By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Readers, I’m afraid that the epic Clinton post — and aren’t they always? — meant that I had to give Water Cooler short shrift. Sorry about that, and I will return with a full ration tomorrow.
2016
The Voters
Bernie Sanders Gets Group Endorsements When Members Decide; Hillary Clinton When Leaders Decide The Intercept
I stumbled across this old photo on the Twitter:
French Soldier #WW2 carrying a donkey up a hill? c.1942 pic.twitter.com/Rly3p7cEnb
— ᑭᕼOTOᔕ & ᙖᗩᙅOᑎ (@photosandbacon) May 30, 2014
Which gives me the chance to tell this old joke:
“The Democratic Party is like a horse that refuses to take commands from its owner and stubbornly refuses to carry him. The owner does not go out and get a new horse, but picks up the horse and carries it around in the belief that, eventually, the horse will change its mind. Years later, the horse is thinking, ‘I’m a genius!'”
It’s the “years later” part that kills me.
The Trail
“Obama weighs in on 2016: Hillary Clinton campaign is ‘more prose than poetry'” [WaPo]. And he gives our famously free press a few tips on how to take down Sanders.
“Clinton needs an Iowa victory to blunt the momentum of Bernie Sanders” [WaPo]. That won’t be enough.
“Sanders, Clinton cool to Bloomberg’s possible entry into 2016 race” [Reuters]. No doubt.
Stats Watch
Dallas Fed Mfg Survey, January 2016: “Manufacturing data from the Dallas Fed, along with that of the Kansas City Fed, have been offering the most striking evidence of oil-related contraction. Dallas’ general activity index came in at an extremely negative score of minus 34.6 for the January report which is the lowest reading since the beginning of the recovery in 2009” [Econoday]. And: “Of the three Federal Reserve districts which have released their January manufacturing surveys – all are in contraction” [Econintersect].
Honey for the Bears: “Deep in the bowels of the system all manner of financial flows are switching course” [Gillian Tett, Financial Times]. “In some ways this is what we would expect: capital flows are fluid; but the real problem for investors and policymakers is that it is often fiendishly hard to track the scale and pace of these stealthy shifts since the data are so patchy. Indeed, the workings of China’s shadow banking system are as opaque as the US subprime mortgage sector was in 2007.”
Honey for the Bears: “Talk of a downturn is in the air, and the numbers are squiggly” [Bloomberg].
Honey for the Bears: “Financial apocalypse: Ex BIS chief economist William White warns of epic debt tsunami worse than 2007” [Business Insider].
“Do Payrolls Have A Measurement Problem Leading To Strong Numbers?’ [Big Picture].
“Taking a cue from Chipotle, Wal-Mart should shut its stores off for 24 hours, so it can redesign its layout and train its employees to improve customer service” [Forbes]. They could make a movie by that name….
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 17, Extreme Fear (previous close: 13) [CNN]. One week ago: 10 (Extreme Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed).
Health Care
“A different kind of doctor’s office: Patients pay directly, keeping insurance out of it” [Tampa Bay Times (JM)].
“Employee Wellness Programs Use Carrots and, Increasingly, Sticks” [New York Times]. I seem to recall that wellness programs have no demonstrable health benefits, even though ObamaCare funds them, so ka-ching. Readers?
Water
“Disposability, Abortion, and Crisis As Usual in Michigan” [Language Matters]. Must read.
Gaia
“In three months, one failed well at Southern California Gas Co.’s Aliso Canyon storage field has spewed more greenhouse gases than any other facility in California. At its height, the leak more than doubled the methane emissions of the entire Los Angeles Basin and surpassed what is released by all industrial activity in the state” [Los Angeles Times].
Gunz
“Stranded Motorist Kills Man Trying to Help Him, Sheriff Says” [New York Times].
“An Allegedly Drunk Gun Owner Went to the Benghazi Movie. You Won’t Believe What Happened Next.” [Esquire].
“Police: Son, 14, shot dead by dad who says he mistook him for intruder” [CNN].
“Congressional Staffer Arrested After Loaded Gun Found In Bag” [Talking Points Memo].
“An armed society is not necessarily a polite society, and an armed citizen is not always a prepared citizen” [HuffPo]. I would have thought that was obvious by now?
Militia Watch
“Militants Bring Young Children To Stay At Occupied Refuge” [Oregon Public Broadcasting].
Class Warfare
“Correlation between education and democracy: average years of schooling in the 15+ population in 1970 and political regime 2013 – Max Roser ” [Our World in Data]. Hence the importance, to squillionaires, of capturing the school system.
“Exclusive New England Prep School Rocked by Sex Scandal” [Time].
News of the Wired
“4 ‘Game of Thrones’ products we really wish existed” [Daily Dot].
“The Decline of the Driver’s License” [The Atlantic].
“The Next Social Media We Want and Need!” [Medium].
“Twitter users suspect US government hacked into their social media accounts” [Raw Story].
“Does sex in virtual reality feel like real sex?” [Slate].
Animated map shows the undersea cables that power the internet. Cool!
Readers, feel free to contact me with (a) links, and even better (b) sources I should curate regularly, and (c) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi are deemed to be honorary plants! See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. And here’s today’s plant (pq):
“Ice on Fisher Pond.” Thought it was Hong Kong for a moment, because of the chill in the air…
If you enjoy Water Cooler, please consider tipping and click the hat. Winter has come, I need to buy fuel, keep the boiler guy and a very unhappy and importunate obstreperous plumber happy, and keep my server up, too.
82 comments
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Obama’s such a tool. It’s like he and Bloomberg are reading from the same script. But of course they are.
Agreed.
Here’s a nice short film on 4 of Philly’s worker cooperatives, made by the Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance (love the title!):
Capitalish
more gunz: Massachusetts: http://www.rawstory.com/2016/01/drunken-massachusetts-man-opens-fire-after-getting-stuck-behind-snow-plow-during-blizzard-police/
In the 90s I worked for a small company that offered bonuses for employees who quit smoking. It’s too bad that companies have to be punitive, but it really makes a difference to have healthy employees, not just in terms of health insurance cost, but in efficiency, happiness and absenteeism. I hope that doctors learn more about actually helping people get and stay healthy, and it is not just about prescribing drugs. The freedom to treat your body like crap, is it such a great thing?
Because nothing should matter more to humans but serving their masters and the imaginary friends they pretend to serve?! Sorry, I can’t accept your givens because I can’t accept the primacy of economic life as legitimate, healthy or sane.
Well, that’s a bit harsh, hunkerdown. I see nothing wrong with Bas’ wish that “doctors learn more about actually helping people get and stay healthy, and it is not just about prescribing drugs.”
What bollocks. Not harsh at all to be called out on this boot-licking nonsense. We were not born to serve our economic masters.
Lambert;
Do not worry if your Plumber is unhappy and or obstreperous. These are normal conditions in a Plumbers’ life. If he or she is an independent, and not working for a franchise, there is great leeway. If a franchise is involved, you are well and truly f—-d. Nothing you can do short of full payment with a ten percent ‘Apology Fee’ will shut them up. Just make sure to keep in contact and, if possible, make token payments to your local tradesperson. A little ‘Good Faith’ goes a long way at the granular level. As in business in general, once the ‘bean counters’ gain control, civility goes out the window.
I wouldn’t ‘engage with’ your last phrase with a limp noodle. Too many opportunities for humour.
Yes indeed. Everything you say is true. My dad ran an electrical contracting business and while he tried to stay chirpy, it wasn’t easy as you really did see humanity at, well, not exactly at its best.
+++ My Dad ran a one horse plumbing business in South Florida for a score of years. Some of the things he encountered, the usual run of people wouldn’t believe. He was called a liar in my presence several times for stories I knew from first hand experience to be true. For people like Lambert he had a ‘soft spot.’ (Especially if they played chess. He was really good at chess. He never understood why I wasn’t a very good player.)
Women plumbers? Have seen one in thirty years. “Tradesperson” Snicker.
Not only did I know two women who were plumbers in Louisiana, but one of them was the Parish Inspector for about ten years. (She finally got fed up with the politics of it and moved on to a quieter job, also related to construction.)
Stepping into a machine they didn’t design, and they see things that they wouldn’t have done.
Why were they done that way? There’s usually a reason, but without being able to speak with the previous repair crew, or being able to see through walls, they have to guess.
Was the previous repair done properly, or done as properly as is possible without major renovation?
Risk. The plumber is going to be seen to be on the hook for everything that came before him. Anything he touches, or may be seen to touch becomes a possible risk for him.
Plumber comes in to fix a drain, gets a claim for a broken water pipe after. What do drains and water pipes have to do with each other- nothing. But, they’re plumbing! The plumber fucked it up! It was working fine until he came….well, not exactly, which is why he came…
Flint Response: Worse Than Katrina?
Schuette, working on behalf of Snyder and the Michigan GOP, is visibly trying to gum up the works of the ongoing investigation by the US Attorney’s office in Detroit by running a parallel `investigation’ which he didn’t start until after the USA got involved. It’s not obstruction of justice if it’s in plain sight.
People in Michigan should be in full blown revolt mode. Snyder should be, pick any of the following, 1) impeached, 2) jailed, 3) tarred and feathered, 4) forced to drink leaded water, 5) named by Cruz as his running mate.
The “utopian political imagination” that is called for in the Disposability, Abortion and Crisis as Usual article is, to my mind, currently best exemplified by the Solidarity Economy Movement and, of course, the worker cooperative movement which makes up one of the major strands of SE discourse and organizing. SE activists are working for a world of horizontalism, subsidiarity, democracy and cooperation. Right now we’re figuring out how to connect movements for worker’s empowerment with racial and gender equality movements, climate change efforts, anti-poverty initiatives, etc.
Krugman on his blog [no link because moderation filter]
Yes, one might want to ask that.
Sounds like a nerve has been struck. There he goes hiding behind Obama.
Speaking of striking a nerve, Jacobin went after Ezra and Matt today, and just buried them. An excellently researched article that has the benefit of also providing a lot of good information. Read it all:
thanks for that!
I think the best part is what Klein (from the past) said himself:
And back then, health reform didn’t seem quite so hard or so tough to Klein. Instead, that piece offered a far sunnier perspective. To see just how sunny, it’s worth quoting it at length:
Medicine may be hard, but health insurance is simple. The rest of the world’s industrialized nations have already figured it out, and done so without leaving 45 million of their countrymen uninsured and 16 million or so underinsured, and without letting costs spiral into the stratosphere and severely threaten their national economies.
Even better, these successes are not secret, and the mechanisms not unknown. Ask health researchers what should be done, and they will sigh and suggest something akin to what France or Germany does. Ask them what they think can be done, and their desperation to evade the opposition of the insurance industry and the pharmaceutical industry and conservatives and manufacturers and all the rest will leave them stammering out buzzwords. . . .
So let us, in these pages, shut out the political world for a moment . . . and ask, simply: What should be done? To help answer that question, we will examine the best health-care systems in the world: those of Canada, France, Great Britain, Germany, and the U.S. Veterans Health Administration (VHA).
…………….
How could Klein have felt such warmth back then for the single-payer systems of Canada or France (let alone Britain, with its socialized NHS!), while being so hostile to Bernie Sanders’s plan now, when the latter claims to draw its inspiration specifically from the former?
Based on the Vox piece, it’s a mystery. Klein’s tone of confident authority barely conceals a confused, self-contradictory, at times laughably inaccurate jumble of charges that make little sense even on its own terms.
============================
Well, that is exactly the question I have – is the idea that health care has been accomplished by the great and wonderful OZ??? WHOOPS – I mean Obama, and therefore it is perfect, and the hands of mortals can only diminish it?????
That IF single payer was proposed, and defeated, any health reform legislation passed in the last 10 years must also be declared null and void? It seems to me there are votes…or there are not votes…to rescind Obamacare, and the issue of single payer is like any other legislation – a separate and distinct issue.
Of course, I have no idea what motivates these pundits, but I get a whiff of “know it all ism” these guys just KNOW that no other health reform can be accomplished for several decades. We wise, wise, sage….did I say wise? pundits were for Obamacare, and we were for it because with our massive brains, we just knew if was the best that could be done!!! SO STOP TRYING!!!!!!
We have pontificated!!!
Oh, and I’m sorry, but this always drives me insane:
Klein:
“But to get those savings, the government needs to be willing to say no when doctors, hospitals, drug companies, and device companies refuse to meet their prices, and that means the government needs to be willing to say no to people who want those treatments. If the government can’t do that — if Sanders is going to stick to the spirit of “no more fighting with insurance companies when they fail to pay for charges” — then it won’t be able to control costs.”
=============================
The government is not telling anybody that they CANNOT have a treatment. The government is offering a price for a treatment – if a particular physician or specialist is unwilling to meet that price, the first thing to do is see if someone else will. Its as if Klein has never hear of Medicare…
If 100, or even 90, or I would even say 60% are unwilling to perform at the proffered rate, than I would say the rate has to be increased (of course, like most services there are discounts and exceptions). The vast majority of medicare recipients are very satisfied with the program.
Yes, thanks for that. Christ was it brutal, but well worth the read.
Fanatstic article Benedict. Talk about ‘hung on your own petard’, Matt and Ezra’s previous writings have come back to haunt them there. Double standards bigtime…
The last refuge of a scoundrel – or is it the very first place they go? I’ve forgotten now.
Well I see Krugman’s problem right there. He thinks Obama is a PROGRESSIVE and thus falls into the progressive Bernie skeptics field. Obama is no progressive, and neither is Hillary. People are real fast and loose with the labels. Right now it seems that if someone is a “Democrat” then, by default, they are progressive. Or liberal. The words have been mushed together and torn apart so that they are meaningless. Progressive=liberal=Democrat=Obama=Hillary.
Idiot. Krugman is an establishment idiot.
Yes, Yves’/Lambert’s the earlier link, http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/01/22/hillary-clinton-and-the-northern-strategy/ should be required reading.
I don’t think Krugthullu is being naive. The criticism against Krugthullu is based on his old columns. Instead of addressing this, he is just hiding behind Obama. A certain element does believe Obama has fought the good fight, and Krugthullu wants them to swarm. As the economy tanks for the 99%, they really aren’t interested in defending Obama or any coward who hides behind him.
Krugman has missed that the two Democratic front runners are inherently anti-Obama candidates, and the GOP front runners are hated by the establishment GOP Obama worships.
Exactly. Obama worships the GOP establishment and craves their approval.
Right-wing progressivism is, more or less, the same as left-wing progressivism: The Cult of Managing/Doing, infused with Augustinian theology with the serial numbers filed off. Their prayer: “Lord, grant me chastity and continence; but not yet.”
Yes, single payer is the same as Obamacare and progressive taxation is the same as regressive taxation. Because keeping ordinary people healthy and fed are just so bourgeois.
You’re right; that was slightly inflammatory and swung further to the left of the “Vichy left” than I intended to capture. All the Vichy Dems over at Salon are eating my brain… I’d probably better focus on systems more than people, as counseled below.
I think it all focuses too much on people, too little on systems. Although yes Bernie Sanders is probably a better person.
Apparently Krugman doesn’t believe Obama himself, who essentially has said that once upon a time he’d have been known as a “moderate republican.”
http://thehill.com/policy/finance/272957-obama-says-his-economic-policies-so-mainstream-hed-be-seen-as-moderate-republican-in-1980s
But hey maybe Krugman believes that Reagan(Obama’a role model) was a progressive too.
And now the militia have brought young children to the Malheur Refuge! I really can’t believe law enforcement lets them come and go and allow people in to resupply and grand stand. Getting worse by the day and time for resolute action has passed. I really wonder what they (the feds) are thinking.
Meanwhile Mary Anne Grady Flores is doing 6 months in the slammer for protesting our drone program. She violated a an order “protecting” the commander of the base. Poor guy.
Lordy. Are they tiny human shields, then? How manly! What could possibly go wrong?
OTOH, everything may be just fine. Just send more glitter, crayons and maybe corn dogs? And home-schooling materials, I guess.
Well, it didn’t stop them at Waco. Janet Reno was there ostensibly “for the children.”
Kids — they taste like veal, according to Janet Reno.
No, I think the joke at the time was; “To Janet, kids taste like chicken, nasty ones.”
It is amazing. One would think that whenever one of these losers leaves the premises, the police would arrest him. With only one or two exceptions, this hasn’t happened. Why are people allowed to enter the site? Intentionally bringing children to a potentially dangerous location is utterly shameful.
Three supporters arrested so far, all white men in 50’s-60s.
Duane Kirkland: felon in possession of firearm charge.
Kenneth Medenbach: driving stolen refuge truck into town.
Joseph Stetson: DWI, sheriff body cam captured drunken rant, threatening to kill law enforcement. http://nydn.us/1lNsCv3
Neil Sigurd Wampler: convicted murderer from CA is one of the occupiers, wants his guns back.
Nice bunch you have there, Bundy. Is this the right atmosphere for children?
If the feds are using this as a magnet to draw out the low hanging fruit, it seems to be working. However the pace is a bit too slow. Meanwhile federal natural resource workers in the West are under increasing threat, intimidation and harassment. Very dangerous and needs to be ended, now!
Reports that federal refuge staff in Burns are stalked, harassed, so much so that they’ve been moved out of their homes by the feds.
I agree 100%. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility advocates on behalf of natural resource workers, among other activities.
They did this to forestall any attempt by Feds to force them out. To prevent stun grenades, tear gas, etc. Dirtballs. It is also an attempt to prevent cutting off electricity, food supplies, etc.
Fuck their kids. Tear gas isn’t death gas. Use it and clear out the trash.
The Move house in Philadelphia that had a C4 explosive dropped on it by the cops had children inside……..oh wait, they were black.
tsk tsk……will you listen to yourselves………I hear no one on this board calling out Syrian parents for having THEIR children with them, while chaos rains on them………at the rate at which you all are casting stones,if and when TSHTF, who are any of you going to rely on when thing get hinky, an army of one!
is there not a distinction between taking children away from mayhem and taking them towards it? regardless of the anti-immigrant sentiment in europe, it’s probably an upgrade from bombs et al.
keeping their children with them at home? these people aren’t at home, though they are certainly making themselves at home at our expense.
Paiute Tribe asks feds to stop armed group from travel
Translation: keep your Injun stuff out from underneath our hooved locusts.
The mormons were there BEFORE the native americans, according to The Book.
It’s a land claim, based on the ego maniacal fiction of Joseph Smith.
They are taking the land back from the Indians, as they see it. If they did find any artifacts, it would be in their interest to destroy them, bolstering their BS about being the real native americans.
Why this angle isn’t being covered is baffling to me. Probably moving through the same baffle that led to a complete whitewash of Mitt, and only going as deep as his magic underpants.
Yeah, I know it doesn’t look or feel like it, but spring is just around the corner. At that wildlife refuge that means nesting birds–it’s a big stop on the Pacific Flyway as well. Tourists and naturalists will be itching to get out there and . . . . . . . what?
If the refuge is still closed and off-limits I expect more pressure will be brought for the feds to do something, particularly if the protesters have damaged any critical areas with their bulldozing activity, their new road and grazing.
The Solution
After the uprising of the 17th June
The Secretary of the Writers Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?
Bertolt Brecht
Thanks for the Jacobin link that brought this poem to my attention. It was in response to the failed uprising in E. Germany in 1953.
Interesting. Jane McAlevey was saying about the same thing at the Real News a couple of days ago.
Bloomberg is the Hamlet candidate. “I will save the world if I have to so please don’t make me by nominating Trump or Bernie.”
The feedback loop on his awesomeness must be running on crystal meth. No one dares tell him he has zero charisma, zero name recognition in the hinterland, and he’s too short to be President.
He definitely has the $ to do it, I’m trying to decide which candidate would lose the most votes to him. My initial thought is 1/3 of his votes would come from Repubs, 2/3 from Dems. Perot took mostly from R’s and Nader, John Anderson from D’s. Agree?
Much like Pataki, Bloomberg has no constituency. The country is simply too poor to support his candidacy. Hillary is the default candidate of nostalgia and legacy. Without those, she would be no where. Except for gun control from a guy who turned the nypd into stormtroopers and a soda tax, what is Bloomberg?
He might be an outlet for Country club Republicans and Chamber Democrats who have to vote but despise people, but this is a small number in the grand scheme. They are just as likely to stay home. Lincoln Chaffee’s laughable stints as an independent and democratic candidate are blue prints for Bloomberg. He might last a month.
Hizzoner’s constitutency is the
Council of CorporationsChamber of Commerce, isn’t it? By all means, let him bring it, then. A Bloomberg run would draw the established/vested corporate infection, and some of the opportunistic/aspiring disease vectors, out of the other two brands where it can be quantified and characterized. Not accounting for partially self-fulfilling “spoiler effect” compression and assuming Hillary repays the favor, I think he’d garner the allegiance of on the order of 10% of the electorate, but in a three-way race 3-30% is not a small number.Bloomberg is surfacing on schedule. The line about Hillary being our best defense against long-time Clinton family friend Donald Trump hasn’t been as successful as desired, so now we need long-time Clinton buddy Bloomberg to basically threaten to turn it into a 3-way race if the establishment folks manage to lose in both parties. (But we can avoid this by nominating Hillary for the Ds.) Really couldn’t be much more transparent.
Oops…
http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-25/samarco-sensors-gave-warnings-well-before-brazil-damburst/7113390
“BHP has previously said they will release the findings of an external investigation into the dam burst by New York-based law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton when it is completed.”
Skippy…. “external investigation” … how droll … some here might know of afometonded white shoe firms reputation…
Hillary is the TINA candidate. Her message seems to be: “There is no alternative to the status quo and resistance is futile”. She appears to be totally out of touch with the rising tide of alienation in this country. Still, she is a celebrity, so there’s that.
I read an interesting analysis of gun ownership and its relation to crime Sons of Guns
Part 2 is good as well. If you correct for minority status and urbanization we aren’t that different from other countries. I’m sure lambert will be championing gun control focused on minorites now based on the data?..
The most interesting part to me is that the the countries with the most gun controls actually have a lot of gun ownership. Other than the south and minorities showing higher deaths from guns of course. The author is a east coast liberal, but its a relatively dispassionate analysis.
“Did you notice that the axis of this graph says “gun deaths”, and that this is a totally different thing from gun murders?”
Where do “accidents” fall into the suicide vs homicide continuum?
Cause, it seems, they just completely got rid of them, then draw up some graphs. Its easy to get the data to say what you want when you get rid of the data that says what you don’t want it to say.
“Police: Son, 14, shot dead by dad who says he mistook him for intruder” [CNN].
For instance- Homicide of suicide?
I’d say homicide. Dad meant to shoot person in his house. He did.
I bet it’s not recorded in your, very simple, homicide vs suicide table. If it is where? Where is the proper spot?
Unless, the kid could be seen as seeking suicide by dad?
Australia day festivity’s…
Unlikely Aussie heroes speak about the robbery they foiled
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz1wp0kOitQ
Skippy… epic colloquialisms
Thanks Skippy! That was epic Strine.
That’s brilliant! Laughing my tail off!
he’s either suffering from Broca’s Aphasia or I am suffering from Wernicke’s Aphasia… which is it??
So.. ok.. that may remain a mystery, but how’d he miss a career as an Oz air traffic controller?
To petal – EGrise yes… good on ya… to think the bloke just took the keys – lulz – rather than play with guns…. priceless….
Opti … whilst some might mangle the spoken word around here, they will give more than the shirt off there back, unless your a fkwit, then don’t know you from a bar of soap.
Skippy…. that said the mob had a holiday down under and thought better of it… I can live with that…
Skippy
Just having a bit of fun with him, no doubt a couple solid guys… banging out a great example of separation by a common language.
No doubt he’d be utterly bamboozled by some versions of english here in chicagos –as i continue to be.
Some of the best bar times fun ive had has been w/ a Eastender friend that would rip off w some cockney slang and the game was to riddle out what in the world he was saying in the least number of clues. A chick magnet in the chicago bar scene at the time.
““Police: Son, 14, shot dead by dad who says he mistook him for intruder” [CNN].”
They keep saying it. “accidental shooting”. Wrong. The father never said the gun went off by itself, or that he didn’t mean to shoot.
He said. later, he didn’t mean to shoot his son.
But, he did mean to shoot the guy who was in his basement. That guy turned out to be his son.
At that point it turns into an “accident”?
My God, that Jacobin take down of Klein and Ygelsias is devastating. If you have any compassion at all, and know their respective blood types, rush down and donate blood in their names because both have to be bleeding from gashes and slashes everywhere.
Just occurred to me: What if Bernie gets elected and pushed his universal health care plan? Are we then treated to the delightful sight of supposed progressive pundits arguing against it? Also, since the plan would effectively abolish the private health insurance industry as we know it, would the stockholders mount a “takings” lawsuit seeking to be reimbursed? I wonder what arguments could be made between the difference in government regulation adding to the cost of doing business versus government regulations that effectively put an entire industry out of business. OTOH, Prohibition did exactly that. Did the distillery owners and their investors get any kind of payoff or pay-out?
PS. All in favor of Bernie’s plan, just wondering aloud how the popcorn eating observatory phase of the program would play out.
Would they have grounds? I don’t think an entirely domestic company as I imagine many (most? all?) insurance companies are, would be covered by any of our existing trade treaties. Will there be a rush of tax inversions to Canada by Insurance companies if Bernie were elected, just for the prospect of ISDS? Would that even be legal?
That’s one of the beauties for me of a potential Sanders administration (and to a lesser degree this campaign), it will shine a light on those who pitch progressive policies when they don’t really believe in them, unmasking them as hypocrites when they have to scramble under orders from above to oppose them. Sanders is exposing the corporate Democrats for what the regressives they really are and putting it out there in unmistakably clear view. This needs doing.
Thanks to fritter for an interesting link. Graphs of firearm stats in the US are worthless because no one has any idea of how many firearms exist in this country, or ever will know. Firearms are persistent. A proxy might be; how many firearms have been manufactured in the US in the last 100 years? They’re all still here. Or, how many gunsafes and gun cabinets have been sold in the US in the last 100 years? They’re all full. I propose that there are more serviceable weapons than citizens in the US.
Since you seem to be an expert-
““Police: Son, 14, shot dead by dad who says he mistook him for intruder” [CNN].”
Homicide, suicide, or admit the “analysis” is junk. Your choice.
I just got an e-mail that says : “In less than two weeks, the 12 Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) nations will meet in New Zealand to sign the final agreement. And once it’s signed, there are no changes, and no going back.
If TPP countries sign, we will enter the final phase before the agreement becomes law, and locks us into an extreme Internet censorship pact that will overwrite our national laws and restrict how we innovate and share culture online.2”
Is this for real? No wonder we haven’t been hearing anything about it lately. I thought it had to be voted on…..
Lambert whom knew it was so simple….
Internet Comment Etiquette: Solving Racism Online
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6JY8usg7vE
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Now if you agree that Donald Trump is a great patriot, and you’re 100% a Trump supporter than you know we gotta kick down the doors, clean up American government, and the last hope for America right now is one man and he wears a GREAT SUIT.
We got them scared to death so show your support by donating to help MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN* I’m gonna use all the proceeds to do my patriotic duty as a hot blooded american NOW STAND UP AND PRAY IF YOU THINK WE GOTTA BAN MUSLIMS, KICK OUT THE IMMIGRANTS, AND DO WHAT THE PEOPLE NEED DONE. Keep fightin brothers and sisters and don’t forget to donate if you support trump!
https://www.generosity.com/faith-religion-fundraising/donate-if-you-support-donald-trump
Skippy…. pure gold… cough.. amends…
Back at you Lambert…
Daft Punk – Lose Yourself To Dance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBXv37PFcAQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_Sf0gi-mGI
I scanned HuffPost headlines just before going to bed, listed below. These are not actually headlines but titles of what HuffPost lists as questions asked the last Iowa forum before caucuses.
See a trend? Is it HuffPost trend or the trend of the audience?
“Read Live Updates On The Last Big Event Before Iowa For The Democratic Presidential Hopefuls”
“Hillary: Republicans Actually Like Me And I Will Hug Them All”
“Clinton Says She Received ‘Fair Criticism’ Over Her Email Practices”
“Hillary Clinton Names Her Most Inspirational President”
“Clinton Quotes Chris Cuomo’s Father”
“Clinton Questioner Wasn’t Just Leaning Sanders’ Way”
“NARAL Not Impressed With Sanders’ Answer On Women’s Rights”
“Bernie Sanders’ Strong High School Running Career”
“That Was Kind Of A Mean First Question For Clinton”
If this doesn’t work, Team C will send in the Politininjas.
The Comcast Post?