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Business as usual

Monday, April 30, 2012

I, of course, don’t know the whole back-story on this. Maybe, really, truly, the guy wasn’t encouraged to resign. But isn’t it time that the Obama folks just started saying “fuck you” to these people, instead of throwing their own under the bus?

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Friday Night Music

Friday, April 27, 2012

I came upon this song in a sort of haphazard way. I was listening to Eric Clapton and B.B. King in my car, and I was taken with their version of Come Rain or Come Shine. Unfortunately, as I suspected, it was not to be found in video form, so I decided to look for a good version by someone else. Maybe this one can be beat, but I doubt it can be topped. Norah Jones and Wynton Marsalis.

I should admit, by the way, that my attempt to find topical songs each week has pretty much fizzled out. I can’t be blamed entirely. Howe many songs are out there, for instance, about student loans?

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Another fauxpology

Friday, April 27, 2012

Monica Crowley “apologizes” for her offensive and illogical tweet (“To a Man?”) regarding Sandra Fluke’s engagement:

Regret my tweeted question caused a stir. I certainly & unequivocally apologize to Sandra & anyone else I offended. Not my intention.

This comes slightly closer to being an apology than the Zimmerman fauxpology, but when properly translated, it still doesn’t quite get there:

I’m sorry that other people reacted predictably to my offensive tweet. It’s their fault.

It’s a funny thing about right wing humor. It’s never funny.

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Yet, these people rule our world

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Does this guy even know he’s being mocked?

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Don McLeroy
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

Speaking of which, does this guy even know he’s being mocked?

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Inside the Political Curtain with John Oliver – Herman Cain
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

When I was watching this one, I figured, during the opening shot, that it was an impersonator. But no, it was the real thing.

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Pay that word overtime

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

One of my favorite passages from Alice in Wonderland:

When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”

“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”

“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master – – that’s all.”

What brings this to mind?

Seems Steve Doocy, our friend at Fox, has decided he’s the master. As you may have heard:

…Doocy added some words to an Obama quote when he last Thursday claimed he said, “Unlike some people, I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth.” What Obama actually said was, “Somebody gave me an education. I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth.”

Some folks might say that Doocy was trying to transform this line, which Obama has been using on and off for years, into a direct, rather than subtle attack on Romney. For reasons mysterious, this business as usual Fox fabrication kicked up a bit of a shitstorm, which is when Doocy showed who was master:

Facing strong criticism, Fox News host Steve Doocy on Tuesday morning corrected a quote by President Obama that he partially fabricated last week, conceding on air that he “did some paraphrasing.”

“Last week President Obama talked about not being born with a silver spoon in his mouth. That was interpreted as a big dig at Mitt Romney,” Doocy said toward the end of Fox & Friends. “When I was interviewing Governor Romney on this show I asked him about it. However, I did some paraphrasing that seemed to misquote the president. So to be clear, the president’s exact quote was, ‘I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth.’ And I hope that clears up any confusion.”

Note he doesn’t repeat his “paraphrase”. But, that’s incidental, here’s where Doocy out humpties Dumpty.

Paraphrase “A restatement of a text or passage in another form or other words, often to clarify meaning”

That’s the dictionary definition, but Doocy shows it who’s boss. We can only hope that when Doocy follows Humpty’s lead:

`When I make a word do a lot of work like that,’ said Humpty Dumpty, `I always pay it extra.’

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Rotten to the core, but I just can’t quit ’em

Monday, April 23, 2012

Yesterday I tried to download an app from Apple and was met with one of those ghastly new security requirements that require you to answer pre packaged security questions. As they point out here, the questions are incredibly stupid, even stupider than those my bank makes me answer. Naturally, there’s no way you can be sure you will remember your answer to most of them, so you have to write them down and then frantically search for them when your way is barred in the future. I thought I could make it easier for myself by using three questions, all of which I could honestly answer with the same word, but Apple was having none of it. Totally infuriating, and as the linked article says, amazingly ineptly done. Given what Tim Cook is being paid, we should expect absolute perfection in everything Apple does. Why should we expect less from a guy that is “earning” enough to support about 10,000 families?

Speaking of Apple, the good folks of Prineville, Oregon have, for the sake of 35 jobs (that’s right folks, that’s 35 with no zeroes, and god only knows how many Prinevillians will get one), given Apple a sweetheart deal that makes the Groton Town Council look like a bunch of sharp operators. Apple will build a data center worth $250,000,000.00; pay no taxes for 15 years, except for fixed payments of $150,000.00 a year. Those 35 jobs are to pay at least 150% of the average wage in Crook County, in which Prineville is situated. That works out to the princely sum of about $24.00 per hour. That means the entire staff may make as much in a year as Tim Cook makes each time he draws a breath. It’s hard to see why the town bothered to get anything at all from the world’s biggest corporation, given the pittance it got. But who am I to complain? Surely Apple needed a tax break or it might have had to break into that pile of cash, drawn from the blood, sweat and tears of thousands of Chinese slaves, on which it is sitting. By the way, a modest prediction: 15 years from now, when the tax bill comes due, Apple will leave for some other Prineville. See, e.g., the way Pfizer shafted New London.

This is an insane country in an insane world. Were we sane, Congress would immediately outlaw the race to the bottom that results from this sort of thing.

All this being said, of course, I can’t wait to get my next Apple toy.

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Media lies on social security

Monday, April 23, 2012

One of the reasons I started this blog was to combat, in my own small way, the Bush attack on social security. I educated myself on the issue quite a bit. Back then, it looked like Bush was going to succeed in privatizing the system, with help from folks like Lieberman and little resistance from the scaredy Dems, who were ready to run from the fight. After all, Bush had just been re-elected, and although he never mentioned plans to destroy social security, he took his questionable (see, Ohio) re-election as a mandate to do just that and secure for himself the Holy Grail of conservatism. It didn’t work, thanks not to the Democrats in Congress, but to the Democrats on the home front, who made it clear to the wusses that they weren’t going to put up with a cave in on this issue.

There are no permanent victories however. This article, from the Columbia Journalism Review, (via Hullabaloo) gives some good background on the intensifying media campaign to spread lies about Social Security in order to destroy the program. This campaign is succeeding for two reasons:

1. Republicans continue to push their lies.

2. Democrats absolutely fail to push the truth, and when they do, they do it in a fashion so apologetic that they are totally unconvincing. A corollary of this is that they absolutely fail to work the media, which inevitably follows the path of least resistance, which is to parrot the Republican lies.

The article is well worth the read. One quibble: the author, Trudy Lieberman, quotes one Social Security critic who conflates the budgetary impact of Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid, without noting how intellectually dishonest that is. The programs are entirely separate, and while Medicare and Medicaid do have serious financial problems (caused mainly by the skyrocketing cost of health care), Social Security does not, and what long term problems it has could be easily fixed. Arguing that Social Security and Medicare are causing huge budget deficits is a little like arguing that eating carrots and ice cream will make you fat. It’s true, but there’s no need to mention the carrots.

She does note something else of which all should be aware. The recent payroll tax holiday, or whatever you want to call it, is a Trojan Horse designed to destroy Social Security. If it weren’t for the Republican’s inability to support anything Obama is for, they would never have opposed extending it. If it is continued indefinitely, then the argument that Social Security is a welfare program becomes more legitimate. The program has popular support and legitimacy because people believe, and rightly so, that they have worked and paid for their benefits. Separate the payments from the benefits, and you undermine the system.

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English Lesson

Saturday, April 21, 2012

We are told by the press that George Zimmerman apologized to Trayvon Martin’s parents yesterday. It is a curious thing: people, meaning the press, who live by words, so often seem to have no idea what they mean.

The word was used in today’s Day, Times and Globe, and was all over the internet yesterday.

So, class, today we are going to have a little English lesson. Here is the pertinent definition for the word “apologize”, taken from the American Heritage Dictionary, 5th Edition:

To make excuse for, or regretful acknowledgement of a fault or offense.

Here is what George Zimmerman said:

I am sorry for the loss of your son.

I had nothing to do with killing Trayvon Martin. Here is what I would say if I were to meet Trayvon Martin’s parents:

I am sorry for the loss of your son.

There are two and only two essential elements of an apology: acceptance of responsibility and regret for ones actions. Zimmerman’s statement lacks both. It is something quite different. It is an assemblage of words that he expected to be called an apology by a lazy press. His expectations were, of course, fulfilled.

 

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Friday Night Music

Friday, April 20, 2012

It’s increasingly the case, more’s the pity, that these videos are suggested by the obituaries, and I’m not talking about Dick Clark. Levon Helm, of the Band died yesterday so the choice is made. My personal favorite Band song is I Shall Be Released, but as Helm doesn’t sing on that one, at least not on the videos I found, I decided to go with these two, both of which are classics. First, The Weight, from the performance at Woodstock:

 

Up on Cripple Creek

 

 

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Why a bill doesn’t become law

Thursday, April 19, 2012

When I read this article this morning, it struck me that it is in many ways emblematic of what is so wrong with the country at the moment:

Colleges would be barred from spending taxpayer money on advertising, marketing, and recruiting under a Senate bill that targets for-profit institutions.

The 15 largest for-profits, including Apollo Group’s University of Phoenix, spent a combined $3.7 billion, or 23 percent of their fiscal 2009 budgets, on advertising, marketing and recruiting, according to a summary of the bill, proposed by Democratic senators Tom Harkin of Iowa and Kay Hagan of North Carolina. Nonprofit colleges spend an average of 0.5 percent of revenue on marketing, the lawmakers said.

Now, there are two things about this proposal that are immediately clear. First, no one in their right mind, except the people who run these for-profit “schools”; could be against it. Second, there is not a chance in the world that it will become law.

First, lets remind ourselves of the business plan of these for-profits. They aggressively recruit students, almost all of whom they induce to take out federally guaranteed student loans. So long as the “student” stays on the hook for a few weeks, the money is secured to the school, which then is perfectly happy to see the “student” drop out, now burdened by debt with an education that adds little or nothing to his or her ability to earn a living or his or her ability to reason. The situation is not much different for those who manage to graduate, except the debt is bigger. We the taxpayers end up footing the bill and get nothing in return for our investment. The for-profit education industry has proven conclusively that the profit motive and an educational mission are not compatible.

So, from the point of view of us humble taxpayers, anything that diminishes the amount of our misspent dollars that goes to these people is a good idea, not to mention that this particular bill might make it more difficult for these schools to destroy the lives of the gullible people that believe their hype.

But it happens that there are a couple of things about this industry that complement the Republican business plan, which is why this bill will never become law.

  • The Republicans fervently believe in looting the federal treasury in order to enrich private individuals, who return a relatively small portion (but still huge in the aggregate) amount of that money to their Republicans enablers in the form of campaign donations and other bribes. This bill would interfere with that.
  • Republicans believe that an uneducated America is a Republican America. This is one of the reasons they so fervently believe in cutting spending on education, legislating the teaching of myth as history and science, and handing even our primary schools over to the tender mercies of corporations. The resulting ignorance and stupidity of the American people is not a bug, it’s a feature. How else can you get people to believe the garbage that people like Limbaugh spew? Maintaining the for-profit educational industry, with it’s dismal record so far as actually educating people goes, meshes perfectly with Republican interests.

So, you won’t be seeing this bill, or any like it, become law.

 

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