Harry,
Tripling tuition fees over ten years is bad, I would agree, but it is not as bad as doing it in one year.
Harry, could you also elaborate on your comment about Obama's Supreme Court Justices taking ant-life positions. What does that mean and what were the decisions that they rendered that took these positions. I really am interested in the details.
Finally, are you arguing that Romney would be a better President or that there is no difference? I could not agree with either agrument so perhaps it is moot. I can agree that Obama can do a whole lot better in his second term, although he made significant progress in his first term.
Nigel
----- Original Message -----
From: Harry Feldman <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sunday, November 11, 2012 3:55 pm
Subject: Re: followup to Hudson
> Rachel Maddow may be ever so cluey, although to all appearances,
> she's a
> completely deluded Obamaniac, but she can't predict what Romney
> 'would
> have done' any more than anyone else can. She CAN and did predict
> what
> Obama WOULDN'T do and that was very imprudent, particularly in
> light of
> Obama's agreement with Romney about cutting Social Security and
> Medicare, the fact that both of his Supreme Court appointments had
> taken
> anti-choice (or anti-life, as I prefer to call it) positions, etc.
>
> Presidents' party affiliations, personal backgrounds, media
> personae,
> least of all campaign promises and rhetoric, are poor indicators
> of what
> they will do in office. Even with the best, or more likely worst,
> will
> in the world, they are constrained by interests and events beyond
> their
> control and must make decisions with inadequate time and
> information...
> The principal issues for the left, in my view, are the extent to
> which
> they may provoke a response to their inevitable attacks and what
> kind of
> restrictions they may place on the response. The left in the US,
> such as
> it is, has proven itself almost entirely unwilling to criticise
> Obama,
> notwithstanding his reneging on his promises regarding Guantanamo,
> the
> Employee Free Choice Act, etc., quite apart from any 'hope and
> change'.
> As Hudson demonstrates, he has been and remains a creature of
> finance
> capital, but his supporters will not hear a word said against him.
> I
> suspect that many of those same people who insist on keeping shtum
> when
> Obama attacks them would be fighting mad if Romney carried out the
> very
> same policies. And some might even be motivated to fight back. I
> think
> it's plausble that Romney would take more draconian measures to
> avert
> and quash any fightback, but Obama has already demonstrated that
> he has
> form for this, himself, colluding in smashing the Occupy camps and
> so
> forth.
>
> But that's back in the realm of speculation. One thing we needn't
> speculate about is whether any 'American government would try to
> double
> or triple tuition fees' when we already know that they nearly
> tripled
> them in Califorina between 2001 and 2011
> (http://www.calstate.edu/budget/fybudget/2012-
> 2013/documentation/13-historical-suf-rates.shtml).
> I haven't looked any further, but believe the situation is similar
> in
> other states.
>
> In solidarity,
> Harry
>
> On 12/11/12 01:46, Nigel Waters wrote:
> > While I more or less agree with Larry and even Bill Black, there
> are a few things that we should keep in mind:
> >
> > 1. Let’s begin with Bismarck: “Politics is the art of the possible”.
> >
> > 2. Second, the US is not a parliamentary democracy and it really
> is amazing what Obama achieved in his first term in office given
> that there are such things as filibusters and Blue Dog Democrats
> who are just amazingly right wing – what’s the joke, “I belong to
> no political party, I’m a Democrat”. One of my PhD students
> analyzed voting patterns in the past Congress using a discriminant
> analysis and the democrats are just all over the place, sometimes
> more right wing than the Republicans (no, he hasn’t yet published
> it). So, here in the US, there is no party discipline, no party
> whips, anything goes.
> >
> > 3. The Americans were absolutely horrified when the British last
> go round elected what turned out to be a coalition government. How
> would it ever work they asked? Well, unfortunately it works all
> too well. One surprising thing is that no American government
> would try to double or triple tuition fees, although the
> Republicans did want to pull a similar stunt on the interest rates
> students would pay on their loans.
> >
> > 4. If you still are not convinced that Obama will make no
> difference then you might find it informative to listen to Rachel
> Maddow’s comments on how different a new Obama administration will
> be compared to a Romney presidency. Sure an Obama administration
> will not do enough for my tastes but it is infinitely better than
> what could have been.
> >
> > Here’s the link to Rachel Maddow:
> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#49736294> You may have to
> watch the commercial but you will get everything you need to know
> about how different things will be in the first two minutes. It
> goes fast and you will have to understand a few things about
> American politics. Re the comment on Romney’s character as a bully
> in high school, she does not also mention that he subsequently
> protested for the Vietnam War and then himself dodged the draft.
> >
> >
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> >
> >
> > This is much longer piece that fills in some of Hudson's
> scenario
> > from a slightly different perspective.
> > It is by Bill Black, who concentrates on the criminal behavior
> that
> > enabled Wall Street to commit its many frauds, including one
> that GS
> > did on the Greek government. The Greek government was duped into
> > making certain investments, which not soon after went against
> them,
> > something the investment bank knew was going to eventually occur
> and
> > probably sooner rather than later. How do we know that they knew
> these
> > investments were toxic? They bet against them. Ie, they set
> things up
> > so that they could both have their cake and eat it. Nice. Has
> anyone
> > been prosecuted for these crimes? No. Will anyone be? Most
> probably
> > not, except for perhaps a few trivial cases. These were in no
> sense
> > "innocent frauds", a term I detest.
> > http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2012/11/wall-street-urges-
> obama-to-commit-the-great-betrayal.html
> >
> > larry
> > /*Dr L Brownstein*/
> > *[alt-e]: */*[log in to unmask]*/
> > Review Editor
> > /Radical Statistics/
> > "It's difficult to reason someone out of something that they've
> never
> > been reasoned into."
> > -- Jonathan Swift
> >
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