Video: Party with my Star Wars friends

I'd love to know how they make these videos.

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GOP dissed research projects that ended up discovering useful things

Someone should ask the Republicans if Galileo was right in his battle against the Catholic church. (Though, to be fair, the answer is nuanced - though I seriously doubt they'll get that.) Speaking of Galileo, and the stars, this vid is cool: Read the rest of this post...

Romney set to make 97th pivot

Flip Romney.  From Buzzfeed:

Mitt Romney's big speech here Tuesday night is billed and staged to mark his pivot to the general election, intended to set the tone for the Republican's campaign, and to lay out his overarching message. The title of the speech: "A Better America Begins Tonight."

But this isn't the first time the Romney campaign has tried to "pivot" to his upcoming contest with Obama — particularly according to the press. He tried it last January after winning the New Hampshire primary. He tried it in his Florida victory speech. He tried it throughout his cakewalk campaign in Nevada, then in Michigan, then, again, after Super Tuesday, when aides declared that it would "take an act of God" for Romney to lose the primary — and it was now time to focus on beating Obama.

A quick LexisNexis search returned 96 articles written since the first vote was cast in Iowa discussing a "pivot" to the general election on Romney's part.
Will the 97th time be the charm?

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Front runner in French elections suggests austerity may be ending in Europe

Current front runner for president in France François Hollande may be on the boring side but he's right about scrapping the failing policy of austerity. Germany is not going to be happy about this but the German efforts to strip spending is failing miserably across Europe. The UK is going back into recession and the debt crisis is hitting the austerity countries as well, despite assurances that that would not happen. The Germany model has to change unless they want the entire EU to collapse.

Mr. Hollande also praised the position taken in Brussels on Wednesday by the head of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, who said he favored “a growth compact” of structural reforms in parallel with the fiscal treaty limiting budget deficits and national debt. But there was little indication that Germany, the driving force behind the austerity-driven fiscal treaty agreed to last month, was warming to his ideas. In the first news conference of his campaign, Mr. Hollande said that he would propose four modifications to the European Union treaty, favored by Germany and approved in March but not yet ratified. Most significant, perhaps, he called for the creation of collective euro bonds, but to be used to finance industrial infrastructure projects, not to consolidate debt, which the Germans oppose.

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Call your wife the c-word and you don't get to diss the "war on women"

Here's John McCain claiming that the "war on women" is poppycock.

Here's more on John McCain's own alleged war on women:



(The un-bleeped version is here.)

As ThinkProgress shows in this video, clearly the GOP doesn't have a problem with women.

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Krugman calls out Ben Bernanke—"he's been assimilated by the Borg"

This is another state of the Krugman post. You and I, flies on the insider walls, know that Ben Bernanke is a full professor at Our Betters U. — in other words, deeply involved in running his chunk of the State for the lords and ladies who govern us. Like all retainers Bernanke works for a living, but as Chairman of the Fed he's very high up.

Paul Krugman is now acknowledging the same thing, and becoming less and less collegial in the process. Why do I say "less collegial"? Because Krugman and Bernanke are fellow academics; in fact, Bernanke used to be Krugman's boss at Princeton.

As you read the following, remember that the Fed has twin legal mandates — low inflation (for the money crowd) and low unemployment (for the masses). In reality, of course, the Fed works only for the money crowd, keeping their pockets lined.

Krugman recently called him on that in the magazine piece linked below, and Bernanke has responded. As Krugman tells the tale [bracketed inserts mine]:

Ben Bernanke responds to my magazine piece; as I see it, in effect he declared that he has been assimilated by the Fed Borg:

I guess the, uh, the question is, um, does it make sense to actively seek a higher inflation rate in order to, uh, achieve a slightly increased pace of reduction in the unemployment rate? ...

To risk that asset [by "asset" he means "low inflation," though he's actually referring to the money crowd's well-lined pockets], for, what I think would be quite tentative and, uh, perhaps doubtful gains [by "gains" he means "work and food for the masses"], on the real side would be an unwise thing to do [because the world is ruled by "wisdom" and not, say, "greed"].

Notice the framing — “a slightly increased pace of reduction in the unemployment rate”. It’s basically an assertion that we’re doing all right[.] ... Disappointing stuff.

In other words, Bernanke is saying, Why trade a known-bad like inflation for something as ephemeral as improved employment? After all, my friends are fully employed right now.

So much for Bernanke. But again, this post isn't about the Ben — he's a known made man already. This is about the Krugman, who dares to say so using his Times blog-inches.

Thanks, Professor. And welcome. Soon you'll be as radical as you were in 2003, when Bush was king and we were still naïve.

GP

(To follow on Twitter or to send links: @Gaius_Publius) Read the rest of this post...

Good morning from Stockholm

A nice park through the center of the boulevard. People
walking to work in the morning.

I was invited to the Netroots Sweden conference in Stockholm that starts today, and the Swedes are graciously picking up the tab for the trip.  I'll be doing three talks about various political Internet topics, basically explaining to the Swedes the kind of advocacy I/we have done here in the states.  They've have a very good nascent blogosphere/Netroots.  The challenge now is how to lift it to the next level.

Stockholm is a nice city.  Pretty in its own right, but in a subtle way at places. It's a different city.  Different from a lot of other towns I've been in, architecturally.  Really a mix of influences, from my point of view.  As I've noted on previous trips, some of the architecture makes me think of St. Petersburg in Russia, some of it brings back memories of Rome with the striking reds and oranges and yellows of ancient Rome that are still favored by modern Romans.

A quick word about the Swedes.  Truly the tallest people on the planet.  Good God.  In America, at 5-10, I often feel average height, to maybe a little short at times.  Here I'm a midget.  It's not at all unusual to see guys well over, and I mean WELL over, 6 feet tall and then some.  Just a very tall people, and healthy, skinny, good-looking, but not all blonde.  Though certainly more blondes than you see in America.  They're a nice people, good English of course.  Rather mild-mannered.  You even see it in the way they walk down the street (I tend to notice the gait of different cultures).  For men at least, very unassuming, regular guy, and seemingly happy.

Sweden is also shockingly expensive for an American. The cab ride from my hotel to my friends' office, which is about ten minutes away, is $30. A hamburger in many places is $25. Want a mojito, try $20. Hell, I was looking at a dog toy in a pet shot, a cute little ball with a hole in it that you can put food... $50.  My friends tell me that Sweden is not known for its food.  And while it's not exactly England (i.e., it's better than that), it's also not quite France or Italy in terms of culinary expertise and tastes.  But you can still get a solid meal, if you can afford it :)

Anyway here are a few photos from around town.  Enjoy.

Sasha the night before my trip, looking like
she knows something is up.

PS Sorry I've been blogging a bit less this week, but now that Google has launched Blogger's new interface, which is incompatible with both the iphone and the ipad, I'm only able to blog when I have my computer with me, which limits things greatly.  We're planning to finally move to WordPress.  It was a great 8 years with Blogger, but this latest upgrade was such a step backwards, we really have no choice but to move.

Take the iphone app (please), which is the fall-back for mobile blogging - it's a joke.  It doesn't even let you schedule posts, or worse, unpublish them (your only option is to delete them). It also doesn't show posts that are already scheduled, so you have no idea if you need to post something at all.  Seriously not ready for prime time.  I've said before, whoever approved this new Blogger Web site, and didn't see a problem with it being incompatible with the iphone and ipad - who builds a web site in 2012 that doesn't work on the iphone and ipad? - should be fired.  Same goes for whoever built the iphone app (and whoever approved it).  Google, and Blogger, are better than this.  At least they used to be.

Now on to Stockholm...

Interesting architecture.

Even more interesting architecture.  Note the black clothing.  If
you ever come to Sweden, bring your black and navy
blue clothes.  Anything else and I feel
out of place.

Stockholm has wonderful light. I've noticed it
in previous trips as well. A very mid-winter's shocking
yellow/orange.

A night view of Stockholm from restaurant suspended on
a walkway far above the city.

A rather large park in the middle of town. And of course
it's safe to walk through at night.

A large, cool, school near my hotel.  Some of the architecture makes
me think of the old Soviet, fascist architecture.  Not in a bad
wal, per se - it's just the strength, and imposing nature
of some of the buildings, like this one.

People cycling to work.  More dark clothes.

Sasha doing her best to thwart my packing.

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