Four buses of unionists left Tucson this morning. (Image credit: Pamela Powers Hannley)

When I originally reported on the AFL-CIO Day of Action, I said four bus-loads of unionists were going to the Capitol to lobby Legislators and demonstrate against the anti-labor bills. Correction: that’s four buses just from Tucson. Additional bus-loads will be arriving from other Arizona cities.

As they loaded the buses, one participant told me that two years ago, 30 unionists went to the Arizona Legislature on the Day of Action. Last year, there were two buses of unionists. This year with six anti-worker bills in the Arizona Legislature, there are four bus-loads just from Tucson going to the capitol.

Maybe today will be Arizona’s “Wisconsin moment.”

Why are nurses leaving the bedside?

Here’s an explanation from loneprotestor…

Several nurses met at breakfast the other day, and we discovered we had more than our profession and activism in common. For those who had worked at Banner Health, an alarming trend emerged: Banner seems to have a policy of firing for a trifle and then reporting to the State Board of Nursing. Is this a tactic to keep nurses from fighting for their careers, their livelihoods, and their ideals?

As one member of the Arizona Board of Nursing once told me, “In a right-to-work state, you can be fired because your supervisor doesn’t like the color of your hair.”

Nurses are in short supply in the US; this gives them power. The law of supply and demand tells us that when demand is high, the price should be high. When workers are intimidated, they are less likely to fight for their rights.

Why do nurses need a union? Now you know.

Nurses need a union because it is good for your health.

Lapis jewelry at the hotels near I-10 (Image Credit: Pamela Powers Hannley)

Ready for a serious shot of retail therapy?

The Tucson Gem and Mineral Show starts today– January 28, 2012. The Gem Show is clearly one of the best reasons to live in Tucson. The Gem Show is actually several shows taking place over the course of the next few weeks. Some of the shows are wholesale and others are retail, and different shows start and stop on different days. There are so many shows spread around Tucson that the organizers will even shuttle you around. Check the official Gem Show guide (here)for links to individual shows.

Two of my favorite places to go are the African Art Village and the hotels along Interstate 10. (The Holidome show is also very good, but you need a business licence to get in.) Below are a couple of videos that I shot at the 2011 Gem Show.

More on the Gem Show…

African Art Village and More at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show

Image credit: Pamela Powers Hannley

When old timers talk about Arizona’s economy, they often refer to the “5 C’s”– cotton, copper, cattle, citrus, and climate. The “5 C’s” built Arizona, but how relevant are they in today’s world of limited resources?

At least 4 of the 5 C’s come with a high environmental cost, since cotton, copper, cattle, and citrus all use more water than Arizona can afford to use. This practice has led to the destruction of desert rivers and streams. Three of the 5C’s– cotton, copper, and cattle– also have destroyed our state’s vegetation and desert ecosystem.

According to a recent article in the Arizona Daily Star, a 6th C has emerged as an important player (no pun intended) in the state’s economic development– casinos. In fiscal year 2011 (July 2010 – June 2011), casinos took in $1.7 billion. .

Although copper ($5.3 billion) and climate (AKA, tourism, $17.7 billion) have continued to be blockbuster sources of revenue, 2010 revenues from cattle ($637 million), cotton ($206), and citrus ($34) paled in comparison to gambling.

What is missing from this article about revenue is cost. What is the environmental cost of  copper, cattle, cotton, and citrus? What is the cost to the state in tax breaks and incentives to the copper industry or businesses related to tourism? If revenues of these businesses are so high, what are they paying to the state for the privilege of doing business here?

And what is the true cost of gambling? The Star article quotes expert sources who estimate that 75% of casino gamblers are Arizonans. Yes, the tribes made $1.7 billion on gambling, but that means that everyday citizens lost $1.7 billion on gambling.

The old saying is: gambling is a tax on people who are bad at math. Gambling can be highly addictive. Compulsive gamblers can lose everything… houses, jobs, families, lives.

Is this rise in gambling revenues a good sign for our state’s well being? I think not. It only shows the desperation of Arizonans trying to eek out a living however they can in a depressed state with few opportunities for the unemployed and undereducated.

Instead of relying on the 6 C’s, Arizona should move to an economy built on the 6 E’s — environmental sustainability, education, electronics (AKA technology), equity, excellence, and economic opportunity for all.

Statue of Mexican Revolutionary Pancho Villa. (Image Credit: Pamela Powers)

Occupy Tucson has been evicted from Armory Park and the main library by the Tucson Police Department late last night. Rousting people out of their tents to ticket them is bad enough, but making them pack up their tents, kitchen, and belongings in the dead of night– after most of them have probably gone to sleep? What kind of an oppressive/passive aggressive city government to we have? What a cowardly action– making them move after dark when no one can see what the police are doing.

Who’s decision was this? The public deserves to know.

Below is a report from Alex Maldonado, one of the peacekeepers. The Occupation has moved to Veinte de Agosto Park (AKA Pancho Villa Park). You may remember that this was the original location.

Thursday night at approximately 11pm, the Tucson Police Department surrounded the perimeter of Armory Park with 80 officers and forced Occupy Tucson to vacate the park.

In two hours, Occupy Tucson had bugged-out and cleaned the park of any trash on the grounds.
The Tucson community showed up and helped during the bug-out process. Some who had only been following the movement on the internet, showed up and aided in the move.

There were no injuries to report on the occupiers. Some TPD officers were even sympathetic to the forced action against the occupiers as they could not help during the move but could only watch.

The Pima County Library Park was also vacated by the occupiers after TPD forced an evacuation of that park.

Currently, there are approximately 40 tents at the new base camp with approximately 60 occupiers holding their ground after what can only be termed as a successful and well organized bug-out from Armory Park.

Occupy Tucson has found its second wind.

I can’t help but think this eviction has something to do with the call to action made on Occupy Tucson’s facebook page yesterday afternoon. The Occupiers asked supporters to call or e-mail El Tour de Tucson organizers requesting that they make a deal with the Occupiers to co-exist at Armory Park on the race day (Nov. 19). When I sent a mail to Perimeter Bicycling Association of America, Inc. (the group that organizes El Tour), I received a very long, somewhat gruff response. Occupy Tucson has more than 6,500 followers on facebook, and when they have put out calls to action in the past, there has been a deluge.

Friday Call to Action: Occupy Tucson is asking supporters to come to Veinte de Agosto Park today (Friday) at 5:30 p.m. to demonstrate your support. Our first amendment freedom is at stake. From their facebook page:

This is a call to ALL, show your solidarity with OCCUPY TUCSON and come down to Viente De Agosto at 5:30 pm tonight (Friday) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everyones 1st Amendment Right is at stake , the Mayor, council memeber and TPD needs to see all of you there, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT TUCSON !!!!!!!!!!!!

UPDATE: Local MoveOn.org activists are calling for Tucsonans to show their support for the Occupiers and come to Veinte de Agosto Park on Saturday, Nov. 5 at noon to issue their own citations against corporate robber barons. Here’s the link.

From MoveOn…

Our friends at Occupy Tucson are being issued citations for standing up and speaking out for the 99% of us who don’t have corporate lobbyists.

As many of you have by now heard, the City of Tucson evicted Occupy Tucson from Armory Park and Library Park last night. While this action was regrettable, the movement itself has not been discouraged. The Occupiers have relocated the base camp to Viente de Agosto Park and remains a strong, peaceful and committed community. Let’s continue to stand up for them, as they are standing up for us, the 99% who don’t have lobbyists and corporate legal departments to speak for us!

Thanks to all who have signed this petition in support of Occupy Tucson! We have collected nearly 4,000 signatures in support of the Occupiers, which will be delivered to the City Council at their next official meeting. [Nov. 9 is the next Mayor and Council meeting. ] Let’s show that the people of Tucson support freedom of speech and freedom to peacefully assemble! Meanwhile, the 1% who control over 42% of this naton’s wealth are not being held to account.

On Saturday, November 5th, MoveOn members and our progressive allies in Tucson will gather at Veinte de Agosto Park in Downtown Tucson to issue citations of our own – for crimes against the American public – to three of the biggest corporate banks on Wall Street: Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Chase Bank.

RSVP: http://civic.moveon.org/event/makewallstpayaction/123019

At noon, we will gather at Veinte de Agosto Park at Congress and Church to show solidarity with our friends at Occupy Tucson. After Occupy’s noon general assembly, we (and any Occupiers who wish to join us) will march through Tucson’s financial district to present our tickets to the banks and kick off a “Move Your Money” campaign in Tucson.

Please note that the start of the rally has moved from Armory Park to Veinte de Agosto Park at Church and Congress, which is the new Occupy Tucson base camp. We will gather between noon and 12:30 and march from there to Chase, Wells Fargo & Bank of America for a peaceful sidewalk rally.

UPDATE 2: Here’s a link to images from the TPD raid of Armory Park.

UPDATE 3: Check out the video of the TPD sweep from the Tucson Sentinel.

TPD has been ticketing Occupy Tucson protesters every night for 2 weeks. (Image credit: Pamela Powers)

Friday night was Friends and Family Campout night at Occupy Tucson. Since I had not seen any video of the non-infamous ticketing process, I decided to camp out.

After dinner at the camp and a late night stop at Hotel Congress with a friend, I snuggled into my sleeping bag about 10 p.m.

About 45 minutes later, I was awakened by Tucson Police officers rousting campers out of their tents and issuing citations for breaking Armory Park’s 10:30 p.m. I got out of my tent to video the process and got a ticket.

Tucson’s somewhat passive aggressive approach to dealing with the Occupation is making national headlines, as more than 350 citations– which carry a maximum fine of $1000 and 6 months in jail– have been issued. In the first 2 weeks of the Tucson Occupation, the city has spent more than $37,000 ticketing Occupiers who are exercising their freedom of speech and protesting the corporate takeover of our country.

Late last week US attorneys announced a crackdown on the “large, for-profit medical marijuana industry” in California.

From CNN…

[The attorneys sent] letters of warning to landlords and lien holders of places in which marijuana is being sold illegally, “civil forfeiture lawsuits against properties involved in drug trafficking activity” and numerous criminal cases. The latter refers to arrests in recent weeks related to cases filed in federal courts in Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento and Fresno, all part of an effort that [US attorney Benjamin] Wagner claimed has resulted in the seizure of hundreds of pounds of marijuana, tens of thousands of plants and hundreds of thousands in cash.

In 1996, California became the first state in the US to legalize medical marijuana, and since then, dispensaries and growing operations have multiplied and prospered in California. In a domino effect, 15 states– including Arizona– have followed suit and created boutique laws regulating the sale, cultivation, and distribution of medical marijuana, AND cities and counties have created lower tiers of regulations to control where dispensaries and growing operations can be located and who can grow their own marijuana.

Even with layers upon layers of legislation, the bureaucrats and politicians have not been able to really control the spread of marijuana use. According to US government statistics, 16.7 million Americans 12 and older used marijuana at least once in the previous month (2009 data). Marijuana is believed to be the most widely used illegal “drug” in the US.

A poll released in August 2011 revealed that 55% of Americans support full legalization of marijuana– with Democrats (63%-33%)  and Independents (61%-34%) favoring marijuana legalization and most Republicans (46%-56%) oppose the change. An ABC News poll from 2010 showed 81% of Americans support medical marijuana. Many states, counties, and cities have decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana.

With such widespread use of marijuana, majority support for legalization, and a burgeoning industry: What’s the big deal? Why are the feds cracking down now, when they have allowed this industry to grow and spread for 15 years? Because they’re making money. Legislation in California, Arizona, and other states dictates that medical marijuana should be a nonprofit industry. (What’s up with that? Aren’t we a country of capitalists?)

From FOX News in LA…

Pot shops around Southern California have been raided, including a growing operations in Riverside County. In Orange County, federal agents moved to seize a property in a forfeiture action on Thursday, and Drug Enforcement Agents raided several shops in San Diego County.

Federal agents announced Friday that medical marijuana shops operating outside of state law must close within 45 days or face civil and/or criminal prosecution.

“While California law permits collective cultivation of marijuana in limited circumstances, it does not allow commercial distribution through the store-front model we see across California,” U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. said yesterday.

Warning letters have been mailed to dozens of pot shops and landlords that have been targeted.

Marijuana advocates said it was waste of federal resources.

A year or more ago, as many as 1,000 pot shop were in business in and around Los Angeles as confusion reigned over state and local laws regulating marijuana.

Back to my question: Why crack down now? My personal theory is that this is all Governor Jan Brewer’s and Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne’s fault. Arizona voters legalized medical marijuana in 2010– much to the chagrin of our Nanny State government. Since that passage, the state, county, and city governments in Arizona have thrown up dozens of roadblocks to implementation (ie, strict local zoning laws for dispensaries and growers, licensing fees*, a steep $130 annual fee* for medical marijuana cards, physician referrals, etc.)

The biggest roadblock Horne and Brewer could come up with was a full-on legal challenge to the federal government (something Arizona relishes). Horne and Brewer are asking the feds to clarify the question of legality. How can medical marijuana be legal, when marijuana is illegal? Can state employees be arrested for participating in the distribution of marijuana? Even though 1000s of Arizonans have jumped through the hurdles, paid the annual fee, and now hold a medical marijuana cards, Horne has halted implementation of the law until he receives a ruling from the federal government.

The federal government’s stance on medical marijuana is untenable. In some ways, the policy of looking the other way while marijuana use proliferates is like the government’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. “Hide your sexuality, and we won’t prosecute you.” “Hide that joint, and we’ll pretend you’re not smoking pot.”

US attorneys are challenging and shutting down a well-established, wide-spread, successful industry in because distributors are making money– not unlike the German brewers who were targeted by the temperance movement. Except for the temporary prohibition of alcohol– which led to widespread illegal use– what other product or industry has been persecuted like this?  The sale of other mood-altering and sometimes-addictive drugs– pharmaceuticals, alcohol, and tobacco– is legal in the US and those industries do not have nonprofit status forced upon them. Why marijuana?

Maybe the time has come for legalization. I believe that the US attorneys are forcing a lawsuit (or multiple lawsuits) by cracking down on the country’s largest medical marijuana businesses. The patchwork of marijuana laws across the US is silly and inefficient, and the nonprofit requirements for medical marijuana are contrary to the country’s pro-business, for-profit underpinnings.

Many progressives have been disgruntled with President Obama’s conciliatory behavior toward Congressional conservatives; they feel that he has too often given in or compromised too early. Obama’s administration is not without progressive milestones. He increased the minimum wage, passed landmark healthcare reform, passed banking reform, repealed Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, extended unemployment benefits, funded 1000s of teacher salaries and other public jobs when the states went broke, caught Osama bin Laden, tried to pass the DREAM Act, and continues to try to protect social safety net programs from Republican raids. What if he brought home the big kahuna– legalization of marijuana?

One of the reasons President Roosevelt and progressives repealed the prohibition was that the country needed that tax revenue from the sale of alcohol; our country could use the tax revenue from the sale of legal marijuana now. For this reason, some economists have predicted that legalization of marijuana is inevitable.  Tom Horne and Jan Brewer may have pushed this issue forward.

*P.S. The 1000s of medical marijuana cardholders who have paid $130 for a card and the dozens of businesses who have rented space and paid state fees and have been prohibited from conducting legal business by Horne’s political lawsuit should sue the state.

Given: System-wide, US healthcare costs have been on an upward trajectory for decades.

Given: The #1 reason Americans go bankrupt is that they cannot pay their medical bills.

Given: As we grow older, our healthcare (and health insurance) costs increase.

Given: Baby Boomers are entering their Golden Years, and between 2010 and 2040, the US population over 65 years of age will double.

Given: Fiscal hawks at the state and federal level want to reduce, dramatically change, or eliminate government-backed health insurance (Medicare and Medicaid), as well as social safety net programs (ie, Social Security, food stamps, and unemployement).

Given these facts: It is not difficult to see how the colliding forces of an aging population, increasing healthcare costs, and decreasing government support could create a perfect storm in US in the not-so-distant future.

New research published in the September 2011 issue of The American Journal of Medicine gives us a glimpse of what that perfect storm may look like.

Using statistical modeling, scientists from the University of California, San Francisco and Columbia University reported that without significant changes in risk factors or treatments, “…the aging of the US population will result in a sizeable increase in coronary heart disease incidence, prevalence, mortality, and costs.”

More specifically:

• “…incident coronary heart disease [new cases] is projected to increase by approximately 26%, from 981,000 in 2010 to 1,234,000 in 2040…
• “Prevalent coronary heart disease [is projected to increase] by 47%, from 11.7 million to 17.3 million.
• “Mortality will be affected strongly by the aging population; annual coronary heart disease deaths are projected to increase by 56% over the next 30 years, from 392,000 to 610,000.
• “Coronary heart disease-related health care costs are projected to rise by 41% from $126.2 billion in 2010 to $177.5 billion in 2040 in the United States.”

The public health and economic consequences of these projections are staggering– particularly if extremist Teapublicans like Congressman Paul Ryan and sheep-like followers (including Arizona’s own Jeff Flake) have their way.

Let’s assess the current situation…

• 52 million Americans don’t have health insurance.
• 61% of bankruptcies in the US due to medical costs.
• 9.1% of Americans are unemployed.
• Teapublicans– with the help of President Obama– want to fix the “deficit problem” by cutting entitlement programs WITHOUT cutting military spending or raising revenues or creating jobs (which would boost the economy).

If you think income disparity and greed are destroying our country now, just wait. If Teapublicans like Michelle “down with entitlements” Bachmann, Rick “minimum wage” Perry, Mitt “the oligarch’s baby” Romney, Sarah “cut NPR to balance the budget” Palin, Jeff “I was against austerity before I was for it” Flake*, and, of course, FOX “the poor need to pay their fair share” News have their way, there will be literally millions of sick, elderly Americans living at the subsistence level without healthcare services or medicine.

Is this the future we want?

The balanced budget deal passed earlier this month is the only one in history that includes cuts in spending and no increases in revenue. We need sanity in government, and I’m not sure we’ll get it from the Gang of 12.

We need to put people back to work– at good-paying jobs (not the kind Perry created in Texas)– so they can contribute to the economy and contribute to Medicare and Social Security through their paychecks. To control healthcare costs, we need universal healthcare– instead of this hybrid system that allows insurance companies to continue their rape of the American people. We need to eliminate the Bush era tax cuts for the rich and cut tax loopholes for individuals and corporations. We need to end the wars and cut military spending.

Yes, we need sanity in government.

* In all fairness, this is also the position of Senators Jon Kyl, John McCain, and Mitch McConnell and Congressmen John Boehner and Paul Ryan.

At yesterday’s northwest Tucson town hall Arizona Senator John McCain got an earful from progressives, conservatives, and other Southern Arizonans who are “mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.”

McCain tried to use the forum to push right-wing talking points– focusing on blaming President Obama for everything and pushing the idea of more corporate tax cuts, while freezing federal jobs. Unfortunately, the crowd wanted to know how Congress will create jobs– not cut jobs. Under the weak recovery, an estimated 1.5 million jobs have been created; with last week’s the debt ceiling/deficit reduction deal (which McCain voted for) an estimated 1.8 million jobs will be lost.

If you missed your chance to express yourself at the town hall yesterday, you have another chance today, August 10. MoveOn.org is organizing nationwide protests to Demand Congress Focus On Jobs Not Cuts.

Bring your signs, your sunscreen, and your floppy hats to Speedway and Campbell today. Here’s the information from MoveOn…

Tucsonans To Rally for Jobs and the American Dream
Rally Wednesday [August 10] at 4:30pm
NW Corner of Speedway & Campbell Tucson, AZ

In the wake of a final debt deal that raises the nation’s debt ceiling but fails to protect the middle class, local residents will gather Wednesday [August 10], at 4:30 at Speedway & Campbell to demand that our Arizona members of Congress stand up for the American Dream and focus on job creation rather than cuts to vital programs that many Americans depend on.

The debt deal, which will do nothing to create jobs, forces deep cuts to important programs that protect the middle class while asks nothing of big corporations and millionaires. And though it does not require cuts to Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid benefits, it opens the door for these down the road via an unaccountable Congressional committee.

“We have a simple message: we need jobs, not budget cuts, said Ben Bosley a local MoveOn member. “We’re here today to say ‘enough is enough’ and demand that Republicans like John McCain and Jon Kyl stop their assault on the American Dream. It is far past time that Washington end the tax giveaways to corporations and the wealthy and use that money to revitalize our community and create good jobs that we so desperately need.”

The protest will take place on Wednesday at 4:30pm at the NW corner of Speedway Blvd & Campbell Avenue in Tucson.

Participants will also unveil a new Contract for the American Dream: a plan, written by over 125,000 Americans, to create jobs rather than destroy them. Local MoveOn on members will be delivering this document to Arizona members of Congress. The Contract was released Monday and can be seen here: http://contract.rebuildthedream.com.

Wednesday’s rally is one of over 250 such events nationwide, organized by the new American Dream Movement. In July, over 800 rallies were held across the country to protest the final debt deal that fails to protect the middle class. The American Dream Movement is a growing movement inspired by protests in Wisconsin and fueled by the brutal right-wing attacks on the middle class and the poor. MoveOn.org, along with countless organizations, have joined the American Dream Movement to fight to ensure that Americans have the opportunity to find a decent job, afford to go to college, and secure a future for our children and our communities.

Send this to every unemployed person you know.

It’s highly ironic that the current social and political battle over our nation’s debt and deficit is occurring this week with the 46th anniversary of the signing of Social Security Act of 1965 on Saturday, July 30.

After a long political battle dating from Harry Truman’s presidency to Lyndon Johnson’s, Johnson signed this legislation creating universal, single payer healthcare insurance for the nation’s elderly (Medicare) and indigent (Medicaid).

From The Nation…

With reporters and photographers surrounding them, Johnson took a place beside former President Harry Truman, who the sitting president thanked for “planting the seeds of compassion and duty which have today flowered into care for the sick and serenity for the fearful.” [Emphasis added.]

These healthcare reforms were part of Johnson’s Great Society, which had two primary goals: to eliminate poverty and to eliminate racial injustice. After his landslide victory over Barry Goldwater in 1964, Johnson and his progressive Democratic Congress enacted forward-thinking reforms that were reminiscent of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and began the full-on War on Poverty, which reduced the poverty rate significantly over the subsequent 10 years. Many important Great Society programs– aimed at improving labor, healthcare, and education for poor and working class Americans– are still in existence: Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, student loans for college, work study, and Head Start. These programs were strengthened under Republican Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

It is so sad how far we have fallen from this level of compassion. The programs of Roosevelt’s New Deal and Johnson’s Great Society– programs that have provided a social safety net for millions of Americans and wiped out many inequities of the past– are now facing a full-frontal attack by conservatives, bankrolled by big business.

Republican Congressmen would have you believe that the nation’s financial problems can be fixed by just cutting spending– specifically dramatically changing Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid (long-term spending) and dramatically cutting other discretionary (non-military) spending (ie, food stamps, children’s healthcare, food safety, pollution abatement, etc) which actually makes up less than 20 percent of the budget. Oh, yeah, and they want to protect oil subsidies, corporate tax loopholes (which allow multinational corporations like Bank of America to pay no taxes; tax loopholes for the rich; continue the Bush era tax cuts that they fought so hard for in December 2010; dismantle Social Security (so retirement funds for those under 50 can be gambled on the stock market); and offer more tax cuts (more trickle down economics).

At a time of high unemployment, high gasoline costs, high food prices, escalating college education tuition, skyrocketing healthcare expenses, a disintigrating social safety net, and soaring corporate profits– Republicans want workers, the elderly, and the indigent to “tighten their belts” to protect the profits and tax breaks of corporate jet owners, big oil, big pharma, big insurance, and Wall Street gamblers and corporate execs everywhere.

From the Associated Press (via the Arizona Daily Star)…

Two years after economists say the Great Recession ended, the recovery has been the weakest and most lopsided of any since the 1930s.

After previous recessions, people in all income groups tended to benefit. This time, ordinary Americans are struggling with job insecurity, too much debt and pay raises that haven’t kept up with prices at the grocery store and gas station. The economy’s meager gains are going mostly to the wealthiest.

Workers’ wages and benefits make up 57.5 percent of the economy, an all-time low. Until the mid-2000s, that figure had been remarkably stable – about 64 percent through boom and bust alike.

Executive pay is included in this figure, but rank-and-file workers are far more dependent on regular wages and benefits. A big chunk of the economy’s gains has gone to investors in the form of higher corporate profits.

“The spoils have really gone to capital, to the shareholders,” says David Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Sheff + Associates in Toronto.

Corporate profits are up by almost half since the recession ended in June 2009. In the first two years after the recessions of 1991 and 2001, profits rose 11 percent and 28 percent, respectively.

And an Associated Press analysis found that the typical CEO of a major company earned $9 million last year, up a fourth from 2009.

Driven by higher profits, the Dow Jones industrial average has staged a breathtaking 90 percent rally since bottoming at 6,547 on March 9, 2009. Those stock market gains go disproportionately to the wealthiest 10 percent of Americans, who own more than 80 percent of outstanding stock, according to an analysis by Edward Wolff, an economist at Bard College.

But if the Great Recession is long gone from Wall Street and corporate boardrooms, it lingers on Main Street:

• Unemployment has never been so high – 9.1 percent – this long after any recession since World War II. At the same point after the previous three recessions, unemployment averaged just 6.8 percent.

• The average worker’s hourly wages, after accounting for inflation, were 1.6 percent lower in May than a year earlier. Rising gasoline and food prices have devoured any pay raises for most Americans.

• The jobs that are being created pay less than the ones that vanished in the recession. Higher-paying jobs in the private sector, the ones that pay roughly $19 to $31 an hour, made up 40 percent of the jobs lost from January 2008 to February 2010 but only 27 percent of the jobs created since then.

Hard times have made Americans more dependent than ever on social programs, which accounted for a record 18 percent of personal income in the last three months of 2010 before coming down a bit this year. Almost 45 million Americans are on food stamps, another record…

Federal Reserve numbers crunched by Haver Analytics suggest that Americans have a long way to go before their finances will be strong enough to support robust spending: Despite cutting what they owe the past three years, the average household’s debts equal 119 percent of annual after-tax income. At the same point after the 1981-82 recession, debts were at 66 percent; after the 1990-91 recession, 85 percent; and after the 2001 recession, 114 percent. [Emphasis added.]

At a time when Americans can least afford it and the income gap between the richest 1 percent and the rest of us is larger than the Grand Canyon, Republicans are asking for even further financial sacrifices from Main Street Americans AND they are willing to throw the world into financial crisis as they cling to their trickle down ideology of protecting the rich while casting the rest of us aside. If they want to “fix” Social Security, they should put Americans back to work at good-paying jobs. According to 2009 figures from the US Census, 14.3 percent of Americans (and 20.7 percent of American children) are living in poverty; 43 million Americans– the largest number ever.

What can you do about it?

Call your Congressional Representatives today and tell them to vote to:

• raise the debt ceiling (and stop the grandstanding),
• raise revenues (by cutting military spending, eliminating corporate loopholes that allow them to avoid paying taxes, eliminate Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, etc.),
• protect the programs that benefit millions of Americans: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, unemployment, college tuition grants, etc.
• solve the deficit problem by putting Americans back to work.

Here are the numbers:
CD8 Gabrielle Giffords: 520-881-3588 (local) or 202-225-2542 (DC)
CD7 Raul Grijalva: 520-622-6788 (local) or 202-225-2435 (DC)

CD6 Jeff Flake from Mesa (We need to lean on this guy who wants to be our next Senator.):
480-833-0092 (in Mesa) or 202-225-2635 (DC)

Senator Jon Kyl 520-575-8633 (local) or 202-224-4521 (DC)
Senator John McCain 520-670-6334 (local) or 202-224-2245 (DC)

What else can you do?

Progressive Democrats of America’s Tucson Chapter is holding a demonstration to show support for protecting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid on Saturday, July 30 from 10 a.m. – noon at the corner of Speedway and Campbell.