Dolphins May Call Each Other by Name Wired
Asteroid early warning system taking shape at UN Telegraph
Yankees: Yes, We’re ‘Evil’ WSJ. Film at 11!
Lengthy Impasse Looms On Cuts WSJ. Thomas Nast: “‘Twas him!”
Big banks are as risky as ever, economist warns CBS Moneywatch (SW)
Historical Echoes: Cash or Credit? Payments and Finance in Ancient Rome New York Fed (SW). Fiddles, anyone?
Economists Discover that Fed Bond Purchases Affect the Budget CEPR
Aunt Pythia’s Advice mathbabe. “My grandfather, on his deathbed, sold me this watch.” –Woody Allen
Spanish king’s son-in-law Inaki Urdangarin makes court appearance over fraudulent use of public money Independent
‘Citizen tide’ of protests swamps Spain AFP
Huge Grillo rally rounds off Italy election campaign Reuters
I Have Seen The Scariest Chart In Europe — And It Very Much Resembles This One Joe Weisenthal, Business Insider
A brief history of the Chinese growth model Michael Pettis
The United States Heads to the South China Sea Foreign Affairs
Flawed F-35 Fighter Too Big to Kill as Lockheed Hooks 45 States Businessweek
Boeing’s ‘Angry Nerds’ Reject Contract as Dreamliner Crisis Continues Labor Notes
FAA won’t 787 to service until risks addressed Chicago Tribune. “Risks addressed” ≠ “causes found.” (See also; and also.)
BP Heads Into Spill Trial With Initial Court Victory Bloomberg
Businesses surprised to see their names on fracking petition Coloradon (DCBlogger)
The Futures of Farming Le Monde Diplomatique
India’s rice revolution: Chinese scientist questions massive harvests Guardian
Sriracha Hot Sauce Catches Fire, Yet ‘There’s Only One Rooster’ Businessweek
Death of the Yuppie Rosa Luxemburg Foundation
Content economics, part 1: advertising Felix Salmon, Reuters
The Wage Theft Epidemic In These Times (CB)
Liberal racial hypocrisy Salon. Because it’s OK to slaughter brown people when they’re far away.
Why your boss is dumping your wife Marketwatch
Miami Heist: The Brink’s Money Plane Job’s Messy Aftermath Bloomberg. These bad guys lost.
I used Google Glass: the future, with monthly updates The Verge. Creepy?
Antidote du jour (MB):
77 comments
Comments are closed.
The NHS story: why are British taxpayers – including the middling and poor – paying so that an American gets expensive “health care” at no expense to him or his family?
“He had three hip operations and was treated for throat cancer …
As a professional gambler, he paid very little tax. He smoked, he drank. He had no will, no funeral plan.”
It’s a story of the mad, perverse incentives of a badly designed welfare state. Benevolent deity, my arse – Satan, more like.
Indeed, a benevolent deity such as the US market state would have let the man die of cancer as punishment for his sins.
Yes, it is indeed foolish to care for your populace.
As we all know, wealthy people never drink too much, get fat, do unhealthy drugs… also, British citizens ditto.
What are you on about really? Taking care of the people is supposed to be the first priority of a government, according to MY ethical grounding. What’s your priority? Providing trillions to backstop criminal banks? Yes, we need less healthy citizens who are desperate and starving so that mega-corporations can continue their rape of the world. Must divert money from NHS to help “the effort” now!
This man didn’t just arrive demanding healthcare (and so what if he did?) anyway. He was an immigrant who lived in the UK for 20-30 years.
Its not welfare state “madness”, its ethical human compassion and care, and there are only bad reasons to ignore or ridicule compassion and care of people and the earth itself. Wake up.
Piss off a conservative –
Alleviate suffering
Either that, or Work Hard And Ask For A Raise.
Conservative says “I’m sorry, no raise, but raise your production numbers a little more and we’ll consider it”
Here’s your $5 starbucks coupon
Suffering continues
Who let this deranged neoliberal arse-wipe onto the boards of NC?
Not wishing to be a hypocrite given my aversion to censorship, one will not ask Yves and Lambert to redact this retarded comment – all I can say, it illustrates clearly the demented nature of many an American and their neoliberal wannabes in the UK – suffice to say, given you live by the sword, I trust you will die by the sword, on this occasion hopefully a painful death of an incurable form of cancer that drains the resources of your family totally – this being quite easy given most coverage is only for US$1 million – its only money for God sake and your billionaire masters really require the extra funds to spread their malicious lies – MAY GOD HAVE MERCY ON YOU YOU EVIL TWAT!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry for the rant, but as a Brit, Socialist and 100% supporter of the NHS and assistance to those in need, this guy has really annoyed me.
“given you live by the sword, I trust you will die by the sword”
I think that pretty much sums up what’s happening. Holier than thou useful idiots en masse are going to get smacked left and right when their number comes up.
And, I think the only real hope of a cultural sea change lies in younger people whose number came up early and who might possibly cultivate a different way of thinking as a result.
There’s no guarantee of this, of course.
I’m one of the younger, and I’ve had a different way of thinking since before my number came up early. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do any good, because thoughts don’t pay the bills and put food on the table – action does. And I’ve yet to find a truly different way of acting without substantial capital assistance.
You seem to be suggesting that someone has to pay you to be a citizen. This seems to fall under the professional managerial model that the Ehrenreichs’ suggest started falling apart in the 1970s in today’s link on the Yuppie demise.
I would hazard your contention leaves us 1-2 generations behind the times.
http://www.rosalux-nyc.org/en/death-of-a-yuppie-dream/
I did say it might not happen.
So if you meet me
Have some courtesy
Have some sympathy, and some taste
Use all your well-learned politesse
Or I’ll lay your soul to waste,
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name,
But what’s puzzling you
Is the nature of my game…
where the dearie’s deal for a pittance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTwsbKYaoY0
Some people are impossible to get into rehab.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QDDzaY1LtU
Yeah, he only moved to England forty years ago. Whatta wetback.
PS this is a good example of the way using universal benefits funded by progressive taxes is always falsely described as “costing the poor in taxes”. Where the benefits are universal but the funding is progressive, the net beneficiaries are overwhelmingly the “middling and poor”. The irritated group it’s costing are the 1%.
Evidently, your knowledge of UK Income tax and other forms of taxation is highly limited, or non existent with that statement – first and foremost, direct income tax, that is money removed from actual salary on a weekly or monthly basis is less than the treasury receives from consumption taxes and VAT – our sales tax that presently stands at 20%.
Further, the NHS is funded by National Insurance, and the last time I paid NI as a employee, it was 9% of income over £52,00 with a cut off just over £22,000 – that was in the 90’s – obviously, employers also contribute to an employees NI contribution – so, unemployment benefit, health, and old age pension are funded by NI and not as you presume, direct income tax.
On all cost analysis, and given presently the UK spends approx. 10% GDP on health care – much less than most EU nations, the USA and Canada, – the health outcome for the overall population is higher than most other nations, and significantly higher than the USA.
Indeed, are not you and your fellow citizens ashamed that having spent nearly 20% of GDP on healthcare, the outcome for the majority, and not the 1% is on par with a third world nation in Africa – not something to be proud about, particularly given the amount of GDP attributed to health care.
The NHS is not funded by National Insurance in the same way the roads are not funded by the so-called ‘Road Tax’ (which is actually the ‘Vehicle Excise Duty’ – a tax on the vehicle). All taxation is pooled and allocated as needed.
By living in the UK he will have been paying VAT on his drinks and smokes, plus the additional taxes levied on tobacco products, so he will have made a contribution to the Exchequor towards the costs of his healthcare.
What is the function of liberals in our political system? Tarzie has a new post up: “A Vampire’s Tears”. It is the result of an argument he had with Glenn Greenwald on Twitter.
Someone who is upset about war crimes, imperialism, and the government murdering children might, without the guidance of liberals, come to view Obama and the Democratic Party as deceitful, treacherous, and morally corrupt. Liberals provide an intellectual framework that beguiles people “to square allegiance with Dem politics with revulsion over war crimes. That is the function of anguished liberals. It is a brand. That’s all.”
OUCH! Quite the take-down of Charles Pierce and Glenn Greenwald, both of whom I admire. It is informative to see criticism of them from a, what?, Far-Left perspective.
I was deeply disappointed to see such “progressives” like Michael Moore, Robert Redford and Cornel West, for example, come out in eleventh hour and tell people to get out and vote for Obama.
If one believes that the fix was, and always is, in, as Emma Goldman explained, then those “progressives” needn’t have tossed their principles out the window with their endorsements.
I guess that means I really was enjoying my rose-colored glasses world I live in, where principled people remain principled no matter what the situation.
I guess I enjoy being fooled. Lalalala………….
It is informative to see criticism of them from a, what?, Far-Left perspective.
I shy away from these labels, particularly that ‘Far’ part, which is marginalizing. I think anyone looking analytically at people like Pierce, West, Moore etc is likely to reach similar conclusions about the role they play in the manufacture of consent.
If you want to know more about my perspective, I have spelled it out in The Rancid Honeytrap FAQ
My piece on Chris Hayes goes into more detail on what I call Vampire Liberals in a different context.
Thanks! It’s funny how humans need to label things. I’ll just say I’m interested in “a wide range of points of view” and leave it at that.
I will check out your website in detail. At least it is something different!
Front page story in NY Times:
“Major Banks Aid Payday Loans Banned by States”.
It’s behind the pay wall, but I skimmed a few paragraphs at the deli while drinking coffee and waiting for my western omelette to cook.
It really looks bad. Everybody must know what payday loans are — they’re like the child prostitution of the financial services business. The banks aren’t lending directly but seem to be facilitating internet banks that do.
@ “Liberal racial hypocrisy,” by Falguni A. Sheth
Liberal hypocrisy may have reached an all-time high in America, and a bright spotlight needs to be shone on it.
“Civil rights” has degenrated into special interest pleading. Civil rights, in its current pathological and disfigured form, is false advertising. It’s self-interest being billed as other-interest or universal-interest, and the result is layer upon layer of irony and hypocrisy. It has gotten so thick one can cut it with a knife, as Sheth notes
The fatal flaw in Sheth’s argument, however, is to make it all about race. It’s not just that race is a completely artifical and arbitrary construct, and to use the term creates a great deal of ambiguity and confusion, the word “race” having so many different and varied meanings. But it’s that race just scratches the surface of the problem.
This becomes very clear if we look at the recent trends in gay “civil rights” activism. CounterPunch did an outstanding article calling out the moral degeneracy of our most recent crop of gay activists with their abandoning of Bradley Manning. As the article’s author, Andy Thayer, points out: “If a homophobe had so much as broken Chaz Bono’s finger nail, rest assured that assured GLAAD, NGLTF and HRC would have been on the case. But why the silence about Manning?” http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/02/22/bradley-manning-and-the-appalling-silence-of-gay-inc/
So these gay “civil rights” organizations pursue a very narrow special-interest agenda. It’s all about getting and preserving power, money, and celebrity, and promoting the interest of a narrow interest group. What we find is just one more Washington lobbying group. And if that’s not bad enough, then one has to deal with an additional sin, that of hypocrisy. The Human Rights Campaign, after all, really should be called “The Gay and Lesbian Rights Campaign.”
I wonder how the current crop of gay activists and their decision to abandon Bradley Manning would respond to Martin Luther King, who in the spring of 1967 stood before the pulpit at Ebenerzer Baptist Church and preached his sermon “Why I am opposed to the war in Vietnam,” and with that act forever banished himself from the halls of power and money in the United States, and may indeed have pronounced his own death sentence. As King so rightly pointed out:
In order to fully understand King’s sermon, it is necessary to place it in its historical context.
“The Soul of a Nation” segment (Part V) of the PBS special God in America provides the historical framework.
http://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/view/
King’s sermon was an answer to the cold war mongering — the marriage of patriotism/militarism with morality/religion — that was being evangelized by right-wing Christian preachers like Billy Graham. As PBS points out, Graham’s overnight rise to rock star status was largely due to the machinations of William Randolf Hearst — identified by George Orwell as a fascist — and the mandate he issued to his media empire to “puff Graham.”
Groups that take an attitude of “we want ours, screw everyone else” fit fine into the current system. The boundary that is strictly enforced is between group selfishness (even when well deserved) and universal inclusiveness.
When a new group arrives on the scene, they often make their claims in universalistic terms (workers of the world unite) and with varying combinations of carrot, stick, and puppet theater, those who stand by universalistic claims are marginalized or annihilated and those willing to conform to “Do it to Julia” group-selfishness are incorporated into the system.
One of the ways that this is accomplished is through the careerism of those who make a living running the organizations the new group sets up.
The really big quandary is this: If there is no group that really is immune to this process, unless one counts on the system to degenerate to the point where it screws over such a high percentage of the population that they really do have to stick together, then how does one make universally inclusive humaneness that everyone does have at least a little bit of into a force coherent enough to withstand/overcome greed and selfishness.
As from Mexico points out, it was when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. came out against war and militarism that he “forever banished himself from the halls of power and money in the United States”. In the U.S., anti-imperialism is largely (although not completely) immune to being co-opted. It is a basic moral argument – no to war, no to the military, no to state violence. When judging an activist group or movement, ask:
• Are they anti-imperialist, or are they on easy terms with empire?
• Do they engage in actions that disrupt the current system of social, political, and economic control; or are they looking for acceptance and status within the existing system?
It is important to ask these questions about our own activism, as well.
Jessica asks:
Can’t it be argued that King and other like-minded souls were fairly successful in doing that, at least for a time?
Did we not see the rise of American militarism in the 1940 to 1960 period, reaching its cresendo with the Vietnam War, and then its amelioration?
As Andrew J. Bacevich writes in The New American Militarism:
Bacevich then goes on to recount the history of how the militarists “mounted a counterrevolution,” beginning with Irving Kristol and Norman Podhoretz, and following it right on down to 2005, the date his book was published.
Since 2000, the United States has once again entered an exceedingly black period, and it now appears that the children of darkness have won a complete and total victory. But I don’t think King would have accepted that defeat. As he said in his sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church:
In the PBS film, there is a video of King the night before he was killed where he says:
Now compare that to the moral and spiritual wasteland that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi inhabits as she defends the Obama Administration policy of targeted killings:
“The Soul of a Nation” concludes with the following remarks by Andrew Yound, one of the eary civil rights leaders:
Jessica asks:
…how does one make universally inclusive humaneness that everyone does have at least a little bit of into a force coherent enough to withstand/overcome greed and selfishness.
From Mexico:
Can’t it be argued that King and other like-minded souls were fairly successful in doing that, at least for a time?
Yes. And it is crucial to recognize our past triumphs. Particularly in dark times such as these.
But I think it would also be best to at least reckon with the possibility that the kinds of factors that worked for us then may not come again. Much of the force behind the successes of the 60s came from groups who had been so egregiously and obviously held down that it had forged a strong sense of We. Black is beautiful. Sisterhood.
Even among white males, university students during their college years had not been incorporated into the corporate system to the same degree and were not beaten down by debt.
This does not mean that we can not achieve such successes again, but only that the challenge we face may be slightly different.
One factor that can work in our favor is that the people lined up against us running the nation are far less coherent than they were and have little to offer us except austerity, drones, and pepper spray. It is our own divisions and despair that we need to overcome. That and our own inability to imagine what things will be like when we are running them.
Martin Luther King Jr. talking to Harry Belafonte: “I said, ‘What’s the matter, Martin? You seem very agitated.’ He said, ‘Well, I am, because I’ve come upon a thought that I don’t know how to deal with at this moment.’ I said, ‘Well, what is it?’ He said, ‘We’ve fought long for integration. It looks like we’re gonna get it. I think we’ll get the laws,” he says. “But I’m afraid that I’ve come upon something that I don’t know quite what to do with. I’m afraid that we’re integrating into a burning house.’”
Did MLK forsee Obama as arsonist-in-chief ?
I believe he did. As he wrote in Letter from Birmingham Jail, “I started thinking about the fact that I stand in the middle of two opposing forces in the Negro community. One is a force of complacenty made up of Negroes who…because of a degree of academic and economic security…have unconsciously become insensitive to the problems of the masses.”
James Melvin Washington notes in A Testament of Hope that the Negro community has a long tradition of conservative leadership that has “little trouble getting either an audience or support” from either the black community or the white community. “Jerry Falwell,” Washington says, had “a black counterpart in the Reverend Dr. Joseph Harrison Jackson, president of the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A.” Bourgeois blacks like Dr. Jackson were “exceedingly cautious and timid, stepping lightly so as not to disturb the status quo of a segregated society.” King was also of middle-class stock, but “refused to alienate himself from the struggles of the black masses.” In 1961, he broke with the National Baptist Convention.
King had almost no support from the white community, Washington says. There were, however, notable exceptions. One was the Christian theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, who early on “encouraged blacks to embrace noviolent resistance.” The altruism and martyrdom of white liberals like Jonathan Daniels, James Reeb and Viola Liuzzo argue against the blanket condemnation of white liberalism.
James Baldwin said that Martin Luther King, Jr., “has succeeded, in a way no Negro before him as managed to do, to carry the battle into the individual heart and make its resolution the province of the individual will. He has made it a matter on both sides of the racial fence, of self-examination.”
Thanks, FM. That reminds me of an exceptional NC post last spring about Obama’s connections to Chicago’s “Real Estate Reverends”, about privateering/racketeering at public expense. Community organizing just has a better ring to it than racketeering; even better — “The Affordable Care Act”. What tragic irony from the man who claims and betrays MLK’s conscience.
“Exclusive: How Obama’s Early Career Success Was Built on Fronting for Chicago Real Estate and Finance.” (Yves Smith, May 4, 2012 — 233 comments)
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/05/exclusive-how-obamas-early-career-succes-was-built-on-fronting-for-chicago-real-estate-and-finance.html#pRXfPbBrYxo5TtzI.99
Why I am opposed to the war in Vietnam ends with the fait accompli: “we will…” His earlier speech, Beyond Vietnam, challenges the audience to act using a series of questions:
King yearns for a better future, “if we will only make the right choice”.
The ending is as much a harbinger of disappointment and tragedy – if we choose wrong – as a rallying cry for a “bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world”. Since nothing is fait accompli, it is urgent that we make the right choice at this crucial moment of human history.
You left some of it out:
“…when justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream, and CIA secret agent Dago will pop out of the bushes and blow King’s brains out with the complicity of city and state officials and the federal assassins who also assassinated JFK and RFK, and dumbshit Americans will continue to think it’s a free country.”
For anyone not familiar with the case, The New York Times printed a brief summary:
In a press conference held after the trial, Coretta Scott King said:
Harlem reacts to Harlem Shake viral meme.
This history of the meme and song are kind of interesting.
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/harlem-shake
“If You See Something, Say Something” an indocrination video by DHS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qml7obNdmgk
So, if you see people out and about doing normal things, look a little closer; you could be witnessing a terrorist attempt.
You could be the “star” in your very own movie.
Why is “that guy” using a Gordon Gecko model cell phone? He must be a terrorist.
to my ole friend t.burcher, Thank You
for holding the villagers fires at bay
with a temperance that extends all paths
HappY BirthdaY
p.s. NC’rs, Rise Shine & Dance :)
http://marketwatch666.blogspot.com/2013/02/happy-birthday-tburcher.html
Today’s links seem more depressing than usual. Death of the Yuppie, The Wage Theft Epidemic, A daughter’s tribute to the NHS, and Why your boss is dumping your wife — in contrast with some to the other links — are particularly disturbing.
Our once vital and vibrant culture is being driven down to unimaginable levels by corporatism and wealth hoarding disguised as necessity.
Despite the widespread negative effects of this trend, the population (middle class and lower), does not seem to be able to muster the energy to protect itself.
The role of government in this process is being ignored. Example: Obama is a corporatist Republican, and the left has come to support what are actually far-right policies, simply because Obama has promoted them.
We are a culture in decline, and we are powerless to stop it.
OTOH, it’s fairly warm and sunny in the Mid-Atlantic region, today.
Well, its going to be alot warmer in a few decades, so I hope you dont get too used to it. Unless you want to move to Canada to experience the same pleasant temperature.
I, for one, didn’t find the “Death to the Yuppie Dream” article at all distressing. To the Professional-Managerial Class I say, “good riddance.” Yes, the house-slaves have occasionally worked for the betterment of all slaves, but they have never joined in the abolitionist cause, since it is the institution of slavery itself which provides them with their feelings of superiority over us field-hands. The sooner they realize that they are not special, that they will not be spared the abattoir of Capital, that they are nothing but well-dressed slaves, the better.
Members of the PMC are slaves who think they’re masters. In reality, they only work for the masters, keeping the other slaves (as well as themselves) in line and well-behaved. That they “sometimes” act as a buffer against the depredations of the masters does not excuse them from culpability.
Many, I fear, will cling to their conceptions of their own superiority. Because of this, they will never be able to admit to themselves that the system they have been serving lo’ these many years, is totally f-ed up and morally bankrupt. If they admit that they have been part of the problem for all this time, they must admit that they are not superior to the average working stiff. That will be just too much to bear, psychologically, for many.
Hopefully though, many will also eventually realize that the Declaration of Independence is correct and that all men and women are, in fact, “created equal,” themselves included.
“the system they have been serving lo’ these many years, is totally f-ed up and morally bankrupt.”
Not only that, but it is disintegrating under their feet, and many of them (not all of them) have served as the solvent in the system that promotes its disintegration.
Perhaps living by the sword until you die by it is the theme of the day.
In this case, “organic intelligentsia” means natural fiber pants-suits. Don’t think Gramsci would approve.
Depressing links antidotes…
Goats Just Wanna Have Fu-Un http://cuteoverload.com/2013/02/23/goats-just-wanna-have-fu-un/
Cheerleader half-court trick shot…UNREAL! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a4tY08S3fg&feature=player_embedded
The BEST Dunker In The World Kenny Dobbs Puttin’ Down Some CRAZY Dunks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzTNc4kPQ-4
Re: Historical echoes
Fiddling is exactly the right description. There is definitely something they are trying to avoid thinking about. Consider these two quotes from the end of two different articles:
I’m guessing that “another post” looking at Roman debt crises won’t actually appear. That one might hit too close to home (or provide us with some ideas for handling ours, goddess forfend).
Sriacha
mmm memories of lunch friday–poki hand rolls with big eye tuna, little rice, nori, small strip of cucumber, maybe avocado and a few drops of sesame oil to seal the deal
Wage theft–best take-away line is that the conservative “getting government off your back” meme is code for “remove legal incentive for businesses to not break the law.”
Content Economics: ” internet advertising in no way substitutes for TV or print advertising, no matter how often digital ad-sales people bring out their metrics of comparative CPMs.”
CPM = Cash Per Mark (?)
Re: Huy Fong Sriracha
It’s about $4 per 28-ounce bottle. As he likes to say, “I make sauce good enough for the rich man that the poor man can still afford.”
Now there’s a sentiment we could do with more of. It’s a heck of a lot better than the “make it good enough for hog-feed that the poor man can barely afford” attitude of most large-scale businesses. Mr. Tran, I salute you (and love your sauce).
From the for-what-it’s-worth-department vis a vis the asteroids hitting earth meme:
Wernher von Braun – (ex?)Nazi scientist and NASA employee – supposedly told his long time confidante on this death bed that the gamemplan of the TPTB is to keep creating “crises” by which to further enrich themselves and keep the rest of humanity in obedient check.
At that point – 1977 – von Braun had said that they were still in the first “crisis” of the cycle – the War Against Communism.
That would be followed by the War on Terrorism.
After that would be the War on Asteroids hitting Earth.
And finally, the War of the Worlds – ie, against aliens.
Each “crisis” would involve the further enrichment of the MIC and further consolidation of power.
Each of these canards is a ginned up lie.
So, as we start to see more and more hysteria about asteroids destroying life on Earth just remember:
1) Communism
2) Terrorism
3) Asteroids
4) Aliens
I’m sure the drones filling our skies in the next decade will be to protect us from jihadist meteorites, right?
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
Asteroids are a real threat. And, unlike your other enumerated items, it’s a problem we didn’t create ourselves.
Given the unanimous acceptance and pushing of the 9/11 story and other assorted fairy tales by our elite that has directly lead to the expenditure of TRILLIONS of dollars and the loss of MILLIONS of peoples lives, why would you think that they wouldn’t also cook up a story about an asteroid or at least use the excuse of an asteroid on a scary, scary collision course with Earth to enact all kinds of societal changes and further empower themselves?
Sorry, folks, we “know” the asteroid is going to hit somewhere in northern CA, therefore, we’re going to start mandatory evacuations of that entire area as it will now be under goverment control.
We’re also going to have to start mandatory rationing of food and resources in anticipation of the asteroid’s collision.
We’ll also need to start massively funding the War on Asteroids – oops, there goes the rest of EVERY SINGLE REMAINING SOCIAL PROGRAM.
Humanity comes before healthcare doncha know?
Skip a few decades into the future…
Whew! It’s lucky that that the asteroid missed us, huh?
Weird, how during our exploration of how to fend off said asteroid we made contact with a belligerent alien species that is scheduled to be here on Earth in 3 decades.
Better start preparing now, huh?
Yeah, and sometimes a cigar is just a ragtag group of 19 hijackers….
Just to revisit THAT cigar a concise video.
9/11: A Conspiracy Theory
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuC_4mGTs98
Hey, I just happened to come across this video, coincidentally, this morning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7epUEacd8uw&list=FLJH4HGo2tE8LjYPHIz7KSig
“A mini-solar-system is coming into ours” where we will be having large objects coming at our planet. Goes on to claim that quite a few astronomers have gathered in Australia due to this situation.
Whether it is a conspiracy or not, Einstein’s Crisis #3 is now under discussion.
I entertain conspiracy theories and conspiracy facts all the time. Believing in one conspiracy theory does not make the others true. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. If you can’t see that (or *when* it’s just a cigar), well…we’ll have to agree to disagree.
Can/will asteroid theories be used to eventually justify wasteful spending? I sure hope so. It’ll sure beat the far-more-deadly-and-less-innovative wasteful spending we’re engaged in now.
:-) Your wasteful spending is my brother’s job.
As concerns how one would fake an asteroid, it’d be easy.
TPTB – a la 9/11 – gin up a story – even one that’s completely at odds with common sense and physics – and everyone in any position of power sticks to their stories.
How many really high powered telescopes are there?
And how many people witnessed the controlled demolition of the WTC?
To this day, has the leader of ANY Western country remotely challenged the 9/11 fairy tale?
So you see, it’s not that hard.
Just buy off/threaten/kill enough people and the elite can do what they want.
Once the effects of one “event” start to wear off, then another one is ginned up.
As concerns good/bad conspiracies:
Yup, the whole benign/malignant conspiracy debate is a fun exercise.
A benign conspiracy example?
Let’s say, the moon-landing for discussion sake.
Sure, it was a waste of money but did it have the malignant effects that 9/11 – a malignant conspiracy – have?
Who really gives a shite if men haven’t been to the moon?
Does it really hurt anything except American pride?
Even the Russians – who know but who also benefit from said story – keep their mouths shut and everyone’s inspired and happy.
The elite around the world are masters of propaganda and keeping their subjects in check.
When someone comes up with a great idea for pacifying their populace you can be sure they’ll all jump on board.
Gee, worldwide coordinated imposition of austerity sure starts to look like a “bad” conspiracy, don’t it?
Cheers.
We created the Aliens problem ourselves, then?
Hi, in answer to that question—- among the Conspiracy Theorists debates is the issue of whether “Aliens”, should they be revealed to the general global population, be extra-terrestrial life forms, like the ones Carl Sagan claims must logically exist somewhere in our universe, or are an earthly creation of the nefarious Powers-That-Be, to be used in some manner that benefits themselves. In other words, a fake.
I have no opinion either way, I just find it all very interesting.
The “Asteroids” Crisis…(scratches head)…how one fakes asteroids is my question. But Einstein was no dummy, so…Fascinating, none-the-less.
What about the Men In Black?
MIB-UFO: Virtual Reality and Reality Tunnels http://secretsunjr.blogspot.com/2013/02/mib-ufo-virtual-reality-and-reality.html
Great link! Thanks!
Here’s another fun thought provoking post along this tangent…
This post is a review of “The Heretics: Adventures with the Enemies of Science” by Will Storr
The Heretics http://www.dailygrail.com/Reviews/2013/2/The-Heretics
It is a “crystallising moment” for Storr, with the sudden recognition that even ‘skeptics’ can be similar to Creationists, by treating belief as a moral choice: “If you do not choose as they do, you are condemned”. In the end, this is the key to the author finding himself in the strange position of celebrating the eccentric beliefs of humanity.
… For we all need a scaffolding to support ourselves, and living in constant doubt of our actions and motivations may be an honest way to live, but it can make the actual living of life a difficult and sometimes drab affair. In many cases, science offers many evidence-based struts that we can use to good purpose in protecting ourselves (though perhaps not as many as some over-zealous scientists and skeptics might claim). But we also – all of us – need a belief system within that scaffolding to varying degrees. So perhaps the two central messages we should take from Will Storr’s The Heretics is that we should always try to be skeptical – firstly of others’ claims, but even more so of our own beliefs and justifications, because they will affect the outcome of the former (or maybe I’m just saying that because it suits my own philosophy…). But also to realise that we also all have our own beliefs, and fool ourselves to varying degrees – so we should be a whole lot more humble, and less evangelical, when it comes to presenting what we believe to be true to those around us. For as Robert Anton Wilson once say, “If you think you know what the hell is going on, you’re probably full of shit”. So let’s all get over the idea that our way is the way.
Ha. Yeah, I misspoke. :-)
The first rule of the drone program is you do not talk about the drone program.
Gibbs: I was told not to acknowledge existence of drone program as Obama press secretary http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/gibbs-drones-obama-talk-fight-club-174044860–politics.html
Obama’s Drones http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmomUHftbcA
feh, my false-legend sense is tingling. This looks like one to check on at snopes.com.
So Jan Brewer has the sequence wrong?
War on Aliens? You make me laugh. What Earthling would think Earth could win? One ready for the looney bin, methinks. The kind that yells “Charge” and tells everyone he is the “Joint Chiefs of Staff”. All of them.
Faking an asteroid might work. Have one of your astronauts on your space station go for a spacewalk and throw a rock at the Hubble Telescope. Bet the Russian guy will do it. Give the feed to your Tea Party. They believe anything. Remember also that you only need to convince 26% of your voting age population to win the actual vote.
re: Why your boss is dumping your wife, Marketwatch
It is sort of interesting that, of the populace, the class that tends to most insist on having all social benefits accrue to people by virtue of their labor and their labor alone is now falling prey to the dissolution of its own niggardly (anti)social contract.
The upper middle/middle class corporate spouse as the new welfare queen dependency.
At least the Republicans will get to blame Obama instead of blaming themselves.
Bob Dylan Lays Off 2,000 Workers From Songwriting Factory http://www.theonion.com/articles/bob-dylan-lays-off-2000-workers-from-songwriting-f,31407/
World Sword Swallower’s Day 2013 Spotlights Science Of Ancient Performance Art http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/24/world-sword-swallowers-day-2013-science-video_n_2745117.html
Pastafarian denied religious freedom in New Jersey driver’s license scandal http://boingboing.net/2013/02/24/pastafarian-denied-religious-f.html
LOL! I get a yukkity-yuk just reading TheOnion article headers.
I think they must have secretly hired craazyman for this article:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/pistorius-case-takes-dramatic-turn-as-altered-plan,31411/
I have to admit, some of these jokes are pretty lame.
A collection of Oscar Pistorius jokes http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2013/02/a-collection-of-oscar-pistorius-jokes/
Latest Oscar Pistorius joke collection http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2013/02/latest-oscar-pistorius-joke-collection/
Finally some great news: Poverty to be eliminated in my city!
The housing authority has created a new non profit to teach housing voucher recipients to be self sufficient. And, so the director can more fully experience what her clients are going through she will only be paid 85K.
It’s about giving people a “fair shot”.
Richard Wolff on Fighting for Economic Justice and Fair Wages
“We have this disparity getting wider and wider between those for whom capitalism continues to deliver the goods by all means, [and] a growing majority in this society facing harder and harder times,” Wolff tells Bill. “And that’s what provokes some of us to begin to say it’s a systemic problem.”
http://billmoyers.com/segment/richard-wolff-on-fighting-for-economic-justice-and-fair-wages/
Hmmmmmmm I wonder why the people who were owed wages didn’t go through the Federal Labor Department? My oldest had a boss who was not paying overtime as required. We helped him file and after about 8 months he got the money he was owed. Mind you we did end up threatening a lawsuit since the DOL said they did not enforce minimum wage law on businesses making less than half a million and instead instructed people to file civilly.
Marcy Wheeler: What if Chinese not only hacked – but sabotaged the F-35? http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/02/24/what-if-china-not-just-hacked-but-sabotaged-the-f-35/
Then I’d say the whole world owes them a hearty thanks for a job well done. And the more of DoD’s dirty laundry they air and/or sabotage the better. Obviously the American people ain’t up to the task. Do I trust militarist Chinese? No more or less than I trust militarist Americans. Wait, on second thought…
It has come to my attention that certain Senators would prefer me to speak even more fulsomely about my extensive CIA credentials. Well, Why didn’t you say so? You know can ask me anything! Go head, don’t be shy! What are they going to do, crash your A-100 turboprop in Rod Allen’s yard?
Tell you what: Why don’t I get the ball rolling with an opening statement?
The conspiracy to wage aggressive war was the ticklish part, (people are still touchy about Nuremberg Count One) so I assigned that to CIA brat Richard Blee. I put Blee in charge of the Alec station when it tried too hard to stop ObL. Through separate channels I prevailed on Barbara McNamara to withhold and censor NSA intercepts of ObL’s phone calls so he could do his job without interference.
Blee exceeded my very high expectations. He warned of attack in hair-raising terms while withholding actionable information. Discreetly, through an intricate bureaucratic duck blind of three intervening echelons (through Tom Wilshire to Alfreda Frances Bikowsky, then to Michael Anne Casey) Blee quashed a cable to keep FBI in the dark when high-profile hijacker Khalid Alhmihdhar came to the US. Once Khalid was safely in America, Blee seconded good old Tom to the FBI to play Inspector Clouseau and muff the search for our elusive terror celebrity.
Went like clockwork. What with all the 9/11 tragedy and sadness, no one made a peep when we went to war against the Afghans illegally, with no UN authorization. Waging aggressive war, Nuremberg Count Two, check! And nobody even noticed. We sent ObL home from Torah Borah for a well-deserved vacation. But touchy-feely interrogation in Afghanistan was producing useless crap that didn’t implicate Iraq at all, so we put Blee in there to set up a proper fingernail factory and fabricate the Iraq war casus belli that we needed. War crimes, Nuremberg Count Three, check! We locked up a couple of hillbillies when it came out.
I was reassigned to domestic repression before we could fully implement Nuremberg Count Four, Crimes Against Humanity. You’ll have to ask the two-headed babies of Fallujah.
Yes, I did it all and got away with it, the full Nuremberg! I chugged the poison chalice and didn’t even burp. My breezy impunity makes Gustav Krupp look like a fall guy.
Now hop to it and confirm me, you twats.