Green Eagle

Doesn't it seem at times as if there is only one newspaper columnist in the country who is actually allowed to tell the truth? "...how can you justify enriching the already wealthy while making life harder for those struggling to get by? The answer is, you need an economic theory claiming that such a policy is the key to prosperity for all. So supply-side economics fills a need backed by lots of money, and the fact that it keeps failing doesn’t matter. And the Kansas debacle won’t matter either. Oh, it will briefly give states considering similar policies pause. But the effect won’t last long, because faith in tax-cut magic isn’t about evidence; it’s about finding reasons to give powerful interests what they want." Let me remind you about John Stockman, Ronald Reagan's budget director.  In the second edition of his memoirs, he added a section describing Reagan and his advisors ridiculing anyone who actually believed in supply-side economics.  It wa...

Ha ha- the upside down comment of the year: Kevin Glass, Town Hall:  "Harry Reid and Senate Dems Refuse To Actually Legislate" "Legislate," in this case, meaning "caving in and letting the Republican minority do whatever it wants."  Kevin actually blames Democrats for requiring a 60-vote majority to pass amendments, apparently forgetting the 500 or so times the Republicans have filibustered to death bills which had majority support. And the most pathetic attempt lately to exonerate the Bush administration from responsibility for Iraq; John Ransome, Town Hall:  " The trouble in Iraq didn’t start in 2003, or in 1990—the First Gulf War—or with the toppling of the Shah of Iran in 1979. Or in operation “Ajax” in 1953 when we deposed the government of Iran and installed the Shah in its place.  Everything in history is part of what came before it." Except when Obama does it, of course. John Ransome, Town Hall:  "Hey UAW: IF You Don't ...

I think that's about where Obama's popularity is now.  A far cry from the low of 13% reached by Obama's persecutor Dick Cheney, or the 22% mark achieved by Cheney's tool, the President who allowed him to do his dirty work, but still, not very good.  He must be doing a really bad job, right? Meanwhile, in other news, from the New York Times: "Less than a year ago, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and his forces were sporadically using chemical weapons on rebels and civilians in the civil war. Today, the stockpile that he grudgingly admitted to under international pressure is gone...the deal brokered by the United States and Russia that eliminated the known arsenal — a 1,300-ton cache of chemical agents — has achieved an important result. On Monday, Syria delivered the last of its known stocks to the Syrian port of Latakia where they were loaded aboard a Danish ship. ...the outcome has proved the wisdom of President Obama’s decision to threaten, and then back...

Tomorrow is the one hundredth anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo.  I think it would do us well to consider the terror that was unleashed by that event.  Here are some pictures, one from the first battle of the Marne, and one from probably the most horrific battle of the war, the final struggle for Passchendaele. The true end of the Victorian era, when people discovered that technology was not going to usher in a world of peace and plenty previously unknown. So many people still seem unable to face the fact that this is not a good thing, no matter what the outcome.  They still call for war every chance they get, oblivious to the fact that once it gets started no one knows what will happen.  In 1914, great majorities on both sides were confident that war would lead to their quick victory.  We've had our taste of that in Iraq the last decade or so, and yet still the dogs of war howl.  And there seems to be no way to...

I have spoken often here about the similarities between the great depression and the economic disaster of 2008, and how they both were products of the same self-serving Republican economic cant.  I call it cant rather than mistaken ideology, because as we all know now, no one ever believed these nonsensical theories; they were simply self-serving justifications for what the Republicans and their rich masters intended to do anyway. Well, none of that has changed, but today I want to talk about a great difference between what happened in the 1920's and the calamity that Ronald Reagan unleashed during his Presidency, and which has culminated in thirty short years in reducing much of the country to third world status.  For, there is a major difference between the Coolidge and Harding years and what Reagan visited upon us. From the founding of this country (well, since the beginning of mankind, unfortunately) we have had to suffer characters of unmitigated greed and unrestrained se...

He's dark skinned.  His father is from a foreign country with lots of Muslims.  And he is dedicated to destroying our government: "I can sense right now a rebellion brewing amongst these United States, where people are ready for a hostile takeover of Washington, D.C..." My God, this is just what the Republicans have been screaming about ever since Obama took office!  Finally, the direct evidence needed for impeachment! Oh, wait...it's not Obama, it's this guy: Bobby Jindal, Republican Governor of Louisiana and sometime Presidential candidate, who is now openly inciting rebellion and the overthrow of the Federal government.  I am sure the Republicans in the House will be having hearings about this situation any day now.

 They're back.  As usual, with their load of malicious nonsense: Guy Benson, Town Hall:  "Study: Average Individual Market Premiums Soar 49 Percent Under Obamacare" This is a "study" by the Manhattan Institute: "The Manhattan Institute (MI) is a right-wing 501(c)(3) non-profit think tank founded in 1978 by William J. Casey, who later became President Ronald Reagan's CIA director. "The Manhattan Institute concerns itself with such things as 'welfare reform' (dismantling social programs), 'faith-based initiatives' (blurring the distinction between church and state), and 'education reform' (destroying public education)," Kurt Nimmo wrote October 10, 2002, in CounterPunch." Major funders:  (I know this is going to surprise you) the Koch brothers.  Why, they would never lie about Obamacare, right? Katie Pavlich, Town Hall:  "Hillary Clinton's Legacy: Defending Rapists and Sexual Predators " Yup,...