Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Krugman, 1980 And All That

Dan here…Paul Krugman New York Times Dec. 24 notes Robert’s thinking on current story lines by some economists in macromedia.  Other posts by Robert on the subject can be found here, here, here, and here.  Krugman writes:  Robert Waldmann is shocked, shocked, to find conservative economists not doing their homework: Even now, I am shocked that economists didn’t bother to […]

Magical Thinking and the Paranoid Style

Guest Post by Mark Jamison, a retired Postmaster in North Carolina. The Rightwing echo chamber has gone nuts at the comments of Jonathon Gruber, comments that were, at the least insensitive and more than a little cynical. Gruber’s assertions that the American public was not very bright and had to be tricked into accepting Obamacare […]

Cynthia Lummis’s (Stunningly) Glib Fraud: A Follow-Up

Cynthia Lummis, a wealthy Republican House member from Wyoming, claims her husband passed away, thanks in part to Obamacare. Lummis cited the law as a major contributing factor to her husband’s demise. Instead of blaming her husband, who could easily have afforded the test (who elected to skip the necessary diagnostic), she blames the best […]

Cynthia Lummis’s (Stunningly) Glib Fraud

The big news story of the last 24 hours, of course, is the Senate Intelligence Committee’s sickening torture report.  But you might also have heard about Wyo. Rep. Cynthia Lummis’s dramatic statement yesterday as a member of Darrell Issa’s Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s Jonathan Gruber/Marilyn Tavenner Obamacare hearing. The purpose of the hearing […]

Prez throws PRC Chair under the bus, WaPo misses the bus completely

Guest Post by Steve Hutkins of Save The Post Office Josh Hicks has a piece in yesterday’s Washington Post about the announcement that Ruth Goldway (pictured in China) had stepped down as Chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission, to be replaced by Commissioner Robert Taub as Acting Chairman. It’s entitled “Jet-setting postal regulator replaced amid […]

Why Congress Should Not Get Out of the Way of the Postal Service

Guest Post by Mark Jamison, retired Postmaster. News of Ron Johnson the Tea Party favorite from Wisconsin taking over as chair of the Senate committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs has caused an overwhelming sense of panic among progressives and postal workers. Johnson will control oversight of the Postal Service in the Senate. There […]

Racism or a Nation’s Reality ? ? ?

Crooks and Liars has a post up on it’s site here: Wingnut Cartoonist At Indy Star Gets His (Gary Varvel) Cartoon Yanked Claiming the cartoon was overtly racist, the Indianapolis Star eventually yanked it after initially removing the mustache off of the man coming through the window claiming the mustache created an image too ethic. […]

The Fournier Transform

Lifted from Robert’s Stochastic Thoughts: The Fournier Transform Near Stupidoclypse Alert Major meme #Fournierderp It looks as if Ron Fournier may sweep the left blogosphere. I read this by Joan McCarter at DailyKos The nation’s most stubborn and willfully ignorant pundit, Ron “why won’t Obama lead and make Republicans like him” Fournier, strikes again. On […]

Election, democracy, Hong Kong and the US

This is a 7 minute video that looks at the way money has reduced the voter population that counts down to a handful.  Sure, we all get to vote, but it’s the things that happen before the final vote that makes the real decision.  How often do we hear that there is no one to […]

Paul Waldman gives voice to my own dismay at the silly “Republicans now need to ‘show they can govern,’ because everyone wants to ‘get things done’” line …

… here.  It’s nonsense.  Obvious, absolute nonsense. Why are so many pundits buying into this line?  Maybe because they’ve heard it over and over and over, from other pundits? Sorta like other things they’ve heard over and over and over, that maybe they should stop buying?  Yeah, probably.