Ten Years Of Hell

Here it comes, boys and girls.  We have a bad combination of things working against us - like Af-Iraq-Pak (plus the bonus of Israel prob'ly moving against Iran's nuke program soon), Gusher in the Gulf, allowing Unemployment Bennies to lapse, opposition politics, etc - this is all more than we need for the big slide into a real live depression.

From Calculated Risk:
Consumer Confidence Plummets In June

-and-

The Guardian:
Michael Tomasky

I think I understand a few things about what worked in the past to get us out of other tough spots, and while I certainly don't know exactly what'll work this time, I do know this one abiding universal truth:  An economy can spend its way to oblivion, but it can't save its way back to prosperity.

Repubs will insist on cutting spending, but I'll bet dollars to donuts they won't be raising any taxes (unless of course they can do it as regressively as possible).  Anyway, once you take away the huge chunk of demand that government spending creates, the cascade effect should kick in nicely and we'll be circling the drain in no time at all.

The reality of all this austerity talk.

World Cup

Climate Change Denial Crock Of The Week

Wingnut Welfare

From John Amato at Crooks and Liars:

As you know, many right wing hacks receive their wingnut welfare checks whenever they publish their books. They are commonly devoid of facts or any type of intellectual honesty, but are always supported by the right wing infrastructure that passes on book bailout money to help support their wingnuttery to the masses. There is no bigger recipient of the wingnut welfare system than Ann Coulter. You can call it TWERP. 'Troubled Wingnuts Effective Relief Program.' There's plenty of money to be passed around to undeserving conservatives and she's there to collect it with open arms.


BTW - I don't subscribe to the basic notion coming from "the left, &/or Dems" that they need to match the Repubs in terms of sleazy lockstep party doctrine and tricksterism.  So I'm not endorsing any kind of effort "to support liberal authors".  If your book is worth reading, then eventually it reaches an audience - of course, that presumes you have some kind of marketing effort that's at least minimally competent. But that brings us back around to a valid criticism of Cluster Fox as not much more than a booster club for Republican Party dogma.  Sometimes, it all just seems to go 'round and 'round in circles.

Just Wondering

So Obama cans McChrystal, and of course, we need a quick refresher on what our Afghanistan strategy actually is.  And that goes kinda like this: we have to fight off the Taliban while training up the Afghan Security Forces, and we have to try to root out the corruption in Karzai's government; because the Afghan people can only be expected to fight for themselves if they have faith in their government.

Really?

Why does it seem that all the "conservatives" here in the US are going along with this?  What am I missing here?  Why do we have to have Free Market Solutions for everything here, but we have to have Government Solutions in other places?

Could it be that we just call it 'the government' in other places because it provides some convenient cover for the fact that several Mega-Corp companies are actually calling the shots?

And why aren't the know-nothing rubes outraged by all this very expensive nation building stuff?  Couldn't we solve the whole problem over there just by building a couple of Wal-Marts or somethin'?

Ten Years Of Hell

In a previous post (this one), I talked a little about the probability  of seeing a lot more trouble with debt and default, and that it's likely to come from smaller counties and cities that got themselves sucked into the swirl of borrowing loads of cheap money as a way to avoid having to make some tough calls on collecting enough revenue to keep their joints going.

Here it comes.

Harrisburg is among an increasing number of municipalities showing signs of extreme fiscal stress. Squeezed by rising unemployment, plummeting tax revenue and growing employee costs, Vallejo, Calif., filed for bankruptcy two years ago. Jefferson County, Alabama's largest county, teeters on the edge of bankruptcy after a complex interest rate swap on a $3 billion sewer project went awry.

Last month, Central Falls, R.I., an impoverished city not far from Providence, put its finances in the hands of a receiver, who might have to rewrite contracts, cut pensions and restructure debt. Meanwhile, the nation's leading debt-rating agencies have relegated seven cities -- including Detroit, Harvey, Ill., and Woonsocket, R.I. -- to junk bond status, vastly increasing their borrowing costs.

This is just gonna get worse for a while.

From Nil Doctrine

This guy is a new find for me. I think he does it really well - even if I can't quite say exactly what it is he does - vlogging?

We'll Have To Sell Our Way Out Of It

Steely Dan

Third World Man.  Walter's guitar just cries in this one.  Listening closely, I guess I can see why so many have criticized them for being "all about the studio arts", but I saw them live at The Nissan Pavilion a few years back, and there's just no doubt these cats can play.

Sadie's Art