Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Who is Responsible for the Economic Mess?

UPDATE II: Another story about our responsible neighbors to the north. Read the Washington Post, On debt, Canada shows us the way out.

How did they cut government debt? The old fashion way, they "cut farm and business subsidies, scaled back social programs (including health care) and eliminated 55,000 public sector jobs."

Locally, don't expect much help from our Republi-con congressman. His wealthy family members received millions of dollars in farm subsidies. He even proudly opposed an effort by the taxpayer-subsided postal service to close a small local post office.


UPDATE: Updating an oldie but goodies, what and who caused the economic mess?

Hint: what country with similar circumstances to the U.S. did not suffer from deregulation and lack of government oversight (caused primarily by Republi-cons, with help from the stupid Naive-ocrats)?

Still can't figure it out, then read The New York Times, Good and Boring

Maybe I'll move to Canada.

P.S. Here is another oldie but goodie about how we got into the economic mess.


If you had to name one person responsible for the current financial mess, who would it be? No, it is not George W. Hoover, but it is a Republi-con. Need another hint, read The New York Times, Deregulator Looks Back, Unswayed.

Another Example of How Fear, Anger, Hatred = Violence

UPDATE: Why "many of America's poorest citizens have a deep emotional attachment to a party that serves the interests of its richest." Read BBC News, Why do people vote against their own interests?

Fear, anger, and hatred is a great campaign strategy. And the Naive-ocrats are too stupid to call the bluff -- give the public what it claims it wants until they don't want it anymore.


UPDATE V: A whole book on how Fear, Anger, Hatred + Radical Right-Wing Media = Violence. Read "The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right," which discusses the connections between conservative media messaging and hate crime. The author has a checklist of "the mobilizing passions," which include:

1. A sense of overwhelming crisis beyond the reach of any traditional solutions.

2. The primacy of the group, toward which one has duties superior to every right, both universal and personal, and the subordination of the individual to it.

3. The belief that the group one belongs to is victimized, which justifies any action without legal or moral limits against the group's enemies, both internal and external.

4. Dread of the group's decline under the corrosive effect of individualistic liberalism, class conflict, and alien influences.

5. The need for closer integration of a purer community, by consent if possible, or by exclusionary violence if necessary.

6. The need for authority by natural leaders (always male), culminating in a national chief who alone is capable of incarnating the group's destiny.

7. The superiority of the leader's instincts over abstract and universal reason.

8. The beauty of violence and the efficacy of will, when they are devoted to the group's success.

9. The right of the "chosen people" to dominate others without restraint from any human or divine law, "right" being decided solely by the group's prowess in a Darwinian struggle.


UPDATE IV: And yet another interesting editorial from The New York Times, The Obama Haters' Silent Enablers.


UPDATE III: Two more interesting editorials from The New York Times, The Way We Are and Hate in a Cocoon of Silence.


UPDATE II: For an argument, with examples, that "right-wing extremism is being systematically fed by the conservative media and political establishment . . . [going] out of their way to provide a platform for conspiracy theories and apocalyptic rhetoric, just as they did the last time a Democrat held the White House," read The New York Times, The Big Hate.

BTW, the writer's opinion is worth considering even if you might disagree with him, he won the Nobel Prize for Economics last year, and is also a Princeton economist and a New York Times columnist.

Does anyone know how many Nobel Prize winners work for Hedgehog News (which falsely uses the name FOXNews)?


UPDATE: From the Washington Post:

Read Feeding the Lone Wolves, and enjoy:




Is it more Republi-Con inspired violence? Probably not so much this time.

But if you need another example of how fear, anger, and hatred can warp judgment, read The New York Times, Museum Gunman a Longtime Foe of Government.

Those that prey on fear, anger, hatred for their own success should know that all too often it leads to violence.