Scientists believe the secret to energy storage may be in a cigarette butt Business Insider (David L)
Analysis: Understanding Tesla’s Potemkin Swap Station Daily Kanban (MT)
Solar-Powered “Capsule” Lets You Live Off-the-Grid Anywhere in the World Walden Labs (Chuck L)
The basic truth about broadband that cable companies want to hide Vox. Reslic, from article: “The American cities that are delivering best-in-the-world speeds at bargain prices are precisely the cities that aren’t relying on Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, Time-Warner, etc. to run their infrastructure.”
Major construction at North Korea rocket site, US institute says Associated Press (furzy mouse)
Shanghai Stocks Recover After Plunge Wall Street Journal
ECB fears ‘abrupt reversal’ for global assets on Fed tightening Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph
Über diese Banken flossen die Fifa-Schmiergelder Blick. Identifies banks involved in FIFA scandal.
How Many Ways Can You Hide A Bribe? The Best Of The FIFA Indictment Gawker
Grexit?
ECB Says Long Greek Talks May Hurt Other Eurozone Borrowers Wall Street Journal
John Nash’s Game Theory and Greece Mohamed El-Erian, Bloomberg
PM speaks to Merkel, Hollande as lenders increase pressure ekathimerini
Greek exit from euro is ‘a potential’, says Lagarde Financial Times
Only Greece Can End Its ‘Groundhog Day’ Misery Bloomberg
Exclusive: Greece owes drugmakers $1.2 billion – and counting Reuters
Too big to jail?: Why does the UK legal system fail to prosecute bank fraud? Contributoria. From February, but still a fine piece.
Greek design picked for commemorative euro coin ekathimerini
Ukraine/Russia
Exclusive: Russia masses heavy firepower on border with Ukraine – witness Reuters. Rather weird to call a Reuters reporter a witness.
ANNE APPLEBAUM LOSES WAR AGAINST RUSSIA – HER INCOME PLUMMETS FASTER THAN UKRAINE’S GDP John Helmer
U.S. Pressures Nobel Committee to Declare Ukraine’s President a Peace Prize Nominee George Washington
Syraqistan
Syria’s Al Qaeda chief says no plans to attack the West Christian Science Monitor
ISIS Alternates Stick and Carrot to Control Palmyra New York Times
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Social media apps are tracking your location in shocking detail Business Insider (David L)
U.N. Special Rapporteur: Governments Must Not “Backdoor” Encryption for Spying
InterceptTerrorist Risks by City, According to Actual Data Bruce Schnier
U.S. Accuses Ex-House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Paying to Hide ‘Misconduct‘ New York Times
Administration asks judge to toss House health care suit Associated Press (furzy mouse)
The Religious Bigotry of Rick Santorum Talk2Action (Chuck L)
Is Progressivism in the Eye of the Beholder? Joe Firestone, New Economic Persepctives
Teens are fleeing religion like never before: Massive new study exposes religion’s decline Raw Story (Chuck L)
Christiegate: Christie Goes on Expletive-Filled Rant in Front of Large Crowd Daily Kos (Judy B). And it sure looks like it was provoked by David Sirota’s reporting!
Revealed: Energy Transfer Partners’ ‘Pipeline-for-Prostitute’ Landman Steve Horn and David Goodner. Holy moley.
Orange County prosecutor misconduct: Judge Goethals takes district attorney office off Scott Dekraai case Slate (Chuck L)
Political Fights Throw Sand in Gears of S.E.C. New York Times
Finance must blow the whistle on foul play Gillian Tett, Financial Times. Aiee, Tett needs to go beyond apple pie and motherhood. The main whistleblower in this case, Eric Ben-Artzi, probably will not get adequate compensation given the weak fines for the loss of his finance career.
Class Warfare
The Federal Reserve Board Is Much More Likely to Take Your Job Than a Robot, so Naturally the Media Are Talking About Robots Dean Baker. Touche!
Financial Volatility is the New Normal for Most American Households Washington Monthly (reslic)
http://www.cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/national-public-radio-tries-to-scare-people-about-the-deficit CEPR (Lydia) FAIR ran this under a better title: Look, a Deficit!: How NPR Distracts You From Issues That Will Actually Affect Your Life
New Reality Show Exploits Poor Families, Makes Them Grovel Over the Thing They Need Most Alternet
Biker Gangs, Tamir Rice, And The Rise Of White Fragility Talking Pointe Memo (Judy B)
The Challenge of Journalism Is to Survive in the Pressure Cooker of Plutocracy Bill Moyers
Antidote du jour (Lance N). Gerald de Nerval had a lobster he’d take around Paris using a ribbon as a leash (knowing how long lobsters live out of the ocean, he must have had a series). His explanation?
Why should a lobster be any more ridiculous than a dog? Or a cat, or a gazelle, or a lion, or any other animal that one chooses to take for a walk? I have a liking for lobsters. They are peaceful, serious creatures. They know the secrets of the sea, they don’t bark, and they don’t gobble up your monadic privacy like dogs do. And Goethe had an aversion to dogs, and he wasn’t mad!
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
172 comments
Comments are closed.
The UK legal system doesn’t prosecute bank fraud for the same reason the UK legal system doesn’t prosecute child rape rings; i.e., the UK criminal justice system exists to protect the people who run things from the people who don’t, not the other way around.
There is no institution that does not prioritize its ongoing existence over its ostensible mission. Maslow’s hierarchy of basic needs apparently applies to emergent sentience too.
Somehow reading so many blog posts,news articles have not made me intelligent.I ,might as well give it up and face real world as it is.
The ruling elites always have ace up their sleeves
The Syria debacle and rise of ISIS,Ukraine crisis and russia’s reactions,USA-China sabre rattling over man made islands,the rising police state in USA and hence rest of the world,Chinese development bank,silk road etc etc
The announcements by likes of NATO generals and chinese media about impending war makes me nervous
May be elites are planning for war after financial collapse or may be they just want to bring complete police state in world to reduce population
The major strategy of the upper echelon is to keep the masses scrambling for a living. If we define poverty in terms of US dollars a realistic appraisal would put that at about $46k/yr for a family of four. Approximately 35% of the American population lives under that level. Poverty should not be defined by being forced into a degrading struggle for existence. However, the US has not quite reached world standards where say 60% or more of the population would be living under the poverty level. But the current regime is working to attain those levels and Mrs. Clinton will no doubt further the new liberal philosophy that entails imposing harsh poverty on more parts of the population every year.
The other factor that operates so pervasively as to almost induce nausea is the philosophical schooling that takes place in the main stream press. This ceaseless flow of derogatory arguments runs along the lines that those who have millions in accumulated wealth are deserving of more wealth but those who struggle on less than poverty level are undeserving of receiving anything to assist them. According to this “those who have plenty of plenty deserve plenty more” lending a helping hand by the use of government policy is akin to swearing in vain against the Holy Trinity. This philosophy is seen brazenly-just to give one example, in actions taken by the US Congress to place harsh limits on food stamp recipients. The solutions at hand to reduce poverty are never even discussed. In terms of Modern Money Theory we must have a transfer of funds from the private sector to the public sector.
Money could be dropped on the private sector by taking these steps immediately:
Redefine the poverty level to $17k/yr for a single person
Raising the minimum wage to around $11.50/hr
Raising social security benefits to always keep the recipient above the poverty level defined above.
Repudiate the deadly out of pocket costs associated with Medicare-Part A deductibles, enrollment costs of Part B, deductibles and out of pocket and Part D copays.
There are other steps to be taken.
Accept the role of the government in furthering the well being of all citizens, not just the all ready well heeled few. Wynne Godley, one of the grandfathers of Modern Money Theory said it best:
I think that the central government of any sovereign state ought to be striving all the time to determine the optimum overall level of public provision, the correct overall burden of taxation, the correct allocation of total expenditures between competing requirements and the just distribution of the tax burden. It must also determine the extent to which any gap between expenditure and taxation is financed by making a draft on the central bank and how much it is financed by borrowing and on what terms. The way in which governments decide all these (and some other) issues, and the quality of leadership which they can deploy, will, in interaction with the decisions of individuals, corporations and foreigners, determine such things as interest rates, the exchange rate, the inflation rate, the growth rate and the unemployment rate. It will also profoundly influence the distribution of income and wealth not only between individuals but between whole regions, assisting, one hopes, those adversely affected by structural change.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v14/n19/wynne-godley/maastricht-and-all-that
“U.S. Pressures Nobel Committee to Declare Ukraine’s President a Peace Prize Nominee”
If Obama can win a Noble Peace prize and go on to bomb more nations than Adolph Hitler, why can’t a tool of the Nazi freaks we installed in Kiev with an illegal coup win one for promoting genocide in Ukraine?
War is Peace, comrade Timbers.
I hope the country music awards don’t get drawn into this.
How on Earth is the US pressuring 5 former Swedish politicians?
Very yes – tradition – Nuff Said.
Dean Baker nails it.
~
The Finnish broadcaster YLE reported earlier today that a civil servant close to the negotiations said that Greece WILL BE RESCUED, no matter what. Some kind of fundamental decision apparently has been taken about this. http://yle.fi/uutiset/virkamieslahde_ylelle_grexit_peruutettu__kreikka_tulee_saamaan_kaiken_tuen/8027819
The article as translated by me:
Grexit cancelled: Greece will get all support/funding
A source close to the creditor institutions tells YLE that Greece will not be allowed to fall. The creditors took a fundamental decision about this.
The Greek debt crisis will not lead to a Grexit, if the EU-countries accept the creditors’ views on helping Greece. A source close to the creditors told this assessment to Finnish YLE broadcaster.
The source told YLE, that the creditor institutions IMF, European Commission and ECB made a fundamental decision not to allow Greece to fail.
According to the information available to YLE there has not been decided upon a solution regarding the precise reforms demanded from Greece.
– Greece will be saved, however the situation was in the past, the source told.
The issue will probably be decided upon next week.
No deal has been done with Greece. The source told that the institutions promise that Greece will get its money and will have stabilized its economy by the end of June.This would mean that Greece does not have to default on loans nor has to leave from the Euro.
The Commission’s Jean-Claude Juncker stated earlier, that Greece will be kept in the Euro and the EU.
The IMF announced yesterday, that Greece can pay its repayments to the IMF back at the end of June, so it doesn’t get into trouble with payments. Greece and the creditors are negotiating about the conditions under which Greece would receive the final parts of the current loan.
The Eurozone’s finance ministers decide about the disimbursing this final tranche.
Greece has received 240 billion euros in loans from EU-countries. No negotiations about a third bail-out package have started, but Greece might nevertheless need this.
That can’t be true since Game Theory says it can’t happen. bowahahahahahaha
Another Great Call in links today . . . this one by Mr. El-Erian. Oh my.
There’s gonna be a lot of contenders for the “2015 Golden Asteroid Prize” — awarded for distinguished excellence in hysterically pessimistic Doomer & Gloomer mongering analytic wankery. The judges are especially impressed by use of incoherent mathematics and other displays of symbolic reasoning that no one, including the author, can actually apply to any real world phenomenon.
The Prize is a beautiful rough sphere of solid gold shaped like a rock from outer space mounted upon a mahogany base. A Golden Asteroid. The kind that would strike the earth after hurtling for trillions of miles through deep space and break the world up into 10 million chunks of rock. It makes an impression on the imaginative faculty, so much so that the imaginative faculty coopts into service the analytic faculty. Nevertheless, astounding mental achievements can result. These are what The Golden Asteroid Prize recognizes.
Then again, Game Theory isn’t everything. However, I think if Greece keeps headed for bankruptcy for another 5 years, or even less, they run the risk of creating a parallel universe where Greece is both saved and unsaved. It’s dangerous creating rifts in our space-time continuum like this and also sets a precedent where these rifts could pop up almost anywhere. Too many rifts like this and the world will start to feel like we’ve entered some sort of cosmic stasis. I know Mr. El-Erian does get concerned about these sorts of things on occasion – so I’m at a loss to understand why he seems so sanguine now? Unspeakable things can pass thru these rifts from the Other Side. Can it be that Mr El-Erian himself has been possessed?
Roubini agrees: ‘Pots of Money’ to Be Found for Greece to Pay IMF
http://www.newsmax.com/Finance/StreetTalk/Nouriel-Roubini-Greece-IMF-debt/2015/05/28/id/647230/
Roubiin was saying Greece would FIND pockets of money, not be given them.
I believe it was Alfred Jarry, not Nerval. When asked why he preferred the lobster to a dog, he replied,
“Because it doesn’t bark, and it knows the secrets of the deep.”
I googled the quote to be sure and multiple sources pointed to Nerval.
Looks like a crawfish.
Yes indeed, that’s a crawdad. I’ve scooped many of those up into a sack to take back to the boilin pot. This is the time of year when the crawfish ‘migrate’ for whatever arcane reasons they have.
That looks like it could be Channel 7 from Gulfport doing the interview. I couldn’t find a transcript of the crawfish’s remarks though. (The South is a little behind the curve…)
Crawfish: “It’s not true we are tasty. That’s crawfisherman lies, creating demand out of thin air for their personal profit. I mean, we are scavengers, for God’s sake, we eat dead things. How can you possibly find us appetizing?”
Reporter: “So do we”
Crawfish: “Uh-oh…”
Scampers away as fast as he can.
Demand…
In the Age of Robots, how can we reconcile Human Demand with Robot Supply, without GDP sharing?
Of course, we can go 100% robotic with Robot Demand meeting Robot Supply.
Robot crawfish are a distinct possibility.
For one of the more fun imaginations of a purely robot ecology, see “Code of the Lifemaker” by James P Hogan. Another good ‘hard science’ science fiction author is Robert L Forward.
I used to evolve control software (~brains) for lobster-derived 6 legged robots…(and “turtle”-type wheeled ones) back in the 90s
Gotta love 6 legs…2 tripods…
Far more efficient than bipedal and quadrapedal….but creeping anthropomorphization beats the uncanny valley in realworld kudos…
Shame the only neural net really amenable to modelling was a hydra :/
Yea verily, tripod locomotion! Didn’t Clarke have some aliens in his Rama series tripods? Hydra? Really? No cephalopod neural systems available back then? As Spock would say, “Fascinating.”
Back in the day our sparc stations could just about manage the tiny number of neurons in a hydra with any degree of accuracy – a guy called hugo de garis was claiming he could manage a cat…on supercomputers at sony….needless to say he was wrong….thing about compsci types is they have no idea of the complexity of neural interactions in a real neuron…gotta go neurosci – and STILL have no idea how it ACTUALLY works:/
Scamper they can do. Also pinch with them claws! (I have seen, with my own beady little eyes, a carpet of crawfish covering the roadway on I-10 between Laplace and Gonzales during the ‘migration.’)
“Exclusive: Russia masses heavy firepower on border with Ukraine – witness Reuters”. ” Rather weird to call a Reuters reporter a witness.”
Does that make it less true? What a strange comment given all of the material in the article that appears to substantiate a build-up near the border.
Reuters is choosing to undercut its OWN report by pointing out it is single sourced. It is Reuters itself is signaling doubts about the report. Single sourced reports are always subject to question and are generally not considered good journalism. Just sayin’
When do those special US “advisors” arrive in Ukraine? I am guessing next week?
Umm…I believe they’ve already arrived. Seen photos of them. They speak Jersey.
Strange that a country would amass forces along it’s border with a hostile country engaged in civil war. Oh wait…
I know, right? Seems like NOT bulking up your military your border where a civil war is taking place would be a dereliction of duty. And still no reports of field hospitals being set up, which would be necessary if they were actually planning an invasion (as French intel pointed out). As the Saker has been saying: of course Putin is giving assistance to the LPR and DPR, just like we’re giving assistance to the Naz…er, Western Ukrainians. But the difference between assistance and invasion is a pretty big one…
I’m not getting worried ’till Russia starts building man-made islands in the China Sea. Then they are getting a little too close to home for my taste.
bahahahahahahaaaaa Hilarious +2k
Sometimes I wonder why our government hands out visas to all those Russian Mafia guys we got in this country. But I figure there’s gotta be some Top Secret reason for it.
It’s a religious exemption. They are making pilgrimages to the Shrine of the Chicago School to give thanks, plus a few gratuities, natch, for their continued prosperity. All else is window dressing.
Ok. I understand now.
Glad to see you’re “with the program.” By the way, how’s Beau doing with the Eastfront Investment scheme? Tell him Vlad and the boys say hi.
Truth be told, don’t know why be bothers when you can run credit card fraud and Russian ho operations right from the comfort of your own home in America. Russian hos are much more fun than Nazis too! Ask anyone who’s been to a strip club in LA.
What??!! They have strip clubs in Laos? I thought everyone went there for the Golden Triangle Festival. Now that I think about it, it does make sense. After the October Revolution, a lot of White Russians ended up in Shanghai, China. Seeing the disrupting changes happening to China today, a shift of the Sons (and Daughters) of White Russia to the sanctuary of the Lao hills is logical. Even Malraux never dreamed of this!
Los Angeles! I mean Los Angeles! USofA Los Angeles!!!!
dba City of Fallen Angels!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(but the Russian Hos are very adept at staying upright while wearing 4″+ heels. I think it’s the Pole that helps with that.)
Maybe like the reasons all those SS dudes got entree to our budding state security apparat post WW II.
Reuters Exclusive: Russian Troops Near Ukraine’s Border. A list of Reuters “exclusives” over the past 15 months. The contents and titles have cosmetic changes, only the dates are completely different.
Also too, Bulgaria masses troops on Macedonia’s borders after the unrest there. Ergo, Bulgaria is planning to invade Macedonia. Or something.
I’d be more likely to imagine Greece invading Macedonia, for old times sake, of course. (Try this on as a grand strategic distraction from the economic mess.) Is the Russian gas pipeline in play?
Macedonia is very unappealing choice for pipeline transit territory. The Russians know it, and have said that they will built up to the Turkish-Greek border. If the Euros want the gas they will have to built the rest of it themselves. Whatever pipeline dreams Hungary, Serbia, and Austria have, with Bulgaria effectively killing South Stream at McCain’s orders, they will have to hope that the Euros realize that Russia is serious about ending Ukraine’s transit tollbooth (and Beau’s sinecure), and that LNC gas from US is a pipe dream, and stand up to the US. They need the gas, and Gazprom sure does have the best price going…
Hmm, so, how’s Vlore, Albania to Otranto, Italy sound?
The Norwegians will be mad because of their TAP project, the Hungarians and Austrians also, and Macedonians will positively go even crazier than they already are. It’s a mess, and Russia is washing its hands of it and letting the Euros figure out how to get the cheap gas they need to their consumers. Which, come to think of it, is probably a pretty good way to sow discord in the EU without doing anything at all…
Yeah, wasn’t it Reuters that has the reporter there that starts seeing Russians everywhere after imbibing his 5th vodka martini?
The Guardian, I think.
Ya, that’s right. Correction noted. Can’t be too careful about libel.
Yes. Reuters is well-known as a propaganda outlet for NATO and has a terrible track record for publishing verifiable facts. Why would you believe anything a rich person paid to put in front of you, especially when they lie about their relationship to the affair?
RE: U.S. Accuses Ex-House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Paying to Hide ‘Misconduct‘ New York Times
Not sure I’m getting this.
Hastert, corrupt “Land of Lincoln” pol extraordinaire, finally gets nailed for using his own money to pay a blackmailer???
I can only hope that he had some hand in making this particular use of one’s own money against the “law.”
There’s GOT to be more to it than this.
The Money Laundering Control Act of 1986 became law a week before Denny Hastert was elected as a U.S. representative. While he can’t be held responsible for this Orwellian legislation (introduced by the D-party speaker Jim Wright, who ended up resigning in an ethics scandal), Hastert was an enthusiastic drug warrior.
Why do bad things happen to good narcs?
Hastert, Turkey, bribery, influence peddling, Sibel Edmonds. Perhaps?
Vanity Fair piece on Edmonds from 2005:
“Edmonds has given confidential testimony inside a secure Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility on several occasions: to congressional staffers, to investigators from the O.I.G., and to staff from the 9/11 commission. Sources familiar with this testimony say that, in addition to her allegations about the Dickersons, she reported hearing Turkish wiretap targets boast that they had a covert relationship with a very senior politician indeed—Dennis Hastert, Republican congressman from Illinois and Speaker of the House since 1999. The targets reportedly discussed giving Hastert tens of thousands of dollars in surreptitious payments in exchange for political favors and information.”
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2005/09/edmonds200509
It should also be remembered that Hastert was picked largely because he was the ONLY Republican they could find who didn’t have a sex problem.
The article also makes it clear that Hastert was probably being blackmailed by a former prep wrestler he coached. I’m not sure why it would be against the law to ask for money not to talk about something that was done to you. Corporations get court actions sealed all the time, why can’t an individual “seal” the record in exchange for a payment?
Irony.
If it turns out Hastert is indicted because he was blackmailed because of gay sex…
When one thinks of all the republican leadership that lost their positions due to illicit sex…
The positions are endless.
lol
and slippery….but they say politicians are slippery…
Where’s the public interest in misprision of felony or blackmail again?
First coherent commentator on Chanel 7 in living memory!
Very glad to see Channel 7 bringing back the Crawfish on the Street interviews.
The indictment of former House speaker Denny Hastert charges him with two federal offenses. One is lying to the FBI: he told the G-men he was keeping withdrawn cash for himself, when actually he was giving it to someone as hush money. (LEOs can lie with impunity, for example in entrapment schemes. But lying to them is a crime. Which is why lawyers advise never talking to the cops.)
Secondly, Hastert is charged with structuring — making numerous cash withdrawals just under the $10,000 reporting threshold. Unlike the more usual case of IRS seizures for structured deposits just under $10,000, Hastert is being charged with the ‘crime’ of withdrawing his own money in an illegal pattern: over $10,000 good, under $10,000 b-a-a-a-a-d!
According to his Wikipedia bio, “Hastert was a strong supporter of the War on Drugs and House Republicans’ leader on anti-narcotics efforts.” Ain’t karma a bitch? The Orwellian non-crime of withdrawing your own money in the ‘wrong’ pattern is the rotten fruit of Denny’s drug war. Now he is hoisted on his own petard. But the Drug War soldiers on.
smells a bit moldy…Hastert resigned yesterday from senior adviser and from the board of the exchange operator CME Group
the fix is in…CME GROUP INC
The operator of the world’s largest futures market said it appointed Christopher Fix managing director and head of Asia Pacific.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/09/financial-moves-idUSL4N0WB3EU20150309?type=companyNews
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/05/29/denny-hastert-highly-unsympathetic-face-americas-criminalization-pathology/
From your link:
From Supreme Court ‘Justice’ Anthony Kennedy:
The Soviet Gulag at least staged show trials. America’s Gulag has dispensed with tiresome trials entirely. Yankee ingenuity, comrades! We’re no. 1 … in imprisonment rates.
As Katniss was saying (same article)
And don’t forget the ever popular FBI/DHS warnings at the beginning of every dvd. If the government were to start strictly enforcing the DMCA then, anecdotally, half the adult population might wind up behind bars. So selective prosecution is also an issue–laws that lie in wait for violators the government or the US Attorney happen to dislike.
The Digital Millenium Copyright Act is particularly pernicious because of the draconian punishments for trivial violations. Here the mere threat is supposed to deter people and save the government the cost of enforcing Hollywood’s defective business model. It has nothing to do with justice.
Equal INJUSTICE under law.
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/H._L._Mencken
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.
fresnodan corollary:
lawmaking is the theory that congressman understand justice, and deserve to get it good and hard…
Repubicans like lots of laws and lots of punishment? When those who advocate the lash feel the lash, the lash has a tendency to be used more sparingly.
Always a mistake to have overly-complex statutes with an uneven distribution of prosecution, imho….how the hell do you know where the line is (admittedly, to an outside observer its way clearer at the economic bottom than the top…but in reality maybe the top don’t really have a line…)
Based on the account in The Guardian in which I first read about this, this whole discussion thread may be missing the underlying issue:
Just what was the “ . . past misconduct by [Hastert] that had occurred years earlier” that was “discussed” with “Individual A,” who almost certainly was a minor at the time? It smells to me that he was perhaps being blackmailed over pederasty. Is a further prosecution in his future?
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/28/former-house-speaker-dennis-hastert-indicted
Probably not. Pederasty is a positional good. (cf. Josh Duggan)
If only he had used bitcoins this could have all been avoided.
Well, if you take your lobster out to chase sticks in a park, it’s gonna be a long day.
his final grab is Goethe :-/
guess french news, like ours, has run out of 411 to spread
The French government said it expects the US to come to Dresden asking the Europeans to do more to get the global economy moving again and redress trade imbalances, such as the high surpluses of countries like Germany.
The G7 ministers will also examine the current high level of volatility on the financial markets and discuss issues such as financial regulation, tax evasion and the battle to cut off financing to terror groups like the Islamic State.
A French source said that the possible emergence of financial bubbles was also a matter of concern. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/print/2015/05/29/2003619453
lets ask the lobster what he thinks
hahaha..
the other day i asked lambert if anyone had asked the lobsters’ opinion.
i guess they had!
HA! i missed that…you get quote of the week!
the tubes never lie!
This from Naomi Wolfs FB page ‘I was just sent a news story via Shawn Ryan from Ma’an news from 2014 asserting that two Palestinian football players were shot in the feet by IDF soldiers as they were walking home from practice and that doctors said they could never play again. Subsequently the head of the Palestinian football league demanded that Israel be removed from FIFA, and claimed that the occupation had targeted Palestinian sport. The removal of Israel from FIFA was about to be voted on just before this bribery scandal broke. If US soccer players had their feet shot at and their careers destroyed that would certainly be seen as a serious attack on innocent athletes and on a sport. Can this possibly be true? If so it is (once again) hugely newsworthy and relevant and puts the FIFA vote on Israel in a completely different news context. Confirm.”
Three team members were killed in the 2012 Operation Cast Lead and the team’s soccer stadium in Rafah, Gaza and the federation’s headquarters were bombed during that incursion.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israel-close-to-deal-with-Palestinians-to-avoid-FIFA-suspension-vote-404486
if you have the stomach, read the comments
Terrorist risk by city: “No US city makes the list.”
+1k comment:
Does this mean that US school districts do not need tanks and grenade launchers?
but how else will they be able to serve lunch?
Oh Frank, come in for breakfast! (MST3k via YouTube)
That’s a large, but not incredibly large, crawfish.
Gumbo? What is this gumbo of which you speak?
Where you from cher? I have seen much bigger mudbugs than that before. In fact, you could have fun just watching them try to escape at Al Scramuzzas Seafood City. Some would. Watch out! Mad mudbug!
that’s a crayfish, not a lobster
looks like you may have found a member of your karass.
Crawdad – Crayfish – whatever.
I know (the photo name says “crawfish”) but they are all related!
I’d say the crayfish (if it wasn’t kidnapped expressly to stage this pic) was flooded out of its burrow and is migrating to a new home. They don’t like being exposed out in the open – too tasty and vulnerable, and they know it….
ou la la… It’s a langoustine!
Nope. Langoustines don’t look like crayfish. That’s a crayfish and here in North Texas they live in holes in the ground in poorly drained areas. Birds eat them and leave pieces near the holes.
Nein! Nein! Meine Meinung nach is this eine kleine liebchen Ecrevisse.
The article about teens fleeing religion is interesting for one datum: 75 percent are non-religious (although they likely run around protesting that they are “spiritual”). The analysis from the perfesser and her friends is stultifying. So much of U.S. religion is still emanations from the 19th-century Burnt-Over District, with its panics and millenialism and Calvinist doom and spiritualists’ knocking ghosts that brought us everything from Jehovah’s Witnesses to Mormons to Methodist revivals to Scientology. You’d think that these supposely intelligent academics might point out that maybe the local religious paradigm is just plain rotten. Instead, they want to talk about individualism (?). In a country where so many have a personal (individual) relation with their Savior? {I’ll have to find and post that Tocqueville quote again, about the prevalence of (individual) religious insanity in the United States.]
gosh, which to choose from…my fav fact: In the United States, if a political character attacks a sect [denomination], this may not prevent even the partisans of that very sect, from supporting him; but if he attacks all the sects together [Christianity], every one abandons him and he remains alone.
It’s probably no accident that the Burnt-Over District also produced America’s first major political movement inspired by and built around a conspiracy theory: the Anti-Masonic Party, which actually ran a candidate (William Wirt) for President in 1832.
I blame the Erie Canal.
The worship of religion replaced by the worship of Mammon. So I wonder what are the 10 commandments of Mammon?
Traditionally, religion met mankinds need for meaning and purpose. Presently, it appears to be losing the battle with science, media and consumerism but it appears they only leave the masses empty and directionless. If not religion, then maybe spirituality. Something must and will fill that need.
Cheering for the jersey, as one Christian commentator calls it. Hey, would you want to be seen in the same club as the Duggars if you saw just what deranged institutional tools they are?
Hastert Resigns from CME for Paying to Make His Bad Behavior Go Away
Hastert served on CME Group’s Board since 2008 He’s also on the board of Rex American Resources Group. Consider what Rex’s latest proxy statement said about Hastert:
Mr. Hastert is currently also a director of CME Group, Inc., a derivatives marketplace that includes the Chicago Merchantile Exchange (CME), Board of Trade of the City of Chicago (CBOT), New York Merchantile Exchange (NYMEX) and Commodity Exchange (COMEX). Mr. Hastert is Chairman of the Compensation Committee and serves on the Governance, Nominating and Strategic Steering Committees of CME Group. Mr. Hastert’s prior government service, government leadership roles and experience in commodities markets will assist the Board and management in governmental and regulatory matters affecting our business.
I’ll venture Dennis Hastert treated someone like a commodity and that’s why he secretly agreed to pay $3.5 million.
It seems fitting that a key leader of a major financial institution would be so ethically tainted.
The apple is the tree.
http://peureport.blogspot.com/2015/05/hastert-resigns-from-cme-for-paying-to.html
“governmental and regulatory matters affecting our business.”….hmmm
the wrestling coach did well.. til he didn’t.
He’s a hypocrite and still in the game so I hope he gets crushed.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-11-14/news/ct-met-finances-dennis-hastert-20121114_1_pensions-republican-speaker-cme-group
subgenius, your CME ejection is ready.
The Fed Reserve more likely to take your job than a robot.
Also, a robot can take a job away from another robot.
Examples:
With self-driving robot cars, there is no need to robot traffic cop to drive traffic.
And why can’t bellhop robot also be a bartender robot (or a surgeon robot for that matter)?
Proposed solution: Robots must unionize!
Demand equal (to a human) pay for equal (to a human’s work, or better) work.
Robot personhood.
shouldn’t the fed be run by robots?
well, mechanical ones…
I am just wondering, which will come first – robot math teacher or robot English poetry teacher?
Robots would get bored. Nothing to do.
Thing is, most robots can make any of their parts doze off any time they like, even sleep with their eyes open while gossiping with other robots, and then wake up any time they need to. In milliseconds, if that. Boredom? Are you kidding?! It’s the life of the cat and we should all be so lucky.
Glass half full department
http://www.wired.com/2015/05/texas-floods-big-ended-states-drought/
Perhaps the time has come for mobile water-bottling plants.
“We are repositioning our solar-powered fleet from Victorville to Texas.”
you could just convert the mobile meth labs – there’s probably more money in water.
They could bottle it here. We had 2 inches of rain last night in 30 minutes. I’m sure Nikki Haley would be thrilled to sign Snapple or Nestle on the bottom line. To be sure “South Carolina Spring Water” might not have much of a cachet.
“…ends Texas drought…”
Yeah but not in such a good way;
“Texas, Oklahoma Floodwaters Contain Sewage, Other Pollutants”
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/05/150528-floodwater-chemicals-texas-oklahoma-environment-science-runoff/
OOOOOhh jeeze, here comes the federal bailouts to the malingerers in TX
thread theme music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVjdMLAMbM0
Stevie Ray Vaughan Texas Flood Live In Montreux 1080P
Right off hand, he was the best thing to come out Texas other than maybe Bodacious BBQ Sauce? I hope they didn’t get messed up :o/
http://www.thebodaciousbbq.com/index.html
Let’s not forget the B**thole Surfers, though
Stevie – Best thing. Runner up – Dallas Strippers
Fortunately for us, I believe Stevie has been re-incarnated as NYC blues-rocker Joe Bonamassa.
Bonamassa, known in circles as a well kept secret.. Great talent
I remember the following day at work he we learned SRV was taken out in the h-cptr crash at the local venue he was playing. We played his music an became progressively bummed out.
Let’s not forget the B**thole Surfers
yes and theirs them… ok all of the Austin music scene as well..
…But we don’t want the Irish!
[everyone complains]
Aw, prairie shit… Everybody!
Austin Way Back – Johnny and Edgar Winter!
Oh good heavens! This could go all the way back to Jim Bowie singing, “Don’t Cry for Me Santa Anna.”
ever heard Matt Schofield
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEuLgGFjUlo
ive seen him and Bonamassa
id like to see this kid but he cant x the pond for some reason
Ansley Lister
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyNX3OZfSbs
Good stuff, just right for a long hot summer down south.
Drought is a long term, and cyclic, climate event. A single extreme event doesn’t end it. The trouble with climate reporting: like its a football team season score record. 0, 0, .2, 0, .5, 35 —score!
Teens fleeing religion.
They are fleeing old religions and old gods, not new religions and new gods/new omnipotent entities.
“I am not a god” science is still being worshipped by many (but not all), despite that self-denial.
And other omnipotent entities. The human brain (through some defect) will always believe in one manifestation or another of omnipotence. Even Rock stars or handsome actors (currently no Americans qualify).
The Unitarians are experiencing a boom apparently.
Jean Twenge, the professor who led the study, “cites a surge of individualism as the force behind atheism’s relative appeal to a young, self-centric generation”.
Abrupt reversal for global assets on Fed tightening.
One can not use a global reserve currency to address any domestic issue without some negative global consequences, due to either a bug or, on other occasions, a feature in the system.
Perhaps that issuer is so exceptional, it can ignore the rest of the world (who are probably saying among themselves: “We have to have some ways of restraining that super-issuer. Maybe we can issue our own new global reserve currency. Let us be the new hegemon, or else, let’s go back to backing global reserve money with something. We don’t trust politicians of that exceptional country, as politicians of other countries don’t trust us.”).
i still insist we only need one currency. i mean franchement!
but backed with what? cacao? stink bugs? surely not gold.
i vote for trees. they’re actually useful.
It’s hard to say what politicians worldwide will accept – should it be backed by the number of drones, bombs or aircraft carriers?
I like trees, but I don’t they will go for that.
But I do know what other politicians are thinking: “They can’t just keep printing that imperial money (unless it’s we doing the printing)!!!”
There is nothing wrong with backing the currency with public debt, except that not funneling the rent extracted from the service back to the public makes it an unstable system.
you peak’n? there’s really nothing backing the currency except faith…if someone believes public debt backs it, that too is faith…
Or, it’s kinda like saying you have a voluntary draft while being surrounded by starving people.
Gone are the days when a big corporation would grow by providing a better product, more choices, and cheaper to boot.
Now it is almost the opposite.
Shanghai stocks recover.
It seems, or they want their people to believe, they have a very powerful government over there.
Perhaps this market recovery is one more demonstration that there is nothing it can’t do.
wsj is reporting china testing artillery at this moment
and here’s our fearless/target on our back response:
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter bluntly warned China Wednesday to stop its buildup of man-made islands in the South China Sea and vowed that the U.S. military would continue to patrol international waters and airspace in the region.
Carter’s comments, made at a ceremony in Hawaii to recognize Adm. Harry B. Harris, the new commander of U.S. military forces in the Pacific, further escalated a simmering rhetorical conflict between Washington and Beijing over access to the South China Sea and other Asian waters.
“There should be no mistake: the United States will fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows, as we do all around the world,” Carter said at the U.S. military’s joint base at Pearl Harbor. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/05/27/defense-secretarys-warning-to-china-u-s-military-wont-change-operations/
well, how dare the commies build islands in the south yanqui sea!?!?!???
this obviously contravenes the doctrine of purity of essence.
indeed. Hey CarterCryBaby, you can build sand castles too.
building up a reef in a sealane is one thing. Calling it a “reclaimed island” is whimsical, calling it sovereign territory is absurd. Exercising right of navigation is the correct thing to do.
So by logical extension, if I picked a submerged reef in international waters, start dumping shipping containers til it sticks out of the water and I can claim it to be the Sovereign territory of Optimaderlandia?
We’ll see if a woop-ass typhoon ultimately settles this matter.
If I were China, I would name the artificial islands New Hawaii I, New Hawaii II, etc… just to confuse the issue. Or make the islands look like aircraft carriers. You can have those anywhere.
If I were the US, I’d find something else to worry about.
So many possible triggers for WWIII; so little time left before the global economy implodes. Which distracting trigger will the psychos choose? China; Ukraine; Yemen; Iran; Baltimore?
i immediately wondered if any heads of state correspond/discuss/raise eyebrows in the bathrooms? they don’t read anymo…can’t email, fax or scan etc.
Anybody look at a map of the Chinese claims of territorial waters and land in the South China Sea?
https://www.google.com/#q=map+of+china+territorial+waters+in+South+China+Sea
If these maps are correct, tt seems China feels their territorial waters and territorial claims extend for hundreds of miles in the South China Sea while everyone else is limited to 10 miles or so. I don’t know understand their reasoning but I don’t think just because it is called the South China Sea means it all belongs to China.
China and
MacedoniaFYROM have a lot in common despite their disparate sizes…Thanks Jagger & OIFVet…looking around its interesting China doesn’t refer to the area as S.China Sea:
In China, it is called the “South Sea”, 南海 Nánhǎi, and in Vietnam the “East Sea”, Biển Đông.[8][9][10] In Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, it was long called the “South China Sea” (Dagat Timog Tsina in Tagalog, Laut China Selatan in Malay), with the part within Philippine territorial waters often called the “Luzon Sea”, Dagat Luzon, by the Philippines.[11] However, following an escalation of the Spratly Islands dispute in 2011, various Philippine government agencies started using the name “West Philippine Sea”. A PAGASA spokesperson said that the sea to the east of the Philippines will continue to be called the Philippine Sea.[12]
so basically they’re still fighting over sea turtles?
The Yizhoushu, which was a chronicle of the Western Zhou dynasty (1046–771 BCE) gives the first Chinese name for the South China Sea as Nanfang Hai (Chinese: 南方海; pinyin: Nánfāng Hǎi; literally: “Southern Sea”), claiming that barbarians from that sea gave tributes of hawksbill sea turtles to the Zhou rulers.[5]
What do the people who live in “South China Sea” area call themselves? Sama-Bajau/Badjao?
Maybe they want to be their own political/monetary sovereign, free of the Philippines, Malaysia, etc?
Well, there is a micronation of venerable age based on the Spratleys.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Morac-Songhrati-Meads
Well, the US takes the position it has a say in the ME…which is 1000s of miles offshore…pot/kettle & an absence of light?
I double checked the Spratly Islands on a map, and it seems to me that there are 4 countries with legitimate claims on some or all of the islands, and China is not one of those countries:
Vietnam, China, and the Philippines are the countries which might have legitimate claims on the Paracel Islands.
Don’t forget this group.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Morac-Songhrati-Meads
The leaked letter begging the united states to exert more influence to get Parashka the Nobel Peace Prize begs two questions:
1. How is the United States expected to exert this influence?
2. Who leaked the letter?
The letter also indicates that Obama’s 2009 Nobel Peace Prize was the result of a similar process. Hmmmm….
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2015/03/03/Nobel-Prize-committee-leader-Jagland-ousted/8771425412189/
OSLO, Norway, March 3 (UPI) — Thorbjorn Jagland, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Prize committee who oversaw Barack Obama’s receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize, was voted out of office Tuesday.
The removal of the leader of the committee is unprecedented, and Jagland attracted numerous criticisms for the committee’s choices for the prestigious Peace Prize during his term.
Shortly after Jagland became committee leader in 2009, the Peace Prize was awarded to U.S. President Barack Obama, who had been in office less than a year and was dealing with simultaneous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “
They must have confused Afghanistan with Americanistan.
My guess is that he failed his geography.
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-05-29/richard-thaler-the-economist-who-realized-how-crazy-we-are
“This willingness to allow oneself to be distracted from one’s assigned task would later turn out to be a chief characteristic of behavioral economists, along with a bunch of other traits not normally found in economists, though often found in children: a sense of wonder, a tendency to ask embarrassing questions, and a mistrust of grown-ups’ ideas about what’s worth spending time thinking about and what is not.”
Theodore White, father of modern political reporting. Plus ca change
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/05/28/legendary-journalist-private-fraudulent-everywhere/
Thanks Carolinian, this is literally gold. The question is, how do we get MSM “journos” to be honest rather than to merely transcribe the narrative created up above. Matter of fact, isn’t it possibly the case that these fraudulent transcribes have come to believe that they are real journos?
White apparently thought all politics was fraudulent. Orwell also believed that “politics…are inseparable from coercion and fraud”. But what is the alternative? However coercive and fraudulent, politics enable large numbers of people to live together in relative peace. When politics fail disaster follows. Is there a non-coercive, non-fraudulent way of accomplishing the same thing?
So inventing these hostile internal and external Other and demonizing them is what allows us to leave in peace with them and amongst ourselves? “We had to increase tensions in order to decrease them”. Ok then.
The hostility and demonization are there anyway. Yes, politics may encourage them. Or it may (often with a combo of force and BS) keep people from acting on them. Depends what politics.
A liberal Democratic friend of mine once asked, “But don’t we need people to make decisions for us?”
Do 300 million people all need to live, work, play and love identically, let alone to the order of pompous, effete gasbags who think they’re entitled to commit coercion and fraud upon the classes they rob and torture? Sounds like crackpot Platonism, to me.
This is a beautifully written article by an English teacher who quit her job, run down by unrealistic expectations by parents, students, and administration. She eloquently explains how teachers are expected to be martyrs, to sacrifice their family and personal lives.
http://therumpus.net/2015/05/the-saturday-rumpus-essay-o-martyr-my-martyr/
What other professions demand this sacrifice? It’s a sign of our age — glorify our time at work, and act as if our personal lives shouldn’t matter. It’s also getting boring to hear others brag about how busy they are, but that’s the kind of PR you need these days to remain relevant.
I don’t know how seriously it’s made in other professions, the complete sacrifice of your family and self, but there’s plenty of corporate jobs that will openly say those who work only 40 will be out the door, 8 hour a day-ers aren’t going to be around much longer. “Those who come in and leave promptly on the minute after having worked their 8 hours”. Whether they did a good job those 8 hours apparently being totally irrelevant to whether they are worth keeping on. It’s a much less extreme version, but sacrifice of time with family for instance is always to be available if the job needs you.
What’s wrong with wanting a summer off? Can’t you have summers off and still do a good job? But everyone else gets 2 weeks vacation? Yea well, that’s a problem.
“Put in the extra hours if you really want to get ahead” has a caveat:
As long as the corp. doesn’t actually have to pay for the extra hours. The ideal employee only books 40 hours but actually works 50 or 60.
And somehow the worker is convinced this is noble — to sacrifice your time for a job. There is some genius PR marionettes that have fooled the critical mass.
Employment is a ritualized dependency relationship. The wherewithal to produce independently of the employer is a threat to that relationship, whereas keeping you in a chair and out of “mischief” is cheap, or free if you’re a salaried sucker. Thus face time, wage-fixing agreements and non-competes.
@abynormal:
An unnamed G7 minister was quoted as saying ‘with regard to the proposed financial regulation, we have a few specific passages about which we would like to consult with the lobster’.
Indeed, lobsters are reputed to be quite good with their clauses, maybe that also extends to other folks’ tricky clauses?
NO WAY are you pulling on my antenna
loooong day…you hoot!
There is no proportional representation requirement in the Equal Protection Clause.
Cass Sunstein
All these lobsters…
Anybody needing some good scifi should take a look at “Accelerando” by Charles Stross….lobsters play a major role!
…and the world could do with his concept of a venture alturist right about now, too…
…although personally I have spent today sidetracked wrangling python :/
is that that black n white old film? skeerd me when i was little??
a python? aren’t you suppose ta call ur dr after 4hrs¿
He got a 2014 Hugo Award runner up for Neptune’s Brood. Only one of his I haven’t read yet.