Neanderthal DNA has subtle but significant impact on human traits PhysOrg (Chuck L)
This Is The World’s Best Country for Working Women Bloomberg
America’s Next Top Polluter Environment America (resilc)
Facebook’s “Free Basics” and colonialism: an argument in six devastating points Boing Boing (Randy K)
Coca-Cola’s smaller cans may make us drink more Sydney Morning Herald (EM). I’m sure that’s the intent, but I was a Diet Coke addict when I was doing a lot of work in Japan, which has smaller cans than in the US, and I am pretty sure I did not drink more. The skinny cans in Japan are attractive, IMHO.
China?
US seeks backing in South China Sea spat Financial Times
Eurozone economy sluggish with 0.3% growth Financial Times
Germany’s economy sustained its momentum amid slowdown Irish Times. Due among other things to extra spending to deal with refugees.
Will Britain Leave the EU Glenn F
French MPs vote for enshrining emergency powers in constitution Guardian. Margarita: “There goes la liberté….”
Portugal to prepare extra deficit-cutting steps now-Dijsselbloem Reuters This was a short battle of wills that Portugal lost when bond yields spiked. Some background from Marc Chandler: Why Portugal is Important Even If You have No Direct Exposure
IMF warns Ukraine it will halt $40bn bailout unless corruption stops Guardian (margarita)
Syraquistan
Russia Warns of ‘World War’ as Saudi Plans Syria Intervention Juan Cole
Major powers agree to plan for ‘cessation of hostilities’ in Syria Reuters
World Powers Agree to Cease-Fire in Syria Wall Street Journal
Imperial Collapse Watch
Female Veterans Face Pitiful Health Care Mother Jones (resilc)
William Astore, Spoiling The Pentagon TomDispatch
6 Reasons Not to Reboot the Cold War FPIF (resilc)
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
HACKER CALLS FBI’S I.T. DEPARTMENT, GAINS ACCESS TO NETWORK PopSci (Robert M)
2016
Clinton Foundation received subpoena from State Department investigators Washington Post
Jeffrey Sachs Blames Hillary Clinton for Our National Security Woes FPIF (resilc)
Bernie Sanders Sweeps Online Polls After Dominating Sixth Democratic Debate Huffington Post. I’m told she looked and sounded terrible, as if she was on ‘ludes. Plus she wore yellow, the most untrustworthy color (it’s fine for ties or the beach, but not as a dominant color in a serious setting). Even if you argue that Sanders supporters gamed the online polls (which do have issues with reliability), that’s a whole ‘lotta gaming going on.
But look what the Mighty Wurlitzer has as its lead story: In Democratic Debate, Hillary Clinton Paints Bernie Sanders’s Plans as Unrealistic New York Times. Her answer to why the US can’t have single payer: We’re not England or France. Help me.
Hillary Clinton finally found her argument against Bernie Sanders Vox. Lambert: “Rovian: Turn message discipline into a weakness.”
Clinton Tries Playing Sanders’ Rhetoric But in a Lower Key Bloomberg. Resilc: “Look at me I can be bernie too. Look at me.”
Clinton shifts tactics in debate Financial Times. Subhead: “Sanders holds his own on foreign policy as Clinton attempts attack.”
What New Hampshire Tells Us Robert Reich
America is burning but Michael Bloomberg can put out the fire William Ackman, Financial Times. Scott: “Let’s Hope this works out better for him than VRX and HLF.” Moi: OMG, this reads like parody. You must Google the headline. For instance, ” Because he is pragmatic and non-ideological, he gets along with everyone.” Tell that to Occupy Wall Street, the blacks and Hispanics targeted by Stop and Frisk, which Bloomberg defended, and the people in Queens whose streets were always plowed well after the Upper East side was tended to.
John Kasich has been billed as moderate candidate, but his record is anything but Guardian
Money buying little power in US campaign Financial Times
America’s Scandalous, Psychic, Forgotten First Female Presidential Candidate Vice
The Koch Brothers’ Dirty War on Solar Power Rolling Stone
Heroin dealers could face murder charges amid crisis in New Hampshire Guardian (resilc)
Angry White Men
Read the federal charges against Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy Vox (Glenn F)
Federal Reserve Won’t Backpedal on Interest Rates, Janet Yellen Says New York Times
Morgan Stanley to Pay $3.2 Billion Over Flawed Mortgage Bonds New York Times. “Flawed”. Lordie.
Dimon defies sell-off in $26m stock buy Financial Times. Reminiscent of NYSE chief Richard Whitney’s buy order during the Great Crash.
Class Warfare
The world can’t afford another financial crash – it could destroy capitalism as we know it Telegraph (resilc). Lordie. Another proof of elite disconnect. “Capitalism as we know it” has become socialism for the rich. An end of that is something sorely to be wished. And listen to the commentary, the loathing of “populism” and the failure to recognize that capitalism over the last 30-40 years has generated stagnant real worker wages and greater job instability, so greater worker anxiety and risk, due to the refusal to share productivity gains with workers.
The Sharing Economy Is Not Your Friend Vice
Fighting “corporate control of education”: A millennial education wonk goes to war against neoliberal reform Salon (Judy B)
Why Some Cities Get All the Good Jobs Bloomberg. Resilc: “Good luck. These will die too.” I’m hearing evidence that the San Francisco rental market has cooled in a big way, for instance.
Robin Hood in a Time of Austerity London Review of Books
“Trust Me,” Said the 401(k), “A Sucker Is Born Every Day.” Ian Welsh (Kevin). Today’s must read
Antidote du jour (Chet G):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
217 comments
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Ref – “IMF warns Ukraine it will halt $40bn bailout unless corruption stops” – Guardian
Is this a gag head line to the Onion… wasn’t it corruption that got the whole ball rolling in the first place…
Skippy… E.g do as I say and not as I do….
I put a link in Water Cooler or Links comments when The VOA first came out with this story 2 days earlier. I laughed so hard I almost lost control of my bladder. One wonders which idiots at the VOA forgot that Victoria Newland, Hunter Biden and a couple of other Obama admin Flexians were part and parcel of all that corruption. It’s as the lazy managers at the VOA fell asleep and never realized they were biting the hand that feeds them.
SAT question: “IMF is to corruption as…”
“Power attracts the corruptible…” Chapterhouse: Dune
…water is to wetness.
……as sh!t is to flies???
Which of these things is NOT like the other:
1) Ukraine
2) IMF
3) Victory Newland
4) “Hunter” Biden
5) Corruption
6) The “Good Witch” in the “Wizard of Oz”?
Er…is this a trick question?
Ukraine?
Bees are to honey
I would suggest the question should be – what dominate ideology does – is – the IMF – as….
Skippy…. institutions are run by people, some are inflicted with group think as a career path..
…as Wells Fargo is to mortgage fraud!
Yipee! I’m certain score 1600.
The State Department must really be pissed at Ukraine, considering that State Department pressure was the only reason they IMF program was restored in the first place.
So this is possibly pattern of bit by bit distancing and justification-building to dump the Ukraines.
‘State Department’: institutions v individual.
“Those who contributed to the financial crisis of 2008 cannot evade responsibility for their misconduct,” – quoted by Bill Black, post from today.
‘Those who’ was defined as institution and not individual. An individual member of the State Department, V. Nuland, does very well from anything that ramps up corrupt &/or military spending, since husband Kagan gets kickbacks that goes to the think-tank that gives him cash.
Another merry-go-round. Please, read about a merry-go-round concerning election cycles, with court-verified evidence:
nytimes.com/2007/11/18/opinion/18rich.html?ex=1353042000&en=a02e17f1b9535096&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
Re: Hillary Clinton Finally Found Her Argument Against Bernie Sanders
Did anyone else’s jaw drop when they read what her first authentic argument against Bernie was supposed to be? I boiled it down to this: “OK I’ll give you that I’m corrupt, but I care about lots of things like gay marriage and women’s rights, and mere corruption isn’t really that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. Bernie is so narrow minded! He’s so worried about corruption all the time that he won’t do anything to help women or gays! But I am much more broad minded than him and I will do lots for women and gays.”
This is low. Real low. Whoever Hillary has coming up with this stuff should have been fired a long time ago–because now it’s probably too late for her campaign.
Secondly I couldn’t tell if the article author was being sarcastic or not. It was a bit too subtle for me if so. But considering that this was Vox I sort of doubt it. And if this wasn’t sarcasm, then the establishment people who are in the tank for Hillary are even more deluded and braindead than I was thinking. Do any of these people realize that that little speech was a death knell?
I thought this was apropos to the yellow observation…
THE TWO-FACED NATURE OF YELLOW
“There are some general, positive associations with yellow that just can’t be ignored. From young ages, it is engrained into our minds that yellow is the color of the sun, and what does the sun represent? Warmth. Light. Happiness. Over time, we come to associate the color yellow with these things – warmth, light, and happiness – making it an overall positive color. Furthermore, yellow is associated with imagination, energy, optimism, glory and respect.
On the other hand, yellow can draw some negative associations. When intense, it is associated with flames. Some shades of yellow are associated with cowardice. Studies show that babies cry more in bright yellow rooms. And tempers are more likely to flare around yellow. Every color has its pros and cons, but yellow’s gap might be the greatest.”
Skippy…. anyone got a survey on babies crying – ?????
The use of the color yellow in the “Breaking Bad” series:
“Yellow is most often associated directly with the meth cooking, selling and laundering operation. Yellow also signifies caution, which is taken more and more as Walt becomes more experienced in the meth business. When Walt and Jesse move into Gus’ underground super lab, they don yellow protective jump suits, demonstrating the meticulousness and care they take in every step they make. Gus, the man behind the distribution of Walt’s product, often wears yellow when meeting with Walt, lending to his cautious and calculating nature.” – Luke Villapaz, “’Breaking Bad’ Color Theory: The Subtle Symbolism And Meanings Behind The Colors In AMC’s Hit Series,”
http://www.ibtimes.com/breaking-bad-color-theory-subtle-symbolism-meanings-behind-colors-amcs-hit-series-photos-1411632
re: Hillary in yellow. My opinion is that the color and fabric (having a sheen giving subtle reflection of stage lighting) were chosen to give her the appearance of having healthy glow (reflected golden color on skin tone). Stagecraft.
The color was a dull lemon yellow. so… truth in advertising?
reflected golden color on skin tone
Not to pick nits, but what I was wasn’t skin, looked like the stuff of corpses.
what I was seeing wasn’t skin
I think it’s not the color, but a subtle strategy to draw the attention to her clothes, a subtle reminder she’s a woman.
That fact we are talking about it, and she has said she’s Rorschach test, she knew some hated her, some supported her, so it didn’t matter how that color came across – it would be appealing to her supporters and not so to her detractors – the fact we’re talking what she was wearing, is all a woman can ask.
Maybe we’re talking about her dress because her dress was more interesting than most of what she said.
In that case, we are not talking about her connection to Wall Street as well whatever else she said, but her dress.
As a diversionary tactic, that’s a win for her.
Hillary is anything but mellow……yellow….. more like really strong, acrid p!ss !!
My guess is she wanted to remind people that there was a woman fighter in the ring.
Whatever she hoped to achieve with that, I don’t know for sure.
Then wouldn’t she have worn pink?
Maybe we will see that in the next debate.
As long as we’re channeling Donovan songs, A Well Known Has-Been is very topical.
Agree about the strategy; disagree on intent.
I’m pretty sure it’s so that someone points out that she looks like Big Bird or a banana and they can screech s*xism, which is their only offensive at this point. (Both of which, by the way, are things that many of us would say to a friend in all yellow at a formal function, as it’s pretty ridiculous an outfit and probably not appropriate.)
It’s a pretty tired tactic for Clinton’s allies; one which I recall being used in 2008, her senatorial career, as well as to dismiss any criticisms in office at all levels. And pay no mind to the pictures of GWB in a flight suit with a hilarious cod piece that was circulated for years on the left. It’s totally different when our side takes a funny picture and pairs it with a critical story that occasionally mocks their hilarious appearance while making crucial points, because obviously s*xism.
It probably won’t work, but like I said all the other cards have been played and Bernie won. The “empowered female” (who actually pretty much just schmoozed, married, was appointed to, or bought said power) is all she has left.
Which reminds me, what sex is Big Bird?
Well….HRC may have been trying to invoke old commander Kirk (think:old Elvis), but here on Earth w / us mere mortals in industrial, commercial marine environments things are painted standard colors….all those guards and railings: Caution Yellow.
Just sayin
It’s camouflage so you can’t see the FBI “crime scene” tape.
I thought the yellow could be bike leathers from kill bill then I thought…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b-nFSUXcuM
Skippy…. Mongoloid and Devolution thingy…
Am I remembering correctly that in imperial China only the Emperor was permitted to wear yellow?
Also the empress.
yeah, but they exuded real power.
Who? The empresses?
Yeah, but that was not a warm yellow. In fact, was it yellow? More chartreuse, I think.
When I was in high school (1963-1967), you would be shamed about *to death* if you wore yellow on Thursday (aka Fairy Day). Is this a dog whistle?
Maybe.
It’s the same yellow top that she wore to the Goldman Sachs fundraiser.
http://www.mediaite.com/online/youll-never-guess-the-other-time-hillary-wore-that-same-gold-top/
Next time Hillary pulls that “women and gay rights” business with Bernie, I hope he replies:
Madame Secretary, given that you claim to care so much about women’s rights and gay rights, will you be instructing your Clinton Foundation to return the donations it received from Saudi Arabia, where women are treated as third class citizens and gays are beheaded?
I agree and I also believe all non-profit foundations are required to do that.
If the money came from steel mills polluting America in the beginning of the 20th century, return it, even if that’s all the foundation’s money. No money, no foundation.
If your money came from supplier security back door to enable the security state, return it.
If you money came from Wall Street, even if you saved Goldman Sachs, return it.
That’s awfully kind of you.
See, at my level of socio-economic status, when one of us gets to profit from crimes committed, even by someone else, we get everything confiscated and usually jail time.
Heck, they don’t even have to prove anything was actually a proceed of crime before they take it.
No nicely returning it for us.
(Sorry, but the Wall Street one made it necessary to say.)
You and me, and many of us are in that same boat.
Hillary: It takes a crook to work with the crooks. Me: Throw out all the crooks.
Corollary:
She says she’s the only one who can “Get things done.”
Yeah well, it’s the ‘things she will get done’ that scare me.
Are Americans Too Insouciant To Survive? — Paul Craig Roberts
I can remember when Bill and Hillary were in public office when their speeches were free. No one wanted to listen to them when the speeches were free. Clearly, Bill is being paid off for his past services to the powerful interest groups that control the United States, and Hillary is being paid off for her future service to the same groups.
How then is it possible that half of Democrats would prefer Hillary? Is it because she is a woman and women want a woman president more than they want their civil liberties, peace, and employment for themselves, their spouses and their children?
Or is it because, given the presstitute character of the American media, the people haven’t a clue?
If you vote for Hillary, you are voting for someone who has been paid off to the tune of $153 million by powerful vested interests who have no concern whatsoever for your interests. In addition, Hillary has the necessary campaign funds from the powerful interest groups for her presidential nomination campaign. As if this isn’t damning enough, Hugh Wharton writes that the National Democratic Committee is in league with Hillary to steal, if necessary, the nomination from Sanders and the voters. http://usuncut.com/news/the-dnc-superdelegates-just-screwed-over-bernie-sanders-and-spit-in-the-faces-of-voters/
In contrast, the interest groups who rule America are not contributing to Sanders.
Therefore, the choice of Sanders is obvious, but 50% of Democrats are too braindead to see it.
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2016/02/11/are-americans-too-insouciant-to-survive-paul-craig-roberts/
“and mere corruption isn’t really that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things.”
I was watching Morning Joe this A.M and this is the meme Steve Ratner and an ex-Bush communication director were pushing….that taking money from groups doesn’t matter..so what…no biggie.
The rationalizations for every clinton flaw is shameful.
Mainstream Media on conflict of interest:
‘Faced criticism’ … but didn’t get fired.
As Hillary would say, ‘Hold me accountable!’ (while I laff my a$$ off)
Bias? What bias?
http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gawker/full/~3/MnVusKKN6sc/moderator-accidentally-whispers-oh-god-into-mic-when-1758651605
Yeah. I hear it. Very odd.
You mean THAT Judy Woodruff, the concerned Mom/secretary/librarian/earnest old lady centerpiece beacon of reasonability and trust, who we’ve all known and relied on at Nice Polite Republicans (NPR) for decades?
(At what point is the web of corruption so completely pervasive that the solution is to set fire to the entire thing and just start over? My guess is: *right now*)
Mind if I steal that quote?
Hillary and obama are identity politics personified. By contrast, if Marx teaches us nothing else, it is that control of the means of production is all that counts.
Identity politics – With People’s Money, we can do reject the last 40 years, or so, of Democratic party.
There are good historical reasons minority voters vote minority candidates.
When that has helped our noble cause (all noble ideals are equal, but our noble ideas are more equal), we haven’t been critical of our supporting voters.
“Thank you for putting me in the office. You shouldn’t if you voted based on my skin or gender. Please, next time, load up on information and still vote for me for my issue positions.”
In any case, with People Money come People Power, as everyone gets the same amount of new money.
jgordon
February 12, 2016 at 7:42 am
Hillary
In 2008, Senator Obama “was the recipient of the largest number of Wall Street donations of anybody running on the Democratic side ever,” she replied, yet he still signed Dodd-Frank into law. “So, let’s not in any way imply here that either President Obama or myself, would in any way not take on any vested interested, whether it’s Wall Street, or drug companies, or insurance companies, or frankly, the gun lobby to stand up to do what’s best for the American people,” she said.
========================================
The problem is our understanding of words. “not take on any vested interest”
You may think that means that banks can’t commit fraud, or something like that…..and that is just silly.
Why, if banks had committed fraud, our illustrious attorney general Holder, following the policy edicts of our wonderful president Obama, would have mounted a vigorous investigation and prosecution of the criminals. As this wasn’t done, it can only mean that people who think Wall Street is corrupt are…..hippies!!!!!!!!
Vested interests are hippies, and they must be destroyed! ANY hippie. And no matter how much money Hillary and Barrack have gotten from Wall Street, they will not be deterred from keeping America safe, AND exceptional – by eliminating the hippie scourge…..
Seriously, here is the whole problem with partisan politics – Obama is corrupt, so its OK for me to be corrupt!!!!
Hillary claimed Bernie called Obama ‘weak’ and something else I can’t recall now.
And Bernie responded with ‘I’ve supported Obama; I’ve worked with Obama,’ while at the same time, a senator could criticize the president, so that ‘Hilary was delivering a low blow.’
Why not standing up to her and repeat the truth – Obama has been weak.
Bernie is not pure, but is that asking too much?
What low blow? He has been weak and I will say it again.
Yeah, he can’t keep doing this dance forever. At some point, he is going to have to clearly articulate that, while he gives credit to O for getting us out of the worst of the economic collapse and for dealing with an intransigent Congress, he holds him responsible for 1) going easy on Wall Street for their part in the crash and 2) letting the drug and insurance companies write Obamacare. Both indicated an unwillingness to stand up to the giant corporations that own DC.
From this side, it’s low.
But to combat your opponent, you have to check if there some sort of madness to her method.
I think she was appealing the voters in the next primary in the south.
To many African Americans, this Wall Street stuff, this inequality stuff has been around since the beginning.
To them, corruption, looting, inequality – they are not new, and thus, not more visible than racism.
And Hillary was speaking to them, for her next primary.
She was baiting Bernie linking herself and Obama, smartly he didn’t bite. He could have said, yes Obama took Wall Street money and that’s exactly why in all these years not a single Wall Streeter was prosecuted, not even a new Pecora Commission, not even a fake new Pecora Commission – and the banks now are bigger and more dangerous than ever – because Obama took the money, and it’s why nothing will change if you follow him in office. But Bernie must be careful not to attack Obama going into primaries w/ large black populations.
Strategically, that’s a good move on her part and a good response on Bernie’s part.
I mean, we don’t want to under-estimate our opponents. We can call her mad, or we can try to understand and counter it.
My first thoughts when the debate came on were “Why is she wearing a rain slicker? Is the roof leaking?”
I’m not usually very attuned to such things, but I thought it was a dreadful color for her – and one that really detracted from the image she’s been trying to project throughout the campaign: that she’s the “serious” candidate. Serious candidates don’t show up for a debate looking like a jaundiced daffodil.
Yeah I can’t believe I watched (most of it) either. If you judged the outcome by the number of hellery supporters in the room (sounded like 3:1 ratio in Clinton’s favor) and their loud cheering, then I guess you’d think she won. Is Milwaukee a clinton stronghold or did PBS give her more tickets to shill out?
My impression of the debate… She turned into Trump — gave no specifics on how she will fix anything, but she is the only one with the experience to get things done. Then she spent most of the night lying thru her bridge work trying to tear down the specifics that Bernie depicted. PBS moderators were clueless or impotent to challenge her lies.
I like the part when Bernie said it’s time to stop the insanity of forcing regime change in the middle east and get out of the Endless War mindset.
They shouldn’t have audiences at these debates. The applause and cheering are similar to laugh tracks on sitcoms. Time to give the presidential debates back to the League of Women Voters.
I watched the second half. I yelled at Clinton a number of times, but most especially when she said that Obama had taken contributions from Wall Street, yet had cracked down on them when he was president. The claim about the supposed crackdown is laughable, of course. This goes along with her recent claim that her Wall Street money never influenced her votes. Yet she has started to parrot Bernie by stating that money is corrupting the political process. The message seems to be: “Obama and I are pure and are not influenced by money, unlike everybody else.”
You may have missed Hillary’s call to deport children to send a message. Needless to say, I imagine this won’t play well in Hispanic areas or play into Team Blue’s goals of capturing Hispanics in an effort to completely exorcise the left.
I kept waiting for Sanders to bring up the point that there would not be so many refugees had Clinton not supported right wing coups in Honduras. Creating a problem to make a point really shouldn’t be the bailiwick of the State Department, yet it would appear that that is largely their brief these days.
Clinton Inc. is genuinely awful. I’m sure Sanders could spend an age criticizing her. Most voters have no idea what “Honduras” even is. Is that a Honda hybrid? Electric? Is it near Portugal down South America way? Kissinger is known especially among the Vietnam Era, and he’s not popular outside the elite. Hillary kept digging on this. Vietnam is still a big deal, especially among Hillary’s strongest age group.
Bernie still needs low info voters to vote FOR him which means presenting a positive vision/platform while creating doubts and clear lines of separation between Sanders and Hillary. Discussing Honduras is a political waste at the moment and gives Hillary a chance to say, “enough, with the mansplaining.” She’s desperate to trot out a similar line.
I would like to see Haiti worked into the debate, given Haiti’s larger share of news coverage over the years.
I don’t think there Is time in a debate (glorified clown shows, even when the League of Women Voters ran them, they are stupid. Putin and Obama have not once had a political debate) to educate voters on subjects which are foreign. This doesn’t mean Sanders supporters shouldn’t bring these topics up in direct contact.
How much of a waste of time could it be with Nevada the next contest? Awful lot of Hispanics living in Nevada, and I doubt that they are uninformed about what is going on down there. Any mention of her activities in Colombia, Guatemala or Mexico in that context could only help him.
It is a caucus, and many of the caucus goers will interact with field organizers and other volunteers who can elaborate. Hillary didn’t exactly come off well on her immigration views such as deporting children. She can self destruct on her own.
Voters still tend to focus on what is occurring in their own country and what affected them directly. Non-Hondurans wont care about Honduras as much as the minimum wage. How many Honduran refugees are now citizens and voters? There was a draft during Vietnam. Voters were directly affected. It’s a big deal especially with reflexive Hillary voters.
How many people who confess to care about foreign policy are going to vote for Hillary? FP doesn’t move the needle.
I have to disagree with you about caring about foreign policy. Trump’s entire schtick is based upon immigration from Latin America and the potential for terrorism from the Middle East.
If one can make the connection between the destabilization of Central America and the ME by policies at State supported by such as Clinton and Kissinger to the influx of refugees from Central America and the potential for the creation of jihadists, I think that a lot of WASPish ears would perk up pretty quickly. The effects of foreign policy here at home could be a pretty powerful argument against her election.
Trump on immigration is not foreign policy, it is domestic economic policy for low-wage workers. I mean, it’s not really a policy but the appeal is not an appeal to foreign policy. Call it “domestic policy against foreigners.”
Good point. Honduras might not mean much to your average WASP, but we do have an awful lot of people with ancestry south of the border who are well aware of what has been going on.
A Honduras is an off road vehicle. It’s made by a corporate person in Detroit, Michigan. The Army likes them, especially in some Middle East Regimes – which are kinda like countries, but not really. The Army likes them a lot because they are impervious to IUDs. An IUD isn’t what you may be thinking – it’s a bomb buried under the road. They are made by Muslims. Christians don’t like IUDs and neither did the Army back when they used to get Hummers. But now everything works fine plus the F-35 will help a lot.
GOLDMAN SACKS-USA gave Obama very close to $1million during the 2008 campaign.
Mark Alexander
February 12, 2016 at 8:30 am
To me, that line shows how partisan politics just corrupts thinking, logic – any kind of coherent thought. It doesn’t matter at all what you DO, if you just keep repeating the big lie, apparently the strategy is that 50% plus 1 will buy it.
Its hard for me that a repub could possibly have done more for Wall Street that Obama – as they say, the more effective evil.
Last time I checked, they had a harder time starting wars too.
Could you imagine the angst on the left if GWB was staring down the barrel at Russia?!
Gwen and Judy clueless? Surely you jest.
It is interesting that Sanders brought up Kissinger. Methinks he must be reading the blogs.
Haha. Judy was such a Hillary Fan-Girl — asking Bernie “How dare he stand in the way of electing a Historic First Woman President” (paraphrased but that was the essence). What an idiotic question to ask?
I should clarify. I’m all for a first woman president, just not Hillary. E Warren would get my vote in a heartbeat.
I walked away from the left community entirely several years ago because of the constant accusations of r*cism. Because I didn’t support Obama after the ACA, and got downright nasty after the 16 y/o American was droned (nasty enough that I almost regret it, but can’t because, well, he droned a 16 y/o American and I wasn’t swearing,) I clearly was against his race. I even got reported a few places.
Yep. It got that bad.
Let’s not let that happen again. Please.
Seeing it pointed out like you did makes me really worry. (I also don’t think the party could survive another candidate like that, by the way. It actually really hurt the Democrats, as apparent from every election since 2008. Tearing the base apart by ostracizing large portions of traditional support in favor of a few special interests is hardly a good way to run a party, as we constantly chide the Republicans…)
Politics isn’t beanbag and the base needs to have this fight.
The reality is that the two parties are serving the same master and that master isn’t the majority of the Americans in this country.
We can’t pretend the problem doesn’t exist by pretending that identity politics trumps the problems of ALL average Americans.
I’m not going to pretend I know Hillary Clinton personally enough to call her evil, corrupt or many of the things I’ve seen written about her , however I do know some of her policies are part of the problem. In 2008 she definitely jettisoned her voters and what they wanted and did exactly what the party elite demanded which tells me that she doesn’t have it in her to fight for the electorate that desperately needs a leader that demands it do it’s fair share to fight for the democracy it wants and that is functional for the majority.
Gwen was the 1992 NYTimes reporter covering Bill Clinton’s campaign. When she was a guest on Wash. Week in Review on PBS back then she was clearly charmed by the candidate.
Well just like Trump said, the audience for the debates are full of donors. Donors with money.
“She turned into Trump — gave no specifics on how she will fix anything, but she is the only one with the experience to get things done.”
Yet Hillary & her “surrogates” stay claiming Sanders is the one who is light on details, & Hillary is the wonky detailed one.
I guess this is also like Trump, confidently & arrogantly Big-Lie enough & people might believe it. Recall the example of Trump (& Fiorina) convincing many of how great a BusinessMan he is, despite going bankrupt 4X. H Clinton claims that she is detailed/wonky, & may actually convince people of it.
I think she had all those shrieking supporters stuffed in that yellow whale suit of hers.
Can’t get the link to “fighting corporate control of eduction” at Salon to work.
This link works:
http://www.salon.com/2016/02/06/fighting_corporate_control_of_education_a_millennial_education_wonk_goes_to_war_against_neoliberal_reform/?source=newsletter
original link has “salon.comhttp//” instead of “http://” .
Regarding Hillary’s attire, where does she get her South Park coats? With her narrow shoulders and Big Head,
I want to yell out, “I found Kenny.”
On last week’s SNL they had a Zoolander skit that I cannot get out of my head: side by side pictures of Clinton and Kim Jong Il. The cut of their clothes looked identical. Now everytime I see her I think of KJI. Won’t be long before we see Kim wearing yellow (the official color of the Chinese emperors) as well.
They are all starting to look alike to me.
sapporo beer can is the best looking can in the world, imo. and most definitly not the smallest.. and, as an aside, it’s the only can (I know of) you can use to hammer in nails and still have your drink.
Class warfare or Class genocide?: 7 of 16 Nuclear Reactors in China have been ordered to disconnect from the grid, primarily the Southern Grid which services Guangdong. The coal fired plants in Guangdong are only getting on-line for 10 to 14 days per month. All of this indicates there is no export processing going on at all in Guangdong. Record numbers of Chinese migrant workers departed Guangdong for their home areas, and my guess is they are not going to be hurrying back.
This isn’t just bad for China’s economy, it indicates that the US and European Consumer demand for non-foodstuffs is dead in the water and the retail shop buyers expect it to stay that way for some time.
We are all filled up with iCrapple phones and other electronic junk.
Work holiday for Chinese New Year 2/7 thru 2/13. As there is no source to your statement, it is unclear if this holiday could be part to the explanation.
See Chinese movie, “The Last Train Home.”
Obama announces the best possible smackdown of the Bundy nuts: three new national monuments in the California desert. These will link Death Valley to the great Joshua Tree.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-to-designate-new-national-monuments-in-the-california-desert/2016/02/11/5b77db4e-c6be-11e5-a4aa-f25866ba0dc6_story.html
Unfortunately it has much more to do with a long term program to further dis-enfranchise Native American Tribes who the Federal Government wants to drive off their land because of gold and other minerals. These are monuments, not parks, so this classification does not protect land from mining.
Like Cliven Bundy, These Sisters Had Land, Cattle, But Not Guns
Sorry I don’t do Youtubes. Do you have a link to an actual article?
Guess you are referring to this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Dann_and_Carrie_Dann
So are the Shoshone claiming ownership of the Mojave as well? Otherwise I don’t see the relevance. However if the Shoshone want Nevada and particularly Las Vegas then I say they are welcome to it…it can only be an improvement. Presumably they will then evict Cliven Bundy who is squatting on their land.
It was a nice debate last night, but three main takeaways:
1. There was a part within the first hour or maybe at the start of the 2nd hour where Bernie touts his talking point of many small donors and Clinton, in a bid to deflect that whole corruption thing, then tried to conflate her small donor numbers with his.
2. There was also another moment where Bernie says “let’s help everyone” (this might’ve been during the SS question) and Hillary, not wanting to concede ground, says “let’s help x, y, z” instead. In short, a non-answer
3. Hillary tried to attack Bernie’s credentials by stating what he thought of Obama, at which point, Sanders countered with “I didn’t run against him.”
Also, if I didn’t know better, it was almost as if there was a greater volume of Hillary supporters in the room vs. Sanders ones. Also, those three PBS commentators seemed to engage in groupthink where “he doesn’t have specifics” was the going refrain.
Those three were supposed to be political analysts from various publications. I eagerly await the release of the new “Legally Blonde” movie that will tell us all about their early career moves. I mean, really, WTH? Just because you can memorize a line doesn’t mean that it is always applicable.
`early career moves’? Well, here’s NPR’s Tamara Keith, five years ago,
dismissing foreclosure fraud as `sloppy paperwork’,
and giving the final word (tough luck, losers) in the story to the publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance.
When we did our refinance in ’03 (BoA) we got the kind of hard sell for an ARM that one only sees in satires about used car salesmen. I had to get up and walk out before they chased us into the parking lot to offer a fixed rate. There was nothing sloppy about those vultures, and I can easily see someone less suspicious or more averse to confrontation than I falling for it.
Honestly, where do they find these people? No integrity at all.
I also thought the second string PBS pundit team was captured by an alternate reality.
“she’s very specific”
1. No she wasn’t.
2. Even if she was specific, by some mangled definition of the word, what’s so great about that? I can name lots of despots and dictators in history who were anything but vague. Lots of them wrote books, and generally speaking were part of the same class as Hillz- the aristocracy.
God save the queen!
America’s Corrupt Media – How Reporters Took Direct Orders from Hillary Clinton’s Staff
It is the job of the Fourth Estate to act as a check and a restraint on the others, to illumine the dark corners of Ministries, to debunk the bureaucrat, to throw often unwelcome light on the measures and motives of our rulers. ‘News’, as Hearst once remarked, ‘is something which somebody wants suppressed: all the rest is advertising’. That job is an essential one and it is bound to be unpopular; indeed, in a democracy, it may be argued that the more unpopular the newspapers are with the politicians the better they are performing their most vital task.
– Brian R. Roberts from a October 29, 1955 article in the London periodical “Time & Tide”
If you really want to know how weak Hillary Clinton is as a candidate, you merely have to appreciate that the U.S. media essentially acts as her own personal PR firm, yet the public still recognizes her as a dishonest crook. Brace yourself for the following story, it’s huge.
Earlier this week, we learned from Gawker that at least one U.S. reporter traded content in his article for information from Hillary Clinton’s staff while she was Secretary of State. In what is an almost hard to believe exchange, Marc Ambinder of The Atlantic, agreed to insert specific words and imagery into his article in return for a copy of Hillary’s speech at the Council on Foreign Relations.
http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2016/02/12/americas-corrupt-media-how-reporters-took-direct-orders-from-hillary-clintons-staff/#more-31445
Anyone hear anything from msnbc on that chris matthews story/ conflict, yet?
+++++
And that quote from Hearst is pure gold
Exactly!
Specifically wrong.
Take Hillary’s justification for the Iraq invasion. Lots of specifics. Lots of facts, some of them even correct….
You can say something that is true, but be completely wrong – and Hillary is a master of such tendentious arguing.
Is Hillary corrupt with regard to Wall Street? Is Obama? Is every politician?
I think they are, but it isn’t as important as the fact that their belief in the “market” and that how Wall Street currently operates is wrong. The problem IMHO is that Hillary wants things to go as they have been going – Hillary thinks the “reforms” undertaken by Obama were effective!!!
Keeping Hillary just means we stay in the pot until we are boiled….
http://www.declineoftheempire.com/2016/02/the-flatland-naive-view-of-corruption.html#more
I would like to see Bernie come out and reject weak Obama.
And rip into the MIC repeatedly.
But some say you can’t do that right now.
I could be wrong, but this might be the first reference to Dave Cohen’s site on this blog. Applause!
Yeah, dude. PBS.
Seriously, I used to even give them money.
Now I can’t even listen for a whole 15 minuted without feeling like I’m listening to some strange alternate universe’s Pravda. (You know, the super old Soviet government issued propaganda arm?)
As bad as the MSM can be, I don’t have to listen to anyone say that Libya is doing really well (heard a few months ago on PBS, which couldn’t be farther from the truth) that the median wage is $50k (about 6 months ago and that’s actually the average, median is under $30k,) and that Obama couldn’t close Gitmo because Congress (recently, though he can start wars without their involvement, which I assume involves moving troops and people, so apparently it isn’t so hard,) that a lot had been done to rein in the financial sector (a few months ago, and I can’t even begin to address the dissonance here,) and about how Clinton’s email server was a common thing for members of government and probably legal (few months ago, prior to the FBI disagreeing.) All of these things were matter of fact with no further exposition or argument, though each of them are at least arguable and several are downright hilarious suggestions.
I now dismiss their news and opinions more than my local FOX affiliate, who at least still gives a reasonably honest restaurant review.
That ‘I didn’t run against him’ was weak, I think.
Bernie is running against Hilary and has said he would support her should she win, or take her as his VP should he win.
The act of running against someone is no a response to a question about supporting or not supporting the opponents after the election.
Hillary’s new tactic: saying Sanders is a one-issue candidate.
As if Wall St. isn’t at the heart of corporate out-sourcing and off-shoring, jacking up prescription drug prices, privatizing public works and infrastructure, the charter school scam, sub-prime mortgage loan frauds, bank frauds, destruction of the real economy — I could go on.
No, Hillary says “Wall St.” like it just means one street in NY. Tries to make it sound like Sanders is running against a few blocks of real estate instead of neoliberalism and the FIRE sector’s political control that is destroying Main Street. Really, she sounded a like Steve Schwarzman.
I could tell Bill has been coaching her.
What’s “resilc”? (Please don’t flame me!)
I noticed Hillary’s yellow too and assumed it was a visual dog whistle to some category of female voter. What truly struck me though was her repeated claim that she knows how to get things done despite her thin record of achievement. Won’t Bernie be able to dismantle that one easily?
Also, honestly: She’ll say anything.
reslic = commenter handle (handle = screen name)
“I’ll dress like this so that the first criticism out of anyone will be about my clothing. Then I can whack them with the misogyny accusation. Who are they to tell me what to wear?”
Who does do Hillz wardrobe? Who does tell her what to wear?
I have long thought that whoever designs her clothes just hates women. My Wife has gone so far as to say they must be misogynists, “big yellow cones are not flattering”, but I seem to recall Lambert saying that it was a woman. The Phyllis Schlafly of clothing design, methinks.
Ask and answered, men-
“On the one hand, this is a clever choice: Mrs. Clinton’s de facto dresser for the last few years had been Oscar de la Renta, and his death in October left her without a go-to label. She has known Mr. Lauren for a while: She presented him with the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal last June for his $13 million donation to help restore the Betsy Ross flag, and wore another blue Ralph Lauren pantsuit to do so.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/16/fashion/why-it-matters-that-hillary-clinton-wore-ralph-lauren.html?_r=0
e.g.
“Nixon in a pants suit”
It takes 13 million to restore the Betsy Ross flag? OF, I am in the wrong business!!!
There are certain overheads for the Team to study ancient textile reweaving techniques in Tuscany. Various older wines need to be sacrificed to evaluate their staining patina potentialites….and so forth…
It’s hard work!
~GWB
That is a very good point and I’m sure was the purpose behind the yellow garb!
People, its a *power* suit, and she prob’ly got if off Ebay
Hillary in Yellow. Yves: On the other hand, yellow is the traditional color of the Chinese Emperor. So Hillary is signaling that she has the mandate of heaven. {That should cheer you up.]
Plus she’s named after the man who conquered Everest. So many portents.
Sherpa Tenzing??
LOL. Thanks
It’s actually Tenzing Sherpa. Sherpa is the family name as goes second.
There’s a Norgay in there somewhere.
Also George Mallory may have been the first to ascend Everest but disappeared on the way down.
Hah! Indeed. A sad for Geo.
Hillary In fact took aphoto of Mr. Norgay aka Sherpa Tenzing, but demured the mutual consideration which implies to me that Hillary, a man of good character gave his colleague the hat tip for being first to the summit, no less, presumably shleping most of the supplies.
Im guessing but dont recall that Mr. Norgay did it sans O2?
Both good old school gentlemen, George Mallory as well, who was found a few years back and left to his undisclosed “final” resting site( not really, i think he is a man on the move, albeit slowly–downhill)
Tenzing Norgay OSN GM (/ˈtɛnsɪŋ ˈnɔːrɡeɪ/; 29 May 1914 – 9 May 1986), born Namgyal Wangdi and often referred to as Sherpa Tenzing,
The Chinese came up with the Five Phases Theory about 2,000 years ago.
There are 5 phases corresponding to 5 directions, 5 colors, ect.
Black (and turtle) in the north.
White (and tiger) in the west
Red (and bird) in the south
Azure (and dragon) in the east
Yellow (and earth) in the center.
Thus, you have Earth (soil) Dragons, Tiger Dragons (or Metal Dragons), etc.
The first empire, the Qin empire, was turtle and black.
You will see, in any well-researched movie, the soldiers carry black banners.
And every dynasty is associated with a particular color, not just yellow.
The Ming emperors also favor red, because the founder rebelled with an army called The Red Banner Army. But I think their color, based on the 5 phase theory, was green. You see a lot of imperial green porcelain wares.
401k article by Sean Paul Kelley at Ian Walsh Blog. Yes. The required read. Read it and weep for generations condemned to poverty and shortened lives. It did not have to be this way.
Oh, that Vice site!
Read closely the two last paragraphs of the article about Victoria Woodhull. The parallels between Woodhull and Hillary Clinton are almost surreal. I can’t make up my mind as to whether this is an attack on Clinton, or a defense of her.
The LRB piece about Robin Hood revisionism is very good. Money is a symbol of power, not the thing itself.
“Trust Me,” Said the 401(k), “A Sucker Is Born Every Day.” Ian Welsh (Kevin). Today’s must read
The article’s money quote.
. . . : “We have stagnant wages, whole industries crushed, and entire cities decimated by economic collapse. Yet somehow we were individually supposed to have been able to set aside $1.5 million for our retirement.
All those advertisements touting the financial wizardry of putting an extra buck or two into your retirement savings, to hand that money to Wall Street and have it grow into a fat retirement are false. The professor in those adds already has a fat retirement, paid for by the debt taken on by his students, and will gladly lead you to the money morcelators of Wall Street.
Bernie Sanders: The business of Wall Street is fraud and greed.
“I am proud to say that Henry Kissinger is not my friend, and I will not take advice from him on foreign policy.” – Bernie Sanders
Nixon and Henry Kissinger were driven by a starkly personal and emotional dislike of India and Indians.
“They found no appeal in India, neither out of ideological admiration for India’s flawed but functioning democracy, nor from a geopolitical appreciation of the sheer size and importance of the Indian colossus. Instead, they denounced Indians individually and collectively, with an astonishingly personal and crude stream of vitriol.”
Kissinger and Nixon supported Pakistan’s military dictatorship’s bloody crackdown on its Bengali population in 1971.
“In one of the awkward alignments of the Cold War, President Richard Nixon had lined up the democratic United States with this authoritarian government, while the despots in the Soviet Union found themselves standing behind democratic India.”
“This book is about how two of the world’s great democracies—the United States and India—faced up to one of the most terrible humanitarian crises of the twentieth century. The slaughter in what is now Bangladesh stands as one of the cardinal moral challenges of recent history, although today it is far more familiar to South Asians than to Americans. It had a monumental impact on India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh—almost a sixth of humanity in 1971. In the dark annals of modern cruelty, it ranks as bloodier than Bosnia and by some accounts in the same rough league as Rwanda.” – Gary J. Bass, The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide
India at the time had a no-nonsense, actually fairly Nixon-like PM, and the view probably was that she wasn’t kow-towing enough. Sort of like with Putin today.
So was their beef with Gandhi or what?
Beef. I get it.
Re: Indian foreign policy back in the day…does anyone remember the great VK Krishna Menon, India’s long-time foreign minister? A true commie, absolutely a master at tweaking “Western” sensibilities…Pakis pro-West, India kinda-sorta pro-Soviet, but really, playing both sides, in the classic East-West split exploitation. My hero, he got it, and the shithead-neocolonialists who tried to woo India to “the West”, got sooooo played, it was beyond entertaining…where are such people today, one wonders?
3 points on the Morgan Stanley settlement with DOJ.
1. Just pay the fine, merely admit as little as possible and move along
2. Whomever typed this phrase below very likely lost his ability to work, but not the people that he reported to. I’ll strongly venture that senior bankers (not the executive suite, exactly) on the lending side did not lose the ability to work. So it goes.
“Please do not mention the ‘slightly higher risk tolerance’ in these communications,” one employee said in an email quoted in the statement. “We are running under the radar and do not want to document these types of things.”
3. Slightly higher risk tolerance is code for throw as much s**t into this loan trust. No one will know or ask questions, and if they do it’ll be CYA.
With the notable exception of the Kissinger reference, I thought that Sanders really didn’t land many punches in last nights’ debate. He very nearly got there, linking up the opening of China to the outflow of manufacturing through trade deals like NAFTA. Then referring to, say, Flint’s present conditions would have knocked the ball out of the park. He also missed a trick on Iran, failing to really make the point that most of our foreign policy today is just trying to address the blowback from yesterday’s, similar, foreign policies. Agreeing with her on Russia was just political malpractice.
How much of this is just observance of political realities in an over propagandized electorate? He is never going to win any debate on foreign policy if he continues to operate in her end zone.
He made a great point in the debate before this one about who he considered the greatest threat, Russia, Iran or N Korea. He said N Korea and the very next day they launched what many considered an IBM but turned out to be a satellite (last I read). IBM’s in the hands of an isolated nuclear country with a leader like Kim Jong Un is scary. He nailed it and proved his judgement on foreign affairs was spot on. We can’t say the same about HRC.
I agree, blowback needs to become part of the discussion.
N. Korea would be regional, around the Pacific…not, say, much in South Africa.
A global hegemon threatens the whole world.
Depends how far their ICBM’s can travel at this point. They think they can reach the US now (last I heard).
If they can hit orbit, they can hit anywhere from there.
That’s the “big deal” about the test.
And to finish your thought, would not the United States – as a global hegemon, at least aspirationally – be the greatest threat to the world?
I suspect that the recognition that the United States wants to be considered as the global hegemon lies behind the growing hostility felt towards it by an increasing number of nations who wish for a multi-polar world, and not subservience to a uni-power who has no time or interest for considering other interests than its own, and these interests narrowly defined, to boot.
The greatest threat is the United States. I wonder if Sanders knows that, but won’t say it. His faux socialism seems especially weak on internationalism.
I can’t stomach these debates, so I don’t watch. All I know comes from radio snippets, press reports, and analysis.
That said, I’m still not sure Sanders is in it to win. Or else, he’s proving his loyalty to the Dems and Obama and hoping for the best. Come on. Slam HRC on Libya and Syria. She is one of the most responsible people for those ongoing atrocities. Her Iraq vote? Kissinger? Fair enough. But that’s close to ancient history by now.
Take off the gloves, brother Bernie. All but the most uninformed Americans know that the rulers are corrupt war criminals. Let us know that you don’t aspire to join them.
A real cynic would say, Obama sounded real good at one time too.
Like he was the one…
Sanders missed an opportunity to say he would put Kissinger on trial, when he said he was so appalled at what happened in Southeast Asia in the 70’s.
And he wouldn’t stand up to his own statement that ‘Obama was weak.’
Good point! There is no statute of limitations on war crimes, and that must scare the hell out of a lot of our “betters” these days.
Don’t forget Bloomberg’s no free speech zone on his Upper East Side street!
Sean Paul Kelley is the author the 401(k) piece, not Ian Welsh.
Well said…in fact, SPK, Ian Welsh, Stirling Newberry, Numerian…da golden years of “The Agonist”…as a long-time commenter I always thought that The Agonist was the cutting-edge in the bloggersphere…today, maybe not so much.
NH to try the pushermen as Murders…you know when tough of on crime & drugs surfaces, THE CROOKS ARE IN CONTROL. NO dealer will intentionally KILL his CASH COW…that’s a master of the inbred elite. example Uno:
2014 A coalition of more than 40 health care, consumer and addiction treatment groups is urging the Food and Drug Administration to revoke approval of the prescription drug Zohydro.
The hydrocodone-based drug is the latest in a long line of painkillers called opioid analgesics. The FDA approved the medication last fall to treat chronic pain, and it is set to become available to patients in March.
“In the midst of a severe drug epidemic fueled by overprescribing of opioids, the very last thing the country needs is a new, dangerous, high-dose opioid,” the coalition wrote in a letter to FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg.
“Too many people have already become addicted to similar opioid medications, and too many lives have been lost.”
“It’s a whopping dose of hydrocodone packed in an easy-to-crush capsule,” said Dr. Andrew Kolodny, president of the advocacy group Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing. “It will kill people as soon as it’s released.” http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/26/health/zohydro-approval/index.html
FDA: There has also been misinformation about the development of opioid analgesics with abuse-deterrent properties. Development of abuse-deterrent technologies is a priority for FDA, and we are strongly encouraging companies to continue innovating in this area. However, the relevant science is still in its early stages and has not been fully tested in actual market conditions or use. http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/InformationbyDrugClass/ucm395456.htm
Not enough reporting on the tremendous profits the pharmaceutical companies make selling opioids, and actively pushing doctors to prescribe them for any kind of physical pain. Reports from around my state describe how openly and freely available these pills are in middle schools, high schools, colleges, and the workplace.
Ultimately, the people who get addicts into the addicted condition are the pill makers, who turn a nice profit pushing them out to every corner of our nation. When pill addicts have spent, stolen, begged and borrowed every penny they can to buy more pills, they have to give up on them and turn to street heroin, the only thing they can afford. At that point, Big Pharma and the medical profession are done with them, having wrung all the profit out of their lives. No worries — there’s a new crop of fresh pill poppers coming in the front door every morning.
The heroin sold on the streets of America has an unknown Fentanyly content, meaning that street dealers have no idea what is actually in their little bag, nor what strength it genuinely is. If their product kills someone because the customer has no idea what they are injecting, it can fairly be called an accidental death, as in no one intended that result. Fentanyl being 50 times more potent than morphine or heroin, you are playing Russian roulette with four chambers loaded if you buy and use street heroin. Your demise is only a matter of time.
If you went to your neighborhood liquor store to buy gin, and the contents of the bottle could be anything from straight tap water to 200 proof methanol, how long would you frequent that establishment? Right.
But . . . what if you had to frequent that establishment? What if you were so sick and unable to be in your own skin that you absolutely had to go there and drink whatever is in the bottle just to stop the pain, even at the risk of swallowing gasoline?
That’s where the opioid addict, the heroin addict lives. And that is not a situation solved by locking them in a cage for the remainder of their days. That is a situation solved by putting them in a hospital setting, and getting them at work on their lives.
U.S. Allies Now Fighting CIA-Backed Rebels
The moderate Syrian rebels situation has perhaps developed not necessarily to our advantage.
Unless you sell arms to both sides, in which case, Ka-ching.
Heroin dealers could face murder charges amid crisis in New Hampshire
Hey, no problem! Now let’s talk about the pensions, bonuses and revolving-door opportunities for the individuals who poisoned the people of Flint!
Re: HRC’s attire and the comments it engenders. So, why can’t female business people, politicians, candidates, just dress in a uniform dark suit, as do their male counterparts? Why must women be trapped in our system of … what? …. Patriarchy? …. which demands that women, no matter how powerful, spend time, or money hiring someone else to spend time, deciding each day on how to coordinate an almost infinite number of color and style choices. And, then to have to bear with the snarky comments from the public about their choice of the ‘wrong’ color, or the unflattering neckline, or the unfortunate choice of pants vs. skirt.
At least the snarky comments for male wardrobe choices are usually limited to their tie color or the heel height on their cowboy boots. Or their hair.
Seekers after political office in Rome wore bright white togas; the Latin verb ‘candidare’, to make white or bright, giving rise to the English term, ‘candidate.’ Swathe all candidates for federal political office in voluminous white wool togas, and then we can concentrate on their policies.
I’m picturing Christy Creme in a white toga! The idea of a hot air balloon instantly comes to mind.
I like it.
Hillary is still a trailblazer of sorts, but if a GOP candidate or even a Democratic candidate came out in a yellow tie, someone would say, “Senator Graham…oh you’re not Lindsay. I got you confused.”
As you noted, the Roman Senators wore the same outfit.
I go along with a woman or a man’s choice of clothing is her or his own business.
Just to be consistent…
Many people will be OK with that, except maybe Republicans.
When it’s all over, the Democratic Party will fulfill it’s duty and choose Clinton as the nominee. Sanders has given many people a little hope of a more just and equitable future. But, the powers aligned against him and that hope have too much control. So much control that “elections” no longer pose a threat. “Elections” are now a means for sustaining and enhancing the control. With the coordinated help of media machine, the Democratic and Republican Party play out their roles as good cop, bad cop to near perfection. It is, as Sanders would say, a system that is “rigged.” When forced to issue his concession from the race at some inevitable point in the future, Sanders will then endorse Clinton and that little spark of hope will be distinguished. But do not despair. The media will lead the cheers and celebrations at the grand installment of Clinton as the first woman President. I can hear Wolf proudly proclaiming the historic significance of our nation selecting a woman as President and how far we have come. American democracy, isn’t it great!
insight-fully, and sadly, absolutely correct.
The reality is ever worse, while the rhetoric is ever more Candide-ian
The last damnocrat that I voted for was Wayne Morse and voted for Nader three or four times. If Clinton is the nominee I won’t vote for the Green Party, but WILL vote for Trump.
My slogan is: Don’t vote for the lackey of the 1%, vote for the real 1%.
The noble task of preserving the status quo at all costs couldn’t happen without diligent behind-the-scenes work:
Hillary: remaking the DNC in her own corrupt, influence-peddling image.
Once HRC ascends to the presidency, her consort “Bill” can up his speech fee to a couple of million for himself, plus a five million contribution to the Clinton Foundation through Frank Giustra’s “Canadian cutout.”
If this can regain the House for the party, along with low information voters, should we reject that?
Our cause is noble, remember that.
You are probably right. and yet…. seeing the majority of the voters in this primary season reject the establishment candidates on both sides tells me that most of the country is not happy with the status quo and is willing to take a chance on a long shot to change things. The voters are rejecting the status quo. The machine may win a while longer. The neoliberals may go on winning for a while longer, but their time has passed already. What is also being shown to all is the corrupt machine in action, including the MSM roll in propping up the status quo instead of reporting the news. That had been well disguised until this campaign.
I’m not so sure about Clinton winning the presidency.
Probably. Things don’t move until they do. But still unanswered are 1) How long till the slow drip turns into another full-scale meltdown? and 2) How do the people respond to the ineffectual responses by whoever is in power at the time? Conceivably, at that point some clarity is achieved. What that might lead to, who knows. But I don’t think it’s a simple case of the same charade every four years indefinitely. That only works until it doesn’t.
Bees are to honey
So clusters of innovation such as the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Boston and Austin, Texas, will keep creating good jobs, and most other places won’t.
If that’s true, then one of the most important public-policy challenges of our time is figuring out how to enable more people to move to where the good jobs are.
NO. I hate to credit James Fallows for anything but apparently his new book is shocking the establishment by pointing out to them that there are literally hundreds of nice places to live in this country other than the Bay Area and New York. Perhaps we could focus some effort in not trying to make every one of them a ghost town.
And many places around the world.
We are not that exceptional but we delude ourselves that people would die to come here to live, under 24/7 surveillance no less.
On the other hand, when their homes have been destroyed, they have to move.
Re: Coca-Cola’s smaller cans may make us drink more
I am amazed that any one person on the whole planet would drink even one coke. You might just as well eat about 9 teaspoons of sugar.
Not true there is no longer sugar in Amerikan coke, only poison;)
As a fourth generation candymaker (you know, the kind that pours molten sugar by hand on large chunks of stone?) I assure you that 3 tablespoons is a perfectly safe to consume, and not really a large portion at all. (Think a few pieces of hard candy. Also worth noting that one generally uses less sugar, regardless of what the industry hacks say about corn syrup being sweeter, as it is much more filling. A 12 oz. can at today’s sweetness levels with sugar is registered as almost a meal by your body. A big reason why soda portions used to be so much smaller, if you ever wondered.)
3 T of corn syrup is pretty gross. Again, as a candymaker, I’ve handled both in huge quantities and believe me that corn syrup cannot be anything but worse for you. Once you see a five gallon bucket of corn syrup, you’ll never feel the same about it again. Can we stop completely demonizing sugar as the source of our ills? Heck, Americans don’t even really eat sugar; they eat corn syrup.
In short, complain to the corn guys for messing it all up. Leave us sugar lovers to come up with beautiful and amazing creations in peace.
(Sorry for the rant, but this one’s close to my heart. I’ve got candy molds that are over a hundred years old; this is part of our culture. Let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater.)
I don’t mean this to be cute: Thank you for your service. Seriously. My grandmother admired the hell out of candymakers and what they produced and did much to instill that respect in her descendants. Every once in a while, she’d make something like that by hand and it was some of the most impressive stuff I’d seen someone in a kitchen ever create.
And, thank you for pointing out the difference. I say that to people and they roll their eyes at me.
When I was a programmer working on mega projects doing 7 day weeks while taking 6 cr of night grad classes a week, I purchased 2 liter bottles. I needed 10 or 15 a week to keep going.
RE: Bernie Sanders Sweeps Online Polls After Dominating Sixth Democratic Debate
I, too, noticed that horrible yellow colour that Hillary wore for the debate. Women of a certain age do not look good when the yellow they wear reflects on their skin.
I can’t believe I paid attention to this, but most white women can’t wear yellow. It turns the skin sickly, and it takes a lot of blush to compensate. And I can’t even apply lipstick properly, so I have no idea why I know this.
Hillary is the Manicurian Candidate
“I’m ready for my close up Mr. DeMille”
That’s what my wife said and her lipstick (the only make-up she wears) is always perfect.
She was trying to look like one of the many undernourished, sickly women.
“I look just like one of you’ was the subliminal message.
The world can’t afford another financial crash – it could destroy capitalism as we know it Telegraph (resilc). Lordie. Another proof of elite disconnect. “Capitalism as we know it” has become socialism for the rich. An end of that is something sorely to be wished. And listen to the commentary, the loathing of “populism” and the failure to recognize that capitalism over the last 30-40 years has generated stagnant real worker wages and greater job instability, so greater worker anxiety and risk, due to the refusal to share productivity gains with workers.
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I am so old that I remember when the argument for free enterprise, markets, capitalism – was that it provided the most good for the most people. That is was a profit and LOSS system that helped to weed out the inefficient, incompetent, and those who couldn’t supply people with what they wanted (which INCLUDED jobs at wages high enough to keep the whole thing going).
You read this, and if you were to exchange the word “capitalism” with the word “communism” you would have essentially the same argument that it should exist merely because the proponent just believes that the SYSTEM has to survive – really, with the FED supporting the big banks at all costs and despite the human suffering imposed, the argument is that the SYSTEM surviving is more important than people surviving.
Would a communist by any other name be called Goldman Sachs????
Seriously – Goldman Sachs exists solely because of state edict.
“It’s not the economy, stupid. It’s the people in it, stupid.”
Some might add, “It’s elite looting, stupid.”
Though, if you care about people, you are against elite looting.
So, the first should cover elite looting.
“It’s the people in it, stupid.”
H Clinton bashes Sanders’ Social Democratic policies including MedicareForAll as a “fantasy”, & her Murican-Exceptionalist ACA as “pragmatic”.
This is back-a**wards in terms of Empirical Reality. CAN-style MedicareForAll has 3 yrs higher life expectancy at much lower cost, 10% GDP, vs 17% US health cost GDP. Ditto for many OECD nations. H Clinton is on the Fantasy of expecting the ACA “to provide 100% Universal coverage”.
MedicareForAll “pragmatically” has been shown to provide quality health care at a decent cost. ACA “fantasy” has only been tried in the US, & has not achieved the same goal
Bernie’s trump card is MMT.
The handsome cardinal male serving as today’s antidote is sitting on the cedar fence outside my window, watching over his yard as a fine powder snow drifts straight down in fat flakes. His wife sits beside him, dressed as always in a light orange feather suit, and they occasionally rub beaks.
Closer to the window is a big wooden feeder filled with black sunflower seeds, which dozens of birds visit throughout every day; wrens, chickadees, a woodpecker, a tribe of barbarian blue jays, a few other species I know nothing about, all coming and going and keeping the feeder swinging and rocking on its cable. It’s a real juke joint.
But the cardinal considers everything his, including the yard, the dogs, and me coming and going from the feeder every few days to top up the sunflower seeds. He’s highly territorial. Even when the blue jays come to feed, despite being three times his size and six of them at once, they eat and leave promptly before he comes over to attack them. He loves to do this, and he loves to bring seeds to his lady sitting over on the cedar fence, feeding her one seed at a time just to make her feel special.
Their nest is in a bush beyond the fence, about 7 feet off the ground, open to the sky and weather 24/7. I only took one quick peek, a couple months ago, but that was enough to put me on His List. I don’t know what he does all day, but when I’m out in the yard, I’m under supervision now.
I like his haircut.
Antifa, what a lovely choral society you have!
Best thing I’ve read all week, thank you.
You know, in my dissertation I briefly discussed the intense contrast of Naked Capitalism’s daily links and analysis of our debased political economy with the antidote du jour image in order to illustrate a larger argument. Needless to say, my committee didn’t really get it (wasn’t all their fault as the point I was making bordered on the ontological which many, including well-trained social scientists, can’t or won’t follow).
Anyway, the general pettiness and mendacity of our current social order, along with our seeming incapacity to be equal to even a small fraction of the organic and inorganic life all around us is a real bummer sometimes.
State bird of North Carolina and rightly so.
Our hornets are dead serious about seeing that you stick to your own business. So are them fellers from Over the Mountain . . .
We have three magpies [mom,dad, and young] that do much the same, they even like to have a bit of a chat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3Wh703f3_M&app=desktop
The Talking Magpies (1946)
Crack a cold one
Talking Magpies (1946) (Short)
Is the cartoon The Bride and B.B. are watching at the end of the film.
“Trust Me,” Said the 401(k), “A Sucker Is Born Every Day.” Ian Welsh (Kevin). Today’s must read
But what about stocks? Weren’t they great investments? Sure, if you were an old fuddy-duddy like Col. K., a client of mine at Morgan Stanley. Dude was richer than Croesus, but dressed like Grandpa Clampett. Every now and then, he’d come in and sell 1,000 shares of GE or Ford or Intel. He’d simply forgotten about them and when his bank account got low, he’d dig out a certificate and bring it to me to sell. One sale of Intel was half a million dollars. $500,000. His cost basis was $9.12 and he sold it at $74 3/16. So yeah, if you bought stock like that, the market works. But this is America and everyone wants a cheap buck. So they bought Dell at $25 and sold out at $50 three months later. Or Billing Concepts at $7 and sold at $20. The list goes on forever until we get to the bubble bursting, and then Intel bought at $75 was then sold at $33. Dell bought at $51 was sold at $16. Investing is like being Pete Rose when he’s not gambling: slow and steady when you’re at bat, collecting singles and doubles like they are pennies and dimes. Pretty soon, you’re the champ! Even then, there was fraud to be found in Blue Chip stocks, like GE.
We had a saying back in the day: As GE goes, so does America. Before Jack “the Hack” was made CEO, this was gospel. But once Jack “The Hack” discovered control fraud and accounting larceny at GE, it was only a matter of time. GE was a bellwether for the entire American economy (I cannot stress this enough), but not after Jack left. First, he sold every worthwhile asset the company ever created, and all the while he cheated. How? Well, each quarter, Welch stoked a penny per share from GE’s supposedly over-funded pension fund, and used it to beat the earnings and whisper estimates on the Street. This drove the entire Dow 309. Up, up, and away.
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Now a cynic might point out how soon after 401(k) got started there was a stock boom. But of course, only a cynic would imply ANYTHING untoward, in our exceptional land of the most honest and transparent markets in the world…..
I am soooooooooooooo glad I am not cynical…
Rents may be cooling in SF, but only the crash will cause a dent. I’m getting ellis act now and looking at rentals way down south near balboa station./end of K line etc. Even there still totally outrageous.
What a nightmare. How many working class people forced out in just 6 years? 40,000? Not sure.
And at this point (though readers of NC knew this years ago) all my friends know a crash is coming, and know it will not just be the techie boys. Funny how so many of us want it to happen, even though it will mean a drastic leap in unemployment among all of us. 30% in a year? The system is so incredibly corrupt and vicious, that we are cheering despair upon ourselves, in order to catch a breath.
For a song break, regarding kissinger etc…here are the best ‘alternative punk songs’ about ‘them/him’. The Mekons – both from the classic So Good it Hurts Listen on youtube. I’m Not Here (1967) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNgg-wm2dEI
and the amazing Sally Timms singing “Ghosts of…” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DMlxrGIi8U
Two options.
1 No crash, status quo and you continue to live as a serf, if you behave.
2. Crash and your survival is in immediate danger.
Of course, most serfs watch the news and would cheer for more GDP Growth.
On the other hand, if you put into law that every time the GDP hits negative, we print more money and give it directly in equal amount to everyone, then there is no fear of negative GDP growth.
“Who is afraid of the big, bad negative GDP growth?’
Not sure what planet you are on. I was posting about real complete disruption and destitution. Clever comments don’t pay the rent or food bills down here.
I was responding to your ‘Funny how many of us want it to happen,’ while at the same time, concerned about the resulting unemployment.
–Why European fruits and vegetables taste better
“(They do this through breeding, Klee added. Most fruits and vegetables in North America aren’t GMOs.)”
What a BS excuse for logic…Yes, GMO crops are garbage,are mass produced, have health consequences and do taste lousy. However, what’s not mentioned is that most of the high quality and flavorful local produce in Europe is organic.
Let’s talk strawberries. On the way to Monterey California, drivers see thousands of acres of fields covered with what looks like Saran Wrap. That’s because growers pump nerve gas (pesticides) under the plastic into the fumigated sandy soil to kill everything including the pests, worms, bugs, bacteria, and root fungi. Then they dump chemical fertilizers on their crop and produce nice big waterlogged strawberries, which have trace amounts of the nerve gas pesticide in every cell of the fruit. It does not wash off. But, they are not GMO, and therefore per the author’s argument, should taste delicious.
Compare that to a smaller organic strawberry grown in lush soil teeming with soil microbes, earthworms, beneficial soil fungi and minerals. All those things equal taste, plus there’s less water in the fruit and therefore more strawberry flavor without the chemical poisons that unknowing parents feed their children.
Whole Foods is not the best source of organic food in the U.S. There are still many fine smaller organic food stores that carry locally sourced high quality organic food, unless Whole Foods has put them out of business. Much of what Ass-Whole Foods sells is grown in the toxic waste dump of China, to and including their allegedly “organic” food.
“Let’s talk strawberries”
The stuff that’s labeled “strawberries®” in the supermarkets, year round, are not even close to Strawberries. It’s fraud.
Whole foods- Have they registered as a republican PAC yet? I’d bet 90% of their customers have no idea about the political ideas of the owners of that con. Branding®
Yup. “Strawberry flavor(ing) is not made from strawberries. It’s a synthesized chemical, usually with its origins in petroleum, that tricks the taste buds.
“Natural flavors” is a big chemical corporate con, as is the word “Natural.”
The gloss over of GMOs in the article deserves this reply:
“These data show very strong and highly significant correlations between the increasing use of glyphosate, GE crop growth and the increase in a multitude of diseases. Many of the graphs show sudden increases in the rates of diseases in the mid-1990s that coincide with the commercial production of GE crops. The large increase in glyphosate use in the US is mostly due to the increase in glyphosate-resistant GE crops.
“The probabilities in the graphs and tables show that it is highly unlikely that the correlations are a coincidence. The strength of the correlations shows that there is a very strong probability that they are linked somehow. The number of graphs with similar data trends also indicates a strong probability that there is a link. Although correlation does not necessarily mean causation, when correlation coefficients of over 0.95 (with p-value significance levels less than 0.00001) are calculated for a list of diseases that can be directly linked to glyphosate, via its known biological effects, it would be imprudent not to consider causation as a plausible explanation.
“We do not imply that all of these diseases have a single cause as there are many toxic substances and pathogens that can contribute to chronic disease. However, no toxic substance has increased in ubiquity in the last 20 years as glyphosate has. . . . Another critical issue is that glyphosate is an endocrine disruptor and it has been argued that there are no safe levels of endocrine disruptors. This would imply that the current permitted residue levels in food could be causing multiple health problems that have been documented in the scientific literature to be caused by endocrine disrupting chemicals.”
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/27544-dramatic-correlation-shown-between-gmos-and-22-diseases
Once again it seems like the heavily white majority state of Nevada will be a dogfight as a new poll shows Clinton and Sanders tied at 45%. Sarc/ if you could not tell.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/polltracker/sanders-clinton-tied-nevada
Just in case you were wondering….
https://www.ralstonreports.com/blog/team-clinton-tries-lower-nevada-expectations-incredible-ie-false-claims
Clinton v Trump = President Trump
Sanders v Trump = President Sanders
I think even Clinton can beat Trump, if we give Trump a chance to be himself.
I think everyone will be tired of Trump’s act by November.
“Its anger would be so explosive, so-all encompassing that it would threaten the very survival of free trade, of globalisation and of the market-based economy. There would be calls for wage and price controls, punitive, ultra-progressive taxes, a war on the City and arbitrary jail sentences.”
And exactly how are any of these things net negatives against the public good? Oh, right. We might have to empty the prisons of low level offenders and people who owe the furniture rental store $500 to make way for white collar criminals who destroyed the world economy and the futures of millions of citizens. It could be job creating!
“Central banks, in desperation, would embrace the purest form of money-printing: they would start giving consumers banks and rich people actual cash to spend, temporarily turbo-charging elite demand while destroying any remaining respect for the idea that money needs to be earned.”
Somehow I think a little hard labor for the wealthy might do them some good. Nothing “punitive” mind you, just a 40 hour a week wage job answering phones or waiting on customers in a retail environment. You know, that pays just enough for rent and groceries, but nothing else. No car, no insurance, no nights out to Applebee’s or the bowling alley…
Thanks for that hilarious link. It’s like an Onion article. In fact, are we sure it isn’t?
Glenn Greenwald describes the seven stages of establishment backlash.
Sounds like the establishment has entered stage 7.
https://theintercept.com/2016/01/21/the-seven-stages-of-establishment-backlash-corbynsanders-edition/
It does read like an Onion article.
There is absolutely no discussion about how much money in the economy is passively “earned” off the labor of others all the while deriding the idea that money being put into the hands of consumers would destroy respect for the idea that money needs to be earned. It’s particularly ironic considering the article then goes on to discuss the stock market where essentially you “earn” money by gambling on the economy and it’s “winners” (CEOS, shareholders) and “losers”(the people who actually earn income through labor who have seen their earning power decline in order to pad CEOs and shareholders wallets.)
@Antifa
Thank you for that story!
I have some questions about Sanders approaches to some of Clinton’s attacks:
1. When Clinton questions the numbers of Sanders’ proposals, why doesn’t he hit back with something like:
“If this country can afford to spend trillions of dollars invading countries in the middle east, and spend billions of dollars bailing out Wall Street, I promise you that we can afford to pay for universal healthcare/college education/infrastructural investment for every american citizen.”
2. When Clinton questions his foreign policy stances why doesn’t he explicitly mention Vietnam? Compare the avoidable Iraqi mess to Vietnam? Or, again, pivot to government expenditure?
3. And why doesn’t he mention that Isis only exists because of the dreadful decision to invade Iraq??
HRC: A vote in 2002 is not a plan to defeat ISIS!
BS: If you had voted with me then, ISIS wouldn’t even exist now!
Has this been linked to already?
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/02/bernie-sanders-foreign-poicy-213619
To question number one, if he says that, the follow up question becomes:
A Do we take it from the Pentagon and Wall Street to pay for health care or
B do we invoke unlimited money spending, so we can have health care, and more Pentagon and more Wall Street?
Sure, point take. The talking point was simply to respond to Clinton’s criticism and make the potential voter think of the existing recipients of massive government expenditure and think about how some of the projects Bernie wants to spend money are much more worthwhile.
Wonder how many of these 1,400 soon to be ex-Carrier employees are going to vote for Trump and his protectionist policies? Would Bernie be a better choice?
Discuss.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-12/welcome-obamas-recovery-carrier-moving-1400-jobs-mexico
Re. the HillBillary/yellow discussion, paraphrasing the immortal Mr. Z: Watch out where the banksters go, dontcha buy that yellow glow!
Re. smaller coke cans — When discussing such things one really must note whether one drinks the diet or corn-syrup-sweetened variety. Sure, neither is good for you, but only one is linked to obesity. Me, I only touch the (diet) stuff on rare occasions when I’m so dog-tired even coffee isn’t helping, and I need a few more hours of alertness before embracing the only real remedy, sleep. Something about slugging down a cold, fizzy, carbonated, caffeinated drink and having the ensuing CO2-burp go up your nose and make your eyes water, it really does wake you up in the manner of pouring cold water on your head and slapping your face, both of which are frowned upon at most corporate planning meetings and such. I typically keep 1 can of diet coke – the real 12oz deal – in the fridge for just such emergencies, but the one there now has been there since a BBQ last summer, where there were various cans of soda and bottles of beer left over. (The beers were demised in rather more prompt fashion.)
I’ve searched and can find no reason why HRC and the talking heads keep saying Obama is popular with democrats. Is that her baiting Sanders? Sounds like it. I’m glad he’s smart enough to have never bit on that bait.