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News Roundup – Egypt, Paul Krugman, North Carolina

The violence in Egypt is simply breathtaking. Maybe heartbreaking is a better term.. I understand that Egyptians, for the most part, weren’t happy with the Muslim brotherhood. I’m sorry. If you indeed had a free and fair election, you need to live with the consequences. I am sitting here in North Carolina seizing over what has happened to what was the most progressive state in the South. Our answer is not to take to the streets and begin randomly shooting people. Instead, we are organizing. We’re going to get more people registered to vote. We’re going to vote these ultra conservative Republicans out of office and take back our state.

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Paul Krugman had two excellent posts yesterday. The first post had two things that were very interesting to me. First, Professor Krugman wondered if most Americans knew that the budget deficit has been rapidly decreasing. Somebody from Google got in contact with him and they quickly put out a survey. This isn’t the exact same thing as a poll, but it does give you an idea of the power of the Internet. The poll suggested that over 75% of the respondents had no idea that the federal deficit had significantly decreased. This brings me to my next point, that the budget deficit has significantly decreased compared to GDP.

In Paul Krugman’s other post, he talks a little bit about the economy in the Netherlands. The Netherlands had the kind of “Grand Bargain” that several in Washington have been arguing for for the last couple of years. Basically, cut the federal budget and cut the federal budget some more. Then, when you think you’re through, cut the federal budget once more for good measure. Well, this didn’t work out so well for the Netherlands. Their economy is in the tank. (more…)

By ecthompsonmd|2013-08-18T22:36:22-04:00August 15th, 2013|Economy, Foreign Affairs, Legal|1 Comment

Egypt

More Violence in Egypt

It is hard for me to say exactly what country has caused my biggest disappointment over the last year or two, but Egypt has to be in the top five. It is impossible to rule a country based on public whim. Several months ago, Egypt went through their “Arab Spring” and threw out their longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak. Following this, they went through a somewhat democratic process in which they set up democratic institutions and largely elected representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood. A year later, Egyptians were frustrated. The exact source of frustration is somewhat confusing. It seems to be a combination of economic woes plus new religious restrictions imposed by the Muslim Brotherhood. What is clear is that Egyptians took to the strange. Their military deposed, ousted and overthrew the democratically elected president and his government. As far as I know, this isn’t how democracy works.

From NYT:

The police and armed civilians opened fire Saturday with live ammunition on protesters against Egypt’s new military government, witnesses said, killing scores of people as hopes faded that the Egyptian military would reach any political accommodation with the Muslim Brotherhood and its ousted president, Mohamed Morsi. (more…)

By ecthompsonmd|2013-07-28T10:17:17-04:00July 27th, 2013|Foreign Affairs|Comments Off

News Roundup: Egypt, Edward Snowden, Arizona firefighters

Protests in Egypt

I’m not sure what’s going on in Egypt, but there are big protests and rallies once again. It appears that the Egyptian population has grown tired of the Muslim brotherhood and President Mohammed Morsi. The military appears to be stepping in and demanding that the government meet the needs of the people. This is going to be interesting. I wonder how conservatives will spin this as somehow being Obama’s fault.

It appears that Edward Snowden is still in Russia. It also appears that he has applied for asylum in Russia. You cannot tell me that this guy is not somewhere between a rock and a hard place. I’m guessing that Edward Snowden had the original plan. It appears that plan has fallen apart. It appeared that at first he was worried about the NSA spying on Americans. Okay. That is probably a legitimate concern. Then, he decided to talk with China about the NSA spying on China, the European Union, and other countries. This I don’t understand. The fact that we spy on other countries isn’t a revelation. As a matter fact, the fact that other countries spy on us isn’t a revelation either. This is what national intelligence agencies do. At best Edward Snowden is misguided. At worst, he appears to be someone who thinks he is smarter than he really is. He is really in deep kimchi.

Yesterday, 19 firefighters were killed in Arizona. These firefighters were fighting a forest fire which suddenly changed course. This represents the largest loss of life in a single day in over 50 years. My prayers go out to the family and friends.

No Sign of Inflation

There is no hint of inflation. Remember, several years ago when conservatives were all up in arms over the multiple stimulation packages that injected money into the economy in order to try to save the economy? Conservatives yelled that we were going to have runaway inflation. Not only have we not seen anything that resembles runaway inflation, inflation has been stagnant. On one hand, this can be looked at as a good thing. Consumer prices are really not rising significantly. On the other hand, this is a very bad thing. Wages are also stagnant. With stagnant wages that means our buying power is also stagnant.

In Texas, there is a huge rally in support women’s rights. As you recall, Gov. Rick Perry has called another special session in order to try to curb a women’s right to choose.

This continues to be the most unpredictable Wimbledon in recent memory. Serena Williams, five-time Wimbledon champion, has been bounced out in the fourth round.

By ecthompsonmd|2013-07-01T22:05:38-04:00July 1st, 2013|California Wildfires, Domestic Spying, Environment, Foreign Affairs|Comments Off