David Sirota Is Right On (and other ramblings)

Granted, I’ve read Mr. Sirota’s work before, but this week he’s on fire.

First, we have this item from Truthdig called “Was Ross Perot Right?” That was actually a question Wolf Blitzer asked of Hillary Clinton last week. Her response was to make fun of Mr. Perot and make some lame comments about only remembering a bunch of charts.

Can you just imagine the uproar if, say, Dan Quayle had answered that way? Every comedian in the country would have had fresh material. Mr. Sirota reminds us: “A Democrat laughing at Perot on national television is a big mistake. Simply put, it risks alienating the roughly 20 million people who cast their votes for the Texas businessman.”

The fact of the matter is that when Mr. Perot’s biggest points are examined — that there will be an almost audible “sucking sound” as jobs flow out of America, and that depressed Mexican wages could make illegal immigration to the United States worse — he was right and Sirota has the data to prove it. Yet “[Clinton] she and other congressional Democrats are currently pushing a Peru Free Trade Agreement at the behest of their corporate campaign contributors—an agreement expanding the unpopular NAFTA model.”

The fact is that Mrs. Clinton is less “progressive” than a slot machine.

Oh, but Mr. Sirota did not stop there. He went on — albeit in another article at another website — to tell us “the dishonest argument over illegal immigration trying to divert our ire away from the corporate profiteers, outsourcers, wage cutters and foreclosers that buy influence — and protection — in Washington.”

Now make no mistake, we need some kind of immigration reform in this country simply because there needs to be a clear, simple, attainable path to legal residency and/or citizenship in this country (and no excuse for breaking the law). However, all the immigration proposals recently offered center on things like expensive eco-disaster community-rending useless fences and permanent underclass guest–worker programs and beefing up unenforced regulations on worker documentation. Why is that? Mr. Sirota tells us (emphasis mine):

The answer is exploitation. Employers looking to maximize profits want an economically desperate, politically disenfranchised population that will accept ever worse pay and working conditions. Illegal immigrants perfectly fit the bill.

Politicians know exploitation fuels illegal immigration. But they refuse to confront it because doing so would mean challenging their financiers.

Instead we get lawmakers chest-thumping about immigration enforcement while avoiding a discussion about strengthening wage and workplace safety enforcement — proposals that address the real problem.

Equally deplorable, these same lawmakers keep supporting trade policies that make things worse.

There is no such thing as “jobs Americans won’t do.” But there is such a thing as employers who won’t follow the law. Employers who without penalty don’t follow the law put companies that do follow the law at a competitive disadvantage. There’s your real sucking sound.

In closing: a Black Friday comic; someone else scratching her head about how “inappropriate” old episodes of Sesame Street are; clean, clear water and how it shapes politics and diplomacy (a trend which is likely to only get worse); beating the dead horse called FISA and the Myth of the Ticking Time Bomb (short version? What part of the DoJ can get a warrant up to 3 days after starting a wiretap don’t they get?); ’tis the charitable season, don’t forget one of my favorite charities, Child’s Play; CNN on losing holiday pounds (I take issue with their saying “It would take 27 minutes of walking to burn the 97 calories in an 8-ounce serving of cola,” because most people are in fact drinking it 12, 24, or 32 ounces at a time, but “Take small bites and eat slowly. And, don’t get stuck in guilt if you’ve eaten too much,” is good advice); and as for this study from the Heritage Foundation covered by the “right-wing” Reverend Moon owned Washington Times suggesting “Democrats like to define themselves as the party of poor and middle-income Americans, but a new study says they now represent the majority of the nation’s wealthiest congressional districts.” I’d just like to point out that the study findings that “of the 167 House districts where the median annual income was higher than the national median of $48,201, a slight majority, 84 districts, were represented by Democrats” and “the likelihood of electing a Democrat to the House is very closely correlated with how many wealthy households are in that district” are likely to be caused by Democratic policies that favor higher wages — remember, “rich” people can live wherever they like. It’s just too easy to turn this study around and make the Republicans the party of depressed wages.

CreepShorties

Half a Million Dollars in Debt, and Some People Want to Worry About Pens and Notepads: CNN tells us about a young family I wish were more unusual. Both young adults graduated medical school. Their first child is due any day now. They work “brutal hours for salaries that, on an hourly basis, work out to a little more than they could earn stocking the shelves at Costco.” And they have $500,000 in student loan debt — so far. But as I say, the people who want to “reform” health care are much more concerned with the pens and notepads that drug companies give to doctors.

Extra, Extra! Read All About it! Book store reinvents the book! Actually, the Amazon Kindle looks pretty cool.

That Makes Elmo Want to Sing the Cow Song. I grew up watching Sesame Street. And these people just don’t get it. Early Sesame Street — which by the way, packs a whole lot more actual education than the newer, sanitized, dumbed down for younger kids version on PBS today — is not about escaping into some happy place where numbers and letters dance. It’s about meeting kids where they are, admitting that sometimes things are not all rosy. It taught us that the world did not end at the next cross-street, that some people are just grouchy, and that milk comes from cows. Oh, and since milk is pasteurized, what the heck does it matter that “[c]ows are milked by plain old farmers, who use their unsanitary hands and fill one bucket at a time”?

Thankful for the Planet. Here’s 84 ways ordinary people can help the planet. Some of them even save you money.

The Social Security Debate that Wouldn’t Die. Heeeeeeeere’s Krugman. He would like to take a few minutes to refute just about every sentence about Social Security beginning with the phrase “Everybody knows that….”

Maybe They Should Call It USA ToDuh. USA Today tells us that many sex offenders are homeless, making it more difficult to track them. That’s the direct result of Megan’s Laws making it difficult for sex offenders who have served their prison terms to find housing (and avoid mob justice). Seriously, if these people are so dangerous we have to track them for the rest of their lives, put them in prison for the rest of their lives. In another story, USA Today tells us that hate crime was up 8% in 2006. Well, that couldn’t’ have anything to do with the various hatemongers telling us to fear people who are not like us: people who are Muslim; people who are gay; people who are Hispanic (and therefore implied illegal immigrants).

When There Are No Invaders, There Are No Insurgents Either. The British have left Basra, and violence is down. Imagine that.

This is a Bad Idea. Colorado wants to pass an amendment to the state Constitution giving legal rights to fertilized human eggs. It’s a bad idea. Unless, of course, you think that women are nothing more than a cardboard box. Oh, and never mind that it’s not even a pregnancy until implantation.

Political Discourse.  If you happen to live in Nevada, I have some links regarding our upcoming caucuses over here.

Too True. “And you never find what you need in there.”

Speaking of Now-Inappropriate TV I Watched as a Child. A link to an interview with Moe Howard of The Three Stooges.

And Last But Not Least. The BlogHers Act landing page for initiatives to improve maternal health worldwide is live and active.

“Is the Children Learning?”

In Texas, maybe it’s better if they don’t learn too much from the textbooks. The math texts included 109,263 errors, 79% of which came from books published Houghton Mifflin Co..

Students may wish some of the errors had not been uncovered – particularly the inclusion in some books of the answers to math quizzes at the end of each chapter. The answers were supposed to appear only in teacher editions of the books.

In other cases, Spanish versions of the books had incorrect translations. And some computations were just wrong.

Six publishers submitted drafts of their textbooks to the TEA hoping to get in line for selection of the next generation of math books that will be used in Texas public schools.

These are, of course, rough drafts — very rough — but if the errors are not gone by Spring (the season, not the Texas community), publishers will have to cough up $5000 per error. However, since the book contracts are expected to be worth $116.8 million, that may be a small price to pay.

In closing:  what a real central bank looks like;  I wish Jill didn’t have a point about how defining life as beginning as conception is a death sentence for a woman with an ectopic pregnancy; Flying Spaghetti Monster under academic scrutiny; a record nobody wants to set; sad but true, some boys use pregnancy as a tool to keep girlfriends in line; who doesn’t love exploding casinos? (ok, imploding); and a conspiracy that may link Republican sexual improprieties, gay sex, a disappearance and possible murder, a tell all book, and may ultimately lead to the White House.  Could it be we may finally find out the truth about Gannon-Guckert‘s White House access?

The Best Movie You’ll Play This Year

“What? Don’t be silly, you can’t play a movie,” you may say.

The next generation of video games is here, now. And yes, it’s like playing a movie, with you playing the major characters.

Last Tuesday, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare came out. It was widely expected to be one of the hot titles of the season, and I bought it opening day. G4’s X-Play gives it 5 stars out of 5.

I finished the game — well, the single player portion of the game — last night, and can say X-Play is understating when they say it “follows a US Marine and a British SAS soldier through a series of increasingly complex and escalating events in the Eastern Hemisphere.” I found it to be a totally immersive experience, better than many action movies. The game is rated M for good reason; definitely not for the kids!

If you play this game, you will find yourself on a variety of missions wherein you attempt to get off a sinking ship, rescue fellow soldiers, try to capture a foreign leader, attempt to escape a nuclear blast, skulk around the ruins of Chernobyl, snipe, blast, shoot, blow things up, watch people die, and find yourself in a chase scene that puts Mission Impossible’s Chunnel scene to shame. Oh yeah, and you get to save the world too — just in the line of duty.  The ending was very unexpected;  it came quickly but was satisfying (and there’s a bonus mission after the credits, so don’t quit just yet).

So tonight, I will be getting into the multi-player part of the game, taking a little time off from Battlefield 2, which by the way is probably the game Mr. Bush was playing with the troops. It’s the only game we can think of around here that allows players to “shoot the bad guys” in the Middle East and “simulate riding in a car or boat.” I just don’t know that I’d call a 2 year old game “cutting edge virtual reality games”.

In closing: Samsung pulls out of Japanese consumer electronics market; Mr. Armitage admits it was “foolish” to out Valerie Plame; the myth of the ticking bomb; are homeowners “too big to fail”?; thanks to Mr. Krugman for pointing us to this report on health care expenditures; Expert Ezra actually takes some time to “partially” defend employer-based health insurance; and too cute for Cute Overload, it’s the Weirdest Mothers in the Animal Kingdom. Well worth reading is this piece from Pandagon about those who think the family can be “strengthened” by making it harder to get divorced. Agreed that divorce is not a good thing, and not fun for anybody involved, but that’s not the answer. You don’t solve this problem by making it harder any more than you “cure” tuberculosis with cough medicine; it may stop the coughing but you’re still dying and contagious. If you want stronger families and fewer divorces, make it harder to get married, and provide more opportunities for counseling people before a marriage hits the rocks.

Here in My Car

Don’t ask when peak oil is;  it has come and gone.

There’s a lot of reasons oil is as high as it is.  These reasons include high demand from nations with large, newly industrialized populations, a weak dollar, and 7 countries (including a few oil producing countries) that are no longer supporting the dollar.

It doesn’t matter any more.  If you don’t want to take my word for it, listen to the International Energy Agency.

We Americans live in a society where we depend on cars to get everywhere.  Many of us live in neighborhoods that don’t even have sidewalks — we couldn’t safely walk to our destinations if we wanted to. Many of us live miles from our jobs.  Many of us live miles from grocery stores and other essential businesses. Many of us live in places where there is not a safe, effective, or cost/time efficient public transportation system.

Believe it or not, Daimler wants to help us out — oh, and make money on the deal too.  They will be selling “Smart Cars” that get 40 MPG (if you have trouble reading that, just click the “Print” button and the text will appear in a pop-up window, you don’t really have to print it).  They are also hedging their bets in a partnership with Ford to make automotive fuel cells.

But the thing that should make you mad about “going green” and fuel-efficient vehicles and alternative fuels is this:  the auto industry could already get to a fleet average of 35 MPG within 5 years, using existing technology. And they could make more of money doing it.  You know who says so? Click and Clack, those guys who do the funny little show about cars on your local NPR station every weekend. Of course they’ve got a big study by Citigroup and the Investor Network on Climate Risk behind them.  Yeah, they carry a little more weight than some funny mechanics from the East Coast.

In closing health care round-up:  Expert Ezra with Ten Reasons American Health Care is So Bad; those are nice eyes you’ve got there, sure would be a shame if something happened to them, of course it will cost you $22,000 to keep that from happening, heck no your insurance company won’t cover that; L.A. Times reports that a big insurer actually paid employees bonuses running as high as $20,000 (hm, that’s an interesting number…) to get rid of policy holders who actually needed health care; The Archcrone on true universal healthcare, which like Expert Ezra, I prefer to call Medicare For All; and a very long but very sobering article with references and charts and everything on The Erosion of Hoping Your Boss Will Pay for Health Insurance.

In closing economy round-up: oh, so that’s how they figure we have “no inflation”;  Brad DeLong goes into more detail about How China Can Destroy Us Economically; the economy is great except for consumer confidence; and if we have “full employment” how come tax receipts don’t reflect that?

And finally just a few little things:   I love this picture; I also love this word substitution exercise; Green Gifts; and please be aware that I have a new professional site at BridgetMagnus.com.  Most of my housing and local interest items will go over there now, with cross-posting and pointer posts as appropriate. It’s been too long since I’ve said this, but thanks for reading what I have to say.

Disconnect

How the economy is doing these days largely depends what data you want to look at. I’ve been saying that for quite a while now. More to the point, others share my opinion. Here’s Reality Based Educator. Here’s Tyler Cohen. Here’s the BondDad. They all boil down to “How can you say there’s no inflation when commodities are so high and food/fuel prices go up every time I turn around?” and “How can the GDP be so spectacular when the dollar is worth less than a loonie?” and “If everything is so wonderful, how come we have a ‘credit crunch’ and foreclosure crisis?”

And that’s just up until yesterday. Today we can add little data points like 47 million Americans without health insurance, including 3.4 million children who had coverage at the beginning of the Bush Administration. And we can add up to 12,000 pink slips at Chrysler. And in the same quarter that we had almost 4% GDP growth? We had 30% growth in foreclosures, almost double levels from last year. CNN tells us “More than 635,000 foreclosure filings were reported nationwide – one for every 196 households. The filings include everything from default notices to auction sale notices to actual bank repossessions.” Think about that. You live in a neighborhood of a couple hundred houses? Odds are really good you have a neighbor in foreclosure. Apparently the economy is great unless you are a human being.

Even Wall Street is having a rough time, since “Now that 307, or 61% of S&P 500 companies, have reported, the headline numbers are far from encouraging. Earnings have contracted 5.3% from a year ago, S&P says, the worst performance since the fourth quarter of 2001.” Oh but wait, if you don’t count a couple bad sectors, “Eight of the 10 sectors posted 8% or greater earnings growth; five were in the double digits.” And his analysts think next year could have profit growth — not revenue growth, actual profit growth — of anything between 6.5% and 15%. The low number is still more than 50% greater than the “good” GDP number announced yesterday, the highest one is almost 4 times higher. Oh no, the CEO might have to make do with a smaller yacht. Keeping in mind we still have a trade deficit, where the heck is the money to fuel these profits coming from?

In closing: don’t get me started again about vouchers; the New Company Towns; perhaps mining laws should be revisited more often than once every 135 years, “A House bill, the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act, would permanently bar the sale of federal lands to miners and would require them for the first time to pay royalties of up to 8 percent of gross income from mining, which would go to a fund to clean up abandoned mines. It would also establish new permitting and environmental rules”; and yes I know I put it in today’s Daily Three, but Schneier is right on again about how “unusual” is not the same thing as “criminal”.

Shaun of the Shorties

Happy Nevada Day from Las Vegas.

“Is your uh, is your wife interested in….photography, ay?” (reference) Ay? Well now you no longer have to keep records proving that she was of legal age at the time.

What’s twice the size of Texas, disgusting, and getting bigger every day? Unfortunately, it’s a massive garbage dump at sea. It’s so big, one expert says “At this point, cleaning it up isn’t an option.” Since 80% of the trash-continent’s contents come from land-based sources, experts propose measures that reduce reliance on plastic bags and packaging as a means to slow its growth.

Oil’s Well that Ends Well. Oil is up again, now hitting over $92 a barrel. Oh, and the dollar continues to slide. Add to that this item:

On September 29th…, the government of Iraq announced that the next annual renewal of the United Nations Security Council mandate for a multinational force in Iraq — the only legal basis for a continuation of the American occupation — will be the last. That was… the first shoe to fall. The second may be an announcement terminating the little-noticed, but crucial companion Security Council mandate governing the disposition of Iraq’s oil revenues.

Tax overhaul proposals blooming in the sun? There must be an election coming up.  This one comes from Congressman Rangel.  It allegedly would reduce taxes on roughly a third of Americans, repeal AMT, and place a surtax on people who he thinks make too much money ($200,000 per year).  You want a simple sensible tax overhaul proposal that can be explained to anybody in less than 10 minutes?  Make the standard deduction equal to the poverty line, indexed annually.  Cap itemized deductions at three or even four times that, making AMT obsolete.  Add no more than a half dozen “over and above” deductions for stuff most of us agree are beneficial to society, like charitable contributions. Recalculate tax brackets and rates accordingly.  The End.

I wish my inner conspiracy theorist would shut up.  Seriously.  Not to make light of what is still happening in California with the fires, but now we are finding out that several of the fires were arson,  there were delays in getting firefighting aircraft into the skies, the stadium shelter was just short of being a free festival, the number of evacuees turns out to have been greatly exaggerated, and Mr. Bush arrives (stopping all other flights, including those firefighting planes) just in time to look like a conquering hero.  I don’t want to think that anybody could have set this in motion just to show how well the government can respond to a disaster. I want to believe all that is mere coincidence. I really do.

Interview with a MythBuster.  Ok, interview with both the MythBusters.

Declare War on Stress. (reference)  Americans have more stress these days, fueled by housing costs and terror fears.

Won’t somebody think of the children.  Firedoglake has a fascinating item called “From The Cradle to Uncertainty”, but be sure to click through to the  CDF called  “The Cradle to Prison Pipeline”.  I could do without the ethnocentric preachyness of Marion Wright Edelman (hint, not all religions worship on Sunday, and what the heck does that have to do with kids being doomed to prison?), but the idea that some kids — by the very circumstances into which they are born — may be funneled into a life of crime is sobering.  Oh, and on a related note, a cartoon relevant to SCHIP and other Medicare For All plans.

Stop worrying about the War on Terror.  It’s the War on Freedom we need to be concerned about.

And finally.  If the economy is great, and corporations are making lots of money, and the consumer is buying stuff,  how are corporations getting that stuff to the consumer?  Because they sure aren’t putting it on trains and trucks. He cites not just one, but 4 shipping companies whose earnings are soft on “reduced demand”.

Have a great weekend.

MOTHERS Act

BlogHers Act: Blog Day for the Mothers Act

Last week, in a town called Otsu, a woman dropped her 10 month old baby boy out a 6th floor apartment window.

For the moment, let us assume that people who are perfectly sane do not go tossing babies out of apartment windows. Allow me to furthermore point out that mental illness effects the way people think; this should be obvious, but nobody is able to “just snap out of it” or “get a hold of yourself” when it comes to mental illness. Someone who is mentally ill might not even be able to tell they are not thinking rationally.

But why do I care about one baby boy and one mentally ill mom on the other side of the world? Why should you care?

Today is the Blog Day for The MOTHERS Act, the first event in an active targeted campaign by BlogHer to improve maternal health around the world. The MOTHERS Act stands for “Moms Opportunity to Access Help, Education, Research and Support for Postpartum Depression Act.” You can find out more about postpartum depression and its more serious form, postpartum psychosis from the nice folks at the Department of Health and Human Services. Here’s more:

Bottom line: Of the more than 800,000 women annually who are affected by post-partum emotional and mental issues, a mere 15% get treatment. The MOTHERS Act aims to change this by requiring screening of women who have given birth.

Before anybody goes off about how this is going to cost money, the type of “screening” we are talking about involves a few questions asked by a discharge nurse. These questions could result in someone getting treatment they desperately need; these questions could save a baby’s life.

Mahablog has a very nice post on this issue, including some insight through the voice of experience and a list of Congressmen to call.

Update 5/10/2012: I was contacted by a licensed social worker to inform me of a dead link (now corrected). She also gave me this great source on drug and alcohol abuse in women.

Something in the $250,000 range

No, not talking about housing prices.

Compare and contrast:  Peter Gabriel’s $250,000 “The Shed” is a 240 square foot state of the art recording studio you can have drop-shipped to you; or MC Lars’s “Post-punk laptop rap,”  done in a “studio” that probably cost less than $5,000 and can fit in a sufficiently large notebook bag.  Maybe Peter Gabriel is more successful, more creative.  But I bet he’s not 50 times as creative, and 50 times more successful over the long term remains to be seen.

If you want to know some of my thoughts on Asia, be sure to check out my latest item over at Central Sanity.   Otherwise, in closing: 54 random thoughts from Digital Penguin; Farmers want to grow a proven, useful crop but the Feds won’t let them because it might be mistaken for drugs; best item to date on the biggest problem facing American families that we don’t talk about; and the item I originally intended to rant about, on any typical day thousands of American teenagers are drinking, smoking, doing drugs.  I notice they specifically did not mention having sex, being involved in a gang, or any other ways they could be getting into trouble.  Well gee, people, maybe if the high school didn’t dismiss before 2 PM they wouldn’t have time for drugs!  I hate being the voice of reason on this.  I encourage everyone to send this article to the local school board, along with an article about how teenager’s brains aren’t awake at 7:30 AM.  Reasonable high school hours == instant achievement + reduced trouble.  It’s a good thing.