On Crime: Do we have a Reality-based community or a Fear-based community?

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Sunday June 08, 2014 · 8:08 AM PDT

2014/06/08 · 08:08

You would think, based on what we read and see in the news media, that guns are becoming more pervasive and gun violence is out of control.
But the reality is that neither is true, and both conservatives or liberals are operating from false perceptions of what the world actually is.

Even here on DKos our "reality-based community" is reacting out of fear rather than facts. Increasingly many diaries here make hyperbolic claims of the world based on fear generated from whatever gory crime story that currently dominates the headlines.

gjohnsit

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Saturday May 31, 2014 · 8:48 AM PDT

2014/05/31 · 08:48

When it comes to housing, we've been trained to think of it illogically. We cheer every uptick in home prices without ever thinking about the consequences. We think of home prices like we do stock prices, when we should think of housing prices like food prices - something we can't do without.
English economist David Boyle may have predicted this about England, but the same economic forces exist in America.

Rising property prices will kill off the middle classes within 30 years and create a vast ‘impoverished’ proletariat, a government adviser has warned.
It would leave Britain with a ‘tiny elite and a huge sprawling proletariat’ who have no chance of ‘clawing their way out of a hand-to-mouth existence’, he said.
He said the traditional middle classes would need three or four jobs just to be able to pay soaring rents.

Britain's housing bubble is further along than America's. Plus America's housing market is so much larger and diverse.
Nevertheless, the idea of ever rising home prices having extremely negative consequences is an idea without borders and needs to be examined further. Read More

Krugman, Keynes, and why Republican policies are cruel

gjohnsit

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Wednesday May 28, 2014 · 9:37 AM PDT

2014/05/28 · 09:37

Republicans don't just wake up in the morning and decide to rob the widows and orphans so that they can enrich their billionaire friends. Their lack of empathy for the less fortunate in society isn't by design. There is a rational, scientific theory behind their policies.
That scientific theory that conservatives cling to is from the 19th Century, and it failed spectacularly on a global scale nearly a century ago.

I think it is critical to understand the flawed science behind their policies if we want to defeat their economic agenda.
To do this we have to look at economic history and theory.
Because economic history and theory can be rather bland, I'm going to try to simplify the concepts as much as possible.

gjohnsit

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Sunday May 25, 2014 · 8:00 AM PDT

2014/05/25 · 08:00

January 7, 1920, was opening day for legislation at the New York State Assembly. The atmosphere was genial and careless as the regular protocols were dispensed with. The members spent time catching up on pleasantries and asking about family members.

Then shortly after noon Speaker Thaddeus Campbell Sweet said in cold, measured tones:
"The Chair directs the Sergeant-At-Arms to present before the bar of the House Samuel A. DeWitt, Samuel Orr, Louis Waldmann, Charles Solomon, and August Claessens."
The casual atmosphere of the chambers suddenly vanished.

The five members called to the "well" of the House were all members of the Socialist Party. The Republican majority had decided to reject representative democracy and the Democrats were along for the ride.

gjohnsit

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Tuesday April 29, 2014 · 2:56 PM PDT

2014/04/29 · 14:56

My faith in the markets has been restored. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White while testifying before Congress today was asked about Michael Lewis' new book about high-frequency trading markets.

"The markets are not rigged," she told a U.S. House of Representatives panel. "The U.S. markets are the strongest and most reliable in the world."

Well that's certainly a relief. I was worried for a moment.
Normally you might think that when someone gets between you and the exchange in order to buy or sell in anticipation of your trade, it would be considered either front-running or insider-trading. But Mary Jo White says that it isn't, so it must not be. Consider how the SEC has approached the issue.

“I think you really do want to do a soup-to-nuts review,” says White, who stresses that any study will begin with the presumption that “the markets are not rigged.”

When you start off an investigation with the assumption that something doesn't exist, and you don't find it, then the investigation is a success. Read More

The 1% "disproves" Piketty's book about Capital

gjohnsit

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Monday April 28, 2014 · 6:24 PM PDT

2014/04/28 · 18:24

You had to know this was coming.
When Thomas Piketty's book about capital and inequality became a best-seller the shills for the 1% recognized the danger.

The soft Marxism in Capital, if unchallenged, will spread among the clerisy and reshape the political economic landscape on which all future policy battles will be waged. We’ve seen this movie before.

So in the same spirit that brought us physician tested and approved cigarettes, I present to you the official response from the "serious" economists of the 1%. Read More

Housing Secretary: “the worst rental affordability crisis that this country has ever known"

gjohnsit

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday April 20, 2014 · 12:23 PM PDT

2014/04/20 · 12:23

[image removed at request of copyright holder]

Very few people paid attention when Shaun Donovan, U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, gave this warning in December.

"We are in the midst of the worst rental affordability crisis that this country has known."
"Over four years, [there’s been] a 43 percent increase in the number of Americans with worst-case housing needs," says Donovan. "Let's be clear what that means: They're paying more than half of every dollar they earn for housing."

This past week two other studies have been released that add solid numbers to this crisis. Read More

Wall Street is shocked that people think the markets are rigged

gjohnsit

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday April 01, 2014 · 3:23 PM PDT

2014/04/01 · 15:23

CNBC has always been nothing more than a mouthpiece of Wall Street.
So after Michael Lewis and Brad Katsuyama had the temerity of going on 60 Minutes and announcing that the markets were obviously rigged, Wall Street had to respond.

gjohnsit

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday March 18, 2014 · 7:55 AM PDT

2014/03/18 · 07:55

“While some men are born small and some achieve smallness, it is clear enough that Adam Smith has had much smallness thrust upon him.”
- Amartya Sen, Harvard economist and Nobel laureate

Economists may be the most misquoted and misrepresented historical figures.

The vast majority of critics of Keynesian economics don't seem to be aware that today's markets and economic policies are contrary to John Maynard Keynes' designs.
Probably not one political pundit in a thousand could tell you the difference between Stalinism and Marxism, despite the vast ideological gulf between them.

Possibly the most misrepresented of all economists is Adam Smith.

gjohnsit

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday March 15, 2014 · 1:14 PM PDT

2014/03/15 · 13:14

With the long Afghanistan War and Occupation winding down, it's about time to try and put it into perspective.
The Taliban recently congratulated their fighters for defeating the Canadian military. Canada has followed Holland, Denmark, Australia, Poland, and Spain in pulling out their troops.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that the Afghan war was 'imposed' on the Afghan people and that he's not interested in having the Americans stay.
The best term I've seen is this one:

We lost the war, but won the battle.

It's the same story that an American could have written 80 years ago.

gjohnsit

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday March 09, 2014 · 8:29 AM PDT

2014/03/09 · 08:29

Since cavemen sat around a fire, the primary entertainment of mankind has always been storytelling. As any English teacher can tell you, there are only two basic stories: a) Hero goes on a journey, and b) Stranger comes to town. The former is usually the favorite, and for good reason.

Of all the stories ever told, my personal favorites are almost always adventure stories. I'm not talking about fiction.
For instance, the story about Sir Ernest Schackleton and his famous Endurance Expedition in 1915 had to be the greatest "man against nature" stories of the past century.

"Men Wanted: For hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success."
-Schackleton's newspaper advertisement, looking for volunteers

gjohnsit

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday March 08, 2014 · 8:42 AM PST

2014/03/08 · 08:42

On August 14, 1947, three men met for drinks at a cafe in American-occupied Memmingen, Germany.
One of them was Kurt Merck, a former officer in the Nazi Germany military intelligence agency Abwehr. He was now on the payroll of American intelligence.
The second man sitting at that table was Lieutenant Robert Taylor, an officer in the Army's Counter-Intelligence Corps (CIC).
The third man at the table was the subject for this meeting. His name was Klaus Barbie, also known as The Butcher of Lyon. The reason for the meeting was to recruit Barbie and put him on the American payroll.

Klaus Barbie

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On Crime: Do we have a Reality-based community or a Fear-based community?

The Game of Monopoly and Why Rising Home Prices are Crushing the Middle Class

Krugman, Keynes, and why Republican policies are cruel

How Dems & Repubs conspired to crush a 3rd party

SEC investigators unable to find own asses despite using both hands

The 1% "disproves" Piketty's book about Capital

Housing Secretary: “the worst rental affordability crisis that this country has ever known"

Wall Street is shocked that people think the markets are rigged

Libertarianism and What Adam Smith Actually Said

Lessons from a forgotten American Occupation

Into the Unknown Heart of America

The Butcher of Lyon