More mental morsels and other chewy bits, enough to get us
through the Same Old Laying and Signing brought on by the previous night’s
Festivities:
>> The Great Jobless Benefit Run-Out
The House’s
inaction on extending jobless benefits (or at the least, using it as a
political hostage as they are so apt to do), strikes me a bit as odd coming
from the Republicans, since one of their chief strategies is based in the
infamous Jude Winewsky “Two Santa Claus” article in the mid-70s. Thom Hartmann riffs on this frequently –
only this time, the Repubs can’t blame the Dems for “killing Santa Claus” in
the minds of the voters insofar as the social safety net is concerned. Sounds like bad electoral strategy – but
many of the recent midterm polls are actually favoring the Repubs. Stay tuned on this one…
>> Wither Senator Warren?
Look for some interesting goings-on in 2014
between Elizabeth Warren and her wing of the Dem party, and the Third Way (read:
Clinton) camp. Warren has already said
she won’t run, but she carries a thought virus with her (known as economic populism
and an itch to regulate the god-damned banks) which the Third Way crowd want’s
to quarantine. Here’s the article in Daily Kos, containing links to the Third-Way Op-Ed condemning her and the lovely
list of the Third Way supporters. Think
that the fact that the vast majority of those folks are investment
bankers just happens to be a coincidence? Hmmmmm...
>>Chris Hedges’ Days
of Destruction, Days of Revolt
This book should be required reading
in any institution of learning at any level.
He, along with illustrator Joe Sacco, visit and describe several of the
US’ most egregious economic “sacrifice zones”, among them Pine Ridge, South
Dakots, The Appalacians and the moonscape that Big Coal created there, and
Camden, New Jersey. His writing style
is customarily direct and non-academic, and Sacco’s illustrations lend a
certain quality of humanity to the words that photographs can’t match. In short, the book describes the economic
conditions and crises that lead ultimately to the Occupy movement, where the
book ends. Read it.
And weep, for what we’ve become as a nation.
More later.
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