The Mania for Austerity Finally Hits the Military

The Mania for Austerity Finally Hits the Military

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You've been hearing this week about SecDef Chuck Hagel's proposed budget for the DOD for FY15. This budget reduced the number of active duty troops, reduces the number of reserve troops, reduces salary increases, requires uniformed staff to contribute more to their health care, reduces retirement benefits and focuses growth in cybersecurity and in Special Forces. It looks to re-orient the Pentagon's focus on being prepared for two land wars to dealing with current threats of terrorism. And this budget looks as though it accomodates some continued sequestration as well as real spending reduction. Remember as you hear more about this budget that if the US gets out of Afghanistan at the end of this year (as planned), the US won't be engaged in regular ground wars anywhere. From the WaPo:

Sunday Open Thread [2.23.2014]

This is an eye-candy Open Thread -- a very cool infographic featuring visuals for 50 Incredible Natural Phenomena. The magnetic north one might be controversial, but this infographic is not for creationists:

Late Night Video — Omnipotent #WaveOfAction

This is pretty intriguing -- Eminem, Ice Cube, Korn plus elements of Anonymous put together this video meant to help promote the worldwide Wave of Action on April 4,2014. There's not a ton of info at the website, but they seem to want to inspire activity around the world (protests, social service, rallies, media projects) plus create celebrations of Occupy at their major protest sites. This video is 4:46: Anyone know anything more about this event? Let us know in the comments.

Saturday Open Thread [2.22.2014]

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Michael Tomasky has taken to the NY Review of Books to speculate about A New Populism in the Democratic Party. He sees signs of the party "soft-shoeing" its way leftward:
For example, the Center for American Progress (CAP), under its new president Neera Tanden, has pushed “middle-class” or “middle-out” economics as the left’s alternative to supply-side, trickle-down economics. The idea of middle-out economics is that the government, instead of investing in the top 2 percent by means of tax and other privileges, should instead invest in the broad middle through a number of left-leaning policy choices from which the bounty would radiate out to all sectors of the society. These would include a much higher minimum wage, paid family leave, and improvement of decaying infrastructure. Obama’s Knox College speech on inequality is one expression of the middle-out view in the way it ties middle-class investment to growth.4 CAP has been pushing the White House to take up these arguments, not the other way around. John Podesta, CAP’s former president, helped launch a new think tank, the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, devoted specifically to issues related to inequality. Podesta is now a White House counselor, which gives these issues respected representation in debates in the Roosevelt Room and the Oval Office. This is all a welcome shift in emphasis, but of course it doesn’t mean that populist policies are going to become reality anytime soon. There is opposition to them within the Democratic Party and its broader policy solar system. Not nearly as much as there once was; the radical rightward shift of the Republican Party has, perhaps inevitably, moved the Democratic center of gravity leftward. But the opposition to populism continues.

Voters Blame Trade Deals For Job Losses

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Surprised? According to the most recent Gallup Poll, one in four Americans think that jobs is the highest priority problem in America today. It's almost one in two Americans if you combine concerns for unemployment and the economy. Only 8% of Americans think that the debt or deficit is a high-priority problem (pointed out for the Delaware Congressional delegation, in particular). Take a look:
President’s Day Open Thread [2.17.14]

President’s Day Open Thread [2.17.14]

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Late on Friday, Michael Dunn (the middle-aged white man who shot a black teenager who wouldn't comply with his demand to turn down his music) was convicted on 4 of the five charges:
Dunn, who is white, fired 10 shots into an SUV, killing Jordan Davis, 17, who was black. The shooting in a convenience store parking lot in Jacksonville erupted after Dunn asked the teenagers in the vehicle to turn down their music. Dunn was charged with first-degree murder, three counts of attempted second-degree murder and one count of firing into a vehicle in the Nov. 23, 2012, shooting. The jury couldn’t reach a decision on the first-degree murder charge, but convicted on the other four.
The General Assembly is Back to Work and It Is Open Bamboozlement Season for the DE GOP

The General Assembly is Back to Work and It Is Open Bamboozlement Season for the DE GOP

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In the past couple of days, the DE GOP (almost extinct) has taken to the NJ editorial pages to push more of their innumerate BS -- going back to their message of having all The Government You Can Eat for free. Even though that is not true, they've decided that no one will get the math -- apparently taking their cue from Colin Bonnini. Both are taking aim at the .10/gallon gas tax proposal, and neither grapple with the fact that there are 1) real costs to getting road improvements and repairs done, 2) there have to be revenues to pay for those costs, or 3) be very clear about what improvements, repairs and programs they would be willing to see die on the vine in order to get the budget in shape:

Late Night Video — Get Covered!

Bill Maher takes a look at some of the youth-oriented Get Covered posters that didn't make the cut (approx.2:30 mins):
Post by Bill Maher.

Saturday Open Thread [2/15/14]

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Even though Volkswagon had no issues with the formation of a union at their plant in Tennessee, the GOP lied and howled and threatened enough to help narrowly defeat a vote for a union yesterday. The take away, of course, is that every time you hear someone in the GOP talk about the middle class or a better deal for workers, you know that is a lie. Because the only people the GOP were defending here were themselves and their anti-union special interests. Of course, you won't hear one word from the usual "Government should stay out of the way of business" crowd denouncing the GOP's clear interference with Volkswagon here.
A Tale of Two Democrats

A Tale of Two Democrats

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Or at least two types of Democrats. Yesterday, Senator Bernie Sanders and 15 other Democratic Senators sent a letter to President Obama urging him to not cut Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid in his FY15 budget. It won't be much of a surprise to most of the readers here to find that neither Senator Carper or Coons signed on to this letter. Interestingly, Senator Coons voted to restore the cuts to military pensions and Carper voted against them. So take a look at what a group of Democrats genuinely interested in the well-being of middle class and working class people urged the President:
Today, retirement insecurity is as high as it has ever been. Only one in five workers in the private sector has a defined benefit pension plan; half of Americans have less than $10,000 in savings; and two-thirds of seniors rely on Social Security for a majority of their income. Given this reality, we respectfully urge you not to propose cutting Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid benefits in your Fiscal Year 2015 budget. In good times and bad, Social Security has succeeded in keeping millions of senior citizens, widows, orphans, and persons with disabilities out of extreme poverty. Before Social Security was developed, about half of our seniors lived in poverty; today senior poverty is down to 9.1 percent. Without Social Security, one-third of senior citizens would have virtually no earnings at all. Social Security has not contributed one penny to the deficit. Social Security has a surplus of more than $2.7 trillion and can pay every single benefit owed to every eligible American for the next 19 years.