Drought-Hit Zimbabwe Puts Wild Animals Up for Sale Scientific American (Robert M)
Animals die as Cambodia is gripped by worst drought in decades Guardian (resilc). :-(. IIRC, it took only seven years of drought to end the Mayan civilization.
Emergency declared over Canada city fire BBC
Danger map shows ‘extreme’ risk of fires in both provinces CBC (martha r). :-(
David Attenborough turns 90: Naturalist issues stark warning about apathy towards climate change Independent (Chuck L)
A single fire mimicry treatment is not effective for longterm oak recovery Sudden Oak Life (Fred A)
Prospect of sexual relationships with robots poses moral dilemmas Financial Times
Angel turns out to be inflatable sex doll Boing Boing (resilc)
Study Shows How Abstinence Pledges Increase Risk of Pregnancy and STDs Atlantic
Nimble-Fingered Robot Outperforms the Best Human Surgeons MIT Technology Reiew (David L)
US researchers enter the cutting edge with first robot surgeon Financial Times
Can Artificial Intelligence Be Ethical? Project Syndicate (David L)
Moore’s Law Running Out of Room, Tech Looks for a Successor New York Times
Google : End Of The Online Advertising Bubble Kalkis Research (guurst)
China?
Making China Great Again Foreign Policy in Focus
President Trump: The View From China | The Diplomat (resilc)
Refugee Crisis
The European Commission to “Hold Its Nose” and Approve the Abolition of Visas for Turkish Citizens South Front
David Cameron Says Britain Will Accept More Syrian Children as Refugees New York Times (furzy)
Most of Greek bailout money went to banks: study DW (martha r)
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
ACTUV: Darpa’s drone warship Business Insider
LAPD hacked into iPhone of slain wife of ‘Shield’ actor, documents show Los Angeles Times
Syraqistan
Top IDF officer Yair Golan compares modern Israel to 1930s Germany in bombshell speech International Business Times (Dr. Kevin)
Iran Is Offering Citizenship to Families of Migrants Who Died Fighting Iran’s Battles Vice (resilc)
Hot Air in the Saudi Desert: a Kingdom in Descent? Counterpunch
Imperial Collapse Watch
The Marines Are Running Out of Fighter Jets Daily Beast
The U.S. Navy now has an unmanned drone warship. Could it be hacked at sea? Boing Boing (resilc)
Clinton E-mail Hairball
Hacker “Guccifer” Says He Hacked Hillary’s Server — If So, Clinton Violated the U.S. Code National Review (furzy)
Deadlines loom for answers in Clinton email probe as U.S. judge sets discovery Washington Post (furzy). Notice judge has not ruled out having Clinton deposed. Comments seem pretty consistently skeptical of her.
Trade Traitors
Just been contacted by staff from within the Euro Parliament and told I must remove this video. I won’t be. #TTIP amp.twimg.com/v/14d8dbe8-7b0… @LukeMing (Steve N)
2016
According to Math: The Only Candidate That Can Unite the Country, Win the General Election, & Defeat the GOP is Bernie Sanders John Laurits (Richard R)
Trump takes the reins of a divided GOP Washington Post (furzy)
Donald Trump is what happens when you screw the middle class Salon
US business alarmed by Donald Trump’s rise Financial Times
Appalachia now firmly in Donald Trump’s grasp Associated Press (furzy)
Tony Blair: The whole world has a Donald Trump problem Yahoo (furzy). Have your barf bag ready. The pearl-clutching goes international.
Warren: More Enthusiasm For Trump In KKK Than In GOP Leadership Talking Points Memo (resilc)
With Donald Trump in Charge, Republicans Have a Day of Reckoning New York Times. Trump has pulled off a hostile takeover. Hostile takeovers become friendly. Just like the unions screwed by the Democratic party over decades, Trump can play the “you have nowhere to go” game (note the unions could have fought back, but that’s a multi-round tit for tat game and they weren’t willing to incur the initial cost). While donors can clearly go to Clinton, who will be wooing them, party apparatchiks are stuck.
Trump’s Vision for His First 100 Days New York Times. Based on a series of interviews. The Grey Lady plays this story straight up. The Wall and repealing the ACA are prominent in his plans. However, remember Obama promised his first act would be to close Gitmo which he could have done via executive order…..
An anthropologist explains why Trump will win in November Fabius Maximus (resilc)
Donald Trump begins weighing vice president options CNN (furzy). Notice female candidates.
Trump Urges Israel Settlement Construction Keep Going Veterans Today (Judy B)
Hillary Clinton’s New Campaign Ad Lets Republicans Do the Talking on Why Trump Is the Worst Alternet. Not from the Hillary campaign officially. Suggests the campaign thinks the priority is winning moderate Republicans.
Beyond Schadenfreude, the Spectacular Pundit Failure on Trump Is Worth Remembering Intercept (resilc)
NATE SILVER: ‘We basically got the Republican race wrong‘ Business Insider (David L). Duh.
Trump Won’t Self-Fund for General Election Wall Street Journal
#DropOutHillary: Twitter blows up with anti-Clinton tirade RT (gs legend)
From DF: By blocking #DropOutHillary from its trending list @twitter joins the establishment in shutting down the voice of the people. #StopCensoring. Here is a search on the hashtag
Andrew Sullivan Is to Blame for Donald Trump Gawker (resilc)
Health Insurers Struggle to Offset New Costs Wall Street Journal. Subhead: “Companies begin to propose big premium increases for coverage next year under health law”
U.S. Department of Transportation expands and accelerates Takata air bag inflator recall to protect American drivers and passengers National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (martha r)
Justice Department Says North Carolina Bathroom Law Violates Civil Rights Act Wall Street Journal
Why Calpers Wants You to Use the Indiana Toll Roadt Wall Street Journal (Chuck L)
Big Banks Just Claimed A Constitutional Right To A Taxpayer Subsidy Huffington Post (Jess M)
U.S. oil industry bankruptcy wave nears size of telecom bust Reuters (furzy)
Negative yields cost investors $24bn Financial Times
Class Warfare
Surgical Robot Outperforms Humans; Airbus Plans Humanoid Assemblers Michael Shedlock. But will patients accept robot surgeons?
Solving Our Unemployment Crisis presentation, April 19, 2016 Bill Mitchell
Here’s Why We Can’t Rely on Shareholders to Fix CEO Pay Nation
Empirical Test of Piketty’s r > g Theory Coming Ed Walker, emptywheel (Chuck L)
#BlackLivesMatter and Our Very Short Memories about What It Takes to Advance Racial Justice NonProfit Quarterly
Antidote du jour (Lawrence R):
And a bonus video (Lawrence R, Chuck L). Amazed the cougar did not seem hurt by all the thrashing around in the trap:
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
180 comments
Comments are closed.
“Deadlines loom for answers in the Clinton e-mail probe.” I’m just a layman, but I can’t understand why this is taking so long. The judge directed that at least six aides and top officials will answer questions, but this “does not ensure cooperation.” Why not? I understand this is merely the FOIA deal which is running parallel to the criminal investigation. But sooner or later the info will come out, right? What’s Hill’s strategy—-run out the clock until she’s prez, so she can get impeached?
Why is this taking so long? Because the tides of free money, both for and against prosecution, keep flowing, filling and re-filling, in and out with each new headline. This will go on until either the money pockets go empty (Not likely. These be some of the deepest pockets of all.), or the American people get completely bored by the whole deal and go away.
There may be some truth to the idea that the FBI will never indict because being able to threaten the POTUS with blackmail for 4 to 8 years is more valuable to Big Brother.
Interesting point. This is reminiscent of J. Edgar Hoover, who had files on the peccadilloes of numerous Washington, D. C., big shots.
Agreed. Also, the powers that be have a very strong aversion to Trump and a very active and vested interest in Clinton. These are the really big players and even the FBI is not immune.
The motives may be rooted in economic interests but the Trump aversion has also become visceral for them just as for us, influenced no doubt by msm broadcast of their own think tank mythologies as well as by the man himself. At this point, Trump is probably an error; this wasn’t supposed to happen. Given that atmosphere, things are working themselves out in a jagged manner that isn’t always easy to explain.
Any elected Republican who opposes Trump or aligns with a “non partisan” player will be crucified by the GOP rank and file, and the GOP has plenty of candidates willing to move up. One can vote in private, but the GOP base forced a vote on Bork just to make sure their leaders including Saint Reagan toed the line when the GOP recognized it was time to pull the nomination.
Not one of those Republicans who visited Terry Schaevo cared what happened but after the Social Security fiasco the GOP was bleeding support with their base. It was a test to see if the would respond. Partisan Democrats soured, but Republican polling went up because they saw the GOP would jump through hoops. Every Teabagger who challenged a TARP yes vote won. The GOP voters will boycott anyone who doesn’t get in line. Eventually, the anyone but Trump Republicans will talk themselves into voting for Trump as they have to nod as Trump supporters hammer away at how awful Hillary is.
Hillary will unite the Republican party.
Sanders’ quasi-appeasement has not worked. Should have crossed the Rubicon.
But it’s only the end of the beginning, not the beginning of the end.
While the establishment basically hates Trump, GOP ‘non-votes’ will hurt their down-ballot candidates as well, so every effort will be made to rally the party by July. Strategic deployment by the conservative faction at FBI (Comey or his subs) sometime prior to Nov. 8 is what a number of us are suggesting the Democratic Party should be very afraid of.
In the Democratic camp’s favor still is that the GOP will nominate a week before the DEMs convention, and Sanders intends to go to the convention, so all those super-delegates should be thinking hard about that choice.
Makes him sound like Neo.
Speaking of…I wonder what Agent Smith is up to these days?
Generating white noise for Hillary.
Hmm…that raises interesting questions.
Is Hillary the Architect:
“The Architect turned to a more intuitive program designed to understand human nature and psychology to augment the framework of the next Matrix. This time, the power of choice was added to the programming, where humans would be allowed the power to choose, even if the person was only aware of the choice on a vague, subconscious level.
This version of the Matrix worked, except for approximately 1 percent of human minds. These humans were apparently bodily ejected from the power plant. Some of these humans survived to join Zion.
The Architect noted that the Matrix was not as perfect as he initially envisioned; the addition of ‘choice’ to the Matrix’s programming added an unpredictable element to the Architect’s equations and would eventually cause the Matrix to suffer a destructive system crash.”
Or Cypher:
“Cypher secretly meets with Agent Smith once more, agreeing to turn Morpheus over to them if the Agents will return Cypher, rich and famous, to the Matrix power plant with no recollection of the Matrix’s true nature.”
Wouldn’t that make him a Neo-neo-conservative?
Perhaps Trump sees the GOP-Matrix for what it really is and can manipulate it to his will…
Doesn’t the FBI have something on every candidate?
“The more virtuous the politician in appearance, the greater the leverage.”
Intelligence services of other countries also undoubtedly have the dirt on her now too though. The remaining NatSec people who actually take their jobs seriously (no idea what proportion this is) should find that prospect very disturbing.
If there is a serious problem, there are plenty many I’s and T’s to dot and cross. Hillary is the second biggest fish outside of the President, not a 17 year old Muslim immigrant entrapped by the fbi.
I believe the pertinent phrase isn’t “mishandling of classified documents” but “Clinton Foundation Dome.” “Gate” will go out of style. Selling the office of SoS is a serious crime, and the economy has only seen growth in finance and weapon production. Then of course, this isn’t limited to the criminally liable but to the pointically liable. Why didn’t the President’s NSA know while Obama was showering Wall Street with praise? Did Holder know? Where are the Congressional investigations? And on and on it goes.
Not prosecuting white collar crime will come back to haunt everyone. When Obama more or less announced it was open season on crime if you were important, there is bound do to be major scandals linked to bipartisan donors who are seen as too big to watch.
We discussed the other day whether Guccifer hacked Clinton’s server and from today’s link from the National Review and Fox News (right wing sources are the only ones reporting on this case at present… I wonder why) it appears that INDEED HE DID.
If the FBI has access to the 2gb of data he took from the Clinton email server the case expands significantly from the question of mishandling of classified documents and the email server to all the shady things she coordinated between the Clinton Foundation and her arms deals as Secy of State that are likely to be in the 30,000 emails she deleted. Not to mention the significant national security impact of having the Secy of State’s entire email record hacked.
It looks like after 20 years the smoke is clearing and the fire, raging bigger than ever, has become clear for all to see.
Btw, the Fox account is much more informative: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/05/04/romanian-hacker-guccifer-breached-clinton-server-it-was-easy.html
It’s Thursday so time for me to dust off my foil bonnet.
Big FBI files scandal in B.Clinton’s admin. 1993. Reported 1996. From Chicago Tribune.
“LAS VEGAS — President Clinton conceded Sunday that the administration mistakenly obtained the FBI files of more than 300 people, including many top Republicans, in late 1993 as the result of a “completely honest bureaucratic snafu” involving security clearances.”
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1996-06-10/news/9606100170_1_completely-honest-bureaucratic-snafu-fbi-files-enemies-list
Fast forward to Hillary’s private email server hosting state dept classified documents/emails, a server not very secure. (here’s my foil bonnet part). Unsecure by design so that ‘others’ could get classified US state dept. info with complete deniability? Others who might be trying to work a deal, or offering contributions to the Clinton Foundation? Well, that’s enough foilery. Resume rational thinking.
a “completely honest bureaucratic snafu”
Ah ha ha ha … Gotta love ol’ Bubba: he lies so effortlessly and charmingly.
This is like Jeffrey Dahmer explaining away human body parts in his freezer by claiming he “thought they were hamburger.”
Love the comparison:
Clinton v. Dahmer
Yes, I remember that. But I am not taking his statement that he hacked Hillary’s server at face value (yet). It is amusing that he stated that when he did that he noticed “up to 10” others had been there already. That is in the Fox News article.
The NBC article states that Guccifer “in an exclusive interview from a prison in Bucharest”. What’s that about? He has been in the US for a month?
I wonder where the 2 gigabytes of files he claims to have are. That is not a new claim though. Heard that sometime ago.
It looks like NBC sat on the interview for over a month: http://lawnewz.com/high-profile/why-did-nbc-sit-on-explosive-story-about-clintons-alleged-hacked-email-server-for-weeks/.
Wow. Very interesting. Thanks.
I hate to sound dumb, but how can she be impeached. She no longer works as Secretary of State, which is where all the misdeeds were done. Can a person be sued / impeached for a job that they are no longer performing. Did she sell State secrets? ( I’m not a HRC fan).
The only requirement for impeachment and removal is if there are enough votes. Being unpopular is the only real crime a President can commit that warrants impeachment. If Obama droned away Wall Street on the nightly news, he would be granted a third term.
“High crimes and misdemeanors” means whatever you want it to. Telling the residents of a destroyed city that at least the filtered water is only dangerous to pregnant women and children under the age of six is easily justifiable as an impeachable offense. The President could be impeached just to demonstrate the process.
The real question isn’t whether the President committed an impeachable offense but whether the Preside the is so unpopular to not let him run out the clock and replace him with a for all intents and purposes an unelected individual.
A person can be prosecuted. The President can’t be prosecuted for felonies while in office, but an ex-president can. Bill Clinton wasn’t removed, but he made a plea deal for perjury and obstruction of justice. It’s why he’s disbarred. If Ford didn’t pardon Nixon, Nixon would have been prosecuted.
Not impeached, no. She’d be charged in a Federal Grand Jury trial for violating the Espionage Act by not securing her communications and/or Federal records laws because she deleted emails which were pertinent to the office of SoS (there’s no burden to show intent, only negligence).
She can be impeached if she is elected President. Unless that happens, or she’s appointed to office, she can’t be impeached
“Here’s Why We Can’t Rely on Shareholders to Fix CEO Pay”
For decades we fixed this problem with a top income tax rate of 90%. If combined with a $ limit to the amount of income which can be claimed as capital gains, this would once again put a hard limit on corporate executives ability to skim.
Re “Most of Greek bailout money went to banks: study,” a Mark Blyth clip on that point from a few months back, Too-Big-To-Bail Banks and Poisoning the Well of European Politics
I understand that Trump is now the presumptive GOP nominee and that he has always gotten a lot of coverage, but that coverage only seems to spur his supporters and make him even more popular. Since Indiana, that coverage has increased exponentially (if that’s even possible given the blanket coverage before Indiana)….this strikes me as being a self-tightening noose.
Also, the NYT has a pretty little infographic about how Clinton would wipe the floor with the Donald in the general election…I wonder what that infographic would look like when applied to Sanders vs. Trump.
Of course, no matter how much the MSM hate Trump, they would never stoop so low as to promote Sanders instead. The great thing about this election is that it has revealed a lot of true colors, and I would love to see how much truer those colors become if it ends up being Trump v Sanders.
MSM loves Trump for their bottom line. They are as responsible for his victories as the voters. Every fart is broadcast. I’m not sure how predictive the NYT is about anything these days. They’ve been in the tank for Hillary forever.
Sanders threatens them all. They feed from the same trough so must keep him out.
Did NSilver provide the data analysis?
If Clinton is wiping the floor with Trump’s hair in their graphic, Sanders is outside the house, walking right on by.
C) All of the above.
And NYT readers are dutifully lapping it up.
Oh I can’t wait for California to vote and for Sanders to trounce Clinton. I would pay serious money to see her reaction broadcast on pay-per-view.
I think one way to stop Hillary is let her be complacent.
If she thinks she can mop her foundation floor with Trump’s hair, she might actually start liking cleaning her house, instead of thirsting after the throne.
In an awe-inspiring display of pure hubris, today the Saddam’s WMDs paper has a headline reading:
… even as they’re STILL DOING IT in the Democratic race.
Not linking cuz I didn’t bother to read it. It’s digital birdcage liner, comrades. Grr-a-a-a-ack!
Alarming, no matter the justification/s: M2 money supply – which measures coins and notes in circulation as well as bank deposits and money market accounts – America’s money stock amounted to $12.6 trillion as of last month.
But there was just $1.4 trillion of physical currency in circulation – about only half of which is in the US. (Nobody knows for sure.) http://wolfstreet.com/2016/05/05/credit-collapse-dollar-panic/
btw, LOVE the bluesy seahorsy
Good piece in the Grauniad about the TTIP leaks by Owen Jones:
—Owen Jones: Protest never changes anything? Look at how TTIP has been derailed
I now believe that outside of the risks of more warmongering (and HRC is worse here than Trump) the defeat of TPP and TTIP is more important than who wins the US election.
Election expenses: Tory PCC candidate under scrutiny
http://www.channel4.com/news/election-expenses-tory-pcc-candidate-under-scrutiny
This has the potential to remove Cameron’s majority and force another general election….or just fizzle out….or not..
Conservative election funding investigation to be extended, CPS reveals
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/conservative-election-funding-to-be-investigated-by-police-cps-reveals-a7014101.html
Barnet polling station ‘shambles’ as London mayoral election voters turned away in lists blunder
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/elections-2016-absolute-shambles-in-barnet-as-voters-turned-away-from-polling-stations-with-wrong-a7014411.html
Tories purged I mean reformed the voter rolls last autumn.
RE: Big Banks Just Claimed A Constitutional Right To A Taxpayer Subsidy
Of course Wall Street feels entitled to that money. If America’s ruling oligarchy is united by any single issue it is most definitely the public subsidy of private business interests.
Money = speech, free speech is constitutionally guaranteed, therefore free money is guaranteed: so obvious , but why just the banks?
If
1. money = speech
2. everyone has a right to speech
3. syllogistically, everyone has a right to money.
Thus, Basic Income.
QED.
Money is property and giving out free money isn’t a guaranteed way to address the distribution of wealth or it’s concentration in the hands of a few petty oligarchs. The creation and maintenance of an aristocracy is incomplete without a dependent and subservient underclass after all.
Deprivation of frequent understory fires makes intuitive sense as a cause for sudden oak death. Is there other research supporting it?
Re Sudden Oak disease.
One easy thing a California homeowner can do is to spread a very thin layer of clean HARDWOOD fireplace ash under the dripline of their trees. Work it into the soil so it doesn’t blow away.
It must be a thin layer. Clumps of ash became like caustic lime when wet. Wear an efficient dust mask.
Ash contains carbon, potash and trace elements and mimics fire chemically to a certain extent.
Sounds like an easy, simply and natural solution even a Luddite can love.
Nate Silver link is wrong. The initial ‘h’ is missing. Unix can’t resolve misspelled URLs.
“For the letter that begins them all, H.”
“Donald Trump is what happens when you screw the Middle Class.”
While I appreciate “Salon’s” sentiment, the headline and the article begs the question: What American Middle Class? There is no American Middle Class.
There are good people with perfectly mowed yards and tree-lined streets, with immaculate side-walks, whose next-door neighbor is an empty house which has sat vacant, dark, and abandoned for the past 9-years, since the last financial collapse. All these “good” people are doing is waiting for the other shoe to drop, when they are not wondering when the bank is going to finally stop-by, show-up and mow the lawn, clear out the trash, and maybe just tear the wreck down, because that is what the American Middle Class truly is: a vacant lot owned by somebody else, most likely foreign.
This is the American Middle Class I see. There are others.
To your point, the anthropologist in the Fabius Maximus link makes this observation:
One of the most significant changes of this US election period has been a notable transformation in the dominant political vocabulary. In a country where for so long it seemed everyone was characterized as “middle class,” where the working class had somehow disappeared, suddenly “working class” has reappeared in the media discourse, even on Fox News.
It’ll be interesting to see if and when Salon gets with the program. If, in fact, he’s right and there IS a program.
I’ve heard the words “working class” at least a dozen times this a. m. on morning joe. “Middle class” is awol.
“White Working Class” is more like it.
You know, the sons and daughters of the men who fought and died in WWII to rescue a system that has screwed over their children and grandchildren.
They are not going to go gently into the night without a fight.
Not a fan of the “working class” designation with its connotations of fast food workers and machinists on the wrong side of one too many “free trade” deals.
Unless muni bond coupon payments or stock dividends are 100% of your income, you and I and everybody are “working”. My guess is 90% of the population do not own the means of production or live solely on unearned income. Adding the word “class” tends to subdivide that percentage in people’s minds, and makes them think that policies to “help the working class” are just for our economic “losers”.
But in the titanic struggle between Capital and Labor we are all losers at the moment. Unless of course you’re on a nice (tax-free) beach just waiting for the quarterly manna from the good people at Philip Morris to hit your Cayman’s account.
oh good thing no black people or anything died in WWII. Better to take that propaganda elsewhere, maybe a Trump board or something.
Yeah some blacks died in the war. Do you have numbers as a percentage of their population versus the percentage of whites who were KIA?
They have much more to do with the white working class than do recent Hispanic immigrants which the MSM likes to pretend is the working class.
I will be happy….hmmmm, well, satisfied that we are in reality when we start calling the majority of Americans the “screwed class”
This is not much American middle class and there never has been. There WAS a working class that wasn’t as desperate. A working class majority. Middle class described a few people and it always was a lie that this was a middle class country.
RE: An anthropologist explains why Trump will win in November Fabius Maximus (resilc)
Well worth the read for some interesting takes on the establishment themes supporting hillary’s “inevitable” triumph over Trump in November.
Also some inadvertent LOL moments like this description of hillary:
The small, spiteful, neckless old lady with the cruel face and the mysterious coats that appear to be hiding large urine bags (or a colostomy bag), someone with the kindness of a prison warden and a grating cackle that is a searing assault on every image of Cinderella and Snow White.
Ouch.
But mostly seldom-voiced perspective challenging the conventional wisdom.
Cognitive capture in the social sciences is not confined to economics:
– Anthropology after empire is one built in part by an anthropology that is against empire, and it need not continue, defensively, as a discipline laden with all of the orthodoxies from which it suffers today.
Juxtapose with:
– The anthropologists at the conference were especially terrified of releasing their research findings, because they knew that the accusation that a society or tribe kills children has been used to justify no shortage of genocidal invasions.
The suppression of knowledge to protect the institution of inquiry undermines the validity of the social sciences.
This is an excellent article and it says much that an anthropologist rather than a political reporter is telling so many truths about American politics. One might almost think that most political journalism is bunk.
Here’s a bit from Fabius Maximus that caught my eye
Perhaps one reason the racism charge hasn’t hurt Trump so far is that ordinary people understand this hypocrisy. We all have certain prejudices because that’s how we are brought up (“you have to be taught” as the song goes) and so they are rightly skeptical of all the “virtue signaling”–to use the current buzz phrase–that goes on when pundits talk about race, religion etc. Thus tarring all of Trump’s supporters as racists just becomes another form of prejudice but a more socially acceptable one. Attacking your opponent for bad thoughts is what you use when you don’t have better arguments.
Have no idea whether Trump really can win the election but as this article shows it’s certainly not impossible.
One other point I would make – when Trump said that Bush did not keep us safe, it was equivalent to Trump declaring that he was an atheistic communist married to two men and a goat who despises football and NASCAR – to become the repub nominee after saying that was UNIMAGINABLE !!! (and there are other examples – McCain not being a hero).
And yet Trump did.
And what it exposed was that the orthodoxy spewed by the repub party and disseminated by the MSM is not only inaccurate, but almost perfectly the opposite of what people really think.
The fact that the substance of what Trump says can never ever be discussed is his most germane feature.
Hillary Clinton, and the 0.1% who like the status quo, and think that the rich getting 99% of the growth of the last 8 years is just how nature runs an economy, will have to answer this question:
“Are you better off now than you were * years ago?”
* candidates love to use the peaks and troughs that make them look good, but the question is more insight fully asked as, “is your life continually getting better, or is it continually getting worse?”
You know, I lived through the 1990’s. And I remember thinking why is everybody getting rich but me? I wonder how many other people are going to be none too impressed by someone saying lets bring back the ninties….
Is there something people can say privately that they can say in public?
Do anyone of you feel that way?
And can we make a problem go away by peer-pressuring/job-threatening people from saying it (but failing to remove it from their hearts)?
Does it create dislocation, dissonance everywhere in the system?
Do people listen to Trump in part for his breaching of those boundaries?
Its still a secret vote….which may lead to some surprises….
Another one yesterday: exporting democracy at gunpoint doesn’t work. Both self-evidently true and something that must never ever be said by a Republican.
But the thing is Trump is not physically attractive either. He buys his wives. They’re not with him for his looks and probably not for his personality either.
Who wrote their description of Trump anyway, Ayn Rand?
“the square-faced, golden-haired mountain of Grade A Beef in a $10,000 suit “
You think describing someone as a “mountain of Grade A beef” is s compliment?
BTW grading has to do with age of critter when killed. The quality of the meat is Prime v. Choice v. Select. So he’s not even a “Prime” or a steak either.
And did you miss that there are more average-looking to homely, not trim, older looking men than young hunks? The Message of Trump is you too can bed hot women even though you are not the most appetizing physical specimen if you are a winner like him.
Apollo’s Black Sees World at Milken as Dondero Dodges Trump
Voicing alarm wasn’t the only item on the agenda. The annual gathering of billionaire investors, heads of state and entertainment moguls affords time between panel discussions for attendees to rub elbows in the Beverly Hilton hotel’s packed lobby, to chat privately in rooms upstairs and to retire after sunset to parties at nearby hotels and mansions in the surrounding hills.
The event’s ringmaster, Mike Milken, the former Drexel Burnham Lambert junk bond king-turned-philanthropist, drew a record crowd of 3,500 to the watering hole this year.
“It’s like Davos,” said Michael Tennenbaum, the retired founder of Tennenbaum Capital Partners, referring to the annual economic forum in Switzerland that attracts a global A-list of attendees. “Only it’s closer and the weather’s nicer.”
Heavy HittersBillionaire trader Steve Cohen said he was “a little confused” about the candidates and hasn’t made up his mind.
Hedge funds came under attack at the conference after Cohen said he was “blown away” by the lack of skilled people in the industry and that “talent is really thin.”
While he can’t vote in the U.S., former Mexican President Vicente Fox made no secret about whom he’s supporting: “Hillary.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-04/apollo-s-black-sees-the-world-at-milken-as-dondero-dodges-trump
The Predator’s Ball is back.
In the recitation of Milken’s CVs Bloomberg forgot “Convicted Felon.”
. . . after Cohen said he was “blown away” by the lack of skilled people in the industry and that “talent is really thin.”
Skilled = psychopath. Isn’t he one of the million dollars per hour hedgies working diligently figuring out how to crash the system and then pick up the pieces for pennies on the dollar?
It would be irresponsible not to try. Dodd-Frank is the method.
Skilled= “if you’re not on the inside, you’re on the outside”
Eyes Wide Shuttered…………..
“Heavy HittersBillionaire trader Steve Cohen said he was “a little confused” about the candidates and hasn’t made up his mind.”
Translation: Steve’s insider contacts haven’t finished writing the source code for the general election Diebold voting machines yet.
++
I imagine there are not a lot of comments strewn about in that code:
// two for ourChoice, and another for ourChoice, none for opponent
Angel turns out to be inflatable sex doll Boing Boing (resilc)
You know, it could have been just as accurate to write the headline:
Inflatable sex doll turns out to be angel
Well, I don’t actually know the doll’s name – could have been Constance, Hope, Joy, Grace…but somehow…I kinda doubt Chasity ….
Check out the movie Lars and the Real Girl.
.
Yup, saw it. I thought it actually quite touching. Everybody treats the “doll” as real so as to be kind to Lars. Reminds me of an article I read about how schizophrenia in India is treated much more successfully in India despite the lack of drugs simply due to the village looking out for the schizophrenic….
Ha! Indeed.
porn will be what drives anthropomorphic robot innovation, not the higher calling of medicine, scientific or noble social agendas. Just like the Internetz, the investment will aggregate around the least common denominator.
In a few generations, orthopedic surgeon by day, sexworker by night.
Expect bayonet mount, quick change application specific hand effectors designed with range of motion vs resolution of position accuracy
Who doesn’t like sexy surgeons??
The research on the google display network is definitely correct. While they get some info wrong; there are cpc ads in the display network. The general trend is correct. Display ads return poor results, and the prices have gone down while search ads have maintained quality but price has tripled for most keywords. I have found that mobile is the worst platform to advertise with display on I would estimate that a minimum of 50% of the clicks are accidental. Stick with search and only use display for retargeting ads or managed placements with a negative mobile bid (they don’t allow you to remove tablet traffic, which is basically the same quality of mobile).
> Prospect of sexual relationships with robots poses moral dilemmas
LGBTR ?
Trisexuals want to be heard and felt up.
I’m gonna have to break down and get myself a new bullsh*t meter. The one I’ve got just can’t keep up.
How interesting that I didn’t get paywalled on this particular pink paper load of crap.
Which bathroom will they be taking their lithium battery/fuel cell dumps?
Yet another weighty civil rights issue to contemplate..
Will it be apropos to arrest robots lingering in bathroom stalls jiggling their robot foot?
There is a huge blank volume of the Code of Federal Regulations awaiting Artificially Sentient Robot life form behavoiur and rights
This will be a boon for lawyers and Congressional Staffers. Do I see a new economic sector to replace manufacturing on the horizon??
The problem for the staffers will be to wrest the congress critters away from the robots’ tender ministrations when a motion is brought to the floor (come to think of it, even finding someone willing to make such a motion when already engaged in their own more robotic motions).
Home Depot has a dumpbox for crapped out LiPo batteries. At the moment it’s a uni-dumpbox, tho the battery connectors could be a T connector, XT-60 connector or even a JST connector. Not sure if we will have to address that. The battery industry does warn us that we shouldn’t cut our connectors off, however.
Ok, it’s usually fun to dig down one layer when presented with an item from the gallery of the absurd posing as a challenging moral dilemma.
I present Dr Kathleen Richardson for your consideration.
https://saboteur365.wordpress.com/tag/de-montfort-university/
https://campaignagainstsexrobots.org/
BTW, I stand by my comment yesterday that apparently vaporized regarding the merit of ubiquitous tenure for PhDs as they fall of the conveyor belt.
So, FWIW
Pretty Sex Robot for President 2016
Future GDP increases will be fueled mainly by lawyers litigating intra- and inter-robotic divorces, and by hardware and software engineers treating the many variants of robotitis.
Will Pfizer become an electronics company ?
Will future Bernies demand ‘Medicare For All Robots’
p.s. ‘Robot’ comes from the Czech ‘robota’, meaning ‘forced labor’. As Aretha Franklin would say, ‘who’s forcing who ?’
“She’s really sexy, but her movements are somewhat mechanical”
I cannot wait to make love to my robot in the back seat of my Google self-driving vehicle, on our way to SXSW! Hands free indeed! What a world!
BI…. as in BIonic.
I think it’s time to consider bringing about the Butlerian Jihad to put a stop to this nonsense : no political robots to be created in man’s image ;'( ………
…the sexy ones…they’re OK………. :)
Re: Online Advertising,
I’ve worked with Google Adwords, Analytics, etc… quite a bit, and I was always amazed at the amount of obviously fake or useless traffic. It can be at least partially dealt with through a lot of effort(whitelisting display network sites, strict geographical bidding policies, extensive filtering of analytics, etc.), but you can never get anything like a firm number of real human eyeballs out of your efforts. It’s pretty much a black box.
In dealing with this you realize immediately that the potential for fraud is huge, and that it’s in no one’s interest to prevent it(except the people shellijg out the money, who 99 times out of 100 don’t have a clue). Google makes more money, the website owners make more money, even the marketing staff at the companies getting bilked get to look smart and control a bigger budget. I decided not to get into that game professionally because people are going to eventually wise up and get very sceptical with their online advertising money.
Like electronic voting, the cheating algo is so simple and trivial to hide it MUST BE assumed to be present.
Warren: More Enthusiasm For Trump In KKK Than In GOP Leadership Talking Points Memo (resilc)
The problem with the statement is that it implicitly implies that the GOP is less racist than the KKK. Well, in the simple way MSM credulously covers issues, where bad words spoken are given more weight than bad deeds DONE, the argument can be made.
Is a city like Chicago effectively racist or not?
re: #DropOutHillary
hillarious.
The Clinton campaign (fbi, fbi files, campaign contribution irregularites, etc. ) is like the watching the movie “Goundhog Day”.
The schadenfreude is strong in this one. ;)
Of course the Clinton supporters claim the #DropOutHillary twitter-fest was an example of sexism—because only a female frontrunner would be told to drop out. Hillary’s victimization theme is classic Clinton shtick, but also probably a focus-grouped result.
How do they explain that Sanders was asked to drop out first?
rhetorical question!
That’s the reality – the queen always has the first dance, so, naturally, you have to clear the floor.
No one went on Twitter and told Bill Clinton to drop out!!!
Deep in the bowels of the government, wheels are turning:
The Clintons, comrades: it’s like Groundhog Day all over again.
Good for Mr. Leopold if he did that. Stake in the sand.
There is a level of naiveté at work if the Clintons etal think that “wiping a private server” makes evidence go away.
What self serving IT flunky operating in the political ecosystem, no less in the Clinton orbit would not have backed up content as a matter of routine to a cloud server, or at least to a thumb-drive, as an insurance policy? From the 100 level class of IT management, its not a question of whether a hard-drive will fail, it is a question of when, so it is incredulous to think that at least as a matter of routine that drive content isn’t backed up somewhere, and the back up is backed up someplace else
Assuming HRC is not a particularly sophisticated in email etiquette, how much evidence proliferated as cut &paste or trailing attachment content on her forward to and cc lists?
Whenever a send button is clicked, that information is out of the barn and persists somewhere forever
Beyond Schadenfreude, the Spectacular Pundit Failure on Trump Is Worth Remembering Intercept (resilc)
Whether it is trade, weapons of mass destruction, etc., there is a methodology to the “news” business, a good deal I suspect due to the constraints of making money. A narrative is constructed, because it is MUCH cheaper than going out and talking to people and researching things, and come Heck or high water, once the narrative is established it will not be deviated from. Mostly the narrative is made out of conventional “wisdom” and its relationship to facts and reality is sometimes random, and often time, and here I put on my 3 layer Reynolds aluminum tinfoil hat, ALWAYS in keeping with:
A Free trade makes the world better off and is a FACT
A1 corrilary – the flaws of the free market are serious, and blah, blah, and blah, but the mixed economy is self correcting, and we are ever improving, and it remains the best economic system on earth.
B American military is the most competent, noble institution in the world and is a FACT and only NON SERIOUS people do not believe that.
C The flaws of America are serious, and blah, blah, and blah, but American democracy is self correcting, and we are ever improving, and we remain the best country on earth.
D Class interests do not exist in the US, and therefore will not, cannot, and shall not be discussed by any SERIOUS person….
E CYNICISM is the worse possible human trait, and is only matched by atheism and pedophilia
And of course, after all that, the very same people who were so WRONG, WRONG, WRONG – without any IRONY at ALL, proclaim how Hillary will crush Trump…
One pundit , an ex-republican no less, saw Mr. Trump’s creative destruction of the GOP for what it was, way back in March. And he heartily approved of the project.
http://ericmargolis.com/2016/03/donald-bulldoze-the-rotten-gop/
Executive summary: ” Mr. Trump is the worst of the candidates – except all the others.”
The GOP is not going anywhere. It may be in temporary chaos, but it’s not going anywhere. If you enjoy the drama then there is plenty of drama as the GOP mainstream pulls out their hair. But getting rid of a political party may prove more difficult than that. So if one wants something more than drama as in a real change to this country and a decent sort of change, it may be a long time coming (but Bernie is still there for the upcoming elections – so that’s a shot). If anything kills the GOP it might be demographics as long predicted.
Andrew Sullivan, plummy voiced Thatcherite, worries about the fate of Hillary Clinton, Goldwater Girl. What could go wrong?
I will also point out that my FacetoBook feed, which is made up largely of “liberals,” is now chockablock with postings of news analyses that claim that Hillary Clinton is going to mop the floor with Trump. Yet the Democratic Party isn’t even running candidates in all congressional districts. This is Democratic Party as fan club. What ever could go wrong? But they will keeping “fighting for us”…
I can’t help chortling to myself about the mental trauma Fox News must be going thru right now. Months ago Murdock and Ailes were arguing over the “right” way to Stop Trump. Looks like Fox News needs to become a Hillary Supporter after all these years??? hahahahahahaha
BTW: I still haven’t written Bernie off.
Pharaoh-queen Hillary seems to have issued a halt order.
Apparently, she did’t spend much on the Indiana primary, I read it here a few days ago.
So, Bernie and his followers are looking at the Red Sea. Will he part it so they can reach the promised land?
We need a miracle against coin-flipping Saint Hillary.
Yves Smith’s law: The Obama administration responds to every crisis with more propaganda: Obama in Flint, drinking water, after Governor Dickens Character Wackford Squeers has done the same.
Just where are the indictments? This is further testament to the ethics of corporate U S of A in which no one is every criminally negligent because focus-grouped policies are somehow neutral. Just some bad outcomes to be gussied up in the annual report with an inaccurate but colorful bar chart.
I heard yesterday on Democracy Now that three people had been indicted. I think the trial have just started?? Not sure, I wasn’t paying close attention, but it does sound like a few people are being
thrown under the busheld accountable. Not as many people as likely share the blame, and not the Gov. though, of course.The Water Taster In Chief declared the water safe. What’s to prosecute? If Hillary had half a brain she’d do it too – further cementing her bond with those Flint voters.
There’s opportunity for private-public investment here as well. Bottled water! Flintstone Water in a green bottle and fancy label like Perrier water. MI could name lead as the state rock. These people just aren’t thinkin hard enough. Get the lead outta yer shorts, MI!
will a big tall of glysophate be next……..???…… I would pay good tubmans to see that!
Water tasting is the new de rigeur behavior for politicians: Colorado’s Governor Hickenlooper drinks fracking-fluid-laced water burped up after being used to break rock and release gas and oil. Obama and Snyder drink lead-laced Flintwater. It’s an internal baptism, releasing the governmental leaders from any real responsibility.
Perhaps company CEOs can also start dining on GM foods regularly.
And Japanese politicians can show the world Fukushima is safe. “The rice from there is delicious!!!”
Obviously, we need faster acting poisons.
It just occurred to me the Chinese will now lobby the WTO to sell lead paint painted toys again.
Reminds me of the time at the height of the BSE (mad cow) scandal in the UK that the then (Tory) Agriculture minister, John Gummer, fed a burger to his 4-year old daughter as a TV photo-op. I have rarely felt as enraged and disgusted with a pol as when I saw that. One of those futile find heavy object, hurl at TV moments.
Only taken US pols 25 years to catch up.
I saw a video of Obama with a drinking glass full of water in Flint, Michigan. He took such a tiny sip, it’s possible he didn’t drink anything at all, and just let the water barely touch his lips.
Link: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/obama-drinks-filtered-city-water-in-flint-to-show-its-safe/
Is it just my imagination? Did he or did he not drink anything?
He aint done drunk nuthin. He just mimed it. I hope everyone in Flint realized that.
That could be a symbol of this whole 8-year presidency. He just faked it.
he inhaled a few droplets.
Obama’s glass of water in Flint was along the lines of George Bush dipping his jet to 17000 feet over New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina (as close as he got to those bodies floating along face down).
Antidote of the Day: Gorgeous sea horse. Is that an aquarium? Do they require much special care?
Salt water aquariums are fiendishly difficult to maintain from what I hear.
http://www.projectseahorse.org/blog
http://www.sheddaquarium.org/Conservation–Research/Field-Research/Around-the-Globe/Saving-Seahorses/
Worthwhile effort
http://mattbruenig.com/
While reading the Salon article about how pundits got Trump so horribly, terribly, incredibly wrong, I clicked on a link about the one fellow who got it right.
Some others may find his musing interesting….
Well, hell, as far as getting Trump right, of course as soon as he started winning primaries one after another, the average Joe figured he might just continue winning primaries, especially considering his universally pathetic competition. That’s the average Joe. But not Joe Pundit—he has to keep in step with the rest of the punditocracy or else risk losing his pundit credentials. He can’t think like a normal human, in other words. He has to run with the pack, even if it goes over the cliff, as in this case.
I am no pundit, but I could see he would want to replace J-Yel.
Sure enough, Marketwatch is reporting that this morning.
That’s just one example, out of many.
He needs to do more than replace J-Yel. He should push legislation that kicks most of the bankers off the regional and federal boards and replaces them with Main Street business people and representatives of Disorganized Labor.
Just clicked on the Washington Post link regarding the FOIA Clinton case, and was greeted by a large banner ad featuring Hillary and Chelsea Clinton asking for people to sign the Mother’s Day card for Hillary. Funded by the Hillary Victory Fund and HillaryClinton.com.
Beyond my first thought that Clinton is not my mother and she can pound sand before I’ll wish her a happy anything, my second was whether all those states that joined in the great DNC/Hillary Victory Fund scam realize that money supposedly raised for them is going to ask people who are reading articles about one of Clinton’s legal troubles to sign their name to marketing list in order to wish Clinton a Happy Mother’s Day. And who thought this was a good idea.
What color green is the giant spider’s egg $ac?
I signed it as Donald Trump. Using a fake email of course…
Help Clinton spam you with email… I mean, wish her a Happy Mother’s Day!
We should all sign using the super delegates emails. Isn’t it a crime for campaigns to solicit money from an elected official?
That is a good idea too! I am not sure about the legal issue, but it is the Clintons we are talking about, does that even matter?
There is one option to stop Hillary.
Go protest peacefully and legally the party and the convention at the Wells Fargo Center.
OMFG, the DNC convention is happening at the Wells Fargo Center? Of course it is.
I am seriously thinking about it. If it comes to that, I want to go out with a bang, being present for what is right.
Adding to that, is anyone here familiar with the scheduling for these events?
I found out it was during the week (bummer) so I would have to pick one or two days to go. What would be the best days? When do the big decisions typically happen?
“Ug……URPPPP” ……..
A queen bee is more of a mother than her………whenever I think of H, all I see is that hissing, drooling, inhuman queen from “ALIENS”
Maybe someone can ‘hack’ THAT image on said above card….seems more fitting….
Here’s how it works in US business today. (From direct personal observation and experience)
The costs of labor will be calculated using absolute worst case scenarios. The cost advantages of robots will be calculated by using absolute best case scenarios. Thus helping to sell the brilliance/superior intelligence of the suit class, and justifying their ridiculous paychecks.
Any subsequent evidence to the contrary will be swept under the rug.
Exhibit A………..one of my former employers calculated the cost of management eff ups using direct costs (with labor at
approx $40/hour). Labor/bargaining unit eff ups were calculated using the “lost value” of the same labor ($95/hour shop rate)
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/farmers-in-sahel-beat-back-drought-and-climate-change-with-trees/
This one I spotted from the sidebar while reading the sad article about Zimbabwe trying to sell off its wildlife. Even though it’s a few years old, hopefully, it’ll cheer people up a bit.
Andrew Sullivan Is to Blame for Donald Trump Gawker (resilc)
Didn’t Andrew Sullivan used to be bald?
Is that like saying FDR is to blame for Pearl Harbor, or George Washington is to blame for American Independence?
Which one?
When you think deep thoughts it stimulates the hair follicles.
Andrew Sullivan – the UK’s loss is America’s gain.
Re the Takata airbag recall. There have been so many recalled that they are short of parts. I’ve been waiting months and months. I might as well get a chauffeurs cap because it’s only safe for passengers in the back seat.
The dealer’s covered the cost of our rental car “until the parts arrive next summer.”
Don’t let them put you in an econobox rental, demand a car the same size and safety of the Toyota, Audi, whatever that you bought new OR used, with a warranty.
Some insurance companies will only cover you in the recall rental for one month, as though you were driving it on a vacation. Other insurance companies cover the rental for the length of the recall parts replacement period.
Change insurance companies if they try to pull this on you. What’s the big deal? Your insured personal car is sitting unused per your agreement with the dealer who notes your mileage when you check it in and get your rental car.
What are the penalties for one who then drives the recalled car after they take it home? Will the dealer somehow “punish” you? Obviously you couldn’t sue the manufacturer if you got in an airbag injury/fatality.
I wonder if universities will ever recall their faulty degrees?
“You get a replacement salary the same size as the one you would have received with your working degree, for as long as it takes to repair your faulty doctorate degree.”
That’s helpful advice. Thanks.
I was returning a rental car today and people were flooding in the door from the nearby Honda dealer vouchers in hand to get their rental cars because of the Takata recall. I assume the company will have to buy more fleet cars to compensate, so net stimulus?
good question, does broken windows fallacy apply to recalls?
Remember, that they sell the used rental cars as “one owner” Buyer beware.
Re Trade Traitors and why all the noise about France derailing the deal and it being otherwise “in trouble:” Check the comments section to Member of the European Parliament Flanagan’s post (with the video of his going to the “reading room” where the charade of “transparency” gets worked out. Lots of either ignorant or disingenuous offerings, like the nice bit about how trashing “Irish agriculture” is a great side effect of what the TTIP will do, because after all beef farming is so destructive to the environment, so eat your US-“compliant” processed manufactured genetically modified intellectually “protected” food simulacrum… http://www.broadsheet.ie/2016/05/04/lukes-ttip/
Interesting assaults on and misrepresentations of what “democracy” is, isn’t or is all about… There ain’t no fixing what is going on, the institutionalization of corporate rule, behind a veil and imprimatur of “electoral legitimacy” is a Juggernaut.
Let us sleep, then, and dream of justice and peace…
CFPB moves to eliminate mandatory arbitration in bank agreements.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/05/05/business/dealbook/consumer-agency-moves-to-assert-bank-customers-right-to-sue.html
Antidote du Jour Cougar release
Really seems much easier than when I try and get my kitty out of the house. She is pretty much the same color but a LOT more rambunctious when she wants to stay right where she is….
Eight Years Later Carlyle Faces Trial for CCC Implosion
The Carlyle Group’s infamous co-founders and public board of directors are involved in legal matters from the spring 2008 failure of Carlyle Capital Corporation. Carlyle’s 2015 10-K filing stated:
Carlyle Capital Corporation Limited (“CCC”) was a fund sponsored by the Partnership that invested in AAA-rated residential mortgage backed securities on a highly leveraged basis. In March of 2008, amidst turmoil throughout the mortgage markets and money markets, CCC filed for insolvency protection in Guernsey.
The Guernsey liquidators who took control of CCC in March 2008 filed a suit on July 7, 2010 against the Partnership, certain of its affiliates and the former directors of CCC in the Royal Court of Guernsey seeking $1.0 billion in damages in a case styled Carlyle Capital Corporation Limited v. Conway et al.
The Guernsey liquidators allege that the Partnership and the CCC board of directors were negligent, grossly negligent or willfully mismanaged the CCC investment program and breached certain fiduciary duties allegedly owed to CCC and its shareholders. The liquidators further allege (among other things) that the directors and the Partnership put the interests of the Partnership ahead of the interests of CCC and its shareholders and gave priority to preserving and enhancing the Partnership’s reputation and its “brand” over the best interests of CCC.
On July 24, 2013, plaintiffs filed an amended complaint, which contained further detail in support of the existing claims but no new defendants or claims. On December 20, 2013, defendants filed a defense to the amended complaint and on June 30, 2014 plaintiffs filed their reply. In September 2015, the liquidators served expert reports. Expert witness reports for defendants were served during the first week of February 2016. The Court has set a pretrial conference for early April 2016 and trial is scheduled for June 2016.
Will the trial occur as planned?
What business reporting organizations, FT, WSJ or Bloomberg, plan to cover the trial?
It will be interesting to see given how Carlyle’s co-founders prize their good name.
http://peureport.blogspot.com/2016/05/eight-years-later-carlyle-faces-trial.html
good name…?reminds me of….”The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our
spoons.”
Canadian PM (and liberal darling) Justin Trudeau goes full Ted Cruz-style global warming denial mode:
http://www.nationalobserver.com/2016/05/04/news/fort-mcmurray-fires-related-global-climate-crisis-says-elizabeth-may
Amazing how quickly the rats turn once real money is on the line. Shut down the oil sands and Alberta becomes quickly an economic wasteland, and given enough geologic scale time, it returns to wild country with plenty of animals living there and drinkable water again. Of course that means Trudeaus’ buddies in the oil industry have to give up a yacht or two.
What a happy thought for the planet. Too bad none of us or our children will be around to witness it.
so is J. Trudeau the Canadian version of Obama……..all feckless peacock, all the time??
…but he sure is cute…ain’t he……….
…And What Hair !! …………..”ulp”………”URRRPPP”
You reckon he’s Ted Kennedy’s love child with Margaret Trudeau?
If you were the editor of an Illustrated Dictionary of Phrases, you would not be too far a field putting a portrait of Margret T w/ the definition for High Maintenance
…As she has noted, Mrs. Trudeau did not always deal with the pressure wisely. Before giving a speech, which became “a song of love” during a state dinner in Venezuela, Mrs. Trudeau ate peyote. “Even in my addled state, I could sense the acute embarrassment I had caused,” she later recalled. After a visit to the United States, Mrs. Trudeau became infatuated with Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who she found to be more sympathetic than her husband.
Prompted by one of her manic periods, Mrs. Trudeau decided to live part of the time in New York and develop a career in photography. Following what became an infamous trip to Toronto to party with the Rolling Stones, she left Canada to study with Richard Avedon.….
…seems probable……
The disturbing thing to me is not so much Trudeau himself, but the increasingly desperate lengths of self-delusion we’re willing to go to as a society in order to convince ourselves that “all is well.”
Electing people like Trudeau is a symptom.
It reminds me of a drug addict in the final days before succumbing to his/her addiction.
“Oh those strange rashes and the fact I haven’t eaten in five weeks are all explainable. I just need another hit and everything will be OK!”
I worry a lot about our Justin–he seems to want to accept Bill (law) C-51 and pass TPP. We are screwed if he does.
ChrisFromGeorgia, polecat et al.,
“…Trudeau goes full Ted Cruz-style global warming denial mode…”
Let’s see:
Trudeau says “We need to separate a pattern over time from any one event.” He’s talking about the drawback to trying to base a political argument on one particular disaster. He also says that one of the consequences of climate change will be increased prevalence of extreme weather events worldwide.
(Elizabeth May points out that climate science cannot link specific events to climate change. She says that no credible climate scientist would say the fires were caused by climate change and neither would she–this was after claims online that she was trying to exploit the tragedy to advance a political agenda.)
I’m having real trouble finding the global-warming denial here. A climate scientist would agree that we need to separate a pattern over time from any one event–note May’s statement above. And Trudeau says that one of the consequences of climate change will be…etc.–and this is denial of global warming?
First step: Re-read the article.
Second step: Calm down.
yup
German Study Proves It – 95% of Greek “Bailout” Money Went to the Banks
The economists who took part in the study have analyzed each loan separately to established where the money ended up, and concluded that just 9.7 billion euros – less than 5 percent – actually found its way into the Greek budget for the benefit of citizens.
“This is something that everyone suspected, but few people actually knew. That has now been confirmed by the study.
http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2016/05/05/german-study-proves-it-95-of-greek-bailout-money-went-to-the-banks/#more-33917
Survey says,”Screwed is a data point”….
It’s the Original Sin of banking.
“When bankers get paid, they will lend again.”
So, they must be paid…under the current paradigm.
The salvation is to go to another paradigm.
The Book That Will Save Banking From Itself
The financial system, King reveals, is still wired so that a handful of well-connected people capture the benefits from risk-taking while the entire society bears the cost. Complexity was once used to disguise the risk in the financial system. Now it’s being used to disguise how little has actually been done to fix that system. Or, as King puts it, “Regulation has become extraordinarily complex, and in ways that do not go to the heart of the problem. … The objective of detail in regulation is to bring clarity, not to leave regulators and regulated alike uncertain about the current state of the law. Much of the complexity reflects pressure from financial firms. By encouraging a culture in which compliance with detailed regulation is a defense against a charge of wrongdoing, bankers and regulators have colluded in a self-defeating spiral of complexity.”
The way we do banking, King thinks, needs to change.
The first thing that King thinks must be done is to separate the boring bits of banking (providing a safe place to deposit money, facilitating payments) from the exciting ones (trading). There is no need, he thinks, to break up the existing institutions. Deposits and short-term loans to banks simply need to be separated from other bank assets. Against all of these boring assets, banks would be required to hold government bonds or reserves at the central bank in cash. That is, there should be zero risk that there won’t be sufficient cash on hand to repay people wanting to flee any bank at a moment’s notice — and thus no reason for those people to flee.
The riskier assets from which banks stand most to gain (and lose) would then be vetted by the central bank, in advance of any crisis, to determine what it would be willing to lend against them in a pinch if posted as collateral.
It would also have a handy, simple rule to determine if any given bank is solvent: the difference between its “effective liquid assets” and its “effective liquid liabilities.” The effective liquid assets would consist of the securities the bank held against its deposits (government bonds, cash), plus the collateral value of its riskier bets as judged by the central bank. The effective liquid liabilities would be the money that could run from the bank at short notice — deposits and loans of less than one year made to the bank. The rule — call it the King Rule — would be that a bank’s effective liquid assets must exceed its effective liquid liabilities. If they don’t, the bank is insolvent, and its deposits would be moved without any panic or trouble to a bank that isn’t.
That example shows one big effect of the King Rule: It would encourage banks to finance themselves with a lot more equity and long-term debt than they do. It would discourage them from engaging in lots of economically pointless speculative activity, because they would pay the full price for that activity in the form of haircuts on their collateral. With those haircuts, the banks would be paying upfront a fair price for the liquidity insurance that they don’t pay for now.
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2016-05-05/the-book-that-will-save-banking-from-itself
Brazil, comrades: Diogenes is taking the next plane out of Rio after a fruitless visit:
What ever happened to honor among thieves?
I think pirates have more cred………
Abstinence pledges increase risk of pregnancy and STDs.
Will Zero-Greed pledges among bankers similarly increase risk of looting and rent-extraction?
Something about the Homo Not-So-Sapiens species that is hard to pin down.
“If we can’t stop it, let’s try to accommodate the best we can (to minimize damage) and protect them from hurting themselves.”
This article is NOT science. Anyone who has some knowledge of plant (tree) and soil biology understands why a single application of “fire mimicry” is temporary. Fire burns organic matter and returns nutrients to the soil where microbes convert it into useable macro/micro nutrients that can be taken up by plant roots. Since the plant (oak tree) is highly distressed (lack of available nutrients due to a constrained root system) the new nutrients are rapidly consumed and converted into a surge of plant (tree) growth. However, the nutrient deficit remains after an initial surge, so it takes multiple applications of the “fire mimicry” to get the plant (oak tree) to a more standard vigor.
The “fire mimicry” only ameliorates a symptom and does not get to the root cause of poor tree health: a compromised root system incapable of providing sufficient nutrients for tree growth.
As and aside: Sudden Oak Death can NOT be stopped by “fire mimicry”, as it is caused by a “water mold”. Once a plant is infected it cannot be reversed.
Robots will replace Surgeons as soon as hospital executives can own the robots and bill their hours (at Surgeon’s hourly rates) to the patient for the hospital’s benefit.
That is as soon as the insurance companies approve surgical robots. The insurance companies will be taking a slice of the surgeon-bots revenue in the form of indemnity insurance.
Re: Robot & sex
And who will be the first to volunteer to apply the Turing Test (*) ? When will we see the first use of “robosexual” in the MSM or mainstream news sites ?
(*) Coming soon to a divorce court near you “Your Honor I honestly couldn’t tell its wasn’t my husband/wife”
“And who will be the first to volunteer to apply the Turing Test (*) ? ”
What if they decide humans flunk the Turing Test????
Marines need to cry elsewhere about jet planes. Their ridiculous demands are the reason the f-35 is such a worthless gold plated pig.
Is it possible to reform defense appropriations? Will we run out of drinking water before we run out of free money for lockheed?
Cambodia: who’s got the water valve?
http://www.voanews.com/content/china-cambodia-mekong-river-dam/3244377.html
http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1858974/china-built-dam-cambodia-set-destroy-livelihoods-45000
World’s longest insect – 62.4 cm. – found:
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/nation/The-worlds-longest-bug-discovered-in-Guangxi/shdaily.shtml
…that’s a long bug!
That BLM article assumes the Civil Rights Movement was a success. I would argue it was not, and what victories it got, it got because the rich saw ending segregation as a useful tool for playing blacks and whites against each other. Schools are not more segregated than 1968, the black families in the middle class probably made it to the middle class during the segregation, black imprisonment is sky high. MLK lost his liberal supporters the moment he took up the cause of the working people and was subsequently assasinated.
MLK was supported by a healthy black community and there was a capable, potentially violent resistance movement supporting the black agenda. Back then their labour was needed, now it can be replaced with Latinos who have a lower cost structure, or whites who have a high unemployment.
Civil rights movement was in my view built on the white unions, which had pushed for high employment economy. High demand of labour gave black communitites access to at least some resources and the ability to harm capital. Now there is almost no bargaining power.
Here’s a useful article about Hillary Clinton’s speeches. I don’t think it’s yet been linked to here at NC. If it has, I apologize for the duplication:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/keeping_wall_street_speeches_secret_speaks_volumes_20160501
The article contains this valuable link to information about 91 speeches from 2013 to 2015:
http://citizenuprising.com/hillary-clintons-speaking-fees-2013-2015/