Jun 4, 2013
New roof going in at the World Broadcasting Headquarters, so pardon the background thumping. Josh Barro and Erick Erickson get in a slapfight and we get to watch. Greg Dworkin rounds the day's news up, beginning with a strange exemplar of the Freedom vs. safety debate in the comments section of a Washington Post article about road safety enforcement in DC neighborhoods. Next, polling says basically no move in Obama approval rating, despite wild gyrations from Republicans over the so-called "scandals." The Republicans finally get their culture war, and it's against themselves. Armando called in to discuss Republican rebranding and outreach, patent trolling, and the release of legislative and executive action priorities for dealing with high-tech patent issues. Afterward, by listener request, we looked at the "Moral Monday" protests at the North Carolina state capitol, its implications for social justice, and democracy more broadly. Finally, we read David Cay Johnston's latest, "Inequality Rising--All Thanks to Government Policies," and drew a few parallels between how patent trolls do their rent-seeking and how it's done the "Bain Way," both facilitated by the kind of gaming of the system Johnston points out, and our political and governing processes can't help but encourage.