Stable Genius Liberal

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Apartheid’s Useful Idiots – Ta-Nehisi Coates – The Atlantic

Buckley’s racket as an American paid propagandist for white supremacy would be repeated over the years in conservative circles. As Sam Kleiner demonstrates in Foreign Policy, apartheid would ultimately draw some of America’s most celebrated conservatives into its orbit. The roster includes Grover Norquist, Jack Abramoff, Jesse Helms, and Senator Jeff Flake. Jerry Falwell denounced Desmond Tutu as a “phony” and led a “reinvestment” campaign during the 1980s. At the late hour of 1993, Pat Robertson opined, “I know we don’t like apartheid, but the blacks in South Africa, in Soweto, don’t have it all that bad.”

Why exactly is it on the right that allows them to give safe harbor to racists and have it shrugged off? Why does the right draw so many racists and so many people willing to hire racists?

CNN:GOP obstruction of Obamacare is closing hospitals

In Georgia, as many as 15 more rural hospitals may close “within months” and in Tennessee, which is putting off a decision on expanding Medicaid, almost half of the 61 rural hospitals in the state might face “major cuts or closure.” This is a direct — and disastrous — consequence of Republicans’ ideological opposition to Obamacare.

There are a bunch of problems with the article, notably that rural hospitals have been closing for years before Obamacare so this might be not that related. But its worth a read.

farmers are growing world record amounts of rice – with no GM, and no herbicide

In a village in India’s poorest state, Bihar, farmers are growing world record amounts of rice – with no GM, and no herbicide. Is this one solution to world food shortages?

…

“Farmers use less seeds, less water and less chemicals but they get more without having to invest more. This is revolutionary,” said Dr Surendra Chaurassa from Bihar’s agriculture ministry. “I did not believe it to start with, but now I think it can potentially change the way everyone farms. I would want every state to promote it. If we get 30-40% increase in yields, that is more than enough to recommend it.”

Worth a read

The Facts Are in: Austerity Politics Doesn’t Work

The problem is that those demanding Austerity look at the failures and claim they haven’t been working because they aren’t Austere enough.

444 million for a hockey arena, no money for pensions?

So when the politicians running Michigan’s state government claim there are no resources that could shore up the pension plan, that’s just not true. What is true is that there’s plenty of money for the state and city to meet the pension promises they made to public employees – but politicians in charge of spending want that money to go to corporations that disproportionately fund politicians’ election campaigns. To insist otherwise – to do what Orr is doing and pretend there’s no money around – is just shockingly dishonest.

Without Reagan’s Treason, Iran Would Not Be a Problem

Behind Carter’s back, the Reagan campaign worked out a deal with the leader of Iran’s radical faction – Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini – to keep the hostages in captivity until after the 1980 Presidential election. This was nothing short of treason.

Reagan and his terrorist friends.

Economist’s View: Breadlines Return

The Times’s Patrick McGeehan described a line snaking down Fulton Street in Brooklyn last week, with people waiting to enter a food pantry run by the Bed-Stuy Campaign Against Hunger. The line was not an anomaly. Demand at all of New York City’s food pantries and soup kitchens has spiked since federal food stamps were cut

I can’t help but wonder if the point of all the cuts, the drug tests and the rhetoric is just to further humiliate the poor. To grind them down. To have them spend all their time waiting in lines for handouts.

Geeks for Monarchy: The Rise of the Neoreactionaries

Neoreactionaries believe that while technology and capitalism have advanced humanity over the past couple centuries, democracy has actually done more harm than good. They propose a return to old-fashioned gender roles, social order and monarchy.

I always wondered when libertarians would just drop the BS and just admit they want corporate feudalism.

Good news, California: Surplus is $2.4 billion

Who could have guessed that raising taxes, cutting corporate welfare and eliminating waste would lead to a surplus. Voting Democrat turned out to be a good move for California.