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One of those little strangenesses

It’s Trans Day of Visibility today, a day to celebrate trans people’s lives and raise awareness of discrimination. And like any other day, it’s a day when trans people continue to be invisible and powerless.

There are no trans people elected to any of the UK’s parliaments;

I once worked rather hard to get a trans person elected – for 10 months in fact. OK, it was the European Parliament but that counted at the time. Got her elected too.

Perhaps it’s that it was alongside Nigel Farage and Ukip that makes people forget this…..

Well, sorta, maybe

Trans panic is a variation of the gay panic defence, which is a tactic used in murder and assault cases to blame the victim rather than the attacker. In the UK it’s sometimes known as the Portsmouth Defence. It argues that if a straight person experiences sexual advances from someone who is gay, or has sexual activity with someone they then discover is trans, any ordinary person would be so horrified, outraged and disgusted that they would lose control and beat, stab or shoot the gay or trans person. It’s been abolished as a legitimate defence tactic in courts in many countries, but in the UK it’s been enshrined in law.

We also have laws that say that if you pretend to be something you’re not then completing a sexual advance under such terms could be rape. So, sorta, you know….

Surprise!

The UK is in a war economy, and most people don’t realise it yet. The Middle East conflict has already cut global oil supplies by around 20% and gas supplies by roughly 30%. With approximately half of all UK food imported, and global fertiliser supplies under severe pressure, the shortages hitting our shelves and energy bills are only the beginning.
Markets cannot solve this. When supply collapses, markets ration by income and those with money survive; those without do not. That is not a policy choice. That is a failure of government. The energy crisis and emerging food shortages demand an active UK state response.

Drawing on Lord Keynes’s approach at the start of World War II, and John Kenneth Galbraith’s wartime work in the United States, this video argues that the only credible response to this supply chain crisis is a combination of government-led rationing and a serious redesign of the tax system.

That means rationing oil, aviation fuel, heating oil, and food.

It means equalising capital gains and income tax rates, extending national insurance to investment incomes, and adding VAT to financial services.

I’ve now found an excuse to do everything I’ve always wanted to do.

It’s the hypocrisy, eh?

Patricia Pino has written a thoughtful and detailed response to my recent posts on modern monetary theory (MMT) and the Job Guarantee (JG), which I shared this morning. I welcome that. These are issues that deserve serious engagement, not sloganising. And if there is one thing that matters in political economy right now, it is that we are willing to interrogate our own assumptions as rigorously as we challenge those of others.

People who do, consistently, examine and respond to his assumptions get banned.

That’s humans for you

The borderless, unifying sense of our world as a single global community that entranced us after Apollo, and might have marshalled us all to act together for a greater environmental good, could have been amplified by social media. Instead, these platforms’ profit-driven, algorithmically tuned echo chambers have driven many of us in the opposite direction. Instead of fighting for the habitability of our home, we are fighting each other; our minds occupied by divisive, polarising politics and broken international relations.

Peky little bastards, aren’t we?

Now four of us have ventured far away from our divided planet again. This international crew of calm, curious, kind, thoughtful people represents the best of us. They symbolise something important. They will ride a spaceship built by communities from 11 nations who have harnessed their inherent diversity of thought and their broader problem-solving abilities to accomplish a new moonshot. Instead of individual nations racing there, the Artemis missions represent a group of united nations going to the moon together, first to fly around the moon this week with Artemis II, then to land there in 2028. Sixty-one countries have signed the Artemis accords, a set of global agreements committing to working peacefully together in space and on the moon.

Like fuck. The Kumbayah this will last 90 seconds then it’s back to normality again. Fractious little beasts that we are.

Democracy eh, democracy

It’s just one of those things:

Swedish PM offers deal that could see far-right allowed into government
Party, which has neo-Nazi roots, will hold ‘important ministerial posts within immigration’ if four-party coalition wins in September

If people keep voting for the Nazis then yues, the Nazis do get to be in government. That’s what democracy is, the folk get what the fikk say they want, good and hard.

One of the things that amuses me about all of this is that the same people who scream no, but, democracy doesn’t mean the will of the people, are also those who – generally at lesat – shriek that we must have true economic democracy. You know, the people who would be insisting that even if the people did vote for it we couldn’t have tiots oot fer the lads, donuts and fracking. Because democracy doesn’t actually mean dong what the folk want, does it?

Ah, well now

Yes, everyone loves a sailor and etc. But:

During a trip last year she allegedly behaved inappropriately towards a senior naval officer after becoming heavily intoxicated during an evening in the officers’ mess, according to the Times.
…
A Royal Navy captain in charge of one of Britain’s nuclear-armed submarines stepped back from his duties over his relationship with the MP Joani Reid, whose husband faces allegations of spying for China.

The married senior officer was investigated by the navy last year over his contact with Reid after the messages, described as inappropriate, prompted an assessment of a potential blackmail risk, the Financial Times first reported.

The investigation, launched because of “due diligence”, found the pair had exchanged messages described as flirtatious.

This is the MP whose hubbie is under suspicion for spying for China. Quite the very pair, eh?

Well, yes

This, though, is not simply about Trump’s erratic behaviour or the latest Iran news. There is a deeper ideological logic at work here, which is neoliberalism. Neoliberal economics reduces human beings to units in a system, economic cogs with conditional worth. When civilians are treated as expendable targets in a war in Iran, that is not aberration. That is the neoliberal system working as designed.

Stalin was so careful with civilian casualties, wasn’t he?

But then I suppose Stalin’s a neoliberal by now. And Mao.

Usual foolishness

Bangladesh could become the first foreign casualty of Donald Trump’s war in Iran as it faces running out of oil and gas within weeks.
After weeks of rationing, the government in Dhaka is struggling to formulate a plan and is becoming increasingly desperate at the prospect of running out of fuel, sources have told The Telegraph.

Because they’ve been rationing, not allowing the price to rise. Making the samemistake the Americans did under Nixon.

Every time we have to re-learn the same basic lesson — price is the most efficient way to ration demand. That we have to re-learn it is because all too many think it is unfair, in some manner inequitable. Which, well, it quite possibly is but price is still efficient.

This time around it’s the jump in international fuel prices as a result of the war affecting transport out of the Persian Gulf. Should that be happening, should the war be going on? I might not be the right person to ask — the translator of an article of mine into Farsi was jailed for translating my article. I could, perhaps, be a little biased on the question of who should rule Iran.

But given that the closure of the Straits of Hormuz has happened, the prices of oil and gas (LNG) have jumped, what should we do then?

Well, we need to reduce our consumption of those items, obviously enough. What’s the best way of doing that? Economists — well, most of them — insist that price is the most efficient way of allocating that newly scarce resource.

But then no one listens to me…..

Excellent!

Politicians hoping to persuade young people in the UK to have more children should prioritise tackling housing affordability, according to research by the Resolution Foundation thinktank.

Abolish the TCPA, kill the Green Belt. ‘S for the children, see?

The security of the vote is important, yes

The action, which the president has framed as an effort to enhance “election integrity”, directs the Department of Homeland Security to work with the Social Security Administration to create a national voter list and share that with states.

It also directs the postmaster general to require all mail-in and absentee ballots to be placed in “secure ballot envelopes” with official markings, and the postal service to send mail-in ballots only to those on the list, and orders the attorney general to withhold federal funds from “non-compliant” states and cities. Under the order, the attorney general is also supposed to prioritize the investigation and prosecution of election officials and others who distribute federal ballots to ineligible voters.

There’s always the obvious point that those arguing that the vote should be insecure well, why are they?

There’s also that historical point that it’s been the Feds who ensured the validity of the vote – it wasn’t the states and the counties that allowed the darkies to vote now, was it?

On the other hand the idea that a national database is going to be accurate, well, pfffft.

Could be true, yes

They said Daedone and Cherwitz, 45, used economic, sexual and psychological abuse and intimidation and indoctrination to force OneTaste members into sexual acts they found uncomfortable or repulsive, such as having sex with prospective investors or clients.

The two told followers the questionable acts were necessary in order to obtain “freedom” and “enlightenment” – and to demonstrate their commitment to the company’s principles.

One of Daedone’s lawyers, meanwhile, cast her as a “ceiling-shattering feminist entrepreneur” who created a unique business centered on women’s sexuality and empowerment.

That second claim, unique etc. Sure, could be true. On the other hand honeypot is hardly new, is it?

Daedone co-founded OneTaste in San Francisco in 2004 as a sort of self-help commune that viewed female orgasms as key to sexual and psychological wellness and interpersonal connection.

A centerpiece was “orgasmic meditation”, or “OM”, which was carried out by men manually stimulating women in a group setting.

The company enjoyed glowing media coverage in the 2010s as a cutting-edge enterprise that prioritized women’s sexual pleasure, and it quickly opened outposts from Los Angeles to London.

I recall some of that glowing coverage and yep, it did always sound pretty odd.

Well, yes, but…..

That awareness has, in turn, made it easier to push back against well-worn arguments that any new tax would, sooner or later, affect middle- and lower-income households and that any attempt to demand more from wealthy companies and individuals would cause them to flee the state for somewhere cheaper, resulting in lost jobs and a weaker economy.

Research based on census data and Internal Revenue Service records does not tend to bear these arguments out. Rather, it shows that the primary reasons for affluent people to move from one state to another are work opportunities, family and lifestyle choices, with taxation a distant consideration in most cases if it comes up at all. The same holds for companies whose success is often rooted in their geographical location and in the staff they have hired and come to depend on. “Millionaire tax flight is occurring,” Michael Mazerov of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has written, “but only at the margins of statistical and socio-economic significance.”

All economics happens at the margin. What matters is how much margin?

A buddy/sometime business partner moved out of CA to WA precisely and only for tax reasons. And, yes, he’s now thinking about moving again as a result of this WA attempt to tax the rich again. And, sure, that’s the margin. But how much margin is the iportant thing, right?

From Spud

Third, and most importantly, Steve highlights the centrality of energy and material inputs. Production is not an abstract function of labour and capital; it is physically grounded. Cut the energy supply, and Steve suggests, based on economic modelling using his Ravel model, that output falls more or less proportionately. In that case, cut fertiliser supply and food production collapses. And because fertiliser is time-critical, missed planting cycles cannot be recovered later.

Fourth, this leads to his most alarming claim: the greatest risk from this war is not battlefield casualties but famine. Modern agriculture is heavily dependent on fossil fuels and chemically produced fertilisers. If these inputs are disrupted, global food output could fall below subsistence requirements. In that case, the crisis becomes one of mass starvation, potentially affecting even high-income countries that have allowed their strategic reserves to be depleted.

Raising energy prices and stopping fertiliser production in the UK by not fracking for gas might be a bad idea then?

But of course Spud never does manage to actually think, does he?

Unless the consequences of failing global supply chains for oil, gas, fertiliser, helium, other raw materials, and consequent second-order products such as food, medical supplies, technology and other items are managed effectively by international agreement to ensure that hardship is limited to the greatest possible degree, and that rationing is not imposed by price alone, then the risk that there will be very large numbers of casualties, particularly from famine, is incredibly high, and Steve is entirely right to draw attention to this.

Ahhh, that’s why he’s not thinking. There’s a job opportunity for a Fat Controller….

Aha, aha, aha

Ed Miliband faces cheating accusations over plans to exclude emissions generated in foreign gas-fired power stations from UK totals.
He has pledged to make the grid 95pc gas-free by 2030 – but 15pc of UK power comes from neighbours such as Belgium, the Netherlands and France, which have coal and gas-fired power stations.
Mr Miliband has ruled that all such imported power is be classed as zero-carbon – making it look as green as wind or solar – because the emissions occur outside UK borders.

You’re cheating Eddie, you’re cheating.

Ho Yus, military experts!

More drilling in the North Sea would do nothing to improve the UK’s energy security, former military leaders have said, as a new analysis finds no fossil fuel importer is safe from chokepoints in the global supply chain.

Therefore MadEd is right etc etc.

Retired R Adm Neil Morisetti, a professor of climate and resource security at University College London, said attempting to eke out the remaining oil and gas from the North Sea was “not the answer” to the challenges facing the UK.

Prof of climate security. Ho, right.

“It needs to include a clear plan to rapidly transition away from fossil fuels to solar, wind, tidal and nuclear power, and a major renewal of the grid, with associated storage, to support the distribution,” he said.

Grid scale batteries to last us through a dunkelflaute. Ho Yus.

and the following November became the United Kingdom’s Climate and Energy Security Envoy.[3] In January 2013 he was appointed as the Foreign Secretary’s interim Special Representative for Climate Change, a position he held for ten months

Deffo an impartial expert. Currently only a CB and therefore gunning for the K……

This Scott Mills thing

Fortunately, I have no idea who any of these people are, so plugged into popular culture I am. But:

The BBC has been plunged into a new crisis after sacking the Radio 2 presenter Scott Mills over allegations about his personal conduct.

Mills, who hosted Britain’s most popular radio breakfast show, was blindsided by the decision to take him off the air last Tuesday. The corporation has opted to terminate his contact after claims made against him.

And:

Scott Mills was questioned in 2018 over allegations of serious sexual offences against a teenage boy but the investigation was later closed due to lack of evidence.

The Metropolitan Police said a man, who was in his 40s at the time of the interview, was investigated over allegations reported to have happened between 1997 and 2000.

So, before he started at the BBC. Also, before the change in the age of consent, from 18 to 16, in 2000.

Rather a lot depends upon that definition of “teenage” therefore. We talking of a gay man in his 20s with a twink boyfriend of 16 or summat? Or man in mid-20s raping a 12 year old? There’s quite a difference between those really….

Gotta get this reference in!

The whole social contract of Dubai involves a wilful blindness to the proximity of suffering and violence. After all, Gaza is geographically close.

Ta Dah! See? Those bastard tax exile influencers in Dubai are close to Gaza and the Eeeevil Jooos! Let ’em burn!

It’s also 1,500 miles. The distance from London to Tunisia. Or London to Istanbul, London to Moscow….

You know, close by.

So, we’re going to do this again, are we?

British Steel is on track to be fully nationalised within weeks, the Guardian understands, a year after the government took over the daily running of the loss-making business from its Chinese owner.

The steelmaker, which employs 3,500 people at its plant in Scunthorpe, was taken under government control last April amid fears that the owner Jingye was planning to shut down the site.

British Steel operates the last two remaining blast furnaces in the UK but it is still economically controlled by the Chinese company, which bought it out of insolvency in early 2020.

Sigh.

As I might have pointed out before, one of the problems with this state involvement in industry is that it never does mean forming the new at that bleeding edge of the white hot technological revolution but often does mean subsidising, preserving, the remnants of the losers of the last.

Yes, yes, lovely, preserve virgin steel capability, whaddabout the Royal Navy and all that. But blast furnaces, in rich countries, have already lost that technological race….

It still astonishes me

Your savings sitting in a bank deposit simply give the bank cheap capital.

That’s just so appallingly wrong that I cannot bring myself to believe that even Spud thinks that is right. But he does appear to believe it.

Deposits are capital? It’s just so insane….

What’s worse is that I grasp how he got here.

This is about how banks create money and the banking system explained honestly. When a bank makes a loan, it doesn’t lend your deposits — it creates new money from nothing. Your savings sitting in a bank deposit simply give the bank cheap capital. They don’t fund wages, they don’t fund taxation, and they certainly don’t fund productive investment in the UK economy. The same applies to the stock market — well over 99% of share transactions are secondhand shares, meaning your money in stocks and pension funds investment doesn’t reach companies either.

This matters because savings vs investment is the key question for UK economic growth. We spend £80 billion a year of public money subsidising saving when we should be subsidising productive investment. Understanding how money works, how banks work, and why fractional reserve banking means your deposits are actually at risk is essential financial education. If we shifted incentives from dead money to real investment, we could build a fairer, more productive economy.

He wants to be able to insist that all of that – shares, the markets, deposits, the banking system – is just dead money. At which point he’s got a cunning plan about how to use all of it better. But, for th cunning plan to be valid he’s got to show it’s all dead money.

To insist that it’s all dead money he says that deposits are capital – which they aren’t, they’re the financing for the loans made. Further, all that second hand shares stuff means shares don’t aid anything. But you eat the capital in your savings in your pension. So, it must be possible to sell your assets to another investor so that you can eat your capital. Which means a constant flow of second hand paper into the market – to be bought by those beginning to save for their pensions. The stock of investment turns over in the generations as the young start to save and the old eat their savings.

New investment is only ever the excess of new savings over old ones being cashed in. Spud’s thinking that it’s the entire stock.

Sigh.