Too Much Awesome

Wow. There is so much crazy there.

My favorite summary:
Jamelle Bouie @jbouie

This is a perfect representation of the campaign: an old white man arguing with an imaginary Barack Obama.

More Fourth Cutting Fun

The haybine made it through fourth cutting, but the baler has been struggling.  Yesterday, my help didn't make it out, so I was driving the tractor, then stopping, and stacking the bales when one was about to fall off of the wagon.  About halfway through the field, the wagon bounced up and got hung up on the chute.  When I turned, the chute got broken.  So I welded that up last night (very ugly weld), and tried again today, so I could beat the rain.  About 25 bales in, the yoke holding the U-joint on the drive shaft let loose.  Meanwhile, all the bouncing across the field made the bale stack unsteady.  First, I ran the baler home, and took off the broken parts.  While I was there, one of the neighbors whose house butts up to my field came down and told me that if I ever needed somebody to drive the tractor, her husband would be happy to do it.  Then when I hauled the wagon down the road to the other farm, I saw a baleI lost the day before about a mile and a half from home, and about 300 yards later, I lost a bale off of my wagon.  So I stopped, and started walking up the road to retrieve the two bales.  A neighbor from about a mile away, whom I'd never met before, stopped and asked if I needed any help.  I told them no, that I just had to pick up a couple of bales.  They went on, and I kept walking.  Then I heard a door behind me, and saw that they had stopped at the second bale and thrown it on the trunk of their car.  Then I heard the whine of the transmission as they drove in reverse to get back to me.  They got there, the guy had me load the second bale on top of the first one, then he drove me back to the wagon and helped me carry the bales around to load up.  There are a lot of good people out there, even if you aren't looking for help.

More Gold Standard Debunking

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard:

As Paul Krugman says, Europe has replicated the worst features of interwar Gold with monetary union. EMU is a D-mark peg instead of a dollar peg. No matter. The mechanism of debt-deflation torture for entire societies is much the same.
You could say that human folly and wickedness debauched the beautiful Gold Standard in the interwar years, but to concede that is to concede the argument. It is to admit that gold does not in fact prevent politicians running amok. It is just another monetary Maginot Line.
Ah yes, but what about 19th century gold, the heyday of the global trade boom that ended in 1914?
It certainly worked better. Governments were smaller. The welfare expectations of democracy were lower, and a number of key countries were not democratic at all. It is was easier for the Bank of England to run a pure global system in concert with a handful of like-minded central banks.
But it did not lead to better growth or even to stable prices. The peak to trough oscillations in prices (inflation to deflation) were arguably greater.

Just like supply-side economics, the gold standard doesn't work.  History proves the case in each, but the true believers continue to believe.  At times, it would be nice if there was a rapture to remove the true believers from this flying rock.

The Repugnant Rich

Mike Lofgren:

The conjoining of wealth, Christian morality, and the American way of life reached an apotheosis in Bruce Barton’s 1925 book The Man Nobody Knows. The son of a Congregationalist minister, Barton, who was an advertising executive, depicted Jesus as a successful salesman, publicist, and the very role model of the modern businessman.
But this peculiarly American creed took a severe hit after the crash of 1929, and wealth ceased to be equated with godliness. While the number of Wall Street suicides has been exaggerated in national memory, Jesse Livermore, perhaps the most famous of the Wall Street speculators, shot himself, and so did several others of his profession. There was then still a lingering old-fashioned sense of shame now generally absent from the über-rich. While many of the elites hated Franklin Roosevelt—consider the famous New Yorker cartoon wherein the rich socialite tells her companions, “Come along. We’re going to the Trans-Lux to hiss Roosevelt”—most had the wit to make a calculated bet that they would have to give a little of their wealth, power, and prestige to retain the rest, particularly with the collapsing parliamentary systems of contemporary Europe in mind. Even a bootlegging brigand like Joe Kennedy Sr. reconciled himself to the New Deal.
And so it lasted for a generation: the wealthy could get more wealth—fabulous fortunes were made in World War II; think of Henry J. Kaiser—but they were subject to a windfall-profits tax. And tycoons like Kaiser constructed the Hoover Dam and liberty ships rather than the synthetic CDOs that precipitated the latest economic collapse. In the 1950s, many Republicans pressed Eisenhower to lower the prevailing 91 percent top marginal income tax rate, but citing his concerns about the deficit, he refused. In view of our present $15 trillion gross national debt, Ike was right.
Characteristic of the era was the widely misquoted and misunderstood statement of General Motors CEO and Secretary of Defense Charles E. “Engine Charlie” Wilson, who said he believed “what was good for the country was good for General Motors, and vice versa.” He expressed, however clumsily, the view that the fates of corporations and the citizenry were conjoined. It is a view a world away from the present regime of downsizing, offshoring, profits without production, and financialization. The now-prevailing Milton Friedmanite economic dogma holds that a corporation that acts responsibly to the community is irresponsible. Yet somehow in the 1950s the country eked out higher average GDP growth rates than those we have experienced in the last dozen years.

It amazes me that average people support these assholes.  Sometime, that tide will turn, and then things will get ugly.  I don't think the rich will have any qualms about their security goons firing randomly into the angry mobs.  These people are pretty ballsy and completely detached from the real world of normal people.  The whole article is worth reading, but the difference between the rich of the 1933-1980 world from the rich of the 1980-present world is striking.

The Morrill Act And College Football

Charles Pierce:

In the 1850s, a representative from Vermont latched onto an idea that had been floating around Congress for a while. The country was expanding westward and he believed education should expand with it, especially in the fields of agriculture and manufacturing. He grabbed onto the idea of "granting" each state a certain portion of federal land in return for which the state would establish a university that would provide its citizens with an education "related to agriculture and the mechanical arts." Unfortunately, the country was falling apart and, in one of his very few decisive moments in office, President James Buchanan vetoed the bill in 1859. Undaunted, the representative filed it again three years later. By this time, Abraham Lincoln was president and secession had removed the states most opposed to the idea. So, in 1862, 150 years ago, in the middle of the Civil War, which was not going at all well for the Union, Congress passed a law making the idea a reality. Seven years later, with the country patched back together again, another law was passed that presented the same deal to the states that had seceded. (It also provided for similar colleges to be set up for the descendants of the recently freed slaves.) So, on the 150th anniversary of his great achievement, we rise to pay tribute to Justin Smith Morrill, whose name was forever attached to the laws that created America's land-grant colleges.
Justin Smith Morrill, the unsung father of American college football.

I am absolutely serious about this. Without land-grant colleges either founded with the help of Morrill Act or energized through the legislation, we would lose 13 of the teams listed in this year's preseason AP Top 25, including LSU. There would only be four teams left among the 12 members of the Big 10. The Big 12 would basically be cut in half, and the SEC would be contesting its football championship among Alabama, Ole Miss, South Carolina, and Vanderbilt. Michigan is not a land-grant university, but Michigan State is. Iowa is not, but Iowa State is. Oklahoma is not, but Oklahoma State is. Auburn is a land-grant school in Alabama, and Texas A&M, as should be obvious from its name, is a land-grant university in Texas. West Virginia would not have been there to join the Big 12, and Missouri would not have been there to get whacked around by its new rivals in the SEC. We would lose not only the huge football factories, but also a great many historically black colleges and universities, including Southern, Alcorn State, and Tennessee State. Without Justin Morrill and his really good idea, college football might still be the province of the Ivy League, various private schools around the country, an odd lot of traditional powers, and Northwestern. Without Justin Morrill and his really good idea, the NFL draft would be about one day long.

The man makes a good point, and honors one of the unsung heroes of the middle class in the United States.  It is definitely notable in a year where the party which supposedly was the home of Justin Smith Morrill is busy pointing out that "We Built That," supposedly without the help of the U.S. Government, even though the vast majority of college graduates in this country graduated from a state college.  

The Idiocy of the Ryan-Rand World

Leon Wieseltier:

WHAT, THEN, is so terrible about self-reliance? Nothing, unless it is promoted into an absolutism, into a cult of sacred egotism, into an “Invictus”-like illusion. (That is another classic of ego-swelling adolescent literature.) The more people do for themselves, the better. The more they assume responsibility for the course of their lives, the better. Who denies these noble banalities? Our agency is the clearest expression of our freedom. We possess extraordinary powers. It is miraculous what the works of human hands have accomplished, except that it is the opposite of miracle, because we are not supernatural beings.
But Ryan’s concept of self-reliance, the gospel of John Galt (“you are your own highest value ... as man is a being of self-made wealth, so he is a being of self-made soul ...”), is devoid of all humility—it is the very vainglory against which the Bible, Ryan’s ultimate book, warned. My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth! Ryan may have disavowed Rand’s atheism, but he has not quite escaped her revolt against human finitude, her deification of the individual. This radical individualism is a delusion of impotence made over into a delusion of omnipotence.
It is also, analytically, a colossal mistake. The splendid isolation of the trader, the builder, the innovator, the entrepreneur, the superman, does not exist. It is one of the many flattering legends that successful people in this country devise about themselves. (Like the legend that success is a proof of personal virtue.) The individual—even the individualist individual—is always situated densely in the customs and the conventions of society. Where is Burke when you need him? And where are the otherwise ubiquitous metaphors of the network and the web? If, for conservatives, the market can serve as a model for society, surely it is because the market is web-like, society-wide, a social entity, a thicket of bonds and connections and influences in which creativity flourishes not least because it is enabled and implemented by others who, gratefully or opportunistically, recognize it. Competition is itself a kind of social compact, and in this sense a kind of cooperation.

Yes, even the markets are a society of people who have to cooperate.  But maybe that is one of the major reasons our financial and economic systems are in a shambles.  Too many people are acting in an unenlightened self-interest, instead of the enlightened self-interest that Henry Ford showed when he bid up his workers' wages.  Are people too unwilling to help somebody else out, knowing those same people might help them out too?  When we can close ourselves off in a hermetically sealed world where we only interact with people like ourselves, I can see that we might fall into that trap.  But that is what it is, a trap.  The Ryan philosophy is a really weak justification for pure selfishness, nothing more.  Trying to combine that selfishness with any form of Christianity seriously damages both capitalism and Christianity.  But that doesn't stop Ryan or the GOP.

Assholes

Politico:

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is asking President Barack Obama for more federal help as Tropical Storm Isaac approaches the Gulf Coast, urging him to reimburse Louisiana for the full cost of its preparations.
“Given the extraordinary developments of this storm and its approaching impact on the State of Louisiana, I ask that you exercise your discretion to approve the State’s pending request for all emergency protective measures,” Jindal, a Republican, wrote in a letter to Obama. “Further, I ask that you consider a cost-share adjustment to eliminate the State’s non-federal share of the costs for this event.”

Obama’s original disaster declaration, issued Monday, doesn’t cover the expenses Louisiana is racking up as it prepares for Isaac, according to Jindal’s letter. Louisiana has already spent $8 million, Jindal wrote. The declaration provides for direct federal assistance, for which the state will bear 25 percent of the cost.

“A core responsibility of the federal government is to protect the lives and property of its citizens when threatened,” Jindal wrote. “This disaster declaration will help ensure that we best protect life and property in our state.”

What happened to self-reliance you sack of shit?  Seriously, how can this guy say a fucking word.  I agree that the federal government s hould help the state of Louisiana out, but it takes a whole lot of self-unawareness to be spouting, "We Built This" (which in the case of levees around New Orleans they didn't) and then pivot on a dime and say give me what's mine (or maybe more).  It kind of reminds me of some story in the Bible about a Prodigal Son or something, except the Prodigal Son story ends before the son tells the Old Man to fuck off after the party ends.  Now I realize I might sound like the Prodigal Son's brother, and I appreciate that fact.  But how in the fuck can this clown make the case that the federal government ought to pay for all of Louisiana's storm preparations?  This party has been making the case that the federal government does everything wrong, but a storm comes and one of the kingpins has his fucking hand out.  I think that takes some serious nerve.  Why can't Republicans face the fact that the federal government, and government in general, does a lot of valuable things for our society, and that we have to pay more than we may like in taxes to keep making those valuable things happen.  It isn't that hard to understand, is it?

NightFall

NightFall from Colin Rich on Vimeo.

The Racial Battle

Via the Dish, James Bennet discusses the role of race in this campaign:

The math is inexorable, and it points, as Brownstein wrote, "to the depth of racial polarization shadowing this election." This unsettling reality about our politics is often, strangely, left unexplored (with some notable exceptions) even as its effects are constantly discussed, and even celebrated, at least by political professionals. On Monday, in an interesting conversation with Politico's Mike Allen, Karl Rove observed that "Obama has no chance of carrying Indiana." Rove then recounted a conversation that he said he had had over dinner last spring with Indiana's governor, Mitch Daniels:

And I said, 'Mitch, is there a white Democrat south of Indianapolis who's supporting Obama who's not a college professor in Bloomington?' [Laughter] And he stopped for a minute over his green beans and says, 'Not that I can think of.' You know, Indiana's gone.

Well thank God I'm not in Indiana, but I guess I'm not a Democrat anyway.  I'll pull the lever for Obama as opposed to the retread morons of the Republican party.  I don't understand how somebody's solution to our economic problems after a decade of tax cuts and deregulation is more of each.  It didn't work before, it made things worse, and yet more is better.  Shut the fuck up, that is stupid.  I think I'll avoid watching the Republican National Convention this week, I don't need to have a stroke.  But as for the race card, Republicans are going to play it to the hilt (although a reasonable case can be made that Biden was also playing it).  If you thought 2008 was ugly, this year is really going to be ugly. 

Fracking Pollution?

Don't worry, the industry says it doesn't happen:

Mike and Nancy Leighton's problems began on May 19, just as Mike was settling in to watch the Preakness Stakes. A neighbor in Leroy Township, Pa., called Mike and told him to check the water well located just outside his front door.
"I said, 'I'll be down in 15 minutes.' I wanted to see the race," Leighton said. But as the horses were racing, Leighton's well was overflowing. Typically, there's between 80 to 100 feet of head space between the top of the well and its water supply. But when Leighton went outside, the water was bubbling over the top.
Down the road, Ted and Gale Franklin's water well had gone dry. When water started coming out later that week, the liquid was "black as coal," according to Gale.
Since then, both families have been dealing with methane-contaminated water supplies, as well as dozens of mysterious, flammable gas puddles bubbling up on their properties.
Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection blames a nearby hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, operation. It says methane gas has leaked out of the well, which is operated by Chesapeake Energy, and into the Leightons' and Franklins' water supplies.
The danger goes beyond contaminated water. In a letter to both families detailing test results and preliminary findings, state regulators wrote that "there is a physical danger of fire or explosion due to the migration of natural gas water wells." Chesapeake has installed ventilation systems at the two water wells, but the letter warns, "it is not possible to completely eliminate the hazards of having natural gas in your water supply by simply venting your well."

Considering that methane is 20 times stronger as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, the reduced carbon dioxide from burning natural gas instead of coal doesn't matter as much when you've got lots of fugitive methane emissions from fracking.  But hey, at least we don't have to go without air conditioning or anything.  Despite the temptation of riches, I'm glad this area isn't a fracking hot spot.  Let them screw over the folks in Appalachia, I'm ok here.