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Monthly Archives: June 2014

Shades of Bush v. Gore

Monday, June 30, 2014

Well, we knew this was coming. Corporations are not only people, they have religions, and their right to practice that religion trumps the rights of their employees. Except, maybe not. When I was in law school I learned, or thought I learned, that when a court, particularly an appellate court, ruled on a case, it […]

Filed in Equal Justice | | Comments (1)

Yet another book report

Friday, June 27, 2014

For a number of reasons, blogging has been infrequent here lately. I offer my humble apologies for depriving the world of my reactions to such events as the Cochran victory. Amazingly, the world appears to be getting on, but I know how much I've been missed. In those snatches of time I've had available to […]

Filed in Economics | | Comments (0)

How to run an Empire

Monday, June 23, 2014

  Senator Tim Johnson says we can't afford to provide good health care to vets:   . Johnson said that he couldn’t support the bill because of its cost—$35 billion the first two years and $50 billion per year after that, according to a preliminary estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. This is the […]

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Pigs fly

Saturday, June 21, 2014

There are moments in our national discourse that the narrative seems to change, and there are even moments when sanity, or as close to sanity as we can get, appears to have a chance of prevailing. We may have reached such a moment in the reaction to the reaction of the neo-cons to the events […]

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License to cheat

Friday, June 13, 2014

The New York Times reports that the financial industry is upset that the Labor Department is considering making it illegal for them to cheat people out of their retirement savings. Amid fierce pushback from the financial services industry, the Labor Department, which oversees retirement plans, recently delayed releasing a revised proposal that would require a […]

Filed in Corporate Crime | | Comments (0)

Another take on Cantor

Thursday, June 12, 2014

There's been a lot of speculation about why Eric Cantor went down in flames. The basic reason may be the main: the man is an asshole. But I'm persuaded by this view that this is the argument that clinched the deal with the voters: But there’s no question that conservative economics professor David Brat succeeded […]

Filed in Creeping Totalitarianism, Republicans | | Comments (0)

Krugman, wishful thinking, and the fall of the House of Cantor

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

I don't normally take issue with Paul Krugman, and I heartily wish I could buy into his take on the Cantor defeat, but I don't think the evidence is there: In other words, being a hard line conservative, which to be fair involved some career risks back in the 60s and into the 70s, became […]

Filed in Crazies, Politics | | Comments (0)

Just another day

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

There was another school shooting yesterday; this time in Oregon. Mass shootings have now become such a regular event that it takes something special to get them on the front page. The Arizona shooters made it, but they had to work on it. Maybe it was draping that “Don't tread on me” flag on their […]

Filed in American Life | | Comments (0)

Charter School Madness

Monday, June 9, 2014

The swine belly up to the trough: Tax benefits and real estate investment may also explain why Wall Street is so hot on raising money for charter schools. On Monday night, April 28, 2014, hundreds of Wall Streeters gathered at Cipriani in Midtown Manhattan to raise funds for Success Academy Charter Schools. Former Florida Governor […]

Filed in Corporate Crime, Education | | Comments (0)

Bad Moon Rising

Monday, June 9, 2014

Michael Hudson on the recent European elections: The US press and newscasts make it appear that Europeans have voted against poor immigrants and foreigners. What they voted against the super-rich, the oligarchy. The “foreigners” being opposed include the United States insisting on drawing NATO into its wars in Libya,Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan – and now, […]

Filed in Creeping Totalitarianism, Foreign Affairs | | Comments (0)