[new puritan]

This is a good rebuttal to Janan Ganesh talking shit.

http://www.newstatesman.com/economics/2 ... -orthodoxy" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Tubby Isaacs]

Was unfortunate enough to chance upon this rubbish at the airport the other day. Cynicism and cocksucking masquerading as wise realpolitik.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8e762fb6-3c9e ... z2ixjmxlew" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Apparently spying on a NATO ally is like spying in the Cold War. Or something. And America can, so what? And they shouldn't have got caught. Ho, ho, that knowing wink, you're so clever.

The author is a climate sceptic. By chance a few days earlier I flicked through a book written by him in a shop. Drivel arguments that the US was becoming big state because the state was quite a large percentage of its GDP in 2010 leaped off the page at me. He also didn't seem to think the US wasted a lot of money on defence because it spend money on welfare too ("Think LBJ's Great Society")

[new puritan]

But the real battle – the NSA’s war against sacred civil rights – will have to be won in Congress. Ms Merkel would do better to call Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate intelligence committee, than chastise the US ambassador. When Americans see the NSA as a threat to their own freedoms, they will act to leash it.

Which Americans? And how? There's a clear state snooping consensus existing between the two parties - the anti-establishment posturing of the Tea Party is bogus - and the US secret services have been beyond any sort of accountability since time immemorial.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Oh, he can answer your question, don't worry.

But the real battle – the NSA’s war against sacred civil rights – will have to be won in Congress. Ms Merkel would do better to call Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate intelligence committee, than chastise the US ambassador.

I'd be very surprised if Feinstein had much of an idea what was going on.

And look at the next bit of crap.

Better to remember the rules: good counter-intelligence is more effective than sulky pouting; the best defence is offence – if you, my good friend, spy on me, I spy on you; and most important – do not get caught.
German virtue also reflects meagre means. Flying with Ms Merkel in her small Challenger jet a few years back, I asked: “Where is your secure communications?” She grinned: “Over there, by the porthole,” pointing to a run-of-the-mill telephone set. Berlin has a long way to go in emulating its fabled second world war Abwehr.

Sod social problems, let's spunk money on playing spies. And personally, I trust Germans to get the hang on all that difficult stuff with phones.

Infantile Second World War reference too.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Talking of Dianne Feinstein...

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/o ... sed-allies" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

With respect to NSA collection of intelligence on leaders of US allies – including France, Spain, Mexico and Germany – let me state unequivocally: I am totally opposed.

And says she didn't know what was going on.

Yeah, everything's fine, as that twat from Die Zeit says.

[new puritan]

Simon Wren-Lewis really doesn't like Janan Ganesh. Fair enough; nor do I.

http://mainlymacro.blogspot.co.uk/2013/ ... erity.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Tubby Isaacs]

Cheers. Posted elsewhere.

[new puritan]

I don't mind Chris Giles for a Tory, but it seems he's been a bit over-eager in trying to take Thomas Piketty down. He's hardly alone in that though - that extends to some who pretend to be somewhere on the left, like Rentoul.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/eco ... y-takedown" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Tubby Isaacs]

Good discussion of this on Simon Wren-Lewis. For lots of people it's enough to say "oh the FT debunked Pickety".

[The Weeping Angel]

Alison McGovern has a piece on this for the NS

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/20 ... inequality" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[new puritan]

Good discussion of this on Simon Wren-Lewis. For lots of people it's enough to say "oh the FT debunked Pickety".

Yep. Fraser Nelson was crowing about it. Haven't seen him retract.

[new puritan]

Too many golden quotes in this article.

The evening, titled “Marxist Chillwave”, began with looped piano improvisations on Wagner’s Ring cycle – a body of work in which the composer’s socialist revolutionary sympathies found some expression – and touched base in the 20th century before showcasing young artists of today.

A series of vox pops gave me some sense of my fellow concertgoers. The majority were new music nuts and aspiring scenesters looking for street cred in a Shoreditch warehouse (yes, I’m guilty on both counts) but an elderly man told me he had come only to hear Luigi Nono’s piece and was keen to get home before the “postmodern decadence” began.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/5bc5d532-e64c ... z33PWioboE" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Agnes]

The evening, titled “Marxist Chillwave”, began with looped piano improvisations on Wagner’s Ring cycle – a body of work in which the composer’s socialist revolutionary sympathies found some expression – and touched base in the 20th century before showcasing young artists of today.

A series of vox pops gave me some sense of my fellow concertgoers. The majority were new music nuts and aspiring scenesters looking for street cred in a Shoreditch warehouse (yes, I’m guilty on both counts) but an elderly man told me he had come only to hear Luigi Nono’s piece and was keen to get home before the “postmodern decadence” began.

Thank fucking fuck.

(Sorry.)

[Philip Marlow]

A lovely, perceptive, break from neoliberal austerity bollocks.

A portrait of Europe’s white working class
By Simon Kuper

It has become one of the least understood and most discriminated-against groups in society. A study of neighbourhoods such as Higher Blackley in Manchester could change our perceptions

Higher Blackley (pronounced “Blakeley”) is mostly inhabited by the white working class, a poorly understood group across western Europe. It’s a class hit by deindustrialisation, economic crisis and the crumbling of the welfare state. It’s the class that supposedly backed the anti-immigration populists who dominated last month’s European elections. It’s a class typically depicted either as a joke or a threat. The caricature: half-witted racist scroungers in tracksuits milking the welfare state from their sofas.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/4139381a-f1bb ... z34cA64BaT

[youngian]

Sad that its left to the paper of international finance to pick up the mantle of decent tabloid reportage. Its reminiscent of the kind of article the Daily Mirror used to publish back in Littlejohn's good ol' days. But that was before the media was run by lefties apparently.