Stable Genius Liberal

Bunkerville Held Hostage By Extremist Militia Members With Guns

Armed gunmen riding around on pick up trucks enforcing arbitrary rules on a population they are not accountable to. But don’t you dare compare this to Somalia. Its hurts their feelings.

Nevada Militia Sets Up Armed Checkpoints, Demands to See Drivers’ I.D.

apparently other rightful property owners in rural Nevada don’t feel terribly free under the security regime recently built around them by the militiamen protecting rancher Cliven Bundy.

So if I am stopped by these freedom loving patriots and asked for ID, they are totally not infringing on my freedom? And totally not aggression.

High Plains Moochers

Suppose he had been grazing his cattle on land belonging to one of his neighbors, and had refused to pay for the privilege. That would clearly have been theft — and brandishing guns when someone tried to stop the theft would have turned it into armed robbery. The fact that in this case the public owns the land shouldn’t make any difference.

So, what happens if two ranchers want to use that land? Or if some rancher wants to graze his herd on land that Mr. Bundy owns and isn’t using?

The Koch Attack on Solar Energy

For the last few months, the Kochs and other big polluters have been spending heavily to fight incentives for renewable energy, which have been adopted by most states. They particularly dislike state laws that allow homeowners with solar panels to sell power they don’t need back to electric utilities. So they’ve been pushing legislatures to impose a surtax on this increasingly popular practice, hoping to make installing solar panels on houses less attractive.

Not surprised.

“Maybe I Am A Welfare Queens” Wonders Cliven Bundy (by Sam Seder) Sam Seder comments on CNN interview with Cliven Bundy and points out that he actually more of a thief then a welfare queen. The ranchers that get subsidized grazing are the welfare queens. (Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Red-biating Rises Again

Piketty himself is a social democrat who abjures the Marxist label. But as his title suggests, he is out to rehabilitate and recast one of Marx’s key ideas: that so-called “free markets,” by their nature, tend to enrich the owners of capital at the expense of people who own less of it.

On the right, being insufficiently worshipful of capitalism as they define it is now the same as being a Marxist. It doesn’t matter how you reach your conclusions, it doesn’t matter if you disagree with 90% of Marx. If you do not follow the right-wing party line on capital, it’s the same as being a devoted Marxist.

The Piketty Panic

what’s really new about “Capital” is the way it demolishes that most cherished of conservative myths, the insistence that we’re living in a meritocracy in which great wealth is earned and deserved.

In the warped little minds of the hard right, the real problem isn’t capitalism (which they redefine as needed) but crony capitalism (which they also redefine as needed) where the very wealthy use the state to steal wealth. But we also can’t tax those people because that’s theft and will reduce the incentive for them to work hard. And pointing out the contradiction is Marxism.

Is David Brooks an idiot?

If you are a young professional in a major city, you experience inequality firsthand. But the inequality you experience most acutely is not inequality down, toward the poor; it’s inequality up, toward the rich.

You go to fund-raisers or school functions and there are always hedge fund managers and private equity people around.

Is Mr. Brooks an idiot? Does he realize that for 98% of the population, this is simply not true.

The inequality problem is not between the 90->99% and the 1%. To think that is to basically discount 90% of the population. The 90% plus of the population that simply doesn’t see the inequality first hand and his eyes, isn’t even worth bringing into the discussion.

emphasize that the historically proven way to reduce inequality is lifting people from the bottom with human capital reform, not pushing down the top. In short, counter angry progressivism with unifying uplift.

Piketty argues that r > g, that return from financial capital is greater than overall economic growth. Brooks totally ignores this point in his criticism of Piketty.

He argues for unifying uplift; a phrase that sounds like it comes from an American Apparel bra ad. What exactly is unifying uplift? If he is talking about increasing social spending, why not actually say that? Is he really just saying we can stop the formation of vast oligarchies if we come up with the right platitudes?

Southerners Don’t Like Obamacare. They Also Don’t Want to Repeal It.

Despite strong dislike of President Obama’s handling of health care, a majority of people in three Southern states – Kentucky, Louisiana and North Carolina – would rather that Congress improve his signature health care law than repeal and replace it, according to a New York Times Upshot/Kaiser Family Foundation poll.

I can’t wait until i start reading about red states where they want government to stay out of their obama-care.

Welfare Queens in Cowboy Hats

Let’s dispense with niceties: Bundy is a freeloading scofflaw, a welfare queen in a Stetson who claimed what wasn’t his. He took subsidies from U.S. taxpayers and refused to pay the $1.2 million he owed for using federal – make that our – land.

Nice to see someone say the obvious.

Author: Stable Genius