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Sooner or later, all economics boils down to food.

11/23/2015

How much will feed someone in a day becomes the root unit of measurement and exchange.
(Feudal Japan took this literally. A Masu is enough rice to feed a man for a day. A Koku is enough to feed a man for a year. Accountants and tax assessors did paperwork doing math in those units. Anyway...)
The $15/hr minimum wage argument cracks when looked at under the conditions of modern retail, but it really falls apart when it's looked at in agriculture. Bringing in a crop is a really hard, labor and skull sweat intensive, year-long gamble that you'll pull everything in at harvest to pay off everything that's been hanging over you all year. And mechanization can only do so much. Especially at harvest time, it relies on seasonal labor willing to work for peanuts. Otherwise, the gamble doesn't pay off and the farm is lost.
Add in globalization, where you're not just competing with the farm down the road but the one across the globe... it gets even moreso.
That's the big hurdle that needs to be jumped to actually fix the problem instead of just kicking the can down the road.

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Just for the record...

11/22/2015

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It's perfectly cool for the lady to wear a flag print hijab.
It would've been perfectly cool for a flag print bikini (though it's getting a bit cold for that in my latitude).
There's nothing wrong with the flag print on Ted Nugent's shirts. (Though his popping collars while not being Elvis is a bit of an issue).
Hell, pose nude with an actual flag, so long as you don't let it touch the ground.
(Some of my friends have. The pictures are awesome. I win at life.)
This has been your PSA of the day.

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"Why don't the world's moderate Muslims condemn this/say shit/fight back?"

11/16/2015

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To properly demonstrate this, you need to live in a shitty neighborhood. Not a lousy neighborhood, a SHITTY neighborhood. Ideally, a shitty neighborhood you've grown up in, your remaining parents and grandparents still live in, and most of those you see every day live in. If it helps wrap your head around it, substitute a shitty small town.
living in an area like that, you have an awareness of your surroundings outsiders have no clue about.
You know damn well exactly who's doing what. You know which house is a drug den. You know which house is a brothel. You know who are the ringleaders, who are the accomplices, and who are the customers.
And you don't speak one godsdamn word to the authorities about it.
IF you speak to the authorities at all, you talk to them in the open, with a handful of family or friends around you, who all know (and will repeat verbatim) exactly what you said to the cop.
Now, there's a couple of different reasons for this.
One is the fact that snitches get stitches. The cops are under no obligation to protect you even if they had the ability or inclination. And nobody wants the hassle of the local scumbags even thinking that they've been speaking to the authorities. So they keep their heads down and hope for the best. (And yes, they can and do keep their heads down and hope for the best while bombs go off on a daily basis. The Iraqis have been doing so for years. The Palestinians have been for DECADES. You can get used to damn near anything.)
The second is that blood is thicker than water. Yeah, the guy at the end of the street may be a scumbag. But he's also your cousin. Your nephew. Your ex. Your insert-convoluted-family-tie here. You've known him forever. The cop questioning you about him, on the other hand, is some asshole with a badge and a gun you don't know from Adam. What loyalty do you have to him?
And the third is that you couldn't stop or change anything if you wanted to. Even if your testimony could send someone to jail. Even if they didn't intimidate you into silence. Even if they didn't slit your throat before your court date. Even if you came home from court to be dismembered, along with your kid. Even if the recently convicted's colleagues didn't leave one of your severed tits in the front yard of each next door neighbor just to show what happens to people who speak up. Even if they were convicted. Someone else would fall right into their job before you ever got home. Assuming you ever made it there. You have no money, no options, no way out, and no reason to step up. So you keep your head down and go along.
But that's the case for people living in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, pick your current war zone. What about those living in civilization?
Look, no matter where you stand, there are people who agree with you who happen to be dicks.
Imagine being a Christian moderate who has to deal with a racist grandparent and soapbox sadie evangelist acquaintances, then has to go into the office every day and hear about the KKK or Westboro or those assholes with hit lists of abortion clinic workers.
Every. single. day.
Would you stand up and condemn? Every time? Knowing that the very first word out of every smug asshole's mouth is going to be asking how you justify sharing a belief with such horrible people?
Or do you just shake your head and try to do your job and live your life in some sort of peace bubble?
((Of course, now that I've typed this, some fuckstick is going to come roaring up screaming about how Westboro never killed anyone. That's why it's an analogy, sunshine. I don't have to get into a who's worse contest, just have parallel trends.))
Now, does this cover everyone? No. There are folks who rail against this shit every day of their lives. (Good luck finding them on a mainstream news channel, though. Those asshole vultures could give less of a shit so long as they get clicks. If it's bleeding, they're leading.)
Conversely, there are those who happily support (insert scumbag organization here). They're too lazy or comfortable to ever Jihad themselves, but they'll gladly talk smack all day, then run and cry "islamaphobia" whenever someone calls them out on their bullshit.
Long story short, people are complicated. Slapping on a label short enough to fit on a bumper sticker means you're missing something.

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NFL, DOD, why?...

11/11/2015

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So, it's Veteran's Day, and it's been a pretty cool one.
Then I run across something on my feed and it strikes me.
This is probably going to either piss you off or make you cry.
You've been warned.
For those of you who don't know, it was recently made public that a number of patriotic displays at games by various professional sports teams, covering effectively every major sport to include NASCAR, were actually government-funded events paid for by the DoD. None of these were listed as being paid for by the DoD, and to the average fan, probably looks like a patriotic gesture on behalf of that team or league.
There's been some hemming and hawing, and the NFL recently said they'd refund anything they considered inappropriate. And there's some yelling about, "how this happened?"
I think I know how.
Remember how I keep saying, "look back enough in history, and you'll find out why?"
Look up a modern American flag officer, from the invasion of Iraq to today. A lot of them are on Wikipedia. I'll wait.
If you looked, you probably notice their date of enlistment or commission was somewhere in the 1970's. Dunford, Casey, Petreus, McChrystal, Odierno, Mattis was in 1969, but you get the point.
Each and every last one of our flag officers were boots to the Vietnam generation. They were the ones who saw themselves, their instructors, and their seniors treated like dogshit by the American public. The "Thank you" : "Fuck you" ratio was way skewed on the nastier side.
No ticker tape parades.
Just angry hippies and a bus ticket home.
And every last one of them were there for it.
And they kept on going, through the fuckuppery of the 80's, Grenada, Panama, Desert Storm, all of that.
Then 9/11 happens. And they knew we were going to war (although nobody knew how big it was).
And each and every one of these officers knew one thing.
They could NOT rely on the support of the general public.
Oh, we pulled together on 9/11. But we were still pulling bodies out of the rubble when the arguments over "why" and "who" and "what should we do" ensued.
We could rely on our military families, of course. People who knew what blue and gold stars meant. And yeah, people who had friends or family who served.
But the general population? A "meh" was the best they could hope for.
And they knew how devastating that was.
They'd seen the walking ghosts their mentors had become when vanishing into civilian life.
They saw the rising homeless veteran population.
They knew we'd reached a place where 22 of us who ever wore a uniform take their lives every single fucking day.
This war was going to be big.
Support for those who fought and those who came back was going to be vital.
And they could NOT rely on the American public to do it.
Sounds crazy, but...
... football star Pat Tillman dies from friendly fire. The Army covers it up to make it look like he died from enemy action. Ass-covering to save careers of his superiors? Or an attempt to gain needed public sympathy?
... Grossman's bullshit Sheepdog theory turns from a dry, simple theory in his book into a godsdamn cottage industry that takes over a huge chunk of the moto Tshirt business. It's bullshit, but it's simple and it's seductive. It tells active duty operators fighting a godsdamned war that not only are they normal, good people, they're actually engaging in noble works. And it's a message they so desperately need to hear that they swallow it hook, line, and sinker in droves. Because nobody else is saying it.
... and now this "paid patriotism" bullshit.
Is it all ass-covering? All trying to avoid dealing with the usual weekend blotter bullshit?
Or is it a concentrated effort to prevent what happened to the Vietnam generation?
Yeah, we're not getting spit on today. But...
... every media depiction of us since 9/11 has been as bloodthirsty villians or PTSD-riddled victims. "Poor, poor pitiful victim of the big bad Bush" isn't as nasty as "babykiller," but it's still patronizing and insulting as fuck.
... The most critically acclaimed movie depicting the war? Centers around a batshit crazy EOD tech in a ludicrous plotline.
... Two films based on real-life accounts that depict actual fighters?
Both portray them sympathetically, both roasted over the coals by the industry press (Fascist Sniper? Go fuck yourself.)
Ironically, they're the only two movies based on the war that actually make any money.
Needed support.
Could NOT rely on the American public to give it.
And weren't going to leave their subordinates to the fate of their superiors.
So they put together anything they could from the P.R. equivalent of duct tape and bondo.
I don't know if that's what happened. But it makes sense.
It makes horrible, gut-wrenching sense.

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Daesh

11/5/2015

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I've been pondering how to look at Daesh since Msgt. Wheeler's death was announced two weeks ago. But I honestly don't know where to begin.
(The man had 11 combat deployments. 11. Mind-blowing.)
I could complain about the administration being weasels about terms like "boots on the ground." But
A) That's like complaining that the sky is blue.
B) The administration's not about to admit that they restarted this war and made it even more of a jug-fuck than it was,
C) Fuck transparency. Sometimes we do need knives in the dark as much as shining swords on the battlefield. And,
D) To give the man credit, he is right that having some SF running around the place is not the equivalent of deploying conventional forces.
Hell, make it questions in the next presidential debates.
"Which dickhead with an AK and a gang do you want to see ruling Iraq and by extension a fifth of the world's known oil?"
"Which dickhead with an AK and a gang do you want to see ruling Syria?"
"Are you willing to recognize Kurdistan? If so, are you willing to tell Turkey to pound sand when they start bitching? If so, are you willing to back that up with AA placements the next time Turkey sends bombers to Kurdistan?"
"How hard are you willing to fuck with Russia and/or Iran to achieve any of this?"

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The GOP triat

11/4/2015

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Ok, for some of you, this will be a "know thy enemy," for others, it's a bit of cold water.
The more all-encompassing a designation, the harder it is for a stereotype to stick.
So today, let's look at what exactly comprises "The GOP."
As opposed to the Democrats (which are more of a loose single-issues confederacy), the GOP is a triumvirate of three major factions: The religious right, Big old business, and Tea.
Big old business is the smallest and wealthiest. I also call it big old to distinguish it from major businesses in general. ((Most actual conglomerates hedge their bets by donating money to both parties, but older companies either have a public face that leans more to the right, or major executives who publicly do so. That's why we think of Oil or pharma as right-leaning with tech and media on the left. They're all playing both sides against the other.))
B.o.b. puts up with the Religious right (though they butt heads if their sales involve vices) mostly because they need the rank & file and the local level control and donations. But their boat gets rocked by Tea too much for them to really get along with them.
The religious right was the largest for a while, but has been outnumbered by Tea in recent years. They've got a lot of state-level and below workings, small donations and probably still the largest volunteer base. They're also ground zero for the social conservatism of the party in general.
((And yeah, it's usually both rural and some flavor of Christian. Remember an earlier post when I said go back far enough in history and you'll find out why things happen the way they do? A few generations ago, a huge percentage of the RR were farmers and related professions. That's a profession where you can do everything right, prepare as much as you possibly can, and die anyway. A drought, frost, or blight you have dick-all control over can and does kill you and everyone you know and love. That said, failing to do all you can and prepare as much as possible will kill you more easily. Rural communities lean towards conservatism because trying radical new ideas that haven't been proven is quite literally increasing the odds against you in a bet that you and your family won't starve. So yeah, they take a long time to embrace change of any sort. That's because doing so is the reason their grandparents survived to adulthood. So lighten the fuck up on them.))
Tea and B.o.b. both get along with the RR (B.o.b. for their manpower and resources, Tea for a lot of shared fiscal beliefs), but the RR's constant beating of the social conservatism drum irritates more than it brings agreement.
The last is Tea. It's the youngest and largest current faction, but it hasn't managed to turn that into a complete takeover. Most are aware that overreaching is a bad idea. ((Tea has its roots in the old Reform Party, which split the GOP vote enough for a Democrat presidential win in back-to-back elections back in the 90's)). Tea can be more or less described as a "get shit done" faction. They're not quite Objectivist as Rand thought of it. Belif in less government is not a belif in no government. They're usually more of the, "hey, building code enforcement is great. But that TSA is sucking up money and not accomplishing shit. Let's shut them down and take their stuff."
Unfortunately, they butt heads with RR over social conservatism a lot and the libertarian ideals of a lot of them cause smaller scale grumblings among B.o.b.
So yeah, keep in mind that A) they still manage to work together, but B) don't have enough of a united front for themselves, much less crossing the aisle, but C) until one of them overtakes the other two, it's likely to be that way for a while. Of course, D) the one most likely to overtake is Tea, which is also the easiest to reach across the aisle in any meaningful way.

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sigh

11/2/2015

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I've seen it pop up in three places, time to comment on it.
((This is the five-minute version. A truncated one has hit the press.))
I've been saying for years that what I'd like to give teachers in this country isn't better pay, a lack of common core, anything to do with worthless-ass NCLB, or any more union bullshit.
It's power.
Because we've taken it all away from our teachers, piece by bloody, lawsuit-ruined piece.
And this is the fucking result.
The only thing that woman can do is sit at her desk. Her career and life are at the mercy of the little motherfuckers supposedly in her care, and everyone in the building knows it.
Is anyone really surprised by now that they just sit back and call the cops?
(Not that that will be a viable option soon, at the rate things are going).
Teachers are terrified for their jobs.
Administrators terrified of lawsuits (but happy to add to their ranks, a whole 'nother problem).
Parents (when they exist) are either helicoptering their own darlings to the point that darling can't tell ass from hole in the ground well into their 20's, or don't care until something does kick in that they can file a lawsuit for.
And the handful of parents that do give a fuck are either clamoring for charters, private schools, or homeschooling rather than being anything resembling PTA active. And I have no way to blame them at all. Yeah, in a society trying to better itself, the community works to educate all of it's youth.
But when the ivory tower burns down around you, take your own kids and run. Fuck, I would in a heartbeat.
Only ones with any power now are the kids and the lawyers.
For what good it does them.
This video was taken in 2011.
I wonder how many of these kids are still alive?
Don't look for any insight or answers from me here, folks.
I'm just sitting here thanking Frigga that none of my friends in the teaching trenches have swallowed pistols in the face of all this bullshit.
We stay on this path, we won't need Zombies to have an apocalypse.
We'll just sit back and fuck ourselves.

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Sooner or later, all economics boils down to food.

Just for the record...

"Why don't the world's moderate Muslims condemn this/say shit/fight back?"

NFL, DOD, why?...

Daesh

The GOP triat

sigh

Jay Peterson

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Certa Bonum Certamen

Sooner or later, all economics boils down to food.

Just for the record...

"Why don't the world's moderate Muslims condemn this/say shit/fight back?"

NFL, DOD, why?...

Daesh

The GOP triat

*sigh*

﻿Jay Peterson﻿

Archives

Categories

Certa Bonum Certamen

sigh

Jay Peterson