Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


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Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Crackdowns and capacity

By Fester


Dave Schuler at Outside the Beltway gives the short version of how to successfully repress protests. It is not complicated if the authorities have a plan and the will to use force.



  • Step 1: Cut off cellphone and Internet Access

  • Step 2: Control the message

  • Step 3: Crack down forcefully

  • Step 4: Reward successful repression of dissent

    • An authoritarian regime with the will to crush dissent and the wherewithal to do so can stay in power indefinitely.....




    John Robb touches on the resource and cash flow advantages of the Chinese government compared to the Soviets in the late '80s. The Chinese are integrated in the economic system and they supply something (disinflationary labor and wages) that the Western elites want. The Chinese also control a significant amount of debt and have allowed for 'consequence free' short term decision making and irresponsibility. The Soviets by the mid-80s were in debt without a good economic chokepoint product to sell.



    The great part about being a Chinese dictatorship in a world with one rule set (Adam Smith's), is that your paramilitary forces can slaughter 140 156 protestors without even a whimper from the global community. Western elites just don't care because business with China is more important than human rights and the fact that China reacts like a spoiled child when chastised (which makes it not worth the hassle).



    It is this same basic set of analysis that has fueled by skepticism that the Moussavi led protestors will be successful in a meaningful manner. The Iranian state has been attempting to limit external communitcation, and it has demonstrated a willingness to crack down hard. Iran has been accumulating diversified foreign currency reserves over the past few years as oil prices have boomed. Hard currency reserves have more than doubled in the past five years. The net asset position has also improved for Iran. The Iranian government and hardliners have the resources to fight hard for its rent protection position, and it has the will. And that was as evident a month ago as it is today.



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