Rebkeh
Rebkeh's JournalPaul Krugman Is Not Making Much Sense
Paul Krugman Is Not Making Much SenseHe needs a reality check. His screed against Sanders in the NY Times misses the boat completely.
By Michael Bader, DMH / AlterNet April 9, 2016
Krugman needs a reality check: Wonkish policy details about economic reform are irrelevant. Sanders isnt an economist. Neither is Clinton. As president, his economic initiatives will have more to do with whom he surrounds himself, not with whether or not he gets it exactly right about the role of the big banks in the 2007 Great Recession.
And Sanders is right enough. Big banks, with their bloated indebtedness and irresponsible lending and support for risky derivatives that even they didnt always understand contributed greatly to the meltdown. Further, these bankers took the bailout money they received from taxpayers and gave themselves big bonuses the next year (until they were shamed into temporarily rescinding them). So, Sanders, I expect, will surround himself not with Wall Street insiders like Lawrence Summers and Timothy Geithner (these are more likely Hilary supporters and fellow-travelers) but, instead, with progressive economists like Dean Baker, Joseph Stiglitz, Robert Reich, and Krugman, himself. The economic policy details that Krugman now demands will most likely emerge from this Sanders-led brain trust, not from a candidate interview with the N.Y. Daily News.
Furthermore, I think Krugman should quit being a martyr by repeatedly saying that Bernie supporters are out there accusing him and other anti-Sanders ideologues of being corrupt or even criminal. Im not sure where he is finding this left wing McCarthyite paranoia? By which reputable Sanders supporters is he being scapegoated in such a ridiculous way? It's as if Krugman wants to wrap himself in the cloak of being a renegade victim when, in reality, his pro-Hilary bias puts him squarely in the liberal establishment mainstream.
When John L. Lewis petitioned Roosevelt for certain planks of a workers rights platform, FDR reportedly said, Go out there and make me! The political question of our day is how to mobilize people to make their elected representatives legislate on behalf of the have-nots against the haves. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view), the details of how to unwind a huge financial institution is irrelevant to this task. Clinton could no more lay out such a process than Sanders. Is Krugman similarly critical of her for such a failure to do so? In either case, it doesn't really matter.
Social movements are made up of people who are passionate and are fueled by a sense of meaning and purpose. This is what Sanders brings to the table and its where Clinton fails. Its not about idealism vs. realism but about what exactly it takes to animate millions of people to demand radical social change. And that energy isnt going to be stoked by a candidate making the distinctions Krugman parsed in the Times, such as those between the sub-prime lending practices of Countrywide Financial, shadow banks like Lehman Brothers or unscrupulous financial behemoths like Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse.
Krugman wishes, Im sure, that our citizenry would just be more damn rational and understand these allegedly profound distinctions, but they dont and wont. But we know when were being screwed and we resonate when a candidate acknowledges that fact.
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/paul-krugman-flirting-irrelevance
Super PAC Backer Says Big Money Entitles Donors to Campaign "Oversight"
Super PAC Backer Says Big Money Entitles Donors to Campaign "Oversight":snip:
Heres how Hoffman puts it: Large donors often serve as an executive board of sorts, challenging campaigns to act worthy of their investment.
Hoffman writes, Trump brags that he is without big donors. That may be true. But it also means he is without restraint. In business and politics alike, oversight is a good thing.
If youre not paying close attention, that makes the whole process sound public-spirited and inspiring. If you are, however, you realize Hoffman is telling us that he and his cohort see their money as buying them seats on the board of a corporation they ultimately control.
But he dismisses it in favor of an even loftier goal. Big donors arent just backing a candidate, he says; theyre also investing in their ideology.
In other words, Jeb Bush can lose as can any of the other sweaty, hopeful throng of politicians backed by Hoffman and Hoffman and his friends will still feel like winners. Victory is enough Americans feeling its common sense that we face an insatiable Russia, or that regulations on Wall Street choke economic activity, or that slashing tax rates for the 1 percent will unleash the economy.
:snip:
https://theintercept.com/2016/04/07/super-pac-backer-reveals-that-big-money-entitles-donors-to-campaign-oversight/
A Short History of the Media Smugly Dismissing Bernie Sanders’ Campaign at Every Step of the Way
A Short History of the Media Smugly Dismissing Bernie Sanders Campaign at Every Step of the WayDespite the fact that Sanders campaign has only grown larger and larger, the media always bends over backwards to dismiss him.
BRANKO MARCETIC, Apr 5, 2016
snip
In 1981, Duke University and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars produced a joint study on presidential nominations that raised concerns about the way media coverage shapes nomination races. Its words are just as prophetic today:
Winners of early primaries quickly become front-runners with subsequent increases in media attention; losers, despite substantial promises of support in later primaries, are quickly relegated to the category of also-rans and have difficulty raising money and attracting volunteers the participants in Iowas caucuses or New Hampshires primary have a much greater say in the selection of the major party presidential nominee than do voters of, for instance, New Jersey or California.
Among other things, the study suggested that media avoid labeling every primary the make-it-or-break-it election.
Read full article: http://inthesetimes.com/article/19030/despite-the-medias-constant-dismissal-bernie-sanders-is-still-competing-wit
Wyoming Caucuses
The last poll closes at noon central and 14 delegates are up for grabs. It's a small, mostly republican state so there's not a lot of attention on it. But delegates are delegates, I'm watching.
Does anyone know if there will be any coverage on it? TYT? I don't have cable news.
Let's go, Wyoming!!
Two ways the Bernie movement is like the Tea Party and Ten ways we are not
I saw the suggestion that we better not "become the TP of the Left".
First I was like
Then I was like
Now, I'm all
1. Both groups distrust the current status quo, but they want the old one. We want a new one.
2. Both are angry for the same reasons, all having to do with Trickle Down Economics. They blame the wrong people, we blame the right people.
3. They want to regress to the old ways when they could prosper on the backs of the poor and poc. We want to progress to a better way where we all prosper together.
4. They want justice for themselves, we want justice for all.
5. They want an unlevel playing field, we want a level playing field.
6. Their policies are bad for the planet, ours are better for the planet.
7. They want policies that protect stolen resources. We want policies that return stolen resources.
8. They want democracy for them. We want democracy for all.
9. They want to divide the nation into parts. We want to bring the nation together.
10. They blame the government for causing our problems. We blame the government for neglecting our problems.
Okay, one two more...
We welcome them because their woes are our woes (some of us do). They reject us because we are the wrong colors, genders, religions, not religious, etc. We embrace differences between people, they reject differences. They hate, we love.
Don't forget about the WY caucuses tomorrow
I see a lot about NY... which is great but there's a primary contest before then and a debate next week too.
In case I can't come back later to finish
Read these and share. http://m.truthdig.com/
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