StephenKMackSD's Blog

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/29/mystery-man/?smid=tw-NytimesKrugman&seid=auto

When do we face the rather unpalatable truth that President Obama is weak, utterly weak, with the dregs of Clinton era economic thinkers as self-chosen advisers. The economic reform of 1999 signed by Clinton did its insidious work by 2008, the reign of the promised economic boom became an economic pathology. President Obama can make eloquent speeches,stirring rhetoric does not a leader make: he surrenders before the fight. When do you say f**k it and put up your dukes?

Don't know if this will pass the high standards of the NYT but it needed to be said!

Best regards to all
Stephen

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-the-tea-party-is-unyielding-on-the-debt-ceiling/2011/07/27/gIQAGvEVdI_story.html?wpisrc=nl_opinions

 

Here is the ‘Leader’ of the Tea Party movement explaining the moral and political necessity of Austerity, of fiscal responsibility, in the age of the failure of American Capitalism, post financial reform. Mr. Judson Phillips core belief is that suffrage be limited to property owners exclusively, should we be surprised?  Another instance of a political romanticism carefully framed via a usable political nostalgia. Mr. Phillips is being bankrolled by the Koch brothers among others, so beware of this ‘false prophet’ and his particular brand of political nihilism, of a permanent insurgency rather than the political challenge of compromise, as the imperative of the exercise of republican civic responsibility.  Below is a link to a Frank Rich column of August 28, 2010 that has some revelatory information and below that Jane Mayer’s New Yorker article of August 30, 2010 on the Koch brothers

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/opinion/29rich.html

 

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer

Political Observer

      

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/invoke-the-14th–and-end-the-debt-standoff/2011/07/01/gHQAUif8yH_story.html

'There are reasons why such a solution is less than ideal. There ought to be some concern about executive overreach; the very idea of the president deciding which laws are and are not constitutional has disturbing ramifications. And to the extent that the goal of the move is to prevent market panic, it remains an open question as to whether it would succeed. But market panic will surely come with the failure to reach a deal altogether. The consequences of default are simply too severe — and too long-lasting — to take this option off the table. It may not be ideal as an elective choice, but as an option of last resort, it is a necessity.'

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/debt_madness_was_always_about_killing_social_security_20110727/

'What is at stake is a radical Republican agenda to totally reverse the progress in economic justice that began with the great reforms of Franklin Roosevelt and his New Deal. Consider the direct consequence of the economic crisis that unfettered Wall Street greed has wrought, particularly in reversing the gains made by the most underprivileged sectors of the population. As The Wall Street Journal reported, based on a Pew Research Center study from 2005 to 2009, “The wealth gap between whites and each of the nation’s two largest minorities—Hispanics and blacks—has widened to unprecedented levels amid the housing crisis and the recession. … The disparities are the greatest since the government began tracking such data a quarter-century ago. …”'

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/07/26/debt-ceiling-crisis-boehner-s-hypocritical-response.html

'As you watch this drama play out over the next seven days, don’t forget that this is an entirely forced fire-drill.  The debt ceiling has been raised more or less automatically in the past—77 times since JFK, including 18 times under Ronald Reagan and 7 times under George W. Bush.  Republicans were not rushing to the ramparts then — consistent with their heightened concern over deficits that comes only when Democrats are in the White House.'

Just one more plutocratic political romantic to add to an already overcrowded field of Sclerotic Old White Guys and their surrogates. That Mr. Huntsman is a proponent of Civil Unions is a sop to the Log Cabins and their delusion of belonging. He makes the timid New Democrat with no fight, President Obama seem like my best progressive Christian friend. I'm not in the mood to entertain any delusion about where I stand in Hetro-America: second class citizen!
Queer Atheist