Chris Hayes and Kevin Drum have been commenting on the odd phenomenon of Republican politicians constantly invoking the hardship of their parents and grandparents. Almost without fail, GOP politicians reach back as far as they need to in their family history to find some story about someone coming from humble beginnings and doing better for… Continue reading Why Republicans talk about hardship of parents and grandparents
Year: 2012
Voters do not know very much
Much has been said of Romney’s basic lack of concern about facts in this campaign. All campaigns bend facts, misrepresent things, and occasionally lie, but few do so with the boldness of Romney. After picking Paul Ryan, Romney’s campaign, in a Rove-esque maneuver, blitzed Obama over Medicare. The campaign claimed Obama took money from Medicare… Continue reading Voters do not know very much
Hurricane evacuations and the capability approach
With Hurricane Isaac bearing down on the gulf coast, news outlets are interviewing non-evacuating residents in the path of the storm. Residents do not evacuate for a diversity of reasons, but one prominent reason is that many do not have the means: not enough money and nowhere else to go. We’ve seen this phenomenon before… Continue reading Hurricane evacuations and the capability approach
Dinesh D’Souza’s “2016: Obama’s America”
In his hour-and-a-half long ode to white people, Dinesh D’Souza — Indian immigrant and self-proclaimed “that guy” at parties who takes off-the-cuff conversational remarks about travel aspirations obnoxiously literally — spins a fantasy of filial piety so bizarre, so conspiratorial, so nonsensical that it really requires reflection. D’Souza’s film can be called a documentary, but… Continue reading Dinesh D’Souza’s “2016: Obama’s America”
Corporations are primarily intellectual property rentiers
Gavin Mueller has a great article in the summer issue of Jacobin Magazine about piracy, and at one point drops this jaw-dropping statistic: “Intellectual property makes up 80 percent of the net worth of US corporations and 60 percent of their exports.” I ran the statistic down and found that it apparently originated from an… Continue reading Corporations are primarily intellectual property rentiers