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Tom Walker at Max Speak about conspiracy theories and when they become believable:

A pattern of behavior emerges from events we know happened that makes conspiracy theories plausible. That pattern is one of conspiracy and cover up. Big, messy, documented plots that the media is only too eager to “put behind us” as quickly as possible. We wouldn’t want to undermine faith in our democratic institutions by actually examining whether they’ve been fatally corrupted, would we?

All those events are context that show only too clearly what kind of democracy the U.S.A. is today. As Paul Wolfowitz said, in connection with another regime elsewhere, “Think about it for a moment. When an auditor discovers discrepancies in the books, it is not the auditor’s obligation to prove where the embezzler has stashed his money. It is up to the person or institution being audited to explain the discrepancy.”

Well, think about: Watergate, Iran-Contra, Enron, Florida, Rehnquist. A signature modus operandi. It shouldn’t be up to the people of the United States to have to “prove where the embezzler has stashed his money” — or guess in which closet the skeletons are hidden. Not when the embezzler appoints the judges and the investigators. To paraphrase the Comandeer in Chief, “Fool me once, shame on me. but rarely is this question asked, is we getting fooled again?”

Pandagon on how stupid of conservative minority front groups
thinks we are anyway:

It’s an argument reminiscent of those made by front conservative minority organizations about Social Security and blacks: life expectancy is lower, so they’ll on average get less from the retirement fund. The flaw in this argument is that if the problem is life expectancy, then ending Social Security won’t help black people live any longer or get better health care – black people dying sooner than white people has nothing to do with Social Security. In much the same vein, black and Hispanic workers getting paid less and having worse jobs has nothing to do with emission standards and everything to do with systematic discrimination, inequality, and lack of opportunity.

Would the Kyoto Protocol have put poor workers out of business? Who knows? The report from which this factoid is gleaned is long on projections, population totals, and graphs, but very short on methodological proof. It is convenient, however, and the Clogs will use it within an inch of its ideological life.

The Sideshow on the failure of business management:

There’s a lot of that going around. I’ve complained before about the huge influx of owners and managers over the last 20-some years in almost every field who seem to place no value on – indeed, seem unaware of – the history and lore of the industries they are now controlling. These people, in turn, hire others who are similarly ignorant and all too often so oblivious to the way things work that don’t even try the novice trick of reinventing the wheel, because they don’t see the value in having the wheel in the first place. That is, they get rid of existing practices that work for the industry, without understanding (or caring) why those practices were in place, and then they implement new practices that confound the goals and efficiency of the organizations they run.

Pedantry has a long involved post
up about learning a second language, extreme rightwing parties and social democracy:

Does social democracy – which appears to be succeeding quite well when you look at it globally and over the last 50 years instead of from an exclusively American perspective over the last two decades – entail a different kind of class structure? Is this sort of thing the wave of the future? Redistributing money and guaranteeing social services does not necessarily redistribute power and can easily reinforce the power of a class that does not need to rely on money explicitly.

Of course, this does not mean – as vulgar Hayekites might claim – that any sort of state intervention in economic affairs leads inevitably to tyranny. Capitalism was also an egalitarian movement by comparison to its predecessors, and it definitely reinforces the power of a particular class. There is nothing wrong in pointing out that rule by one class (or at least by its ideology) would likely be better in many ways than some other option. But, it does compel me to ask if advocating social democracy on the grounds that it undermines class society and promote equality as a whole isn’t a non-starter. It does make me wonder if the problem of poorly distributed social power isn’t as large a problem as poorly distributed access to resources.

New to the left

Each day I list the blogs new to the linklist. Want to be added? Use the
form, Luke. Entry does not guarantee winning. No purchase necessary. Offer void where prohibited. You must either be a fiery liberal spirit or in the vanguard of the workers revolution to participate. At a pinch we’ll take dedicated left anarchists and the like as well. No wishy washy centrists need apply. The decision of the judges is final.

Late Night thoughts

on Books, Photography, Music, and the First Amendment. By Emma.