Sometimes, an excerpt—even one of the long ones I frequently choose (with permission) to post in Night Owls—simply doesn’t do justice to an essay. Since that is the case with Bill Moyers’ piece “We, the Plutocrats vs. We, the People—Saving the Soul of Democracy,” first published by TomDispatch, I’m only providing the link tonight along with his ending paragraph.
I know some of you may click that link and upon seeing where I have sent you immediately will think tl;dr. I urge you to reconsider. Here’s how Moyers concludes:
The religion of inequality—of money and power—has failed us; its gods are false gods. There is something more essential—more profound—in the American experience than the hyena’s appetite. Once we recognize and nurture this, once we honor it, we can reboot democracy and get on with the work of liberating the country we carry in our hearts.
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2011—Bill would allow lightbulb manufacture within Michigan, but not to create jobs:
The campaign to keep old-school, inefficient, incandescent lightbulbs is near and dear to the hearts of House Republicans, including Michele Bachmann. But despite that, the bulbs are to be phased out.
How crazed do Republicans get on this subject? Michigan state Rep. Tom McMillin has introduced a bill that would let Michigan firms manufacture incandescent bulbs. The bill's (PDF) logic is that:
An incandescent lightbulb that is manufactured in this state without the inclusion of parts, other than generic or insignificant parts, imported from outside of this state and that remains within this state has not entered into interstate commerce and is not subject to congressional authority to regulate interstate commerce.
That's the logic of how the bill is legally valid, anyway. On other fronts, logic remains scarce. Since transporting Michigan-manufactured bulbs to other states would be interstate commerce, what McMillin is proposing here is an incandescent lightbulb industry for Michigan only. If Ohio wanted incandescent bulbs, they'd have to pass a law and manufacture their own.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: The basket proves bottomless. Greg Dworkin notes that the media are still at a loss about The Donald. Why did the Evans Foundation give that money to the Trump Foundation? Because the rich are different. But like the “alt-right,” they might be a sex cult.
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