brainiac conspiracy

Monday Night Music Blogging

Because the kids are back in school, and it's vacation time for the grown-ups:

---Baron V

They Can Shut Down The Government

But the cause of freedom can never be shut down:

Federal Prisons Industries, Washington, D.C., was awarded a $246,699,217 non-multi-year, no option, firm-fixed-price contract. This five-year requirements contract is to procure Interceptor Body Armor Outer Tactical Vests for various foreign military sales customers to be awarded on individual delivery orders. Funding and performance location will be determined with each order. The contract had one bid solicited and one bid received.

---Baron V

Passive-Aggressive

I'll never understand why our liberal leaders are so averse to considering the viability of a Platinum Option. It's like, they think that executive power is something that should only be exercised by bombing people or spying on them. Bomb we must, then, but they should consider the money bomb, too.

---Baron V

Got an Easy Answer For That

If you need to ask . . .

Okay, health-care reform was always going to be a difficult lift, and given that there were more pressing concerns at the time, the administration would have been better advised---and in fact, they were!---to postpone the whole matter until the second term. Also too, their insistence that all the "stakeholders" have a seat at the bargaining table meant that any legislation that came out of negotiations would be needlessly complex because our health-care system, as currently comprised, is needlessly complex. This in turn made it easy for the grifters and zanies to disseminate all sort of lies about the law, many of which were recycled unquestioningly by a news media that's ill-equipped to explain complex issues like HCR. (This is why the "public option" was such an important component of the original law---not only because it's a cost-cutting mechanism but because it's a handy talking point: Easier for people to understand, and more difficult to demagogue.) And of course, the disinformation campaign was a smashing success, as it gave the grifters and zanies control of the House of Representatives. And now, we're looking at a shutdown of the government because of it.

It's like this: Yes, over time the Goldberg Act will likely make our horrible, overpriced and inefficient health-care system somewhat less horrible, more affordable and more efficient. It will definitely help the lowest wage-earners, too! But tactically, it was a flaming disaster that essentially spelled the end of any liberal social legislation that we could have expected to be enacted during the Obama era. And even with all the so-called "reforms" in place, for too many people in this country, the health care is still just too damn expensive, and there's only one proven way to remedy that. Maybe one of these days we'll try it.

---Baron V

Capitalism Doesn't Have to be Evil II

But all too often, it simply is. Perhaps someone should do something about it.

---Baron V

Midday Music Blogging

Because it's only 12 more hours to Goldberg Day. I can't stand the suspense!

---Baron V

Gun People

There's something that is just odd about them. Look, I understand why some people would feel a need to have one for self-defense. Say you run a small business in a neighborhood with a high crime rate, and it's easy to see why you'd want a gun on the premises during working hours. I even understand the recreational appeal of guns---I've shot skeet a few times, so I know it can be fun! And yes, I can even understand hunting if it's being done to manage the size of a herd or for food. Your humble blogger is really not anti-gun! But blamming away at animals for the sake of a souvenir, well, I'l never really get it:

The lure of the seemingly uncomplicated task of hunting down the domestic and penned-in buck isn’t one that’s attracting hunters who live for the lure of the chase. Instead, it’s tailored to those who are eyeing to mount a trophy rack, which for those in the sport is the ultimate trophy.

“The rack is what is selling the price, it’s not the deer itself. It’s the trophy rack,” Paul Pinke, the owner of the local hardware store, told Mint Press News.

In its advertisement, which appears through Craigslist, Tarzan is described as a buck that is over 20 points, capable of scoring 200 inches---language that, for hunters, indicates rack superiority.

“Great whitetail buck! Would make a beautiful mount for your home or office,” the ad reads.

These peoples are weird. Too bad they've been allowed to hijack our government.

---Baron V

Capitalism Doesn't Have to be Evil

It only seems that way. But in order for that to happen, the capitalists need to stop extracting profits by impoverishing people and, instead, do something that benefits the impoverished people. Snark aside, this is an awesome idea since a lot of perfectly good food in this country gets thrown out every day, simply because of an arbitrary "sell-by" date which is intended for retailers, not consumers. Dairy products are probably best tossed after their expiration date, and some meats and produce are obviously quite perishable, but just about anything that comes in a can, bottle, box or bag is usually good for months, and even years, later. (I cooked some beans a few days ago that had a 2009 expiration date on the can. The texture was a bit soft, but otherwise they were just fine.) So, credit where due.

---Baron V

Looked Good on Paper

On the surface, there was an elemental logic to it: Flood the financial markets with needed liquidity by making trillions of dollars in asset purchases, which would provide plenty of capital for job creators to lend at low interest rates, which consumers could then borrow to buy stuff, which would increase aggregate demand to the point where job creators would start hiring people to make the stuff that consumers wanted. Unemployment comes down, profits go up, tax revenues get raised, problem solved. It didn't work, of course, because (1) the job creators decided to keep the money for themselves, and (2) policymakers had no idea at the time how bad the recession really was---and still is! They---and we---would have been a lot better off if they'd given the money to our elected leaders to provide jobs to all the people who needed one, but our elected leaders weren't terribly interested in creating make-work programs---unless they involved spying on people. This pretty much sums up the era we live in.

---Baron V

What Our Leaders Saved

Good Samaritans all:

Bill Potter wasn't eager to abandon his high-end house last month during evacuations forced by a massive Idaho wildfire, but he felt reassured when his insurance company sent a team to protect his home near the world-class ski resort of Sun Valley.

"I was more than impressed," he said of the water tanker truck and crew privately contracted by his insurer to patrol his road and keep watch over his family's home, custom-crafted from parts of antique barns.

Potter is a member of the AIG Private Client Group, which is geared toward wealthy policyholders and offers a personal wildfire-protection program for customers in select areas in the western United States.

It's not a total grift inasmuch as they are providing a bonafide service for the money, but the fact remains that they wouldn't be performing this service at all were it not for the largesse of taxpayers---or, more accurately, their elected leaders, who thought, however elliptically, that saving the homes of rich people from fires was more important than saving the homes of non-rich people from banks.

---Baron V

Nothing They Won't Steal That Isn't Nailed Down

It's the real reason why we have sequesters, austerity, shutdowns, etc.:

Discussions about removing government management of the U.S. air-traffic control system are the most serious in two decades, prompted by budget cuts and uncertain funding for converting to satellite navigation [...]

“There are conversations taking place among the stakeholders,” Gerald Dillingham, civil aviation director of the U.S. Government Accountability Office, said in an interview. “All things are on the table, including privatization or corporatization.”

When they talk that way, you know it's a done deal. Because we've got to live within our means, just like millions of American families who are making tough choices around the dinner table in this fragile economy---even though, of course, we really don't, because we can always print more money. So in the future we will pay more for more for everything the minute we walk into any airport, and pray that our plane doesn't slam into some other jumbo jet at 30,000 feet because the $9-an-hour controller associate misread our signal on the radar screen. Should be fun!

---Baron V

Sunday Night Music Blogging

Because there doesn't appear to be much of anything on TV tonight.

---Baron V

They're Crazy, Until They're Not

One of the silliest complaints that has been lodged against the Goldberg Act is that by converting all of our media records to digital data and storing them on exchange-based servers, the sinister forces of Big Government will find a way to illegally obtain our medical records and do something awful-but-we're-not-quite-sure-what with them. Complications arise, however, when an actual agency of that same government wants to illegally obtain our medical records and do something awful-but-we're-not-quite-sure-what with them. Hard to see how this sort of behavior comports with their stated mission.

---Baron V

Guns 'R' Us

At the risk of sounding like a heartless bastard, I have to admit I can't work up much empathy for people who leave loaded guns lying around in places where children can get to them. I feel horribly for the kids who die needlessly in gun-related accidents, of course---I mean, a six-year old boy who unintentionally guns down his four-year-old brother is going to be traumatized for the rest of his life---but parents have to got to know that their kids will eventually "act out" whatever they see Mom and Dad doing, and if that includes playing with firearms, well, guess what, stuff happens, and this is the price you pay for your liberty, that the right of your toddler to accidentally shoot himself in the head shall not be infringed. Like the old saying goes, be careful what you ask for, people.

---Baron V

Today's Worst Persons

It's Sunday, so it could only be the National Football persons.

I've never really understood how this peculiar American custom came to be, and I probably don't really wanna know since it probably involved some job creator using women to sell more tickets, beer, cigarettes or some other wholesome commodity. But even if it's a cheesy addition to the game, if we're going to have professional cheerleaders, we really should pay them commensurate to their worth. How to measure? Don't know for sure, but if you added up all the time the network TV cameras are trained on them during the game, and calculate how much money it would cost to advertise in that amount of time, it might be a starting point. They're professional entertainers, just like the menfolk in helmets are, and if the networks and the league are going to leverage their talents to rake in millions of taxpayer-subsidized dollars, they deserve a bigger cut of the proceeds. Maybe they would consider petitioning the Players' Association to rep them?

---Baron V

Dinosaurs Ruling The Earth

Rich irony abounds when we consider that the global economic order that we have fueled with the remains of extinct species will be eventually driven into extinction, along with all of us, because we fueled our economic order with the remains of extinct species. It would be nice if we could construct some alternative economic order that was less destructive, but given the geopolitical realities of our day, it sure seems sometimes as if the game is essentially over for us. It won't happen right away, of course, and not all of us will perish (possibly), but I can't imagine our planet being a terribly pleasant place to live, say, four or five centuries from now..

---Baron V

Memories

One thing that really annoys me about all the Tip-'n'-Ronnie talk you read about in the Post or hear on Hardball---and we always hear about it when the government is hopelessly gridlocked---is the reality that legislation, then as now, was passed after intensely partisan debates, and there were plenty of them---on tax cuts, on the contras, on apartheid, on missile defense, and many others. Sometimes Tip won, and sometimes Ronnie won. Compromise, whenever it occurred, only did so for reasons of expediency, not comity, and even then, it only worked if both parties were willing to advance serious policy proposals. That's not the case anymore so the analogy is bogus. Also too, there were very good reasons why we had those vigorous policy debates back then, and why they're still needed now---because then as now, the policies that the Freedom Party pushed hardest were perfectly dreadful. You don't meet some things halfway, unless you're some kind of sociopath.

---Baron V

Midday Music Blogging

Because we spend our lives putting out fires, then starting them up. Good times!

---Baron V

He May Have Lost The Election

But the Romney/Bain business model has won the day with job creators and policymakers alike.

This is, again, not only a policy failing but a moral failing, that the people who govern us have allowed the creation of a permanent caste of untouchables who will likely never find work again, in great part because they are older---and even if there's a job available, who wants to hire an older worker when there's a surplus of unemployed Millennials who will do the same work for a fraction of the cost? There are policy fixes for this, of course---extended unemployment benefits, lowering the Social Security retirement age, or better yet, a guaranteed annual income---but the only incomes that are ever permitted to be guaranteed in this country are the incomes of the people who caused the unemployment crisis in the first place. And it is still a crisis!

---Baron V

It Shouldn't Have to be Repeated

But there are many millions of Americans who are in dire need of a little quantitative easing, and most of them do not work for banks:

According to the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), the number of elderly U.S. women who live in extreme poverty has spiked abruptly since the previous year. Think Progress reported that a study by the NWLC showed an 18 percent increase in the population of women over 65 who are living on less than $5,500 per year.

This is not only a policy failing, it is a moral failing, and it's proof that we are governed by some of our nation's most awful human beings. How do we know this? Because leaders who truly cared for the safety and well-being of their constituents would be working ceaselessly to expand our social-welfare system. But they're actually proposing the opposite, so, awful human beings.

---Baron V