REWIND - A Week of Quotes and Cartoons
REWIND - A Week of Quotes and Cartoons
SUNDAY
Quote of the Day
May 19, 2013
'Now is the time for the Obama of the campaign trail finally to step up to the plate. He must shed his instinct for caution, get rid of the notion that he can't do anything without Republican support and start to lead the country that elected him. None of the scandals assailing him smacks of Watergate and he must put them behind him. Though Republicans will drag them out as long as they can, he must rise above them and use the clout of his office to bring about real and bold change.
'Immigration reform, climate change, curbing the power of the still-too powerful banks and myriad crises abroad are all in desperate need of action. If he does not, then Obama will have betrayed the hopes for change he once so powerfully embodied. It would be a tragedy. Due to the colour of his skin, Obama will always be a historic American president. But it would be better all around if that fact were because of his actions while in power.'
Editorial
The Observer (UK)
May 18, 2013
Toon of the Day
PHD
John Darkow
MONDAY
Quote of the Day
'Much of the problem in trying to stop the march to war was precisely the fear of many pundits that they would be seen as weak and, above all, not Serious if they objected. Austerity has been very much the same thing - and again, it's not just the right- wingers who are afflicted.'
Economist Paul Krugman
New York Times
blog
May 20, 2013
Toon of the Day
'For Me?'
Pat Bagley - Salt Lake Tribune
TUESDAY
Quote of the Day
'In addition to those standard multinational tactics, Apple established at the apex of its offshore network an offshore holding company that it says is not tax resident in any nation. That subsidiary, Apple Operations International, has no employees and no physical presence, but keeps its bank accounts and records in the United States and holds its board meetings in California. It was incorporated in Ireland in 1980, and is owned and controlled by the U.S. parent company, Apple Inc. Ireland asserts tax jurisdiction only over companies that are managed and controlled in Ireland, but the United States bases tax residency on where a company is incorporated. Exploiting the gap between the two nations' tax laws, Apple Operations International has not filed an income tax return in either country, or any other country, for the past five years. From 2009 to 2012, it reported income totaling $30 billion.'
Henry Blodget | Daily Ticker
Yahoo Finance
May 21, 2013
Toon of the Day
Tea Party PAC
Matt Bors
WEDNESDAY
Quote of the Day
'The real crises are mass unemployment and falling wages. Mindless cuts in government spending are costing jobs, slowing any recovery. We have an economy that rewards only the few. Corporations are pocketing record amounts of the economy in profits, while wages hit new lows. The richest 1 percent captured more than 100 percent of the income growth of the society in the two years coming out of the recession. Yet Republicans continue to demand more cuts in programs for the vulnerable and reject even closing tax havens for the wealthy. Or as Bulworth put it:
'The rich is gettin' richer an richer an richer
'While the middle class is gettin' more poor
"Those gentlemen there on the monitor
"They want government smaller. Weak.
"They be speakin' for the richest 20 percent
"While pretendin' they defendin' the meek".'
'Going Bulworth'
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Washington Post
May 21, 2013
Toon of the Day
Tom Toles - Washington Post
THURSDAY
Quote of the Day
'The best way to move money from Wall Street to Main street is through a financial transaction tax -- a small charge on each and every sale of stocks, bonds and derivatives of all kinds. Consider it a sin tax on Wall Street's many vices. Such a tax could raise enough money so that every student in this country could go to a two- or four-year public college or university, tuition-free Just think what the elimination of increasing student debt would do to the lopsided wealth statistics. Just think of what that would do for jobs as colleges expanded to deal with the demand. It's not a wild-eyed demand: 11 countries are about to adopt such a tax. (See robinhoodtax.org)'
Les Leopold is the executive director of the Labor
Institute in New York, and author of How to Make a
Million Dollars an Hour: Why Hedge Funds Get
Away with Siphoning Off America's Wealth
AlterNet
May 3, 2013
Toon of the Day
A Little Bite
Tony Auth
FRIDAY
Quote of the Day
'Bank lobbyists are not leaving it to lawmakers to draft legislation that softens financial regulations. Instead, the lobbyists are helping to write it themselves.
'... The lobbying campaign shows how, three years after Congress passed the most comprehensive overhaul of regulation since the Depression, Wall Street is finding Washington a friendlier place.
'The cordial relations now include a growing number of Democrats in both the House and the Senate, whose support the banks need if they want to roll back parts of the 2010 financial overhaul, known as Dodd-Frank.'
New York Times
May 24, 2013
Toon of the Day
We'll Adapt
Ben Sargent
SATURDAY
Quote of the Day
'One first impression left by President Obama's much-anticipated speech re-casting U.S. counterterrorism policy is that of the contrast between Bush's swagger and Obama's anguish over the difficult trade-offs that perpetual war poses to a free society. It could scarcely be starker. While Bush frequently seemed to take action without considering the underlying questions, Obama appears somewhat unsure of exactly what actions to take. That is not a bad thing: at least he is asking the right questions. In fact, by suggesting that, after a decade and seven thousand American and countless foreign lives lost, and a trillion dollars spent, it might be time to start downsizing the "war on terror," he is leading the national debate beyond where even most Democrats have dared to go.'
Jane Mayer
The New Yorker
May 25, 2013
Toon of the Day
Want to Be Free
Jeff Danziger