Drinking Liberally — Seattle

Comments

1. 1

   Better spews:

   Tuesday, 4/22/14 at 11:13 am

   Piketty’s book, which is also a New York Times best-seller, challenges the conservative economic theory of trickle-down economics, or the belief that a rising tide lifts all boats. In Piketty’s view, backed by centuries of data on wealth and economic growth, the typical outcome of unfettered capitalism is rising income inequality. Piketty says the world’s biggest economies have to do something, like impose a global tax on capital, to stop it. As Piketty said in an interview with HuffPost Live last week, income inequality is only getting started, and this century could look a lot more like the deeply unequal 18th and 19th centuries than the more-egalitarian 20th.

   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....91566.html

   “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” with its title echoing Marx’s “Das Kapital,” is meant to be a return to the kind of economic history, of political economy, written by predecessors like Marx and Adam Smith. It is nothing less than a broad effort to understand Western societies and the economic rules that underpin them. And in the process, by debunking the idea that “wealth raises all boats,” Mr. Piketty has thrown down a challenge to democratic governments to deal with an increasing gap between the rich and the poor — the very theme of inequality that recently moved both Pope Francis and President Obama to warn of its consequences.
   http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04......html?_r=0

   Is this like the global warming debate? How much do we have to study the problem? How much pain is the tipping point?

2. 2

   Roger Rabbit spews:

   Tuesday, 4/22/14 at 11:36 am

   @1 Conservatives will never acknowledge the fallacy of their economic theories. As Upton Sinclair said, “It’s hard to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

3. 3

   Better spews:

   Tuesday, 4/22/14 at 12:44 pm

   The Jungle by Upton Sinclair was only one of two books I threw out the window. (The other was a calculus textbook.) His depiction of the cruelty of man over man was vivid and so pervasive, I couldn’t take it. The man was brilliant but unreadable in large doses.

4. 4

   Better spews:

   Tuesday, 4/22/14 at 3:19 pm

   Going after the lawyers for doing their jobs

   The right appears to be inching closer to a new standard: it’s all right to defend the accused in court, just don’t defend anyone unpopular unless you’re ready to get smeared later.
   http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-ma.....ce-counsel

   So now a lawyer who has visions of public office better not defend anyone who can be used against him.
   Republican politics is getting more loathsome by the day.

5. 5

   Roger Rabbit spews:

   Tuesday, 4/22/14 at 4:31 pm

   When does a homeowner defending his home against burglars cease to act in self-defense and become an executioner?

   http://www.cbsnews.com/news/yo.....n-burglar/

   Roger Rabbit Commentary: Sure those kids were stupid, but if I were a juror, I would convict this guy of murder, because the legal right of self-defense is not a license to execute people, burglars or not.

6. 6

   Roger Rabbit spews:

   Tuesday, 4/22/14 at 4:37 pm

   @4 There are no rules in politics anymore, so let’s be as venal as they are, and return the favor. The principle of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) — if you nuke us, we’ll nuke you — should apply to this.

7. 7

   Better spews:

   Tuesday, 4/22/14 at 6:42 pm

   Untill they stop we have to as ruthless as they are. We no longer gain anything from being nice to the politicians.