Barack Hoover Obama: The best and the brightest blow it again

Just as Herbert Hoover came to internalize the "business progressivism" of his era as a welcome alternative to the futile, counterproductive conflicts of an earlier time, so has Obama internalized what might be called Clinton's "business liberalism" as an alternative to useless battles from another time--battles that liberals, in any case, tended to lose.

Clinton's business liberalism, however, is a chimera, every bit as much a capitulation to powerful and selfish interests as was Hoover's 1920s progressivism. We are back in Evan Bayh territory here, espousing a "pragmatism" that is not really pragmatism at all, just surrender to the usual corporate interests. The common thread running through all of Obama's major proposals right now is that they are labyrinthine solutions designed mainly to avoid conflict. The bank bailout, cap-and-trade on carbon emissions, health-care pools--all of these ideas are, like Hillary Clinton's ill-fated 1993 health plan, simultaneously too complicated to draw a constituency and too threatening for Congress to shape and pass as Obama would like. They bear the seeds of their own defeat.

Obama will have to directly attack the fortified bastions of the newest "new class"--the makers of the paper economy in which he came of age--if he is to accomplish anything. These interests did not spend fifty years shipping the greatest industrial economy in the history of the world overseas only to be challenged by a newly empowered, green-economy working class. They did not spend much of the past two decades gobbling up previously public sectors such as health care, education, and transportation only to have to compete with a reinvigorated public sector. They mean, even now, to use the bailout to make the government their helpless junior partner, and if they can they will devour every federal dollar available to recoup their own losses, and thereby preclude the use of any monies for the rest of Barack Obama's splendid vision.

Franklin Roosevelt also took office imagining that he could bring all classes of Americans together in some big, mushy, cooperative scheme. Quickly disabused of this notion, he threw himself into the bumptious give-and-take of practical politics; lying, deceiving, manipulating, arraying one group after another on his side--a transit encapsulated by how, at the end of his first term, his outraged opponents were calling him a "traitor to his class" and he was gleefully inveighing against "economic royalists" and announcing, "They are unanimous in their hatred for me--and I welcome their hatred."

Obama should not deceive himself into thinking that such interest-group politics can be banished any more than can the cycles of Wall Street. It is not too late for him to change direction and seize the radical moment at hand. But for the moment, just like another very good man, Barack Obama is moving prudently, carefully, reasonably toward disaster.

This is the conclusion. If anyone is interested, I can send a word version by email.


In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

Oh, and feel free to add me ;)

"The basis of optimism is sheer terror" - Oscar Wilde

We are making good progress extracting all the farm subsidy payment data published on the German government's website. While doing so we have found 21 recipients for whom no information on name, municipality or postcode is given. The total payments to these 21 recipients is 16.8 million euros, of which 8.9 million euros is in direct aid (as opposed to market support or rural development).

Among these `invisible men' are four recipients who got more than 1 million euros in 2008. The amounts are as follows: €3,168,264.42, €1,825,968.97, €1,080,415.2 and €1,024,959.26. We can deduce that three of these secret millionaires are farmers - their subsidy payments come through `direct aid' and `rural development' measures and one is a food or trading company as its money comes from `other market measures'.

A high ranking German minister may be one of these invisibles.

You can't be me, I'm taken

An anonymous reader writes with news of a proposal in the recent Digital Britain report to set up tax breaks for developing video games that are "culturally British." Quoting the report (PDF): "In film a system of cultural tax credits has long helped to sustain a wide range of films that speak to a British narrative, rather than the cultural perspectives of Hollywood or multinational collaborations. Other countries such as Canada, for similar reasons, extend the model of cultural tax relief beyond the film industry to the interactive and online worlds. CGI, electronic games and simulation also have a significant role in Britain's digital content ecology and in our international competitiveness. Each of these has the same capability as the more traditional sectors, such as film, to engage us and reflect our cultural particularism. They may in future have a cultural relevance to rival that of film." Conservative Shadow Arts and Culture Minister Ed Vaizey said the government has ignored the games industry, and he seeks to set up a government council to promote it. The report also outlined a number of changes to how games are rated.

Top picks: Tom Clancy's Surveillance Society and Age of (Former) Empires.

Wii Pub Brawl could be fun, though.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

The Bavarian group has started targeting about 7,000 workers caught driving Audis, Mercedes - or other rival brands - in an attempt to revive its rapidly falling sales by coaxing them to drive a BMW.EDITOR'S CHOICEAnalysis: Carmakers back on the road - Jun-17 Revamped GM updates core brands - Jun-17Michelin softens blow of French job cuts - Jun-17

"What is wrong here? You like working for us. You are fond of your workplace and salary. But you are driving a competitor's car," is the message on postcards put on the windscreens of cars in car parks at BMW's German factories.

The postcards, which have been signed by two executive board members as well as the head of its works' council, can be returned to BMW's sales department requesting a test drive, a sales talk or the details of how to swap a rival car for a new BMW.

Iranian twitter activity similar to what we did in House last year when Republicans were shut down in the House.

I spilled some lukewarm coffee on myself just now, which is somewhat analogous to being boiled in oil.

I got a splinter in my hand today. Felt just like Jesus getting nailed to the cross.

Walked out onto Constitution Ave in D.C. and was almost hit by a taxi. Reminded me of Tienanmen Square.

Should the NHS allow gipsies to jump the queue? | Polls | Mail Online

Should the NHS allow gipsies to jump the queue?

is being subverted (via Twitter), so get there and vote yes ;)

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.