Links 6/14/12

Australia creates marine reserve BBC

Cougars are re-populating their historical range, new study confirms PhysOrg

Advertising masked as science? Nature News

Man awarded $25 million for workplace racial harassment Raw Story

Contractionary Fiscal Contraction, Quantified: European Edition Menzie Chinn, Econbrowser

German Vote on ESM Fails; Still Not Ratified by Germany, Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Slovakia, Netherlands; Political Football Over Financial Transaction Tax Michael Shedlock. I take exception to some of his commentary, but the news wrap is useful.

Debt crisis: Germany signals shift on €2.3 trillion redemption fund for Europe Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph

Full text: Moody’s downgrades Spain’s government bond rating to Baa3 from A3, on review for further downgrade Ed Harrison

Crédit Agricole Girds Greek Unit for Greece Euro Exit Wall Street Journal

Dread and Uncertainty Pervade Life in a Diminished Greece New York Times

Banking union in the Eurozone and the EU VoxEU

China giving up on rebalancing? MacroBusiness

Early Death Assured In India Where 900 Million Starve Bloomberg

Democrats fear Obama may lose Christian Science Monitor

Obama seeks to claw back economic agenda Financial Times

Obama’s Hollywood problem Ed Luce, Financial Times

U.S. Health Care Vote Pivots on Kennedy Bloomberg

The Indictment of NATO Protesters on Terrorism Charges Kevin Gosztola, Firedoglake

Retail Sales In U.S. Declined For A Second Month In May Bloomberg

Sanders Releases Explosive Bailout List RSN. This is good to send to people who aren’t aware of how bad the bailout-related conflicts of interest were.

Columbia’s Bollinger Criticized For Backing Dimon At Fed Bloomberg

Rakoff Denial of Motion to Dismiss by Brian Stoker in SEC v. Stoker. Tom Adams via e-mail:

As Rakoff noted in his Citi/SEC settlement decision, the SEC’s case against Stoker has important additional detail about Stoker’s knowledge of the fraud (see footnote 4, on page 4). In particular, Rakoff notes that Stoker knew the CDO would be hard to sell if investors knew Citi was also shorting it, which is why Citi hired Credit Suisse to be the deal manager.

In addition, Rakoff notes that Citi learned about the idea of shorting its own CDOs from Magnetar (ie, the creator of the Constellation CDOs) and many other hedge funds who believed that the subprime MBS market was going to blow up.
As far as I know, this is the strongest information out there, so far, that confirms what we’ve said about Magnetar and the CDO market: 2006 and 2007 CDOs were built to allow hedge funds and banks to short them, and banks to unload otherwise unsaleable MBS bonds. In order to accomplish this, the banks needed to hide what they were doing.

It’s not a surprise that this is what happened, but it is surprising to read it in an actual court opinion. Rakoff accurately describes the facts as a straight forward fraud complaint. Yet, other than the cases against individuals like Stoker and Tourre, the SEC is unwilling to act on this information. It is mind boggling that the SEC didn’t bring charges against the trading desk chief or Stoker’s supervisor, both of whom are referenced and implicated but unnamed.

Jamie Dimon Is Taking Your Phone Calls on Foreclosure Paperwork Problems Dave Dayen, Firedoglake

* * *

Lambert here:

D – 86 and counting*

“Really, if the lower orders don’t set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them?” –Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

Occupy. “The New York chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has released an Android application allowing mobile-phone users to easily capture police patdowns on video, which is then automatically uploaded to the rights group’s servers.” “Chicago Tribune sues Occupy Chicago over occupiedchicagotribune.org.” Hey, maybe Rahm will weigh in on the side of free speech!

Montreal. Debt: “The Quebec government’s plan to improve the loans and bursaries programs will only put students from middle-class families deeper into debt, two of the province’s largest student associations charged on Wednesday.” Corruption: “[Jacques Duchesneau,] initially tasked by the Quebec government to probe corruption in the province wasn’t given a budget or even a computer and was relegated to ‘squatting’ for office space.” Hey, maybe Eric Schneiderman’s got a spare! “We uncovered that the idea of healthy competition didn’t exist. People tried to work around the system,” [Duchesneau] said. “A system of collusion was in place … to get around the public tendering process.” Red squares: “Culture Minister Christine St-Pierre found herself in hot water last week when she said the red square was a symbol of violence. She made the comments after Fred Pellerin, a poet, storyteller and singer, declined his invitation to become a member of the Order of Quebec, refusing due to what he called a democractic crisis in the province and reiterating his support for the student movement by sporting the red square. Today in the National Assembly, St-Pierre said that if people were hurt by her comments, she was sorry.” A non-apology apology! Elections: “In the wake of such a brutal message from the people [in the Argenteuil by-election], nobody can see Premier Jean Charest calling an election for mid-September, the next window available to him after the student crisis botched his plans for spring. PQ MNAs said it’s clear Charest’s attempt to associate Marois’s support for the students and her decision to wear the red badge with violence and intimidation did not fly with voters.” Charest: “Madame Marois is the street.” Wow. Letters: “An end to the crisis that is beneficial to the whole of Quebec society must pass, first of all, by way of a citizens’ forum (or “Estates-General”) on our universities.” “Now you have retired cops and criminal experts providing colour commentary on police actions during student demonstrations, as if they were hockey games.” Canadian Civil Liberties Assocation: “What we are witnessing is the replay of the same police techniques. We’re talking about so-called preventative arrests, where people who haven’t done anything are being arrested just because police think they could be dangerous. It’s very troubling. This conduct is excessive and illegal.”

CO. D Peter Hart Focus group, 27-year-old health care consultant: “I got duped. I fell under his spell. What he’s done with the car industry is the only real success. I feel like I was somewhat lied to.”

FL. Voting: “Last night, The Daily Show destroyed — destroyed — Florida Gov. Rick Scott and all of his recent voter suppression schemes.” Back-scratching: “When a politically connected company was in danger of losing a $9.4 million no-bid contract with the state, Sen Pres Mike Haridopolos came to the rescue of the [Evidence Based Associates] — a firm that employs his good friend and political benefactor as a lobbyist” with $6 million more.

IA. Diane Bauer (again) on Romney’s visit to her cafe: “My dad’s picture, an emblem my dad gave me, it got broke. Those aren’t things you can replace.” Ron Paul: “A team [of regulars] is pushing to send a different set of Iowans to the national convention, not the at-large slate selected by Paul backers. They hope to round up enough votes for a ‘unity slate’ to override the Paul activists at this weekend’s state convention.”

MD. Dirty tricks: “Political consultant Julius Henson was sentenced to 60 days in prison Wednesday for his role in sending automated robocalls to curb D voters from heading to the polls” in 2010. Tasers: “Shortly after he was jolted a second time, county police say Johnson, 48, lost consciousness and was later pronounced dead at a hospital. He became the second person to die after being Tasered by a county officer in the past three years.”

ME. Angus King: “The DSCC chairwoman] wouldn’t say which candidate she’s backing in the race to replace retiring Sen. Olympia Snowe (R).” That is, a D or Angus King (I).

MI. Democracy: “[Protect Our Jobs], supporters of a ballot proposal to enshrine collective bargaining rights in the state constitution today turned in [650,000 signatures] to put the measure on the November ballot.” Less than 323,000 were needed.

MN. “Despite Bio Wood Processing being hit by a fire and an explosion in the first three months of business this spring, county and fire officials say they aren’t concerned with the safety of the facility.”

ND. Measure 3: “The 82-word amendment, formally titled the Religious Liberty Restoration Act, stated that ‘a sincerely held religious belief’ is sufficient grounds to disobey a law deemed contrary to that belief.” It lost, 64% to 36%.

NH. House speaker tries to douse email flame wars.

NY. Fracking: Cuomo pursues a plan to limit fracking to counties along the PA border — primarily Broome, Chemung, Chenango, Steuben and Tioga — with local approval. The administration had initially expected to allow 75 hydrofracking permits in the first year, but now expects to reduce that to 50. “In New York, while more than 100 communities have passed moratoriums or bans on fracking, a few dozen in the Southern Tier and in western New York have passed resolutions in favor of the drilling process.” “Sandra Steingraber, founder of New Yorkers Against Fracking, characterizes the places where drilling would be permitted on a trial basis as ‘sacrifice zones.‘”

OH. “Today the Ohio House passed and the Senate agreed to SB314, legislation that further reduces oversight of [JobsOhio, the privatized economic development agency] and hands more unfettered power to Kasich Jobs Czar, Mark Kvamme.”

PA. “Here we were, traveling the area often called ‘The Rust Belt.’ where the dedicated and determined educators we met were representative of the nation’s majority of college faculty. By that, I mean that they were all part-time, low-wage, struggling people; every one of them had several jobs in order to make ends meet.”

UT. “[Fred Karger], a gay Republican running an issues-based campaign to change attitudes within the GOP about same-sex marriage, took his efforts last week to Utah.”

WI. Rick Perlstein on the Barrett slap: “And therein hangs a tale: about grassroots Democrats who act like activists, who hold that slaps are sometimes what it takes to get the political job done, and Democratic leaders who act like you can solve all political problems with a hug. Which, pretty much, was Tom Barrett’s entire election platform.” The Unity Pony! Walker brat fest: “‘First step’ was a phrase legislators from both sides employed repeatedly.”

Grand Bargain™-brand Catfood watch. Thumbsucker by Walter Shapiro. Toward the middle: “Both Obama and Romney have so far failed to prepare voters for the epic economic reckoning that is slated to occur during the 55-day lame-duck period between the election and the end of 2012.” Teeing up the narrative!

Inside Baseball. Game of thrones: “Turns out one of the many heads on a spike decorating King’s Landing belonged to ex-president George Bush.” And the Quebecois are worried about Banane Rebelle guidant le peuple? Dimon testimony: “Dimon was seen with the seal cufflinks visible. The seal reads ‘Seal of the President of the United States’ and includes the arrow-carrying eagle, [flashing] a not so subtle message to the lawmakers that the boss has his back.” Daniel Kahneman, study: “[P]eople who were aware of their own biases were not better able to overcome them.” Military rape awareness-raising slogan: “Ask her when she’s sober!” Black misleadership: “[T]he Obama administration in 2009 granted Southern Companies $800 million to underwrite the construction of two nuclear reactors next to a pair of leaky existing nukes in a poor, mostly black GA town where almost every family has a cancer case or two. But who would raise the cry? The Southern Christian Leadership Council, perhaps, based in nearby Atlanta? No way. The CEO of Southern Companies headed up SCLC’s building fund, raising millions to pay for its Auburn St. headquarters.”

Policy. HCR: “[U]nder a Romney presidency, there would be no federal prohibition barring health insurers from discriminating against pre-existing conditions.” Petrostate: “The rent goes up, the democracy goes down, or so they say. [Qatar] is what political scientists refer to as a rentier state, generally defined as a government that receives at least 40 percent of its revenue from the export of primary products, often fuel.”

“The Economy”. ABC Poll: “The economy by far is the top issue in the 2012 election, and, after more than three years on the job, Obama had a 55 percent negative rating for handling it. Nonetheless, he and Romney were essentially tied in trust to handle it.” The Ds are like the doctor who won’t tell you you’ve got cancer. The Rs will tell you, but they want to cure it with chanting and magic herbs. Bruce Bartlett R (!):”A big economic speech that clearly lays out his economic philosophy and ties together the seemingly disconnected strands of his policies would help him electorally and plough the ground for additional and more effective stimulus.” Bartlett then astonishingly goes on to trash the trope that government is like a family, and recommend Keynesian (and even, without mentioning the name) Krugmanian solutions. “The numbers are beyond the president’s control. [T]he campaign can be as efficient and on-topic as it pleases, but in the end (all together now), it’s the economy, stupid.”

The trail. Gingrich: “[E]lections are ‘rigged, frankly, in favor of the wealthy.” Film at 11! Money: “[The AFL-CIO] will redeploy funds away from political candidates smack dab in the middle of election season.” “How far does $77,000 get you nowadays? It would get you invited to two top notch fundraising events with Barack Obama, and a picture with him thrown in.” The decimal point won’t move with Romney. Defining the opponent: “If the Obama campaign hopes to lock in voters’ minds an unflattering and anathema-to-swing-voters image of Mitt Romney, as the Bush campaign did with Sen. John Kerry in 2004, it’s time to pick up the pace.”

Libertarian Party. NH: “On May 31, Gov Lynch signed SB 236 into law. It says that newly-qualifying parties must identify their nominees in June, even though the petition to qualify that party is not due until August. The bill takes effect immediately. The only party that is adversely affected this year is the Libertarian Party.”

Robama vs. Obomey watch. Romney: “His rhetoric will be soaring and eloquent, but I suggest you look at his record, not his words.” True! (And a Rovian strength into weakness ploy.) Obama: “I am telling you, I want you all to pay attention over the next five months and see if they’re offering a single thing that they did not try when they were in charge, because you won’t see it.” Also true! Comedienne and E! fashion guru Joan River: “They’re both idiots.”

Romney. “But Romney’s friends on K Street, who include not only fundraisers but an inner circle of well-placed strategic and policy advisers, are reaping their own rewards. The top bundlers, many of whom Romney has not identified, enjoy weekly telephone briefings with the campaign, VIP entry to exclusive receptions and retreats and, in some cases, the chance to bend Romney’s ear on policy issues.” Film at 11!

Obama. Upcoming economy speech in Cuyahoga County OH, Jay Carney: “The president believes that we have made progress. The president believes that we have made not nearly enough progress. There’s been positive economic growth.” NOTE: Cuyahoga tops OH in fracking in 2011 (good local detail). “Whatever a mandate is, Obama won’t have one.”

* 86 days ’til the Democratic National Convention feasts on Tasty Kakes on the floor of the Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, NC. Agent 86 was played by the great Don Adams.

* * *
Antidote du jour:

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38 comments

  1. wunsacon

    >> “We will face an impossible head wind in November if we do not move to a new narrative,” the strategists wrote.

    Yeah. Don’t change policy. Just fix the narrative.

    [facepalm]

    1. tom allen

      Maxwell Smart (Don Adams) as Barack Obama:

      Obama: You think you’ll win the election, but I have a tremendous economic recovery planned for October.

      Romney: I don’t believe you.

      Obama: Would you believe a “To-Do list” for Congress that relies on government stimulus rather than supply-side tax credits?

      Romney: No.

      Obama: How about a bake sale for Wall Street?

      ———

      And concerning the projected unemployment rate given the last, way-too-small stimulus: “Missed it by that much!”

      1. Dave of Maryland

        Is there a Cone of Silence somewhere in the future for this witless fool, Obama?

      2. enouf

        absolutely brilliant talent … heh .. lovin’ it. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to work in the lines Agent86 says to his captors (drats, i forgot the bad guys’ names) when they threaten to drown him(?). (something like this) These lines;

        ———————–
        Maxwell — “Would you believe i swam the English Channel, twice, both ways .. ..”

        BadGuys — Nope

        […]

        Maxwell — “uh.. How about once around the Bathtub?”
        ———————————

        Perhaps you can use that schtick to work it into something like you did above, and refer back (somehow) to the infamous “I want gov to be so small i can drown it in a bathtub” … hahaha

        I know you can do it (make it a dead-ringer too) :-)

        Love

    2. albrt

      >But a President who has won reëlection can also feel less tied to his political base and more free to shift toward the political center.

      I’m not sure feeling “less tied to his political base” is possible for Obama unless he actually starts killing them off with predator drones.

      But in any event, Oh Boy, Catfood Here We Come!

  2. Norman

    Stock tip: buy K-B Jelly, the homeland security department just ordered a hole shit load, so prepare yourselves, limber up, do your strechies, for come January next, well, you know the drill.

  3. CB

    Obama has a classic market problem: voters bought on the rumor, now they’re selling on the news.

  4. Susan the other

    Hello Australia. Best news in years. The establishment of extensive marine reserves around the entire coastline. And the Coral Sea. Just one observation: the reserve areas, except for the Coral Sea, are broken up and I’m wondering how enforcement will be achieved. Lots of really good jobs.

    1. Waking Up

      Australia will protect 1.2 million square miles of ocean. This is a country to emulate in the future in regards to marine environmental issues. Bravo!

    2. Waking Up

      Another thought…what effect and impact will a potential agreement to the Trans Pacific Free Trade Agreement have on Australia’s decision to create the “world’s largest marine reserve”? For example, will this potentially be a moot decision if say a United States or Chinese corporation with special rights as foreign investors decided to fight it in court AND receive compensation from the government? I hope the people of Australia are thinking long and hard about signing that “free trade agreement”.

  5. Dave of Maryland

    Lambert’s daily digest of links are outstanding. I am hoping it will remain after the convention (and why is the convention of any import?). I for one would like to see it become its own feature.

    After the convention, the countdown to the election, after the election the countdown to the inaugural, after the inaugural, the first 100 days, and then the Sundays after Pentecost, the days to Christmas and the inevitable lump of coal, etc.

      1. ambrit

        Mr. Strether;
        It’s the counter-activism I’m interested in. Its’ shape and intensity will be important tells.

      2. Dave of Maryland

        I’d like a report on the sex. When I go to shows, sex is the only thing I’m interested in. Who what where at 2 am. 3 am.

  6. Guy Fawkes

    “Democrats fear Obama could lose”

    Ummmm, he SHOULD lose. Crapsakes….how many illegal foreclosures need to move forward before the Democrats get a clue?

    Do you think any household who has been kicked to the streets would vote for the President in charge while that occurred???

    If they think so, talk about being naive….or just plain stupid.

  7. Eustace

    Workplace harrasment?

    I’m glad that the Indians have to pay this American a fairly large sum of money. What is even worse than this one time affair is the blatent and ongoing discrimination that our brothers suffer when working for Chinese. There are no African American employees working for Chinese owned companies in the city where I live. That is both overseas Chinese and American citizen Chinese.

    Chinese people consider African Americans to be monkies basically. Hell, they even thing White people are almost as bad. A Chinese woman I know has explained the hierarchy to me.
    First there are Chinese People from your own region that speak well.
    Then there are those from other regions that speak a different kind of dialect.
    Then there is the working and mirgrant class of Chinese Peasant that is treated as a disposable commodity.
    Next are Whites who are called “Gwai_Lo” or “Foreign Devils”
    Next are Mexicans, and finally African Americans.

    This is our country for better or worse. Half a million dead Union soldiers are all the reparations I need. I will never spend one cent in a Chinese owned business.

    1. Neo-Realist

      In the northwest city that I live in, I worked in a lab where there was a great deal of perceived hostility and contempt against African American scientific personnel from the Chinese and East Indian Scientists–This would take the form of very nasty stares from those Scientists in passing by in hallways and other areas of the lab, sort of a “what the hell are you doing here” kind of look. Interestingly, they were pretty friendly with the AA Administrative Assistant (Non-Scientific employee.

      Filipinos (in this city at least) aren’t much better, as a matter of fact, are arguably worst: My ex told me a story of going into a room where a bunch of Filipino co-workers were just ripping AA’s to shreds verbally. I’ve witnessed Filipino supervisors in other workplaces use very nasty and hostile tones with AA employees that they would not take with people of other racial backgrounds. I could tell another story or two but I’ll leave it at that.

      1. enouf

        FFS! (yes we spiritual beings curse/swear too ;0 ).. .. i cannot seem to find the article whence you referred to Dr. Gabor Maté ..just wanted to clarify .. and ,.. as a supplemental, i suggest Robert Whitaker “Anatomy of an Epidemic”

        “The 1998 Pulitzer Prize Finalist and author of Mad in America [my emphasis added] discussed the rise in diagnosis of mental illness in the U.S. and the proliferation of drugs to medicate various conditions. Mr. Whitaker contended that drugs .. ”

        http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Epidem

        Love

    2. Dave of Maryland

      None of that is new. Old story.

      On the other hand, on the west coast a century ago, Chinese natives were lynched with the same reckless abandon as southerns were lynching blacks at the same time.

      Any reports of lynchings in China?

      1. LeonovaBalletRusse

        This is why whites are “devils” to the Chinese (also to Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammed). For the Plan, note the doors being putsched open for the Chinese in the State of Georgia. Even though slavery was forbidden in Georgia when it was founded by General Oglethorpe, the “low-country” bond between the slavemeister Carolinas and Georgia brought “the peculiar institution” to Georgia. White Master Class hatred for African Americans has never changed, au fond. The “Latinos/Mexicans” were brought in to replace the “burden” of overseeing African-Americans. Now the deep dredging of the Savannah River is all but a “fait accompli” in order to open the door more yet to China, Chinese goods on supertankers (imagine the fuel-savings), and Chinese overseers of labor of any “color”–as we speak the putsch is on for Georgians to learn Chinese from infancy in the “education system” for the Chinese world to come in Georgia. The dredging is the pet project of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for Corporate profits (shipping, port stuffing, supertankers, Maritime Law), facilitating tankers through the U.S. Port of Savannah on to Garden City (where many Chinese already reside). Yes, the very same U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who brought Louisiana the O&G Intracoastal Waterway that ruined the marshes and brought salt-water into St. Bernard Parish and beyond, killing vegetation and trees and facilitating erosion for the sake of Hurricane Katrina and the Great Flood of 2005.

        The “Savannah Elite/White Anglo-Catholic “Christian” Master Class” stands to profit from all of this, seeming not to care if these drastic changes will make Savannah the Hurricane Alley of the future, instead of Charleston. But on second thought maybe that’s just one more “benefit” to the Powers That Be. But surely we see how the influx of Chinese “teachers” of the future dominant tongue in Georgia will serve the Powers in their eternal design to shaft African Americans any way they can, and see the Chinese get the blame this time.

        1. Caleb

          Right, but don’t forget the the main slave traders were
          portuguese Jews working out of Provincetown and they
          didn’t have much to do with the land owners who were Christian. i.e. Aaron Lopez.

          PS, the largest slave trading family was the Monsantos.
          Yup, that same family that started that same carpet-bagging, agricultural chemical company.

      2. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

        The discriminated also discriminate.

        The abused in term abuse.

        Is that cause-effect or simply our innate ability for, among other things, language ( linguists know all about that debate), violence and other nasty traits?

        1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

          We know the 1%/99%, 0.1%/99.9%, 0.01%/99.99% phenomonen is fractal in nature.

          It should be apparent that within any 99%er, there is also some 1% mentality, just as within any progressive person, there is some reactionary thinking and within any female, there is some male (or yang) aspect.

          We are all demoblicans and republicrats.

          1. different clue

            Many threads ago someone suggested referring to the fractal nature of the wealth-and-power accumulation of these people with the plain english acronyms:
            OPOOP, OPOOPOOP, OPOOPOOPOOP, etc. (That’s the One Percet Of One Percent, One Percent Of One Percent Of One Percent, etc.)

  8. BondsOfSteel

    This is going to be the most interesting election…. a case where neither the Dems or the Repubs like their own candidate.

    Will the election hinge on the number of people who cross out of disgust… or stay loyal out of of hatred of the opponent? I suspect many simply will not vote.

    1. ambrit

      It’s long past time for America to put enforceable mandatory voting laws into effect. Something like the ones ‘Down Under?’ Anyone from that neck of the woods have information on those laws and their effectiveness? Could they be used in the US?

      1. different clue

        Mandatory voting laws? As in the old Soviet Union? So that falling legitimacy-in-the-public-mind of government as reflected by falling vote totals can be masked by forced 100% turnout?

        If the government is going to make voting into a Forced Soviet Mandate, the least government could do is offer a None Of The Above option to vote for. Failing that, people could spoil their ballots one way or another.

        (Then again, legitimacy may linger on at the state and local levels, and people will still want to vote for state and local whatevers, as well as about referrenda and initiatives.)

  9. kevinearick

    Idiocracy: Living on the Dole, Again

    You cannot have a police State without a police force. Personal responsibility is the gate, aggregated into a system, which results in a derivative distribution of feedback. You cannot force others to make productive choices, but you can easily adjust their currency. The a-holes embedded the last set of equations in their dc machine architecture, again. All alpha collection roads, corporate peer layers, lead to Rome, until they don’t.

    So, the certified janitor can’t afford the taxes on a pack of smokes, can’t buy a coke, and can’t have popcorn at the movie theater. F-ing lizards all think they are T Rex, because all they do is program empire TV, and their subjects are stupid enough to watch, mesmerized by the perception of other people’s misery.

    Anxiety is an emotional deer in the headlights; it cannot flee and it cannot fight, because the autonomous system cannot process the unknown signal. Education rewards compliance with false choices, any on of which may be arbitrarily deemed to be true, at any time.

    Suzie tells Joe what to do, because Joe chooses stupidity. Joe tells Bob. Bob tells Mary, Sally, and Francine. Joe is afraid of Fred, his son, so he tells Fred nothing of the agreement. Fred eliminates Bob to take over the kingdom, and encourages M, S, and F to think they can tell Suzie what to do, by majority vote. Suzie tolerates the sh-show so her children don’t have to, right up until agency is stupid enough to interfere with her family. That’s feudalism, every time.

    The only difference between empire iterations is arbitrary layers, income credit feedback tracks, of misdirection. Take your DNA helix, snip it at the same point in the ac cycle, and install a dc multiplexing controller. That’s your empire. Implicitly adjust delay anxiety error propagation in parallel as you travel, to ignite your development at will.

    Unless you are a robot, you don’t pay me explicitly to work on elevators. You pay me implicitly to make sure your children have an exit gate if they seek it. And you ignore me having a double first thing in the morning, because you know I have to go to war with the empire every damn day to defend it.

    Go ahead and fire me. Prove me wrong.

    The path to the future always goes through independent minded children, quantum negative feedback backlash, not through the dependent adults subject to incremental positive empire feedback, and the latter always assumes the former will follow the same path, in the same circle. Why would anyone expect a viable private sector when it is taxed to subsidize a competing public sector, unless they are robots programmed to do so?

    The druggy firefighters preventing males from working the forest, on the federal RE monopoly dole for the purpose, gift the fawning feminist socialites to feed the homeless they fear, and they all hope Kenneth Rogers doesn’t get out of jail. Crack me up.

    No one wants to work on the Titanic and it becomes a police State, surprise, surprise.

    BoC warns…

    1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

      Today’s education consists of teaching students the valuable lesson that it is not worth it to borrow in order to get an education, through actual hands-on, often taxing (physically and emotionally), field work, instead of the usual boring classroom lectures.

      Yup, we are the smartest generation, smarte than all our ancestors. This is the pinnacle of human civilization which is the supreme achievement of all living things.

  10. Hugh

    The title Advertising masked as Science reminded me of this quote by Hannah Arendt:

    The strong emphasis of totalitarian propaganda on the “scientific” nature of its assertions has been compared to certain advertising techniques which also address themselves to masses. And it is true that the advertising columns of every newspaper show this “scientificality,” by which a manufacturer proves with facts and figures and the help of a “research” department that his is the “best soap in the world.” It is also true that there is a certain element of violence in the imaginative exaggerations of publicity men, that behind the assertion that girls who do not use this particular brand of soap may go through life with pimples and without a husband, lies the wild dream of monopoly, the dream that one day the manufacturer of the “only soap that prevents pimples” may have the power to deprive of husbands all girls who do not use his soap. Science in the instances of both business publicity and totalitarian propaganda is obviously only a surrogate for power.

  11. EH

    Man, I can’t believe nobody’s gone for this one:

    Cougars are re-populating their historical range, new study confirms

    Where, T.G.I.Fridays? OHHH!!

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