Months ago, Rupert Murdoch bought National Geographic and fired most of writers. This just hit the stands. @historicalpics
Announcing the 2015 Dance Your Ph.D. winner Science (Chuck L). This is actually very cool.
Nature Is Speaking — Liam Neeson is Ice Conservation International (furzy mouse)
The hunt for Albert Einstein’s missing waves BBC (David L)
How Coke spent $1.5m ‘influencing’ an anti-obesity nonprofit organization Daily Mail (Chuck L)
China?
China’s Stock Market Crash: Part 3 – Chinese Dreams Satyajit Das, EconoMonitor
New Rules for Chinese Finance Bloomberg
Will China Save Malaysia’s PM? – Asia Sentinel
Nestle Finds Abuse, Forced Labor by Thai Seafood Suppliers Bloomberg. Resile: “We can have slaves here too under TPP?
The single European market is looking increasingly like a sham Telegraph
George Osborne’s spending review cuts to hit social care and police Guardian
Portugal becomes the second eurozone country this year to rebel against EU belt-tightening rules Wall Street Journal (Kevin C)
Paris Attacks Spur Emergency Edict and Intense Policing in France New York Times
Belgium Terrorizes Itself World Affairs Journal (resilc)
Turkey Downs Russian Plane
Putin calls jet’s downing ‘stab in the back’; Turkey says warning ignored CNN
Why Did Turkey Attack a Russian Plane? American Conservative (resilc).”The map and Turkish commentary relating to it suggest that the incursion occurred when the Russian plane crossed the border, but there is perhaps inevitably a problem with that account. A fighter traveling at even subsonic speed would have passed over the Turkish territory in roughly twelve seconds, which rather suggests that there would not have been time for any ‘repeated warnings.'”
Turkey shoots down Russian plane: Wars have a funny way of taking on a life of their own Mark Ames, Pando (Bill B)
The Two Versions Of The Latakia Plane Incident Moon of Alabama
Syraqistan
The War Nerd: Captagon, the Beheading Drug! Pando (Gabriel U). Trust me, you need to read this.
U.S.-France Relations C-SPAN (Kevin C)
Imperial Collapse Watch
A mismatch made in defense stock heaven CNBC. Lambert: “Ka-ching (and note discrepancy between title and URL).”
Corporate Media Is Hungering For A War; It’s All About The Ratings Ring of Fire (furzy mouse)
The State Department just issued a vague, unhelpfully terrifying travel alert Vox (resilc)
How an ugly, brutally effective warplane won the battle for its future Reuters (resilc)
Is There Room Under the Bed for All 320 Million of Us? Charles Pierce, Esquire
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Exclusive: Green Light or No, Nest Cam Never Stops Running The Security Ledger (Chuck L)
Additional Self-Signed Certs, Private Keys Found on Dell Machines Threat Post (William B)
2016
Trump lawyer warns Republicans about Super PAC attack ads Reuters (EM)
Jersey Mayor Tramples Trump: Is Trump’s Lying Pathological: An Illness? Ring of Fire (furzy mouse)
Donald Trump is a conservative media creation: Right-wing media has engaged in race baiting for years. Slate (resilc)
Terror Politics Paul Krugman
Pfizer-Allergan merger shows why it’s so hard to stop tax-dodging companies Washington Post (resilc)
States warn US climate plan is illegal Financial Times
How Refugees Make It In America FiveThirtyEight
U.S. oil company shakes up quake plans after Oklahoma temblors Reuters (EM)
Police State Watch
Black Lives Matter protesters sue over treatment by California police Reuters. EM: “My Reuters news summary today is chock-a-block with ‘police thuggery and murder’ stories, several more of which will follow.”
Two officers indicted in death of man held in Texas jail Reuters (EM)
Chicago officer charged with murder; city braces for video of shooting Reuters (EM)
Baltimore jury to be anonymous in police trial over man’s death Reuters (EM)
California city to pay $4.9 million over fatal beating of homeless man Reuters (EM)
U.S. appeals court rules against Wisconsin abortion doctor law Reuters (EM)
ARMED WHITE SUPREMACISTS THREATEN PROTESTERS AT 4TH PRECINCT SHUTDOWN CityPages (steve h)
Takata’s U.S. Employees Saw Problems in Air Bag Test Wall Street Journal
Carney hints at bank capital rise Financial Times
Elite funds prepare for reflation and a bloodbath for bonds Telegraph (David L). Reflation? In a world mired in borderline deflation where monetary policy is pushing on a string? I do agree there are high odds of initial bond whackage.
Baltic Dry Index hits 30-year low Livemint (furzy mouse)
U.S Drillers’ Operating Loses Could Surge In 2016 OilPrice
City sues Keane and pension fund board over special pension, seeks repayments Eileen Kelley, Florida Times Union. CalPERS’ fiduciary counsel, Robert Klausner, was and is the general counsel to the pension fund that is the target of this suit. He has also been subpoenaed for documents he has yet to produce.
Car Dealers Have Their Way With Congress Dave Dayen, Intercept
Most of What You Learned in Econ 101 Is Wrong Noah Smith, Bloomberg
Class Warfare
A shocking number of Americans don’t have a toilet The Week. Resilc: “But 320 million americans have war(s).”
Exclusive: Three Goldman bankers leave for Uber as tech world raids Wall Street talent Reuters. Lambert: “I’m sure the new atmosphere is congenial.”
Unloved Labor Economy Continues to Improve Barry Ritholtz
Upstate nurse who took pic of man’s genitals loses license, gets 3 yrs probation Syracuse v. Syracuse doc accused of slapping patients fined $10,000, ordered to get therapy and Slap-happy surgeon escapes prosecution, now it’s up to the public to judge (Editorial) Syracuse. Bob:
Also, gets re-instated by the hospital where Dr Slappy slapped. He was apparently the entire reason for a budget shortfall of over 2 million at the hopsital while he was suspended. The practice that he is part owner of SOS, just moved him to another hosiptal, or he did. I’ve heard educated guesses that he makes 2 million a year. And that he’s a sick fuck. And why no mention of what the offending cock looked like? Exceedingly large? Small? Was there an “educational” reason that she might have snapped a photo? The way the photos are described also lends to the anonymity of it. A cock? As Dave Chapplle famously said: “I couldn’t pick my own cock out of a lineup, and we’re like this!” [twisted fingers].
Again, Doc commits assaults, gets nothing, DA can’t find anything that he thinks will stick. Nurse snaps a few photos at work and loses her license, and get 3 years probation? As part of a “deal”?
Antidote du jour (furzy mouse):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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Comments are closed.
Nature Is Speaking — Liam Neeson is Ice Conservation International (furzy mouse)
“Nature doesn’t need people – people need nature”
We got the garden of eden, subdivided it, and left a big dump (pun intended)
“Nature is a language, can’t you read?”
-Moz
John (“Marmaduke”) Dawson
(Intended as reply to fresno dan 8:12)
Operation Mockingbird jumps the shark:
Just as my former neighbor had several ‘nuanced reasons’ to launch a grenade at the house behind him, including their disagreement in principle over the fence color.
“Violence is as American as cherry pie.” — H. Rap Brown
Troo dat.
You can just feel the excitement in the equity market as the bud of another war plumps to beautiful blossom.
Especially in the Consumer Discretionary sector, whose price this morning will be a new record high if it holds. Chart:
http://tinyurl.com/q9pcc4y
If we don’t shop, the terrorists win.
If we had today’s politics, media, and general zeitgeist in 1940, I am pretty sure that we would accuse Britain of bombing Pearl Harbor, Russia of invading France, Britain gassing Jews and that we must come to the add of our good friend and ally, Germany.
What with the link about the media wanting war for the ratings, it seems to me we have entered the world best described in the old superman comics as “bizarro” where stupid is smart, ugly is beautiful, and evil is good…
Barack’s little Choom Gangers:
As the great George! W. Bush would say, “You can’t break an omelette without making some eggs.” Or something like that …
I think the institution is callous. But from what I have read the people operating the drones are paying a high psychological price…
and at some point, I believe the country will pay a high price.
http://www.gq.com/story/drone-uav-pilot-assassination
“He kept the targeting laser trained on the two lead men and stared so intently that each individual pil stood out, a glowing pointillist dot abstracted from the image it was meant to form. Time became almost ductile, the seconds stretched and slowed in a strange electronic limbo. As he watched the men walk, the one who had fallen behind seemed to hear something and broke into a run to catch up with the other two. Then, bright and silent as a camera flash, the screen lit up with white flame.
Airman First Class Brandon Bryant stared at the scene, unblinking in the white-hot clarity of infrared. He recalls it even now, years later, burned into his memory like a photo negative: “The smoke clears, and there’s pieces of the two guys around the crater. And there’s this guy over here, and he’s missing his right leg above his knee. He’s holding it, and he’s rolling around, and the blood is squirting out of his leg, and it’s hitting the ground, and it’s hot. His blood is hot. But when it hits the ground, it starts to cool off; the pool cools fast. It took him a long time to die. I just watched him. I watched him become the same color as the ground he was lying on.”
When I heard these guys being interviewed on Democracy Now there was one thing that stuck in my head (besides the obvious). They all mentioned that they were offered bonuses to re-enlist when they quit in disgust. IIRC the bonuses ranged from $50 to $100k – I can’t imagine someone like a teacher being offered such a generous bonus.
“Cutting the grass.” That’s how the Israelites refer to regularly blowing the sh-t out of what’s left of unoccupied, un-“settled” UN-mandated Palestinian territory and the people who live there.
Your former neighbor launched a grenade into a neighbor’s yard? Jim, you can’t tantalize us like that. We need details! I mean, I have always had a feeling that you’ve lived an interesting life but this is gold. Tell us, man. Tell us.
Re dick pix nurse. Worst of it for her will be being on the sex offenders registry. Brutally unjust and just stupid.
Really, no pun intended, but it is all part parcel of the penal state. There is a reason the US leads by an overwhelming margin the number of people incarcerated.
We got rid of lead (a neurotoxin) in gasoline, so undoubtedly there is something that has replaced it in modern society that appears to be 1,000 times as efficacious at making people stupid.
I gotta say I’m confused about the injust part – I thought consent was still a thing. I mean, that’s why we’re all appalled re: Dr. Slappy, right? That and he got away with it because money and power and not being stupid enough to send pictures of himself doing it to colleagues who later ratted him out.
Dr assaults some patients. Dr goes to phoenix, leaves a 10k tip. Does not have one day taken from him.
Nurse, takes some pictures. looses her license and has to pay the cost of being on probation, without an income, for 3 years.
What don’t you understand? Consent?
What’s worse, punching someone in the face, or taking a picture of their face? Lets take the consent angle out, for the sake of simplicity. Punching someone in the face is always illegal. Taking pictures is almost never illegal.
How many docs do you think snap photos with their phones these days? Also, you introduce that she “shared” them. That’s new, and never even claimed by the da.
Did you see the heading it’s filed under? “class warfare”? Get it yet?
You just strung a bunch of non sequiturs together. This is not an argument, its an appeal to outrage with a lot of facts not in evidence, or your imagination running wild down the slippery slope to…where? What is your point?
The sharing was mentioned in the linked article, although to be fair it was a video of a woman’s rectum, rather than the unconscious man’s penis, that she sent to a fellow nurse (who then subsequently ratted).
That all the cool medical personnel are taking photos of their unconscious, naked patients these days is irrelevant. Unless they are receiving permission from patients to do so, they are committing crimes and violating patient privacy.
That slapping people on the bum who don’t give permission for said slapping is a crime is also irrelevant. It’s certainly irrelevant to the patients who didn’t know until after the fact that they were filmed while naked (unless you are suggesting that they should be grateful that nothing worse happened while receiving services for which they will likely be overbilled through the nose?).
That Dr. Slappy was not charged is a problem, as I DID allude to with my “because money and power” comment. That Dr. Slappy was able to intimidate witnesses is a problem (again with the money and power!). That the prosecutor is likely an asshat is a also a problem. However, I am still not sure why that excuses the nurse. One can be the victim of the system and also a gross, lying POS at the same time.
So, it isn’t about consent?
“I thought consent was still a thing”
Everything else is, as you repeatedly ruled it, irrelevant.
Class warfare. Nurse, denied a living. Dr begged to return to hospital. Who’s crimes were worse?
Personally they both should have been let go. She denied herself a living by taking pictures of a patient without consent.
Wow, what a bunch of prudes. Was it the mention of a penis, or did the switch go off for rectum?
How many holes are there in a human body?
I can imagine that she might have been honestly interested in the body. I mean, she took up a profession where she’s supposed to care for them. I’d find it more odd if she were grossed out by the human body. Is she supposed to close her eyes?
But, the Dr, who abused, physically, and verbally, the body’s of the unconscious victim, with malice, gets off. Literally, maybe.
And they both should meet the same end, in order to be “fair”?
Prudes?
Uh no. It wasn’t her body to photograph. As for being honestly interested in the body, there is a plethora of reference books that cover that interest. No need to take pictures of people without their consent.
When you become a health care professional you take an oath, she violated that oath, she deserved to be fired.
You keep acting as if his poor behavior excuses hers, it doesn’t. She made a choice(and if she is smart enough to make it through nursing school than she ought to have been smart enough to understand it was a poor one that could result in termination) and now she gets to live with the consequences(and explain to any future employer that she essentially IGNORED patient confidentiality and sent pics of people’s bodies to other people.)
Did you miss the heading?
CLASS WARFARE
Let’s talk about what mistakes she made, and the manner in which she made them, knowing nothing about why she did it, and it what context.
Or, lets talk about the sick fuck Dr, who made a habit of slapping and grabbing handfuls of ass while deriding the “fat asses” that he was going to charge $500k-800k to cut open.
You seem to think the larger crime is with the first case. I disagree.
But, the DA, law enforcement in general, and the professional organizations have spoken- they agree with you. Burn her at the stake! Who does she think she is? She probably doesn’t even make 6 figures!
Whose crimes were worse? Who was actually punished?
“sent pics of people’s bodies to other people”
Never happened. Not even the DA claimed that.
If a person reported her than YES, she was sharing those pictures. Logic is your friend.
“sent pics of people’s bodies to other people”
I see no mention of the word “sharing”, which has a very fluid meaning these days.
You said that she “sent” the pictures, not “shared”.
I can share a picture by simply showing my phone to another person, which is what it sounded like happened.
Anything else you want to change the meaning of?
Let me assure you that the DA probably went to great lenths and spared no expense trying to prove that she was also guilty of “dissemination” of the pictures. The fact that there was not charge on that shows that he didn’t find anything.
What did you find?
BTW, reading and understanding the terms you are using are your friend, or maybe should be better firends.
I quoted you. You claimded that she “sent” the pictures to someone else.
Where did you come up with that? What logic was involved. It seems like the exact opposite of logic, you made a claim that was logically false.
Teach me oh benevolent BS artist. Logic? How about some honesty. Admit that you said she “sent” the pictures. Then admit you were wrong. Them come back and teach me more about your logic.
I will admit that she probably “recived” pictures/vidoes, from someone who was not charged…with anything.
Unless you think she was able to shove her phone up someone elses ass.
What does your logic say about this? Was she sharing her phone?
Re: Turkey shooting down Russian jet
A while ago Turkey established a no-fly zone on its border with Syria, warning off (and shooting down) any planes entering that zone. This is where repeated warnings came from, according to Turkish accounts Russian jet was warned off as soon as it entered that zone and further warnings were issued as it came closer to the border. So the few seconds Russian jet may or may not have spent in Turkish airspace are irrelevant, Turkey considered it a threat as soon as it breached their self-imposed no-fly zone.
Previous incidents where Turkey felt it’s airspace has been violated appear to also be the violations of this self-imposed zone, rather than their actual airspace. I haven’t seen this mentioned, obviously it changes the narrative of who the aggressor is.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2015/10/russia-violates-turkish-airspace-because-turkey-moved-its-border.html
Where is the UN resolution that establishes this no-fly zone in the airspace of the sovereign nation of Syria??? Did I blink and miss it, or did Sultan Erdogan declare the birth of the new Ottoman Empire?
Zactly. This gives then the “right” to commit WAR CRIMES just like the Big Boyz. So many layers in this recent onion but this needs to be highlighted.
My education on Turks came from being employed by a few.
I certainly wouldn’t want any Turk mad at me. If Attila the Hun didn’t frighten you, then Midnight Express should have.
Where is the UN resolution that establishes this no-fly zone in the airspace of the sovereign nation of Syria???
Probably in the same place as the UN resolution authorizing Putin to annex Ukrainian territory in violation of its own treaty obligations.
It appears unilateral actions don’t require UN approval. Who knew?
Also, Syria -by which you actually mean the Assad regime- isn’t sovereign, as evidenced by the fact it has epically failed the most basic test of sovereignty, which is maintaining a monopoly on the use of force within one’s own borders.
“Syria by which you actually mean the Assad regime” You’ve got some other candidate for the Syrian state? Maybe the moderates?
Moderates? What moderates? All I see are Al Nusra and ISIS and some kurds
Exactly.
Nope, I’m saying that as a practical matter the “Syrian state” has ceased to exist for the present time.
The Middle East’s current political borders are largely the invention of British and French imperialists after World War I and reflect their interests rather than those of the actual inhabitants of the region. As a result borders frequently transect ethnic and confessional divides. The political dominance of the Alawite minority in Syria thanks to French sponsorship is a typical result. Not coincidentally the only part of Syria Bashar al Assad still controls in the western coast where the Alawite population is concentrated. In a sense one could argue that ISIS is trying to right the wrongs of the European imperialists by creating a Sunni majority state that would incorporate a large part of eastern Syria and western Iraq.
Of course the region’s tangled geopolitical history is conspicuously absent from most of the “analysis” that has appeared.
During WWII, when Germany occupied most of France and dictated to the rest of France through a subordinate supportive government, the Allies did not declare French Sovereignty extinguished or the French Government illegitimate for the several years that both “failed” this “sovereignty” “test”.
Nor does International Law recognize such a “test” for declaring a Sovereignty “nonexistent” or a State “failed”. The Syrian Arab Republic is the only United Nations recognized ( and therefore recognized-by-every-nation-in-the-United Nations) government anywhere within Syria. Just as France needed Allied help to expel the Nazi Germans from France back then, Syria needs Allied help to exterminate rebellion from Syria now. The R + 6 Alliance of today is smaller than the United Nations Alliance of WWII, and the Axis of Jihad today is bigger than the Axis Powers was then. But that doesn’t change the fact that Assad and Putin are in the Right, and Obama and his Coalition of Moderate Terrorist Cannibal Head-chopping Jihadi Liver-Eaters are in the Wrong.
Yeah, funny thing about international law, it mostly means whatever the countries in a position to enforce it say it means.
The comparison with France in World War II is of course completely ridiculous. France was invaded by a foreign power, not subject to a civil war, and the Allies chose to recognize the exiled Free French as the “legitimate” government of France. Syria isn’t under foreign military occupation or have a government in exile. The Assad dictatorship is being assailed by its own citizens. A better historical analogy would be the regime of Louis XVI, with Russia playing the role of Prussia and Austria in trying to defend the regime from its own citizens.
The UN may recognize the “Syrian Arab Republic”, but the question is who now represents that republic. The US and its allies have said that Assad must go, so they clearly no longer recognize its legitimacy. Whether this is strategically wise is an open question, but the fact remains that Assad now controls no more than fraction of the territory of the Syrian state and its claim to the country’s sovereignty is therefore no more secure than that of competitors, with ISIS obviously being first and foremost.
The bald truth is that a regime only exercises “sovereignty” as long as that sovereignty is recognized and respected by other states, and that is obviously no longer the case for Assad, who is powerless to prevent the intervention of multiple foreign powers and non state actors into the conflict.
If Assad isnt Syria, does that mean ISIS is Syria, is Al Nusra is syria, or are the Kurds Syria?
Anyway, by your definition, isnt Germany non sovereign? Its got bigass American military bases there.
Nobody is “Syria”, in the sense of having substantive territorial control of the country and being able to legitimately speak for the country as a whole. That’s the nature of civil war.
Yeah, there are US bases in Germany. Also in about 60 other countries. However American forces don’t control any German territory other than the bases themselves and don’t exercise any civil authority. In what sense is their presence an infringement of German sovereignty?
Uh even in civil wars someone has the actual authority to speak on behalf of the country. Lincoln was President of the United States even if the Confederacy didn’t particularly think he should be allowed to speak for them.
During the American civil war the US was effectively two countries. Lincoln’s writ didn’t run south of the Mason-Dixie Line (except in areas occupied by Union troops, obviously), and everyone including Lincoln himself knew it.
Was it a no fly zone or a warning zone? I guess we are lucky the other aircraft with the one that got shot down didn’t…
The corporatists must own and ruin everything:
Months ago, Rupert Murdoch bought National Geographic and fired most of writers. This just hit the stands. @historicalpics
The corporatists bribe and bully until everything is corrupt:
How Coke spent $1.5m ‘influencing’ an anti-obesity nonprofit organization Daily Mail (Chuck L)
But are there glimmers of an awakening?
Why are so many Americans skeptical about climate change? A study offers a surprising answer
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/11/23/why-are-so-many-americans-skeptical-about-climate-change-a-study-offers-a-surprising-answer/
If the people wake up the neoliberals will become pariahs. Corporations will be reduced, reformed and tightly-regulated, if not eliminated altogether. And those politicians pushing these sovereignty-destroying “trade deals” will be seen as the traitors they are, selling their people for a pot of gold.
And pigs will fly, too!
You can’t change something endemic to capitalist cultures and call it “waking people up”. The whole system is run by the corporations for the corporations all for the sake of wealth.
I can barely get friends to believe FACTS about Hillary Clinton (like Bill’s presidential pardons being used as a political tool to get votes ofr Hillary, you know, the usual stuff) over a drink. People believe what they want to believe and not you, nor the neoliberals, nor anybody will ever change that.
Its better to live by example.
That is hopelessness masquerading as realism. I reject it.
http://www.latimes.com/local/crime/la-me-shooting-video-police-20151125-story.html
Funny how these unnamed Law enforcement experts, never express concern about misinterpreting car chase videos or convenience store videos. (or maybe they do – so what good reason is there for them to remain unnamed? Other than maybe what they are saying in this instance is ridiculous and that they are not objective experts but shills for the police).
===============
“…law enforcement experts around the nation warned that recordings like the one that captured the teen’s death can paint an incomplete picture.”
“The videos are often visceral in nature, showing what many activists consider to be clear-cut misuse of force by police officers. Cook County State’s Atty. Anita Alvarez said she “moved up”** her decision to charge Van Dyke after a judge ruled last week that the video should be released to the public.”
Knowing what happens on video after it happens is totally different than knowing what the cop was thinking and what he will say he was thinking,” said Eugene O’Donnell*, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a former assistant district attorney in New York City. “The video obviously could be damning in terms of a criminal case, but the ultimate question is, is there malice towards the kid? Is it totally unwarranted under any view of the evidence? The video does not speak for itself.”
==============
First, devil’s advocate (and I do mean devil)
1. Maybe the youth did threaten and wave a knife at police
2. Maybe the youth’s demeanor did indicate drug intoxication that could be interpreted as a severe danger to the public
Refutation
1. Lying by how many police???
2. * Now intent is important with charging (mens rea) but the idea that prosecutors bend over backwards to try and understand a criminals rationale is pretty naive at best, and totally disingenuous at worst. Prosecutors actually are found to break the rules about supplying all evidence to the defense when it is exculpatory all the time.
Criminals, including police criminals, will of course ex post facto try and invent and interpret the circumstances to advantage their own defense. The idea that malice can only be decided by the cop’s state of mind is pretty stupid – it is simplier and undoubtedly more accurate to judge malice by FACTS, and shooting somebody about 16 times in the back (well, the bullets spun the victim around) while they are a good distance walking AWAY is a far better way to judge intent than asking the shooter….
3. initial statements by police that the victim was charging were WRONG. If police spokesmen don’t know what happened, they shouldn’t say.
So why were they made? Did other police on site acquiesce to the false narrative? This strikes me as either gross incompetence that deserves being relieved of one’s job, or is a practiced designed strategy to prevent and obfuscate the investigation – nothing to see here, move along…
4.** Blind justice – what a joke. If there hadn’t been video, this cop would be policing today. Is it credible to come to the conclusion that without video, the cop would have been charged? If there had not been video, would the blue code of omerta prevented any police officer from even coming forward??? It took a year to figure it out? Because the lying by police was so pervasive that getting to reality took months and months of investigation? So how many police will be charged with perjury or making false statements?
And the prosecutor acknowledges she makes decisions to charge police only when she is forced to.
5. The more video there is, the more police misconduct comes to light.
AND THE ISSUE is not the proverbial one bad apple. The issue is all the other apples that lie about there not being a bad apple, and the apple pickers and apples sellers (prosecutors and judges) who just can’t or won’t look closely at the apples no matter how many people die of food poisoning…
From Ambrose E-P’s “Bloodbath for Bonds” screed:
Unlike stocks and property, Treasuries have never ‘crashed.’ Calendar years with a negative total return in long bonds (2013 was the most recent) are rare, and every one has been followed by a bounce.
For bond investors, losses from inflation are more of a ‘slow boiling frog’ process, as illustrated from 1951 to 1981 when long bonds delivered only a couple of percent compounded, less than the inflation rate.
As Ambrose E-P points out, stocks and property offer low yields too. In aggregate, global investors must hold the available assets. But individuals can vary from the market mix.
One of these days, commodities are going to hit bottom. Linkers (indexed bonds) offer inflation protection, though their supply is quite limited compared to conventional bonds.
UBS has an investment guru. I’m always curious to know what the Swiss “clown-act bankers” are thinking.
Maybe MS has some CDO bonds gathering dust, UBS may have a bid !
Sherlock Holmes said
“How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?”
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes
Maybe there aren’t any profits anymore? Perhaps every year, we’re are in fact getting poorer.
Perhaps ALL our finance is a chimera, done merely to expropriate the meager output of those who actually toil and transfer such excesses to those who can impose taxes, tariffs, surcharges, economic rents, and slavery under the guise of finance, markets, law and justice.
Perhaps we all live in a simulacrum….
The MATRIX wasn’t a movie of fiction – it was a DOCUMENTARY!
I thought is was only a couple of weeks ago when Murdoch fired the National Geographic writers and editors. Anyhow, It will be interesting to see what the subscription renewal rate is like after the change. How many current subscribers will want to spend money on the equivalent of a supermarket tabloid rag?
Further responses to that tweet point out that this is a special edition done in conjunction with Time and commissioned before Murdoch took over. The latest edition is apparently a large photo of the earth from space with the headline “Cool It”.
But as you say, it will still be interesting to see how subscriptions fare after the News Corp takeover becomes obvious.
Judging from the South Asia Nat Geo cable channel, the future bodes poorly for the once respectable journal; expect increasing crapification:
I kid you not; after 11:00 pm or so, Nat Geo cable in So Asia features what might be called “beastial porn,” documentary film of wilderness animal sexual behavioral proclivities.
What market research did they do to decide that audiences are interested? Or, did some rogue documentary film-maker just pitch their idea to the Murdoch team, knowing that the old Nat Geo culture was going to the guillotine?
I am looking forward to the coverage of the monkey divorces, as well as the police blotter for animals caught stealing…
The holidays is a great time to inform family and friends that it is time to cancel their National Geographic subscription. I think I can take out at least two subscribers, tomorrow.
Um, guys, this issue predates Murdoch. This isnt his fault.
I am cancelling my subscription to National Geographic Magazine after the December issue, which I figure was the last one “put to bed” before the firing debacle of November 3.
It’s very sad, really. I have had a subscription for most of the past 55 years since my grandparents started one for me when I was about 9 or 10. I have also collected old issues from the ’20’s, ’30’s and ’40’s which have some fascinating photos of things that no longer exist and great writing. The ads are also very interesting as they are a great indicator of the zeitgeist of the time, at least for the upper classes. For instance, in June, 1933, there are over a dozen ads for cruises to Europe with prices starting as low as $189 round trip for first class.
Thursday, November 26, 2015
Philidor 2.0: Valeant and Stephen King play Chess with a lot of pharmacies
All these pharmacies were registered in Delaware. Many are named after chess terms (as are many previously disclosed Philidor entities) but we are also noting a distinct Stephen King theme.
This should keep the fraud investigators for various insurance companies busy. I suspect this will also get added to the list of things Congress is investigating.
http://brontecapital.blogspot.com.es/2015/11/philidor-20-valeant-and-stephen-king.html
there are more llc’s here than hats in the thomas crown affair…why?…congress your move.
How Walmart Keeps an Eye on Its Massive Workforce
So now we have a Military-Industrial-Intelligence-Retailing Complex. Happy Black Friday!
So now we have a Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Retailing Complex.
Fixed it for ya.
File under math is hard, scaring people is easy
http://www.cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/driving-is-safer-than-they-tell-you
Of course be careful anyway…
Interesting support, for the argument that establishment Ds are foolish to push Hillary as the candidate for Prez in 2016. Bernie is the one with real appeal across party lines:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/the-lifelong-conservatives-who-love-bernie-sanders/417441/
Team Blue elites fall largely into two categories: future bank employees and non entities who just want the title of Congressman.
Anyone from those two groups outside of Hillary lacks her celebrity status and tokenism, even other women because of Hillary’s prominence. Can you imagine a Joe Biden candidacy if he wasn’t the sitting Veep? They need Hillary. She is their only hope. Everyone else is just repulsive with few exceptions. A Bernie win means threatening the banks, being required to do their jobs, or fighting Bernie which would end the career of anyone who opposed a new and popular President.
Don’t you know?
Our government (executive, legislative and judicial) have only one goal in mind: upholding the fictional debt and undermining the rule of law. They are secretly sworn to protect the crooks and thugs that crashed the global economy. They will not stop until the land grab is complete. Who cares if their constituents are reduced to pitching a tent on the greenbelts of the interstate corridors?
who just want the title of Congresswoman…..fifa
Thanks for Pando’s Gary Brecher on Captagon. Timely bec hypocrisy is always political. Loved the unprosaic prose – the way it bird-dogs a thought regardless of elegance.
Yves called it: Tech “disrupters” flagrantly break the law. Latest is “unicorn” Zenefits($4.5 Bn cap):
Apparently selling insurance without licences was the business model.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/williamalden/zenefits-under-scrutiny-for-flouting-insurance-laws#.hdJ0Nl8RX
This article contains a shocking error in arithmetic. Maybe it’s just a typographical error, but still…
That should be a minimum of 0.44 percent (248 million Americans in 1990). What’s a misplaced decimal point among friends? Since it refers to households, which usually have more than one person, this is really probably between 1 and 2 percent.
Please. Show your patriotism. Americans don’t shit.
So, patriotism = constipation. That I can get, er, behind.
A very special kind of Exceptionalism, that.
also, the antidote is so cute – but is it photo shopped? it has a strange left ear thing
But then in time the flowers bloomed again, as the seeds heard the siren call of the solar winds and pushed forth thru the rubble reminding me of the seeds that would find their way thru the concrete sidewalks of the tracks of suburban homes I remembered from my youth…April 4, 2050…
Guys, that national geographic issue was actually commissioned before Murdoch took over. It isnt actually his fault
If 9/11 was Saddams’ fault, then this tabloid issue of National Geographic can be Murdochs’ fault.
“Exclusive: Three Goldman bankers leave for Uber as tech world raids Wall Street talent”
I think ‘talent’ is Wall Street’s word for ‘connections’.
Really? I thought on Wall Street “talent” meant “lack of ethics.”
What a damning article that is by Noah Smith – damning that is of the econ academic culture that can produce such a narrow critique of the neoclassical/Austrian ideology that is represented by Eco 101.
As the physicist Cesar Hidalgo put it, the stories of markets put forward in Eco 101 are just that – Disneyland fantasies, where everyone is a small-time butcher, baker, candlestick maker selling their wares in a farmers market. Prices and wages communicate all information in these static make-believe worlds – the beloved theme of the Hayekians and their jv hangers-on like Tyler Cowen (purveyor of one of the most appalling textbooks out there) and Russ Roberts, and given fantastical mathematical form by the seemingly disconnected from reality Nobelists such as Lucas and Prescott.
Bruce Wilder put it well a few years ago:
“The very fact that we are discussing “markets and politics” here, in the 21st friggin’ century, is a certain mark of the perverse triumph of the “economics of the market” in an economy, which is anything but. Over half of the American labor force works for organizations employing over 100 people. Actual markets in the American economy are extremely rare and unusual beasts. An economics of markets ought to be regarded as generally useful as a biology of cephalopods, amid the living world of bones and shells. But, somehow the idealized, metaphoric market is substituted as an analytic mask, laid across a vast variety of economic relations and relationships, obscuring every important feature of what actually is. And, then we wonder why the “thinking” and policy debates that result are stupid and corrupt.”
Mark Ames article was more than worth a read. He also provides links to his historical review of Chechnya. The short historical answer is not new: oil and neo-cons, just not in that order.
http://herondelilah.tumblr.com/post/133817848394/miles-davis-after-being-beat-up-by-police-in-front
Hippies, tree huggers, Greens, and other “haters” of progress, freedom and capitalism have been shouting warnings about our planet for one hundred years. They were mocked, hounded, arrested, or ignored. Turns out they were right, but it was an inconvenient truth.
Fuck you, Humanity. You deserve to burn yourself out of your own home.
“They paved Paradise. Put up a parking lot.”