The radical Left-wing rag The Financial Times-- endorses Obama

Radical leftwinger indeed.

The Financial Times endorses Obama.

"Obama is the wiser bet for crisis-hit US":

As in his response to Hurricane Sandy, Mr Obama has shown that purposeful government can be part of the solution rather than the problem. Four years on from the financial crisis, with extreme inequality an affront to the American dream, there remains a need for intelligent, reformist governance. Mr Obama, his presidency defined by the economic crisis, looks the better choice.

"Romney would be a backward step"

Martin Wolf with an Op-Ed in the radical left wing rag The Financial Times endorsing the radical leftist of undetermined descent Barack Hussein Obama:

Which of the candidates seems to recognise these issues in a sensible way? My view is that Mr Obama’s vision is inadequate. But Mitt Romney is George W. Bush reheated.

Mr Obama does not offer a sweep of reforms, which might reignite the dynamism that lifted most boats in the mid-20th century. Probably, that is just too hard. But, as the Tax Policy Center argues , it is impossible to look at Mr Romney’s proposals – reductions in marginal income tax rates offset by unspecified reductions in tax expenditures – without concluding that they “would provide large tax cuts to high-income households, and increase the tax burdens on middle- and lower-income taxpayers”. 

In an economy with surging inequality, this would make the underlying problem worse.

Given Mr Romney’s commitment to large increases in defence spending, the outcome would surely be a large rise in structural fiscal deficits. Republicans have proved much less hostile to deficits in practice than in theory. Tax cuts are their true fiscal religion. The good side of this is that the US will need those deficits, for some time. The bad side is that such policies are more likely to generate a brief expansion than solid growth.

Republicans believe that the key to performance is less regulation and lower tax rates. Yet a shift from rates of 35 per cent to ones of 28 per cent is unlikely to have a noticeable effect on aggregate performance. Yes, taxes matter. But the view that they determine economic performance on their own is certainly wrong.

The issues go far beyond economics. Divides over social and foreign policies are self-evidently profound. But the economic choices are also important. Americans have a choice between a man with modest ambitions and someone determined to double up on the fiscal and financial policies of the pre-crisis era. Mr Romney, like the Bourbons, has learnt nothing and forgotten nothing. What would be the consequences of such a repetition? The world may be about to find out.

Jobs and Job Creation....

A great video debunks the propaganda that tax cuts for the wealthy create jobs.

Econ4.org

Wall Street back in business, but unreformed

!

"People are just empty vessels through which Facebook expresses itself"

Wal-Mart workers standing up for themselves and fighting back!

I'm headed to work but here are some links to keep you up to date on the really important efforts to organize at Wal-Mart.  Please read and share on the social networks...

For locals readers there is an action today here in Atlanta from 5pm to 6pm--see you there! 

Organizers Say Wal-Mart Labor Protests Spread - NYTimes.com http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/10/business/organizers-say-wal-mart-labor-protests-spread.html?ref=stevengreenhouse&_r=0

Walmart strikes spread to more states - Salon.com http://www.salon.com/2012/10/09/walmart_strikes_spread_to_more_states/singleton/

Walmart Warehouse Strikers Return to Work with Full Back Pay | Labor Noteshttp://labornotes.org/2012/10/walmart-warehouse-strikers-return-work-full-back-pay

Why We Should All Care About the Walmart Strikers | The Nation http://www.thenation.com/blog/170444/why-we-should-all-care-about-walmart-strikers#

About Us - ForRespect http://forrespect.org/our-walmart/about-us/

Its is a very serious problem that 8 in 10 adults say that American debt held by China is a very serious problem.

Appears that 8 in 10 adults (78%) think a not very serious problem is a "very serious problem." 

This is a very serious political problem. 

Reality Check: Who Is Behind The Commission on Presidential Debates?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDQsIKbQLFY&feature=player_embedded

Let the "Why I'm not voting for Obama" #yawnFest begin.

So I'm starting to see the left critique of Obama articles circulate on Facebook.  Most of them are bunk for one simple reason they do not connect the actual problem with an actual solution.

With no mention of  movement building, running for local office, infiltration of politics by human beings in their communities and all fixation on what Leader X, Y, or Z did or didn't over the past 4 years is simply setting up an equation that says "I need a better master." Rather than the more appropriate--> we need to be running things better and I have to be a part of that equation.  

We need to be doing it ourselves; rather than waiting for permission from on high.  We need to be working to build political power locally that can undermine the 1% and those who do their bidding at the local level.  These things remains true no matter who you decide to vote for on the least important/impactful question you will be offered on your ballot no matter where you live this coming November.

We have systemic challenges and they require systemic reforms to fix the issue--who you vote for will not address the actual problems our democracy face.

When I ran for State Senate in 2010 I put a big priority putting a spotlight on implementing Instant Run Off Voting here in Georgia for a reason--it ends the lesser of two evils phenomena.  It was a systemic reform that would address a poor outcome our current process is creating. The "vote for better people" argument is a cop-out.

***Full Disclosure on the trivially small act of voting***

Here is my heuristic on voting for President. 

Let me be clear that this is just my take, that I have and will continue to use in the future; and not a judgement on others who may look at their local situation in a different manner.  Far too much energy is focused on Presidential votes, which have the least impact so I'm not looking to get into an online battle over the tactics of how I spend my 30min's on a Tuesday in November every 4 years in the least important (read: my vote has the least impact on the outcome) question on my ballot. 

My rule of thumb, If you live in a state that experts consider a toss up; that will be purely won or lost on GOTV efforts--vote lesser of two evils as there is too much at stake to empower GOP'ers in Congress.  If you live in a state that is clearly going one way or the other vote for Green Party candidate Jill Stein and quickly move on to the more important down ballot races.  

If you don't have a "choice" in one of those down ballot races you may have found the perfect place to insert your name into two/four years from now.  As we need more political actors in this world and fewer "voters."

I'm only posting/tweeting this once and moving on to more important issues or else @EricTheTeamster will come beat me up.

To my friends who are passionate about winning over people to your "not voting for Obama" platform:  Rather than spending a lot of time bashing Obama why not identify some local politician who will introduce IRV in your state so that we don't have to deal with this issue ever four years...

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Friedrich Hayek

Here.