The Angry Bear

Many US Senators have contributed to preserving the peace. I am not a historian, but I understand that many admire William Fullbright. I personally think very highly of Ernest Gruening who tried to save the US from the Tonkin Gulf resolution and our involvement in the war in Vietnam. However, I think it is now clear that the honor belongs to Senator Robert Corker (R-Tenn). Sen Corker is a respected and experienced statesman not prone to impulsive...

September jobs report: establishment survey stinks, but household survey rocks! HEADLINES: -33,000 jobs lost U3 unemployment rate down -0.2% from 4.4% to 4.2% (new low) U6 underemployment rate down -0.3% from 8.6% to 8.3% (new low) Here are the headlines on wages and the chronic heightened underemployment: Wages and participation rates Not in Labor Force, but Want a Job Now:  down -216,000 from 5.844 million to 5.628 million Part time for economic...

Part of Patriotism is Paying Taxes As Americans, we pay taxes to allow our government to support important activities that we as individuals or individual businesses either can’t do at all or can’t do as successfully.  Both individuals and businesses benefit from government, so that paying taxes is a wonderful exercise in patriotism. For individuals, the idea of paying taxes as patriotism may be obvious to many of us, because we think that taxes are an...

I am not a libertarian nor am I a member of the ACLU, but I generally agree with them on the importance of free speech. This, I believe, is a real and growing problem on college campuses: Students affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement crashed an event at the College of William & Mary, rushed the stage, and prevented the invited guest—the American Civil Liberties Union’s Claire Gastañaga, a W & M alum—from speaking. Ironically, Gastañaga...

Right Wing Propaganda Tank IPI Likes the Trump Tax-Cuts-for-the-Rich “framework” There’s no surprise here.  The Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) is a right-wing “think” (i.e., propaganda) tank that has consistently argued for tax policies that favor multinational corporations and the wealthy.  So IPI has a posting on Sept 29 that is supportive of the so-called “tax reform framework” put out by the Trump administration. As an earlier post noted...

by ProGrowthLiberal  (originally published at Econospeak) Trump’s Inadequate Response to Hurricane Maria and the Posse Comitatus Act Credit to Matthew Yglesias for his discussion of the incompetence of Donald Trump as well as the excuses for it from his defenders including: Officials have also cited the Posse Comitatus Act as a complicating factor that helps explain why Trump was so much slower to dispatch assistance to Puerto Rico than the Obama...

Oxfam is a global organization working to end poverty. Its goal is to help people build better futures for themselves, hold those responsible accountable for the failures of people in power and/or government, and work in disaster areas. Their mission as stated is: “ To create lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and social injustice.” Earlier in the week Oxfam acknowledged the ongoing tragedy in Puerto Rico. Oxfam President Abby Maxman said: “Oxfam...

Lifted from Robert’s Stochastic Thoughts: Jon Chait and Alex Pareene I have a Jon Chait problem. I generally agree with him on most issues. I find him very provocative. I am very sure that no one cares about my opinion about Chait’s latest post. That includes me. I don’t want to waste time thinking about the exactly how far I agree with him. But here I am. I also have a vaguely favorable view of Alex Pareene, but don’t read him much. I was very...