Break every rule in the free-market playbook

I attended a performance of Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Fallen Souffle by David MacGregor in production at the Purple Rose Theatre in Chelsea. It’s got about another week to run, though it is probably sold out.

The show is a bit of a spoof of the Sherlock Holmes story, though it isn’t played as a comedy. It is the second in a trilogy. I didn’t see the first (though not a detriment to seeing this one). And while the evening was enjoyable it wasn’t so wonderful that I’d consider going all the way out to Chelsea to see part 3 a year from now. It felt like too much of the plot depended on who was holding the gun last.

One of the characters in this show was Bertie, Prince of Wales and oldest son of Queen Victoria. His attitude reminded me very much of the nasty guy. Holmes was quite unimpressed with the prince, and with monarchy in general.



Greta Thunberg, the 16 year old Swedish girl who galvanized climate strikes, has been named Person of the Year by Time. The honor is given to the person who has the most impact on the world (good or bad) in the year. Thunberg becomes the youngest person so honored.



Qasim Rashid tweeted:

In 5 weeks, billionaires Bloomberg & Steyer have spent ~$200M on their POTUS campaigns.

For 5 years, people of Flint have fought & scrapped for that kinda money for clean water.

Countless Americans suffer so a couple of guys can try to buy an election. Smh.

Taxation > Philanthropy

For those rusty on their math “>” means “is greater than.” So with that in place read that last bit again.



The Quote of the Day from Daily Kos:

Responding to climate change requires that we break every rule in the free-market playbook and that we do so with great urgency. We will need to rebuild the public sphere, reverse privatizations, relocalize large parts of economies, scale back overconsumption, bring back long-term planning, heavily regulate and tax corporations, maybe even nationalize some of them, cut military spending, and recognize our debts to the Global South. Of course, none of this has a hope in hell of happening unless it is accompanied by a massive, broad-based effort to radically reduce the influence that corporations have over the political process.
~~Naomi Klein, The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal (2019)

I haven’t paid much attention to the news over the last few days about the FBI being cleared of partisanship in their investigation of the nasty guy’s 2016 campaign ties to to Russia. Laura Clawson of Daily Kos reports that an FBI counterintelligence employee told CNN says the attack by the nasty guy and Attorney General William Barr are having the *intended* effect:

We're constantly told to be agile and use all the legal tools available to us. But who is going to risk sticking their neck out now only to have DOJ chop it off?

A retired agent adds:

These comments will have a chilling effect on the workforce.

I should get back to reading and reporting on episodes of Gaslit Nation. One episode comes out every week. I’m sure I’m behind by a few weeks. Until I do so, here’s a quote from the podcast host Andrea Chalupa as tweeted by partner Sarah Kendzior. It explains a lot.

Hillary Clinton had her own private server because the United States government was getting hacked by authoritarian regimes like Russia and China in a major security breach that no one stopped. HRC has been vindicated.

It also makes the 600 day long attack of “but her emails…” all the more infuriating.



Lots of news as a result of yesterday’s British election and how the conservatives swept the Labour Party (the liberals). I’m not getting into Who to Blame or What it Means, especially as people try to apply those ideas to America. I will mention one thing that David Schneider tweeted:

One of the most significant stats of the election. 88% of the Facebook ads put out by the Tories contained a lie.

To paraphrase John Bercow: “the lies have it, the lies have it”

Schneider included some numbers:

Number of paid for political adverts on Facebook labelled as *‘indecent, dishonest and untruthful’* by First Draft.

Tory: 5,952
Labour: 0

Michael Lux of the Daily Kos community says that a recent speech by candidate Elizabeth Warren is her most important.

First came the economic ideas: Big corporations have hurt workers and the economy by focusing on short-term interests of investors. In market after market competition has declined. Stagnant incomes and rising costs have stretched family budgets beyond the breaking point.

Second was the theory of change: Making the structural changes to address the economic ideas will be hard. It will require a long term movement to fight through business as usual.

And finally, the core: there is long-term corruption in Washington that supports the current structure. We’ll need to fight the corruption as we fight for economic change.



Bobburnett, also of the Daily Kos community talks of the failure of capitalism, then reviews how likely the Democratic candidates will tackle those necessary structural changes. The seven candidates who have qualified for the Democratic debate next week are: Biden, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Sanders, Steyer, Warren, and Yang. Steyer is a billionaire. Biden, Buttigieg, and Klobuchar call themselves moderates. They have not called for the reform of corporations.

That leaves Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Both have called out corporate greed, though Warren’s plan is a lot more comprehensive.

I’m with Warren on this one.