I’m feeling especially tired today, having slept poorly. Last night a group of black men kept me awake for over four hours, by walking up and down the street, screaming at the top of their lungs, and calling each other the N word. I’m ashamed to admit that even I had more than one stereotypical thought about them. It truly saddens me that thugs like these could trigger even a man like me, a man with a history of civil rights activism going back to the early 1960s. I am very sorry. I hope such behavior by very few does not counter the major positive influence exerted by the black community following the Republican attack on the church.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:38 (average 5:30). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Fantasy Football Recruiting:
Recruiting is now complete for Lefty Blog Friends, our fantasy football league. Pam and her End the GOP are now onboard. Welcome Pam!! For more information, click here. I will be publishing an article of tips shortly. The live online draft is on 7/25 at 11:00 AM PDT.
Short Takes:
From NY Times: If the scramble to hold together Europe’s single currency has highlighted one thing, it is that national mind-sets can be more stubborn than the 60-year-old mantra of the Continent’s “ever closer union” once supposed. And no national psyche is more important to the outcome at this moment than Germany’s.
In insisting that Greece can stay in the euro only if everyone sticks to the rules, Germany has acted almost classically to stereotype. Its fondness for orderly procedure — the foundation of its post-1945 democracy — has prevailed even over its desire to lead 21st century Europe.
If Germany is serious about following the rules, perhaps they should repay the loans they forced Greece to make when Germany’s version of the Republican Party was in power during WWII.
From TPM: Hillary Rodham Clinton plans to make boosting middle class income and wages the focus of her economic agenda. The Democratic presidential candidate will point to stagnant paychecks as the central challenge facing the U.S. economy.
Clinton will lay out the themes of her economic plan in a speech Monday in New York. Clinton’s campaign says in a preview on Saturday that the speech will emphasize the need for the real incomes of everyday Americans to rise steadily along with corporate profits and executive compensation.
While Republican candidate Jeb Bush has called for an annual growth rate of 4 percent, Clinton will say that the nation’s economy should not be judged by a specific growth figure but rather by how much income rises for middle-class households.
At least she will drown out the campaign opening announcement by the Fartfuhrer of Fitzwalkerstan. I want to know how Hillary plans to recover some of the wealth that Republicans took from poor and middle class citizens and gave to the super-rich.
From Think Progress: People who “want to kill babies” don’t want women to see their ultrasounds.
Former neurosurgeon Ben Carson spoke in length to the NRLC about his experiences as a physician administering ultrasounds. He talked about the advanced technology of ultrasounds that exists today, saying fewer people have had abortions since the technology has improved and women can see their fetus in detail on a computer screen. “How can anybody think that’s just a mass of cells?” he said. “That’s one of the reasons that the people who want to kill babies don’t want you to see that.”
A recent study found that looking at an ultrasound doesn’t change a women’s decision to have an abortion because the vast majority of women who seek out abortion services have already made up their mind. Nevertheless, 13 states have laws on the book requiring doctors to perform an ultrasound before proceeding with an abortion.
This is one of the five most absurd arguments made at a Republican Barefoot and Pregnant convention sponsored by NRLPAC. Click through for the other four.
Cartoon:
25 Responses to “Open Thread–7/12/2015”
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3:31 This is enough to drive a person bananas!
3:47 Yes, I've got no bananas
I have-a no bananas today (With apologies to by Frank Silver and Irving Cohn)
3:18 I'd love me some bananas today!
Mashed bananas!
Sorry to hear you lost so much sleep while you were also made to feel a racist in the process, TomCat. Four hours of walking down the street behaving like that leaves me with the impression of provocation. I hope I'm wrong, but it does sound a lot like these gentlemen wanted the police called in, perhaps even so they could accuse both the police and the caller of being prejudiced. So don't feel bad about yourself, TomCat, it looks like you were led to think the way you did, but you showed great restraint and sacrificed your sleep rather than call.
NY Times: I'll pass on this one, right now I'm sitting in front of the television with my fingers crossed in the hope the EU will finally have the sense to start making some positive gestures too and do the right thing in the next few hours.
TPM: Hillary hasn't got the true Social Democrat touch yet, she seems to forget that the middle class in America is nearly wiped out and that she should start addressing the poor too by now.
Think Progress: Former neurosurgeon Ben Carson never has had any use for an ultrasound scan in his career and couldn't point out the fetus on it to save his life, so he better shut up before he tells even more fibs. Better ask him which ultrasound machine manufacturer is sponsoring his campaign.
Thanks for understanding.
4:29 (average 5:30) More green bananas! Don't they ever get any ripe ones?
Happy wedding anniversary to Bruce and Elizabeth Warren!
NY Times – More about TC's throwaway comment about the Germans should have repaid is here, ICYMI: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/07/08/1400314/-Thomas-Piketty-Germany-has-never-repaid And Piketty should know. That German "rule" gene seems to have missed me – I mean about following it just because it is there. Don't get me wrong, I am all for rules, as long as they are fair and just, but if they aren't good enough, they are, by me, no good at all.
TPM – Apparently the DNC thinks Democratic candidates should not directly debate each other? I signed a petition this morning to them to allow debates among our own. Under the circumstances there is no need for it to get ugly. http://act.credoaction.com/sign/dem_debates_pda?referring_akid=a202812520.2616308.YIDXRO&source=conf_email
Think Progress – I thank God daily I am past menopause. But of course that doesn't stop me from worrying about younger women. Ben Carson makes an excellent case that we should stop using the term "brain surgeon" as a poster meme for intelligence. I pretty well have been using "rocket scientist" instead for a long time now anyway.
Cartoon – Bah! (NOT Baaaa!)
Thanks, I signed the petiton.
See today's Open Thread.
This came in my mails yesterday from Robert Reich via MoveOn re: Greece.
Dear MoveOn member,
Greece is all over the news this week—but how come so few people are talking about Wall Street's role in creating the crisis, or what people like us can do to change the outcome?
Let's talk about it—and do something about it.
Read on to see how I see it. Once you've read this, please chip in to help MoveOn launch an emergency global campaign for progress, not austerity.
People seem to forget that the Greek debt crisis—which is becoming a European and even possibly a world economic crisis—grew out of a deal with Goldman Sachs, engineered by Goldman's Lloyd Blankfein.
Several years ago, Blankfein and his Goldman team helped Greece hide the true extent of its debt—and in the process almost doubled it. When the first debt deal was struck in 2001, Greece owed about 600 million euros ($793 million) more than the 2.8 billion euros it had borrowed. Goldman then cooked up an off-the-books derivative for Greece that disguised the shortfall but increased the government's losses to 5.1 billion euros.
In 2005, the deal was restructured and the 5.1 billion euro debt was locked in. After that, Goldman and the rest of Wall Street pulled the global economy to its knees—whacking Greece even harder.
Undoubtedly, Greece suffers from years of corruption and tax avoidance by its wealthy. But Goldman Sachs isn't exactly innocent. It padded its profits by catastrophically leveraging up the global economy with secret, off-balance-sheet debt deals.
Did any of its executives ever go to jail? Of course not. They all got fat bonuses and promotions. Blankfein, now CEO, raked in $24 million in 2014 alone. Meanwhile, the people of Greece struggle to buy medicine and food.
Economists Thomas Piketty and Jeffrey Sachs also have weighed in, writing in The Nation that the results of European austerity in Greece have hit the vulnerable the worst—"40 percent of children now live in poverty, infant mortality is sky-rocketing and youth unemployment is close to 50 percent."1
Debt restructuring must be part of any solution for economic reforms in Greece. But instead of doing that, the European powers have made eleventh-hour, draconian demands: slash pensions, privatize even more core state functions, and attack unions and workers' collective bargaining rights.2
The U.S. can help make things better (instead of worse, like Goldman Sachs did). In addition to diplomatic power, the U.S. has voting power in the International Monetary Fund—one of Greece's creditors.
President Obama and Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew can use their pulpits and their votes to yield a positive and just outcome. The Greek parliament on Friday approved a new plan that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras proposed, but so far the European parties aren't offering up the debt restructuring that's needed for a real solution and instead are demanding even more draconian austerity measures from Greece to even keep talking.
That's why I wanted to write you this note, to try and sift through what's going on and ask for your help on a special campaign that's pretty different from what MoveOn's done before.
As you can imagine, MoveOn hadn't budgeted for a big campaign to save Greece and reject global austerity. So I'm speaking up to help MoveOn raise the funds now.
Ready to help launch the campaign?
Here's the link to donate: Click here to help reject austerity.
Here's what MoveOn can do if you help raise the emergency funds:
Take out an ad in a major Washington publication calling on President Obama to use the U.S.'s power in the IMF and diplomatic influence with the European Central Bank to yield a positive outcome. Few are speaking out like this in the U.S., so a little firepower can go a long way.
Drive phone calls to the IMF and Treasury Department offices—they're not used to taking calls from regular folks, so we can really get their attention.
Join with allies across Europe to show solidarity with the Greek people and stand up to global austerity. MoveOn is part of a global network of technology-wielding, progressive organizations called OPEN—and now is just the kind of moment when this network can be most powerful.
Keep on campaigning to hold banks like Goldman Sachs accountable.
This is a tipping point in the global economy—austerity, or progress?
What happens in Greece will impact the economic agenda in America, and it will have ripple effects around the world.
Can you make a donation and help launch MoveOn's emergency global campaign for progress, not austerity?
Click here to chip in.
Thanks for all you do.
–Robert Reich
Sources:
1. "Austerity Has Failed: An Open Letter From Thomas Piketty to Angela Merkel,"The Nation, July 7, 2015
http://www.moveon.org/r/?r=305385&id=124142-23189148-SlLXOEx&t=1
2. "Eurogroup draft on demands for Greek reforms," Reuters, July 12, 2015
http://www.moveon.org/r/?r=305398&id=124142-23189148-SlLXOEx&t=2
I'm starting to wonder WRT Ben Carson's credentials/competence if, as a neurosurgeon, he's now commenting on all the uterine ultrasounds he's done.
Cranium … uterus … those aren't even close!
With Republican women, their heads are up their butts, putting them very close the the uterus.
LOL! So true!
That's very good point.
Puzzle — 3:31 This is enough to drive a person bananas!
NY Times — I remember from my high school history courses that Germany weasled (apologies to the furry little critters!) out of various negotiated WWII war reparations in addition to not fully repaying "loans" from Greece . . . 476 million Reichmarks of which 115 Marks were repaid in 1960. See information at Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_reparations_for_World_War_II
Amen! This definitely is a case, as my momma would say in her courtroom, of the pot calling the kettle black!
TPM — The increase and stability of incomes for everyday Americans is very important for a healthy economy. But I question the second part of that statement. It is not that corporate profits should linger in the doldrums, but neither should they grow by leaps and bounds faster than the income of everyday Americans. And CEOs . . . don't get me started there.
But measuring the economy by the growth of middle-class income makes sense to me. But one thing has been missed here. What about the growth of income for the poor, whether they be working poor, disabled or retired?
Think Progress — So, to Rubio, the civil rights of a "bunch of cells" incapable of independent life are more important than the civil rights of a woman?
Like usual, His Frothiness, Rick Santorum, makes up his own definitions and his own facts. That wouldn't be all that bad if scientists agreed with him, but the vast majority don't!
Perry . . . "The anti-choice movement can only stop “one woman at a time.”" Perhaps the pro choice team should stop one governor at a time, and start with rabid Greg Abbott, the wacko who succeeded Perry! As to Perry, glasses or not, a sack of hammers has more intelligence. He should not be allowed to even consider the presidency.
Cruz . . . half truths, misinformation, and lies!
Carson . . . another half truths, misinformation, and lies guy! I wonder if birth control has anything to do with it? Actually, I don't have to wonder about that . . . it does! I think Carson has done his own frontal lobotomy surgery.
Cartoon — I'd say I'd vote, but I can't in the US. But I will certainly vote in Canada come 19/10/15 and it WON'T be for one of Herr Harper's minions! Those Conservative fools have to go!
Here is a short video that I found on Care 2 that is awesome and so right on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84OT0NLlqfM
The video link in Lynn's box above is well worth viewing. It's short and makes a point.
And if you are a Care2 member, also note it – let's get it to the front page.
Excellent vid!!
You do have a lot of noise at night, don't you? That is one reason I love living in the hills, just birds living in my maple tree to annoy me at night. Sorry, but that is true.
NY Times: I agree with you assessment of Germany. Austerity is what got Greece in this mess, it certainly won't bring them out of it. I wish our Tea Party would realize this.
Think Progress: I clicked through, almost wish I had not. When these me can give birth, then they can decide what a woman should do about abortion. Just my opinion.
TPM: I think Hillary is trying to ride Bernie's coattails with this one.
PS: The sheeple are who got us in this mess!
Amen! I read where a court in KY said no to eminent domain efforts for putting in a pipeline in KY…
NY Times ~ Germany will never pay back to the world what they "stole" from them during WWII. It's anice thought if they did though.
TPM ~ I really enjoy Hillary stealing everyone's thunder on their announcment days. She always manages to schedule something big on the same day. They are not liking it one little bit.
Think Progress ~ Pure idiocy!
Cartoon ~ Don't let the sheeple win this one! Vote!
Back to the TeaPublicanT Clown Car for a brief thought ~ Walker is joining the race this week. This will make 15 "announced" candidates. Is there room in the clown car for him? Of course there is! If they get it full enough, they might just argue amongst themselves about who is driving that they will drive themselves right over that cliff they are teetering on.
so many example of folks who think the rules are for other people and not for themselves…
Love the cartoon! I WILL VOTE! And, I hope, so will my family! Got some work to do everywhere!
Thanks all. Hugs!