In this era of politicized health care, a study by medical specialists finds “many profitable tests and procedures are performed unnecessarily and may harm patients. By some estimates, unnecessary treatment constitutes one-third of medical spending in the United States.” Their list of overused lab work includes X-rays, brain imaging and bone scans that are not needed when they are ordered. Future lists...

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love MMT by Robert Coutinho Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) is an explanation of how the current system of money works. It is somewhat counter-intuitive and is a very refreshing and assuring piece of knowledge. Let me see if I can share it with you. For those who want in depth explanations, please go to one of the references cited at the end. The federal government issues...

The US lost an appeal last week in a WTO dispute case involving the regulation of cigarettes. The case was brought by Indonesia against a new US ban on the sale of clove and other flavored cigarettes. As usual critics of the WTO are arguing that the WTO is infringing on US rights to establish its own health and safety standards. In actuality, the WTO agreement acknowledges a country’s right to establish...

It’s the start of a new baseball season, so how could I not post this political knock-off of the immortal “Casey At The Bat?” I don’t believe the progressives in this version of the poem, however, are going to strike out this November the way Casey did… Progressives At The Bat It looked extremely rocky for progressives in D.C., The folks they’d long depended on to others bent...

Daryl Cagle, MSNBC.com This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Jumping on a weaker-than-expected jobs report, the Etch-a-Sketch candidate is telling crowds, “The reason I’m so animated about defeating Barack Obama is because he’s failed the American people.” Yet, as he promises voters more wealth, Mitt Romney is still going to great lengths to hide his own. In 48 accounts from Bain Capital, on financial disclosure forms the GOP candidate-to-be fails to “identify...

UPDATE II: Lockheed Martin commemorated the 4,500th F-16 Fighting Falcon delivery on 3 April 2012 with a ceremony in Fort Worth for employees, customers, former executives, and elected officials. 4500 F-16 delivery ceremony Photo: Courtesy Lockheed Martin’s “Code One Magazine” UPDATE I: A very nice video on the F-16 below. Original Post: I have written plenty about the sad demise of the Lockheed...

by WALTER BRASCH There’s nothing to suggest that in his 51 years Kevin June should be a leader. Not from his high school where he dropped out after his freshman year. Not from his job, where he worked as an auto body technician for more than 35 years. Both of his marriages ended in divorce, but did produce two children, a 31-year-old son and a 28-year-old daughter. June readily admits that for most of his...

The Insidious Nature of Student Loan Debt by Scott Kirwin I have a BA degree in Political Science and in the decades since I got the degree it came in useful once: it allowed me to teach English in Japan, a university degree being the sole requirement at the time. Since then I’ve not used it during my career and I likely never will. I have no regrets getting the degree however, because I got it from a state...

Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin is facing a recall fight for his job. A million voters in his state decided that after just a year or so in office, they’d had enough of the man and wanted him out. The main issue here, the main cause of anger toward the governor, involves his taking away collective bargaining rights from most state government workers. Sure, at a time when governments like Wisconsin’s...

I’m out. I’m just all out. I can read more, talk more, opine more. But really — how much more is there to actually say, that hasn’t already been said, about the Republican candidates remaining in the primary battle to be the party’s nominee for the 2012 general election? Even his three wins last night, in Wisconsin, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, have failed to seal the...

WASHINGTON — Right before our eyes, American conservatism is becoming something very different from what it once was. Yet this transformation is happening by stealth because moderates are too afraid to acknowledge what all their senses tell them. Last week’s Supreme Court oral arguments on health care were the most dramatic example of how radical tea partyism has displaced mainstream conservative...

Other than providing the usual entertainment (Isn’t that nice?) and accusing President Obama essentially of treason (“Not only is [Obama] supporting our enemies and dissing our friends…”), Michael Reagan, in a piece at TMV, praises his father, Ronald Reagan, for his accomplishments in the national security arena during the Cold War — as he should. But while lauding his father’s achievements,...

Is Putin’s Kremlin focused on the wrong adversary-competitor? For Russia’s Yezhednevniy Zhurnal, columnist Alexandr Golz writes that given Russia’s incredibly long border with China and Beijing’s growing wealth and skyrocketing military budget, Russia would be well-advised to keep a closer eye on China than on the United States or NATO. For Russia’s Yezhednevniy Zhurnal, Alexandr...

The titles of yesterday’s news stories offer an unambiguous condemnation of unfair labor practices at Apple’s Foxconn assembly plants in China: Apple’s factories in China are breaking employment laws, audit finds; Update: Apple supplier Foxconn hit on poor working conditions; Illegal overtime reported on Apple assembly line; Apple supplier audit finds major wage and overtime violations. However, rather...

Are reports that Iranian influence in Iraq is growing by the day, true? According to columnist Abdullah al-Etabi of Iraq’s Sotal Iraq, the Iraqi people find the assertions of Iranian President Ahmadinejad that the two countries have a ‘common enemy’ offensive, and he painstakingly outlines why Iran and Iraq do not share a common enemy, and the many ways in which the interests and values of...

Obama-the-constitutional-law professor is said, by reporters, to be fascinated by the Supreme Court’s discussion — sitting in Air Force One on his return to the US, glued to the Court’s arguments. Obama-the-president knows, the Times points out, that “there will be substantial political fallout no matter how the court rules.” And not just for the Obama administration. Successful...

The Supreme Court marathon is more proof of how American health care, with or without reform, is in the hands of the wrong people—-the for-profit insurance industry that siphons off one out of every three dollars for overhead and profit. Now largely forgotten in the inside-baseball legal arguments is that, in 2008, it was Barack Obama who opposed the mandate that Hillary Clinton backed and now finds himself...

Have the most extreme elements on the political landscape – once considered beyond the embrace of polite society – taken control of the Republican Party? According to columnist Jean-Sébastian Stehli of France’s Le Figaro, the conspiracy theorists who once shouted themselves hoarse about fluoridated water being a communist mind-control plot and government implantation of chips under citizens’...

WASHINGTON — Clarifying moments are rare in politics. They are the times when previously muddled issues are suddenly cast into sharp relief and citizens are given a look behind the curtains of spin and obfuscation. Over the last week, Americans were blessed with three separate clarifying moments. Rep. Paul Ryan made absolutely clear that he is not now and never was interested in deficit...