Cubans are Special because the first to flee Cuba was the moneyed class

Why are Cuban so Special? is a very interesting editorial.  Always there is an exception.

Greece's Finance Minister Seems too Reasonable

"Greece's Fiance Minister Tones Down Message" seems too reasonable. Europe will offer the dead hand of poverty and misery with no good future resolution. Greece should reject its debt and exit the Euro.  It will cause a shock but its better for both Greece and Europe than the slow bleed of covering the unsustainable.

Sanity on the issue of Global Warming

The real issue of the Global Warming debate is what to do about it? The answer is not to exacerbate the problem and starve the world as a New Report Ask Western Governments to Reconsider Biofuels illustrates.

Obama the Cheshire Cat

Criticism of Holder Dominate Senate Hearing on Possible Successor has got some the dumbest of the G.O.P. Southern Anti-Immigration ideologues, that would be Sessions of Alabama and Vitter of Louisiana,  flummoxed.  Loretta Lynch the Attorney General nominee before the panel has declared the President's executive decisions this past fall as legal. In fact she pretty much can answer the Senate panel of Republican inquisitors with impunity with the certain knowledge they so much prefer her to the current Attorney General so that she gets away with an easy lob. “You’ve asked how I will be different from Eric Holder,” Ms. Lynch told Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas. “I will be Loretta Lynch.” 

Then on the other hand Speaker Boehner's unilateral invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to address Congress without consultation with President Obama is considered so unseemly that the result is counterproductive for Republicans and Israel. 

And finally proposing to lock out oil and gas exploration development of the shore area in ANWR area in Alaska and yet on the other hand proposing to open up offshore drilling in Eastern Atlantic shore, a much easier and less despoiling activity than in Alaska.   

So little Publicity on a Real ISIS Defeat

ISIS bit off more than it could chew when dealing with Kurdish Kobani in Northern Syria.  ISIS was not defeated by military airstrikes but by a lack of political will to counter the Kurd's unified body politic and its strong sense of self preservation. To defeat ISIS in the Sunni regions of Syria and Iraq it will require a moderate Sunni body politic that is as unified and persistent as are the Kurdish.

Marcus Borg

I only recently discovered Marcus Borg for which I am ever thankful.

Paul Krugman's Ending Greece's Nightmare

The depressing part of Ending Greece's Nightmare are the comments selected by New York Times editor's regarding the editorial.  Nowhere is there an acknowledgement of how a Ludwig von Mises Austrian School economics austerity solution in a pricked giant asset bubble atmosphere fosters another World War. Austerity is causing a Neo Nazi surge not only in Germany but in countries from Greece to Sweden. Von Mises was a intolerant snob.  His economic theory applied inappropriately will cause revolution.  Greece's new socialist leader should let the mob lynch the Euro before Europe strangles Greece to death.

27 January Comment:

Tsiprais don't negotiate, just drop out of the Euro now!  

Another Case of the GOP Shooting itself in the Head

"Playing Politics in Iran" is a New York Times editorial.  The GOP right regularly pulls on patriotism as a core motivator.  I can't think of anything more unpatriotic then to use a foreign leader to divide the President and the Congress as has Speaker of the House Boehner with his unilateral invitation to Prime Minister Netanyahu to address Congress.

“Super PACs” with names like "Women Against Hillary", "Just Say No to Hillary", "Stop Hillary and Defeat Hillary"

"Clinton Opponents Hone New Barbs" is a New York Times analysis of the upcoming counter to Hillary in 2016 which fails to consider one thing. Promoting an irrational hate filled super PAC against her is a great money making scheme!  You have really stupid donors sending money for a cause where no spend is promised.  Its a chain letter where money is used to raise more money and give a really nice life style for the money raisers. The success of these letters must grate real political operatives seeing money sucked away from the electoral machine they seek to fund.

Next Stop is Vietnam

I am reading James Fallows "Why do the Best Soldiers in the World Keep Losing?" in the Atlantic monthly and then in today's New York Times there is "Pentagon will send Trainers to Aid Some Syrian Rebels."  When will we learn that a fighting force without a functional political entity that fairly distributes, polices and adjudicates among its people is worthless?  Northeastern Syria has Kurdish areas that must unify with Iraq's Kurdistan government so that their fighting forces are useful.  Has the Obama Administration made the decision to promote this unification?  I hope so because otherwise we just keep losing by falling into decisions that lack a winning outcome.

Top down Peace Talks in Syria and Libya ?

"Kerry Supports Syrian Peace Talks in Russia" and "Fearing Total Chaos in Libya, U. N. Plans New Peace Talks" are two headlines featuring diplomats ready to negotiate peace in completely failed states. I can't see ISIS black hooded executioner giving a dam what is decided by diplomats in Geneva.

Too Big to Fail and a Really Poor Investment

My perspective is both Economic and Political.  When Jamie Dimon says "Banks are under Assault" what he really means is that his all encompassing bank, J P Morgan Chase, is a giant sloth that can't get out of its own way.  Chase is a dull utility doing a good job of delivering bank services to the masses but with little profit opportunity.  J P Morgan investment bank on the other hand has had its bright lights picked off by private equity firms so that it is incapable of generating a decent return. All together it is a lousy investment that is begging for the return of Glass-Steagall where banks were split into commercial and investment banks. Commercial banks were regulated and insured while the investment banks were less regulated and not insured.  Investment banks can be less regulated because their customers are well educated in finance and should understand a good or bad deal without need of Elizabeth Warren.  That Jamie wants to protect his empire is understandable but it does not make his assault charge credible.      

Libertarian Conservative

Peter Wehner's editorial Conservatives in Name Only labels current conservatism as populism. If "Authentic conservatism has a high regard for things empirical, for facts that can lead us to better apprehend the truth." well then sign me up, because a real Conservative is a Libertarian, not an Authoritarian.

A Cure for Spain's Malaise

Fueled by Rotten Eggs, An Annual Mock Coup Mirrors Spain's Mood describes an annual ritual coup d' etat celebrated in Ibi Spain.  A Libertarian view versus Spain's classic Authoritarian heritage would do much to fix the its current malaise.  Corruption is and has always been a big problem because of centralized decision making.  Really federalizing the country with a minimal central government would do much to take decision making locally and thereby reduce corruption.  Federalizing would also solve the separatist problem of Catalonia and the Basque country among others, Galicia I hear is making separatist noises, as well. Spain's model should be like Switzerland (Confederation Helvetica) where people speaking French, German and Italian are proud to be Swiss and yet have a government structure where they hardly talk to each other.

Conservative is not an Economic Ideology

Ariel Malka and Michael Inzlicht's The Paradox of the Free Market Liberal editorial suffers from the misconception that a Conservative is anything other than one who wishes to preserve an old stable order.   Vladimir Putin uses the same political messages to Russian Conservatives despite their wish for a re-distributive economic model.  Free market ideology is neither Left (Liberal in the new sense of the label) or Right (Conservative) but rather Libertarian as opposed to Authoritarian, ergo the problem with the left right universal shorthand of politics.

Ethics Training?

Teach Congress a Lesson is laughable in its earnestness.  Asking congress men and women to act ethically when they are in a perpetual campaign money raising mode so as to get reelected is an impossible request, no matter how well it is taught. The only counter to the influence of rent seekers looking for government to bend the rules their way is to reduce the investment value of a politician's career with term limits.  Currently its impossible to ask Congress to put term limits on its members by drawing an Amendment to be ratified by the States.  I recently discovered the possibility of States having conventions that could begin the Amendment ratification process and leave Congress's incumbents out of it.   Terms limits for Congressmen and Senators would be a simple to write long term remedy to our national sclerosis and as an Amendment would increase our liberty.