The New York Times has Paul Krugman’s article Obama Gets Real.

And there was this: “When it comes to our budget, we should not be stuck in a stale debate from two years ago or three years ago.  A relentlessly growing deficit of opportunity is a bigger threat to our future than our rapidly shrinking fiscal deficit.” Finally! Our political class has spent years obsessed with a fake problem — worrying about debt and deficits that never posed any threat to the nation’s future — while showing no interest in unemployment and stagnating wages. Mr. Obama, I’m sorry to say, bought into that diversion. Now, however, he’s moving on.

Emphasis added by me in the above excerpt. And of course he doesn’t mean the people think the rapid shrinking of the deficit is the problem the right complains about.  What he means is the huge size of the deficit is what they complain about, and even that is rapidly shrinking.  He fails to mention that the rapid shrinking of that deficit is one big cause for the failure of the economy to recover.

If the President is ready to move on, will the Hillary Clinton wing of the Democratic Party also move on?  The previous post, Huh, so it IS a coordinated Wall Street Democrat campaign, seems to indicate that this wing is trying hard to fight moving on rather than embracing it.

Thanks to MardyS for posting a link to this article in a comment he made in a previous post.

The New Yorker magazine has the brief introduction to the pod cast Political Scene: The Politics of Income Inequality.

The rhetoric used to discuss income inequality, the Affordable Care Act, and the nascent push to raise the minimum wage may possibly be standing in the way of reducing America’s wealth gap. For one thing, we talk about them as though they are three distinct issues. “The biggest thing which Obama has done to reduce inequality, if it all goes through and works properly, will be Obamacare,” John Cassidy explains. “It’s not just a health-care initiative; it’s also a big redistributionary initiative.” Cassidy and George Packer join host Dorothy Wickenden on this week’s Political Scene podcast to assess President Obama’s recent speech on inequality and the politics of the wealth gap. Packer simplifies the issue in a way the President did not: “It’s a really profound moral as well as economic issue: Should you really be below poverty level if you work full time?”

This podcast is a nice complement to my previous posts, Huh, so it IS a coordinated Wall Street Democrat campaign and The Pathology of the Rich – Chris Hedges on Reality Asserts Itself pt1.

If, as I believe, the 2016 Presidential election will be a contest between the Hillary Clinton wing and the Elizabeth Warren wing of the Democratic Party, these posts of mine indicate that Hillary’s wing ought to be the losing wing in this contest. If Hillary doesn’t stop trying to tamp down the morally and politically correct fight against the current day robber barons, then I will find it very difficult to support her. I will find it very easy to support someone who is running out of the Elizabeth Warren wing, and it doesn’t have to be Elizabeth Warren. This fight is for the soul of the Democratic Party and the soul of the nation.

It took The Daily Kos to figure this out in the article Huh, so it IS a coordinated Wall Street Democrat campaign.

Hmmm, so far today we’ve seen that Third Way op-ed in the Wall Street Journal and Sen. Chuck Schumer’s comparing us to the teabaggers.

Then there is DLC dinosaur Al From with a new book and rhetorical embrace of Hillary Clinton, unreconstructed racist Richard Cohen’s blasting of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and Fox News “Democrats” Doug Schoen and Pat Caddell in Politico are back for another stab at that whole “radical center” nonsense.

One or two of these would be random noise. All of this, all at once? It’s a coordinated counterattack by Wall Street Democrats spooked by the party’s embrace of politicians like Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown, Tammy Baldwin and Jeff Merkley. The future of the Democratic Party is a populist one, all that’s left is for time to whittle out the dead weight.

I was sorry to see Elizabeth Warren pledge to serve out her term as Senator from Massachusetts, and vow not to run for President in 2016.  See the The Boston Globe article Warren rejects buzz, insists she’s not seeking presidency.

Even Warren’s denial on Wednesday is unlikely to squelch the interest, especially if there is any hint that Clinton is wavering or stumbling. Democrats say there would be intense pressure on Warren to run if Clinton declines.

Perhaps the assault on Elizabeth Warren by the so-called Democrats will goad her into running for President.  If Hillary Clinton doesn’t repent, you’d better believe that I will join any effort to encourage Warren to run.

The Real News Network has what I presume will be a series of videos that starts with The Pathology of the Rich – Chris Hedges on Reality Asserts Itself pt1.

On Reality Asserts Itself with Paul Jay, Chris Hedges discusses the psychology of the super rich; their sense of entitlement, the dehumanization of workers, and mistaken belief that their wealth will insulate them from the coming storms

Is it my naivete or unreasonable optimism that has kept me from fully coming to terms with what Chris Hedges is saying?

Here are some links to items mentioned in the video:

Death of the Liberal Class

Books by Chris Hedges

Chris Hedges | Let’s Get This Class War Started

December 6, 2013

I have now purchased Death of the Liberal Class. I am sure i am going to have a lot to say about this book in future blog posts.

December 8, 2013

See part 2 of the series in my subsequent post Credibility of the Ruling Elite is Being Shredded – Chris Hedges on Reality Asserts Itself pt2.

The Real News Network features the video Ken Burns’ “The Republican Civil War”

On YouTube, it comes with this brief teaser:

Coming soon from the acclaimed filmmaker: The story of a conflict that would have seared men’s souls… if anybody involved had them. “The Republican Civil War”

Do I have to put some kind of explanation on this video, or can most of you figure out what this is?

Just as a jumping off point for my inane comments, I will use the Los Angeles Times report Israel’s Netanyahu and Pope Francis exchange gifts, talk policy.

Netanyahu presented the pontiff with a Spanish translation of “The Origins of the Inquisition,” a book written by the Israeli leader’s late father, Ben-Zion Netanyahu, an acclaimed historian known widely for his research on the topic. “To his Holiness Pope Franciscus, a great shepherd of our common heritage,” Netanyahu inscribed on the inside cover.

Francis thanked Netanyahu and gave him a bronze plaque of St. Paul.

I am sure there is more to the story of the gifts, and it probably makes sense, but…

When I first read of this story, I thought surely Netanyahu must either be autistic or at least have Asperger’s syndrome.  Why else would Netanyahu have a diplomatic mission to the Vatican and choose this particular present?  Maybe there is a “rub their nose in it” theory of diplomacy that I had not heard of before.

Maybe Pope Francis had two gifts he could have chosen to give Netanyahu.  When he saw what Netanyahu gave him, he decided to give a Catholic religious symbol to the Jewish Prime Minister.  What is the equivalent in Spanish of touché?

I haven’t touched on this subject for a while. I got Billionaires & Ballot Bandits Official Trailer from YouTube.

Since the Court killed the Voting Rights Act, we’ve decided to re-do the film with the latest and strangest from the weird world of the Ballot Bandits and the Billionaires who love them.

Help us get on the tube, the ‘net, and in front of the policy makers investigative reports so funny, so revealing, and “so relevant they threaten to alter history” (Chicago Tribune).

As the video says, if you are not aware you could be saying “Hail to the Thief in 2016.”

Here’s a two for the price of one addition to this blog post.

Vultures and Vote Rustlers Trailer

Naked Capitalism web site has the video Steve Keen: The International Financial Architecture. Naked Capitalism describes the video, thusly:

In this video, Steve Keen reviews the history of Keynes’ proposed international currency, Bancor, and why it failed to come to fruition at Bretton Woods. Keen thinks its time has finally come and supports the Central Bank of China’s call for its introduction.

As posted on YouTube by Steve Keen, it has the description:

My speech to the Meeting of Finance Ministers of Latin America in Quito on November 29th 2013. I explain Keynes’s proposal for an international unit of account called the Bancor, and support Zhou Xiaochuan, the Governor of the Central Bank of China, in calling for its introduction. I also argue that Latin America should in the meantime develop its own unit of account for intra-CELAC trade.

The speech even mentions some open source software called Minsky. That way, you can do your own economic modeling and predictions. The video also shows a link to Steve Keen’s Debtwatch blog.

On a superficial level, this presentation is fairly understandable. However, there is a depth to what is being said that requires deeper thought to fully understand.

I am afraid that my understanding of all of this does not live up to MardyS’s tongue in cheek claim that I am the smartest person in the room. It’s going to take quite a while for all of this to sink in and to reconcile with what I have been reading elsewhere. However, I bet that there other readers of this blog that will get it much faster than I will.

JoãoG should be happy with what Keen has to say about the Efficient Market Hypothesis.

The Real News Network featured the video Ask a Slave: What About the Indians?

Be sure to stay for the last question.