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July 02, 2015 06:47 AM UTC

Thursday Open Thread

  • 25 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.”

–George Orwell

Comments

25 thoughts on “Thursday Open Thread

  1. The Obama-Biden recovery keeps churning along!

    Unemployment down from 5.5% to 5.3% with addition of 223,000 new jobs last month. Five years ago when the Affordable Care Act was enacted, weren't there dire predictions of layoffs and job losses because of the cost associated with expanded health care coverage? That doesn't seem to be happening, does it?

    1. Shhhh!  Don't want the trolls to choke on their Corn Flakes this morning Frank sputtering about how bad Obama is for the country.

      I spoke with a Republican friend last week and she was telling me just how good her husband's company was doing.  When I mentioned that we ought to thank Obama for doing a good job with the economy she said to not get her started.  My followup was that if things were bad he would certainly be blamed for the state of the economy.  She had no reply to that.

       

       

      1. None of them do….One of the things that makes a person choose to be a Republican is a significant aversion to admitting you are wrong….it is the domain of the racist…the evangelist… and the gun nut… and the homophobe…and the perpetually greedy…

        hence the constituency.

    2. And Mitt Romney has got to be royally pissed that he can't take credit for this recovery that was forecast prior to the Nov 2012 elections.  You know Republicans would be crowing about their "brilliant" economic policies as a result.

      Just think, we could have had Kansas, New Jersey, etc. type of GOP-led economic booms if only we had elected Romney!

      Oh, woe is me!

  2. and, as R's say, we are the greatest nation on Earth. Well then –

    The United States is the wealthiest nation in the history of the world.

    Why are we so far behind so many other countries when it comes to meeting the needs of working families and the American middle class?

    Why doesn't every American have access to healthcare as a basic right?

    Michael Bennet said he'd gladly lost his job over a vote for the public option. He did nothing, literally, to back up that statement. But, God damn, does that boy know how to manipulate the press?

    Why can't every American who is qualified get a higher education, regardless of family income?

    Yes, it would be a massive investment in our citizens. But wouldn't the results, the "return on investment" (that's what ROI stands for, ye Republicans), be worthy and truly pay a "dividend" to each and every one of us?

    Why can't we have full employment at a decent living wage?

    At the expense of corporate profits and CEO retirement packages

    Why must many older Americans be forced to choose between paying for food, shelter, or medical care?

    And why have so many Democrats <s>wished</s> worked to make it so?

    We should be asking questions like these every day. We have more billionaires in this country than any other nation on earth. We also have more child poverty than any other major industrialized nation.

    These conditions are the result of deliberate policy decisions.

    We provide outrageous tax loopholes for billionaires and large corporations. The top tax rate is less than half of what it was during the postwar economic boom. The real minimum wage has fallen dramatically since the 1960s.

    Or are we just that thing for the most privileged and connected among us?

  3. This is what a campaign of ideas looks like:

    10,000 people turn out to hear Bernie Sanders in Wisconsin.

    He probably said something like this there:

    "I think the weakest part is that there was not a full recognition that while we have made enormous progress, the reality is that real unemployment, Mika, is not 5.5%, it is 11% including those people who have given up looking for work and are working part-time. Youth unemployment remains 18%, and it's part of a 40-year trajectory the American middle class continues to decline, and we need very bold action," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said about President Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday.

  4. I was watching the live stream of Bernie Sanders speaking in Wisconsin last night, and I remembered the last time I heard a presidential candidate in a big stadium with thousands of people, in 2008. It was thrilling, awesome, inspiring, energizing. Bernie doesn't inspire those same reactions.

    Bernie Sanders is not a gifted orator, like Barack Obama, although they both appeal to our vision of what our country could and should be. Bernie's not sexy or handsome. He's not an "alpha male". He doesn't really play on our heartstrings. He doesn't have the pacing, the oral dynamics of an Obama. Yet he gets stuff done.  He's gotten more sponsored bills actually passed in the Senate than most other Senators serving > 10 years. He just talks sense and policy, appealing to the head more than the heart.

    And it's working. Even if you're a pragmatist who thinks that Sanders' only function is to bring the issues up that Hillary should be talking about, it's working.  Is it possible that we as a country are growing up, that we don't need to have a teenage crush on our future leaders?

     

    1. I agree Bernie is doing a lot of good. As far as his chances of winning the nomination and presidency? An old self identified socialist Jew? Sounds like my late grandpa. Chance of being president similar to his. Pretty sure we'll have both the first woman and first Latino president before we have the first from a non-Christian background.

    2. I think Bernie perfectly fits the quote of the day.  Restating the obvious seems to be one of his strengths.

      The nice thing is it shows that the enthusiasm and hope from the early Obama years still exist.  Like any president, Obama made mistakes and had to compromise to get anything done but he will leave with no major scandals, excluding the Benghazi witch hunt of course, and lots of progress on lots of issues.  Bernie might not win the nomination but he is stepping up to discuss the issues instead of stepping in it like Trump.  Team Blue has a lot of early momentum going for it.  Glad Bernie is focused on the issues instead of trashing Hillary. 

      1. Absolutely. And I’m sure the enthusiasm he is engendering and the admiration the base has for both him and Elizabeth Warren are elements HRC recognizes she will require to get the turn out she needs and that’s why we’re seeing her speak out more and take more definite positions on base concerns. She may even stick to them in office based on their strong popularity in polls.

        1. Agreed, Bernie Sanders is a huge plus for our Party, and the reaction of the motivated base highly encouraging.

          This is opposed to the dismal choices and response the GOP clowns are getting:

          Trump placed second in a national CNN pollreleased Wednesday, with 12 percent of GOP primary voters saying they were most likely to support him in 2016. In fact, he outranked every other candidate in the crowded Republican field except former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who garnered 19 percent.

          In the all-important early caucus state of Iowa, Trump is locked in a fight for second place with famed neurosurgeon Ben Carson. According to a Quinnipiac Universitypoll also released Wednesday, the two candidates trail Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), who is expected to enter the race later this month, at 10 percent each.

          Similarly, in New Hampshire, Trump's appeal is on the rise. A Suffolk University poll of Granite State Republicans released last week found 11 percent backing Trump, second only to Bush, who stood at 14 percent.

          But the downside is that their negatives far outpace their support:

          (New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who entered the race on Tuesday, garnered similar unfavorability ratings.) Twenty-eight percent of voters said they would definitely not support Trump, according to Quinnipiac, the highest proportion for that question among the GOP presidential field. 

          http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/01/donald-trump-polls_n_7706964.html?ir=Politics

          It really must be embarrassing to have to admit to being a member of the GOP these days.  I'm sure even Ronald Reagan would be shocked and dismayed at the downward spiral into which the GOP candidates have led their party.

          1. I also don't think he'd think much of Sit Down Shut Up Christie. Or the vilification of everyone across the aisle. Not that I'm a Reagan fan. I think he did more damage than anyone but GW. But the present clown car load makes him look great by comparison.

            1. Reagan and Dole both started all this downward spiral in 1976 with the nasty "politics of personal destruction".  I sometimes wonder what would have happened if Jerry Ford had beaten Jimmy Carter — would it have derailed Reagan for 1980?  Would it have given Democrats a big leg up in 1980 (exhaustion from too much Republican control from 1968 to 1980?)

              We'll never know, but I doubt Reagan realized the Pandora's box he opened, and where it would lead us.  I'm waiting for the pendulum to start swinging back before I die.

                  1. As someone who voted for every Republican candidate from Eisenhower to Ford (yes, 3x for Nixon), it took Reagan to make me realize I was no longer a Republican.  I probably don't have 20 or 30 years left, but I hope for the same as you, Davie.  The reception that Bernie is getting gives me reason for optimism.

                    1. Me too.  It's never too late.  Bernie Sanders is the conscience of the nation.  BC is right that he probably won't be the nominee, nor even the VP candidate.  But the voters are listening, hungry for common sense answers that the Republicans simply don't have. 

                      We are making a difference, so let's do all we can to empower our elected officials to do what is right and best for us all, however much time we have left.

  5. Walmart's Luxembourg stores showing increased profits, no doubt due to the Genius Managers and Walton Family Scions Scum who so proudly build on their father's legacy:

    Wal-Mart Stores Inc. owns more than $76 billion of assets through a web of units in offshore tax havens around the world, though you wouldn’t know it from reading the giant retailer’s annual report.

    A new study has found Wal-Mart has at least 78 offshore subsidiaries and branches, more than 30 created since 2009 and none mentioned in U.S. securities filings. Overseas operations have helped the company cut more than $3.5 billion off its income tax bills in the past six years, its annual reports show.

    The study, researched by the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union and published Wednesday in a report by Americans for Tax Fairness, found 90 percent of Wal-Mart’s overseas assets are owned by subsidiaries in Luxembourg and the Netherlands, two of the most popular corporate tax havens.

    Units in Luxembourg — where the company has no stores — reported $1.3 billion in profits between 2010 and 2013 and paid tax at a rate of less than 1 percent, according to the report.

    All of Wal-Mart’s roughly 3,500 stores in China, Central America, the U.K., Brazil, Japan, South Africa and Chile appear to be owned through units in tax havens such as the British Virgin Islands, Curacao and Luxembourg, according to the report from the advocacy group.

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