Wow! Yellowstone geysers time-lapse Earth Sky (furzy)
We will space rock you: Asteroid named after Queen’s Freddie Mercury Ars Technica
FDA ban on antibacterial soap is good, but what about everything else? Treehugger. I hate to bring up toothpaste again, but….
How we discovered a possible link between car exhausts and Alzheimer’s The Conversation
What would your 90-year-old self tell you to change today? Marketwatch
How the Christian Right’s Sex Hangups Turn Zika Into a Bigger Crisis AlterNet
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
Exclusive: How Edward Snowden Escaped National Post (Chuck L)
Amazon, Google, Apple… Fox News join Microsoft in US gag orders fight Ars Technica
Spy Agency To Pilot Insider-Threat Hunting Tech Nextgov (dcblogger)
Internet Tracking Has Moved Beyond Cookies FiveThirtyEight
Inside Menwith Hill The Intercept
How internet pirates became a political force in Iceland New Statesman
Nicolas Sarkozy Is Back, but France Has Changed NYT
Alexis Tsipras, the escapologist Politico
Refugee Watch
Blockades, attacks, and tear gas: what’s going on in Calais? New Statesman
Merkel ally lashes out, demands she change course on refugees DPA
After Hundreds of School Closures, Black Families Are Still Waiting for Justice Truthout
ITT to shut institutes, thousands of students to be affected Reuters (EM)
L.I.U.-Brooklyn Locks Out Professors Amid Contract Dispute NYT
Exclusive: How Elizabeth Holmes’s House of Cards Came Tumbling Down Vanity Fair
New York to probe Mylan EpiPen contracts for schools Reuters
The US and China just joined the Paris climate deal — making it harder for Donald Trump to scrap it Vox
The Unfinished Legacy of Obama’s Pivot to Asia Foreign Policy.
Main Achievement of G-20: “Global Body Monitoring Steel Overproduction”; Top Five G-20 Achievements Mishtalk (EM)
G20 party is over, but who’s tracking if world leaders will walk the talk? SCMP
China
Made in China: G20 and its Geoeconomic Significance Counterpunch
China’s Export Machine Is Grabbing More of the Global Market Bloomberg
Syraqistan
Cubs of the Caliphate: How ISIS Coerces Children into its Fold The Wire
Fake antiquities flood out of Syria as smugglers fail to steal masterpieces amid the chaos of war Independent
Fresh Clashes Claim Another Life in Kashmir; Curfew Lifted in Srinagar The Wire
Q&A: ‘Element of fear is gone’ for Kashmir’s youth Al Jazeera
Cambodian Journalists Are Dying Trying to Save the Country’s Forests Vice
Singapore Vigilant Against Financial Misconduct, Menon Says Bloomberg
Banks: Too dull to fail? FT. Ahem– readers will have fun with this one.
Black Lives Matter protest shuts London City Airport Al Jazeera
How to Fix America’s Infrastructure Foreign Affairs
Company Led by Donald Trump’s Energy Aide Says Its Oil Will Flow Through Dakota Access Pipeline DeSmogBlog
2016
The Unrelenting Pundit-Led Effort to Delegitimize All Negative Reporting About Hillary Clinton The Intercept. Typically astute Glenn Greenwald.
Clinton’s Health a Conspiracy Theory: MSNBC Cuts Live Coverage As She Chokes Uncontrollably Free Thought Project (Judy B)
Election Update: Clinton’s Lead Keeps Shrinking FiveThirtyEight
Five reasons Hillary could be blowing it Politico
No More Lesser-Evilism Jacobin
2 Months to Go: The 10 Most Vulnerable House Members Roll Call
Venture capitalists’ bottom line under attack from both parties The Mercury News (EM)
Antidote du jour:
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du jour here.
217 comments
Comments are closed.
Re Antidote:
More mammals, fewer birds please.
Even amphibians or fish would be welcome.
Cute kitties?
Cats are good.
But, please, no baby human billionaires, no matter how cute.
“You will grow up to run our family monopoly. Serfs will bow down before you.”
Meerkats…
Easy, you’ll be accused of being an Avesist!
it’s true there has been a perhaps lamentable dearth of amphibians.
How about inhabitants of the micro world ?? They’re important, no?
…maybe not as cute …. but still…
Who can say a Giardia isn’t the cutest little thing?
https://www.google.com/search?q=giardia&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi8v-yhs_3OAhWE5IMKHezrBOgQ_AUICCgB&biw=1280&bih=631#imgrc=_SA2Kob5WVMVoM%3A
They really do look like they are looking back at you….and whose to say they’re not???
Was hiking the central Sierra Nevada with some friends, reaching some summit about noon …..
one of my buddies decided to slurp some water from a snow-fed stream ….shortly thereafter I pointed to some meadow ‘meadow muffins’ just beyond the snow patch (you could make out hoof prints in the snow) …..
….. My friend looked at my, and just shrugged ……
I filtered my water ….. but yes ….Giardia are cute …. when they’re NOT residing in your gut !
Don’t be taken in by its friendly demeanor. Caught Giardia while traveling in Nepal many moons ago. Not recommended/ would not do again.
The real beauty of it is the intermittent 7-14 day eruption cycle. Oh, you’re sick? That sucks, but at least you got over it in a couple days…7-14 days later, Oh you’re sick again? That’s weird, I wonder what’s going on with you?…7-14 days later…
The really real beauty of Giardia, though, is waking up a 2 AM from a dead sleep fully convinced that someone or something has installed a steel bear trap into your intestinal tract. The cramping is no joke. Lucky for me my girlfriend had just studied some Thai massage techniques, particularly for the stomach/torso, which effectively unwound the steel bear trap. However, this immediately transformed said intestinal tract into a seething/roiling flood that necessitated strictly observed EVACS every half-hour for 8 hours.
On a completely unrelated note: I commented on yesterday’s Links thread late last night and it appears to have not shown up. This is no matter, but it was in response to a masterful comment by a different chris Re: Obama’s speech. In the hope that a different chris will read this, I repeat what I said last night:
Your hermeneutic skill is to be commended. May you live long interpreting the sayings of the Managerial Priests.
When I moved to some property in redding CA I soon noticed these tiny frogs (they could easily fit on a nickel) – which I just found amazing, because the property is as dry as a bone in the long summer, and it gets as hot as 114 degrees. And they really seem to be frogs and not toads, but I can’t find anything similar looking on the websites that purport to list all the northern CA frogs.
light brown, white trim? If so, they are common a few hundred miles north of you. Only one I have seen away from water.
Brian
September 7, 2016 at 10:24 am
That seems right. They are variable. I can’t remember if the ones that have a black stripe also have the white as well – they are after all, pretty small and hopping around and though I could have caught one in my youth, they are too fast for me in my dotage…
And the thing of it is, the ground holds zero moisture. I take my drill out to check plants I have planted, and the very next day the ground is DUST. The leaf litter has zero moisture in it.
I thought today’s Antidote would be American lobsters (Homarus americanus), as they are again in the news as they are involved in a trade war with Europe. They are considered an invasive species and may be banned from importation. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/09/06/eu-lobster-ban_n_11877776.html
The US and Canadian position is that the ban is due to concern that the American lobster is larger (and tastier) than the native European lobster (Homarus gammus).
and cheaper! a bunch of restaurants have popped up across european capitals specialising almost exclusively in north american (mainly nova scotian) lobster. the best part is that the european lobster fishery can recover. i hope the ban proposal gets serious push back
Not ANOTHER mamalist!
How about some geese? Geese are very intelligent. Chickens are plants that walk around.
Re: “Against Transparency”
It’s cute that Matt Yglesias considers himself to be a journalist. Most journalists get their starts by covering local news, like the crime beat or city council meetings. He’s so special, though, that he went straight to writing opinion pieces. The Internet has done a lot of good things, but it has also empowered a bunch of people who think it more important to have opinions on things than to actually do any original reporting on their own.
voteforno6
September 7, 2016 at 7:15 am
Against transparency Vox
The issue is that while common sense sees email and phone calls as close substitutes, federal transparency law views them very differently.
….
The issue is that administration officials and other executive branch aides don’t want to leave a record of the conversation that might come to light one day. Not necessarily because they have anything scandalous to say. After all, we live in a world where something as banal as Doug Band, a top Clinton Foundation aide, asking Huma Abedin, a top State Department aide, for a special diplomatic passport for a hostage rescue trip to North Korea and being told he can’t have one can be spun as a scandal by a determined team of reporters and editors.
=============================================
I don’t know what this Yglesias is talking about, and neither does he. In the 3 Federal agencies I worked in (Air Force, IRS, and FDA) one had to scrupulously document official business phone calls (you did not have to document phone personal calls, e.g., to your wife). It really was a pain, and I much preferred email, as often times the people who called me were so ignorant of what they were talking about (a rude person might make reference to the author of the article I am commenting on, but I will TAKE THE HIGH GROUND and not do that…yes, I am being ironic) that it was hard to capture the conversation without making the people I was conversing with look like idiots…
With regard to the second point, Yglesias states if journalists can turn an email about getting a passport into a scandal and than Yglesias dosen’t consider what can they do with records of phone calls occurring (the phone call happened, but a RECORD of what was discussed was not kept???) between people that have no documentation what so ever?
To the extent Yglesias can refute the allegations, it is because of documentation. If one alleges that secret phone calls are going on all the time, well, there is no way to refute that. I can’t imagine Hillary ever putting forth that proposition that she does important government business but does not document it (The whole issue of Hillary is what is she actually DOING – and documentation is how she can defend herself, or critics can prosecute her, but one can’t do either if records aren’t requited to being with).
It really takes effort not to think through something that should be so obvious…. its as if Yglesias told his boss that he thought up two dozen articles in his head, but didn’t bother to write them down, but still expects to get paid for them – that should be ridiculous EVEN to Yglesias.
But this is liberal goodthink at its quintessential: “I’d rather not know, so I don’t have to have a bad conscience about it. If I’m ignorant, then later in life, when all this crap gets declassified, I can pretend that my unwillingness to poke at the bubble was, in fact, noble and not a sign of my abject cowardice.”
At this point, I’m actually confused as to why these “journalists” have invested so much personally as well as professionally in HRC. I can understand boot licking to gain access, even if I consider it abhorrent, but what I don’t understand is how they see in her some form of personal validation. And the lesser evilism has gotten absurd: vote for Dracula, he’ll only drain your blood, where the Wolfman is likely to tear you limb from limb.
Um, I’m dead either way. Corpses have no sense of dignity.
I can only contrast the Clintons, with one of my buddies (of 20 years plus) who went to work for the FAA.
Absolutely NO freebies of any kind from anyone. No picking up the tab for lunch. No free hats or pens. You might be able to give him a bottle of water.
His contact reports were constantly reviewed. But he’s a “little person”.
He got reassigned to checking the local airlines, because they have hard/fast rules against FAA employees having any “oversight” authority over former employers. You can’t inspect an airline/employer you used to work for until you have 36 months in.
Sounds reasonable to me, working both ways. No oversight authority over former employers for 36 months. No accepting employment from people you had oversight over for 36 months after leaving. Or………..make the wait period longer/shorter depending on what your position was coming and going……..the higher up the organization, the longer the wait.
Muckrock provides an FOIA explainer so simple that even Yglesias should be able to understand it.
Also too. The Misunderstandings of the Anti-Transparency Hillary-Exonerating Left [Emptywheel]
I thought the reasoning in Yglesias’s piece was muddled– posted it (and just before the Greenwald thing on journalism giving HRC too much of a free point) b/c it was so wooly-headed. I mean, if this is the best argument that can be made….
@Jerry-Lynn Scofield – Glad to see Naked Capitalism including links from thewire.in . Considering you cover so much economic theory, have you guys had a look at Professor Anwar Shaikh’s (from New School, New York) new book ‘Capitalism’ and its lectures on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB1uqxcCESK6B1juh_wnKoxftZCcqA1go)?
Looks like Trump may be the puppet he was always suspected to be, but I am surprised that this recording didn’t come out sooner. HuffPo has been all evil Trump all the time for months now, how did they miss this?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-economic-plan_us_57c9dc5ce4b0e60d31df29ae?section=&
Of course Trump may have agreed to these things and has said on the trail, I believe, that he wants to eliminate the EPA which didn’t even make the story. But there seem to be innumerable people claiming to speak for Trump but who turn out to be obscure publicity seekers. I’d say this Huffpo “scoop” amounts to very little–not the least because it’s coming from Huffpo.
“By eliminating the departments of Commerce, Energy and Education”
I don’t know, don’t Republican donors actually like some of these? Maybe not so much education, maybe charter schools, although charter schools seems more a Dem baby really. But Commerce for sure represents the business class. Energy represents Republican party interests when those subsidies go to fossil fuels and nuclear power (they don’t all of course).
And why should I believe Trump wants to balancing the budget when no administration Republican or Democrat ever does. Just the evidence of actual history (not rhetoric, history). Now he might want to give tax cuts, at least that part has historically happened often enough.
“Thanks to Moore, unlimited drilling, fracking and mining has become one of the four pillars of Trump’s “Economic Vision.””
And the Clinton people vetoed the Sanders people call for a nationwide fracking ban on the Dem party platform. 6 of one, half dozen of the other. While the might be a nuance between refusing to ban and making it a pillar of the platform, I’m tired of parsing pennies bit of nuance to vote for garbage candidates. Run someone good next time for your joke of a party, and maybe I’ll consider voting for them. You almost did afterall, even though joke of a party sabotaged them. If goddess had meant us to vote she would have given us candidates.
He makes a decent case for not voting for Trump, but no case for voting for Hillary.
We’re Screwed 2016
I’ve heard about this Stephen Moore advisory role for Trump recently. If it is true, President Trump might elevate Stephen Moore to the position of Visible Hate Object (not Trump’s intention, to be sure) needed to inspire millions upon millions of self-styled leftists to step up to the challenge of strangling down their own standard of living as much as they can stand in order to deny their carbon-energy-purchase revenue to Stephen Moore’s beloved pet industries . . coal …oil… Koch…etc.
If Principal Trump Adviser Stephen Moore can’t inspire the so-called “left” to design and apply genuinely effective Hate Based Initiatives against the Moore-ist industries, then nothing can.
“Exclusive: How Edward Snowden Escaped” an interesting story served up with a reasonably big portion of hype – beyond ‘Snowden being the most wanted man in the world’
Are the intelligence agencies competent? If they are, how long does it take the intelligence agencies to muster the resources to be competent?
Exclusive: How Elizabeth Holmes’s House of Cards Came Tumbling Down Vanity Fair
In a searing investigation into the once lauded biotech start-up Theranos, Nick Bilton discovers that its precocious founder defied medical experts—even her own chief scientist—about the veracity of its now discredited blood-testing technology. She built a corporation based on secrecy in the hope that she could still pull it off. Then, it all fell apart.
…………..
And like Jobs, crucially, Holmes also paid indefatigable attention to her company’s story, its “narrative.” Theranos was not simply endeavoring to make a product that sold off the shelves and lined investors’ pockets; rather, it was attempting something far more poignant. In interviews, Holmes reiterated that Theranos’s proprietary technology could take a pinprick’s worth of blood, extracted from the tip of a finger, instead of intravenously, and test for hundreds of diseases—a remarkable innovation that was going to save millions of lives and, in a phrase she often repeated, “change the world.” In a technology sector populated by innumerable food-delivery apps, her quixotic ambition was applauded. Holmes adorned the covers of Fortune, Forbes, and Inc., among other publications. She was profiled in The New Yorker and featured on a segment of Charlie Rose. In the process, she amassed a net worth of around $4 billion.
===================================
And like Jobs, crucially, Holmes also paid indefatigable attention to her company’s story, its “narrative.”
Sooooo….the word “narrative” actually means pure, unadulterated, fortified BULLSH*T – – good to know.
How many complete and total instances of fraud are necessary before people realize the vaunted capital allocation process is a crock? And maybe its worse than fraud – I have compared economics to a religion. And it appears the business sect is the most delusional….
Now, just yesterday I linked to a Wolf Street article about Hanjin, which is basically that everyone should have realized that building more shipping capacity just wasn’t going to fly…uh, er, sail…or float ….or sumthin’
But somehow, someway, the narrative of entrepreneurship continues…
She organized a whole cloth fraud not a real business, consequently she was a classic grifter not a real entrepreneur
In China, the writer would be hauled off to be questioned about who this ‘she’ is, especially now, when those in the Xi clique are trying to replace those of the Jiang clique still in positions of power.
This has to be the takeaway quote
….Holme’s limited ability to explain how it all worked. When The New Yorker reporter asked about Theranos’s technology, she responded, somewhat cryptically, “a chemistry is performed so that a chemical reaction occurs and generates a signal from the chemical interaction with the sample, which is translated into a result, which is then reviewed by certified laboratory personnel.”
Fkme! Invest in that?? When irrational blind greed saturates judgemrnt
Now, just yesterday I linked to a Wolf Street article about Hanjin,
So what happens to all those aging LG flatscreen TV’s that are bobbing around in the Ocean that aren’t allowed to come into port on a bankrupt shipping line vessel?
the judge who saved Christmas..
http://www.fxtribune.com/breaking/judgex2019s-ruling-aims-to-rescue-stranded-hanjin-shippers-h237461.html
Judge’s ruling aims to rescue stranded Hanjin shippers
Clearing the way to get the three ships moored off the Southern California coast into port without fear of seizures, a U.S. judge Tuesday provided bankruptcy protections for South Korean cargo giant Hanjin Shipping Co. “It’s good news for all…
Thanks for this link!
enjoy your time off!
I have a nice Ginger in full bloom pic I’ll send.. pretty wild looking, a huge amount of energy expended over a very short period of time, a few days.
optimader
September 7, 2016 at 11:58 am
“the judge who saved Christmas..”
Thank God – without flat screen TV deflation we might notice how much health care inflation we have, as well as food. But as long as I can eat these bountiful and nutritious flat screen TVs, I know I am in an exceptional country…
The flat screen is the opiate for the masses fresno…
As far as nutrition, one can eat out of one’s box of Count Chocula while adsorbing the flatscreen radiation goodness! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Mills_monster-themed_breakfast cereals
And an old post from my archive, but I like it and the season approaches:
Filed under:Junk food used for social good
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/colorado-towns-cereal-shortage-man/story?id=26343262
Call him a “cereal killer.”
A small Colorado town’s grocery mystery was solved when it was discovered a brewery, not a cereal-loving vampire, had bought out boxes of a spooky, seasonal favorite to create a Halloween-themed beer.
As a result, there is a shortage of Count Chocula in Fort Collins, Colorado, where Black Bottle Brewery is using it as an ingredient in a small-batch beer,,,
Wow!!!!
makes me wonder how many San Franciscan beers use….dare I say it??? Fruit loops….
Part of her success in building this fraudulent ‘narrative’ was using family connections to get big name and big money commitments. Using family connections to get bored members including Henry Kissinger (former Secretary of State), George Shultz (former Secretary of State), William Perry (former Secretary of Defense), Sam Nunn (former U.S. Senator), and Bill Frist (former U.S. Senator) helped give Theranos a veneer of credibility. Her father held senior positions in Washington, worked for Enron, and then the United States Agency for International Development. Her mother was a congressional aide to Representative Charlie Wilson (see movie – Charlie Wilson’s War).
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/20/business/theranos-founder-faces-a-test-of-technology-and-reputation.html?_r=0
“But when it came to fund-raising, Ms. Holmes had an ace up her sleeve: family connections. Timothy Draper, the well-known venture capitalist, had been a neighbor when the Holmeses lived in California. The children played together. “I gave her her first million bucks to get the business going,” Mr. Draper says.” “Another anchor investor was Don Lucas. Mr. Lucas is a godfatherlike figure in Silicon Valley who built his reputation by investing in a little start-up called Oracle. To get to Mr. Lucas, Ms. Holmes relied on an introduction from a former top banking executive who went to school with her father at Wesleyan. Mr. Lucas, who wasn’t available for an interview, served as chairman of the Theranos board for a time and brought in Lawrence Ellison, the founder and chief executive of Oracle, as another investor. In short order, Theranos raised more than $400 million, giving it, at one point, a valuation of $9 billion.”
Ain’t our meritocracy grand?
JimTan
September 7, 2016 at 12:27 pm
” Her father held senior positions in Washington, worked for Enron”
If you don’t have the death penalty for that, than you just shouldn’t have any death penalty….
Incredible. What we need is that robot from “Lost in Space” with its arms flailing about, “Danger Will Robinson and any investor in stocks!!! Danger Will Robinson and any investor in stocks!!!”
Jobs had Steve Wozniak. Where is Holmes’s Woz?
It has worked to her benefit to use Jobs as a source for her narrative when in fact it now seems to be playing out more closely to Ken Lays’.
The difference between Holmes and Jobs is that from day one Jobs was hooked up with an actual tech genius, Steve Wozniak, the guy who built and soldered by hand the original Apple 1. Jobs had a real, existing product. Apparently Holmes tried to fake it ’til she made it, but it looks like the product she was hawking in walk-in Walgreens clinics never existed. And the crazy thing is, Holmes’ vaporware impacted actual patients!
Yet another creepy biotech billionaire-wannabe with zero thought or care for the people whose lives she put at risk.
So when are the E. Holmes & T. Friedman Halloween (Guru in BLack) costumes showing up in our wunderously hot retail establishments ??
I think you point to an important lesson from Holme’s fraud story. She created a “narrative” and was able to push it very far. Anyone builds it’s on narrative and it is very dangerous to try to push it hard through our existence. Business schools use, almost exclusively, narratives, or examples and i believe this education results in flawed minds if they are not countered with one’s common sense. I think Holmes is just one in millions that are dominated by their narratives.
The Unrelenting Pundit-Led Effort to Delegitimize All Negative Reporting About Hillary Clinton The Intercept. Typically astute Glenn Greenwald.
IN HIS New York Times column yesterday, Paul Krugman did something that he made clear he regarded as quite brave: He defended the Democratic Party presidential nominee and likely next U.S. president from journalistic investigations. Complaining about media bias, Krugman claimed that journalists are driven by “the presumption that anything Hillary Clinton does must be corrupt, most spectacularly illustrated by the increasingly bizarre coverage of the Clinton Foundation.”
================================================
So Krugman has gone “full Nixon” – – for those too young to remember, Nixon when making a speech would preface some comment with the remark, “now this isn’t the popular thing to do” or something similar, when in fact polls and common knowledge revealed it was absolutely, positively the most popular thing to do. It went beyond political posturing – one got the impression when Nixon was most pandering, he truly thought in HIS OWN HEAD that he was a brave statesman….
Krugman’s argument is akin to a sleazy mob lawyer arguing that “whack” only refers to little league baseball discussions. And the man thinks he is soooooo sophisticated….. like Nixon, there is definitely a screw loose. No one at NYT management can see this?
Is it possible the management does see this? Who still respects Krugman? Anyone who would respect a NYT columnist for having a column. Krugman has built connections and went full Obama and now Clinton. If Clinton becomes President as a severely wounded animal (there was little doubt of this), what is Krugman’s value? Krugthullu’s best asset is access at the moment as he’s likely lost much of his readership that doesn’t see the NYT as a status symbol. I believe he’s lashing out. Without his column, he’s not a a celebrity.
I am not sure about the ‘likely next US president’ bit.
Over at Salon, they’re already rushing to Krugman’s defense.
Desperately slamming Krugman: Columnist unfairly targeted for anti-Trump, pro-Hillary commentary
I guess the Clinton shills have to look out for each other.
Clinton has a cough like the one my mom had. A change in BP meds solved the problem.
According to the official sources, Coumadin doesn’t cause coughs. But there are support boards for people who believe it does.
Coumadin isn’t a blood pressure medicine. I think Arizona Slim is referring to angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors:
http://www.aarp.org/health/drugs-supplements/info-02-2013/chronic-cough-ace-inhibitors.html
Most likely referring to an ace inhibitor (blood pressure med) which she may or may not be on. Cough most common nuisance side effect.
If Hillary is on an ACE inhibitor, it is most likely as a preventive measure to prevent further strokes. I have not read anywhere that she is on an ACE inhibitor, but it would be a likely choice if she is on Coumadin for the same reason.
Besides the coughing side effect, ACE inhibitors tend to raise your uric acid levels, increase your BUN level, and damage your kidneys. It is best not to put elderly people on an ACE inhibitor at all.
If I was persistently coughing like Hillary, I would be in my doctor’s office, not out on the campaign trail.
‘Zactly! If it is her med, all they have to do is switch it up. Worked for my Mom, New drug, bingo, cough cleared up right away right away. Quite a while ago, I don’t remember the name of the drug.
I have a similar cough, with apparently nothing wrong. Doctors listen carefully and then talk about air pollution. Very persistent, very annoying, no obvious cause. I’m a couple years older than she is; these things happen.
‘Course, maybe I’ll die of it soon. Who knows?
Speaking from experience, I actually think both candidates are too old, to say nothing of Bernie, but that’s what we get this year.
From the start, Hillary has needed person after person, publication after publication, to sacrifice their reputation attempting to salvage hers. Now in my seventh decade, I have never seen anything to even begin to compare. A mass insanity overwhelmed with the need to rehabilitate what is at best a most mediocre candidate, and at worst, a women beset by a compulsion to inflict violent retribution over whatever ghosts rule her past.
We’ll be lucky to make it out of this one.
Hey Kruggie, have you heard this one?
The Clintons’ minister arrives at their Chappaqua compound. After being admitted through the gate by Secret Service, he is surprised to encounter Bill in front of the five-car garage, nailing together a frame of 2x4s.
Through an open window in the mansion, the sound of Hillary’s violent hacking is audible, as she copes with an irritated throat.
“Is that your wife’s coughin’?” asks the reverend.
“Naw,” replies Bill. “It’s a chicken coop.”
And the graphic:
I notice nothing is inside
Ben Garrison? Is that where we are now?
fw – https://youtu.be/ZPEeio489OA 14 min SecularTalk podcast clip, criticizes Krugman’s D Party/HClinton hackery & hypocrisy.
The NyTimes managers probably see it just fine, but as long as they think Krugman can still help them sell the Wall Street Overclass Clintonite narrative, they will accept it from him.
From my first glimpse of Holmes and first hearing of her voice I got the strong impression of someone I wouldn’t trust 10 dollars to, and I’ve been fooled enough over the years to know I’m not that expert at reading people. How did she fool so many for so much? The thousand-yard wide-eyed stare is hardly mesmerising.
Or, even if mesmerised, reading/hearing this once or twice could surely break the spell: “a chemistry is performed so that a chemical reaction occurs and generates a signal from the chemical interaction with the sample, which is translated into a result, which is then reviewed by certified laboratory personnel.”
A “chemistry is performed,” riiight.
That story is so creepy and disturbing, I had to take a break midway through. If I was reading it in a novel, I would have thrown it against a wall for it’s insulting impossibility. But since it seems to be true-ish… I feel compelled to read it.
The story of Gibbons was my breaking point. (What happened to his cancer) …. He must have been in serious mental/emotional/psychological trouble but that isn’t touched on by the author at all.
I hate to bring up toothpaste again, but…
What is the implied relationship between anti bacterial soap and toothpaste?
Can’t be bothered to read, eh? Here:
Sure glad the FDA cares about our health![/sarc]
better swich to decaf.
So, in lieu of reading, maybe you can inform me:
1.how many toothpastes can you puchase in the US that contain Triclosan?
2.Is it difficult to avoid? (Im giving you a clue on 1.)
3.should Triclosan be withdrawn from use in surgical scrubs?
Should the FDA consider the merits of an ingredient by application? Asked another way, if an active ingredient is decided to not be efficacious in one application, should it be carte blanche banned in all applications?
Personally i have never used antibacterilogical consumer products, i like my flora. Do I feel someone should be able to use the (one) toothpaste compounded they way they want it? Absolutely
From the same FDA:
Not knowing much about kratom before reading about it here yesterday. The above is what I found at Wiki. I’d like to hear from the dissenters here.
I experienced it as drinking too much coffee, but the experiences differs some by strain I suspect like marijuana.
Now coffee can contribute to:
“nervousness, agitation, aggression, sleeplessness, tremors, etc.”
Maybe we should ban the coffee bean (and tea leaf!).
Kratom is a pain killer, a pain killer without a high (as are some strains of marijuana). So it is used by people to relieve pain like arthritis etc.. It’s used by some to self-medicate a weaning off an addiction to hard opiates, it may or may not be best for that, but it is used for that. Ever seen methadone use though, it can’t be as ugly as that, medical methadone is an ugly drug. But there are other prescription alternatives like suboxin, that seem just as habit forming as kratom ever was. Some people do get a bit of a high from kratom and it definitely has those who use it recreationally, but I suspect the reason there won’t be much of a push to legalize it like there is with marijuana, despite the fact is also provides relatively safe pain relief, is it really doesn’t produce that much of a high, precisely because it’s NOT all that psychoactive. It’s like if ibuprofin was banned and you tried to get a petition going to legalize it. It would still be senseless and tragic to ban ibuprofin but … Of course for serious pain kratom is more effective than ibuprofin, slightly more habit forming, but not particularly more dangerous.
ibuprofen.. be very careful with that stuff..
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/07/well/live/why-your-toothpaste-has-triclosan.html?
…Toothpastes that contain triclosan have “demonstrated to be effective at reducing plaque and gingivitis,” said Andrea Fischer, an F.D.A. spokeswoman. Before approving the toothpaste in 1997, the agency requested that the Colgate-Palmolive company conduct toxicology studies, and the F.D.A. ultimately decided it was safe and effective…
Colgate Total is the only toothpaste in the United States that contains triclosan. For some critics, the decision to take triclosan out of topical products but leave it in an oral product is a bit of a head-scratcher…
In a statement, a Colgate-Palmolive spokesman, Thomas DiPiazza, said the product has undergone a far more rigorous safety review than other toothpastes. When the company sought approval to use triclosan in 1997, it conducted a comprehensive evaluation of human safety of triclosan as part of its new drug application. The review included “carcinogenicity, reproductive and developmental toxicity, eye and skin irritation, and short term and long term toxicity,” he said.
The original F.D.A. submission for Colgate Total contained 98 volumes and included more than 100 toxicology studies, and the company provides monitoring and safety updates annually, said Colgate…
What happens when you add triclosan to toothpaste? In 2013, an independent review of 30 studies by The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews concluded that toothpastes with triclosan and fluoride outperformed those with only fluoride on several counts. When used for six to nine months, triclosan-fluoride toothpastes reduced plaque severity by 41 percent more than fluoride pastes alone. The triclosan-fluoride combination reduced gum inflammation by 22 percent more and gum bleeding by 48 percent more than fluoride alone.
For the truly dedicated, two to three years of using triclosan toothpaste showed a 5 percent drop in cavities compared to brushing with fluoride paste alone.
But soon experts began to worry that widespread exposure to germ fighters in everyday products could lead to new strains of resistant bacteria. Studies in animals have shown that triclosan and similar chemicals can disrupt the normal development of the reproductive system and metabolism…
Dr. Halden, the scientist from Arizona State, said that the Cochrane review wasn’t looking at the most serious health concerns. The review wasn’t “designed to look at hormonal effects, nor did they carry on long enough to measure the outcomes we are concerned about such as endocrine disruption,” Dr. Halden said…
… Dr. Richard Niederman, a dentist and the chairman of the epidemiology department at the New York University College of Dentistry… whose university has received funds from Colgate for cavity-prevention programs in New York City, said consumers have the option to switch to other products containing stannous fluoride. Stannous fluoride is an antimicrobial that also helps rebuild tooth enamel.
“I would tell my patients if they are concerned about triclosan that stannous fluoride is also very effective for reducing plaque and gingivitis,” said Dr. Niederman..
“…wasn’t looking at the most serious health concerns…”
How do we know where to look, if we don’t know 100% about what we are doing?
But we never know 100%…only the best guesses and best explanations.
This bug-feature shows up again and again in human ‘progress.’
This is a much better article on toothpaste. It pointed to one chemical in one brand of toothpaste that I would definitely say is problematic. That last article was scattershot chemicals are scary. The fact that they overlooked the endocrine effects is really damning. Though, it wasn’t all that uncommon. I would stick to toothpaste with stannous fluoride if you want antimicrobial toothpaste, which isn’t a bad idea. Plenty of places bacteria are good, your teeth generally aren’t one of them. There are, of course exceptions.
Many commercial and popular toothpastes contain triclosan, the same antibacterial that will be removed from soaps
Ah, got it. Interestingly a friend did grad research for the cultivation of beneficial bacteria to be introduced at the gum tooth interface for the purpose of supplanting the destructive bacteria that causes periodontal disease/ bone/tooth decay
Some bacteria is your friend!
I rinse with organic coconut oil for 20 minutes and spit it all out; rinse with warm water. My dentist is amazed at how well my oral health has improved and any bad breath is a mere distant nightmare.
20 minutes?
Enough for the average person never to do it unless they have the worst teeth in creation. Who has that kind of time?
It’s not like it prevents you from doing other things during that time. Like reading or commuting.
how is that possible without swallowing? (Reason 2,346 why I could never contemplate chewing tobacco.)
I rinse with 120 proof whiskey for 3 seconds and than swallow it. No peer reviewed journal has shown any efficacy with regard to oral health, diminution of deleterious oral flora, but I like it….
alcohol does kill bacteria, I commend you on taking care of your teeth.
The dangerous chemicals in them.
From the first summary paragraph of the article:
yesterday at 1:40 my brother told me he was sick of fighting…what could i say?
he had asked me to burn him a cd, so i plug them in his ears and told him he could he stop the fight the anytime he wished. he died with this playing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1ZmIFR4Sc0. this is the 2nd family member to die in my arms…i’m not made for this. my mother has fallen twice in one week and i’m her only caregiver.
this is taking a toll on me…fighting hospitals, doctors and uncaring pencil pushers are not a life for any of us. now others think i’m made for this and my oldest brother’s cancer has returned. i want to live. i want to be apart of changes i bitch about.
i want people to stop dying with my hands on them. i want to stop wanting.
sorry for being a downer. aby, will come back but right now i fear what is being shaved from her. Good Bye Derrick, thanks for playing with me, teaching me gardening, fishing, strings and laughs so hard the world disappeared. i’ll care for your beloved Leaves of Grass…
“I am not to speak to you, I am to think of you when I sit alone or
wake at night alone,
I am to wait, I do not doubt I am to meet you again,
I am to see to it that I do not lose you.”
Sorry for the loss of your brother, aby. Be well.
Hi Aby,
I wish I had something soothing to offer to you. I’m just not good with words. Sending you some light and wishing comfort and joy for those you love.
Condolences for your loss, Aby. Being a caregiver can be brutal. Take care.
Wow, that’s not easy to read. Very sorry for your loss and possible upcoming struggles.
Probably the thing I (and most people) fear most about getting old is watching people around me drop off one-by-one. I’ve read so many of your posts over the years that I feel like I kind of know some of the people on this forum.
Ian Welsh is a pretty gloomy guy, but I remembered this post and found it kind of uplifting in its lesson on the acceptance of our own limitations and not putting too much of the burden on ourselves….http://www.ianwelsh.net/the-existential-philosophy-of-decline-and-collapse/
He’s writing about the world-at-large, and not about personal matters, but I think care-givers can do with reminders that 1) it’s okay to enjoy life and 2) you can only do so much.
all love, aby.
we who are here, who only know a part of you, can still feel for all of you.
{big hug}
My condolences on your loss Abynormal..
A very hard and sad experience that alters reality
Sincere sympathy, aby. (That goes for the anger too.)
When it comes, it’s like a flower unfolding
When it goes, it’s like thunder rolling
take care aby
Condolences
Oh, aby, I am so sorry. You are a ‘giver,’ both of support to your family and virtual support to the lovers of your posts on NC.
saddened by our loss and inspired by your spirit.
http://isu.indstate.edu/ilnprof/ENG451/ISLAND/
((<3))
Thank All of you! i’m just tired…and I’ve made you family over the years. if anyone can bring me back…it’ll be yall.
Derrick was in Emory…you’d think its the best in the south but people mull around trying to figure out what to expect next. a real mindfuck.
Derrick requested a song that always made him think of idea…guess he wanted me to understand something my heart fights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx3NJ5nRKPk
Thank All of You. .i can do this.
Take care, Aby.
aby – Be well. There is never a right thing to say at this time. Sending good thoughts your way.
Only just found this, my condolences and sympathy to you, abynormal.
I have spent some time around dying people over the years; the aftermath is a process for the survivors, it doesn’t have to be a completely negative one. It can be very difficult though.
Given the choice between my own life goals and time with dying friends (or acquaintances), i have not chosen uniformly, so I’ve tried both alternatives. There are always regrets, either way. But I would say that work in the world of the living is part of our duty to the dead and dying, and knowing that can help us find a reasonable proportion for both, as well as some measure of peace. It does take some practice though. And one shouldn’t beat oneself up unnecessarily about unavoidable distress.
So very sorry, aby.
Sorry for your loss. All good wishes.
Condolences, Aby. Your humanity and beautiful spirit are a big part of what makes the NC boards so special.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmDakhg45rk
“Time loses its power when remembrance redeems the past” – Herbert Marcuse
Ach, aby. Wish I could come over and do something for you; make a bed or bring food or drive you to a lake or take some of your daily jobs for a while.
Very good to have his Leaves of Grass.
As a person who’s also taken family burdens more than she should have done, I can say this: you need not do any more of this.
I’m glad to know you, a little, through this combox. Take care of yourself.
the war that is life, living and its ending never ceases.
none of us chose to engage, nor do we deserve the certain outcome.
meanwhile, there is still time for joy.
https://youtu.be/JkIiaaXUjlE
Thinking of you, Aby!
that’s hard Aby – love
Can’t imagine how much this has preyed upon you. Wish I could do more than just offer condolences. As much strain as it has been on you, perhaps you can take solace in knowing how comforting you have been in their final moments for those you have lost.
Only love can break a heart…
So inadequate to say “I’m sorry for your loss.” But it is the least I can say to you.
I have found that the people for whom I have developed to most respect were those who showed their humanity in just this way, that they have spent their time, their energy and anything else they had to care for someone. Politics, philosophy, faith or no faith, they all become irrelevant in the light of ones commitment to caring for kith and kin in that material way. In doing this you bless us all.
I’m sorry for your pain aby. Take as much time as you need to grieve. I can sadly assure you the world will still need fixing after the pain ebbs.
Please accept my condolences and best wishes.
abynormal
September 7, 2016 at 8:56 am
My heartfelt sympathy at this time of mourning.
Aby, I am so sorry. I can’t imagine your strength. Sending hugs and love
I am so sorry for your loss and for all you have and are going through. Cyber hugs streaming your way.
My deepest condolences, Aby.
I would like to believe your brother’s spirit, or energy has, or will, find a new place in the fabric of the cosmos, whatever and whatever, that may be …….
To paraphrase Carl Sagan …. “We are, everyone of us, starstuff …… “
Condolences Aby
First of all, take care of yourself, Aby, or you can’t take care of anyone else.
And get help, wherever it’s to be found. That’s a lot too much for one person.
Our hearts go out to you.
dear Aby
I was going to add my thoughts but Oregoncharles here says it clearly.
Take care of yourself. We all know what you are going through, or foresee it in our future.
aby, my very, very deepest condolences to you.
I’ve struggled in my efforts to offer words to erase your pain, as I realize there are none.
Please know that your ‘family’ is far larger and more extended than you probably ever knew, and that we all share in your grief.
You are one who encouraged me, giving me strength and hope when I was so down, without ever revealing your own struggles. You had more of an impact than you realized and I will never forget the compassion you showed me.
When you ask “what could I say?”, you already knew the answer and did all you could. You obviously gave him comfort, compassion, and acceptance of his decision that is was time.
(My mom died in my arms as I, too, was forced to ‘give her permission’ to seek her final peace and end her struggle).
I’ve come to understand that the ultimate act of selflessness is that of letting go.
It has been decades since, yet I have never lost her nor my father, who preceded her in death, and never will, just as Derrick will always be with you.
You ARE strong, aby will be back, and you will live to see those changes you bitch about.
You will make it. Like a Phoenix, you will rise from the ashes of your grief. I believe in you.
It is a much stronger person who has a heart that can be broken, then someone who has no heart at all.
You are strong. Which is why you were given such a big heart.
And when forced to deal with those numb, uncaring pencil pushers, I offer something that has helped me…
Smile sweetly, while all the time thinking “It must suck to be you.” (A smile can be most disarming, as it’s a reaction they rarely see and makes ’em wonder what you’re up to)
Take time for aby now. We’ll be here for you.
warm hugs to you aby
aby. My deepest sympathy on your loss. And my profound admiration for your love, your care, and yes your courage in providing the support your family needs.
Aby, I’m so sorry for your loss and all that you are going through.
Aby, saw this late but I have to respond based on the respect I’ve developed for you through your comments. Condolences are probably unhelpful but that’s all I can offer. Peace to you and your family.
I just read this and send you the love I have. Do not be afraid to be sad. You have friends who care about you.
Thanks Mel Brooks……
Dole Office Clerk: “Occupation?”
ElizHolmesicus: “I am a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. I leverage assets from the Venture Capitalists and our human team members, using cutting edge technologies to develop paradigm shifting, innovative products and services, using our single minded focus and awesomeness to “Change the World”(tm)”
Dole Office Clerk: “Oh……A Bullshit Artist! Did you bullshit last week? Did you TRY to bullshit last week?…..”
I can only contrast these guys with most “old school” businesses that have survived in Flyover and the Rust Belt, who, as the old saying goes, have been doing “…..so much with so little for so long, they can now do the impossible with nothing.”
LOL – that is a classic…..and its so funny because its true!
Yes, so true. How many of the “reach out to you paradigm shifting synergists” dont even realize they are nothing more than bullshit artists? Most i think.
I shake my head when i see real companies that took a generation or more to build, ones that actually make stuff and employ peopke in this country either get shuttered, split up or sold off at modest valuations compared to asshats like Holmes getting fantastic amounts of capitalization
The “paradigm shifting synergists” are practicing a new culture/religion, complete with it’s own language. Closely related to the fake Medal-of Honor winners. Or there are ten times as many “US Navy Ex-SEALs” as guys that actually graduated from the course.
I ran into plenty of these guys at my former job at one of the aerospace OEMs. Always full of grandiose plans. Always telling the upper management what they wanted to hear.
When the plan failed, or fell below expectations, it was always “somebody else’s fault”. Anyone who pointed out the plainly obvious problems with the plan became known as “pessimists” and “Not a team player”.
One wonders how effed up the Rooskies and Commie Chinese can be, if things are as effed up as they are here. How are the PTB going to be able to call anyone to defend “our way of life”, when “our way” is so effed up and biased toward the monied elite.
OTOH, these are the same guys who sold the “better to fight them in BFE, halfway around the world than here” plan. Maybe the “bomb them into the Stone Age” plan is to make a bigger impression here than there?
“Silicon Valley, which is 50 square miles, has created more wealth than any place in human history.”
Uhh, [citation needed]?
I have read that the most consistent money makers in Silicon Valley are the landlords.
Arizona Slim
September 7, 2016 at 9:44 am
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ist/?next=/history/gold-rush-california-was-much-more-expensive-todays-dot-com-boom-california-180956788/
According to the consumer data website Numbeo, San Franciscans today face grocery bills and rents about 21 percent higher than the national average. That is an unfortunate figure, but again, it seems negligible when compared with the prices facing shocked gold-seekers as they arrived in the early days of the rush, when almost everything – tools, equipment food, clothing – was in short supply.
Edward Gould Buffum, author of Six Months in the Gold Mines (1850), described having a breakfast of bread, cheese, butter, sardines and two bottles of beer with a friend and receiving a bill for $43 – the equivalent today of about $1,200. ((a mere two bottle of beer for breakfast – how ever did they survive???)
There were reports of canteens charging a dollar for a slice of bread or two if it was buttered, the equivalent of $56. A dozen eggs might cost you $90 at today’s prices***; a pick axe would be the equivalent of $1,500; a pound of coffee $1,200 and a pair of boots as much as $3,000 when today you could get a decent pair for around $120.
========================================
*** My kingdom for a chicken…
vatican city is 109 acres of lucre, and probably some of those creatures from baudolino…
But at least they have an extraordinary collection of art.
yes,the place has to be as close to priceless as is currently possible in terms of physical assets, land deeds and etc…
interesting twist. I was thinking in terms of a 50sqmile patch of oil country with all the knock on derivative wealth, but the Vatican has been around for a good while.
The hook maybe aggregating wealth rather than creating it tho. I think the Vatican is more about collecting assets than creating wealth.
“we need to nuke it from orbit ….just to be sure !”
Usually when you read claims like that, it’s the peak.
“Wealth” . . . ? Or merely “money”?
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37286520
“Given our history here, I believe that the United States has a moral obligation to help Laos heal,” he (OBAMA) said.
He referred to America’s secret and devastating bombing of Laos during the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 70s.
Some $90m (£68m) will be spent over three years for the removal of cluster bombs and other unexploded ordnance.
That compares to $100m spent in the last 20 years.
Mr Obama did not offer an apology for the bombing.
===============================================================
Where will we be going in 50 years?
You know, maybe we wouldn’t have to spend so much money fixing bombing if we…didn’t bomb so much to begin with….
Nah….
Ask Kissinger that question.
I was outraged when I read Obama’s comments about this. This from the man who permitted $60 *billion* of arms sales to the Saudis, who are using them (and other US assistance) to kill hundreds of thousands of Yemenis? And from the man who spinelessly is allowing the pentagon to upgrade the US nukes so they can be used “tactically” — at a price tag of one TRILLION dollars?
Meanwhile the Israelis and Saudis continue to use cluster bombs and the US refuses to sign on to the ban.
Such duplicity and hypocrisy.
If you just keep bombing ’em, there’s nothing to fix. Seems like the current plan to me.
Given our history of killing blacks on the streets by the police, doesn’t the US have a moral obligation to help these people heal? Apparently not. Mr. O just ignores the problem. Maybe it will go away.
From the article “In his comments on Tuesday, President Obama described Laos as the most heavily bombed nation in history. Eight bombs a minute were dropped on average during the Vietnam war between 1964 and 1973 – more than the amount used during the whole of World War Two.”
Notice that the words are in the passive voice, such as in “it was done” not “we did it”.
The only reason to spend the money (in removal of the UXO) is to let the MICC profit some more, Make money coming and going. Great!
…spend so much money fixing bombing… A single day’s bombing of Laos cost more than what the USA spent helping recovery in Laos.
The people who are really paying the cost of living with the results are not Americans, hence the total lack of urgency by this administration, all previous administrations, and by most (nearly all) Americans.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2016/09/08/commentary/world-commentary/uzbeks-paid-dearly-u-s-support-karimov-regime/
In 2012, the Obama administration quietly lifted a post-Andijon ban on weapon sales. One major shipment included a 2015 delivery of 320 armored personnel vehicles to Karimov — exactly the kind of equipment an authoritarian state uses to crush demonstrations. “Perhaps worse than equipping a government so well-known for abuses against its own people and for its defiance of international norms with such powerful military equipment,” said Steve Swerdlow of Human Rights Watch, “is the message that the Obama administration is sending the people of Uzbekistan: that Islam Karimov has gotten away with it.”
Biggest news in the nation right now:
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/9/4/dakota_access_pipeline_company_attacks_native
And I just wonder…where are all the white environmentalists? Shouldn’t this be the largest environmental protest action ever? What’s keeping them away? Are they afraid of fly-over country? Afraid of Indians? Afraid of doing something other than waving a sign and chanting? Where the F is everybody??? I would have thought this would be the Ferguson of the enviro movement, so to speak, but only the Indians are showing up. Somewhat disappointing.
Has anyone besides DemocracyNow (And now RealNews) even reported on this? Without Goodman being there we likely never would have even known about the protestor attacks.
NPR covered it, insofar as they gave plenty of air time to corporate shills and only briefly touched on what the protestors were defending. There was also a lovely attempt to try and equivocate between a bunch of natives praying and a private security force siccing dogs on them.
So, there’s your MSM coverage.
Community radio is covering it:
http://news.kgnu.org/2016/09/coloradans-standing-in-solidarity-with-the-dapl-protestors/
WOW Obama got thrown a question about #NoDAPL in Asia from a local and still ducked it. https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4619223/obama-dakota-access-pipeline
I think DeSmogBlog has reported on this as well.
“And I just wonder…where are all the white environmentalists?”
Winding up their vacations and attending back-to-school events…
Bill McKibbin and Co.??
Apparently he had a conflict…
Do not despair, diptherio; I know many non-Native allies who are on-site at Red Warrior and Sacred Stones Camps. And many more of us are providing funding, supplies and holding peace walks and rallies in cities all over the country. And planning on traveling to North Dakota. Denver has been especially active and supportive.
I can not speak for every non-Native, but we are acknowledging the primacy of the Standing Rock Sioux (whose territory the DAPL crosses at this point) and the surrounding Lakota and Dakota peoples, in leading these actions. They are the ‘face’ of this resistance action. They are locking themselves down to huge ‘earth-destroyers.’ They are doing the planning, the strategy sessions, the PR. They are taking on the attack dogs and the pepper spray. It would be rude for non-Native environmental activists to push themselves forward; remaining in the background and providing support as stalwart allies is what we do.
Tomorrow evening (Thursday, September 8th), in Denver, there will be a Four Directions Walk in solidarity with Standing Rock; people (almost 800 signed up so far) will meet at four locations around the city, wearing the traditional color of that location (Red, north; Yellow, south; White; east; Black, west) and converge on the State Capitol for a prayer rally.
Ok, ok…calming down. I’m white by the way, so it’s a bit of self-criticism. I can’t personally go, but I am sending supplies (tents, beans, etc.) with a friend.
The worst part of what went down on Saturday was that the company found out about burial sites from a court filing by the tribe on Friday, and decided to immediately go and destroy them…even though they were working 15 miles away the day before. It was obvious antagonism of the protesters, and just…so wrong and so sh*tty on so many levels. I really worry about the state of the souls of those people with the poorly trained dogs…there has to be something seriously out of whack with a person to engage in that kind of thing, even for money.
You have a kind soul, diphtherio. So many other people possess souls that are damaged; they have bought into the greed and materialism of our culture. Plus, they need to make a living and these are the jobs that are available.
I think we have to expect the worst from the fossil fuel and other extraction companies; they are fighting for survival and they will lie, cheat, antagonize, steal, and kill. Be prepared and do not waste precious energy on outrage over their expected actions. It is what they are.
How much coal, gas and oil could “allies” and “supporters” begin deleting from their current energy lifestyles? How long could those “allies” and “supporters” keep up that level of oil-use deletion? Long enough to torture the bussinesses pushing that pipeline into giving it up in compliance with Indian wants and wishes?
Would that be a useful project for “allies” and “supporters” to get to work on?
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/jill-stein-to-face-charges-north-dakota-227826
http://bismarcktribune.com/news/local/charges-to-be-filed-against-presidential-candidate/article_1c8c56e7-5fca-5cff-b039-d8a5061bc27a.html
Credit to Stein and the Greens for trying to do the right thing and getting a little media coverage, too.
http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/lawrence-visits-standing-rock-759206979622
MSNBC at Standing Rock
I remember Hillary picketing the White House to protest the Keystone XL, and Barack Obama walking the picket line w/the Wisconsin public workers union…
Yeah, and I bought Obama’s sneakers at a charity auction. They were raising money for the Clinton Foundation.
There is a hazard, of course, that some white environmentalists might prove less steadfastly nonviolent than the Native Americans have been, and it seems plain from the tactics the “security” forces have employed that they would welcome violent confrontation. I hope whoever is joining the protest, or protection, follows the direction of the leaders, whose people have the biggest stake in this particular matter..
Jill Stein was (is?) there: http://www.rawstory.com/2016/09/green-partys-jill-stein-could-face-vandalism-charges-over-north-dakota-oil-pipeline-protest/
This bears some more investigation, but on the surface, it makes me nervous, given what we saw with the houses of cards in some firms (cough, AIG, cough).
“The Securities and Exchange Commission has authorized BlackRock funds to borrow from one another to cope with any sudden increase in outflow. Interfund borrowing is capped at 10% of assets without collateral and 33% of assets with collateral.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-blackrock-funds-liquidity-idUSKCN11C2GA
I’ve often seen Lambert throw in a few negative comments on LePage, the Governor of Maine. Now that I’ve read a little more about him, I think Lambert may have been too kind:
http://prospect.org/article/maine-goes
Not quite. Now that LePage has been nationalized by the sort of Beltway people who think that Bangor is a big city because it’s a circle on Route 95 on a map, it’s going to be hard to keep shoveling back the tide of out-of-state derision (to which the Portland Press-Herald, taking it upon itself to speak for the state in apologizing for LePage, seems to be unduly sensitive. Maine is, by New England standards, a large state, and Portland is much closer to Boston, in every way, than Bangor in central Maine, let alone Aroostook County. When Portland comes out for building a landfill on Cape Elizabeth, as opposed to on the Penobscot, they can think about speaking for Maine.)
The factor nobody takes into account is that the Democrats are both corrupt and incompetent. For example, they just blew what was never a very large opportunity to censure LePage because the Republican ally they were depending on decided he wasn’t going to participate in a “circus” after the Democrats went over the top in their rhetoric. So now the Democrats are in their preferred position: Madly virtue signalling while not actually accomplishing anything of substance for the people of Maine. Sound familiar? And LePage took office first in a three-way race, which he would never have won if the (fading, incompetent) Democrat had thrown her votes to the Independent when it became clear she was fading down the stretch. So, LePage, history’s greatest monster, is in office because of how the Iron Law of Institutions played out in Maine in the Democrat Party.
There’s an intriguing similarity between Maine and Ohio. There, (Republican) Senator Rob Portland is leading (Democrat) Ted Strickland because Strickland didn’t address the opioid epidemic, which is one of the reasons for the AIDs-level excess death rate in the (white) working class Rust Belt (besides the pain caused by doing heavy working class jobs like lumbering, lobstering, and construction). Of course, since the AIDs-level epidemic of working class death isn’t visible from the Acela corridor, Democrats don’t care about it.
Well, Maine has an opioid epidemic too, and in the absence of some vision by Democrats (more than funding more methadone clinics through non-profits, non-profits being a key Democrat constituency) LePage plays on two Maine prejudices: Out-of-staters, and out-of-staters of the “wrong” color, bringing opiods into the state. (Hilariously, LePage also noted that meth, another Maine scourge, was being dealt by white out-of-staters.)
Of course, LePage’s racial profiling is wrong and bad policy. But nobody really has any answers on what good public policy would be. Maine’s manufacturing is gone. Maine’s paper mills are mostly going (thanks, private equity! Thanks, trade deals! Thanks, Republicans and Democrats!). Tourist income is seasonal, coastal, and the jobs aren’t good (LePage’s wife worked as a waitress).
How is the average working person going to make a living in the state twenty or even ten years from now? Unknown. If the Democrats had any real answers to that question — assuming it to be answerable — they’d be beating the cr*p out of LePage. They don’t, and so prejudice enters the vacuum (“At least he’s doing something”).
Oh, and if I were to answer, my answer would be our land and water; Maine agriculture (and not corporate agriculture) is one of the bright spots. Of course, since the Democrats brought in the landfill and destroyed the state’s solid waste hierarchy by making landfills the top priority, instead of the bottom, they’re endangering the water supply and also the Penobscot (which rightly ticks off the Penobscot tribe).
Thanks for the update on the big picture. Years ago when I lived in the NorthEast I would take an occasional week cruising through Maine, Katahdin and Baxter State Park, the coast, etc. It’s a beautiful place and I would love to get back there some day.
“Madly virtue signalling while not actually accomplishing anything of substance for the people of Maine. Sound familiar?”
Too familiar, and not just Maine or Ohio.
I guess my point is that neither LePage nor the Democrats are appealing to the better angels of our nature; it’s just the Hatfields and the McCoys.
What would your 90-year-old self tell you to change today? Marketwatch
Oh yeah, listen to advice from MarketWatch, they always tell the truth !
I would hope my 90 year old self would hand me a sports almanac.
For those over 90 – the advice is to change career and become a soothsayer.
That is, for example, for a 95 year-old today, what can he/she in 2011 tell him today to change unless he/she is a fortune teller?
A good account here of the Office of Personnel Management data breach (that is an understatement) which revealed the intimiate details of those who hold and have applied for security clearances.
This is the same inept organization that wants backdoors in our internet-connected devices.
From the Jacobin Article cited above,
Thinking thinking thinking.
I would classify myself as a “lesser evilist” but I disagree with this premise completely, based on the following points.
1. All elections involve voting for the lesser evil. In this election, the lesser evil was Bernie Sanders, in spite of his poor foreign policy record. Now (if one is in a swing state and sees voting for one of the major parties as strategic) the lesser evil is, IMO, Trump.
2. Voting in an election is not “working to elect”. The US electoral system has been clearly proven in recent cycles to be highly corrupt. But even before that, all of the left’s progress has been made not so much at the ballot box but rather in mustering grass-roots pressure to force the hands of politicians in power. Therefore our “work” is not getting someone elected, but rather organising and giving voice to the voiceless. Pulling a lever every four years is not “working”.
3. Elections are therefore not organising or part of a long-term strategy. They are rather a moment when the established powers ask us not “who do you want to be elected” but rather “which of these rigged candidates do you prefer, (with the caveat that your vote probably won’t count anyway)”. Therefore, a strategic vote for, say Trump, does not preclude spending most of one’s time and energy working for the Green Party or any other group to form a viable third party option.
> Elections are therefore not organising or part of a long-term strategy
Ding ding ding! (I would say elections as such, as opposed to a long-term strategy with an electoral component. But watching partisans turning into pod people, I’m starting to wonder about political parties as such).
Nonsense.
Somebody (we read about them here every day) is applying both short and long term strategy to winning elections.. and boy oh boy, do they ever win. MIC, FIRE, Oligarchs, both major criminal private anti-democratic parties, etc.
If you can’t/wont even vote left (and by that I mean Greens this Nov.) then why tf should anyone start or join in another lefty-ish bowel movement? Oh and cough up 28 bucks, buy a couple bumper stickers… Hell from the looks of it in my area and sound of it in these threads if we (left-ish) all bought three Stein yard signs and put them up we would instantly have more signs in this country than Trump and Clinton combined.
I left out a “not.” I meant to write “not election as such.” Does this address your point?
There are several options for a conscientious voter:
1. Vote for the lesser evil
2. Vote against the greater evil
etc.
One maybe reluctant to vote for any evil, even if lesser evil, but perhaps one can vote against the greater evil.
“We stopped the The Third Way, 1,000 Year Reign Foundation in the Screwy 2016 election.”
U.S. Considers HSBC Charge That Could Upend 2012 Settlement [Bloomberg – contains autolaunch video]
Lynch polishing her legacy?
Re: VOX on the Paris climate “deal/agreement/WTF-ever-it-is,” some context:
Legal status of the whatever-it-is? http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/248261-in-paris-climate-agreement-administration-is-not
What it does — and does not — actually do, and over what time frame: http://www.cnbc.com/2015/12/13/paris-climate-agreement-all-you-need-to-know.html
No need to worry about “enforcing” anything… I wonder, is any part of the Collective that most of us refer to as “the government” have all the planning and funding mechanisms in mind for how to raise or relocate the fokking “national (actually imperial) Capitol? Did all that dragon breath and wildfire result in sufficient heating of the atmosphere to inundate that seat of evil, albeit grand and masterful, called “Westeros?” Or have “we” reached that Gotterdammerung moment along with the possible elevation of our equivalent (nowhere near as terribly beautiful and adept, of course) of Cirsei? http://gameofthrones.net/forums.html?task=viewtopic&pid=1454
So here is my own little anecdote about The FED, student loans, the economy, and housing loans
So I am selling my home and 5 acres in Redding and moving…gasp, to Fresno….for the rather modest sum of 189K (in CA this is modest)
So I am getting quite anxious about the closing date. It turns out that the people who are buying it were counting on a FHA loan….and the FHA apparently doesn’t do anything too fast, but found out 7 days before closing that my buyers have student loan balances that don’t fit the rules for being able to get a FHA loan.
Now I totally agree that people who can’t pay back loans shouldn’t be loaned more money.
My only comment is that we seem to be living in a schizophrenic economic world – it seems we institute an organization (the FED) that ceaselessly and relentlessly advocates for banks and borrowing….and this is going to cure, boost, fix – whatever word you like – the economy. And nary ever a word about whether there is enough INCOME to support all this borrowing that is suppose to fix, cure, boost the economy.
And than someone can’t buy a house, because they ALREADY have outstanding loans (student). Isn’t getting a loan what everybody is suppose to do???
As I said yesterday in a comment about finance, so much liquidity, but none for the thirsty.
So much for the idea that low interest rates cure the economy – so would these people when there are negative interest rates be able to get a home loan???….for some strange reason, I doubt it.
I wouldn’t be so angry at the FED and economists if they would simply come clean and say low interest rates, monetarism, can’t cure people getting poorer and poorer – even though I note national GDP keeps going up and up – dare I say the FED can’t confess that lower and lower interest rates can’t alleviate ever increasing inequality because that would anger people with money???
so it turns out borrowing is not income, and debt is not wealth – if it is, why can’t these people have a house?*
*maybe they will be able to get a commercial bank loan….but as I can’t hold my breath for 20 minutes like Mike Nelson in “Sea Hunt” did, I won’t even try…
Many years ago, JK Galbraith wrote a slim book, “The Culture of Contentment.” He pointed out that interest rates were one tool used to guide the national economy, and tax rates were another.
“”The controlling role of taxation continues. The only effective design for diminishing the income inequality inherent in capitalism is the progressive income tax. Nothing in the age of contentment has contributed so strongly to income inequality as the reduction of taxes on the rich; nothing, as has been said, so contributes to social tranquility as some screams of anguish from the very affluent. That taxes should now be used to reduce the inequality is, however, clearly outside the realm of comfortable thought. Here the collision between wise social action and the culture of contentment is most apparent….”
“”The long years of high budget deficits when they were not needed made it seemingly impossible to initiate stimulating public expenditures when they were now needed. The celebrated tax reductions for the upper-income brackets and the accompanying economics in welfare distribution had substituted the discretionary spending of the rich for the wholly reliable spending of the poor. A reasonably equitable distribution of income is thought by individuals of liberal disposition to be politically virtuous; in fact, it is economically highly functional.”
Do you own it outright? If so, any way to make you the loan provider? Naturally, this won’t work if you needed the sale to do finance the next purchase.
The Unrelenting Pundit-Led Effort to Delegitimize All Negative Reporting About Hillary Clinton
it is truly bizarre watching journalists who spent the 1990’s smearing HRC with pseudo scandals now covering up real scandals.
“It is difficult for a man to understand something when …………….
I thought the 1990’s scandals were real as well. Her team has seemed to react the same way – everything is a vast right wing conspiracy.
Not all of them were. But the cattle futures were real. And the Rose Law firm records magically appearing on a chair in the private quarters… Yikes. Effrontery!
Maybe also the renting out of the Lincoln bedroom.
Not sure about Hillary taking $200,000 in White House furniture, china and artwork when they left.
That certainly does not mean that journalists should treat their various sins and transgressions as equivalent: Nothing in the campaign compares to Trump’s deport-11-million-people or ban-all-Muslim policies, or his attacks on a judge for his Mexican ethnicity, etc.
NOTHING?
Not the Iraq war vote or abject fealty to saudi arabia and israel with their Palestinian genocide? Not the destruction of Libya or the creation of a humanitarian nightmare in Syria? Not the maniacal need to provoke Russia and resurrect the Cold War with all of the implications? Not the huge debts to wall street that the u. s. taxpayers will be expected to repay on clinton’s behalf? Not the lying and the secrecy and the belief that laws do not apply when your name is clinton?
None of this is worse than “attacks on a judge for his Mexican ethnicity?”
Glenn has jumped the shark.
Speaking of Trump (and his Wall), you will not likely hear this from any of her Wall Street speeches:
“Tear down the ‘Wall’ in Wall Street that is separating the 1% from the 99%.”
Ms. Clinton, tear down the Wall.
yeah, and after he has done so many fine articles on the terrible effects of our wars. chomsky, glenn, now matt taibbi.
No kidding. Were they lying then or are they lying now?
It’s all so disappointing. But I guess you just never know who’s got balls until the stakes get high enough.
Gonna miss ya, matt.
Glenn, like many journalist, likes hyperbole, and a lot of people don’t understand that NYC state of mind.
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/149983115751/why-trump-doesnt-scare-me
Yeah, Katniss, that jumped out at me, too, and largely for the same reasons you adduce.
Glenn does lurv him some virtue signaling sometimes.
CEO Helps Brother, Again, With $100 Million Soccer Stadium Deal
The bank has drawn big investors including Oaktree Capital Management and counts former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as an adviser.
And the market-beating returns have come despite misgivings expressed over the years by one of the bank’s biggest shareholders, academics and community activists over deals benefiting Sugarman’s family and board members. Institutional Shareholder Services, an adviser to investors, credits the bank’s auditing but gives the firm’s overall governance risk the worst grade on the scale. (Tip No. 7: “Listen to the skeptics.”)
Sugarman, in an interview, said the Irvine-based bank will keep pursuing opportunities that optimize returns even if that means more related-party transactions. The bank details them in regulatory filings, noting they’ve been vetted by the board.
To a degree, such deals are inevitable, he said, because the board and executive team are almost never more than “one to two degrees of separation” from leaders in Southern California’s business community.
Any time potential conflicts arise, the bank will “manage them, we’ll make sure they’re done right and we’ll make sure there’s full disclosure.”
Warning Signs
The soccer club and its partners aim to privately finance the $350 million stadium, according to the team’s website. Banc of California’s $100 million contribution, described by people with knowledge of the deal, exceeds the lender’s combined profits for 2014 and 2015. The company has promised to pay it over 15 years, the people said.
Such transactions, even when disclosed, should serve as warning signs for investors when deciding whether to buy the stock, said William Black, a former regulator who’s now an economics and law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
“These kinds of conflicts of interest, we have known for millennia, are associated with a dramatically increased risk of failure, and an amazingly increased risk of loss upon failure,” said Black, who worked at the Office of Thrift Supervision in the 1990s.
Securities Book
Within a year, Banc of California adopted its new name as its balance sheet swelled. The firm completed acquisitions, expanded its securities book, added branches and increased lending. Along the way, it drew accolades for expanding in California communities neglected by other banks.
But even the California Reinvestment Coalition, which has praised such work, expressed concerns in 2014 about the bank’s related-party deals.
The relationship with Oaktree, the private equity shop run by Howard Marks, required Banc of California to make additional disclosures to shareholders. After the investment firm took a stake in November 2014, Banc of California extended more than $50 million in credit facilities to companies owned by Oaktree. In 2014 and 2015, Oaktree also paid the Palisades Group about $10.5 million in management fees. The firm exited its stake in the bank during this year’s second quarter, according to a regulatory filing. An Oaktree spokeswoman declined to comment.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-07/ceo-helps-brother-again-with-100-million-soccer-stadium-deal
Oh brother.
Thanks for the link. Regional bank trying to go big time = potential for bad outcomes.
Like the man says the best way to rob one is own it. Nothing ever goes bust in Orange County…
Desert, Storm
— The Bush administration thought an elective war would make America safer. Then Katrina hit. The untold story of the Iraq war’s toll on New Orleans.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/09/how_the_iraq_war_set_the_stage_for_the_hurricane_katrina_disaster.html
OMG – I can’t even get thru the rest of the “internet pirates” article, as I just keep reading this thrown-in phrase over and over –
>With few jobs in the country for lawyers,
Heaven might *not* be that far away!
To Aby: I’m so sorry for the loss of your brother. I’m sending you a big hug. Be well.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/07/opinion/glenn-beck-empathy-for-black-lives-matter.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0
Glenn Beck:
“After the horrific shootings of five police officers in Dallas this summer, I had the opportunity to watch an interview with the parents of the gunman by Lawrence Jones, a contributor at The Blaze, of which I am the founder. I was able to see their heartache and sorrow as parents, as Americans and as human beings.
…
After the massacre, I invited several Black Lives Matter believers on my show. I got to know them as people — on and off air — and invited them back again. These individuals are decent, hardworking, patriotic Americans. We don’t agree on everything, certainly not on politics; but are we not more than politics? I refuse to define each of them based on the worst among them. No movement is monolithic. The individuals I met that day are not “Black Lives Matter”; they are black Americans who feel disenfranchised and aggrieved; they are believers; they are my neighbors and my fellow citizens.
We need to listen to one another, as human beings, and try to understand one another’s pain. Empathy is not acknowledging or conceding that the pain and anger others feel is justified. Empathy is acknowledging someone else’s pain and anger while feeling for them as human beings — even, and maybe especially, when we don’t necessarily agree or understand them.
Again, that’s different from empathizing with self-interested insiders and instigators. Just as I suggest a concerted effort at empathy, we must also stand together to confront the nefarious elements within our movements with equal fervor.
We are a country in trouble, and we have only one way out: reconciliation. We must follow the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s message and method and move away from a pursuit of “winning” and toward reclaiming our shared humanity. We cannot reconcile with those who want to tear up the Constitution or those who want blood in the street. But we can and must reconcile of our own free will with our neighbors and friends.”
======================================
WOW
Could have knocked me over with a feather. Would sooner have believed that hippopotamuses can fly into space and build communities on Mars. Or that Trump fires Pence, and offers Hillary the Vice Presidency and Hillary accepts.
Sincere or ratings ploy???
WOW is right. I put this under the category of even a stopped clock is right twice a day. But it sure is astounding to hear something like this coming from Beckistan.
That is a great time lapse of Yellowstone,,, it is a unique place! One of the first family roadtrips.
The closest alternative I’ve seen is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geysir and cool as it is no where near the scale of Yellowstone in all its dimensions.
the back story on the dedication at the end of the film is this fatal and senseless death, not really a mistake because he got of the boardwalk intentionally… I am not sure what possesses people to do this? :
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/
Gruesome hot spring death highlights problem of tourists breaking the rules at Yellowstone
Haven been here in many years, but a great place to experience is http://www.chicohotsprings.com/accomodations/main-lodge/
In Montana style, the approach road has a runway heading painted on it for the occasional light aircraft
Yes, when your young (Colin Scott was 23) you believe you’re invincible, but Nature is unforgiving.
I made a similar mistake at about the same age when visiting Devil’s Kitchen in Lassen Volcanic National Park. (This was before designated walkways.) One leg plunged to the knee into a very colorful and HOT mud pot. Despite leather boots and long pants, the searing mud boiled the skin off a good part of my leg (scars remain). Colin Scott was not so lucky—there are no remains.
Saddened to read about the latest round of violence in Kashmir. Like so many other issues for those of us who live and work elsewhere in the world, it is difficult in the case of Kashmir to know where the propaganda ends and reality begins, or even who the various parties involved really are, together with the interests behind them and the underlying whys and wherefores.
This linked article below is somewhat dated, but democratic local elections that focus on local economic development and governance, and leave the longstanding national control-separatist issues for another day, appear to be an approach that at least recognizes the economic, educational, healthcare and environmental interests of the people who actually live in Kashmir.
http://scroll.in/article/696138/kashmir-election-has-reshaped-language-and-agenda-of-all-parties
Not to be flippant about a serious long-term political issue, but they could potentially also open the door to location scouts for Bollywood film makers to expand their mountain meadow dance scenes that are so popular throughout Southern Asia and the M.E.
Many Bollywood films from a couple of decades ago include scenes shot in Kashmir. Sadly, the security situation there is now such that Bollywood often films similar mountain scenes in Switzerland or elsewhere in Europe.
Thank you for the article about the Cambodian journalist who gave his life in an effort to publicize the looting and preserve the forest. Massive destruction and degradation of forests, illegal logging and trafficking in logs continues to be a huge problem globally, reflective of limited supply in the face of high global demand.
The thieves are often violent criminals, and the power of the state is the only effective counter IMO. But what can be done when the state itself is broken? There is no supranational environmental enforcement organization.
I thought that was what the TPP was for…
(Though if a country’s environmental legislation gets in the way of multinational profits, all bets are off…)
Re: closing tax loophole on VC’s: Interesting that it is brought up in the VC “bought and paid for” San Jose Mercury Newspaper. As a former Bay Area resident of longstanding – 1979 to 2014 – I observed and lived through many changes in the Bay Area economy. I have nothing personal against tech companies – I know that I can’t imagine not having internet access and I greatly enjoy and use such access. But the fact that the U.S. economy has gone from manufacturing quality products of many types for our own consumption to an almost exclusively rent extraction economy causes me concern. The ability for my kids and grandkids, who are being born practically as I write this: two pregnant daughters-in-law; I am deeply concerned for their quality of life via a sustainable and economically rewarding career path. I do not believe that Trump or anyone else will get back our manufacturing base. It’s GWTW via “trade treaties.” It would be nice if Congress threw us a bone by way of a tax increase on those entities which would do nothing but profit from our recalcitrant government.