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

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.

Economist’s View: Breadlines Return

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

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. 

Most of NSA’s data collection authorized by order Ronald Reagan issued

Most of NSA’s data collection authorized by order Ronald Reagan issued

“In 1996, when (12333) was 15 years old, we said, ‘Gee, this probably ought to be revised.’ Now we’re more than 15 years after that,” said John Bellinger, a former legal adviser to the National Security Council during the presidency of George W. Bush. Still, the order hasn’t undergone any major change, “in part, because it’s so difficult and complex to change it,” he said.

If only a congressional law professor were able to talk to the president about executive orders.

No Evidence That The Bulk Collection of Americans’ Phone Records Has Provided Any Intelligence of Value That Could Not Have Been Gathered Through Less Intrusive Means

No Evidence That The Bulk Collection of Americans’ Phone Records Has Provided Any Intelligence of Value That Could Not Have Been Gathered Through Less Intrusive Means

Mass spying by the NSA has never stopped a single terrorist attack. Mass surveillance actually interferes with our ability to stop terrorism.

The NSA story keeps getting worse.