Friday, May 18, 2012

How racist Joe Ricketts managed screwed over his own family.

No, seriously.

Okay, so the Ricketts family owns a little enterprise known as the Chicago Cubs.  And they want to renovate Wrigley Field (originally built, by the way with private money) with public funds.  They're asking the City of Chicago for $150 million bucks to help with a $300 million dollar renovation.

Guess...who the @#$%@ Mayor of Chicago is, and would have to approve said money?

In October 2009, a trust that Joe and Marlene Ricketts established on behalf of their family acquired a 95-percent controlling interest in the Cubs and the team’s home park, Wrigley Field. Tom Ricketts, a son, is team chairman, and Pete Ricketts, Laura Ricketts, and Todd Ricketts (another son) all serve on the board. Dad’s place in the headlines this week actually comes at a bad time for the Cubs: the team is trying to work out a deal with the city “that would involve using $150 million in city amusement taxes for a $300 million renovation of Wrigley Field,” The Chicago Tribune reports. An aide to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel told The Washington Post that the former White House Chief of Staff was “livid” over the Times story.

“The Ricketts have tried to contact the mayor, but he’s said that he does not want to talk with them today, tomorrow or anytime soon,” the aide said.

In local news: Glendale settles with ex-employee who says he was fired for union stance

There goes $29,000 of my tax dollars because someone in my stinkin' city tried to pull a Scott Walker:

A Glendale employee who claims he was wrongfully fired for promoting a new union has settled with the city for $29,000.

After being terminated in May 2010, Anthony Carbajal filed a wrongful termination lawsuit, claiming he was fired because of his strong support of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18, a Los Angeles group that at the time was pushing to represent Glendale Water & Power workers.

The IBEW and the city have since clashed over a new labor contract, with Glendale electrical workers and their Los Angeles counterparts protesting outside City Hall. The IBEW recently rejected a proposed city contract.

Carbajal’s attorney, David Klehm, said his client was a vocal leader in the movement as he tried to drum up support for the IBEW — making him a political target at City Hall.

But the city maintains Carbajal was terminated “based on legitimate business reasons and that there was no discrimination or retaliation,” City Atty. Mike Garcia said in an email.

Right, that settlement you dropped waaaay convinces me of that.

@NickHanauer reminds the Super Rich that it is the Middle Class who are the real Job Creators (VIDEO)



And Nick Hanauer's interview with Lawrence O'Donnell:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy


Tuesday, May 15, 2012

And now Priorities USA gets in on the Romney The-Layoff-King (VIDEO)

C'mon, Scalito, Roberts, do it. DO IT! I dare ya...

I hope they spend more intellectual firepower on Obamacare, than they did on Citizens United:

Next month, America’s health insurance plans may lose $1 trillion in revenue.

It won’t have anything to do with a business deal gone awry, or Americans dropping health coverage during the recession. Instead, $1 trillion is the amount of revenue that health insurance plans can expect to lose if the Supreme Court overturns the Affordable Care Act. The Court is expected to issue its opinion in late June.

The figure comes from Bloomberg Government, where number crunchers have taken a look at what happens if the Supreme Court strikes down the Affordable Care Act and its expected expansion of health care coverage to 32 million Americans. They find that, should the Affordable Care Act be found unconstititional, insurance companies will lose $1 trillion in revenue between 2013 and 2020.

To put that in perspective, $1 trillion accounts for about 9 percent of all revenue that health insurers are expected to earn in the same period. It’s one-half of a percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product. Add up the annual revenues of America’s five largest banks - Bank of America, J.P. Morgan, Wells Fargo, Wachovia and U.S. Bancorp- and you’re still about $500 billion short of what health plans can expect to lose if the Supreme Court decides against Obamacare.

“It’s the sheer size of the number that was startling,” says Bloomberg Government health care analyst Matt Barry. “I don’t know if people fully appreciate the stakes involved here. It’s not just politics - there’s a lot of money, and a lot to lose.”