By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
TTP/TTiP/TISA
“New study ‘Model clauses for the exclusion of public services from trade and investment agreements'” [European Public Service Union] From the PDF of the study:
This study therefore develops and explains model clauses which could be used in international trade and investment agreements to exclude public services from the scope of these agreements in their entirety in a legally reliable manner. The study is based on the assumption that it would be best for the protection of public services if trade and investment agreements – or the most contentious parts of these agreements – would not apply to public services. It will be shown that the major challenge is the definition of the notion of public services in a manner that does not preclude the future development of new public services and new models of providing or organizing them.
If the language holds up, the left should adopt the concept (although liberals surely will not, because markets).
“The Commission used a dynamic computable general equilibrium model to determine the impact of TPP relative to a baseline projection that does not include TPP. The model estimated that TPP would have positive effects, albeit small as a percentage of the overall size of the U.S. economy” [United States Interational Trade Commission, “Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement: Likely Impact on the U.S. Economy and on Specific Industry Sectors” (PDF)].
2016
Policy
“[B]order walls and fences are currently going up around the world at the fastest rate since the Cold War” (maps) [The Atlantic].
Philadelphia Convention
“Unconventional #15: How Democrats — not Republicans — could wind up with this year’s most chaotic convention (and more!)” [Yahoo]. Of course, the press does love themselves a “Democrats in disarray” narrative. But this one is being spoon-fed to them by the Clinton campaign, as the sourcing shows.
“Civil war for Democrats? Wasserman Schultz vs. Sanders” [McClatchy]. “As the large, boisterous crowd booed at his mention of party leadership, Sanders added: ‘[The Democrat Party] can do the right thing and open its doors and welcome into the party people who are prepared to fight for real social and economic change. . . . So I say to the leadership of the Democratic Party: Open the doors, let the people in!'” Hmm. Anything’s possible, I suppose.
“1912 Republican Convention” [Smithsonian]. A possible parallel?
Memories of the Republican National Convention in Philly, in 2000 [Philadelphia Magazine].
As one might expect for a Republican convention held in a Democratic town, protests were a big deal at the 2000 RNC. Thousands jammed the Parkway the day before the convention began. Perhaps in response to the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle, cops posed as activists and infiltrated groups planning to protest the convention. “It’s worse than sleazeball,” Stefan Presser, then the Pennsylvania ACLU’s legal director, told The Inquirer. “This is an outrage.” Four state police posed as union carpenters from Wilkes-Barre a week before the cops raided the puppetmakers’ workshop on August 1st, the second day of the convention.
One account of the arrest said it was quite the show of force:
At 2:05 PM, Tuesday, August 1st, over 180 police officers and three helicopters lay siege to a warehouse on 41st and Haverford on Philadelphia’s west side. When we looked through a mail slot to survey the situation, the police sprayed mace at us. They tried to barge in through a hole in the roof and, failing that, videotaped, tape recorded, and spit at us through a skylight. All 75 of us inside the warehouse were detained for over two hours before any search warrant showed up. We would become known as the “Haverford 70.”
It was later revealed in state police affidavits that the cops believed the protesters were communists: “Funds allegedly originate with Communist and leftist parties and from sympathetic trade unions. Other funds reportedly come from the former Soviet-allied World Federation of Trade Unions.”
Perhaps the Philadelphia police will do better with Sanders socialists than they did with putative Communists. If they don’t, it will be fun to watch liberals surrender more of their principles, and one might almost imagine the airborne seating meme manufactured in Vegas was designed to help that doublethink emerge.
Our Famously Free Press
“‘This has been an all-time low by mainstream corporate media,’ says media scholar Robert McChesney, who joins us to discuss how the media is covering the race for the White House. ‘What we’ve seen is the Sanders campaign has been largely neglected … And the coverage and the framing of it has been largely through the eyes of the establishment for the Hillary Clinton campaign’ [Democracy Now].
“Bernie backers get violent: Now it’s the Democrats facing a civil war” [Howard Kurtz, Fox]. It’s interesting, in a clinical sort of way, to see the Nevada airborne seating Big Lie propagate itself through our famously free press. Although it’s handy to be able to cross off any pundit who retails it.
“As the fallout from last weekend’s Nevada Democratic convention spreads, sharply critical pieces about the White House hopeful and his campaign have appeared in progressive outlets such as Mother Jones, Talking Points Memo and Daily Kos within the past 48 hours.” [The Hill]. Read for some Ninja-grade concern trolling. My favorite includes the phrase “the full sense of moral leadership.”
Corruption
“Activists noticed around midnight last night that the certified election results had disappeared from the NYCBOE website” [Medium]. Gee. That’s odd.
The Trail
“From Minnesota to California, Sanders has met privately with Native American leaders from dozens of tribes in the past four months and spoken publicly, at each of his campaign stops, about the hardships their communities face” [Yahoo News]. ” His effort has not gone unnoticed, especially in the remaining primary states out West, where “Natives for Bernie” has become a visible and vocal part of the senator’s coalition.” I hate to cite Rove, but at this point….
“Senate Democrats discussed how to handle Bernie Sanders and his supporters at a private caucus meeting on Tuesday” [The Hill]. “Reid has some credibility as a fair broker because he stayed neutral [snort] in the primary race until after the Nevada caucuses in February, when he endorsed Clinton. Many of Sanders’s other Democratic colleagues backed the former secretary of State immediately after she announced her candidacy.” I’d say Sanders had better prepare a flucht nach vorn on the Budget Committee front…. “A senior Democratic aide said that thinking reflects an acknowledgement among the senators that Reid is the one member of the caucus who “has an actual relationship with him.'” Which would be how Sanders passed all those amendments. The herd closing up…
UPDATE “A fractured Democratic Party threatens Clinton’s chances against Trump” [WaPo].
Sanders himself has made harder-to-argue cases [as opposed to election fraud] against the Democratic primaries. The truncated debate schedule struck supporters of both candidates as unfair, something the party seemed to acknowledge by tacking on more of them in March and April. Although Clinton is on track to win a majority of pledged delegates, Sanders has suggested that early support for Clinton among superdelegates, the party leaders and elected officials who get an automatic convention vote but are not bound by their state’s popular vote created a barrier no candidate could scale.
This reminds me of Albert O. Hirschman’s “Exit, Voice, and Loyalty” formulation. The Democrats have given Sanders supporters zero to no reason for loyalty, so the remaining options are voice and exit. Can the Clinton camp craft a deal that will allow Sanders voters a voice within the party? I think they neither wish to, nor can (vague noises about platform wording are to “voice” as watching a meeting is to chairing a meeting). Hence, exit. Here, the classic Democratic response has been “They have no place to go.” However, Sanders has funding independent of the Democratic Party, and he also has his “list” (assuming the Democrat insiders using NGP VAN haven’t stolen it). So for the first time, there’s a real chance of creating a place for the left to go. The new situation Sanders created has impaled the Democrat establishment on the horns of a big dilemma: Craft a deal with a party faction they despise (a deal which, more to the point, will break some important rice bowls if it’s any kind of deal at all), or craft no deal and go for moderate Republican votes; I argue the Iron Law of Institutions — not to mention neoliberal ideological compatibility and class interest — will impel the Democrat Establishment to do the latter; hence, exit for Sanders. Nevertheless, the Establishment’s dilemma causes them genuine pain, and hence the sudden spittle-flecked explosion of Acela-riding, loyalist rage, none of which takes account of the realpolitik, or resolves the situation in any way.
UPDATE “Does Bernie Sanders want to be the Ralph Nader of 2016?” [Dana Milbank, WaPo]. The insurgent Sanders couldn’t, even if he wanted to be. The insurgent Nader commanded what, 4% of the vote? Sanders commands 45%, after a process skewed against him, whose views point to a possible future for the Democrat Party. Incidentally, there’s a message in an order-of-magnitude growth in support for Democrat insurgents, if the party Establishment would open its ears. (And don’t talk to me about Florida: 306,000 Florida Democrats voted for Bush. Democrats lost election 2000, and nobody else.)
“After winning more than 60 percent of the pledged delegates through March 1st, Clinton is now likely to lose the majority of pledged delegates awarded between March 2nd and June 14th — a two and a half month period that makes up roughly the final two-thirds of the Democratic nominating process” [HuffPo]. Why those favorability ratings are important…
Clinton Email Hairball
“An indictment of any higher-up in Clinton World would produce a royal mess for Democrats. You can bet there are wise strategists in a backroom somewhere gaming this out, just in case” [Karl Rove, Wall Street Journal].
UPDATE “At least five other officials [besides Lewis A. Lukens] — including two of Mrs. Clinton’s top aides at the State Department, Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin — are also scheduled to testify in the [Judicial Watch] lawsuit over the next six weeks in what promises to be an unwelcome distraction for the Clinton campaign” [“Ex-Aide to Hillary Clinton Testifies About Email Server”, New York Times]. “The last deposition is set for June 29 — less than a month before the start of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.”
Stats Watch
Jobless Claims, week of May 14, 2016: “Initial jobless claims are down a sharp 16,000 in the May 14 week to 278,000 but the 4-week average is up sharply, 7,500 higher to 275,750” [Econoday]. “The May 14 week is the sample week for the May employment report and comparisons with the sample week of the April employment report point to easing strength in the labor market.” Verizon strike could be a “hidden wildcard”?
Chicago Fed National Activity Index, Aprl 2016: “The economy grew at a slightly higher than average pace in April” [Econoday]. :”April was definitely a good month for the economy, justifying the FOMC’s outlook for improvement in second-quarter growth following an unusually soft first quarter.” But: “The economy’s growth declined based on the Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) 3 month moving (3MA) average – and remains well below the historical trend rate of growth (but still above levels associated with recessions)” [Econintersect]. And: ” Up this month but it’s volatile month to month so best to look at the 3 month average which went more negative” [Mosler Economics].
Philadelphia Fed Business Outlook Survey, May 2016: ” After popping higher in March the Philly Fed index has been dead flat since, at minus 1.6 in April and now minus 1.8 for May to point to slight contraction in the Mid-Atlantic manufacturing sector” [Econoday]. “But the bulk of this report is a disappointment and follows even greater weakness in Monday’s Empire State report. The factory sector continues to stumble along, not yet showing much benefit from the falling dollar, which boosts exports, nor the rebound in oil prices which should eventually boost energy spending.” And: “The new orders, shipments, and employment gauges were all slightly negative, within a few points of zero, consistent with my view that the manufacturing sector is largely dragging along the bottom” [Amherst Pierpont Securities, Across the Curve]. And: “Back into contraction after a blip up in April” [Mosler Economics]. But: “A very noisy index” and sentiment-based [Econintersect].
Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, May 15, 2016: “bounced sharply back from two weeks of weakness” [Econoday]. “till, the index is running about 1/2 point lower over the last month which is not a positive indication for the consumer spending and employment outlooks. ”
Shipping: “Total carloads for the week fell 11.4 percent” [Progressive Railroading]. “Among commodity groups, coal — down 30.8 percent to 64,800 carloads —led the pack of those that declined. Other commodities that logged decreases were petroleum and petroleum products, down 19 percent to 11,727 carloads; and grain, down 8.5 percent to 18,373 carloads” (note that Econintersect’s rail methodology backs out grain and coal).
Leading Indicators, April 2016: “The index of leading economic indicators shot up 0.6 percent to confirm that April was a solid month for economic data” [Econoday]. “This is the first gain for this index, which has been very flat, since November.”
Shipping: “3D printing supply chains are edging ever closer to the mainstream after UPS announced it would connect a network of printers across the US with its delivery network and an online order platform” [Air Cargo News]. “The express firm said the type of companies that will benefit from the network are manufacturers wanting to reduce inventory of parts that take time to be shipped, manufacturers with short production runs where the cost to create the mould or tooling is too much, manufacturers of custom/semi-custom goods, designers that want to quickly develop a prototype and entrepreneurs that don’t have access to 3D printers.”
“Chinese overseas investments have been growing by about 30% a year for the past decade but jumped abruptly in the last 6 months as jitters about a volatile domestic stock market as well as China’s slowing growth made overseas acquisitions very attractive” [Forbes]. “As Chinese companies ramp up their overseas investments, they are also targeting a larger variety of sectors. Real estate, financial services, technology are among the most popular sectors… Notably, the increasing number of greenfield projects by Chinese buyers is increasing. Though mergers & acquisitions remain the most common way for Chinese companies to enter the U.S. market, greenfield projects are becoming more common as companies mature and gain confidence.”
Concentration: “Takeover deal, which could be valued at $42 billion, would create world’s largest seed-and-pesticide company” [Wall Street Journal, “Bayer Proposes to Acquire Monsanto”].
The Fed: “The central message of the minutes was that financial market participants were too complacent in their expectations that the Fed would stand pat in June. The Fed clearly made no such decision in April. Instead, meeting participants hotly debated the likelihood that a rate hike would be appropriate in June” [Tim Duy’s Fed Watch].
The Bezzle: “Goldman Sachs’ tangled relationship with Tesla draws fire” [MarketWatch]. “Tesla Motors Inc. announced late Wednesday that Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is one of the lead book runners on the electric-car maker’s $2 billion secondary offering of shares. That news arrived just hours after Goldman analysts upgraded the stock to buy, predicting….”
“Zombie foreclosures — properties in the foreclosure process that have been left vacant — are down 30% in as of mid-May compared to the same period a year ago, data provider RealtyTrac reported Thursday” [MarketWatch]. “There are 19,187 such “zombies” now, representing 4.7% of all properties in foreclosure, and mostly concentrated in states that require court approval for the foreclosure, known as judicial states. Those with the most zombies are all judicial states.”
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 47, Neutral (previous close: 54, Neutral) [CNN]. One week ago: 61 (Greed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated May 19 at 12:00pm. Big drop. And I think I’m getting the fear…
Our Famously Free Press
“MacArthur Foundation’s $25M Big Bet on Nonprofit Journalism” [Nonprofit Quarterly].
Health Care
“The Neoliberal Model Comes Home to Roost in the United States—If We Let It” [Monthly Review]. A superb, must-read article on ObamaCare.
Gaia
“Portugal kept its lights on with renewable energy alone for four consecutive days last week in a clean energy milestone revealed by data analysis of national energy network figures” [Guardian].
The Jackpot
“Retrotopia: A Distant Scent of Blood” [The Archruid Report]. This terrific series resumes.
Class Warfare
I seem not to have any class warfare links, odd for a Thursday. Readers?
News of the Wired
“Going dark: online privacy and anonymity for normal people” [Troy Hunt]. Interesting tips!
“Federal Judge Says Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine A Perfectly Legitimate Source Of Evidence” [Tech Dirt]. “It’s nice to know that what many of us have considered an independently-verifiable source of evidence is also acceptable in federal courts. It’s more than just a handy way to preserve idiotic statements and potentially-illegal customer service policies. It’s also a resource for litigants who might find their opponents performing digital cleanups after a visit from a process server.”
“Skin In the Game” [Nassim Nicholas Taleb]. Selected chapters for review. See “The Skin of Others in your Game,” with “How to be a Whistleblower.”
“Is this the end of sex?” [New Statesman]. “Thanks to advances in reproductive and genetic technologies, [Henry Greely] predicts that PGD [pre-implantation genetic diagnosis] will become the standard method of conception in a matter of several decades. (Recreational sex might nonetheless persist.)”
“Former college football players at Penn State, Auburn, Georgia, Oregon, Utah and Vanderbilt are suing the NCAA, their former conference and — in some instances — their former school over how their concussions were treated” [CBS].
I don’t know what this means, but…
Ben Vida’s “Speech Acts” https://t.co/Uim3KJZrZD pic.twitter.com/w4dPTK5KNa
— The Paris Review (@parisreview) May 19, 2016
“These are just a few of the many words in English that have two or more meanings that stem from a single historical root. Here are a couple more connections for your consideration. What word links a hot broth with a supply of goods for sale? How about a candle and a gradual narrowing? Or courage and a sharp tug? And, lastly, what is the connection between a swathe of cloth, an arrogant gait, and a heavy sack of loot?” [Oxford Dictionaries].
Readers, feel free to contact me with (a) links, and even better (b) sources I should curate regularly, and (c) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi are deemed to be honorary plants! See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. And here’s today’s plant (Portia):
This picture says a lot…
Readers, Water Cooler will not exist without your regular support. Your tip will be welcome today, and indeed any day. If you enjoy what you’re reading, please click the hat!
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re NY Primary shenanigans
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Hillary-Clinton–Rep-Nit-by-Netra-Halperin-Clinton-Cash_Clinton-Foundation_Hillary-2016_Hillary-Backs-Down-On-Iraq-160518-950.html
118 West 76th Street, sold by a Republican on the Board of Elections, bought by the daughter of a Democrat.
The Republican was suspended for the ballot purge of 100K (?) Brooklyn Democrats, the Democrat is a Clinton superdelegate.
Seems a little cozy.
In true NY fashion, Goldman could profit from both sides of an asset parking transaction via finder and other fees, including provision of funds to the “buyer”. That could be a fashionable new type of repurchase agreement.
What is the over/under on the resale/return of the house after the convention?
How many other BOE folks picked up some Memorial Day cash using similar tactics?
I am not following this. What exactly is the chart supposed to be saying?
Nita Lowey’s daughter, an apparently competent developer, overpaid for a dilapidated brownstone owned by the chair of the Brooklyn board of elections, in apparent exchange for the latter looking the other way as D functionaries purged Sanders’ supporters from election rolls in Brooklyn. In addition, Lowey’s daughter got mortgages for the property in excess of the already exorbitant purchase price, for not obvious reasons. Speculation: perhaps HRC or cronies helped with mortgage or are in fact paying off mortgage, so that Lowey’s daughter is not really on the hook. Nita Lowey is a D congresswoman and close Clinton ally.
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/118-W-76th-St-New-York-NY-10023/2113210349_zpid/
118 W 76th St,
New York, NY 10023
12 beds 9 baths 2,043 sqft
FOR SALE
$18,000,000
Zestimate®: $7,104,349
Est. Mortgage: $64,486/mo
“All new south facing state of the art renovation, sun flooded, 20 ft. wide 5 story townhouse plus penthouse plus fully excavated 9.5 ft. ceiling cellar, 6 bedrooms plus maids room, 7 full baths, plus 3 powder rooms, elevator that services cellar to penthouse, 11 zone CAC, gym, temp controlled wine cellar, state of the art ELAN controlled smart house operating lighting, music, heating, cooling and security, 2 laundry areas, 4 outdoor spaces including a south facing garden, 2 terraces and 2 roof… More
FACTS
Baths: 7 full, 2 half
Lot: 5,018 sqft
Single Family
Built in 1910
9 days on Zillow
Cooling: Central
Price/sqft: $8,811
MLS #: 1340265
Wow, and Bernie made less in a whole year than Hillary’s average speaking fee.
‘the airborne seating meme manufactured in Vegas’
… and inspired by Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Seating. :-0
I think the chair-throwing “incident” was meant to be a Dean scream or Muskie cried moment. Didn’t work.
Anyone got any substantive evidence of any chair throwing? Or Chaos!? I’ve looked around, not exhaustively since there is so much dreck, but I don’t see anything of the sort. One of many posts that claim to have the “video,” has this, which is bupkis and misrepresentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rArpYQOr8hE
As to it “not working,” the commentosphere “weight of the evidence” would indicate otherwise. So too the MSM and even a lot of the “alternative media” outlets.
So far, I haven’t found anything substantive, but when I suggested this on a different blog yesterday, I was duly adjured that I was totally “supporting violence.” I keep hearing it said on the media, so it MUST BE TRUE!!
This from so-called leftists, who point out how biased Fox is, but I guess NPR isn’t? even though NPR employs Fox “noozcasters”??
People believe what they want to believe.
There was a guy who lifted a chair, and then someone came by and set it down. There was lots of booing. I think that’s about it.
You’d think if you were going to cheat that you wouldn’t want to draw attention to it.
The DNC must be borrowing Bush’s strategery.
What word links a hot broth with a supply of goods for sale? How about a candle and a gradual narrowing? Or courage and a sharp tug? And, lastly, what is the connection between a swathe of cloth, an arrogant gait, and a heavy sack of loot?”
I’m going “soup” and “soupcon” for the first. “Taper”‘ for the second. I don’t about courage and sharp tug. Yank? The swathe of cloth is probably “bolt”, “strut”, “boodle”? I have no idea.
I think: stock, taper, pluck and swag.
First one is “stock.” Second is “taper.” Third is “pluck” (had to look that one up). Last one is “swag/swagger”. I will leave the derivations up to those with a bit more time. ;-)
Also interesting how the connotations of broadly single meanings shift according to the sentence or example. I defer with admiration to Misanthrope and Elizabeth; just saw this now and immediately saw ‘taper’ and ‘swag’ but ‘stock’ passed me by because of associating it with the solid flavouring that goes into the water to make broth (‘stock cube’ etc), and it didn’t occur to me to think of a small hand movement like a ‘pluck’ as a ‘tug’, which evoked a rope, maybe with a small boat on the end (no, not a ‘tugboat’). My memory lapses are of no interest at all, but I’m curious as to whether the differences are geo-historical (is a tug more like a pluck in North America than in NZ/Babel of London? Do others who are younger or even older, somewhere or everywhere call the broth the stock?) or purely personal/momentary/trivial.
re “Bayer Proposes to Acquire Monsanto”
Why does this seem to me a match made in Hell?
Maybe it’s because one of Bayer’s former chairmen was convicted of mass murder?
But hey, let’s look forward shall we.
I G Farben isn’t alone in Holocaust related evilness. Check out IBMs’ part, through their German subsidiary, in making the efficiency of the “Final Solution” feasible. Figures for the liquidation of “undesirables” were available to the New York headquarters of IBM in nearly real time. As the war wound down, special units attached to the U.S.Army secured and protected IBM ‘assets’ in Germany, mainly the hardware and specialists who ran things.
See: http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/documents/pdf/HistoryofIBMDataProcessing.pdf
The best source I find is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust
Operation Paperclip
Ford werke built trucks for the Germans up until the end of the war. And Prescott Bush (father and grandfather to POTUS 41 & 43) had his assets frozen and seized for trading with the enemy.
But what do I know, I’m just a little prole with no Ivy league credentials. I should just trust my betters.
By all means, go ahead, coronate another .01%er Oligarch to be President. Worked great so far.
It has been some years since I read it but “IBM
and the Holocaust” (Edwin Black) is riveting. The beginning of the book tells the story of the author’s father who was among the American soldiers liberating a Nazi concentration camp. He was walking past a pit of naked, dead victim’s bodies
when he saw a hand move. He pulled on the hand,- and a woman emerged. She would become the author’s mother.
This is a meticulously researched (and foot noted) indictment of IBM, and by extension, the entire corporate machine spanning continents which is still allowed to run amok. They used punch cards, (remember hanging chad?) to catalogue and pin point the location to the exact address of the members of the groups they wanted to eliminate.
IBM made this precision possible.
Nearly all German corporations/large companies (they funded the parties rise) were complicit with the Nazi war and Holocaust machine and received the benefits of free (to them) slave Labor (reminds me of the US prison Labor system) and the seizure of capital assets in conquered countries.
What happened to them and their leaders. Not much, some were broken up (IG farben) some leaders spent a short stint in prison (alfried Krupp) but nearly all of the largest were allowed to immediately or eventually (Krupp) go on their merry way, so we could “stop communism”.
So the very people that funded and were integral to the Nazi party having the funds and ability to rise and benefited most, were slightly scolded at most.
Being and oligarch or a faceless Corporation certainly has it’s benefits, especially if there are any “scary” communists (or terrorists) around.
‘Is this the end of sex?’ [New Statesman]
……gee…who knew that the film ‘GATTACA’ was an instruction manual……
The only people who are going to be able to afford the designer babies are the ones already buying them-the Kim Kardashians and Chrissy Tiegens.
The idea that in a couple of decades that the same people who can’t even afford lifesaving medical care now are going to be paying the geneticists to design their babies is a bit laughable to me.
Is this the end of sex…hmmm…doubt henry greely has kissed too many pretty girls along the way to be giving an opinion on what women are going to want to do with their bodies…or have any idea about the thought process women go through today…but stanford needs the press and publicity…
Oh…never mind…just listened to parts of two videos…
MacArthur foundation funding some neo-eugenix guy…
people born with bad brains that need to be cured…
bad brains…the new triple speak for neo-eugenic bad genes….
Bad Brains also & definitively = this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILiCh5PrcDE
Ugghhhh. Did anyone see the CNN interview with HRC? Clinton to Sanders supporters: Get over it, it’s over. I will be the nominee so get in line. She also talked of how she fell in line for Obama but what most don’t know is what motivated her to fall in line was an offer to become Secratary of State!! I don’t think she is offering Bernie a damn thing. I have got to get away from the boob tube and the Internet.
Got a link? Ideally with a transcript? Thank you!
You don’t watch TV? How can you keep up with the day to day experience of the rest of the population not on Facebook or Tweets or Instantcoffeegram? I put in plenty of face to face time TV watching. Face to boob tube or flat screen or whatever! It’s how I keep my edge.
I can’t watch TV and remain sane. If something important happens, a clip will appear on the twitter.
If you don’t watch TV, how do you know what you’re supposed to buy?
Turn off your TV blocker, or no more content for you!
Case closed! Prevailing ‘logic’ described in its full self-devouring circle. (By J.H. I mean, not that I see any slouches around here). The forthcoming, multi-volume History of the Begged Question would seem to have found its epigraph.
I purposefully avoid all network/broadcast TV because of ads. I cannot understand how that is such a lucrative industry. Does talking down to people really work that well?
you can add AM radio to the list as well….all ads all the time!!
LOL. So true. But now I’ll NEVER suffer from opioid-induced constipation or painful sex during menopause.
Ask your doctor…
wait it’s possible to do twitter and stay sane? That is news.
It’s not easy.
How in the world can someone know what reality is, if not by watching the TV, and concluding the exact opposite???????????
I find it is important to check in with the Establishment narrative periodically to understand how to refute their propagandizing of low-info TV-only voters (which currently skew almost 100% as 50y/o-and-over (average age of cable news is 65+ IIRC).
I talk to my parents (70s), their friends (60s, 70s, 80s), and I’ve got facts to easily refute their assigned talking points from Limbaugh, Fox, MSNBS, NPR, etc. Their responses usually range from “Wow I have hope for the country if people in their 20s & 30s are so engaged” to “Are you a wizard?”
No, mom & dad, I just have a better bullshit filter than you do.
P.S. Reading NakedCapitalism has served me better than my years at university. My schooling always did get in the way of my education. Thanks Yves & Lambert, Gaius Publius, & all contributors from within and without.
Oh, and one of the best comment sections on the internet. The day hasn’t begun until I have my Morning Links.
what is t v…..?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pUvGA5oAZXc
No transcript. I will look and see if I can locate.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pUvGA5oAZXc
I can’t find a transcript, so relying on CNN’s paraphrase:
Everybody over the age of six knows that Obama was “grateful” for Clinton’s support in 2008, and he expressed his support in very tangible ways: The offer to Clinton of the Secretary of State position, and supporting Clinton in 2016. (Note that the policy differences between Obama and Clinton were not insignificant, but were marginal. The policy differences between Clinton and Sanders are much greater, making a deal harder to reach.)
In other words, there was a deal. What deal is Clinton offering Sanders?
I love how she says she and Bernie are following the same rules just like she and Obama did only she has 3 million more votes than Sanders. Uh, I would argue the point that her and Bernie have followed the same rules!! Isn’t this the whole point of NV? That the same rules don’t apply because voting shenanigans, election fraud with pre-programmed vote counters, rules being changed last minute ….the list goes on and on.
Sanders supporters are also not like Clinton supporters. She may have been willing to take the “deal”, and her supporters may have been willing to fall in line because they like being told what to do, and hey, he was still another corporate Democrat anyway, so no bigs, but that’s not the situation this time.
Even if Sanders is offered a deal he is willing to take (and I think that’s a fairly big “if”) his supporters are not likely to fall in line just because he tells them to. Most of the people I see online who claim to be Bernie supporters but say they will vote for Clint0n if she is the nominee use language or tactics suggestive of trolls, not of actual Sanders voters. The “typical” Sanders voter (to the extent there is one) does not react well to the “shut up and do as you’re told” approach. They are issues voters, not party voters (many only joined the Democratic party-if they ever joined at all- in order to be able to vote in the primaries), and appeals to “party unity” will not sway them. Nor will the “lesser evil” argument, since Clinton has demonstrated a tremendous capacity for evil in her decades in the public eye. Comparisons between 2008 and 2016 simply aren’t valid.
“issues voters, not party voters”
Hopefully.
It’s also relevant that it is always going to be easier to get authoritarian followers to back a a change agent if their leader says to than it would be to do the reverse.
I know Obama wasn’t ACTUALLY a change agent. But a very sizable majority of his voters thought he would be. The fact that he positioned himself as a soft, cuddly non-boat rocking change agent made it all even easier. (Yes, I do feel like an idiot now having volunteered for him, why do you ask? But until very recently, even after I realized I had been deceived by him, I still thought, “Well, at least he kept Hillary Clinton out of office.”)
But I am pretty sure that most Sanders voters are not the “either’s fine” types. I know there was polling at the beginning of the race indicating there were a lot of Sanders voters who would also be fine with Clinton. But I haven’t seen reliable recent polling on the issue (I think that CBS poll is off because of sampling errors), and I think Clinton campaign tactics and messaging have hardened more Sanders’ voters distaste for her. Some people who have voted for Sanders will certainly “return” to Clinton, especially older Democratic voters. But no matter what Bernie says or doesn’t say, does or doesn’t do, this isn’t going to be like 2008. Even if Hillary campaigned on every single one of his policies, it wouldn’t get everybody, because distrust of her is so high. Because she’s demonstrably, on video, such an incredible liar.
He gets all the responsibility and work, she gets the prize. Obviously.
Didn’t Obama also give Hillary some help paying off her campaign debt from 2008?
He did, thanks for reminding me.
I found a transcript. In relevant part:
So, no voice for Sanders and Sanders supporters. Loyalty or exit.
UPDATE Hillary Clinton sent a very clear message to Bernie Sanders today: Enough is enough Chris Ciliza, WaPo
In my experience, “I take him at his word” is irony; I don’t think Clinton takes Sanders at his word at all.
It would be fun if Sanders worked to defeat Trump by helping down-ticket Democrats — harmed by Clinton’s Victory Fund — and especially down-ticket Democrats the DCCC and DSCC are trying to destroy.
Did some Japanese science/tech corp. build a life-like robot in the image of H. Clinton, adding a kind of hybrid Dem/Repub speachifying algorithm, ……to try to pull the faux wool over the realists eyes??
Disney Animatronics have the competition beat, beginning with their Reagan Robot from 1981 and on.
‘Insiders’ say that Misses Abden and Mills are really repair techs for the Hillary Dissimilation Unit. Nothing sinister going on at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFQG0Bfqaoo
http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/05/19/hillary-clinton-full-interview-part-2-cuomo.cnn
“Get over it – it’s over – get in line” is apparently the new talking point; it is not one that signals a willingness to acknowledge the platform of her opponent, much less offer him a prominent role of any kind in the campaign or any future administration. The last thing she – and her Dem establishment cronies – wants is to crack open the door to the kingdom and let any of the great unwashed in to ruin the ambiance.
What’s sad is that the planning that seems to be going into the political equivalent of pest control seems to be at the expense of grasping just how poorly Clinton’s fortunes are beginning to look in a Clinton v. Trump contest. They still seem to believe that winning the nomination makes winning the WH a slam dunk – and it’s far from being so.
The current Democratic power structure seems genetically unable to see the forest for the trees, but then their hold on power is under threat and that just will not stand. They really do not believe Clinton can or will lose, so cannot and will not game plan for any scenario that even acknowledges that’s a possibility, even it it would work to head off a loss.
It would be nice if the only consequences of losing would inure to the detriment of Clinton and her establishment cabal, but we all know that those people will land on their expensively-clad feet; most of us would survive a Trump presidency, but there are so many people who are just barely hanging on who are going to tumble into the abyss – and that’s the part that just frosts my cupcakes.
Many Hillary supporters in Washington are terrified for this reason. If Hillary can’t win, what good is a Clinton acolyte? Bill and Hill won’t go broke, but what is a Marcotte going to do? Or everyone who bought a house they can’t afford for appearances expecting to work forever. If Hillary loses again, the Clinton brain trust won’t look too good. Corporate board jobs don’t go to losers.
The Clinton Global Slush Fund won’t get another cent going forward.
Sanders and Trump have demonstrated that the underling class of the political structure has no real value, especially going forward.
It took only ten years to go from ‘Impeachment’s OFF the table’…….to ‘Get over it”…….
A moral descent of epic proportions—————————————–
That’s exactly the point, there is nothing to offer Sen. Sanders, less some ridiculous token of appreciation, but she owes so much at this point given the support she’s been able to acquire, there is nothing of subsatnce to share – in a policy sense – that would be equitable in trade for Sen. Sanders lending his endorsement.
BIngo, If Hillary’s platform was a grocery store of goods, she’d be sold out.
I keep thinking about those Hilbot PUMAs (Party Unity My Ass), some of whom vowed they didn’t vote for Obama. Sure Barry Zero made an offer to Hilbot that she couldn’t refuse, and Clinton did pull many of her fans over to vote for Obama. Those voters probably would’ve voted for Obama anyway.
Now Clinton’s in the catbird seat, and she conveniently forgets her PUMA pals, all of whom are busily out there dissing the so-called dismissively name “BernieBros” for not “getting in line NOW.”
Hypocrite much?
The past few days I’ve made what I felt to be some pretty low key comments that highlighted some issues around the tactics of dissing Sanders. Frankly, I’m not totally sure whom I’m voting for. But I’ve been barraged with name calling posts back (not here; elsewhere). I’ve been told to stop thinking I’m a “special snowflake,” to “grow up,” and similar. And someone pretty much digitally shouted at me for “supporting violence.”
Nice. Those kinds of comments really make me feel all warm and cozy about voting for Clinton. Seems more like what we associate with Trump voters. I keep thinking along the lines of: the fish is rotten from the head down.
I’ve been receiving the same responses.
“Put on ur big boy pants”
“Former Ron Paul Supporter”
Fuck Off
Idiot
Moron
Misogynistic Violent Racist
Oh and “grow up”
wow…the violence………
Sometimes you have to break a few omelettes to make an egg, as G. W. Bush might say. :)
Good point. I’m going to start throwing “PUMA” at people like that.
Funny. I got the “special snowflake,” too. I didn’t know it was a meme!
Odds that Correct the Record told their paid trolls to use that term?
i’ve seen the “special snowflake” phrase used in reply to sanders supporters at the guardian. so far i’m not one, but i live in hope.
I was a PUMA. and no I did not vote for Obama even as Clinton threw her lot in with Obama.
I would bet I’m not the only Sanders supporter who was a Clinton supporter in 2008 either.
I think you are underestimating how many people choose Clinton in 2008 because they felt she was better on issues and some of them are NOW BernieBros. So not all PUMAs are dissing BernieBros. Some of them actually ARE BernieBros.
Why?
He’s the better candidate with the better ideas. If you are an “issues oriented” voter than that matters. Additionally it still annoys me that Clinton chose not to fight for her voters and instead chose a deal for herself. It essentially showed me exactly how important she felt the voters are and how much she was willing to fight for them. Hint: not at all.
Side note: Did Clinton get some face work done? She looks incredibly chiseled and smooth in comparison to other times I have seen her. Or maybe I am just crazy.
Possible. Public figures often do. it’s the way things are. I don’t blame anyone for getting plastic surgery, if they are in the public eye. but I have no idea vis Clinton.
Plenty of makeup and soft lighting. Hillary looks her best on a network set-piece, on the road not so much.
Hillary’s a pragmatist. She decided, “if we can’t beat him, join him.” See for yourself:
Gotta look one’s best for the deposition…
she just ate a newborn……
…..Hillbot…..
Soylent Verde es gente!
“I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.”
Class Warfare
A Nation of Housing Haves and Have-Nots
http://www.oftwominds.com/blogmay16/haves-housing5-16.html?fullweb=1
Are Property Taxes a “Wealth Tax” on the (Mostly) Non-Wealthy?
http://www.oftwominds.com/blogmay16/property-taxes5-16.html
Class Warfare, Part Two
Two-thirds of US would struggle to cover $1,000 crisis [AP]
Surely there must be a fintech solution.
That’s why very few can afford to see the bubbles that are around us burst.
You have to be very courageous to say 236% or 266% duty on some steel imports is long over due and extend that to other dumping items, maybe instant noodles, that people actually need to survive.
Or to turn away foreign looter-investors who are fleeing and injecting money into your neighborhood.
I think the real issue isn’t so much about being able to come up with $1000 as it is the reasons why: the lower and working classes never had that much to begin with, any increase was swiped by the upper class. And the upper class is in a Deathrace 2000 to out do each other, keeping up with the Joneses via corporate methods.
I have known personally some of those types; they tend to be all about winning at all costs, and then act all surprised when the game is ruined for everyone else. Generally they call it “sour grapes” instead of considering their own behavior.
A Twitter war erupts between Venezuelan president Maduro and Luis Almagro, head of the OAS (Organization of American States):
Twitter — making flame wars into global entertainment.
Did Mr. Almagro say there was or there was not a state of emergency?
In your judicious opinion, is “it” “screaming” or already hoarse? AND is there a correlation with “Think fifty dollah …”?
Apparently Mr. Almagro has been told that he does not have the capacity to help and is not authorized to interpose in their internal affairs.
http://www.telesurtv.net/news/Rechazan-nueva-injerencia-de-Luis-Almagro-contra-Venezuela-20160510-0050.html
Others were less cordial, referring to him as empires b*tch:
http://www.telesurtv.net/news/Canciller-venezolana-Almagro-solo-repite-libretos-de-sus-amos-20160518-0053.html
A rising crude price helps Venezuela. But it’s probably too late to save Maduro.
A recall petition probably has enough support to succeed, unless Maduro thwarts it (also likely).
If that occurs, it’ll be a preview of Philly 2016 in Caracas, with more than chairs being thrown.
For another perspective on the Venezuelan opposition’s attempt to recall Maduro, see this recent article on venezuelanalysis.com
Their reporting is more in-depth than MSM reports.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”
The “pivot” may have been to Asia, but the full-court press seems to be in the “backyard” and soon in the “homecourt”.
Can’t remember who said-“if it can be weaponized, it already has been.”
The idea of soft-power is certainly showing it’s cracks in the facade.
Commandment XI – Thou shalt not snub a Boeing contract
Commandment XII – Holdout creditors wilst be made whole on demand.
Call me crazy, I still think she’s going to lose…yes, blow up your tv., better to recycle it probably, they’ll need the components for the robots
oops that was a reply to august at 2:23
“The model estimated that TPP would have positive effects, albeit small as a percentage of the overall size of the U.S economy.”
Gee, I wonder what value was attached to sovereignty.
Never mind the particulars, just positive effects —- how many people will have to suffer to benefit the majority (if in fact it is so)?
And what about the model? One can set up a model to conclude that without the Roman Catholic church, there would not have been a masterpiece like the Sistine Chapel…therefore, the church has been a good thing (not that it has not been). It all depends on what is ‘positive’ for you.
uhhh…..umm…-10,000 ……..??
Re “Although it’s handy to be able to cross off any pundit who retails it.”
For years to come, this primary will be a very helpful way of vetting journalists. If you read something that sounds fishy, just google the name of the author and Sanders and see if they were on Team Hillary and you’ll know whether or not you should even bother to continue reading. Thanks, pseudo-journalists!
+++++
That’s what I’ve been doing and advising facebook friends to do when they ask ‘how do you find all this stuff? what journalists/outlets can you trust anyway?” , as so many even conservative high school friends from 30 years are even veering ‘left’ a bit…I just say, look up the writer and see what they said about the Iraq invasion, or, if in 2007 they said things ‘were fine’ , or supported overthrow in Libya…supported Obama’s speeches and ignored his real actions…etc etc.
hey, how about here on nc we put together a list? for immediate use? and the outlets that publish them. we could even ask yves and lambert to set aside a special press section in links and water cooler just for them.
+^n
Allow me, if I may be so bold:
Pro-Sanders:
Democracy Now
Truthdig
Salon (mostly)
Hamilton Nola @ Gawker
Vice
The Intercept
Naked Capitalism :)
Counterpunch
Truthout
Alternet
Raw story
Pro Clinton
MSNBC
Cnn
NYT
Balloon Juice
Daily Kos
Talking Points Memo
Slate (mostly)
the guardian
Vox
Huffington Post
We need to come up with some sort of acronym as well.
I kind of like the phrase “Dead-Enders” cuz it sounds like “Death Eaters”!
Pro Clinton
Washington Post (absolutely against Bernie)
Mother Jones
The Daily Beast
Jezebel
Time Magazine
New Yorker magazine
Newsweek
Rolling Stone (except Matt Taibbi)
…and on and on
The first week of May, when when pro-Clinton media was aghast at Jane Sanders, for saying that she didn’t think Krugman’s critical thinking was the best, I remember some Sanders supporters on twitter brainstorming a list of economists they felt they could trust. I am familiar with (trust) most of the first half of the list:
@DeanBaker13,
@WilliamKBlac,
Jamie Gailbraith,
@PikettyLeMonde,
@StephanieKelton,
Simon Johnson,
economists at CEPR and EPI,
Nancy Folbre,
Mark Thoma,
the UMass kid who caught the spreadsheet error,
Joseph Stigliz,
Michael Hudson,
@MarkWeisbrot,
@BrankoMilan,
@yanisvaroufakis,
@JeffDsachs,
@UKLabour
Ha-Joon Chang,
@ptcherneve,
@Econ_Marshall,
@JWMason1,
@arindube,
Uwe Bott,
Bob Pillin,
Jerry Epstein,
Laura Carvalho,
Lance Taylor,
Duncan Foley,
Peter Dorman,
Michael Reich,
Suresh Naidu,
@PERIatUMass (James Boyce, Gerald Epstein, Bob Pollin)
@UMassEcon,
@urpe1968,
@shaikhecon,
@wbmosler,
Amartya Sen,
Ann Arbor Fabio,
@ProfSteveKeen,
This is so messed up! My entire worldview of liberals and the Dem party collapsing in front of my eyes…I need a media cleanse for 6 months.
I’m doing exactly this. My bookmarks folder has needed culling for a while and now I’ve found the perfect mechanism. Balloon Juice – gone. America blog – gone, NYT-Kruggie – gone. etc.
Theranos is getting negative news today, but at least they still have the $$$ to hire a “Personal Assistant to the CEO” AND and “Executive Assistant to the CEO”.
https://theranos.com/careers/corporate/personal-assistant-to-the-ceo/palo-alto-ca
https://theranos.com/careers/corporate/executive-assistant-to-the-ceo/palo-alto-ca
It’s good to be queen, until it isn’t.
Re: Airborne seating meme. So who was the guy holding up the chair? A plant? Maybe he was supposed to throw the chair and that plan was the basis for the eventual story. This is politics my friends not bean bag.
I doubt there’s any way to tell other than to track down one of the people in the video and ask. He may have been about to throw it and was talked down by clearer heads. He may have been moving it and had to lift it over his head to get it over the heads of the people around him.
Of course, none of the media has attempted to do that. And Rolling Stone is “proving” all the people who sent texts and emails and voicemails were “Berniebros” by using the private phone numbers the Dems posted on the internet (because apparently they have a doxxing license) to call them. It apparently goes over their head that the narratives that follow prove zip, other than that people were watching, got pissed off, and did something they readily acknowledge was stupid. Well, except for the tech-kiddie, who is so totally clueless about how real relationships work and exhibits all the “I can do it, so I did” attitude we’ve all come to know and love.
Nah. If he had been a plant, he would have gone through with it. I’ve lifted some seating myself, back when I was young and foolish.
(Incidentally, it’s not clear to me what kind of traction all this gets beyond the Beltway. It could be that most voters have no problem with people yelling at politicians at all, and wish there were more of it.)
“It could be that most voters have no problem with people yelling at politicians at all, and wish there were more of it.”
Don’t know about “most voters” but I sure do. As a Boomer this carries a certain tinge of nostalgia.
Stick it to The Man!
I’m not for throwing chairs or anything else, but really, I have no problem with people yelling at politicians. It is obnoxious, but so what? Goes with the territory. My mother, may she RIP, was noted for yelling at pols when she had a chance. Sometimes over the top; sometimes merited.
I’ve read a number of hand wringing posts and comments about how horrid it was that someone yelled at – I guess it was Boxer? – and I was all, like: gee wish I’d been there. I would’ve yelled at her too!
Death threats? Not good. Chair throwing (IF it happened, which is questionable)? NO. Yelling at a politician? Yeah, why not? No big.
Im still not convinced the death threats are real. Or if they are I wonder if they were by Trump supporters.
Surely if there were actually death threats there would be accompanying reports to law enforcement, no?
I believe the threats were via Twitter but not sure. Supposedly they were “traced” back to Sanders supporters. It’s unclear to me how accurate that is. But that’s the rumor mill, and some Clintonistas are running with it.
Every fiber of my being tells me that any supposed death threats were generated by the Clinton camp or DWS (same thing) to make Bernie’s followers look bad, just like the “reports” of chairs being thrown.
Show me the proof of the flying chairs or indisputable evidence of any threats being traced back to Bernie supporters.
There obviously is none or it would have been exposed in a second by DWS.
I believe it all to be more (blatant) hogwash in continuing attempts to knock Bernie off the campaign trail. I think it only proves the Clinton camp (which includes DWS) is growing more concerned by Bernie’s support & going even further below the belt in their attempts to coronate the queen.
The way DWS went on & on about it convinces me, even more, that’s true.
HRC is SO hated, however, that I can very well see Trump winning if she gets the nomination.
Those who back Clinton are so blinded (by the sun gleaming off their bars of gold?), that they refuse to acknowledge the obvious. We the citizens are not happy.
It wasn’t all that long ago (hey, I’m a “senior” now), that JFK said, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
As much as DWS wants us to believe otherwise, it has yet to come to that & I hope it doesn’t.
But with the obvious crap going on this election year anything could happen (like a “President Trump”. Aackkkkk!).
And the DNC would have no one to blame but themselves, by expecting us to all fall in line behind them & HRC.
Bernie needs to be cloned & brought back at every election until they “get it”. It would help keep the new-found awareness alive.
Or by false-flag Clinton supporters, to fake a picture for the developing fake narrative.
I really enjoyed that one time some guy threw a shoe at GWB. I kinda wish people would throw shoes or old fruit or whatever at politicians more often.
If only there were a “safe harbor projectile” (pies? marshmellows?) that wouldn’t bring felony charges.
Ah yes. That was a good moment in history.
A repeat not recommended but sometimes one can dream…
I’m waiting for the flying rubbish ….
….rotten cabbages anyone ??…
..at least they’re a ‘soft’ throw :’)
Important point! I overheard some people the other day who were all jazzed up by the video they had seen– of people contemptuously throwing dollar bills at the HRC limo, en-route to the Clooney fundraiser.
We need more (non-violent of course!) open mockery, jeering, and taunting of our failed elites– and not just those running for office.
I assume that some of this is being pushed out to hold onto the supporters she has, to keep them from being pulled into the vortex of all the big, happy rallies, positive messaging about what government can do, etc. Bonus points for demonizing progressives to set the stage for justifying the violence sure to come in Philly, thinking (I believe wrongly) that this will drive moderate Republicans to her.
But I would not be shocked if the fundamental thing driving this is an intense desire to punish people who are “disobeying” her. I do think she’s a real, honest to God reactionary who enjoys hurting people she deems “beneath” her. She scares me.
Lest we forget the “City of Brotherly Love” was one where the police ended a standoff between themselves and 11 people (including children) living inside a commune by dropping a bomb on the house. This bomb started a fire that took out 65 homes. The case was finally settled (the police had to pay for the burned houses) in 1996.
Given that still very living memory and the nature of the Pennsylvania Democratic Machine I would not bet on a peaceful convention.
…the police had to pay for the burned houses…
You inadvertently fall into the same rhetorical misdirection the MSM deliberately use over and over w.r.to such stories, which I pointed out in yesterday’s links with my ‘take it out of the police pension fund’ comment — hint, ‘the police’ paid not a dime for the burned houses except insofar as they were city residents and taxpayers.
I find it telling that these stories do not mention Wyden who actually endorsed Sanders as a figure. One would think that if they were serious about reaching out to him they would use someone who has a relationship that is actually publicly acknowledged rather than someone who sat it out, supported his opponent, and then backed the “reject your extremists!” meme.
If, that is, they were actually serious.
As to the prospect of uniting with Sanders versus going for the moderate Republicans I would say that they have already committed to the latter path. Clinton has been actively raising money from moderate Rs for some time now and has publicly spurned everything Sanders has proposed. The only demonstrable point at which she committed to anything he has pushed for was when she grudgingly and entirely unhappily claimed not to hate the idea of a raise in the minimum wage if, that is, someone else did all the work to get it past the house.
They slammed the door on Sanders supporters a long time ago on the assumption that triangulation would work. Unless Trump melts down and actually eats a Mexican between now and election day they will find that a tough sell. My prediction is some tentative back door feelers that will fall because they can’t bring themselves to give a damn thing followed by a desperate grab at the end.
As in Harry Reid, the guy who is only in the Senate because the GOP pretty much revolted against Sharon Angle after she called for the return to a barter economy. 2010 featured candidates as John Runyan. Sharon Angle was the Ollie North and Harry Reid was the Chuck Robb of that election. The GOP in wave years managed to lose against the weakest candidates.
Jeff Merkley is the Senator supporting Bernie, not Ron “Mr. Nike” Wyden. Merkley opposes the TPP. Wyden is one of the fast trackers.
The Smithsonian article makes for amazing reading. To just quote two paragraphs:
I could see Bernie Sanders repeating Roosevelt’s words with relish. And I cannot imagine either Hillary Clinton or many of her surrogates such as Paul Krugman agreeing with Taft’s. Indeed Krugman said much the same thing in his last few blog posts.
Oops I meant that I cannot imagine either hillary Clinton or many of her surrogates disagreeing with Taft’s words.
My bad.
That’s the first time I’ve ever thought of a parallel between TR and Hipólito Yrigoyen. The rhetoric and the elite reactions are almost identical.
OK, you made me do it: Hipólito Yrigoyen.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Civilization – where those with the most stuff get yours too because…..socialism!
Common Dreams take on the TPP ITC report. http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/05/19/us-governments-own-report-shows-toxic-tpp-not-worth-passing
One should take a look at the “substance” of the TPP-TTIP proposed carve-outs for “excluding publice services from” the corporate takeover. First, I don’t find any substantive language, just a couple of ideas about “what’s wrong” and little sets of what might be excluded. And anyone who has ever played with lawyers, particularly where stakes are really high, and believes that if the “regime” of TTIP-TTP gets “legitimized” by getting the bought-and-paid-for legislatures and executives of what used to be called “nations” to sign on the dotted line, that somehow a few particles of language that attempt to make exclusions from the general corporate coup for ANYTHING that could “turn a profit,” is just off the beam.
Who will interpret and apply those “exclusions?” What “sovereignty” will stand up and fight, in what forum, to repel the large and small assaults that the corporatists will mount on any resistance to their “full-spectrum dominance?” The imposition of the new regime will be complete, and there is no way to “exclude” any of the stuff that the nice Powerpoints say can somehow be protected.
It may not be possible to avoid a complete corporate takeover of all governmental functions, patently or covertly. It’s largely accomplished already, by people a little more subtle than the Titans of Industry that tried to pull a coup on Roosevelt in 1934. The powers that be are persistent and patient… The rest of us are soft targets, taken as individuals or small groups.
uhhh…’publice’……wth JT ??
“public.” Does that scan better for you? I’ve looked again, and do not find any language that would serve to insulate all those sovereign government functions from the predations of our corporate overlords…
I wish someone would tell us where the figure of 308,000 Florida Democrats comes from. It’s plausible, and I’m not arguing against it, but it really appears as though Tim Wise made it up here:
http://www.timwise.org/2000/11/no-more-mister-fall-guy-why-ralph-nader-is-not-to-blame-for-president-bush/
What’s the evidence for that? What am I missing?
Later, Jim Hightower also published an article about the 308,000, and he gave credit to Tim Wise. But where did Time Wise get the number?
When discussing Florida in 2000, this should also be recalled:
Diebold Memos Disclose Florida 2000 E-Voting Fraud
The short version of the story is that Gore was leading then someone uploaded a duplicate memory card with results from an completed precinct that gave gore -16,022 votes as well as apportioning several thousand votes to Bush all from a single precinct with at most a thousand voters. This card passed all security sweeps and was uploaded in a secure area only accessible to select staff. The results were then “fixed” later back to their original totals but only after Gore had dropped out.
The sequence of events described, and backed up in the Diebold memos are ludicrously unlikely on their own suggesting that figures out of Florida should all be treated as suspect.
That said I also agree that the Democrats also did a lot to lose that election having chosen to run Al Gore and then to focus group him into a lightweight while declining to take Bush (or rather Rove) seriously.
and up to 90,000 black votes disallowed because their names resembled those of felons, though they were not felons.
Yes, Greg Palast has written a lot about that.
Nader wasn’t responsible for Gore’s loss in 2000. I just want to know what the evidence is for the 308,000 number.
I’m not sure if this answers your question:
I haven’t found the actual CNN exit polling that shows that 13% of registered Democrats voted for Bush but, if that is the case, that would be the source.
And several sites (including this one) refer to this:
but I am not able to check the actual Chronicle article (if there is one) to see where it got its figures.
Fantastic! One of your links directed me to this PDF file:
https://www.vrdc.cornell.edu/info4470/projects/~bap63/pdf/florida2000.pdf
My interpretation of this exit poll might be erroneous, but it looks like line 48 shows 753 declared Democrats, 580 declared Republicans, 320 independents, and 52 “something else”. The Democrats clearly outnumbered the Republicans, although the combination of independents and Republicans outnumbered the Democrats. Either the independents overwhelmingly chose Bush, or a significant fraction of the Democrats voted for Bush.
Thank you very much.
Even more than that, what about all the eligible voters, who didn’t vote? My guess is that the number is a heck of a lot higher than 308,000. All those votes sitting out there, if only there was some organization whose sole purpose is to get people to vote.
Jim Hightower, 306,000.
Yes, I’m aware of that article. He doesn’t provide data or calculations. He just cites Tim Wise, but Tim Wise doesn’t provide data or calculations, either. If either Jim Hightower or Tim Wise shows how 308,000 is derived, I can’t find where that is. I would love to read such a source.
Please note that I do not blame Nader at all for what happened in 2000, and I think it is almost certain that more Florida Democrats voted for Bush than for Nader. I just want to see some substantiation of the number 308,000.
Please see my reply on May 20, 2016 at 9:56 am, to Jeff W’s useful message.
I was going to sit this one out before the Vegas convention. Now I’m going to vote for Trump and actively participate in the effort to destroy the Democratic Party. Bernie is weak as hell and this isn’t about him anymore.
It’s not Bernie who is weak, it’s that media is strong and not supporting him. It’s that his supporters are not strong enough to figure out how to make him a winner. Bernie is very strong, has more integrity than any politician, proven by his track record over his lifetime.
None of this was ever about Bernie, it’s about issues and Bernie has been the only one strong enough to tell Wall St. and Corporate America to EFF OFF!
How many who could have supported Bernie decided to “sit this one out”?
If the millions of American citizens would decide to participate fully every single election NO MATTER WHAT (vote by mail makes this easy), we wouldn’t have this problem with politicians only representing the interests of Corporations, Wall St., 1%, etc.
I seem not to have any class warfare links, odd for a Thursday. Readers? — This story was linked yesterday but worth a reiteration IMO:
U.S. extends overtime pay to 4.2 million salaried workers | Reuters
More late-term legacy burnishing by Obama … Mish, predictably, hates the idea. Because out-of-control salaries for the bottom 50% are what is killing America!
Mish and his buddies have a knee-jerk Calvinist belief in the power of suffering to turn the economy around. Note that the only kind of suffering that works is that of the middle/working class. Rich people paying their own way or parting with some fraction of their loot, in Mish’s view, would immediately crater the economy.
He lists “Four Likely Consequences” of the overtime rule change, none of which is “More Pay”. According to Mish there can be absolutely no positive effect from expanding overtime eligibility. More pay for workers is actually less pay, somehow. So say the Austrian scriptures he quotes from daily.
He further quotes his own tweet: “It seems to me, wages would keep up with inflation. if there was no inflation”. I thought the lesson of the last 16 years was that wages don’t keep up with inflation. They have in fact decreased. If there were no inflation, wages would simply deflate even more. They would not magically stay the same. Yet this is presented as some sort of self-evident wisdom, instead of a moronic tautology contradicted by the facts.
I would find it amusing were someone to duck their head into his comment board and yell out the word “Government!” and watch the denizens scramble for their favorite right wing buzzwords
…plus a HUUUUUGE woodie for all things robotic….
Federal Judge Says Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine A Perfectly Legitimate Source Of Evidence
I know the attorneys that got the Wayback Machine evidence admitted in federal court very well. If there are any lawyers out there who want further information on the underlying matter and the arguments around admissibility of the evidence, let me know.
These are just a few of the many words in English that have two or more meanings that stem from a single historical root — another example I came across just today: freebooter and filibuster. [Over the past several years I’ve found myself using my Mac dictionary app more and more, one major reason being the ability to trace such interesting linkages, and moreover be able to do so in battery-life-conserving offline mode.
Who knows what the future may bring – but I like the fact that you are drawing a parallel between Teddy and Bernie. Makes me smile. Note also that while Obama seems free to deny habeus corpus and to murder Americans without any kind of open process, the SCOTUS yawns, but when Teddy tried to rein in the robber barons, they slapped him down. Kind of suggests that the wrong kinds of people tend to populate the bench.
I don’t think its the people on the bench that are the problem. I think its the way the Supreme Court is set up was always meant to be anti-democratic just like the Senate.
Class Warfare – http://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-slavery-idUSKCN0YA1GQ
“In what could be called failing upward, the job offers are finally rolling in for Marco Rubio… ”
Marco Rubio Is Preparing to Sell Out
The Florida senator has hired Bob Barnett to help plot his next move.
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/05/marco-rubio-bob-barnett?mbid=nl_CH_573e050b23b1de13454fa41d&CNDID=15621256&spMailingID=8947131&spUserID=MTA5MzMxMzEwOTE3S0&spJobID=921916978&spReportId=OTIxOTE2OTc4S0
Sanders voters being undercounted:
Thousands of presidential primary votes already cast are not being officially counted
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Thousands-of-presidential-by-Scott-Baker-Presidential-Campaign_Presidential-Campaign-Democratic_Presidential-Candidates_Presidential-Primary-Elections-160519-885.html
Debunking Hillary’s Specious Winning the Popular Vote Claim
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Hillary-and-Her-Surrogates-by-Rob-Kall-Hillary-Clinton_Popular-Vote_Surrogates-160511-219.html
Thanks for the links. The second one is particularly important since it shows that all the voters in the caucus states (won by Bernie, primarily) aren’t being individually counted in these phony numbers Hillary keeps referring to as her lead in total votes.
That’s a neat trick.
Perhaps caucuses are a deceit-based system and approach. Perhaps caucuses should be abolished by the citizens of every state where they exist.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/20/us/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-poll.html
[NYT/CBS News poll May 13 to 17]
Hills is seen as losing to him in the latest Rass and Fox polls
http://nypost.com/2016/05/19/another-poll-puts-trump-ahead-of-clinton/
Good luck DNC pulling her across the finish line without those independants you insisted shouldn’t be allowed to vote in your primaries.
Primaries. Primaries are paid for by state tax dollars. (Caucuses aren’t paid for by state tax dollars.) How do you have a primary paid for by tax dollars and exclude independents?
It’s a Depublicrat club … and you ain’t in it.
Just be glad independents don’t automatically get added to no fly lists (for now). :)
A lot of us Independents cannot afford to fly. Even flying “between the buttons” is expensive now. (I opt for the Seeker Fare on Shaman Air.)
Is this the part where I get to insult you by saying that you should know the rules and the dates that you need to be registered to a party you may not want to even be affiliated with or you don’t belong participating in a process that your tax dollars paid for?
(tongue in cheek because I’m not a Democrat and I honestly think everyone should get a say in who our Presidential candidates are.)
heh. pretty much. ;)
This is what is behind my argument that the left has a better chance of winning by taking over the D Party than by supplanting it. At both the state and federal levels, the gov’t defers much about our electoral politics to the two parties, who jointly scheme to screw over the voters.
It took the Progressive Party challenge to Republicans in the early 20th century to get Wisconsin to pass its very progressive voting laws (same-day registration, no party affiliations, open primaries). But because we have one-party R control now, they have been able to roll back some of this.
As Lambert says, “Two parties, one system.”
I would love it if someone more knowledgeable than me re: polling science looked at the sample details. My bias is that I believe Clinton is already weaker than that, and want her to be. But it did look funky to me in a couple of different ways. One I remember is that it seemed like the entire sample was significantly more affluent than the electorate.
re: our famously free press.
” My favorite includes the phrase “the full sense of moral leadership.” ”
That’s the modern version of a stuffed shirt.
Shorter liberal press: ‘we were willing to go slumming and report on the Sanders’ campaign for jollies and liberal cred, but now that it looks like his platform represents the views of a large number of voters, views which are *not* our “liberal™ ” views, (gawd forbid we miss a meal), we are now obliged by the machine to take Sanders down.’
The goldwater conspiracy…what if she never stopped being a republican…she loves dr strangelove from her days trying to get nelson rock the nomination in 1968 against nixon (who actually ended up losing the voter count to ronnie raygun in the primaries)…
has she ever worked on any hardcore democratic issues…
there are probably c.r.e.e.p. Alumns who might argue her work on watergate eventually opened the door for nelson to become vp…
it is my turn is not a reason to let her take the mantel…if she keeps this up she will lose to el donaldo and the democratic party may end up breaking up…
If sanders edges her out on actual voter delegates by california he should fight in philly…if he doesnt…
He should hold his own event and call it…
bernie 2018…the counter coup…
do as $hillary complains about…find ten senatorial seats and 25 house districts and gather a million hippies…old and new…maybe get cute and do it at old yasgurs farm…or somewhere in white lake or bethel…plenty of land around woodstock or across the river on the east side of the hudson to allow train access…
Too many things can go wrong in philly to expose the bernie or bust yunginz to the stalinist diktats of the current democratic party plutonomists…
If you dont pass her ex superdelegates, take your toys from the sandbox bernie and focus on 2018…
I wonder if her work on Watergate helped her learn how the Nixon coverup failed and helped her think through in very granular detail how to make a coverup succeed.
Trump: more fun than a barrel of monkeys.
Clinton: more trick than a bucket of Nixon.
This is getting to be like a soap opera. Trump is putting the finishing touches on a hostile takeover of the Republican Party while the Democrats hurtle headlong towards Chapter 11.
http://www.inquisitr.com/3107235/card-reader-issues-in-kentucky-push-hillary-clinton-ahead-of-bernie-sanders-pike-county-votes-erased/ any fact check on this?
That sounds about right (just skimmed). Votes held back, announced there was a mistake, Sanders votes wiped out, just enough to give her the “win” — I think that’s solid reporting.
The FBI convicted a bunch of Kentucky pols and Board of Election officials in 2009 for systematic election fraud which included voting machine rigging, going back YEARS. So, I think it’s reasonable to assume Grimes stolen Kentucky for her patron. Of course radio silence from the national media.
https://www.fbi.gov/louisville/press-releases/2010/lo032510.htm
WaPo:
`Aggressive’. `Divisive’. If they ever used those words to describe Clinton, or another female politician,
it would be pegged as sexist. But it’s apparently perfectly OK for the Bezos Neoliberal Daily to use them
to describe someone to the left of center-right.
USITC study: “The Commission used a dynamic computable general equilibrium model to determine the impact of TPP relative to a baseline projection that does not include TPP. … ”
Translation: ‘we assumed a can opener’. It works every time.