Claw-footed table in the Haymarket.
Libertarians have long argued that the current economic doldrums in the United States are artificially created by bad government policies, and that better policies exist that would quickly cause a massive economic expansion. Unfortunately getting the cowardly, corrupt, self serving politicians to enact such policies is a difficult matter, as Politico explains:
Top White House and congressional leaders talk privately of the need for tax reform that goes way beyond individuals and rates; much deeper Social Security and Medicare changes than currently envisioned; quick movement on trade agreements, including a proposed one with Europe; an energy policy that exploits the oil and gas boom; and allowing foreign-born students with science expertise to stay here and start businesses.
Do this and there could be not an economic recovery — but a boom, many argue.
“Both Democrats and Republicans privately agree,” Warren Buffett told us. “They just don’t want to be the first to speak out on their side.” Erskine Bowles, a Democrat who meets regularly with officials at the White House and in Congress, said lawmakers often plead to him: “Save us from ourselves.”
Read more here.
Nice article in this week's Valley Advocate about the future of marijuana legalization in Massachusetts. Despite recent victories for legalization in Colorado and Washington state, there is still a stigma attached to those who advocate for full legalization in Massachusetts, as Amherst State Representative Ellen Story has learned:
For now, many legislators consider marijuana reform a joke. “I get teased about this,” Story said; carrying a new plant to her Statehouse office one day, she was stopped repeatedly by other lawmakers and staffers who asked, “Oh, Ellen, is that marijuana?” Supporting reform, Story said, “is seen as being irresponsible and spacey. It’s just not respectable.”
Terry Franklin, a long-time marijuana reform activist from Amherst, believes that’s changing. He points to Gary Johnson, the former New Mexico governor who ran this year as the Libertarian presidential candidate on a pro-legalization platform and won 1.1 million votes, more than any of his party’s previous presidential candidate had garnered. (The Green Party’s presidential candidate, Massachusetts resident Jill Stein, also supported marijuana legalization; she received about 400,000 votes.)
Read more here.
McDonald's in Springfield's Mason Square.
Jay Libardi's nephew Erik in front of the Wesson Estate in Springfield.
This video is hot. Dedicated to the people of Egypt and Syria.
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