politicians--- mainly Democrats--- created these "Compacts" between state, federal and tribal governments in a way that left what is now some two million human beings employed in this Indian Gaming Industry without any rights under state and federal labor laws with most of these workers forced to sign statements as a condition of their employment that they understand they will be fired if they engage in any disparaging remarks, written or verbal, against their employers and that they will not engage in union organizing lest they will be immediately terminated.

Just to give you an idea of the kind of disgusting human beings these politicians are taking campaign contributions from--- the Vice-Chairman of the National Indian Gaming Association, Kevin Leecy, beat his wife to a pulp until she was unconscious and because the politicians came to his defense he got off without any jail time and didn't even receive a slap on the wrist.

The National Indian Gaming Association hired the vicious and violent union-busting outfit Altegrity/USIS to try to thwart and stymie our organizing efforts.

Anyone who thinks I should support any of the worthless politicians who have voted for these "Compacts" which include the likes of so-called "progressives" like Keith Ellison, Ben Cardin, Elizabeth Warren and Raul Grijalva who turn around and walk in the opposite direction when they see me coming can kiss my goddamn ass.

I wouldn't vote for one single Democrat--- Mark Dayton was the final straw with his public agreement with us which he turned around once elected and stabbed us in the back. We put this son-of-a-bitch in the Governor's Mansion and he turned around and shit on us just like all the other politicians from the Democrats and Republicans have done with one exception of those elected to public office... one lone Republican.

I do not need to be lectured by anyone about these goddamn Democrats being some kind of saviors when they have done these dirty deeds to casino workers so a bunch of filthy rich white mobsters can profit while the only thing Native American Indians get out of this Indian Gaming Industry is ill-health and poverty.

The Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council will never again support any Democrat or Republican... and the Justice Party and the Greens aren't any better when it comes to the rights of casino workers to be free from these injustices--- if anyone doubts this show me any statement from this so-called "Green Shadow Cabinet."

To contrast the difference with how real progressive, working class based people's parties respond to the problems of working people--- it wasn't even two-months after the problem of second-hand smoke in the provincial and Indian Gaming casinos in Manitoba was brought to the New Democratic Party's attention and the casinos were made smoke-free.

So, it is possible for working people to create political parties which really do respond to the problems of working people.

We simply do not need these worthless Democrats or Republicans and we certainly don't need Greens who talk about how they are for worker's rights but then act just like Democrats and Republicans when it comes down to specifics.

It is very difficult to remain civil in responding to people who think that these worthless Democrats who are as rotten as the system itself are going to solve their problems any sooner than they have solved our problems--- again, problems these Democrats INTENTIONALLY created for the employees of the Indian Gaming Industry.

Democrats argue against third parties: "You can't win."

Democrats make the stupid charge against third party candidates that, You can't win."

The funny thing about this "can your candidates get elected" argument is that about half the Democrats run in districts they know they can't get elected in because they have been a party to gerrymandering the districts as part of the "good ol' boys' club" so why do they bother running in these districts knowing they can't win?

The main reason the Democrats run (and even spend millions of dollars to lose) is so people don't break free from the two-party trap.

Yet, knowing they have no chance of winning, these Democrats will still make the accusation that third-party candidates are splitting the votes.

Any Democrats want to answer my questions here?

A perfect example of what I am talking about is the last race for Michigan's 3rd Congressional District where Democrats spent millions of dollars on Steve Pestka's campaign knowing Pestka didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning. Does it make any difference how many times the losing vote is split?

We saw the exact same thing with the Dave Barrett for Governor campaign in Wisconsin--- neither Barrett nor any of the Democrats put up any real fight against Walker yet they wasted millions of dollars on a campaign and the Greens, led by Ben Manski and Jill Stein, bought into the idea they didn't want to take votes away from Barrett so the Greens didn't field a candidate for governor in Wisconsin even though the "fix" was already in assuring a Walker "victory."

We can look at dozens of similar situations all across this country.

How much longer will people continue to buy into the "lesser evil" argument and its companion argument of,  "You can't win?"

But, look at the states with Democratic super majorities like Minnesota--- and what have working people "won" with these Democrats keeping the Minimum Wage at $6.25 an hour using the bogus argument that they couldn't agree on how much to increase the Minimum Wage.

Obama had a two year Democratic super majority--- what did working people get? Shit.

Even when Democrats win, the people lose.

Get your name on the ballot and run independent of the Democrats and Republicans.

Progressives need to have Congressional District Committees serving as their base to run for federal, state and local offices.

Of course the Democrats never want to talk about credibility and accountability--- they would rather campaign on a platform of "jobs, jobs, jobs" knowing they won't create one single job--- other than their own jobs doing nothing but serving Wall Street's interests.

Prosperity Economics, Building An Economy For All

Our organization is distributing this in union circles and beyond in preparation for the AFL-CIO's National Convention in September:

Sisters and Brothers, Fellow Workers;

Uniting People (UP) is a new national organization for Peace, Full Employment, Universal Health Care and Protection of the Environment. We appreciate the invitation extended by the AFL-CIO to all people and organizations to comment on its White Paper, “Prosperity Economics, Building An Economy For All” by Jacob S. Hacker and Nate Loewentheil, intended to create discussion about the direction of organized labor and the kind of country we all want to live in where peace, social and economic justice for working people prevail.

Democracy--- as well as social, economic and environmental justice--- require no less than a full and broad discussion of these important concerns and issues.

We agree with the concept of “prosperity economics” by “building an economy that works for everyone.” There are several very basic facts left out of this “White Paper” and it is very hazy, vague and nebulous as to what our concrete and specific goals and objectives are to be and what kind of movement and struggle it will take for the working class--- organized and unorganized together--- to create a prosperity economics for us all.

The “White Paper” does not clearly articulate our main enemy: Wall Street. The “White Paper” doesn't reflect the fact that we, as working people, are engaged in a social, political and economic struggle for power with the intent to replace Wall Street's dominance over every aspect of our lives--- in our schools, at work and in our communities.

Let's state right up front workers create all wealth but workers have had no say in how this wealth is distributed and used. This needs to change. Democracy requires no less.

Let's also put it right out there before the American people that militarism and wars are squandering the wealth of our Nation to such a large extent we don't have the resources to solve our many domestic problems. These dirty imperialist wars are killing our jobs and our standard of living just like they kill people.

Militarism and wars are a major contributing factor to the world-wide collapsing capitalist economy. No nation can continue to endlessly use the wealth of its nation to prepare for wars and to fight wars. This is sheer insanity.

Wall Street's greedy drive for profits results in wars which exacerbates our problems.

Detroit goes broke; the rest of our cities are sure to follow as Wall Street wallows in profits.

Working people go without adequate health care; insurance and pharmaceutical companies get fabulously wealthy. Shorter workweeks/longer vacations with no cut in pay create jobs and would keep us healthier, too.

Our public institutions like public education fall apart, crumble and collapse just like our roads, highways and bridges because we are constantly feeding a war machine intended to fight never-ending wars waged to protect Wall Street's assets and profits.

Prosperity for all begins with the recognition peace is required to achieve full employment.

Full employment is about the government seeing to it that jobs are created for all at real living wages. It is about putting people to work by creating massive universal social programs like Medicare for All, not job destroying legislation like Obama-care as detrimental to our health and jobs as wars without providing real health care reform while pushing the price of health care up instead of its stated intent to push prices down.

Eliminating militarism and wars eliminates the largest carbon footprint contributing to global warming and climate change as the Military Industrial Complex wastes our precious resources in a huge, monstrous complex that ruins our environment--- power generation, mining, manufacturing, the resources like oil and gas required to fight wars. Preparation for war, and war itself, creates a mammoth sized carbon footprint destroying our living environment while creating massive joblessness and poverty and ill health for our people as our air, water and land gets polluted.

The Wall Street selected politicians talk about “jobs, jobs, jobs” when their hidden agenda is really “profits, profits, profits” and “war, war, and more war.”

The time has come to make politicians legislatively responsible for full employment and peace because prosperity economics requires: peace and full employment--- a healthy people and a healthy environment.

Therefore, we propose that a central goal of the American labor and working class movement needs to be the building of an economy for all that is inseparably linked to peace and full employment which must include:

A Minimum Wage tied to all cost of living factors indexed to inflation. Jobs or a living income for all.

Medicare for All. Protect, defend and expand Social Security programs.

Legislation prohibiting lockouts and scabbing. Repeal of “At-Will Employment” legislation--- the primary obstacle to worker empowerment and union organizing.

Price controls are needed for food, gas, home heating fuels and electricity.

A healthy economy means a healthy living environment and a healthy planet. We need a quality of life index.

The two-party system is a trap for working people. We must free ourselves from the Democrats and Republicans. A working class based people's party is required if we are going to have a prosperity economics that works for all of us. We can learn a thing or two about health care and politics from our Canadian Brothers and Sisters.

We are now at a crossroads.

We will have an economy that serves Wall Street or we will have an economy that works for the rest of us--- we can't have both just like we can't have both war and full employment.

We encourage the use of the proposed Full Employment Act of 1945 pushed by the CIO unions and authored by liberal Texas Congressman Wright Patman and the associated hearing testimonies to broaden this discussion:

http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015081304209%3Bseq%3D10%3Bview%3D1up

We also call to your attention the excellent Op-Ed piece by Bob Herbert, “Losing Our Way,” his last piece in the New York Times (March 25, 2011), which declares:

"The U.S. has not just misplaced its priorities. When the most powerful country ever to inhabit the earth finds it so easy to plunge into the horror of warfare but almost impossible to find adequate work for its people or to properly educate its young, it has lost its way entirely."

We ask: What ever happened to William Winpisinger's "Rebuild America Act" and the “peace dividend?” The AFL-CIO should bring back to life its Committee on Conversion--- from military production to producing for human needs; swords into plowshares is what was advocated by the International Association of Machinist's former President, William Winpisinger. Where is this advocacy for peace and reordering our Nation's priorities now?

Thank you for allowing us to offer our critique of the AFL-CIO's “White Paper” and our alternative perspectives.

In solidarity and struggle. Uniting People (UP) for peace, full employment, universal health care and protection of the environment.

This is a great time of year for us gardeners.

I have to get up early to beat the birds and the deer to my raspberry patch. I get about two pints of raspberries a day. I eat about another pint as I'm picking. Next fruit will be the plums and then the grapes. I didn't get a single apple or pear this year--- frost must have got them. I started my raspberry patch from a few roots from my friend Janet Johnson's garden.

No end to Democratic Party lies.

This YouTube video is being passed around claiming that Bernie Sanders took on "Republicans" at this press conference. If you listen, Sanders never uses the word "Republicans;" he says "conservatives" when talking about those who refuse to recognize health care as a human right. These "conservatives" are not only Republicans... they are Democrats, too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nRF9LaVaLs

Until a National Public Health Care System is brought forward for discussion, dialog and debate in the proverbial "public square" and militant, massive actions by the people demanding this real health care reform instead of these dirty wars, we are never going to get real health care reform of any kind.

As far as the single-payer universal health care system that Sanders, Ellison and Conyers were lined up to support backed up by these greedy doctors who insist that health care delivery remains private, we will never have a humane and sensible health care system--- doctors should be deprived of the "right" to get rich from health care just like the insurance and pharmaceutical companies; and the American Medical Association should be deprived of the "right" to establish fees for health care delivered under Medicare.

It is dishonest for the Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) and politicians to refuse to allow a National Public Health Care System to be frozen out of this debate because what most Americans want when provided the opportunity is:

No-fee/No-Premium, comprehensive, all-inclusive, everyone in no one out, universal health care; publicly funded, publicly administered and publicly delivered.

The Democrats have refused to make good on their promise for Medicare for All--- they have used it as a campaign gimmick just like "jobs, jobs, jobs."

If they were deprived of the Medicare for All and "jobs, jobs, jobs" because the American people had the kind of world-class National Public Health Care System and the president and Congress were required by legislation to maintain full employment they wouldn't have any issues to run on since they push wars just like the Republicans instead of peace which would provide us with the funds to finance a National Public Health Care System which would create twelve to fifteen million new jobs.

And pretty soon we won't even be able to talk about peace without being taken to be "terrorists" by Obama and the Democrats since they are using the "Espionage Act" to curtail democracy--- and we know how the "Espionage Act" was used to imprison, for almost ten years, Eugene V. Debs because he defended the First Amendment in claiming his right to speak out against World War I.

Bernie Sanders claims to be a socialist; as a socialist myself, I expect Bernie Sanders to support socialist solutions to this health care mess not more for-profit health care.

Come on Bernie; articulate a socialist solution to this health care mess--- line up workers to support your message not a bunch of greedy, profit-driven doctors. Put doctors on the public payroll just like teachers and model health care and the system of public education--- everyone in, nobody out.

Most of us can live with single-payer as a short-term reform as a step towards a National Public Health Care System--- but this is the bottom line: put an end to profit driven health care.

It's going to take a new political party to bring into existence this kind of reform--- let's see how the Democrats with their never-ending, do-nothing calls for health care reform stack up in debates with another party calling for a National Public Health Care System.

What we need is a massive united movement uniting people for Peace, Full Employment, Universal Health Care and Protection of the Environment... a healthy environment goes a long way towards contributing towards a healthy people--- one more thing Democrats and Republicans refuse to acknowledge; we can't continue to pollute and contaminate the air we breath, the water we drink and the land we grow our food on and expect to have healthy people.

I ask: If Democrats will be so dishonest to replace Bernie Sanders word "conservative" with "Republican" in order to make us believe there aren't conservative Democrats just like Republicans thwarting real health care reform, how can we expect Democrats to be honest about anything? We can't trust these liars--- they lie about health care reform the same way they lie about these dirty wars and their attacks on democracy. Nothing but lie after lie.

And now Obama and the Democrats are using XKeyscore to determine who amongst us will be their next victim charged under the "Espionage Act;" after all, aren't we all against Wall Street rule and financial dictatorship?

Medicare for All

www.yo

 




Democrats lie, lie, lie... here is Obama; his own words:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpAyan1fXCE

Democrats had the White House, the House and the Senate--- what did we get? Wall Street bailouts, Obamacare and more war instead of single-payer.

Obama on single payer health insurance

Obama on single payer health insurance

And they have the nerve to call this "democracy?" XKeyscore

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/nsa-top-secret-program-online-data

XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

• XKeyscore gives 'widest-reaching' collection of online data
• NSA analysts require no prior authorization for searches
• Sweeps up emails, social media activity and browsing history
• NSA's XKeyscore program – read one of the presentations

^BETA

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• Glenn Greenwald
• theguardian.com, Wednesday 31 July 2013 08.56 EDT
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One presentation claims the XKeyscore program covers 'nearly everything a typical user does on the internet'

A top secret National Security Agency program allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals, according to documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The NSA boasts in training materials that the program, called XKeyscore, is its "widest-reaching" system for developing intelligence from theinternet.

The latest revelations will add to the intense public and congressional debate around the extent of NSA surveillance programs. They come as senior intelligence officials testify to the Senate judiciary committee on Wednesday, releasing classified documents in response to the Guardian's earlier stories on bulk collection of phone records and Fisasurveillance court oversight.

The files shed light on one of Snowden's most controversial statements, made in his first video interview published by the Guardian on June 10.

"I, sitting at my desk," said Snowden, could "wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the president, if I had a personal email".

US officials vehemently denied this specific claim. Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee, said of Snowden's assertion: "He's lying. It's impossible for him to do what he was saying he could do."

But training materials for XKeyscore detail how analysts can use it and other systems to mine enormous agency databases by filling in a simple on-screen form giving only a broad justification for the search. The request is not reviewed by a court or any NSA personnel before it is processed.

XKeyscore, the documents boast, is the NSA's "widest reaching" system developing intelligence from computer networks – what the agency calls Digital Network Intelligence (DNI). One presentation claims the program covers "nearly everything a typical user does on the internet", including the content of emails, websites visited and searches, as well as theirmetadata.

Analysts can also use XKeyscore and other NSA systems to obtain ongoing "real-time" interception of an individual's internet activity.

Under US law, the NSA is required to obtain an individualized Fisawarrant only if the target of their surveillance is a 'US person', though no such warrant is required for intercepting the communications of Americans with foreign targets. But XKeyscore provides the technological capability, if not the legal authority, to target even US persons for extensive electronic surveillance without a warrant provided that some identifying information, such as their email or IP address, is known to the analyst.

One training slide illustrates the digital activity constantly being collected by XKeyscore and the analyst's ability to query the databases at any time.

The purpose of XKeyscore is to allow analysts to search the metadata as well as the content of emails and other internet activity, such as browser history, even when there is no known email account (a "selector" in NSAparlance) associated with the individual being targeted.

Analysts can also search by name, telephone number, IP address, keywords, the language in which the internet activity was conducted or the type of browser used.

One document notes that this is because "strong selection [search by email address] itself gives us only a very limited capability" because "a large amount of time spent on the web is performing actions that are anonymous."

The NSA documents assert that by 2008, 300 terrorists had been captured using intelligence from XKeyscore.

Analysts are warned that searching the full database for content will yield too many results to sift through. Instead they are advised to use themetadata also stored in the databases to narrow down what to review.

A slide entitled "plug-ins" in a December 2012 document describes the various fields of information that can be searched. It includes "every email address seen in a session by both username and domain", "every phone number seen in a session (eg address book entries or signature block)" and user activity – "the webmail and chat activity to include username, buddylist, machine specific cookies etc".

Email monitoring

In a second Guardian interview in June, Snowden elaborated on his statement about being able to read any individual's email if he had their email address. He said the claim was based in part on the email search capabilities of XKeyscore, which Snowden says he was authorized to use while working as a Booz Allen contractor for the NSA.

One top-secret document describes how the program "searches within bodies of emails, webpages and documents", including the "To, From, CC, BCC lines" and the 'Contact Us' pages on websites".

To search for emails, an analyst using XKS enters the individual's email address into a simple online search form, along with the "justification" for the search and the time period for which the emails are sought.

The analyst then selects which of those returned emails they want to read by opening them in NSA reading software.

The system is similar to the way in which NSA analysts generally can intercept the communications of anyone they select, including, as one NSA document put it, "communications that transit the United States and communications that terminate in the United States".

One document, a top secret 2010 guide describing the training received by NSA analysts for general surveillance under the Fisa Amendments Act of 2008, explains that analysts can begin surveillance on anyone by clicking a few simple pull-down menus designed to provide both legal and targeting justifications. Once options on the pull-down menus are selected, their target is marked for electronic surveillance and the analyst is able to review the content of their communications:

Chats, browsing history and other internet activity

Beyond emails, the XKeyscore system allows analysts to monitor a virtually unlimited array of other internet activities, including those within social media.

An NSA tool called DNI Presenter, used to read the content of stored emails, also enables an analyst using XKeyscore to read the content of Facebook chats or private messages.

An analyst can monitor such Facebook chats by entering the Facebook user name and a date range into a simple search screen.

Analysts can search for internet browsing activities using a wide range of information, including search terms entered by the user or the websites viewed.

As one slide indicates, the ability to search HTTP activity by keyword permits the analyst access to what the NSA calls "nearly everything a typical user does on the internet".

The XKeyscore program also allows an analyst to learn the IP addresses of every person who visits any website the analyst specifies.

The quantity of communications accessible through programs such as XKeyscore is staggeringly large. One NSA report from 2007 estimated that there were 850bn "call events" collected and stored in the NSA databases, and close to 150bn internet records. Each day, the document says, 1-2bn records were added.

William Binney, a former NSA mathematician, said last year that the agency had "assembled on the order of 20tn transactions about US citizens with other US citizens", an estimate, he said, that "only was involving phone calls and emails". A 2010 Washington Post article reported that "every day, collection systems at the [NSA] intercept and store 1.7bn emails, phone calls and other type of communications."

The XKeyscore system is continuously collecting so much internet data that it can be stored only for short periods of time. Content remains on the system for only three to five days, while metadata is stored for 30 days. One document explains: "At some sites, the amount of data we receive per day (20+ terabytes) can only be stored for as little as 24 hours."

To solve this problem, the NSA has created a multi-tiered system that allows analysts to store "interesting" content in other databases, such as one named Pinwale which can store material for up to five years. 

It is the databases of XKeyscore, one document shows, that now contain the greatest amount of communications data collected by the NSA.

In 2012, there were at least 41 billion total records collected and stored in XKeyscore for a single 30-day period.

Legal v technical restrictions

While the Fisa Amendments Act of 2008 requires an individualized warrant for the targeting of US persons, NSA analysts are permitted to intercept the communications of such individuals without a warrant if they are in contact with one of the NSA's foreign targets.

The ACLU's deputy legal director, Jameel Jaffer, told the Guardian last month that national security officials expressly said that a primary purpose of the new law was to enable them to collect large amounts of Americans' communications without individualized warrants.

"The government doesn't need to 'target' Americans in order to collect huge volumes of their communications," said Jaffer. "The government inevitably sweeps up the communications of many Americans" when targeting foreign nationals for surveillance.

An example is provided by one XKeyscore document showing an NSAtarget in Tehran communicating with people in Frankfurt, Amsterdam and New York.

In recent years, the NSA has attempted to segregate exclusively domestic US communications in separate databases. But even NSA documents acknowledge that such efforts are imperfect, as even purely domestic communications can travel on foreign systems, and NSA tools are sometimes unable to identify the national origins of communications.

Moreover, all communications between Americans and someone on foreign soil are included in the same databases as foreign-to-foreign communications, making them readily searchable without warrants.

Some searches conducted by NSA analysts are periodically reviewed by their supervisors within the NSA. "It's very rare to be questioned on our searches," Snowden told the Guardian in June, "and even when we are, it's usually along the lines of: 'let's bulk up the justification'."

In a letter this week to senator Ron Wyden, director of national intelligence James Clapper acknowledged that NSA analysts have exceeded even legal limits as interpreted by the NSA in domestic surveillance.

Acknowledging what he called "a number of compliance problems", Clapper attributed them to "human error" or "highly sophisticated technology issues" rather than "bad faith".

However, Wyden said on the Senate floor on Tuesday: "These violations are more serious than those stated by the intelligence community, and are troubling."

In a statement to the Guardian, the NSA said: "NSA's activities are focused and specifically deployed against – and only against – legitimate foreign intelligence targets in response to requirements that our leaders need for information necessary to protect our nation and its interests.

"XKeyscore is used as a part of NSA's lawful foreign signals intelligence collection system.

"Allegations of widespread, unchecked analyst access to NSA collection data are simply not true. Access to XKeyscore, as well as all of NSA's analytic tools, is limited to only those personnel who require access for their assigned tasks … In addition, there are multiple technical, manual and supervisory checks and balances within the system to prevent deliberate misuse from occurring."

"Every search by an NSA analyst is fully auditable, to ensure that they are proper and within the law.

"These types of programs allow us to collect the information that enables us to perform our missions successfully – to defend the nation and to protect US and allied troops abroad."