open source sociology Don't Believe The Scary Words You Hear About The Debt Ceiling | Capital Gains and Games Posted by Stan Collender Much of what being said about what happens if the federal debt ceiling isn’t raised immediately when the current borrowing limits is reached is just wrong. My column in this week’s Roll Call tries to correct the misinformation, misunderstanding, and...well...lies. Don’t Believe What’s Said About Debt Ceiling There is so much misinformation and grossly misleading talk about what will happen if the federal debt ceiling isn’t increased that, before any more unnecessary bloodcurdling language is used that increases everyone’s anxiety, it’s worth taking a few steps back from the edge. First, not raising the current federal debt limit absolutely will not immediately shut down the federal government. Government shutdowns occur when the appropriation that funds a department or agency isn’t enacted. Second, and again contrary to what some have stated as gospel, reaching the debt ceiling will not automatically lead to a federal default on the nation’s existing debt.
TomDispatch Home News - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan The Dish is moving! In April, we'll be joining The Daily Beast. For me, it's a strange mixture of excitement and sadness. Sadness because the Atlantic has been a very special home for me and all the interns and staffers who have worked at the Dish. The more than four years that I've worked here have been the most rewarding, exhilarating and challenging of my career. I cherish my colleagues, their support and debate, and will miss them deeply. But there are some opportunities you just can't let pass by. We remain committed to the same principles from the very beginning: in no-one's ideological grip, in search of the truth through data and open, honest debate, in love with the new media's variety and immediacy, committed to accountability and empiricism and resistant to any single category of subject or form. Now we will ride a new Beast into a new decade.
The BRAD BLOG The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan Thom Hartmann Wisconsin’s Budget Fight is Only the Beginning What you are watching in Wisconsin is your future. Since 2007, Americans have lost trillions of dollars in wealth. And ever since, we’ve been arguing about who should pay and who should be protected. Wisconsin represents the next — and most painful — round of the argument. During the good years, states and cities made retirement promises to their workers. Where did the trillion go? So, now a question: out of whose pockets should that trillion come? There’s no ready answer to the question. State workers have some valid complaints: states made contracts with them, they relied on the contracts, and now they expect the contracts to be honored. If there’s no ready answer, then how is the issue to be settled? In the New York Times this week, David Brooks offered a wise ideal : “The cuts have to be spread more or less equitably among as many groups as possible. Brooks describes exactly how the job of adjustment should be done. Bondholders have more muscle than mortgaged homeowners.
LAmyths democracyarsenal.org I Don't Know — ...what time it is. (May 27, 2014) How We All Miss the Point on School Shootings In 1998, a high school junior named Eric Harris from Colorado wanted to put on a performance, something for the world to remember him by. A little more than a year later, Eric and his best friend Dylan Klebold would place bombs all over their school — bombs large enough to collapse large chunks of the building and to kill the majority of the 2,000 students inside — and then wait outside with semi-automatic weapons to gun down any survivors before ending their own lives. “It’ll be like the LA riots, the Oklahoma bombing, WWII, Vietnam, Duke and Doom all mixed together,” Eric wrote in his journal. “Maybe we will even start a little rebellion or revolution to fuck things up as much as we can. Eric was a psychopath, but he was also smart. Despite what media outlets would later claim, Eric Harris was not the victim of bullying any more than other students, he was not a goth or a member of the “Trench Coat Mafia.” But Eric also understood people. Reality Check There are a few reasons for this: