Hawaii State Rep.— Jesus Christ, He's A Democrat— Goes Around Smashing Homeless People's Possessions With A Sledgehammer

The minimum that should happen to Tom Brower is that he should be ousted from the Democratic Party, permanently, for life. But apparently, in Hawaii, homeless people are sufficiently unpopular that no one files a formal (criminal) complaint against him, and of course no homeless person is in a position to do so. By his own reckoning, Brower has smashed up about 30 shopping carts full of homeless people's personal belongings. And AFAIK he's still a State Representative, Dog help us all.

Homelessness in Houston reached its historical peak (to the best of my knowledge) during Saint Ronald Reagan's presidency. In those days I traveled by bicycle every day. My route to and from work took me mostly along one of the bayou hike-and-bike trails on the banks of Brays Bayou. The bike trails are routed under the street-level bridges of major streets over the bayou. In that era, on each end of each bridge, under the bridge but off the bike trail, one homeless person camped out (occasionally more, but usually only one). They never bothered anyone that I know of; some of them occasionally waved to me as I cycled past. And of course they were not visible to traffic on the street itself.

Some of these homeless people had alarm clocks beside their sleeping bags. Think for a moment: the likeliest explanation is that they were employed, but nonetheless homeless.

I don't know if this is happening again in Houston during our Not-So-Great Recession. But if it is, I think wanton, deliberate destruction of a homeless person's property is at least completely morally unacceptable, whether or not it is illegal. As to Brower, I would wish to see him jailed, but if he were jailed, he'd have a roof over his head and a guaranteed meal, which is more than the misfortunate human targets of his malice have.

(For photos and a YouTube video, follow the link to Think Progress. I can't bear to post the gut-wrenching stuff on my site.)

(H/T Atrios.)

Krugman: European Economy Doing Worse Than In Corresponding Period Of The Great Depression

... and Krugman has a simple chart to prove it. The alacrity with which European "austerians" jumped on the first signs of recovery from today's Great Recession is in itself dismaying, but the fact that they may well be killing that recovery in their moralizing determination to apply austerity is downright depressing:

You may be able to fool Mother Nature, but you sure as hell can't fool John Maynard Keynes...

CBO (very quietly): Austerity Has Harmed Economy

From the we-could-have-told-you-this-would-happen department, via Brian Beutler of TPM:

Here’s the buried lede from the Congressional Budget Office, which on Tuesday released its Budget and Economic Outlook for the coming decade: D.C.’s deficit obsession has been quite effective at cutting deficits at the expense of the still-struggling economy.

“[E]conomic activity will expand slowly this year, with real GDP growing by just 1.4 percent,” according to CBO’s projections. “That slow growth reflects a combination of ongoing improvement in underlying economic factors and fiscal tightening that has already begun or is scheduled to occur-including the expiration of a 2 percentage-point cut in the Social Security payroll tax, an increase in tax rates on income above certain thresholds, and scheduled automatic reductions in federal spending. That subdued economic growth will limit businesses’ need to hire additional workers, thereby causing the unemployment rate to stay near 8 percent this year, CBO projects.”

...

In other words, the Rethugs are winning and America's economy is being sent straight to hell by austerity measures never really intended to benefit the real economy... except for the very rich.

Aside: I'd write more, but I have a lot else on my mind as I enter the real physical therapy period before my prosthesis is complete, which precedes a probably even more intense period of rehab after I receive the prosthesis in about a month. If I post even less than before, please don't give up on me. (Oh, and the big bills are starting to arrive... just remember, "we have the greatest health care system in the world... some conditions may apply... mumble mumble you pay out the wazoo... you are screwed... U!S!A! U!S!A! ..." [/snark])

Sometimes...

Sometimes, recently approaching all the time, I want to FACE DOWN THE FINANCIAL POWERS‑THAT‑BE IN THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION, SLAP THEM BACK‑AND‑FORTH ACROSS THE FACE A FEW TIMES, HARD, TO GET THEIR ATTENTION, AND DEMAND OF THEM, "HAVE YOU LEARNED NOTHING AT ALL FROM AMERICA'S HISTORY???"

Armando at Daily Kos, faced with the same frustration, wrote a well-reasoned position paper, "The Lessons of 1937"; his post is probably less damaging to our cause than all that face-slapping would be, though I don't know that it will have any more positive effect on Obama's Wall Street gang...

Do you suppose there's any way, perhaps through the work of a stage hypnotist, to implant a suggestion in all of Obama's advisors that "austerity" is equivalent to, say, "obscenity," or perhaps "marijuana," or maybe "WikiLeaks"?

Tax Rates And Job Creation

Here's a conversational tidbit for you, via ThinkProgress. The next time your Republican friend or colleague (or, heaven preserve you, close relative) brings up the "fact" that raising taxes on the "job creators" (i.e., the wealthy bastards and the corporations they control) is a "job killer," remind them that during the Bill Clinton presidency, which was our most recent era of substantial economic and job growth, the top marginal tax rate was 39.6 percent... and small businesses grew twice as fast during Clinton's term as during the Dubya Bush years. In other words, Reaganomics and Bushonomics just plain didn't work, despite all the GOP's fancy arithmetic.

On the other hand, the numbers that DO add up, those from Clinton's presidency, reveal that a moderately high top marginal tax rate (39.6 percent is by no means the highest individual tax rate ever; that was 90 percent, under... sorry, GOPers... Eisenhower) leads to lower unemployment, greater productivity and yes, solid economic growth.

There is one other reason I know this is true. I experienced it firsthand. I am a living, breathing example. The Bill Clinton years were the golden age for my one-man self-employed contract IT business: I seldom lacked for work during those eight years, and my income grew steadily. Momentum carried my little shop through the first couple of years of GeeDubya Bush, but after eight years of economic "malfeeance" (Bush-speak for "malfeasance"), the bottom dropped out, and I had no choice but to close the doors. Leave it to a Republican president... an unelected Republican president... to kill "job creation" for fun and profit, while preserving the privileged class untouched. That's what Republicans do. That's who Republicans are.