Category Archives: Politics

Land of the Peckerwoods

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One of the strangest phenomena that I am aware of is the matter of Po-folk republicans. You know, the folks who are the working dirt poor, but somehow are abidingly aligned with deep conservatism?  These folk are part of the masses who follow the GOP propaganda organs- Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. It is beyond my comprehension as to how people who are at the bottom of Ronald Reagan’s trickle down economics cascade can support policies that clearly give preference to the wealthy and to corporations. WTF???

So, what about the Land of the Peckerwoods? Margaret and Helen put it well-

Margaret dear, I need your help sorting all this out.   Rush Limbaugh has a daily audience of 14 million morons- give or take a few rednecks – Howard excluded of course.   So are we to believe that they all want Obama to fail?   Do I have that right?  I am a little confused by this recent turn of events because weren’t these the same peckerwoods who got so upset a  few years back when a famous country western singer told about 2,000 people at a concert in London that she was ashamed that George Bush was from her home state?  

Actually I believe her exact quote was, “Just so you know, we’re on the good side with y’all. We do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.”   If I am not mistaken, conservatives everywhere were enraged – albums were burned, death threats ensued.  It was treason.

 Well put, Helen dear. I have a lot to say about this topic as well, but much of it is dripping in bile.

Indignation of the Self-Righteous Self-Made

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There is an undercurrent of disatisfaction that is surfacing regarding the rescue of homeowners who got themselves into bad mortgage arrangements. Talking heads like the guy on CNBC are going off about how wrong it is that citizens who were more clever about their spending habits should have to pay for the mistakes of those who made bad choices.

As a first order approximation, it is hard to argue that we should line up to provide this payout.  If you make bad judgments based on greed, ignorance, or simple miscalculation, the theory is that in an ideal free market you should be free to suffer the consequences as well as the benefits.

That’s fine. Except that we do not have an ideal free market.  In this particular bust, the risks of mortgage trading were not accurately communicated to investors or even particularly well understood by anyone. The macro effect of a large number of mortgagees who are suddenly unable to deal with a large interest rate uptick in their adjustable rate mortgages (ARM) was under appreciated by most.

Adjustable rate mortgages and the subsequent investment instruments that followed were dreamed up by somebody- but probably not by hourly workers or anyone outside real estate and finance. There was a kind of wink-of-the-eye understanding between banks, mortgage brokers, builders, and the real estate business. Not only was there the invention of the ARM and the degradation of qualification standards, there was a nationwide marketing campaign aimed at marginal buyers. This real estate boom was financed in part by mortgage instruments designed to capture marginal borrowers.

The previous owner of the home that I presently occupy was a mortagage broker who had hit the big time at the start of this bubble.  After the signatures were on paper, he told his wife that she could have the BMW that she had wanted from the equity.  Mortgage brokering was practically a cottage industry and many people were making money.

Real estate agents knew this of course. They knew that easy qualification was available and they continued to do what they always do:  push buyers into the most home they could afford.  It was a sellers market and real estate speculation was rampant. Builders were routinely putting up spec homes and selling them like hotcakes.

This is not just a problem limited to greedy buyers. A whole business phenomenon grew into being around the housing boom. Lending institutions, mortgage brokers, real estate brokers, title companies, builders, and buyers all bought into a dream built upon sand. Buyers may have been guilty of bad judgement, but it was facilitated by entire industry ready and willing to make it happen.  

So, are the angry men we see on television justified in their assertion that they should not be forced to help bail out those facing foreclosure? I suppose the position you take depends on your vision of what civilization should look like. I think  if you investigate the self-righteous self-made, you’ll find that many of them benefitted in part by the distribution of wealth at some scale. Inheritance money, Pell grants, scholarships, good mentoring, good fortune, talented parenting, and many other forms of benefit that are not necessarily distributed by bank deposit. Simple hard work is rarely enough.

The parties involved in this fiasco should bear the brunt of it themselves to a large extent. That means that lending institutions should not be entitled to the profits they were anticipating and the borrowers should not be entitled to large equity on overvalued homes. There should be suffering on the part of all participants.

Fiat Lux! Sen. Gregg’s Moment of Clarity

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Senator Judd Gregg has seen the light. He has had a moment of pure, crystalline insight and has witnessed truth and clarity unfold before his eyes.

Yeah, right.

You have to wonder what kind of pressures were put to bear on him to reject the nomination for commerce secretary. A personal call from Rush Limbaugh? A whisper campaign from conservative cells? Perhaps criticism from the official organ of GOP doctrine, Fox News, was just too much for him. Then again, he might be fickle.

This resignation reduces to one more soldier lining up in the GOP phalanx, preparing for extended battle with the Democrats. It is striking how uniformly GOP soldiers have rejected what many thought was axiomatic– that bipartisanship was, if not necessary, at least highly desirable for the good of the whole.

During the 2008 campaign, the concept of cooperation between parties was pulled frequently from its carrying case by candidate McCain and displayed like sacred icon of civics.

But McCain’s claim of bipartisanship was evidence of the true nature of his bohemian political composition. Bipartisanship and whatever civic merit it might represent is certainly not a plank in the GOP platform. Sen. McCain has shut his maverick hole and is now playing ball with his team.

Sen. Gregg will be rubbed with GOP annointing oil and when the delerium has cleared, he’ll sheepinshly fall into line with the rest.

GOP setting up for a repeat of 1994

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It is interesting to watch the GOP setting up a 2010 slam dunk like a bunch of beach vollyball players. After the House Dems served the bail-out bill across the political net, the House GOP tapped the ball vertically to give the Senate a chance to scramble under it and slam it in the face of president Obama who’s standing next to the net, doe-eyed with optimism.

While Obama is making nice with the GOP by trying to be cooperative, the House Dems load the bill with goodies like ravenous college students load their scuffed melamine plates at an all-you-can-eat salad bar. To the delight of the GOP, they now have a plausibly deniable excuse for being uncooperative with the Obama administration. And the Housed Dems have served it up on a garnished platter.

The GOP leadership exclaims with alligator tears dripping onto their tailored suits, “How can we possibly accept the imposition of such tremendous debt on future generations of Americans? We believe, like Ronald Reagan, that tax cuts are the best stimulus for America.” Harumph, grunt, snort.

The Dem world view is to embrace new ideas and use government as a lever for doing good. The GOP world view is that government is bad, except for defense of property, and the economic Darwinism of the market should determine how civilization is shaped. Liberals tend to be eclectic and less focused on tangible goals. Conservatives tend to be doctrinaire and acquisitive. Obviously, there are exceptions.

President Obama is foolishly assuming that GOPers are just like Dems at heart. If only they could sup together they could find common ground. What the Obama Dems have failed to grasp is that the GOP wants to annex that common ground for their own new subdivision.

The GOP is plainly setting up for a turnaround in the upcoming 2010 midterm election. They are priming their huddled supporters for a campaign of  Limbaugh bile and Hannity disaffection with the Obama administration, in the same manner that Gingrich did in 1994 to the Clinton Administration by riling up the bible-belt like a nest of hornets.

The truth is that the GOP does not share the aspirations annunciated by the Obama Dems. The GOP leadership are more like Mongolian horsemen and the Dems are like a bunch of sod farmers. The only hope the sod farmers have is that the Mongolians will fall off their horses again.

It’s too painful to watch.

Dark Spot

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Darkness as Metaphor

Darkness as Metaphor

The photo credit goes to Marc Imhoff, Project Scientist for NASA’s Terra satellite, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.  Shown at night are Japan and the Korean Penninsula.

Golly, I wonder what yawning chasm of darkness cries out for light? Hint: It is run by a shrimpy Latter Day Stalinist.

The House GOP. Hear Them Squeal!

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Poor GOP. The party of values, Tom DeLay, and Karl Rove. Now that they are the loyal opposition, they seem to have forgotten their time in the sun. Remember the good old days when Majority Leader Tom “The Exterminator” Delay ran roughshod over house Dems? The tide has turned and today they are whining vociferously about the lack of input into legislation.  Should they be surprised at like treatment? Actually, they are not getting like treatment. Boehner and party have been asked to participate in problem solving and, naturally, they have reverted to their rabid, atavistic reflex for eating the liver of any democrat within reach.

Russia to Produce More Aircraft Carriers

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Russian President Dmitri Medvedev announced recently, while on board the carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, that they will begin an aggressive campaign for the production of aircraft carriers in the next two years. In 2007, Admiral of the Fleet Vladimir Masorin, announced that within 20 to 30 years, Russia would have two carrier strike groups consisting of three carriers each. Russian style carriers are smaller than US carriers and have more defensive capability, reportedly giving them more maneuverability.

But to construct and service a major fleet, Russia needs a major port facility like Sevastopol, in the Ukraine, with its craggy coastline. Unfortunately for Russia (or more ominously, for the Ukrainians), a lease agreement with the Ukraine will expire in 2017. Reports suggest that the Ukraine is not interested in renewing this lease.

On the technical side, building a metal warship brings many kinds of problems that makers of fiberglass yachts and canoes don’t have to contend with. Testing for magnetic silencing and degaussing is one of them.

Fissile Molten Salt Reactors

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Like it or not, the world is fitted with a web of nuclear power infrastructure. And, like it or not, we have inherited the chore of managing nuclear materials and industries from preceding generations. The question that begs to be answered is, how should we go forward with this legacy of nuclear power technology? Do we plod along maintaining  the status quo? Do we replace aging nuclear plants with non-nuclear facilities? Or, do we ramp up with more nuclear plants?

On the pro-nuclear side, alternative reactor schemes are surfacing.  Reactor designs that have been proposed for years are showing up on the internet and into the daylight.

One intriguing design utilizes a fissile molten salt that is circulated through a moderator assembly and cycled through a heat exchanger. In this scheme, the fuel is also a working heat transfer fluid. It is called a liquid fluoride reactor.  Many kinds of molten salt compositions are possible, but one is composed of (72 LiF, 16 BeF2, 12 ThF4, 0.3 UF4).  The designs I’ve seen use continuous fuel processing to keep an optimal fuel composition in use. The reactor described in the previous reference has a negative temperature coefficient, meaning that the fuel becomes less reactive as the temperature rises. This is an important safety attribute.

There is no point in a recital of the technical details here. The reader can follow the links if interested.

A Constitution in Need of a Few Revisions

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An article in the Alantic Monthly by Garrett Epps entitled “The Founders Great Mistake” offers some observations on weaknesses in the US constitution regarding the Presidency.  In particular –

The most dangerous presidential malfunction might be called the “runaway presidency.” The Framers were fearful of making the president too dependent on Congress; short of impeachment—the atomic bomb of domestic politics—there are no means by which a president can be reined in politically during his term. Taking advantage of this deficiency, runaway presidents have at times committed the country to courses of action that the voters never approved—or ones they even rejected.

Epps offers several examples of runaway presidency. The example of Andrew Johnson is particularly good-

Andrew Johnson was the next unelected runaway. Politically, he had been an afterthought. But after Lincoln’s assassination, Johnson adopted a pro-Southern Reconstruction policy. He treated the party that had nominated him with such scorn that many contemporaries came to believe he was preparing to use the Army to break up Congress by force. After Johnson rebuffed any attempt at compromise, the Republican House impeached him, but the Senate, by one vote, refused to remove him from office. His obduracy crippled Reconstruction; in fact, we still haven’t fully recovered from that crisis.

Epps, a law professor at the University of Baltimore, points out the origin of the mysterious electoral college-

The system that the Framers developed for electing the president was, unfortunately, as flawed as their design of the office itself. When Madison opened discussion on presidential election in Philadelphia, he opined that “the people at large” were the “fittest” electorate. But he immediately conceded that popular election would hurt the South, which had many slaves and few voters relative to the North. To get around this “difficulty,” he proposed using state electors. Electoral-vote strength was based on a state’s total population, not on its number of voters—and the South received representation for three-fifths of its slaves both in the House of Representatives and in the Electoral College.

The electoral college was merely a scheme to manipulate the weighting of ballots in states with a low fraction of voters among the population. In other words, it was a “duct tape and baling wire fix” to accomodate the slave states embarrassingly low fraction of voting adults. This antebellum artifact should be abandoned in favor of simple vote counting.

The citizens of the USA need to have a better mechanism with which to fire a President who is crooked or incompetent. The provision for impeachment carries a high threshold for activation. A president must engage in some kind of serious malfeasance to provoke the congress to vote for impeachment. But the application of this provision has been very nonlinear. Clinton was impeached for lying about consensual sex. Bush arguably lied or at least tolerated falsehoods leading to the invasion of Iraq and the resulting civil war with tens of thousands of deaths. Depending on the congress for an even application of its powers is a sketchy proposition.

The framers of the constitution did not anticipate the situation where an incompetent president might be elected by “low-information voters”.  A government that has usurped the consensus of the electorate and is allowed to remain in play because of a fixed period of tenure is a government that serves only itself.  This is wrong and we should not stand for it.