Get busy winning, Digby’s Hullabaloo, Tom Sullivan Or get busy watching freedom die . . . Blue America‘s Howie Klein (Down With Tyranny) points to an old idea still current and still popular: FDR’s proposed Economic Bill of Rights (1944). Our political bill of rights, FDR saw, was inadequate for assuring “equality in the pursuit of happiness.” “I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished. The test of our progress is...
Read More »Economics, not geology
I’ve had a lifelong fascination with New York City in general and with Manhattan in particular. My dad grew up in Brooklyn, and my paternal grandparents lived on Long Island (Hempstead) when I was growing up. I went to the 1964 Worlds Fair in Flushing Meadows, and once ate at an automat in Manhattan. When my folks lived on the East Side for two years, I enjoyed visiting them between quarters in college. The Battery, Wall Street, SoHo, Central Park,...
Read More »Clarence Thomas tuition: Why the latest revelation is the most insulting of all
This is an interesting piece done by Dahlia Lithwick. Basically taking up the history of why judges do not take gifts from commoners. Unless of course, the commoner has money and is influential. Ok, so Justice Clarence Thomas is getting a few greater than normal bucks and gifts on the side. Problem two arises in his failure to report the thousands of dollars and the generous gifts. I told the story of being invited to the EOY Jim McMahon Chicago...
Read More »“Successful people have successful friends.”
The Atlantic’s Brooke Harrington has an article about Justice Thomas’s friendship with people outside the court which includes gift-giving. There is no reciprocation of “its my turn now to buy the dinner.” The gifts are far more than just a lunch or dinner at a much-desired restaurant. That there are no rules defining ethical behavior at the Supreme Court, there is still an aura of professional and legal behavior binding them. Are the scales tipped...
Read More »That Pesky First Amendment Scores Again!
That Pesky First Amendment Scores Again! annieasksyou… I am often critical of the mainstream media, whom I find too insensitive to the fragility of our democracy in their determination to present “both sides” of issues that often don’t have two sides. For example, I’m more than frustrated with much of the coverage of the House Republicans’ willingness to throw our economy over the cliff if Biden doesn’t accept the demands of their most radical,...
Read More »Running Late tonight and I am Tired.
New Deal democrat has a post up. I hope you read it as it is some of the best commentary on the internet abut Labor, Employment, Unemployment, plus the basis for each. I read him each day as I post his dialogue. It is excellent. So as you are waiting for me to post a couple of more commentaries, you should read his commentary. I should be back by noon at the latest. Good night and see you all tomorrow. Bill...
Read More »What is Section 4 of the 14th, “The validity of the public debt of the United States?”
14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Civil Rights (1868) | National Archives, Section 4. “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against...
Read More »Normalism ruled the Dems
Dan had this one in drafts. Read it, liked it, relevant today, relevant to the SCOTUS BS, relevant to how Congress lets them get away with stuff, and where the hell is Joe Biden on this stuff? Sirota sums up the issues with the let-alone-Democrats rather well. Did some editing. The Democrats Are Enabling the Right’s Supreme Court Takeover, rsn.org, David Sirota/Jacobin 02 july 22 Chief Justice John Roberts is spearheading the right’s judicial...
Read More »Debt
To be clear, our national debt problem is due to revenues insufficient to cover expenditures. More than anything else, for the past 40 plus years, this accumulated deficit is due to Republican opposition to tax increases coupled with their eagerness to cut taxes on the wealthy given the opportunity to do so. Most, if indeed not all, currently serving Republican US Senators and Representatives, and State legislators have signed a pledge to never vote...
Read More »Know Nothings = No Labels?
How the 19th-Century “Know Nothing” Party Reshaped American Politics, Smithsonian Magazine, Lorraine Boissoneault. Over 150 years ago, the Know-Nothings started their drive to change the country and lead it in a different direction to a probable takeover. I see similarities in tactics and direction to what is happening with the No Labels. Their appeal is very apparent and the use of the public to achieve the objectives is clear. A bit of history...
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