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Those skilled low skilled workers!

Commentary By Ron Beasley

I have a great deal of respect for James Joyner and his does a good job of critiquing the really offensive book by Charles Murray, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010.

But in the comments section he goes too far:

As a matter of sheer economics, the gravy train in which low skill laborers could make fantastic livings in manufacturing was unsustainable. But the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction and huge swaths of the country are finding it hard to make a decent living. Blaming that on the 1960s counterculture isn’t very helpful.

My response:

Why? Those “Low Skill Workers” may not have had a college education but that doesn’t mean they weren’t skilled. As an engineer I appreciated the skills of those “low Skilled” people I worked with. And what created the economic miracle that was the US in the 50s, 60s and 70s. It wasn’t the wealthy it was those “low skilled workers” that had money to spend. The wealthy don’t create jobs it’s those “low skilled workers” with money to spend that create jobs.

James is still a believer in supply side economics.  He is also guilty of thinking that only the college educated are skilled.  Nothing could be further from the truth. 

Blog Amnesty Day

Commentary By Ron Beasley

Our friend skippy explains:

al, in his guise as conservative blogger jon swift, wondered why so-called liberal blogs would have the least liberal blogrolling policies. we here at skippy international joined al/jon in his mock self-righteousness, and thus, five years ago b.a.d. was born!

So here we go:

Newshoggers friend anna missed takes us beyond politics with this great video.

Politics in the Zeros has a great graphic picturing the Republican Candidates as characters in Gilligan's Island.

Another Newshoggers friend, Shaun Mullen at Kiko's House. GOP House Leadership Finally Gets The Joke, But Will The Faithful Go Along?

Whatever. One of my favorite Sci Fi authors talks about frost shadows.

So give me your suggestions in the comments section.

Zakaria on "The Post-American World"

By John Ballard

Fareed Zakaria literally wrote the book and coined the term post-American. 
And he's the person best able to explain what he meant.
Today, using the second person singular, he spoke directly to Mitt Romney.
Check this out. 

This Is The War That Never Ends

By Steve Hynd

It just goes on and on my friends.

The United States’ plan to wind down its combat role in Afghanistan a year earlier than expected relies on shifting responsibility to Special Operations forces that hunt insurgent leaders and train local troops, according to senior Pentagon officials and military officers. These forces could remain in the country well after the NATO mission ends in late 2014.

...Under the emerging plan, American conventional forces, focused on policing large parts of Afghanistan, will be the first to leave, while thousands of American Special Operations forces remain, making up an increasing percentage of the troops on the ground; their number may even grow.

Three things.

1) You just knew this whole new "combat mission ends in 2013, troops out by 2014" was election-year spin, didn't you?

2) This is yet another example of how special forces are becoming the mover-and-shaker of the military, with consequently rising budgetary and bureaucratic clout (as well as ever closer ties to the CIA, now run by SOF-fan General Petraeus.)

3) The Green Beret's real mission, no matter what is being said now, is going to turn into refereeing the next Afghan civil war.

With Afghanistan's three major political blocs and three major insurgent groups moving in opposite directions, the country is facing the prospect of total fragmentation. Here's the worst-case scenario: The U.S. military reaches a settlement with the Afghan Taliban that does not address the country's political future, Karzai holds on to power illegitimately while pressing for his own peace deal with the Taliban, non-Pashtuns rise in opposition to both Karzai and the Taliban, and the national security forces fracture along ethnic lines. At the same time, the three insurgent factions turn against one another as the Haqqani network exploits the chaos and maintains a rear defensive position in Pakistani safe havens. Meanwhile, Pakistan's own domestic Taliban resurges and Islamabad faces yet another wave of terrorism and Afghan refugees.

Arif Rafiq's plan to avoid this catastrophic scenario for Afghanistan involves "improving the quality, not the quantity, of the Afghan national army and police" and "the army professionalized to serve as a bulwark against fragmentation". He doesn't explicitly say so in his piece, but it's pretty obvious from there who could form the most stable government. Rafiq's course for Afghanistan most likely leads to a military junta running a U.S.-friendly dictatorship. We've plenty of experience at dealing with those.

Understanding The Eurozone Collapse

Commentary By Ron Beasley

How Europe Has Evolved From A Democracy To A Bankocracy And Why Austerity Will Lead To Chaos

Via Zerohedge

Russia, China Veto Syria Resolution

By Steve Hynd

As expected by many, Russia and China have refused to back even a watered-down UNSC resolution on Syria, the only two of 15 member states on the council to vote against the resolution.

Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said after the vote that the United States was “disgusted” by the Russian and Chinese vetoes. The council has “been held hostage by a couple of members,” she said, adding that “these members stand behind empty arguments and individual interests while seeking to strip” any resolution of meaningful terms.

“A couple of members of this council remain steadfast in their willingness to sell out the Syrian people and shield a craven tyrant,” Rice said. She said Saturday’s action was even “more shameful” given Russia’s role in selling arms to Assad’s government.

[...]

[Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov] said that the resolution was impractical and unfair and voiced concern about adopting what he called “an absolutely unrealistic provision expecting that the government of Syria would withdraw from the cities and towns exactly at the time when the armed groups are taking over the quarters of those cities and towns.”

“We are not friends or allies of President Assad,” said Lavrov, who plans to visit Damascus on Tuesday. “We try to stick to our responsibilities as a permanent members of the Security Council, and the Security Council by definition does not engage in domestic affairs of member states.”

It seems to me there are two main reasons for the vetoes. The first is that of Of $8.2Billion in total arms sales to Syria since 2003, 98% came from Russia or China. The second is not unconnected with that venal motive: the initial wave of the Arab Spring provoked regime change in pro-US nations and both China and Russia were just fine with that, but the second upsurge of revolutionary fervor has been in nations that favored Russia and China, e.g. Yemen, Libya, Syria. Given the way in which Western nations twisted the UNSC resolution on Libya, which talked about separating fighting sides and an arms embargo, into bombing on behalf of the rebels and arming them, neither nation wants to set another precedent where regime change can masquerade as an R2P mission. This resolution was clearly a big step down that road and so it had to be vetoed.

So what next? Susan Rice was unusually blunt for a UN ambassador after the vote, saying that "the United States is disgusted that a couple of members of this Council continue to prevent us from fulfilling our sole purpose here-addressing an ever-deepening crisis in Syria and a growing threat to regional peace and security."

Were this 2002, we might expect some "coalition of the willing" would now be put together by the U.S. to take further steps up to and including military intervention, even without a UNSC imprimatur. But it isn't and Libya further increased international suspicion of R2P militarism. Thus Hillary Clinton is describing the Syrian best case scenario as "similar to what we see now in Yemen."

Still Screwing Things Up

Commentary By Ron Beasley

Yes, the George W. Bush people are still screwing up everything they touch.

The Aftermath of Intervention

By Steve Hynd

The aftermath is never as full of rose petals and candy as neo-whatever advocates of the intervention told us it would be.

(Tripoli) - A Libyan diplomat who served as ambassador to France died less than 24 hours after he was detained by a Tripoli-based militia from the town of Zintan, Human Rights Watch said today. Dr. Omar Brebesh, who was detained on January 19, 2012, appears to have died from torture.

A preliminary autopsy report viewed by Human Rights Watch said the cause of death included multiple bodily injuries and fractured ribs. Photos of Brebesh's body, seen by Human Rights Watch, show welts, cuts, and the apparent removal of toenails, indicating that he was tortured prior to death. Human Rights Watch also read a report by the judicial police in Tripoli, which said that Brebesh had died from torture and that an unnamed suspect had confessed to killing him.

"The torture and killing of detainees is sadly an ongoing activity by some Libyan militias," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "These abusive militias will keep torturing people until they are held to account. Libya's leaders should show the political will to prosecute people who commit serious crimes, regardless of their role in the uprising."

According to the ICRC, there are about 8,500 detainees in prisons in Libya right now, most run by militias with only tangential connections to the central government. Many of these detainees are dark-skinned Libyans or sub-Saharan Africans. Many reliably report having been tortured.

The detainees who reported abuse said guards had beaten them, sometimes on a daily basis. Seven prisoners in two facilities, including women, said guards had subjected them to electric shock. Two detainees who had been at one facility reported beatings on the soles of their feet – a torture technique commonly used during Gaddafi’s rule...Fewer than half of the 53 interviewed detainees said they had been questioned, and none had been investigated by the police or brought before a judge. None said they had been able to speak with a lawyer.

What you won't be hearing is any kind of contrition from those who pushed for the NATO intervention - no, not even a little bit. They're apparently too busy calling for the next one, in Syria, to care what happens in the aftermath.

Think Again On Iran

By Steve Hynd

I've a longish post up at The Agonist today in the light of the current "shill-swarm" calling for (or promising) kinetic action against Iran. I think it's worth examining our basic assumptions again. Does Iran want a nuke in the first place, is there the political backing for a strike to prevent it doing so, how easy would such an attack be to execute and what would be the blowback?

Romney on Marriage, and Other Examples of Extremism and Intolerance

By John Ballard

This is old news because it happened in December, but I'm posting it in case anybody forgot. I'm amazed the video is only listed as having been viewed a few thousand times. It illustrates the larger point about religious extremism. 

One might think that being Mormon would sensitize someone to the quagmire of ugliness that bubbles up with religious extremism. But one would be wrong.

I just received the following link in an email from an old high schlool classmate who is a retired teacher. This is freaking unbelievable.

Giving Alabama teachers a big pay raise could go against the Bible, state Sen. Shadrack

McGill (R-Woodville) said recently at a prayer breakfast in north Alabama, according to the Times-Journal of Dekalb County.

But McGill supports the 62 percent pay increase the legislature gave itself in 2007 because means lawmakers are now less susceptible to taking bribes, the paper reported.

Regarding teacher pay, McGill said: "It's a Biblical principle. If you double a teacher's pay scale, you'll attract people who aren't called to teach. To go in and raise someone's child for eight hours a day, or many people's children for eight hours a day, requires a calling. It better be a calling in your life. I know I wouldn't want to do it, OK?"

Slowly but surely, like mildew in a crawl space, a lunatic fringe is infesting our politics.

Another example is a sub-text of the current Komen vs. Planned Parenthood flap,  the nutty idea that abortions lead to breast cancer, a notion at best scientifically marginal but advanced by religious extremists that have polarized that issue as well.

Pick just about any topic -- capital punishment, assisted suicide, school prayer, abortion, gun control, global warming -- and we are being polarized into political and social extremes, fueled in no small way by extreme and unbending religious views.

I saw a Tweet yesterday that if Jesus were alive today someone from the 1% would be telling Him to get a job.