CSotD: Pulling the ponies from under the pile
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Let's start with Tom Toles' latest, since it's not only self-explanatory but a little over-explained. He didn't have to drag Yogi along to show his source for a famous quote that perfectly mocks the false-logic of current attacks.
If there is something encouraging in all this, it is that a constant drumbeat of misunderstanding, spin, exaggeration and outright falsehood didn't stop at least a respectable number of people from signing up.
The Healthcare.gov website did fail when all the last minute enrollees showed up at once, but (A) it was fixed and (B) it shows people want the coverage.
I promise you that, if the crush for tickets to some concert were to crash Ticketmaster, it would not be portrayed as evidence that the band should break up.
But Fox clearly demonstrated how far below expectations the signups were:
They also trotted out the CEO of the Cleveland Clinic, who announced that three-quarters of enrollees in Obamacare had higher premiums. He forgot to back it up with documentation, but I suspect his math was based on the same model as that graphic: 6 x 2.67 = 7.
But I'll admit, my premium went up.
I couldn't afford it at all before, and now I can. So from zero, yes. Up. More than 2.67 times, in fact.
Fox also reported that, while there were lots of sign-ups, it was not clear how many of those people would actually pay their premiums.
Stand by for Fox reports on new car sales, which will include speculation on how many of those cars will later be repossessed and therefore shouldn't count.
And then there's this:
Nothing new from the United Nations report on climate change. More solid evidence to be ignored and mocked by the deniers, including a number of right-wing cartoonists. John Cole got it right.
There is a certain level of futility in refuting dogmatic, fact-free denial, but you've still gotta show the flag.
Granted, it's admittedly a little pointless to cite science in a roomful of people who believe the dinosaurs simply didn't fit on the ark (but that kangaroos and penguins were able to get there in time for boarding).
Speaking of which
I don't know how Ces happened to come up with this Medium Large gag at this particular moment, but it fits in nicely with a fascinating rant on Gnosticism in the movie "Noah," in which the fellow may have a point.
That is, I think his take on what Gnosticism really means is a bit like judging Christianity by the snake-handling cults, but, then, this doesn't mean that the producer of "Noah" might not have had that same view of how it all works.
I had no intention of paying to watch Russell Crowe gnaw on the scenery, but I've got to admit that this analysis of it has peaked my curiosity, in a rubbernecking-at-the-theological-car-wreck sort of way.
Meanwhile, back in Lotto Nation
Matt Wuerker riffs on the high-speed trading rip-off, which has been covered in a variety of places. The best I have come across was yesterday's Fresh Air, in which Michael Lewis, author of "Flash Boys," breaks it down in simple-to-understand terms.
"The stock market is rigged," Michael Lewis tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "It's rigged for the benefit of really a handful of insiders. It's rigged to … maximize the take of Wall Street, of banks, the exchanges and the high-frequency traders at the expense of ordinary investors."
I have long been suspicious of the stock market. I was forced to run a Stock Market Game at a couple of newspapers where it had been established in the program before I came on board, and I always hated teaching kids that the goal of investing is to see who can turn the highest profit in six weeks.
So I'd include a copy of Tulipomania in their packets, to at least have it on record that prices can be driven by foolishness as much as anything else.
I was also amused to find — and not just in my own experience but in comparing notes with colleagues around the country — that classes in juvenile detention facilities had a pretty good track record in the game, apparently based on their ability to spot, analyze and successfully play a rigged system.
I'm less amused by the way the quest for increasing stock prices has completely overwhelmed the goal of establishing a stable, dependable industrial base and how things like IPOs are rigged so that only the insiders truly benefit and the outrageous lie that, if you have your pension in a mutual fund, you have some voice in how oil companies operate.
More futility, of course, but I'm glad Matt is in there pitching.
Yeah, I've posted this before. I'm really into futility:
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