These three reports show the Republican distortion machine in full effect

[ProSense]

Wall St. Firms Have Already Earned More Under Obama Than During Entire Bush Presidency: Report (HuffPo)

Wall Street firms have earned more in profits so far under President Obama than during all eight years of George W. Bush's presidency, according to The Washington Post.

The securities industry earned $82.52 billion in profits during the first two and a half years of Obama's presidency, compared to $77.17 billion total under President Bush, according to data compiled by The Washington Post, giving legs to the claim that even while Obama has publicly denounced "fat cat bankers on Wall Street," banks are now as profitable as ever.

<...>

Nonetheless, major U.S. banks have struggled this year on the whole, with Goldman Sachs reporting its second loss ever as a public company and BofA's stock price plunging over the last ten months. The financial industry has already announced a slew of mass layoffs, and the New York comptroller recently estimated that Wall Street could lose 10,000 more jobs by the end of 2012.

<…>

The Republican National Committee slammed the Obama administration following the Post's story, urging voters on its blog to "Occupy Obama" -- a reference to the Occupy Wall Street movement, which targets bank profitability at the expense of ordinary Americans, among other issues.

Think Progress:

<...>

Despite this evidence that banks haven’t suffered under Obama, Republicans and Wall Street traders and lobbyists are attempting to make Wall Street’s windfalls even larger. Industry analysts told the Post that the Dodd-Frank financial reform law will stabilize the future of the financial industry even as it has “crimped bank profits” slightly. But that hasn’t stopped lobbyists from spending millions of dollars to make its rules and regulations more Wall Street friendly, and it hasn’t stopped Republican presidential candidates from lining up to support the law’s wholesale repeal, even if they aren’t always quite sure what the law actually does.

(In fact, Bank of America tried to get around Dodd-Frank.)


TPM: Report: Super Committee GOPers Agree To Violate Norquist Pledge…With A Catch

Super Committee Republicans are floating a trial balloon that would produce new tax revenue, in apparent contravention of Grover Norquist’s taxpayer protection pledge, according to Wall Street Journal editorialist Stephen Moore.

But as Moore explains that the offer has a catch:

One positive development on taxes taking shape is a deal that could include limiting tax deductions, perhaps by capping write-offs on charities, state and local taxes, and mortgage interest payments as a percentage of each tax filer’s gross income. That idea was introduced on these pages by Harvard economist Martin Feldstein.

In exchange, Democrats would agree to make the Bush income-tax cuts permanent. This would mean preventing top rates from going to 42% from 35% today, and keeping the capital gains and dividend tax rate at 15%, as opposed to plans to raise them to 23.8% or higher after 2013.

Neither Republican nor Democratic aides were immediately available to discuss the proposal. But if accurate as reported, it represents both a significant expansion of the growing rift between Norquist and the GOP, and a bad deal for Democrats.

For months, Republicans have insisted that any tax reforms they agree to be mathematically revenue neutral. If they somehow trigger a burst of economic growth, and thus increase revenue, that’s fine — but effective rate increases were verboten. Likewise, they tried to construe revenues collected in the form of higher fees, copays, etc. as “new revenue” but refused to use the tax code for the same purposes.

<...>

Got it: While pushing to protect loopholes for Big Oil, expand tax cuts for the rich and repeal Wall Street reform, Republicans are trying to use the fact that Wall Street is properous (which it always is under Democratic Presidents) to attack President Obama. Here's the title of the GOP release in the HuffPo piece above: "UNDER OBAMA, 'WALL STREET HAS ROARED BACK'"

[FrenchieCat]

1. Well, since Obama's approval rating went up, I have been expecting this.....

and here it is, right on cue.

Also included last week; the unemployment rate went down,
but it was reported as though it went up or stayed exactly
the same. A very Neat trick!

[TheWraith]

2. Indeed. And yet some people still see "propaganda" as only being things like Fox News.

Traditionally propaganda is something pointed at an enemy, to convince them that it's useless to fight, or that their own leaders are the real problem.

[FrenchieCat]

3. Works good too!

I'm getting myself prepared.....
because I realize that I can't depend on others
to make smart moves in this country.

That's what I learned when Bush was sworn into office,
and I ain't never gonna forget how that changed my world....
and that of many others.

NEVER AGAIN will I be manipulated into rationalizing that encouraging
my own possible end is something that will be good for for me in the long run.
never.

[ProSense]

4. The Republicans

shouldn't even be on the radar, but with 24/7 propaganda and the complete lack of scrutiny by the media, is it any wonder that Republicans are able to fool so many people?

[TheWraith]

5. That chart showing positive/negative media coverage in particular is mind-boggling.

For all the bitching about "mainstream media"--some of it correct, some not--people still underestimate how twisted some of the things they hear are. And often not even twisted maliciously, but simply tabloidizing everyday stories to get the most shock value.

[ProSense]

6. Well,

for everyone, including the Republicans, who benefit by keep the media's negative focus on Obama, that chart looks great.