The deafening noise coming from Republicans about the deficit is nothing but a lot of…. noise. Most of these people, especially on the far fringe right, are talking about something that they really do not understand.
Many understand the underlying thought but a picture will help to reinforce the concept. Towards that goal, here is an extremely simplified picture of the economy:
The concept to keep in mind here is that the economy is a network of circulating money.… [Read more]
The American dream of the 1950s — owning a home in suburbia — is no longer what it seems. Single income households are generally a thing of the past, and residential renting became much more practical when the housing market turned downwards at the onset of the economic recession. As single family home sales stalled, condominium purchases picked up some slack.… [Read more]
In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, the contrast is striking. On the one hand, we have a President who’s cancelled campaign stops, and who’s calling on donations to the American Red Cross instead of his campaign. As reported by the Huffington Post: “On the campaign side, Obama halted his flood of fundraising emails on Sunday, and the campaign is now using its Twitter, Facebook and campaign pages to instead urge donations to the Red Cross storm relief.… [Read more]
As city after city surveys the damage left in Hurricane Sandy’s path in the east coast, photos show the devastation of entire neighbourhoods covered in sand and slowly-receding water. Even more sad is the reported loss of lives to the storm; a sad fact from which some may never recover. According to MSNBC nearly 8 million remain without electric power — and though crews are working feverishly to restore and repair, it’s impossible to pinpoint when a sense of normalcy will return.… [Read more]
Hunkered down in my apartment in Virginia Beach, VA, I’ve been running circles from the windows to the TV to the computer, obsessing on Hurricane Sandy since 3:45 Monday morning. I noticed something unusual—little to no political ads. Not much in the way of campaign propaganda whatsoever. Was I simply sleep deprived, or was something unusual going on?… [Read more]
Just when we think we’ve identified all of the end-of-days religious wingnuts, along comes another. This time, it’s self-styled Chaplain John McTernan. Yesterday he went way off the deep end, which would be easy if he were in lower Manhattan, today, when he blamed Hurricane Sandy on the gays.… [Read more]
Nonsensical, draconian laws of Saudi Arabia make news more often than not in world media. But what just occurred seems to be setting new records in ignorance. Each year millions of Muslims from all over the world visit the kingdom to perform pilgrim in Makkah, as part of their faith, for earning spiritual rewards. This time, the Saudi authorities decided to vaccinate pilgrims coming from certain countries where polio is still considered endemic.… [Read more]
It has been said that politics is a local issue. Given all the attention being paid to this crucial presidential election, it should be remembered that many of the issues affecting us take place on the national level but, as we have seen over the past nearly 4 years of the Obama administration, it is the state-level politicians — the senators and congressmen — who have the ability to support or block efforts that affect the entire nation.… [Read more]
Nothing fries the circuits of the proud, ostensibly principled American progressive psyche to the same degree of fricassee as the Right (Troglodyte Division) in its fullest and finest bellow. From my safe, snowball throwing perch on the Canadian south coast, I read, mark, and inwardly digest the US presidential campaign detritus flung northward. I am constantly amazed at how readily Democrats rise to the bait cast so effortlessly by the baying conservative sportsmen.… [Read more]
Conservative loudmouth Rush Limbaugh ranted about a funny Obama for President ad featuring HBO TV show “Girls” actress Lena Dunham, titled “First Time.” Yes, the same Rush Limbaugh who lost a ton of advertisers not too many months ago after calling Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke a “slut.” Turns out college dropout Limbaugh didn’t fare well in that exchange.… [Read more]
