Elliott Hall's Blog, page 6

The Other Apocalypse

Even though the Rapture earlier in the year didn't work out, it looks like Republicans are trying to bring about the end of the world regardless:

With prospects of a government default looming in early August, leaders on both sides denied Thursday that a deal was close…Both sides warned that an agreement is not near. "There is no deal," Mr. Boehner told radio host Rush Limbaugh. White House spokesman Jay Carney used similar language. And White House officials said Mr. Obama has never considered an agreement that did not include revenue increases.

For those of you not inclined to follow American politics, here is a quick summary. A quirk in US law requires legislation to raise the debt ceiling, and without it the Treasury can't borrow any more money. That would mean the Treasury would default on its loans, destroying faith in T-bills and generally putting the global economy on a glide path to (another) meltdown.

I didn't pay much attention to this in the beginning, because grandstanding and hostage taking is how the modern GOP rolls. I assumed they'd wring some concessions out of the perpetual chumps known as the Democratic party and then move on to another racket. I think that was the assumption of almost everyone.

Boy were we wrong.

The Republicans have been offered almost everything they want in exchange for an increase, and there's still no deal. Washington is slowly beginning to realise that, instead of just being a hard-knuckled style of negotation, the GOP leadership may not have the power to deliver on a deal at al. Eric Cantor has been gunning for Boehner's job, and appears determined to blow up negotations, even as his own wealthy backers ask him to raise their taxes in exchange for a deal.

The corporate wing of the party is terrified, because their wealth is dependent on the financial markets that will be thrown into chaos by default. The Tea Party wing, on the other hand, is actually hoping for a default. They think it will somehow bring the debt under control, and have made voting against the increase one of their many fetishes in an imagined campaign against Obama's tyranny. They've drunk so much Kenyan post-colonialist-flavoured Kool-Aid that they are incapable of believing anything that doesn't fit in with their pre-existing views. So when pretty much everyone tells Tea Partiers that the consequences of default will be catastrophic, they are as much incapable of believing them as they are unwilling. The default, like the Tribulation, is a cleansing fire from which a stronger nation made in their image will emerge. In the meantime there won't be any frills like social security or veteran's checks, but they think that's another lie too.

A society holding so many contradictory fantasies that it becomes unable to tell the difference between reality and its own delusions was a big part of The Children's Crusade. I used Maoist China as my inspiration, but it seems around 27% of the American public is hell bent on making me prescient. They really need to stop, it's frickin' terrifying.

Journalism warning labels

Tom Scott has some very useful labels for our friends in the press. Unfortunately he hasn't updated it with a 'Article based on hacking missing girl's phone.' Hopefully we won't need it from now on. I have a bad feeling that 'This article based on information bought from bent coppers' will still be needed, unless senior heads at the Yard roll.

Lights Out Forever, Bodies of Water

Any resemblance to the News of the World is purely coincidental…

Soviet Constructivist Star Wars posters

These incredible posters are by Hungarian artist Szoki. Design Taxi has the whole set. It was a close run between the Vader poster and the AT-AT one exhorting soldiers to avenge the Death Star.

Iraq: The war that never was

Spencer Ackerman, on the administrationnot really withdrawing all combat troops from Iraq:

No one in the United States gives a shit about Iraq anymore. "Forgotten war" doesn't begin to cover it. Iraq feels like a fever dream, reduced from a charnel house to a flipped cable-news channel to the absurdity of a lame Meek Mill lyric. So I wonder if there would be any political consequence to Obama putting an asterisk on his promise to end the war.

He goes on to say that he doubts Obama will pay a price for keeping combat troops in the country as part of the US' general "kill anyone anywhere with drones and commandos who we think might have so much as plus-one'd al-Qaeda," because people don't care about Iraq anymore. I think he's right. Domestic economic and political problems have overshadowed all foreign policy, but Iraq in particular is now something akin to a lost weekend in Vegas in the public mind. It started out all bravado and high spirits, and ended with confusion, regret and shame. No matter what's said publicly, I think people know on some level that the war was a colossal mistake, if not a crime.

Strange Negotiations, David Bazan

David Bazan has a great new album out of the same name. It's worth checking out. He's also streaming tracks from his FaceBook page.

If strikers really are grasping, they learned it from their betters

"The price of this financial crisis is being borne by people who absolutely did not cause it (…) I'm surprised that the degree of public anger has not been greater than it has."

- Bank of England Governor Mervyn King

Nurses, teachers, doctors, none of whom were responsible for mess we're in, are being asked to sacrifice 15% off their pension by the index switch, and pay more from wages that have been frozen for years. This must be done, we are told for 'the good of the country.' The government has said that public sector pensions are unaffordable, despite the fact that the Hutton Report says they are projected to fall as a share of GDP. When workers take issue with having their pensions mucked about for political purposes, they are called grasping and greedy.

I don't believe that's true, but then again, so what if it is? Our culture now celebrates naked, amoral greed as a virtue. The most powerful pursue their own enrichment at ruinous expense to everyone else (remember that whole financial crisis thing?) and the hardest pushback they get is the government pleading with them to show restraint on bonuses. The banks responded the same way that biggest failure on the planet Fred the Shred did when asked to give back his pension after wrecking one of the largest companies in the world: 'A contract is a contract. Now pay me.'

If ordinary people have turned greedy, then they've learned from the best.

Joffrey gets what he deserves

If you watched Game of Thrones you know why this is so cathartic. If you haven't, it's Peter Dinklage repeatedly slapping an annoying kid, which is awesome in itself.

Columbo, the world's greatest rope-a-dope detective

I'm sure you've all heard of the sad passing of Peter Falk by now. Although Peter Falk played many roles, I always knew him as Columbo. It is still regarded as one of the great mystery series of all time and with good reason. No other show had the incredible confidence to show the big payoff of any mystery – the identity of the murderer – at the beginning, and trust that people would stick around to find out how the villain was caught. The biggest reason people did stick around was Peter Falk.

I'm not sure if a show like Columbo would even make it on TV these days. In the first place, the character and the actor were too old. A psychotic focus on demographics and surface shine means more and more adult roles are being played by people barely out of their teens, and anyone over thirty-five might as well be fifty. (A particularly egregiously example is the attempt to cast Jennifer Garner as Miss Marple. )

Columbo was not just older, but acted self-consciously old and uncool, with his rumpled coat and bag lunches. He didn't strut, he ambled. While other detectives barked orders and made threats, he smiled and apologized. He was real in a way TV doesn't normally allow, even at the time, considering he aired in the same era as improbable ladies' man Quincy. In contrast almost all TV detectives on now practically smack you over the head with their awesomeness: they're powerful, forthright, and irresistible to the opposite sex. Most detectives are so close to the edge of a full Mary Sue that nobody is that surprised when Luther or Tim Roth's Angry Cockney Wizard puts the bad guys in their place.

When the murderer first encounters Columbo, on the other hand, you can see them thinking: 'If it's only this guy, then getting away with murder is going to be easy.' So while Columbo stammers and makes an ass of himself, his antagonist laughs at him. It never enters his mind that the shambolic day centre escapee in front of him is watching his every move like a frickin' hawk. So he relaxes, lets his guard down, and makes a mistake.

Then it's time for One More Question.

All of which is why, should I ever be murdered in a fictional TV universe, I'd want Columbo on my case. Other detectives stand around and look pretty. Columbo got shit done.

And they got him (through her)

Whitey Bulger finally grabbed:

The FBI succeeded in tracking down fugitive mob boss Whitey Bulger after sixteen years after it focused on the habits and associates of his girlfriend, Catherine Greig. The FBI "began broadcasting public service television advertisements on shows geared to women viewers such as Dr. Oz," and distributed information about Greig's habits, including frequent plastic surgery and teeth cleaning and visits to beauty salons. The FBI even advertised in plastic surgery and dental publications: "Have you treated this woman?"

No word on whether vajazzling was involved. Rachel Maddow has more:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

What I don't understand is why criminals with that much money and intelligence don't just disappear to a sunny place with no extradition treaty. Maybe that happy ending is more expensive than we think.