http://www.democraticunderground.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sun, 26 May 2013 02:42:36 Sun, 26 May 2013 02:42:36 Republicans have been pounding their "job creators" alternate universe name for the rich into the ground for a couple of years now - people are tired of hearing it. I think the time is ripe to throw it back in Republican's faces. The super rich aren't "job creators", they are "job misers". They have... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Tom Rinaldo/453 Sun, 04 Dec 2011 12:38:49 We've begun our descent into turbulence. There is no smooth path forward and there are no accurate maps of the territory we now are entering. For the first time since the civil rights movement, since the race riots, since the anti-Vietnam War movement, we are back on the streets and staying there. I... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Tom Rinaldo/452 Sat, 15 Oct 2011 10:39:23 In case you hadn't already noticed, no I am not very pleased with Obama as our President. I figure he is the modern day equivalent of a Bob Dole Democrat. Nowadays Dole would be run out of the Republican Party if he refused to toe the Tea Party line. I don't think he would. Instead I think Dole migh... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Tom Rinaldo/451 Tue, 09 Aug 2011 12:46:56 I'm not talking about good Democrats at Democratic Underground, I'm talking about Democrats period. Any Democrat now serving in the U.S. House of Representatives is in a pretty elite group of Democrats. No one can dismiss them as just bored leftist bloggers with nothing better to do than stir up tro... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Tom Rinaldo/450 Mon, 01 Aug 2011 22:15:50 ...and we are all left to deal with whatever deals went down; ponder this. Pretend in some alternate Universe Hillary Clinton got elected President instead of Barack Obama. If her record of dealing with this Congress, including which issues ultimately dominated the agenda and how "President Hillary ... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Tom Rinaldo/449 Sun, 31 Jul 2011 14:32:45 It resulted in the huge Wall Street Bail outs passing loaded with trojan horses that showered Billions on the undeserving and cost average Americans a fortune. It was all so rushed, and the details were not available to be reviewed and debated because... there was a HUGE CRISIS! Legislation passed t... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Tom Rinaldo/448 Thu, 21 Jul 2011 08:19:34 OK, this is just my attempt to capture the paradox I experience trying to be a fairly loyal activist Democrat today, as we approach an important election year. That's all it is and it is two dimensional, meaning I'm not trying here to explain the possible motivations of the good guys and bad guys in... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Tom Rinaldo/447 Mon, 18 Jul 2011 13:40:54 He simply calls himself a Democrat. He does not identify himself with a progressive critique of American society, though he upholds the desirability of most progressive goals for the American people. He will never rally most Americans to oppose the interests of the super wealthy in our ongoing Class... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Tom Rinaldo/446 Fri, 15 Jul 2011 14:09:02 The same basic array of opposing forces and conflicting interests that periodically erupt into revolutions, counter revolutions, coups and civil wars in other societies around the world are present in democracies also. But in democracies they are diverted into generally non lethal channels with pres... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Tom Rinaldo/445 Thu, 14 Jul 2011 12:27:55 I do. I believe Obama is telling the truth about wanting to use these debt ceiling negotiations as an opportunity to reach agreement with Republicans on ambitious plans to trim our deficit and keep entitlement programs solvent further into the future. Frankly, I don't think that he's bluffing. He wi... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Tom Rinaldo/444 Wed, 13 Jul 2011 20:48:13 I start out with the word "Musing" because that is all this is. This is speculative, not factual, and it's completely subjective.

I was in a (large) room with Obama once, it was in 2008 at what was then called Yearly KOS. He impressed me and I liked him intuitively, but I wasn't ready to back hi... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Tom Rinaldo/443 Tue, 12 Jul 2011 17:38:27 The Domestic Edition.

Near the start of Obama's administration some of us said: "He's bending over too far to accommodate Republicans". Others said "No, he is trying to heal America and setting them up to look bad for being such spoil sports if they don't cooperate."

When the battle really beg... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Tom Rinaldo/442 Mon, 11 Jul 2011 14:06:49 Not for everyone true, but many jobs provided them. Now employers structure work to avoid providing any benefits, let alone provide pensions (think independent contractors and capping paid hours just below those needed to qualify as a full time worker). Meanwhile bankruptcy courts keep erasing prior... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Tom Rinaldo/441 Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:32:21 For many decades both parties treated proposals to make even a substantative tweak to the core economic safety net Americans depend on as a really big deal, regardless of their ideological leanings. It was that enshrined. Now, in a time of great economic need changes to that same safety net gets dum... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Tom Rinaldo/440 Sun, 10 Jul 2011 13:54:35 Apoologies to those who already came across this OP embedded as a reply in other threads, but rather than keep pasting it into more threads it makes more sense to create an OP and focus discussion regarding it here:

There is more than one way to look at the reports coming out of the default talk... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Tom Rinaldo/439 Sun, 10 Jul 2011 12:59:33 When we learn something that gives us fair rreason to believe that a person or organization that we generally disagree with is considering doing something awful, we react stronly to try to avert it.
We mobilize, we shout, we write letters and blogs and make lots of phone calls to get our points ac... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Tom Rinaldo/438 Sun, 10 Jul 2011 10:01:53 FOX news ratings keep dropping and their owner is neck deep in a major scandal. This is no longer 2010 when American voters decided to give Republicans a chance out of frustration over the economy.

Republicans got that chance and they blew it badly. Newly elected Republican Governors are fighti... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Tom Rinaldo/437 Sat, 09 Jul 2011 19:40:49 There is a simple truism in electoral politics; if you don't have the money you better have the people (and vice versa). Thanks to the Supreme Court, for the foreseeable future at least Republicans will always have the money, virtually as much as they want, sometimes more than they can even spend.
... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Tom Rinaldo/436 Sat, 09 Jul 2011 10:44:23 How I react to decisions made or contemplated by whoever happens to wield power in this country at any point in time fundamentally depends on how those decisions will effect my life and the life of others like me, and then on how they effect our country. Beyond seeing to my own needs and those of pe... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Tom Rinaldo/435 Fri, 08 Jul 2011 09:51:05 Paper cuts can be painful too, I've had quite a few of those and lived through every one. Usually I don't equate stabbings with paper cuts even though both are painful. Paper cuts cause minor discomfort while stabbings are potentially fatal, but yes both are painful.

Many people make sacrifices. ... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Tom Rinaldo/434 Thu, 07 Jul 2011 10:24:09 I vaguely recall the 1960 New York World's Fair. Life in the future was going to get easier. With machines increasingly doing the work, we humans would have more time to explore our personal interests and develop self fulfilling hobbies. The 4 day work week seemed inevitable to many back then, since... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Tom Rinaldo/433 Tue, 05 Jul 2011 10:01:38 On this 4th of July weekend, in the year 2011, let us now declare our dedication to Government for the Person. The true free market solution to government tyranny and mismanagement could not be more obvious. Privatizing citizenship in one bold stroke would modernize and improve the delivery of gover... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Tom Rinaldo/432 Sun, 03 Jul 2011 18:08:01 As it stands Republicans believe that they have nothing to lose and much to gain by bluffing you in debt ceiling negotiations. Their poker faces are super glued on, they know this routine well by now. It's all about power. As long as they win in the end they don't care how ridiculous their bargainin... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Tom Rinaldo/431 Tue, 28 Jun 2011 20:49:42 The Tea Party is just a distraction, an effort to preempt and/or deflect rising populist anger away from its natural course, in order to protect its natural adversaries. Of course the media is complicit in that emergency detour. True populism is a wild card, a river that overflows its banks that can... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Tom Rinaldo/430 Wed, 22 Jun 2011 03:22:38 I think we need an active left wing populist movement independent of the Democratic Party - that no doubt should interact with the Democratic Party, but NOT as a subordinate part of it.

We don't need another progressive paper coalition of the sort that from time to time sponsors national rallies... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Tom Rinaldo/429 Sun, 19 Jun 2011 14:58:19