* This is an archive of my own online blog and notes, with weekly entries collected by month.
* THE WEEK THAT WAS: On the morning of 23 March, the EVER GIVEN -- a 400-meter (1,300-foot) long container ship -- was en route north through the Suez Canal, when high winds forced it to yaw and wedge itself in the canal. It took six days of digging, dredging, pushing, and an unusually high tide to get it on the move again, By that time, hundreds of vessels were backlogged, waiting to get through, with hundreds of millions of dollars of losses. There were a lot of corny jokes about it on Twitter, as well as an odd sense of comfort: given how mad things are these days in the USA, it's nice to have a problem that can be fixed and put to bed.
In less troublesome news, in March one Captain Haida StarEagle -- a member of the Matinecocks, an Algonquin tribe on Long Island -- transferred from the US Air Force to the US Space Force, to become a Space Force intelligence officer. It was played up in press releases as a diversity thing, and it certainly had its amusement value: Captain StarEagle of Space Force? That has class, much better than Buzz Lightyear!
* The Biden Administration made a big splash this last week by announcing a US infrastructure revitalization plan, with a pricetag of more $2.25 trillion USD. It was not really a surprise, since Biden had promised it during his presidential campaign -- but as discussed in an editorial by Stephen Collinson on CNN.com ("Infrastructure Was A Trump Punchline But Is A Window Into Biden's Soul" 31 March 2021), it was still a bold move that established a firm direction for the Biden agenda.
Biden, in sum, wants to revitalize the American economic system. Since the presidency of Ronald Reagan, there's been a drift towards concentration of economic power in the hands of the ultra-wealthy, while the lower and middle class have fallen behind:
QUOTE:
Biden's vision now is not just for new highways, broadband and ports. He sees revived labor unions, equally shared GDP growth, easier access to health care, equal pay for women, clean energy, and better child care for workers. "My economic plan is all about jobs, dignity, respect, and community. Together, we can, and we will, rebuild our economy," Biden said in his Democratic National Convention speech in August, which explained his core philosophy.
END_QUOTE
The plan has two components:
Biden launched the effort with a speech in Pittsburgh, a blue-collar city that is undergoing the kind of revitalization the plan is to promote -- Pittsburgh being a hub of modern industries, medical tech firms, excellent education institutions, and innovation. Besides, Biden is from Scranton originally, and Pittsburgh is close to home.
Republicans have already denounced the plan, since it means the doom of the Trump tax cut that was near and dear to the hearts of the GOP. The Democrats will need to maintain a united front in the face of resistance -- and also figure out some way of neutralizing the filibuster, so they can pass the bill on a 51:50 vote. Actually, it seems likely they already have figured out what they're going to do about the filibuster; they're just waiting for the Republicans to force the issue with their obstructionism before taking that action.
Of course, the Biden Administration and Congressional Democrats have other issues on the plate: gun control, climate change, and a voting rights act to deal with Republican ballot suppression. The infrastructure bill, however, gets priority, because it's clearly about helping the American people. Passing a new voting rights act, however much it's needed, can't make a statement like that.
Biden is greatly helped by the contrast of his administration with that of Donald Trump, which was incompetent and focused primarily on indiscriminately picking fights. Trump liked to occasionally play up an infrastructure plan, but he never really had one; indeed, he never had any plans worthy of the label, he had no capability to make them. From the time of Reagan, the Republicans have proclaimed the end of the "era of big government", and tried to put that slogan into practice. The chaos created by the Trump Administration has discredited that ideology, giving Biden an opportunity to supercharge government intervention.
Like so much of what the Biden Administration is doing, it's just good sense and no surprise. What is surprising is that Biden has appropriated Trump's assertive populist-nationalist tone to push the new agenda. Trump liked to pretend he was for helping ordinary people, but he only cared about his personal interests. Biden, in contrast, honestly cares about working people, putting them first and foremost in his considerations. He wants to fix problems holding back working and middle class Americans, and he's broadcasting that on all channels.
Along the same lines, although Biden has completely reversed Trump's deranged foreign policy -- with the Biden Administration reaching out to allies and taking a sharp line against tyrants, exactly the opposite of the Trump Administration -- Biden has also made it clear that foreign policy is a second priority to domestic policy, which he sees as all about ordinary American people. Nicholas Dungan, a nonresident senior fellow at The Atlantic Council, says: "Biden isn't doing AMERICA FIRST, but his policy is AMERICANS FIRST. That makes total sense. It's why he was elected."
* As discussed in an editorial from ECONOMIST.com ("Fiscal Wrecktitude", 29 March 2021), Joe Biden's big plans envision running up big deficits. Unlike his Democratic predecessors in the White House, he doesn't seem to be very worried about them:
QUOTE:
Today, as spending has spiked and the economy has faltered, the debt stands above $27 trillion USD, or around 130% of GDP. The Federal deficit tripled last year to more than $3 trillion USD. America is once again [after the stimulus efforts of the Obama Administration] trying to kick-start its economy, this time with a fiscal jolt of $1.9 trillion USD, far more than Presidents Clinton or Obama dared. And yet when Joe Biden held his first press conference as president on March 25th, he felt no need to mention deficits at all. After some 38 minutes, unbidden, he brought up the cost of his stimulus plan, but only to mock Republican officials' newfound concerns about it as hypocritical, given their support for Donald Trump's tax cuts: "I love the fact that they found this whole idea of concern about the Federal budget. It's kind of amazing."
END_QUOTE
There is little fretting over deficits among Democrats, who believe that they are much less of a threat than challenges such as broken infrastructure and climate change. Polls suggest the public isn't much worried, either. In a recent Gallup survey, only 3% of those polled thought public debt was America's biggest problem.
Low interest rates are keeping down the cost of servicing the public debt, and Biden is seeking to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy. Biden is extremely cautious about raising taxes, however, since the Republicans have thoroughly weaponized them against the Democrats; getting too enthusiastic about raising taxes would simply pave the way for another Ronald Reagan. However, all prospects are of an economic boom after America puts COVID-19 behind it, with Biden's infrastructure plan likely to give it a substantial boost -- and that's certain to help with deficits.
Biden was once a deficit hawk, as were Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Clinton proved adept at dealing with the deficit, but the Republicans took back the White House after he left. Obama managed to make headway against the deficits he had to rack up with stimulus to deal with the 2007:2008 financial crisis, but once again the Republicans took back the White House after he left. After they did, their concern for deficits evaporated, with the GOP cheerfully rubber-stamping a Trump tax cut that was focused on enriching the wealthy, with Trump peddling the dusty old "supply-side" argument to claim the tax cuts would pay for themselves with economic growth. Deficits skyrocketed.
That was the end of concern over deficits among Democratic legislators, who concluded that deficits were just another bludgeon the Republicans used to beat the Democrats over the head -- and no matter what the Democrats did, all the GOP would do was keeping beating them over the head. It was a sucker game. Under Trump, the Republicans lost whatever reservations they had about hypocrisy, embracing it enthusiastically, indifferent to credibility. Rahm Emanuel, who served as a policy adviser to Clinton and chief of staff to Obama, calls the Republicans "seasonal deficit hawks. They come around every fall when a Democrat wins."
To be sure, deficits are a problem that will have to be addressed, but they're not the most important of America's problems. Joe Biden does want to raise taxes to pay for Federal outlays -- but again, he has to be very careful about how he does it. Some problems will just have to wait for events to present opportunities.
* A week ago, there was a wedding at Trump's "billionaire's boys club" at Mar-a-Lago in Florida; Trump showed up at the reception and addressed the crowd, saying little about the newlyweds, and a great deal about how he was being mistreated by the world. Okay, Trump's mistreatment has hardly begun yet -- it will start in earnest when the indictments start coming down -- but, on a suggestion that there was something bizarre and Lovecraftian in Trump's behavior, Rick Wilson of The Lincoln Project picked up the challenge:
QUOTE:
What eldritch horror had emerged from the ebon depths of the Intracoastal? What chthonic force had expelled from the very depths of hell this shambling creature, gibbering in the tongues of a dead races of madmen? Gripped by the unspeakable horror, the wedding party never recovered.
END_QUOTE
I was never a fan of HP Lovecraft, but I still sense that Wilson hit it out of the ballpark. Incidentally, Trump was and is doing a lot of website fundraising -- with reports now emerging that the donation web pages are heavily wired with fine print and misleading controls, with suckers thinking they were donating hundreds of dollars, but donating thousands instead. Once a scammer, always a scammer.
* As discussed in an article from SCIENCEMAG.org ("Dark Lunar Eclipse Points To Medieval Volcanic Eruptions" by Katherine Kornei, 4 May 2020), there was an eclipse of the Moon on the night of 5 May 1110 CE. While the Moon usually appears reddish in a lunar eclipse from light bent around the Earth by the atmosphere, in this case it was completely dark -- an Old English description saying it "was so completely extinguished withal, that neither light, nor orb, nor anything at all of it was seen."
Now, by combining this report with an analysis of tree-ring records and ice cores, scientists have figured out the cause of the dark Moon: a set of volcanic eruptions in the early 12th century that blocked the light. The eruptions had widespread climatic effects, including making temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere drop by about one degree Celsius.
After a volcanic eruption, ash and sulfate aerosols eventually rain back down to Earth. Some of this fallout lands on snow, which is compacted over time into ice. As a result, according to Sebastien Guille -- a paleoclimatologist at the University of Geneva -- ice cores are "one of the best archives available" for tracing past eruptions.
Guillet and his team examined records of three ice cores: two from Greenland and one from Antarctica. Cores from both places revealed sulfate spikes, one in the Antarctic core in 1109 CE, and several in the Greenland ice cores from 1108:1113 CE. Some researchers believe the spikes are consistent with the eruption of one big volcano in the tropics around 1108 CE, which would have generated aerosols that rain down around the Earth for several years.
However, accurately dating ice cores is not straightforward, and so the researchers colleagues turned to other records to nail down the eruption dates. They started with tree ring records from North America, Europe, and Asia. Since trees grow thinner rings in colder weather, the researchers were able to reconstruct past temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere. They found that 1109 CE was about one degree Celsius cooler than normal -- consistent with the global cooling typically associated with big volcanic eruptions.
Next, they went through 17 European and Near Eastern manuscripts that referenced lunar eclipses that occurred between 1100 and 1120 CE. Guillet and his collaborators found references that one lunar eclipse, on 5 May 1110 CE, was unusually dark. That's consistent with at least one eruption occurring around 1108 CE, concurring with the ice core records.
The researchers identified a suspect: Japan's Mount Asama, which records suggest erupted in 1108 CE. However, Guillet says sulfates could have reached Greenland but probably not Antarctica: "Atmospheric circulation makes it very difficult for eruptions located at high latitudes to cross the tropics." There must have been at least one other eruption at the same time, but it's not clear where it was.
Michael Sigl -- a chemist at the University of Bern in Switzerland who focuses on volcanic eruptions -- says that tiny bits of volcanic ash, or volcanic glass, in ice cores could help pin down the source of the eruption. He says the ash will have unique geochemical fingerprints, that can be "linked to the source volcano."
BACK_TO_TOP* CNN's Chris Cillizza seems impressed by the performance of Joe Biden in the White House. An essay Cillizza published on 9 April 2021 ("The Sneaky Radicalism of Joe Biden's First Few Months In Office"), even suggested there was something sly in Biden's approach.
Biden, after all, campaigned on a theme of bipartisanship, of bringing America back together. That worried Left-tilted Democrats, who thought he would be little more than a Republican under the skin. They were wrong:
QUOTE:
The first 79 days of Biden's presidency have been defined by a series of executive orders, laws, legislative maneuvers and policy proposals that suggest that the 46th president is willing to go bigger, bolder and, yes, more liberal, than many observers -- of both parties -- thought he would.
END_QUOTE
As evidence:
Add to that Biden's suspension of the Keystone XL pipeline, his decisions to rejoin the World Health Organization and the Paris climate accord, and his latest move -- setting up a commission aimed at considering structural changes to the composition of the Supreme Court. Incidentally, Biden is not in favor of adding justices, or "court-packing" -- apparently being inclined to an 18-year SCOTUS term limit. Obviously, he doesn't see it as an issue that needs to be addressed right away.
Incidentally, there is a great irony in seeing Biden's actions as all that radical; they're just prudent. It's just that the Republicans have shifted so far to the Right that prudence has become Left radicalism, with the Woke Left bristling at the notion Biden is at all like them. Actually, there was never that much difference between Democratic Moderates and the Woke Left, the disagreements being mostly on tactical issues.
Anyway, so how did a stereotypical middle-roader like Biden end up swinging towards the Left? Cillizza believes there were two reasons:
Ezra Klein of THE NEW YORK TIMES listed cases of GOP obstructionism, with one standing out:
QUOTE:
... it's impossible to overstate the damage that [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell's stonewalling of Merrick Garland [in his nomination to the Supreme Court], followed by his swift action to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, did to the belief among Senate Democrats that McConnell was in any way, in any context, a good-faith actor. They gave up on him completely.
The result is that Obama, Biden, the key political strategists who advise Biden and almost the entire Democratic congressional caucus simply stopped believing Republicans would ever vote for major Democratic bills.
END_QUOTE
As mentioned here on 22 March, to Biden "bipartisanship" means taking actions to benefit all Americans, as opposed to the Trump doctrine of simply punishing the other side. Of course, pleasing everyone is impossible, but all Biden has to do is please a comfortable majority of the citizens -- which he appears to be doing. This is defuzing the new civil war supposedly raging in America from the bottom up. If the Republicans don't want to get with the program, they're headed for the trashcan of history.
* As discussed in an article from REUTERS.com ("Yellen Tells World's Big Economies: Spend Big, Danger Lurks" by Andrea Shalal & David Lawder, 8 April 2021) Janet Yellen, Biden's Treasury secretary, has been beating the drum for funding to keep the global economy going.
In a statement to the steering committees of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, Yellen suggested that wealthy countries need to continue supporting developing countries as they confront the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and high debt burdens. She urged the World Bank to help all countries get COVID-19 vaccines, and backed talks to replenish the World Bank's International Development Association fund for the poorest countries, which the bank hopes to tie up by the end of 2021.
Yellen said that the USA had pledged $4 billion USD to the COVAX global vaccine distribution initiative, and urged other countries to help out. So far, the US has only provided vaccines to Mexico and Canada, but she says other countries may well get help in the future. "The United States will continue to work with partners to increase vaccine supplies, explore sharing excess vaccines, and make sure financing does not become an obstacle for global vaccination." She concluded:
QUOTE:
The [COVID-19] crisis has exacerbated the trend of rising income inequality, raising concerns about a divergent path within and across countries. We also face the existential threat of climate change. We can only resolve these problems through strong international cooperation. The job is not yet done, given high uncertainty and the risk of permanent scarring. I urge major economies to not just avoid removing support too early, but to strive to provide significant amounts of new fiscal support to secure a robust recovery.
END_QUOTE
An article from REUTERS.com the next day ("Biden Budget Would Beef Up IRS Tax Enforcement -- Yellen" by David Lawder, 9 April 2021) reported on Yellen's moves to bolster the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The Republicans have underfunded the IRS, with the consequence that substantial tax revenues have leaked away. The Biden Administration wants to stop the bleeding. [ED: One wonders if Right-wing talking heads, like those of Fox News, are going to be given particular scrutiny. They have a lot of money, along with an outspoken contempt for rules and obligations.]
According to Yellen, the administration's budget request envisions that the IRS budget will increase by $1.2 billion USD, or 10.4%, in 2022. The $13.2 billion USD overall IRS budget would include an additional $900 million USD for tax enforcement. At present, the IRS has 15,000 fewer revenue agents than it had in 2010, forcing it to reduce the number of audits it conducts. Rebuilding the agent force is expected to bring in much more tax revenue than the IRS spends on the exercise.
In addition, Yellen is pushing for international tax standardization, saying in a recent speech:
QUOTE:
We're working with G20 nations to agree to a global minimum corporate tax rate that can stop the race to the bottom. Together, we can use global minimum tax to make sure that the global economy thrives, based on a more level playing field in the taxation of multinational corporations and spurs innovation, growth, and prosperity. ... It's about making sure that governments have stable tax systems that raise sufficient revenue to invest in essential public goods and respond to crises, and that all citizens fairly share the burden of financing government.
END_QUOTE
* According to a Reuters-Ipsos poll conducted at the end of March, about half of Republicans believe the 6 January 2021 attack on the Capitol Building was largely a non-violent protest, or was the work of Leftist activists "trying to make Trump look bad." 60% of Republicans also believe Trump's bogus assertion that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him through massive voter fraud, and want him to run for re-election in 2024.
Prominent Republicans have, for the most part, tried to pretend nothing is wrong. John Geer, an expert on public opinion at Vanderbilt University, says: "Republicans have their own version of reality. It is a huge problem. Democracy requires accountability, and accountability requires evidence."
In a recent Reuters-Ipsos poll, only about three in 10 independents said they have a favorable view of Trump, among the lowest level recorded since his presidency. Most Americans -- about 60% -- also believe Biden honestly won the November election. There is something "not for real" about the lingering Trump frenzy. Joe Walsh, a prominent anti-Trump conservative, commented on Twitter:
QUOTE:
I come from the world of Trump supporters. I still engage with thousands of these folks every day. It's clear to me that all they want is "leaders" who will fight. They don't care what they're fighting for. They don't care how illegally they fight. They just want them to fight.
END_QUOTE
It is hard to see that this is sustainable. I was talking to a neighbor about another neighbor, who likes to fly Trump flags and such: "I was thinking about Peter [not his real name] -- he's kinda dippy, but he's harmless. He wouldn't hurt a fly." There's a discrepancy between the rabid rhetoric and an inclination to action.
The big question is: what happens when the Department of Justice indicts Trump? Although many people are in denial over the prospect, it's very hard to believe it won't happen. I don't know what's going to happen, but it's going to be nasty.
* In somewhat related news, I ran across a comment about "Birds Aren't Real". What? I looked it up, and it turns out to be a fake conspiracy theory, the prime mover being 20-year-old Peter McIndoe. There's an elaborate back story, enough to say that it seems that the US government exterminated all birds, and replaced them with robot birds to spy on Americans.
McIndoe claims he is "completely serious" about the birds conspiracy, but it's with a nudge and a wink. He and others in the movement are making money selling t-shirts and stickers proclaiming: BIRDS AREN'T REAL. It's been going viral as of late, and presumably they're making some money off of it.
* It was 27 degrees Celsius (80 degrees Fahrenheit) here in Loveland, Colorado, on Easter Sunday -- a record high temperature. That is ominous, suggesting another hot dry summer in the US West, with fires out of control. The Colorado state government, and other state governments in the region, are mobilizing to deal with the threat. I suspect there may be a push to get people who live in the woods to clear out fire buffer zones around their houses and other structures, and add fireproofing.
It went cool again, which was encouraging. As for the big snow we had a few weeks back, it was hard on the ash trees, many broken limbs -- but only the ash trees as far as I can see. Since they hadn't leafed out, they shouldn't have broken so easily. I think the emerald ash borer beetles are here in force, and all the ashes are dying now. We'll see. In any case, I'm glad I cut down the two ashes in my back yard, and replaced them with catalpas. They're not full-size yet, but coming along. They leaf out late, followed by impressive blossoms.
As a very petty issue, I long wondered why, when I went up my roof, I would find small rocks up there. Where did they come from? I just found out that crows will pick up rocks and use them as bombs. It appears that they will bombard the cars of people they don't like with rocks, and I imagine they nail cats that way every now and then. Crows are very smart birds. Then again, they're probably robots.
* Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University in New York City -- a prominent environmental advocate -- published an essay on CNN.com on 23 April 2021 titled "Biden's Remarkable Success On Climate" that both described Biden's climate agenda, and indicated Sachs' enthusiasm for it. Reflecting on a virtual climate summit arranged by Biden that took place on 22 and 23 April, Sachs commented:
QUOTE:
By every standard, President Joe Biden's climate change summit was a remarkable success. With great diplomatic dexterity, Biden and climate envoy John Kerry assembled world leaders representing 82% of world carbon emissions, 73% of the world population, and 86% of world economic output to commit to bold climate action.
Biden deftly used the occasion to set the US economy on the path of bold decarbonization by 2030. And all of this was accomplished by videoconference, a daily act for schoolchildren and office workers, yet a much-needed breakthrough for a gathering of world leaders.
END_QUOTE
The climate crisis has been becoming ever more apparent, with attempts to downplay it becoming ever less credible. The technology to deal with climate change appears to available, with advances in renewable energy, electric vehicles, and a wide range of other innovations. Biden's leadership has been catalytic, allowing national leaders to compete in establishing environmental goals. Yes, we've had big talk about dealing with climate change before, and have amounted to nothing -- but now the threat is more obvious, while the promise of an emerging Green economy offers opportunities. There is an emerging shift of jobs to Green technologies, with the prospect of the change feeding back on itself, resulting in rapid progress. Either nations address the challenge, or fall behind.
All governments are to make long-term pledges on decarbonization at a global summit in Glasgow, Scotland, in November 2021. Biden's teleconference with 40 leaders was to pave the way towards the conference, which will include all 193 member states of the United Nations. Biden challenged the world to come up with plans to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
Rightist propaganda continues to mock attempts to get control of climate change as unneeded, expensive, and useless, but they are not. There are six paths towards achieving net-zero:
The US pledge to cut emissions by half by 2030 is based particularly on the first step: to shift decisively to zero-carbon electricity in this decade, thanks to the rapidly declining price of renewables. Biden's infrastructure plans also invest in other steps -- for example, supporting the transition to electric vehicles through investments in charging stations, as well as research & development for advances in battery technology. There's a long way to go, but it's a promising start.
BACK_TO_TOP* THE WEEK THAT WAS 15: As discussed in Stephen Collinson and Maeve Reston in CNN.com ("Biden Starts To Execute On Policies Trump Abandoned By Crossing Off Another Campaign Promise", 15 April 2021), this last week President Joe Biden committed to withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan by 11 September 2021, after two decades of conflict there.
Biden's decision was blasted by prominent military figures and hawkish Republicans. However, Biden had campaigned on ending America's "Forever Wars", writing before the election: "Staying entrenched in unwinnable conflicts drains our capacity to lead on other issues that require our attention, and it prevents us from rebuilding the other instruments of American power."
He was following public sentiment: a 2019 Pew survey found that 59% of American adults said the war in Afghanistan was not worth fighting, and a staggering 58% of US veterans said the same. On the announcement of the decision, Biden said: "We went to Afghanistan because of a horrific attack that happened 20 years ago. That cannot explain why we should remain there in 2021."
The prospect of a Taliban victory in Afghanistan looms unpleasantly large, It appears that, though the US is pulling out uniformed forces, Americans will remain in Afghanistan in a more covert role, with the US doing what it can to back up Afghan forces. American ground forces hadn't been seeing much combat in Afghanistan as of late anyway, being there in a supporting role. It might turn out well, it might not. It is a huge gamble for Biden -- though criticism of the decision by the Right is hobbled, because Trump planned to pull out of Afghanistan, too. Once again, Biden has been sounding many of the same notes as Trump did, while demonstrating that he can follow through on the rhetoric far better and more sensibly than Trump did.
On the particular plus side, Biden made the decision against the protests of many of his advisors, demonstrating that he really is in charge. It was announced that Biden had spoken to Obama and George Bush about the decision; Obama publicly endorsed it, Bush did not. Biden, to no surprise, did not talk to Trump about it -- Trump having nothing to say worth listening to.
* Joe Biden's infrastructure plan involves raising the corporate maximum tax rate. Although a 28% tax rate is, by historical standards, on the low side, the Republicans of course oppose it; they don't want to see their "Trump tax cut for the rich" go up in smoke. It appears that the GOP are saying across the aisle in Congress that they regard any attempt by the Democrats to raise taxes as a "red line" that will not be crossed. They are, in effect, demanding unconditional surrender. Good luck with that.
CNN ran an editorial by two pundits, Erica York and Garrett Watson, the title saying that the tax hike would undermine American competitiveness in the global economy. OK, that's nonsense on the face of it; the Obama Administration had higher taxes and -- in Obama's second term, when the economy was building up momentum following the 2007:2008 financial crisis -- corporations were raking in profits.
I did some googling around on York and Watson, to find out they were with The Tax Foundation. The name itself made me suspicious; I looked up The Tax Foundation on RationalWiki -- which reports in its snarky style, with some detuning here:
QUOTE:
The Tax Foundation is a non-partisan wingnut think tank which publishes slanted economic papers about politically charged issues to push a Libertarian perspective. The Foundation was founded by and for corporate interests by its own admission, and advocates global warming denialism, tax protester theories about the legality of taxation, and other Right-wing talking points. Many of their reports have been thoroughly debunked by economists, and by popular outlets like Forbes.
The Tax Foundation is heavily bankrolled by the Koch Brothers, who donated $545,000 through the Claude R. Lambe Foundation -- a Koch-owned "charity" which also funded similar think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, and Americans for Prosperity before it was dismantled in 2013. The Charles Koch Institute lists the Tax Foundation as a "partner organization", along with other think tanks.
Other contributors to the Tax Foundation include ExxonMobil, PepsiCo, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, and General Motors. The Tax Foundation receives 40% of its funding from corporate sponsors, and an additional 42% from "philanthropic foundations" like the Koch groups above.
END_QUOTE
As of late, the GOP has been on a fit of denouncing corporations, because companies have been boycotting Georgia for passing restrictive voting laws. The sincerity of the denunciations is questionable, given that the Republicans have no intention of turning down corporate contributions. However, the GOP has also denounced Big Tech for "censorship" -- for banning trolls telling whopping lies -- with Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, a super troll himself, proposing that Big Tech be denied further buyouts of other companies. Twitter shot back:
QUOTE:
@rojopendejo (Rojo Pendejo): And every electronic device he owns mysteriously stopped working all at once.
END_QUOTE
* On 10 April, one Deedee Mueller was at her home in Pasadena, California, with her little terrier Mei Mei in her lap -- when Mei Mei got excited, jumped off her lap, and dashed into the kitchen, barking furiously. Mei Mei was immediately joined by Squirt, another terrier owned by the Muellers.
On investigation, it turned out that a young black bear had invaded the kitchen, looking for something to eat. The dogs, though no match for the bear, were unafraid, barking their little heads off at it; the bear, not knowing what to make of these two fierce little creatures, decided to beat a hasty retreat. Deedee Mueller said on Facebook: "Thank god we have these two fierce dogs protecting us ... they don't know what fear is, but I was sweating for them." The bear was caught on security cameras, with the video going viral.
* In other news of the unusual, a Brazilian named Fabricio Franzoli has figured out how to use Tesla coils (electric arc generators) to synthesize music.
Franzoli has put together a number of music videos, based on game and movie music. His MEGALOVANIA theme version works very well, and his BEVERLY HILLS COP theme works, too; he did the MORTAL KOMBAT theme, but only with one coil, not two, so it wasn't as good.
BACK_TO_TOP* THE WEEK THAT WAS: The big news this last week was the conviction of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd after his arrest on 25 May 2020 -- which set off a wave of urban protests that went on all over the USA through the summer and into the fall, with protests in sympathy overseas. I've been a remote spectator in the issue, not feeling involved or having anything to contribute, but the fallout of the conviction promises to be substantial, with police reform bills being advanced across the USA.
There was considerable apprehension that there would be big trouble if Chauvin was convicted -- an apprehension that was enhanced when, while the trial was wrapping up, House Representative Maxine Waters said that Chauvin needed to be convicted of murder, and urged protesters to "get more confrontational." There was an uproar over the remark among the Right, but it faded after the verdict.
There was a follow-up flap when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said: "Thank you, George Floyd, for sacrificing your life for justice." The sentiment was not exactly bad, it was just cringingly expressed. Pelosi has her virtues, but warmth is not among them; one Twitter observer said she spoke from the heart, and forgot she didn't have one.
Fortunately, all such gaffes were rescued by Joe Biden, who spoke of the matter in smooth terms, praising the police officers who testified against Chauvin in the trial, as well as those witnesses who documented the event. Biden said: "It was a murder in the full light of day, and it ripped the blinders off the whole world to see. Systemic racism is a stain on our nation's soul."
There was nothing very specific in what Biden said; he was just being reassuring, with the failures of judgement by Waters and Pelosi permanently sidelined. The Right-wing press also did themselves no good through their outrage at the verdict -- apparently because they were hoping for riots, and didn't get them.
In any case, Biden once again demonstrated his political adroitness. That was also on display in his selling of his infrastructure plan -- playing up America's commitment to dealing with climate change on the international stage, while emphasizing jobs for Americans at home. After all, playing up climate change to American voters would only be preaching to the faithful; instead, by pushing jobs first, Biden was reaching towards Americans who have been influenced by Right-wing propaganda, believing that climate change isn't a real problem, and that efforts to fix it are just expensive boondoggles.
* The latest initiative from the Biden Administration is a proposal to raise taxes on the wealthy. According to an editorial from REUTERS.com by one Richard Beales ("Shock At Biden Capital-Gains Tax Plan Looks Staged", 23 April 2021), Biden wants to increase the top marginal income tax rate to 39.6% from 37%, and nearly double taxes on capital gains to 39.6% for people earning more than $1 million USD a year. In addition, Biden wants to close loopholes in capital gains on inherited wealth and "carried interest" -- the stakes in portfolio companies that private equity bigwigs collect for free, substituting for performance fees that would otherwise be taxed as income.
There was howling among the rich, with Beales commenting:
QUOTE:
"I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!" So exclaimed Captain Renault in CASABLANCA as he was handed his winnings. Some of America's wealthiest people seem to be having the same reaction to proposals from President Joe Biden that would increase taxes on capital gains. Much of the purported shock looks as stagey as Renault's.
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First and foremost, during the presidential campaign, Biden made it clear he planned to increase taxes on Americans bringing in $400,000 USD or more in a year -- so this was not news, and in fact there was only a ripple in the markets. In reply to the noisy theatrics about impending economic doom, Beales added:
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In October [2020], even the conservative-leaning Tax Foundation [mentioned here last week, and not in a good sort of way] concluded that the capital-gains part of Biden's package would only dent long-run GDP by 0.02%. And for what it's worth, Microsoft was founded in 1975 when the top capital-gains rate was 36.5%, and the top income tax rate was 70%.
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How much Biden will actually get out of Congress remains to be seen. By all evidence, the USA is headed for a post-pandemic economic boom. The rich may end up not getting richer as fast as they did during Trump's term, but they will still get richer. So please do stop the whining.
* In late-breaking news, the Biden Administration issued a proclamation acknowledging the Turkish genocide of Armenians during World War I, that being a clear slap in the face to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The message, it seems, is that the USA is not humoring autocrats like Erdogan any more.
This fits into comments on "global muscular liberalism (GML)" run here on week 12, which also discussed how critics of the Biden Administration see GML as naive. I didn't see that it was. An editorial from ECONOMIST.com ("America's Reset", 20 April 2021), provided an effective defense of the Biden strategy, starting with:
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Whereas during his presidency, Donald Trump pursued his own peculiar version of a reset with President Vladimir Putin of Russia -- joking with him about Russian election interference, and saying the two liked one another -- President Joe Biden has called Mr. Putin a killer without a soul. And yet Mr. Biden also says he wants to work with the Russian president.
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Biden's lieutenants say they are working with "allies and partners" -- a clear slap at Donald Trump, who stepped on America's allies and kissed up to America's enemies -- while saying they are being "clear-eyed" about adversaries -- hinting that Barack Obama's foreign policy was too optimistic about Russia, China, and Iran, as Obama himself may well now admit. Biden has decided GML is the way to go:
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His overall goal, as one of his advisers put it, is to pursue a "strengthening of the multilateral, rules-based order, in which the United States takes a role to make sure authoritarian states don't undermine those rules". Mr. Biden is attempting a two-track policy, trying at once to resist and relate to these regimes: to constrain their territorial ambitions and discourage their human-rights abuses and transnational meddling, while working with them where their interests might overlap with America's.
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Put simply, Joe Biden calls them as he sees them: if Russia works against US interests, the USA will protest, while simultaneously seeking areas of agreement with Russia. A few weeks ago, Biden imposed sanctions on Russia for interfering in the 2020 American election, conducting the big SolarWinds cyber-hack, and other affronts; the sanctions were discussed ahead of time with American allies, who chimed in with their support. Biden called up Russian President Vladimir Putin two days before announcing the sanctions, suggesting that Russia "respond appropriately" to the sanctions and not try to escalate. During the same conversation, Biden proposed that the two countries get together to discuss arms limitation.
Daniel Fried of the Atlantic Council -- a foreign-policy think-tank, previously of George W. Bush's State Department -- sees the mixed messaging as welcome:
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American administrations have had a tendency to fall into two traps in dealing with Russia. It's either: "reset" -- or: "a hard line across the board". [In contrast,] the Biden team has given themselves room to work with Putin, without pulling their punches.
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The Iranians thought Biden would be quick to restore the nuclear deal; that hasn't been the case, with the Biden Administration engaged in tough bargaining. Biden has accused the Chinese government of genocide in Xinjiang Province, and militarily bullying its neighbors -- while at the same time John Kerry, Biden's climate envoy, helped put together a joint statement in which China and the USA committed to taking on climate change.
In sum, GML is not naive; it is instead naive to believe that the only choices are either appeasement or Cold War. Of course, the Biden Administration is just getting started, and has a lot to do:
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... issuing joint statements, like talking about summit meetings, is pale progress compared with closing coal plants, withdrawing troops, decommissioning nuclear weapons, or halting genocide. Almost 100 days in, President Biden has shown that he can make a hard decision, as he did on Afghanistan. He has many more ahead of him as he seeks to strike not just a theoretical balance, but actual compromises between an idealist's hopes and a realist's expectations.
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* I got my first COVID-19 vaccine shot on Tuesday -- driving out to the fairgrounds on the prairie, going in circles on the roads a bit since I wasn't that familiar with the area. The shot was nothing, caused me no troubles. It was a nice little drive, since the area had got some late snow the day before and the mountains were pretty. Of course, the roads were wet, and I had to clean up the car good after I got back.
I get the second shot four Tuesdays from now. It may not go as easily. Rick Wilson of the Lincoln Project kicked off a bit of a tweetstorm after his second shot:
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Rick Wilson Was down for the count yesterday while the nanobots in the second vaccine dose did their work transforming me into an antifa super-soldier with glowing red eyes and a taste for adrenochrome. Other than that, I'm back to scourge the unrighteous.
Timothy Erick PhD / @DrTimothyErick: You can now send telepathic messages to other vaccinated individuals, as long as you have a WiFi signal.
Rick Wilson / @TheRickWilson: I got the 5G upgrade.
Xola / @Xola81201697: The chip is phenomenal -- it started off upping my internet speed, now it's running my errands for me and even taking my calls for me. It's the Pfizer with the Gates Chip.
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* An unrelated Twitter thread discussed nicknames for Donald Trump. "Cheetoh Mussolini" and "Agolf Twitler" I was familiar with, but not "Velveeta Voldemort" and "Apricot Pol Pot". One Tweeter suggested to me: "Honorable mention for 'Tangerine Nightmare'"?
I replied: "That's good, but I do prefer 'Marmalade Menace'. Sounds like an opponent for The Tick, or The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl."
I added a comment that though Trump was bad, it was something of a mitigation that he was also ridiculous. Alas, we are not actually done with him yet. [ED: That turned out to be an understatement.]
In other goofy superhero references, Rick Wilson hit it out of the ballpark again when he nailed Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a senior Right-wing troll in the Senate. Cruz was complaining to the press about Democrat attempts to pack the Supreme Court with additional justices: "You didn't see Republicans when we had control of the Senate try to rig the game. You didn't see us try to pack the court."
Wilson tweeted: "Fat Wolverine doesn't understand that reality has all the receipts." I had to add that Fat Wolverine is a member in good standing of the Q-Men. We'll probably be getting Fat Wolverine imagery in a week or so.
Incidentally, the Lincoln Project was in the doghouse a few months back, thanks to a member trolling the internet for teenaged boys, and also concerns about the financial arrangements of the group. There were calls for the LP to disband, but they issued apologies and promised corrective actions. Not surprisingly, the controversy has now bored itself to death. We're too used to controversy, with the result that it takes a really big controversy to keep the public's attention.
* As discussed in an article from NEWATLAS.com ("REE Demonstrates Its Wildly Innovative Vehicle Platform Of The Future" by Loz Blain, 6 October 2020), an Israeli startup firm named REE has come up with an innovative, but in some ways obvious, design concept for electric vehicles.
They have implemented a flat, modular vehicle chassis in which all steering, suspension, motor, gearbox and braking functions are bundled up into removable, replaceable "corner units" in the wheels. All the vehicular functions are electronically controlled; different bodies can be attached to the chassis and plugged into it. The chassis is reminiscent of a skateboard, amounting to a fully functional EV, just without a body.
The corner units can be specified with a wide range of options. Active suspension? 4 wheel steering? How much ground clearance? How much power? Desired torque? Top speed? Two or four wheel drive? A corner unit that fails can be immediately replaced. REE is testing three different chassis sizes, covering a 1.3-tonne delivery vehicle, a 2.5-tonne passenger and cargo transport, and a 4.5-tonne delivery van.
Toyota has partnered with REE on its "Flatformer" range of electric Hino vehicles, which will include everything from passenger shuttles and delivery vans to trash trucks, food trucks and mobile medical services. Indian automaking colossus Mahindra has an agreement with REE to develop and build an initial run of up to a quarter of a million commercial EVs.
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