Good news, everyone! A 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals panel has struck down our FCC's latest attempt to loosen media consolidation rules. FCC Chair Pai bemoaned the fact that federal judges have been striking down such FCC efforts for 15 years, claiming that "no evidence or reasoning — newspapers going out of business, broadcast radio struggling, broadcast TV facing stiffer competition than ever —...will persuade them to change their minds," though you and I might argue that media consolidation itself drives all this "struggling," "going out of business," and "facing stiffer competition than ever," and thus more media consolidation isn't the answer. It makes sense, of course, when you remember that Mr. Pai only cares about media owners, and not regular Americans whom our media supposedly serve. And certainly not local media.
What's vital to kicking climate change's ass, according to Vandana Shiva at Truthout? "Biodiversity-based agriculture," that's what. "The Earth has roughly 300,000 edible plant species," she writes, "but the contemporary global human community eats only 200 of them. And, according to the New Scientist, 'half our plant-sourced protein and calories come from just three: maize, rice and wheat.'" Why? Because big ag corporations prefer to grow only one thing, since that's the best way to make money redistribute wealth upward to executives. Of course, big ag doesn't grow stuff just for food, but also for fuel, which (hate to disturb all those right-wingers who think every liberal is an ethanol addict) ain't good for our world, either.
Another day, another study suggesting that our "liberal" media's obsession with the "moderate," "undecided," or "independent" voter is a myth. And surprise, surprise, when you ask these "moderate," "undecided," or "independent" voters about economic and immigration issues, they're all over the liberal-conservative continuum. Actually, it looks to me like a plurality (though not a majority) of "independent" voters are in the "more egalitarian"/"more pro-immigration" quadrant -- and a more pronounced plurality of "moderate" voters also camp out there. How interesting.
You may have heard that some 69% of American voters don't like our President personally, but the Wall Street Journal/NBC poll reporting that result also said that 19 of those percentage points came from folks who dislike our President personally but like his policies, which makes the number of folks who don't like him or his policies 50%, so we should worry more about the fact that roughly a quarter of the electorate is bat-guano insane and eats up every slab of drama he puts out, while another quarter is happy to "hold their noses" at the polls and say "but regulations and judges!" Of course, a take-no-prisoners Democratic nominee who could change the subject to what Americans actually care about could beat him.
Our President loves talking about his GREATESTZ ECONOMIEZ EVERZ!!!!!, but Robert Reich reminds us that wages have gone up barely a blip over the last 40 years, the unemployment rate's low in part because a lot of folks have given up looking for work and a lot of others who'd like full-time work only have part-time work, and health care and housing costs are skyrocketing well beyond the pace of inflation. And the next time someone says I have to balance my checkbook, why can't government?, just remind them that Americans actually have $4 trillion in consumer debt right now, and that figure excludes mortgages. Which are also debt, even if it works out reasonably well if you hold on to the house long enough.
Next time you hear about how corporations would really rather like someone other than our current President in that office, recall that said corporations are not only getting a lot out of our President's deregulatory agenda, they've been the ones actually setting the agenda. "And those rollbacks really have touched on so many different areas where the government is supposed to be protecting the public, not protecting corporate profits," says Public Citizen's Amit Narang. Of course, we should know better than this already, having witnessed so much corporate hand-wringing over our President before he won. Why, it's almost like they ran a scam on us or something.
Finally, you may have heard that House Democrats are opening up an impeachment inquiry into our President, and, well, our President didn't take the news well: "Such an important day at the United Nations, so much work and so much success, and the Democrats purposely had to ruin and demean it with more breaking news Witch Hunt garbage. So bad for our Country!" All together now: waaaaaaaaah! If a liberal complained like this, right-wingers would call it whining; now they just echo their Personal Lord and Savior's words. I guess they've become that which they most hate.
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