By The Numbers

Not that it'll matter one little bit, but hey - I'm in full Quixote mode, so fut da wuk.

The success of Costco, Trader Joe’s, QuikTrip and Mercadona, Spain’s biggest supermarket chain, indicate, [business professor Zeynep Ton] argues, that well-paid, knowledgeable workers are not an indulgence often found in luxury boutiques with their high markups. At each of the aforementioned companies, workers are paid more than at their competitors; they are also amply staffed per shift. More employees can ask customers questions about what they want to see more of and what they don’t like, and then they are empowered to change displays or order different stock to appeal to local tastes. (In big chains, these sorts of decisions are typically made in headquarters with little or no line-staff input.) Costco pays its workers about $21 an hour; Walmart is just about $13. Yet Costco’s stock performance has thoroughly walloped Walmart’s for a decade.

Lest We Forget

Shit Happens.

And the shit that happens on any given media platform doesn't happen by accident.

If you wanna know how things got to Level Cluster Fuck, here's a golden oldie:

That's a near-perfect example of the Double Negative being used against us by a shrinking number of increasingly rich; increasingly powerful people.  

First, you wanna make "the science" (in this case AGW) seem sketchy, so you need to slam it directly with a good dose of False Equivalence by suggesting that the opinion of average poorly informed Americans is just as valid as the scientific findings of trained pros.  But second, you must always reinforce the notion that science is bad, so you make sure the numbers in your "Scientific Polling" don't quite add up.

Persuasion is not the point - the point here is to maintain the divisions between people, which maintains the balance (Red Team/Blue Team, Con vs Lib, Repubs against Dems), which maintains the status quo, which favors the current holders of power.

By playing both sides, and then by convincing us that both sides are equal - and equally bad - the Power Holders get to stay in power.

Maybe I'm seeing it just because I'm looking for it, but it seems to be in play all over the joint. (btw, hat tip to The Professional Left Podcast)

Ever wonder why the Repubs keep repeating the same ol' crap?  Benghazi, IRS, Birth Certificate, Luxury Vacations, etc etc etc?  First you pump up each new "scandal" by launching phony investigations and making the rounds at DumFux News and the Sunday Morning Circle Jerk.  Then, when it's time to run an election campaign, you slag Obama for "this culture of corruption", and make loud declarations about how "the American people are suffering from a profound bout of Scandal Fatigue".  Sound familiar?

The Chase:  Apathy favors the Status Quo.  Voter Suppression - whether by statute or by media manipulation or whatever else the tricksters come up with - reinforces the status quo.  Status quo favors those currently in power.  Did I already say that?  Get used to hearing it.  Power is supposed to change hands on a regular basis here in our little experiment in self-government.  The fact that it doesn't; and seeing as how things have gotten more than a little fucked up, I have to think the problem lies partly with the ones holding the power; but just as importantly, the problem lies with those of us who refuse to see the problem in order to avoid the responsibility for doing anything about it.

From Common Dreams:

Other recent studies looked at partisanship. A paper published last year by Volscho and Nathan Kelly, a political scientist at the University of Tennessee and a co-author of the gridlock study, found that, between 1949 and 2008, a one percent increase in congressional seats held by Republicans (about five seats), correlated with the top one percent of households seeing their share of the nation’s income go up by about four-fifths of a percent, regardless of which party occupied the White House.

Others have looked at how the ideological positions of the two major parties play a role. And a number of studies have concluded that the average voting patterns of senators from both parties tend to align with the interests of the wealthy first and foremost, of the middle class occasionally and almost never those of the poor.

So if you like the way things are, then keep doing nothing.  Don't vote.  Don't state any opinion in any public forum other than "they're all alike, and they all suck".

Don't rock the boat.  Conform and be dull.

And pretty much above all, you must never ever question the conventional wisdom of "choosing the lesser of two evils is still evil".  Guess what - if you deliberately avoid choosing the lesser evil, then you're leaving it to someone else to choose the greater evil for you.

America's Best Christian

Mrs Betty Bowers explains:



And I guess sometimes, when the jokes are actually in charge and way too many people are taking them way too seriously, then it just ain't funny no more.

hat tip = Addicting Info

Today's PSA

"Sorry, we didn't agree to this - this wasn't in the script..."



75% of all Americans know someone who is (or was) a victim of Domestic Violence - that's 232,500,000 of us.

Every day, 4 Americans are murdered by their intimate partners. Four. Every. Fucking. Day.

Worth a visit - RAINN

Will The Real Hornswogglers Please Stand Up?

Turns out that "privatization" is often just another word for Ripping Off The Taxpayer (thank you, Captain Obvious).

  Out of Control

hat tip = naked capitalism

Caveat: The report is obviously intended to make a point, but that doesn't mean it's not truthful.  My biggest problem is that I can't think of one example of privatizing that hasn't  carried with it a load of waste fraud and abuse - you know, exactly what the Anti-Gubmint bozos are always bitching about.

Today's Pix

On The Very Bad Year

"Obama had a lousy year" - that's kinda the theme for 2013.  Bullshit, says I.

"The Left" - for want of a better descriptor - has acquired a kind of self esteem problem. God forbid they do or say anything that might leave them open to being criticized for supporting Obama even when he does something they don't agree with.

So we get lots of Obama slagging - Hippie Punching if you prefer.  The best way to inoculate yourself from being tagged as an ObamaBot is to shit on Obama's head whenever you get the chance.

Anyway - cutting to the chase:  Turns out that Obama's a politician who disappoints us once in a while.  Wow - now there's a revelation.

He's not the god-sent messiah everybody on "The Right" is saying everybody on "The Left" is saying he is.  But y'know, he is actually healing the sick (ACA) and he did manage to raise the dead (GM), so hey - maybe we should just chill a little and give him a hand now and then, and just wait to see if he's got something else up his sleeve for us.

We're still here; we've got another war winding down; we're not in default; the economy sputters a lot but it's moving in a generally upward direction (while the deficit continues downward); we have something that resembles an actual budget in place; and considering the Cocktail of Clusterfuck he has to deal with every fuckin' day, I think it's pretty remarkable the Prez still gets up every morning and heads into the office to see if he can get something done.

Here's to hoping for an even better year in 2014.

What It Ain't

This is not entitlement:

This is entitlement:

Putting The Lie To It

"Liberal Bias in the Media".  We hear it all the time, and once in a while, somebody comes up with something that should be considered proof that there's no such thing - that the truth is exactly the opposite - and still, we just can't seem to break thru.  I wonder why that is.

Here's a little chart from a post at MSNBC by Steve Benen:

The above chart shows every political figure who made 10 or more Sunday show appearances this year, with red columns representing Republicans and blue columns representing Democrats. For 2013, the race wasn’t especially close – House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) easily came out on top, making 27 appearances this year. That works out to an average of one appearance every 1.9 weeks (or 2.25 Sunday show appearances a month, every month for a year).

And just in case you're inclined to think NBC is booking these guys in order to grill 'em a little - to hold their feet to the fire - uh uh.  Watch a few of these weekly circle jerks, and then try to tell me the main point of the enterprise isn't about coin-operated politicians selling us a box full of fog.

Ray And Bonnie

Do I Ever Cross Your Mind? --Ray Charles and Bonnie Raitt



A year ago today.

Haiku You

The Rude Pundit has opened his annual(?) Kaiku Contest thingie - submit a Haiku and get it published on the interwebs!  Woohoo!

His example for today:

Soul-free GOP
Shits on the souls of Newtown,
Fellates NRA.

You can email your entries to: rudepundit@yahoo.com

One Day It Called To You

The Summer Wind --Sinatra

Running A Little Contrary

The 12 Days After Christmas --Julia Murney



The first day after Christmas my true love and I had a fight.
And so I chopped the pear tree down and burned it just for spite.
Then with a single cartridge, I shot that blasted partridge,
My true love, my true love, my true love gave to me.

The second day after Christmas, I pulled on the old rubber gloves.
And very gently wrung the necks of both the turtle doves,
My true love, my true love, my true love gave to me.

The third day after Christmas, my mother caught the croup.
I had to use the three Frech hens to make some chicken soup.

The four calling birds were a big mistake, for their language was obscene.
The five gold rings were completely fake and they turned my fingers green .

The sixth day after Christmas, the six laying geese wouldn't lay.
I gave the whole darn gaggle to the A.S.P.C.A.

On the seventh day what a mess I found.
All seven of the swimming swans had drowned,
My true love, my true love, my true love gave to me.

The eighth day after Christmas, before they could suspect,
I bundled up the eight maids a milking,
nine pipers piping,
ten ladies dancing,
'leven lords a leaping,
twelve drummers drumming - actually, I kept one of the drummers -

and sent them back collect.

I wrote my true love, "We are through, love",
and I said in so many words,
"Furthermore your Christmas gifts were for the birds!"

Deep In The Heart Of Me

I've Got You Under My Skin --Sinatra (Live At The Sands)

Today's Quote

Every new & successful example therefore of a perfect separation between ecclesiastical and civil matters, is of importance. And I have no doubt that every new example, will succeed, as every past one has done, in shewing that religion & Govt. will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.

-- James Madison to Edward Livingston, July 10, 1822.

hat tip = Charlie Pierce

Happy Newtonmas, Everybody

Hurry Down The Chimney

Santa Baby --Eartha Kitt

Testify, Sistuh Pearl

A Five-Pound Box Of Money --Pearl Bailey

A Joyful Noise

This one's kind of a perennial post for me - just trying to encourage the bible thumpers to devote so much time to making spectacular music that they're left with little to spend mucking about in politics.

Anyway, Merry Christmas, everybody.

Today's Quote

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened." --Sir Winston Churchill