May 2012
“So to sum up, one candidate is portrayed, accurately, as being extremely rich, with a wife who has rich-person leisure-time pursuits; and the other candidate is portrayed, accurately, as someone whose secretive policies have wrought dead children, broken promises, violated due process rights, and possibly created more terrorists. And our political culture in the United States is so blinkered that the story about the rich candidate whose wife rides horses is regarded, by conservatives and savvy Politico journalists, as the one that is noteworthy for being negative; whereas the story about the Orwellian turn in the White House doesn’t even merit mention.”
—Conor Friedersdorf (via langer)
Y files: Politics and Policy →
yfiles.tumblr.com
Interesting point from Robert Caro on why a president can’t just take judgments of what is and isn’t “politically feasible” to be value-neutral:
Considerations of policy may also have played a role. “If Kennedy had allowed Johnson to conduct his congressional relations, he would in effect have made the Vice President the judge of what was legislatively feasible and therefore lost control over his own program,” Arthur Schlesinger wrote. “This was something no sensible President would do. Kennedy therefore relied on his own congressional liaison staff under Lawrence O’Brien, calling on the Vice President only on particular occasions.”
Equally interesting:
I am the twenty-seventh richest personal man in the nation. I got the biggest wazoo in Washington and the wife with the prettiest name. So I don’t care who your wife’s Daddy knows—don’t you slouch at this Senator, boy.
“I dressed up as Boccassini with a toga to make him laugh, and also as Obama.”
—Bunga?
“He figured out that if he grabbed the foil and turned his face to it, and wedged his toes into a crack in the foil, he could hold his position for a few seconds and a few seconds more. But that hurt his hands so he started to climb, around and around. The whole time he felt every spinning drop of water in his body. He puked on his shirt and so he took his shirt off and threw it down with his shoes. Then he spit, and felt relieved. It was still hot, stupidly hot, like he was in a microwave. He wanted some water.
When would he start to fall? Maybe never. Maybe he’d just float. Corners of the balloon had crumpled, but he didn’t look at them, and he shut his eyes to sleep. He’d wake up, hopefully, without puke on his face. He’d wake up in the air, alive. Arms loose as wings.” —To your thirties, dear sister.
When would he start to fall? Maybe never. Maybe he’d just float. Corners of the balloon had crumpled, but he didn’t look at them, and he shut his eyes to sleep. He’d wake up, hopefully, without puke on his face. He’d wake up in the air, alive. Arms loose as wings.” —To your thirties, dear sister.
“Correction: In an earlier version of this article, the example involving “Midnight in Paris” mistakenly said a comma was needed after the name “Jessie,” rather than before it.”
—,
“In fact, a strong argument can be made that Facebook’s shaky start as a public company demonstrates that the entire I.P.O. process, which is supposed to spread the rewards to innovation, is broken.”
—
John Cassidy in The New Yorker. He sort of addresses the big and questionable assumption at the heart of this sentence — that IPOs are about rewarding innovators and early investors — later in the piece, but this still rubbed me the wrong way. IPOs are now about extracting wealth out of a company instead of putting wealth in. This is the problem here, right?
Somehow, in all the media hype surround this stupid fucking IPO everyone forgot that Facebook didn’t need the capital for expansion, but had been sort of forced into the public offering due to SEC regulations (amended now by the JOBS Act). And after forgetting that, everyone was so stoked on the $38 price tag that they forgot that anyone not stuffed to the gills with social media kool-aid thought its market valuation was insanely high.
This IPO could be about nothing other than extracting wealth out of the company for early investors, because that’s what tech IPOs are like — but that’s not what capital markets are supposed to be for. I mean, right?
(via willystaley)
Word.
“‘They’re both extreme groups,’ Tinley Park Mayor Ed Zabrocki said. ‘It’s extreme stances — the anti-racism group is against racism, against anti-semitism, against homophobia, where the other group is for white people only.’”
—Equivalences.
When Coase Met Keynes
Two great economists cross paths:
RONALD COASE: I can tell you—I was helping when Britain was trying to get a loan from the United States immediately after the war, and I was talking to one of Keynes’s assistants. And Keynes came in the room and walked over to us and the man I was talking to us said, “This is Coase, who is helping us with the statistics. I don’t think you know him.” And Keynes said, “No, I don’t.” And walked off. And that’s my life with Keynes.
Good times.
Transaction costs.
“Dear Jill,
Thank you for speaking with me several weeks ago and providing the helpful links below. I sent a request for a verification in lieu of a certified copy of President Obama’s birth record to the Dept. of Health on March 30th. I was just wondering if you knew whether the request was received and how long it usually takes to process? Thanx.” —
Thank you for speaking with me several weeks ago and providing the helpful links below. I sent a request for a verification in lieu of a certified copy of President Obama’s birth record to the Dept. of Health on March 30th. I was just wondering if you knew whether the request was received and how long it usually takes to process? Thanx.” —
Reuters Politics: Three anti-NATO protesters face terrorism charges →
reuterspolitics.tumblr.com
Three anti-NATO protesters arrested in a late-night raid days before start of the 60-nation summit have been charged with terrorism for possession of explosive devices, Eric Johnson reports.
But supporters of the three men arrested Wednesday evening at a residence in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago disputed the charges and said the police had confused beer-making equipment with explosives.
“The charges are utterly ridiculous. CPD doesn’t know the difference between home beer-making supplies and Molotov cocktails,” said Natalie Wahlberg, a member of the Occupy Chicago movement protesting over income inequality.
The National Lawyers Guild, the group of volunteer lawyers representing the protesters, said police “broke down doors with guns drawn and searched residences without a warrant or consent,” according to a statement on the group’s Facebook page.
Honk If You're Lonely
Silver Jews
Honk If You’re Lonely by The Silver Jews
“He’s fucked. He must have gotten horrendous advice.”
—Singaporin’.
Issue Project Room: Philip Glass: Music With Friends →
issueprojectroom.tumblr.com
Legendary composer Philip Glass, both controversial and ever-present, has captured the American public perhaps more than any living composer. For his operas, symphonies, compositions for his own ensemble, and wide-ranging collaborations Glass has had an unprecedented impact upon the musical and intellectual life of his times.
For three intimate evenings, Phillip Glass comes to ISSUE Project Room, New York’s City’s only European Chamber Music Hall. His only performance in Brooklyn this year, “Phillip Glass: Music With Friends” is a rare occasion featuring Glass in duo performances with Laurie Anderson [6/15] and Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields [6/13], as well Ryan Sawyer [6/15] and former ISSUE Artists-in Residence Tristan Perich [6/14] and Nate Wooley [6/13]. The full artist roster will be announced soon, under 200 seats will be sold for each performance.
“The excitement has drawn in fledgling stock buyers such as 11-year-old Jade Supple of Rockville Centre, N.Y., whose father plans to bet money saved to put his daughter through college on Facebook shares, although he has doubts about the price.”
—The Wall Street Journal (Hat tip former Alphavillain Stacy-Marie Ishmael)
