This Is Why I Read TBogg

On Obama's view of his much maligned liberal base:

But it is a sad fact of life that there are some many within the Obama White House who see the liberal base as someone you call up every four years for a quickie fuck and then don’t return their calls or respond to their texts for another four years.

On the next election:

I’ll still vote for him for no better reason than the fact that the alternatives range from abominable to “are you fucking kidding?” 

So all I can do is hope that he can change.

I haven't even started to think of what a second Obama term might look like, in large part due to the fact that it will be determined in large part by what happens in the Congressional elections next year. But I don't see it being much different from the first. It's guaranteed to be another four year shit show of GOP obstructionism and gridlock while Congress nibbles around the edges at with weak policies that nibble around the edges at the significant issues that ail the nation.

Or if you want the GOP version of the above, the next four years will look like OH MY GOD ARMAGEDDON WE ARE ALL GONNA FUCKING DIE FROM THE TYRANNY OF A SECOND TERM OF THE LIBERAL MARXIST KENYAN THAT IS PLANNING TO THROTTLE US ALL IN OUR SLEEP WITH EPA REGULATIONS AND TAXES!!!

I'll let you be the judge of which of those two scenarios is based in reality.

iOS/Android Gaming Goes Om Nom Nom Nom

And now for something completely apolitical. 

I thought this article was very interesting and quite the paradigm shift for Nintendo, were it ever to come to pass:

The rift highlights the dilemma President Satoru Iwata faces as consumers shun Nintendo devices to play games on iPhones, iPads and Facebook Inc.’s website. The flop of the 3DS debut prompted the company to cut prices 40 percent in Japan and 32 percent in the U.S., the first time the games developer has resorted to such a move within six months of a product’s debut.
Iwata, who’s said Nintendo will only make titles for its own products as long as he’s in charge, should scrap that strategy to avoid further alienating investors who’ve driven the stock to six-year lows, fund manager Masamitsu Ohki said. 

[...] 

Lower-than-expected demand for the 3DS, which Iwata blamed on the lack of hit titles, prompted Nintendo on July 28 to slash its profit forecast 82 percent, driving down the shares by as much as 21 percent the following day. They fell 0.2 percent to 11,430 yen, at the 3:10 p.m. close in Osaka trading, the lowest level since August 2005.
By comparison, profits at Cupertino, California-based Apple are climbing to records, helped by downloads of games such as Rovio Mobile Oy’s “Angry Birds” on the more than 200 million iPhones, iPads and iPods sold to date. Research firm Gartner Inc. said in January it expects global sales of mobile applications to almost triple to $15.1 billion this year.

This is another prime example of a prominent, soon to be former titan-of-industry refusing to innovate in the face of a rapidly changing marketplace and technology. I'd say this rivals cable and satellite companies refusing to offer a la carte programming as their customers flee in droves to services like Netflix and Hulu. At this point, refusing to develop content for iOS or Android devices is akin to saying you don't like or want free money. There's an enormous market out there that grows exponentially by the day, and Nintendo is short sighted, hard headed, and just plain stupid to not vie for a slice of that pie. No one's even suggesting they have to exit the hardware business entirely, just bring the beloved Nintendo franchises of Mario, Metroid, and Zelda to our phones. Although as this comic shows, doing so might create something of an issue with their pricing:

Yes, $40 is a little much for a crappy handheld game, especially when developers are churning out games in droves that provide just as much entertainment value. And many of these same games boast literally millions of downloads. Sure, there are some limitations for developing games for a smartphone, but they are a surprisingly good platform for gaming.  And they're not all about "matching cakes" either. Just look at Infinity Blade, which looks good enough to be on Xbox 360 or PS3, and which also reached $10 million in revenue in only 6-7 months after its launch. But Nintendo doesn't even need to limit itself to the $0.99 price point. I would happily pay $5.00 for a decent Nintendo game on my iPhone. Hell, I'd even pay $5.00 for old SNES/N64/GameCube games that I've already played and beaten multiple times (and we all know how much Nintendo loves to rehash old content). $5.00 is also more money than the grand total of $0.00 that I have been giving them for the last four years. Also, for Nintendo's love of motion gaming, the gyroscopes embedded in every smartphone provide unique opportunities for integration of Wii-like controls. 

Everyone needs a phone. Not everyone needs (or even wants) a Nintendo handheld gaming device or console. Smartphone ownership is only going to increase as they continue to saturate the market and become more and more available and affordable to the average consumer (remember when getting a camera phone was fancy and expensive?). It's just doesn't make any damned sense for Nintendo not to get on board with this. They are single handedly volunteering to firewall themselves off from a significant source of revenue and millions of customers, and they will pay for their stubbornness through the continued marginalization of their company.

(via 9 to 5 Mac)

Please Stop

By my count today, I’ve seen not less than three to five pieces at various news outlets with the basic message of “Obama must get tough with Republicans.” Spoiler alert: It’s not going to fucking happen. This horse has been beaten to death since the passage of the Affordable Care Act. It’s simply not how he operates, and it’s not going to happen. Yes, there are an infinite amount of arguments why it ostensibly should or ought to happen, but it won’t. You’ve got the wrong guy. He doesn’t want to put the gloves on and take the fight to the Republicans, he wants to break bread with them and cut deals and calmly draw a handkerchief from his pocket to wipe the GOP spittle off his face while turning the other cheek.

So please – stop writing these banal pieces about how Obama needs to transform into the Incredible Hulk. The man has doubled down time and again on his pious brand of post-partisanship, and his handlers fancy him as some sort of genius chess player playing a game that the rest of us are too stupid to understand. He’s had an innumerate amount of opportunities to drive a true populist message against the Republicans, and he chooses not to, preferring instead to let the GOP set the message and tone and the terms of the eventual deal that he “reluctantly” cuts.

Thank you and good night. 

Foreign Aid - the "Good" Kind

Pundits have endlessly been comparing recent legislative battles to those of their counterparts in the 90s, both in terms of similarity and because that was the last time we had a Democratic administration and a Republican House. Here’s another unfortunate similarity:

The Horn of Africa region has been parched by the worst drought in 60 years and the United Nations now estimates that 12.4 million people are facing severe food shortages and are in desperate need of aid. 

But while the U.N. says $2.5 billion is needed to alleviate the suffering only a little over $1 billion has so far been committed by donor nations. On Monday the U.N.’s humanitarian chief, Valerie Amos, called on the international community to do more. 

“A little less than two weeks ago, we declared a famine in two regions of Somalia,” said Amos, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. 

“Unless we see a massive increase in the response, the famine will spread to five or six more regions. Tens of thousands of Somalis have already died, and hundreds of thousands face starvation,” she told a press conference at U.N. headquarters in New York.

Somalia doesn't look much different now from when we attempted to intervene in a similar situation 19 years ago. Ending foreign aid consistently polls well with the public as a means of reducing the deficit and government spending, even though it accounts for an infinitesimally small portion of the federal budget. And I get it – why should we spend money abroad when we can’t even fix our own problems at home? But crises like endemic famine in Somalia are the very types of things that we ought to be seeking to end with these funds (see this New York Times story for an idea of just how far the country has deteriorated). Pissing $3 billion a year down a hole so that Israel - a nation with a flourishing economy and universal healthcare no less - can buy freedom bombs and tanks and Apaches from US defense contractors? Not so much.

And 1.3% GDP Constitutes Aggressive Expansion

Greg Sargent links to this piece and notes:

Why won’t Obama invoke the Constitutional option? In part because it would show that Congress can’t function, and the consequences of that alone could be severe.

Um, what? We're implying that what Congress has been doing for the last two years constitutes "functioning"?

A False Paradox of Choices

It seems to me that since his inauguration, the President has viewed most choices on policy issues as a binary one. On one hand, you have the "post-partisan/great conciliator" option, and the other is "hope and change/progressive policies/appeal to the base." I'd argue that the President has, for the most part, opted for the former, ostensibly because he does not want to hurt GOP fee-fees, which supposedly isolates independents, and because he doesn't want to appear as a radical liberal, which also supposedly isolates independents. Remember - there are few things more terrible in Washington than appearing to be liberal on anything. That is why people like Bernie Sanders and Dennis Kucinich are denounced as fringe players and loons while total fuckwads like Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman are Very Serious and Courageous Democrats. 

So here's the rub - the GOP and the teabaggers are going to paint him as a radical liberal socialist domestic terrorist regardless of how much ground he gives or the extent to which the final policy mirrors the GOP's own preferences or world views (see the Affordable Care Act, RomneyCare). 

So in that case, why not pursue true progressive ideals and policies that will rally your base? It is entirely possible to pursue a progressive agenda without isolating independents, as numerous recent polls have shown that progressive ideals are wildly popular with the American public - increased taxation on millionaires and billionaires and closing tax loopholes for corporations, ending our irresponsible wars and lust for global empire, sound regulations of the financial sector and other corporations, and the list goes on. 

Again, the GOP will paint him as a radical no matter what the President does or says, so he may as well at least let them paint him as such while he's, you know, actually pursuing a Democratic agenda on some of these issues instead of Republican-lite or compromise-for-the-sake-of-compromise-at-any-cost.

Rated Arg for Pirates

Fuck you:

You're Getting Old
Tags: SOUTH
PARKStan Marsh,Randy Marsh,more...

Great Picture

I was trying to find a better version of this but couldn't because the NYT's $40 million paywalled website sucks. Anyway, here is a semi-acceptable version:

You probably can't read the caption, but that is an African American child dressing up like President Obama for a Fourth of July parade float. Awesome. Amid the constant stream of hateful bull shit and implicit racism that is perpetually directed at the President, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that his election was a tremendously significant event both in cultural and ethnic terms.

And I like this picture even more because when I was young, there was an annual Fourth of July parade in my neighborhood. I would inevitably end up getting dressed up as Uncle Sam by my mother and sisters for our float. It's kinda cool to see this manifest itself in a new generation, albeit in a different and much more significant way. 

Dumb Jocks

I am not a big sports fan, but regardless I will never understand the point of causing thousands of dollars of damage, inciting mass chaos, and risking life and limb as a celebratory reaction to your sports team's big victory. It's really fucking stupid. Also, it reinforces the stereotype that die hard sports fans are a bunch of mouth-breathing, knuckle dragging, low intelligence ogres. There are more constructive ways to show your exultation. 

There are very few causes that merit this kind of civil unrest. Your stupid team winning the title is not one of them. At least these people got it right:

That's a completely awesome picture.


**Update**

That goes to show you how much of a sports idiot I am - that I thought that Canada won and not lost. Whatever. My original statement still stands.

Hope Is Not An Economic Policy

Related to my post from yesterday, I still have a really hard time understanding how we systematically ignore the counsel of experts when it comes to doing important things like, you know, running the largest economy in the world. There have been plenty of respected economists screaming for the last two years that we were pursuing wrongheaded or overly timid economic policies and that we've learned essentially nothing from the 1930s.

I guess this shouldn't be much of a mystery. The types of people that pursue public service typically do not do so in the interests of actually serving the public's interest, but rather to feed their own narcissistic power fetish. That and there is the added benefit of the fact that holding public office essentially guarantees your status as a millionaire for the rest of your days.

So I guess I just answered my own question. Obama is damned lucky that the Republicans have already conceded an enormous advantage in 2012 by means of their inane support for RyanCare. In any other case, with the economy continuing to struggle as badly as it is, he'd be facing a significantly steeper uphill climb for reelection. 

Saturday Afternoon

Too hot to do anything but be at the pool or cower indoors and play Xbox, but this has been stuck in my head.

Beltway Groupthink

I can't remember what story it was that I read that made me think of this, but I randomly thought of this term today:

Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within groups of people. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative ideas or viewpoints.

Sound like anyone you know? You know...maybe like, everyone in DC and the establishment media? Deficits hysteria? Budgets should be balanced through cuts and never revenue? FIghting multiple useless, prolonged wars is always an awesome idea?

Looks like the Wikipedia entry read my mind as well:

More recently, Dina Badie argues that the invasion of Iraq by the United States was driven by groupthink. According to Badie, groupthink was largely responsible for the shift in the U.S. administration’s view on Sadam Hussein that eventually led to military action in Iraq. After 9/11, “stress, promotional leadership, and intergroup conflict” were all factors that gave way to the occurrence of groupthink

New tag.

Ignorance Is Bliss

Related to my post from yesterday, I still have a really hard time understanding how we systematically ignore the counsel of experts when it comes to doing important things like, you know, running the largest economy in the world. There have been plenty of respected economists screaming for the last two years that we were pursuing wrongheaded or overly timid economic policies and that we've learned essentially nothing from the 1930s. Apparently it is because life is just easier when you kick the experts out of the room, with all their conflict-causing drama tantrums and tiresome views on how we might actually improve our economic outlook. 

I guess this shouldn't be much of a mystery. The types of people that pursue public service typically do not do so in pursuit of actually serving the public's interest, but rather to feed their own narcissistic power fetish. That and there is the added benefit of the fact that holding public office in America essentially guarantees your status as a multi-millionaire for the rest of your days.

So I guess I just answered my own question. Obama is damned lucky that the Republicans have already conceded an enormous advantage in 2012 by means of their inane support for RyanCare. In any other case, with the economy continuing to struggle as badly as it is, he'd be facing a significantly steeper uphill climb for reelection. 

Random Thought

Does anyone else find it completely insane and disgusting that the economic debate in the richest country/largest in the world centers entirely around not whether or not we should dismantle the safety net, but that the safety net must be dismantled to prevent Economic Enemy Number One from destroying the world? Or that Washington spends its days clutching its pearls over the deficit, and not the millions of unemployed Americans, or the severely depressed housing market? 

It's almost as if our elected class treats Medicare and Social Security as such irritable nuisances because their considerable personal wealth and cushy federal benefits belie their need for their existence. Perhaps they care little for the filthy, lazy, unemployed masses that struggles to keep their home or stares down at the grim prospect of never being able to sell it because they, the elected class, will never have to worry about securing employment themselves (there's always lobbying or becoming a bankster after they tire of the Beltway), and the only housing problem they know is the vexing decision of which of their many homes they should occupy on a given weekend.

There are alternatives to these policies and solutions to these problems - they have chosen to ignore those options. 

That's What She Said

Rick Santorum is apparently just weak at the knees at the mere thought of putting Santorum Sauce all over the "lips of every young Republican."

More sexual innuendo and hilarity on this over at Balloon Juice. And Santorum's tweet immediately made me think of this:

The Ring
Tags: SOUTH
PARKmore...

How about that young Republicans? You want Santorum's white foam in your face? Btw, South Park Studios is an outstanding website. You can pretty much search and find every clip from the show's entire library.

Accidental Education

Speaking of the Onion, this piece is similarly hilarious:

WASHINGTON—According to bewildered and contrite legislators, a major budgetary mix-up this week inadvertently provided the nation's public schools with enough funding and resources to properly educate students.

Sources in the Congressional Budget Office reported that as a result of a clerical error, $80 billion earmarked for national defense was accidentally sent to the Department of Education, furnishing schools with the necessary funds to buy new textbooks, offer more academic resources, hire better teachers, promote student achievement, and foster educational excellence—an oversight that apologetic officials called a "huge mistake."

[...]

Said House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), expressing remorse for the error, "I want to apologize to the American people. The last thing we wanted was for schools to upgrade their technology and lower student-to-teacher ratios in hopes of raising a generation of well-educated, ambitious, and skilled young Americans."

[...]

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) called for a full investigation into how the nation's schools were able to secure the necessary funds to monitor teachers and pay salaries based on performance.

"The fact that this careless mistake also ended up financing new teacher training programs, allowing educators to become more than just glorified babysitters, is disgraceful," Reid said. "Now we are left with a situation where schools can attract talented professionals who really want to teach our children, which will in turn create smarter and more motivated students who wish to one day make a contribution to society."

[...]

"Once these kids learn to read and think critically, you can never undo that," Boehner said. "In 20 years, we could be looking at a nightmare scenario in which vast segments of our populace are fully prepared to compete in the new global marketplace."

"It could take a whole generation to cancel out the effects of this," Boehner added.

A little sad, but funny. And true.