America is in the grip of a societal economic panic. Lawmakers cry “We’re broke!” as they slash budgets, lay off schoolteachers, police and firefighters, crumbling our country’s social fabric and leaving many Americans scrambling to survive. Meanwhile, multi-billion-dollar American corporations like Exxon, Google and Bank of America are making record profits. And while the deficit climbs and the cuts go deeper, these corporations -- with intimate ties to our political leaders -- are concealing colossal profits overseas to avoid paying U.S. income tax.

"We're Not Broke" is the story of how American corporations have been able to hide over a trillion dollars from Uncle Sam, and how seven fed-up Americans from across the country, take their frustration to the streets and vow to make the corporations pay their fair share.

More here.

According to the Organization United for Respect at Walmart, 1,000 protests occurred at Wal-Mart stores across 46 states, with hundreds of workers walking off the job in an unprecedented decentralized, open-source strike at the retail giant. Local Occupy groups supported actions in dozens of cities. OWS joined with 99 Pickets, ALIGN, the Retail Action Project, and others to show solidarity to Wal-mart workers in Secaucus, New Jersey. Despite attempts by Wal-Mart's propaganda department to downplay the events, the latest massive wave of strikes and solidarity actions at Wal-Mart forced even the corporate media to pay attention, and put the 1% on notice: When we work together, another world is possible. We do not have to accept poverty, low wages, or unfair working conditions with no benefits while six members of the Walton family are worth more than the bottom 42% of American families combined.

However, the struggle is far from over! Today's inspiring actions point the way forward. Please continue to support OUR Wal-Mart and all low-wage workers in the struggle for economic justice and show support for the courageous workers and unemployed people on the frontlines against income inequality.

They say roll back, we say fight back!

[Via OccupyWallSt.]

Pat Robertson is shocked and awed that 30% of women in the United States of America love porn. Women are "involved in" pornography? Men "struggle with it?"

Robertson, who has watched a lot of porn -- but only so he can report back to the world on the evils of porn, naturally -- described it as "boring." Then he implied that the best-selling novel "Fifty Shades of Grey" was to blame for the mass corruption leading women to the formerly exclusive to men world of porn. "Mommy porn" he called it, apparently never having heard of "romance novels."

Just wait until he wakes up and finds out there's a black man in the White House.

H/T RightWingWatch for the video.

CRISIS from urban research collective on Vimeo.

In the time of multiple crisis, millions of Americans are struck by unemployment, poverty and homelessness. This documentary explores different dimensions of the crisis and articulates the fight for social justice and for the Right to the City. It travels from New York to Fresno and interrelates theoretical analysis with the everyday struggle on the streets.

This Youtube video has good footage of the damage as a result of the July 18, 2012 riot at the Maruti Suzuki plant in India, but it is a continuous loop of the same images for over 6 minutes.

Outsourcing to cheap foreign labor may have to eventually become a thing of the past as now auto workers in India have resorted to deadly violence in their desperate efforts to have India's outdated labor laws overhauled, and their wages increased.

Reuters reports:

Hiding in his office near New Delhi as workers armed with iron bars and car parts rampaged through the factory, Maruti Suzuki(MRTI.NS) supervisor Raj Kumar spent two terrified hours trying to comprehend the warzone his workplace had become.

By the end of the day, one of his colleagues had been burnt to death and dozens wounded, many with broken bones, as a long-running struggle between the shop floor and management exploded at a factory racked by mistrust.

While police investigate and the carmaker counts its mounting losses, the July 18 clash has rattled corporate India and shone a light on outdated and rigid labour laws in a country where cheap labour drives manufacturing and draws foreign investment. High inflation, a shortage of skilled labour and rising aspirations have emboldened workers' demands.

"There was always a strong sense of unease," Kumar, 43, told Reuters as he stood outside the locked factory gates more than a week after the riot in the industrial town of Manesar.

"We are living in fear... The kind of violence these guys showed was unbelievable."

Hyundai and Honda plants located in India have also seen labour unrest in their plants as some labor laws date as far back as 1920.

Since July's rioting, Maruti Suzuki has remained on shut down, with its some 2,500 workers in hiding fearing punishment from the company, criminal charges or both.

Troubles for Maruti began as far back as 2000, when workers hunger-striked for better wages. The best and highest paid manufacturing workers in the area are paid 25,000 rupees a month, the equivalent of just $445.79 in U.S. currency.

Federal officials laughed at warning signals, and gushed that Alan Greenspan was totally awesome as the economy headed towards the biggest iceberg in about 70 years. Reading the Federal Reserve transcripts- available here - was much like watching "The Titanic," without the Grammy winning theme song or the romantic sex scenes between Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Via:

As the housing bubble entered its waning hours in 2006, top Federal Reserve officials marveled at the desperate antics of home builders seeking to lure buyers.

The officials laughed about the cars that builders were offering as signing bonuses, and about efforts to make empty homes look occupied. They joked about one builder who said that inventory was “rising through the roof.”
...
Some officials, including Susan Bies, a Fed governor, suggested that a housing downturn actually could bolster the economy by redirecting money to other kinds of investments.

And there was general acclaim for Alan Greenspan, who stepped down as chairman at the beginning of the year, for presiding over one of the longest economic expansions in the nation’s history. Mr. Geithner suggested that Mr. Greenspan’s greatness still was not fully appreciated, an opinion now held by a much smaller number of people.

Meanwhile, by the end of 2006, the economy already was shrinking by at least one important measure, total income. And by the end of the next year, the Fed had started its desperate struggle to prevent the collapse of the financial system and to avert the onset of what could have been the nation’s first full-fledged depression in about 70 years.

The transcripts of the 2006 meetings, released after a standard five-year delay, clearly show some of the nation’s pre-eminent economic minds did not fully understand the basic mechanics of the economy that they were charged with shepherding. The problem was not a lack of information; it was a lack of comprehension, born in part of their deep confidence in economic forecasting models that turned out to be broken.

I had friends already losing their jobs and homes in 2006. The people who should have been looking out for us, they were laughing. George W. Bush even put a medal on Alan Greenspan.

Timothy Geithner is, as you're probably all aware, our Secretary of the Treasury, and Ben Bernanke our current Chairman of the Federal Reserve, as well as the central bank of the United States.

Alan Greenspan (Or Mr."Terrific" as Geithner referred to him) is the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States from 1987 to 2006, first appointed by Ronald Reagan. Greenspan held economic views influenced by Ayn Rand, need I say more? Probably not, but I will. He also supported the idea of the privatization of Social Security, and deficit-spurring tax cuts.

Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) once referred to Greenspan as “one of the biggest political hacks we have in Washington.”