Oh, God

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/fox-news-misspells-spelling-bee

Krugzilla Returns

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/10/opinion/krugman-liberty-equality-efficiency.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0

I hate the NYTimes paywall, because I can no longer read the Professor.

But in this piece, he notes the compelling research from the IMF that shows redistributive fiscal policy actually enhances economic growth.  What's more it creates the sort of sustained, gentle growth we saw in the '90s.  When you have income inequality, you tend to see bubbles and crashes like in the '00s.

I've always felt that insufficient taxes on the wealthy create speculative bubbles simply because they have extra money lying around.  And out of cupidity, they desire more lucre.  So they pursue various means - stock or real estate speculation, increasingly byzantine derivatives - that create the bubbles that eventually the middle class gets sucked into.  And when it crashes, it is those with marginal assets that get crushed.

Nice to see that notoriously leftist IMF come to the same conclusion.

TV Sunday

A few weeks ago, I was splitting time between Walking Dead, True Detective and Downton Abbey.  I'm down to Walking Dead after a tremendous (and unexpectedly optimistic) ending to True Detective.

I've always been intrigued but not invested in the mythologies that people create around well written shows.  The X-Files, Lost, you name it.  I prefer to let the story unfold the way the creators want.  Now sometimes in television, the creators don't know where they are going. But the beauty of True Detective was that it was a pre-written, contained storyline.  There was no temptation to outthink the audience and internet theorists.  Ultimately, they told a story about the conflict between the light and the dark.

Meanwhile, Walking Dead has finally decided to concentrate on characters.  It's made for a better show.

Outsourcing

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/sarah-palin-cpac-2014-030814

I love Pierce when he has his Irish up.

#Facepalm

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/03/08/1282750/-Saturday-nutpick-a-palooza-Conservatives-pine-for-communist-president-seriously?showAll=yes

One could hope that the comments listed above were trolling - and maybe a few were.  But the right's hatred of Obama is so profound, so all encompassing, the fact is many on the right would prefer Putin to Obama.

I've had the opportunity to study Putin a little bit, and he's not a guy you want anywhere near the levers of power.

He's benefited from Russia's natural resources - as many autocrats do - but he's not made a "Greater Russia" no matter what he thinks.

But then again, getting "high on your own supply" is also a feature of the right wing in this country.

Paul Ryan Might Be A Pathological Liar

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/paul_ryan_school_lunch_never_happened

I was going to write about how Paul Ryan pissed me off, so let me start with that.

Yesterday, the Zombie Eyed Granny Starver got up at the yearly clown show that is CPAC and created a whopper of a strawman to attack.

He said, roughly, that there was a kid who didn't want a free school lunch, but a bag lunch, because that meant someone cared about him.  Fair enough.

But then he created his strawman, which is that liberals don't understand that people don't want school lunches they want lunches made by mom or dad.

Screw you, dude.

In fact, what liberals care about is that the little kid gets a lunch, period.  What we care about is that kids who come from disadvantaged families don't have to go hungry.

Yes, we would prefer that they can bring lunches from home.  That's kind of why Democrats support things like the minimum wage and food stamps.  The idea is to allow the working poor more dignity and resources to live their life.

So, screw you, Paul Ryan.

But then it gets better.

Turns out the story he told didn't happen at all like he said it did.

Two things: First, Paul Ryan is now the GOP frontrunner, because he combines Nixon's honesty, Bush's homespun diction and Romney's warmth for the 1%.

Second, this party - that persists to live in a world of lies - could win control of the Senate this fall.

ADDED: Robert Schlesinger points out a fundamental contradiction at the heart of Ryan's appeal.  Let me clarify to for him.  The Americans who seek the "dignity of work" are different from those who want to "turn the safety net into a hammock."  The difference in the GOP's mind can be explained with a word that rhymes with "black".

Can You Hear Me Now?

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/whos-speedy-in-the-usa

This is really interesting.  America's internet is relatively crappy.  This kind of explains why.

It reminds me of my theory of why America could never move beyond the second or third tier of international rugby.  We're just too big a country to get the players - who were amateurs - together to practice.  Similarly, the US is a difficult place to wire with fiberoptic cable (or whatever is the current fastest conduit of 1s and 0s).

Generally speaking, where people live closer to each other, they tend to value government action more.  You realize Locke's version of the social contract is more accurate to your needs.  And so you imbue the social contract with more communal needs.

Frankly, US internet service is yet another example of where the so-called free market is failing Americans.  Between monopolistic practices and profit margins, providing the best and easiest internet service is less important that providing the cheapest internet service the customers will tolerate.

So, yeah.  America!  Number one, baby!  Whoohoo!

Yes, Please

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2014/3/6/102541/1896

I would like $2000.  My guess is we would either use it to reduce our debt, fix the house up a bit or take a trip. If it were to reduce debt, it would be debt we've incurred to fix the house up a bit.  So one way or another, that money is stimulative.  Taking a trip would also be stimulative, providing we don't go over seas.

And on $4000 for the two of us, we are unlikely to get to Spain and do more than stay in hostels.  And then there are the Things and their incessant need for food and oxygen, so there goes the
"strap them to the wing of the airplane" idea.

Of course, something like this was sort of done during the stimulus, but it was done in such a way that no one noticed.

But a check for two grand?  I'd notice that.

Just Keep Screwing That Chicken, Fellas

http://www.nationaljournal.com/white-house/democrats-put-hillary-clinton-at-risk-by-dismissing-benghazi-criticism-20140305

There was a poll about Hillary Clinton's biggest weakness going into 2016.  The headlines say it was Benghazi at 15%.

Actually it was "Nothing" at 18%.

The National Journal, staid mouthpiece of the DC status quo, inevitably concern trolls the Democrats that they ignore Benghazi at their peril.  Toppling Qaddafi is one of the perceived strong points on her resume.  I guess.  But the idea is that they will use the same old Karl Rove playbook of attacking a candidate's strengths until it becomes a weakness.  The word for this is "swiftboating".

The real worry is that Hillary Clinton somehow did not learn from her sclerotic campaign of 2008 and will create yet again a top-heavy, consultant driven campaign that plays it safe.  And if she does that, then possibly the GOP constantly harping on Benghazi could leave a mark.

But I think Clinton has a tremendous opportunity to turn the tables on them.  "How dare they drag the dead bodies of fine American civil servants - including a man I know and trusted who served this country well for years - how dare they drag them into the public square for cheap political purposes.  Have you no shame?"

A vestige of our Victorian morals is the idea that women are more moral than men.  More compassionate.

THAT should be Hillary Clinton's calling card.  It will defuse the sense that she is too cold, too calculating and create that empathetic bridge to female voters than could tilt the electoral map in wonderful new directions.

Yeah, This Is BS

Russia's top economic adviser.

http://news.yahoo.com/russia-warns-could-reduce-zero-economic-dependency-us-083926261.html?vp=1

Russia's main product are natural resources.  Once they get beyond the Russian border, they are beyond Russian control.

Russia recently became a source for Foreign Direct Investment, primarily because Western companies - especially petrochemical companies like BP - have been partnering up with Russian companies.  If Russia pursued the sort of Bond Villain economic doomsday scenario outlined in that dude's rambling screed, they'd find precious little leverage to recoup their investments.

Russia ranks 20th in the world in imports, between Switzerland and Australia.  They don't buy our crap.  If they ARE buying crap, it's from China (just like everyone else).  If they stop buying our stuff, we would barely notice.

Russia is the 8th largest exporter in the world - ahead of Italy.  It exports about $500B a year.  But Russia is the second biggest oil exporter in the world, and Europe is its primary market.  So basically it's primary source of income is oil and LG.  Which it sells to the very people who would level sanctions.  We saw what happened to the Russian markets after the Crimean crisis erupted.  That was a prelude.

So Russia's real threat is to cut off the oil.  That would have a profound effect on European markets.

Of course, it would crash the Russian markets, too.

So the only weapon Russia has is the Doomsday Machine.

But the idea that they could crash the US dollar is absurd.  Catch this nonsense from the article:

He told the RIA Novosti news agency Russia could stop using dollars for international transactions and create its own payment system using its "wonderful trade and economic relations with our partners in the East and South."

This has been Putin's dream - creating a Eurasian Economic Zone.

The problem is that Russia's best markets are to the West.  Starve those markets, and the Russian economy collapses, too.

This reeks of epistemic closure.  This guy is high on his own bullshit.

Thought Experiment

High degree of difficulty to appear this stupid.

Is Lindsay Graham too stupid to be allowed to breed?  (Oh, THAT'S why he's single!)

Or does he merely assume - probably correctly, since he represents South Carolina - that he needs to appear this fucking stupid in order to get re-elected.

We have the perfect feedback loop on the Right.  Someone comes up with a dumb as shit idea.  That dumb as shit idea is picked up by some blonde haired mannequin on Fox or one of their screamy, shouty middle aged Irishmen.  Then everyone wants to know why Senator McWhiteguy or Congressman Oldfart isn't screaming about this dumb shit idea.  Senator McWhiteguy and Congressman Oldfart begin to fear a primary challenge from County Solicitor Mouthbreathing O'Bircher.

Then Fox reports that the Congress is investigating this dumb shit idea.  The other networks treat this seriously for a few days - longer than it deserves - and then decide that it's a great big nothingburger.  Then Fox and Congressman Oldfart starting ranting about how the MSM is covering up the scandal of the dumb as shit idea.

And about 45% of the country wallows in this toxic, fecal stew of opportunistic bullshit ladled on the rubes like a fetid baptism in the church of Dumbass.

Yes, I'm bitter.

Slavery Was Just Another Entitlement Program

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/limbaugh-12-years-a-slave-magic-word

Limbaugh has always been the shining avatar of the Hive Mind.  When he speaks he both reflects and shapes what the cranky, old, white, male GOP believes.

Sadly Predictable

A lot of the op-eds today are faulting Obama for...weakness?  It isn't exactly sure, but something bad is happening and it's inevitably the President's fault.  In fact, one of Dubya's better foreign policy moments - along with his AIDS initiative in Africa - was doing very little during the Georgia crisis.  Similarly, Obama scores high - or should - for being flexible and backing off the use of force in Syria.

The central fact is that there is little we can do to pressure Russia in its "near abroad".  You can - and many have - made the argument that it is hard for the US to condemn another country for invading another country on trumped up charges.  Ukraine IS a mess and ethnic Russians are in some danger.  That's at least as compelling as Saddam's WMD.

Unfortunately, the one actor who can pressure Russia is also the most vulnerable to Russian pressure, and that's the EU.  But if Putin pushes further into Ukraine, they may have no choice.

Putin has a full range of options.  Others don't.  What constrains Putin?  That's the central question.

ADDED:  This is good news.

ADDED, TOO: This is a good take on the WaPo and WSJ condemnation of Obama's foreign policy, especially noting that what the editorial boards advocate as solutions are pretty much what Obama is considering and has said he might do.  But expelling Russia from the G-8 can happen Wednesday as easily as Monday.  What's the freaking rush?

Plus, we come back to the Univeral Theory of Iraq.  If you supported the invasion of Iraq, you should immediately count to 4489 before speaking.  So, WaPo and WSJ: you are in time out for now.

Not Watching The Oscars, But....

Steve McQueen did the best directorial job of 2014.  I loved Gravity.  Very good.  But what he did with 12 Years a Slave was the most impressive feat of storytelling I've seen in a long time.

My guess is that this means Gravity wins best picture.  Or maybe Dallas Buyer's Club eeks out the win, since the director wasn't nominated.

But I still think 12 Years a Slave wins the Oscar.

We now return you to your Ukrainian apocalypse.

Walking Dead liveblog

Looks like we will be spending some time with Daryl MoFo Dixon.

Which means the guys writing dialogue get some time off.

So far, this is a nice storyline.  So different from the others.

I think Beth has always been an underwritten character.  Could be a chance to remedy that.

So...will this be the only storyline tonight?  I've rather enjoyed the multiple storyline format.
***
Nice set-up of Daryl's survival skills.  He knows what to take from a car, knows how to set up a camp, knows to go through people's pockets.

And now we have Walker pinatas!

This is pretty standard horror movie stuff.  Dark rooms, flashlights...you can do better Walking Dead!

Too bad.  Beth lost her wine.

So, let me get this straight.  A bunch of apparently wealthy people took refuge during the apocalypse in a golf club?  Couldn't there be a joke in here somewhere?

Tempis fugit indeed.  Maybe Beth could lend a hand?  Or is there another horror movie trope, where the girl stands around helpless?

"Peach Schnapps.  Is it good?"
"No."
And this is why Daryl is the most popular character on the show.
(That, and his impending sensitivity towards Beth.)
"Your first drink ain't gonna be no Peach Schnapps."
***
Is getting shit faced on the run during the apocalypse REALLY a smart move?

I think Beth is trying to do more than get drunk.  She's trying to get a little jiggedty.
***
Daryl, I think is a mean drunk.

Yup.

It's only safe to hug Daryl Mofo Dixon from behind.  This is a true thing.

Lot of commercials...
***
Is this some sort of counter programming for the Oscars?  Because - while it's good - it's not as strong as the rest of the new season.

It's an ensemble, but Reedus is the clear breakout star of the show.  He just showed why.

Is Daryl gay?  I mean, Beth is really cute and pretty much all over Daryl.  Maybe it's his lack of self confidence, but it was the same with Carol.

Ummm, you've just started a bonfire.  You should run like hell before every walker in the county comes for dinner.