This is what it’s like to be struck by lightning Mosaic (J-LS).
Feds probing psychiatric hospitals for locking in patients to boost profits Ars Technica. Because markets.
Magellan’s Hamish Douglass says Uber is a ‘Ponzi scheme’ Sidney Morning Herald (PU). Hubert Horan:
While the substantive comments in the article are all valid (“one of the stupidest businesses in history,” 99% chance of bankruptcy, etc.) I would quibble with the “Ponzi Scheme” characterization, which I’ve seen pop up a number of times recently, but isn’t really accurate.
In a Ponzi Scheme, cash from later investors would be used to provide returns to earlier investors, and management’s main focus would be to keep the stream of new investment coming in.
Yes, there was an investment shift after 2015 from mainstream Silicon Valley VCs to dumb(-er) foreigners (Russians, Saudis). None of that later money went into the pockets of the earlier investors. And new investment pretty much stopped after the Saudi investment. Raising dumb money after you’ve created a reputation as a hot investment is a clear signal of underlying issues, but it isn’t a “Ponzi Scheme.”
Playing the Shell Game in the Mediterranean Der Spiegel. Malta.
“Is Inflation Understated” in Canada? You Bet: National Bank Wolf Street
Bloodshed, fires and chaos as thousands march in Brazil to demand president’s ouster Los Angeles Times. Hmm. I guess defenestrating Dilma hasn’t worked out so well.
The struggle to put Venezuela back on the path to economic health: Don Pittis CBC
Syraqistan
Are the U.S. and Iran on a Collision Course in Syria? Foreign Policy
U.S. and Russia boost dialogue about Syria operations to include generals WaPo
Manchester
The Manchester Attack – A Blowback From Britain’s Terror Support In Libya, Syria And Beyond Moon of Alabama
Found at the Scene in Manchester: Shrapnel, a Backpack and a Battery NYT
Manchester attack: Police ‘not sharing information with US’ BBC
May to confront Trump on Manchester bomb intel leaks FT
Manchester attack: police raids continue in hunt for terror network – live updates Guardian
Terrorism fears, terrorism hysteria, terrorism facts. Fabius Maximus
China?
Moody’s China downgrade ‘illogical’, overstates debt: People’s Daily Reuters
China’s Bill Will Have to Be Paid Bloomberg. Follow-up to Moody’s downgrade.
India cancels plans for huge coal power stations as solar energy prices hit record low Independent
Brexit
The UK’s Epochal Election Counterpunch
Boost for Jeremy Corbyn as 90,000 young people register to vote in just one day Telegraph
History points to a convincing Conservative victory FT
Between Victoria and Vauxhall LRB
Why Jeremy Corbyn has the best long-term plan for tackling terrorism on British soil Independent (J-LS).
Greg Gianforte: Fox News team witnesses GOP House candidate ‘body slam’ reporter FOX (!).
Republican candidate charged with misdemeanour assault of reporter CBC. This might net out positive for Gianforte: “Stopped for gas & snacks en route to Bozeman and told a clerk about Gianforte allegations. Her response: ‘my kind of politician.'”
Behind the Montana special election “bodyslam” story is an important point about AHCA Vox
Health Care
H.R. 1628, American Health Care Act of 2017 Congressional Budget Office. “CBO and JCT estimate that enacting the American Health Care Act would reduce federal deficits by $119 billion over the coming decade and increase the number of people who are uninsured by 23 million in 2026 relative to current law.”
Republicans’ health-care bill just claimed its first political victim WaPo. “On Tuesday, Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.) told members of the 50-ish center-right lawmakers that call themselves the Tuesday Group that he is resigning as one of the group’s co-chairs.” MacArthur was last seen in this video (which you should watch in full if you have not; most mainstream versions of it edit out the single payer advocacy).
Donald Trump And Health Care: Firm Run By Trump’s Top Adviser Sounded Alarm About Obamacare Repeal International Business Times
Will New York and California Take the Plunge on Single-Payer Health Care? New York Magazine. Not if the Democrat Establishment can help it….
Another Obamacare insurer just quit, leaving 25 Missouri counties with no options Vox
Dental Care Presents The Highest Level Of Financial Barriers, Compared To Other Types Of Health Care Services Health Affairs
Health care or Russia? Democrats divided on 2018 focus Politico
Ukraine Factions Vie for Lobbying Edge Counterpunch
Fighting Corruption, Ukraine Starts to Judge Its Judges US News
The Hunt for Ukraine’s Toppled Lenin Statues Atlas Obscura
New Cold War
How a dubious Russian document influenced the FBI’s handling of the Clinton probe WaPo. (This is the Kos rewrite: “Comey was duped by the Russians into bypassing the Justice Department and attacking Clinton.” Wait, now Comey isn’t a Hero of the Republic?) Anyhow, “officials say” is WaPo’s sourcing. That is the sourcing. “Current and former officials.” That is where we are with the sourcing.
Trump’s Go-To Lawyer Kasowitz: A Pit Bull Loyal to the Boss Bloomberg. But will Kasowitz be able to get his boss to button his lip?
GETTING JULIAN ASSANGE: THE UNTOLD STORY John Pilger. A compilation.
Trump Transition
On trip abroad, Trump stays on script, but will it last? Reuters
Trump has done what Obama didn’t: Scare NATO into closer tracking of defense spending McClatchy
A Freedom Caucus Republican says the foundation of the Trump budget is ‘a lie’ WaPo
Exclusive: McConnell frets about healthcare, hopeful on tax overhaul Reuters
Will President Trump Make Rust-Belt Manufacturing Great Again? Dean Baker, CEPR
Class War
The New Class War Michael Lind, American Affairs (KF). “Managerial elites.”
The unprecedented expansion of the global middle class Brookings. From February 2017. Everything averages out, in this best of all possible worlds.
Economic dynamism falls across the US FT. Top five for “dynamism”: Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, and Florida. From the Economic Innovation Group…
Arrest made in discovery of opium poppy plants in Catawba County WBTV (Re Silc). An acre of opium poppies is worth $500 million, says the Sheriff. Better than Walmart or lottery tickets, I suppose. Anyhow, I got yer dynamism right here. It’s just not being measured.
Your Addiction to Social Media Is No Accident Vice (Re Silc).
Football: A deep dive into the tech and data behind the best players in the world Ars Technica
The Challenge of Flying Below Sea Level Avgeekery.com
New TSA procedures target electronics, food ABC
Outsmarted Rick Perlstein, The Baffler
Why Economists Have to Embrace Complexity to Avoid Disaster Steve Keen, Evonomics
Antidote du jour:
Bonus antidote (Richard Smith):
Kittens raised near rabbits learn to jump like rabbits pic.twitter.com/kixJx02nKj
— Paul Haine (@paul_haine) May 24, 2017
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
149 comments
Comments are closed.
“Before it can do anything else, [U of Guelph professor Kurt Annen] says, Venezuela must stabilize its currency and get its hyper-inflation under control. He says it has been done in the country’s neighbour, Bolivia.”
It’s been done in Zimbabwe too:
Z$250 trillion to one … sounds legit!
Mr Maduro … meet Mr Mugabe. :-)
I like it: “Sidney Morning Herald”; but others might ask Y?
Lambert due to all the Labour and Manchester stuff here I would be grateful if you would add this from Monday. Published only 6 hours before the bombing, it was the statement I’ve been waiting for a year for Corbyn to make (I’m a Labour member and live in Northern Ireland). It’s got almost no attention that I can find (not on the BBC, mentioned in the Daily Torygraph) unlike his dreadful interview the previous day where he ambiguously condemned “all bombing”. The public needs to know otherwise the party can’t win, especially now, so I’m tearing my hair out. http://metro.co.uk/2017/05/22/jeremy-corbyn-has-finally-called-the-ira-terrorists-6653633/
Agenda much?
…If not for those other nasty people not accepting their lot in life within the exceptional country, all things in the six counties would have been peachy keen? Whitewash much?
And tell us exactly how many local councillors, MEPs, Stormont officials and MPs (Westminster) in the six counties does UK Labour have?
Oh, that’s right none, zero, nada. 0
There is, of course, an existing Labour party in the six counties called the SDLP. They have seats.
And you’re trying to peddle the bullocks that your little crusade will affect the outcome the UK election?
jingle bells
But scottish labour can claim one westminster member of parliament:
Murray tweeted: “Often asked why I resigned from Shadow Cabinet. Ladies & Gentlemen I give u Jeremy Corbyn. “He’s destroying the party that soo many need. “Independence would be disaster for Scotland and my constituents. Supporting another Indy ref goes against wishes of Scots. Wrong then & now.”
If I was in england, I would vote labour, but I’m not, and morons like this are evidence why.
And explains too why the SNP are deservedly rampant.
“The US has seen a long-term decline in business births, less migration between states, and a growth in the economic power of incumbent companies, sounding alarm bells in Congress.” — FT
“Alarm bells in Congress” … AH HA HA HA. Maybe the FT meant “dinner bells.”
If such grand macro trends have indeed penetrated the two-neuron minds of solons, their concern will be how to accelerate them, so that America’s greatest companies can thrive without the annoyance of small start-up gnats swarming round them and eroding their franchises.
A 350-ship navy oughta do the trick. Let’s roll!
Business births??? Incumbent companies??
Hmm maybe the incumbent companies are post menopausal so the birth rate is going down?
Hokey Smoke Bullwinkle, the pilot house is full of morons
Who has missed rhat fact that “Industrial Parks” have been largely supplanted by “Business Parks” catering to distribution bigboxes with zoning prohibitions disallowing real manufacturing business?
Ma Bell soaked up all the new little ones?
bigger corporations = more monopolies and duopolies = bigger political contributions and worse inequality = busier ALEC
See how nicely the merry-go-round runs.
https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-05-24/trump-s-go-to-lawyer-kasowitz-a-pit-bull-loyal-to-the-boss
In 2006, Kasowitz represented Trump in a $5 billion defamation suit against Timothy O’Brien, who wrote “TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald,” claiming the author had misrepresented Trump’s net worth by placing it at an estimated $250 million rather than more than $5 billion. A judge threw the case out in 2009 in a decision that was later upheld on appeal.
================================================
There are a number of other dubious suits listed in the article, as well as others I have read about. I assume Kasowitz gets paid hourly, so going ahead with suits that have no chance of success (just to get the fees) – I think that would be unethical – which I guess means Trump’s lawyer specializes in...poetic justice.……
I’m sure Trump was adamant about pursuing these suits – which sure argues that this Lawyer will not be able to restrain Trump in any way. (AND assumes this lawyer is an advocate for calm, rational restraint to begin with…)
“Stopped for gas & snacks en route to Bozeman and told a clerk about Gianforte allegations. Her response: ‘my kind of politician.’”
Heh heh. If we’re ever going to import Asia’s exciting parliamentary brawl culture, we’ve got to elect representatives who are willing to get physical and slam chairs onto the thick skulls of the dimwits across the aisle. Arm the witless!
Jim Haygood
May 25, 2017 at 8:01 am
From the descriptions of witnesses, it just doesn’t seem like a true Jesse Ventura body slam, wrestler/governor of the other Canada bordering state….
We don’t want wimpy parliamentary brawls, ‘Mericans want the exciting world of WWE brawls! As well as the fact the fureign brawls lack beautiful buxom ring girls…
Maybe more Brokeback Mountain than WWE:
To paraphrase Peter Thiel, a single-digit billionaire doesn’t have effective access to conversion therapy.
Gianforte could help ensure that Montana’s pension funds are invested in sodomite-free securities:
Netzly thinks The Handmaid’s Tale is a blueprint, not a dystopia. :-0
Monstah raving loony …
allan
May 25, 2017 at 8:48 am
&
Jim Haygood
May 25, 2017 at 9:24 am
Are you guys implying that Gianforte uses a “Wide Stance***” ???
*** apologies if “Wide Stance” has been trademarked….
Oh, that brings back plenty of comedic memories! Thank you.
Far be it for me to psychoanalyze from a distance. I’ll leave that to Bill Frist.
But it does seem that GOPers have a problem with personal space
and keeping their hands to themselves.
Awesome update:
Melania Trump knows all about that, which is why she slapped The Donald’s hand a few days ago. And there was this incident a few years ago involving George W. Bush and Angela Merkel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTQY1Aw9zcs
I believe this was a case of a store clerk not wanting to rock the boat. The clerk likely isn’t even registered. Not everyone is as chatty as Tom Friedman’s cab drivers. I suppose he hypothetically ubers these days.
It could be a Montana safe way of expressing humor. My husband joked, “That gd foreigner must of had it coming.” Or ” I guess now the reporter guy has got a pre-existing condition.” As you say, it’s a way of not rocking the boat while also trying to defend Montanans sense of independence and general skepticism about the media. I haven’t run into anybody that likes Gianforte in my husband’s conservative crowd. But they are still wary of do gooder bunny hugging latte drinking Prius driving snobs.
It’s late in the game, but the issue at hand is what kind of rumors floated around about Gianforte’s temper prior to this.
Back in ’06, I had heard many stories about then Senator George Allen of Ole Virginny (and some you didn’t ;) ) before his public hiccup. Then there was an avalanche of related stories spoken about in public. The incident in a vacuum could have been explained away, but anyone remotely connected had heard stories about Allen.
It’s not the shock but the potential confirmation of a rumor that could be the issue.
Or we could return to such niceties as the Sumner caning, which put Senator Sumner out of action for years.
Story goes Lincoln was polishing his boots when Sumner walked in and said, “Mr. President! Why do you polish your own boots?” Lincoln responded, “Whose boots should I be polishing?”
The media self-pity is, as usual, over the top. Threats to the free press! And it’s all Trump’s fault! He’s just like Putin!
Where was the media during the real threats brought by Obama and others in killing and jailing journalists?
Yes, Josh Barro has a particularly sniveling piece in which he resorts to the ultimate chestnut of those on the losing side of an argument–blame the public. Media folks and reporters don’t get it. Why are they surprised at the lack of sympathy for Ben Jacobs? They are less trusted than Trump is. That’s a pretty amazing accomplishment.
If they want to save the free press–and it does need saving–they should reflect on why they have become so hated, and why so many ordinary people will defend the actions of a Gianforte. Maybe even try some reporting on the subject, if they can do it honestly, without being smarmy or hand-wringing. Because right now they are empowering people like Gianforte who are seen by many as heroes as willing to take on the hated press.
I’m sorry, I missed the memo. What threats were those? Do you have a link? I rarely remember to save them myself. Maybe just describe a couple of instances and the approximate date and I can google them?
Antidote du Jour
Kittens raised near rabbits learn to jump like rabbits
I imagine the bunnies are wondering if the kittens learn to be vegetarians like rabbits as well….
Woody Allen: The lion will lie down with the lamb, but the lamb won’t get much sleep
This is bad. Ninja kittens?
I’m afraid this is where that rabbit in The Holy Grail came from
And the one that terrified Tonto in the Lone Ranger remake!
My thoughts exactly having seen my cat lug home a cute little bunny in it’s teeth. Living in Montana has made me see things I’d rather not, but that’s nature. And I better just “Cowboy Up”.
Montanamaven
May 25, 2017 at 10:00 am
Hearing news about Montana has made me hear audios I’d rather not, but that’s politics….
The Untouchables:
You wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. *That’s* the *Chicago* way!
The Montana way:
Don’t be a kitten, be a Gianforte Lion and grab a journalist around the neck in your jaws and eat them alive! That’s the Montana way….
Cats are tough on bunnies everywhere. Certainly mine was.
Normal kids raised near greedy people learn to be greedy like greedy people.
But C- students raised near A+ students learn to become A+ students.
That is why elite universities must not take only A+ students.
On admission essay to Harvard:
“I am a C- student. I am willing to let Harvard show its greatness. Imagine: even a C- high school can go to Harvard and become a top international scholar. I consent to be influenced positively by your already abundant A+ students. You need to admit me.”
Clever; I heard that some scholars from Harvard stayed “C” students but became Presidents. I’ve a friend who refused to apply as a legacy student because of costs and personal respect. He’s now o.k. but not credentialed.
I barely graduated from high school myself but was accepted (I believe as a bum to fill a lecture hall seat) with less than the minimal requirements of most universities. Once away from the stultifying controls of high school I managed to achieve honours and some career success – which was a horror to maintain- and learn that university was a class gateway that printed out tickets.
No world success, I, but I think that those seats are overbooked. I would rather have been a guy working.
Actually, the kittens will probably learn to regard bunnies as fellow kittens. Youtube is full of videos of similar odd playmates. You do wonder how long that will last.
At one point, we unwisely had both a ferret and a rabbit, which was in a cage on the floor. The rabbit couldn’t get out, but one evening we realized the ferret could get in – where it proceeded to eat the rabbit’s alfalfa pellets. Apparently it didn’t know that rabbits are its natural prey, but the rabbit certainly did.
On the other hand, it was sudden death on mice and hamsters (another mistake).
Intriguing look into the world of contemporary corporate-controlled academic book publishing:
From Michael Lind’s article linked above:
This makes a lot of sense to me, but I would argue that the future tense used is incorrect. The managerial elites, who are spending huge sums to educate their spawn at neoliberal temples of indoctrination like NYU, or Wharton, are already not buying what they think they are buying. Their children’s credentials will be even more obviously useless as we descend further into neo-feudalism.
The primary value of going to Wharton, Princeton, etc., for the managerial elite isn’t really to gain mastery over (increasingly obsolete) skills, required to compete in some sort of technocratic meritocracy. While a small number of people with such skills will always be required to manage the wealth-extraction activities of kleptocrats; the best hope for advancement, for sons and daughters of the merely wealthy, is to rub shoulders with the obscenely wealthy.
In other words, drinking martinis with Ivanka and Chelsea is already a more logical method of advancement than studying hard at Harvard Business School.
Courtiers outrank bailiffs and clerks, now as before.
China?
Is bitcoin, in heading to $3,000, telling us that money will soon become worthless and algorithms are the only real store of value? China’s central bank is the Big Fat Canary in the coal mine of the world’s grand experiment to monetize all assets and debt. Can they pull it off is the question and do it on a scale never before attempted and, at the sometime, preserve the value of their currency? Bitcoin says “no.” Other central banks, who followed them down the rabbit hole, are holding their collective breath.
Bitcoin may say no to the Chinese currency, but a bag of apples says no to Bitcoin (one day in the future), which depends on complexity which may not exist in a simpler world, even as economists rush to embrace complexity.
Currency comes out of the barrel of a gun, you know. How many divisions does the Bitcoin computer have?
You can’t bribe Afghan war lords with bitcoin money, can you?
The CIA would probably prefer cash money for color revolutions than bitcoin.
Re: “The unprecedented expansion of the middle class”
This reminds me of those previous “poverty is dropping worldwide” reports, where the authors decided that if you made more than $2/day, you weren’t in poverty any more, never mind whether that $2/day was actually enough to adequately feed and house you……Those analyses looked good on paper but they didn’t have much to do with reality…..
But the neoliberals keep trying to convince us, don’t they?
Followed shortly thereafter with the “If you don’t agree with raising the rest of the world out of poverty then you are a racist” line. Without even supporting their premise that the poor are being lifted out of poverty.
From the report itself: “This implies an annual income for a four-person middle-class
household of $14,600 to $146,000” (PPP). So a four person household in the US earning $14,600 is “middle class.”
For some reason the failure to define “middle class” in an article about the middle class made me suspicious.
Just looked up the poverty level in the US for a family of four – it’s $27,950…….
$14,600 making a family of four “middle class” in the US is just a neoliberal wet dream……
On the “poverty is dropping worldwide” stats and stories, and the situation looking good on paper, Ian Welsh shared some thoughts on that in an interview on the podcast Virtually Speaking last January. Here is the bit from 30:19 to 32:55:
With Manchester pushing everything other than Trump bashing to one side, this story, supposedly from an emergency surgeon who operated on Seth Rich, is not going to get much exposure. The piece is by a very imaginative “opinion journalist” and it’s based on a 4chan post, but make your own assessment if you care to, as the piece is mainly direct quotation of the post.
D.C. surgeon who operated on Seth Rich: ‘The DNC staffer was alive and well after surgery, before a group of LEOs showed up to the ICU’
A 4-year resident surgeon at Washington Hospital Center claims that Seth Rich was alive and recovering well in facility’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) after being treated for a total of 3 routine gunshot wounds — that is until a number of law enforcement officers arrived eight hours later kicking most everyone out of the ICU and physically barring doctors and others from attending to Rich.
What is very clear this last week is that considerable effort has been expended to hose down any public discussion of Rich’s murder.
I don’t even want to touch the Seth Rich story, but um, 3 “routine” gunshot wounds? Man I don’t want to live there!
This stuff is getting as ridiculous as the “Russia did it” stories.
The major difference being concrete evidence from an actual body to a missing laptop, and a conspicuous lack of fabricated stories in the media cartel echo chamber.
This account was posted anonymously by someone claiming to be a medical resident to 4chan and at least one other other right-wing forum. Why would you drop information there if not to feed trolls? Smells like a hoax.
The 4chan post doesn’t pass my smell test. (I’m a doctor, have some experience with surgery and ICUs, but not a specialist in either). The medical jargon is just a little bit off, a lot of pertinent detail is missing, I can’t quite put my finger on exactly what. But to murder an ICU patient via several hours of neglect, and to silence every witness except this poster sounds silly. And for a poster to risk exposure via an internet message equally silly. I love a good conspiracy story, especially about the Clintons, but I’d bet heavily this is fiction.
I had to come to grips with the powerful evidence that the Clintons don’t actually murder; the fact that Anthony Weiner survives to this day.
I recently watched a Frontline documentary, Putin’s Way.
It referred to a series of 1999 bombings in various Russian cities and alludes to Putin and the Russian government complicity (more conspiracy theory, I suppose. More more knowledgeable can comment).
And I thought to myself: Surely Putin wouldn’t just sit there and take this from Frontline. They’d probably make up their own fictions, their own conspiracy theories about us.
That’d be what a bad guy would do.
Agreed and thanks for your expertise – makes no sense, too many witnesses. You’d just let him be cured and go home and then take a “turn for the worse” later on. He might well be the DNC leaker (and have been murdered) but the disinfo eagerly embraced is going to discredit it.
Also I thought it was the Podesta emails that were supposed to have been “hacked” by “Russia” not the DNC ones. Contrary to what everyone is saying Rich being the leaker doesn’t put the kibosh on the cold war nonsense.
As to Weiner, he’s still very much in the public eye. Wait a few years; they have long memories.
No it was also the DNC emails, the company that the DNC hired to examine their servers reported what ‘tools’ had been used and determined they were of Russian origin (all the cyrillic keyboard and Russian holidays and server used by Russians in the past thing). Our exceptional intelligence services took that at face value, since the DNC refused to allow them to examine the server, and have attributed the hack to the Russians. Where the intelligence community diverts from the Democratic Party ‘dog ate my homework’ excuse for Clinton’s loss, is that they have always maintained that the election itself (as in counting the votes) was never hacked by the Russians.
Thanks Aus – definitely fishy that Rich story. If you saw it on House of Cards, you’d say ‘where do they get their ideas from’
Everyone keeps saying that the US is not exceptional. I have to disagree
The trouble with that story is that there’d be lots and lots of upset witnesses. I can imagine “LEO” (WHICH LEO?) doing that, but the people they kicked out would be raising a stink. This could also be a surgeon trying to excuse their own failures.
IOW, it remains mysterious that he died in the hospital, as well as who shot him. Granted, bad stuff does happen.
‘Cept that the report I read said Seth had two gunshots – so the third had to come at the hospital!
hahaha. Couldn’t resist.
But the part that the family, and their single DNC media interface, want the case to go away so gossip reporters stop harassing them is rich.
Doggone it! What does Low Earth Orbit (LEO) have to do with this? Oh, Law Enforcement Officers. . . . okay, I get it now!
A bunch of real howlers in that CBC Venezuela article; here’s a few at random:
How often do we hear this formulation applied to other countries allied with Washington? “Germany under the military-backed government of Angela Merkl”… “Canada under the military-backed government of Justin Trudeau”… Hint: the answer is “never” because the only purpose of writing such a sentence is to play into stupid prejudices about Latin Americans being predisposed to military dictatorships.
Except it didn’t. Since the 2002 PDVSA boycott and the subsequent renationalisation of the Venezuelan oil industry, crude production has remained constant at around 2500 bpd, varying annually by less than 5%.
“Overwhelmed” as in “can’t find a significant number of Venezuelans living there”. And this meme is of course 100% back-asswards, as over 250,000 Colombian refugees are now living in Venezuela. Perhaps CBC means there is a silent majority of Venezuelan refugees overwhelming Guyana that the Guyanan government has yet to discover?
How odd, an economist proposing austerity. That always works out splendidly, just as it did in Bolivia… except for the minor detail that Bolivia continues to offer some of the world’s highest gas subsidies. Morales did attempt subsidy cuts but he promptly reversed course in 2010 in the face of mass protests. And those subsidies led neither to hyperinflation nor to fiscal disaster.
But these are just mere details from the fact-based world, which when it comes to reporting on imperial enemies need never apply.
I like the ring of that. The military-backed government of Donald Trump
This tweet I ran across seems apt:
Mark Ames Retweeted
Mike Prysner @MikePrysner 13h13 hours ago
Working-class Venezuelan on “help” from the United States: “Wherever the US goes, half becomes a graveyard, and the other half a madhouse.”
“the country’s neighbour, Bolivia.”
Do I need a new map?
No, they do. Either that or Maduro managed to annex most of the Amazon from Brazil while Temor was too busy murdering protesters to notice.
RabidGandhi,
2500 x 1000 bpd
Good catch, thanks.
[fires the proofreader]
So the article is capitalist propaganda (big surprise), but that leaves the situation unexplained.
I’ve heard stories of poor administration, particularly of infrastructure, all along, even from people I’d expect to be sympathetic to Chavez. My suspicion, without being there, is that the socialist government failed to balance its priorities.
The big picture reality is that Venezuela never escaped petro-socialism. They failed to develop other sectors of the economy – weren’t they importing food all along? If you’re handing out subsidies, how about for food production? Gold mining, mentioned in the article, is about the worst possible alternative, even more destructive than oil production, but surely there are others. As a result, when the price of oil plummeted they were in deep trouble. One big factor was private-sector resistance; but after all, businesses are highly responsive to bribery, and funds can be used to set up new ones, maybe worker-controlled.
A factor more or less peculiar to Venezuela (with Canada) is that much of their vaunted reserves is “heavy oil,” much more expensive to produce. I read years ago that Venezuela had the world’s largest reserves AS LONG AS the price remained above $50/barrel – which it didn’t. The article buries that reality. Still, that was known all along, even to me; it points, once again, to a failure to diversify the economy while they were expanding health care and other public welfare programs. It may have been a case of limited administrative capability, something NC has pointed to in other situations.
In any case, again without being there, I don’t see any prospect of things getting better without new elections.
Even though it’s sort of my “beat”, I too have a heckuva time getting a clear idea of the actual situation in Venezuela. The propaganda fog emanating from both sides is just so thick that it’s almost impossible to separate the gold from the dross. So I tend to stick to critiquing the crappy media reports we do get (which, as in the case above, is like shooting fish in a barrel: seriously, it took me all of 8 minutes to prepare the above post– 3 to read the article and 5 to write a response).
I agree with your big-picture reality; they are still way too dependent on oil, but getting any more granular than that inevitably leads to traps like the one you mentioned: food production subsidies. In this specific case, the Venezuelan Government did try to combat the contrabanding of food, by giving locals land to farm with subsidies to promote local food production. The response from the propaganda machine was too hilarious:
So was this programme successful? Widely implemented? Destructive to the existing food supply chain? Who the heck knows with all this fog.
And to your last point, would elections help? They haven’t in the past. Chavéz won a referendum proposed by the opposition and the violence increased. Maduro squeaked by in a tight race, and the violence increased. The opposition united and won the national assembly, and the violence increased. So what happens if Maduro’s party wins another election/referendum (since the opposition has been constantly marking own-goals for the last 3 years)? Do we have to keep having elections until one side gets the results it wants?
Thank you for your comments. It looks like a black box at this point. We need actual people on the ground, I guess.
Outsmarted Rick Perlstein, The Baffler
“The Great Gatsby’s intricately nested structure begins by introducing us to a narrator, Nick Carraway, who relates that his father once advised him, “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”
….
And then, just when you’re feeling good about yourself as a reader for agreeing with his father’s intelligent advice and Nick’s even more intelligent humility in understanding its limits, the paragraph concludes by observing that people who congratulate themselves for how intelligent they are for knowing that there is a limit to their intelligence are, well, after all, just another sort of snob.
…..
What finally saves this infinite regress of observations from solipsism is this hard, concluding bedrock: the bottom line here is fundamental decency.”
=========================================
I can’t do the article justice with a few snippets, but later in discussing Oliver Wendell Holmes, Perlstein quotes (ironic in the context of Holmes opinion) this gem, “Stupidity***, Holmes explained, was a threat to national security.”
***Who endangers the US more, 3 generations of imbeciles, or the best and the brightest???
Yes, as always with the Baffler, a very smart (yeah, I shouldn’t use that term) essay. It does seem that so much of what is good about people comes down to common decency (which of course isn’t very common), and that decency rarely attaches itself to an ideology. It was Chomsky who, when asked how decisions should be made in foreign policy said that the medical injunction of ‘first, do not harm’ should be the first instinct. It sounds as good a fundamental approach as any to me.
PlutoniumKun
May 25, 2017 at 9:18 am
Not particularly pertinent to your point (which is a great point), but I reply just because it gives me the chance to post the following…. and I love this portion SO MUCH:
“It’s very curious: If there were such a thing as an innate, inborn, inherent quantum of cognitive ability, and we could agree on who possessed it, why should we grant it moral value? After all, every child knows you don’t judge someone’s worth by their appearance. Why should we just because they’re “smart”?
The experience of history suggests we shouldn’t even grant intelligence much in the way of utilitarian value. In a 2007 Guardian essay, Daniel Davies writes, “as far as I can tell, the career trajectories of nearly everyone commonly regarded as a ‘genius’ seem to be marked by one boneheaded blunder after another.” He cites former Harvard president and economics wizard Lawrence Summers, and observes, “Being extremely intelligent is rather like f*cking sheep—once you’ve got a reputation for either, it’s extremely difficult to get rid of it.”
Yes, I loved that quote from the article too!
Speaking of ovine/human romance, the Aussies have a whole genre of jokes based on their neighbors the Kiwis’ supposed reputation for that form of ‘animal husbandry’. One which i recall is along the lines of
Kiwi bloke comes home with a ewe under his arm, enters the bedroom where his wife is lazing in bed and says “see, darling – this is the pig I have to sleep with when you’ve got the shits with me”. To which the wife replies, “Darling, I thing you’ll find that’s a sheep, not a pig.” To which the bloke replies, “Dearest, I thing you’ll find that I wasn’t speaking to you.”
I read this a few weeks ago as I subscribe to the Baffler. It was a must read for sure.
Diane Feinstein Reveals How Evil Corporate Democrats Are
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOOhWM55UnY
From our Permanently High Plateau department:
Oh my. Finally we have reached the stage of “embracing the Bubble.”
By no coincidence, the all-time record high of Shiller’s CAPE (Cyclically Adjusted Price Earnings) ratio — 43.22 in Dec 1999, according to the spreadsheet posted on his yale.edu site — is 48% above its current level of 29.19. In other words, Dr Shiller is saying that Bubble III could get as crazy as Bubble I did, with another 2 percent icing on the cake to confirm it as the greatest planetary bubble in the history of human civilization.
Not that I disagree with the eminent professor, mind you. After nailing the top of Bubble I in January 2000 with his book Irrational Exuberance, it would be a career-topping tour de force for Dr S to call the final parabolic run-up of Bubble III, as his monster raving bearish counterpart Dr Hussman is reduced to busking for meals with a cardboard sign outside his former mutual fund office.
Let’s just say that it’s a riskier bet than last time … and add the caveat, “Don’t try this at home, folks!” :-)
I think the Fed finally moving to reduce excess reserves down from $4 trillion later this year may be the catalyst that signals the “smart money” that “Reality” cometh.
The connection works about as well as a worn out bungee cord, but there’s gotta be a little stiction with things stretched that far.
More important may be the psych effect – maybe forcing a chilling look at price charts. Plus after 10 years, it would Minsky Time. The real bottom in asset prices is sooo far down their, Wiley E. Coyote will need a flying car. And he just loaded up on automaker stock – a bright future, indeed! Well, plus iSpyphone, iSpyFace and Amazon Google Ears. New French [possibly Cajin] startup sighted – Bidet Expose!
At 9:45, both the S&P 500 and the Naz 100 glamour stock index are well into record territory, as the Shiller Surge traces a magnificent arc across the sky toward its impact with the Minsky Moment.
Should be lovely, as all of our “hot stocks” appeared to have jumped the shark at least a decade ago.
I initially read in Jim’s first post Cynically Adjusted Price Earnings ratio.
Disclosure:
“Bidet Expose!” Is a Disruptive company. Capturing a fart in High Definition Audio and Video IS very disruptive, especially when played back in Church or the school cafeteria.
Much can be done to customize and greatly enhance the sound using MIDI technology. For instance, if you can only manage a pathetic “pfft”, one can run it thru a Marshall tube amp synth, then to a overdrive and distortion control. Echo and wah-wah too! Use these in discretion to avoid the Snowflake label.
MSFT had this technology, but apparently lost it in Win 10. Putin may have stolen it for Mother Russia.
Not very PC, but rebellious in a way which can be condoned, privately, by our Elites and free press [editorializing explosively – no less], but deplored in public. The DNC will certainly get “behind” this new parade!
Chelsea in 2020!!!
Real Flashy News Update:
John Podesta announces he smells a new parade he can get “behind”!
“Bidet Expose!” The awesome new Cajin Valley startup!
Nominates Robbie Mook as Da Man to “Lead From Behind”.
More news on this topic will continue…incessantly and with plenty of creative and resourceful sonic spin. All in the Pentatonic scale and up to 101 Weird MIDI Effects – some of them good! Special Star Signature Mixes available – The Clapton, The Hendrix and the brand new Rapper, with doesn’t use a musical scale, whatsoever. Toot-Toot!
Comes with “Wanna Cry” wah-wah and woo-woo output virus at no additional charge. Free download!
I feel that the pro-bodyslamming reporters vote is a solidly Republican vote anyway. Doubt our clerk was planning to vote for Quist before this. Although the effect may be minimal regardless; if politics has descended into a constant circus, what’s one more sideshow?
My take on the big picture on this particular incident is that MSNBC, CNN and other liberal corporate news outlets have been pushing a particular meme of “civility” since Trump’s election. I had two clients use that word to me this week. “We need more civility from the Preslident.” To which I replied, “Like Chuck Schumer’s ridicule and snark kind of civility?” I won that round.
Last night got a breathless call from a friend asking me if I was in Montana and what did I think? Again she wanted to tie the incident to Trump. This morning on MSNBC it was all about how it was Trump’s fault for Gianforte because of his war on the media and his being a bully.
Next it will be Putin’s fault that the jerk punched the reporter. Because he’s a “thug”.
I had another friend say that “We need a free press and should be appalled by this.” I said, “We need a real press and we don’t have that, but , yes, nobody should be punched, if you can help it. ”
“Bully”, “thug”, “commie”, “devil”…. and the propaganda continues.
It’s a continuation of the gripe liberals had during the Dubya years, that he was disrespecting the noble traditions of the hallowed halls of Washington (gag) by not sufficiently consulting and compromising with Democrats. As opposed to Obama, who compromised without being asked to and getting nothing of value in return.
What is the difference between “bringing back civility” and “restoring honor and dignity”?
Paging HotFlash! You were enquiring a week ago about forced contraception in South Africa.
That caused a vague recollection, and I’ve tracked down a starting point for your further research.
The person to research is Wouter Basson, a doctor who led the South African government’s top-secret chemical and biological warfare (CBW) program, “Project Coast”, started by president PW Botha in response to the Soweto uprisings. The project had some “racial warfare” elements.
Basson is famous for his involvement in drug production, particularly Qualuudes and MDMA, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Project Coast had some distinct “racial warfare” elements. To quote its wikipedia page:
Another unusual project attempted to develop a method of sterilising crowds using a known male sterilant pyridine. This was to be sprayed onto the crowds from a gas cylinder pressurised with nitrogen gas, as pyridine is highly flammable.
and
Daan Goosen, the managing director of Roodeplaat Research Laboratories between 1983 and 1986, told Tom Mangold of the BBC that Project Coast supported a project to develop a contraceptive that would have been applied clandestinely to blacks. Goosen reported that the project had developed a vaccine for males and females and that the researchers were still searching for a means by which it could be delivered to make blacks sterile without making them aware. Testimony given at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) suggested that Project Coast researchers were also looking into putting birth control substances in water supplies.
This was the same Daan Goosen who tried to get $5M and US visas from the FBI in 2002 in exchange for some of the project’s bacterial weapons.
You do realize that is a super secret squirrel 11-9 breathing together theory…mentioning basson and what he was doing on that day and what he testified about and who he was implicating…ist verboten…andrew maykuth at philly inquirer wrote a bit on it in 2001 before “the events” but there was almost zero coverage of it and magically after the events, pinochet and the folks at armamentos militares argentina were all forgiven their previous trangressions against humanity…just a very large coincidence…especially when former A-O members get to keep their toys as “protection” against any further attempts at “justice”…so now you know…
goodness why are there so many helicopters out this afternoon…
Where is China’s own Nobel, the Confucian award committee…sorry, wrong question.
Where is China’s new global reserve currency, the one to replace the Dollar…oops, not this one either.
Where is China’s own aircraft carrier…nope.
Wait, here it is: Where are China’s own ratings agencies here? They are probably thinking a response is in order.
I wonder what rating the Chinese ratings would give to the US? Or some US stars, such as Uber.
Beyond, and before.
Before, as in about 100 years and more ago…before Lawrence of Arabia.
Lawrence was fighting the Ottomans; not all Muslims, especially Shia.
Before him.
Say, for example, the Balfour Declaration…actually that was around the same time as the Arab Revolt.
Ah yes…the arab revolt with its black green and white with red triangle flag designed by that home grown arab nationalist
sir mark sykes…
no one knows a tree falls in the forest until some one slaps some bernays sauce on whatever is grilling on the barbee.
Since the ottomans were not willing to give up their oil cheap, different methods were needed…
and Bedouins were suddenly propped up as direct descendants of this or that child of big mo with narratives fit for a newly created king and kingdom…
Most people just want running water, some food and a reasonable place to call home…
everything else is quasi-priests demanding obedience and submittal to some “greater cause”…
It’s been the same old stale bread for 2 billion sunsets…
humanity…what a concept…
Lawrence in Arabia, guys, give it a read. It makes clear that we’ve been meddling in the ME for at least the last hundred years, with predictable results.
On ‘Feds probing psychiatric hospitals for locking in patients to boost profits’;
Last year I was in a UHS hospital, for a week. I am also on medicare, I will tell you that they do make it hard for patients to leave. It is a mind frack. On top of that, I kept getting separate bills for doctors that were in the hospital. Did I have any idea I was going to be billed separately for doctors? No. I walked out “only” owing $1000. I wonder how much they got?
Psychiatric care in this country is cruel.
Do your children a favor, be nice to the no matter what, talk to them, don’t yell, make them feel like they can always come to you. That alone will take care of a majority of both mental and physical illness.
Under current law, how many of those 23 million will have insurance, but can’t afford the deductible, i.e. no health care?
How many of those 23 million are young, healthy people who are currently buying insurance they don’t need, just so they can help, voluntarily or involuntarily, sick or old people?
More details will help pinpoint those people who are in need, but will have no, or less, or slower access to health care.
Setting aside the CBO’s abysmal forecasting history, in the same report the they admit that “the balance of those losing coverage” (which I take to mean half or more) would choose to do so because the penalty for not buying insurance goes away under the proposed bill.
Said another way, since the government won’t be coercing them into buying insurance they don’t want/can’t use/can’t afford, they are worse off as a result.
The CBO claims they don’t try and forecast recessions. I guess Greenspan stepped into that role. And now Yellen knows she’s supposed to banish them permanently.
Unlike SuperHero Ben, who can jump right thru them like a speeding bunny wabbit.
So now, the Fed will just send us money whenever we run out for some reason.
hahaha. I know they won’t do that. I haven’t gone crazy.
Privatization at work. Privatizing the Federal Defect, on the backs of the poor.
Must pass legislation!!!
Interdiction is key here. And go directly to the purveyors of the addictive substance.
Healing should include solitude and meditation.
Since last year’s election, I have been spending more time on Naked Capitalism and less on social media. This place has done wonders for my mental health.
What is ‘social media’ but a mob siege engine … enhanced and encouraged by the hybrid bernaysian security state !
The Manchester Attack – A Blowback From Britain’s Terror Support In Libya, Syria And Beyond
b calls it blowback, and others suggest darker causes, but what seems clear is that the UK has given much support to islamic extremists from/in Libya, and has now suffered the consequences of that policy. According to the Grauniad, Bomber’s father fought against Gaddafi regime with ‘terrorist’ group.
The father of Salman Abedi, the Manchester Arena suicide bomber, fought against the Gaddafi regime with a group that was designated a terrorist organisation by the US, according to a man who says he fought alongside him.
During his time in Libya, Ramadan Abedi was also known to be part of the Libyan Islamic fighting group, which was also known as Muqtalla group.
“This group was fighting Gaddafi in the mid-90s in the eastern side of Libya. The group were defeated in 1996. It was a group that wanted to overthrow Gaddafi but they also possibly had some guys who were affiliated with al-Qaida. Did some of these guys carry the torch of al-Qaida? Possibly.”
The Torygraf reports Father of Manchester Arena suicide bomber ‘was a member of al-Qaeda linked militant group’ which goes a bit further in pointing the finger.
The Home Office describes the group [LIFG] as “part of the wider global Islamist extremist movement, as inspired by al Qaeda” whose goal is to “replace the current Libyan regime with a hard-line Islamic state.”
In a twist of fate, Britain found itself effectively allied with the group in 2011, when British and French airstrikes supported an armed uprising that led to Gaddaffi’s overthrow.
The link with Britain and the West prompted one of Libya’s most powerful armed factions to accuse the UK of supporting the very terrorists who plotted the Manchester bombing.
“The Libyan Fighting Group… has been recruiting Libyan and Muslim youth in the UK and Europe and sending them to Libya and other countries to deliver terrorism and death,” The Tobruk-led Libyan Government, which is not recognized by the United Nations but controls a large swathe of eastern Libya, said in a statement.
Twist of fate, nice touch that.
If only someone could have foreseen this! Oh wait…
RE: Gianforte’s “net positive”
I always get a little upset when someone stereotypes Montanans based on the utterance of one ignorant asshole. Because there are so many ignorant assholes here…a diversity in the hundreds of thousands by anyone’s estimate…it just doesn’t seem reasonable to base one’s presumptions on contact with just one.
So a conclusion that Gianforte’s assault “might net out positive,” being based on such a presumption, fails to recognize the possibility, given the sheer number of ignorant assholes being left out of the equation, that it could just as easily “net out” negative. Especially when considering most voting Montanans probably cast their ballot before Gianforte went off his meds.
Montanans look like rocket scientists compared to the proud, amazingly ignorant Texans.
http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/donald-trump-nato-summit-afghanistan-us-troops-congress-paul-ryan
Tell me your definition of victory. What is it? Street cars going down the roads that the Taliban blew up?” Jones, who introduced the bill, asked rhetorically during a recent interview with Military Times in his Capitol Hill office. “Hell, we’ve been training the damn Afghans for 16 years. You can train a monkey to ride a bicycle in three.”
=======================================================
I just like the line about bicycle riding monkeys….though I think Jones does not go far enough. How long does it take to train a monkey to be a CENTCOM commander….or commander in chief?
Till one realizes he should train a baboon with clinical depression issues?
But if an acre of poppies is worth half a billion, the Affy GDP is larger than most of the states.
Just reinforcing Lambert’s post about the glorious U.S. “intelligence community” in action:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/may/25/uk-police-stop-passing-information-to-us-over-leaks-of-key-evidence
All in all, I’d prefer military music.
I knew something was up when the NYT front-paged evidence photos of bloody shrapnel. Who else has that kind of access?
It is, but due to a different cause.
That US military spending should be funded by America alone is a lie.
Afghans, Syrians, Iraqis, NATOnese, Nippon-jin, South Koreans and others should pay protection money to the US.
“You don’t have to say ‘thank you.’ Just hand over the money.”
Risky business, that. Given the option of paying us protection money or going without our protection . . .
we could find ourselves out of the knee-breaking business in a hurry.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2017/05/24/jeffrey-epstein-sex-abuse-lawsuit-238793
Virginia Giuffre alleged she was pulled into years of abuse by investor Jeffrey Epstein when she was working as a 15-year-old towel girl at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach in 1999.
The suit alleged no wrongdoing on Trump’s part, but accused Epstein’s girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell of procuring underage girls for Epstein. She denied the allegations.
….
The suit had drawn media attention as an extension of the two-decade-long saga that drew in a slew of prominent political figures ranging from Trump to President Bill Clinton to Labor Secretary Alex Acosta.
Trump’s aides maintain he had no friendship with Epstein, but in a 2002 interview Trump said he’d known Epstein for 15 years. “Terrific guy,’’ Trump said. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
=================================================
NO COMMENT….other than silly me, I thought billionaires got their own towels….
Final graf is the important one:
Some Very Well-Connected People including Bill Clinton have somehow induced the federal court to stonewall the case seeking to re-open Epstein’s plea deal for nearly eight years.
If it ever reaches a conclusion, it will show that the level of corruption in America is light-years beyond what anyone imagined.
Jim Haygood
May 25, 2017 at 1:10 pm
You look at the names….and its….incredible? appalling?? enlightening???
“Terrific guy,’’ Trump said. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
If that isn’t some kinda 11th dimensional chess, its kinda terrifying….
Yves, wanted to share this below. I watch a lot of those remodeling/”DIY” shows and they never tell the downsides of their work. They did not provide her a home to live in. They gave her something unreasonable that made losing the home a foregone conclusion.
Also, the fact that a predator lender pushed her into bankruptcy is just your type of article.
Usually their articles have comments fields, but these are closed off. Could be they don’t want people attacking the lady. But I would love to hear the conservatives explain this.
Finally, Holt is a small “suburb” of Lansing that has been hit hard by the depression and loss of Lansing jobs. The city used to be a great place to live, when everyone had an auto job. Not now though. But the city has a truly expensive school with an olympic size swimming pool and a performance theater that rivals something on broadstreet. Contrast this city with East Lansing, Dewitt, and Grand Ledge, “suburbs” that are predominantly white and very wealthy communities.
http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/2017/05/25/bank-forecloses-holts-extreme-makeover-homeowner/331214001/
Ep3
May 25, 2017 at 10:42 am
I watch a lot of the DIY home remodeling shows too. Just like super hero movies, they are entertaining to watch but are completely opposite of reality.
Hollywood never tells you how many people waste their lives trying to become celebrities.
The home shows are never going to show the people destroyed by the “home ownership” dream…
Did you actually read the story? Her property taxes tripled and she couldn’t keep up.
Additionally (from the article)
I wish Ocwen executives were in prison, but (for once) they don’t seem to be at fault here.
A family in our area had the “luck” to be chosen by extreme makeover. Same deal. Instead of creating a reasonable, livable home, EM built them an overpriced house that the eventually could not afford because of the increased property taxes. The owners put the house on the market. The comments on the local listserv were as vile as any I’ve ever seen. People who volunteered on the project were livid. They felt like the family was trying to sell the house to make a profit.
We have a local organization that works with homeowners who can’t afford home repairs. It’s not as glamorous as reality TV, but they get the work done.
I admit to being fascinated by extreme makeover for a time. You can think of it as a symptom during my peak neoliberal delusion period. And then the makeovers became increasingly absurd. And I suddenly had the realization that giving the family with the disabled child good ramps for the space, a spacious and usable handicapped bathroom, and a workable kitchen and a decent laundry area might not have been as awe dropping amazing for the reveal but would overall be more manageable both for maintenance and for things like property taxes. And ultimately the show was less and less about helping the families then it was about servicing its primary goal of ratings and profits for the studio and the network.
I’m sorry to find out that my late realization was more accurate than I realized.
Lack of new launches leaves Ford playing catchup with GM [Reuters]
Surely Ford’s board will claw back some of Mulally’s $313 retirement package
(a figure that `does not include salary, bonus and other corporate perks’), amirite?
When bemused alien historians write the tale of our society’s implosion, the day that executive
retirement packages became large enough to found multi-generational dynasties will figure large.
If you can do it, the best way to truly appreciate the WaPo story on Comey’s July announcement is to dim the lights, find something to smoke, and picture the story playing out as a cartoon.
Did he really close out the investigation thinking going further will lead to his boss?
I thought I read that somewhere yesterday. That would be one scary cartoon.
On any level it makes no logical sense; if we aren’t being run by liars, then we are by morons.
:-)
Heh. I’m sure it wasn’t the WaPo’s intent, but that story sure made the FBI look like a bunch of morons.
And still nothing as to how the supposedly fake document in question was identified as ‘Russian’, especially as they do not divulge who gave said document to the spooks in the first place.
My guess is it was the same smartass teenager who hacked John Brennan’s email account.
About Face: DMV Lets Cops Search Database of Driver’s License Photos
In clear violation of Vermont’s law and, unsurprisingly, incredibly racist in its implementation.
The bureaucrats sure do have a way with words.
When the program rolled out in December 2012, DMV director of operations Michael Smith told Seven Days that it would “not be used to identify people for other law enforcement purposes.”
But DMV higher-ups debated, in that same year, whether to allow police to access the facial-recognition database, according to records obtained by the ACLU and reviewed by Seven Days.
“Personally, I think it seems like a good idea,” DMV project manager Michael Charter wrote to colleagues. “However, this may be the one piece most likely to stir up the tinfoil-hat crowd.”
Anybody that doesn’t want society turned into a police state, wears a tinfoil hat. That hat is pretty well tuned from what I can tell. Lying bureaucrats. Where is the you’re fired option?
About 30 years ago when I got my first driver’s license, the state of VT didn’t even issue licenses with pictures. Or they may have but you’d have needed to go to Montpelier to get one. And yet even with such a vague ID, the state still managed to survive somehow and not become a hotbed of terrorists and criminals.
I used to get some weird looks from bartenders in western states when I pulled out my pictureless VT license and had to wait a little longer for a beer while they double checked its authenticity – that was about the biggest drawback I ever encountered from that policy.
The Challenge of Flying Below Sea Level Avgeekery.com
But not before submarines diving above sea level.
After that, flying battleships.
Waitaminnit — my grandfather was promised a flying car back in the Fifties. They stuck it in the Smithsonian instead.
My Dad was promised a flying car in The Nineties.
Where is my flying car?
Always tomorrow’s technology.
A refutation of Mother Jones (an Establishment Democrat paper famous for first outing Mitt Romney’s 47% comment).
Mother Jones, Nominally Liberal Outlet, on Health Care Costs: “Deal With It”
https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/05/mother-jones-nominally-liberal-outlet-on-health-ca.html
On the conservative website, Daily Caller, this is making waves. DWS, the former DNC chair is threatening “consequences” at the former police chief if they do not turn back evidence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAHGsyt2kZA
I don’t usually cite the Daily Caller, but seeing that this is a video of the former DNC Chair speaking, that does not appear altered, it seems legit.
Oh and the Democrats need to give up on using the mayor of Chicago for advice.
http://theweek.com/articles/700846/democrats-stop-listening-rahm-emanuel
I’d go the him for advice, and return with a list of the last that to be considered.
It was Kevin Drum in Mother Jones making those ASSumptions. Maybe Our Revolution could post a counter article, “Economists Can Be Simple-Minded Tools: Deal with It”
NYT reporter Jonathan Martin caught
with his hand in the cookie jarpassing off a local beat reporter’s scoop as his own. (Read down the thread.)
Alternate link from said reporter in case Martin deletes his Tweet.
Apparently,
doesn’t apply to crime reporters for small local papers in flyover country.
Please of please have we jumped the shark yet on It was the Russians! ??
Unbelievable. At this point, we’re supposed to accept on one hand the unimpeachable judgment of the FBI/CIA/NSA that “Russia hacked our election!” and on the other hand that one of these same guardians of democracy (and his stellar staff) was so naive and unschooled in “tradecraft” that he let Russia trick him into careening way outside the lanes of authority at the Justice Department and straight to the microphones during the peak of an election season — all because of a dodgy email?
I can’t bear to parse through the details on this one … something tells me that nowhere is it contemplated that just such an email from DWS to a Clinton campaign aid may well exist (which, let’s be clear, wouldn’t make what’s in it true, just that the hacks saying it probably thought it was true). I guess “the Russians did it!” now flies for anything, because to doubt it even once could pull a thread that doesn’t stop unraveling.
Over time, more rationale people will leave the “OMG Russia” group behind leaving only the crazies. The crazies will attempt to gain mastery over the other crazies which will lead to grander claims, culminating in “Putin puts fluoride in the water. Palin saw them!”
Seth Rich is a fine example. The above about the police entering the ICU is ludicrous, but here we are.
Manchester leaks.
May to Trump: Are these the same guys leaking Russia stuff?
“Arrest made in discovery of opium poppy plants in Catawba County”
I’m probably not the first, but: opium poppies, aka breadseed poppies, are very easy to grow and common in flower gardens, at least in mild-winter areas like Oregon. If you scatter the seed on the ground in fall, you’ll have 3-ft.-tall plants with huge, spectacular pink or white flowers in the summer. The leaves are edible and serve as a mild analgesic. I don’t recommend scoring the pods, as that could get you in trouble, but a pain-killing tea can be brewed from the dried pods (that’s how they produce morphine in Turkey, where the seeds are a staple.)
Opium poppies in bloom are visible far and wide.
An anecdote: my sister-in-law is a laboratory botanist who did her PhD thesis on the chemistry of opium poppies. She told me she was having trouble growing them (on a rooftop, for security, in southern Indiana), so I suggested she hire one of the Laotian tribal refugees then arriving in the US. She thought that might cause problems. Now she works on other flowers.
>The Hunt for Ukraine’s Toppled Lenin Statues Atlas Obscura
“The nationalist group Sokil claims that all the Lenin monuments within a 60-mile radius of Kryvyi Rih have been removed. They want to sell these “trophies” to pay for the medical care of a friend who was injured while fighting Russian-backed separatists.”
Let me fix that for you:
“Neo-Nazis loot national monuments to pay for medical expenses for a fellow fascist thug wounded attempting to massacre his own fellow Ukrainian citizens.”
o “Why Economists Have to Embrace Complexity to Avoid Disaster Steve Keen, Evonomics” — Pfffft, I’d be happy if they just tried embracing *reality* even with their dumb-as-dirt models, but I realize that’s hoping for too much, since as a profession they are paid for ignoring reality and instead spinning elite-sponsored ‘narratives’. For a perfect example of the latter, cf. Brookings’ “unprecedented expansion” piece above.
o “Arrest made in discovery of opium poppy plants in Catawba County | WBTV (Re Silc). An acre of opium poppies is worth $500 million, says the Sheriff.” — That would value Afghanistan’s 2016 poppy cultivation (~500,000 acres) at roughly $250 Trillion. The kind of maths only an economist or law-enforcement type could love.
3X global GDP! Good catch. We’re rich!