Tag Archives: New Deal

Dems have one job. Will they screw it up?


We were on the porch at my shack in the Tinicum swamp. “Swine was all I could swipe at the SuperFridge,” Swamp Rabbit said as he placed a few hot dogs on my hibachi. “Couldn’t even steal no sardines.” I’m … Continue reading

Posted in Great Recession, health care, history, humor, mainstream media, plutocracy, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Tone-deaf Obama sings Walmart’s praises


Swamp Rabbit and I had just watched a PBS show about “nightmare bacteria” — insidious, human-killing organisms resistant to all antibiotics. Pretty scary. Then we saw a news item about Barack Obama appearing at a Walmart to praise the company … Continue reading

Posted in climate change, economic collapse, globalization, humor, liar, mainstream media, Obama | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

‘Ever-so-gentle rabble-rouser’ Pete Seeger dies


I was away from the swamp, stealing potatoes at the local Super Fridge, when I heard about Pete Seeger. This will be a rough day, I thought. Swamp Rabbit is an old leftie with a soft spot for New Deal-influenced … Continue reading

Posted in arts, Great Depression, history, humor, mainstream media, Obama, Occupy Wall Street, pop music, The New Depression | Tagged , , , , , , | 8 Comments

The ill logic of the lower classes


It’s the Eighth Day After the Solstice, and I’m back at the shack after checking up on my old house, which stopped feeling homey after a tree fell on it last year. Some of my old neighbors are doing OK, … Continue reading

Posted in Congress, down and out, economic collapse, fiction, globalization, humor, life in the big city, mainstream media, unemployment, Wall Street | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Karl Marx gets a makeover


Just for a laugh, I read aloud from a Guardian UK article in which David Simon expressed qualified approval of some Marxist ideas. Sure enough, my friend Swamp Rabbit called me a commie before I was halfway through the piece. … Continue reading

Posted in down and out, economic collapse, globalization, history, mainstream media, The New Depression, unemployment, world-wide economy | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

How to secede without blood and gore


It’s no secret the yahoos who shut down the government for 16 days have a grander goal than merely scuttling Obamacare. They want to achieve something akin to secession, but without the blood and gore that made the Civil War … Continue reading

Posted in health care, history, Obama, voter suppression | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Thank Obama, the anti-FDR, for the sequester


America is waiting for a message of some sort or another. – David Byrne and Brian Eno It ain’t pretty, the damage Barack Obama has done to working people by trying to cozy up to Republicans over the last four-plus … Continue reading

Posted in economic collapse, Great Depression, history, mainstream media, Obama, The New Depression, unemployment | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

There will be blood (or more apathy)


There’s nothing new about eras in which the rich grow richer as the majority slips into the ditch. Or about gilded ages being followed by periods in which worker incomes rise. In between are those interesting chapters in which the … Continue reading

Posted in economic collapse, globalization, Great Depression, history, mainstream media, Occupy Wall Street, The New Depression, unemployment | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Warren vs. Wall Street (and Obama)


There is an amazing disconnect between Elizabeth Warren and the man for whom she gave her excellent speech Wednesday night at the big Democratic pep rally: “People feel like the system is rigged against them,” Warren said. “And here’s the … Continue reading

Posted in Obama, Occupy Wall Street, The New Depression, unemployment, Wall Street | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Scalia — joker with a mean streak


Paul Krugman wrote a good column yesterday about Antonin Scalia, the U.S. Supreme Court’s chief buffoon, but a reader’s response to the column was even better: When Justice Scalia compared requiring health insurance to requiring people to buy broccoli, something … Continue reading

Posted in Great Depression, Great Recession, history | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments