Oprah Winfrey &

The Dumbing Down of America

A large number of hedge funds and brokerages are looking at professional poker to find talent and analytical tools. “Someone who's made a successful living as a poker player for a few years would more likely be a good trader in today's market."

With the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, they'll finally have a watchdog to oversee financial products, giving Americans confidence that there is a system in place that works for them – not just big banks on Wall Street.

Nobody has contributed more to the dumbing-down of America and its increase in mediocrity than Oprah Winfrey. Her so-called leadership ability lies in self-gratifying sustenance via mindless consumerism. She typifies the narcissism of pop culture.

We've been hoodwinked into believing that unfettered capitalism espoused by Milton Friedman, promoted by Reagan and the rest is acceptable. I know that if we "stay the course" it will be ugly. The current economic meltdown is a harbinger.

The appalling figures do not include those who are actually in foreclosure, a figure that also rose sharply. The combined percentage of those in foreclosure as well as delinquent is 14.41 percent, or about one in seven of mortgage holders.

Bernanke’s frank assessment of the “jobless recovery” [mass unemployment] will be used as a bludgeon to extract wage cuts and increased productivity from workers, From America’s ruling class point of view, that's not the problem but the solution.

Why are the drug barons planning a $150 million ad campaign boosting Obama's health care scheme? They've got $21 billion worth of reasons – bonus earnings from record price hikes and overjoyed with Obama's willingness to 'help' the private sector..

The dirty little secret: both America and China are capable of producing far more than their own consumers are capable of buying. The real problem is inequality. How can the majority shop when they wallow in poverty? Debt is no longer an option.

It's an asset-based recovery, not a Main Street one. The economy is growing again, but the surge in productivity is a mirage. Worker output per hour is skyrocketing because companies generate as much output with fewer workers and fewer hours.

Was Hasan's killing of soldiers proof of “terrorism”? Or did he snap under pressure while treating returning vets on a base averaging ten suicides a month? Is there an undisclosed agenda by those who want to see it as the work of “Islamofascists”?

There was a sharp rise both in what is called “food insecurity” and “very low food security,” i.e., outright hunger. The rates recorded last year in both categories were the highest since the Agriculture Department began its annual surveys in 1995.

Nicholas Sarkozy has spent the past year hammering away at the excesses of American-style capitalism. In September, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso declared that worker's rights and "social cohesion" were top priorities in Europe.

American power wanes...The bloated, increasingly dysfunctional, for-profit US military machine is unable to solve the problems or rebuild the infrastructure in Afghanistan or Iraq, and it is unable to rebuild the crumbling infrastructure in the US.

The film is about common people confronting and defeating capitalist exploitation and violent oppression: The Scarecrow represented farmers, the Tin Man stood for the factory workers, and the Munchkins of the "Lollipop Guild" were the union members.

What the Fawning Corporate Media (or FCM) have neglected is the likelihood that the testimony will be so public that they will have to break their studied silence about why Sheikh Mohammed and his associates say they orchestrated the attacks of 9/11.

Ever hear what soldiers scream in combat? It's a combination of hateful, profane, blood-lustful jargon and cries for reassurance from the almighty. "Ain't no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole," I've heard. What about Christians for mass murder?

The pontification of Western leaders about corruption in Afghanistan is growing rather tiresome? In fact, the US occupation of the country is not so morally immaculate -- indeed, that the most corrupt racket going in Afghanistan is the US occupation.

The deaths of soldiers slain by a disturbed officer at Fort Hood, as well as those killed in Afghanistan, are being exploited in an attempt to intimidate mass antiwar sentiment and support a military escalation that will lead to many more deaths.

We have lived through the regime of low-wage capitalism. It sweats the last ounce of profit from the hides of the worker. But has this exploitation brought capitalist overproduction to a point where it can no longer recover from this recession?

The US dollar is in the midst of a large fall in its value, or depreciation, as measured against other major currencies. The decline has been steady since 2002 and our currency is down about 35 percent from that peak. And it's still falling.

Our dominant, false ideology tells us that every function of government must be privatized. We are not told that the real reason for privatizing is to give capitalists yet another opportunity for making short term profit. We have been brainwashed.

Iran has not gone to war against its neighbors in modern times (Iraq invaded it in 1980). But Israel and the US have gone to war and invaded other states on a variety of pretexts more than the rest of the world combined, since the end of WWII.

?The stories of those at Fort Hood reaffirm the core values that we are fighting for.? [Our troops] ?served tour after tour of duty in distant places to protect our people, while giving others half a world away the chance to lead a better life.?

When asked if he understood why people thought he made too much money, or how could Goldman Sachs ignore the people howling at the moon with rage and go on raking it in, getting super-richer, CEO Blankfein grinned and said he was “doing God’s work.”

Even as Government tries to rein in bankers' pay, they will receive the most lucrative payouts ever because of large gains on the stock grants and options they received after shares in their companies fell sharply during the financial meltdown.