You know the safety net is in danger when lawmakers fire away and claim they’re trying to save it. On the first day of the new Congress, the House warned that Social Security benefits might need “saving”. The Congressional Budget Office twice ran the numbers on “saving” Medicare by raising the starting age from 65 to 67. It’s a shame, the story goes, but the money just isn’t there.
The devolution of the Republican PartyI tend to think of the worst of the Blue Dog "Democrats"-- like Kyrsten Sinema (AZ), Dan Lipinski (IL) and Colin Peterson (MN)-- along with shameless careerists like Gwen Graham (FL), Patrick Murphy (FL) and Ann Kuster (NH)-- as less than worthless. They routinely sell out basic core Democratic values and the interests of working families for their own personal ambitions and calculations.
In March 1982, conservative theoreticians James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling published a brief article in The Atlantic entitled “Broken Windows: The Police and Neighborhood Safety” that was to drastically alter the scope of policing. As opposed to previous ‘community policing’ stratagems in which police officers were encouraged to play an active if not collaborative role in building relationships with the community in their designated location, Wilson and Kelling advocated for the deployment of heightened police aggression—‘zero tolerance’—towards small-time offenders.
Most of us know that the NSA is spending billions of our taxpayer dollars to track our every move, though the data is collected and only used if some hired dude, following procedures that look for programmed threats, decides you’re doing something suspicious. We know that companies like Amazon follow your moves on its website so that it can plaster your Internet Protocol (IP) path with purchase recommendations. They use your Tracking Cookies or Browsing history to determine your past inquiries.
November 18, 2014: it’s a day that should live forever in history. On that day, in the city of Yiwu in China’s Zhejiang province, 300 kilometers south of Shanghai, the first train carrying 82 containers of export goods weighing more than 1,000 tons left a massive warehouse complex heading for Madrid. It arrived on December 9.
Economist Richard Wolff says workers are returning to jobs with lower wages, fewer benefits, and less job security than they had before the financial crisis hit.
Yesterday, there was a lot of buzz about Louisiana Republican Vance McAllister letting it slip that he and other corrupt conservatives routinely take bribes for their votes.
Millions of Democrats are eligible to go to the polls tomorrow and put their collective foot down and stop the rise of the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. There are primaries in New Jersey, Iowa, Montana, and California where the two wings are in deadly conflict. In most cases, most Democrats aren't even bothering to learn the issues or understand that the primary tomorrow is as important-- or in many cases-- more important than the November election. Far more Democrats will not vote tomorrow than will vote.
As you already know, Blue America has endorsed Tom Guild for the Oklahoma City congressional seat James Lankford has abandoned to run for the U.S. Senate. His an unabashedly progressive leader who isn't compromising principles and values to win his a House seat.
Act 1
Setting: Restaurant, where four middle-age friends, who have known each other since their university days in the early 1970’s, meet for lunch.
Professor: Should we share a bottle of wine?
Lawyer: Why not! There’s no time clock, clients or deadlines.
Social Worker: (smiles). We can afford it!
Doctor: No doubt … we’re drawing pensions, Social Security, and annuities. Medicare covers our medical bills. Mortgages are paid up.
