By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
A little behind today, after yesterday’s late night…
TPP/TTIP/TISA
“Business groups on both sides of the Atlantic have upped their lobbying for financial regulatory cooperation in TTIP by forming the Transatlantic Financial Regulatory Coherence Coalition. Right off the bat, the new coalition made clear that simply improving existing regulatory dialogues won’t satisfy them. It consists of 14 organizations from the U.S. and Europe, including the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, the European Services Forum and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce” [Politico].
“India Seeks To Renegotiate 47 Investment Treaties Because Of Their Corporate Sovereignty Clauses” [TechDirt].
“Local governments could be required to abandon buy-local requirements” [Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy].
2016
Policy
Lambert here: Clinton’s presumptive nomination comes with a number of key policy decisions that liberals must own “going forwards,” as we say:
1. Corruption. To protect Clinton, liberals have adopted the majority doctrine in Ctizens United: Only a quid pro quo is proof of corruption.
2. Transparency. To protect Clinton, liberals maintain that high government officials can, at will, privatize their communications to shield them from FOIA.
3. Militarism. To protect Clinton, liberals minimize her AUMF vote, ignore Libya, ignore Honduras, ignore Ukraine, and treat unwavering support for Israel as an unqualified good.
4. Health. To protect Clinton, liberals reject Medicare for All.
5. Working Class. To protect Clinton, liberals deny that there is or can be a working class electorate. The electorate is only to be viewed through the prism of identity politics. Two category errors follow: The “white working class” is deemed to be racist, by definition, and the non-white working class is erased. Consequently, it’s impossible to think through the universal effects of the FIRE sector on the working class, nor its differential effects on particular working class identities. This is not an accident.
That’s quite a platform. And if you’re thinking the Democrat Party isn’t the Democratic Party you knew and loved, that’s not an accident either. This has been a wonderfully clarifying primary, for which I congratulate all the players.
Our Famously Free Press
“This is the perfect symbolic ending to the Democratic Party primary: The nomination is consecrated by a media organization, on a day when nobody voted, based on secret discussions with anonymous establishment insiders and donors whose identities the media organization — incredibly — conceals. The decisive edifice of superdelegates is itself anti-democratic and inherently corrupt: designed to prevent actual voters from making choices that the party establishment dislikes” [Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept]. “But for a party run by insiders and funded by corporate interests, it’s only fitting that its nomination process ends with such an ignominious, awkward, and undemocratic sputter”
“Why the AP called it for Clinton” [Politico]. “AP spokesman Paul Colford said the news agency had been in the process of contacting superdelegates throughout the day and evaluating the results from the weekend’s primaries.” So, AP has no answer for (1) the election eve timing or (2) the anonymity of its sources, which violates its own Style Guide. So if you believe AP on this one, I have a headquarters in Brooklyn I’d like to sell you.
UPDATE “[AP‘s election-fixing call] was as undemocratic an act as I have ever witnessed after Bush v. Gore and the shenanigans in Ohio in 2004, and there will be consequences down the line, especially for Clinton. Good luck bringing Bernie’s folks into the fold for the big push to November after that crud. It was disgraceful” [William Rivers Pitt, Truthout]. Oh, and the margin for AP‘s call? One vote. You got that right. One vote.
Corruption
UPDATE Nina McElmore would be s-o-o-o-o déclassé…
Hillary giving a speach on economic inequality wearing a $12,500 Armani coat pic.twitter.com/iCXXr8IscA
— anys (@JeSuisAnys) June 6, 2016
California
Clinton: 55%; Sanders: 43% [CNN].
The Trail
“Hillary Clinton’s Remarkable Comeback” [Peter Beinart, The Atlantic]. “We may never know exactly when Clinton decided to take another shot. But in so doing, despite her advanced age and despite the humiliation of her 2008 defeat, she displayed a resilience surpassed only by Nixon.”
“The campaign aide said the cuts were driven in part by the calendar. Now that the primary season is almost over—the District of Columbia votes next week—the campaign no longer has use for field directors in California and other states, the aide said” [Wall Street Journal, “Bernie Sanders Prepares to Cut Staff as Last Push Falls Short”]. “Another campaign aide said some aides would be transitioned into other roles as the primaries end and the campaign moves into convention mode.”
“Bernie Sanders needs to fall in line” [Boston Globe]. Wait. Isn’t that bullying?
“Sanders has the image of an authentic, independent, non-corporate conviction candidate that contrasts perfectly against Clinton’s scandal-tainted persona. He’s attracted an enthusiastic far-left vote, which has amplified its beliefs disproportionately through social media and other activism. His campaign has probably given that wing more cohesion and voice in progressive politics going forward. But there aren’t that many socialists out there, and that isn’t who Clinton needs to win over” [Jonathon Chait, New York Magazine].
“The Daily 202: Primary wins show Hillary Clinton needs the left less than pro-Sanders liberals think” [WaPo]. WaPo really needs to stop confusing liberals, a subset, along with conservatives, of the neoliberal consensus, with the left, which does not share that consensus.
Clinton begins appeal to Sanders voters; interview [ABC].
CLINTON: Well I’m certainly reaching out. Our campaigns are talking to one another. I wanna unify the party and I look forward to talking with him personally, because I think his campaign has been a really dynamic and exciting experience for the millions of Americans, particularly young people, who supported him. And I want them to know that I’m going to be working on a lot of the same issues that Senator Sanders and I spoke about, that we both care about, and that we have so much more in common than we do with the Republican presumptive nominee, Donald Trump.
MUIR: Give me an example. Can you give me one thing that he has said on the campaign trail that resonates with you particularly?
CLINTON: I think his absolute commitment to universal health care coverage is something that I have believed in and fought for for 25 years, we have slightly different approaches toward how we’re going to get there but we made it a major part of this campaign and I’m very happy that we did. I think the stress on income inequality is something that every American should take seriously, we have got to figure out how we’re going to provide more economic opportunity — good jobs with rising incomes — and I’m excited to work with Senator Sanders in doing that.
Sanders is committed to Medicare for All. That’s not “slightly different” from the (neo-liberal, market-based) “universal health coverage.” Alternatively, if as Clinton avers, the difference is “slight,” why not extend the right hand of good fellowship and put “Medicare for All” in the platform at the convention?
Obama to meet with Sanders, at Sanders request: “The statement continues, ‘The President looks forward to continuing the conversation with Senator Sanders about how to build on the extraordinary work he has done to engage millions of Democratic voters, and to build on that enthusiasm in the weeks and months ahead'” [ABC]. Let me translate: “Bernie, I need your list. Hillz needs the money.”
“But the increasing bitterness and anger from ‘sore winner’ Clinton supporters on Twitter and other social media sites often dodges the main reason why their candidate struggled to put away a 74-year-old ‘democratic socialist’ from a tiny state: Hillary Clinton herself” [Will Bunch, Philadelphia Daily News]. “The ‘political experts’ are baffled, but it’s because most of Sanders’ supporters want a revolution that won’t end because their guy didn’t win. But that Clinton revolution — despite the history that she made this week — begins and ends with Hillary Clinton, period.” (“The old is dying and the new is struggling to be born; in the interim a great variety of morbid symptoms occur.” –Antonio Gramsci.)
“Bernie Sanders endorses Eric Kingson for Congress in Syracuse primary” [Syracuse Post-Standard].
“Toned-Down Trump Promises to Make GOP Proud” [RealClearPolitics]. Interesting compilation of Republican views.
“Trump, With TelePrompter Assist, Tries to Turn the Page on Curiel” [Bloomberg].
“Four Thoughts on Trump’s “Mexican” Judge Remarks” [RealClearPolitics].
Pass the popcorn:
“Hopping in His Matchbox” [LRB]. This is a must read, both for its portrait of the Prussian civil servant who coined the phrase “working towards the Fuhrer,” and for its consideration of Hitler as a person (instead of a demon figure).
Clinton Email Hairball
“If the FBI decides not to make the recommendation to indict, or the Justice Department declines to follow one, it would be hard to give these decisions enough spin to be credible after all the expert commentary on the mishandling of classified information at the core of the investigation” [MarketWatch]. And the key point:
There is also the further threat that emails shielded from Freedom of Information Act requests by the use of a private server and subsequently deleted without any outside review could have contained information about donations to the Clinton Foundation that represented clear conflicts of interest with Clinton’s official activities.
For some definition of “deleted,” of course.
Stats Watch
MBA Mortgage Applications, week of June 3, 2016: “Purchase applications for home mortgages rose strongly in the June 3 week and were up 12 percent from the prior week when seasonally adjusted to account for the Memorial Day holiday, while refinancing increased by 7 percent. Unadjusted, however, purchase applications decreased by 12 percent from the previous week” [Econoday]. “Mortgage activity continues to benefit from very low rates [*** cough *** manipulation ***cough***].
JOLTS, April 2016: “Job openings are up but hiring isn’t, in what are mixed but still favorable results from the April JOLTS report. Job openings rose to 5.788 million from a downward revised 5.670 million in March. The job openings rate also rose, up 1 tenth to 3.9 percent. The hiring rate, in contrast, fell a sharp 2 tenths to 3.5 percent in what perhaps confirms anecdotal reports that employers are having a hard time finding qualified applicants for skilled positions” [Econoday]. “In a separate indication that points to weakness in worker confidence, the quits rate fell 1 tenth to 2.0 percent suggesting that workers are not shopping their skills around to other employers. Back on the positive side, the layoff rate fell 1 tenth to a low 1.1 percent. This report is mixed and embodies what are increasingly mixed signals across employment indicators in general.
Quarterly Services Survey , Q1 2016: ” Information revenue rose 1.3 percent in the first quarter compared to the fourth quarter. Information revenue in the fourth quarter is revised 1 tenth higher to plus 1.9 percent. Year-on-year, information revenue rose 5.7 percent in the first quarter vs a revised 4.8 percent in the fourth quarter” [Econoday].
Retail: “[S]hoppers now made 51% of their purchases on the web compared with 48% in 2015 and 47% in 2014, according to the survey by UPS and analytics firm comScore Inc. The survey polled shoppers who make at least two online purchases in a three-month period, excluding groceries” [Wall Street Journal, “Survey Shows Rapid Growth in Online Shopping”]. I know that’s true for me, with the local hardware store gone, and public transport meaning a four-hour trip to the supermarket. “And as for shopping by smartphone users: the survey found that 63% of millennials use their phones to shop, while 19% of baby boomers and 8% of seniors use their phones to make purchases.”
Shipping: “Korea aims to be world’s third-largest shipping industry despite billion-dollar losses” [Splash247].
Shipping: “Cargo theft is a $15 billion to $30 billion a year problem according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and still on the rise. If you want to know why, take a look at the recent spate of nut thefts in California and new theft hot spots like the city of Dallas, TX. The first highlights the greater focus cargo thieves are placing on food and beverage freight shipments, the second recognition by thieves that regional development can create ideal targets and conditions for stealing freight” [Fleet Owner]. “Nut thefts.” For a minute, I thought I should file this under political risk…
Political Risk: “Many investors are unaware how their political biases can impact their investment decisions (usually with negative results). My experience has been that Republicans were much better investors during the Bush administration, and Democrats were much better investors during the Obama administration” [ETF.com]. “The reason is that when the party they favored was in power, they tended to be more optimistic. That led to a more disciplined investment approach, which helped them avoid panicked selling.”
Political Risk: “Fund managers and economists, including Harvard professor and Democrat grandee Lawrence Summers, puzzle endlessly as to why UK and European markets are gyrating ahead of the ‘Brexit’ vote but U.S. assets have barely blinked at the success of celebrity businessman Donald Trump’s bid for the White House” [Futures]. “‘Brexit is a bigger risk,’ Francois Perol, Chairman of France’s second biggest lender BPCE, said last week. ‘American democracy has strong institutions and counter-powers.'”
The Fed: “Not overly scientific here…but, with Yellen taking June off the table and putting July in doubt, I think we are basically waiting on the next month’s payroll data, no? Sure, I guess CPI and and PCE numbers could move things, if they were upside surprises, but last Friday’s number really poured cold water on what could have been an interesting month” [Across the Curve].
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 80, Extreme Greed (previous close: 81, Extreme Greed) [CNN]. One week ago: 78 (Extreme Greed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jun 8 at 11:58am. Start flirting with 90?
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
“The country’s rulers do not just suppress history, they recreate it to serve the present. .. [C]hange often starts when the past is challenged” [Guardian]. Fooled ya! It’s China.
“Tor/Appelbaum Separation Agreement” [Cryptome].
Class Warfare
“Some academics even argue that with a few new upgrades, a modern tontine would be particularly suited to soothing the frustrations of 21st-century retirement. It could help people properly finance their final years of life, a time that is often wracked with terribly irrational choices. Tontines could even be a cheaper, less risky way for companies to resurrect the pension” [WaPo] (2015). Heaven forfend we should simply fund Social Security!
“Jobs Threatened by Machines: A Once ‘Stupid’ Concern Gains Respect” [New York Times].
Jeffrey D. Sachs of Columbia University has been working with a series of colleagues on an economic model of a world in which robotization both raises economic output and immiserates workers, pushing them out of their jobs. It is not a theoretical impossibility.
“The point for me is that these two scenarios — robots lead to nirvana and hell — can happen side by side,” Professor Sachs told me. “Generally capital wins and all labor can lose. It shows up as a fall in the labor share of national income.”
In that event, preventing a dynastic society of relentlessly growing inequality would require large-scale redistribution
Good thing liberals have erased class from the “national conversation.”
“[A] main theme is that what most of us think about ‘finance’ can be divided into two parts: the part that directly helps actual people and firms and governments operate in the real world, and the part where the financial sector becomes self-referential and starts to interact largely with itself” [Conversable Economist]. So we have the parasitical part, and the cancer part? (Full and very interesting Bank of International Settlements paper: “Towards a ‘new normal’ in financial markets?”)
“Assuming the poor are more prone to impulsivity doesn’t properly consider the severe circumstances in which many are forced to live, and how those circumstances shape a person’s rational behavior” [WaPo]. Or to rape when you see a woman lying behind a dumpster, or collect a commission from a fraudulent sale. It’s a complex world!
News of the Wired
Smart fish can recognise human faces, scientists find” [Guardian]. Despite the glass bowls…
* * * 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:
Readers, I’m running out of plants! Whether your intentions are artistic and/or documentary and/or amusing, you know what to do…. I’ve liked the creativity of plant videos, fungi, stumps, triptyches, and so on, but if your tomatoes are doing well, send them along too!
* * * 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!
262 comments
Comments are closed.
You made me look up “AUMF”.
Authorization for the Use of Military Force. So many acronyms. . . . .
Really?! Seems like yesterday to me… You should force me to explain all references you find obscure! I’m trying to pass on a lot of stuff here ;-)
Adding… “Clinton voted for the AUMF without even reading the Bush administration’s NIE.”
I don’t mind looking things up. A couple of days ago, I had to look up “DFH” when a commenter used the acronym. I won’t say what that one means. :-)
you may have explained this one many times before but for a new reader what does “resilc” mean? It appears mostly under Links rather than the Water Cooler
“resilc” is “Re Silc,” a reader who contributes links (and so gets a credit in the form of their handle).
Does anyone recall how Kucinich was pushed out?
Republicans redistricted Ohio, combining his and Marcy Kaptur’s districts so the two most liberal Democrats in the state’s congressional delegation had to run against each other. I suspect they didn’t really care which one they picked off.
well…..he barely managed to not get pushed out of Air Force One :’)
No kidding! I was truly worried for his well being (not snark).
Or the way Henry Wallace was
He wasn’t pushed out. That sort of thing only happens in Argentina. Showing him the horse’s head was enough.
What a surprise, fear, loathing, and greed wins again!
Clintonistas make me wanna puke.
Please try to cultivate a more positive tone:
I’ll never know why you’ve risen so high
when clearly you do not know
Paid to make the grade public betrayed
’cause clearly you do not know
what you’re supposed to do now
who you’re supposed to be wow
Am I the only one who sees you as the great pretender
How ’re ya goin’ to come up with the answer
When you do not know a thing
’cause you’re just another banker
who hides INSIDE!
with all your cronies and your lawyers
you wouldn’t know success if it rose up and bit you in the eye
you make me cry! WHY?
We’ll never know when you’ll do it again
when it’s obvious that you will
How many more times will you commit crimes
when it’s obvious that you will
Who do I have to tell now
to kill your sacred cash cow
Make sure that everyone sees you as the great pretender
Weep, my friends, weep. There is a time to weep like a little girl too.
Oh the Bern blossoms
Barely opened
Already gone
Enrich the soil! Imagine the colors of the next blooms!
Consider the lattice and give it all you can.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DpN0s38-6z0
Hill sez: “I think the stress on income inequality is something that every American should take seriously”
Since the 99% first introduced this subject, it seems a very great majority of Americans already take income inequality pretty seriously.
It’s the 1% who are blowing it off, Madame Secretary. Please inform them at your next fund-raiser.
Haha! My thoughts exactly.
I guess this is one of those “serious policy proposals” she’s so famous for and has spent 30 whole years “working on.”
I put it right up there with her support of Roe V. Wade – a mention in a speech every once in a while but otherwise bupkus. Unless there is some politically expedient reason to undercut things that support it. In this case, she will obviously support globalization agreements where America loses middle class jobs because….
Roe v. Wade. Abortion should be “safe, legal and rare.”
Real progress is “incremental.” So they started working on the “rare” part first. And they’re getting there.
A lot of women don’t get why I have always said her support was half-hearted at best, and that phrase was one of the reasons I believe that. It should always have been ‘safe, legal and none of anyone else’s business’. But I was a supporter not a politician trying to straddle two mutually exclusive points of view.
BTW don’t forget her support of the abstinence education bullshit either.
Didn’t work with Bill…..
regarding the ‘abstinence thing’…….
I suspect the triangulation on abortion was about chilling out the violent opposition to abortion rights (not) and having the lowest common denominator support for policies and elected office.
I’ve always thought that the pro-choicers and the women’s movement needed to take more of a freedom riders approach to abortion rights by marching and raising consciousness for support of abortion in the red states.
Hear, hear!
Remembering that I was blown away when Bernie said (in a debate) that he didn’t support ANY restrictions on abortion. That Abortions are an issue for women and their doctors.
That is the first time in my life that I have heard a politician say that.
I assume you are younger than me. Believe it or not, in the way back machine a whole lot of politicians used to say that. And even more amazingly, a lot of clergy did as well.
This whole abortion thing has been ginned up out of whole cloth by the GOP with a lot of willing connivance by many in the D Party. It’s disgusting, as is Clinton. As indicated by others, she is a traitor (imo) and a sell out on abortion… willingfully making it seem still like a big deal.
I could give a stuff about her husband’s philandering, but let’s get real. I’ve been around the block a LOT. Most of the cheaters I know have gotten at least one women who is not their wife pregnant. And guess what happens? Even the most virulantly anti-abortion dude gets that mistress to Planned Parenthood stat.
I’m so totally cynical about this issue. I’ve seen/witnessed/know about far too much.
I was going to say since things went wonky starting in the Ford/Carter years (Hyde Amendment for example) but my typing finger rebelled. Also, it’s been all of my current life….
I’m old enough that I was raised in a very Catholic family and never heard anything about abortion ’till I was a teen. It just wasn’t something Catholics obsessed about … At least where I lived.
Actually it is a big deal based on the value you place on potential human life. Dependent on the medical situation, without an abortion, you would have a living, breathing human being entering the world. So regardless of your position on the inherent value of choice, it is not an issue to be dismissed as no big deal.
And to state that everyone does it if they can, does not conclude the debate as to whether abortions of convenience are ethically right or wrong and best for our society.
I think abortion is wrong and a nasty thing to do. Period.
On the other hand, it is well known that unwanted and therefore unloved children often grow up to have poor lives and to spread misery and violence. Societies were women are forced to breed are miserable places on all parameters and poor neighbours, always exporting the most troublesome individuals.
I belive the way to minimize abortions should be that conditions / society becomes so favorable for children and parents that abortion somehow be the last choice. I want A Life furthering society, I guess Eric Fromm would call it.
My attitude has hardened since my 19 year old daughter decided to have her baby, the most beautiful little boy. It is hard to consider that he may never have been born and daughter never would have grown into the loving and supporting parent that she is now.
I know that This happy state is only possible because I and the fathers family have resources and my parents generation fought for social services being available for young parents. Of course it is still hard having a baby and studying at a university. But, it is not impossible and there is help. Economic and other. *That* is the proper way to reduce the (necessary) evil that abortion is, in my view.
Hillary Clinton: I Could Compromise on Abortion If It Included Exceptions For Mother’s Health
.
Cecile Richards should have rescinded the Planned Parenthood support of Clinton right after that happened. But I’m a great believer she knew she was endorsing a pig in a poke.
Similar to the union support for Clinton, it made sure that I would not be donating to PP any time soon, and maybe ever again.
Constitutional restriction!!??!!!
Go big or go home.
The video is unavailable. Just a message that reads: “CONTENT UNAVAILABLE, account has been disabled.”
What does that mean?
Dunno. This is the source code:
<body class=”video video-perma”><link rel=”image_src” href=”http://images.rcp.realclearpolitics.com/322696_1_.jpg” /><link rel=”video_src” href=”http://s3.amazonaws.com/stream.realclearpolitics.com/1-hillaryabortionex copy_475023.mp4″/>
Wasn’t she wearing a $12K Armani jacket when she was talking about inequality? How tone deaf can you get?
Thanks for reminding me.
And, let me guess, she got that jacket on sale. It was marked down from $15k.
Apparently it is currently on sale on the Armani website for over $7000. So if it was a ‘gift’ it didn’t do much for sales.
Oh, and according to the same report it is leather.
Yup lambskin:
http://www.armani.com/us/giorgioarmani/women/collection_section#look=173968
Lambskin! Why am I not surprised.
Because when you’re making “history,” ordinary cloth just won’t do.
The well-dressed glass ceiling smasher wears only the skin of the finest dead baby sheep.
i gotta say…my potatoes get covered in better threads than what that hag wears!!
Thought the same. Fits her like a sack. For a fraction she could have bought a pallet of sacks. Maybe she finds burlap itchy.
They make condoms out of lambskin too.
Thus Hillary’s “coat of many condoms.”
Barrier Breakers = “the old pinhole in the condom trick”?
heh
God, the possibilities…. “wolf in sheeps clothing”, “leading the lambs to slaughter”…metaphor and irony abounding… the center cannot hold… I think Ima gonna retch..
A wolf in sheep’s clothing…
Perfect.
You jokesters are making me laugh. Maybe things aren’t so grim after all.
Someone suggested Hillary’s taste in wardrobe has a certain North Korean flair to it.
This is NOT a joke.
North Korean “style” garments offer the most complete goiter coverage available on the market today.
And there are no design patents or intellectual property concerns for the designer since we don’t give those stinkin’ nuclear-armed communists none.
Order NOW.
williambanzai7 has the photo evidence
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B5UgA4UCUAEAccs.jpg
but hair is important too!
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Kim+Jong+Un+Hillary&view=detailv2&&id=5F23C237E6CA7C838BE5558964C22213CA2BCBDE&selectedIndex=0&ccid=C804kIuf&simid=608041832544669221&thid=OIP.M0bcd38908b9ff30ccee4b430afe2cb48o1
Brilliant!!
And a Hyena laughter!
Is that Armani jacket lamb or goat? The heading on the Armani site calls it “napa lambskin,” and the description says it’s lambskin cut in strips and woven with silk threads. But if you expand “Details,” it says it’s 100% goatskin. Now, maybe this is splitting hairs; she’s still wearing a sack made out of a baby animal … maybe. Could be an old goat, for all we know. But I wanted to know, sheep or goat? I looked for other listings and found it on Neiman Marcus, which describes it as “braided goat leather.” Not even kidskin.
I couldn’t remember the significance of “separating the sheep from the goats,” so I looked it up. In Matthew 25:31-46, Christ gathers all the nations at the Last Judgment and puts the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. The sheep are those who fed the poor and hungry, gave clothes to those in need, and visited the sick and imprisoned, whence the famous line, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” The goats didn’t care for the poor and sick or visit the imprisoned (gotta love that symbolism). The sheep get to go to heaven, the goats are damned to eternal hell.
I thought it was like 15k. Damn, I could set up a nice little rural retreat and permaculture farm for 15k. Such profligate waste–on clothes no less–really gets my goat.
15k is more money than i’ve earned in a year since the financial crisis. Even 7k is cough inducing.
I could get…..a year of decent quality daycare for one of my kids….oh wait, nope the price went up again, so no, I can’t.
I’m sure Prez Clinton will solve that problem for me….right after she passes TPP/TISA/TPIP brings back FTAA, and sends Putin fleeing back over the Volga River!
We all now she didn’t buy the it someone gave the coat to wear for awhile;)
I’m sure whoever lent it to her hopes she remembers to take it off before she and billy start mixin’ it up and throwing things at each other.
“I should say this, that Pat doesn’t have a mink coat. But she does have a respectable Republican cloth coat.”
— Richard Nixon, Checkers speech, 1952
i vaguely remember this, or I remember my parents talking about it
Armani should start start designing orange jumpsuits in her size.
Fits her like a sack. For a fraction she could have gotten a dozen pallets – maybe she finds burlap itchy.
+++++
‘Killary Flinton’…….
The piss-puurveyor of truth…….
Ach Ja meine Lieblings…..Ich bin nie die guilty potty but the gateau from the chateau!
Rest assured, HRC is now going to fight to try to make an attempt to seriously consider thinking about encouraging a climate where a discussion can possibly be had about trying to think about making a major effort to bring some incremental points about aspects related to alleged income inequality into the realm of the national consciousness.
Hillary: better than getting your leg gnawed off by hyenas!
Is that before, or after, the committee is formed…??
Re: Email Hairball/Tar Baby/Server-shenanigans:
Lambert, I remember in Water Cooler (or perhaps Links) of you posting a really, really long form piece on Clinton’s e-mail situation. In that piece, it says that the original server was taken off site and then copied, yet from what I can gather from various sources about this scandal, is the possibility that there could be a copy of the server kept around with the company that did the copying in case the transfer went wrong.
Does anyone know if said company has a copy OR a piece that points to the fate of the original server? The implication of course, is that if they did hold on to a copy, then they would have access to the e-mails that existed pre-deletion, which would help the FBI/DoJ get to an indictment.
I can think of three long-form email pieces. Would it be worthwhile to consolidate them?
This is what I am remembering but geekier readers please correct me:
1) Clinton erased about half the email (yoga lessons, Chelsea’s nuptial rites) from the hard drive she controlled. The FBI now has that hardware, and digital forensics can recover what she erased, depending on how thorough she was (metaphorically, the difference between 1) throwing something in the wastebasket, and emptying the wastebasket and 2) burning the contents to ash. IIRC, Clinton took Door #1, meaning the FBI can go through her trash).
2) Clinton’s vendor, Platte River — and I’m drawing a blank on the transition between Clinton’s server and Chappaqua, and Platte River — in the course of backing up the hard drive they controlled, accidentally backed it up to “the cloud,” and the FBI has those backups.
Eesh, I’m confused. Now I need to go read the damn timelines. It seems like the actual hardware server(s) is/are the McGuffin in this movie….
That back up from Platte River was with the company Datto. And yes, the FBI has that back up.
They apparently also have the correspondence with Clinton aides demanding that Platte River stop keeping email past iirc 30 days starting when the first requests that she provided those emails required by her agreement came in.
What I’m not clear on is the sequence of transition/chain of custody from server to server to server, and how that maps to storage media. I’ve never seen a table or a handy chart.
Was Platte River running the Clinton server in the Chappapqua basement remotely?! Or did they somehow port what was on that hardware to their hardware? And so on.
Okay, I admit I wasn’t clear on that either but did have an impression they had it. Found this story/reaction from Platte River:
http://www.denverpost.com/2015/08/19/platte-river-networks-clinton-e-mail-server-was-never-in-denver/
So it sounds like they picked it up in Chappaqua and moved it to NJ.
Obviously we have found out more about that relationship since that time. Poor friggin’ company probably celebrated at the time and now rue the day they heard the name Clinton…
That “rue the day they heard the name Clinton…” pretty much sums up everyone who ever had any dealings with them, I suspect…
At best their colleagues and business partners only have to pay legal fees and answer to lawyers, FBI, and congress inquiries. At worst they end up doing time or dead (only a complete coincidence, of course!)
If it is true that the FBI has the Datto or other server backup, I think there is certainly enough evidence to refer to DoJ for indictment. And in the Trump “popcorn” video that Lambert posted, it’s clear Donald is going to go for the jugular on the Clinton Slush Fund. A shame Bernie never did.
Perhaps not. If he did, plenty of Hillary supporters would vote for a Republican over anyone who betrayed their glorious leader. Clinton Inc was desperate to paint Hillary as a victim.
If he did, Biden would be the nominee now, and I would vote for Hillary over Biden.
Hi, Lambert… Have you seen any articles on this in the IT focused journals? I think mainstream press tends to conflate “server” with a physical machine, confusing the issue, and offering HRC many options for half-truths. A server is a chunk of software. It can and does reside anywhere, on any machine, and sometimes on more than one. Moving a physical location is just transferring files from one machine to another. Nowhere in the articles I have seen(written from a political angle, not technical) seem to understand the significance.
Regards.
I get the feeling some Russians and Chinese people might have some copies handy.
Did Hillary just cc Mossad, as they definitely have everything?
C’mon, she is all about security, when it is not inconvenient. She BCC’d them.
This is the one i read and it was helmeresque in detail and with pictures of the perps (and their victims, remember, an ambassador was murdered, not just the leader of libya)
https://informedvote2016.wordpress.com/2016/03/18/do-i-really-need-to-worry-about-hillarys-emails-yes-she-will-be-indicted-full-form/
I must say,trump will have to put out a lot of effort to be worse than this, not sure he has it in him…
That’s the first one I posted and it’s very good. There are two others, which I will dig out and post tomorrow.
From the Washington Post, August 2015. Apparently up to 4 different people handled Clinton servers according to this article from WaPo.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/fbi-looks-into-security-of-clintons-private-e-mail-setup/2015/08/04/2bdd85ec-3aae-11e5-8e98-115a3cf7d7ae_story.html
Also, McClatchy has more
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article37968711.html
Rough chart…
> Bill Clinton’s personal server in the home
is replaced with
> Server used for her 2008 campaign – IT Justin Cooper (Leadership PAC?)
which is adapted for
> Server for Secretary of State emails – IT Bryan Pagliano 04/2009
which needed better service
> Platte River Networks – 2013 facility in New Jersey
which was backing up to a cloud with Datto Inc.
Cool, very cool. The only question I’d raise is that hard disk and server are not the same. One can run the same server off different media. This matters for the digital forensics (“wipe it” “with a cloth”) aspect.
I’d raise one more — I read HRC didn’t do the initial read through and deletion of non-State Dept. related emails, she had two attorneys take care of it, one of whom I think is Cheryl Mills.
This confuses things as the deleted emails fall somewhere in the shadows of attorney-client privilege.
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/the-crime-fraud-exception-the-attorney-client-privilege.html
What interests me is the ongoing overlap of personal/business/government use of the server(s). It’s like the ultimate revolving door. At any given moment, who is she really working for?
Regarding hardware, I just assumed it was a commercial server in a rack down in the basement of the house….
TPP and Trump. I noted a change in language in Trump’s teleprompter speech last night. He said he supported “the RIGHT kind of trade deals…” (my emphasis). This is different from the categorical statements he has made in the recent past about trade deals being job killers. I was thinking, pessimistically, that the corporatists have gotten their hooks into him and explained what TPP is really about. I don’t believe that his is on the record, yet, on TPP but I may be wrong. Both Clinton and Trump have the capacity to accommodate TPP without blinking an eye but Trump hasn’t made the turn yet.
Actually he has said all along the same thing, that we need to renegotiate the right trade deal that will benefit US. Stating that deals move factories & jobs overseas. Would tax companies or imported products, I am sure this is against WTO. But Trump has a big mouth, so he will voice all behind the scenes BS & characters, which should be amusing.
Yeah, from what I can tell he has always said that you don’t enter into agreements that do not benefit you, and that our current Trade agreements raise our trade deficit and send our jobs overseas. They are bad deals. We should be seeking to enter trade agreements that raise our trade surplus. I don’t remember him adding ‘that increase demand for jobs in the US” but that would be an extension of that.
That recent viral video of company that was moving to Mexico. He expanded on what he would do to companies that leave. His suggestions would probably violate WTO, but all these deals are bad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ4c5MiLNQ4
Yeah, I’ve been watching Trump speeches since the beginning of the primaries. He’s always said that he is for smart trade and against dumb trade. And he has always said that these deals like NAFTA and TPP are about as dumb as you can get. He says in every speech that the only reason these deals get made the way they are is because American negotiators are either stupid or bought. And then he says they’re probably both…
Didn’t candidate Obama say something about smart vs dumb wars? And we are still in the same dumb wars?
Why can’t we sue politicians for reneging on their campaign promises?
Obama is less likely to make statements that will embarrass him, whereas Trump is more likely to do so.
In that respect, it should make or should have made the listen pay more attention as to his statements’ likelihood to come to fruition.
It’s interesting to note many MSM critics and comedians are, with little effort required, poking fun at Trumpty Dumpty, but turning a blind eye to the fact that Trump Wall hasn’t yet been built…….
ps. for any Trumpty Dumpty Baa Baa Sheep readers here, I’m a Baa Baa BLACK sheep.
This means cheering Bernie Sanders & his saucy supporters all the way to the DNC!
Let’s face it, if they don’t go to the DNC, it’s like not going to Mecca for muslims.
Oooh! Now that’s a scary thought!
In the wake of so much distressing news, take a moment to remember the anniversary another government and media cover-up. Forty-nine years ago today the USS Liberty was attacked and the story was submerged, in part by John McCain’s father Admiral McCain. Crew members tried to get recognition of the incident and were rebuffed.
+++++ Thanks
And let’s not forget which country attacked the Liberty.
uhh..um…uh………… let me guess…….Mongolia…no ??
Canaan? Edom? Moab? One of their close neighbors?
It was botched a false flag operation. DuckDuckGo it.
I love your verb usage!
…I DDG quite a bit myself!
Luckily the USS Liberty wasn’t submerged in the attack.
The crew deserves recognition at minimum.
Re: SSI and Tontine.
Isn’t a tontine a financial instrument where the last person standing owns the whole? Bring on the Elder Hunger Games! Place your bets.
It is. Also the premise of a wonderful movie called The Wrong Box, from years and years and years ago.
And an important clue in the Agatha Christie mystery “The 4:50 from Paddington”!
Also incorporated into an episode of Archer (season 2) “Double Deuce”. Woodhouse’s sordid early history.
On Policy: perfectly stated. A clarifying primary indeed.
Thank you. Lots of policy “Off the droshky”!
Well done, sir. This little ‘executive summary’ should circulate!
Feel free!
On Policy: at today’s Democratic platform meeting in DC:
Remember that, hippies.
If you don’t get a policy you wanted into the platform, it’s because you didn’t try hard enough.
Or because you were uncivil.
Please, do be quiet while we slip this knife in, just so…
Which totally explains why the composition of the Committee is so important. I mean, why didn’t they just draw straws?
The table is an A-frame. Just try and get something to stay on it unless it’s held there with laundered money. Just like socks, laundered money gets clingy.
The War Nerd wants to turn civility into a pejorative.
I agree completely. Fuck. That. Shit. And the wasserman schultz it rode in on.
Yeah, it’s kinda like getting mad with a spouse/partner for something he did, and instead of listening to what you’re mad about and trying to work through the conflict, he says in an infuriatingly even voice, “I’m not going to discuss anything with you until you lower your voice and act like a rational human being.”
Time to pick up a chair.
seconded
“Assuming the poor are more prone to impulsivity doesn’t properly consider the severe circumstances in which many are forced to live, and how those circumstances shape a person’s rational behavior”
Translation: “Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already” — ´The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte´, Karl Marx 1852
Has the WAPO gone Marxist, but are too afraid to admit it ?
Marx should have been a MacArthur Fellow.
http://scholar.harvard.edu/sendhil/scarcity
Re: fish story
This is cool! If it winds up getting confirmed (the facial recognition part) then it will have important implications for how/why questions re: human abilities. For example there will be pressure on theories which explain human facial recognition only in terms of social organization adaptation.
My bees, once they get to know me, are quite gentle…..of course, I do my utmost NOT to piss them off!
I’m not sure how that works with fish…..say a piranha, or an electric eel, for instance……
I would guess that archer fish probably know who, and who not to, spit at……by recognition of facial characteristics, gait, …….. and who didn’t dispense with the primo live brine shrimp! ……..
My two goldfish are always staring at me. They want more food. They get excited when I come close to their tank.
Quoting from an article posted in the Cooler: “a resilience surpassed only by Nixon.”
Does she REALLY want to be in competition with Nixon? Or doesn’t she care?
And, about that e-mail hairball and the FBI, I keep thinking about that PO-ed FBI official named Mark Felt. We remember him as Deep Throat. One of the most influential leakers in American history. Watch for that to happen again if the FBI doesn’t recommend this case for prosecution.
I’m thinking it doesn’t even have to be someone in the FBI, any of the various agencies with access to some of this where the people have to actually follow the required guide lines regarding classified information.
Unfortunately, now that I think about it, it won’t be the lack of informants that kills the story. It will be the lack of news outlets willing to run the story. Media consolidation the atrocity that keeps on turning us into a country with little or no Free Press.
Despite the hoopla about Democrats on Facebook in 2008, the GOP has been heavily invested on Internet communication. Remember the friendly IT guy is probably a Republican. After that, they have better organizations through their churches and talk radio.
Ben Carson had a widely disseminated news letter. Until he went up in the polls, he was not covered, but Republicans discussed him.
Even many Clinton scandals were only covered in the 90’s because the GOP communication machine told the stories. The GOP voters knew about Terry Schaevo before it was on CNN. Msm stories repeat this pattern. The conservative alternative media pushes a story, and it eventually makes Fox.
You might remember those bizarre emails about Vince Foster. Those were GOP lists. Drudge, Redstate, Little green football all predate the famed liberal blogosphere. While Democrats huff and puff about the latest crazy GOP screed, the GOP keeps organizing. The Tea Party branding was an attempt to take control of a multi-platform structure. When a story gets to the GOP noise machine (this includes their permanent block captains), the msm has to pick it up.
Et voila, Wikileaks…
IMHO, Nixon isn’t even on the same level as Clinton when it comes to the corruption, greed, and abuse of office. She sets a whole new standard.
Yes, the Clinton Duo has been at for at least 25/30 years. They’ve perfected the long con to perfection. A satisfactory outcome to the present political gridlock is not on the horizon. The Democrats are on the point of exploding, too. What does Sanders want to say to Obama tomorrow. I think Obama will be very miffed that his cool, craftiness can not move Sanders: Obama will refuse to go to the mountain and then what? The biggest casualty of Sanders’ ascendancy may be Obama’s bullshit legacy and that will be for him intolerable.
Remember The Speech? That stemwinder that Bernie delivered back in, oh, 2010? It was later published as a book with the same name.
Well, The Speech garnered lots of attention on the day it was delivered. And, uh-oh, the White House took notice! And the poor little house was feeling upstaged. So, it called a press conference.
Fat lotta good that did. No one remembers what was covered during the press conference, but ISTR that The Speech sold pretty well.
Today I have spend feeling numb…
In reflecting upon my life as a citizen, I realize that there is only one election where my vote for President was made with pride and enthusiams: my first vote ever, in 1972 for George McCovern. (I did feel he handled Thomas Eagleton badly, but Nixon!) I did take pride in caucusing for Jesse Jackson in `88 and `92 but those were short one night efforts in my all paleface precinct.
So my focus now turns to the 2018 mid term elections and electing better congressional representatives and senators.
I noticed that my congressman, Sean Patrick Maloney has endorsed Zephyr Teachout in the NY19 Democratic primary which is laudable. Most likely however, for him it is a no cost endorsement given how well she ran in the northern and western parts of his district against Cuomo. So I hope that Congressman Maloney signs on to the Medicare for All bill and really pushes for its passage next term should he get re-elected. Otherwise, 2018 means finding a better Congressional representative. (I am aware of a long list of reasons to advocate for Maloney’s ouster, but I think that a focus on single-payer health is the best place to set your priorities.
Senator Gillibrand endorsed Teachout too. Good for her!
If 2018 does result in a significant changing of the guard, then perhaps Senator Schumer retires in 2022.
My sincere thanks to all who maintain, write, curate and comment on this wonderful blog, especially Yves and Lambert!
If it’s any consolation, feeling the same over here on the left coast. I’m just so tired of corruption and dishonesty though, I have come to the sad conclusion that is the true normal state of man and not the exception as I guess I had previously thought. A hard heart is, alas, the norm.
I would like to find the Democrat consultant who pitched the use of “conversation” as the term for any sort of interaction and punch his lights out.
The perfect word for Democrats like Obama. Touchy-feely, “warm,” ambiguous, never ending. Commits no one to anything good.
And the key point: Obscures power relations.
What was it…something about emperor Nero playing the lyre while Rome burns.
It is implicit in Sanders’ becoming a Democrat.
You have to go to the Pope at Canossa…you have to join the party to get your message out.
I think it’s worth considering what happens with the email “hairball,” if Hillary is not indicted by DOJ, and goes on to win election in November. Is she popular enough with Rs and independent voters to win by a big enough landslide to reclaim a solid majority in the House? I think if she is elected, which is not certain, it will be due to voters opposing her main opponent, and not those enthusiastically supporting either HRC or the Ds. That doesn’t sound like a potential landslide in the making.
So, if Rs retain a majority in the House, the email investigations will begin. If the FBI and /or DOJ has given her a pass, there is already enough in the public record, especially in light of the State IG report, to justify at least one article of impeachment.
Evasion of FOIA may not be a criminal offense, but could warrant an impeachment resolution. Certainly violations of the Espionage Act, with respect to inappropriate handling of classified documents, might be impeachable. Deletion of emails from a private server might be construed as obstruction of justice. Possible evidence of solicitation or acceptance of donations to the Clinton Foundation, by either Americans or foreign governments with business before the State Department, may be deemed worthy of further inspection.
The Benghazi investigations will pale in comparison. FBI investigatory findings, State employees, State archives, Clinton (and Foundation?) employees, and any undeleted Clinton emails might be subpoenaed by Congress. Witnesses may be interrogated ad infinitum, with grants of immunity and contempt charges for lack of cooperation, and possible perjury for misstatements. Then, we go on to a Watergate-style televised trial in the Senate, if any of these possible resolutions is passed by the House.
Maybe the email issues can be tamped down until the election, or maybe not. But if there is a new Republican Congress, all hell will certainly break loose.
I think it highly unlike she will win in November. But there is no chance any gains will be made for Congress. The real battle will be in keeping what they have.
We have already seen this at work. The Clinton foundation is a giant syphon that will pierce and drain the operating funds of the state level parties. Down ticket candidates will expected to make large donations to the Clinton campaign from their own coffers, crippling their own election bid.
The down side is the harder she has to fight to stay alive – the more hollowed out the down ticket races will be. And its not just Congress that will suffer, but the state houses as well.
And this is what they fought so hard to protect.
Democrats only want the White House. If they had Congress and the states they would be on the hook for doing things. This way they can just make excuses.
Did you mean to say “I think it highly unlikely….” or “I think it highly likely…” she will win in November?
I want to say she doesn’t have a chance in hell. But every now and then Trump pulls a bone-head move that has to make me wonder. If he can get his ego in check, he could own her. So I say it’s highly unlikely she will win, and if she wins at all, it will be by a narrow margin.
The reason is simple, the Democratic Party – as an institution, has been mostly hollowed out. Vast regions have been complexly abandoned by the Democratic Party, making the electoral map very very narrow. And that map is already turning ugly on her. She is sinking fast in Florida and without Florida – it’s already a forgone conclusion. She has too many MUST WINS in her column to give her much of a chance.
To make maters worse is her aggressive voter suppression campaign to beat Sanders will cripple her further in the general election. In effect, she is eating her own seed corn.
And on top of that you throw in her negatives, handicaps, money issues (Trust me. She has to have money problems with her campaign. How much did that jacket cost? I bet you she billed it against her campaign.) and that damned FBI investigation. You begin to see where I am coming from.
And onto that, this nonsense about a crippled and divided Republican Party. I have to bang my head against the wall when ever I hear this absurdity of an irrelevant GOP. They said this in 2008 after Democrats made sweeping victories. They said the GOP was dead for a generation. TWO YEARS later, the Republicans came roaring back, retook both chambers. Voters clean house of all the politicians who fell on their swords to pass Obamacare. And even when the Dems did control both chambers – the Republicans were still in control because of the filibuster. And that is STILL the excuse they use.
The Republicans are in charge, and they are gaining more and more control every election cycle. And the GOP is even starting to shift to a state based strategy. Think about it – what happens if the GOP gain control over 2/3rds of the state legislatures? Do you really want to hand them the power to amend the Constitution? But that is their plan and where we are heading.
Code Name D,
Actually, to amend the existing Constitution, 3/4 of the states must vote yes.
But having said that, I don’t think that this level of domination is out of reach for the Republicans, given how totally the Democrat party has abandoned control of state legislatures and governorships. And more ominously, a call by 2/3 of the states (34) is what is required to call a Constitutional convention, at which point everything could be on the table. But still, the assent of 3/4 of the states to any changes, whether in the form of amendments to the existing Constitution, or a re-framing of the Constitution as a whole, would be required for ratification. The structure of the Republic is based upon the states, and not the popular votes of the citizens as a whole, so as Democrat-dominated states decline in number, the possibility rises for such eventualities. If that number drops below 13, this could be on.
Senator Sanders undoubtedly knows this. The structure, powers, and reach of the Federal government can be recast by such a Constitutional convention.
Of course, the Democrat party is all about the rich, so whatever happens to the rest of us is really of no concern to them. They play “identity politics” to disguise the fact, and to keep us squabbling amongst ourselves. (This very same identity politics is alienating to many in more socially conservative states, therefore conducing to the progressive loss of Democrat control in those states; 12 states, here we come.) Keeps out of sight the inconvenient fact that to them, we are ALL just cattle. No 50 state strategy for them; too much fuss and bother. In fact, devolving some powers to the state level is rather akin to identity group politics; keep ’em divided, and they can just pick ’em off, perfect for the TPP/NAFTA/TTIP/TISA lovin’ crowd (the Democrat nomenklatura, by strange coincidence) for whom national sovereignty is just an impediment.
I see no evidence the Dems want the White House. I see evidence they wanted to defeat Sanders at all costs (dispelling the argument that they are ineffective).
They need the White House to protect them from the GOP, but Obama has already used up the cult like devotion from the younger crowd. Left to their own devices, many Clinton followers are not terrible people. Without Hillary tutting at them in the same room, they are likely to support every Sanders platform push against the wishes of the super delegates.
How would a Corey Booker have played on the trail? Even Obama needed Oprah and Bill to resort to racism to win younger and sometimes black voters. He would be met with skepticism at best. Hillary’s celebrity turned stories in the election into tales about personality and past glories, but other Democrats wouldn’t have had protection of celebrity. They would have been forced to answer questions or be dismissed. Hillary is simply the best candidate the Democratic elite have to offer as amazing as that sounds. Could you imagine a debate where Mark Warner tried to work in how he invested his inheritance in cell phones?
I agree, but there is also a fairly large committee, including the big O who know what is on Hill’s server. Folks like Alexandre and Clapper, and that’s just in the US. A completely pwned Pres suits a lot of interests, might help the big O fund raise for his “library”. I’m less hopeful about the FBI, will take a brave individual and a lot of outside support.
Photo Ops. It pays better once the stint is over.
I can’t see how Dems make any gains in Congress after this tire fire. So I would wager that, should Hillary Millhouse Clinton win the golf-clap election, the impeachment articles are passed by January 18th.
You make it sound like fun!
Everyone in DC will be too busy to pass TPP, the Grand Bargain, and the Liberation of Crimea will have wait. Obama will already have given his pardons to some else. if hillary picks Sanders as VP, Sanders could be Prez before the end of next year!
oh man…… I sure want some of whatever crazy your taking,…..boy! :’)
How about this one? She gets elected, no doubt with funny stuff because Rs own that, and then republicans impeach her and have the votes and she’s out. Next up VP, same thing. Then the NEXT president is an R from Congress, and he’s NOT Donald Trump. Hey?
Clever. But wouldn’t succession kick in at some point?
I think it is the best course for all concerned that the indictment actually occur (but after the convention). The only way to put the matter to bed is to have the legal proceedings as it is not the matter of paying damages (which is the big advantage that Trump has with his problems, one which he inexplicably confounds by pissing off the judge). Before convention there is risk of embarrassment all around.
After convention there is relatively little risk, given the opposition.
Unfortunately for HRC, USA, unlike other English speaking countries, does not have the option of excusing herself on basis of sub judice from having to face public and media questioning or facing the issue in debates. But then she has the license, apparently, to continue to lie about the matter loudly in her defense and most people will accept it, not because they believe and trust, but because of fatigue. As to the legal action we know how these things end. With a whimper and contrition.
Obama’s job today must be to get iron clad promise of no third party or write in or protest vote campaigns. Anything more ambitious has to be delusional.
So they were able to drag her over the finish line. Oh wait… that’s really the starting line. On your mark, get set…
I can’t wait to watch them realize that the voters they snubbed during the primary get to decide who wins this election cycle.
My hope is that Independants tell Hillary and DNC to suck it.
Lack of exit polling and margins reported in CA make me deeply skeptical of the voting system.
It’s 1985 and we’re the USSR: all feedbacks between the population and the “party” are cut.
Power is so central and rigid, it’s incapable of accommodating reality, but so insulated by its ability to externalize costs it can’t even see the problem.
That’s exactly what this indie is doing. I was a temporary Democrat in order to vote for Bernie in our state’s closed primary. Day after the primary, I re-registered as a independent.
In Lampedusa’s novel The Leopard, an aristocrat facing the changes wrought by Garibaldi observes: “If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.”
Perhaps if we here want things to change, they will have to stay the same for a little while longer.
From the same scene, Chevalley the Piedmontese eagerly interviewing Prince Fabrizio:
Uno di loro, poi, mi chiese che cosa veramente venissero a fare, qui in Sicilia, quei volontari italiani. ‘They are coming to teach us good manners’ risposi ‘but wont succeed, because we are gods.’ ‘Vengono per insegnarci le buone creanze ma non lo potranno fare, perché noi siamo dèi.’ Credo che non comprendessero, ma risero e se ne andarono. Così rispondo anche a Lei; caro Chevalley: i Siciliani non vorranno mai migliorare per la semplice ragione che credono di essere perfetti: la loro vanità è più forte della loro miseria; ogni intromissione di estranei sia per origine sia anche, se si tratti di Siciliani, per indipendenza di spirito, sconvolge il loro vaneggiare di raggiunta compiutezza, rischia di turbare la loro compiaciuta attesa del nulla;…
No will to change. Not when we can contemplate our perfection and redemption.
I’m pretty recent to the E-mail scandal, maybe a moth or so, and started looking at it at the same time I started looking at the foundation. What Trump is saying here was my very first impression upon looking at these: “Holy Crap! This is a $100 million protection racket. Right out of the old mob scene. This exactly how I would set it up.”
And then it made sense why Hillary was so desperate for the Presidency. One of the two of them needs access to an office where this stuff can be sold, nd what better than the Oval Office itself?
And Hillary is as vulnerable as hell here. Heck, she almost broke over the $225,000 speeches. What’s she going to do when $100 million is on the line? Bill’s gotta be wishing he could swap front men right now.
And this stuff will stick to Hillary like fresh dog crap on cleated sneakers with that rookie-lrvrl e-mail mistake following her around like that dog’s tail. And she’ll break if Trump doesn’t make the same mistake that Sanders did; letting up on her when she started whining,
But even if he does, he’ll be setting her up perfectly for the impeachment hearings. Oh, what a beautiful morning, … ♪♫♪…♪♫♪
What do the software developers say to clients? “You can have it quickly, or cheaply, or of high quality but not all three at the same time.” (No doubt there is a better version of this axiom out there.)
I’d adjust it as follows: You can be greedy & rich, corrupt, or President, but not all three at once.
Didn’t Bill & Hill have enough goddamn money already? Did they really need to continue with the Goldman speeches at $225K a pop while she was preparing to run for president? And those sleazy deals Bill made over oil or gas or whatever?
They must know people will notice, so in true sociopath form they just don’t care.
And BTW what happened to Hillary handing over her transcripts?
http://iwilllookintoit.com/
Bill…..? Hillary….?…… Both….?? Who’s ‘looking’ into ‘what’ exactly ?????
There was a bicycle component manufacturer with the slogan ‘strong. light. cheap. Pick two’.
“Didn’t Bill & Hill have enough goddamn money already?”
________________________________________________
My thought: What normal woman (or, man) would stay with his/her spouse after irrefutable evidence exists that they’re married to a serial sexual molester? Answer: One whose sociopathic goal transcends the qualities we associate with “normal” people.
Hillary’s offer to Bill (circa 1975): The Deal…….
“You can fu*k everything and anything containing, or, having contained a pulse. I will support, and even help you in this endeavor. You can, hopefully, whore yourself out to anyone and everyone willing to pay you for talks, speeches, photos, friendship, whatever. I will assist you there as well.”
“In return, I want you to:”
1. look the other way regarding my relationships.
2. work with me to attain more wealth & power any human has had………ever.
3. That’s it….. Deal?
Bill’s reply: “Baby, baby, baby, have I ever told you how much I love you?”
IMO, that explains everything.
Why the AP called it for Hillary – that’s easy: Access to Clinton during the campaign and her presidency.
Yep they did but it looks like it was even earlier than the day before and hillabilly camp knew it was going to happen. Go figure.
http://wallstreetonparade.com/2016/06/sanders-supporters-claim-clinton-campaign-and-ap-engaged-in-a-conspiracy-complete-with-a-secret-win-code-name/
Digital evidence is not evidence. That’s why I’m not linking to that one.
Maybe refine that… all those e-mails are only “digital evidence” as well…
Without a chain of provenance, exactly so.
What about it is weak? You could name the file anything but why would the campaign mislabel the file on purpose?
I’m not seeing a “file.” I’m seeing a video of a filename. There are all sorts of reasons why somebody might make such a video.
From what I’ve gathered the url for image on the HRC campaign server is: https://a.hrc.onl/imageman/2016_Q2-Email/20160605_hfa_graphic/secret-win-V2-060416c_02.png
Unless that wasn’t a real HRC email or link. But if takes you to that image.
I’d be interested if anyone out there with more IT know how has input on this.
And the mill grinds on:
Pagliano’s reasons for pleading the Fifth sound credible enough. With his testimony unavailable, Judicial Watch likely will file a motion to depose Pagliano’s paymaster, Hillary.
Judge Sullivan may well concur, putting Hillary in the exquisite bind of having to plead the Fifth, or potentially incriminate herself.
I’m sure she’ll be able to delay any depositions until at least the end of the year.
Her bein’ busy on the campaign trail for the office of president of the united states and all.
I mean the whole “I don’t have time right now” thing pretty much writes itself.
Mrs. Clinton (and her legal counsel):
WE cannot see any unalterable items on your calendar between Wednesday June 15th and July 24th. We therefore order you to make arrangements to report for a deposition sometime within those dates and to report for that deposition or face charges of Contempt of Court.
Sincerely….
A new disclaimer has been added to the Hillary schedule site, after Lambert embarrassed them by posting a long list of fundraisers:
Don’t miss “Conversation with Gary Gensler, Chief Financial Officer” [of the Hillary campaign] next Monday. Maybe he’ll share some commodity tips. Don’t ask him about cattle futures, though. It’s a sensitive topic.
In case you missed it:
*rushes for the toilet with hand cupped over mouth*
Gary Gensler tried to enforce some rules within the CFTC. He may not be all that bad. He’s one of those crooks with Honor…
Flashback to Dec. 2011:
Free Corzine!
Using public office for private gain. The anthropologists don’t hold to the Citizen’s United distinction, apparently.
Yet Citizens United was not about this. Nor, for that matter was it about “corporate personhood” (a phrase which does not even occur in the decision, but which is long-established legal doctrine). It does mention the term quid pro quo, but only in the citation of the earlier Buckley v. Valeo decision that struck down portions of FECA. The decision is here:
http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-205.pdf
Clinton did to Sanders what Obama did to her in 2008 – right down to the premature “clinching of the nomination”.
Did Obama?
I don’t remember it being this bitter then.
Stocks, comrades: the S&P 500 index closed just 12 points below its last record high, set 12-1/2 months ago.
Probably stocks won’t move decisively until next Wednesday, when the Yellenites conclude their gabfest by doing nothing, but making it sound really important.
Let’s call it a 60% chance of breaking out to the upside, as long as the central planners don’t include any infelicitous new phrases in their communiqué.
FWIW, Grantham is sticking to his 2200 call on the S&P. It usually overshoots him, so make of that what you will.
‘We are unlikely, given the beliefs and practices of the U.S. Fed, to end this cycle without a bubble in the U.S. equity market.” — Jeremy Grantham, 1Q 2016 GMO quarterly letter
Bubbles being somewhat rare, this is a rather bold expectation on Grantham’s part. But it is consistent with the odd conjunction of widespread negative sentiment at the same time the market is near a record high.
When Dr Hussman finally turns bullish, it will be an infallible sell signal.
I suppose that’s good news for the incumbent party.
RE: Lambert’s 5 point commentary.
Terrific! I’d love to see it in a copy/paste format. Like to forward it on facebook.
It’s in HTML. Take a screenshot?
I copied and pasted it to FB, and it had 4 shares in 30 minutes. Great points, thank you.
I just highlighted and pasted it into my status with a link to this post
As did I.
Really great policy observations, thanks Lambert.
To (3) Militarism, I would add “and ignore the rumor that Victoria Nuland may become her Secretary of State”. That’s pretty scary.
To (4) Medicare for All, add “and ignore the fact that Universal Health Care was successfully implemented by most other advanced – and many developing – states.” American exceptionalism at its finest.
Today has been a bad day and I don’t know what I’ll do come November. I’ve been compelled to draw on my Scots-Irish roots.
I listened to a lot of IRA music today. Cf.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9aXxWwdTYc&index=39&list=PLrOKGST54qIYEiMw57-eLabZ29-7JxhP_
Ain’t much that’s less to do with Irish Republicanism than the Scots-Irish…
Head of New York City corrections officers union charged with fraud
The union leader for New York City’s prison guards and a hedge fund financier were charged on Wednesday with orchestrating a bribery scheme involving union retirement and operating funds in a case stemming from a sprawling federal corruption probe.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Norman Seabrook, the politically influential president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, and Murray Huberfeld early on Wednesday.
According to a criminal complaint, Seabrook invested $20 million of union money in 2014 in New York-based Platinum Partners in exchange for kickbacks from Huberfeld, who worked at the firm. The men were charged with honest services fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud.
In April, Reuters was first to report that Seabrook had invested union funds in Platinum, a mid-sized firm with a history of buying into controversial businesses, including two energy companies that are facing criminal charges.
Representatives for Platinum Partners did not respond to a request for comment. Lawyers for Seabrook and Huberfeld could not immediately be reached for comment.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-new-york-corruption-hedgefunds-idUSKCN0YU1IO
hmmm…ever wonder how all those “secret contracts” get signed in the first place?? Fiduciary turns into fee-duciary.
Why should NYC have all the fun? In upstate corruption news: (Betteridge’s Law alert)
Behind The Buffalo Billion [WXXI]
Part 1: Will Cuomo’s upstate model transform local economies?
Part 2: Does the Cuomo model open the door for corruption?
More parts will be posted later this week.
Someone at Caucus 99% posted Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem” this morn, made me feel fractionally better:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wRYjtvIYK0
Then there’s this (can’t find the video, just the audio)…
Loved Cohen all my life, for rage and solace. His piece on US democracy is probably my favorite, which is now nearly passe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JwmIBSMzSM
I’m sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can’t stand the scene.
And I’m neither left or right
I’m just staying home tonight,
getting lost in that hopeless little screen.
But I’m stubborn as those garbage bags
that Time cannot decay,
I’m junk but I’m still holding up
this little wild bouquet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
If you are to listen to the Cohen song, try this one instead—the vid they posted is so sentimental with pics that it kills, oy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lyaJzUe7r8
He saw the future. It is murder. Given the apocalyptic tone among the goys and girls today, maybe this is more appropriate:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnaxvBsyigM
Things are going to slide in all directions
Won’t be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard of the world
Has crossed the threshold
And it’s overturned
The order of the soul
When they said, “Repent”
I wonder what they meant
He saw the future. It is murder. Given the apocalyptic tone among the goys and girls today, maybe this is more appropriate:
Things are going to slide in all directions
Won’t be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard of the world
Has crossed the threshold
And it’s overturned
The order of the soul
When they said, “Repent”
I wonder what they meant
Perfect. Leonard is brilliant and this song is a direct hit.
RE: “Four Thoughts on Trump’s “Mexican” Judge Remarks” [RealClearPolitics].
So here’s number 5.
“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would, more often than not, reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”
So sayeth Sonia Sotomayor in speeches following her installation as a “supreme” court justice, u s of a.
Her assertion that her ethnic experiences would inform her opinions on the bench were widely regarded, at the time if I recall, as not only charming but a breath of fresh air.
And yet…..Here we are with Donald Trump suggesting that a judge of Hispanic heritage may be relying on his ethnic experiences to inform his opinions on the bench being excoriated as a despicably unreformable “racist,” not fit to shine the shoes of the likes of barack obama, the clintons or richard m. nixon, for that matter.
OK.
Ha!
Our political correctness can be confusing.
The only few rules to go by are, be compassionate, considerate and empathy.
To be called a ‘Jap’ is not the same as a Japanese American being sent to a concentration camp.
Yet, any American of Japanese ancestry is likely to remember the latter and wonder what will happen if again there is national conflict with Japan.
Can anyone with Spanish last name not feel something similar – that what happens with Mexico or other Latin American countries will involve him or her somehow?
No one seems to be picking up on the fact that Clinton is largely responsible for the EU crisis. Immigration is a major factor in ripping the EU apart. The Telegraph states “The migrant crisis has seen people scrambling to reach the EU after fleeing war-torn countries such as Iraq, Syria and Libya” Why are these countries “war-torn”…..Hillary Clinton.
After Clinton convinced Obama to seek regime change in Libya (and botched the job) she joined with the CIA to remove Assad. According to Sy Hersh the State Dept. Consulate in Benghazii ” only mission was to provide cover for the moving of arms (to Syrian rebels)” Hersh goes on to state that these arms deals were never reported to Congress and could easily be construed as illegal.
Jeffrey Sachs states “Clinton herself took the lead role in organizing the so-called “Friends of Syria” to back the CIA-led insurgency. ”
Clinton’s regime change policy in the Mid-east has led to mass migrations to Europe. This unintended consequence has destabilized our strongest ally. This is the foreign policy that Hillary thinks is her strong point.
Shhhhh! It’s supposed to be a surprise.
October surprize……. as in the hunt for Red October ..cough… ‘Hey…Look Over There’….’Putin’ !!…cough….or some such ?? :Q
I’m no admirer of Hillary Clinton, but the problems in Iraq are a legacy of the Bush/Cheney administration. I’m willing to be corrected, but I don’t think she had much to do with causing the war in Syria, either. That was caused by a combination of tyrannical rule by Assad and his Ba’ath Party, a multi-year drought, overpopulation, and the severe problems next door in Iraq. Libya, on the other hand, . . . .
The war on Syria started with the Bush administration but Obama and Clinton picked up the ball and ran with it:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/03/05/the-redirection
It’s true that Obama and Clinton continued the bad policies of the Bush administration. But I think it’s important for us to clearly acknowledge that the bad policies started long before Obama and Clinton were in office.
The Carter Doctrine?
But we are discussing more recent Democrats:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/wmdquotes.asp
Let’s not forget, the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998.
Or it’s Syrian equivalent in 2003…
Then the neo-cons say to each other, “‘ Meet the new boss….same as the old boss…” ?
C’mon, Vatch. You’ve been around here long enough to know better.
And ironically enough it was her SPOUSE and his assertion that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction that was used by Bush and Cheney as a reason to invade Iraq.
As far as Syria goes, our little hands were there because of a pipeline so spare us the Assad is a mean ol’ tyrant crap.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-geopolitics-of-gas-and-the-syrian-crisis-syrian-opposition-armed-to-thwart-construction-of-iran-iraq-syria-gas-pipeline/5337452
I think the Kurds might disagree with you about whether or not Assad is tyrannical. Of course, the U.S. government is hypocritical in supporting the Kurds against Syria, but not against Turkey.
Maybe not Hillary but how about the other Clinton as far as the legacy (Iraq) is concerned. Though there is a Bush previous to this history too. Syria would have continued to be the happy place where America sends Canadians for torture, had the simmering mess next door not spread. To characterize Syria as a failed revolution of democratic ideals compounded by global warming is to believe in white helmets being savior angels.
It’s all just one big continuous pottery barn ‘break the china’ event world wide for our glorious 2 legacy party government………………………..
I have to make one comment that I find interesting with respect to this quote (emphasis mine):
While I know that this was snark it certainly is the case that Hillary’s backers are assuming that they will benefit from Sanders’ donor list. But so many of those donors are not D’s that I find it hard to believe that it will be true.
I am *soooo* lookin fwd to my first begging email from HRC. I will be delighted to send her .02.
She has no clue why we donate to Bernie.
I can’t wait to see the social media memes that develop out of Hill’s courting of Bernie supporters. This is gonna be GOOD!
Spouse is looking forward to Trump debates. Thinks it’s brilliant entertainment because you never know what you are going to get.
As discussed in the Links threat, that list is likely to be of no value to the Clinton team.
People will just respond like HotFlash or others in the other threads.
It’s doubtful she wants that list.
A list of rich, buy-access, no principle donors, maybe.
But not this list of $27 donors.
It’s of little value to her.
Well, except to make sure they know which voters should get thrown out in the next purge of the rolls…
Like Puerto Rico – something about 8% voted.
But that would just mean people being forced to join another party.
Thus, the saying all along – why join or stay with the D party?
Be pro-active…leave that abusive relationship now.
The Beltway thinks it’s of value, because it thinks Sanders voters are fungible.
the currency of elections is votes. a $27 donation represents enough conviction to probably correlate almost always to a ($0) vote. she needs the votes, not the money.
especially regarding the ones that have left the party because of dinos like clinton.
Agreed. It’s bizarre to think Obama/Hell assume Bernie donors would give them the time of day.
They really are clueless.
That would be me. I became an indie back in 1992.
This Bernie donor will not be giving a dime to the DNC or to the Democratic party. I will support Defazio here in Oregon as he has opposed “Free Trade” in all it’s forms for as long as I can remember.
Otherwise, it will be directly to candidates like Tim Canova and to help support alternative media like NC.
It would be lovely to see both Trump and HRC wearing orange jumpsuits within the year, and it is more likely than my winning the lottery..but.not by much
.The good news is that Sanders is not stupid and he knows how valuable his donor list is, money is the mother’s milk of politics and that list used wisely can make a real difference both in this cycle and the midterms.
HRC has short coat tails and has hogged the $ that was supposed to go to the state parties which will increase the influence Sanders has…it would be nice to have some semblance of a left in the USA.
I doubt HRC wants that list.
I think Obama is likely to remind Sanders that he came to the D party voluntarily and, if I recall correctly (though without the details), Bernie made some promises.
He will be told again of those promises.
And Sanders will probably or he can say ‘you guys broke your promises or rules.’
Perhaps Obama will say, ‘Is this war then?’
Sanders: “I have been fooling myself all along. I should have never tried appeasement.”
With the electoral shenanigans on going myself thought this was apropos…
Lobbying America: The Politics of Business from Nixon to NAFTA
Benjamin C. Waterhouse
“Lobbying America tells the story of the political mobilization of American business in the 1970s and 1980s. Benjamin Waterhouse traces the rise and ultimate fragmentation of a broad-based effort to unify the business community and promote a fiscally conservative, antiregulatory, and market-oriented policy agenda to Congress and the country at large. Arguing that business’s political involvement was historically distinctive during this period, Waterhouse illustrates the changing power and goals of America’s top corporate leaders.
Examining the rise of the Business Roundtable and the revitalization of older business associations such as the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Waterhouse takes readers inside the mind-set of the powerful CEOs who responded to the crises of inflation, recession, and declining industrial productivity by organizing an effective and disciplined lobbying force. By the mid-1970s, that coalition transformed the economic power of the capitalist class into a broad-reaching political movement with real policy consequences. Ironically, the cohesion that characterized organized business failed to survive the ascent of conservative politics during the 1980s, and many of the coalition’s top goals on regulatory and fiscal policies remained unfulfilled. The industrial CEOs who fancied themselves the “voice of business” found themselves one voice among many vying for influence in an increasingly turbulent and unsettled economic landscape.
Complicating assumptions that wealthy business leaders naturally get their way in Washington, Lobbying America shows how economic and political powers interact in the American democratic system.”
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10135.html
Disheveled Marsupial…. seems – “representative” – thingy has gone back to historical norms… w/ the esoteric / non esoteric delineations as a focal point…
Apropos of nothing really, brilliant piss take on Ted Talks courtesy of the CBC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZBKX-6Gz6A
Thought this would be a good companion piece….
Economists – An Anthropological View
“The point is that much of cultural organisation is arbitrary. It often serves no real purpose. Evolutionary psychologists might tell you otherwise, but they are just modern day myth-makers telling stories that try to give us meaning and, ultimately, justify certain cultural patterns that we hold dear by appealing to the narrative structure of evolutionary biology and imposing it on cultural development metaphorically much in the same way as marginalist economics transferred metaphors from physics to the social sciences. Levi-Strauss introduced the idea of the ‘bricoleur’ as the person who engages in such constructions.
The bricoleur is not a person conceived of acting in line with a plan or toward a goal. For example, if I go to the shop, buy foodstuffs and cook food I obviously have a plan and a goal. A bricoleur — or, more accurately, a person partaking in the process of ‘bricolage’ — just throws things together in line with how he or she sees fit. There is no real point to the activity but it persists in all human cultures and makes up a key component of our cultural organisation. Perhaps the easiest way is to think of a child playing with lego bricks or an artist painting an abstract piece of art.
Society bestows upon bricoleurs important roles. In primitive society shamen or priests or some other caste are typically anointed to serve this role. They come up with stories of various kinds, contact the spirit world and even engage in fake healing in societies without medicine in which people feel like they need to do something in the face of illness and disease. Basically their role is to give meaning to those around them. In order to do so they are imbued with a certain aura that we do not find in, for example, the case of a modern dentist or the advertiser.
This aura allows their interpretations of the world to be accepted largely without question as these men are supposed to possess abilities and traits that the lay person could never understand. Obviously, modern day religion serves basically the same function, as do cults and even con-men who sell fake medicine to desperate and gullible people.
Leijonhufvud’s paper is written as a satire. But like all the best satires it serves a serious purpose. He makes up a tribe that he calls the ‘Econs’. He is referring to economists, of course. He is perfectly correct in doing so, economists do indeed serve basically the same function in society as shamen do in primitive society: namely, they tell stories about how the economy works and about how society should organise itself. He then goes on to say that the economics profession has actually developed as a sort of micro-tribe within society. He particularly notes the fetishisation of the model — which he jokingly refers to as the ‘modl’. He writes:” – snip
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/08/philip-pilkington-economists-anthropological-view.html
Disheveled Marsupial…. insert Devo clip for musical accompaniment… Jocko Homo
I think we’d better start requiring them to microdose in order that they may make more sense….
Wellie that might be one suggestion as the drama with letting go of refuted theory’s is quite inelastic – sticky with many camps….
Disheveled Marsupial…. on the other hand it could go horribly wrong…
I was unhappy that nobody noticed “haruspication” the other day :-(
Yesterday was a tough day Lambert… tho what a wonderful word to sum up a condition…
Dishevel Marsupial… if it helps I will prolifically quote you with attribution from now on…
PS. Philips new book will be out soon….
Beautiful word. Yes, I noticed. Had to look it up.
Kurt: Thank you for that!
This is on the internets so it may be true. That’s a lot of votes.
From L.A. County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk
Ballots Left to be Counted for the June 7, 2016 Presidential Primary Election
…initial estimate includes provisional and Vote by Mail ballots collected at the polls, as well as Vote by Mail ballots received in the mail post marked on or before Election Day.
Provisional Ballots 240,063
Vote By Mail Ballots Received at the Polls 125,280
Election Day Vote By Mail Ballots via USPS 204,946
Provisional voting procedures
LA Times
Probably will change her winning percentage some.
Or even, in the less likely case, make him a narrow winner, but not enough to change the presumptive status.
Still, it would be interesting to see final or certified numbers.
Yikes!
San Francisco 78K uncounted, Clinton up by 18K (88,318 Clinton 69,688 Sanders)
)
Thanks. Really good data and sourcing.
Mr. S,
In your article on Deep State, which I had missed but saw referenced for the first time yesterday in the article by Michael Hudson, you mentioned Forbes’ listing of the richest — something I have long held is incorrect propaganda, since the ONLY to track the wealthiest is by private records inaccessible to us, not public records.
Now, I know we should all religiously believe in anything in Forbes, founded with the inheritance left by what was once either one of the greatest — or the greatest — dope dealer of his period, Francis Blackwell Forbes (also the great-grandfather of John Forbes {Winthrop, Dudley} Kerry) but until they drop that disclaimer in their listing which states their list is derived from public records, I will continue to believe it is unreliable.
Just as I doubt Simon Johnson, a well-paid senior fellow at the Peterson Institute, founded by Rockefeller protégé, Peter G. Peterson, and David Rockefeller, when he states that the Rockefellers gave away most of their money. Sounds great to rebrand the Robber Barons as Philanthropists, but doesn’t always fool everyone!
This was the paragraph in your Deep State article I was referencing:
The term [overworld] should be distinguished from Frederick Lundberg’s “superrich,” the sixty wealthiest families that he wrongly predicted in his 1967 book Sixty Families would continue to dominate America both as a class and as a “government of money.” The recent Forbes annual lists of the four hundred richest Americans shows that Lundberg’s prediction was wrong on both counts: his richest inheritors of 1967 are mostly not the richest today, and today’s richest are not necessarily those projecting their wealth into political power. The overworld is not a class but a category.
Until we know who the major investors are in the Vanguard Group, BlackRock, State Street and Fidelity, there is no way to ascertain who the very richest actually are, sir.
Lundberg’s America’s Sixty Families was published in 1937. The Rich and the Super Rich was published in 1968.
You’re correct that the Forbes 400 list is an approximation, and that some people on or off the list undoubtedly have more money than we realize. There have certainly been some major additions to the American plutocracy since Lundberg wrote, but I suspect a lot of the families that were very wealthy in 1968 still are. Just because the individual ownership of assets has been diluted by multiple heirs, and in many cases the surnames have changed, does not mean that all (or even most) of the super rich families have fallen on hard times.
re: Surveyed shoppers made 51% of their purchases on the web.
acccording to the monthly retial sales report, online sales is still less than 10% of the aggregate http://www.census.gov/retail/index.html
I hope you and the Census Bureau are correct. I despise the way that Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com treats his employees and temporary workers.
Lawyers Ordered to Testify on Client’s Tax Evasion Case
Typically, lawyers cannot be compelled to testify or produce evidence against a client in a grand jury investigation. But in rare cases, judges can require it,
if there is evidence that clients’ communication with their lawyers was done purposely to further a crime or a fraud. In the law, it is known as the crime-fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege.
The indictment of Mr. Zukerman comes as the leak of the Panama papers — confidential documents from Mossack Fonseca, a law firm in Panama that catered to the very rich —
has helped renew interest in the lengths to which wealthy people will go to avoid paying taxes.
Federal prosecutors contend that Mr. Zukerman, 71, failed to report a profit from the sale of an oil company that would have generated $31 million in income taxes and misled his accountants and lawyers in the course of an I.R.S. audit. He also had expensive paintings that he bought for his Upper East Side home shipped to Delaware and New Jersey to avoid paying sales tax, prosecutors say. He is expected to plead guilty later this month.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/09/business/dealbook/question-of-conflict-of-interest-arises-in-tax-evasion-case.html?
now there’s a rain drop that could lead to a flood…
Via Ted Rall on Twitter:
Welp, so much for reaching out to Sanders voters.
the eye of the needle will be exceedingly small
And Bernie’s supporters haven’t changed their minds about her.
She and her thugs can fear-monger “but Trump” all day long; it will never make voting for her palatable.
Not. Voting. For. Clinton. Ever. (Unless Sarah Palin shows up, then all bets are off.)
Here’s an article about the interview.
http://freebeacon.com/politics/hillary-clinton-cant-name-one-position-bernie-sanders-got-change/
In other words, Clinton is just pretending to oppose the TPP and the Keystone XL pipeline. Similarly, she doesn’t really support an increase in the minimum wage. I will not vote for that woman.