I am up until 6 AM. This has to stop. You will have to resign yourselves to fewer than normal posts over the next few days as I try to get on a more normal sleep cycle.
New Particle Discovered at CERN Science Daily (furzy mouse)
Matters of the Brain: Why Men and Women Are So Different Live Science (Aquifer). I’m putting this up even though this sort of thing annoys me no end, since it just promotes stereotyping. To personalize this a bit, one of the things the article goes on about is how men are better at spatial visualization. In aptitude tests, I have scored better at that than on ANY other skill. Grr. The wisest thing I think I have ever heard said on this topic is: “With groups as large as men and women, the difference within each group are greater than the differences across groups.”
Large-Scale Analysis Finds Majority of Clinical Trials Don’t Provide Meaningful Evidence Science Times (John M)
Is rationality the enemy of religion? Nature (furzy mouse)
How to Muddy Your Tracks on the Internet New York Times
No More Secrets Keen Talks (Aquifer)
Is the ‘obesity lobby’ winning? Grist (Aquifer)
Geithner Decides to Focus on Business Concerns at the Expense of Workers in Negotiations With China Dean Baker, Firedoglake
Activist Chen Guangcheng: Let Me Leave China on Hillary Clinton’s Plane Daily Beast (Mark H)
Jobless Rate Reaches New High in Euro Zone New York Times
ECB May Soften Stance as Draghi’s Recovery Falters Bloomberg
“We Did Not Choose This War” and Other Hypocrisies David Swanson, Firedoglake
Who Determines Short Term Interest Rates? jazzbumpa (Angry Bear)
Wells Fargo’s Market Share of U.S. Mortgages Tops 33% Bloomberg
‘Dr’ Summers performs a medical miracle James K. Galbraith, Financial Times
If “Anarchists” Threaten to Blow Up a Little-Used Bridge Over Federal Property, Is It a Plot? Marcy Wheeler (Lambert)
Is Europe in a Depression? MacroBusiness
Morgan Stanley Banker Charged With Hate Crime Waives Right to Jury Trial Wall Street Journal (Andrea)
Progress Is Seen in Advancing a Final Volcker Rule New York Times
Accusations That Police Tried to Spy on Wall St. Protesters New York Times. Note the police justification: comparing OWS to gun-toting gang members. Help me.
Short-Term Fixes New York Times. An editorial on student debt.
Hatred transformed: How Germans changed their minds about Jews, 1890-2006 VoxEU
* * *
D – 128 and counting*
Well, what the hell’s the presidency for?” –Lyndon Baines Johnson, 1963, quoted by Robert Caro.
Bill Clinton reviews Caro’s book on LBJ. Krugman publishes book on the D economic narrative and the “lousy economy”, recommends strategery: Blame the Rs. Shocker! Obligatory campaign season presidential bio, Barack Obama: The [sic?] Story. But who’s the real “composite”, anyhow?
Kabul campaign swing follow-up: Bloom no longer 100% on rose for Charles Pierce; here, then here. Not so D strategist Begala: “Obama should get great credit for a triumph which happened because he did his job with rare bravery.” Hire that man! And so what if OBL got whacked without any due process? The same thing could happen to you and me, too, so what’s not to like?
A photo with Obomney costs $1500. Rove’s “being cool is bad” attack ad sank without a trace. Obomney won’t go on SNL. Obomney says Robama’s like Jimmy Carter. Shorter Obomney: I’m a Bain consultant! Shorter Obomney: To get rich is glorious! Shorter Obomney: I’m not Robama! This pudding has no theme! Oh, and the Daily News gets it partly right on R animal abuse. But you got the full list here first.
Robama’s more popular than he should be. Except among the kleptocrats whose bacon he saved and whose frauds he enabled. Why, the ingratitude! And Robama whacked OBL, so he can’t be swiftboated! (An overly literal interpretation of swiftboating, IMNSHO.)
In 2016 prequel, Elizabeth Warren (D): CFBP is “already working to cut the fine print and hold those banks accountable.” Oh, bullshit. Holding “those” banks accountable doesn’t mean simpler forms. It means bankster CEOs in orange jumpsuits doing the perp walk for accounting control fraud. Then Warren blasts Scott Brown (R) (“H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-S-Y”) for putting his daughter on his Senator’s insurance under ObamaCare. Brown fires back, saying he could have done the same thing (even though he didn’t) under RomneyCare. What neither candidate can admit: ObamaCare is RomneyCare. They both come from the same Heritage Plan — so Brown’s a hypocrite for going all coulda woulda shoulda, but Warren’s a worse hypocrite for playing legacy party kabuki with ObamaCare’s R policy roots. Can’t they both lose? Oh, and here’s the D PowerPoint on ObamaCare. Disinfect afterwards.
The Greens could qualify for matching funds. Looks like Ron Paul took a page from the 2008 Robama campaign, and focused on mastering the caucus machinery. MA. LA. AK. NV. Floor fight?! The WI Walker (R) recall is a dead heat, despite Walker’s massive out-of-state fundraising. Nice to see the national Ds giving their all on this. Oh, wait…
— Horse race-related tips, links, hate mail to lambert
* 128 days ’til the Democratic National Convention ends with a giant potlatch in Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, NC. The first Mac had 128K (and not Meg) of RAM. Cross-posted to Corrente.
Antidote du jour:
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Ref spatial visualisation: I know of what you speak. :) Both my daughter and I trounce Husband and Son at spatial visualisation. In fact, we’re usually the ones assembling the bits and bobs that require assembling…or fixing. (Daughter is a brilliant and natural engineer.)
Any news to the contrary is definitely Western propaganda. In Central Europe, for example, there is an overwhelming number of mathematicians and physicists who are women. In fact, a good friend of ours had his professor try to talk him out of a profession in physics, saying that was “a woman’s career”. She tried to persuade him to take up something more “manly”…Polish literature! LOL
In South-India brahmin women have to be trained in classical music to be considered eligible for marriage. Since South-Indian classical music has so much in common with mathematics, one great side effect as women entered the workforce is that a lot of them are extremely good at math and the sciences.
Bottom line, a lot of these effects are based upon the environment and not due to gender differences.
It’s OK if a group is different from another group in some particular attribute.
In practice, you deal with individuals, not members of a particular group…well, at least ideally.
When philosophizing about it, one wonders if it’s always the case that with those attributes that are perceived as desirable, it will be insisted upon that we are all equally endowed and with those perceived as not particularly desirable or even undesirable, it will be just ignored.
So, for example, maybe one group is hairier than another group. When being hairy is considered advantageous, people will argue that we are all equally hairy and when being hairy is not considered advantageous, we don’t hear much from those who are less hairy.
And in a world, let’s imagine for a moment, where all mental activities are disdained, saved one – the ability to count cards – then people will argue over who has more Rain Men in their group.
Here, we assume spatial visualization ability is desirable. Is it? Is it more desirable if it comes with a price – maybe the price is the brain has to devote resources for spatial visualization that could otherwise be used for something else that is just as desirable, or maybe even more desirable?
Yves would be a perfect case in point. Burdened with her spatial visualization skills, who could expect her to have enough brain resources left over to make any worthwhile contribution to others? The poor dear — how does she even manage to type? I guess typing is, for the most part, just a spatial skill. Don’t look for content though — not enough brain resources there.
In a society that hyper-valued pointless devil’s advocacy, people would very much want you in their group.
Sarcasm aside, you do have a point.
I am of the opinion, however,that everyone is good at something. So, if spatial visualization is not your thing, you might be great at something not highly valued by the status quo, ignored by the Machine, overlooked by the System.
You might see my writing as belittling people who can be good at many things.
I see my writing as encouraging people to see that each of them is good at something, even if it is not deemed as valuable in the current era.
Can you provide me some reference/link? I have heard South Indian classical music. I would think music is right-brain-oriented while Math is left.
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/baron-cohen05/baron-cohen05_index.html
male female differences:
Even the staunchest cultural relativists have to acknowledge that there are differences in the sex chromosomes and hormonal titers that lead directly to differences in our anatomy.
Recent work on imprinted genes a class that fails to follow the classic Mendelian patterns of inheritance shows that maternal contributions are often in complete conflict with paternal contributions. For example, with some imprinted genes, the maternal copy is quiet and the paternal copy is expressed, causing the fetus to extract more from its mother than she would like; these genes often cause pregnancy complications such as gestational diabetes. Studies of the brain using neuroimaging reveal sex differences in structure and function, and work with patient populations reveal differences in vulnerability to mental disorder. And closer to home, there are massive sex differences in the incidence of autism, with studies reporting an 8:1 bias in favor of males.
Where the debate gets interesting is when one attempts to explain how tightly the biology constrains our thoughts, preferences and actions. Baron-Cohen’s assortative mating hypothesis is an attempt to grapple with this issue. Much of the evidence hinges on the early appearance of sex-specific signatures of mental function. Early signatures are a tell-tale sign of an innate capacity peaking through,
There’s a lot we don’t know about genetics, which makes attaching so much significance to dimorphism problematic.
Good link, interesting discussion …. I think it was in ’05? Since then, methinks, we have expanded our view of what is considered part of the “nurture” or “environment” side of the “nature/nurture” discussion to include environmental pollutants especially in the hormone disruptor category … Frankly, i think that has more influence on the “explosion” of autism than the “systemizer” parental combos, or at least the concept is certainly worthy of equal consideration.
http://www.alternet.org/story/155119/why_is_autism_so_drastically_on_the_rise_an_environmental_horror_story?page=entire
It is pretty well established, i think, that kids are generally more sensitive than adults to the effects of various drugs/chemicals – how much more so would be fetuses, perpetually bathed in the maternal chemical milieu as they form their brains and other organs …
Gender benders? Yup – “environment” has a lot to do with it …
re: Matters of the Brain: Why Men and Women Are So Different
there are real physiological & neurological differences between the male brain & the female brain, but this is article doesnt explain that; it’s just a lousy opinion piece
Next up on Nature: Is water wet?
Re the brain piece, I think it is very reasonable. There are always distinctions to be made and I don’t think we can tease out what is innate and what is environmental now. They are so closely linked. To hold any other opinion, it seems to me, is to engage in motivational thinking or what Corey Robin would call defending private spheres of power.
Re: Matters of the Brain: Why Men and Women are so Different.
We all know that women are from Mars and men are from Venus. Oh, wait, is that men are from Mars and women are from Venus? Then, again, maybe it’s Jupiter and Saturn respectively… or vice versa.
What would Apple’s Siri say? Or, in the UK, I mean Daniel, or is that Sir Siri?
By the way, how could Siri ever be a guy? Everyone knows men never listen!;-)
I give up!
The poor scoring in spatial visualization does explain why we see so many women wandering aimlessly thru shopping malls – or at the DMV trying to get their driver’s licenses back.
I also wonder if this is why women like shoes so much? Like you can watch them as you walk and they point the way to your destination?
You know why I don’t ask for directions? I am good at spatial visualization even when I am lost.
Just a left turn there and a right there, under the freeway pass, across the parking lot and then we will be there. I got the whole thing visualized.
LOL. Too funny! I found studying Jung’s psychological types through Isabel Myers’ work with her mother very helpful in dealing with clients who looked at things differently than I did or reacted at first more “emotionally” rather than logically. In these theories, everybody comes into the world with preferences like maybe a particular operating system; Mac, Linux, Windows. Then environment, parenting, peers, education are kind of like software that can enhance your strengths and also figure out how you differ from somebody else and how to use that to have healthy relationships or to work on tasks together in your work.
Wasn’t until my forties that I stumbled upon all this. I was relieved as a woman to find out that all this time I felt like I was swimming upstream because I based decisions on logic and reasoning that might seem kind of cold or unfeeling for my mostly women friends and a few men friends who decided based on what was best for the group, family, etc. I also see things in patterns rather than detail. I have to work at being interested in details, but it’s not my thing. I can look at a picture of sailboats in a harbor and say, “Wow, where are all the people. Looks like a Stephen King story.” Whereas the guy next to me says, “I see 10 boats, three with motors, 5 American flags, one dock…” (I did that exercise in a class on type and it was a hoot. We “intuitives” all scribbled all over the flipboard our answers to what we saw. When the exercise ended, we got to see what the “sensors” had done. They had neatly ordered their answers on their flipboard. 1) 10 boats 2) 5 flags, etc. )
So, yes, “we are all of one body with gifts differing” as Myers (and the Bible) says. We “compliment” each other. The ratio of women who are “Ts” (thinkers) to women who are “Fs” (feelers) are about one third to two thirds, I think. Then as you mature, you are supposed to try to develop your lesser preferences or at least try to understand how other people think and feel. We’ve all seen how people who don’t mature, don’t do that and end up as heads of companies and governments. much to our misfortune.
This is too complicated is some ways for a comment here, but at the same time I’ve found it has helped me to see things more simply or maybe the word is more “clearly”. Whatever works for you.
“Matters of the Brain…” Cordelai Fine’s “Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference” takes a chainsaw to nonsense like that.
Men and women are not equal, they are complimentary. Neither sex is more or less intelligent, by any aspect of intelligence, than the other. Culture is the differentiating influence when comparing men with women.
As you do well with spatial conceptualizations, so do I. Does that mean that there is difference between us as to relative intelligence? I think not. Is one of us more intelligent than the other? There are three possibilities, more, less and equal. All three are equally probable.
Finally, just what is intelligence? In my view it is cognitive speed and a proclivity to evaluate a large number of possibilities before acting.
As to the article, pretty empty thing in its failure to acknowledge the obvious fact that men and women are complimentary. The more informative exercise would have been to examine the combined intelligence of couples.
Heh. I wish men and women were more complimentary. “That’s a lovely hairdo.” “Thanks. That’s a swell mustache.” “And your latest paper was quite provocative.” “Oh, but your rebuttal was incisive.”
Oh, complementary. Well, that too. :-P
Have you ever raised children? We thought we could ameliorate male aggressive tendencies by never having toy guns in the house. At 20 months our son fit the dinner pork chop into his hand, pointed it around the table and said “Bang, bang.”
My girl friend bought a few Barbies for her boys, along with more traditional guy toys. She came home from work one day to find one boy hanging Barbie by the neck from the second floor landing and the other using a different Barbie as a gun.
There’s a really good reason for the pink aisle. We’re not the same.
I don’t know why but I started laughing hysterically at all that. There was no shyness about guns in my day. I had 5 guns. Two BB-gun rifles, a BB-gun pistol, and two 22-caliber rifles. I did competitive marksmanship and was an NRA member (that came somehow with the gun club I shot for). I actually was quite a good marksman and won many competitions. We also played ‘army’ too as kids, like most kids then.
However, despite all that gratuitous proto-violence, I became a resonably well-adjusted quasi-pacifist who never hunted and even gets a queasy feeling of evil at times while fly fishing, which I do occasionally.
I never hung Barby by the next from a two-story window, but probably did similar things. There’s imagination and then there’s reality. And the world’s problems come from the people who can’t tell the difference when they grow up.
My sister and I tied Barbies to Chinese jumpropes and threw them out 2nd-story windows. Bugged the hell out of my dad, whose office was right below. This was before bungee-jumping was known to us (circa 1968-70?).
Yeah because those differences are all innate and have nothing to do with cultural cues. /sarcasm
My favorite male-female brain difference was first noted by Norman Geschwind back ca. 1968. He discovered that female brains were significantly and even visibly more lateralized than male brains. He opined (and I believe his theory is still accepted) that male brains were in effect delateralized by the infusion of testosterone that differentiates boys from girls ca. 3 months in utero.
To my mind, this usefully explains why women test higher on verbal skills (lateralization is highly correlated with language skills) and why men are more often ambidextrous.
(The testosterone also explains why men are more eager to kill anything that moves.)
The linked article, however, is mostly pop sci trash.
From the Times-Titanic editorial “Short Term Fixes”:
DOH! No supply-demand or return-on-investment analysis here! Just the standard “more is better” boilerplate from the Academic-Governmental usurer cartel.
Meanwhile, for the minority who value education for promoting critical thinking, Bloomberg features an editorial from an economist at Ohio University, discussing “Why college is not for everyone”:
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-04-09/why-college-isnt-for-everyone
In the past, this question was rarely asked. Everyone who could qualify and afford it was advised to go to college. But now word is getting out that the government-subsidized student loans which the Times-Titanic mindlessly champions can mean a lifetime of escalating interest, penalties, and harsh debt collection efforts, even to the point of garnishing your Social Security if it comes to that.
It’s even on TV, for God’s sake. In a feature on student loans, CNN flashed a caption: “Bankruptcy won’t help you.” Now kids know: kindly Uncle Obama the loan peddler morphs into a snarling, cudgel-wielding kneecapper if you fail to cough up the loot.
But the Times-Titanic, a stately relic from a bygone age, sails blissfully on to its appointment with an iceberg.
Re: Accusations That Police Tried to Spy on OWS– this just showed up at FDL. Police in Minnesota gave out free illegal drugs to presumed Occupiers there, for reasons I personally cannot figure out. Link: (Article and 35 minute video)
http://my.firedoglake.com/michaelcavlanrn/2012/05/02/breaking-news-from-occupy-minnesota/
@Lambert: I don’t know if you have seen this: “The Constitutional Crimes of Barack Obama” Take. Down. Ouch!
http://www.nationofchange.org/real-politics-must-be-streets-constitutional-crimes-barack-obama-1335936844
So this must be how the police are entrapping Occupy protestors into planning to “blow up” bridges:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTgN17FZGKE&feature=g-all-f
The video shows cops luring Occupy protesters to a location where they are given drugs and food and undergo an “eval.”
RE: “Well, what the hell’s the presidency for?” –Attorney General Lyndon Baines Johnson, 1963, quoted by Robert Caro.”
I’m sure I must be missing something here, but LBJ was not AG in 1963.
Remember, he became president in Nov at JFK’s death.
Thanks, Bill, fixed. I really did know LBJ was never AG; it was a copy-o from yesterday’s epigraph from John Mitchell.
“I have scored better at that than on ANY other skill”
Anecdotal not scientific.
RE: “I have scored better at that than on ANY other skill”
I, on other hand, am a guy, and spatial relationships are my worst skill.
Also, ZERO sense of direction — I have a good friend, a female artist, and she has an innate GPS. She always knows not to take my advice to “go that way.”
oops, more anecdotal…means nothing, move along.
who are you who is so wise in the ways of science?
Burn her! Burn her! She turned me into a newt.
….
It got better.
re: the election countdown stuff:
if one is truly of the opinion that the existing liberal/conservative, democrat/republican, blue/red paradigm is nothing but an empty fabrication, whose sole purpose is to entertain, confuse, & distract the population, is there, at that point, any constructive purpose whatsoever in either drawing attention to, or paying attention to, its never-ending, day-to-day, ‘he said / she said’ ins’n’outs?…
iow, isn’t investing one’s time in simply observing, never mind snarkly commenting on, this vapid 3-ring kabuki mashup doing nothing so much as contributing (in a sophisticated, back-handed way) to maintaining its continued existence?…
to spend time keeping up with obama/romney is to spend time keeping up with the kardashians…
+10. The aspiring puppet rulers can only be so full of shit. So you could relax, elections are fully debunked. What’s going on in the deep state, that’s the question.
“to spend time keeping up with obama/romney is to spend time keeping up with the kardashians…”
Well, that may be true on one level – but to the extent it keeps the need, nay, imperative, to make other choices at the polls on the radar screen, it is useful, especially when coupled with info on other choices that are, indeed, available …
Unlike the Kardashians, the one who holds the Presidency, by virtue of the office, has the power to make significant impacts in our lives …
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Wrong. The candidates’ patrons have the power to make significant impacts on our lives. I don’t care who the candidates’ patrons appoint to screw the population. It’s amazing, after having lived through the past three years, that people can still pretend this is a democracy. Elections are futile by design, and parties are working hard enough to push everybody down the party cattle chutes and stave off genuine freedom of association. When the election does not represent the free will of the electors, as the law requires, Why would you anybody bother to vote?
Ah yes, it is the candidates patrons who have the power ….
So at what point did the 99% cede that power to the 1%? At what point did we decide to let the MSM, that we know is a wholly owned subsidiary of TPTB, decide for us what the acceptable parameters of our choices are? At what point did we dismiss the choice of something outside the duopoly, not because of policy or principle or program, but because “they can’t win” or “don’t have any money”, or “they’re not on TV” or any of those perpetrated BS memes that have deliberately been promoted by the TPTB or thoughtlessly perpetrated in the “everybody knows ….” way we all have a habit of tossing off in conversation …
Is it possible that if elections indeed have had no meaning, at least for the last several decades, it is because of the choices we have made in them instead of any inherent inability they have to be a mechanism for change? People all over the planet have struggled and died for the right to vote … and we, yes WE, have reduced it to a meaningless exercise by refusing to exercise not only imagination but due diligence in HOW we exercise it?
The degree to which the “can’t win” meme succeeds in destroying the viability of other dynamic choices staggers my mind – that otherwise intelligent, educated, “logical” reasoning people who would never dream of allowing such a BS argument in other areas of their lives allow it to keep them “kettled” (seems to be the word of the day) in the Dem/Rap paradigm never ceases to amaze me. Folks won’t even explore alternatives that TPTB, and yes, make no mistake about it, it IS TPTB that perpetrate this crap, have stamped with the “can’t win” meme. They are laughing their asses off – they don’t have to engage, let alone refute those alternative ideas, cause folks won’t even give them a second look once they see the label “can’t win” …
Make no mistake – if voting is a joke it is because we have kept voting for jokes ….
The legislators may be the arms and legs with the corporate PTB as the “brain”, but any Monty Python fan will remember that classic piece where the “good” knight whacks off the “bad” knights arms and legs, one by one, until, with no limbs, the “brain” is left impotent, sputtering by the side of the road as the “good guy” just rides around him.
You want folks who aren’t bought by TPTB? Then vote for them, damn it … Use your imagination, refuse to accept who TPTB tell you is acceptable, or “can win”. We decide who wins, we always have …
As Franklin (?) said, when asked what the Constitutional conveners had given the populace – “A democracy, if you can keep it …” Apparently we have decided it’s just too much work ….
“So at what point did the 99% cede that power to the 1%? At what point did we decide to let the MSM, that we know is a wholly owned subsidiary of TPTB, decide for us what the acceptable parameters of our choices are?” Well, I’ve been thinking a lot about that for the last three years, and I think it basically goes back to McKinley in 1896. Maybe as far back as the Whigs in 1850, but certainly by the time of “Manifest Destiny.”
In fact, I’m very sympathetic to this viewpoint; and bored readers can always skip the section, which is clearly demarcated. And the time ’til “Election” Day is not so long, after all. That said:
1. Granted your/our model of the legacy parties is correct, the destruction will still play out in real time. At a minimum, keeping the record straight for future generations is important.
2. I’m sure we all have plenty of NPR-listening (or, for that matter, Rush-listening) friends who still take a Civics 101 view of the electoral process and the legacy parties, and who must be brought round to a more realistic approach. Think of this section as a “magazine” (both senses) of composition and invention for such conversations. The snark isn’t just for fun, though it is fun; it has a purpose.
3. The new always emerges from the old. As some of us devoutly hope, the legacy parties are in a state of decay and collapse, ready for composting. Emergent parties will not appear magically from the sky, but on the ground, in the D/R compost. So I take care to track the Greens, Paul, etc (and would welcome tips from readers, since emergent parties, oddly, or not, are rarely covered by our famously free press).
4. The elite always doubles down on #FAIL. I can imagine plenty of scenarios, after whatever the next LIHOP/MIHOP moment, where the elite reconfigures the party structure (say, “a government of national unity” to “end partisanship and “deal with the current crisis”). This too would not fall from the sky, but would take the form of a rebalances of the elite’s political portfolio. So we had better get to know that portfolio, because today’s bit player is tomorrow’s charismatic young technocrat. (This is why the collapse of Americans Elect is so funny. In portfolio terms, it was a “dog.”).
Random thoughts, not clearly formulated. The future lies ahead!
UPDATE Adding… So far as I can tell, this is not such a bad summary. This may be wildly ambitious, but it would be nice if NC became a go-to for horse-race coverage too, because that would, I hope, help everything else NC is trying to do. Thoughts invited…
if you’ve got the time, the energy, & the stomach for it, power to you. :) ‘documenting the atrocities’ has its values, i suppose. but, afa ‘horse-race’ coverage goes, i continue to feel that my personal obligation is remain focused on who owns/runs the race-track, how they’ve come to do so, & what their future plans might be. & that to be distracted from this, by the races themselves, is to entirely miss seeing what’s actually occurring…
the problem with opinionating/commenting within the context of the partisan paradigm is that doing so, intentionally or not, only ends up reinforcing its ‘substance’. when you think ‘world wrestling federation’ (aka ‘world wrestling entertainment’), do you actually start mentally tracking what individual wrestlers have said or done to each other? or do you simply think ‘it’s actually kinda dumb/pointless, not to mention, of course, it’s rigged’?, forget it, & move on?…
national politics = ‘national verbal-wrestling entertainment’. & i think it’s dumb/pointless, &, of course, rigged. best wishes in covering the matches. i’ll be keeping my eye on the vince mcmahons :) …
Well, nobody’s stopping you from doing what you need to do. We do forget, however, that electoral politics is, even in our degraded state, much more complex than the WWF or the kabuki theatre; there are more players, and the audience and camera operators are also players, and each player has a degree, greater or larger, of relative autonomy. (It’s more like the courtarena in The Dosadi Experiment, if you’ve ever read that book.) So, frankly, I prefer my metaphor of a portfolio, where one has to understand both the owners and the owned (who are also owners, recursively). Incidentally, if you’ve got links that you feel would be of interest, do feel free to pass them along; the address is in the post.
I too am tire of this lib/conservative litmus test. It is a sham to keep the population at each other’s throats. The two parties in Washington battle it out in the presses during the day, then share cocktails at night laughing at us.
At this point, I would be happy simply with an honest person with a good head on their shoulders. Not many of them around.
Simple and to the point.
Yes, and they know that. And they’re probably grooming that simple, “honest person” right now. Why do you think I’m paying so much attention to Elizabeth Warren, for pity’s sake? And to emergent parties?
There are not going to be any emergent parties. If Ralph Nader and Ross Perot couldn’t do it, it can’t be done.
And there’s a reason. It seems to me that back in the 1890’s, the Populist party so scared the Republicans and Democrats that they passed laws establishing themselves as the only parties. But you can do better than this.
You can turn the analysis around and say that the government captured the two parties. And though the government has run them both into the ground, so long as there is a government, there will be no choice. No new party.
All I need to do to prove this is try to vote in local elections. I’ve been forlorn in Maryland for ten years this October. I have yet to vote in a local election.
At first I simply could not find them. On voting day in November, the only offices up for a vote were Federal and State. Not local.
Well, local elections happened on local election day. So, after several years and several bad guesses as to what day that might be, I finally got to the polls to vote.
To find the ballot full of Republican incumbents running unopposed. The real election had already taken place. The real local election was local primary day.
Back to the drawing board. Years pass. Now I turn up on local primary day, eager to vote.
I find no Democrats running. Only Republicans. I go to the registration table. I want to change parties, I say. And I do. Now can I vote?
No. I can only vote in the next local primary election.
And so that day finally comes. And, more eager than a boy who’s just been kissed for the first time, I eagerly go to the polls.
To find them closed!
It turns out, that election was some sort of “special” election, where only “special” people got elected, which, in this entire county, there were only two or three polling locations. By that time it was late in the evening. If I remember what they told me, the special polls closed at 6 pm.
I gave up in frustration. There really was no point. I did not know the candidates one from the other. Which meant I was unqualified to vote, but more than that, it was clear that of all the many thousands of people who live in this community, Bel Air Maryland, in Harford County, next door to Baltimore, only a few dozen would actually vote. They were presumably the friends and families of the office seekers, I mean, office holders, as I presume there was no more contest here than at any other local election. All other voters had been driven off, not by idiotic ID requirements, but by a system which has systematically disenfranchised the entire electorate.
Are local elections important? YES THEY ARE. Local elections are where office holders first get their feet wet. Get a local job, give your superiors reasonably adequate blow jobs at reasonably adequate intervals, and they will push you along, from councilman, to assemblyman, to mayor, to representative, to maybe even senator. All you gotta do is get your foot in the door.
If you can’t establish a new party locally, you surely cannot establish it nationally.
Now, Lambert, please tell me about this new party of yours. Should I bring a keg? Do you got enough girls? In Rome they had lions and tigers and Christians and blood. We got porn. Porn parties are the only ones that are real. They’re the only ones I will bother with. Long Live Porn!
I guess we’ll have to see. If the Greens get matching funds, they obviously will have emerged, no? And even if not, they’re fielding candidates. Personally, I don’t have a lot of confidence in the electoral process, but I’m with FDR: “Bold, persistent experimentation”!
I’m with you on local, by the way.
Great post Dave, and so true. The rot starts at the roots. Get involved people, locally, even the school board.
There are not going to be any emergent parties. If Ralph Nader and Ross Perot couldn’t do it, it can’t be done.
Some people see it as a matter of momentum, not one of incidental success. Just because they couldn’t do it doesn’t mean nobody can, and the methods and technologies used change from election to election. Even the future has a future, so quit trying to shut people down before they start.
EH,
Amen! Couldn’t have said it better, or as well …
If the Greens get matching funds, there are a thousand ways they can waste them. Provided, of course, that they ever do get matching funds. If well-meaning NY AG’s can be repeatedly sabotaged, if innocent and dumb street people can be slammed into nefarious terrorist plots, if police departments nationwide will not permit simple street protests, what chance do you think a new political party will have against the existing establishment?
Sure! Give the Greens matching funds! Give them a LOT of matching funds! Set them up for a BIG FALL. NOTHING will destroy the third party movement faster than their Very Own Obama. Their very own charismatic wolf in sheep’s clothing. The naivety is breath-taking.
So far as “momentum”, even if it happens (which is unlikely), the result is still prone to capture, as above.
Okay. We tried the ballot box. We tried peaceable protest. What if we went apeshit? What if we chose Door Number Three? What if we had an armed insurrection?
Cellphones and emails would be monitored. People physically tracked. You can do without these mod cons, you say?
Where will you get your money? From your bank account? If cells are monitored, bank accounts are easy prey. If Iran’s accounts can be frozen, if student loan debtors can be harassed, so can you and yours.
But imagine that, say, Toledo successfully revolts. No need to send in the bombers to knock out the power stations because the government owns them. Cut the power, blockade the roads, stop food and gasoline trucks on the highways, freeze individual bank accounts and Toledo will starve in a matter of days. Not a shot would be fired. End of revolt. You think they wouldn’t?
So what if Toledo had gold? Their very own. So what? Toledo is not self-sufficient. Shut the power off and Toledo won’t have running water or sewers.
Add in a predictable news blackout and how do you or I know that Toledo isn’t actually in armed revolt as of this very moment?
Ralph Nader has already been down this road. Learned these lessons. His response? He wrote a book, Only The Super Rich Can Save Us. Which is, frankly, shocking. I think he was being optimistic. So far as I can tell, we’re looking for a General Jack D. Ripper, someone who will take his military base and make it a safe haven for the people, but I’m still not hopeful.
Meanwhile the next big collapse is coming and we’re no better prepared than the last time. Dear Chicken Little, I believe you! What should I do, what should I do ? !
Ah, yes, good ole’ Liz – i knew the jig was up when she decided to run – as a Dem ….
Warren is fascinating, as the poster child for interception and hijacking of popular heroes by democratic consultants. , http://whowhatwhy.com/2006/06/14/25-democratic-consultants/
The Dems’ heartfelt invitations to participate at the grassroots are accompanied by a growing Rove-style infrastructure for vetting and indoctrinating candidates. The party will make sure that public participation remains within allowable limits.
And speaking of sprouting anew from the fetid compost,
http://whowhatwhy.com/2012/02/29/the-jeb-scenario-can-you-say-president-bush-again/
Yes. It’s important that be called out as bullshit. Check out that hideous PowerPoint on ObamaCare. Not only is it full of lies, it’s encouraging the innocent and trusting to propagate lies.
that’s why I watch football.
still, I think Lambert’s “Obomney” and “Robama” is hilarious (I guess it was Lambert, as far as I know). These two jokkers are good for some laughs (dark sardonic Kafka-esque laughs) once a day, but I will only read the taglines. I won’t click. Lord have mercy I may be crazy but I’m not a masochist.
I’m just being honest but I’m at the point where I couldn’t care less which of these blowhard jackasses wins. I’ve realized it’s all like a Hieronymous Bosch painting and the real forces that change reality are so utterly invisible and subtle that only the most marginalized lunatics can see and understand them. Not that I can, but at least I know they’re there, and that they shoot out their morphic rays like something on the electromagnetic spectrum in wavelengths that defy math or measurement, except by the most deranged instruments of distorted awareness.
Yes, Robama and Obomney was me. Do feel free to share ;-)
occupy protestors trashing a nike store in seattle were spotted wearing?
Nikes!
Furthermore, some people protesting the Administration’s housing policies live in — you guessed it — houses! BURN! Oh the hypocrisy!
I think Nikes are how the uniformed police recognize their agents provocateur.
Hatred transformed: How Germans changed their minds about Jews
“..Italian towns that were self-governing in the middle ages are still more prosperous, citizens give more blood, and are more trusting (Guido et al. 2008).
Areas of Africa affected by the slave trade continue to show lower levels of interpersonal trust (Nunn and Watchekon 2011).
What accounts for the two-faced nature of
culture?”
How can they compare Italy to Africa with a straight face?
Lack of interpersonal trust in Africa was,is and always will be caused by tribalism. It dooms Africa.
Slavery was made possible by it.
Africans were sold into slavery by the next tribe over the river with the help of the Arab invaders who handed the merchandise off to the English sea captains working for the Portuguese-Jewish slave traders i.e. Aaron Lopez operating out of Rhode Island.
Then of course there was the bigget slave trading family of all, the Monsanto [MountZion] Family operating out New Orleans and the Caribbean.
Italy faced far less than this onslaught.
As to some Germans, there is a strain of self-loathing in Germans that is manifest by their marrying Asians, smoking [Hitler was anti-tobacco] and a deliberate embracing of whatever is non-German, or anti-German.
Evil takes many forms.
This is kind of weird. What does marrying Asians have to do with self-loathing? Asians are hot! They know extra positions! Are you one of those guys whose major life achievement was being born white and it was all downhill from there?
Re Holding bankers accountable. I cannot ever see this being a reality if recent developments in the UK are anything to go by. Mervyn King (Bank of England) says he should have done better with regard to spotting the heinous consequences of “light touch” regulation but then goes on to say we must stop apportioning blame and move on. However, not blaming the perpetraitors of these economic crimes with prosecutions for their fraudelent actions leaves them free to continue to milk the economy, the share holder and the tax payer while they continue to reap havoc on the lives of the individuals paying the price for their greed. http://lifeafterdebts.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/unequal-shares.html
More lunacy by Mayor Rahm-ler being reported by the local media. Coast Guard boats being used to patrol the Chicago river for the NATO SUMMIT will be armed with machine guns…! My God, do they even think of the innocent children standing on those bridges above them…? What are they even thinking. … ??? That a coup de tat is going to take place on the Chicago River…? I personally wouldn’t want to take my family any where near these crazy psychopaths armed with machine guns. They are all completely out of their minds and acting like a rogue regime.
Got a link on that from Rahm? I love the Coast Guard boats!
I will look for a link Lambert…of the coast guard boats with machine guns attached to the sides in plain view.
I personally wouldn’t want to take my family any where near these crazy psychopaths armed with machine guns
Yes, that’s the whole idea. Stay away. Don’t protest, don’t bother them.
Sorry resklez…..terrorizing the people into not showing up IS UNNACCEPTABLE IN A FREE & OPEN SOCIETY.
Subject: Where are Jim, Tim, and Franklin now?
IN CASE YOU WONDER WHO IN THE HECK IS HELPING RUN (RUIN) OUR COUNTRY READ THIS ONE!!!!
Here’s a quick look into the three former Fannie Mae executives who brought down Wall Street.
Franklin Raines – was a Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Fannie Mae. Raines was forced to retire from his position with Fannie Mae when auditing discovered severe irregularities in Fannie Mae’s accounting activities. Raines left with a “golden parachute valued at $240 Million in benefits. The Government filed suit against Raines when the depth of the accounting scandal became clear.
Tim Howard – was the Chief Financial Officer of Fannie Mae. Howard “was a strong internal proponent of using accounting strategies that would ensure a “stable pattern of earnings” at Fannie. Investigations by federal regulators and the company’s board of directors since concluded that management did manipulate 1998 earnings to trigger bonuses. Raines and Howard resigned under pressure in late 2004. Howard’s Golden Parachute was estimated at $20 Million!
Jim Johnson – A former executive at Lehman Brothers and who was later forced from his position as Fannie Mae CEO. Investigators found that Fannie Mae had hidden a substantial amount of Johnson’s 1998 compensation from the public, reporting that it was between $6 million and $7 million when it fact it was $21 million.” Johnson is currently under investigation for taking illegal loans from Countrywide while serving as CEO of Fannie Mae. Johnson’s Golden Parachute was estimated at $28 Million.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
FRANKLIN RAINES?
Raines works for the Obama Campaign as his Chief Economic Advisor.
TIM HOWARD?
Howard is a Chief Economic Advisor to Obama under Franklin Raines.
JIM JOHNSON?
Johnson was hired as a Senior Obama Finance Advisor and was selected to run Obama’s Vice Presidential Search Committee.
Kinda makes you sick to your stomach.
It is a big crony capitalists club. There is plenty of proof of corruption at the highest level. What is most disturbing to me is how arrogant they are about it. That is clear evidence that they are attempting to impose a dictatorship. This is why we have a Constitution. To protect us from a Government that is completely corrupt and acting like a tyranny and oppressing the people. I read a prediction a while back that predicted something would happen that would cause the people to take up arms against it. This could be it. If the U.S. CONSTITUTION and the laws of the land are being suspended by the Government and we are no longer considered to all be equal under the law.
Perhaps at one time we had capitalism and free markets. But today we have Crony Capitalism and rigged markets (you know, regulations that are rarely ever enforced, and when they are enforced, all the benefits go to the highest bidder)
Wake me up when the last 30% of the stolen money at MF Global is returned AND Jon Corzine is behind bars:
http://rt.com/programs/capital-account/teflon-new-mf-global/
Is Eric Holder aware of this?
On the other hand, why is Corzine still unemployed?
Holder has his hands full covering up for Op fast and furious.
Most of the Obama voters see him as a victim. They claim he would be a more effective president IF ONLY the Congress did not obstruct him, using partisan threats. Most people fail to understand that Congress has no authority. They have given that authority to central bankers and the POTUS. It wasn’t hard for W Bush to take even greater hubris into the executive office when Republicans controlled the Congress. You wonder when Congress will demand that we return their authority?
Congress would be more popular if they could stop the illegal wars and the shredding of our civil liberties, (their authority by the Constitution) and control the expansion of debt through monetization (their authority through the Constitution) and they could control the budget (their power written into the principle of checks and balances).
If Congress took back their power they would be more popular and the President would act less like a tyrannical monarch. This is a Constitutional problem. SCOTUS has to take some responsibility, but they are largely partisan hacks whose majority tends to favor Ayn Randian corporate rights and corporate welfare.
They appointed W Bush president, which I repeat, demonstrates this is a Constitutional crisis.
And who keeps putting those bozos back in office? We do …
Not so sure about that Aquifer. It appears to be a no win situation. A rigged game. Both parties are corrupt and useless and playing for another team, not ours. I don’t consider 2 choices for President having a choice. I find it hard to believe that we have never elected a third party President to date. Things that make you go hmmm…??
And who do you suppose is busy as hell convincing us not to vote 3rd party? Do the memes “can’t win” and “spoiler” ring a bell? We all know Americans love “winners”, so all one has to do is convince them someone “can’t win” and they won’t even give them a second look …
It is ironic, isn’t it, in a country where voting the duopoly is, indeed, a “no win’ situation, folks who insist on voting for “winners” keep picking them …
Like ducks in a shooting gallery – we get shot at one “end”, so we swim to the other “end”, get shot there and swim back – why doesn’t it occur to us to jump off the track and fly to another pond …
I know there cannot be a rational discussion of this issue, but seriously, those questions are designed to uncover the Anti-Semitic (TM)?
#1 — Are Jews are partly responsible for their own persecution?
Partly? Are you seriously suggesting that no matter how disproportionate the response of the Holocaust was (or any other random pogroms) that Jews had *no* responsibility? They were thrust into the world blameless and angelic and never did anything that would ever upset a non-Jew? I’m sorry, I hate stereotyping, over-generalization, and blaming someone for the misdeeds of others based solely on similarity in skin color, gender or religious affiliation, but obviously I think Jews were *partly* to blame for what happened. Any other view is simply insane. As Will Munny says in Unforgiven, “Kid, we all got it coming.”
#2 — Would you mind if you had Jewish neighbours?
I will accept this question as tending to uncover anti-semitic feelings if you only asked people who lived in mixed neighborhoods. At the same time, I can imagine why someone who wants to only, say, live around Mormons would in fact not want Hindus or those who practice Shinto rituals living next door.
#3 — Would you mind if a Jew married into your family?
Again, I wouldn’t mind, but I get that someone who is Hindu might want their son or daughter to marry a Hindu. This is about sustaining a culture through reproduction and not necessarily born of hatred. Sorry, this is just not always indicative of Anti-Semitism.
#4 — Should Jews have equal rights?
BINGO!!! We have a winner. Yes, I think if you answer no to this question, you are fairly branded an anti-semite.
#5 — Do Jews have too much influence in the world?
I don’t know. Who’s to decide what “too much” is? If you simply look at the relative wealth and power of the group that self-identifies as Jew, it certainly looks a lot better than, say, the group that self-identifies as Bantu. In fact, in most countries around the world, you have the *group* with more wealth than most other *groups* on a per capita basis. And I’m sorry, but Jews do hold prominent positions and have disproportionate representation in entertainment, media and banking (the troika of hated industries). These are just facts. I don’t personally have a problem with it, and I would have answered NO to this question, but I understand that someone could answer YES to this question without being an anti-semite.
#6 — Jews are exploiting their victim status for their own financial gain – do you agree?
Seriously?!?!?! Of course they are. Even self-styled conservatives exploit their own victim status for financial gain with the “liberal media” whining. EVERYONE does this. It has nothing to do with anti-semitism to point out that every single group uses victimhood to gain sympathy and use that sympathy to acquire more power or wealth. This is how the world works!
So where does that leave us? *ONE* of the six questions is on point. *FIVE* are pretty much garbage. I know I have a high bar for what I term “competence,” but this was an utter fail.
The true party of interest was hidden. They use weapons of mass deception, secrets and lies to hide their true identities and cause chaos to hide their crimes. This is true today.
Much influence? A truly fair representation of Jewish people in media would be about 3%. Anything above that is a disproportionate share of those jobs and the influence that goes with them.
Wealth? You mentioned Hindus, they are right behind Jewish people on per capita wealth…here’s a nice chart and graphic of all religions and wealth.
http://awesome.good.is/transparency/web/1002/almighty-dollar/transparency.jpg
“Income levels of America’s major religious groups compared to the average U.S. income distribution.
Over $100,000 per year”
8% Black Christians
9% of Jehovah’s Witnesses
13% of Evangelicals
16% Mormons
16% Muslim
18% National Average
18% (Other)
19% Unaffiliated
19% Catholic
21% Christian (Mainline)
22% Buddhist
23% Christian (other)
28% Orthodox
43% of Hindus
46% of Jews
http://awesome.good.is/transparency/web/1002/almighty-dollar/flat.html
43% of Hindus?
That’s impressive.
I hope that doesn’t mean I have to pay more for Indian food. I like my onion Kulcha and Thali cheap.
If you think that ordinary Americans — the 99 percenter, if you will — have something to gain by being citizens of a global Empire, think again. For instance, we’ll soon be witnessing the grinding death of small American businesses and the rise of mega-multinational corporations. Our imperial elites have engineered a biflationary squeeze on margins, which is causing the cost of doing business and all input costs to rise, while causing consumers’ incomes and net worth to decline.
If you’re in doubt, just check out latest earnings reports. Apple and the 35 largest US multinationals added jobs 3 times faster abroad than at home. And 60% of their revenue now comes from overseas:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303990604577367881972648906.html
Robert Caro’s final book on LBJ: The Passage of Power, re the years 1960-65. Only Caro, a genius, would take 10 years to write up the details of LBJ’s life during only those 5 years. Caro’s other books are amazing so I’m sure this one is too. I haven’t read it yet, but President Clinton’s review was generous to a man who took power at a fateful time. I’m sympathetic with LBJ too, even tho’ I hated him for Vietnam, and still do. I’ve always thought that only LBJ could have maneuvered us into Indochina because he knew how to manipulate everyone. I’ll never understand why he did it. Because he was, at heart, a good socialist in my opinion. The story about him visiting the Pope at the Vatican – the Pope gave him a beautiful painting (I think it was, or sculpture) and LBJ gave the Pope a crappy little plastic bust of himself (LBJ) – is classic LBJ.
Anyway, I can only guess he did Vietnam because we had been bankrupt since the mid 50s and he believed we could not go into the future as “fortress America,” isolated and in decline. My favorite image of LBJ comes after he retired to his ranch – a photo of him leaning over the fence with a sardonic look on his face. His hair had grown long and it curled a bit behind his shoulder. I wish I knew his secrets.
OK, how did that hedgehog get there? Did he/she choose to be on top of baby cactuses?
Note the weapons these cacti possess – purely defensive.
In general, plants are more moral and more peaceful than animals. This is perhaps not what animal-chauvinists like to hear, and maybe I am the only vegetable-rights activist in the world, but that’s what I see.
“Rats, i still stick out – and they told me to just ‘think green’…must be I’m not eating enough veggies …, maybe if i stood on my head …”
Aquifer, thank you for Michael Persinger’s presentation “No More Secrets.” His parting comment about the searing pain of a bullet or the agony of acute hunger was devastating. And all the rest of it was delightful. It explains why I have any thoughts at all. I always suspected I didn’t really think them up all by myself! I loved it. And I think it answered my morning glory/impatiens leaf question. “Anything you can imagine, you can do” because the information envelops us (and every resonant thing) in a 7Hrz cloud which we all use. Very cool. And even photon emissions from our brains via our retinas! They just don’t know how to fine tune the electro-magnetics yet. I think I’ll concentrate on that one.
I think that’s Mhz.
I am glad you liked it. I was having a bit of a hard time keeping up, not having much of a brain for physics (and a lot of other things …), but the last 15 minutes or so definitely caught my attention. Did you notice the part where he says that when he was trying different ways to block the inter room transmission he found that the best block was produced by the Windows system! That blew me away …. And he mentioned that the prevalence of the emf we are all engulfed in as a result of the WWW, et.al. appears to have reduced the apparent ability of folks to communicate in this “extrasensory” way?
How ironic, but entirely predictable, that the machines we have made to “communicate” have reduced our ability to communicate without them …
Today’s antidote: Nobody moves!
Yikes! I’m surrounded by pricks!
Yves, see if the following will lead to some shuteye. Read at least thru Chapter 6, and ask if ID numbers will be tatooed on forearms or on foreheads. This through grapevine at Z… Bernanke just predicted harder times ahead, didn’t he? Are we going backwards or forwards?
http://info.publicintelligence.net/USArmy-InternmentResettlement.pdf
Can this be? Wishing you extra health and energy from the cosmos.
Agree about your sleep, Yves. Always, always get your sleep. Let your dreams reconnect to the 7Mhz cloud. We need you.
Please sleep Yves. we can deal with fewer posts for a while as you get yourself into a healthier routine.
Seconded!
Land Grabbers: Selling Souls to the Company Store
The States are in the business of land grabbing, not that it does them any good over time. California employs environmental regulation like others employ energy regulation. They tell the newcomers that the natives are evil and they offer the native land free for settlement. Of course when the land is productive, the State swoops in and steals it again with regulation, back to the East Coast and across the Atlantic.
At the end of the day, however, the empire operators are always incompetent and require some access to intelligence, to maintain production. Look Around, the infrastructure is collapsing. The horde in North Dakota only pencils out at $4/gallon, which is bankrupting the rest of the system. It’s a black hole, whether Obama or Romney is the figurehead leading the sh-show.
All you have to do is step aside and the divide and conquer empire collapses, of its own weight. That’s gravity for you. One family member after the other sells out and the rest of the family loses the ability to make a good living off the land. The seller is the one with the big house, a nice office in Sacramento, and drives a mustang cobra, for generations removed to covet. The others collect food stamps, and stand in line for a job. That statey giving you a ticket for drinking wine on the beach is squatting in a State park on the taxpayer dime.
The Republicans are plain vanilla stupid, but the limousine liberals are nasty varmits, and they will all be sucking oxygen before the election. The robots get so comfortable bulldozing over other robots that they fail to recognize real people. And sometimes, those street urchins in front of the bulldozer are real royalty, with intelligence, and the entire system goes boom.
Get ready for some more election-year cod from Obama and his corporate elite mates – it’s called “re-industrialisation”, or “repatriation of ‘jawbs'”. Yes, many of those “jawbs” that went overseas are now coming back, and aided by the continual push for a “tax holiday” in order to “incentivise” the “‘jawb’ creators” into restarting factories and “building American”. However, many of the new manufacturing “jawbs” will be centred about plants in the South and Southeast, mainly in “right-to-work” states, and whereas the skilled positions lost earlier to relocated industries paid over $20/hr with some benefits, the “build-America” “jawbs” will pay $10-12, with little or no benefits. It doesn’t matter where the multinationals set up shop, it will be all pursuant to the neoliberal agenda: exploited workers at Foxconn abroad or GE at home, workers get it up the bum, and the corporate elite prosper.
Cod?
“cod” = fake, fraud, etc.
… and this 55 year old white guy can’t do spatial visualization if my life depended on it…
but I am an accomplished Opera/Classical singer who has been known to make men cry with the ethereal works of Schubert and Brahms and Mahler and Puccini and Barber and Bernstein…
Larry Summers was NOT on to something…
Bank of America steering buyers of their own properties to their own lending, in possible violation of RESPA:
http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=133600261167382100
Re: The “Obesity” Lobby winning. I could have rephrased it, “The “99%” Lobby winning. As the piece notes, one of the wins has been a standstill by misguided 1%ers who want to tax soda. So, if I have to support the “obesity” lobby to ensure that the 99% have to shoulder yet another regressive tax, I will do so.
Gold Standard for All, From Nuts to Paul Krugman
Those who support the current system should be ashamed that a gold standard is even mentioned as a possible solution.
But I guess with a corrupt society the choice is merely what form the corruption will take.
But hey, let’s at least put a “Golden Calf” on the new gold backed dollars for the sake of honesty, eh?
The day we accept the Vatican/Rothschild gold backed dollar and/or the healthcare bill is the day we accept the microchipped mark of the beast. That will be the end of freedom and independence in America. We will no longer be sovereign. We will be manufactured into the slavery of the FEDS unsustainable QUADRIILION dollar debt forever or we will perish. The issuance of our own currency, U.S. BANK NOTES.. backed by our own Natural Resource Revenues…Natural Gas and Electric is the only way to insure our National Sovereignty. The credit backed dollar backed by our birth certificate bonds has turned the people into indidual corporations and therefore, that is why corporations are people. Each bond generates credit in our names with our signatures for the Fed to create money…….Yet they make us believe we are slaves to a fictitious debt……that they were paid for in full at the Origination…the debt..is something they create out of thin air by overselling interests in nothing and gambling off of those fraudulent sales. Wake up America…we are at the precipice of manufactured hell. ABOLISH THE FED….
Susan,
Don’t take articles so personally. It’s the misapplication of the finding that promots stereotpying, not the finding itself. Just becauase I say that the average male is taller than the average female (and imply that there is a biological basis, rather than a cultural or nurture basis) does not mean I am saying that every male is taller than every female. Most population effects don’t transfer to each individual within the population. Since the genetic background is largely the same between males and females (except for X chromosomes), these population gender differences suggest potential hormonal influences during development.
FBI Supplied the Anarchist “Terrorists” Arrested in May Day Plot
http://www.greenisthenewred.com/blog/fbi-anarchist-terrorists-may-day-ohio/5988/
Yves, thank you so much for another Hedgehog antidote! And the Conard take-down.
Everyone knows that the reason women have touble with depth perception and spatial recognition is that their man constantly tells them that four inches is really nine inches.