Midday Open Thread (Minimum Wage, Inequality, Krugman, and other tidbits)
- At least 14 people were killed and scores were wounded Sunday as a female suicide bomber struck at a railway station in southern Russia, officials said, heightening concern about terrorism ahead of February’s Olympics in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
- Over the last several days it seems the myth of the infallibility of the private sector has been exposed in a rather grand fashion. Target had a security breach that compromised the credit and debit cards of millions of their customers. After an online Christmas shopping surge, UPS and FedEx failed to deliver a large number of packages on time. What is ironic is that the quasi-governmental US Postal Service that is maligned by Republicans, seemed to have gotten the job done. Shouldn’t this be a story shouted all over Capitol Hill?
- Democrats think that talking about the minimum wage and inequality will be a positive in 2014. The reality is Americans need to here much more than that in a context and with a narrative they understand. Talking about wages and inequality is not enough. It must be framed in manner that make them aware of the truth.Wages are low because the Plutocracy is taking all the economy’s gains. There is inequality because of a systemic selfish economic an political policy. Paul Krugman gives the technical narrative. This must then be broken down into how it affects every poor and middle class American, their children’s education, their retirement, their financial safety, and their health. Then they must tie that to the Affordable Care Act. They must not run from Obamacare. They must embrace it not as the Republican caricature, but for the reality of the benefits it brings.
- Do you think Fox News and Republicans in Congress are going to cover this angle on the Benghazi story?
Months of investigation by The New York Times, centered on extensive interviews with Libyans in Benghazi who had direct knowledge of the attack there and its context, turned up no evidence that Al Qaeda or other international terrorist groups had any role in the assault. The attack was led, instead, by fighters who had benefited directly from NATO’s extensive air power and logistics support during the uprising against Colonel Qaddafi. And contrary to claims by some members of Congress, it was fueled in large part by anger at an American-made video denigrating Islam.
- Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson intolerant videos keep coming out. He has been reinstated back to the show after a very short indefinite suspension. One wonders if this re-discovered video will change that as he touches the third rail of underage marriage. This is the man that Governor Jindal came out to support. This is where a part of our politics has gone.
- Health Insurance is now real for many. Everyday activities that many see as normal to the uninsured were luxuries. This is what the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) means to many.
Adam Peterson’s life is about to change. For the first time in years, he is planning to do things he could not have imagined. He intends to have surgery to remove his gallbladder, an operation he needs to avoid another trip to the emergency room. And he’s looking forward to running a marathon in mid-January along the California coast without constant anxiety about what might happen if he gets injured.
These plans are possible, says Peterson, who turned 50 this year and co-manages a financial services firm in Champaign, Ill., because of a piece of plastic the size of a credit card that arrived in the mail the other day: a health insurance card.
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