Saturday Open Thread

post from My Left Wing - Front Page on 15 September 2012 07:00:00 AM. © My Left Wing - Front Page

It's interesting that when economic times were the hardest,
that's when many people embraced liberalism.

Oliver Stone

Born September 15, 1946

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Sept. 14: Obama Forecast Declines on Poor
Manufacturing Report

post from FiveThirtyEight on 15 September 2012 06:59:13 AM. © FiveThirtyEight

The president's odds of winning the Electoral College fell for the second consecutive day on Friday.

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Economists Agree That Spending Cuts Hurt Weak
Economies -- Fox Calls Them "Insane"

post from Media Matters for America - Latest Items on 15 September 2012 05:12:28 AM. © Media Matters for America - Latest Items

Fox contributor Gary Kaltbaum today said that it's "insane people" who believe that "if you cut spending, it's gonna hurt the economy." In fact, actual economic experts agree that cutting spending during weak economic growth damages recoveries and depresses employment.

This was the conclusion of the October 2010 World Economic Outlook report, in which the International Monetary Fund examined data from the past 30 years to see what impact austerity measures had on weak-performing economies. The IMF wrote:

A key result is that fiscal consolidation is typically contractionary. A fiscal consolidation equal to 1 percent of GDP typically reduces real GDP by about 0.5 percent after two years. The effect on the unemployment rate is an increase of about 0.3 percentage point after two years. The results are statistically significant at conventional levels. Overall, the idea that fiscal austerity stimulates economic activity in the short term finds little support in the data.

But according to Kaltbaum, this belief is shared only by "insane people."

Discussing the recent House-passed spending bill to avert a government shutdown, Kaltbaum complained that the United States will never eliminate the deficit, saying:

KALTBAUM: It's never gonna get done. Look, spending, for whatever reason, just continues to go higher and higher and higher. And all this rhetoric from both sides, even from the Republican side -- it's just not gonna get done. The problem is, somehow we got to the point where everybody believes, or at least I think insane people believe that if you cut spending, it's gonna hurt the economy.

He went on to say, "It's crazy. Cutting spending will not hurt the economy."

But as the IMF report showed, this is simply not true. And the IMF's conclusion is shared by economic experts nationwide, including the New York Times' Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist.

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Better Off

post from jobsanger on 15 September 2012 01:09:00 AM. © jobsanger

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Which Candidate Does The Public Trust

post from jobsanger on 15 September 2012 01:08:00 AM. © jobsanger

The Washington Post/ABC News Poll has come out with a new survey, taken between September 7th and 9th -- and the results were generally pretty good for the president. One of the more interesting questions the poll asked was whether those surveyed believe the candidates are telling the truth or intentionally lying. It should come as no surprise that most Republicans think Romney is telling the truth (73%) and Obama is lying (76%), while most Democrats think Obama is telling the truth (81%) and Romney is lying (76%). The important result is what the public in general thinks, and here is that result:

DO YOU THINK THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN IS TELLING THE TRUTH OR INTENTIONALLY MISLEADING PEOPLE?
Telling the truth....................49%
Intentionally misleading...............42%

DO YOU THINK THE ROMNEY CAMPAIGN IS TELLING THE TRUTH OR INTENTIONALLY MISLEADING PEOPLE?
Telling the truth....................43%
Intentionally misleading...............48%

While both candidates have a large group that doesn't trust what they say (probably made up mainly of those in the opposing party), the results show that in general, more people trust the president and believe he is telling the truth. The president has a difference of +7, while Romney has a difference of -5. This becomes very important in light of the next question that was asked.

WHAT'S MORE IMPORTANT TO YOU -- THAT YOU TRUST WHAT A CANDIDATE SAYS, OR THAT YOU AGREE WITH WHAT A CANDIDATE SAYS?
Trust what candidate says...............65%
Agree with the candidate...............23%
Both equally...............8%
Neither/no opinion...............5%

If you are interested in what else the survey revealed, you can click on the link above. Personally, I thought this was the most interesting aspect of the survey.

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Willard Gets A Hug

post from jobsanger on 15 September 2012 01:07:00 AM. © jobsanger

Political Cartoon is by John Cole in the Scranton Times-Tribune.

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Inequality Is Root Of U.S. Problems

post from jobsanger on 15 September 2012 01:06:00 AM. © jobsanger

There is little doubt that the United States is in a mess right now, especially economically, and that this mess is causing many problems for U.S. citizens. The top chart above was done by researcher Richard Wilkinson (a British epidemiologist). Wilkinson says that economic inequality has consequences for a society. And the more unequal the income distribution in a country, the more health and social problems that country will have.

Note that on his chart, the United States has not only the highest inequality, but also the most health and social problems (and these are many including a high unemployment rate, rising poverty, disappearing middle class, stagnant wages & loss of buying power for most people, record foreclosures & bankruptcies, growing homelessness & food insecurity, millions still without health insurance or preventative medical care, environmental destruction, and an education system that falls further behind other countries each year).

The reason for both the inequality and the social problems can be found in the economic policy followed by the government in most of the last 30 years (trickle-down or supply-side economics). This policy deregulates financial markets and corporate rules, funnels more money into the hands of the rich, lessens the power of unions, and cuts the educational and social programs that have traditionally been the path to upward mobility for many citizens.

The result is that the rich have gotten much richer, while most Americans have gotten poorer. The second chart shows the growth of wealth between 1983 and 2009, and it is a picture of gross economic inequality. Note that the top 5% have sucked up 81.7% of all the wealth created since 1983 (and the top 1% have gotten 40.2% of that wealth). Meanwhile, the bottom 60% of all Americans have actually lost 7.5% of their wealth instead of sharing in the wealth gains.

It is this kind of unequal wealth distribution that is the root cause of most of this country's economic and social problems. And it is the failed trickle-down policies (instituted by the Republicans) that has caused this unequal wealth distribution.

When we talk about wealth distribution (and redistribution), we must come to terms with the idea. The right-wing would have Americans believe that wealth redistribution is a dirty socialist idea, that just means money will be taken from the successful and given to the lazy. That is ludicrous. All countries and all economic systems are continually distributing and redistributing wealth and income. It is just an economic fact. It is impossible to have an economic system that does not distribute and redistribute wealth and income continuously.

But there is a choice to be made -- and that choice involves how we want the wealth and income distributed in our society. Do we want nearly all of the gains in productivity (wealth) to go to the rich (our current reality), or do we want everyone in our society to share in the gains in productivity? If we continue with trickle-down, we will continue this nation on a path to a society of haves and have-nots -- rich and poor, with no middle class.

But if productivity is shared by all, and everyone pays their fair share in taxes, we will have not only a more economically equal society, but a healthier economy which will benefit everyone (including the rich). That's because the mass of Americans will have more money to spend, creating demand, which creates more business profits and new job creation -- and that creates more demand which creates more profits and jobs. It is a circle that makes the economy grow.

That is the choice we have, and we must make that choice in November. A vote for Republicans is a vote for the failed and unequal trickle-down policies. A vote for the Democrats is a vote to return to a system of shared productivity and economic health. It really is that simple.

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-us-problems.html

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Political Posturing

Political Cartoon is by Steve Sack in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

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Have Kansas Officials Lost Their Minds

All I can figure is that certain state officials in the state of Kansas have lost their damn minds! The Kansas State Objections Board (compromised of Secretary of State Kris Kobach, Attorney General Derek Schmidt, and Lt. Governor Jeff Colyer -- all Republicans) has decided it isn't sure that President Obama qualifies to be on the ballot in Kansas. This board is the body that makes decisions on whether people should remain or be removed from the ballot in Kansas, and they are reacting to a complaint from a single citizen in Manhattan -- a birther who thinks the president wasn't born in the United States.

This board should have immediately rejected this bogus and ridiculous claim, but they didn't. Instead, they have delayed their decision on whether President Obama should be removed from the Kansas ballot (leaving the Democrats with no presidential candidate in that state). They say they don't have enough information, and have sent requests to Hawaii, Arizona(?), and Mississippi(?) to "secure copies of the president's birth records". They have done this in spite of the following facts:

* The president has released both short and long forms of his official birth certificates.

* Hawaiian state officials have all stated those birth certificates are correct, and the president was indeed born in their state.

* The president's birth in Hawaii has been verified by Hawaiian newspapers at the time of the birth, and by doctors and nurses who were present at the birth.

* All "birther" court cases claiming the president was not born in the U.S. have been rejected by federal courts, and none of them have been accepted on appeal by the Supreme Court of the United States.

* The president's family (especially his grandmother and great-grandparents) have established roots in the state of Kansas -- the very state that now doubts his citizenship.

* Mr. Obama has now completed over three and a half years as president of the United States.

Add to this the fact that there is almost no chance of President Obama actually carrying the state of Kansas this November (a snowball probably has a better chance of surviving a summer in the Mojave Desert), and I have to wonder why these state officials are even bothering with the ludicrous objection from the Manhattan "birther". It simply makes no sense.

Have the teabaggers gained such a chokehold on the Kansas Republican Party that they can now force Republican state officials to do stupid and ridiculous things? Or have these officials just lost their damn minds? Either way, it's a sad commentary on the state of the Republican Party -- in Kansas and in the nation as a whole.

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-lost-their-minds.html