Peter Frase

Happy [Nigel Tufnel Day](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Tufnel#Nigel_Tufnel_Day), y'all. I'll take 11-11-11 over 9-9-9 any time.

- America, you have a choice. You can be a nation that [peacefully protests in defense of the 99 percent](http://zunguzungu.wordpress.com/2011/11/10/how-it-works/), or you can be a nation that [riots in defense of rich child-rapists and their enablers](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/11/sports/ncaafootball/penn-state-students-in-clashes-after-joe-paterno-is-ousted.html). Your choice, but if you take the second option I may just stay in Europe.

- In light of [what went down](http://zunguzungu.wordpress.com/2011/11/10/this-just-happened/) at the University of California, this couldn't be more appropriate:

- This is what I like to see: about time my Minnesota brothers and sisters [got down](http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2011/11/08/occupy-mn-protestors-occupy-foreclosed-minneapolis-home) with moving Occupy in the direction of foreclosure defense.

- This, friends, is how you deal with police provocateurs. This is our line!

- I'm kind of thin skinned, so I have a tendency to let it get to me when people say nasty things about me online. But the negative reactions I get are pretty mild, and I don't have to put up with the kind of insane, violently abusive trolls that female writers endure [on a daily basis](http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/11/08/mencallmethings-twitter-trend-highlights-sexist-abuse-online/). If I *did* have to experience that, this blog probably wouldn't exist, which tells you all you really need to know about how male privilege works on the Internet.

- I'm on board with [the idea that](http://www.macroresilience.com/2011/11/07/rent-seeking-the-progressive-agenda-and-cash-transfers/) "complex programs with egalitarian aims should be replaced with direct cash transfers wherever feasible." This can be our theme song:

- [This post](http://www.unwinnable.com/2011/11/04/the-future-history-of-games-journalism/) will be funnier if you know something about the culture of video game journalism, but its portrait of our dystopian future is pretty great on its own.

- In light of [this research](http://blog.prospect.org/article/public-opinion-about-tax-expenditures-vs-government-%E2%80%9Cgrants%E2%80%9D), I suppose I should start re-branding my advocacy of a guaranteed minimum income as the "guaranteed minimum tax rebate".

- Alabama passed a crazy anti-immigrant law, and so their immigrant population fled. And guess what, now [businesses are complaining that they can't find enough workers](http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/why-americans-wont-do-dirty-jobs-11092011.html). There are a bunch of interesting things going on in this article. Unsurprisingly for an article in *Business Week*, the reporting skirts around the possibility that maybe the reason it's hard to fill these jobs is *because they suck*. Dean Baker would no doubt observe that if you take these whining business owners at their word, they're terrible at business: if you can't find enough workers to fill the positions you have, basic economics would suggest you need to either raise wages or make the jobs more pleasant. Of course, this is complicated for some of the industries in the article, like agriculture and fish processing, since they have to compete with low-cost overseas producers. But apparently there are also labor shortages in construction and janitorial services, which can't really be outsourced, so clearly some of this is just an unwillingness of bosses to accept that sometimes wages have to go up. My favorite anecdote is at the very end of the article, when one of the immigrants who stuck around notes that he's going to take advantage of the labor shortage by demanding his employer give him a raise. [Full employment FTW](http://www.peterfrase.com/2011/07/against-jobs-for-full-employment/).

- Doug Henwood did what I was hoping he'd do, and [rewrote an old article](http://lbo-news.com/2011/11/08/moving-money-revisited/) to address the current craze for moving money to credit unions.

- Adorno and Horkheimer [discuss a new communist manifesto](http://www.the-utopian.org/post/12034084404/towards-a-new-manifesto), hilarity ensues.

- ["We need to alter the circumstances under which full-employment requires that lenders pay borrowers to spend. "](http://www.interfluidity.com/v2/2535.html)

- Beware of claims that [online piracy](http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=3b3b5a7ec89ac4e31c1cda4db852307d) is a big threat to the economy.

That's it. It's the 20th anniversary of My Bloody Valentine's *Loveless*, so let's have this: