brainiac conspiracy

Saturday Night Music Blogging

Because you secretly wanna bite off that chocolate bunny head tomorrow, now don't you.

---Baron V

Oh, How They Wanted to Believe in Those Days

Whatever nonsense our leaders spewed about Iraq. Why, exactly? Probably because very few people in our national media establishment wanted to confront the possibility that America had unwittingly allowed its executive branch of government to be taken over by a gang of amoral grifters who were as dishonest as they were incompetent, and whose eight years in the White House effectively sealed the nation's doom as a global political power. To some of us at the time, though, the bullshit was so transparent, its still hard to see how so many seemingly well-educated people took the bait. But it's yet another reason---if you needed any more---for convening that Truth & Reconciliation Commission!

---Baron V

It's Not All Bad News

But of course, you have to go overseas to find some. And it is good news!

As an aside, it probably needs to be noted that the commercial fishing industry is one of the most difficult to regulate because, well, the ocean is a big place to patrol. You can even lose a 747 out there! But the fact that they are at least attempting a conservation-enforcement regime is a positive first step. Might we consider implementing something like it here, or is that no longer possible because Stalin?

---Baron V

Nice Gesture. Inadequate Policy Fix. Same Old Same Old

Okay, I get that the administration wants to encourage our plutocrats-in-training to get involved, roll up their sleeves and pony up some part of their fortunes to effect positive social change. (At least that's the story they're stickin' to.) But we've kinda been there/done that before, whether it's the era of the Rockefellers and the Morgans or the era of the Medicis and the Borgias, and while those oligarchs each made important contributions to culture, the arts, education et al, they also amassed obscene amounts of wealth while 90 percent of their countrymen, walled off from their gated compounds, died in the streets by the millions from tuberculosis and plague. In other words, most other Western societies in our history came to the conclusion that relying too heavily on the largesse of rich people was woefully inadequate---and potentially dangerous---to address many of those societies' most pressing social problems. Maybe someone should remind the administration of that.

---Baron V

Birth Pangs

Freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things. They're also free to live their lives and do wonderful things. And that's what's going to happen here:

[A]s Iraq prepares for its first national election in four years on April 30, it is hard to imagine democracy activists rallying weekly in Iraqi streets. For months, suicide bombers have been dynamiting themselves in crowded Shiite markets, coffee shops, and funeral tents, while Shiite militias and government security forces have terrorized Sunni communities. The Iraqi state is breaking apart again: from the west in Anbar province, where after weeks of anarchic violence more than 380,000 people have fled their homes; to the east in Diyala province, where tit-for-tat sectarian killings are rampant; to the north in Mosul, where al-Qaeda-linked militants control large swathes of territory; to the south in Basra, home to Iraq’s oil riches, where Shiite militias are once more ascendant; to Iraq’s Kurds, who warn that the country is disintegrating and contemplate full independence from Baghdad.

More than 2,500 Iraqis have been killed since the start of the year, including nearly three hundred in the first ten days of April; in the capital itself, which has become a showcase for the country’s multiplying conflicts and uncontrolled violence, there have been several brazen attacks on government buildings, and a terrifying string of car bombings, including eight on April 9 alone.

Thousands of innocents were needlessly slaughtered while America's thought leaders cheered on the carnage. But hey, looking forward.

---Baron V

Are There No Prisons?

One thing that doesn't get mentioned nearly enough is that a guaranteed annual income, besides alleviating a great deal of human misery in America, would also make us, in the aggregate, a healthier---and hence more productive---nation. Because we have known for quite some time that poverty and positive health outcomes don't go hand-in-hand. Medicaid surely helps, but nowhere near enough.

---Baron V

Nothing a 100% Estate Tax Wouldn't Solve

Because oh, all the things we could do with the money:

Policy experts and donors recognize that there’s no better time than now to empower young philanthropists. Professionals in the field, citing an Accenture report from 2012, estimate that more than $30 trillion in wealth will pass from baby boomers to younger generations by around 2050.

(Via.)

---Baron V

The United States of Somalia

Nobody---well, almost nobody---like to think that this is our Republic's likely future, but when an armed mob can run off a government agency performing its legally appointed rounds . . . well, with a liberal policy establishment that seems so frightened of scaring the sensibilities of a group of insane people, you really have to wonder if things in this country aren't going to get a helluva lot worse before they start to take a turn for the better. I'd love to be proved wrong here, but looking back over the last decade or so, putting your chips on worst-case scenarios has been, as a rule, the least risky play.

---Baron V

Nothing New, Really

I know I kvetch and moan a lot on this blog about income inequality, widespread poverty that's about to get much worse, etc. And yeah, it's a problem! But it's probably instructive to remind ourselves that the fine Christian men who founded the Republic believed that only people like themselves deserved the franchise, and that inequality is a feature, not a bug, of American life. Doesn't mean we should stand for it, of course, but we also shouldn't act as though it's some modern-day phenomenon, either.

---Baron V

Today's Worst Person

Ben Steverman:

[P]ut aside the tone-deaf rich and their caricatures in pop culture. Hold the class warfare. High-earning Americans who haven't found the right dodge, or who live in high-tax states, get socked. They contribute more or less like their compatriots in other developed nations, with few of the perks [...]

Consider a married couple living in New York with newborn twins and earning $450,000 a year. Here's roughly what they need to save . . .

I've got another idea. Let's consider a married couple living on the east side of Los Angeles with newborn twins and earning $9 an hour. There are sure a lot more people like that in America than there are six-figure wage earners! And to think these people can't seem to understand why they're so hated . . .

˘ ---Baron V

Friday Night Music Blogging

Because some things seem like they're never gonna happen. Either that, or they're just waiting 'til after the midterms to hasten the demise of the planet on us. Wanna bet which one it is?

---Baron V

More Worst Personhood

This seems awfully petty for an allegedly great nation:

President Barack Obama on Friday signed into law a bill barring entrance to the U.S. for any foreign diplomat seen as a threat to American security or who has engaged in "terrorist activity"---a measure that effectively bans Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations.

Washington said earlier this week that it would not issue a visa to Iran's pick for U.N. envoy, Hamid Aboutalebi, because he is suspected of involvement in the 1979 hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

Can't really believe that the people who govern us would care to keep fighting this ancient conflict. Besides, the Iranians had plenty of reasons to be furious with us. Not to justify hostage-taking, but we shouldn't forget that it only happened after we granted asylum to the guy who we had installed by deceit, and who had tortured, jailed and executed many of their compatriots. Maybe we should choose sides more carefully in the future.

---Baron V

Totally Unacceptable

This.

More to the point, if we are ever to have a truly healthy and productive society that works for everyone and not only the wealthy, a job should be a right, not a privilege. If there aren't enough jobs to accommodate everyone who wants one---which is gonna be a long-term problem---we will need to earnestly discuss one day a guaranteed annual income. Sure, we'll never eliminate poverty and unemployment entirely, but the people who govern us today aren't even pretending to care about the misery and suffering of their constituents that could be alleviated tomorrow if they chose to.

---Baron V

Tell Us Something We Didn't Already Know

I'm old enough to remember when people could leverage mass movements to directly affect public policy. They could take to the streets en masse to earn the franchise for women and minorities, gain bargaining rights for workers, and even stop wars! And eventually, the people who governed us were forced to accede to their demands, as is the normal state of affairs in a thriving liberal democracy.

But that's all a distant memory now. In postmillennial America, we no longer matter.

---Baron V

Pity The Poor Job Creators

Oh how they struggle.

As an alternative, how about instead of bitching and complaining about the high price of real estate, you simply refuse to buy any until the price comes down? Developers and realtors don't want their properties sitting unoccupied for too long. Otherwise they lose money! I've been advocating this for quite awhile now, but if you feel like you're being unfairly exploited, don't give the exploiters any of your money. "Going Galt" can work both ways, y'know.

(Via.)

---Baron V

Grifters Have Always Been Grifting

I'm old enough to remember when inflation was really a thing in this country, to the extent that our President at the time thought it so urgent that he walked around with a "WIN" button pinned to his blazer. What he thought that would ever accomplish, I have no idea, but I digress. Anyway, it was right about that same time that some people proposed tax relief for working-class families. Given how their purchasing power was being eaten away by inflation each year, it seemed like a great idea! Problems arose, however, when you read their actual policy proposal and saw that its true intention was to transfer billions of dollars to rich people and corporations, bankrupt public education, and make it virtually impossible to ever change the policy. But people always like voting themselves a tax cut, and that's how we ended up with this wretched law.

---Baron V

Today's Worst Person

Andrew Ross Sorkin.

You really have to wonder if these people actually buy into their own bullshit, or if it's all just a front to showcase what they perceive to be their keen political insight. Given the overall craven nature of our D.C. media culture, I am guessing it's more of the latter than the former, but I could be wrong!

---Baron V

The Dude-Bro Administration

I suppose every presidential administration has been dominated by Type-A Alpha males, but for some reason, the current administration seems to have established a new paradigm. There's nothing intrinsically bad about this, mind you, but when you have too many men who are all convinced that they're the smartest guys in the room, you run the risk of cultivating an intellectual monoculture that is insular, self-reinforcing, and deaf to the possibility that they might all be incompetent at their jobs.

---Baron V

Some Days You Just Want to Stay In Bed

It's difficult at times to be terribly sanguine about our future on this planet when we stop to consider that the neoliberal Thought Leaders who govern us, by and large, believe in policies that are insane. I mean, we're running out of water here out West, so let's sell off a bunch to some energy company so they can use it to contaminate groundwater---that farmers rely on---and start a few earthquakes. I dunno, maybe we'll "innovate" our way out of impending mass extinction events, but as long as enormous profits can be extracted from the despoliation of our environment, it's hard to see where this ever stops until its just too damned late to prevent the extinction of everything. Cheery thought!

---Baron V

Truth, Reconciliation, Etc.

Yeah, I know we'll probably never get one, but that doesn't mean we should stop talking about it. Because sooner or later, our political and media leadership classes will need to acknowledge the respective roles they played in helping to destroy one of the world's great cities:

As recently as the 1970s, Baghdad was lauded as a model city in the Arab world. But now, after decades of seemingly endless conflict, it is the world's worst city.

That is, at least, according to the latest survey by the Mercer consulting group, which when assessing quality of life across 239 cities, measuring factors including political stability, crime and pollution, placed Baghdad last.

The Iraqi capital was lumped with Bangui in the conflict-hit Central African Republic and the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, the latest confirmation of the 1,250-year-old city's fall from grace as a global intellectual, economic and political centre.

Residents of Baghdad contend with near-daily attacks, a lack of electricity and clean water, poor sewerage and drainage systems, rampant corruption, regular gridlock, high unemployment and a myriad other problems.

Sure, Saddam wasn't the wisest ruler. The war with Iran in the '80s was a costly disaster. But I'm guessing that 20 years of Western sanctions and the subsequent U.S. invasion were the leading causes of the death of Iraq. Heckuva job, everyone!

Luckily, through the magic of the Twittertubes, we can always relive better days.

--Baron V