Guess which state has decided to end homelessness by giving chronically-homeless people apartments to live in and caseworkers to help them out? Utah, that's which state. One of America's most conservative states has decided it's actually cheaper to do that than to cover jail stays and ER visits, which is very fiscally-responsible of them. You know what would be even cheaper? Taxing millionaire income at 91% and closing corporate tax loopholes, both of which would force corporations to hire more workers and pay them more.
Tim Karr of Free Press warns that we are living through an "Information Counter-Revolution" right now, what with government surveillance and corporate smashing of net neutrality. But here's a thought: Americans are pretty well used to the internet the way it is, where they can pretty much go where they like when they like. If Verizon and AT&T really block or slow down sites that haven't paid tribute, we'll see a PR storm like we've never seen before -- and so will any government that sends ominous text messages to its citizens. Don't think Americans will get that angry? Then ask yourself what you did the last time a page took too long to load -- or thought the government might be behind it.
Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) comes out against the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska's Bristol Bay watershed, after the EPA reports that the planned gold-and-copper mine would endanger the Bay's salmon population. And thus, also, the Bay's salmon farming industry. If you reflexively put "Alaska King" in front of "salmon," as I do, you know this is smart politics as well as smart policy. Meanwhile, the same corporation doing the "environmental review" on Keystone XL did one for the Pebble Mine, too. They, of course, find the EPA's subsequent review wanting, because it supposedly didn't highlight "the positive effects of cash income from employment on a community's overall subsistence-gathering capabilities." The "E" in EPA still stands for "environmental," right?
Sens. Bennet (D-CO) and Blunt (R-MO) introduce the Senate version of Rep. Delaney's corporate tax amnesty. This idea just won't die, so here we are, hacking away again: a lot of "offshore" profits are only "offshore" in a corporation's books, letting them "repatriate" the income at a lower rate will only encourage more "offshoring" later on, and corporations that "repatriate" such income typically don't use it to create jobs (in fact, many of the big 2005 tax amnesty benefactors cut jobs). Does Michael Bennet need reminding that he's only in the Senate now because Ken Buck was such a spectacularly awful opponent in 2010?
Finally, Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman suggests that sports reporters call him a "thug" because they know they can't get away with calling him the N-word. I didn't notice at first, because a) I didn't see the interview, generally losing interest in a game after it's over; b) I don't read national sports reporting, which generally sucks even worse than national news reporting; and c) I only call politicians "thugs," and generally only when they act like thugs. But a star cornerback whose on-field celebrations annoy me still doesn't rate being called a "thug" 625 times in one day of television. I don't think Chris Christie got called a "bully" anywhere near that much the day after Bridgegate broke wide open.
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