The Angry Bear

It has been a long time since I participated in Scouting events. Never been to a Jamboree; although, we did take a bunch into the Pubelos for a hike and rafting on the Arkansas. Hiking up the mountain in a cold rain certainly showed who was prepared to meet the elements of being outdoors with minimum shelter. Those of us who had fleece jackets, rain gear, and equipment stowed in water resistant packs were almost prepared for anything, which could happen...

The first vote in the Senate to amend the PPACA was rejected. “Senators voted 57-43 late Tuesday to reject the plan in the first vote on an amendment to the bill. Those voting “no” included nine defecting Republicans. The vote underscored problems Republicans will have in winning enough votes to recast Obama’s statute. The rejected proposal included language by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell erasing the Obama law’s tax penalties on people not buying...

Even though Angry Bear has as an audience of people who are more than beginners in economic thought,  I think it worthwhile to pursue basic stories about what we demand and value from our way of life, which includes the “economy”. I had a recent experience where an acquaintance came up to me and asked about Angry Bear and then proceeded to explain what formed the basics of his economic narrative. In rough form and I think my summation accurate enough for...

The first section of issues McConnell and Republicans must overcome requires 60 votes due to the Parliamentarian ruling the provisions of the BCHA violate the Byrd Rule; consequently, the Reconciliation procedure requiring only 51 votes can not be used to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or waive the Byrd rule. The second set of provisions ruled upon by the Parliamentarian only require 51 or a majority vote to pass these changes. There is little...

Of the two meanings of “Neoliberalism” The use of the term “neoliberal” has recently been criticized as a meaningless epithet, a tabula rasa used to disparage anyone deemed unsatisfactorily conservative. To the contrary, I think the term “neoliberal” is fairly precise, but much like the term “liberal” itself, it has two quite different meanings depending on whether the definition descends from its original European or American incarnation.  The first variety...

In my last post, I linked to a post by Peter Moskos noting that: People, all people, are 1.6 times more likely, per capita, to be shot and killed by police in states that are less than 10 percent black compared to states more than 10 percent African American. Blacks are still more likely than whites, per capita to be shot overall. But this ratio (2.6:1) doesn’t change significantly based on how black a state is. For both whites and blacks, the likelihood of...

Could The US Default Due To A Complexity Catastrophe? Definitely. Front  page story in today’s Washington Post by Damien Paletta reports that “Treasury chief hurtles toward fiasco,” the fiasco being a failure to raise the US debt ceiling in time to avoid a default.  Trump has declared that Sec Mnuchin is responsible for this matter, which he should be, but somehow has not made a sufficiently definitive statement to keep his former Freedom Caucus big cheese...

Dan here…Lifted from Robert’s Stochastic Thoughts: Game Of Thrones Guesses 1. I guess from the TV series it is official that John Snow is the son of Lyanna Start and Rhaegar Targaryan 2. I’m a fairly sure that Lyanna Stark is also the night of the laughing tree (and that’s part of the reason Rhaegar loved her so much it caused a civil war). 3. in King’s Landing there is a black cat with one ear who hates Lannisters . I am suspect that he was Rhaenys...

Foxconn aims to break the bank While the head of the illegitimate Trump regime makes multiple headlines telling the New York Times that he is above the law, we have to remember that there are plenty of other issues of concern to the middle class. One of the most striking is the latest huge bidding war for a gigantic Foxconn manufacturing plant (h/t David Haynes), slated to employ a massive 10,000 workers. The linked article interviews an American consultant...