Wednesday

Cool Stuff





Politics

Only corporate-fed D's allowed. The D establishment is working its ass off to shut-out its progressive side.   Fuck'em ! Time to split from the D's and form a real left-wing SD party.

Vote SD ! Medicare for All !

Tax and Spend vs Borrow and Spend - Andrew Tobias: Of Deficits And That Mechanical Swan

Democrats have long been ridiculed as the “tax and spend” party.  But there’s a lot government needs to do and Democrats think it makes sense not only to do it — but to pay for it.

Republicans are the “borrow and spend” party.  They spend, too — they just don’t pay for it.  Some might call that fiscally irresponsible.  Or even immoral.

• Reagan/Bush41 inherited a National Debt under $1 trillion — and quadrupled it.
• Clinton raised taxes on the best-off and by the end of his second term was able to hand Bush 43 a balanced budget with the prospect of “surpluses as far as the eye could see.”
• Bush 43 slashed taxes on the best-off even further than Reagan had and handed Obama the largest deficit in history.
• Obama raised taxes on the best-off and, by the end of his second term, was able to hand Trump and the Republicans a National Debt once again shrinking relative to the economy as a whole.
• Trump and the Republicans have exploded the deficit once again.

Corruption

1 big thing: Corruption anxiety

Stephen Moore and The Fed

Education

 ".. the result is that students from the 1% are 77 times more likely to attend an Ivy League school than students coming from families earning less than $30,000 a year."

and Ivy league attendees are over-represented in our leadership.  

Talkers

The Intellectual Dark Web...... from the comments here:  MC 800-FT IDW

The Intellectual Dark Web (lord I hate that name) seems to contain a whole bunch of white men who are new to politics. Or if not new to politics, at least always behind. It is full of white men with superficial political opinions, who haven't immersed themselves in political theory and history, haven't thought about stuff all that deeply. Which is fine, you don't need to have done that. Harris, Peterson, etc. - these guys aren't in politics.

But then they end up frustrating people because they want to "have conversations" and talk about stuff without putting in the work to know the history. And yet they still want all the respect and adulation of "having the conversation". Like, for fuck's same - people have been having these conversations for decades, centuries. People have their informed views. Just because *you* now have an opinion doesn't make you special, IDW-er.

Rather than just sit back and say "actually, maybe I don't know what's going on here, I want to listen and learn", it's an entire subculture of people who get defensive and say "why can't I opine without being criticized!!"

The white maleness of it all is just so...out there.

Though I disagree with the "white maleness" portion, I think this is right on. The sort-of superficial understanding of politics, history, and society was amplified first by Fox and Talk-radio. The internet has allowed it to unite and flourish.


Why They Hate us

TEN CHILDREN KILLED BY U.S. AIR STRIKE IN AFGHANISTAN

"Child casualties from air strikes have increased every year since 2014."

Palestinian volunteer medic killed by Israeli forces in Bethlehem

"Death machines were rumblin' 'cross the ground where Jesus stood" - Steve Earl Jerusalem