U.S. politics isolation tank

[rosco rathbone]

http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/01/20/norway-entrepreneurial-paradise/

 

[rosco rathbone]

http://www.interfluidity.com/v2/1272.html

 

[intothewoods]

Damn, what went down in Wisconsin is almost as crazy as Charlie Sheen.

 

[Felix_Jones]

Politics seems like...

jackals worshiped by Jackasses. Old Henry Mencken seemed strangely apt with that little nugget.

 

[DeepGreenEyes]

This: Hehehe.

 

[midwestyankee]

And this.

 

[midwestyankee]

There's too much fun in politics right now to let this thread wither on the vine

If you haven't read the text of Newt Gingrich's press release regarding his view that anyone who quotes his appearance on Meet the Press last Sunday accurately is committing a falsehood, perhaps you'd like to get caught up by watching John Lithgow read it aloud - verbatim - on The Colbert Report. Skip ahead to about the three minute mark if you're short of time.

 

[DeepGreenEyes]

If you haven't read the text of Newt Gingrich's press release regarding his view that anyone who quotes his appearance on Meet the Press last Sunday accurately is committing a falsehood, perhaps you'd like to get caught up by watching John Lithgow read it aloud - verbatim - on The Colbert Report. Skip ahead to about the three minute mark if you're short of time.

Newt goes from "chop" past "liquify," straight to "overwrought."

Stephen:
"That adulation is like a surging wave of warm caramel." Mmmmmmm, caramel.

 

[JMohegan]

Thought of WD when I saw this...

Is Palin-Mania a Liberal Plot?

I thought of you both when I saw this.....

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/25/palin-movie-coming-to-theaters-this-summer/

And I lol'd!

 

[rosco rathbone]

I thought of you both when I saw this.....

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/25/palin-movie-coming-to-theaters-this-summer/

And I lol'd!

Everyone thought she was done, and the counterparties of my bets had as good as spent the money....now watch!

 

[JMohegan]

Everyone thought she was done, and the counterparties of my bets had as good as spent the money....now watch!

Ahahaha, that's exactly what I was thinking!

 

[midwestyankee]

Everyone thought she was done, and the counterparties of my bets had as good as spent the money....now watch!

Ahahaha, that's exactly what I was thinking!

Gallup now has Romney in first place in its preference poll for the Republican nomination and Palin is second, within the margin of error. At this stage I figure that most such polls say more about name recognition than anything else, but it's still a strong reminder that the Killah from Wasilla could be a force in the 2012 primaries.

This morning, Andrew Sullivan linked to a realtor's video of the 7,500 square foot home that she and the Toddster bought in Scottsdale, AZ. Speculation is that she wants a base of operations inside the lower 48.

 

[Curious_in_Cali]

Gallup now has Romney in first place in its preference poll for the Republican nomination and Palin is second, within the margin of error. At this stage I figure that most such polls say more about name recognition than anything else, but it's still a strong reminder that the Killah from Wasilla could be a force in the 2012 primaries.

This morning, Andrew Sullivan linked to a realtor's video of the 7,500 square foot home that she and the Toddster bought in Scottsdale, AZ. Speculation is that she wants a base of operations inside the lower 48.

Yup, when considering the 2012 primaries, you gotta add Mitt what a Palin the AZ!

 

[rosco rathbone]

How Roger Ailes Built the Fox News Fear Factory

 

[midwestyankee]

How Roger Ailes Built the Fox News Fear Factory

That's a very thorough treatment of how Fox News came into power and how it has used that power exclusively in one direction. It's some scary shit, Rosco.

 

[intothewoods]

How Roger Ailes Built the Fox News Fear Factory

One of the best aspects of Nixonland was reading the history of some of these guys like Ailes and Buchanan. Ailes probably has the most intriguing history of all of them.

ETA - on the article - I love the Frum quote at the end!

 

[intothewoods]

Soooo Weinergate. Discuss.

 

[midwestyankee]

Soooo Weinergate. Discuss.

No question. AW is going to take it in the shorts.

How about Breitbart playing the victim from the same microphone. I believe the technical term for that is stones-the-size-of-Rhode Island.

 

[intothewoods]

No question. AW is going to take it in the shorts.

How about Breitbart playing the victim from the same microphone. I believe the technical term for that is stones-the-size-of-Rhode Island.

It really annoys me that he was dumb enough -- no, reckless enough to do this online under his own name. Really disappointing. And I love him -- he's funny, he's sharp and he's one of the tribe. Bummer.

 

[midwestyankee]

It really annoys me that he was dumb enough -- no, reckless enough to do this online under his own name. Really disappointing. And I love him -- he's funny, he's sharp and he's one of the tribe. Bummer.

Jeff Goldberg (The Atlantic) roasted Weiner (sorry, couldn't pass it up and I surely am the twelve thousandth person to do so today) over the content of one of the tweets/messages that was released in which he commented about things that Jewish women do and don't do in bed. Here you go, should you care to indulge.

 

[intothewoods]

Jeff Goldberg (The Atlantic) roasted Weiner (sorry, couldn't pass it up and I surely am the twelve thousandth person to do so today) over the content of one of the tweets/messages that was released in which he commented about things that Jewish women do and don't do in bed. Here you go, should you care to indulge.

Oh wow, thank you for that. That's some interesting shit. Although seriously, maybe Weiner just making chit chat about the blow job thing. It's possible his issues don't include self-hating Jew and all that comes with that.

I totally agree with the Andrew Sullivan bit that was quoted.

 

[midwestyankee]

Oh wow, thank you for that. That's some interesting shit. Although seriously, maybe Weiner just making chit chat about the blow job thing. It's possible his issues don't include self-hating Jew and all that comes with that.

I totally agree with the Andrew Sullivan bit that was quoted.

Absolutely. When I read the text from the message I was pretty sure it was 40-something speak for "now I'm going to flatter you with some in-tribe-seeming horseshit."

Sullivan has had his head on straighter than usual lately. I also liked Dan Savage's take: "same old hormones, brand new box."

 

[midwestyankee]

Jimmy Fallon did a great bit on the Anthony's Weiner problem.

 

[intothewoods]

Jimmy Fallon did a great bit on the Anthony's Weiner problem.

I'm having technical issues and can't hear the sound. Oy! This is really problematic, because I'm also unable to hear the after show on Andy Cohen's Watch What Happens Live. Ahem. You know, priorities and all.

So, am I the only upset about Weinergate? I know, he's a douche who lied to his wife, but as someone who's made her fair share of mistakes, I do feel for him and the shame he must be feeling right now. How embarassing to have your personal conversations splashed all over the news. I know, idiot, poor judgment, yada yada. I agree with all of that, but I still feel like he's human and I have sympathy for him.

 

[rosco rathbone]

This is somewhat dry, but makes interesting and I think important reading..

But first they need to understand what is happening. From the bankers’ perspective, the economic surplus is what they themselves end up with. Rising consumption standards and even public investment in infrastructure are seen as deadweight. Bankers and bondholders aim to increase the surplus not so much by tangible capital investment increasing the overall surplus, but by more predatory means, headed by rolling back labor’s gains and stiffening working conditions while gaining public subsidy. Banks “create wealth” by providing more credit (that is, debt leverage) to bid up asset prices for real estate and enterprises already in place – assets that either are being foreclosed on or sold off under debt pressure by private owners or governments. One commentator recently characterized the latter strategy of privatization as “tantamount to selling the family silver only to have to rent it back in order to eat dinner.”

Fought in the name of free markets, this counter-revolution rejects the classical ideal of markets free of unearned income paid to special interests. The financial objective is to squeeze out a surplus by maximizing the margin of prices over costs. Opposing government enterprise and infrastructure as the road to serfdom, high finance is seeking to turn public infrastructure into rent-extracting tollbooths to extract economic rent (the “free lunch economy”), while replacing labor unions with non-union labor so as to work it more intensively.

This new road to neoserfdom is an asset grab. But to achieve it, the financial sector needs a political grab to replace democracy with financial technocrats. Their job is to pretend that there is no revolution at all, merely an increase in “efficiency,” “creating wealth” by debt-leveraging the economy to the point where the entire surplus is paid out as interest to the financial managers who are emerging as Western civilization’s new central planners.

Frederick Hayek’s Road to Serfdom portrayed a dystopia of public officials seeking to regulate the economy. In attacking government so one-sidedly, his ideological extremism sought to replace the checks and balances of mixed economies with a private sector “free” of regulation and consumer protection. His vision was of a post-modern economy “free” of the classical reforms to bring market prices into line with cost value. Instead of purifying industrial capitalism from the special rent extraction privileges bequeathed from the feudal epoch, Hayek’s ideology opened the way for unchecked financial power to make a travesty of “free markets.”

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011...-crisis-to-roll-back-the-progressive-era.html


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