Friday, August 31, 2012
Stupid Stuff That Doesn't Much Matter
For a long time I held the press to their Clinton and Gore precedents. The former meant that the private lives of politicians were public, and anything remotely scandalous was fair game. The latter meant that minor bits of dishonesty or exaggeration were, in fact, a Big Fucking Deal. But I don't think either of those things should hold anymore. Instead we should give people a bit more privacy, absent gross hypocrisy, and try to remember that there are more important things than potential fibs about marathon times.
Strange People
Really can't comprehend how campaign insiders (from either team) talk to the press about this stuff.
It doesn't help the campaign, and given anonymity it serves no purpose other than the aides defending themselves to reporters. I didn't do it!
TAMPA, Fla. — Clint Eastwood’s rambling and off-color endorsement of Mitt Romney on Thursday seemed to startle and unsettle even the candidate’s own top aides, several of whom made a point of distancing themselves from the decision to put him onstage without a polished script.
“Not me,” said an exasperated-looking senior adviser, when asked who was responsible for Mr. Eastwood’s speech. In late-night interviews, aides variously called the speech “strange” and “weird.” One described it as “theater of the absurd.”
Finger-pointing quickly ensued, suggesting real displeasure and even confusion over the handling of Mr. Eastwood’s performance, which was kept secret until the last minute.
It doesn't help the campaign, and given anonymity it serves no purpose other than the aides defending themselves to reporters. I didn't do it!
Condescending Mansplaining
What you do is VERY IMPORTANT little lady, now go fix me a sammich.
Generally we have the conservative "rich women should stay at home for the sake of the children, and poor women should work" worldview.
Generally we have the conservative "rich women should stay at home for the sake of the children, and poor women should work" worldview.
American Justice
Priorities.
I'm sure the child's welfare will be well served if they lock up her parents.
Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman brought criminal charges Thursday against a couple who allegedly enrolled their child in the Lower Moreland Township School District when they lived in Philadelphia.
Hamlet and Olesia Garcia were charged with theft of services and conspiracy to commit theft of services. Tuition payments for an out-of-district child attending the Lower Moreland schools would have cost $10,753 a year, Ferman said.
I'm sure the child's welfare will be well served if they lock up her parents.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Seduction
I actually think we should take more seriously than we tend to these days the idea that teens are actually interested in sex and might be open to relationships with adults, whatever legal impediments we think are appropriate to put between those relationships.* But, uh, no, 14-year-olds aren't seducing their priests, and eve if they were trying to it's reasonable to expect moral authorities to show a bit of moral authority.
*Not endorsing such relationships, I just think we've become so freaked out about teen sexuality that we pretend it doesn't exist. Even if we deny them agency in a legal sense, it doesn't mean they have zero agency.
*Not endorsing such relationships, I just think we've become so freaked out about teen sexuality that we pretend it doesn't exist. Even if we deny them agency in a legal sense, it doesn't mean they have zero agency.
On Teevee
I think the existence of gay people on TV really has changed everything. I grew up in a world without gay people. They basically did not exist in popular culture. Reagan and the AIDS era slammed the barely cracked closet door shut. I don't think I knew an out to me gay person until I was 25 or so. I'm not saying I didn't know anybody who was gay. There were certainly plenty of people who were gay and I just didn't know it. There were also a few who I knew were gay, and who were "out" in the sense that they didn't go to to extreme lengths to hide it, but they didn't invite me to gay bars or introduce me to their significant others.
I was a relatively enlightened person on this subject, but I'm not going to claim I was perfectly enlightened back then. I don't think I was homophobic, quite, and intellectually I was certainly in support of legal equality, to the extent that I understood what that entailed at the time, but still the fact is I didn't really know any gay people and didn't see them on the teevee. They were alien and different.
I was a relatively enlightened person on this subject, but I'm not going to claim I was perfectly enlightened back then. I don't think I was homophobic, quite, and intellectually I was certainly in support of legal equality, to the extent that I understood what that entailed at the time, but still the fact is I didn't really know any gay people and didn't see them on the teevee. They were alien and different.
Truth Is The Devil's Volleyball
I'm not one who thinks that political rhetoric needs to robbed of all color. There's room for hyperbole and exaggeration, for anecdotes which aren't quite literally true, and of course for humor. All of these things might bend the truth a bit, but they can be used without any real intent to deceive. Not every slight deviation from the truth makes you a liar. Still it's perfectly fair for the press to point out if, for example, Joe Biden says, "Mitt Romney literally makes 400 gazillion dollars per month," that such a statement is not, in fact, true. But it's a different kind of falsehood - humorous exaggeration combined with a nonsense word and Biden's regular abuse of the word "literally" - than falsehoods which are really meant to deceive people.
Protecting Medicare
They haven't really made a secret of the fact that protecting Medicare, to them, means protecting it for the current olds by destroying it for everybody else.
Obviously they'd destroy it for the current olds, too, but they rightly imagine that might make it hard for them to get elected.
Obviously they'd destroy it for the current olds, too, but they rightly imagine that might make it hard for them to get elected.
Chastening
Uh, Bill? Has Condi ever said a single thing suggesting regret?
She blew up the world, with the help of your newspaper.
Rice has the pedigree and the chastening experience to present a more sophisticated and more temperate Republican take on the world. And Wednesday night she did so.
She blew up the world, with the help of your newspaper.
The Majestic Dignity of the Fox News Contributor
Good Grief.
This is soooo fucking sexist.
"I am the type of man that any woman -- corporate executive or not -- would be proud to present as her husband."
My wife and I have dined with Mitt Romney. I have met Ann. They are very nice people.Juan Williams said that. All right.
She is a very real person who has faced all of the struggles that attend to being a wife, a mother and a cancer survivor. She is an attractive, energetic and engaging presence on the campaign trail. She is the type of woman that any man - corporate executive or not - would be proud to present as his wife.
This is soooo fucking sexist.
"I am the type of man that any woman -- corporate executive or not -- would be proud to present as her husband."
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
An Irrelevant Interest Group
We should be suspicious of these people who are interested in "checking" these "facts."
Blitzer: So there he is, the republican vice presidential nominee and his beautiful family there. His mom is up there. This is exactly what this crowd of republicans here certainly republicans all across the country were hoping for. He delivered a powerful speech. Erin, a powerful speech. Although I marked seven or eight points I’m sure the fact checkers will have some opportunities to dispute if they want to go forward, I’m sure they will. As far as mitt romney’s campaign is concerned, paul ryan on this night delivered.
Burnett: That’s right. Certainly so. We were jotting down points. There will be issues with some of the facts. But it motivated people. He’s a man who says I care deeply about every single word. I want to do a good job. And he delivered on that. Precise, clear, and passionate.
I really don't know what they think they're for.
Autumn Of Suck
So we have the clown conventions, and then the election, and the lame duck session where we might discover it only takes 51 senators to pass things after all, as long as those things are horrible things.
Maybe I need a new hobby.
Maybe I need a new hobby.
You Stupids Let The Machine Brainwash You
Awesome.
Don't be so stupid this time, stupids!
Romney said her “importance in speaking out is making sure that those coalitions,” referring to women and Hispanic voters, “that would naturally be voting for another party wake up and say, You’d better really look at the issues this time.”
“You’d better really look at your future and figure out who’s going to be the guy that’s going to make it better for you and your children, and there is only one answer,” Mrs. Romney said, giving a harsher pitch than we usually hear from the woman who wants to be the next first lady.
“It really is a message that would resonate well if they could just get past some of their biases that have been there from the Democratic machines that have made us look like we don’t care about this community,” Romney said. “And that is not true. We very much care about you and your families and the opportunities that are there for you and your families.”
Don't be so stupid this time, stupids!
Dumb Ideas
The Parkway is a pretty crap place for concerts. It makes a bit of sense for free shows. It's a public space, open it to the public. It makes little sense otherwise. Move it to the stadium.
There Is No Recovery
You destroyed it because you're the stupidest fucking person on the face of the planet.
George Osborne has responded coolly to a plan from Nick Clegg to impose an emergency levy upon Britain's wealthiest, warning it would endanger economic recovery.
Modern Slavery
I suppose we can be thankful that it lacks the explicit racial link.
He's smart, funny, amusing, eccentric in that upper class twit affected eccentricity way, but Boris Johnson probably is the worst person in the world.
Young Londoners joining the dole queue will be forced to work unpaid for three months or lose their benefits under a new scheme announced by mayor of London Boris Johnson and the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).
Funded from the European social fund, 6,000 Londoners aged 18-24 in 16 boroughs will be made to do 13 weeks' unpaid work as a condition of claiming their £56-a-week benefit if they have contributed less than six months of national insurance payments.
He's smart, funny, amusing, eccentric in that upper class twit affected eccentricity way, but Boris Johnson probably is the worst person in the world.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
The Art Of The Hissy Fit
There's this thing going around where the Romney camapaign has said "facts? we don't care about facts. Nothing you can do journalists!" And the journalists are like oh noes! He has used his kryptonite on our truthtelling superpower! There is nothing we can do now! Must... surrender....
When the press wants to throw a giant hissy fit over a lie, or quite often something they just pretend is a lie, they are quite capable of doing it. For weeks.
When the press wants to throw a giant hissy fit over a lie, or quite often something they just pretend is a lie, they are quite capable of doing it. For weeks.
Net Nanny
I get that Facebook has declared themselves to be a Net Nanny - with various rules about postings and photos that are and aren't appropriate - but I don't know why people want them to be net nannies.
The walled gardens will continue to grow on the internets.
The walled gardens will continue to grow on the internets.
It's Working!!!
Paradise will be achieved as soon as they fire a few more people.
Spain’s recession worsened in the second quarter as the government’s austerity push to reduce the euro area’s third-biggest budget deficit and a slump in consumer spending offset growth in exports.
Gross domestic product fell 0.4 percent from the previous quarter, when it declined 0.3 percent, the Madrid-based National Statistics Institute said today
City Asset Sales I Can Believe In
I won't say there's no reason for the city to be in the municipal garage business, but I don't think there are especially important reasons. Basically the reason would be to provide a kind of parking at subsidized rates that the market wouldn't provide, such as expensive to create underground parking. I'm all for the expensive to create underground parking, if we must have parking, but I don't really see a problem with selling it either. Just, you know, sell it for what it's actually worth.
Pay Them
I've known lots of presumably good liberals who were uncomfortable about hiring certain kinds of household help (the "women's work" kind) based on the notion that such people are exploited. Well, no, they're only exploited if you pay them a crap wage. More than that, all of the products you buy or external services you procure which are cheap are cheap in large part because they're being paid, by someone else directly, but you indirectly, a crap wage.
If you wish to and can afford to hire a housekeeper or nanny or anything similar...Just pay them well. Such jobs are only bad jobs if people pay crap wages. Unlike many other areas of the economy, you actually have the power to treat them and pay them well. Nothing wrong with that.
If you wish to and can afford to hire a housekeeper or nanny or anything similar...Just pay them well. Such jobs are only bad jobs if people pay crap wages. Unlike many other areas of the economy, you actually have the power to treat them and pay them well. Nothing wrong with that.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Still Snarlin'
Certainly I am not his biggest fan, or a fan at all, but there are a few things to respect about Arlen Specter. This post is in present tense, but I imagine this is the hint that the end is coming.
Just Add Some Cherry Syrup
mmmm......slushy......
The average annual minimum area from 1979 to 2010 was 6.29 million square kilometers. Arctic temperatures from June through mid-August were 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) to 3 degrees Celsius warmer than in a typical year.
“It used to be that the Arctic ice cover was a huge block of ice -- it melted from the edges -- but now it’s more like crushed ice,” he said. “Parts of the Arctic have become like a giant slushy.”
Conservatives And Rape
I decided there are basically three issues. First, they can never really seem to grasp the concept of 'consent.' Second, they tend to lump rape together with having unapproved sex generally. Third, for reasons which escape me, a lot of them seem to really really fear having someone "falsely" accuse them of rape.
SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP
If they call it Medicare, it's Medicare, and no one is allowed to say otherwise.
On Your Lawn Jammin' Your Tubes
Not really a response into anything in particular, but.. Dear Old People (and this includes me), the kids today are not hip to your cultural references. This is not a failure of education. Things change. The end.
Repeats
I just saw on the twitter that Soledad O'Brien and Anderson Cooper are headed to New Orleans.
Not saying this is the wrong thing, but one really weird thing about cable news is their desire for repeats. The Gulf War I, OJ, Impeachment, and, yes, Katrina, were the big stories that gave them their raison d'être.
Not saying this is the wrong thing, but one really weird thing about cable news is their desire for repeats. The Gulf War I, OJ, Impeachment, and, yes, Katrina, were the big stories that gave them their raison d'être.
Knob
I'd be unlikely to support any legal restrictions on publishing things - including bell end pix - about clearly public figures, but I also think "respectable publications" (if such things exist) should, you know, respect the value of their own editorial judgment....
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Message
The GOP story, with more or less emphasis depending on the year, is that the Dems take "your" hard-earned money and give it to black people.
Dems have too often thought that the best response was to cut things.
The right response is to give, and to make it clear you're giving, the goodies to everyone.
Dems have too often thought that the best response was to cut things.
The right response is to give, and to make it clear you're giving, the goodies to everyone.
Village Party
Attended the 2004 and 2008 DNC conventions. I have no idea why 15,000 journalists show up to these things. I'm not anti-convention, anti-convention coverage, or anti-people going to the convention, but there's really no reason for local, national, and international organizations to spend that much money sending people to cover these things. It's just a cool kids club event.
In exchange for a bit of blogging for a publication last time around I scored an extra credential for Mrs. A. The "real journalist" sent by that publication was horrified, and said, basically, that some poor journalist really could have used that. Give me a break. Point camera at podium, gossip about which celebrities are there, and hit the bars early. There was no need for one more journalist to be there. There isn't any news.
In exchange for a bit of blogging for a publication last time around I scored an extra credential for Mrs. A. The "real journalist" sent by that publication was horrified, and said, basically, that some poor journalist really could have used that. Give me a break. Point camera at podium, gossip about which celebrities are there, and hit the bars early. There was no need for one more journalist to be there. There isn't any news.
"Employee Training"
I think we all know how absurd that is.
But unlike any other Atlantic City casino, the nonunion Revel received more than $300 million in state assistance to get built - including $2.6 million for employee training - on the premise that it would create thousands of jobs and tax revenue for Atlantic City and the state.
Image
Great to correct the record, but exactly where did the working class image of a guy that nobody out of DC had heard of 2 weeks ago come from?
To many in our press these days, being less rich than Mitt Romney makes you "working class."
Examples like that have helped Ryan, soon-to-be the GOP's vice presidential nominee, burnish his credentials as a youthful working-class guy.
"I don't know about you, but when I was growing up, when I was flipping burgers at McDonald's, when I was standing in front of that big Hobart machine washing dishes, or waiting tables, I never thought of myself as stuck in some station in life," Ryan recently told a crowd at a high school in suburban Denver. "I thought to myself, I'm the American dream on the path or journey so that I can find happiness however I define it myself."
It drew big applause.
And yet Ryan, 42, was born into one of the most prominent families in Janesville, Wis., the son of a successful attorney and the grandson of the top federal prosecutor for the western region of the state. Ryan grew up in a big Colonial house on a wooded lot, and his extended clan includes investment managers, corporate executives and owners of major construction companies.
To many in our press these days, being less rich than Mitt Romney makes you "working class."
Libertarian Aesthetics
Libertarian aesthetics, pithily summarized.
But the job of a film is not to have a consistently logical argument. It is to make that argument persuasively, and 2016 does so with emotional and narrative power.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Centrists
Hey, Digby! They're not liberals. As Eric Laursen pointed out to me in a phone conversation, these people fetishize deficit reduction. At this moment in time, that's nuts. But that's what the President and his team advocate. A Grand Bargain with Social Security and Medicare on Teh Table.
You might want to give your elected officials a call on this issue. Outside of the fucking Beltway, there is pretty clear consensus that the government should keep its hands offa our Social Security and Medicare. You might want to remind them of that.
You might want to give your elected officials a call on this issue. Outside of the fucking Beltway, there is pretty clear consensus that the government should keep its hands offa our Social Security and Medicare. You might want to remind them of that.
Need To Poll "People Who Corbett Will Let Vote"
Election day is going to be a clusterfuck here.
Ten weeks before the election, a voter poll commissioned by The Inquirer finds President Obama leading Republican rival Mitt Romney by a significant margin in Pennsylvania, raising the question of whether the Keystone State is up for grabs on Nov. 6.
The Inquirer Pennsylvania Poll, led by a bipartisan team of top political analysts, concluded that if the election were held now, Obama would win the state by nine percentage points - 51-42 - with 7 percent of voters undecided.
Whatever Isn't Nailed Down
We are in the grifter economy.
And the Vulgamore came to Philly and spent millions of dollars to put the orchestra into bankruptcy.
While the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra built up a projected $19.8 million in accumulated debt over the past decade, the salaries of its top executives have doubled and even tripled since 2007.
According to 990 forms submitted to the Internal Revenue Service by the Woodruff Arts Center, the salaries of all top Woodruff officials dramatically increased in 2008, including ASO executives. The compensation package for then-ASO President and CEO Allison Vulgamore, for example, went from $248,267 in 2007 to $553,294 in 2008.
And the Vulgamore came to Philly and spent millions of dollars to put the orchestra into bankruptcy.
Friday, August 24, 2012
In Theory They Are Well-Trained
A small look at what would happen in the fantasy "everybody has a gun" world.
9 people were shot by the cops. It's quite possible that they did everything right here, except failing to be perfect marksmen. My point is not to criticize them, just to highlight the reality of what happens when several people pull out guns and start shooting them in crowded places.
Mr. Johnson, the commissioner said, was carrying a .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun “in a bag under his arm.” It had a capacity of eight bullets, officials said, adding that Mr. Johnson had fired three at Mr. Ercolino, who was apparently a vice president at Hazan Imports. Mr. Bloomberg said Mr. Johnson pulled out his gun “and tried to shoot the cops and kill the cops.”
“They returned fire,” the mayor added. A law enforcement official said later on Friday that Mr. Johnson did not fire his weapon.
9 people were shot by the cops. It's quite possible that they did everything right here, except failing to be perfect marksmen. My point is not to criticize them, just to highlight the reality of what happens when several people pull out guns and start shooting them in crowded places.
Since Real Reporters Are Either Too "Polite" Or Too Stupid
The birther stuff is rooted in racism. The end.
WOOHOO!!!!
Apologists said the numbers would be revised upwards, and now they've been proved fucking right.
GDP fell by 0.5% between April and June compared with the previous quarter, according to the Office for National Statistics. The figure, which was in line with economists' expectations, was revised from the 0.7% decline statisticians had estimated last month.
However, the economy has been shrinking for three consecutive quarters in the country's second recession in four years. Bleak business surveys suggest it is unlikely to improve quickly, while the Bank of England estimates growth to be at a standstill for this year. GDP is at about the same level as it was in the middle of 2010, so growth has been broadly flat over the last two years, the ONS said. Output is still more than 4% below its pre- recession peak at the start of 2008.
Stay Classy, Rusty
I thought we were supposed to wait several weeks before politicizing gun tragedies.
Mayor Tony
I'd vote for him if I lived there!
Cities do need fewer cars. I'm not really anti-car in the sense of wanting to have major sticks to discourage their use. Cars are useful things and even in urban hellholes many people want and basically need them. But they really are the enemy of good urban living.
“I’m of a certain age, and you see things, and you think maybe you could help,” Danza said. “You say: ‘Let me fix the city. Let me run for Mayor.’”
Danza made the comments while mingling outside the premiere of the new Joseph Gordon-Levitt film “Premium Rush,” wearing an NYPD T-shirt with a sports jacket. Over the past few months, Danza has become a regular presence at movie premieres, theatre openings, and other media events, befriending celebrities and reporters.
The actor, a self-described “real user of mass transit” who took out his tattered MetroCard to prove it, explained some of his potential policies: “We need less cars,” he said.”I support the bike-share program. And rollerblades – I’m a skater. You can’t even take a cab from 50th to 70th street now. If it was up to me, I’d go for the congestion price,” he said, referring to Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal for charging city drivers more.
Cities do need fewer cars. I'm not really anti-car in the sense of wanting to have major sticks to discourage their use. Cars are useful things and even in urban hellholes many people want and basically need them. But they really are the enemy of good urban living.
Sometimes They Know More Than What They Say
Of course people at CNN know the guy at the top of the ticket, or his people, are responsible for the party platform.
The Worst Person In The World
Governor Corbett.
The Corbett administration has cut funding for a Philadelphia program nationally lauded as the "gold standard" for helping disabled homeless people get federal benefits.
On May 31, the state's Department of Public Welfare gave Philadelphia's Homeless Advocacy Project one month's notice that it was eliminating $722,000 used to help obtain Supplemental Security Income (SSI) money for homeless or near-homeless people who had exceeded their five-year limit for welfare benefits.
Mid-Morning, Good Morning
A bit of Echidne goes nicely with that second cuppa. Wish she had happier things to blog about, but I'll take what I can get.
Grumble and dance
Listen to KagroX and Jay Ackroyd on voting and vote suppression.
More on that subject with Ari Berman and Sam Seder on The Majority Report
And the only possible follow-up to the video below is, of course, this.
More on that subject with Ari Berman and Sam Seder on The Majority Report
And the only possible follow-up to the video below is, of course, this.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
They Could Give Me Free Money And I Might Buy Some Of It
Free money for everyone!
GUANGZHOU, China — After three decades of torrid growth, China is encountering an unfamiliar problem with its newly struggling economy: a huge buildup of unsold goods that is cluttering shop floors, clogging car dealerships and filling factory warehouses.
Pretty Drunk
Do not do this.
SPOKANE, Wash. -
Ambassador Ryan Crocker, one of the most decorated State Department diplomats in the last half century, was arrested on August 14 by the Washington State Patrol for hit-and-run and DUI in Spokane Valley.
...
Crocker was pulled over, received a field sobriety test from a WSP trooper and had a .16 BAC on one test, which is twice the legal limit in Washington State. Another test indicated a .152 BAC.
Young And Hip
"The Kids" (roughly anyone under 25) think everyone over 30 is about one step away from a nursing home.
Unclaimed Income
Spread the news to your musician friends that there could be money out there for them...
The Interview Standard
Since one can't have an informed opinion about Paul Ryan without having interviewed him, it might be prudent not to vote for him. At least not until you have a chance to interview him.
Is There A Bigger Asshole Grifter On The Planet
Probably not.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Pastor Rick Warren says he's canceled plans for a "civil forum" featuring the presidential candidates because their campaign is so uncivil.
Neither the Obama campaign nor the Romney campaign says their candidate had committed to appearing at the forum at Warren's Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., near Los Angeles. The forum had been planned for this week.
And Here
I've been pushing for the Fed to do more, if for no other reason than being appalled that they're sociopaths for not trying to do more, but their methods really haven't done more than goose financial asset prices and improve the health of the banksters.
All of us econ grad students learned of crazy "helicopter drops" back in the day, but a helicopter drop isn't actually any more crazy than "give free money to the banksters."
We need a helicopter drop. Give free money to the rest of us.
The richest 5% of Britons have been the biggest winners from the Bank of England's attempts to lift the economy out of recession by creating electronic money, the Bank has said.
But in a defence of the £375bn programme of asset sales since 2009, the Bank said that quantitative easing had spared the UK from an even deeper slump.
All of us econ grad students learned of crazy "helicopter drops" back in the day, but a helicopter drop isn't actually any more crazy than "give free money to the banksters."
We need a helicopter drop. Give free money to the rest of us.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
They Gave The Good Benefits To All The Other Poors
I puzzled over this Craig T. Nelson comment, which a Wonkette commenter just reminded me of, thinking that he couldn't possible be so stupid as to not see food stamps and welfare as someone, specifically The Government, helping him out.
And now I realize it's just another example of this. We all know about all those undeserving people collecting government benefits, spending it on lobster and liquor, driving around in their Cadillacs, thrilled that they will never have to consider working for a single moment in their entire lives.
But Nelson was on food stamps and welfare, and presumably it sucked, because being on food stamps and welfare has always sucked. Nobody helped him by giving him the good benefits all those other people were getting. Food stamps and welfare weren't help - they were barely enough for sustenance - why didn't he get the help?
I've been on food stamps and welfare, did anybody help me out? No. No.
And now I realize it's just another example of this. We all know about all those undeserving people collecting government benefits, spending it on lobster and liquor, driving around in their Cadillacs, thrilled that they will never have to consider working for a single moment in their entire lives.
But Nelson was on food stamps and welfare, and presumably it sucked, because being on food stamps and welfare has always sucked. Nobody helped him by giving him the good benefits all those other people were getting. Food stamps and welfare weren't help - they were barely enough for sustenance - why didn't he get the help?
Uh, Guardian?
Pretty sure Bradrocket was making an over the top funny about this. 5 years ago.
Hey, but at least he doesn’t use filthy language. That makes him a perfect candidate to be a regular columnist at Time.
Next step, presumably.
As It's Always Been
Obama is taking money from hard working white people and giving it to undeserving minorities.
One good trick they've pulled over the years is to convince everybody that our ungenerous welfare state is much more generous than it is. In a long recession like this, more people find themselves getting various kinds of state aid - unemployment, food stamps, etc... - and they find that these things are not very generous at all. But they know that all those black people are getting the good benefits, because it's true!
Also, too.
One good trick they've pulled over the years is to convince everybody that our ungenerous welfare state is much more generous than it is. In a long recession like this, more people find themselves getting various kinds of state aid - unemployment, food stamps, etc... - and they find that these things are not very generous at all. But they know that all those black people are getting the good benefits, because it's true!
Also, too.
Wasting Seafood
If I were a high flying jayyyuuub creeeeaaaytin' entrepreneur instead of a lazy blogger, I'd work on establishing a high quality branded frozen fish/seafood operation. That stuff's expensive largely because of spoilage and we waste a lot of it. Frozen fish can be good, and for some fish it's actually preferable, but we seem to lack a trusted brand.
We're All Hacks
I think academics can (not that they necessarily do) keep their "serious academic" hat on in their role as academics, but once they move into other spheres, like the messy business of politics, they're just hacks like we all are. On a narrow policy question there might be reason to hear what an economist has to say, especially if they manage to keep their serious academic hat on, but there's no more reason to listen to an economist on "who to vote for" than there is for "how to fix your car."
Footnotes
Krugman:
Does Bobo do this? Maureen effin' Dowd?
And, Art, dude, you should say something to the opinion editors like "Why aren't these links in the online edition of these articles?"
That’s how it works at the Times, or at least how it works for me. I supply a list of sources with each column submission; for yesterday’s piece it looked like this:
$4.3 trillion: http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/numbers/displayatab.cfm?Docid=3301&DocTypeID=5 lines 2, 3 and 5
Ryan cuts:
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3723
(I count his Medicaid cuts relative to current policy, not policy including Obamacare)
Disproportionate benefits at top: http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/numbers/displayatab.cfm?Docid=3337&DocTypeID=2
Ryan award: http://www.thefiscys.com/content/sen-kent-conrad-rep-paul-ryan-and-gov-mitch-daniels-named-2011-fiscy-award-recipients
Baseline: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-ryan-20120817,0,1246452.story
Does Bobo do this? Maureen effin' Dowd?
And, Art, dude, you should say something to the opinion editors like "Why aren't these links in the online edition of these articles?"
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Crazy Ideas
Yes this is a crazy idea. I'm not anti-tax, but I am actually anti-proliferation of taxes, taxing authorities, and collections and enforcement mechanisms.
If we want people to expect future price increases, the fed should commit to higher inflation.
If we want people to expect future price increases, the fed should commit to higher inflation.
In It To Win It
Akin's staying huzzah.
Because the point is lost, the word "legitimate" was the hook, but the real offense is his belief that if you get pregnant after being raped it means you liked it.
Because the point is lost, the word "legitimate" was the hook, but the real offense is his belief that if you get pregnant after being raped it means you liked it.
You Have A Very Interesting Newsletter That I Would Like To Subscribe To
When elite media publications with (deserved or not) reputations built over decades cease to even be interested in whether or not they're communicating true enough information to their readers, what exactly is their reason to be?
Yesterday their PR flack actually emailed me about Ferguson's response to Krugman. I just emailed back that they're both (the PR flack and Ferguson) idiots.
Yesterday their PR flack actually emailed me about Ferguson's response to Krugman. I just emailed back that they're both (the PR flack and Ferguson) idiots.
It's Working!!! It's Working!!!
Austerity isn't achieving it's own proclaimed goals.
Well it has achieved the goal of low government borrowing rates, but that's because the economy sucks.
Public sector finances suffered from a 20 per cent fall in corporation tax receipts from business while public spending rose by 5 per cent, fuelled by higher benefit payments.
Overall public sector net borrowing came in at £600 million in July, compared with a surplus of £2.8 billion in the same month last year. City's expectations had been for a surplus of £2.5 billion.
Public sector net debt now stands at above £1 trillion, compared to £940 billion a year ago, and represents 65.7 per cent of the UK's GDP, up from 61.8 per cent last year.
Well it has achieved the goal of low government borrowing rates, but that's because the economy sucks.
And They Aren't Very Bright, At Least About Politics
Ed Kilgore:
It's quite possible persuadable true swing independent voters are, in fact, the people campaigns need to target (as opposed to mobilizing base voters to actually vote). I don't have any special knowledge about that. But it is fascinating that our punditocracy, who claim expertise about politics, strive to pretend to represent the people who have the least expertise.
I'm not insulting these people. It's fine to be a bit stupid about politics. There are limited hours in the day, after all.
Ed's wrong on one thing: fearing big changes in entitlement programs has no representation in the chattering classes.
For what it’s worth, the “true swing independent” voters seem to have a lot of the characteristics that Beltway Pundits so often ascribe to independents generally, or to swing voters generally, or indeed, to that great abstraction “the American people:” they don’t like partisanship, they wish the parties would compromise, they’re worried about the deficit, they don’t much like big changes in the entitlement programs, they’re moderate on social issues and conservative on fiscal issues, etc., etc. There just aren’t a whole lot of them. But Lord-a-mercy, they sure have a lot of representation in the chattering classes!
It's quite possible persuadable true swing independent voters are, in fact, the people campaigns need to target (as opposed to mobilizing base voters to actually vote). I don't have any special knowledge about that. But it is fascinating that our punditocracy, who claim expertise about politics, strive to pretend to represent the people who have the least expertise.
I'm not insulting these people. It's fine to be a bit stupid about politics. There are limited hours in the day, after all.
Ed's wrong on one thing: fearing big changes in entitlement programs has no representation in the chattering classes.
Modern Hellhole Horrors
Unfathomable indignities.
“The personal anecdotes I’ve heard have to do with elderly relatives coming to visit, or driving into the neighborhood, and having to park a block or two away, and/or fears about that.”
Guarantee
I first thought the Ryan nomination would make it easier for the Democratic leadership to put together their "grand bargain" (funny--fucking the little people is "grand") to cut Social Security. I figured it would make Democratic partisans more likely to believe the best we could do is what the President, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi could hash out behind closed doors, rather than standing behind one of the most successful government programs in American history.
But it looks like hanging Social Security cuts on the Republicans is irresistible. I still fear the lame duck session, and the first year of an Obama second term, but Biden has provided an accountability moment.
You might want to give your elected officials a call when they get back to "work."
But it looks like hanging Social Security cuts on the Republicans is irresistible. I still fear the lame duck session, and the first year of an Obama second term, but Biden has provided an accountability moment.
You might want to give your elected officials a call when they get back to "work."
Monday, August 20, 2012
"Men's Basketball And Football Do Not Use The Service"
I can't comprehend that people actually contemplate, let alone implement, these types of things.
Simple Misunderstandings
Akin clarifies his remarks at The Onion.
You see, what I said was, “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” But what I meant to say was, “I am a worthless, moronic sack of shit and an utterly irredeemable human being who needs to shut up and go away forever.”
It is clear to me now that I did not choose my words with care and did not get across the point I was trying to convey. In hindsight, I guess instead of using the words “legitimate rape,” I should have used the words “I am an unforgivable, unrepentant, and unconscionable subhuman dickhead.” Or better yet, “I am an evil, fucked-up man who should never have been elected to the United States Congress, and anyone who would vote for me is probably a pretty big fucking dumbshit, too.” See how much more sense that makes? It’s amazing how a few key word changes can totally alter the meaning of a statement.
I'm Starting To Think This Global Warming Crap Is Real
Like every member of the professional left, I have for years been helping to perpetuate this global warming stuff. I was never quite sure why, but I figured Soros must have a cunning plan in there somewhere.
Who needs large navigable waterways anyway.
Who needs large navigable waterways anyway.
How About Asking For More Free Money From PRESIDENT CHRISTIE
That'd probably work.
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - Less than five months after opening with distressingly low revenues, Atlantic City's newest casino is seeking some breathing room from its lenders.
Following a slow start out of the gate and a $35 million operating loss, Revel is asking its lenders to increase the amount of credit it can draw on.
So Many Kinds Of Rape
People on the twitter are helpfully informing me that there is something called statutory rape which is different than rape. This is true. That's why we refer to rape as "rape" and statutory rape as "statutory rape." We do not need draw a distinction by providing additional modifiers like "forcible" or "legitimate."
And there's no magic sperm shield that prevents pregnancy if the sex is not wanted.
And there's no magic sperm shield that prevents pregnancy if the sex is not wanted.
Hiding The Poors
What's actually maddening to me is that if they want to make the Parkway a more tourist friendly place, sweeping away the poors is lower on the list than ceasing to construct buildings with their backs to it.
HAHAHAHAHAHA
I don't think Bill is trying to be funny here, but such a question or anything resembling it will not be asked.
The administration had money to spend to do something about housing. They didn't do it. They chose to help the banks instead, though in my opinion helping homeowners would have been a good way to help the banks, too.
Cramdowns in bankruptcy are still an appropriate policy, and hopefully the candidates will be asked in the debates about what policies they will pursue to help the unemployed and to address foreclosures - and be asked specifically about cramdowns.
The administration had money to spend to do something about housing. They didn't do it. They chose to help the banks instead, though in my opinion helping homeowners would have been a good way to help the banks, too.
Oh Lordy The Conventions Are Almost Here
I'm not anti-convention even if they are just theater, but when 15,000 journalists show up to cover an event which should be covered by pointing a camera at the podium and turning it on, feel free to roll your eyes at the cries of anguish about declining journalism budgets.
Anti-Stimulus
Two years of anti-stimulus.
I'm sure our Galtian Overlords will discover the joys of Some Kinds Of Government Spending right about the time a Republican is elected president. The only question is whether all of their businesses will be bankrupt first.
I'm sure our Galtian Overlords will discover the joys of Some Kinds Of Government Spending right about the time a Republican is elected president. The only question is whether all of their businesses will be bankrupt first.
Let's Focus On Their Smiles
Frequently we see political reporters be seemingly shocked when right wing assholes express things that right wing assholes frequently express. The whole "rape doesn't lead to pregnancy" idea isn't anything new. It's a pretty standard trope from anti-abortion nutters. Do these people even pay attention?
Late Night
I, for one, approve of the fact that Politico is charitable jobs program for people with no discernible skills.
Sunday, August 19, 2012
"Massive State Subsidies"
For a casino. That can't make money even with the subsidies.
ATLANTIC CITY - Revel has failed thus far to grow the gambling market here, and despite massive state subsidies it is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.We are ruled by the worst people in the world.
I Suppose We'd Better Invade Again
Ungrateful wogs.
WASHINGTON — When President Obama announced last month that he was barring a Baghdad bank from any dealings with the American banking system, it was a rare acknowledgment of a delicate problem facing the administration in a country that American troops just left: for months, Iraq has been helping Iran skirt economic sanctions imposed on Tehran because of its nuclear program.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Really Not So Cute
Bosses really really should resist the temptation to poke their noses into the romantic lives of the people who work for them.
Shut Up And Sing
The best of us.
Hank Williams Jr. played to a crowd of nearly 8,500 Saturday night at the Iowa State Fair Grandstand Friday night. Criticism of President Barack Obama last year lead to ESPN dropping Williams’ “Monday Night Football” theme song after 22 years. Williams shot barbs at Obama, ESPN and “Fox & Friends” in his opening song “Keep the Change” before launching into “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight,” the basis for the “MNF” theme.
...
“We’ve got a Muslim president who hates farming, hates the military, hates the US and we hate him!”
PRESIDENT CHRIS CHRISTIE
Heckuva job.
Unsurprisingly the plan is... wait for it... wait for it...
tax cuts.
TRENTON, N.J. (CBS) – New Jersey tax revenues are below what the Christie Administration had expected for the month of July, which could mean trouble for the state budget as well as proposed tax cuts.
The Governor’s office expected the state to take in $322 million last month. The take was more like $304 million.
Unsurprisingly the plan is... wait for it... wait for it...
tax cuts.
Friday, August 17, 2012
Why Am I Watching The News Late At Night
ABC just informed me that "counterfeits" cost the US Economy TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY BILLION DOLLARS and SEVEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND JOBS per year.
uh, no. no they don't.
uh, no. no they don't.
Tweak
Dean Baker discusses the Washington Post's suggestion on how to save Social Security--how we should just "tweak" the COLA formula.
People Don't Have Jobs Or Money
Looking for elaborate explanations just helps to maintain the status quo. Give people free money and the economy goes back to full employment. It's simple.
Yes Let's Have Money For Skimmers
Is someone who advocates adding another layer of middlemen for the claimed reason that they will save money stupid or evil?
I really can't tell anymore.
I really can't tell anymore.
Walking Aversion
What's a bit weird to me is I've known people who have jobs where they have to spend a reasonable time on their feet - so they aren't sedentary - but who still find a 10 minute walk to be a tremendous bother.
Good Morning
Romney explains his taxes:
“Every year I’ve paid at least 13%,” Romney told reporters during a brief news conference in Greer, S.C., “and if you add, in addition, the amount that goes to charity, why the number gets well above 20%.
Read more
Just a thought, isn't the tithe supposed to be 10%? Assuming he only made donations to his church, that still only adds up to 7% and change. He not only fudges the numbers to America, but also his God. And, if he only made charitable contributions to his church, Scrooge had nothing on him.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Laws Are For The Poors
This isn't fair. Paul Ryan did not sponsor "Abortion Bill That Would Make Romney's Kids Criminals." Laws like that only apply to people without obscene amounts of money.
More seriously, I give Ryan credit here. If you're anti-abortion you should be anti-IVF.
More seriously, I give Ryan credit here. If you're anti-abortion you should be anti-IVF.
PRESIDENT CHRIS CHRISTIE
Doing a great job.
(Reuters) - New Jersey's unemployment rate rose in July for the fourth month in a row to 9.8 percent, a record high since 1977, according to data released by the state Department of Labor on Thursday.
Random Thought
Has anyone in the media decided, once again, that the candidate who real Americans want to have a beer with is the guy who doesn't drink?
Sharpie Parties
Really should have solved the foreclosure crisis.
Five years into the U.S. foreclosure crisis, Sharpie parties are a new form of blight on the landscape of boarded-up homes, brown lawns and abandoned streets. They are also the latest iteration of collective home-trashing spurred by social media.
At least six Sharpie parties were reported in one California county in recent months, where invitations posted online drew scores to foreclosed homes.
Young Illegal Sex Partners
In some contexts we understand that minors don't really have agency in any legal sense. We should not describe kids brought here by their parents in this way.
CHICAGO — Tens of thousands of young illegal immigrants waited excitedly in lines as long as a mile and thronged to information sessions across the country on Wednesday, the first day that a federal immigration agency began accepting applications for deportation deferrals that include permits to work legally.
Shuttled
A bunch of people wrote in to respond to this post, basically saying that in the pre-9/11 era there were airport shuttles that you could show up 10 minutes before flight time and board. I remember that to some degree, and many years later it's absolutely bizarre that Big Air hasn't managed to make the airport experience more pleasant. I guess Big Security has more power.
Something For The Proles
How about giving them some money instead?
Wishes are ponies.
We hope there is no very next play. We would like, most of all, to see the interested parties come to a consensus here, set the legal wrangling aside, and allow the development deal — estimated at $3.7 billion in the form of an expanded entertainment and retail center — to proceed. We believe the so-called American Dream Meadowlands project could be a boon to the North Jersey economy.
It could bring thousands of jobs and ultimately be a family-friendly destination for working-class New Jersey families. It certainly would be preferable to the eyesore construction that has been sitting at the site all these years unoccupied and doing no good to anyone.
Wishes are ponies.
Career Fail
So sad.
He was a rising star in Hungary's far-right Jobbik Party, and was notorious for his incendiary anti-semitic comments - including attacks on the 'Jewishness' of the political elite; but Csanad Szegedi's career as an ultra-nationalist standard bearer now looks to be over after the revelation that he is in fact Jewish.
Szegedi, who had in the past accused Jews of 'buying up the country', faced weeks of Internet rumours about his ancestry before acknowledging in June that his grandparents on his mother's side were Jews.
The Triumphant Return Of Prog Rock
Dave's series isn't finished, but I will disagree with the assertion that prog rock has been dead for decades. I do think there's a quite a lot of prog-rock-just-don't-call-it-prog-rock out there in the form of indie rock and pop. It mostly avoids some of the obvious excesses - 20 minute songs! rock operas! concept albums! - though there are exceptions to that. The Decemberists and Radiohead are probably the most obvious examples, with The Arcade Fire in there as well.
Promise?
The perpetual imminent destruction of Social Security has not made the last few years particularly enjoyable for me.
"Number one, I guarantee you, flat guarantee you, there will be no changes in Social Security," Biden said, per a pool report. "I flat guarantee you."
Oopsy
A firm granted primary dealer status from the Fed just got all confused and accidentally misplaced your billion dollars.
bygones.
Doubt the "chaos and porous risk controls" excuse will fly when I try to pull a tenner out of the local 7-11 till.
A criminal investigation into the collapse of the brokerage firm MF Global and the disappearance of about $1 billion in customer money is now heading into its final stage without charges expected against any top executives.
After 10 months of stitching together evidence on the firm’s demise, criminal investigators are concluding that chaos and porous risk controls at the firm, rather than fraud, allowed the money to disappear, according to people involved in the case.
bygones.
Doubt the "chaos and porous risk controls" excuse will fly when I try to pull a tenner out of the local 7-11 till.
Didn't They Spend Years Telling Us It Was Saul Alinsky
Conservatives is so weird.
And, as I've said before, I actually learned from Rand without becoming a Randroid. The specifics of aspects of my upbringing and schooling meant that I got the message a bit too loudly that all selfishness was bad, and self-sacrifice was good. A bit of counter-messaging to that was actually healthy.
But she was still bonkers and a horrible writer.
And, as I've said before, I actually learned from Rand without becoming a Randroid. The specifics of aspects of my upbringing and schooling meant that I got the message a bit too loudly that all selfishness was bad, and self-sacrifice was good. A bit of counter-messaging to that was actually healthy.
But she was still bonkers and a horrible writer.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
And Why Was That
I'm not going to absolve the Dems from all blame, but some soul-searching could perhaps shed some light on why the "mommy he hit me back" strategy has been a good sell for Republicans in the media for so many years.
Masters Of The Universe
They know even less than what they say.
Not only is the country back into a double-dip recession, but the economy is even growing slower than the Eurozone, where Q2 GDP only shrank 0.2%.
A big culprit is the austerity agenda of Prime Minister David Cameron, who came into office in 2010. Cameron cut government spending, with the aim of restoring confidence and unleashing the private sector.
The path has been such a flop that economists who supported David Cameron when he came into office are now urging him to back off, and re-pursue an agenda of infrastructure-driven growth.
But in the eyes of Cisco CEO John Chambers, Cameron has successfully pursued a pro-growth agenda.\
Maybe It Was All The Drugs
I like that in this piece Weigel emphasizes a long forgotten fact: for about a dozen years, prog rock was really really popular. People loved that shit.
Not Just The Masters Of The Universe
Many Villagers luv them some accountability free no democracy necessary backroom dealing.
Could Be A Badger
It doesn't really matter if anyone has run the numbers. As long as it takes money from poor people and gives it to rich people it's win win.
Nobody cares about the deficit.
Nobody cares about the deficit.
I'm A Bit Curious Why
I'm surprised so many people used to fly between NY and DC.
Acela didn't speed things up that much, and Amtrak's unreserved trains used to be more convenient than the current system.
A decade ago, Delta and US Airways shuttles were the preferred mode of travel between the cities. But high fares, slow airport security and frequent flight delays — along with Amtrak’s high-speed Acela trains, online ticketing and workstation amenities — have eaten away at the airlines’ share of passengers.
Between New York and Washington, Amtrak said, 75 percent of travelers go by train, a huge share that has been building steadily since the Acela was introduced in 2000 and airport security was tightened after 2001. Before that, Amtrak had just over a third of the business between New York and Washington.
Acela didn't speed things up that much, and Amtrak's unreserved trains used to be more convenient than the current system.
PRESIDENT CHRIS CHRISTIE
This is the type of thing he thinks is deserving of taxpayer subsidies.
It'll go BK, and our press will forget that part.
Xanadu probably won't ever open, and if it does it'll go BK too. Heckuva job guv!
Some commenters there wrongly believe Vegas is expensive. Even the pricey Vegas places are cheap compared to this.
Over lunch at the Mussel Bar by Robert Wiedmaier - $22 burger and $6 Coors Light for Jim, $20 fish and chips for Dena - the couple confirmed my hunches.
Revel may be suffering from its own excesses and for daring to care enough to clear the air.
"The prices," Dena told me repeatedly, "are just outrageous."
It'll go BK, and our press will forget that part.
Xanadu probably won't ever open, and if it does it'll go BK too. Heckuva job guv!
Some commenters there wrongly believe Vegas is expensive. Even the pricey Vegas places are cheap compared to this.
Asshole
Election day is going to be a nightmare here.
Don't even know if I'll be able to vote. Haven't yet checked if my license perfectly matches my voter registration information.
HARRISBURG - A Commonwealth Court judge denied a bid by civil rights groups to block the new voter identification law from taking effect, delivering a first-round victory to Gov. Corbett and legislative Republicans who pushed the measure through this spring saying it was needed to prevent voter fraud.
Don't even know if I'll be able to vote. Haven't yet checked if my license perfectly matches my voter registration information.
Questions
So you'd think an important series of questions to ask at the domestic policy Presidential debate on October 3 would be about the future of Medicare and Social Security. It would be great to hear the President be forced whether to echo Pelosi's commitment to those programs, with everyone watching. It would be entertaining to watch Romney squirm, promising current recipients that nothing bad will happen to THEM if they vote for him.
Sadly, it's up to the Village to ask those questions.
Sadly, it's up to the Village to ask those questions.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Occasional Reminder
Teh Deficit was fixed in the Clinton era. The Very Serious People immediately decided the biggest threat facing the Republic was... a budget surplus.
And so it will always be.
And so it will always be.
Dumb Drunk Drivers
I'm not going to defend any drunk driving, but in my small experience with such matters there are two types of drunk drivers: the ones who know they're drunk and are smart enough to at least try to drive carefully (which does not mean they're ok to be on the road), and the ones who are drunk and are thinking WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE I'M RACE CAR DRIVER.
EAST GREENWICH TWP. — East Greenwich Township Mayor Fred Grant was charged with driving while intoxicated late Tuesday night after allegedly speeding through the Gloucester County town at 91 mph.
Grand Bargains
Digby:
I just assume that going forward we basically have two ratchets. The one ratchet keeps getting nudged in the direction of giving more goodies to rich people, and except for possible temporary blips, those goodies aren't going away.
The other ratchet gets nudged in the direction of fewer goodies for the rest of us. And once gone, they're gone for good.
Any benefit for which there is a wealthy constituency will not be touched. Until we fix our corrupt political system, any assumptions of "shared sacrifice" are fairy tales.
I just assume that going forward we basically have two ratchets. The one ratchet keeps getting nudged in the direction of giving more goodies to rich people, and except for possible temporary blips, those goodies aren't going away.
The other ratchet gets nudged in the direction of fewer goodies for the rest of us. And once gone, they're gone for good.
Fortunately They Know How To Fix The Problem
Austerity, austerity, austerity.
I don't think they even know what the goal is anymore. It's just an end in itself now.
FRANKFURT — The economy in the euro zone officially shifted to contraction from stagnation in the second quarter of 2012, portending a recession later in the year that will put even more pressure on political leaders struggling to keep the common currency intact.
I don't think they even know what the goal is anymore. It's just an end in itself now.
Taking A Brief Break From Tales Of The Not Quite Rich Enough
The NYT focuses its investigative resources on the rich enough.
Plagiarize This
Plagiarism "scandals" are weird. They usually start with something real, and then suddenly everything an author writes is suspect and everyone throws their brain out the window and shrieks plagiarism at everything. There isn't a single universal standard for appropriate citation practices, and most popular books aren't filled with elaborate footnoting and citations.
Post-Partisan
As the Oval Office changed hands from one party to the other, there hasn't been all that much difference in foreign policy regimes. So the neo-con takeover of US foreign policy under Bush was an interesting development. More interesting is that there still hasn't been all that much difference.
Wes Clark reveals he heard, on roughly September 21, 2001, that Bush had a plan to take out 7 countries in 5 years. Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran.
He told this story about 6 years later. He called it a policy coup.
That was 5 years ago. Since that time, largely in response to the Arab Spring, we “liberated” Libya. We’re preparing to (if have not already done so) arm al-Qaeda related rebels in Syria. We’re inventing reasons to sanction a Lebanese terror-related political party. We’ve been violating sanctions to wage war in Somalia, including with drones, and have fiddled with several incarnations of government. And our Iran sanctions–which are fairly clearly about regime change–are really beginning to hurt the Iranian people.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Spooks
Such a lovely thing we have created.
Retaliating against whistleblowers. Where on Earth would someone get the idea that it was ok to do that?
WASHINGTON — A senior officer with the nation’s spy satellite agency is being investigated over criminal allegations related to contracting even as the agency’s No. 2 official is accused of trying to illegally shield the subordinate from scrutiny, McClatchy has learned.
...
The agency’s deputy director, Air Force Maj. Gen. Susan Mashiko, then heard about the investigation and made what the inspector general described as an illegal threat of retaliation against the whistleblowers.
“Four directors went to the IG,” the inspector general quoted Mashiko as saying to a senior officer. “I would like to find them and fire them.”
Retaliating against whistleblowers. Where on Earth would someone get the idea that it was ok to do that?
Early
Rubin's a hack, but probably nothing will derail the Steely-Eyed Deficit Hawk narrative. He hates the deficit!!!
Villagers
Where are the cloning vats that produce these people?
What can one say about stuff like this?
But there's always been a fatal flaw in the theory: deficits. Unlike the administrations of Reagan and George W. Bush, where exploding deficits were an inconvenient truth, Paul Ryan enters the stage as a Republican who says he will make deficit reduction a central new cause of the party. He has put forth a budget — again worth reading Ezra Klein's analysis — that not only includes massive new tax cuts, but huge cuts in social programs and future — not current — entitlements. The Romney-Ryan budget, and this will be the heart of Obama's attempted take-down of Ryan, also will explode the deficit, because, once again, the math simply does not work. You cannot cut taxes, hold current entitlements harmless, raise defense spending and balance the budget, no matter how much you cut non-defense discretionary spending. There simply isn't enough of it — less than 15 percent of the budget.
...
But here's why I like the pick of Ryan. At least he has an idea, however misguided and derivative. Maybe we can finally have a real discussion of the Republican agenda. And maybe, too, Democrats will be forced to discuss their alternative in greater detail. Let's have it out.
What can one say about stuff like this?
The Worst People In The World
One great thing about being a conservative in America, is that no matter how many worlds you destroy the press will still treat you like a Very Serious Person.
If someone demonstrates you had a Che poster on your wall in college they'll destroy you.
If someone demonstrates you had a Che poster on your wall in college they'll destroy you.
Wingnut Martyrs
We get a new one every week it seems.
NEW YORK (AP) — The former Susan G. Komen executive at the heart of the organization's clash with Planned Parenthood has a book deal.
Howard Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, announced Monday that Karen Handel's "Planned Bullyhood" will come out Sept. 11.
I Bet Extra Austere Austerity Will Do The Trick
It is a complete mystery why deliberate attempts to destroy economies are destroying the economies.
Nobody could have predicted...
Nobody could have predicted...
They're Evil, But They're Smarter Than I Am
I used to be a bit sanguine about the prospects general category of benefits for retired people. I figured that old people vote, there are more and more of them, and no one's really going to be able to screw them out of their benefits. Hell, even George Bush expanded Medicare, if in a somewhat flawed way.
But I didn't anticipate the "vote to cut benefits for people not yet retired some decades in the future" gambit. That one just might work.
But I didn't anticipate the "vote to cut benefits for people not yet retired some decades in the future" gambit. That one just might work.
Operation Ignore
People got no jobs and no money, but the people who write about such things have jobs and money, so we will instead talk about how to make other people suffer.
Fuck yeah!
Fuck yeah!
The Suffering Of Other People
My prediction is that the election narrative from our Villagers will coalesce around the question that voters care about most of all: which candidate (and party) will make the electorate suffer the most?
America 2012. It's just one big laboratory for the S&M fantasies of the Villagers.
America 2012. It's just one big laboratory for the S&M fantasies of the Villagers.
The Number Doesn't Really Matter
Who cares what you actually owe? What matters is what they can extract from you.
It's the skimmer economy.
The same problems that plagued the foreclosure process — and prompted a multibillion-dollar settlement with big banks — are now emerging in the debt collection practices of credit card companies.
As they work through a glut of bad loans, companies like American Express, Citigroup and Discover Financial are going to court to recoup their money. But many of the lawsuits rely on erroneous documents, incomplete records and generic testimony from witnesses, according to judges who oversee the cases.
It's the skimmer economy.
Summary
Yesterday, I got into a twitter spat with Karen Tumulty of the WaPo. She said I was wrong to say that the House Republican Budget, and Ryan, policies would not be covered. Instead, I said, the coverage would consist of quoting what the campaigns said the policies were. She said I needed to read more carefully, and more fully--that the policy coverage is out there.
Ezra summarizes that work for us this morning.
Ezra summarizes that work for us this morning.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
And The Moment's Gone
Not really an Olympics obsessive, but in the sea of big money and endorsements, I don't think it's been pointed out enough that the vast majority of the participating athletes will go home and get on with their lives. No big money, no lucrative or even non-lucrative career in their sport of choice.
Hope they had some fun!
Hope they had some fun!
Life Among The Econ
One of the weirder things is that economists, the people who will cooly explain why people will be completely corrupt if the marginal benefit exceeds the marginal cost, see themselves as being completely not corrupt because well just because. It has something to do with the perceived standards of academia and peer review, but people with tenure at top institutions really don't have to give a shit about any of that anymore.
Sunday Bobbleheads
Face the Nation has some Romney dude, Stephanie "The Destroyer" Cutter, Newt! because stupid, Pastor Gerson, Bob Shrum, Ruth Marcus, and Roger Simon, because fuck I have no idea.
Meet the Press has T-Paw because irrelevant, Rachael Maddow, Chuck Toddler, Dan Balz, Frank Keating because who knows.
This Week also has T-Paw because rolodex has one number, I mean EXCLUSIVE THIS WEEK HAS T-PAW MUST CREDIT THIS WEEK oh crap I need a drink already, Cokie Roberts because see previous, Howard Dean, Paul Gigot, Peggy Nooners, and Gavin Newsom.
Document the atrocities!
Meet the Press has T-Paw because irrelevant, Rachael Maddow, Chuck Toddler, Dan Balz, Frank Keating because who knows.
This Week also has T-Paw because rolodex has one number, I mean EXCLUSIVE THIS WEEK HAS T-PAW MUST CREDIT THIS WEEK oh crap I need a drink already, Cokie Roberts because see previous, Howard Dean, Paul Gigot, Peggy Nooners, and Gavin Newsom.
Document the atrocities!
Morning Thread
Last day of the Olympics. Watching the women's basketball yesterday, I could only imagine how tired they must have been. That was a hard couple of weeks for them. Congratulations to the winners!
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Sweet Dreams
Lullaby.
Future precipitation trends, based on climate model projections for the coming fifth assessment from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, indicate that droughts of this length and severity will be commonplace through the end of the century unless human-induced carbon emissions are significantly reduced. Indeed, assuming business as usual, each of the next 80 years in the American West is expected to see less rainfall than the average of the five years of the drought that hit the region from 2000 to 2004.
Bygones
I don't know what our policies with respect to Iran and banks are, but I'm pretty sure that if I was dealing with the Hitler of the Week's country I'd be in an undisclosed location.
Public shaming! Oh noes!
Really need to figure out how to make Eschaton World Industries a bank holding company.
By going it alone through the order he issued on Monday, the head of the recently created New York State Department of Financial Services, Benjamin Lawsky, also complicated talks between the Treasury and London-based Standard Chartered to settle claims over the transactions, several of the sources said.
Lawsky's action, which included releasing embarrassing communications and details of the bank's alleged defiance of US sanctions, is rewriting the playbook on how foreign banks settle cases involving the processing of shadowy funds tied to sanctioned countries. In the past, such cases have usually been settled through negotiated settlements and public shaming has been kept to a minimum.
Public shaming! Oh noes!
Really need to figure out how to make Eschaton World Industries a bank holding company.
Generational Warfare
So the election will now come down to whether old people will vote to destroy Medicare for younger people.
They just might.
They just might.
The Education and Jobs Of Paul Ryan, According To The Wiki
Public high school.
Public university.
Worked for family business.
Congressional staffer, with service jobs for additional money.
Speechwriter for Jack Kemp.
Staffer for Sam Brownback.
Member of Congress.
Capitalism, just as Rand envisioned.
Public university.
Worked for family business.
Congressional staffer, with service jobs for additional money.
Speechwriter for Jack Kemp.
Staffer for Sam Brownback.
Member of Congress.
Capitalism, just as Rand envisioned.
Prebuttal
When I'm hit by the inevitable plagiarism scandal, just remember that I don't actually write any of this crap. The interns do.
Zombie-eyed Granny-starver
Charles Pierce has been on the Ryan beat. So he was ready.
I will amplify his point that the centrists who comprise the Beltway media love Ryan's desire to inflict pain on the 99%. Like Dancin' Dave on Meet The Press with Axelrod:
“But if you look at how dire the fiscal situation is in the country, we just came off a debt debacle this past summer. Alan Simpson responding to the State of the Union said – where's the guts? Where's the hard stuff? Where's the beef? Where are the hard choices that Americans are going to have to make? What are Americans have--going to have to do with less of if this president gets re-election?”
Or during the GOP primaries:
To Jon Huntsman:
“This is, by all accounts, an age of austerity for this country. A jobs crisis. Also a pending crisis in Washington. I wonder what specifically you would do to say to Americans, "These are cuts I'm going to make in federal spending that cause pain, that will require sacrifice?"
Later he asked:
“Governor Huntsman, name three areas where Americans will feel real pain in order to balance the budget?”
He asked a third time:
“Three programs that will make Americans feel pain, sir?”
Later he asked Rick Santorum:
“Senator Santorum, same question. Three programs that would have to be cut to make Americans feel pain, to sacrifice, if we're going to balance the budget.”(Quotes from MTP transcripts via Culture of Truth.)
This is why Mark Helperin is spurting all over the Twitter for this choice, because he and his colleagues want to see some pain. And they don't mind carrying water for the deficit hawk Big Lie if that's what it takes.
Friday, August 10, 2012
Gambling Our Way To Prosperity With Taxpayer Money
Between Revel and whatever they're calling Xanadu these days, heckuva job, Guv...
And of course he did.
ATLANTIC CITY - Hopes of Revel turning things around for this struggling resort are fading with each passing month.
And Revel's disappointing casino revenue released on Friday - it generated $17.5 million in July - has made the threat of an early bankruptcy more imminent, according to industry observers and gaming analysts.
And of course he did.
Of its $2.4 billion price tag, Gov. Christie provided $261 million in state tax credits in 2011 toward its development, and designated Revel as "crucial for Atlantic City's future." He said Atlantic City has to become a true overnight destination resort and not just for gambling. The Republican governor is behind a five-year, state-run overhaul of Atlantic City where a new tourism district was created, and a half-decade long, $30 million-a-year marketing campaign to tout the resort's non-gambling offerings is under way.
Priorities
This is the part I've always had trouble with. Mitt's had, at the very least, 6 years to know that he'd better make his tax returns appear to be a bit less corrupt than they presumably do. And he didn't do it.
Forget the tax shenanigans, it's the judgment.
Forget the tax shenanigans, it's the judgment.
Probably Deserve Life Sentences
And we get a bit stupider every day.
Police in Bucks County say two teens have been cited for doodling on the street with chalk.
The Doylestown Intelligencer reports Friday that 18-year-old Connor Logan and a 17-year-old friend drew a whale and sea turtles in a local parking lot.
Drought
I have no idea if the current weather patterns are global climate change-related or not, but I imagine we'll be quite happy to spend a lot of money bailing out farmers, but not at all happy to spend similar to prevent future disaster.
WASHINGTON — This year’s corn yield is projected to be the lowest since 1995, according to an Agriculture Department report that sharply cut production estimates for some major crops because of damage from the nation’s worst drought in 56 years.
Great Game
I'm guessing there's a lot more going on here than mere mortals can comprehend.
As the London-based bank prepares for a hearing with New York state's department of finance services regulator, which has accused it of moving $250bn of Iranian money around the financial system, the chancellor has sought assurances that the bank will be treated fairly.
Osborne and his team spoke to Geithner and officials on Tuesday and received assurances that the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) would work with the myriad of other regulators looking at Standard Chartered's dealing with Iranian clients between 2001 and 2007.
...
While the bank had known since 2010 it was being investigated for breaches of sanctions – it had shared information with regulators – it had not expected the New York regulator to go it alone in making public the alleged range of the breaches of the rules.
Internets
Hey, they're back.
Blogging will probably still be sucky, because that's how we roll here.
Blogging will probably still be sucky, because that's how we roll here.
And so it was Friday....
Good morning.
I'm assuming Atrios already watches Misfits, so I got nothin'. Just waitin' for the new season of Doctor Who like everybody else.
Meanwhile, did I mention that Giaus Publius was pretty interesting on Virtually Speaking?
I'm assuming Atrios already watches Misfits, so I got nothin'. Just waitin' for the new season of Doctor Who like everybody else.
Meanwhile, did I mention that Giaus Publius was pretty interesting on Virtually Speaking?
Thursday, August 09, 2012
Lower Classes On Teevee
I suppose the one current example is the US remake of Shameless. I've seen the first season of the UK original, which I liked quite a bit though didn't love. I saw the pilot of the US remake and found it painfully unwatchable, though this might have been largely because it was, like the first US episode of The Office, basically a word for word re-shoot of the first episode of the original, and in the US context just didn't make much sense. Without modifications, the economic and class issues just didn't translate very well between the cultures. Anyone watch? Does it get any better?
Highly Unlikely
But at least my plan to "give free money to people" is gaining traction.
The radical alternative discussed here last week – QE for the People (or QEP, for short) – would bypass banks completely by distributing newly created money straight to the public. It is not yet on anyone’s agenda, but neither is it any longer dismissed as a joke.
Literally Underground
And not Biden-style literally.
Seventy members of an Islamist sect who have been living in an underground bunker without heat or sunlight for nearly a decade have been discovered living on the outskirts of the city of Kazan in Russia, local media reported.
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