OBAMA BEGINS HIS VICTORY LAP ... "PEACE, OUT"

After saving the economy, getting reelected, and achieving success in the face of unprecedented obstructionism and disrespect from his political enemies this pretty much captures President Obama's final State of the Union moment ...

- Mark

Hat tip to Agulia for the post. 

ANALYSIS OF PRESIDENT OBAMA'S STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS ON KGET 17 NEWS

I had an interesting exchange with Cathy Abernathy on KGET's Sunrise program this morning. We discussed President Obama's final State of the Union address. You can access the exchange by clicking here.

- Mark

STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS ON KGET 17 NEWS

For those of you in the Bakersfield and Kern County region, I'll be on KGET 17 News tonight a little after 5 pm discussing President Obama's last State of the Union address with Cathy Abernathy. As usual, it should be fun.

I'll also be on KGET's early morning segment (6:10?) tomorrow morning.

- Mark

UPDATE: You can access our KGET Sunrise morning exchange-analysis by clicking here.

THE MORAL CRISIS OF OUR AGE

This about sums it up ...

- Mark

EXPLOITED COLLEGE ATHLETES A LABOR ISSUE? YES ...

One of my former colleagues, David Berri, is fast becoming one of the most knowledgeable and sought after voices in sports economics. He posted the following on his Facebook page.

******************

This is a great article on college sports, exploitation, and race. These three paragraphs are especially important:

In some cases, officials have made small concessions to avoid bigger ones. When football players at Northwestern tried to unionize in March 2014, alarm bells went off in athletic directors’ offices nationwide. Suddenly, that June, USC committed to giving football players guaranteed four-year scholarships. Before then, scholarships were a year-to-year proposition, renewable at the discretion of the head coach. Some other schools quickly followed suit, lest they be put at a competitive disadvantage. 

When University of Connecticut basketball player Shabazz Napier complained in April 2014 of often going to bed hungry, the NCAA passed emergency legislation allowing for expanded year-round meals for athletes. 

The NCAA could have made these changes at any time — it didn’t have to wait for players to complain. Only when the free labor threatened to take action did the NCAA respond.

The history of labor relations in sports tells that story over and over again. Ownership does not voluntarily share with workers. Only when workers take action do things change. And you should never, ever believe that owners have the best interest of their workers at heart. Owners are interested in their interests. That is it.

There is a very important lesson here. If you are working for someone else and you are anti-labor, you are against your own interests. You might want to think a bit harder then about your political beliefs.

******************

Sports economist David Berri, author of Wages of Wins (2006) and Stumbling on Wins (2010). 

I encourage you to read the entire article, which you can access here.

- Mark

FYI Category: As an aside, if you are a sports fan and consider yourself an expert when it comes to evaluating talent or the value of sport athletes - and especially those in the NBA - you really aren't unless you've read David Berri's stuff. You'll understand why once you read what he writes, including his first book, Wages of Wins, which you can access here. 

ONLY DICTATORS GOVERN WITH EXECUTIVE ORDERS? OK, LET'S GO WITH THAT ...

Meme from early 2013.

For an updated count on executive orders by President Obama (he's at 227 today), click here ...

So, yeah, as it stands today, President Obama could sign another 100 executive orders over the next year that he's in office and he still wouldn't catch President Reagan.

- Mark

THIS IS NOT THE "PEOPLE'S WORK"

With the White House touting rising enrollments House Republicans just passed another bill to kill Obamacare.

Knowing that President Obama is going to veto any legislation that repeals Obamacare, one has to wonder why the GOP would pull a blatantly political stunt that repeals a law that effectively brings back the following worst practices of the health care industry ...

The reality is our Republican-led Congress is not concerned about doing the "people's work." They only care about gumming up the works so they can blame President Obama for doing nothing.

This means wasting time and millions in taxpayer dollars every time they grandstand by mindlessly voting to repeal Obamacare.

Sigh ...

- Mark

ELVIS WOULD BE 81 TODAY

I was reminded that Elvis Presley would be 81 years old today if he had lived. For those of you too young to remember, Elvis was so cool that he was making music videos before MTV called them music videos ...

- Mark 

READING FOR THE WEEKEND (Jan. 8, 2016)

Thomas Piketty ran the numbers on income inequality. Here's what he found (Think Progress).

Calls mount for outside probes of police shootings (The Hill).

Dear Gov. Snyder: You have to go to jail (Common Dreams).

Too funny ... Gym wildlife trolls the ridiculous environment that is every gym (College Humor).


IS THIS REALLY A SURPRISE?
Engineer finds examples of 'horrific' construction in tornado wreckage (Dallas Morning News).

Pentagon tells Congress to stop buying equipment it doesn't need (Military.com)

Man proudly "open carrying" new pistol is robbed of it at - wait for it - gunpoint (The Everlasting Gop Stoppers).

5 taxpayer handouts the Bundys receive (U.S. Uncut).


POLITICS IN AMERICA
Trump makes America hate, not great (The Hill).

Wow. Trump supporters tear up "God Bless America" and "America's ALREADY Great" signs (Facebook).

The sudden but well deserved fall of Rahm Emmanuel (The New Yorker).


THINGS WE REALLY SHOULD BE TALKING ABOUT ...
4 things that were supposed to happen by 2016 because Obama was reelected (Think Progress).

President Obama catches Netanyahu bribing Republican congressmen to change their Iran votes (Daily News Bin).

The IMF confirms that 'trickle-down' economics is, indeed, a joke (Pacific Standard).

Here's what happened when these unarmed Native-American sisters defended their land from the Feds (U.S. Uncut).

We compared Obama and Reagan's executive orders; Republicans won't be happy (News Groopspeak).


SUNNI OR SHIITE?
How do Sunni and Shia Islam differ (NY Times)?

Questions rebels use to tell Sunni from Shiite (NY Times).


ARE YOU SERIOUS?
Ben Carson asks fifth-graders to single out the 'worst-student' in their class, and they did (Washington Post).

Maine Governor says drug traffickers come, sell drugs, and "impregnate a young, white girl" (Slate).

Pharma CEO: We're in business of shareholder profit, not helping the sick (U.S. Uncut).

Marco Rubio lobbied regulator for drug trafficking brother-in-law to get real estate license (Slate).


WE DON'T NEED MOTHER EARTH ... WE'VE GOT FREE MARKETS
More good news: The sixth mass extinction is under way (Truth Out).

As climate-induced floods hammer Britain Tories approve new fracking law (Truth Out).


MISCELLANEOUS
Is technology making our attention span worse than that of a goldfish (IFLS)?

21 unbelievable facts about guns in America (The Fiscal Times).

Why China is rattling the world (NY Times).

China's state-backed companies to continue driving global semiconductor M&A activity (South China Morning Post).

- Mark 

THESE PEOPLE ARE CONSTITUTIONAL ILLITERATES ... WE ALREADY TRIED WHAT THE BUNDY CLAN CLAIM THEY WANT (and, yeah, it was a disaster)

After watching the Bundy Bunch in Oregon, and then reading and listening to their supporters, one thing becomes clear: These people are historical and constitutional illiterates. 

I can say this because, in real simple terms, what these people are pushing for has already been tried in America. It was called the Articles of Confederation (1781-1789), and it was a disaster. I presented what's posted below over two years ago. I'm compelled to re-post it (with minor edits) because of the overwhelming ignorance driving what's happening in Oregon now ...

After the failure of the Articles of Confederation the Founding Fathers learned a big lesson. Specifically, they learned that a weak central government was actually a bad idea. Having states run the show, and doing what they saw fit, was good in theory but not so good in practice. So the Founding Fathers put some teeth into our federal system of government, and wrote the U.S. Constitution.

Unfortunately, today there are many who believe that they have a better understanding of our history and theories of government than America's Founding Fathers. They want to dismantle the American government as we know it, and replace it with a state-centered "libertarian paradise" that they naively believe could work because states and people are just, you know, so cooperative. 

What most don't understand is what happened the last time we tried what they're suggesting (under the Articles of Confederation). They are also naive about what life would be like if the libertarian wannabes got their way ...

Yeah, apart from being historical and constitutional illiterates - the Articles of Confederation IS part of our constitutional history - many on the far right really have no idea what happens when states do what they want and when our central government doesn't work. 

Here's a humorous take on what life would be like if we were to follow the lead of the Tea Party and the assorted Bundy clans who dot America's political landscape ...

And, yes, the Founding Fathers thought about what the Libertarians and the Tea Party extremists are talking about today. If they ever bothered to pick up a history book or read the Federalist Papers they would know this.

I'll leave it at that, for now. 

- Mark