“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
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Trevor Timm: Donald Trump is a monster of the GOP’s own creation
It’s hard not to laugh at the entirely self-created dilemma the Republicans now find themselves in with Donald Trump. The more he insults wide swaths of voters, the more he climbs in the polls. As his fellow presidential candidates line up to openly condemn him, he further solidifies his “frontrunner” status.
The inescapable fact is that the Republican Party created the Trump Frankenstein, and they only have themselves to blame now that he is rampaging through the GOP village. [..]
Those feigning shock over Trump’s racist comments either have not been paying attention for years or have willfully ignored Trump’s long and storied history. The amount of ridiculous statements that have come out of his mouth is almost too high to count. It was only a few years ago that he led the racist Obama birther movement, while managing to keep all of his television contracts and endorsement deals. Back then, Mitt Romney was attending fundraisers with him instead of condemning him. Rick Perry, now calling on Trump to drop out of the race, was begging him for money.
Sen. Ron Wyden: Congress’ fix for high-profile hacks is yet another way to grab your private data
The government can’t keep its own data safe, but Congress wants companies to give it even more of your private information
In the wake of a series of widely-publicized hacks, including the recent compromise of government personnel records, the US Senate rushed to take up a bill that supporters say will protect the typical supporters from the sophisticated hacks of the future. It appears Republican leaders have stepped back from that plan, but rest assured, just as night follows day, supporters are planning to bring this bill back to the Senate floor this year.
The supporters are wrong. The Senate’s bill would unfortunately do little to protect your information from hackers and actually puts your personal privacy at greater risk.
This week, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid, which have provided millions of Americans with accessible, affordable health care.
These are lifelines that from their start were attacked by Republicans and their extremist allies around the country. But we held strong and 50 years later, generations of Americans have benefited from Medicare and Medicaid.
Now we are witnessing another ideological attack that would put women’s health and women’s lives at risk – this time by targeting women’s reproductive health care, an issue that was resolved back in 1973.
Today, the Republican majority is forcing another vote to defund an organization that for nearly 100 years has provided women and their families with preventive and life-saving health care – Planned Parenthood.
Dean Baker: Export-Import Bank debate reveals the corruption of economics
Ending this government entry into the credit market should be a no-brainer
In the recent debate on trade policy, most reputable economists favored fast track trade authority and the approval of Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is likely to be the first trade deal to be covered by the new fast-track rules. Their argument was simple: The reduction of tariffs and other trade barriers will increase efficiency and economic growth. This is the standard argument for free trade.
Given this general view within the economics profession why TPP is good policy, it is striking that so few economists have been outspoken in opposition to the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, a government agency that aids U.S. exports through loan and insurance guarantees. On June 30, Congress did not reauthorize the bank, which meant that it could not extend new credit, though it could still manage its existing portfolio of loans. Republican Senators led a vote to reauthorize the bank in the Senate, and now the issue has moved to the House. The whole point of the Ex-Im Bank, of course, is to have the government subsidize selected companies by giving them access to credit at below-market interest rates. This is totally at odds with free trade. It means the government is allocating credit rather than markets. It would be expected to lead to the same type of economic distortions as tariffs and quotas.
Leonard Pitts, Jr.: Police Brutality Is A Problem For Everyone
This will not be a column about Sandra Bland, although it could be.
Certainly there is cause for outrage over the way a Texas state trooper escalated the routine traffic stop of an indignant African-American woman into a violent arrest; she died of an apparent jail cell suicide three days later. But Chuck would say that in habitually defining police violence as a black problem, we make it smaller than it is.
Chuck is a reader who responded to a question I passed on in this space a few months back from another reader, a white woman named Tracy. “What can I do?” she asked, as a private citizen, to fight police brutality against African Americans? [..]
This will not be a column about Sandra Bland, although it could be.
Certainly there is cause for outrage over the way a Texas state trooper escalated the routine traffic stop of an indignant African-American woman into a violent arrest; she died of an apparent jail cell suicide three days later. But Chuck would say that in habitually defining police violence as a black problem, we make it smaller than it is.
Chuck is a reader who responded to a question I passed on in this space a few months back from another reader, a white woman named Tracy. “What can I do?” she asked, as a private citizen, to fight police brutality against African Americans?
Dave Johnson: Did Obama Administration Downplay Malaysia Slavery To Grease Trade Deal?
Cheap labor is the whole point of our corporate-rigged, NAFTA-style trade agreements. Companies get to move jobs, factories, even entire industries out of the U.S. to countries where people are exploited, the environment is not protected and “costs” like human safety are kept low.
But even so … tolerating slavery? Flat-out slavery? Really? Unfortunately, it looks like that’s what is happening with fast-track trade promotion authority, The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Obama administration.
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