Monday, June 18, 2012

Things to Know - 19 June

Pat Oliphant

1.  The Etch-A-Sketch guy is running true to form.  It's not that the guy is just a pandering liar, it's that it is a demonstration of his personal commitment to a system of values that has no anchor - no nothing.  He is truly a robot, with instantly rebootable integrity:

2.  Forbes Magazine supports a basic tenet of Capitalism, that goes agains the mantra of Romney and that side of the room.  Supply and Demand are the basic components of Capitalism, as we are told.  In order to create a supply, Capitalism reacts to demands.  Demands are what the consumer wants, and a good Capitalist will work to meet that by creating the supply.  So, it logic tells me that Demand must come first before Supply enters the picture.  So, I think it is fair to say that "job creation" follows as the manufacture of consumer product begins.
If the consumer does not have any money to buy, then there will be no demand.   So, in order to spur demand, the consumer must pony up the money to buy before any Capitalistic venture is undertaken to manufacture.  YES - the consumer is the "job creator".  Simple stuff....yes, no?:   

3.  Subject matter that has been written about before, but in different terms, is made clearer by a professional Linguist.  Contrasting the language presented by Obama and Romney, one can see which has more in-depth meaning (Obama), while Romney is stuck in saying a whole lot of nothing.  The one line that sticks with me is that Obama says the Public enterprise is what makes things happen, while Romney is stuck on the word "private", while Mr. Lakoff points out that the Private Enterprise really cannot act unless the Public is strong enough to make it move.  Kind of like talking about who are the "job creators" (above):

4.  This is one piece that must be broadcast and reminded to everyone.  There is a bill in the house that would help fix crumbling infrastructure and create 1.9 million jobs.  It is a Transportation Bill, and we all want it to pass, and get on with helping to improve the economy...right?...right!.   So what do the Republicans do....they attach a rider to approve the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline, which has so much detractions and no real benefit to anyone except the oil and Big Energy lobby.  The Republicans have no interest in legislation to improve our jobs or infrastructure.  They are only interested in keeping their big Super Pac contributors happy:

5.  This is a 15 minute audio tape interview with Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz on the subject of why the U.S. "is no longer the land of opportunity", and his justification for that statement, which is derived from a book he just wrote.  I spent the 15 minutes listenting to it, and you should too:

6.  Not very much nice and happy news from Thom Hartmann today.  Just more people getting screwed by fat cats in power:

7.  Just about every city across this nation is running in the red.  ALEC (you will read about what it is here, if you have not met it) is the austerity conservative response by most council, and the agenda is provided to them by ALEC.  So, take a good look at what ALEC is doing, and how it affects your own city:

8.  Let's like at what might and could, or will happen if the Supremes shut down Obama's Affordable Care Act.   Who will still pay for the uninsured in the Emergency Room?

9.  Whoaaa!  It's against the law to make like a squatter on the sidewalks of Berkeley....yes, THAT Berkeley:



--
Juan

"I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong."
       -- Bertrand Russell
"Ask yourself whether you are happy and you cease to be so." 
       -- John Stuart Mill
"Orthodox medicine has not found an answer to your complaint. However, luckily for you, I happen to be a quack." 
       -- Richter cartoon caption
"I know not, sir, whether Bacon wrote the works of Shakespeare, but if he did not it seems to me that he missed the opportunity of his life." 
       -- James M. Barrie
"In answer to the question of why it happened, I offer the modest proposal that our Universe is simply one of those things which happen from time to time." 
       -- Edward P. Tryon

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