Links 7/28/13

How night owls are cleverer and richer than people who rise early Daily Mail

How an Introvert Can Be Happier: Act Like an Extrovert Online WSJ

Egypt

Scores killed in clashes at pro-Morsi rally Al Jazeera

With dozens dead, U.S. tells Egypt to pull ‘back from the brink’ Reuters

Hospital floor slick with blood after Egypt security forces open fire on Morsi supporters McClatchy

Bloodshed rises in streets of Egypt LA Times

Egypt: scores killed as army launches offensive against Muslim Brotherhood Guardian

Tahrir Taken, Some Egyptians Look for ‘Third Square’ to Resist Islamists and Army The Lede, Times

The United States Marine Corps Officially Declares ‘Lack of Spiritual Faith’ as a Sign of Instability HuffPo (MR)

Big Brother is Watching Watch

Wyden: Talks on NSA overhaul ‘accelerated’ after House vote The Hill

Dr. Joseph Bonneau Wins NSA Award, Responds By Ripping NSA In Blog Post HuffPo

Pushkov: Snowden facing 20 years in prison in US Kyiv Post

Snowden may stay at airport transit zone unlimited amount of time – Justice Ministry Russia Beyond the Headlines (official).

When It Comes To Extraditions, Russia Often Cooperates NPR

Public Opinion May Give Russia An Edge In Snowden Case NPR. US not asking for “extradition,” only “return.” Russia: Nyet.

Bradley Manning’s ‘sole purpose was to make a difference’, lawyer insists Guardian

German president says whistleblowers like Snowden merit respect Reuters

U.S. allowed Italian kidnap prosecution to shield higher-ups, ex-CIA officer says McClatchy (ltr)

Solidarity Sing Along crowd grows as arrests continue at Wisconsin Capitol The Cap Times

California Hunger Strikers Enter Third Week, Face Retaliation Truthout

Investigation: Paulsboro derailments “Death Zone” 6abc (map; MR).

The Blip New York Magazine. Some things can happen only once.

Inequality of Opportunity Begins at Birth Incidental Economist

Wildcatting: A Stripper’s Guide to the Modern American Boomtown Buzzfeed

Wall Street and the Absence of Justice Informing the 99%

Obama Says Income Gap Is Fraying U.S. Social Fabric Times. Well spotted….

Post-Scarcity Economics Los Angeles Review of Books

The transition to socialism Stumbling and Mumbling

It Is Not Good News That Obamacare Will Create Lots of Jobs to Steer People Through the System CEPR

Don’t Shift Payments by Medicare, Panel Says Times. Debunking regional variations in health care spending as a cost-cutting methodology.

A Continent Mired in Crisis Coins a Language of Economic Pain Times

The Quest for a Common Language The Archdruid Report

How Skowhegan grew into Maine’s new bread basket Bangor Daily News

Edward Tufte FT (two hops out).

Theory of the drone 2: Hunting Geographical Imaginations (part 1). “The transformation of warfare into man-hunting.” Also shows why the Panopticon metaphor is off-point.

Antidote du jour (MR):

put_er_there_pard

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About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

119 comments

  1. will

    Hi, just a quick suggestion that I think many of your readers would enjoy….

    it would be nice if you specified target=”_blank” in all your links so that they open up in a new tab.

    That way it’s easier to read the articles while having a link list at the same time

    1. Ned Ludd

      On Windows and Linux, hold down the Control key while you click. On OS X, hold down the Command key. If you want a new window, hold down the Shift key.

      A fundamental principle of user interface is consistency. For most of the web – including sites like reddit and Hacker News – links do not open new windows or new tabs. Changing the behavior would make Naked Capitalism inconsistent with most of the web. Also, would links in articles open new tabs? In the comments? If not, then Naked Capitalism would end up inconsistent with itself.

      1. diptherio

        If it were up to me, all links would open in a new tab. That makes it much easier to follow links while not losing your place in the main article.

        One of the first changes made to the digg reader, fwiw, was to have all links open in a new tab. It started out as a user suggestion and was quickly applied. Twitter also opens links in new tabs. It just seems more logical to me.

        1. Bill

          If you use Firefox, an addon — Tab Mix Plus — will allow you to specify that all link open new tabs or new windows.

          I’ve been using it for years with no ill effects. It might work on other browsers, not sure.

        2. Ned Ludd

          The default behavior for clicking on a link is, and should be, determined by the web browser. The developers of Firefox decided that the primary mouse button would open a link in the same tab and middle-click would open it in a new tab. A quick search found this addon to modify the default behavior of Firefox: “Open Link in New Tab”. There are similar extensions available for Chrome.

          1. Lambert Strether Post author

            Exactly. Yahoo mail has its link lists set up so clicking on a URL opens a new tab and goes there, and CMD-click doesn’t do anything. This drives me nuts, since nothing else works like that (at least according to my defaults).

            1. Ned Ludd

              This drives me nuts! Any time a website messes around with click behavior, it seems things start to break when you Control-click or Shift-click.

              Also, my parents don’t understand tabs. If they got a new tab every time they clicked a link – my god, the horror, the horror.

          2. Ned Ludd

            I didn’t see Bill’s comment above. Also, I didn’t intend to imply that the Firefox developers got it right, only that they controlled the behavior of their web browser (with the nice feature of addons to override it).

            1. diptherio

              Just installed the add on Bill suggested and it works great. I’m a little embarrassed that I didn’t already know about this. Then again, I only got hip to using an rss feed reader when everyone started complaining about losing Google’s. Thanks goddess for helpful techies!

              1. Bill

                BTW, I don’t like to be forcefully taken to a new tab when it opens, and you can also specify this with Tab Mix Plus.

  2. dearieme

    ‘Lack of Spiritual Faith’ as a Sign of Instability: my default assumption is just the opposite.

    1. F. Beard

      Triage, medearieme? The Lord saves the unstable first?

      Me self, I’m not much but you should have seen me 10, 20, 30 years ago. And the progress didn’t really take off till I started reading the Bible daily about 5 years ago.

    2. Flying Kiwi

      Faith = a firmly held belief unsupported by proof.
      Spiritual = incorporeal or pertaining to the spirit as distinguished from the physical nature.

      So it is a sign of instability not to hold firm beliefs despite the lack of any evidence, and relating to the non-physical.

      But of course the Marines are right. Those who hold firmest to their unproveable beliefs however idiotic ask the fewest questions and commit the worst atrocities.

        1. Flying Kiwi

          Biblical facts:

          Genesis 1:11-12 and 1:26-27 Trees came before Adam.
          Genesis 2:4-9 Trees came after Adam.

          Genesis 1:20-21 and 26-27 Birds were created before Adam.
          Genesis 2:7 and 2:19 Birds were created after Adam.

          Genesis 1:24-27 Animals were created before Adam.
          Genesis 2:7 and 2:19 Animals were created after Adam.

          Genesis 1:26-27 Adam and Eve were created at the same time.
          Genesis 2:7 and 2:21-22 Adam was created first, woman sometime later.

          Genesis 1:31 God was pleased with his creation.

          Genesis 6:5-6 God was not pleased with his creation.

          Mark 6:8: And commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their purse:

          Luke 9:3: And he said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece.

          Matthew 27:3-8: Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders. Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? See thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.

          Acts 1:16-19: Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus. For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry. Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.

          Psalms 112:1-3: Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord… Wealth and riches shall be in his house.

          Matthew 19:24: It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

          Seems to me yer pays yer money and picks the facts yer like.

          On the other hand:

          Proverbs 26:4: Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself.

          Proverbs 26:5: Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eye

          So I’ll do that.

          1. Garrett Pace

            Do other cultures treat their holy writings and traditions with such legalistic rigor – evaluating them as if they were contracts or courtroom testimony? When I hear Hopi traditions, or read the marvelous legends in the Iliad, it is all very different – each generation adding the bit that they learned through hard experience, and once in a while some poetic genius creates a work that lasts for ages.

            That has its good points, but bad ones, too – for in that paradigm religious texts and traditions tend to support the culture and guide it in directions that the powerful favor and that favor the powerful.

            Christians do an awfully interesting thing with the Bible – encasing it in amber and laboring mightily to preserve as close as possible the exact sense intended by obscure writers from millenneia ago, and then taking those words as the final word on all matters, moral, spiritual and even scientific. So we have a static and inflexible document, unchanged for centuries, used to guide a culture that its writers never experienced firsthand.

            Good and bad there too, for its moral teachings might be perverted, and the name of Jesus stamped as a mark of true value on false coinage, but any reader has but to refer to the text itself to get a good sense of what Paul, Peter and the rest were actually saying.

            Anyway. That generations of believers have accepted the Bible as an authority on all subjects, including astronomy, taxonomy and the rest – it doesn’t mean that God intended it to be thus.

          2. F. Beard

            Wow! You got a lot of work to do. I suggest you start early since it took me years to come to trust the Bible. But don’t despair if you’re old since as long as you’re seeking honestly, I don’t see why the Lord won’t extend your life.

            Anyway a sword will cut whether anyone believes in it or not. I doubt you get so angry at other belief systems, now do you?

          3. F. Beard

            I’ll add this:

            You do see that Proverbs 26:4-5 makes a mockery of those who claim Scripture contradicts itself by apparently contradicting itself in two adjacent verses?

            And did you know that the Sun DOES orbit the Earth if the origin of one’s coordinate system is the Earth?

            OK, I’ve obeyed Proverbs 26:5.

            1. skippy

              Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary

              6:19-24 Worldly-mindedness is a common and fatal symptom of hypocrisy, for by no sin can Satan have a surer and faster hold of the soul, under the cloak of a profession of religion. Something the soul will have, which it looks upon as the best thing; in which it has pleasure and confidence above other things. Christ counsels to make our best things the joys and glories of the other world, those things not seen which are eternal, and to place our happiness in them. There are treasures in heaven. It is our wisdom to give all diligence to make our title to eternal life sure through Jesus Christ, and to look on all things here below, as not worthy to be compared with it, and to be content with nothing short of it. It is happiness above and beyond the changes and chances of time, an inheritance incorruptible. The worldly man is wrong in his first principle; therefore all his reasonings and actions therefrom must be wrong. It is equally to be applied to false religion; that which is deemed light is thick darkness. This is an awful, but a common case; we should therefore carefully examine our leading principles by the word of God, with earnest prayer for the teaching of his Spirit. A man may do some service to two masters, but he can devote himself to the service of no more than one. God requires the whole heart, and will not share it with the world. When two masters oppose each other, no man can serve both. He who holds to the world and loves it, must despise God; he who loves God, must give up the friendship of the world.
              Pulpit Commentary

              Verse 20. – But lay up (ver. 19, note).
              Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

              But lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven,…. That is, either be concerned for, and seek after heavenly treasure, the riches of glory, the joys and glories of another world, which infinitely excel everything that is valuable on earth; and which can never be corrupted, or taken away: or rather, lay up your earthly treasures in heaven; that is, put them into the hands of God in heaven; and this is done, by liberally communicating to the poor; by which means men “provide themselves bags which wax not old, and a treasure in heaven that faileth not”, Luke 12:33. They shall never want any good thing here, and they “lay up in store for themselves, a good foundation against the time to come”, 1 Timothy 6:18. This is the way to have worldly treasure secured from moth, rust, and thieves; for to lay it up in heaven with God, to give it to him, to his poor, to make use of it for his glory, is to lay it up in a place,

              where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. Treasures are safer here than in our own hands, and will turn to better account, and more to our own advantage, both in this life, and that which is to come: see Matthew 19:21. In this way, though not for it, men come to have treasure in heaven, even the treasure of eternal life, glory, and happiness. Heaven is often represented by the Jewish writers as a treasury; and the treasures which are in it are said (n) to be

              “Myyx yzng, “treasures of life”, and treasures of peace, and treasures of blessing; and the souls of the righteous, and the spirits and souls that shall be created, and the dew with which God will quicken the dead.”

              Those words in Deuteronomy 31:16. “And the Lord said unto Moses, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers”, are thus (o) paraphrased.

              “And the Lord said unto Moses, lo! thou shalt sleep in the dust with thy fathers, and thy soul shall be treasured up , “in the treasury of eternal life”, with thy fathers.”

              They tell us (p) of a story of Monbaz the king, who was son to queen Helena; in which are many things agreeable to these words of Christ, and which may serve to illustrate them.

              “Monbaz the king stood and gave all his goods to the poor: his relations sent to him, and said, thy fathers added to that which was their’s, and to that which was their fathers; but thou hast given away that which was thine, and that which was thy father’s: he replied to them all thus: my fathers , “laid up treasure on earth, but I have laid up treasure in heaven”, according to Psalm 85:11. My fathers laid up treasures, which do not bring forth fruit; but I have laid up treasures, which bring forth fruit, according to Isaiah 3:10. My fathers gathered in a place, where the hand, i.e. of man rules, (where thieves break through and steal,) but I have gathered in a place where the hand of man does not rule, according to Psalm 97:2. My fathers gathered mammon, money, but I have gathered souls, according to Proverbs 11:30. My fathers gathered for others, but I have gathered for myself, according to Deuteronomy 24:13. My fathers gathered in this world, but I have gathered “for the world to come”.”

              One of their commentators (q) on the phrase, “my fathers laid up treasures below”, as it is in the Babylonish Talmud (r), has this remark:

              “for lo! all that they treasured up was for the necessaries of this world; which is , “a place of dust and vermin”, which corrupt and destroy everything; “but I have laid up treasures above”, a place secure and firm, and which preserves everything that is put into it.”

              (n) T. Bab. Chagiga, fol. 12. 2.((o) Targum Jon. ben Uzziel, in Deuteronomy 31.16. (p) T. Hieros. Peah, fol. 15. 2.((q) Caphtor, fol. 97. 1.((r) T. Bab. Bava Bathra, fol. 11. 1.

              skippy… go watch the Gasland Part II over in links 7/28, heck here you go: http://thoughtmaybe.com/gasland2/?lang=en

              Look at all the religious folks getting their past, present and future destroyed… by the more “affluent” religious… world wide mate… world wide~~~

              1. F. Beard

                I’ve told you before that it’s no use appealing to Bible commentators with me since they are not my spiritual guide.

                Or should I embrace usury from my fellow countrymen because Calvin justifies it?

                1. skippy

                  Matthew 6:20 is the observation. How you bring Calvin into it and some spiritual guide biz (bias seeking imo) – is – irrelevant to my summation.

                  “Look at all the religious folks getting their past, present and future destroyed… by the more “affluent” religious… world wide mate… world wide~~~”- skip

                  And I’ll add “affluent” Religious mobs and Individuals…

                  Your individual prospective is contrary to the events occurring globally. Therefore completely out of touch with reality, unless your thinking of starting your own church.

                  skippy… watch the video for some Physical Reality about Gawds people. Hope you comment after viewing.

          4. F. Beard

            Genesis 1:31 God was pleased with his creation.

            Genesis 6:5-6 God was not pleased with his creation.

            Wow! Would any objective person call that a contradiction? Must God be pleased (or not pleased) at all times with humans? Can He not be initially pleased but later not pleased?

            Hint: Forget every thing you’ve heard about God and just read Scripture and that way you’ll not be opposing a straw man of your own or someone else’s imagination.

            Enough.

    3. Andrew Watts

      We are losing more troops to suicide then to actual combat. A loss of faith (or spiritual crisis) is a high risk indicator that should be monitored carefully considering these circumstances.

      By selectively lifting his quotes from a guide that has to do with this issue, it will help perpetuate the myth that liberals hate our military and the people serving in it.

  3. Twenty

    “The Egyptian people have a right to peaceful protest.” Just like the good ol’ USA, until we step outa line. Generally where there’s blood, there’s US arm sales, this case is no exception.

    1. Dan

      That’s why Victor Bout had to be taken out of the game; selling/giving weapons to scumbag regimes is what we do and we hate competion.

  4. craazyman

    Correlation evidently is Confusation

    Yeah, night owls are richer than people who rise early because if they weren’t richer they’d have to get up and go to work. And it’s easy to be clever if you’ve had a good night sleep. Sometimes it takes a genius to see reality for what it is, doesn’t it. What other analytical problems can we solve today?

    -W. Stiff, 4:49 a.m.

    antidote: “Hurry up and take the damn picture, I’m about to fall!”

    1. AbyNormal

      it looks like a snow leopard. i read a cool book where the afgans used the leopards urine to foul up the russians canine brigade…a dog can smell that urine for miles and it sceerrees hel! out of’m. i was amazed at the many maneuvers it was used for.

    2. anon y'mouse

      aside from that, what they should do is look at whether Early Birds need a nap in order to match their late riser peers on the task.

      I suspect many early birds do need a midday nap. hence why they’re so crabby most of the time, in my experience.

  5. Stevo

    The US is supplying arms to “Al Qeada” yet Manning is accused of helping “the enemy.” Folks, the Manning trial is a show they want you to watch. This is what could happen to you if you blow the whistle.

  6. Jim Haygood

    ‘The jobs needed to steer people through [Obamacare] are a waste from the standpoint of the economy as a whole. In an efficient system people can figure out how to get their health care without needing a consultant to guide them through a complex process. Obamacare … is adding waste to the health care system.’

    Toothless Boomers may recall the early days of word processing, when corporations treated them as souped-up typewriters for the secretarial pool. While obviating the need for White-Out, having to hand marked-up documents back to a secretary for input meant that little time was saved. Now most people produce their own documents without secretarial help.

    Creating low end jobs, amenable to being handed out by patronage, appeals to those in the parasitical sector of the economy. It’s like Model Cities all over again … mwa ha ha ha.

    *raps the floor with his shooting stick*

    What I can’t figure is why health insurers assented to a government-run marketing interface. If you’ve ever worked with sales people, you know that they respond to incentives. Hiring minimum wage drones to sell health insurance sounds like an epic disaster; one which may create opportunities for those who can sidestep the kludged-up, hacker-ridden horrors of the exchanges.

    1. Lambert Strether Post author

      I still have all my teeth, punk. That said, a big part of ObamaCare is indeed “walking around money” for the Democratic nomenklatura. Not all of it, but certainly a big part of it.

      1. Cynthia

        Obama tries to hide all of his mistakes, but this one involving ObamaCare can’t be hidden so well.

        Another thing that Obama tries to do is blame others for his stupidity in judgement, and often times he gets way it. For instance, did you know that there was a Dec 17, 2009 bombing of Yemen that killed women and children and was blamed on the Yemeni Air Force — but was actually done by the US? The journalist who reported it, Abdulelah Haider Shaye, was arrested and convicted by the Yemen government only because he had reported it. There were fragments of US bombs, Tomahawk missile and cluster munitions, that proved it was a US bombing. This fact — that the U.S. had been responsible rather than the Yemeni Air Force — was evaded by the US under the direction of Obama. There was ample proof it was the US who bombed the innocent under the direction of Obama. Amnesty International came out and said it was proven. But Obama did not want the US citizens to know about it, so he had the journalist arrested. And the journalist was given 5 years in prison. The public outcry in Yemen caused the president of Yemen to pardon the journalist and set him free. But the Yemeni president was swayed otherwise by a call from U.S. President Barack Obama on February 2, 2011 citing his “concern” over Shaye’s imminent release. Obama did not want the journalist to tell the truth. This year on On July 23, 2013, Shaye was released from prison to serve out the extent of his sentence under house arrest although Obama tried to sway the Yemen government to keep him in prison.

        This is the kind of man Obama is. Anything he touches is left with blood stains or dirt marks on it, Obamacare is no exception.

            1. F. Beard

              I haven’t been able to stand the sight or sound of at least the last 3 US Presidents.

  7. Ben Johannson

    That link on how introverts should be extroverts is one hell of an exercise in either junk reporting, junk science or both. Another of these studies reliant on self-reporting mood, exactly like the “research” showing the French are always miserable. I have yet to meet an extrovert who will not assure me his/her life is fantastic even when they’re about to vault off a bridge.

    1. Yep

      Written by an extrovert for him/herself for self justification. Another of those so called “if only you are a little bit more like me, you’ll be happier, better, etc” because really how would you dare to be born different from MY image?

      What’s funny is that when people write articles or do research along those lines, it’s often motivated by their confusion that someone living differently from them can actually have a pretty good life.

    2. Inverness

      American society is rigged against introverts, so this is a chicken and egg situation. You get called a loner, and quiet if you need space for yourself, and I find many don’t understand why it’s tiring to have another conversation about the weather or why you should keep your chin up.

      Faking extroversion can really hurt. It’s better to allow social interaction but also figure out how much time you need for yourself. Don’t believe the hype that you must conform to everyone else’s normal.

      This glorification of extroversion is quite present in education. Teachers are told that group work is a must, because “in the job market, they must know how to work with others.” It is shocking to hear how some American teachers dismiss kids that are socially maladjusted and don’t fit in. I feel kids should be presented with alternatives, and see nothing wrong with a student who wants to work alone.

      This brings to mind a Seinfeld episode, when George has a job interview. He refuses to eat the cake everyone else is eating, which costs him his job. But at least he doesn’t get food poisoning, like the others who just went along with eating the cake.

      1. Bill the Psychologist

        Some great comments on so-called introversion.

        As a Clinical Psychologist and life-long “loner” (never married, lived alone since 1973), I used to tell my patients that a need for social interaction has a very high range in humans, from those who can’t ever be alone, to those like myself who tolerate a great deal of solitude, and find too much social interaction stressful.

        I dealt with many soldiers as an Army civilian employee, part of whose psychological stress involved few opportunites for solitude (among other things).

        And like you, I am perennially sceptical of so called “scientific research”, especially in the social sciences, that rely on self reported data and call that “variables.”

      2. ex-PFC Chuck

        Susan Cain’s book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, which the author of the linked piece mentions briefly in the last paragraph, is a good resource for helping us introverts feel good about our introversion. She strongly agrees that American society is tilted steeply against us.

    3. DP

      Twice in that sorry article the author says that SOME research indicates extroverts are happier than introverts, then immediately after speaks of it as if it’s fact. Presumably if only some research comes to this conclusion, there is other research that does not come to the same conclusion. But that’s the way drug trials work, you do them over and over, throwing out the ones that say the drug is less effective or no more effective than alternative drugs or taking nothing, until a trial shows the results you want. Then you point to that and say “research shows…..”

  8. Klassy!

    re: income gap fraying
    “Upward mobility, Mr. Obama said in a 40-minute interview with The New York Times, “was part and parcel of who we were as Americans.”
    It is rather dismaying that this is what passes for populism or even an appeal to our better nature.
    As Christopher Lasch wrote in Revolt of the Elites:
    “The new managerial and professional classes, for reasons I have tried to make clear, have a heavy investment in the notion of social mobility-the only kind of equality they understand. They would like to believe that Americans have always equated opportunity with upward mobility…but a careful look at the historical record shows that the promise of American life came to be identified with social mobility only when more hopeful interpretations of opportunity had begun to fade, that the concept of social mobility embodies a fairly recent and sadly impoverished understanding of the “American Dream” and that its ascendancy, in our time, measures recession of the dream and not its fulfillment.”

    1. anon y'mouse

      some of us don’t necessarily want upward mobility, just security or avoidance of downward mobility.

      I could live in a 10X10 room (with bath) like my grandmother did in S.F. working as an office slave back in the 1950’s, as long as I knew I wouldn’t perish in the streets or die of some totally preventable illness due to lack of preventative care.

      some of us have lived fulfilling lives with no more possessions than would fill up a travel bag. I could again, except that books and papers currently fill up about 40 cartons of my storage.

      doing “better” than the previous generation is always posited as “more money” AND “more things to spend money on”. most people really want neither. they want quality, sustainability and security.

  9. Bunk McNulty

    Archdruid: “what’s happened here, as I’ve suggested in previous posts, is that a great many devout Christians in America have been suckered into playing a mug’s game. They’ve put an immense amount of energy into something that does their religion no good, and plays straight into the hands of their opponents.”

    Suckered? They believe. They are not susceptible to logic.

    1. F. Beard

      Believe in what is the question. Calvin, for example, justified usury from one’s fellow countrymen DESPITE the Bible.

    1. Klassy!

      I thik I read in Malcom Cowley’s introduction to Winesburg, Ohio that Anderson’s recollection of his resigning was a little more dramatic than what actually transpired.
      It’s aspirational, though.

        1. brian

          “There’s room at the top, they’re telling you still
          but first you must learn to smile as you kill
          (J. Lennon)

  10. Ned Ludd

    Dr. Joseph Bonneau, who won the 2013 NSA award for “Best Cybersecurity Paper”, did an IAmA on reddit yesterday. Some of his comments on practical security:

    There are technical tools to provide end-to-end encryption, which is what it takes. You can use PGP to encrypt your important communication if you want. Honestly the crypto community hasn’t made these tools usable enough for the average person, which is a big failure that we need to work on. CryptoCat is an attempt to enable encrypted chat which is usable for everybody with no software installation, though it’s not bullet-proof from a security standpoint. If you can install a mobile app, go with TextSecure/RedPhone or SilentCircle.

    And not to plug my employer, but the Chrome development team (including some non-Google people, since it’s an open-source project) has been leading the way on SSL/TLS security. There are a number of advanced features like key pinning that are important. Firefox is close behind on crypto quality. Avoid IE-they have not implemented HSTS years after Chrome and FF did (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_Strict_Transport_Security).

    EDITED TO ADD: Download HTTPS Everywhere for Chrome or Firefox to significantly increase the number of websites that you’ll access over an encrypted channel. If you need anonymity, use Tor. The Tor Browser Bundle includes HTTPS Everywhere, that’s about the best you can get right now.

    Also, he made this comment about censorship: “Censorship doesn’t require making things impossible to access though, only difficult enough that most people will give up.”

    1. Charlie B

      You are not anonymous with TOR. Very simply, it’s only as scure as where it is goes. (I’m running a TOR server now, you can trust me, Susan’s has one too, you can trust her! – etc)

    2. Charlie B

      Moreover, support Replicant, a fully free Android distribution and the first mobile operating system (OS) to run without relying on proprietary system code.
      Don’t be evil, censorship is what people are afraid of publishing on their blogs.

  11. Charlie B

    Onward Christian Soldiers. Christ as a warrior. One way to get a lot of people hurt or killed is to morph religion and the state. There’s nothing like a Banker who is doing God’s work.

    1. F. Beard

      Jews (and I suppose Christians) are permitted to collect usury from foreigners (Deuteronomy 23:19-20) but what excuse do Christians have for collecting it from each other? Especially when money can be issued as shares in Equity? Especially when debt-creation* is largely dependent on government subsidies?

      * Credit creation drives people into debt otherwise they will often be priced out of the market by those who do borrow.

  12. diptherio

    Re: Transition to Socialism

    Not a bad article, on the whole, but I do feel the need to point out the false history lesson presented at the end:

    The transition from feudalism to capitalism did not generally happen because peasants protested in the streets, nor because they found a government with the “political will” to overthrow feudalism. It happened because a sequence of smallish individual actions – often without consciousness of their full effects – meant that, eventually, people found better things to do than obey feudal lords. Perhaps the transition from capitalism will occur in a similar way.

    I guess someone is unfamiliar with the enclosure movement and the peasant revolts that followed them. The transition from feudalism to capitalism was not accomplished by “smallish individual actions” that eventually helped people find “better things to do than obey feudal lords.” It was accomplished by the forcible eviction of masses of people from the land that had provided their subsistence for generations. My reading of history seems to indicate that most peasants were more concerned with their ability to put bread (or gruel or whatever) on the table than with their lack of political freedom.

    The transition from feudalism to capitalism removed the peasant’s ability to provide for himself, while failing to grant him any additional freedoms (unless one counts the freedom to starve, far from the manor house). While I like the suggestions made for our current transition (if such is possible), I don’t think the faulty history lesson is helping anyone out.

    There is little doubt that Enclosure led to improved efficiency of use of the land and greater yields to feed a rising population. The irony is that it drove many countless villagers into poverty and fuelled the start of emigration. On the social side, the rich became even richer and distinct class gaps emerged. ~N A Rogers-Davis

    1. J Sterling

      Michael Perelman, in “The Invention Of Capitalism: Classical Political Economy and the Secret History of Primitive Accumulation,” describes how the enclosures were preceded by a series of complaints that the workers weren’t working hard enough. They would work as hard as necessary, on the common land and resources available to them, to put a roof over their heads, food on their tables, and some beer in their mugs, then they would take a break, have a holiday or fiesta, or pursue their own projects. This was clearly intolerable!

    2. Ms G

      Thanks for the historical reality-check, Diphterio.

      Because when I read “It happened because a sequence of smallish individual actions” I gagged and figured the author is shilling for some elite minder with instructions to keep pushing “1000 points of light” drek and “make it historical” at all costs.

    3. Massinissa

      “The transition from feudalism to capitalism removed the peasant’s ability to provide for himself, while failing to grant him any additional freedoms”

      This sounds alot like what is going on right now. The masses of the people are unable to either get jobs or jobs that pay a fair amount, and are having increasing difficulty supporting themselves under the current late-capitalist system. Im afraid that the transition of Capitalism to Neo-Feudalism will play out in a similar way as the transition of feudalism to capitalism that you describe.

      By the way, I wonder what Neo-Capitalism would look like? I suppose thats impossible to know, since we have not seen neo-feudalism quite yet, hehe.

      1. diptherio

        David Graeber and others have written about the mass non-cooperation movements that were surprisingly common during earlier periods of our history. It happened in Babylon and Rome (as someone commented on here yesterday) and many other places as well.

        Basically, the hoi polloi would get fed-up with the PTB and and a large mass of the population would move outside the city, set up camp, and demand changes (often debt forgiveness) before anyone would return.

        My great hope is that something like this might happen, once enough people have been squeezed hard enough. A mass ‘withdrawl’ movement would no doubt look different today than it did in ancient Babylon, but it’s one of the only ways forward that I can see might have some chance of creating systemic change (ever the optimist).

  13. aldo from the trunk

    Forza Spataro! Do Italian prosecutors know how to roll up a mafia or what? The picciotti are starting to rat: DeSousa has fingered the CIA made men and the Bush family sottocapos.

    The verdict is binding throughout the EU, and parties to any of the Geneva Conventions are obliged to ‘ search for persons alleged to have committed, or to have ordered to be committed, such grave breaches’ as the crime against humanity of the US torture gulag.

    There’s no statute of limitations. Times change. The criminal scumbags of the US regime will be looking over their shoulders for the rest of their fugitive lives.

  14. Jim Haygood

    Cyprus depositor haircuts are finalized:

    NICOSIA (Reuters) – Cyprus and its international lenders have agreed to convert 47.5 percent of deposits exceeding 100,000 euros in Bank of Cyprus to equity to recapitalize it, banking sources said on Sunday.

    Under a programme agreed between Cyprus and lenders in March, large depositors in Bank of Cyprus were earmarked to pay for the recapitalisation of the bank. Authorities initially converted 37.5 percent of deposits exceeding 100,000 euros into equity, and held an additional 22.5 percent as a buffer in the event of further needs.

    “There was an agreement concluding at a final figure of 47.5 percent this morning,” a source close to consultations told Reuters.

    http://ca.news.yahoo.com/cyprus-lenders-set-bank-cyprus-104408907.html

    To paraphrase the Beatles …

    Should 47.5 percent appear too small
    Be thankful I don’t take it all

    1. F. Beard

      If banks only issued money as shares in Equity and had no other Liabilities, they could NEVER become insolvent, now could they?

      But hey, that’s way too straightforward for finance, isn’t it?

      [Wisdom speaking] “All the utterances of my mouth are in righteousness;
      There is nothing crooked or perverted in them.
      “They are all straightforward to him who understands,
      And right to those who find knowledge.
      “Take my instruction and not silver,
      And knowledge rather than choicest gold.”
      Proverbs 8:8-10 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

    1. Bill the Psychologist

      What a joy, I was trying to think of this song and singer yestrerday and couldn’t (I’m old !).

      It was one of my very favorites back in 1967, freshly back from Vietnam, and hearing this great story telling tune worthy of Bob Dylan or Pete Seeger.

      1. Bill the Psychologist

        I meant,”hearing it is great.”

        I just downloaded it from Amazonl — $1.29, what a price for a bit of joyous music.

  15. Ms G

    How the Bloomberg-overhauled ($88 million) 911 computer system is failing tragically at a high rate while Bloomberg insists it’s “fabulous” (because he spearheaded it and Intergraph got $88 million of our NYC tax payer dollars.)

    Important note: people are in fact dying as a direct result of these chronic 911 boondoggle failures.

    I’m posting this as a story under the Public Private Partnership Privatization Scam that is such a massive part of end-stage Kleptocracy Looting, and is happening in our cities across the nation.

    http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/my_hell_as_operator_HYlg05QYm291rqIakgY24J

    1. Brindle

      Likely a temporary victory….

      —” Electronic tolls are set to start on the tunnels on Feb. 1, 2014, and on the freeway extension when it’s finished. The tunnel tolls for passenger vehicles will cost $1.59 during off hours and $1.84 during weekday rush hours, defined as from 5:30 to 9 a.m. and from 2:30 to 7 p.m. Trucks will be tolled $7.36 during peak hours.

      Private equity, more than $400 million in state money, a federal loan and bonds are helping fund the project. The private partners are authorized to earn an annualized rate of return of 13.5 percent on their $272 million investment.”—

      http://hamptonroads.com/2013/05/judge-midtown-tunnel-toll-deal-unconstitutional

        1. Lambert Strether Post author

          That Philip K Dick story where Joe Chip has to pay a nickel to open his refrigerator… That’s where we’re headed.

          And you can bet there’s going to be plenty of public money spent to guarantee that rate of return.

          1. Ms G

            So it’s the end of John and Jane Doe. Now it’s gonna be John and Jane Chip.

            Oy vey.

            Thanks for the P. Dick reference.

  16. AbyNormal

    Section 14c back in the headlines…someone please explain to me how this continues:

    When a non-profit provides Section 14 (c) workers to an outside business, it sets the salary and pays the wages. For example, the Helen Keller National Center, a New York school for the blind and deaf, has a special wage certificate and has placed students in a Westbury, N.Y., Applebee’s franchise. The employees’ pay ranged from $3.97 per hour to $5.96 per hour in 2010. The franchise told NBC News it has also hired workers at minimum wage from Helen Keller. A spokesperson for Applebee’s declined to comment on Section 14 (c).

    Helen Keller also placed several students at a Barnes & Noble bookstore in Manhasset, N.Y., in 2010, where they earned $3.80 and $4.85 an hour. A Barnes & Noble spokeswoman defended the Section 14 (c) program as providing jobs to “people who would otherwise not have [the opportunity to work].”

    Most Section 14 (c) workers are employed directly by nonprofits. In 2001, the most recent year for which numbers are available, the GAO estimated that more than 90 percent of Section 14 (c) workers were employed at nonprofit work centers.

    Critics of Section 14 (c) have focused much of their ire on the nonprofits, where wages can be just pennies an hour even as some of the groups receive funding from the government. At one workplace in Florida run by a nonprofit, some employees earned one cent per hour in 2011.

    “People are profiting from exploiting disabled workers,” said Ari Ne’eman, president of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network. “It is clearly and unquestionably exploitation.”

    Defenders of Section 14 (c) say that without it, disabled workers would have few options. A Department of Labor spokesperson said in a statement to NBC News that Section 14 (c) “provides workers with disabilities the opportunity to be given meaningful work and receive an income.”

    But foes of Section 14 (c) have hopes for a new bill that’s now before Congress that would repeal Section 14 (c) and make sub-minimum wages illegal across the board.
    http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/25/19062348-disabled-workers-paid-just-pennies-an-hour-and-its-legal?lite

    Petition
    https://www.change.org/petitions/goodwill-industries-international-pay-disabled-workers-a-real-wage?utm_source=action_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=29834&alert_id=QRLsgShbZX_tJRmTbAUgU

    “There’s not going to be enough people in the system to take advantage of people like me.”
    George W. Bush

    1. anon y'mouse

      as mentioned previously, I worked at a Goodwill for all of about a week. I read scrupulously their wage law posters in the cafeteria area, and it was clear that they were paying those extremely hard-working disabled people, who kicked ass sorting and placing merchandise (and could probably kick my ass too) and never complained nor even arsed-around on the job about half the minimum wage.

      you are not going to tell me that what they were doing was only a portion of what an ‘able’ employee was. they were doing work I would perish from within the first week.

      meanwhile, the President of Goodwill in our region made a 6 figure salary.

      if “meaningful work” is so important, and the government is giving these folks SSDI, then why can’t these non-profit associations who “manage” the disabled employees (manage=subcontract) simply arrange for disabled individuals to do volunteer work? and, that solution would only be for those who truly can not do equivalent wage-based work. if the cart boy and bagger girl at the local grocery are doing the same work as Normal High School Graduate Kid, they should get the same pay.

      those goodwill employees should’ve been making $18 an hour at least, in a fair world.

      1. AbyNormal

        i lifted it from ThinkExist Quote Page

        messed up ain’t it (admittedly, hoping it’d get more signatures for the petition’)

    1. ex-PFC Chuck

      Last week I saw the recently released documentary on this issue entitled More Than Honey. It’s quite well done with much stunning cinematography. Although it didn’t cite any specific evidence, the implications of pesticides, etc., were in line with this piece. It’s a problem elsewhere in the world besides North America.

  17. JEHR

    The article “The Blip” makes a very good case for the end of progress. Now we need an article to describe how the world will run without “progress.” It is the change itself that will give us many trials; once we accept that life has limitations and we begin to live within those limitations, then the next revolution will have begun.

    However, there are flies in the ointment: Fukushima radiation of the ocean and other nuclear fails; over fishing of oceans; oil pollution of Gulfs and oceans; drought interspersed with deluging rainfalls; despoilation of the land by mining, fracking, deforestation, and animal and insect devastation (through pesticides); overpopulation; plus huge wealth and power inequality. If (and it is a big IF) we manage to get through this period of extreme exploitation, then we may have a planet that we can live on peacefully.

    I am not optimistic.

    1. Jim S

      Isn’t there a line of thinking that an energy revolution underlay the Industrial Revolution and that our current sluggishness is caused by our depletion of fossil fuels? From this perspective it seems possible that further growth would be enabled by a further energy revolution. Imagine 3D printing coupled to home “Mr. Fusion” units.

      But more seriously, as I’ve become an Electric Universe proponent it seems to me that we really can realise some of what is currently SF by tapping into the vast electrical currents of the cosmos (with what consequences remains to be seen).

      1. ChrisPacific

        I think there is a very strong argument to that effect, especially if you look at how much of our current societal infrastructure would work in an energy-scarce environment (hint: not very much). However there are physical limits to how long energy-fueled revolutions can continue based on entropy and waste heat (in brief, if we continue our current exponential increase in energy consumption for another few centuries, Earth will be hotter than the sun). The timescale is longer than Gordon is suggesting but the basic conclusion remains the same.

        I see two possible ways it might go (no doubt there are more). In one scenario we move to a more socialist model similar to communes or collectives where we all look out for one another and ensure a common minimum standard of living. We should have ample resources and technology to provide for everybody in this model and there are modern examples (e.g. kibbutzim) although I’m not sure anyone has managed to scale them up to the level we’d require. The other scenario is regression to primal Darwinism and competition (all for me, none for you) which is what Yves calls the Game of Thrones scenario. This could take a number of forms from destructive collapse to neo-feudalism (think Snow Crash) or various others, but is unlikely to be pretty in any of them. It’s likely to be preferred by people who thrive on chaos and competition, expect to rise to the top, and lack empathy or social conscience. (So, basically, Wall Street types).

  18. anon y'mouse

    in the article on Post-Scarcity Economics: “Our homes are more solid, our clothes more fashionable, our food tastier than our grandparents would have dreamed.”

    these points are highly debatable.

    probably most rational people, given the choice, would gladly give up their mobile electronics for the kind of security his father’s generation had. you can read books or talk to your coworkers on break time, instead of scanning the “news” on your 2.4 x 4.7 inch screen.

    1. F. Beard

      I liked the architecture better too and also big* families.

      *Is the population scare funded by the PTB so THEY’LL have plenty of room for THEIR families? And Progressives could not stay on track even if they were railroad cars?

    2. Flying Kiwi

      I haven’t read the article but the quote above from it baffles me.

      How can clothes be ‘more fashionable’? Clothes either accord to the fashion of the moment or they do not. Fashion probably changes faster today than ever before because that makes more money for clothes-makers, and whereas what was ‘fashionable’ was once driven only by a few at the top of society it’s now ‘dictated’ by a hundred expensive magazines. The only thing that’s ‘more’ about fashion is the pressure and cost of chasing its illusion.

      We have a wider range of foods available than our grandparents and by-and-large it has been manipulated to accord more closely to an ideal image – redder, jucier applies, whiter bread etc. – but only by making it more and more ‘unnatural’. I milk my own cow, raise my own chickens and beef and grow my own veg organically and friends on a supermarket diet who visit me are bowled over by the taste of creamy milk and grass-fed unstressed meat.

      Homes more solid? There are Iron Age brochs still standing in the Western Isles of Scotland that would be perfectly habitable with a bit of cleaning up and a new turf roof, For most of history most people could build a comfortable shelter to serve as a home from scratch, and maintain it with mud and thatch for ever. And within societies that were a lot more solid (in the sense of solidarity) than exist today.

      1. anon y'mouse

        you raise all of the points that my tired brain was scrambling around, but couldn’t think to write.

        perhaps he meant clothes are “better” now, although I seriously doubt that. many things, even in higher end stores, are entirely disposable now and meant to look shabby after about 3 wash cycles on the Delicates setting.

        this goes along with 1k bucks on the washer and dryer that is now mostly plastic parts, and will be totally unuseable in 6 years whereas EVERYONE on this blog remembers the metal Kenmore that lasted 20+ with only occasional servicing from their childhood.

        and yet, they keep saying we all live like kings (Progress!). I have more doodads in my house, and electric heat rather than layers of wool clothing, but I still don’t have the ability to self-determine my own life that Henry VIII or his daughter had.

        1. Flying Kiwi

          I’d challenge the notion that Henry nth or any other royal – including the current ones – have any facility for self-detirmination. In fact their roles are highly circumscribed and their ‘freedom’ to manoeuvre is very limited.

          Consider how Prince Charles has been attacked for expressing some fairly mild views on a few current issues. Consider what would happen if the Queen of England expressed religious doubts about the Church she was born to be head of. Can the Royals sleep around if they choose, chuck in their careers for something else that takes their fancy, up sticks and shift to another country to find out what life is like there?

          In my opinion Royals are born into slavery as few others are today – a gilded slavery perhaps but still slavery.

  19. Eureka Springs

    http://bigstory.ap.org/article/exclusive-4-5-us-face-near-poverty-no-work-0

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream.

    Survey data exclusive to The Associated Press points to an increasingly globalized U.S. economy, the widening gap between rich and poor and loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs as reasons for the trend.

    snip—-

    Hardship is particularly on the rise among whites, based on several measures. Pessimism among that racial group about their families’ economic futures has climbed to the highest point since at least 1987. In the most recent AP-GfK poll, 63 percent of whites called the economy “poor.”

  20. Chauncey Gardiner

    Thank you for posting the beautiful photo of the snow leopard. That the photo comes across as a study in values (black and white) made it particularly poignant to me.

  21. rich

    Heart Surgery in India for $1,583 Costs $106,385 in U.S.

    Devi Shetty is obsessed with making heart surgery affordable for millions of Indians. On his office desk are photographs of two of his heroes: Mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi.

    Shetty is not a public health official motivated by charity. He’s a heart surgeon turned businessman who has started a chain of 21 medical centers around India. By trimming costs with such measures as buying cheaper scrubs and spurning air-conditioning, he has cut the price of artery-clearing coronary bypass surgery to 95,000 rupees ($1,583), half of what it was 20 years ago, and wants to get the price down to $800 within a decade. The same procedure costs $106,385 at Ohio’s Cleveland Clinic, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

    “It shows that costs can be substantially contained,” said Srinath Reddy, president of the Geneva-based World Heart Federation, of Shetty’s approach. “It’s possible to deliver very high quality cardiac care at a relatively low cost.”

    Medical experts like Reddy are watching closely, eager to see if Shetty’s driven cost-cutting can point the way for hospitals to boost revenue on a wider scale by making life-saving heart operations more accessible to potentially millions of people in India and other developing countries.

    “The current price of everything that you see in health care is predominantly opportunistic pricing and the outcome of inefficiency,” Shetty, 60, said in an interview in his office in Bangalore.
    Out-of-Pocket

    Cutting costs is especially vital in India, where more than two-thirds of the population lives on less than $2 a day and 86 percent of health care is paid out of pocket by individuals. A recent study by the Public Health Foundation of India and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine found that in India non-communicable ailments such as heart disease are now more common among the poor than the rich.

    One in four people there die of a heart attack and per-capita health spending is less than $60 a year. Yet the country performs only 100,000 to 120,000 heart surgeries each year, well short of the 2 million Shetty estimates are needed. The mortality rate from coronary artery disease among South Asians is two to three times higher than that of Caucasians, according to a study published in 2008 in the journal Vascular Health and Risk Management.

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-28/heart-surgery-in-india-for-1-583-costs-106-385-in-u-s-.html

    wonder how much costs here are due to bloated top level administrators in US?

    1. AbyNormal

      your killin me rich, again

      http://www.healthcaresalaryonline.com/healthcare-admin-salary.html

      example: https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/suny-downstate-bigs-earn-200k-lich-closing-moves-article-1.1257273
      Downstate president earns $650k a year – plus a housing allowance and car. The 15 hospital administrators were paid a total $4.4 million in 2011 as SUNY Downstate lost $276 million, a recent audit by state Controller Thomas DiNapoli’s office revealed.

      The slew of vice presidents and assistant vice presidents drew taxpayer-funded salaries as high as $552,556.33. The average paycheck of the fortunate 15 was $291,336.

      also http://bls.gov/

    2. Jim Haygood

      ‘He has cut the price of artery-clearing coronary bypass surgery to 95,000 rupees ($1,583), half of what it was 20 years ago, and wants to get the price down to $800 within a decade.’

      Man, that is radical — someone in health care who actually wants to cut prices and be competitive.

      U.S. hospitals market themselves on quality. Physicians love to get ranked in the ‘top 100 doctors’ of whatever metro area they serve.

      But never, ever, ever, does any doctor or hospital compete on prices. It isn’t ‘professional.’ And I understand that, having qualified in one professional guild myself.

      Nevertheless, they ARE in competition, whether they know it or not. Anyone who can afford a plane ticket can get lump sum quotes on surgical procedures that U.S. providers can’t match, starting with the fact that they can’t even give you a fixed price quote to start with.

  22. John

    If Obama is serious about helping the middle class, he’ll mint the trillion dollar platinum coin to get around the debt ceiling and appoint Janet Yellen as Fed chairperson. Instead, I suspect we’ll see a Wall Street Boy as Head Fed Loon and Obama cutting even deeper than Republicans are demanding.

  23. Skeptic

    Skohwegan Bread Basket

    I attended a few Common Ground Fairs run by The Maine Organic Farming and Gardening Alliance (MOFGA) during the early nineties. There were a lot of doers and few theorizers. MOFGA was then known as the strongest organic outfit in the US. California was the biggest but there was a lot of big $$$$ in that outfit. But not in Maine. It is wonderful to see that grassroots organizing can payoff years down the road.

    http://www.mofga.org/

    I used to also attend the Northeast Organic Farming Association’s conference in Western Mass which is held this year, August 9-11, 2013, UMass, Amherst, MA. My wife and I used to wait expectantly for the conference schedule with all the different member given workshops. I now live too far away but here is this year’s program:

    http://www.nofasummerconference.org/program.php

    Or find one in your region and drive THEM crazy. This is action you can actually take!

  24. Hugh

    It says something about the work we have been doing here over the last few years pushing the problem of wealth inequality that Obama and the Establishment in however a halting fashion feel the need to acknowledge it and shed a few crocodile tears over it. Of course because we live in a kleptocracy, the plan is to mollify and distract the public with false hopes and create programs that will simply further the looting.

    1. Andrew Watts

      I think they’re just worried about the fact that the American empire is imploding on the periphery. They’re smart enough to know that their power is a byproduct of the empire but not wise enough to maintain it.

  25. diane

    Dearest AbyNormal, I think you might appreciate Luther Vandross’ version of:

    A House is Not a Home,

    and:

    Take You Out.

    when it comes to the capacity for humanity to be stunningly and unforgettingly and eternally loving, ….. among so many others Luther gave such heart to, if you haven’t already heard them ……

    … :0) ….

    ;0)

    1. AbyNormal

      ah Diane Dhalin…Luther had an envied voice and yes im very familiar with both songs…its been awhile but to night is perfect to roll out his play list.

      Thank You Muches !

  26. run75441

    During my time in the Corp in the late sixties, I do not remember anyone belabouring my ass as to whether I believed in God or religion. In boot camp you went to church on Sunday and got some much needed time off whether you were Christian, Catholic, or whatever . . . It was much needed time away from the DIs. Afterwards, my time on Sunday mornings was spent sleeping in after a night drinking beer. Somebody is making something out of nothing.

    1. ex-PFC Chuck

      During my time in the Corp in the late sixties, I do not remember anyone belabouring my ass as to whether I believed in God or religion. . . Somebody is making something out of nothing.

      Surf the MRFF website from time to time and I suspect you’ll change your mind. Things are a lot different now than when you and I were in the military.

  27. CJ

    The antidote du jour is actually painful for me to see. What I see is a cornered animal, an animal that is not at all happy with its confinement, yet unable to do anything about it.

    I’ve seen the same look in the mirror.

  28. RanDomino

    “The solidarity singers continue to refuse to obtain a free permit from the state Department of Administration on the grounds the group is a collection of individuals that has no leader.”

    No, no, no! It’s because it’s OUR HOUSE, and we will not ask permission! Fucking journalists!

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