Decades of aerial photos reveal how an ancient desert city got its water Ars Technica
Sherlock star Cumberbatch takes on 4 muggers near Baker Street RT News. Chuck L: “Life imitates art. Good on Cumberbatch.”
Thomas Bernhard, Karl Kraus, and Other Vienna-Hating Viennese The Paris Review
European Human Rights Court Exposes Further Complicity in CIA Torture Truthout
Why Native remains are treated like collector’s items High Country News (GlennF)
Corbyn vows to return Elgin Marbles to Greece if he becomes prime minister Independent
Woman Admits To Shooting, Killing Husband For Beating Family Cat CBS DFW
Breast cancer: Test means fewer women will need chemotherapy BBC
Trade Tantrum
G7 ministers criticise US tariffs and warn of trade war BBC (The Rev Kev))
China?
At Western-led summit, Chinese find controversy and a clash of cultures SCMP
China increasingly challenges American dominance of science WaPO
APPLE’S RESTRICTIONS AREN’T HELPING TECH ADDICTION Wired
Facebook Fracas
Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users and Friends NYT
Share a Coke with (some) troops Military Times (The Rev Kev)
Why the Air Force Thinks It Can Turn Gamers Into Its Next Top Guns American Conservative
North Korea
REVEALED: How America is trying to find discreet way to pick up Kim Jong Un’s hotel tab during historic summit Daily Mail (The Rev Kev). Originally reported by WaPo but much more fun reading this version.
George Soros says EU should compensate Italy over migration Guardian (The Rev Kev). Yves: “And what about compensating Greece??? Soros oddly took no interest in that.”
Brexit
Brexit: coprophagia is king EUReferendum.com
We don’t need Brexit. I have a plan to build a modern, fairer Britain Guardian
Big Brother IS Watching You Watch
Big Brother Goes Digital New York Review of Books (Joe H)
DNA for Sale: Ancestry wants your spit, your DNA and your trust. Should you give them all 3? Tampa Bay Times (The Rev Kev)
What consumer DNA data can and can’t tell you about your risk for certain diseases Science News (The Rev Kev)
Kill Me Now
Bill Clinton and James Patterson co-author a political beach read CBS News
Gunz
Off-duty FBI agent doing backflip in a bar shoots man in the leg Guardian
Trump Transition
Zinke cites ‘environmental disaster’ in sending park police to border The Hill
Trump goes it alone: running the White House not like a president, but a CEO Guardian (The Rev Kev)
Class Warfare
Stockton’s young mayor has bold turnaround plan: Basic income and stipends for potential shooters LA Times (Dr. Kevin). Yves: “Help me. This isn’t even close to a basic income…”
In California, utilities will spend $768 million on electric car infrastructure Ars Technica (The Rev Kev)
The Numbers That Explain Why Teachers Are in Revolt NYT
Hey, D.C.: Reject the misleading signs and raise tipped workers’ wages WaPo (UserFriendly)
Tesla can change so much with over-the-air updates that it’s messing with some owners’ heads The Verge (The Rev Kev)
Elon Musk must be fired as Tesla CEO, shareholders say as company struggles SCMP
The miller’s tale: poverty, obesity and the 45p loaf Guardian
Why the Public Must Understand How Our Monetary Systems Work AlterNet (UserFriendly)
What’s new in social protection – May edition The World Bank. UserFriendly: ”World bank mentions MMT.”
It’s time the world’s economists woke up to reality Tar Research UK (UserFriendly)
Self-driving cars will kill people and we need to accept that The Next Web (The Rev Kev). Really? And why is that?
Tesla’s Autopilot woes continue with Laguna Beach police car crash ABC News. The Rev Kev: “The good news was that it did not crash into a parked fire engine. The bad news is that it crashed into a parked police car – Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!Ha!”
INDIGENOUS WOMEN HAVE BEEN DISAPPEARING FOR GENERATIONS. POLITICIANS ARE FINALLY STARTING TO NOTICE. Intercept (UserFriendly)
India
Why India is ignoring US sanctions and sticking with Iran Asia Times (The Rev Kev). Pepe Escobar
Syraqistan
Jordan sees largest anti-government protests in years Al Jazeera
The princes, the president and the fortune seekers AP (Chris)
UN WARNS 10 MILLION MORE YEMENIS EXPECTED TO STARVE TO DEATH BY END OF YEAR The Last American Vagabond (UserFriendly)
EU To Defy US Sanctions, Stay In Business With Iran Fort Russ News (The Rev Kev)
Guillotine Watch
Maybe She Had So Much Money She Just Lost Track of It Somebody had to foot the bill for Anna Delvey’s fabulous new life. The city was full of marks. New York magazine.
In the race to court customers, VistaJet is producing six-figure play parties at 45,000 feet. Bloomberg
Antidote du jour:
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
113 comments
Comments are closed.
NC is back online. whew!
I was starting to go into withdrawal.
Off-duty FBI agent shoots man in leg
Guns and alcohol are the perfect combination to create random violence. Fortunately, this was not fatal.
Presumably, this was why the “Wild West” had strict gun controls in most towns: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/gun-control-old-west-180968013/
after doing a back flip on the dance floor and dropping the gun, which, shockingly. turned out to be subject to gravity and fell out of his pants.
The article makes it sound like the gun just went off as the agent was trying to pick it up. Bull, no way a modern pistol will do that. You can beat on a new handgun with a hammer and it won’t discharge, unless you hammer on the trigger and either 1) it’s one of those with the “safety” stupidly placed on the trigger, or 2) the safety is off. The agent undoubtedly pulled the trigger as he was picking up his lost firearm. The kind of sloppiness that drinking often causes.
From what I read, the agent wasn’t arrested which means he was never given a breathalyzer/blood alcohol test. The victim will never know how drunk the guy was. This a privilege commonly granted to the yahoos in law enforcement but doesn’t lead to much justice or accountability.
I don’t see why an off-duty FBI agent needs to carry a gun anyway. It’s a federal investigative agency, not local law enforcement. Is he going to catch somebody laundering money in a bar?
Yes but then he can’t strut around like an entitled jerk if he doesn’t have a gun at all times. Guns are also useful for intimidating other men and possibly impressing gullible women. No doubt the FBI fought hard for this right.
In many places law enforcement officers are required to have their gun with them 24/7.
This makes sense for local law enforcement officers who may well encounter situations off-duty that are similar to the ones they deal with when working. I think it makes a lot less sense for someone like an FBI agent, who may never have done ordinary police work and might not be any better at dealing with that sort of situation than a “civilian”.
About twenty some odd years ago I met and talked to, several times, an agent of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms. He carried a gun all the time, in a concealed carry holster. When I asked him a similar question to what you propose, he replied that he had been involved in the Waco shootout and feared for his life. The ‘underground’ response to Waco in particular, he said, was intense.
Then he described to me how many organized armed anti-government groups there are, known, in America back then. Several hundred groups.
Waco was a severe, murderous abuse of power. If he was afraid, he d… well should have been. I hope he had trouble sleeping, too.
And that stuff about armed anti-government groups, while there are some, is basically budget promotion.
FBI agents, at least, are required to carry at all times when they’re in public. This complicates flying.
This man was ATF. He described the afternoon before the Waco shootout in his office, yes, office in New Orleans. Some FBI types came in and chose a group of mainly desk jockeys. The next morning they were in Waco, having flown in overnight, and entering the ‘command centre’ set up outside the Branch Davidian compound. first thing, he said, they were ushered into a tent full of weapons. “Grab what you’re comfortable with and follow me,” someone told them. “You’re going in in half an hour.”
According to my eyewitness, over half of the ‘raiders’ had only used firearms to qualify on the range. They were never told that the compound dwellers were armed. It was supposed to have been a cakewalk. Four agents died. Later, many of the compound people and all those children inside the compound perished.
The forensics points to the fact that the FBI knew that the compound would burn when attacked the second time. The structures were of wood, in Texas, and the tear gas canisters used were of a type that burns at a high temperature. Hot enough to ignite wood. Add to this the “tank” borrowed from the local military that went around the building perimeter punching holes in the walls, and you have the appearance of a deliberately set fire.
Janet Reno had just been appointed head of the Justice Department, by, Bill Clinton. Reno, who had been State Attorney in Florida already had a ‘gamy’ reputation.
There is blood on lots of hands here.
From what I remember, the raid on Waco was being used as a photo op and not treated seriously. It’s interesting that the Branch Dividians actually has pizza delivered to the ATF’s “hidden” observer’s post and that the cult leader actually jogged by it on his regular run. Heck, someone in the local police actually warned them of the raid.
When the police arrived the leader David Koresh actually went out the open front door to talk and with his hands up. Still got shot and that front door after the fire went into evidence and then vanished. Koresh spent the entire 51 day siege with a bullet wound.
Completely fracked up. Over eighty men, women, and children dead ostensibly for having actual automatic assault rifles instead of regular semi automatic AR-15s. In the State of Texas. In some nowheresville pinprick. In one of the most well armed States in the United States.
Yes, this true, but it looks good and that’s the real goal.
I know that in the state where I currently live, it’s a class 4 felony if anyone brings a gun into a place that serves or sells liquor.
I used to harass the local sheriff’s when they’d enter the C store I worked at that sold booze, demanding (jokingly) they leave their firearms in their vehicle.
I believe those representing the law are exempt from those rules, but after this incident maybe that exclusion needs to be re-examined?
The lawman in the story is a complete idiot & an innocent bystander paid the price. His gun was just shoved into the back of his waistband? Duh?
It would have resulted in a more teachable moment had he shot himself in the ass when doing that backflip.
I can’t believe the ‘lawman’ wasn’t required to submit to a BAC test…
OTOH, yes, I can believe it. He’s obviously one of those ‘above the law’ (like bankers & many of those in govt?)
What boggles my mind is that this fool was either carrying an automatic pistol with a round in the firing chamber and safety off, or a revolver with safety off. Sheer incompetence. The first thing anyone with any pretense to brains does when showing someone how to handle firearms is ‘Safety On.’ With automatics, never carry with a round in the chamber. That’s asking for trouble, as this soon to be a desk jockey FBI man will soon find out. He’ll be lucky to keep his job.
I saw that jerk in action and wondered if he ever heard of a safety at all. When he reached down, instead of grabbing it by the grip, he let his finger go into the trigger guard. Then, when he accidentally fired it off, just walked away with a s***-kicking grin on his face. Never even stopped for a second to ask if everybody was alright or if anybody had been hit. They should throw the book at him.
Trump is not acting like a CEO, he is acting like a mob boss.
As Michael Coreleone promised his Anglo wife: first a mob boss, then a CEO, and later, a politician.
That’s upward mobility.
Does seem a bit as if life is imitating art, so to speak.
Not sure why that’s a bad thing, imagine if it was Bernie in there doing the same. The machinery of government seized up long ago
Seriously, it was unreasonably stressful when you weren’t up and there were no updates on Twitter.
i was worried, too. these days…
Here’s a whopper from the self driving kills article…
Despite this, our standards for human testing are incredibly lax. Anyone can get a driver’s license, and the majority of the United States population either drives or rides in a car on a regular basis
No. Absolutely false, not everyone can get a license. You have to pass the test first. The second part of the statement has no relevance to the premise, people get around in cars, so what does that have to do with anything?
Humans ueber alles.
A human can kill in self-defense, and not get the death penalty.
A mountain lion killing a human, to defend itself, must be put down.
So, it’s easy to understand why self-driving cars must perform to higher standards…especially when they threaten to take away human jobs.
Statistics for human drivers killing people is known while equivalent stats for robot drivers killing humans is unknown so you can keep claiming the robots MIGHT be better.
Am I claiming that?
He never claimed that.
The author suggests autonomous cars to save lives:
Let us compare death rates per 10.000 inhabitants according to wikipedia (WHO report 2015):
Norway: 2.0
Spain: 3.7
Germany: 4.3
Italy: 6.1
US: 10.6
India: 16.6
China:18,8
Nigeria: 20.5
Brazil: 23.4
Burkina Fasso: 30.0
Ethiopia: 25.3
Thailand: 36.2
Lybia: 73.4
Twice as safe by Norwegian or Lybian standards? migth one ask. But not:
The opportunity cost of… what? Are autonomous cars the best solution to prevent car crashes and casualties? Aren’t there simpler and cheaper options?
The author suggests autonomous cars to save lives:
Let us compare death rates per 10.000 inhabitants on car casualties according to wikipedia (WHO report 2015):
Norway: 2.0
Spain: 3.7
Germany: 4.3
Italy: 6.1
US: 10.6
India: 16.6
China:18,8
Nigeria: 20.5
Brazil: 23.4
Burkina Fasso: 30.0
Ethiopia: 25.3
Thailand: 36.2
Lybia: 73.4
Twice as safe by Norwegian or Lybian standards? migth one ask. But not:
The opportunity cost of… what? Are autonomous cars the best solution to prevent car crashes and casualties? Aren’t there simpler and cheaper options?
“Self-driving cars will kill people and we need to accept that The Next Web (The Rev Kev). Really? And why is that?”
As long as they kill few people than human drivers?
As long as they kill few[er] people than human drivers?
That’s what the millions in PR and tech articles will try to imply, but the results will as effective as Green Products, Dolphin Safe Tuna, or The Hydrogen Economy.
And how do we tally up the deaths? Just those who get squashed by a robocar? Do we add in those who killed themselves due to their jobs being displaced? Does it have to be an immediate death or do generally shortened lifespans from lack of employment and all that entails count too?
There’s a huge difference between deaths caused by accidents and deaths resulting from arbitrary decisions made by corporations in constructing a proprietary AI algorithm that will not be open for inspection and whose functioning will not even be understood by the programmers since it will modify its behavior as more data is accumulated. Simply causing fewer deaths than human drivers is not a good enough standard and no one really wants to be part of the collateral damage associated with the live testing process. Better mass transit is a far better and safer solution than self-driving cars albeit one that doesn’t really fit the BS tech-utopian fantasies of neo-liberals.
I have said a few times that I would not step foot into a self-driving car unless every single vehicle on every single road was exclusively for self-driving vehicles. Only then ,could they be closest to an absolute guarantee of safety. Who benefits? Is it the owners of tech- utopia or is the rulers of tech-dystopia?
Financial analysis, NYT-style:
Knock off a few zeroes, and this is like casually advising a couple, “You can afford that $40,000 new car. After all, one of you makes $170,000 a year and the other $89,000.” This logic is what keeps the US Shoppers Paradise trundling along the rail spur to the knackers yard.
Indebted, hand-to-mouth governments choke on expenditures that represent a substantial portion of their annual revenue, even when they’re financed long-term at low interest rates.
For sure, the US needs to invest in infrastructure. But when federal spending is viewed as a bottomless well, capable of funding both a value-subtraction military empire and a corroding domestic economy, the burden of high debt slows growth to just above stall speed. As the good Dr Hussman — who’s crossed a bold red line by adopting the P-word — reminds us this morning,
And the band plays on …
Good points. You need to go argue with this guy in the other post, who claims that “foreigner’s” are gonna always pay for everything if we just continue let them:
“Our trade deficit represents vendor financing. Refuse foreigners’ E-Z terms financing for container loads of stuff, and pretty soon the US economy’s gonna be wheezing like a 90-year-old with a two-pack-a-day habit.”
Any analysis that discusses debt at the federal level and state-level (NY) as though they were remotely the same displays an appalling level of confusion. One hopes it will be immediately dustbinned by anyone who reads it. To call federal debt a Ponzi scheme is to slather another layer on the wedding cake of absurdity.
Or it’s a sign the economy is so full of “ponzi schemes” at all levels it’s hard to tell which way is up or where one begins and ends.
Nice hummer ! Ours are starting to make their presence obvious, buzzing within inches of my person.
I whisper sweet somethings to them … and they seem to like what they hear, as they continue their various feats of vertical acrobatics, only to return, hovering in front of my face as we size each other up.
Why the public needs to understand how monetary systems work – UF – IMHO -I think this is absolutely crucial. We need to have a national conversation on money in order to break the ruling elites stronghold. I put this right up there with race as….more discussions please….
That article on breast cancer care was great news and super hopeful!
1 Understand how monetary systems work.
2.Understand how wealth is power, how it works.
We can, for example, have a theory called Rich People Theory, to describe how rich people in America need more bigger houses, and need to get richer.
And someone yells, ‘That is so wrong!!!!”
Well, the theory is not wrong, if done with good quality research. The underlying reality is.
Now, you can have money theories, and if done carefully, those theories would be correct, and not wrong. But you can still complain that the systems they describe are wrong, wrong, wrong.
And someone careless who says, ‘That theory is wrong,’ we might make allowances that maybe he/she is complaining about the described reality, and not the theory itself.
I see SST is seriously discussing the rumour that MBS was killed in Saudi Arabia in April – a self-identified Saudi government editor at wikipedia points out all claims come from unsourced Iranian reports: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Mohammad_bin_Salman#Semi-protected_edit_request_on_1_June_2018
Someone on SST in comments said that MbS was scheduled to be at the opening of the World cup in middle June. If so, we’ll find out soon. Would the House of Sand try and flog off on us MbS’s body double? This play is going into overtime.
If he is dead, things are going to shift in the Middle East in reactionary ways.
The phonecam footage that purports to be of the attack is very violent. The one point I couldn’t check from the funeral photo was whether the king was one of the pallbearers.
I suppose if it’s true, the previous crown prince will be restored – otherwise KSA may be in meltdown.
It would be impossible to keep MBS’ death a secret for long, and if shown true, the conspiracy theory floodgates would bust wide open.
Basic PR would suggest that if MBS were dead from whatever cause, to get out in front of the bad PR immediately, before the inevitable truth comes out.
Ergo, crack is wack.
I dunno – if scepticism over the Skripal affair proves justified, the popular media has simply entered the Karl Rove parallel universe.
“EU to Defy US Sanctions…” Another total non-article, old news/no news. Come on people, it’s okay to post fewer links rather than resorting to “filler” or links to out-dated aggregator/click-bait sites. Please, some of us are less than two months behind out here, okay?
I’m sure NC does its best to bring you important news; complaining about someone’s efforts to inform you is just goofy. You can always look for more-up-to-date articles yourself.
And it’s okay to choose not to click on every link. You are perfectly free to compile a list of your own news sources and check them daily, and even to post links to those items you deem newsworthy on your own blog.
Do you go to someone’s home for dinner and complain about the food they are gracious enough to serve you, too?
This is my news source. I scan the links for a feel of what’s going on. I am very grateful not to have go anywhere else.
Me too.
I’m very grateful to have this site.
IMO – this is the BEST site on the whole web. Thank you so much to all that put so much effort – including the readers that leave comments – to make this site so amazing. Love you all!
I agree this is the best site on the web. I also have other regular sites I visit with varying frequency, and I’ve found I do not click on every link here. In fact, many days I only click on two or three, but those are invaluable to me.
Personally, I scan GNews for a sense of events – especially, what the MSM is telling people.
NC tells you what’s BEHIND the news.
And I don’t expect perfection. I certainly don’t deliver it.
Gift horses…
Google News. It’s called Google News. You can find it at https://news.google.com/
One reason why AI will move slower than people think, is that humans won’t accept machines killing people.
So while it might be rational to have self driving cars on the road that cause 1/2 the deaths than regular drivers, consumers will struggle to accept the loss of life from a machine.
Instead car companies will focus on enhancing drivers ability to prevent death. For example both Volvo and Mercedes are striving to make cars when no one dies. There are already models of higher end cars that have achieve this goal in Europe.
While trying to prevent ever having a death is a hard goal, it is conceivable that someone dying in a car crash could become a major news story in 20-30 years time.
Drones, tanks, guns…..maybe you mean autonomous machines?
Manshenyaggers.
Assumes that some humans will not remove the possibility that other humans can effectively “not accept machines killing people.” There’s already all kinds of machines that kill people, from automobiles to industrial machines to up and coming autonomous war robots. Humans kill humans, and there’s not much indication that hmans will act to keep their killing machines from not continuing the process. Let alone assurances that there really won’t be a singularity…
> APPLE’S RESTRICTIONS AREN’T HELPING TECH ADDICTION
My version is iphone # 6 so I am 4 versions behind. Do the newer ones not have an on/off switch? It’s one of my favorite features and I hope it hasn’t been culled.
Breast Cancer and Chemo
Thank goodness neither I or my neighbor who was diagnosed right after me will have to have chemo. I’m half way through radiation treatments tomorrow. I know some of my NC sisters out there are having treatment for b.c. now. How are you doing?
The Girlfriend just finished radiation for her 2nd go round (recurrence 9 years later…) with bc.
Burn’s pretty hot but not as bad as the first round.
Check out calendula for your own radiation burn…she swears by it. No blisters this time.
Good luck, Lunker.
Thanks F.H. Best wishes to The Girlfriend. I have read about calendula. Was prescribed betamethasone valerate and it seems to be working so far.
Wish I had known about that when going thru my radiation. Great tip.
I use a calendula chapstick I swear by, made here in NM.
Sending positive thoughts for your girlfriend…
I was stage III so went thru a mastectomy, 4 1/2 mths of very aggressive chemo, followed by 6 1/2 weeks of radiation, but I’m doing great!
I still have some reconstruction surgeries over the next year(s) to complete but am feeling good. Not even having side effects from the estrogen blocker I must now be on for the next 5 yrs.
I miss my long hair terribly, tho’. (As well as my eyebrows which are still very thin, as well as eyelashes. It’s summer. Will my big toenails ever finish growing back in, too, as I plod around in sandals & no polish?).
SO glad they are making such advancements that you & others did not have to go thru all that I did!!!
It wasn’t/isn’t fun.
I wasn’t a candidate for a ‘cold cap’ so I wouldn’t lose my hair, due to the type of aggressive chemo required in my case. Losing my below-the-waist hair I’d had most of my life to chemo was (& still is) the hardest part for me. I still don’t recognize the person in the mirror staring back at me with short hair that does as it pleases, currently resembling that of David Bowie on his “Aladdin Sane” album cover (yet an improvement over the “Pee Wee Herman” thing that was going on prior to this!)
I did participate in a clinical trial so was fortunate I didn’t lose all my lymph nodes on that side. That’s what the trial was about, to see if the results are as good by not taking them all (where you risk the chance of lymphodema the remainder of life), as opposed to just taking the cancerous ones (which in my case was the lone sentinel node).
I chose to roll the dice & entered the trial, waking up with gratitude I was in the percentile that didn’t lose ’em all, yet still confident my cancer will not return. I hope that trial will spare women in the future from losing all their lymph nodes, as it’s pretty much standard procedure to take ’em all if even one is positive for cancer.
With one in eight women now being diagnosed with breast cancer, I can’t encourage women enough to get their mammograms.
And for those already diagnosed, I still firmly believe your mind & positive attitude is the best medicine to combine with treatments.
All my best to you, your neighbor, & all the other women diagnosed with breast cancer.
KNOW that you will be fine.
crittermom, thank you for making my life look easier. Can’t imagine the courage it took to enter the trial but it seems to have paid off. I chuckled at your description of your hair coming back in — may it be waist length again one day. And best wishes to all of my BC Sisters.
A sense of humor was one of my best tools for enduring all I went thru.
After I began radiation my nurse navigator was leaving for a vacation in Hawaii.
I told her I may have a better ‘tan’ than her upon her return, & I was right! (It rained each day she was in Hawaii).
When my plastic surgeon is done I’ll have perky breasts again like in much younger years.
The next procedure he’ll be removing belly fat to put into my formerly cancerous breast, too.
A boob lift & lipo? All paid for by insurance? What’s not to like?
Hang in there, LW. You’re gonna be just fine. Glad I made you chuckle. Keep smiling!
I am having a lumpectomy tomorrow, here in Uruguay. They found a lump in my breast 3 weeks ago and I’m amazed at how quickly things are going. It is the size of an almond and they think that it has not Advanced to the lymph nodes. Will know more tomorrow…
Actually, I’m having a lumpectomy tomorrow here in Uruguay. They found the Almond sized lump 3 weeks ago and I’m amazed at how quickly everything is going. They don’t think it has gotten into the lymph nodes yet, but we’ll know more tomorrow after surgery. The struggle I’m having is not being able to communicate effectively with all of the people here. My Spanish is good for the restaurant, but not up to hospital care.
I take comfort in the fact that the president of Uruguay is an oncologist, and that the development of the mammogram was aided by Uruguayans.
https://theculturetrip.com/south-america/uruguay/articles/11-things-you-never-realized-uruguay-gave-the-world/
Breast cancer: Test means fewer women will need chemotherapy (BBC)
While working on healthcare political issues in California decades ago, I met Dr. Jesse Steinfeld, former Surgeon General during the late ’60s. He was a cancer specialist. I’ll never forget his explaining that one of the great benefits of a single payer health insurance/healthcare plan is that all health care data can be aggregated and analyzed in one place.
Certainly one of the reasons that serious illnesses in infants and children have better treatments and results than adults is that information is shared among researchers and practitioners from institutions throughout the world. Greed is set aside when treating children. A single payer system would make such findings available to all.
Rather a hopeful notion, since instituting a common electronic medical record (code, distribution, incorporation, re-training, maintenance, security) and all that would, based on my little nursing experiences with paper charting conversions EMR, and 5 different EMR/charting systems as an “end user,” be an enormous undertaking. The problems with passing data between all the various competing and incompatible systems out there are manifold and manifest and “well documented” (a little nursing pun there.)
And of course since the code will likely be coming from a private source, not developed by some Evil Central Planning Government Symposium (which itself would be subject to vicious lobbying by “interested parties” who will not agree on design, there will be fierce and destructive competition between all the potential bidders. One can’t even turn to the VA, which I believe is the largest “single payer” entity in the Empire, for an exemplar. Their system, if you can call it that, VISTA, is still a giant kludge of legacy code with overlays of patches and user interfaces and such. “The government” is supposedly in the process of “buying into” the War Department system. Here’s a “Citizen-Centric Government” view of that “migration,” as it is so blithely called (see “TSB”) — “VA to dump Vista for DOD’s electronic health record system,” https://fcw.com/articles/2017/06/05/vista-shulkin-mhs-genesis.aspx?m=2
I really hesitate to even frame it this way, because, well, it’s obvious, but this thing needs to happen of course, and it needs to be in the same category resource-and-central-government-wise as the Manhattan Project. Maybe a better thought model is the TVA?
Finally the Marshmallows test is taken on for its classist propaganda foundation
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/06/marshmallow-test/561779/
Cumberbatch, being an intelligent guy, would have never tried this in the US given our massive oversupply of guns.
Three of just about any normally healthy young-to-early-middle aged adults, including females, can at least slow down an attack from anybody short of a top-level athelete. But give them all a gun, and guess what? The criminal always gets to shoot first. The NRA never mentions that.
Ah, well.
The canned NRA response would be something like “B-b-b-but criminals who really wanted guns could still get them illegally!!!”
Yeah, well, crooks will be crooks, whether they are wearing white tees with their smokes rolled in the sleeves or three piece suits with leather wallets and pictures of their latest girlfriends’ grade school graduation photo within.
…or military-style starched-crease uniforms with heavy Utility Belts, more frequent assault rifles on slings over the shooting shoulder, patches that read “To Serve And Protect,” Police,” “SWAT,” and “Stop Resisting!” And squadrols and unmarked cars and now Mine Resistant Assault Vehicles to haul away the loot, the resisters, and the corpse…
I keep returning to the scene from the film “A Clockwork Orange” where the ‘reformed’ Alex meets up with some of his former gang members. They have become police.
The novel from which the film was adapted was written by Anthony Burgess back in 1962. If visionaries like Burgess and Dick could accurately describe today, fifty years ago, who today is fulfilling a similar function now?
On a related front; I was perusing the library sale room, the cast offs and donations for sale, and met and talked to a woman, in her fifties, who had had a run-in with the ‘new and improved’ local police last year. Basically, she has been in a decade long fight against what was originally Nationwide Mortages against a false seizure attempt. (She had the documents to prove she had paid off the loan, to no avail.) Last year the bank gets an order to throw her out of her house. The local county cops show up to do the eviction. She stands her ground, having proof of skullduggery. Roughly, as she described it; “These two burly uniformed men stood right in front of me and shouted in my face, bumped me, threatened me, and when my husband, who isn’t all here anymore, (he was sitting at a table a few feet away, looking at a manga,) complained, they threatened to ‘put him down for assaulting police officers.'”
The bank still hasn’t gotten the house, but, she said, it has taken all of their money in legal fees to keep it.
So, your description of creased uniforms etc. is giving the local police too much credit. More like Brown Shirts nowadays.
People might start thinking about having sound-recording videocams all over the relevant parts of their houses and cars and yards to be activated as soon as police or other government personnel show up anywhere nearby. People might start thinking about wearing non-obious body cams.
Really brave people might also think about carrying decoy cell phones so when the officers strong-arm rob the cell phone from the user, the officers will think they have stopped the recording without realizing that recording is still going on.
Such videos-with-sound can then be weaponised for dissemination and viralization.
Possibly the officers involved could be doxed and outed and their faces together with all identifyiing and tracking characteristics could be put up on thousands or millions of ” Public Enemy–Unwanted Anywhere” posters.
So, the NYT, which has been the major cheerleader for privatizing schools for decades, is suddenly on the side of the teachers they’ve been blaming for everything. Hypocritical, much?
Maybe this is an indication that it’s now officially “In” to take the Teacher’s side??
How long will that bit of zeitgeist last? The Kochs and Murdoch and Bezos and the Gates Foundation and lots of others are working hard to demolish that spike of sympathy and comprehension of how bad, compared to the shibboleths and wishful wistful ideation, “things” have gotten…
Thanks for posting Richard Murphy’s piece about Positive Money. I watched part 1 of a Real News interview about the Swiss banking proposal this morning while NC was down. I have similar questions and concerns as Murphy.
I don’t think parts 2 and 3 of the Real News interview have posted yet. Here’s a link to part 1:
https://therealnews.com/series/should-banks-be-stripped-of-their-ability-to-create-money-a-referendum-in-switzerland
NYT goes full throttle with the Babchenko story, then criticizes Russian “denial machine” for rejecting accusations of a murder that never happened. Lewis Carroll would approve. Says the WSWS:
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/06/01/pers-j01.html
Kill me now: Bill Clinton & James North Patterson “pen” a beach read together.
I saw that in my local Costco this weekend and thought: WTF?
I’m no JN Patterson fan, but lately this is his schtick. He “co-authors” “books” with other people, although it’s usually other authors.
Not my thing in any case. Can’t imagine that it’d be any good, even for a beach read.
I guess the Clintons need MOAR MONEY???
Yes, another ‘co-creator’ is Gingrinch.
Besides the money, it’s also mainly about ego. “Oooh! Look at me, the famous author!”
Now, if Bill were to write a book about the perv adventures of a wealthy roue; that I’d buy. It’d have everything a randy young boy would want, plus economic advice!
He did. It’s called My Life.
I keep noticing it on the library shelf–never seems to be checked out.
Next to it is Hillary’s Hard Choices, also never checked out.
I want to read the Grove Press edition of that.
I saw one of his “novels” in a place for shared (free) books and read a bit. It was supposed to be a “counterfactual” about what would have happened if the South had succeeded in their treason. I didn’t bother taking the book with me.
Yes. That plot was stolen, lock stock and barrel from Harry Turtledoves’ alternate history Americana series.
Over the years, Gingrinch has been the exemplar of ‘noblesse sans oblige’ for America.
In Patterson’s book on Epstein & the Lolita Express, Bill’s many rides were conspicuously absent.
You know, Bill left the WH $16M in debt. He told me so this morning on the news as he was explaining all the pain and suffering he went through on the Monica thing. So yeah, he probably still needs a few bucks.
Uh, huh. They were so broke…
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/jun/10/hillary-clinton/hillary-clinton-says-she-and-bill-were-dead-broke/
Woman Admits To Shooting, Killing Husband For Beating Family Cat CBS DFW
I’m not saying cats will read this article and use it to extort extra tuna out of men (husbands), but if anyone’s male partner is extra generous with cat treats, it is worth bearing in mind that they are being cat-maled….
Haaaaaaa!!
Our two cats have us (husband and wife) wrapped around their paws. I admit I didn’t read the article. Just the thought of a cat being beatened was unconscionable. Treats are mostly given by me (female). I happen to be much more generous in my giving of them than male in household. (Both cats are also female). I think cats get it: our female human companion is a kinder, more lovable and wonderful human. We reward her by sitting with her while she does that paying attention to a book or her tablet while reading stuff like Naked Capitalism. It’s nice when she laughs or a little worrisome if she shouts an expletive at the tablet. We take turns jumping on her lap when we know she needs to take a break. Time to pay attention to what’s real.
RE: Corbyn vows to return Elgin Marbles to Greece if he becomes prime minister
About time and yet another reason to like Corbyn.
One of the reasons given in the past for not returning them was that they would be eroded by the pollution in Athens and would be better preserved in the British Museum, which may have been a valid point at the time, but no longer. The Greeks took action and built a climate controlled museum at the Acropolis quite some time ago. When I visited, the original Caryatid sculptures from the Erechtheum were housed there, sans the one Elgin stole. The ones displayed outside on the actual temple today are reproductions. Since then, Greece has built an even newer and more modern museum to house these statues and other acropolis relics, and I would be extremely surprised if they hadn’t set some room aside in the new museum for the potential return of stolen artifacts.
Time for a long overdue repatriation. And while we’re at it, maybe we can start referring to these sculptures as the Parthenon Marbles, rather than continuing to refer to them by the name of the person who absconded with them.
I feel deeply ambivalent about the way many discussions of monetary policy devolve instantly into either “mentioned MMT” or “failed to mention MMT” and then references a gloss of MMT as the idea that money is always and everywhere and for all historical time, debt entered into a ledger.
In a way, I am deeply sympathetic with the necessity to overthrow neoclassical orthodoxy, which insists on the long-run neutrality of money and distinguishing a “real” economy beneath the maya of money. (Yes, Paul Krugman, all high-and-mighty in your intellectual scorn for Niall Ferguson’s as representative of an intellectual Right without new ideas or critical standards, I am looking at you and your lack of new ideas and critical standards.)
Money (aka monetary systems) change. Monetary institutions are subject to fierce strategic pressure and they have to be re-invented and re-born on a regular cycle. The world is in the midst of such a re-invention I suppose. That’s an essential part of the context: looming critical failures from financial “innovation”.
But, it seems to me that bankruptcy and taxing economic rents and hedges for the banking cum payments system — essential features of a monetary system — are neglected by the “Intro to MMT” narratives in ways that pose real political risks, as MMT gains credibility. I am thinking of Steve Keen’s pushing back against Bill Mitchell on the role of trade as a too-rare example of bringing critical thinking to bear.
I admit I usually do not get very far in reading MMT treatises — I often feel I have fallen into a bizarre form of infomercial. But, I know some commenters here have made themselves more deeply familiar.
I guessing I am asking for people to tell me I am wrong and MMT has definite ideas on bankruptcy, taxing economic rents, banking/payment system hedges (a very big issue with the Euro, as Italy’s banking system threatens to implode), or the issues Keen has raised concerning trade, exchange rates, terms of trade and capital controls (my list, not Keen’s).
I assume MMT leaves most established contracts and protocols in place. They are not the problem. The problem is a usurpation of sovereign social spending. It is not an accounting problem. Today’s Alternet link above is a great interview with Ann Pettifor who is advocating economics accountability and strict regulation of the banks. She is not an MMTer – she is a Keynesian. And always salient. Everything in her interview is a prescription for fixing the mess. One thing she said was that in the 1950s we actually had economics in a sane social balance. But it was over faster than a shooting star. In 1954 Washington threw the “Bankruptcy Ball” and thumbed their nose at accountabiilty. All for the Cold War. We blew zillions on it. And Pettifor says the balance of the 50s was destroyed when the banksters went to the CB and said “trust us – we can issue debt and make the market pay for everything.” I think the banksters (here) and the MIC were in cahoots from the get go. Very interesting interview.
I’m a big fan of MMT, and have been for about 10 years. I see it as a factual description of how our monetary system works. That should be considered separately from the policy issues and implications.
As to whether “bankruptcy and taxing economic rents and hedges for the banking cum payments system” are neglected by MMT, I would rather say that once you get beyond the basics of how the monetary system actually works, there is room for varying opinions and proposals. Don’t look at MMT as a political philosophy. Rather, it is best used as framework for understanding the economy.
By way of analogy, science provide a framework for understanding life in a way that has often been obscured by the powers that be. Science itself does not provide the formula for living the best life, but rather provides a basis for intelligently exploring various options. Similary, MMT provides a more modern and fact-based foundation to the social science of economics, as opposed to quasi-religious nature of conventional economic wisdom.
MMT does not apply to Italy, because Italy does not have a sovereign currency. It’s essentially using a foreign currency, controlled by the ECB. And the ECB is forbidden (?) to practice MMT, apparently by the Maastrict Treaty. The link on “Sacrificing to the Euro” , posted the other day, goes into the details. It makes the left-wing case for ending the Euro: it embodies neo-liberalism and fastens the German yoke on the rest of Europe.
Incidentally, that’s also the reason Corbyn and British leftists were anti-EU. Not quite as bad as the Euro, but still the same policies.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/11/mark-ames-libertarian-liars-top-reagan-adviser-cato-institute-chairman-william-niskanen-%E2%80%9Cdeficits-don%E2%80%99t-matter%E2%80%9D.html
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/03/mark-ames-the-one-percents-plan-for-the-rest-of-us-%E2%80%93-livestock-to-be-milked-for-rent.html
Remember…..
Uber defeated in Spain’s Supreme Court. (Only spanish)
Interestingly the Supreme Court was more prone to liberalization in previous decisions. Uber operates in Spain under “Vehicle plus Driver Rental” licenses. These licenses will be limited to 1 per 30 taxis (a license migth include several vehicles).
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/16-111_j4el.pdf
So I came across the Supreme Court’s opinion and dissenting opinions in the Colorado case of the baker not selling wedding cakes to a gay couple.
I was inclined to view the case as simply public accommodation, but I think the “conservatives” actually have some good faith arguments. I think the issue can be boiled down to: was JUST a wedding cake being sold at issue or was it a CUSTOM wedding cake – and at what point can specific acts be compelled? Are only Mass produced/marketed products in the realm of public accommodation? (can a Jewish baker who makes “custom” cakes for anyone who orders a “custom” cake be compelled to make a “custom” celebratory cake with swastikas? Is every serving of breakfast at a diner in some way a “custom” service with special smiles, winks, and jokes about the weather?)
AND Justice Thomas at least bringing up free speech I thought was pertinent and insightful.
One of the difficulties in this case is that the parties
disagree as to the extent of the baker’s refusal to provide
service. If a baker refused to design a special cake with
words or images celebrating the marriage—for instance, a
cake showing words with religious meaning—that might
be different from a refusal to sell any cake at all. In defining
whether a baker’s creation can be protected, these
details might make a difference.
…..
A full view of the facts helps point the way to the problem.
Start with William Jack’s case. He approached three
bakers and asked them to prepare cakes with messages
disapproving same-sex marriage on religious grounds.
App. 233, 243, 252. All three bakers refused Mr. Jack’s
request, stating that they found his request offensive to
their secular convictions. Id., at 231, 241, 250. Mr. Jack
responded by filing complaints with the Colorado Civil
Rights Division. Id., at 230, 240, 249. He pointed to
Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act, which prohibits discrimination
against customers in public accommodations
because of religious creed, sexual orientation, or certain
other traits. See ibid.; Colo. Rev. Stat. §24–34–601(2)(a) (2017).
Mr. Jack argued that the cakes he sought reflected his religious beliefs and that the bakers could not refuse to make them just because they happened to disagree with
his beliefs. App. 231, 241, 250. But the Division declined
to find a violation, reasoning that the bakers didn’t deny
Mr. Jack service because of his religious faith but because
the cakes he sought were offensive to their own moral
convictions. Id., at 237, 247, 255–256. As proof, the Division
pointed to the fact that the bakers said they treated
Mr. Jack as they would have anyone who requested a cake
with similar messages, regardless of their religion. Id., at
230–231, 240, 249. The Division pointed, as well, to the
fact that the bakers said they were happy to provide religious
persons with other cakes expressing other ideas. Id.,
at 237, 247, 257. Mr. Jack appealed to the Colorado Civil
Rights Commission, but the Commission summarily denied
relief.
…..
While Phillips rightly prevails on his free-exercise claim,
I write separately to address his free-speech claim. The
Court does not address this claim because it has some
uncertainties about the record. See ante, at 2. Specifically,
the parties dispute whether Phillips refused to create a
custom wedding cake for the individual respondents, or
whether he refused to sell them any wedding cake (including
a premade one). But the Colorado Court of Appeals resolved this
factual dispute in Phillips’ favor. The court described his conduct
as a refusal to “design and create a
cake to celebrate [a] same-sex wedding.” Craig v. Masterpiece
Cakeshop, Inc., 370 P. 3d 272, 276 (2015); see also
id., at 286 (“designing and selling a wedding cake”); id., at
283 (“refusing to create a wedding cake”). And it noted
that the Commission’s order required Phillips to sell “‘any
product [he] would sell to heterosexual couples,’ ” including
custom wedding cakes. Id., at 286 (emphasis added).
=================================================
I can see the argument for defending public accommodation and not allowing any weakening of the concept. On the other hand, this might have not been the wisest hill to die on…..
Anyway, for those so inclined, some interesting reading.
Under the same “good faith” logic I hope the baker also refuses to make wedding cakes for divorcees and couples who engaged in premarital sex. And what artistic act is the gay couple trying to “compel” of the baker, exactly? Putting two guys in tuxes on top of the cake instead of one tux and one dress? Did they request the depiction of gay sexual acts or something? How is putting a plastic figure on top of a cake contrary to anyone’s religious belief? To me it looks motivated purely by mean-spiritedness and a desire to exclude, rather than religion, and as far as I read Jesus never approved of either.
False Solace
June 4, 2018 at 4:53 pm
FROM THE OPINION:
Phillips routinely sacrifices profits to ensure that Masterpiece operates in a way
that represents his Christian faith. He is not open on
Sundays, he pays his employees a higher-than-average
wage, and he loans them money in times of need. Phillips
also refuses to bake cakes containing alcohol, cakes with
racist or homophobic messages, cakes criticizing God, and
cakes celebrating Halloween—even though Halloween is
one of the most lucrative seasons for bakeries. These
efforts to exercise control over the messages that Masterpiece
sends are still more evidence that Phillips’ conduct is
expressive. See Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Tornillo,
418 U. S. 241, 256–258 (1974); Walker v. Texas Div., Sons
of Confederate Veterans, Inc., 576 U. S. ___, ___ (2015)
(slip op., at 15).
…..
Phillips is an active participant in the wedding celebration.
He sits down with each couple for a consultation
before he creates their custom wedding cake. He discusses
their preferences, their personalities, and the details of
their wedding to ensure that each cake reflects the couple
who ordered it. In addition to creating and delivering the
cake—a focal point of the wedding celebration—Phillips
sometimes stays and interacts with the guests at the
wedding. And the guests often recognize his creations and
seek his bakery out afterward. Phillips also sees the
inherent symbolism in wedding cakes. To him, a wedding
cake inherently communicates that “a wedding has occurred,
a marriage has begun, and the couple should be
celebrated.” App. 162
…..
The parade in Hurley was an example of what this
Court has termed “expressive conduct.” See 515 U. S., at
568–569. This Court has long held that “the Constitution
looks beyond written or spoken words as mediums of
expression,” id., at 569, and that “[s]ymbolism is a primitive
but effective way of communicating ideas,” West Virginia
Bd. of Ed. v. Barnette, 319 U. S. 624, 632 (1943).
Thus, a person’s “conduct may be ‘sufficiently imbued with
elements of communication to fall within the scope of the
First and Fourteenth Amendments.’” Texas v. Johnson,
491 U. S. 397, 404 (1989). Applying this principle, the
Court has recognized a wide array of conduct that can
qualify as expressive, including nude dancing,* burning the
American flag, flying an upside-down American flag with
a taped-on peace sign, wearing a military uniform, wearing
a black armband, conducting a silent sit-in, refusing to
salute the American flag, and flying a plain red flag.1
…………
The conduct that the Colorado Court of Appeals ascribed
to Phillips—creating and designing custom wedding
cakes—is expressive. Phillips considers himself an artist.
The logo for Masterpiece Cakeshop is an artist’s paint
palate with a paintbrush and baker’s whisk. Behind the
counter Phillips has a picture that depicts him as an artist
painting on a canvas. Phillips takes exceptional care with
each cake that he creates—sketching the design out on
paper, choosing the color scheme, creating the frosting and
decorations, baking and sculpting the cake, decorating it,
and delivering it to the wedding. Examples of his creations
can be seen on Masterpiece’s website. See
http://masterpiececakes.com/wedding-cakes (as last visited
June 1, 2018).
Phillips is an active participant in the wedding celebration.
He sits down with each couple for a consultation
before he creates their custom wedding cake. He discusses
their preferences, their personalities, and the details of
their wedding to ensure that each cake reflects the couple
who ordered it. In addition to creating and delivering the
cake—a focal point of the wedding celebration—Phillips
sometimes stays and interacts with the guests at the
wedding. And the guests often recognize his creations and
seek his bakery out afterward. Phillips also sees the
inherent symbolism in wedding cakes. To him, a wedding
cake inherently communicates that “a wedding has occurred,
a marriage has begun, and the couple should be
celebrated.” App. 162.
=====================================
* my only comment is that I believe NUDE DANCING is the most important freedom the constitution protects….
fresno dan
I would have suggested to the two men, right from the beginning, that the only way to respond to this exclusion would be economically. Simply spread the word that the bakery is essentially a front for a kind of fundamentalist revivalist exclusion of the “other.” The baker is obviously quite happy to be inserting himself, as a kind of judge/minister into celebrations of the “elect”.
Find and support businesses which are inclusive, not exclusive. And pass the word to all who will listen.
wilroncanada
June 4, 2018 at 11:37 pm
Say I wanted to have a cake made celebrating my nude dancing soon to be wife….and the religious (Muslim versus Christian doesn’t matter) tells me that it can’t make a cake for such a whore. My first reaction would be, “you say whore as if that were a bad thing.”
Second, would not such a cake perhaps contain subtle or indirect insults against nude dancers? Or perhaps such cakes would contain EVEN poison??? Why would I want to hire such people to make such cakes for me?
As I implied in my first posting, making bacon and eggs and serving bacon and eggs is a pretty generic thing. Denny’s should not be allowed to discriminate.
I think gays advanced their cause by showing that they were forced to suppress their true beliefs and feeling. Now, they are close to showing that they are in favor of suppressing others true beliefs.
My view is live and let live – Don’t economically support people who oppress you or don’t like you – if bigots don’t want gay profits, there are plenty of people who do.
Two articles about native Americans today in links. The commonalities between them is notable and striking.
Why Native Remains are traded like Collector’s Items(High Country News)
Indigenous Women have been disappearing for Generations. Politicians are finally starting to Notice. (Itercept)
These two articles should be read together. The tragic, shameful and decimating history of indigenous peoples in America and Canada are not, for most part, truthfully and with almost any recognition taught in our schools or discussed by people with public platforms or voices. Of course, some serious, higher academic research andwritings have been done. You can name some examples of books, films and some msm coverage of, say, Standing Rock or Idle No More. The exploitation, ruinous destruction of indigenous peoples’ tribal and family structures are a narrative of our country’s past and present that we mostly have purposely ignored, lied about, mythologized, rationalized and
hidden.
Indigenous people’s endurance of callous and greedy disregard for ancestors’ burial grounds and remains is a clear and pointed example of the “manifest destiny” culture and mindset of the US government and its supporting institutions. The “final recognition” of indigenous women, girls and others who have been murdered, and/or assaulted, also with many disappearing, is heartbreakingly sad and an indictment of the current state of affairs for indigenous peoples circumstances on their homelands… keeping in mind that some of their “reservations” are not their original lands, but they are home.
“China increasingly challenges American dominance of science”
Already China leads the US in the number of patents registered. And the veiled hostility to overseas scientists studying and working in the US through visa hassles is really going to backfire. It was the pursuit of science that helped propel America to the lead in the 20th century but the present hostility to science and scientists is going to have terrible consequences in the 21st century. I guess that it is really going to be the Chinese century over the coming decades.
That has to be a hummingbird in today’s antidote du jour.