Who controls wealth in the U.S.?

Who controls wealth in the U.S.?  According to a study from the Joint Center for Housing Studies the top 25% of U.S. households control 87% of all wealth in the country.  That number comes out to a nice hefty sum of $54.2 trillion. 

If we look even closer at income distribution, we will find that the top 1 percent in our country controls 42 percent of all financial wealth.  By all measures being able to acquire a piece of financial wealth was the hallmark of the middle class of previous years.

Today we have a society largely in debt to credit cards, auto loans, student loans, and immense mortgage debt.  Net worth is measured by looking at assets minus liabilities and many Americans are lucky to break even while many have a negative net worth.

******

Mike Pence would discontinue health care for women. The Pence Amendment is a direct attack on women. It will make breast exams unaffordable. What part of that statement doesn’t Pence understand?

Lucky me...I can afford breast exams. However, Aunt Mary wasn’t as lucky. She didn’t understand the seriousness of a yearly mammography.

Aunt Mary had “fluffy” red hair. She was uncommonly beautiful with milky white skin...even if she did have freckles. On one visit Aunt Mary polished the girls’ nails with clear polish; including mine and my sisters.

We were fascinated with the reflection our nails made on Gramma’s fridge. It kept the lot of us amused for a minute. We worshiped Aunt Mary. She was pretty and fun. To us kids she disappeared one day.

The House just approved Rep. Mike Pence’s amendment to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood, checking off a hot-button social issue even as it set up a bigger showdown over de-funding health care.

The vote was 240-185 with 11 Democrats voting for the amendment, and seven Republicans voting against. One member voted present. A group of Republicans on the floor applauded when the vote hit 218.

Good luck, Republicans...more moola for the wealthiest 1%. Shame on you stupid Democrats! Why can’t you take a hint from the Pubs and vote as a block?

Planned Parenthood estimates it received a quarter of the $317 million in Title X funds appropriated last year. They use the money for pelvic exams, breast exams, safer-sex counseling and basic infertility counseling, among other things.

Whoa! That all sounds soooo evil! Pelvic exams? Breast exams? Safe sex? Infertility counseling? No wonder Pence wants to put an end to such “extravagances.” Harrrumpf!

And finally, abusing women? We get to check off another characteristic of a country heading towards Fascism.

******

And finally, some Glenn Beck and his special kind of crazy.

Glenn Beck theorized that some Muslims are trying to bring about the equivalent of the Antichrist on his Thursday show.

The Antichrist? The Antichrist? Quick! Quick! Where’s my chalkboard? I need the chalkboard...RIGHT NOW! 

Beck claimed that he was bringing the issue up because Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad* and the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt both believe in the Twelfth Imam--a figure in Shia Islam who Beck and his guest, author Joel Richardson, said bore a disturbing resemblance to the Biblical Antichrist.

OMG! We’re doomed...doomed I tell you!

Beck and Richardson (who has written a book called "The Islamic Antichrist" that "makes the case that the biblical Antichrist is one and the same as the Quran's Muslim Mahdi"), cast the Twelfth Imam as a messiah (or Mahdi) who would bring about Judgment Day--but not before years of bloodshed and chaos which Beck told his audience people like the Iranian regime and the Muslim Brotherhood were trying to hasten.

Wait! Wait! Should we go grocery shopping this week?

"Do you know any Christian sects who believe they can hasten the return of Jesus by creating chaos?" Beck asked Richardson.

"No, they can pray," Richardson said.

Beck then wrote a side-by-side comparison of the Twelfth Imam and the Antichrist on his chalkboard.

*If you want to sound really intelligent when referring to President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad...just remember: I’m a Dinner Jacket. Cool?