Politics Plus

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 78.  I’m feeling much better, and I hope I have my sleep schedule back on track.  It’s early morning, so news is still slow, but I think I found an excellent theme for the day.  I have a lot of house work to do.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:44 (average 4:43).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: …Some background: On the eve of the Great Recession, many conservative pundits and commentators — and quite a few economists — had a worldview that combined faith in free markets with disdain for government. Such people were briefly rocked back on their heels by the revelation that the “bubbleheads” who warned about housing were right, and the further revelation that unregulated financial markets are dangerously unstable. But they quickly rallied, declaring that the financial crisis was somehow the fault of liberals — and that the great danger now facing the economy came not from the crisis but from the efforts of policy makers to limit the damage.

Above all, there were many dire warnings about the evils of “printing money.” For example, in May 2009 an editorial [Faux Print delinked] in The Wall Street Journal warned that both interest rates and inflation were set to surge “now that Congress and the Federal Reserve have flooded the world with dollars.” In 2010 a virtual Who’s Who of conservative economists and pundits sent an open letter [Faux Print delinked] to Ben Bernanke warning that his policies risked “currency debasement and inflation.” Prominent politicians like Representative Paul Ryan joined the chorus.

Reality, however, declined to cooperate. Although the Fed continued on its expansionary course — its balance sheet has grown to more than $4 trillion, up fivefold since the start of the crisis — inflation stayed low. For the most part, the funds the Fed injected into the economy simply piled up either in bank reserves or in cash holdings by individuals — which was exactly what economists on the other side of the divide had predicted would happen.

Needless to say, it’s not the first time a politically appealing economic doctrine has been proved wrong by events. So those who got it wrong went back to the drawing board, right? Hahahahaha.

In fact, hardly any of the people who predicted runaway inflation have acknowledged that they were wrong, and that the error suggests something amiss with their approach. Some have offered lame excuses; some, following in the footsteps of climate-change deniers, have gone down the conspiracy-theory [TEAbuggery delinked] rabbit hole, claiming that we really do have soaring inflation, but the government is lying about the numbers (and by the way, we’re not talking about random bloggers or something; we’re talking about famous Harvard professors). Mainly, though, the currency-debasement crowd just keeps repeating the same lines, ignoring its utter failure in prognostication…

Paul Krugman is spot on! This is a small excerpt from the middle of an extensive article. Click through for a stunning exposé on how Republican choose what they want to believe over what they actually know in economics, just like they do in the physical sciences.

From Alternet: GOP lawmaker calls climate control biggest deception in history of mankind.

Similar to abortion foes, climate denialists are in competition for who can be more hyperbolic about the threat real science poses to mankind. Louisiana state Rep. Lenar Whitney (R) threw her hat in the climate denial ring this week when she released a campaign video accusing liberals, such as former Vice President Al Gore, of advancing "the greatest deception in the history of mankind" (manmade climate change) in a fiendish scheme to empower the executive branch and increase taxes.

Brilliant! Wish we had thought of that.

“A specter is haunting America,” Whitney warns ominously in the video. She goes on to claim, entirely inaccurately, that the planet "has done nothing but get colder each year” since the release of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth in 2006.

“Quite inconveniently for Al Gore, and for the rest of the politicians who continue to advance this delusion, any 10-year-old can invalidate their thesis with one of the simplest scientific devices known to man: a thermometer,” Whitney said, citing record sea ice in the Antarctic sector.

Yes, her argument is very much like that of a 10-year-old, who decides that because today is chilly, or it snowed last month, climate change is a hoax, scientists be damned.

As Huffpo points out, “Whitney’s own state is one of the most vulnerable regions in the country to climate change, with rising coastal sea levels estimated to submerge the Louisiana coastline by 2100.”

Speaking of physical sciences, there they go again! This is only the seventh of seven vile Republican statements from last week alone. Click through for the other six.

From Crooks and Liars: …Out of nowhere, Bob Schieffer dropped The Question. "I have to ask, Senators, how do you feel about being part of a Congress that doesn’t do anything?"

Suddenly the sounds of pins dropping could be heard across the nation. John McCain stepped up first, proclaiming his commitment to keep on fighting while respecting his colleagues in the House, but rapidly pivoted to the bogus argument that it’s all Obama’s fault because he ‘changes every law he doesn’t like.’

And speaking of conspiracy theories, McConJob and Lindsey Poo have their heads buried so far up that they can see their own tonsils from below.

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I’m writing for tomorrow, day 76, and this my only article.  Last night’s unintended, multi-hour cat nap has my sleep schedule discombobulated, and it’s a very slow day for news, except for 653,087 new analyses of Hobby Lobby.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:03 (average 6:28).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: 1. Conservatives opposed the Founding Fathers, the American Revolution and a lot of other righteous stuff as well.

By definition a conservative is one who wishes to preserve and/or restore traditional values and institutions, i.e. to “conserve” the established order. No surprise then that 18th century American conservatives wanted no part of breaking away from the British Empire and the comforting bonds of monarchical government. Those anti-revolutionary conservatives were called Tories, the name still used for the conservative party in England. The Founding Fathers? As radically left-wing as they came in the 1770s. The Boston Tea Party? The "Occupy Wall Street" of its day.

Some of the other "traditional" values supported by conservatives over the course of American history have included slavery (remember that the Republican Party was on the liberal fringe in 1860), religious persecution, the subjugation of women and minorities, obstacles to immigration, voter suppression, prohibition and segregation.  Conservatives started off on the wrong side of American history, and that’s where they’ve been ever since.

2. The United States is not a Christian nation, and the Bible is not the cornerstone of our law.

Don’t take my word for it. Let these Founding Fathers speak for themselves:

John Adams: “The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.” (Treaty of Tripoli, 1797)

Thomas Jefferson: “Christianity neither is, nor ever was, a part of the common law.” (Letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, February 10, 1814)

James Madison: “The civil government … functions with complete success … by the total separation of the Church from the State.” (Writings, 8:432, 1819)

George Washington: “If I could conceive that the general government might ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded, that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.” (Letter to the United Baptist Chamber of Virginia, May 1789)

You can find a multitude of similar quotes from these men and most others who signed the Declaration of Independence and/or formulated the United States Constitution. These are hardly the words of men who believed that America should be a Christian nation governed by the Bible, as a disturbing fundamentalist trend today would have it be.

These are just two of thirteen facts about America that Republicans want you for forget. Click through for the other eleven, please.

From Crooks and Liars: Another one for your Saturday C-SPAN hit parade. This call was taken on July 4th during a discussion of American exceptionalism. The topic itself invites trolls, and they obliged.

He proved my eleventh commandment: Thou shalt NOT commit TEAbuggery!

From McClatchy DC: Five years after the recession, the job market is finally hitting stride as small businesses add workers and local governments restore battered payrolls.

U.S. employers added a robust 288,000 jobs in June across a broad spectrum of businesses, the Labor Department said Thursday. The growth flew past analysts’ forecasts and marked the fifth consecutive month of payroll gains in excess of 200,000 – a hiring spree not seen since the 1990s tech boom.

The unemployment rate, which has fallen surprisingly fast lately, dropped to 6.1 percent in June from 6.3 percent in May. Both the jobless rate and the number of officially unemployed, totaling 9.5 million last month, are the lowest in nearly six years. As recently as November, the nation’s unemployment figure was 7 percent.

The big problem here is that many of these are low paying service jobs that will not stimulate the economy as much as the family wage jobs that Republicans used your tax dollars to offshore.  It is still considerable improvement from the Republican recession, but no where near what it could be, if Republicans were not seditiously sabotaging America to prevent recovery falsely blame Democrats.

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I’m writing for tomorrow, day 74, having just returned from running errands this morning.  I hope you are all avoiding the hurricane, talking care on the roads, and enjoying the holiday weekend.

Jig Zone Puzzle:’

Today’s took me 3:01 (average 5:07).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Upworthy: Parenting is not for the weak. Most have heard their parents’ courageous stories, but none of that truly makes sense until you have kids of your own. Here’s a beautiful story about a family that redefines what it means to love with courage. One word for the end: heartbreaking.

I was under the impression that Europe had left the US far back in their wake when it comes to equal rights. I’m sad to learn that is not the case.

From The New Yorker: Telling Congress, “It’s O.K., I don’t mind doing everything myself,” President Obama prepared to sign a passive-aggressive executive order on Tuesday.

While the President did not disclose details about the executive order, he told reporters, “I’m sure Congress is busy with a lot of other things and doesn’t want to be bothered with stuff that’s important to me. Really, they shouldn’t give it a moment’s thought. I’m happy to do the work of the entire government myself.”

After news of the President’s passive-aggressive executive order reached Capitol Hill, House Speaker John Boehner prepared a narcissistic reply.

“Instead of signing more executive orders, President Obama needs to recognize that everything that happens in this government must begin and end with me,” he said.

Andy is edging close to the dividing line between satire and reporting news.

From Daily Kos: The chairman of the MFCR (Mississippi Federation of College Republicans), Evan Alvarez, has opted not only to leave his position as College GOP Chairman this week, but he is joining the Republican party’s arch enemy – the Democrats. In a publicly released letter, Alvarez outlines the reasons behind his decision:

I over the last 48 hours or so, I have been in deep thought about the future of MFCR and of the Republican Party. I have come to the conclusion that I no longer want to be the leader of the Mississippi Federation of College Republicans. I refuse to simply let people break the rules and think they don’t have to answer for their actions, admit they were wrong, or even apologize. When I ran for Chairman in the spring, I ran to be Chairman of the Mississippi Federation of College REPUBLICANS, not the Mississippi Federation of College "Tea Partiers". Also, I believe that the Republican Party has allowed these groups of extremist to have too much of a voice and because of that, the platform of the Republican Party has shifted too far to the right in my opinion. For example, the drastic cuts on needed federal funding that these groups of Republican extremists support would leave society weak and crippled. [emphasis original]

Click through for the rest of what this hero had to say. Kudos and welcome to the world of the sane, Mr. Alvarez. I trust you will be much less conflicted here.

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Day 72.  I’m writing for tomorrow and waiting for Safeway to deliver groceries sometime within the next four hours.  I spent the morning collecting the data for June’s Monthly Report.  Today my A/C gets it’s first major test, as the forecast is for 98° heat.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:07 (average 5:27).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Upworthy: If you’re the type, like me, to get super excited about anyone boldly going where no one has gone before, get excited about this. Water astronauts! (OK, OK — aquanauts.) There’s so much earth to explore!

They have built an underwater habitat, they are live-streaming the whole thing, and they’re even getting dreamy actors to visit.

Given the way Republicans are blocking initiatives to combat climate change, living underwater may become a highly valuable skill.

From The New Yorker: Millions of Americans awoke on Monday to the shocking news that a gigantic corporation [Facebook] with unprecedented power over their lives had allegedly abused that power for commercial gain.

Across the United States, stunned consumers were shaking their heads in disbelief after learning that a gargantuan company whose explicit goal is to make as many billions of dollars as possible through any means available would put its own interests ahead of those of its customers.

“It never would have occurred to me that an enormous corporation with the ability to track over half a billion customers would ever exploit that advantage in any way,” said Harland Dorrinson, twenty-nine, a caterer from Albuquerque. “Like a lot of other people, I feel used.”

Andy, I really am surprised, and the Pope really is Hindu, and bears really never, ever shit in the woods.

From Daily Kos: You’d think it would be persuasive to some …

Can you imagine the Republican reaction, if women demanded an "open carry" law for their toys? It would certainly be less dangerous that the ones for guns.

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