On not voting for Obama in 2012

Democratic (in)action, US politics
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Chris Clarke talks about his reasons not to vote for Obama next year and in the process creates the best metaphor for US national politics I’ve yet seen:

There are differences between the two parties. Despite the usual straw man, no one — except college students new to leftism and maybe Alexander Cockburn — ever really says there’s no difference between the parties except as the most shortened of shorthand. In point of fact, there’s as much difference between the parties as there is between clockwise and counterclockwise on a ratchet wrench turning a bolt. Turning rightward tightens the bolt. But you don’t want to break the handle by pushing too hard, so you relax and turn the handle back to the left. The wrench loosens a bit, if ineffectually — the bolt doesn’t move, but the pressure eases up. And then comes the next push to the right, tightening the bolt still further. Each cycle has its new status quo, its period of tightening up and release, and the result in the end? The leftward relaxation has merely made the rightward clampdown possible.

CotD: The wingnut personality

Comment of the Day, Wingnuts
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John Pike pepperspraying Disney characters

Gin & Tacos neatly sums up the existential contradiction inherent in the wingnut personality:

I can’t say it surprised me that people defended the cop. There are always people who will defend the cop. Believe it or not, I was taken aback by just how stupid their arguments were even though such things should not surprise me anymore. Most of all, though, it’s amazing the extent to which these people who believe that government is pure evil will argue that A) the role of the citizen relative to the police is one of absolute, unquestioning obedience, B) the police are to be taken at their word at all times, and C) whatever type and amount of force the police choose to use is inherently right.

It’s the same sort of person who has no problem with the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan but who thinks having state obligated health insurance is the thin edge of fascism.

Sandra

Blogs, Meta
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Sandra

You may have noticed nothing much has happened at this blog in the last year or so. Yhose of you who also read my other blog may have guessed why this is: Sandra’s longterm illness and sadly, her death earlier this month. What you may not know is that Sandra was not just my wife, but also my blogging partner Palau, pretty much the person who kept this blog going for the last four-five years or so, as it evolved away from being a repository of the best of leftwing blogs to something more personal yet still political. Though she was always modest about her talents, when she was on she was incredible, with a nose for interesting but under reported news, a knack for writing naturally and wittily and a keen interest in, well, everything. She loved writing about politics, could incredibly outraged, but was interested in more than just politics. One of her strengths was her lawyer background, she had a respect for the law and the British constitution that is sometimes lacking in socialist bloggers, who do tend to view the law as just another instrument for the rich to oppress the working classes, which is true as far as it goes, but she knew it was more than this and it annoyed the hell out of her to see the cavalier attitude with which New Labour especially treated it.

But it wasn’t all serious with her. She was tickled pink finding that Pimp My Crab kit a few years back for example. And she was into gardening and nature and kittens and squid. Especially squid, but other cephalopods as well. She was incredibly productive posting when she could, but her illness did rob her of a lot of energy and time to post and in the end she had to give it up long before she had to give up on life itself. She had hoped to come back to the blog, but unfortunately she couldn’t.

A nudge is as good as a wink to a poor man

Cameron, Life under Capitalism
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At A Fistful of Euros, Alex Harrowell makes fun of poorly thought out social psychology and in the process manages to crystalise for me what I find wrong with “nudging”:

Similarly, fans of “nudge” tend to complain that poor people make bad decisions about money, typically by prizing cash up front above everything. To put it in econospeak, irrational discounting leads them to have extremely high liquidity preference. But liquidity is useful, and people tend to want it if they are facing a dangerously uncertain future. And typical reasons to need cash fast include things like “topping up the electricity meter”, “the kids are hungry”, “collection goons are threatening physical violence”. It’s not as if they don’t need cash on hand for very good reasons.

Nudge theory, for those not paying attention, is a theory of social conditioning currently in vogue with David Cameron’s ConDem government, vaguely leftish, cheap and supposedly offering a way to manipulate people into doing the right thing without forcing them to: libertarian paternalism. Yes, this is as condescending as it sounds and does feel vaguely uncomfortable as any theory of social control does, but Alex nailed the real wrongness there: it assumes that the people it tries to “nudge” into the right behaviour are in control of their lives and their “deviancy” is down to individual choice rather than external circumstance. It treats people as consumers choosing a lifestyle and ignores all outside forces acting on them.

Your Happening World (21)

Crisis? What Crisis?, Europe, Life under Capitalism
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The work experience programme set up by the ConDem government is a scam where large companies get free employees at the taxpayer’s expense it turns out, to the surprise of absolutely no-one. Meanwhile the people suckered into it get no experience, take the place of people who’d actually be paid to stack shelves and are threatened by the loss of their unemployment benefits if they back out. It’s like the apprentice only with the offer of a minimum wage job at the end.

Eurozone bond markets suffered a mass sell-off on Tuesday as investor fears spread beyond Italy and Spain to triple A-rated France, Austria, Finland and the Netherlands. Yeah, there’s a surprise. Oddly enoguh throwing first Greece, then Italy to the wolves has not meant the rest of the countries in the EU troika are now safe…

But at least Europe is made safe for Goldman Sachs. The ascension of Mario Monti to the Italian prime ministership is remarkable for more reasons than it is possible to count. By replacing the scandal-surfing Silvio Berlusconi, Italy has dislodged the undislodgeable. By imposing rule by unelected technocrats, it has suspended the normal rules of democracy, and maybe democracy itself. And by putting a senior adviser at Goldman Sachs in charge of a Western nation, it has taken to new heights the political power of an investment bank that you might have thought was prohibitively politically toxic.

Occupy Wall Street: Chaotic Good. We tried to play by the rules and got ignored. Occupy Wall Street has thrown out the rule book.

Serpents: a public service announcement by Jack Crow.