{"id":12298,"date":"2014-03-04T01:08:41","date_gmt":"2014-03-04T09:08:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=12298"},"modified":"2014-03-04T01:08:41","modified_gmt":"2014-03-04T09:08:41","slug":"open-thread342014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2014\/03\/04\/open-thread342014\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–3\/4\/2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing for tomorrow, and I\u2019m between naps.  The medical appointment tired me out.  All in all, I spent over two hours waiting for the lift bus, and because the medical complex is so huge, I still walked about a mile.  Fortunately I did the research for this article before I left.<\/font><\/p>\n

Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s took me 4:40 (average 5:36).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

Short Takes<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

From Salon.com<\/a>: <\/font>Old, white, wrinkled and angry, they are slipping from polite society in alarming numbers. We\u2019re losing much of a generation.  They often sport hats or other clothing, some marking their status as veterans, Tea Partyers or \u201cpatriots\u201d of some kind or another. They have yellow flags, bumper stickers and an unquenchable rage. They used to be the brave men and women who took on America\u2019s challenges, tackling the \u201960s, the Cold War and the Reagan years \u2014 but now many are terrified by the idea of slightly more affordable healthcare and a very moderate Democrat in the White House.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re losing people like my father to the despair of Fox News, and it\u2019s all by design.<\/p>\n

My dad is 67 years old, a full year younger than the average Fox viewer, who is 68, according to an analysis in New York magazine by columnist Frank Rich. I\u2019ve read accounts of people my age \u2014 40 or so \u2014 losing parents to cancer or Alzheimer\u2019s, but just as big a tragedy are the crops of grandmothers and grandfathers debilitated by Fox News-induced hysteria.<\/p>\n

This is a fascinating read on how the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda brainwashes people to promote irrational hatred. Click through.<\/font><\/p>\n

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/font><\/p>\n

Recently the Federal Reserve released transcripts of its monetary policy meetings<\/a> during the fateful year of 2008. And, boy, are they discouraging reading.<\/p>\n

Partly that\u2019s because Fed officials come across as essentially clueless about the gathering economic storm. But we knew that already. What\u2019s really striking is the extent to which they were obsessed with the wrong thing. The economy was plunging, yet all many people at the Fed wanted to talk about was inflation.<\/p>\n

Matthew O\u2019Brien at The Atlantic has done the math.<\/a> In August 2008 there were 322 mentions of inflation, versus only 28 of unemployment and 19 of systemic risks or crises. In the meeting on Sept. 16, 2008 \u2014 the day after Lehman fell! \u2014 there were 129 mentions of inflation versus 26 mentions of unemployment and only four of systemic risks or crises.<\/p>\n

Historians of the Great Depression have long marveled at the folly of policy discussion at the time. For example, the Bank of England, faced with a devastating deflationary spiral, kept obsessing over the imagined threat of inflation. As the economist Ralph Hawtrey famously observed, \u201cThat was to cry \u2018Fire, fire!\u2019 in Noah\u2019s flood.\u201d But it turns out that modern monetary officials facing financial crisis were just as obsessed with the wrong thing as their predecessors three generations before.<\/p>\n

Click through for most interesting analysis by Paul Krugman. What Krugman did not cover is the reason Banksters fear inflation so much. It devalues the stored wealth of the 0.1%.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Crooks and Liars<\/a>: <\/font>Last month, \u201cChristians\u201d launched the next great hate-based initiative in the guise of a beneficial community program: Trail Life. The organization says it is the \u201cpremier national character development organization for young men which produces Godly and responsible husbands, fathers and citizens,\u201d but really amounts to just another attempt by the Christian right to discriminate against America\u2019s LGBT youth.<\/p>\n

The Trail Life Scout Oath includes an order to be \u201cmorally straight.\u201d Ron Orr, whose almost-Eagle Scout son left BSA to join Trail Life, explains that \u201cAs Christians from a scriptural basis, we love all folks, but the Scripture is very clear that being homosexual is a sin.\u201d He says that it\u2019s important to \u201chold a strong line\u201d and \u201cset a consistent example for our young men,\u201d though some would question what positive example a youth organization based in hatred can possibly provide.<\/p>\n

I disagree with the author on one key point.  These are not \u201cChristians\u201d.  They are Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians, making them completely anti-Christian.  <\/font>This is a picture of the Trail Life scouts’ salute. Need I say more?<\/font><\/p>\n

\"0304TrailLife\"<\/font><\/p>\n

Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

\"0304Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing for tomorrow, and I\u2019m between naps.  The medical appointment tired me out.  All in all, I spent over two hours waiting for the lift bus, and because the medical complex is so huge, I still walked about a mile.  Fortunately I did the research for this article before I left. Jig Zone Puzzle: […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-open-thread","category-personal","category-politics","category-35-id","category-3-id","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12298\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}