One Year Later

 John died on February 22, 2023.

Clinton and African American Voters

I wonder what makes Hillary Clinton so popular with African American voters.  After all, her husband's Administration brought about the mass incarceration of young African American men and the elimination of welfare, which led to, among other things, the eviction crisis in minority communities.  Worse than that, she has the support of the Wall Street bad actors who gave us the quadruple whammy that took what little wealth the African American community had.

Perhaps the community is more afraid of Trump or Cruz, and can't see Sanders beating them.  But Sanders does much more for the African American community, since any universal program benefits poorer people more than richer people, and what he proposes are universal safety net programs.  Hillary Clinton has argued that economic justice will not eliminate racism, and that's true.  But it sets a base below which we cannot fall--and gives minority communities a fighting chance.  What Clinton offers is compassionate neoliberalism, which is about as compassionate as Bush 43's compassionate conservatism.

Election Entertainment

No, I'm not talking about the possibility that we could end up with Donald Trump as President.  Not only is that slightly scary, but it's really like having a national version of the Weird Uncle at Thanksgiving, and you're just glad all the windows are closed so that no one can hear his rants.

This one is a record, the one Bernie Sanders made when Mayor of Burlington.  It's one of those things that's so bad it's good.  You can listen here, or buy it when Amazon gets more of the CDs.  Yeah, the CD is actually temporarily out of stock.

At Least One Girl Works at Google

The Anne of the Green Gables series is probably the most gender-defined of any book series.  Every girl in the English-speaking world has read them.  There aren't five boys who have read them, and not a one would admit it.  But today's Google Doodle recognizes the author of the series, Lucy Maud Montgomery.

Oh, and J is 67 today.  We'll be going out to dinner tomorrow, as he has Geezers With Guitars tonight.

Does Amazon Understand Its Business Model?

This morning's paper reports that Amazon will no longer sell video-streaming products from Apple and Google.  Now if Amazon were brick-and-mortar that might make sense. You might decide "oh, hell, I'm here and I might as well get this, rather than drive across town for Apple."  But that's not how Internet purchasing works.  Finding another product is a matter of opening another window and going to another site.  I'm still sitting on the sofa.  Isn't that the whole idea of Amazon?  

Greece

Can the Greek government be as incompetent as it seems?  Uh, if you've decided to force your creditors to negotiate with you by defaulting, prepare for the consequences up front. Be clear with people about what it means.  And share the pain equitably.  Learn from the Cuban crisis of the early 1990s, probably the worst collapse in any country since the Great Depression.

I want Greece to win this one--I really do.  Greece is standing in for all of the other people who got screwed in the Great Recession.  Ireland, for instance, stupidly decided to take on the debt of their private banks. Spain, which is selling off its social housing to Goldman and Blackstone. The US tenants who had to deal with Deutsche Bank, the worst of a bad lot. And of course, all of the people who lost their homes and jobs because banks couldn't behave themselves.

And an actual economist sent me to this, in case anyone has forgotten how often Germany has reneged on its debts.

One other note: it occurs to me that the investor purchases of rental housing post-recession isn't that much different from the securitization of mortgages, in that rental housing has become an important source of profit for the financial sector.  Just as housing equity was the only money left in the real economy in the bubble period, now rent payments have taken their place.

Notes

Americans should not feel proud that the Confederate flag is being removed from various government buildings.  Americans should be ashamed that, more than a century after the end of the Civil War, that flag hangs anywhere other than the basement bedroom of someone named Bubba.  Not only does it decorate any number of government buildings in the former Confederate States, but it appears on license plates, t-shirts, coffee mugs and so on.  If we were a decent people, the Confederate flag would have about the same status as the Nazi swastika.

In other news, I've decided to have Facebook friends.  Up to now, I've just used Facebook to play games and keep up on organizations I'm interested in.  I sent two friend requests, and nearly cried when one took a couple of hours to respond, so I'll wait for others to friend me.