Author: Matthew G. Saroff

Why Conservatives are Dancing Like the Palestinians Did on 911*

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You know, I’m not a big fan of the Olympics. I know of no event which has drifted further from its original purpose, which was that athletes set aside national differences, and compete for the “joy of the sport.”

The Olympics these days is all about nationalism, commercialism, and pumping up national differences.

When this is juxtaposed with the enormous costs, which always seem to overrun their budget and require a taxpayer bailout, I know that if I lived in Chicago, I would be strongly opposed to the Olympics being in the Windy City.

So, there are many valid reasons not to want the Olympics in your city, or your country.

That being said, the behavior of the right wing was all about, as Nuisance Industry at Daily Kos notes, celebrating the defeat of the United States of America:

That’s not what this is about. Today, great joy and celebration greeted America losing the Olympics. This joy was not in the streets of Rio (where celebrations certainly are underway), but in the offices and studios of people who facetiously claim to be patriotic Americans.

It’s happening in the offices of the Weekly Standard:

Standard blogger John McCormack published a celebratory post on the magazine’s blog, titled “Chicago Loses! Chicago Loses!.” McCormack wrote that “Cheers erupt at WEEKLY STANDARD world headquarters

It’s happening in Glenn Beck’s studios, where Herr Beck declared the news is “so sweet.” In Herr Limabugh’s studio, the bloated junkie happily declared this “the worst day of Obama’s presidency.”

Newsmax, the fascist organization that earlier this week fantasized about a military coup against the president, happily tweeted “ChicagP//n3D!”

We get it. You hate not just our president, but our country. You hate us for our freedoms. You’d rather have our people die that provide them health care that doesn’t bankrupt them. You’d rather risk catastrophic damage to the environment rather than doing something about greenhouse gases. You actively fantasize about killing the president and hamstringing government from doing the work of government. (I would have guessed that this Norquistian fantasy would have subsided after you so successfully drowned New Orleans, but that just whetted your appetite for more American blood.) The United States loses the opportunity to host the Olympics, and you’re thrilled, simply because you can’t stand that the president is a Democrat?

Let me close with Nuisance Industry’s last sentence, “So I conclude with all due compassion: Get the f$#@ out of my country.” ($#@ mine)

*I know, you’re about to say it was all 10 year old video of the invasion of Iraq. The problem is that it was actually video of September 11, 2001, and the “10 year old video” bit was dreamed up by a Brazilian student. The claim of fraud is the actual fraud, and it’s not just Snopes (link above) that confirms this.

Not only is there documentation of the celebration across the Arab world, there is ample documentation of the cover-up by the PA, which confiscated footage from reporters.†
†The real question to be asked about Arabs celebrating 911 is not whether they did so, but why they did so.

People’s Republic of China 60th Anniversary Parade Pix

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Click image for full size


The first question is, “What is with those white sidewall tires?”


These cruise missiles launchers look similar in size and configuration to the Ground Launched Tomahawks


Drones

Something in the Flanker class

Air refueling demo


Shore based anti-ship missiles


These look like S300s (SA-10 Grumble)


Chinese version of the EFV/AAAV, the ZBD2000. It has that whole, “separated at birth” thing going with the EFV

There are dozens of photographs at Xinhuanet.com, but these are the ones that caught my eyes.

I don’t see any major revelations in Chinese weapons, but I’m not an analyst.

Could someone explain to me though, how that neon blue camoflage works?

Aero Diesel Video Pr0n

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Avweb produced two videos on the operation and description on Diamond’s Austro AE300 engines.

The nickel tour is that they are heavier than Thielert’s engines, but are promised to be much more durable.

A typical design decision is that the Austro has a heavier cast iron block, but this allows for the engine to be rebuilt.

I’m wondering why they didn’t sleeve an aluminum block. That would appear to me to give the best of both worlds, though my experience with sleeved engines is locomotive engines, which are sleeved iron blocks, I might be missing something.

They are promising a 1000 hour TBO, and hope to extend that significantly as Diamond gets information from the field on the first engines..

Engine Analysis

Flight Evaluation

Well, I was Experience of Schadenfreude

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But Senator Ensign (R-NV, and many bedrooms) just keeps on delivering.

So, the New York Times has done some journalism, and discovered that, in addition to boinking his chief of staff’s wife, stalking her, and getting mommy and daddy to pay hush money, reporters Eric Lichtblau and Eric Lipton have now discovered that Senator Ensign arranged for Douglas Hampton to get a cushy lobbying job, and then had Hampton lobby one…Senator John Ensign, in a direct violation of Senate ethics rules and federal laws, which require a 1 year cooling off period:

Mr. Hampton said he and Mr. Ensign were aware of the lobbying restriction but chose to ignore it. He recounted how the senator helped him find clients and ticked off several steps Mr. Ensign took to assist them with their agendas in Washington, activities confirmed by federal officials and executives with the businesses.

“The only way the clients could get what John was essentially promising them — which was access — was if I still had a way to work with his office,” Mr. Hampton said. “And John knew that.”

Gee….Who’d a thunk it?

Needless to say, the folks at Leno and The Daily Show are chortling about this, though David Letterman might be too busy boinking his staffers on his show.

My Thoughts on German Election

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So, Merkel will now govern with the Free Democrats, and not in a grand coalition with the SDP.

The reason that this is happening is very simple: The SDP is not running against the CDU, it’s running against the Left Party.

So you have proclamations that there will not be a coalition with the LP under any, because….because…I’m really not sure why, except, perhaps because the SDP sees the LP as drawing in disaffected SDP members, and they see the loss of power within the party as more troubling than the lose of power in the whole country.

Fundamentally, the success of the LP is because the 3rd Way endorsed by Clinton, Blair, and to a somewhat lesser extent, Gerhard Schröder, which supported “Anglo-Saxon” hyper-capitalism, and has failed in its goals to create increased living standards.

The people with the idea that the perhaps a party with founded with the idea that government should take a role in improving a society, like Oskar Lafontaine, now co chair of the LP have been disaffected and dis-empowered, so it’s no wonder that they are looking for somewhere else to go.

There is also the whole, “world wide financial meltdown,” thing which has tarnished the 3rd way’s concept of unfettered competition, which means that the LP is, you know, do the degree that that actually have a philosophy, as, “The Left hasn’t yet adopted its own party program“.

The decline of the SDP, in a bizarre way, mirrors the decline of the Labor Party in Israel, which stopped representing “Labor”, and became the party of, “We’re not as batsh%$ insane as Likud,” and so dropped to a pathetic 4th place in Israeli elections as a result of the “Thatcherite but not as batsh%$ insane as Likud,” Kadima party.

This Ain’t Your Dad’s Recession

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Click for full size

Fall in employment participation at post Great Depression high


U3 to U6

So, we have the numbers for September today, and they really suck.

The non-farm payrolls fell by 263,000 in September, well above the consensus estimate of 175,000, and the unemployment rate (U3) went from 9.7% to 9.8%.

Additionally, the numbers for factory orders fell in August, as did non defense capital goods, durable goods, and manufacturing inventories fell by for the 12th straight month.

Unless you are a banker, or Obama’s economic team, this is not a recovery.

Kevin Drum, citing Brad Delong and Andrew Samwick, note that workforce participation has fallen further than at any time since the Great Depression.

The numbers, peak to trough declines in workforce participation.

  • 1948 — 2.2%
  • 1953 — 3.1%
  • 1958 — 2.5%
  • 1960 — 1.4%
  • 1969 — 1.9%
  • 1974 — 2.4%
  • 1979 — 3.0%
  • 1990 — 2.0%
  • 2000 — 2.7%
  • 2008 — 4.6%

This is just really scary stuff, particularly when, like me, you are looking for a job.

How to Piss off a Wingnut

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By bare of the ShorSkoolbus BBS:

How to piss off a wingnut, Going Rouge

Postby bare on Thu Oct 01, 2009 12:54 pm
Stopped in for a quick one at the tavern last night only to be accosted by my favorite wingnut foil. He was commenting on having ordered Palin’s new book. I said “Oh, going rouge? Why, is she going to get all red-faced and apologize for her actions of late?” “The name of the book is going rogue,” he said pronouncing it roge. Uh-uh sez I, it’s rouge (pronounced rooge). We argued back and forth a bit until I finally called for the dictionary we keep there for settling bar bets. I looked up rouge and showed it to him he took on a rouge tint himself and shut up.

Take full advantage of republican’s spelling problems and rename Palin’s book Going Rouge.

Sir/Madame/Elder God/Outer God/Great Old One/Dog (you can never tell, it’s the Internet), I salute you

It Appears that I Was Premature in My Praise for Eugene Robinson

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While his position on Roman Polanski’s fugitive status, and his apprehension in Switzerland, in his condemnation of people who support the incarcerated film director is laudable, just look at who he is condemning, “some of Hollywood’s most prominent luminaries,” who suggest that, “whatever sins Polanski may have committed are outweighed by the brilliance of his art.”

Let’s make it clear, I think that the arguments of his supporters in Hollywood are repulsive, but there are people out there who are suggesting that the, “bitch was asking for it,” like Anne Applebaum and Richard Cohen, who suggest that this was consensual or perhaps even encouraged by the girl.

This is a whole world worse than anything that has come out of Hollywood, or, for that matter, out of France.

Let’s be clear that there are in fact ethical arguments against the imprisonment or trial of Roman Polanski. Jeralyn of TalkLeft, for example, has been making highly cogent arguments about the legal process that deserve serious consideration, and this a valid, and I would argue essential part of the dialogue, but Robinson’s covering up for his colleagues is beneath contempt, particularly when one, Applebaum, explicitly called him out on her page.

Eugene Robinson, you sir, are a coward.

H/t Atrios.

Went to the Burial at Arlington National Cemetery

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For my neighbor, MSgt Wade. (Note first name, not last, I’m not blogging that out of respect for his privacy)

As with any institution, it is end of life where the where the ritual becomes its most elaborate and intricate, and I think that the sense that it gives the loved ones of their place in the continuum of society and culture is a good thing.

The rigidly at attention honor guard, the flags and their folding, the firing of a salute, and the bugler playing taps all serve to show the loved ones of the deceased that they are a part of something bigger.

That being said, when the honor guard fired their weapons (bolt action Springfields, I think, they were manually working an action), my son, who hates loud noises, he’s an Aspie, and this is symptomatic of being on the spectrum, jumped and covered his ears.

Cash for Clunkers Have had a Long Term Effect

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The folks at the Wall Street Journal miss the point, by stressing capacity cuts, but it takes 2-3 years for new cars to become used cars.

I’m not sure whey they do this, except for the fact that the jobs being lost are UAW jobs.

More significant is the fact that anyone who got cash for a clunker under the government program did not have their car work its way down the used car ecology.

Cars traded in under that program had to be rendered undrivable, generally by putting abrasive in the crankcase.

What that means is that there has been a significant reduction in used cars in the pipeline, which is likely going to be boosting used car prices, and possibly new car prices, for the next few years.

Potential Good News on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell

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The Joint Forces Quarterly, an official military publication reviewed prior to publication by the office of the JCS, has published an article calling for the repeal of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell anti-Gay policy:

The article, which appears in Joint Force Quarterly and was reviewed before publication by the office of Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says that “after a careful examination, there is no scientific evidence to support the claim that unit cohesion will be negatively affected if homosexuals serve openly.”

Although the article, by an Air Force colonel, Om Prakash, carries no weight as a matter of policy, it may well signal a shift in the official winds. It won the 2009 Secretary of Defense National Security Essay competition.

(emphasis mine)

Someone is sending a clear message, and I am not sure whether this is non-bigoted members of the military sending a message to the Obama administration to get the policy repealed, or it’s a message to the minority of officers in the military who use DADT as an excuse to engage in bigoted witch hunts to stop from either the JCS or the SecDef, or it’s a message to Congress to fix this.

In any case, this is a welcome development.

Obama’s Problem in 1 Picture

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The larger problem here is not that somehow or other that these feelings are an inaccurate Thing is, these opinions do accurately reflect reality

Ezra Klein nails it with one picture.

You see, the American public, given a few months, and a subject that holds their interest, even tangentially, and they begin to tease truth from fiction, and as a group, come to understand what is going on.

It’s the Delphi Method writ large.

We saw it during Bill Clinton’s impeachment, when the public came to realize over a period of months that this was not the end of the world, it was some guy lying about cheating on his wife, and the Republicans attempting a coup as a result.

So, here we are, 8 months into the Obama administration, and a year into the financial crisis, and the American public gets it: No one is the least bit interested in doing anything to help them.

They are bailing out banks and automakers, and CEOs are still getting obscene pay packages, and the, as taxpayers are paying for it.

You see, this is not a problem that can be solved with an Obama speech, because there is nothing to explain here. That great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity,* Goldman Sachs, has captured treasury, insurance has captured healthcare, and real-estate has captured….well…Everything.

The Obama administration, and much of the Democratic Party has been captured by the Finance, Insurance, and Real-Estate (FIRE) sectors, and so is attempting to support the phony products of this sector, as opposed to produce something useful.

The Republican party has been captured by FIRE too, but this doesn’t matter, because they are remarkably honest about this, and their platform is not to protect the little guy, but rather to hate those defined as “the other”, so they are neither hypocrites, nor are they likely to lose much support.

That being said, much as in 1994, when people looked at the Democrats in Congress, and said, “If they are both going to f$#@ me over with NAFTA, I might as well vote for someone who hates f*gg*ts and n*gg*rs too,” Obama and the Dems are in real trouble.

As Harry S Truman said, “Given the choice between a Republican and someone who acts like a Republican, people will vote for the real Republican all the time.

Absent actions that involve most of the senior staffs of Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Citi, Bank of America (Especially Ken Lewis), and the ratings agencies (S&P, Moody’s, etc) frog marched out of their places of work in handcuffs, this is the reality we have, not the reality we’d like to have.

*Alas, I cannot claim credit for this bon mot, it was coined by the great Matt Taibbi, in his article on the massive criminal conspiracy investment firm, The Great American Bubble Machine.