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Yves here. I am very much behind the eight ball. Please come back after 7:30 AM for a fuller ration of Links.
Great Lakes shipwreck 50 years ago today brought tragic loss, incredible survival Duluth News Tribune (Chuck L)
West Antarctic Ice Shelf breaking up from the inside out AGU Newsroom (Chuck L)
Chernobyl disaster site enclosed by shelter to prevent radiation leaks Guardian
ESPN Pays Top Dollar for Football, but Audience Isn’t Buying New York Times (EM)
A method for storing vaccines at room temperature PhysOrg (Chuck L)
India Cash Train Wreck
For Gond tribals, depositing cash a Herculean task The Hindu (J-LS)
Rumours, hardship and a glimmer of anger in Allahabad after demonetisation Scroll (J-LS)
Brexit
Brexit odyssey: potential potholes on road to accord Financial Times. Potholes? How about “yawning chasms with no bridges?”
Geert Wilders on Track to Become Next Prime Minister of the Netherlands PJ Media (furzy)
Hollande prepares to seek re-election as French president Financial Times. What has he been smoking? It must be awfully good.
Monte Paschi CFO Said to Pile Pressure on Bondholders for Swap Bloomberg. As an aside, the Italian referendum looks more and more like a Renzi loss, the slow motion bank run continues and the Germans are standing pat. This is a prescription for bad outcomes.
Chance of Italy leaving euro zone hits four-year high: survey Reuters
RBS Must Bolster Capital After Failing Bank of England Stress Test Wall Street Journal
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Imprisoned Journalist & Whistleblower Barrett Brown Released Long Island Press (Adrien)
Trump Transition
Trump to ‘leave business’ over presidency BBC. Breaking news, no details yet. By the time you click on this, there should be a story up.
GOP falls in line behind Trump Cabinet Politico
Treasury Pick Steven Mnuchin Bet on Donald Trump and Won Wall Street Journal
What Obamacare-hating Tom Price’s appointment will mean for health care Kaiser News (via Newsweek)
Tom Price’s radically conservative vision for American health care Politico
Trump Will End Bank Rules. No He Won’t. A Guide for the Puzzled Bloomberg
Frightened by Donald Trump? You don’t know the half of it George Monbiot, Guardian (Richard Smith)
Carrier to keep jobs in Indiana after Trump penalty threats Financial Times. Due to too many distractions, have not had time to examine whether this “deal” is as good as Trump says it is. But it is at the very least a half a loaf, which is a hell of a lot more than the Dems every did for US factory workers.
Trump’s Showdown With Manufacturer Exposes Obama’s Weakness on Outsourcing Dave Dayen, Intercept
FBI and NSA Poised to Gain New Surveillance Powers Under Trump Bloomberg (J-LS)
CIA chief warns Trump: Scrapping Iran deal ‘height of folly’ BBC
Online Pranksters Mock Trump’s $149 Christmas Ornament, Rename Trump Tower on Google Maps Slashdot (furzy)
How the Democrats could win again, if they wanted Thomas Frank, Guardian (Kevin F)
Congress’ Democrats say they’ll be just fine. They won’t. McClatchy (Chuck L)
Clinton Purge?
Trump administration will pressure foreign states to probe Clinton Foundation New York Post. Haha, we though this might be coming…And frankly, Trump should know what promises Hillary made for cash while at State, and make a point of not honoring them.
Memorandum of Understanding Between the Australian Government and The William J. Clinton Foundation dfat.gov.au (J-LS). Looks juicy but I must confess I have no time to read it.
Leaning San Francisco tower seen sinking from space Associated Press
Record number of car buyers ‘upside down’ on trade-ins Detroit Free Press (EM)
Bond Tantrum II: Mortgage Rates Up 80 Basis Points Since July Michael Shedlock (EM)
Oil surges more than 7% on Opec deal hopes Financial Times
Decade of Negative Real Interest Rates: Who Benefited? Michael Shedlock. EM:
Mish lays out the symptoms nicely, but blames central banks for everything, because ‘globalization, genuine free markets and falling prices are always and everywhere great!’ He invariably ignores the wage deflation component of his ‘lower prices’ fantasy (despite this piece opening with a discussion of it!) and still holds out for that economic unicorn, ‘true free trade’, despite overwhelming evidence that the PTB in any era never desire free trade, but rather trade managed for their own interests. Were said interests aligned with those of the general populace – ignoring the emerging theme of global sustainability for the moment – that would be fine, but somehow it ‘unexpectedly’ never seems to work out that way, does it?
‘Washington Post’ ‘Blacklist’ Story Is Shameful, Disgusting Matt Taibbi
Class Warfare
Fairfax County, USA Jacobin (Phil U)
Antidote du jour. Tracie H from the Los Angeles Zoo:
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
229 comments
Comments are closed.
So I saw “Requiem for the American Dream” a …I don’t know what I would call it, not a documentary – a polemic/lecture – by Noam Chomsky. I was disappointed – even though my rants and what Chomsky said correspond at least 95% (his more well phrased of course) but there was little “meat” – it was interesting how many of the things he talked about I first became aware of on NC, e.g., “manufacturing consent”, Bernays, etcetera.
There was one thing Chomsky said that I found interesting, surprising, disheartening – that Nixon was the last New Deal president. {Nixon instituted the EPA, OSHA and some other regulatory agencies and tried to expand health care]
It seems a good observation to me, but one I had never heard put that way. I imagine, just like me, Nixon would be considered a dirty rotten commie pinko today…
Imo Chomsky is well-meaning and intelligent but out of touch. Chomsky has some issues with his analysis of what makes up the core of spoken language too, as it irrefutable due to his framing of the issue, but not necessarily correct. Not sophistry, but not provable either. I’m not particularly interested in that sort of stuff though so someone may know more and correct me on this.
Chomsky is probably a bit senile at this point. strike that if you disagree, i won’t argue. for those who have never read anything by him I recommend World Orders, Old and New. top of his game in that one.
Chomsky has been saying these things before NC was born.
Nixon’s “progressiveness” should also be seen through the lens of having been shaped by the prevailing (not-yet-neoliberal) political norms and a Left that hadn’t quite reached it dissolution point. Although, I wonder to what extent the southern strategy and the failure of democrats to retain (interest in, and the interest of) southern working class whites laid the groundwork for the Reagan/Bush/Clinton/Obama “Washington Consensus” nightmare.
Nixon’s “progressiveness” perhaps shaped also by fear of a left more powerful than we have today?
Uh, yeah.
One political science breakdown is:
Equality of condition Presidents: FDR, Truman, Ike, Nixon, and even 41 (Congress wouldn’t expand the GI Bill, so he made every soldier a veteran) and Ford (someone had to be President, so I tend to believe he should be judged less harshly).
Equality of opportunity Presidents: JFK, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, and now 43 and Obama.
The right/left arguments, temporal conditions, and certain rhetorical appeals cloud this breakdown, but the drive behind these Presidents can be split these ways. They might have different understanding of how their goals are achieved, but the first group if they flirted with charter schools and vouchers would be concerned with an understanding every student is different and different environments are needed. The latter group would want to protect the deserving special snowflakes from the horrors of public school with the riff raff.
Hillary’s rhetoric when she dumped her campaign in 2008 would probably put her in the FDR group, but she has too much baggage and never seems to learn. She’s too much of a grifter much like Ford was too much of a back bencher to fit neatly or never separated herself sufficiently from Bill and Obama to make this leap.
Trump is less an actor than a final result of so many equality of opportunity Presidents. People settled for a guy linked to casinos. I hate to say it, but I fear Romney might be in the first group too. He’s just too elite and too stupid.
How the Democrats could win again, if they wanted Thomas Frank, Guardian (Kevin F)
“This was an election about social class –about class-based grievances – and yet the Party of the People blew it.”
========================================================
Party of the People – a trademark that signifies nothing.
The dems dont want it – believing the dems are a working class party is like believing the repubs are still the party of Lincoln…
AND
Somewhere in a sunny corner of the country, either right now or very shortly, a group of tech tycoons or well-meaning private equity investors will meet to discuss what went wrong in this election cycle. They will consider many things: the sexism and racism of Trump voters, the fundamental foreignness of the flyover, the problems one encounters when dealing with evangelicals. They will celebrate some activist they learned about from NPR, they will enjoy some certified artisanal cuisine, they will hand out prizes to the same people that got prizes at the last event they attended, and they will go back to their comfortable rooms at the resort and sleep ever so soundly.
These people think they know what liberalism includes and what it doesn’t include. And in the latter category fall the concerns that made up the heart and soul of liberal politics a few decades ago: labor and work and exploitation and economic equality.
===================================================
I’m on the west coast people! and I’m the first one here? What a bunch of snoozy heads….
“How the Democrats could win again, if they wanted…”
Well, first thing they should do is apologize to white working class males for years of constant guilt tripping and demonization over “privilege” and the associated agitprop. Why do you think Trump got so much of the White Working Class vote? It’s not ‘racism’, it’s often reaction to perceived personal attacks.
It’s not just Democrats, and votes, but most ‘progressives’ and their causes.
For example, our local Pacifica Radio Station in Berkeley, KPFA, used to get five hundred of dollars a year in donations from us through their various fund drives.
After years of listening to their programs and their fundraisers and how they “represent and give voice to women, minorities, the poor, the GLBT ‘community’, immigrants, people of color, sexual minorities, the oppressed and others”,
after listening to an ever shrinking number of decent programs, the constant rape culture crap, white male guilt tripping, elaborations of white privileged, and their exclusive hiring of broadcasters only from the
“women, minorities, the GLBT ‘community’, immigrants, people of color, sexual minorities, the oppressed and others” Demographic,
we decided to forgo our donations to them and allow“women, minorities, the GLBT ‘community’, immigrants, people of color, sexual minorities, the oppressed and others” to strongly support the radio station financially since they seem to represent those groups, but not me.
I wouldn’t want to taint KPFA with my “white privileged” cash, so from now on, they get one dollar a year from us.
And, let me guess: The quality of the programming has been in decline.
Which is what is happening to our local alt-paper, the Tucson Weekly. After being edited by a white male (who happened to be gay), the paper hired a Latina woman.
To say that she can’t edit is putting it nicely. The Weekly should be renamed the Misspelled. Or the Incorrect Grammar.
Periodically, the former publisher weighs in on the quality of the current product. Invariably, the Latin blame cannons come out firing. He’s a white male! A sexist! A racist!
Meanwhile, the Tucson Weekly keeps getting thinner.
Wow, are you even trying? The “gay” white male who edited that rag left because he misspelled and frankly sucked at this job. He makes the chica look good by comparison.
Lame posts like this are why Naked Capitalism is a propaganda site. Lying for the sake of it. Globalists you are.
Oooooh! Correct the Record is still in business I gather. Have their ‘rates’ changed, because, if that “news remediation” site paid based on results, you’d all owe the DNC a boatload of money.
You owe the DNC a boatload of money for posting.
clinton still lost. correct that.
Wow, are you even trying?
Better not to try than to try too hard, like you are. You’re out of your depth here.
The posts were lame though. Trump didn’t get nearly as much as the “white working class” as “Dave” thinks.
Democrats just need to wait the cycle and get a halfway decent leader at the DNC who you know, can actually help pick candidates rather than the women of the year.
“The posts were lame though.”
Yep, assuming you are referring to your own posts. And the Dum-party just needs to die and make room for what is in the process of forming. Later!
Consolation prize for “Truth”.
Yah that’s the ticket.
Obama led Dems over an eight year period to the greatest number of Democratic electoral defeats in all US history and the greatest number of Republican electoral victories in all US history and you say….”Democrats just need to wait the cycle….”
Well ok then! All is well.
But you better add 4 cycles because that’s what Obama lead Dems to all time record shattering loses. But don’t let facts get in the way.
Oh…and the poster said the Latina misspelled, NOT the gay white man as you stated.
Actually, the gay white guy was a pretty good editor.
And, it turns out, he also was adept at entrepreneurship. Because he left AZ and started an alt-weekly in CA. AFAIK, it has been successful.
I wasn’t gonna feed it, but this is just too precious:
DSGE for politics! Elections are like the economy: you just leave it alone and everything moves back to equilibrium.
Duh. And anyone who dies because of it was weak and deserved to be culled. The System Wreocks!
@RabidGandhi – LOL. +100
You just lost an election. Shut up.
It is the new editor, the Latina woman, who is the poor editor not the previous editor.
The rest of your “Truth” you’ve posted is suspect if you can’t understand three sentences.
If your second para is an argument it is begging the question – it’s circular. Not convincing.
I am the only one who find this entire thread chilling indeed?
Apologize to the white men? Is that where we’re at? All right.. I can roll with that I guess, being a white man and all. But let’s look at where we’re going here.
I don’t see what would be objectionable about apologizing for causing drama and zero-sum competition between marketing demographics for the benefit of the ruling class, rather than working against the ruling class in order to benefit everyone. Indeed, they should be apologizing and worse for pledging allegiance to the ruling class and we should be seriously considering reparations for the drama. After they apologize for hypocritically — well, what’s the difference between hypocrisy and loyalty? None, aside from whether it’s for or against Team, a hypocrisy in itself — using white men as scapegoats, then they can apologize to the whole 99% for using them in order to feel better than.
Until such time as they do that, I don’t see what’s wrong with treating the “food groups” as the authoritarian followers they are.
I certainly agree with that 100%, but that’s not what was said up there in Dave’s and some of the subsequent posts.
They’ve been using everyone as scapegoats against everyone else, and I get the hypocrisy surrounding identity politics and PC thinking, and the backlash we are now feeling against that, but let’s not throw out the buds with the stems here. The truth is that white men have gotten the better end of the stick for a loong time, and change is due. So any cry that sounds remotely to me like white men are being marginalized and/or oppressed.. it rings real hollow on my ears.
Agreed. Dems don’t want to win. Look at what happened when Obama was elected with the Dems controlling everything – they were like a deer in the headlights and the only thing they could manage was to barely pass a Republican health care plan (Romneycare) as their own. Thankfully (/s), losing their majority gave them an excuse for being inept the next 6 years and blaming the Republicans for obstruction. They much prefer to be the Party of Offended Whiners than anything resembling actual leadership.
But the Dems did win! They mobilised effectively and organised a coordinated attack to squash Sanders and ensure he would get nowhere near the general election.
They got to punch hippies, spit on the working class, and copulate in public with neocons.
#MostSuccessfulElectionEver.
Please, Sanders was a post-server “protest vote”. Democrats didn’t squash shit. Matter of fact, they tried like hell to get others into the race and nobody wanted it. Sanders should have dropped out after he got shellshacked in late April. That was some classless shit and part of the reason Sanders easily went over to Clinton in July.
A big reason is because they think the business cycle will end in 2020. The Democratic field will be as large as the Republican one in 2016 for good reason.
“Day is Night, Truth is Lies.” My bad — don’t feed the trulls…
Again, deal man. You can’t handle the truth. You just want your dialectics satisfied.
truthiness, man. do you work for propornot?
Truth?
>Sanders was a post-server “protest vote”
What does that even mean?
>Democrats didn’t squash shit
Holding the initial primaries in states you will never win in the general squashes a lot. Losing the House, Senate, and Presidency is some pretty squashed stuff.
>they tried like hell to get others into the race and nobody wanted it.
First, BS. This was cleared for Hillary, but keep ignoring the actual stuff in the Wikileaks cables, is “post-server” the new term? Second, Martin O’Malley is a nobody?
>Sanders should have dropped out after he got shellshacked in late April.
Yes, give up in April. Unlike your candidate, who didn’t wait to give up until late October. Of course she didn’t think she was giving up, she thought she had won. Idiots, all of you.
>That was some classless shit and part of the reason Sanders easily went over to Clinton in July.
This sentence makes no sense, not internally and not regarding the claims you made before. There is nothing “classless” about running a campaign during the time a campaign is to be run, and even if it was – sigh, for like the fifth time this week “politics ain’t beanbag”.
>You can’t handle the truth.
Um, yeah we can’t, says the person defending a Party after a complete election FAIL.
Seems like lots of trolls still on the payroll, or am I misreading that?
JT: be nice to the MSNBCers. They’re about to have a sudden epiphany that Goldman is evil, that civil liberties need to be defended and that war is bad– after 8 years of preaching the opposite.
Welcome back liberals!
Small comfort, but I’ll take it.
+1 , nice!
But WaPo accuses nakedcapitalism for being “Fake News”, despite NC being consistent on editorial stances like 2B2Fs/Goldman are bad, regardless of party in power. Meanwhile WaPo, 0bots & HillaryBots only blast Goldman when Bush43 or Trump is Pres. Visa-versa for Faux News/Sean Hannity types.
I think you mean neoliberals!
Most of the liberals I know are issue or policy oriented. They don’t subscribe to the cult of personalities the two main parties serve up.
I’m liberal (the nomenclature can be removed from my cold dead hands, in much the same way I refuse to cede “chrisitanity” to the judgmental, obnoxious bible thumping crowd) and I never left.
I do get your point though. The Democratic Party faithful will all of sudden become aware of things like our broken, never fixed health care system or that our economy seems to be dependent on us selling arms to other countries to blow each other up. Those things fall by the wayside when you realize “your guy” is the one responsible for policy.
Liberal was never a particularly noble label, even before the neoliberals came along. And Christianity has been a farce since about 100 AD. Pity Julian died prematurely in the desert.
Which part of the label do you dislike in particular?
1.open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values:
2.(of education) concerned mainly with broadening a person’s general knowledge and experience, rather than with technical or professional training.
3.(especially of an interpretation of a law) broadly construed or understood; not strictly literal or exact:
4.given, used, or occurring in generous amounts:
I personally love all of those definitions.
As far as Christianity goes, I endeavor to be a kind, compassionate, giving and forgiving person as Christ was. I don’t always succeed but I do always try. I don’t consider the label to mean more than that despite everyone else’s attempts to define his sacrifice to the church going literalists.
The Origin of ‘Liberalism’
There are liberals, and there are Liberals. You are the former, the ruling class are the latter—or worse.
My only complaint about NC is the poor quality of the trolls.
Perhaps some of the raised funds could go to Correct the Record for the “Platinum” package?
Ha
The quality of the DNC Correct the Record output I’ve seen in the comment strings online is shockingly poor, considering the resources that must be available. And I don’t mean poor quality as in the “I don’t agree with it” sense, but stuff I’d think was poor quality even if I were in total agreement with whatever point it is trying to make. Shoddy workmanship, poorly enunciated, ignoring obvious facts, even at times illiterate. Don’t they have tested talking points in the hands of the comment flooders? Or are they just turned loose with no direction to just crowd out other viewpoints by brute force methods so the actual content of what is posted is only of trivial importance?
It seems to me one or two Operatives, like Whizdom and JudyJupiter on that original WaPoo article about Kelly McCarthy’s List, are tasked with getting onto a comment board and flying kites to game out responses. The tell here is that they hang out for most of the life of the thread and try to keep the discussion “on topic”.
Not saying that’s what’s going on here, but the liberal (i.e. judgmental) press and Party Operatives do like to do this sort of thing early in campaigns. Killing talking points with fire early only helps them.
If you have to say it on the label, it’s probably not true. But one shouldn’t expect marketers to change their spots.
And I don’t mean poor quality as in the “I don’t agree with it” sense, but stuff I’d think was poor quality even if I were in total agreement with whatever point it is trying to make. Shoddy workmanship, poorly enunciated, ignoring obvious facts, even at times illiterate.
Lots of this in the Podesta emails too. Apart from all the corruption, those emails exposed some shockingly poor communication skills. Mediocrity coupled with arrogance is a toxic combination.
Seems like some new people are here; perhaps curious about what Russian propaganda looks like.
Apparently it looks like Truth-i-ness. S/he dines on pseudo-ceviche canapés cut from artisanal, stone-ground, blue corn tortillas……. and between bites, excoriates us for asking for more gruel.
I’m not sure what some of your slang means, but I am certain that Sanders would have beaten Trump in the general election. Clinton was leading Trump by 1% to 4% in various polls, which isn’t much, but Sanders led Trump by an average of 10.4%. For six polls, with Sanders leading by 4% up to 15%, see:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_sanders-5565.html
The Democratic establishment had to work very hard to defeat Sanders, and they were very unethical about it, as we have learned from the Wikileaks email messages. In other words, the Democratic establishment cheated, and they lost their sure shot at having a Democrat win the general election.
Truth, despite your username your post is completely subjective. It was “classless” for Sanders staying in past April based on what? Since the DNC was trying “like hell” to get others into the “race”, how classy was it for Hillary’s army of Oligarchy Delegates pledging their individual ~30,000 vote equivalent for her before the people had a chance to vote?
Wow not only do you make stuff up, you make up stuff that is ridiculous.
Since when has BDSM sodomy qualified as “copulation” RG? Oh, let’s be genteel about it and call the aforementioned hedonic exercises “triangulating with the help of select focus groups.”
I like the tweet hashtag. It has a soupcon of alt-X nuance.
the real party of the people:
Interactive Map: Changes in US political party control at the state level, 1978 to 2016
Party of the People… bah humbug! They chose to ran Hillary Clinton who (among other faults and issues) is worth more than $100 million (perhaps far more). The House Minority Leader who presided over a decade of Dem Party losses is seeking re-election to the post today. Here is a report based on her filings:
–2016 Net Worth for Minority Leader of House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi
(Note that the congresscritters can specify a very broad range for their holdings, so it’s hard to know the actual amount.)
Party of the people, perhaps, but run by the filthy rich. Well, we know now how useful all those $34,000 per head dinners with George Clooney et al are!
What eve happened to electing ‘people more like us?’
People (financially) more like us.
I personally think our country couldn’t do worse if we elected representation the way we handle jury duty/ Use a random lottery system to pick a pool and then allow voters(instead of lawyers) to vet them and vote based on the random pool(using federal funding for the process only)
It would be nice to think that service workers could have a seat at the table. Or the manufacturing sector workers. Or the nursing aides. Or the millions of people who aren’t rich and connected.
That ‘broad range’ for holding must, no doubt, include non-prosecutable insider trading !!
Yeah .. the Party of the ‘Not Those’ People ….!
Good point, polecat!
I thought of adding that congresspeople passed a law exempting themselves from insider trading laws. How convenient!
Everyone should just research how many congresspeople go in as middle class and exit as millionaires. Just how did Hastert get all those millions of dollars to pay off his sex accuser?
It is all such a scam. I think people are finally waking up, but it is probably too late.
Yep …it’s too late …
…and even if, by chance, the democrats prevail in 2018, or 2020, it still won’t make for a hill of beans …. the lowly plebs will be on their own …. especially if DJT does little to address the issues of the common man/woman ..
Over and into the Plebeian Ditch !
The Democratic Party could go a long way towards trying to patch up its tattered relationship with the average American voter by the simple stipulation that all candidates running in the party’s name must have net worth < $x dollars. Around 5M would probably be ball park to get the effect. Half that would be more interesting, though.
Read through the Clinton Foundation – Australia MOU.
Executive Summary: Continuation of non-binding agreements to work on health issues together, with private/public sector partners.
Valuable consideration: Foundation gets around $AU 71M. Australia gets to help.
Not much else there. Seems like a lot of what went on is in other documents or?
I believe it discusses working with private – public partnerships.
That’s were the graft is
My observation was that the money is tied to nothing in particular. As we’d say at work — “this is not auditable”.
What’s the fair market value of a national conversation? CF should put a price list on their website, eg:
National Conversations…. $X
Working Hard For You…$Y
Pragmatically Getting Things Done…$Z
Fighting Hard to Win…..$W
etc.
win-win!!! should be worth something.
The money is tied to whoever the Foundation chooses to tie it to.
I believe that is a feature and not a bug as Lambert would say
Skimmed through it. It’s a pretty standard MOU, which are typically fairly high level summaries: “We (Australia) think that the Foundation does things that we agree with, and that we have previously funded directly ourselves. Now we’d like the Foundation to help us do more of it, and we plan to channel money through the foundation to get it done.” Think of it as an outsourcing agreement: we’re getting somebody else to help us do what we have previously done ourselves.
Whether or not it delivers cost-effective bang for the buck (actual AIDS support services) is determined in the details of how they measure ‘success’. Any behind-the-scenes benefits (staff positions for ex-politicians, preferential seating at State Dep’t or embassy dinners, etc.) won’t show up here.
Yes, it’s pretty standard and I would assume that there are technical agreements and project management documents that have not been made public. But governments contract out a huge proportion of their overseas aid efforts to NGOs and consultancies these days (the UK’s DFID and the EU do so almost entirely), so there’s nothing inherently abnormal about this. The devil (if there is one) is in the detail.
It is not abnormal to farm out oversees aid to NGO’s, but it most definitely is abnormal to farm it out to foreign NGO’s or NGO’s not subject to domestic regulation.
FYI:
Australia joins a growing list of countries that are scaling back or ending contributions to the Clinton Foundation.
From the same article:
“scandal-plagued”…. interesting that that made it into print. Somebody alert “Correct The Record” — oh wait, we seem to suddenly be able to do it in the comment section, hey “Truth” here’s a stick go chase it.
In any case, I assume the Aussie government didn’t put that into it’s release, so I guess that’s news.com.au’s wording.
And some* people wanted another Clinton as president.
*I think 75% of Trumps votes were anti-Clinton and 75%% of Clinton’s votes were anti-Trump. Not that it helps anything except if true then we have a stronger corrective on Trump than we currently think.
Hmmm. Was it the scandals? Or was it that the chief selling point of said foundation was its insider status?
There may be a means of telling. Where does Australia and/or Norway now send that money supposedly earmarked for the types of aid that the Foundation was reported to be providing?
Not to be cynical but unless some non scandal ridden NGO or state directed aid operations see significant funding increases, I think we are safe to call it grift.
I like that comment a lot. Good going!
very good analysis.
Has there been a zombie apocalypse – I would leave the basement and go outside to see, but that would get my bunny slippers wet…as well as getting eaten.
anyway
Trump’s Showdown With Manufacturer Exposes Obama’s Weakness on Outsourcing Dave Dayen, Intercept
But someone else already holds that power. His name is Barack Obama. He just doesn’t seem to care.
The most Obama has said about Carrier, at a June town hall in Indiana, is that some jobs “are just not going to come back.” He cited automation in manufacturing, enabling many fewer workers to staff a production line than in previous decades, though that’s a separate issue from Carrier’s outsourcing.
=========================================
Please excuse me for over commenting, but the phrase “some jobs are just not going to come back” is like a mantra. I saw that phrase used by a “journalist” on Morning Joe just this morning. I imagine I have read it a billion times.
People treat this like physics or an egg being scrambled. Its the rules of people – if people don’t like the rules, they can CHANGE the rules.
“Some political jobs are just not going to come back to the D party.”
They have been shipped out to the R party, or eliminated by the deplorables.
“Wait, wait, wait. There must be something we can do here!!! Help! Please! Without food, we’d be starved to death.”
fresno dan: I’m glad that you commented on “some jobs are just not going to come back.” This is the usual rhetorical selfie: “We fought for them and they aren’t coming back–through no fault of our own.”
The update should be: “Your job is now going away and will not come back. So tell us what policies you’d like to put in place to avoid such an, errrr, inconvenience.”
I’m noticing more stories on how lawyers cannot get jobs. Maybe the “national conversation on jobs going away” can now be scheduled.
No: those lawyers didn’t graduate from elite law schools.
“They say these jobs are goin’ boys and they ain’t comin’ back.”
I remember that as a line in a song the Boss put on his album “Born in the USA”. A woman I worked with said the song was about a carpet factory in New Jersey that shut down — ? to move to the South?
Moving to the South aka the original “offshoring”. Funny how those in the South weren’t so upset about capitalists turning their backs on the towns that birthed them seeking greener pastures when it was their pasture.
https://thinkprogress.org/trump-carrier-jobs-913348bbf46#.16hv3qdua
This episode is a perfect illustration of Trump conning the people who naively voted for him as a hopey change agent. Probably the single defining economic issue of his campaign is/was to keep American manufacturing jobs here by making companies offshoring those jobs pay a price for doing so. Remember the speech in Detroit where he threatened a Ford executive face to face with punitive tariffs if Ford outsourced vehicle production to Mexico and reimported those cars? It was brilliant theater, and would have been a truly significant moment if it weren’t a transparent con put on for the rubes. But con is naturally what it was.
So Trump does his bait and switch where he went from threatening punitive tariffs (stick) to tax concessions (carrot). He’s completely flipped his position on perhaps the single signature issue of his campaign before he even takes office. Now every CEO with more than two functioning brain cells will be threatening to move their operations to Mexico/China/wherever with their hand out blackmailing the government to offer similar tax concessions as incentives to remain.
This is a complete and total repudiation of his campaign’s central defining focus, from courageous protector of American jobs standing up to imperious offshoring villains in five thousand dollar suits, to cowardly no-fee ATM for those same villains, dishing out favors in the form of tax breaks to everyone threatening to leave. This, before he even is officially elected!
Trump goes from crusading economic populist promising to act against those ruining our country’s economic base to the BFF/candyman of those same putative villains.
Quelle surprise huh? Who could’ve predicted he would be a total fraud slinging hopium to desperate voters who bought his economic populist sparkle ponies while never for a second meaning a word of any of his populist rhetoric? Maybe anyone paying the slightest attention would.
” if people don’t like the rules, they can CHANGE the rules.”
That’s not fair!
The job of the dems is to pick a target that they think the GOP will be OK with, then settle for half of that. That’s fair, according to the well credentialed and connected party elite.
Triangulation. It’s a growing tech field. It requires very technical sounding credentials and a complete lack of spine.
On Mish – to me, the fundamentalists of both right and left make the same mistake – they assume that human constructs (markets in one case, government in the other case) work as if they were outside of humanity and operated always perfectly. Any and all human constructs can, and given enough incentive (which often is not much) will be corrupted and misused.
Democracy works only if the general public invests into it actively, not just sitting there moaning. It’s not a perpetuum mobile machine – as with any human construct, you get out mostly what you put in.
So true. I was thinking about that just this morning.
It gets almost unreadable. The ideological hysteria on both sides, the name calling, the character assassinations, the vulgar barbs, the cherry picked facts, the transparent rhetoric, the money moving behind the scenes, the useful idiots, the useless idiots, the delusions, the hate, the paralysis of all sentience. I read it less and less, more and more. And each time I do I feel a little splash of something out of a sewer.
Of course that makes me feel a little guilty, since what am I doing about it? Not a lot, that’s for sure. But at least I’m honest! That’s a start. haha
“Democracy works…”
So true vlade, reminds me of the line in Animal House:
“Fat and lazy is no way to go through a democracy son”
So true. I got modded trying to reply.
Oh well, The Moderbator let the one through yesterday about the 20 feminists and the Aussie ski instructor. You can’t get that lucky every day! LOL.
The poster of that one never did provide advice young men can use. That’s politics for ya.
My advice to young men when faced with 20 feminists is to hold firm (Whoa!) and not back down from one’s opinions. Females don’t like pussies, unless of course they are bisexual (Whoa!).
(Sorry everyone, I’m drinking, it’s late night in Australia, and I’ll make that my last post for today)
Whoa! *clink*
But wouldn’t the response to this argument be that if government (like every other human institution) is inherently prone to corruption, then the public should want a minimalist government to minimize the impact of government corruption so that there is not a large need to invest in preventing corruption. Many do in fact make this argument.
You are certainly correct in your assessment that every human institution is prone to corruption. But government can indeed be a force for positive. So how would one reconcile that in the sphere of public discourse?
:) We would reduce government to a minimum, and then, with the money we saved, we could create another organization, responsible to Us the People, to do the things that we insisted on having done.
I suppose, if the Muzak channel is already tuned in and isn’t taking requests, that all we can really do is turn the volume up or down? Perhaps if that’s one’s own tune playing and one is collecting the three cents from the Harry Fox Agency for it.
One does so by demanding new terms of discourse: that bourgeois liberalism is too arrogant to judge the discourse from above; that interests are salient and admissible; that class interests exist and are being hidden behind moral pronunciations of desert. These are simply not conditions under which bourgeois liberalism can prevail; so bourgeois liberals will ignore them, as they do, and leave no discussion to be had with them.
Mel’s right: the People need to be a branch of government, like they are in Bolivarian countries.
We now have a clockwork(ed) Orange ….
… would someone please remove the ‘lid clamps’ .. mine eyes … they need a rest !
A ‘cleaned’ clockwork … on a new/old cabinet
That’s why I eventually stopped reading him. He is very insightful on a lot of issues, but persists in believing that free market libertarianism is the answer to the world’s problems (and gets very repetitive when he starts in about it). It’s a pity as he is very good at skewering woolly thinking in his areas of expertise.
I’ve run through a gamut of French news sites just now, and there is no mention of a Hollande decision to rerun for president in 2017. So move on, dear readers, there’s nothing to see here.
Apparently there was a council of ministers this past weekend and Valls was told to wait until Scooter decides if he’s going run or not (Nouvel Obs). Since unemployment was down a few tenths of a point last month, I would think that he’s going to toss his helmet in the ring.
It’s going to be ugly les amis.
Agreed. I can’t find anything either, although both sides are briefing furiously that their man is best placed to unify the Left (12 declared candidates so far). Hollande is in a cesspit of his own devising, and his choice is between a humiliating withdrawal now, or a humiliating defeat in January. A choice between the plague and the cholera, as the French say. I must admit I giggled at the FT’s suggestion that Valls would “modernise” the party by making it more “business-friendly”, as though Hollande hasn’t done everything except literally polish the shoes of the employers with his tongue. Poor old FT.
“Scooter” aw man, that’s funny. Thanks.
RE: Treasury Pick Steven Mnuchin Bet on Donald Trump and Won Wall Street Journal
Obviously did not read the paywalled article, but there’s plenty on mnuchin this morning, including his involvement in the purchase of Indymac Bank during the foreclosure crisis.
Now that the economy has “recovered,” and house prices are again on the rise due to our renewed “prosperity,” it may be fun to review where “we” went wrong and how we were rescued with mr. mnuchin during his confirmation hearings.
Here’s a link to an explanatory video, which was popular at the time, as a refresher:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssl5yb7FewA
Hopefully Elizabeth Warren can get out of her own angry grandma way, put on her economic expert hat and let the feet-to-the-fire-holding commence. Same for Bernie.
We shall see.
Obviously did not read the paywalled article
Wipe your cookies and search the title of the article in Google, click the link and read the article. That’s if you want to, of course.
or copying the headline and googling in a private browser window, works to get around the NYT, WSJ and FT paywalls.
Switch tre frontside k!
Searching that on Google leads to some really lousy skateboarding. Here’s something better for those who are wondering what the hell “switch tre frontside k” means, though that particular trick is not performed. Just a matter of time though.
Haha, wow, someone on NC aware of the legend of gary headlock and ducky darnsworth? I thought I must be the only one…
Nope. I’m out of the game these days but gave it 15 solid years. Tom Penny éS era.
I’m on 23 now, I think? Somewhere around there. Started at the peak of EE3/Welcome To Hell era, but what can I say, I’m still as addicted as ever.
Injuries took their toll and I don’t find it satisfying to hold back so I just stopped. I miss it though and think about it all the time.
Private browser windows are an allowed default setting in the Firefox browser.
If you aren’t using Firefox, you aren’t on the information super highway, you are on a toll road.
In Firefox, just right click on the link, and if you have google as a search option, it will give you the option to search google for the link. Don’t even have to copy/paste.
I hope his lesson is this, we can let a bank go chapter 7, and there will always be buyers.
So, the next time a big bank is in trouble, let it file and someone will be there to buy it cheap.
Thanks for all the tips!
Actually, thank you Katniss for posting/resurrecting the video. I like your comments here, so please keep it up.
Regarding Geert Wilders in NL:
I had never seen “PJ Media” before, but it seems like it’s a very pro-PVV site, so it would be no surprise that they would think Wilders will be the next PM (“talking their book” in the parlance of our time). But I would rather get confirmation from a more critical source. Can anyone more familiar with NL corroborate?
PJ Media is very strongly right wing, so be very skeptical of what you read there. (Which is why I didn’t read the article – I don’t want to give those guys traffic.)
It could be just wishful thinking from the nutty end of the political spectrum.
I followed their link to the poll information:
http://www.dagelijksestandaard.nl/2016/11/peilingen-wilders-pakt-megawinst-van-drie-zetels-en-denk-zet-de-achtervolging-in/
According to a Dutch Wikipedia article, this is a right-wing political blog that has been going about seven years and is noted among other things for its opinion polls. However, judging by this Wikipedia article which summarizes poll data, there might be some bias in its sampling:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_Dutch_general_election,_2017
Per your request, I checked with my friend who was born in Holland and still reads the Dutch newspapers daily. He also has friends in Holland that he communicates with regularly. For what it’s worth, here is his take:
Wilders could well become PM. There’s a photo of Wilders almost daily in the Dutch press. (grayslady comment: Think of all the free press Trump received here initially.) The Dutch are very nationalistic and very hard workers. They tolerate immigrants who learn Dutch, participate in the economy and contribute to the social welfare. (grayslady comment: The Dutch have always been the kind to blend in and adopt local language and customs. Holland MI is one of the few Dutch enclaves in the U.S. They appreciate the same characteristics in immigrants to their country.) Since joining the EU, they have experienced extreme inflation. Wilders and, prior to Wilders, Pim Fortuyn, are politicians who have previously only had a modest amount of strong backers. My friend believes that the time may now be right for a Wilders to come to power. The only mitigating circumstance, in his opinion, is that the Dutch prefer to back away from anything they view as outright confrontation, and Wilders may be seen as too confrontational a choice.
I also managed to get a response from a Dutch friend, though less comprehensive than this. She is afraid the polls may be right, as Wilders says what people want to hear (though nothing to do with actual solutions to problems). She is also concerned about increasing support for the relatively new DENK, pro-immigrant party, chiefly, I think, because it could take enough votes from VVD to leave PVV with a plurality, but perhaps also because this increasing support may be a sign of growing polarization.
Sounds kind of familiar.
Thanks Katharine and Grayslady! That gives a much broader picture.
Good morning – chiming in from Germany. Unrelated to above links, this is about an article that I came across very early this morning, health care related. From CNN:
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/28/health/health-care-refugees-part-1/
It’s about Florida’s Medicaid refusing a medicine called Diastat to a child with epilepsy. I was curious and looked what this medicine is. It is Diazepam, i.e. Valium. It’s on the WHO list of “essential medicines” that everyone on this planet should have access to. The brand name may be unfamiliar, because of the delivery system, which is a type of plastic syringe, to be applied rectally for acute seizure control. I am sure this little plastic thing itself does not cost more than a few cents. According to the article, one dose of Diastat costs $ 250 in the US. In Germany, this very same product costs 25 Euro.
Also, due to what I am dealing with: I have a quote for MVD brain surgery, from a German hospital. Total (surgery plus one week (!!) hospital stay) is less than 14 thousand Euro, of course including a post-op stay in the ICU, and all doctors fees, medications etc.
This costs at least 40 K in the US, I have heard figures from my fellow patients of much more. This figure, in the US, includes only a couple of days in the hospital. They send you home after that.
Prayers for successful treatment and recovery. Just to add a human wish to the economics discussion.
Thanks. I considered leaving the US after Bush was elected, and this time, I packed my bags.
The goings-on in the US just got weirder and creepier, as time went by. I don’t read the intercept usually, but this article, for example, seems well researched – speaking of whistleblower:
https://theintercept.com/2016/11/25/did-the-epa-prosecute-and-jail-a-mississippi-lab-owner-because-of-her-activism/
Wow best of wishes to you.
It’s probably not a bad thing to be sent home after a few days. People seem to attract some pretty nasty infections while in the hospital these days.
Good luck with your surgery.
The issue is costs to the “consumer” rising into the stratosphere, while benefits being cut to said ‘consumer’s’ detriment.
About being “sent home”? Most patients travel hundreds of miles to a specialty hospital, and they are not “going home” after surgery, after the two days of ‘allowed’ hospital stay, they need to stay in nearby hotels for ten days or much longer, to see if some of common risks of the surgery (such as cerebro spinal fluid leak) develop. I’d rather be right where such a common complication can be assessed immediately, instead of paying thousands more for a a hotel ‘nearby’ – just because healthcare is profit driven to the max in the US.
And who exactly skims off the cash? Administrators on both sides (insurance and hospitals). If not, maybe a little more would be left to the janitors at the bottom rang of the ladder, their training, and proper cleaning supplies and procedures.
I am amazed at the continued spectacular fail of the USP(olitical)Z(epplin) Clintonberg. Not only did she lose the election for herself while dragging down much of the party and dividing the nation but adding in the investigations into the Clinton Foundation and getting the money spigots turned off as well is impressive in its magnitude of failure. Doing this much damage to a party, not to mention persona brand, takes a level of ineptitude or mismanagement that I don’t think I’ve seen in my lifetime.
It’s all in how you frame it. Here, let Virginia Heffernan provide you with a perspective adjustment:
Who says you can’t write coherently on 600 mics of LSD?
More like RODAN, the flying reptile, defeated by the clumsy rude city crashing TRUMPZILLA.
++!
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Rodan
You do know that RODAN was powered by means of farts.
The presidency…lost due to a lack of bean burritos…..
RODAN …clasping a wipe as she flies straight into the Trump Tower !!
well now she won’t have to be contained by the mere white house, so there’s that.
What in the bloody hell is this? Oy! Oh…. Dunham… yea.
That is satire, ain’t it?
I think someone like MAD Mag or National Lampoon, if they’re still around, needs to invent the Hillary Superhero comic book character. Hillary in a shiny red and blue pantsuit and lots of Batman toys – provided by the DOD. She could have a sidekick named “Vicky” and a butler named “Bill”.
Then maybe Josh Whedon could do a “Hillary The Vampire Squid Slayer” TV series. She could kill off Trump’s Goldman Sachs people. Lloyd Blankfein could play the part of “Angel” – the reformed good vampire that befriends Hillary and together they fight evil and also have the occasional obligatory sex scene. They would have a suitable warning before any sex scenes of course. Then defeat the evil “Grand Bargain” by banishing the devious mastermind Tom “Doc Glibertarian” Price back to Russia where he belongs and you can pay for healthcare in rubles. Then fix up TPP, ratify it by Super Executive Order, and make America Great As Always.
If it all goes well, could be Hillary superhero movies too!
I think it’s time to take Lena Dunham out back and shoot her. She clearly hasn’t spent even a few minutes thinking about policy and simply latched on to identity and D = good R = Bad. Sad.
That is some pretty potent satire right there.
Wait, what?
“Virginia Heffernan is a new species of wizard. It is a joy and a revelation to be under her spell.” —Kevin Kelly, founder of WIRED.
Perhaps “non-magis” or “muggles” just don’t get florid overblown writing and are thus not properly adoring either of sycophancy or its object.
Please, Clinton was the overwhelming choice and popular favorite for the Presidency in June 2015 before her “private server” issue came out. That is what did her in. The paranoia that the Clinton’s developed by 25 years of partisan attacks panned out in the end for the opposition. It was already hard enough to follow a 2 term President, that made it close to impossible. The only reason she won the popular vote was because of Donald Trump.
Divided the Democrats? Please. The DNC was literally trying to dig any candidate up by July 4th and nobody wanted to run. That is why there was the “Biden Watch” that fall.
You guys talk a big game but don’t have a clue what is going on under the covers, including most of the ‘faux-populism’ of 2016 which are nothing more than neo-liberal scam jobs for their desired creation of a global market state.
PBLPBTTS!TTT!
My memory is not that short. Nice try though.
Wouldn’t have anything to do with Clinton keeping a hit list about anyone that turned on them in 2008 would it? They had wagons circling right off the bat. That is why she got Sec of State, because she wanted to pump up her foreign policy cred. She would have literally murdered anyone she thought was a threat before letting them run. I wouldn’t be surprised if she had a hit ready for Warren if she decided to run.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/01/hillary-clinton-hit-list-102067
That doesn’t even make any sence… Populism is really a neoliberal scam to get a global market state? Well that backfired.
What did Joe Lieberman in for the 2004 cycle? He was ahead by droves as late October 2003? Is it because polls too far out are largely just name recognition? Yes.
“The DNC was literally trying to dig any candidate up by July 4th and nobody wanted to run.”
Pretty sure Sanders was interested.
+1000
Is there any way to find out who’s paying this person with the oxymoronic ID? Or should that last word be lowercase? Also, I have to wonder if this stuff is in a big, bound script or just available for copy and paste with “rephrase in your own words” instructions.
“The Truth be damned” is more than an idiom.
A ‘bot’ perhaps ??
They have email and IP addresses. It would be a fairly simple matter to out the paid shills and let reddit or whatever finish the job, and I truly wish the proprietors would do just that. Traitors — not people — willing to create the nobility’s reality need to have the proverbial magnifying glass shone on them.
“Truth be damned”, or so they say. But the private server played no role in my decision not to vote for Clinton. It was “Hillary’s War”, as the Washington Post called it. Hillary pushed for the bombing of Libya, and President Obama later said it was the “worst mistake” of his presidency. A country that was no threat to the US was destroyed. Muammar Gaddafi was lynched and the country descended into chaos, where it resides today, years later. It is now home to ISIL. And yet Clinton wanted to place a “no-fly zone” over Syria. She clearly hadn’t learned from her many mistakes. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/hillarys-war-how-conviction-replaced-skepticism-in-libya-intervention/2011/10/28/gIQAhGS7WM_story.html?utm_term=.309ccdd90c5a
Are you kidding me? Even back then she could barely sell any of her books, and hardly anybody would show up to the over-hyped MSM promoted events that were staged to promote her.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/26/us/politics/sales-of-hillary-clintons-new-memoir-drop-sharply-in-2nd-week.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=1
NYT stenographers react to the threat of a twittering president:
“Provide readers with the right context” — it’s as if we’ve warped back fifty years to the good old days when Operation Mockingbird could create the context, spin it out through the mighty Wurlitzer, and rest assured that readers would have no recourse to dispute it, other than in carefully curated Letters to the Editor.
Today, that model’s as obsolete as home milk delivery, cathode ray tubes and bobby socks. But it’s all the disintermediated NYT and WaPo have got, so they’re clinging to it.
In five years, one could see Twitter buying the wasted shell of the NYT for a dollar plus debt assumption. It’s “news” franchise is worthless. But its midtown NYC building might be worth something … particularly if Mr Trump could be engaged to pimp it out with a bit more “brass, glass and class.”
If the NYT and other media outlets can’t report on tweets, it means they will have to leave their offices and homes to do actual investigation.
That means standing up, walking around, and talking to real live people. They might have to travel to other countries to report on foreign policy instead of relying on the WH press office to feed them information. It might mean a trip to Trump country to talk to voters.
In truth, it means doing work. So it won’t happen. I expect to see an NYT story on Donald’s latest tweet (“Donald Trump Says That Tornadoes Aren’t Part of the Climate in Fiercely Talked-About Tweet”) in t minus twenty four hours.
Nice prediction: “Donald Trump vows on Twitter to step away from business”
Only took 15 minutes.
I am bemused but also kind of sad about that haha!
Hey NYT subscriptions are up or so they claim….disappointed Clinton supporters cocooning in this Safe Space?
Rolled up P.C. newspapers can be used for sexual gratification and Political Cocooning by both men and women, after they exercise their cosmopolitan brains by doing the crosswords.
Quite a P.C response by a cosmopolitan.
VPR was giving digital subscriptions to the NYT with a $180 donation today. Maybe they’ve been busy syncing up the different Wurlitzer channels.
Translation: the stenography shall continue until morale improves.
Thank you.+++
“In five years, one could see Twitter buying the wasted shell of the NYT for a dollar…”
Wouldn’t Twitter have to have a dollar first?
Jacobin…….jeez, more blather that misses the point.
The working/manufacturing class has been thrown to the wolves, thanks to POLICY Decisions in Washington, and the “no money left on the table” worldview of the Wall Street class.
How many aerospace jobs have been lost since “offsets” have been used to promote sales? How many manufacturing jobs have been lost, because the US Government believes that developing countries needed manufacturing jobs, in order to turn them into “market-based economies”?
Seems to me that we have traded jobs for societal instability.
Let the rich make the rules, and they will revise the rulebook to benefit themselves. Let them massage the tax code, and they minimize their taxes, while shifting the load onto the wretched refuse.
Nah man, Sweatshops are a Dream!
Prepare Barf bag. Anyone not willing to acknowledge that this global market crap exists solely for corporate profits and gains is lying. These jobs do not legitimately provide gains to the countries they are offshored or outsourced to. Sure they have a little bit more money etc… all the while becoming more dependent and powerless to these slave driver oligarchs. Then they also become a clever excuse to not pull jobs back to the domestic country, “Well we cannot just tear away these people’s jobs and stability!” (WAIT, WHAT!?). All the while the domestic society becomes more and more insecure and unstable. Wow, we really got the great end of this deal!
Roger Smith
November 30, 2016 at 10:55 am
Agree one squillion per cent! If the market worked, all these wage slaves paid a nickel a week, my big screen tv should cost one dollar and 39 cents US. But it doesn’t – the saving ALL go to extra profit.
And where are all the H1b CEO’s willing to work for 3X minimum wage??? (contingent upon a turkey at Thanksgiving)
I don’t think they have been ignoring that issue. If any thing they gave it context by elaborating on all the affluent communities that ran to Hillary and the rest that ran away.
I just discovered an English language site, Galliawatch (http://galliawatch.blogspot.com/) that has pretty comprehensive coverage of French politics and nothing about Hollande running again.
The claim about Wilders becoming next PM of the Netherlands was based on a poll showing his party running slightly ahead of the others. Of course, this is not how parliamentary systems using proportional representation works. The PM is whoever can assemble a coalition with a majority in the legislature, which in a fractured multiparty system like the Netherlands is not necessarily the head of the largest party.
Wilders is a jew.
Uh… Okay? Is there relevant context I am missing here or did moderation fail?
You deny, I tell what is really happening.
Calling all moderators!
“Truth” has omitted “Ministry of” from his/her handle.
I was going to poke the mods to ask that T. be allowed to stay while we see what correcttherecord can tell us. Well, I guess we just saw all we need to see. Off the rails.
Thank you.+++ “Truth” reminds me of Butch Sundance… “Who ARE those guys?”
Whether or not he is Jewish is immaterial; his platform is anti-Muslim immigration which he feels is destroying the culture of the Netherlands; he is not wrong. In fact the majority of native Europeans feel the same way. After the next round of national elections, the Globalist wet dream of the Eurozone will have been destroyed and the unelected bureaucrats may finally indulge in “honest” work.
How is that relevant?
Wikipedia disagrees with you, “Truth”, and says he is an agnostic.
“Wilders is an agnostic,[51] but he has stated that he thinks Dutch Christians “are my allies” and that they fundamentally should want the same thing.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geert_Wilders
“It’s better to be ignorant and live in bliss than know the “Truth” and live in agony.”
― Bangambiki Habyarimana, Pearls Of Eternity
So what? Who cares?
If the elections were held today, he would prevail. But the elections are not today. On election day the people who say one thing today may do something else then in the realisation that the election is taking place in fact and not hypothetically. The perception of the candidates can change up to the moment a vote is cast. See the polls about Hillary Cllinton’s ascension to the throne. That’s a big reason why polls suck: a really close race can not be pinned down before the votes are counted—or in the case of the glorious USA, recounted.
By the way, Geert Wilders party is a party of one: me, myself, and I, making Donald Trump seem like a good ol’ sociable guy.
I have done this many times myself.
I add up a bunch of numbers and get a total.
I then check my math, by adding them again.
Sometimes, when I am lucky, the two are the same. More often than not, they are not.
Do I go with the first number, or do I go with the second number?
Conundrum. Dilemma.
Do I, er, uh, do the math for a third time?
Of course, if the recount is done by college math professors, across the state with volunteer mathematics from all over the world (time is of essence here), maybe, the second total is always the right total.
Donald Trump’s “Carrier” nonsense is the same shit Kasich did in Ohio with American Greetings. Basically is just slows down the liquidation(as I found out in Ohio). A scam one and all.
If it was sh!t to just slow down, what is not sh!t?
Terminate NAFTA?
And if it was sh!t to just slow down, how do describe not even slowing it down? Not even slowing it down?
I was born and raised in Indianapolis, and still live in central Indiana, and I can assure you that the 1000 people whose jobs were saved disagree with you, as do their families, friends, and others who count on their continued presence in and contributions to our community.
Why find a cure for cancer, it just slows down the dying process
Antidote today is sadly beautiful, looks like a Memorial to a lost tribe.
The one ape projects profound sadness and alienation. The body language of the other echoes those feelings.
Just in case anyone is fearful that the human race will not survive what is coming, here’s proof of concept:
“For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact, Unaware of World War II”
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/for-40-years-this-russian-family-was-cut-off-from-all-human-contact-unaware-of-world-war-ii-7354256/
“Everything is byooo-ti-fullll,
In its own wa-aay…”
And speaking of antidotes and anti-antidotes, here’s an interesting big-ape analog to today’s image:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OX_7WlzgcLI/S6xBySt5ZXI/AAAAAAAAA_k/2_0NG75fFm4/s400/41f5302feb6507cfb5ed73e.jpg
Rotten white males — get what they deserve… Hmmm — does that sort of look like Donald Trump sans hairdo and spiffy duds? Or even maybe a certain so far unsuccessful female presidential candidate (if you squint a bit)?
apparently marty baron recently won the ‘hitchens award’ for journalism! yes, this marty baron, wapost editor-in-chief who tweeted his front page story alerting readers to russian propaganda flooding sites like naked capitalism.
do read his speech warning that the nation’s free press is under assault, even that it will be accused of un-american activities:
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/11/washington-post-editor-marty-baron-message-to-journalists
annie
November 30, 2016 at 11:55 am
“Postcard from the world,” she said, “This is how it goes with authoritarians like Sisi, Erdoğan, Putin, the Ayatollahs, Duterte, et al . . . First the media is accused of inciting, then sympathizing, then associating—until they suddenly find themselves accused of being full-fledged terrorists and subversives. Then they end up in handcuffs, in cages, in kangaroo courts, in prison—and then who knows?”
When the press is under attack, we cannot always count on our nation’s institutions to safeguard our freedoms—not even the courts.
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Minor truthiness modification: First the Blog is accused of inciting, then sympathizing, then associating—…until they are accused of being full-fledged terrorists and subversives.
SO, the award is for IRONY???
U.S. border agents stopped journalist from entry and took his phones [WaPo]
A state controlled by political security forces that monitor and control citizens’ and journalists’ activities.
There’s a name for that … it’s right on the tip of my tongue …
Electronic devices have been searchable on demand at US borders for many years, I think if you refuse to provide passwords they will deny you entry. And, of course, border agents of any country I am aware of can always deny entry to any person for any reason or no reason at all. They are given enormous autonomous discretion. In the more civilized countries, this denial of entry can be congenially negotiated and paid on the spot with the border staff.
Crossing a border is a voluntary act and the border guards have a wide discretion on search, especially for non-citizens and non-residents. It is not a right to enter another country.
Interestingly, Canadian police have more latitude than US police for warrantless searches of cell phones during arrests.
http://globalnews.ca/news/1721307/what-rules-must-police-follow-to-search-a-cellphone-during-arrest/
Nothing succeeds like failure:
Nancy “We have to pass it to find out what’s in it” Pelosi — living proof that the D party is unreformable.
I’ve got a call in to Jill Stein, to discuss whether we can file a recount petition. ;-)
‘Embrace ever MORE suck …… !!’
Closed door. So we don’t even get to see who the weasels are? Might have known.
The Nancy Pelosi minority leader campaign was the same as Hillary Clinton’s primary campaign. The decades-long entrenched politician with fund-raising ability sucked all the air out of the room for years so that there were no good alternative candidates.
The Republican presidential primaries were like a clown car with people spilling out but there was a plethora of options of all shapes, sizes, and color. By the time that Donald Trump bashed and burned his way through that field, there was no doubt that he was the primary winner fair and square.
The Democratic presidential primaries were just Hillary against Bernie with the DNC and super-delegates clearly in charge of controlling that outcome barring massive disaster on Hillary’s part (which she almost accomplished in 2016 after failing in 2008).
The Democrats need to figure out if they want to move on from their current national equivalent of a Daley Chicago-style political machine or have a much more wide-open debate to pave the way for the future. Sanders will be too old to run again in 2020 and the House and Senate Democratic leadership are generally not much younger. The Republicans occupy most of the governor mansions in the country. Where are the viable Democratic leaders going to come from for the 2018 mid-terms and the 2020 presidential election?
I think the national Democratic leadership have the choice between being a safe minority party located in a few states or try to become a national party again. So far they are choosing to be a minority coastal party.
This is THE classic civil engineering cartoon for the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It has been posted in pretty much every civil engineering school and office on the planet.
San Francisco will have to figure out how to get a similar marketing brand for their Millenium Tower.
Possibly a Silicon Valley start-up can figure out an app that will make the settlement virtual and able to be replayed differently like in a video game. After all, the settlement measurements are just data, not actual facts, so each person can have their own interpretation to match their belief systems.
https://lehighcivilforensics.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/the-tipping-point-construction-of-the-leaning-tower-of-pisa/” rel=”nofollow
What’s the over-under on the timeline for its collapse, or is it assumed that the next”big one” will solve the problem?
The water slopping out of their tilting cocktail glasses, bathtubs, and fish tanks will probably be an issue before the collapse occurs. There are “serviceability” deformation limits that occur before “collapse” limits.
High rises are designed for wind and earthquake loads. You would be surprised at how much the upper floors of a high rise move in winds. High winds usually mean that one side of the building has areas that go into tension as the tube bends like a flagpole. I don’t know the specifics of the construction, but usually buildings of this height are built out of structural steel which is very forgiving. Fancy stone facades etc., not so forgiving. Depending on the building cladding, that is often one of the first things to show distress (cracking and falling off).
The centroid of the structure would have to move outside the middle third of it before one side would be permanently in tension (like tipping over a box when one edge starts to lift off the floor). This amount of movement is nowhere near that. That is why the Leaning Tower of Pisa is still just leaning and not fallen over, although they have done a fair amount of work to arrest its ongoing settlement so that it won’t get to the point where it could fall over.
However, I would be surprised if the geotechnical and structural engineers had planned on a foot or more of differential settlement across the building. My guess is that there are now more lawyers than engineers working on the building evaluation.
Interesting factoid: this particular building is concrete, which being heavier than steel for equivalent strength, accounts for its greater sink rate than surrounding construction. Apparently concrete is cheaper. However it can be expected to be more brittle and less compliant to wind load.
I was reading this financial crime thriller in the NYT this morning over coffee and couldn’t look away until I finished.
Absolutely disgusting.
I read this after seeing your comment. Lovely, aint it?
“Portrait of a Job Creator” should be the subhead.
Give the poor babies some more tax relief, look how hard they are working!
From the Jacobin article:
Chuck Schumer in a National Review article:
I’ll bet the entire D elite were using that clever quip. But beyond the group think is the cluelessness. They actually believed Republicans would vote for Clinton, after decades of demonization. Sure, the R elites, who never believed the demonization, would vote for her, but the rank and file?
I have a number of R relatives, most of whom qualify as “moderate suburban Republicans,” and not one of them voted for Hillary, even though they loathe Donald Trump. In fact, two of them (both Trump haters, both women) cracked a bottle of champagne on election even to celebrate Trump’s victory.
I am still gobsmacked by the clueless incompetence of our elites (of both parties).
Suburban Republicans are for all intents and purposes fascists. The “moderate” ones are the kind of people who gave candy to the kids before they were led to gas chambers or Madagascar. These people consistently vote for the likes of Paul Ryan.
The Democrats know this. Their strategy was a sign of what party they want to be.
They sure seem to exceed expectations when it comes to looting “policies,” though.
Credit for “competence” where it’s due… we don’t get to do their performance reviews, of course– not the ones that count, which is NOT @elections…”
Response to NTG: Rather broad brush to say the least. In my experience those found in NJ or CA are more likely to have a lot in common with democrats in downtown Portland than with republicans in the suburbs of say Louisville. The more authoritarian types tend to select out of California, in my immediate circle of acquaintances one moved to Nevada and another to Texas.
Hillary carried Orange County CA, so at least some suburban republicans voted for her. Most of the country club types I’ve spoken with were onboard for Bernie. I’ve never heard a single person speak of Paul Ryan favorably or not.
Republicans actually know that they will have a better chance of getting policies they want passed with a Republican in office and they probably will. Dems have no such unity but are also led by the worst sellouts imaginable.
Giving. Thanks!
@J-LS – OMG! Apparently an NGO in India recommended demonitisation to introduce a banking transaction tax of which one of the aims is to reduce the fiscal deficit to zero!
http://thewire.in/83508/modi-demonetisation-bank-transaction-tax/
And the lines although reduced significantly haven’t gone away. There’s always people to fill up queues here in India Here’s a photo – http://tinypic.com/r/2ylpydc/9
For a very good interview with Bernie Sanders done Monday night the 28th, please see Democracy Now:
https://www.democracynow.org/2016/11/29/democracy_now_special_bernie_sanders_on
He is amazing in his responses to Amy Goodman’s questions.
Will that make any difference? How many mopes attend to “Democracy Now!”? But yes, the guy who tells us mopes that “we” need to make a political revolution, in the knowledge that “we” do little without being driven by leaders who stroke us and stoke us, does give good interview.
What’s next, in the world of realpolitikal economy, as it actually operates? What outcomes do “we” want, other than just “Justice, fairness and less income inequality”?
Vlade, yes, but it helps to know HOW to act effectively. For example I’m concerned about possible privatization of Medicare or Social Security. Screaming “Noooooooooo” is ineffective, but I am clueless about who to email or call when this action might be initiated by a Trump appointee who hasn’t taken office yet. Is it too early to do anything?? Is there a website designed to help people keep track of actions they might take on specific issues? Any other ideas??? Thanks!
And was there an oddly combative quality about some of the discussion earlier? Not name calling, exactly, but not the thoughtful stuff usually found at NC.
Here are a couple of web sites with contact information for members of Congress. It is not too early to start contacting them about your concerns.
http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/
http://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/
You can also go into a local office for the Senators and Representative. The Representatives especially often have Town Hall meetings at some point. Their websites will tell you where and when.
I assume this would have to go through Congress. So it probably never hurts to contact your congressperson, just to let them know they need to fight the fight. Of course they play games with their votes and mine is in the minority party (Dem) but … it never hurts to remind them who they supposedly work for.
For regular news updates, check out SocialSecurityWorks.org.
One of the best information sites is
https://www.congress.gov//
which includes links to the Congressional Record and the essential tracking of legislation, as well as for information on members, committees, and the legislative process for those (most of us in one degree or another) who have forgotten the finer points.
Thank you for your comment. I am also concerned about Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. I appreciate the responses you’ve received.
As for your concern about the oddly combative quality of the earlier discussion I agree. I think it’s a lingering hangover from the election.
Interesting read about the recount,
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/38553-the-no-bs-inside-guide-to-the-presidential-vote-recount
The read is interesting but does not convince me of the value of requesting the recounts. The problems described in your link should be addressed head-on. The recount seems more theater than effective redress or even an effective spotlight on the problems. Recount just generates more election histrionics.
>West Antarctic Ice Shelf breaking up from the inside out AGU Newsroom
When I see stories like this (and I’m seeing them regularly now), I become ever more convinced that I’m not being hysterical when I resign myself to the fact that it’s already much too late. We should have been having ‘a conversation’ about the climate half a century ago, and putting in massive, comprehensive reforms 30 years ago. Game over man, game over.
Which means a lot of forward-looking people should be trying to figure how to cope with what’s coming, even though it is a near certainty that they won’t be listened to until coping is much harder.
The world is changing and will continue to change beyond our control — but don’t declare game over. A new game is beginning. To play you need to identify the direction and nature of the change and do whatever you can to anticipate and adapt. Now is a time to gather knowledge and skills and preserve what can be saved.
I’ve been here since before the Crash, initially trying to discern what was going on behind the scenes as I tried to save my house (as suspected, no help, only “foaming the runway”). I made my own (System D) small contribution via tip jar, to help defray the costs related to the amazingly inept smear.
A cursory examination of the sites listed would reveal generally accurate reporting. They really should have at least hired college interns instead of high-school level non-English speakers.
some of you may be interested in this
http://www.ocetisakowincamp.org
A quick perusal of the “Memorandum of Understanding btw Austrialia and Clinton Foundation” is larded with phrases like “coordinatates” or essentially provides consultation with established entities and governments for HIV intervention.
This corroborates other research that the Clinton Foundation’s MO is to basically parlay the work of ligitmate charities or orgs and put their stamp on it. Do you really need 10’s or hundreds of billions with a 50 million travel budget to provide consultants to programs and established charities with boots on the ground doing the hands on work funding physical necessities and brick and mortar operations??
The Clinton Foundation is the most cynical organization operating on massive scale I have ever heard of in my entire life cyphoning off precious desperately needed charitable dollars at taxpayer expense for elaborate craven greed and power grab. True sociopaths who are glad to exploit the desperation of a place like Haiti!
$100 donation in the Tip Jar.
Give ’em hell, Natasha.