brainiac conspiracy

Saturday Night Music Blogging

Because hope and change do not mean protecting war criminals and banks. Funding for the presidential library may be secure, but for the people who voted for him, fuck us. Lesson learned!

---Baron V

They Oughta Know

The Euros have a longer and more nuanced view of their own history than we do---mostly because their ancestors lived through it, and because the very nation-states they inhabit were, in great part, carved out of old empires that were broken up after the Great War. So while we rattle the sabers and talk tough and invoke Chamberlain at Munich because it's one of right-wing radio's favorite catchphrases, the people who are next door to the unrest are counseling patience and calm now. As we they should---they've seen this movie before, and they know what can happen when a bunch of people decide they're going to have a war because they want to have a war, and it doesn't usually end well.

---Baron V

Got an Easy Answer For That

No.

Because he's a one-hit wonder who'll be relentlessly portrayed as an opportunistic carpetbagger with no legislative achievements of note---which, you know, he basically is. If he gets the party nod, Shaheen will beat him like a drum and defeat him by 20 points. Bet on it.

Team Democrat is in for some rough sailing this year, but 2014 is not 2010.

---Baron V

They Want All The Money

They work harder than everyone else---just ask them if you don't believe me!---and that's why they don't want to share the wealth with the lower orders. Yes, it's crazy and unsustainable because once they've finishing impoverishing 99 percent of the population, they'll have no more customers to purchase their goods and services and the business model implodes. Of course, when you run your enterprise for shareholders, you don't think beyond the consequences of the next quarterly earnings report, so onward we lurch, extracting rents ahead of civilization's eventual collapse.

---Baron V

Anniversaries

I really think we should rename St. Patrick's Day. Liberators Day works for me.

It's like what Pierce wrote the other day: We've had absolution without atonement for Iraq. It's a huge scar on our national psyche that we've already forgotten about and moved beyond. But Iraq will be unfinished business until and unless some kind of atonement is made, e.g., a Truth & Reconciliation Commission at the very least. Because if we don't atone for Iraq, somebody, somewhere, will force atonement upon us one day, and we're not going to like it one bit. But we'll deserve it all the same.

---Baron V

Light Blogging Day

Been out on a nice day, doing stuff. Man does not live by blogs alone!

---Baron V

Why We're Exceptional

We have a peculiar interpretation of the law when it comes to auto accidents involving pedestrians. Which is to say, the person on foot is generally assumed to have been at fault---"He came out of nowhere, officer!"---even though the motorist is protected by a 4,000-pound vehicle capable of traveling in excess of 100 miles per hour while the pedestrian, like, isn't. It's not that way in other countries, and perhaps as we become more urbanized and less car-centric, we'll start to reevaluate our attitudes about traffic because our streets should be for the benefit of people first, and cars second.

---Baron V

Friday Night Music Blogging

Because it's time to lick your stamps and paste them in.

---Baron V

Nothing to be Done

Tough talk and sternly worded warnings aside, we will do absolutely nothing of substance after Crimea votes for reunification with Mother Russia over the weekend. That is, if we are smart, that's what we'll do because at the end of the day, it's in Russia's sphere of influence. Besides, who are we to criticize? We've intervened militarily in the internal affairs of nations in our own sphere of influence---we've done it repeatedly for decades. I realize, of course, that the principle of leadership-by-example has never been a strong component of American foreign policy, but sooner or later we'll need to cease with the bluster and admit that there are some things in life that we simply cannot control. We're really not exceptional.

---Baron V

Unserious Persons

Their numbers are growing with each passing day.

More to the point, we'll never be able to approach full employment unless (a) government takes up the slack with a jobs program, or (b) people start spending more money on stuff so that the job creators who sell the stuff can hire more workers to make more stuff. Unfortunately, too many people can't afford to spend much money for stuff because their savings and nest eggs were looted during the recession, and since the government refuses to repatriate the money from the guilty parties, here we are in a state of permanent malaise with a looming poverty crisis on our hands. This is what a guaranteed annual income is designed to prevent, and the sooner policymakers start thinking about it, the better off the Republic will be. But whatever they decide, the ultimate fix is to get more money into more people's hands. Annual government stimulus checks or government-augmented incomes aren't the only ways to achieve this---they're just among the simplest and the most cost-effective because there's no private-sector middle man, e.g., shareholders, to siphon off wealth.

---Baron V

Mayans

It wasn't so long ago that they were the most powerful and technologically advanced civilization in the Americas. But gradually over time, the combination of incessant wars, prolonged droughts, unsustainable resource extraction, and lack of a reliable water source caused their society to utterly collapse. You can read a good account of it here. I only mention this because, you know, our shit stinks just as bad as the Mayans'---only our collapse will be much, much harder. There's probably still enough time to turn the ship around, but we'd better think about doing it soon!

---Baron V

More Failing

On the surface, it would seem smart policy to make flood insurance more affordable via taxpayer subsidies. We're going to see more superstorms and flooding as the planet warms up, after all! And yes, there are some working-class folks in places like New Orleans and Sacramento who will benefit, but in most places, "flood-prone neighborhood" means "waterfront property," which generally is where lots of rich people live. So, more income redistribution, again in the wrong direction.

---Baron V

Culture of Corruption

It's kinda what you get when you allow a lot of people in our governing elites to behave, well, corruptly. It's yet another reason for that Truth & Reconciliation Commission, and as long as we have an entire branch of government operating in utter secret, it's why we will need people like Ed Snowden and Chelsea Manning to expose its inner workings. Otherwise we no longer have a functioning democracy.

---Baron V

Definition of Failure

Following up from earlier, it is hard to think of a greater, and more damaging, domestic policy failing by any administration in my lifetime. It's not as though we hadn't experienced a crisis like this before, or that there were no historical precedents that could have taught us how to solve the crisis, because we had and there were. But instead of doing what needed to be done, they helped make the incompetent grifters who brought down the economy even bigger and more bloated, with greater systemic risk, while millions of their constituents had their homes and their pensions looted from them. Sure, Congress was complicit---there's plenty of blame to go around---but it eventually comes down to the administration. They're the ones who decided to save the banks at the expense of their countrymen. So, failure.

---Baron V

Bring On The Impeachment Votes

First for Eric Holder, and then for his boss:

Four years after President Obama promised to crack down on mortgage fraud, his administration has quietly made the crime its lowest priority and has closed hundreds of cases after little or no investigation, the Justice Department’s internal watchdog said on Thursday.

The report by the department’s inspector general undercuts the president’s contentions that the government is holding people responsible for the collapse of the financial and housing markets. The administration has been criticized, in particular, for not pursuing large banks and their executives.

“In cities across the country, mortgage fraud crimes have reached crisis proportions,” Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said at a mortgage fraud summit in Phoenix in 2010. “But we are fighting back.”

The inspector general’s report, however, shows that the F.B.I. considered mortgage fraud to be its lowest-ranked national criminal priority. In several large cities, including New York and Los Angeles, F.B.I. agents either ranked mortgage fraud as a low priority or did not rank it at all.

They were literally allowed to steal the fortunes and nest eggs of millions of people in exchange for some fines, and this is why no one should be surprised when it happens again. Thanks for reminding me once more why I left this corrupt party.

---Baron V

Thursday Night Music Blogging

Because today's work-related program activities were really, like, tough. Got a real grilling today! But I gave as good as I got, or so it seems in retrospect. We shall see in due time, dear readers.

---Baron V

Light Blogging Day

Work-related program activities have me out for most of the afternoon, so, later.

---Baron V

Believe Nothing 'Til They Prove It

One thing I've learned over the years is that whatever our media tells us is happening on the other side of the world is, generally, the diametric opposite of the reality on the ground. It has been that way, more or less, ever since Vietnam, and I am guessing it is still the same now, in Ukraine or Venezuela or any other country that is governed by people who are not willing vassals of Washington. If we don't get to call the shots, the other side's illegitimate---even though many of our "legitimate" allies have been some of the world's most awful people.

---Baron V

Late Night Music Blogging

Because sometimes you wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep.

---Baron V

Hump Night Music Blogging

Because we are governed by some of our history's greatest monsters.

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---Baron V