J. Bradford DeLong's Blog, page 22
August 29, 2020
Macroeconomics for Beginners | Optional Lecture
The ���general glut���: What people used to talk about, instead of recession and depressions. It focuses on what is going on: excess supply in pretty much all of the markets. Back Up to 1803: Jean-Baptiste Say argued back then that a ���general glut��� was a metaphysical impossibility: ���If certain goods remain unsold, it is because other goods are not produced; and that it is production alone which opens markets to produce.... Whenever there is a glut, a superabundance, [an excess supply] of several sorts of merchandize, it is because other articles [in excess demand] are not produced in sufficient quantities...��� By 1830 Say had changed his mind...
.#berkeley #economics #highlighted #lecture #macro #monetaryeconomics #monetarypolicy #optional #2020-08-29
August 28, 2020
Lectures: Left- & Right-Wing Alternatives to ��e ���Classical Liberal��� Order
6.3.1. Alternatives to the ���Classical Liberal��� Order: Really-Existing Socialism
6.3.2. The Rule of Josef Stalin
6.3.3. Fascism
6.3.4. Naziism
6.3.5. How Many Species of Anti-Democratic Totalitarian Movements?
.#berkeley #economichistory #lectures #tceh #2020-08-28
August 27, 2020
A "Liberal" Education | Optional Lecture
https://github.com/braddelong/public-files/blob/master/lecture-optional-liberal-education.pptx
���Liberal education��� =�� ���kinda left- wing education��� here. ���Liberal education��� here means ���appropriate to somebody free���. Someone with control over their own destiny. Someone with a share of control over our common destinies. Not a serf, not a cleric, but also not a vassal���not somebody embedded in the system in a fixed place...
.#berkeley #cognition #education #humancapital #lecture #optional #2020-08-27
The Ethics of a University | Optional Lecture
https://github.com/braddelong/public-files/blob/master/lecture-optional-ethics-university.pptx
Never thought this was necessary before... It probably still isn���t necessary today... But this past decade has been a very weird, very norm-breaking decade in a lot of ways So it is best to be clear on what we are doing here... This is a university... A safe space for its members, and a safe space for their ideas...
.#berkeley #cognition #education #lecture #optional #moralresponsibility #2020-08-27
August 24, 2020
Things I Have No Time to Teach ��is Fall, But ��t I Would Like to���Note to Self
"Data Science" & "Thinking Like an Economist":
The Modern Chancery Hand?: Educational Technologies at Berkeley (2017) https://github.com/braddelong/public-files/blob/master/chancery-hand-educational-technologies-at-berkeley.pptx
(More than) A Few Words About Computer Literacy in the 21st Century https://github.com/braddelong/weblog-support/blob/master/2017-08-30%20(More%20than%20a)%20Few%20Words%20About%20%22Computer%20Literacy%22%20in%20the%20Twenty-First%20Century....ipynb
Lecture: How to Think Like an Economist (If You Really Wish to) https://www.bradford-delong.com/how-to-think-like-an-economistlecture.html https://www.bradford-delong.com/2017/07/how-to-think-like-an-economist-if-that-is-you-wish-to.html
Outline: How to Think Like an Economist (If You Really Wish to) https://www.bradford-delong.com/how-to-think-like-an-economist.html
Andy Matuschak would approve of how Niccolo Machiavelli reads:
Niccolo Machiavelli (1513): Letter to Francesco Vettori https://github.com/braddelong/public-files/blob/master/readings/letter-machiavelli-vettori.pdf
.#berkeley #cognition #economics #education #highlighted #notetoself 2020-08-24
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August 22, 2020
Briefly Noted for 2020-08-22
James Baldwin: The American Dream Is at the Expense of the American Negro https://www.tor.com/2020/08/16/lovecraft-country-sundown-episode-1-review/: ���I picked the cotton, and I carried it to the market, and I built the railroads under someone else���s whip for nothing���
Berkeley: GSI Remote Teaching Hub https://grad.berkeley.edu/gsi-remote-teaching-hub/���
Fred: COVID Dashboard https://research.stlouisfed.org/useraccount/dashboard/56322#: ���Initial Claims, Continued Claims, Personal Income, Personal Consumption���
Robert de Nero: The Good Shepherd https://github.com/braddelong/public-files/blob/master/readings/script-the-good-shepherd.pdf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good_Shepherd_(film)
Gretal Kovach (2007): Pizza Chain Takes Pesos, & Complaints https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/us/15Pizza.html: ������I certainly wasn���t expecting ���pizza for pesos��� to become a touchstone for the immigration issue,��� Mr. Swad said. It was nothing more than an effort to ���reinforce our brand promise to be the premier Latino pizza chain,��� he said. ���We���re businessmen. The Latino population is significant and it���s important,��� Mr. Swad continued. ���It���s here to stay. The United States... is going to be different, and it has an opportunity to be better.��� Mr. Swad, who is Italian-Lebanese and was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, did not speak Spanish when he opened his first take-out pizzeria in Dallas in 1986���
Gretal Kovach (2007): Pizza Chain Takes Pesos, & Complaints https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/us/15Pizza.html: ������It���s a trivial example, but Hispanics now have their own pizza chain,��� Mr. Krikorian said. ���It���s a consequence of having too many people arrive from a single foreign culture, and may well reflect a kind of cultural secession������
Daniel Voshart: Photoreal Roman Emperor Project https://medium.com/@voshart/photoreal-roman-emperor-project-236be7f06c8f: ���Using the neural-net tool Artbreeder, Photoshop and historical references, I have created photoreal portraits of... the 54 emperors of The Principate (27 BC to 285 AD)���
x*Charlie Stross*: Dead Plots http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2020/08/dead-plots.html: ���the eminent mainstream literary faculty are still turning out deeply sensitive realist-mode explorations of the human condition that totally neglect the tech dimension. We live in a world with killer drones, state level actors gaslighting each others' electorates with bots and sock puppets and AI generated user icons... where private space launch companies are listed on the stock market and cars park themselves. A realist-mode 21st century novel that ignores phenomena that were tropes in 20th century SF is a de-facto historical novel, or a retro nostalgia trip for people who are deeply uneasy about modernity...
.#brieflynoted #noted #2020-08-21
McSweeney's: Miskatonic University���s Draft Reopening Plan���Noted
McSweeney's: Arkham Board of Health Feedback on Miskatonic University���s Draft Plan for a Safe Campus Reopening https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/arkham-board-of-health-feedback-on-miskatonic-universitys-draft-plan-for-a-safe-campus-reopening?fbclid=IwAR3q4m50xLFQcW4MyAsREYP9Qv_ZCrdhqo5Kll58wwMmbWavlIvod8j5DVA: ���Library services: You note that all of your library���s holdings have been digitized for online reading, including certain ���foul, repellent, and irrudinous tomes that bespeak eldritch accursed rites and which, once made public, may unleash nameless aeon-dead horrors���...
...The board is extremely concerned that ���irrudinous��� is not a word.
Mental health impacts: You note that you expect increased incidences of stress, anxiety, and ��� abysms of shrieking and immemorial lunacy.��� What about the students? If you would like to speak further in person, you will find me crouching and gibbering in the darkness. Sincerely, Herbert West, Health Inspector.
.#noted #2020-08-22
August 21, 2020
Briefly Noted for 2020-08-21
I do confess that I am flummoxed by self-identified positively-valenced ���white supremacy��� as a thing.
My WASPy view was always that America was an America of ethnicities underpinned by the dominant myth-message: ���people coming from elsewhere to build a utopia in which we all could live better lives���. This mosaic worked, with cultural influences flowing every which way, with the ideas and cultural orientations of WASPy Massachusetts Puritans, Virginia libertarians, and Kentucky pioneers serving as the first layer of the cultural matrix. The exchange in the 2006 movie The Good Shepherd between Joe Pesci and Matt Damon grossly overstates the case, but is in the right direction:
Joe Pesci: ���Let me ask you something���. We Italians, we got our families, and we got the church; the Irish, they have the homeland, Jews their tradition; even the n------, they got their music. What about you people, Mr. Wilson, what do you have?���
Matt Damon: ���The United States of America������
Yes, African-Americans were always at the bottom, but there was no monolithic ���whiteness��� in the mosaic anywhere. Remember: when I was at Harvard in the 1980s, when an Italian-American Catholic married an Irish-American Catholic in Boston, it was a ���mixed marriage���, and people would shrug their shoulders and say it was unlikely to last.
I look at how somebody by the name of Mark Krikorian can raise the alarm on behalf of "whiteness" against the idea of ���Hispanics now hav[ing] their own pizza chain���. [It] may well reflect a kind of cultural secession������ Mark Krikorian finds it alarming that an Italian-Lebanese-American born in Columbus, OH sees a market for Hispanic-inflected pizza in Dallas and moves to satisfy it. And then I think: this was always a grift, this is the fascist playbook���create the bigotry against a despised other, and then use that bigotry to create a volk:
Sean Illing: Why Rev. William Barber Thinks We Need a Moral Revolution in America https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/8/18/21327358/william-barber-poor-peoples-campaign-moral-mondays: '���Racism may target Black people, but it damns a democracy and it damns humanity���'���
This is why retail businesses need large permanent financial transfers now. We do not want retail businesses that are not coronavirus transmission hotspots from receiving erroneous ���shut down��� signals from the market. And yet that is what is happening when we do not make them whole from the effects of the crisis of March and April:
Jason Del Rey: Amazon, Walmart, & Target Reap ��e Rewards of Covid Restrictions https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/8/20/21375942/amazon-walmart-target-pandemic-earnings-q2-2020-essential-retailers: ���Some feared the pandemic would widen the gap between the haves and have-nots of retail. That fear is now reality���
Not that Isaac Asimov���s 1950s novel The Naked Sun Is either a great mystery novel or a great science fiction novel. But it is a place to start in thinking about how this next upward leap in interacting with each other via symbols and screens is going to work. What personality types are going to do well? What personality types are going to do badly? In in-person interactions, a great deal of the information channels our bids and offers about authority because rapidly reaching consensus about what the group was going to do trumped reaching the best decision at the price of maybe reaching no decision at all. But those channels do not operate through screens, as anyone who has ever participated in a flamewar Or watched trolls destroy an online discussion knows very well:
Sean Gallagher: Respawn Point: ��e Inevitable Reincarnation of ��e Corporate Office https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/08/work-from-home-03-the-office/: ���Stanford Institute for Economic Research figures in June showed only��42 percent of the US workforce working from home full-time���the fact remains that people's relationship with their workplace has been dramatically restructured, perhaps permanently���
Publius Aelius Aristides Theodorus (155): The Roman Oration https://www.bradford-delong.com/2017/11/aelius-aristides-the-roman-oration-it-is-a-time-honored-custom-of-travelers-setting-forth-by-land-or-sea-to-m.html���
Wikipedia: Wrought Iron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrought_iron | Cast Iron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cast_iron | Bessemer Process https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessemer_process | Steel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel
Boichik Bagels https://boichikbagels.myshopify.com/���
Constance Hunter (2020-08-19): Riding the Covid-Coaster https://github.com/braddelong/public-files/blob/master/readings/presentation-hunter-covid-coaster.pdf���
Casey Johnston: How to Fit in a Real Workout When You Have Only 20 Minutes https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/889bxx/how-to-get-a-real-workout-only-20-minutes: ���[Randi Zuckerberg takes] a slightly more aggressive line here with her ���pick three��� rule: ���Work. Sleep. Family. Friends. Fitness. Pick Three.��� But I often see this rule separated from Zuckerberg���s follow-up clarification: ���I can pick a different three tomorrow, and a different three the following day. But today, I can only pick three. As long as I wind up picking everything over the long run, then I���m balancing my imbalance������
Jim Wendler: How to Fit in a Real Workout When You Have Only 20 Minutes https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/889bxx/how-to-get-a-real-workout-only-20-minutes: ���This is my favorite. I don���t recommend it, but it���s useful for non-beginners who have limited time to train. The I���m Not Doing Jack Shit program entails walking into the weight room, doing the big lift for the day (bench, squat, military or deadlift), and then walking out��� I���ve made this deal with myself many times before I���ve trained: If I do X weight for X amount of reps, I���m leaving���
2020 Democratic Party Platform https://www.demconvention.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/2020-07-21-DRAFT-Democratic-Party-Platform.pdf���
Wikipedia: Titus Aurelius Fulvus Boionius Arrius Antoninus Pius https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoninus_Pius#Marriage_and_children���
Wikipedia: Faustina the Elder���Annia Galeria Faustina https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faustina_the_Elder���
Plus:
FRED: COVID Dashboard https://research.stlouisfed.org/useraccount/dashboard/56322#: Initial Claims, Continued Claims, Real Personal Income, Real Personal Consumption Expenditures...
.#brieflynoted #highlighted #noted #2020-08-21
August 20, 2020
The Pompeians Commanded by Afranius Surrender: Liveblogging ��e Fall of ��e Roman Republic
And the Pompeians surrender. It is June 10, -49. In six and a hal months since crossing the Rubicon, Caesar has forced the disbanding of the equivalent of eight Pompeian legions without doing more than skirmishing, moving rapidly, and cleverly managing logistics and intercepting supply lines:
Gaius Julius Caesar: The Civil War http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10657/pg10657-images.html: ���In this work, and the deliberations on it, two days were spent. By the third day a considerable part of Caesar's works was finished. To interrupt his progress, they drew out their legions about the eighth hour, by a certain signal, and placed them in order of battle before their camp. Caesar calling his legions off from their work, and ordering the horse to hold themselves in readiness, marshalled his army: for to appear to decline an engagement contrary to the opinion of the soldiers and the general voice, would have been attended with great disadvantage...
But for the reasons already known, he was dissuaded from wishing to engage, and the more especially, because the short space between the camps, even if the enemy were put to flight, would not contribute much to a decisive victory; for the two camps were not distant from each other above two thousand feet. Two parts of this were occupied by the armies, and one third left for the soldiers to charge and make their attack. If a battle should be begun, the nearness of the camps would afford a ready retreat to the conquered party in the flight.
For this reason Caesar had resolved to make resistance, if they attacked him, but not to be the first to provoke the battle.
Afranius's five legions were drawn up in two lines, the auxiliary cohorts formed the third line, and acted as reserves. Caesar had three lines, four cohorts out of each of the five legions formed the first line. Three more from each legion followed them, as reserves: and three others were behind these. The slingers and archers were stationed in the centre of the line; the cavalry closed the flanks.
The hostile armies being arranged in this manner, each seemed determined to adhere to his first intention: Caesar not to hazard a battle, unless forced to it; Afranius to interrupt Caesar's works. However, the matter was deferred, and both armies kept under arms till sunset; when they both returned to their camp. The next day Caesar prepared to finish the works which he had begun. The enemy attempted to pass the river Segre by a ford. Caesar, having perceived this, sent some light-armed Germans and a party of horse across the river, and disposed several parties along the banks to guard them.
At length, beset on all sides, their cattle having been four days without fodder, and having no water, wood, or corn, they beg a conference; and that, if possible, in a place remote from the soldiers. When this was refused by Caesar, but a public interview offered if they chose it, Afranius's son was given as a hostage to Caesar. They met in the place appointed by Caesar.
In the hearing of both armies, Afranius spoke thus:
That Caesar ought not to be displeased either with him or his soldiers, for wishing to preserve their attachment to their general, Cneius Pompey. That they had now sufficiently discharged their duty to him, and had suffered punishment enough, in having endured the want of every necessary: but now, pent up almost like wild beasts, they were prevented from procuring water, and prevented from walking abroad; and were not able to bear the bodily pain or the mental disgrace: but confessed themselves vanquished: and begged and entreated, if there was any room left for mercy, that they should not be necessitated to suffer the most severe penalties.
These sentiments were delivered in the most submissive and humble language.
Caesar replied,
That either to complain or sue for mercy became no man less than him: for that every other person had done their duty: himself, in having declined to engage on favourable terms, in an advantageous situation and time, that all things tending to a peace might be totally unembarrassed: his army, in having preserved and protected the men whom they had in their power, notwithstanding the injuries which they had received, and the murder of their comrades; and even Afranius's soldiers, who of themselves treated about concluding a peace, by which they thought that they would secure the lives of all. Thus, that the parties on both sides inclined to mercy: that the generals only were averse to peace: that they paid no regard to the laws either of conference or truce; and had most inhumanly put to death ignorant persons, who were deceived by a conference: that therefore, they had met that fate which usually befalls men from excessive obstinacy and arrogance; and were obliged to have recourse, and most earnestly desire that which they had shortly before disdained.
That for his part, he would not avail himself of their present humiliation, or his present advantage, to require terms by which his power might be increased, but only that those armies, which they had maintained for so many years to oppose him, should be disbanded: for six legions had been sent into Spain, and a seventh raised there, and many and powerful fleets provided, and generals of great military experience sent to command them, for no other purpose than to oppose him; that none of these measures were adopted to keep the Spains in peace, or for the use of the province, which, from the length of the peace, stood in need of no such aid; that all these things were long since designed against him: that against him a new sort of government was established, that the same person should be at the gates of Rome, to direct the affairs of the city; and though absent, have the government of two most warlike provinces for so many years: that against him the laws of the magistrates had been altered; that the late praetors and consuls should not be sent to govern the provinces as had been the constant custom, but persons approved of and chosen by a faction.
That against him the excuse of age was not admitted: but persons of tried experience in former wars were called up to take the command of the armies, that with respect to him only, the routine was not observed which had been allowed to all generals, that, after a successful war, they should return home and disband their armies, if not with some mark of honour, at least without disgrace: that he had submitted to all these things patiently, and would still submit to them: nor did he now desire to take their army from them and keep it to himself (which, however, would not be a difficult matter), but only that they should not have it to employ against him: and therefore, as he said before, let them quit the provinces, and disband their army.
If this was complied with, he would injure no person; that these were the last and only conditions of peace.
It was very acceptable and agreeable to Afranius's soldiers, as might be easily known from their signs of joy, that they who expected some injury after this defeat, should obtain without solicitation the reward of a dismissal. For when a debate was introduced about the place and time of their dismissal, they all began to express, both by words and signs, from the rampart where they stood, that they should be discharged immediately: for although every security might be given that they would be disbanded, still the matter would be uncertain, if it was deferred to a future day.
After a short debate on either side, it was brought to this issue: that those who had any settlement or possession in Spain, should be immediately discharged: the rest at the river Var.
Caesar gave security that they should receive no damage, and that no person should be obliged against his inclination to take the military oath under him���
.#history #livebloggingthefalloftheromanrepublic #politics #2020-08-18
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Foreshadowing from Gaius Sallustius Crispus https://www.bradford-delong.com/2020/07/foreshadowing-from-gaius-sallustius-crispus-liveblogging-the-fall-of-the-roman-republic.html: A strongly unconventional high politician facing the expiration of his term of office. He knows that there is a very high probability that, because of his actions in office, his adversaries will try and convict him of crimes after he lays down his power. Let us start with some foreshadowing from Gaius Sallustius Crispus...
Pompey's Strategy and Domitius' Stand https://www.bradford-delong.com/2020/07/burns-pompeys-strategy-and-domitius-standnoted.html: In his The Civil War Gaius Julius Caesar presented "just the facts" in a way that made Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus look like a cowardly and incompetent idiot. The attractive interpretation is that Ahenobarbus was just trying to do the job of defeating Caesar, but had failed to recognize that Pompey was not his ally but, rather, was somebody whose first goal was to gain the submission of Ahenobarbus and the other Optimates, and only after that submission was gained would he even think about fighting Caesar. Still an idiot, but not an incompetent or a cowardly one���
Marcus Tullius Cicero's Take on the First Three Months of -49 https://www.bradford-delong.com/2020/07/marcus-tullius-ciceros-take-on-the-first-three-months-of-49-liveblogging-the-fall-of-the-roman-republic.html: ���We have another primary source... in addition to Gaius Julius Caesar's deceptively powerful plain-spoken "just the facts" narrative: Cicero. Caesar makes himself out to be reasonable, rational, decisive, and clever. Cicero... lets his hair down. He is writing to someone he trusts to love him without reservation. He is completely unconcerned with making himself appear to be less flawed than he appears. And the impression he leaves is absolutely dreadful: erratic, emotional, dithering, and idiotic���
Reflecting on the First Three Months of -49 https://www.bradford-delong.com/2020/07/reflecting-on-the-first-three-months-of-49-liveblogging-the-fall-of-the-roman-republic.html: ���The key question for the first three months of the year -49 is: what did the factions anticipate would happen in that year? The Optimates seemed to think that they had Caesar cornered. My guess is that Pompey found himself allied with the Senate in January-February of -49, but not in command. So he retreated to Greece, where he was in undisputed command���
Caesar Offers a Compromise Solution (or So Caesar Says) https://www.bradford-delong.com/2020/07/caesar-offers-a-compromise-solution-or-so-caesar-says-liveblogging-the-fall-of-the-roman-republic.html: The Beginning of Caesar's Commentaries on the Civil War, in which Caesar says that he had proposed a compromise solution, but the firebreathers had rejected it: 'Scipio... "if [the Senate] hesitated and showed weakness, then, should they want [Pompey's] help later, they would ask for it in vain���
The Optimate Faction Rejects Caesar's Compromise https://www.bradford-delong.com/2020/07/the-optimate-faction-rejects-caesars-compromise-liveblogging-the-fall-of-the-roman-republic.html: Caesar narrates the reasons that the leaders of the Optimate faction���Cato, Lentulus, Scipio, and Pompey���worked hard to set the stage for war, and how the majority of Senators in the timorous middle were robbed of the power to decide freely���
The Optimate Faction Arms for War, & Illegally Usurps Provincial Imperium https://www.bradford-delong.com/2020/07/the-optimate-faction-arms-for-war-illegally-usurps-provincial-imperium-liveblogging-the-fall-of-the-roman-republic.html: Caesar narrates: Whatever norms he may or may not have broken during his consulate���in order to wrest land from the hands of corrupt plutocrats and grant it to the deserving���he says, the Optimate faction does much worse, beyond norm-breaking into outright illegality. And to that they add impiety���
Caesar Presents His Case to the 13th Legion, & Negotiates Unsucccessfully with Pompey https://www.bradford-delong.com/2020/07/caesar-presents-his-case-to-the-13th-legion-negotiates-unsucccessfully-with-pompey-liveblogging-the-fall-of-the-roman-rep.html: Caesar presents his case to the 13th Legion, and wins its enthusiastic support. Caesar and Pompey negotiate, but Pompey refuses to give up his dominant position���
The Optimate Faction Panics and Abandons Rome https://www.bradford-delong.com/2020/07/the-optimate-faction-panics-and-abandons-rome-liveblogging-the-fall-of-the-roman-republic.html: Caesar narrates: The Optimate faction panics and flees. The towns of Italy support Caesar. And Pompey's attempts to reinforce his army by recruiting veterans who had obtained their farms through Caesar's legislative initiatives did not go well...
Caesar Besieges Domitius in Corfinum https://www.bradford-delong.com/2020/07/caesar-besieges-domitius-in-corfinum-liveblogging-the-fall-of-the-roman-republic.html: Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus concentrates 13000 soldiers in the town of Corfinum and decides to make a stand. Pompey calls him an idiot. He, Pompey, "cannot risk the whole war in a single battle, especially under the circumstances"���
Caesar Captures Corfinum https://www.bradford-delong.com/2020/07/caesar-captures-corfinum-liveblogging-the-fall-of-the-roman-republic.html: Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus's deception that Pompey is coming to the Optimates' aid in Corfinum falls apart, Ahenobarbus tries to flee. Before Corfinum Caesar had had two legions in Italy to the Optimate and Pompeian six. After Corfinum Caesar has seven legions in Italy to the Pompeian three���
Pompey Refuses to Negotiate & Flees to Greece https://www.bradford-delong.com/2020/07/pompey-refuses-to-negotiate-flees-to-greece-liveblogging-the-fall-of-the-roman-republic.html: Pompey flees to the southern Adriatic port of Brundisium. Caesar catches up to him and begs him to negotiate. Pompey refuses and flees. Caesar decides not to follow, but to turn and first defeat the Pompeian armies in Spain...
Cementing Caesarian Control of the Center of the Empire: Late March -49 https://www.bradford-delong.com/2020/07/cementing-caesarian-control-of-the-center-of-the-empire-late-march-49-liveblogging-the-fall-of-the-roman-republic.html: Caesar offers to share power with the dysfunctional Senate but, filibustered and vetoed by Optimate tribunes, he consolidates his hold and heads for Spain���
Treachery at Massilia: April-May -49 https://www.bradford-delong.com/2020/07/treachery-at-massilia-april-may-49-liveblogging-the-fall-of-the-roman-republic.html: The Massiliotes profess neutrality���until Pompeian reinforcements arrive. Pompeians to whom Caesar had shown clemency at Corfinium have again taken up weapons against him again���
Rendezvous in Spain, at Ilerda https://www.bradford-delong.com/2020/08/rendezvous-in-spain-at-ilerda-livelogging-the-fall-of-the-roman-repubvlic.html: Caesar moves to deal with the Pompeian forces in Spain to his west���
Caesar Begins His First Spanish Campaign https://www.bradford-delong.com/2020/08/caesar-begins-his-first-spanish-campaign-livelogging-the-fall-of-the-roman-republic.html: Caesar has his men build a fortified camp close enough to the Pompeian base that the soldiers will inevitably start to fraternize...
Heavy But Inconclusive Skirmishing Between the Military Camps at Ilerda https://www.bradford-delong.com/2020/08/heavy-but-inconclusive-skirmishing-between-the-military-camps-at-ilerda-livelogging-the-fall-of-the-roman-republic.html���
Floods and Supply Lines https://www.bradford-delong.com/2020/08/floods-and-suppyl-liner-livelogging-the-fall-of-the-roman-republic.html: Caesar faces logistical difficulties���
Caesar Turns the Tables on the Pompeian Skirmishers https://www.bradford-delong.com/2020/08/caesar-turns-the-tables-on-the-pompeian-skirmishers-liveblogging-the-fall-of-the-roman-republic.html: ���Caesar overcomes his logistical difficulties���
The Caesarian Navy Led by Decimus Brutus Wins a Victory at Massilia https://www.bradford-delong.com/2020/08/the-caesarian-navy-led-by-decimus-brutus-wins-a-victory-at-massilia-liveblogging-the-fall-of-the-roman-republic.html���
Afranius & Petreius Fear Caesar's Cavalry & Decide to Retreat https://www.bradford-delong.com/2020/08/afranius-petreius-fear-caesars-cavalry-decide-to-retreat-liveblogging-the-fall-of-the-roman-republic.html: ���Logistics and diplomacy reverse the situation at Ilerda in northeast Spain, as Caesar gains an advantage in allied cavalry that makes Afranius and Petreius fear their position will soon become logistically untenable���
Caesar Pursues the Retreating Pompeians https://www.bradford-delong.com/2020/08/caesar-pursues-the-retreating-pompeians-liveblogging-the-fall-of-the-roman-republic.html: ���Caesar learns that Afranius and Petreius have decided to retreat. So when they do, he sets his army in hot pursuit���
Caesar Steals a March on ��e Pompeians https://www.bradford-delong.com/2020/08/caesar-pursues-the-retreating-pompeians-liveblogging-the-fall-of-the-roman-republic-1.html#more: ���Caesar learns that Afranius and Petreius have decided to retreat, and pursues. These overly-cautious Pompeian generals begin to lose the war of maneuver���
Caesar Cuts the Pompeians Off from ��e Ebro & ��eir Line of Retreat https://www.bradford-delong.com/2020/08/caesar-cuts-the-pompeians-off-from-��e-ebro-��eir-line-of-retreat-liveblogging-��e-fall-of-��e-roman-republic.html: ���And he begins trying to woo the soldiers over to his side. The Pompeian generals Afranius and Petreius react badly���and so it becomes clementia vs. crudelitas���
Caesar's Army Traps the Pompeians https://www.bradford-delong.com/2020/08/caesars-army-traps-the-pompeians-liveblogging-%C3%BEe-fall-of-%C3%BEe-roman-republic.html: ���The Pompeians attempt to retreat, and then fortify themselves on unfavorable ground with neither water nor forage available���
August 19, 2020
Briefly Noted for 2020-08-19
The end of California���s ���Mediterranean climate���? Nah. It���s still cooler in the summer than Greece, or Catalonia, or Sicily���by a lot:
Daniel Swain: https://weatherwest.com/archives/7427 https://weatherwest.com/: ���A very intense and prolonged heatwave now appears likely for a large portion of California over the next 7-10 days, and this event will likely have wide-ranging impacts from human health, wildfire, and electricity demand perspectives.... A strengthening ridge axis... from the southeast... a humid tropical airmass... from the southwest... remnants of former Hurricane Elida... locked in place for at least the next 7 days, and very possibly longer���
It now looks like there was enough of a bounceback in July to give us a 5% boost to third quarter GDP���that is a 20% reported annualized growth rate for Q3 ���unless the economy is falling off a cliff now or does so in September. Unfortunately, the economy may well fall off a cliff this month or next. The renewed spread of the coronavirus plague, plus Trump's and McConnell���s decision that they would rather have no fiscal stimulus at all then negotiate with Pelosi, are not pieces of good news for aggregate demand:
Tim Duy: Fiscal Follies Continue* https://blogs.uoregon.edu/timduyfedwatch/2020/08/10/fiscal-follies-continue/: ���Incoming data still reflects the push-pull dynamics of the shutdown and reopening; we *don���t have a clear picture of the growth trajectory after those dynamics play out. Fiscal policy in the U.S. is a mess���
Duncan Black is depressed. And there is, admittedly, a lot to be depressed about. But I think that the elected politicians here are right. The best thing we can do is to vote in November and throw the fascist bastards out. The second best thing we can do is scare the fascist-enabling bastards today with the thought that they are going to be thrown out in November unless they frantically start blocking the idiocies of Trump���s goons:
Duncan Black: The Plan Is Hope https://www.eschatonblog.com/2020/08/the-plan-is-hope.html: ���I was never a SUPER DC INSIDER, but I used to be a bit more connected.... Not so much anymore.... Members of Congress are tweeting, "nothing we can do, please vote." I am dumb and not important and nobody tells me anything anymore, but���
This is not coherent: If "those people��� are not going to use their Medicaid benefits because of their attitudes toward life���which the likely future senator from Kansas says he is ���not judging���-then those Medicaid benefits are not a burden on the federal or the state treasury, hence not a problem:
Nancy LeTourneau: The Extremist Agenda of Establishment Republicans https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/08/12/whats-the-difference-between-establishment-and-extremist-republicans/: ���It can be difficult to distinguish between candidates who are ���establishment��� and those who are ���extreme.���... [Roger] Marshall is touting the fact that he is ���trusted by Trump���... in the center of efforts to repeal Obamacare and oppose Medicaid expansion in Kansas... "even with unlimited access to health care [they] are only going to use the emergency room when their arm is chopped off or when their pneumonia is so bad they get brought [in]������
Steve M.: Donald Trump, A Force for "Stability"? https://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2020/07/donald-trump-force-for-stability.html: ���One participant... really seemed to misread the country: "'The more demonstrations there were, the more demands for recounts, the more legal challenges there were, the more funerals for democracy were held, the more Trump came across as the candidate of stability', said Edward Luce, the US editor of the _Financial Times, who played the role of a mainstream media reporter during one of the simulations." Donald Trump has many weapons at his disposal if he wants to try to cling to power after an election loss, but the general impression that he's a figure of stability is not one of them...
Julian E. Zelizer with Rick Perlstein: _ A discussion of Zelizer's latest book, Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=lRopePOgjzE&feature=emb_logo...
Zack Budryk: 'Pastor who urged people https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/510274-pastor-who-urged-people-not-to-cower-in-fear-tests-positive-for not to "cower in fear" tests positive for coronavirus���
Jo Walton: Designing People & Societies: C.J. Cherryh���s "Cyteen" https://www.tor.com/2011/08/08/designing-people-and-societies-cj-cherryhs-cyteen/_: "Cherryh chose to show us Union society first from outside in Downbelow Station, where they are the implacable enemy. I didn���t want to read Cyteen when it was first published because I didn���t want to spend that much time in Union. It becomes clear that Alliance don���t understand Union. Close up it���s��� both better and worse than it seemed from outside.... If you were an ordinary CIT in Union, your life would be much nicer and more free than I would have imagined. But for an azi or somebody who isn���t ordinary, it���s much worse.... We also know, because Cherryh had written books set later in the history of this universe, that it doesn���t ultimately work.... I���ve probably read Cyteen forty times, but it always grabs me and won���t let go, and I always see more in it...
Brian Resnick & Umair Irfan: Covid-19 Antibodies, Herd Immunity, & Vaccines, Explained https://www.vox.com/2020/7/22/21324729/getting-covid-19-twice-immunity-antibodies-vaccine-herd-immunity: ���While there is no guarantee that a successful Covid-19 vaccine will be made, some scientists are optimistic that one or more will be available in record time. One big reason: Most people survive the infection on their own, showing that the immune system can be coached to fend off the pathogen.... Our first line of defense against the virus is the cells within us, but stopping the outbreaks will depend on the whole world working together���
Cicero: Pro Balbo: ���It has been imputed to [Balbus] also that he has become one of the tribe Clustumina, a privilege which he obtained by means of the law concerning bribery, and which is less invidious than the advantages acquired by those men who, by the assistance of the laws, obtain the power of delivering their opinion as praetor, and of and of wearing the purple-striped toga...
Cicero: Pro Roscio: 'I come now to that point to which my desire does not lead me, but good faith towards my client. For if I wished to accuse men, I should accuse those men rather by accusing whom I might become more important, which I have determined not to do, as long as the alternatives of accusing and defending are both open to me. For that man appears to me the most honourable who arrives at a higher rank by his own virtue, not he who rises by the distress and misfortunes of another...
Herodian: Commodus http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/herodian_01_book1.htm#C1���
Google: Google One https://one.google.com/home?utm_medium=email&utm_source=welcome&utm_campaign=new_member_explore_g1_top&utm_content=cta_explore_g1_top���
Plus:
Follower of Hieronymus Bosch: Christ in Limbo:
.#brieflynoted #noted #2020-08-16
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