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Links 7/22/12

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Sorry for thin links. I didn’t see much of interest. You are encouraged to put good finds in comments.

Foie Gras Goes Underground At California ‘Duckeasies’ Bloomberg

Gorilla Youngsters Seen Dismantling Poachers’ Traps—A First National Geographic (Cap’n Magic)

Plug-in hybrid sales soar; all-electric cars stay in low gear Los Angeles Times

￡13tn: hoard hidden from taxman by global elite Guardian (YY, John L)

Is the US losing patience with the eurozone debacle? Liam Halligan, Telegraph. This article is a train wreck. Maybe a case of Fear of Armageddon Derangement Syndrome?

Do Drone Strikes on al-Qaida Make Us Safer? The Diplomat. Depressing. Harvard is ginning up research to give Obama cover.

C’est normal Lambert

Criminalizing Condoms: Sex Workers Get Policed but Remain Unprotected Michelle Chen, Firedoglake (Carol B)

Prepare for Spanish Implosion: Businesses Threaten to Leave Spain Over Tax Hikes; Finance Minister Proposes 56% Tax on Short-Term Financial Transactions Michael Shedlock

Democrats Drop Estate Tax Changes on Tax Bill Dave Dayen, Firedoglake (Carol B)

Bloomberg: Hold Obama, Romney accountable on gun control CBS. When Bloomberg sounds like the sanest head in the room, you know it’s bad.

Jobless Recovery: 43 States Have Fewer Jobs Now Than They Did Before Recession Huffington Post (Carol B)

Into the Bailout Buzz Saw Gretchen Morgenson, New York Times

The value-added content of trade VoxEU. Not a new line of thought, but a new analysis.

A Nation That’s Losing Its Toolbox New York Times

Antidote du jour. This looks like a good job of Photoshop, but it’s still a handsome picture:

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94 comments

    1. Jackrabbit

      Maybe our economic troubles will bring a fresh look at this problem.

      Instead of spending billions on prisons and law enforcement, we could be making billions by taxing and regulating drugs and prostitution (c’mon, images and services are already available to anyone via the internet).

      Why is it that those who complain loudly about the tax burden don’t push for legalizing drugs and prostitution?

      2. EH

        The tax-burden complainers have been commandeered by the Republicans, which means the Christian Right has a greater degree of moralizing influence with which to keep drugs legal. The way the roles are defined in US political discourse, the R’s base is comprised of people who feel guilty over sex and drugs, and the D’s cover the people who can be made to feel guilty about making money.

          1. cwaltz

            There are people who aren’t on the right that have valid concerns for legalizing drugs. Some of us grew up in households where addiction was a problem and the addict had legal access to his addiction. It wasn’t pretty.

            Until you can prove to me that legalizing drugs isn’t going to wreck lives I’m going to oppose legalizng drugs just so people can get their jollies and avoid reality.

          2. Jackrabbit

            cwaltz,

            You have a valid concern. That’s why drugs have to be strictly REGULATED if made legal.

            But illegal drugs are ruining lives also. Drug-related cartels and gangs murder people and corrupt politicians (and now we know that banks are also tainted). And illegal drug users steal to feed their habit and many are probably also abusive.

          3. psychohistorian

            Not just REGULATED but TAXED to pay for the social services necessary to manage and care for the folks that abuse the drugs…..usage has to pay for abuse management and care, IMO.

    2. Ned Ludd

      There’s a great tribute to Alexander Cockburn at Hit & Run, Reason’s blog. The writer, Jesse Walker, grew up reading Cockburn and also wrote some articles for CounterPunch. He excerpts this bit of dialogue from a parody of PBS that Cockburn wrote:

      The latter article concluded with a debate between “the Human Meat-eaters Association, who favor a free market in human flesh,” and a liberal who fretted that “some human flesh available for sale to the public is maggot-ridden, improperly cut, and often incorrectly graded.”

      I grew up reading Cockburn, too. He probably planted in me the seeds of skepticism towards liberalism; although unlike Walker I stayed on the left side of the political spectrum. However, until recently, I often supported – with my time and money – liberal groups and candidates. But liberals have damned themselves over the past few years, cheer-leading a corrupt administration headed by man who claims the most tyrannical power a leader can claim – the power to kill people who are not engaged in combat, in secret and without due process.

  3. René

    Whenever the legislators endeavor to take away, and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any farther obedience.

    – John Locke

    When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system’s game. The establishment will irritate you – pull your beard, flick your face – to make you fight. Because once they’ve got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don’t know how to handle is non-violence and humor.

    – John Lennon

    When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.

    – Jimi Hendrix

    http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2012/07/19/go-back-to-sleep/

    The Great Revealing: US Marshals Expose Biggest Scandal in History

    http://divinecosmos.com/start-here/davids-blog/1066-great-revealing

    1. LeonovaBalletRusse

      Rene, your ultimate link brings us to the related: “ARREST WARRANTS: Liens Filed Against G Central Banks” — which rivets our attention to a telling DETAIL: the KEY involvement of “Soekarno of Indonesia” — which brings to mind recent revelations re Barry Soetoro in Indonesia, son of Ms Dunham working the “microcredit” racket in Indonesia , thanks to the “assistance” of Timothy Geithner’s father as head of the Ford Foundation money pit in Indonesia.

      Now do we glean understanding of the purpose of PuppetPrez Barack Obama, and his Unitary Executive Control of the Department of Justice? Bring RICO.

    2. Up the Ante

      And when these arrests are never reported in the media we will conclude the Cabal murdered the entire Marshall’s Service ??

    3. Up the Ante

      So the heavily-armed Marshalls are going to practice their rendition skills at Deutschebank first ?

      And aren’t going to let the Cabal murder Every Single One of Them ?? and their country ???

      “So where will the first arrests come? Why the world’s biggest bank of course.

      Quote:
      The source familiar with the regulatory investigation in Europe said two traders who have been suspended from Deutsche Bank were among those being investigated. A Deutsche Bank spokesman declined to comment. ”

      http://tickerforum.org/akcs-www?post=208996

      But perhaps we shouldn’t be too ‘exuberant’. They may be called into action in NY and CT first,

      http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/bre86f025-us-banking-libor-states/

  4. Goin' South

    The “Tool Box” article reveals that the NYT couldn’t find anyone on its staff who knew the difference between drywall and plywood. The writer is shocked, I tell you, that there are “prefab windows” at Home Depot.

    When is the last time someone scratch-built windows, especially double-pane, double-hung windows? Like never, maybe? And the tool he ridicules sounds like the Dremel or one of its imitators, an extremely useful item for finish and remodeling work. And my parents used pre-glued vinyl squares in the 60s. The bright tool colors he ridicules are a branding device: orange for Ridgid, red for Milwaukee, yellow for DeWalt, etc. And all those are serious tools.

    And yes, people use joist hangers now instead of notching them into a wooden sill like the 125 year-old house we’re rehabbing. And we use PVC for waste lines now instead of iron, and we “weld” them with glue.

    My grandfather’s only power tool was a grinder. He used brace and bit, hand planers, chisels and hand saws for everything. Frankly, he couldn’t produce the quality of work that can be done with a decent table saw, power drills and planers and one of those Dremels. And all of those power tools require skill to use well.

    I’m not saying there hasn’t been a drastic decline in self-reliance and do-it-yourself skills in this country. My spouse and I grew up on farms, and know how to garden, can, change our own oil and replace brake pads. (the NYT writer calls this “changing the brakes” LOL). We’ve taught ourselves about carpentry, plumbing and wiring in the course of building an adobe when we were young and rehabbing a 100+ year-old two decker when we’re old.

    We’re probably as aware as anybody that there are growing numbers of people who can’t even check their own oil, much less change it.

    My point is that this city slicker NYT writer didn’t even bother asking questions of someone knowledgeable so that he wouldn’t sound so ignorant. My completely unsubstantiated guess is that he was too arrogant.

    1. tomk

      There are lots of problems with that article. I’m not sure if the premise is even true. I think the DIY and maker movements are alive and well, and as you point out, the fact that Home Depot sells “prefab windows” is ignorant and beside the point. I do notice our culture demeaning trades work as a lower class activity. College is promoted as the proper goal for every student. It relates to the financialisation of our world. Why get your hands dirty when we’re taught that our money should be able to make a living for us?

      One thing I see happening here on the coast of Maine, though, is young people with no college making good livings building, fishing, plumbing, landscaping and so on, while quite a few with degrees are struggling to figure out something useful they like to do.

    2. alex

      Goin’ South: well said. I was going to ridicule the beginning of that article, but you’ve saved me the trouble.

    3. ambrit

      Dear GoinSouth;
      Thanks for beating me to the punch, and with a better quality of post than entered my mind after reading that piece of imagination disguised as serious reporting.
      As one who has worked in the trades most of my life, (plumbing mainly,) the level of what can only be described as willful ignorance displayed is breathtaking. If this is what what universities turn out as journalists consider competent reporting, then the value of a basic college degree is extremely overrated.
      As to tomks observation that non university graduate tradespeople are doing well in his neck of the woods, well, good for you! Down here in the Deep South, the opposite is happening. Semi-skilled trades are continuing to be taken over by mainly Mexican and Central American workers as the NAFTA scourge continues to eat away at the heart of the working middle class. Wages are actually still declining in dollar terms, much less inflation based debasement. A new, or I should say Neo, Peon class is emerging. This rot will surely extend its’ gangrenous reach to the North as Globalization takes its’ reactionary toll. Be prepared to fight, perhaps physically, to not only save what you’ve got, but to preserve civil society itself.
      One observation. I know that I come off like an Anarcho Crank here and there. Considering the sheer amount of resources being devoted to the Police State Apparatus, those who advocate pure non-violence should seriously consider the possibility that the State itself could well initiate hostilities against the more progressive parts of its’ citizenry. Do some reading about Joe Mcarthy and his gang. It can’t happen here? Hah!

    4. LeonovaBalletRusse

      This is the great leveling in manufacturing, so that the insider “investors” in Rockefeller Dynasty Puppet Kissinger’s China could make crap “for sale” to insider’s like Chertoff for FEMA TRAILORS after the Great Man-Made Flood of 2005 in Louisiana, replete with formaldehyde effusion for population control.

    5. Jim

      Given the importance of construction/real estate to the US economy, there is no excuse for anyone working in the business section of a national newspaper to not know the difference between plywood and drywall.

    6. psychohistorian

      I recently cut a new set of stair jacks for a remodel to my home and laughed again about a set I built in the early 80’s for a house I was rebuilding at the time.

      My father-in-law was there and as a self important attorney from Ohio he asked me if I had purchased the new set of stairs at the Home Depot of the day. When I explained to him that the stairs and stair jacks were specifically crafted to the application he got very quiet for the rest of his their visit and loan money to continue kept coming…….grin. This was a man who prided himself on not owning a pair of jeans.

  5. Ned Ludd

    In the past, the home construction industry was dominated by small businesses and people who were self-employed. Hardware stores, lumber yards, land developers, and general contractors often consisted of just the owner and a couple of employees (often family members). Subcontractors were usually craftsmen or tradesmen working as sole proprietors.

    New home construction is now largely dominated by large national companies like Pulte. They own the land, they build the homes, they even provide the financing. In remodeling, the large companies haven’t taken over (yet), but it’s tough to make a living or even to stay in business. All the small home builders and subcontractors have flooded into remodeling. Customers expect you to match bids of remodelers that have gone bankrupt. People are working at a loss, hoping to lure in larger work later on. Loss-leading may make sense in retail, but bidding a $50,000 job at a loss with the hope of getting something larger (and actually profitable) later on is a very high-risk strategy for a small contractor.

    Why is the U.S. losing its craftsmanship? Being a craftsman or learning a trade used to be a way to work for yourself and make a good living. It was dangerous, and it was hard work; but it attracted people that didn’t want to be a cog in someone else’s company. Now, new home building is a wasteland of corporate control and residential remodeling is a bloodbath of over-supply. People used to learn construction skills so they could make a decent living while being self-employed. If you were ambitious, you might even build a small business with a dozen or so employees. Well, that opportunity doesn’t exist in the U.S. home industry anymore.

    1. Dave of Maryland

      Where the tradesmen went.

      As I understand it, local trades unions used to take on high school graduates as apprentices, give them a few years of on the job training and then full membership in the union. Trash unions and you lose that.

      1. LeonovaBalletRusse

        Dave, the Victorian Reich’s ruin of “self-sufficiency” in America was intentional, the very cornerstone of Anglo-American 1% DNA conspiracy to rule America.

    2. LeonovaBalletRusse

      Insider profits from the “construction boom” was a global Monopoly Finance scam for .01% DNA “income” every which way. Even China is filled with empty apartment blocs–the skeletons left after .01% picked the bones of Chicago Economics for fattening hogs only.

      1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

        Not to mentioned the unoccupied guard towers of the Great Wall, another insider construction boom.

        1. ambrit

          Dear MLTPB;
          I beg to differ. The guard towers on the Great Firewall of China are fully manned. Coming soon to an internet near you!

    3. Will Nadauld

      Plenty of opportunity out there for a good living in the trades. Home remodeling requires a good head for business, and the people skills to work with all types of homeowners.The clients we work for are well educated financial types, and for the most part, they have zero people skills. I dare say most of them would fail miserably trying to make a living in any non fantasy field.

    1. Paul Handover

      Words fail one, don’t they! I spotted the same on the BBC News website, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18944097 from which one reads:

      A global super-rich elite had at least $21 trillion (£13tn) hidden in secret tax havens by the end of 2010, according to a major study.

      The figure is equivalent to the size of the US and Japanese economies combined.

      The Price of Offshore Revisited was written by James Henry, a former chief economist at the consultancy McKinsey, and commissioned by the Tax Justice Network.

      He said $21tn is a conservative figure and the true scale could be $32tn.

      1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

        Why print more sovereigh money (because we can!), when you have all the money you need there?

      2. psychohistorian

        Hey this is just the tip of the iceberg. This report says nothing about the ownership of the global inherited of:

        Commodities
        Corporations…including banking
        Money System in US and UK and ???
        Government debt
        Real Estate

        And that is probably not a complete list.

        I say the scope of control of the global inherited rich makes most folks eyes glaze over….maybe part of the programming…..

  7. catt101

    A BBC documentary on the Scottish Enlightenment and early America.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOb5Cv2uRGQ

    Did you know that Adam Smith (beloved figure of the Right) was an atheist, pro-luxury taxes, against taxes on labor and pro-progressive taxation?

    Or that a lot of American tobacco farmers (eg George Washington and Thomas Jefferson) owed Scottish creditors lots of $$$$$? (convenient cynical excuse to start a war of independence)

    2. LeonovaBalletRusse

      catt101, The BBC once more excels at British Imperial propaganda, re-positioning the British as champions of Justice vis-a-vis the Scots, within the frame of the International Slave Trade. Here we see the British Imperial sugar-coating of its PREMIER place at the top of the “Free Trade” of African, Afro-Caribbean, and African-American Slaves, profiting not only the British Imperial Sugar Plantation System that led to the current dominion of Tate & Lyle, which came to own even the formerly French Sugar System of the Acy and related Dynasties of the State of Louisiana.

      This segment of the BBC series demonstrates the British Imperial avidity for OWNERSHIP of Scotland, the Scots, and of the very History of the Scots in the New World. This talent for self-righteous mendacity shows itself also in British Imperial treatment of the vaunted “anti-slavery hero” Wilberforce.

      For TRUTH of the magnitude of British Imperial evil at the heart of “free trade” in African slaves across the Atlantic, recall:

      “ATLAS OF THE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE” By David Eltis and David Richardson (New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2010) — which, because of its provenance, likely soft-pedals the true extent and depth of British Imperial “Nobility” DNA involvement, eliminating the most deleterious details.

      1. LeonovaBalletRusse

        When will “The Ladies From Hell” re-kindle the Auld Alliance to throw off the leaden yoke of the Anglo-German occupants of the “British Throne” who still COVET Highland Scotland as “British Imperial PROPERTY,” and still COVET the intelligence and might of the Highland Scots for Anglo-Teutonic Imperial advantage?

          1. LeonovaBalletRusse

            BBC proffers British Imperial Propaganda relentlessly, ever re-positioning “their kind” as the “light” of the world. Their lies are infinite, and infinitely deep.

      2. MaryM

        Do they mention the sons of Israel Monsanto in New York
        who were America’s largest importers of African slaves to the New World? Yes, that Monsanto.

        Google “Monsanto slaves” for all the juicy details.

  8. LeonovaBalletRusse

    Re NC Link to Guardian piece on the “offshored” loot of the global .001% — Why is the U.S. limiting its clawback to Swiss banks? Why isn’t the U.S. declaring war against the British Empire for the destruction/ruin of the U.S. Real Economy, via its aiding and abetting of income tax evasion through its “offshore” loot-storage sites, such as the Cayman islands? This clearly constitutes WAR Against America via the systematic looting of the Treasury of We the People of America. Not only does the British Empire aid and abet the looting, its “offshore banking system” and the lawyers who protect them profit magnificently from fees.

    What should be our response to this War Against America by The British Empire? Why should we fight only the Swiss offshore banking system?

  9. Ned Ludd

    The dangers of closed source software

    If you use closed source software – be it for-pay or free – you are always at the whim of the developers. If they decide to abandon the project, for whatever reason, you won’t be getting new versions, and quite often, you won’t even get security and bug fixes.

    The one, only, and true way to ensure this doesn’t happen is to use open source software.

      1. Ned Ludd

        To be more precise, people paid money for an email program called Sparrow, which they used to access Gmail. When Google bought Sparrow, they moved the Sparrow team to “new projects”. Sparrow, while you can continue to buy it, is dead. No more updates. Some people who bought Sparrow feel betrayed.

        In reality, though, when you buy closed-source software, the company can cease development at any time, for any reason, and you have no recourse. Cloud-based services, like Gmail, leave people even worse off. Google can stop someone from accessing their Gmail account at any time. I think Facebook banned activists who were advocating property destruction. But the ToS agreements are often broad; so organizing civil disobedience (criminal activity) and maybe even boycotts (economic disruption) might be enough to get you locked out of your accounts.

        Anybody using Gmail should use IMAP or POP3, to make sure you don’t lose past emails even if you lose access to your account. I think a lot of social media companies, though, make it hard to store things locally.

  10. kevinearick

    The world is what you make of it, aggregated. Take responsibility for your liberty, as a unique example, and have children.

    The majority chooses to be nothing more than a simple empire circuit. It will be replaced by the oncoming wave.

    Prove me wrong.

    2. We took over this company...

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  11. Externality

    “Should we save the euro at any price?”
    http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,16109769,00.html

    German broadcaster Deutsche Welle interviews German economist Stefan Homburg, who criticizes the decision to expand the recent EU bailout of Spain to include small, non-essential, banks; the process used to push the bailout through the Bundestag without informed debate; and the general unwillingness to recognize that many of Spain’s banks are irremediably insolvent.

      1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

        Inequality can be achieved in so many different ways.

        Our solace is that they’re not very creative.

  13. Up the Ante

    radio-silent for nine weeks, or The Challenged Student

    Remember Mr. Expensif ?,
    http://grist.org/news/duke-ceo-bill-johnson-resigns-after-one-day-gets-44-million-in-severance/

    “A key breakdown in confidence happened in the spring, when it became apparent that insurers were balking at paying for repairs at the Crystal River nuclear plant.

    Duke’s board wanted CEO Rogers to accompany Johnson on a visit to the insurer, but the request lingered for nine weeks. Instead of a meeting, Rogers got a phone call with the insurer.

    Gray said the Duke board was stunned. “You’d never go radio silent for nine weeks like that,” she said. ”

    “He did describe himself as an individual who liked to learn but not be taught,”

    http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/07/21/v-print/3394322/duke-director-johnsons-controlling.html

    Mr. Expensif and “the insurers”

    “It’s got to be Crystal River,” said Jim Warren, executive director of the watchdog group NC WARN, which opposed the merger. “It’s got to be related to the fact that (Johnson) understated the problem.”

    “Progress Florida customers pay the highest rates of any investor-owned utility in the state. A significant part of the Florida customers’ bills relate to nuclear costs, though the utility has not — and will not — produce any nuclear power in the state for years. ”

    “Then last month, a secret study Duke conducted about Crystal River came to light. ”

    “.. the insurer, the Nuclear Electric Insurance Ltd., whose board includes Johnson, has balked at paying for repairs. ”

    Broken Crystal River nuclear plant is Duke Energy’s problem now
    http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/broken-crystal-river-nuclear-plant-is-duke-energys-problem-now/1239145

    Now that’s an article, Mr. Penn.

    Taught, un-learned in denial, and “insured”.

    haha

    1. LeonovaBalletRusse

      Up, isn’t it time for RICO Discovery of the crimes connected within the sphere of Duke Energy, Duke University, and “brokerage” via the Hutton Dynasty and beyond, following the money and the DNA of the Confederate Nobility Cabal?

          1. Up the Ante

            “The plant will stay shut until engineers figure out now to fix it, according to Progress Energy. ”

            http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/23/a-nuclear-reactor-shows-its-age/

            “Without insurance coverage, repairs and related costs — which could exceed $2.5 billion .. ”

            http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/broken-crystal-river-nuclear-plant-is-duke-energys-problem-now/1239145

            Using San Onofre as a guide for calculation, we can posit that a dome replacement at Crystal would NOT cost $1.9 billion, therefore Crystal has further major problems,

            “San Onofre’s four steam generators were replaced within the last several years at a cost of $671 million ”

            http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/04/local/la-me-0503-san-onofre-20120504

    1. cwaltz

      I love how Bloomberg completely pins this on guns and avoids the fact that mental illness and the lack of this country to bring it out of the darkness and treat it like other illnesses is largely responsible for these tragedies.

      Instead of treating illness like a weakness we should be pushing for mental health screenings in much the same way we screen for high blood pressure or diabetes.

      1. tomk

        How would you define “mental health”? I suspect the PTB define it as passive acceptance of our lot instead of the active resistance that many of us would define it as. Another problem with your suggestion is that the “cures” are often worse than the disease, not to suggest that progress hasn’t been made, but many of the senseless acts of violence in the past few decades have been perpetrated by persons who were being treated with psychopharmaceuticals. I don’t have a citation for this but I do believe it to be true.

        1. Externality

          many of the senseless acts of violence in the past few decades have been perpetrated by persons who were being treated with psychopharmaceuticals. I don’t have a citation for this but I do believe it to be true.

          “Japan Revises SSRI Warnings–Hostility, Violence”
          http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/151688.php

          [list of mass shootings (and other violent incidents) where the shooter was taking an SSRI or related drug.]
          http://ssristories.com/index.php

          “Suicidality, violence and mania caused by selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs): A review and analysis”
          http://www.breggin.com/31-49.pdf

          1. Externality

            “SSRIs associated with severe violence in a small number of individuals”
            http://www.news-medical.net/news/2006/09/12/20073.aspx

            The article links to the following journal article:

            “Antidepressants and Violence: Problems at the Interface of Medicine and Law”
            http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030372
            “Our main finding is that unselected sets of placebo-controlled trials of antidepressants show evidence for an increased relative risk of aggressive behaviours on treatment, although such outcomes apply to only a small subset of patients. The relative risks cited here reflect a net balance of treatment-induced benefits and adverse outcomes. If treatment with an antidepressant, such as paroxetine, lowers the overall risk of aggression in a proportion of patients in a trial population, then the real rate of treatment-induced difficulties with paroxetine may be somewhat higher than the net figures from placebo-controlled trials indicate.”

          2. tomk

            Thanks for the documentation. On the other hand, correlation is not causation, but still…

            and living under this dictatorship of consumerism is a constant stress test of our mental health. We keep getting pushed to want stuff we don’t need, do things we don’t want to do, care about things that have no significance, to merely survive, some of us are going to snap.

      2. Up the Ante

        “I love how Bloomberg completely [.. avoids the fact that mental illness is his defining virtue.] ”

        fixed it for ‘ya

        1. Up the Ante

          You see, Bloomie has backed himself into a corner. Now ladies and gents, watch very closely for now Bloomie will demonstrate his insanity.

          After reading this overturning of Bloomie’s Sanity-Troll personna, Bloomie will have to resort to yet MORE of his .com’s reversal-of-sense updating,

          Mayor Bloomberg Attempts to Foment Insurrection

          http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=209124

          “In short the citizens would send both you and them packing, and in that regard we’re not talking about firearms. ”

          Yes. And perhaps that IS it, IS it, Bloomie “and them”, the ones whispering in his ear, are in fact a club of Odd Fellows. Stand tall now, as you must read this as an adult. Odd Fellows .. FOUND OUT !

          haha

  15. LeonovaBalletRusse

    “Bank secrecy masks a world of crime and destruction” at the Guardian. Put this together with “Failing to Break Up Big Banks Is Destroying America” at Capitalism Without Failure (www.capitalismwithoutfailure.com) and refer to the comment from BIS. If the BIS wants to emerge with credibility, then RIGHT NOW it should take the high road and BAN from BIS banking ALL entities governed by the British Empire, the “Crown,” and by Switzerland that provide TAX SHELTER HAVENS to any and all tax dodgers of any nation.

    “That’s what I’m talking about.” BIS, redeem yourself. Get serious in C.21. And the new Rothschield banking heir apparent in France can lead the way to serious reform, in order to bring post-criminal civilization to the fore in C.21.

  16. Up the Ante

    “Home Depot in response offers classes .. teachers are store employees, .. semiretired from a skilled trade, or laid off [and paid a fraction of what they’d make as independent contractors because Marcus views them as “imbeciles” unworthy of a higher wage. Marcus does, however, view Home Depot as worthy of credit card FRAUD largesse during the Bush era.] ”

    quite obviously, fixed it for ‘ya FIFY

    “Who gives a crap about some imbecile?” Marcus said. “Are you kidding me?”

    http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-20/bankers-join-billionaires-to-debunk-imbecile-attack-on-top-1-percent

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/22/business/what-happened-to-the-craftsmanship-spirit-essay.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=business&adxnnlx=1342969409-s3bXx9g/ln6eS7FZUHTj/Q

    “The Home Depot approach to craftsmanship — simplify it, dumb it down, [let Marcus spout off his senile brain death] — ”

    fixed it for ‘ya, again

    :)

  17. Jack Jonsom

    I would argue that the swans is a poor and simple photoshop. No work to even alter the water on the flips.

    Photoshop 101!

    1. Up the Ante

      Even the looters are appealed to at article’s end with a Keynes-caricature,

      “It’s the big gulp, little sip theory,” he said. “A large facility would be able fill up and take a large gulp during wet periods, while taking less during dry periods.”

  20. LeonovaBalletRusse

    Jesse: re HSBC Scandal – pull the HSBC golden thread and the whole tapestry comes unraveled, from the Shard and “Olympia” Summer in the City, to Saudi Arabia, to Shanghai and Hong Kong, unto Rockefeller Dynasty with a finger in every pie including Henry Kissinger. Cry Treason! Bring RICO and Interpol.

  23. docG

    “You are encouraged to put good finds in comments.”

    Here’s one that might interest you. The JonBenet Ramsey case is back in the news, with the publication of a new book by one of the lead investigators, Jim Kolar: “Foreign Faction: Who Really Kidnapped JonBenet Ramsey.” There’s an excellent piece on the book and some of the new evidence in The Daily Beast: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/18/new-clues-in-jonbenet-ramsey-murder.html

    Kolar is convinced there was no intruder, which implies an inside job. This is sure to be very controversial.

    In honor of this new development, docG has started his own blog on the case, which he’s followed for many years. He claims to have solved it: http://solvingjonbenet.blogspot.com/

    1. russell1200

      The British have been doing systematic profiling for sometime- versus the as hoc silliness you see on TV. They noted that for the type of case, it was very likely someone in the household.

      The easy scenario has always been that the son did, and then the parents, not wanting to lose two children, covered it up.

  24. barrisj

    Yet another instance of the militarisation of US foreign policy under the guise of “the War on Drugs”, where the DEA now has a strong presences in dozens of countries round the globe, and carries with it the full panoply of “muscular interdiction: a paramilitary “strike force” (in full play in Central America), helo wings, radar installations, drone flyovers and other NSA-based “intelligence gathering”, the lot. Combine this with the “lilypad” strategy of small, elite JSOC units and prepositioned military supplies and ordnance (organised within “Africom” on the African continent, for example) deployed throughout areas of the world that the Obama Administration deems “essential to US interests”, i.e., the planet, and we have the new look of 21st Century imperialism. Sorry, folks, but all those who proclaim “the Death of Empire” (Hedges, Johnson, Bacevich, et al), you are a bit premature. As Stephen Carter noted in his book, The Violence of Peace: America’s Wars in the Age of Obama, this administration has pushed the envelop in rationalising overt and covert intervention within a “just war” context and the imperatives of “national security”, and the driving philosophy is the maintenance of a permanent-war readiness. Chaos and upheavals are viewed as “opportunies”, to be exploited for a greater end, that of the US, and in some instances, its ally, Israel.

    U.S. Drug War Expands to Africa, a Newer Hub for Cartels
    WASHINGTON — In a significant expansion of the war on drugs, the United States has begun training an elite unit of counternarcotics police in Ghana and planning similar units in Nigeria and Kenya as part of an effort to combat the Latin American cartels that are increasingly using Africa to smuggle cocaine into Europe.
    The growing American involvement in Africa follows an earlier escalation of antidrug efforts in Central America, according to documents, Congressional testimony and interviews with a range of officials at the State Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Pentagon.

    In both regions, American officials are responding to fears that crackdowns in more direct staging points for smuggling — like Mexico and Spain — have prompted traffickers to move into smaller and weakly governed states, further corrupting and destabilizing them.

    The aggressive response by the United States is also a sign of how greater attention and resources have turned to efforts to fight drugs as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have wound down.

    “We see Africa as the new frontier in terms of counterterrorism and counternarcotics issues,” said Jeffrey P. Breeden, the chief of the D.E.A.’s Europe, Asia and Africa section. “It’s a place that we need to get ahead of — we’re already behind the curve in some ways, and we need to catch up.”
    [more…]
    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/22/world/africa/us-expands-drug-fight-in-africa.html

    “War on Drugs”, War on Terror”…”War on the World” really, ripped from the 1984 playbook for perpetual war.

  25. Foppe

    Gotta love NYT op/ed shamelessness:

    “CLIMATE CHANGE is staring us in the face. The science is clear, and the need to reduce planet-warming emissions has grown urgent. So why, collectively, are we doing so little about it?”

    Joe Romm:

    The Times has a lot of choice about what opinion pieces to publish. But it is no surprise at all that they picked one with this final paragraph:

    Simply presenting climate science more clearly is unlikely to change attitudes. But a better understanding of our minds’ strange workings may help save us from ourselves.

  26. Herman Sniffles

    I’m still intrigued by the goat man in Utah. If a hunter accidently shoots him, where should he attach the goat tag?

    1. Pennetration State

      Yes, the NCAA must ensure that Penn State won’t rape your son’s ass anymore but only crash him into his peers till he’s a drooling vegetable with shriveled spongebrains.

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