The Nappy Cat Chronicles

To those who keep saying that Obama needs to man up and give us the straight truth about the nation’s budget (I’m looking at you Andrew Sullivan), I have two words for you: Jimmy Carter.

We do nothing but make fun of Carter (I can’t say I completely blame anyone), but complain when politicians don’t reenact the one thing, for which, he is hated.

In his latest, David Warsh unknowingly (which is usually how good points are made) makes another example of how America constructs its points.

The ninth decision – the opportunity on which Obama and the 111^th Congress took a pass – was the chance to tackle the massive concentration and dysfunctionality of the US financial industry that emerged from the crisis of 2008.

Instead of using the short period between his election and inauguration to draw up blueprints for a restructuring of the banking industry, including its deeply-troubled government-sponsored mortgage markets, Obama and his economic team simply ratified the emergency policies of the autumn of 2008 – policies that made US financial institutions bigger, fewer, more dominant and probably less stable than before.

While I agree with David, the point that he is unknowingly making is how these decisions past muster in this country. Simply, any politician can now (rather, “and has”) go on television and say simply this: “This idea is so bad that even our crazy left-wing president won’t do it.”

It’s a tactic so simple that if Machiavelli were to be reanimated now, he would find himself outmoded and utterly useless. You see Mac, we don’t need you anymore because in reality, we want the horse shit you were lying about.

Forgive me for my, per the usual, jaded tone, but I find it almost comedic to see Julian Assange threatening Bank of America with releasing some sort of damning piece of information that will in anyway threaten the conglomerate.

Bank of America could literally be found of torturing its own employees, and not enough people would care.  How do I know this?  We, as a nation, actually torture people and not enough people care.  You know what people will care about?  If they find out that Bank of America stole their money.  Ironically, the transfer of wealth from the public to the oligarchy that is business through the middleman of government in the U.S. seems to be amiss among the public.

Steven Hayward writes:

The real problem with academic political science is its insistence on attempting to emulate the empiricism of economics and other social sciences, such that the multiple regression analysis is considered about the only legitimate tool of the trade.

Um, actually, the problem with political science as economics is that not even economics has achieved the ability to be economical. In fact, there are political affiliations within economics (e.g. Keynesians, Austrians, other guys, etc.). I could probably become a political science professor about economic politics.

The problem with regression and statistics has always been that by adding or subtracting a variable, or calling a variable useless or a freak outlier, the results are changed based on what point you want to win. And while the public could actually sit down and think for themselves about what variables matter and what analyses have merit, these papers almost always read like a Twilight novel written by a law professor. And even if the public could find the time to read through all the verbosity, I’m pretty sure they’d rather watch football.

I mean, seriously people, tax cuts pay for themselves. Sort of. In a way. If you think about it… while on drugs.

Many weeks ago on Facebook, a friend of mine wrote in regards to the iPhone staying proprietary to the AT&T network, “muuuuaahahahahaaha! Dont worry, verizon isn’t as good as everyone claims it to be.”

It’s funny how we, as Americans, claim our democracy is the best form of available government, yet we continuously find examples where democracy in its barest form, is purported to be wrong (e.g. look above). If we’re willing to acknowledge that society at large makes decisions in plurality (or majority) that are wrong, then likewise, on the other side of the political spectrum, the free market must fail on similar principles.

And while your mind tackles with the logic that once again, there cannot be two sets of “facts,” the reality is that while Verizon may not be “as good as everyone claims it to be” (whatever that means), there is a reason why users of AT&T say it sucks.