Thinking Liberally

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Political Readings of the Week (weekly)

Two Presidents, Smoking and Scheming - NYTimes.com

This. Is. Awesome. Bartlet for President!

tags: politics
- Mr. President, your prep for the next debate need not consist of anything more than learning to pronounce three words: “Governor, you’re lying.”
Don’t Mess With Big Bird - NYTimes.com

Big Bird is the man. He’s 8 feet tall. He can sing and roller skate and ride a unicycle and dance. Can you do that, Mr. Romney? I’m not talking about your fox trot away from the facts. I’m talking about real dancing.

tags: politics

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Sunday, October 7, 2012

The Rumble 2012: Bill O'Reilly vs Jon Stewart (Full)

Sharing Political Links in Absentia

Since I haven't been posting to this blog for some time, except for the occasional political bookmark in the right sidebar, I decided to set Diigo to auto-post my political links as weekly blog posts. I have not had much time to keep up with things, since I am in nursing school full-time, but the auto posts should at least give some interesting reading! (If anyone but me actually reads this blog - ha)

Enjoy!

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Political Readings of the Week (weekly)

90 DAYS, 90 REASONS

Excellent site with real food for thought. 90 reasons to re-elect President Obama.

tags: politics

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

More On "Class Warfare"

I couldn't miss this Elizabeth Warren quote that's been making the rounds with my Facebook friends - I love her. She is plain-talking, smart and sensible and can communicate her ideas well. The whole "class warfare" BS the right is accusing Democrats of is ridiculous - they are the ones who are at war on those of us who make less than $250,000 a year, which, by the way, is about 98% of us!! They are at war not only on the middle class, but are taking away the support needed to simply survive for so many in the lowest echelon of our socioeconomic structure. They ARE Big Brother, using doublespeak to convince people to vote against their own best interests.

Anyway, here is Elizabeth Warren explaining the social contract, if you haven't seen this clip yet, it's worth watching:

Two articles below make some good points about her as a candidate (for senate in Massachusetts) - why aren't other Democrats as good as she is in communicating these ideas?
Class Warfare, Elizabeth Warren Style (Washington Post) and The Underlying Social Contract (Washington Monthly)

Here she is on Morning Joe (MSNBC) in a long interview - she says, "it's about economics, but it's also about values." Damn straight.

Lets be clear - I'm not talking about "socialism" but about supporting the functioning of this country and the people in it in a fair and healthy way. But another Facebook friend posted this fantastic quote from Steinbeck today, which is so perfect:

This is exactly what I was talking about in my last two posts (minus the socialism part)!! The middle class and poor are convinced to vote against their own best interests because they see themselves as "temporarily embarrassed millionaires."

Ending some tax breaks for the wealthy is NOT going to make them un-wealthy. But removing social services and supports for the lowest tiers of our society WILL send more people into poverty and despair. There needs to be a happy medium - a balance of policies that encourage business and entrepreneurs while at the same time not abandoning those who have little hope.

I think reminding people of the social contract of helping to "pay it forward to the next kid" is a good start.

Friday, August 19, 2011

World of [Class] Warfare

This is awesome... but at the same time it made me want to throw up. The Tea Party Media are reprehensible, disgusting, heartless monsters. Watch and see what I mean:

The Daily Show - World of Class Warfare - Warren Buffett vs. Wealthy Conservatives
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

A couple more links relevant to the above video for background and further information:

Stop Coddling the Super-Rich - NYTimes.com

Awesome. Buffet is my favorite Billionaire. Bill Gates is my second favorite. Sometimes it's the other way around. Wealthy people who recognize the benefits of our society and government that have helped them get where they are, and want to give back, and pay their fair share.

Why Half of Americans Pay No Income Tax: It's the Subsistence, Stupid : Mike the Mad Biologist

Related to the Jon Stewart clip, "World of [Class] Warfare" - more details on why 50% of Americans pay no *Income* tax. (hint: it has to do with their income.)

Friday, August 12, 2011

A few articles pertinent to the current economy

These articles seem to touch on common themes - the widening gap between the haves and have-nots, and now we are cutting services to those who can least afford it, yet not removing the tax breaks for the wealthy... This disparity was summed up by a friend of mine thusly:

"Things America used to be able to afford, but can't any more: retirement, medical care, education, highway maintenance, infrastructure, food safety, environmental protection, space exploration, college. But for some reason we can't add tax cuts for the rich on that list."

Yes, apparently we can still afford tax breaks for the rich, even when we are trillions of dollars in debt and the economy is in crisis.

The Hijacked Crisis - NYTimes.com

Paul Krugman - some key points:

"what we’re seeing now is what happens when influential people exploit a crisis rather than try to solve it"
"When you’re bleeding profusely from an open wound, you want a doctor who binds that wound up, not a doctor who lectures you on the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle as you get older. When millions of willing and able workers are unemployed, and economic potential is going to waste to the tune of almost $1 trillion a year, you want policy makers who work on a fast recovery, not people who lecture you on the need for long-run fiscal sustainability."

"What would a real response to our problems involve? First of all, it would involve more, not less, government spending for the time being — with mass unemployment and incredibly low borrowing costs, we should be rebuilding our schools, our roads, our water systems and more."

My thoughts on this: This is one of the reasons I voted for Obama - he talked about *investing* instead of cutting. Rebuilding instead of tearing down. What happened to that guy?

"The usual suspects will, of course, denounce such ideas as irresponsible. But you know what’s really irresponsible? Hijacking the debate over a crisis to push for the same things you were advocating before the crisis, and letting the economy continue to bleed."

Why London Is Burning (Hint: It’s Not Just Thugs)

Patrick Smith of the Fiscal Times agrees with Krugman:

"austerity without policies that spur demand and ameliorate its negative effects on ordinary people are not merely incomplete: They will lead—as now we see on our front pages—to violent backlashes."

"In no case have ideology and faith proven substitutes for good, detached economic and social thinking. And this time—check the videos and news photos from Britain—we are playing with fire."

My thoughts: I believe the London riots are disgraceful opportunistic violence - people stealing things they wanted - that distortion of the dream to mere desire for money. And the violence and looting and burning are inexcusable. But at its roots, not an excuse, but an attempt to understand what happened, at its roots is that disparity between the haves and have nots. And by haves and have nots, I'm not just referring to money - also education, status, opportunity, purpose. The simmering resentment reached a flashpoint, and it could happen here, too. I'm not saying we should be afraid, but we should be aware of the harm, real harm, we are causing others by the cuts we are making. We should consider who the various measures will hurt, and try to hurt the fewest people, the least amount. There are far more poor than rich, and cuts hurt them far more than raising taxes would the rich. The least harm to the fewest people would be to raise taxes.

And while we are on the subject - let's make corporations pay their taxes - if they are "people, too" as Mitt Romney affirms, they need to pay up! Yes, we have one of the highest tax rates on corporations in the developed world, so lets reduce our corporate tax rate, but remove the loopholes so they all have to pay! Huge profits, ridiculously overpaid CEOs, combined with layoffs and tax loopholes make corporations one of the few that it would hurt least... tax them.

The rich are different — and not in a good way, studies suggest - Health - Behavior - msnbc.com

Brian Alexander from MSNBC hits a nerve:

"the philosophical battle over economics, taxes, debt ceilings and defaults that are now roiling the stock market is partly rooted in an upper class "ideology of self-interest.""
"Because the rich gloss over the ways family connections, money and education helped, they come to denigrate the role of government and vigorously oppose taxes to fund it."

"a strong allegiance to the American Dream can lead even regular folks to overestimate their own self-reliance in the same way as rich people."

My thoughts on this:

In addition, the "American Dream" itself has become distorted. It used to be about creating something, being an entrepreneur, achieving a personal accomplishment. Now it's just about being rich. It's like every American baby is born with a lottery ticket, and they're all hoping to hit it big...

This allegiance is because they are actually "failed rich people" - they are delusional about their own ability to become rich someday, so they consistently vote against their own self interest in favor of the interests of the wealthy.

"most people could quickly tell you how much they paid in taxes last year but few could put a dollar amount on how they benefited from government by, say, driving on interstate highways, taking drugs gleaned from federally funded medical research, or using inventions created by people educated in public schools."
"Last year, research at Duke and Harvard universities showed that regardless of political affiliation or income, Americans tended to think wealth distribution ought to be more equal."

"The problem? Rich people wrongly believed it already was."

Recommended Reading for "clueless" rich people:

Nickled and Dimed - on (not) getting by in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich

The combination of ideology, playing politics, pandering to campaign contributors, and willful ignorance keeps that gap between the haves and have nots growing larger than ever.

Friday, June 17, 2011

The Truth About the Economy - in 2 minutes

Monday, November 8, 2010

Bill Maher Rules

I was so excited about the Rally to Restore Sanity. I really love the idea... "Bring back the civility in civil discourse!" "I disagree with you, but I'm pretty sure you're not Hitler!" During the rally, I was pleased at Stewart's attempts at impartiality, at criticizing the left as well as the right. But I temporarily forgot that the right is made up of so many complete assholes. Hard to be rational when you are dealing with poop-flinging angry chimpanzees.

Enter Bill Maher, and his "New Rules" response to the Rally - he says it so much better than I ever could!

New Rule: If you’re going to have a rally where hundreds of thousands of people show up, you might as well go ahead and make it about something. Now, with all due respect to my friends Jon and Stephen, it seems to me that if you truly wanted to come down on the side of restoring sanity and reason, you’d side with the sane and the reasonable. And not try to pretend that the insanity is equally distributed in both parties.

Keith Olbermann is right when he says he’s not the equivalent of Glenn Beck. One reports facts. The other one is very close to playing with his poop. And the big mistake of modern media has been this notion of balance for balance’s sake; that the left is just as violent and cruel as the right; that unions are just as powerful as corporations; that reverse-racism is just as damaging as racism. There’s a difference between a mad man and a madman.

Now, getting over 200,000 people to come to a liberal rally is a great achievement that gave me hope. And what I really loved about it was that it was twice the size of the Glenn Beck crowd on the mall in August. Although it weighed the same.

But, the message of the rally, as I heard it, was that, if the media would just stop giving voice to the crazies on both sides, then maybe we could restore sanity. It was all nonpartisan and urged cooperation with the moderates on the other side. Forgetting that Obama tried that and found out there are no moderates on the other side.

When Jon announced his rally, he said the national conversation was dominated by people on the right who believe Obama is a socialist and people on the left who believe 9/11 was an inside job. But I can’t name any Democratic leaders who think 9/11 was an inside job. But, Republican leaders who think Obama is a Socialist? All of them. McCain, Boehner, Cantor, Palin, all of them. It’s now official Republican dogma. Like tax cuts pay for themselves, and gay men just haven’t met the right woman.

As another example of both sides using overheated rhetoric, Jon cited the right equating Obama with Hitler and the left calling Bush a war criminal. Except thinking Obama is like Hitler is utterly unfounded, but thinking Bush is a war criminal, that’s the opinion of General Anthony Taguba, who headed the Army’s investigation into Abu Ghraib.

You see, Republicans keep staking out a position that is further and further right, and then demand Democrats meet them in the middle. Which is now not the middle anymore. That’s the reason healthcare reform is so watered down. It’s Bob Dole’s old plan from 1994. Same thing with cap and trade. It was the first President Bush’s plan to deal with carbon emissions. Now, the Republican plan for climate change is to claim it’s a hoax.

But it’s not. I know that because I’ve lived in LA since ’83, and there’s been a change in the city. I can see it now. Yeah. All of us who live out here have had that experience. “Oh, look, there’s a mountain there.” Governments led by liberal Democrats passed laws which changed the air I breathe for the better. Okay, I’m for them, and not for the party that is, as we speak, plotting to abolish the EPA. And I don’t need to pretend that both sides have a point here. And I don’t care what left or right commentators say about it. I only care what climate scientists say about it.

Two opposing sides don’t necessarily have two compelling arguments. Martin Luther King spoke on that mall in the capital, and he didn’t say, “Remember, folks, those Southern sheriffs with the fire hoses and the German Shepherds, they have a point, too!” No, he said, “I have a dream. They have a nightmare.” This isn’t “Team Edward” and “Team Jacob.”

Liberals, like the ones on that field, must stand up and be counted, and not pretend that we’re as mean or greedy or shortsighted or just plain batshit [crazy] as they are. And if that’s too polarizing for you, and you still want to reach across the aisle and hold hands and sing with someone on the right, try church.

From Real Time with Bill Maher, Episode 196, New Rules

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Obama's Post-Election Speech

My (moderate and quite reasonable) Republican contractor told me this speech gave him chills and hope - he really liked it and is hopeful that the government will start being able to work together... THAT gives me hope. I hope this mid-term trouncing does for Obama what it did for Clinton... I'm just so tired of the bickering. Here's the speech:

If you want to hear the rest of the questions and answers, they are in the following three videos:

I have to say I like how calm he seems, and NOT defensive. It drove me crazy that he was sounding more and more defensive, just like Bush always did - being defensive is NOT inspirational, not leadership. I hope he can get off of the defensive for the next two years and get on with leading.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear - full videos!

The full videos (with sponsor's ads, of course) are up on Comedy Central here:

http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/rally_to_restore_sanity_and_or_fear/

And I'll link to each below. The sponsor is the Axe "wash your balls" campaign - funny and probably NSFW (but what would you be doing watching these or reading this blog at work anyway? ha). I wish at least they didn't show the SAME commercial for every video, but oh well. The videos are great!

These may not necessarily be in the correct order of events. I'm also not sure if the musical guests are on any of these videos - I haven't watched them all yet! Anyway, ENJOY!