Monday Open Thread [12.8.14]

The New York Times revealed yesterday that an “unprecedented, secretive alliance” between Republican state attorneys general and energy companies has been formed to thwart the laws of the United States and regulations imposed on these companies by the EPA and OSHA. This is not at all surprising, and if you are surprised, then you have been criminally negligent in not paying attention. Of course energy companies have Republican elected officials in their pocket, doing their bidding. All the Times report did yesterday was make what was an allegation into a indisputable fact.

Meanwhile, Charles M. Blow opines about a New Age of Activism in America:

There seems to be a new age of activism rising. From Occupy Wall Street, to the “Stop Watching Us” march against government surveillance, to the Moral Monday protests, to the People’s Climate March, to the recent nationwide protests over the killings of men and boys of color by police, there is obviously a discontent in this country that is pouring into the streets.

And yet much of it confounds and frustrates existing concepts of what movements should look like. Much does not fit neatly into the confines of conventional politics or the structures of traditional power.

It’s often diffuse. It’s often organic and largely leaderless. It’s often about a primary event but also myriad secondary ones. It is, in a way, a social network approach to social justice, not so much captain-orchestrated as crowd-sourced, people sharing, following and liking their way to consensus and collective consciousness.

“The incoming Republican majority in Congress is preparing to give number-crunching a controversial twist, and the new math could make it easier for the GOP to cut taxes,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

“Budget scoring now is fairly straightforward: Just figure out how much more money a tax increase would produce for the Treasury or how much a tax cut would cost in lost revenue. Republicans, however, want two key congressional offices to use complex models to try to predict the broader effect of hikes and cuts on the economy. The process is called dynamic scoring.”

So, if you can’t make the math work, you change the math. I wish my checkbook worked that way.