Saturday, November 26, 2016
Fidel is Dead
No Cuba expert, but I did go there about 15 years ago and learned that things weren't always quite exactly as they were generally portrayed here, and by that time (post-Soviet era, tail end of the "special period," relatively early days of opening up to European resorts and tourism), things weren't much like (good and bad!) they were generally portrayed here at all.
Friday, November 25, 2016
When in Doubt
Choose the person who pisses off liberals the most! Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!
That instinct used to be a largely bipartisan affair, though I guess it's changed a bit with Democrats moving a bit to the left (genuinely!) and also too trying to take back the word "liberal" from the dirty hippies who kept it warm all of these years (annoying!). I remember back in Ye Olde Early Days of Blooging when lefty bloggers generally called themselves liberals, some of the Very Serious People in DC who actually paid any attention to us would try to convince us that liberal was a toxic word (Rush Limbaugh is so scary!!!) and we should just embrace the word "progressive." And it was like, uh, that's a word that fake centrists who are actually conservatives slap on think tank names so they can pretend to be the "left" side of the acceptable debate.
So liberals we were.
That instinct used to be a largely bipartisan affair, though I guess it's changed a bit with Democrats moving a bit to the left (genuinely!) and also too trying to take back the word "liberal" from the dirty hippies who kept it warm all of these years (annoying!). I remember back in Ye Olde Early Days of Blooging when lefty bloggers generally called themselves liberals, some of the Very Serious People in DC who actually paid any attention to us would try to convince us that liberal was a toxic word (Rush Limbaugh is so scary!!!) and we should just embrace the word "progressive." And it was like, uh, that's a word that fake centrists who are actually conservatives slap on think tank names so they can pretend to be the "left" side of the acceptable debate.
So liberals we were.
Black Friday Crass Commercialism
'Tis the season where you spend lots of money on ungrateful brats all of the dearest darlings in your lives. Easiest way to support this site is to give me some of Jeff Bezos's money whey you make those Amazon purchases that you were going to make anyway. Click the link before you buy!
Always Doing It Wrong
I know nothing about the complex Hong Kong-China situation, but I do know that people who are advocating for silly things like "democracy" and "human rights" are always doing it wrong.
Reckless...at least he didn't use the word "childish." That's usually the go to one.
The last British governor of Hong Kong has criticised the “antics” of two recently disqualified pro-independence politicians, saying their position dilutes the fight for greater democracy in the city.
Chris Patten, now a member of the House of Lords and chancellor of the University of Oxford, said it was “dishonest, dishonourable and reckless” to conflate the push for greater democracy in Hong Kong with the argument for independence.
Reckless...at least he didn't use the word "childish." That's usually the go to one.
Not Every Household
Fortunately it'll mostly be the poors who will pay the price.
Just estimates, of course, and there's no reason it can't be made even worse by further dismantling of the welfare state.
The Anglo-American century was fun.
Every household will lose a staggering £1,250 a year because of the Brexit vote, independent forecasters say – as they painted a devastating picture of falling living standards, including no increase in real wages for at least another decade.
The respected Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) also warned that working families will be hit hardest by the unprecedented slump, with pensioners better protected.
Workers will suffer because of an expected 3.7 per cent fall in real earnings by the start of the next decade, compared with the pre-referendum forecast.
Just estimates, of course, and there's no reason it can't be made even worse by further dismantling of the welfare state.
The Anglo-American century was fun.
Thursday, November 24, 2016
Anti-Immigrant Party Chief Announces Plans To Be An Immigrant
Well, you know, not anti-ALL immigrants...
Think I'll be the only one who notices the irony, because some immigrants we don't count.
He said that he wanted his country back but now Nigel Farage is planning to abandon it in favour of a new life in the United States.
The interim Ukip leader, who is due to hand over the reins to a permanent replacement on Monday, has told friends that he is preparing to emigrate with his wife, Kirsten. Despite a long-held interest in the US, he has felt tied to Westerham, his home town in Kent, and his family in Britain. His roles as an MEP and leader of Ukip have also made it difficult to be based abroad.
Think I'll be the only one who notices the irony, because some immigrants we don't count.
What's It All About Then
I'm starting to think that austerity was simply about cutting the parts of the state they didn't like anyway?
It was true here, too, though not quite as true, but the maddening thing in the UK is just how much "everybody" agreed austerity was the only possible way forward because something something reasons something something.
"UK can sustain a relatively high level of debt." @PHammondMP defends high level of UK debt and plan to deal with it https://t.co/RDNKbPfcbO
— Sky News (@SkyNews) November 24, 2016
It was true here, too, though not quite as true, but the maddening thing in the UK is just how much "everybody" agreed austerity was the only possible way forward because something something reasons something something.
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
On The Eve of Thanksgiving
Stories:
One Angry Trump-Voter's Tale. He is not thankful.
Be thankful for net neutrality while you can
Be thankful that you can still read.
And more seriously, thanks for the times we have shared.
Random Question
Busy with travel but who is the one person in education policy circles who is worse than Rhee?
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
The Christmas Gift For All Those Relatives You Hate
It has come to my attention that Little Tommy Friedman, age 9, has a new book out. Get it for all of the relatives you hate most this season!
This is why they pay him the big bucks:
This is why they pay him the big bucks:
Thomas Friedman asks, “What do you think is America’s role in the world?” Trump laughs: “That’s such a big question!"
— Mike Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2016
Back to the Future
In other election news, LA area voters approved a ballot measure to tax themselves for more transit. A map of the future
A myth about LA is that was the first major US city to grow up around the automobile. Actually it was the first major city to grow up around the streetcar, instead of around walking, which was how cities grew prior to that. Then they got rid of all the streetcars and rail generally and added urban highways everywhere. LA suffers from the too-dense-but-not-quite-dense-enough problem (overall it's a very dense city, but with a kind of uniform density that is a bit difficult from a transportation perspective). As is always the case, no matter how this stuff is sold, it probably won't make life better for people who take the urban highways, it'll just give more options to people who want them, and will (if allowed) transform the city into something different.
A myth about LA is that was the first major US city to grow up around the automobile. Actually it was the first major city to grow up around the streetcar, instead of around walking, which was how cities grew prior to that. Then they got rid of all the streetcars and rail generally and added urban highways everywhere. LA suffers from the too-dense-but-not-quite-dense-enough problem (overall it's a very dense city, but with a kind of uniform density that is a bit difficult from a transportation perspective). As is always the case, no matter how this stuff is sold, it probably won't make life better for people who take the urban highways, it'll just give more options to people who want them, and will (if allowed) transform the city into something different.
Nazis Who Hate Nazis
Anyone who has paid attention to the formerly fringe - now so hip and cool and sometimes I can't even hatelink this shit - explicitly racist conservatives knows that they have a weird relationship to Nazis. On one hand they sort of know that Nazis represent something "bad" and maybe they know we fought against them in WWII, and that fight wasn't really a noble fight against racist genocide, just a noble fight, as wars goes, against imperial expansion and fascist tyranny generally. So they're pretty quick to throw out NaziHitler as an epithet to anything/anybody they don't like even when it's really fucking confused.
On the other hand, they really really admire the racism and the white supremacy, so sometimes they're pretty down with the whole Nazi thing. None of it makes any sense.
On the other hand, they really really admire the racism and the white supremacy, so sometimes they're pretty down with the whole Nazi thing. None of it makes any sense.
Don't Talk About This, Talk About That
We got a bit of this during the Bush administration, when some people always thought the outrage of the day was just a distraction from The Real Crime, whatever that happened to be. And, yes, if Trump knows anything it's how to play the media (not that they make it hard for him). Of course "gutting Medicare" or "putting Muslims on a list" is more important than "tweeting stupid shit." But it's all a part of the same thing, really. He isn't president yet. Tweeting stupid shit is about the biggest power he has right now.
Turkee Week
Will be transitioning to holiday posting schedule...which means, when I have the time!
President Donald Trump. That's cool.
President Donald Trump. That's cool.
Monday, November 21, 2016
Fuck 2016
The weird thing about the internet is you can feel strangely close to lots of people you have never met or even really had any personal online interactions with. RIP Scott Eric Kaufman. Fuck this year.
Intriguing New Ideas
As I think I've written before, I long thought that while most racism (ethnicities/religions can be racialized even if they don't conform to our usual ideas of racial differences) didn't get our news media all that excited, anti-Semitism was a line that couldn't be crossed. Well, I was wrong. IOKIYAR no matter what!
Will No One Think Of The Truck Drivers?
I'm a bit confused about the obsession with all of the soon to be out of work truck drivers due to automated technology. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of industries being crushed too quickly (change actually is inevitable to some degree, the speed of disruption is really the issue for things like this) and despite my pessimism about automated car technology, I see partially automated trucking to be a thing which will likely happen to some degree fairly soon (though not quite as fast or universally as people think). Still "what about the truck drivers" seems to get a lot more attention than other industries greatly hit by changes in technology/trade rules/taste evolutions/supply chain modifications.
If nothing else, unlike some recently demolished industries, trucking isn't very geographically concentrated and unlike, say, the arrival of Wal-Mart, is unlikely to destroy small local competitors. In other words, it might destroy jobs (bad!) but is less likely to destroy communities.
I'm not arguing it'll be a good thing for people impacted by it, just curious why this particular bad thing which hasn't even happened yet gets so much attention.
If nothing else, unlike some recently demolished industries, trucking isn't very geographically concentrated and unlike, say, the arrival of Wal-Mart, is unlikely to destroy small local competitors. In other words, it might destroy jobs (bad!) but is less likely to destroy communities.
I'm not arguing it'll be a good thing for people impacted by it, just curious why this particular bad thing which hasn't even happened yet gets so much attention.
Suckers
This isn't about me (I promise! Really!) but something I've observed over the past 15 years or so is how people who go into dogooder politics often get frustrated and fed up and choose to find a way to cash out instead. The frustration is due to the fact that the rewards for dogooder politics are limited. The financial rewards are limited, the successes are limited, and frankly the respect is limited. Your supposed allies (Elected Democrats, mainstream well-funded interest groups which are more into having a seat at the table than getting anything done #notallmainstreamwellfundedinterestgroups) treat you with derision up until the point when they take credit for your successes. In the electoral politics game this is pretty obvious. The people who make the big bucks are consultants and ad people, the people actually getting people to register to vote are volunteers or are being paid about as well. Win or lose the former seem to do okay. I know that quoting a wikileaks email is akin to voting for Putin, but I'll let Paul Begala speak:
(I like Paul. I'm sure politics has been pretty good for his wallet, too, but he has always seemed like a genuine dogooder to me, not just a mercenary with a career)
Congressional staffers sometimes rightly see that they can cash out and work for lobbying firms, sometimes even on the same issues if with a slightly diluted purpose, for multiples of their salaries. Probably the most useless organization in DC, HRC, sucks up all the big donor money and takes credit for anything remotely pro-gay rights that happens.
And when the opposition takes power, suddenly every organization in DC positions themselves as the scrappy underdog ready to fight the power. Some of them even are! Often they aren't. I get pretty furious every time a fundraising solicitation lands in my inbox these days. That emotional response probably isn't always correct. Some of those organizations are probably worth supporting and now would be a good time to support them! Still there's something annoying about "give us money! help us stop Trump!"
As Tom knows from our conversations, I am a strong supporter of this proposal. And if that means we don't work with some of the big-name, big-dollar admakers, I consider that an added bonus.
I am nauseated by the notion that Shrum has a villa in Tuscany while young soldiers are bleeding in Iraq because of his goddam incompetence.
Paul
(I like Paul. I'm sure politics has been pretty good for his wallet, too, but he has always seemed like a genuine dogooder to me, not just a mercenary with a career)
Congressional staffers sometimes rightly see that they can cash out and work for lobbying firms, sometimes even on the same issues if with a slightly diluted purpose, for multiples of their salaries. Probably the most useless organization in DC, HRC, sucks up all the big donor money and takes credit for anything remotely pro-gay rights that happens.
And when the opposition takes power, suddenly every organization in DC positions themselves as the scrappy underdog ready to fight the power. Some of them even are! Often they aren't. I get pretty furious every time a fundraising solicitation lands in my inbox these days. That emotional response probably isn't always correct. Some of those organizations are probably worth supporting and now would be a good time to support them! Still there's something annoying about "give us money! help us stop Trump!"
One Cause To Rule Them All
My longtime war against monocausal explanations seems to be failing.
Sometimes things are a floor wax and a dessert topping.
Sometimes things are a floor wax and a dessert topping.
An Exciting New Odor
We were discussing the coming era of Trump corruption and Mrs. A rightly pointed out that the US has immense amounts of governmnent corruption despite the fact that it always tut-tuts other countries for their supposedly more corrupt ways. This is true. But in modern history it really has been a no-no for a president to personally profit from their position during their administration. We don't have the kind of corruption that involves presidents and prime ministers just siphoning off a few hundred million from the Treasury into their pockets, directly or indirectly.
We didn't, anyway.
We didn't, anyway.
Sunday, November 20, 2016
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