tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-597988080513921863.post4830143747983828593..comments2024-03-15T03:20:49.376-04:00Comments on Autonomy For All: Climate Change is still the big fightDanielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17355077650707854680noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-597988080513921863.post-15820002866953882942011-02-18T18:21:41.459-05:002011-02-18T18:21:41.459-05:00It also strikes me we should be demanding expansio...<i>It also strikes me we should be demanding expansions of Social Security rather than just fighting for no changes, regardless of whether it could pass now.</i><br /><br />That's a no brainer!The Big Hurthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13181738287406818667noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-597988080513921863.post-68306243316710518702011-02-16T18:29:36.171-05:002011-02-16T18:29:36.171-05:00No, suggestions for topics are welcome. I'll ...No, suggestions for topics are welcome. I'll give the subject of incrementalism some more thought. It's one of the underlying meta-ideological debates that actually does rend liberals apart at regular intervals.Danielhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17355077650707854680noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-597988080513921863.post-69550560535772107032011-02-16T11:38:01.595-05:002011-02-16T11:38:01.595-05:00I meant for Daniel, but I appreciate the prodding....I meant for Daniel, but I appreciate the prodding. <br /><br />I'm (hopefully) very close to a bit of a transition. Once that's passed, I'm inclined to make my debut there.David Kaibhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00242081942930386460noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-597988080513921863.post-39892044659512858672011-02-16T11:11:27.213-05:002011-02-16T11:11:27.213-05:00It doesn't annoy me, David, but how's abou...It doesn't annoy me, David, but how's about doing it yerself? It'd be a good start for <a href="http://longroadtoforttotten.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow"><b>Long Road...</b></a> doncha think?<br /><br />Mind, you, I'd like to see all the old OpenLefties posting in one place, but even if we all do our own things, a Web (what a concept, eh?) might work just as well as a portmanteau.<br /><br />Besides, I like your stuff, and I'm betting I'd like it even better if you stretched out a bit, and went for it. (Just sayin')William Timbermanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06465283842365282278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-597988080513921863.post-57029929886161150522011-02-16T10:22:59.823-05:002011-02-16T10:22:59.823-05:00This whole idea of tinkering could use its own pos...This whole idea of tinkering could use its own post. (Feel free to tell me to knock this off if it gets annoying).David Kaibhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00242081942930386460noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-597988080513921863.post-72558649990985493462011-02-16T10:14:15.606-05:002011-02-16T10:14:15.606-05:00Tinkering.... As good a word as any for a dearth o...Tinkering.... As good a word as any for a dearth of political will. I hate to keep bashing Brad DeLong, who's one of the good guys, and doesn't really deserve my hostility, but he's a classic case of the technocrat who believes in all the seemingly correct policy solutions, but is left as helpless as the rest of us by the madness of <i>Realpolitik,</i> not to mention the madness of people who wouldn't recognize realism if it bit them in the ass.<br /><br />Here's Professor DeLong, who's as smart as we make them these days, <a href="http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2011/02/draft-preparing-to-launch-the-berkeley-friday-afternoon-political-economy-colloquium.html" rel="nofollow"><b>waxing ironic:</b></a><br /><br /><i>And here we reach the limits of my mental horizons as a neoliberal, as a technocrat, as a mainstream neoclassical economist. Right now the global market economy is suffering a grand mal seizure of high unemployment and slack demand. We know the cures--fiscal stimulus via more government spending, monetary stimulus via provision by central banks of the financial assets the private sector wants to hold, institutional reform to try once gain to curb the bankers' tendency to indulge in speculative excess under control. Yet we are not doing any of them. Instead, we are calling for "austerity."</i><br /><br />It may make decent theater, but irony is hardly the best defense for the limitations of the intellect in situations like the one we all find ourselves in today. Neither is cognitive dissonance, as in the governor of Wisconsin -- Wisconsin, for Christ's sake -- threatening to use the National Guard to shoot public employees who object to being beggared by a nasty right-wing ideologue. Or, if you'd rather read about the problems of furriners, this: <a href="http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/nmahmed1/English" rel="nofollow"><b>The Arab World's Triple Crisis.</b></a><br /><br />If Professors DeLong and Krugman can't handle the political implications of our manifold current crises, who can? My answer is that no one can, not and remain unscathed. Our future is no longer strictly a mattter of policies good or bad, and no matter how much we might wish it to be otherwise, the outcome has become unpredictable.William Timbermanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06465283842365282278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-597988080513921863.post-3583342900169358952011-02-16T08:43:00.032-05:002011-02-16T08:43:00.032-05:00I think Jan is right about the reason. But for my...I think Jan is right about the reason. But for my money, if don't start including things that aren't tinkering, we're sunk. Even most of the things that feel like they can be solved with tinkering usually can't, IMHO. That doesn't mean they must be solved all at once - it means we have to make use of what Lakoff has calls strategic initiatives or watt Chris calls <a href="http://openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1809" rel="nofollow">progressive feedback loops</a> (not the same idea, but similar in some important respects.) <br /><br />It also strikes me we should be demanding expansions of Social Security rather than just fighting for no changes, regardless of whether it could pass now.<br /><br />Jamie Galbraith provides a great critique of the tinkering approach in <i>The Predator State</i>.David Kaibhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00242081942930386460noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-597988080513921863.post-26540880235018719972011-02-16T06:42:42.194-05:002011-02-16T06:42:42.194-05:00Jan: Yes, I think the depressing gauntlet of surr...Jan: Yes, I think the depressing gauntlet of surreal opposition and apathy that needs to be overcome before anything real can happen on this is rather daunting. At least yelling "don't fuck with social security" is actually somewhat likely to have some good effect.Danielhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17355077650707854680noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-597988080513921863.post-82467833238386764422011-02-16T00:10:23.321-05:002011-02-16T00:10:23.321-05:00We don't write about climate change because we...We don't write about climate change because we can't figure out how to even tinker effectively around the edges of the catastrophe. Every other fight seems more possible.<br /><br />That's gotta be wrong. Not tomorrow, but I'll try to put Warming Wednesdays on my mental grid.janinsanfranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07548452260456734928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-597988080513921863.post-46423868396686230862011-02-15T19:32:23.352-05:002011-02-15T19:32:23.352-05:00This is a good idea. So much of our conversation i...This is a good idea. So much of our conversation is driven by the day's news or outrageous things conservatives say. The amount of energy that goes into fact checking nonsense is truly staggering, and, whatever benefits it has, means they set the agenda. I'm all for deciding up front one thing that's worth talking about and sticking to it. Bravo.David Kaibhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00242081942930386460noreply@blogger.com