Things to Know - 2 June

 

1. For those of you who watched the Hadifelds & the McCoys, this short little piece offers a view into the similarities of life today, including the display of behavior offered by the Democrats and the Republicans:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print/43528/

2.  This is a truthful and sobering slap in the face for those who skip on in Pollyanish mode and ignore the reality of Karl Rove and his game.  Rove knows, and he's in the driver's seat, while we piss and moan about all the money he has, but do nothing resembling real honest work to repel him and his efforts:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print/43524/

3.  I'll spare you the reasons why I rarely ever include any op-ed pieces from Jonah Goldberg.  Let this observation and work from someone else explain:

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/06/01/conservative-editor-young-americans-so-frickin-stupid-they-shouldnt-get-to-vote/#.T8j3dfev8-M.reddit

4.  This article is a sad commentary on the state of not just politics, but the degree of decline of our democracy.  Much of the decline is a detached incuriousity by the citizenry, intellectual laziness, and a determined bonanza of money being poured in by extremely wealthy interests to buy a government at all levels that they can control.  This portends the results in November.  We can either sit on our asses and piss and moan about it happening, or we can get to work to oppose this nefarious take over:

http://truth-out.org/news/item/9512-citizens-united-unleashed-in-wisconsin-recall?tmpl=component&print=1 

5.  Thom Hartmann in an easy format in another wise dreary day of crappy news:

http://truth-out.org/news/item/9543-on-the-news-with-thom-hartmann-occupy-buffalo-protestors-convinced-their-city-to-end-its-business-ties-with-jpmorgan-chase-and-more

6.  U.S. Immigration Reform seen in a present-day, present-situation lens.  Now is the time:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/02/opinion/do-it-yourself-immigration-reform.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

7.  Maybe this column on the fact that the George W. Bush administration was tougher and more successful in putting the top players of corporate corruption behind bars than the Obama administration will open some questions and result in some action; muy pathetic:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/02/opinion/nocera-the-mortgage-fraud-fraud.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

8.  What to do?  The Republicans are blocking, filibustering, and putting down any attempt to invest and create programs that result in jobs.  In the name of austerity (like the same inappropriate response that is going on in Europe), we are going backward.  The role of government is now dysfunction, orchestrated by a busted political system.  As Thom Hartmann says - "we are screwed":

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/02/opinion/how-slow-can-the-economy-go.html?hp&pagewanted=print

----

Juan

"Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience and rebellion that progress has been made." 
       -- Oscar Wilde

"A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight. " 
       -- Robertson Davies

"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity." 
       -- Frank Leahy

"Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck." 
       -- George Carlin