Thursday, July 19, 2018

Is Russia linked to Republican voter suppression laws via the NRA?

We know that in at least one state and possibly all of the key states, Republican voter suppression laws turned the 2016 Presidential election.

How much funding did the NRA put into these efforts? And how much of that came from Russia?

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Trump's Treason Summit

One has to wonder: what could move Republicans to oppose Trump if not his Treasonous attacks on America from a summit with Putin? What is backing the word of a foreign dictator whose interests oppose our own over the word of our whole US intelligence community if not "giving [enemies] aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere"?

Trump committing treason with Putin at Helsinki summit under US Code title 18 section 2381; treasonous traitor TrumpRussia TrumpPutin us intelligence


Sure, he's since read a statement -- or should we say script -- to walk back one small word of what he said. Not that his reading seemed sincere, but even if it had, consider how the original "would" fits much more with everything else he said before and after than the "wouldn't" that he claimed when reading his script.

Context of Trump's statements about Putin and US investigations of Trump campaign and Russian interference in the election; walk-back back-pedal Treason Trump Russia Putin intelligence investigation elections Helsinki would wouldn't

Saturday, December 2, 2017

Those who do not learn history ...

"Those who do not learn history ..."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/11/30/im-a-depression-historian-the-gop-tax-bill-is-straight-out-of-1929/

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

John Kelly and Robert E Lee

Of particular interest: the pattern.

Secretary Kelly praises traitorous, insurrection-leader Lee (who was never legally a general), implying that Lee wouldn't have opposed compromise.

But the slaver side -- Lee's side -- refused compromise. The abolitionists worked hard to avoid war, arguably far harder than they should have. The their efforts to compromise with slavers might be the greatest taint on the legacy of the abolitionists. In the end, Lee's side utterly rejected working with those who wanted progress, even if Lee's side would have gotten excessive concessions in the bargain.

Today, we can see this in the party whose members typically praise Lee, today's Republicans. Today's Democrats were so desperate to improve healthcare that -- failing to get Republicans to accept their ideal -- they settled for adopting a Republican plan (which became Romneycare and then the ACA / Obamacare) ... just to have some chance of finding a way to compromise and get some meager improvement. But the Republican party rejected compromise, even if that compromise was built upon accepting their designs, their approach.

It's no wonder they praise the Lee's of history. They are the inheritors of Lee's anti-compromise, anti-progress ways in all but name.

Friday, September 15, 2017

The Latest WSJ Revelations on Flynn and Russian Involvement While On the NSC

"According to the [Wall Street] Journal, the ethics advisors on the National Security Council actually told him to remove himself from this project but quote the activity continued." - Rachel Maddow

See the rest in "New revelations deepen Flynn legal jeopardy".

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Payroll Coasting

A picture of coasting:

Total nonfarm private payroll employment 04/2002 to 07/2017

What was the question we collectively were asking ourselves? Perhaps, "Hey, what would happen if -- before really fully recovering -- we stopped pushing the economy back towards health as soon as we pulled it out of actively crashing?"

If we aim a car up a very slight incline and get going pretty fast and don't hit the brakes, it'll keep going at a fairly steady pace for a while even after the driver's foot leaves the accelerator. Not forever. But for a while.

Realistically, the foot isn't all the way off the pedal. It's more like we've cut back on the gas after quickly getting up to speed on the on-ramp.

We're way below speed limit though. Was that the plan? Why did that seem like a good idea?

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

How Necessities Have Eaten America's Personal Discretionary Spending Capacity

The Rent Is Too Damn High

A Business Insider article tells us "How America's spending habits have changed since 1941".

Spending "habits"? How about how costs have changed?

Seriously, who really believes that Americans want to allot such large portions of our income to housing -- whether rent or mortgage -- and transportation? Let's not forget about debt service, largely for housing and for investing in education to get jobs. And how many wouldn't want to be able to spend more on clothing, food & dining, and personal care?

New headline: how necessities have eaten America's personal discretionary spending capacity.