Thursday, September 13, 2012

Catnip 9/13/12: Is Romney Beating the Drums of War?

muirbeachoverlook7349

1000 px of Nor-Cal goodness. And it goes on forever...


News:

While the media twists and turns itself inside-out trying to explain away Romney's misleading and dangerous foreign policy blunder on Libya and Egypt - don't let this ominous report slip away unnoticed: "US Strikes on Iran Would Risk Major War: U.S. military strikes on Iran would shake the regime's political control and damage its ability to launch counterstrikes, but the Iranians probably would manage to retaliate, directly and through surrogates, in ways that risked igniting all-out war in the Middle East, according to an assessment of an attack's costs and benefits." No shit. Realize this also: You hear the neocons beating the drums on Iran. You now know Romney would jump at the chance to prove how tough he is. Just listen to his bluster on Russia and China. America to pay ready for years of drawn-out Middle East conflict? Think hard, and remember in November.

Census report showing us the results of Republican trickle-down economics - 46.2 million in poverty, median wages declining. Why? The Atlantic takes a look at the stagnation/fall of wages for men, simple explanation: Loss of manufacturing jobs. "Manufacturing employment hit its century-high mark in the mid-1970s and has since dropped to its lowest level since the 1930s... It's the confirmation of 30 years of awful wage growth for men, even fully employed men. In other words, this is not merely a reality of Obama's America, but also both Bush's America and Reagan's America (real male wages clearly grew under Clinton)."

One excellent piece of news from the report: Obamacare has lowered the number of uninsured people, mainly younger folks who can stay on their parent's plan.

Compare and contrast policy now - what has been the Republican campaign response to poverty? Attack the poor! Mother Jones shines the light on the man behind Romney's welfare attacks, and while you may not know the name, you've probably heard his sentiment. You know how poor people aren't really poor because the have a TV? Yeah, that's him. Robert Rector, Heritage Foundation shill, who has fueled Republican attacks on the least-fortunate fellow Americans for decades. Meet your future Romney cabinet.

Michael Bloomberg commits GOP message heresy in his remarks to a room full of bankers and DC elties: Businesses don't much care about their tax rates. "You show me a business person who cares about his federal tax rate more than his customers, and I’ll show you Darwin at work,” he added. The audience laughed even louder." Jokes on you, America. Bloomberg is pushing for the "grand bargain" - only problem with that is, any sort of cuts right now would harm our recovery. People understand that yet?

Remember how all that gubbermint spending caused House Republicans to gnash their teeth and rend their garments and repeatedly threaten to shut-down the government unless they got more cuts cuts cuts, right now now now? Yeah, well, when their jobs are on the line and you get to pull the lever on them pretty soon, suddenly it's not an issue anymore. "The House is expected to easily pass a short-term spending plan Thursday to keep government operations funded through March, a move that would signal that the chamber has at least temporarily jettisoned the brinkmanship of last year." Funny how that happens.

John Kasich, old-school sexist pig. War on women? Things would be fine if they'd just get back in the kitchen where they belong, right?

GM, number one in automotive manufacturing solar power use. A report by the Solar Energy Industries Association and the Vote Solar Initiative shows that retailers like Wal-Mart, Costco and IKEA are leading the way in installation. "The top 10 companies by capacity have individually deployed more solar energy than most electric utilities in the US, the report says. And the amount of solar installed by the Top 20 solar-powered companies could power more than 46,500 average American homes. Altogether, US commercial solar installations could power more than 390,000 American homes, the report said." Hmmm. If all these major corporations are so hot on renewable energy use, why are the Republicans against it?


Thursday awaits.