Saturday, September 28, 2019
Sunday, August 04, 2019
The rise and fall of Robert Mueller as superhero extraordinaire
Penned by Matt Taibbi writing at Rolling Stone magazine.
Also, RussiaGate as organized distraction written by Oliver Boyd-Barrett at Consortiumnews.com.
Also, RussiaGate as organized distraction written by Oliver Boyd-Barrett at Consortiumnews.com.
Thursday, May 02, 2019
Wisconsin election 2018 redux
Probably my last post for quite a while, possibly forever. I have come to realize I need to care more about my own inner peace and relationship with Spirit than about any of this politics stuff that once upon a time so preoccupied me. Here's my take on where we are now, posted as a comment to John Michael Greer's recent post, "Present At The Death":
You mentioned solutions to problems that really just schemes to benefit the salary-class more than they are the people supposedly being helped. I think I don't even need to say that "Obamacare" is the exemplar of such schemes. I'm pretty sure it will go down in history as the thing that killed the absolute power of privileged progressives visa-vis the Democratic Party. Of course, try to say that on Reddit.com, and you will be pretty much automatically downvoted into oblivion. And what is the most heavily represented demographic on Reddit.com? Why, millennial members of the urban managerial/ professional salary (MPS) class or children of that class.
That also brings to mind why my home state of Wisconsin would appear to be firmly in the hands of hard-right Republican ideologues: We just don't have enough jobs here for aspiring members of the MPS class, so they move to the Twin Cities, Chicago, or some urban coastal privileged-progressive enclave. The only reason Scott Walker was just barely ousted as governor last election was that the Wisconsin Democratic Party's desperation-move of coming out for marijuana-legalization was marginally successful. There were so many advisory referendums in various "bluish" counties on legalizing medical or recreational marijuana that it made the loutish party-animal types (or at least the ones more likely to vote Democratic when they bother to vote, and as a drinking state, we have more than a few of those) get up off the couch to show up at the polls. But I am very hard-pressed to imagine the loutish party-animals as any sort of force for change of the political landscape of the state, not in the least because legalizing cannabis is at best a "window-dressing" change, as much as I might personally support it.
Those kids on Reddit.com probably expect me to continue voting for a vapid and clueless Democratic Party even though they moved away and left me and my immediate family to fend for ourselves against the plunder-freak Walker Republicans. They just might be disappointed in that expectation, and considering that our structure of national government puts its thumb on the scale to give more weight to lower-population, more rural areas (think the Senate, the Electoral College), that doesn't bode well for those kids and their expectations at all, does it?
Of course, the Republicans have the state so well gerrymandered that they retain a disproportionate amount of control of both houses of the state legislature. It seems very unlikely to me that this situation will change, not in the least because the loutish party-animals couldn't be bothered to show up to vote for Lisa Neubauer instead of evangelical-Christian homophobe Brian Hagedorn in last month's state supreme court race. You see, there is a lawsuit underway challenging the gerrymander, but the state supreme court when dominated by conservatives has a history of giving the Republicans exactly what they want. And as most observers of state politics already know, Republicans responded to losing the governor's office with a blatant legislative power-grab right after the election.
If you follow economic developments via collapse blogs, you probably know that the reason the financial indexes such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average have been so enthusiastically frothy lately is because certain central banks have been using printed money to buy various financial instruments as though these instruments were going out of fashion. According to Chris Martenson writing at his website, these central banks largely stopped doing this during the summer of last year. The result was the market-earthquake the reader may remember from the end of last year. So what happened, of course, is that those central banks resumed their frantic, desperate printed-money instrument-buying. The financial markets have become so dependent upon this practice over the past three years, that the big central banks simply can't stop doing that now or else the markets will tank. And the markets will tank much harder and do much more damage to the real economy of goods and services than if things had been allowed to take their natural course back in 2016.
But of course, at some point, these interventions will experience what we collapseniks call "diminishing returns on investment". Once these returns become negligible, these interventions will of course cease. But what will be different as a result of all the instrument-buying is that the ultra-rich will control much more of the real economy and whatever claims on real wealth that remain outstanding when things start really falling apart.
Human nature can be very sad-making and scary, sometimes. :-(
ETA: It turns out that the gerrymandering case I mentioned was in the hands of the Federal Supreme Court and not the state supreme court. Man, I must really be getting old. And of course, our current US Supreme Court is pretty much in favor of gerrymandering.
You mentioned solutions to problems that really just schemes to benefit the salary-class more than they are the people supposedly being helped. I think I don't even need to say that "Obamacare" is the exemplar of such schemes. I'm pretty sure it will go down in history as the thing that killed the absolute power of privileged progressives visa-vis the Democratic Party. Of course, try to say that on Reddit.com, and you will be pretty much automatically downvoted into oblivion. And what is the most heavily represented demographic on Reddit.com? Why, millennial members of the urban managerial/ professional salary (MPS) class or children of that class.
That also brings to mind why my home state of Wisconsin would appear to be firmly in the hands of hard-right Republican ideologues: We just don't have enough jobs here for aspiring members of the MPS class, so they move to the Twin Cities, Chicago, or some urban coastal privileged-progressive enclave. The only reason Scott Walker was just barely ousted as governor last election was that the Wisconsin Democratic Party's desperation-move of coming out for marijuana-legalization was marginally successful. There were so many advisory referendums in various "bluish" counties on legalizing medical or recreational marijuana that it made the loutish party-animal types (or at least the ones more likely to vote Democratic when they bother to vote, and as a drinking state, we have more than a few of those) get up off the couch to show up at the polls. But I am very hard-pressed to imagine the loutish party-animals as any sort of force for change of the political landscape of the state, not in the least because legalizing cannabis is at best a "window-dressing" change, as much as I might personally support it.
Those kids on Reddit.com probably expect me to continue voting for a vapid and clueless Democratic Party even though they moved away and left me and my immediate family to fend for ourselves against the plunder-freak Walker Republicans. They just might be disappointed in that expectation, and considering that our structure of national government puts its thumb on the scale to give more weight to lower-population, more rural areas (think the Senate, the Electoral College), that doesn't bode well for those kids and their expectations at all, does it?
Of course, the Republicans have the state so well gerrymandered that they retain a disproportionate amount of control of both houses of the state legislature. It seems very unlikely to me that this situation will change, not in the least because the loutish party-animals couldn't be bothered to show up to vote for Lisa Neubauer instead of evangelical-Christian homophobe Brian Hagedorn in last month's state supreme court race. You see, there is a lawsuit underway challenging the gerrymander, but the state supreme court when dominated by conservatives has a history of giving the Republicans exactly what they want. And as most observers of state politics already know, Republicans responded to losing the governor's office with a blatant legislative power-grab right after the election.
If you follow economic developments via collapse blogs, you probably know that the reason the financial indexes such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average have been so enthusiastically frothy lately is because certain central banks have been using printed money to buy various financial instruments as though these instruments were going out of fashion. According to Chris Martenson writing at his website, these central banks largely stopped doing this during the summer of last year. The result was the market-earthquake the reader may remember from the end of last year. So what happened, of course, is that those central banks resumed their frantic, desperate printed-money instrument-buying. The financial markets have become so dependent upon this practice over the past three years, that the big central banks simply can't stop doing that now or else the markets will tank. And the markets will tank much harder and do much more damage to the real economy of goods and services than if things had been allowed to take their natural course back in 2016.
But of course, at some point, these interventions will experience what we collapseniks call "diminishing returns on investment". Once these returns become negligible, these interventions will of course cease. But what will be different as a result of all the instrument-buying is that the ultra-rich will control much more of the real economy and whatever claims on real wealth that remain outstanding when things start really falling apart.
Human nature can be very sad-making and scary, sometimes. :-(
ETA: It turns out that the gerrymandering case I mentioned was in the hands of the Federal Supreme Court and not the state supreme court. Man, I must really be getting old. And of course, our current US Supreme Court is pretty much in favor of gerrymandering.
Tuesday, January 22, 2019
Feeling wistfully nostalgic
There once was a time when it was the rednecks on the right, and not the left, who had completely lost their minds, and who made insane threats of death and violence against those they viewed as transgressive in some way. What ever happened to those days, I wonder?
Monday, November 05, 2018
What my gut is telling me about the election tomorrow
And my gut is usually right. The Republicans will retain control of the Senate (as everyone expects) and also the House by a very slim margin. If the Democrats get control of the House, it will be by a very slim margin. Walker will remain Governor of Wisconsin, by stealing a very close election if necessary. Republicans will retain control of the state assembly, as everyone expects, and also the state Senate, though by possibly only one seat. The shrieking histrionics on blogs and social media will continue unabated. Things will continue to get increasingly grim and depressing. There will be fuck-all we can do about it. That is all. Carry on. :-)
Friday, November 02, 2018
Yay, the culture war!
How Everything Became The Culture War, or why I'm growing weary of politics and everybody's damn Kool-Aid.
Thursday, October 25, 2018
The future of this blog
The thing is, I'm not sure if it will really have one. When I used to post comments at "The Archdruid Report", that would drive a little bit of traffic here. But now that TAR is gone and I only post comments sporadically on "Blogger" blogs, I guess I don't really see the point anymore. I might do a little post-mortem on the 2018 mid-terms in Wisconsin, then that could very well be it. Thanks for reading to what would appear to be my dozen or so regulars. :-)
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
Thanks, Obamacare
It has become difficult for stories about what an utter dumpster-fire US healthcare has become to genuinely shock me, but this one managed to do that in spades:
New insurance policies expect Emergency Room patients to diagnose themselves and put the patient on the hook for the very big bill if the self-diagnosis is wrong.
What's funny is that even now, prog-dems still defend Obamacare. (Hints: It was supposed to control costs but in fact did the opposite; the working class's reaction to getting soaked by it also has more than a little to do with the fact that Trumpi is now our fearless leader, but by all means, scream about Russia some more!)
My advice: Avoid the ER. Yes, you may die, but the way you could get robbed blind if you do go there might make you wish you had died.
An update: Anthem revises the policy somewhat and does so retroactively.
New insurance policies expect Emergency Room patients to diagnose themselves and put the patient on the hook for the very big bill if the self-diagnosis is wrong.
What's funny is that even now, prog-dems still defend Obamacare. (Hints: It was supposed to control costs but in fact did the opposite; the working class's reaction to getting soaked by it also has more than a little to do with the fact that Trumpi is now our fearless leader, but by all means, scream about Russia some more!)
My advice: Avoid the ER. Yes, you may die, but the way you could get robbed blind if you do go there might make you wish you had died.
An update: Anthem revises the policy somewhat and does so retroactively.
Sunday, July 30, 2017
My favorite Gen-Xer in the media does it again
Matt Taibbi writing for Rolling Stone magazine serves up some Truth Tea (TM) about "Russiagate"
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
Obamacare repeal
We all know that the Republican Party owes its current political dominance every bit as much to grassroots opposition to the so-called Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") as it does to the adept manipulation by the Koch brothers of the electoral and legislative processes. However, it would appear that the Republican congress lacks the will to either replace or even just repeal former President Barack Obama's signature legislative accomplishment. As one might expect, this has led to no small amount of rhetorical keening from the hard right of the US Internet.
I find this only worth noting as a possible "latest nail in the coffin" of our political class and its two-party system. Not that anything good will necessarily replace them, as these nails are being pounded by the inexorable progress of industrial society's slow collapse. After all, such collapses usher in bad things just as readily if not more so than good things.
I find this only worth noting as a possible "latest nail in the coffin" of our political class and its two-party system. Not that anything good will necessarily replace them, as these nails are being pounded by the inexorable progress of industrial society's slow collapse. After all, such collapses usher in bad things just as readily if not more so than good things.
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
Saturday, March 04, 2017
Saturday, January 14, 2017
Mid-winter linky goodness
Paul Street writing at Counterpunch.org serves up some Truth Tea about the outgoing Obama Administration.
And Glenn Greenwald writing Theintercept.com tells us that the Deep State and their Democratic Party lackeys continue to be as horny as a teenage boy with sex on his mind for World War Three with Russia, which will only make the Democratic Party fuck itself in the long haul. To which I say, "Boo-fucking-hoo."
To be quite honest, I see a nuclear war with Russia or China in the not-to-distant future. There may be less nukes around than there were during the Cold War, but it only take a pretty limited mutual thermonuclear warhead exchange to bring about a nuclear winter followed by what one might call an "ultra-violet summer". Now is probably a good time to make your peace with your Higher Power.
And Glenn Greenwald writing Theintercept.com tells us that the Deep State and their Democratic Party lackeys continue to be as horny as a teenage boy with sex on his mind for World War Three with Russia, which will only make the Democratic Party fuck itself in the long haul. To which I say, "Boo-fucking-hoo."
To be quite honest, I see a nuclear war with Russia or China in the not-to-distant future. There may be less nukes around than there were during the Cold War, but it only take a pretty limited mutual thermonuclear warhead exchange to bring about a nuclear winter followed by what one might call an "ultra-violet summer". Now is probably a good time to make your peace with your Higher Power.
Thursday, January 05, 2017
You are being lied to, and if you vote for Republicans or Democrats, you're a patsy
Washington, DC and New York City based mainstream publications and websites are the real fountains of fake news in our society.
Since McCarthy lists are now back in vogue, I will contribute my own list of publications and websites you should avoid in order to prevent terminal brain-rot:
Newspapers:
The Washington Post
The New York Times
Magazines:
The Atlantic
The New Yorker
Websites:
The Huffington Post
The Daily Beast
There are more, but this list is only for the most egregious offenders.
And apologies for the dickered link up above, it has been fixed.
Since McCarthy lists are now back in vogue, I will contribute my own list of publications and websites you should avoid in order to prevent terminal brain-rot:
Newspapers:
The Washington Post
The New York Times
Magazines:
The Atlantic
The New Yorker
Websites:
The Huffington Post
The Daily Beast
There are more, but this list is only for the most egregious offenders.
And apologies for the dickered link up above, it has been fixed.
Friday, December 30, 2016
The decline and fall of the USA is ahead of schedule
Once again, a writer at Counterpunch.org summarizes my assessment of the situation in a very cogent and precise manner.
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
The rich and the powerful really do engage in viciously abusive child sex-trafficking
"Pizzagate" is probably a false-flag psy-op designed to discredit the promotion of the Wikileaks information. However, child sex-trafficking is a real thing that is happening, and Bill Clinton is personally implicated in it. And as far as I'm concerned, Bill and Hillary Clinton are a political tag-team, so the sins and crimes (of which there are many) of one are the sins and crimes of the other as well.
Russian hacking mind-control psy-op bullshit
David Lindorff serves up the Truth Tea.
Let's say for the sake of discussion that the Russians did furnish the Wikileaks information. Wouldn't that simply mean that the they simply did the job that the mainstream media should have been doing by making the public aware of information that was absolutely true? The Democratic Party Kool-Aid drinkers have been sinking to such brand-new lows lately that I don't think I will ever vote for another Democrat ever again. (And I was mostly at that point already. Anyone who doesn't like it can fucking suck it.)
Let's say for the sake of discussion that the Russians did furnish the Wikileaks information. Wouldn't that simply mean that the they simply did the job that the mainstream media should have been doing by making the public aware of information that was absolutely true? The Democratic Party Kool-Aid drinkers have been sinking to such brand-new lows lately that I don't think I will ever vote for another Democrat ever again. (And I was mostly at that point already. Anyone who doesn't like it can fucking suck it.)
Saturday, December 10, 2016
Why the Democratic Party Kool-Aid will always reek of vinegar
The Democrats Do Their Job Again by Paul Street writing at Counterpunch.org
Though one flaw in Street's analysis is that the neoliberal-neoconservative faction of the Deep State isn't just taking defeat lying down. Here is my analysis of what I think is going on:
What I think is going on with this clusterfuck of an election is that two different factions of the US Deep State are in open and hostile conflict with one another, and neither one of these factions is "on the side of the angels". The neoliberal-neoconservative-consensus faction is pursuing confrontation with Russia and China that could lead to global thermonuclear war, and a more paleoconservative faction that is usually content to remain silent decided to get behind Trump's campaign in the interest of preventing armageddon. To be sure, the Republican establishment doesn't really like Trump, but they also realize that this may be their last real chance to get Obamacare totally repealed. And since I really don't think Russia wants World War 3, either, it stands to reason the Russians would do whatever they could to help this mysterious rogue faction.
And now the dominant neoliberal-neoconservative-consensus faction is trying to retaliate by creating a new McCarthyism of which the special-snowflake Tumblrina feminists with their "76 genders" are ironically enough making themselves the willing dupes. But I guess it's not surprising considering what easily manipulated authoritarian fools the special snowflakes are. The faking of hate-crimes to make Trump supporters look bad sure is a nice little touch of class, isn't it?
While I'm sure the Russians engaged in psy-ops and counter-psy-ops aplenty (and possibly even the cyber-attack on the Democratic National Committee), I continue to harbor strong doubts that they were the source of the Wikileaks e-mails or were involved in any election-theft that might have occurred. Such allegations are probably more psy-ops from neoliberal-neoconservative-consensus faction of the Deep State.
Though one flaw in Street's analysis is that the neoliberal-neoconservative faction of the Deep State isn't just taking defeat lying down. Here is my analysis of what I think is going on:
What I think is going on with this clusterfuck of an election is that two different factions of the US Deep State are in open and hostile conflict with one another, and neither one of these factions is "on the side of the angels". The neoliberal-neoconservative-consensus faction is pursuing confrontation with Russia and China that could lead to global thermonuclear war, and a more paleoconservative faction that is usually content to remain silent decided to get behind Trump's campaign in the interest of preventing armageddon. To be sure, the Republican establishment doesn't really like Trump, but they also realize that this may be their last real chance to get Obamacare totally repealed. And since I really don't think Russia wants World War 3, either, it stands to reason the Russians would do whatever they could to help this mysterious rogue faction.
And now the dominant neoliberal-neoconservative-consensus faction is trying to retaliate by creating a new McCarthyism of which the special-snowflake Tumblrina feminists with their "76 genders" are ironically enough making themselves the willing dupes. But I guess it's not surprising considering what easily manipulated authoritarian fools the special snowflakes are. The faking of hate-crimes to make Trump supporters look bad sure is a nice little touch of class, isn't it?
While I'm sure the Russians engaged in psy-ops and counter-psy-ops aplenty (and possibly even the cyber-attack on the Democratic National Committee), I continue to harbor strong doubts that they were the source of the Wikileaks e-mails or were involved in any election-theft that might have occurred. Such allegations are probably more psy-ops from neoliberal-neoconservative-consensus faction of the Deep State.
Friday, December 09, 2016
Mark Ames on WaPo neo-McCarthyism
Truthdig.com has really been on fire since the election, which is odd, because most of the time they're actually kind of "meh". Today their site featured an in-depth piece by Mark Ames that opens up the Pandora's Box of Cold War far-right racism, nuclear-war-mongering, and general extremism behind the promotion of the Propornot website's neo-McCarthyist agenda.
The neoliberal-neoconservative consensus faction of the Deep State, which is represented by Hillary Clinton and Democratic-Party Kool-Aid drinkers, must be getting truly desperate. But what's truly funny is that they wouldn't be as "on the ropes" right now if they hadn't insisted on forcing the Obamacare boondoggle down the country's throat and blindly continued to drink the Kool-Aid about it when it was clear that the whole thing was imploding!
Matt Taibbi's take-down of the whole "Propornot" debacle is also worth reading.
The neoliberal-neoconservative consensus faction of the Deep State, which is represented by Hillary Clinton and Democratic-Party Kool-Aid drinkers, must be getting truly desperate. But what's truly funny is that they wouldn't be as "on the ropes" right now if they hadn't insisted on forcing the Obamacare boondoggle down the country's throat and blindly continued to drink the Kool-Aid about it when it was clear that the whole thing was imploding!
Matt Taibbi's take-down of the whole "Propornot" debacle is also worth reading.
Thursday, December 08, 2016
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss
In case any readers jump to the conclusion that I am somehow objectively pro-Trump, this article on Truthdig.com about Trump's cabinet picks sums up why that isn't so.
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