Stable Genius Liberal

The Real Poverty Trap

the evidence suggests that welfare-state programs enhance social mobility, thanks to little things like children of the poor having adequate nutrition and medical care. And conversely,of course, when such programs are absent or inadequate, the poor find themselves in a trap they often can’t escape, not because they lack the incentive, but because they lack the resources.

The stats make the article worth a read. Basically, if you make it easier for people to be less poor, people will be less likely to be poor. No surprise there.

Wallace to Issa: ‘Be honest, you do not have any evidence’ linking Clinton to Benghazi

Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday confronted Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) after he was rated as having the “highest level of falsehood” for his obsession with the terrorist attacks in Benghazi.

I am still waiting on those who bought the fanciful theories that the right was selling to admit they were wrong.

“Bank” that claimed to solve Bitcoin’s security problem robbed, shuts down | Ars Technica

I wonder if any of the people who dismissed the gox theft victims as idiots lost bitcoins at flexcoin.

Krugman: Envy Versus Anger

But the polling data don’t say anything about envy: when people say that they have lost their belief that hard work will be rewarded, they aren’t saying that they are envious of the rich; they’re saying that they have lost their belief that hard work will be rewarded. To the extent that people have negative feelings about the one percent, the emotion involved isn’t envy — it’s anger, which isn’t at all the same thing. Envy is when you have negative feelings about rich because of what they have; anger is when you have negative feelings about the rich because of what they do.

The standard defense is to dismiss criticism of 1% by the 99% as envy and criticism of the 1% by the 1% as hypocrisy. How convenient that literally no one is able to criticize the 1% without that being proof that there is something wrong with them.

Federal Budget Deficit Falls to Smallest Level Since 2008

In nominal terms, that is the smallest deficit since 2008, and signals the end of a five-year stretch beginning with the onset of the recession when the country’s fiscal gap came in at more than $1 trillion each year. As a share of the nation’s economy, the budget deficit fell to about 4.1 percent, from a high of more than 10 percent during the depths of the Great Recession.

So can we talk about issues other than cutting social programs now? At what point can we start talking about policy that does’t involve cutting taxes for the wealthy and gutting programs for the poor?

Putin Declares War on Ukraine. The Why and What Next

The internal issues of former Soviet republics, you see, are not truly internal issues of sovereign nations. This is because, by Stalin’s very conscious design and very deliberate border drawing and population movement, most former Soviet republics are ethnic hodgepodges. So Ukraine has a sizable Russian population. Ditto Estonia, ditto Georgia, ditto Kazakhstan. And, according to Putin’s unspoken doctrine, anywhere Russian citizens are determined to be at risk, Mother Moscow can intercede with force on their behalf.

Worth a read. The current Ukraine crisis is crazy complex and TV reporting seem more focused on what Obama might do rather than what the facts on the ground are.

The nation’s budget wars have reduced the deficit by $3.3 trillion

The endless rounds of deficit reduction in Washington in recent years have significantly improved the nation’s budget outlook, reducing projected borrowing by $3.3 trillion through 2024, according to new estimates by Senate Budget Committee chairman Patty Murray (D-Wash.)…As this chart from Murray shows, the discretionary budget, which funds the Pentagon and other agencies, will absorb nearly half of the cuts, or $1.6 trillion…A quarter of the impact comes from the higher taxes on the wealthy that were adopted during the fiscal cliff fight. And another 20 percent comes from not borrowing as much and not having to pay more than $700 billion in interest that otherwise would have accrued. Mandatory programs, which include Social Security and Medicare, were barely nicked, meanwhile, accounting for just 7 percent of overall savings.

Was that 7% worth it? Were cuts to programs that help the people who need help the most really worth it? Considering how much more we can cut defense programs the pentagon doesn’t even want.

MtGox Files For Bankruptcy Protection

Owner Mark Karpeles said, ‘There was some weakness in the system, and the bitcoins have disappeared. I apologize for causing trouble.’“

The freedom loving folks from Mt Gox demand protection from the state to protect them from their incompetence. At what point will they demand bailouts?

A Midwest Republican Senator Crusades Against the Corruption of Money in Politics

“I firmly believe that we are beginning in this country to look like a Russian-style oligarchy where a couple of dozen billionaires have basically bought the government,” Sen. Dale Schultz on why he is leaving politics.

He is leaving because of a primary challenge by a Koch brothers sponsored oligarchy friendly candidate.

What they seek is nothing short of a different definition of American citizenship granted only to highly religious people, and highly religious Christians in particular.

they have made a rather spectacular claim, though not explicitly. What they seek is nothing short of a different definition of American citizenship granted only to highly religious people, and highly religious Christians in particular. They are demanding that our laws stake out for them a kind of Citizenship Platinum, allowing them an exemption from any law or obligation they’d prefer to disregard. They would refashion the First Amendment in their image.

Radical Christians are making America safe for Sharia law by creating legal precedent of religious views being imposed on others by force.