Dave Lindorff tells us how the left-wing party SYRIZA's victory in Sunday's Greek elections will make life very difficult for the more center-right governments across Europe. Long story short: if Europe "thumbs its nose" at Greece, Greece could simply leave the Euro, which will strengthen Greece and weaken the Euro, but if they renegotiate bailout terms with Greece, other nations like Italy, Spain, and Portugal will want a redo, too. Come to think of it, Greece has really held the cards all along. It's about time we embraced the face that we do, too.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence apparently aims to create a state-run news service in Indiana. It will be called, no, not Pravda, but "Just IN," and state documents promise not only that it will "publish() information ahead of any other news outlet," but that it will also be the "voice of the state of Indiana's executive branch," because if there's one thing wrong with the "liberal" media, it's that Executive branches just dont have enough of a "voice" in them. Again, this is a strange thing for a nominal conservative Governor to do.
Koch brothers announce at annual retreat that their political network will spend nearly $900 million in the 2016 elections. Note well that four possible Republican Presidential candidates attended, and while Sens. Cruz, Rubio, and Paul made fools of themselves in a "candidate forum on economic issues," Gov. Scott Walker did not, which means he's the Golden Boy. Best laugh: an ad campaign called "We Are Koch," presumably not with this song as background music.
Gay Alabama state Rep tells her colleagues to stop using "family values rhetoric" in bashing gay marriage, lest she expose their apparently multitudinous marital infidelities. Well, it worked back when Barney Frank threatened to expose his famous "list" of gay Congressfolk, and it worked a few weeks ago when David Duke threatened to tell the world just how many Congressfolk-not-just-Steve-Scalise kowtow to racists like him, so I suspect it'll work here, too. And no it won't be like Bill Clinton, because people liked Bill Clinton.
Finally, Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) suggests raising the minimum wage would hurt "teenagers," "minorities," and "people looking for their first job," thus demonstrating his ignorance of both anti-discrimination laws and the vast number of non-teenagers, non-minorities, and non-rookies in the workforce still making minimum wage because corporations don't feel like paying more. I'm old enough to remember when Tom McClintock was a gadfly, but now he could be California's next U.S. Senator! How far the Republican Party has come!
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