While Obama’s fans are basking in the glow of his re-election victory, Glenn Greenwald describes his continuing war on political dissidents in the US and his determination to create a climate of fear so that people will hesitate to speak openly, a technique perfected by authoritarian regimes. [Read more…]
After being ridiculed for dancing around evasively in response to a question on the age of the Earth, in a new interview, the senator from Florida and prospective candidate for the 2016 Republican nomination decided he had better revise his answer, and tried to hitch himself to Barack Obama’s similar answer. [Read more…]
Via reader Norm, I obtained a link to a long and interesting article on the state of the US by the staff of the German news magazine Der Spiegel, titled Notes on the Decline of a Great Nation.
The article takes as its starting point the chaos wreaked by Hurricane Sandy and how it revealed the lack of proper planning and foresight. Other symptoms pointed to that are most glaring is the neglect and decay of basic infrastructure and essential services because rather than pay for these collective goods, the money is being diverted into individual pockets, with most of the wealth going into just a few of them. We are essentially living off the investments made in the 1950s and 1960s.
The article says that what little reinvestment that was attempted was thwarted by Republicans and Tea Party activists seemingly determined to bring the country grinding to a halt in order to prevent Obama winning a second term, coupled with an obstinate determination to view any assertions of decline as borderline treasonous, since it goes against the solemn creed that America is the greatest nation on Earth, always has been, and always will be.
One has to be wary of sweeping generalizations about nations. The US has tremendous human and material resources that it can call upon if needed to reverse the trend. But the warning signs are clearly there that the political decision-making system in the US has become dysfunctional and that something needs to done to arrest the decline.
Regular readers of this blog know that I have a major crush on Orly Taitz, the lawyer/dentist/crusader who has made it her life’s mission to expose the fact that Barack Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the US and hence ineligible to be president. I have from time to time been chronicling her adventures. [Read more…]
In a survey taken after the election, the polling firm PPP found that 49% of Republicans thought that the group ACORN had stolen the election for Obama. This is fascinating considering that ACORN no longer exists, having been disbanded a few years ago. Given that about 32% of the population identifies as Republican, this means that about 16% of the voting public believes stuff that has absolutely no basis in reality. [Read more…]
I have learned to be very wary when politicians describe a situation in apocalyptic terms. It is usually accompanied by demands that we must act now, now, now, immediately or things will fall apart and all manner of horrible consequences will ensue. This is usually a device to stampede people into accepting things that they would reject if allowed to think things through and explore all the consequences. [Read more…]
Much attention has been paid to the national Republican party and whether it can pull itself back from the edge of the cliff that its anti-science and extreme social conservatism and nativism have brought it to. This can be done. Political parties can show remarkable flexibility when their survival is threatened and many of the leaders in the national party have been warning that it has to shift course. [Read more…]
The Republican party has managed to paint itself into a corner with its adamant stand against an increase in the marginal rates for the top 2% of income earners, even though that was the signature issue that Barack Obama campaigned on and won, and polls show consistent and considerable support for it. The party is now faced with finding ways to get around what is clearly a weak position and various proposals are circulating that would supposedly raise the same amount of revenue as a marginal tax rate increase and provide them with a face-saving compromise. [Read more…]