Rescued circus lions to fly to South Africa BBC
Hugo awards shortlist dominated by rightwing campaign Guardian
Wood-And-Glue Skyscrapers Are On The Rise PopSci (David L)
This city embedded traffic lights in the sidewalks so that smartphone users don’t have to look up Washington Post. Chuck L: “This probably isn’t helping the evolution of our species. Let the unfit walk off the curbs into the oncoming buses. Just kidding. Somewhat.”
Getty accuses Google of ‘promoting piracy’ Financial Times
Apple misses by a mile: Wipes out $41B USA Today (EM)
China?
Unpaid bills add to China debt problems as receivables mount Financial Times. Convincing evidence that things are bad.
How China’s Debt Fix Could Make Things Much Worse WSJ Economics
Tackling China’s Debt Problem: Can Debt-Equity Conversions Help? IMFDirect
Japan eyes more foreign workers, stealthily challenging immigration taboo Japan Times
Sarawak’s Stolen Wealth Is Locked In A Treasure Trove In The United States! Sarawak Report
Roman Europe? Project Syndicate (David L). “In short, Merkel has done more to damage the EU than any living politician, while constantly proclaiming her passion for ‘the European project.’” When you have people advocating rule by Italy, you know it’d bad.
Brexit?
Brexit would cost each Briton a month’s pay by 2020, says OECD chief Guardian
In ‘Brexit’ Vote, British Expats Represent an Unknown Factor Wall Street Journal
Hillsborough disaster: deadly mistakes and lies that lasted decades Guardian (Plutoniumkun)
Syraqistan
Saudi prince vows Thatcherite revolution and escape from oil Ambrose Evans-Prtichard, Telegraph. Thatcher wrecked large portions of the British economy. Per Philip Pilkington: “These policies did not have the effect of redistributing income from the workers of the factories to the owners, but rather they simply destroyed large segments of British industry.” And where are the unions in Saudi Arabia for the princes to break? Throwing people out on the street, which is what he proposes to do, is likely to produce violence, not growth, particularly in a country than has not bothered educating its citizens well. Put it another way: This is Elizabeth Holmes-level delusion.
Syria – Russia Rejects Kerry’s New Attempts To Shield The Terrorists Moon of Alabama
Free movement allows Islamic State sleeper cells into Britain, warns US intelligence chief Telegraph
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Facial Recognition Service Becomes a Weapon Against Russian Porn Actresses Global Voices (guurst). Given that tons of people have been working on facial recognition technology for well over a decade, the industrial-surveillance complex has to have technology of similar capabilities. The fact that is hasn’t been released in the wild (yet) would lead on to think that the Humint types was to keep it as much under their control as possible. Separately, this is enough to make me consider wearing fake eyebrows and a fake nose on a regular basis.
FBI to Keep Hacking Method of San Bernardino iPhone a Secret Wall Street Journal
2016
Trump sweeps all five US states BBC
Trump Declares He’s ‘Presumptive Nominee’ as Clinton Wins Four States Bloomberg
Ted Cruz Now Needs Just 104 Percent of Remaining Delegates to Clinch the Nomination Gawker
Clash over anti-Trump motion boils over in Anaheim: ‘Keep your noses out of the national election’ Los Angeles Times
Trump and Clinton Barrel Toward a Clash New York Times. There is a horribly Sanders-voter-punching op ed by Frank Bruni. I don’t want to dignify it by linking to it.
Bernie Sanders isn’t quitting, yet. But Clinton acts like he’s left the race Guardian. I gave Sanders a small donation because I don’t want him to give up now.
NY judge decides Trump University case going to trial Fox News (furzy)
Senator Bernie Sanders Primary Night Speech C-SPAN (Kevin C)
Common struggles: Greeks for the mass movement of Bernie Sanders! failed evolution
The Guy Who Screwed America’s Economy Hearts Hillary Clinton Daily Beast (steve h)
Charles Koch denounces his creation, the modern Republican party Daily Kos (furzy)
State Dept. held back Clinton email that would have exposed private server, group claims Fox News (furzy)
Drug Prices Keep Rising Despite Intense Criticism New York Times
Car Cheats
VW Presentation in ’06 Showed How to Foil Emissions Tests New York Times
Mitsubishi admits it has been cheating fuel efficiency data for 25 years Sydney Morning Herald (EM)
So you’ve ruined a town and poisoned its children—what next? Bill them for your legal costs Daily Kos (furzy)
Has the Oil Price Rally Gone Too Far? OilPrice
Once Bustling Trade Ports Lose Momentum Wall Street Journal
Barclays pre-tax profits drop 25% to $1.15B CNBC (furzy)
Citi investors in executive pay rebellion Financial Times
Managing Debt in an Overleveraged World Project Syndicate (David L)
Class Warfare
China Is Building a Robot Army of Model Workers MIT Technology Review (David L)
Uber, Google and others form self-driving car lobby to shape US policy Guardian. So much for that gig economy.
Where Jobs Are Squeezed by Chinese Trade, Voters Seek Extremes New York Times. Translation: the natives are unreasonable and refuse to believe that they are not living in the best of all possible worlds.
New York Times Finds Verizon Strike Beneath Notice David Dayen, Intercept
Your Media Business Will Not Be Saved Medium (John C). Important, but also be mindful of the source.
Antidote du jour (Sharon in Indiana via timotheus):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
227 comments
Comments are closed.
As far as I know, Bill Gates never went to a public school.
Neither did his kids.
For that matter, maybe that would apply to his parents also.
Not that there’s anything wrong with THAT.
The existing school system is many areas is quite a mess.
It is good that experiments like Charter Schools are being done.
Perhaps Charter School 1.0 will not be perfect. I would allow it to proceed to 2.0, 3.0 see how it improves.
Imagine if there had been all-out attacks on WinDoze 1.0, and it never proceeded and evolved into 10.0.
We’d all be stuck on some version of CPM?
Please explain why you think public schools are a mess in many areas, whereas in other countries public schools are doing quite well.
Integration?
US system fails the poor and they are now majority in public schools. They get less funding and have less experienced teachers. US system favors the wealthy and heck even Vietnam has better outcomes. than US school children in PISA tests! Please also understand that even well off US students do not do better than their peers in other countries.
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/12/american-schools-vs-the-world-expensive-unequal-bad-at-math/281983/
American Schools vs. the World: Expensive, Unequal, Bad at Math
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304579404579234511824563116
U.S. High-School Students Slip in Global Rankings
I know my cousin who went to a middle NJ school had trouble keeping up with MIT class and her father berated her school for not preparing her for it. Meanwhile South Asians had no problem keeping up
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-27442541
US ‘in denial’ over poor maths standards.
Privatization of the public schools, what could go wrong?
Oh I don’t know……they could close after extracting a bunch of money like they’ve done on numerous occasions.
Bill GATES got rich with the military sponsoring his development. To pretend he is a corporate wunderkind has always disappointed me in writers. It’s a totem or a fetish to prove something. Perhaps just the power of mass suggestion.
Boot straps imagery is akin to religion in America. It occurs to me Trump and Obama are the same, in that they are promising something. The difference being Obama offered something from the future, and Trump from the past.
Remember the third Steve Jobs movie, and the ink that flowed? That’s how you know it’s propaganda.
Without the protections of something like a law to protect us from the government, we are and will become more like Russia used to be.
Bill Gates’s parents are a prominent lawyer and a prominent businesswoman (who was pals with the CEO of IBM when her son was just starting his career). His grandfather was a national bank president. So I guess you’re using him as an example to show that charter and private schools are good for the upper middle class and other rich people?
Quite a crass comment if you actually look at global leagues on educational outcome, which is why, I’m happy to send my kid to a state school here in Hong Kong due to the fact, and despite a concurrent private sector running side-by-side, the fact remains that Hong Kong is one of the top places for a public education. However, it’s certainly not the best, for that we have to look at the Finnish model and it prohibits private schools, it also does not have religiously grounded schools. Indeed, if we institute a system whereby you have no choice about where to send your kid to school, said schools would be better supported, would encourage a more equal society and ensure everyone had a sound education. Of course, if the rich can opt out your school systems usually implode in nations in hock to neoliberalism and corporations.
In a nutshell, if you want to eliminate or reduce social inequality you make sure that you begin with schools and health care and then branch out from there.
Even if all that was available was public schools rich people would self-segregate in location so that rich school districts did better than poor ones (you really think the poor are going to be the one’s going to Beverly Hills high school? and the rich going to a high school in Compton?), even if funding was equal. I suspect what makes Finland work is a more equal society period.
So no don’t start with schools, start by capping and redistributing wealth. Then worry about the schools.
Charter schools don’t happen in a vacuum. They exist in the context of a community. If you close down the school the families who live nearby still need a school. The teachers who taught there will disperse and find new jobs. The admins do the same. You’re reconfiguring existing elements not creating something from scratch. The idea that you can just poof something into and out of existence is Harry Potter calibre thinking. And if the true reason your charter failed is because the students it served are poor or don’t speak English, what possible reason do you have for thinking the next version will be better? It may be worse, and you have no scale to evaluate honest differences.
Regarding “Hugo awards shortlist dominated by rightwing campaign”:
I’m not sure how much they rigged the contest. Seveneves is a fantastic book, and certainly doesn’t push right wing tropes.
Just scrap the Hugo. Award shows like this are always a little questionable in value and I don’t think this is getting us anywhere anymore. Form a new awards program.
It is a great book especially if you can’t get enough orbital mechanics in your fiction ;) I may be wrong but I believe Stephenson is known for having a libertarian bent like a lot of sci fi writers which may be what’s causing the wackos to push him.
If you read the article you would see that the RWNJ campaign is accused of including several mainstream, acclaimed titles for cover.
“Seveneves is a fantastic book, and certainly doesn’t push right wing tropes.”
Really??!!?
The second half of the book embraces an authoritarian, neoliberal vision– where wealth and power inequalities were the natural consequences of meritocratic selection. This surprised me, since Anathem seemed to offer a vision that would have been less appealing to the Davos set.
Cost shifting of medication manufacturing (or profit reaping) is getting more and more extreme. This is a great example of the lovely consequences of deregulation via Part D of Medicare etc…..Someone showed me a bill for one of the few non-SSRI antidepressants on the market (a version of bupropion..Valeant makes certain versions of this drug). Here in US at big chain pharmacy about 50 dollars a dose (maybe it was 3 to 5 bucks or so when it his market years ago).
Same exact pill in Canada, today, less than 2 bucks. For Brand. All of this information is available on CVS and Canadian pharmacy websites.
If anyone is wondering why insurance premiums are going up…..granted the generic is cheaper here by over 1000 percent there are reasons maybe brand is better for some etc….i
I remember after Hurricane Sandy people got in trouble for overcharging for water by a dollar. But its ok to raise medications prices on one of the best products on the market by 2000 percent just cause. :(
Sorry for typos and lousy editing of my post.
More succint overview of neoliberal globalization;
http://plata.com.mx/mplata/articulos/articlesFilt.asp?fiidarticulo=286
Just bought a 2.5 milliliter container of Advantage ++ for dogs. Price $22. Turns out there are 3785.41 ml in a gallon. Divide 3785.41 by 2.5 then multiply by $22. My numbers give a price of $33,311 for a gallon of Advantage++. That can’t possibly be the correct number!?!!?? Someone check my numbers!
Maybe we should go all Breaking Bad on these people. If we can find a Walter White, we can reverse engineer the formula, sell it for half the price on the street and still make a killing. Richer than our wildest dreams. Of course, that would make us very rich thieves. But if we steal from thieves, does that make us thieves as well or just Robin Hoods?
Your math is wrong, you’re merely paying $2325 a gallon. Hope that makes you feel better haha.
I’m quite amazed that people pay more than a dollar for a squirt’s worth of carbonated corn syrup with coloring, or for so-called “teas.” Such consumers are mostly paying for the soon-to-be-landfilled or dumped-in-the-ocean plastic containers, and the marketing that convinces them to thusly waste their money while damaging their health. Yes, what a racket.
As to your second point, the only thing that amazes me more than the heartless, soulless greed of the vast majority of these capitalists is the complacency of those they screw over daily. Is it something they put in the over-priced crap they call food and drink? Or just the brainwashing?
Not that I have any really workable ideas on how to unite against them, but I do have a pitchfork on standby, should that day ever come. But I keep it in the original wrapping with the tag attached, they go for more on ebay that way.
Hehe, thanks for double checking my math. But where did I make my mistake. 3785.41 ml in a gallon. Divide by 2.5 ml per dose gives 1514.164 doses. A 2.5ml dose cost me $22 yesterday. So 1514.164 doses times $22 equals $33,311 for a gallons worth of advantage++. I can’t find my mistake! Where is it?
Your math is correct, as long as there really is that many mL in a gallon (I am fluent in metric only).
Agreed. Here’s a sloppy but easy-to-follow estimate (for those who possess the quaint skill of integer multiplication):
2.5ml for $22 -> ~$8.80 per ml (using 1/2.5 =0.4)
1 liter = 1000 ml -> ~$8,800 per liter
1 gal = ~4 liters -> ~$33,200 per gal = ~$33,3111 to this level of (in)accuracy.
So, anyone have an unused basement? If the locale is cluttered with implements such as gas-powered chainsaws, cordless demolition saws, hammer-drills, or blowtorches, set them aside. In addition to the pitchfork app suggested above, we should also embrace opportunities afforded to us by technology.
I switched to diatomaceous earth for the cat. It actually works. Just a teaspoon around the neck and another above the tail once a week. So far successful. I’ll try the dog when his dose wears off. In future, we will never have more than one pet and that will be a dog. A bath and de is much less expensive.
Diatomaceous Earth is also useful against ants. It acts as a nice abrasive to grind up their exoskeletons, so they avoid walking through it. That is much safer for humans than spraying who knows what periodically.
> Maybe we should go all Breaking Bad on these people
There are indeed biochem geeks who have gone this route. You can purchase equipment on ebay if you know what you’re doing. I suspect this form of reverse piracy will become more and more common. (“Reverse” because the pharmas are the real pirates here — holding lives hostage in exchange for exorbitant riches. If your life or health is at stake what does morality say to the law?)
Karl Denning has been pounding the table regarding medical monopolies for several years, Matt Taibbi did a really nice job a year or two ago regarding the legislators back in the late 50s that solidified the current system. Basically, we have to remove medical monopolies to remove the bad incentives that are currently in place (see today’s NPR website regarding valent’s business practices). Denning brought up another interesting point yesterday- kickbacks for sales/executive staff at medical providers that are black letter law illegal, but the IRS has declined to prosecute.
correct address to Guardian’s “Bernie isn’t quitting, yet”:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/26/hillary-clinton-primary-wins-acts-like-bernie-sanders-has-left-the-race
Good. I’m sending him a small donation.
Class.
Sanders talks about it.
Clinton doesn’t have any.
Sorry, fixed!
State Dept. held back Clinton email that would have exposed private server, group claims -Fox Noise (there is that).
This makes it look as though Obama does not hate Hillary so much that he is not willing to cover up for her. Either that, or she has the goods on him. Maybe he was born in Kenya after all? The Fox never lies…
I think it’s funny that they think that after he leaves office that if she’s the President they are going to leave this alone.
Heck, it’s going to be the excuse du jour on why nothing can be accomplished.
The problem with Hillary Clinton is that it isn’t just one thing, it’s an entire list of things that will keep the GOP busy trying to bring her down – when they need a break from hearings and investigations and such, they will use the energy that flows from that endeavor to fuel their ongoing efforts to theocratize, demonize, suppress, hamstring, ban and plunder whatever remains of this thing that used to be democracy.
It will be more time wasted, more ground lost, more progress thwarted, more change deferred, more dreams killed.
It’s not that toppling Clinton ends that fight, or completely clears the path to a way forward, but it would be a start; setting the establishment back on its heels would open some doors, change the dynamic, disturb the status quo.
Something’s gotta give, and I’d be happy to start with and end to the Clinton era.
But in the interest of giving you a laugh – albeit an ironic one – please enjoy Tom Carper’s unintentionally hilarious – introduction of Clinton the other day: “She worlks hard for the money.”
Oh, yes, she does.
$250,000 for an hour speech to Goldman Sachs = “working hard”…
Just wait until the general when she faces Trump and will have — finally!– to put up the speeches when he releases his.
The problem with the Clintons is that they push their luck too far, too many times. One day their entire house of corruption is going to collapse, either before or after she’s elected POTUS. (I don’t give Trump much of a chance, the entire MSM and other Establishment will tear him down, but it will be amusing to watch.)
Hey, she had to spend some time picking someone to write her speech and then memorize it. Or at least practice it. Not to mention travel on private jet to give the speech. Or at the very least a limo ride.
“It was an exhausting. Those poor slabs working in hospitals, or retail or picking up the garbage have no idea. That some of them might have to work almost 25,000 hours at the increased minimum wage I have grudgingly endorsed to make the same amount of money is besides the point.”
My unsubstantiated, non-sourced, speculation is the transcripts would reveal little more than warm, cliche filled speeches that made the attendees feel good about themselves and their employer. One attendee of a Hillary Goldman speech said it sounded like she was on the Board of Directors.
Why did she transcribe them all? Maybe to protect herself in case a rumor was started that she promised anyone favorable treatment. The transcripts could be used defensively if needed–which has not been the case since Bernie treads lightly in this area.
So why not just release them and put the issue behind her? Because it will highlight how special interests paid so much for so little. No gems of wisdom. No secret insights. Just repetitive babble from one special interest to another. The speeches probably all sound the same. All the while bringing in a quarter mil a pop because that is what bribery, I mean access, costs.
And releasing these vapid transcripts makes it just that much harder to avoid the inescapable conclusion–special interests paid so much, for so little, because they are buying influence. Not a controversial point–unless you are a Hillary fan.
What I would like is the transcript of what is said by the attendees TO Hillary after the speech…
(what to pass, what not to pass, etc.)
$hillary’s full slogan:
“Fighting for you billionaires!”
“because I’m not quite one of you yet”
Someone once explained to me that even though the same basketball player who scores X points, Y assists, Z rebounds, etc per game is paid 100 hundred times now versus, say, 50 years, that is to say, in terms economists can understand, there is no improvement in efficiency, and yet he is paid a lot more.
The same with, say a performing pianist. You don’t have to be better than the greatest in the 19th century, but you are paid a lot more.
That’s even a name or term for that. It escapes me now.
So, if you didn’t sell movies in China before, but now they open their market to you, acting in a movie, even as bad as ones you have always done, will make you rich.
Now, moving on to the topic at hand. A great artist once explain why a drawing that took him only 30 seconds to execute should sell for, I don’t recall, let’s say, $5,000. He said, paraphrasing here, you don’t see the years I trained myself to be this good.
(I think it might have been Picasso).
And, so, can someone’s 30 min. speech be worth this or that much?
Let’s ask the economists to explain. Maybe it’s like the great artist, or maybe it’s supply-demand (that explains EVERYTHING).
A less artistic version of your anecdote:
A man’s sink stopped draining so he called a plumber to fix it.
The plumber arrived, turned on the tap for a few minutes and watched the sink back up. He then went to his bag of tools, pulled out a wrench and hit it against a section of the pipe. After a minute or so the water started draining properly.
“That’ll be $70,” he told the man.
The man was outraged. “All you did was hit the pipe with your wrench a couple of times and you want $70? Anyone could do that!”
“Ah, yes,” said the plumber. “But you have to know where to hit.”
As for the artistic one, I heard a similar no doubt apocryphal story:
A young aspiring artist happened to meet the great Picasso in a café one day. He asked hopefully, “M. Picasso, what advice can you give me?”
Picasso took one of the napkins from the table, drew a simple “O” on it with his pen, and signed it. “Young man, take this and sell it to a gallery for $5000. That will be worth more to you than any advice I could give you.”
Really? Because people like me will not be voting pro-Clinton. In fact, I plan to vote against her and every single super delegate who screwed us.
Me too, and hoping we can take down patty murray in the process, any idea who’s running against her? In the event of a clinton nom I hope sanders supporters go scorched earth on establishment dems in the down ticket races. Even for those who choose to write in bernie, depressing numbers in the presidential since write ins won’t be counted, but voting in down ticket for alternatives.
I will do likewise here in MA. However, to vote against my Congresswoman Tsongas who has already come out in favor of HRC means that someone will have to oppose her in the primary. That has not happened for awhile. I suspect that will be a problem in other districts as well.
I used to let my neighbor put up her campaign signs in my yard, that will end.
Actually, since hill will almost certainly get a majority of real delegates, we now hope the supers overturn the will of the (majority hill) voters. The ones to blame (or credit, depending on your perspective) are the corp news media that refused to cover him, the elite hacks like Mathews and Krug that provided slanted coverage. Etc.
So media has very little power in your view? Why should we believe this? *looks for an argument* *doesn’t see it*
Isn’t media coverage a large part of what made Trump?
……Hard…cough.. ‘Cash’… cough… Choices…….
Trouble with the Clintons is that they think their corruption is acceptable –“everyone does it!”
I wish someone would ask HRC:
1.) Is there anything in the paid speeches that she is ashamed of?
2.) If no, then why doesn’t she put them in the public record with pride, maybe they constitute a partial basis for her parties “campaign platform”?
3.) if yes, then…well. why does she feel qualified to be POTUS if she doesn’t have sufficient integrity to confidently defend her own positions– positions she was PAID to think through and present??
If she claims they are not really her positions, then isn’t that misrepresentation? If indeed it is misrepresentation, and she accepted money for said misrepresentation, doesn’t that seems damn close to fraud?
I fundamentally don’t get Clinton logic.
Perhaps it is not logic that motivates her. Or perhaps one of her scales of justice contains something very heavy, and invisible to the rest of us.
” People want to know if their Clintons are a crook. Well, we’re NOT a crook. We’ve WORKED for everything we’ve got.”
I understand your point, but I’m not sure. With the certainty of Hillary’s support for all things corporate, coupled with the Trump and Sanders scare, and the likelihood that more than a few repubs might actually support Hillary in the general, congressional repubs and their backers might decide that the rhetorical fun and games of birtherism, the socialist Obama, and other such nonsense is over, and it’s time to get down to business with Hillary. That she is the only one who really stands between the pitchforks of the left and the right populism.
I mean why on earth would repubs really care about the foundation slush fund, private servers and the like if there’s really some money to be made through “pragmatism”.
Thanks for ramping up my nightmare. I was scared enough about the increased military adventures with disastrous decisions in the Middle East and antagonizing Russia, and the continued shredding of the safety net – SNAP, housing support, heat support, education, etc. But I’m counting on continued Republican obstructionism to stop the worst of the domestic corporatism damage. Under your scenario, nothing is off the table. They would have grabbed all those opportunities Obama gave them to have everything they supposedly ever wanted, but will correct that with Clinton.
Yes, I hope you’re right about the obstructionism, and yes I share your nightmare. My point is that perhaps after 8 yrs of repub cutting-off-their-nose-to-spite-their-face in terms of not going for the Grand Bargain with Obama, they might just might go for it this time.
I guess the opinions on this vary according to whether or not one believes that a Trump defeat signals the end of his brand of rightwing populism as a threat to the corporate goppers, or that it lives on and acts as a brake. I really don’t know, but I suspect there will be more cooperation with Hillary as the gopper opportunity of a lifetime.
Of course it goes without saying that there will be virtually no influence by Sanders leftist populism.
I’m curious what they will do with Obamcare. It will begin collapsing under its own weight in the next few years.
Make it into pure Heritage Care, building on the stub Obama considerately left them for that very purpose.
My nightmare got ramped up a few days ago when someone proposed hill could pay off DWS by making her the head of CFPB.
Teabagger challenges against Republican TARP voters were all successful. The Clintons are particularly despised. Any Republican who doesn’t close ranks will be public enemy number one, and Hillary will be one of the weakest Presidents ever. It’s likely she will cost the Democrats the opportunity to take the Senate.
The average Republican won’t be able to run their slush fund, but the Republican who shines on the impeachment committee gets to be the VP for President Ryan. If they can remove Hillary, they can remove her VP.
The Tea Party concept was an attempt to control what was already there. The rank and file Congressmen are believers. Sen. Grassley has assured an audience that the FBI will leak all details into the email investigation if the DoJ interferes which to me means he knows, and Grassley isn’t an unhinged Palin type.
If I may put on my tin foil hat, the electoral may doesn’t favor the GOP. A generic Democrat would easily win 270. Obama was an awful President and won despite significant economic deterioration and constant whining. What was the result of the Benghazi hearing? Hillary seemed inevitable except the GOP didn’t mention guns, handing out contracts, violating the UN security resolution, or oil and instead focused on a narrow situation. The Democratic nominee will likely be a disaster. Going after the Clinton slush fund severely damages the Democratic brand and clears a path to the White House which doesn’t exist for the GOP.
Why does Congressman X care if Hillary can spend $20 million on Chelsea’s 40th if he is just a random back bencher? If the cabinet is open for Republicans, there is chance to move up in the world.
Interesting- my first thought was are they planning an October surprise? But I now see you have them being even more devious.
They have the goods and impeach Clinton on day one. The evidence is so overwhelming that even the Democrats in the Senate have to vote to convict (that 67 vote threshold is the tough one). The only delay will be trying to make sure they have the goods to take out the VP as well. (Which will be possible, considering the crowd the Clintons keep around them, they will pick someone as corrupt as they are.)
IOW, their path to the White House are the rules of succession following the kneecapping of the Clinton executive branch. Scary. Crap they might come up with a scenario where I will have to root for some part of the Clinton camp – the VP.
OTOH, being able to watch Schumer sweat as every back room trick he knows fails will be some consolation.
Of course, they have the goods to impeach Trump, too. If they can’t find any justification for impeaching him (Trump U, anyone?) they just simply aren’t trying. One difference, impeaching Clinton probably wouldn’t lead to riots, I’m not sure that’s true for Trump.
Popularity is relevant to impeachment. Trump is protected because the establishment is despised, and since the GOP is a minority party, the GOP cant risk alienating voters.
Trump U probably doesn’t amount to high crimes and misdememeanors.
I’m pretty sure treatment of classified material DOES.
IMO, riots have been a long time coming. Maybe a few big ones (hopefully noone gets hurt) and the elites will actually care what the proles think again. Theres almost no other way to get them afraid of us.
http://litigation.findlaw.com/legal-system/presidential-impeachment-the-legal-standard-and-procedure.html
This “analysis” suggests that things might not be as rosy for hillary as it seems.
During the primaries that have already occurred, democrat voter turnout has “collapsed” more than 4.5 million voters, 19.23%, in 2016 versus 2008.
Only a handful of states have seen increases in participation on the Democratic side, including Arizona, Michigan, Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas and Maine. With the exception of Arizona, Sanders won—and Clinton lost—each of those contests. That means the likely Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, has only increased Democratic primary votes in one of the states she won this cycle as compared with 2008’s primary turnout. Every other state she has won this year has seen less turnout from last go-around.
And,
……Mitt Romney, in 2012’s GOP primary, received about 2 million less votes in states that have already voted than 2016 GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump.
So, while clinton may be “beating” Bernie on a percentage basis among democrat primary voters, she doesn’t have the raw numbers necessary in the general, where she doesn’t have the luxury of excluding voters who won’t vote for her.
Link separate. Handy state-by-state chart.
Link:
http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/04/26/exclusive-data-analysis-democrat-turnout-collapses-4-5-million-nearly-20-percent-2016-versus-2008/
thanks for that – interesting analysis.
Maybe shrinking the tent will not work out so well….
One of the Democratic promises in 2012 was demographics would ensure a permanent majority if they could get Obama reelected. Obama found his “progressive” voice, and Immediately moved to the right and began his lame duck Presidency.
Trust is important. Once broken, it can’t can’t be repaired. How do the masses feel about ACA? When Obama cultists made claims about ACA what did the really say to voters? Did they compare It to a European system with uniquely American qualities? How did those voters feel when they realized how much their new insurance cost and then cost to use?
This is a problem Sanders faces. It’s likely he sounds just like the Obama cultists to the average voter. I suspect the Democrats have burned more bridges than they realize outside the primary universe.
The 2014 election was a disaster for the Democrats, but why? With control of the Senate at stake and Obama’s legacy, a campaign on how great Obama was and vague references to the Supreme Court led to disaster. Fear of McConnell, Cruz, and the other nuts didn’t motivate voters. I think the reason is they have quit on the Democrats after Democrats broke promises In 2008 and 2012. After the 2010 debacle, I would think Democrats pull have convinced minorities to come out and vote who didn’t show up in 2010 and 2014.
Mark Warner was once a wildly popular governor and was rated as the safest seat. In 2014, he squeaked by with less votes than noted racist, George Allen, had in 2006. There was no scandal. Where was everyone in the face of the evil Republicans? I think people are tuning out entirely.
Hillary is basically winning her old voters from 2008, but she Isn’t inspiring turnout and certainly didn’t help drive turnout with her campaign appearances in 2014.
I am:
Against globalist “trade” deals
Tired of unrestricted immigration
Tired of supporting NATO with no discernible mission or benefit
Of the opinion we need an ACA do-over
Tired of corporation-first policy paid for by unlimited lobbying $
Tired of MSM corporo-fascist agenda setting and argument framing
Tired of a foreign policy dictated by AIPAC
Willing to support Zippy the Pinhead if it means less chance of expanded war
So I will vote for (pick one) A. Clinton, B. Trump
(After my primary Bernie vote of course)
And in “Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas and Maine” he didn’t just win, he crushed it by more than 20 points (maybe CO was around 15?) I’m too lazy to dig it up on realclearpolitics right now.
A generic Democrat easily wins 270.
Any astute, ambitious politician knows which party to join.
Agreed, the impeachment hearings will begin the day after her
inauguration
Maybe. But Hillary is their best bet to pass TPP and TTIP, cut or privatize Social Security, start another war (good for Mil. contractor biz) and a long wishlist of other GOP/Wall St. dreams.
Obama already has said he’s going to try to get TPP through a lame duck Congress.
I do think that Obama is the only one standing in between Congress and more war though. I think that Hillary is way more hawkish then he is.
Absolutely! They would be insane to go after Hillary since she is poised to give them vastly more access to their wildest wet dreams than Trump or any Republican could ever hope to. That doesn’t mean they won’t – look at what Boehner did with the Grand Bargain in his grasp – but it would be clinical insanity. They have been waiting for this for over 80 years.
Brooklin Bridge
April 27, 2016 at 12:59 pm
Well, I agree on most matters of substance, the repub and dem brands are in total lock step (both Coke and Pepsi fervently believe in selling sugar water – no health dispute there – just who gets the cash?)
So….is policy MORE important, or is the grift, graft, payola?
I would say Obama was a good repub – so all the fighting is ONLY about the skim. But I may be wrong….
But, if I’ve understood, the skim comes as a result of well serving their overlords so yes, policy does matter. Keeping up appearances apparently also still matters which is why Boehner screwed up his chance to screw SS and Medicare, but I get the impression appearance matters less and less and getting the job done matters more and more.
Think of the trade deals alone. If Obama can’t get TTP through in the lame duck session, the ball goes to the new president’s court. This is policy and of very high value to the PTB. Hillary has been “projecting” to them that she can get it done or perhaps more accurately that she has a better chance of getting it done.
But she’s gonna deliver the goods on Zionism, looting Social Security, and so much more. The entire Republican establishment wish list
Just like her husband…who by the way will no doubt be whispering in her ear. She makes me sick to my stomach.
Imagine if voters didn’t make that mistake in 1992.
But we don’t grade voters, much less assign mistakes to them.
Yes, once Bill got in, Hillary seemed inevitable.
200 years from now, future students, if they are like me in high school, will be easily confused as why the same person, president Clinton, served 4 terms.
Unless, of course, Hillary in her lame duck term, decides to drop the name Clinton.
After 200 years, we may actually manage to get a non Clinton back into the WH if either is still available (a non Clinton or the WH).
Impeachment is reserved imho for crimes committed in office. She cannot be impeached for crimes committed while she was secretary of state or while in the senate for the simple reason that she can’t be removed from an office she no longer holds.
So what crimes or improprieties do the repubs have to impeach her with on day one? While her offenses may well continue as president, it would be those crimes that would have to be the grounds for any impeachment.
High crimes and misdemeanors means do they have enough votes. There is no appeals process. An unpopular President can be yanked. Selling the SoS office won’t be looked kindly upon.
I don’t think any counsel for any impeachment committee would take that position, nor would the chief justice presiding over the trial who would immediately be confronted with a motion to dismiss.
If you truly believe that Congress has no constitutional limitations, you might as well say that about any congressional vote on any issue at all.
If that’s the case, Congress could just pass a law next week outlawing a Clinton presidency, denying federal court jurisdiction to hear a challenge, and saying Obama’s veto doesn’t count—because they say so.
If Congress pretends it has unlimited powers under the constitution, an impeached and convicted Clinton could claim the same extra-constitutional power and tell the Congress that she’s not leaving the White House.
I’m betting your opinion will differ from the GOPs. There’s nothing in the Constitution that says anything about an expiration date for the behavior.
They’re going to argue that the Justice Department of a Democrat protected her from indictment. They’ll probably win too. I’m no fan of the GOP but I do believe that if this had been Joe Schmoe instead of Hillary Clinton then she’d be in jail.
Oppo kabuki, sure, but anyone who thinks Hilary Antoinette will ever do a perp walk has not been paying attention in recent years, the 1% are no longer answerable to the criminal justice system.
And besides, her agenda is Republican nirvana.
Sleepy
“Impeachment is reserved imho for crimes committed in office.”
Im no legal scholar, but I don’t think that’s the case.
Of course, seemingly the end run around that is to force HRC to make a deposition, then prosecute her for what she tells the truth about, or prosecute her for telling a lie.
Easy peasy it would seem.
They always pick a petty irrelevant position though. Privatizing the office? no problem. Holding the 28 pages and then taking money in exchange for weapons deals? no problem. Foundation that only gives 5-10% to charity? no problem. Hiring foundation staff at state to hide deals? no problem. Avoiding foia? No problem. Avoiding foia regarding Libya? no problem. Misdemeanor mishandling of govt docs? Horror!
They will never go after her for any real issues as they share the same benefactors and have the same neocon goals.
I think their owners will force them to work with C on TPP, SS privatization/cuts, MCR privatization/cuts, education privatization/cuts, weapons contracts, new countries to bomb, jobs to eliminate, public lands to privatize, transferring wealth to oligarchs by rejuvenating cities w/public private partnerships. Just think of the infrastructure to be privatized and now is the best time to privatize water.
They only need to care about reelection in the short term. Serving in office is nothing but a performance to entice an oligarch to give you the best golden parachute corruption can get.
This kind of chaff also comes in handy to cover passage of TTP, TTIP and additional YTBD abominations.
There is one aspect of this situation that has not been adequately considered.
While Bernie has declined to make an issue out of clinton’s “damn emails,” Trump certainly won’t. He’s already mentioning it. And he has a way of pounding away at simple ideas and making them stick. The MSM has largely ignored the issue, giving the impression that it has pretty much been “resolved.”
Should Trump make it a centerpiece of his campaign, the innuendo will be impossible to ignore. She’ll be forced to continually defend herself and the relationship with the obama administration that she has so assiduously cultivated. Not to mention getting knocked off her female “empowerment” message.
And stirring the pot to the extent that Trump most certainly will may embolden any potential FBI leakers who are, reportedly, dissatisfied with the way the issue is being handled.
My guess is we’re not going to have to wait for her to be in the Oval Office facing a republican congress before this thing heats up again.
The only silver lining to this disappointing primary. I will enjoy watching this unfold.
My sentiments exactly. I also console myself with the belief that it can’t get any worse after decades of this neoliberalism, but of course it can.
But it will be fun to watch her get ripped.
Ditto that re the tragicomedy (emphasis on the tragedy part) that will unfold in the upcoming Trump v Clinton contest.
My consolation is always that if we somehow managed to survive 8 years of Bush/Cheney (or more properly Cheney/Bush) we can survive anything. That’s “survival” in its most primitive sense of course. If HRC wins, things will just get worse as the 1% take over the world and the Saudis and Israelis control US foreign policy and the TPP gets passed. If Trump wins, who the hell knows what will happen?
I guess looking at it as probability theory, Trump would get my vote.
Turning her attention to the general election may prove to be a made-in-haste/repent-in-leisure decision on Clinton’s part, because it’s going to accelerate stirring up all the sh!t in the Clinton pot and make it difficult for the Obama administration to delay and slow-walk the findings of the investigation.
And the Donald Trump who hammered away at Cruz and Kasich for colluding in the primaries is not going to shy away from attacking Hillary for colluding with the Clinton Foundation during her tenure as Sec. of State. That will not be pretty.
I still believe the GOP desperately wants to run against Hillary, and are going to do their part to make sure the bombs don’t fall on her until after she is the nominee, but if it’s going to start now, she may end up standing at the podium in Philadelphia about as damaged as she’s ever been.
Of course, there’s always a chance the GOP will be as ham-handed about their strategy for the general as they have been for the primaries, and will manage to shoot themselves in the foot.
What Trump did yesterday should scare a lot of establishment Republicans and, Hillary as well.
He looks to be finishing strong.
And next week, in Indiana, it is setting up to be a hand-to-hand kind of battle.
Trump and virtually anything he does or says is going to be painted as buffoonery by the MSM and they are going to REALLY double down. The intention is to mitigate any really embarrassing things Trump says regarding the anointed one. I suspect we will see so called pundits from one station mouthing the exact same put downs of Trump from another station. He will be the ultimate and biggest tin foil hat wearer in the U.S. of A. The tactic could prove to be very effective, and Trump may have to back off.
HuffPo is announcing the tactic in advance: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/huffington-post-donald-trump-editors-note_us_571f7b41e4b0b49df6a8f380
When Trump started this campaign, HuffPo covered him on the entertainment page. Their credibility is less than nil, consistent with the credibility of most of the MSM, where Trump is concerned.
I’d imagine he’d welcome their disdain as well as their COLLUSION with the rest of the media losers who’ll be going on the attack.
In the immortal words of george w. bush, “Bring. It. On.”
Just because someone is a competent communicator, it doesn’t mean he or she is good for you or me.
In Trump’s case, with that disclaimer, one wonders if he is one of the better communicators at getting his messages out there (voters’ short memory and all).
Oligarch under fbi investigation vs oligarch going to fraud trial. Foundation scam vs foundation scam. They are both unfit to run. I still think the media will get more hits if they take out the Clintons. Fox will support T. NBC C…. I imagine CNN will be C. Online? Twitter C. Facebook C. Google? I’d go w/C.
Anderson surprisingly supportive of trump in general last night. Ratings trump all.
The media may be reading the cards. It’s probably not a good idea to antagonize the guy who may very well be the next President.
The Democrats think they are smart since they won the last election cycle supposedly without Independants. Of course, last go round they had the benefit of the youth vote. I’m not convinced they are going to have that this go round. Status quo is NOT inspiring.
Bruni is fos. He really should be talking about the angry sore winner that is $hillary
I couldn’t help but go take a peek at that article, too. It was the kind of ‘nothing’ article that you’d expect from elite, out of touch writers that the NYT employs. The short version is this: Sanders and Cruz lost and their voters can’t deal with it and it basically mocks them for whining. Then there’s a bunch of irrelevant historical references inserted that don’t add any value, or even make much sense, but Bruni probably thinks are profound observations.
Then I stopped reading and spotted an article about how Obama should stop using the open-ended AUMF granted under Bush to pursue and thought, “ohhh, this is nice to see”. Of course, they don’t call it an “illegal” war like Tulsi Gabbard, just merely, “unauthorized”. What a much nicer, less offensive term!
Then, I realized about halfway down they were perfectly happy with the ongoing illegal wars and would just like to see him get a freshly-minted round of permission from Congress to help with appearances. Oh and they’d like to make sure the next president (hint, hint) already has permission lined up for when she wants to go destroy another country!
Whew!!! I hadn’t read NYT for months, that was a real stark reminder of why.
I still have enormous difficulty understanding why so many people would vote for a candidate, such as Clinton, who is so clearly in the pocket of the billionaires. Similarly, why vote for a candidate who actually is a billionaire, such as Trump?
Maybe the explanation is the Stockholm Syndrome.
In the MD Senate primary, Chris Van Hollen apparently got 1/3 of the AA vote, even though he was, as Pelosi’s assistant, instrumental in making the Bush tax cuts permanent, thereby guaranteeing a permanently underfunded federal government. He was also a member of the Simpson-Bowles Catfood Commission and clearly has SS `reform’ in his sights. Lambert doesn’t like the phrase `low information voter’, but it’s hard not to use it when it matches the facts. People can be low information voters for many reasons, sometimes beyond their control, but it’s devastating to democracy.
But enough of that downbeat stuff, let’s talk about Beyonce’s new album …
You’re right that low information voters can be the victims of events beyond their control, such as the partial media blackout about Bernie Sanders. But much of the partly concealed information is available for people who are willing to search for it, so the low information voters have some control over their level of ignorance. As you imply by your Beyonce reference, some people are just too interested in pop music, movies, or sports, and don’t want to pay attention to events that can actually affect their freedom and standard of living. It’s sad.
“Two things only the people anxiously desire — bread and circuses.” How things have changed… The Roman hoi polloi wanted both bread and circuses. These days American hoi polloi is content with circuses only. Another case of lowered expectations as the new normal?
OIFVet @ 12:58 pm
Good point. The lowering of expectations has become a bad habit in politics in the same way that shifting baseline syndrome distorts data in conservation biology:
“Essentially, this syndrome has arisen because each generation of fisheries scientists accepts as a baseline the stock size and species compostion that occurred at the beginning of their careers, and uses this to evaluate changes. When the next generation starts its career, the stocks have further declined, but it is the stocks at that time that serve as a new baseline. The result obviously is a gradual shift of the baseline, a gradual accommodation of the creeping disappearance of resource species, and inappropriate reference points for evaluating economic losses resulting from overfishing, or for identifying targets for rehabilitation measures.”
The ‘new normal’ is distorted in either case.
Source: http://www.skepticalscience.com/coralreefbaselines.html
The Democratic establishment machine is too strong in MD to allow someone like Van Hollen to go down in defeat; it’s also the reason Clinton won by a wide margin here.
Two other things doomed Donna Edwards in her race against Van Hollen: a devastating op-ed from Heather Mizeur that called out Edwards as being unresponsive to her constituents, and the Van Hollen ads that highlighted Edwards’ ranking as the least effective Democratic member of the House.
Part of being a good candidate is being a good representative, doing the job the people sent you to do and earning goodwill and support from voters along the way. It’s not that she was wrong about Van Hollen not being the progressive he wanted people to believe he was, it was that there’s more to getting elected than just not taking special interest money (which apparently is the new mantra of a number of candidates); if your constituents can’t get anyone in your office to respond to and help them, why are they going to give you a promotion to a Senate seat?
I voted for Edwards, but not with a whole lot of enthusiasm.
At least lobbyist Kathleen Matthews lost. Hope Tweety has a fine day. It certainly put a little smile on my face.
I think you have to live in close contact with your captors to have the Stockholm Syndrome, to eventually identify with their thinking.
Voting at distance for a candidate can be manipulated in many other ways, and the voters are not necessarily thinking they also want a lot of money making speeches to bankers.
Voting for a billionaire is much better: to make a positive change, all you have to do is convince one billionaire. That is a lot easier than convincing hundreds of billionaires.
I took a glimpse of HRC’s victory speech from last night. Can’t quite put my finger on it, but it really reminded me of a scene from Mars Attacks.
“aaaak”…..”taaaaak”……”ATAKTAAAK” !!!
Slim Whitman… where are you ??
She wasn’t quite so scary a couple of months ago. But now, after all those delegates, the 90s are back and I remember why I should be careful to remind myself when to turn the radio off.
Over on the Bernie side, he was heard, yesterday, in W. Virginia, talking about winning 16 out of 17 or something like that. I apologize in advance, but that sounded like someone in a bunker, losing touch with reality, because, after his trip to Rome, the streak has not been of the kind or gentle sort.
BioPharm Executive: Biotech Is for the 1%
But while self-interest—both financial and otherwise—may be playing a big role in rise of regenerative and longevity research, it may also be the case that the industry is evolving in a direction where nobody but billionaires can really push things forward.
The fact is that biotech in many ways doesn’t follow the rules of capitalism. Certainly we see that in prices of drugs and the ridiculously opaque system that supports them. But traditional capitalism is also increasingly straining to support the creation of new drugs. The cost and time required keeps creeping higher, yet investors’ patience seems to be growing shorter. There are growing hints that the current window for biotech IPOs is finally closing (see Money Talk), putting more pressure on companies hoping to fund early-stage ideas. But even before this, the money going to early stage companies has been dwindling in favor of late-stage programs, and particularly around specialty pharma. And perhaps that shouldn’t be surprising: Even the high net-worth investors who back venture capital funds expect a timely return.
In other words, if the merely very rich can no longer be counted on to back new ideas because they expect a decent return on investment, we may have to rely on the mega-rich who are either willing to give their cash away or are content with hugely long and indefinite timelines.
That’s a small group of people, but for now they keep coming. Another billionaire—Napster founder and ex-Facebook president Sean Parker—last week announced a $250 million donation to support cancer immunotherapy.
Of course, massive generosity comes with strings attached, and these billionaires will support the research that most interests them. That means for every Bill Gates looking to improve sanitation and communicable disease in the developing world, we’re likely to see a dozen plutocrats trying to get a few extra decades in which to enjoy their wealth.
http://www.biospace.com/news_print.aspx?NewsEntityId=416675
Charity/policy direction starts in a plutocrats hand? Wonder how that happened?
re: the election. Sad for our country – and world today. We need Bernie to keep fighting.
He will.
That being said, it’s been apparent for awhile that the DNC is corrupt. People are going to have to look for solutions outside that model.
Why does Hillucifer freely roam the earth, threatening the righteous and mocking G-d? It’s a complex theological question that’s beyond the scope of this non-sectarian blog.
But it still presents an exquisite dilemma for those who — given the crapulent reality of an unconstitutional partisan duopoly — favor partisan gridlock as the least bad outcome. After all, the last time one party controlled the presidency and both ho-houses of Kongress, it gave us the train wreck of Obamacare.
Does Hillary’s lifelong crime spree trump [sic] the prudence of electing a Democratic president to offset an R party majority in one (and probably both) houses of Kongress? On the other hand, what fresh horrors would emerge from across-the-board R party dominance?
One alternative to voting LOTE (Lesser of Two Evils) or third party is non-participation, which undermines the duopoly by boycotting its rigged “elections” entirely. Inertia, comrades: it’s like meditation for the undisciplined.
+++!
Yes it is, and yes he does. But remind yourself that neo-liberal economics and neo-conservative foreign policies constantly create their own opposition as a by-product.
Discontent will be stewing for another 4 years. Hopefully, the Sandernistas organize themselves and Bernie himself stays involved and builds support and grooms leaders than can follow in his footsteps.
He will. Jane Sanders was interviewed last night and debunked the NYT’s saying the campaign would ‘reassess’ things today. Jane said they reassess daily and this wasn’t about the presidency alone. But about the future of the country and the climate…. etc. it was good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVf0_epwHhM
NYTimes, fos. If my hubby didn’t love doing the puzzles I’d unsubscribe. sigh
Thanks for the clip. The hatred for the media and the Clintons was palpable in her voice. Good! We all hate them too. Play the long game, Jane! Rome wasn’t built in a day.
IMHO, he should run as a independent in the general election. He’s a much stronger candidate than Jerry Brown, Ross Perot, or Ralph Nader ever were.
It would be like the approached adopted by the rich when they tried to pass NAFTA.
First you try.
Then you try again.
(That way, you get at least 2 strikes to swing for the fences).
Agreed! I admit I am impatient. I remember the Bush years, when discontent was maxing out – the repubs in shambles. (of course, we here at nc know Clinton had already wreaked his damage.) Everything was teed up for ‘change’ and then to the (not) rescue – the false prophet Obama who rode in on a triumph of branding over substance to completely squander the moment and betray all of that healthy discontent!
I’m tired of the cycle but of course, persist we must.
We all are! However, think about where we were back in 6-9 months ago.
If someone said I’ll give you 44% of pledged delegates for Bernie and NY and CA will have legislation for a $15/hr min wage (granted, with super long phase-in times), we’d have all jumped at that.
Sander-nistas are a much more jaded bunch than the Obama crowd from 2008.
Yes. Electing non-neoliberals won’t just happen at the national level – top down, trickledown politics – but needs to happen in all the states, too. No need to wait 4 years to start electing better people to local and state offices. That starts in state and county elections this year. Is there a state Sanders organization that works for his nomination? Who do they support for local elections? For state elections? Are any of them running against a local neo-liberal ? How do you find the answers to those questions?
Re; embedded traffic lights
Another example of “smart” phones making people stupid (I don’t and never will own one – don’t even have a “dumb” cell phone). Getting killed because you can’t be bothered to look out for traffic (or trains! – read the story) when crossing a street because you’re so addicted to the endless stream of useless trivia flowing from your device? This is not evolution its tech-induced devolution.
A couple of years ago, I reluctantly got a “dumb” cell phone. There are very few pay phones remaining, so the possession of a cell phone has become almost a necessity. My cell phone is usually turned off.
And that’s the problem. A “necessity” that costs consumers $$$ and hugely benefits telecoms and phone manufacturers has been created to replace a public good (pay phones) that one could use on demand at a very low cost.
I don’t hear well enough to use my smartphone in public places. And, when I’m walking on the sidewalks or in the streets, I need to pay attention to what’s going on around me. So, the phone gets turned off when I’m not in a good hearing environment. Which pretty well rules out any place except my workplace or home.
It would be even more impressive if you didn’t have a phone of any kind. You’ve got to step up your Ludditte game to compete around here.
I’ll work on it.
“I scratch these NC comments in the dirt, with a stray stick that has fallen naturally from a tree. Then I barter a few turnips to get some kid with internet access to post them here!!”
Not really, but it is kind of amusing how many self-professed neo-Luddites spend so much time on the internet.
Ever notice how those on phones looking down just expect people to get out of their way?
I love to stand still on the sidewalk and let cute dumbphone users walk into me.
Car Cheats / Self-Driving Cars
These distinct threads from today’s links came together for me…
I can’t say that I look forward to sharing a treacherous Wisconsin winter road with a sunny California engineered driverless car or truck.
New York Times Finds Verizon Strike Beneath Notice David Dayen, Intercept
I’ll repeat my comment from the article, which is buried all the way down at the bottom:
It’s called a Board of Directors for a reason.
Yes, wood skyscrapers, and deforestation so environmentaly friendly. “There are more trees than 50 years ago” so cut em down. /Sarc
Same thing goes for “Built Green.” The supposed “green” buildings (made primarily of glass facades) are cold and drafty, yet they defy using actual green materials like brick which add an insulating layer to the building to help keep it warm in winter and cool in summer. Go figure.
Brick, wood, and mud are still the best house building materials in the world. Ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
As a Neo Luddite, I completely agree.
I have also heard of straw bale wall construction. Don’t know much about living in one.
re the glue lam buildings: no analysis of the carbon footprint and toxicity of all the polyurethane glue required for the building pieces
Un-reinforced brick and mud (adobe) are big no-no’s in earthquake country.
I refuse to link to certain publications due to obvious editorial bias AKA propaganda rags, Including the NYT and WaPo. Don’t give them any clicks or eyeballs.
Having said that, Slashdot is reporting that the WaPo claims that millenials are rejecting capitalism altogether. I guess they’ve done a study or a poll, and 51% reject, with a margin of 2% error.
http://politics.slashdot.org/story/16/04/27/0153249/a-majority-of-millennials-now-reject-capitalism-poll-shows
So, I’ll read the report of the report on slashdot, just so that I don’t give the WaPo any clicks. They and the NYT are a digital bird cage liner.
I love to read those kinds of stories on slashdot just for the comments and some guaranteed flamebait; they tend not to hold back much. And they *always* make you think about viewpoints or details you hadn’t considered.
NYT and WaPo focus on sucking up to power. That’s the editorial stance.
Make sure and send them back their postage paid envelope asking you to subscribe with a message excoriating them for promoting Hillary over their news impartiality. Don’t forget to call their 1-800 # and blast them the same way.
Let’s see how they feel after 4 years of Clinton-ite graft and billionaire favor-granting. Plus, the ‘regime change’ express will be warming up again soon. Troops will be going to Syria in order to teach Putin a lesson and I’m sure the Iran-deal will be dropped within 6 months (their fault, of course!)
re AAPL results: I’ve been reading comments from various sources and some common (and not really unexpected) themes are emerging, which bode poorly for Apple and its investors (including many hedge funds):
–many iPhone users really preferred the 4″ screen and when the 6SE was released they went for that. Tim Cook said Apple was “surprised” but they shouldn’t have been. Plus it is much cheaper, so their margins will go down.
— the change from carrier subsidies to paying the full price means consumers realise for the first time the real price of the phones
— the feeling that an existing smartphone is “good enough” so no need to upgrade every 2 years
— people going back to flip-phones for simplicity
— most interestingly, the apparent “New Frugality” trend where it is hip to save money (fancy that!) and not splurge on luxury items. 100 years ago this was known as “living within one’s means”.
The 13 year Apple profit explosion may have ended along with the consumer spending bubble. If consumers are cutting back their spending more generally (and I guess they are — cf the deserted malls and the big retailers closing down shops or declaring BK) then it could be tough times ahead.
An interesting twist were the comments from China the day before Apple’s earnings release:
Was Jia surprised by Apple’s meltdown in China sales? Or did he have an insider tip from someone in Apple’s Chinese headquarters?
In any case, it was a great and timely call.
Shorter Jia: ” Chinese manufacturers have now successfully reverse engineered Apples products, including the iPhone, and are set to make our own branded products and reap great financial rewards. Also, China will control the software, not the US.”
Okay, so long as they don’t violate Apple’s valuable iPatents by using radiused corners.
Then those plodding Chinese squareheads would feel the long reach of U.S. “justice.”
Does that mean we don’t have to give up our cotton underwear industry in order to get into their financial industry?
Or give them our shoes manufacturing so we can sell them more Hollywood movies in China.
Wait, those thing have already happened.
Maybe we don’t have to give up our laminated flooring market for Apple to sell more smartphones over there?
Intel Agencies are going to have trouble maintaining anonymous agents in a facial recognition future. The CIA will be recruiting agents from recent disaffected Amish youth – who else won’t have an online presence in the database that is facebook (or it’s children). If your online life leads to Langley VA, it could be a problem. When your contact’s software spits out pictures of you in fancy prep school, Harvard, 3 year gap. International Consulting, with 1 Photo of you in a Langley TGI Fridays (in the background of a Mr & Mrs Solbinski anniversary shot from Cleveland) in that gap. Can you say “Company Man” ? How are you going to scrub your online presence from birth ? Fake ID’s won’t protect you. A photo active mother will kill your career in the clandestine service !
Caitlin Jenner may be the new “Manchurian Candidate” for gender re-assignment being in reality, identity reassignment for the new spooks. All of this Gay marriage and Trans-Gendered brou haha, all a carefully orchestrated sheep dipping for a fifth column of CIA agents who will have to undergo this transformation to achieve deep cover status. It’s a brave, new world, getting braver every day. It’s a mixed up, shook up world for the hall of mirrors.
I’m pretty sure gay marriage and the existence of nonbinary people aren’t a conspiracy theory. The LGBT community been around longer than the CIA.
Good point!
I think the surveillance state would like to put some of the genie back in the bottle– Total Information Awareness for them, nothing but scraps of truth buried among slag-heaps of MSM misinformation for the rest of us.
Imagine concerned citizens, using surveillance tech to find out what people like Bill and Hillary say to their plutocratic pals when they think no one is listening!
Re: Yves’ comment to 4/26 NYT Bruni column: “There is a horribly Sanders-voter-punching op ed by Frank Bruni. I don’t want to dignify it by linking to it.”
Thanks for this, Yves. It made me sick to my stomach to see Bruni’s dismissive, personal attack on Senator Sanders and his supporters — not on the issues they all care about.
I heard Rev. William Barber, the head of the North Carolina NAACP, also of that state’s Moral Mondays campaign, speak recently about governmental budget items being moral issues, i.e. health care, etc. Barber is putting a fine point on what those issues are, just as Senator Sanders has been doing for years.
The NYT, and Bruni in this column, exemplify what supporting Wall Street looks like, at all costs to journalistic standards and their former reputation. Bruni might also remember who have long been the authentic supporters of an issue he cares deeply about: LGBT civil rights.
And while Bruni went full passive-aggressive mode by making it seem like he was talking in generalities, the Times helpfully added a picture with Sanders dead center, just so we’d be sure to get it.
What with the layoffs and and the shameless toadying, I’m starting to think that Margaret O’Sullivan may have had a reason to leave when she did, although out of the frying pan into the fire, at Jeff Bezos’s house organ.
Yes, thanks. It was a smarmy, obnoxious little op-ed.
I made the mistake of reading the letters section late last night — the “Readers’ Picks” tab — and was surprised for the second time by the abrupt change in respondent demographics.
Since Sanders began serious campaigning in New York the top “Readers’ Pick” letters have been stridently anti-Sanders, full of peevish denunciations of his efforts to, you know, actually campaign. Repeated demands that he step down, leave the race, tone down “attacks” on Clinton, stop damaging her chances in the general……
The highest rated letters now mirror the editorial stance of the paper. The change is striking, came very quickly and probably indicates a coordinated effort. A volunteer effort most likely, but coordinated nonetheless. It wouldn’t take many people to effect this change. 40-50 individuals could probably (and have probably) upended the tone and trajectory of the letters section.
I’ve also noticed a recent change in NYT reader comments/picks from largely pro-Sanders to mostly pro-Hillary. David Brock’s Correct the Record at work?
the guardian pulls the same shit. i’ve taken a break from reading it just to keep my blood pressure down.
For Apple it starts now. China’s princlings will begin to manipulate the hell ouf of Apple’s stock price, because the news has made the western media clue into how much Apple depends on that one market. There will now be string of good and bad news constantly bombarding Apple from the CCP, regarding any subject from market access to opening up source code. Every evolution in the price will bring millions to the manipulators, and because Apple is so large, the Chinese have so many off-shore methods to change id after each trade, etc; there is almost nothing that the SEC could do to halt it.
Microsoft went through a bout of the same treatment, but the scale of the problem for Apple dwarfs MS.
Wonder how Trump, the champion of American victims of Chinese hegemony, will react to that one.
Icahn: We’re out of Apple, and it’s China’s fault
Carl’s giving him a heads up.
Along with other results showing that Americans are stupid and willing their own destruction, Chris Van Hollen won his primary in Maryland against Donna Edwards. And in PA, Obama and massive spending by the DNC allowed Kate McGinty to win over two better candidates Joe Sestak and John Fetterman. (Sadly instead of cutting into McGinty, Fetterman probably only hurt Sestak.)
I admit that if I lived in either state I would be tempted to write DWS, Chuck Schumer and Jon Tester and every news outlet in my state a letter telling them of my decision to vote for the Republican nominee as they clearly have no desire to elect progressive candidates and as such we might as well get the asses they really want to run. And that they should not take this decision as a sign to continue to run the most corporate friendly conservative assholes as that would just continue my resolve, but instead they could actually support Democrats from the traditional far more liberal wing of the party.
The thing is I already know Van Hollen is an ass and should be kept away from the Senate. I don’t know McGinty, but considering her support, I suspect the same thing. IOW, as I no longer vote for the lesser more effective evil, they would not be getting my vote. Unfortunately here in NY just more effective evil Schumer will easily return to knee cap any real progress in the Senate without my vote and no one is even trying to stop him.
Roman Europe?
Well, you could do worse than Italian dominance. But the crux of the article is this:
“As a result, Italy has started implementing labor, pension, and administrative reforms that were unthinkable in the past.”
I recall that one of the demands from the ECB was “reform” of the system of allocating taxi licenses. Undoubtedly, taxi drivers are holding back a new economic renaissance. So the article is about the usual Anglo-Germano-Americano delusions about economics, the dismal science. (And the response in Italy can be quite bitter: Fatto Quotidiano runs a regular column called Cervelli in Fuga, the Brain Drain, which profiles an Italian who has emigrated to further career, because of the lack of jobs in Italy and the inability of Italian universities to hire junior faculty, although some of the careers are on the level of running a B&B in Santa Fe, N.M..)
Nevertheless, Italy has suffered from adopting the euro, which has forced it to give up the economic policy of a very flexible, usually weak, lira. Conversely, Italy has benefited from a political culture (not politicians) that is fairly sensible, despite all of the high drama. So the nutty party system works as a way to channel dissent, and the odious Northern League is now in decline. But I wouldn’t try the Italian party system elsewhere.
The central problem of the story isn’t that Italy is reassuming its place in the Mediterranean world and, therefore, on the verge of leading Europe. That isn’t possible as Spain, Portugal, and Greece are in economic purgatory and are being treated as subhumans (let alone Libya and Syria). The central problem of the article is that the Anglo-Germano-Americano economic and political consensus is a failed enterprise.
Brexit? Obama’s current farewell tour of Europe, which should be entitled “Not with a Bang but with a Whimper”? Maybe these are symptoms that should be addressed by something other than trade agreements and gun running to the Middle East. I will contemplate that as I eat “made in Italy” fettuccine with squid ink, elegant and reminiscent of the sea (indeed, there are worse fates than Italian preeminence)…
From the article;
Padoan has started to implement fiscal stimulus by cutting taxes and maintaining public spending plans, in defiance of German and EU Commission demands to tighten his budge
The same has been going on in Spain (hence deficit raising), the main thing that has contributed to less unemployment (along cheaper euro, meaning increased ‘export’s in the form of tourism).
It may be the end game for German hegemony if France keeps its own trajectory, and the end of the EU as we know it.
Amin… It would be tasty, stylish, and healthy. Yes, the Med will not be leading Europe any time soon, but then again neither will the US through its UK-German-French stooges. Because I don’t see a united Europe in the future. You can now count on a contrarian Eastern European block as well, thanks to Merkel’s acquiescence to Barry’s insane regime change ops, and also her banding over backwards to kow tow to the wanna-be sultan in Ankara. Eastern Euros are genetically hardwired to remember absorbing the Ottoman expansion and buying the West the time needed to stop the expansion at the gates of Vienna. We paid the price by living under the dark backwardness of the Ottomans, only for the West to now sniff disdainfully about our alleged backwardness and racism. Looks like it is on us to save Europe from itself, again.
Not to mention bearing the brunt of the Mongol invasions before the Ottomans.
Buying the West time needed to stop the expansion at the gates of Vienna.
And to sail to the ‘New World’ to collect gold and silver.
The Eastern Europeans fell further beyond as a result.
http://www.wkow.com/story/31823100/2016/04/26/milwaukee-driver-dies-from-gunshot-wound
2 year old shoots mother dead
Lock up the little bastard and throw away the key. Legal defense, “Your honor, I’m an orphan, have mercy!!”.
the definition of ‘chutzpah’. that’s it.
Probably got the gun in Vermont, directly from Bernie.
It will be really crazy if they try to tie this to the maker of the F-35 jets and take them to court as well.
Ted Cruz Now Needs Just 104 Percent of Remaining Delegates to Clinch the Nomination Gawker
Teddy, its not that they like The Donald – they just don’t like you!
fresno dan,
Cruz has picked Carly Fiorina as his running mate.
No fool he.
Yves: Separately, this is enough to make me consider wearing fake eyebrows and a fake nose on a regular basis.
If you really want to disconcert, don a niqab!
Thanks for the photos of the wood ducks. Wood ducks are always soothing to watch.
The faux left in Europe and the faux left in the US are the most effective vote getters for any right winger who is smart enough to embrace the mantle of the economic populism. Austria’s presidential elections offer the latest proof of this, with 72% of the labor having voted for the nationalist Freedom Party candidate.
Some of those are for and some are against the neoliberals. Just like some will vote against neolib/neocon Clinton. I actually agree with some arguments that 4 years of Trump would be less damaging than Clinton.
Indeed – Marine Le Pen’s economic views are in line with Piketty and Stieglitz … and most of the people who read this blog.
I don’t think she’s sincere but that’s my personal view.
I am in no position to judge her sincerity, but she is definitely one of the right wing politicos I envisioned in my comment. Most far right politicos in Europe seem to have adopted left wing economic populism as the way to attract the disillusioned Euro workers, who have been sold out by the Third Way neoliberals of the supposed “socialist” and “social-democratic” parties. Just several days ago I got quite the backlash from reminding the chief of the Euro “socialists” that as the BG PM, he oversaw the introduction of a super regressive flat income tax, so railing against the rich for failing to pay their fair share of taxes was too much hypocrisy even for a slimy worm like himself. I had a ton of epithets thrown my way from his circle of admirers for spoiling his carefully staged soapbox moment. So really, kicking the “dreamers of the far left” is not just the favorite sport of the serious people of the Democrat Party of the US, the Euro faux left are just as bad. And having alienated their base, they then pretend to be shocked and dumbfounded when their voters defect to the LePen’s and the Trumps of the world…
The latest from Bob Laszewski:
“Figures Don’t Lie But Liars Figure”: The Disingenuous Obama Administration’s Report That Claims Obamacare’s Average Premiums Rose by Only 8% in 2015
http://healthpolicyandmarket.blogspot.com/2016/04/figures-dont-lie-but-liars-figure.html
Eduardo Quince
April 27, 2016 at 10:28 am
Thank you for that link!!!!
========================================================
The Obama administration is out with a report that the average 2015 Obamacare exchange premium increased by only 8% last year.
As best I can tell, that is a true statement.
It is also an incredibly disingenuous statement.
There is an old actuarial saying about how numbers can be manipulated to suite the author’s agenda: “Figures don’t lie but liars figure.” That the 2015 Obamacare exchange rates rose by 8% is as close to a prefect example of this old adage that I can think of.
…..
Here is the operative statement in the report:
“Two thirds (67%) of HealthCare.gov consumers selected a new plan in 2016: all new consumers plus 43% of returning customers. Taking into account shopping, the increase in the average premium was 8% between 2015 and 2016.”
Here’s the catch: The administration mentions nothing about what kinds of health plans these 43% of returning consumers gave up to lower their increases.
Let me illustrate. Let’s say a consumer had a 2015 Silver Plan with a $2,000 deductible in 2015 that was going to increase in cost by 20% for 2016. Because of the big 2016 rate increase, that consumer moved to a much cheaper 2016 Silver Plan that produced only a 5% increase but to accomplish that the consumer had to accept a $3,000 deductible. As a result, and according to the administration’s logic, the final rate increase this consumer would have gotten was 5% instead of 20%. To get a cheaper plan consumers might have had to accept a much narrower provider network and/or a much bigger deductible and other out-of-pocket costs.
The consumer in my example did manage to get themselves a lower cost plan and avoid the big rate increase. But here it is important to remember that rate increases come in three forms:
Higher premiums.
Narrower networks, and or
Higher out-of-pocket costs.
=============================================================
As they say, some of the biggest lies are things that are true.
I like a more elegant version of that saying.
Figures lie when liars figure.
And I thought up a modification. Pictures lie when liars picture.
RE: Where Jobs Are Squeezed by Chinese Trade, Voters Seek Extremes, you know when the writer is quoting someone from the Peterson foundation it must be nonsense. The Times is firmly on board with managing decline.
When a town’s top employer shuts its doors and thereby trashes the local economy, many of the inhabitants get angry.
Must be some quaint regional characteristic, like chitlins.
Cannon Fodder
Is it seven days you’ve been lying there
Out in the cold,
Feeling the damp, chill circlet of flesh
Loosen its hold
On muscles and sinews and bones,
Feeling them slip
One from the other to hang, limp on the stones?
Seven days. The lice must be busy in your hair,
And by now the worms will have had their share
Of eyelid and lip.
Poor, lonely thing; is death really a sleep?
Or can you somewhere feel the vermin creep
Across your face
As you lie, rotting, uncared for in the unowned place,
That you fought so hard to keep
Blow after weakening blow.
Well. You’ve got what you wanted, that spot is yours
No one can take it from you now.
But at home by the fire, their faces aglow
With talking of you,
They’ll be sitting, the folk that you loved,
And they will not know.
……………………………
In war we have cannon fodder, and in trade we have manufacturing fodder. We sacrifice our laborers for the victory in the GDP wars…
The human wreckage left behind by Corinthian’s closing:
Everest’s closing left many in limbo [Rochester D&C]
With his massive fundraising apparatus, Bernie’s now in a position to do what the right has been doing for decades: Primary any politician who doesn’t actually do public service.
The Kochs maintain right-wing discipline among the party of sabotage (R’s) with this tactic. They’ve had to be patient to implement it since most of what their promoting is sabotage, at least for most voters. But it’s been very successful.
Imagine what Bernie could do to change the corporate D’s assumptions! I’d bet it could be effective far faster than the Kochs’ efforts. … Just sayin’…
It would be great to see Bernie supporters inject much needed progressive discipline into the corrupt elite-choked Democratic apparatus.
Selective targetting would remind politicians that they represent the people not corporate donors. And that there are consequences.
The first person who needs to go is Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.
Even after yesterday’s dismal results, I still have hope that she has alienated vast amount of voters who previously put her in office. May she lose her primary. Hell not only lose, may she be buried by a landslide victory for her opponent Tim Canova.
Money corrupts.
Power corrupts.
It would be better to see if any progressive candidate can raise money from small donors directly.
Did you not see yesterday’s primary results? Edwards out, not only did Fetterman not get anywhere, Sestak is out etc. Prior to that, Sanders endorsed three women and sent out a donation request and only Flores did well. People did not follow Sanders. They have to take the time to research each individual and when everything is a time sink, it’s overwhelming.
Well, it takes time. An endorsement isn’t enough.
Teachout seems to be doing well too. Maybe it’s not from Bernie people but I’m on her email list and she is raising LOTS. I gave equally to all he endorsed in that email (not a lot; not rich) tho yes, I gave separately to Flores (again, not a lot). Read her backstory. I dunno how Pramila Jayapal is doing re: money but I have the impression she is doing well in the race (now getting emails from her also)(from these people, I don’t mind; Bernie chose well). All three look to be in good shape for their elections as far as having a chance to win. ::fingers crossed on all their behalves::
The Kochs and other rich people would counter-give money to the DLC Democrat targets of these Berniecratic challengers. But that funding could be publicised and viralized and perhaps used to discredit the DLC Democrats even further . . . . and defeat them anyway.
Have you seen the original DUCKumentary?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRDNKdTOufo
Really great
Out here in the Neoliberal hinterland of Memphis, we are dealing with a major measles outbreak. A daycare center in a well to do white area had a child infected with measles. Possibly another infected child was taken to doctor’s office not knowing of the measles, exposed other children. We are up to six infections in our county and at least one more infection across the river in Arkansas. It will be the summer of Zika and Measles. Local news is talking about the embarrassment of a brief power failure during an NBA game sunday. An outbreak of a completely preventable virus is something I would consider more “embarassing”.
Bill Black’s group, BankWhistleblowersUnited is very interesting.
50 Nerds of Grey.
‘I’m all yours tonight!’ she cried, ‘Do something to me you’d never normally dare do to a woman!’
‘All right’ he said, and made eye contact.
Thanks for that! A good laugh is always good, especially after reading NC.
Re Sanders: What is the argument for him staying in the race at this point? The longer he stays, the weaker he becomes as he keeps losing primaries, right?
Or is that the idea? Make him and his supporters appear more and more marginal as time wears on until it strengthens Clinton and renders Sanders a fleeting memory.
He stays in because she might have another stroke and/or, Fbi might do something so useful the supers vote for Bernie and/or abstain and he eventually wins on subsequent ballots. Plus, staying in keeps him talking about progressive issues, which reminds trump that these are popular ideas.
Btw, trump does not think he owes thr rep leadership and/or their traditional ideas of wars/cutting SS/other programs anything.
And the economy isn’t doing so well, either.
Sanders side: But she has goiters, the high neck suits prove it, so she may die, the delegates may see the light, she may get indicted, every state should get to vote (I haven’t voted yet), he’s taking it to the convention, don’t disappoint supporters….
Clinton side: The media can use him as a punching bag to fill time instead of covering Clinton. The left weakens over time, takes away time to reorganize left, it softens the blow for Sanders supporters…
After a vacation, Sanders will go back to the Senate.
Sanders worst night was Tuesday, and it’s behind him. It’s not that he’s going to have blowouts in any of the remaining races (except Oregon; he’ll sweep it there) but he will win perhaps half of them, raise his pledged delegate count, improve his superdelegate count, and keep the Party elite peevishly aware of us groundlings and our discontents.
He may just take California and there will be a notable effect if he does. If he stays in thru CA, he will have a distinct, positive impact on the platform the Dems adopt at their convention. By staying in, he may also be quietly improving our down ticket options in states where the primary voters pick more than just a presidential candidate.
This is a short, incomplete list of why it’s important for Sanders to fight to the end. Like the smarter Clinton once said: politics is a contact sport.
I imagine the Dem establishment in CA is really vile?
No need to imagine. Reality is far worse. Keep in mind that the CA Dem establishment includes Pelosi, DiFi, Boxer, and the abysmal Jerry Brown.
Speaking of Oregon, Senator Wyden is being primaried by a City Councilman from Medford, Kevin Stine, who is against TPP, pro marijuana, and pro Bernie. I hope Bernie has coat tails.
Sheesh, I don’t believe this comment. Even in NY, her state, with a closed primary, where half the voters live in the NYC metro area which is dominated by finance, and the Democratic machine playing tons of games, an avowed socialist got 42%. This isn’t what he or is supporters had hoped for but is still remarkable. Even at his worst, in every state he is still getting over 40%.
The young are overwhelmingly pro-Bernie, antithetical to capitalism. With good reason. Capitalism is has become neoliberalism and it sucks.
Every day, a Clinton vote dies and a young person who will vote for Sanders becomes voting age.
Continuing is playing the long game, for real change.
Yep! Its got me optimistic in the longer term. Time to get involved once again. I hope others do too. The kids deserve it.
Perhaps it has escaped your notice that Sanders isn’t garnering single-digit percentages of the vote; as he often reminds us, back when he got in the race, he was polling at 3%, and in less than a year has pulled within a few points of Clinton – in some instances, ahead of her.
Why aren’t you asking why someone deemed the presumptive nominee a year ago, who was polling at 90-something percent, has lost half of her support in that same time period, has seen her unfavorable numbers rise, and is now considered more untrustworthy than ever, is still in the race?
Why aren’t you asking if her decline over the last year doesn’t perhaps reveal significant weaknesses in her ability to campaign for and win a general election?
Oh, I have no doubt Clinton and her many surrogates will be marginalizing Sanders’ supporters in any and all ways possible; it helps that she seems to have the media in her pocket, at the ready to step into the breach when her chances are at all threatened. With Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s thumbs firmly pressed to the DNC scales, Clinton won’t have a problem with convention rules getting in her way. The establishment is on the job, threatening and arm-twisting and generally acting like mob enforcers.
So she has that going for her. But I’m curious why you don’t find it troubling that these are the lengths that have to be gone to in order to make sure the promise of ascending to the Oval Office is fulfilled.
That’s a level of entitlement that I find disturbing, but perhaps you’re fine with it.
There are a lot of questions to be asked, but the ones you’ve chosen to pose are eye-rollingly clueless.
the argument for me is it strengthens the resolve of sanders supporters to vote for anybody but clinton, as the lies pile up.
He and his movement stay in to keep growing their movement and taking the visible and visual measure of its size and strength. It won’t look marginal to themselves and eachother, however marginal it may be spun to look by the CFP MSM. The Sandercrats can then deepen and broaden and thicken their multiple layers of cross-organization to become a movement gaining power over the years to come.
The more DLC heads they can take in primary challenges, the closer they will come to decontaminating and disinfecting and autoclaving and then bio-remediating the Democratic Party. Eventually their pile of severed heads will be too big for the CFP MSM to spin away.
The road to confetti
http://www.grantspub.com/resources/confetti.cfm
HuffPost Politics put up a pretty good video interview today with Yanis Varoufakis, where he talks about the EU finance and politics in a debt deflationary cycle (and his latest book).
https://www.facebook.com/HuffPostPolitics/videos/vb.56845382910/10153933965682911/?type=2&theater
What the heck is “doxing”? Do we really need new words for everything on the internet?
keeping abreast of neologisms helps keep the mind young and supple
Pennsylvania, Where Everyone Is ‘Furious’
“In many ways, what is happening here in Reading, what has happened over the last several decades, is kind of a metaphor for what’s happening all over this country,” Mr. Sanders told the crowd. “We have seen a city which once had thousands of excellent-paying jobs lose those jobs because of disastrous trade policies.”
He went on to list corporations, including the Dana Corporation, that had shut down plants in Reading and moved overseas.
Mr. Mandich, the Sanders supporter and Mellencamp fan, said that he was laid off from his job at the Dana Corporation, which manufactured automobile frames, when the company closed its Reading plant in 2000. The Dana Corporation was one of the companies that supported the Clinton administration’s effort to pass the North American Free Trade Agreement, which activists and liberal economists argue did more harm than good to the United States economy.
The crowd in Reading skewed a bit older than a typical Sanders rally — possibly because it took place on a weekday afternoon. Fritz Von Hummel, 55, a self-employed appliance technician who was laid off from his previous job in November, canceled a couple of appointments to come to the event. He said he had not had health insurance for the past seven years because he could not afford it, and he was eager to talk about the shortcomings of President Obama’s signature health care law.
“I’m just furious with the situation the way it is,” he added.
There was more fury elsewhere in Pennsylvania.
Neither party seems to have a monopoly on the answers. Mr. Mandich, the Sanders supporter, said if it came down to a Trump-Clinton election in November, he would not vote for Mrs. Clinton.
“I probably would go for Donald Trump,” he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/26/opinion/campaign-stops/pennsylvania-where-everyone-is-furious.html?
maybe the msm will get off the all about free stuff and young people narrative, eh?
Saudi prince proposes Thatcherism…
Margaret said
“Socialism is great until you run out of other people’s money.”
Updated years ago to read: “Thatcherism is great until you run out of cheap North Sea oil”.
Isn’t the whole point that S.A. is running out of exportable oil? How are they going to pull a T.I.N.A. off?
If Sanders isn’t in the general election, they will probably consider Trump.
….then again, they probably won’t………It’s in the MSM’s interest to push the wrong narrative, so as to feed on the 99%, along with their status-quo brethren.