Archive for category American People
The Nostalgia Trap
Posted by Glenden Brown in American History, American People, GLBT issues, Human Rights, Racism, Society, This Blog on May 19, 2013
I’ve written about the ways in which many conservatives seem to yearn for yesteryear. This morning, historian Stephanie Coontz offered a fascinating and compelling article in the NY Times on the dangers of nostalgia:
In society at large, however, nostalgia can distort our understanding of the world in dangerous ways, making us needlessly negative about our current situation.[snip]
Happy memories also need to be put in context. I have interviewed many white people who have fond memories of their lives in the 1950s and early 1960s. The ones who never cross-examined those memories to get at the complexities were the ones most hostile to the civil rights and the women’s movements, which they saw as destroying the harmonious world they remembered.
Read the whole thing, it’s worth it.
44 Percent of Republicans Think Armed Revolution Might Be Necessary in the Next Few Years
Posted by Richard Warnick in American People, Gun Control, National Politics, Party Politics, Republicans on May 7, 2013
Map of former USA from NBC’s “Revolution”
The most recent national survey of registered voters from Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind finds that attitudes regarding the perceived likelihood of an armed revolution to protect liberties are influencing the debate over gun safety legislation.
Supporters and opponents of gun control have very different fundamental beliefs about the role of guns in American society. Overall, the poll finds that 29 percent of Americans think that an armed revolution in order to protect liberties might be necessary in the next few years, with another five percent unsure. However, these beliefs are conditional on party. Just 18 percent of Democrats think an armed revolution may be necessary, as opposed to 44 percent of Republicans and 27 percent of independents.
Only 38 percent of Americans who believe a revolution might be necessary support additional gun control legislation, compared with 62 percent of those who don’t think an armed revolt will be needed. “The differences in views of gun legislation are really a function of differences in what people believe guns are for,” said Cassino. “If you truly believe an armed revolution is possible in the near future, you need weapons and you’re going to be wary about government efforts to take them away.”
This is one poll that I hope is wrong. Almost a third of Americans believe a bloody revolution is coming soon to our country? Nearly half of Republicans believe it?
Did You Know There Was a Day Called “Law Day”?
Posted by Larry Bergan in 4th Estate (Media), American People, Capitalism, Corruption on May 6, 2013
It happened on May 1st, 2013.
Did you get “law day” off with pay? I’m thinking no, but I’m also thinking we’re not a nation of laws anymore.
From Ralph Nader
Unless we fight back against the 1 or 2 percent: We suck!
NO GUNS!!
Update: Oops; I misread the first of Nader’s article and thought Eisenhower had established “Law Day”. He established the ABA which created the holiday. I had to get rid of most of my original post. I’m glad nobody has commented yet. Is there an embarrassment emoticon?
The George W Bush Rehabilitation Project Continues Apace (updated)
Posted by Glenden Brown in American People, Conservative, George W. Bush on April 28, 2013
With the opening of George W. Bush’s presidential library, the right wing and mainstream media have swung into action with the full scale George W. Bush Rehabilitation Project.
The goal of the project is relatively modest – convince the real world that Dubya wasn’t such a terrible president, that he made bold and enduring decisions that will shape the world for the better for generations to come.
It’s crap. Bush’s presidency was eight years of disasters compounded by his blind ideological governance. Charles Krauthammer this morning at the D-News which begins with a massive lie:
The most common “one sentence” for George W. Bush (whose legacy is being reassessed as his presidential library opens) is: “He kept us safe.”
Except of course for that one time. In September of 2001. You remember that one right?
Bush’s presidency was eight years of disaster, corruption, scandal and failure. I agree with Paul Waldman’s assessment:
Nobody could argue he didnothing good; for instance, he put resources toward addressing the AIDS crisis in Africa, knowing that there was little domestic benefit to be had. And from what one can tell, in person Bush was usually a nice guy. But we shouldn’t let the mists of time make us forget all the awful things he did, too. Presidents have to be judged by their actions and the effects those actions have on the country and the world. Bush’s eight years in office were a string of disasters, and not little ones either. His disasters were grand and far-reaching, from the hundreds of thousands who died in Iraq to the squandering of trillions of dollars to the abandonment of New Orleans during Katrina. A few years later those things may no longer make us boil with rage. But we shouldn’t forget them.
The argument was never he was a bad man (although that is debatable) – a rich entitled jerk, yes, intellectually incurious, self confident in his own judgement to the point idiocy, but he was also a bad president. An honest assessment of his administration has to include the fact that in its ruins were the seeds of the tea party and its attendant lunacies. The Obama administration has failed to clean up all of Bush’s messes, but don’t forget they were Bush’s messes.
Saw this great post at Mano Singham’s place – the video of Chris Hayes is worth the time. Singham’s title may win for most understated condemnation in a while: Thatcher and Bush were just as bad as you remembered them
I like Chris Hayes’ point that some of the “praise” for Bush amounts to “Yeah! He made decisions!” as if making decisions itself is a victory and the consequences are entirely secondary. Bush’s administration was every bit as bad as you thought.
Krugman: ‘I’d Like to Believe That Ideas and Evidence Matter’
Posted by Richard Warnick in Air safety, American People, Economic Exploitation, Economy, Federal Budget, Lying, National Politics, Unemployment on April 26, 2013
Paul Krugman reflects on the meltdown of the putative policy arguments in favor of austerity, and asks whether it will matter to those in power.
Does a continuing depression actually serve the interests of the wealthy? That’s doubtful, since a booming economy is generally good for almost everyone. What is true, however, is that the years since we turned to austerity have been dismal for workers but not at all bad for the wealthy, who have benefited from surging profits and stock prices even as long-term unemployment festers. The 1 percent may not actually want a weak economy, but they’re doing well enough to indulge their prejudices.
And this makes one wonder how much difference the intellectual collapse of the austerian position will actually make. To the extent that we have policy of the 1 percent, by the 1 percent, for the 1 percent, won’t we just see new justifications for the same old policies?
I hope not; I’d like to believe that ideas and evidence matter, at least a bit. Otherwise, what am I doing with my life? But I guess we’ll see just how much cynicism is justified.
Meanwhile, last night the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a bill aimed at exempting rich people who fly a lot from the consequences of the sequester. The House is expected to follow suit today.
[I]t sets a precedent that sequestration’s problems — particularly those that impact the wealthy — can be fixed piecemeal by shimmying money around, instead of by raising revenue to restore finances to important government programs.
UPDATE: 12 Programs Congress Refuses To Save From Automatic Spending Cuts
CISPA Violates the Fourth Amendment
Posted by Richard Warnick in American People, Barack Obama, congress, Free Speech, National Politics, The Constitution on April 23, 2013
The “Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act” (CISPA) passed the House of Representatives 288-127, with 92 Democrats voting for it despite the threat of a Presidential veto.
As it’s written, CISPA won’t protect us from cyber attacks, but it will violate our 4th Amendment right to privacy.
- It lets the government spy on you without a warrant. (read more)
- It makes it so you can’t even find out about it after the fact. (read more)
- It makes it so companies can’t be sued when they do illegal things with your data. (read more)
- It allows corporations to cyber-attack each other and individuals outside of the law. (read more)
- It makes every privacy policy on the web a moot point, and violates the 4th amendment. (read more)
We’ve had to listen to a lot of wailing from the Gun Lobby about imagined attacks on the Bill of Rights. This is what a real one looks like.
Running Towards the Smoke and Fire
Posted by Shane Smith in American People, Climate Change, Conservatives, Disaster, Gun Control, Health Care, Human Rights, Hypocrisy, Philosophy, Society on April 18, 2013
I am about out of energy for this week. But I do have the smoking remains of an irony meter sitting in the corner crying to be heard. And a tiny little mangled… something. Something Confucius might have called Ren. Something I almost forgot about. Read the rest of this entry »
Gun Safety: ‘Shame On You!’
Posted by Richard Warnick in 2nd Second Amendment, American People, Barack Obama, Democracy, Democrats, Gabrielle Giffords, Gun Control, National Politics, NRA, Party Politics, Republicans, This Blog on April 17, 2013
Tucson shooting survivor Patricia Maisch spoke for 90 percent of Americans today. After the Republicans stopped a weak firearm background check bill with a silent filibuster that required a 60-vote super-majority, she called out “Shame on you!” from the Senate gallery. The bill failed despite the support of 54 senators. Only four Republicans voted to break the filibuster (Utah senators Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee voted to kill the bill).
President Obama commented on the absurdity of this vote:
I’m going to speak plainly and honestly about what’s happened here because the American people are trying to figure out how can something have 90 percent support and yet not happen. We had a Democrat and a Republican -– both gun owners, both fierce defenders of our Second Amendment, with “A” grades from the NRA — come together and worked together to write a common-sense compromise on background checks. And I want to thank Joe Manchin and Pat Toomey for their courage in doing that. That was not easy given their traditional strong support for Second Amendment rights.
As they said, nobody could honestly claim that the package they put together infringed on our Second Amendment rights. All it did was extend the same background check rules that already apply to guns purchased from a dealer to guns purchased at gun shows or over the Internet.
Broadcast and cable networks interrupted regular programming to bring viewers Obama’s remarks, except for the Faux News Channel.
Four Democratic senators voted against the baby-step background check bill, but the filibuster was 100 percent Republican – so they get the blame. Must be used to wearing the black hats by now, anyway.
More info:
Gabrielle Giffords: A Senate in the Gun Lobby’s Grip
I watch TV and read the papers like everyone else. We know what we’re going to hear: vague platitudes like “tough vote” and “complicated issue.” I was elected six times to represent southern Arizona, in the State Legislature and then in Congress. I know what a complicated issue is; I know what it feels like to take a tough vote. This was neither. These senators made their decision based on political fear…
UPDATE: Gun Violence Victims Detained, Put Through Background Check For Yelling ‘Shame On You’ At Senators. Imagine that, a background check.
UPDATE: Gun Control Defeat Shows Washington Is Where Change Goes To Die
UPDATE: Heartless Right Wing Response to Gun Victims Demonstrates Emptiness of Their Arguments
Same-Sex Marriage Youth Support Numbers Become Staggering and Other Trends
Posted by Shane Smith in American People, Atheism, Bigotry, Equality, Religion on April 16, 2013
Some time back, way back in the bronze age in internet time, as prop 8 was still being hotly debated (pre-vote that is), a few of us posted thoughts to the effect that in the long run it simply wouldn’t matter. Pass or fail, the youth support was for equality, and while it may take time the end result would be support. You know, after the bigots die out.
Two or three of the usual suspects (our own personal party of “no” commenters) yelled and screamed and stamped their little feet, and said that it was clear that it would never happen, and that our youth support was a figment of our collective and diseased imagination.
Since then, our imagination has produced many polls with shocking numbers. Read the rest of this entry »
GOP = Guns Over People
Posted by Richard Warnick in American People, Barack Obama, Gun Control, Mitch McConnell, National Politics, Republicans on April 8, 2013
The latest national survey from Quinnipiac University confirmed something that’s been widely evident in the months since the massacre in Newtown, Conn.: Support for universal background checks is pretty much, well, universal. According to the poll, 91 percent of American voters support background checks for all gun buyers, while a mere 8 percent said they are opposed. The poll also showed 88 percent of gun owners in favor of universal background checks…
Today two things happened:
(1) President Obama eloquently made the case for gun safety legislation that is overwhelmingly popular with the American people.
(2) Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell declared that he would not allow any such legislation to be debated or voted on in the U.S. Senate.
UPDATE: RUNNING AWAY: Backers Of Gun Filibuster Duck Interview Requests. Cowardly is the only way to describe this.
Why Do Red States Cost Us So Much More and Still Suck?
Posted by Cliff Lyon in American People, Republicans on April 7, 2013
Mississippi: One of the “most Republican” states in the country.
- Ranked last in education
- Took in more federal dollars (when adjusted for how much they paid out) than almost any other state in the country
- Ranked dead last for median family income
- Ranked near the top for rate of divorce
- Ranked last for percentage of citizens with health insurance
- Ranked dead last for average life expectancy
- Ranked first for percentage of people living below the poverty line
- Ranked first for infant mortality rate
Correlated to voting Republican is, White, rural, poorly educated and poorly informed. Republican-run states suck because Republicans can’t govern. And they become redder because the smart kids grow up and move away. Other successful people don’t just move out of red state trailer parks and buy houses, they leave the state too.
While Larrence Lessig diplomatically calls it the Lester Problem, he is talking about Republican primaries.
His Ted Talk is called: We the People, and the Republic we must reclaim is the thesis of his book entitled Le$terland: The Corruption of Congress and How To End It. I would call it; Liberal Progressives Must Reclaim The Republic From Republicans.
Lets be honest. The most money coming from the fewest donors problem, is disproportionately, a Republican one. And Citizens United, which only made the problem MUCH worse, was the first unabashedly Republican Sponsored SCOTUS decision.
I’m not saying the problem does not affect Democrats. It does. But if “the other party” were LESS bad than Democrats by the same degree Democrats are less bad than Republicans, the problem would be solved.
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