Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.
Author Archives: Chris
Thought for the Day: 21 July 2015
Trump has been calling Mexicans rapists for weeks but the thing that will finally sink him with journalists is being mean to John McCain.
(Source)
To be fair to Trump though, his comments were taken out of context.
It is interesting to me how some public figures can be multifaceted douchebags but the public will only care about one of those facets. For example, no one cares about Denny Hastert’s crooked land deals but the pedophilia is a showstopper. Similarly, Bill Clinton sells out pretty much everyone who ever supported him politically but it’s the blowjob from the intern that generates outrage. Go figure.
UPDATE 7/25/2015: Stewart on Trump.
UPDATE 8/22/2015: It’s now a month after the fact and no one seems to care that Trump insulted McCain. If they do it’s not obvious from his poll numbers. On the poll numbers, I want to know how it is that nearly half – half! – of registered Democrats in OH, PA, and FL haven’t heard enough about Bernie Sanders to have formed an opinion of him. For comparison, 90-95% of Democrats surveyed say they know enough about Clinton and Biden to have an opinion – so for those who have an opinion – and opinions are mostly favorable – please tell me what informs your opinion. What is it that causes you to like or not like them?
For your entertainment: Political Coordinates Test
Brad DeLong posted a link to a Political Coordinates Test the other day. I see these tests a few times a year – figure out where you lie along Left-Right and Liberal-Conservative axes. This one is similar to ones I’ve seen previously but that they have a little twist. While they have a Left-Right axis instead making the second axis a Liberal-Conservative one they use a Liberal-Communitarian continuum instead. Conservative and Communitarian are aren’t the same thing – at least not in the context of US politics. Here’s a sample plot with some well-known political figures for reference.
Weekly Digest – July 19, 2015
Must Read
- John Richardson, When the End of Human Civilization Is Your Day Job: Among many climate scientists, gloom has set in. Things are worse than we think, but they can’t really talk about it.
- Paul Starr, Cultures of Impunity [Ed.: Apropos of Taibbi’s piece on Holder last week.]
- Mike Konczal, On Paleo and Faith in Government
- NASA, The Icy Mountains of Pluto
Should Listen/Read
- Here and Now, What Now For Iraq? [Ed.: I listened to the interview with retired Marine Victoriano. I haven’t listened to the interview with Bacevich yet but he’s always insightful. In a more just world Elliott Abrams would be in prison for crimes against humanity and/or treason. I’m his segment is… entertaining.]
- Fred Thys, With Mass. Off Track On Emissions Goal, Advocates Seek 1st State Carbon Tax
- Todd Gitlin (NYT), The Bernie Sanders Moment
- Carey Goldberg, ‘Not Just Lyme Disease Anymore’: 7 New Reasons To Fear Ticks This Summer
- Julie Hirschfeld Davis (NYT), Hacking of Government Computers Exposed 21.5 Million People
- Katha Pollitt, The Anti-Abortion Vanguard: Abortion opponents are at the forefront of a wider effort to punish poor women and attack social services.
- Paul Krugman (NYT), Liberals and Wages
Barack Obama: Predictions and Observations
There’s been chatter about Obama’s legacy recently. In particular, the Iran nuke deal (which I think is a good thing) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (which I do not) have motivated the discussion. He has a few in the win column but overall I think he’s been a godawful chief executive. With the legacy talk in mind, I started a reading list of articles which address his shortcomings as a leader – predicted shortcomings as well as observed ones:
- Ken Silverstein, Barack Obama Inc.: The birth of a Washington machine [Ed.: From 2006]
- Kevin Baker, Barack Hoover Obama: The best and the brightest blow it again [Ed.: From 2009]
- Roger Hodge, The mendacity of hope [Ed.: From 2010]
- Kevin Baker, Obama’s Bland Bargain
- Jon Schwatz, Bernie Sanders on Obama’s “Biggest Mistake”
- David Bromwich, What Went Wrong: Assessing Obama’s Legacy
- Dan La Botz, Obama Is No Coward
- Drew Westen, What Happened to Obama’s Passion?
Weekly Digest – July 12, 2015
Must Read/Watch:
- Matt Taibbi, Eric Holder, Wall Street Double Agent, Comes in From the Cold
- Brad DeLong, What We Got Here Is a Failure to Do the Government Debt Amortization Arithmetic…
- Carli Lloyd’s goal from midfield in women’s World Cup final last weekend.
- Bernie Sanders, Why Not?
Should Read/Watch
- The Mahablog, The Right Time
- James Galbraith, 9 myths about the Greek crisis
- Jim Yardley and Binyamin Applebaum (NYT), In Fiery Speeches, Francis Excoriates Global Capitalism
- Jesse Ausubel, Nature Rebounds
- Mark Bittman (NYT), ‘A Walk on the Wild (Edibles) Side’
- Tour de France [Ed.: The other day they finished on a uphill grade of >10%, probably more like 15%. Sprinting up a 15% grade?! Amazing.]
Weekly Digest – Running late again
Running late with the Weekly Digest again this week. I should have it done some time tonight. Some links in the interim:
- Matt Taibbi, Eric Holder, Wall Street Double Agent, Comes in From the Cold
- Brad DeLong, What We Got Here Is a Failure to Do the Government Debt Amortization Arithmetic…
- Carli Lloyd’s goal from midfield in women’s World Cup final last weekend.
- Bernie Sanders, Why Not?
- Tour de France [Ed.: The other day they finished on a uphill grade of >10%, probably more like 15%. Sprinting up a 15% grade?! Amazing.]
Thought for the Day: 8 July 2015
If we are not going to try to make good policies–and are not willing to risk that the electorate will ultimately reward good policies–why are we here? If we are going to enact the bad policies of our political adversaries, why not just let them govern?
Thought for the Day: 7 July 2015
[Greece’s referendum on whether to accept the Troika‘s proposed financial “bailout” package] showed that with the unemployment rate at 25 percent (and youth unemployment rate at 50 percent) there is only so much economic pain a sovereign nation will accept in the name of “austerity” without trying to fight back, even when the consequences of the “path less taken” (no country has ever exited the eurozone) are unknowable.
TWIG Notes: July 6, 2015
Three Four links this week:
- Carey Goldberg, The Key To Gardening Without Blowing Out Your Back? It’s Not What You Think
- UMass Agricultural Extension, Landscape Message: June 26, 2015 [Ed.: Defoliation by winter moth caterpillars and gypsy moth caterpillars was of particular interest to me. They did a number on oaks in the area this year.]
- North American Butterfly Association, Massachusetts Butterfly Species [Ed.: We’ve been seeing a lot of what think are fritillaries on our butterfly weed over the past couple weeks.]
- UMass Fruit Advisor, Easy Peach Pruning