Weekend Update 09-01-2012

The Romney Lying Machine. Nothing surprising. And it’s hardly just Romney. The entire GOP lies. Constantly. Blatantly. Egregiously. And they mostly get away with it. The days of newspeak are upon us.

Saving Serious Ryan. Since most people won’t read the report and, as far as I can tell, apparently can’t handle basic mathematics, gaming the system “works.”

Galt, Gold, and God. Personally, I think all the arrogant, pretentious GOP “leaders” like Ryan desperately need a “Trading Places” experience. Strip them of wealth, reputation, connections, and every other support system, throw them out on the streets, and then see what they think of America’s social safety net. I doubt any of them would do as well as Dan Akroyd did. They have eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear.

Voucherizing Medicare. It’s really a matter of whether or not the American people are as collectively stupid as the GOP obviously believes we are. Guess we’ll see.

Republicans: We Won’t Build That. I can’t even think of a comment to add. It’s sad, really.

LaVonne Neff looks at four countries that already meet the Republican Party’s stated “goals” for a health care system (since they still lack anything that could even loosely be called a plan). Of course, pretty much every developed nation except the US already manages to provide quality, cost-effective health care to all its citizens, so it’s not very difficult to find examples. And her reference at the end of this post is priceless. And deadly accurate.

RomneyRyanomics: A Bad Deal for the Working Class. As he notes in the article, their economic plan basically involves slashing the programs on which the middle class depends and raising middle class taxes in order to pay for massive tax cuts to the wealthy. I find it hard to believe that’s actually what most Americans want, but then people rarely act in rational ways. And when we do, it’s often not actually because it’s rational. We’re much better at rationalizing a decision, which is not the same thing at all.

Krugman on the five themes expressed during the RNC. They all share a common element. Not that I bother watching political conventions either.

Robert Reich isn’t even covering Macroeconomics 101 in this post. His points are so basic that those who don’t already know them simply have no idea how an economy functions. Now I wouldn’t put people like Romney in that category. I imagine he does understand. He just doesn’t care. His goal seems to be to win power so he can further enrich himself and his peers while reducing or eliminating any financial obligation they still have to the country and society that provided the framework and support that allowed them to acquire that wealth in the first place.

Medicare Killers. Yep. Basically, they are doubling down on their belief that the American public is too stupid to tell their *ss from a hole in the ground. Sadly, they might be right.

Gluten and MSG “hidden” in foods.

I’m still enjoying “Now, I’m the One’s That’s Cool!” Truth be told, my childhood and high school experience was more … complicated … than the stereotype. RPG player and gamemaster. Beat Space Invaders when that cost quarters. (And anyone remember the Mattel handheld football game) Straight A student who competed in things like math contests. Actor. Football player. Tended to flirt. Teen parent. And things I don’t write about. I had a foot in a lot of different worlds, but didn’t wholly belong to any. In a lot of ways, that’s still true.