We Fight Low Information
Carl Bloice is a writer in San Francisco, a member of the National Coordinating Committee of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism and formerly worked for a healthcare union.
Carl Bloice: The Congressional Progressive Caucus budget that is far more sensible and humane than anything the White House is proposing. But since the “serious” people in Washington don’t cotton to it, the serious mainstream media won’t give it the time of day.
Carl Bloice: It is hard to imagine legislation that is even close to adequate coming from bartering with a GOP leadership that won’t even agree that climate change is real.
Carl Bloice: The words of a party’s platform and the declarations of its candidate don’t mean much in the real world of political wheeling and dealing.
Carl Bloice: It’s funny how a dramatic political crisis can focus the mind, how things like the Occupy movement and the European voters’ revolt can shift perception — even the public expression — of the powers-that-be in politics and the media.
Carl Bloice: Calderon reportedly pointed to the fact that discussions on Cuba and drug policy were even held, saying it marked a “radical and unthinkable” departure from previous summits.
Carl Bloice: With industry executives raking in fantastic and unwarranted riches while the lives of workers from Sunnyvale to Pittsburgh are rendered ever more precarious, whatever is happening certainly is lopsided.
Carl Bloice: The AIPAC weekend turned out to be a disappointment for Cheney and the other homegrown U.S. political opportunists and reckless supporters of Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu and his rightwing Likud party.
Carl Bloice: If the country were really impoverished, there would be some legitimacy to the idea that we really couldn’t afford to properly meet the needs the elderly, people with disabilities and the poor.
Carl Bloice: There are an estimated 3.5 million seriously delinquent mortgages out there. There were nearly 2.7 million foreclosure filings on about 1.9 million homes last year. That’s down from 2007, but it’s still about one out of every 69 homes in the country.
Carl Bloice: The average period of unemployment now exceeds 26 weeks, well above the previous peak in July 1983 of just 21.2 weeks. This is critical because the longer that people of any age are out of work, the less likely they are to find another job.
Carl Bloice: Occupy activists are thinking deeply about how we might incorporate opposition to racism, class exploitation, homophobia, xenophobia, ableism, violence done to the environment and transphobia into the resistance of the 99%.
Carl Bloice: Several Democrats said during the day that the presentation had the support of a majority of the six Democrats on the panel, leaving the impression that at least one, and possibly two, of the party’s lawmakers had not signed on — possibly Becerra and Clyburn.
Carl Bloice: Greed is rampant, poverty and economic inequality are growing relentlessly in our country and our political system is ever increasingly corrupted by money. The system is in trouble.
Carl Bloice: Most of the current prognosis as dire, but there are those who think it is not dire enough, that what the chief economist for the International Monetary Fund called “dangerous new phase” in the world economy is more perilous than is being publicly admitted.
Carl Bloice: The President has apparently done one thing that will firm up support at his “base”: He’s stopped making threats to curtail Medicare. Hopefully, he’s put a stop to Republicans running around quoting him to the effect that it and Social Security are the biggest drivers of the federal deficit.
Carl Bloice: The danger remains that those in the Administration’s camp who are never anything but political operatives will prevail, opportunity will give way to political expediency and fall prey to the notion that the 2012 election trumps all
Carl Bloice: Obviously, there is nothing demographically representative of the Gang of 12. It’s hardly democratic; but then, there is nothing particularly democratic about the whole setup.
Carl Bloice: If the people who set the Tea Party in motion and sustain it want a mandatory “balanced budget” there is a democratic way of going about getting one; introduce specific legislation. They wouldn’t take that route.
Carl Bloice: All across the country social services, which largely benefit lower income women, men and children are being cut back and people who made them function are being added to the ranks of the unemployed.
Carl Bloice: If one out of ten people seeking work can’t find any, it follows that the average person has a friend, relative or neighbor amongst them. All she or he has to do is look out the window or answer the phone to be scared.
Carl Bloice: The country really does need a deal right now; that’s as in ‘New Deal.” There are a lot of people, groups and new movements out there proposing that we come up with one.
Carl Bloice: The problem is that the President is now ignoring the wise counsel of those who are saying clearly and forcefully that this “deficit reduction” business is a shuck.
Carl Bloice: With public opinion across the political spectrum clearly opposed to slashing the healthcare and retirement programs, any negotiated settlement would be undemocratic.
Carl Bloice: If the whole, hardly-nail-biting business accomplished nothing else it momentarily diverted attention away from the big budget fight coming up, the one that will probably shape the country’s economic and social reality for decades to come.
Carl Bloice: Why is it that the richest and most powerful nation on earth cannot provide adequately for both its students and its retirees?
Carl Bloice: The demise of the Gadhafi regime would benefit the people of Libya, the Middle East and Africa. No doubt about it. But it cannot be avoided that the present military assault is hypocritical in the extreme, and has imperial motives related to the country’s oil reserves
Carl Bloice: ‘The president and his aides know that the G.O.P. approach to the budget is wrongheaded and destructive,” New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote March 11. “But they’ve stopped making the case for an alternative approach; instead, they’ve positioned themselves as know-nothings lite, accepting the notion that spending must be slashed immediately – just not as much as Republicans want.
JP Sotille: Like so many of the so-called “Left” in America, Maher has basically accepted the key notion that a whole population of like-minded people have decided to kill Americans because of an irrational religious belief system.
Ivan Eland: Less scrupulous Republicans, such as McCain and Graham, should realize that their line of attack on Benghazi is not strong–Americans don’t usually vote on foreign policy unless a huge catastrophe has occurred.
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