Thought for the Day: 06 May 2015

Brad DeLong has a recent post, The Debate Over the TPP.   Commenter Nils:

Can anyone detail the *actual problems* facing international trade, which would be fixed all or in part by TPP? And I don’t mean “my pharmaceutical company isn’t getting to charge as much as it wants to for every dose of its patented products sold in the world.” That’s not a trade problem, it’s a whine.

 

Thought for the Day: 1 May 2015

Apropos of May Day:

Today, of course, as [self-declared Socialist Bernie] Sanders announced that he would be running for president, the [National Journal] decided to remind Americans that, yes, being a Socialist does in fact make you pretty damn liberal…. What is remarkable about Sanders’s platform is how unremarkable it would sound to any run-of-the-mill Democratic politician 40 years ago, and how moderate it would have sounded to Eugene V. Debs, the last major Socialist candidate for president.

–  Charlie Pierce

 

Thought for the Day: 19 April 2015

The one thing that [Sen. Elizabeth Warren] understands that  [the chattering classes] don’t care to understand is that the interests of “average Americans” and the needs of “the business community” in the increasingly competitive global argle-bargle are in direct conflict, and will remain so as long as the “business community” continues to combine the essential patriotism of a potato blight with the business plan of the Barbary Pirates.

Charlie Pierce

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Thought for the Day: 18 April 2015

When you’re scientifically literate, the world looks different to you. It’s a particular way of questioning what you see and hear. When empowered by this state of mind, objective realities matter. These are the truths of the world that exist outside of whatever your belief system tells you.

One objective reality is that our government doesn’t work, not because we have dysfunctional politicians, but because we have dysfunctional voters. As a scientist and educator, my goal, then, is not to become President and lead a dysfunctional electorate, but to enlighten the electorate so they might choose the right leaders in the first place.

–  Neil deGrasse Tyson