brainiac conspiracy

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

"Those People"

You know, they're the ones who don't want to work and who mooch all your hard-earned tax dollars in the form of food stamps and welfare. It's been a standard right-wing trope for nearly as long as I've been alive, and obviously, it's been quite successful at gaining them the allegiance of many white voters. One reason for this success, I think, is that a great many white folks have had very few real-life encounters with many of "those people" because America is still, you know, a deeply segregated society. It's easy to stereotype people you don't know, after all.

---Baron V

Koch Zero

I'm frankly not terribly convinced that Team Democrat's decision to portray a couple of billionaire oilmen as the embodiment of all perfidy is a smart use of party resources. Sure, it'll fire up the base, and that's important, but I don't think your typical swing/independent voter is going to care much unless Charles Koch decides to run for office. That's because what most people really care about---and have cared about all along---is jobs, and money, and mortgage relief. Specifically, they want, and need, a lot more of each. Promise them that, and maybe they'll vote for you.

---Baron V

Today's Worst Person

Ron Fournier.

Because celebrating the pointless slaughter of thousands with a stage-managed victory speech is just like getting access to health care that can save people's lives.

Somebody please explain to me again why so many people in the Washington policy and media establishments have such a warped and sociopathic worldview. Is there something in the D.C. municipal water supply that triggers the part of the brain that generates false equivalencies? You would think that the Goldberg Act could, and should, be judged on its own merits without having to be compared to the greatest foreign-policy disaster in the history of the Republic. But I guess that wouldn't be "objective" reporting, now, would it.

---Baron V

Once a Grifter

Always a grifter. Which should surprise no one who's been paying attention.

I've said it before, but I'll say it again: This corrupt buffoon has about as much chance of getting elected President as I do. The fact that anyone has ever taken him seriously is a symptom of the intellectual bankruptcy that plagues our Washington media corps.

---Baron V

Nobody Knows Anything

Three years is the same thing as forever when we are talking about presidential elections, and anyone who allegedly "knows" that we are going to see a Warren Insurgency™ or a Clinton Coronation® the next time around is patently full of shit. Sure, pundits are expected to punditize endlessly, but the only way they can punditize for three long years over shit they don't know about is to recycle lots of stale, tired clichés that tell us more about the pundits' personal prejudices than they do about the candidates. Okay, I assume Hillary Clinton will run for President in 2016. And while I wish her no ill will, what happens if, say, she gets sick? She'll be 68 then, and while that's not super-old for our times, hey, sometimes people over 65, they get sick. And I suppose Elizabeth Warren has entertained a presidential run---just about every US Senator has, at one time or another---but who's to say she won't have some religious epiphany, convert to Buddhism, shave her head and retire to a monastery? Anything is possible between now and then, and for that reason, nothing should surprise us. But the whole "populist" versus "pragmatist" horse-race bullshit is, of course, utterly devoid of meaning.

----Baron V

Proud to Live in The Greatest Nation Ever

Apologies for light posting today. Had to run some errands in the Marxist dystopia this morning. When I returned home, I opened my mailbox and discovered that this was my lucky day. Yea Team Democrat!!!

Okay, I did a little snooping at Covered California a couple of weeks ago, and what it means is, I'll probably be able to get a more comprehensive insurance plan, and I will pay accordingly more money for it. That solves one problem inasmuch as my deductible will likely come down---I think it's six grand now---but it doesn't solve the other, much bigger, problem, which is, like, that my existing premium is already too damn expensive. So now I've got to shell out even more loot each month so some greedy little welfare moochers can get free abortions and methadone shots. I'll report the gruesome figures when I find out more info, but I think this only highlights---yet again---one of the Goldberg Act's many flaws: Namely, the lack of price controls. Medicare patients benefit from them; so should everyone else.

Alright, enough grousing. I gotta get some lunch. Drinks are on me, boys!

---Baron V

Nobody Knows Anything

While the expert track touts in our horse-race media have apparently decided that the 2016 nominating conventions are mere formalities, I'd only ask for a show of hands: How many people predicted at this point in 2005 that the next President of the United States would be the black guy named Hussein?* How many people at this point in 1989 knew the name of the Governor of Arkansas? Hey America, it's 1985---who the heck is Mike Dukakis? Sure, some presidential nominations follow predictable arcs (Al Gore, Bush the Elder), but as often as not, the person at the the top of the ticket emerges from relative obscurity relatively late in the game, so anyone who "knows" it's Hillary or Christie the next time around most likely doesn't have a clue what's going to happen. Yes, I know that people like Ron Fournier and Chris Cillizza have to crank out fresh copy about something each day, but as a service to their readers, they really should restrict their analysis to things that are, for lack of a better term, known knowns. Like, reporting actual policy, not handicapping ponies that haven't been born yet.

* Gratuitously adding that my initial impression of Barack Obama was that he indeed stood an excellent chance of winning the Presidency if he could find the money, but I was thinking, like maybe, in 2016.

---Baron V

Today's Worst Person

Ron Fournier.

It's really amazing---isn't it?---how such lazy and uncritical thinkers can rise to positions of authority in our political media establishment. Yes, I realize they're under more pressure than ever to crank out content for print, for the Internet, for chat rooms, for podcasts---and yes, the Goldberg Act enrollment site was a major cock-up that some people should probably lose their jobs over. But there's such a thing as poor planning, and poor planning that leads directly to the needless deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, and they're really not comparable. Both sides don't fuck up policy the same way.

---Baron V

Another One for the Historians to Explain

Specifically, how it came to pass that a political party that once produced such leaders as Lincoln, Grant, and Roosevelt the Elder would end up being run, essentially, by a Politburo of radio shock jockeys who govern top-down: They provide the daily talking points, and the lower functionaries just regurgitate them. I imagine there are many reasons for this---talk radio, Fox News, no Fairness Doctrine---but I wonder how much could also be due to the rise of the Reality TV Show, which has become as a cultural staple during the years of our derangement. There may be no coincidence, but when you consider reality TV's success in peddling fake story lines using some of the most greedy untalented hustlers who are utterly unequipped for and undeserving of fame---well, with a steady cultural diet of that stuff, you have to wonder if it has had any effect on who we elect to represent us in government. I guess yes.

---Baron V

Housing is Expensive

Even after the decline in home prices, in most parts of the country, a house is beyond the means of many millions of people. And lots of communities, particularly in rural areas, have very few rental properties, so as an alternative, people end up living in mobile homes instead. They're a byproduct of the Great Depression, and the fact that so many Americans still live in them is an indicator that many Americans are living in poverty, or very close to it. (As an aside, I inherited one of these things a few years ago, and could be living in it today. I chose to sell it instead because the "home" was located in a senior-citizen park inhabited mostly by white people, and I much prefer to live in a neighborhood that has lots of younger people of varying ethnic backgrounds because they are generally less crazy and less racist than the elder whites; and because the neighborhood I live in now has museums and art galleries and all sorts of worthwhile attractions; my mobile home, by contrast, was situated in a particularly blighted outer-ring suburb where the weather is miserable for much of the year, and with no cultural attractions of note beyond the local strip club. It would be nice to own a home one day---I never have---but not just for the sake of owning one. Like the realtors say, it's all about location.)

---Baron V

National Security

The giants who tower over us have an odd definition of it, and it generally involves massive explosions in faraway places where the savages all live. Yet a more expansive reading might inform us that genuine "security" isn't only about protecting us from terrorist attacks, it's also about protecting us from all the other attacks, too. They kill a lot of people! But I guess we can only operate on a War Footing if we're doing that, so bomb we must, eventually. But we do have better uses for the money.

---Baron V

Terror Teens

Was just thinking about the coming September 11 anniversary, and it dawned on me that a young person entering college this fall was only five or six years old when the Towers fell. That means the generation that is coming of age now has little if any conscious memory of the changes that have occurred in this country between the start of the Terror Era and now. I guess the question is whether they will internalize it as a new normal to be adapted to, or will they follow the example of their #Occupy big brothers. Probably a bit of both, but as with most matters, it will come down to whether or not they will be able to earn a decent living that determines their state of contentment, so maybe we ought to have a program that would maybe put some of them to work. Otherwise, eventually you get #Occupy II, if you're lucky. If you're not, you get Golden Dawn. That's the likely political consequence of raising a generation of children in an atmosphere of fear and loathing and, for millions of them, poverty.

---Baron V

If They Actually Vote "No"

It would be a welcome deviation from the norm. Ironic that the defeat if it happens will be because of the combined efforts of a bunch of crazy people who'd love to be bombing Syria (and Iran!) under a Romney administration. But it would be a welcome corrective nonetheless, and proof that least a few them learned a lesson or two from Iraq. Even crazy people can be right twice a day.

---Baron V

Stereotypes

They're not only propagated by ignorant bigots. Sometimes, even smart and educated people can perpetuate them, albeit unintentionally. People who live in a hermetically sealed world that's inhabited by people who all agree that it's the Center of The Known Universe are particularly susceptible to this because when they venture out of their cocoon and into the hinterlands, and discover that the provincials aren't a bunch of yokels and buffoons but are actually just as hip and savvy as they are, they're liable to conclude that it isn't because they've wrongfully stereotyped the Culture Out There but because, to their minds, that culture is evolving due to their civilizing influence. They might think this a cultural epiphany, but they're only celebrating their own narcissism.

---Baron V

What Really Matters

In post-truthy America, I guess it's not enough for a TV news broadcast to, you know, broadcast the news, with lengthy analysis and discussion of issues ranging from health-care reform to solitary confinement in American prisons, to child labor in the developing world to potential breakthroughs in cancer therapy. That shit's boring. You want to succeed in TV news, you need fireworks! You need oomph! Because accuracy, professionalism, and treating your audience like educated adults apparently no longer suffice. Personally, I felt like I was given a reason last night to start watching the news again for the first time in at least 20 years, but hey, what do I know. Maybe what's really important after all is TV news coverage that treats every school shooting and pressure-cooker bombing as the Absolute Worst Thing That Has Ever Happened to Anyone Ever.

---Baron V

America's Irreversible Decline Confirmed

We are doomed:

Bellagio’s fountains have done it again.

The MGM Resorts International property’s most famous feature was named as the No. 1 landmark in the U.S. by TripAdvisor. The Las Vegas treasure beat out Gettysburg National Military Park, the USS Arizona Memorial in Honolulu, and the Top of the Rock Observation Deck in New York City for the top spot.

TripAdvisor’s Travelers’ Choice Attractions awards are based on millions of reviews and opinions from site users. In its inaugural year, the awards honor 1,263 of the world’s top landmarks, parks, museums and amusement and water parks.

Of course, it would be easy to dismiss this by concluding that those TripAdvisor site users are just a bunch of military fanboys who like to gamble. On second thought, however, that pretty much describes the majority of our fellow citizens. One can only pray for the speedy ascendancy of our future rulers.

---Baron V

Got an Easy Answer For That

Of course not.

Because it's all just a numbers game. What they actually say doesn't matter.

---Baron V

Random Thought

It sure seems like an mighty long day today! I wonder why that is.

---Baron V

Random Thought II

Only in official Washington is being right about everything considered some sort of character flaw.

Then again, when your Website specializes in hyping horse races, it's easy to see how a guy who correctly picks the winners ahead of time could be declared persona non grata in their little section of the press box. Who needs the Daily Racing Form when you already know the odds?

---Baron V