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

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 […]

Phrase of the Day: Fournier Transform

Dan here…hang on to this definition for examples.  It is also full of  Robert’s somewhat unique humor.  Lifted from Robert Waldmann’s Stochastic Thoughts. Phrase of the Day: Fournier Transform Fournier Transform: This phrase is a technical term which describes the process through which an urgently needed excellent moderate proposal supported by all very serious centrist […]

So, you want a pipe line? Jobs? Addendum: Ok veto the XL, it doesn’t matter.

Addendum below. A very interesting article at Daily Kos has been posted.   Title: There’s been HOW many Pipeline spills in Alberta in the last Four Months? Seems the Canadian news system does not find oil, gas and toxic water spills from the mining of carbon fuels to be news worthy.   But, the native Indian sure […]

In which I compare Rand Paul, Jay Ackroyd, and David Dayan

Lifted from Robert Waldmann‘s StochasticThoughts In which I compare  Rand Paul, Jay Ackroyd, and David Dayan Jay Ackroyd notes DDay’s excellent policy proposals. I comment That is indeed an excellent list. I especially like point 3 (I think it is useful to ask people how much money Medicare Advantage saved the government if they object). […]

Election Puzzle

by Linda Beale Election Puzzle The elections got me down.  I must admit that I am truly puzzled by the American electorate–that is, the very small slice of American voters that actually makes it to the polls and votes.  We know that many of the right-wing efforts at voter repression –claimed as necessary to deal […]

Guest post: 8.2 Miles from Mutuality

by Rev. Nathan Detering (First Parish church, Sherborn, MA, delivered October , 2014) Guest post:    8.2 Miles from Mutuality “We are caught in an escapable network of mutuality, Tied in a single garment of destiny. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice Everywhere.” How many of us have heard the words before, just by […]

Ferguson and policy

Via Daily Kos: …there is a new study from the Economic Policy Institute titled “The Making of Ferguson” which suggests that conditions in towns like Ferguson are not random or accidental, but are instead the result of nearly a century of bigoted public policy and private biases against black people. Follow over the fold to […]

A thought for Sunday: the importance of state-level third parties

– by New Deal democrat   (from Bonddad blog) A thought for Sunday: the importance of state-level third parties [You know the drill. It’s Sunday.  Regular nerdy economic blogging will resume tomorrow.  And be sure to read Bonddad’s latest summary, below] There was a devastating piece about the Democratic Party published about a month ago […]