From Pine View Farm

Mammon category archive

The Fee Hand of the Market Meets the Misdirection Play 0

Title:  The Exciting Adventures of the Invisible Hand of the Free Market Man.  Frame One, captioned

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Republican Family Values in This New Gilded Age 0

Republican Elephant to little boy:  I outlawed drag shows because your safety is my number one priority.  Not, get going, you're late for your shift at the slaughterhouse.

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Sugar Bombs 0

Mike Papantonio and Farron Cousins discuss cereal offenders.

I remember when I was a young ‘un, back in the olden days, when Coco Puffs first came on the market, my brother and I talked my mother into buying a box.

We found them–er–less than desirable.

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This New Gilded Age 0

Focusing on a proposed law in Iowa, labor leader Tom Conway warns of the consequences of the return of child labor. Here’s a bit (emphasis added):

(Boy Scout leader Brad–ed.) Greve vehemently opposes a proposal moving through Iowa’s Republican-controlled legislature that would allow 14-year-olds to work in industrial freezers, meatpacking plants and industrial laundry operations. The legislation also would put 15-year-olds to work on certain kinds of assembly lines and allow them to hoist up to 50 pounds.

In some cases, it even would permit young teens to work mining and construction jobs and let them use power-driven meat slicers and food choppers.

Just three years ago, a 16-year-old in Tennessee fell 11 stories to his death while working construction on a hotel roof. Another 16-year-old lost an arm that same year while cleaning a meat grinder at a Tennessee supermarket,

But these preventable tragedies mean nothing to Iowa legislators bent on helping greedy employers pad their bottom lines at kids’ expense.

We are a society in regression.

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Breakers on the Rocks 0

Frame One:  Tech Bro aims a hammer at a piggy bank labeled

Via Juanita Jean.

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The New Gilded Age 0

Michael in Norfolk argues that today’s Republican Party is quite happy to see the return of–nay, to usher in–the New Gilded Age. Here’s a bit from his post (emphasis added):

I have an even bigger problem with politicians – i.e., Republicans – who want to slash the social safety net (as well as Social Security and Mediare) so they can fund ever larger tax breaks to the very wealthy. Indeed, it’s as if they want recreate the era of the robber barons of the Gilded Age . . . .

I cannot find a way with which to take issue with his remarks, he said convolutedly.

Also, too.

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The Feral Beast 0

Caption:  Cocaine Bear.  Image:  Bear labeled

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Twits on Twitter 0

Methinks said twits doth protest too much.

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Bank Shots, Reprise 0

Caption:  Silicon Valley small government libertarian tech bro takes break to accept a federal bank rescue.  Image:  Man sitting on floor leaning against desk holding laptop thinks,

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And here’s a special bonus misdirection bank shot.

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Bank Shots 0

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Misdirection Play, Responsible Fiscals Dept. 0

Sam and his crew look at the failure of the Silicon Valley Bank and at Republicans’ absolutely ridiculous contortions to somehow blame it on “wokeness,” while ignoring what really happened (including Donald Trump’s presiding over a gutting of Dodd-Frank).

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The Money Trail 0

Rashmi Rangan and James Angus suggest that the IRS is doing a rather poor job of following the money. Here are a couple of bits from their article:

Each year the Internal Revenue Service hunts down a phantom sum — the difference between taxes paid and taxes owed. The IRS commissioner has testified that this debt could amount to over $1 trillion (or more) annually. The essence of this pursuit leaves us wondering — why would low-income tax filers bear the brunt of this crusade for cash, as they are audited by the IRS at five times the rate of all other tax filers?

(snip)

The IRS follows a different strategy for the cash in the cabanas of the fortunate 700,000 club, those filers reporting total positive income of over $1,000,000. Last year for this group, about 687,000 rated nary a bother from the IRS. Apparently the use of multiple schedules for descriptions of enormous sums of money moving in myriad directions through various iterations triggers no corresponding curiosity on the part of the IRS. Too weedy, too slow, too complex.

Aside:

Methinks this disparity may shed some light on the Republican Party’s fervent opposition to President Biden’s desire to fund the IRS at a reasonable level.

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A. Because It Had Wealthy, Influential Investors Maybe? 0

Q. Why is the failure of Silicon Valley Bank getting so much news coverage more than the failure of all the banks that went under in the late 2010s.

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The New Gilded Age 0

Jim Hightower sees a similarity between then and now.

While Norfolk’s boardroom elites have been pocketing record profits in recent years, they’ve used armies of lobbyists and multimillion-dollar political donations to kill safety protections that would prevent such a disastrous record. To cut costs and jack up profits, railroad bosses have rigged the rules to run trains that are absurdly long, go too fast, carry ever-heavier loads of undisclosed toxics in weak tanker cars, have no fire detectors, use outmoded braking systems — and have as few as one crew member on board. One!

(snip)

“The Wreck of the Old 97” is a classic bluegrass song recounting a spectacular train crash in 1903, caused by the company’s demand that the engineer speed down a dangerous track to deliver cargo on time.

One hundred twenty years later we have the “Wreck of the Norfolk Southern” — a devastating crash caused by the corporate demand that it be allowed to run an ill-equipped, understaffed, largely unregulated, 1.7-mile train carrying flammable, cancer-causing toxics through communities, putting profit over people and public safety.

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Twits Own Twitter 0

At Psychology Today Blogs, Ronald Riggio argues forcefully that Elon Musk is something less than a role model for effective leadersip. Riggio makes three main points; follow the link for his discussion of each.

  • While Elon Musk has been a successful entrepreneur, his dictatorial behavior suggests that he is not a “good” leader.
  • Good leadership is about more than just success. Good leaders develop their followers, and treat them with respect and dignity.
  • Successful leaders who misbehave and hurt rather than help those whom they lead should not be role models of leadership.

Aside:

As a corporate trainer for many years, I focused on teaching management, leadership, and communication skills.

When it comes to dealing with people, Musk checks all the boxes for the “don’ts.”

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Twits Own Twitter 0

Every time I think that Elon Musk has plumbed the deepest depth, he proves that I am “in error” (as my old boss used to say).

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The Crypto Con 0

Michael Graham wonders why so many reputedly responsible fiscals were looking the other way.

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It’s All about the Algorithm, the Snaring Economy Dept. 0

Emma talks with Adrian Hon about the “gamification” of the work place in this, the snaring economy.

It’s not a pretty picture.

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The Crypto Conundrum 0

If it’s not real in the first place, can you be penalized for stealing it?

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It’s All about the Algorithm 0

At Psychology Today Blogs, the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry charges you with being addicted to your phone.

Yes, you (but certainly not me–well at least to the extent that I avoid “social” media like the anti-social plague that it has become). They further argue that this is no accident:

Your phone is designed to be addictive. Multibillion-dollar corporations have used all its features to play your brain like the instrument it is and give you little shots of dopamine all day long like a rat in an experiment being dosed with sugar, food pellets, or cocaine. The more attention you give it, the more money they make, so they made it work like drugs work, and if you are at all susceptible you are down the rabbit hole just as surely as you would be if you were addicted to cocaine, with tolerance, withdrawal, and ongoing use despite it causing problems with work or relationships, an inability to cut down, and so much time devoted to its use that the rest of your life begins to be organized around it.

Follow the link for some recommendations on how you can get your life back.

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