“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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Dana Milbank: The Roberts Court finds a new way to stack the deck in favor of the rich
Just in time for the 2016 election, the Roberts Court has found yet another way to stack the deck in favor of the rich.
By all appearances at Monday’s argument, the five Republican-appointed justices are ready to upend a 40-year precedent guiding labor relations in favor of a new approach that will deplete public-sector unions’ finances and reduce their political clout. The case, from California, involves arcane issues of “agency fees” and member opt-outs, but make no mistake: This is about campaign finance, and, in particular, propping up the Republican Party [..]
The only question is how big a loss Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association will be for the unions. It’s virtually certain to be another step toward American oligarchy. The court’s conservative majority, setting aside a professed respect for precedent and states’ authority, is putting a thumb on the scale of justice in favor of the wealthy donors who have purchased the GOP and much of the government.
Eugene Robinson: Don’t underestimate the power of Trump’s rage-fueled rise
For Democrats who might be rooting for Donald Trump, thinking he would be easy to beat in November, I have some advice: Be careful what you wish for.
In his campaign, or rampage, Trump has done more than take a sledgehammer to the Republican Party. He almost seems to be reinventing politics in a way that makes both major parties seem hidebound, sluggish and concerned mostly with self-perpetuation — which, in fact, they are.
When he announced his candidacy, no one outside of Trump’s household dreamed he would be dominating the Republican field with three weeks to go before the Iowa caucuses. Given the way he has set the agenda for the campaign, it’s tempting to call him a master strategist — except I don’t believe he has a strategy. Or needs one.
Instead, Trump is guided by instinct. The whole campaign has been like his stream-of-consciousness Twitter feed or his improvisational jazz-riff campaign speeches. He tests a new theme and gauges the response.
Robert Reich: The Big Short and Bernie’s Plan to Bust Up Wall Street
If you haven’t yet seen The Big Short – directed and co-written by Adam McKay, based on the non-fiction prize-winning book by Michael Lewis about the housing and credit bubble that triggered the Great Recession — I recommend you do so.
Not only is the movie an enjoyable (if that’s the right word) way to understand how the big banks screwed millions of Americans out of their homes, savings, and jobs — and then got bailed out by taxpayers. It’s also a lesson in why they’re on the way to doing all this again — and how their political power continues to erode laws designed to prevent another crisis and to shield their executives from any accountability.
Most importantly, the movie shows why Bernie Sanders’s plan to break up the biggest banks and reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act (separating investment from commercial banking) is necessary — and why Hillary Clinton’s more modest plan is inadequate.
I’ll get back to Bernie and Hillary in a moment, but first you need to know why Wall Street wants us to forget what really happened.
Michael T. Klare: The Oil Pricequake
As 2015 drew to a close, many in the global energy industry were praying that the price of oil would bounce back from the abyss, restoring the petroleum-centric world of the past half-century. All evidence, however, points to a continuing depression in oil prices in 2016 — one that may, in fact, stretch into the 2020s and beyond. Given the centrality of oil (and oil revenues) in the global power equation, this is bound to translate into a profound shakeup in the political order, with petroleum-producing states from Saudi Arabia to Russia losing both prominence and geopolitical clout.
To put things in perspective, it was not so long ago — in June 2014, to be exact — that Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, was selling at $115 per barrel. Energy analysts then generally assumed that the price of oil would remain well over $100 deep into the future, and might gradually rise to even more stratospheric levels. Such predictions inspired the giant energy companies to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in what were then termed “unconventional” reserves: Arctic oil, Canadian tar sands, deep offshore reserves, and dense shale formations. It seemed obvious then that whatever the problems with, and the cost of extracting, such energy reserves, sooner or later handsome profits would be made. It mattered little that the cost of exploiting such reserves might reach $50 or more a barrel.
Hari Ziyad: Democratic candidates had a chance to prove bona fides on race. They failed
With young black voters set to play a crucial role in deciding the election later this year, the three remaining Democratic presidential candidates faced questions on issues affecting marginalized communities at Fusion’s Brown & Black Forum in Des Moines on Monday night, about two weeks before the Iowa caucuses.
There have been significant past stumbles on related topics from each of the candidates as national tensions surrounding race have reached a peak, so the stakes were high for all three to prove that our concerns will be minded.
By several important measures, each candidate failed.
Covering matters ranging from marijuana legalization to reparations (re-introduced into national discourse last year with the help of work by Ta-Nehisi Coates and others, though seemingly not taken seriously by any of the candidates in Des Moines), the three appeared more concerned with competing with one another to spout the most buzzwords than demonstrating any true understanding of those words’ meaning.
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