Obama Returns From Trade Summit With 5 Stout Ships Full Of Cardamom, Silk, And Indigo Onion (David L)
Tories to build thousands of affordable second homes Daily Mash
The Chinese micro pig: A big step for research but a small pet for households ABC
Exxon’s Climate Concealment New York Times (David L)
World will pass crucial 2C global warming limit, experts warn Guardian (furzy mouse)
Japan unveils Laundroid, the world’s first laundry-folding robot Japan Times (furzy mouse). Not sure about this, but I have to confess that a Roomba is tempting, particularly since it also functions as a cat toy.
A New Way to Fight Aging in the Brain MIT Technology Review (David L). Headline overstates the significance of the finding, but promising nevertheless.
A Pumpkin-Pie Shortage Is Looming Thanks to Heavy Summer Rains Bloomberg (resilc)
WeWork Used These Documents To Convince Investors It’s Worth Billions BuzzFeed. Lambert: “Silicon valley valuations a little sketchy….”
Dollar at risk against major emerging markets currencies Futures Magazine (furzy mouse)
IMF: keep interest rates low or risk another crash Guardian. The IMF is now talking Mr. Market’s book.
Is the world heading for its third global financial crisis? Telegraph
China?
In a first, Chinese hackers are arrested at the behest of the U.S. government Washington Post
Refugee Crisis
Germany, EU Deny Report On European Solidarity Tax International Business Times
Fiscal union will never fix a dysfunctional eurozone, warns ex-IMF chief Telegraph. Um, “chief economist” who still managed to issue a tortured defense of the last Greek bailout plan. Note he is still insisting on the snake-oil treatment of “competitiveness adjustment” as in more crushing of labor, rather than having a fiscal union be a means for providing for deficit spending (which could also be finessed by calling it “investment” via an infrastructure bank).
Syraquistan
Syrian SITREP October 10th, 2015 by John Rambo Vineyard of the Saker (Chuck L)
Reinforcing success… a novel approach – TTG Sic Semper Tyrannis (Chuck L)
US to compensate Kunduz strike victims BBC
Bombings at Ankara peace rally are Turkey’s deadliest-ever terror attack CBC
Ankara: More than 80 killed in twin blasts Turkey blames on terrorism EuroNews (furzy mouse)
Imperial Collapse Watch
The Six Most Disastrous Interventions of the 21st Century Counterpunch
Lawrence Wilkerson discussed the possibility of the breakup of the U.S. Daily Kos (furzy mouse). We featured this video in full more than a week ago.
You Think the NSA Is Bad? Meet Former CIA Director Allen Dulles. Mother Jones (resilc)
The End of Academic Freedom in America: the Case of Steven Salaita Louis Proyect
Police State Watch
‘Great Pause’ Among Prosecutors As DNA Proves Fallible NPR (David L)
2016
Sanders prepares for his national debate-stage debut Washington Post
HIllary’s deadly advisors AnitWar (Carolinian)
Ex-staffer: Benghazi committee pursuing ‘partisan investigation’ targeting Hillary Clinton CNN. Quelle surprise! And there is a Benghazi movie coming out early next year. I saw a trailer in August.
Suit Over Firing Exposes Strife Within Benghazi Panel New York Times
Flat Wages Lead to Search for Anti-Politician New York Times
158 Families Dominate Campaign Contributions New York Magazine (resilc)
GOP hard-liners seek more power by changing rules. That could mean more chaos. Washington Post
Congress: Reign of the Implacables New York Review of Books
The Republican suicide ballad: The party that can’t govern, and the country that hates its guts Salon. A fun rant, but too many Dems seem to be counting their chickens before they are hatched. As this article points out, Republican craziness DID lead to the Republicans winning the House. The problem is that the mainstream business types no longer control the monster they created.
Trade Traitors
Huge rally in Berlin says ‘No’ to EU-US trade deal EuroNewsm (furzy mouse)
Berlin anti-TTIP trade deal protest attracts hundreds of thousands Guardian
Wikileaks Releases Final Intellectual Property Chapter Of TPP Before Official Release Techdirt (furzy mouse) Reported yesterday, but always good to see more media attention.
David Brooks, Hillary Clinton, and the TPP Dean Baker
Obama defends controversial TPP deal and dismisses secrecy concerns Guardian
Black Injustice Tipping Point
2 Reports Find Cleveland Officer Justified In Shooting Tamir Rice NPR. Notice the use of “find” rather than “claim” or “opime”. These are expert opinions for the prosecution. Anyone who has been through litigation knows that you can pretty much always find an expert to say what you need said in court.
In California, Electric Cars Outpace Plugs, and Sparks Fly New York Times
Gunz
Cocks not glocks: Dildos to replace guns at UT-Austin campus carry protest Houston Chronicle.
Inside the Race to Stop the Next Mass Shooter Mother Jones (resilc). I don’t like the “pre-crime” aspects of this at all, and there’s no mention whatsoever of false positives. And if we did not have easy access to guns, we would not have mass shooters.
Chinese all-cash buyers of U.S. homes have tripled since 2005 MarketWatch (furzy mouse)
Fed officials seem ready to deploy negative rates in next crisis MarketWatch. All my cash will go in the mattress! What are they thinking? Plus if you want to get the right wing to go full bore after the Fed, this is just the way to do it.
Class Warfare
Like Being “Buried Alive”: Charles Dickens on Solitary Confinement in America’s Prisons American Prospect
Whole Foods Co-opts Revolutionary Rhetoric but Mistreats Employees Truthout
Antidote du jour (abynormal):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
166 comments
Comments are closed.
Just in time for the holidays…
99 Homes Official Trailer #1 (2015) – Andrew Garfield, Laura Dern Drama HD
A father struggles to get back the home that his family was evicted from by working for the greedy real estate broker who’s the source of his frustration.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vh0piQN1_LY
Re: A New Way to Fight Aging in the Brain
For a while now I have been thinking about how differently most people treat their mental fitness from their physical fitness. It is astonishing to see how far people will go to avoid mental effort. I would suggest that much like physical health, mental health into old age is primarily a matter of mental exercise and mental diet. Of course there are bound to be exceptions, just like with physical health, however I can’t help but think that if mental fitness was as visible as physical fitness, we would be be forced to confront another epidemic of poor health in the West. It is perhaps a little ironic that vanity doesn’t generally seem to extend to most people’s mental presence.
First, as a ‘budding’ geriatric case, I’ve been reading a bit about links between plaque build up in the brain and diet. Refined sugars are getting a lot of attention these days, not very much of it positively oriented. Heavy metal borderline poisoning, from the general diet, also is implicated. Really, the general run of the mill research scientists are just now becoming involved. This is another case of “fringe loonies,” such as the olde ‘health food nutters’ having been onto something years before everyone ‘official.’ I have yet to see any connections made between mental ‘exercise’ and physical changes in the brain. (Correct me if I’m missing anything, seriously.) There is some data suggesting a connection between mental ‘exercise’ and extended brain/mind health and competency, but exact mechanisms seem to be still murky. This entire area still looks to be suffering from the early on split between the cognitive investigators and the ‘hard science’ crowd.
We here at Hattiesburg Labs take our mental ‘fitness’ seriously. Phyllis does crossword puzzles nightly, and watercolours weekly, if not more often. (Ask any experienced artist about the difference between doing oils and watercolours. [A bad patch of an oil canvas can be scraped and redone. A ‘twitchy’ watercolour is ‘burnt toast.’]) Myself, I read a bit too much and have esoteric tastes. Scrabble games can become ‘heated,’ to say the least. (We settled on the Oxford Dictionary, an older edition from the 1950’s as arbiter.)
Finally, and perhaps more important, we do not watch television anymore. We may not have much left upstairs, but what we do have is unsullied by MSMism.
I am not at present seeing anyone making a link, to the general public, that is, between mental ‘exercise’ and Alzheimers and similar afflictions. All of the attention seems focused on biochemical ‘solutions’ to these problems. Granted, there are definite correlations between environmental factors and Dementia, but as nature shows, a reliance on monolines for the solution to a problem is a sure fire recipe for disaster.
That’s my mental ‘exercise’ for today. NC is the cheapest mental ‘gym’ I know of. Annual pledge drive starts soon! Give! I recommend it highly to all of the intellectually ‘flabby’ people I encounter. (Anecdotally, I have a much higher positive response to the suggestion of “Take Two NC Exposures a Day for Your Health” from the younger cohort than any other group. Ah, the plasticity of a young mind.)
That’s Thirty for today.
Well, as someone who is not yet in the middle aged bracket but is in the three or more concussions category, I may end up eating my words later in life, if I can remember them that is.
I have read though that hunger allows the brain to repair itself and increase its processing power, and that it is an evolutionary thing, in that if you’re hungry you need to work out a way to get food for yourself. Perhaps this means that short periods of fasting once in a while helps.
Interesting. I’ve also read about there being a link to fasting regimes and extended lifespans. Adaptation is a wonderful thing.
i’ve read/studied a couple fasting books too and our bodies do adapt but only under careful and extensive study. after 4 days… just standing up or getting out of bed could cause a slight enough dizziness to turn into a fall into the ER. i’ve read where the body can actually go 40 days before eating on itself…but not without water. hydration is a must for anyone but especially vulnerable infants and elderly.
coming off a fast is an important study too. i’ve enjoyed fasting a couple times a year…4/5 days is my max.
Fasting physically…mentally.
Physically – no food.
Mentally – empty one’s brain once in a while, like a good trash dumpster, of thoughts. Stop taking in garbage for the duration.
After a bunch of 1 and 2 day fasts, I did my first longer fast a few months ago, going 14 days. I never felt hungry once during the whole time, as I would drink water at any hint of hunger, and sometimes just because. I also refrained from any electronics, so no non-live music, television, computers, etc. It was a great experience. I highly recommend it. There’s lots of good literature from the Hygienists movement in the US, which is basically an alternative medical community in the US that started in the 1800s and consisted of doctors not comfortable with the dominant, corrupted medical system at the time.
And I certainly agree that NC is a great ‘gym’. I will be paying my annual membership fee soon.
BTW Yves I think you missed your chance to finish todays links with “I’m Yves Smith, and that is the f@#king news.”
BAHAHAHAHAAAA…most humbly allow me to tweak: I am Master Yves Smith, and THIS is the F*cing news!
an NC Theme Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p42QgjcB-K8
Stand for life
Stand for truth
Stand for somethin’
Don’t fall for nothin’
Stand for love
Stand for power
Stand for somethin’
Don’t fall for nothin’
Stand for me
Stand for you
Stand for somethin’
Don’t fall for nothin’
Stand for life
Stand for truth
Stand for somethin’
Don’t fall for nothin’
Will I Am – Colors
Great clip! LOVE the segment, “Do one brave thing today… then run like hell”, showing the penguin standing on a sleeping Polar Bear, head mischievously looking down at it, with outstretched wings holding two big cymbals ready to C-R-A-S-H.
Nothing that says Courage can’t have a sense of humor.
That should be the Links sign off every day! Murrow of our moment, thankfully without the tobacco issues.
I don’t have a citation handy, but I do remember seeing a report of studies suggesting extra-active brain workouts were not a significant factor in lowering risks for alzheimer’s or dementia.
Even if the “use it or loose it” approach doesn’t buy functional longevity, there is evidence of qualitative functional gains, as in quality of function for whatever time it exists.
Note also the researchers state the connection between the boundary integrity between nuclei and surrounding cytoplasm. Wouldn’t it be interesting to find out that our ability to enjoy (modest) quality of life regardless of cognitive functional level is proportional to the cumulative environmentally-influenced and systemically-cultured health of the cytoplasm, even with boundary break downs? Such might support the morphic field models of consciousness a la Rupert Sheldrake.
I should state that this is just an avenue of thought I’ve been exploring, not something I have any solid evidence for, or am in any way qualified to make judgements on. It does seem to me though that many people use but a few well worn synaptic paths and stick to them, eventually losing the ability to take different paths between neurons, essentially becoming stuck in their thinking patterns. I see this among young and old though, so it is really only tangential at best to the subject of the article. Lastly, yes, anything that allows people to enjoy a better quality of life, in the non-materialistic sense (where things become a little or a lot more complicated), is a good thing as far as I’m concerned.
Actually, IMHO, there is a relatively new line of neurophysiological research that supports your hypothesis. See, for example, this fairly recent paper that outlines a neurophysiological etiology for Alzheimer’s Disease resulting from always thinking along the same paths:
GABAergic interneurons shift thinking/activation to alternate pathways. Per the article, non-exercise of GABAergic interneurons results in TAU buildup/amyloid tangles along resulting (chronically uninhibited) hyperactive pathways.
This is not to discount the confounding effects of environment, diet, and genetics. However, having been previously accused of being a “neurolinguist” and a “cognitive scientist”, and with a history of Alzheimer’s in my family, I have paid relatively close attention to AD. In my pseudo-clinical experience, it has been those relatives who have engaged the least in critical thinking who have suffered earliest, most classically and most profoundly from Alzheimer’s.
As the caregiver to a person with dementia, I disagree.
Brain exercise and physical brain changes.
Doesn’t brain ‘non-exercise’ or zazen makes the part of the brain associated with compassion bigger?
“The passionate, sorry, compassionate, part of my body is bigger than yours.”
Engaging the compassionate part of one’s brain is a form of mental exercise, and so are things like looking at the world around you with an open mind and seeing details that have previously gone unnoticed. In my exercise analogy, I was not intending to limit the definition of mental exercise to drill-like procedures, of which the physical equivalent would be reps in a gym.
Anyway, time for me to sleep, another important form of mental exercise.
Activities like sudoku and chess likely will not a prophylactic effect: they don’t engage anything like the whole mind.
Reading NC, on the other hand . . . this makes it hard to forget . . . even if many days I wish I could simply do so.
It’s never too late to become a social scientist! Innuendo and invective are only the beginning of thinking. Systematic and rigorous logical analysis are the destination for serious interlocutors.
A social scientist expertly analyzes social and political phenomenon and comes to conclusions that can be defended and even proved with mathematics.
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Delerious Scholastics
Magonia Labs
PO Box 0
Magonia
I’m sorry there’s no phone number. we’re working on that but send the money anway
it would be hard to find that kind of health anywhere, I think, just looking at reality and history. however, that’s a deep thoughts topic. And this is football Sunday. Sunday is the day off for deep thoughts. Even somebody like Paul Dirac took a day off, even though he was a bit nutty. Evidently he took one day off each week and went for a walk that day. The rest of the week he thought deep thoughts. Well, anyway.
It would have been better for him to go for a walk 6 days a week and think deep thoughts one day a week. Deep thoughts may arrive on those 6 walking days as well.
hahahahah. pretty good. When you’re a dude like Paul Dirac, you have something serous to think 6 days of out 7. That’s what being a craftsman and a genius means. it gives you the formal vocabulary of expression to render your deep thoughts intelligible by mankind. The rest of us, if we get 1 day out of 30 where we make sense, we’re doing good!
Just read his Wikipedia entry, hilarious. I’m a big fan of eccentric physicists, scientists, and mathematicians. I had heard of the Dirac delta function before but was unaware he was such a heavyweight in the physics world.
As one who recently went from semi-retirement to 60 hour + work weeks, I feel like my mental and physical health was a lot better when I wasn’t so stressed and over-worked. Who needs it? After coming home from a grueling 10-12 hour work day, exercise of any kind ain’t going to happen – it’s couch potato time.
I view calls for more exercise as merely more bourgeois scolding, the old self-responsibility trip. Most of us aren’t in any position to change our fitness lifestyles.
As long as we’re talking about studies……..cortisol, an enzyme released when we are stressed, has been shown to be detrimental to the body. As someone who has lived on the edge financially your brain does gymnastics daily trying to decide who will get paid from month to month, your body hopefully is doing a couple of miles of walking at work(if you have a sedentary job try to get up and move around because studies have also shown this to be detrimental to health), if those top 2 are true of you then you are right unwinding and getting your cortisol levels down are job 1.
Alzheimer’s or a heart attack. Take your pick. I’ll take the latter.
Actually I have to tell you, but TONS of research shows that weight training will lower your biological age by years, and in the case of people in their 80s who never trained before, by decades. Weight training is the single best anti-aging thing you can do for yourself.
Thank you.
That knowledge benefits us all, not just making us someone’s more productive employees.
…but if you’re in your 80’s and doing weight training for the first time in your life, please engage a certified Physical Therapist or fitness professional. Developing a general body fitness is important before doing progressively more strenuous resistance training.
What’s the point of anti-aging?
I could not agree more!
My mother, whose idea of exercise is going from her bedroom to the living room, with a stop in the kitchen, and eats a so-so diet (lotta fat, even some deep fried, but not a lot of processed food by modern standards), is very sharp for 88. Never watches TV. Reads a book a day, generally mysteries. Also does crossword puzzles all the time and plays solitaire, and bridge several times a month with her friends. She shows only occasional short-term forgetfulness, and I’m never sure its even that, as opposed her being too proud to admit she didn’t hear something (she had a hearing aid but even the fancy ones aren’t as good as your original hearing, particularly when there’s background conversation).
Thanks for all the replies! Very interesting and really enjoyed reading them with my morning coffee.
“2 Reports Find Cleveland Officer Justified In Shooting Tamir Rice ”
Late contenders for this year’s Frederick Mishkin Iceland Prize for Intellectual Integrity?
I wonder how long they think people are going to accept open season on their children?
Longer than you think. Im sure most parents think it only happens to bad black children.
the fed has just gone completely bizarre, just like the rest of the neocon inspired establishment.
there seems to be some mental anguish in america. the world is no longer rewarding it with serendipitous outcomes. no longer a default 4-5% growth.
Welcome to the real world america. Most of the 90s growth was due to financial bubbles fueled by money laundering from the tribe scavenging russia. 2000s were just FIRE sector self dealing. The less said about the period after GFC the better.
We dont need more unlimited growth. We produce enough. We just need to distribute it better. By monetary policy they mean only one thing – more asset bubbles (and hence post retirement plush jobs for fed officials at asset managers… cough … influence peddling… cough) and more skewing of economic power to the 0.1%.
America is basically like a spoilt kid who throws a tantrum at the mention of reality. Its preeminent position is basically due to its fiat money – which is essentially a lie. As the lie and its power encounter reality there is a cathartic reaction a la white people rants , Trump etc.
You will see much more of this, as white men realize the commands for the sea to roll back just because they can print money the world accepts, do not work. Even lies that are accepted by all can have embarrassing limits.
I agree. The fact that they are even discussing it proves how cemented they are in their magical ideology, how impossible escape is from the hive mind.
According to Einstein, they went officially crazy in 2011, by my estimate. Now if they mean they will pay me to take out a loan, and this will increase demand and reverse disinflation and that’s all it takes to make the economy “better” and create jobs[somewhere in the world], then I can at least connect the dots on their cause and effect thinking. As it stands, dementia is the only thing that is evident.
One thing that could save us is if Corbyn’s Peoples QE concept gains traction. Makes people realize the Fed could do something besides take our money and give it to banks.
Hey! I hadn’t thought of that. If they’ll pay me to take out a loan, I’m down with that, however absurd it is. I’ll put it with Yves under her mattress.
I’m planning the software for my own high frequency loan borrowing server (and repayment – I hate bill collectors) as I type. The principal will net to zero by end of day, then I still need to spend money, so the negative interest will go for that. It’s all done with plus and minus signs. No need for money storage.
Giving money directly to the people is an optional they’re beginning to think about.
“But the last time it happened, people used that money to pay off loans. They did not buy more stuff.”
Like that’s a bad thing – fewer loans for poorer banks, and fewer trees cut down from not buying more stuff. Who cares about GDP growth in this case…
I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t seem them doing a “people’s QE” unless the people are are the gates of the Fed and the gates of the oligarchs with pitchforks.
More crumbs is the answer of least resistance…
To me, forcing people to spend (to stimulate the economy, to do one’s patriotic duty) is undemocratic.
Some (or many) want to save in case they get sick or, for sure, when they get old.
“Many here have less than $1,000.”
Less money saved = more dependence on your boss = less academic freedom or any freedom.
Print people’s money and give it to them, even when they don’t spend it and contribute zero growth to the GDP = more freedom.
But we are all too focused on cheerleading GDP growth.
GDP! GDP! GDP!
If we give new money to ourselves,the people, and the economy doesn’t grow, that’s actually a good thing.
What about the jobless? Well, the jobless are people too. So, they will get money too.
And if the economy does grow, well, we will live with that.
My heart is with you, Beef.
I think that there absolutely needs to be a people’s QE. Society and financial systems are struggling to get it right (I hope) but the regular people that pay for their mistakes in trying to get it right should not be punished because “they” chose the wrong road for the citizens. Ideally. Intended or unintended consequences that hurt all citizens, races and creeds happens all the time but has been lessening/improving over the last couple centuries, for the most part. It seems like the eventual goal is a more perfect union that can function by not hurting anyone. By, of and for the people. Ensure domestic tranquility.
Fine, DON’T BUST THE BANKSTERS, but recognize how much they and the government have, hand in hand, hurt the citizenry and the real economy and compensate the citizens for the pain and suffering endured due to bad financial mistakes and choices. I’m a dreamer, I know. But if no banksters go to jail or have to suffer for their crimes, neither should the citizens for not paying their debts created by these mistakes made by the above the law banksters. Mistakes are made in our own lives and by governments – it’s a given, we’re not perfect, but we should strive to be. QE for the people. Compensate them for the hardships government (with limitless funds) makes them endure for poor choices. It’s only fair. Compensate the people until the government, financial systems and society gets it right.
I think that there absolutely needs to be a people’s QE. Society and financial systems are struggling to get it right (I hope) but the regular people that pay for their mistakes in trying to get it right should not be punished because “they” chose the wrong road for the citizens. Ideally. Intended or unintended consequences that hurt all citizens, races and creeds happens all the time but has been lessening/improving over the last couple centuries, for the most part. It seems like the eventual goal is a more perfect union that can function by not hurting anyone. By, of and for the people. Ensure domestic tranquility.
Fine, DON’T BUST THE BANKSTERS, but recognize how much they and the government have, hand in hand, hurt the citizenry and the real economy and compensate the citizens for the pain and suffering endured due to bad financial mistakes and choices. I’m a dreamer, I know. But if no banksters go to jail or have to suffer for their crimes, neither should the citizens for not paying their debts created by these mistakes made by the above the law banksters. Mistakes are made in our own lives and by governments – it’s a given, we’re not perfect, but we should strive to be. QE for the people. Compensate them for the hardships government (with limitless funds) makes them endure for poor policy choices. It’s only fair. Compensate the people until the government, financial systems and society gets it right. It’s not welfare, it’s just compensation. IMHO.
We have a trillion dollars worth of student loans on the books. It’s insane to think that there shouldn’t be some attempt to bring those numbers down and IMO the best way to do it would be to put money into the hands of those with those loans.
I also think the timing last time did not encourage people to spend. The last thing you do when you think there is a possibility that you’ll be laid off is run out shopping. Of course, you save if you think that you might need that money later.
Putting money in the hands of the people should be the focus – faster than government/corporation trickle down.
People who borrowed to pay for medical care, food or shelter, likely all of us also deserve help too, not just students.
We all could use help.
I doubt if they give money to people(and it’s a big if) that they’ll just choose students. It’ll likely be similar to last go round where they give anyone who is a taxpayer $600 with a $300 stipend for kids.
I also suspect it isn’t going to be make or break for those living on the fringes who are struggling with medical care, food, or shelter. Those really need to be addressed by something other that a people’s version of QE.
I agree with you that it will not be and should not be just for students.
As for PQE (people’s QE), we can go PQE1, PQE2, PQE3 ,PQE4, etc.
Of course, I am for People’s money…sort of like permanent PQE.
This is their Final Answer in the War on the Assetless.
In a way, we can say we have enough knowledge, but intellectual property laws or personal pride make the distribution un-even.
Much of it is concentrated in a few places…my secret recipe for turducken, for example.
Well said. After the great fall of market forces worldwide, after the dust settles, I believe there will be more humane economic system(s) to emerge.
There has to be if there is going to a future. We can’t all live the life style that the average U.S. person lives or espiers to. Less not more. Hard to get the monkey off the back for those who are use to all the toys and stuff we have want or have. Personally I need to implement this myself. I covet bicycles. I have nine of them. I can only ride one at time though.
Biden the cautious versus Hillary the reckless.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/10/10/us/politics/a-biden-run-would-expose-foreign-policy-differences-with-hillary-clinton.html
Since Biden seems equally cautious about running for President this may all be moot. However if Sanders is indeed serious about winning the nomination he should be assaulting her FP record even as she tries to soften their differences on domestic policy. IMO the country is ready for a peace candidate, and not one who constantly thinks this is Munich, 1938.
Two war mongers fighting over corporate backing is a show we should all watch. Having two prominent Democrats arguing over unpopular interventions in front of likely Democratic voters will only serve to remind voters the Democratic Party needs to be carefully watched from top to bottom.
I agree the country is ready and has been for a while, but too many people are under the impression Democrats are hippie peaceniks at the mercy of the CIA preferring to shout JFK when their most recent hero acts in a manner in contradiction to the imagined views of supporters.
I’m just saying that
a) If it’s Hillary versus Biden then Biden may indeed be the lesser of two evils. And
b) If it’s Hillary versus Sanders then her plan to finesse his economic message may very well be successful. If he really wants to win he needs to hit her where she is weakest which is foreign policy (at least that’s where she’s likely to be weakest to Dem primary voters). Of course Sanders probably isn’t going to do this which is why some have tagged him with the “sheepdog” label. He seems to be hoping that she will defeat herself–always a possibility.
Latest CBS poll shows Sanders essentially tied with Clinton with voters under the age of fifty. A big edge in older Dem support is where Hillary gets her seemingly large lead over Sanders. Also the poll for Dems is based on just 343 people sample size—I don’t trust a whole lot with that number.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/poll-hillary-clinton-still-leads-democratic-race/
Clinton takes on the NRA! This, one supposes, is what she’ll try to hit Sanders over the head with on Debate Day.
Meanwhile, Brian McFadden ridicules the peace candidate of yesteryear — the Viceroy of Vietghanistan, the Kunduz Killa — our own Barack Obama:
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/07/08/opinion/sunday/the-strip.html
BHO, like Hillary, is just spreading our “values” which is to say we blow them up and then give them money. Btw the latest is that, in addition to everything else, the MSF hospital had a large identifying flag spread across the roof of the building. This probably made a good aiming point for the c130 gunship.
Thanks Fruzy for the Currency Charts!
i’m self taught regarding technicals and caught on pretty quick. i attribute this to my drawing & painting…its all lines.
the RSI’s have all crossed and all candle charts have bounced off trendlines at least twice…another words: WE’RE KILLING THEM OUT THERE.
Every Night there is a Currency Battle in an all out World War to shift inflation and risk.
Algros do NOT reset! i remember a night (around 2012 or so, sorrie its all a blur by now) when a GS trade (in China’s market) got away from them…they worked a couple hours backing out of it and gave up. GS informs China (paraphrasing) ‘we didn’t mean to make that large of trade and we’re not going to make good on it…China Screams back ‘THE F*CK YOU WON’T’. i tried to follow the ‘fallout’ but i couldn’t locate further mention of it…go figure.
“Nature doesn’t feel compelled to stick to a mathematically precise algorithm; in fact, nature probably can’t stick to an algorithm.”
Margaret Wertheim
wow. I thought you were a communist or something. Currency charts and technical analysis? Holy smokes.
Let’s all go to your house for some 10-bagger lessons!
THAT DOES IT! i grew up between a 10yr older half brother and 2yr younger brother…and this less than 125lbs so. belle is sick of your shoves.
Markets Are NO Place to Dick Around and I’ve helped Freeze more people’s pensions and annuities from broke brokers than I care to think about.
There is NOT an L2 or L3 that can read/compete with the Corruption of today’s Broken Free Markets.
There is NO short or long term Chart accounting for the Human Destruction.
I wouldn’t suggest my worst enemy dip a toe near ANY market.
Now, Go F*ck Yourself or let me buy ya a Beer!
Holy smokes.
That’s an easy choice. What do you think, I’m an idiot?
You can buy me a beer anytime. :-)
smart call brother…clink
RE: Exxon’s Climate Concealment
When you take the fossil fuel shilling, you better scream GIMME, otherwise get lost Mr/Madame scientist!
Antidote
OK, birds are impressive. But we humans are trying. Meet the radio controlled flying Pterodactyl.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1HExRBCKP8
The Saudis have been bombing Yemen for 200 days now.
Regarding repub suicide drama, it seems to me that a significant portion of “mainstream business types” have defected to the democrat wing as the more effective method to control society, lets not forget that as the right went right the “left” ran after them. Now we have kabuki. It works pretty well to listen to what people say rather than what they call themselves, and (ISTM) demos are now the “responsible parent” and you need to hew to the rules…that enrich them at your own expense…but it just sounds better to id as a democrat because repubs are loony. A few months ago Lambert I think called for less partisan and more issue orientation (i.e. don’t pick a team or promote a team, listen to what they’re saying and cogitate) and I’ve been trying to do that as I think it makes thinking easier and less dissonant (no need to meld opposing thoughts) but extremely not popular at dinner parties.
The Independent
I just quote[almost] Patrick McGoohan in the old “The Prisoner” TV series. “I am not a binary number. I am a free man!”
For a lot of people, they are free to choose any language for expressing their ideas.
And many choose the only one they know…a gift unused.
Don’t let the giant balloon thingie get you.
I carry a large knitting needle everywhere I go.
You mean “Rover”?
The National Political scene looks more like what happened in Calif over the past 15 years as the Calif voter has become overwhelmingly Democrat due to the endless say NO Republican response to solving any problem presented to them while leading the state. It wasn’t that long ago that the Republican Party was a strong political force in the state and dominated the political landscape but the public expects its governing class to solve problems rather then make it worse or at least make a stab at trying to come up with solutions but if the only response is no new taxes and make government smaller the options for solutions become zero.
The real power in the modern Republican Party is the South and Bible belt but small government is not there interest rather its gaining a lion share of government spending but if the country moves towards the middle and left leaving the Republican Party only the South and some bible states its economic share will shrink further isolating the Republican Party as the Bible belt Party.
Actually, though, it looks to me that, just as in the rest of the country, the Democrat party in California has moved inexorably to the right. For example, witness the failure of single payer to pass the CA Senate by two votes in 2012, even though it had passed the CA legislature twice before only to be vetoed by Schwartzenegger. Had it passed in 2012, I believe most expected that Governor (“Moonbeam’) Brown would have vetoed it.
I agree with tegnost, though, that pointing things like this out doesn’t make one popular at dinner parties.
The key feature about the transition from Republican dominated Calif politics to Democratic has not been a shift from left to right but a realization that Republican rule meant nothing would get done. More of the same now at the Nations Capitol as Republicans view there job as not to solve basic problems related to transportation, education etc but to end government participation in these activities which means less federal dollars available to local and state economies.
Effectively, a combination of economic ignorance, neoliberal hegemony, and the decisive left turn of the US electorate on social issues has allowed the Democrats success in (presidential) election years even when as they drift ever farther right on economics. In midterm elections, a big part of their voting base doesn’t bother to show up and their inferior gerrymandering work gives the republicans an advantage. It doesn’t seem to matter much on social issues anyway, since the Democrats won’t put any weight behind anything at the national level and state governments and courts are doing the work for them.
… so how does the election of Arnold Schwarzenager fit into this narrative?
other then photo ops he did little if anything to move the progressive needle forward and paved the way for Brown and the Democrats to take total control of Calif politically.
When tons of businesses threatened to pack up and leave Indiana after they passed their religious freedom thing I thought: how sad, business built up the Republican party and now that the Democratic party is thoroughly captured, they’re just being tossed away.
Who knows in another decade we may have Boehner running for the Presidency as a Democrat a la Lincoln Chaffee. *Sigh*
If present trends continue, Boehner will be considered too far to the left to win the Democratic nomination ten years from now.
Does it really matter if the business types don’t control tea partiers? They believe completely in dismantling regulations, crushing the worker, etc. What’s the functional difference?
The Republican suicide ballad: The party that can’t govern, and the country that hates its guts Salon. A fun rant, but too many Dems seem to be counting their chickens before they are hatched. As this article points out, Republican craziness DID lead to the Republicans winning the House. The problem is that the mainstream business types no longer control the monster they created.
Bad link. Correct link here:
http://www.salon.com/2015/10/11/the_republican_suicide_ballad_the_party_that_cant_govern_and_the_country_that_hates_its_guts/
Also, bad analysis:
It was Obama and the Democrats who “convinced enormous numbers of Democrats and lots of moderate Republicans to give up and stay home because American politics had become worthless and terrible.” How? By demonstrating that the only alternative to the Right Wing extremists was bi-partisan oligarchy, authoritarianism, and austerity. After all, it was the Tea Party alone that prevented Obama’s Grand Bargain.
Though the author alludes to Democratic complicity, he remains myopically focused on the failures of the GOP. In a fully-developed two-party system like ours, one cannot analyze either party in isolation. The political system is the proper subject of analysis. Had the author done that, he would have seen that the Right Wing shift of the Democratic Party, even at the expense of electoral success, created the Tea Party and caused the GOP to become insane. Since the Democratic Party now occupies the political space that was once the province of “normal” Republicans, the GOP was effectively chased into lunacy by the Democrats. And because the Democrats have moved Right in the face of a country demanding Progressivism, the Democratic Party has failed politically, and that gives the GOP little incentive to course correct.
It’s a fun rant but a very partial truth. As you point out, the numbers, when you pluck them out from the flow, don’t back up the author’s thesis. They don’t call it a two-party system for nothing.
I think Yves has hammered this point repeatedly: the Democrats now consider it success when they mock the GOP, even though GOP policies are now the norm within the Democratic Party. Margaret Thathcher once said that her greatest achievement was Blair’s New Labour Party, i.e., transforming the nominally Leftist party into a vehicle for corporatism. Same here in the U.S., where Reagan/Clinton did the same thing to the Democratic Party. So who should really be laughing at whom?
“The political system is the proper subject of analysis.”
Bingo. And that’s why it doesn’t matter much who’s (s)elected until we change the system.
I like, wbgonne, that you called out the Democrats for effectively creating Tea Party. Seems right to me (pun intended).
Yes, I think there’s little doubt of it. The Tea Party was a direct result of Obama’s refusal to prosecute the banksters or otherwise effectuate dramatic political-economic re-balancing in the wake of Wall Street’s catastrophic thievery.
After all, it was the Tea Party alone that prevented Obama’s Grand Bargain.
Really? And here I was thinking it was that it was the majority of us from BOTH parties that have grown tired of hearing that we need to tighten our belts and were disgusted that the government after collecting excess money from us for years wants to renege on using it for what it was intended.
it was the majority of us from BOTH parties that have grown tired of hearing that we need to tighten our belts and were disgusted that the government after collecting excess money from us for years wants to renege on using it for what it was intended.
Yes, that is a fact. But regarding the passage of Obama’s Grand Bargain, it is an irrelevant fact. The Grand Bargain was on course for passage notwithstanding the opposotion of the majority of Americans. It was the Tea Party’s rebellion within the GOP that stopped it (for their own hideous reasons, of course). What the American people want is largely irrelevant to which policies are enacted.
Yes, exactly the point I made further down. Better said, too.
I have a roomba, which vacuums, and a braava, which mops. Their names are Dobbie and Kreature, and I would hate to return to life without them. But as for folding laundry, I think I’ll be sticking with my flip and fold.
My neighbors have a Roomba and love it. They have a small, adorable dog and the Roomba is great for keeping the pooch hair under control.
… and when the pooch poops the floor, the roomba will happily spread it ALL OVER the place in a nice and uniform thin layer…
Ouch!
I thought I was one fierce neo-Luddite.
I am still thinking roomba though…looking to spend more time at the gym.
Best laugh all day. Really disgusting, too.
RE: Huge rally in Berlin says ‘No’ to EU-US trade deal
Who can blame them? Franken-food, vile snooping and Job-free Zones are what they don’t want!
I think that one of the delusions of liberals is that the Republican Party has gone out of its mind. In fact, the Republicans have been rewarded with majorities in Congress, a whole slew of thuggish governors, and money beyond their wildest dreams. Rewarded behavior is behavior that will continue.
The question is not suicide. The question is, Aren’t they now looking for a Robespierre? Someone to purify them and, by extension, us?
I think this is a “both/and” issue. Surely insane people will find insanity adaptive in an insane system?
The Republicans are heavily infected by economic fundamentalism, religious fundamentalism, and U.S. exceptionalism. A toxic brew, indeed, but not symptoms (individually) of insanity. The system–which would be the U.S. economy and our easily shortcircuited constitutional system–is stagnant. But that isn’t insanity, either. Throw in guns, and you still don’t have insanity.
What you have is a remarkably unpleasant, shiftless, and feckless group of people–unmatched except for the English aristocracy.
Further news from Turkey:
http://www.todayszaman.com/latest-news_turkey-sees-isil-hand-in-ankara-bombings_401188.html
Suicide bombers, not just planted bombs, although no one has come up with evidence yet. Nevertheless, Erdogan is an idiot, whose Ottoman-Byzantine approach to politics has meant throwing away every one of his own advantages.
Typically, suicide bombers take credit; otherwise, what’s the point?
Any reason it can’t be an inside job? It’s not like bombs at rallies are evenly distributed across the political spectrum, is it?
The overnight protests all over Turkey have no doubt about the root cause: Sultan Erdogan’s failed Neo-Ottoman policies.
lets keep our finger crossed for an Islamic theocracy!
Is that why Erdogan bombs the Kurds and buys oil from the IS? Rusophobia leads to all kinds of absurdities.
You do realize the Turks have been helping the extremists in Syria right?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syria-crisis-turkey-and-saudi-arabia-shock-western-countries-by-supporting-anti-assad-jihadists-10242747.html
I think your sarcasm detector is off
It’s not, though. Opti gives the false choice between Erdogan and “islamic theocracy,” conveniently overlooking the islamist bent of Erdogan’s own party and his policies, and his support for the very islamists in Syria who would be thrilled to establish an islamic theocracy. Such false choice conveniently overlooks the very large and strong secular population in Turkey, be it leftist or Kemalist, and Erdogan’s brutal crackdown on the secular opposition (Think Gezi Park), on the free press, and on secular Kemalist Army officer corps. The fact is, Turkey is a bit like the US: rural religious population and urban secular centers. But the trend has been of a weakened Erdogan, to the point his party could not win a majority earlier this year, and could not form a coalition government either, thus forcing another election a few weeks from now. This bombing may well serve as a convenient pretext for Erdogan to call off the election. I won’t put anything past him at this point.
In lieu of a standard sarcasm emoji, I propose this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92d1xtjXf8E
“Do The Signal”
Mass Anti-Government Protest Held After Turkey’s Worst Terror Attack Ever. Read the article, look at the pictures of these people. Do they look and sound like “islamic theocracy” lovers to you? Your position is beyond misguided.
Looking at the public video of the explosion, the blast pattern doesn’t look like belt bomb episodes visible elsewhere. Convenient to lay it off to unnamed terrorists, expecting the mopes to attach it to PKK or ISIS. In a world of sneaky-Petes and false flag and provocateur idiocy galore, one despairs of an honest provenance, thanks to all the “security people in play. Much less the kind of spiritual thinking that might lead to an end of this endless turn if the grinding disjointing wheel…
Hmmmm. Lambert, much of this “deep state” business comes out of Turkish politics, so I’m not ready to go in that direction yet. Erdogan, for all of ineptitude as a politician of late, doesn’t have much to gain by making the Republican People’s Party and the People’s Democratic Party into martyrs. See Zaman web site for articles about the victims, including a People’s Democratic Party candidate for parliament.
i’m more in agreement with your questions: “Any reason it can’t be an inside job? It’s not like bombs at rallies are evenly distributed across the political spectrum, is it?”
…than “suicide bombers take credit”. too many feel a duty to accept money or some kind security for their family. during a failing economy (even for sheikdom/s), what if the suicide bomber is threatened with their family’s death?…no beliefs necessary.
Trump’s stuff. It puts the conspicuous in conspicuous consumption.
Just add periwigs.
Much more.
In California, electric cars outpace plugs and sparks fly.
The most common form of energy is anger energy.
The most powerful and abundant form of energy is love energy. We just need to burn it. The cleanest too.
The Chinese micro pig.
Today, micro pigs in China.
Tomorrow, micro humans everywhere.
It might cut down on our environmental impact a ‘tiny’ bit.
IMF: Keep interest rates low or we will have to start living like the assetless.
Interesting situation in Mill Valley, California regarding Whole Foods.
First store opened in the 1990s and was a blessing and was very busy. About ten years later, they opened a second store less than two miles away, competing with their original store. Heard that their strategy was twofold, keep Trader Joe’s from opening a store in the second location, and to help bankrupt a family owned store that’s been around since the 1920s.
Picture a triangle on a map, with the family owned store at the top, in a dead-end valley and the two Whole Foods on either leg, intercepting commuters coming in on either leg.
Now, one of the finest 100% organic stores in America, the Good Earth, is going to open a second store in a refurbished supermarket about a mile and a quarter away from Whole Foods first store. It’s going to be a commercial bloodbath for WF, as the difference in quality and the 100% organic status of the Good Earth will lure away WF customers.
Also, the first WF store signed a long lease that has many years to go. So not only are they already competing against them self, and the family market that doing ok, but will now be abandoned by their customers defecting to the Good Earth.
The original Good Earth is too far away to compete with their own second store.
It is wall to wall customers and fabulous sales numbers. Hee-hee!
http://www.genatural.com/store/
EZ money can allow a corporation to bankrupt any family store.
Top down money creation flows 2 ways.
1. straight down, a hundred million spend agents for a hundred million needed workers.
2. like a pyramid…a few departments/corporations for all of us…the case here.
Bottom up money creation is the opposite.
If the government needs money, let the people spend some new money to help it out, as it trickles up.
“Bottom up money creation is the opposite.” MLTPB
How’s that going to work? How do individuals create fiat? They can’t that I can see.
Instead, how about letting the monetary sovereign distribute new fiat equally (or means tested) to the population as it (new fiat) is needed? And yes, then some of it can be taxed back.
But yes, money should trickle from the bottom up.
Rather, to be more specific, fiat should trickle from the bottom up since it is supposed to serve the general welfare, not that of banks and the rich.
Nice!
Our daughter worked at the Good Earth market in Fairfax…place always crowded, high-quality goods, all honest organic/sustainable/biodynamique, prices equal to or lower than WF, locally owned and well-managed. Eating WF lunch, from what we observed.
158 families dominate campaign contributions.
I think there’s still room for 42 more.
On the hot-button issue of “Gunz”:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/10/06/zero-correlation-between-state-homicide-rate-and-state-gun-laws/
As the author notes, multiple times, cause and correlation do not necessarily go hand in hand, but the stats are interesting.
Personally I feel that the best way to control the use of guns, considering the probable continuous long-term fight of for-vs.-against, is to require some sort of ongoing training for those that legally want to own one on both the use/handling and ability to secure them, as well as the many suggestions here of required firearms insurance. For what it’s worth, that happens to be my own personal policy that I follow.
Although this will take awhile, I think the best way to control the use of guns is to stigmatize ammosexuals — first cut: People who identify as gun owners — for the fevered and futile wankers they are. It worked with cigarettes, though it took awhile; smoking was once glamorous, but now it is at least smelly and disgusting enough that public use carries significant stigma, as it should, because they’re dangerous.
Lambert,
I love your column and read it daily, and will continue to do so, but insulting responsible gun owners as “fevered and futile wankers” is not a very good way to carry on a conversation that moves forward with the issues… and there are legitimate issues, particularly when you consider that about 38% to 40% of American Citizens own one. (And it would seem pretty obvious that 38% of American Citizens are not running around participating in mass shootings. If they did the ownership issue would be moot – the present population of the U.S. would be zero.)
You bring up one below with your comment about tools designed to whack large numbers of people. Responsible (and trained) hunters, for instance, rarely use, and surely don’t need (if they know what they’re doing) clips holding multiple rounds. The immediate availability of multiple rounds is probably the second biggest issue with regards to the mass shootings… and the biggest show-stopper when they are no longer available. So eliminate magazines that carry more than 2 or 3 rounds. That’s been a NY State shotgun law since before I was born… and I’ve never heard anyone complain.
Required gun ownership liability insurance could easily force people to pay through the nose unless they are willing to get yearly training on storage and handling of the guns they own. That’s one method. The other is to start creating and publicizing lawsuits that hold the registered gun owner severely responsible financially… and if it turns out that it was a young adult shooter that was the legal owner, and on off-label prescribed psychotropics, a common thread nowadays as we all know, then the doctor and pharma company get the sh*t sued out of them… and then publicize it for months on end.
You’re right about smoking, but it’s not illegal, and there are no known cases that I’m aware of where smoking has proved to be beneficial in any situation, so I personally do not consider this a valid comparison. I’m sure you have at least one or two friends that are probably responsible gun owners, and I’m equally sure that being in their immediate vicinity at any time has not caused you any physical harm, unlike cigarettes.
JCC,
The only time I’ve owned a gun was when I was working on foot in grizzly country in NW Alaska. I had a pump-action 12-gauge.
Would the NY shotgun law you mention have forbidden that gun, or required that the magazine be reduced?
Just curious.
Although this will take a while too, I think the only long term solution is ceasing most gun manufacturing. You have the right to keep and bear them, but not to manufacture. Combine that with policies to pull existing small arms out of circulation, and limit access to ammo. It’ll never happen of course….
The Australians managed it, and they have a reputation for being the farthest out there ‘rugged individualists.’ (I’m of two minds about all of this, but, there it is.)
How about just outlawing the manufacture and sale of ammunition?
Or, dole them out at shooting ranges, so the dosage is controlled.
And then there is this:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnwasik/2013/02/21/the-myth-of-gun-liability-insurance/
The UK doesn’t have easy access to guns and they’ve had several mass shootings. Even if we did more to restrict access, would we see more knifings, arsons or machete attacks?
Angry, unstable people are going to find a way.
Would you agree with me that it’s a lot easier to whack large number of people with a tool that’s designed to do that?
Yes, I would agree. I’m just not convinced that restricting firearms access would reduce the amount of mass violence. Maybe it could reduce the number of angry, unstable, lazy people who commit mass violence.
The ones we hear about tend to be the planners.
How do you kill a dozen people with a pipe? It gets alot harder.
If you want to kill one person its easy to do that without guns, but mass killings like the kind we are seeing frequently are mostly possible through guns.
Make the pipe into a pipe bomb?
The Feds are much more proactive towards anyone attempting to make a pipe bomb/bomb since OKC and 9/11.
Yes to that. Try to buy a lot of ammonium nitrate fertilizer without knowing the vendors really well. Timmy McVeigh and his co-conspirators did the Murrah Building bombing with a home made diesel fuel ammonium nitrate mix. The same mix miners use for underground explosions.
Klebold and Harris were making pipebombs out of CO2 canisters. They also made larger bombs with propane tanks. From Wiki,
This was 4 years after OKC.
James Holmes had over 30 homemade grenades and 30 US gallons of gasoline wired up to detonate in his Aurora apartment.
This was 11 years after 9/11.
So, OK. You’re telling me it’s just as easy for an amateur to build a weapon designed to kill than buy one that’s designed and manufactured by professionals. Pull the other one, it’s got bells on! Did I mention how deserving of ridicule ammosexuals are?
Comparison of current utility doesn’t seem all that relevant to comparing post-intervention utility, especially if the justification for that intervention is to deny access to one of the options under comparison. If all you have is a jerry can, every problem looks like a combustion deficiency.
For the comment you’re replying to, my point was that even though the Feds “are much more proactive towards anyone attempting to make a pipe bomb/bomb”, bombs are still being built and used.
Of course it is easier to buy rather than build, just look at our manufacturing economy. You mentioned that above and I agreed with you. People who are mentally troubled will find a way to get the destructive power they want, regardless of how easy or hard it is. According to the Mother Jones study I referenced below, the majority of public mass shootings are committed by people who are mentally troubled.
I also find ammosexuals ridiculous. If someone’s identity is tied to a firearm, I think that is pretty sad. Then again, look at how many identities are tied to cars.
@David– you say, the UK “has had several mass shootings.”
Yeah. We have a couple a WEEK. There is no comparison.
And then there’s the warfare on our city streets, where children and other innocent bystanders are being caught in the cross-fire on a depressingly regular basis…because guess what? Apparently most people are lousy shots.
There is no excuse for the carnage that takes place in this country on a daily basis. I say, ban the sale of ammunition.
From Mother Jones,
The point I’m trying to make it this,
Also from Mother Jones,
legacy of the de-institutionalization in the 60’s, in some ways. plus stigmatization of mental health problems. And pharma focused care, which of those 3 is more of a personal prejudice than a fact based declaration.
If they are 18 or over what do you do? Forcing someone into a psychiatric hospital is something that only happened in the old communist dictatorships.
Anyway, symptomatic of the failure of community, I think.
And I don’t know where to say this, but I know a lot of people with guns. Context is important – I live in a very rural area. Normal in one context is pathological in another, which is a general problem with law, sometimes.
So you know, I’m a bit of a Jain, but if there’s a rabid fox hanging around the chickens, which means near the house, having a rifle and being an accurate shot is useful. It happens. There is some reservoir of rabies in the wildlife population here. What we tell ourselves is that a rabid animal is in some agony and it’s more or less an assisted suicide. It is unusual to have an animal approach you in broad daylight.
Lumping me and my neighbors together with a mass shooter is – well, it’s not clearly identifying the problem.
Which brings me back around to mental health. We should be studying gun violence. Low opinion generally of the intelligence of myself and most others of my species, but we are on occasion capable of effective and nuanced regulation after a period of unbiased study.
Evil Exceptionalism is better than no Exceptionalism, I guess?
thanks for the Dr. Dean Baker link.
As Baker says in his “Conservative Nanny State” book, the USian “Free Trade” advocates, who would currently include the TPP hacks like 0bama, & his expletive-riders/psychophants like Fareed Zakaria, are for partial “free trade” competition for some industries/workers, and for corporate-welfare massive protectionism for some politically powerful industries & workers.
If the TPP were actually consistently Free Trade TM, any USian patient or pharma wholesaler could be a Free Market Competitve Shopper TM & reimport the same pharma product, from a Canadian or other low-cost Competitive TM nation. Ditto for closed-sourced software, movies/music, and other “IP” protected non-physical products.
If the TPP were actually consistently Free Trade, the Veterans Affairs Hospital network, & private hospitals would be importing physicians at $50K salaries on H1-B visas (at least until the very low USian physicians per capita rate matches the OECD median rate), claiming “not enough Muricans are willing to do such a dirty job as a proctologist” or some such bogus excuse, just as they do for non-politically powerful occupations, especially for engineers.
This obvious point is seemingly ignored by BigMedia & BigPoli-trick-ians. Even Sen. Sanders, who opposes TPP, afaik does not point out the TPP hypocrisy issue of maintaining the massive protectionist corporate-welfare for these politically favored industries & occupations.
I stumbled upon an interview on C”N”N, where lawyer/pundit Susan Estrich noted that “Biden will not enter the Pres race, unless Biden is assured by DNC Chair Wasserman Schultz that the DNC will provide equal Favoritism that Hellary receives. Obviously Biden will not agree to the non-preferential treatment Sanders & the other Dem candidates currently receive from the DNC”.
The C”N”N newsmodel “journalist” did not follow up with a question on said blatant admittance of the DNC’s favoritism of Hellary, while simultaneously being the “referee” of the Pres primary & the debate schedule, etc.
This is akin to having the most diehard expletive-riding Tom Brady/Patriots fan, simultaneously being hired to be the NFL referee of Patriots games.
Meanwhile you have 0bama lecturing the world that “Murica is the Greatest Exceptionalist Democracy TM”, and “Murica wishes to spread Democracy”. How can the US claim to be a Democracy, with such a blatant, openly stated conspiracy for the DNC to rig the Pres primary for Hellary?
g0d & fsm willing, 1 of the candidates is undergoing spinal surgery this weekend, & will confront Hellary & the DNC on this Dem Primary Rigging issue, during the Tuesday Oct 13 debate.
From the results so far, it doesn’t appear that DNC favor is all that helpful.
Thanks for the Mother Jones link to the interview of David Talbot about his bio of Allen Dulles. Looking forward to reading it. About a year ago Stephen Kinzer published The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War which argues the case that the two essentially controlled the Eisenhower administration’s foreign policy by almost always presenting a united front. I’m especially looking forward to reading what Talbot has to say about Allen and the John Kennedy assassination, which is discussed near the end of the interview. The Brothers is not only informative but snarky on occasion, beginning on the dust jacket where the brothers are described as “one a self-righteous prude, the other a charming libertine.” There are also several acidic assessments of Foster by notable Brits of the day:
Churchill: “Foster Dulles is the only case I know of a bull who carries his own china shop around with them.”
MacMillan: “His speech was slow, but it easily kept pace with his thoughts.”
A lesson in logic from “Flat Wages Lead to Search for Anti-Politician New York Times”:
” If Washington is the problem, goes the thinking, the solution is sure to come from somewhere else.” That is false logic; “is sure to” doesn’t follow. In fact, it’s a slander of the voters he’s talking about. What follows, or at least makes sense, would be: “has to,” or “can only.” Still not entirely true, since there could be an outsider politician; but a logical bet, and the real reason so many Republicans prefer non-politicians. Importantly, the latter doesn’t say there IS a solution, or that any of those on offer is a solution; it only limits where a solution can come from.
It’s essentially “Let’s try something completely new” – which gives even Republican voters credit for common sense. And of course, it’s also the reason Sanders is doing so well (though not in the lead, as Trump is).
Wonderland
wow. there’s some crazy shlt in the PG today. Lots of raw emotion. People’s nerves are getting frayed and they’re spitting and slapping and smacking faces.
Even though there arent any faces. Even though it’s nothing but a mirror. That’s weird, really. To get smacked by your own mind at words written on a mirror that you look at and see something that you don’t recognize as yourself. That’s quite strange really.
I guess it’s no different than reading a book. Then you read it and you change your mind about reality and about yourself. Why? That’s weird, but it’s true. The native Americans had a weird thing they did. They went out of the village at a certain point in their youth to have their Dream Vision. They sat in a hole and fasted until they had hallucinations and those hallucinations gave them their life idea. It told them who they are and what their life will be for. Not every tribe of course. I think this was Plains Indians in particular.
In our society that dream vision question is a daily event and the dreams occur not just in the mind but in all the realms of ideas and images that surround you. It’s like swimming underwater in a kalediscopic river. Mostly it’s easy to drown and some don’t. The ones who don’t. I don’t know. maybe their unconscious. haha
the other thing the Indians did, and this was the new England tribes, is they collected themselves in groups of 100 or so, maybe more, around a Shaman who would be their leader. If the shaman went crazy or was crazy, sometimes they’d start killing people or ruining everything. And they’d get rid of that one and they’d find another. Why did they need one? That’s weird too. I don’t think they ever abstracted the ideas of order that were ideals that should be manifested by a shaman so there would be an objective standard everyone could agree on. Evidently they did not have social scientists who could formulate equations and logical laws by which shamans should govern. Somehow we have the same problem, even though we don’t admit it. Lot’s of shlt in the mirror. it’s so hard to see yourself.
a Shaman without ‘raw’ knowledge of transference and counter-transference…weird indeed.
On my better days, I look in the mirror and see everyone, everywhere. On a bad day, I see the Poster Child for abortion rights. Decisions, decisions.
Wow– this comment approaches a Bukowski level of genius! It puts me in mind of this observation by Charles B. himself:
“The Republican suicide ballad: The party that can’t govern, and the country that hates its guts Salon”
Yes, O’Hehir writes a fun rant. But this one is a massive evasion of the real problem: the Democrats’ blitz to the Right. You’re wrong about the reason the Republicans gained control of Congress: not because they’re crazy, but because the Democrats systematically betrayed their voters – and that’s something you think yourself. Overall, Republican votes didn’t increase much; Democratic votes fell, dramatically.
Remember, at this point BOTH legacy parties are unpopular – barely 50% support. That means they aren’t really major parties any more; they’re both down around a quarter of the electorate. And that process is still going on. when will it affect peoples’ voting patterns? Well, it has; it’s causing extremely low turnouts – which help the Republicans, or any party with an effective machine (like the Dems in Oregon).
Trouble is, low turnouts make all too much sense when voting doesn’t really matter – as Page and Sigel established.
The Final Leaked TPP Text is All That We Feared. Read the comments too
Cortisol does not just effect the vessels and the adrenal gland it makes changes to the structure of your brain.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201402/chronic-stress-can-damage-brain-structure-and-connectivity