From Pine View Farm

Political Economy category archive

A Choice, Not an Echo 0

Ballot labeled

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A Tune for the Times 0

Mangy comments at the Youtube page:

Mangy Fetlocks, long an admirer of Donald Trump’s incredibly articulate turns of phrase, was greatly honored this year when he was asked by TRUMpp to perform his OFFICIAL Valentine’s Song, with lyrics by Donald just for this special day. (The tune is entirely of Mangy’s own creation, due to the fact that Trump is not only color blind, as proven by his friendship with Kanye West, but tone deaf as well. )

NOTE. NFT’s of individual words from the song will issued at a later date, printed on Donald’s own home-office printer, for only $500 per word. For $25,000,a complete transcript of these emotional and profound lyrics can be attained, printed on archival Mar-a-Lardo toilet paper and individually signed by Trump’s pool boy, Marco. What a fabulous gift for a family member, graduating senior, or incontinent uncle! Copies of the NFT copies of the copies are limited to a release of just TWO (million) so they are sure to skyrocket in value.

Sorry I got distracted. Back to Mangy.

Mangy’s song stylings here bring out the inner essence of Trump’s romantic ballad, touching our hearts and filling them with Valentine’s joy and heartburn. He hopes you enjoy his artistic collaboration with Donald.

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The Master Plan, Reprise 0

Uncle Sam, lying in a hospital bed labed

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The Galt and the Lamers 0

Thom looks at what would happen if Glibertarians got their way.

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Where Is My Fainting Couch? 0

David Jolly, in a letter to the editor of the Bangor Daily News, advances a shocking proposal:

Instead of fighting the poor, maybe we should fight poverty.

I must search for my pearls, as I must needs clutch them.

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“The Silent Revolution in American Economics” 0

Robert Reich argues that President Biden is working to reverse the damage done to the economy and to workers’ rights since the Reagan Devolution.

Or you can read the transcript.

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Scapegoating Scholarship 0

Sam and Emma talk with professor Nick Kraus about the neoliberal campaign against (small-l) liberal education.

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The Privatization Scam 0

Sam and the crew dissect the deception behind the duplicity behind the double-talk.

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Our Welfare State 0

Robert Reich (emphasis added):

“We renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country,” Donald Trump has said.

Someone should alert him that America is already a hotbed of socialism. But it’s socialism for the rich. Everyone else is treated to harsh capitalism.

Follow the link for his evidence.

H/T Job’s Anger.

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Manifest Dynasty 0

Thom looks at the intellectual rationales plutocrat propaganda used to justify This New Gilded Age.

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Denial Is Not Just a River in Egypt 0

Chris Satullo looks at the numbers, which indicate that unemployment is down, inflation is down, employment is up, and, that in general, the economy is in the best shape it’s been in years.

He wonders why so many person aren’t willing to believe the evidence. Here’s a bit from his article:

OK, to review: Facts don’t matter. Verified, on-point statistics don’t matter. Only aggrieved feelings – and anecdotes that flatter those feelings – matter.

(snip)

Vast numbers of Americans, for a variety of reasons, prefer to feel miserable, angry, oppressed, screwed, cornered. And eager to blame the president, the guy on whose watch all those real economic measures improved, for how they feel.

. . . and many apparently feel that the only way to lift us out of these doldrums is to bring back the guy who told us to drink bleach to cure COVID.

Or, to put is another way, “It’s the Stupid, Economy.”

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“Reverse Robin Hood” 0

Michael in Norfolk explains why the Koch network has decided to support Nikki Haley. A snippet:

. . . when one looks at Haley’s position on tax cuts and cuts to Social Security and Medicare, one discovers that she is fully onboard with the “Reverse Robin Hood” agenda so loved by the Kochs and their political allies. Haley basically wants to take from the working and middle classes and give more tax breaks to the very wealthy.

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This New Gilded Age 0

At the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Gene Collier forcefully argues that what lies behind many price increases is not, as Republicans would have you think, inflation, but, rather, greedflation. Here’s a bit from his article:

Last week, a jury in the Northern District of Illinois found unanimously that multiple American egg producers conspired to limit the egg supply in order to raise prices, using the same market-rigging practices they’ve deployed since at least 2004.

Such price-tampering methods included exporting eggs to reduce the domestic supply and limiting the number of chickens through various means including artificially limiting cage space, flock reduction, and “early slaughter.”

(snip)

The result of all that, you’ll doubtless recall, was ridiculously high egg prices Republicans blamed on Joe Biden, the old chicken farmer. More pointedly, it validated what some economists had taken to calling greedflation.

His whole piece is worth your while.

Afterthought:

This is the result of not enforcing anti-trust laws, of thinking that trusts can be trusted.

The first Gilded Age taught us that they could not, and we chose to forget that lesson.

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The Disconnect 0

Newsman on TV says,

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Persons Sometimes Forget: Words Have Meanings 0

I think my old Philly DL friend Noz might be onto something.

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Back to Basics 0

Republican Elephant lighting a molotov cocktail in front of IRS headquarters says,

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A Tune for the Times 0

Mangy tries to make sense of senselessness.

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Accessories after the Fact, Reprise 0

Susan Estrich exposes the con. A nugget (emphasis added):

Cutting funding to the bogeyman IRS is a key item on the crazy right-wing agenda. Forget about all the studies that say that fully funding the IRS is critical to cutting the deficit. This is not because more middle-class families will be audited; the purpose of the funds that were added to the IRS budget is to ensure that corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes.

But don’t tell that to Johnson, who wasted no time at all in getting on the hard-right bandwagon, wrongly trying to convince middle-class taxpayers that they are the ones who will be paying the bill if the IRS budget isn’t cut.

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Accessories after the Fact 0

Monopoly

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Who’s Responsible for “the Weekend”? 0

Organized labor, that’s who.

Via Robert Reich.

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