Weekend Update 05-14-2011

Those who refuse to learn from history, yada, yada, yada. How bad do things have to get before Americans wake up? Republicans have managed to create their version of an Orwellian society where up means down with little or no resistance.

The “blame the victim” mentality of those blaming the public for the recession is classic. Disgusting, but classic. And this look at the chutzpah of the wealthiest and their apologists is great.

The “very serious” among us note that we dare not allow a high structural employment take root, but then rule out actually doing anything about it because the monster under the bed might get us.

This article on the Five Things Every Boss Should Know About Food Allergies is a really good one. I have coworkers with various other food-related issues, so it’s certainly something people in my office are a little more aware of.

I read here and here and here about Republican complaints (whines) about Democrats telling the truth about their plan for Medicare. It’s hilarious. A bunch of Republicans get themselves elected by successfully lying about the way the ACA affected Medicare and promising to save Medicare, then proceed to vote for a plan dismantling Medicare, and in response to the ire of constituents who feel they were lied to (because, well, they were) all they can do is bitch and moan about Democrats pointing out what they did? Time to break out the world’s tiniest violin. Here’s an idea for Republicans. Stop lying and stop your all-out policy war against 90% of Americans. That would be a good place to start. Krugman actually turned this into a full column.

Speaking of scare tactics and lies, this debunks the core of the scare tactics on waiting times. Under the present system (and the even worse one Republicans want to create after dismantling Medicare), many people have infinite wait times for medical procedures because they have no meaningful access to them at all. Any discussion of “wait times” that don’t factor those into the equation is simply another lie. (And most of those particular scare tactics are lies in other ways as well.) I know a fair number of Canadians. Whatever gripes or complaints they might have about their health care, any suggestion of trading their system for ours outright horrifies them. Universally. Makes no difference if they’re a Canadian version of a conservative or a liberal. Nobody in Canada (or any other first world country, actually) wants anything like our health care system. That should really tell us something.

Eight actual facts about Social Security amid all the lies and misinformation flying around. And the simple solution mentioned at the end to the minor structural issue it faces is indeed the way to “fix” it.

Boehner’s plans don’t make economic sense and fail the test of his faith as well. Given the number of Catholics we have in leadership positions today it might be nice if some them (on both conservative and liberal sides) listened to their bishops. The letter above is from Catholic academics, but the American Council of Bishops (or whatever it’s called) has said similar things recently as well. They tend to speak more generally and not in letters to specific individuals, but the message is the same.

In this talk Robert Reich does a good job of explaining the impact of a stagnant median wage over the last 35 years combined with the unprecedented concentration of both income and wealth at the very top.

It’s un-American to end big oil subsidies? Really? No, I mean really?