Motley Moose – Archive

By: Inoljt, http://mypolitikal.com/

Inequality constitutes a rising problem in United States. Ever since the 1970s, it has been steadily increasing; today, income inequality is at its highest since the Great Depression. The fact that America is currently mired in the worst economic crisis since that period may not be a coincidence.

This site has found fifteen striking charts of inequality. Some are better at conveying the problem than others. Nevertheless, overall it does a decent job at presenting the magnitude of American inequality. Pictures like the one below are especially effective:

More below.

Tim Pawlenty has thrown his chapeau (that’s French!) into the ring.

http://www.timpawlenty.com/

A Time for Truth

We need a President who understands that our problems are deep, and has the courage to face them. President Obama does not. I do. Announcing my Presidential campaign at a town hall in Iowa, I will begin a campaign that tells the American people the truth.

Please make a secure online contribution, and together, we will restore America.

Today another bully has been, apparently, brought to justice. This morning an LAPD SWAT team surrounded an apartment building and brought out one of the two punks who nearly beat the father of my daughter’s classmate to death for being a baseball fan. My satisfaction at the capture of this scumbag rivals and reflects the feeling I had when another evil prick met his comeuppance in recent weeks.

In preparation for the upcoming rapture, I thought it important to help people prepare for the end of the world tomorrow.

Although reports from Sydney claim no asteroids and locusts yet….

One can never be too ready!

This really has gone a bit too far.  While I expect it of FOX and the wing-nut thug-o-sphere, not to mention the GOP and right wing pro-Israel organs, it seems that everyone is piling on in the aftermath of Obama’s speech.  The quote in question?

We believe the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states.

This is, as we all know, a well-established, consensus concept.  On what, alternatively, should borders be based?  A kabbalistic mandala super-imposed on the map?  A game of twister?  Numerological speculations based on suras of the Qur’an, funneled through a computer model and divided by values extracted from running a Bach Fugue through the same system, with the results imported into a graph in PowerPoint?  

The 1967 “border,” or “green line,” or “1948 Armistice Line,” (all it what you will) is the only logical starting point for negotiating final status.  Oslo used this template.  Camp David and Taba used this template.  Olmert used this template.  Ever internationally accepted map in the world uses it.  To get an idea of what this would look like with land swaps, see the Yossi Beilin and Yasser Abed Rabbo Geneva agreement.

(More detailed maps, including a sound proposal for how to deal with Jerusalem, can be found under the “Accord” menu at the official site: http://www.geneva-accord.org/)

The problem with the outrage is that we seem to be recapping the plot of Christopher Marlowe’s classic Elizabethan play Doctor Faustus.  Act I details Faustus’ almost methodical descent into nihilism.  A remarkably talented polymath, he despairs of Philosophy, then Medicine, then Law, determining that each is ultimately vain and meaningless, he turns to Theology.  He reads from St. Jerome’s Latin Bible (the Vulgate, as it’s known):

Stipendium peccati mors est. Ha! Stipendium, &c.

The reward of sin is death.  That’s hard.

Si pecccasse negamus, fallimur, et nulla at in nobis

veritas; if we say we have no sin, we deceive

ourselves, and there is no truth in us.  Why,

then, belike we must sin, and consequently die:

Ay, we must die an everlasting death.

Faustus then decides to turn to necromancy and make a deal with the devil.  The problem here is that the initial biblical verse that he quotes, Romans 6:23, continues:

…but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

This verse is one of the most pivotal in Christian history.  It’s the basis of Calvinist Gift Theology and served the scriptural rationale for the reformers rejection of justification through works (that is, that salvation can be attained through effort and performance of ritual rather than through the free gift of faith by God).  

Why [“the hell,” we might insert here with special resonance] doesn’t Faustus, a singularly remarkable scholar, read the second half of the Pauline verse, which promises “eternal life?”  Marlowe deftly slips an answer into Act V, when Mephistopholis confesses:

I do confess it Faustus, and rejoice:

‘Twas I that, when thou wert i’the way to heaven,

Damm’d up thy passage: when thou tookst the book,

To view the Scriptures, then I turned the leaves,

And led thine eye.

Beyond the delightful play on building a dam in the way of Faustus’s passage to heaven, effectively damning him through blocking his reading of a passage of scripture, it opens the question of Faustus’s culpability.  He didn’t reject the “truth” conveyed in scripture.  Rather, one of Satan’s lieutenants impeded his access to it.  What was he to do?

And now, it seems like Mephistopholis is trying to thwart Obama’s attempt to move negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians forward based on a consensus concept by doing the same thing.

Obama (in the role of Paul) says:

We believe the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states.

But what is received is:

We believe the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines…

Is Mephistophilis flipping the leaf again, i.e., turning the page?

Are those who are now screaming condemnations based on the most elementary form of irresponsible reading in the sway of Satan’s minions, or are they themselves playing the part?

(PS For one of the best responses to the speech, I recommend Peter Beinart’s piece, entitled “Obama’s Moral Universalism” in the Daily Beast: http://www.thedailybeast.com/b…

Obama’s 45-Minute Middle East speech earlier was amazing. A full transcript can be read here.

While it touches on so many issues surrounding the region, especially in context of current events, the most striking (though nothing really new) points are that of the Israel/Palestine conflict.

The video and text follow:

I figured we needed another open thread and, since today is my birthday (blech!) I figured I’d start one.

Waco Lynch Mob May 15, 1916

I want to say first here that writing this disturbs me deeply.  There will be text and images that are repugnant.  “Lynching’ and its meaning for me as a black child in America was impressed upon me very early in life.

Republicans are playing chicken with American prosperity.  The stakes could not be higher.  Most Americans see this as another pawn in the endless jostling between politic factions, but it is not.  It stands to reverse the expensive and tentative recovery which we are only beginning to enjoy and throw the American economy into a crisis similar to that of Greece relative to the European Community:

May 14 (Bloomberg) — U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said a default arising from failing to raise the debt limit could cause “irrevocable damage” to the economy, risk a “double-dip” recession and increase unemployment.

“Default would not only increase borrowing costs for the federal government, but also for families, businesses and local governments — reducing investment and job creation throughout the economy,” Geithner said in a letter dated yesterday to Senator Michael Bennet, a Colorado Democrat.

Failing to raise the $14.29 trillion debt ceiling would “force the United States to default” on obligations such as payments to service members, citizens, investors and businesses, Geithner wrote. “This would be an unprecedented event in American history. A default would inflict catastrophic, far-reaching damage on our nation’s economy, significantly reducing growth and increasing unemployment.”

Ian Katz and Daniel Enoch – Geithner Says Damage From Debt Default May Be ‘Irrevocable’ Bloomberg 14 May 11

Republicans seem intent to use this opportunity for a Norquist-style drowning of the economy, which they can then blame on the incumbent administration in the run-up to a desperate presidential election cycle.  Is this the party of patriots or economic suicide-bombers?

Here’s the statement:

After considerable deliberation and reflection, I have decided not to pursue the office of the Presidency. This decision does not come easily or without regret; especially when my potential candidacy continues to be validated by ranking at the top of the Republican contenders in polls across the country. I maintain the strong conviction that if I were to run, I would be able to win the primary and ultimately, the general election. I have spent the past several months unofficially campaigning and recognize that running for public office cannot be done half heartedly. Ultimately, however, business is my greatest passion and I am not ready to leave the private sector.

I want to personally thank the millions of Americans who have joined the various Trump grassroots movements and written me letters and e-mails encouraging me to run. My gratitude for your faith and trust in me could never be expressed properly in words. So, I make you this promise: that I will continue to voice my opinions loudly and help to shape our politician’s thoughts. My ability to bring important economic and foreign policy issues to the forefront of the national dialogue is perhaps my greatest asset and one of the most valuable services I can provide to this country. I will continue to push our President and the country’s policy makers to address the dire challenges arising from our unsustainable debt structure and increasing lack of global competitiveness. Issues, including getting tough on China and other countries that are methodically and systematically taking advantage of the United States, were seldom mentioned before I brought them to the forefront of the country’s conversation. They are now being debated vigorously. I will also continue to push for job creation, an initiative that should be this country’s top priority and something that I know a lot about. I will not shy away from expressing the opinions that so many of you share yet don’t have a medium through which to articulate.

I look forward to supporting the candidate who is the most qualified to help us tackle our country’s most important issues and am hopeful that, when this person emerges, he or she will have the courage to take on the challenges of the Office and be the agent of change that this country so desperately needs.

Thank you and God Bless America!

Donald J. Trump

http://politicalticker.blogs.c…

Gotta love that he refuses to acknowledge his plummet in the polls and continues to assert that he could win, a hypothesis that can only be defended by refusing to test it.

In other news, I want you all to know that I could play center field for the Yanks, make the hall of fame, and be a Beatle.  But my passions lie elsewhere.