“Obama rose quickly to the US Senate and then the presidency because he had the right combination of message and manner to present a convincing alternative to terrible dysfunction the nation had devolved into. He offered a solution: Let’s all back off and try to figure our way out of the mess we’ve gotten into. This was a plausible way to put an end to the Bush Era, but it didn’t actually address any of the underlying problems that made everything so bad. There never was any plan about how to actually do that. Just “sit down together and work things out in a bipartisan manner”. It really does not appear that Obama had anything in mind more specific than that. Once the Rodney King schtick ran out of steam, he had nothing else to fall back on.”
“about $800 billion per year has been transferred from the bottom 90% to the top 10%. In addition, it turns out that within the top 10%, almost all of that $800 billion has gone to the top 1% and especially to the top 0.1%”
“the amount of commercial television (e.g. television with advertisements) that children watch before the age of 6 is associated with increased body weight 5 years down the road, even after adjustment for other important variables including physical activity, socio-economic status and mother’s BMI. In contrast, watching non-commercial television (DVD’s or TV programs without commercials) showed no association with body weight”
The Kochs, like the Coorses, the Scaifes, the Murdochs and countless others before them, invested in the long term. And thanks to their patient capital, the “respectable elements of society” have turned over the keys to the kingdom in return for being allowed to keep a few of their perks. And if that creates problems for America’s foreign-born, Muslim, Christian-hating president, well, that just makes it money well spent.
