Wednesday, May 25, 2016

SAR #16146


Suspension of disbelief should not be the basis of US foreign policy.
Once Upon A Time: Last week Mrs. Clinton said that Mr. Bill would be “in charge of revitalizing the economy.” You can see why she might want to say that, since people think they remember that his time in the White House was all milk and honey, because of the economic boom, even though mostly it was just that “he had the good luck to hold office when good things were happening for reasons unrelated to politics.” At the time he was busy shipping millions of jobs overseas, building private prisons and filling them with young black men while kicking their mothers and sisters off welfare... things he had the bad luck to actually do. Will Bill Clinton play an important role if Mrs. Clinton wins? ... it will be important to remember what went right and why on Bill’s watch,” and what went very, very wrong.
Conspirators' Theory: The Saudis, who financed and most likely planned the 9/11 attacks now claim the US “blew up the World Trade Center in order to create the War On Terror.”
Huh? Under a new law, the US asserts the right to go anywhere in the world and arrest and whisk back to the US (or some convenient way-station) anyone who produces anything used in or resulting in the production of drugs – coca, opium, marijuana – if there is “probable cause to believe” they should have known we didn't want them doing this sort of thing.
Consumers: Switzerland is considering paying its citizens a basic $2,500 a month and two thirds of the British public support a universal basic income, as more and more people find the economy does not need their productive efforts but does need them as customers. Places like China, which has a shallow consumer basis is rapidly laying off workers -60,000 at a time - and replacing them with AI and automation. The number of “disposable” Americans continues to grow as the captains of industry ignore their role as consumers.
Follow The Money: The Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado where Robert Dear went on a killing rampage is being sued by one of his victims and the widow of another because Dear has no money and they think Planned Parenthood does.
Lost, If Found Please Return: Officials in charge of the Fukushima clean-up haave revealed that 600 tons of radioactive material melted through the pressure containment vessel and is missing. Gone. Ooops.
Telling The Truth: Mr Krugman has set out to paint Mr. Sanders – who according to The Oracle has a problem both in facing reality and in admitting mistakes - with the same tar and feathers he has spread on Donald Trump, pointing out that some “disaffected white men” back Bernie. Gasp! And the young? Well, “because they're very young...[they] dismiss practical arguments about why all their dreams can’t be accomplished.” Then there are Sandernistas who find “ fun and ego gratification of being part of The Movement,” whom Krugman dismisses because he found their parents to be distasteful when he was young and serious. Besides, the young haven't learned to remain quiet and respectful when their leaders act in deceitful and undemocratic ways. And some of Sander's supporters have been sucked in by the Fox news anti-Hillary campaign. And there are “policy intellectuals who have for whatever reason been excluded from the [Clinton's] inner circles” and are envious of Mr. Krugman, who knows the secret handshake. According to Mr. Krugman, who knows all these things, Mr. Sanders “is no longer helping the progressive cause,” a complaint that stems from Krugman mistaking Ms. Clinton for a progressive.
A Parting Shot:

3 comments:

Gegner said...

Weird when every topic raised invokes an 'amen'...and this ain't Facebook where 'amen' means something else altogether!

The Dot.gone debacle occurred during Clinton's watch, giving everybody the 'false impression' the economy was booming. The resultant upswing in the stock market was dumped into the Real Estate market in a futile effort to 'preserve value', which all fell apart when W took over.

While economics are in fact 'political', Mr. Krugman demonstrates that getting it wrong can have disasterous effects on one's credibility.

Excellent and well deserved slap-down!

Anonymous said...

Having taken the day off from work and run out of things to do, I'm suffering the cruel fate of watching CNN and Fox. Both channels are toggling from two scenes outside a Trump Rally in Anaheim. In one scene people are fighting and taking on a mob-like mentality, no police are in the area, the scene is monitored from a helicopter. In the other, cameramen on the ground are being pushed back by masked police on horseback; there are very few protestors relative to police and press. The police continue to poach and arrest the few protestors who are not seen doing anything other than protesting. Back and forth the coverage goes.

They are conflating the two scenes, but a marginally apt observation should lead to fantastic alarm. The arrests are for show, to indicate the police have the right to arrest protestors. But those being arrested are not being violent. It reminds me of why the ACLU defends hideous people in civil rights cases, because this is where rights are infringed upon to create precedence. Screw Trump, but imagine the power the state gains when the act of protesting is illegal. My god, it's happening on TV, right now.

Thom Foolery said...

Conspirators' Theory - what if the two positions are not mutually exclusive?