Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – May 21, 2023
by Tony Wikrent
(anti)Republican Party debt charade
Six Legal Reasons the Federal Budget Is Its Own ‘Debt Ceiling’ – and ‘Floor’
Reading
The assumption is that if only Biden will give the Freedom Caucus everything they want — in other words, destroy all of his accomplishments and more — then they will allow the government to pay its debt. No. They. Will. Not. Once they realize Biden will give them anything there will be no end to it, even if the country defaults. Krugman asks the right questions here: So much writing on the debt ceiling right now seems utterly behind the curve. The question now is what does Biden do if Rs refuse any deal that doesn’t effectively give them complete control of US policy? Or maybe even actively seek financial crisis? Unilateral actions might fail — or be blocked by a partisan Supreme Court. But what are people pointing out these risks saying that Biden should do? Capitulate completely? (Even that might not be enough). If that’s the plan, say it clearly. That is the plan but it won’t be enough. The only legislative way out of this is for the Senate to pass a bill and send it back to the House.
If you don’t care what happens to other people — if you only care about yourself — why would you care to live in a democracy? President Barack Obama repeatedly emphasized the importance of empathy, which he identified as one of the most important things his mother had taught him. He defined it as “the ability to […]
A mother’s reply to bills targeting her kid After Nebraska passed its 12-week abortion ban last week (attached to a bill restricting “gender-affirming care for people younger than 19”), Spocko tweeted out a tee shirt he helped design last year. He got my attention. Spocko is very good at that. NPR reported: Conservative lawmakers called in a visibly ill colleague so they would have enough votes to end a filibuster and pass a bill with both measures. Republican Gov. Jim Pillen, who pushed for the bill, has promised to sign it into law. The mood in the Nebraska Capitol has been volatile since lawmakers on Tuesday advanced by a single vote the hybrid measure that ties together restrictions that Republicans have pursued across the U.S. One lawmaker, Omaha state Sen. Megan Hunt, disclosed in March that her teenage son is transgender and said Friday that she now plans to leave the state. In case you missed Hunt’s response from the floor, here it is: “I’m asking you to love your family more than you hate mine.” Her GOP colleagues don’t. They demonstrated that by their actions and their votes. And the tee shirt.
“Government spends too much” is back We know how this goes. When Republicans lack the ability to control the fate of legislation, they are born-again, small-government fundamentalists. Government is too big. Government spends too much (on the Irresponsibles). Deficits must be brought under control! Then when they hold the White House, they backslide. Tax cuts : GOOD. Deficits : MEANINGLESS. But the push-pull budgeting conversation is too wonky for the general public to wrap its brain around. To default or not to default is an inside-the-Beltway drama. Or one for G7 leaders to fret over. Until it tanks your retirement fund or hammers the dollar. The remoteness makes it difficult for the left to effectively exploit the shameless flip-floppiness of conservative lawmakers on spending. The only people paying attention are the people already paying attention. Speaker Kevin McCarthy issued one of his “stubborn aphorisms” on the subject on Friday: “Washington has to spend less.” “And indeed, Washington could spend less,” responds Prem Thakker at The New Republic.
How to stop private equity from using huge campaign contributions to get their way.
Economic theory, like anthropology, ‘works’ by studying societies which are in some relevant sense simpler or more primitive than our own, in the hope either that relations that are important but hidden in our society will be laid bare in simpler ones, or that concrete evidence can be discovered for possibilities which are open to […]
About 50 workers at hospital and health care supplier Onelink in western Sydney took four days of strike action this week for wage rises to keep pace with the cost of living and higher redundancy payments.
The post Onelink workers strike for a cost of living pay rise appeared first on Solidarity Online.
The 2023 Seattle International Film Festival is wrapping up this weekend (my eyes hurt-oy) and I have a few more reviews to share. Hopefully, some of these films will be coming soon to a theater (or a streaming service) near you! Adolfo (Mexico) ***½ – Strangers in the night, exchanging…cactus? Long story. Short story, actually, as writer-director Sofia Auza’s dramedy breezes by at 70 minutes. It’s a “night in the life of” tale concerning two twenty-somethings who meet at a bus stop. He: reserved and dressed for a funeral. She: effervescent and dressed for a party (the Something Wild scenario). With its tight screenplay, snappy repartee, and marvelous performances, it’s hard not to fall in love with this film. Being Mary Tyler Moore (USA) ***½ – Robert Redford recalls in this film, “I had a place in Malibu. I was sitting there, looking out at the ocean, and this woman walks by. What it looked like to me was that she was sad.
What kind of a country are we living in? The man stood in a red Make America Great Again baseball cap pointing his AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle toward the sidewalk. An elementary school student ran home crying. Parents were terrified. Neighbors called the police. While he had not explicitly threatened people in this suburban neighborhood, just the sight of him walking near school bus stops was enough for the nearby elementary school in Anne Arundel Countyto delay bus drop-off this week. “The presence of someone with a weapon at or near a bus stop raises fear and anxiety for students and parents, especially in a day and age where we’ve had a number of school shootings across our country,” said Bob Mosier, the spokesman for the school district of more than 83,000 students. The man, J’Den McAdory, said in an interview with The Washington Post that he is protesting recent state legislation regarding guns by open carrying his weapon around the neighborhood and that he was not singling out school bus stops.
Many of the theoretical assumptions which support the most admirable impulses of the woke come from the intellectual movement they most despise. The best tenets of woke, such as the insistence on viewing the world from more than one geographical perspective, come straight from the Enlightenment. Contemporary rejections of this period usually go hand in […]
Despite all the hoopla about that one outlier poll showing that Joe Biden is loathed by just about everybody, other polls aren’t showing that. That’s from one of the latest. His approval rating isn’t great but it’s about par for the course in our polarized electorate these days. Here are some other findings: It looks like status quo on the Biden vs Trump rematch: And then there’s Ron DiSaster: It’s not like a huge number say they don’t know, either. He just isn’t popular. Anyway, all these polls are basically just for entertainment. It’s way too early to take any of it seriously. But it’s important not to feed into the Democratic Party panic over Biden that rose up a couple of weeks ago from that one poll. They love to freak out and it’s not good for anyone.
Many transgender bills are authored by experts in hate It’s the usual suspects: At least 17 states have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors, though judges have temporarily blocked their enforcement in some, including Arkansas. An Associated Press analysis found that often those bills sprang not from grassroots or constituent demand, but from the pens of a handful of conservative interest groups. Many of the proposals, as introduced or passed, are identical or very similar to some model legislation, the AP found. Those ready-made bills have been used in statehouses for decades, often with criticisms of carpetbagging by out-of-state interests. In the case of restrictions on gender-affirming care for youths, they allow a handful of far-right groups to spread a false narrative based on distorted science, critics say. “These are solutions from outside our state looking to solve nonexistent problems inside our state,” said Aaron Jennen.
Jurisdictions are increasingly introducing Rights of Nature provisions into their legal systems. International shipping needs to steer a better course to zero emissions. Rewilding Britain one stream at a time. Our relationship with Nature Members of many Eurocentric cultures, encouraged in some cases by their religious teachings, have over the centuries developed a belief system Continue reading »
The spirit of the age seems to foster division more than it nurtures unity. The G7 Summit is meeting in Hiroshima where thousands were killed at breakfast time on a summer’s morning, August 6, 1945. The G7 leaders meet as a hostile imagination fuels a terrifying arms race. How can we yet pull out of Continue reading »
The decision to approve the Isaac coal mine is a betrayal of Australians and indeed people worldwide and as a medical doctor I am justifiably angry. The warning to end all fossil fuel developments recently published in Australian newspapers by 100 prominent Australian scientists and experts was related to the Beetaloo gas development in the Continue reading »
Grief is not something we ‘get over,’ or we must ‘move on’ from. The truth is we grow into grief; we do not get closure from it. The recent deaths at Loafers’ Lodge in Wellington, the ongoing tragic loss of life in Ukraine from the Russian invasion, frequent car accidents, and the continued deaths from Continue reading »
Time to leave for planet Zog. That’s what came to mind recently I as pondered an article about young Japanese men and female holograms. It seems that growing numbers of disaffected and alienated Japanese men prefer to engage with stereotypical holograms rather than entertain the idea of a real-life relationship. And it’s not only sexual Continue reading »
So, you want to go to war with the Americans, Aussie? What have the Chinese ever done to you? Have you forgotten? They were our willing ally during WW1 and 2 Not our enemy! Bravely supporting Australian prisoners of war on the Burma Railway Keeping many from starvation & death What have the Chinese ever Continue reading »
A song that goes out to the courageous Palestinian people and their supporters around the world. Balfour proclaimed in 1917 a settler state to be, A proxy base in the “middle east” – a colonial entity, With use of force they knocked down doors, a killing spree – the rest had to flee, Dispossessed refugees, Continue reading »