This month in history — twenty seven years ago: In March 1987, an HIV-positive Congressman slept outside the Capitol to protest inaction on homelessness. It was 20 degrees outside. He contracted fatal pneumonia, likely in part from his immuno-compromised state being exacerbated in the cold. But before it claimed his life, he managed to convince his colleagues to pass legislation with over a billion dollars in funding for over a dozen new programs to help the homeless. This past week, Think Progress commemorated the sacrifice of Rep. Stewart McKinney of Connecticut.
The world’s oldest refugee
Credit: The Globalist
She is a 107-year-old refugee of the Syrian civil war. She is quite likely the world’s oldest refugee. She now lives precariously in Greece. Sabria would like to be reunited with her family in Germany. This seemingly easy feat, however, is being frustrated by EU immigration policies. Please join us in urging Chancellor Angela Merkel to let Sabria into Germany.
March 3, 2014 – Arsenal for Democracy 75
Description: Bill and Greg discuss discuss the Crimea crisis and Newsweek’s print resurrection. Persephone updates us on the Ley Gallardon abortion controversy in Spain.
March 3, 2014 – Arsenal for Democracy 75
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Michele Bachmann calls American Jews sellouts
From an interview she did with SPLC-designated “hate group leader” Tony Perkins yesterday, we learned (via TPM) that
Michele Bachmann is deeply disappointed with the American Jewish community for supporting President Barack Obama, whose policies she believes will reduce Israel to “rubble.”
1. Always good to tell people in a group you aren’t part of how they should feel and whom they should support.
2. Her religious support for Israel is based upon the premise that Jesus can’t come back unless a vibrant Israel is restored…and converted to Christianity…and then destroyed by The End of The World. (Really a fair-weather kind of support, isn’t it?) So why is she complaining about Israel being reduced to “rubble”? (Also: what rubble? The settlements are bigger than ever. I know she’s talking about the Iran sanctions, but still: c’mon son.)
3. When you say AIPAC — of all possible organizations to cite — has “sold out Israel” you’re officially so far outside the mainstream you don’t even know what the concept of a stream is.
Crimea: What do you really think we can do about it?
I noticed a prominent economist tweeted this the other day, reacting to the Russian occupation of Crimea: “Obama vows no tangible help Whatever happened to Democrats like Truman and Kennedy.”
This would be Truman whose Berlin Airlift occurred in a world where the U.S. was the only nuclear-armed country… and then he managed to get us stuck in Korea. And Kennedy narrowly managed to avoid getting everyone nuked over Cuba and our interference there (including his own)… but then still got us stuck in Vietnam.
So, I don’t know, maybe Obama’s handling this crisis pretty ok?
Look, this isn’t a knock against the person who tweeted that. It’s a pretty common frustration right now. I just happened to spot that particular expression of it. It’s a tense and complicated situation over there right now. There’s probably not much we can do. The U.S. isn’t omnipotent. Nor is Russia powerless before us.
Major miscalculations and underestimations following smaller disputes a century ago this year, not far from the Black Sea, brought Europe and later the United States into the devastating first world war. Let’s not repeat that. When major powers go head to head, it’s best to err on the side of doing less rather than making a catastrophic error the world will not forgive us for. And in the nuclear age, there might not be a world left anyway, after a bad call.
Maybe it’s time to calm down a bit and not fall into The Onion’s pointed characterization: “Ukrainian-Russian Tensions Dividing U.S. Citizens Along Ignorant, Apathetic Lines”
Pres. Obama reacts to dumbest heckling yet
This is amazing. During a speech this past Friday to the Democratic National Committee, a heckler yelled “Tell us about your plans for nuclear war in Russia” and President Obama made a (very valid) face:
Yes, this is how we all react to people saying supremely foolish nonsense like that, but it’s great to see the President of the United States get to react like that, too. Here’s the full clip CNN posted:
h/t
Irresponsible lending pressure? Really?
Guest post by Chris Chinn. You can follow him on Twitter @yeloson.
In the November/December 2013 issue of Foreign Affairs, there’s an article by entitled “Why Banking Systems Succeed — And Fail
The Politics Behind Financial Institutions”.
The essay starts on obvious and solid ground — that the political interests of varying groups in any society shapes how its banking policies are made — but along the way drops out the culpability of the banks in the 2007/2008 crisis. Instead they place the blame on the government regulations and special interest groups in as the primary driving force in the bank collapse, while pretending there wasn’t a massive profit incentive for the banks in the whole process.
In other words, in their view, the fault for the collapse lies with regulations designed to make banks consider low-income people for financing, rather than with the trading around of mortgages.
Let’s review what’s wrong with this claim and what really happened:
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