Blog
Austerity, the Greatest Bait-and-Switch in History
Professor Mark Blyth talks about “austerity … the greatest bait-and-switch in history.” He explains this scam in a way you’ve never heard it explained before … that is to say, clearly. For instance, Blyth says: “Why did I write this book? Because I got really really pissed off at...
[Continue reading: Austerity, the Greatest Bait-and-Switch in History]Today’s Best Headline: “Far-Right Extremists Chased Through London by Women Dressed as Badgers”
“Far-Right Extremists Chased Through London by Women Dressed as Badgers“ Excerpt: “Young women dressed in fake fur were seen chasing doughty nationalist supporters down London’s Whitehall as a large number of security forces in iridescent jackets looked on from police...
[Continue reading: Today’s Best Headline: “Far-Right Extremists Chased Through London by Women Dressed as Badgers”]Richard Hofstadter Would Recognize Today’s Right-Wing-Nuttery as Part of the “Paranoid Style” in American Politics
I hear that the dominant force driving the recent surge in gun sales is the widespread fear that Obama plans to take away all our guns, as part of his overall socialist agenda. Such right-wingnut ideas are not new. Sean Wilentz, in his 2007 Introduction to the Vintage edition of Richard Hofstadter’s 1965 book,...
[Continue reading: Richard Hofstadter Would Recognize Today’s Right-Wing-Nuttery as Part of the “Paranoid Style” in American Politics]$ Multi-trillion Stock Bubble in Carbon Reserves, Economists Warn
This is a fascinating article, and huge. The idea is that — worldwide — stocks based on carbon reserves are essentially a multi-trillion dollar bubble, because they cannot actually ever be burned (if they are burned it’s — as James Hansen has said — “game over for Planet Earth”). The...
[Continue reading: $ Multi-trillion Stock Bubble in Carbon Reserves, Economists Warn]US Taxes Almost Lowest in OECD Countries
When the subject of revenue increases comes up, Republicans usually complain that the United States is among the most highly taxed country in the world, and that taxes must be lowered. Here’s a graph — from a report by Citizens for Tax Justice — that proves that the US bears nearly the lowest tax...
[Continue reading: US Taxes Almost Lowest in OECD Countries]Broadturn Farm, Scarborough, Maine
Young farmers in Scarborough, Maine can’t afford to buy land, so they lease it from the Scarborough Land Trust. Could that model work here in Nevada County, California?
[Continue reading: Broadturn Farm, Scarborough, Maine]California Comeback Due to Conservative Decline?
Paul Krugman has a fascinating op-ed in yesterday’s NY Times. In it, he recounts some of the litany of conservative alarms about liberalism sinking California’s economy. Krugman argues convincingly that the truth is quite the opposite: California’s worst problems over the decades have often been...
[Continue reading: California Comeback Due to Conservative Decline?]Has Facebook “Jumped the Shark?”
Journalism Professor Lee Banville asks whether Facebook has “jumped the shark?” He quotes Eric Schmidt: “Every two days, we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003.” Here are a couple of other factoids Banville mentions to give an idea of the explosive...
[Continue reading: Has Facebook “Jumped the Shark?”]Viral Video (6 min): US Wealth Inequality as You’ve Never Seen It (Obscene Greed Since Reagan)
Based on a popular Mother Jones post on inequality. More graphs from Mother Jones:
[Continue reading: Viral Video (6 min): US Wealth Inequality as You’ve Never Seen It (Obscene Greed Since Reagan)]Who’s Behind the Effort to Destroy the US Postal Service, a Fundamentally Sound Business?
James Royal, writing in the Motley Fool, explains how the effort to destroy the economic viability of the U.S. Postal Service is actually aimed at privatizing the service. Privatization offers several goodies to some members of Congress (and their big-money sponsors) who have imposed unique, unprecedented and unnecessary...
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Articles
Anti-Fracking Manifesto Blasts Pro-Fracking Environmental Organizations
Reprinted from Yes! Magazine (June 6, 2013) In a statement, ecologist Sandra Steingraber denounced Illinois’ new fracking regulations and described the need for a movement dedicated to abolishing fracking nationwide. By Jeff Biggers A new salvo has...
Too Soon to Tell: The Case for Hope
What Comes After Hope By Tom Engelhardt I worked for years as an editor at Pantheon Books. Its publisher, maybe the most adventurous in the business, was André Schiffrin. Among his many accomplishments, he “discovered” Studs Terkel (already a well-known...
Reprinted from TomDispatch.com Fracking Ourselves to Death in Pennsylvania By Ellen Cantarow More than 70 years ago, a chemical attack was launched against Washington State and Nevada. It poisoned people, animals, everything that grew, breathed air,...
How to Turn a World Lacking in Enemies into the Most Threatening Place in the Universe By Tom Engelhardt The communist enemy, with the “world’s fourth largest military,” has been trundling missiles around and threatening the United States with...
Why Private Banks Tend to Become Parasites on Society
Michael Hudson explains how public banks may serve the goals of capitalism, while private banks — under our current system — tend to become parasites.
Newtown’s Hidden Crime-Scene Photos
Reprinted from Consortium News Exclusive: With solid Republican opposition and many Democrats scared of the gun lobby, Congress is turning its back on a renewed assault weapons ban, a collapse made easier by the refusal of Newtown officials to release...
It Can Happen Here: The Confiscation Scheme Planned for US and UK Depositors
Reprinted from Web of Debt By Ellen Brown Confiscating the customer deposits in Cyprus banks, it seems, was not a one-off, desperate idea of a few Eurozone “troika” officials scrambling to salvage their balance sheets. A joint paper by the US Federal...
Why Is Socialism Doing So Darn Well in Deep-Red North Dakota?
Reprinted from Alternet By Les Leopold North Dakota’s thriving state bank makes a mockery of Wall Street’s casino banking system — and that’s why financial elites want to crush it. North Dakota is the very definition of a red state....
Direct Deposit and Social Security: Not so Nice for Those who Owe
Reprinted from Credit Slips blog By Nathalie Martin Jonathan Ginsberg posted an interesting article on the National Association of Chapter 13 trustees web site this weekend, that will be relevant to many of our readers as well. Social security is...
Phoenix in the Climate Crosshairs
Reprinted from TomDispatch.com By William DeBuys If cities were stocks, you’d want to short Phoenix. Of course, it’s an easy city to pick on. The nation’s 13th largest metropolitan area (nudging out Detroit) crams 4.3 million people into a low bowl...
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Reviews
Free Book: “The End of Loser Liberalism: Making Markets Progressive”
By Dean Baker Progressives need a fundamentally new approach to politics. They have been losing not just because conservatives have so much more money and power, but also because they have accepted the conservatives’ framing of political debates. They...
Richard Tuttle A day or so ago I received this email from our friend, Dave Comstock, publisher of Comstock Bonanza Press, concerning a “book launch” on October 15th in the Nevada City Council Chamber … of judge Richard E. Tuttle’s...
Devastating New Ron Susskind Book on Obama and his Dysfunctional Economic Team
Larry Summers Napping In excerpts below from their discussion, Frank Rich and Adam Moss talk about Ron Susskind’s new book Confidence Men — published tomorrow — about president-elect Obama’s choice of his economic team in 2008,...
GOP Rule is More Dangerous to Our Health, Study Proves (100 Years of Data)
Professor James Gillligan has spent his professional life studying violence. In his latest book, “Why Some Politicians Are More Dangerous Than Others,” he summarizes his study of a whole century of data, proving that all forms of violence...
Yes, the Latest Right-Wing Paean to Sociopath Ayn Rand Is Really, Really Awful
by Brad Reed Take Lisa Simpson and combine her with Gordon Gekko and the obnoxious child-android from “Small Wonder,” and you get the perfect Rand hero. The year is 2016. Eight years of Obammunism have transformed the former capitalist paradise known...
Simplicity Bistro: Excellent New Restaurant in Grass Valley
I learned something from our three meals at Simplicity Bistro over the last week: I learned that I have a burgundy beef need that can apparently only be satisfied by recurring dinners at Simplicity Bistro. I’m a bit worried, though, because...
Rich People Things: Ayn Rand, La Dolce Vita Redubbed and the Plutocrapocalypse!
Who’s suffered most in the Great Recession? Why, it’s the rich, the affluent, the meritocracy, of course! So says — satirically — Chris Lehmann in his new book, Rich People Things. From the publisher’s description: It’s...
Farming Was His Life, Until the CAFOs Came
I heard Thom Hartmann interview David Kirby, author of Animal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy, and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment. This could be one of those watershed environmental books, like Rachel Carson’s...
Corporations Have Become More Dangerous to Democracy Since Reagan
Barry Lynn, Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, talks about his book, Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction. According to Lynn (speaking in the video below), “in 1981 the Reagan administration changed...
Amazing Buzz on New Book: Eating Animals
I’ve never seen this kind of buzz on a new book before, and since I’m a sucker for book buzz and hype, and I haven’t actually read the book yet, I’ll just pass on some of the buzz and hype about Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran...
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ALTERNATE WARMING SCENARIOS (CLICK FOR DETAILS)
