Month: November 2012

If Conservative Economics Actually Worked, Romney Would Have Won

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On Nov. 6, Romney carried the majority of every economic group except those with less than $50,000 a year in household income.

via Mitt Romney: A good man. The right fight. – The Washington Post.

This is from the….insanely partisan…guy who ran the campaign that lost the Presidential election.  This is whining to a huge degree…but I wanted to focus on this one sentence.

You see….we’ve had 30 years of “trickle-down”/”supply side”/”Laffer Curve” economics from the Republicans.  From Reagan to Bush the Lesser they kept cutting taxes on the wealthy, and saying that the wealth would trickle down and the rising tide would raise all boats.

This simply hasn’t happened.  For the majority of the country, wages have been stagnant.  For folks like Romney, they’ve gone up huge.

This trend continued during the Great Recession.

In 2010 median net worth in the U.S. hit its lowest point since 1969 at $57,000, according to a recent study by NYU Professor Edward Wolff, who studied Americans’ net worth from 1983 – 2010.

During the same period, income inequality skyrocketed in the U.S., Wolff found, largely thanks to the housing bust, which took a significant bite out of middle-class Americans’ assets. Wolff found that while middle income earners lost 18 percent of their net worth, those in the top 1 percent increased their wealth by 71 percentover the same time period, according to Wolff’s report.

[full story]

So my point here is that if Republican economic theory actually worked, and the wealth actually tricked down, and the rising tide actually lifted all boats…we wouldn’t have such a large portion of the country making so little money.

If Republicans economics worked, they’d be in the White House right now.  It doesn’t, and they aren’t.

Note: Reading Stevens “reasoning” (put in quote for a reason…go read it), I am not at all surprised Romney lost so badly.  His notion of who is voting Democratic (and why) is wildly off the mark.

When Mitt Romney stood on stage with President Obama, it wasn’t about television ads or whiz-bang turnout technologies, it was about fundamental Republican ideas vs. fundamental Democratic ideas. It was about lower taxes or higher taxes, less government or more government, more freedom or less freedom. And Republican ideals — Mitt Romney — carried the day.

See….he’s claiming that Romney won…even though he lost.  He’s claiming Republican ideas won…even though they lost.  He’s going to keep claiming they work…even though they don’t.

There’s little help for folks like this.  But we should certainly take a moment and laugh at them, especially when they claim stuff like this.

Geeks hate the GOP (shouldn’t be news to anyone)

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Among employees who work for Google, Mr. Obama raised about $720,000 in itemized contributions this year, against only $25,000 for Mr. Romney. That means that Mr. Obama took almost 97 percent of the money between the two major candidates.

Apple employees gave 91 percent of their dollars to Mr. Obama. At eBay, Mr. Obama took 89 percent of the money from employees.

Over all, among the 10 American-based information technology companies on the Fortune’s list of “most admired companies,” Mr. Obama raised 83 percent of the funds between the two major party candidates.

Mr. Obama’s popularity among the staff at these companies holds even for those which are not headquartered in California. About 81 percent of contributions at Microsoft, which is headquartered in Redmond, Wash., went to Mr. Obama. So did 77 percent of those at I.B.M., which is based in Armonk, N.Y.

via In Silicon Valley, Technology Talent Gap Threatens G.O.P. Campaigns – NYTimes.com.

Here’s the thing…when the platform of your party disavows some of the most amazing discoveries in the history of our species…expect those that tend to like amazing discoveries to not like your party.   When a certain group is very pro-science, and your party is very anti-science, expect that group to not like you.

When your party platform is based largely on ignorance about the outside world, expect those that work to make that world accessible NOT LIKE YOUR PARTY.

So there’s a reason the GOP’s GOTV (Get Out The Vote) system failed so miserably…very few people who know how to make good software like the GOP.

Sea Level Rising Faster than U.N.’s IPCC Projected….WAKE UP!!

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Seas rising faster than projected, low areas threatened – study http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSL5E8MRAA520121128?irpc=932

DOHA, Nov 28 (Reuters) – Sea levels are rising 60 percent faster than U.N. projections, threatening low-lying areas from Miami to the Maldives, a study said on Wednesday. The report, issued during U.N. talks in Qatar on combating climate change, also said temperatures were creeping higher in line with U.N. scenarios, rejecting hopes the rate had been exaggerated. “Global warming has not slowed down, (nor is it) lagging behind the projections,” said Stefan Rahmstorf, lead author at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research that compared U.N. projections to what has actually happened from the early 1990s to 2011. The study said sea levels had been rising by 3.2 mm (0.1 inch) a year according to satellite data, 60 percent faster than the 2mm annaul rise projected by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) over that period.

I still think it’s absurd bordering on criminal how scientific reality has become partisan politics…all because the GOP is so beholden to carbon billionaires.

Gun Kills Person

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Student Charged in Fatal Floria School Bus Shooting | Fox News Latino
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2012/11/21/student-charged-in-fatal-florida-school-bus-shooting/

An arrest report says the minor took the gun from his backpack and began displaying it on the bus. The Herald said the gun accidentally went off, hitting Lourdes Guzman. The 13-year-old girl was airlifted to a Miami hospital, where she died.

Eight other children, including Guzman’s 7-year-old sister, were on the bus, but not harmed. The children and the bus driver were taken by authorities to a police station where they were interviewed.

What happens when a Moderate is branded a Socialist? Socialism gains ground in a Moderate electorate

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Is Rush Limbaugh’s Country Gone? – NYTimes.com http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/is-rush-limbaughs-country-gone/

In fact, the rising American electorate represents a direct threat to the striking array of government benefits for the affluent that the conservative movement has won over the past 40 years. These include the reduction of the top income tax rate from 50 percent in 1986 to 35 percent; the 15 percent tax rate on dividend and capital gains income, which was 39.9 percent in 1977; the lowering of the top estate tax rate from 70 percent in 1981, with just $175,000 exempted from taxation, to a top rate of 35 percent this year with $5.1 million exempted from taxation. At the same time, the Pew survey cited above shows the high levels of skepticism and hostility toward capitalism on the part of the emerging Democratic majority. Insofar as the liberal coalition succeeds in electing senators and representatives who share those views, the business community will have increasing difficulty in winning approval of its deregulated market and free trade agenda.

Lots of good stuff in the link. “Socialism” is a dirty word to the 55+ crowd, as to them it means Totalitarian Communism. To the younger generation hearing Obama being called a Socialist constantly, Socialism looks like moderate policies that engage the free market with a firm hand to help solve big problems. And they *like* that approach.

New Greenhouse Gas Record…What do we win? Oh….a giant hurricane.

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BBC News – Greenhouse gases hit record high
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20410942

In its annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin released on Tuesday, the organisation said that carbon dioxide levels reached 391 parts per million in 2011.

The report estimates that carbon dioxide accounts for 85% of the “radiative forcing” that leads to global temperature rises.

Other potent greenhouse gases such as methane also reached record highs.

The carbon dioxide levels appear to have been rising at a level of two parts per million each year for the last 10 years – with the latest measure being 40% higher than those at the start of the industrial revolution.

Republicans Flirt with Rational Policy on Copyright for Nearly 24 Hours Before Realizing Who They Are And What They Stand For

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House Republicans release watershed copyright reform paper – Boing Boing http://boingboing.net/2012/11/17/house-republicans-release-wate.html

This is pretty close to the full raft of reforms that progressive types on both sides of the US political spectrum have been pushing for. It’ll be interesting to see whether the Dems (who have a much closer relationship to Hollywood and rely on it for funding) are able to muster any support for this. Mike Masnick’s got good analysis of this on TechDirt, and notes that this is a huge shift from the House that, 10 months ago, was ready to pass SOPA. Update: It took less than 24 hours for the entertainment industry’s lobbyists to bully the House Republican Study Committee into retracting its eminently sensible copyright position paper. They did it with a mealy-mouthed apology, claiming the paper “was published without adequate review.

Yea…the paper wasn’t reviewed by entertainment industry lawyers, who know that without the government taking rights from the people and giving those rights to the corporations, many of these corporations would lose power. And they can’t have that, so no sane copyright policy will ne forthcoming from the Republicans. As noted, this is one of those policy areas that instead of “giving gifts” to a small number of very large companies, the Republicans could “give gifts to” (I.e. “have a policy to help”) a very large number of (young) people who will be voting in a lot of elections over their next 60 years of life.

Republican Governors ask Obama For More Time to do Obamacare Homework, as they Spent the Last 2.5 Years Claiming They Didn’t Have To Do It

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LA Times – Republican governors want more time to implement healthcare law http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-73309367/

WASHINGTON – Republican governors, many of whom have refused to implement the new healthcare law for the last2 1/2 years, are now asking President Obama for more time to decide how to handle a key part of the law. In a letter to the president Wednesday, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, the current and incoming chairmen of the Republican Governors Assn., said governors do not have enough information to assess whether they should operate their own insurance exchanges in 2014 or leave the job to the federal government.

SCOTUS and the American People disagreed with the Republican Govs, and now they are going to try and not do stuff, and blame someone else when it fails.

Romney Stays True to Form, Blames Obama’s Habit of Helping People for Winning a Democratic Election

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CNN Political Ticker 

“What the president, president’s campaign did was focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government, and then work very aggressively to turn them out to vote,” Romney said in the afternoon call, according to audio aired on ABC News.

Romney, who lost to Obama by 126 electoral votes, said the president courted voters by offering policies — some of them this election year — that appealed to key constituencies.

“With regards to the young people, for instance, a forgiveness of college loan interest, was a big gift,” Romney said, according to The New York Times. “Free contraceptives were very big with young college-aged women,” he continued. “And then, finally, Obamacare also made a difference for them, because as you know, anybody now 26 years of age and younger was now going to be part of their parents’ plan, and that was a big gift to young people. They turned out in large numbers, a larger share in this election even than in 2008.” The president’s health care reform plan, he added, also brought out support from African Americans and Hispanic voters.

“You can imagine for somebody making $25,000 or $30,000 or $35,000 a year, being told you’re now going to get free health care, particularly if you don’t have it, getting free health care worth, what, $10,000 per family, in perpetuity, I mean, this is huge,” he said. “Likewise with Hispanic voters, free health care was a big plus. But in addition with regards to Hispanic voters, the amnesty for children of illegals, the so-called Dream Act kids, was a huge plus for that voting group.”

Looks like Romney being “completely wrong” about his comments on the 47% were themselves completely wrong.  The sad fact here is that I don’t think Romney gets that his “I’ll give you a 20% tax cut that doesn’t affect the deficit” was his own cynical attempt at “buying” the electorate….by advocating policies he thought were right for the country.

This GOP notion that the entirety of the Obama electorate, or even a sizable portion of it, just wants free stuff, is what is costing the GOP support.  It’s a foolish notion, based on bloviating talkers on the radio, that was never based on any objective reality.  It’s always been a subjective opinion.  And a fairly unpopular one.

I think the thing that threw the GOP pollsters and faithful off was the this notion that the U.S. is a “conservative” nation (based on polls like this).  They think that because twice as many people self-identify as “conservative”, they are therefore going to be Republicans.  But when asked to self-identify, we find a greater number of people find themselves to be Democrats.

This is the GOP-Disconnect.  Yes, many more Americans consider themselves to be conservative rather than liberal.  But we also find more Americans consider themselves to be Democrats than Republicans.

Conclusion…Republicans assuming all Democrats are liberals is just flat out wrong.  Republicans assuming all Democratic voters are just poor commies wanting free stuff are just wrong.

Until the GOP (and more importantly, their loudest media representatives) can come to terms with this disconnect, expect more “candid” comments like the ones Romney made…it’s what the GOP faithful truly believe…and it’s just not true.