My Dearest Mr Koch

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Social Progress

And the hits just keep comin'.

Via Nicholas Kristof at NYT:

In the Social Progress Index, the United States excels in access to advanced education but ranks 70th in health, 69th in ecosystem sustainability, 39th in basic education, 34th in access to water and sanitation and 31st in personal safety. Even in access to cellphones and the Internet, the United States ranks a disappointing 23rd, partly because one American in five lacks Internet access.

“It’s astonishing that for a country that has Silicon Valley, lack of access to information is a red flag,” notes Michael Green, executive director of the Social Progress Imperative, which oversees the index. The United States has done better at investing in drones than in children, and cuts in social services could fray the social fabric further.

--and--

Over all, the United States’ economy outperformed France’s between 1975 and 2006. But 99 percent of the French population actually enjoyed more gains in that period than 99 percent of the American population. Exclude the top 1 percent, and the average French citizen did better than the average American. This lack of shared prosperity and opportunity has stunted our social progress.

You can play with the charts and maps by going to the Social Progress Index website.

Have fun - Mediocrity Uber Alles!

hat tip = FB friend DR

An Important Skill Set

Knowing you're good at something requires the same set of skills as being good at something.

Being stoopid means you lack the tools necessary for knowing you're stoopid.



Goes a long way towards explaining  - oh, I dunno - Louie Gohmert, The GOP Platform Committee, Victoria Jackson, Libertarianism, ad nauseam...

The Task At Hand

How come the people in charge are so often the ones who don't know a fucking thing about what makes something work?



I can't count the number of times I've been in meetings like this.  I just wish I could honestly say I was never a good example of everybody except the guy in the blue shirt.

It Occurs To Me

What is it with "conservatives" that gets them so hung up on The Supply Side of every-damned-thing?

Wanna talk Economics?
They can't think of anything but cutting taxes for themselves, and a harsh dose of Austerity for everybody else.  (Supply Side Economics, btw is self-defeating because it leads to a slow deflationary death spiral - which, in case ya hadn't noticed, is pretty much what we're in right now)
Global Labor Arbitrage
Supply Side Economics

How 'bout that War on Drugs?
We concentrate almost solely on interdiction and putting millions of users in prison (which may look like working the demand side, but actually only serves the purpose of the suppliers by conveniently gathering all the customers in one place) - again, just working the supply side.

Yeah OK, we try to get "our partners" in places like Afghanistan and Colombia to help us, but c'mon, they don't actually do anything helpful that I can see.  And why is that?  Because there's a huge demand for their #1 export, and they're not stupid enough to shut down the drug trade on their end because that's what keeps them all in power.  Plus, you've been preaching Supply Side at 'em for 30 years - do ya really think the message they've gotten is that they should cut back on THE SUPPLY!?!.  So what does it get us?  Prisons that are so crowded they've become little feudal states that generally operate outside the control of anything "government" can do, for one thing.  And don't get me started on the total FUBAR of the Privatized Prison Industry, and the connections to DoD and Defense Contractors and DEA and BATF and Capitol Hill and Wall Street and and and.

Well what about Abortion then?
"Conservatives" seem to think we don't need to do anything but shut down all the clinics and harass women at every turn in an attempt to shut 'em up - which means they're all over the supply side again, while fervently struggling against everything that's been proven effective in preventing the need (ie: demand) for abortion.  Family planning and birth control.  Equal pay for women.  Early and honest Sex Ed.  Free condoms.  Public education.  Lots of public information.  Public women's healthcare centers. etc.

And wait just a damned minute there - in a system of unfettered free market capitalism, isn't it supposed to be a good thing to have lots and lots of clinics doing all manner of abortions on demand?  As long as they turn a profit, isn't that what y'all keep telling us is what god intended?

So guess what, kids - there are actually two sides to these things, and if you just stop for a minute, you might see that working the Demand side is a lot more effective in practically every instance.  At the very least, ya gotta work the Demand side as well as the Supply side.

Every time you turn around, it's like "conservatives" are boosting the fuck outa the Supply Side approach (which doesn't work, tho' they keep insisting it must), while slashing and bashing away at Demand Side solutions (which they insist can't work, when it's actually and obviously what does work).

Why do ya suppose they do all that?

What Day Is It?

ROCKVILLE, MD—A study released Tuesday by the National Institute for Mental Health confirmed that the vast majority of Americans’ anxieties and phobias have no logical grounding in reality, aside from those related to being attacked in open waters and torn limb from limb by a gigantic, merciless shark. “Our research shows that people’s most common fears, such as the fear of flying or heights, are wholly unfounded, with the notable exception of the fear of a tiger shark swimming up undetected while you wade in the surf, latching its piercing teeth into your thigh, and dragging you screaming out to sea,” said the study’s lead author, Michael Buckley, citing clinical studies that described any pervasive sense of paranoia unrelated to being disemboweled by an inescapable frenzy of five sharks while swimming close to shore as “entirely irrational.” “We found that those individuals who expressed anxiety about public speaking, small spaces, germs, darkness, and nearly every other clinically identifiable source of phobia spent much of their time worriedly obsessing over these unrealistic concerns when they would have been far better served to channel this dread toward the very real danger of entering the ocean with a small cut or a piece of shiny jewelry and splashing around too close to the surface, all things that are likely to instigate a lethal bull shark or great white attack.” According to Buckley, the only two other reasonable and completely justified phobias discovered in the course of the study were the fear of getting caught in a swarm of killer bees and the fear of dying alone.

I'm No Superman --Lazlo Bane

Watching some old Scrubs episodes yesterday.

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

When you turn an economic philosophy into a system of government, you're just looking for trouble.  Ask the Soviets how it worked out for them.

In his 2010 Citizens United opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote, "The appearance of influence or access ... will not cause the electorate to lose faith in our democracy." He further stated, "Ingratiation and access, in any event, are not corruption."

I'll believe it when it happens, but apparently there's a fair probability that the Repubs will win enough seats to take over the majority in the US Senate, and that they'll pad their lead in the House, and even more important, that they'll continue to hold commanding majorities in 25 - 35 state legislatures, plus a shitload of county boards.

You can pass it off as the typical losses that the party in the White House always suffers in midterm elections.  You can also say it's because the GOP has a higher nutball density (and a much lower paranoia threshold), and those nutballs never fail to turn out, and they never vote for anybody but Republicans.

Meanwhile, it seems like the Dems are about as sharp and focused as a bagful of wet yarn - as usual.

Anyway, this is supposed to be a post about yet another example of a Coin-Operated Politician who's been busted for influence peddling - which makes it impossible for me to ignore the simple fact that sometimes even the really smart guys like Anthony Kennedy say some of the stoopidest fucking things.

So, here ya go - Meet Mr Leland Yee:

Desperate for funds to repay $70,000 in debt owed by his failed 2011 San Francisco mayoral campaign, Yee repeatedly begged, prodded and pressed undercover agents acting as businessmen to make campaign contributions. In exchange, he often did what many politicians do every day: connect donors up with other influential lawmakers, sing their praises to bureaucratic agencies and write letters of support. While the alleged illegal acts in Yee's case go well beyond that kind of access -- prosecutors charge he helped to coordinate an international arms deal -- access was a large part of how he pitched his donors. He opened his door and regularly stated his intent to keep his door open, especially if he ascended to higher office.

We know that big donors get access for their money. Just look at the White House visitor logs, the goings-on at political fundraisers or the Republican presidential aspirants heading to Las Vegas to kiss the ring of billionaire donor Sheldon Adelson. But what we rarely hear is those behind-the-scenes conversations.

The point here is that under the "rules" of unfettered capitalism, everything is a commodity.  Everything is for sale.  Everything and everybody has a price.  And anything goes in the marketplace.  Ya get what ya pay for and ya pay for what ya get.

When we set it all up to sell a candidate like we sell cars and hamburgers and remedies for anal itch, why would anybody think we wouldn't see the kind of auction we've got going on now where power goes to the highest bidder?  If I can throw several tens of millions of dollars at a politician while you and 200 of your closest friends can managed maybe a hundred bucks each - then my voice gets really loud relative to your voice.  And it should be obvious to anybody with a living thinking brain in their skull that - all of a sudden, and gosh, for no apparent reason that Mr Justice Kennedy can think of - my single vote counts for more than your vote plus the votes of your 200 buddies.

So how confident are we s'posed to be about that whole democracy thing now?

A Difference Of Ethos

(not an April Fools thing)

There is no Chief Ethics Officer.
This is not a democracy.
The free market is morally neutral - as God intended.
You get along by going along.
Conform and be dull.
Embrace the Noble Lie.
Watch more TV.  Go out to a movie.
Stay safe - take the blue pill.



DecodeDC

A Few Toons

via Democratic Underground