Riley’s Testicle Festival: A nutty Syracuse tradition for more than 20 years Syracuse (bob)
But we also have this…..Rogue cow captured: Cowboys corral 1,500 pound cow in New Hartford after months on the run Syracuse (bob). I was hoping the cow would hold out until it got a bit colder….
Is Money Corrupting Research? New York Times. We need to ask?
Twitter Expected to Begin Layoffs and Stop Headquarters Expansion New York Times. One of the winners will be San Francisco residents near its HQ, which I am told is in a former working class neighborhood. As soon as Twitter moved in, Twitterati began renting apartments nearby as crash pads, in addition to housing they had elsewhere. I heard a bitter complaint re the rent increases that resulted in the ‘hood.
Could A Mushroom Save The Honeybee? NPR (David L)
Greening of business Economist
The FDA has approved the first drug made by a 3D printer Quartz
Should We Bank Our Own Stool? New York Times
Tunisia Celebrates Its Big Norwegian Triumph Foreign Policy
Nobel Peace Prize boosts struggling Tunisian democracy Associated Press (furzy mouse)
Nobel Peace Prize Celebrating Tunisian Democracy Could Be Premature Intercept
China?
U.S. Ramps Up Maritime Aid As China Island-Building Tensions Rise WSJ China Real Time
China’s Monetary-Policy Choice Project Syndicate
Grexit?
Greece’s lenders have time: Dijsselbloem “sees” Debt serving problems after 15 years Keep Talking Greece
Refugee Crisis
German county declares refugee emergency Associated Press (furzy mouse)
Islands see surge in refugee arrivals ekathimerini
Global tax deal targets multinationals Financial Times
Ukraine/Russia
Russian maker of missile that destroyed MH17 to explain disaster Agence France-Presse. Lambert: “Headline takes a little for granted….”
Three main reasons for which NATO is not attacking Russia right now failed evolution. I doubt we’d attack, but there was the potential for more provocative moves, ilke the 5,000 tanks we sent to Latvia.
Syraqistan
U.S. Acknowledges Reality and Scraps Failed Syria Training Program Foreign Policy (furzy mouse)
One Man’s Mission: Justice for Iraq Truthout
Russia’s Aim in Syria Is to Strategically Defeat ISIS and Al Qaeda World Post (margarita)
Obama’s Options Narrow in Syria Wall Street Journal. Consistent with today’s John Helmer post.
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Amazon Wants to Know How Its Employees Feel Every Day Bloomberg
Victory in California! Gov. Brown Signs CalECPA, Requiring Police to Get a Warrant Before Accessing Your Data Electronic Frontier Foundation (EM)
Trade Traitors
How the controversy over drug prices could take down Obama’s massive trade deal Washington Post
Leaked (final?) TPP Intellectual Property chapter spells doom for free speech online Boing Boing (Randy K)
India Lags Behind Other Nations in Lowering Trade Barriers Wall Street Journal. Look at the insinuationn. “Lag” = bad, when development economists increasingly acknowledge that protection of priority industries, as practiced by the US, England, and Japan during their expansion periods, is sound policy.
2016
The Return of the Middle American Radical National Journal. Important.
Cruz to Trump: You’ll Lose, and I’ll Take Your Voters Fiscal Times
Ben Carson’s far from the only conservative saying gun control caused the Holocaust Vox (furzy mouse)
Bernie Sanders is raising more money than every Republican candidate Yahoo (furzy mouse)
WATCH: Maddow Brutally Mocks GOP’s Speaker of the House Screw-Up Alternet. As much as this is fun, the Democrats may be getting ahead of themselves in the schadenfreude category. But if the Republicans really want to screw themselves up in the 2016 elections, having the ultras take over the House leadership would be the way to do it.
Rep. Paul Ryan on House speaker’s job: Thanks, but no thanks USA Today (furzy mouse)
Women’s health and economic development VoxEU. In stark contrast with the attack on Planned Parenthood.
Big Winner in House Disarray: Ex-Im Bank Bloomberg
Gunz
Obama Weighs White House Moves on Gun Control NBC. Looks like the worst sort of weak tea approach that would still outrage the gun enthusiasts. Look at the hostile show in the video.
What liberals don’t want to admit about gun control Washington Post. Who do you mean by “liberal”? I wrote the comment above before seeing this article. Furzy mouse: “Liability insurance and or lawsuits!! for gun owners….”
2 school shootings in a day is shocking. But there are 92 gun deaths on average each day. Vox
Black Injustice Tipping Point
South Carolina city to pay $6.5 million over police shooting of black man Reuters. EM: “Uh, no, that would be South Carolina city *taxpayers* who will pay the $6.5 million fine.”
Criminalizing Blackness: A Mississippi Community College’s School-to-Jail Pipeline Truthout
U.S. says CSX missed rail defect blamed for oil train derailment Reuters. EM: “Poor copy editing (‘verticle’), but the paltriness of the fines comes through loud and clear.”
The Liquidity Mirage Liberty Street Economics
High-frequency trading gives rise to ‘liquidity mirage’- N.Y. Fed Reuters
Great Graphic: WSJ Survey of Fed Expectations Marc Chandler
Grim Tidings from Larry Summers — And the Data EconoMonitor
High-End Property Slowdown in Maryland and Texas: Where Next? Michael Shedlock
Class Warfare
A Student Loan System Stacked Against the Borrower Gretchen Morgenson, New York Times. Abusive loan servicing yet again.
Antidote du jour:
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
129 comments
Comments are closed.
Correct link for the Greening of Business.
Thank you!
The Drums Of War…
Saw a cut from upcoming 60 Minutes interview with Obama. Steve croft was giving Obama flack for letting Putin disrepect him by bombing Syria. And on PBS Newshour last night, it was the same BS from the pundits. All hinting it’s time to stand up to Putin militarily.
Are these news guys a bunch of 8 year olds in the skoolyard? They all want us to dive head first into another war because of a perceived ‘slap’ by Putin.
If these are the best and brightest of the news people, it’s time to unplug the teevee.
Does no one get that both the US and Russia still have nukes? A direct confrontation between the two won’t just be another war, not even a really big one. It’ll almost certainly be The End, as both sides ‘rationally’ escalate.
I think the overriding principle of U.S. foreign policy has been this knowledge. As long as we pick our battles and scale appropriately, China and Russia won’t dare to react for fear of escalation. It’s only been after the no-fly zone in Libya was tossed in favor of direct regime change that China and Russia realized the U.S. was off the wagon completely. Even if Crimeans didn’t want to get our of the unconstitutional cabal in Kiev, Putin would have been forced to hold onto Crimea.
China and Russia let U.S. aggression spiral out of control and with it American attitudes, and it’s clear many of our politicians (Hillary and the GOP) think Vlad would cry if they had a chance to give him a thorough tongue lashing. The activities of Russia and China to build a multi-polar structure were always just blather until Libya. At that point, it became clear the U.S. was a real threat. At least with Iraq, they could rationalize our actions as the result of insanity.
…and how many nukes does that Israelite, Netanyahoo, have the launch codes for, stuffed in his corrupt hip pocket along with so much other stuff?
The last estimate I saw was that Israel has at least 400 warheads. I presume that’s counting the artillery-sized tactical ones, but still.
Unfortunately, Nuland and the crew from which she springs believe that the US can win a nuclear war with Russia. We are living with the fruits of Obama failing to change out the foreign policy operations he inherited from the Cheney adminidtration
I’m wondering if this failure is by design? If the President didn’t want his policies/administration to get kneecapped by the MIC, maybe he had to inherit and accept the structure in place. I’m not saying this as a fan of the administration, but as a realization that the President has to deal with power centers that he cannot wield a lot of control over.
…you can be sure that is and will continue to be one line of argument for the First Mostly Black President’s whitewashes… “He really really really wanted different outcomes, reeeeeeaally he did but They wouldn’t let Obama be Obama…”
Or it could be Obama didn’t work particularly hard as President instead embracing the scheme of letting the conservatives run rampant and letting his safe ethnicity and fun you name quell liberal criticism while he looked for the next opportunity for advancement.
Take the VA. Obviously, there were problems in 2008, so what does Obama do? He finds a general who is described as a “team player.” That’s corporate double talk for will look the other way and won’t rock the boat.
Nuland doesn’t need access to the White House or ambassadors. She could be assigned a job in Fairbanks, but Obama would have to be bothered to deal with an issue when it’s clear he didn’t want to. Holder’s excuse for not prosecuting financial crime is it was too hard while Obama was rounding up every illegal and drug user he could find until he broke the prison system because he was going to borrow from the Clinton play book and be tough on crime touting prosecution successes, completely ignoring Bill’s loss of Congress, lack of accomplishments, pretty sorry reelection effort, and a lack of a successor. It’s just easier to do what has already been done instead of thinking about how things might be different, could be better, or turned out.
Turning over the White House to Rahm Emmanuel? Really? These are choices by Obama, and with his commanding victory in 2008, everyone was lucky to be brought into his orbit.
Rahm Emmanuel—Obama’s real “anger translator” – “Liberals are f–king retarded”. I certainly buy the neocon choices on the domestic front to appeal the donors who would take care of him when his presidency ends. I just suspect that when a President is dealing with the Pentagon, with its ideologues and the multi-national corporate interests that it defends, it’s dealing with very powerful entrenched structural forces that will make life difficult for he or she if double crossed in policy/personnel, e.g., JFK.
Right, so do you mean JFK of the missile gap nonsense? Or of the red baiting McCarthy nonsense? Of the Bay of Pigs? Moving a division to Vietnam? That JFK? Of the Cuban embargo, an act of war by the way? Of hiring McNamara and much of that Domino Theory nonsense? That JFK?
This is sort of a wild idea, but is it possible our leaders just suck and we don’t hold them accountable instead preferring shadow figures to assure ourselves we couldn’t be wrong.
Ultimately if the shadow government runs everything, why bother not being a happy serf? It can’t be fixed.
Sure it can. The first step is admitting you have a problem: that you have become habituated (or, in particularly unfortunate cases, addicted) to the status of draft animal and subordinate, and that you need a Big Man to set you right.
Robert Parry discusses Obama’s staffing choices in his latest article: Obama’s Two-Timing Foreign Policy.
The Emperor really is not wearing even a tiny little stitch, and Putin is simply and effectively pointing that out in Syria.
Obomba and McCain’s famous moderates are al-Nusra…which is just another name for al-Qaeda. Wait, what? I thought al-Qaeda was the global existential threat to housewives in Lincoln, Nebraska and shopkeepers in Bangor, Maine? And you’re telling me these are the guys we’re arming and training?
(Oops turned out we spent $500M, trained five of them, who were then immediately carjacked and had their Humvee and arms confiscated by the latest super-super-bad guys).
So it’s child’s play for Putin to point out the bleeding obvious and poke holes in Obomba’s Syrian Bay of Pigs fiasco.
Worst_President_Ever and yes I’m counting Millard Fillmore and Andrew Johnson.
‘Are these news guys a bunch of 8 year olds in the skoolyard?’
They read the scripts they’re handed.
Six media conglomerates, one welfare-warfare state.
Do the maff …
“You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.” –Hearst
Good for circulation or, as we say nowdays, page views.
Russia’s move into Syria is a sign of weakness, not strength, President Obama tells 60 Minutes. As a kid I would at times get lippy with the big boy in school and would get a thrashing. I used to console myself and posture to my friends by saying that me getting slapped around was a sign of the big boy’s weakness and it was better to let him be than to stoop to his level.
Syria was Russia’s only ally in the region. And now there is Iran and Iraq, and an understanding with Egypt.
All part of the eleventy dimensional game of checkers, no doubt…
How many dimensions can mumbletypeg be played in?
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2011/06/07/mumbley-peg/
The poobahs of the MSM are alarmed that Obama is reducing their world historical significance. Obama is probably quite relieved that Russia is taking over the US role in the middle east. It will be interesting to see if any, as in any, of the Dem candidates follow Trump’s lead and allow that ISIS and the FSA are not our problem.
Turkey says they will fight the Islamic State… and bombs the Kurds (who are attacking the Islamic State).
Russia says they will fight the Islamic State… and bombs Al-Qaeda.
The problem with US power in Syria is that all our allies are supporting our enemies… and our rivals are attacking our enemies.
From Dara Cooper’s important piece, linked above:
Even white, affluent suburban kids are starting to see their schools run in outrageously authoritarian fashion. Both students and teachers are cowed into dull, bovine obedience– with no tolerance for any sort of critical thinking, or questioning of authority. Henry Giroux’s recent description of schools as “punishing factories” is pretty much spot on. “Another Brick in the Wall,” indeed.
Having made the reference, here’s the obligatory link to the Pink Floyd classic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR5ApYxkU-U
I went to 8th grade in two different towns in Massachusetts. The first was housed with the High School, which was on an open campus. If you didn’t have class, you could go wherever you liked on the grounds; the library, picnic tables, whatever. Seniors could leave the campus to go to lunch, go to work, or for no reason. We had a rotating 6-day school schedule, which we were responsible for keeping track of.
The second 8th grade was run by an ex-marine, complete with the short flat-top hair cut and gruff demeanor. He had a gruff lieutenant, too. They used to communicate via walkie-talkie. Every stinking day, we were walked to lunch in the cafeteria by these two, and hovered over as we ate. (Luckily it was the only real time we encountered them).
The difference was quite a shock.
These days, on Facebook®, people who attended 8th grade in the 2nd town gush about the ex-marine. He kept them safe. SMH.
These days everyone thinks the military is “cool” and we need to support our troops, no matter what, even when they bomb hospitals and weddings.
Most country’s that support the military as much as we do are full blown dictatorships.
Yes, even my son’s small relatively white arts-integration elementary-middle school now has an officer full-time there (they were fine for years without a cop, no crime problems). I asked the cop why and he recited safety blah blah blah gun violence in schools blah blah, even mentioning terrorism.
Another alarming aspect of this is that a whole generation of children are becoming habituated to police in their schools, that it’s the norm.
And then there’s all the messages that go along with it, ie that like the teachers, not an authority to question.
Worrisome, but works for those in power…
“ilke the 5,000 tanks we sent to Latvia”
I believe the number is 250 and that is spread out among the 3 Baltic countries plus some others.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/23/us-usa-europe-defense-idUSKBN0P315620150623
Another article (See:https://www.rt.com/news/196504-tanks-nato-latvia-deployed/) mentions the 1st Cavalry Division. This is the Air Mobile unit, helicopters, featured in the film “Apocalypse Now.” This must be a ‘tripwire’ deployment. Just over the border is the 4th Guards Tank Division, “Kantemirovskaya” with 310 (paper strength, who knows the reality,) T-80 tanks and 300 BMP-2 armoured personnel carriers. Also, remember that the Russians have had ‘live fire’ experience in Chechnya recently. Unless some Nimrod decides to “liberate” Konigsberg on the Baltic, the 1st Cavalry should enjoy their ‘vacation.’
…but each tank and Bradley has such an outsized ability to Achieve an Effect…
Nice little article that ties up a lot of the current threads and idiocies in one place:
“U.S. sends ‘Ironhorse’ tanks to NATO’s nervous Baltic front line,”
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0HQ33720141001
Speaking of weakness and futility behind a smokescreen of Ooohrah US WORLDS STRONEST BEST MILITARY SIR YES SIR!
Hooah!
Does it bother anyone else that the North Atlantic Trade Organization has a military?
Only when the Black Helicopters start circling overhead…
Some say the Black Helicopters are heralds of the End Times.
Probably the same amount as it bothers people that the UN has them for “peacekeeping” missions.
With military technology as it is today, I don’t see how our military leaders can be anxious to start up an armed conflict with Russia. Its one thing pushing your weight around against nations that have no military parity, but the Russians?
The shock and awe propaganda war that has been underway in this country for decades has convinced the American population that we are invincible and the moral leaders in the world. When that worldview is shattered, and I believe it is a very fragile thing, the citizens of this country will be in such a state to confusion anything is possible. The elite keeping us safe- WTF War with Russia??
The biggest threat to this country is an ignorant, weak, fearful citizenry, but this is exactly the citizenry the elites are fostering. I would guess that not 1 in 100 people have any deeper knowledge of WW2 than exposure to Hollywood movies. The scale and scope of the conflict on the eastern front was mind boggling. Is it any wonder that Germany is reluctant to be goaded into conflict with Russia.
I would be interested to hear thoughts on defensive war as opposed to offensive war. It seems to me that once again the elites in our country have used the technique of turning an idea on its head to achieve their ends and the citizenry is falling for it- again. Like falling for the magicians illusion- the trick. We, as a nation, falsely believe that our military efforts are motivated by defensive principles- defending freedom, democracy, responding to aggressive warlike provocations. While in reality, our principles have change to offensive ones. This contradiction can only be maintained when citizens can shelter themselves from the consequences of war.
War with Russia will end that comfortable isolation. I find it ironic that it is Russia that has finally drawn a red line saying that the world order cannot survive the notion of OUR terrorists are better than YOUR terrorists. Supporting random killing and nurturing a culture of destruction and instability to achieve a certain end cannot stand.
War and economic looting go hand in hand. I think the choices we all will have to make very soon will be which side we will support. The looters, or those opposing them.
‘Competitors who don’t share our values’: President Barack Obama jabs China as he defends TPP deal
Where “our” refers to the Chicago School.
Of course, the sentence is nonsensical. Since China is not in the agreement, whether or not TPP is approved has no bearing on whether China will keep its markets closed to us. Better speech writing, please. It really is the C Team at the White House these days.
From the radio commercials I’ve been hearing at the jobsite our values are not sharing (t mobile) and being lazy (shave club- wtf that’s a ridiculous co.) I agree nonsensical not quite word salad, basically b.s. with a propaganda angle…I get a kick out of the idea these trade agreement peddling monopolists are concerned about competition.
then there’s this from the hillary thing in nyt I think? regarding biologics…
“On one hand, there’s the need to provide incentives for drug companies to sink considerable money into the risky business of developing new therapies. On the other, there is growing question over when monopolies produce an unsustainable system in which high prices are no longer linked to value, but to what drug companies can charge.” Correct me but isn’t a large amount of research publicly funded?
And the drug companies would NEVER peddle a “blockbuster new med” that they KNEW would sicken and kill people and was less effective than current off- patent (sick concept all by itself) treatments… Because in their corporate lowerarchies there’s Responsibility and no hint of IBG-YBGism…
wow. that cow deserves its own ballad.
At least 20 stanzas and a refrain.
“far down the road and through the woods
she out-runned ’em and deceived ’em
she’s fatter by 1000 pounds
but breathless did she leave ’em”
You’d really have to think about it, for sure, and that’s all I could get in 2 minutes. Gotta work today!
I think you’re onto something there
Do you believe that’s the “real” cow?
Funny how there were no resources for “cowboys” prior.
I’m thinking the real cow was taken to an undisclosed location.
This is a Manchurian cow.
The Bernanke writes his memoir’s, TPP passes, and unpaid cowboys appear….how cow-venient
Obama Economy: Business Headlines
It was the best of times. It was the worst of times…
http://peureport.blogspot.com/2015/10/obama-economy-business-head
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-latest-employer-offering-to-pay-off-student-loans-a-brothel-2015-10-09?
http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/09/investing/hedge-fund-billionaire-defends-obama-chanos/index.html?
Jesse Myerson of the Next System Project has a good new article out.
http://www.thenextsystem.org/monetarily-we-are-already-in-the-next-system-we-just-dont-act-like-it/
“Lower still on the IOU hierarchy are the liabilities of non-bank financial firms like Money Market Mutual Funds, which comprise the “shadow banking” sector. Big-time institutional investors use these deposit-like liabilities for storage and large-scale transactions. Prior to the 2007-8 crisis, the unregulated shadow banking sector’s liabilities totaled around $11 trillion, more than twice the total amount of insured bank deposits. This money form, created neither by the government nor licensed banks, is vulnerable to a “bank run” and was, as you might have guessed, a source of a lot of the instability that led to the crash.”
“This money form, created neither by the government nor licensed banks” I think this is where derivatives live. This dangerous alliance of tri-party repo: money market funds, brokerage firms and a clearing bank (usually JP Morgan).
People’s real money that they put into a money market fund for safekeeping and a little interest gets leveraged into a risky derivative pool rather than being put to productive use.
Myerson discusses that the road to a dignified life starts with a public money system acting in the public interest. He describes the debt process where farms were foreclosed on in the late 1800s:
“No longer would farmers suffer under “a system,” in the words of Populist orator Mary Elizabeth Lease, “which clothes rascals in robes and honesty in rags,” enforced by a government, “of Wall Street, by Wall Street, and for Wall Street.” In the Next System as described by Miss Wilbur, the heroine in Hamlin Garland’s 1886 novel A Spoil of Office, “the farmer will no longer be a drudge and his wife a bond slave, but happy men and women who will go singing to their pleasant tasks upon their fruitful farms… when life will be worth living.”” sounds like a jubilee
Your elites, India division, in a nutshell.
Yes if only Modi had gone to Harvard or Yale or Oxford he would know the correct answer to these Putin questions. It’s really not hard to see why the NYT put up this op-ed. It’s how they think.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/10/10/opinion/indias-great-educational-divide.html?_r=0
It’s ungentlemanly to call out other gentlemen’s ungentlemanliness. Modi wouldn’t have done it if he had gone to a fine finishing school for gentlemen.
Modi is clearly a bounder. No cigars and brandy for him.
While I disagree with the elitist sentiment of the op-ed, I am convinced that the Modi government is in fact dangerous for India because he has surrounded himself with very radical Hindutva activists whose guiding philosophy is in conflict with India’s secularism. In just the past week there have been violent incidents across the country – including in Kerala, the state with generally the least friction between communities – related to his proposal that beef consumption should be completely banned across the country. There is also an election coming up in Bihar and the rhetoric is purely communal and caste provocation on the BJP coalition side. I worry that things could get out of control.
Duly noted. I was just responding to the author’s off the wall (IMO) critique.
Honeybee question for those of you better informed.
Is the Honeybee die-off problem mostly effecting large commercial pollinators moving their hives from state to state?
Is this crisis about the extinction of the honeybee, or the extinction of large-scale commercial pollinating businesses?
From what I have read, small scale, traditional beekeeping will be able to survive. Granted, with the stress of pollution and climate change accepted as putting us all at risk.
I’m no bee expert, but I do know that many small beekeepers where I live have been effected as well.
And I know (as scientists and many bee keepers surely know) that you cannot separate the effects of our environmental assault from the success of the mites.
Bees weakened by the former cannot effectively fight the latter. And dousing with more and more pesticides was never a good solution for various obvious reasons.
When looking at the big picture, our history with pesticides, etc., seems there’s nothing really mysterious about it- you can’t put this much sh*t into the environment without major deleterious effects on living organisms. Like bees.
Interesting with the fungus, but not addressing all the other stuff…
Two problems with the use of pesticides.
1. the pesticides themselves.
2. the thing we try to protect using these pesticides – for example, wheat.
The latter is a result of mass agricultural production and mono-culture – we try to grow a lot of just one thing – at a rate economists would appreciate: efficiently (meaning quickly). Here, again using wheat as an example, we have a concentration problem – one much to one thing – not unlike our wealth concentration problem.
Local bee keepers have no problem with honey bee’s but the closer to AG operations the problems become apparent.
Local beekeepers are affected in the Pacific northwest. This is not just a large-industry problem.
it’s definitely affecting local beekeepers. our few hives in rural italy have been greatly affected by the varroa and we are not in an area where pesticides are used–none at all within the environment that the bees travel.
just now we’re working very hard trying to strengthen our hives for the winter but they’ve been weaken by varroa. we’ve have to treat them twice this year. everyone here has to treat at least once.
the npr report with the funghi treatment is promising.
My brother has around a couple hundred hives (western Poland). No signs of die-off although varroa treatment is a necessity since the eighties.
Matt Drudge claims that America’s draconian copyright laws are going to be used to phase out sites like his (and NC) that feature news links:
Six media conglomerates; six ‘compliant’ social sites. What’s not to like, comrades?
Other question: will the TPP be a backdoor way for Hollywood to get the draconian copyright enforcement that they couldn’t pass through Congress? The legal discovery powers mentioned in the above BoingBoing story would presumably apply to this country as well.
Nearly every trade deal seeks to extend America’s over-the-top copyright laws (centuries of exclusivity, savage criminal penalties) to the rest of world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Mouse
It’s also called the Sonny Bono act because promoting the concept was one of his last Congressional acts before smacking into a tree. His widow took his seat and carried on the flame.
As Michael Hudson says, it’s all about the rents. Louis B. Mayer realized this a 100 years earlier and said the beauty of the movie business was that you could sell something while still owning it.
Another lovely “banquet of consequences” may be enjoyed by Hollywood and the US: what happens when Malaysia decides the depiction of Islam in the latest blockbuster is “illegal”…and subpoenas everyone in the US that is promoting it or accessing it on the web? To be summoned before a tribunal operating under sharia law? As I recall the sharia punishment for blasphemy is pretty harsh…
“leveling the playing field” indeed
Drudge does have a tendency to exaggerate but I wonder if this is a preemptive strike against a pissed off content provider.
Matzi Dred needs to either get better lawyers or get less lazy…90% of almost all the stories you read are pitched by someones PR hack and the “source” will always have their press release or “study” on their own website. It takes just a read through the “article” to figure how who pitched the story and where to find the direct(and often more complete) source of information…
Drudge is nuts.
I get comments from journos at MSM outlets that they LIKE our Links page because we drive traffic to them.
What they do NOT like are posts that do a good enough job of analyzing/summarizing the news so as to reduce the need to go to the source. As in yours truly quotes from a BBerg story, and adds some commentary. But there has long been a carveout for “fair use”. The question is whether anyone will try to redefine that. The Associated Press took a run a few years back at anyone who quoted even itty bits of their stories. I think they dropped that because they realized it was not helping them get traffic.
“The FDA has approved the first drug made by a 3D printer”
See this is how Techno-Religion is perpetuated. The drug was made in a lab same as it has been for ever, then the 3D printer shaped it into pill form in a novel but way more expensive process.
The thought in joe publics mind is that the drug is “conjered up” with all its magical connotations, out of thin air.
The only useful application for this tech is when only one or two pills would ever be needed.
Or drugs for which an entire production line doesn’t need to be set up?
Useful for controlling an unusual dosage. I could see this being very helpful for clinical trials.
The drug would still need to be produced in exactly the same way as normal, up until the stage where pills are formed from the drug in powder form. This means the 3D printer is essentially just sticking the particles of the powder together in the shape of a pill with some sort of non-toxic adhesive. Using the same starting point of the drug in powder form, I expect pills could be produced quite easily using traditional methods, such as with a pill press. One advantage might be the lower density, and thus faster absorbtion into the recipient’s system, of the 3D printed pill compared to the same dose compressed into pill form via a press, however the same dose in powder form could just be placed in a fast disolving capsule to achieve the same end.
3D printing does have some very interesting uses (the term printing is a bit of a misnomer in my opinion), however they are mostly with the very high-end 3D printers, and are centered around creating prototypes.
Relevant Dilbert.
http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-10-07
Toll Hits 86 in Turkish Peace Rally Blasts
At least 186 hurt in Ankara double bombing
PostedOct 10, 2015 5:34 AM CDT | Updated 9:03 AM CDT
Two bomb explosions targeting a peace rally by leftist and Kurdish activists in Turkey’s capital on Saturday killed at least 86 people and wounded 186 others, Turkey’s Interior Ministry says. The explosions occurred minutes apart near Ankara’s main train station as people were gathering for the rally, organized by the country’s public sector workers’ trade union and other civic society groups. The rally aimed to call for an end to the renewed violence between Kurdish rebels and Turkish security forces. It was not clear if the attacks, which came weeks before Turkey’s Nov. 1 elections, were suicide bombings. “There was a massacre in the middle of Ankara,” says the head of the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions. “Two bombs exploded in very short intervals.”
http://www.todayszaman.com/national_86-killed-186-wounded-in-deadliest-act-of-terrorism-in-turkeys-history_401143.html
Now this:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/10/turkey-hit-by-protests-over-government-response-to-suicide-bombs
Forbes gets it on social security. And how it is directly tied to strong, living wage employment.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johntharvey/2011/04/08/why-social-security-cannot-go-bankrupt/
“It’s an immediate transfer from workers today to retirees today. That’s what it has always been and that’s what it has to be–there is no other possible way for it to work.”
“The lesson from this is that if we want Social Security to “be there” when we retire, our efforts must be focused on increasing productivity and making sure in particular that these increases get passed on to workers in the form of higher wages.”
A better tact would be raising the limit on income and that alone would make SS viable for a century, or until it’s not needed anymore in an ideal society, But yes, very good to hear Forbes is behind a wage increase.
Tie the cap to a top tier government salary, like Speaker of the House.
I like it !
Yes, having a well-functioning productive economy is by far the best way to protect social security. The FICA tax on both employers and employees is unnecessary.
We need taxes to give value to the currency but we can fund retirement, medical care and education as easy as we can fund the military and banks.
A wage increase.
Sneaky corporations will probably decrease hours or demand working through the holidays/weekends without pay.
“It depends on the definition of
A wage increase.
Sneaky corporations will probably decrease hours or demand working through the holidays/weekends without pay.
“It depends on the definition of
A wage increase.
Sneaky corporations will probably decrease hours or demand working through the holidays/weekends without pay.
“It depends on the definition of ‘it’ and the definition of ‘hours worked’ or ‘work’ itself.”
And those not working? A wage increase doesn’t do much, though rumors of more becoming not working consequently are greatly exaggerated, I think.
On the other hand, creating money and putting directly and immediately into the hands of individuals of the private sector will 100% cure the lack of demand problem of the private sector.
We don’t need more government spending to make up for the lack of demand of the private sector, which is really an insult, because the demand is there, private sector individuals just don’t have the money to meet their various demands. No thanks to government spending, including more surveillance and more adventures overseas.
We don’t need stick to simulate private sector ‘demand.’ “You gotta get a job or you die.”
We do need carrot to have our demands meet. “Here is money for you to spend.”
Actually, the federal government “prints” (creates by spending) the SS money it gives out, as it does with its other spending. In the case of SS it then turns around and taxes current workers by some amount, which has the effect of reducing their ability to buy stuff, leaving some stuff left over for the SS recipients to buy. If there was enough capacity in the economy (which there probably is) we could simply give money to SS recipients without taxing current workers at all.
For sure. And the capacity building at this level would likely mostly be for useful things.
MUST SEE Reporter gets angry and tells us the REAL news
http://www.philosophers-stone.co.uk/?p=4139
“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.
– Atticus Finch”
Brilliant!
Loved it! Mad a hell and not going to take it anymore !! But then he did… hero to foil
My, that was too good to be true. I loved it. Thanks, aby. I can’t stop laughing. I needed that.
I guess the news doesn’t change much.
It’s amazing they talk about it night and day on the TV anyway.
Obama launches a proxy war on Russia in Syria. It will require lots more than $500 million.
For much of the fp establishment, the Russians are crafty operators capable of all kinds of shenanigans and simultaneously a backwards land of serfs ready to fall at any time into their outhouses. The throw stuff against the wall to see what sticks approach reflects these conflicting views.
There is neither a strategic plan or tactics.
Russia on the other hand wants to grow the SCO and BRIICS outfits. Saving a Russian ally from asymetrical warfare and knocking out ISIS without occupying Syria does so much for these organizations and the Russian led or backed non-Chinese confederacy in a cooperative or allied arrangement with China. Russia makes leaving the U.S. sphere for China rationale.
HIllary’s deadly advisors: Sidney Blumenthal and the aptly named Anne-Marie Slaughter.
HRC: it’s all about the judgment.
Word of the day: Aptronym.
Good authors do this all the time. My favourite is The Third Man’s Harry Lime. Lime being the chemical used to cover bodies to aid their quick decomposition.
Actually, lime preserves the bodies. It just covers up the stink.
https://the7thwreck.wordpress.com/2005/12/25/why-not-to-use-quicklime-to-dispose-of-a-corpse/
Fact of the day!
Adding: Bring on the zithers!
One of Hillary’s advisers is named Minyon…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/hillary-clinton-adviser-minyon-moore-sought-funds-for-illegal-campaign-court-papers-say/2014/03/11/753dcfc2-a931-11e3-8d62-419db477a0e6_story.html
Question – why are world leaders who justify bombing/embargo campaigns that result in civilian deaths never viewed as serial killers?
Atrios has always compared DC to junior high. For whatever reason, much of the country has a massive inferiority complex where they, not me, draw their self worth from their attachment to celebrity. Between these two aspects, serial killers in suits are respected.
My Junior High experience was hellish. Far preferable to DC.*
* As currently configured.
There are many ways to prevent connecting the dots of gun shootings/serial killers and other news around the world.
One is domestic. And the other falls in another section, under ‘international or global.’
Kasich Tells Social Security Recipients To ‘Get Over’ Potential Cuts In Benefits
2016 hopeful John Kasich told his audience at a forum that they were “going to have to get over” cuts to their Social Security benefits.
He said that. First, he asked the audience whether they knew what their initial benefit was. A few hands went up.
“Now what if I told you your initial benefit was going to be somewhat lower in order to save the program,” he continued. “Would that drive you crazy?”
When an audience member indicated it would upset them, Kasich replied, “Ok. Well, you’d get over it. And you’re going to have to get over it.”
This comes from a guy who was working for Wall Street when the 2008 meltdown came, who got his big bonus anyway and didn’t get over the idea that he shouldn’t have received anything.
Then when he was elected Governor of Ohio, he pushed through big pension cuts for state employees. I’m sure he expected them to “get over it” too.
http://crooksandliars.com/2015/10/kasich-tells-social-security-recipients
get over it b/c he and his fellow cronies collectively got over you….??.
The beatings will continue until morale improves. Kasich, what a sociopath.
Wow. They are so tone deaf it’s amazing. More and more I expect a 43 to release a book “Politics for Dummies.” Even when Shrub pushed privatization, he made sure that no one in the next 15 years would be affected.
Does Kasich even understand the GOP base is in its 50s and 60s? Who is he even appealing to?
No one is (or very few are) rugged individuals in their 80’s.
And when you are in a hospital, there is no guarantee anything is organic or non-GMO there.
In many instances in life, not just today, but as we journey through it (through life’s many decades), we are at the mercy or kindness of complete strangers.
I was out on the investment highway, straight line through the ZIRP desert, when lo, a liquidity mirage appeared in the distance. I knew that scooping up that liquidity was difficult, gain always seemed to recede into the future, but with smoke and mirrors there is a way. So I stopped and gathered brush and set up my mirrors and lit the fire. This distracts the liquidity so you can sneak behind it and scoop it up, if you a lucky. I climbed into my 4WD SUV and took off over the open desert to corral this fortune. With great guile and a smoking good fire, I surprised the mirage and threw it in my carpet bag. Humming along to the next burg, I stopped at the only motel for the night and inspected the haul. It turned out to be a bunch of out of the market shorts and a bunch of derivatives from counterparties that cancelled each other out. Darn. Forgot to pick up my mirrors as well.
+1000!
China island building.
Why?
Why not just buy existing South China Sea islands all cash? It’s better than buying US real estate all cash.
Maybe the non-Tsarist Russians or King Louis are not selling, but you never know about other island nations.
.
Money corrupting research.
We can’t eat science or breath it.
We do eat and breath scientific research based results or products.
And even if science itself is infallible, scientific research results, being corrupted by money, go into almost all we eat and breath.
Reality being different from the platonic ideal world, more science means an ever more dangerous world, as things stand today.
I disagree that ever more science means an ever more dangerous world. But I would agree that ever more corrupted science means an ever more dangerous world.
I think it’s a good sign that the NYTimes published this report. It’s been 7 years since the great financial meltdown, brought on in part by economic experts receiving handsome remunerations for declaring all was well. If the Times, paper of record, is publishing this story it means the conventional wisdom about the unquestioned objective impartiality of anyone described as an expert is being questioned. That’s a very good thing. ( See Yves’ reports on PE and pension PE staff “experts”.)
Yeah when I read the title “Is Money Corrupting Research” I had similar thoughts about scientific research and how money may have an effect and make people do unethical things, manipulate data and such. I thought that’s quite possible that things like that are going on.
Then I clicked on the link, and saw that the article was about economic research and like expert congressional testimony and advisement of financial firms..
at which point, I did spontaneously lol.
Some experts, in fact many (in that field), claim that economics is a science.
Hundreds of thousands participated in anti-TTIP protest in Berlin today:http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/10/berlin-anti-ttip-trade-deal-rally-hundreds-thousands-protesters
:) Very good news!
Student loan system stacked against borrowers.
One alternative is for corporations to fund their career degree programs, using veteran/retired workers as instructors, for their future employees, eliminating the present system of wage-serfs financing their own future wage-serfdom, like a professional baseball team would do with its farm system.
Cutting public education down to the essential:
1. How to defend oneself against toxicity in food, air, drinking water and other potential exposures.
2. teaching humans to get along with the rest of nature, share with each other.
3. realization of the greatness within each individual – the foundation of democracy
4. Teaching grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure, which are being eroded by the language of twitter and smart phone texting speak.
Amen.
They will eventually perfect robot editors.
If we were smart, we’d make tuition free in public institutions like Germany.
I think there is a different issue, for example, about trustworthy auto maker management and/or auto engineers in Germany, that seems to be immune to tuition free public higher learning institutions.
We have to separate learning to make money from learning to enlighten oneself.
92 gun deaths on average in American every day.
It would be exceptionally parochial to not give us the average number of imperial violence victims globally everyday.
“Foreign lives do not count? We never say that and will never accept that. None of us does.”
The Western attacks in Kosovo, Iraq and Libya, in which UNSC was either ignored or its mandate exceeded, and for which there was no justification of self-defense, have had the predictable result of opening Pandora’s Box. Over time, one can only expect more countries to become actively interventionist.
For example, India, China, and Japan all have vital interests in the Middle East. For China, the presence of many Uighyurs. among both ISIS and Nusra, could serve as a pretext for direct military action in Syria or Iraq–following the precedent established by the Western Bloc.
Japan is modifying its laws to permit a more muscular foreign policy. India, like China, has been building capacity for more distant power projection.
One should therefore tell any critics of the recent Russian action that what we’re looking at here is neither a Putin problem, nor even a Russia problem–it’s a basic problem of world order.
Let’s suppose the Western Bloc, bent on preserving their oligopoly on worldwide military intervention, find a way to get the better of the Russians in Syria. That still wouldn’t solve the bigger problem I just described.
If this regional war goes on much longer, open political unrest could arise in Saudi Arabia, with significant economic and political dominos falling for countries reliant on remittance earnings from their large labour contingents in the Gulf (esp. Philippines, Pakistan, Egypt). That’s to say nothing of the repercussions concerning holy sites, etc.
We could see three things happen at once: more outside actors coming into the Mideast, old pillars within the region crumbling, and a worldwide outward spiral of social, economic, and political effects.
The resulting cycle of interrelated world conflicts probably would not much resemble the famous world wars of the 20th century. Nobody really knows what an epic cycle of wars might look like in the 21st century. But who would want to know?
So I think we all got to get this whole thing to a round table, posthaste. I would even reserve a chair for ISIS at that table.
I can only guess how much time is left before things get completely out of control. It could be too late already, but why be fainthearted about peace?
Yves, I would appreciate it if you would give us a primer on the issue of liquidity that is being talked about so much lately. With all the cash and money floating around now, I have trouble understanding what the issue is. Yes, some people have more than they need and and some have less. But those at the bottom don’t seem to be factored into all the concern in the MSM. I know that officially that QE has ended. Is it that the .1% are whining? Clarify this for us. Thanks.
Liquidity is simply a guy standing there saying “I will buy that thing from you at this price”. But nowadays the tech and the regulator being asleep at the switch (or bought and paid for) means someone saying “I will buy that thing from you at this price” can pull that rug out from under you as soon as you say “OK”. The buyer was only fooling you into thinking he was offering a real trade to be made at a real price, all along he was just pretending he would buy at that price. What he really wanted was for others to see his fake “offer” as “real” and do a trade at a slightly higher price (that profits him in a side deal). Multiply this all along the line in all markets, everybody just faking prices to each other.
Nasdaq recently tried to pass a rule that said if somebody was offering to buy something, they had to honor that price for a minimum of 50 milliseconds before withdrawing it. Yes, that’s right, 50 one-thousandths of a second before pulling the rug out. The rule failed to pass, 50 milliseconds was viewed as “too long”. The fakers won yet again.
I you dig deep enough you’ll find similar rules in nearly every market, the corruption is total. These are not markets, they’re casinos, and the house odds are getting better and better every day.
Could you relate that to this comment?
“The Treasury’s Office of Financial Research released a report on big bank liquidity concerns;”
http://wallstreetonparade.com/ 10/08/15
There is the debt that can’t be paid won’t be paid problem. Also we have gotten way heavy into financial capital instead of industrial capital. Industrial capital is making money on real production where financial capital seeks to make money on purely financial transactions such as derivatives which is not sustainable.
Inequality has also led to a large decrease in demand which is a discouragement to the further development of industrial capital.
Another 0Care crapification success story: BCBS of Illinois to eliminate PPO plans, leaving the choice of crappy narrow network plans. http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-blue-health-plans-1011-biz-20151009-story.html. Nice, eh?
2016: http://www.salon.com/2015/10/10/dumb_bernie_sanders_delusions_progressives_who_champion_sanders_need_to_consider_this_and_no_its_not_the_supreme_court/
I have reservations about the article; it’s light on substance (this is a good place to fix that) and overly vitriolic – though some of that is the headline writer’s fault. And Masciotra’s support of Jim Webb is a red flag: he seems to assume that we have to give up on domestic progressivism to get non-Imperial foreign policy. Dangerous assumption. And, of course, very few Americans vote on foreign affairs unless there are lots of bodies coming back. That fact is guiding Sanders’ campaign.
The fact remains that the military and Israel are real problems for Sanders with his base. (Full disclosure: my wife is a Palestinian rights activist and my party is very clear on the subject, so I definitely have an axe to grind.)
Most significantly: this disjunct is typical of American Liberals. Consider Johnson, the most liberal president ever, who destroyed his presidency and his programs with the Vietnam War. And that was typical: domestic liberals, imperialists overseas. Turns out the two really are linked and you can’t really have both.
Followup: Sanders’ page on foreign policy: http://www.sanders.senate.gov/legislation/issue/war-and-peace
Dwells on Iraq and Afghanistan, which make him look relatively good. I read down to “Israel and Gaza:” “Sen. Sanders is deeply troubled by the outbreak of violence in Gaza. ” Agency?
To Be Fair, he condemns Israeli atrociities. He also repeats the Israeli propaganda line that they “Have a right to live in peace and security”, as if they’re being attacked. Apparently Palestinians don’t have that right, or the right in international law to defend themselves when under occupation.
It’s only one page, and doesn’t mention the drones. I really don’t see how you can not mention the drones.
Overall, maybe a C.
I agree that they (the far empire and the near empire, as it were) are linked, but we can’t break all the links in our chains simultaneously, can we?
Buying Power Here are 120 million Monopoly pieces, roughly one for every household in the United States.
The 158 families each contributed $250,000 or more in the campaign through June 30, according to the most recent available Federal Election Commission filings and other data, while an additional 200 families gave more than $100,000. Together, the two groups contributed well over half the money in the presidential election — the vast majority of it supporting Republicans.
“The campaign finance system is now a countervailing force to the way the actual voters of the country are evolving and the policies they want,” said Ruy Teixeira, a political and demographic expert at the left-leaning Center for American Progress.
Like most of the ultrawealthy, the new donor elite is deeply private. Very few of those contacted were willing to speak about their contributions or their political views. Many donations were made from business addresses or post office boxes, or wound through limited liability corporations or trusts, exploiting the new avenues opened up by Citizens United, which gave corporate entities far more leeway to spend money on behalf of candidates. Some contributors, for reasons of privacy or tax planning, are not listed as the owners of the homes where they live, further obscuring the family and social ties that bind them.
But interviews and a review of hundreds of public documents — voter registrations, business records, F.E.C. data and more — reveal a class apart, distant from much of America while geographically, socially and economically intermingling among themselves. Nearly all the neighborhoods where they live would fit within the city limits of New Orleans. But minorities make up less than one-fifth of those neighborhoods’ collective population, and virtually no one is black. Their residents make four and a half times the salary of the average American, and are twice as likely to be college educated.
Most of the families are clustered around just nine cities. Many are neighbors, living near one another in neighborhoods like Bel Air and Brentwood in Los Angeles; River Oaks, a Houston community popular with energy executives; or Indian Creek Village, a private island near Miami that has a private security force and just 35 homes lining an 18-hole golf course.
Sometimes, across party lines, they are patrons of the same symphonies, art museums or at-risk youth programs. They are business partners, in-laws and, on occasion, even poker buddies.
Living Near One Another
More than 50 members of these families have made the Forbes 400 list of the country’s top billionaires, marking a scale of wealth against which even a million-dollar political contribution can seem relatively small. The Chicago hedge fund billionaire Kenneth C. Griffin, for example, earns about $68.5 million a month after taxes, according to court filings made by his wife in their divorce. He has given a total of $300,000 to groups backing Republican presidential candidates. That is a huge sum on its face, yet is the equivalent of only $21.17 for a typical American household, according to Congressional Budget Office data on after-tax income.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/11/us/politics/100000003961847.mobile.html?
meet your Funding Fathers?
Apropos of nothing in particular, saw a report on bbc news today that according to Dutch researchers, for every hour you spend riding a bicycle, you increase your life expectancy by approximately one hour. I assume this applies to the first hour of riding per week and at sone point diminishing returns set in. They also stated that the average Dutch person spends about 74 minutes per week riding a bike.