GOP Lawmakers Join Pro-Choice Rally: ‘We Have Stepped Over The Line’

GOP Lawmakers Join Pro-Choice Rally: ‘We Have Stepped Over The Line’ – http://huff.to/14aCAvm

WATCH: Bachmann Tries To Flee CNN Reporter

WATCH: Bachmann Tries To Flee CNN Reporter – http://huff.to/147v1pm

Another republican liar

Media and junk science and end of time-ism

Here is an example of how the media advances junk science to promote right wing propaganda. 

First you start with an article about correct predictions from 1988:

1988 Predictions of What 2013 Would Be like Are Scarily Accurate

Then you provide a link to another article suggesting an economic “death spiral” and including the face of Bernanke to give it some authenticity, and link to this: 

http://moneymorning.com/ob-article/duncan-death-spiral.php?p=PPYRP303&utm_campaign=content&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=taboola#.UUn1LBwqapB

The article alleges that Duncan is an economist and that he worked with the World Bank.  But note the slide- it doesn’t allege that he was an economist at the World Bank, for all we know he was the janitor.  

He is however the chief economist for his own asset management company.  

You too can be a chief economist, all you need to do is start your own company to be economist for. 

But then we come to this: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_C._Duncan

It turns out he is actually an engineer, not an economist, although he has some past notoriety for doomsday scenarios.   He previously predicted that our ability to extract energy from the earth would dramatically fall off beginning around 2007 and we would eventually wind up in the stone age. 

Having failed in his first quasi-religion, he appears to be starting another.  

A partner in crime is Laurence Kotlikoff, who according to Duncan is the author of the hare-brained idea that the real shortfall for medicare and social security is $211 trillion dollars. 

I take it the premise for that figure is it is over a few hundred years and there is a premise that nobody pays in a further cent towards their social security in the future. 

So lets say the liability for obligations to people born in 2030 will be $10 trillion.  Maybe they  pay in $10 trillion, or the net present value adjusted equivalent.   

Should we be shocked and say we need to fund that “future liability” now?  Why?  Why should we have to prove that we can pay for everybody in the future today?  Why should we count only the money going out in the future but not the money coming in? 

The total GDP for the next hundred years will probably be around $2,000 trillion, possibly a lot more.   If medicare and social security are $211 trillion of that it’s not a problem.  

Such exercises in deception usually have two objectives, unless the perpetrator is truly deranged and believes what he says.  

The objectives are to advance a certain political movement or to sell certain products, or both. 

Some of the flakier Republicans are already repeating similar nonsense.  

Of course we didn’t hear boo about it when Bush defunded the government and spent 3 trillion or more on stupid wars.  That’s because it never had anything to do with economics or fiscal responsibility.  It was always about making sure that a greater share of the fiscal pie went to right wing persons and institutions.  

And how do we get into this mess? 

It starts with most media organizations providing links or interviews or otherwise legitimizing tinfoil hat theories and fake experts.  Not everybody has the analytical skill to cut their arguments into little bits and pieces.   Links with significant media agencies may lend credibility. 

Another angle on it, usually involving gold, is the doomsday prophecy of whatever basis, economic depression, war, locusts- is used as a set up for why you should buy something that may do well in difficult times, usually gold. 

That’s a really odd cultural fixation which may be why the old truism about gold being good in a crisis isn’t as strongly linked anymore. 

Gold is actually about the least useful substance imaginable in a crisis so it is actually counterintuitive that it would go up in a crisis.  The only reason it does is that the herd has historically run to gold, but when wealth is spread between more cultures it may be that the other cultures didn’t get the memo.   Maybe they’ll invest in something that makes sense in a crisis instead, like tinned food and bottled water. 

 

Birther Concerns For Ted Cruz

Birther Concerns For Ted Cruz – http://huff.to/WU5ttM Consistent with existing jurisprudence, Cruz is in fact a Natural Born citizen. Good though that he gets a taste of what it’s like on the receiving end.

Right and Left Unite to Bring Privacy Protections to Digital World

Right and Left Unite to Bring Privacy Protections to Digital World – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/grover-norquist/right-and-left-unite-to-b_b_2909858.html I’ll say words here that I thought I’d never say, on this particular issue I agree with Norquist without reservation. Government was doing just fine with restrictions on search and seizure before. If you think that the issue is moot for the innocent, look again at the FBI spying without warrant on the Director of the CIA in what looks like a failed extortion bid, something they did for months with no evidence of an offense. Thought police spying on everything we do is an innovation we don’t need.

Wayne Lapierre

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/nra-wayne-lapierre-critics-crazy-not-us-171507216–politics.html

Since he has been head of the NRA, each and every year, without fail, Wayne Lapierre has been deliberately and personally responsible for the deaths of more children that every serial killer in the history of the United States combined. 

Where is Jigsaw when we need him? 

Marco Rubio CPAC Speech: GOP Senator Addresses Beliefs On Same-Sex Marriage, Abortion Rights: via HuffPost

Marco Rubio CPAC Speech: GOP Senator Addresses Beliefs On Same-Sex Marriage, Abortion Rights: via HuffPost http://huff.to/ZQw7SU Actually life begins before conception as both sperm and egg are alive. So just remember, unless every egg and every sperm makes a baby it’s murder. That is the conclusion that follows if the reasoning is taken to the logical conclusion.

The Cruel Gap Between CEO Pay and the Stagnant Minimum Wage: via HuffPost

The Cruel Gap Between CEO Pay and the Stagnant Minimum Wage: via HuffPost The right wing position is that their’s is the way to prosperity. But if that were so, after 32 years of Reaganomics and deregulation, the minimum wage should be going up. If their thesis were true, sooner or later instead of wages going down they should go up. What, you need more than 32 years? When do we consider their theories refuted?

The Importance of Basic Research: via HuffPost

The Importance of Basic Research: via HuffPost http://huff.to/13HSVHV

Three-Body Problem Breakthrough: Physicists Discover New Solutions To Age-Old Puzzle: via HuffPost

Three-Body Problem Breakthrough: Physicists Discover New Solutions To Age-Old Puzzle: via HuffPost http://huff.to/13PNQNv Brute force methods of arriving at discoveries are underrated. Instead of abstract math, tweak orbits until they work. Strategy works great on Forex too.