Daniel Day-Lewis in “Lincoln”
Hollywood director Steven Spielberg‘s movie Lincoln narrates the last 4 months of the life of Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of United States of America, starring Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln, Sally Field as his wife Mary Todd Lincoln, Tommy Lee Jones as Radical Republican Congressional leader Thaddeus Stevens and David Strathairn as Secretary of State William H. Seward. It is his most ambitious venture into history since Schindler’s List (1993). Continue reading
This song sums up what colonization is and what it means to the colonized people. Let’s not forget that it happened all over the planet (and in our name). Masterpiece!
Ireland’s very favourable corporate tax rate will be up for discussion sooner rather than later. David McWilliams argues rightly that the world has changed since the financial crisis struck. Funds are tide everywhere. A public strangled by austerity and cut-backs demands that the burden is shared more evenly. This includes explicitly also giant multinationals. The pressure on governments that facilitate tax avoidance practices, such as the Irish, will mount.
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Link (recommended reading):
via Corporation tax sleight of hand will turn us into world pariahs.
Millions of ordinary Americans will benefit from Obamacare
June 28, 2012 will be a day to remember. The US Supreme Court declared President Obama‘s Affordable Care Act (ACA) and its centre piece the ‘individual mandate’, which requires virtually everyone in the US to buy health insurance cover or to pay a fee, constitutional. This ruling comes as a surprise to many. It has the potential to change the US as we know it and will surely boost Obama’s campaign for re-election (election day November 06, 2012).
Paul Krugman, economist and widely read columnist for The New York Times, identifies, beside President Obama, the real winners of this legislation (article here).
So the Supreme Court — defying many expectations — upheld the Affordable Care Act, a k a Obamacare. There will, no doubt, be many headlines declaring this a big victory for President Obama, which it is. But the real winners are ordinary Americans — people like you.
Why? Well there are estimated 46 million Americans currently without health insurance (here), about 30 million would gain access via Obamacare (according to Congressional Budget Office). Many will enjoy health insurance for the first time in their lives. Krugman thinks this an underestimation. He writes:
(…) add in every American who currently works for a company that offers good health insurance but is at risk of losing that job (and who isn’t in this world of outsourcing and private equity buyouts?); every American who would have found health insurance unaffordable but will now receive crucial financial help; every American with a pre-existing condition who would have been flatly denied coverage in many states.
Obamacare will replace individual insecurity, risk, hardship with collective insurance cover, a monumental shift. Krugman concludes:
For almost all of us stand to benefit from making America a kinder and more decent society.
All said!
Paul Krugman: The Real Winners
See also:
Shelves are too large for what they offer in Cuba.
In my recent article 50 years of U.S. embargo against Cuba I tried to give some information about the history of Cuba and how the U.S. embargo came about. I did not however go in too much details regarding the question as to why the embargo is still in place and what does this say about democracy or rather the lack of it. This is the purpose of the following essay.
First we need to take a look at Cuban immigration to the U.S. in terms of numbers and preferred locations. Second, we need to enquire shortly into the U.S. electoral system and its peculiarities. Third, conclusion. Continue reading
Czerulf's Thoughts 