June 2012
27 posts
Yes, There Is an Alternative to Capitalism:... →
americawakiewakie:
There is no alternative (“Tina”) to capitalism?
Really? We are to believe, with Margaret Thatcher, that an economic system with endlessly repeated cycles, costly bailouts for financiers and now austerity for most people is the best human beings can do? Capitalism’s recurring tendencies toward extreme and deepening inequalities of income, wealth, and political and cultural...
5 tags
On Health Care being upheld...
An important decision today, although I cannot say I’m surprised for a couple of reasons…
1.) The consensus among the legal community has been that the law is constitutional. Among the state courts that rejected the law, their rulings relied mostly on lofty political rhetoric, rather than legal evidence and precedent.
2.) While the Affordable Care Act is certainly an improvement to...
7 tags
Priorities...
So let’s break this down.
The conservative justices on the Supreme Court dissented to the Arizona decision because they believe that it is the state’s right to implement and enforce its own immigration policy, separate from the federal policy.
Meanwhile, Montana wanted to enforce its own campaign finance laws for state elections, separate from the federal policy. This was struck down...
“Cheap food is an illusion. There is no such thing. The real cost of the food is...”
– (via heyfranhey)
“Take a walk through Boston or any other city and see if you don’t see things...”
– Noam Chomsky - Class Warfare (via noam-chomsky)
“Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else...”
– George Orwell (via politicalprof)
8 tags
On Public Sector Unions: Divide & Conquer
Scott Walker’s victory in Wisconsin has been seen as a justification for anti-union policies. With 60% of Wisconsin voters stating that recall elections should only be held for misconduct, this seems politically unlikely. Furthermore, these policies are ridiculous. They are based on the idea that public sector unions have won wages, benefits, and pensions that are bankrupting local governments....
3 tags
“Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written,...”
– George Orwell, Happy 109th Birthday
3 tags
High Court Says 'Citizens United' Applies To... →
“The Supreme Court on Monday reaffirmed its 2-year-old decision allowing corporations to spend freely to influence elections. The justices struck down a Montana law limiting corporate campaign spending.
By a 5-4 vote, the court’s conservative justices said the decision in the Citizens United case in 2010 applies to state campaign finance laws and guarantees corporate and labor union...
2 tags
“We might try a thought experiment. Suppose that Syria had occupied Israel for...”
– Noam Chomsky, Hegemony or Survival
3 tags
"Leaving Facebookistan" by Steve Coll →
“There is something vaguely dystopian about oppressed peoples in Syria or Iran seeking dignity and liberation inside a corporate sovereign that is, for its part, creating great wealth for its founders and asserting control over its users.”
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2012/05/leaving-facebookistan.html#ixzz1yAUcvoT9
2 tags
“A prince is nothing in the presence of a principle.”
– Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
6 tags
Amazon and Germany
A couple of interesting articles,
- “The Trouble With Amazon” and “How Germany Keeps Amazon at Bay and Literary Culture Alive”.
“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop...”
– - Ray Bradbury
Bradbury, the author of “Fahrenheit 451,” has died in California. He was 91.
(via newshour)
6 tags
Great piece on the Wisconsin Recall Election →
Why recalling Scott Walker would have been largely a symbolic victory for the middle class, not an actual one.
“We supported [former Democratic Gov.] Jim Doyle when he ran on reducing the state workforce by 10,000 jobs, and we gave him money to do that. Why are we paying for them to lay us off and to furlough us?”
6 tags
On the Cynics and Democracy
I’m finding it increasingly hard to verbalize the importance of voting and participating in democracy to cynics. They insist that voting is useless; the system is inherently corrupt, politicians are crooks, and that it will never get better. To be completely honest, they have a point. The history of the last century has shown that there has been an overall bi-partisan corporate agenda. Voting...
5 tags
“We believe no more in Bonaparte’s fighting merely for the liberation of...”
– Thomas Jefferson
“Historically, the most terrible things - war, genocide, and slavery - have...”
– Howard Zinn (via human-voices)
2 tags
Paul Krugman on Austerity →
“So the austerity drive in Britain isn’t really about debt and deficits at all; it’s about using deficit panic as an excuse to dismantle social programs. And this is, of course, exactly the same thing that has been happening in America”
Politicalprof: Why Politicians Lie -- Redux →
politicalprof:
I’m off again for a while, meaning I won’t have access to a computer for a few days. So, another blast from the past, in honor of the forthcoming campaign … from July 2011.
———————
I know, I know: you’re thinking politicians lie as a defect of character. They lie because they’re liars. So why…
