A New Way Of Doing The Same Old Thing

...which is to say, "Fuckin' us over".

From truthout:

Here's food for thought: Fast-tracking could become the model for a new and profoundly subversive model of governance – one in which elected government becomes little more than an afterthought to corporate-backed deal-making. It's not hard to imagine a dystopian future where this becomes the norm.

In the right hands it might make a good science-fiction novel: a world in which individual governments, treaty organizations and even the United Nations have been replaced by a new governing body comprised entirely of corporate representatives. Think of it as a World Financial Parliament or a Global House of Corporate Lords, where the only "voting" the rest of us do happens when we watch a movie, play a video game, or take a prescription medication.

And even when we do, we don't really have much of a choice at all.

Back in the 90s, I tho't NAFTA was a great idea.  I was wrong.  See how that works?  You take a look at the effects of a given policy after it's been in place for a while, and you learn a little something about how maybe we shouldn't have done what we did, and then you do that most horriblest thing that anybody could possibly do - ya change your mind.

ed note:  it grates on my soul to think I agree with Ross Perot, but hey - even a blind hog roots up an acorn now and again.

Free trade is great.  Free trade is a good way to break down some really stupid artificial barriers and get people to work together instead of blowin' shit up.  Unfortunately, if that free trade isn't fair trade, and it ends up slamming millions of rock-solid Americans so hard they practically drop out of the labor pool completely, then it's just a matter of time before people get hip to these tricks, and we're right back to blowin' shit up again anyway.

Things like TPP and KeystoneXL are great deals for (almost literally) a handful of people who don't feel the need to wash their hands before they pee.  But it's a really lousy deal for anybody who actually works for a living, and for whoever thinks we should figure these things out together instead of leaving it up to a few guys in $800 suits.

Call your Congress Critter.

Damage Done

Not that anybody's at all likely to do anything about it now, but:

A key figure in the Republican establishment surrendered belatedly on the central tactic for voter suppression, the myth of voter fraud. For the Presidential Commission on Election Administration, Jan 2014 to admit that voter fraud is “rare” is an understatement. However, for a commission co-chaired by vaunted Republican election law attorney Benjamin L. Ginsberg to sign off on that admission is epic.

Voter fraud is the rational for voter identification (Voter ID) requirements. For years, Republican legislatures across the country have enacted voter identification card (voter ID) requirements to suppress the Democratic vote. There can be no other reason since it was established years ago by the Bush Justice Department that voter fraud didn’t exist. A comprehensive study in 2007 showed that in three years of Bush Justice Department efforts (2002-2005), only 38 cases of voter fraud were brought with only 24 guilty findings. Voter fraud isn’t just “rare,” it is virtually non-existent.

Yet, thanks to the fantasy of voter fraud, we have voter ID laws in 20 plus states. It’s a little late to say “I was wrong.” But, it is not too late to repeal all those voter ID laws based on the voter fraud scam.

Read all about it at The Agonist.

Try that one on when you're blabbering away about "both sides do it". There's only one party that thinks keeping people from voting is good for democracy.

Today's Little Twist

If I can convince you that the propaganda I'm peddling is the truth, then it's easier for me to convince you that the truth someone else is telling you is propaganda.

The Opposites Game

Using the same tactics you criticize your opposition for using.

Let's call this one The Alinsky Gambit.  The following is a list of Power Tactics that Saul Alinsky put together in his 1971 book, Rules For Radicals - A Pragmatic Guide For Realistic Radicals.  See if you can spot the ones being employed by your favorite "conservative" organization.

Always remember the first rule of power tactics: Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.

The second rule is: Never go outside the experience of your people. When an action is outside the experience of the people, the result is confusion, fear, and retreat.

The third rule is: Wherever possible go outside the experience of the enemy. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat.

The fourth rule is: Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules. You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity.

The fourth rule carries within it the fifth rule: Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage.

The sixth rule is: A good tactic is one that your people enjoy. If your people are not having a ball doing it, there is something very wrong with the tactic.

The seventh rule: A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag. Man can sustain militant interest in any issue for only a limited time, after which it becomes a ritualistic commitment, like going to church on Sunday mornings.

The eighth rule: Keep the pressure on, with different tactics and actions, and utilize all events of the period for your purpose.

The ninth rule: The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.

The tenth rule: The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition. It is this unceasing pressure that results in the reactions from the opposition that are essential for the success of the campaign.

The eleventh rule is: If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counterside; this is based on the principle that every positive has its negative.

The twelfth rule: The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. You cannot risk being trapped by the enemy in his sudden agreement with your demand and saying "You're right — we don't know what to do about this issue. Now you tell us."

The thirteenth rule: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.

hat tip = Snopes

And yes, the Dems use the same tactics - but then the Dems aren't saying it's a bad thing for the other side to be doing it.  There's only one side doing that.

Along the same lines - "conservatives" bluster and harrumph about something like Rules For Radicals, but then turn around and mimic the thing they spend so much time and energy slagging.  Here're a coupla books on Amazon that I guess are intended to countervail Alinsky:

Just A Quickie

...on the Bob Menendez thing.

I think it's a bit suspicious that Menendez suddenly has another "corruption problem" pop up just as Chris Christie and Bob McDonnell are getting fried for actually and obviously being corrupt.

I'm not saying it's not possible for Menendez to be less than a perfectly straight shooter - there's a fair probability that he's at least a little crooked, cuz a) he's a politician and b) he's a New Jersey politician.  It's just that the timing seems a little too coincidental, and after the bullshit allegations about him and Dominican hookers, this new stuff has to be seen through very skeptical filters.

But here's the real kicker.  This is a tweet from Brad Dayspring, Repub Nat'l Senatorial Committee:

"one man’s allegations are another man’s evidence."

As long as that other man's a booger-eatin' moron - which is what the GOP Brain Trust thinks we all are.  Unfortunately, they're right when it comes to about 25% of us.

It Occurs To Me

Bad NFL Lip Reading

hat tip = #1 Son

It's All About The Jesus

Closing The Circle

The continuing bad news in West Virginia is that Freedom Industries "Oops-ed" again by neglecting to mention there'd been a second chemical spilled at the same time as the MCHM (it appears they occurred at the same time - tho' nobody's saying for sure).  So there was also a spill of PPH (polyglycol ethers).  But since this other shit is a bit less toxic, we can just kinda overlook all that.

Let's leave aside for just a moment that a 30-year campaign to weaken shitcan our Regulatory Infrastructure continues to produce this ongoing nightmare scenario - from Enron to Wall Street to Deepwater Horizon to Mayflower AR to Charleston WV to everywhere else there's still one GOP/Glibertarian moron bitchin' about how da gubmint just needs to leave us all alone.

OK OK - try a little harder to leave all that shit aside, cuz here's the thing:  The circle is closing.

In West Virginia, the governor has come out and said he doesn't know what's up because he's not a scientist.  The scientists are a little baffled because they've all been working on something other than Air and Water Quality cuz a guy really can't make much of a living doing that anymore (or they're all working for the chemical companies, so they're not likely to bite the hand that feeds 'em).  Da Gubmint is pretty useless because the people who used to work on things like Environmental Health have been forced out by budget cuts etc (see "working for the chemical companies" above), plus the "regulators" who're still on the job were put there by Coin-Operated Politicians who needed to pay off their contributors by demonstrating how Business Friendly they really are.  Of course the private-sector Water Utility can't be expected to do anything because they're held hostage to Big Coal just like everybody else.

And now, Freedom Industries has filed for bankruptcy protection - with a twist:



Everybody's guity; nobody's responsible; nobody can be held accountable.

So they close the loop, which basically indemnifies everybody who by right should be crucified - which is exactly how it's supposed to work - and guess who gets left holding the bag.

One last thing - while everybody's running around yelling about how they don't know anything and they can't do anything, and and and - there is this little thing called The West Virginia Poison Center, and there's a "branch office" right there at The Charleston Area Med Ctr, 3110 Maccorkle Ave SE, Charleston, WV 25304   (800) 222-1222

Election With A Consequence

Blue Virginia links to a story in WaPo, saying our new AG, Mark Herring, will not just blow off defending Virginia's ban on gay marriage, but actually join the suit brought by 2 gay couples to overturn it.

Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring will announce Thursday that he believes the state’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional and that Virginia will join two same-sex couples in asking a federal court to strike it down, according to an official close to the attorney general with knowledge about the decision.

The action will mark a stunning reversal in the state’s legal position on same-sex marriage and is a result of November elections in which Democrats swept the state’s top offices. Herring’s predecessor, Republican Ken Cuccinelli II, adamantly opposes gay marriage and had vowed to defend Virginia’s constitutional amendment banning such unions, which was passed in 2006 with the support of 57 percent of voters.

Prob'ly shouldn't get too het up about it, but this has to be a pretty good sign that the Christianists are losing a big one.

It also points up the importance of getting everybody out to vote.  Herring won his election by less than a thousand.  

Semi-Wow

Bob McDonnell's term as Virignia's Governor ended a week and a half ago, and today a federal grand jury handed down a big stack of indictments for Vaginal Bob and Lady McBarbie.

I'd like to say yay, but two things keep popping into my head.  First, I'm not convinced anybody will really care now.  I believe the thinking will be "gee, isn't he's gone now?" and "lookee there - the system worked - he got voted outa office" and "the Dems won the election - all they wanna do is punish the guy for being a Republican".

And second - that kind of thinking is why these things need to happen while a prick like McDonnell is still in office.  The whole thing almost got negotiated away - "in the interest of what's good for The Commonwealth".  Amazing just how chummy these assholes think they are with "us folks" once it becomes clear they've been fuckin' us with our pants on.

The announcement of the indictments was postponed, and the reasoning we got was so it wouldn't disrupt the elections last fall.  Fuck that shit.  Maybe disruption is what we need.  Maybe voters need to get shook up.  Maybe politicians and pollsters and image consultants and spinmeisters and party operatives - the whole political industry in general needs a collective kick in the nuts.

Taken together, the charges, if they resulted in convictions and maximum sentences, could produce fines in excess of $1 million and put the McDonnells behind bars for decades.

The indictment caps a stunning fall from political grace for the former governor, whose term ended Jan. 11. His tenure produced budget surpluses, restoration of voting rights to a record number of former felons and a landmark transportation funding package, before it was consumed by scandal in his final nine months in office.

I'll bet dollars to dingleberries there were people in positions of power who knew about all this crap a good 2 years ago, when they started vetting McDonnell for 2012 Veep.  None of this came as any kind of surprise to anybody anywhere near shoutin' distance of either party.  But they all kept it cool.  They all started calculating what they might be able to get out of it for themselves and for their own organizations.

Hey, guys - ya wanna know why so many of us get stuck in the Centrist Trap?  Would it interest you at all to learn why we fall for "Both sides do it"?

One side pulls some shit and the other side suddenly goes deaf dumb and blind.

Today's PodCast

From You Are Not So Smart: What's up with all that conspiracy theory shit?



It goes along with the Type 1 Error I posted about earlier.  We take a certain bit of information, it makes us skittish, and at some point (feeling the need for reasons and explanations), we ascribe Agency or Intent to it.

Nobody's saying there can't possibly be anything to any of what you think is a conspiracy regarding certain events or conditions.  But while there are (and have been) in fact many conspiracies to commit various acts both heinous and heroic, The Grand Conspiracy has so far been thoroughly delusional.

Oh yeah - in case you're wondering about the Ant Death Spiral mentioned in the podcast:



The ant gets a bit of info and, since he can't apply any reasoning to the problem, he can only follow along dutifully ("thinking" this is how he gets to a safe dry place that his little ant-sized brain calls home).  Eventually, they all die of starvation and/or dehydration, never even knowing they were acting on insufficient evidence.

The real difference of course is that the ants can't reason their way thru it, while we actually choose not to.

One last bit, for all you Randites out there, I'll paraphrase from The Fountainhead:  The evil at work in the world is when a man recognizes Truth and Beauty as they are, and denies them.

Now You're Mystified

Used To Rule The World --Bonnie Raitt

The Message For 2014

...and beyond - as long as it takes.

Here's the poster for every Democrat running for any office at any level at any time - or until they manage to get outa their own fuckin' way:

It's the Tea Party economy, stupid.

BTW, Dems - ya gotta figure out how to give up the industrial strength corporate funding.  And I get it; it's gonna be harder than quittin' smokin'.  But ya gotta do it, guys.

more than a lousy tip o' the hat = The Professional Left Podcast

Type vs Type

Type 1 Error = False Positive

Type 2 Error = False Negative

(paraphrasing Michael Shermer)
You're a hominid out for a stroll on the African plains 2 million years ago, and you hear a rustle in the grass.  Do you assume it's a dangerous predator, or do you assume it's harmless?

If you identify the sound as a predator, and it turns out to be the wind, then you've made a mistake (a Type 1 Error).  You lose some time, but you've survived - you continue to hunt and to live and to breed.

If you identify the sound as the wind, but it turns out to be a leopard, then you've removed yourself and all your potential descendants from the gene pool.

We are descended from a very long line of creatures who consistently made Type 1 Errors.

And that (partly) explains why we insist on believing in ghosts; and that Elvis is alive; and that there is a god.

Dr Shermer, if you please:

Shit Doesn't Just Happen

Mr Tim Wise on Privilege

I've posted this before in one iteration or another, but it's generally a good idea to repeat the important lessons.  So just think of it as being part of our Continuing Education requirements.



I tend to check on certain things.  And when somebody sounds like he knows what he's talking about, it's even more important to see if he really knows what he says he knows.

Today's Seer

I really do try not to be too dismissive of most people's heart-felt beliefs (yeah, I know - that one prob'ly seems pretty hard to swallow).  The problem is that when guys like Pat Robertson get to where they're guys like Pat Robertson, it just always seems like they goes right 'round the fuckin' bend.

Notice here - in 2011 - the guy makes predictions with some fairly hard dates attached - even tho' he issues the usual bullshit caveat about how it's risky to do exactly what he ends up doing.



Did you get it?  Right now, we're supposed to be completely broke; creditors banging on the doors of the treasury; unemployment way higher than it is; with strife and turmoil; and and and.

These people are phonies.  Stop giving them money you don't have for something that doesn't exist, and which you don't need in the first fuckin' place.

Some Change Is Good

Vaginal Bob is no longer Virginia's Governor.  So, with his departure, along with that of his evil minion Attorney General (Kenny the Kooch), we can finally start to scour the first few layers of crappy governance off the public hide in Richmond.

We shoveled literally hundreds of thousands of public dollars into the pockets of private lawyers so Bob McDonnell would have legal representation once it was disclosed that Cuccinelli shared McDonnell's aversion to keeping his hands outa the cookie jar.  And that's kinda how some of these crooks get away with their shit - it's a fairly simple (and very much time-honored) tradition of making sure nobody's accountable because everybody's guilty.

Hope springs eternal in spite of politicians' constant efforts to kill it, but I insist that it's not unreasonable to expect public officials to act honorably.  So here's hoping  Mark Herring and Terry McAuliffe are at least a little more square with the whole ethical behavior thing.

hat tip = Blue Virginia

Today's Tune

Maybe a little more suited to warmer weather, but I don't really care.

Emma Jean --Amazing Rhythm Aces



btw - Gin and pink lemonade?  Don't knock it 'til ya try it. 'Sides, it's a suthrun thang.  Ya'll just don't git it.

These Kids Today

Political (and other messaging) Manipulation might get some of us to believe practically everything anybody tells us, but it's just as possible that digital tricks get way too many of us to the point where we're not willing to believe anything about anything at all.

Welcome to the dawning of The Age of Radical Skepticism.