G Greenwald article - Dems are fronting on Public Option

Glenn Greenwald breaks it down as u-sual.

This is really disappointing.  Supposedly Adam Green/Progressive Change Campaign Comittee has 41 Senators who signed paperwork claiming to vote for a Public Option.  Huffington Post Ryan Grim article claims Obama could pressure 12 additional Dem Sens to get 53 votes, based off of these Sens' prior statements wrt Public Option, & would only need 9 of these 12 to get to 50 Sens & win the vote (VP Joe The Biden is a tiebreaker when Senate ties 50-50).

So Obama COULD get the Public Option if he actually WANTED it?  Obama is 2X worse than Liebermann.

You know how Dems usually clown closeted gay ReThugs like Larry Craig?  The rationale, which I agree with, is the Hypocrisy Rule.  Craig, Mark Foley, Rev Ted Haggard, etc are hardcore anti-equal rights for gays, when they themselves are gheys.

To be fair, I think it's way past time to apply the Hypocrisy Rule on fake-ass Cartel Corporatist Whore Dems like Obama & Liebermann.  ReThugs don't front that they are for the average Jane.  ReThugs clearly state themselves Big Cartel Corporate Whores, no ReThug hypocrisy here.  But Cartel Dems like Obama pretend & campaign for the economic issues of the Average Jane & Joe voter, when really they continually defecate on Avg Jane & sellout in backroom non-Cspan'd televised deals with Wall Street, Pharma, Heath Ins, etc.  I call Hypocrisy, I call BS.

The sad thing is that real Progressive leadership ala FD Roosevelt or or TD Roosevelt or LB Johnson looks unlikely until Jan 2017 at the EARLIEST, assuming Obama isn't gonna magically turn Progressive, nor is it likely Obama could be primary challenged in 2012.  So it's either Obama, Romney, or another even worse ReThug as Pres until 2017.  The country has excessive multiple problems to wait until 2017 for adult & Progressive Fed Gov governance to fix this mess.  W T F.  Perhaps I should holler at a girl with Canada or EU citizenship?  Only half-kidding.

The Conservative Nanny State

Thom Hartmann recommends economist Dean Baker's book "The Conservative Nanny State" (website).

Baker offers his book in free open-source style over the internet here.

Fermi Paradox

Does your brain need some stimulation [||]? Read this wiki article on the Fermi Paradox.

Basically the paradox is
1 given such a high likelihood of many, possibly millions+, intelligent civilizations existing in the visible universe, & even in our Milky Way galaxy

2 why have 0 of them "hollered at us" [||].

This futurist John Smart has a really mind-blowing [||] theory, that inevitably the most intelligent civilizations will evolve to engineer another universe inside a black-hole [||] type singularity. The parameters of that new universe's physics will be chosen/engineered to maximize the amount of time, energy, & information-processing abilities available. WTF?! This theory would explains the Fermi paradox, in that no intelligent civilization would bother with the energy/time/money needed to colonize other star systems. It's cheaper/better just to cop/design your own universe.

Elizabeth Warren speech "The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class"

This Elizabeth Warren speech on "The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class", is quite insightful & interesting. Another example on how families & individuals shoulder too much risk in the society.

Warren also has a blog, & her Harvard professor website.

My take, in the long-term, we "regular Americans" need to fight for our rights politically.

In the short-term & long-term, save significant money to have as a buffer against layoffs, a major family illness, or other life risks that are now almost totally shouldered by families/individuals.

opinion - article on book "American Jobs Scam"

This is a book review, of 3 books about the American job market, on how we as Americans have gotten screwed, as employees, taxpayers, & stockholders.

Really interesting stuff, that puts the activities of Corporate America of the last few decades in perspective.

Summary quote: we've devolved from "owners' capitalism" to "managers' capitalism"

USA economic ELE - interview with Gov Acct David M. Walker

The US Comptroller General David M. Walker of the GAO is interviewed by the BBC. Note - Walker is a "career" government official that's been at the GAO since 1998, he's not a Gee Dubbz hack like Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez. In other words (no Gee Dubbz), Walker is actually worth listening to.

The US Government national debt (aka public debt) is at $8.8 Trillion. Using a ballpark figure of the US population of 300 Million, this means each of us Americans has a $29K per capita debt!

But the current national debt is not the economic ELE.

The economic ELE is that the Baby Boomer retirement, will increase government spending due to all of the boomers' Social Security & Medicaid costs. Note that there are relatively more Baby Boomers (40s - 60s "babies") than Generation X & Y (70s - 00s "babies"), so the ratio of current workers to retired workers will decrease dramatically.

Walker says these 3 things will inevitably happen to address this fiscal crisis.
1 cut retirement-related benefits - SSN, Medicaid, etc
2 cut other government spending
3 raise revenue/taxes

Walker didn't even mention other factors that I feel are quite possible
4 reduction in salary growth (or even salary reduction) in many American occupations due to offshore outsourcing to Asia
5 raising energy costs to 2X+ current level due to somewhat of a "peak oil" type situation

Even worse, this doesn't factor in an actual ELE which hopefully won't but might occur, such as
6 global economic depression
7 severe "crash" (say 30%+) in stock market or house market
8 public health crisis like avian flu
9 WMD-type terrorist attack which forces a quarantine of a major city for a decade or more

Bottom line is make sure you & your family save a lot of money, as you can't really rely on the US government or economy, word to Hurricane Katrina.

Damn I never thought Prince's 1999 song would be used in retrospect, but damn it's true. 1999 USA was awesome, I would "party like it's 1999" if the USA economic & geopolitical situation could return to that relative golden era!

Lucho book recommendation "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man"

My bro Lucho is prolly the most intelligent & informed dudes on current events & global socioeconomics I know. Most Americans, including myself, prefer more lighter media such as music or movies.

Lucho reads substantive nonfiction books on topics like economics & foreign policy by intelligent dudes such as Noam Chomsky & Paul Krugman. Lucho would figuratively son 98% of talking heads on TV or even editorial writers, despite being half the age of some of those douches to where he could be their literal son!

Lucho is the truth basically on this type of stuff, so when he recommends a book I take it seriously.

Lucho told me yesterday this book "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man". The author Perkins is a "whistle blower" here where he tells about his real experiences as a US economist trying to "reverse robin hood" 3rd world countries to extend corporate welfare for US corporations and extend the power of the US government.

Lucho said it's a great book, and one of those real-life moments analogous to taking the red pill in the Matrix, where you see the reality of the world is really far different & unjust than what our US government & mainstream media (MSM) have most people believing.