Alan Simpson interview (30 June 2011)

above: June 30 - Chrystia Freeland talks with former senator Alan Simpson at the Aspen Ideas Festival.


from yesterday's post:

This is that Reuters interview with Alan Simpson from June 30th at the Aspen Conference, when the debt ceiling faux debate was still going on. As I said, I think this is interesting because, by turns, he plays scandalous truth-teller and shifts back to shilling for collapse. (It takes a lot of brass to shill for 1890s style government, as he does in the debt commission report, and simultaneously attack the GOP for being unduly influenced by Grover Norquist.)



From Arthur Silber,regarding Elizabeth Warren and some other things. A lot of people are worried about you Arthur, and happy to hear from you again. Be well.


Rob Payne, "The Hitler syndrome and Iran"

Obama was the worst thing that could have happened to American politics. Weak, venal, self serving, a habitual and incurable liar, Obama has almost single handedly wiped out what passed for the anti-war movement in America. Obama had a mandate and full support of the majority of Americans to overturn the past eight years of Bush policy but instead of a president who might have tried we got Obama. That opportunity is long gone thanks to Obama and will likely not return for many years.

Christian Science Monitor:"To define poverty, US has a new (and improved?) formula"


Harvard Crimson, "Group Endorses Walk Out in Economics 10"

Students staged a walkout from an intro Macroeconomics class taught by famed economist Greg mankiw, protesting his teaching that a minimum wage is inefficient, which they regarded as imposing a right-wing slant on his course.


Jeff Nilsson,Saturday Evening Post: Taxing the Wealthy: The Continuing Controversy

Editorials from 1913 and 1935 show how the Post changed its mind about higher taxes for the wealthy.



ABC News, Pa. Cafe Boss: I Made Black Man Cashier, Got Fired
By JOE MANDAK Associated Press
PITTSBURGH November 3, 2011 (AP)

A white man claims he was fired as manager of a suburban Panera Bread shop for repeatedly having a black man work the cash register instead of putting him in a less visible location and having "pretty young girls" be the cashiers.

Scott Donatelli contends in a federal lawsuit he was denied extra medical leave and was fired in September after double hip replacement surgery earlier this year. He claims the reason was that he bucked race-related personnel rules communicated to him by a district manager for Sam Covelli, a franchisee based in Warren, Ohio, about 80 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.

Earlier this year, Donatelli says, the district manager told him, "It's what Sam wants and what our customers want. They would rather see pretty young girls" at the cash register.

Zachary Roth, Yahoo News: "Bankrupt church wants donations for pastor’s sick wife ferried in limo"

Some members of a bankrupt Orange County, Calif. megachurch are expressing outrage after fielding an email request for congregants to deliver food to waiting limos so that it can ferried to the founder's sick wife. The appeal comes weeks after a lawsuit charged that the founder of the Crystal Cathedral house of worship, Rev. Robert Schuller, and his family had been paying themselves lavish salaries and other benefits while the church was in financial straits.