Insanity

A classic definition of insanity (attributed variously to Benjamin Franklin and to Albert Einstein) is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results.

Keeping this in mind, I note that Bush is proposing an economic stimulus package to prevent a recession. The stimulus package consists of tax cuts.

I am reminded of another classic. To paraphrase slightly:

“Hey Rocky, watch me pull an economic recovery out of my hat!”

“That trick never works!”

Get Ready For Bust-Out II: The Final Cut

Because George W. Bush and his cronies really don’t give a rat’s butt what happens to America or the world, so long as they get away with hollowing out one, the other, or both:

If this Times report is at all right, Republicans will hold any attempt to help the economy now hostage to yet another try at making the Bush tax cuts permanent — thereby, among other things, crippling future possibilities for health care reform. I suspected that’s what would happen, but thought that maybe, just maybe, the GOP would be sufficiently scared by the prospect of a nasty recession in an election year that it would back off. Guess not.

Krugman then provides this helpful graph (shown above) that shows just how destructive Bush and the Republicans’ tax cuts for the rich have been to our economy over the past decade — a destruction that stands out especially strongly when compared to the beneficial effects of Bill Clinton’s tax increase in 1993. (Of course, top-level Republicans and their corporate patrons dislike full employment because that gives them less leverage over their workers. So for them, high unemployment is a good thing. That’s why they don’t care that the “Laffer curve” is bogus.)

Bernanke already has signaled his willingness to back the “right” kind of stimulus package. Now’s the time to make sure we push back against the Republican bust-out and any hints that Helicopter Ben may be working to enable it.

A Possible Improvement?

This development is being viewed with cautious optimism by immigrant advocates:

SAN ANTONIO — The federal government quietly approved over the holidays new regulations for its controversial family detention centers, a move tacitly welcomed by immigrant advocates who sued for the changes and who remain skeptical of the program.

The 37 new guidelines address every aspect of ICE’s two detention centers for families, including its flagship, the 512-bed T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility near Austin. The government had a hard time coming up with standards because the prisons house adults and children together.

Remember the Little Kids in Jail? They were housed at the Hutto prison. They had apparently been freed in February, but then ordered deported in August. (Granted, their lawyer probably could have been a tad more diplomatic — if he actually said things like this in front of a judge in a courtroom, I’m surprised he still has his law license.)

How Do We Fix The Mess We’re In?

Per Harold Meyerson, it’s by having the guts to confront the people who profited from its creation. Or else we’re all screwed.

Krugman has similar thoughts, and credits John Edwards with setting the tone for his fellow Democratic candidates on this issue.

What would the Great Helmsman say?

The Yangtze River near Wuhan. Photo by AP, accompanying an article by Jonathan Watts in The Guardian.  Watts says:

The waters of the Yangtze have fallen to their lowest levels since 1866, disrupting drinking supplies, stranding ships and posing a threat to some of the world’s most endangered species.

Asia’s longest river is losing volume as a result of a prolonged dry spell, the state media warned yesterday, predicting hefty economic losses and a possible plague of rats on nearby farmland….