Most Used Words In The GOP Debate Onion
SeaWorld sees profits plunge 84% as customers desert controversial park Guardian
New York lawyer, being sued, formally demands Trial By Combat http://jrnl.ie/2259392f @TheJournal_ie. Richard Smith: “GoT goes mainstream.”
The Curious Case of the Bog Bodies Nautilus
As phone companies ditch copper, they nix the ability to call during blackouts Christian Science Monitor
Japan’s ruling LDP to delay leadership race Japan Times
Prayut coy on plans to join TPP Bangkok Post. Translation: “I need a bigger payoff.”
‘Media implosion’ spreads to Europe Financial Times
Jan-Werner Müller: The Problems of the Eurozone London Review of Books
Why Jeremy Corbyn Scares the Right Jacobin
Calais crisis: door wide open after migrants guess the security code Telegraph
Grexit?
Germany protests against ‘half-finished’ Greek bail-out deal Telegraph. The sudden disappearance of Greece from the headlines has seemed too good to be true. I had guesstimated that we’d see rifts starting by Aug 10 at the latest. That does not mean a deal won’t get done…..a deal looked almost impossible last time and the French managed to muscle it through. But how many times can France run to Greece’s rescue?
Can Not One Summer Weekend Go By During Which We Don’t Have To Worry About Greece? DealBreaker
Even with banks open, Greek firms paralyzed by restrictions Associated Press
Greece Gets Sudden Influx of 50,000 Refugees in July (More Than 2014 Total) Seeks Help From EU Michael Shedlock
Murder and drug trafficking allegations cast pall over Argentina primary election Guardian
Ukraine/Russia
Casting for the role of the Fuhrer announced in Ukraine Fort Russ (Chuck L)
US Congress and President Obama Officially Recognize Donbas’ Freedom! Vineyard of the Saker (Glenn F)
Syraqistan
From Palestine to Yemen: honour and shame of the Arab world Sayed Hasan
Into The Cauldron – Saudi And UAE Troops Invade Yemen Moon of Alabama
Buffalo’s ISIS Supporting Terrorist and Its Klan Supporting Terrorist Marcy Wheeler
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Wearable Technology Creeps Into The Workplace Bloomberg. Lambert flags the subhead: There’s a fine line between productivity monitoring and oppressive surveillance.” Moi: “There is no difference between productivity monitoring and oppressive surveillance.”
Police State Watch
The disturbing messages in police recruiting videos Washington Post
Chicago police, ACLU reach agreement on ‘stop and frisk’ practice Christian Science Monitor
Double-Barreled Disaster: Two GOP Debates in One Night Truthout (RR)
Trump dumped from conservative event in Atlanta over ‘inappropriate’ comments Reuters
Donald Trump’s war on Megyn Kelly Politico. Trump got so used to bullying pretty young women on his whoring-for-position reality TV show that he thought he could get away with it anywhere.
Most retweeted GOP debate tweet was written by Bernie Sanders The Hill
Ten years on, Hurricane Katrina’s scars endure for black New Orleans Reuters (EM)
Libertarianism Simplified: the Three Proper Powers of Government Angry Bear
The Great Unwind Has Begun, Bankruptcies Soar
Fed
The U.S. Still Needs 2.4 Million Jobs Bloomberg. Lamnbert: “Only the loanable funds theory can help these poor souls…/sarc off.”
So the Job Market Is Strong, But There’s Still Plenty of Slack WSJ Economics
Why a Boring Jobs Report Is Great News for the Fed New York Times
Class Warfare
Why Putting a Number to C.E.O. Pay Might Bring Change Gretchen Morgenson, New York Times
Uber operating at big losses, suggests document leak BBC. Asserting that you will someday make money is not the same as making money.
Vice Media Staff Latest to Choose Unionizing New York Times
Ex-Santander billionaire and Spain in tussle over Picasso painting Financial Times
Capitalists, Arise: We Need to Deal With Income Inequality New York Times
Showing Corruption the Red Card Corruption Now and Then. From June, and takes a long view of corruption in England, so very much germane.
Antidote du jour. Stephen L, from the Alberta Wildlife Facebook page:
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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Please forgive me, but I have a weakness for puns. (I have always been of two minds about them.)
Below tomorrows antidote picture you really should put: “See yesterday’s Lynx and Antidote du Jour here.”
Ha,ha,ha,ha,ha!! My grandfather LOVED puns. He had a special soft spot for bad or corny ones (not that the above is a bad one) . When he was in his late nineties and his memory was challenged, you could still communicate with him through puns.
My Dad raised me on taped copies of the Goon Show. Then I returned the favour and played my Firesign Theatre records for him. (One of the Firesign Theatre performers apprenticed under Spike Milligan no less!)
Bad puns are the very definition of “camp.”
My parents thought I couldn’t find the copies of ‘Screw Magazine’ in the ‘secret’ hiding place. I hope Mom isn’t reading this because I newer let on that I had them sussed. (That’s why I never kept anything of a seriously ‘bent’ nature around the house when our children were little. Nothing can be hidden from kids, nothing.)
Re Corbyn, Sanders (social democratic populist)
The similarities of arguments used by reactionary and neoliberal leaders against threats from left leaning populists are strikingly the same. They rely on fear by the base of losing in the general.
At the core, the strategy relies on either a misunderstanding of history versus where we are now or out right erroneous thinking by base voters of more recent history.
My view:
It is true that from the 70s until the 90s social democractic ideas were losing to neoliberalism. However , I would argue Neoliberals have been in control since the late 90s and that loses in supposed left leaning parties have arisen due to neoliberal failures since these parties Ike Labour the Democrats are fully run by Neoliberals
We have a kind of triangulation with the bases of left leaning parties in which recent loses that are attributable to neoliberalusm are blamed on earlier loses that were not. It’s a confusion that only works because voters are not disciplined enough to over come the conflation or are too afraid of the 70-90 period to understand that it is no longer the case in the late 90-2015 period.
Right now people believe in social democratic ideas but vote neoliberal bc they fear that social democratic ideas will lose at the ballot box. They lose and rather than blaming it on faked neoliberal triangulation they blame it on social democratic ideas. They create a self reinforcing cycle.
What scares neoiberals is that this only works so long as social democratic populism does not come into power and does not succeed.
Once that happens – if a sanders win or a corbyn – and if they govern as such – the neoiberals in the left leaning parties will lose their ability to terrorize the base into submission.
Would Clinton have a snow ball’s chance in hell if the base realized that social democrats can win in the general?
I don’t think she would. Part of its that the base is in denial about who she is but that denial exists due fears and name recognition
The neoliberals brought us the Party About Nothing strategy, which worked so well for the Democrats in 2002, 2010 and 2014. Hillary is planning a replay in 2016.
2000, 2004, and even 2012. Even with Presidential turnout and demographic, Team Blue didn’t do much besides hold on to seats and the White House against Mittens. The waiter who took the 47% video did more for turnout than the DNC. Of course, Bill led the Democrats from the most diverse Congress to Newt. The only reason I can imagine why Democratic cheerleaders tolerate their elites is they have internalized the narrative of Democrats as dopey losers. Winning is frightening to them.
Sanders Trumps Hillarys Bush.
Excellent analysis. (And apologies for not placing my own comment on this article beneath yours.) Once there is a genuine breakthrough by a legitimate Leftist government the neoliberal dam may well break. The plutocrats know they are swimming against the tide of history. This, IMHO, explains why Greece’s Syria was humiliated and crushed.
I’m pretty sure that most Americans could not define “neoliberal” even if they have heard the term.
Probably true but beside the point. People know something is gravely wrong, that the system is breaking down because it has been hijacked by the rich. The word “neoliberalism” will likely gain currency as the pain continues and people move from symptomology to diagnosis. Or maybe some other term will supplant neoliberalism, something like oligarchy or corporatism or even fascism. Or the analysis will remain inchoate and only the pain and anger will persist and grow. History will move forward even if those in the midst of the wave don’t recognize it.
Cautionary Alert.
The reuters link about Katrina wanted to place an app on my computer. I don’t know if it is friendly or not.
Britain is still an ally.
Personally I have to say: I much prefer Trump’s in your face crass stupidity to the slick venality of the rest of the candidates. I think that must be why Trump is so popular. People know that he’s awful, but at least he’s honest about being awful, a quality which offers a compelling genuineness completely lacking in every other candidate. It inspires a kind of admiration in a way.
disinviting Trump from Atl. redstate gathering will only multiply Trump’s numbers:
In 2010 the blog banned new contributors who were posting in support of Ron Paul. The announcement on the blog read, “Effective immediately, new users may *not* shill for Ron Paul in any way shape, form or fashion.”[13]
In 2011, one member suggested that conservatives ‘infiltrate’ liberal blogs by pretending to be progressives to ‘hurt the democratic party.'[14]
In June 2011, Politico reported that an account executive from Eagle Publishing sent an email advertising a “RedState Endorsement Program Featuring Erick Erickson”, including “Erick’s Video Endorsement (subject to final approval by Erick)”.[15] Erickson said that neither he “nor his boss at Eagle” had seen the email before it went out and that “[his] endorsements are not for sale”.[16]
rumor has it…Palin is traveling on her knees for a Trump meetup. i know plenty who will throw their vote away on these two…anything to expose and crash the global circus circus. (scary! this ain’t NO DISCO)
I have to smile whenever I see establishment types being discombobulated to the point of ignoring outsider threats. I was reading Huffington Post the day after the Republican Debate and noticed much to my amusement that the name “Trump” was almost completely absent from the site. I chuckled a bit when I realized that they must truly fear him.
What they don’t understand: the more the (Democratic and Republican) establishment circles the wagons to keep Trump out, the more popular he becomes with the people. I can’t keep from giggling when I think of the unintended conundrum that the establishment’s venality has led them to. With luck, the demagogue we finally elect (possibly Trump?) will have enough gumption and sense to guillotine the establishment vipers when he comes to power before he turns on the people.
Silver Cloud Alert
I just watched the recorded live debate. It became obvious that the FOX/R party is deathly afraid that Trump will end up running as an independent (w/ or w/o Palin – tho Trump/Palin beats Hillary’s Bush sounds too fun to pass up) – not winning of course, but splitting the R vote, ensuring a win for whomever the Ds end up running.
Which – Holy Happy Crap! – doesn’t have to be Hillary!
Yep, there is a direct path to the Oval Office for Bernie if Trump goes independent. Once that happens and it becomes clear that the Democratic nominee will be the next President, all the ‘lesser of two evils’ and ‘there is no alternative’ arguments put forth to protect Hillary and the right wing corporate party status quo from being accountable crumble into dust. Even the corporate Dembot clincher line, “but… but, the Supreme Court!!!” loses any power to persuade.
Bernie’s decision to run as a Democrat may be a stroke of pure genius rather than the nefarious plot to veal pen the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party into supporting Hillary some here said it would inevitably turn out to be. The pieces are kind of falling into place before our very eyes–so far.
Paraphrasing here, but Bernie said that he wouldn’t run as an independent so as not to ruin Hillary’s chances if he didn’t get the Democratic nomination.
As if Hillary would be one bit better than Bush III.
Failed the litmus test. Sadly, I’ll never support Bernie either now.
Bernie has to beat Hillary for the Democratic nomination.
If a politician said that he loved W. Bush and would never do anything that might cost Bush the election–that politician is in exactly the same place as W. Bush is.
And I see Hillary as almost exactly like W. Bush, except more venal and less honest. Bernie’s lack of guts and/or inability to accurately perceive Hillary means that he’s not fit in my book regardless of the practicalities.
This is a hypothetical, of course, because no one at NC, or in the commentariat is endorsing anyone (per NC policy), but
Bernie beats Hillary for the Democratic nomination, then says publically he never really liked Hillary, goes on to beat the Trump/Palin ticket by one electoral college vote, is sworn in as Prez, then does a “Nixon Goes to China” thing and tells Israel that Israel and their 200 nuclear bombs will have to fend for themselves in the Middle East, then tells the Oil Sheiks they will have to fight ISIS, then cancels the F-35 because it doesn’t work, then cuts defense spending because the US has a zillion nuclear bombs and anyone would be nuts to invade America… and then the Inauguration Day Speech would be over and we all could get back to whatever it was we were doing.
That’s not me endorsing any real person. Just my imagination running wild.
great post today Craazyboy! i like the idea of this one, best. (maybe throw in there somewhere about bankers pay & bonuses funding pensions & social security…yeah, great start)
Imagination does not become great until human beings, given the courage and the strength, use it to create.
Maria Montessori
Well, I haven’t endorsed anyone. However I will certainly vote for whoever I think can send the American empire down the drain the fastest. Just because I think that anyone who could pull a Constantine and temporarily resurrect the empire for another decade or two is neither likely nor desirable. Trump looks to be in the running there.
I still worry about Mad Max and Warlords circling my place for another 20 years. Canned goods go bad after 2 years.
I know it’s not NC etiquette but, I can firmly endorse the Lincoln Johnson ticket. That’s a Republican line up we can all support. (Poor Barry. He doesn’t even measure up to Whig standards.)
You forgot prosecution of criminals (as long as statute of limitations has not passed)!
He has to play politics, this is a must. Till the day that he actually endorses Hillary and says to vote for her (or the equivalent), that will be the day that I will completely give up on him. Until then, he is the only real option out there, and you should be thankful that he is working his hand intelligently and insightfully enough to avoid the many traps that are laid out for him in regards to making it about personal attacks instead of the actual issues. Don’t be so naive. If he played it the way you want him too he would’ve been sunk a long time ago.
Bernie, if he’s smart, will sit back and let Hillary defeat herself and then move into the power vacuum.
http://www.vox.com/2015/8/8/9120783/erick-erickson-donald-trump-sexism
The hypocrisy of the organization (redstate) is hard to bear and transparently done only to support the republican party and FOX – actual principals are only used when they can advance one’s own agenda.
Mencken said (more or less): Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.
I would amend that to say that the republican primary theory is that it can never actually acknowledge the dog whistles that mollify the base and can never, EVER have a primary candidate that actually clearly states what the republican “policies” are.
Trump coming along and exposing that the mainstream candidates are totally committed to not implementing such base (pun intended) policies as the “conservative” base wants is in my view exactly what the republicans deserve. They made that stew, now they can eat it.
My favorite Mencken quote:
The meaning of religious freedom, I fear, is sometimes greatly misapprehended. It is taken to be a sort of immunity, not merely from governmental control but also from public opinion. A dunderhead gets himself a long-tailed coat, rises behind the sacred desk, and emits such bilge as would gag a Hottentot. Is it to pass unchallenged? If so, then what we have is not religious freedom at all, but the most intolerable and outrageous variety of religious despotism. Any fool, once he is admitted to holy orders, becomes infallible. Any half-wit, by the simple device of ascribing his delusions to revelation, takes on an authority that is denied to all the rest of us. . . . What should be a civilized man’s attitude toward such superstitions? It seems to me that the only attitude possible to him is one of contempt. If he admits that they have any intellectual dignity whatever, he admits that he himself has none. If he pretends to a respect for those who believe in them, he pretends falsely, and sinks almost to their level. When he is challenged he must answer honestly, regardless of tender feelings.
Ooh. That Mencken quote is a keeper..
Trump is using the Berlusconi playbook, knowingly I’d bet, if not in consultation. Usually it filters (oozes) the other way, USA -> rest of world, so it’s good to see Italy at the forefront here. Both men experienced the huge success of simple, stupid, low-brow reality shows, Berlusconi translated it into a political tactic before anyone, at least in it’s current paradigm, as certainly there’s nothing new about pandering to the rabble. It figures media moguls would tap into the current hyper media zeitgeist, and they have the power to work the dialogue. Berlusconi may be gross but no fool or lackey, it’s all part of a well crafted Brand, including the Buffoon which supporters see as a common touch. The exquisite thing about the modern reality show campaign/administration is that you get to keep your vices and actually leverage them. No need to hide your underage prostitutes (or worse not have any) when you can make them part of the Grand Show. This weeks episode is “Virility. Got caught buying a parliamentarian with 1 mil euros in a paper bag? This weeks episode is “Cunning”.
Whatever scandal comes up you integrate it into the show, the accusations, investigations, trials, work them all into the spectacle. You undermine inquiry as you incorporate it into a shallow, banal and long running show. Makes you practically bulletproof, especially if you actually own a media empire or know how to play the media like a fiddle. This is why Trump is unrepentant and relentless with the crassness – yes, it’s his ugly personality, but he’s leveraging his ugly personality – that’s the reality show tactic. I guarantee when it benefits him he well knows how to act charming and polite.
Italy and USA, different countries, different dynamics. We’ll have to see how well Trump localizes the Berlusconi primer. I don’t think he’ll get much mileage this time around, but he may keep trying. Think back, who the hell would have thought Ronnie Ray-Guns would have ever made it after his first run?
BTW the Republican love Trump he benefits the GOP. No one wants to eat in one of those huge pop restaurants with 100 tables and only three occupied. He’s packing the place in, people walking by are going in even if the food stinks. When you’re a party of hapless rich dorks you grab all the buzz you can.
I like the Berlusconi comparison.
That is a very interesting analysis – I think your really on to something…
My thinking was similar, but you took a slightly different approach with the Berlusconi angle. My belief is that Trump entered the race as a publicity stunt/self aggrandizement strategy never expecting to actually get anywhere with it. Thus he was (and quite apparently still is) completely committed to acting as crass and offensive as possible in order to garner media attention.
And then he won. And kept winning. I am convinced that he is utterly astonished at the positive reception he’s gotten. Like serendipity, he accidentally discovered the winning formula for politics in America, and now he’s playing it for all it’s worth. Hell, he might actually win this thing. And if he doesn’t… well hehe. The next time around the “Trump” strategy will be even more practiced and refined for the next demagogue to give it a try. Politics may never be the same again!
Trump loves being the center of attention. That’s pretty much all there is to it.
Berlusconi with his Mediaset empire is more like Trump, Ailes and Murdoch rolled into one though. From an American perspective, it’s hard to even conceive of how powerful Silvio was within Italy. All stuffed into a tiny, shiny, little suit. I was in Tuscany when he lost the election to Romano Prodi and it was *huge*. Of course he was back in the throne at most a couple of years later. Where the comparison with Trump holds is they are both rich men (Silvio surely far, far more so than Trump and in a much smaller pond too) with unapologetically bufoonish public personae. Both project a “what’s the point of getting filthy rich, if I can’t then do and say whatever the hell I want?” candor that can sound refreshing contrasted with the usual hackneyed mush that is the stock in trade of conventional politicians. Berlusconi also combines his self assured directness and mischievous humor with beautiful, serene diction–he was the first native speaking Italian I could understand almost every word of when he was speaking. He could be evasive, but he would always be direct about it, obfuscation is not his thing.
You’re right. The fact that “Trump’s in your face crass stupidity” appeals to a majority of the R base and many in the left is instructive. But I wonder, is it his refreshing honesty or really his degenerate worldview? How is it that a proudly obnoxious chauvinist, militarist, racist robber baron inspires such admiration — and worse, is applauded when, among other regressive policies, he trumpets the virtue of profiteering thru serial bankruptcy — an option available ONLY to concentrated capital and no other Americans? The capacity to contain such stark, mind-blowing dissonance in one’s brain is a testament to the phenomenal emotive power of propaganda and/or an indictment of American moral character. Maybe they’re just cheering an intra-class conflict (Hillary surely is). So Democracy Theater has now moved into the Roman coliseum, a circus spectacle/asylum of end-stage imperialism that is both fascinating and repelling.
It’s because Americans know that the Captains of Industry deserve some slack in accomplishing their goals, because it’s a difficult job, and in the end, they do furnish the goods and services that society as a whole desperately needs. So it is more than just creating thousands of card dealer, roulette wheel operator, bartender, waitress, maid and janitorial jobs.
You’re tantalizingly close to catching the
gaswind that fills that clown’s sails. Americans love it lewd and crude right now, even more than usual and that’s saying a lot. Still, I would hesitate to say a majority. A frustrated minority hungry to see someone’s blood other than their own would be more than sufficient and I suspect is closer to fact.Thank you. That’s a succinct description of much that is disturbing about Trump.
I think Trump’s message is pretty simple:
America is all f*cked up, and it is the fault of the leaders of this country (irrespective of being a democrat or a REPUBLICAN).
Trump’s criticism of the republican establishment is his most salient characteristic and what I believe makes him most popular in the party.
I’ve said it for a while – a good portion of the republican base is angry about their economic condition, and have been….oh, for 40 years. They are not interested in the middle east or spending more time and effort taking care of Israel than the US. They may be wrong in discerning the causes, but slowly I think they’re beginning to understand the establishment party platform is not to their benefit, and that having a flag pin on your lapel doesn’t mean anything.
As Mr. Sperry pointed out at 5:22pm, there comes a point where Trump becomes important not for advancing himself, but destroying the two party oligopoly and advancing a ?4th? party candidate…
Well, yeah, but who are the leaders of this country? The billionaires and hecto-millionaires.
That’s an understatement! The cluelessness of many in the republican base is astonishing.
I hope so. But many before him have tried: Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, Henry Wallace in 1948, George Wallace (no relation) in 1968, John Anderson in 1980, Ross Perot in 1992. Also Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas many times in the 20th Century. Unless Sanders (or someone very similar to him) is the Democratic candidate, I will vote third party, but we’re going to need more than a Presidential candidate to break the oligopoly. People need to support third party candidates at all levels of government.
`Wearable Technology Creeps Into The Workplace’. Best line:
The large organization I work for, which self-insures on health care, doesn’t use Fitbits but is constantly bombarding employees with offers for a `biometric screening’. They’ll even give you a gift card worth $100 at a health club! Screening or not screening hasn’t yet been linked to differentiated health insurance premiums, but that’s undoubtedly only a matter of time.
Showing the value of a good hug, especially for an orphaned wallaby.
https://twitter.com/Tim_Beshara/status/628681395213209600
Yikes. The Swat Team Recruitment video is disturbing.
“Defeat the enemy. Anyway you can.”
`Donald Trump’s war on Megyn Kelly’. Trump has now been disinvited from Erick Erickson’s
kissing-the-ring ceremonyRedState Gathering, but it’s certainly not because of Trumps misogynistic comments. Here’s Erickson from a column chewing Carly Fiorina out back in 2012 over the Sandra Fluke – Rush Limbaugh dustup:The real issue is that the GOP is terrified of Trump and will use any means necessary to stop him.
Sort of like the DNC and
CorbynSanders.Going after Redstate’s misogyny and hypocrisy is a target rich environment as they say.
As when you accuse “republican” supreme court justices of being goat f*ckers and child molesters, and bearing in mind that and an encyclopedia worth of material can be found on the internet – well, I think it will actually turn out to benefit Trump.
And one other thing about Erikson – he is the one who goes on about being a Christian.
And as I’ve said, FOX has two of the most misogynistic employees on TV in O’Reilly and Hannity – so pious proclamations from FOX’s star blonde about this being a noteworthy issue falls a little short.
Why Jeremy Corbyn Scares the Right
An interesting analysis. It seems that, in various places, the Left is lurching forward only to recede, then move forward again, like the tide coming in. On a neutral historical tableaux the Left would already be in power around the Western world, with ideas from the Left replacing the calamitous Rightwing policies that are ruining the world. Consider this: most Americans thought — — very erroneously it turned out — that this is what we were doing when we elected Obama. But that popular “error” demonstrates that history is not developing unimpeded. Instead, normal historical development is being retarded by those clinging to power under the existing neoliberal regime. Obama himself was a ruse, a changeling that the plutocrats falsely presented as the alternative to the neoliberal policies embodied by Hillary Clinton, and squarely rejected by the American people (which is happening yet again right now). Syria collapsed under intense international pressure. The plutocrats are not passively allowing the historical tide to shift, they are building bulwarks to prevent it from doing so. So far the plutocrats have largely succeeded in stalling history but the tide continues to build and eventually the bulwark will be breached.
I meant to say Syriza rather than Syria.
Syria works too, as a proxy for Russia…same Great Game geopolitics.
The entire economy needs to be re-ordered to prevent suffering on a mass scale, but the powers that be object to this. People have begun to notice that their lives are much worse and they are mildly objecting. The tide is turning, and once it has turned, there is no turning it back.
Re: Uber losing money
Are we entirely sure those aren’t just accounting losses for tax purposes? Kind of like how Starbucks in the UK has somehow managed to lose money every year, despite being highly successful.
I’ve heard something similar about Amazon. Only a few quarters of official profitability, and yet they seem to be doing rather well…so one has to wonder if they’re not just hiding the cash off-shore or something along those lines. Thoughts?
Peter Thiel addressed this subject in no uncertain terms in his CS183 class at Stanford:
When creditors start pestering you about earnings, reply ‘Dude, that is so Old Economy.‘
Cabbies aren’t rich for a reason. The whole premise of Uber works when you don’t account for gas prices, insurance, background checks, legal issues, maintenance, and so forth. My guess is they can’t keep drivers who are running their cars into the ground. I’m sure plenty of former Uber drivers can make under the table arrangements if they are essentially car pooling. Why pay Uber if its an everyday arrangement. I know technology is always trendy, but let’s be honest, the NAACP organized an alternative to the bus system in 1955 Birmingham without cell phones or computers.
And I believe Amazon stays afloat because investors pour money in under the assumption they will drive brick and mortars out of business and can jack up the price.
Re Wearable workplace technology, this from the corporate education deformers:
No Nonsense Nurturing Training, in which the unfortunate teacher must wear a earpiece in order to receive real-time “coaching” from “experts.”
*I Am Not Tom Brady*
At first I thought that was a parody. Hard to believe it’s true.
At a community college where I used to teach, a proposal has been circulating requiring all teachers to remain standing during class. More nonsense.
The people selling that technologyvare sick puppies. Thanks for the link,
Michael Brown update
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/michael-brown-plaque-replace-makeshift-ferguson-memorial-article-1.2230123
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/08/cops-make-disgusting-online-memorial-mocking-death-of-fergusons-michael-brown/
Brazen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6syWpcBiQc
policeman sings “dead, dead michael brown”
Thugs
When I was in Montgomery Maryland, the local police had their own “chatroom” or equivalent. It pretty much revealed that they were racist (and in my view unfit for their jobs – no way you could argue that they were objective, dispassionate enforcers of the law). Very simply, the police union had the power to prevent laws about proper law enforcement conduct from being enforced.
Oh, and regarding Trump being left out of the ‘debates’… Hitler ran ads in Weimar Germany to the effect of “Millions of Germans, and only one man may not speak” after he was legally forbidden from speaking at public events.
See also CNN’s stories…
“Some private oil companies must die” (corporations are people, right) namely “some independent operators”
while a dead soldier in Afghanistan (where we withdrew in 2014, right?) is ‘lost.’
Re:Capitalists Arise NYT Op-ed.
This guy calls Ken Langone his good friend. Ken Langone is quoted in Politico as saying
attention on inequality led to Hitler’s rise and he hopes the populist attention on it goes away. So is this Op-ed simply a brazen attempt to get more taxpayer money for free?
Sheesh.
More likely an attempt to keep it out of the hands of those who might use it to detrone Langone (who is still not wearing cement loafers).
Quoting from a letter to the State Department from D.C. law firm Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison, representing Hillary aide Cheryl Mills (Exhibit A in linked document):
Beyond UFB: this isn’t merely obstruction of justice … it’s conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice, next Monday.
Book ’em, Dan-o.
Re: “Capitalists Arise” Georgescu op-ed has a fantastic punch line:
“There is a way to start. Government can provide tax incentives to business to pay more to employees making $80,000 or less. The program would exist for three to five years and then be evaluated for effectiveness.”
So the way the filthy rich want to address inequality is via tax breaks – for them. Shocking.
Logical extension of “externalizing costs”. Soon the consumer will be able to pick up their food stamps and paycheck at the same place. Maybe at the Post Office. Take the bus there during lunch break.
For the last 40 years at least, the “filthy rich” have been very good at seeing to it that anything that benefits some non-wealthy is paid for by some other non-wealthy. Why should they change now?
The comment about Trump bullying women is so true, and it gives one yet another reason to loath him. That being said, the GOP establishment is out of its mind if it thinks it can bully Trump into submission. He’s simply going to project his backlash onto the other candidates — whom he is significantly stronger than in every way — and in turn make them look weak. (Next to Trump they all look weak, which is why the GOP doesn’t want him standing beside them). Good for America I guess.
i don’t see Trump going the distance…he’s already stepping on his remarks from just a week ago. Fletcher he’s NOT
Proof
I was getting a haircut today and the barber shop — a 1-man hole in the wall with two stools and a sink, about 8 feet wide and 25 feet long off 49th in New Yawk, the kind of place a discerning man get his hair cut by a real barber — not a foo-foo girly man salon with gay guys cutting hair — this dude is a hefty guy from Khazakstan with a belly and sad round face that smiles when he sees you — with a TV up on the wall like at a bar. So while he cut, using scissors of course and no girly man blow dry, the thing — The TV — was turned on. And I said to him “You know I’ve haven’t had a TV for 4 years and I don’t miss it”. On the TV They were breathlessly analyzing Trump’s use of the blood coming out of her wherever line.
I actually thought. “Jesus. What a bunch of nothing”. First of all, bleeding from your eyes? That’s a weird image. Weird. Very “surreal”. It remnds me of that famous scene in bunel’s Los Olvidados where the eyeball get cut with a razor. Then he said, Trump that is, he said “or wherever”.
Evidently everybody thought he was referring to the female anatomy and the reproductive cycle, in some insidious verbal fillip that conveys an undistinguished overtone of “slapping a b-tch around”. So I thought to myself “They thought What?” He’s not that clever. This is Donald Trump. He probably just meant “whatever” cause that’s the only word he could think of, lacking any more precise mental image or verbal dexterity, in particular. I sounded to me like a space filler.
then I thought “So, with all the problems in the world, in America, all the economic issues, all the global relations issues, all the “political issues”. THIS IS WHAT THEY TALK ABOUT???!!!!!!
I mean really. They went on, on that barbershop TV for 15 minutes. One idiot after the other, talking into the camera, with studied controlled rhetoric slanting in diagonal thrusts and parries for maximum personal advantage or, if not that, to effect a pristine and manicured political correctness that could not be faulted even by a zealot.
I told the barber. “See. This is why I don’t have a TV.”
QED
So I did a first for me and actually watched a FOX show, the Kelly show.
Now what is interesting about that is the very first thing out of her mouth, and a paragraphs worth of explaining, was that the debate was the highest rated debate EVER, and the highest rated cable news show EVER.
Not that Trump would not commit to not running as an independent – the real headline news had to wait until the important point of FOX’s rating dominance was announced.
Now I have read this before about FOX – Fox is pretty upfront that they are really a money making organization. I really think Murdoch, if he had thought liberals were underserved, and he could make money off them, would have started MSNBC (and I’m sure it would be much higher rated. I’m sure he would pull a stunt with topless women broadcasting under the guise of women having to wear tops when men don’t is sexist or something). Conservatism, right wing, old white people – whatever you want to call it, is to Fox what the NFL is to ESPN. ESPN broadcasts to make a ton of money – not because they think sports build character, or is good for society, or whatever – same with Fox.
Except that I’m pretty sure Murdoch and Ailes are trying to control society, in Their image.
Perfectly put. And on the matter of Trump being booted for “sexism”, FOX trades on sexism and PC-trolling all the time — because that’s what its viewers want — so the hypocrisy here is just outrageous. Enjoy this clip, with attention to Hannity whose badly concealed delight shows his tacit support for McInnes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxhetuWlFpY
wow. I can’t believe my posted comment went to “Moderation”.
that’s incredible! there were no foul words in the whole comment, except one reference to pugilism of a certain nature. Is there an instant chat help line who can fix this and get it posted. If anyone on the Weekend Crew can drop what they’re doing, no mater what it is, and fish it out and post it, the world would thank you.
It was brilliant, a genius level contribution. Even for me! I’m just being honest. No BS about nonsense this time. It was a thoughtful analysis that would certainly be of interest to students of reality.
anybody ever read that paper by the German mathematician Riemann on Manifolds from the 1850s? It’s incredible. It’s all words. All words! There’s not one equation. Not one. Well, maybe a couple easy ones. But just for reference. The main ideas, they were all words! Wow. Can they do that? I guess they can.
It was like that. That was how good my comment was. it was about Donald Trump and the reference to blood. How could something like that be as good as Riemann’s 1850s paper on Manifolds?
I guess the world won’t ever know. Unless somebody on the weekend desk hops to it. Now!
faaaak you guys are awesome. It was posted even before I finished complaining!
That’s an A+.
Actually, that was even faster than Chinese food delivery. Jesus. My head is still spinning at how fast that was.
how can anybody live in the “Land of the Barbarians”, which I construe to be anywhere outside New York. People are slow there. But not in New Yawk. the city so nice they named it twice. Sorry to all you peanut gallery barbarians but that’s just the way it is. I’m just being honest.
The Devoureror has been closing in on me too craazyman. A couple days ago it started eating my comments which included only a single link – to FRED no less. I’ve never posted a link to a porn site – not wishing to antagonize the beast, of course.
Then today I’ve had 2 comments eaten – short ones with no link that a 10 year old could read and not learn anything new.
If this persists, in the interest of keeping the Moderator workflow down, I may have to concede that The Devoureror has eaten my handle and craazyboy is dead.
But election season is warming up and I’m getting reminded that America is a religious country. Doesn’t matter what kind – it can be anything people say it is! ( see R debate – they are all modern day Templars and want to be Prez. Except Rand Paul of course. But he’s crazy or stupid.)
That got me thinking Wiccan. You can believe in ghosts if you’re Wiccan – and not be persecuted, if you’re quiet and clever about it. So my handle could come back as craazyboy’s_ghost ! That could work.
Might have to try that soon.
Edit: That went thru on the first try. craazyboy may still live.
Alright you two; get a salon!
I have comments eaten by the Zero Point Monster all of the time. Do I b—- and moan? No. There is a real point to slowing down guys; and it’s not on top of my head either!
You could try Banquosghost as a sockie. That would resonate on the ethereal plane too!
Bernie Sanders to speak at (Jerry Falwell’s) Liberty University
http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/08/05/bernie-sanders-to-visit-liberty-university-a-rare-venue-for-a-democratic-campaign/?_r=0
Wow! Into the lion’s den…
The attack on Bernie is he’s outside the establishment who has no knowledge of people outside his hippie communes. The gesture is important. It also puts pressure on Hillary to leave her comfort zone which she is loath to do. Can you imagine Bernie calmly defending the right to choose while Hillary wants an explanation from Planned Parenthood over the hit job.
I’m fairly confident Larry Flynt has spoken at the same event. I doubt they will rude. Bernie is a guest.
The Liberty perspective is interesting. The old man is dead, and neither son has his force of personality. They both strike me as more responsible, but the old man grew his legacy through his personality and personal connections. For the boys to not ruin everything and move the school from a place that needs stunts and in fluxes of cash to a real university (it probably won’t go anywhere if the boys disappeared), they need to be more responsible and less partisan.
RE: Bernie’s tweet.
Bernie’s tweet was about issues republicans ignored. Hillary’s :
“”Watch the #GOPdebate?” @HillaryClinton asked her followers. “Bet you feel like donating to a Democrat right about now.””
About the money.
My wife sent back the latest begging letter from the DNCC with the comment: “I’d love to contribute, if there were a real Democratic Party left to support.”
That’s exactly what I noticed as well. A very concise illustration of the difference between the two candidates and their supporters.
From the beginning of this conflict Saker has been mocking of the very idea of Ukrainian nationalism (his stance seems to be that they’re basically Russians). Now he references and, links to, a thesis that modern Ukraine is an artificial attempt to merge multiple other groups, and is thus a fake nation. Okay, fair enough, but I’ve also seen him state, presumably in all seriousness, that there is no such thing as Russian nationalism, because Russia is made up of scores of different ethnic groups. But his referencing the casting out of the Cossacks tells me he is well aware of how the Soviet Union treated ‘minorities’. The Cossacks were just an extreme example; Stalin claimed to disregard the very notion of ethnic or cultural divisions, while pushing what was essentially a form of Russian chauvinism (even being embarrassed by his own Georgian origins). Saker also seems to have at least a grudging approval of Putins actions during the Second Chechen War, on the grounds that it needed to be done to prevent the splintering of Russia via a domino effect. So he’s basically acknowledging that Russia itself is made up of many groups that don’t necessarily want to be considered Russian.
I must confess I’ve basically given up on trying to figure this guy out. One thing that’s recently struck me, while reading Antony Beevor’s The Battle for Spain, is that whenever Saker is ranting about Freemasons and ‘AngloZionists’, which is often, or talking about the need to return to religious traditionalism and family values, he sounds exactly like a Franco supporter. I’m saying the supposed arch-anti-fascist seems to have a lot of fascist characteristics. I wonder if he has any real objection to fascism in and of itself, or if he just claims to hate it because it was fascists who invaded Russia. The actual aspects that make fascism fascism he seems to have much less of a problem with.
I read that so called “Black Lives Matter” “activists” have disrupted another Sanders appearance, this time in Seattle. If it happens again, I will be convinced that these are ‘false flag’ attacks to try and disrupt both Sanders and the #Blacklivesmatter movements. I wouldn’t put it past the Reactionary Clique to be so underhanded.
These putative “BLM” protests almost have to be false flag attacks or some form of political dirty trick, given they’ve exclusively gone after Sanders who has an unambiguously better civil rights record than *any* of the other candidates. The only other possibility I see is that the protestors don’t know anything at all about politics or indeed what they are even doing. If they go after Hillary and the Republicans equally it might be organic, but if they continue to focus on Sanders exclusively it’s obvious they are operatives of the DNC or some other right wing group–or just being used as useful idiots by them. The whole thing just makes no sense any other way. Local BLM leaders in Seattle have already disavowed any connection with the protests, it’d be interesting to find out who the “protestors” actually are and who is directing and/or funding them.
As I read it, the original Ferguson protests were organic and spontaneous, and they were really focused and original, tactically. IIRC, there was a wave of “die-ins,” and then a lull. After the lull, somewhere in the last few months, the media focus shifted from “on the ground” to “on the twitter”, and now we get these odd disruptions of Democrats without any real power, and no disruptions of Democrats with power, let alone Republicans. So one can only wonder why that would be, and the classic answer would be that the Democrats creamed off some leaders, as they always do. Next they’ll be setting up their own Port-o-Sans, like Sharpton.
Got a link on the local BLM leaders?
NOTE This shouldn’t be construed as a comment on an immense amount of really interesting and valuable and necessary #BlackLivesMatter work and thought still being carried on, organically, locally and at street level.