Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Part of the problem


The great Thomas Frank (What's the Matter with Kansas?) on Hillary Clinton: "The Democrats are part of the problem." She is "a true believer in neoliberalism."

• Donors for Bush, Kasich and Christie Are Turning to Clinton More Than to Trump
(NYT)
     People who donated to establishment Republican candidates in the primary season are more likely to give money to Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, than to their own party’s candidate, Donald J. Trump....
• UCI's Peter Navarro Brings Steely Resolve Regarding China to Trump Campaign
(OC Weekly)
     Peter Navarro got heat nationally with the 2011 book the controversial UC Irvine economics professor co-authored with Greg Autry titled Death by China: Confronting the Dragon which, among other things, praised American steel-maker Nucor Corp. for standing up to Washington’s free trade lobby....
• Wikileaks Reveals Mainstream Media’s Coziness With Clinton
(The Observer)
     …The July Wikileaks release of nearly 20,000 Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails validated the concerns of Bernie Sanders supporters that the DNC helped rig the primary election for Clinton. These emails provided a glimpse into how the DNC and the mainstream media work together in providing public relations support for the Democratic establishment.
     Rather than informing voters to enrich democracy, the mainstream media has developed a feedback loop between support for particular candidates and the political agenda they intend to support. The freedom of the press is necessary for a democracy to function. This freedom was subverted by the DNC at the consent of the mainstream media outlets. Instead of remaining autonomous, they allowed themselves to be manipulated by the DNC to back Clinton’s coronation as the Democratic presidential nominee….
• Positive link between video games and academic performance, study suggests
(The Guardian UK)
     Children who play online video games tend to do better in academic science, maths and reading tests, according to an analysis of data from over 12,000 high school students in Australia.
. . .
     The cause of the association between game playing and academic success is not clear from the research….
     [Alberto Posso, from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology] also looked at the correlation between social media use and Pisa scores. He concluded that users of sites such as Facebook and Twitter were more likely to score 4% lower on average, and the more frequent the social networking usage, the bigger the difference. 78% of the teenagers said they used social networks every day.
     Other studies have found a link between heavy users of social networking and a low attention span, which is also linked to poorer academic performance, but the evidence is less than conclusive….
• Thomas Frank: What's the Matter with the Democrats?
(YouTube)
"This guy [Trump] is Huey Long without the compassion."
• Hillary Clinton’s Embrace of Kissinger Is Inexcusable
(The Nation)
     …Kissinger is a unique monster. He stands not as a bulwark against Donald Trump’s feared recklessness and immorality but as his progenitor. As Richard Nixon’s aide-de-camp, Kissinger helped plan and execute a murderous, illegal foreign policy—in Southeast and South Asia, Southern Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America—as reckless and immoral as anything Trump now portends. Millions died as a result of his actions. Kissinger and Nixon threatened to use nuclear weapons, and, indeed, Kissinger helped inscribe the threat of “limited nuclear war” into doctrine. Kissinger, in the 1970s, not only dug the hole that the greater Middle East finds itself in, but, as an influential cheerleader for both the first Gulf War in 1991 and its 2003 sequel, helped drive the United States into that ditch….

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hillary's frail health and old age is very concerning.

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...