I’m writing for tomorrow, and it’s a busy day of cleaning, grocery planning, and appointment scheduling. I also need to rest, because Thursday is a prison volunteer day. Day 29.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:49 (average 5:03). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From NY Times: By any normal standard, economic policy since the onset of the financial crisis has been a dismal failure. It’s true that we avoided a full replay of the Great Depression. But employment has taken more than six years to claw its way back to pre-crisis levels — years when we should have been adding millions of jobs just to keep up with a rising population. Long-term unemployment is still almost three times as high as it was in 2007; young people, often burdened by college debt, face a highly uncertain future.
Now Timothy Geithner, who was Treasury secretary for four of those six years, has published a book, “Stress Test,” about his experiences. And basically, he thinks he did a heckuva job.
Click through to see the way Paul Krugman trashes Timmy the Tool, just like Robert Reich did.
From The New Yorker: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is an evil genius capable of masterminding the most elaborate cover-up in U.S. history and is also a frail old woman with brain damage, leading Republicans charged on Sunday.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus led the attack while appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” where he said that the American people should be wary of electing a woman who is capable of orchestrating the complex conspiracy to whitewash Benghazi while, at the same time, being too old, feeble, and brain damaged to serve in the Oval Office.
“These two aspects of Secretary Clinton would have me very concerned,” he said.
Did Andy nail the hypocrisy of these mutually contradicting Republican lies, or what?
From Alternet: The Poor Don’t Cheat As Much
An analysis of seven different psychological studies found that "upper-class individuals behave more unethically than lower-class individuals." A series of experiments showed that upper-class individuals were more likely to break traffic laws, take valued goods from others, lie in a negotiation, and cheat to increase their chances of winning a prize.
And this doesn’t even begin to examine the many, many significant cases of fraudulent behavior in the banking industry. Or private equity firms that cheat their investors over 50 percent of the time. Or the many unscrupulous corporate tax avoidance strategies.
This is just one of five ways in which the poor are demonstrably more ethical than the rich, who Republicans represent. Click through for the other four.
Late Update: The Judge ruled Oregon’s Republican ban on gay marriage unconstitutional today, and same-sex couples have already married in Oregon.
Cartoon:
If you think politics is dirty now, you wouldn’t believe the Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians’ politics there!
13 Responses to “Open Thread–5/20/2014”
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2:52 Now I am no dog person, but I could woof for that time. Who will out woof me?
3:28 I am running away with my tail between my legs.
3:41 I'm chasing you, Jerry.
I screwed the pooch! 🙁
TY TC – cmptr prbs – back in a bit…
Hope you get them fixed.
6:15 It's Wishbone! OK, no it isn't (not that there was ever just one Wishbone), but it's his breed.
NY Times – but the book is well named. Trying to read it would be a test of how much stress one could handle. In the Maxine sense. "My doctor says I need to start killing people. The way he phrased it was that I need to reduce the stress in my life. Same thing really."
New Yorker – Though TC's sum up is masterly as always, you MUST click through for the punch line! The interesting thing is that it seems eeerily like Andy is describing an actual politician, but it isn't Hillary. Who is it? Ronald Reagan?
Alternet – The more studies that prove what we all know – that the rich are entitled, privileged, spoiled brats – the better. Not that the rich themselves would ever admit it any more than a camel would – but maybe some of their groupies might wake up a little.
Cartoon – Was there ever a church council that wasn't packed with Republican supply-side preuso-Christian politics? But prior generations (Chaucer comes to mind) laughed at them, where we just swallow them whole. G K Chesterton (who was far from perfect, OK? but very witty) made the point that anti-clericalism is generally a sign of true Christianity – the fact that you call someone out for bad behavior means that you have reason to expect that their behavior should be better. BTW the Nicene Creed, which as JL on Care2 points out comes from this Council, is "The Creed" which is used in all the musical settings of the Mass, of which there have been many. In Latin, of course.
I am a big fan of Chaucer.
NY Times ~ That tool,Timmy would think he did a good job. His brain doesn't work properly.
New Yorker ~ The American people DO tolerate double-talk from Washington every day sadly.
Alternet ~ The things that differentiate the rich from the poor also explain why the poor are actually happier than the rich. They are not always worried that someone will take their "stuff".
Late Update ~ Good for the people of Oregon!
Puzzle — 2:52 Now I am no dog person, but I could woof for that time. Who will out woof me?
NY Times — I love this phrase:
"… blame much though not all of what went wrong on scorched-earth Republican obstructionism."
"Scorched-earth Republican obstructionism" of which the Republicanus/Teabaggers were profoundly guilty, IS the primary reason for the lack-lustre recovery. However Geitner, as Krugman says, didn't do anything for average Americans, but did everything for the financial institutions that were bailed out. Is it any wonder that some people have lost confidence in the government.
It seems that conservative scorched-earth policies globally have created so much pain that many will have a hard time recovering.
The New Yorker — I cracked up when I read Andy in my in-box. One has to wonder how the damn Republicanus/Teabaggers expect to get elected with all their stupidity. Oh, I forgot, they don't get elected. They steal the elections the old fashion way . . . they commit election fraud and voter suppression. Thank you Mr Houseman.
Alternet — It seems that the rich have not changed since Jesus' time. If I recall correctly, a widow put 2 copper pennies in the alms box while a rich man put a silver coin. Then the rich man derided the widow for putting in so little. As Jesus said to the rich man, "She gave all that she had." The wealthy give 2.7% to their charitable foundations (the arts etc) while the lower classes give 4.5% to charities etc that actually help people. Want something done, ask the guy that really doesn't have the time. He'll get it done.
Late Update — Bravo to the judge for making the correct decision!
Cartoon — Yup, I remember it well. I was sitting in the balcony looking down at all these self righteous bishops posturing right, left and centre. Seems another case of religion getting in the way of good relations.
At church, we use the Apostles' Creed with an added reference to "living with respect to Creation" but it is not said every Sunday. Rarely do we use the Nicene Creed but it is printed in our hymnal.
The woman put in two denarii. Two days wages. It was all she had.
You really do need some rest!
NY Times: I love Krugman. I wish the administration would pay more attention to him. Geithner's book is self serving and protective. Yes, they saved the big banks, but they left those who had been harmed by the big banks deeply in trouble, and little has been done to help them.
The New Yorker: Andy nailed it. They are throwing it out, hoping that something will stick because they are very afraid of Hillary.
Alternet: I clicked through, and although I am not acquainted personally with very many wealthy people, I have observed that those who inherited wealth have a far higher opinion of themselves and a lower opinion of everyone else. They have a sense of entitlement, and feel they deserve their wealth but the poor don't deserve any help because they are lazy. They keep saying anyone can be rich if they work, conveniently forgetting they didn't work for their wealth.
Thanks all. Overslept!