The Red Menace

Robert Reich: Why Mitt Won't Be Able to Hide From His Primary Self (We're No Longer In An Etch-A-Sketch World)

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 16:47:02 -0700

Robert Reich: Why Mitt Won't Be Able to Hide From His Primary Self (We're No Longer In An Etch-A-Sketch World):

Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom couldn’t have said it better – or worse. When asked by CNN Wednesday morning whether Mitt was being pushed so far to the right by Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich that he’d be handicapped in the general election, Fehrnstrom said “you hit a reset button for the fall…

Robert Reich: What Republicans Argue When They Have Nothing Left to Say

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 19:09:14 -0700

Robert Reich: What Republicans Argue When They Have Nothing Left to Say :

robertreich:

Republicans are desperate. They can’t attack Obama on jobs because the jobs picture is improving.

Their attack on the Administration’s rule requiring insurers to cover contraception has backfired, raising hackles even among many Republican women.

Their attack on Obama for raising gas prices has…

Robert Reich: If You Took the Greed Out of Wall Street, All You'd Have Left Is Pavement: Why Greg Smith's Critique is Way Too Narrow

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 11:29:32 -0700

Robert Reich: If You Took the Greed Out of Wall Street, All You'd Have Left Is Pavement: Why Greg Smith's Critique is Way Too Narrow:

robertreich:

Greg Smith, a Goldman Sachs vice president, resigned his post Wednesday with a stinging public rebuke of the firm on the oped page of the New York Times — accusing it of no longer putting its clients before its own pecuniary goals.

But if Mr. Smith believes his experience at Goldman is…

Robert Reich: Bye Bye American Pie: The Challenge of the Productivity Revolution

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 16:10:16 -0800

Robert Reich: Bye Bye American Pie: The Challenge of the Productivity Revolution:

robertreich:

Here’s the good news. The economic pie is growing again. Growth in the 4^th quarter last year hit 3 percent on an annualized rate. That’s respectable – although still way too slow to get us back on track given how far we plunged.

Here’s the bad news. The share of that growth going to American…

Robert Reich: As Santorum and Romney Battle for the Loony Right, the Rest of Us Should Not Gloat

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:03:38 -0800

Robert Reich: As Santorum and Romney Battle for the Loony Right, the Rest of Us Should Not Gloat:

robertreich:

My father was a Republican for the first 78 years of his life. For the last twenty, he’s been a Democrat (he just celebrated his 98th.) What happened? “They lost me,” he says.

They’re losing even more Americans now, as the four remaining GOP candidates seek to out-do one another in their race for…

Robert Reich: The GOP's Big Investors

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:18:56 -0800

Robert Reich: The GOP's Big Investors :

robertreich:

Have you heard of William Dore, Foster Friess, Sheldon Adelson, Harold Simmons, Peter Thiel, or Bruce Kovner? If not, let me introduce them to you. They’re running for the Republican nomination for president.

I know, I know. You think Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Mitt Romney are…

Robert Reich: Manufacturing Illusions

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:15:33 -0800

Robert Reich: Manufacturing Illusions:

robertreich:

Suddenly, manufacturing is back – at least on the election trail. But don’t be fooled. The real issue isn’t whether and how to get manufacturing back. It’s how to get good jobs and good wages back. They aren’t at all the same thing.

Republicans have suddnely become born-again champions of…

decoarchitecture: Mural, Federal Building & U.S....

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:01:08 -0800

decoarchitecture:

Mural, Federal Building & U.S. Courthouse, Binghamton, New York
from Library of Congress

I’ve seen a lot of 1930s murals but this one is unusual, sort of surreal and even creepy. Like that floating mailbag and all those bodies.

From LoC:

An Art Deco interpretation of a classical style. Built in 1935. Architect: Conrad & Cummings.

Spokane Deco: Rogers High...

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:41:37 -0800

Spokane Deco: Rogers High School

From:http://properties.historicspokane.org/property/?PropertyID=2030

“John R. Rogers High School is an outstanding example of the Art Deco style as applied to public structures. Although the interior has been significantly renovated, the exterior of the original building largely retains the same appearance as when it was first constructed in 1932. All the projecting distractions of previous years have been removed, leaving behind the impressive edifice of the main building as it was originally designed.”

Spokane Deco: The Paulsen Medical Building From:...

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:29:33 -0800

Spokane Deco: The Paulsen Medical Building

From: http://properties.historicspokane.org/property/?PropertyID=1903

“The style is generally associated with The Chicago School which signifies the skyscraper movement and the influence of Louis Sullivan. The Paulsen Medical and Dental Building was constructed next east and connects to the August Paulsen building. It was designed by Gustav Pehrson, one of Spokane’s great architects, and built in 1928-29, after Paulsen had died. Pehrson designed the fifteen story skyscraper in the Art Deco style with Spanish and Moorish styled exterior and interior detailing. Its stepped crown rises to a set-back penthouse”

Romney actually wants to help 'poor people,' and the right isn't happy

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:57:32 -0800

Romney actually wants to help 'poor people,' and the right isn't happy:

How much more odious can the Republicans reactionaries get? The government helping the poor/unlucky, imagine! It’s amusing to see Limburger and the NYT wetting their collective pants over the very idea. Any hint of political moderation causes a meltdown amongst the reactionary ideologues. Too bad for them, but Romney is going to win the nomination simply because of the few vapors of moderation that he occasionally vents. The Republican Power Elite know that, in the end, R is the one guy they’ve got who stands any ghost of a chance in the general election against Obama.

Robert Reich: The Republican Myth of Obama's "Entitlement Society"

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:32:53 -0800

Robert Reich: The Republican Myth of Obama's "Entitlement Society":

robertreich:

One of the few things Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich agree on is that President Obama is turning America into “European-style welfare culture.”

In his standard stump speech Romney charges Obama with creating a nation of dependents. “Over the past three years Barack Obama has been replacing our…

Robert Reich: The State of Our Disunion: A Globalizing Private Sector, A Government Overwhelmed by Corporate Money

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:02:56 -0800

Robert Reich: The State of Our Disunion: A Globalizing Private Sector, A Government Overwhelmed by Corporate Money:

robertreich:

Who should have the primary strategic responsibility for making American workers globally competitive – the private sector or government? This will be a defining issue in the 2012 campaign.

In his State of the Union address, President Obama will make the case that government has a vital role. His…

Robert Reich: The Romney Tax Loophole

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:27:50 -0800

Robert Reich: The Romney Tax Loophole:

robertreich:

After refusing for weeks to release his taxes, Mitt Romney now says he’ll do so — by tax day, April 15. But the real news is what Romney has now admitted about his taxes.

It’s not how much Romney earns. Everyone knows he’s comfortably in the top one-tenth of one percent.

It’s how much he pays of…

Robert Reich: Free Enterprise on Trial

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:27:10 -0800

Robert Reich: Free Enterprise on Trial:

robertreich:

Mitt Romney is casting the 2012 campaign as “free enterprise on trial” – defining free enterprise as achieving success through “hard work and risking-taking.” Tea-Party favorite Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina says he’s supporting Romney because “we really need someone who understands how…

Robert Reich: The Youthful Magic of Ron Paul

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 23:07:10 -0800

Robert Reich: The Youthful Magic of Ron Paul:

robertreich:

South Carolina Republican Senator Jim DeMint, the darling of the Tea Party wing nuts of the GOP, is urging Republican candidates to listen to Ron Paul. “One of the things that’s hurt the so-called conservative alternative is saying negative things about Ron Paul,” DeMint told conservative radio…

Taxes + regulation = success in Vermont

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 07:01:33 -0800

Taxes + regulation = success in Vermont:

Here’s a really nice article about the Vermont success story. It turns out that high taxes and strong business regulations are a recipe for success. I doubt you heard that at the Republican caucuses this week. Act 250 regulations were a huge part of preserving the state’s quality of life. They discouraged the profiteers who would have monetized Vermont’s natural beauty while simultaneously destroying it.

“Vermont has made real investments in its quality of life. Now the relative strength and resiliency of our economy suggest that those investments are paying handsome dividends.

Maybe the old-fashioned value that most effectively nourishes the Vermont economy is the realization that there’s more to life than money.”

Robert Reich: The Decline of the Public Good

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 22:01:00 -0800

Robert Reich: The Decline of the Public Good:

There’s a lot here, but one thing that he describes is the downward spiral of public institutions as the wealthy cut support of them. My experience is that as this man-made, institutional decline starts (be it schools, roads, Social Security and Medicare finances ..), these same wealthy people condemn the institution as misguided and unsound, *because* of the declines that they intentionally created! Case in point: I have a wealthy reactionary friend who, after voting time and time again for tax-cutting Republicans, delights in harangues about how Social Security and Medicare are “unsustainable”. He’s implying that they are both foolish, deeply-flawed ideas because they’re consuming a larger share of tax dollars every year. But unstated, and, he would hope, un-realized, is the fact that Republicans, his allies in DC, are shrinking the tax pie and therefore these earned benefits programs necessarily claim a greater percentage of tax revenue.

The same people who invented this gambit also invented the Myth of the Job Creator.

I guess if i had a kid I could refuse to get him to school half the time because I was too greedy to pay for any gas that I was not going to personally benefit from. Then as he failed course after course I could tell everyone how dim-witted and ignorant he was. On the other hand, I don’t think I’d want to be around that kid after he grows up. Ignorance and anger are a very volatile mix.

robertreich:

Meryl Streep’s eery reincarnation of Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady” brings to mind Thatcher’s most famous quip, “there is no such thing as ‘society.’” None of the dwindling herd of Republican candidates has quoted her yet but they might as well considering their unremitting bashing of…

Robert Reich: My Political Prediction for 2012: It's Obama-Clinton

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 08:05:44 -0800

Robert Reich: My Political Prediction for 2012: It's Obama-Clinton:

robertreich:

My political prediction for 2012 (based on absolutely no inside information): Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden swap places. Biden becomes Secretary of State — a position he’s apparently coveted for years. And Hillary Clinton, Vice President.

So the Democratic ticket for 2012 is Obama-Clinton.

Why…

Robert Reich: The Defining Issue: Not Government's Size, but Who It's For

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 08:04:44 -0800

Robert Reich: The Defining Issue: Not Government's Size, but Who It's For:

robertreich:

The defining political issue of 2012 won’t be the government’s size. It will be who government is for.

Americans have never much liked government. After all, the nation was conceived in a revolution against government.

But the surge of cynicism now engulfing America isn’t about government’s…