A nation unhappy with much more than this dismal pairing: they are the symptoms of the failures of globalized, corporate-directed "liberal" democracy - Neoliberalism - and the lives it has upended.
Excellent Bill. My primary concern is that even with an abbreviated primary season and an open convention, there is not one Democratic prepared to take on the corporate elites and billionaires whose preferred policies have led us to this pass. Looking forward to a spirited discussion at noon on Halitics. www.youtube.com/@halitics
No argument on that point Hal and we can talk about it in greater detail in an hour. As a two time Sanders supporter, I've put my "over the horizon" hopes for our nation on hold in the urgent task of stopping impending Fascism, the word no longer being controversial after last week's SC decisions, Project 25 comments and the growing Trump retribution list. Of course, our politics has always made room for conscience votes - and the historical list of them - well most of the names remain very honorable to this day.
Even if the Dems manage to pull this one out, and it's increasingly looking like a long-shot, the core issue you raised remains, as it does in a good part of the West, especially the affuent European Union.
Bill - on the Trump immunity Supreme Court decision. I read it and was shocked. Sotomayor dissent lays it all out, including the fact that because the Court prohibited consideration of motive and intent, it is IMPOSSIBLE to convict the President, because intent is a required element of a crime.
I heard Cornell professor Robert Hockett analyze that decision. He made a recommendation that I initially thought he was joking, but the more I thought about it, I realized that it is actually a brilliant idea. He proposed that there's no reason not to take the gloves off. Because he is immune, he said that Biden direct the AG to conduct an extraordinary rendition raid on Miralago and round up the Trump coup conspirators, charge then with conspiracy and seditious treason and insurrection, and rendition them to Guantanamo for trial under military tribunal. Listen!
Well, Biden doesn't have the nerve to do that, although the decision almost begs for it, but I think the veil of immunity, or is it iron shield around Trump's former presidential actions means his co-conspirators were acting under it as well...
Bill that decision, coupled with deep religious-state overtones of the 2025 work of the Heritage Foundation are the end of our democracy as we have known it, without question. Which is why we need a candidate who will at least go down fighting, and not freeze in the "headlights" of the Trumpian Right.
I'll give it another read Bill; I thought he was critical of what happened behind the scenes to shape the electricity grid elements of the IRA...corporations via Joe Manchin's tactics and hardball negotiating got the stronger direction whittled down to subsidies they probably didn't need at their choosing time...
The Galbraith essay on industrial policy was superb, but deeply depressing ("the priority of narrative over results").
I'd only disagree on aspects of his analysis of renewable energy. He assumes the current framework of large scale centralized production and private ownership. Small scale distributed energy and public ownership eliminates the flaws he notes. And Jevons (wonderful to hear anyone even mention him, and I make the same argument all the time) can be overcome by a ban on fossil extraction (supply side solution: "keep it in the ground").
One key omission: Galbraith fails to note that the dollar as the world's reserve currency is about to collapse, given the rise of China/Russia, SCO, and BRICS - and their development of alternative currencies. That was greatly accelerated by Biden's foolish proxy war in Ukraine.
It's going to take more time to finish than I anticipated!
Bill - so much to digest here, but again, I want to jump in before finish:
On the "solidarity" issue, I heard a new (to me) take on that from a theater group called the Appalachian Roadside Theater. I missed the beginning of the radio show "Law and Disorder" at KPFA yesterday, but they've written a book that traces the history of what they called "populist art" (something I thought was social realism). Anyway, one of the writers highlighted the fact that there was an intentional right wing campaign against art, particularly theater, due to the solidarity it encouraged. It was driven by denial of federal funding and control by a cultural elite. I did not know this, but it was said that the theater program of the New Deal Federal Art Project was attacked and defunded by a Committee that then became the House UnAmerican Committee (and we know how that turned out). So culture and solidarity are elements of our politics rarely examined in the current "public square" - here's a link if you want to listen to that show:
yes Bill there were Right wing attacks already for the cultural side of New Deal programs, including attacks on the famous state tour guides the WPA produced. I don't remember whether NJ's was put in the hearing docket, but it usually turned around the state history, sites selected or ignored and what was written about them...just like the high school classrooms in Florida and beyond today!
I bought and am now reading the New York State guide of the federal writers project. Thus far, more descriptive than cultural or political. It was published by the NY Department of Conservation!
Bill - still reading, but before I finish I want to suggest two ideas that jumped into my head in reading Blom's excerpts:
1) With respect to winners and losers, back in the day, the "liberal" political economy I learned included the idea of "Pareto optimality" - where the winners compensated the losers so that everyone was better off (Is that a form of "reparations" in our current identity culture wars?) How naive is that?
2) On the "winning makes one stupid": Its not stupidity at work. John Meirsheimer has emphasized the arrogant US triumphalism upon the collapse of the Soviet Union (and the US Neoliberal disaster capitalism team designed the corrupt oligarch economy as a tool of destroying Russia and breaking it into constituent parts, which is something one of my favorite economists Jeff Sachs refuses to fully own up to). That same "American exceptionalism" - with the US as unipolar global hegemony - is what is behind the current Ukrainian conflict, not Putin aggression or territorial desires (with which we strongly disagree).
Domestically, that same arrogance of coastal elites is behind the resentment and alienation driving the Trumpers, which is only made worse by deindustrialization and collapse of rural communities (with corporate agriculture putting the nail in the coffin of rural family farm life - now known as "death of despair").
I'll get back to reading now, but I wanted to get this out before I forgot it!
too much to tackle here right now Bill; I've still got some editing touches to install on the links and dealing with Comcast's Email system is a trip...
Excellent Bill. My primary concern is that even with an abbreviated primary season and an open convention, there is not one Democratic prepared to take on the corporate elites and billionaires whose preferred policies have led us to this pass. Looking forward to a spirited discussion at noon on Halitics. www.youtube.com/@halitics
No argument on that point Hal and we can talk about it in greater detail in an hour. As a two time Sanders supporter, I've put my "over the horizon" hopes for our nation on hold in the urgent task of stopping impending Fascism, the word no longer being controversial after last week's SC decisions, Project 25 comments and the growing Trump retribution list. Of course, our politics has always made room for conscience votes - and the historical list of them - well most of the names remain very honorable to this day.
Even if the Dems manage to pull this one out, and it's increasingly looking like a long-shot, the core issue you raised remains, as it does in a good part of the West, especially the affuent European Union.
Bill - on the Trump immunity Supreme Court decision. I read it and was shocked. Sotomayor dissent lays it all out, including the fact that because the Court prohibited consideration of motive and intent, it is IMPOSSIBLE to convict the President, because intent is a required element of a crime.
I heard Cornell professor Robert Hockett analyze that decision. He made a recommendation that I initially thought he was joking, but the more I thought about it, I realized that it is actually a brilliant idea. He proposed that there's no reason not to take the gloves off. Because he is immune, he said that Biden direct the AG to conduct an extraordinary rendition raid on Miralago and round up the Trump coup conspirators, charge then with conspiracy and seditious treason and insurrection, and rendition them to Guantanamo for trial under military tribunal. Listen!
https://soundcloud.com/user-830442635
Well, Biden doesn't have the nerve to do that, although the decision almost begs for it, but I think the veil of immunity, or is it iron shield around Trump's former presidential actions means his co-conspirators were acting under it as well...
Bill that decision, coupled with deep religious-state overtones of the 2025 work of the Heritage Foundation are the end of our democracy as we have known it, without question. Which is why we need a candidate who will at least go down fighting, and not freeze in the "headlights" of the Trumpian Right.
One more comment on Galbraith's essay: I think he dismisses and underestimates the politics of electricity.
Similarly, he ignores rural electrification and the TVA as examples of Huge successes in industrial policy.
He also could have noted New Deal rural agricultural (soils, forests, public lands) programs.
I'll give it another read Bill; I thought he was critical of what happened behind the scenes to shape the electricity grid elements of the IRA...corporations via Joe Manchin's tactics and hardball negotiating got the stronger direction whittled down to subsidies they probably didn't need at their choosing time...
No, he dismisses electricity as basically background noise in terms of politics
The Galbraith essay on industrial policy was superb, but deeply depressing ("the priority of narrative over results").
I'd only disagree on aspects of his analysis of renewable energy. He assumes the current framework of large scale centralized production and private ownership. Small scale distributed energy and public ownership eliminates the flaws he notes. And Jevons (wonderful to hear anyone even mention him, and I make the same argument all the time) can be overcome by a ban on fossil extraction (supply side solution: "keep it in the ground").
One key omission: Galbraith fails to note that the dollar as the world's reserve currency is about to collapse, given the rise of China/Russia, SCO, and BRICS - and their development of alternative currencies. That was greatly accelerated by Biden's foolish proxy war in Ukraine.
It's going to take more time to finish than I anticipated!
Bill - so much to digest here, but again, I want to jump in before finish:
On the "solidarity" issue, I heard a new (to me) take on that from a theater group called the Appalachian Roadside Theater. I missed the beginning of the radio show "Law and Disorder" at KPFA yesterday, but they've written a book that traces the history of what they called "populist art" (something I thought was social realism). Anyway, one of the writers highlighted the fact that there was an intentional right wing campaign against art, particularly theater, due to the solidarity it encouraged. It was driven by denial of federal funding and control by a cultural elite. I did not know this, but it was said that the theater program of the New Deal Federal Art Project was attacked and defunded by a Committee that then became the House UnAmerican Committee (and we know how that turned out). So culture and solidarity are elements of our politics rarely examined in the current "public square" - here's a link if you want to listen to that show:
https://kpfa.org/program/law-and-disorder/
yes Bill there were Right wing attacks already for the cultural side of New Deal programs, including attacks on the famous state tour guides the WPA produced. I don't remember whether NJ's was put in the hearing docket, but it usually turned around the state history, sites selected or ignored and what was written about them...just like the high school classrooms in Florida and beyond today!
I bought and am now reading the New York State guide of the federal writers project. Thus far, more descriptive than cultural or political. It was published by the NY Department of Conservation!
Bill - still reading, but before I finish I want to suggest two ideas that jumped into my head in reading Blom's excerpts:
1) With respect to winners and losers, back in the day, the "liberal" political economy I learned included the idea of "Pareto optimality" - where the winners compensated the losers so that everyone was better off (Is that a form of "reparations" in our current identity culture wars?) How naive is that?
2) On the "winning makes one stupid": Its not stupidity at work. John Meirsheimer has emphasized the arrogant US triumphalism upon the collapse of the Soviet Union (and the US Neoliberal disaster capitalism team designed the corrupt oligarch economy as a tool of destroying Russia and breaking it into constituent parts, which is something one of my favorite economists Jeff Sachs refuses to fully own up to). That same "American exceptionalism" - with the US as unipolar global hegemony - is what is behind the current Ukrainian conflict, not Putin aggression or territorial desires (with which we strongly disagree).
Domestically, that same arrogance of coastal elites is behind the resentment and alienation driving the Trumpers, which is only made worse by deindustrialization and collapse of rural communities (with corporate agriculture putting the nail in the coffin of rural family farm life - now known as "death of despair").
I'll get back to reading now, but I wanted to get this out before I forgot it!
too much to tackle here right now Bill; I've still got some editing touches to install on the links and dealing with Comcast's Email system is a trip...