Mark K: I have said here that my principle concern about Thom’s arguments about free trade—besides being reduced to overly simplistic talking points—is the slight hint of race creeping in, and we have already talked about the effect of inflammatory speech. Why is it that we never talk about our massive trade deficits with Canada and Europe as a whole? Is it because in the minds of many every problem does in some fashion, no matter how tenuous, boil down to race?

I also heard Amy Goodman’s conversation with Charles Bowden over the weekend; I suspect that the character of this conversation was much different than the one Thom had with Bowden. In regard to free trade, Bowden was far more critical of its effect on Mexico’s impoverished than he was of that “sucking sound” that Americans like to whine about. Jobs that are going to Mexico are generally in response to American manufacturers inability to compete with cheap Asian-made goods, not to any sinister plan concocted by the Mexicans. There is also an inherent contradiction in the anti-Mexican rhetoric on the jobs front: if in fact so many jobs were being lost to Mexico, then why has the number of undocumented workers in this country rise so dramatically since NAFTA was passed?

It can’t be because of all those jobs allegedly being sucked into Mexico. That “problem” is clearly overstated, or not put into context. What we do know is that after NAFTA was passed, 22 million more jobs were created during the Clinton years, and millions of undocumented workers who couldn’t find all those jobs going to Mexico went north (nobody knows the true extent of unemployment in Mexico, since at least a quarter of the economy is “informal”). But they first had to abandon their farms to go to the cities in search of these alleged jobs, because competition from American produce made making a living untenable for many impoverished Mexican farmers. Someone needs to stop with this self-pitying attitude; after all, we are still the bully on the block.

....I don’t know if I should be mortified to confess that since childhood I have been a Stooge fanatic, but I’m not (mortified, that is). After all those incomprehensible repackagings of a half dozen shorts each, Sony Pictures finally got it right by releasing a multi-volume DVD set of all the Three Stooges shorts in chronological order; pocketbook issues prevented me from indulging myself beyond the 1934-1945 all-Curly stuff, but 24 hours non-stop worth of shorts is “Moe” than sufficient to “nyuk” myself out.

But I didn’t really want to talk about that, or those arrogant knuckleheads employed by United Airlines. I once found a pay stub of one of these people on the ground; they get paid that much for sitting around, occasionally getting off their fundaments to yell out some harassing comment at us? I think I get their real problem: it drives them nuts to see that you don’t have to be white and swell-headed to do what they do just as well.

Now it’s time to get to the point of this post. Not all of the Stooges’ shorts were good; some were dumb as dumb is. But at least you always got what you were expecting to get—the moronic logic, the head bops, the eye-pokes, the stomach punches. Rather dispiritingly, it appears that the Obama administration does not want anyone to know what we will be getting with Justice Stevens’ replacement on the Supreme Court. The frontrunner appears to be Elena Kagan, who what little we know of her judicial philosophy seems to have something to disturb just about everyone. Since everyone knows so little about her philosophy, things like the recent “outing” in a CBS blog can easily be magnified by a factor of ten by the Republican base, while Kagan’s apparent support of some of the worst abuses by the Bush “war on terror” has some on the left discombobulated. The Republicans will attack anything that moves or breaths if it has anything to do with the Democrats anyways, but the left should be afraid of getting bopped, poked or punched by another depressing “compromise” move by Obama without any real pay-off.

Since Obama is going to get a fight no matter who he chooses, why not pick an intellectual heavyweight from the left who will, if not receive the support of Republicans, will by superior moral and ethical force be a challenge to any Republican who wants to score political points attacking him or her—and be a real counterweight on the court who will occasionally wake-up Justice Kennedy out of his philosophical slumbers? But if Obama wants to play it safe, he will merely be a stooge.

Does anyone else appreciate the irony of the man who presides over what amounts to an hour-long version of the "2 minutes hate" invoking the image of Big Brother?

mstaggerlee, btw you can replace the name Glen Beck, with just about any fox commentator or neo con... works the same.

I am currently reading Richard Clarke's book, "Breakpoint." I can only read about a chapter at a time --- it is alot to think about (and it does scare me.) It would be SO easy to take down this country by taking out poorly-defended coastal internet routers, which connect the U.S. to the rest of the world.

This is so frightening because it is so plausible.

It absolutely amazes me that people actually listen to that garbage (Michael Savage and company)! It's very harsh on an energetic level. When I listen to it, I feel like I've been assaulted.

And it's not just the message. It's the method. If Thom spoke his message in the same manner, I would be just as turned off.

I know there is a lot of fear cropping up about the similarities between the Nazi's in the '20's and Today's Tea Party, but one of the biggest differences between Germany then and America now is this, Germany had the collective boot of vengeful allies at its neck, whereas America does not.

Germany had vegence on its agenda, (much like France had pre-WWI over Alsace-Loraine). America doesn't have the united cause, it just doesn't.

@Maxrot I'm not a Randi Rhodes fan, but Mike Malloy is great for when I want to vent. When it all gets to be too much, Mike Malloy provides a good outlet. But, like you, I can't listen to him on a daily basis. I prefer a much more positive environment. Glad to see you do too. =)

@Wendy, I'm certain there are many progressives that do like the style of Rhodes and Maloy. I think its a wonderful sign that there is such a diversity of progressive talkers, that I can identify the ones I like vs. the ones I don't. Much better than just one monolithic voice droning on and on until you just tune out.

There might not a conspiracy to teach kids that the Earth might be in trouble - but (to state the obvious) there's a strong conspiracy to say the Earth isn't.

@Maxrot - Absolutely!!

@Quark, I guess this will not be a good comment for you to dwell on. America may be heading the way of the Ottoman Empire did prior to WWI, in which massacres of certain groups of its citizens was not all that uncommon. The Armenian genocide did not start during WWI, it started well before that, some notable events can be found in the 1800's up to WWI.

These are the historical accounts Thom should be comparing the current environment to. He should also review the Balkans in the same time period. There was a lot of atrocities being committed in these areas that were all but sanctioned by the local and national governments.

I understand what Thom is talking about, but it seems that he's drawing his comparisons from the wrong thread of history. The era of WWI, prior, during and afterwards is very illuminating, its a shame most people know little to anything about it. The more I read, the more I realize I know nothing, yet feel I know more about why the 20th century shaped up the way it did, than most people know about it. The 20th century didn't begin with WWII. WWI really reshaped Europe and the World, and not just its maps.

re: Kerry/s spiel: should our children be afraid of the future? Not necessarily, but we damn well better be afraid for them....

@mstaggerlee, I don't know for me its a toss up between who's the bigger hypocrite, Beck or Palin. Though I guess I can see the argument that Beck is more aware that he's full of crap, whereas Palin is more likely just going along with what her handlers tell her.

I'm in no way trying to slam any other progressive host, I'm just saying some styles don't hold my attention, and I think that's a good thing, because thoses styles are probably appealing to others who don't like the shows I do.

I appreciate the newsletter suggestion, but I don't even find the time to read Thom's newsletter (no offense Thom/Louise, please keep sending the newsletter, rarely I do read it over).

Quark, the whole Eastern European/Middle East area has tragically been so churned up by religious persecution from at least Roman times, I doubt you could walk more than a mile in the area without there being a story of suffering and oppression to be told about a particular spot (though more than likely most of the stories have been forgotten, conveniently).

Thom, Carrie has a problem with the u.s. defense department and not you or me if she doesn't think global warming is real. Unlike Carrie, the defense department has to live in the real world that deals with facts, empirical evidence and likely scenarios based on that evidence and not on ideology or what someone believes to be true like Carrie does.

Climate Change Seen as Threat to U.S. Security

The changing global climate will pose profound strategic challenges to the United States in coming decades, raising the prospect of military intervention to deal with the effects of violent storms, drought, mass migration and pandemics, military and intelligence analysts say.

Such climate-induced crises could topple governments, feed terrorist movements or destabilize entire regions, say the analysts, experts at the Pentagon and intelligence agencies who for the first time are taking a serious look at the national security implications of climate change.

Recent war games and intelligence studies conclude that over the next 20 to 30 years, vulnerable regions, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and South and Southeast Asia, will face the prospect of food shortages, water crises and catastrophic flooding driven by climate change that could demand an American humanitarian relief or military response.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/science/earth/09climate.html

Thom should have asked Lukas if she believes in James Watt’s philosophy that a biblical Armageddon is just around the corner, and so there is no point in concerning ourselves about environmental protection. The guy I know who is developing an electric cab, and who is a “common sense” conservative, is apparently the kind of person that Lukas thinks is trying to make money off the global warming “hysteria.” He told me that it is a mistake to try to convince right-wingers about global warming; it makes more sense to talk about the long-term effects that "greenhouse" gases have on human health, and that since oil will eventually run out, there is great money-making potential in getting into the green energy business now, instead of waiting until it is too late.

@mstaggerlee, surely you're not expecting me to talk to a Con. I'm an red-headed Irishman, trying to talk sense to an obstinate moron is more than my temper can handle ;-)

Maxrot,

My husband's grandfather came to this country from the Ukraine because he was tired of being conscripted to fight by one side or another.

Re: Carrie Lukas segment.

A couple of months ago I was blogging here after the show, when a right winger started going off about the myth of Climate Change. His argument boiled down to "Google it, you'll find support for my point of view everywhere." So I did, discarded all the opinion sites (there's a lot), until I found NASA's report on it, copied the link to the blog and didn't hear from the genius again. My main point to him that this was the official report compiled by the Goverment, an agency that didn't have the luxury of finding it advantageous to find in favor of technology changing the environment. I think I also found some other links to a British agency with similar findings, but I didn't figure he'd accept a foreign source.

My point being, you can find any information you want on whether there is or isn't climate change going on, but rarely (if ever) can you find trusted scientific agencies that deny climate change. Also don't let a Google search complicate an argument, always remember to discard the opinion sites (which are there in force).

That was one of my favorite days on this blog.

There are generally two ways to become wealthy: steal or let your parents steal and then inherit.

@Rick in Canadia, where's Canadia? is that a new Disney theme park?

Well, I'm not the only Canadian named Rick, so I used it a while back and just liked it..

Canadia; home of the Canadians.. ;-) Eh?

Rick

@Robert S. that is an interesting fact about your Uncle, however, prior to WWI, Germany wasn't all that more anti-Semitic than the rest of Europe. Which isn't saying that Germany wasn't rife with Antisemitism then, in fact most of Western Civilization was guilty of it too.

I wasn't putting the veterans that joined the Freikorp/NDASP on the same philosophical level as the ones that joined the Communist/Socialist groups, in fact many of the street fights and local government clashes were between the two extremes. However, both sides were militant. I just don't see America in that much turmoil, heck we're not even to the point we were in the Great Depression, when a government coup was threatening.

I would also have to disagree with WWI being the first war over oil, it wasn't until the advent of the tank that Oil became all important to warfare. The roots of it really goes back to the Franco-Prussian war and the Kaiser's inept handling of diplomacy that allowed France to maneuver treaties with Russia, and Britain along with secret agreements with lesser European States so much so that they could have their war of revenge and reclaim Alsace/Loraine. I have to agree with a scholar who said it best, "WWI was not in the interest of any of the countries that got involved."

I guess it turned out to be true that one President's ceiling is the next President's floor. even Obama.