Bits and Pieces for the Week of August 7 - 13

This is how stupid our political discourse has gotten. Candidates now announce that they are going to announce their candidacy for office. (Mike)

Terminating the Teabaggers (Mike)

21 Signs That The Once Great U.S. Economy Is Being Gutted, Neutered, Defanged, Declawed And Deindustrialized. This article makes a strong argument for "Trade Deficits!" (7 of 6)

How Obama is neutralizing the Left. (Mike)

"....Corporate power’s ascendancy over politics and society – by now mostly financial – has reached the point that both political organizations, which at this stage barely resemble traditional parties, are far to the right of the population on the major issues under debate...." (Mike)

Here's to you, California. (Mike)

Germany discovers that boosting unions reduces unemployment. "Germany... enacted policies based on strengthening and building unions as a way of increasing consumer spending through higher wages paid to union workers. Thus this policy reduces unemployment by increasing workers' purchasing power... German policies encouraging union building and negotiation power found that it was able to reduce economic inequality... It should be noted that Germany has the tightest market regulation of banks in Europe." And it doesn't have near the bloated defense spending America has. (7 of 6)

Why We Can Thank Republicans for a Double-dip Recession. "It was never a debt crisis. The debt crisis was manufactured. It's been a jobs, wages, and growth crisis all along. And that reality has finally caught up with us... Now that we're slouching toward a double-dip recession, the only hope is voters will tell their members of Congress -- who are now on recess back home -- to stop obsessing about future budget deficits and get to work on the real crisis of unemployment, falling wages, and no growth." (7 of 6)