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Blog Posts

Mindset

by AmericanDreamer 12/19/2012 - 1:04 pm

I am reading the book by that name, by Carol Dweck, and am recommending it to fellow denizens and others I know.   [Read more]

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Elizabeth Warren: Ok, So Now She's In

by AmericanDreamer 11/18/2012 - 10:20 am

 

Ok, so now she's in.

Many progressives I talk to adopt the view that "what can she do?  She's just one senator." [Read more]

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Carpe Diem

by AmericanDreamer 10/16/2012 - 9:37 am

Isaiah J. Poole, "Message to Obama: Go Bold on Jobs or Go Down In Defeat", Campaign for America's Future, yesterday.

....Obama is failing to communicate a compelling economic agenda for change. The Tuesday night town hall debate may be the president's last chance to position himself as the change agent that the voters demand. And the key to doing that is convincing voters that it is he, not Republican challenger Mitt Romney, who will move the country toward a full-employment economy. [Read more]

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Fun Bumpersticker Time

by AmericanDreamer 9/26/2012 - 10:23 am

Any that you have seen, or would like to see, out there?

Here are a few possibilities popping into my head of late:

  [Read more]

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Question Re: Debunking the GOP's "Job Creators" Narrative

by AmericanDreamer 7/31/2012 - 2:01 pm

  [Read more]

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Bloomberg targets Warren

by AmericanDreamer 7/28/2012 - 1:35 pm

Email I received today, from a group, Bold Progressives:

Billionaire New York mayor Mike Bloomberg calls himself "independent." But he shows no independence from Wall Street bankers.

Last year, he cracked down on Occupy Wall Street. Yesterday, he endorsed Republican Senator Scott Brown against Wall Street's biggest foe -- consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren. He's even pulling together other rich donors to raise money for Brown.

 [Read more]

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Romney and His Ugly Randian Candidacy

by AmericanDreamer 7/18/2012 - 1:01 pm

I am wondering if Romney's candidacy may provide about as good an opportunity as may be had to expose the ugliness and wrongheadedness of the Randian worldview upon which that candidacy is based, centered as it is on worship of the presumed "job creator" class whether in particular cases its members create, destroy or outsource jobs. 

A timely but possibly too mature and adult work that confronts this worldview head-on with one grounded in reality is The Self-Made Myth, and the Truth about How Government Helps Individuals and Businesses Succeed, by Brian Miller and Mike Lapham, published this year.  It features mini-bios of many successful entrepreneurs who, unlike the Romneys and the Donald Trumps of the world, retain the awareness, character and honesty to acknowledge many essential factors beyond their own hard work, commitment, and talent--including specific forms of support made possible by, yes, their government--without which they would not have succeeded.  [Read more]

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Open Thread: Which Issues or Political/Social Beliefs Have You Changed Your Mind About Over the Years?

by AmericanDreamer 7/3/2012 - 2:23 pm

I used to think...and now I think...

Also, what prompted you to change your mind?

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Thank You, Veterans

by AmericanDreamer 11/11/2011 - 10:32 am

I don't have anything eloquent or profound to say on this.  You don't make the war and peace decisions.  I don't romanticize what is often an array of considerations why you enlisted any more than I do for other public servants I also feel a large sense of gratitude towards, day in and day out--including teachers and other school employees, firefighters, emergency workers, and, yes,  the police, disfavored by some here not just now in the wake of Occupy events but generally.  None of us, in public service or not, is perfect or are saints.   [Read more]

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Hunting the rich?

by AmericanDreamer 10/1/2011 - 12:40 pm

The Economist's September 24 print edition has a cover story called "Hunting the Rich": http://www.economist.com/node/21530104

Awhile back I made a cultural comment about victim envy--how everyone, no matter how relatively well off, seems in our day to want to portray themselves as a victim for political advocacy purposes. [Read more]

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