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blenkinsop commented on the blog post FDL Book Salon Welcomes Andrew Bacevich, The Short American Century: A Postmortem
On the question of what we want our military to do, it seems at present it is to garrison the planet. How long do you think it will be before candidates for national office will call for closing bases around the world and say, reducing the number of aircraft carriers?
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blenkinsop commented on the blog post FDL Book Salon Welcomes Andrew Bacevich, The Short American Century: A Postmortem
Mr. Bacevich, thank you for dropping in and for the books that you write, in my view future historians will cite you as a voice of sanity during these insane times. What would living within our means require in terms of cutting defense spending?
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blenkinsop commented on the blog post Federal Judge Explains Racist Obama Email By Saying It Wasn’t Meant to Be Public
Obama can’t get his judicial appointments confirmed in the Senate, and meanwhile this guy adorns the Federal bench. Lovely.
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blenkinsop commented on the blog post Late Night FDL: Holier Than Thou
That really says it all. Bravo. Why can’t Obama give that as a speech?
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blenkinsop commented on the blog post 52% of Rhode Island Voters Support Legalizing and Regulating Marijuana Like Alcohol
This is good news. It would be even better news if the President would deign to address this issue. It was only the most popular question submitted recently for the “Your Interview with the President” session, after all.
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blenkinsop commented on the blog post Report: Obama Signs Order Allowing Covert Support for Libyan Rebels
Note that this was supposedly “secret” information leaked by someone in the government to Reuters. Will that person get the Bradley Manning treatment? Highly unlikely.
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blenkinsop commented on the blog post FDL Book Salon Welcomes Matt Taibbi, Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America
This is from the current New Yorker article on the financial industry:
Economic historians refer to a period of “financial repression,” during which regulators and policymakers, reflecting public suspicion of Wall Street, restrained the growth of the banking sector. They placed limits on interest rates, prohibited deposit-taking institutions from issuing securities, and, by preventing financial institutions from merging with one another, kept most of them relatively small. During this period, major financial crises were conspicuously absent, while capital investment, productivity, and wages grew at rates that lifted tens of millions of working Americans into the middle class.
Do you think this can be explained to people in such a way that will make sense even to the Tea Partiers?
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blenkinsop commented on the blog post FDL Book Salon Welcomes Matt Taibbi, Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America
Matt, do you think the recent SEC action against insider trading is important or just a sideshow that deflects attention from the foreclosure mess and the weapons of mass financial destruction?
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blenkinsop commented on the blog post FDL Book Salon Welcomes Matt Taibbi, Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America
Matt, thanks for stopping by and for all of your work, you are certainly about the most entertaining as well as informative journalists we have today. How do you think the tax cut and catfood commission controversies will shake out? Will Obama finally show some spine or will the plutocrats have their way as usual?
