Arctic cap on course for record melt: scientists AFP
Coal-fired plants spared US pollution rule Financial Times
Star is caught devouring planet BBC
AT&T: Pay Me, Screw Net Neutrality Huffington Post (Timothy K)
Tech Confessional: The Googler Who Looked At The Worst Of The Internet BuzzFeed
Crime & Pussy Riot: The Missing Story Mark Ames, NSFW
Zombie China MacroBusiness
China bubble in ‘danger zone’ warns Bank of Japan Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph
Dispute Over Islands Reflects Japanese Fear of China’s Rise New York Times. One of my astute buddies said 15 years ago this would be the cause of the next world war.
Spain Deficit Goals at Risk as Cuts Consensus Fades Bloomberg
SocGen: Italy Looks ‘Perilously Close’ To Getting Shut Out Of The Bond Markets Clusterstock
Father Of Marine Killed By Afghan Recruits: ‘My Son Trained Somebody To Murder Him’ Clusterstock (Chuck L)
FDIC files lawsuit tied to failed bank RMBS investments Housing Wire
Public Pension Funds Named to Lead ‘London Whale’ Lawsuit Bloomberg
Auditors of broker-dealers under scrutiny Financial Times
FBI | HUSBAND AND WIFE INDICTED IN MORTGAGE FRAUD SCHEME, FACE A MAXIMUM PENALTY OF 30 YEARS IN PRISON FOR LYING ABOUT EMPLOYMENT, SALARY AND RESIDENCY Forclosure Fraud (Mark H). Yes, sports fans, THIS is the sort of fraud that Schneiderman is pursuing.
State warns of future scams capitalizing on ‘crowdfunding’ trend Madison.com (Lambert). As foretold.
The US labour market doesn’t work Financial Times
When Wall Street Watchdogs Hunt Whistle-Blowers William Cohan (Lisa Epstein)
* * *
lambert here:
D – 19 and counting*
“Think happy thoughts,” the MP said to Eric, “on the way down.” Grabbing Eric by the arm, he slung him into a helpless, crippled posture and shoved him toward the hatch. It was all expert and entirely professional; he found himself teetering at the hatch and then the MP released him in order to escape falling himself. –Philip K. Dick, Now Wait for Last Year
Montreal. Manifestation: “’This August 22, CLASSE invites you to the largest demonstration in Quebec history,’ reads the Facebook page created by the Coalition large de l’Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante, the federation representing 100,000 students that has been the most ardent backer of the protests.”
RNCon. Speakers: “Many of the up-and-coming Republican leaders are barely in their 40s. All are part of next week’s Republican convention lineup, with Christie as the keynote speaker and Rubio getting the prominent role of introducing Romney.” … Party crashing: “On Monday, August 27 and Tuesday, August 28, Vice President Joe Biden will travel to the Tampa area and other cities for campaign events,” Obama’s campaign announced Tuesday. “Additional details on the Vice President’s trip are forthcoming.” … Party crashing: “Wasserman Schultz [will inaugurate] the D’s ‘rapid-response war room,’ a home base said to be ‘just a short walk’ from the heart of the R convention in downtown Tampa.” … Police state: “The pipes and bricks were found Friday on the roof of a building at 1004 N. Florida Ave. Graffiti, including the numeral ’99’ and an image of a person wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, similar to those worn by members of the Anonymous collective, as well as Occupy movement protestors, was found on the building.” Gee, does the word “planted” come to mind?
DNCon. City workers: “Sanitation workers picketing outside the Government Center Monday said they aren’t letting the upcoming Democratic National Convention stop their weekly protests. All of the demands are listed in a 13 point Municipal Workers Bill of Rights. The protesters said the goal is to get the City of Charlotte to adopt it.”
AZ. Voting: “After spending almost $1 million and successfully fighting a court challenge, the citizens’ initiative that seeks to put in a ‘top-two’ primary election system in AZ appears to lack the signatures needed to qualify for the November ballot.”
IA. Teebee: “Obama’s latest television commercial in IA spotlights abortion rights and federal funding for Planned Parenthood.”
CO. Legalization: “Yet, although Obama desperately needs to turn out a constituency that was key to sweeping him into the White House, he is keeping a safe distance from the marijuana legalization measure, known as Amendment 64, and its organizers.”
FL. Election: “Miami Gardens Rep. Barbara Watson [D] edged out North Miami Beach Rep. John Patrick Julien [D] by a narrow 13 votes, according to a manual recount.Julien went to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s office Monday with what he called evidence of a third boletero [here] submitting hundreds of absentee ballots on election day.” … Media critique: “A political writer for Examiner.com who for months has written stories attacking opponents of Hallandale Beach mayoral hopeful Jay Schorr did not tell her readers that she is Schorr’s wife.” …. Disemployment: “Critics say Gov. Rick Scott and Florida’s Legislature are behind a multipronged effort to restrict [unemployment] payments to eligible Floridians. A required 45-question ‘skills review’ and an online-only application system have combined to restrict thousands of applicants from receiving aid.”
GA. Stimulus (not): “[GA] has not only depleted our unemployment insurance trust fund, we are also one of 20 states that have been required to borrow funds from the federal government to keep our fund solvent. [O]ur outstanding balance is $742 million. Because the interest cannot be paid from the unemployment tax or trust fund, it has to be paid from other state revenues. Last year the interest payment exceeded $20 million. In an effort to pay back the loan and prevent the fund from further insolvency, earlier this year the legislature passed SB 347, cutting jobless benefits while increasing unemployment benefits paid by employers.”
LA. Foodies: “[Brennan’s] oyster soup was overly vegetal and bitter on the edge lacking in any of the buttery richness or salty punch of Louisiana oysters.” Thanks, BP?
MA. Ethnography: “When you’re talking about local politics, everybody knows everybody.” And all politics is local.
ME. Angus King: “The moderate centrist is polling more than 50 per cent in a three-way race, almost 30 points ahead of his Democratic and Republican rivals, but says he will not decide which party to support until after he is elected.”
MI. Pipelines: “The Brandon Township Board unanimously passed a resolution Monday demanding that Enbridge Energy meet eight requirements before beginning construction of its oil pipeline in the township.”
NY. Corruption: “David Paterson is joining in the protest against Goodwill Industries in the wake of revelations that they paid some workers as little as 22 cents an hour.”
PA. Fracking: “When PA released official data on Marcellus Shale natural gas production last week, there was no mention that numbers from Chesapeake Energy were missing, meaning the bi-annual totals weren’t close to being accurate. The firm has been a top producer in previous reports.”
VA. Sea level: “In the wettest zones [of Norfolk], streets are studded with ‘for sale’ signs. [The neighborhood] fronts on a canal and floods regularly. Telltale signs are easy to spot. Evaporating salt water leaves rusty stains on street curbs. Repeated overflows have killed grass in waterfront parks, leaving stretches of bare ground. Spartina, a salt-tolerant marsh grass, is sprouting on slopes above canals and marinas.”
VT. Bees: “Kirk Webster, a well-known Vermont honeybee queen breeder, didn’t use chemicals at all when tracheal mites were first discovered in the state in the late 1980s. He lost 95 percent of his bees the first year, but by breeding the survivors, now has a resistant stock.”
WI. Credentials: “The new pathway [to become a licensed educator] allows an individual with three years of teaching experience – such as in a private school, workplace training center, child care center or postsecondary institution – to apply for a teaching license by submitting a portfolio of work to the DPI for review.” … Agriculture: “State soybean production has been forecast to drop 18 percent to 60.5 million bushels, according to a report from the Wisconsin office of the National Agriculture Statistics Service (NASS). Soybeans have been damaged by the drought and an infestation of pesky two-spot spider mites.”
Outside baseball. Market state: “Their goal is to push schools into a market-system despite any evidence that such a system makes any sense for anyone except those selling stuff to schools or wanting to take over schools and make a profit by cutting costs (teachers).” … Coal: “Tighter emissions standards and an abundance of cheap natural gas have made coal less attractive to domestic utilities. [That’s why] coal, rail and shipping companies are looking to overseas markets. To reach them, they need to build export terminals along the West Coast. A string of derailments of trains carrying coal has galvanized opponents.” … Constitutional order: “I think we are looking at an 1850’s of the political mind. I think we are two countries, each with its own history, and laws, and language, and religion, and their own mass media to amplify all those things. But only one of these two countries of the mind is tightly organized and capable of moving as a single unit. I think things like the sovereign-citizens movement are merely a particularly vivid example of this.” … Constitutional order: “‘Lonely Planet types from around the world would immediately embrace the [newly seceded] South as … an indigenous society teeming with underappreciated folk wisdom, ancient values, and fascinating dialects deserving of fierce protection and a slew of new expat-financed eco-lodges.’ It would be another Mexico, in other words, ‘only with an even weaker currency and more corrupt government.'”
Grand Bargain™-brand Cat Food watch. Medicare: “A new Obama radio ad on Monday featured an elderly male voice complaining Romney would “end Medicare and replace it with a voucher.” That’s not true. That’s bad public policy, but Ryan would allow those 55 years old and older now to keep traditional Medicare.” Two-tier Medicare is the real evil. So why doesn’t Obama attack that? A question that answers itself once asked.
The trail. ObamaCare, voter interview: “Obamacare would force me to spend money that I do not have, with no guarantee that I’m still not going to spend more money at the hospital or on prescriptions than I already do. Except I can get fined by the federal government. That gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling.” Forced to buy a defective product. … ObamaCare, poll: “The [Siena Research Institute ] survey found NY voters supported Obamacare by a 59-36 margin.” … ObamaCare, the cuts: “The [Obamacare cuts to Medicare] are targeted at insurance companies and hospitals, not beneficiaries. Whether they’ll reduce services in future years is an open question.” Not in a profit-driven system, it’s not. … Money: “Romney, who is out-fundraising Obama by impressive margins, is attracting thousands of donors this summer from traditionally D areas of the United States, collecting millions of dollars in even progressive communities from New York to Los Angeles.” … Polls, PPP, VA: “Obama leads by 5 points, 50-45. In 8 Virginia surveys PPP has done this cycle, Obama has never led Mitt Romney by less than 4 points. It continues to look like it could be his firewall state this fall.” … Media critique: “[Percentage of election coverage from citizens] increased to 17% in the week ending on August 10. Following [the Ryan] announcement, citizen VoiceShare was drowned out by coverage of Paul Ryan and so it fell to 11% last week.”
Roboma vs. Obomney watch. Climate: “Nary a word has been spoken about climate change on the presidential campaign trail, and it’s a silence that some journalists find deafening.” And the parties took the economy off the table too.
Romney. Oppo: “[RYAN:] Remember this other time where [Obama] was caught on video saying, ‘People like to cling to their guns and their religion.’ Hey, I’m a Catholic deer hunter. I am happy to be clinging to my guns and my religion.” Memories….
Akin flap. Matt 22-39: “We see it on TV all the time. Whenever a women is raped by someone she knows, she falls in love with her rapist. It’s just the way it is. Search ‘rape’ on YouTube and see what comes up.” … Matt 22-39: “[American Family Association spokesman Bryan Fischer:] ‘You know the Gospel writers say that [the scribes and Pharisees] kept looking for some way to trap Jesus in something that he might say, just one single word they could jump on to try to discredit him and that’s what they did with Todd Akin and his comments about rape.'” (That the Ds are, in fact, scribes and Pharisees, doesn’t make Akins Jesus.) … “Shut the whole thing down” watch: “Why didn’t God go further, and give us the superpower ability to, I don’t know, secrete a toxin that would instantly dissolve the human penis that’s being forced into our bodies?”
Oppo, Lynn Sweet: “Ty Matsdorf, a senior adviser for American Bridge, told me their Missouri tracker saw the interview live and flagged it for his bosses. They posted a clip on YouTube and sent it around to some reporters. The explosion was just a matter of time.” … Losing the political class: “Politico editors have removed David Catanese from [Akin] coverage following the reporter’s defense of the congressman’s comments.” … Even Karl Rove: “This is one of those unfortunate things that’s so bad, so deplorable, so out-of-touch that there’s no way to recover, in my opinion, from it.” … Even Rush Limbaugh: “[A]ll of these things that he truly cares about will be much easier to make happen if we win the Senate and the White House and hold the House this November.” … Oh, and Romney, 4:24PM: “Today, his fellow Missourians urged him to step aside, and I think he should accept their counsel and exit the Senate race.” … Religious right: “[Dr. Jack Willke, founder of the International Right to Life Federation] and his wife, Barbara, are leading antiabortion advocates. Their book, first published in 1971, asserts that ‘assault rape’ rarely results in pregnancy because the assault traumatizes the woman and makes her body less habitable.” They’re shipping Akin their book. (“Habitable”?!) … Pass the popcorn: “[I]t really is all kinds of hilarious watching Rs, for once, have to try to throw somebody over the side. I mean, they don’t even really know HOW.” True, dat. Rove/Bush/Cheney would have thrown Akin out of an airplane.
Top of the ticket: “[Akin and Ryan] share a voting history on abortion rights, including mutual support for a controversial measure that would define an embryo as a person. They cosponsored another measure, subsequently withdrawn, that would distinguish ‘forcible rape’ in banning abortion funding. Akin, Ryan, and Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney also back less-controversial measures, such as defunding Planned Parenthood.” … Sticking: “Akin said definitively that he would not leave the race for the Senate in MO, saying on Mike Huckabee’s radio show that ‘there’s a cause here’ and that an outpouring of grass-roots support [for example] would propel him to victory without the support of the R establishment.” Because he’s now a superstar! The 10 Reasons Todd Akin Is Staying In. … That PPP snap poll (here): “But if you’re Todd Akin looking for some justification to continue your increasingly doomed campaign, you can use this flawed Republican-heavy poll to make your case to stick around.” But PPP is D-leaning. Hmm…. Akin speaks: “Will you stand with me and chip-in $3 as a sign of support of my continued candidacy?” In the “apology” video!
* 19 days until the Democratic National Convention ends with turkey tetrazzini for everyone on the floor of the Bank of America Panther Stadium, Charlotte, NC. A go board was 19 vertical and 19 horizontal lines.
* * *
Antidote du jour (Herman S):
53 comments
Comments are closed.
Well I for one will sleep easier knowing that couple that tricked Chase into giving them a mortgage loan will be in jail soon. Throw away the key! Its people like this who give mortgage fraudsters a bad name. I mean — if you’re gonna commit mortgage fraud you have to have plausible deniability. Or implausible deniability. Or, at least, you have to be a banker and not a peon.
I am glad Task Force Inanity (“TFI”), headed by New York’s intrepid and fearless DA Schneiderman, and spending hundreds of millions to crush mortgage fraud, has finally caught the big fish we’ve been screaming about for four years now. You just can’t make this crap up.
I began my read of NakedCapitalism with a quick browse of the headlines and links. After reading these headlines:
FBI | HUSBAND AND WIFE INDICTED IN MORTGAGE FRAUD SCHEME, FACE A MAXIMUM PENALTY OF 30 YEARS IN PRISON FOR LYING ABOUT EMPLOYMENT, SALARY AND RESIDENCY
AND
When Wall Street Watchdogs Hunt Whistle-Blowers
I felt to sickened to continue reading. I guess that I’ve read enough, written enough, and talked enough.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
We have all been deceived, cheated and stolen from. I pledge to stop it.
I haven’t clicked into it. But isn’t part of the mortgage fraud that the lenders made up fake info about the buyers that the buyers themselves didn’t know? Will Eric —
ha
You bet! We can throw millions of people in jail for doing this and revive the economy by making everybody else a prison guard!
But I think I will pursue starting my own bank since apprently, banks and banksters are above the law which is always a good place to be. Better to be a small thief hiding among all the big crooks, than a small sucker in a world full of suckers being born every minute.
Bad for your Soul.
Just a friendly reminder from a friend.
Akin
It’s just like that turtle and the strawberry. When the penis is forced into the woman the scared turtle has no course of action but to try and eat the strawberry. Fruits can’t have babies, we all know this.
Women have been abusing the system and claiming rape so they can get their free abortions, since we know if they were REALLY raped they wouldn’t be pregnant. They must be stopped immediately before the whole system becomes insolvent. All 23* who claimed rape of the total 80 women who got federally funded abortions last year.
The number 23 is not quotable but is not far off (low double digits). Eighty is accurate though, but sorry no link.
Newsflash just in. NBC/WSJ poll: Black voters who support Obama — 94% Black voters who support Romney — 0%
So what percentage of Mitt’s supporters would be white? White and male?
So I grew up in the Appalachians, in a cabin with no modern plumbing, everyone I knew was a manual laborer and they were all Republicans. Then I got a job in the big Apple, and all the city slickers I know here are Democrats.
I wanted to be one too, like all my friends. I wanted to fit in, so I listened to NPR and tried to copy how they speak, and I took private lessons from a Democrat tutor.
Like that Cockney flower girl I’m named after, the one who took speech lessons so she could pass as a well-born lady.
“The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain…”
And so, starting from nothing, here’s what I managed to figure out:
(A) If America is a criminal state, then it follows that the Republican is the greater criminal, which makes the Democrat the lesser criminal.
(B) The system is criminal but you must support the system. The only way to do this without being complicit in government crimes, is to support the Democrat.
I had some trouble with (B) and kept asking my tutor “but if the system is criminal, why not refuse to participate, like Gandhi or Martin Luther King?”
But when I ask questions like that, he gets impatient and tells me: “Pupil Mahood, for the twenty-five thousandth time, repeat after me: The Democrat is a higher mammal.”
And I’ve learned to repeat it, but at first it was hard talking about higher mammals, in this menagerie. And frankly, between ourselves, what the hell could it matter that the Democrat is a higher mammal or a lesser criminal. That still makes him a criminal, doesn’t it?
Anyway, here are some syllogisms I learned that follow the categorical proposition: “All Democrats are lesser criminals”:
If a Democrat orders the murder of American citizens, then you must support the Democrat.
If a Democrat chairs death squad meetings in the White House every week, checking off names of men to be murdered without charge or trial, then you must support the Democrat.
If a Democrat commits mass murder with robot drones on defenseless villages around the world, and imprisons and prosecutes, cages and tortures whistleblowers, you must support the Democrat.
If a Democrat launches a pointless war of aggression and occupation in a ravaged land, and expands that war into the territory of a supposed ally, you must support the Democrat.
If a Democrat sends troops and special ops and drones and assassins into country after country, fomenting wars in hundreds of countries while bankrolling militias, and engineering coups…you must support him.
If a Democrat exposes coastal waters to rampant drilling by the same profiteers who are despoiling the earth…you must support him.
If a Democrat declares his eagerness to do what no Republican president has ever dared to do, which is to slash Social Security and Medicare…you must support him.
If a Democrat kills a 16-year-old American boy by ripping him to shreds with a missile fired from thousands of miles away..you must support him.
At this point I told my tutor “I think I’ve got it, but can I try some syllogisms on my own now?”
And here’s what I came up with:
“If a Democrat kills countless thousands of Afghans and does this in the most pointless, arbitrary, atrocity-ridden, deeply corrupt way it’s possible to imagine, then… you must support the Democrat because the Republican would find a way to kill even more Afghans!”
My tutor nods his approval, so I continue.
“If a Democrat operates a global death squad that kills thousands of innocent people and kidnaps and tortures thousands more for no reason, then…. you must support the Democrat because the Republican would be worse!”
Democrat Tutor: “I think she’s got it!”
Jumping up and down with joy, I continue:
“If a Democrat offers tax cuts, bailouts, war profits and privileges without end to the above-the-law 0.01 percent, while at the same time gutting every last remnant of the social safety net for the 99.9 percent, then… you must support the Democrat because the Republican would be worse.”
“I think she’s got it. By George, she’s got it!”
And so, thanks to my Democrat tutor, my friends no longer look at me funny when I speak, and they no longer try to avoid me. I’ve become one of them.
From a working class background and humble beginnings in the hollows of Appalachia, I’ve become a sophisticated NPR listening city slicker.
I’ve learned how to be a Democrat!
“The Rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain”
Democrat Tutor: “I think she’s got it…by George, she’s got it…”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGZf4Nj7KXc
Congratulations on your achievement!
Now you are ready to progress to Stage II: go ‘full hillbilly’ on your pseudo-sophisticated city-slicker friends, and show them that the cultural conditioning didn’t stick.
After taking the red pill, you see NYC for what it really is: Pyongyang on Hudson, with rigidly enforced ideological conformity.
In a blog full of liberals mad at the Democratic party and libritarians mad at the Republican party, you’re going to have to be more original in your critical thinking skills if you want to stand out. I would suggest reading many more blog posts before you decide this blog is affliated with any political party:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/07/the-obama-enablers-big-lie-we-never-had-the-votes.html
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/06/yes-barack-obama-thinks-were-stupid-immigration-edition.html
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/05/barack-obama-the-great-deceiver.html
But, power on dude, there is certainly some entertainment value in your comment.
From comments section of Lambert’s link to blog on female superpowers…..
bemused-leftist says:
I saw this tweet to @akins:
“The female body has ways to shut down your whole election.”
August 21st, 2012 at 3:45 am EST
Re: Akin flap…Losing the political class: “Politico editors have removed David Catanese from [Akin] coverage following the reporter’s defense of the congressman’s comments.”
OMG—there’s another one!
Well, I’d say the Akin flap certainly takes “mansplainin'” to a whole new level:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175584/best_of_tomdispatch%3A_rebecca_solnit%2C_the_archipelago_of_arrogance
But, you also gotta love the way the likes of Rove and Limbaugh jump to portray themselves as the more reasonable parties on the backs of the lower order creeps.
“Rove/Bush/Cheney would have thrown Akin out of an airplane.”
Nah, they’d have asked Cheney to take him hunting.
LOL… good ol’ Dick Cheney… now there’s a man who’s popular with cartoonists!
The Dick Cheney Hunting Club http://www.sydesjokes.com/pictures/d/dick_cheney_hunting029.jpg
10 Ways Dick Cheney Can Kill You http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/481/12cheney4xx.jpg/sr=1
Biden gets invited on a hunting trip http://0.tqn.com/d/politicalhumor/1/7/L/U/2/cheney-joe-biden-hunting.jpg
The view from New Hampshire http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/gfo/lowres/gfon425l.jpg
Remember a cartoon titled “Hunting the Great American Liberal?”
Here it be: http://raincoaster.com/2006/11/29/bloom-county-on-the-endangered-liberal/
hehehehehe…
Last time I looked, people were still playing go in backwards parts of the Orient.
I think the news of the day is the photo of a nude prince partying in Las Vegas.
And lest I be perceived as having a prurient interest in the photos, I am not linking to them.
They are important because power and money (in that order -the power to get and keep control of resources) depends so much on perception and secrecy with its attendant propaganda.
Given these photos it just might occur to TPTB that worldwide surveillance works both ways.
There’s no place for us to hide; there’s no place for them.
You sure it doesn’t mean the opposite? I’m thinking it’s when the royals realized they were being phone hacked, that’s when shit hit the fan, even when the story had been out there for a couple of years. And so far since then, goodbye News of the World, goodbye Rebecca, goodbye Rupert, goodbye Rupert’s son, yes? (My superficial understanding at least.) I saw the Las Vegas story on HuffPo’s front page last night and did not click into it, I was disgusted at what I perceived to be a trashy illegal invasion of Harry’s privacy. I still care about Diana and her children. Multiply me.
Yes, I believe the photo of Prince Andrew walking side by side with a convicted pedaphile was the last straw for the royals. Their power is in full view -Murdoch vanquished, etc. etc.
They wouldn’t be vanquished for violating mine or your privacy now would they?
My point is that billions are spent every year of tax payer money and profits produced by taxpayer to bend and destroy the minds of people dependent on public information.
Harry isn’t just Harry. Obviously, if he were just Harry, noone would care a whit about his shenanigans. Harry is a Royal; he’s free to disown that position -a member of a family of banksters who destroy and will continue to destroy the lives of people universally; supported by hordes or are ill informed, suppressed and depressed in part by being led to think its worthwhile to aspire to ROYAL taste and bahavior.
Lambert, “define an embryo as a person” – by fiat of the ignorant. Why not define a tadpole as a frog? Why not define fertilized roe as a school of fish? Why not define an acorn as an oak tree? And all by Ultracon Imperial Fiat–“So be it.”
Why not describe a life as a life, and then ask why right-to-lifers (and scale even to Democratic presidents) are so willing to categorize and kill every other kind of life that is outside their sphere, whether it be people we declare war on or copkill or throw in jail or just any grownup people, or forests and seas, or…
To me, that’s crazier. Old Trekkie here, I remember the Horta rock creature who was killing invading miners on her planet — the Enterprise was brought in to protect the miners — Spock was able to mindmeld and understand her — the miners were destroying useless spheres they came across — she was a mother, the last one of her kind, and those were her children. He felt her grief. What she said: “No kill I.” Don’t kill her? She wouldn’t kill? You couldn’t tell, it was like poetry. Right-to-lifers are plenty willing to kill, and just as righteously. That’s the thing that crawls my skin.
Pain! PAIN!!!
“That’s all I got Captain, waves and waves of searing pain.”
Poor misunderstood Horta.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65dzjOIkwwI
Note: Spock’s first mind-meld. It was a rough one.
Grand Bargain False Consciousness Alert.
I will not let the left wing of the don’t vote party say the Ryan Kills Medicare is anything but the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The truth is, when everyone 55 and over now alive dies, Medicare dies with them. So, in 23 years, the average life expectancy of Americans, Medicare will be as dead as the people it used to cover. In this case, Medicare is being grandfathered out of existence. A program lasts as long as the people in are covered. In this policy choice, the planned obsolescence is the chief selling point, don’t worry, I won’t kill it for you, just your children and their children’s children and their children’s children. That’s all, just not for you, now, the 55 and over responsible types that vote, but the younger videodrome possessed generations, who cares, there is no app for political struggle. From then on, universal vouchers, as opposed to universal health care that we now, finally, have with the Health Care Affordability Act.
And of course, the TEMPORARY 2 tier nature, splitting the program into 2, the wisdom of Solomon moment from arch-catholic theology 101, creating a 2nd class group of under 55 is open, notorious and speaks for itself, kind of like your condescending opinion of the public that can’t see bad policy speaking for itself, right up front. But then, as long as you can pretend here on NC that Obamacare is not universal health care the better for your decadent politics.
China’s bubble danger.
Is it a Feng Shui problem?
Acutally, the technical term is Kan Yu, either Topographic Kan Yu or Qi Management Kan Yu.
30 years for a stated income loan? Wholly shit.
This is like quantitative easing for the jail industry.
Well they didn’t do something minor, like ordering people tortured or defrauding the country to start a war.
That’s bad public policy, but Ryan would allow those 55 years old and older now to keep traditional Medicare.” Two-tier Medicare is the real evil. So why doesn’t Obama attack that? A question that answers itself once asked.
Precisely the question I’ve been asking, as the Repub strategy is blatantly clear: set all those over 55yoa and who will be guaranteed to receive “classic” Medicare against their younger cohort who will be given vouchers for “premium support” healthcare after reaching eligibility age. “Bugger you Jack, I’ve got mine” now seems to be a public attitude that is ripe for exploitation in the minds of Repub election strategists, and given the appearance of so many Medicare/SS recipients at Tea Party rallies, who’s to say they’re wrong?
FHFA – New Std Short Sale for Fannie & Freddie:
http://www.fhfa.gov/webfiles/24211/ShortSalesPRFactFinal.pdf
http://www.mindfulmoney.co.uk/13715/knowledge-bank-/qa-unlearning-economics.html
“Yves Smith’s Econned is the most authoritative account of the crisis and the role neoliberal economists played in creating it. Again, it’s not exactly a beginners guide to finance (for that I’d recommend Whoops! by John Lanchester), but it offers a comprehensive overview of what went wrong in finance and in economics. Smith is an expert on finance, having worked there for a long time, and offers a tour de force of the mechanics and main players.”
Congratulations, YVES. “ECONNED” among the 5 books most recommended by the anonymous author of blogs at “Unlearning Economics” – in interview linked above.
Ahhh, remember a short 48 hours ago when “they’re gonna put y’all back in chains” was the latest outrage? I miss those innocent times.
Suggested link, retweeted by FDL’s Kevin Gosztola:
Check out the picture, it looks like a healthy brain. Now imagine that with paranoia Alzheimer’s: Do not communicate. (I’m trying to imagine what modeling of the government’s brain looks like.)
South Africa approves labeling West Bank products as goods from ‘Israeli Occupied Territories’ http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/south-africa-approves-labeling-west-bank-products-as-goods-from-israeli-occupied-territories-1.460077
It will be interesting to see if this catches on as a trend.
I don’t see it mentioned here, but an AP link to a recent PEW poll on the fate of middle class America:
http://www.privacysos.org/node/791
The whole poll is worth reading, particularly the “Findings”, but here’s a quote I found telling in light of current political chatter on the economy:
“Of the self-described middle-class Americans who say it is more difficult now than it was a decade ago to maintain a standard of living, 62 percent say “a lot” of the blame lies with Congress. About 54 percent say the same about banks and financial institutions, while 47 percent say large corporations, 44 percent point to the Bush administration, 39 percent cite foreign competition and 34 percent find fault with the Obama administration.”
Excuse me, got a little ahead of myself; the link should be:
Pew Research Poll via Google/AP
Something’s been bothering me. This Paul Ryan fellow reminds me of somebody, but I couldn’t remember who. It suddenly came to me: Norman Bates.
He actually reminds me of a short Mr. Morden from Babylon 5-which did not end well for Mr. Morden. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47DfQcHMYLY
re: China’s under-performing loans and bailouts
There is a big difference between bailing out unprofitable industries that employ millions, and also, just possibly, are simultaneously performing a public service, and bailing out an insolvent and rapacious banking sector that relentlessly pillages your citizenry for a quarterly, mark-to-fantasy profit.
Unless your an international investor/gambler, of course. Then none of that shit matters.
Re: Lambert’s link to Charley Pierce’s latest (Constitutional order: “I think we are looking at an 1850′s of the political mind. I think we are two countries, each with its own history, and laws, and language, and religion, and their own mass media to amplify all those things.)
Charley Pierce wrote one of the most cogent and prescient pieces about Barack Obama in 2008 (http://www.esquire.com/features/barack-obama-0608?click=main_sr), but he is falling into two traps: 1) LOTE; and 2) the “real enemy” is working class whites who stand on the other side of some cultural divide. This piece about two countries is a sad example of the latter.
Pierce could start by reading the late, great Joe Bageant. Then he might spend six months or so outside of Newton, MA and drive not to Louisiana or to Bageant’s Shenandoah Valley but to places like Plymouth, NH or Lowell, MA where he’ll find plenty of people like those he considers part of another country.
Are people from Louisiana to Maine skeptical that governments at the federal, state or local government are there to help them? Ya think? Are people deeply fearful that there is no future for them and their children? Ya think? Is there a substantial industry, especially RW radio, aimed at turning that skepticism and fear, combining it with desperate clinging to patriotic and religious myths, and concocting a diseased mixture of hatred for the Other with the potential for violent expression? Ya think?
The elites in this country are so desperate to prevent that same skepticism and fear from producing class solidarity and an overturning of the status quo that they will spend billions to misdirect anger from the perpetrators of misery to its victims.
Sadly, until Pierce wises up, he looks to be complicit.
“Charley Pierce … is falling into two traps: 1) [Lesser of two evils]; and 2) the “real enemy” is working class whites who stand on the other side of some cultural divide. This piece about two countries is a sad example of the latter.”
Good post.
So do you see how the CLOAK OF INVISIBILITY–constituted by the appellation, HOUSE OF WINDSOR, and all that it implies–works to COVER the past, the present and the future, and for gain?
Technically, the DYNASTIC “PATRILINE”–that which descends from the father–is that of Prince PHILLIP, i.e. the House of Schleswig-Holstein and the House of Glucksburg, which descends to the current “favorite” Prince William. This is the “legitimate” dynastic inheritance practice that has been observed in history until now.
This is what .01%DNA RULE of the world is all about. This is the the Complex Dynasty of Europe that the Global .99% are expected to provide for, in perpetuity, at our expense.
Big Bang Was Actually a Phase Change, New Theory Says http://www.space.com/17217-big-bang-phase-change-theory.html
Thank you for this link.
Quite interesting
Charles Hugh Smith: The stock market is an ‘attrative nusance’ and must be closed: http://www.oftwominds.com/blogaug12/stocks-attractive-nuisance8-12.html
Cap’n, link: re “officially sanctioned propaganda” bringing the sheep to slaughter, think: Wall Street Week: an “accessory” to the “.01% Sure Thing.”
re: Pension funds suing over JP Morgan’s London Fail
Looking for wisdom from the NC crowd. I thought ’twas all a mere nothing and the balance sheet would absorb any losses. Yet here we are in court seeking restitution in the tens of millions. Did I miss something? Or did Jamie & Co. just quietly socialize the losses among their muppets – er, clients?
This seems like the sort of pushback that is needed. For these pension fund investors to realize the risk they are taking in seeking higher yields. And to help make more transparent the destructive casino type gambling being done by these large banks.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-21/public-pension-funds-named-to-lead-london-whale-lawsuit.html
“”“The public pension funds, a group which includes some of the largest public pension funds in the world, have far and away the ‘largest financial interest’ in the relief sought
The pension funds allege they sustained losses after being given false information that hid the nature of the bank’s trades.””
Many thanks, but I remain bewildered by the gap between Dimon’s protestations and this swift litigious riposte, which is strangely unaccompanied by the analysis and commentary it seems to deserve? There were no client losses – or – $52M is the extent of losses sustained by clients? More shoes left to drop, methinks, than might belong to a vampire squid…
Hilarious!
http://maxkeiser.com/
“[KR330] Suicidal Skullduggery in the City & Unusually Small Heads on the Street”
(Stacy Herbert re “derivates” = “suicide vest” on the economy, etc. Very sharp.)
Re FDIC suits
This could be the beginning of something positive.? Now that Timmy’s a lame duck, maybe some of his regulatory foes will finally get on with their jobs.
Agree. It took a while but looks like a start..
“”The FDIC took Austin, Texas-based Guaranty Bank into receivership back in Aug. 2009.
Specifically, the FDIC alleges the financial firms violated federal and Texas securities laws by failing to fully disclose or truthfully represent the quality of mortgages backing the security certificates.””
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