brainiac conspiracy

True Believers

Via Digby today, a helpful reminder for Team Democrat:

Have you ever noticed how conservatives who say the most controversial things imaginable think no one actually disagrees with them?

They will admit that, yes, people might claim to disagree. But they will explain, if pressed, that those who do so are lying, or nuts, or utter the non-truths they utter out of a totalitarian will to power, or are poor benighted folks cowed or confused by those aforementioned totalitarians . . . A genuine right-winger will be so lacking in intellectual imagination—in cognitive empathy—that imagining how anyone could sincerely reason differently from them is virtually impossible.

I encountered this attitude repeatedly at my last corporate job, where the workforce was comprised of a disproportionate number of unregenerate dittoheads. They could utter the most absurd things---which they likely got from Fox or the radio---and if you tied to get them to reexamine their views, they'd look at you as if you were mad. As an example, I remember a conversation with a senior-level colleague who, remarking about a wealthy industrialist who was enthusiastically backing Hillary Clinton for President, said, "I can't believe a guy like that would be supporting such a radical leftist." When I told him that I thought a more accurate description of Hillary would be "center-left corporatist," he gave me a look like I'd just committed blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. I'm only bringing this up because it's the main reason why the administration's attempts at meeting Republicans halfway was doomed to failure from the start---and still is if they insist at attempting it. There's no compromising with people who see you as a Hitler at worst, or as a Chamberlain at Munich at best. People like these see only two possible outcomes to any political struggle: Victory or death. Give them what they deserve next time.

---Baron V

Today's Worst Person

Barack Obama:

“This is where sometimes progressives get frustrated with me,” he said, “because I actually think there was a legitimate critique of the welfare state getting bloated, and relying too much on command and control, top-down government programs to address it back in the seventies."

Barack Obama was a teenager in Hawaii in the '70s, so he can be forgiven (to an extent) for being removed from reality. Your humble blogger, however, was an adult on the mainland in the 1970s, and he can assure Barack Obama that America did not---repeat, not---have a bloated welfare state then, now, or any other time. What we had was a prolonged media campaign by some of the most immoral and evil people our nation has ever produced to win the allegiance of working-class white people by stirring the pot of racial resentment against black folks like Barack Obama---welfare queens and strapping young bucks with T-bones who were getting special privileges that weren't available to the white folks, and who were getting fat and rich off of them. It was racist bullshit then, and it's racist bullshit now, and there was never anything "legitimate" about their "critique".

Oh, and we need more of those "command and control," "top-down" government programs to solve a lot of our problems right now, and today would be the perfect day to call for them, no? Someone please remind me why I voted for this guy in the first place.

---Baron V

Keeping The Poors Poor

One more variation on earlier posts: The neoliberal/privatizing/austerity regime yields virtually identical outcomes wherever it's implemented. Specifically, you can't really repair the damage done by an authoritarian political system such South Africa's in the era of apartheid, for instance, if you don't replace the economics of apartheid with more equitable fiscal policy that allows the millions of poor blah people to claw back some of the wealth that was stolen from them over the decades, and use the money to provide better housing, education, heath care, etc. for them. Because if you don't, nothing will substantively change. Sure, they've got the right to vote now, and a blah President and a blah legislature, but it's all kind of a fake freedom since all of the money needed to build a more civil society has been parked overseas in private accounts, or used to construct walled compounds for the rich white people. This probably helps to explain why South Africa is still a very poor country, twenty years after apartheid, despite sitting on a mountain of natural wealth. Martin King was right---you can't really have true political justice without economic justice as well.

---Baron V

Friday Night Music Blogging

Because the crazy people have always been crazy. There are just more of them in Washington now.

---Baron V

Thursday Night Memorial Blogging

Because our political leaders love to preach to us about the need to make sacrifices for the common good. What they really mean, of course, is that the lower orders, not themselves, are the people who need to make the sacrifices. This is probably why we despise them as much as we do, because we know that true leadership in any enterprise requires the willingness to lead by example.

On the subject, I still vividly remember watching Dick Cheney on C-SPAN, back in the '80s when he was still the Congressman from Wyoming, claiming assertively in the well of the House that South Africa would be a Soviet client state within a decade if Mandela was ever freed. I've looked for video of it all over the Intertubes, but have yet to find it. It's unfortunate, because I always felt that it should have been re-broadcast every single day of the Bush administration---to remind voters of the vision and foresight of the evil men who governed us.

---Baron V

Down Memory Lane

While we mourn a great man's passing today, let's remember how we once honored his greatness:

For nearly 28 years the U.S. government has harbored an increasingly embarrassing secret: A CIA tip to South African intelligence agents led to the arrest that put black nationalist leader Nelson Mandela in prison for most of his adult life.

But now, with Mandela en route to the U.S. to a hero's welcome, a former U.S. official has revealed that he has known of the CIA role since Mandela was seized by agents of the South African police special branch on Aug. 5, 1962.

The former official, now retired, said that within hours after Mandela's arrest Paul Eckel, then a senior CIA operative, walked into his office and said approximately these words: "We have turned Mandela over to the South African security branch. We gave them every detail, what he would be wearing, the time of day, just where he would be. They have picked him up. It is one of our greatest coups."

---Baron V

Silver Linings

There aren't many to take away from our insane era, but it does appear, based on the rhetoric, that the President has come to the realization---finally!---that it's been foolish to try to negotiate with the crazy people, and that his repeated attempts at it have been the signature tactical failures of his administration. The zanies deserved to be steamrolled from Day 1, and they deserve to be steamrolled now. Too bad we'll have to shut down the government to prove the point, but four years of concessions only ensured that this day would be inevitable. Who knows, maybe we'll get lucky and win back the House and restore adult supervision next year, but hold your breath on it.

---Baron V

Cheery Thought For a Sunny Day

We could always drop some freedom bombs on Kenya next week if the Syria deal doesn't work out---and with a great deal more justification since Americans were actually injured there; which, if memory serves, was not the case when the Syrians gassed their own people. Just trying to be helpful here.

---Baron V

Deserves an "E" For Effort, Though

It's certainly a worthy goal, but it's hard to see how you can ever have a thoughtful and nuanced discussion about race relations in America when the people who most need to be involved in the conversation stage a collective freak-out whenever you raise the subject. On the other hand, it's good to revisit the issue every now as a way of reminding us of the urgent need for increased social-services spending, particularly for mental health care---because there are millions of psychotic white people in this country who are in desperate need of it.

---Baron V

Small Favor to Ask

Gestures of generosity are always welcome from our leaders---it's not like they happen every day!---but would it be too much ask that they consider pledging $7 billion to create some fucking jobs here before they throw the money elsewhere? Not that the Africans aren't in genuine need of assistance, but hey, so are lots of other people. Just a thought.

---Baron V

Know Your Enemy

It's the oldest rule of war, because you'll never be able to defeat him otherwise:

Ultimately they themselves are going to have to say we'll do the right thing...There are members in the Senate right now and I suspect members in the House as well who understand that deep down, but they're worried about their politics. It's tough. Their base thinks that compromise would mean somehow a betrayal. They're worried about primaries and I understand all that. And we're going to try to do everything we can to create a permission structure to do what's best for the country.

At this point I've disabused myself of the notion that this President is possessed of any genuine partisan beliefs he's willing to fight to the finish for---except, perhaps, during election season, when they make compelling talking points in campaign speeches---but you would think after all this time that he'd have finally realized what the rest of have known from the minute he took office: That the opposition wasn't, and isn't, some principled adversary that has the nation's best interests at heart. They weren't, and aren't, good-faith negotiators. They weren't, and aren't, people who could be reasoned with. That's because they're not reasonable people, because they aren't surrogates for the crazy people or conduits for the crazy people---they are the crazy people, and acting crazy is what got them a ticket to Washington in the first place.

Maybe the President sincerely believes that somehow, some way, that he'll be able to break their spell of craziness, that they'll all be able to break bread together and write sensible policy someday, and if that's the case, then history will decide whether the President was either a naif, a narcissist, or some combination thereof. But before he departs Washington, he really should spend a little more time, you know, listening to the radio or watching a little TV. It might provide him with a bit more insight into the psyches of the people he's trying to deal with. Just a suggestion!

---Baron V

Today's Worst Person

Same as he ever was:

A reader notes that because Obama said he does skeet shooting “all the time,” perhaps our standard of proof should be higher---such as several photographs. That’s a reasonable point. We have also been asked why we did not immediately award Pinocchios, such as when Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) made unproven claims about Mitt Romney’s taxes. We try to avoid using “verdict pending,” but in cases of self-aggrandizement, we are willing to be a bit more patient. Obviously, if the White House is not forthcoming with additional evidence, then the claim becomes increasingly doubtful.

To be fair, this worthless gossip-monger reversed himself later, but this is symptomatic of a D.C. media culture that all too often leaves its "crap detector" disabled, and in so doing "mainlines the crazy" by giving legitimate voice to the dishonest ramblings of crackpots and cranks, all of whom have political axes to grind, in the interest of presenting Equally Opposing Views™ on every issue, no matter how trivial. It's arguably the single biggest reason over the last 20 years why fringe extremists like Newt Gingrich and Paul Ryan have come to be embraced in official policy circles as mainstream political thinkers. Forty years ago, they'd have been laughed our of town; today, their views are solicited weekly on the Sunday-morning talk shows.

---Baron V

More Valued Stakeholders

Let's make sure they have a place at the table when we sit down to discuss firearms regulations:

Threatened by long-term declining participation in shooting sports, the firearms industry has poured millions of dollars into a broad campaign to ensure its future by getting guns into the hands of more, and younger, children.

The industry’s strategies include giving firearms, ammunition and cash to youth groups; weakening state restrictions on hunting by young children; marketing an affordable military-style rifle for “junior shooters” and sponsoring semiautomatic-handgun competitions for youths; and developing a target-shooting video game that promotes brand-name weapons, with links to the Web sites of their makers.

The pages of Junior Shooters, an industry-supported magazine that seeks to get children involved in the recreational use of firearms, once featured a smiling 15-year-old girl clutching a semiautomatic rifle. At the end of an accompanying article that extolled target shooting with a Bushmaster AR-15---an advertisement elsewhere in the magazine directed readers to a coupon for buying one---the author encouraged youngsters to share the article with a parent.

“Who knows?” it said. “Maybe you’ll find a Bushmaster AR-15 under your tree some frosty Christmas morning!”

Okay, the good news here is that fewer and fewer people are relying on guns as sources of recreation each year. The bad news is that a vocal and well-networked minority of our fellow citizens is becoming increasingly weaponized with military-grade firepower. While it's one thing to show junior how to shoot a BB gun (promotes hand-eye coordination, after all, and teaches him how to hunt his own food in the event of a zombie apocalypse), one would hope that our policymakers would question the social utility of providing mil-spec firearms training to thousands of primary-school students:

Stephan Carlson, a University of Minnesota environmental science professor whose research on the positive effects of learning hunting and outdoor skills in 4-H classes has been cited by the gun industry, said he “wouldn’t necessarily go along” with introducing children to more powerful firearms that added nothing useful to their experience.

“I see why the industry would be pushing it, but I don’t see the value in it,” Mr. Carlson said. “I guess it goes back to the skill base we’re trying to instill in the kids. What are we preparing them for?”

Indeed. Whatever it is, I doubt it bodes well for the future of the Republic.

But let's keep an open seat at the negotiating table for them.

---Baron V

Godwin Wept

Won't have any trouble guessing what they're ranting about on all the whackadoodle sites today:

German gun owners must be licensed and pass strict safety exams to use their weapons. Police in Germany have the power to drop by gun owners’ homes to check that the firearms are locked up according to regulations. And few people are allowed to carry guns in public.

“This is something that is sort of unanimously supported when it comes to political parties,” said Jan Arend, an official in Germany’s Green Party who has worked on shaping gun legislation. “I can imagine what the outrage would be in the United States.”

It speaks volumes about the tenor of our times that I can even think, "God forbid we Americans should be as sensible about public safety as the Germans," but I guess those are the times we live in.

Even so, I'm starting to get really worried for the President and his family's safety, and really, really wish he weren't making his speech outdoors on Monday. Heck, do it from the Oval Office, or Webcast it, or Skype it---it would be an historic event!---but dear God, stay indoors as often as you can for awhile. There are a lot of confused and angry white people out in flyover country whose rage is tangible and who are close to hitting an emotional boiling point; my Facebook feed is full of stuff like the picture above (which is actually pretty tame compared to some other things I've seen); they're spoiling for a fight, and I for one will let out a huge sigh of relief when (hopefully) the outdoor inauguration event has concluded and the President is sitting safely in his bulletproof Cadillac, once again en route to the White House.

On the other hand, it won't be the end of the white man's rage, so we'd all best steel ourselves for the inevitability of future Tim McVeigh Memorial Barbecues. Hope to be proved wrong, of course, but I have little doubt that we'll see at least one of them, and perhaps more, in the coming years. Either way, whatever they pay the President's Secret Service detail, they deserve triple overtime for getting him safely through this weekend.

---Baron V

Random Thought

It's a positive sign for the Republic that conservatives, as predicted, came to their senses after the President was re-elected and are now more amenable to seeking bipartisan compromise on our most pressing national issues. Otherwise you might be tempted to think that they had completely lost their minds.

---Baron V

Profiles in Courage

Tough choices indeed:

Carney said renewing the assault weapons ban “does remain a commitment” for the president.

But he said the immediate attention of the White House is on gathering facts about the shooting---not on disputes over gun laws.

“Today is not the day to . . . engage in the usual Washington policy debates,” he said. “I think that day will come, but today’s not that day, especially as we are awaiting more information about the situation.”

---Baron V

Got an Easy Answer For That

No.

And frankly, I think you can consider it a certainty sometime in the coming months. Of course they won't impeach him for any, you know, genuinely impeachable offenses---they'll grind the government to halt for month so they can impeach him for Solyndra ACORN Panther Benghazi. Not saying he doesn't deserve to be impeached for illegal war-making, unlawful spying on civilians, shielding of war criminals, etc,. But as those offenses now bear the imprimatur of bipartisan accord, we have moved past the point where they'd be considered objectionable. That's not the way it should be, obviously, but that's the way it is.

---Baron V

Morning-After Ruminations

Well, the sushi was especially delicious last night. (My local fish house is a tiny little hole-in-the-wall that I can walk to in five minutes. It serves a limited menu, but it's fresh and quite inexpensive as these place go---four sushi courses, a seaweed salad and Sapporo for only $23.) Guess I was surprised Team Democrat did as well as they did since I assumed (not unreasonably) that the Real Americans would steal two or three of the big battleground big states since (a) nothing less than the Fate of Western Civilization® hung in the balance and (b) they had four years to prepare for it.

One thing I did last night that I don't normally do is watch the Fox people analyzing the late returns. Watching Karl Rove flat-out lie about the victory margin in Ohio while the on-screen vote tally proved the point was amazing. Do they really just pull numbers like this out of their butts the way he did last night on a regular basis, no matter what the graphics say? I guess they do, since I see examples of it all the time at Media Matters, but witnessing it in person is just astounding. How so many people can watch this channel for more than five minutes and not see how many ways they're being conned, I'll never understand because, really, Fox's act is just about as transparent as what you see on Trinity Broadcasting during Praise-a-Thon Week. But it was cool all the same to behold all the somber faces and hushed voices on-camera.

Now? Well, time to keep the pressure on Team Democrat and our conciliator-in-chief not to offer any budget damn concessions to last night's losers---because there's a reason why they, you know, lost---even if it means letting all the tax cuts expire. It's not too terribly inspiring, but at this point we need to summon the resources to postpone Austerity on The Installment Plan for as long as humanly possible. Not too fired up about it, but ready to go.

---Baron V

Still About The Blahs

Could write this same post every day---and in fact, I have, repeatedly!---but once again, these people truly cannot die off quickly enough for the sake of our Republic:

A gated community near Atlanta has decided to step up security this week. The reason is not burglaries, but another issue entirely: the presidential election.

In Woodstock, Ga., about 30 miles north of Atlanta, the president of a homeowners’ association sent an e-mail on Sunday informing residents that the entrance gates would be closed 24 hours a day beginning at 6 p.m. Tuesday, out of concern over possible civil unrest after the election.

“I feel it is better to take a position of caution to enhance controlled access to the community until we see what (if any) negative repercussions may occur because of the results of the election,” wrote Bill Stanley, the president of the homeowners’ association at the Cottages of Woodstock, a residential community for people 55 and over.

I guess in a way, you can't blame them completely. Their own preferred news outlets have confirmed it to them, and they can even find hints in the liberal lamestream media that the schwoogies are gonna be out buck wildin' after earth's rightful rulers reclaim their throne tomorrow. But I still ask The Lord every night before I lay me down to sleep to please let me live long enough to see a United States of Aztlan. Given my age and the actuarial tables, it probably won't happen, but it gives me a good reason to go on living.

---Baron V

Musn't Belittle Them

Riffing off the previous, I know we lefties are being constantly warned against denigrating these people or questioning their intelligence because elitism, but honestly, I've never been able to understand how you do this while remaining faithful to your political principles, or even to simple reality. I mean, I've known many Anglo-Americans like the people at that Romney rally, and I'll readily admit, they're not all stupid people. They hail from all levels along the socioeconomic spectrum, and a fair number of them are degreed professionals who attended high regarded public universities and who, on many subjects apart from politics, are perfectly sane and rational beings. But when the topic turns to politics and/or religion, they just become a gang of gibbering lunatics. It's kinda like what the President said four years ago---it's like they take pride in being ignorant, perhaps because they get some kind of tribal affirmation out of it. Whatever the motive/reward, I can behave politely and respectfully around them easily enough (I've done it thousands of times), but somehow "respecting" their political views makes about as much sense as treating the hallucinations of a schizophrenic as simply another valid perspective on our physical world.

But that is probably being unfair. Schizophrenics can't control their psychotic outbreaks absent medication. These Real Americans can control theirs at any time of their own choosing by simply switching the AM dial away from Rush or watching a news program that isn't hosted on Fox. If these people insist from walling themselves off from reality, well, their concerns as a rule should be ignored, not dignified with courteous "you have a point, but" acknowledgements whenever they start jabbering about the Lightbulb Fascism of Kenyan Socialist welfare sponges. As an alternative, whenever they start brain-farting in your general direction, try delicately to change the subject towards something inoffensive. If that doesn't work, just walk away.

---Baron V