Oh the times, they are a changin’.
- Foreshadowing (Gin and Tacos) We’re six months out from the election, and I’m already exhausted. It takes a titanic effort of will to generate the level of scorn I feel for pretty much everyone to the left of me on a daily basis. So, I’m going to be taking a step back. We have big problems in this country, and the he-said/she-said/they-said bullshit isn’t helping. There are far too few lights illuminating the dark things that hide in the shadows of our national politics, and even if this is only a single candle in the inky blackness, it’s a start.
- The purpose of spectacular wealth, according to a spectacularly wealthy guy (NY Times) If I were one of this guy’s friends, I would take him out for a drink and explain to him that extolling the virtues of being in the investor class at a time where unemployment is still around 8%, wages and bonuses for ordinary Americans are still frozen, and anyone under the age of 35 is pretty much completely fucked, is so tone deaf as to be embarassing. However, I am not one of this guy’s friends, so I just have to suppress the urge to fly to New York, buy a shovel, and smack him in the head with it.
- Becoming Obama (Vanity Fair) An interesting look at the life of our President as a young man.
- If Republicans are the problem, Americans Elect is no solution (Huffington Post) This is one of my main gripes with third party/centrist movements. You know who the centrists are? They’re people who are so intellectually lazy they can’t be bothered to get off the bench and learn something about the people they’re voting for. If the GOP has proven anything, it’s that you can win a lot of elections pandering to your base. Frankly, I’d like to see the Democrats try that for once, instead of selling us out in the hopes of grabbing a piece of this mythical sliver of Americans who won’t make up their minds until they’re in the voting booth. Why not reach out to the folks that know who they’re gonna vote for before they set foot in their local polling place?
- Richard Grenell hounded from Romney campaign by anti-gay conservatives (Washington Post) “Well excuse me, you right-wing, xenophobic, homophobic, anti-education, anti-choice, pro-gun, “Leave it to Beaver” trip back to the 50s… No more.”
- Our Mr. Brooks goes a-wanderin’ for a metaphor (Esquire) Moral Hazard returns!
- Poor Rupert (Esquire) My sincerest hope is that Obama’s Justice Department spends the entirety of his second term prosecuting Rupert Murdoch and News Corp for their myriad crimes, primarily Fox News and cancelling Firefly.
- The “End” of Occupy and the Corruption of our Country (Esquire) Occupy continues to yell at the right buildings.
- IamA Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist (Reddit) Paul Krugman does an IamA on Reddit. Great reads.
- A Rebellion at the Federal Reserve? (The Atlantic) In the world of monetary policy, this is a big deal.
- Conservatives: Always overestimating the leadership of GOP politicians. (The Atlantic) It’s hard to overestimate zero, but somehow they do it.
- Reflexive bipartisanship is just as problematic as obstruction. (The Atlantic) The answers to our problems do not like inbetween the two parties as they exist today. They lie in the middle of the political spectrum, which is left of were the modern Democratic party is now.
- Millennials: The Greatest Generation of the Most Narcissistic? (The Atlantic) Yesterday, President Obama praised the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan as being part of a new “Greatest Generation”. And here we find an article pointing out that Millennials are liable to be less civic minded than their predecessors. So, who are we?
- Gary Johnson and the End of Marijuana as a fringe issue (The Atlantic) This will be a thing in the next Presidential election.
- A primary care doctor explains why attacking prevention is not fiscally sound (The Atlantic) And yet the GOP is itching to gut funding for preventative healthcare.
- New World Trade Center, built by union labor, becomes New York’s tallest building. (ThinkProgress) As it should be.
- Republican Judge Jerry Smith blocks pro-Planned Parenthood order just hours after it was issued (ThinkProgress) Why? Because Jerry Smith is a jackass, and should be disbarred for his temper tantrums.
- Britain “does” austerity so the US doesn’t have to (Al Jazeera) The beatings will continue until morale improves.
