Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

The only way through is to slog through the muck one step at at time.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

Books are my comfort food!

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

Second rate reporter says what?

People are weird.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Monday Morning Open Thread

Monday Morning Open Thread

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Via LGF, some music to raise up your spirits. (The documentary, it appears, is available for streaming on Netflix.)
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And for those who need distraction from fretting over the intransigence of the Roberts Court, Paul Krugman and Robin Wells have a review that the NYRB headlines “How Politics Is Crushing the Economy” and they call “Getting Away With It“:

When Obama was elected in 2008, many progressives looked forward to a replay of the New Deal. The economic situation was, after all, strikingly similar. As in the 1930s, a runaway financial system had led first to excessive private debt, then financial crisis; the slump that followed (and that persists to this day), while not as severe as the Great Depression, bears an obvious family resemblance. So why shouldn’t policy and politics follow a similar script?

But while the economy now may bear a strong resemblance to that of the 1930s, the political scene does not, because neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are what once they were. Coming into the Obama presidency, much of the Democratic Party was close to, one might almost say captured by, the very financial interests that brought on the crisis; and as the Booker and Clinton incidents showed, some of the party still is. Meanwhile, Republicans have become extremists in a way they weren’t three generations ago; contrast the total opposition Obama has faced on economic issues with the fact that most Republicans in Congress voted for, not against, FDR’s crowning achievement, the Social Security Act of 1935…

So… What’s on the agenda for the start of the new week?

Reader Interactions

38Comments

  1. 1.

    Arclite

    The fact that both parties are largely beholden to monied interests is THE issue in politics these days. The Dems are better, but not by much.

  3. 3.

    Baud

    much of the Democratic Party was close to, one might almost say captured by, the very financial interests that brought on the crisis

    FDR was a Wall Street lawyer and his campaigns were financed in part by his Wall Street connections. One of his very first acts was to save the private banking system.

    The real difference between then and now is that, then, the political culture was willing to reward Democrats and punish Republicans for the actions; now, we look for any imperfection as a reason for not supporting Democrats while the GOP is held completely unaccountable.

  4. 4.

    WereBear

    We just got the second issue of Playing for Change, which gives me goosebumps, it’s so good. It’s a project which links street musicians all over the world. They can do incredible things with songs. “Give Me Shelter” is a favorite.

    And a worthy cause.

  5. 5.

    WereBear

    @Baud: FDR was a Wall Street lawyer and his campaigns were financed in part by his Wall Street connections. One of his very first acts was to save the private banking system.

    The very people who vilify him the most are the ones he saved. Some things just don’t change.

  9. 9.

    Betty Cracker

    We’re under a tornado watch, a flood watch, high surf advisory, a high winds warning, a tropical storm watch and a thunderstorm warning. My hens are soggy but otherwise okay.

  10. 10.

    JPL

    @Betty Cracker: Wunderground said that it’s going to be like that for a few days.
    We don’t have a drop of rain in our forecast for the foreseeable future. I sure wish Debby would drift north a few hundred miles.

  11. 11.

    Female on the Beach

    w/ regard to John’s post regarding SCOTUS, fuck ’em. make coverage available through Medicare and, the longer you wait to sign up, the higher your premium will be. just like Medicare. and make it easy as pie and tell everyone exactly what they need to do to sign up.

    then the “Liberty” whiners won’t feel like they are having anything forced on them (no matter how beneficial it may be) and they will have “choice” to sign up and save! (like private insurance, oh my, what a concept! just like Mitt says!) and lead to early enrollment in large numbers.

    tell the “Liberty” fuckers, look, just b/c somebody can walk into an ER half-dead to have some otherwise preventible illness treated, that is not free health care (contrary to what Rush says). we all pay for that damned expensive ER visit, you fucking idiots. so signing up for coverage is not only responsbile thing to do but it is the smart thing to do and it will save all of us money by reducing costs. you fucking idiots.

    ok, i know, i’m only dreaming because I am giving the majority of Americans the benefit of the doubt by assuming they are not all fucking idiots. but it all seems so simple, to me anyway.

    sorry for the overuse of “fucking idiots” but sometimes i just can’t come up with anything more creative or appropriate.

  12. 12.

    Older_Wiser

    Oh, we’re not out of the woods yet, by any means.

    If Marion is right about what’s going on right now, we’re virtually in a “world” of trouble: http://mgpaquin.wordpress.com/

    The dominoes are ready to fall in Europe, I’m afraid, while the central bankers fiddle away, and get away with, their irresponsibility. Don’t think it can’t affect even “recovering” economies, as it already did once in the US. It will if the present course of allowing banks to be the determinant of recovery is allowed, which is what Republicans are pushing and if Dems don’t push back hard enough.

  13. 13.

    Female on the Beach

    oh, and who needs fucking fire fighters, right?

    The blaze . . . has consumed about 2,500 acres since Saturday and triggered evacuation orders for 11,000 people from Colorado Springs and nearby towns. . .The blaze was just one of 20 uncontrolled fires raging in U.S. states on Sunday

  15. 15.

    JGabriel

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    Paul Krugman, from today’s Op-Ed column:

    Why won’t the Fed act? My guess is that it’s intimidated by those Congressional Republicans, that it’s afraid to do anything that might be seen as providing political aid to President Obama, that is, anything that might help the economy.

    I think we need to call this what it is: The Fed is abdicating its responsibility for keeping unemployment low in order to help the Republican Party in an election year.

    Whether Bernanke, et. al., are doing it for partisan reasons or fears of fake Conservative outrage is besides the point. The outcome is the same. The Fed is helping the GOP in an election year through inaction that hurts the economy, particularly unemployed people looking for work.

    .

  16. 16.

    harlana

    oh, forgive my previous post. i forgot how awesome LIBERTY is.

    you have the LIBERTY to watch helplessly as your house burns to the ground, or to watch a loved one suffer and die prematurely because they don’t have health insurance.

    ain’t Liberty grand?!

  21. 21.

    Baud

    @Joseph Nobles:

    On Morning Joe this morning, he said that any SCOTUS decision on the ACA will be bad for Obama.

    I think any decision will be good for Obama. So take that, wanna-be David Brooks.

  23. 23.

    JGabriel

    Betty Cracker:

    We’re under a tornado watch, a flood watch, high surf advisory, a high winds warning, a tropical storm watch and a thunderstorm warning.

    Jeepers, Betty. Be safe and be well.

    .

  25. 25.

    Shalimar

    @Arclite: The Democrats are much, much better, albeit mostly because Republicans have gone so far off the deep end into fantasy beliefs.

  26. 26.

    JPL

    Scotus Watch day..
    Will the police be allowed to stop someone who they think is an illegal immigrant?
    Will we all be forced to eat broccoli?
    Can a 14 year old be imprisoned for life without parole?

    My guess is yes, no, yes
    Scalia needs to take a long vacation with Cheney and Roberts.

  27. 27.

    AnonPhenom

    Any progressive who thought we would have a new New Deal in 2009 without the Damocles sword that the Soviet Union and communism represented to the establishment in the 1930’s had their head up their ass.

  28. 28.

    Elizabelle

    They were expecting a Blue Dog Democratic nominee for the newly drawn 7th Congressional district in coastal South Carolina.

    They got Gloria Bromell Tinubu.

    Little-known Tinubu stuns Grand Strand Democrats

    She’s black. An economist. And out there “talking about President Obama, universal health care and jobs on the campaign trail.”

    She may face a run-off tomorrow, although she won her primary decisively.

    She bested the Blue Dog by 13 points; seems to be a question whether she won the primary with 52% or 49% (if they count the votes for a candidate who dropped out).

    To watch.

  33. 33.

    Face

    I hope Marcos has tripled his server capacity for his DKos disaster, gunna theres gunna be levels of poutrage and butthurt like the world has never seen before once John Roberts Day commences.

  34. 34.

    The Tragically Flip

    @Face:

    So, people should be happy in your world that the most conservative supreme court in living memory simply runs around striking down laws conservatives don’t like on contrived legal theories?

    Maybe people should be mad about that, and not have their legitimate anger be trivialized as “butthurt” – this isn’t like Ben Bradlee’s wife complaining there aren’t good bi-partisan parties anymore. The fucking country is being turned into a feudal state. People aren’t angry enough.

  35. 35.

    The Moar You Know

    Any progressive who thought we would have a new New Deal in 2009 without the Damocles sword that the Soviet Union and communism represented to the establishment in the 1930’s had their head up their ass.

    @AnonPhenom: That most people haven’t figured this out by now is a damning indictment of our educational system. The choice for the rich in the 1930s was stark: lose half or lose it all, and probably lose your life in the bargain.

    We’re not even close to that. The looting will continue.

  36. 36.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Elizabelle: Excellent. That’s what should be being tried most everywhere — testing to see if more proudly liberal candidates can capture the imaginations of the locals.

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