Liquidity deteriorates for US Treasuries FT
Energy Downturn Spreads Beyond the Oil Patch WSJ
VW admits second illegal device in Audis FT
U.S. taxpayers set to shell out for growing peanut pile Reuters (E Mayer). Not the only pile.
New York’s top prosecutor probes brokers over forex spoofing FT
NFL player Freeney claims that Merrill Lynch was complicit in a scheme that cost him $20 million and a Rolling Stone restaurant Business Insider
Firm that teaches ‘life skills’ to suspected shoplifters extorts them, suit alleges Los Angeles Times (James St.Clair). Well, being extorted is a “life skill.”
For Addicts, Fantasy Sites Can Lead to Ruinous Path NYT. For example, Iraq.
Syraqistan
ISIS Hate The Big Picture
Yemen and the War on ISIS American Conservative (Re Silc). “The U.S. should end its involvement in the war on Yemen, and it should also seriously reevaluate what benefit the U.S. derives from having clients that consistently work at cross-purposes with our policies.”
Inside the surreal world of the Islamic State’s propaganda machine WaPo. Seems like the ISIS media department is full of MBAs, talented graphic designers, and fluent, idiomatic English speakers. That doesn’t sound much like an operation run by Saddam’s ex-generals.
New U.S.-Turkish Bluster For Open War On Syria Moon of Alabama
Why the Paris terror attacks didn’t ‘change everything’ Pepe Escobar, RT. “The key node is the Turkish-Syria border. This is the privileged spot where ISIS/ISIL/Daesh goons cross back-and-forth at will.”
The New ‘Extraordinary Threat’ to US National Security Is A Landlocked Country in Africa Vice
Starship Troopers: One of the Most Misunderstood Movies Ever The Atlantic
Refugees
The moral and strategic case for admitting Syrian refugees WaPo
Stop wars, end refugee problem, says Edmontonian who came here as a refugee CBC (RG).
Bomb explodes outside Greek business federation offices in Athens: police Reuters
China?
Chinese Ghost Cities Coming to Life What’s On Weibo (Re Selc).
Hong Kong political gulf not closing any time soon South China Morning Post
Guotai Junan Chairman’s Absence Deepens China Crackdown Fears WSJ
Japan is using South China Sea tensions to peddle military hardware in Asia Quartz. How do you say “self-licking ice cream cone” in Japanese?
Quietly, Guam is slated to become massive new U.S. military base McClatchy
Malaysia’s 1MDB Decoded WSJ. Massive corruption scandal.
She once was lost The Economist. Phillipines Presidential election.
2016
Wall Street: Democrats Work To Block New Regulations After Flood Of Campaign Cash International Business Times
Lack of Enthusiasm From Supporters May Undermine Clinton’s Lead NYT
Hillary Clinton Looks Past Primaries, and to Republicans, in Strategy to Beat Sanders NYT. Worked in 2008…
Bernie Sanders Talks Income Inequality at Black Churches in South Carolina ABC. “Sanders gained 16 percentage points among nonwhite voters since the last poll in October, whereas Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton lost 11 percentage points.” Hmm.
The Socialism of Bernie Sanders Jacobin. Symposium.
The Perfect Republican Stump Speech FiveThirtyEight. Very good.
Speaking Style Says Volumes About GOP Race Stuart Rothenberg, Roll Call
The Note: Trump on Terrorism ABC. “At this point, it’s not simply a matter of Donald Trump defying political gravity. Even his opponents have to marvel at how good a politician he is, in his ability to adapt to moments and channel the (often unspoken) passions of his supporters.”
Youthful Rubio’s message appeals most to seniors Reuters
The Republican polling best in New Hampshire? Mitt Romney. WaPo
GOP Candidates Have It All Wrong on Community Banks’ Demise American Banker
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
ShotSpotter recording of street argument raises potential privacy issues South Coast Today
Google can remotely bypass the passcode of 74% of all Android devices, claims report Daily Mail
Should The MTA Allow These Nazi Insignias On Subway Cars? Gothamist. Man in the High Castle publicity.
If #Blacklivesmatter Then You Need to Know the Daniel Holtzclaw Case Ebony
Meet Some of Our Top Commenters NYT. NC is not the only online site that values its commentariat!
The Realism of Audacity Socialist Project (Sid). Idea: “The molecular is the intersectional.” Well, it sounds profound….
Anger rises as Brazilian mine disaster threatens river and sea with toxic mud Guardian (RR).
COP21: Too Little, Too Late? Temperature, CO2 Thresholds Breached as Climate Disruption Intensifies Truthout
Antidote du jour. When Belgian police requested social media silence during a series of anti-terrorism raids on Sunday, people complied but by tweeting pictures of their cats tagged #BrusselsLockdown. Here’s one:
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/11/turkey-shoots-warplane-syria-border-151124081519290.html
Turkey shot down a Russian warplane. I guess the Kurds are having a party right now.
After the opening pawn moves, Russia put the bishops in play (cruise missiles) and NATO withdrew a queen (USS Theodore Roosevelt). This looks like Russia is sacrificing a knight.
Look at a map. Russia has two cold weather naval bases within its extended perimeter. Crimea, which requires passage through Istanbul (Turkey), and Syria, which is currently relevant.
Russia is playing chess, China is playing weiqi. NATO is playing poker with an overextended hand and just had a bluff called. Does NATO double down based on the overwhelming number of chips it seems to have, regardless of the other hands at the table? And just who is the pigeon?
You forgot the Charles De Gaulle which arrived and began conducting airstrikes the other day.,
France is only interested in ISIS, not backing those amazing disappearing “moderates” and regime change, and is no credible threat to Russia. France would not risk a confrontation with Russia where the Russians would be forced to take out the Charles De Gaulle. If you want to play Tom Philips (and I think you are under the same misapprehension he was) please don’t; the world does not need to test what I believe from your posts is your unassailable belief in American military superiority.
“France is only interested in ISIS, not backing those amazing disappearing “moderates” and regime change”
The President of France has repeatedly said that Assad must go. Wouldn’t that be ‘regime change’?
He has neither the will nor the ability to do that, but it sits well with the ever-Francophobic Americans to repeat their rhetoric at no cost to France.
France was one of the ‘leading’ voices insisting Assad go. They apparently were quite angry that Assad told Qatar and the Saudis no when they wanted that pipeline through Syria, to bypass Gazprom. They are right up there with the Saudis and Qatar as far as why we have the mess we have in Syria.
Pepe always nails it. “The key node is the Turkish/Syria border”. He wrote that before the shoot-down.
When will the bleeding *obvious* finally be admitted: NATO, France, and the US are ardent supporters and funders of terrorists.
This is like the grand paterfamilias figure, august, greying, supporting the whole clan…finally being forced to admit he’s been fondling the granddaughter. He’ll never do it.
I find the whole thing disturbing. Somebody just did something stupid, and I don’t know who. I just hope all the players have all the facts, as misunderstandings or misapprehensions at a time like this are deadly dangerous. Russia’s response to the downing of her airliner was slow and measured by US standards. How Putin and his government will react to this is critical. The law of the jungle is tit for tat, and all Russia has is the law of the jungle as the US effectively has a negative control of the UN (it can always stop what it doesn’t want from happening).
It’s now a question of safety versus credibility. My fervent hope is that Russia plays it safe. If they insist on maintaining their credibility, they will have to hit back and hope that there is a diplomatic way out of the confrontation. I’m scared.
Somebody just did something stupid,
I’m guessin plural
Plural: ‘Mistakes were made.’
….Stuff Happens™
btw.. Russia’s response to the downing of her airliner was slow and measured by US standards.
huh?
It took them weeks to confirm that it was a terror attack (they didn’t jump to conclusions) and the response was measured. American political and media elites always scream terrorism at the drop of a hat and demand retaliation yesterday.
I agree. I suspect that Russia is learning from our mistakes. Fight in haste, repent at leisure.
Why do you think they took weeks to concede the metrojet was blown out of the sky with a bomb? Are you implying the USG conclusion was wrong? I dont get it, the russians concede the same causality.
Looks to me more like Putin weighed the incontrverable airtightness of the evidence and the largerset of circumstances that would flow from the Russian position on why the metrojet went down.
I don’t think Putin wanted to credit the ISIS forces with that swift and able an ability to respond to his move. Attacks like the one launched against that plane take time and solid planning. Putin wants to make ISIS out to be fanatical pirates and bandits threatening the sovereignty of Syria. The last thing he wants them portrayed as is a state acting like a state with state attributes and capabilities.
The latest on this from Moon of Alabama.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2015/11/the-two-versions-of-the-latakia-plane-incident.html
He says even by the Turk provided map of the incident the Russian planes were only over Turkish airspace for about five seconds. It’s quite likely that the shootdown was a deliberate ambush and provocation.
Putin just described it as “a stab in the back” so provocation is probably how Russia is going to view and react to it. I hope that the pilots are OK.
The retaliation I would wish for but won’t see is the Russian spooks giving chapter and verse on how the Turks have paid for and facilitated the purchase of arms and equipment for ISIS. It would be a propaganda coup of epic proportions and throw European opinion into a tizzy it would be tough for Hollande et al. to extricate themselves from. Alas, spooks only want to horde information like misers, never use it for strategic ends (the “keeping your powder dry” theory gone insane). So, I remain scared.
Yes, the incident smells of Erdogan and Davutoglu style of politics–that deeply Ottoman all-too-cleverness.
http://www.todayszaman.com/national_chp-returns-syria-bound-mi-t-trucks-to-parliaments-agenda_405078.html
That would actually be brilliant. One could envision a systematic media campaign of leaks of evidence to make it impossible to deny Erdogan’s misdeeds. Heck, expose the Saudis and the other Gulf regimes. It could be possible to make the American public mad enough to make it politically toxic in the US to be seen lifting a finger to support the Turks. Once you’ve got the USA’s hands tied. Then, shut off the gas and arm the YPG and PKK and see if Erdogan has some 2nd thoughts or gets beaten so badly at the next election that he can’t even rig his way out of it.
I wonder what on earth the Turks were thinking on this one. Makes no sense unless Erdogan has just lost his mind.
I have seen it opined that Erdogan wants to be a new Turkish Emperor, in an Islamic way. Moon of Alabama quoted opinions that Erdogan wants to gain control of Northern Syria for himself. If that’s his game plan, all bets are off.
Do notice that Putin spoke of “terrorists’ accomplices.” As noted above, Putin can play a really powerful hand if he exposes Turkish and Western clandestine support of Daesh.
I always thought Erdogan wanted to be Sultan. The U.S. is receding from the Middle East regardless of the next President. Despite Hillary’s militancy, she will come into office as crippled as Dubya was except against a Congress that will hate her and found she has no coattails.
Erdogan is running out of time if Russia gets settled into a mid east role as an ally of Damascus and Bagdhdad instead of a colonial master with a prominent Iran as an ally.
The Turks had warned the Russians last Friday that they would shoot if the Russian aircraft crossed the border. Looks like they meant it.
And just why would you take a belligerent islamist’s and sponsor of terror’s version for the truth? Erdogan will pay the price. Not today, not tomorrow, not within a month. Russians take their time but do not forget.
The Turks and the Russians have a long history between them: neither needs nor wants Americans or Frenchmen to tell them how to behave with respect to each other.
Check this out:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Russo-Turkish_wars#List_of_conflicts
..so what was happening in the US or in France back in 1598, when the Turks and Russians were in but one of the earliest of their many wars against each other?
IMHO, The Turks need to remember that NATO is a defensive alliance, and not simply a knee-jerk back-up squad for aggressive Turkish military Poo-bahs.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/russian-pilot-search-jet-shot-down-turkey-rebels-turkmen-syria-border-putin-assad-a6746436.html
One is dead, one missing.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/12013212/Turkey-shoots-down-Russian-military-plane-on-Syria-border-live.html
Putin is not happy. I’m guessing Russia might support kurdish resistance, because an all out war with a NATO country would be risky and expensive.
Helicopter went down also. Crew appears to have been picked up. But the helicopter was destroyed by the rebels (after the Russians left).
The pilots were executed by the Turks as their parachutes brought to to ground.
BTW, the Turks are the ones responsible for financing and providing the infrastructure for the ISIS oil sales (cheap oil at $40/barrel)
Link? Last I saw, the fate of the pilots was contested.
It was turkmen, technically. Syrian Turkmen militias. They arnt officially endorsed by the Erdogan.
Emphasis on ‘officially’.
Turkmen can also mean foreign fighters from the Stans and Chinese Uighur. IOW, Erdogan’s Pan-Turkic khalifate of his fondest wet dreams.
CBS News;
“Reality Check: Proof U.S. Government Wanted ISIS To Emerge In Syria”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1aDciHCejA
CBS!
Now leaking into the mainstream: The US has been supporting ISIS for at least three years!
Terrorist R Us indeed!
–Gaianne
ISIL and ISIL supporters are celebrating. And Turkey is an ISIL supporter. I wonder if Washington, or some Nuland type character in Washington, green lighted this action. Possible.
I imagine Russia will respond over Syrian airspace. If a Turkish plane gets anywhere near the Syrian airspace, it is going down. The problem is Turkey is a NATO member. So tit for tat and suddenly you have NATO vs Russia. And I don’t see Russia backing down in Syria under any circumstances. So at what point do paranoid characters in Moscow or Washinton decide we need to go back to hair trigger nuclear standby?
This is one reason why I wonder which is worse, a Neocon or a Neolib. Neocons only know how to push and bully. But keep it up long enough and against the wrong people and suddenly you have WW3.
Moon of Alabama has a list of potential Russian reactions to the shoot down.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/
Also update on Putin press conference on attack:
The relationship has been strained for awhile.
I’m actually interested in hearing if our government intends on chastising someone for this incident. It’ll be a tell on whether or not we’ve come to Jesus on the idea that ISIS is a larger threat and more important than bypassing Russia and supporting regime change in Syria.
Russia is clearly more important to both the government and congress, so….
What I meant by Kurds having a party is that they are the main threat to Turkey, or at least were. I doubt Russia will let this go, so the two make natural allies.
I’m also not quite sure how happy ISIS supporters are. Until now Turkey had their back, that might change fast right now.
Turkey should watch it’s back or Russia could do what Turkey and some of these other regions are doing in Syria and fund the Kurdish “freedom fighters” for regime change in Turkey.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4730105,00.html
There are some reports on Russian ground troops being deployed in Syria. Orlov might have been right when he said Russia does not threaten, it acts.
US/French “handle it on your own” response would seem to indicate that they’re tired of Turkey’s tacit support of ISIS.
Re: “What’s Japanese for ‘self licking ice cream cone'”
I can’t resist a go even though I’m not able to think of an identical proverb, but what does seem to fit is 「嘘つきは泥棒の始まり」which, roughly translated, is “lying leads to thieving”. There’s plenty of both going on in the world right now.
I went the kango route and came up with 自動嘗糞機 (jidou shoufun-ki), or “automatic shit-licking machine.” Which has the added benefit of sounding like something you’d find outside a convenience store.
This is getting too close to something from De Sade, and I mean something specific from “Juliette.”
I shudder to think what De Sade would have made of a Japanese electronic toilet seat and its various features…
Please forgive me, but ideas, especially salacious ones, develop lives of their own.
“120 Days of Toto”
This is a family blog. And not the Addams family, either.
That’s a real, actually Japanese expression?!
Starship Troopers: One of the Most Misunderstood Movies Ever The Atlantic
Any time you do satire (or sarc) there is a grave danger you will be misunderstood.
I always thought American Psycho was obvious satire, but than you get into people saying the satire is a cover to justify misogyny, and that it really is misogynistic…
Of course, I always thought Bale’s music reviews were particularly insightful.
Psychopathic narcissism well illustrated. More elitist than misogynistic imho (financial elite get away with all crimes because of wealth and connections. haha.). Nero-esque reviewing music whilst on a killing spree rather than fiddling while Rome burns.
Starship Troopers
I always thought they should make it required viewing in high school. But that may make military enlistment drop.
I think studies have shown that even the most horrific war movies cause a rise in enlistment.
All Quiet on The Western Front was banned but Germany in the 1930’s, they could risk peace.
The novel “Gone Girl” is loaded with satire that I rarely see commented on by the critics. It is a much more interesting novel once you realize the satire within.
Is that a rain coat?
fresno dan,
I can see the movie’s satire being misunderstood but it sounds to me like Verhoeven misunderstood Heinlein’s book.
Heinlein had a simple message in the novel and he repeated it many times: If you want full citizenship including the right to vote you must serve the country. I believe that caused quite a stir at the time. The militarism was not such a touchpoint in 1959–it was the Cold War and a war is fighting, and lots of people had memories of World War II, the Good War, too; it had ended only fourteen years before.
Heinlein stated that if there was no place for you in the military there were other forms of service, but citizenship had to be earned by service. The main character’s family in the novel, in fact, were not citizens and could not understand his wanting to go into the military, and Heinlein showed the tragedy such lack of understanding from family could be for a youngster.
If Verhoeven disregards this theme–and Heinlein emphasized it throughout the book–and he seems to, then the film would be of the species “inspired by” and the title of the novel should not have been used.
Heinlein, being a nutty capitalist libertarian asshole, would have understood (if he was not also a hypocrite) that once you buy the rights to a book, you can do whatever the hell you please with it. You owe the author nothing other than the sales price. That was honky-dory with Heinlein in theory–would have been interesting if he had lived to bitch about it in practice.
It’s been a long time since I read the book, and I don’t remember how often Heinlein tells us that non-military service is acceptable as a qualification for citizenship. But if Heinlein really wanted to push the service for citizenship idea, he should have written a novel about something other than war. Heinlein was ineligible for military service during WWII because he contracted a lung infection (possibly tuberculosis) in the 1930s. In a lot of his books, he vicariously satisfies his desire to be back in the navy fighting against an enemy. “Service” is just a sideshow for Heinlein.
If Verhoeven disregards this theme–and Heinlein emphasized it throughout the book–and he seems to, then the film would be of the species “inspired by” and the title of the novel should not have been used.
Very well said.
I haven’t seen the movie, but to the extent it is intended as “satire” it does a disservice to the book. Heinlein, who was a graduate of Annapolis and had his naval career cut short by illness, once said “I write books to make money. What I wanted to be was an admiral”. He came by his understanding of and appreciation for military culture honestly. Chuck Spinney, the defence analyst and former editor of Defense in the National Interest, put Starship Troopers at the top of his list of recommended reading as an accessible and cogent introduction to that culture for civilians.
Heinlein often put words into the mouths of his characters that drive liberals to distraction, such as when Mr. Dubois, the moral philosophy teacher in Starship Troopers (and btw the fact that Heinlein thought moral philosophy was a worthy object of study is already dating him), says “Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than any other factor, and contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst.” Thing is, as unpalatable as it is for many people to hear these things, his point is eminently defensible.
There are many such truths in Starship Troopers, but they are truths that are slipping from our collective grasp as our society evolves in ways that makes them not only inimical but increasingly even incomprehensible. It is worth remembering that when Heinlein wrote the book a large proportion of the male population of the United States had experienced military service, and many had even seen war up close and personal. It was a different world.
Jim Wright, another former naval officer who blogs at Stonekettle Station, had a great Veterans Day post just a few days ago that touches on many of these themes, and takes differing reactions to Starship Troopers as its starting point. You can read it here.
Thanks for the interesting insights and the link
He was an officer, in a cushy support role, on a ship, in peacetime. He had a good time in the military and enjoyed and benefited from its structure. He also had no experience or real understanding whatsoever of what war actually is and what military’s are fundamentally for.
“Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than any other factor, and contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst.”
Sounds like a variation of ‘hard choices must be made’. Looking at history mostly what I see is a whole lot of dead people, killed for some abstract strategic cause or other that probably wasn’t all that important even at the time and that has certainly been rendered meaningless by the passage of time. Not much of anything in history was settled with violence. All wars did was set the stage for more wars.
He wanted to be an admiral? Of course he did. Sitting at a desk or fancy planning table, sending thousands of grunts to their deaths and facilitating the deaths of thousands of ‘other’ grunts. Maybe afterwards he could write in his memoirs some tripe about how horrible war is and how he feels for all ‘noble men’ he got killed. Oh boo-freaking-hoo.
Yeah, Heinlein had the bad taste to graduate from the US Naval Academy and join the service when the US was at peace. What a wanker.
You obviously haven’t read the Jim Wright post to which I linked. Wright was a CWO in the US Navy who has led men in battle and he attests to the authenticity of Heinlein’s voice. You didn’t actually mention your own service record, or what other qualification you have to conclude that Heinlein “had no experience or real understanding whatsoever of what war actually is”. I’ll bet the farm you never actually wore the uniform, never mind graduating from Annapolis. You’re the guy Wright refers to at the start of the article who called him -and by extension Heinlein- a fascist, a murderer and a dumb blunt tool. Cause in this brave new world everyone is entitled to an opinion, and every opinion is equally deserving of respect, least someone’s feelings get hurt.
The great irony here however is that you are proving exactly the point I made in my previous post about how the truths to which Heinlein spoke are being lost because so many people today lack the experience, intellectual framework, historical imagination or most importantly the humility to relate to them.
I never said he was a fascist. I said he was an idiot. Sure, a ‘dumb blunt tool’ if you like. My point was that he waxed poetic about the glories of military service while having no real understanding of the horrors of war. All the things he liked about the military are window dressing to its actual function, which is murder. If he could have, I’m sure he would have served in combat, and maybe produced some very different writings because of it. But he didn’t, and so I have no time for him.
Further, his ideas about ‘earning’ full citizenship (though military or civil service) are deeply offensive, and monumentally stupid, since what they effectively do is establish a foundation for a smug elite that holds most or all of the real power and will inevitably start putting restrictions on further access, occasionally letting a ‘worthy’ Cicero type in.
Bernie Sanders Talks Income Inequality at Black Churches in South Carolina ABC. “Sanders gained 16 percentage points among nonwhite voters since the last poll in October, whereas Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton lost 11 percentage points.” Hmm.
Hmmm is right. The NYT article posted yesterday shows AAs favor democratic socialist positions 2 to 1. That is a great opening for Sanders. His biggest challenge will be reaching AAs without going through the Black Misleadership Class that is all-in for the Clinton Griftopia Machine. If Bernie can break through with AAs he has a shot at the nomination.
It is well known and commented upon how a good portion of the repub base, in voting for repubs, is so voting against their own interests. Its interesting (sad???) how little actual benefit accrues to the black community by being dems, and how little this is commented upon.
But at least there is equality with regard to non representation…
It is sad. Tragic even. And hardly limited to AAs. How much do any Democrats get from the Democratic Party? Unless you’re in the Wall Street wing, not much.
As the IBT article shows, the Democrats are NOT our friends.
Killer Mike in Attlanta yesterday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kywpo-XmFYg
I thought that this was just great!
So right! that’s some star power.
x2!
Feeling the Bern + Killer Mike tag team!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/11/24/reports-chicago-police-officer-to-be-charged-with-murder-of-black-teen-shot-16-times/
Initially shot in the back, cause the policeman feared for his life (the infamous backward charge…)
=====================
If Van Dyke is indicted, the case will mark the first time a Chicago police officer has been charged with first-degree murder for an on-duty fatality in 35 years, according to the Tribune. (other than the dead people voting, this municipality is well known for its completely altruistic public employees…)
The Chicago Police Department initially stated that McDonald, a 17-year-old African American, “lunged” at officers with a knife in a Burger King parking lot. The department’s longtime spokesperson, Pat Camden, said at the scene that McDonald posed “a very serious threat,” leaving one officer no choice but to lodge a fatal bullet into the teenager’s chest.
…..
Had it not been for the existence of this footage, interest in and attention to the investigation might have faded. (NONE of the other police at the scene thought there was anything untoward…)
……
“The footage has been viewed by several people who told the AP that it shows the young man walking away from the officers, and that Van Dyke opened fire from 15 feet away, continuing to shoot after McDonald slumped to the ground.
============================
Perhaps I’m too cynical (nah, ya think?) but the only question I have is how long before police unions figure out how to circumvent body cameras…
But maybe you have to crawl before you walk, and you have to at least have prosecutions before you have convictions, and finally the idea will permeate the police that there will be REAL oversight.
Hillary Clinton Looks Past Primaries, and to Republicans, in Strategy to Beat Sanders NYT. Worked in 2008…
From the article:
Hillary has stabilized and is moving in for the kill. She is clearly trying to demonstrate that the race is over. But Hillary is a lousy politician. If Bernie can weather this storm and regain momentum Hillary might be seriously challenged. There is no enthusiasm for Clinton. None at all. I can’t recall another presidential election where people were holding their noses even before they vote in the primary. People don’t want Hillary Clinton.
Yes, but the “superdelegates”(the 1% or the connected with power) want her. Sanders will have to get past them and they aren’t above rigging the game for her. See:2008 when Barack Obama was given delegates that his opponent actually EARNED in a state he didn’t campaign in.
I have to admit that I wonder what happens if the Super Delegates figure out that Clinton being the nominee will mean a suppressed turnout of voters. Is it better to have both Congress and the Presidency being Republican and keep your cushy if not as cushy as your Republican counterparts place on the gravy train per our usual political landscape of the past two decades? Or is it better to cross the DLC darlings and tell Hillary to go home and be a grandmother and have at least a President?
See I’m one of the few who don’t think that the Democratic nominee is a shoo-in in the general, between the economy and the underlying anger (and black box voting) throw the bums out may be deadly for Dems. And If the die hards are only going to vote for her while holding their noses, what is going to get the occasional voter into the booth? Sure the crazy might be too scary from the Republicans, or Trump runs an independent campaign after being screwed by the regulars and she is in. But if that isn’t the case, coming out of the primaries they will need to think long and hard if Bernie has taken them. (And I think Bernie is going to take them.)
I doubt the 1% party leadership care one way or another whether they “win.” If they lose they can send out all those donation letters telling us how much things would be so different if only they were in charge(meanwhile their corporate sponsors will continue to fund them to work in tandem with the GOP in support of their interests and the media will say the message is that the Democrats need to veer right.)
Probably.
But depending on how pissed the numbers are (they really aren’t the base, the corporate donors are), it could be the beginning of the end of the Democratic Party. Mostly because I think ignoring the primary voters and then losing the election will doom them.
But mind you I’m still shocked that Americans haven’t tarred and feathered Clapper and most of their representatives for illegally spying on them. So my optimistically pessimistic view of the intelligence of voters driven to revolution is probably wrong.
The super delegates will be crucified if they did that. Any elected Democrat who didn’t denounce them would be a public pariah.
Corporate America only occurs about current value. Hillary sycophants have no value especially when there are so many.
They didn’t get crucified in 2008. As a matter of fact anyone that dissented and believed there should be a floor fight was purged.
The superdelegates “pledge” their votes, do they not? And we know what pledges mean in DC.
I’m sure that LBJ would have had a ton of superdelegates, before Eugene McCarthy. Granted, they could descend to outright theft or skullduggery. In which case I have a pitchfork in the barn.
It’s not Hillary the person, the Republican front runner Jeb! is in the same hole, in fact all the career Republican polls are getting rejected for the outsider cartoon charactors Trump and Carson. If the Dems had a packed clown car of pros you’d be seeing the same rejection of the lot along with Hillary. Bernie figured a way to rise above it or just got lucky with place and time but really it’s all a sign that The System is markedly loosing credibility with the populace. Toto’s been drawing back the curtain for a awhile but in 2008 people of all stripes got a really clear look before it got jerked back. The collapsing cred is a good thing, maybe a sign of rising consciousness even if inchoate, except for the chaos and manipulation that usually follows, and the real reason for the global police state we are seeing instituted with such intent.
The Note: Trump on Terrorism ABC. “At this point, it’s not simply a matter of Donald Trump defying political gravity. Even his opponents have to marvel at how good a politician he is, in his ability to adapt to moments and channel the (often unspoken) passions of his supporters.”
Trump is a classic demagogue. Nothing new. The corporate media seems surprised but it shouldn’t be: they are complicit in turning the people into angry idiots.
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
H. L. Mencken
That’s one of my favorite quotes, and as true today (if not more) than it was when he said it.
Mencken also said “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”
Hollywood actor Ronald Reagan 2.0?
Complicit, indeed.
I ask the indulgence of our hosts, as this is not exactly on topic, but: I posited the other day that with prices for oil, natural gas, copper, gold, silver, bauxite, etc. all stagnant or falling, there must be a lot more contraction in the global economy than the PTB are letting on. Does anyone have a handle on just how much global GNP is shrinking, and how are those in charge hiding all the contraction? Thanks!
The US has ObamaCare growth and student loan growth going for us. That can take up some of the “slack” in GDP growth. Said the cart to the horse. hahaha.
great question.
I’d add the point that, from what I understand, many of the commodity markets are significantly financialized, where a large portion of the buyers & sellers are trading paper/electrons, & do not actually produce or consume the oil barrel, the 1 oz gold coin, etc. Second these financialized participants might be leveraged, in that they borrowed multiples (even 100:1) of dollars for dollar they have they are buying & selling with.
From what I understand, in a significantly financialized market, it is possible for the price to diverge from what it would be if it were only the commodity’s physical producers (e.g. like Exxon for oil) & physical customers (e.g. like Southwest Airlines for oil) in the market.
Having said that, it could be the case that your hypothesis is correct, that falling commodity prices reflect lower physical/actual commodity demand, based on a falling global economic growth rate.
Your point about the financialization of commodities is valid, so you can use the CRB Raw Industrials Index (CRB RIND) instead. That’s an index of commodities that are not publicly traded and so aren’t influenced by money flow and futures markets. It shows the same trend as publicly traded commodities:
http://www.crbtrader.com/data.asp?page=chart&page=chart&sym=BZY00&name=BLS%20Spot
Nationalization of capital seems to have pulled the rug out of some transient leverage w/ the knock on of effects to velocity…
In July 2015, the IMF projected global growth at 3.3%.
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2015/update/02/
Falling commodity prices may be a leading indicator of weakening growth, but they aren’t wholly incompatible with it. During the long deflation of 1871-1896 the U.S. economy grew steadily, though with shallow recessions every 2 years on average.
Thanks to the Federal Reserve, now we have less frequent but more severe recessions.
Thanks to the Federal Reserve, now we have less frequent but more severe recessions.
At the zero bound with an overly-indebted (and aging) society that’s likely no longer the case. We are probably in for years of below trend growth with more frequent, but shorter and shallower recessions.
What I find interesting about all that is that many of the resources are still being produced/extracted even at a loss to the producers.
I think that we are in a Global conflict/struggle to see who will be the last one standing. So far it has, for the most part, been played out in the economies and financial market. What worries me is when it inevitably gets more heated.
Question; Does mylar work as well as tinfoil as a liner for my Fez?
Christiane Amanpour on CNN TV claiming “although ISIS is bad, let’s remember that 96% of the deaths in the Syria Civil War are caused by the Assad Regime”
so the combo of all the other groups, including the the Sunni extremist (ISIS, Al Nusra branch of Al Qa3da), whatever other Sunni “rebel” groups, & the Kurds COMBINED account for only 4% of the killings?
Sounds like obvious BS to me. A quick glance of the wiki page’s killed stats confirms my BS detector.
I am reminded of comedian/political pundit Jimmy Dore’s quote “how does it feel to work at CNN, knowing your viewers get dumber & less informed by watching your show”
Whenever I read about or (god forbid) watch Christiane Amanpour I’m reminded of an advert she did for CNN in which she said something along the lines of: “Whenever I travel, wherever I go, the first thing I do when I check into my hotel room is turn on CNN to find out what is going on in the world.” Jesus H Christ, she thinks she is a journalist or something? Turning on US-centric, corporate-run CNN to find out what is going on in the world.
Whenever I travel (which I do far too much), one of the absolute worst parts of the trip is having CNN inflicted on me in the passport queues in the US airports, in the airport waiting areas, and in the hotel business lounges. Typically they have multiple televisions playing non-stop, and usually CNN. In a few lucky cases it’s BBC World (significantly better though not exactly unbiased) or even RT. I’d rather relax in the lounge without any bloody televisions. /rant
I notice that different venues play different ‘versions’ of reality. Our dentist plays the House and Garden Channel generally. Fast food joints play Fox News (oxymoron alert,) something vapid, like TMZ, (yes, I actually saw this,) and ESPN. When I once asked a fast food shop manager if , I being the only customer at the time, I could turn the volume off, I was told no. “We never know when Corporate might check to see what we’re watching.” The internet is all about things, including the workers.
The ‘hacker’ show Off The Hook (from the people who brought you 2600 magazine) on WBAI in NYC (normally Wed. at 7pm, subject to the vagaries of WBAI programming) was offering just what you need as a donation premium. On offer was a gadget that would remotely turn off TVs in public spaces. I’d love to have one.
http://www.adafruit.com/product/73
Better living thru technology!
Pro tip: travel with a short-wave radio.
You’ll find that news is presented much differently around the world, with fewer commercial interruptions.
That is a very interesting suggestion.
Amanpour has been quite successful at projecting an image of independence all while being the perfect corporate whore.
Another phenomenon, illusion fatigue; people (quite understandably) get tired and increasingly frustrated at having their bubbles popped. So one might come around to seeing Hillary and even Obama more clearly – that is, as being corporate shills , and so on, but then at some point it seems to inevitably go over the edge at which point, when confronted with what a farce, say Amanpour, or some other – typically less important – individual actually is, it’s a leap too far, “Damn it, can’t I just keep one little minor illusion???” Amanpour being a minor player benefits quite a bit from this and everyone who listens to her looses.
Another phenomenon, ouch, it seems as though in some instances where you have one household nut, it enables the others to maintain some illusions and give up others grudgingly… And of course that does not mean the nuts (ouch, ouch) don’t operate under their own illusions.
Amanpour has been quite successful at projecting an image of independence all while being the perfect corporate whore
Wearing kaki vests w/ a lot of pockets = foreign correspondent gravitas!.
How could any serious journalist (and I thought she was one, my mistake) make such a ridiculously SPECIFIC claim? I mean, even the ballpark “9 out of 10”, although almost certainly wrong, has a better chance of being taken seriously than “96%”. Shit, in Iraq everything imaginable was done to NOT know how many people were actually dying and who was killing them; does she think that Iraq, which at least was semi-open to the press after the invasion was over, was a tougher story to untangle than Syria, in much of which the press dare not go? It is impossible to know precisely who is killing who and in what numbers in Syria. Her percentage claim can only be deliberate disinformation, and she should be called on it, long and loud.
Someone should ask her why its 96% and not 95 or 97
It is a phrase that is pretty illogical to begin with “96%” – So Syria basically is killing the opposition 20 to 1? Makes you wonder how any opposition could exist.
Reminds me of Vietnam body counts where the US basically killed the entire population of North Vietnam .
Of course, the US media is totally incapable of understanding or stating that perhaps Assad has killed more Isis/al Qaeda than anyone – can’t muddy the narrative. CNN is too stupid or so co opted to continue to have access to “inside” US government information that they can only apply the insight of parrots (excuse me parrots, I meant the insight of amoebas)
The US media is indeed lacking in any sense of irony and have managed to bring that illusive species of animal, facts, to near extinction.
Five protesters shot in Minneapolis:
http://m.startribune.com/several-people-were-shot-near-black-lives-matter-protest-site/353121881/
With Trump encouraging his followers to attack a Black Lives Matter protester, I am not surprised. They kicked and choked him. Establishing a direct link is difficult to prove, however the rhetoric of intolerance and hate inspires such beatings. Remember, he admitted that his followers are “passionate.”
His followers are the rabble par excellence
Rabble? More like Blackshirts
I fear the emergence of American Brownshirts. The NASDAP recruited disaffected WW1 veterans for their “Action Kommandos”. Eventually, the head of the Brownshirts, Ernst Roehm, became so powerful in his own right that a certain German Autocrat had to eliminate him. The Night of the Long Knives.
Mussolini had ‘passionate’ followers too. He led them on a march on Rome so he could claim power.
“It’s only a matter of time before armed protests lead to a mass shooting” – me, yesterday, at like 2 PM in the comments on this website.
http://www.cracked.com/blog/isis-wants-us-to-invade-7-facts-revealed-by-their-magazine/
“Yeah, one guess as to where that rifle came from. Not long ago ISIS captured some 2,300 humvees we left in the care of the Iraqi military. You can actually browse this website for a comprehensive list of all the heavy hardware ISIS has and which countries it came from: The U.S. and Russia dominate the list.”
….
There is a caption on that photo sarcastically calling a British drone a “symbol of hope” for Al-Qaida, who recently pissed off ISIS by calling them too extreme. In fact, General David Petraeus recently suggested the U.S. use Al-Qaida fighters against ISIS. If all this seems surprising or counterintuitive to you, that’s a sign of how little anyone including the U.S. government understands ISIS. There’s a reason every prediction we’ve made about them has fallen flat. Up until very recently, the official word was that ISIS had just 35,000 active fighters. But now it looks like the CIA got that one wrong, and ISIS may have as many as 200,000 jihadis in their ranks.
But the most surprising thing I learned about ISIS during my reading is that the primary target of their hatred is not the United States. It’s not France or Russia, either. The one “enemy” they devote more time to ranting against than anyone else is the “apostate Muslim.” The vast majority of people ISIS kills are Muslims. They use one slur in particular — “Safawi” — to refer to Shiite Muslims. That word is a play on the name of the Safavid dynasty, which ruled Persia in the 15-17th centuries and which you almost certainly haven’t heard of even though soldiers for the most notoriously evil organization in the world use it as a curse every day.
ISIS has behaved more like an organized crime outfit, in my view of the news reports. The similarities of shocking murders by decapitation by the Mexican Drug Cartels inside of leisure time dance halls, restaurants and bars, etc to intimidate the public and the enforce their rule over a territory seem to have been forgotten in the early advance of ISIS, as reporters in dripping in nerve wracked anxiety described unspeakable acts of savagery not seen in 800 years, blah blah blah. Of course they have been seen just south of the Texas border in the past year and previous years.
But more disturbing is the ignorance of how ISIS could grow in recruits and succeed in military terms so quickly. Social media has this magic glow that is supposed to answer all intellectual methods to validly comprehend ISIS on its terms and in manner consistent with modern social science. But it takes more than a website or a tweet to make someone move half ways around the world to join an army to fight and die for. Just how is this possible to the degree that allows ISIS to overrun overwhelming numbers and better armed military and security forces, especially in Iraq?
The answer lies in the repeated information that comes out sporadically from members of the permanent government. Or at least what is left of the long standing careerist of the Federal Bureaucracy, expertise at its professional best, not its abusive power tripping worse case scenarios. The Pentagon being the single largest receiver of US Gov funding, the huge array of experts beyond the big name spokes people, produce an annual production of studies, reports, memos- collective institutional information and knowledge that comes below the deputy and assistant secretary levels of political appointees. This permanent government of long standing bureaucrats, and I mean that in the most positive sense of valuable operators of the Federal Government, remain in office and in power beyond the term limits of this or that presidential administration and can, even if they do not exercise their legitimate power to do so, create the governing rules and regulations within their legislative purview.
Much of this has been ripped out by the post Reagan onslaught of shrinking government down to the size it can be drowned in the bath tub. Except of course for the Pentagon.
A local kid who makes good, is interviewed for his well established expertise about terrorist organizations, especially Al-Queda, ISIS, etc. I finally found some missing pieces to the puzzle of the success , namely, the recruiting tactic of creating
“But it takes more than a website or a tweet to make someone move half ways around the world to join an army to fight and die for. Just how is this possible to the degree that allows ISIS to overrun overwhelming numbers and better armed military and security forces, especially in Iraq?”
Yeah, what moves souls? My take tries to give an answer from a “higher” and likewise deeper perspective than the normal “horizontal” one:
http://astromundanediary.blogspot.de/2015/11/grandola-constellation-in-storm-of-mars.html
This is the rest of the post. Sorry for the misposting.
Malcolm Nance is a Philadelphia based expert on Al-Queda, ISIS, based upon years of experience in the Middle East in Navy Intelligence. He has a website that you can check out that drills deep down into just what is going on with terrorist movements. The ideological driving force for Jihadist terrorism, such as DAESH, is to add to the 5 pillars of Islam, 2 more pillars and declare all others apostates.
Of course, if you are teen age Muslim in Europe or the US, you may not have the traditional awareness of more observant Muslims and reverence for traditions you are not even aware of. Western Culture does not transmit Islamic heritage even a little bit. The secular society barely acknowledges Christianity, which is why Catholics and the conservative Evangelicals, among others, have their own University, such as Liberty University, their own private day schools or home schooling, in order to avoid socialization from the mainstream secular society. The Jihadist recruiters use the familiar tactics that those of us who grew up in the 60s and 70s saw with Rajneesh, the Moonies, EST and other cults of personality. Globalization has spread this counter culture to the neo-liberal world trading system to youth of Islam who know little about their own religion and heritage living as a minority in the West or USA.
——————————————————————————–
Q You differ from other analysts in that you see ISIS as as much a death cult as a religious group. You’ve even likened them to the Manson Family.
“You look at the way cults operate, cutting people off from the world, controlling the flow of information, and you clearly see elements of that. And their radical view of Islam is not really Islam.
ISIS says there are not five pillars of Islam but seven, and that the two new [ISIS] obligations are holy war forever your whole life – war with the West and anyone who is non-Muslim – and that you must die in this holy war.”
http://mobile.philly.com/beta?wss=/philly/news&id=352407851
Here is his website.
http://thetacticsofterror.org/
One of his views expressed before Congressional testimony is that water boarding is torture. He explained exactly why, which I never heard before. To have your lungs filled up with fluid is the experience of drowning or congestive heart failure. Obviously, if not stopped, you will drown.
He says,
“I believe that we must reject the use of the waterboard for prisoners and captives and cleanse this stain from our national honor.”
“water overpowering your gag reflex, and then feel(ing) your throat open and allow pint after pint of water to involuntarily fill your lungs.”
Yep, that almost defines their sponsors as being Wahabbists. Now, where in the local region would one need look for a Wahabbi Power?
If the true core of Daesh is religious in nature, then there will be no putting this Djinn back in the bottle.
Being a secularist myself, I had a difficult time believing these guys were anything but deranged psychopaths.
But I remember an article I read about David Koresh. And sure, he had sex with underage girls. But that didn’t preclude him from sincerely believing in and using the bible to justify his actions and having an encyclopedic knowledge of scriptures.
The problem is that many secularists have not actually read scriptures – its not all honey, kittens, and giving alms to the poor…you can find a lot of stuff to justify pretty abysmal behavior if your a mind to.
And believing in God doesn’t preclude one from actually being a psychopath.
But the fact that I am cynical about matters of religion doesn’t mean that there aren’t people who are perfectly sincere. We just forget that not all people of faith are peace loving pacifists…
Oh my fresno dan. You’ve hit a big nail on the head.
If you want to watch a “religion” make out like a bandit, do some digging into the origins and practices of ‘Scientology.’ By all third party accounts, L Ron Hubbard was a perfect example of amoral narcissistic ‘prophet.’ He was not averse to stealing wives and girlfriends of others. It figures that he was a ‘buddy’ of Robert Heinlein, who had a similar attitude towards fidelity.
Stealing? Because, of course, the precious wimmins have no agency as to who they get intimate with? Stay classy.
Accounts of the man I have read suggest that he was a master manipulator. As is all too visible, I am somewhat ‘old fashioned’ as regards the dreaded ‘family values.’ I do decry the Rights’ perversion of the ideal for political purposes. At any rate, what I find distasteful about the antics of Hubbard is his clear eyed predation. From all accounts, he used and discarded the women with no conscience.
The use of the word ‘stealing’ does define me somewhat. I am a late stage Male Chauvinist Lite, sad but true. Luckily for me, my wife, (there’s that possessive tense again,) works diligently to keep me in line. I don’t get away with much.
Thanks for that – very, very interesting about Heinlein and Hubbard being buds…
I got this information from an interesting book about the life of John Parsons, “Strange Angel.” A real life ‘mad scientist’ of sorts. He knew Heinlein from the early days of Science Fiction, and was introduced to Hubbard by Heinlein. Parsons was a non degreed rocketry pioneer. He developed the basic slow burning solid rocket fuel, and was one of the founders of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He also did much more than ‘dabble’ in the occult, holding notorious ‘religious ceremonies’ in the style of Aleister Crowley and the Order of the Golden Dawn.
Hubbard ran off with Parsons then “girlfriend,” Betty Northrup, although the Parsons Northrup relationship had slipped into deviant territory, and $20,000 USD of Parsons money to finance a business deal of some sort. In Miami, Hubbard married Northrup and the two prepared to start a world cruise on Parsons’ money. The short section on Hubbard is on page 271 et. seq. of “Strange Angel”, Harcourt , 2006.
Let’s not even get into Heinleins’ private life.
Verses of cruelty and violence in the Bible:
http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/cruelty/long.html
Verses of violence in the Quran:
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/quran/023-violence.htm
Note that the Bible is a much longer book than the Quran, which (partly or wholly) accounts for the larger number of violent verses in the Bible. Both books have plenty of disturbing passages.
Thanks for the links – i can add them to my collection!
Those propaganda viewscreens are intolerable. I’m willing to pay for a lounge to get away from them.
I meant this to be in response to Pavel.
On the Perfect Republican Speech; I would like to see someone do the same deconstruction on The Perfect Democratic Speech. I bet there wouldn’t be much difference, not withstanding the opposite as far as relying on Central Govt.
Particularly considering the intentional vagueness so that they (both sides) can pursue whatever they want to pursue in order to strengthen Federal Govt, increase spending, protect Wall St. (my catchall for Big Pharma, Military-Industrial-Congressional Infrastructure, et. al.), and promote more war.
Life skills shoplifting extortion…hmmm…how exactly can “goodwill” prosecute you for shoplifting items donated by people who donated thinking it was going to be “given” to people…and as the article glosses over by bundling facts…most store losses do NOT come from shoplifting but from employees(sometimes) and Supplier Fraud(most of the time)…thr krapification of our economic system is gamed by suppliers and THEIR employees since inventory intake is usually dump and run with people just looking at corrugated but not looking at what is inside…but goodwill has “security guards” to prevent people from “taking” what is being donated yo be “given” away…hmmm…sounds like someone needs to…oh well…guess it will be me…
hello irs…hotline…yes i would like to describe a 501(c)3 which is…
Wow hello LA Times…does anyone do vetting…joke survey by joke professor…he asked 100 executives who are basically who ? The people who pay him to speak at their events who are rent a cop firms and the people who take kickbacks from them…i mean hire them…perfect example of everything looking like a nail when you are selling a hammer…he asked 100 self licking ice cream cones…wow la times…yes the story is about a politician using public office to call a press conference to announce he found a cat in a tree and will soon be announcing his candidacy for congress…but is this professor the only person in your database of experts to call
New Operation Mockingbird bulletin, via the NYT’s stenographers:
Never let a good Reichstag fire go to waste!
Seriously? Mitt Rmoney?
So, the Kakistocracy that are the pundits are afraid of “The Donald” being the Republican nominee, and so are pushing Mitt, whose numbers would drop like a stone if he actually entered the race, while simultaneously declaring the Hillary is the Democrats only rational choice, even though she polls worse against Trump than even Martin O’Malley who is a cipher to the voters.
These folks need to go Cheney themselves.
+1000
O’Malley isn’t a cipher as much as a non-entity. Sanders filibustered the Bush/Obama tax cuts for the wealthy. Perhaps one could chalk that up to sheepdogging, but Sanders has a public career of opposing the status quo. O’Malley was just a governor in a pork heavy suburb of DC in this age of mandates and devolution. Being governor is an easy job.
I like O’Malley and would vote for him, but he didn’t roll out with a vision or a demand that Team Blue stop being Team Blue. He doesn’t have to be explicit, but part of his message should revolve around the need for an end to triangulation and faux democrats which I think he believes. He was critical of the Team Blue nominee who ran to replace him, but those critiques need to be made about the state of the national party. Sanders needs to make them too, but Sanders is way ahead because his original campaign against Team Blue in Vermont gives him an outsider status.
Yeah. He did such a fantastic job as Mayor of Baltimore. NOT!!!
Interesting note: When I lived in Bethesda, MD I used to frequent a bar on ?Georgetown? road or pike called ?Flannigans? and OMalley used to sign Irish tunes there (just him and his guitar) – I think this is when he was a prosecutor in Baltimore (circa 1987 or so). Actually, to my ear a pretty good singer.
I attempted an earlier much longer reply. In case it doesn’t make it, let me see if I can boil it down. Unlike public sector Congressional pork barrel projects, when our Congress critters dispense money to crony capitalists under the cover of national security their actions are much less likely to be subject to public scrutiny.
It appears the article on Wall Street regs/campaign cash begins on supposition of propaganda:
“The Obama administration’s efforts to rein in Wall Street face opposition from members of the president’s own party.”
What efforts???
https://aeon.co/essays/is-it-ok-for-the-amish-to-run-etsy-stores
“The Amish are online, onscreen, and multiplying fast.”
Does anybody know an actual breathing Amish? Do they REALLY go on line???
why can you go on line but not drive a car??? I thought they weren’t suppose to use electricity?
You can use solar to access the grid.
There is an Amish population that comes here to sell furniture and sheds and we had an opportunity to talk with one of the young men. He was living on site in what was essentially a solar powered shed.
It’s not an opposition to technology itself, but to the effects of the default to or worship of technology on community and family. I think the Archdruid recognized this fallacy recently: that one’s technological choices are required to be in full period-accurate dress. From a nation of conformist reenactors, such errors are unsurprising.
There are quite a few old older Amish around Kalona. They sell really cheap free range eggs.
There are lots of actual breathing Amish where I live, including one family next door, although I can’t claim to know them well. The rules are interesting and, as far as I can tell, subject to a certain amount of flexibility depending on which group one is associated with.
Solar panels and battery powered lights are OK around here. Amish subcontractors built parts of my house and they were allowed to come to the site in a motor vehicle as long as an “English” (non Amish) person drove. Gasoline powered air compressors were fine. I exchanged design information with one man via email, but as I understand it, he was required to go somewhere other than his home to pick up printouts of the email and to send responses.
I can’t say that the rules make much sense to me but I find the Amish to be very nice people (albeit with some troubling views on treatment of animals). They don’t shove their morality down everyone else’s throat as certain other denominations in the US do and they’ll almost certainly manage the coming future better than I will.
The Amish I’ve met are very,very racist. Very nice (since I am white, and am hiring them to do work for me), but very racist.
thanks – very interesting
The Perfect Republican Speech was wrong on a couple of counts:
1. They never, ever say “Democratic friends.”
2. They never use the word, “Democratic”. It’s always “Democrat”. Or “DemoRAT” or some other slur.
Portugal:
The Prez wiggled as much as he could but finally gave in and appointed Costa PM: he will form a minority gov with the parliamentary backing of the PCP (communists) and BE (Syriza-likes):
http://www.wsj.com/articles/socialist-leader-antonio-costa-is-named-as-portugals-prime-minister-1448370564
Lack of Enthusiasm From Supporters May Undermine Clinton’s Lead NYT
Note the headline is misleading as the article makes clear from the start, “Hillary Rodham Clinton’s nomination is almost a foregone conclusion.” So this isn’t about Clinton vs. Sanders; it’s about Her Highness vs. some fuzzy notion called the opposition mixed up with another fantasy called choice.
But aside from the usual “Hillary is as inevitable as rule by divine right”, is a tidbit which I pray is not factual: my God, 60% favorable rating with 18-to-29-year-olds??? for Obama??? and ¿¿¿Clinton??? Seriously?? This is from a reporter so it can’t be snark. Where is the puke-otoire?
Im hoping those favorability ratings were from before they were president while in the Dem primary or something. But if those are the correct favorability of them right now among the youth, then our youth have learned nothing of value…
Im a youth myself in my mid 20s so I am qualified to say this.
But aside from the usual “Hillary is as inevitable as rule by divine right”, is a tidbit which I pray is not factual: my God, 60% favorable rating with 18-to-29-year-olds??? for Obama??? and ¿¿¿Clinton???
I saw that too and couldn’t believe it about Obama. In fact, I don’t believe it. If it were true young people would have turned out for the Democrats post-2008. But they have not because they caught on right quick that Obama had snookered them. As for Bill Clinton, these people were 4-14 years old when he was president. All they probably know is that the stock market was booming and a lot of tech people got really rich. Still distressing though that they don’t recognize that the apple (Hillary) and the tree (Bill) and so closely related but, hey, that’s what you get when you set out to turn citizens into ignorant uber-consumers.
More propaganda touted as “journalism.”
That’s one reason, also, for the lack of enthusiasm among Clinton supporters—they’ve seen this play out at least twice before and have to convince themselves that “this time it will be different.” Lucy, Charlie Brown, football. The other is that Clinton’s positions are either not as good nor as credible* (or both) as those of Sanders’.
*See the link in today’s Water Cooler re the “45 times Secretary Clinton pushed the trade bill she now opposes.”
who says kids aren’t getting smarter?
And now all the world leaders are in Paris, and all anybody wants to talk about is ISIS/ISIL/Daesh (could we at least agree on a name to call them) and Turkey shooting down of a Russian plane. If I was the cynical, suspicious type who though most energy company executives are psychopaths I would think they had something to do with the Paris attacks. Wait, I am a cynical, suspicious type who things most energy company executives are psychopaths …
Went into Home Depot for stuff. Even the light bulbs are “smart”/connected now. Ugg! By appearance, you can’t tell the difference. On the bright side, you can still get the old fashioned kind (that no one can dim on you or meter on you or deduct directly out of your bank account without your knowledge or god only knows what on you) – if you rush…
Don’t panic too much. “Smart IC” corn-cob bulbs from Alibaba are only “smart” by comparison to a resistor. And you won’t be paying Ken Langone to agitate for the servant caste he’s on record as wanting.
(Another word of advice: try to go to proper hardware stores whenever you can. “Home improvement” stores are evil.)
(Another word of advice: try to go to proper hardware stores whenever you can. “Home improvement” stores are evil.)
No kidding…evil is right… I go out of my way… well actually in fact its easier.. to patronize our local independent old school hardware store run by a couple young brothers. The convenience alone is worth the extra couple percent, and they dont carry just the utter crap. They have choices.
People whine about BorgMart and Borg Depot, while blowing off the community option.
Keep your purchases local if you want a healthy community with options.
Same goes with Banking. Try using Community Banks! I would never consider using BorgsFargo or CitiBorg. I don’t understand why people use the big retail banks that suck money out of their communities while they bitch and moan about them.
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2015/11/turkey-shoots-down-russian-plane-two.html
I remember having that exact thought a few years back when I saw a couple of pages from Inspire, the supposed Al Qaeda magazine. Dabiq, the Islamic State magazine, put out its first issue in July 2014 and is even slicker. I’ve been searching to see whether it exists in Arabic and so far can’t find it. Wouldn’t it be curious if it existed only in English?
Isn’t it also interesting that the Institute for the Study of War recently put out a backgrounder on Dabiq? I don’t suppose it could be even remotely possible that that’s where WaPo got their story from. For those not familiar with ISW, it was founded by the sister-in-law of Victoria Nuland (she of “F— the EU” fame).