Wednesday, December 03, 2014
Knowns and Unknowns
As an addition to the post below, we can endlessly debate what the administration could have pushed Congress to pass, whether we're talking about the stimulus bill or a better ACA or mortgage cramdown in bankruptcy etc... etc... I'm not really hostile to the notion that they mostly got what they wanted on all of these things, so the "but Congress" defense is weak (pre-2011, anyway). Still there were things they did have direct control over and funding to deal with that they didn't, and that isn't debatable.
Message: I Care
I certainly don't think the Obama team did everything right on the economy, and I also don't think they did everything they could. Discussion of the size of the stimulus is always central, but they had a lot of power to deal with the foreclosure crisis properly (even a giant fund they didn't use) and they just let the banksters get away with stealing homes. I'd guess fixing that would have improved the recovery a bit.
But Krugman's correct that people playing the "should have focused on the economy not health care" game never say what exactly that means.
But Krugman's correct that people playing the "should have focused on the economy not health care" game never say what exactly that means.
Frisky
The only things stop-n-frisk is ever going to "uncover" are drugs or illegal guns. Arresting people for drug possession is stupid, and in much of the country there's essentially no such thing as an illegal gun. So...what's the point again?
Ammosexuality
A good friend and roommate in college became a gun nut. He was a VW van driving pot smoking hippie at some point, became a bit of a Limbaugh listener, and then (I think) he was mugged once and has carried a gun ever since (from what I can tell).
He lives in a place not exactly known for its high violent crime rates. The urban hellhole, it ain't. I really never worry about crime. At all.
He lives in a place not exactly known for its high violent crime rates. The urban hellhole, it ain't. I really never worry about crime. At all.
Tuesday, December 02, 2014
Sins of the Father
I don't have kids. Plenty of other people do. And this is America, where the children are the future, so we love them so very much. I just don't understand how when a kid gets gunned down by police, a newspaper staff thinks "let's dumpster dive into the lives of the parents!!!"
assholes
assholes
Sunk
Starting to think that our neighbors who reside below the Earth's crust are beginning to get a bit adventurous.
Monday, December 01, 2014
If Only There Was Something We Could Do To Help The Syrian People
I guess we could bomb them?
SIXTY-FOUR MILLION DOLLAR SHORTFALL. We could've built 10 Steve Austins for that. In 1973.
BEIRUT — A funding crisis has forced the World Food Program to suspend assistance to 1.7 million Syrian refugees, the U.N. agency announced Monday, warning that “many families will go hungry” without the aid.
The program, which provides electronic vouchers for Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt to buy food at local stores, faces a $64 million shortfall, the agency said, attributing the problem to “unfulfilled” donor commitments.
SIXTY-FOUR MILLION DOLLAR SHORTFALL. We could've built 10 Steve Austins for that. In 1973.
Read Any Newspaper Comments Section
One doesn't have to go home again to realize just how pervasive racism is in this country. And, yes, I think it has gotten worse in the past few years or so. Why is a total mystery.
I don't mean that racism has gotten worse, just that people feel more free to express it. Thug's a good word, after all. MSNBC hosts like it.
I don't mean that racism has gotten worse, just that people feel more free to express it. Thug's a good word, after all. MSNBC hosts like it.
Bold
The truly awesome thing is that Joe Scarborough thinks he's being a brave truthteller and standing up to the PC masses by calling an unarmed black teen who has been riddled with bullets by a cop a "thug" because we haven't heard that before.
I'm sure Joe's the kind of guy who hires 7 lawyers every time he gets a parking ticket, because tyranny, but summary execution of an unarmed black teen is awesome because "thug."
Maybe I can get paid obscene amounts of money by MSNBC to host a show if I decide to be that brave.
I'm sure Joe's the kind of guy who hires 7 lawyers every time he gets a parking ticket, because tyranny, but summary execution of an unarmed black teen is awesome because "thug."
Maybe I can get paid obscene amounts of money by MSNBC to host a show if I decide to be that brave.
I Guess We All Have Our Causes
Don't shoot unarmed people. Really not a complicated concept.
Go ahead and boycott.
A Missouri police union has condemned players from the St Louis Rams football team for making “hands-up” gestures on the field in solidarity with Michael Brown, the unarmed 18-year-old shot dead in Ferguson, and has threatened to boycott NFL advertisers in response.
Go ahead and boycott.
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