brainiac conspiracy

Maybe We Shouldn't Have Let The Private-Equity Guys Buy Up All The Houses That The Banks Stole From Us, And Turn Them Into Rentals. Come to Think of it, Maybe We Should've Sent Some of The Bankers To Prison And Given The Evicted Some Money Relief

Whatever they coulda-shoulda-woulda done, one thing the people who govern us don't get to do today
---or any other!--- is play the Innocent Bystander. The scarcity, i.e., unaffordability of rental housing in this country didn't happen because of some act of God, it happened because of policy or lack of same. These predatory vampires have already destroyed millions of fortunes. What did the administration think was really going to happen if they were simply left to their own devices?

---Baron V

OMG WTF IF ONLY OBAMA WOULD LEAD!!!!

A new week brings another round of stupidity from Fournier regarding

Democrats who privately gripe about Obama's lack of engagement with Congress, his unwillingness to build meaningful relationships, his allegiance to polls and focus groups, and his cautious nature that, in their minds, holds him back from greatness. "He can't handle Putin. He can't handle Republicans," said a veteran Democratic consultant and part-time adviser to both of Obama's presidential campaigns. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the Democrat told me, "He just is not a natural leader."

National Journal should hire some Web geek to construct a Ron Fournier Op-Ed Generator like someone else did for Tom Friedman. The quality of the content wouldn't suffer one iota, and they'd save a lot of money in the long run. More to the point, sometimes "leadership" involves showing some self-restraint while others are panicking. Why is this so difficult for so many people in the DC policy elite to figure out?

---Baron V

Your Cheery Thought For the Day

Nothing lasts forever.

Okay, it's a sobering thought we don't like to ponder at any length because it's never fun to ruminate on our own mortality---and often, it's more than a little scary! But it's true, nonetheless, not only for us as individuals but for the civilizations we live in. I'm not saying it has to happen quite so quickly---I mean, there's still a little time to turn things around---but bigger picture, yeah, it's only a matter of time before we eventually meet the same fate as the dinosaurs. If climate change doesn't get us, something like the Yellowstone caldera will. What comes after us? Who knows, maybe something better!

---Baron V

Could Have Saved Them a Lot of Time and Money

The reason why nobody wants to watch their shitty TV show is because most people don't enjoy watching half a dozen rich sociopaths seated at a roundtable on Sunday morning and discussing amongst themselves why we must continue to punish the poor so the rich sociopaths can have another round of tax cuts because punishing the poor is always the responsible thing to do. Not rocket surgery!

(Via.)

---Baron V

Victory Lap

Okay, so our vaunted private sector has officially "restored" all the jobs that were lost in the Great Recession. Huzzah! Still, it wouldn't hurt to ask why so many people in America are still suffering.

If only there was a policy fix for this . . .

---Baron V

The Road Not Taken

If only we had injected trillions of dollars into the general economy via stimulus legislation instead of injecting the same amount of money into the banking system via the Federal Reserve. The people who govern us have helped to restore the fortunes of the people who crashed the global economy, but the rest of us have, essentially, been abandoned altogether.

---Baron V

Today's Worst Persons

The Most Trusted Name in Newspersons.

Seriously.

Put it another way: if they can figure out a way to "rebrand" their group, Al Qaeda would love to hear from them. Since both groups achieve their organizational objectives using the same methods, any marketing advice the Klan boys can provide would presumably be most appreciated.

---Baron V

Late Night Music Blogging

Because justice delayed is justice denied.

---Baron V

Sunday Night Music Blogging

Because if it's Sunday, you gotta testify.

---

Light Blogging Day

Because I'm in Goldwater Country for the rest of the day, and won't be back 'til late. Happy Rabbit Day.

---Baron V

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