A Plain Blog About Politics

Jonathan Bernstein, a political scientist, writes on politics in his blog, “A Plain Blog About Politics.”

Here’s his latest post –

I’ll suggest two possibilities, both trend lines that may or may not turn out to be meaningful, one good, one bad. The good one is that jobless claims are falling a bit more…the four-week average is now below 450K, and at its lowest level, an AP story I’m looking at says, since before things went really south in September 2008.

The bad one is that after a summer in which year-to-year American and coalition deaths in Afghanistan had flattened out, casualties are back up this month. November is usually the start of a winter lull in casualties, but not this year (at least so far); in fact, this November is already the worst ever for American military deaths.

That’s an intelligent perspective. What I see currently on the web are a great deal of discussion about some athlete’s car that has a fridge in it. The republic will not doubt profit immensely from the intellect posed in that direction. But I’ll hang with Bernstein.

I went through a good number of his posts. He’s cynical. I like that, of course. He’s well read. (We well read people need to hang together!) We don’t agree quite a lot.

Strangely enough, this doesn’t bother me a bit.

So, good luck to him. Give him a read or a comment.

James Pilant

A Principle for Peter in the 21st Century (via The History of the Future)

This writer is more concerned than I am about the Federal Reserve’s buy back of American debt but I am still concerned. He has some interesting points and is literate and intelligent. He’s worth a look.

James Pilant

The world is lining up to not buy our debt so we are buying it ourselves in a move we call by the innocuous acronym QE2, which is short for Quantitative Easing two.  More traditional, or verbally honest, economists are calling this what it is: monetizing our debt.  This is a move which has our creditors heading for the doors and our enemies smiling as poor old Uncle Sugar stands with his pockets turned inside out, a bewildered look on his face as … Read More

via The History of the Future

Chase and Bank of America have foreclosed on hundreds of homeowners…by MISTAKE (part 2) What will happen to a loan after short sale? (via Home Loan Academy)

These people are indignant and angry. I like them. We can use some anger.

I recommend the site. It should be read often.

James Pilant

Last week we reported that Bank of America has frozen almost a million foreclosures due to errors they committed in the paperwork. Both B of A and Chase have forced repossessions, short sales, and foreclosures on innocent Americans BY ACCIDENT (so they claim). This week we will take a look at what the country has done to make things better. Let’s start on Capitol Hill The Congress Members have gone through their usual routine of indignant bluster … Read More

via Home Loan Academy

Can You Still Get Ahead In America?

Frank Rich is his column discusses what can be done to challenge the super rich. Here’s a quote –

… The president’s argument against extending the cuts for the wealthiest has now been reduced to the dry accounting of what the cost would add to the federal deficit. As he put it to CBS’s Steve Kroft, “the question is — can we afford to borrow $700 billion?”

That’s a good question, all right, but it’s not the question. The bigger issue is whether the country can afford the systemic damage being done by the ever-growing income inequality between the wealthiest Americans and everyone else, whether poor, middle class or even rich. That burden is inflicted not just on the debt but on the very idea of America — our Horatio Alger faith in social mobility over plutocracy, our belief that our brand of can-do capitalism brings about innovation and growth, and our fundamental sense of fairness. Incredibly, the top 1 percent of Americans now have tax rates a third lower than the same top percentile had in 1970.

The question I ask above is one that has troubled me for some time. Always, in my classes, there are students who say with complete confidence that, of course, they can get ahead. They say they will have great futures and advance up the class ladder.

I support them with everything I can. I teach them the tricks to beat most of the scams I see. I teach them to fight for their money. I teach to be kind to the weak, tough with the strong and merciless to the evil. I try to teach them the tricky politics of the upper class.

But I worry about them. It’s not a good time to be out in the job market. My numbers, economic and political, do not say kind things about this country. The numbers say that increasingly it is a cruel place where predatory fees are the new avenue to corporate wealth.

It makes me unhappy.

I get tired of seeing the great mass of Americans villified as too fat, too stupid, too irresponsible. They are constantly lectured by a media focused on the trivial and slavish in their devotion to upper class values. They are constantly lectured about their need to sacrifice by politicians and businessmen who wouldn’t sacrifice a sweet desert to save all the starving in the world.

They deserve better.

James Pilant

On The Beach

On The Beach is a Nevil Shute novel made into a movie twice once with Gregory Peck and again with Armand Assante. The Armand Assante version is just a few years old. It also stars Rachel Ward and Bryan Brown.

It is a meditation upon the ending of a life on earth in the aftermath of a nuclear war.

I was fortunate enough to find it on the web and give you the link as well.

I’m not posting much today, I’m still pretty stiff after wrenching my neck and I promise you, it’s playing hell with my concentration.

James Pilant