Ian Welsh

"When do we get back to normal? I don't think we get back to normal," said my governor earlier this week. (After a long "standby" period, the action starts at 36:13 of the clip.) "I think," he went on to say, "we get to a new normal," adding later, "Let's make sure we're getting the positive lesson, not the negative one." What he had to say, I thought, was pretty darned smart.

This is good Robert Reich clip. "To the conservative mind," he explained, "the specter of socialism conjures up a society in which no one is held accountable and no one has to work for what they receive. Yet, that's exactly the society Trump and the Republicans are promoting for the rich. Meanwhile, most Americans are subject to an increasingly harsh and arbitrary capitalism.

A small part of a much larger infographic showing our bright bright technical future. None of this will happen.by Gaius PubliusWhat's a morally appropriate response to climate deniers?What's a morally appropriate response to those who enable mass murder?This short piece is the start of a much longer consideration of the state of the U.S.

Andy B. strikes again -- and note especiallythe "Carol Foyer" fake-quote at the end

THERE OUGHTA BE A LAW (2/7/1946)[Click to enlarge.]by KenOkay, the cartoon feature There Oughta Be a Law (1948-84) was generally pretty lame. Still, isn't this what invariably comes to mind when horror stories like the latest drug price-extortion scandal break out?

One of these war criminals-in-chief is the Brits' problem; the other's ours."[A]s I’m sure you’ve noticed, the people who fear actual left-wingers or people of principle the most aren’t Tories, they are Blairites."-- Ian Welsh, in "Blair et al. Committed War Crimes"by KenOf course we shouldn't be talking just about British pols.

Insiders know stuff they don't want us outsiders ever to."These policies are insane, if one assumes a minimum of public spiritedness. They have not worked. They will not work."But they do work in the social sense: They create successful lives for the people who devise and implement them.

"[T]here is more pain to come, but there always was. The decision was made in 2008 and 2009 to not allow an actual recovery and to protect the rich at all costs. There was a cost; it has been paid for the last six years, and this is yet and simply another one of those costs.

by KenI trust everyone is keeping up with our friend Ian Welsh now that he's posting on his contribution-fueled superschedule.

Edward Harrisonby KenI encountered Edward Harrison's cute little graph in Ian Welsh's June 25 post, "Greece and the Emperor's New Clothes," in which Ian noted that a commenter, markfromireland, had pointe