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CDC DECIDES TO JUST NOT COUNT ALL COVID CASES If you're vaccinated, you can still get Covid, but (courtesy of my favorite Dalek.) Now, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention has stopped investigating breakthrough infections among fully vaccinated people unless they become so sick that they are hospitalized or die. Now, this may seem reasonable, but people with breakthrough Covid can give it to other people, and they can get AMERICA IS ABOUT TO FEEL LIKE A THIRD WORLD NATION America Is About to Feel Like a Third World Nation. 2020 August 7. by Ian Welsh. I spent a good chunk of my childhood in third world countries. Most of that chunk was spent in Bangladesh, which was then arguably the poorest country in the world, but I visited or lived in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Nepal and India, among others. APRIL 21ST US COVID DATA Our benefactor notes that the mortality rate has flattened at 5.4 percent. Because of limited US testing, this isn't the real percentage; subtract a little bit and you still get a sense of mortality rates for those severe enough to get tested and, in many cases, to wind up in hospitals. Deaths per day is meaningful because this is effectively a BIDEN DEFIES PHARMA PLAN TO NEVER WIPE OUT COVID SO THEY So, this is a good thing. As is often the case with monopoly-related issues, the best explanation comes from Matt Stoller, and let's start with why Pfizer and Moderna don't want this to happen. On an investor call last month, the CEO of Pfizer, Frank D’Amelio, discussed what would happen to revenue from his vaccine product as the Covid pandemicends,
THE CORE SOCIAL PRINCIPLES OF IDEOLOGIES Every ideology has a few core principles: guiding lights, or pole-stars, which believers should use to guide themselves. The fundamental proposition; the IDEAL, of Confucian government, is that the rulers should govern as if they are benevolent parents. If they do not do so, they are not legitimate, but tyrants. The fundamental proposition of feudalism and related ideologies is that some WHY IS THERE SO MUCH GUN VIOLENCE IN THE US? Gun violence, in fact, is declining. It rose with the boomer cohort, both because young people commit more crime, and because American society went off the rails starting in the late 60s, but it’s declined since a peak in the early 90s, despite Millenials, a IF BIDEN ACTUALLY WITHDRAWS TROOPS FROM AFGHANISTAN BY 9 Sort of self-explanatory. We'll see if he actually does. Trump had planned to withdraw by May 1st, after all, and spent most of his presidency talking about withdrawing without actually doing so. But Biden saying there are no conditions for the withdrawal is a promising sign. This does mean the Taliban will almost certainly wind up ruling the country again; the Kabul MANDELA WAS A TERRORIST That's just a fact. He was also the father of his country, and I believe he was a great man and a good man. In 1985 he was offered release from jail if he would unconditionally renounce violence, he refused. One might want to think about the fact that a great man and a good man was a terrorist. Today, Emptywheel asked: what AMERICAN SOCIAL COLLAPSE IS FAR CLOSER THAN MOST WILL A rather lovely article on US social collapse by Susan Zakin includes this summary of the stages of failing states. In State Failure and State Weakness in a Time of Terror, Harvard’s Robert Rotberg writes that while every country is different, the signposts tend to be the same. It is worth attending to the characteristics he describes. They should sound familiar: IAN WELSHABOUTBOOKDONATERESOURCESCORBYN'S BIGGEST FAILUREUNCATEGORIZED by Ian Welsh. One of the issues often pointed out about single-payer Medicare for all is that the US system has an extreme problem with prices and processes. Surgeries, hospital stays, ambulance visits, medical appliances and drugs are all vastly over-priced. The actors on this: hospitals, drug makers and appliance makers among some others,all
CDC DECIDES TO JUST NOT COUNT ALL COVID CASES If you're vaccinated, you can still get Covid, but (courtesy of my favorite Dalek.) Now, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention has stopped investigating breakthrough infections among fully vaccinated people unless they become so sick that they are hospitalized or die. Now, this may seem reasonable, but people with breakthrough Covid can give it to other people, and they can get AMERICA IS ABOUT TO FEEL LIKE A THIRD WORLD NATION America Is About to Feel Like a Third World Nation. 2020 August 7. by Ian Welsh. I spent a good chunk of my childhood in third world countries. Most of that chunk was spent in Bangladesh, which was then arguably the poorest country in the world, but I visited or lived in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Nepal and India, among others. APRIL 21ST US COVID DATA Our benefactor notes that the mortality rate has flattened at 5.4 percent. Because of limited US testing, this isn't the real percentage; subtract a little bit and you still get a sense of mortality rates for those severe enough to get tested and, in many cases, to wind up in hospitals. Deaths per day is meaningful because this is effectively a BIDEN DEFIES PHARMA PLAN TO NEVER WIPE OUT COVID SO THEY So, this is a good thing. As is often the case with monopoly-related issues, the best explanation comes from Matt Stoller, and let's start with why Pfizer and Moderna don't want this to happen. On an investor call last month, the CEO of Pfizer, Frank D’Amelio, discussed what would happen to revenue from his vaccine product as the Covid pandemicends,
THE CORE SOCIAL PRINCIPLES OF IDEOLOGIES Every ideology has a few core principles: guiding lights, or pole-stars, which believers should use to guide themselves. The fundamental proposition; the IDEAL, of Confucian government, is that the rulers should govern as if they are benevolent parents. If they do not do so, they are not legitimate, but tyrants. The fundamental proposition of feudalism and related ideologies is that some WHY IS THERE SO MUCH GUN VIOLENCE IN THE US? Gun violence, in fact, is declining. It rose with the boomer cohort, both because young people commit more crime, and because American society went off the rails starting in the late 60s, but it’s declined since a peak in the early 90s, despite Millenials, a IF BIDEN ACTUALLY WITHDRAWS TROOPS FROM AFGHANISTAN BY 9 Sort of self-explanatory. We'll see if he actually does. Trump had planned to withdraw by May 1st, after all, and spent most of his presidency talking about withdrawing without actually doing so. But Biden saying there are no conditions for the withdrawal is a promising sign. This does mean the Taliban will almost certainly wind up ruling the country again; the Kabul MANDELA WAS A TERRORIST That's just a fact. He was also the father of his country, and I believe he was a great man and a good man. In 1985 he was offered release from jail if he would unconditionally renounce violence, he refused. One might want to think about the fact that a great man and a good man was a terrorist. Today, Emptywheel asked: what AMERICAN SOCIAL COLLAPSE IS FAR CLOSER THAN MOST WILL A rather lovely article on US social collapse by Susan Zakin includes this summary of the stages of failing states. In State Failure and State Weakness in a Time of Terror, Harvard’s Robert Rotberg writes that while every country is different, the signposts tend to be the same. It is worth attending to the characteristics he describes. They should sound familiar: THE TRANSITION TO CAPITALISM One of the most important things to understand about industrial capitalism is that the lower classes didn't want it. Peasants did not leave the land voluntarily. They were forced off, often violently, in a series of enclosures, through which their millennia-old rights to use the land were taken together. This was a vast, albeitWEEK-END WRAP
Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – June 6, 2021 by Tony Wikrent Strategic Political Economy The Particular Psychology of Destroying a Planet” What kind of thinking goes into engaging in planetary sabotage? Bill McKibben .in a new book from the British psychoanalyst Sally Weintrobe. “Psychological Roots of the Climate Crisis” states its argument in its subtitleWHY DO WE DO THAT?
So today I stopped by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) and picked up a small bottle of sake. The teller seemed unhappy, so we chatted for a bit. I told him I'd worked at the LCBO for a couple months about 25 years ago (for the Christmas season), and he opened upa bit.
AMERICAN SOCIAL COLLAPSE IS FAR CLOSER THAN MOST WILL A rather lovely article on US social collapse by Susan Zakin includes this summary of the stages of failing states. In State Failure and State Weakness in a Time of Terror, Harvard’s Robert Rotberg writes that while every country is different, the signposts tend to be the same. It is worth attending to the characteristics he describes. They should sound familiar: THE ARGUMENT FOR CAPITALISM The Argument for Capitalism. It is often worth stating an ideology’s argument in pure form. Let’s do that for capitalism, not because we necessarily agree, but because understanding why people believe in an ideology is important. If someone buys something, it is because they want or need it. Giving people what they want or need is a good thing. CHRISTIANITY AS A RELIGIOUS IDEOLOGY Religions are ideologies. They are little different from something like capitalism, or Marxism, or the divine right of kings, or humanism. That is to say ideologies are sets of statements about how the world and people are, and how they should be. Christianity takes humans as fallen. We are innately bad, and we must be reformed by good education, including punishment. UNDERSTANDING LEADERSHIP RESPONSIBILITY FOR DEATH, HARM In the law there is a crime known as criminal negligence. Criminal negligence is the failure on the part of a person on whom a duty is placed to take reasonable steps to prevent a certain bad outcome from happening. Duties may or may not be specifically known to you. For instance, as a driver, you have a duty not toHOPE IS BULLSHIT
Hope is bullshit. Luck is real, but you don’t count on luck other than in the sense that the harder you work, and the more things you do, the more likely you are to “get lucky.”. But luck is usually the odds coming in, and bad luck is as real as good. In term of climate change, there is no reason for hope. It’s going to be badand, in
IS VIOLENCE EVER JUSTIFIED? DOES VIOLENCE EVER SOLVE Relatedly, violence often does solve problems. The Native Americans cleansed from North America were “problems” to the settlers, and violence dealt with that problem just fine. Fascist Germany was a problem to most non-German countries, Jews, Gypsies, Socialists, Gays, and many others and violence solved that problem. THERE ARE NO GOOD BILLIONAIRES (BILL GATES EDITION) The richest American ever was John D. Rockefeller, who died in 1937 with $1.7 billion, worth about $24 billion today. In 1957, the richest man in America was J. Paul Getty, with a fortune around $1 billion, worth about $9 billion today (let’s hear it for anti-trust and progressive income tax). IAN WELSHABOUTBOOKDONATERESOURCESCORBYN'S BIGGEST FAILUREUNCATEGORIZED One of the issues often pointed out about single-payer Medicare for all is that the US system has an extreme problem with prices and processes. Surgeries, hospital stays, ambulance visits, medical appliances and drugs are all vastly over-priced. The actors on this: hospitals, drug makers and APRIL 21ST US COVID DATA Our benefactor notes that the mortality rate has flattened at 5.4 percent. Because of limited US testing, this isn't the real percentage; subtract a little bit and you still get a sense of mortality rates for those severe enough to get tested and, in many cases, to wind up in hospitals. Deaths per day is meaningful because this is effectively a THE CORE SOCIAL PRINCIPLES OF IDEOLOGIES Every ideology has a few core principles: guiding lights, or pole-stars, which believers should use to guide themselves. The fundamental proposition; the IDEAL, of Confucian government, is that the rulers should govern as if they are benevolent parents. If they do not do so, they are not legitimate, but tyrants. The fundamental proposition of feudalism and related ideologies is that some AMERICA IS ABOUT TO FEEL LIKE A THIRD WORLD NATION America Is About to Feel Like a Third World Nation. 2020 August 7. by Ian Welsh. I spent a good chunk of my childhood in third world countries. Most of that chunk was spent in Bangladesh, which was then arguably the poorest country in the world, but I visited or lived in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Nepal and India, among others. THE TRANSITION TO CAPITALISM The Transition to Capitalism. One of the most important things to understand about industrial capitalism is that the lower classes didn’t want it. Peasants did not leave the land voluntarily. They were forced off, often violently, in a series of enclosures, through which their millennia-old rights to use the land were taken together.HOPE IS BULLSHIT
Hope is bullshit. Luck is real, but you don’t count on luck other than in the sense that the harder you work, and the more things you do, the more likely you are to “get lucky.”. But luck is usually the odds coming in, and bad luck is as real as good. In term of climate change, there is no reason for hope. It’s going to be badand, in
WHY IS THERE SO MUCH GUN VIOLENCE IN THE US? Gun violence, in fact, is declining. It rose with the boomer cohort, both because young people commit more crime, and because American society went off the rails starting in the late 60s, but it’s declined since a peak in the early 90s, despite Millenials, a AMERICAN SOCIAL COLLAPSE IS FAR CLOSER THAN MOST WILL A rather lovely article on US social collapse by Susan Zakin includes this summary of the stages of failing states. In State Failure and State Weakness in a Time of Terror, Harvard’s Robert Rotberg writes that while every country is different, the signposts tend to be the same. It is worth attending to the characteristics he describes. They should sound familiar: PURE UTILITARIANISM AND CAPITALISM This is what happens when you think of people as assets. Some people don’t deserve $15/hour because they don’t “add enough value.”. But they are still people, and they still need to eat, sleep in a warm place, and have the occasional bit of entertainment. They have value that cannot be reduced to their economic utility. MANDELA WAS A TERRORIST That's just a fact. He was also the father of his country, and I believe he was a great man and a good man. In 1985 he was offered release from jail if he would unconditionally renounce violence, he refused. One might want to think about the fact that a great man and a good man was a terrorist. Today, Emptywheel asked: what IAN WELSHABOUTBOOKDONATERESOURCESCORBYN'S BIGGEST FAILUREUNCATEGORIZED One of the issues often pointed out about single-payer Medicare for all is that the US system has an extreme problem with prices and processes. Surgeries, hospital stays, ambulance visits, medical appliances and drugs are all vastly over-priced. The actors on this: hospitals, drug makers and APRIL 21ST US COVID DATA Our benefactor notes that the mortality rate has flattened at 5.4 percent. Because of limited US testing, this isn't the real percentage; subtract a little bit and you still get a sense of mortality rates for those severe enough to get tested and, in many cases, to wind up in hospitals. Deaths per day is meaningful because this is effectively a THE CORE SOCIAL PRINCIPLES OF IDEOLOGIES Every ideology has a few core principles: guiding lights, or pole-stars, which believers should use to guide themselves. The fundamental proposition; the IDEAL, of Confucian government, is that the rulers should govern as if they are benevolent parents. If they do not do so, they are not legitimate, but tyrants. The fundamental proposition of feudalism and related ideologies is that some AMERICA IS ABOUT TO FEEL LIKE A THIRD WORLD NATION America Is About to Feel Like a Third World Nation. 2020 August 7. by Ian Welsh. I spent a good chunk of my childhood in third world countries. Most of that chunk was spent in Bangladesh, which was then arguably the poorest country in the world, but I visited or lived in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Nepal and India, among others. THE TRANSITION TO CAPITALISM The Transition to Capitalism. One of the most important things to understand about industrial capitalism is that the lower classes didn’t want it. Peasants did not leave the land voluntarily. They were forced off, often violently, in a series of enclosures, through which their millennia-old rights to use the land were taken together.HOPE IS BULLSHIT
Hope is bullshit. Luck is real, but you don’t count on luck other than in the sense that the harder you work, and the more things you do, the more likely you are to “get lucky.”. But luck is usually the odds coming in, and bad luck is as real as good. In term of climate change, there is no reason for hope. It’s going to be badand, in
WHY IS THERE SO MUCH GUN VIOLENCE IN THE US? Gun violence, in fact, is declining. It rose with the boomer cohort, both because young people commit more crime, and because American society went off the rails starting in the late 60s, but it’s declined since a peak in the early 90s, despite Millenials, a AMERICAN SOCIAL COLLAPSE IS FAR CLOSER THAN MOST WILL A rather lovely article on US social collapse by Susan Zakin includes this summary of the stages of failing states. In State Failure and State Weakness in a Time of Terror, Harvard’s Robert Rotberg writes that while every country is different, the signposts tend to be the same. It is worth attending to the characteristics he describes. They should sound familiar: PURE UTILITARIANISM AND CAPITALISM This is what happens when you think of people as assets. Some people don’t deserve $15/hour because they don’t “add enough value.”. But they are still people, and they still need to eat, sleep in a warm place, and have the occasional bit of entertainment. They have value that cannot be reduced to their economic utility. MANDELA WAS A TERRORIST That's just a fact. He was also the father of his country, and I believe he was a great man and a good man. In 1985 he was offered release from jail if he would unconditionally renounce violence, he refused. One might want to think about the fact that a great man and a good man was a terrorist. Today, Emptywheel asked: what AMERICA IS ABOUT TO FEEL LIKE A THIRD WORLD NATION America Is About to Feel Like a Third World Nation. 2020 August 7. by Ian Welsh. I spent a good chunk of my childhood in third world countries. Most of that chunk was spent in Bangladesh, which was then arguably the poorest country in the world, but I visited or lived in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Nepal and India, among others. BASIC PUPPY MEDITATION I've written about a variety of meditation types over the years. Here's one of the best. Imagine that you are hugging a puppy. (Kitten if you prefer.) Imagine your arms holding it against your chest, it's warmth, it licking your face, and its tail wagging. Now, just keep imagining holding the puppy, and intend to notice when you are doingsomething else:
UNDERSTANDING AMERICAN ELITES MEANS Understanding American Elites Means Understanding Predators. American elites are not incompetent at what matters to them. People constantly make ridiculous statements like, “The American government has been incompetent in its handling of Covid-19.”. Anyone who makes such a statement reveals that they do not understand how the US operates. HUMAN NATURE FOR IDEOLOGY Human Nature for Ideology. 2014 May 7. by Ian Welsh. All ideologies, including all economic ideologies like the modern discipline of economics, are theories of human nature in drag. If you believe that humans are innately selfish and greedy, for example, you will believe that monetary incentives are the best way to allocate resources and AMERICAN SOCIAL COLLAPSE IS FAR CLOSER THAN MOST WILL A rather lovely article on US social collapse by Susan Zakin includes this summary of the stages of failing states. In State Failure and State Weakness in a Time of Terror, Harvard’s Robert Rotberg writes that while every country is different, the signposts tend to be the same. It is worth attending to the characteristics he describes. They should sound familiar: PURE UTILITARIANISM AND CAPITALISM This is what happens when you think of people as assets. Some people don’t deserve $15/hour because they don’t “add enough value.”. But they are still people, and they still need to eat, sleep in a warm place, and have the occasional bit of entertainment. They have value that cannot be reduced to their economic utility. UNDERSTANDING LEADERSHIP RESPONSIBILITY FOR DEATH, HARM In the law there is a crime known as criminal negligence. Criminal negligence is the failure on the part of a person on whom a duty is placed to take reasonable steps to prevent a certain bad outcome from happening. Duties may or may not be specifically known to you. For instance, as a driver, you have a duty not to HOW TO CREATE A VIABLE IDEOLOGY How to Create a Viable Ideology. 2013 October 23. by Ian Welsh. The most important question about any ideology or social structure are: “Does it win?” and “Can it defend itself?”. Hunter-gathering, if the land-capacity isn’t close to carrying capacity, is usually a pretty good way to live. What we see in the archaeological record is SO YOU WANT TO UNDERSTAND THE WORLD? A READING LIST This book is really about information and the failings of both central planning and market economies. There is an extended discussion of why the USSR both worked and then didn’t. This explanation is easy to apply to late capitalism if you have a bit of imagination. Folks go on about oil prices and so on, but if the USSR’s economy had been THE DISPOSABLE ECONOMY The Disposable Economy. 2014 February 3. by Ian Welsh. The most important fact about modern economies is rarely remarked on: they are job societies. The vast majority of the population works for someone else. For those without jobs, poverty, homelessness, and in some cases death, is a real prospect. Members of modern societies cannot support IAN WELSHABOUTBOOKDONATERESOURCESCORBYN'S BIGGEST FAILUREUNCATEGORIZED One of the issues often pointed out about single-payer Medicare for all is that the US system has an extreme problem with prices and processes. Surgeries, hospital stays, ambulance visits, medical appliances and drugs are all vastly over-priced. The actors on this: hospitals, drug makers and APRIL 21ST US COVID DATA Our benefactor notes that the mortality rate has flattened at 5.4 percent. Because of limited US testing, this isn't the real percentage; subtract a little bit and you still get a sense of mortality rates for those severe enough to get tested and, in many cases, to wind up in hospitals. Deaths per day is meaningful because this is effectively a THE CORE SOCIAL PRINCIPLES OF IDEOLOGIES Every ideology has a few core principles: guiding lights, or pole-stars, which believers should use to guide themselves. The fundamental proposition; the IDEAL, of Confucian government, is that the rulers should govern as if they are benevolent parents. If they do not do so, they are not legitimate, but tyrants. The fundamental proposition of feudalism and related ideologies is that some AMERICA IS ABOUT TO FEEL LIKE A THIRD WORLD NATION America Is About to Feel Like a Third World Nation. 2020 August 7. by Ian Welsh. I spent a good chunk of my childhood in third world countries. Most of that chunk was spent in Bangladesh, which was then arguably the poorest country in the world, but I visited or lived in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Nepal and India, among others. THE TRANSITION TO CAPITALISM The Transition to Capitalism. One of the most important things to understand about industrial capitalism is that the lower classes didn’t want it. Peasants did not leave the land voluntarily. They were forced off, often violently, in a series of enclosures, through which their millennia-old rights to use the land were taken together.HOPE IS BULLSHIT
Hope is bullshit. Luck is real, but you don’t count on luck other than in the sense that the harder you work, and the more things you do, the more likely you are to “get lucky.”. But luck is usually the odds coming in, and bad luck is as real as good. In term of climate change, there is no reason for hope. It’s going to be badand, in
WHY IS THERE SO MUCH GUN VIOLENCE IN THE US? Gun violence, in fact, is declining. It rose with the boomer cohort, both because young people commit more crime, and because American society went off the rails starting in the late 60s, but it’s declined since a peak in the early 90s, despite Millenials, a AMERICAN SOCIAL COLLAPSE IS FAR CLOSER THAN MOST WILL A rather lovely article on US social collapse by Susan Zakin includes this summary of the stages of failing states. In State Failure and State Weakness in a Time of Terror, Harvard’s Robert Rotberg writes that while every country is different, the signposts tend to be the same. It is worth attending to the characteristics he describes. They should sound familiar: PURE UTILITARIANISM AND CAPITALISM This is what happens when you think of people as assets. Some people don’t deserve $15/hour because they don’t “add enough value.”. But they are still people, and they still need to eat, sleep in a warm place, and have the occasional bit of entertainment. They have value that cannot be reduced to their economic utility. MANDELA WAS A TERRORIST That's just a fact. He was also the father of his country, and I believe he was a great man and a good man. In 1985 he was offered release from jail if he would unconditionally renounce violence, he refused. One might want to think about the fact that a great man and a good man was a terrorist. Today, Emptywheel asked: what IAN WELSHABOUTBOOKDONATERESOURCESCORBYN'S BIGGEST FAILUREUNCATEGORIZED One of the issues often pointed out about single-payer Medicare for all is that the US system has an extreme problem with prices and processes. Surgeries, hospital stays, ambulance visits, medical appliances and drugs are all vastly over-priced. The actors on this: hospitals, drug makers and APRIL 21ST US COVID DATA Our benefactor notes that the mortality rate has flattened at 5.4 percent. Because of limited US testing, this isn't the real percentage; subtract a little bit and you still get a sense of mortality rates for those severe enough to get tested and, in many cases, to wind up in hospitals. Deaths per day is meaningful because this is effectively a THE CORE SOCIAL PRINCIPLES OF IDEOLOGIES Every ideology has a few core principles: guiding lights, or pole-stars, which believers should use to guide themselves. The fundamental proposition; the IDEAL, of Confucian government, is that the rulers should govern as if they are benevolent parents. If they do not do so, they are not legitimate, but tyrants. The fundamental proposition of feudalism and related ideologies is that some AMERICA IS ABOUT TO FEEL LIKE A THIRD WORLD NATION America Is About to Feel Like a Third World Nation. 2020 August 7. by Ian Welsh. I spent a good chunk of my childhood in third world countries. Most of that chunk was spent in Bangladesh, which was then arguably the poorest country in the world, but I visited or lived in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Nepal and India, among others. THE TRANSITION TO CAPITALISM The Transition to Capitalism. One of the most important things to understand about industrial capitalism is that the lower classes didn’t want it. Peasants did not leave the land voluntarily. They were forced off, often violently, in a series of enclosures, through which their millennia-old rights to use the land were taken together.HOPE IS BULLSHIT
Hope is bullshit. Luck is real, but you don’t count on luck other than in the sense that the harder you work, and the more things you do, the more likely you are to “get lucky.”. But luck is usually the odds coming in, and bad luck is as real as good. In term of climate change, there is no reason for hope. It’s going to be badand, in
WHY IS THERE SO MUCH GUN VIOLENCE IN THE US? Gun violence, in fact, is declining. It rose with the boomer cohort, both because young people commit more crime, and because American society went off the rails starting in the late 60s, but it’s declined since a peak in the early 90s, despite Millenials, a AMERICAN SOCIAL COLLAPSE IS FAR CLOSER THAN MOST WILL A rather lovely article on US social collapse by Susan Zakin includes this summary of the stages of failing states. In State Failure and State Weakness in a Time of Terror, Harvard’s Robert Rotberg writes that while every country is different, the signposts tend to be the same. It is worth attending to the characteristics he describes. They should sound familiar: PURE UTILITARIANISM AND CAPITALISM This is what happens when you think of people as assets. Some people don’t deserve $15/hour because they don’t “add enough value.”. But they are still people, and they still need to eat, sleep in a warm place, and have the occasional bit of entertainment. They have value that cannot be reduced to their economic utility. MANDELA WAS A TERRORIST That's just a fact. He was also the father of his country, and I believe he was a great man and a good man. In 1985 he was offered release from jail if he would unconditionally renounce violence, he refused. One might want to think about the fact that a great man and a good man was a terrorist. Today, Emptywheel asked: what AMERICA IS ABOUT TO FEEL LIKE A THIRD WORLD NATION America Is About to Feel Like a Third World Nation. 2020 August 7. by Ian Welsh. I spent a good chunk of my childhood in third world countries. Most of that chunk was spent in Bangladesh, which was then arguably the poorest country in the world, but I visited or lived in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Nepal and India, among others. BASIC PUPPY MEDITATION I've written about a variety of meditation types over the years. Here's one of the best. Imagine that you are hugging a puppy. (Kitten if you prefer.) Imagine your arms holding it against your chest, it's warmth, it licking your face, and its tail wagging. Now, just keep imagining holding the puppy, and intend to notice when you are doingsomething else:
UNDERSTANDING AMERICAN ELITES MEANS Understanding American Elites Means Understanding Predators. American elites are not incompetent at what matters to them. People constantly make ridiculous statements like, “The American government has been incompetent in its handling of Covid-19.”. Anyone who makes such a statement reveals that they do not understand how the US operates. HUMAN NATURE FOR IDEOLOGY Human Nature for Ideology. 2014 May 7. by Ian Welsh. All ideologies, including all economic ideologies like the modern discipline of economics, are theories of human nature in drag. If you believe that humans are innately selfish and greedy, for example, you will believe that monetary incentives are the best way to allocate resources and AMERICAN SOCIAL COLLAPSE IS FAR CLOSER THAN MOST WILL A rather lovely article on US social collapse by Susan Zakin includes this summary of the stages of failing states. In State Failure and State Weakness in a Time of Terror, Harvard’s Robert Rotberg writes that while every country is different, the signposts tend to be the same. It is worth attending to the characteristics he describes. They should sound familiar: PURE UTILITARIANISM AND CAPITALISM This is what happens when you think of people as assets. Some people don’t deserve $15/hour because they don’t “add enough value.”. But they are still people, and they still need to eat, sleep in a warm place, and have the occasional bit of entertainment. They have value that cannot be reduced to their economic utility. UNDERSTANDING LEADERSHIP RESPONSIBILITY FOR DEATH, HARM In the law there is a crime known as criminal negligence. Criminal negligence is the failure on the part of a person on whom a duty is placed to take reasonable steps to prevent a certain bad outcome from happening. Duties may or may not be specifically known to you. For instance, as a driver, you have a duty not to HOW TO CREATE A VIABLE IDEOLOGY How to Create a Viable Ideology. 2013 October 23. by Ian Welsh. The most important question about any ideology or social structure are: “Does it win?” and “Can it defend itself?”. Hunter-gathering, if the land-capacity isn’t close to carrying capacity, is usually a pretty good way to live. What we see in the archaeological record is SO YOU WANT TO UNDERSTAND THE WORLD? A READING LIST This book is really about information and the failings of both central planning and market economies. There is an extended discussion of why the USSR both worked and then didn’t. This explanation is easy to apply to late capitalism if you have a bit of imagination. Folks go on about oil prices and so on, but if the USSR’s economy had been THE DISPOSABLE ECONOMY The Disposable Economy. 2014 February 3. by Ian Welsh. The most important fact about modern economies is rarely remarked on: they are job societies. The vast majority of the population works for someone else. For those without jobs, poverty, homelessness, and in some cases death, is a real prospect. Members of modern societies cannot support IAN WELSHABOUTBOOKDONATERESOURCESCORBYN'S BIGGEST FAILUREUNCATEGORIZED One of the issues often pointed out about single-payer Medicare for all is that the US system has an extreme problem with prices and processes. Surgeries, hospital stays, ambulance visits, medical appliances and drugs are all vastly over-priced. The actors on this: hospitals, drug makers and APRIL 21ST US COVID DATA Our benefactor notes that the mortality rate has flattened at 5.4 percent. Because of limited US testing, this isn't the real percentage; subtract a little bit and you still get a sense of mortality rates for those severe enough to get tested and, in many cases, to wind up in hospitals. Deaths per day is meaningful because this is effectively a WHY IS THERE SO MUCH GUN VIOLENCE IN THE US? Alright, let's talk about the elephant in the room. The simple fact is that, compared to other developed countries, the US has a lot of gun violence. One can wave ones hands and say AMERICA IS ABOUT TO FEEL LIKE A THIRD WORLD NATION I spent a good chunk of my childhood in third world countries. Most of that chunk was spent in Bangladesh, which was then arguably the poorest country in the world, but I visited or lived in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Nepal and India, among others. There's a feel to the third world one becomes familiar with: beggars, infrastructurethat doesn't really
HUMAN NATURE FOR IDEOLOGY All ideologies, including all economic ideologies like the modern discipline of economics, are theories of human nature in drag. If you believe that humans are innately selfish and greedy, for example, you will believe that monetary incentives are the best way to allocate resources and permission to do things in an economy. If you want more of something, you'll arrangeHOPE IS BULLSHIT
I am unintersted in “hope.” Or as we called it in the Obama bullshit years, Hopium. Hope is not a plan. Hope is bullshit. Luck is real, but you don’t count on luck other than in the sense that the harder you work, and the more things you do, the more likely you areto “get lucky.”
CHRISTIANITY AS A RELIGIOUS IDEOLOGY Religions are ideologies. They are little different from something like capitalism, or Marxism, or the divine right of kings, or humanism. That is to say ideologies are sets of statements about how the world and people are, and how they should be. Christianity takes humans as fallen. We are innately bad, and we must be reformed by good education, including punishment. AMERICAN SOCIAL COLLAPSE IS FAR CLOSER THAN MOST WILLAMERICAN COLLAPSE 2020AMERICAN COLLAPSE 2020AMERICAN COLLAPSE REDDITAMERICAN COLLAPSEYOUTUBE
A rather lovely article on US social collapse by Susan Zakin includes this summary of the stages of failing states. In State Failure and State Weakness in a Time of Terror, Harvard’s Robert Rotberg writes that while every country is different, the signposts tend to be the same. It is worth attending to the characteristics he describes. They should sound familiar: MANDELA WAS A TERRORIST That's just a fact. He was also the father of his country, and I believe he was a great man and a good man. In 1985 he was offered release from jail if he would unconditionally renounce violence, he refused. One might want to think about the fact that a great man and a good man was a terrorist. Today, Emptywheel asked: what “THE DRUM MAJOR INSTINCT,” SPEECH BY MARTIN LUTHER KINGMLK DRUM MAJOR INSTINCT SPEECHMLK DRUM MAJOR INSTINCTMLK DRUM MAJOR SPEECHMLK DRUM MAJOR QUOTEDRUM MAJOR FOR JUSTICE MLKMLK SPEECH TEXT This morning I would like to use as a subject from which to preach: “The Drum Major Instinct.” “The Drum Major Instinct.” And our text for the morning is taken from a very familiar passage in the tenth chapter as recorded by Saint Mark. IAN WELSHABOUTBOOKDONATERESOURCESCORBYN'S BIGGEST FAILUREUNCATEGORIZED One of the issues often pointed out about single-payer Medicare for all is that the US system has an extreme problem with prices and processes. Surgeries, hospital stays, ambulance visits, medical appliances and drugs are all vastly over-priced. The actors on this: hospitals, drug makers and APRIL 21ST US COVID DATA Our benefactor notes that the mortality rate has flattened at 5.4 percent. Because of limited US testing, this isn't the real percentage; subtract a little bit and you still get a sense of mortality rates for those severe enough to get tested and, in many cases, to wind up in hospitals. Deaths per day is meaningful because this is effectively a WHY IS THERE SO MUCH GUN VIOLENCE IN THE US? Alright, let's talk about the elephant in the room. The simple fact is that, compared to other developed countries, the US has a lot of gun violence. One can wave ones hands and say AMERICA IS ABOUT TO FEEL LIKE A THIRD WORLD NATION I spent a good chunk of my childhood in third world countries. Most of that chunk was spent in Bangladesh, which was then arguably the poorest country in the world, but I visited or lived in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Nepal and India, among others. There's a feel to the third world one becomes familiar with: beggars, infrastructurethat doesn't really
HUMAN NATURE FOR IDEOLOGY All ideologies, including all economic ideologies like the modern discipline of economics, are theories of human nature in drag. If you believe that humans are innately selfish and greedy, for example, you will believe that monetary incentives are the best way to allocate resources and permission to do things in an economy. If you want more of something, you'll arrangeHOPE IS BULLSHIT
I am unintersted in “hope.” Or as we called it in the Obama bullshit years, Hopium. Hope is not a plan. Hope is bullshit. Luck is real, but you don’t count on luck other than in the sense that the harder you work, and the more things you do, the more likely you areto “get lucky.”
CHRISTIANITY AS A RELIGIOUS IDEOLOGY Religions are ideologies. They are little different from something like capitalism, or Marxism, or the divine right of kings, or humanism. That is to say ideologies are sets of statements about how the world and people are, and how they should be. Christianity takes humans as fallen. We are innately bad, and we must be reformed by good education, including punishment. AMERICAN SOCIAL COLLAPSE IS FAR CLOSER THAN MOST WILLAMERICAN COLLAPSE 2020AMERICAN COLLAPSE 2020AMERICAN COLLAPSE REDDITAMERICAN COLLAPSEYOUTUBE
A rather lovely article on US social collapse by Susan Zakin includes this summary of the stages of failing states. In State Failure and State Weakness in a Time of Terror, Harvard’s Robert Rotberg writes that while every country is different, the signposts tend to be the same. It is worth attending to the characteristics he describes. They should sound familiar: MANDELA WAS A TERRORIST That's just a fact. He was also the father of his country, and I believe he was a great man and a good man. In 1985 he was offered release from jail if he would unconditionally renounce violence, he refused. One might want to think about the fact that a great man and a good man was a terrorist. Today, Emptywheel asked: what “THE DRUM MAJOR INSTINCT,” SPEECH BY MARTIN LUTHER KINGMLK DRUM MAJOR INSTINCT SPEECHMLK DRUM MAJOR INSTINCTMLK DRUM MAJOR SPEECHMLK DRUM MAJOR QUOTEDRUM MAJOR FOR JUSTICE MLKMLK SPEECH TEXT This morning I would like to use as a subject from which to preach: “The Drum Major Instinct.” “The Drum Major Instinct.” And our text for the morning is taken from a very familiar passage in the tenth chapter as recorded by Saint Mark.BOOK | IAN WELSH
There are two versions of the book. The PDF version of “It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way: The collected Essays of Ian Welsh” is the preferred version. An EPUB version of “It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way: The collected essays Of Ian Welsh” is also available. The formatting isn’t quite as good (and looks awful in any browser, you’ll need a dedicated EPUB reader.)ABOUT | IAN WELSH
Ian Welsh has been blogging since 2003. He was the Managing Editor of FireDogLake and the Agonist. His work has also appeared at Huffington Post, Alternet, and Truthout, as well as the now defunct Blogging of the President (BOPNews). In Canada his work has appeared in Pogge.ca and BlogsCanada. He is an editor, writer and social media consultantwho currently
THE TRANSITION TO CAPITALISM One of the most important things to understand about industrial capitalism is that the lower classes didn't want it. Peasants did not leave the land voluntarily. They were forced off, often violently, in a series of enclosures, through which their millennia-old rights to use the land were taken together. This was a vast, albeit HUMAN NATURE FOR IDEOLOGY All ideologies, including all economic ideologies like the modern discipline of economics, are theories of human nature in drag. If you believe that humans are innately selfish and greedy, for example, you will believe that monetary incentives are the best way to allocate resources and permission to do things in an economy. If you want more of something, you'll arrange THE CORE SOCIAL PRINCIPLES OF IDEOLOGIES Every ideology has a few core principles: guiding lights, or pole-stars, which believers should use to guide themselves. The fundamental proposition; the IDEAL, of Confucian government, is that the rulers should govern as if they are benevolent parents. If they do not do so, they are not legitimate, but tyrants. The fundamental proposition of feudalism and related ideologies is that some BOOKS VS. THE INTERNET One of the major changes in my life this last year has been that I'm reading a lot of books. When I was young, I read a lot. For much of my childhood and most of my teen years I was reading about two books a day. During holidays I often read three a day or even four. Even intomy
IT IS BETTER TO BE FEARED THAN LOVED, IF YOU This Marcotte person is the exact type of feral Clintonite they need to lead them into oblivion. Strip off those nice liberal smiles and reveal the sneers and snarls that have always been there on more of these Clintonites than could be imagined before this election. THERE ARE NO GOOD BILLIONAIRES (BILL GATES EDITION) The richest American ever was John D. Rockefeller, who died in 1937 with $1.7 billion, worth about $24 billion today. In 1957, the richest man in America was J. Paul Getty, with a fortune around $1 billion, worth about $9 billion today (let’s hear it for anti-trust and progressive income tax). IS VIOLENCE EVER JUSTIFIED? DOES VIOLENCE EVER SOLVE I do not have respect for the “violence is never justified” position although I agree with you that “The hard-core pacifist, who always opposes violence, is a person of great bravery. So what? There is no law of nature that states that being courageous and being correct are coexistent in the same person. HOW TO BAIL OUT ORDINARY MORTGAGE HOLDERS AND NOT JUST I wrote this post originally in September of 2008. It appears that Fannie and Freddie are getting their unlimited line of credit because underwater mortgages are sharply up, and they are expecting foreclosures to go through the roof next year, as well as the commercial real-estate market to collapse. So, here's what should have been done for homeowners well overSkip to content
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WEEK-END WRAP – POLITICAL ECONOMY – JUNE 6, 20212021 June 6
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by Tony Wikrent
Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – June 6, 2021by Tony Wikrent
STRATEGIC POLITICAL ECONOMY The Particular Psychology of Destroying a Planet” What kind of thinking goes into engaging in planetary sabotage?Bill McKibben
> ….in a new book from the British psychoanalyst Sally Weintrobe. > “Psychological Roots of the Climate Crisis” states its argument > in its subtitle: “Neoliberal Exceptionalism and the Culture of > Uncare.” Weintrobe writes that people’s psyches are divided into > caring and uncaring parts, and the conflict between them “is at > the heart of great literature down the ages, and all major > religions.” The uncaring part wants to put ourselves first; it’s > the narcissistic corners of the brain that persuade each of us that > we are uniquely important and deserving, and make us want to except > ourselves from the rules that society or morality set so that we can > have what we want. “Most people’s caring self is strong enough > to hold their inner exception in check,” she notes, but, > troublingly, “ours is the Golden Age of Exceptionalism.” > Neoliberalism—especially the ideas of people such as Ayn Rand, > enshrined in public policy by Ronald Reagan and Margaret > Thatcher—“crossed a Rubicon in the 1980s” and neoliberals > “have been steadily consolidating their power ever since.” > Weintrobe calls leaders who exempt themselves in these ways > “exceptions” and says that, as they “drove globalization > forwards in the 1980s,” they were captivated by an ideology that > whispered, “Cut regulation, cut ties to reality and cut > concern.” Donald Trump > was the logical end of > this way of thinking, a man so self-centered that he interpreted all > problems, even a global pandemic > , as attempts to undo > him. “The self-assured neoliberal imagination has increasingly > revealed itself to be not equipped to deal with problems it > causes,” she writes. The real Lord of the Flies: what happened when six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months > When a group of schoolboys were marooned on an island in 1965, it > turned out very differently from William Golding’s bestseller, > writes Rutger Bregman….>
> For centuries western culture has been permeated by the idea that > humans are selfish creatures. That cynical image of humanity has > been proclaimed in films and novels, history books and scientific > research. But in the last 20 years, something extraordinary has > happened. Scientists from all over the world have switched to a more > hopeful view of mankind. This development is still so young that > researchers in different fields often don’t even know about each> other.
THE CARNAGE OF MAINSTREAM NEOLIBERAL ECONOMICS Chris Hedges: “Dying for an iPhone” > Global capitalists have turned back the clock to the early days of > the Industrial Revolution. The working class is increasingly > bereft of rights, blocked from forming unions, paid starvation > wages, subject to wage theft, under constant surveillance, fired for > minor infractions, exposed to dangerous carcinogens, forced to work > overtime, given punishing quotas and abandoned when they are sick > and old. Workers have become, here and abroad, disposable cogs to > corporate oligarchs, who wallow in obscene personal wealth that > dwarfs the worst excesses of the Robber Barons Amazon Prime Is an Economy-Distorting LieMatt Stoller
How a Wave of Corporate Takeovers Ushered In the Gospel of ShareholderValue
_An excerpt from __University of Chicago history professor Jonathan Levy’s new book, _Ages of American Capitalism. _Lambert Strether observes: “This is very good except it has one bit of causality wrong. In 1976, the Department of Labor liberalized its interpretation of ERISA to look at risk on a portfolio basis, rather than on an investment by investment basis. That allowed for more investment in stocks and made “alternative investments” like venture capital fair game. It was VC industry, not the funds, that pushed for the rule change. Public pension funds are not governed by ERISA but still follow its principles. The reasons the funds liked higher return investments was it allowed them to lower current contributions.”_ _I have not seen the book, but this excerpt makes it appear that Levy believes the wave of corporate takeovers began in the 1970s. This is the “common wisdom,” which is wrong, because it ignores the actual beginnings in the 1950s and 1960s, when dirty money from organized crime began to “go legit.” Among the first examples are the late 1950s piracy by Charles Bludhorn, which resulted in Gulf & Western, a favorite vehicle for mob money to take over Hollywood studios. It was Bludhorn who facilitated Michele Sindona’s_purchase of a
controlling interest _in Franklin National Bank. Sindona was the banker for the Italian mafia as well as the Gambino crime family, and died in 1986 of cyanide poison in his morning coffee while in an Italian prison for ordering the murder of an Italian prosecutor_. CEOs Are the ProblemDaron Acemoglu
> …Are today’s corporate executives ushering in a new era of > corporate responsibility? Or are they merely protecting their own> power?
>
> For decades, business leaders and prominent academics believed that > corporations’ sole commitment was to their shareholders. > Previously a fringe view, the publication of a _New York Times> _op-ed
> by Milton
> Friedman
> in
> 1970 – “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its > Profits” – moved this perspective toward the mainstream. It > gained further momentum within academia following a number of > articles by Harvard Business School’s Michael Jensen, who offered > theoretical and empirical support for Friedman’s doctrine. For > example, in one influential paper> , Jensen
> and Kevin Murphy of the University of Southern California….>
> But this academic research was following more than leading the > trend. By the 1980s, CEOs like General Electric’s Jack Welch and > scores of management consulting companies had already normalized the > preoccupation with shareholder value….>
> ExxonMobil, Philip Morris, and Facebook are virtue signaling because > they are under increasing pressure from civil society, not because > their CEOs suddenly have become more public-spirited. That kind of > pressure is needed now to block any reforms that would give > executives even more discretion. But civic activism works better > when laws specify what counts as unacceptable corporate behavior, be > it tax evasion, excessive automation, pollution, or accounting > tricks to enrich shareholders and greedy managers.>
> There is no reason to believe that ExxonMobil, Philip Morris, and > Facebook are committed to overhauling their socially destructive > business models. Their public-relations efforts reflect the pressure > they are feeling. Civic activism is starting to work…. Billionaires are racing to sidestep President Biden’s plan to raisetheir taxes
> Over the last few weeks, more than a few wealthy executives and > investors — including those who made their fortunes in the tech > industry — have fired off emails and marched into meetings with > their money managers in a state of panic. Would they really have to > pay a capital gains tax that could mean more than half of their > yearly earnings go to either the federal or California government? > Would their children really be unable to access the > intergenerational wealth that the family’s patriarchs and > matriarchs worked so hard to build?>
> Yes, there are “mini freakouts in every client meeting we have,” > said one wealth manager for Silicon Valley’s rich.>
> To prepare for a world in which Biden’s plans might become > reality, wealthy people across the Bay Area are rushing to have > their teams draw up legal documents to try to prepare for Biden’s > plan potentially passing.PREDATORY FINANCE
The Fed Becomes the Nation’s Only Bank Regulator David Dayen, June 5, 2021 > A series of Federal Reserve officials have moved into key regulatory > slots at other agencies.RESTORING BALANCE
North Minneapolis renters wage a fight with private equity landlords CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL CRISES How many people has climate change killed already? INFORMATION AGE DYSTOPIA Sentenced by AlgorithmJudge Jed Rakoff
> Is it fair for a judge to increase a defendant’s prison time on > the basis of an algorithmic score that predicts the likelihood that > he will commit future crimes? Many states now say yes, even when the > algorithms they use for this purpose have a high error rate, a > secret design, and a demonstrable racial bias….>
> One might think that the very notion of a defendant having his > prison time determined not just by the crime of which he was > convicted, but also by a prediction that he will commit other crimes > in the future, would be troubling on its face. Such > “incapacitation”—depriving the defendant of the capacity to > commit future crimes—is usually defended on the grounds that it > protects the public and is justifiable as long as the sentence is > still within the limits set by the legislature for the crime. But > the reality is that the defendant is receiving enhanced punishment > for crimes he hasn’t committed, and that seems wrong.>
> Nonetheless, Congress and state legislatures have long treated > incapacitation as a legitimate goal of sentencing.>
>
DUMB DEMOCRATS
“Down With Institutionalists” > When Democrats tout bipartisanship as a kind of moral duty, > they’re setting an impossible standard for themselves and giving > cover to Republicans’ bad-faith refusal to cooperate and> govern….
>
> One might think that Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, always high on > the list of famous institutionalists, would have sought justice > after his physical institution was attacked by a violent mob of > insurrectionists on January 6. Instead, he led his caucus> to filibuster
> the
> creation of a bipartisan commission to investigate the deadly > incident. In response, another institutionalist, Senator Joe> Manchin, said
> ,
> “That is extremely frustrating and disturbing. I know he’s an > institutionalist. I would like to think he loves this > institution.” And yet the day before the vote, Manchin once again> voiced
> his opposition to eliminating the filibuster, even when used to > prevent an investigation of the people who tried to destroy our > government, because, by his puzzling construction, “I’m not > ready to destroy our government.” The institutionalists are so > committed to institutionalism that they cannot protect the> institution.
CONSERVATIVE / LIBERTARIAN / REPUBLICAN DRIVE TO CIVIL WAR General Motors, Best Buy, PayPal Talk Up Voting Rights, Then Fund Effort to Restrict Them Resistance to vaccine mandates is building. A powerful network ishelping.
Michael Flynn Calls for Myanmar-Style Coup in the U.S. Over 30 Million Americans Believe in QAnon’s Most OutrageousConspiracy
> …. indicators of a predilection to believing in QAnon, the > single best predictor is which TV news station you watch, with those > who favor right-wing sources up to nine times more likely to believe > in the conspiracy than those who trust mainstream broadcast network> news.
>
> That’s the finding of a new survey from the Washington-based > Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), which surveyed over 5,500 > adults in all 50 states over a two week period in early March.>
> Nationally, the survey found that a whopping 15% of > Americans—roughly 31 million people—believed in the completely > unfounded claim that “the government, media, and financial worlds > in the U.S. are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping > pedophiles who run a global child sex trafficking operation.”>
> ….people who trusted right-wing news sources—such as One America > News and Newsmax—were the most inclined to believe in core QAnon > conspiracies, with 40% of them agreeing with the statement about > Satan-worshipping pedophiles running a global child sex trafficking> operation.
In retreat, they are salting the earth behind themsubtropolis
Experts call it a ‘clown show’ but Arizona ‘audit’ is a disinformation blueprint > To Matt Masterson, the review of 2020 ballots from Maricopa County, > Ariz., that’s currently underway is “performance art” or “a > clown show,” and definitely “a waste of taxpayer money.”>
> But it’s not an audit.>
> “It’s an audit in name only,” says Masterson, a former > Department of Homeland Security official> who
> helped lead the federal government’s election security > preparations leading up to November’s election. “It’s a threat > to the overall confidence of democracy, all in pursuit of continuing > a narrative that we know to be a lie.”>
> ….”It’s terrifying,” Morrell said. “We’ve suddenly said > it’s OK to hand our ballots over to a third-party organization > with political bias, with no experience, who get to make up the > rules and then make a decision or a determination based on what they > do on whether or not the outcome of the election was correct.”>
> ….
>
> Private “audit” efforts are now sprouting in other swing states > like Michigan, Georgia and Wisconsin> .
>
> “The incentive structure that has been created is one in which so > far we’ve seen zero accountability for lying and pushing these > narratives,” Masterson, the former DHS official, said. “We > don’t see anyone really, truly being held accountable.” Facebook Twitter WhatsApp LinkedIn from → UncategorizedOPEN THREAD
2021 June 5
40 Comments
by Ian Welsh
Use the comments to discuss topics unrelated to recent posts. Facebook Twitter WhatsApp LinkedIn from → Administrative PREPARING FOR BAD TIMES THREAD2021 June 5
202 Comments
by Ian Welsh
This is a thread for comments on how to prepare for bad times. All off-topic comments will be deleted. The thread will be re-upped every Saturday so that resources can build over time. Facebook Twitter WhatsApp LinkedIn from → Administrative HOW TO DO SINGLE-PAYER, MEDICARE-FOR-ALL PROPERLY IN THE US2021 June 4
16 Comments
tags: Medicare for all, single payer
by Ian Welsh
One of the issues often pointed out about single-payer, Medicare-for-all is that the US system has an extreme problem with prices and processes. Surgeries, hospital stays, ambulance visits, medical appliances, and drugs are all vastly over-priced. The actors in this: hospitals, drug makers, and appliance makers, among others, have great interest in maintaining high prices. Just switching to, “the Federal government pays” doesn’t fix all the fucked up prices, incentives, and wrong things that are being done. One thing to understand about single payer is that it can be used to fix hospital and other prices. You make the government a monopoly buyer of health care. The government sets the prices, period. “We will pay X. This is a take it or leave it price. No one else can pay you, it’s not even legal for anything that we pay for.” Now this doesn’t entirely work if you aren’t a hegemonic or at least a “Great Power,” because too much stuff comes from outside and externally applied laws, especially IP laws, impose limits. It is worth it for providers to just stop selling to you if you won’t pay their over-inflated prices. But if the US does it, and is serious (meaning it will change other laws if required), it can set almost all prices. > “We’re going to give you cost +5% profit over inflation. And> that’s it.”
To do this properly, the next thing you do is have some hospitals run entirely by the federal government so they know the actual price structure. You also have the government do some drug and device design+ manufacturing. This is so you can’t be snowed aboutcost/price.
This isn’t just on-shoring production; it is having the government do the work itself. This also includes research: Some is done in-house — and not at universities or private firms, again so you can directly observe what the actual cost is and what the processes are. (Universities are terrible actors when it comes to research, often taking 80 to 90 percent of the money that supposedly goes to researchers as “fees and rent.”) It does not matter if public drugs, hospitals, appliances, or research cost a little more or less, the function isn’t to be the “cheapest” — the function is to make sure government knows how things work and can’t be cheated by private providers. You also must break up all oligopolies, monopolies, and cartels, so that no private outfit can control prices and try to challenge you with a “we’ll walk.” There should always be the government plus at least five providers in any reasonably large health care-related industry and if the country is large enough, even the government should have more than group doing it. (In the US, the Veterans Admin + HHS or something + various others). Nothing that is truly important (vaccines, as the most current example) can be just imported unless you truly cannot make it or learn how to make it. Create a domestic industry. Let other countries do so. IP Laws MUST be amended/broken to allow this and yes, the US has sufficient power to more or less “just” do this. (The EU will be a stumbling block, but they don’t have a veto on the US). If you need things that must be bought, in effect, in a currency you can’t print, you are not free, and you cannot control prices or outcomes. Pure autarky is not possible right now, but you want as much as you can reasonably get on anything essential. I see no reason why all hospitals shouldn’t be independent, by the way. No groups, no cartels, etc. This will allow for actualinnovation.
Finally, as a general rule, you mandate outcomes not processes (except your payment processes) so that various providers, including those operated by your own government, can innovate. Mandate process andinnovation dies.
To summarize: Single payer is used to force all the other necessary changes. “You are paid by us, and only us. If you wish to stay in business you will do what we want done.” To do this correctly, you must truly understand what is wrong and what is currently possible and you must remove any actor with sufficient power to distort information or who will try and enforce any type of veto or a compromise on you (i.e., “everyone else has to make cost+5%, but us.”) Every other country but the US has big problems when doing this because of how the current world order is set up in terms of trade and IP Laws, and even the US will have trouble even though the current trade regime was its own creation more so than any other entity. But the US retains, for now, more freedom to act than any other country in the world. Only China and the EU, if you consider the EU a country,come close.
Now, understand that this is not a “what I think will happen” post. This is an article setting out what would happen if the US government and the American people were serious about doing Single-Payer / Medicare-For-All properly. It is an “ideal type” which allows you to judge proposals and anything that happens. It can, of course, be used to judge doing things properly in other countries too, with the understanding that other countries suffer constraints the US does not, often constraints enforced primarily by the US andthe EU.
May we come to a world where posts like this are well-understood because the actions outlined are being done, and where everyone gets the health care they need at a reasonable price and those who create the future of health care are concentrated on cures and good health throughout everyone’s life, not palliatives, high profit, and just keeping unhealthy people stumbling along as they suffer. ------------------------- (THE MORE PEOPLE SUBSCRIBE OR DONATE THE MORE I WRITE AND THE HAPPIER I AM. SO PLEASE CONSIDER DOING SO IF YOU LIKE MY WRITING.) Facebook Twitter WhatsApp LinkedIn from → health care THE SQUAD AND KABUKI VOTES2021 June 1
32 Comments
tags: Congress , The Squadby Ian Welsh
Back on May 20th, a bill passed to increase funding for the Capitolpolice
.
The idea is that the events of January 6th mean they need more funding. They’re already VERY well-funded, and the failure was not due to lack of funding, but lack of preparation for a forseeable event (as it was announced and organized on social media), and failure to call in help. The capitol will become even more locked down, and access of ordinary citizens to it and to their representatives and senators will be more restricted. This bill passed by ONE vote. Whenever you see this, you should suspect absolute and completebullshit.
> The progressive defectors have all called to “defund” the police > in the past: Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Jamaal Bowman > (D-NY), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) voted present, while Reps. Cori > Bush (D-MO), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) voted > against the bill, which includes funds for the Capitol Police. This is an arranged vote. House members who need to be seen to oppose the bill were given “walks.” Because they needed the Squad to note vote against it, three didn’t, and the three who wanted/needed to keep their cred were allowed to vote against. I am thinking back, and I can’t remember a time that the Squad, when they had the margin of victory, has ever cast the deciding vote against a bill that Democratic House leadership wanted passed. It may be that they have, and that I missed it; I don’t follow legislative matters super-closely. But this vote was Kabuki, and unfortunately (I really did want to believe) I’m coming around to the view that the Squad is now basically onside. At a guess, I’d say a combination of co-option and punishment/threats have made clear to them their position, as when AOC didn’t get the committee assignment she wanted. This is a genuinely difficult problem. People who go to Congress and want to play spoiler — to actually use their power when they have a veto, have to be willing to withstand both gestures of kindness and real punishment, along with the genuine hatred of their colleagues. If you’re not a “team player,” if you don’t do what leadership wants, there are prices to be paid. It appears that those prices are too high for the Squad. Again, I may be wrong, but this isn’t a conclusion I come to anything but reluctantly. Nor, of course, does it not mean they aren’t “better” in some ways than other members. But there appears to be a fundamental dishonesty here that is disturbing, and a lack of willingness to use power when they have it. ------------------------- (THE MORE PEOPLE SUBSCRIBE OR DONATE THE MORE I WRITE AND THE HAPPIER I AM. SO PLEASE CONSIDER DOING SO IF YOU LIKE MY WRITING.) Facebook Twitter WhatsApp LinkedIn from → Democratic Party, Power
HOW WE’RE MAKING SURE COVID GOES CHRONIC2021 May 30
38 Comments
by Ian Welsh
So, you may all recall, for much of the first eight months or so of the pandemic, people would natter on about how “viruses always become less deadly.” I never bought that. You may have noticed that Covid variants are not less deadly, but moredeadly.
I was wondering about this the other day, and got my answer, courtesy of a specialist in mass murder.
> In a vacuum, sure, viruses evolve towards a situation where they > reproduce more, which tends toward lower lethatlity and more chronic > infection. What they want, like most lifeforms, is more offspring. > But this isn’t a vacuum, they’re evolving against public health> measures
>
> The first big breakout variant, the UK strain, was specifically > adapted against masks. It was much more contagious, so minor mask > lapses were more easily exploited. It spread more evenly, relying > less on super-spreader events, and was more infectious to children, > who mask poorly.>
> The next big breakout was the South African strain, which was part > of the family of Covid strains that contain a mutation colorfully > labeled “Eek” which evades antibodies, especially from natural > infection or weaker vaccines, because that was/is becoming a bigger > impediment than masks.>
> Now that MRNA vaccines are becoming the tool of choice, if the virus > is allowed to continue to circulate in a partially vaccinated > western population, it is only a matter of time before THAT becomes > the biggest impediment to Covid’s success, and viruses are > selected for resistance to it. I feel a little silly not realizing this myself, as it’s NaturalSelection 101.
What this means is that half-assing a workable measure only allows the virus to adapt to defeat it. If you don’t mask/shutdown/quarantine/track-and-trace properly, if vaccines aren’t quickly spread to virtually everyone, Covid adapts. By leaving large chunks of the population effectively un-protected, we have ensured Covid’s continued evolution into forms optimized against our half-assed measures. This means everyone has to be protected and quickly, and that includes people in other countries. Just protecting your own population is not enough — especially if you half-ass it and don’t insist on compliance. This suggests a rather bleak future for us v.s. Covid: A chronic, but still fairly deadly, disease which also gives some people long-Covid, i.e., impairment long after the initial infection. This will allow pharma to sell booster shots every year. Pfizer wants to sell them for $150 a shot. Small and medium businesses will continue to shut and large businesses will continue to expand their market share since they can use the internet and delivery to cut around retail distribution. Those retail businesses which pretty much have to remain will continue to put workers at risk, and the same will be true of production and distribution centers, where low-paid workers must come together in large groups. Countries which wish to opt-out of this future will have to go to hard borders with mandatory quarantines (jail sentence for skippers; track-and-trace and quick shutdowns against any break-outs). Although the main transmission vector is airborne, such countries will probably want both robots to offload freight, and then temporarily isolate shipped goods (especially anything coming in by air.) I do hope this is all wrong and that vaccines can get Covid under control by main force, but I fear my desire for a decent future is overcoming my analytical sense when I wish for such. In some ways, Covid has been a perfect test of humanity, which most of the “West” has failed abysmally, and we’ll discuss that more ina future article.
------------------------- (THE MORE PEOPLE SUBSCRIBE OR DONATE THE MORE I WRITE AND THE HAPPIER I AM. SO PLEASE CONSIDER DOING SO IF YOU LIKE MY WRITING.) Facebook Twitter WhatsApp LinkedInfrom → Covid--19
WEEK-END WRAP – POLITICAL ECONOMY – MAY 30, 20212021 May 30
7 Comments
by Tony Wikrent
BY TONY WIKRENT
STRATEGIC POLITICAL ECONOMY Long Slide Looms for World Population, With Sweeping Ramifications “1 big thing: The state of the world, according to me”Dion Rabouin
_I find this very interesting because Rabouin implies that he is conveying the elite consensus he has gathered from his contacts and sources over the past years. The elites are well aware of the socio-economic problems afflicting average people:_ “Because consumers don’t have cash to spend, many companies struggle to generate real profits.” _Then the bottom line:_ “But it doesn’t seem like there’s much interest in finding an actual solution, just printing more money, adding more debt and putting more Band-Aids onthe problem.”
As Ian Welsh explains in CDC Decides To Just Not Count All Covid Cases,
> The people making decisions not only don’t care if you die, if you > dying will make them richer or more powerful, they’ll go with the > decision path that leads to you or mum or your best friend dying or > winding up homeless. You aren’t nothing to them, you’re meat. A> prey animal.
>
> Welcome to late capitalism.Rabouin:
> This being my last Axios Markets newsletter, I figured I’d break > from tradition and tell you what I really think. I’m not anyone > important, but I read a lot of reports and I talk to a lot of smart > people, so I’ve learned a thing or two.>
> I believe our country is in trouble. And it’s not about a loss of > morality or religion or liberals or conservatives or the current > president or the last president. It’s about a fundamental problem > we have as a nation — a reckless imbalance of wealth. The people > at the top have too much and the people at the bottom don’t have> enough.
>
> This is not a philosophical matter of doing what’s “right.” > It’s a practical matter of doing what’s necessary to uphold and > maintain a consumption-based economy…. We’re living in a world > now where the wealthy have so much money they literally don’t know > what to do with it…. Those who aren’t asset holders haven’t > even benefited from the risk-asset inflation that’s accompanied > housing, medical and education price inflation for the past decade > because wage inflation hasn’t even come close….>
> THIS PROBLEM ISN’T NEW. We’ve been lurching toward this > imbalance for years as corporations busted unions, moved jobs > offshore and muscled out independent small businesses, aided by > politicians who rewarded them with tax breaks and no-bid contracts> for
> doing it….
>
> * Retailers can’t raise prices, so it is almost entirely a race > to the bottom — nearly half of all new retail store > openings announced so far this year> are
> from Dollar General, Dollar Tree and Family Dollar. > * The obvious exception being luxury brands, which are selling > products to the wealthy who have more money than they know what to> do with.
>
> NEW COMPANIES today almost universally either lose money, free-ride > by offering a service that makes some other service cheaper, or sell > something to large corporations or the government.>
> #BIGFACTS: Because consumers don’t have cash to spend, many > companies struggle to generate real profits.>
> * However, because interest rates are so low, if a company is big > enough it can just keep issuing bonds to keep itself afloat. > * That’s why nearly a quarter of the largest public U.S.> companies today
> are
> zombies — firms that don’t even make enough money to pay the > interest on their debt.>
> ….But it doesn’t seem like there’s much interest in finding an > actual solution, just printing more money, adding more debt and > putting more Band-Aids on the problem. “U.S. aluminum tariffs have led to investment, jobs -think tankstudy”
> “U.S. tariffs on aluminum imports imposed by former president > Donald Trump and continued by President Joe Biden have led to > increased output, employment and capital investment by domestic > producers, a new study from a left-leaning think tank showed on > Tuesday. The Economic Policy Institute said the 10% aluminum > tariffs, imposed in March 2018 under the “Section 232″ national > security section of a Cold War-era trade law, have led to $6 billion > in 57 downstream aluminum product manufacturing projects that will > employ over 4,500 additional workers.” _Of course, the “free trade” ideologues are promoting the ReasonFoundation paper
that argues only eight percent of the “extra” cost of tariffs are being paid by the Chinese exporters, and the remaining 92 percent are being imposed on American consumers. Any simple review of actualeconomic history
shows that tariffs and preferences for domestic manufacturing have been the only means for a country to industrialize. Which is why mainstream neoliberal economists are not taught actual economichistory. _
Austerity’s Hidden PurposeYanis Varoufakis
> But if austerity is such a bad idea, sapping our economies of > energy, why is it so popular among the powerful? …. But suppose > for a moment, and for argument’s sake, that everyone agreed that > printing another trillion dollars to finance a basic income for the > poor would boost neither inflation nor interest rates. The rich and > powerful would still oppose it, owing to the debilitating fear that > they would end up like Peel in Australia: monied but bereft of the > power to compel the less monied…. their most important interest is > not to conserve economic potential. It is to preserve the power of > the few to compel the many. _Signs of economic immiseration_: read more… Facebook Twitter WhatsApp LinkedIn from → UncategorizedOPEN THREAD
2021 May 29
16 Comments
by Ian Welsh
Use the comments to discuss topics unrelated to recent posts. Facebook Twitter WhatsApp LinkedIn from → AdministrativeOlder Entries
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