Tag Archives: politics

by Sandwichman Recall and the General Strike The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the “emergency situation” in which we live is the rule. — Walter Benjamin, On the Concept of History, 1940 Back in December, I posted Full Employment and the Myth of the General Strike to start the conversational ball rolling about the idea of a general strike. It was the middle post in a three-part series on full employment. Events move fast in 2017. In the past two...

A partial of the Republican plan: introduced by Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), would end Medicaid expansion, decouple health insurance from employers, offer a tax credit of up to $5,000 to fund HSAs, and eliminate most regulations on what health plans must cover. Insurers would be able to sell policies across state lines; regulations that mandate birth-control coverage would be nixed. Hmmmm, that’s nice . . . This is about the...

by New Deal democrat A thought for Sunday: No, Trump isn’t imploding — but the opposition is broad and intense My post from two weeks ago, “No, Trump isn’t Imploding” got picked up by a few other sites within the past few days, and I wanted to follow up because we have a fuller picture of public opinion now. Basically, Trump still isn’t imploding. He is holding his base. In fact, there is a little economic evidence that they are putting their wallets where...

by Barkley Rosser                (originally published at Econospeak) The Scale Of Trump’s Yemen Botch It is  becoming clear that the scale of the botch by Donald Trump in Yemen in his first effort at a foreign military action is much greater than .first reported, as reported by Juan Cole.   Right from the start we heard that people in the military were complaining about poor vetting of intel and how there was more military resistance than expected, with one...

by New Deal democrat A thought for Sunday: of heartlessness, confidence and conviction First of all, let me join in full in the following from Calculated Risk: These are not normal times, and I can’t just post economic data and remain silent on other issues. Mr. Trump’s executive order is un-American, not Christian, and hopefully unconstitutional. This is a shameful act and no good person can remain silent. I believe that the sheer heartlessness of Trump’s...

(Dan here)n There are all sorts of ideas about what is going on right now in the US, and many proposed opinions. Yves offers an opinion on the Women’s March itself, but I am watching both locally and state wide (MA) where the follow up is actually happening, what forms it takes, and who is involved. Perhaps others can add knowledge and experiences to date. Certainly Democratic party leaders at the national level are searching for responses. I am going to...

From the New York Times comes this information on the nature of immigration in California. Mr. Trump’s immigration policies could transform California’s Central Valley, a stretch of lowlands that extends from Sacramento to Bakersfield. Approximately 70 percent of all farm workers here are living in the United States illegally, according to researchers at University of California, Davis. The impact could reverberate throughout the valley’s precarious...

by Linda Beale Trump Administration Plays Havoc with Education–and your tax dollars Betsy DeVos was confirmed as Secretary of Education in a Senate vote that had every Democratic Senator voting against her, along with two brave Republican Senators (Lisa Murkowski, Alaska; and Susan Collins, Maine).  Thanks to those no-voters who showed integrity.  Regrettably, the vote created a tie, broken in DeVos’s favor by Trump’s Veep, Mike Pence.  Note that the result...

by New Deal democrat In case you thought Trump was imploding . . . For those of you who may be cocooned in the liberal blogosphere, I’m afraid I must administer a cold slap in the face. Here is the graph of Gallup’s Economic Confidence Survey from its inception nearly 10 years ago.  Notice that spike to new highs right at the end? Let’s zoom in for a closer look, as in the last 3 months: The first surge of +10% in confidence happened right after the...

by Linda Beale GOP Senators fight facts: won’t hear Coretta Scott King’s views of Attorney General nominee Sessions GOP obstructionism is back again in full form.  This time, instead of voting over and over again to eliminate affordable health care (Obamacare) for the 20 million Americans now covered by the health reform act or declaring that they will not perform their duty to even hold a committee meeting on President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, they are...