The Root Principles

I'm a Capitalist because god's a Capitalist.

Capitalism is a close analog for how the world actually operates.

I have to establish a cycle of spending and profit and investment in order to stay alive.

I have to take in a quantity of calories sufficient to fuel the work I have to do as I go out and get my next meal.

That's the basic premise, and it works very well, but that's not all there is to it.

Unfortunately, way too any of us believe that is, in fact, all there is to it.

I'll forego most of the weird permutations and complicating factors, and just stick to me as an individual self-contained unit.

I think that part of my analogy makes perfect sense, but it lacks one vital consideration: Recognition of the absolute need for appropriate regulation - cuz god built regulation into everything.

Like I said before, I need fuel. Blood Sugar is a pretty basic fuel, and it's one thing I get plenty of from the food I eat. I have to have it so I can do the work.

So blood sugar is a mighty good thing, unless I get too much of it. So god gave me a pancreas to regulate my Blood Sugar levels. Without that regulation, I die.

I need a way to regulate my body temperature, so I have a hypothalamus.

I need to regulate my circadian rhythms, so I have a pineal gland.

I need to regulate my breathing and my heartbeat and my eye-blink and a whole metric shit-ton of other things so that all my different systems are functioning in a way that fits all the pieces together so I can go out and do the fucking work and sustain not only myself but everything else I need to sustain myself.

OK. So all of that micro thing leads in to all of this macro thing -

From Scott Galloway - Professor Of Marketing, NYU Stern:

Yet most successful capitalist systems acknowledge that without rule of law, empathy, and redistribution of income, we lose the script. The purpose of an economy is to build a robust middle class. We have, traditionally, elected leaders who cut the lower branches off trees to ensure other saplings get sunlight. There is less and less sunlight. It’s never been easier to become a billionaire, or harder to become a millionaire.

The uber-wealthy paid a tax rate of 70% in the fifties, 47% in the eighties, and 23% at present — a lower tax rate than the middle class. Taxes on the poor and middle class have largely stayed the same. We’ve exploded the debt so rich people pay less tax. If money is the transfer of work and time, we’ve decided our kids will need to work more in the future, and spend less time with their families, so wealthy people can pay lower taxes today. If that sounds immoral, trust your instincts.

It feels as if something has changed. Gerrymandering, money in politics, lack of a shared experience among Americans, social-media-fueled rage, and an idolatry of innovators have led to a faustian bargain: the innovators (lords) capture the majority of the gains, and the 99% (serfs) get an awesome phone, a $4,000 TV, great original scripted television, and Mandalorian action figures delivered within 24 hours. Everybody gets a taste of the innovators’ nose candy and can buy shares in Amazon. Everyone has heard about someone whose daughter works at Google and bought her parents a house.

The biggest losers of the decade are the unremarkables. Our society used to give remarkable opportunities to unremarkable kids and young adults. Some of the crowding out of unremarkable white males, including myself, is a good thing. More women are going to college, and remarkable kids from low-income neighborhoods get opportunities. But a middle-class kid who doesn’t learn to code Python or speak Mandarin can soon find she is not “tracking” and can’t catch up.

• I have intimate experience with being unremarkable:
• Graduated public high school with a 3.2 GPA and 1130 SAT (85%).
• Admitted, on appeal, to UCLA, academic probation 4 times, subject to dismissal twice, 2.27 GPA. 
• Landed a job at Morgan Stanley in Fixed Income Group. (How? I interview well and lied about my grades.)
• Admitted to UC Berkeley Haas (yes, with a 2.27 undergrad GPA).
• Have started several businesses since graduation; most have gone sideways or failed.

My wins were businesses that sold for between $28 million (Prophet) and $160 million (L2). The firm that was sold for $160 million, my VCs didn’t want to sell, as they felt there was an opportunity to go “bigger.” This is emblematic of our lottery / Hunger Games economy, where the gestalt is to go big or die trying. This creates a small class of uber-winners and many more people who wake up at 40 with no economic security or prospects. It’s “go big or go home.” Deaths of despair are skyrocketing, and the innovation ecosystem feeds it.

We have to understand - and never fucking forget - that once in a while we have to step in and rescue Capitalism from the Capitalists.

Here It Comes

I don't remember this kind of pomp and circumstance with the Clinton impeachment.

And I don't remember this level of fuckery:

Dana Milbank, WaPo:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his team — the Senate sergeant-at-arms and Rules Committee make the decisions, but McConnell (R-Ky.) is the driving force behind the restrictions, people involved tell me — further decreed that journalists would be confined during the entire trial to roped-off pens, forbidden from approaching senators in Capitol corridors.

They also required journalists to clear a newly installed metal detector before entering the media seats above the chamber. Why? Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) suggested to PBS’s Lisa Desjardins, The Post’s Paul Kane and others that journalists might bug the chamber with surveillance equipment.

The GOP leadership likewise rejected a request from the Standing Committee of Correspondents to allow journalists to bring laptops or silenced phones into the chamber so they could write (the House allows this) or to allow cameras in to capture the history of the moment (the House allowed this during the impeachment process).

- and -

It’s obvious what the restrictions are about, because they mirror McConnell’s general approach to the trial. He had signed on to a proposal to dismiss the House impeachment articles without a trial. He has resisted allowing documentary or testimonial evidence to surface during the trial. And now he’s doing everything in his power to shield senators from reporters — and from the public.

Because still and TV cameras aren’t allowed in the chamber, the only images will be C-SPAN-style footage from fixed TV cameras operated by government employees. The public won’t be able to see which senators are sleeping, talking or missing entirely.

McConnell’s team also decided to claw back seats typically reserved for the general public, to “augment” seating for their own friends and family; they’ll have at least 134 such seats. They offered no such augmentation for the media, which has 107 seats, only about 20 of which provide a full view of the Senate floor.

Nor can the senators be observed outside the chamber. At a private luncheon of Republican senators this week, Blunt showed where the media would be penned in and reportedly “joked” that the senators could now avoid reporters.

- and the kicker:

It’s a curious attempt at fortress-building after House Republicans noisily objected to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) taking depositions in his “basement bunker.” They can’t quash the trial itself, but McConnell’s restrictions will go a long way toward restricting what the American public sees of this historic moment.

The Big Four

Biden:
Obama redux, and a bigger heaping-er helping of "Repubs will come around if we just give 'em everything they want..."

This time for sure

Bernie:

"It's gonna take a revolution!"

Pete:

"We need new blood in Washington"

Warren:

"I'll put political pressure on McConnell, but I'll use executive action if necessary."

I don't know what will work. I don't know who will win it.

But it has to be very clear that every one of 'em would make a better POTUS than what we've got now, even if they took it as a part-time gig on weekends and holidays.

And I know that every one of the Dems can beat 45* like a dirty rug if we THE VOTERS don't get stoopid.

If we show up, we win. We've proved that 3 years in a row now. We win when we show up.

SO SHOW UP OR SHUT UP

Into The Mix

Another reminder who we're dealing with:

BBC World News:

A Russian journalist who campaigned against government corruption and suffered brain damage from an attack in 2008, has died aged 55. 

Mikhail Beketov, founder and editor of the Khimki newspaper, campaigned heavily against the construction of a highway through the Khimki forest near Moscow.

Mr Beketov died on Monday from cardiac arrest, said his lawyer Stalina Gurevich.

His attackers were never identified.

Mr Beketov wrote several articles criticising the planned destruction of the Khimki forest to make way for the Moscow-Saint Petersburg motorway.

He also raised suspicions that local officials were profiting from the project.

Mr Beketov continued campaigning, even after his dog was left dead on his doorstep and his car was set on fire.

Soon after, on November 13th 2008, Mr Beketov was attacked outside his home by two men using an iron bar. They smashed his hands and legs, and fractured his skull.

Mr Beketov's right leg had to be amputated, he lost most of the fingers on his left hand and he was left severely brain-damaged. The attack also left him unable to speak.

Ms Gurevich said Mr Beketov never fully recovered.

"The culprits have not been found and now we can honestly say these people were murderers," said Yevgenia Chirikova, an activist who campaigned alongside Mr Beketov.

Several other journalists and environmentalists who campaigned against the project were also attacked.

In 2010, Mr Beketov was found guilty of libelling the local mayor but was subsequently acquitted.

Some 54 journalists have been killed in Russia since 1992, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The CPJ states that Russia has the ninth worst record for solving murders against journalists.

Mr Beketov, who said he had received threats to stop writing, was given a government print media award in 2011.

What A Revoltin' Development

So now, there's just no way for anyone to be unclear as to what 45* meant when he told Zelensky that Marie Yovanovich would be "going through some things".

Business Insider:

• Newly-released texts show discussions by Rudy Giuliani's associate Lev Parnas that talk about stalking former ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.
• The texts, one of which refers to Yovanovitch as 'that b---h', were made public by the House Intelligence Committee as part of a cache of evidence linking Parnas to President Donald Trump's efforts to put pressure on Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden.
• Yovanovitch, who testified during President Donald Trump's impeachment inquiry, was abruptly recalled from her position in May after what she described as a smear campaign.
• Upon the release of the documents, Yovanovitch demanded an investigation to look into the extent of surveillance that was conducted by Parnas and his associates.

Newly-published text exchanges involving Rudy Giuliani's associate Lev Parnas show him discussing efforts to stalk former US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, and refer to her bluntly as 'that b---h'.

The conversations were made public by the House Intelligence Committee, along with letters and handwritten notes that illustrate Parnas' role in President Donald Trump's pressure campaign in Ukraine.

Yovanovitch, who testified during President Donald Trump's impeachment inquiry, was abruptly recalled from her position in May after she what she characterized as a smear campaign.

The conversations back up Yovanovitch's testimony, showing Parnas and his associates plotting to "get rid" of her.

Parnas texted his associate Robert Hyde, a Republican running for Congress in Connecticut, in which Hyde called Yovanovitch a "b---h" for being anti-Trump.

- and -

Hyde later sent several texts suggesting he was keeping tabs on Yovanovitch in Ukraine, adding, "They are willing to help if we/you would like a price."

Afterward, Hyde wrote, "Guess you can do anything in the Ukraine with money."

At the end of March, Hyde texted Parnas updating him on Yovanovitch's location and the state of her security.

He followed up saying how they "have a person inside."

Robert F Hyde is just another GOP Rat-Fucker - who, of course, 45* has never met, doesn't remember, is off doing something maybe for Rudy, maybe not, I'm not sure if Rudy is blah blah fucking blah.

Daily Beast:

Before Tuesday, he was best known as a little-known, scandal-scarred Republican congressional candidate who tweeted an obscene joke at Kamala Harris. But new documents from the House Intelligence Committee have put a completely different kind of spotlight on Robert F. Hyde, the Trump donor who appears to have tracked U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch’s movements in Ukraine.

In WhatsApp messages exchanged in March 2019 with Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, who provided the committee with the files, Hyde and Parnas discussed Yovanovitch’s location. Hyde, a retired Marine, appeared to have associates in Ukraine monitoring her.

A Divided America

...that isn't really.

1. Legalize weed
2. Corruption in politics
3. Family leave
4. Predatory lending
5. Red Flag gun laws
6. Ending wars
7. Regulating Pharma
8. Keep abortion legal

Weirdly, the constant pimping of Both Sides is a manifestation of the Divide-n-Conquer approach of the would-be plutocrats.

They throw the contradiction shit at us all the time, and it's no wonder we're all a little - or a lot - confused.

"You citizens are divided. You can't agree on anything because your politicians are all alike and they agree on everything."

What seems even weirder (but isn't) is that there's a grain of truth in that. Which is what good little propagandists can do.

If people are at the point where they start to get hip to your tricks, you don't just stop trying to trick them - your paycheck depends on keeping your benefactors in power, so you fucking well better come up with some better tricks.

And the best tricks have to be aimed at people who're suspicious that you've been tricking them, so you can get another shot at convincing them it wasn't you at all, but those other guys, or that they're not being as smart and sophisticated as they should be, or whatever.

Or (and this has been the basic pitch for quite a while)  "Hey, that's how the game is played - they all do it - you're too nice a person to get mixed up in such a dirty thing - you should just stay out of it... ... ..."

In case you're tempted to fall back into it, just remember that the GOP are the ones who want to:

• Eliminate your healthcare coverage and protections for pre-existing conditions
• Make cuts in Medicare and Social Security
• Privatize public schools and make education the exclusive province of a ruling class
• Criminalize abortion
• Bomb Iran
• Block climate change action
• Continue stripping away EPA regulations
• and
• and
• and

Everything that benefits us - everything that empowers people to do more than subsist, suffer and then die - all of it is supported by the Dems and opposed by the GOP.

Today's Tweet

New products!

With the launch of Gwyneth Paltrow's vagina smelling candle,
I am rolling out a limited time offer of old deflated Bicycle tubes that I assume smell like Trump's junk.

DM me for details.

— Jason (@sparky347v) January 11, 2020

Today's Pix

click

The "Trial"

If 45*'s not guilty, we'd see Bolton and Pompeo and Mulvaney and dozens of other witnesses standing in line waiting to testify, and ready to tell all.

And the courier services in DC would be busting their humps delivering mountains of exculpatory documentation.

To be fair, the simple fact that those witnesses and that documentary evidence aren't forthcoming does not necessarily mean he's guilty, but c'mon.

And his claim that he's just trying to protect the integrity of the office of the presidency in the best interests of future presidents and for the good of the nation?

cuz we all know:

George Conway & Neal Katyal in WaPo:

How can one conduct a “trial” without knowing this evidence? As lawyers, we have never heard of a trial without witnesses. Both past impeachment trials of presidents featured witnesses — including 41 in the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. And the lack of witnesses is particularly striking given the shell game Trump and his Republican colleagues have played. In the House, Trump prevented executive branch employees from testifying, but said some of them would be able to testify in the Senate. Now that we are in the Senate, Republicans say these folks should have testified in the House. Lewis Carroll would be pleased.

Today's Tweet

A leak in the stovepipe.

Martha: This is a completely filled to capacity stadium in Toledo tonight

*camera switches... oops pic.twitter.com/7KhQCJpgr4

— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) January 10, 2020