A realistic trade policy: none

    I spent some time tonight being educated in the cruel changes being planned in New York's care for the developmentally disabled.

    While thinking of two apparently unrelated things: Greece and 1992 Democratic primaries.

    Trade policy was an issue in 92. In particular, NAFTA ... Paul Tsongas, I think—but whoever said it was voicing the consensus—said essentially that whatever we might have wished  the rest of the world is forming trade blocs, and if we don't join Nafta, we'll be left out.

    That was then. 2011 marks the unforming of one those trade blocs as 'the rest of the world' is learning that Greece doesn't belong in the Eurozone. And is there any reason to believe that it's the only country of which that's true?

    MuddyPolitics's picture

    It’s not PC to be candid about candidates

    Just as Hillary Clinton wasn’t a woman when she ran for president in 2008, neither is Herman Cain black nor Mitt Romney Mormon.

    Heartbreak Motel: The employed, the unemployed and the unemployable

    I spent the last two days away from home on a job site in Tulsa. One of my clients was considering switching to a competitor. I have a "resource recovery" company---or, put another way, we scrounge the back lots of industrial plants looking for commodities which can be recycled and re-used. Our employees are well trained and long term and they do well on earnings. They drive our trucks and equipment to remote locations. and my insurance company requires drug testing. Because we control costs and like to make a bit of a profit there is a limit on how much we'll spend for a motel. When I'm on the road, which I don't enjoy, I stay where my workers stay.

    Heartbreak Motel sits on the intersection of two truck routes. The four corners are a stark melding of the food chain and the employment ladder. On one corner is a convenience store and cash-only gas station---the bottom rung of life in a gritty America.  Outside, behind the store, four homeless people stand around a compressor smoking and making ready for the night with pieces of card board to sleep on. A police car idles two hundred feet away, pointed in their direction. I say to hell with it and walk over to the store. A small bottle of milk and some cookies might come in handy if I wake up at the motel in the middle of the night and have the creeps. As I try to go into the store a guy forces me off the sidewalk. I ignore him. Coming back out a woman blocks my path, "Are you stayin' over there for the night?"

    Scott Olsen's website

    Correction to the post: the link comprised of the words "This link" and the strikethrough will NOT, as indicated, direct your browser to the site started by Scott Olsen but it will direct your browser to a similar (I suspect) site populated by Marines.

    Scott Olsen's site, as of 8:10 Eastern U.S. time, is unavailable.

    2011 Elections

    Next Tuesday is the second Tuesday in November, and so for many of us (most of us?) this means that there are local and/or state elections to think about. These are the types of elections that those supporting the various Occupy movements should approve of: typically little money is invested in campaigning and politicians who are frequently known by their supporters or at least only one or two degrees separated.

    Richard Day's picture

    REPUBLICAN DEBATES & DR. STRANGELOVE!

     

    There have already been 101 Repub Debates; I think! I lost count and have been viewing a lot of the new Fall shows on the telly so I really cannot say for sure.

    I estimate that there are at least 195 Repub debates to come over the next year.

    If the repubs lose the next Presidential election, I also would assume that we will begin a new set of debates by December 1, 2012.

    Richard Day's picture

    ALL SAINTS DAY

     

    coatesd's picture

    Poverty Amid Plenty – America’s Continuing Shame

    The current wave of mass protest against Wall Street excess has completely reframed the public conversation in the United States.  The “deficit problem” with which Washington was consumed in the first half of 2011 has not vanished from the political agenda, but its resolution will now have to be achieved against the background of a growing understanding of the sheer scale of current income and wealth inequality. If the Republicans in Congress have their way, the politicians may yet cut entitlements programs for the poor while declining to raise taxes on the rich. But if that is how the deficit problem is eventually resolved, that resolution will be more extensively recognized as class-biased in its character and impact than would have been the case before the OWS protests began. The super-rich are invisible no more, and are now being held to account.

    Elusive Trope's picture

    This Just Proves My Point

    In a video which describes itself as an example of police brutality is a perfect example of the generation raised by helicopter parents who believe that there should be no consequences

    Genghis: site warnings appearing (Update 11:24am: fixed)

    Update 11:24am: readers nevermind: he fixed it; see his comment below.

    Just in case you don't see it, too, here are copies of some stuff that is appearing appeared on the site, of the type which also appeared a day or two before the last trouble with signing in. The following appeared at the top of the page in a pink box when I edited my last comment:

    Richard Day's picture

    PERRY LOOKS DRUNK, NO KIDDING!

    The following video is hitting the web. I found it at Huffpo and then discovered this on Youtube!

     

    10/28/11

     

     

    Elusive Trope's picture

    The Bystanders

    One of the things I found frustrating when conducting a protest rally was gazing over along the periphery and seeing all of the bystanders.  They stood there, arms folded or akimbo, maybe holding shopping bags when the action was in a downtown site, and gazed upon whatever spectacle we had put together.   Sometimes one individual would lean toward another and make a comment - maybe about the protest or maybe about how they ought to take off and go do what they had originally planned.

    MuddyPolitics's picture

    Pandering to Naysayers & Radicals: Democratic Primary Fever

    Between applauding the death of uninsured Americans, booing gay soldiers and cheering mass executions in Texas, the Republican presidential primary race has been quite a shock to those who understood “conservatism” to mean “pro-life” and “pro-military.”

    Apparently “compassionate conservatism” retired the same year as George W. Bush.

    It’s moments like these that have highlighted not only the moral decay of the conservative constituency but also the depths to which Republican presidential primary candidates will dive in order to woo the teabagger demographic.

    MuddyPolitics's picture

    Is Rick Santorum ‘the next flavor of the month?’

    Between Rick Perry’s dip in the birther pond and Herman Cain’s smoking advertisement, this has a been a relatively entertaining week in the Republican presidential race.

    But not entertaining enough, apparently.

    Christian Heinze asks in an article published this morning at TheHill.com, is Rick Santorum “the next flavor of the month?”

    Lack of confidence spurs spending.

    According to yesterday's GDP numbers the engine of American Consumption is back on the tracks and rolling along at a surprising clip. The odd thing is that Consumer Confidence still remains at a near historic low. Typically an increase in consumption is preceded by a rise in confidence. So why is the spending train rolling along while confidence is like a caboose sidetracked in the train yard?

    A Sept. 15th report by Ross DeVol at the Milkin Institute not only predicted good GDP and consumption numbers for the 3rd Quarter but explained the root cause of the precipitous drop in consumer confidence over the Summer and its disconnect from actual consumer behavior which kept chugging along underneath.

    If you're thinking that the decline in confidence had some connection to our national politics you'd be right. DeVol correlates the decline in confidence to a decline in the approval ratings of -- the Congress!

    They were for it before they were against it

    When it suited their purposes  the Koch Bros  touted the benefits of social security. 

    As described in the Oct 17th Nation , in 1973 Charles Koch wanted to hire Friedrich Hayek (Road to Serfdom).  He ,sensibly, afraid of giving up the benefits of Austria's health and retirement programs, turned Koch down. Koch's operatives responded  by trying to convince Hayek of the virtues of  social security  and Medicare.

    Richard Day's picture

    ENTITLEMENTS


    Socrates

    I begin things and have problems finishing them at times.

    But I think that this community as well as those local communities wherein we reside should get back to basics and see if we can work things out!

    My recent missive to Our Fearless Leader

    I have been rankled ever since I heard Captain Obama mention OWS and the tea party in the same breath. I restrained myself after Tony Bologna's use of pepper spray; but after Scott Olsen I really could not restrain myself.

    So I surfed on over to whitehouse.gov/contact and this is what I put into Captain Obama's inbox:

    =======================================================

    This, sadly, was inevitable....

    Over here Richard Day points at it; but he posted before this and this.

    In a nutshell:

    Marine Scott Olsen is deployed twice; comes home injured; joins peace movement; participates in Occupy Oakland; gets shot in head by tear gas canister; currently in critical condition.

    The further adventures of Tony Bologna

    Over at DNAinfo and the Daily News we find that Deputy Inspector Tony was "quietly" transferred to be nearer his family on Staten Island.

    The Decider's picture

    Game 3: Really Didn't Want to be Recognized.

    http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ln7nw1TkiA1qfsz17o1_500.jpg

     

    By game 5, we were out in front of the crowd!

    http://www.ctpost.com/mediaManager/?controllerName=image&action=get&id=1694015&width=628&height=471

     

    Sick 'em Rangers!  Tonight's the night!

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