Super-rich feel the squeeze on luxury Guardian
Melting Ice, Freezing Fossil Fuels Ambitions: Interview with Fen Montaigne OilPrice
Rudd Defeats Gillard in Australia Party Vote Wall Street Journal
A 1914 feel: Threats to peace in East China Sea Financial Times
Pettis: No Lehman but shadow run possible MacroBusiness. It’s important to remember that Lehman occurred because the officialdom was simply not going to rescue it (this was crystal clear, the Bush Administration saw it as politically unacceptable) and didn’t even consider what would happen if the private rescue (which did look as if it was going to come off) failed. But no one in 2007 in the US would have thought the implosion of subprime debt would produce a global financial crisis either. Put more simply: tail risk is always bigger than the experts assume.
The Second Battle Of Thermopylae Edward Hugh. From last week, but still important
Eurozone crisis live: Italy faces ‘billions of euros of losses’ on derivative contracts Guardian
Italy could need EU rescue within six months, warns Mediobanca Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph
Finland: a tough Nordic accountant that is caught up by reality Paul Jonker- Hoffrén
President’s promises fail to calm Brazil Aljazeera
Big Brother is Watching You Watch:
Finally, Some Sanity in Congress About Castrating the NSA’s Total Surveillance Powers Alternet
Psych! Economist (Lambert)
Australian spy bosses brief government on possible Asian fallout over Snowden: report Reuters (1 SK). Shorter: Australia spied on its new best friend, China. Oops.
After Snowden leak, critics of U.S. savor chance to return rhetorical fire Washington Post. You have got to love the unintended irony. Fulminating about countries with bad human rights records when the US has the highest incarceration rate in the world, limits on freedom of assembly, a surveillance state, Gitmo, torture, rendition, drones, and the Supreme Court rolling back voting rights and 5th Amendment protections.
Obama Climate Plan Touts Gas Fracking As “Transition Fuel,” Doubling Down on Methane Risk DeSmogBlog (Carol B)
Supreme Court strikes down key part of Voting Rights Act USA Today (barrisj)
Long filibuster against Texas abortion limits suspended Associated Press. Lambert sends this TwitterPic. It gets crazier: Liveblog: Senators Trying to Determine if Abortion Bill Passed Texas Tribune and Wendy Davis abortion filibuster ends in chaotic dispute over midnight vote Guardian
More from Lambert: two tweets note official website showed 6/26 vote, then was altered to show 6/25 (see here and here)
Hostess, but not its workers, makes a comeback Daily Kos (Carol B)
Barnes & Noble: The Final Chapter? Yahoo
Frontline: Rape in the Fields (AbyNormal)
Another Conflicted Foreclosure Review: PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ally/ResCap Francine McKenna
How to Act Like a Billionaire Rebecca Solnit, TomDispatch
When good intentions go wrong: Effects of bank deregulation and governance on risk taking VoxEU
Careless talk may cost the economy Martin Wolf, Financial Times. Wolf chews out the Fed and the BIS and sides with Bullard.
Antidote du jour:
And a bonus (YY).
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Yes, just 20 minutes ago our Prime Minister in Australia was unseated by a Party Caucus vote. Once again in this country, the light of reform Government has been blown out by its own children. The ego’s of politicians in the West,where we have such rare opportunities, are insanely self-indulgent. Are there any Statesmen/women of innovative, intelligent integrity to be found? The old spectrum divide of Left and Right has been moribund for some time, it is only a plane of sensible and stupid. WE have our own lack of involvement to blame for allowing such malodorous manifestations to arrest the ascent of civilisation in the seeking of an entirely harmonious way of life on this beautiful World.
Aw cheer up! Have any of your recent Prime Ministerial candidates been as awful as, say, John Kerry or John McCain? Or, Dear God, the awful prospect of the bloody Clintons back in the White House?
Yeah….goodo, worse things happen at sea! No wait ..Japanese “science”! Problem seems to be these candidates are teaching our mob how to gut the whole democratic process. We need to find points of agreement rather than the way they cause a ‘stink’ about all the differences, for their own (and their obvious masters) gain.
What? A corporatist neoliberal in sheep’s wool posing as a labor party member backstabber who almost completely destroyed an ethos ie power to the people is usurped by a person that was democratically elected by a vast majority… WTF[!!!].
Skippy… As it is well known on this blog that I’m completely anti monotheism, yet, I completely back his anti neoliberal agenda amongst other things… we a all human beings first.
Anyway, that antidote picture of Mr Rudd is very sweet. He also speaks Chinese, you know.
Monty Python: British embassy in Smolensk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCRacroAorA
Skippy… Yellow, Red, Brown… whom knew colors were so scary… eh… ahhh… to live in a black and white world… the comfort~
Re: Snowden in the Spanish-speaking press this morning
• Ecuador is requesting the US government put its request and arguments to Ecuador in writing, so Ecuador can compare the US government written request to the written request of Snowden. Thus far, Ricardo Patiño said, the US has sent no written communication to Ecuador. Everything has been verbal.
http://www.latercera.com/noticia/mundo/2013/06/678-530028-9-ecuador-solicita-un-escrito-de-estados-unidos-sobre-situacion-legal-de-snowden.shtml
• Ricardo Patiño said yesterday that Snowden “is a man who wants to shine a light and transparency on facts that affect the fundamental liberties of all persons.”
The decision to grant asylum entails a choice between “betraying the citizens of the world or betraying the elites in power in a specific country,” Patiño added.
Not all Ecuadorians, however, are on board. “I believe it would be a provocation,” said Blanca Sánchez, a woman of 50 years who sells cosmetics in Quito. “(Snowden) has to assume his own responsibilities. The problem is not ours.”
The US is the principle buyer of oil from Ecuador, and critics of Ecuador’s left-wing president, Rafael Correa, argue that “a growing oil industry and ever-closer links with China can give Correa the sensation that he is protected from the consequences that admitting Snowden will have on business relations with the United States,” the article says. [Note from Mexico: The argument that the US, because of the new shale plays, will become oil independent and will no longer need their oil is a bargaining chip the US has played in negotiations with all oil-exporting countries in Latin America, including Mexico.]
Besides oil exports, “Ecuadorian analysts” fear that accepting Snowden “will compromise the access of fruit, seafood and flowers to the US market without paying tariffs.” The Law of Preferential Tariffs of the Andes should be renewed, and accepting Snowden “doesn’t help Ecuador to extend” the pact, said Ramiro Crespo, who heads the firm Quito Analytical Security. “The US is an important market for us and to treat it like this is not good from the point of view of business.”
One office worker, however, shot back: “This person is being persecuted by the CIA and our policy is to protect people like this and perhaps give them rights their own countries are denying them.”
http://sipse.com/mundo/ecuador-decidira-si-traiciona-al-mundo-o-a-determinadas-elites-38505.html
• If Ecuador refuses asylum to Snowden, it appears that Venezuela is chomping at the bit to grant it. Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro confirmed yesterday that “we have not received an official request for political asylum, but if we are asked we will evaluate it because asylum is a humanitarian protection.”
The reports Snowden “has made in a brave way serve to change the world,” Maduro continued.
Maduro questioned the United States for persecuting Snowden and at the same time giving political asylum to “people who have set off bombs in Venezuela,” citing the case of Luis Posada Carriles, who Venezuela accuses of being the intellectual author of the bombing of a Cuban Airlines flight over Venezuela.
“Who deserves protection? This young man Snowden or those who place bombs? It is a comparison we make between the United States and the peoples of the world,” Maduro said.
http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/932086.html
Re the political power of US shale oil. It’s a mirage, or another bubble to sucker investors. It has no possibility of supplying cheap and increasing amounts of oil because it’s a low net energy source and wells play out rapidly at great expense with environmental destruction. It’s a testament to the social construction of reality that so few outside of the peak oil community realize this.
It’s testament to the power of $$$.
Places like Pennsylvania are going to end up with environmental nightmares long after the jobs and fast money have left the state.
~
Few things speak of the Pirate nature of the current financial-political class than fracking. Rape the country for $$ now, leave the problems to the future.
With the Fed’s never-ending QE, and our ginormous national debt, this was only a matter of time:
Markets in Turmoil as Price of Money Skyrockets to $90 a dollar ~America’s Finest News Source
Now that’s just bad reporting. They’re really not worth anywhere near that much. How could they have gotten it so wrong?
If I may put my two cents in, here’s a dollar.
But fell back to $50 to the dollar after intervention by Walter Map
I was exaggerating. So was the satire. It’s actually a little less than $25 to the dollar:
http://www.comparegoldandsilverprices.com/dollar-devaluation-since-1913/
If money could talk, it would threaten me with cruel jokes.
Money doesn’t talk… it curses!
Curses? Cruel jokes? My money always says the same thing: “Good bye”. But it’s always been polite about it.
Most people take money’s curses as come-on’s (I know a lot of men are into that fetish…they love to get that from women).
Woooo…she’s SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sexy!
Thus she seduces.,,
It hurts so bad!
But I need you.
I want you…
RE: Finally, Some Sanity in Congress About Castrating the NSA’s Total Surveillance Powers
The other day, somebody mentioned something about Pandora’s box, as if bad things would happen if it were opened.
That’s ridiculous. I have Pandora’s box in a curio cabinet in the drawing room. It really looks more like a cookie jar than anthing else. Visitors sometimes open it out of curiosity, but nothing ever happens. It’s empty.
I had it appraised once. It isn’t worth anything.
Italian Ministry explains scrutinized derivatives…
“Like any insurance, however, if the event to which you protect yourself from happening, you carry a cost, although it remains justified by the priority given to the prevention of serious consequences in the event of adverse scenarios.”
Efficiency in Fraud.
~Profoundlogic (one of NC’s very own’)
@ “President’s promises fail to calm Brazil”
From the article:
This I believe is the consensus view from the Mexican left, which views Rousseff, and her proposed plebiscite, as attempting to do an end run around the Congress and her own party, which are both notorious for their corruption, opportunism, and fealty to entrenched special interests. The special interests will do anything within their power to prevent the people from having the last say.
There is a great deal more discussion in the Mexican press about what’s going on in Brazil than in the Anglo-American press. If Rousseff is successful, it could be a game changer throughout Latin America. After all, if Brazil can have a more direct form of democracy and by-pass the corrupt party and congressional system, why not everybody else?
china chokin on a pawn :-/
Banks Halt Lending amid Tighter Liquidity
(Beijing) – A number of banks have temporarily halted lending to businesses and individuals apparently due to mounting pressure from liquidity shortages.
They include some branches of Bank of China (BOC) and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), sources from the two banks said.
The bank was already having a hard time keeping up with deposit-to-loan ratio requirements even before the liquidity shortages hit, not to mention executives’ recent determination to sort out the bank’s liquidity management and control loans.
~BOC plans to resume lending on July 15, he said.
~The tightened liquidity, which started about June 6, has affected the interbank market, stock market, government bond underwriting and securities refinancing operations.
~The two banks responded by saying the disruptions were caused by system upgrades. However, users of China’s Twitter-like weibo services were not convinced the problems were unrelated to the banks’ liquidity situations.
~A source from Agricultural Bank of China said there was no need to worry about large banks.
ABC had not stopped lending, he said, and “most other banks that have are small.”
“They borrowed to make loans and even use short-term capital to purchase (other banks’) wealth management products. (When liquidity tightened,) large banks are often unwilling to lend to them.”
http://english.caixin.com/2013-06-26/100547177.html
Perhaps the People’s solution is to give any person, at birth, his or her (xy’s) personal People’s Money Printing Press.
Here in America, corporazis advocate private money printing privilege for corporations only. But in a people’s republic, everyone gets to print money.
Would be a great way to scare the shit out of the Austrians, if nothing else. I can imagine them doing 5x the Weimar/Zimbabwe talk they already do.
Actually, MLTPB, this is a bad idea: We really dont need to make the Austrians five times more obnoxious!
I thought so myself.
Fine idea. The compromise position would be a basic income guarantee…
@ “After Snowden leak, critics of U.S. savor chance to return rhetorical fire”
From the article:
Didn’t most, if not all, of Ecuador’s “dismal human rights record” occur when it was a client state of the United States, ruled by US-imposed strong-men?
This is sloppy and deceptive reporting on the part of The Washington Post. It’s amazing how easily the editors of The Washington Post believe the US’s sordid history in Latin America can be swept under the rug and forgotten, as if nothing ever happened.
I’m reminded of what Charles Dickens wrote in A Tale of Two Cities:
And also from the The Washington Post article:
What the article is referring to is Ecuador’s new communications law, la Ley de Comunicación de Ecuador, passed by the Ecuador’s National Assembly on June 14.
http://www.wradio.com.co/noticias/internacional/entra-en-vigor-la-controvertida-nueva-ley-de-comunicacion-de-ecuador/20130625/nota/1922096.aspx
I think practically everyone in Latin America believes that the Fourth Estate is broken. The problem is much more acute in Latin America than in the United States. The owners of private TV stations in Latin America vehemently assert their role as king-makers should be unimpeded and absolute.
I haven’t studied Ecuador’s new communicaitons law so have no opinion of it. Mexico’s new president Peña Nieto, on the very opposite end of the political spectrum to Rafael Correa, also recently proposed legislation to rein in the power and abuses of TV broadcasters.
Here’s the Heritage Foundation’s take on Ecuador’s new communications law:
This also from the Heritage Foundation article:
TRANSLATION: The United States does not want Ecuador or any other country in South America to have the option of selling their natural resources, which are vast, to China or any other bidder.
Yeah, that’s just hilarious. China’s our third biggest trading partner, so obviously everyone’s real concerned about their human rights record. Russia might have done ok, if it weren’t for American economists assisting in the looting of the country’s wealth by the oligarchs. Cuba is actually a nice place and most everyone loves Fidel, according to my many friends who have traveled there for percussion training. And Ecuador, as you point out, experienced their abuses under US client governments.
You’ve gotta give it to our gov’t spinmeisters, they’ve got some major cojones to go throwing stones like that, living in a glass house as they do…
Its amazing to me that people think Cuba is like North Korea, when its actually like mexico but a bit better.
Its not rich, but its not goddamn North Korea. The propaganda on Cuba has been so incredibly successful.
And come on, dozens of countries around the world are in the moral debt to Cuba’s legion of foreign doctors. Cuba has done more favors for the world than the USA has done in a few decades.
America exports war and guns, while Cuba exports cheap pharmaceuticals and high quality doctors…
To be fair, technically speaking that does make them “anti-American”…
…Its amazing to me that people think Cuba is like North Korea..
as well it’s amazing to me that people believe in immaculate conception, the earth being 4,000 years old and that everyone in Cuba loves Fidel.
Lamenting what people “believe” invariably is not a particularly productive debate point because examples of every confidence and faith can be trotted out as rhetorical “evidence”.
For what its worth, I don’t know anyone who finds NK comparable to any other existing regimes. Probably the closest parallel in quality and scale right of the top of my head would be Romania under Ceausescu but he of course is old news.
Opti, I forgot to mention yesterday that Dr. Dee was also a non-TV-watcher.
..Cuba is actually a nice place and most everyone loves Fidel..
What does “most everyone loves ***” suggest to you when it comes to leaders of dictatorial regimes??
The wisdom and “lovability” of the leaders in confrontational political regimes are not elements of a zero sum game.
To specify: based on reports from friends who have spent quite a bit of time there, they heard very little bad about Fidel or the gov’t in general. A lot of people loved the government (granted, many were traditional musicians on the state payroll). One of my more political friends asked people directly what they thought and got overwhelmingly positive responses. I’m sure not everyone loves him, but hey, I was typing quickly and used a broad brush. Perhaps too broad, but I think the main point still stands: the US’s sudden concern with human-rights violations is hypocritical, to say the least.
We don’t forget China, with all her nuclear missiles, are not ‘chomping at the bit, like Venezuela, to grant asylum.
We also don’t forget the flight, as reported, didn’t not stop over in Shanghai or Beijing, a little out of the way perhaps, but well worth the symbolic gesture.
Maybe Napoleon was right – go back to sleep, my communist giant.
The Chinese playing tag w/ Snowden?..No doubt not a particularly effective selfserving political calculation for the CCP. What would be the point to be tangling w/ their largest single trading partner with whom they are entwined in a mutual economic death grip?
Aren’t Snowden’s revelations more effective for the Party to be able to point at as an injured Party, when it’s expedient, rather than getting into a diplomatic barfight?
Chinese prudence in play, it doesn’t serve their interests I don’t think.
The HK “and J is for” bitchslap was pretty humorous. +1 for dry humor of the bureaucratic flavor.
Our sleeping communist giant is making lots of money napping.
Prime B..
As a value added contract manufacturing colony -big gross revenue, thin margin, many mouths to feed and fairly crappy indigenous energy resources = little nap time.
China is an economic a one trick pony and in tough spot right now. Being strategic about what fights to pick is wise.
It reminds me of the Aztec God of Duality – Ometeotl; China is both
1. a napping communist giant
2. a little-to-non napping capitalist manufacturing giant
All at the same time!
Talk about duality.
Speaking during a visit to Malaysia’s main city, Kuala Lumpur, Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino compared Snowden’s case to that of Julian Assange, the founder of anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, who has been given asylum in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.
“It took us two months to make a decision in the case of Assange, so do not expect us to make a decision sooner this time,” Patino told reporters.
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2013-06-26/wikileaks-says-leaker-safe-gives-no-added-detail
YeaH Us! we finally moved up the chain by replacin the canine playin cards
from nc links: Driving up the cost of high-end living was a 14.8% increase in the price of “passion” investments, a category that includes an Aston Martin car, a Patek Philippe gold watch – with starting prices from around €20,000 (£17,000) – and baubles from the bespoke jeweller Boodles. Acquiring a masterpiece has also got more expensive, as the art market continues to defy expectations. Last year a painting by Paul Cézanne of two peasants playing cards smashed records when it sold for £158.4m to the Qatari royal family, while a work by Mark Rothko of blurry red, pink and blue rectangles fetched $75m (£49m) from a mystery buyer.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2096051/Most-expensive-art-piece-sold-Qatar-buys-C-zannes-The-Card-Players-160m.html
http://www.tartx.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/dogs_playing_poker2.jpg
For $150 million, you can dig, bribe and steal a lot more statues of Ershkigal, the sister of Ishtar, which you can at least identify more with, due to the physical proximity, and who knows, maybe your ancestors worshipped her than one meaningless Cezanne.
RE: Tex-ASS and Abortion
Ever since Adam’s claim that “It was all Eve’s fault” was taken seriously, knuckle-draggers like Rick Perry and his merry band of toadies have been getting away with claiming that they know what’s good for women’s health. He was, after all, the one who wanted legislation to force 12-year-old GIRLS to be Guardisiled. Three times. For their “health.” Heartwarming.
The dis-ingenuousness of it all is nauseating.
What’s next for this nano-intellect? (I overstate.) I suspect it will be a religious tome called “Tips from the Taliban” in which he will make the case that stoning gets a bad rap as it can be a useful women’s health procedure.
spkg of women’s health, if only rape for jobs was illegal
oh but….
During a meeting in a Fresno hotel conference room in December attended by CIR and IRP, farm labor contractor Josh Beas took careful notes as Amy Wolfe, AgSafe’s president and CEO, clicked through a series of slides.
She encouraged attendees to create a sexual harassment policy, hold supervisors accountable, conduct random inspections and document any problems that arise. It’s about “creating a culture where people can come to work and do the job they were hired to do and people treat each other with respect and dignity,” she said.
“But the message doesn’t always travel well with some managers in the industry.
From the back row, Ralph Collazo, who runs a Southern California packinghouse, offered running commentary on the proceedings. As Wolfe worked her way through the presentation, Collazo cracked jokes.
“I want a girl to sexually harass me,” he quipped to the people near him. Collazo did not return calls for comment.
When Wolfe offered some real-world case studies, such as the story of a farmworker who was repeatedly raped by her supervisor, he sounded skeptical.
“She was eating eggs and bacon,” he said, implying that the sex was consensual, “and then she decided she didn’t like it.”
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/social-issues/rape-in-the-fields/female-workers-face-rape-harassment-in-u-s-agriculture-industry/
It’s almost impossible to comprehend what’s going on here.
The rot is breathtakingly pervasive in scope and depravity–soldier on soldier, priest on child, supervisor on powerless migrant. And so much of it is sexual. And so much of it is ignored.
It’s well accepted that rape is a crime driven by the need to demonstrate power by those who feel powerless. The implications for the breakdown of this society are truly frightening.
You know whats MORE frightening?
Its only going to get worse from here.
Y’all may want to tighten your seatbelts. Society is only going to become more toxic.
you know it is…you can smell the fumes from the barrels they’re stretching us across.
Is it any worse (generationally) on a per capita basis or are we just able to document it more effectively?
@opti, it could easily be considered worse, based on majority of women caring for children and elderly, Alone. the vulnerabilities are certainly more documented but im not so sure the harassment and rapes are reported more today than past generations.
Facts about Rape / 2012
(cliff note version)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/50-facts-rape_b_2019338.html
I forgot to add: political hack on deluded populace.
i went for a walk & shower and it came to me i might’ve strawman’d your post…my apologies.
(tips from the taliban/stoning…fitting n priceless)
This is called putting on a show. Don’t underestimate an idea and how useful these are in captivating the masses into action based on belief. Abortion is huge, in DC in the 80s I can still remember the massive crowds, swooning in righteous reverance.
Remember, during this same time period came the introduction of the devastating New Jim Crow racism, massive expansion of criminal justice systems, massive profiteering, busting huge unions, huge recessions driven by Wall Street, and big moves to eventually decimate long standing social contracts. The “other side” is just as bad, they condone or participated in all of this respectively, but last fall, during Ofraud’s relection campaign (mind you, people are still being hurled out of their houses and writers are still warning about stealing social security) — Banksters were given a bailout settlement, people can’t find work, crimes unpunished, both war and financial, and the shrieking 24/7 was about Gay Marriage. While important, it decently serves other purposes. Look over there, not here!
Spot on. It’s like team sports, isn’t it? Yay, my side won!
My Democrat friends are falling other themselves with joy and self-congratulation on FB. Abortion rights, gay rights, animals rights…anything but working-class priorities and concerns, anything but directly addressing the increasingly cruel and devastating economic cage that has fallen on us.
People still use facebook?
one word: kayfabe
Beyond Black and White, New Force Reshapes South
I appreciate the sentiment–that demographics will eventually undue Republican hegemony in the South. But for the time being, at least, “eventually” seems very, very far away in North Carolina.
How One Multi-Millionaire Is Turning North Carolina Into A Tea Party Utopia
“Undo” Will we ever see a post editing capability as part of the new improved NC?
That question probably has the same answer as,
“Will President Obama ever stop doing drone strikes?”
I can only do what WordPress plugins allow. I’ve asked before and didn’t get a positive answer, but there might be something new out there.
It’s a blog, comment section, Bunk, just let it go. Trust me, no one is judging. (Plus, think of how much more time you would spend commenting on blogs if you could go back and edit endlessly…I’d never get anything done, personally).
sh!t, see that, extra comma in there…oh well.
bahahahaaha yep, add bells n whistles and it still won’t do anything to help Aby heheheeeee
It ain’t whatcha write, it’s the way atcha write it.
Jack Kerouac
My writing goal is for child-friendly content with a senior-friendly textual arrangement.
“no one is judging” Exactly, it’s benign like the NSA, storin’, minin’, SaaSin’ etc the data.
To gain your own voice, you have to forget about having it heard.
Allen Ginsberg
And to hear your own voice, even in a noisy world, your mind should be silent.
But you won’t hear your own voice, even on a quite mountaintop, if your mind in not silent.
btw Samuel Johnson disagrees with your earlier comment about readers not being creative…
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book.” s.j.
He may disagree with me, but I agree with him.
If I didn’t write it clearly, it’s clearly my fault, but I wanted and want to say, if you read ALL the time, you can not possibly be creative or have time to be creative.
i told him i thought that what you meant (your a hoot Prime!)
Just write every day of your life. Read intensely. Then see what happens. Most of my friends who are put on that diet have very pleasant careers. r. bradbury
That sounds about right.
For me, balance is the key.
And when I read too often people describe themselves as ferocious readers, I just want to whisper a little, what about us ferocious writers? Let’s hear from them describing themselves that way (I am a ferocious writer) too!
If I didn’t write it clearly, it’s clearly my fault, but I wanted and want to say, if you read ALL the time, you can not possibly be creative or have time to be creative.
As I type this I’m reading your comment and producing a brilliant finger painting err.. toe painting
Dear gods yes. My social circles are lousy with bibliophiles, some surely to the point of a full-blown paraphilia. In my experience, they’re often just as deluded as the mainstream, but in identity politics rather than partisan politics. I have the damnedest time telling these people it’s not the 19th century anymore, but unless they get their noses out of their books and start dealing with the world as it is, soon enough it’s gonna be just as nasty, brutish and short.
Just consider this a virtual whiteboard and you have your digital sharpie instead of a dry erase marker
i can do that.
i can’t do this http://www.incredibleart.org/lessons/middle/images/larryvalue1.jpg
‘ )
how few pixels define an image, eh?
If I tried to do that It will end up looking like an ashtray..
My friend Serge has posted a comment…
Sam Alito and the Grimace:
In 1973 the Kroffts successfully sued McDonald’s, arguing that the entire McDonaldland premise was essentially a ripoff of their television show. As a result of the lawsuit, the concept of the “magical place” was all but phased out of the commercials, as were many of the original characters. McDonaldland remained a popular marketing device. The characters that remained following the lawsuit were Ronald McDonald, Grimace, Hamburglar, and the French Fry Gobblins.
Re: When Good Intentions Go Wrong
Every time I see/hear this canard I want to vomit. Really?!? You actually believe that? I mean, sure, that’s what the corporate lobbyists will tell you and what naive economists believe, but come on…The motivation is to create more profit opportunities for individuals who are currently constrained by regulation, period.
If it weren’t for greed, you wouldn’t have the calls for deregulation in the first place. The arguments about increasing social welfare through increased competition are ad hoc justifications; simple-minded covers for the naked pursuit of self-interest. At least, this is my take-away from observing how deregulation has been handled in my state. Some corp. lobbyist opines about the wonders of competition and the beneficence and wisdom of the market and the pols just eat it up: hook, line, and sinker.
The discussion of megamergers (monopoly creation) of the airlines was being discussed on CNBS yesterday. The benefits of such activity were “numerous” and included–get this–since there were fewer airplanes competing for the runways, on-time performance would be better.
Of course, prices would be higher and choice diminished.
The pursuit of competition for the benefit of consumers appears to be ferocious, or not.
Sophistry at its finest…
Hey look, it’s 2012 again! (you made an oopsie on the heading)
6/26 is an interesting day
1718 – Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich of Russia, Peter the Great’s son, mysteriously dies after being sentenced to death by his father for plotting against him
1848 – End of the June Days Uprising in Paris
1927 – The Cyclone roller coaster opens on Coney Island.
1974 – The Universal Product Code is scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley’s chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio
2012 – The Waldo Canyon Fire descends into the Mountain Shadows neighborhood in Colorado Springs burning 347 homes in a matter of hours and killing two people
(me ponders what it means to Yves’ ))
Texas Senator’s 13-Hour Solo Filibuster Kills Brutal Abortion Bill
(I never watch internet videos (way too time consuming and problematic on dial up, for one), but from the few second preview that I’m able to view, I may attempt to watch the one attached to this piece by Max Read. Beautiful!)
There is unfortunately no English version of this
http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzpolitik/peter-schaar-zu-prism-und-tempora-ueberwachung-zurueckfahren-a-907793.html
but it is a good – and all to rare – example of the discussion not had among all the attempts to have ourselves an exhausting Snowden soap opera instead.
The essay makes the point that national law cannot resolve the issue of human rights (and data security) violations and espionage beyond each countries border, as the US-UK cooperation amply demonstrates.
This ties into the unfortunate focus on “spying on US citizens within the US”. Not only do expats still pay taxes and constitutional protections, but this line of criticism is uncomfortably close to “state murder by drone of citizens is different”. The same exclusionary “reasoning” has been applied to torture. If it is unacceptable to blanket monitor constitutionally protected citizens, it is unacceptable to intrusively monitor allies and trade partners and their citizens.
Forgotten are decade-old scandals in Europe regarding evidence that the NSA enganged in industrial espionage on NATO allies. Like the State Department and the military, the expensive capacity does not exist primarily for the security of citizens, but to ensure (budget) and secure (utility) profits.
“I spy on yours if you spy on mine” is not merely nekulturny, it is evidence of systemic corruption that threatens the legal concept of sovereign states as well as democratic institutions. It is reflected in similar quid-pro-quo the US has entered with respect to shared drone kill lists.
It is typical of the Merkeles of the world to attempt to bury the issue that democratic accountability and rule of law cannot be based on permitting violation of your own citizens by entities beyond your borders. If monitoring is necessary for a “security” that is never actually delivered, then it still has to be done by bureaucracies that answer to elected representatives of the monitored.
Finally, the contributions of China and Russia have certainly humorous value, but we should not ignore their open offers to discuss “how to secure the Internet” with the US. At the end of the day, the Obeyme administration is much more likely to sign bilateral agreements with the other National Surveillance States to partition and “secure” the Internets then they are to spearhead international agreements that implement digital rights globally.
We, the Monitored, need to get out act together. So far, the so-called “controversy” is nothing but disheartening.
Obeyme, LOL.
* * *
I wish I’d said that.
— You will, lambert, you will.
Super rich feel the squeeze on luxury.
I thought massage was good for you, especially the luxurious squeezing kind?
Yeah, and considering how much they ferociously squeeze the 99%s unmentionables, they deserve a bit of squeezing for once.
Like maybe around the neck, with a noose.
I think we can safely deduce that the super rich will never making a living as masseuses.
What they are good at, though, is making money under all conditions – deflation/inflation, austerity/MMT, sleeping/waking…
That last feat is especially admirable. If we could do that, we’d all be rich…by napping all the time.
Yeah, I never understood how Republicans can make such a big deal about hard work, when most of the super rich are rich through usury, insider trading and inheritance.
Or, for that matter, how they make such a big deal about Entrepreneurship, when only 4% of the Forbes 400 were entrepreneurs…
Its clearly much easier to make money off of government protected banks or rich parents.
But yeah, I must say, it would be pretty frightening to go to get a massage only to find out the masseuse is Carlos Slim. Would probably be as rough on my back as he is to Mexico’s telecom market, and with as overpriced a fee to boot.
All good, but still I stand by my earlier admiration – Wow, you can make money by napping?!?!?!?
Careless talk may cost the economy.
That sounds like it’s from In Praise of Propaganda.
It’s all about having a clean mind in order to survive this crisis.
And to have a clean mind, you have to wash your brain every day.
If we all wash our brains, then no one talks carelessly and the economy should be fine.
How does one wash ones brain? Watch Fox News/MSNBC?
My brain bust be damn dirty then: I must have never gotten it cleaned!
I am not into marketing, but I can imagine a commercial featuring a beautiful siren insinuating thusly:
I wash my brain every night with Fox/MSNBC sham-poo (not real poo, but sham-poo). Look at my beautifully clean brain!
(all in a very suggestive voice).
I always find the opinions of Justice Nino “Vafanculo” Scalia most entertaining, mainly because he so casually plays both sides of the court – so to speak, as when prating on about “will of the People through their Representatives” in his dissent on DOMA, then the day before blatantly thwarting “the will of the People through their Representatives” by essentially deep-sixing the VRA, despite its virtually unanimous renewal a few years ago by Congress. Such a wanker, but of heroic stature when compared to the smarmy and clownish Alito.
Give the man his dues, however, as in his sarcastic dissent in Lawrence v. Texas, when the Court struck down yet another “anti-sodomy” law, Scalia prophesied eventual constitutional protection being extended to – gasp! – “…marriage to homosexual couples…”. Here are some quotes from that opinion:
Exactly 10 years ago today, the Supreme Court similarly made a landmark decision for gay couples – striking down the sodomy law in Texas by a vote of 6-3 in the landmark case Lawrence v. Texas. That case affirmed the right of gay couples to have consensual sex.
In his dissent of that ruling, Justice Antonin Scalia angrily warned that if the court was willing to strike down sodomy laws, other state laws on moral choices could soon be lifted, among them gay marriage. He wrote:
“State laws against bigamy, same-sex marriage, adult incest, prostitution, masturbation, adultery, fornication, bestiality, and obscenity … every single one of these laws is called into question by today’s decision.”
He further argued:
“If moral disapprobation of homosexual conduct is ‘no legitimate state interest’ for purposes of proscribing that conduct … what justification could there possibly be for denying the benefits of marriage to homosexual couples exercising ‘[t]he liberty protected by the Constitution?”
“Moral choices”? Wanking? Bonking? Too silly indeed!
Those laws on masturbation are mostly for sex toys. Texas banned sex toys until like two years ago.
I think Alabama still has the sale of sex toys being illegal though.
Personally, I fail to see why any government would give a damn about whether or not people use ‘masturbation aides’ or not…
The ossified Scalia must exit stage right immediately and take his faithful dog Thomas with him.
The truth is that on issues like sex and drugs society should only intervene when and where it has a compelling interest. In sexual matters, the primary consideration should be the potential for abuse, incest and polygamy being the examples that come most readily to mind. With drugs, it is the damage done to the individual and to society. Note I did not say no damage. As regards alcohol and nicotine, our society tolerates a fair degree of damage from both.
“the primary consideration should be the potential for abuse, incest and polygamy”
Please explain the compelling interest regarding polygamy?
Ummm slavery?
If so, it’s a peculiar sort of slavery, that can be entered into and abandoned at will.
I know the Beach Boys promised, but only one girl for every boy. Sorry! :D
The purpose for its enactment was, I believe, much the same as that of the anti-potlatch and strong-IP laws: to tamp down alternative cultures and power structures at the family and cultural levels that might supplant Calvinist WASP culture and power structure, whether for right reasons or wrong. I would expect it’s well-known since the beginning of agriculture that when people are insecure as to their basic needs, they will pay quite handsomely for certainty. (It must have been discovered not much later that such people will also pay handsomely for empty reassurances, if on-key and in-tune.)
Also, inequality of access to culturally acceptable sexual outlets, taken as a property right (retch), would be a major social problem and one that young men would not be so easily persuaded to carry on for very long without a church sending them on missions half the time.
The slippery slope prophesied by David Crosby long before Scalia:
“You know we love each other it’s plain to see
There’s just one answer comes to me
Sister lovers — some of you must know about water brothers
And in time maybe others
So you see what we can do
Is to try something new – that is if you’re crazy too
But I don’t really see, why can’t we go on as three ”
“Triad”
(best cover by Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane)
Pettis: No Lehman but shadow run possible MacroBusiness.
“”If there is indeed a reduction in the amount of funding available for WMP, the money will have to flow into some other sector. Given the large size of the WMP market, these flows might be significant, although it is not yet clear to me where they will go.””
I don’t quite understand the above statement. ‘WMP, Wealth Management Products’ seem similar to REITs in our shadow banking system. A place for people to put their money hoping for higher returns. Similar to our markets they are actually just bidding up the value of real estate. So there are no funds to go anywhere but rather it will be a musical chairs game of searching for funds.
There is definitely leverage built around this bubble. There are probably also significant derivative exposures.
RE: Finland
It’s fascinating watching national economic policy created on the basis of cartoon thinking.
It’s not only the image of Greece as a profligate, sloppy, careless, greedy individual whose moral failings will continue until the consequences fall on his head. It’s the self-image of Finland as Lutherans thrown in for a contrast. Put those two figures side by side, it looks like inevitable character conflict with an obvious good guy/bad guy slant.
But that’s propaganda. You used to see it in the newspaper stories about The Hun and Johnny Reb and John Chinaman. Now it’s confined to the editorial page, mostly. It’s not real. These aren’t people and this isn’t a marriage, it’s financial and economic arrangements among nations.
Real practical, system thinking seems to be a dying art, left only for welders and underemployed liberal arts graduates. The design of the Euro, along with deregulation of financial industry, immigration and labor issues, derivatives markets, and others, all get personalized and we watch the puppets interact in the press. Which is one thing for mass media, but the guys in suits speak the same vocabulary and narrate the same plays.
If these are the Serious People, the rest of us should never feel intimidated standing up to them.
BTW the Supreme Court finally got around to deciding Hollingsworth v. Perry, the case seeking to reverse the overturning of the Prop 8 ban on same-sex marriage. It was a classic Roberts sidestep. The decision didn’t rule on the Constitutionality of same-sex marriage. It denied standing to the petitioners Hollingsworth et al to contest the issue. As near as I can tell, it leaves the California Supreme Court ruling the ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional intact. So same-sex marriage can go forward in California but the question is left open in the rest of the country.
http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/12-144_8ok0.pdf
The old Confederacy would be proud.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/06/26/supreme_court_doma_ruling_glenn_greenwald_may_move_back_to_u_s.html
tweet:
Michael C Moynihan ✔ @mcmoynihan
@ggreenwald @BenjySarlin Now if only SCOTUS would rule Peter King unconstitutional, you could return to the US. Baby steps, I guess…
Glenn Greenwald ✔ @ggreenwald
@mcmoynihan @BenjySarlin It is ironic that I waited 8 years for this decision, and now that it happened, I have that other small matter.
10:43 AM – 26 Jun 2013
Rebecca Solnit-picker has identified the “evil empire”, the great “global menace” for us. It is not the Untied Stasi of America. In fact her 2900-word diversionary meander never even once mentions the NSA or Obama, the naked emperor of her dreams and her champion in 2012. The evil empire is in fact Google and all of Silicon Valley. Google is the clear and present danger, the domestic enemy of the people and the constitution. Pay no attention to the crimes of Obama, and if you do, at least WRT illegal surveillance and domestic espionage, know that Google’s bribes made him do it.
This kind of foolishness is not intended to sway anyone.
It issues daily from Obama Central merely as a way to soothe the cognitive dissonance that could be experienced by Obots as their Great Leader sells out everything they thought he stood for.
Watch the OFA hordes descend on DailyKos each morning with fresh talking points. They never persuade anyone, but they are a great source of comfort to those who type them into the comment box.
don’t breathe!
http://life.nationalpost.com/2013/06/26/canadian-infants-carry-toxins-such-as-pcbs-pfcs-at-birth-report/
I guess that’s the tax you have to pay to be born.
We call the birth tax.
For symmetry, you should expect to pay a death tax as well.
Not sure if anyone at NC flagged this piece by the invaluable James Bamford, who owns NSA coverage. He traces the career and ambitions of the creepy Gen. Keith Alexander, head of the greatest assemblage of powerful spying, surveillance, and “cyberwar” technologies since…well, since “Big Brother”:
There is so much intrinsic evil hidden deep within the bowels of the US Government, that only dedicated and intrepid reporting can keep just exiguous information above ground and in the public sphere. Truly frightening how much power one man and his agencies can amass seemingly without constraint.
That’s why sane people prefer not to let the government have carte blanche to print money.
But, but, but, it will spend it wisely…
Only 2 types of people believe that
1. kind hearted but have never been lied to before
2. undercover agents for the 0.01%
Jail For Writing Anti-Big Bank Messages In Chalk
Jeff Olson, a 40-year-old man from San Diego, Calif., will face jail time for charges stemming from anti-big bank messages he scrawled in water-soluble chalk outside Bank of America branches last year.
The San Diego Reader reported Tuesday that a judge had decided to prohibit Olson’s attorney from “mentioning the First Amendment, free speech, free expression, public forum, expressive conduct, or political speech during the trial.”
With that ruling, Olson must now stand trial on 13 counts of vandalism, charges that together carry a potential 13-year jail sentence and fines of up to $13,000.
“Oh my gosh,” Olson said on his way out of court on Tuesday. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/25/jeff-olson-california-banks_n_3499177.html
the defense attorney should read the definition of vandalism into the court record then ask the judge to stepdown
Here you go: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=pen&group=00001-01000&file=594-625c That’s the california penal code for ‘malicious mischief’. It’s actually pretty clear. As a quick aside, read down the link for california laws on handling elephants and rodeos. who knew?
If you follow the link the Abynormal posted to huff po, which i did. There’s a statement from the DA. This guy is not facing 13 years. More than likely he’ll get community service and maybe a fine (I’m sincerely hoping it’s no more than this). Don’t trust me, read the statute then the huff po update.
“But wait nick! He was exercising his 1st amendment rights!” In my very humble opinion, I don’t think so. No one has the right to come on your private property and deface it in any way. Chalk is no defense. With enough force, spray paint washes away too. A swastika written in chalk on the property of a synagogue is no less a hate crime because it’s in chalk.
I just don’t see this as an attack on my 1st amendment rights. There are plenty of others, but I don’t think this is one. YMMV.
I truly hope Mr. Olson escapes from his experience with the legal system with just a warning.
Ok now, please don’t rip on me too hard if you don’t agree. Sometimes I just see things differently.
The bank doesn’t own the sidewalk although in Charlotte if you try to walk on the sidewalk in front of BofA during Board meetings the cops will try to arrest you…
holy chalk Dolley…i forgot about that
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/10/24-people-arrested-for-trying-to-close-accounts-at-citibank.html
thanks sweetie
oops wrong link…but weren’t there people arrested while filming layoffs at BoA or was that Wells
http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/BofA-protest-events-to-kick-off-in-uptown-Tuesday-206391981.html
As odd as it sounds, sometimes I think the bank, or more specifically the building in which the bank resides, does own the sidewalk.
I don’t know if anyone has noticed clear property lines embedded in the concrete sidewalks around buildings in their city. More and more, I see little plaques in the sidewalk that tell you which side is private property and which side is public sidewalk. I always assumed it was to hassle smokers and keep them away from entrances, etc.(maybe it was? holy unintended consequences, Batman!)
Anyway, you’re going to have a hard time convincing me that I have any kind of right to show up in front of your business and write nasty stuff about you, on your sidewalk, or anywhere on your property. Once again, YMMV.
Thanks for the polite responses.
Just because some pours a concrete property line does not mean that it is the property line.
Public use/eminent domain are also applicable here, in most places. If it’s used by the public, without the ‘owner’ asserting control, it usually defaults to the public. A ‘line’ on the side walk doesn’t count. Some sort of fence is usually the minimum to maintain exclusive rights.
most of the rules are highly local and subject to incorrect interpretation, especially by LE.
I personally find little children drawing with chalk the latest disney cash cow much more offensive. Do they even have the “rights” to do that? Why should disney get all that free press at the expense of the concrete lovers?
Also adding that sidewalks are part of a “drainage” system for the road. Water that falls on a sidewalk should make it’s way to the gutter.
If there is a “private” business with a “private” sidewalk in front, which way does it drain? Toward the street, or the building?
If the “private” business dumps their runoff onto the street, it’s another sign that it’s not “private”.
General rule for runoff- If it falls on your property, it’s your problem.
Lots of people know this and seek to avoid sewer charges by pushing as much water as possible to the street side of the lot to avoid paying to get rid of it. 1/4″ per foot of slope does it.
Yes, it’s a pet peeve.
“but it’s says, IN STONE, that it’s my property”
God himself made that concrete and set it there. It’s becoming more common for nonsense like that to happen.
“Let’s just mark the line when we do the sidewalk. That way, if we ever have any protesters, we can point to that as a line”
How do they determine where the “line” is? A surveyor is expensive, a mexican is cheap. The mexican also does exactly as he is told.
Jamie Dimon- Hey, Jose, that looks good right there.
*not that JD would ever be seen speaking with a mexican, other than Carlos Slim.
thank you for the research (an no way id ever disagree w/someone for going the extra mile). if it was me id rather thoroughly understand details of the law(s) in question, than allow my emotions to cause me further damage.
still, id hunt me a young hungry-pis’d off lawyer with IT buddies that would have BoA suits wishing their personal business was written in chalk ;)
So Nick I didn’t get further than this:
(a) Every person who maliciously commits any of the following
acts with respect to any real or personal property not his or her
own, in cases other than those specified by state law, is guilty of
vandalism:
(1) Defaces with graffiti or other inscribed material.
(2) Damages.
(3) Destroys.
Does chalk on a sidewalk constitute vandalism? I would suggest you,(now don’t take this the wrong way) or a surrogate with some common sense reflect on this and get back to you on it..
Unfortunately I am burdened with retention, and now I’ll forever be explaining my chuckle when I see chalked hopscotch boards on the sidewalks in the Village I live in.
Frankly, I think what is criminal in the matter is spending Public funds arresting and prosecuting a Citizen on such an absurdity. JMHO
I chuckled at your response, thank you. I wish I were kid again. Here’s the flaw in your argument: the complaint. If someone defaces your property you can call the police. Now you’d have to be a hard hearted soul to call the police on some kids writing in chalk in front of your house, but a local bank head of security, i’m guessing, is probably not burdened by such concerns.
who knew 1st amendment rights could be washed away as easily as chalk on a sidewalk? Oh yeah…we all knew. Further Proof:
http://rt.com/usa/california-man-13-prison-banks-237/
ahhh good to see this caught your attention too!
That’s why they call it the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it.
Carlin
Great minds…sorry didn’t see yours…
Screw the First Amendment, it’s long gone. When a crooked judge like Howard Shore tries to derogate your expressive rights, the correct approach is to ask to present two witnesses, one on international law and one on the facts of the case. Present no further defense if your request is denied.
Where international law is concerned – in this case, ICCPR Article 19 – Rule 72 of the Federal Rules has to be interpreted with reference to International Court of Justice Statute Article 38(1)(d). A bent hack judge like Howard Shore who denies a defendant’s request for expert independent testimony on international law denies her right to a defense, which is reversible error on appeal.
In this pariah state, if your attorney is ignorant of human rights, he’s just another good cop sending you up the river.
Oi, is it just me or what is up with Google News? Top Two stories of this hour are: Supremes and DOMA; Paula Deen. Paula Deen??? I say, Paula Deen? Whatever happened to Edward Snowden, for example? Or, several states already pushing through “voter fraud” laws post-VRA. WHO IS Paula Deen??
Anyone? Please help this expat, thank you very much.
Just the MSM attempt to distract with bread and circuses – and “chef” Paula Deen is is both rolled up into one convenient dish…
She is a celebrity chef.
Cause us ‘Mericans sure do love them celebrities.
I dont know about other countries, but over here the news is to distract people, not inform them.
“Top Two stories of this hour are: Supremes and DOMA; Paula Deen. Paula Deen??? …Anyone? Please help this expat, thank you very much.”
Oh, come on. Reason it out: If the Supremes are on gay marriage, then Paula Deen must be a racist.
You’re welcome.
Re the DOMA case, US v. Windsor, there are two important points. First, the decision holds that “DOMA is unconstitutional as a deprivation of the equal liberty of persons that is protected by the Fifth Amendment.” But it takes this position by framing marriage as traditionally within the realm of the states. Since 11 states permit same-sex marriage, DOMA’s blanket restrictions would infringe on classes of individuals protected by these states’ laws, tantamount to a taking under the 5th Amendment of liberty and property without due process, as well as a violation of equal protection of the law.
http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/12-307_g2bh.pdf
So with this and the Prop 8 decision, the Court is making it very clear that, by leaving it to the states, it is taking a gradualist approach to the same-sex marriage issue. This is a position that it has been signaling for some time.
Hi, Nick, it’s Angi from Mr. Moynihan’s office, when you’re through cleaning up after that judge we blackmailed, Mr. Moynihan has a couple suits that need to go to the dry cleaners, by three, OK?, Thanks!
(Oh, good job, by the way, implicitly comparing protected speech denouncing illegal mass evictions to swastikas!! ;)
I only hope Nick is in the private sector and not a civil service/municipal employee
Been both, neither now. I have no love for the B of A. I’m not sure why you feel the need to impugn me for seeing things differently than you do. I mean you no harm.
I miss Gladys.
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Yves
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