Aug 052013
 

Writing for tomorrow, day 51, at 11:00 AM, it’s already 89° at my desk.  ARGH!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:17 (average 4:31).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos:

Yes, I know that if you’re one of the beltway insiders who spends their evenings thumbing through the index of This Town, it’s probably shocking to see a headline saying that Republicans are consciously pursuing a policy of starvation … but this isn’t a question of opinion. It’s fact:

House Republicans are proposing to double their food stamp savings to nearly $40 billion by rolling back waivers for able-bodied adults and targeting funds to states that are willing to impose greater work requirements on the parents of young children.

I’m surprised Wal-fart isn’t making a huge stink over this. If Republicans roll back waivers for able bodied adults, most of Wal-fart’s work force could starve.

From Alternet: The fact is, America’s suicide rate is on the rise, and Conservative economic policies are to blame.

In a study released in May, Professors David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu of Oxford University in England found that suicide rates in both the U.S. and U.K. increase when working class wages and wealth decline.

The study calculates, for example, that there were 4,750 “excess” suicides during the recession period in the U.S., compared with suicide rates before the recession.

See? RepubliCorp has a free death benefit, just like RepubliCare!

From Robert Reich: Job-growth is sputtering. So why, exactly, do regressive Republicans continue to say “no" to every idea for boosting it — even last week’s almost absurdly modest proposal by President Obama to combine corporate tax cuts with increased spending on roads and other public works?…

…The real answer, I think, is they and their patrons want unemployment to remain high and job-growth to sputter. Why? Three reasons:

First, high unemployment keeps wages down. Workers who are worried about losing their jobs settle for whatever they can get — which is why hourly earnings keep dropping. The median wage is now 4 percent lower than it was at the start of the recovery. Low wages help boost corporate profits, thereby keeping the regressives’ corporate sponsors happy…

Robert Reich has outdone himself again. I gave you just a small taste here. Click through to see how well he has the Republican Party pegged!

Cartoon:

5Cartoon

April Glaspie said, "We have no opinion on your Arab-Arab conflicts, such as your dispute with Kuwait."

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  18 Responses to “Open Thread–8/5/2012”

  1. 3:31 My "hawk eyes" were working today.

  2. Daily Kos ~ If the RepublicanTs succeed in doing this, Wal-Fart's employees will have to work longer hours without overtime to compensate for lost Food Stamps.

    • Nope.  As crappy as their healt care plan is, Wal-fart keeps most employee howers below full time to heep from having to provide it.

  3. Alternet ~ There has definitely been an increase in "suicide by cop" in this area lately. Related? Probably.

    Robert Reich ~ These are the truths RepublicanTs are afraid the American people will recognize.

    Cartoon ~ Say one thing and mean another.

     

  4. The sad thing for me is that there are SO many un-informed voters out there – too many willing to blame a black president, too many trying to ignore "bad news", too many who refuse to look at the darn facts!  Why can't they see what is going on?

  5. The article about the 'excess suicides' is so awful that I just can't express how I feel!  Bet the Repuglicons don't read it. 

  6. How did you do? – 5:41

    Keep Unemployment high.
    Keep wages down.
    Maximize corporate profits

  7. Puzzle — 3:42  My hawk needs glasses!

    Daily Kos —The Republicanus/Teabaggers are a party of convenience.  If they yell "Jobs, jobs, jobs!" like they did during the last election, it is not that they will work on that aspect, it is that they want to stir things up for their own political convenience.  In some ways, they remind me of my mother — they can't (or won't) stay focused on what needs to be done.  They only know politics, not governing for the entire nation.  At least my mother is a sweet little lady with dementia so has a good reason why she doesn't stay focused.

    Republicans will say something along the lines of they don't want a country where so many people need help in order to keep food on the table. But if that's really the case, why don't they do something about creating jobs and growing the economy?

    Alternet — In a previous post, I commented that there was a report from the CMA noted on the CBC that indicates that poverty is a big determinant of health — physical, mental and spiritual.  And if this is a problem in Canada where at least there is universal healthcare, then imagine in the US where 30 million minimum were not covered by healthcare until Obamacare.

    With the bear scat scared up by the Republicanus/Teabaggers, is it any wonder that more and more people are unable to cope and see only one way out!

    http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/07/30/poverty-sickens-canadians_n_3678558.html

    A sad reality of Republicanus/Teabaggers making the most out of the free death benefits of RepubliCare.

    Robert Reich — The man is so spot on.  I love the man and Krugman too!  Hope their wives don't mind!

    "And to counter with three basic truths: 

    First, the real job creators are consumers, and if average people don’t have jobs or good wages this economy can’t have a vigorous recovery.  [Billionaire entrepreneur Nick Hannauer says the same — consumers are the job creators.]

    Second, the rich would do better with a smaller share of a rapidly-growing economy than their current big share of an economy that’s hardly moving.  [That's true.  50% of nothing is nothing.  But 10% of $1,000,000 is $100,000.  You do the math!]

    Third, therefore everyone would benefit from higher taxes on the wealthy to finance public investments in roads, bridges, public transit, better schools, affordable higher education, and healthcare — all of which will help the middle class and the poor, and generate more and better jobs." [. . . which will in turn put more money in the pockets of the wealthy.  But it seems the wealthy have blindly eschewed long term gain for  short term stupidity.]

    Cartoon — Another Republicanus/Teabagger with absolutely no connection to reality.

     

  8. The Republicans represent the rich. They hate Obama. They will do anything to help their contributors. They don't care if they destroy the country if it makes the president look bad. Sad but true.

    • One correction, Edie.  They use fear to con millions of people out of their money.  The only thing they do for those contributors is screw them over.  They will do anuthing for their super-rich contributors, the Plutocons.

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