Bill Moyers: The New Robber Barons

Washington continues to reward wealthy donors and Wall Street but what about everyday Americans? Author and historian Steve Fraser joins Bill to discuss.

The New Robber Barons from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.

How Putin and his cronies stole Russia

Anne Applebaum | New York Times
18 Dec 2014

In her book Sale of the Century (2000), Chrystia Freeland memorably describes the moment when she realized that the confusing regulations and contradictory laws that hog-tied Russian business in the 1990s were not a temporary problem that would soon be cleaned up by some competent administrator. On the contrary, they existed for a purpose: the Russian elite wanted everybody to operate in violation of one law or another, because that meant that everybody was liable at any time to arrest. The contradictory regulations were not a mistake, they were a form of control.
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Stephen Colbert on Meet The Press

14 Oct 2012

21st Century Busy Town Jobs

Remembering the real Ronald Reagan – Michael Moore's 'Capitalism: A Love Story'

"The banks and the corporations had a simple plan: to remake America to serve them. But pulling it off would require electing a spokesmodel as president".

Remembering the Real Ronald Reagan -- Michael Moore's 'Capitalism: A Love Story' from MMFlint on Vimeo.

Meh.

Clay Bennett

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One-Stop Shopping

Ted Cruz: Why GOP blocked Obama's surgeon general nominee

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Sunday accused President Barack Obama's pick for Surgeon General of not being a "health care professional" because the doctor had backed a ban on military-style assault rifles.

Over yonder we are

BLUE TEXAS on Facebook

Obsession

2 Oct 1835: Texas Revolution begins at Gonzales

On this day in 1835, fighting broke out at Gonzales between Mexican soldiers and Texas militiamen. When Domingo de Ugartechea, military commander in Texas, received word that the American colonists of Gonzales refused to surrender a small cannon that had been given that settlement in 1831 as a defense against the Indians, he dispatched Francisco de Castañeda and 100 dragoons to retrieve it on September 27. Though Castañeda attempted to avoid conflict, on the morning of October 2 his force clashed with local Texan militia led by John Henry Moore in the first battle of the Texas Revolution. The struggle for the "Come and Take It" cannon was only a brief skirmish that ended with the retreat of Castañeda and his force, but it also marked a clear break between the American colonists and the Mexican government. – Texas State Historical Association

GOP House of Terror

Anthony Bourdain: Under The Volcano

3 May 2014
Americans love Mexican food. We consume nachos, tacos, burritos, tortas, enchiladas, tamales and anything resembling Mexican in enormous quantities. We love Mexican beverages, happily knocking back huge amounts of tequila, mezcal and Mexican beer every year. We love Mexican people—as we sure employ a lot of them. Despite our ridiculously hypocritical attitudes towards immigration, we demand that Mexicans cook a large percentage of the food we eat, grow the ingredients we need to make that food, clean our houses, mow our lawns, wash our dishes, look after our children.

As any chef will tell you, our entire service economy—the restaurant business as we know it—in most American cities, would collapse overnight without Mexican workers. Some, of course, like to claim that Mexicans are “stealing American jobs”. But in two decades as a chef and employer, I never had ONE American kid walk in my door and apply for a dishwashing job, a porter’s position—or even a job as prep cook. Mexicans do much of the work in this country that Americans, provably, simply won’t do.

We love Mexican drugs. Maybe not you personally, but “we”, as a nation, certainly consume titanic amounts of them—and go to extraordinary lengths and expense to acquire them. We love Mexican music, Mexican beaches, Mexican architecture, interior design, Mexican films.
So, why don’t we love Mexico?

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Toons

Journalism simulators

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Frankln D. Roosevelt's "Second Bill of Rights"

Elizabeth Warren

No escaping Dragnet Nation | Bill Moyers

14 March 2014 | Corporations, data brokers and the government are collecting and selling A LOT of information on you, Julia Angwin, author of the new book Dragnet Nation, tells Bill this week. She was shocked to learn how much they had on her. 

What the Hell is Barack Obama's presidency for?

If there was a plot, he's lost it. If there was a point, few can remember it. If he had a big idea, he shrank it. If there's a moral compass powerful enough to guide such contradictions to more consistent waters, it is in urgent need of being reset.

Gary Younge | The Guardian
23 February 2014

His second term has been characterised by a profound sense of drift in principle and policy. While posing as the ally of the immigrant he is deporting people at a faster clip than any of his predecessors; while claiming to be a supporter of labour he’s championing trade deals that will undercut American jobs and wages. In December, even as he pursued one whistleblower, Edward Snowden and kept another, Chelsea Manning, incarcerated, he told the crowd at Nelson Mandela’s funeral: “There are too many leaders who claim solidarity with Madiba’s struggle for freedom, but do not tolerate dissent from their own people.”

...It was obvious what his election was for. First, preventing the alternative: presidential candidates in the grip of a deeply dysfunctional and reactionary party. His arrival marked a respite from eight years of international isolation, military excess and economic collapse. He stood against fear, exclusion and greed – and won. Second, it helped cohere and mobilise a new progressive coalition that is transforming the electoral landscape. Finally, it proved that despite the country’s recent history Americans could elect a black man to its highest office.

So his ascent to power had meaning. It’s his presence in power that lacks purpose. The gap between rich and poor and black and white has grown while he’s been in the White House, the prospects for immigration reform remain remote, bankers made away with the loot, and Guantánamo’s still open. It’s true there’s a limit to what a president can do about much of this and that Republican intransigence has not helped. But that makes the original question more salient not less: if he can’t reunite a divided political culture, which was one of his key pledges, and his powers are that limited, then what is the point of his presidency?

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