“Most economists and commentators now agree: a big reason for Vice President Kamala Harris’s defeat in Tuesday’s presidential election was high inflation delivering higher prices. I’ve written extensively on why the public hates inflation so much. But the election result is producing disagreement about what the policy implications should be for Democrats. Three responses being pushed, in particular, would be exactly the wrong lessons for them to learn, at least from an economic perspective.” (11/08/24)
“Conventional wisdom has it that Trump 2.0 will be a disaster for Palestinians, because Trump 1.0 all but buried the Palestinian national cause. And it is indeed true that under Donald Trump’s first term as president, the U.S.. was wholly guided by the Zionist religious right — the real voice in his ear, either as donors or policymakers. Under Trump and his son-in-law adviser, Jared Kushner, Washington became a policy playground for the settler movement …. Trump upended decades of policy by recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moving the U.S. embassy there; he disenfranchised the Palestinian Authority by closing down the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) office in Washington; he allowed Israel to annex the Golan Heights; he pulled out of the nuclear accords with Iran; and he assassinated Qassem Soleimani, the most powerful Iranian general and diplomat in the region.” (11/09/24)
Source: Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
by Julie Hollar & Jim Naureckas
“Corporate media may not have all the same goals as MAGA Republicans, but they share the same strategy: Fear works. Appeals to fear have an advantage over other kinds of messages in that they stimulate the deeper parts of our brains, those associated with fight-or-flight responses. Fear-based messages tend to circumvent our higher reasoning faculties and demand our attention, because evolution has taught our species to react strongly and quickly to things that are dangerous. It’s simply a fantasy (advanced repeatedly by Republicans) that Harris was running on identity politics, or as a radical progressive. This innate human tendency has long been noted by the media industry, resulting in the old press adage, ‘If it bleeds, it leads.’ Politicians, too, are aware of this brain hack — and no one relies on evoking fear more than once-and-future President Donald Trump.” (11/09/24)
“Over the past decade pundits have written much about how to reduce the polarization and rancor in America, and now after the re-election of Donald Trump we’re sure to hear even more about civility and finding common ground. But there’s one solution to partisan political sectarianism that doesn’t require listening to your uncle’s opinions about drag queens: reducing the power and importance of the presidency in American life. To be clear, the need to rein in the executive branch did not suddenly appear when Trump was elected. The best day to limit executive power was yesterday, but today will do just as well.” (11/08/24)
“The rule of law is a ‘government of laws’ instead of a ‘government by men,’ as the standard formula says. The so-called ‘sovereign people’ itself is only a group of men. Hayek believed that, in the long run, as opposed to political mobs, these general rules or laws necessarily come from the opinion of ‘the people’ — which introduces some indeterminacy in the distinction between the rule of law and popular sovereignty. But like all classical liberals, Hayek was still adamant that the people must not be considered sovereign, that is, it may not hold supreme or unlimited power.” (11/08/24)
“Muppet News Flash: Kamala Harris, who doesn’t win competitive elections, didn’t win a competitive election. I don’t make my living advising political campaigns or parties, but the Democrats probably should have taken my advice — going all the way back to 2023! — to dump Kamala Harris after dumping Joe Biden and run a fresh slate. I don’t hate to say, ‘I told you so.’ The full switcheroo might have got the job done — the semi-switcheroo did not. Harris shouldn’t have been campaigning for president of the United States — she should be settling in as president of the University of California, having cleared the way for somebody who wasn’t going to end up having to concede to the unholy love child of Augusto Pinochet and Liberace.” (11/08/24)
“Here are the hard truths of our threatening situation with social Security and Medicare. We have a looming major fiscal crisis which no one denies. There are solutions but no politically easy ones and our options get worse with time. Yet every time a working politician suggests considering even mild changes, the formidable senior lobby and AARP erupt in outrage and beat down the hapless reformer. Former allies of responsible reform flee and the status quo Is again preserved. Facts, as they say, are stubborn things. Social Security is by design a mandatory government administered defined-benefit retirement trust, funded by payroll taxes. However the inflows to the trust are insufficient to support the benefits promised and, unlike private pension plans, there is no corpus of funds earning compound interest to make up the difference. Thus the fund will become insolvent in nine years.” (11/10/24)
“It’s time to walk the walk when it comes to the oath to the Constitution, which is currently treated more like an optional guide at best, or toilet paper. Today, we’re breaking down the top-5 crucial steps an oath-KEEPING president should take to radically preserve, protect and defend the constitution – starting now. First, as a quick warmup – let’s first discuss what it means to adhere to one’s oath.” (11/08/24)
“To those living amidst the current political divide, the stories of Lincoln, Douglass, Tubman, Jackson, and Lee take on new meaning — renewed in relevance by the realization that our struggles are not all that different. Amid these giants of America’s Civil War reckoning, one of the more insightful figures is a name not known to many modern ears until recently: Ohio abolitionist Rev. John Rankin.” (11/08/24)
