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2:00PM Water Cooler 7/30/15

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By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

TPP/TTiP/TISA

List of traitors in House and Senate, with phone numbers. Hat tip, reader Vatch. Be sure to visit them when they return to the district this week. If a traitor is mentioned in Water Cooler, their name is in bold.

New leak: Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) Treaty: State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) Issues for Ministerial Guidance [Wikileaks]. Important! Dunno if that’s going to go over big in Malaysia, or big enough, even though we did them a solid by deep-sixing all that slavery stuff. 

Australia: “TPP negotiations threaten to forcibly commercialise state-owned bodies” [The Saturday Paper]. “[T[he futures of publicly owned enterprises such as Australia Post, the ABC, SBS and state power utilities may be on the negotiating table in secret talks under way in Hawaii this week.”

Australia: “TPP: Former WTO head Pascal Lamy says TPP benefits ‘modest'” [Financial Review]. Unlike its proponents and beneficiaries.

Malaysia: See under Corruption for a **** cough *** totally unrelated incident  *** cough *** in Malaysia. (I’m coughing from the smoke, sorry.)

Canada: Prime Minister “Harper hopes to sign TPP deal before federal election kickoff” [National Observer].

United States: “A group of pro-trade House Democrats penned a letter on Wednesday calling on the Obama administration to lock in strong environmental provisions as part of a massive Asia-Pacific trade deal” [The Hill]. And by “lock in,” we mean, give us some verbal cover in 2016.

United States: “The criminalization of IP infringement in a multilateral agreement would give the United States legal teeth for enforcing its preferred system of intellectual property protection across the world” [The Diplomat]. Please. Let’s not pretend Hollywood and Big Pharma represent anyone other than themselves. TPP “gives” the “United States” nothing, less than nothing.

2016

Readers, I need a really good campaign travel tracker. At the National Journal, nobody told the JavaScript dude to consider UX. Any suggestions?

Policy

“‘If you’re getting high in Colorado today, enjoy it,’ Christiesaid Tuesday during a town-hall meeting at the Salt Hill Pub in Newport, New Hampshire. ‘As of January 2017, I will enforce the federal laws'” [Bloomberg].

The Voters

“After upticks in good economic feelings in recent months, surveys this week suggest Americans are growing increasingly edgy about the country’s economic future headed into the election season” [Wall Street Journal, “Americans’ Sour Turn Puts Economic Worries Back in Spotlight”]. Bad for incumbents.

The Trail

Walker’s union-made Harley is a centerpiece of his union-busing campaign [Reuters]. Free rider problem, eh?

Trump leads in Florida [SaintPetersBlog]. Ouch!

“Out of 114 minutes of coverage from the beginning of June to Friday, Trump gobbled up a full hour, or 52 percent of the airtime” [International Business Times].

Clown Car

“[I]s there a single word that combines revulsion, amusement, respect and confusion?” [WaPo]. Cilizza binge reads the collected works of Donald Trump. Me ne frego… 

I’ve lost count of how many Republican candidates there are, but now there’s another one [France24].

Our Nation’s Capital

On those 18-year-old truckers the Senate wants: “When you make your workers lives worse, and you don’t compensate them with cash money to make up for it, you find your workers quitting. That’s what’s happening here. [W]e either need to improve truckers’ work experiences or pay them more. There’s no worker shortage, there’s simply an unwillingness, on the employers’ side, to face up to the facts” [Mathbabe]. Funny how often “the market” isn’t about price, but power.

Stats Watch

GDP, Q2 2015: “GDP came in on the lower end of expectations in the second quarter, up 2.3 percent vs the Econoday consensus for 2.9 percent” [Bloomberg]. “The second quarter wasn’t that great, showing much less of a bounce from a weak first quarter compared to last year.” Lots of handy charts: “[Y]ear-over-year growth declined so one could say economic growth was mixed.There are significant ‘buts’ relative to this advance GDP estimate” [Econintersect]. “A particularly telling representation of slowing growth in the US economy is the year-over-year rate of change.

Jobless Claims, week of July 25, 2015: “at rock bottom levels, at a lower-than-expected 267,000” [Bloomberg]. Continuing claims are also “are also very low readings.”

Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, week of July 26, 2015: “Retracement in consumer confidence readings is becoming an early feature of the third quarter. The consumer comfort index is [steeply[ down for a 4th straight week”  [Bloomberg]. Hmm. “Retracement” isn’t in the Shorter OED. I wonder what kind of indicator it is when Bloomberg invents or propagates a new word?

“Rail Data Still Soft But Marginally Better Than Previous Week” [Econintersect].

Seven-year Note Auction: “Foreign demand has been a key driver for Treasuries as an asset class vs. lower-yielding European sovereigns and the liquidity provided by the auction could prove enticing – foreigners average 20% of new 7-years” [Across the Curve].

 “New surveys covering actual and planned pay awards by thousands of companies show flat or even declining wages overall despite some higher increases for in-demand fields like computer technology. Ahead of the second-quarter Employment Cost Index release Friday, compensation consultants said there’s no evidence employers are raising pay at a higher rate than in recent years despite steady increases monthly payrolls and a national jobless rate approaching 5%” [Market News]. The new normal. Thanks, Obama!

“The Federal Reserve remains on track to raise interest rates later this year, and perhaps as soon as its next policy meeting in mid-September, as economic growth continues to meet its expectations” [New York Times]. “One and done.” That’s the ticket…. 

Grexit?

“Yanis Varoufakis faces criminal prosecution over clandestine ‘Plan B’ currency plot” [Daily Telegraph]. The Greek right has its Benghazi at last. May they choke on it. 

Big Brother Is Watching You

“Although we all love to hate passwords, they’re shared secrets which can be changed with just a few clicks [Paul Moore]. “If your biometric behavioral profile is shared/stolen, the consequences are far-reaching and considerably more difficult to mitigate.” Interesting read.

Dear Old Blighty

* * *

“[Communication Workers Union” backs Jeremy Corbyn ‘to oust Blairites'” [BBC].

“Jeremy Corbyn has tossed a grenade among unaccountable elite in Labour Party” [Belfast Telegraph].

“Some of the grassroots engagement and debate seen in Scotland’s referendum last year is finally creeping south” [Guardian].

“Corbynism is a retreat into the type of self-indulgent posturing that Attlee detested” [New Statesman].

“Of the four Labour leadership candidates, Corbyn is the only one to have said the words ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ in recent weeks” [Daily Mail]. You can see the Mail deploying the cultural markers as it moves in for the kill, though.

Gaia

Carbon sinks in groundwater under deserts from arid farming [New Scientist].

“Fossil fuels are reaping support of $550 billion annually, according the International Energy Agency (IEA), an organisation that represents oil- and gas-consuming countries, more than four times those given for renewable energy” [The Economist, “The global addiction to energy subsidies”]. Because markets, ya know.

“The bioeconomy is rising up the political agenda… [But] there is no consensus on what ‘sustainable’ means. Biomass assessment is a patchwork of voluntary standards and regulations. With many schemes comes a lack of comparability. Confusion leads to mistrust and protectionism, international disputes and barriers, slow investment and slower growth” [Nature].

Pesticide makers now making false claims of beating herbicide-resistant weeds with products that use carbon nanotubes [Mother Jones]. “Carbon nanotubes  are one of the most controversial nanoparticles—often compared to asbestos for their ability to lodge into the lungs and cause trouble when they’re breathed in.”

Corruption

Fire breaks out at the Malaysian police national headquarters in Kuala Lumpur:

Malaysian police:  “Only unimportant documents destroyed in Bukit Aman fire” [Straits Times]. Nothing to do with 1MDB Task Force, then. Move along, people, move along. There’s no story here.

“[Grosvenor Capital Management] is run by Democratic Party financier Michael Sacks, a major campaign contributor to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and a prodigious fundraiser for President Barack Obama. As the Sackses escalated their giving to a PAC that supported [Democratic then-Governor Pat] Quinn, his appointees signed off on shifting hundreds of millions of dollars to [Grosvenor]. That decision was made even as Grosvenor was underperforming less expensive stock index funds [David Sirota, International Business Times]. Somebody should ask Clinton what she’ll do about this “when” she becomes President.

“The Financial Services Conflict of Interest Act would prohibit government officials from accepting “golden parachutes” from their former employers for entering public service.” Warren supports it; Clinton doesn’t [David Dayen, The Intercept]. “One possible explanation for Clinton’s lack of interest in banning golden parachutes is that she tolerated them when she ran the State Department — for two of her top aides. Robert Hormats and Thomas Nides previously worked as executives for financial firms Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, respectively.” 

“The illegal killing of a lion in Zimbabwe by a Minnesota dentist has focused attention on the elite hunting industry in southern Africa, which critics say is poorly policed and riddled with corruption” [Los Angeles Times].

Cambodia allows cops to pocket 70% of all the traffic fines they collect [Time]. What could go wrong? And least Ferguson had the common decency to launder the take through the municipal budget! Because that’s how we do it in the First World.

Wretched Excess 

“The latest outrage was sparked when the French magazine Marianne reported that King Salaman had reportedly asked a French policewoman to step away from his villa’s security perimeter so that she would not be close to men when they went swimming” [Business Insider]. As long as they spell the name right…

MH370

“Discovery in Réunion: A wing and a prayer for Malaysia Airlines breakthrough” [The Economist].

“Number on Reunion Island [flaperon] debris corresponds to Boeing 777 component” [CNN]. Single-sourced and the part is being examined in Toulouse. And I believe — putting on my tinfoil hat, here — that the MH370 777 is the only missing 777. But is this the only missing 777 flaperon?

“Finding on Whether Debris Is From Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 May Take a Week” [New York Times].

Class Warfare

“Moreover, they say, Mr. Moynihan, 55, has surrounded himself with a close-knit circle of loyal lieutenants — many from his days at the regional bank FleetBoston Financial, which was acquired by Bank of America in 2003” [DealB%k, New York Times]. Boy, that’s a shocker. A Big Man surrounded by cronies and sycophants. Probably not an introvert in the bunch.

“Bankers make ideal altruists, says philosopher” Peter Singer [The Star].

News of the Wired

R.I.P Maine’s Vic Firth, legendary stick man [Press-Herald].

Unix for poets (PDF) [Stanford’s CS124].

“President Obama has established a new initiative across multiple government agencies that will focus entirely on creating the fastest supercomputers ever devised. The National Strategic Computing Initiative will attempt to build the first ever exascale computer, which would be more than 30 times faster than today’s fastest supercomputer” [VICE].

Forthcoming Onion VICE parody: “With a team of more than 300 news warriors, Edge pummels readers with immersive reporting that is uncaged, unaccountable, and totally f*cked up” [Wired].

Scientist on time: “‘The block universe theory says you’re spread out in time, something like the way you’re spread out in space,’ Dr Skow said. ‘We’re not located at a single time.’ Instead he says we are in a ‘temporarily scattered’ condition [Daily Mail]. I suppose a lot of NC readers could have told him that… 

“Overwhelming genetic evidence shows that Homo sapiens had sex with Neander­thals, Denisovans and other archaic relatives. Now researchers are using large genomics studies to unravel the decidedly mixed contributions that these ancient romps made to human biology — from the ability of H. sapiens to cope with environments outside Africa, to the tendency of modern humans to get asthma, skin diseases and maybe even depression” [Nature].

“New analysis of old finds upends conventional wisdom about where and when the first artists evolved. Hint: They weren’t Homo sapiens” [Discover].

Buffalo snow pile from last winter still not melted [ABC]. Boston’s is gone. I wonder if anybody made book?

“F. Scott Fitzgerald Conjugates “to Cocktail,” the Ultimate Jazz-Age Verb (1928)” [Open Culture]. Gorgeous handwriting.

Competitive bagpipers blow competition in Canada after days of heavy drinking [Boston Globe]. If the instrument’s that effing complex, why are people trying to play it hung over?

“8 hours of sleep can make you happier” [Business Insider]. Jawbone also has some good maps on sleep habits by county.

Fifty top psychologists [Business Insider]. Interesting round-up. Hopefully none of them experts on torture.

2009 profile of Walter Palmer, Killer Dentist [New York Times]. “Palmer, said to be capable of skewering a playing card from 100 yards with his compound bow, has cultivated a purist’s reputation for his disinclination to carry firearms as backup.” That’s because, by court order, he can’t use firearms, after he lied to the Feds about where he shot a bear.

* * *

Readers, feel free to contact me with (a) links, and even better (b) sources I should curate regularly, and (c) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi are deemed to be honorary plants! See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. And here’s today’s plant (Kurt):

purple

Here is another flower from, AFAIK, Kurt’s European trip. It’s pretty, and I wish I could plant some. But what is it?

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About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

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54 comments

  1. Clive

    Re: Blighty

    Corbyn on a night bus. Crikey. He’s braver than I thought. Has anyone ever authentically seen Hillary on a bus ? I’d pay money to witness that event… She’d probably book out the bus in advance if she did. How else could PR minders, $10,000-a-go ticket holders, official photographers and security all be accommodated ?

    1. vidimi

      corbyn is an old-school english working-class socialist, i am glad to see him pick up so much momentum. if only it wasn’t so long before the elections, he would steamroll everyone if they were in three months. really pleased to see all the blairites hissing and threatening the end of the world; tells me he’s the right candidate.

      for the usians, corbyn is the english democrats’ version of bernie sanders, but with an overall much better record.

      1. Clive

        Yes, all true. I am little enthusiastic. I only wish I could be wantonly, brazenly enthusiastic. But these days, I’m too haunted by the ghost of Tsipras’es past to welcome it all wholeheartedly.

        1. vidimi

          sadly, the british system of monarchy and the house of lords makes it even harder for a well-intentioned elected leader to achieve any meaningful social reform than in the states. western democracy is a total circus that way. the apathetic have their celebrity gossip rumour mills while more agitated can have their election cycles.

    2. YankeeFrank

      Scotland totally pwned Trump on his last real estate endeavor there. They wanted a golf course built and agreed to hand over a massive amount of land to Trump in order for him to build it. What they didn’t tell him is that they planned to build wind farms directly offshore from the location of his planned eyesore of a rich man’s condo paradise. He built the golf course, and then the wind farms started going up. Trump’s rich asshole potential condo buyers HATE wind farms as they ruin the view supposedly, thereby trashing his secondary real estate endeavor (that the Scots never wanted). Trump was outraged and vowed to never go back to Scotland again. I guess he lied. Moral of the story is don’t mess with the Scots, they will get what they want from you and leave you out to dry. Apparently Trump didn’t bother to watch the film “Local Hero” before going in to business with the Scots.

      Given the way they’re being treated by the English now, with every promise given if they’d vote no to secession thrown in the trash bin and “EVEL” as a punishment for even threatening to leave, its only a matter of time before Scotland has a new referendum and finally does leave the union. Thankfully too, watching what is happening to Greece the Scots are waking up to the idea that they will absolutely need their own currency and cannot piggyback off the British pound or Euro. So when independence finally does pass, Scotland will become the fifth (sixth?) social democratic Scandinavian-style nation. It will be a wonderful thing to screw the English once and for all and create a true social democracy for the people of Scotland… at which point I will be emigrating to join in on their wonderful experiment.

      1. Kurt Sperry

        Except of course the SNP did every bit of sleight of hand and evasion possible to avoid the question of a sovereign currency for an independent Scotland. Actually, could’ve given Syriza lessons on it.

    3. ambrit

      He’s probably come on a visit to his Uncle Scrooge. (It’s all Mickey Mouse anyway.)

    2. Kurt Sperry

      It’s an orchid. I can’t pin it down as there are several quite similar looking common orchid species there and I’m not any sort of expert on them.

      2. grayslady

        It’s the Green Winged Orchid (Anacamptis morio). It will actually grow well in U.S. Zone 5, but the problem is obtaining one. It is officially a bulb, but it can be grown from seed. Unfortunately, the seeds are only available from a few British suppliers–not T&M or B&T World Seeds. Maybe Clive would send us a packet, assuming it’s legal to grow them here. They don’t seem to be invasive.

        1. Laughingsong

          Sorry about the mis-post, browser crash….. Anyway, not certain but I think it’s a southern marsh orchid ( http://www.first-nature.com/flowers/dactylorhiza-praetermissa.php ). Taking surrounding plants into account, my guess is the west of Ireland, maybe the Burren ( http://www.burrennationalpark.ie/orchids.html ). Used to spend some time there, we would attend these drumming and music retreats at a place called The Boghill Centre – http://www.boghill.com

  4. rich

    the contemplation of this shows you it’s never been about safety, it’s always been about the money…..and if you don’t have the money???

    Should patients pay their way into clinical trials?

    In a time of shrinking federal research budgets, here’s one idea for a solution: charge patients to participate in clinical trials.

    Patients’ payment could fund studies that would not otherwise be conducted, said a group of medical ethicists led by Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD, PhD, the former White House health-policy adviser who now chairs the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. Emanuel was asked by a group of academic investigators to review the legality and ethics of charging for enrollment in an early-phase clinical trial; he and his co-authors examine the pros and cons.

    No laws or regulations prohibit pay-to-play, said the authors, and it has some upsides. By putting their money where their mouth is, patients could be demonstrating deep engagement with the research protocol, and affirming their informed consent. Their payment could be seen as a direct, Kickstarter-style version of a charitable contribution to medical research, or as an analogue to permissible payment for experimental treatments outside the confines of a clinical trial. Last but not least, there is a liberty argument, that “people should have the freedom to do whatever they want with their own money as long as they are not harming others or diminishing their rights and opportunities,” said the authors, whose perspective essay (subscription required) appears today in Science Translational Medicine.
    – See more at: http://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2015/07/29/should-patients-pay-their-way-into-clinical-trials/#sthash.QlTjAwmV.dpuf

    1. Jess

      Here’s a handy rule of thumb: If Zeke Emanuel is for something, it’s bad for ordinary people. He’s one of the sickest fucks on planet Earth. (No pun intended.)

    2. weakling

      Talk about efficiency, no more having to market yourself as one of those natural remedies, now you can just charge for the placebo outright. Sugar pills available now in the pharmacy aisle, cures whatever ails ya.

      1. Local to Oakland

        I don’t like this proposal, but I saw a more inclusive version that made me wonder if it was a possible fix.

        The problem is that clinical trials cost huge sums of money. This means that many potentially useful drugs are never developed and licensed. If the trial won’t result in a patentable drug, it won’t be funded and the trial won’t happen. If the trial is related to a condition where the number of patients is too small the trial probably won’t be funded. Even with a new potentially patentable drug it is a crap shoot whether a particular likely candidate will be funded through the trial process and developed.

        Patients who will die or be disabled without treatment but where effective treatment doesn’t exist, are highly motivated to participate in trials. Currently in the US they are not free to take experimental treatment even where no licensed drug will help them, except through a clinical trial. Allowing wealthy patients to help fund trials would allow researchers to get more of their favorite horses into trials and possibly through the process than they can currently and would allow currently untreated patients a shot at something that might work.

        In the version I saw, the ethical issue of unequal access was mitigated by requiring such a wealthy patient to fund not only him or herself but four others who would not be able to afford to pay to play.

    1. grayslady

      I stopped reading after she went to Disqus. She lost a lot of readers when that happened.

      1. ProNewerDeal

        J Hamsher/firedoglake, and nakedcapitalism, were excellent in covering the ACA bill passage, including the sourced newsstory on how 0bama killed the Public Option on behalf of his health insurance company campaign donors. Other media seemed to be ignoring or missing this issue. I can’t understate how wise this group has been, and how brave for reporting the actual news despite being attacked by 0bamabot ACA cheerleaders (including the Orange Satan) with insults like “firebaggers” for refusing to parrot Dear Leader 0bama’s propaganda.

        I also found David Dayen to be an excellent journalist, although he had already left fdl some time ago.

        I hope the new site continues the quality journalism & editorials of firedoglake. It appears from Hamsher’s post that the new site Shadowproof will have each of the ~4 FT journalists focus on a specific topic, whereas firedoglake was more of a generalist, mostly covering US national / Fed Govt news. Perhaps the more specialized focus is pragmatic given the small staff of the new site.

        Hamsher’s post did not seem to indicate if Hamsher will still work in journalism in some form, or if her current health issues currently prevent her from working FT, or if she plans to work in a non-journalism occupation (perhaps her prior film industry career). Given her great track record, I would be happy to continue working in journalism in some capacity.

  6. David

    Number on Reunion Island [flaperon] debris corresponds to Boeing 777 component” [CNN]. Single-sourced and the part is being examined in Toulouse.

    Toulouse (Blagnac) is where Airbus assembles their planes. Why is a Boeing part being sent to Toulouse for examination? Doesn’t the NTSB usually take the lead in these investigations with a US built plane?

    1. optimader

      Reunion Island= French territory, surely a chain of custody matter.
      Presumably the Boeing, NTSB peeps and some marine biologist consultant that scored on a junket beat the debris to Toulouse.

      1. optimader

        The planes owner has control the plane,
        FWIW, no I don’t think that’s right.
        As the debris evidence was in French jurisdiction, I believe by protocol it goes to the French for investigation. If it were found in international waters it would be the country of origins responsibility (Malaysia in this case). If it was a crash in US territory it would be the NTSB jurisdiction..
        I believe that’s how the evidence custody works.

        eg
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EgyptAir_Flight_990
        As the crash occurred in international waters, the responsibility for investigating the accident fell to the Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority (ECAA) per International Civil Aviation Organization Annex 13.

        1. jo6pac

          Did it fall into French waters or we have to wait and see. It’s only the apart that has drifted a few miles or 100 of miles. It’s still in control of the nation that owns the plane. I agree with nation but is only a part of the plane and that’s a maybe? I won’t be back;)

    1. LifelongLib

      The subheading says “temporally [not temporarily] scattered” which makes more sense.

  8. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

    8 hours of sleep can make you happier.

    Just curious. How many hours of sleep did a typical adult Neanderthal get?

    Does the surgeon general recommend that many?

    I saw it mentioned in a documentary on sleep-deprivation in America, that people used to sleep twice a night – waking up in the middle and going back to sleep again – before the Industrial Revolution or the invention of the light bulb (forgot which).

    1. optimader

      Just curious. How many hours of sleep did a typical adult Neanderthal get
      did (do)?
      I asked a good friend’s brother who was a nuke sub commander what his schedule was. He did 4-5 hours sleep in an 18 hour day. The entire crew cycles on an 18 hr day, 6 on watch, 12 off watch (waking) and 6 sleep. Apparently this works well w/ no sunlight.

      I know people that operate on 4 hours of sleep quite adequately, sleep that is not “rest”. I can operate fine on 5, but not sustainably eventually I need to knock out a couple 6-8hr sessions,or alternatively, a nap. I buy into the two rest periods theory, as I can get up refreshed after 4-5, but to pursue that regime sustainably the one or two 1 hour naps need to be part of the program..

      1. optimader

        6 on watch, 12 off watch (waking)…
        make that…. 6 on watch, 6 off watch (12hr waking) and 6 sleep…

      2. nowhere

        In my not professional opinion, with that sleep schedule you would be playing havoc with your adrenal system.

        1. cwaltz

          The military would be the last batch of people I would be using as an example of creating healthy sleep patterns. They’ve been known on more than a few occasions to medicate their work force in order to keep them awake in order to complete tasks. With the military mission comes first and if something gets in the way of that including sleep they choose
          medication to get around it.

  9. Roquentin

    That Peter Singer article on bankers making the best philanthropists might be the most cringeworthy thing I’ve read all week. Singer ought to be ashamed of himself for writing such drivel. Everything about it is wrong. We should allow the unfettered accumulation of capital on the assumption that they can have the added pleasure of giving a little bit of it back to causes they personally deem worthy? Of course this leaves all the exploitation involved in amassing such a fortune intact, but apparently that doesn’t bother people like him. Charity, while better than nothing at all, is not a method of combating neoliberalism it is a basic constituent of its functioning.

    1. hunkerdown

      Yes, that is what aristocrats believe. I dated a woman whose father was a 1%er, and he used that same argument against government healthcare: he’s entitled to his mitzvahim!

      1. Skippy

        Without victims there can be no charity….

        Skippy…. Which then presents the problem of…. how does a fat cat thread the needle thingy…..

  11. Gareth

    Crapification – Wisconsin style:

    Prison guard shortage prompts offers of overtime, mileage, hotels

    Daniel Meehan, a sergeant at Waupun Correctional Institution who is retiring this week, said in 34 years at the Department of Corrections he had never seen so much turnover. He attributed the problem to Act 10.

    “It used to be a career,” he said. “Now it’s a throwaway job. They’re quitting as quick as they can hire them.”

  12. Vatch

    “‘If you’re getting high in Colorado today, enjoy it,’ Christie said Tuesday during a town-hall meeting at the Salt Hill Pub in Newport, New Hampshire. ‘As of January 2017, I will enforce the federal laws‘”

    All right! I guess that means he’ll take a hard line against robosigning fraud, Sarbanes Oxley violations, torture by Americans in the Middle East, and all sorts of accounting control fraud. That is what he means, isn’t it?

  13. cripes

    Does anyone know if the Malaysian Police headquarters collapsed into it’s own footprint yet?

  14. Isolato

    Re: Clown car

    me ne frego Italian slang for “Who cares?”. Literally “it steals nothing from me”.

    1. Lambert Strether Post author

      That’s not all it means.

      * * *

      About the subtlest Godwin’s Law violation ever, but I’m starting to wonder who stops Trump, exactly? (Assuming he doesn’t run out of ready cash.) I mean oppo won’t do it, obviously — Trump is totally in “dead girl or live boy” category already. So, what? A “serious” candidate? Like… Jebbie?

      1. Kurt Sperry

        I didn’t know the connotation for me ne frego, it’s common enough phrase, one heard quite often in conversation. It is a bit coarse though.

    1. David

      Okay. I’ve thought this a few times when reading the leaking documents. They seem very vague. I don’t see how they would be enforceable with such generic statements. The few NAFTA documents that I’ve seen seem much more detailed as far as requirements, definitions, etc. Then again, maybe that’s the point. If you have a unenforceable document, wouldn’t it make sense to keep it secret for five years so nobody (China) knows it’s a paper tiger.

      Also, looking at the other leaks and assuming that they are recent, there seemed to be a lot of areas in dispute. IIRC, every sentence had proposed changes from different nations or blocs of nations. If those leaks are accurate and recent and judging by the articles you’ve put in the cooler, I don’t see an agreement happening this year or the next few years.

  16. abynormal

    ok, i peeked at the 50 top psychologist/scientist…they seem to be happy to tell you about happiness. what timing…http://www.cchr.org/cchr-reports/psychiatry/introduction.html Psychiatry: Hooking Your World on Drugs

    You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.
    Albert the man with the plan Camus

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