Multi Medium

Education For All!

Universal access to education is a good thing, and something every country should strive for.  Universal 5- and 6-figure student debt, not so much.

Add comment May 14th, 2012 at 11:22am Posted by Eli

The Profit Motive Is Not Your Friend

Despite what conservatives would have you believe, unfettered capitalism is not actually a force for good.  The profit motive, at its core, is all about charging the highest possible prices you can get away with, at the lowest possible cost.  Which is an open invitation to cheating, corruption, price gouging, union-busting, and shoddy (if not downright dangerous) goods and services.

True, some companies have consciences or strive to differentiate themselves with quality service, but the free market does not guarantee either, and such companies are the exception rather than the norm.

Add comment May 14th, 2012 at 07:51am Posted by Eli

When Will Democrats Learn?

You can’t make a gentlemen’s agreement without gentlemen.

(Actually, I think they know that full well – they’re just not gentlemen either)

Add comment May 12th, 2012 at 12:15pm Posted by Eli

A Modest Proposal

Zappatero has made the eminently sensible suggestion that we reduce all tax rates to zero. Since conservative tax theory suggests that this would result in infinite tax revenue, it will put Republicans in an interesting catch-22 situation.

On the one hand, eliminating taxes has always been their fondest dream, and all that revenue would allow us to easily pay off the national debt, which they insist is a bigger existential threat to America than al Qaeda, communism and gay marriage squared.

On the other hand, think how much bigger the government could get, and how much more it could spend on lazy undeserving lucky duckies like old people and Cadillac-driving welfare queens. And that’s before we even talk about all the abortions, gun-confiscation squads, and FEMA re-education camps it could afford!

So you see, as much as the right might hate to admit it, those of us who oppose massive tax cuts are only doing it for their own good.

Add comment March 20th, 2012 at 11:37am Posted by Eli

Look How Tiny My Yacht Is!

Bruce Bartlett has a great column on the obscenity of the 1% complaining about how recessions hurt them more than anybody else.  Please.

Whiny self-pitying rich people, meet Cracked.

Add comment March 7th, 2012 at 07:49am Posted by Eli

Obama’s Cunning Plan Revealed

Obama’s former budget director Peter Orszag accidentally spills the beans:

A weak labor market, like the one we’ve experienced since the financial crisis in 2008, imposes enormous stress on people. Given the added anxiety created by a weak economy, you might think life expectancy would decline. Oddly, though, during recessions, exactly the opposite tends to happen: Life expectancy rises.

Now we know: Obama’s stimulus was actually a stealth death panel!  Why does Obama hate Grandma so?

Add comment February 23rd, 2012 at 07:07am Posted by Eli

Thomas Sowell Sure Has Our Number

If only progressives could be as humble as conservatives, who are always so willing to admit that they don’t have all the answers, especially when spouting lies and outright nonsense.

I guess this is why only Democratic governments produce unintended consequences like endless military quagmires, increased Muslim extremism, and economic collapses.

Add comment February 17th, 2012 at 07:19am Posted by Eli

Wanker Of The Day

Obamacare shill Jonathan Gruber, on Bell Curve author Charles Murray’s latest book about the moral decay of working class white America:

Charles Murray took the economic concept of moral hazard – the concept that if you reward people for bad behaviour then they behave badly – and turned it into prose. Reading the book moved me a notch to the right. It posed a challenge to liberals – to get more rigorous in our analysis. It showed the simple facts didn’t look so good for us and that we needed to address questions like, “Is welfare causing women to become single mothers?” Murray really challenged the way I thought.

What about questions like “Are bailouts and deregulation causing corporations to become more reckless and criminal?”  Or “Are lax campaign finance laws giving politicians more incentive to betray their constituents than to represent them?”

Add comment February 8th, 2012 at 07:23am Posted by Eli

Not Concerned

Well, this should certainly help Mitt with his image as an uncaring 1% patrician…

“I’m in this race because I care about Americans,” Romney told CNN’s Soledad O’Brien this morning after his resounding victory in Florida on Tuesday. “I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I’ll fix it.”

“I’m not concerned about the very rich, they’re doing just fine. I’m concerned about the very heart of the America, the 90, 95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling and I’ll continue to take that message across the nation.”

It’s kinda hard to believe that he has any intention of fixing the poor’s safety net if he’s not concerned about them.  Not to mention the fact that he is, well, a Republican, and cutting up the safety net is kind of what they do.

Also apparently the very poor are not the heart of America, and are not struggling. (True, he says the very rich aren’t the heart of America either, but unlike the poor they have our entire political system at their beck and call, so I think they’ll be okay.)

Add comment February 2nd, 2012 at 07:26am Posted by Eli

Empathy: You’re Doing It Wrong

Mitt Romney’s response to a guy who went bust on real estate investments and is considering leaving the country so he can afford his retirement:

Yeah. It’s just tragic, isn’t it? Just tragic, just tragic. We’re just so overleveraged, so much debt in our society, and some of the institutions that hold it aren’t willing to write it off and say they made a mistake, they loaned too much, we’re overextended, write those down and start over. They keep on trying to harangue and pretend what they have on their books is still what it’s worth.

(…)

The banks are scared to death, of course, because they think they’re going to go out of business. They’re afraid that if they write all these loans off, they’re going to go broke. And so they’re feeling the same thing you’re feeling. They just want to pretend all of this is going to get paid someday so they don’t have to write it off and potentially go out of business themselves.

It’s probably not a great idea to pivot your expression of sympathy to those poor terrified banks.  Not if you actually want to get elected.  I’m just sayin’.

Add comment January 24th, 2012 at 07:33am Posted by Eli

Something To Look Forward To

In case you were hoping Obama’s latest chief of staff would be an improvement over Rahm and Bill Daley, don’t hold your breath.  The All-Seeing Eye Of Froomkin found this gem from last year:

A former top executive at Citigroup who participated in the deregulation of Wall Street during the Clinton administration and recently was tapped by President Barack Obama for a top White House post told a Senate panel last week that deregulation didn’t lead to the recent financial crisis.

Jacob “Jack” Lew, Obama’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, the White House agency entrusted with ensuring that federal regulations reflect the president’s agenda, was asked Thursday during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Budget Committee by Sen. Bernie Sanders whether he believed that the “deregulation of Wall Street, pushed by people like Alan Greenspan [and] Robert Rubin, contributed significantly to the disaster we saw on Wall Street.”

Lew, a former OMB chief for President Bill Clinton, told the panel that “the problems in the financial industry preceded deregulation,” and after discussing those issues, added that he didn’t “personally know the extent to which deregulation drove it, but I don’t believe that deregulation was the proximate cause.“

Well, I guess that explains how the resolutely obstructionist GOP allowed him to be confirmed as the head of OMB…

Add comment January 10th, 2012 at 11:27am Posted by Eli

“Job-Killing Regulations” Myth Exploded In One Paragraph

Can’t say it any better than this:

Whenever a firm lays off workers, the Bureau [of Labor Statistics] asks executives the biggest reason for the job cuts.

In 2010, 0.3 percent of the people who lost their jobs in layoffs were let go because of “government regulations/intervention.” By comparison, 25 percent were laid off because of a drop in business demand.

So if Republicans (and Democrats, for that matter) really want to do something about jobs, they should start putting some money in the hands of the people who are most likely to spend it (hint: not the rich).

Sadly, it also suggests that the leading cause of unemployment is… unemployment.

Add comment November 14th, 2011 at 05:46pm Posted by Eli

Hit & Run Metaphor

So let’s see… a member of the 1% (or close to it) recklessly or willfully causes harm to members of the 99%, and the cops just let him go without any consequences? Wow, sounds pretty much like the last 3-4 years in a nutshell, doesn’t it?  Maybe he’ll end up paying a $20 fine or something.

Add comment November 3rd, 2011 at 07:48am Posted by Eli

Missing The Point

The problem is not that there is a lack of game-changing ideas, the problem is that our political system is so corrupt and broken that it’s impossible to implement any game-changing ideas, unless they’re the shitty kind that benefit moneyed interests.

Really, how can anyone expect any kind of meaningful reform when the most ironclad rule of government is “First, do no harm to your biggest campaign contributors”?

1 comment October 14th, 2011 at 11:52am Posted by Eli

Remember When The Tea Party Was The New Silent Majority?

I seem to remember media (and politicians) making a big deal out of polls showing that some huge percentage of Americans “supported” the Tea Party, and both parties were eager to appease them.

How things can change…

[Occupy Wall Street] has a 54% favorability rating compared to the conservative group’s 27%, according to a new Time magazine poll.

A sizable number – 23% – said they didn’t know enough about the Wall St. protesters to make a decision.

In contrast, 23% said they had a negative opinion of Occupy Wall Street compared to 65% who said the Tea Party’s influence has been negative or negligible.

Who ever could have guessed that a message about corrupt rich people and corporations hijacking our country for their own gain would be more popular than “Fuck the poor”?

(I also find it hilarious when teabaggers and Republicans indignantly complain about how the Occupiers are angry, rude, divisive and negative.  Not like those nice polite people who were carrying guns and shouting down their elected representatives at healthcare town halls, or carrying misspelled signs portraying the President Of The United States as an African witch doctor with a bone through his nose.)

Add comment October 14th, 2011 at 07:21am Posted by Eli

Why Does George Will Hate Billionaires?

George Will is deeply offended by Elizabeth Warren’s obvious communism, clearly on display in this statement here:

There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there — good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. . . . You built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea — God bless, keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.

Will’s epically point-missing response:

Everyone knows that all striving occurs in a social context, so all attainments are conditioned by their context. This does not, however, entail a collectivist political agenda.

Such an agenda’s premise is that individualism is a chimera, that any individual’s achievements should be considered entirely derivative from society, so the achievements need not be treated as belonging to the individual. Society is entitled to socialize — i.e., conscript — whatever portion it considers its share. It may, as an optional act of political grace, allow the individual the remainder of what is misleadingly called the individual’s possession.

Will thinks that “collectivists,” otherwise known as “people who want a functional country,” believe that the government should collect taxes from corporations and the wealthy solely as some sort of reward or payback for the generosity that made their individual successes possible.  But that’s not it at all – we believe that the government should collect taxes from corporations and the wealthy in order to preserve and grow the foundation for future individual successes.

Starving the government to satisfy some misguided fetish of rugged individualism and self-reliance will make it increasingly difficult for future – and current – entrepreneurs to succeed, as they try to produce, sell and transport their products with poorly educated workers, slow internet connections, and crumbling roads and rail.  More and more of them will either flee to or be out-competed by countries that recognize the value of investing in themselves.

Taxes are not a prize that government arbitrarily awards itself for being generous and awesome.  Taxes are the revenue that government uses to build infrastructure and weave a safety net, making it easier to take risks and then make them pay off.

Will thinks that any government that collects taxes is socialist, that our system is hopelessly tilted against businesses. But the reality is the exact opposite – just ask Dwayne Andreas:

[Archer Daniels Midland CEO Dwayne] Andreas recently told a reporter for Mother Jones, “There isn’t one grain of anything in the world that is sold in a free market. Not one! The only place you see a free market is in the speeches of politicians. People who are not in the Midwest do not understand that this is a socialist country.“

Hey, I guess we’re both right!

1 comment October 6th, 2011 at 10:12pm Posted by Eli

Wanker Of The Day

Herman Cain:

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal posted Wednesday, the up-and-coming GOP 2012 contender and former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza summed up his bewilderment about recent demonstrations on Wall Street.

“Don’t blame Wall Street,” Cain said. “Don’t blame the big banks. If you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself.”

The conservative radio talk show host described the protests as “planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the Obama administration, though he admitted he didn’t “have the facts to back this up.”

(…)

“It is not a person’s fault because they succeeded. It is a person’s fault if they failed. And so this is why I don’t understand these demonstrations and what is it that they’re looking for.”

Cain also has the Quote Of The Day:

“When I was growing up I was blessed to have had parents. That didn’t teach me to be jealous of anybody and didn’t teach me to be jealous of somebody,” Cain explained.

Wha?

Herman Cain is obviously an al Qaeda infiltrator sent to destroy the United States from within, but I don’t have the facts to back this up.

Add comment October 6th, 2011 at 07:00am Posted by Eli

Fierce Advocate 2.0

Good news, workers!  Obama’s finally got your back!

Obama said he has been accused by Republicans of fomenting class warfare.

“You know what, if asking a millionaire to pay the same tax rate as a plumber makes me a class warrior, a warrior for the working class, I will accept that. I will wear that charge as a badge of honor,” the president said.

Awesome!  I guess that means that Obama will grudgingly implement minor reforms and stop opposing major ones if the working class rises up as one and embarrasses the shit out of him.

(Note: Does not apply to government workers, but they have his “gratitude”)

Add comment September 28th, 2011 at 11:37am Posted by Eli

“Jobs”

I should probably refine my translation of “jobs” as used by corporations and Republicans (and almost everyone else) from “profits” to “profits for industries which have powerful lobbyists and throw lots of money at corrupt politicians”.

Add comment September 23rd, 2011 at 07:50am Posted by Eli

No One Could Have Anticipated…

Services provided to the government by for-profit corporations cost more than those the government performs in-house!  Who knew?

But hey, at least those profits are trickling down and creating jobs and stuff, right?

Add comment September 14th, 2011 at 06:11am Posted by Eli

Strawman Of The Day

Thomas Sowell courageously attacks those who oppose the creation of wealth.

The thing is, no one that I know of is actually opposed to wealth creation.  But I and most other progressives are opposed to creating wealth solely for the enrichment of the wealthy.  If everyone else had a little more wealth, that just might create a virtuous cycle of consumer demand, increased employment, and yes, more wealth.

1 comment September 8th, 2011 at 07:32am Posted by Eli

Multipliers

Very good, long story in this week’s NYT Magazine about the decline of manufacturing in the US.  There’s a lot of interesting stuff in there about lithium-ion batteries and the future of the electric car business, but the biggest takeaway for me is that because “industrial policy” is a dirty word, we now have an economy structured around industries like software and finance that don’t employ nearly as many people as manufacturing, so that even if GDP does start growing, it won’t translate into nearly as many jobs as it should.

It’s kind of like basing a stimulus plan on tax cuts for the rich, in other words.  Or basing an election campaign on appealing to independent voters instead of the base.

1 comment August 29th, 2011 at 07:40am Posted by Eli

HAMP For Unemployment

Looking for another way to give desperate people false hope and pretend to solve the problem while actually just benefiting corporations?  I know!  Let’s let people on unemployment work for free and call it “training”!

Add comment August 25th, 2011 at 07:52am Posted by Eli

No Room For Improvement

Ezra Klein explains that Obama couldn’t possibly have done a better job, what with his miniscule majorities in both houses of Congress and all.  I particularly like the part where he suggests that Obama would have been less popular and the 2010 bloodbath would have been worse if Obama had passed an effective stimulus and generally done more to live up to his campaign promises.

Because the American people just hate strong politicians who get results, especially when they don’t act like corporate tools.  That’s why FDR was only able to get elected 4 times.  Well, that and dying.

Add comment August 23rd, 2011 at 07:51am Posted by Eli

This Just In

Apparently the teabaggers are basically just rebranded Republican theocrats.  If they’re political independents, it’s only because the Republican Party isn’t sufficiently suffused with right-wing religious fanaticism.

But the joke’s on them, because now they’re even less popular than the religious right, and even atheists and Muslims.  Why, they’re even less popular than Obama’s record on the economy, and that’s saying something.

The Tea Party really is the best hope Obama and the Democrats have next year – that they nominate more unelectable crazies like Sharron Angle, Linda McMahon and Christine O’Donnell, and that voters turn against the teabaggers that they elected last year.  Lesser of two evils is pretty much all they have going for them next year, so they’re going to have to be pretty damn lesser to overcome the enthusiasm gap (who could have predicted that the party that strokes its base would get better turnout than the party that kicks theirs?).

1 comment August 18th, 2011 at 08:08am Posted by Eli

Are There No Workhouses?

Thomas Sowell laments that the poor just don’t know their place anymore, and that this will be the end of civilization as we know it.

Of course, there’s absolutely no possibility that they might have legitimate grievances, or that most of “the top” that they’re so “focused on tearing down” has been motivated by nothing more than selfishness and greed, and has been buying politicians for years to avoid participating in any of the “shared sacrifice” being heaped on the poor, the working class, the sick, and the old.

Add comment August 17th, 2011 at 08:11am Posted by Eli

S&P Report To Be Posted On Bulletin Board Outside SuperCongress’s Locker Room

The congressional reactions sound an awful lot like that of a sports team that’s been dissed and is using it as motivation:

Representative Joe Courtney, Democrat of Connecticut, said he had “read and reread the S. & P. report” several times since it was issued Friday night, and he said it could spur action by Congress. If the 12 members of the committee, to be appointed by Aug. 16 by Congressional leaders of the two parties, could agree on a deficit-reduction package, and if Congress approved it, Mr. Courtney said, “that would surprise a lot of skeptics” and could disprove the company’s criticism of the United States political system.

Representative Blake Farenthold, a freshman Republican from Texas, said the S.&P. report could have a beneficial effect. “Anything that encourages the new committee to get the job done and get us back on a rational fiscal path is a good thing,” Mr. Farenthold said.

Another freshman Republican, Representative Steve Southerland II of Florida, said the credit report created “a sense of urgency for the two parties to come together.” The possibility of a further downgrade “scares me,” Mr. Southerland said.

Go team! Let’s show S&P who’s boss!  By doing everything they tell us to!

Add comment August 8th, 2011 at 07:50am Posted by Eli

This Is What Happens When You’re Not Paying Attention

You say clueless, ridiculous things like this:

Republicans will still be able to refuse to raise taxes. But if they do, it won’t matter. The only way they can succeed in keeping taxes from rising is if the Obama administration and the Democrats stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them to extend the Bush tax cuts.

Srsly?  Did you not see what happened last December???

Add comment August 1st, 2011 at 11:27am Posted by Eli

The Only Winners And Losers Who Really Matter

If you want to understand how Washington thinks and why our government and media are so worthless, just read this repellent column by the WaPo’s Chris Cillizza, toting up “The debt-ceiling deal… winners and losers.”

In the winning column, he lists Mitch McConnell, the Tea Party, Obama, the Congressional Budget Office, Grover Norquist, and – I’m not kidding – David Wu.

In the losing column, he lists Congress, the Gang Of Six, commissions, and liberals.

Missing from either list: The economy or the American people.  Just like they were missing from all the political calculations and posturing by Obama and the Tea Party, who collaborated to produce a terrible deal that will make the country weaker and maybe even increase the debt it was supposed to reduce.

You also have to love this little snippet of DLC-style conventional wisdom:

But remember that Obama’s target constituency in 2012 is not his base but rather independent and moderate voters. And those fence-sitters love compromise in almost any form.

Yep, there’s nothing independents and moderates love more than politicians with no convictions at all (I personally believe Obama is a strong Republican masquerading as a weak Democrat, but the appearance is the same).  And of course they always turn out in droves, not like a motivated Democratic base would.

I understand that most politicians – and much of the media who cover them – are corrupt, shallow, self-centered creatures, and it’s folly to expect them to always put the good of the country first.  But couldn’t they at least think about it a little bit?

Add comment August 1st, 2011 at 07:49am Posted by Eli

The Real Enemies Of Democracy

As Paul Krugman points out, it’s not the Republican crazies that are destroying the country – it’s all the media enablers who present their insanity as just one, perfectly valid side of the story, or pretend that both sides of the political spectrum are equally unreasonable.

We need less balance and more truth.

1 comment July 27th, 2011 at 09:42am Posted by Eli