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Knowingly taking placebo pills eases pain, study finds Science Daily. Readers?
Central Bank Tools Are Losing Their Edge WSJ
UBS spending $1 billion on IT overhaul Reuters (RS). Let us know how that works out.
How Apple Scaled Back Its Titanic Plan to Take on Detroit Bloomberg. Maybe putting the Apple Watch team in charge of the Apple Car wasn’t such a good idea… Kidding!
The Dying Business of Picking Stocks WSJ
Why Isn’t the U.S. Better at Predicting Extreme Weather? NYT (DK). No mention of why we might need to, more than in the past…
Navigating the energy transition landscape: summary findings from a dynamic systems view Beyond this Brief Anomaly (PU).
North Dakota Judge Throws Out Charges Against Journalist Amy Goodman Bill Moyers. “[B]ut a documentary-maker who was also arrested for committing journalism faces a potential 45 years in prison.”
Brexit
Searching for the True Britain Der Speigel
‘Brexit’ May Hurt Britain Where It Thrives: Science and Research NYT
Syraqistan
US Troops ‘In Harm’s Way’ as Battle for Mosul Begins Military.com. Wait, what? Boots on the ground?
The battle for Mosul has barely begun, but the civilian toll is already being tallied McClatchy. Wait, what? I thought only Russian bombs caused civilian casualties?
Saudi Bank Stress Builds as Kingdom’s Cash Injection Falls Short Bloomberg
Saudi Arabia poised to launch first international bond sale FT
China?
China pours $10.7 billion into overseas real estate in first half South China Morning Post. Summary of Chinese capital outflows.
China’s Real ‘House of Cards’: TV Series Unveils Graft Excess Bloomberg
Yawn: China’s Space Program Is Making Advances Look Routine WSJ
Europe and Russia prepare for historic landing on Mars Nature
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
Asylum of WikiLeaks’ Assange not in question PC World
The Barrett Brown Review of Arts and Letters and Prison The Intercept (JH).
Health Care
Pharmacy for seniors settles case over kickbacks scam McClatchy. Oh, great. Corrupt formularies.
MACRA Final Rule: CMS Strikes A Balance; Will Docs Hang On? Health Affairs.
[K]ey Members of Congress have already weighed in applauding the Rule. Here’s a tip: when Members applaud a regulation like this so quickly, two things are going on: 1) they are taking a solid helping of credit for changes the agency has made; and 2) they are putting affected stakeholders on notice that they have an uphill battle in securing new changes soon. Read: this is as good as it’s going to get.
War Drums
And so it begins:
Israel Knows That Putin Is the Middle East’s New Sheriff NYT
Vladimir Putin Holds Kitten In Attempt to Seem Human Kevin Drum, Mother Jones. Attaboy, Kevin! Paste ‘im one for me!
2016
Companies used Clinton fundraisers to lobby State Department USA Today. “While it is widely known that some companies and foreign governments gave money to the [Clinton family] foundations, perhaps in an effort to gain favor, one of the key parts of the puzzle hasn’t been reported: At least a dozen of those same companies lobbied the State Department, using lobbyists who doubled as major Clinton campaign fundraisers.” How convenient.
State Department official ‘pressured’ FBI to declassify Clinton email: FBI documents Reuters. Oddly, or not, the phrase “quid pro quo” does not appear in the headline, although it does appear in the body.
Oh, boy. Quid pro quo allegation between State and FBI over classification. That is messy. pic.twitter.com/Kf5FcSFQjb
— Matt Zapotosky (@mattzap) October 17, 2016
As WikiLeaks Access to Internet is Severed, New Clinton Email Bombshell Emerges Wall Street on Parade. Terrible headline. Bottom line: “According to Federal Election law, once an exploratory candidate spends more than $5,000 for campaign purposes, that individual is considered a functioning candidate for office under the law and is required to promptly file a Statement of Candidacy and Statement of Organization and begin filing regular donor and expense reports.” From the Podesta emails, a layperson might think the Clinton operation — and Robbie Mook, in particular — didn’t break this law; they smashed it to smithereens, and then ground the smithereens to powder.
WikiLeaks Emails Show Clinton Aides Cowering In Fear Of Seeming To Care About The Poor Deadspin
‘Don’t share or tell anyone I did this’: Politico reporter criticized for email to Clinton campaign chair Business Insider. Glenn Thrush: “Because I have become a hack i will send u the whole section that pertains to u.” Ouch.
You Can’t Scream Holocaust or Fascist Without Consequences Ian Welsh. The obvious going unsaid.
Perhaps Trump is a good opportunity to rethink presidential democracy Carl Beijer. Must-read.
Donald Trump Says He Might Meet With Putin Before Inauguration NYT
Rejecting Trump, Wall Street Republican donors scatter largesse Reuters
Donald Trump and Republican party at war in Ohio FT
Trump’s overt sexism obscures a more dangerous bias Anne-Marie Slaughter, FT
Women Who Hate Trump, but Aren’t With Her The Atlantic
In Town for Pramila Jayapal, Bernie Sanders Booed at Mentions of Hillary The Stranger
Class Warfare
Many UC workers struggle to feed themselves and their families, study shows LA Times
As the economy improves, evictions in St. Louis remain stubbornly high St Louis Post-Dispatch. Whenever you read “the economy,” ask “Whose economy?
Economic growth more likely when wealth distributed to poor instead of rich Guardian
The privilege of being privileged Transformation. On foundations, well worth a read.
Send more blondes LRB. “The US was determined first to ensure that the [Belgian Congo’s] Shinkolobwe mine in particular wouldn’t be able to supply Germany with uranium, and then to take control of its whole production.”
Indians Pitcher First Athlete to Be Benched for Drone Injury Vice (Re Silc).
You Can’t Always Make Yourself Happy New York Magazine
F*ck You Startup World Medium (Re Silc). Excellent use of anaphora!
Antidote du jour:
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
310 comments
Comments are closed.
The local write-up about Bill Clinton’s visit to Dartmouth yesterday. Apparently it was a crowd of about 500. Cheers. Have a nice day, friends.
No irony here…“You cannot give this country’s future away to people who think that anger is better than answers, that resentment is much better than empowerment, that endless conflict is better than cooperation, and that the path forward in the world is walls, not bridges,” the 70-year-old Clinton told the crowd of nearly 500 listening in the Hopkins Center for the Arts. “You can’t do it — it’s your life.”
Here is a write-up about it by The Dartmouth. So the large auditorium, Spaulding auditorium, holds 900. Alumni Hall is where they hold grad school and career fairs. It doesn’t have built-in seating. I think Alumni is where they put BC the last time he was here during primary season and it wasn’t a very good turnout. Bernie Sanders was in Spaulding with other large rooms for overflow.
Also, someone yesterday couldn’t believe I was posting from the Podesta emails and accused me of being a gullible idiot(“You actually believe that?!?). He’s always been a good Team D trooper. They’re swallowing it(the Russian story) hook, line, and sinker.
Wondering if the Clanton Campaign Machine scurried around vetting the “500” to make sure there were no Disreputable Deplorable Commie Sympathizers, only True Blue Loyalists in the crowd…
Must maintain the aura of inevitability, and put the Big Dog back in the WH and in charge of “domestic affairs.” Do they have domestics in the Imperial Palace for WJC to have affairs with?
Looks like one kid the D interviewed a kid that went but he was firmly on the Never Hillary Train, however for the most part it sounded like all loyalists. At least now I know some more to vote against.
Kelton, Rodrik, Saez and more just endorsed Clinton.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/clinton-progressive-economists_us_580522abe4b0dd54ce34697c?
Please Fav or RT this tweet if you agree.
https://twitter.com/UserFrIENDlyyy/status/788376994417442816
Easy to appoint, easy to hamstring and dis-appoint. ..
She couldn’t remove the fed chair. At treasury she could mint a 10$ Trillion dollar platinum coin and deposit it at the fed before getting kicked out.
Why on Earth would Kelton endorse Clinton? Clinton is a deficit hawk, an anathema to everything Kelton works for.
I must have missed the “no endless conflict’ bit in the actual article about the visit. I think he ‘misunderestimates’ both the press and the Republican Congress. Oh, sure much of it will be smoke and mirrors, but in the great scheme of things both need to appeal to their ‘audience’. So they will need to accurately portray Clinton and her team and her husband and make their lives miserable. It is known as politics and ratings.
And no matter what they are do, nothing is ultimately going to sell war with Russia to the public. At this point all the warmongering can be seen as comic by the majority of people, especially the most sensible who will tell you “no one with half a brain wants war with Russia”. Unfortunately that doesn’t mean we will avoid it, just that there is no real selling point for it for the NeoCon/NeoLiberal brain trust.
Nope, I believe one of our worst Presidents ever protests to much.
(As to his assertion about make America great again, sorry Bill most people who hear that just think we should be the land of opportunity for more than financial tricksters and a few tech boondoggles.)
Don’t be angry at injustice.
Don’t resent huge trust funds.
Cooperate with your masters, not seeking endless conflict.
Never mind bridges, put walls around Wall Street.
Maybe there is a season for everything. A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time for anger and a time for answer.
Here is a report from the stop at Keene. I cannot understand how anyone can buy this. smh. Yes, Bill, it’s their fault, and/or they’re just imagining things. Believe believe believe. Wow.
“If you have encounters with the supporters of the other candidate in the next 22 days, do not treat them the way they have treated Hillary and the way they have talked about her,” Bill Clinton told the crowd Monday at Keene State College.
“No matter how mean they are, extend your hand,’’ he said. “Why? Because the root of this are people who have given up on America and believe America has given up on them.”
Very nice of Bill, the victim.
“Those who have wronged me, Hillary, our Foundation, and those who are with her…in the State Department (in the past and now), in the media, on Wall Street, abroad, etc, I forgive them.”
I can just see him now, biting on his lip to contain his emotions.
I think maybe he should have encouraged her supporters not to treat Trump’s supporters the way the Clinton folks treated Sanders and his supporters.
When they were handing out chutzpah, Bill not only got in line more than once, he probably also got people to pay him to do it.
HClinton via her “private position” is pro-TPP & pro-SS/MC cuts, & by failing to criticize it Trump likely iso also pro-TPP & pro-SS/MC cuts
—
out of curiosity, I read @realdonaldtrump ‘s tweets since Fri Oct 7, since the Podesta Wikileaks was announced that weekend.
The Podesta Wikileaks reveals HClinton saying she “has a public position & a private position”, & her presumably authentic “private position” often contradicts her 2016 campaign “public position” as well as the 2016 D Platform she agreed to. Perhaps most importantly, HClinton’s private position is pro-TPP & pro-Simpson Bowles-style “Grand Bargain” Ripoff of SS & MC cuts.
Trump, like HClinton, has claimed in the campaign to be anti-SS/MC cuts & anti-TPP. I read @realdonaldtrump tweets to see of he mentions HClinton’s private position is pro-SS/MC cuts & pro-TPP.
Trump does have some Podesta Wikileaks criticism, but NONE of it is on policy. Trump criticizes
1 how HClinton election rigged the primary election from Sanders
2 campaign communicated w DOJ, & State Dept’s Patrick Kennedy communicated FBI to discuss/tamper with email investigation
3 Politco journalist has HClinton campaign edit his article
I would conclude that either
1 Trump was always like HClinton in the aspect of his “private position” is pro-TPP, & pro-SS/MC cuts. The fact that Trump himself in his own mfg goods business (e.g. ties) offshore outsourced to low wage nations, would further indicate Trump is likely to be pro-TPP.
2 Trump after becoming the R nominee was pressured by the R Establishment, including Paul Ryan & BigDonor/Owners to become quietly pro-TPP & pro-SS/MC cuts & not mention these topics in the general election campaign
3 Trump & his campaign team have Sarah Palin-level low IQ to not realize to bring up HClinton’s pro-TPP & pro-SS/MC cuts positions. Thus even if Trump were elected & were genuinely anti-TPP & anti-SS/MC cuts, he would be ineffective in stopping these policies.
Furthermore, although it doesn’t contradict the 2016 D Platform, Podesta/Wikileaks shows HClinton’s stupid bizarre incoherent Syria policy of wanting to regime-change Assad & attack 1SIS simultaneously, even though she acknowledges it would kill many civilians, & maintains friendship with her Saudi royal owners/Clinton Foundation funders despite acknowledging they fund 1SIS.
I read some commenters here writing they will Lesser Evil Vote for Trump on the grounds of Trump being anti-TPP or anti-Syria & Russia WW3 war. Based on Trump’s lack of mentioning these issues post-Podesta Wikileaks, I am not sure if he is actually meaningfully different than HClinton on these issues.
I suppose Trump LE voters have the general notion that he is anti-establishment & has some nonzero chance of ending the 35+ yr neoliberal Reganomics Establishment era, where HClinton is extremely unlikely to do so.
I am a safe state & am voting for Jill Stein. I have empathy for swing state voters who feel compelled into LEV, IMHO it is difficult to distinguish who actually is the LE among the duopolist Clumps.
—
PS, in a stopped clock moment, I’ll give 1 prop (not “props” in the plural sense) to this Trump cartoon ad on HClinton’s Clinton Foundation as bribe pay-to-play corruption
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/788150475258343424
Perhaps people should engage in “Less Effective Evil” voting, rather than “Lesser Evil” voting. That might be an argument in favor of Trump.
Heck, Jill Stein is now openly admitting that Trump is the lesser evil. Shouldn’t that carry some weight around here?
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/10/12/jill_stein_hillary_clintons_declared_syria_policy_could_start_a_nuclear_war.html
I would support Jill Stein if my vote didn’t matter–unfortunately I live in a hotly contested swing state, so I’ll just go with her recommendation instead.
jgordon: Vote for what you believe in instead of playing the ponies. Either you believe in something or you’re just pretending to believe in something. And that’s the Clinton problem in a nutshell: No one knows what she stands for. But you can stand for something.
When was the last potus election with a candidate representing “what you believe in”?
I believe it is more of “what you don’t believe in”. And that was when Clinton was first running and I had to press 1 for English. WTF wasn’t around then, but it sure fit my state of mind. Both sets of grandparents came over by boat and somehow managed to learn enough English to carry on a phone conversation. Thus any form of Amnesty bringing more who wouldn’t or couldn’t assimilate was anathema to me, and Clinton was for Amnesty. I could just envision a future wherein it was 1 for English, 2 for Swahili, 5 for Russian, etc etc
actually, if you were a real american you would vote in lakota or ojibwe.
“What you believe in” can always be adjusted.
First, you wanted perfection.
After realizing the perfect circle is no where to be found, it’s just one big slippery slope…who is less imperfect gets the nod.
If one goes with what one believes or believes in, (the Ideal Form, etc), it’s none of the above.
When one is trying to survive, to avoid death, one has to try what one can – for this and against that….one can’t be too picky.
In other words, you need to say something that sounds moral to yourself for why you are voting for a confirmed mass killer. She’s not a perfect circle. There, that’ll do it.
to me it just damns Jill Stein, who I will vote for, but this gives me a truly rotten opinion of her. I will vote for her just as an anti-war protest, and only because I live in DC.
she’s right.
ms. clinton is truly dangerous.
Life is full of tough choices.
If this is what we have to choose from at this moment, we make the best decision we can. And we do what can’t be done at the present later.
If many of today’s problems can be attributed to one person, stop him/her.
If many of today’s problems stem from more than just one person, but many, many others who happen to be with him/her, then, stop that person and those with him/her.
It helps that either way, we don’t actually have a choice. Just the “opportunity” to faux-legitimize what the Elite puts on the menu.
“Would you prefer the shit sandwich with sautéed endive and escarole, monsieur, or perhaps the coq sun merde?”
The Donner party did what they could.
I hope we are not where they were.
“I am not eating that.”
That’s kind of my bottom line in all of this: if we really are at the point where we’ve been cornered into voting for Donald Trump to stave off Armageddon.. then it’s too fucking late.
At the very least it’s too late to effect any meaningful change at all through a democratic system that is truly off the rails. If that’s really where we are, then maybe it’s time to wake up and quit pushing any of the so called choices being shoved at us.
HC has corrupted the ENTIRE executive branch, from Obama on down to the Dept. of Justice to the FBI. She’s corrupted American diplomacy through the Clinton Foundation. There has been wholesale emasculation of our investigative agencies. Her motto should be “No law left behind.”
This is what gets me most, I never minded when the other team got in and did their worst for a while, you could always reverse the damage eventually. But when they destroy the very institutions of our government then we are absolutely screwed. When the FBI, the White House, the State Dept, and the DOJ are colluding in a giant secret cabal, no matter what they’re colluding for, it’s game over.
So America will “choose” Hilary. A blatant vote for War, Lies, and Wall St. I would have thought we were well and truly sick of all three by this stage.
Right, HC has single handedly corrupted the entire GOVERNMENT, and all the OTHER governments too, the whole world even. She herself is solely responsible for the fact that politicians are bought and paid for, that money is running the show, and that the media lies to us. How could we miss the simple fact that Hillary Clinton has been world overlord for generations now?
With a few exceptions, it’s beyond me how anyone could live through the past month and still vote for Clinton. The majority of the media is now her propaganda arm. She can literally get away with serious crimes and corruption, and wagging the dog with xenophobic anti-Russian hysterics. Her campaign took advantage of mentally ill people to disrupt Trump rallies and create a false narrative that Trump and his supporters were dangerous bigots. In reading through the emails, her staff is incompetent and shallow. They know she is awful but they continue to prop her up.
I don’t think Trump will be able to get much done with the entire media and Congress working against him. The unquestioning loyalty undeservedly given to Clinton is far more terrifying to me. I think she will clamp down on internet speech very quickly, and take us to war with Russia, both because she wants a large scale war, and to distract from any novel authoritarian domestic policies.
I am in a red state so I will vote for Stein, but if my vote mattered it would be for Trump.
The US is a religious state. Voting is a sacrament. Voting for the righteous leader will bring blessings. (I think it was Seneca who lamented that people would start voting the state into their own hands; if only it were not virtual and ephemeral.)
jgordon
Why don’t you find someone who lives in a safe state and is going to vote Trump and swap. Like Yves.
You vote Trump in your Swing state, Yves votes Stein in NY.
Agree with Jill.
Re: Neera Tanden
If she is such a “loyal soldier” for Clinton, perhaps she will go over and fight Russia? The campaign needs you Neera, godspeed!
The day that Russia sends its military, uninvited to the US is the day I rethink my position I am confident that day will not come. Until then, hypotheticals which change the nature of the argument to benefit tone side with no accompanying evidence will not change my position.
The Clintons should be ashamed of such transparent first-day-of-law-school tactics but I am certain they are not. All of them, including Neera are deplorable.
I live in Michigan and have wanted to move some place humid and warm, despite liking the idea that I am surrounding by one of the worlds largest areas of usable freshwater. With the way things are now, and depending on how they move forward (and whether or not I was actually going to move in the first place), I will definitely be holding my strategic position.
……. despite liking the idea that I am surrounding by one of the worlds largest areas of usable freshwater.
So is Flint.
I am still wondering when leadership will stop passing the buck, deciding which party is to blame, and fix the damn problem. This never should have dragged on this long. I mean come on, water! I guess we know what will happen when an area becomes oxygen starved. An ominous telling of the state of affairs.
From what seems to be a recently updated account, some lines have been/are being replaced, but there is nowhere near the amount of funding needed to replace the lot of them.
What I want in a President, or Governor, or Mayor is someone who would have shown up, visibly infuriated, walked into the middle of the road with a pick axe and jack hammer, and just started tearing up concrete. No talking, no photos, no cool guy sips of water. A construction crew would follow shortly after this initial ground striking.
What I want in a President, or Governor, or Mayor is someone who would have shown up, visibly infuriated….
But they have shown up, and they are visibly infuriated, about ribald pussy-grabbing comments that are at the root of the country’s dysfunction and Flint’s poison water. I’m almost certain that your former governor, jennifer granholm, once she comes back to earth following the defeat of the cad, Trump, on behalf of pussies everywhere, will make sure that hillary remembers that something is happening in Flint, MI.
At least the queen visited the distraught subjects in Flint. Baton Rouge didn’t even get that much.
Wait long enough and you’ll be someplace humid and warm, with none of the bother of moving.
vote clinton and soon we’ll all be someplace humid and cold.
+100
Neeta is so tonedeaf it’s remarkable. She regularly gets pushback and is lambasted by the leftists and journos on twitter. Just a terrible terrible surrogate. You think Hillary could buy a better patsy.
She’ll do a great job as Clinton’s chief of staff!
“Scumbag” Tanden’s a perfect surrogate. She’s epistemically closed.
Roger Smith: I know that it is terribly, terribly sexist, but I am going to start insisting on a draft for men and women. Neera Tanden wouldn’t be so big on war-mongering if she had to register for the draft and contemplate the prospect of being blown up in Baghdad on some mission to protect the Imperial Vanity.
Corollary: I am all in favor of war with Russia, so long as Chelsea Clinton is enrolled at West Point and preparing to join the officer corps.
Forget the officer corps. She must be immediately conscripted into the army under an approved alias, sent to boot camp and is treated the same as some poor kid from Mississippi. Four years at West Point gives too much leeway. Six weeks away from a front line…
She’d just get a cush steno job ( as would ALL the little synchophants) ……… no front line shit !
REMF is a perennial in the acronym world. Perhaps a new, improved acronym may be coined to describe our current crop?
Re Putin and the poor kitteh, it is this sentence that really makes Drum an exceptional hack: “Voters, allegedly, continue to be pissed off.” What a moron. Now I know why Drum’s cat was so desperate to get away from him that she ran away and got eaten by a coyote. Poor kitty…
Kittens. Pussies. This feline fetishism is proof positive of the Vulcan mind-meld between Trump and Putin that spells the death of our republic should Trump win the presidency IMNSHO.
I’ll have to switch my allegiance to the queen, whose “mind” is protected by creatures called robby mook and neera tanden.
Neera Tanden is a case study for over education doesn’t fix stupid.
For those like Tanden, the BS CV is a hallway pass into the the Fantastic Level –the black-hole of political appointee largesse and delusion where operatives that have nothing positive to contribute aggregate and make life for the rest of us at The Realistic Level in this World more difficult.
T. Lawrence Shannon: The Fantastic Level and the Realistic Level are the two levels upon which we live.
~Night of the Iquana
“I have … and AWAYS … will be … YOUR friend/Enemy …… election depending …..”
https://everbosity.wordpress.com/tag/walter-winchell/
Amazingly, this seemingly modern internetty word was first recorded back in 1953 when Walter Winchell joked “Howz about calling the Russians our Frienemies?” The term didn’t show up again of note until 1977 and then again faded into disuse for another fifteen years.
Frenemy
key phrase …… ‘election depending’ ..
Clear evidence of male bonding between Putin and Trump. Disgusting. Then our opportunistic media chooses to publish this filthy, sexist affront to our delicate Puritan sensibilities. It just makes things worse.
If I see Putin in a beaver skin hat, I’m turning off the electricity. Enough is enough!
Drum is one thing, but the comments section was even more depressing. I was watching something with Robert Scheer recently, and he noted how people who worked for Ramparts magazine went on to found Mother Jones. Talk about falling far from the tree…
The dnc’s incompetence exposed dnc corruption and the answer is that americans might die on the steppes of russia
Not to worry, ICBMs and submarine-launched ballistic missiles and other Strategic Weapons mean you can “die for your country” while kiosking your Big Mac order to the robot burger flipper…
Is “to kiosk” the appropriate nounverb infinitive form? So hard to keep up with street language..,
…having it ‘your’ way…….
whose to bet will ‘last longer’ …… a human …or a Big Mac ??
ghee …that’s a tough one !
Buttering us up o guru?
Now tell me ….who doesn’t like BUTTER ????
…. and it sure isn’t in anything Ronald makes …….now concerning those ICBMs ……
Regarding placebos: “I’m addicted to placebos. I’d give them up, but it wouldn’t make any difference.” ~ Steven Wright
Think of all the money you could save if you quit. You might feel better just from that!
Maybe there’s a generic version that’s cheaper?
Sugar pills, but lately they tell us sugar is lethal. Best to buy the name brand placebos, methinks.
There’s always honey :’)
You PAY for placebos?? Man you are craazy!
Actually, the FDA has approved some drugs which tested out maybe a point or two higher than a placebo during clinical trials. So they’re out there, and plenty pricey. Not that your tax money or insurance premium are paying for them, lets hope….
I wouldn’t bet on that. How about SSRI’s?
See Joanna Moncrieff, The Myth of the Chemical Cure, or
Irving Kirsch, The Emperor’s New Drugs
There’s billions in placebos, or medical grifting.
Knowingly taking placebo pills eases pain, study finds (Science Daily).
A version of this effect has happened to me while taking sudafed for sinus congestion. One time the symptoms stopped immediately after I took the pills, much too quickly. The reason was that taking the pills enabled me to stop sniffing and just wait quietly. The sniffing had been aggravating the condition. I can see how self-aggravated pain symptoms could abate the same way.
TOO FUNNEE. Only Three steps for Placebos Rehab…
We admitted we were powerless over Sobriety – that our lives had become unmanageable.
Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of the Pharmaceutical Gods as we understood Them.
Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly Popped a Pill.
I know there that it is anything but a placebo, but I find alcohol a great cure for the ‘flu. Actually, I find that it cures almost everything.
Pain is a perception. Placebo changes the perception. There was also a study that coffee drinkers bodies had been conditioned to respond physiologically (arousal, blood pressure, etc) to coffee as it hit your mouth, well before the caffeine reached the blood stream.
Think stoic philosophy, where our efforts should not be on changing things in the world we have no cont over, but to change our reaction to said things.
I heard someone tell that to a woman that road her bike into a ditch and broke her collarbone. She groaned and then channeled tunaboat captain venacular. My general sense was she didnt agree on that ” only a perception” premise.
It’s not a matter of changing the perception, and I don’t think that Stoicism is related in quite the way that you think.
With a placebo you are changing the context of the perception or, rather, expanding it. I think the article author is quite right to say that the placebo represents an ensemble of caring relationships. The patient is no longer alone with their pain. Along that line, it’s one thing to have a stoic attitude, but it’s something very different to take a stoic attitude in the recognition that you are following the advice of Marcus Aurelius. How cool is that! And if you don’t have Aurelius by your side, you quite likely have some more proximate figure, or at least the consolation of “thinking clearly,” which is not a small one.
It wasn’t at all surprising to me. Some pains, like lower back pain, that are dull and only shoot when you move a certain way are generally not kept in the front of your mind. You are only reminded of them when you go to move or otherwise agitate them. It’s much easier for you to suppress that dull sporadic pain sensation when your conscious brain remembers recently having done something to have fixed it. It’s like your conscious brain gets the signal and says “nope, we took care of that” and doesn’t let it come into focus.
That is the same mechanism that lets you cut off feelings of pain in extreme circumstances (mom pulls car off kid). For a very different reason, you are not processing the pain signals. Not letting the pain signals into your consciousness is the key, as opposed to stopping the pain signals from happening in the first place.
I would be very surprised if this worked on something like a headache.
As someone in chronic neurological pain from a rare genetic disease, I just can’t handle this one today. The words that shoot through my brain aren’t presentable. My doctor who first gave me opioids several years ago, last week suggested 600mg/day of alpha lipoic acid for my pain, and if that doesn’t work in a month, then he will prescribe Lyrica.
Go ahead, give me your experience with Lyrica.
Don’t have any experience with Lyrica, though I have some with Gabapentin.
But Alpha Lipoic acid for pain sounds like a bad joke to me. I hope the Lyrica helps you.
I thought both the Alpha Lipoic acid(ala) and the Lyrica sounded like a bad joke. I thought he was suggesting the ala as a joke since he knows I use cbd which he associates with stoners (despite the fact I had suggested he check out Raphael Mechoulam’s research supported by the NIH for 40 years). One friend who took Lyrica for 3 months told me, it made her not care whether she lived or died.
Local, I’m not clear if you are or are not suggesting Gabapentin is a good alternative. The google information didn’t reassure me.
I appreciate your sharing.
You should google Alpha Lipoic acid, or check it out at WebMD. It may be effective for somethings, but I don’t think pain is one of them.
Oops. Posted too soon. JT has it covered already below.
Re alpha lipoic acid, there’s this from Mayo (read down):
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/peripheral-neuropathy/diagnosis-treatment/treatment/txc-20205118
I tried it along with B-12. But it seemed I once again proved that if there’s a side effect, I’ll manifest it — major episode of vertigo, diminishing after I stopped taking it (on it for 8 days).
Everyone is different. Not much profit for big Pharma in the chemical.
I don’t have the peripheral neuropathy but “whole body” or “muscle” neuropathy. The side effects of the epilepsy drugs are used by others with my disease but the side effects sound like opioid side effects and I will fight for as long as I can to not be a zombie. Have tried the depression medicines and opioids and will not take them. I didn’t take opioids after my last surgery. Concentrated hemp oil(CW) works best but is too expensive on my retirement income to take all the time.
I share the above not for sympathy but so that others can learn from my experimentation on myself.
beth @ 3:08 pm
This might be why your doc is recommending 600 mg daily ALA:
“Vitamin C is our premier water-soluble antioxidant, and vitamin E is our primary fat-soluble antioxidant. But alpha lipoic acid (LA) serves as both a water-soluble and fat-soluble antioxidant. It resembles CoQ10 and GSPE in helping recycle other antioxidants such as vitamin C, vitamin E, glutathione and even CoQ10 itself. ALA is able to neutralize the most dangerous ROS of all, the OH (hydroxyl) free radical, as well as other harmful free radicals.
LA increases utilization of glucose and the efficiency by which insulin moves sugar into cells. In the presence of free radicals, excess glucose is attached to protein molecules to form AGEs (advanced glycation end products). AGEs are the cause of such diverse conditions as cataracts and age spots on the skin. LA slows or reverses their formation as well as many other types of age-related AGEs.
Because of the safety of LA, there is a wide range of suggested dosages. For healthy adults, 50 to 100 milligrams once or twice a day should be sufficient. For individuals trying to correct glucose intolerance or the metabolic syndrome (see chapter 9), we recommend 100 to 300 milligrams. For diabetics, the recommended dose is 300 to 600 milligrams, while diabetics with neuropathy (nerve damage) should take at least 600 to 900 milligrams a day until their symptoms resolve.”
–The Science Behind Radical Life Extension: Fantastic Voyage, by Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman M.D., pg 330.
I’ve been taking ALA per these guidelines for diabetics for a decade without incident, but I don’t know anything about Lyrica. Best wishes…
meeps, I don’t have glucose intolerance but my body does not rid itself of GL3, a lipid, which results in the pain and insult to other body systems. I lost 10 lbs recently to return to 140lbs. Thanks for the information. It may be helpful for me to continue the LA. Even with my disease only a minority get the type of pain I have. I have a mutation that is considered severe. So far I look like I am healthy. To keep my pain in check I must get plenty of sleep, get a medical message weekly to prevent my muscles from locking and take CBD before bed & first thing in the morning. My current research is leading me to suspect the pain is from a myotonic disorder. I just need to learn more.
My husband’s experience with Lyrica was not an especially good one, but that’s because he wasn’t able to take it and actually function in the world – it wasn’t safe to drive while taking it, and he had a job where he was out of the office, driving to see clients on a pretty-much daily basis. Not only was it not safe for him to drive, but he felt so out of it that he was afraid his customers would think he was drunk.
It makes him angry that the commercials for Lyrica make it look like it’s some kind of miracle drug that just makes all the pain go away and doesn’t turn you into a zombie.
Why placebos work is a huge elephant in the room. This is true evidence that there is such a thing as mind over matter, at least biologically, and I really believe there should be a major research effort to see if we can work out the underlying principles and access them directly, without even the pretense of medication. And this should include not only generating attitudes that can have a positive effect, but also paying attention to “anti-placebo” effects, that might be causing harm.
I believe that biofeedback techniques have already been proven to reduce hypertension and migraine suffering.
Of course, we’ll have to figure out a way to patent the thoughts, feelings or whatever is responsible for the effect, in fair compensation for the advertising that will be required to promulgate their use. And once TPP and TIPP are passed, we’ll have to go through the ISDS procedure to compensate the pharmaceutical industry for the losses resulting in any consequent reduction in use of chemical medications.
No blockbuster profit in that path, of course.
Let’s take Neera Dipshit Tanden’s childish logic a bit further: The punishment for allegedly hacking a server should be to put an end to life on Earth? Can someone help me out here because where I come from, that kind of talk would get you committed to a psychiatric institution.
Well, that sort of talk would get you committed to a psychiatric institution. For the “serious” people who count themselves among the D.C. think tank class, such statements are de rigueur.
Maybe she(?) confuses the Internet with the real world?
By her logic, if grand theft auto is 10 years in prison, then Stumpf should get some…1876 years in prison.
apparently Latinos is now LatinXs, at least per some Jill Stein tweets I’ve been reading.
I feel like this is a possibly actual extant although mild example of the “SJW campus PC police” that some right-wingnuts cry about in a molehill-mountain conversion.
I don’t mind if the term has actually “changed”, just am sad I “did not get the memo”, like Peter in Office Space.
Back here in Reality Land some of us still know the difference between grammatical gender and biological gender. For correct adjective usage I prefer to rely on the Real Academia Española rather than some attention-seeking douchebag.
I know many people who prefer to be called latinx. Of course they know the difference between biological and grammatical gender. Their issue is that the two are linked strongly, and they wish to de-link the two by using latinx.
Latinx sounds like a personal care product, just say’in
Anything new is hard for us to get used to. What did you think when you first saw Ms?
I still don’t know whether I am supposed to put a period after the s.
Best pun I’ve seen in a while!
Ohhhh, that looks like thin ice your standing on Ambrit.
The unintended (i’m sure) irony of Ms./Ms is that the derivation is from Mistress of the House.
Yikes! Stripes!
I’m pretty acclimated to being “up to my knees in it.”
So, Ms/Ms. has the connotation of Dom? That’s an idea I hadn’t considered before.
Any overlap between Lady of the House and Mistress of the House?
Here ‘Down South,’ the appropriate Honourific would be Miz. This being the ‘backwards’ part of America, ambiguous enough to cover a multitude of sins.
I thought it would be Ma’m… flows easier
I was about to post a play upon the phrase “Copacetic Cup,” and thought better of it.
Besides, Ma’m has a certain Patriarchal feel to it. “Thus did we make camp by the Ma’m whence it debouches from the Valley of Astarte. The susurrus of the women gently soothed the senses while the camels were hobbled in the swale.”
Why, bless your heart!”
ambit, when ms was first proposed, I laughed to myself that I had been saying miz for mrs. all my life. Didn’t think of ms replacing mrs. as a problem at all! I was from AL until I left for college.
I was a northerner, but I grew up reading Pogo and automatically associated Ms. with Miz Beaver and Miz Mam’zelle Hepzibah. It seemed perfectly natural.
All those courtesy titles have old household associations, including the archaic goodman and goodwife (=goodwoman) and lady and lord (loaf maid and loaf keeper), and the cousins from France, sir and madam. Mrs., Miss, and Ms. all derive from Mistress, and the sound and fury that have gone into debating their use are a bit comic in the long run.
Ladies;
Yes, I must bow to your wills, but, words having power, and not in just a kabbalistic sense, the sense underlying the honourific used to address someone, of any gender or neuter carries within it the social relationship assumed to be in effect between the correspondents. The choice of title claims status, or attempts to impose it.
Sometimes I’m tempted to agree with the Philosopher that language creates reality.
Your humble and obedient servant,
ambrit
Ladies;
I must bow to your wills. However, words do have power, and not in just a Kabbalistic sense. The terms used in communication between persons help determine the status of each, relative to society at large and to each other. In a very real sense, the honourific used to describe a person ‘conjures’ an archetype that defines the person addressed.
I am tempted to agree with the Philosopher who asserted that language defines reality.
As always,
Your humble and obedient servant,
ambrit
How is it “pronounced”–like “latin – x” or “la – tynx” (like lynx) or something else?
I don’t know which link this article refers to, and I haven’t heard of this. But my guess is that somewhere in this great country, audio/visual tapes are already being made that can be “discovered” in 5 or 10 years to disparage those who have failed to get the word on the newest twist of constantly evolving political correctness.
Illustrating the limitations of using language derivation as an ethnic classification
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_language#/media/File:Romance_languages_and_Romanian.png
Lah-teen-ex.
Thanks. May I have the definition? Can you use it in a sentence?
ACHOOO, ohhh my head… would you pass a Lah-teen-ex pls?
Anytime you would use latinos or latinas, you can use latinx in its place.
Yup. All those people “down there” that aren’t from Mexico, or Italy, for that matter.
It’s easy when you try hard enough.
‘new n improved’ ??
An article in the student paper said how the college was “celebrating Latinx week”.
Is there no end to the revisionism and PC? I =DEMAND= equal treatment for my LatinY brethren! At the very least the meme needs to be corrected to Latinxylgbtq!
But knowing how “the current” spreads, of course, the “neorestatement” is in the wind…
How about LatinXX and LatinXY ?
Oh man …i thought your were headed towards XXX territory there for a moment !
XXXY?
Don’t go there ! ‘:[
mmmm. LatinXOXOX ?
Afterall, Spanish is a Latin derived Romance language
What’s funny is the attempt to remove gender bias from a language that declines along formal gender based lines!
You mean Hispanic isn’t the reaction of middle aged white men to the cheap labour coming from the south?
But what do I know? I thought Francophone was a Spanish call box invented in the 1930s.
I love that demotecon you put up polecat! It looks almost Anime!
Alphonse … the FMAs’ bro ………
..unfortunately …I can’t express a flaming ‘pumpkinhead’ LOL
The Myth of the Dying God.
And, the brothers Elric, a steal from Michael Moorcock?
What’s next, H Clinton as the Goddess Amaterasu?
Getting closer, but disses all the other permutations –BAAAD!
http://anthro.palomar.edu/abnormal/abnormal_5.htm
This reminds me of something new I learned yesterday. LGBTQ I thought stood for lesbian gay bi tran queer, but a friend explained to me that the Q is for questioning. That really makes a lot of sense as queer would be pretty redundant. I guess this also means that gay should refer exclusively to men in the same way that lesbian refers exclusively to women?
I propose adding “A” to LGBTQ — since according to some research, there’s a large and under-represented population of ASEXUALS! http://www.whatisasexuality.com/intro/ C’mon, folks — get with the program!
Lig-buh-TIK-wa! It’s got rhytyhm!
ProNewDeal: This usage is turning up all over the place. The problem, of course, is that Spanish-speaking immigrants mainly from Central America wanted a kind of romantic name. “Hispanic” is still around, but it sounds so Census Bureau.
And as mentioned above, they can’t tell the difference between grammatical and biological gender, so now they are all embarrassed.
The problem is with the many, many invalid and absurd U.S. racial categories. Caucasian, anyone? Another one with absurd premises and faked history.
The Spanish-speaking people of the Americas have three ethnicities, neither of them “Latino,” “Latinx,” or any kind of “Lat.” They are color-linked. Whites are of predominantly or exclusively european, mainly Spanish, descent or assimilation. They are the Hispanics. Blacks descend from enslaved Africans and so are of predominantly or exclusively African origin. They are African-Americans. Most, however are brown and are predominantly or exclusively of real american descent–they are to be called Indios or Native Americans. but never any sort of Lat.
How the heck is “Latinx” pronounced?
J84ustin answered above.
As a Hooked on Phonics addict, I’d vowel-reduce the gender right out of the x and pronounce it as a schwa.
many Latin*s, whether in the US or in Mexico, Puerto Rico, etc, have significant ancestry from 2 or all 3 of these racial groups: Native Americans, White, &/or Black.
The Spanish-speaking people of the Americas have three ethnicities, none of them “Latino,” “Latinx,” or any kind of “Lat.” They are color-linked. Whites are of predominantly or exclusively european, mainly Spanish, descent or assimilation. They are the Hispanics. Blacks descend from enslaved Africans and so are of predominantly or exclusively African origin. They are African-Americans. Most, however are brown and are predominantly or exclusively of real american descent–they are to be called Indios or Native Americans. but never any sort of Lat.
“I feel like this is a possibly actual extant although mild example of the “SJW campus PC police” that some right-wingnuts cry about in a molehill-mountain conversion.”
But taking PC to an insane, comical extreme is something that really exists, and at times it isn’t a minor problem either. There are people on many college campuses calling for ‘safe spaces’ where not only will no one have to worry about being offended by anything, it will be one giant echo-chamber where no one will have to worry about their worldviews ever being challenged. Whether it can really be said to be a mountain of a problem, I don’t know, but it is a kind of anti-intellectual rot that spits in the face of what a university is supposed to be for, and it isn’t going to have positive effects in the long term.
How maths can get you locked up BBC “And she says that makes it difficult for a defendant to dispute their risk score: “How do you go in and say I’m really an eight or I’m a seven when you can’t really tell how it was calculated?”
“It was partly on that basis that Loomis challenged the use of the Compas risk score in his sentencing. But in July the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that if Compas is used properly, it doesn’t violate a defendant’s rights.” But if the Court does not know how Compas arrives at a score because it is “proprietary” how can the Court know Compas is or even can be used “properly”?
Re: last sentence in bold
Be aware and/or wary
If maths can get you locked up, then might the use of logic result in an even harsher penalty!
One is reminded of Lewis Carroll’s Red Queen logic…
Humpty Dumpty?
“And when they took away the mathematician …… I didn’t protest … because I wasn’t a mathematician ….”
It’s a function of ‘sub-surd-vience.’
they said he just didn’t count.
And I did not protest, because they took away a mathematician from both sides.
Be very careful using compassion.
Logic is dangerous enough, but compassion is lethal.
“It should be banned!!!”
How about ‘compression’ ….
…… would that work ??
I’m a little confused by the whole procedure with the Compas risk score.
So if this is given to a suspect when they are arrested as the article states, and it can and will be used in sentencing if the suspect is convicted, wouldn’t the police have to disclose this fact to the person arrested ahead of time?
And if it is disclosed, why would any suspect truthfully answer a question that makes it appear they are more at risk for recidivism, thus extending their prison sentence?
And if the answers to the survey can’t be considered truthful, how in the world could this legally be used to determine an appropriate sentence?
Sounds like a halfway decent lawyer could blow this BS out of the water unless there’s something the article isn’t mentioning.
I’m guessing that “Have you ever been the subject of a DoJ or SEC investigation?” is not one of the questions.
Re: Clinton Email Bombshell
I think people have been waiting in vain, for that metaphorical head shot that will take out Clinton, without noticing that she is being slowly nibbled to death. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bombshell, but it’s yet more evidence of the essentially corrupt nature of her candidacy.
Agreed. But no worries. Once in office if any MSM “news” service brings up what Wikileaks has released she can just “sever” their internet and freeze their bank accounts. Probably RT will be first … like in the U.K.
Paul Ryan upped the rhetoric on the FBI investigation of the email. My guess is he’s out as Speaker right now and is trying to save his spot, but the Speaker calling an investigation a “cover up” is a huge deal. Now, the FBI will be under the microscope with mutinous agents.
McCain has also promised to block any appointments of Hillary to the Supreme Court.
The GOP will still have to appease Trump voters.
Yep. On the other hand, Ryan’s advising Trump to go silent on TPP and other populist issues tells us He’s with Her.
Ryan is out for Ryan. If he becomes Boehner or is ousted, he won’t be the Reagan savior he fancies himself. He’s being called a RINO, the most unholy insult in the GOP vernacular. They have to go war with Hillary. Working with a crook will be the end of his WH ambitions.
Ryan is a cookie cutter Republican. His policies are naturally monstrous, but if he’s not a powerful Speaker, he’s nothing.
Chaffetz, on CNN w/ Wolf AIPAC Blitzer, has already indicated that he will go for her impeachment once Congress is back in session after the election. Gowdy and Chaffetz can bring her down.
Paul Ryan is possibly a dead man walking in political terms. The Republicans are a Trumpian party now. The rank and file are against everything that Paul Ryan represents. He is presented as a reasonable face to the public but he is a Koch puppet that only serves as a foil to HRC if she is elected. The two of them can cut a deal to kill SS, MC and every other social program all in the name of saving the country from “economic ruin”.
Kaine is no better. He is perhaps worse than HRC. He called Iraq a noble war in 2006 and he has now qualms about regime change in Latin America. He is just a neo-liberal-con that can speak Spanish while driving a blunt knife into the back of progressive movements.
Re: Women Who Hate Trump, but Aren’t With Her
The true story of this election does not seem like it is being written anywhere. Searching for the answer in identity politics is clearly useless as the article reveals; identity politics seems like it will be dead by 2018 if it isn’t already. One reason for this blindness is that middle class liberal commentators do not at all understand what is driving Trump supporters (Are there people who still don’t understand that Trump voters are NOT Paul Ryan Republicans?). The other is that the press refuses to acknowledge what has been the chief concern & fear of the American people for over a year: corruption, plain and simple.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/why-were-living-in-the-age-of-fear-w443554
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/10/12/survey-top-10-things-americans-fear-most/91934874/
To any honest observer, the Podesta emails reveal that HRC is not a political candidate per se but a vehicle for bribes. If the half of her ‘supporters’ who are actually voting against Trump decide that the negatives for both are a wash and decide to ‘waste’ their vote or stay home, then she is looking at garnering 25% of the votes on election day. Allowing the discredited press to own the narrative now is a surrender in the fight for change in this country; it will neuter the national conversation by imposing yet another false narrative.
[& P. S. News to ‘Catherine Liu, a professor of film and media studies at University of California, Irvine’ who says that ‘If you criticize HRC, it looks like you’re endorsing fascism.’: the system we presently have, according to the definitions of Roosevelt & Mussolini, is fascism. Trump, OTOH, is a demagogue.]
With Facism the state is sovereign.
This ain’t that.
And I am aware of Mussolinis quote, but corporations are a different animal in italy, and corporations didn’t sue the government.
Also facism economic policy centered around autotarky, which isn’t our economic model.
You’re not aware of Roosevelt’s definition:
‘The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism—ownership of Government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.’ FDR, 1938.
Clearly the nominality of the state’s ‘sovereignty’ was academic, in the writer’s mind. The other points are of dubious or secondary importance. Economic policy is not a form of government.
The world has changed dramatically, but keep looking out for the second coming of goose-stepping fascists thawed from blocks of ice, or wherever they’ve been kept.
Before you read my lousy comment, give to NC! They are worth it!
From the “Brexit may hurt” R&D
Emphasis mine. Knowing what I know about the research game, I am not impressed with Britain’s reliance on outside entities to fund their researchers. Maybe if they’d quit foreign adventuring, regulating their internet, and putting up more cameras around the City, instead throwing money at basic research, they’d see the multiplier effect is tremendous. 3 billion from the EU 2007-2013 is nothing on their balance sheet. They can handle it.
In China, the hit rate on the NSFC (their NSF) is about 25%, according to someone I know who is in the know. The fact of the matter is that the West, particularly the UK and the US, have given up on basic research being a function of government. It will hurt, not yet, but twenty years from now, to have the best minds of a generation struggle to get $10,000 for pipettes.
If you can surveillance the entire planet, and listen to Merkel’s conversations, why bother with doing research yourselves?
The U.S. press is ignoring the danger of a war with Russia. Instead all they want to talk about is Putin’s cat. Two recent items I found on this ignored topic are these:
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/10/15/warnings-new-world-war
russia-insider.com/en/politics/warmongering-washington-preparation-war-moscow/ri16986
I don’t know if they have appeared on NC, but they are alarming.
Putin has a cat?!
{insert trump joke of choice here}
The cat must be a Russian agent working to undermine U.S. interests and sway the weak-minded.
It’s not a cat. It’s the leader of a powerful Space Alien race. The really evil Space Aliens look like cats. Nice Space Aliens look like Democrats.This makes matters even worse for humanity, because humans like real cats. Now we can be easily fooled.
The mothership is hovering above Moscow at this very moment, being refueled at Moscow’s huuuugh government controlled central gas station. Russian programmers are programming in the coordinates for Syria.
This sounds bad.
Its all ok though, they are using the latest version of PUSSY+ the latest programming language. There are a few code issues yet to be sorted so one cant rely on it being on target. Trump will get a grip on it.
Putin has a pussy? How is Tump going to handle that?
Re: How Apple scaled back…. Bloomberg
If true, I find it interesting that Apple has pulled back from building the hardware of a full car, but is pursuing the ‘architecture’ (whatever that is) for self driving. Presumably this means they will try to sell a mostly software package to existing car manufacturers for self driving. This implies that:
1. They think it is viable.
and
2. They think they have found something that google, etc., don’t have.
or
3. The whole Apple car thing is a disaster, but they are clinging to this narrative as a way of saving face and keeping the share price up for another few years.
or
4. The internal ‘self driving’ guru’s within Apple know its a bezzle, and have decided the best way to keep their jobs is to persuade Cook that it is the future is to persuade them that with just another billion or two they can make it work. This will give them breathing space so they can find themselves real jobs.
Door #3 and 4.
Tech obstacles aside, the car companies would simply steal the code or have made a similar discovery, so short of providing a service to car companies (the Japanese and Koreans aren’t using Apple), Apple would lose big as it simply doesn’t have an existing vehicle manufacturing infrastructure to rely on if they made a breakthrough.
Architecture can comprise a number of things depending on how you define it. Looking purely at the hardware blocks, there are literally dozens of microcontrollers or “ECUs” in a modern vehicle that control specific functions from suspension to aftertreatment systems to the instrument cluster. It will require a pretty big rethinking of most of the legacy designs to support higher automation features because the processing power, memory requirements and data bus links between subsystems were not designed with this in mind. There are also new components like hardware security modules and GPUs that automotive manufacturers and suppliers have extremely limited experience with.
So the general industry trend is that people are trying to “climb the value chain” and be the provider for the entire automation subsystem (microcontrollers and software) because they see that as being where the money is instead of being relegated to low-margin component manufacturing.
I think these Silicon Valley giants are slowly realizing that being a vehicle OEM primarily involves maintaining massive supply chains and spending all your energy making sure that things run smoothly in the factory, not building sweet demonstrators to showcase new technology in controlled environments.
I think it’s Door 3 & 4 for the entire industry.
Besides, wasn’t it high MPG cars we needed?
The doors of perception … have rusted up and are broken …
Yea. As the Prophet Obama enjoined us, we cleansed the Doors with the Caustic Essence of Hopium. Now all is bootless scheming.
humm ..let me see here …
I have, in my bag of obomba quotes somewhere …oh ..here it is ….
“I am here to bs … and smoke hopium …..
………and I’m ALL..out..of..HOPIUM !”
Ultimately, perhaps only a genius robot can make self-driving cars work.
“Do you like the IQ-200 robot or the more expensive one?”
Go to the head of the class my little grasshopper.
. . . wasn’t it high MPG cars we needed?
Not anymore. Look at all the FISO’s blocking the view ahead.
Yes, for such a brand oriented company, to make themselves a subcontractor to Honda or Ford doesn’t make any sense. I was visualising seeing cars with an ‘Apple Inside!’ sticker.
I also find it ironic that a company which has been lauded for so long for its supply chains has found that it can’t match old fashioned car companies because… it can’t work out how to do the supply chains. For all the hype, smartphones and laptops are very simple objects compared to cars.
Or they see Honda or Ford as another Foxcon.
Their automotive architecture will be integrated with their other devices.
Eventually they will find out what Tesla figured out……. That the guys working in Detroit aren’t idiots, and will eventually partner with someone.
PuKun, 1 is not necessarily strong — their fallback position may resemble Microsoft/Ford’s infotainment systems deal. It would be worth quite a bit to them, and to a certain type of consumer, to have in-dash iOS nodes with App Store access, even if self-driving never comes to pass. With Apple Inside, all that location info is now a property of your car. (Though part of me thinks this is another wrong-headed desperation marketing move: if kids won’t buy the car, turn it into a smartphone and of course they’ll eat it up.)
In most sober analyses of income distribution, no one is suggesting governments have a policy framework to crunch the rich and blindly give the money to the poor. from https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jun/04/better-economic-growth-when-wealth-distributed-to-poor-instead-of-rich
Since we don’t have a Postal Savings Service or equivalent but instead have government provided deposit insurance for depository institutions (e.g. banks, etc.) then the poor are forced to lend (a deposit is legally a loan) to depository institutions to lower the borrowing costs of the banks themselves and, by extension, the borrowing costs of the rich, the most so-called creditworthy.
So it’s hardly surprising that reversing the theft from the poor to the rich, even partially, should be beneficial to the economy – unless we assume that the economy does better with more injustice than with less.
‘F*ck You Startup World’
Which part of the Eucharist does this pertain to?
The “my god my god why have you forsaken me” part.
…or maybe that part where one is required to carry the instrument that will be used to destroy one.
…or that bit where a circle of thorns is shoved onto one’s head.
One could go on.
Ships, shoals and anaphora, many opportunities for wrecks and wreckers.
The picture made me think of angora goats, what with sweater weather upon us.
Could anyone with horns like his ever end up as a scapegoat? I want some…
I’m starting to think that there’s a chance that the media and the Clinton campaign are acting out a version of Aesop’s “The Scorpion and the Frog,” and while it appears the media is going to stick with Clinton until they reach the other side of the river, I think there’s still a chance the media will revert to its nature now that the water is shallow and there is less chance it will also drown, and sting Clinton badly enough that she could possibly not be able to recover.
Or, she could manage to limp into office, already severely wounded and set to become one of the least effective presidents ever (which may not be an altogether bad thing – some of the things I think she wants to be effective at are things I don’t want her to be good at).
Meanwhile, I think the Trump team is already working on plans for Trump TV, with the intention to far surpass Fox News in its audience appeal. And there may be actually more in it for him to do that than to win this election – more money, more acclaim, more adoration, more women: that’s really his wheelhouse, and I’m betting he can keep the alt-right energy going for the duration of a Clinton presidency, and be more of a thorn in the side of Democrats than if he were president and subject to the constraints that come with that office.
These are some crazy times we are living in.
I don’t see how she can govern. The FBI’s actions with regard to her case show that they will have her completely in their pocket, for instance. What other agencies are going to rebel? Which ones will actually follow her lead? The emails have showed her and her staff’s casual dismissal of everyone not in their club. Civil servants and politicians alike have been castigated over and over again.
Can anyone see her getting any of her idiotic aims (TPP, grand bargain, war) accomplished in the first 100 days? She’ll be under investigation from day one. We may even have a second Clinton impeachment.
I’m hoping for a second Clinton impeachment and a first Clinton conviction, myself. Of course then we’d end up with dire Kaine.
On second thought, let’s just hope that Giant Meteor does in fact strike Washington DC. That would solve a lot of problems instantly.
There’s no way there will be 66 Republicans in the Senate. There’s no way any Democrat will vote to convict her.
We’re getting Kaine once she’s so incapacitated Bill, Huma and Neera can’t hide it any more.
Giant Meteor would be helpful. But could it hit when the handful of Berniecrats and leftists are out of town?
She’ll be damaged enough if the House impeaches her and sends it over to the Senate. The hearings will destroy her ability to govern. The Senate vote won’t matter.
What I really want to know is Hillary really Oprah in whitey onesie or more disturbingly Ellen in a double Oprah – Hillary onesie…. like the quail stuffed into a chicken, in a duck, in a turkey and wrapped in bacon…
Disheveled Marsupial… and does it all taste the same at the end of the day – ????? – only crazzyman would know…
HRC is a bundle of straw wrapped in a Nixon wrapped in a Bill Clinton and then dipped in high fructose corn syrup. Guaranteed to give you indigestion.
She is that curious case of the sum of the parts being worth less than the pieces.
Parts is parts, and pieces is pieces. It’s all just nasty chicken sweet cheeks.
you guys are awesome. making my sick day not so bad. i’ll throw down some cake too.
Good man. Don’t forget to chase that cake with some Jaeger to take that nasty antibiotic taste out of your mouth. Get well soon!
And keep the bucket in case the cake tries a Jonah in the Whale thingie!
Indeed feel well soon, no future in being sick
Dark rum…
Mum used to give me a hot rum and lemon, or orange, whichever was available, whenever I succumbed to a cold or flu. We lived a lot in Miami, so, whenever Dad would come back from the Islands, it was duty free rum: Barbados Rum, Jamaican Lemon Rum, Dominican Rot Gut, or smooth as silk Cuban Pale Rum.
There was a “Golden Age.”
These things are all what elites in both parties want. She will quickly get all of that plus a nice little war in Syria, Yemen and Libya, plus Egypt looks like it’s simmering nicely as corruption jacks up food prices far past what most can afford.
Then a little more confrontation in Ukraine, plenty to keep neocons happy.
Rep elites and the rest of us don’t know what trump will do, so the corporate masters sure pushing hard for Clinton. No doubt some fake hearings etc for the base, but they much prefer Clinton… Haven’t you noticed the wave of top reps with her?
He has no chance in northern Va because DC, but I have hopes for the other swingers.
But they don’t rebel, they control. How many presidents did J Edgar have in his pocket-? four? eight? Along with the CIA, many call it the ‘deep state.’ One might instead call it deep s–t for most of the population of the US, and by now the world.
“Or, she could manage to limp into office, already severely wounded and set to become one of the least effective presidents ever (which may not be an altogether bad thing – some of the things I think she wants to be effective at are things I don’t want her to be good at).”
clearly, you are succumbing to the power of positive thinking
do you think hillary will be less effective than trump? I’ll go with not likely
Probably not so much positive thinking as wishful…or wistful. All of which I’m probably too old for, lol.
I think she may be less effective as a result of being subject to a rolling series of investigations, all of which are going to tie her hands and keep her from getting much done. I am hard-pressed to see anything she says or does not being subject to intense scrutiny. I think her nominees for various Cabinet posts are going to get bogged down – and there’s already talk that the GOP won’t vote to confirm any of her nominees for the Supreme Court. I think it means no confirmations of federal judges, too – or should I say, “a continued blocking of judicial nominees,” because the GOP has been stalling on those for years now.
In spite of her telegraphing interest in “working together,” much as Obama did, I don’t think there’s a snowball’s chance in hell the GOP, and maybe even some Democrats, is going to help her notch any victories.
Which means we end up in that dangerous area known as “executive order territory,” where magic wands get waved to get things done – now there, I think she could be dangerous.
As for Trump’s chances of getting things done, he’s got some trouble within his own party that may get in his way – if he is to be more effective, he will need Democrats. That worries me some, as we’ve seen how Dems have a tendency to roll over at the absolutely worst times.
I keep hoping I’m going to wake up from this nightmare, but so far, it appears I’m already awake, and we’re living the nightmare.
We’re going to live it no matter what those of us want.
I must admit at this point, I’m not so sure Trump will be the less effective evil. It is very possible that the aftermath of this hideous election is the press scrambling to regain relevancy and the Republicans scrambling to regain a base. So I agree. I think the Press turning on Clinton is guaranteed. Not just because of the relevancy but because they still have to get eyes. The same reason why Trump didn’t need to advertise will be the reason why Clinton will not get a moment’s rest once in office. Most of the cozy relationships will be over. The Republicans scrambling has more questions about it. But as much as the regulars would like to ‘get things done’ they will need to reform their base after their treachery of finding Clinton the lesser of two evils. So they either fight her agenda OR they battle for those who like the combined agenda.
The continuing nightmare is that is nothing that money won’t cure. The Clintons prove that corruption will get things done. It is rumored that a very large global corporate slush fund gifted our corruptocrats with $20 million each to vote for TPP, such funds now hidden away in Caribbean accounts under trusts established by certain DC law firms. Funny how FACTA works for Switzerland, UK, and Panama tax havens, but no lights are shown on the Caribbean ones. Must be a conspiracy theory. sarc/
Vote Green: The Least Effective Evil!
That’s not what the DEA would have you believe ……
Trump as an alt-right media figure surpassing Fox would be a very effective evil, much less likely to receive resistance from some segments of the establishment than Trump as president.
(still voting for Stein)
From the Politico “I am now a hack” article–yeah, that’s bad. But I also saw an article from the NYT linked above, and since the NYT is a known front for the Hillary campaign shouldn’t there be some kind of disclaimer for that? After all, some people might be fooled into thinking that they’re getting actual news rather than propaganda from the NYT without a good disclaimer, and the last thing we want to do here is mislead people, right?
In July, I heard from a person working in Apple’s UI (user interface) area that they had already given up on building vehicles, but wanted to own the UI for the auto industry. Seemed like a smart strategy, consistent with their institutional strengths.
If you think journalistic hacks are a problem now, just wait until the robots start writing the stories and are hacked:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/robot-reporters-replace-journalists-one-9069938
The lite Turing Test will be to see if anyone can tell the difference.
I suspect that many of the mini “news items” purveyed over the Internet News sites are already being, if not written outright, edited by AI algos. Pay special attention to some of the grammatical constructions being displayed. Nuance is now officially a “lost art.”
‘Nuance is now officially a “lost art.”’
yes, and and I have seen the functionally illiterate of humans are rejoicing
if the AI journalist computer some replaces audio/podcast/TV “journalists”, hopefully at least they will drop the douche-baggish practice of saying “sort of” every 5-30 seconds.
The Reverse Turing Test is to screen out starving humans pretending to be cheap robots, in order to get work.
“You are not a robot. Dirty human, get out of here!!!”
“we don’t like your kind here”
“You let one human move in, and it will destroy the neighborhood.”
A true robot would formulate that as; “You let one human move in, and it will create a neighbourhood.”
Slimy fractions! Give me a crisp clean integer any nanosecond!
Yeah that worked out so well on Facebook, where they fired a bunch of human editors and allowed AI to propagate news stories. The result being, many more fake news stories appeared on FB. Perhaps that is a strategy, flood the interwebs with so much bullshit that no one can figure out what is real.
Dispatches From The Great (Swing) State of Utah
Utah voters have less experience accepting local and state leaders with, shall we say, multi-faceted private lives, and Trump’s recent embarrassments have affected his support.
Utah is a four-way race now, destabilized by the entry of one Evan McMullin. McMullin is a CIA spook and Goldman Sachs alum, but more importantly a Latter-day Saint. He is a quintessential Facebook candidate – no electoral experience and no money and he’s only been in the race since the second week of August; nonetheless the internet manifestation of LDS kinship and social ties have rocketed him from obscurity. His campaign logo looks like an M&M.
Depending on whom you ask, right Trump’s lead ranges from modest to non-existent. He’s lost a lot of his support to McMullin, and interestingly enough so has Gary Johnson. Now that McMullin is “world famous in Utah” and a legitimate candidate, Johnson is no longer the candidate of convenience for disaffected right-wingers and is fading to obscurity.
The person who has unchanged support is Hillary Clinton. In fact, her support has barely changed since ever. There’s been some recent efforts to make her more palatable to Mormons (this is so precious), but Utahs have been hating Clintons for a quarter of a century, and that’s a lot to overcome.
This is a Trump/McMullin race. Bill came in third in Utah in 1992 and it could happen to Hillary this year. If Clinton wins it will be with the 28% she has now, and the other 72 split just so among the other three.
One interesting possibility is if McMullin becomes the front-runner, the Never-Trumps holding their noses for Hillary will come over to McMullin and he wins comfortably.
If I still lived in Utah I’d vote McMullin, just to get some total rando a few electoral votes. I can’t think of any more damning indictment of the 2016 election than to have a total rando win a state simply by NOT being Hillary or Trump.
Total Rando 2016!
Weaponizing shame and Donald Trump. An interesting read from The Nation, written by Adam Haslett
A foolish article that doesn’t contain any ideas worth a “deplorables” effort to refute.
Information on the Antidote describes it as a ram, but it looks like a goat to me, possibly the original Billy Goat Gruff. Any more background available?
My own best guess, walia ibex, endangered species in the northern mountains of Ethiopia (per Wikipedia).
It looks like an Ibex to me.
Hi folks! Yes, an Ibex…a Nubian Ibex at the Los Angeles Zoo–Los Angeles, California. (I submitted the image) see https://flic.kr/p/MihNDG for the picture, or http://www.lazoo.org/animals/mammals/nubian-ibex/ for a description of the goat.
I’m curious Katharine, where do you find a description in the Antidote? I didn’t think they ever identified things so didn’t include any info with the submission.
Sorry Lambert didn’t credit you! Great picture.
No problem. Thanks for calling it great!
Snark winner of the day,
Regarding fascism, most people are familiar with the 14 defining characteristics of a fascist state, and will recognize that all of them apply to some degree in America now.
But the most defining act of establishing a fascist government is the usurping of the normal governing rules, principles, and systems by a small clique of true believers. Hitler’s favorite judicial philosopher, Carl Schmitt, in the late 1920’s wrote that “he who can declare an emergency that suspends normal government is the true sovereign.” Hitler took this to heart, and worked strictly within the democratic system to reach the point where he could legitimately suspend it. The Reichstag fire.
We have in America the wealthiest Americans who have worked with the system to become the funders of virtually every politician, the funders of lobbyists, the funders of corporate sinecures following the holding of political office, the payers for $225,000 speeches that say nothing besides “I’m with you all the way.” Our government has been in a state of emergency since 9/11/2001, with certain laws suspended, and a host of new laws centered on national security given full rein and funding, with very little transparency.
Citizens United has been the most open and complete takeover of national government in our nation’s history, and has effectively ended citizen representation — every few years we voters are provided two empty suits, one marked D and one marked R. How is that a representative democracy?
Fascism is here, wrapped in the American flag, and it is government by the wealthiest in all matters. Anyone waiting for the Brownshirts to start marching in the streets, or the police to stand by while synagogues and Jewish stores are burned have missed the parade that has already passed by.
The key act of fascism is the seizing or domination of the state by a select group of citizens. In our case, the wealthy. They own and operate DC, and the rest of us are just along for the ride.
Sheldon Wolin’s 2008 “Democracy Inc.: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism.” Chapter Ten: Inverted Totalitarianism…”Instead of unanimity, it encourages divisiveness ‘ instead of rule by a single master race, it promotes predomination–that is, rule by diverse powers which have found it in their interests to combine while retaining their separate identities. The key components are corporate capital, the very rich, small business associations, large media organizations, evangelical Protestant leaders, and the Catholic hierarchy…The aim is to control politics by settling the terms of competition in the spirit of Archer Daniels Midlland’s watchword, “the competitor is our friend, and the customer is our enemy”: substitute “the other party” for “competitor” and “active citizen” for “customer ” to get the inverted version of totalitarian politics.”
Thanks for that link, very useful.
On the note of the media… I did not see this mentioned (anywhere really, at least for as alarming as it sound to me) here last week or over the weekend.
Obama decries ‘wild west’ media landscape I have not seen this brought up on any mainline news outlets.
How long until Google Fact Check starts filtering out “unsupported” outlets?
Yikes! Sounds a lot like this horrible idea by nudge theorist Cass Sunstein.
Say, maybe Obama can put some of these ideas into practice when he
cashes inrelocates to Silicon Valley!Did he really say truthiness tests? This Does Not Bode Well.
^ Terrifyingly accurate. Both the Patriot Act (and its extension in 2011) and Citizens United mark the end of the United States of America and the establishment of USA Inc.
Electing Trump may destroy the US; electing Clinton may destroy the world. The paralytic stagnation of DC that Obama and the GOP have given us since 2010 appears the most likely scenario to continue… unless it doesn’t.
Everyone for themselves and God against all!
Yeap….
Re: Placebo effect:
The key line is the last one in the article:
“
It has long been recognised that a key driver in the placebo effect is that people feel better in the hands of a sympathetic person willing to listen and recognise their pain. I’ve been reading research indicating this since the 1990’s at least. But while most medical practitioners I know will acknowledge it, it is almost never addressed in medical policy. Its all about quantitive outputs, no mention at all of the value of a doctor or nurse simply sitting down, placing a comforting hand on the shoulder, and listening to the patient.
Sounds about right. I’ve always tended to associate the placebo effect with “sitting down and having a nice cup of tea.” The point is surely that someone cares enough to want to make you more comfortable, and if you happen to be alone at the time you need comfort you can do a lot for yourself, whether with the cup of tea or some other thing associated with comfort, but really just affirming that you matter that much.
I wonder. A friend of mine who has anxiety/panic attacks takes two 81mg aspirin every night. She believes that they ensure a good night’s sleep, and if she forgets them, sleeps poorly. So, a placebo can be a ritual, and I think there is ample evidence that rituals have ‘real’ consequences for humans, or at least they seem pretty real.
Aspirin is not a placebo. It and some other painkillers (e.g. tylenol) help treat anxiety (https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-superhuman-mind/201304/do-you-suffer-emotional-pain-or-anxiety-pop-tylenol).
Exactly. Rituals generally can seem useful assertions of control, as here.
RE: China pours $10.7 billion into overseas real estate in first half
Well, Bill Clinton turned the White House into a hotel when he was President. Wonder if they plan to sell it when they no longer need it? I’m sure China would make a solid bid…….
RE: the Russians hacked the DNC server continuing story…
Perhaps the USA needs to rally the nation around a new perceived national “Hacker Gap”.
This is similar to the alleged “missile gap” with the Russians of earlier times that led to vast national resources committed to defense spending..
If the Russians can (allegedly) hack DNC servers and get the hacked information to Wikileaks, while USA hackers were either late to the party or unable to hack the servers, then USA may have a massive “Hacker Gap” in which the USA has few homegrown quality hackers.
Remember an earlier time when Jobs and Wozniak built an illegal hardware hack (“The blue box”) to use hardware generated tones to make free long distance calls?
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/10/steve-jobs-first-business-was-selling-blue-boxes-that-allowed-users-to-get-free-phone-service-illegally/
Where have all the USA hackers gone?
Is this not more evidence that the USA is losing or lost its alleged technological edge over the rest of the world?
What does the “USA Hacker gap vs Russia” imply about the USA computer science education, the distraction of the USA’s youth away from being actual developers of computer technology and the rapid improvement in other nations technological capabilities?
Maybe “The Donald” can decry the sad state of America’s very expensive educational system that allowed the USA Hacker gap to grow so large.
Why is Russia so advanced in hacking?
Maybe Hillary and the DNC can provide the answer as they may have learned so much about computer security and hacking recently,
Because we put ours in prison?
HotFlash, good point. They haven’t been fighting for 15 years to protect the vendors of pernicious fables and permission slips. Perhaps Russians haven’t yet lost their facility to distinguish between administrative enforcement and cause-and-effect.
Clinton: ‘I’m not going to add a penny to the national debt’
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2604619/
Fuck my life
The national debt is not the problem; the problem is that it pays positive interest since risk-free financial assets should yield no more than 0% to avoid welfare proportional to wealth.
But who will buy negative to 0% yeilding sovereign debt? Hence the need for even more negative rates on fiat account balances at the central bank to make sovereign debt attractive by comparison and restrictions on the use of physical fiat to escape negative rates.
That said, individual citizen accounts at the central bank should be negative interest free up to, say, $250,000 US since SOME liquidity is legitimate.
And everyone should receive a free mattress from the Federal Reserve, every year.
What else do they think we’re supposed to do with our nest egg?
What else do they think we’re supposed to do with our nest egg? Antifa
Beyond $250,000 or so, invest it. Another possibility is to rent the unused portions of poor citizens’ accounts and park your cash hoard beyond $250,000 there – for whatever they may charge you.
But if a $250,000 negative interest free limit is too low , iyo, then what do you suggest that citizens should be able to hoard risk-free and free ride on the risky investments of others?
You shouldn’t have a nest egg. You should have a government pension. Problem solved. The guv will grant you a do over. You are now 18 years old again. An updated birth certificate will be sent in the mail.
You shouldn’t have a nest egg.
So how big a nest egg would you allow that was negative interest free?
You should have a government pension.
Yes since the monetary sovereign can’t go broke.
Basic Income when one’s retired is one’s government pension.
Yes and we should have a basic income.
Will they charge you for protecting the country (and you and me)?
“Here is your pro-rated bill from the Pentagon.”
What about free education? Every family that has kids gets it. If you don’t have kids? Well, don’t be envious of those who have.
Pay interests on savings up a certain amount. If you don’t have that much? Can’t cover all contingencies. Some have, some haven’t. Is that amount $100 million? Or is it $250,000?
How many years can one live on $250,000 after retirement at 62 or 67? 10 years? Is that reasonable? Will that be enough with escalating medical costs?
Pay interests on savings up a certain amount.
That’s still welfare proportional to wealth. Is that what you want? And expect a healthy society?
If people NEED welfare then give it to them. Or distribute fiat equally to all adult citizens. Or both.
Otherwise, “We have met the enemy and he is us”?
Free education is welfare proportional to traditional retirement wealth.
Sadly, one can’t always depend on one’s kids these day.
HillaryB0ts claim HClinton is “the most intelligent, most qualified, most policy wonk, eva!” (AFAICT Sanders & Stein are far superior to HClinton in policy wonkery & intelligence). But to quote @KyleKulinski , “I need some dets, Bro!”
Is HClinton cliaming she will balance the budget in the first fiscal year in office? Wouldn’t that be starting in 2017-Oct? Given the mediocre economy for workers/99%ers, wouldn’t this almost surely trigger a recession?
I recall from Macroeconomics that GDP = C + I + G + (X – M)
Net exports (X – M) has been at a massive ~-5% GDP “for the longest time!” (c) Billy Joel , over a decade. HClinton would likely keep (X – M) status quo or worsen it with the TPP
C sux because much of the 99%ers are broke because of a PermaCrapified Job Market, with the PermaCrapified high Type 1 Overqualified & Type2 PT-but-want-FT Underemployment. The I component sux because businesses only invest in actual productive capacity like a factory or a new physical store to serve end consumer demand, which sucks since C sux.
So G is the source that could boost the economy, yet by balancing the budget, she will be reducing G.
Yves, MMT, or other macroeconomics gurus, wouldn’t HClinton balancing the budget in 2017 almost certainly create a recession within 6 months of doing so?
I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.
Thomas Jefferson, (Attributed)
Those who intentionally run a Federal budget surplus should be tried for treason since even a balanced Federal budget is suspect.
Re: China pours $10.7 billion into Real Estate… SCMP
Buried in that article is some interesting evidence that the Chinese smell a bust coming in Australia, but are curiously upbeat about Brexit.
I’ve been wondering how foreign hot money will view London property in the light of the collapse in sterling. They’ve lost a lot of value in the past 3 months even without the property bubble bursting. I thought most would adopt a ‘wait and see’ approach, but it seems the Chinese at least are still keen on London. I wonder if this is driven by a belief that a weak sterling actually gives them an opportunity to pick up bargains.
I think its crucial as to how Brexit works out as to the reaction of foreign property investors. If they try to cash out quickly, this could provoke a major property crash. But if they see a weak sterling as nothing less than an opportunity, the inflows could well help mitigate the damage. I’ve been trying to prise from my Chinese friends (some of whom have investments in London apartments) some sense of how they see it, but without success.
The Chinese anti-corruption drive doesn’t seem to be able to stop the part about money escaping the Middle Kingdom.
Took a ride to Folly Beach here near Charleston, SC and noticed a smattering of Trump, Johnson signs but no Hillary signs.
Indeed. The benefits of a relatively healthy overall economy aren’t being distributed equitably, and as is well-known income and wealth inequalities are widening and the widening of the gap is accelerating. So if you live in a coastal urban bubble with a degree and a pretty CV, you think the economy is great and that all the people who it isn’t serving are just complainers or losers, or lazy. Everyone you know, your family, your friends, your co-workers and their families are mostly doing great so all those people complaining just like to bitch and are asking for unicorns because if they were smart, they’d be raking it in like we are instead of bitching and moaning.
A growing economy that is useless to large segments of the population isn’t a healthy or sustainable economy. If a distribution that is already highly inequitable just becomes increasingly more so–as it is, you can have all the economic growth in the world and it isn’t a good economy for real people. So yeah, everyone we know is doing great and jobs are out there and what’s everyone bitching about? People don’t want unicorns (which by the way is an elitist and hugely insensitive way to characterize other people’s real aspirations) they just want maybe a fair (or at least fairer) share of what people in the urban coastal wealth bubbles are wallowing in. Why would *you* worry about immigration? More competition for gardeners and housekeepers and nannies to serve you, non-citizen H1B whiz kids from India and China, with no bargaining leverage, hell yeah bring it on. But for the guy laid off from his shitty, but liveable wage manufacturing job in a fly-over state that he’s told is gone forever because of neoliberal globalism that is somehow as unchallengeable and natural as gravity so just shut up and get with it, maybe seeing what little chances he had remaining going away isn’t making him see the beauty of immigrants pouring in willing to work for almost nothing. Not that the people with the degrees and good jobs in the city have ever had to think or worry about such things. So fuck those people right? There’ll be winners and losers in this new economy and they just lost. Boo hoo. Oh, they’re angry? No unicorns for you ignorant losers, deplorables, racists, millennials in your parents’ loser basements with your college debt, go die somewhere or whatever, we’re busy having a party here out on the coast and you’re not invited.
With respect to the Carl Beijer piece on presidential democracy, we (the U.S.) are still essentially having the same debate that we’ve since when the constitution was written: i.e. how much should small states versus populated states have? There are people today who bemoan the fact that sparsely populated states like Wyoming have out-sized influence in the Senate, while overlooking the influence of populated states in the House.
A parliamentary system, which the Carl Beijer piece advocates, tends to favor populated states to a much greater degree than the current U.S. system does. While no system is perfect, I think the current bicameral system, which attempts to balance populated states with smaller states, has held up reasonably well over time and would not want to implement changes that tipped the balance too far in either direction, which a parliamentary system almost certainly would.
Look at Europe where there is a reasonably diverse assortment of variations on the parliamentary model. The neoliberal globalists seem to have mastered them all and bent them to their will. Even places with strong recent traditions of social democracy are successfully being chipped away at via austerity, privatization, and globalism. And even publicly financed campaigns and other seemingly good ideas to protect democracy seem to in practice have little effect on the corruption of political processes by wealthy special interests. The explanation is I think that culture > politics, and as long as the neolibs, who control the press and the mainstream entertainments, are calling the cultural shots, they will control the political processes and because of the primacy of culture over politics, that is largely independent of the forms that democracy takes.
Isn’t that the problem with having a sitting government, i.e. a government that sits together and whose members, help and select others are allowed to communicate amongst themselves, out-of-band and unlogged? If only they’d all just get on the picture-phone for as long as needed and go home.
But, in fact, the American system was made to extract and export its people’s labor. That’s why all those oligarchs and their imaginary friends need their “pwivacy” (and yes, I’m infantilizing them intentionally). No system designed to create privileges for an in-group over an out-group — the very definition of liberal government, I might add — can avoid putting its own existence first, even above any number of individual members.
School careers have ended with passed notes and signalled answers. Why shouldn’t those who presume to rule us be subject to just the same sort of discipline?
Monday, October 17, 2016
Bloomberg Launches Billionaire TV
Bloomberg launched its latest show starring billionaire Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein.
The reporter cited the new host of Bloomberg’s Billionaire Television:
The Carlyle Group scares me more than anything I’ve ever seen on Wall Street. It seems to exist to corrupt politicians and it’s hard to know who they even represent.
I watched a video interview of (David) Rubenstein and his arrogance is really beyond tolerance. He was going on about the debt ceiling problem and how there would need to be cuts in services and higher taxes. When the reporter asked him about tax on carried interest he turned really disdainful and said that this “only” amounted to $22 billion over some number of years and this was not serious money. Boy, nothing like everybody doing their small part to save the country from oblivion!
Bloomberg’s host personally lobbied Congress each time elected officials considered changing private equity’s preferred carried interest taxation Rubenstein won every time.
Carlyle’s co-founder no longer has to shun enterprising business reporters probing shady PEU business practices. He gets to frame the questions to maximize Carlyle’s image. If you doubt this assertion watch his private equity infomercial at the end of an IMF panel on inequality.
At 55:35 Rubenstein dubbed himself moderator and offered the “Private Equity Answer” for investors seeking out-sized returns in a low interest rate environment. The Carlyle infomercial lasted three minutes and virtually closed the session on inequality. Frankly, it couldn’t have ended on a worse note.
The rise of private equity corresponds with the rise in income inequality
And that’s why a PEU is hosting Billionaire TV.
http://peureport.blogspot.com/
Don’t watch with popcorn….you’ll probably choke.
Let’s not forget that what we now call `Private Equity’ is at least two layers of lipstick on the 1970s pig called `Asset Stripping’ which morphed into the 1980s `Leveraged Buyout’. The branding may change but the Gekkos/Rubensteins of this world never do.
Paging Mr Orwell …
As a matter of interest can anyone list the B-TV’s advertisers ?
Of note in Madison, Wisconsin, which routinely votes 80% democrat in Presidential elections, the lack of enthusiasm for Hillary is so deep that the campaign is now offering people $15 per hour to canvass voters. In previous elections there has been no problem getting volunteers. I am seeing a few Clinton yard signs, but nothing like Obama had during his first run when his signs were everywhere. No Trump signs at all, even in the yard of my reliably right-wing “guns & guts” neighbor. The prevailing attitude is “Please let this election be over”.
Clinton should win the state, as Federal courts have torpedoed a fair amount of the Republican vote suppression tactics, but a low turnout by disillusioned voters may doom a number of truly progressive down ballot democrats.
“now offering people $15 per hour to canvass voters. ”
Pretty rich coming from people who have opposed Fight for 15.
Lambert, haven’t you heard, Special Forces don’t wear boots, just tactical footwear. Ipso facto no boots on the ground
Obama suggests outrage over Clinton email ‘quid pro quo’ allegation is overblown [Politico]
Le DOJ, c’est moi.
….PANIC ENSUES ….
No one seems to be indignant anymore.
Normally, one bad news like would have sunk a campaign. But now, people are thinking how best to survive a Hillary presidency.
maybe i can start a petition at the condo, for a fallout shelter. wonder how much those run.
Don’t forget to stock up on potassium iodine pills.
Oh, I’m sorry ……. I was referring to the U.S.S. TiTaNiC ……
FORWARD … into the cold, dark abyss …
Will they make a romance movie about it?
You mean between Cthulhu and the google-eyed Golden Squid puppet …. those two ??
There will have to be an obligatory Cult of Bernie Necro-bro-mancer in the mix. Be careful you don’t run afoul of the Esoteric Order of Wall Street!
On a related note; H Clinton is showing strong signs of having “The Innsmouth Curse.” What is she hiding under that bulky Mao Jacket ensemble she favours? I’ll give H Clinton the benefit of the doubt and agree that she is not dead. She is just a little ‘undead.’
One sees similarity between changing the definition of ‘classified’ and questioning the definition of ‘is.’
“What is quid pro quo?” Define it, so I will be innocent.
Define ‘define,’ if you have time.
For this unsightliness alone, I am voting against her.
‘Squid’ pro quo ….
Fun looking at demographics in each state…
https://today.yougov.com/us-election/
African Americans for Trump…
AR, OK 14%
AL 13%
LA, KS 12%
MS 11%
TN, KY 10%
TX, IN 9%
PA 6%
OH, FL, VA, WI, IA, MI, NC 7%
CO, AZ 8%
NV 10%
NY, NJ, MA 6%
MD, RI, WA 7%
IL, CT, CA, OR 8%
Generally does much better in red states and about the same in swing and blue.
It’s interesting that they they have PA tipping to Trump before IA, and NV, and those before NC.
https://today.yougov.com/news/2016/10/04/YouGov-Model-State-of-2016/
That makes this a 5 state race. FL, PA, IA, NV, and NC
Trump can lose either NC or IA and NV
Anyone watched Adam Curtis’ new work? Hypernormalisation If you are American, I highly suggest you watch it.- http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p04b183c/adam-curtis-hypernormalisation OR https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi5kfXc7-TPAhUDrY8KHaPpANEQqQIIIjAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DzFtsrjlsclQ&usg=AFQjCNE3GQ6hfOjoN1R1UKXZ630jh5jz-g
Also, NC, what’s the burnout prevention fund for?
Yves explains here:
Ah! That’s quite the dedication. Altought to reduce your burden, I personally think you guys post links too often. I dont think they are needed at such a frequency.
Nobody watches baseball here or there would have been followup on the Vice article about the drone injury to Trevor Bauer. Apparently he couldn’t start Sunday night due to the injury so they placed him on the mound last night. Part way through the first inning, he began bleeding on his pants and the baseball (he injured his throwing hand). You aren’t allowed to spit on the ball, but blood? I was in a sports bar so couldn’t help but watch as the blood dripped down on prime time TV ALCS. http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/17820105/2016-alcs-trevor-bauer-cleveland-indians-leaves-first-inning-bleeding-finger
His drone injury was more serious than first imagined. He wasn’t allowed to put anything on it and pitch (that’s the rule). No bandaid, no superglue, nothing can be on his pitching hand. But Cleveland won anyway, apparently using 6 relief pitchers for the remainder of the game.
Send more (german) blondes to help snort the yellowcake…katanga…when I hear someone babbleonia about how the germans could have 1 davore or am somewhere the hi(t)s/leree channel is playing where the Luftwaffe and its loss of 25% of its airplanes being lost to the polish defenses in the first 15 days is Never discussed…
Katanga…I just keep repeating katanga…then when they ask me the 3rd time what the hell is katanga…I then say…
Wismut…because the leni refferstalled made on the cutting room floor “vore” machine wasted time worrying about katanga when they had all the yellowcake they could ever need right under their lederhosen…
Wismut…because they are gurminzzz
Wismut…because the script said the american soldier would not last…was it 9 hours…??
But no matter how much Bernaze sauce is slapped on the scrapple…
Americans tend to ignore the script on a regular basis…
A friend of mine had an interesting idea: create an app that matches up one LOTE Hillary supporter and one LOTE Trump supporter in a pledge to not vote or only vote third party. So each person goes on the app and selects either anti-Trump or anti-Hillary, the app then matches up a resulting pair and lets each know that they are now free to vote their conscience! This would allow people to not feel trapped in the “a vote for z is really a vote for x”, since that person got a person on the other side to not vote, thus canceling their inadvertent “support”.
Maybe call it “2WrongsMakeRight” or “XLOTE” or “LO4E” or ??
The problem is verification. What is stopping a rabid Hillbot from signing up as a #NeverTrump? Causing someone to vote Johnson instead of Trump and allowing Hillbot to still vote Killary.
“I’m with Dr. Her.” –someone on reddit
“North Dakota Judge Throws Out Charges Against Journalist Amy Goodman Bill Moyers. “[B]ut a documentary-maker who was also arrested for committing journalism faces a potential 45 years in prison.””
I listened to the show today. Naturally, it was all about her and the others whose charges were dropped. Not a word about the ones whose charges have not been dropped. Solidarity!
See also:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45692.htm
Citigroup Chose Obama’s 2008 Cabinet, WikiLeaks Document Reveals
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/10/17/the-legacy-of-veblen-in-the-age-of-post-industrial-capitalism/
The Legacy of Veblen in the Age of Post-Industrial Capitalism
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-crony-economy/
The Crony Economy
http://www.unz.com/article/an-obituary-of-the-new-york-times/
An Obituary of The New York Times
Johannes Wahlstrom
https://consortiumnews.com/2016/10/16/nyts-absurd-new-anti-russian-propaganda/
NYT’s Absurd New Anti-Russian Propaganda
http://theduran.com/nsa-whistleblower-says-dnc-hack-not-done-russia-us-intelligence/
NSA whistleblower says DNC hack was not done by Russia, but by U.S. intelligence
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2016/10/number-of-al-qaeda-fighters-in-east-aleppo-defined-down-to-three.html#more
Al-Qaeda Fighters In East-Aleppo (Defined) Down To Three!
http://www.iraqinews.com/iraq-war/coalition-jets-didnt-target-isis-militants-fleeing-mosul-syria-says-kildani/
Christian militia leader: Coalition jets didn’t target ISIS convoys fleeing Mosul to Syria
I just want to be in a place that gets a direct nuclear weapon hit when HRC gets to move on her plan to remove Assad in Syria. For what it’s worth I’m voting Stein but then I’m in a state where HRC is up 26 points. Think of what that’s like, being surrounded by Hillarybots who don’t even know what she has done, just that she’s not him. I don’t think I’ll be voting again. No point anymore.
If the Russians are smart, they’ll nuke the District of Columbia and the Lower Manhattan financial zone and leave the rest of America alone.
I hope you’re not in Mass. The Ivy League universities, where the British aristocrat way of life is incubated, will need to go, too.
Luckily we’re in Miss where the Southron Slaveholding Patrician way of life is conjured and, need I say, succubated.
Yes, this is my last round of voting for candidates (just one mediocre person who thinks tech jobs will save our small city). I’ll stick to legislation from now on.
KSperry
http://m.imdb.com/title/tt3669520/
Palio
http://us.thepalio.com
Trailer
Twice a year the Italian city of Siena goes crazy for the oldest horse race in the world: the Palio. Not your average race: strategy, bribery and corruption play as much a part as the skill of the riders. Horses are allocated by lot four days prior to the race. This is when the madness truly begins. In the eye of the storm stand the jockeys. Loved and loathed by the districts they represent, they forge alliances and make deals promising large cash sums to try and get the best start. Legendary rider Gigi Bruschelli has won 13 Palios in 16 years and is accused by his critics of monopolizing the race. He works the system, paying off younger jockeys and fixing the race with average horses. Two races away from beating the world record, Bruschelli will do anything to win. But one jockey stands in his way, his former trainee, a handsome young Sardinian, Giovanni Atzeni, who is quietly determined to challenge his old mentor. Less interested in bribes and collusion, he rides for the love of the race. PALIO is the thrilling story of a young ‘outsider’ keen to break in to the dangerous but lucrative race and the corrupt ‘insider’ who has manipulated the city of Siena for a decade. Their passionate and dramatic battle is an epic and cinematic tale of Italian life in microcosm.
>Searching for the True Britain Der Speigel
Oh, man, this piece:
“Europe seems to have come up with a narrative about the United Kingdom: The British are losing their minds. An otherwise extremely rational people, according to this oft-repeated tale, succumbed to a fit of irrationality in listening to populist clowns and turning their backs on the European Union. All that’s left to us is to prevent the virus from jumping the Channel and infecting the Continent.”
Who are they defining as ‘Europe’? Because last I checked there are plenty of Europeans who also see that the EU is an anti-democratic trainwreck and want out.
“Europe had long viewed the UK as a rather eccentric, but nevertheless pragmatic and open neighbor, one less interested in political ideology than in free markets.”
Free markets are a political ideology.
“A nation of commerce whose colonial history has made it familiar with the world at large…”
Let me fix that for you: “A nation of exploitation whose barbaric colonial history has made it hated by much of the world at large…”
“…a nation that has shaped pop-culture with exports from the Beatles to Adele. Cool Britannia. In recent years, however, the European view of the country has become more distrustful, more skeptical.”
The fact that anyone in Europe ever felt that Perfidious Albion (and any talk of ‘Britain’ is invariably actually a talk about the English) was trustworthy reflects poorly on the Continentals.
“The British have become foreign to us, making it all the more important to find out what drives them and, now, to find out how the Brexit catastrophe could have happened and what will happen next.”
‘Catastrophe’. And how could they be so foreign to you, since as you say in literally the very next paragraph:
“Many in Britain are concerned about the same things many Europeans are. They are disappointed by Europe, angry at the elites, disgusted with politicians who promise wealth and then cut pensions and social services. Populists aren’t unique to the Britain, of course, but they unfortunately happen to be better organized here.”
‘Unfortunate’ that the ‘populists’ are better organized. Curse that damn democracy! Can’t they see the technocrats are trying to gets things done?!
“The EU referendum confirmed that this logic no longer applies. Labour has largely split in two: an urban left-wing liberal middle class that voted against Brexit on the one hand and an independent worker class that was in favor of leaving the EU on the other.”
The ‘liberal middle class’ aren’t left-wing. And what the hell is ‘independent’ even supposed to mean in this context?
“British society has become more complex, but its political system doesn’t reflect that. The working class of Charles Dickens novels and George Orwell essays has disappeared.”
Looks like I have to fix another sentence for you: “The working class of Charles Dickens novels and George Orwell essays has been systematically destroyed by precisely the type of person who champions the EU and globalization.”
I’m sure there’s more stupid in there, but I can’t be bothered.
According to Wikipedia, The South China Morning Post was sold to Alibaba by Robert Kuok, a Chinese-Malaysian tycoon, in April of this year. When a crunch comes, Alibaba will likely be much more vulnerable to pressure from Beijing than Kuok was. Enjoy the good journalism and information while it lasts.
The placebo effect is social and depends on the beta-endorphin/mu opioid pathway. It doesn’t work in some subjects. It likely involves oxytocin too, as this socialization pathway overlaps with endorphins.
There are also several problems with placebo pills. They aren’t, strictly speaking, placebos. Consuming water per se will activate the sympathetic nervous system. Sugar pills can also release dopamine, which can relieve pain – at least in the short run. Consumed regularly, though, sugar causes insulin resistance which diminishes neurological inhibition and exacerbates nerve damage and chronic pain. Sugar also adversely affects gut flora and those flora regulate the entire mu opioid/cannabinoid network.
“the campaign to elect pramila is about building a movement to defeat the billionaire class” and “I’m going to do all I can to get Hillary elected.” one of these things is not like the other. bernie, how could you? no one demanded that you campaign for the queen of chaos. but you are and you less and less the more you do it. if you get in bed with a dog…
One of Phyl’s family, of right wing sympathies, sent her a short video produced and twisted to show Bernie grinning as Hillary berates him for not abhorring guns in a debate. Then the Bernie clone pulls out an automatic and shoots the Hillary clone.
Bernie had better watch out how close he lets himself be seen as being to Hillary. There is a pathological hatred brewing out in the hinterlands.