02 November 14
Long viewed as an ally by Wall Street, likely 2016 presidential contender Hillary Clinton has increasingly been taking banks and big business to task while on the campaign trail for Democrats across the country. Continue reading #Clinton Sounding More Like #Warren as 2016 Nears
By Jared Bernstein
November 2nd, 2014
It’s a chilly, gray, October Sunday, an apt backdrop for a bit of navel gazing. Assuming the midterm elections turn out as predicted, why is it that the arguments you read here and in other similar venues are failing to persuade? Why does it seem like the OTE world view is getting crushed in the midterms?
Continue reading A few thoughts about the political economy of the midterms| Jared Bernstein
This is only the latest in a long list of racial affronts by one of many former and current Republican officials.
Keep in mind that Ben Stein used to write speeches for Nixon… ‘Nuff said! Continue reading Ben Stein: Obama ‘Most Racist President’ Ever In America
It is disappointing, to put it mildly, that in the day and age we live in, some people still readily equate racial homogeneity with a societal harmony. If anything, this is yet another sign that our knowledge of relatively recent history is fading and we badly need a refresher.
Continue reading A postscript to my comment on Paul Krugman: Apologizing to Japan | NYTimes
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com.
The origins of the phrase “American exceptionalism” are not especially obscure. The French sociologist Alexis de Tocqueville, observing this country in the 1830s, said that Americans seemed exceptional in valuing practical attainments almost to the exclusion of the arts and sciences. The Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, on hearing a report by the American Communist Party that workers in the United States in 1929 were not ready for revolution, denounced “the heresy of American exceptionalism.” In 1996, the political scientist Seymour Martin Lipset took those hints from Tocqueville and Stalin and added some of his own to produce his book American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword. The virtues of American society, for Lipset — our individualism, hostility to state action, and propensity for ad hoc problem-solving — themselves stood in the way of a lasting and prudent consensus in the conduct of American politics. Continue reading It’s Time to Rethink American Exceptionalism | David Bromwich ~ The Nation
by Mandy Oaklander @mandyoaklander
This is your gut on gluten
Two new studies in the New England Journal of Medicine rocked the world of celiac research, both proving that scientists have a ways to go in their understanding of celiac disease, which affects about 1% of the population, whether they know it or not. Continue reading The Rise of Celiac Disease Still Stumps Scientists | TIME
Police say they have no evidence of foul play in the hanging death of black teenager Lennon Lacy. But in a case with disturbing racial overtones, his family are left with haunting questions. Continue reading Teenager’s mysterious death evokes painful imagery in North Carolina | The Guardian
October 25, 2014
Don Hazen
As the Editor of AlterNet for 20 years, I have read and seen the entire range of horrendous and growing problems we face as a society and globe virtually every day. It is not just climate change, or ISIL, or Ferguson, or poverty and homelessness, or more misogynistic murdering of women, or the Democrats about to lose the Senate as Obama gets more unpopular. It is much, much more. Every day. It passes by before my eyes. At AlterNet, there are no issue silos—there is just the open faucet of depressing political information coming and going every hour of every day (with the occasional story of success and inspiration).
Scott Walker is a model governor.
Not in every sense, as critics of the Wisconsin Republican’s anti-labor extremism, ethical lapses and failed experiments with economic austerity will remind you. But he is certainly a model governor in the eyes of billionaire conservative donors David and Charles Koch and their acolytes. This reality has led 2014 Republican gubernatorial candidates who seek the billionaire blessing — so essential for conservative politicians in state races — to make reverential references to Walker when appealing to the Koch brothers.
Continue reading John @NicholsUprising: #ScottWalker is the #Kochs’ model governor
Why Millennials aren’t buying cars or houses, and what that means for the economy
In 2009, Ford brought its new supermini, the Fiesta, over from Europe in a brave attempt to attract the attention of young Americans. It passed out 100 of the cars to influential bloggers for a free six-month test-drive, with just one condition: document your experience online, whether you love the Fiesta or hate it.
Young bloggers loved the car. Young drivers? Not so much. After a brief burst of excitement, in which Ford sold more than 90,000 units over 18 months, Fiesta sales plummeted. As of April 2012, they were down 30 percent from 2011. Continue reading The Cheapest Generation | The Atlantic
