Paul Krugman on weaponized Keynesianism

Appeals to confidence have always been a key debating point for opponents of taxes and regulation; Wall Street’s whining about President Obama is part of a long tradition in which wealthy businessmen and their flacks argue that any hint of populism on the part of politicians will upset people like them, and that this is bad for the economy. Once you concede that the government can act directly to create jobs, however, that whining loses much of its persuasive power — so Keynesian economics must be rejected, except in those cases where it’s being used to defend lucrative contracts.

So I welcome the sudden upsurge in weaponized Keynesianism, which is revealing the reality behind our political debates. At a fundamental level, the opponents of any serious job-creation program know perfectly well that such a program would probably work, for the same reason that defense cuts would raise unemployment. But they don’t want voters to know what they know, because that would hurt their larger agenda — keeping regulation and taxes on the wealthy at bay.

Booo!

Japanese debris field in the Pacific

Washes back and forth and impacts Hawaii from both sides.

Posted this three years ago....

And we're still paying for his eight year reign of incompetence

It will have so many uses...

I'm sure the military and the police will think about spying, tracking, and searching, but wouldn't it be cool if we could land one of these on the moon or Mars?

*edit note.... Ole Phat Stu has kindly reminded me there is NO ATMOSPHERE on the Moon and Mars, so no flying devices that need air to move...

*My astronomy prof would be embarrassed...

One year after the BP oil disaster

The Gulf fishermen can see what the dispersants and oil did to the seafood industry.

Lions and volcanoes and Brits

Lions and tigers and ... LIONS!

Rapidly Inflating Volcano Creates Growing Mystery

Uturuncu is a nearly 20,000-foot-high (6,000 meters) volcano in southwest Bolivia. Scientists recently discovered the volcano is inflating with astonishing speed.

[snip]

Researchers realized about five years ago that the area below and around Uturuncu is steadily rising — blowing up like a giant balloon under a wide disc of land some 43 miles (70 kilometers) across. Satellite data revealed the region was inflating by 1 to 2 centimeters (less than an inch) per year and had been doing so for at least 20 years, when satellite observations began.

"It's one of the fastest uplifting volcanic areas on Earth," de Silva told OurAmazingPlanet."What we're trying to do is understand why there is this rapid inflation, and from there we'll try to understand what it's going to lead to."

The peak is perched like a party hat at the center of the inflating area. "It's very circular. It's like a big bull's-eye," said Jonathan Perkins, a graduate student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who recently presented work on the mountain at this year's Geological Society of America meeting in Minneapolis.

Scientists figured out from the inflation rate that the pocket of magma beneath the volcano was growing by about 27 cubic feet (1 cubic meter) per second.

Mississippi tries to retreat to the Dark Ages with their 'Personhood Amendment'.

Delightful review of the upcoming Sherlock Holmes Part 2.

Trying to understand the British.

Dammit. I didn't know some grapes and kiwi fruit were being treated with a growth hormone.

Having poor in your society hurts the rich

(Maybe that will get their attention?)

Taking blood sucking to new heights...

To the very top one percent.

Birds and bees

Mandatory bird.

Phila of Bouphonia's Friday Hope.

I guess the Koch brothers didn't buy the right scientist...

Koch-Funded Berkeley Temperature Study Does “Confirm the Reality of Global Warming”

Honeybees and bumblebees. And lighting their hives on fire.

How Japan cleans up after a disaster.

Now they've pissed off the nurses...

Outraged by the arrest of two nurses and a union organizer volunteering at the Occupy Chicago protest over the weekend, National Nurses United is planning a protest at Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office today.

The group, the nation's largest union of registered nurses, is calling on its membership in Chicago to picket City Hall this morning to demand that misdemeanor trespassing charges against the nurses and all of the protesters be dropped.

Do you think they've learned anything? The Iraq war is finally over. And it marks a complete neocon defeat

About time:

Regulator throws lifeline to underwater borrowers

and

'We can't wait': Obama to use executive authority to boost economy as Republicans dither on jobs

And magic! There is no more poverty!

The Post Office is one agency explicitly authorized by the Constitution

As it says here. But Issa wants to change all that....

"This one could take them all down" Chris Hedges

Ribbons on kittens...

Cave dwellers counting on bones, medieval manuscripts hiding ancient Greek mathematics, comets that crash into alien worlds, a Viking burial mound in Scotland, these are a few of my favorite things...

Our voices will be heard

Even if there are those who are working hard to silence us.

Don't know much 'bout economy...

But should I be worried?:

Cost of the Bush tax cuts.

Don't know much 'bout geography... of the US or the world (via Marcellina of The Practice Room).

Prepare for loss of brain cells

P Z Myers warns us.

An emphatic NO to business as usual

Around the world.

Is there ANY politician who hasn't been bought by the Koch brothers?

Herman 999 Cain is not just a millionaire who produced pizzas:

Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain has cast himself as the outsider, the pizza magnate with real-world experience who will bring fresh ideas to the nation's capital. But Cain's economic ideas, support and organization have close ties to two billionaire brothers who bankroll right-leaning causes through their group Americans for Prosperity.

His pizzas have Kochroaches.....

Looking up hopefully

NTodd of Dohiyi Mir and his family went to a protest.

Phila of Bouphonia offers his Friday hope post.

Excellent advice on what to do while protesting

How to protect yourself from an errant police baton and how to handle pepper spray.

Koch brothers? Meet FDR

“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it comes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group,”

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Nobody could have predicted....

Herbicide-resistant superweeds overpowering crops

Farming costs, food prices and agricultural pollution may rise as a result of nature's strike back against a biotechnology that has revolutionized modern farming.

"Superweeds" resistant to the herbicide glyphosate, also known by the trade name Roundup, have infested millions of hectares of cropland through much of the U.S. and areas of southwestern Ontario.

That means farmers may no longer be able to reap the benefits of Roundup Ready crops, which are genetically modified to be resistant to glyphosate, allowing farmers to control weeds with the herbicide without harming the crops themselves.

So the end result is to add MORE chemicals and create more genetically modified crops which then will make the weeds evolve to handle those as well which means more chemicals ....

It adds a certain piquant flavor...

One reason I have cut back on seafood... the choices are pre-cooked radioactive fish from the Pacific or pre-oiled polluted and toxic seafood from the Gulf

New Study Says FDA Underestimated Seafood Contamination Risk After BP Oil Spill

Finally getting down to the basics

New GOP Bill Would Allow Hospitals To Let Women Die Instead Of Having An Abortion

The party of family values and right to life supports letting the hussy die.

Returning to their roots....

Alabama brings back slavery for Latinos: Here's how: pass a draconian immigration law, lock up 'illegals' in private prisons, then get the new inmates to work in the fields

Economic injustice

I don't think spelling it out loud will help....

Meanwhile the elite economic royalists are panicking:

The way to understand all of this is to realize that it’s part of a broader syndrome, in which wealthy Americans who benefit hugely from a system rigged in their favor react with hysteria to anyone who points out just how rigged the system is.

Flotsam and jetsam

Dumb Alabama Immigration Law Working So Well Its Crops Are Rotting And this link explains why...

11 Facts You Need To Know About The Nation’s Biggest Banks

Facebook shows the student who will fail chemistry....

No loopholes for millionaires. Ronald Reagan wouldn't even get nominated let alone elected in this day and age....

The breathtaking quotes from Ron Paul.

Krugman about Occupy Wall Street protesters:

What can we say about the protests? First things first: The protesters’ indictment of Wall Street as a destructive force, economically and politically, is completely right.

Is the school motto: I Don't Recall?

Gonzales Hired To Teach At Unaccredited Belmont Law School in Tennessee

They want a message?

Here it is.

Update: Here is the transcript (via Bryan of Why Now?)

Tone deaf or just stupid?

The Chicago traders, confronted by the protesters’ “We are the 99 percent” message, crafted their own not-so-subtle reply, hanging signs in eighth-floor windows that said, “We are the 1%"

You guys, you do know that buildings can come down just as easily as they went up, right? Way to galvanize the pitchfork and torch mob.

And realize, you will have to walk down on the pavement with the 99 percent one of these days....

Those who preach God is love are often filled with hate

Amelia shares what happened when the blog post about her possibly gay son went viral:

These people would tell my innocent little boy (who currently wants to be a fireman-ninja when he grows up) he is the biggest threat the American family... because he wants to kiss boys and not girls.

The reality is they are pounding these words of ignorance and hate into the ears and minds of gay children every day. And those children are hearing them. I know because many of those kids are now writing to me. Kids as young as 14 have sent me messages. So many are scared children, who sure as hell did not choose this for themselves, living in fear of their family finding out because they know full well what their mom and dad will say. And they tell me they wish I was their mom.

I want to keep all this talk, all these lies, all this hate, away from these kids. Of course, there is an inherent problem with that. We can't pick out the gay kids simply by looking, and behavior isn't a clear indicator (some little straight girls are tomboys, and some little gay boys love their monster trucks). The only way we can truly know someone's orientation is if they tell us, which for some doesn't happen until well into adulthood.

Lift the rocks and get the bug spray

Koch brothers and their business practices.

A ray of hope

Phila of Bouphonia does the honors.

Occupy Wall Street

List of demands. Sounds good to me.