A Little Work by George du Maurier

A Little Work
(from Trilby)
by George du Maurier

A little work, a little gay
To keep us going—and so good-day!

A little warmth, a little light
Of love’s bestowing—and so, good-night.

A little fun, to match the sorrow
Of each day’s growing—and so, good-morrow!

A little trust that when we die
We reap our sowing—and so—good-bye!

I see wonderful things

The open water is terrifying pic.twitter.com/borlc0ki4J

— Domenico Calia (@CaliaDomenico) November 17, 2019

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Road to Nikko by Hasui Kawase (1883-1957)

Road to Nikko by Hasui Kawase (1883-1957)

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Best of the Bee

.@thebabylonbee did your Christmas shopping for you. You're welcome.https://t.co/ifVBUz9U77

— Kyle Mann (@The_Kyle_Mann) November 13, 2019

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Ruling class politics

Don't like quick twitter takes but it is hard to see that this is much wrong.

Wokeness isn't some abstract social ethos, untethered from political economy. It's an ideology of the professional classes, it assists them to discipline and manage the subaltern ones, ie helps elites maintain the status quo.
It is a class politics—ruling class politics.

— Aimee Terese (@aimeeterese) December 19, 2019

Open markets are loosely coupled with open politics

An interesting point. From China: Balance of Terror by Austin Bay.

Ignoring the official optimism of the Chinese government, a growing number of Chinese government and business leaders believe China is headed for the same fate as Japan in the 1990s, when a real estate bubble triggered a violent and continuing halt in economic growth. The Japanese had allowed a huge real estate bubble to develop and, when economic growth stalled for a bit, a lot of the real estate loans became bad debt and that created an economic crisis Japan is still dealing with. Japanese were angry and being a democracy they elected new politicians. China is not a democracy and a banking crisis like the Japanese went through in the 1990s will create a lot of angry Chinese who cannot, as the saying goes, “vote the rascals out (of office)”. In China that degree of public anger means revolution, or at least a lot more disorder. China also has a huge real estate bubble, very inefficient (compared to most Western nations) government spending policies and rapidly escalating labor shortages plus deficits in social spending (like taking care of the impoverished elderly). Chinese problems, in addition to being similar to those of Japan, are also considerably worse because of greater corruption, pollution and political oppression. Japan is a democracy while China is still a communist police state and that means the crises in China will not be handled peacefully as it was in Japan.

I have long argued that at some point there would be a reckoning on China's approach to development. They chose to liberalize their market system before they liberalized their political system. The hope of outsiders was that the prosperity arising from liberalized markets would make it easier to later loosen up controls over the political system.

For a variety of reasons, it now appears that China wants all the benefits of open markets without any of the costs of open politics. That is likely unsustainable and Bay's observation is pertinent to the timing of the reckoning.

Off Beat Humor

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Reunited after a year away

Reunited after a year away pic.twitter.com/2CjLw4Yhf1

— ♥️WENDY WOO♥️ (@Wendywoo_g) November 15, 2019

Pennsylvania 6-5000 by Glenn Miller

Pennsylvania 6-5000 by Glenn Miller.


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In Men Whom Men Condemn As Ill by Joaquin Miller

In Men Whom Men Condemn As Ill
(from Byron)
by Joaquin Miller

In men whom men condemn as ill
I find so much of goodness still,
In men whom men pronounce divine
I find so much of sin and blot,
I do not dare to draw a line
Between the two, where God has not.