from Lars Syll A critique yours truly sometimes encounters is that as long as I cannot come up with some own alternative to the failing mainstream theory, I shouldn’t expect people to pay attention. This is however to misunderstand the role of philosophy and methodology of economics! As John Locke wrote in An Essay Concerning Human […]
Uncategorized
A whole lotta unitin’ goin’ on … or something Amidst the chaos of the first days of Republican “control” in the House, none of the members have yet been sworn into office. Rep.-elect Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) appeared last night with Stephanie Ruhle on MSNBC’s 11th Hour. Boebert and her fringiest Republican pals want Rep.-elect Kevin McCarthy to withdraw from the Speaker’s race. Who would she accept instead? Who would her faction accept who could possibly win the support of 218 Republicans? She can’t say. Boebert insists she and her bloc want to unite the American people, etc., etc., and address the border, energy, and inflation, but not until they get their way first, whatever that is. “We will handle these issues and conduct real oversight real soon …” The line recalls a motivational speech from The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984). John Lithgow plays a Mussolini-esque “Red Lectroid” from another dimension. Lord John Whorfin: Where are we going? Red Lectroids: Planet Ten. Lord John Whorfin: When? Red Lectroids: Real soon. They might as well be from another dimension.
Never did If it was not clear before, it is clear now. The Republican Party, fueled since the Newt Gingrich revolution by the insecurities and grievances of white, Christian males in a changing world is reduced at long last to its essence (New York Times): After two days of chaos and confusion on the House floor, Republicans have made it abundantly clear who is leading their party: absolutely no one. From the halls of Congress to the Ohio Statehouse to the back-room dealings of the Republican National Committee, the party is confronting an identity crisis unseen in decades. With no unified legislative agenda, clear leadership or shared vision for the country, Republicans find themselves mired in intraparty warfare, defined by a fringe element that seems more eager to tear down the House than to rebuild the foundation of a political party that has faced disappointment in the past three national elections. Revanchism is all that’s left. There is no positive GOP agenda. No vision of a better tomorrow. No city on a hill. Just power for power’s sake, power enough to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women.
As we watch the GOP’s far right rabble destroy their party from within, I would like to draw your attention to a Representative who is commonly seen as the equivalent on the Democratic side. As you will see, the wingnuts are all immature jackasses by comparison. AOC, the avatar of the left wing of the Democratic party, is very, very good. The Democrats are the adults in the room who see what’s happening with the Republican Party and understand the stakes. And if you look at what they accomplished in the last congress, it’s a testament to how much you can do if you keep your eyes on the prize. “Conservatives in chaos” supplanted “Democrats in disarray” some time ago. It would be very nice if the media could at least acknowledge this from time to time.
Now they’re eating their own…
As the GOP House majority implodes … And a plaintive cry arises from a distant outpost: Yeah, that didn’t work.
Yes, the party is doing this but the question really is why. Jonathan Chait had a great insight that at least partly explains it: The House Republican majority is currently paralyzed by an internecine power struggle that, like some ninth-century Byzantine religious schism, is simultaneously all-consuming to the participants and utterly inscrutable to outsiders. Reporters attempting to discern the conflict have taken to describing the competing factions as “conservatives” (the far-right members opposed to Kevin McCarthy’s bid for Speaker of the House) and “moderates” (the much larger faction of Republicans loyal to him). But these labels do very little to clarify the strange mania devouring the House Republican caucus. If you define conservative in traditional terms — meaning loyal to the conservative movement of Goldwater and Reagan and opposed, in principle, to any new taxation or social-welfare benefits — the entire Republican caucus is composed of conservatives. McCarthy’s loyalists aren’t moderates and don’t describe themselves as such.
Regardless of who ends up being the Speaker, he or she will be a Speaker in name only. The 20 Republican insurrectionists who have turned the party into a laughing stock will be in a position to do this over and over again: Meet them: More than half of the lawmakers who voted against Mr. McCarthy explicitly denied the results of the 2020 election, compared with about 15 percent of the 222 total members in the Republican caucus, according to a New York Times analysis. These Republicans said that the election had been stolen or rigged — or that Donald J. Trump was the rightful winner — even though Joe Biden earned seven million more votes and 74 more electors than Mr. Trump. “President Trump won that election,” said Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, one of the five newcomers who opposed Mr. McCarthy’s speaker bid. Representatives Matt Gaetz of Florida and Andy Biggs of Arizona, who have emerged as ringleaders against Mr. McCarthy’s bid, have also called the 2020 election stolen. Nearly all of the lawmakers who voted against Mr.
from Mark Weisbrot Here are eight predictions for the coming year, in accordance with a hallowed tradition that I have previously not honored. If some of the supporting facts below seem unfamiliar, it could be because they have not received the attention they deserve. But they are real, and links to sources are provided. First, […]
I went down a rabbit hole today trying to recover a memory. In 2009, I had just graduated college and moved home. I was recording a lot of music and learning a lot through watching early YouTube videos. I stumbled upon some footage of a master class at Berkelee that John Mayer had done. Here […]