liberalhistorian

liberalhistorian

28p

11 comments posted · 8 followers · following 0

7 years ago @ The Reality-Based Comm... - Apologies to Bernie Sa... · 0 replies · +4 points

I think the superdelegate idea has gone a long way to undermine Will Rogers's point. It's a brilliant internal check on the possibility of another McGovern slipping out of the northeast woods and trashing liberalism for a generation. Also the reforms regarding the "winner-take-all" primaries also help insure the party is governable and coheres. Still to do: Cut down the caucuses.

Lastly, of course I know comparing Mr. Sanders to McGovern isn't fair.... to Mr. McGovern:

• McGovern was only 46 years old in 1968. No where near being a one-trick octogenarian.

* McGovern was a war hero. Flew in WW2. Actually risked everything for his country. Sanders is a career bureaucrat.

* McGovern actually became an outstanding student and college professor who would never would have described his schooling as "boring and irrelevant".

8 years ago @ The Reality-Based Comm... - Coates vs. Sanders on ... · 0 replies · +3 points

The following is my observation on this subject as it sits in the world today. Pardon me if it comes off seeming a bit flippant and off topic. I do not mean to cheapen Mr. Loury's excellent response to Mr. Coates. However I would suggest that what I write below is actually far more poignant than it first appears:

The discussion of black reparations is purely academic. Only a smattering of our intelligentsia is engaged in that conversation. That makes it about as culturally relevant as the Black Hole Information Paradox.

However interesting enough....

The subject of white "cowboy" reparations is getting a massive amount of national play. Apropos of nothing and yet everything, I would suggest to those who really believe in black reparations, that they journey to Harney County Oregon posthaste, set up some tents, ask supporters to see them free food, grab some mic time, and demand their share of free land as well.

8 years ago @ The Reality-Based Comm... - The moral universe of ... · 0 replies · +1 points

Couple of side bar comments:

...and apparently the buzz in the automotive world is that “everyone” was doing it...

Anybody who thinks Mr. Cook and Apple can't disrupt the automobile industry clearly isn't paying attention to the automobile industry. It seems designed more by cads than CAD. Smart elegant design? The auto industry is retrogressive: low hanging fruit. The whole damn kit: from CEOs to Dealers to Mechanics you can't trust. It's a moral atrocity.

Apple can and will seize the wheel and make a ton of money doing so...

As Paul Krugman points out, the scandal makes a nice counterpoint with Jeb Bush’s latest “anti-regulation” rant.

Another nice counterpoint: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27867-cod-...

Of course there are many others. And of course there are also many cases of over-regulation. But you don't win an argument for smart regulation unless you have plenty of examples to draw from. I suspect Mrs. Clinton will be well-armed that way come the big time debates with Jeb!

8 years ago @ The Reality-Based Comm... - Another day of shame o... · 0 replies · +1 points

...or about three professor-years with fringes.

Interesting choice of a ruler.
Given that the public university system is morally corrupt for floating itself on the backs of adjunct-serfs.

So what's the translation in terms of thousands of adjunct hours (without fringes of course)?

8 years ago @ The Reality-Based Comm... - Gay marriage, divorce,... · 0 replies · +5 points

Agree 100% with your takedown of Mr. Cruz.
There's another issue afloat here: nepotism.

My local paper reported today:

Kim Davis worked there for 27 years when her mother ran the place.
Now Kim is running the shop and her own son is on the public payroll.

Ever live in a small town?
I did, and this sort of blatant nepotism brings back ugly memories.
One of the happiest days of my life was when my particular small town disappeared in the U-haul's rear view.

8 years ago @ The Reality-Based Comm... - Twice as fast, half as... · 0 replies · +1 points

....so what if they're ground under by competition from new actors who don't need to bother with those pesky rules and regulations? Let them adapt or perish, eh?

Actually that is exactly what is going to happen to Uber drivers. Uber is one of many huge companies working seriously on driverless cars. In the not to distant future the car you summon from your phone will arrive sans a driver. And getting about will be cheaper yet.

Today's Uber drivers are today's Cabbies are tomorrow's buggy whip makers.
And as far as I know, there is no fourth law of robotics stating that:

4) No human being shall lose their livelihood to a robot.

8 years ago @ The Reality-Based Comm... - The higher a monkey cl... · 1 reply · +1 points

The failure of the Republicans who are actually running for President to denounce Donald Trump’s nativism is the best recent illustration of that point.

So you are claiming that make Republican Gov. Paul LePage's recent behavior is merely the "second best illustration"? Surely, when a Governor decides that he is above the traditional and simple constitutional rules that have run Main's State Houses for decades, surely, sirens should blowing at hurricane power.

9 years ago @ The Reality-Based Comm... - Bureaucrats who can't ... · 0 replies · +1 points

Rules is rules
said the robot bureaucrat.

Does not compute
responded the human.

9 years ago @ The Reality-Based Comm... - Annals of commerce · 0 replies · +1 points

"I guess the one who gets to play with the most toys at once wins."

Updated for the New Gilded Age:

"I guess the one who gets to play with the most toys on his own Hawaiian island at once wins."
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/billionaire-no...

9 years ago @ The Reality-Based Comm... - Cannabis legalization:... · 0 replies · +2 points

Price of admission for sure with this paragraph:

So far, my attempts to put political and organizational muscle behind the idea of smart legalization have merely illustrated the wisdom of Ralph Yarborough’s maxim, “They ain’t nuthin’ in the middle of the road but yaller lines and dead armadillas.” I don’t find life as political roadkill especially uncomfortable, but it does get frustrating. It’s not just that continued prohibition and commercial legalization are both bad ideas; it’s that the arguments for those two bad ideas leave no media space, or mindspace, for discussion of the good ideas that might lie between them.

That's applicable to broad swatches of human debate throughout history. But calling himself "roadkill" gets it dead wrong. I see Prof. Kleiman bashing together hard-cased nuts with both hands, trying to liberate whatever sweetmeats might remain shriveled inside.

I only write to encourage him in this endeavor.