Naked Capitalism has the article The Fiscal Policy Experience Since the Great Recession. The article finishes with a nice summary of how we ought to look at government deficits. (Emphasis added by me.)

The question should always be whether the fiscal position is supportive of a high level of economic activity, and the budget deficit should be large enough to support that level of economic activity—but not larger. When private sector demand is low, then potential savings are high and will become available to support budget deficit of an appropriate size. Debts accumulated from appropriate deficits can similarly be readily accommodated. Instead of fretting about the debt ratios and striving to always balance the (structural) budget, the focus should be on why a deficit is often necessary for a reasonable level of economic activity.

This nicely puts an end to the straw-man argument that austerity fanatics frequently put up. They try to make their point with an argument using reductio ad absurdum (Latin for “reduction to absurdity”). They propose the theory that if a deficit is good for the economy, then a bigger deficit must be better. Then they propose absurd levels of deficit to prove that deficits cannot be good. The above summary from the articule talks only about “budget deficit of an appropriate size”. Deficits can be too large, but they can also be too small. Reductio ad absurdum just leads to absurd results. Dismiss the people who try to prove that deficits are never good.

Space Daily has the story Researchers discover shortcut to satellite-based quantum encryption network.

From the ground, researchers measured laser signals that originated from a satellite and traveled through Earth’s gravitational potential and the turbulent atmosphere. The successful characterization of quantum features under such conditions is a precondition for the implementation of a global quantum communication network using satellites that would link metropolitan area quantum networks on the ground.

I have blogged about various quantum mechanical issues. The issue at hand here is quantum entanglement. In particular, I thought I understood it in the post ‘Quantum teleportation’ breakthrough by DARPA-funded physicists. However, I still don’t feel comfortable that I really understand many of the details for practical use of the physics.

I can’t remember the book that I read about quantum entanglement, but perhaps it was The Age of Entanglement: When Quantum Physics Was Reborn. The title doesn’t sound as familiar as it should if this is the book.

AOL has the article CNN Interview with Bernie Sanders’ wife after Alexandria shooting takes unexpected turn.

Wolf Blitzer’s interview with Jane Sanders took an unexpected turn Thursday as the CNN host and the wife of the former presidential candidate sparred over the media’s role in the current national political environment.

Jane Sanders didn’t quite get the right words to explain to Wolf Blitzer what is wrong with his coverage of the “news”. She couldn’t get through to him with an explanation of his focus on personalities and sound bites rather than issues. She mentioned oligarchs, but Wolf never did. How are we ever going to explain to the corporate press that we are onto the game they are playing? They cover the news to get ratings and to promulgate the message and philosophy that their oligarchic bosses want to spread. We want news that will be useful for solving the problems faced by the 99%. We don’t need news that focuses on how to improve the lives of the 1%, and cares not a whit about how it harms the 99%.

Consortium News has the Ray McGovern article NBC’s Kelly Hits Putin with a Beloved Canard.

For instance, on May 8, in testimony before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper conceded publicly that the number of intelligence agencies involved in the assessment was three, not 17, and that the analysts assigned to the project from CIA, FBI and NSA had been “handpicked.”

On May 23, in testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, former CIA Director John Brennan confirmed Clapper’s account about the three agencies involved. “It wasn’t a full inter-agency community assessment that was coordinated among the 17 agencies,” Brennan acknowledged.

Here is a YouTube video to back up this part of what Ray McGovern said in his article.

Follow this link to some posts that debunk other parts of the Russian hacking propaganda.

Truth Dig has the article Fake News From The Washington Post? How a Columnist Whitewashes Saudi Arabia’s Actions.

One of the key points of contention between the Gulf states is Al Jazeera, the state-sponsored cable and online news titan that has acted as an arm of Qatari soft power. Though the UAE has no such network to boast of, the emails from Yousef Otaiba—one of the Beltway’s slickest operators—show how the UAE launders its message behind influential sources in Washington.

I have long since realized that the Washington Post gas a pro-war message to peddle, and they have no shame in falsely reporting the “news” to sell their view. The level of influence that “journalist” David Ignatius has over the Obama, Clinton, and now Trump is dangerous. The fact that ordinary citizens don’t see the Washington Post as a propaganda tool of the oligarchs is particularly disappointing.

The UK Independent has the column I’m a 90-year-old woman who has lived in Israel for 50 years – here is what I think about Israeli settlements by Ruth Kedar.

For 50 years the occupation has weakened Israel from within. It should never have happened. It has brought such radical and negative change to the country I love that I wonder every day whether what we have become is a place that I want my grandchildren to grow up in. In my 90 years, I have lived all 50 of this occupation. I will keep trying to end it. I don’t know for how long, but I will.

Just looking at the comments on this piece, I see that it has already stirred up the controversy that I had expected. The fact that I am a citizen of a country that does as heinous acts as happens in Israel, is no indication that I approve of what the U.S. does. I also do not buy the committing of crimes against humanity because the other side does it too. I also do not buy the theory that this woman does not have a right to protest what her country does because she isn’t also protesting what other countries are doing. Of course the people making the accusation that she is not protesting what other countries do probably don’t know what other protests she is making.

I know I won’t change the minds of people who think you can violate human rights because someone else does too. Refusing to violate human rights is a moral stand that a person takes that has little to do with what other people are willing to do. That doesn’t even consider the possibility that the other people are using the same justification for their violations that you are using for yours. Someone has to be the first to take the moral stand.

YouTube has the video of Premiere of the Nina Turner Show with Bernie Sanders.

Bernie Sanders and Nina Turner discuss the building of a movement to fight the oligarchy and the achievements of the People’s Summit

You can’t get lots of Democrats elected in 2018 if the people know that the Democrats aren’t going to do any better for them than the Republicans. Most of the leaders of the Democratic party are more subtly corrupt than the Republicans. Things will not get better with the current set of Democrats in control. These Democrats will noit let Progressives gain control of the party. We may have to chase the Democratic Party out of power completely before we can expect any reform. Can we fix the Democratic Party before 2018? From my view of the local Democratic Party in Sturbridge, I don’t think there is much hope.

Consortium News has the article The Kissinger Backchannel to Moscow.

This history of Kissinger’s Soviet backchannel in 1968 reveals Brennan’s breathless alarm about Russian “suborning” Flynn or using the backchannel to manipulate Kushner as unworthy of a serious intelligence professional.
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Demonstrating the intensity of the anti-Trump attitudes among many Obama officials – both those who have left the government and those who remain as holdovers – someone with access to the secret report was so determined to expose the Kushner backchannel as to reveal to the Russians what must be one of the most sensitive U.S. intelligence secrets of all – the U.S. capability to intercept Russia’s diplomatic messages.

I do not publish news of this kind to prove that Trump is good, or wise, or honest. I do not believe he is any of those things. I do it, to make sure people know how duplicitous the anti-Trump forces are being. Just because one side seems to be lying to us, we shouldn’t fall into the automatic trap of believing the other side is telling us the truth.

When you know both sides are lying to you, that should put you on guard to wondering what each side has against the other that does not benefit any of us.

The Real News Network has an interview titled Blaming Russia Goes Deeper Than Hillary Clinton & the Democrats.

I mean these are the things people should be concerned about. Do we actually have civilian control of government? You know you have the President Obama reaching an agreement with Putin only to have the military undermine it. This happens over and over and I think what’s happening with Trump, again while I disagree with him on most issues, I actually agree with his policies of wanting peace with Russia. That seems to be the policy amongst all others that is totally unacceptable to parts of the US government, the FBI, the CIA for example and the liberal establishment and the Democratic Party. That is the thing, and you mentioned Rachel Maddow, that is the thing that is upsetting people, more than anything, when in fact it seems to me we should be welcoming at least an attempt to have a peaceful relationship with that country.

The bias against Russia is so deeply implanted in our psyches, it is hard to turn it off long enough to even listen to another point of view. Try as he might, you can see that the interviewer is struggling and failing to get over it. He repeatedly misstates the subtitle of the book. The author is probably so used to people doing this, that he doesn’t even bother to correct him.

Does your memory go way back to the ancient history of 2014? If not let me refresh your mind. I did a search on this blog of posts about Victoria Nuland.

Here are a couple of snippets from the first two results.

The first is from the post Trump’s Possible Path Out of Ukraine Crisis.

Exclusive: The U.S.-backed coup in Ukraine in 2014 sparked a New Cold War with Russia, but a President Trump could roll back tensions with a creative strategy for resolving the Ukraine standoff, writes Jonathan Marshall.

The second one is from the post US Pretends to be Shocked at Our Own Claim That Russia is Hacking Our Elections.

Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland engineered Ukraine’s “regime change” in early 2014 without weighing the likely chaos and consequences. Now, as neo-Nazis turn their guns on the government, it’s hard to see how anyone can clean up the mess that Nuland made, writes Robert Parry.

Do you think the Russians laugh up their sleeves whenever we claim to be so upset that we think they meddled in our recent election? Might they think it is poetic justice?