The Next Bubble

Its been so long since last we... okay, I'll stop.  But seriously, as our three readers know, its been awhile since I've taken the time to put together something substantive for the blog.  Thank goodness for Conflict Revolution's new writers, or Stephen and I might owe more in child support to this whole enterprise than a certain former elected official does to his love child. 

Guess again!

Which brings me to the point about welcoming the new writers I mentioned.  We are happy to benefit from the outstanding contributions of Elaine Chen, who will be helping us with morning updates and assorted other posts, and Nadia Sheikh, who has kindly offered to cross post some content from her excellent blog Nadia in Pakistan.  Thanks Nadia and Elaine, and welcome!

Yet even as Conflict Revolution's platform widens and the blog expands, we can't forget where we came from.  Steve and I have most recently been working on a couple of (mostly) friendly exchanges on topics ranging from inheritance taxes to regulatory burdens, Republican obstruction, and tacky campaign fundraising gimmicks.  Sexy!  But if you're craving some email debate and you just can't wait, see our most recent discussion on plastic bags and global warming.  It's... great.

Now, that promised substantive post. 

[Not-so] Love Lockdown, Prologue (1/4): Do Convicted Criminals dream the American dream?

Do convicted criminals dream the American dream?

Sure they do - Just look at freshly sentenced criminals Rajat Gupta (former Goldman board member), R. Allen Stanford (sentenced to 110 years in prison without parole), and of course Grandaddy Ponzi himself, Bernie Madoff. Hell, these guys even lived the American dream, with its fast cars, deep pockets, luxury yachts and diamonds for the ladies in life.

Now, these riches-to-rags storybook characters are scheduled to rot in a Federal penitentiary for the rest of their lives, leaving exponentially more finances and possibly life plans ruined in their wake. All this justice, of course, conducted in order to dissuade other current or would-be criminals from acting...in exactly the only way they know of how to get to the American dream - Get Rich or Die/Go to Jail Trying.

50 Cent was on to something

A rather paradoxical message, given the global rash of government-bank bailouts and the continued reliance on the instruments (i.e. financial markets) of who-dares-wins capitalism. But enough of this suddenly-fashionable bashing of fallen financial idols. It seems like just yesterday when activist judges, juries, and members of the media started defending the rights of convicted rapists, murderers, gang-bangers and the assorted denizens of American death row - new and vindicating/damning DNA evidence notwithstanding - so I'm sure public opinion will grow weary of its latest social witch-hunt sooner or later, and that District Attorneys/Federal Prosecutors will likewise find some other scapegoats upon which to build their reputations on the docket. Sooner or later, our generation's To Kill a Mockingbird of the early 21st century will be published, this time admonishing the veritable inquisition of financial criminals during a time of long-term recession and entrenched unemployment.

Yet even in a time of economic downturn, when Wall Street becomes an easy target of Main Street's wrath, no one seems to be pissing on how the wildly-popular (and mostly plastic) Kardashians, the train-wreck-of-an-excuse-for-a-man Charlie Sheens, or the well-paid, drug-snorting Lindsay Blohan-type celebrities don't pay "their fair share" of American taxes. Plus Justin Bieber- he's CANADIAN!! Where is that money going??

oh...nevermind.

What compelled me to finally write original content for the blog again - and a three-part series, at that - was a combination of many factors, the premier of which was my roommate's comment that, "no offense, but I think the American Dream is more of a Dream than a Reality."

Week in Review: Occupy US, Baby

From Guy Fawkes to bin Laden, from Obama to the Titanic, Tommy, Iraq, and the burning
Übermensch, we've covered a lot of ground this week on Conflict Revolution. Don't miss a beat in our weekly countdown:

****
1) Matt raises the roof on D.C.'s building height ordinances. Is building skyscrapers (or even just above the 20th floor) just about real estate developer greed? Or is the character of the city itself at stake?

2) Speaking of capitalist hubris - and no, I'm not at even at the May Day socialist posts yet - would you like to take a voyage on the new Titanic?

3) We enter the complex and conflicted world of the Middle East with Kennan K. as our guide, as he breaks down Iraq's tenuous present and future dilemmas vis-a-vis Iran and the rest of the region like a boss;

4) Phil rambles about the unlikely but politically feasible alliance between socialism and anarchy as the Occupy Wall Street movement prepares itself for an "American Spring (& Summer)"

5) The man, it burns! The Burning man and his furry friends;

6) Matt likewise burns some straw men over why we should continue to support American space exploration;

7) And he also burns some Caps fans for leaving the Verizon Center too soon.

8) Tommy's inaugural Take (TiT?) blasts off into cyberspace - believe us when we say, now there will be blood

9) Das Übermensch Brett Aho cometh: "Not everyone needs to go to college...Fraulein."

10) And last but definitely not least, the crown jewel of Conflict Revolution itself, the master-debaters Stephen and Matt:

OSAMA BIN OCCUPIED PART 1: WILL OWS SURVIVE??

OSAMA BIN OCCUPIED PART 2: OBAMA CAN HAZ CREDIT??

MAY THE 4TH BE WITH YOU!

Steve's Jobs: Open Positions at the Council on Foreign Relations

Looking for a great job in international affairs research and journalism?

The Council on Foreign Relations, publishers of the venerable Foreign Affairs magazine, is hiring for multiple positions in its New York and D.C. offices:

Over the summer, we at CR will be putting together a calendar of events, career fairs, speeches, and more in the D.C. area for the convenience of our readers. This "District Events Calendar" will be available only to readers who take the effort to "Like" our site on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter. In the meantime, we'll be posting D.C.-area job openings that we feel our readers would be very interested in, so please be sure to visit us early and often!

OWS: Socialist Anarchy, or Anarchistic Socialism?

RE: Socialism and the state of the Occupy Wall Street movement as of May Day [WaPo], it strikes me (no pun intended) as extremely ironic that the "anti-institutional" core beliefs of a movement, which invokes "V for Vendetta" and Guy Fawkes-inspired images of anarchy at every turn, would suddenly throw its weight behind a socialist message - the most naturally institutional cause of all, as an artificially-induced redistribution of capital. Indeed, besides the effects of winter and getting kicked out of protest spaces by law enforcement, OWS failed to capitalize on any meaningful policy gains despite international media attention because it lacked centralized leadership or central figures around which the movement could coordinate and focus its impact.

http://boston1775.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-political-meaning-for-guy-fawkess.html

The idea of no centralized leadership and the destruction of institutions is so fundamental to anarchy that it stands in complete conflict with any idea of an institutionalized social compact between the state and its people, and history shows that the possibility of an alliance between anarchism and socialism is logically impossible. Yet as Stephen has already alluded in his morning update, political socialism is once again on the march around the world and in the United States, even if many social welfare policies are precisely what have bankrupted Europe and sent America spiraling into debt. It's also what is most politically feasible [WaPo] given the harshness of existing economic conditions and future austerity measures: In a world with zero or negative growth and stagnating employment, capitalism quickly loses its luster. 

Hit the jump to read more on how OWS can revive itself in 2012...

Morning Links: Uniting Monday Haters with the Crazies who Love to Get Back to Work

So in case you started your weekend really early and spent most of it in a blacked out haze with uncomfortable periods of sobriety/hung-overness, I'm sure you are aware that your favorite NFL team just made some pretty big decisions over the weekend at the 2012 NFL Draft. If you're really not happy to be back at work right now, this is probably a pretty excellent thing to review as it can probably get you to at least lunchtime before you have to get into an excel spreadsheet to do some real work. CR is pretty happy with our pick, especially since if it doesn't work the Giants could probably just start a circus.

The Loan You Save May Be Your Own...

President Obama is already somewhat well-known for his singing voice and late night TV exploits - which once included a joke for which he realized he probably should apologize.  While perusing the blogosphere on our lunch hour, Conflict Revolution caught wind of a pretty funny segment on Jimmy Fallon last night to add to the president's late night cache:

I was a little disappointed he didn't sing this time, and I was a bit curious why the president apparently thought his dance moves were good enough for Ellen DeGeneres but not Jimmy Fallon.  In general, I thought the headline "President Obama Slow Jams the News" carried a lot of potential that was not necessarily realized here.  Kind of like the Obama Admin itself?  ZING!  I kid...

Still, an all-around good laugh.  And if Jimmy Fallon is actually capable of being funny, surely the president can find a way to get re-elected, and bring down those college loan interest rates, right?  I mean, right?  To borrow a phrase from Kevin Garnett...

(you're going to have to check this one out for yourself)

Over and out.

Upon Further Review (4:34 pm) -->

I a) didn't realize this is a regular segment on Jimmy Fallon - kudos to Mr. Fallon and b) didn't realize that Obama dropped the mic at the very end.  Ballsy.  I still would have liked to hear more singing out of the Prez himself, but the dropped mic was clutch.  Oh and the fact that he's trying to keep the interest rate on my loans from doubling.

Thank you, Barack-ness Monster. 

For more on Obama's late night appearance, check out Grantland's Amos Barshad: http://tinyurl.com/c8c3o56

Munch on a Bunch (of links) for Lunch

Since you're already here, you should:

A) "Like" us on Facebook, it takes one move of the mouse and one click in the right sidebar

(Right there!!) -->

B) Check out Steve and Matt's e-mail debate on the White House Secret Service Scandal below

C) Follow us on Twitter ------------------------------------------------------------------------------>

Kthx. And in general, just be a good scout on this wonderful Tuesday afternoon. Which involves performing the above steps with all due haste and diligence.

Now get this:

1) 1 in 2 recent college graduates in the United States are unemployed or underemployed (i.e. half, 50%, for those of you who are statistically challenged, of recent graduates are jobless or waiting tables at the local Applebee's despite having a B.A./B.S.)

Also, the net worth for young people aged 20-30 in this country is now a whopping $3400 (three-thousand four hundred dollars) plus change.This, accounting for student loans (totaling over $1 trillion nationally), credit card debt, mortgage and automobile loans (i.e. liabilities, so even if you had a job, you'd have to make more than the interest on your various loans combined PLUS all your expenses to save anything at all).

There are tons of articles talking about this tragedy of youth all over the internet. We've really just hit the tip of the iceberg on this issue.



As did they.

More links after the jump...

Guest Post: Are Young People Selfish?

This post comes to us from CONFLICT REVOLUTION friend and loyal reader Kate Bermingham. Kate was asked to contribute her thoughts to the blog after sharing a very interesting piece of writing by Georgetown Professor Patrick J. Deneen, who essentially argues that while today's young people are more tolerant of individual differences among our peers, we are less likely to feel an obligation toward anyone else but ourselves. Very provocative stuff - here's Kate to break it down:

An apt diagnosis of the prevailing ideology of today’s young, educated elite, Patrick Deneen’s recent article “Campus Libertarianism up, Civic Commitment Down” raises an essential intellectual distinction that has a profound political -- and moral -- implication. Substantiating his observations with UCLA’s annual survey of college freshmen, “Today's students,” Deneen observes, “demonstrate an overall disposition toward ‘live and let live,’ in both the social and economic realms.” Many have, it seems, embraced a laissez faire posture toward the world around them – materially and culturally.

In contemporary America, mainstream politics (which arguably includes libertarians since the Tea Party surge and the semi-ironic worship of Ron Paul) are simply estranged members of the same philosophical family, descendants of Lockean political theory. Even the many sides of the debates that animate this blog largely belong to the same dysfunctional philosophical family: Liberalism (sorry, Steve). We believe that the discrete individual is the most fundamental unit of society and that political rights thus belong not to families, institutions, or communities – but to men, created equal. Unsurprisingly, we find agreement about this on all sides of the American political aisle for, as G.K. Chesterton first observed, Americans are a creedal people. This means to be American is not to be of a certain ethnicity, religion, or ancestry – but to be of a certain worldview – the one articulated in our founding documents.

Hit It and Quit It: Quick Links For Your Reading Pleasure

They say that avid readers make good writers, which obviously isn't true, since both of your favorite contributors to CONFLICT REVOLUTION read current events frequently and are still waiting on that promised payoff. Either way, with Stephen out of the game this week, I'm stepping up with a brief list of reading material to share from my favorite blogs and websites.

My top three:

1) If President Obama is a "snob," what does that make Rick Santorum?

Tea Partiers Against College -- For Other People's Kids (The Daily Beast)

Former Bush Speechwriter and accused RINO (Republican In Name Only) David Frum comments on Santorum's characterization of Barack Obama as a "snob" for... wanting everyone to go to college (seriously). This is an awfully bold statement for a man with both a law degree AND an MBA, who has two kids in college and whose own father held a Ph.D. Not that there's anything wrong with that - hats off to the Santorum family for their academic achievements. And for those who would pillory the deposed Senator and crack presidential candidate excessively, let's be clear that there's nothing wrong with NOT earning a liberal arts degree - people are smart in different ways, and the real failure of our education system is that we've placed such an emphasis on training future office workers that individuals with different sets of talents are overwhelmingly the ones who fall through the cracks.

What's worse though: wanting everyone to have some form of secondary education (Obama), or protecting that privilege for your family but insisting that others can do without it?

More reading pleasure after the jump...