This is one of those funny counterfactuals where imagining failed states asking for assistance would solicit a NO electorally... but "Empire, Baby" we're fixing these failed states would elicit a YES.
With the exact same counterfactual results.
Bonus counterfactual: Team NO and Team YES would flip opposition purely on the posture.
But it exerted costs on all parties proportional to the issue being filibustered. That's preferable to no cost filibusters.
We may not like that the Dixiecrats filibustered the Civil Rights Act... but when sufficient support built-up the process forced them to hold the floor for 75 days stopping all business... and eventually there was enough pressure and horse-trading to invoke cloture.
Counterfactually, in that example, the Two-track system might have made it easier to filibuster well into the 70s because the cost to do so would have been much less.
Or... we can abandon the filibuster altogether... it is nothing more than a parliamentary practice.
WW 7: Retrocession, or, if you're feeling frisky, let's break-up California into three states for your free Senators... while simultaneously changing the Reapportionment act of 1929 to the smallest state standard.
After that, let's solve the border issue by moving the borders south...
Right... that's my point... it's all theater. That was my original post.
I get trying to score some political points (I guess)... but my sub-point is that no-one cares... there are no points being scored. So not only is it theater, it's bad theater no-one is watching and no-one is scoring.
The one cogent thing I've seen is that the Dems are reluctant to suspend the filibuster recognizing that the Senate is probably being borrowed for the moment. And the filibuster is something Dems will want when they are in the minority. And, if they suspend (or more) the filibuster for this, it will play out like the escalation around judges.
But the moral of the Judges story isn't that ending the filibuster for the circuits led to the end of the filibuster for supremes; it's just that McConnell will use whatever 'agency' he has when he has it. Which is what he's doing now.
He'd prefer the Dems suspend the filibuster so he can nuke it later and 'blame' the Dems... but honestly folks, you heard it here first, the filibuster is already gone.
Point of order contra Marchmaine... I explicitly pointed out that you only have to negotiate with McConnell if you don't have the votes for reconciliation or tactical filibuster nuke.
*I* wouldn't negotiate with McConnell... I'd negotiate with Manchin/Sinema to negotiate with McConnell... and once Manchin/Sinema were happy, it doesn't matter what McConnell does.
Now, if the left bolts after that?... well, you know, disarray etc, etc.
McConnell isn't even hard to read on this - from 2011:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, on the GOP: "I think some of our members may have thought the default issue was a hostage you might take a chance at shooting. Most of us didn't think that. What we did learn is this – it's a hostage that's worth ransoming. And it focuses the Congress on something that must be done."
Ransom if you want to trade for bi-partisan support, or Nuke if you don't trust your negotiating partner.
Sometimes the Agency just lies with the people who have the Agency to do what they need to to.
Do you really believe your nonsense that McConnel is the issue here? Possibly McConnel is doing the Dems a favor by obscuring the fact that they don't have 50 D votes even if they nuked the filibuster.
The Debt Ceiling is as stupid as all reality shows... the drama is self-created and ultimately meaningless.
As a reminder, we're just iterating on the Public Debt Act of 1939... there's no constitutional crisis; we have whatever debt management system we want to have. And by 'we' I mean the producers and screenwriters that pretend to be legislators.
Congress likes this drama for ratings purposes. It could (tactical) nuke the filibuster for this and re-write how Public Debt is financed and incorporate explicit references to the 14th Amendment (if it wished).
One group of screenwriters thinks there's an 'albatross' to hang around one of the contestants necks... there's no albatross; and I'm surprised at how dumb the contestants are to think there is.
The overlooked issue with this is that the managerial class is now paid in equity, not wages.
So, the buybacks cover the equity diluted by distribution to the managerial class, and constitutes a conflict of interest when it comes to propping up share prices vs. reinvestment and growth.
It is orthogonal to my original point which is that we don't realize how equity wealth is transferred throughout the world at the rich-but-not-famous level.
Whether or not corporations should be taxed vs. consumption, say, I'm slightly agnostic... so I don't dispute the 'effects' of taxation on decision making, but making a pretty standard Libertarian argument against corporate taxation wouldn't change the fact that what we call 'shareholders' is itself now a distorted class exerting poor business decisions that favor themselves... and not all the stakeholders involved.
It's a different critique than one of simple taxation...
Well, that's what they used in Carthage proper before they sacrificed the babies... they'd slather them in that wretched sauce then by a miracle they'd whip the sacrifice right up to the gods.
And that's how we get Miracle Whip. I mean, talk about evil...
Do you think taxing 'wealth' that is hidden and moveable to create a giant bureaucracy of managers to manage the wealth as 'programs' is the right path forward?
I've said the Republican bullsh*t is bullsh*t and Democratic chickensh*t is chickensh*t. I prefer not to eat sh*t.
When I go on my Distributist rants... it isn't so much that wealth is created, it's that the wealth is increasingly secret and secretly distributed in pathways other than wages.
These are examples of the underground networks of wealth that aren't distributed via wages or the ordinary forms of capitalism and production.
I'm pretty sure 90%-97.5% of these things are 'legal' -- good reporting would go beyond the one or two obvious felons being exposed for bribery (usually politicians) and dig into the thousands of unknowns who are part of the managerial class whom you think are being paid like you, only more. They aren't being paid like you. That's the story.
Not a fan of Paradox... should be a fan of Paradox... but playing Paradox games makes me not a fan.
Mentioned that I got New World MMO... seems about 1/3 finished. Combat is clunky... and weapon based skills are a mash-up of Guild Wars and Elder Scrolls. Sword & Board seems to make sense, plus the 2h skills and Bow... Rapier is missing Main Gauche, the Musket has Traps(?!) and Hatchet(!) is missing, well, the other Hatchet. Makes it hard to get into your weapon choices.
Seems to be mostly a crafting sim and the most fun I've had is just rolling through the woods gathering things. The quests are about 3-5 yrs out of date as they require you to activate them via a Quest Giver (how drool) rather than the new style of just enjoying the exploration and having the quest activate when do the thing the quest wants you to do. So a lot of running hither/yon but not in the good explory kind of way.
Hoping they just throw billions at it to see what happens... but right now it shiped dated and clunky... I can only assume the networking/server tech is amazing.
For me it has to be non-verbal... literally me saying, "shhh, we're looking at pictures now"
Anything verbal would have to go to it's complete and utter conclusion - which inevitably is everyone dead in the final act like a good Elizabethan drama.
Yes, it was night and day comparing sons and daughters ... on the one hand, the brightest kid is a boy, but the most active kid is a girl. Nevertheless, from a pedagogical perspective the boys needed lots of breaks and had to have physical exertion (ideally in a group) in order to even come back an concentrate for another hour or so. Not so with the girls... they could power through alone and could compartmentalize their 'activity time' for after the learnin' was done.
My wife who was/is the primary educator also informs me that 'studies have shown' that boys/girls have different developmental peaks and valleys... but that all children have peaks/valleys which explains why some years they just seem as dumb as a box of hammers and other years they leap into new ambitions. But the interesting thing is that these peaks and valleys are not in synch with the sexes.
The nice thing about opting out of public education (indeed systemic education) is that these things aren't controversial and can be accommodated in fairly simple ways even in the co-ed programs we've participated in.
I'm told some people don't have an inner monologue and I wonder if they sleep like babies because my inner monologue is like that bad date that keeps saying, "And another thing..."
I'm my own worst date.
But over the years I taught myself some tricks, like visualizing complex diagrams (MMO skill trees work really well), and those tricks eventually make the dialogue stop and the visuals just fade into sleep... and I wake up with really cool build ideas (that never actually work).
Then I hear there are people who can't visualize things in their brain and I wonder how they *ever* get to sleep.
Speaking of MMO's I bought New World (by Amazon, heh) on a whim or maybe a demon's urging. I was curious to see what a $Tillion could do with an MMO. So far? Not much more than a $Billion, or, honestly not much more than $100M has already done. Not the worst game I've ever wasted money on, but unless Bezos himself is personally playing I expect this to drown in a sea of meh... but not for about 10-yrs because that's what a $Trillion MMO can languish on.
Otherwise tomorrow is the first day of Bow Season in the Valley and I plan to head out in the AM. Not that I have ever shot anything with my bow, nor have I ever even *seen* a deer during bow season. But, we're out of venison. Which, in a non-political way, helps me realize why I don't care about the eating bugs or eating manufactured chemical foods disguised as chicken/beef nonsense... I'll always have venison, lamb, cabrito, chicken and beef for the family. Y'all are welcome to stop by to remember what real food tastes like.
So later today the 7-yo and I will head out to the woods to inspect the permanent stands, look for trails/scrapes and try to discern where a deer might be or amble by some time between 6-9 tomorrow.
On “Wednesday Writs: Risk Management Edition”
This is one of those funny counterfactuals where imagining failed states asking for assistance would solicit a NO electorally... but "Empire, Baby" we're fixing these failed states would elicit a YES.
With the exact same counterfactual results.
Bonus counterfactual: Team NO and Team YES would flip opposition purely on the posture.
On “The Dance Of The Debt Limit Deadline, Continued”
It was broken on a different axis.
But it exerted costs on all parties proportional to the issue being filibustered. That's preferable to no cost filibusters.
We may not like that the Dixiecrats filibustered the Civil Rights Act... but when sufficient support built-up the process forced them to hold the floor for 75 days stopping all business... and eventually there was enough pressure and horse-trading to invoke cloture.
Counterfactually, in that example, the Two-track system might have made it easier to filibuster well into the 70s because the cost to do so would have been much less.
Or... we can abandon the filibuster altogether... it is nothing more than a parliamentary practice.
On “Wednesday Writs: Risk Management Edition”
WW 7: Retrocession, or, if you're feeling frisky, let's break-up California into three states for your free Senators... while simultaneously changing the Reapportionment act of 1929 to the smallest state standard.
After that, let's solve the border issue by moving the borders south...
You can sign-up for my substack at the link below
On “The Dance Of The Debt Limit Deadline, Continued”
Are we disagreeing on Filibuster?
My pithy game theory position is you can either have:
Single-track with a filibuster
Two-track with no filibuster
Pick one.
The current game of two-track with filibuster is broken. That's my position.
"
Not to mention simply suspending the debt limit law in toto during the Trump admin.
McConnell isn't guarding the debt, he's just making the Dems play a difficult hand.
"
The base that is going to primary Manchin and Sinema in 3 years after the upcoming election they aren't in is over?
The amount of leverage in that statement is so small that a Senator would rather be filmed taking a piss than worry about it.
"
Right... that's my point... it's all theater. That was my original post.
I get trying to score some political points (I guess)... but my sub-point is that no-one cares... there are no points being scored. So not only is it theater, it's bad theater no-one is watching and no-one is scoring.
The one cogent thing I've seen is that the Dems are reluctant to suspend the filibuster recognizing that the Senate is probably being borrowed for the moment. And the filibuster is something Dems will want when they are in the minority. And, if they suspend (or more) the filibuster for this, it will play out like the escalation around judges.
But the moral of the Judges story isn't that ending the filibuster for the circuits led to the end of the filibuster for supremes; it's just that McConnell will use whatever 'agency' he has when he has it. Which is what he's doing now.
He'd prefer the Dems suspend the filibuster so he can nuke it later and 'blame' the Dems... but honestly folks, you heard it here first, the filibuster is already gone.
"
Point of order contra Marchmaine... I explicitly pointed out that you only have to negotiate with McConnell if you don't have the votes for reconciliation or tactical filibuster nuke.
*I* wouldn't negotiate with McConnell... I'd negotiate with Manchin/Sinema to negotiate with McConnell... and once Manchin/Sinema were happy, it doesn't matter what McConnell does.
Now, if the left bolts after that?... well, you know, disarray etc, etc.
"
Shrug... Dems in Disarray it is then.
McConnell isn't even hard to read on this - from 2011:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, on the GOP: "I think some of our members may have thought the default issue was a hostage you might take a chance at shooting. Most of us didn't think that. What we did learn is this – it's a hostage that's worth ransoming. And it focuses the Congress on something that must be done."
Ransom if you want to trade for bi-partisan support, or Nuke if you don't trust your negotiating partner.
Sometimes the Agency just lies with the people who have the Agency to do what they need to to.
"
Yes?
Do you really believe your nonsense that McConnel is the issue here? Possibly McConnel is doing the Dems a favor by obscuring the fact that they don't have 50 D votes even if they nuked the filibuster.
So... Dems in Disarray?
"
The Debt Ceiling is as stupid as all reality shows... the drama is self-created and ultimately meaningless.
As a reminder, we're just iterating on the Public Debt Act of 1939... there's no constitutional crisis; we have whatever debt management system we want to have. And by 'we' I mean the producers and screenwriters that pretend to be legislators.
Congress likes this drama for ratings purposes. It could (tactical) nuke the filibuster for this and re-write how Public Debt is financed and incorporate explicit references to the 14th Amendment (if it wished).
One group of screenwriters thinks there's an 'albatross' to hang around one of the contestants necks... there's no albatross; and I'm surprised at how dumb the contestants are to think there is.
On “The Pandora Papers Follows The World Wide Money”
The overlooked issue with this is that the managerial class is now paid in equity, not wages.
So, the buybacks cover the equity diluted by distribution to the managerial class, and constitutes a conflict of interest when it comes to propping up share prices vs. reinvestment and growth.
It is orthogonal to my original point which is that we don't realize how equity wealth is transferred throughout the world at the rich-but-not-famous level.
Whether or not corporations should be taxed vs. consumption, say, I'm slightly agnostic... so I don't dispute the 'effects' of taxation on decision making, but making a pretty standard Libertarian argument against corporate taxation wouldn't change the fact that what we call 'shareholders' is itself now a distorted class exerting poor business decisions that favor themselves... and not all the stakeholders involved.
It's a different critique than one of simple taxation...
On “Facebook And Related Sites Go Down, Chaos Ensues”
I definitely did *not* click that link.
On “Mayo Is Evil: A Brief History”
Well, that's what they used in Carthage proper before they sacrificed the babies... they'd slather them in that wretched sauce then by a miracle they'd whip the sacrifice right up to the gods.
And that's how we get Miracle Whip. I mean, talk about evil...
On “Always Prepared”
For parmesan, maybe a cellulose supply chain issue?
When that story landed it was funny to watch the progression go from, well, it's only 8% that is indigestible filler to, well actually Bon Apetit says it's good for you.
On “The Pandora Papers Follows The World Wide Money”
Hidden by valuation 'estimates'... and hidden hidden.
Taxing wealth is just negotiating your surrender to the wealthy.
"
Yes?
Do you think taxing 'wealth' that is hidden and moveable to create a giant bureaucracy of managers to manage the wealth as 'programs' is the right path forward?
I've said the Republican bullsh*t is bullsh*t and Democratic chickensh*t is chickensh*t. I prefer not to eat sh*t.
On “Mayo Is Evil: A Brief History”
Sed contra, emulsifying egg yolks into a sauce creamier than a cream sauce is unadulterated genius.
It seems the Menorcans are a contrary lot, for their 'Gin' is made from wine spirits and infused with lemons.
Really, when you put the two together... its a love letter to lemons.
On “The Pandora Papers Follows The World Wide Money”
When I go on my Distributist rants... it isn't so much that wealth is created, it's that the wealth is increasingly secret and secretly distributed in pathways other than wages.
These are examples of the underground networks of wealth that aren't distributed via wages or the ordinary forms of capitalism and production.
I'm pretty sure 90%-97.5% of these things are 'legal' -- good reporting would go beyond the one or two obvious felons being exposed for bribery (usually politicians) and dig into the thousands of unknowns who are part of the managerial class whom you think are being paid like you, only more. They aren't being paid like you. That's the story.
On “Saturday Morning Gaming: Paradox Interactive Admits It”
Not a fan of Paradox... should be a fan of Paradox... but playing Paradox games makes me not a fan.
Mentioned that I got New World MMO... seems about 1/3 finished. Combat is clunky... and weapon based skills are a mash-up of Guild Wars and Elder Scrolls. Sword & Board seems to make sense, plus the 2h skills and Bow... Rapier is missing Main Gauche, the Musket has Traps(?!) and Hatchet(!) is missing, well, the other Hatchet. Makes it hard to get into your weapon choices.
Seems to be mostly a crafting sim and the most fun I've had is just rolling through the woods gathering things. The quests are about 3-5 yrs out of date as they require you to activate them via a Quest Giver (how drool) rather than the new style of just enjoying the exploration and having the quest activate when do the thing the quest wants you to do. So a lot of running hither/yon but not in the good explory kind of way.
Hoping they just throw billions at it to see what happens... but right now it shiped dated and clunky... I can only assume the networking/server tech is amazing.
On “Weekend Plans Post: On Sleeping (Specifically, On Melatonin)”
Nice... is it called Gigli 2?
For me it has to be non-verbal... literally me saying, "shhh, we're looking at pictures now"
Anything verbal would have to go to it's complete and utter conclusion - which inevitably is everyone dead in the final act like a good Elizabethan drama.
On “The Last Normal School Year”
Yes, it was night and day comparing sons and daughters ... on the one hand, the brightest kid is a boy, but the most active kid is a girl. Nevertheless, from a pedagogical perspective the boys needed lots of breaks and had to have physical exertion (ideally in a group) in order to even come back an concentrate for another hour or so. Not so with the girls... they could power through alone and could compartmentalize their 'activity time' for after the learnin' was done.
My wife who was/is the primary educator also informs me that 'studies have shown' that boys/girls have different developmental peaks and valleys... but that all children have peaks/valleys which explains why some years they just seem as dumb as a box of hammers and other years they leap into new ambitions. But the interesting thing is that these peaks and valleys are not in synch with the sexes.
The nice thing about opting out of public education (indeed systemic education) is that these things aren't controversial and can be accommodated in fairly simple ways even in the co-ed programs we've participated in.
On “Weekend Plans Post: On Sleeping (Specifically, On Melatonin)”
I'm told some people don't have an inner monologue and I wonder if they sleep like babies because my inner monologue is like that bad date that keeps saying, "And another thing..."
I'm my own worst date.
But over the years I taught myself some tricks, like visualizing complex diagrams (MMO skill trees work really well), and those tricks eventually make the dialogue stop and the visuals just fade into sleep... and I wake up with really cool build ideas (that never actually work).
Then I hear there are people who can't visualize things in their brain and I wonder how they *ever* get to sleep.
Speaking of MMO's I bought New World (by Amazon, heh) on a whim or maybe a demon's urging. I was curious to see what a $Tillion could do with an MMO. So far? Not much more than a $Billion, or, honestly not much more than $100M has already done. Not the worst game I've ever wasted money on, but unless Bezos himself is personally playing I expect this to drown in a sea of meh... but not for about 10-yrs because that's what a $Trillion MMO can languish on.
Otherwise tomorrow is the first day of Bow Season in the Valley and I plan to head out in the AM. Not that I have ever shot anything with my bow, nor have I ever even *seen* a deer during bow season. But, we're out of venison. Which, in a non-political way, helps me realize why I don't care about the eating bugs or eating manufactured chemical foods disguised as chicken/beef nonsense... I'll always have venison, lamb, cabrito, chicken and beef for the family. Y'all are welcome to stop by to remember what real food tastes like.
So later today the 7-yo and I will head out to the woods to inspect the permanent stands, look for trails/scrapes and try to discern where a deer might be or amble by some time between 6-9 tomorrow.
On “The DoD, CYA, And The “Accountability For Afghanistan” Blame Game”
Not to mention Fat Leonard on the Grift/Provisioning side of things.
"
Right... what surprises me is that the DoD isn't playing along with the spread-the-blame-so-thin-it-ceases-to-exist playbook.
I mean, I'm hoping they overplay their hand... but I don't know why they are playing the hand that way at all.