Glenn Melancon

Texans for a Brighter Tomorrow

Country Ribs and Artichoke Pasta

Country ribs are one of my all time favorites. They are full of flavor and meat. I had the luxury of marinating them for two days in a zip lock bag with 2/3 cup apple cider vinegar, 1/3 cup of olive oil. To the marinade I added 2 tablespoons of Coleman’s dry English mustard, 1 tsp salt and a pinch of Herbs de Provence. As you can see below, I grilled them on all sides for 2 minutes and then fished them in the oven for 10 minutes at 220 degrees.

The pasta side dish was inspired by Lidia. The main feature is artichoke. I was always afraid to use fresh artichoke until I saw her clean it. It’s really easy once you see it done.

After sweating the onions in olive oil, butter and salami, I added the thinly sliced artichoke. I turned up the heat to brown both sides with a little Tony’s. Next I added a can of Hunt’s Fire Roasted Tomatoes.

Finally, I boiled about 1/2 box of bow tie pasta. I incorporated it into the sauce straight from the pot. The starchy water thickens the sauce just right.

Only basic math skills required.

Just think, this could have been the American experience if conservatives had their way. Growth requires addition. Subtraction leads to contraction. Is this rocket science?

MADRID | Fri Apr 27, 2012 12:49pm EDT

(Reuters) – Spain’s sickly economy faces a “crisis of huge proportions”, a minister said on Friday, as unemployment hit its highest level in almost two decades and Standard and Poor’s downgraded the government’s debt by two notches.

Reagan Revolution: Redistributing Wealth Since 1980

When the Reagan Revolution started dismantling the New Deal, it prioritized laws and regulations designed to protect workers and their income. Human history teachers that it’s easy to make a few people wealthy. It’s much harder to build a middle class society. Liberals did just that after WWII. Now the Middle Class is being crushed by the Reagan Revolution and money is flowing freely to the few again. Welcome to the new 18th century.

A key to understanding this growth of income inequality—and the disappointing increases in workers’ wages and compensation and middle-class incomes—is understanding the divergence of pay and productivity. Productivity growth has risen substantially over the last few decades but the hourly compensation of the typical worker has seen much more modest growth, especially in the last 10 years or so. The gap between productivity and the compensation growth for the typical worker has been larger in the “lost decade” since the early 2000s than at any point in the post-World War II period. In contrast, productivity and the compensation of the typical worker grew in tandem over the early postwar period until the 1970s.

The Real Mitt Romney just stood up and he is an ‘Etch A Sketch’

Can a candidate recover from this?

Read the rest of this entry »

Predicting Supreme Court Healthcare Decision

“Glenn how is the Supreme Court going to rule on the healthcare Individual mandate? Any predictions? If they lose the mandate what happens to the plan? Obviously there are some good points to the plan but do they go back to the drawing board?”

Awesome question.  I’m not a lawyer but I love to play one on the internet.  I’m glad the question focuses on the fact that only the individual mandate, not the entire law, is before the court.  One fine, but important point is left out of the question.    Even the “individual mandate” is NOT in question.  The question is can the federal government PENALIZE an individual for not purchasing a PRIVATE product or service.

Let’s proceed.

Read the rest of this entry »

Debt Society Brought to you by Reagan Revolution

If you want to see the debt society created by conservatives, here is your graph. When liberals ran they country, they placed a social premium on upward mobility–the opportunity for the poor and working class to climb to the top. Conservatives bashed colleges as the place for sex, drugs and rock and roll. The costs have been REDISTRIBUTED from the top to the bottom. This is no way to run a country. Thank you Reagan Revolution!!!

Father America

Ed Kilgore provides a pretty good summation of modern conservatism.  It’s not really a “freedom agenda” unless you are a “daddy.”  If you’re a “father,” then you’re free to tell others how to live their private lives.  If you’re not lucky enough to be a “father,” then you should be seen and not heard.  If you step out of line, you’re a slut.

“the fundamental determination of conservatives to re-create the society of their imagination, where Dad was large and in charge in every home, where Authority was rarely challenged in the classroom, the boardroom, or the bedroom, and where America itself was only wrong when it failed to fully exercise its righteous power.”

Personally, I prefer to think of America as filled with adults.  I found this to be a major difference between my view of Americans and conservatives view of their neighbors.  I think of my neighbors as hard working and honest.  Conservatives seem to have a need to see Americans as lazy and sinful.

Jesus vs Evolution: You’re Missing the Point.

Modern cosmology and Christianity do two separate things.  Christianity at its heart is about how humans should relate to each other–“Love your enemy.”  The  Bible provides a justification for supporting that behavior.

1)  God is good and created a world with enough stuff for people to live peacefully without destroying it.
2) Humans are never satisfied and want to play God (this is the “original” sin.)
3) That temptation brings killing, hunger, death, poverty and environmental destruction.
4) Jesus provides a “life” lesson.  Human should be satisfied with their “daily bread.”  Human should sacrifice themselves rather than sacrifices in others.  If humans behave this way, the world would be a better place.

Nothing in this story “literally” conflicts with modern cosmology or biology. Why? Because, I believe Christianity never addresses those questions at all.  It addressees other questions.

1) Genesis 1 What is the nature of God?  Answer God is good.
2) Genesis 2 & 3 If God is good, why is evil in the world?  Answer humans are never satisfied and will kill their neighbor to get more.
3) Gospels  How does God elevate suffering in the world?  Answer.  He doesn’t. He expects us to love our neighbor.
4) Gospels Who is my neighbor?  Your enemy.

This is why I believe “Christian” preachers would rather talk about cosmology and biology.  If they do, they can avoid actually “loving one another.”

John “34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Krugman’s EUROmess Summary

“There are basically three stories about the euro crisis in wide circulation: the Republican story, the German story, and the truth.”

The Republican story is that it’s all about excessive welfare states.

OK, the German story is that it’s about fiscal profligacy, running excessive deficits.

Finally, let’s look at the balance of payments — the current account deficit, which is the flip side of capital inflows

OBAMA WINS!!! poll

My mind is not as good as it once was.  I forget where I found things, and I don’t really want to forget where I found this map.

I think it will be interesting to compare it on election night to the actual map.  The creators of it made some pretty bold assumptions like:

In some ways the Republicans may be under-polling at this point, since they are not united behind one candidate and presumably will be in November.  However, there is also some reason to suggest the Republicans are over-polling, since the Obama campaign has also not even begun to run negative ads against any of the Republicans.  President Obama has been taking a verbal beating from the candidates over the last two months, yet still is polling well before his campaign has even begun to counter-punch.  For these reasons, I assume that the eventual Republican nominee will perform about as well as the current numbers suggest.

As they say; we shall see.