Month: August 2012

Forget all the charts that document the falling wages for those at the lower rungs of the income ladder and flat wages for those a bit higher up.  Don’t pay any attention to the negative net worth for those at the bottom and the paltry net worth for those slightly better off.  The NYTimes today saw no reason to include such economic reminders in two stories today.  Other than the editorial decision to publish those two stories on the same day didn’t offer any words for readers to connect the two.

First up: If A House Can Cost This Much, Maybe It’s Art

Since Citigroup’s former chairman, Sandy Weill, sold his penthouse at 15 Central Park West late last year for $88 million, or $13,000 a square foot, to a Russian billionaire, sales prices in Manhattan have been flirting with $100 million, and brokers say it’s only a matter of time until the barrier is broken.
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Something is certainly leading to record prices for what brokers describe interchangeably as trophy or art properties. An apartment at One57, a tower under construction across from Carnegie Hall, sold for $90 million and another is in contract for a sum said to be over $90 million (though less than the list price of $115 million.) The casino executive Steve Wynn, who is also a prominent art collector, bought a penthouse at the Ritz-Carlton on Central Park South for $70 million in June. A duplex co-op on Park Avenue sold for $52 million in May.
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The brokers seem stunned and perplexed by this buying frenzy by the very well heeled.  Dare even to suggest that the rich are — well, sort of stupid.

But, he said, “they’re confusing price with art. You’d think that titans of industry would be very individualistic about their acquisitions, but at the very top, there’s a herd mentality. You get one or two very large transactions that grab headlines and then it’s like a light switch goes off. In New York, this happened in the second half of 2010, and since then it’s been very intense. The size of what’s happening is unprecedented. How long can this go on? You see this kind of behavior and you have to wonder.”

As if all that money shoveled up to the wealthy since the financial meltdown was going to sit around getting moldy or be used to create jobs.  These people have so much money that they’re also throwing gobs of it at a loser GOP ticket.  Calculating that that investment will also payoff.

So, who pays the price for the US national consensus that the rich aren’t rich enough?  Too many around the world to name, but the subsistence hard workers mining the natural resources to feed “our way of life” are definitely part of it.  Craig Blankenhorn supplies the pictures of those closer to home denied a place to live at all in Young And Homeless.

A society that cannot supply living wage jobs to all and provide affordable housing for everyone before others get multiple mansions and $100 million apartments should bury its head in shame.  Then get its act together and fix this shameful situation.  

 

I think it’s a stupid notion to look at this election as a troubled marriage between the president and the people who voted him into office. Maybe there are some people who are disappointed in the president, but no one likes Mitt Romney. And I mean no one. But it’s not all about Mitt Romney. The Republican Party has spent the last twelve years demonizing Muslims. It’s been bashing gays with gusto since at least 2004. It’s been blasting away at Latinos ever since President Bush got the crazy notion of doing immigration reform. It’s actively doing everything it can to suppress the black vote. It insults Europe at every opportunity. There is one Jewish Republican in all of Congress. The GOP has been waging an all-out assault on women’s reproductive rights and has opposed equal pay for equal work with religious fervor. Who the fuck is left who might might want to vote for these assholes?

Where this administration has fallen short, whether it be through obstruction or lack of vision or even a lack of nerve, the Republicans offer no succor. Want Gitmo closed? Romney won’t do that. Want out of Afghanistan quicker? Romney doesn’t. Want cramdown for underwater mortgages? Don’t ask Mitt. Want more regulation and accountability on Wall Street? You know the answer to that. What a more equitable tax system? Please.

And we can go down the list.

Want more investment in schools?
Want less defense spending?
Want more sane drug laws?
Want prison reform?
Want a less bellicose foreign policy?
Want a tougher line with Israel?
Want more humanitarian relief and debt forgiveness?
Want more economic protectionism?
Want a stronger labor movement?
Want to balance the budget?

Want to protect Social Security and Medicare?
Want to address climate change?
Want cheaper college tuition?

I mean, you can find fault with the Obama administration on many, many things, but you won’t find any movement in a better direction from the Republican Party on any issue under the sun.

This is not about people being disappointed in Obama. This is about the Republican Party having very unpopular ideas and a determination to insult and alienate almost everyone in the county who doesn’t strongly resemble Karl Rove.

Why aren’t the Republicans doing better?

What a dumb question. Why are they polling competitively at all?

These Republican strategists are trying to figure out how to get people to divorce Barack Obama. They ought to give up that moronic idea. They aren’t winning because they aren’t very appealing.

Karl Rove should have been frog-marched into federal prison. Instead, we get this:

On the final morning of the Republican National Convention, Karl Rove took the stage at the Tampa Club to provide an exclusive breakfast briefing to about 70 of the Republican Party’s highest-earning and most powerful donors. During the more than hour-long session, Rove explained to an audience dotted with hedge fund billionaires and investors—including John Paulson and Wilbur Ross—how his super PAC, American Crossroads, will persuade undecided voters in crucial swing states to vote against Barack Obama. He also detailed plans for Senate and House races, and joked, “We should sink Todd Akin. If he’s found mysteriously murdered, don’t look for my whereabouts!”

Then Rove pleaded with his audience for more money—much more.

Making death threats against a sitting U.S. Congressman, regardless of whether they’re from your own party, is just not funny at all. Plus, Rove’s entire political operation should be illegal.

Apparently there’s a fair amount of consternation on the right about the Obama campaign’s slogan, “Forward.”.  (Although there’s disagreement as to whether it proves Pres. Obama is a communist, a fascist, or a Wisconsinite.)  Even some (presumably non-ideological) grammarians are in a tizzy about it.

I think they’re missing the point.  The Obama campaign is not inspiring and exhorting its followers to join in a pseudo-Maoist Great Leap Forward!  It’s stating—in straightforward, un-italicized, un-bolded script—the campaign’s calm, unemotional determination and resolve.  Forward.

And in doing that, it taps into a little-remarked-upon but nonetheless significant undercurrent that, in part, accounts for the steadiness of Pres. Obama’s polling numbers all year:  the memory most Democrats have of the Bush presidency, and their unshakeable commitment not to allow “that crowd” back into the White House this year.

We are not going back:

   
• to the most bellicose foreign policy since the McKinley administration.

   

• to the politics of privatizing Social Security and Medicare.

   

• to the national shame of letting a great American city drown because the federal government is run by people who don’t care about the physical infrastructure the government builds or the administrative infrastructure that makes government work in times of crisis.

   

• to the policies that led to a global financial collapse, a brutal recession, and an ongoing depression that we are still trying to climb out of nearly five years later.

There’s no need (and no spare time or energy) for emotional displays.  There’s just the need to take care of business and get Barack Obama re-elected.

This is the “Forward.” of  Harriet Tubman in the middle of a rescue operation on the Underground Railroad pulling out her revolver, pointing it at the head of an escaping slave who’s had second thoughts about returning to his plantation, and saying flatly, “You go on or die.”

This is the “Forward.” of Ulysses Grant, upon being promoted to Lieutenant General and given command the Union Army, determining to go on the offensive and attack the Confederacy and its armies on all fronts.

This is the “Forward.” of Bob Moses organizing the Freedom Summer with the cold, calculated, hard-won knowledge that putting Northern white college students in harm’s way along with Southern black working folk might be what was needed to break the back of the terrorist reign of Jim Crow in Mississippi.

This is the “Forward.” of anyone who’s partway through a difficult task and is determined to see it through to the finish…and is equally determined not to allow a gang of vandals to destroy their half-finished hard work.

It’s also the deep-rooted and far-seeing “Forward.” of gospel music—of  “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around” and “Can’t Give Up Now“.

It may not be a sexy (or easy) story line for reporters and pundits covering the campaign.  And it’s certainly not the secret communist takeover of fevered right-wing imaginings.  But for those who look at the Republican Party’s talk of “restoring” America, and see a party determined to “restore” uppity women, dark-skinned subversives, godless homosexuals and class-warfare advocates to their “proper” place in society, that doesn’t matter.  Because we’re not going back to that America.  We’re going…

Forward.

Crossposted at: http://masscommons.wordpress.com/

At least for now, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted’s devious plot to steal the election for Mitt Romney has been derailed. A district judge (appointed by Clinton and on senior status) has ruled that Ohioans can vote on the Saturday, Sunday, and Monday before Election Day, despite the persistent efforts of Husted and the Ohio GOP to eliminate early voting.

In 2004, the GOP was able to suppress the Democratic vote in the Buckeye state by ensuring that Democratic strongholds had insufficient voting machines and, thus, many hours-long lines. In some places, people were still voting at midnight, although there was obviously substantial drop off from people who couldn’t or wouldn’t spend that much time waiting to vote.

In 2008, early voting prevented those kinds of lines and the Democrats got the votes they deserved. The Republicans have been doing everything they can think of to restore the situation they enjoyed in 2004. They even attempted to allow early voting in Republicans counties and deny it in Democratic ones. When the Obama administration sued, they claimed that the administration was trying to suppress the military vote. In fact, it was the Republicans who were trying to let the military vote on days and places where civilians would not be allowed to vote. Obama sued to allow everyone to vote, not to take away the vote from the military. And, for now, he won.

[Jon] Husted spokesman Matt McClellan and a representative of Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said the state’s chief elections officials was reviewing the decision to determine whether to comply or proceed with further appeals.

Perhaps they will appeal.

As Nate Silver discussed several days ago, presidential candidates have averaged a 5-6 point bounce from their conventions since 1964. Challengers, on average, have enjoyed larger bounces. And candidates who are performing below where the metrics say they should be also have enjoyed bigger bounces. Barry Goldwater and Bill Clinton (1992) both enjoyed a 14 point bounce after their conventions. On the other hand, John Kerry basically got nothing out of his convention.

Mitt Romney is a challenger and he is also doing worse than many metrics suggest he should be doing, so he entered the convention in good shape to get some major benefits. It remains to be seen if those benefits will materialize, but Barry Goldwater’s example is illustrative of why no one should place too much importance on convention bounces. Today, Goldwater’s convention is remembered mainly as a freak-show where the candidate said that extremism is no vice. And, in any case, Goldwater’s bounce did him no good, as he went on to lose by epic proportions. Romney’s convention may be remembered as Marco Rubio’s coming out party, or as Clint Eastwood’s strangest moment. However, I doubt it will be remembered as the turning point of this campaign.

I doubt it, but we shall see. If Romney doesn’t get a 5-6 point bounce, I think we can close the book on this election.

Okay, I knew that the Republican Party has a deeply powerful, emotional, collective yearning for Ronald Reagan…or at least for the Ronald Reagan of their memories (and for the younger ones, of their imaginations).

But I didn’t think it would lead them to conclude that hauling out Clint Eastwood would be a good idea.  Dirty Harry retired almost 25 years ago.

I’m pretty sure that if Karl Rove were still alive, this never would have happened.

Crossposted at: http://masscommons.wordpress.com/

I’ve just been “watching” the convention on Twitter. It’s more fun that way. I’ll probably amble over to a television set at some point. At least tonight people are talking about Mitt Romney instead of themselves. That could be progress. So, what are your impressions so far? Are you almost ready to wake up tomorrow, drive over to Romney headquarters, and volunteer?

I’m glad that Ezra Klein wrote this column about how incredibly dishonest Paul Ryan’s speech was, but my reaction is still much like my reaction to fingernails on a chalkboard. Mr. Klein is so clearly pained by his inability to perform standard he said/she said/they both do it journalism that he’s practically begging people on the right not to send him hate mail. It’s like, “Oh my God, there’s no way to spin this as anything but a completely unprecedented level of dishonesty, but that makes us look biased. Don’t shoot the messenger. We’re not biased, I swear.”

I like the fact that Mr. Klein is willing to spell out his feelings because it’s honest. But it’s also telling. The extreme reluctance with which Mr. Klein finally concludes that he must call a spade a spade just demonstrates how much the GOP can get away with in the corporate media. After all, Klein has a lot more courage and integrity than your average corporate journalist. A lot more. And even he feels like he’s being roasted on a spit just by having to report this depressing news about the Romney campaign’s dishonesty.

There are at least two encouraging conclusions I reach after watching the Obama campaign’s new web video about Paul Ryan:

   
1. They’ve still got a sense of humor.  That’s important because having a sense of humor indicates that one has a sense of perspective—about oneself, about the world, about the campaign.  Humorless political campaigns (and campaign staff) are generally bad political campaigns, and they frequently end up hurting their own candidate more than the opponent.

   

2. They’ve been thinking a lot about how to use their new “Forward.” slogan. This entire video—script, sound, video and editing—is about Paul Ryan (and his big daddy running mate, Mitt Romney) wanting to take America backward.  It never mentions Pres. Obama.  It never mentions the “Forward.” slogan.  But “Forward.” is hanging there in the air, like the ending to “shave and a haircut…”.

Is there still time to increase my stake on the content of Joe Biden’s speech next week?

Crossposted at: http://masscommons.wordpress.com/