Please forgive the short links section. You got more posts than usual for a Saturday instead. I hope you will put up any juicy items I overlooked in comments.
Billions on Flood Barriers Now Might Save New York City Bloomberg. Richard Smith was e-mailed me about the barriers in the UK to protect London as soon as the storm hit. A monster growth business for the Dutch!
An Outcast Among Peers Gains Traction on Alzheimer’s Cure Wall Street Journal
Amnesty International and the Human Rights Industry Counterpunch (Tom E)
Spanish Woman Commits Suicide As Foreclosure Agents Walk Into Her Apartment Forbes (Lisa E)
Iraq cancels Russian arms deal BBC
Barclays in US probe over Saudi licence Financial Times
Election aftermath:
Prediction Market Manipulation: A Case Study Rajiv Sethi
The Romney “Landslide” That Wasn’t Media Matters (furzy mouse)
White People Mourning Romney Tumblr (Lambert)
Mapping Racist Tweets in Response to President Obama’s Re-election FloatingSheep (Dr. Kevin). But this isn’t news. 88% of the white voters in Alabama voted against Obama in 2008.
How the Faithful Voted: 2012 Preliminary Analysis Pew Foundation. Garrett remarks:
Gobsmacked. A slightly higher % of LDS voted for Obama in 2012 than they did for Kerry in 2004…and apparently 1% voted third party. I am almost proud of my co-religionists. :)
Catfood watch:
If the Deficit Disappeared, Where Would the Deficit Hawks Find Work? Dean Baker
Obama to Insist on Tax Increase for the Wealthy New York Times
The phony fiscal cliff: expect tax cuts extended and spending cuts postponed Grover Norquist, Guardian
Petraeus Steps Down as C.I.A. Chief, Saying He Had Affair New York Times
Exclusive: Clinton would dominate 2016 Iowa caucuses, PPP shows Politico (furzy mouse)
Citigroup Will Pay Former Chief Pandit $6.7 Million Bloomberg
Direct government student loans exceed half a trillion; higher education costs out of control Sober Look
Exec Who Allegedly Enabled Fraud Runs Chase’s Effort to Compensate Foreclosure Victims ProPublica.
Foreclosure Starts Reach 2007 Levels, LPS Explains Rise in Delinquencies DSNews(Lisa Epstein). The official story is this is just noise in a trend.
A Message From Us Rich Plutocrats To All You Little People Clusterstock
Antidote du jour (furzy mouse):
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Not one, but two, foxes in the hen house.
“TWO! Ha ha ha ha ha…”
The chickens are not to abandon the hen house; rather, they must choose which fox they would like to be eaten by. Who knows, maybe one fox would eat them in a nicer manner than the other! Wouldn’t that be great?
One fox will use pepper to season the chickens, the other salt.
Not to discourage the Third Partisans, but I suspect there are already more foxes lined up where those two came from.
Jill Stein is a chicken. hahaha.
The one on the left is a bit darker. He seems nicer.
But is this a “Janus Fox” — (Siamese twin fox)?
IN RE: Catfood Commission and Fiscal Cliff.
After all due deliberation, I too find the looming menace, the ticking time bomb, the fiscal armageddon is not a cliff at all, but a gently sloping grassy knoll from which triangulated sniper firing from The Norquist Baby Drowning in Bathwater Brigade can create a government kill zone. In the future, the hawkish austerians should provide the public with clearer guidance with which we can all descend into total hysteria and anarchy.
The message must be more precisely targeted for the desired effect. I suggest: “PARASITIC CHAIN SAW MONETARY MASSACRE” or “FASCIST FISCAL GAS CHAMBER OF ALMOST CERTAIN DOOM” or “BLOODY MASS NATIONAL SUICIDE CULT NIGHT OF HORROR”.
By appropriating the correct symbols that the mass media culture will immediately comprehend, only then will the severity of the situation be fully utilized to create the critical mass of fear, loathing and sickness unto death. Then people will cry out to the heavens, i.e. local elected representative, for salvation by slashing the remaining crumbs of the economic pie chart to an even smaller amount.
PT, do I detect the Voice of the PPS?
Dear Leonova,
Don’t know any PPS but I figure it’s just my muse of political abuse that moves me to write. I don’t want to publicly admit to ANY voices, if you catch my drift.
Surely this has been posted here and commented on before. Nonetheless, I’m just now viewing for the first time. Put simply, and Adam Curtis rules.
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/all-watched-over-by-machines-of-loving-grace/
If you can view all his documentaries starting with ‘The Mayfair Set’ please do – Curtis is a font of knowledge and reason in this world gone mad.
Have to agree with the praise for Curtis. He has an excellent blog as well: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/
Links for some of Adam Curtis’ major film series:
Pandora’s Box (1992) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3gwyHNo7MI
The Mayfair Set (1999) http://archive.org/details/AdamCurtis_TheMayfairSet
The Century of the Self (2002) http://archive.org/details/AdamCurtis-TheCenturyOfTheSelf
The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear (2003) http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-power-of-nightmares/
The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom (2007) http://archive.org/details/AdamCurtis_TheTrap
All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (2011) http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/all-watched-over-by-machines-of-loving-grace/
Don’t we see that Curtis still is eligible to be a *Knight*? Isn’t something missing from his *exposes*?
A Message From Us Rich Plutocrats To All You Little People Clusterstock
“When Jack or Mitt or I call ourselves “Job Creators”, it isn’t because it’s true or that there is any evidence for it. It’s because being a job creator puts us right at the center of the economic universe – where we deserve to be. This belief system isn’t just convenient to us, although it is. It’s essential in order to justify our status and power.
We used to call this divine right. Today we call it “economics”.”
Incentives….are funny things. If you make 10 million and pay 3.5 million in taxes (I kid – of course you are paying 15% AT MOST under capital gains) you are productive. But if you pay 3.9 million, you stop entrepreneuring and close your business down (don’t sell it, close it – because NO ONE would accept less profit).
And of course, incentives never cause rating agencies to rate junk as marvelous, or realtors to sell houses on radioactive landfills, or sell securities you know are going to tank to the muppets…..and incentives would never, ever make you donate to a politician to skew the rules of the game…
This Takes a While to Understand, But Eventually it Makes Sense Once You Get the Math . . .
they should have their taxes raised, so they work harder.
Let’s say they want $50 million to be happy. If you take $5 million away from them, they have to keep working to make it back.
That’s $5 million worth of new work, right there.
if you give them a tax cut, they stop working, because they just got free money! Why work, when you get a handout for doing nothing? That’s $5 million in lost work.
That’s no incentive! If we want them to work harder, we have to raise their taxes.
This should make sense to anybody who thinks about it long enough.
They don’t work. They be. It’s exhausting enough just being wealthy, they don’t want to stink of work.
If you’re lucky, they will opine on your behalf. From what I learned from the Bill Moyers interview posted today, we should thank them for educating us. Not everyone is so lucky to have their employer tell them how to vote.
Value voting: Bogama independent expenditure per vote: $1.83. Rmoney: $6.35.
Courtesy Pro Publica http://projects.propublica.org/pactrack/candidates/votes
Gee, my heart really goes out to “all-in” murderous war criminal Petraeus and his embedded
climberwhorefriend who was under investigation for trying to access his emails by the FBI – don’t worry no charges!The Daily Show interview is really almost too painful to watch, that is, until you realize that we’re talking about a war criminal and his fawning sycophant.
http://www.businessinsider.com/paula-broadwell-david-petraeus-biographer-daily-show-interview-2012-11
More on this neoliberalatrix from the NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/10/us/linked-to-petraeus-paula-broadwell-is-lifelong-high-achiever.html?_r=0
A self-described “soccer mom” and an ironman triathlete, Ms. Broadwell became a fixture on the Washington media scene after the publication of her book about Mr. Petraeus, who is 60. In a Twitter message this summer, she bragged about appearing on a panel at the Aspen Institute, a policy group for deep thinkers.
(How deep, Paula? ba dom tsss)
“Heading 2 @AspenInstitute 4 the Security Forum tomorrow! Panel (media & terrorism) followed by a 1v1 run with Lance Armstrong,” she wrote. “Fired up!”
(So, tell us which one had more integrity, Paula, I just can’t wait!)
On her Twitter account, she often commented on the qualities of leadership. “Reason and calm judgment, the qualities specially belonging to a leader. Tacitus,” she wrote. In another message, she said: “A leader is a man who has the ability to get other people to do what they don’t want to do and like it. Truman.”
What people don’t like to do, eh?
Besides murdering innocent men, women and children what else would some people not like to do but do it anyways?
Hmmm, how about marrying a rather homely woman whose father just happened to be an influential four star general so that you could more quickly climb your way to the top of the military food chain, maybe?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_A._Knowlton
More from the NYT:
“Married with two children, she [Broadwell] was described in a biography on the Web site of Inspired Women Magazine as a high achiever since high school.”
Would someone just leave our society’s high achievers ALONE?!!
It’s hard to not keep “achieving” when you’re constantly surrounded with so much hot supple “achievement” all the time!
Presumably his firing (“resignation” my left foot!) has to do with the Benghazi incident? People mock The Mail, but it does cover a remarkable amount.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2230824/David-Petraeus-CIA-head-quits-DAYS-Benghazi-hearings-FBI-probe-massive-national-security-threat.html
You’re correct. It seems that even NPR tells the truth — you just have to look for it in the buried lede:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/11/10/164858480/fbi-discovered-evidence-of-david-petraeus-affair
Last paragraph:
So the question is — is he fired for Benghazi, or did he pull the rip-cord like McChrystal? It seems to me to be the latter. Time to cash in on those sweet private sector consulting gigs!
She said: “A leader is a man …”
Interesting POV for a female ‘high achiever.’
Probably based on the empirical observation that the only comfortable way to have sex under a desk is doggy style.
Yes, there’s such a remarkable je ne sais quoi about
ambitionachievement.We will never know how and why Benghazi happened. Petraeus is taking the fall, that’s all we can assume. And Paula is taking the blame. It’s kinda hard for me to believe those two had some wild affair. But all things are possible. When she went on the Daily Show it was like she was totally done up to look like Mata Hari. Just her appearance was way too much. And certainly that entire interview was an intended piece of theatrics. But speaking of Benghazi, we originally wanted our NATO allies to take care of Libya. It was probably an explicit exception in the deal: The USA will not devote any treasure or blood to maintaining Libya. Just guessing – but my question is why didn’t France or Italy come to our rescue? They were right there. Some allies, right? Things could really be falling apart.
Evidently the third party in the menage a trois unburdened himself in the Times-Titanic four months ago:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/magazine/a-message-from-beyond.html?_r=0
An even more cringe-inducing interview of Paula Broadwell:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXcDlk_RijQ
Where do these people crawl out of?
I just read this. I think it’s stunning “The Ethicist” would actually print this letter in his column and then make his snide comments that it was only meant to go public in a sub rosa way. He’s as big a freak as the hubby writing it. And apparently the FBI got into it because Paula was stalking some third party person and they complained to FBI. All a bunch of freaks.
What does it say about America the Empire when the head of the CIA and past head of US major military initiatives is simultaneously bonking Ms. Broadwell as he strategizes the killing of untold thousands in support of said Empire?
It kinda feels like we are in the prelude to watching Rome burn or some similar imperialistic demise…..only more global this time.
Ah, to be a patrician…….eh Petraeus?
jsmith says:
“Hmmm, how about marrying a rather homely woman whose father just happened to be an influential four star general so that you could more quickly climb your way to the top of the military food chain, maybe?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_A._Knowlton”
CONNECT:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_%26_Knowlton [surely “no relation”]:
//Hill+Knowlton Strategies is a global public relations company, headquartered in New York City, United States, with 84 offices in 46 countries Hill & Knowlton was founded in Cleveland, Ohio in 1927 by John W. Hill and is today led by Chairman & CEO, Jack Martin. It is owned by the WPP Group.//
———————————————-
CONNECT: Hillary Clinton; RIIA; The Tavistock Institute and the back door of the Military-Industrial Private Profiteer Complex, that means Rockefeller.
A False Flag to save Defence Department cuts is in the works. Probably HAS been in the works.
CUT AND PASTE THIS PREDICTION>
AN EVENT is imminent. Taxpayers MUST be convinced that any cuts to defense is suicidal. Enter Iran, Syria, or any of a host of players. I suspect it will be orchestrated by our friends in the Mossad – together with players in our own administration.
Petraous may have needed an exit strategy.
CUT AND PASTE THIS PREDICTION.
A FALSE FLAG IS RISING IN THE OVEN. Who and how many will be sacrificed?
Noe G, all such “predictions” are Announcements of what is to come. History shows that Announcements often appear in the guise of “science fiction” — and of course in the guise of “predictions” or “prophecies.” For example, “1984” (Totalitarian torture/terror) and “Brave New World” (Totalitarian Pharma), and the “card game,” moviess, etc. that “foretold” 9/11 visually or by verbal code.
Benghazi?
In light of the war crimes our government is guilty of up to and including 9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria, the importance of Benghazi – oooh, so a war criminal was hoisted by his own petard (sob) – rivals that of what color Ms. Broadwell’s undergarments are.
Wake me when they open an investigation in 9/11.
Until then, allow us all the chance to at least mock the murderous war criminals who continue to lead this country into territory inhabited only by Nazi Germany as we lack any means by which to execute any real form of justice in this nation.
That is, I know that Mr. Petraeus does take himself very, very seriously. Thus, in light of the fact that he will NEVER experience any sort of justice I can at least take cold comfort in the fact that he looks like a f*cking idiot for a bit.
As concerns the scandals…
Benghazi = Monica Lewinsky = Terry Schiavo = Paula Broadwell = Fiscal Cliff = …snore…drool….
And another link for good measure:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/11/08/amnesty-international-and-the-human-rights-industry/
http://www.ianwelsh.net/reality-about-americas-future/
Looking on the bright side, Welsh says we’ve got two years to batten down the hatches.
“You can pump all the blood you want into a zombie, but it’s still a zombie.”
But they’ll keep pumping blood into our zombie economy for as long as they can; I don’t know how anyone can predict when the zombie will fall over or collapse, or whatever it is that zombies do.
Like the zombie hockey game, ya know — “face off on the ice” — but when, exactly?
Unfortunately, it is OUR BLOOD they are pumping into the zombie.
“Vampyr! Nosferatu!”
I always know the link section is going to be especially juicy when Yves apologizes for it.
As for Clinton in IA, na ga happen, not ever. Warren is Clinton 2.0. Former Republican, thinks way to handle the FIRE sector is better paperwork not criminal prosecution, also too no b*** j****. What’s not to like?
..na ga happen…thousand points of light…
“Better Paperwork” Is that when there is a “do not shred” rule? Or wait, the law doesn’t cover tidying up the files… Can’t we all just sit down and have a serious discussion about fraud?
I wouldn’t bet on it – Clinton has always been a very ambitious woman – and leaving the admin now gives her an opportunity to catch her breath and “distance” herself, should that prove useful. She also knows what an albatross her Iraq war vote was around her neck in ’08 and wouldn’t want Iran on her scorecard as well. And, maybe that’s the price Clinton exacted for his “stumping” around – grease the skids for Hil …
Granted, the fact that Warren got the Dem push indicates that she has been vetted by TPTB, but it remains to be seen how well broken in she is, IMO ….
TPTB struck it big last time with an AA – this time around they will try with a woman, methinks, and oh looky – riches – we have 2 to choose from!
And of course there is always Cuomo, who certainly wants the prize his father never got …
Madame Clinton’s unconquerable lust to be First Woman President is why Dr. Jill Stein can’t get anywhere. This is an Old Guard Fantasy. But they may try to work the “Goddess” trilogy, substituting the Youth daughter for the Crone mother, keeping the Dynasty going forever in Blood&Soil, *in saeculae seculorum*.
But something like the myth of the Queen and Snow White may yet unfold to feed the ‘Merican Infantile Lust for “myth as reality” in Disney Technicolor, as the masses continue to pine for the yellow brick road.
Was that yellow brick road comment made as an investment strategy?…..Grin
Re: Amnesty International and the Human
Rights Industry
The 2011 uprising and revolution in Egypt
lasted from Tuesday 25 January 2011 to
Friday February 11 2011 (18 days).
On Monday February 7 2011, a released Egyptian
protester appeared on National Tv,
“inconsolable”/lamenting the 300 Egytian deaths to
that date in the Tahrir-centered protests.
Source:
The Egyptian Revolution Part 3: The Fall ,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPpRB6DFDdo @ 1:31 in.
Looking at Amnesty International Press Releases,
there’s a warning/protest of sorts issued
Tuesday, February 8 2011 about the freedom of
speech rights and the legal status of
Jamal al-Hajji of Lybia on Lybian affairs.
http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/press-releases/libya-amnesty-international-says-libyan-writer-is-jailed-for-calling-for-protests-for-greater-freedo
If AI issued calls for Mubarak to step-down or anything
critical of Egyptian Government from 25 Jan. to
Feb. 8 2011, well all I can say is I didn’t
find it.
I am willing to march and engage in civil disobedience to attempt to force our government to work for the American People. But we need organization and numbers. But I have no idea how to achieve that as I couldn’t organize the inside of a shoe box. Aren’t there some organizing type folks around who can help get us of the ground? Or am I just pissing into the wind as usual?
re: LPS Explains Rise in Delinquencies
co-incided with the release of the i phone 5
same thing happens every december, too…
Let’s Not Make a Deal, Paul Krugman
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/09/opinion/krugman-lets-not-make-a-deal.html
Is Paul Krugman no longer interviewing for that Treasurer gig? He isn’t toeing the party line on the Grand Bargain.
“Is Paul Krugman no longer interviewing for that Treasurer gig? He isn’t toeing the party line on the Grand Bargain.”
Give Krugman a couple of days and he’ll fall in line with the rest of the fauxgressives. And he STILL won’t get Treasury.
Krugman is a Keynesian and so will criticize austerism. Otherwise he is a fairly standard neoclassical economist. But yes, give him a couple of days, he will soon be back to waving his finger at those crazy, ole Republicans. That Krugman who is far more Establishmentarian (that is a member and backer of our ruling elites) than liberal is still considered far outside the bounds of this Administration says a lot about how hard right Obama really is.
Right. There is Krugman the Economist and then there is Krugman the Political Player. Sometimes the economist cramps the pol but it never lasts for long. I give him a week — tops — before he “reluctantly” signs on to the Great Betrayal.
He’s messed up the sequence. First, you carry the establishment’s water for decades. Then you get into office. Then start publicly contemplating upsetting the apple cart. Then the lobbyists swoop in and take you out for lobster between rounds of golf in Hawaii. Then, thus satisfied, you find your way back to the reservation.
That’s how you fail upwards.
Krugman is like the rest of the myth makers. They never talk about certain externalities like inheritance, ongoing accumulation of private property, public money and banking versus private money and banking, imperialism supported by the vast military, etc.
Those subjects are just not discussed in public by the myth makers like Krugman.
As soon as Romney decided he had lost, he pulled the plug on everything. I read that the campaign credit cards of his staff were cancelled election night leaving them with interesting problems when they tried to pay hotel bills and return home. I wonder if leaving up the transition site wasn’t part of this. It was set to go up at a certain time and went up. Only there wasn’t anyone around with any interest, now that their credit cards had been cancelled, in taking it down.
I also have read that Romney really thought he would win. Putting a go on publishing the transition site to the web rather than just having it handy would support this view. I don’t know if that is a testament to his only hearing what he wanted to hear or awful polling by his campaign consultants, but any reality based assessment had to have shown him going into election night that the odds were against him.
All this underlines what a pathetic campaign Romney ran, and that even so he still came fairly close to winning against Obama the supposedly much more experienced and savvy campaigner.
Hugh, Romney’s excitement toward the end revealed that he really bought the lie.
Classy move, leaving his campaigners in the lurch.
Maybe he did believe his yes-men, we will never know. I think we can infer that he did want to win and thought he could by asking cui bono if he loses. No one, really. Wall Street must be furious at him for indirectly shining a light on the nasty role of private equity in our economy. It’s often said that Republicans are kind to their losers, but I can’t imagine Republicans are saving him a seat at their table in the school cafeteria like they did for Nixon. The Kochs and Adelsons can’t be terribly fond of him right now after having dumped millions on this race even if it was mostly to spite Obama for his “fat cat” remark. I think his LDS brothers and sisters will be empathetic since he put a face on Mormonism that had nothing to do with bigamy or posthumous baptism, but by all accounts he already had great standing in his church so the presidential run was for naught on that account.
I think he felt this was his best chance to show up his father by succeeding where George Romney failed and wishful thinking deluded him into believing his own PR. If anything, however, his self-contentment must have dropped because now he will be remembered as someone who fired more people than his father hired, and he will pale in comparison.
Mitt will have to cry himself to sleep on his pillows stuffed with hundreds.
It is not just Mitt that is having trouble coping with the loss.
I am hearing of family/friends with spouses of differing political beliefs than “ours” saying their spouses are not talking to them and are madder than hell.
As someone who can’t support Obama either I have trouble suggesting what they tell their spouses to patch things up….grin
It is a testimony to the global inherited rich that they can turn families against themselves in ignorance of their control of our society. A damming sick sort of testimony but one that speaks volumes to the power of the Judas media and the marketing/sales folks manipulating the controls.
In case you missed it, read the link today, “The Romney Landslide That Wasn’t”. Along with Michael Hudson’s article, well, it makes one smile…
It’s hilarious to think anyone thought Romney could win.
It’s actually a little sad to think he thought he’d win. How human, to be so delusional about your odds for success in some hopeless venture.
There was only one time I thought he might possibly win and that was only for a few hours. I think there was something funky going on with the solar wind — and then it stopped and I said “nah”. Fortunately I didn’t watch any of the debates or follow the campaigns at all, in any way, except scanning Lambert’s links (but not reading them).
This allowed for unclouded analysis, mostly through vibratory channeling and the remote viewing of mid-November. When I remote viewed mid-November during September and October, I could see Obama’s head still smiling and his hand waving. It was not entirely a pleasant task, doing this, but it’s alot easier than reading about it or watching TV.
As for Romney losing, it’s not clear if Rove really had some computer vote rigging scam going on that he thought would pull it out for them in Ohio. I think more will be revealed about that in the future.
As for Petraeus, he made his career out of knowing who to suck up to and being the pointmman on big initiatives: training Iraqi forces, the surge in Iraq, taking over from McChrystal in Afghanistan, reaping the credit for them and moving on before they went splat on someone else’s watch.
And now this affair with a hagiographic biographer who entitled her work “All In”. Truly, make up your own jokes.
Well, fucking his hagiographer does bring narcissism to a new level.
Oh, no, wb, history shows that vain men lap up infinite flattery.
It could make it difficult to write a good hagiography if your subject isn’t particularly good in bed. Seems like Petraeus gambled and won on that front.
An interview of Paula Broadwell (even better/worse than the Daily Show interview):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXcDlk_RijQ
At 10:10: “It’s not a hagiography. I’m not in love with David Petraeus!”
The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
Then, on the other hand, we can blame the victim:
http://www.businessinsider.com/general-petraeus-affair-paula-broadwell-went-from-likable-to-a-shameless-self-promoting-prom-queen-2012-11
She got her claws in him? Really? A sixty-year-old four star general was taken advantage of by a thirty-year-old writer? Damn her feminine wiles!
What is it about the Paula Curse?
Clinton had one. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Jones
Petraeus had one.
Judging by how Billy C. is doing (smashingly well, thank you v. much), Petraeus has some good post-redemption years ahead of him
Random thought:
Do the rich, the Wall Streeters, and their Randian sychophants play chess with no pieces except for the king?
No, each team has 15 pawns, all of which can only move laterally or backward unless promoted by the King, can only capture each other, and must be smashed upon capture.
Does that make the king a job creator?
With all the weekend “Honour our Military” business happening, the sainted Petraeus resignation is almost post-modern in its irony. Speaking of the military, a local Federal judge has issued a temporary stay order requiring the city of Auburn (WA) to allow a contingent of Veterans For Peace (VFP) march in the annual Veteran’s Day parade. The city attorney of Auburn had argued that “the city was thankingveterans for their contributions, and for ‘defending freedoms around the world’. “He contended that that VFP’s anti-war messages, peace flags, and the reminders of the human and financial tolls of conflict were antithetical to that message”. Ab Fab, that last comment! And all the cable sports channels are having a veritable orgy of patriotically oriented matches on this weekend, with heavy militaristic overtones throughout the telecasts. This conflation of sports and a nationalistic military is unique for the US amongst so-called advanced nations, and completely perverts the original intent of what was once called “Armistice Day”, which in fact commemorates the end of The Great War, and the end to unimaginable and cruel slaughter on the battlefield. In the US, this day has been coopted by jingoists and militarists to not so much “honour our vets” but to celebrate the cult of the military and war in general. Three cheers for Judge Marsha Pechman to stand up for free speech and the right of vets of another persuasion to air their message!
Fellow shoppers, how many Red Flags did you spot above?
So here at the Peter Pinguid Society we finally got rid of Petraeus. Now we can replace him with John O. Brennan.
The rubes think it’s about the sex, but it’s never about the sex. It’s about getting Petraeus out and Brennan in.
Petraeus has served his purpose, and is no longer useful. Brennan, on the other hand, described by the US media as as stickler for detail and following procedures, in addition to being the most righteous man in the history of Western Civilization (using Press Releases supplied directly to the media by John O. Brennan himself) is, in fact, the chief architect of the Murder Program, as well as the Peter Pinguid Society’s inside man in the White House.
He will make certain our rules are followed precisely, dotting every i and crossing every t.
So no, getting rid of Petraeus has nothing to do with Benghazi, and it’s not about extending drone murders throughout the Middle East.
The Middle East Lab experiment was just a trial run, until we could get all the procedures and techniques perfected.
And it was done openly and transparently, to see if there would be any protest or any objections from the American public. And there wasn’t any.
So now it’s time for the Main Event: bringing the Murder Program home to the good ol’ US of A.
And seeing how the public did not object to these techniques being used on foreigners, they have no basis now for objecting when identical techniques are employed domestically.
We are the Peter Pinguid Society, we are the 0.01 percent.
This tale ain’t even tall…
For anyone who wants to know more about Brennan:
A CIA veteran transforms U.S. counterterrorism policy http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-veteran-john-brennan-has-transformed-us-counterterrorism-policy/2012/10/24/318b8eec-1c7c-11e2-ad90-ba5920e56eb3_story.html
This article is Part 2 of a 3 part series the WP did recently on “Permanent War.”
Part 1 – Plan for hunting terrorists signals U.S. intends to keep adding names to kill lists http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/plan-for-hunting-terrorists-signals-us-intends-to-keep-adding-names-to-kill-lists/2012/10/23/4789b2ae-18b3-11e2-a55c-39408fbe6a4b_story.html
Part 3 – Remote U.S. base at core of secret operations http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/remote-us-base-at-core-of-secret-operations/2012/10/25/a26a9392-197a-11e2-bd10-5ff056538b7c_story.html
Thank you, thank you PPS. So nice to hear
from you.
i liked that story much better when i thought Citibank was giving its Chief Panda 6.7 million. the Panda Division had a great year, after all.
That’ll buy a lot of bamboo shoots!
re: NYC flood barriers: “There’s no argument that the costs would be monumental. The preliminary estimates are between $10 billion and $17 billion…”
10 to 17 bill, you say? Monu-FUCKING-mental!
Too funny. $17 billion wouldn’t be worthy of being called pocket change in China, it would more accurately represent the pennies you toss in the give ‘n take tray at a 7 Eleven.
Why is that? I mean, I know. I’m asking the morons that run this country, and the morons that do the commentating on the morons that run this country –that would be the “ELITE” corporate media.
Why can China spend $17 billion without blinking (fuck, they routinely drop $100 billion at the drop of a hat) , but to us, $17 billion is a figure so outlandish, we immediately shy like a skittish colt, and cry, “Oh no, no, no, we can’t possibly even entertain this figure!”
So it’s a quiz, morons. Why is modern China rich beyond measure while the current incarnation of the United States finds itself broker than a skid row bum? Is the answer a) because China is super duper smart, b) because the US is the most brain dead country ever, or c) some combination of the above?
Wrong. The answer is not a, or c. China is pretty smart, but that’s not it. Their real forte in this game, is the ability to avoid being unbelievably fucking stupid.
The answer is b. The United States, exemplified by Beltway officials and a lap dog press corps, after volunteering for a national lobotomy, no longer has any verifiable signs of mental activity.
The Pentagon probably has 17 billion dollars under its couch cushions.
Exactly.
In an Iraqi warehouse, Private First Class Johnson falls asleep, and the skid he’s looking after, holding 7 billion in cellophane wrapped greenbacks, disappears.
“Oh well,” says the Brigadier back in Washington. “No biggie. Money grows on trees around here.”
“Fire up a C-130, and send out another skid. And have Johnson guard it when it gets there.”
“Don’t give me that look, Major. Everybody deserves a second chance.”
Uh, wan’t there 16 Trillion or so available for the asking when the project at hand was preserving Predators? I haven’t heard one good reason why half of that can’t be mande available pronto to initiate worthwhile public works of the type called for here.
Come to think of it, though, nor have I head any G*D D**mn Congresperson mention the Treasury/Fed spigot as a source for this and trillions of other worthwhile (real economy, real world, real people) projects.
It is a waste of my time to call Sen. Schumer. I found out the insulting way back when I called (first time ever call to a representative) his office to voice support for the Bust TBTF bill that withered.
Spanish Woman Commits Suicide As Foreclosure Agents Walk Into Her Apartment.Forbes.
Too bad we’re not experiencing the depression of the 1930s when bankers were jumping out of windows. Its a damned shame.
Among the groups volunteering… Occupy Sandy…
Volunteers head for flood-damaged N.Y. areas http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57548101/volunteers-head-for-flood-damaged-n.y-areas/
Also joining in relief efforts; Occupy Wall Street, whose activists are fanning out across New York to deliver aid, including hot meals, medicine and blankets.
Occupiers brought food and water to Glenn Nisall, a 53-year-old resident of Queens’ hard-hit and isolated Rockaway section, Nisall, who lives alone, lost power and has no family nearby. “I said: ‘Occupy? You mean Occupy Wall Street?'” he said. “I said: ‘Awesome, man. I’m one of the 99 percent, you know?'”
Unexpected headline from Europe:
“New rules designed to kill OTC market,
says European regulator” from risk.net
Lead-in:
“Central Bank of Ireland adviser says reforms will cause an “Ice Age” in the derivatives market”
from:
http://www.risk.net/ dateline: 8 Nov 2012
Awwww.
Was it an Obama-Panetta FUBAR of a CIA mission in Benghazi, and the expectation that Petraeus would be a “good soldier” about it?
Did Petraeus say to Obama: “I won’t play the sap for you” — like Humphrey Bogart’s character in the film, The Maltese Falcon?
Can/Will Petraeus become A Witness for the Prosecution in The People v. Barack Obama, and will this make him President/Chancellor of Princeton University?
Two good pieces on Petraeus:
Behind Petraeus’s Resignation by Robert Parry
http://consortiumnews.com/2012/11/10/behind-petraeuss-resignation/
and
Pundit Tears for Petraeus’s Fall by Ray McGovern
http://consortiumnews.com/2012/11/10/pundit-tears-for-petraeuss-demise/
And Kim K, the Comments under the Parry piece are very informative.
Juicy items from the Journal of Urology (Science Daily)
Tips for 1) preventing cuts and infections related to shaving or grooming pubic hair; 2) zipper detachment strategies for penile skin entrapment.
This can hold down emergency room costs. (I hope everyone is safely sleeping by the time this appears.)