Tag Archives: politics

A Break On The JCPOA Iran Nuclear Deal?  Maybe. It is now reported that “talks are to resume,” although most observers are not optimistic. But then today there is a report of a shakeup in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards hierarchy who seem to control the most serious of these things. Head of their intel, Taeb, has been removed, although it is unclear what this will lead to, despite noises he was too hardline and maybe a deal can be cut with...

What does this make you think? .@JakeMGrumbach and I looked at public opinion on abortion in today's @monkeycageblog. We find that a majority of the public in about 40 states support legal abortion rights. (1/2)https://t.co/aTB76HGayc pic.twitter.com/IT4Sd2y0aa— Chris Warshaw (@cwarshaw) June 25, 2022Option 1:  This is a moral outrage! Option 2:  We need to figure out how to win elections! Politics is not a morality play, folks!  If you...

The silver standard, one hundred and Thirty pieces of Silver’s thought “In evaluating fundraising for congressional candidates, the model now places more emphasis on contributions received within the candidate’s state. Fundraising is a highly nationalized activity these days; Democrats in California and New York regularly contribute to Senate campaigns like that of Democrat Jaime Harrison of South Carolina, who raised a record amount of money in...

The Democrats seem to be a bit uncertain about how to respond to the Dobbs ruling overturning Roe.  This isn’t surprising.  They face enormous pressure from their voters to “do something”, but there is, in fact, little they can do that will materially improve the situation of pregnant women in the short term.  Despite the moral urgency of the situation, they are forced to (mostly) play a long game, hardly an enviable position to be in.  Let’s take a...

I have a post up at Science-Based Medicine about the pitfalls and dangers of moralistic political thinking. The focus is on COVID, but the lessons are much more broadly relevant. Here’s the lede: The American policy response to COVID left a great deal to be desired. Figuring out what went wrong and how to do better next time should be at the top of our list going forward. But getting reform right will be difficult if we succumb to the temptation...

“A few thoughts on the abortion ruling,” by INFIDEL753 There’s no longer any room to pretend that the Supreme Court is a mere non-political referee interpreting the law in a vacuum.  If it ever was that, it’s now just another locus of political power, like the House, Senate, and presidency, a utensil for imposing the will of whichever ideology or group manages to secure control of it.  At present, that control rests with the forces of...

A comment on housing, inflation, and Fed policy (and a side comment on spending) No big economic news today, and as usual little State reporting on COVID over the weekend, so let me make a couple of points. As an initial note, the big report I will be paying attention to this week is personal spending and income, which will be reported on Thursday. As I’ve noted several times recently, the goods-producing side of the economy has been fading...

As taken from; “Brett Kavanaugh shows how to lie your way onto the U.S. Supreme Court” (azcentral.com), EJ Montini ~~~~~~~~ The Sisters of St. Joseph, who rigorously guided me through parochial grade school, appear to have been misinformed during their considerable Bible studies on what, exactly, constitutes lies. The nuns told us – and this was later backed up by several priests during my required weekly trips to the confessional – the...

Kevin Drum raises the question: In the aftermath of the Dobbs decision, some conservatives are talking about passing a national ban on abortion. But I don’t think they can do that. Drum goes on to explain that the federal government is a government of enumerated powers, and that it is not obvious that any of the recognized powers of Congress would allow it to ban abortion nationwide.  He recognizes that the Court could make up a new doctrine...

Every once and a while, I wander to various sites to see what is cooking there. Kinda to get a bit of a change to our dialogue at Angry Bear. I found this one post on the Texas Part Platform by Infidel posted a few days ago to be interesting. Infidel had been featuring AB at “Crooks and Liars” too. To which I say, “Thank You.” “About that Texas Republican platform,” Infidel753 The Texas Republican party platform has become notorious across...