Displaying 121 To 150 Of 2,270 Comments Could Electing Hillary in 2016 Assure a Republican President in 2020? JJ, I’ll agree with you on one point. I would really love to see a general election campaign with Hillary running against whatever mouth-breather the GOP throws up. » Posted By funksands On September 22, 2014 @ 11:03 am Ad, if indeed HC is coming out of the gate trying to appeal to conservatives, she’s already lost before she’s begun. She is the avatar of the right for everything that is wrong with America. And while Obama came along and drew that spotlight for a while, it will come back full force with an announced candidacy. Most self-described moderates vote Democratic in the national election. I’ve estimated that almost 80% of moderates that voted in 2012 voted for Obama. Her motive could be to reassure that base of voters that she’s not going to do anything too “fringe”. The problem with that strategy is that it also doesn’t excite anyone. If you are going to get the broad base of the National Democratic party excited, you’ve got to have a very compelling, simple message that draws clear lines of distinction between you and your opponents. General election voters don’t do nuance. And the days of Bill poaching a third of the good old boy vote in the South is looooong gone. I’m pleasantly surprised with some of Hillary’s published positions on topics I care about. They’re better than I expected. What concerns me about her are the same things that concerned me about her in 2008, though the people that surround her now aren’t so odious. (Stay tuned) It may be my imagination, but I still get a slight aroma of Roger Mudd and Mitt Romney circling her camp. “Why do you want to be President Hillary”? I really am not sure what her answer would be. Her candidacy will galvanize the right to high turnout numbers. Will it galvanize the middle? There better be something more than the “1st woman President” to draw on. » Posted By funksands On September 22, 2014 @ 11:01 am Why Preventing Genocide Isn’t the Same as Re-Invading Iraq Ad, I wish more policy-makers would be willing to think outside the box when it comes this situation. The surge in 2005 worked in Iraq not because we sent in more troops, but because we paid the Sunnis to stand down. We paid tribal and municipal leaders gobs of cash to police and corral their rowdier elements. Even if we were STILL paying them, it would be 1000x cheaper than our other strategies. Same goes for the Afghan drug trade: Buy ALL the opium. ALL of it. Burn it, sell it, whatever, but remove the funding for the Taliban and remove the leverage they have over poor farmers to grow opium or die. Or is that not “noble” enough? Or does that make us look like pussies? Maybe we should try paying the Sunnis again? It worked before. » Posted By funksands On August 11, 2014 @ 9:46 pm Murph, I’ll be really interested to see how Turkey responds now that their presidential election is over. They’ve seemed to be satisfied looking the other way as gobs of private citizen dollars went to fund ISIS in Syria, and have been pretty silent about the incursion into N. Iraq. Unfortunately I suspect they’d be happy for ISIS to wipe out the Kurds, and chase them all in to big internment camps across the border. » Posted By funksands On August 11, 2014 @ 9:41 pm Ad, I think this is an excellent article. It raises a lot of thought-provoking questions and challenges the reader’s pre-conceptions. Some thoughts and questions of my own: In answer to your question; no it isn’t the same. I suspect many that say it is have either an agenda or are just bone-weary of our being the world’s policeman. That said, IF you are going to be the world’s policeman, restricting your resources to circumstances like this would be ideal. 1) I constantly hear individuals and even news organizations fail to recognize that ISIS started in Iraq and then entered the Syrian conflict. Not the other way around. Whether disingenuous or not, this has muddied a lot of opinions about this issue. It’s important because if this was a group that arose in Syria due to any lack of action on our part or even because of our efforts or arms and then spread into Iraq, our strategy and prescriptions would be much different, maybe focusing more on Syria than Iraq. 2) Why are we focusing on stopping ISIS in Iraq and not Syria? Their presence in Syria has made it even harder to dislodge Bashar, because now his claims that he is fighting extremists have some basis in fact, even if just to paper over his claims. Are we doing it in Iraq simply because we can? Because we have assets there? It’s easier? There are smaller political dangers of acting? It seems sometimes that our diplomatic capabilities are hamstrung by our overwhelming military. Our first reaction seems to be to bomb something, while our military and willingness to use it seems to make other nations a bit lazy when it comes to committing resources, military or diplomatic help. Maybe they figure that we’ll just do it, pay for it and suffer the consequences. Or not. What do you think? » Posted By funksands On August 11, 2014 @ 5:20 pm Nirek, may I make a suggestion? KT’s suggestion is the simplest way. If you don’t want to pay the risk premium,(though in Vermont, I’d think that would be pretty small) there are a couple other options. First, Vermont’s medical marijuana laws are pretty flexible. As long as your wife has an established relationship with a physician, that physician can recommend marijuana as a medical treatment and give you a referral to a legal dispensary. Option 2? Get you and your wife a cheap plane ticket to Denver and go on a fact-finding trip. It might be worth the expense to find out if marijuana is going to be helpful to her, and if so, what kind and in what delivery method. Just a suggestion. WA is not ready for you yet. But CO is a good bet. » Posted By funksands On July 21, 2014 @ 1:06 pm State and Federal governments have spent almost $30 billion on the “War on Drugs”. It’s estimate that the real drug emergency in the US is abuse of prescription pain-killers. Americans now make up 82% of the prescription opioid consumption on earth. It’s estimated that 1 in14 Kentuckians regularly abuse prescription painkillers. Militarized Police Forces are funded by the war on drugs Taking the Marijuana leg out of that stool could bring the whole thing crashing down, allowing society to finally put something together that is smarter, cheaper and infinitely more humane. Imagine if we could lay off 25% of our police force and train them instead to be counselors and therapists. Humans are always going to pursue mind-altering substances. Legalizing a drug that is significantly less harmful than alcohol or tobacco seems to be a pretty tame step to take. » Posted By funksands On July 21, 2014 @ 1:00 pm Siberian Blowouts, Climate Collapse and Feedback Loops Mr., I find it fascinating that some think that 7 billion people can shit into a balloon 24 hrs a day and there not be any effects. I guess all of the stuff we burn just “goes away”. » Posted By funksands On July 18, 2014 @ 11:27 am Nirek, Berkely, CA had a fantastic project several years ago (which they had to stop due to the recession). I think it could work in nearly any community. Any house that was built within the Berkeley city limits automatically was built with solar panels. The cost was embedded in the mortgage, so the homeowner could simply pay off the costs over 15-30 years. Easy, low-impact and effective. » Posted By funksands On July 16, 2014 @ 7:32 pm Pink as a sincere admirer of Australians and their country, I’m so glad you decided to write about this. My wife would move to Sydney tomorrow if I had a job there, and you never know what the future holds. 😉 I find Aussies to be very grounded and down-to earth, reasonably friendly, but almost self-consciously avoid bragging about themselves or their situation. I also am extremely impressed with how child-friendly Australia seems to be. Kids are welcome everywhere, which is a nice change of pace from some places in the US. Many of them seem to be quite fond of Americans, though they do seem to view us as slightly dotty, deranged cousins (which may very well be true). I am aware of healthy right-wing streak that runs through a lot of Aussies, but I never seem to have come across one personally in my travels there. I do appreciate you electing Rick Perry as Prime Minister so we could avoid having him become President here. Speaking of Prime Ministers, you had one PM that makes you one of the coolest countries in my book: Prime Minister Harold Holt swam out to sea in 1967, never to be seen again. How cool is that for a story?? 🙂 Some speculated he faked his death, some thought it was suicide, some that he was mentally unbalanced, but what an interesting story. Any country that has that happen is a damn interesting one. » Posted By funksands On July 15, 2014 @ 9:50 pm AB, that is one of my favorite books too. My wife’s best friend is an Aussie and on our last trip down there got to spend a lot of time with her large family in some small towns up and down the east coast. Really loved the people and the country (what I saw of it) Can’t wait to go back again in a few years. » Posted By funksands On July 15, 2014 @ 9:38 pm Unsteady about Hillary: Columbia, SC 2007; and today? How ready are you? Murph, I’m trying to approach Hillary with an open-mind. She is such a polarizing figure, that I worry sometimes that I’m not being fair in my analysis of her. Let me pose a question: What policies of hers do you disagree with or worry about? My decision not to vote for her in 2008 was based on two things: A vague sense of unease that she was Wall Street Democrat in a time that would could not afford one. But I was mostly turned off by who she surrounded herself with. Leftovers from her husband’s campaigns, Mark Penn one of the heads of the slimiest law firm on earth, and her economic team consisted of some of the same crew that helped usher in the repeal of Glass-Steagall. But with that, I find that I don’t disagree that much with many of her positions. I find her attitudes toward homeland security too hawkish for my tastes But she has very firm things to say about Climate Change She’s not a terrible candidate. But I will be watching very closely who she surrounds herself with. A Sanders (as Democrat) and/or Warren candidacy would be very welcome to me to nudge and push the conversation where it needs to belong. Like you though, a Clinton Presidency would be 1000x better than anyone the GOP will put up against her. Plus, I have a sick/dark streak in me that would love to see Obama hand off the keys to the White House to her as RWNJ heads explode across the country. Thanks for the trip back down memory lane. » Posted By funksands On July 15, 2014 @ 10:54 pm Corporations Are Religious Extremists Too! Kes, I have no problem with corporations being separate “entities” for tax and legal purposes. There are advantages and disadvantages for doing so and the two generally balance each other out. The problem began when they stopped being considered tax and liability “entities” and started being called “people”. The problem has accelerated to the point where corporations are now considered “superior people” with more rights and less liability than a human. That’s scary. Would a Constitutional Amendment to repeal corporate personhood remove the legitimate reasons to have a corporation? Would we have to throw out the baby with the bathwater? The more the Amendment has to parse its language to carve out exceptions, the less likely it seems to me that it would be able to pass with 2/3 of statehouse votes » Posted By funksands On July 1, 2014 @ 10:17 am I think a lot of people are looking at this case the wrong way. In my very humble and often wrong opinion, this is less about a case of codifying religious preference like the tax code, and more about how this court has overwhelming found for a corporate plaintiff/defendent in nearly every single case it has heard. The ruling itself is breathtaking for four reasons: 1) The people that run the company sincerely believe what they believe and 3) This doesn’t apply to ANY OTHER HEALTH ISSUE OF ANY KIND Basically the Supreme Court has reduced itself to doing this 1 corporation a favor by rendering a judgement in its favor “just because”. That the most powerful governmental body on earth is willing to lower itself to doing a solid for 1 company is the scariest thing about this judgement. It means they are willing to do anything, anytime and no longer give a shit what anyone thinks about it. » Posted By funksands On July 1, 2014 @ 9:50 am Perfectly said:[img]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BreOoITCcAA4IuW.png[/img] » Posted By funksands On July 1, 2014 @ 9:37 am What’s also interesting (and likely already discussed here) is that Hobo Lobby had contraceptive coverage in their health plan up until the point they dropped it and filed federal suit. » Posted By funksands On July 1, 2014 @ 9:33 am Its interesting that a corporation, which is solely and only a creature created by the state in which it is domiciled can be created by the state to avoid its laws. » Posted By funksands On July 1, 2014 @ 9:29 am Obama 41% Approval Rating Proof Of The Public’s Lack Of Basic Current Events Knowledge Murph, further proof that the public holds Obama to a very high standard, while expecting W to simply not choke on a cracker. Seriously though, part of Obama’s poll numbers are tied directly to Congress’ miserable rating. While logically people sort of know that Congress is the main obstacle to concrete legislation to improve our country, their activity has cast a pall over the entirety of the federal government, causing many Americans, especially casual follower of our political process to say “a pox on both your houses”. Which is exactly what the GOP wants. There has been no electoral consequence for their obstructionism and scorched-earth tactics, so why would they care what their approval rating is? » Posted By funksands On June 19, 2014 @ 9:37 pm Nirek, like anything else, lobbying is fine in moderate doses. I think any citizen or organization should be able to contact, pressure, advocate it’s Congress for its wishes. That said, it needs to be supervised, regulated and utterly transparent. The biggest thing that needs to change is that any Congressman, cabinet official or high-ranking federal official should be completely prohibited from taking any position directly OR indirectly with a lobbying firm for the rest of their natural lives. You may serve the American People or you may serve your organization/individual interest but you may not serve both. Right now, for many, Congress is simply a resume enhancer that is designed to be a job interview for a far more lucrative position afterwards. This is one of the cancers that eats at our democracy. There are other solutions I would employ, but this 1 rule alone may proscribe the need for further action. » Posted By funksands On June 20, 2014 @ 1:58 pm “At Last!”: How HP Continues to Cultivate Cynicism EX, no worries. The challenge that NAFTA created for Mexican farmers is that they now had to compete on a level playing field with big agribusiness in the US….which still receive huge subsidies to produce crops that are staples in Mexico (especially corn). Very quickly they found that they couldn’t compete and the farms went out of business. Now these farmers head north to work the fields in the US, creating an immigration problem where before there was less of one. Its estimated that nearly 2 million farm jobs in Mexico were wiped out. » Posted By funksands On June 20, 2014 @ 12:26 pm See Murph’s post for a much better take on this. » Posted By funksands On June 19, 2014 @ 9:38 pm LOL KT, you want context too? This was in response to a recent publication that shows Bill Clinton with a 55% approval rating and Obama with a 41% approval rating, and a higher approval rating among Democrats. Sorry for the seeming non-sequitur » Posted By funksands On June 19, 2014 @ 9:31 pm EXFAN: Except for Truman, LBJ, and Carter you’d be right. Nor do I consider a surplus virtuous. » Posted By funksands On June 19, 2014 @ 9:25 pm Exfan, that sounds great. Do you think it was worth putting nearly 50% of Mexican farmers out of business and costing the US almost 700K jobs? » Posted By funksands On June 19, 2014 @ 9:20 pm See, this is why Bill Clinton is more popular than Barack Obama with liberals and moderates 1. Don’t Ask Don’t Tell All of this explains why Clinton is still more popular with liberals than Obama is. *Sigh* » Posted By funksands On June 17, 2014 @ 5:27 pm This is probably the most egregious example of this problem in recent memory: » Posted By funksands On June 20, 2014 @ 9:42 pm Understanding How the Military Works It’ll be a good problem to have, but what do we do with all of the peacetime military folks? If we brought them all home, we’d need to find jobs for 250K or so ex-military. (These are just military stationed overseas, let alone at home) Right now, the military is at best an expensive public jobs program, at worst a slush fund rathole that we’re dropping undisclosed amounts of cash into, so what do we do with the people we “lay off”? Do we have the political will to have another real GI Bill? Like I said, a good problem to have. » Posted By funksands On June 17, 2014 @ 5:10 pm The Bush Legacy 2.0: The Dissolving of Iraq Into Warring Factions Kalima, this one was a real moldy oldy. 🙂 » Posted By funksands On June 14, 2014 @ 9:44 pm Thanks Choice, while I’m not sure if that was his motivation or not, certainly some in the military and in the dominionist wing of his party were very pleased. » Posted By funksands On June 14, 2014 @ 9:43 pm Outlandish, Mr. McCain simply believes that if we had “warred better” powdered wigs, constitutions and free markets would have sprouted all over Iraq. » Posted By funksands On June 13, 2014 @ 6:46 pmComments Posted By funksands
48.3% of all drug-related arrests last year in the US were for simple possession of marijuana
Drug Cartels are funded by the war on drugs
Prisons are funded by the war on drugs
Big Pharma is funded by the war on drugs
I find her bill to outlaw flag burning to be juvenile
She has very little to say about income inequality
Her past “all energy sources” energy policy is outdated
Her support of Labor is murky
Is an unequivocal supporter of Isreal and their claims
She is very critical of NAFTA
Voted against CAFTA
She unveiled what was essentially Obamacare during her campaign, so I expect her to continue to protect and enhance it, while being open to its evolution to single-payer
Her positions on immigration are quite reasonable and thought out.
She is very reasonable on gun issues.
2) That their belief isn’t based in any science or reality doesn’t matter
4) And can never be used as a precedent in future cases
2. Repeal of Glass-Steagall – Allowed investment firms and banks to become one again.
3. Commodity Futures Modernization Act – Which led to deregulation of credit-default swaps and toxic mortgages that nearly wrecked the earth’s economy –
4. Defense of Marriage Act
5. Work for Welfare Act
6. NAFTA / WTO
http://www.medicalsupplychain.com/pdf/Medicare%20Part%20D%20Reform%20&%20Coruption%20Issues.pdf
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