. . . . .Gooood Morning! Welcome to the second half of the year, and to the annual weekend birthday celebration that we call Independence Day.
. . . . .Hope you've enjoyed a barbecue or two, some sun and some time with friends and family.
. . . .Take the time to catch up on the last few columns, they're all down below. There's all the normal exploration of the current news around politics, the economy, the national electrical grid, some work on human evolution and A.I. the normal eclectic mix.
. . . .The most important news of the day isn't Caribou Barbie, though that's near the top. The most important news comes out of Iran. The Mullahs have declared the election "illegitimate", a very serious setback for Ahmadenijad and Ayatollah Khameini.
. . . .The second most important news, that of North Korea firing seven missles off on July 4th, may on the surface seem important. But really it isn't. (1) Their missles have the annoying habit of basically just falling into the Sea of Japan and (2) anyone, anyone at all who thinks that if China believed that North Korea was about to piss in the pool, considering China's stature as the world's largest economy, and it's growing strenth and it's positioning itself to become the world's dominant superpower, (watch, the Yuan will replace the U.S. Dollar as the International Reserve Currency this month) is truly a mouth-breathing idiot. Follow the money, that's what counts. So, no, North Korea will never present a true threat, China's not gonna let that happen.
. . . .On ABC's "This Week with George Stephanolous Vice-President Joe Biden made an admission that will probably, bar the last item below, be one of the most discussed statements of the week: "We misread how bad the economy really was". My question is - how could you? Nobel Prize winning economists tried telling them before the stimulus package was presented just how large in size it had to be, and tried telling them afterwards that the package just plainly wasn't large enough to jumpstart the economy.
. . . .All it takes is the barest recollection of freshman year college Econ 101 to remember that to keep an economy moving, when private investing bottoms out or dries up, then public investing has to take up the slack. It didn't take a genius to look at what was occurring when the false bubbles created by Reagan's signing of Garn-St. Germain back in 1982, creating the first false bubble, and his breaking of the first union, PATCO; the artful and deceitful Clinton recrafting of Bush 1's North American Free Trade Agreement which further gutted American manufacturing and hastened outsourcing, and began the largest transfer of wealth in history as money began flowing out of the United States to China & Venezuela, then the Bush 2 years of Paulson completely deregulating the banking industry to allow them to buy into AIG's Joseph Cassano's craps table bid with heretofore unknown derivative securities to see what was going to happen. There was no money, there never was any money, it was built on a pile of sand and once the first part of the foundation went, it was easy for the remainder of it to keep on sliding.Host George Stephanopoulos pointed out that "a lot of people were saying that you needed to do something bigger and bolder" when it came to the stimulus package. He named New York Times columnist Paul Krugman as one example. There are many others.
The prize-winning Columbia University economist Joseph Stiglitz not only warned that the stimulus was too small during its construction, the day after Obama signed it into law he predicted how its shortcomings would make themselves apparent.
"I think there is a broad consensus but not universal among economist that the stimulus package that was passed was badly designed and not enough. I know it is not universal but let me try to explain. First of all that it was not enough should be pretty apparent from what I just said: It is trying to offset the deficiency in aggregate demand and it is just too small," Stiglitz said. "The shortfall in state revenue [is] probably in the order of 150 to 200 billion dollars a year. And the states have balanced budget frameworks so if you follow the newspaper you know the drastic problems that California and New York are in, these are really serious problems and because of their balanced budget frameworks they have to reduce their spending... if their income comes down. So that would be a negative stimulus of 150 to 200 billion unless there is federal aid. And the stimulus package there was a little of federal aid but just not enough. So what we will be doing is we will be laying off teachers and laying off people in the health care sector while we are hiring construction workers. It is a little strange for a design of a stimulus package. You ask, why do you want to hire construction workers and fire teachers. I don't know what is the rationale behind that."
Stiglitz was joined by a whole host of liberal economists -- from the University of Texas' James Galbraith to Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research -- who warned that the stimulus package inexplicably underestimated the size of the crisis.
Several weeks after the stimulus passed, economist Nouriel Roubini, known affectionately as Dr. Doom, made the case that the administration's approach to stabilizing the economy lacked an effective international component.
"You have to have a set of concerted, coherent policies done not just by the U.S. but by Europe, Japan, China and everyone else," he said. "The credit crunch is just massive. One thing that's needed is much more aggressive monetary easing. The second dimension is that you need much more fiscal stimulus -- in the countries that can afford it -- that is front-loaded. The U.S. [stimulus package] is $800 billion, but only $200 billion is front-loaded. Of that $200 billion [in stimulus] this year, half of it is tax cuts. That's going to be a waste of money, because people are not going to spend it."
In mid-June, weeks before the latest round of poor job numbers came out, U.C. Berkeley professor and former Clinton administration official Brad DeLong was arguing that "the Obama administration's federal fiscal stimulus programs are on the low side of what is appropriate by a substantial margin."
"This is the largest economic downturn since the Great Depression and the standard tools of expansionary monetary policy are tapped out and broken right now," he wrote.
The day that June's job numbers came out, meanwhile, Nassim Taleb, principal of Universa Investments and author of 'The Black Swan,' offered a far more grim interpretation of what was transpiring, though one relatively consistent with what he had said in the past.
"We're in the middle of a crash," said Taleb during an appearance on CNBC. "So if I'm going to forecast something, it is that it's going to get worse, not better."
Certainly Krugman himself has aired his share of skepticism. In late June, he reminded his readers that his early concerns had not been misplaced.
"[S]ome of us warned about what might happen: if unemployment surpassed the administration's optimistic projections, Republicans wouldn't accept the need for more stimulus," he wrote in the Times. "Instead, they'd declare the whole economic policy a failure. And that's exactly how it's playing out. With the unemployment rate now almost certain to pass 10 percent, there's an overwhelming economic case for more stimulus. But as a political matter it's going to be harder, not easier, to get that extra stimulus now than it would have been to get the plan right in the first place.
This past week, meanwhile, he declared once more that the Obama stimulus plan, while "better than nothing" needs to be supplemented with something more.
To be fair, the process of economic forecasting is, as Taleb noted in his CNBC segment, an inherently tricky proposition. In October 2008, for instance, Roubini was arguing that the government needed a $400 billion stimulus package, which ended up being just more than half of what the Obama White House settled on.
But among those who were sounding the loudest alarms about the potential inadequacies of the economic recovery plan, the consensus seems to be emerging that more now needs to be done. Later in his ABC segment, Biden - who is responsible for overseeing the stimulus - was asked if a second package was in the offing. No, he replied, without dismissing the possibility outright. "I think it's premature to make that judgment. This was set up to spend out over 18 months. There are going to be major programs that are going to take effect in September, $7.5 billion for broadband, new money for high-speed rail, the implementation of the grid -- the new electric grid. And so this is just starting, the pace of the ball is now going to increase."
. . . The stimulus package needed to be much, much larger. On a percentage basis, it needed to be equal to the WPA or CCC, back in 1933-1939 in order to do much good. Instead, the idiots who want to see this nation destroyed started their fucking "tea parties", much to the delight of all those rich elites around them who make $250,000 a year or more. The incoming President Obama signs into law the largest tax cut in history, asks those criminals who have been moving their money offshore and into tax havens to start ponying up for what this Nation has given them, what they stole from working people, and those who got the tax cuts take to the street to protest it. God, no wonder the rich think everyone is a sheeple, they got Joe the Plumber, and mind slaves just like him, to do their dirty work for them again.
. . . .On CNN's State of the Union with John King this morning, one of this country's most decorated soldiers, and respected Republican elder statesman, Colin Powell stated very clearly and factually that Rush Limbaugh's comments, both past and recent, demonstrate very clearly and "are evidence that the Republican Party still has a problem with race."
. . . . .So, back at it. And of course, you know the Angel just is going to dig right into Sarah Palin, and her surprise resignation as the Governor of Alaska.
. . . . .Let me start right off by saying that, in my opinion, the estimable Ms. Palin has done more to set the image of women in American politics back singlehandedly than any other woman in recent history. She reinforces the stereotype of being erratic and unable to handle pressure, and not being suited for a top job.
. . . .Bear in mind that we are talking about someone who couldn't even complete a full term as the Governor of a State that has essentially the same number of citizens as Columbus, Ohio.
. . . . .It's like the mayor of Albuquerque quitting their term early to help spread their message on a "national stage". WTF????
. . . ..Her resignation letter was a long-winded, rambling piece; grammatically incorrect, random punctation and capitalization throughout. Her resignation speech was the same, and her Facebook message yesterday was the same, rambling and incoherent. So typical of the extreme fundamentalist Right wing of her party; no facts, no substance, no coherent logical argument. All ephemeral hyperbole, with the issuer of the same a victim of some nefarious liberal source. Cognitively dissonant. All 3 can be checked at the links provided. In each case, she tied her resignation to a "higher calling". We'll talk more about that later.
. . . . . . There have been a number of reaction pieces in the last 24 hours; so. . .on to some of those first:
. . . . . .Geoffrey Dunn:
. . . . .Read the rest of the piece here.Anyone who is in any way surprised by Sarah Palin's announcement today that she will not be seeking re-election, and, even more significantly, is stepping down as Governor of Alaska, has not been paying close attention. The signs have been everywhere.
Palin has absolutely zero interest in running the State of Alaska. She steadfastly refused to live in Juneau after her first year there, had the gall to charge the state for residing at her home in Wasilla 600 miles away, and she basically mailed in her performance as the state's top administrator during Alaska's most recent legislative session. She has alienated virtually all the key legislators in her own party -- that's right, Republicans -- and had failed to move any key legislation forward since her return to Alaska from the national campaign trail last November.
In fact, her bizarre appointment for Attorney General, Wayne Anthony Ross, was rejected nearly unanimously by the state legislature -- a first in Alaskan history. Even in respect to energy policy, her supposed bailiwick, she has been categorically ineffective. When I asked those in-the-know what role Palin had played in putting together the recent pipeline deal between TransCanada and Exxon, their response was simple: "None."
None. That about sums up Palin's accomplishments as Governor of the Last Frontier.
The evangelical right can wallow in denial all they want about Palin being victimized by liberals or Democrats or even George Soros (some illiterate wingnut recently tried to link me to him), but the fact is that most of the people with really bad things to say about Palin -- from John McCain's staff to conservatives in Alaska -- come from the Republican Party. The charges of a left-wing conspiracy are so ridiculous as to be absolutely absurd.
Some pundits have said that Palin's resignation is out of character. Hardly. Don't forget that she resigned from her last statewide office -- that as chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Sarah Palin is a quitter. She fancies herself something else. But, in the end, she quit her position at AOGCC and she has now quit her governorship. That's two-for-two at the statewide level. In Wasilla, there was nearly a recall launched against her as mayor. Trouble and turbulence have followed her everywhere.
More importantly, there are rumors in Alaska that more Ethics Act charges are in the works and that there is also a more serious Federal investigation focusing on Palin during her tenure as mayor in Wasilla and the building of her home and a sports complex in Wasilla, long speculated to have been linked. It's the one very touchy subject whenever you bring it up in the MatSu Valley. As someone who is writing a book on Palin, I can attest to the fact that there are always rumors flying about her, not all of them true, but this seems like a real possibility, especially given the timing of her announcement today.
Palin also has a multi-million dollar book project for Rupert Murdoch that she needs to complete in time for a spring release. That's some serious cabbage, and there were grumblings in Alaska about the book deal as well. There will be other lucrative, high-visibility media options for her shortly down the road. Don't be surprised to hear of one of those popping up soon. This frees her up to reach for the gold ring without her minions being able to register any complaints. In that respect, it's a logical move.
All of the recent public donnybrooks have taken their toll: First the article by Todd Purdum in Vanity Fair and then the even nastier revelations of emails leaked by the McCain campaign which showed her to be an utter liar regarding her husband Todd's membership in the Alaska Independent Party. Even the seemingly innocuous interview in Runner's World, with its bizarre, braggadocio boast of her having more endurance than Obama, revealed her penchant for duplicity at every turn: the assertion that an injury she had sustained while jogging in Arizona had been kept top-secret, a contention thoroughly disputed by the inimitable Mudflats.
One of my favorite lies spewed by Palin today in yet another poorly scripted speech was that she campaigned for governor "four years ago...," when she, in fact, ran for governor three years ago and held her position for little more than two-and-half years. It's the little lies she always tells, the twists of truth, the distortions. Four years sounds like nearly a full term; three feels incomplete. So why not just call it four?
For all her projected toughness, Palin loves to play the victim. "Political operatives descended on Alaska last August, digging for dirt," she whined, implying that her problems are from out-of-state (yet another big lie). "Over the past nine months I've been accused of all sorts of frivolous ethics violations..." It wasn't quite Richard Nixon's "Checker's Speech," but it was close. In her own awkward vernacular, the Governor was essentially saying to Alaska, "You won't have Sarah Palin to kick around any more."
. . . . . .Paul Begala, well-known CNN contributor and analyst:
. . . .Read the rest of the piece here.I wish Hunter S. Thompson had lived to see this.
As Hunter said, "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." Sarah Palin makes Mark Foley, the congressman who sent filthy emails to pages look almost normal. She makes David Vitter, the senator who was hanging out with hookers, look almost boring. She makes Larry Craig, caught hitting on a cop in a men's room, look almost stable. She makes John Ensign, the senator who was having an affair with a staffer, look almost humdrum (and compared to the rest of the GOP whack-jobs, he is). And she makes Mark Sanford, the governor with the Latin lover, look positively predictable.
It was an almost impossible mission, but in resigning from office with 17 months to go in her first term, Sarah Palin has made herself the bull goose loony of the GOP.
Let's stipulate that if there is some heretofore unknown personal, medical or family crisis, this was the right move. But Gov. Palin didn't say anything like that. Her statement was incoherent, bizarre and juvenile. The text, as posted on Gov. Palin's official website (here), uses 2,549 words and 18 exclamation points. Lincoln freed the slaves with 719 words and nary an exclamation; Mr. Jefferson declared our independence in 1,322 words and, again, no exclamation points. Nixon resigned the presidency in 1,796 words -- still no exclamation points. Gov. Palin capitalized words at random - whole words, like "TO," "HELP," and "AND," and the first letter of "Troops."
Gov. Palin's official announcement that she is resigning as chief executive of the great state of Alaska had all the depth and gravitas of a 13-year-old's review of the Jonas Brothers' album on Facebook. She even quoted her parents' refrigerator magnet. (Note to self: if one of my kids becomes governor, throw away the refrigerator magnet that says: "Murray's Oyster Bar: We Shuck Em, You Suck Em!") She put her son's name in quotations marks. Why? Who knows. She writes, "I promised efficiencies and effectiveness!?" Was she exclaiming or questioning? I get it: both! And I don't even know what to make of a sentence that reads:
*((Gotta put First Things First))*
Ponder the fact that Rupert Murdoch's Harper Collins publishing house is paying this, umm, writer $11 million for a book. Ponder that and say a prayer for Ms. Palin's editor.
I'm no latter-day Strunk & White, just a guy who was struck by Palin's spectacularly rambling and infantile prose. It bespeaks a rambling and infantile mind. But perhaps not. Perhaps this is all a ruse. Perhaps Gov. Palin wants us to believe she's an intellectual featherweight who is slightly shallower than an actor on High School Musical. Maybe she's trying to throw us off the trail.
Naah. A lot of people thought that about George W. Bush. He couldn't be so block-headed, they said. He couldn't be as childish and churlish as he came off. Oh yes he could. And so, too, might Ms. Palin be as vapid and puerile as her inane statement suggests.
. . . .Cenk Ugyur, of the Young Turks:
. . . .Read the rest of that piece here.There is a lot we don't know about Sarah Palin's decision to resign. But there is one thing we do know: She thought it was politically damaging.
No one announces good news late on Friday before Fourth of July weekend. That is someone who is trying to bury bad news as much as possible. With Michael Jackson and Mark Sanford stories still lingering around, everyone on vacation, and as little reporters working as possible, she releases this bombshell. That's someone who obviously thinks what she is doing is not going to help her, at least in the short term.
. . . . . From Michelle Goldberg, conservative blogger and commentator, and especially insightful into Sarah's ties to Alaskan Independence Party, a violent secessionist group. (For me, personally it was her two keynote addresses to their convention that provided the proof for me that she is a traitor, guilty of treason, and should now be in Leavenworth and not in the Governor's mansion in Alaska).
. . . .Over at the conservative Daily Beast, they rounded up the 11 most popular theories circulating for her resignation. Find 'em here.On the face of it, it seems preposterous that Palin might think she could maintain any political credibility at all after walking away from her job simply because she has her eye on bigger things. But Palin has long had an almost dementedly inflated sense of her own destiny. In one of the most quoted passages of Todd Purdham’s eviscerating Vanity Fair profile of Palin, he writes that, in traveling through Alaska, several people told him that, in trying to understand their governor, “they had consulted the definition of ‘narcissistic personality disorder’ in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.” Said disorder, Purdum points out, is marked by “a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy.”
As a description of Palin, that sounds about right. It also sounds about right as a description of Newt Gingrich, Mark Sanford, John Edwards, and maybe even Bill Clinton. There is nothing new about politicians who are staggeringly egotistical and heedlessly dishonest, politicians with fantastic reserves of self-righteousness and self-pity but a shriveled capacity for loyalty. But we don’t usually see this particular kind of craziness in women. Palin is the rare female politician who is as much a megalomaniac as her male peers. Maybe more.
By the time she’d emerged on the national stage, her confidence—had had a unique chance to grow and flower.
But it also metastasized into deluded arrogance. Palin’s public statements have been full of petty, easily refutable mendacity, delivered with the vehemence of a compulsive liar. Purdum’s piece reveals one tiny but telling incident, in which Palin told McCain aides that she and her husband had been without insurance of any kind in the early years of their marriage. “Checking with Todd Palin himself revealed that, no, they had had catastrophic coverage all along,” Purdum writes. “This sort of slipperiness—about both what the truth was and whether the truth even mattered—persisted on questions great and small.”
On Thursday, CBS News had a small scoop revealing a similarly cavalier attitude towards the truth. After McCain’s chief strategist, Steve Schmidt, rejected a request by Palin to reply to a report that her husband, Todd, has been a member of the secessionist Alaska Independence Party, Palin came forward with a preposterous excuse, like a teenager trying to explain away the incriminating smell of liquor—or a governor trying to cover up a mysterious jaunt to Buenos Aires. Secession, she insisted—despite all available evidence—is not part of the party’s platform, and besides, Todd “was only a 'member' bc independent alaskans too often check that 'Alaska Independent' box on voter registrations thinking it just means non partisan. He caught his error when changing our address and checked the right box. I still want it fixed." A clearly exasperated Schmidt wrote back that secession is the AIP’s “entire reason for existence. A cursory examination of the website shows that the party exists for the purpose of seceding from the union. That is the stated goal on the front page of the web site. Our records indicate that todd was a member for seven years. If this is incorrect then we need to understand the discrepancy. The statement you are suggesting be released would be inaccurate.”
The Alaska governor shares the personality flaws of many of her male peers, but by all accounts she doesn’t express them via the preferred method of politicians like John Edwards or Mark Sanford—by being sexually reckless. The United States has grown more blasé about sex scandals post Bill Clinton, but they remain more damaging than, say, dishonesty, greed, or naked incompetence.
Her seemingly irrational faith in herself might not be totally misplaced, especially if other Republicans keep self-destructing at their current rate. That’s because while Palin is unhinged, so is much of her competition. Politics has always attracted the deeply screwed up, but our current political system seems to do so more than most. Perhaps that’s because healthy people looking to make their mark on the world don’t want to subject themselves to the inquisitorial media attention or crushing vapidity of modern campaigning. The gloriously sane Barack Obama is the exception that proves the rule—watch people wonder at his unfeigned affection for his family, the fact that he doesn’t seem desperate for praise. Success in our politics often requires a voracious, antinomian egotism, a sense that rules are for others.
The Alaska governor shares the personality flaws of many of her male peers, but there’s no evidence she express them via the preferred method of politicians like John Edwards or Mark Sanford—by being sexually reckless. The United States has grown more blasé about sex scandals post Bill Clinton, but they remain more damaging than, say, dishonesty, greed, flakiness or naked incompetence.
Palin may have gone rogue on John McCain, had public feuds with her grandson’s teenage father, turned on loyal aids, flubbed interviews, spent tens of thousands of other people’s money on clothes, told countless lies and now walked away from her responsibilities, but as far as we know she hasn’t cheated on her husband. If congenital narcissists dominate our politics, Palin may still be just the narcissist the GOP needs.
. . . .Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski positively ripped her in a statement released from her office, telling her "You abandoned our State" read it here,
. . . .Karl Rove, the Architect (love him, or hate him, he is a political genius) had this to say on Sunday morning on the official Republican Mouthpiece station, Fox News:
"I think it hurts. It's also unclear what her strategy is. Again, she said she wanted to lead effective change outside of government. Well, now people will be saying what is it you mean by that and how are you demonstrating effective leadership for change around America? I'm like Governor [Mike] Huckabee. I'm a fan of Sarah Palin's, but the effective strategies in politics are ones that are so clear and obvious that people can grasp it.". . . . It was very apparent throughout the interview that Karl Rove was no fan of this move of Palin's and was quite cold about it.
. . . .The rumors from inside her camp are that it's been potential Republican rival Mitt Romney and his camp who have been circulating the rumors about her ethics problems, and not the "liberal bloggers".
. . . .As well, another Republican potential candidate, Mike Huckabee, had this to say on the Right wing appartus Sunday morning entertainment revue "Fox News Sunday":
"In a primary this is going to be an issue she'll have to face. Will she be able to withstand the pressure?"
. . . .Here's what I know about Sarah Palin. She's a hypocrite and a liar, she's a completely self-absorbed, venal, narcissistic, mean personality. She gave the keynote address, twice, to a group that advocates for the secession of the state of Alaska from the United States, by violence. Her husband was a member for 7 years. She is a member of a church who welcomes in a man who proclaims himself a "witch doctor", a human being claiming the ability to do what other humans cannot, a human being who claims god-like powers, and she belives him. She consistently attacked Barack Obama on a personal level, tying him to terrorists, casting doubt on his citizenship, and consistently implying that he was a Muslim, on the campaign trail, whilst he did not, and allowed her to demonstrate her complete and utter inability to grasp the job of Vice-President during her televised debate and she now has turned into a a pathetic whiner, a thin-skinned loser who can throw it out there, but isn't willing to take it, with the most direct criticism of her coming from within her own party, her own State, and from within the group of people who were attempting to inform her and help her with the information and facts she needed while she was running for Vice-President of the United States. Her lawyer says that she is exploring legal action against bloggers and the media. This from a wing of the party that screams about the Fairness Doctrine. Her particular brand of Fascism, her Christian Nationalism is a complete betrayal of the sacrifices of millions of men and women who have fought and died for the ideal that is the American Experiment, still grandly and successfully moving along after 234 years. This is a country that embraces diversity of opinion and viewpoint, as the Founding Fathers intended and Palin is the antithesis of that, a narrow-minded, not very bright bigot, who will use position and power to punish if the offender hasn't acted in accordance with her restricted belief system. Just ask her ex-brother-in-law or her daughter's Baby Daddy, or his family. She's not very bright, and I don't want someone like that anywhere near the nuclear launch codes. Her particular brand of Christianity calls for Armageddon and the Rapture, neither of which I want for my children, and there is, per the United States Constitution, absolutely no place in the structure of our government for the mixture of religion and politics, no place whatsoever. The Constitution guarantees that.
. . . .Outta here
. . . .Got your back
. . . .Kiss your kids, tell the ones you love out loud that you do. This rodeo is a one-way ticket, and no one gets out alive, no one. We don't get to dictate terms and circumstances around how the ticket gets punched, and we don't know when it's coming. This ain't no dress rehearsal. Change your world, change yourself and change the world at large.
The Desolation Angel

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