2:00PM Water Cooler 3/10/15

Subscribe to Post Comments

64 comments

1. Vatch March 10, 2015 at 2:07 pm

   Jebbie on net neutrality: “The idea of regulating access to the internet with a 1934 law is one of the craziest ideas I’ve ever heard”:

   He must really be perplexed by our 1787 Constitution!
   1. Jackrabbit March 10, 2015 at 3:42 pm

      : )
      1. EmilianoZ March 10, 2015 at 4:42 pm

         Come on guys, you very well know that what he means is that the internet was not yet invented in 1934. Jebbie aint his brother. He’s plenty brainy.
         1. Vatch March 10, 2015 at 5:44 pm

            Cars, telephones, washing machines, nylon, antibiotics, and a whole bunch else hadn’t been invented in 1787, yet we regulate our lives based on what James Madison and others wrote that year.

            I suspect Jebbie is trying to garner favor from the oligarchs who oppose net neutrality.
2. dcblogger March 10, 2015 at 2:11 pm

   Economic Study of NY Universal Healthcare Act Released
   1. bob March 10, 2015 at 2:46 pm

      http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2014/02/excellus_posts_53_million_profit_for_2013.html

      Those guys are way too important, profitable, and protected against anti-trust.
3. Stephen V. March 10, 2015 at 2:20 pm

   Yeah. Not slinging the cash around is fatal for a politician:
   “Ted Cruz does not pay well with others”
4. Jim Haygood March 10, 2015 at 2:32 pm

   I, too, support a strong weak dollar:

   NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — It’s probably not the dollar’s unrelenting march higher that is unsettling U.S. stock investors, but it might be the speed of the rally.

   On a trade-weighted basis, the dollar remains far from its highs in the mid-1980s and early 2000s, but the pace of the rise over the past half year is the second fastest in the last 40 years, noted David Woo, forex strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

   http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-blistering-pace-of-dollars-rally-is-rattling-markets-2015-03-10?siteid=bigcharts&dist=bigcharts

   Time for a Plaza Accord II? QE5 can fix that fast …
   1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef March 10, 2015 at 4:07 pm

      When you get chaos everywhere, the safe bet is to head towards Rome…at least for a while.
   2. craazyboy March 10, 2015 at 9:06 pm

      Unfortunately, our new super dollars don’t seem to go any farther at the supermarket.

      Not to mention a buddy of mine just picked up an O Care Silver Plan for “only” $700/month. That’s for a single guy age 60 in normal health. He does get some kickback to cover a good part of it – until the Repubs succeed in doing away with that.
      1. different clue March 10, 2015 at 9:21 pm

         Why would the Rs do away with it? They aren’t kickbacks anyway, they are passthroughs . . . funded by taxpayers and given to Big Insura. Why would the Rs object to that?

         Chief Justice Roberts supports it anyway. So let the Rs object all they want to anyway, if they object.
         Roberts will shut them up but good.
         1. craazyboy March 10, 2015 at 9:41 pm

            Dunno – don’t ask me to find logic in Repubs. But this is their 2nd run at it with the Supreme Court – and they just think “no” is a temporary setback. Maybe they try R Care legislation once they have a new prez?

            Anyway, my state is one of the 30 something states that committed the awful rule violation of using the Federal Exchange instead of spending a bunch of state money developing their own. Big Red AZ!
            1. different clue March 11, 2015 at 3:26 pm

               Fear not! Chief Justice Roberts will ride to the rescue! “State” will be considered to mean “government”. As in “Federal Government” as much as any other.

               (I will be very embarrassed if the Roberts Court finds against its own ObamaCare upholdment from the last case. I will have to rethink my whole theory of Justice Roberts).
5. michael hudson March 10, 2015 at 2:35 pm

   I remember from my childhood (50+ years ago) how nice Jackson Park was.
   In addition to intruding in it and changing its balance (it has a nice lagoon, I think), it will be necessary to gentrify the black slums around it, uprooting thousands of families — just like Obama did in making fortunes for the Pritzkers in gentrifying the southwest side of Chicago, saying “Working class blacks not welcome. Move to Calumet.”
   Yves has earlier run on this site Bob Fitch’s narrative of how Obama worked with real estate reverends, the Crown and Pritzker families and the U/Chicago to gentrify and relocate “undesirables.”
   Penny Pritzker then introduced him to Robert Rubin, and the rest is history.
   1. DJG March 10, 2015 at 3:35 pm

      Quoting Lambert, who doesn’t get out enough: “I had no idea that parks that Rahm proposes to slice chunks off for Obama’s gilded pleasure dome, besides being in black neighborhoods, were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted [Sun-Times]. I mean, it’s not often you get to kick the base and desecrate public art. It’s a two-fer!” Great conclusion. Yes, the Chicago Park System, the Boulevard System, and the Cook County Forest Preserves are gems. That’s why when Friends of the Parks came out strongly against the Lucas Museum, it mattered in Chicago. It may even be a three-fer, given that Jackson Park and other parks around there were designed for the 1893 Columbian Exposition. History, who needs it when there’s a Hyatt to be built?
      1. prostratedragon March 10, 2015 at 4:00 pm

         Furthermore, the actual parcel within Washington Park that would be used has, at present, one of the ciy’s few natural arboretums (it is a prairie landscape after all). Some of the trees there are thought to be well over 200 years old. They would mostly likely be cut down to make way for construction, but even if they were moved, possible but expensive and risky to them, the chances of recreating the natural ensemble are about zero.

         The map at the Sun-Times article is also telling. A significant part of the public face of Washington Park , what one sees when riding or driving along side the park or from the (already somewhat revived, but still Black-occupied) facing housing, would be changed.

         The main lagoon in Washington Park would not be directly affected by the construction, but it looks from the map as if the larger lagoon in the north sector of Jackson Park, which I don’t know as well, would be impacted.
         1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef March 10, 2015 at 4:05 pm

            They will have the lame excuse that this stimulates the local economy or something other mumble-jumble.
            1. Mattski March 10, 2015 at 4:35 pm

               That was my thought. And I have seen in other contexts that almost anyone with property around such a site is likely to welcome such construction. It raises their property values, and gives them more middle class neighbors. Very hard to politic for the landless and very poor under such conditions. Pretty drawings will make Olmstead look quaint and outdated.
               1. prostratedragon March 10, 2015 at 6:58 pm

                  That is exactly how it’s being sold, as suggested here, when UofC was still pretending that it might use some of the land that it owns near Washington Park for the project; also here and here, where one can get a pretty good overview of how these processes are carried out in Chicago (UofC is a long-term offender).
               2. prostratedragon March 10, 2015 at 7:00 pm

                  And I might add that both parks are still much used and enjoyed by the surrounding residents, both for large public events and everyday activities.
         2. optimader March 10, 2015 at 6:05 pm

            Ah.. they can just shoot a cell phone photo to put in the museum before taking the Grader blade though the Park.
            BHO was a carpet bagger, and his wife was a patronage parasite with a huge sense of entitlement. No a shred of sense of place or stewardship from either of them.
            Hopefully Friends of the Park prevail.

            FLO was responsible for some great landscape architecture-urban(?) planning work in Chicago and the suburbs. Love the twisty turny streets.
            http://www.fredericklawolmsted.com/riverside.html
            http://clarendonhillshistory.org/clarendon-hills-history/winding-roads/
         3. OIFVet March 10, 2015 at 10:19 pm

            No, the lagoons are safe whatever happens. Matter of fact they are undergoing expensive habitat restoration that will make them even better for fish and waterfowl. Jackson Park is a true Chicago gem, I really don’t want to see any part of it spoiled by Obama’s Mausoleum.
   2. armchair March 10, 2015 at 5:16 pm

      Robert Moses would be proud of Rahm.
6. diptherio March 10, 2015 at 2:36 pm

   Piling on with a few more links of interest to those trying to build an alternative economic system:

   Constraints on Economic Democracy –two essays from academics on the financial, social and political constraints to economic democracy, only the first of which is currently being adequately addressed.

   Decolonizing Our Solidarity Economy –video discussion from a recent webinar. Presenters include Shamako Noble of Hip Hop Congress, Cecilia Martinez of the Center for Earth & Energy Democracy, Jihan Gearon of the Black Mesa Water Coalition and Diana Lopez of the Southwest Workers Union and EAT4health. Hosted by the Solidarity Economy Network and Shareable
7. Chris in Paris March 10, 2015 at 2:51 pm

   When does Walker move from insurgent to Clown Car? Or did I miss something?
   1. hunkerdown March 10, 2015 at 3:14 pm

      Can you state a more powerful case than “Boys are GROSS and have COOTIES!!!1!1!1”?
      1. Chris in Paris March 10, 2015 at 4:36 pm

         The minimum wage is a living wage and confronting ISIS is way easier than passing legislation to take away collective bargaining rights from public employees while 100,000 pro union protesters are occupying your capitol building.
         1. hunkerdown March 10, 2015 at 5:05 pm

            So, COOTIES, then?

            I see the Clown Car as the place for those pandering to the anti-intellectual wing of one party (and the intellectual wing of the other, for avoidance of doubt), with no intention of making policy happen. Walker, on the other hand, is talking cold-blooded seriousness.
   2. neo-realist March 10, 2015 at 6:30 pm

      Methinks that Knucklehead Smiff (with more hair), er rather Scott Walker goes clown car when the republican candidate debates begin and starts comparing confronting ISIS to WI state labor unions.
   3. different clue March 10, 2015 at 9:24 pm

      Walker “got it done”. Wisconsin is now a “right to freeload” state . . . a “right to kill unions with a thousand cuts” state. That will be very hard to reverse. That is a real severed head on Walker’s growing pile of severed heads. That is Victory. Walker gains new credibility as the R nominee for Prexy. No clowncar for Walker.
8. vidimi March 10, 2015 at 2:55 pm

   george monbiot on fossil fuels and where they belong

   There is nothing random about the pattern of silence that surrounds our lives. Silences occur where powerful interests are at risk of exposure.
   1. hunkerdown March 10, 2015 at 3:26 pm

      Oooooooooh, which dovetails perfectly with Voltaire’s quote about who you’re not allowed to criticize. (Yet the sheeple — and I use this term particularly to refer to the large mass of civilians with a military-class instinct to obey insecure betas rather than spite them or overthrow them — tend to believe the problem is one of securing permission, rather than securing rights. However decades-long and innocently-fresh their experiences as toddlers, they need to… grow up, which means not indulging the bourgeois impulse to clutch mommy’s skirts as a solution to every problem, or stay out of the discussion.)
      1. Jack March 10, 2015 at 6:11 pm

         Shame that quote is actually from an American Neo-Nazi.
         1. hunkerdown March 10, 2015 at 7:09 pm

            I don’t think the genetic fallacy negates the stopped clock heuristic, but Monbiot’s formulation is rather cleaner and I might prefer it in the future.
9. Mel March 10, 2015 at 3:29 pm

   (I’ve lost track, do we know this already?)

   Facebook
10. ChrisFromGeorgia March 10, 2015 at 3:37 pm

    Clinton’s viewed as more of a “change” candidate than Jebbie

    Well it is all relative … in other news, Idi Amin is viewed as more of a nobel peace prize candidate that Pol Pot.
11. hunkerdown March 10, 2015 at 3:37 pm

    Wait! Did we forget we’re at information war with Russia! Britain may broadcast Putin’s financial secrets to the Russian people (Torygraph). Train vs. stiff upper lip: it’s no contest!
    1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef March 10, 2015 at 4:11 pm

       Can’t wait for the anthropological documentary ‘The Mating Habits of Kremlin Leaders.”
12. hunkerdown March 10, 2015 at 3:42 pm

    2016: Unions to make trade pacts an issue in 2016 elections (Roto-Reuters). The horse is out of the barn, Tricky Dicky Trumka; you can talk about shutting the door now.
    1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef March 10, 2015 at 4:12 pm

       Trade pacts and the global reserve currency status – is it a net positive or net negative…for the working people, not the financiers and imperial adventurists.
13. afisher March 10, 2015 at 3:43 pm

    The Dryline – a new rendering of NYC in the context of AGW / Climate Change. http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/mar/09/bjarke-ingels-new-york-dryline-park-flood-hurricane-sandy#img-6
14. Jackrabbit March 10, 2015 at 3:48 pm

    Clinton to have hiring spree for Iowa staffers April 1

    I won’t be laughing with them.

    =

    Throw the bums (and the fools) OUT. Vote 3rd Party.
    1. hunkerdown March 10, 2015 at 5:09 pm

       She couldn’t have picked a better day for it. Too bad the little proselytes won’t even hear the reveal until it’s well too late.
15. upstater March 10, 2015 at 5:03 pm

    Paul doesn’t go for full legalization: he’s a doctor an knows better on this one (unlike his comments about vaccinations)

    Cannabis is not benign. The high-THC varieties (15-20% THC content) have been linked to psychotic illnesses (e.g., schizophrenia, etc). This is NOT the case with lower THC concentrations which also have Cannabindiol (CBD is being researched as a possible treatment for schizophrenia). The risk of psychotic episodes is 5X greater with high-THC pot than lower concentrations or non-users.

    http://www.thelancet.com/pb/assets/raw/Lancet/pdfs/14TLP0454_Di%20Forti.pdf (Lancet Psychiatry)

    5-10% of the population has problems with high THC pot. It is a dangerous substance and should not be sold. The free-wheeling pot business is completely unregulated. The consequence will be more people hospitalized in psych wards — talk to some ER people and ask them what they are seeing. There probably are studies underway in places like Colorado where the guinea pigs are smoking their brains out that will confirm the Lancet’s paper.

    The pot being sold today is not the same stuff as the 1970s — it is potentially dangerous for some. And the users don’t know until they’ve ended up in a psych ward. Pot should be legal, but also SAFE and heavily taxed to pay for the inevitable social negatives.

    May the pothead flamers begin their diatribes below:
    1. hunkerdown March 10, 2015 at 5:11 pm

       Can’t you white people write ten words without brown-nosing some false authority?
       1. cwaltz March 10, 2015 at 6:02 pm

          Meh. Some of the information in that is factual. They have discovered that cannaboids may be beneficial(it provides that feel good reaction) for mental illness and THC has been credited with causing paranoia. However, I don’t think I’ve ever think I’ve seen anything that conclusively has said that THC causes mental illness or that the people who do end up on the mental ward didn’t have the illness triggered prior to smoking pot. It’s been posited that the mentally ill seek to self medicate with pot just like alcohol.

          I do however, wish the recreational pot folks would exercise more caution and allow more studies to gather information since 1/10th of the population suffers from mental illness just like I wish the opposition would admit that there are legit medical reasons pot should be allowed instead of the BS position that there is no reason to allow it. It’s going to be a cluster gathering information when you essentially make the country a control group.
          1. upstater March 10, 2015 at 7:52 pm

             When somebody will pinpoint the causes of mental illness, they will get the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Correlation is not causation, but when correlation is high, it warrants attention.

             The Lancet article states that high THC pot has a 5X greater risk of psychosis the the low-THC variety. I suggest that consumers of the high test are placing themselves at higher risk.

             Brain chemistry is (permanently?) altered by taking antipsychotics and antidepressants. Somebody smoking high-test weed every day for months or years is juicing their dopamine system in a way that is completely unnatural, just as antipsychotics are unnaturally suppressing it. Perhaps the brain gets re-wired.

             I believe the self-medicating prior to a psychotic break is BS. After a break, yes. Not before.
          2. hunkerdown March 10, 2015 at 8:01 pm

             I’ve not heard that recpot advocates had been trying to block such studies just on those grounds. I could see recpot advocates not wanting to work with groups with agendas counter to their interests. Science itself has been weaponized. Funding and approval for such research in the US, in particular, requires that the de jure evil nature may not be challenged, only quantified. With so many studies being left unpublished, or failing peer review, or published and ignored, for not taking the evidence to the politically correct conclusions whether it wants to go there or not, where would the stoner find the upside to make the downside risk of cooperation worth it?

             Also, it’s important to recognize that “disorder” is only a meaningful concept with reference to some “order”: what we call schizophrenia and consider a handicap is considered shamanism in less managed societies. Autism is only a handicap because Western society needs to lie to itself in order to function and autists don’t think much of liars. Depression is only a disease because Western society is in denial about how awful life within it is *and will continue to be*, and would rather mute dysfunctional thoughts/people than question its substance. (I fully expect psychopathy to be removed from DSM-VII as the disorder becomes the norm.)

             If these people were genuinely interested in promoting safety, they would stop ignoring the published research (Cannabis Culture) that’s already been done and paid for, in the US and elsewhere. Furthermore, they would stop cowardly trying to prevent test populations from forming or being researched that might yield conclusions unfavorable to their class interests. But, as their actions indicate, their interests lie not in safety, but in preserving bourgeois cultural hegemony by any means necessary — after all, their salaries depend on it.
    2. hunkerdown March 10, 2015 at 5:37 pm

       Or, put another way, are there non-authoritarian, non-totalitarian societies whose medical guilds have come to similar conclusions, or is this somehow just a problem in the psychopathic, pietous, conformist Anglosphere? If the latter, it’s not nearly enough to point at a diagonal line on a graph and grunt about the superiority of your precious culture when, as has been the case since the Temperance movement started in the early 19th century, your culture is largely a centuries-long tradition of abuse of authority and revisionism for the purposes of social control?

       Or, put yet another way, so what? If a pathological culture such as bourgeois exceptionalism pathologizes cognitive diversity, that says more about the pathologies of that culture than of the members it chooses to label for reasons having nothing to do with health and everything to do with identity politics.
       1. Ulysses March 10, 2015 at 5:57 pm

          I must say you are in rare form today hunkerdown! I applaud your strong spirit. Here’s a little theme music for us all:
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acT_PSAZ7BQ
          1. hunkerdown March 10, 2015 at 8:08 pm

             Thank you and thank you! Mmm, late-1980s rap-funk with modern production values really hits the spot today.
    3. optimader March 10, 2015 at 7:11 pm

       The crappification of Lancet, this disappoints me.

       Uppstater,
       I’m guessing you weren’t in the HS debate club were you?
       1.) Lets go with fallacy of false dilemma to start
       “Cannabis is not benign.”
       What substance is entirely benign across all populations? Where do you even start criminalizing things with this new standard?? How about Oxygen?
       This would be a huge game changer if benign-ness is set as a new benchmark in the Pharmaceutical industry. Better start hoarding Aspirin. FAACCCKKK RED WINE!!!… just shoot me now! oops, WAIT!! you cant shoot me, bullets are not benign !

       2.) Then lets consider all the historical successes of Public Policy initiatives that criminalize nonviolent social behaviors. Crickets..

       In the UK, what is the budget for perpetuating the criminalization of pot? I am guessing it would go a long way if reallocated toward funding positive public health initiatives. That is certainly the case here in the USA.

       FWIW, The important findings in this report are:
       3.) The potential for the antipsychotic properties of cannabidniol. Not so much that a whimsically characterized (“Skunk-like”.. come on, really this is science?.. really?) controlled substance has uniform dosage properties across a study.
       4.) The merit of legalization. If for no other reason, it will allow the most benign and beneficial cultivars to flourish. After all, who in there right mind (no pun intended) wants to be exposed to inferior varieties of ANYTHING??

       Furthermore, the scarcity of
       cannabidiol in skunk-like cannabis might also be relevant
       because evidence suggests that cannabidiol ameliorates the
       psychotogenic effect of THC and might even have
       antipsychotic properties.19,20
       

       Lets see if this 416 person study is reproducible in a society where cannabis is legal, and strains that may have adverse reactions are presumably minimized in the user population.
       1. upstater March 10, 2015 at 7:44 pm

          optimader, I did say that cannabis should be legal and SAFE. I disagree that legalization in its present incarnation in the US will allow the most benign forms to flourish as you suggest. I think the evidence is quite to the contrary in places like CA, BC, CO, etc. The product needs to be regulated. Everything about current pot sales is like describing terroir of wine, but at least you know how much alcohol is in a bottle of wine. People smoke this stuff and really don’t know what or how much they are getting.

          Can you tell me where cannabis is legal so I can email the Lancet’s authors so can do an epidemiological study on the incidence of psychosis in that country? Having said that, I would be certain that somebody in looking at Colorado’s experience closely.

          Cannabindiol may have benefits, but high THC weed has virtually none. CBD doesn’t make you high, THC does. So “Mr. Market” responds with skunk and other high THC varieties — this is exactly what has happened in CA, BC and CO. The Dutch have prohibited skunk and high THC weed in their coffee shops — do they know something about high THC pot and hospital admissions?

          Lastly, have you ever dealt with a psychotic person? Do you know what it is? Do you have any idea how much it costs to treat such mental disorders? Do you have any idea what being in psych ward does to a person and how they are treated by staff? We should seek to minimize psychosis. It is not good or pretty. I know.
          1. Kurt Sperry March 10, 2015 at 8:32 pm

             optimader, I did say that cannabis should be legal and SAFE. I disagree that legalization in its present incarnation in the US will allow the most benign forms to flourish as you suggest. I think the evidence is quite to the contrary in places like CA, BC, CO, etc. The product needs to be regulated. Everything about current pot sales is like describing terroir of wine, but at least you know how much alcohol is in a bottle of wine. People smoke this stuff and really don’t know what or how much they are getting.

             Can you tell me where cannabis is legal so I can email the Lancet’s authors so can do an epidemiological study on the incidence of psychosis in that country? Having said that, I would be certain that somebody in looking at Colorado’s experience closely.

             Cannabis is legal here in Washington State for adults over the age of 21 (same as alcohol) and the product is sold in packaging with labeling that gives the THC, CBN and CBD as measured at a state certified lab for each batch. So yes, consumers know exactly what and how much they are getting.

             There of course been many studies going back over 100 years that have found no causative link between cannabis use in adults and psychosis. “More studies!” is just code for, “let’s keep doing studies until we finally (please!) find one that supports our preconceived notions. Because we don’t like what the copious data that already exists says.”

             Cannabindiol may have benefits, but high THC weed has virtually none. CBD doesn’t make you high, THC does. So “Mr. Market” responds with skunk and other high THC varieties — this is exactly what has happened in CA, BC and CO. The Dutch have prohibited skunk and high THC weed in their coffee shops — do they know something about high THC pot and hospital admissions?

             The first sentence is pure word salad. THC has been studied and prescribed for plenty of therapeutic uses. Then we’re on to talking about something called “skunk” which has no scientific meaning at all but is really just a loaded media buzzword, then the bizarre inclusion of CA and BC with CO, both places where cannabis is still criminalized. Then the last sentence, “The Dutch have prohibited skunk and high THC weed in their coffee shops — do they know something about high THC pot and hospital admissions?” is wholly factually incorrect, such measures have been proposed for years but have never been put into practice.

             Lastly, have you ever dealt with a psychotic person? Do you know what it is? Do you have any idea how much it costs to treat such mental disorders? Do you have any idea what being in psych ward does to a person and how they are treated by staff? We should seek to minimize psychosis. It is not good or pretty. I know.

             What does any of that have to do with cannabis, for which no causative link to psychosis in adults has ever been proven–this in spite of countless millions spent desperately trying to find one? I’m genuinely sorry for your first hand experience with psych wards but please check your facts before you go off on a misguided and profoundly ignorant rant like the above.
    4. optimader March 10, 2015 at 7:33 pm

       Uppstater,

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU1QPtOZQZU
       Large Asteroid Impact Simulation

       I can only conclude that Asteroid impacts are not benign and should therefore be illegal. You inspire me to send this to my State legislator –Act Local.
    5. Paul Tioxon March 10, 2015 at 8:18 pm

       It is a question of policy, not toxicity of the substance. Social power is amassed by criminal organizations who sell illegal goods and services. It is more important to decriminalize, legalize and bring under the regulatory power, including taxation, the marijuana plant, than boo hoo about THC, lost youth misspending their greatest opportunities and other middle class BS about not being in tip top shape for capitalist production and family bragging rights about uber successful kids. No one asks about kids or anyone else for that matter, getting their hands on Draino, household cleaners like bleach, ammonia, Tilex, Easy Off etc etc. All are easy obtainable and ingested by someone on any given day and unlike pot, will not send you into the ER poison control trauma unit. We will have to deal with potheads going overboard whether or not it is legal. Once its legal, we will not have to worry about drug cartels as much. Cocaine is headed on a similar trajectory for the same reasons once pot is liberated. Cutting off the massive fortunes due to pot and cocaine will be huge political win for the world.

       Self driving cars in our life time will also be instituted as a way to save over 35,000 lives a year mostly from alcohol and texting while driving. When the death rates on the roads go under 100 a year, no one will care if you are injecting heroin when you drive, because smart self driving cars will save us from hurting others. No one, not even moralistic do gooders can save someone from them self. And as most people are more selfish than not, as long as they don’t get killed by the pot smoking, the drinking, the snorting or whatever, who cares, no skin off my back!! I won’t be doing it, but as long as those that do can not hurt me, I like to live and let live.
       1. Lambert Strether Post authorMarch 11, 2015 at 5:13 am

          As long as we optimize for local growers and prohibit advertising. Otherwise, the corporatization of cannabis will proceed very rapidly; they will have no problem setting up bank accounts, for example.
16. optimader March 10, 2015 at 6:11 pm

    “NBC/WSJ poll: Clinton’s viewed as more of a “change” candidate than Jebbie [NBC].”
    Different plumbing is about the only difference I can come up with.

    Is that identity politics? Maybe lets call it physiology politics instead because its all the same other wise. Well, Jebbie is probably better at Spanish, that’s a skill at least.
    Both are duds.
17. Garrett Pace March 10, 2015 at 6:52 pm

    Hillary Clinton’s donors unfazed:

    “Do I think it will affect her fundraising? I doubt it,” said Miami physician and Democratic bundler J.P. Austin. “She’s the front-runner. She’s still the person to beat.”

    Not, “does she have moral fiber” or “is she fit for these responsibilities” or even “will this bother voters?” The relevant question apparently is “what do the rich people think?”
    1. NotTimothyGeithner March 10, 2015 at 7:55 pm

       The donors are expecting huge crowds. Hillary did better than average for a front runner until Oprah shook up the 2007/2008 race. Hillary’s early rallies will enjoy like morgues. The donors who love her now will bolt when a known commodity like Hillary draws less interest than local farmer markets.
18. NOTaREALmerican March 10, 2015 at 7:42 pm

    I thing this is all the neo-liberals fault. Good thing nobody knows what a neo-liberal is, or they’d be in REAL trouble.
    1. Lambert Strether Post authorMarch 11, 2015 at 5:16 am

       Here. They’re easy to spot.
19. Sam Kanu March 11, 2015 at 7:27 am

    NBC/WSJ poll: Clinton’s viewed as more of a “change” candidate than Jebbie [NBC].

    Political dynasties treat our highest elected office as a personal plaything – and the corporate media’s role is to normalise obscenities against the democratic process. So instead of pointing out the absurdity of it all, they promote a “debate” over which set of oligarchs is for “change”? Change from what exactly? Certainly not from oligarchy…..
20. Demeter March 13, 2015 at 6:54 am

    The potheads I have known I did not like. Their brains WERE impaired, and their thinking baffling and dangerous to themselves and others. Why anyone would do that to themselves is beyond my comprehension.

    The topiary is just the thing! Let’s have more of that!

Comments are closed.