If I Could Be Just Completely Honest For A Second, I Believe Exactly What You Believe Onion (David L)
The World’s Largest Timber-Framed Building is Almost Complete—and It’s a Replica of Noah’s Ark – Core77 (resilc)
Too fat for Facebook: photo banned for depicting body in ‘undesirable manner’ Guardian (resilc)
Minn. farmers warned not to plant Monsanto’s latest Roundup soybeans Minnesota Star Tribune. Steve h: “Lots of money quotes:
‘It was developed because weeds have become resistant to Roundup Ready varieties with traits that used glyphosate alone.’…’Several major grain elevators, soybean processors and other first purchasers have also issued notices that they will not accept the new soybean varieties, including Bunge Ltd., ADM and Cargill.'”
Investigation: NFL ‘improperly attempted to influence’ concussion research USA Today
U.S. e-cigarette use stalls as health concerns grow: Reuters/Ipsos poll Reuters (EM)
The Jackpot
What Happens When Water for 30 Million People Disappears? Charles Pierce, Esquire (resic). Per William Gibson: “The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed.”
World War III will be fought over water Quartz
Inside Madagascar’s ‘City of Flies’ Vice. Resilc: “We’ll be here soon.”
China?
Chinese Investors Pour Money Into U.S. Property Wall Street Journal
China Is Pivoting Away From Imports, Not Just Rebalancing Away From Exports Brad Setser
Brazil
Rousseff’s impeachment may be about stopping a massive corruption investigation Vice
Leaked Tapes Expose Coup Plot Against Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff Sputnik News (Wat)
Germany’s renewables electricity generation grows in 2015, but coal still dominant U.S. Energy Information Administration (resilc)
Brexit?
For Britain, it should be clout not out Financial Times.
Brexit could extend austerity, IFS says BBC
Stiffen your sinews and Vote Leave – Brexit will make Britain great again Telegraph
Grexit?
Eurozone and IMF Strike Deal on Greek Debt Wall Street Journal. Another interim deal. And worst possible outcome. 3.5% fiscal surplus and the IMF expected to be in. Greece bizarrely maintained it could achieve 3.5%, but believed it could get the IMF out and get the EC in charge, which would have cut Greece some slack.
Germany Calls IMF’s Bluff and Wins: Greece Screwed Again Michael Shedlock. The timing of the Brexit vote looks to have greatly weakened the IMF’s bargaining position. And Treasury probably was keen not to have any upsets in an election year.
Greece reaches debt relief breakthrough with creditors Financial Times
Young jobless Greeks form ‘lost generation’ Defend Democracy
Ukraine/Russia
NATO Struggles to Prepare for Potential Threat from Russia Spiegel (resilc)
Syraqistan
Is fascism rising in Israel? Christian Science Monitor (Judy B)
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Terrorist or pedophile? This start-up says it can out secrets by analyzing faces Washington Post (furzy). Phrenology 2.0.
Imperial Collapse Watch
The foggy numbers of Obama’s wars and non-wars Washington Post
2016
Feds Reportedly Examining More Than 100 Donations Made to Both Clinton Foundation and McAuliffe Campaign LawNewz (Dan K)
Can Bernie Sanders actually hurt Hillary Clinton on his way out? Washington Post
Hillary Clinton loves to trumpet Bill’s budget surplus. She shouldn’t. The Week. Sectoral balances is going mainstream!
Why Hillary Clinton Is So Disliked American Conservative (resilc). How about: “She is so far from being a decent human being, even by the extremely low standards of politics, that 1. She cannot fake it credibly and 2. She’s been living in her bubble for so long that she views this as unimportant.”
Dems discuss dropping Wasserman Schultz The Hill (furzy)
Sanders requests re-canvass in Kentucky nailbiter CNN (furzy)
Protest Outside Trump Rally in New Mexico Turns Violent Gawker
Clinton looks to pop Trump’s populist appeal CNN. This is the best they can do in the way of oppo? Let us not forget that Goldman, which actually bet against the housing market and profited on those trades, as opposed to idly talking about buying at the bottom in a bust (as as we explained long-form in ECONNED, unlike the typical short strategy, had a direct role in amplifying the intensity of the crisis), backed Obama and Clinton! Plus a lot of Trump voters are in communities that the bubble bypassed.
Pay Attention To Libertarian Gary Johnson; He’s Pulling 10 Percent vs. Trump And Clinton FiveThirtyEight
Up against strict laws, Texas women learn do-it-yourself abortions Reuters (EM)
This Silicon Valley Billionaire Has Been Secretly Funding Hulk Hogan’s Lawsuits Against Gawker Forbes. Peter Thiel, natch.
Why did Yahoo spend $500K to protect Marissa Mayer? New York Post. Resilc: “Because she is an exceptional ceo for an exceptional corp in an exceptional land.”
SEC raises concerns about Valeant’s use of ‘Non-GAAP’ measures Reuters. Gretchen Morgenson made a stink about this.
Retailers Fuel a Warehouse Boom, Racing to Keep Up With Amazon Bloomberg (resilc)
US fracking bust sparks car debt surge Financial Times
Financial tech startups compete for overlooked U.S. immigrant market Reuters. EM: “The tentacles of The Bezos are long and many.”
Soaring Electricity Demand Poses Climate Change Threat OilPrice
Senate votes to block financial adviser rule The Hill (furzy)
Household Debt Still Below 2008 Peak Michael Shedlock. EM: “My first question on reading the headline was ‘and how does that compare to total household income over the same period?’ Mish does not address that, but one commenter does.”
Class Warfare
New study of high-risk teens reveals a biological pathway for depression MedicalXPress (Chuck L). Headline fails to mention that the study focuses on a biological link between “lower socioeconomic status” and depression.
More Young Adults Are Living With Their Parents Than At Any Time Since the Great Depression George Washington
The “middle class” myth: Here’s why wages are really so low today Salon (resilc)
Thousands Held in Federal Prisons for Too Long, Report Finds New York Times
Testing The Limits on Wealth Inequality Ed Walker, emptywheel
New York state claims Domino’s Pizza is underpaying workers using payroll scam International Business Times
Antidote du jour (@AndriErlingsson). This being via Richard Smith, it verges on being an anti-antidote. But if you’ve ever had a cat, they like stuffing themselves into boxes.
And a bonus. Not the normal sort, but Frosty Zoom’s 15 year old son was asked to produce a political cartoon as a civics class assignment:
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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Terrorist or pedophile? This start-up says it can out secrets by analyzing faces
We understand the human much better than other humans understand each other,” said Faception chief executive Shai Gilboa. “Our personality is determined by our DNA and reflected in our face. It’s a kind of signal.”
Even if this were true as stated (it is hogwash), you would only have the predisposition towards violence. This machine would detect that and only that, which says absolutely nothing about the subject. Who the hell is wasting money on this crap?
“We pointed the thing at Palestine and god damned if all those buggers weren’t terrorists!”
Does anyone see the irony in an Israeli company doing this? It’s almost like they’ve never studied history.
Perhaps they should point their instruments at themselves. I have no doubt that images of Bibi and Lieberman would make the machine go ding-ding-ding.
Also, funny how Faception is so close to deception. Apropos. Reminds me of the $45,000/per “magic wand” bomb detectors.
When you’ve just left your broker’s office, after hearing that your retirement fund is about 70% of its former size due to some poor choices he made, does your face reflect an urge to violence, maybe just a little bit?
When a Palestinian father is hugging his two-year old daughter, does his face still presage homemade rockets and suicide vests?
Does standing for hours in the TSA line, waiting your turn to be groped by uncaring strangers guarantee that your face will rate high on an urgent need to throttle somebody?
What, pray tell, does a pedophile’s face look like, exactly? Is it the hooded eyes, the drooling, the white clerical collar — what?
“Our personality is determined by our DNA…” — does that even make sense to you?
You forgot the look of the homeowner losing their home to the looting bankers while being cheered on the sidelines by state and federal elected officials. That homeowner’s face is surely the look of someone about to commit murder on a large scale.
What’s that “science” that used to be all the thing, where they took skull measurements and then said they could determine whatever you wanted to know from them?
Look, I’ll be the first to admit that you can get a lot of useful ideas on what a person is thinking and saying from looking at their facial expressions. But what their talking about here is a kind of pre-kind, and peddling that sort of predictive ability from this “skull measuring” is just pure bullcrap.
So where does the TSA pick up a thousand of them for “testing’? .. See you in the camps.
phrenology.
“Uh, sir, phrenology was dismissed as quackery 160 years ago.”
“Of course you’d say that… you have the brainpan of a stagecoach tilter!”
Maybe we’ll be shack mates! They can call us prawns.
Signed,
000659412
Faception is such an amazingly obvious scam, a lot like those bogus bomb detectors that were sold all over the Middle East. With the proper bribes placed it will no doubt be recommended by Homeland Security to all police departments.
As you read you find something like “there may be ethical questions that need to be debated.” So first, you introduce the concept of this facial predisposition recognition, pretend to wring hands over it for a while, and then let it settle into public consciousness.. Then, whenever you need to frame someone and really have nothing on them, voila, Faception. And with 80% certainty, we’ve got our potential violator to be held until forgotten. From an imperial standpoint, priceless.
The huge Noah’s ark…the size of a SMALL oil tanker or freighter…STILL nowhere large enough to hold 2 of all species AND their food.
Idiots bible thumpers.
There is some other guy building one that it sounds like he intendeds to sail (or float) to its final destination. I am over hear hoping it sinks.
Link: http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/builders-noahs-ark-replica-hope-sail-holland-brazil/story?id=38683032
Assuming it does float, it will fail in the first rough seas it encounters.
I’m curious to see how they even intend to travel. Are they simply going to float from Brazil to Holland?
They say it was built as intended by the Bible…but I don’t think the Bible intended for a pair of diesel engines, gasoline, a GPS system, a crew of 50 in rubber boots and polyester jackets, AND NO GODDAMN ANIMALS.
I was wondering the same thing as I typed that earlier ala the “(or float)”. I had not even considered it when I first read about this. How on Earth do they expect to do anything other than follow the currents and storms… or even get out into the water in the first place? Sure sounds like a one way trip… just not the one they are intending on.
Classic media BS ephemera, that just frames a fantastical press release and doesn’t actually delve into reality.
It’s a bunch of steel scow barges tagged together w/a huge amount of wasted cedar board applique on it. ( apparently Noah had a marine steel plate rolling mill?….I digress…)
So me thinks a steaming pile for scam for naiive tourists. The “wealthy Contractor/Carpenter” probably didn’t become wealthy being stupid…
FWIW, what are the odds of this POS even receiving a seaworthiness certificate, let alone to operate as a cruise ship For Hire? W/ a capacity of 5,000 people (idiots)? Let me consider that thought for a moment…Zero..
Just looking at the sail area of that slab side combined w/ the bunt object bow, and a flat bottom, it would founder in a crosswind
So did Noah also build a desalinization unit out of “gopher wood” to make prodigious amounts of fresh water?
Although it amounts to an ironic refutation of literal bible interpretation, the owner might make some money with it before he folds up the entity and abandons it somewhere to become a local cleanup/remediation liability.
Large version[edit]
The full size Noah’s Ark in Dordrecht, Netherlands
A full-sized (137 m / 450 ft) version is in Dordrecht, open to the public.[3][not in citation given] This ark is carried on a platform made up of 25 LASH barges and has a coaster’s seaworthiness license. The new ark is partly financed by income from the first ark as well as donations and loans.[4]
It features animal models, including cows, penguins, a crocodile, and a giraffe.
There are plans to ship the ark in summer 2016, on a barge, to Brazil where it will stay for 2 years.[5][6]
Whether “bible thumpers” are idiots or not, your ire seems misguided. The article says it is intended for a theme-park, no mention of seaworthiness or other “practical” uses.
A theme park? That’s even worse. That means it will be used to further indoctrinate the credulous. Such people would be better off reading The Ark Before Noah, by Irving Finkel, or Myths From Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others, by Stephanie Dalley. Maybe even Noah’s Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries about the Event That Changed History, by Ryan and Pitman, although this one about the possible Black Sea deluge is controversial.
“Thou shalt have no other gods before me”
Don’t worry though, they give out free pre-approved literature at the gates.
Holy Heyzeus on a Dinosaur !
….that’s an awfully good waste of wood ……..
And the same psychological impulse remains today.
“Thou shalt have no other global reserve currency before this one.”
It is intended as a “real life” remake of the mythical ark. An ark that, mythologically, held 2 of EVERY animal in existence (and by necessity, all the food, water necessary to keep them alive). Seaworthy or not is not relevant. The largest supertanker in existence isn’t large enough to pull off that mythical feat.
Hence, the idiotic bible thumpers.
The theme park is for a biblical literalist themepark complete with people and dinosaurs living together (in images and dioramas).
The story was made up by and for sheep herding landlubbers.
Any fisherman would know that no flood could get rid of wicked, disobedient jellyfish, krill or cod.
RG
you are referring to the pathetic waste of building material meant to merely be a static display money making theme park scheme in KY. ( bringing in the sheep, bringing in the sheep….ect)
I think the ire you refer to is more directed to the waste of building material in Holland: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan%27s_Ark
that more effectively and ironically demonstrates the fiction of Noahs Ark, and at the higher level, the ignorance of literal bible interpretation.
Yes exactly. All I was doing was to point out that this turned into a tirade against idiots who think the silly boat was meant to be sailed– but it’s theme park for petessake! Do you criticise the Disneyland train for not being able to make it to Vladivostock?
If you want to criticise themeparks, that’s just dandy. If you want to criticise biblical fundamentalists, fine, I’ll be first in line. But let’s at least address the issues on their merits, otherwise we’re no better than the fundamentalists themselves.
Yes exactly…..Do you criticise the Disneyland train for not being able to make it to Vladivostock
What would present day Noah do? He’d put it on a containership!
https://www.searates.com/shipping/list/los_angeles_us/vladivostok_ru_1
Place of Loading: Los Angeles
Los Angeles (US) — Vladivostok (RU)
Place of Discharge: Vladivostok
…bu, bu, but what about all those micro flora & fauna ??….
….they weighs hella lot !!
I’ve seen the gigantic pyramids in Egypt. Seen the Taj Mahal. Both places saddened me immensely at the spectacle of so much human skill, labor, and death just to produce a tomb for a corpse. The more modest pyramids of the Yucatan are also bathed in forced human slave labor and human blood spilled to please the gods.
But still, you must admit they are immense and intricate structures, and a marvel from that point of view alone. They really could have used some modern cranes and forklifts on those Egyptian ones, but no, they did it all by human muscle.
This Ark in Kentucky is immense and intricate, and that alone will impress Bible believers. By God, it dwarfs the SUV’s that are parked beside it.
But how long would anyone hold any faith in the story of Noah if that building (it’s not a boat) were filled with animals, two by two, and then the faithful got to walk through that mess, just once, on the fortieth day?
It’s a monument to mythology, and the myth doesn’t work in the physical world, at all.
Wait a minute!…I was told by a higher authority, just early this year, that they were ‘grain silos’ !!!
Comparing this…American puff project…to the Egyptian pyramids or Machu Pichu or the Taj Mahal or the temples of Burma, is akin to comparing a fake Chinese Rolex made today to a 1942 ‘Split Seconds’ Rolex. One has ingenuity and historical background, let alone real craftsmanship. The other is fake all the way through.
I don’t think a kid today, who has probably seen at least one major city & watched many a blockbuster film, would be in the least impressed by this ark. Its American, therefore large. But I don’t see anything in the Ark or in its design that makes it appealing. It barely even looks like a boat and isn’t located on water.
Look at the skill. The best masons today would struggle to produce this:
http://enperublog.com/2009/07/13/hatunrumiyoc-and-the-twelve-angle-stone/
And precisely who built this one…in the far northeast corner of Brazil?
http://www.megaliths.org/browse/category/1/view/11
This pitiful ark is a joke
Animals…
Did the ark include whales, dolphins or sharks?
Or were they outside the Ark, swimming along it?
I think the sharks were probably thinking, “More rain, more water, more better. We will have lots of drowned meat to feast on. Oh, manna from Heaven. He is not punishing us. He is smiling on us and saying we sharks are very obedient creatures that he has pro-created.”
Could this whole story have been favoritism by God towards marine predators?
“More rain, more water, more better. We will have lots of drowned meat to feast on”
Why do you think they were following the boat ;)
Gonna need a bigger boat…
how’d he keep the sealions out of the penguin pool?
Wonder if he liked penguin sushi?
Someone aboard must have been tempted.
(Vice) Water = WWIII? I’d put my bet on clean food instead.
It’s a lot easier to clean up contaminated water or extract it than it is to clean up contaminated food or grow safe food.
China – Imports and Exports
Reducing dependency on both is probably the first step in Xi’s getting ready for a local war with USA. Hug’m close where the USA can’t sustain, and get gas and other supplies via Russia.
Nothing so important. Hillary has wanted WW III for a while. She wanted to start it with Russia over South Ossetia, then again in Ukraine, and then again in Syria. In EVERY case she wanted a strong US military showdown with Russia. In Syria she STILL wants a no-fly zone, an impossibility given Russia’s longtime presence (big military bases!). It guarantees shooting between US an Russian forces and THAT guarantees nuke use. Imagine Russia enforcing a no-fly zone over Germany. Same thing.
No, WW III won’t be about water or food, it t will be over privatization and profits in countries that just don’t matter to the US but do matter to the desperate neoliberals.
I’m pretty sure the next war will be over premature babies tossed out of incubators…
cynical lol that.. something like that indeed.
depleting fresh water more likely means regional depopulation
WWIII is Hillary’s solution to Climate Change.
FZ, your son has a future career waiting for him! Awesome cartoon.
Agreed. Kudos to FZ fils!
This should persuade the NYT to start running cartoons on its editorial page. [Would be the only good thing about the place.]
Gee, what do you suppose the editorial content of the editorial cartoons chosen by the NYT editorial rulers would actually be? Stuff like the one above, or something else?
Oh man…. that’s one huuuge stack of tubmans !!
aw, shucks. yep, he’s real good. all his own, too. we had talked about the tpp previously and i gave him a couple michael hudson (for prez!) interviews to read, but that’s the sum of his parents’ input. i wonder what kind of grade he’ll receive, though, as his teacher seems to be a real justin trudeau fan..
many thanks to the fine folks at nc for posting the cartoon!
frosty
It is great! On Trudeau, is it just me or does he seem like a whispy flake? The massive cult of personality love for him is a warning for me, but I do not know much about him.
whispy flake neoliberalism is just what canada needed after so many years of mr. harper’s creepy cardigan neoliberalism.
my son will be glad to see so many favourable comments. looks like i may have a retirement plan after all.
..it’s ALL about the hair !!…
Very talented! And informed!
….and many thanks to FZ for this picture of what good parenting should ‘incorporate’!
actually, he’s going into ark building.
Tell him I’d like to reserve a berth for two please.
only platinum class for you, dipth.
twins???
He might be in trouble – has he never heard of “peak gopher wood”?
A few thoughts this morning:
NATO Struggles to Recover After Years of Budget Cuts
“In March, US President Barack Obama complained about the European “free riders” who are profiting from American protection while refusing to take on their “fair share.”
So when he says it, it’s an incisive foreign policy observation. But when a certain someone else does, it’s because he’s crazy and shouldn’t be trusted? The media’s tendency to treat everything Trump says as invalid just because it’s him is a hypocrisy that’s playing right into his hands.
Minn. farmers warned not to plant Monsanto’s latest Roundup soybeans
The “money quote” here for me was:
“I realize they’re trying to recover the money they’ve invested in research and development, but there should be more serious protocol about when these varieties are brought into the market and producers are allowed to plant them.”
We know that lobbyists exert substantial influence over regulatory and legislative processes, and as it states in the quote I cited, that these companies are desperate to recoup their investments. Knowing this, any assumptions that testing is adequate would be extremely generous.
Mark Lynas made the rounds again this week insisting that the safety debate is “over.” And while to some extent I agree that current GM crops don’t seem to cause cancer/extra limbs/whatever, I still can’t bring myself to trust him given his constant inference that this correlation means that all GM foods forever will be safe, or that our regulatory system is doing its job. And additionally, proponents constantly use the craziest, anti-vax-esque wing of the anti-GMO movement to discredit all opposition interests everywhere, while insisting that they want to honestly consider real issues of overuse/resistance, industrialized agriculture, and and corporate control.
Although you are completely correct about the unfairness in reportage of the Obama and Trump statements, the scary thing is that they are saying the same thing!
The GMO part of the equation isn’t the problem (at least not so much). THE problem is the vast amount of chemicals used to work them. Roundup ready crops bring with them HUGE amounts of Roundup (glyphosate), a carcinogen AND hormone disruptor in humans and all wildlife. Those crops also use vast amounts of fertilizer, causing vast amounts of runoff into rivers and streams and then…into the growing dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
Glyphosate itself is bad. Now the new version takes TWO bad chemicals together: the original glyphosate and a NEW chem, both to be slathered on with wild abandon. NO human, NO wildlife can be found without traces of roundup in them. THIS is the problem.
These GMO crops also REQUIRE monoculture instead of proper, safer, more environmentally friendly mixed crops, cover crops (because all the other beneficial plants are not resistant to the carcinogen/mutagen chemicals). By necessity, all the GMO plants used are identical. One disease can take them ALL out. Also, if you buy any produce that is GMO, you are also getting the toxic chemicals heavily sprayed all over them. You wash off the produce and the chemicals go right back into the water table (and rivers and streams) and into you, me, wildlife. See the real problem?
Exactly.
I’m not as worried about the safety of GMO foods for human consumption (it is something to consider) as I am Agri industry techniques that are likely rapidly destroying the planet. Heavily reliant on fossil foods and as you point out, the devastating issues related to monoculture industrial farming.
It is unsustainable and rapidly destroying aquifers, water and soil resources, probably also the pollinators and disrupting the food chains on land and in the sea.
As for GM foods my concern is largely how to contain the varoius engineered strains from contaminating non GM.
Indeed. And these serious challenges — is it a challenge if it can’t really be solved? maybe these serious invalidations — make all of the cheerleading that much more frustrating. And I don’t think people like Nye and Lynas are necessarily shills. They’re just liberals who believe very strongly that humanity can engineer its way to miraculous solutions to all of the destruction we visit on the earth and the problems that our enormous growth creates. Lynas’s book was called the God Species, for ****’s sake. GMOs have become an expression of that, and so the handful of legitimately impressive things they can do are focused on while the other issues (and any hint of the precautionary principle) are swept aside.
yes….but for PROGRESS……
….onward….over the cliff…
On the other hand, Trump has said a lot of politically incorrect things and that seems to have not hurt his chances.
Does some of his popularity stem from that vicarious venting of the evil side of ourselves that we have not been able to stamp out?
Shaming, pressuring and telling people not to make racist comments has not prevented people from harboring such thoughts.
Will giving all people the same amount of free money so that all are middle class lead to a less racist society? Certainly it takes away the economic cause.
Here is an article about someone’s first-hand personally-experienced “anecdotal evidence” that the mystery illnesses she spent years and doctors not being able to solve were finally solved by deleting all traces of corn or corn products from her diet . . . because all mainstream industrial corn in America is GMO and its traces are in everything with any trace of corn-component ingredients in it. Here is the link.
http://www.elle.com/beauty/health-fitness/advice/a12574/allergy-to-genetically-modified-corn/
Trying to make sense of that first anecdote. Is it a catterole?
non stick
Hard to tell but it could be a kitten catcciatore or tabbyoca puddin or maybe a purreed and furmented orange marmalade.
+1.
my cat doesnt trust a box it can see through. No reason to get in it if it can’t hide out from everything.
myshkin
May 25, 2016 at 10:22 am
lol +++++++++++++++++++
….if one were to nix the head and tail….you’d have what appears to be a pork loin roast……..or, for you silly Everest Climbing vegans, ……. a tub of Vanilla Caramel Swirl…….
Flash back from the 70’s …Meatloaf !
Not the singer, Kliban’s famous “CAT– One hell of a nice animal, frequently mistaken for a meatloaf.” drawing. I still have a “Mom Cat” security blanket.
Re: “Middle Class” myth piece from Salon.
Good article, my only nitpick is that the Saturn V is mostly made of aluminum rather that steel.
Day of CA primary, MSNBC planning to declare HRC nominee at 8:00 p/m EST, 3 hours b/f CA polls close.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGG3DJAALkw
Good catch. Important.
+1
Reminds one of BBC’s TV announcer reporting the collapse of WTC Bldg 7, while it was still visibly standing on the horizon behind her.
Hillary — as inevitable as gravity!
Mistake by the announcer or mistake by some higher up who leaked classified information to the announcer?
Then there was this release yesterday:
SAUDI PRESS JUST ACCUSED US GOVT OF BLOWING UP WTC AS A PRETEXT TO PERPETUAL WAR
Go long nooses and guillotines
for who… the US GOVT.. or the SAUDIS ??
Interesting comments; they blame Matthews for letting the cat out of the bag (blame the messenger). Matthews is no journalist, more of the quintessential useless human being, but here he is caught in a rare Journalistic moment.
but…but…his journalism was probably inadvertent. after all, look at his record.
Nice to see the media isn’t pretending to be disinterested and objective anymore, and is making no effort to hide its intention to manipulate the process to garner the maximum effect.
If my math is correct, there are 694 pledged delegates to be had in the June 7th contests – she needs 633 of them to clinch the nomination with pledged delegates. She’s not going to get that many, given the proportional way in which the delegates are allocated.
But, the superdelegates! The superdelegates! No matter how many times the media are reminded that superdelegates don’t count until their votes are cast at the convention, they insist on including them in the total count now.
Man, they really, really want Sanders out – to the point where they are willing to be public about their efforts to corrupt the process and crowning her the nominee even before the polls close in California; nothing is going to get in the way of them having their dream contest of two of the most disliked, mistrusted candidates ever.
Trump, Clinton and the media: it’s all about them.
This election has shown that our corp media, when pressured, will get as bad as the horrific media in countries like Venezuela or Brazil, if that’s what it takes to ‘seal the deal’ for their preferred candidate.
I still have a theory that a NJ loss (even a couple points) would cause the superdelegates to finally break (along with her trailing in polls to Trump, which is almost happening now). At that point, she would look like a sinking ship and self-preservation takes over among the Dem Party hacks.
Can you imagine them trying to spin a NJ loss into a nomination clincher? That would be awesome!!!
If that was the case, then 100% of the resources, including those in CA now, should go to NJ.
The Party Hack Superdelegates will be very forcefully warned that if Sanders is nominated on their watch, that they will never be allowed any lucrative opportunities in any private sector anything after they leave office . . . or party apparatchik hackery.
I can’t stress enough how important this is viz. the “liberal media” baloney that so many people I knew on Long Island bought completely. The media are in the bag for Clinton because she is a status quo “centrist” (by their definition, which means slightly to the right of Richard Nixon). They have no interest whatsoever in even the Democrats winning, because if they did all they would have to do is read any of the polls for the last two months and see that Sanders beats Trump hands down. It’s Hillary they want–not the Dems, not the “liberals”–Hillary. And the sentiment is overwhelming and hardly even masked.
Some LIers are economic illiterates. There is a major I got mine or “THEY” are trying to take from us sentiment that some residents have with a whiff of pulling myself up by my bootstraps while they are collecting disability. (Actual people I have met)
Anyhoo that’s my sense as someone who lives on the City, Nassau border with most of my friends living there.
If Hillary needs 633 out of 694 pledged delegates available on June 7 to clinch the nomination with pledged delegates, there is no way for Sanders to clinch with pledged delegates.
i’m having another holy shit moment.
We will be hearing from the FBI primary soon. It’s just as real as California’s.
Hillary is facing civil suits from Judicial Watch for failure to follow the Civil Records Act, and acting to avoid FOIA discovery.
There’s a criminal charge of “gross negligence” in the handling of Secret, Top Secret, and SAP communiques — a charge that does not require proof of intent to deceive or hide,
There’s a criminal charge of “public corruption” hanging over the heads of Hillary, Bill, Chelsea, and their Chief Sleazeball Terry McAuliffe, involving the ongoing practice of linking contributions from foreign and domestic persons or companies to the Clinton Foundation to positive responses from Madame Secretary Clinton.
Whether Hillary is charged by the Justice Department or not, the basic details of the year long investigation will all come out in the media, and do her campaign no good. If the Democratic party sticks with her when polls show her losing to Trump in November, it will be because the Dems want to lose in November.
“FBI primary” – bahahaha. Great. I’m stealing that.
Note, this is the complete primaries, including super delegate votes that won’t be cast until the convention, and not just the winner of California. This is apparently how they plan to get around the restriction against such announcements before poles close.
As for suppressing the CA vote, the fact that this is out is already suppressing the CA vote. Also, let’s note the collusion between the media companies, clearly in violation of anti-trust.
Good news comrades:
Currie, J., Schwandt, H.
Science, May 6, 2016 (Vol. 352, issue 6286, pp. 708-712).
Title: Inequality in mortality decreased among the young while increasing for older adults, 1990–2010.
Abstract: Many recent studies point to increasing inequality in mortality in the United States over the past 20 years. These studies often use mortality rates in middle and old age. We used poverty level rankings of groups of U.S. counties as a basis for analyzing inequality in mortality for all age groups in 1990, 2000, and 2010. Consistent with previous studies, we found increasing inequality in mortality at older ages. For children and young adults below age 20, however, we found strong mortality improvements that were most pronounced in poorer counties, implying a strong decrease in mortality inequality. These younger cohorts will form the future adult U.S. population, so this research suggests that inequality in old-age mortality is likely to decline.
Good to know when they put me out on that ice floe to die….that there will be fewer members of future generations (supposedly)
What ice floe?
Perhaps the difference between ’20 and under mortality’ and ‘old age mortality’ is not just because poor old people die sooner, but rich old people linger longer with decreased quality of life.
So, we get friends or family members of rich old people in their 90s claim they are demented and should give up control of giant Fortune 500 media corporations.
If Johnson is polling at ~10% in May, I have a hunch Jill Stein is going to get a boost into the high single digits or better, too, once Bernie concedes.
This could be an interesting race down the stretch especially for what it may build, and perhaps we could even get a lasting switch to presidential elections decided by popular vote and instant-runoff voting (though I won’t hold my breath).
It makes it look like one doesn’t have to become a Democrat to have a say in the Nov. election.
One could stay independent, or be a Libertarian or a Green candidate and still make the race interesting down the stretch, and build something.
I’m on the email list and received this today.
I have exciting news for you: a recent national poll shows our campaign polling now where Bernie Sanders was in January!
The poll, released May 10th by Public Policy Polling, put our campaign at 2% nationally in a 4-way race.
That translates to 2.6 million people who would vote Green if the election were held today – already an increase of 450% over where we finished in 2012.
Of course, we still have plenty of room to grow – and we plan to.
Being included in polls brings more media attention. That gets our message out and brings supporters flooding in – which makes us rise in the polls.
But that will only happen if we get in more polls. That’s where I need your help.
Will you sign my petition to pollsters to include Jill Stein for President in national polls?
There are many reasons why our campaign should be included in polls. Thanks to supporters like you, our campaign is surging from strength to strength:
•We qualified for federal matching funds earlier than any Green campaign yet.
•We’re winning ballot access across the country, and are already on the ballot in states with 290 electoral votes – more than enough to win the presidency.
•We’re drawing increased attention from big media. Just last week, I had an interview in the New York Daily News, the nation’s 5th-largest newspaper. We’ve recently been featured by Vice, NowThis, The Atlantic, Truthdig, and Salon, and mentioned by the New York Times, CNN, and NPR.
•Our numbers on Facebook and Twitter are skyrocketing.
All this shows that millions of people are hungry for something better than what the establishment parties are offering.
In fact, a recent Gallup Poll found that an incredible 60% of Americans agree that the Democratic and Republican parties do such a poor job representing the American people that a new major party is needed.
And a May 18th Data Targeting poll found that 55% of Americans want an independent candidate to run against Clinton and Trump – including an amazing 91% of voters under 29!
With the majority of Americans searching for an alternative to Clinton/Trump, there’s no way to justify not including our campaign in polls.
But I need your help to make sure the pollsters get that message loud and clear.
Sign and share my petition to include the Jill Stein for President campaign in national polls today!
Thank you for all that you do – together we are blazing the trail to real democracy and a better future.
It’s in our hands!
A replica of Noah’s Ark strongly contends that anyone had any idea what Noah’s so-called ark might have look like. Happy sailing guys!
Didn’t you see the Russell Crow movie? Even Steve Carell knows what it looks like! It’s unanimous! :D
Psychologically, your opponents always want to explain you.
Maybe that’s why they become psychologists or write historical fictions.
In any case, psychologically, Noah’s Ark represents a hidden desire to not get along, and never get along, with one’s neighbors, and hopefully one’s God will take care of the quarrelsome people around one’s blessed home.
It’s also the desire to have the whole world for your own, to “have it all,” including the full and permanent blessings of Divinity. It’s especially nice that Divinity never comes around to smite you for eating shellfish. With no smiting to trouble your day, you can do no wrong. Have some scallops! Shave your beard!
This childish, narcissistic impulse to complete freedom of will is covered over with the paternalistic doctrine of having “dominion over the earth,” such as a steward or caretaker would have. The sweetest part of the job is that the Owner and Creator never shows up to check on your work, and yet he blesses you, and every single thing you do, forever and ever, amen.
This is how you get humble servants of God with multi-million dollar personal planes, and several gigantic mansions, where they sleep soundly every night.
Re: Why Is Hillary Clinton So Disliked?
Well that Very Serious Person David Brooks had a column yesterday asking the same question. Somehow he managed to waffle through an entire op-ed without once mentioning concrete real reasons people distrust and don’t like HRC: the $200,000+ per speech fees from Goldman Sachs and the email server investigation (sorry, security review).
I read this one but generally go out of my way to ignore Brooks — he is another NYT neocon who has a history of being wrong on every important issue and seems smug and complacent. Hmm… rather like a certain candidate…
Sample of his blathering:
— NY Times: Why Is Clinton Disliked?
Is this guy serious?
(Apologies if this was discussed yesterday and I missed it.)
Did he mention “Iraq”? I refuse to ever read Brooks since he bragged about the time a GOP senator had his hand on Brooks’ thigh for a whole dinner party.
the said senator was simply being intimate and revealing and personalist,and brooks was being trusting and vulnerable, and they both were feeling vivid and alive.
I confess to having smirked visualizing this.
One wonders how the guy can write that stuff without laughing to himself. Or maybe he does?
NYT: Low-information columnists for low-information readers.
All opposition to HRC is psychological, revealing subtle sexism and insecurity with regard to their own career achievements projected onto the candidate.
No wonder the media get so mad at Trump for acting like facts don’t matter! He’s beating them at their own game. They’ve been airbrushing away inconvenient facts for decades!
I’m sorry, but what he says about Hillary Clinton is very likely true, and exactly why she has no moral compass and cannot be trusted with the Presidency. Everything about her is an emergent property of her technocratic blinders and need for control and “success”. She’s a highly intelligent drone without a whit of imagination or vision whose whole being has been, for decades, tied up in her professional persona and the ambition that goes with it. Brooks doesn’t see how this all flows from the amoral “meritocracy” that people like him take as the true and only natural order, but he’s not wrong about Clinton.
Someone is going to be President. We will have a President. There is no way to avoid that sad fact. So, given the reality that there is nothing we can do about the fact that we will have a President, the question arises: who among the Big Two candidates would you prefer? Since it is one of the Big Two candidates who will become President.
No comment. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Well, you see, policy doesn’t matter much to these pundit people. It doesn’t really affect their personal lives in any meaningful way. He would still be wealthy even with increased taxes, or medicare for all, or increased labor rights, etc. Probably would even allow more justified self-righteousness and wonderment at the lives of his lessers.
But professionally, he has to take some position on something. Wouldn’t do for a writer to just say, “it doesn’t matter to me at all”.
So nothing is left but nonsense about tone or personality.
I can’t wait until Brooks’ upcoming roadtrip to the heartland. He’s the type guy who should be sentenced to six months in a coal mine.
Policy vs. personality.
Subtly, topic is shifted to her personality. Why do you ‘dislike’ her so much?
Never mind policy.
Well, plenty of people liked Dubya and his policies where one fiasco after another (ditto Reagan), so although policy is important, I’m not sure if a plurality of voters are overly interested in policy positions (even if they could fine them and honest commentary on them, which is damned difficult these days). Hillary Clinton is a combination of bad policies and a bad personality (like Mitt Romney). But like Romney, she is considered a safe pair of hands by the ownership class. Trump’s failing in their eyes is that he is erratic and can wander off script. Trump has the ability to occasionally say something that is not supposed to be said (although his solutions are in most cases completely within the realm of crony capitalism and shouldn’t bother the elite, but they are a frightened bunch these days and are circling the wagons).
If she had to admit a fault, it’s that she cares too much
About herself? I’d agree with that.
Pavel: “he (David Brooks) is another NYT neocon who has a history of being wrong on every important issue and seems smug and complacent. ”
Thanks for explaining succinctly why I’ve always despised David Brooks. Remember PBS’ Brooks and Shields ? That’s where I first encountered him, and began turning it off once his name was announced.
What Brooks is apparently saying is that it’s impossible to be a good capitalist without also come off like a cod asshole.
For once he got something right.
I went to the Brooks column and clicked on the readers’ picks to see the top ranked comments as selected by readers.
I didn’t read the column but instead read through the top “Reader’s picks”
The top Readers’ Picks selections follow the Clinton as victim of Republicans theme and mention the “best qualified” or “worked her entire adult life on behalf of progressive causes” assertions with little or no supporting information.
My dislike for HRC is based on many things, Iraq War resolution vote, further compounded by voting against the Levin amendment (that would have pursued a diplomatic solution), TPP support, NAFTA support, MIC support, unreleased speeches to Wall Street, Libya and gloating over Gaddafii’s death, Ukraine destabilization, and the Clinton Foundation’s vacuuming of funds from the world’s rich and powerful .
Then there is welfare reform, blind support for Israel and pushing for NATO expansion.
And her supporters seem to ignore her initial decision to “ride on Bill Clinton’s coattails” by following Bill Clinton to Arkansas after she failed the Washington DC bar exam.
One New York times reader commented , to a different HRC supportive column, that HRC is a “well connected mediocrity”.
Perhaps that is what many people sense about HRC, and all the assertions about her “experience” and “most qualified” cannot counter that feeling.
But to judge from the Readers’ Comments to this column, the Times has been quite successful in building support for HRC in their declining readership.
There should be some high fiving at the Gray Lady today at their perceived ability to influence voters.
John,
Excellent cataloguing of HRC’s many faults (probably a few not on the list):
My dislike for HRC is based on many things, Iraq War resolution vote, further compounded by voting against the Levin amendment (that would have pursued a diplomatic solution), TPP support, NAFTA support, MIC support, unreleased speeches to Wall Street, Libya and gloating over Gaddafii’s death, Ukraine destabilization, and the Clinton Foundation’s vacuuming of funds from the world’s rich and powerful .
Then there is welfare reform, blind support for Israel and pushing for NATO expansion.
And her supporters seem to ignore her initial decision to “ride on Bill Clinton’s coattails” by following Bill Clinton to Arkansas after she failed the Washington DC bar exam.
I’ve noticed a change in the Hillary-related comments in the NYT lately — whereas a few weeks/months ago there were many pro-Sanders comments, the proportion seems to have changed in the last week or so. I wonder if this is the result of the Clinton campaign spending a million bucks on influencing social media.
I venture to say the departure of Sanders commenters simply reflects the increased understanding that the mainstream media are all on the Clinton payroll, and that attempting to inject facts into any discussion of her alleged qualifications invariably results in being attacked as a “Berniebro,” “misogynist” or idiot. Or all of the above.
The majority of Sanders people I know only view the corporate media to see what lie they’ll be leading with this week.
+1
Either that, or many BernieBros have become aware of the NYT Pro-Clinton bias and simply ignore it now.
I noticed the same thing regarding the comments on a piece yesterday. The first Pro-Bernie comment was stuck in 10th or so place. The Times picks seem to tend toward choosing those comments that steer the conversation toward unity between the factions.
You are aware that “BernieBros” is, to put it politely, a fictional construct repudiated by the person who coined it?
Right on!
btw, don’t forget the ((non)) patriot act
or this handy dandy spreadsheet of Sanders versus Hillary
http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/article/2015/sep/02/11-examples-hillary-clinton-and-bernie-sanders-hol/
the NYT is a sinking Ark !
I would add Clinton Inc destroying the Democratic Party and turning It into a Clinton glorification vehicle. Obama did them one better, but the nostalgia for the Democratic Party is for a preClinton party when it existed at the state and local level.
“Hillary Clinton” is “a role,” a brand if you will. She is a sort of political Monsanto in her preeminent toxicity and loathsomeness.
Just don’t drink what she offers…ok!!!
If I recall correctly, Brooks is one of Obama’s favorites.
Yesterday I belatedly canceled my NYT digital subscription. [Why I ever had that thing, I don’t know.]
The woman who took my order and had to ask “why” said “we’re getting a lot of that” when I explained it was NYT’s general crapiness & failure to cover Sanders, but that Krugman’s derangement pushed me over the edge.
I also received an on-line “why are you leaving” survey in which I got to repeat this.
Quite satisfying.
If you should ever want to read the New York Times again, just go to your nearest public library. Depending on which part of the country you are located, most public libraries (in the Northeast anyway) carry it. Saves $$.
“The second paradox is that, agree with her or not, she’s dedicated herself to public service. From advocate for children to senator, she has pursued her vocation tirelessly.”
Did well by doing good, got it. And did well indeed.
“There’s a larger lesson here, especially for people who have found a career and vocation that feels fulfilling.”
Is that lesson: check your privilege?
“Most Americans feel more vivid and alive outside the work experience than within”
No doubt it’s why we support overtime laws (for all workers) and some of us support guaranteed income as well. Work is experienced by most people as mostly being a bad, thus utilitarianism demands it’s minimization to only that which is socially necessary.
I wonder why people’s health concerns over efags are growing?
There certainly isn’t any evidence to base them on (see public health england’s report).
Do they poll people about GM Food and glyphosate use concerns these days?
The new manufactured outrage over e-cigs seems to be just old fashioned puritanism, with a few shreds of public health concern trolling thrown on top to misdirect.
Stumbled on this on ZH this morning, a post by “Hedgeless Horseman” who discusses the lack of response by politicians to real questions. He then goes on to suggest 5 precise questions that should be asked of candidates:
—Nobody is ready, willing, or able to ask and/or answer questions of substance
Imagine if these or similar questions were asked in the debates and TV interviews, and a real response was insisted on?
RE: Up against strict laws, Texas women learn do-it-yourself abortions Reuters (EM)
But Grossman added: “We also hear of women using ineffective methods like herbs or doing things that are potentially dangerous like getting punched in the stomach.”
I shudder to think what the situation would be if hillary clinton had not spent her 30 years in public “service” working to “improve” the lives of women and children.
Remind me again why she’s got such a hard on against the taliban. I guess it’s because stoning is so much more barbaric than “healthcare” by stomach punch.
Freakin’ backward country.
The only good thing I can say is at least they aren’t using coat hangers… whatever little that is worth.
It is unbelievable that something federally legal is so poorly managed that it is not attainable. The law should not just protect its obvious statement but any hindrance to it. Obviously people are going to do it either way. I am sure people have been doing this a good portion of forever.
Maybe we can get Obama to send over some of those drones, complete the procedures by remote.
Has Clinton made any statements on the issue?
I’m not sure this is happening in other places or something particular to Memphis. There are a lot of independent Ubers springing up, especially in black neighborhoods. Some of the names are Blessed Transportation Services and 901 Express. How long does Uber last when there are a million knock offs?
The new economy GDP = “taking in each others’ laundry, driving each other around in our cars, swapping digs…”
Polar Donkey: You are observing jitney cabs, which have been part of black neighborhoods for a long time. Don’t forget that black people have had trouble getting a cab for years–and still do. Not sure that I’d compare jitney cabs to Uber.
http://chicagodispatcher.com/the-jitney-negotiation-p2159-1.htm
A description of jitneys in Chicago.
I’m reminded of dolmuşlar in Turkey, which also serve people who have trouble hailing / can’t afford a “regular” taxi.
Bluber ?
Germany’s renewables electricity generation grows in 2015, but coal still dominant U.S. Energy Information Administration (resilc)
A Link that works is: http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=26372
Notice how the Onion has dropped probably the best source for its humor lately? No more making fun of Hillary anymore since the new Hillary-funding owner bought it out.
This is why we can’t have nice things anymore.
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/hillarys-top-donor-buys-onion-starts-publishing-propaganda-immediately/
Don’t click on anything while at this site (a hunch).
i thought the one in the links was pretty good and sly
Agreed.
File under Hillary Clinton email hairball.
State Department Inspector General finds Clinton violated rules with regard to email server. Clinton aides declined to cooperate in investigation:
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/hillary-clinton-email-inspector-general-report-223553
Will this have any meaningful impact?
“At a minimum, Secretary Clinton should have surrendered all emails dealing with Department business before leaving government service.” — Inspector General
This is obvious. You don’t leave a job and take the organization’s business files with you — unless you want to get sued. Business files belong to the employer.
Hillary left the State Dept. on Feb. 1, 2013. But she didn’t turn over a partial set of files until December 2014 — AFTER Romanian hacker Guccifer revealed her private email server, and the State Dept. demanded her records.
Absent Guccifer’s intervention, Hillary evidently was content to leave giant holes in State Dept. archives, having absconded with its records.
Bad faith doesn’t even begin to describe Hillary’s behavior. It’s more like sabotage, and ought to be treated as such. Stealing government records arguably is more destructive than hacking. Guccifer’s doing a plea bargain today. Why shouldn’t Hillary, the saboteur and thief, be next on the docket?
Guccifer’s plea bargain this morning:
Presumably Guccifer was promised a reduced sentence in exchange for his cooperation in testifying. Otherwise there was no apparent reason to extradite him from Romania, where he was already serving a sentence for the same hacking offenses.
Yes, the difference in the way one criminal, HRC, and one hero, Lazar, are treated is stunning.
Obama on Guccifer — “My preference, and I think the American people’s preference, would have been for a lawful, orderly examination of these laws; a thoughtful fact-based debate that would then lead us to a better place.”
Wait a minute…..
Like Snowden, without Lazar we would never have even known about what was happening.
Does it mean it’s not just HRC, but involves something more than her.
“FREE THE HACKTIVIST GUCCIFER”
Should be everyones tweet today.
…and replace him w/ the dishonorable John Corzine !
As it has been pointed out before, the Clinton M.O.: Don’t ask for permission first, ask for forgiveness later.
That’s what drives so many of us crazy–their sense of entitlement on the one hand (“Why shouldn’t we make hundreds of millions of dollars from speeches to banksters?”) and their sense that Normal Rules Do Not Apply To Us.
If I were CEO of a large corporation getting blowjobs from an intern (in my frigging corporate office!) and then lying about it repeatedly for months, would I expect to keep my job?
Ask for forgiveness? Not today, bro:
This is textbook Clinton smoke blowing: “I did nothing wrong; but if I did, others were doing it too, and everyone was fine with it.”
At least there’s one defense Clinton will not be able to plausibly resort to: She would have to posit a cabal within the Obama State Department in order to put forth the “vast rightwing conspiracy” claim.
Once all the myths are broken, what comes next?
The myths of “rule of law,” “opportunity,” “equal protection,” “due process,” “representative government,” “blind justice,” “police serve-and-protection,” government altogether as a Thing that governs (in the sensible sense of the word, controls, regulates, distributes) rather than an inverted Cornucopia that feeds a warp locus that connects to the Cornucopia that feeds all that wealth into the grasping, insatiable hands of a very few, pick your own favorites?
What outcomes are the elements that constitute, ineluctably, tautologically, whatever their form, the Thing that is the political economy supposed to, versus going to, produce? What is the axis and vector of the human category?
What is there to hold any of it all together, avoid apoptosis?
nothing….
things come apart !
More and more time, money, and effort in promoting and advertising the myths.
And a bigger hammer….
http://redalertpolitics.com/2016/05/23/abc-poll-trump-surge-due-massive-36-millennial-swing/
DNC and Clintonistas try to stomp out Sanders supporters instead of bringing them into the fold….they defect to Trump….who could have predicted?
What happened to ‘Bernie or Bust?’
It appears there are many who are ‘Bernie or Trump.’
If, as the article states,
how does that translate to defections from Sanders to Trump? Doesn’t that translate to defections from Clinton to Trump?
That would appear that ‘DNC and Clintonistas try to stomp out Sanders supporters instead of bringing them into the fold….they defect to Trump…’ is not quite accurate.
Although, the polls were just between Clinton and Trump only, not including Sanders. So, some of her numbers may be from Sanders.
The only conclusion I can reach is that the media is very sure that the majority of people are too stupid to figure out they’re being played.
Sadly, they may be right – people may not be smart enough, or care enough, to know that the article can’t reach the conclusions it’s pushing, absent the inclusion of Sanders’ numbers.
I’d believe Clinton is losing millennial support to Sanders, and I’d believe she’s losing it to Trump, but I can’t buy the argument that Trump’s gaining support from Sanders’ defections: where does the author think Clinton’s lost support is going? Is this a Tinker-to-Evans-to-Chance kind of phenomenon? Clinton’s losing support to Sanders, Sanders is losing support to Trump, and Trump’s gaining as a result?
Okay, then.
Think working class areas. People in trade schools. Trump annoys virtually every boogeyman of the last 15 years such as Bill Kristol. There is room for crossover.
IT and engineer types would love to put up a wall over H1 B1 Visas.
ACA is out there.
People are being crushed, and what doesn’t make sense might make sense to people in dire straights. I can see why young people might vote for Trump.
There was an “All in the Family,” and Archie took a petition to keep a black family out of the neighborhood to the Jeffersons. Meat head was appalled, but George and Archie wanted to protect their property value.
#BernieorBust refers more to how Bernie supporters (I am one) will not be browbeaten into voting for Clinton.
While this is totally anecdotal, I think that more and more are moving from “not Clinton, maybe Stein” to “Screw her, I’ll vote Trump”. They’re not switching from Bernie to Trump, and I don’t think Bernie or Busters are choosing Trump in a positive sense that they like him or his policies (although there are other voters that affirmatively do see Trump as a positive second choice, many apparently minority voters). It’s more that their anger and disgust is driving them towards doing whatever it takes to keep her out of the presidency. That’s my position, although I came to it earlier and for more strategic reasons. But her behavior and the behavior of the governing and media elites helping her have certainly made the idea of voting for Trump easier and easier. When I used to talk about this in various virtual spaces, I was pretty out there. Now that idea is common in the Sanders Twitterverse, for whatever that’s worth. And Clinton people who come to fight with us react with less surprise and more resignation. I get the impression they are hearing it more and more also.
To be honest, it’s much easier to imagine voting for Trump when I don’t pay any attention to him. If Clinton gets the nomination, I’ll just check out of all election stuff until November, for the first time since 1968 (when I was eight). But she’s given me so much to stiffen my spine already. The Bruenig thing is really horrid. It backs up that hint DeLong gave — that they’re slavering to bring back witch hunts against the left.
. . . if NATO stops poking the bear, the bear will stop threatening to do something about all that poking.
Ach du lieber! to read manpower figures for the Bundeswehr of only 177,000 men is heartbreaking. Why, in the old days, we had so many soldiers we had to import workers for our factories.
The problem with the Germans is they have no word for lebensraum.
Concussions are nothing:
If one wants to see a sterling abuse of the tax system just realize that
The National Football League is considered “a Non-Profit”, and is taxed accordingly.
And the head of this “non-profit” organisation makes about $60 million per year IIRC.
A thought experiment: how much money would Joe & Jane Taxpayer save in their taxes if all deductions and “non-profit” statuses were revoked and the organisations paid proper taxes. (This means you, all those churches e.g. Scientology paying no taxes on valuable real estate, and you the NFL.)
Would the reduced taxes mean people could donate instead to the groups they really want to fund?
Actually, that’s in the past. Under media scrutiny, last year the NFL voluntarily surrendered its non-profit status. (I think a lot of the pressure to do so came about over criticism that the non-profit status allowed it to avoid property taxes on its headquarters building in NYC.)
They had to drop the 501(c)3 to remain un-transparent re: injuries, etc. So it wasn’t a good faith move.
The link to “Is Fascism Rising in Israel?” did not work for me, but this does:
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2016/0523/Is-fascism-rising-in-Israel
Helen Chaitman-Big Bank Customers Destroyed in Next Economic Meltdown
Attorney Helen Chaitman, who represents victims of the Bernie Madoff $65 billion fraud, contends the big banks are like mobsters. Chaitman says, “There is no question about it. They operate illegally because they can generate huge profits by doing so. They go from one crime to another, and when they get caught committing one crime, nobody gets fired. Nobody disgorges bonuses. They just take those people and put them in a new area where they haven’t yet been prosecuted.”
What will happen to the customers of the big banks in the next financial meltdown? Chaitman warns, “The customers will be destroyed, and if the banks still have enough money to buy Washington, the government will protect them just like it has since 2008.”
Join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with Helen Chaitman, author of the new book “JP Madoff.”
https://youtu.be/7-Me2f5Eh4w
“Everyone has been paid off”
If a candidate has ties to big banks, then he or she is linked to mobsters, I believe that is what attorney Helen Chaitman is saying.
I’m interested in the future-gazing predictions of the expert commentariat here about the viability (or lack thereof) of the FDIC deposit guarantee and its kin that govern things like Credit Unions, investment accounts, etc?
Seems to me that if there is an attempt to bail-in the banks using depositor’s money under the FDIC-type thresholds that you will see revolution in the streets. Guillotines, tumbrils, and pitchforks will no longer be metaphors. The economic deprivation across all levels of society will be so massive, and the betrayal of trust so enormous that nothing, not even the armed forces, could stop the rebellion. (Given that many family members of service personnel will be swept up in the wipeout, I’m thinking that a lot of military will more likely turn their weapons around the other direction.)
“Is fascism rising in Israel” Interesting(?) that link was ‘down’ initially, i.e. had to go round about route, Home, World, Middle East, to get to it…I guess scary times call for scary people making scary decisions.
Today the WaPo published some images by Venezuelan photographer Alejandro Cegarra:
http://www.chamberlitigation.com/sites/default/files/cases/files/2015/Reply%20Brief%20for%20Defendant-Appellants%20Mairone%20–%20United%20States%20v.%20Bank%20of%20America%20(Second%20Circuit).pdf
============================================
The 2nd US court of appeals ruling regarding overturning the conviction of Bank of American and mortgage fraud.
I am not a lawyer, but the issue seems to be the distinction between “breach of contract” versus “fraud” – see the ruling for the distinction.
Still, I have a tough time with what I have read that this was merely a “breach of contract” as opposed to fraud – it seems to me that standard due diligence was purposefully ignored with regard to mortgages and securities, which seems to me to be fraud.
I would concede the point that the court makes about who the prosecutors went after – its the highest level of the company that is responsible for quality so it begs the question of how hard prosecutors went after the big dogs ….were they afraid???
Of course, this brings up some questions about judicial quality. If the lower court judge misinterprets so much law, why isn’t he fired? If the prosecutors are incompetent, or engaging in malicious prosecution, why aren’t they sanctioned?
Or is the whole thing a big charade, designed to exonerate when they WANT TO EXONERATE and to convict when they WANT TO CONVICT, and provide a long obtuse document filled with mumbo jumbo to justify any conclusion?
Pardon my cynicism, but to conclude that Countrywide didn’t design a system to peddle this crap is beyond credulity.
http://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-05-24/government-s-bank-of-america-suit-failed-basic-contracts-law
Stephen Carter: A little background.
In 2007, following the implosion of the subprime market, Countrywide decided to reconstitute its subprime lending division into a prime lending division, with the goal of reselling mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The lender subsequently entered into contracts with both government-sponsored enterprises. The contract with Fannie Mae promised that each of the mortgages sold would be an “Acceptable Investment.” The contract with Freddie Mac promised that each would “have the characteristics of an investment quality mortgage.” In both cases, Countrywide offered its promise as of the date the loans were transferred.
The government subsequently brought suit under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989, or Firrea, contending that Countrywide had delivered mortgages of lower quality than promised. It was this lawsuit that resulted in the $1.27 billion damages award.
But the government’s theory had a problem, one that the Second Circuit had no trouble spotting. The section of Firrea under which the lawsuit proceeded applies only if the defendant has violated the wire fraud or mail fraud statutes. To commit wire fraud or mail fraud, one must commit fraud. And that’s where the case fell apart.
Fraud cannot be committed by accident. It requires an intentional and material misrepresentation at the time that the contract is entered into. In other words, to win its suit, the Justice Department would have had to demonstrate that Countrywide, when it signed the agreements with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, was already scheming to deliver nonconforming mortgages. Alas, wrote the Second Circuit, no such showing was made: “The Government did not prove — in fact, did not attempt to prove — that at the time the contracts were executed Countrywide never intended to perform its promise of investment quality.”
The government’s argument, in effect, was that if Countrywide at any point knowingly delivered a mortgage that did not meet the contractual standard, it was committing a fraud. Such a principle would upend contract law as it has been taught for generations. The only misrepresentations to which the government pointed were the promises in the contract. But unless Countrywide knew at the time it made those promises that the mortgages in question would be of less-than-investment quality, it at worst committed not a fraud but a breach. The difference matters.
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Now, it seems from everything I have read that Countrywide designed their process to hide that mortgages they were originating were being originated without due diligence. Which would mean by definition that any financial instruments using such ill originated mortgages would be non investment grade, and that Countrywide KNEW THEY WERE DOING THIS, and of course were doing this so they could unload these securities composed of these mortgages.
But my real point is that legal system has simply been corrupted – laws written so no rich person can be found guilty of anything, or hairsplitting judges appointed, and/or in a failsafe manner prosecutors are appointed so somehow if a law is somehow broken so egregiously that they could be prosecuted, never fear, prosecutors will be able to snatch acquittals from the jaws of certain conviction. So as always with our illustrious legal system, that we are propagandized to believe is so wonderful, simply can’t hire competent prosecutors….and nothing is done about that fact (but that is a feature, not a bug. Eric Holder….)
Where’s the Ferguson Effect refutations?
Just to keep things in perspective the article “New Study of high risk teens reveal a biological pathway for depression” assumes, of course, the predominant biological bias in mental illness conceptualization.
Such a conceptualization assumes that psychiatric diseases ( like depression) are fundamentally diseases of the brain with this article arguing specifically that the reason for the focus on epigenetic chemical tags ear the SLC6A4 gene is because it helps control levels of seretonin, a neurotransmitter whose level in the brain is also assumed to play a key role in mental illness.
But if the mind is something more than the brain than a theory of mental illness which is caused primarily by chemical imbalances in the brain–is thrown into serious question.
It seems to me that it could be somewhere between the two. We could have pathways that give us a predisposition towards something and then have environmental factors that flip the genetic switch.
For example, a build up of cortisol might impact levels of dopamine and serotonin.
A primary reason I raise the issue of mind/brain is because I believe our society is in a cultural crisis as well as a financial/economic crisis (ongoing) and a political crisis (a process of political realignment which is only just beginning).
On a cultural level I assume that the individual mind emerges from the brain.
A biological psychiatry tends to reduce the mind to the brain and misses the symbolic nature of the mind.
Certainly the mind is supported by boundary conditions of the brain but there is an entire symbolic level to our modern consciousness.
This modern consciousness has a collective representation (See Durkheim) and an individual representation or culture in a particular brain which subjectively interprets particular symbols (think Weber).
Perhaps we are dealing with multiple layers. The upper layer consists of the mind which emerges from the biological brain but is not reducible to it.
Cultures may consist of both releasing symbols (infused with desire and impulse) and controlling symbols (infused with taboo and thou shalt nots).
I would argue that for a long time Western culture was dominated by an ascetic model of personality in which are master passions were often kept from direct enactment.
But part of our cultural crisis today may be the absence of limits (having much to do with the relationship between habit and impulse) where the releasing symbols of impulse begin to feel like controls-where we seem to have a culture which permits more and demands less.
Would a real counter-culture in 2016 consist of a new emergence of symbolic controls once again deeply installed in individual character?
Would such controlling symbols help to re-establish a stronger sense of identity/will and motivation?
Chinese Investors Pour Money Into U.S. Property
Good, a full circle
Bring all those virtual US$ home to vaporize in the next RE crash
I suspect that while they’re in danger of fraudclosures (fraudulent foreclosures), they’ll be in no danger of foreclosures of preditor-lender-based defaults — liar mortgages due to companies like Countrywide.
Some people might think that the Onion article was meant farcically or humorously.
Another thing. I was thinking about the Onion article and my response, while scrolling down. Something caught my eye just for an instant, about “do-it-yourself abortions” in Texas. For some strange reason, my mind scrambled it with “the Onion” and thought it was an Onion article.
Re: The Week article on the Clinton “surplus”.
Not only does it give a easy to understand precis of sectoral balances. It also says explicitly that the government of a sovereign currency issuer can never have a crisis in its own debt.
Amazing!
The rest of the MSM will, of course, continue on its debt scolding course but maybe a sign that some at least are recognizing that theoclassical economics really has run its course.