Nuclear Power Losing Favor in Much of the World - Amitabh Pal

A number of countries have recently rethought their romance with nuclear energy.

In Germany, the government has been compelled by a galvanized mass movement to announce an end to nuclear power.  The Italian people delivered a similarly resounding message to their government in June.  The Swiss government has also seen the light, pledging in May to shut down the country’s nuclear plants by 2034.

And even China, that energy-consuming colossus, paused new nuclear plant construction.

Unfortunately, some other prominent countries are way behind the curve. Even after Fukushima, the United States is still refusing to go a different route. In fact, Senate Republicans, instead of being sobered by Fukushima, are even holding up new safety recommendations issued by a Nuclear Regulatory Commission task force, calling them "more Washington red tape."

The full article is available here

5 Governance Problems That Contributed to U.S. Credit Rating Downgrade - Darrell West

The recent decision by Standard & Poor's to downgrade its credit rating of U.S. government debt from AAA to AA+ resulted not from lack of money, but poor governance performance by federal officials. A number of long-term trends has paralyzed policymakers and made it difficult to address pressing problems. Unless these conditions improve, it will be difficult for elected leaders to address the budget deficit.

(1) Super-Majority Requirements in the U.S. Senate: The dramatic increase in real or threatened filibusters in the U.S. Senate has moved American democracy from majority to super-majority rule.

(2) Extreme Politics in the U.S. House of Representatives: The American public has expressed its support for sacrifice on the part of all Americans to close the budget deficit and is open to a range of policy proposals. But House extremists block action and keep Congress from taking reasonable steps to address the deficit and debt.

(3) Excessive Political Polarization Across the Country: The United States has the most polarized politics that we have seen in a number of decades.

(4) Partisan Redistricting in American Elections: The rise of extremist politics arises from legislative redistricting that creates homogenous districts which are not politically competitive.

(5) Low Voter Turnout Encourages Political Leaders to Play to the Base: Only around 40 percent of eligible Americans vote in congressional elections and 60 percent vote in presidential races. These low turnout rates create incentives for Republicans to play to conservatives and Democrats to focus on liberals.

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‘Crazy, Stupid, Love.’ Is Surprisingly Good - Pop Matters

In a summer littered with big-budget sequels, second-tier superheroes, and the usual animated fare, it is a bit of a shock to find a studio comedy aimed at adults. Crazy, Stupid, Love. has an even bigger surprise going for it. It’s really good. 

Crazy, Stupid, Love. could have easily been a low-brow comedy. The set-up of a promiscuous ladies’ man becoming the wingman to a newly single sad sack could easily have devolved into sex and diarrhea jokes. Instead, it shoots for much higher ground, exploring the ways that well-drawn characters look at love.

The unifying theme is that love is equally raw and potentially frightening for all of them. The title may call it crazy and stupid, but the film delves into how love makes us, in equal parts, angry and sad, nervous and intoxicated.

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Reality is Calling... The Problem Isn't Deficits, It's Jobs - Robert Creamer

The only surprise is that it happened so fast. The cacophony of right-wing talk about how we need to "cut spending" to create jobs reached a fever pitch in the debate over the deficit ceiling that culminated just days ago. Now the world economy is sending a stark message that makes such talk sound stupider and stupider by the minute. The "conventional wisdom" is getting whiplash.

As markets tumble and job reports show no growth, it is crystal clear to anyone with even a passing acquaintance with economics that Republican budget cutters are completely, utterly wrong. In fact they are 180 degrees off course. They are trying to do exactly the opposite of what the economy needs in order to grow and create jobs.

History will remember them the same way it views their ideological progenitors that in 1937 decided Roosevelt's New Deal had gone too far and needed "fiscal discipline." That led to a sharp end of the economic recovery and a renewed downward plunge into joblessness. We've seen this movie. It's a disaster film.

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Former George W Bush speechwriter: Krugman was right - Salon

When David Frum, former speechwriter for George W. Bush, says nice things about Paul Krugman it's worth taking notice. Krugman was one of Bush's toughest critics; to suggest that he was correct in his savage evisceration of Bush's economic policies is apostasy of the highest order.

But Frum goes even further than that in his post "Were Our Enemies Right?" Frum suggests that the entire conservative movement has fundamentally misunderstood how to manage the economy.  There is precious little evidence that the conservative camp -- outside of a few ostracized-and-excommunicated conservatives like Frum or Bruce Bartlett -- has changed its views on economic issues one whit.

Far from it -- they've doubled down! The federal tax burden has reached a 60-year low -- and they are still pushing for further tax cuts. A deregulated financial sector contributed to the excesses that caused the financial crisis, and they're still fighting, tooth-and-nail, every attempt at reregulation. History and economics tell us that cutting government spending in a period of low or negative economic growth runs a severe risk of slowing growth even further, and yet they've made deficit reduction their primary political goal.

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New Tool Maps How Badly Climate Change Affects You - Grist

A new web tool from the Natural Resources Defense Council lets you map climate change threats -- excessive heat, disease risk, pollution, drought, and flooding -- anywhere in the United States.

It's not just designed to depress you, either; each state's map includes information about how to address climate change impacts, and details the state's preparedness plan.

Based on an analysis of data gathered from the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other resources, NRDC’s new “Climate Change Threatens Health” webpage lets users see the effects of climate change at a regional and state level.

The full article is available here

Right's 'Madness' and Standard & Poor's Ineptitude Conjure Downgrade - Paul Krugman

On one hand, there is a case to be made that the madness of the right has made America a fundamentally unsound nation. And yes, it is the madness of the right: if not for the extremism of anti-tax Republicans, we would have no trouble reaching an agreement that would ensure long-run solvency.

On the other hand, it’s hard to think of anyone less qualified to pass judgment on America than the rating agencies. The people who rated subprime-backed securities are now declaring that they are the judges of fiscal policy? Really?


Just to make it perfect, it turns out that S&P got the math wrong by $2 trillion, and after much discussion conceded the point — then went ahead with the downgrade.  More than that, everything I’ve heard about S&P’s demands suggests that it’s talking nonsense about the US fiscal situation.

In short, S&P is just making stuff up — and after the mortgage debacle, they really don’t have that right.  So this is an outrage — not because America is A-OK, but because these people are in no position to pass judgment. 


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Obama’s Unhealthy Obsession With Independents - The New Republic

The debt ceiling deal has been struck and the score looks to be in the neighborhood of Republicans: a zillion, Democrats: zero. It is perhaps the inevitable outcome of a process in which Obama treated GOP default-threatening tactics as legitimate and accepted the GOP framework that cutting debt, not creating jobs, was the country’s central problem.

As a result, we have a deal that severely undercuts Democratic policy priorities and cuts government spending just as the economic recovery is showing signs of tanking. Just how, exactly, did it come to this? The most plausible explanation is that Obama and his political advisors are convinced that striking a bipartisan compromise on debt reduction is the way to the hearts of America’s political independents, who famously abandoned the Democrats in 2010.

The administration’s chimerical search for the independents of their dreams has not served the country, nor the president, well. Obama has stumbled ever further into a political heart of darkness, hemmed in on all sides by radical GOP views on government and governance. And he can’t expect independents to bail him out.

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They Might Be Giants: Join Us - AV Club

The weird, eclectic Join Us serves as a refreshing corrective to years of kiddie albums and so-so grown-up discs, and reestablishes Linnell and John Flansburgh as geek-rock explorers of the highest order.

The sparkling “Can’t Keep Johnny Down” kicks things off in winning fashion, showcasing Linnell’s surprising late-career ability to craft a slick pop tune. But aside from a few more ringers, the rest of the album resembles the grab-bag goodness of 1990’s Flood.

Left-field arrangements and instrumentations abound, and even the flat-out rockers (“Judy Is Your Viet Nam”) and straight-up throwbacks (“Old Pine Box”) are shot through with a newfound sense of kitchen-sink experimentation.  The busy, upbeat highlight “When Will You Die” revels in TMBG’s giddy black humor, and ends up being one of the group’s most jubilant, life-affirming songs.

The full article is available here

Democracy and Caring About Each Other - George Lakoff

The democracy of care, shared responsibility, and trust is the democracy of the American Dream.

Democracy, in the American tradition, has been defined by a simple morality: We Americans care about our fellow citizens, we act on that care and build trust, and we do our best not just for ourselves, our families, and our friends and neighbors, but for our country, for each other, for people we have never seen and never will see.

We are now faced with a nontraditional, radical view of “democracy” coming from the Republican party. It says that “democracy” means that nobody should care about anybody else, that “democracy” means only personal responsibility, not responsibility for anyone else, and it means no trust.

If America accepts this radical view of “democracy,” then all that we have given each other in the past under traditional democracy will be lost: all that we have called public. Public roads and bridges: gone. Public schools: gone. Publicly funded police and firemen: gone. Safe food, air, and water: gone. Public health: gone. Everything that made America America, the crucial things that you and your family and your friends have taken for granted: gone.

The democracy of care, shared responsibility, and trust is the democracy of the American Dream. The “democracy” of no care, no shared responsibility, and no trust has produced the American Nightmare that so many of our citizens are living through.

The full article is available here

Why I Voted Against the Budget Control Act of 2011 - Dennis Kucinich

The wealth of America is being accelerated to the top and this bill pushes that acceleration.

The Budget Control Act of 2011, is a landmark in American history, but for the wrong reasons. It is a fake solution to a phony crisis. It provides for a radical transformation of the structure of government. It is an attack on the principle of government of the people. All this in the name of fiscal accountability.

This bill fails on its own terms, which are allegedly about fiscal accountability. The debt has three main drivers. The first is the recession, the second reason is the Bush tax cuts and the third reason is the wars. 

It is inexplicable that we are creating more space for war and less space for jobs, housing, education, caring for our elderly, home heating assistance and a wide range of activities of any government which truly cares for its people.  A policy of no limits for war and hard limits on domestic spending, coupled with hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts for the rich, disproportionately affects the poor and middle class.

Main Street has suffered a massive loss of retirement savings, housing security, access to affordable health care, real wages and benefits, full employment and massive loss of small businesses. The wealth of America is being accelerated to the top and this bill pushes that acceleration.

The full article is available here

The Moral Default - Jim Wallis

If the wealthy are not asked to share in the sacrifice, then cuts will undoubtedly come from those who can least afford it.

The debate we have just witnessed has shown Washington, D.C. not just to be broken, but corrupt. The American people are disgusted watching politicians play political chicken with the nation’s economy and future.

In such a bitter and unprincipled atmosphere, whoever has the political clout to enforce their self-interest and retain their privileges wins the battles. But there are two casualties in such political warfare: the common good and the most vulnerable.

The most glaring problem with the deal is that it doesn’t, at this point, include revenues. There is no balancing between spending cuts and tax increases, and this deal, so far, falls completely on the side of spending cuts. It is possible that revenues will be revisited in the new super committee, but given the insistence of a cuts only approach by the Republican leaders, it is not clear how likely a more balanced approach will be.

Corporate tax loop holes for the very rich were protected, while the core safety net for the most vulnerable is still in great jeopardy. The private jet industry mobilized to protect its tax deductions; the most profitable oil companies in the country will continue to get their public money for offshore drilling subsidies.

But programs like WIC and SNAP — providing critical nutrition help for low-income mothers and their kids, or malaria bed nets and vaccinations for children in Africa are threatened. If the wealthy are not asked to share in the sacrifice, then cuts will undoubtedly come from those who can least afford it.

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Tom Morello, The Nightwatchman: Uniontown - Pop Matters

If this is your initial introduction to Tom Morello’s “Nightwatchman” saga, then you’re in much better luck than the Rage and Audioslave fanatics who purchased his first solo album on a whim figuring he’d tear up the acoustic guitar like he does the electric.

Union Town tightens up the sound Morello’s been testing with his alter-ego, blending the simple folk he always wanted out of this project, but mixing it with the electric guitar talent he’s been known for since the early ‘90s. On four of the eight songs, Morello squeals quick riffs at each bridge, though not in his signature scratchy vein, but rather in a cleaner, more rehearsed style.

It’s a smart move, though, and one that could gain more Rage and Audioslave listeners without losing the point of this project, which this time is to spark protest against Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and his bill to end collective bargaining.

Morello bellows on the title track, “If they come to strip our rights away / We’ll give ‘em hell every time,” and for someone who’s made millions of dollars and never gotten screwed over by the record companies, he still comes off as legitimate.

The full article is available here

The Debt Ceiling Debacle - HuffPost

The irresponsible decision of the Tea Party Republican right to hold the economy hostage over the raising the debt ceiling has paid off big time. And Americans will pay the price.  For all the president's talk about shared sacrifice and the wealthy paying a bit more by closing loopholes, the two choices before the Congress now are all about spending cuts without revenue increases.

What is notable about the current choices is how far removed they are from the opinions of most Americans. By overwhelming majorities, Americans want Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid protected. The most popular options on deficit reduction are raising taxes on millionaires, lifting the cap on Social Security, taxing Wall Street bankers for the mess they made, closing off shore tax havens and various corporate subsidies and loopholes.

The full article is available here

If Corporations and the Rich Paid 1960s-Level Taxes, the Debt Would Vanish - Our Future

This “debt crisis” in no way had to happen. No natural disaster, no tsunami, has suddenly pounded the United States out of fiscal balance. We have simply suffered a colossal political failure. Our powers that be, by feeding the rich and their corporations one massive tax break after another, have thrown a monstrous monkey wrench into our national finances.

If corporations and households taking in $1 million or more in income each year were now paying taxes at the same annual rates as they did back in 1961, the IPS researchers found, the federal treasury would be collecting an additional $716 billion a year.

In other words, if the federal government started taxing the wealthy and their corporations at the same rates in effect a half-century ago, the federal debt to investors would almost totally vanish over the next decade.

The full article is available here

Nearly 10 Years Ago Today, U.S. Began Borrowing Billions To Pay For Bush Tax Cuts - Think Progress

As debates about deficit reduction continued to be heavily tilted toward cutting spending, which threatens to undermine a fragile recovery, rather than raising revenue from those who can afford it, it’s important to remember the budgetary impact of the Bush tax cuts.

Nearly 10 years ago today, on August 1, 2001, the Associated Press reported that the Treasury Department was tapping $51 billion of credit in order to pay for the budgetary cost of the first round of Bush tax cuts’ rebate checks. The AP reported at the time that Democratic Party opponents of the tax cuts worried that they’d return government budgets to "red ink."

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Horn of Africa Hunger Emergency: Somali Children Walk for Days or Weeks to Reach Relief Camps

Relief workers are struggling to keep up with the exodus of hungry refugees.

In some parts of drought-stricken Somalia, one child in 10 is at risk of starving to death, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). In a recent report, ICRC stated that the number is twice as high as it was in March.

Additional feeding centers are being set up by the Somali Red Crescent (an ICRC affiliate), but relief workers are struggling to keep up with the exodus of hungry refugees.

Adults who arrive in neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia, where border camps are swelling, report that children have died en route.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said there are 11 million people in the Horn of Africa affected by the worst drought in decades.

The full article is available here

What My Father Believed - John Guzlowski

My father believed we are here to lift logs that can’t be lifted, to hammer steel nails so bent they crack when we hit them.

In the slave labor camps in Germany, he’d seen men try the impossible and fail.

He believed life is hard, and we should help each other.

If you see someone on a cross, his weight pulling him down and breaking his muscles, you should try to lift him, even if only for a minute, even though you know lifting won’t save him.


The full article is available here

Being Poor Is A Lot of Work - Bart Campolo

Until very recently, I had no idea how hard it is for some of our friends just to find somewhere to lay themselves down to sleep at night.

I knew that inner-city families moved around a lot, but I didn’t realize how much heartache and humiliation goes before and after most of those moves, both for the families and for the neighborhoods they come and go from in search of better space.

Part of the problem is low incomes, of course, which leave almost everyone around here one minor setback way from missing rent.

But beyond that, there are often rats and roaches and bedbugs to contend with, along with those normal, everyday conflicts with neighbors that, in this environment, can quickly become unacceptably dangerous. There are broken pipes and broken heaters and, as often as not, broken promises from landlords who live in a very different world.

The full article is available here

The Republican Party - Getting to Crazy: Paul Krugman

Anyone surprised by the extremism and irresponsibility now on display by Republicans in the debt limit debate either hasn’t been paying attention, or has been deliberately turning a blind eye.

President Obama has made it clear that he’s willing to sign on to a deficit-reduction deal that includes extraordinary concessions.  Yet Republicans are saying no. Indeed, they’re threatening to force a U.S. default, and create an economic crisis, unless they get a completely one-sided deal. And this was entirely predictable.

Voodoo economics has taken over the GOP.  Those within the GOP who had misgivings about the embrace of tax-cut fanaticism might have made a stronger stand if there had been any indication that such fanaticism came with a price.  But there has been no pressure on the GOP to show any kind of responsibility, or even rationality — and sure enough, it has gone off the deep end.

The full article is available here

The Rise of the Wrecking-Ball Right - Robert Reich

Government-haters seem to be everywhere.  Congressional Republicans, now led by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, hate government so much they're ready to sacrifice the full faith and credit of the United States in order to shrink it.

Add in the relentlessly snide government-hating and baiting of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh and his imitators on rage radio; include more than thirty years of Ronald Reagan's repeated refrain that government is the problem; pile on hundreds of millions of dollars from the likes of oil tycoons Charles and David Koch intent on convincing the public that government is evil, and you have all the ingredients for the emergence of a wrecking-ball right that's intent on destroying government as we know it.

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2011 Natural Disasters Cost a Record $265 Billion - Grist

Some politicians might not believe in climate change, but insurance companies do. They track disasters, and it turns out that disasters just in the first six months of this year already cost the world more than any other year of disasters on record.

The price tag for 2011 disasters reached $265 billion. Most of that cost ($210 billion) came from the tsunami in Japan.

But flooding in Australia, tornadoes in the United States, and earthquakes in New Zealand also contributed, and the Munich Re insurance giant draws a connection between some of these disasters and climate change.

The full article is available here

The Crisis Enters Year Five - Tikkun

The current capitalist global crisis began with the severe contraction in the housing markets in mid-2007; therefore welcome to year five.  Here’s the "good news": the major banks, the stock market, and corporate profits have largely or completely “recovered” from the lows they reached early in 2009.  However, the bad news is what prevails.

The most widely cited unemployment rate for workers without jobs but looking remains at 9%. If instead we use the more indicative U-6 unemployment statistic of the U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, then the rate is 15%.

At the same time, the housing market remains deeply depressed as 1.5 to 2 million home foreclosures are scheduled for 2011, separating more millions from their homes. After a short upturn, housing prices nationally have resumed their fall: one of those feared “double dips” downward is thus already underway in the economically vital housing market.

The combination of high unemployment and high home foreclosures assures a deeply depressed economy. The mass of U.S. citizens cannot work more hours — the United States already is number one in the world in the average number of hours of paid labor done per year per worker. The mass of U.S. citizens cannot borrow much more because of debt levels already teetering on the edge of unsustainability for most consumers.

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Gillian Welch: The Harrow & The Harvest - Pop Matters

Throughout its ten songs, The Harrow & The Harvest locks into oldness and Americana.  What we have are ten more examples of what make Welch & partner David Rawlings great: high lonesome harmonies, beautifully judged musicianship, exquisite songcraft, and a relationship with tradition that is both serious and playful.

The same awareness of fate that drove so many of those old ballads, and that howls like a bitter wind through the Carter Family’s repertoire, informs many of the songs on The Harrow & The Harvest. Indeed, one way to read that title (beyond the very tempting connection to a certain Neil Young album) is as a recognition of the cyclical inevitability of the seasons, of sowing and reaping, the rewards and punishments wrought by time.

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Republican's Sick Priorities - The Nation

How deceptive for politicians to stress “entitlements” when they talk about gutting Social Security and Medicare, two programs long paid for by their beneficiaries. The Republicans make it sound as if they’re doing us a favor, cutting government waste by seeking to strangle America’s two most successful domestic programs.

And now Barack Obama seems poised to join their camp in undermining the essential lifeline for most of the nation’s seniors, many of whom lost their retirement savings in the banking meltdown.

These threatened programs are not government handouts to a privileged class, like defense contractors and bailed-out bankers, who do feel eminently entitled to pig out at the federal trough.

On the contrary, Social Security and Medicare have been funded by a regressive tax that falls disproportionately on working middle-class income earners, while caps in the system leave the wealthy—most notably the hedge fund hustlers who helped cause today’s economic crisis—largely untaxed.

The full article is available here