I am so sick and tired of hearing about Trump, and I am doubly disgusted by the “Woah, he’s gone too far” bullshit coming from the Republican assholes who created this monster by egging on gun nuts, racists conspiracy theorists, Christianist nutjobs, and every other variant of know-nothing slack-jawed shitheel for the last 30 years. Fuck you Paul Ryan and Dick Cheney and all of you now pretending TRump is out of line. Trump is the logical conclusion for the bullshit you’ve been peddling for decades.
Consider this a Trump free open thread.
JPL
John, Don’t forget about Norquist who pushed them to the right. His Muslim wife must be so proud of the GOP now.
also, too.. The GOP condemns his statements but when asked whether or not they will vote for him, they say yes. fk em
catclub
Mosul is just about cut off from re-supply for Daesh. Ramadi is also being encircled to isolate Daesh.
CalPers is trying to hide from its Board of Directors how badly it has been swindled by private equity
companies.
Roger Moore
He’s the logical next step. The logical conclusion is ethnic cleansing and genocide.
Original Lee
All righty then, let’s talk about our feckless Congress. What I feel about them collectively, right now, is probably impossible for me to express without exceeding even the generous attitude towards profanity on this site. Suffice it to say, they have just now, this evening, figured out that they will not be able to pass the omnibus budget bill on time. Ryan has asked for an “extraordinary” weekend session, of course after the Dec. 11 deadline, and now they’re bickering over how many days the next continuing resolution needs to last. Some want a week, but some (including Ryan, IIRC) want a six-week extention. Why? Because they need to decide if they want to fold in the tax extender bill or not, and how many of the riders they can strip out and still get it through both chambers and across Obama’s desk.
I think if someone in my house turned off all the lights, they’d be able to read by the incandescent glow of my fury.
schrodinger's cat
What do I tell my friend who thinks both Trump and Clinton are equally disgusting, where do I even begin?
ETA: I have written her a long email.
Corner Stone
@JPL:
He just wanted all the monies. He never thought Reagan’s three stool-leg coalition would come back to eat him and his up.
JMG
In the spirit, John, are you encouraged by or suspicious of the Steelers’ apparent renaissance. Up here in Boston, the consensus among Patriots fans is that they’d rather not see Pittsburgh in the playoffs.
beltane
I’m going to Italy by myself (away from the kids and husband) in January to reconnect with my family. This is a very big deal for me and something I’ve wanted to do for years. It will be interesting to view the American political scene from afar.
Corner Stone
@schrodinger’s cat: Lead shot filled glove upside their face?
Corner Stone
@JMG: The best thing that ever happened to the Pittsburgh defense was having three beasts at WR. And if they can get Heath Miller back at TE…sheeeeiiittt.
schrodinger's cat
@beltane: I always enjoy my solo India trips better than the ones with husband cat.
Corner Stone
@catclub: I, for one, really enjoy these two sentences in the same comment.
Ehhh, three sentences but you know what I meant.
beltane
Grover Norquist’s Muslim wife isn’t going to personally suffer anything on account of her husband’s political activities. It will be the un-wealthy and unconnected who will be put in jeopardy.
Jane2
@beltane: What a great trip you will have! I have solo travelled to Europe and enjoyed myself thoroughly.
Frankensteinbeck
I’m not sure I’m enjoying it, exactly, but it’s definitely a good thing that my manuscript is sent in and I’m waiting for ‘content’ editing notes.
JPL
@beltane: I’d love to see Morning joe ask him if he is concerned about his wife. Of course that’s a pipe dream.
catclub
Lies from Dick Cheney in his ‘good’ answer:
1. A lot of people, my ancestors got here, because they were Puritans. There wasn’t anybody here then when they came, but it’s a mistaken notion.
2.It’s a serious problem to make certain that the people coming in don’t represent ISIS. You’ve got to set up a vetting process.
3. And that’s crucial, but I think the way you’ve got to begin to deal with that problem is to go back and look at why they’re here. and they’re here because of what’s going on in the Middle East. And what’s going on in the Middle East is the result of a U.S. vacuum.
I am glad it is the vacuum and not some incredibly stupid invasion.
Mike in NC
@Roger Moore: Trump is just getting warmed up. By Christmas he’ll be talking about “sending those people back where they came from” and the old white folks who vote in every election will keep demanding more.
beltane
@schrodinger’s cat: @Jane2: Thank you both. I am really looking forward to the trip. My uncles are in their 80s and I wanted to see everyone together while they’re still around. When I saw what a steal the airfare was, I could not say no.
AnotherBruce
Well, I’m thinking hell would freeze over before anyone would force a comment from Dick Cheney that was somewhat human. I’m thinking Satan is putting off his retirement and having second thoughts about Dick Cheney running the place. Trump is too crazy to run the place. It’s really starting to get cold down there.
Grung_e_Gene
Trump is a Right-Wing Stalking Horse allowing truly despicable assholes like Ted Cruz and Paul Ryan to appear reasonable when they plan to implement the same fascist policies Trump is espousing.
catclub
@Corner Stone: We contain multitudes.
Mike in NC
@beltane: We’ve been to Europe twice in the past five years and are going back next week. One great thing is that nobody over there gives a damn about America’s sickening, rancid political climate.
Corner Stone
@catclub: I’d like to hear more about CALPERS.
Corner Stone
@Mike in NC: Shouldn’t they?
Brachiator
@Mike in NC: I was curious. Here’s Newsweek on Trump demographics.
Slightly over half are female, about hcalf are between 45 and 64 years of age with another 34 percent being over 65 years old and less than two percent younger than 30. One half of his voters have a high school education or less compared to 19 percent with a college or post-graduate degree. Slightly over one third of his supporters earn less than $50,000 per year while 11 percent earn over $100,000 per year.
Keith G
I have been keeping clear of campaign reporting for a bit. Such negativity and down right meanness washes over, but still leaves a draining residue.
I try to stay away to keep what’s left of my humor. Unfortunately, the rapacity still seeps in since we are so connected.
But I’m trying. I’m trying.
beltane
@Brachiator: Glenn Beck’s fan base also skewed female, probably the same females.
amk
you left out one important thing. all these protesting fuckwits will still vote for the il douche if he wins the nom.
raven
Anyone watching “River”? Pretty interesting made-for- Netflix detective show.
mclaren
@beltane:
Lucky you. The italian countryside is some of the most beautiful in the world.
catclub
@Corner Stone: I heard it via Harry Shearer on
le Show. Pension swindles are where you can steal BIG money. Chris Christie and the new governor of Mass apparently can tell stories. Also the new Governor of Illinois.
I remember that during the 2008-9 meltdown, the Central States pension fund ( of Jimmy Hoffa fame) actually did much better than most big investors. (Either remember or hopefully imagined.)
I also suspect you are pulling my leg – unless you are a California public employee.
Omnes Omnibus
@Grung_e_Gene: What’s in this for Trump?
raven
@Mike in NC: There are a whole lot of people here that don’t give a rats ass either.
mclaren
@Corner Stone:
Yves and company have been reporting about the CalPers scandal for months at nakedcapitalism.com. Just go there and check the archives.
Shana
@beltane: Oh, how wonderful! Enjoy yourself.
Brachiator
@beltane: I have never seen that the wealthy are immune when open bigotry is encouraged the way that Trump is doing.
Corner Stone
@mclaren: That sounds too much like work. Can’t you just summarize for me here?
Keith G
@Corner Stone: mclaren can summarize?
MomSense
@raven:
It’s on my list. Tonight we are working on another school presentation. Kid’s Benedict Arnold rap report was a big hit yesterday.
@beltane:
Enjoy every moment! Happy for you.
mclaren
Brett Easton Ellis has a great op-ed about the toxic plague of the “likeability” culture due to online ratings:
“Bret Easton Ellis on Living in the Cult of Likability,” The New York Times, 8 December 2015.
raven
@MomSense: I was just looking at the online sports page and the Lady Dogs played a game at 11am today and the local elementary schools attended. It looked like they had a ball but I can’t imagine what the noise was like!
Keith G
@MomSense: Wasn’t the rap on Arnold that he was a traitor?
raven
Research: links between childhood abuse, Facebook friend networks and alcohol probelms
Elie
@beltane:
Good for you! Enjoy!
You will be surprised how far away we will be to you and how it all falls away. Mostly, they don’t cover us like we think — like we are the center of the universe. Unless they have CNN International on the teevee or some such, you won’t get much news about us — unless you make the mistake of getting on the net to ramp up on our poison while out of the country. Mostly, though, you will be surprised at how little it matters and how good it is to be away from it…. Enjoy enjoy… I love Italy. What part?
mclaren
@srv:
Bernie Sanders has vowed not to run as an independent. He has promised that if Hillary wins the nomination, he will support her and urge his supporters to vote for her.
If Donald Trump runs as an independent, it will split the Republican vote into the insane fascists (like you, srv) and the unhinged Ayn Rand fanatics. The fascists will vote for Trump out of pique, while the Rand fanatics will vote for Jeb out of hopes that Jeb will continue the Bush crime family’s tradition of stratokakistokleptocracy (militaristic rule by the worst for purposes of theft). Result? Huge blowout win for the Democratic nominee.
Of course, insane fascists and unhinged Ayn Rand fanatics don’t account for all the Republican voters. There are also the troglodyte racists and misogynist Boston-Strangler-wannabes, but since both Trump and Jeb are giving them plenty of dog whistles, the troglodyte racists and misogynists will probably split about evenly for both candidates.
catclub
@Corner Stone: 1. The Board of Calpers is financially illiterate.
This is really not good.
2. Somebody is probably making money hooking Calpers into various private equity investments.
AND Calpers is getting the off the street suckers rate of 2 and 20, not the giant pension fund rate
for expenses, which should be less. Naturally, those PE investments have NOT earned huge profits for Calpers, but the fees paid have been.
3. The staff of Calpers has to hide information from the one financially literate board member who is asking pointed questions. He has had to file FOIA requests to get information.
4. So called private investment seminars exist. Pension board members get free tuition, but the people who pay to come are PE managers who want face time with people who invest hundreds of billions of dollars. payoffs seem likely in this kind of situation.
Hope that helps.
mainmata
@catclub: Yeah, private equity was what Pres. candidate ILoveMoney was all about. These are high risk firms often destroying firms as much as creating value and a pension fund has no business investing public money in them.
raven
@mclaren: You two need to get a room.
PaulW
So who wants to talk about how the media is focusing on Ted Cruz winning the nomination now?
catclub
@mclaren: Your answer was better than mine. Thanks.
Baud
@raven: But what if they breed?
Mike J
@raven:
Made for Auntie Beeb.
raven
@Baud: Unpossible.
Mack
Jeb said Trump has resorted to using dog whistles. Really? Sigh. He really should not reference things he doesn’t grasp.
raven
@Mike J: I’d never heard of that! I got interested because of Nicola Walker from Last Tango.
Keith G
@raven: A little further down in the link:
Though, informal conclusions could be made.
Baud
Rachel had Bernie on and they are going to talk about Trump.
And the TV is off.
mclaren
@Corner Stone:
Basically, there seems to be a lot of self-dealing and opacity iin CalPers investments. CalPers uses closed board meetings, for example, to decide bonuses and salaries and so forth, in violation of California law.
But the major charge against CalPers seems to be that the board is steering investment toward very expensive and probably highly risky private hedge funds — the kind of private hedge fund that blew up Orange County’s entire pension fund a few years back. If true, this is classic case of private hedge funds looting the public coffers. The hedge fund convinces some government entity to invest its pension funds with the fund, the hedge fund charges exorbitant fees to (mis)manage the money, and then when the entire hedge fund blows up because its promised high returns came from very risky investments whose risk the fund didn’t properly disclose (or wasn’t even aware of), then county or city or whatever loses all its money and the hedge fund walks away laughing to the bank, chortling, “Hey, nobody said investment was risk-free!”
In effect, it’s the old scam of privatizing profits while socializing losses. The same deal that went on with the subprime mortgage scams back in the 2000s.
Source: “CalPERS Used Sleight of Hand, Accounting Tricks, to Make False “There is No Alternative” Claim for Private Equity,” nakedcapitalism.com, 1 December 2015.
schrodinger's cat
@raven: What do researchers say about those who are not Faceborg users?
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Fuck, that’s a scary thought.
raven
@schrodinger’s cat: I think they just focused on users for now.
MomSense
@raven:
By junior high the pitch is a little less screech like. Thank goodness.
@Keith G:
Ha!
Waiting on the Lewiston mayoral run off election results. You may remember the Republican MacDonald wanted to publish the names of welfare recipients and told immigrants that they should leave their culture at the door.
It’s a close race. Polls closed at 8 but results aren’t expected until 10:30.
mclaren
@Keith G:
So let’s see…the more you use Facebook, the worse your alcohol problems.
Seems like there’s a simple solution to that one — stop using Facebook. Problem solved.
Of course, people will label me as an “asshole” for pointing this out. And guess what? You are correct. I am an asshole. Anyone who suggests simple common-sense solutions to self-created problem always gets labeled an ‘asshole.’ Anyone who is creative or acts like an individual in our likability-rating online social bullshit network society gets called an `asshole.’ Anyone who stands up and calls the prevailing groupthink bullshit gets tarred as an ‘asshole.’
So that’s me, asshole deluxe. And proud of it. If I make a comment and everyone agrees with it, I immediately must stop and ask: “Have I inadvertently said some foolish and evil thing?”
RandomMonster
@Original Lee:
When they turn off the lights to the whole country, that may be all we have to read by.
Baud
@mclaren:
So what will you do if everyone agrees with you that you’re an asshole deluxe?
mclaren
@raven:
This from the subliterate sociopath whose idea of contributing to the discussion is “You are a dog-fucking piece of shit of the lowest possible denomination.”
Go back to beating your wife and abusing children, troll. This is a discussion for adults.
raven
@MomSense: They had a Simon Says competition at the half and Georgia wide receiver Malcolm Mitchell was eliminated early! He’s a neat kid who happened to have written a children’s book.
raven
@mclaren: You don’t have discussions. Take your meds and go back to bed.
eta It is shit eating dog fucker dumbass.
mclaren
@Baud:
In that case I become the set of all assholes not members of a given set, which triggers Cohen’s undecidability theorem. We then have a choice between a system of assholeishness in which there are no contradictions but the axioms are incomplete, or a system of assholeishness in which the axioms form a complete system but mutually contradictory statements can be proven.
BillinGlendaleCA
@mclaren: Ever thought it could be the other way around, the more you abuse the booze, the more you use facebook? Or it could there’s just no causation either way.
ETA: Oh, you’re right about the asshole part, though I’d go with idiot asshole. Just to cover all the bases.
mclaren
@raven:
Once again, you live up to your usual standards of perspicacity and insight.
raven
@mclaren: Yea, that’s some adult shit there.
raven
@mclaren: Tell it to someone who cares.
Baud
@raven:
Does that refer to people who fuck dogs that eat shit (shit-eating-dog fuckers) or to people who both eat shit and fuck dogs (shit-eating dog-fuckers)?
Appropriately placed hyphens can aid in clarity.
Debbie
@JPL:
There’s quite a whisper campaign among the RWNJs that Grover is a front for the Muslim Brotherhood. In the current atmosphere, maybe she ought to be concerned.
David Koch
@Baud: He said…. wait for it… income inequality is the foundation and core source of racism and xenophobia, as well as sexism and homophobia.
sigh.
According to the center of budget and policy priorities there was “substantial economic growth and broadly shared prosperity” from 1945 to the early 70s, yet there was virulent, overt racism and bigotry.
Moreover, there was broad based economic growth in Nazi Germany in the 30s and that didn’t extinguish hate.
raven
@Baud: mclarity can work it out, I’m going to bed.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: I think he went without the hyphens in order to leave just that ambiguity.
Baud
@raven: Good night.
Baud
@David Koch: Isn’t that what got him in trouble early on?
schrodinger's cat
Tuesday Night Moment of Zen:
Early winter photos from my backyard and and poetry by Robert Frost.
mclaren
@BillinGlendaleCA:
That’s certainly possible. However, we have the results of other studies to guide us here. Other studies have shown that people have a lower self-image the more they use Facebook. Also, I’m guessing that excessive alcohol usage would tend to inhibit Facebook usage, since reading ability and the ability to post comments probably drops off precipitously as people get drunker.
See the article “Facebook status updates reveal low self-esteem and narcissism,” phys.org, 25 may 2015.
Baud
@schrodinger’s cat: I don’t know why I assumed you were a city cat.
Debbie
@Corner Stone:
Here’s a link to what they’re referring to. It’s well worth the reading:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/12/how-calpers-violated-california-open-meeting-laws-to-stifle-private-equity-skeptics.html
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodinger’s cat: And music. If this don’t fix it, nothing can.
amk
teh muslin terrists killahs
Baud
@mclaren:
Seems lonely.
BillinGlendaleCA
@mclaren:
That’s true when they pass out, before then, not so much.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Well, assholes tend to be lonely.
Schlemazel
When are the libtards going to publicly condemn Baud for his outrageous positions? Are you all skeered?
How’s the troll thing working, am I doing OK?
mainmata
@mclaren: The stratoyaddakleptocracy was not a Bush feature, I believe. That was Cheney’s gig. He held the secret energy talks that closed off all but the big fossil fuel companies right at the start of the Bush Era and led directly to the Iraq War and colossal profits for his former company, Halliburton. W, on the other hand was a total serial failure as a businessman and his administration just resorted to petty corruption and ratfucking regulatory agencies. Cheney was always the big fish.
schrodinger's cat
@Baud: You assumed right, I am cat of many worlds. Deep in my bones I am a city cat and can slip back in that mode in a flash if you put me back in Manhattan or South Bombay (Mumbai).
Baud
@Schlemazel: Not bad. Still a little too hinged.
Debbie
@Corner Stone:
Just read this:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/12/how-calpers-violated-california-open-meeting-laws-to-stifle-private-equity-skeptics.html
Keith G
@mclaren: Well, using Facebook can be not only a problem, it could probably be also a symptom. Social media should be a means to an end not an end unto itself. It seems possible that folks with fragile social networks in the physical world, which may lead them to over invest in the digital world, may have the types of issues either caused by or causing them to rely on drink etc.
the Conster
@raven:
Binge watched all of the epis – great show. Loved it.
Baud
@Keith G:
I don’t know anyone like that.
Omnes Omnibus
Am I the only person who finds “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” just a wee tad racist?
Schlemazel
@srv:
The Republican nominee, if not outright electoral than for sure when Congress votes as per the Constitution.
mclaren
@David Koch:
Sounds like Bernie Sanders is trying to make the argument that discrimination in our society is mainly class-based rather than ethnicity- or sexual-preference-based. That sounds unlikely, for obvious reasons. For example: that infamous case where the police officer arrested the black professor in Boston for standing on his own porch. If that kind of discriminatory punitive behavior were really class-based, we’d expect black professors to get treated deferentially by cops, while poor whites get gunned down like dogs. But, as John Cole and others have pointed out repeatedly, white shooters tend to be captured alive while blacks who are even suspected of having a gun get blown away by crazed cops emptying their clips.
The xenophobia claim also seems hard to sustain. Some of the wealthiest immigrants in America come from the middle east. So if xenophobia were really based on income inequality, Americans would welcome wealthy middle easterners while suggesting that we bar poor whites from central Europe from entering the U.S. But that’s not what we see.
It seems more likely that racism + xenophobia are the cause of income inequality, rather than the result. Ta Nehisi Coates has done excellent work in detailing the kind of economic redlining and discrimination that has kept blacks corralled into poor neighborhoods for many decades, in turn hurting the economic mobility of the blacks who live there. See his article in The Atlantic “The case for reparations.”
David Koch
@Baud: Yes, but Rachel was lapping it up and lauding his theory. So he responses to the positive reinforcement from his echo chamber which ultimately traps him into a constrictive narrow bubble that will never grow.
Keith G
@mclaren:
Or as we call it, Balloon-Juice on a Saturday night. The rate of response may slow down, but the diehards can keep after it for quite a while.
Anyway, as I alluded to above, social media is as much a form of self medication as is alcohol and combining meds to further squelch the sadness is a time-proven activity.
Now excuse me while I enter that ounce and a half of Laphroaig into my calorie counter.
mclaren
@Omnes Omnibus:
Horribly. Also, George Lucas was going through a divorce at the time, which might explain all the hearts getting ripped out.
Renie
Anyone been reading The Guardian’s series of articles on the RWNJ cops in Kern County (Bakersfield) California? These guys are nasty.
First Article in Series
Schlemazel
@Baud:
Well I just started so bear with me, OTOH I am getting some decent examples in this thread. Not as good a unlimited or corner stone but I’m probably not ready for the advanced class yet so this one will have to do
“I’m an asshole
He’s an asshole
Wouldn’t you like to be an asshole too?”
danielx
Cole goes Full Driftglass.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: No.
Keith G
@Omnes Omnibus: No. You are not alone. Its use of the serial movie tropes of the 1930s leads it to use some scenes which are not only painfully trite but insensitive in final presentation if not in purposeful execution.
Schlemazel
@mclaren:
I don’t think he intended it to be as racist as it was (but then ‘Ark’ had racist scenes in it to so maybe I am being too understanding & he is just too self-involved to see his racism). I think he misunderstood what made the first one so successful & tried to double down on those things instead of actually having a better story to tell.
Steeplejack
@schrodinger’s cat:
I have a friend (60-ish white woman) who is an ardent Sandernista because she “cannot vote for Clinton under any circumstances” (direct quote). My response has been to tell her that Sanders is a great guy who will never get the nomination and that she should start preparing to deal with her three 20-something daughters having a very hard time getting any kind of reproductive health care once President [Any Republican] is in office. That did bring her up short. This is a woman who (I believe) got birth-control pills from the campus clinic when she was in college. (Do they still do that now?)
mclaren
@Renie:
See, that’s one of the reasons I hang around Balloon-Juice — because people suggest articles like that. Thanks!
Amir Khalid
@David Koch:
I hate to say it, lest I break Thoughtful Today’s heart. But maybe Bernie just doesn’t have the intellectual depth to be President.
Steeplejack
@raven:
I binge-watched it last week at my brother’s place. Very good, highly recommended.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Steeplejack: No but according to Failgunner Ted, they had rubbers in the Princeton men’s rooms(they didn’t, Ted was lying).
divF
@mclaren:
mclaren’s into forcing. Who knew ?
gogol's wife
Just watched (again) the Wolf Hall episode with More’s execution. Unbelievable acting from Rylance and Lesser.
Gin & Tonic
@mclaren: I have to say kudos to you. This is the first time I’ve ever seen Cohen mentioned on this blog.
schrodinger's cat
@Omnes Omnibus: Just a wee bit? Amrish Puri eating monkey brains?
burnspbesq
@catclub:
Bullshit. The fees that CalPers has been paying are standard for the kind of private equity deals it is in, and those are the best-performing assets in the portfolio even after paying fees that you and I probably agree are exorbitant. The swindle (if any) here is the Legislature failing to step up to the plate and fund the shortfall that results from the losses incurred in 2008-09, thereby forcing the trustees to reach for yield that can only be obtained from private equity and hedge fund investments.
mclaren
@Amir Khalid:
Intellectual depth doesn’t mean shit in a president. Woodrow Wilson had tons of intellectual depth, and he was a disaster. Harry Truman had the intellectual depth of an oil slick, and he did a damn good job as president.
People skills and sound judgment and a pragmatic willingness to change course in the face of changing circumstances count for infinitely more than intellectual depth, as far as I can tell.
Anoniminous
@Mack:
JEB! doesn’t have to understand things. He has people for that. They aren’t very good at their jobs.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodinger’s cat: I am doing understatement this evening.
sidhra
@Corner Stone:
Norquist = Reagan’s stool. Sounds about right.
burnspbesq
@Mike in NC:
If Trump offers to pay me to move back to Ireland, I just might take him up on it … as long as I get a business class ticket. No steerage like my ancestors endured in their flight from the English Genocide of 1847-48, fka the Potato Famine.
GregB
The far right in America has been projecting all of their fascist desires onto President Obama for a long time.
We all knew that they were the ones who would gladly single out a designated group and subject them to identification and confinement and death if so desired.
Donald Trump is Hair Fuhrer.
MomSense
Ugh. MacDonald won.
schrodinger's cat
@MomSense: What is happening to Maine, why the hard right turn?
mclaren
Fascinating article by Ramez Naam “Why Energy Storage is About to Get Big and Cheap.”
This will have knock-on effects on transportation, city layout & city livability, the hotel industry, the retail industry, and much more. Naam describes the process as a virtuous cycle that will exponentiate.
For example: much cheaper denser energy storage means cheap electric cars. Self-driving electric cars will eliminate much of the hotel industry, since people can sleep in their cars while the cars drive them around. Retail stores will have automated deliveries of stock. Cities won’t need to be laid out to cater to the needs of human drivers. Self-driving cars will eliminate traffic jams, reducing or obviating the need for freeways. Large-scale dense energy storage systems can free us from middle east oil dependency, transforming U.S. foreign policy. And so on.
schrodinger's cat
@burnspbesq: One should add up all the people the British killed with their mass starvation policies, their body count was 60 million in India alone from 1860 to 1947.
Benevolent Empire not so benevolent actually.
ETA: They held East India (Bengal and Bihar from the 1760s, took them another 100 years to capture the rest of the subcontinent.)
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yes. Most of us find it flamingly racist.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: Nicely played.
Amir Khalid
@mclaren:
1. Academic credentials =/= intellectual depth.
2. At times like this, Bernie very nearly comes off as the sort that has only a hammer and sees everything as a nail. Economic inequality is not the root of all evil; no one thing is. Racism is its own bad thing, with its own quite separate history. It takes a quite serious lack of intellectual depth to fail to see that.
mclaren
@burnspbesq:
Once again the tax avoidance lawyer misses the big picture. Hey! Shit-for-brains! Doesn’t matter why CalPers is reaching for yield. What matters is that risky hedge fund investment tend to blow up. And that leaves CalPers broke and the state of California on the hook for the entire goddamn value of the pension fund. Not to mention all the teachers and firefighters who gets their pensions from CalPers fucked, stuck, ‘n outa luck.
If you want to see how this kind of thing ends, check out the L.A. Times article “ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : Retirement System Declares Independence : Investments: County employees’ pension board loses confidence, pulls funds from treasurer’s control.” Except this time, the entire state of California will blow up its pension fund, not just one county.
Based on the kind of reasoning you’ve shown here, burnsie, the rest of us should pay you to go back to Ireland. You can explain to the Irish why it’s such a great idea to socialize losses and privatize profits from greedy thieving hedge funds, and good riddance to you.
Amir Khalid
@Omnes Omnibus:
I remember the bit in the dinner scene where Kate Capshaw (the future Mrs Spielberg) is offered a tureen of eyeball soup. I said to myself, “Self, Indians don’t eat like that.”
mclaren
@Amir Khalid:
No argument on that point. On the other hand, Bernie’s hammer is a really good one. If it’s a choice between Mrs. My-Daughter-Is-Married-To-A-Goldman-Sachs-hedge-fund-manager who just gave a speech explaining that “bashing the bankers is unproductive” in the aftermath of the 2009 global financial crash, and Mr. economic-inequality-is-the-root-of-all-evil, I’ll take Bernie.
Bernie Sanders has a much better track record on racial issues than Hillary, by the way.
Debbie
@gogol’s wife:
I’ve rewatched the entire series twice and it just keeps getting better.
MomSense
@schrodinger’s cat:
Our economy is not doing well. People are anxious and angry. I also wonder to what extent the anti Muslim bigotry we’ve been exposed to by Trump and the Reoublicans is a factor given the large Somali population in Lewiston Auburn. Over the years of phone banking into those cities, I’ve heard some ugly things.
Amir Khalid
@mclaren:
It’s not enough for Bernie to have the bestest hammer there is. A President is supposed to have a complete tool kit.
Perhaps you could offer a summary of the difference between Bernie’s record and Hillary’s on race issues, preferably limiting yourself to 15 lines of comment.
rikyrah
I have fallen in love with the musical Hamilton. It’s so complex that I am listening to it in sections.
Punchy
And yet you voted for these fuckers for oh so many years. I appauld the changeover, but marvel in the what-the-fuck-were-you-thinking…
David Koch
@MomSense: He’s a 2 term incumbent. Don’t 2 term incumbents usually win reelection?
eta: He was running in an area that voted for nutty LePage in 2010 and 2014. So he was going with the grain, not against the grain.
MomSense
@rikyrah:
Yes! There a bunch of us Hamilfans. Have you seen the Ham4Ham videos yet?
Amir Khalid
@srv:
Maybe I lack the intellectual depth to appreciate Paul Miller’s writing, but it seemed like pure nonsense to me.
Omnes Omnibus
@MomSense: You’re going to try it draw her into your little cult, aren’t you?
MomSense
@David Koch:
It’s complicated. It was a runoff election. Chin ran a great campaign and out raised MacDonald.
The Bangor Daily News published a concise explanation of the situation. I’ll try to link.
https://bangordailynews.com/2015/12/08/politics/lewiston-voters-offered-stark-contrast-in-mayoral-race/
MomSense
@Omnes Omnibus:
Don’t knock it till you try it. Just one listen OO. I dare you.
NotMax
@raven
Slow-burning, well crafted drama. Mentioned a while back that the final episode was some of the most intense TV had seen in ages. So much so that had to keep pausing it in order to decompress.
MomSense
@David Koch:
My comment with a link is in moderation. This was a runoff election. I thought Chin might actually win it because he ran a good campaign and out raised MacDonald. The Bangor Daily News ran a good piece explaining the issues.
Omnes Omnibus
@MomSense: I have. If you go back through the archives, you’ll probably find that I was one of the first people to post songs from it. I just ain’t joining the cult. I’ve also been a fan of the historical Hamilton for quite a while. He was right on far more issues than his opponents were. Oddly, the only one of his generation with a better record on slavery and women’s rights was Burr. Go figure.
Redshift
@srv:
In exactly the same way that Anikin brought balance to The Force, yes.
David Koch
@MomSense: I read a BDN piece saying it’s an Archie Bunker area.
NotMax
Inevitable outcome, yes.
“Logical” gives the whole thing validity and credence it does not merit.
And as for “conclusion,” no such thing as peak [fill in extremist political ideology here].
ThresherK (GPad)
@MomSense: Okay, now I want to see Hamilton. And if you meet a Jekkie you can rest assured that Hamilfan is a much cooler sounding term for the musical cult you belong to.
danielx
@mclaren:
All of which sounds great for everyone, except for the people carrying out those functions now whose jobs will be…outsourced, as it were. I’m not at all opposed to such a change, approve it in theory…but let’s not go all Tom Friedman here. I read someplace or other that every societal policy change of the sort/magnitude envisioned by Naam will result in at least three unintended consequences, two of which will probably be negative…in nature. Benefits, long term and otherwise, may well be more than worth any such consequences, but somebody had best be thinking about the negatives as well.
MomSense
@David Koch:
That’s the article I was talking about. the city proper, which includes Bates,tends to be younger, more progressive, and much more diverse. The surrounding areas are older and more conservative.
amk
@srv: Yeah, the entire world, which is condemning donald dreck, is full of loony left. Idiot.
MomSense
@Omnes Omnibus:
Hamilton and Adams were always my favorites. I’m a survivor of too many childhood hours spent in church basements while the adults read , sorted, inventoried archives. No way I’m going through archives here.
NotMax
Just a reminder to the young’uns that this baleful tune has been fiddled before.
Omnes Omnibus
@MomSense: Chicken.
MomSense
@ThresherK (GPad):
Wasn’t Hassellhoff in that show?
amk
Smith & Wesson triples profits in just three months.
Omnes Omnibus
@MomSense: Also, Hamilton was an artillery officer and a lawyer.
PurpleGirl
Feeling kind of confused by this thread so I’m going to bed. One comment though, I have a Facebook page but only because I needed one if I wanted to take part in chat at the various kitten cams I frequent. Any number of people have found me through FB but I don’t often update my status or post stuff there. I talk much more often here at BJ. Night, people. Tomorrow.
MomSense
@Omnes Omnibus:
?
Watching Daily Show and Noah just did a segment on Trump saying really inappropriate sexual things about his daughter. Ewww.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
Put in mind of a cartoon showing the minotaur holding a torch up to a large parchment on the wall which has a big red arrow and the words “you are here” on it.
notoriousJRT
@Mike in NC:
I saw a YOUNG man on the TV say that not only did he support Trump’s plan, he wanted to “send ’em back to where they came from. It ain’t just the olds that get off on this crap.
sdhays
@mclaren: I agree that making the case that racism and xenophobia are just outgrowths of economic inequality is not supportable, but I wonder if it’s a useful fiction. Racism and economic classism are intertwined; creating a cross-racial coalition focussed on reducing the wealth gap would, if successful, probably also be able to reduce racism over the medium to long term. Xenophobia is complicated with the real, but over-hyped, threat of terrorism, but I think a substantial part of the anti-Mexican xenophobia is the disaster of NAFTA and the free trade policies of the last several decades. Better trade policies would likely drain the virulence of anti-Hispanic xenophobia. I fear that anti-Muslim bigotry will not be that “easy” to put back in the bottle (scare quotes because clearly absolutely none of this is easy).
Personally, I tend to be uncomfortable with “useful fictions”. But maybe simplifying the complex relationships between economic inequality, racism, and xenophobia down to “economic inequality is the foundation of racism and xenophobia” might be able to generate progress on all fronts if it can inspire new voters without alienating the people who know better.
MomSense
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yes he was. Adams was also a lawyer but he was a farmer not a fighter.
Omnes Omnibus
@sdhays: It is not a useful fiction because the African Americans and others who are being summarily executed on the streets should not be forced to wait for economic change to “fix” everything. Decreased inequality does no good if a cop shot you down at random.
ThresherK (GPad)
@MomSense: IMDB says Hasselhoff was in a made for TV version of it in 2001. It goes on enough good-sized tours, so it’s not a “trouble” show which someone’s always trying to fix (such as Chess).
All I know about it is I listened to the cast album ofJ&H and it didn’t grab me hardly at all beyond “This is the moment”, a song which works. If a Jekkie would like to persuade me otherwise, I’d listen.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid:
You might as wish for a White Christmas in KL.
different-church-lady
The really disgusting thing about it is the sense that the only reason they have a problem with him is because they’re afraid he’s giving away their game. “You dumb fuck, racism is supposed to be in code. You’re supposed to let them into the country so that we can hate on them. If you get rid of them all, who are we going to have to vilify?”
danielx
Question of the day: has the wingnut event horizon occurred?
I swear, between keeping an eye out for looking glasses in front of me, rabbit holes in the ground, and looking over my shoulder for the Cheshire Cat, I’m tripping over my own feet a lot at the moment.
On the other hand, my brother told me I was having the same issue the other evening while out with him at in a bar. After a) consuming a certain amount of Black Bush and b) seeing a redheaded girl* wearing black tights, a black skirt with approximately twenty square inches of fabric, and a pale blue tshirt with the charming motto Off With His Head in Old Irish font on front. So I’m easily distracted.
*used the word after some thought. At this point in my life, ‘girl’ refers to any unrelated female young enough to be my daughter or granddaughter. Except for my niece, who is a very bright and gorgeous young woman in her first year of law school. And my buddy’s daughter, who is a gorgeous and accomplished young woman serving as a Navy officer and nurse on unnamed island out in the big blue. And my other friend’s daughter, who is…..aw, maybe I better just drop the whole ‘girl’ thing.
Edit: maybe I could use it for those who don’t have any kids? Nope, that won’t work….
Amir Khalid
@BillinGlendaleCA:
My point exactly. mclaren’s last reply to a brief question of mine went on so long that Adam had to fish it out of moderation.
different-church-lady
@mclaren:
I also believe that’s the argument Sanders is making, and that it reveals an unfortunate and incomprehensible myopia in his vision, for all the reasons you outlined.
Actually, it’s a feedback loop. Each reinforces the other in turn. As greater society systematically impoverishes a community, the results “confirm” the bigotry against that community, which then leads to more impoverishment.
I should also note that the tempered presentation of your excellent observations is a refreshing and welcome change of pace.*
*(ETA: one which, upon further reading, apparently does not run through all of your comments on this thread…)
Amir Khalid
I think Bianca is upset with me because I was nice to the cat from next door, who likes to hang out here.
Ruckus
@Amir Khalid:
You have to admit the man must be able to type fast.
Srv
@danielx: I don’t even.
You should get Tinder
BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: OT: Speaking of snow, I walked through snow flurries on my walk tonight.
Suzanne
I can totally see how the Facebook addicts I know are likely also drunks. I have a few of those people who are so obviously using Facebook to fill the void. like, “HIIII, I’M PRETTY! I’m having fun! I’m so smart and talented! I’m so happy! See? SEE?!?!” I would not be surprised to learn that they are drinking heavily.
Something that it took me waaaay too long to learn: If someone is telling you how happy they are, they are lying.
Srv
BillinGlendaleCA
@Suzanne: Also, if someone tells you how smart they are(especially with a reference to their IQ), they’re not(see, Trump, Donald; Furby, Rage).
Suzanne
@BillinGlendaleCA: Who even knows their IQ? I don’t even know how one finds out, considering that no IQ test taken after age 5 is accurate, or so they say.
The Republic of Stupity
@mclaren:
Uh, yup…
And until some of these greedy fokkers start going to prison for a decade at a time, it’s gonna keep going on…
There simply isn’t a strong disincentive to prevent this sort of thing…
A quick google search just revealed that one ex-Calpers CEO, Fred Buenrostro, is due to FINALLY be sentenced Thursday, unless it gets delayed again… expected to get five years…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Nothing makes me run (figuratively) from a new acquaintance like telling me how much fun they are, especially if they say “I’m so crazy!”, usually means a loud drunk.
Ruckus
@efgoldman:
Still for the amount that (someone said the other day that mclaren had claimed to be a him. And yet I recall (which guaranties absolutely nothing) that the claim had been made a number of yrs ago that he is a she, (So is it possible that there is confusion as to which is which or that changes have occurred?) but in any event I’m a long winded bastard myself and I don’t hold a candle to mclaren.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: Eh, I’m the one who said that. Mnemo pressed mclaren one night a few months ago about the topic. Mclaren said he’s a he.
Amir Khalid
@Suzanne:
One takes an IQ test. I consistently score a certain number on such tests — a number I could brag about, were I so inclined. Yet even the experts seem unsure what IQ tests measure, so I keep my IQ score to myself.
Suzanne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: However, if someone is telling you they’re happy, they’re lying—to you and to themselves. If they’re telling you they’re crazy, they’re telling the truth.
Suzanne
@Amir Khalid: IQ tests are supposedly invalid after a very young age. So to be very accurate, you have to have taken one when you were young, and to have the results shared with you. Most US students are not told their IQ.
Amir Khalid
@Suzanne:
There are IQ tests meant for adults as well as those meant for children.
Anoniminous
@Suzanne:
There’s no scientific definition of intelligence so “tests” (sic) to “measure” (sic) it are pseudo-science.
Amir Khalid
@Anoniminous:
There is something that IQ tests measure consistently. The experts just don’t know what it is.
max
@mclaren: Harry Truman had the intellectual depth of an oil slick, and he did a damn good job as president.
Mmmmm?
max
[‘Unschooled, not unlettered.’]
goblue72
@Omnes Omnibus: I recommend Aziz Ansari’s new TV show “Master of None”. Episode 4 “Indians on TV” does a fantastic criticism of the stereotypical heavily accented Indian character seen in movies and TV.
“Look, I get it. There probably is a Pradeep who runs a convenience store, and I have nothing against him, but why can’t there be a Pradeep just once who’s, like, an architect, or he designs mittens, or does one of the jobs Bradley Cooper’s characters do in movies?”
Anne Laurie
@Amir Khalid:
Nah, Sanders seems to be plenty smart enough. But, like many other smart young people, he found a niche early, and after all these years he’s expanded within that niche until he’s no longer flexible enough to escape it. As in the joke about the economist stranded on a desert island where the punchline is “Assume a can opener”, Bernie has real difficulty seeing problems (like racism) that can’t be solved by his proven solution (economic equality).
He’ll be valuable to a Democratic president in any number of econ-related roles, but intellectual flexibility is far more valuable than a high IQ in the Oval Office. Neither of the Roosevelts, for instance, were top-rate intellects — but their minds were both extremely adaptable.
Anne Laurie
@Omnes Omnibus:
I had to be physically restrained by my friends from walking out of the movie theatre when that first came out. And the sexism was just as bad as the racism, too.
Although I will admit that the line “No thanks — I had bugs fah lunch.” made me laugh out loud.
Anne Laurie
@Omnes Omnibus:
Hamilton and Burr were both very much NYC guys, for better or worse. Even then, the Big Wormy Apple had its reputation — much of the Founding Father “working philosophy” was divided between the New England guys with their cranky Puritan-based communitarianism, and the Southern planter racist aristocracy. The NY/NJ minority were the crucial pivot for a lot of issues, but especially the business-friendly, immigrant-friendly hustler ethics that Terry Pratchett memorialized in his Ankh Morpork tales. At least when I was growing up in NYC, Hamilton (and even Burr) always got more space in our history textbooks than in the “national” narrative — I suspect that one reason Hamilton the Musical has been a success is because Broadway backers and Broadway crowds appreciate the hustle at the heart of Alex’s success in a very visceral way.
M. Bouffant
Aw-reet for “shitheel”, a word not used nearly as often as it should be.
Applejinx
@srv: Sanders isn’t going independent. He’s going to win the Democratic primary quite honorably without slinging mud at Hillary Clinton, because we are building the ground game and doing the damn work. If you’re not, go out and volunteer at Bernie field offices. Two different Obama presidential campaigns, there was a grassroots campaign and it worked and he won. Midterms, there was nothing. From the Democrats as a party, there was nothing, they didn’t really give a shit about the electorate and were apparently busy taking money from big donors.
The grassroots campaign is back, just like it was for Obama. Feels much the same but I see more interest in building it and KEEPING it, and very little interest in turning the results over to the Dem establishment. I also see canvassing results.
I don’t think this is going to be a great election for dynasties. Again, I think Clinton is like the bizarro world Bush: way the hell more benevolent, and votable-for IF the Dem powerbrokers pull off a Rove-like dirty trick and cheat her into the nomination and leave no choice.
We’d still have Bernie in the Senate, and if past experience is any indication, the Dem establishment has absolutely no interest in pursuing anything but Presidential elections and big football-rivalry type gestures. Bernie’s people are almost without exception looking to get engaged with the process over the long haul, and don’t answer to the Dem establishment. We won’t be done, regardless of how the very screwed-up world of a Presidential run plays out.
By every metric except the coronation-wish of the MainStreamMedia, Bernie’s winning. There’s more Bernie energy out there than Trump energy, it’s just that ‘if it bleeds it leads’ and the media only wants to manufacture a clash of dynasties or a new Hitler.
If this bothers you, go volunteer for Bernie and do something. You don’t have to sit around being upset by the shitshow of typical 2015 politics ramping up. There’s a guy running who can win and isn’t a shitshow and is decent and honest!
Voting booths aren’t on camera. For every televised Trump rally with a thousand networks circling and waiting to see if the Trump people will beat a protester to death, there’s a Bernie event packing a damn stadium and going COMPLETELY unreported, and you wouldn’t believe how many people are there. Just like the Iraq antiwar rallies that filled London etc. only to be blacklisted by the media.
People vote. Just saying. This is how Romney got so horribly shocked by voting results (way too much to cheat away!) and now it’s the whole damn media setting itself up for a rude surprise.
Thankfully it’s a nice surprise, if you like socialism and rebuilding our country :)
Applejinx
@danielx: Maybe it’s my rabid Bernieism, but when I see all this information on energy storage, I think economics. The energy storage thing paints a picture of incredible gains for energy efficiency, and energy is money: it translates pretty directly into a host of economic activity, and a collapse in energy prices through technology (much like a collapse in data storage prices through technology) will produce massive societal changes.
Unless it doesn’t, because a few obscenely rich people get to swoop in and harvest all the economic benefit, thus causing the world to look very similar or worse. And they’ll say, yes you have to pay even more for higher-tech energy. What, do you think it just comes out of the sky for free?
It’s called the sun. Yes, in fact, it does. ALL of the planet’s energy traces back to the sun one way or another, and the rest is just kinds of energy storage…
What that means in practice is, if you can get energy storage good enough you can redesign economics. You can feed all the people, transport them, do whatever you want because this stuff that used to be out of reach has become too cheap to meter. It’ll sound ridiculous, like proposing to charge for Internet by the byte.
I’m setting up a cellphone service to ‘not really use hardly at all’ (I have wifi for smartphone purposes, and a landline for regular calls, and only need emergency brief call ability) for THREE dollars a month. The way people hammer on big data smartphone networks makes this possible: it becomes too cheap to meter.
When energy ITSELF turns into this type of situation, many things change… if we let them. And it is very much the incredibly wealthy who will either further this or resist it. Some will want to keep people’s experience of struggling to pay the electric bill the same, even though it increasingly becomes a sham. Someone is keeping the money, even as they become impossibly wealthy and can afford to devote big chunks of that wealth specifically to keeping people’s lived experience the same and denying them the benefits of the efficiency revolution.
And so it all comes down to income inequality and economics, again…
Bart
@raven: River was commissioned by the BBC, not Netflix.
gogol's wife
@rikyrah:
Dead thread, but I’ve been listening to it in the car, and I’m obsessed! I come home and say to my husband (history buff), “So what happened at the Battle of Yorktown?” He looks at me funny but answers. It’s hilarious.
Spinoza is my Co-pilot
@mclaren: I know you get a bad rap around here (not sure why, I don’t follow that closely) but I really enjoyed that.
Not sure about splitting up the rightwing demographics quite the way you did, though. Lots and lots of overlap between unhinged Ayn Rand fanatics, troglodyte racists, and misogynist Boston-Strangler-wannabes, for instance. And far as I’m concerned they’re all fucking fascists, just with varying degrees of commitment to all parts of the American fascist program. I very much include our Christianist nutjobs — who seem completely unaware that they are modern Pharisees, and worse — in the fascist fold.
gogol's wife
@Spinoza is my Co-pilot:
Occasionally maclaren hits it right on the head, like this time.