Thursday, June 28, 2012

Things to Know - 29 June

Signe Wilkinson
1.  Columns and articles by the most articulate of pundits and thinkers are wonderful.  However, the problem with their contributions is that they are either read or only understood by a small audience (usually only those who operate at their intellectual level).  Entertainers in the form of sarcasm and comedians are often the most effective (Will Rogers, Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert, George Carlin, etc.).   Here is a short comic strip format that does a great job of getting the message across:

2.  Occasionally, in a moment of giddy glee, we are allowed to stoop to the tabloid journalism of the loud and rude right-wing blowhards.   I'm waiting for Rush to expire as a result of violent saliva-spattering tirades, but by his own promise, Bill O'Reilly is due to show up and apologize "for being an idiot":

3.  If you are paying attention to the "Fast and Furious" issue and the contempt of congress citation issued by the GOP to the Attorney General, you need to read this, which I saw on The Rachel Maddow Show last night.  The Republicans are grasping for anything to give themselves legitimacy, but their congenital DNA deficiency always takes charge when rational processes and sanity are required:

4.  Paul Krugman, ever persistent and every knowledgeable, is trying once again through his new book to impart the information needed to end the current Depression, yes that is what he calls it.   He says we've been through this stuff before, and we know what it takes (austerity in boom times, and stimulus in down times), but our leadership opts to just play games with politically convenient issues:

5.  Thom Hartmann has some of the other stuff:

6.  One way to reflect on the Supreme's ruling on the Affordable Care Act is to check in with several who are interested spectators whose views you might support or deny, depending on your preconceived agenda.  Personally, I think that knowing exactly what is in the ACA is the best selling point of this decision than just rhetoric that it is "Obama Care":

7.  Paul Krugman does an excellent job on who won or lost on today's Supremes decision.  There is a lot of gnashing and snarking about commerce vs. tax basis, and narrowing future cases on the merits of regulating commerce, etc, which is basically conjecture or bull shit.  The real winners are described in the first few paragraphs.  Those in opposition ignore the fact that we now join with all of the other countries in the world in providing at least some basic coverage for ALL:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/29/opinion/the-real-winners.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

8.  The LA Times editorial is entered here to summarize the ACA decision.  Every paper and pundit is on this subject now, in one way or another.   I truly believe that if the Republicans decide to stake their political fortunes on repealing the action taken today, that they will further stick themselves into a hole so deep that no force of labor - illegal or not - would ever be able to dig them out:
--
Juan

"One of the best things about directing movies, as opposed to merely writing them, is that there's no confusion about who's to blame: you are."
       -- Nora Ephron
"I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents." 
       -- Sir Winston Churchill
"I take my children everywhere, but they always find their way back home." 
       -- Robert Orben
"The creator of the universe works in mysterious ways. But he uses a base ten counting system and likes round numbers." 
       -- Scott Adams
"History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon." 
       -- Napoleon Bonaparte


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