Things to Know - 21 July

1.  For starters, here is the link that should have been #9 yesterday.   It is the NY Times editorial saying that what goes around, comes around, with regard to scorched earth politics started by the Repubnicants:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/opinion/democrats-gain-the-upper-hand-in-tax-fight.html?hp

2.  Romney has a way of explaining his missing tax returns - the dog (Seamus) at them:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2012/07/romney-claims-dog-ate-tax-returns-and-ran-bain-capital-for-three-years.html

3.  Timothy Egan takes his turn on Romney and the tax return issue.   The "tax return" label really includes Romney's penchant of doing all things foreign as in Swiss and Cayman banks.  Keeping a lid on all of that information will eventually lead to his self-destruction:

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/19/american-exceptions/?pagewanted=print

4.  Texas congressman Louie Gohmert (one of Bachmann's go-to idiots) has deemed it necessary to insinuate that if anyone else in the theater had been packin a gun, that things could have turned out better.  Love them gun nuts who are certified morons:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/20/louie-gohmert-aurora-shootings_n_1689099.html?1342794455

5. Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog: "The American economy has moved way beyond outsourcing abroad or even 'in-sourcing.' Most big companies headquartered in America don't send jobs overseas and don't bring jobs here from abroad. That's because most are no longer really 'American' companies. They've become global networks that design, make, buy, and sell things wherever around the world it's most profitable for them to do so." In linking to the article, it is the first on the list:

http://robertreich.org/

6.  Roger Ebert does a review of a movie that we have seen before, and will see again and again, with the same review:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/21/opinion/weve-seen-this-movie-before.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

7.  We react to the Aurora shooting, just as we have to every other senseless gun tragedy.  We weep for the victims, fill the airwaves with rehashing of the terror - over , and over again, and nothing is very done to stop this.  The Big Elephant in the Room is the NRA Gun Lobby, who is the first to say that it was not their fault  - no it never is their fault.   Politicians cower under the NRA Lobby.  Let's get it all out and start working piece by piece to fix the problem.  Yes, there is a problem - it being to afraid to solve it:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/21/opinion/the-shootings-in-colorado.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

8.  Remember the movie Chinatown ?   Well, it s symbolic classic cult movie that recall the dirty and sleazy beginning of the city of Los Angeles.   Chinatown is still there, but in an altered state (even a Walmart), but there is still plenty of dirt and grit in and around town that is preserved for reasons that only nostalgia can explain:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-holland-chinatown-20120720,0,7854076.column

Juan

"When a person can no longer laugh at himself, it is time for others to laugh at him." 
       -- Thomas Szasz

"The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all." 
       -- H. L. Mencken

"They used to photograph Shirley Temple through gauze. They should photograph me through linoleum." 
       -- Tallulah Bankhead

"When you come to a fork in the road, take it." 
       -- Yogi Berra