Rock on.
Friday, May 31, 2013
It's The Economy
I'd seriously consider cutting cable if it wasn't semi-necessary for my "job" but even more importantly is that when bundled with internet, which is certainly necessary for my job, cable TV doesn't cost all that much. Bundling deals vary by provider and location (and your willingness to haggle on the phone of course), but if I'm already getting cable broadband then the additional fee for TV isn't all that much. It isn't nothing, but it isn't a giant expense. So, yes, I imagine cable cutting goes right along with home internet cutting and people just internet with their phones.
This Will Bring Down The Obama Presidency
Aside from the being shoddy, a big problem with the current right wing scandalmongers is that it's all turned up to 11. There's never any sense that, even if true, something might be a minor scandal but basically not a very big deal. Every little nugget they turn up is thing that will lead to impeachment, and then through some weird constitutional trick the installation of the Great And Glorious President Bachmann, or whoever their favorite is that week.
Finding examples of minor to moderate corruption shouldn't actually be that hard, if they were genuinely interested in doing so. But they're only interested in ending the presidency of B. Barry Bamz.
Finding examples of minor to moderate corruption shouldn't actually be that hard, if they were genuinely interested in doing so. But they're only interested in ending the presidency of B. Barry Bamz.
Not Winning
The economy isn't growing nearly as fast as it should be. And that's a choice that's been made.
Failure
No full employment, and inflation is too low.
Start mailing checks to everybody.
Over the past 12 months, inflation has risen just 0.7 percent, the smallest gain since October 2009 and pushing further below the Federal Reserve's 2 percent target. The index had increased 1.0 percent in the period through March.
Start mailing checks to everybody.
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Rules for the Masses
If you work on in teevee there's a pretty good chance that you work with women who get paid more than their partners, because teevee is a pretty good gig and sometimes they pay women do it. The supposed natural order is just for the little people, of course.
Escalate
I have no idea what should be done in Syria, but giving each "side" more and more weapons will have a pretty predictable outcome.
President Bashar al-Assad has said Russian anti-aircraft missiles have arrived in Syria, Lebanese TV reported, in a claim that is likely to dramatically increase tensions in the region and could provoke the Israelis to launch a strike against the weapons.
...
The deal between the Kremlin and the Syrian government has been in train for some time. But the S-300 shipment, if confirmed, appears to be Russian retaliation for the EU's decision this week to lift an arms embargo on Syria. Britain, France and others such as Turkey are seeking to arm the country's moderate opposition.
But MSNBC Isn't "Liberal" Most Of The Time
It's (broadly speaking) conservative in the morning, DC "center right" CW all day, and then liberal in the evenings. I'm sure they imagine that the daytime is 'straight news' or whatever but it also has a perspective, and one that isn't that appealing to liberals. Andrea Mitchell ain't liberal.
I have no idea if having a more consistent perspective throughout the day would help ratings, but it just isn't the case that there's a TV home for liberal news junkies.
I have no idea if having a more consistent perspective throughout the day would help ratings, but it just isn't the case that there's a TV home for liberal news junkies.
Mantra
At this point they just want any excuse to say "Benghazi," because it sends a shiver up the legs of their viewers and activates their haterade glands.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Meanwhile, In The Rob Ford Of Canadia Show
They really need to broadcast this one here.
Emails and telephone records in Mayor Rob Ford’s office are in danger of disappearing, the Star has learned.
The electronic records, which may reveal knowledge of discussions of the video scandal, were ordered destroyed this week. Sources say people who were told to delete the records are balking at the order.
Renting
I think the only way large scale single family home property management will actually work long term is if tenant protections are substantially increased. I suppose in theory this could be done through private contracting, but I'm not sure the legal team and the finance team are necessarily on the same page. Especially with single family homes you want to attract long term tenants, but the only way to attract long term tenants is if they have first right of renewal and at least some soft form of rent control. If those things are in place, then tenants have an incentive to maintain the properties themselves to some degree. Such protections wouldn't have to apply across the board for all rental properties, but perhaps for, say, anyone willing to sign an initial lease of 3 years.
Too much tenant protection can be problematic. My friends in Barcelona tell me (this is anecdote, nothing more) that because of the difficulty of evicting people with long term contracts, landlords increasingly are shifting to short term vacation rentals. And the stereotype of rent control where renters pay what they paid 50 years ago is certainly dumb. But limiting rent increases to some defined amount provides tenants with stability, and that stability gives them the incentive to be good tenants.
Too much tenant protection can be problematic. My friends in Barcelona tell me (this is anecdote, nothing more) that because of the difficulty of evicting people with long term contracts, landlords increasingly are shifting to short term vacation rentals. And the stereotype of rent control where renters pay what they paid 50 years ago is certainly dumb. But limiting rent increases to some defined amount provides tenants with stability, and that stability gives them the incentive to be good tenants.
And 90% Of A Roof Is 90% As Good As A Whole Roof
I don't know how one even deals with this kind of thinking. And I'm a car hater who wants to shut down all the roads and bridges.
We're Laughing At You
Conservatives live to piss of liberals these days, but they rarely understand what actually pisses us off. When we start mocking their assorted crazies they decide we're "outraged" when in fact, no, we're just laughing at you. We'll miss Michele Bachmann more than they will (not that she'll really go away, of course).
It's Called An Employment Agency
I'm sure it's possible to come up with a better employment agency, and perhaps Tom Friedman's daughter's college roommate has done just that, but employment agencies have been around forever. This is not new. I used to do temp work. In 1990. They tested me for computer skills with testing software.
Recovery Summer
I think this piece is a bit over-optimistic overall, but the conclusion is a bit closer to the mark.
The first one could happen, the second one is unlikely, and people can't spend what they don't have.
For the economy to continue growing even as the sequestration and tax increases have their full effects, higher housing prices will need to translate into more home construction, higher stock prices will need to translate into companies making new investments, and consumers’ higher level of confidence will need to translate into spending more money.
Until those things happen, there will not be the kind of full-throated economic boom that, four years since the great recession ended, America is still desperately waiting for.
The first one could happen, the second one is unlikely, and people can't spend what they don't have.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Mission Crackpossible
In the latest episode of this fascinating teevee show about "Canadia," the writer wants us to believe that no one told these characters about "copies" or "the cloud."
If this is a single season show, it'll inevitably end with the big reveal that the mayor had the video maker whacked. But, if this Rob Ford character proves to be popular enough with the viewers, they might just have to bring him back for season 2...
If this is a single season show, it'll inevitably end with the big reveal that the mayor had the video maker whacked. But, if this Rob Ford character proves to be popular enough with the viewers, they might just have to bring him back for season 2...
Occasional Reminder
A period of high unemployment at the zero lower bound was actually a tremendous opportunity to give a tremendous gift to "our children" everyone is always going on about. Fed-financed spending, otherwise known as a "free lunch," could have put people back to work, at zero cost to taxpayers. Those people could have made some nice things. For the children. For free.
I Give Them A Bit More Credit Than That
They are interested in giving all the moneys to their rich friends, which is a kind of governing, though it's maybe true that their rich friends are a slight different set of rich friends than the traditional republican rich person base.
This Sounds Like A Great TV Show
This Rob Ford character isn't believable, and neither is this place called "Canadia," but whoever is scripting this show is pretty damn creative. When's it going to be broadcast here?
Armageddon Averted
I've been somewhat amused by reading all of the absurd squealing about New York's new bikeshare program. That there was absurd squealing trumpeted by the press does not mean there was serious opposition to the program, but some of the stated reasons for opposing it were hilarious. I'm sure in about 6 months most people who opposed it will forget what they were so mad about.
Monday, May 27, 2013
Several Hours
I have no idea what the point of John McCain going to Syria is, though at least now his conspicuous absence from the Sunday shows has been explained.
I'm sure he's an expert now.
I'm sure he's an expert now.
Afternoon Thread
Priorities
If they aren't super accurate, who knows what might happen?
Nukes. Precision weapons.
The United States has about 180 B61 gravity nuclear bombs based in Europe. They are the detritus of the cold war, tactical weapons deployed in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey to protect NATO allies from the once-feared Soviet advantage in conventional arms. But the cold war is long over, and no American military commander can conceive of their ever being used. Even so, President Obama has put $537 million in his 2014 budget proposal to upgrade these bombs. When all is said and done, experts say, the cost of the rebuilding program is expected to total around $10 billion — $4 billion more than an earlier projection — and yield an estimated 400 weapons, fitted with new guided tail kits so that they are more reliable and accurate than the current ones.
Nukes. Precision weapons.
Sunday, May 26, 2013
The Civilitude Dodge
Helping to doom millions to widespread economic misery based on bullshit is, in my opinion, a pretty unvicivil thing to do.
But, yeah, it's your critics who are mean. LEAVE ROGAINE AND BRAVEHEART ALOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Assholes.
But, yeah, it's your critics who are mean. LEAVE ROGAINE AND BRAVEHEART ALOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Assholes.
Saturday, May 25, 2013
I Forget What We Call A Flock Of Wankers
But the White House did manage to assemble the ultimate team.
Saturday Book Discussion/Crass Commercialism
I've read every Jane Austen novel except Northanger Abby, though I read most of them when I was in my mid-20s. Probably about the time Clueless came out. Not too long ago I read Mansfield Park for the first time, and I really really didn't enjoy it. I know it mostly isn't a fan favorite, but I really didn't like it at all. More than that it made me wonder if I'd like her other works if I re-read them again. Basically, I hated every single character (well, Fanny was ok) and just wanted someone to punch them all in their faces to shut them up.
I suppose I'll have to re-read one I liked and find out.
I suppose I'll have to re-read one I liked and find out.
Optimism!
However misguided.
That "attention" will last about 5 minutes.
Repair and/or replace the damn bridges.
The accident turned attention back to the age of the nation’s transportation system. The 607,380 bridges in the U.S. are 42 years old on average, and 1-in-9 are rated “structurally deficient,” according to the American Society of Civil Engineers, which advocates more spending on such structures.
That "attention" will last about 5 minutes.
Repair and/or replace the damn bridges.
Morning Thread
Just how does a 22 y.o., with no specific experience, get to be president of a preparatory school? Naturally, it's a charter, for profit school. Still, you'd think some educational experience would be a prerequisite. The tax dollars of the good people in Michigan will help fund this school.
h/t Kay at Balloon Juice
h/t Kay at Balloon Juice
Friday, May 24, 2013
Don't Drink And Drive
This is obviously not a very controversial position to take, but the consequences of it can be tragic, both for the victims and the driver. It's an easy way for a potentially otherwise decent person to destroy his/her life, and someone else's of course.
And if you are a regular drinker, try to move somewhere you don't have to drink and drive if you want to drink outside your house. Even outside of the urban hellhole there are places where that's possible.
And if you are a regular drinker, try to move somewhere you don't have to drink and drive if you want to drink outside your house. Even outside of the urban hellhole there are places where that's possible.
Shovel Ready
Yes it's probably hard to spend, say, $300 billion overnight on quality infrastructure projects, but it's nuts to think that there aren't numerous projects that could get going fairly quickly. You can start with my favorite, which is grants to municipalities to double the pace of their water pipe replacement. That requires no studies, no environmental impact report, no complicated engineering design, just digging up streets, replacing pipes, and repairing streets. And of course there are tons of projects that got through the study/EIR stage without ever receiving funding.
It's good stimulus, but also, you know, good policy. Repair the damn bridges.
It's good stimulus, but also, you know, good policy. Repair the damn bridges.
4%
I'm glad Krugman's making the case here. A 2% inflation target right now is obviously absurd, but we also should have learned that a 2% inflation target is always absurd. It doesn't give the Fed enough wiggle room.
Looters Gonna Loot
Our Galtian Overlords are going to steal everything that isn't nailed down, then everything that is.
Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr is considering whether the multibillion-dollar collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts should be considered city assets that potentially could be sold to cover about $15 billion in debt.
Friday Crass Commercialism
Greetings. Dday here. (Trying to be Atrios-style brusque)
So I contributed an essay to this book, Hacking Politics, about the fight against SOPA (the Internet censorship bill) last year. Features writing from Aaron Swartz, Cory Doctorow, Lawrence Lessig, more.
It's available in paperback or as an e-book. With the e-book, you can pay what you want.
Link.
You Were Supposed To Cut Money For Other People
Whoops.
One reason: Republicans are 14 points more apt than Democrats to say they’ve been harmed by the sequester. And among Republicans who’ve been hurt by the cuts, 68 percent disapprove of them. Among those unhurt, disapproval drops to 42 percent.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Fridays, Fridays
One place not to go for booze. Or anything.
State officials provided those new details Thursday on raids they conducted a day earlier as part of a yearlong investigation dubbed Operation Swill.
Twenty-nine New Jersey bars and restaurants, including 13 TGI Fridays, were accused of substituting cheap booze — or worse — for the good stuff while charging premium prices.
Make, Announce, Type
Innovations in local journalism.
Governor Corbett’s participation in “The New Voices” platform of Philly.com’s notable contributors will be available in the form of photo essays, videos and columns, highlighting the Governor’s perspective in addressing state issues of importance to Philadelphians.
"Philadelphians will be excited to receive the latest policy news from Harrisburg, directly from their Governor,” said Robert J. Hall, Chief Executive Officer and Publisher, Interstate General Media, parent company of Philly.com. “Governor Corbett’s contributions to Philly.com will not only deliver answers and insight to the latest political news in the Keystone State, but our readers will also become acquainted with the Governor through interesting essays and photos, providing a unique perspective of governing at the State Capitol.”
Time To Rethink Statutory Rape (And Related) Laws
It's a difficult issue, but cases like this highlight why they're problematic. I think there's a valid role for the state in some way to place a barrier between these relationships, but not necessarily with a life-destroying sex offender charge.
Ages of consent have been ratcheted up in recent decades, as has hysteria about all teen sex generally. Maybe 18-year-olds shouldn't be having sex with 14 and 15 year olds, but they sure were when I was in high school. It's one thing to try to prevent these relationships, quite another to destroy lives over it. Put people in this range of ages together in a building 5 days a week and these types of relationships are to be expected.
It's a complicated issue. I don't know what the perfect answer is.
Ages of consent have been ratcheted up in recent decades, as has hysteria about all teen sex generally. Maybe 18-year-olds shouldn't be having sex with 14 and 15 year olds, but they sure were when I was in high school. It's one thing to try to prevent these relationships, quite another to destroy lives over it. Put people in this range of ages together in a building 5 days a week and these types of relationships are to be expected.
It's a complicated issue. I don't know what the perfect answer is.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Rusty's World
I have no opinion about Lois Lerner, but it's, uh, interesting where Rusty's brain goes...
Paging All Real Economists
Above my skill level at the moment, so I'm curious if there's been any "serious" work on the distributional impacts of the Fed's quantitative easing.
Whatever it's done for the economy overall, what has it done for rich people?
Whatever it's done for the economy overall, what has it done for rich people?
Not Too Late For The Helicopters
A big tragedy of the last few years is the failure to recognize that being in a low inflation world at the zero lower bound was a tremendous opportunity to massively enhance human welfare in this country. Mailing out 10 grand checks to everyone would have been an egalitarian massive boost to the economic well-being of huge numbers of people. Instead, the Fed has goosed asset prices, mostly benefiting the rich. Trickle down through another means, but still trickle down. Better than doing nothing, probably, but there were other ways.
KISS
Good public policy is usually simple. Simple policy is not only easier to administer, but it's also more difficult to subvert. Consider a public option versus Obamacare.
Or an open securities exchange vs Dodd-Frank.
Democrats have become the victims of their own pusillanimity on these issues. The main Wall Street argument against these new rules is that they're excessive and onerously complicated. But they're only complicated because the Democrats didn't have the stones in the original Dodd-Frank debate to insist on simple concepts like putting all trades on open exchanges.
Instead, they built a system based upon a series of fiendishly complicated compromises. They keep adding more and more fine print to the infrastructural rules for things like Swap Execution Facilities and deriviatives clearing, and the more fine print there is, the more cracks and crevices Wall Street's lawyers can find to slither through.
"Pusillanimity" is an uncharacteristically generous bit of Taibbi mind-reading.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
These People Don't Exist
The fantasy behind places like Revel is that there are people who have stupid amounts of money to spend, and that those people will choose to spend it at an Atlantic City casino. More than that, there are not so many of those people that you can fill a 47 story hotel/resort with them regularly.
Our economy doesn't produce those people. Not anymore, at least.
Our economy doesn't produce those people. Not anymore, at least.
Dreaming Of The Glory Days
Bring the band back together.
They learned nothing.
The president should announce that he has told the Justice Department to appoint an independent investigator with bulldog instincts and bipartisan credibility. The list of candidates could start with Kenneth Starr, who chased down the scandals, real and imagined, of the Clinton presidency.
They learned nothing.
The State Department Is Run By Lizard People
The real issue here is that the staffers are a wee bit less cazy than the Reps.
The House GOP (and Senate, mostly) don't listen to the crazy base, they are the crazy base.
The House GOP (and Senate, mostly) don't listen to the crazy base, they are the crazy base.
Poverty Geography
I don't think it's a given that poor people in cities automatically have a community due to living in close proximity to others, but it is the case that cities tend to have public transit and social services that are lacking in the suburbs.
Love One Another
Senator Coburn will only support helping his state if others get some of their own suffering.
That's how they think.
That's how they think.
Monday, May 20, 2013
Just Like Eschaton World Industries
Or, you know, not.
Some of these subsidiaries had no employees and were largely run by top officials from the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., according to Congressional investigators. But by officially locating them in places like Ireland, Apple was able to, in effect, make them stateless – exempt from taxes, record-keeping laws and the need for the subsidiaries to even file tax returns anywhere in the world.
In 2011, for example, one subsidiary paid Ireland just one-twentieth of 1 percent in taxes on $22 billion on pretax earnings from various operations; another did not file a corporate tax return anywhere and has paid almost nothing on $30 billion in profits since 2009.
Macho Posturing Without Empathy
I'm just not sure it's different than sadism. Sure, supporting the Iraq war was serious, but going door to door with giant guns telling Iraqis to suck on this, or supporting the war because you thought "the prudent use of violence could be therapeutic"(Richard Cohen) sure seems like sadism to me. After several years of a recession, mass foreclosures and long term unemployment, if you're still demanding pints of the blood of other people it's a bit more than just posturing.
The Suffering Of Other People
It's difficult to conclude that it's about anything other than sadism. Why are there so many sadists?
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Journamalism
It's telling that there hasn't been (that I've seen) pressure from other journalists for Karl to burn his source.
They never, ever do it.
They never, ever do it.
I'm So Old I Remember When $86 Billion Was A Lot Of Money
We could build the California HSR for this, basically. And we spend it every year. It's 4 times the GDP of Afghanistan.
The Reuters news agency quotes an unidentified White House aide as saying the president has decreased his request for funding the war in Afghanistan by 10 percent for the 2014 fiscal year budget. The report says the president reduced his original request from $88.5 billion to $79.4 billion.
Nostalgia
It may seem hard to believe, but long before the Dancin' Master took over for Working Class Tim, Meet the Press provided an actual service to the public.
Also interesting that the right wing bias was pretty much in place back then.
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Move Along
Nothing to see here.
WINDSOR, Ontario — Assumption Park gives residents of this city lovely views of the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit skyline. Lately they’ve been treated to another sight: a three-story pile of petroleum coke covering an entire city block on the other side of the Detroit River.
Friday, May 17, 2013
What Principles?
The platinum coin option is just as sensible as it was the last time we dealt with this crap. Nothing's changed.
Mint the damn coin.
Mint the damn coin.
The Suffering Of Other People
Pareene has a good piece on Kinsley. While I've been observing this phenomenon forever, I admit I don't understand why people get so jazzed on the idea that other people must suffer. Is it just that rich dudes get pissed off that occasionally they can't get a reservation at their favorite restaurant when they want one?
Poverty sucks. Living paycheck to paycheck, whatever your circumstances, sucks. Why the rich assholes who rule us want to make all that suck worse is a mystery to me.
Poverty sucks. Living paycheck to paycheck, whatever your circumstances, sucks. Why the rich assholes who rule us want to make all that suck worse is a mystery to me.
The Real Story
Who gave reporters doctored emails is a much more interesting story than the emails themselves, obviously. It's also the story they'll probably never tell us.
Sources Lie
Though I've been told by journalists that sources can't lie, because if they do they'll get burned. But then that never happens. Funny, that.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Encouraging Urban Living
Basically everybody who drives to a location to drink (bar, dinner party, whatever) is at least occasionally a drunk driver, in the sense that they're almost inevitably flirting with crossing the .08 BAC level. Dropping that level to .05 will really make driving to drink, legally, pretty much impossible.
Deficit Panic
The real deficit panic is about the possibility that it might go away, making it slightly more difficult to engage in a program of poors kicking.
Wanker of the Day
Michael Kinsley, another rich man who thinks the 99% need to suffer for the sins of the 1%.
Scandal
Dday's been writing about an ongoing scandal for quite a while.
[N]ew evidence reveals the nation’s largest banks have apparently continued to fabricate documents, rip off customers and illegally kick people out of their homes, even after inking a series of settlements over the same abuses. And the worst part of it all is that the main settlement over foreclosure fraud was so weakly written that it actually allows such criminal conduct to occur, at least up to a certain threshold. Potentially hundreds of thousands of homes could be effectively stolen by the big banks without any sanctions.I know this one started before scandal season officially opens, but it's affecting quite a few people..
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
What Are They Hiding?
Lots real scandals out there, just not ones our Villagers care much about. Wrongful foreclosures, massive long term unemployment, bankster fraud.
Edited talking points. That's the one that got them.
Edited talking points. That's the one that got them.
Happy Hour Thread
I went to see my local sports franchise involve themselves in a sporting competition. They did not triumph.
I am a lazy blogger.
I am a lazy blogger.
Afternoon Thread
Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone has a new post up about big oil companies colluding to fix prices. I'm shocked, shocked I tell you.
The Beatings Will Continue
I'd suggest that somebody should do something about this, but the people in charge are causing it.
PARIS — The recession across the economy of the 17 European Union countries that use the euro extended into its sixth quarter — longer than the calamitous slump that hit the region in the financial crisis of 2008-9.
Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office, said Wednesday that nine of the 17 eurozone countries are in recession, with France a notable addition to the list. Overall, the euro region’s economy contracted 0.2 percent in the January-March period from the previous three months.
The Narratives, They Appear
And somehow stuff gets plugged into those narratives, validating them! We are powerless.
This stuff plays out much faster than it used to. We get to the meta stage of fake scandals much faster than we used to. It helps that it's possible to call Mike Allen an asshat on twitter.
This stuff plays out much faster than it used to. We get to the meta stage of fake scandals much faster than we used to. It helps that it's possible to call Mike Allen an asshat on twitter.
Nice Thing
I've mentioned to a few people that if our Leaders had had any idea what it would mean to have a completely open, really robust computer network protocol available to everyone in the world for free, they never would have let DARPA make one.
Nobody I've said this to has disagreed.
Nobody I've said this to has disagreed.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Late Night
Someone read me some random shit over the phone and I'll type it up as a big scoop. Journalism!
Benghazi in A Poll
By Think Progress:
Public Policy Polling released a poll on Monday finding that more Americans trust former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over Republicans over the GOP-ginned up Benghazi controversy.
Forty-nine percent trust Clinton, versus 39 percent for Republicans. Meanwhile, PPP finds, “Congressional Republicans remain very unpopular with a 36/57 favorability rating.” Americans also think Congress should be focusing on more pressing issues such as immigration reform and gun control:
Voters think Congress should be more focused on other major issues right now rather than Benghazi. By a 56/38 margin they say passing a comprehensive immigration reform bill is more important than continuing to focus on Benghazi, and by a 52/43 spread they think passing a bill requiring background checks for all gun sales should be a higher priority.
A whopping 41 percent of Republicans polled think the Obama administration’s handling of Benghazi is the greatest scandal in U.S. history. “One interesting thing about the voters who think Benghazi is the biggest political scandal in American history,” PPP adds, “is that 39% of them don’t actually know where it is. 10% think it’s in Egypt, 9% in Iran, 6% in Cuba, 5% in Syria, 4% in Iraq, and 1% each in North Korea and Liberia with 4% not willing to venture a guess.”
More Thread
And here's Diane at Cabdrollery on women not just keeping up at the previous lower levels, but actually losing ground.
Afternoon Thread
Did you know you could hire a disabled person in a wheelchair and jump to the head of the lines at Disney World. I didn't. Kind of awful, but that's the way the 1% do Disney World.
h/t Markos on twitter
h/t Markos on twitter
Scale
Consider this.
The Pentagon has (at least) 650,000 civilian employees.
The Pentagon will impose furloughs on as many as 650,000 civilian employees in response to the U.S. budget cuts known as sequestration, according to a defense official.
The Pentagon has (at least) 650,000 civilian employees.
More Like This
Or, you know, not.
About an hour after school let out for the day, the student was getting a ride home from a school employee who also works a second job as an armed security officer, according to police. The employee was trying to put his gun into the glove box of the car when the weapon fired, hitting the student in the leg.
Monday, May 13, 2013
Freedom
Quite happy for conservatives - and journalists! - to make this into a big scandal.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative's top executive called a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into how news organizations gather the news.
Guns Kill People
As BooMan says, how gun violence events in the urban hellhole are treated depends greatly on where they take place and who the victims are. There can be justification for this. "Drug dealers shooting each other" is a different story than "random person murdered in robbery attempt." But saying it's a different story is not the same thing as saying it shouldn't be a story at all. There was a young man killed around the corner from me not so long ago. I gathered it fell more in the "drug dealers killing each other"* category than the other one, but I really never knew for sure. I haven't noticed any follow up coverage since. I don't know if there were any arrests. I'm not saying there wasn't any coverage - there could have been and I just missed it - just saying that it certainly didn't become a big story.
*Not asserting that the victim was a drug dealer or anything else (no idea!). It was an early morning on street deliberate execution-style hit, suggesting he ran afoul of some bad people, but that doesn't mean the victim was involved in anything criminal/bad.
*Not asserting that the victim was a drug dealer or anything else (no idea!). It was an early morning on street deliberate execution-style hit, suggesting he ran afoul of some bad people, but that doesn't mean the victim was involved in anything criminal/bad.
Whitey
Given the power structure of this country - white dudes rule! - it makes some sense that white dudes are overrepresented on the cable teevee. "Newsmakers" - politicians and the like - are going to disproportionately be white dudes. But when it comes to the highly skilled job of "cable news bloviator" there's no reason for white dudes to be overrepresented. More than that, it provides an easy opportunity to correct the inherent imbalance.
It's Out There
As I've said before, there are moments when you can tell the national press is aching to relive its past glory days. For some reason there's nothing more fun than spending the day saying nothing about nothing, but that's when they're happiest. Readers and viewers never actually have a clue what the point of it all is, but then again neither do the "journalists."
White Bronco, baby.
White Bronco, baby.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Afternoon Thread
Assembled a new table for the roof deck. All the parts were there, but the instructions were not quite correct.
Guns Kill People
It's good that the media generally (and Kagro of course) seem to be highlighting gun violence and "accidents" a bit more than they usually have. It's a big country and given the scale of the problem not every case can or should get an immense amount of attention, but as a big thunderstorm in Kansas or a major car accident in LA warrants at least a mention, so should shooting deaths.
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Bonus
Indeed
The prime minister's adviser on enterprise has told the cabinet that the economic downturn is an excellent time for new businesses to boost profits and grow because labour is cheap, the Observer can reveal.
Lord Young, a cabinet minister under the late Baroness Thatcher, who is the only aide with his own office in Downing Street, told ministers that the low wage levels in a recession made larger financial returns easier to achieve. His comments are contained in a report to be published this week, on which the cabinet was briefed last Tuesday.
Burger Justice
Fast food workers deserve dignity.
If you work, you deserve respect. And also too, healthcare and retirement.
And burger flippers at least can't totally fuck up and ruin the national economy, like derivatives flippers.
Organizers say that over a hundred workers joined the St. Louis strike between Wednesday and Thursday. That included a group of Jimmy John’s workers who alleged that management humiliated them by requiring them to hold up signs in public with messages including “I made 3 wrong sandwiches today” and “I was more than 13 seconds in the drive thru.” “Sometimes I walk for more than an hour just to save my train fare so I can spend it on Ramen noodles,” St. Louis Chipotle worker Patrick Leeper said in an e-mailed statement Thursday. “I can’t even think about groceries.”I've never liked jokes about how humiliating it is to "flip burgers."
If you work, you deserve respect. And also too, healthcare and retirement.
And burger flippers at least can't totally fuck up and ruin the national economy, like derivatives flippers.
Friday, May 10, 2013
World Domination
I, for one, am quite happy with the plan for Handy Nasty to rule the world.
Make sure to eat there if you're in town and can handle the spicy stuff.
Make sure to eat there if you're in town and can handle the spicy stuff.
Good
The plan B thing is just absurd.
Whatever you want to happen, teens are going to have sex, sometimes earlier than you think is appropriate. They should have access to contraception.
NEW YORK — A government appeal of a ruling giving women of all ages broad access to morning-after birth control is frivolous, a federal judge said Friday as he refused to suspend enforcement of his decision pending appeal.
Whatever you want to happen, teens are going to have sex, sometimes earlier than you think is appropriate. They should have access to contraception.
The Cars, They Kill People
I actually don't think Philadelphia drivers are all that bad with respect to pedestrians, with not infrequent exceptions. But it's a more obviously a pedestrian zone than most places (in much of city, anyway). There are small streets, and lights or stop signs and pedestrian crossings at every intersection. The drivers that do get enraged when you dare to try to cross a street at an intersection probably aren't local.
Pedestrians can behave badly, too, but when they do they're unlikely to kill people. Police should do more to address drivers behaving badly.
Pedestrians can behave badly, too, but when they do they're unlikely to kill people. Police should do more to address drivers behaving badly.
They Edited The Talking Points!!!
BENGHAZI!!!!
I feel guilty joking about this stuff because, you know, people did die and that sucks.
I feel guilty joking about this stuff because, you know, people did die and that sucks.
Thursday, May 09, 2013
The Immigrants, They Are Everywhere
One weird thing about what I'll politely call anti-immigrant crackpottery is that their side lost. In the early 90s, in much of the country, newly arriving immigrants, especially ones perceived as being of a different race, were truly a new thing. % and total foreign born declined for decades, before trending back upwards in the 70s, and the new wave of immigrants were initially pretty geographically concentrated. Some states had them, but most didn't. So while I don't approve, the "we must stop this thing from happening" position made sense. For most locations, it hadn't happened yet.
But now, you know, they're everywhere.
But now, you know, they're everywhere.
Kids Today
I don't know why more old fogies don't get that the moment you decide to write your "get off my lawn" article is the moment you've proven your fogie status to the world.
Give The People What They Want
Hopefully my bearish outlook is wrong, and things really are going to get better at a faster than glacial pace, but nobody should be surprised that after 4 years of a horrible economy voters are a wee bit more concerned about jobs than other things.
Wednesday, May 08, 2013
Wednesday Evening
I'd love to be able to explain Benghazi to you all, but other than it has something to do with an Arkansas land deal gone bad I really have no idea.
Happy Hour
And, don't forget, our friend Echidne of the Snakes is having her annual fundraiser. If you can afford it, it would be wise to send her some turkee so we can still get posts like When Corpses are Buried or Unearthed. Always an interesting read.
Mysteries
Probably McDonald's should spend a few hundred million on management consultants who can tell them how to improve customer service.
Or, you know, the could pay their front line workers a buck more an hour.
Or, you know, the could pay their front line workers a buck more an hour.
Government Does Stuff
Hunter has a pretty good rant about the stupid people who run the government. We are in the era of truly stupid Republicans, the ones who grew up believing the stuff that was supposed to be just for the rubes to believe. In other words, we're ruled by the rubes now. They think the budget is just a competition between makers and takers, and their job is to give it all to the makers. They're unaware that government does some useful things which, even if you think government shouldn't actually be doing them, greatly impact lives. Take them away and it hurts.
Fear Of A Hippie Planet
Rodrik's discussion of the State Of The Econ conforms pretty closely to what my take is, or at least was when I was still in that world. They're afraid of conceding that the hippies sometimes have a point, even when their work shows that they do.
Tuesday, May 07, 2013
It's Actually Kind of Impressive
Niall Ferguson types the wankiest thing to ever appear on this or any other Internet.
The charge of homophobia is equally easy to refute. If I really were a “gay-basher”, as some headline writers so crassly suggested, why would I have asked Andrew Sullivan, of all people, to be the godfather of one of my sons, or to give one of the readings at my wedding?You couldn't possibly wank any harder without afterwards needing a ton of ice and a damn good surgeon.
Absolution
Even as of today media outlets were referring to Sanford as "disgraced," though I guess he's been purified by voters.
South Carolina
Not sure it matters much, but Sanford is creepy and happy to be on Team Colbert. Results!
I think she's obligated to do a Better Know a District segment.
I think she's obligated to do a Better Know a District segment.
All Is Well
Greg's a bit more optimistic about 2014 and Obamacare. At some level I actually agree with him. I don't think Republicans squawking about the evils of it are going to help them much, because they're too tone deaf about what people actually want and need (affordable available health care). It's just the reality of our health care system, and its new association, that worries me.
It's Gotta Be Good
Nobody could have predicted.
It'll all be Obamacare.
WASHINGTON — As the administration struggles to put in place the final, complex piece of President Obama’s signature health care law, an endeavor on a scale not seen since Medicare’s creation nearly a half-century ago, Democrats are worried that major snags will be exploited by Republicans in next year’s midterm elections.
...
“There are very few issues that are as personal and as tangible as health care, and the implementation of the law over the next year is going to reveal a lot of kinks, a lot of red tape, a lot of taxes, a lot of price increases and a lot of people forced into health care that they didn’t anticipate,” said Brad Dayspring, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “It’s going to be an issue that’s front and center for voters even in a more tangible way than it was in 2010.”
It'll all be Obamacare.
Monday, May 06, 2013
Money
Whatever one thinks of the reasoning justifying Citizens United, I've always been a bit skeptical about its presumed impact on who actually gets elected. Not saying money doesn't matter, just that its impact is less than clear. McCain-Feingold was regularly referred to as the "Democratic Party Suicide Pact" and that didn't quite happen.
In terms of impact on the policies that actually get enacted in this country, I suspect the lobbyist/industry/government revolving doors are much more insidious than the campaign money spigot.
In terms of impact on the policies that actually get enacted in this country, I suspect the lobbyist/industry/government revolving doors are much more insidious than the campaign money spigot.
It Isn't Hard
I know I've said this a million times (literally, Biden-style), but the solutions to the economic misery in this country and elsewhere are very simple. And I don't just mean the wee shortage of aggregate demand. Make our lives easier. Let younger people at least buy into Medicare. Scrap the 401K system and put the money saved (as in tax expenditures which benefit wealthier people) into Social Security benefits. End means- and asset-testing of everything. Make most 'benefits' universal. Think wealthy people shouldn't get benefits because they don't need them? Fine, just tax them more. Provide universal free pre-K.
It doesn't have to be so complicated all the time.
It doesn't have to be so complicated all the time.
What's It All About Then
Normally I have some understanding of the basic gist of the latest right wing nonsense scandal, even the ones that don't make any sense, but many months later I still just have no idea what the whole Benghazi thing is about.
LEAVE ROGAINE AND BRAVEHEART ALOOOOOOONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's cute when colleagues cover for each other.
First they came for your house....
When Your Boss Steals Your Wages: The Invisible Epidemic That’s Sweeping AmericaImagine you’ve just landed a job with a big-time retailer. Your task is to load and unload boxes from trucks and containers. It’s back-breaking work. You toil 12 to 16 hours a day, often without a lunch break. Sweat drenches your clothes in the 90-degree heat, but you keep going: your kids need their dinner. One day, your supervisor tells you that instead of being paid an hourly wage, you will now get paid for the number of containers you load or unload. This will be great for you, your supervisor says: More money! But you open your next paycheck to find it shrunken to the point that you are no longer even making minimum wage. You complain to your supervisor, who promptly sends you home without pay for the day. If you pipe up again, you’ll be looking for another job.
Everardo Carrillo says that's just what happened to him and other low-wage employees who worked at a Southern California warehouse run by a Walmart contractor. Carrillo and his fellow workers have launched a multi-class-action lawsuit for massive wage theft (Everardo Carrillo et al. v. Schneider Logistics) in a case that’s finally bringing national attention to an invisible epidemic. ...
Americans like to think that a fair day’s work brings a fair day’s pay. Cheating workers of their wages may seem like a problem of 19th-century sweatshops. But it’s back and taking a terrible toll. We’re talking billions of dollars in wages; millions of workers affected each year. A gigantic heist is being perpetrated against working people: they’re getting screwed on overtime, denied their tips, shortchanged on benefits, defrauded on payroll, and handed paychecks that bounce like rubber balls. A conservative estimate of unpaid overtime alone shows that it costs workers at least $19 billion per year.
CoT; Radicals
Translation. And exegesis
The theme of the day at the Sunday talk shows was how a seemingly normal American can become radicalized into following an extremist agenda. I am speaking of course, about David Gregory, who has given up all pretense and appears to be openly auditioning for a job with Fox News.
Sunday, May 05, 2013
Rebels
I don't claim to know a damn thing about Syria, but I do know that in armed conflicts/uprisings/civil wars it's unlikely that one "side" are clearly the good guys.
(Reuters) - U.N. human rights investigators have gathered testimony from casualties of Syria's civil war and medical staff indicating that rebel forces have used the nerve agent sarin, one of the lead investigators said on Sunday.
Sunday Afternoon
Busy weekend hosting lots of guests for a book release party for this book which you should all buy and read.
Sunday Morning
As usual, Avedon has some great links. I missed this goodie:
Just the other day, Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers said, 'If the cost of solar panels keeps coming down, installation costs come down and if they combine solar with battery technology and a power management system, then we have someone just using [the grid] for backup.' What happens if a whole bunch of customers start generating their own power and using the grid merely as backup? The EEI report warns of 'irreparable damages to revenues and growth prospects' of utilities.
XVI
David Waldman's weekly #GunFAIL compilation. From David's summary:
Update: David tweets these reports as he finds them. @KagroX.
This week's compilation includes three God-given-but-somehow-forgotten guns, four accidents while cleaning loaded guns (which nobody ever does, though I've now found 102 who've done it so far this year), two home invasion shootings, one NRA-certified instructor shooting himself, six law enforcement officer FAILs, two more turkey hunters shot, and 10 kids accidentally shot, nine of whom either shot themselves or were identifiably shot by other kids under the age of 16. The victims are (or were) ages 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 14 and 14. All were accidentally shot within a seven-day span, from April 27th through May 3rd.David and Cliff Schecter (who also works on the guns issue) joined us at Virtually Speaking last Sunday. David noted that the NYT's Joe Nocera has been doing a similar compilation.
Update: David tweets these reports as he finds them. @KagroX.
Saturday, May 04, 2013
Permission
This "permission structure" business illuminates the centrist Democrats approach to revoking the New Deal. Bi-partisan commissions, historic presidencies, hostage-taking, tribalism are all tools for obtaining permission to violate core values that poll really, really well.
Friday, May 03, 2013
The Reviews Are In!
Who amongst us does not want to buy a "wonderful first novel" which "has the feel of an instant classic?"
Jobs
+165K, unemployment at 7.5%. This will be hailed as good news, but it isn't really. Not bad news, but not good enough news.
Thursday, May 02, 2013
Thursday Crass Commercialism
Who amongst us doesn't need more external drive storage?
Best way to support this site is to click on the amazon links (direct links in posts like this one, or the bottom right ad) and buy crap you were going to buy anyway. It's their money, then, not yours. The commissions are decent.
Best way to support this site is to click on the amazon links (direct links in posts like this one, or the bottom right ad) and buy crap you were going to buy anyway. It's their money, then, not yours. The commissions are decent.
Kids Today
For people under 18, basically any behavior that didn't involve actual harm to others should be treated as a behavioral problem, not a criminal issue, and certainly not an adult criminal issue. Maybe burglarly should get you a short trip to juvey.
To completely mess up your life at 16, you should have to do something which is actually pretty bad.
To completely mess up your life at 16, you should have to do something which is actually pretty bad.
Capacity
One thing about highways/transit is that people conceptually overestimate highway capacity, let alone actual usage in rural areas.. A highway lane operating at perfect capacity can maybe do 1800 cars per hour. Fewer than capacity is fewer, too many cars means congestion and therefore much less capacity, and obviously things like on/off ramps and accidents slow things down quite a bit, especially on older more poorly designed highways (they have gotten better at this). So if a transit line is hosting 26,000 riders per day, that's roughly equivalent to a highly used highway lane.
My urban hellhole has two heavy rail subway lines. The north-south one, especially, is definitely underutilized, but even it gets 135,000 daily weekday riders.
My urban hellhole has two heavy rail subway lines. The north-south one, especially, is definitely underutilized, but even it gets 135,000 daily weekday riders.
Paternalism
It all just boils down to "I must know what my teenage girl is doing." Which I get, and if you have a healthy open relationship with your teenage daughter (good luck!), good for you. But uncle or daddy might also be raping her, or planning to beat the shit out of her for daring to make Jesus cry. Or quite possibly she's just shy and scared for no good reason and you're wonderful parents who would happily help her. Establishing an age limit of 15 in a world where almost no 15-year-olds have real IDs and increasingly 17-year-olds don't either, puts up a huge access barrier to everybody. Fighting for a higher limit is worse.
Infrastructure
Little Tommy's oft repeated, remarkably stupid, view that technology and globalization changes everything also gets the public policy completely wrong. If we're entering a world of job-shifting entrepreneurship, with high-risk/high-reward opportunities for the talented and diligent,* then we need a government that provides a foundation for that world. That means not just a really solid set of social insurance programs independent of people's jobs, like health care and pensions, but also a stronger basic infrastructure.
Pull optical fiber to every post office and set up public wireless. Give everyone a bank account at the Fed. Restore access to inexpensive higher education. Stop the copyright and patent madness. The best public policy in Tommy's world would eliminate the parasitic monopolists choking off innovation and opportunity.
*Tommy and his ilk leave out the most important factor of all: luck.
Pull optical fiber to every post office and set up public wireless. Give everyone a bank account at the Fed. Restore access to inexpensive higher education. Stop the copyright and patent madness. The best public policy in Tommy's world would eliminate the parasitic monopolists choking off innovation and opportunity.
*Tommy and his ilk leave out the most important factor of all: luck.
The Good Old Days
So much more fun.
In the late 1940s and 1950s, chemistry sets entered the atomic age. Gilbert offered an “Atomic Energy Lab” that came with “radioactive ores” and a Geiger counter. A Porter Chemcraft kit had uranium samples and a spinthariscope, a device for viewing radioactive decay. (The humor site Cracked.com last year named toys like this in a list of “The 8 Most Wildly Irresponsible Vintage Toys.”)
Wednesday, May 01, 2013
Afternoon Thread
I liked this post, especially because I wrote it in about 5 minutes. I suppose if you have to explain the joke it isn't funny, but I was mocking BoBo Brooks's column about how he is the best pundit ever.
Stupid Plan B Rule
Basically anything having to do with teenage girls and sex freaks people out. Whether or not 13-year-old girls should be having sex, plenty of them are. If the drug is safe then it's safe.
...also, too.
...also, too.
What Could Go Wrong
I'm not a parent, but I do know that young children only have a vague understanding of the potential consequences of their actions. Teenagers only have a vague understanding of the potential consequences of their actions. So, you know, don't give them guns.
A Kentucky toddler was accidentally shot dead by her own brother as he played with a gun he'd been given as a gift, police said.
Caroline Starks, 2, was killed after her 5-year-old sibling fired the .22-caliber rifle at their Burkesville home at 1 p.m. Tuesday.
Looting And Pillaging
Clueless and/or malevolent rich people are going to destroy everything nice in this country.
Resistance
NYT: Banks Resist Strict Control of Foreign Bets
Am I the only one who thinks the Times should explain just how banks go about "resisting" laws? I'd like to know, next time I'm in a TSA line.
Am I the only one who thinks the Times should explain just how banks go about "resisting" laws? I'd like to know, next time I'm in a TSA line.
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