“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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New York Times Editorial: The President Acts on Gun Violence
In the hope of combating America’s intolerable levels of gun violence, with Congress refusing to pass hugely popular gun-safety measures, President Obama is issuing a modest, limited set of executive actions on guns.
Most of the actions are aimed at making it harder for criminals and other dangerous people to get their hands on a firearm. But to listen to the Republican presidential candidates, who weighed in before they even knew the details, one would think Mr. Obama had declared martial law and called in the tanks. [..]
Spare us the bluster. Mr. Obama is not taking away any law-abiding citizen’s guns or changing the Second Amendment. To the contrary, his actions are in line with the stated priorities of gun-rights activists: keeping guns from people likely to use them in crimes, and enforcing gun laws already on the books.
Eugene Robinsosn: The Oregon standoff and America’s double standards on race and religion
What do you think the response would be if a bunch of black people, filled with rage and armed to the teeth, took over a federal government installation and defied officials to kick them out? I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be wait-and-see.
Probably more like point-and-shoot.
Or what if the occupiers were Mexican American? They wouldn’t be described with the semi-legitimizing term “militia,” harking to the days of the patriots. And if the gun-toting citizens happened to be Muslim, heaven forbid, there would be wall-to-wall cable news coverage of the “terrorist assault.” I can hear Donald Trump braying for blood.
Not to worry, however, because the extremists who seized the remote Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Oregon on Saturday are white. As such, they are permitted to engage in a “standoff” with authorities who keep their distance lest there be needless loss of life.
Dean Baker: Economists Don’t Know Much About the Economy, #46,523: The Story of the Robots
The public’s confidence in economists was rightly shaken by the fact that almost no economists recognized the housing bubble and the damage that would be caused by its collapse. We still don’t know the full cost of this failure, but the latest projections from the Congressional Budget Office imply lost output of more than $17 trillion (at $50,000 per person) through 2025. And that is apart from the lives that have been ruined due to unemployment and the loss of homes.
Given this track record, it is not surprising to find economists spinning tales of robots and the development of technology that don’t make sense. An often repeated story from economists is that technology is displacing jobs that had paid a middle-class wage. In this story, we see fewer middle-class jobs, and therefore a shrinking middle class. Most workers are left to compete for low-end jobs, driving down the wages in already low-paying occupations. This leads to a redistribution of income from workers to the people who own the technology.
Lauren Carasick: Impunity in Tamir Rice killing intensifies demands for systemic reform
On Dec. 28, a grand jury in Ohio’s Cuyahoga County declined to indict two white police officers involved in the shooting death of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old African-American boy. The decision capped a year of mounting frustration and outrage over the disproportionate use of lethal force by police officers against black people.
Nearly every aspect of the case is deeply troubling. The police dispatcher, who sent officers to the recreation center where Rice was fatally shot, failed to inform them that the 911 caller noted he was “probably a juvenile” with a “probably fake” gun. Rice was alone in a park, with no one in imminent danger. Yet the officers shot him within two seconds of arriving at the scene. He was not given any aid for nearly four minutes, and officers prevented Rice’s distraught 14-year old sister from comforting him, pinning and handcuffing her.
Rice’s death is not the sad outcome of a “perfect storm” of tragic mistakes as District Attorney Tim McGinty characterized it, nor is it Rice’s fault or that of his community. His untimely death reflects the brutal reality of racism and impunity that permeates policing, evincing a shocking indifference to the lives of Cleveland’s black residents.
Scott Lemieux: What Obama said on gun control doesn’t matter – Republicans oppose it
The modest gun control policy changes announced in a passionate speech by President Obama on Tuesday are not of great substantive importance. But they reveal important truths about the state of American politics. The disproportionate Republican opposition to the president’s minor executive actions on gun control isn’t just about the party’s opposition to any and all efforts to stem the tide of gun violence. Their reflexive opposition also reflects their refusal to cede any legitimate authority to the president.
After all, the candidates for the Republican presidential nomination didn’t even know what executive actions – if any – Barack Obama would take on gun control after his Monday meeting with the attorney general, Loretta Lynch. That didn’t stop them, because they knew that they would oppose whatever actions Obama planned to take.
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