I’m writing for tomorrow and am running way late, because I overslept. That’s a good thing, in light of the week ahead. On Wednesday, I leave for Salem for organizational meetings with prisoners, outside board members and officers of my volunteer organization. I will be returning Friday. Getting ready has involved a pants-load of paperwork and updating my notebook computer, which I had not turned-on since I was in the hospital last spring. I hope to post at least personal updates from there.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:05 (average 5:16). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From The New Yorker: A support group for mayors bullied by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie held its first meeting today at the Prudential Center arena, in Newark.
Organizers of the gathering pronounced themselves pleased with the turnout, as bullied officeholders from all over the state filled the eighteen-thousand-seat venue.
The support group was the brainchild of Carol Foyler, the bullied mayor of Sea Ridge, New Jersey.
“All of these mayors have their own painful stories to share,” Mayor Foyler said. “We wanted to give them a safe space to do that.”
The event was interrupted fifteen minutes in, however, when power to the Prudential Center was abruptly cut off, plunging the arena into darkness…
LOL Andy!! I would not be surprised!
From NY Times: The reality of rising American inequality is stark. Since the late 1970s real wages for the bottom half of the work force have stagnated or fallen, while the incomes of the top 1 percent have nearly quadrupled (and the incomes of the top 0.1 percent have risen even more). While we can and should have a serious debate about what to do about this situation, the simple fact — American capitalism as currently constituted is undermining the foundations of middle-class society — shouldn’t be up for argument.
But it is, of course. Partly this reflects Upton Sinclair’s famous dictum: It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it. But it also, I think, reflects distaste for the implications of the numbers, which seem almost like an open invitation to class warfare — or, if you prefer, a demonstration that class warfare is already underway, with the plutocrats on offense.
The result has been a determined campaign of statistical obfuscation. At its cruder end this campaign comes close to outright falsification; at its more sophisticated end it involves using fancy footwork to propagate what I think of as the myth of the deserving rich.
For an example of de facto falsification, one need look no further than a recent column [Murdoch delinked] by Bret Stephens of The Wall Street Journal, which first accused President Obama (wrongly) of making a factual error, then proceeded to assert that rising inequality was no big deal, because everyone has been making big gains. Why, incomes for the bottom fifth of the U.S. population have risen 186 percent since 1979!
If this sounds wrong to you, it should: that’s a nominal number, not corrected for inflation. You can find the inflation-corrected number in the same Census Bureau table; it shows incomes for the bottom fifth actually falling. Oh, and for the record, at the time of writing this elementary error had not been corrected on The Journal’s website…
Click through for the rest of this fine Paul Krugman editorial. The WSJ, aka Faux Print, gets their talking points the same way as the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise.
From Daily Kos: The first numbers on the body count from the Republican sabotage of the Affordable Care Act are just now coming in. Last week, an analysis from Harvard’s Theda Skocpol revealed that states that both set up their own health care exchanges and embraced the ACA’s expansion of Medicaid are racing toward their enrollment goals, while the reddest of red states which refused to do either are barely moving the needle for their uninsured populations. Now, a George Washington University study shows that states that also passed laws limiting the ability of health care "navigators" to advise customers have severely compromised their residents’ ability to gain access to health care.
I find it despicable that so many Republicans are working so hard to prevent their constituents from obtaining health care.
Cartoon:
I had mixed feelings at the time, because I had opted to go to jail, if drafted. Therefore, my actions could only be seen as protest, and not dismissed as cowardice. I bore some resentment towards those who ran. It was my good fortune that the call never came. Since then, I’ve moderated that view and come to be thankful that they were not destroyed by that war, like so many others were.
10 Responses to “Open Thread–1/21/2014”
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LOL on Andy's take of the bullied mayors. It wouldn't suprize in the least though.
Of course they are going to muddy the waters concerning the plight of underpay in this country, we are now a Fascist state after all and they are not about to tell the truth about what's really going on about wages or anything else. That's how Fascism rolls. Greatest country on the face of the earth…..I think not. I can think of several more that are fantastic countries……but they don't matter to our government let alone most of the brainwashed population of this country. But AuriKKKa ain't IT. Hasn't been for decades.
The ACA…what can I tell ya bout that……I am just glad it's working for some in this country but it isn't working for millions who were told that it would. It is nothing but a huge giveaway to the Insurance corporations and the co-pays/deductables/premiums are horrifying to someone like me who cannot afford any of it and cannot get enough government assistance to cover it. And it is really horrifying when states, like the one I am forced to live in, refuse to have medicare expansion or a state exchange. And then be forced to pay a fine because one cannot afford healthcare,,,,and just how are we going to pay that when we can't afford the healthcare in the first place???? I think the mandate should either be scrapped altogether or force the insuance companies to lower their rates. One or the other.
Draft dodgers……..coming from military family whose family members served in all the wars from the beginning of this country……and a father who did three tours in country in Nam……at the time, I had no love for dodgers. Now, in the passing of time and the wisdom of years…….those such as yourself, Cat Man, I came to respect for their convictions. But those, such as you describe……runners, in my heart of hearts, are still cowards who have only one conviction….the saving of their own skin with no consequence for their actions. You were prepared to do time for your belief, that is courage. Being in another country to avoid jail or drafting is a cowardly act. Then and now. Sorry, peeps, I lived with the aftermath of a military parent and what 2 tours in Korea and 3 in Nam did to his life and ours. I have no love or compassion in me for those who run to save their own hides and are too craven to take the consequences for their action.
3:17 This old dog is too slow today.
3:10 There is nothing slow about our times today, Patty. It is just that the "ol' cat" is quicker.
New Yorker ~ Good one, Andy!
NY Times ~ The plutocrats are offended that "we are engaged in class warfare against them". Paul Krugman is an excellent choice to call them on income inequality.
Daily Kos ~ I have hope that the Republicans constituents remember the harm they are doing to them on Election Day. Maybe this will be the straw that broke the Red Elephant's back.
Cartoon ~ Many Americans thought it disgraceful that President Carter pardoned the draft-dodgers. I thought it a very good idea because I lost too many friends and family, some to suicide after they returned from the "police action" in Viet Nam.
Have a safe and productive trip to Salem, TC.
5:00 better than nothing.
Andy – Yuppers. Better not hold that meeting in New York either, they'd need to brodge to get there. Could they get to Philly without a bridge crossing, ya think?
Class War – yes, under way for some time, they are winning, largely because we are not fighting.
Health care – Oh, dearie me, no, this won't hurt the red elephant. Certainly not now. Maybe down the road a piece, but definitely a fur piece. It's not just one's salary but one's self esteem that depends on not understanding. So they won't understand. Once again – GET. OUT. THE. VOTE.
Cartoon: Well, I served in protest. Didn't accomplish much, and what little I did was quickly rescinded. While it didn't destroy me, it didn't do me a lot of good. But we are not all made of the same stuff. I have extraordinary admiration for those I consider to have shown extraordinary courage, been in jail or been willing to go there. But I will not dismiss those who chose to leave the country as cowards; at least without additional evidence. I am not inside their heads and will not judge. I think their actions accomplished more than mine did. BTW I also think the military needs more leaders like General Smedley Butler (though it would be better if they could go into the service knowing what he had to serve to learn and came out screaming).
A good example is here in Florida via Medicare Thief Governor Rick Scott…
5:35 –
Personal note: We will miss you, but try to enjoy your trip.
The New Yorker: Andy really gets it right, none of this would be surprising.
NY Times: Try to tell this to those who are addicted to Faux news, they won't believe it. A disgusting situtation, that most people in red states will never "get"
Daily Kos. I am so proud of Ky right now.
Cartoon: that was a hard time for us all. No matter what you chose, it was questioned. My brother in law was drafted out of college, he didn't want to go, but he has such a hard line attitude of those who didn't that it is impossible to talk to him about it. I was avidly against it, but being a female, could not be drafted. So glad we no longer have the dratt.
Thanks everyone.
One bit of cruel irony is that there was never a pardon for those who went to prison, because they had the courage fo face the consequences of their convictions. Accorfding to Henry David Thoreau in Civil Disobedience, facing the cdonsequences is what makes the protest authentic.
TC – I had no idea that there was never a pardon for those who went to prison with the courage of their convictions not to be drafted to Vietnam – that is so wrong!
LOL – the New Yorker article – Andy brilliant as ever!
Paul Krugman is honest and excellent – and B Stephens patently was obfuscating..