Links 5/27/16

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Dear patient readers: You are getting a short ration of Links because I am supposed to be sort of on holiday and failing (as in you got an extra post). So please add more in comments.

Great Barrier Reef axed from UN climate change report after Australian government intervention Telegraph. Vlade:

If we don’t mention it, it doesn’t exist. And if our main export is stuff to get burned in Chinese foundries (which will run out), that happens to help in destruction of the massive tourism generator (which doesn’t run out), it doesn’t make us look good.

As aside, one thing I will never forget is how I first dove in Coral Sea in 2001 (not GBR itself, outer coral reefs about 100 miles out in the Coral Sea) – the water clarity (from boat you could see sharks on the bottom, down 50 meters) and the biodiversity and quantity of life was huge. I went to Caribbean once, and it just absolutely pales.

Geraldine Largay’s Wrong Turn: Death on the Appalachian Trail New York Times. Sad.

Has a Hungarian physics lab found a fifth force of nature? Nature (bl)

The world’s worst superbug has made its way to the US Business Insider

Teen cancer death rate causes alarm BBC

Deep Sea Explorers Discover A Sponge The Size Of A Minivan NPR

Neanderthals built mysterious cave structures 175,000 years ago Guardian (Jeff W)

Want to end corruption? Crack down on tax havens. Nicholas Shaxson, Washington Post

G7 warns of Brexit threat to global growth Financial Times

‘Mass rape’ video on social media shocks Brazil BBC

Syraqistan

Israeli forces Continue Collective Punishment Policy against fishermen, Arrest 10 Fishermen and Confiscate 5 Boats guurst

Outages Hit French Nuke Plants as Workers on Strike Nationally teleSUR (Sid S)

France labour dispute: Wave of strike action nationwide BBC

Clinton E-mail Tar Baby

Ex-State Dept. Advisor Says Clinton’s ‘Sloppy Communications’ May Have Blown Counterterrorism Ops LawNewz (martha r)

Clinton’s inexcusable, willful disregard for the rules Washington Post. Martha r: “I’m beginning to wonder if the Dem party has an alternative to Clinton up their sleeve who is not Sanders, and if NV dem convention will turn out to be when the Hillary campaign ‘blew it.’ I wonder how many of those beholden to the Clintons also hate them. Have the smartest rats begun to leave HSS Clinton?”

2016

Welcome to the Election From Hell Time. Important, although repeats the slur about Sanders supporters in Nevada.

California Looking Less Like a Sure Thing for Hillary Clinton New York Times

Hillary Clinton wins Kentucky Democratic primary after recanvass challenge from Bernie Sanders McClatchy

National Media Retracts Its Claim That There Was Violence at the Nevada State Democratic Convention Huffington Post

Trump puts fossil fuels at US energy core Financial Times

Lawsuit Challenges Constitutionality of OC Democratic “Superdelegate” Vote Ocean County Politics

Sanders picks up West Virginia super delegate Politico (martha r)

Democratic Convention Hosted by Republican Donors, Anti-Obamacare Lobbyists Intercept

The Real Numbers: Puerto Rico John Laurits

Donald Trump’s Energy Plan: More Fossil Fuels and Fewer Rules New York Times. Mind you, Clinton and Obama are firmly in favor of cosmetic rules.

UMass Endowment To Divest From Direct Fossil Fuel Holdings Associated Press

IMF economists put ‘neoliberalism’ under the spotlight Financial Times. Ahem, the research side of the IMF has been way to the left of the program side for years, even before 2010. The pink paper is waking up only now due to a paper whose headline makes it bloomin’ obvious?

Neoliberalism: Oversold? IMF (martha r). Nevertheless, the paper has some pokes in the eye, starting with the photo of the Santiago stock exchange, although it is carefully argued. See our post today.

Court Rules Companies Cannot Impose Illegal Arbitration Clauses New York Times

Guillotine Watch

Vinod Khosla wants $30 million for Martins Beach access SFGate

Higher taxes don’t scare millionaires into fleeing their homes after all Bloomberg

Class Warfare

The one thing rich parents do for their kids that makes all the difference Washington Post (martha r)

Making The Grades BuzzFeed (Dan K)

Tax Dodgin’ Silicon Valley and What It Means to You and Me CityWatch

Antidote du jour (Save the Buffalo Bayou): “Photo of a juvenile yellow-crowned night heron in a seasonal rookery in very old oak trees on Houston’s most elegant boulevard in Boulevard Oaks. Taken on May 20, 2016, by Allison Starnes.”

Juvenile yellow-crowned night heron links

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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236 comments

  1. divadab

    Re: Neanderthal cave structures

    SO – neanderthals made fire, buried their dead, hunted mastodons and other megafauna in an organized fashion, had a more sophisticated toolkit than the immigrants from Africa, made clothes and jewelry, and made boats (170k old stone tools found in Crete). And we carry their genes – they are our ancestors.

    When will we understand that neanderthals were human just like us – a variety which was isolated for 300k years and developed a robust sustainable culture. Will our culture still be around in 300k years?

    1. Int

      It has been understood by many, for some time that Neanderthal were in fact human. However they were not the direct ancestors of Homo sapiens. Homo sapien population groups migrated out of Africa and bred with Neanderthal and Denisovans throughout Eurasia. Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and Denisovans likely had a common ancestor. Making them closer to cousins.

      I don’t know what to make of your comment about Neanderthal having a more sophisticated “toolkit” than African immigrants. Are you referring to the Homo sapiens that migrated out of Africa 60000 years ago that ultimately bred with their cousin species? I would imagine if neanderthal had a more sophisticated toolkit, the current human population would be mostly homo neanderthal, with a tiny bit of homo sapien.

    2. Dugh

      “Early human history was a promiscuous affair.”

      How Neanderthal DNA Helps Humanity

      Neanderthals and Denisovans may have supplied modern humans with genetic variants that let them thrive in new environments.

      Quanta Magazine update on interbreeding between modern and archaic humans. (Link doesn’t make it past moderation)

      1. divadab

        Makes sense. Isolated populations develop adaptations to their local environments which immigrants can pick up by interbreeding. The surviving parts of the neanderthal genome (about 20% of it) are largely related to immune system elements and skin and hair color – which makes sense for survival if you are moving into a new northern area and are brown. Neanderthals were gingers – you need pale skin in northern climes.

        And of course, everybody fucks everybody and let the chips fall where they may. Evolution – what a concept!

    3. human

      Re “walls”: As farmers are often asked why so many stone wall enclosures, “Where else is one to put the dug up rocks?”

    4. Stephen Liss

      I still find the GEICO neanderthal commercials funny. Even though (I think) I am about 3% neanderthal.

  2. Praedor

    As far as an “official” backup for Hillary in the Dem party, it’s very likely Joe Biden. They will never allow Sanders no matter how strong he is. Biden would be more pliable and prone to stick to DNC orthodoxy.

    1. Roger Smith

      How could they get him into the general as the nominee though? Super delegates and Clinton Delegates? I think that would be the DNC underestimating the effect knocking Clinton would have v. party support.

        1. pat

          What I wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall if the ‘conversation’ needed for that to happen were to actually take place.

          Short of a real health incident that was unable to be disguised or an indictment I do not see Clinton going quietly so I don’t see it as being that ‘easy’.

          1. NotTimothyGeithner

            If the issue is the contents of the emails, there are likely many people involved with the Clinton Slush Fund who need a Hillary pardon than if Hillary is merely mishandling classified materials. Selling the office is a far more serious crime.

            1. Ping

              It has struck me from the start that ‘selling the office’ is the real can of worms more than security issues (although that is a huge issue) of the private server for email.

              What has the Clinton Foundation REALLY DONE in the public interest with hundreds of millions??

              C’mon it has been operating capital for global polititcal elite gain. Is the real reason the Clinton Foundation hasn’t yet been exposed during campaign is because it grasses up the entire establishment??

              Or is this reveal to be released at an appointed time??

              1. NotTimothyGeithner

                If I was a decent agent at the FBI and this is about the content of the emails and the Clinton Slush Fund, I can’t ignore the election. December 1st indictments, or after whenever the electors meet, will cause a crisis. Selling the office is a huge investigation. What is the fastest way to avert President Hillary where the pardon comes into play not just for her and Bill but the other participants? The lesser process crimes would be easier to indict in the short term. Without pardons on the horizon, people will be easier to flip on bigger fish in the process.

                Hillary is the biggest fish. They also have to cross every t and dot every eye. If she becomes President, she will pardon herself. The Clintons have no shame.

                1. OpenThePodBayDoorsHAL

                  “If I was a decent agent at the FBI”
                  Snowden said by his estimate more than 85,000 people had the same security clearances he did and could have had the moral fiber to tell the difference between right and wrong.
                  Another article on the site today makes the same observation about the legions of managers at BofA and all the other banks who understood fully the massive client mortgage fraud under way. And said nothing.
                  So there’s a very good chance that no one in the FBI recalls the difference between right and wrong, living a moral life, doing the right thing no matter how hard, and getting that next paycheck.

              2. Lambert Strether

                And the next question would be: Did the half (or large fraction) of “personal” email that Clinton did not turn over and destroy (but of which the digital forensics people at the FBI (?) recovered some) pertain only to Chelsea’s wedding and Hillary’s yoga sessions? Somehow, I doubt it.

            2. NYPaul

              Today’s NY Times printed a devastating editorial, excoriating the presumptive Democratic Presidential candidate, Ms. Hillary Clinton. Coming on the heels of the blistering State Department Inspector General’s report, Ms. Clinton’s Presidential ambitions can be best described as (in nautical terms) now “listing at 45 degrees.” And, with the FBI’s metastasizing investigation (“Pay to Play) hovering ominously, like a 21’st century Enola Gay, over her ever more reclusive, and paranoid, campaign, it truly is time for this candidate to begin executing her exit strategy.

              Her suspected ill health, fostered, no doubt, by her relentless efforts in the drudging & thankless duty of protecting our country, would provide an empathetic & benign path for her departure.

              A faint rendition of “Taps” in the background, as she’s reading her good-bye, would be a plus.

          2. Antifa

            The health question is probably the most likely cover for her to bow out of the race. Hillary has hypotyroidism, and a chronic tendency to blood clots, having suffered a deep vein thrombosis (blood clot) behind her knee, and another behind her ear, which she says was caused by fainting and hitting her head. She is required to be on Coumadin for life to treat this clotting tendency. It’s a blood thinner which requires pretty close monitoring.

            Using her state of health to bow out of the race would only be used if Federal criminal indictments are going to be brought, at which point she will have no out but a Presidential pardon or a secret deal that the indictments will be dropped if she leaves town and stays gone.

            The final decision on indictments rests with AG Loretta Lynch, a longtime Clinton friend and supporter. But FBI Director Comey is a man of great integrity, and if he feels a political decision stops what he presents as clear evidence of crimes, he and many other top FBI officials will probably resign. Other FBI agents have already let it be known that they will see that all the evidence ignored by Lynch gets to the media anonymously.

            So even if pardoned, or not prosecuted in exchange for dropping out of the race, her FBI file will become public knowledge in short order — trial by the media. There certainly is no point in staying in the race if the FBI even recommends charges. “I am not a crook” didn’t work for Nixon, and won’t work for her, either. Their investigation has expanded steadily from mishandling of Top Secret government documents to obstruction, to public corruption (selling her office), to financial fraud on a monumental scale over at the Clinton Foundation.

            President Obama’s problem is that the FBI charges he needs to issue pardons for will cover all three of the Clintons, Terry McAuliffe, and several to most of Hillary’s long time aides. To pardon the whole crew will cost him a huge portion of his legacy, and have him leaving office not as a statesman but a political fixer. Hillary and Bill and the whole DNC probably don’t have the pull to get him to do that to his own reputation.

              1. OpenThePodBayDoorsHAL

                How appropriate…she is taking a pill “that was originally introduced in 1948 as a pesticide against rats and mice”.
                Sometimes the universe provides lovely serendipity, free of charge.

                1. Gio Bruno

                  While Coumadin can and has been used as “rat poison”, it would kill any red -blooded animal by thinning the blood to the point of reducing the bloods oxygen content. As for monitoring its use in humans, it requires weekly blood tests and doctors visits to maintain the appropriate balance of thinning/clotting. (BTDT.)

                  1. different clue

                    I don’t think warfarin actually literally “thins” blood by increasing its liquid content. I think what warfarin does is make blood less clot-prone and less-clotable. If someone knows differently, I hope they comment.

            1. pretzelattack

              i don’t know how much integrity comey has, seems like he was just another tool in the bush administration that made it into the toolbox of the obama administration. but maybe he won’t roll over on this, depending on whose interests are hurt.

              1. NotTimothyGeithner

                Who cares? This is about taking down a towering figure in American politics.

                If Comey pulls this off, he wins money and genuine celebrity. Attorney General, Senator, Governor, ambassador to wherever he wants. Book deals. Movie rights. Done and done. I guess you can buy him off, but what is the difference between $200 million and $100 million.

                He’ll be 60 in 2020. If he were to take down Hillary, I think it would make him the presumptive nominee for the GOP or even a third party bid.

                John Edwards turned lawsuits (good ones) into the VP nomination. He was 10,000 votes away from being VP because he got lucky one day when the right person walked into his law office. The current investigation if there is anything is bigger than defective products.

              2. NotTimothyGeithner

                Who cares about the apple cart? This is about taking down a towering figure in American politics.

                If Comey pulls this off, he wins money and genuine celebrity. Attorney General, Senator, Governor, ambassador to wherever he wants. Book deals. Movie rights. Done and done. I guess you can buy him off, but what is the difference between $200 million and $100 million.

                He’ll be 60 in 2020. If he were to take down Hillary, I think it would make him the presumptive nominee for the GOP or even a third party bid.

                John Edwards turned lawsuits (good ones) into the VP nomination. He was 10,000 votes away from being VP because he got lucky one day when the right person walked into his law office. The current investigation if there is anything is bigger than defective products.

              3. Amateur Socialist

                If Comey was a Bush/Cheney tool he didn’t turn out to be a very useful one. He refused to certify the illegal wiretapping operation while Acting Attorney General under Ashcroft. This refusal forced Andrew Card and Alberto Gonzales to visit the bedside of Attorney General John Ashcroft where they were also refused. By all accounts he was ready to resign until Bush met personally with him and agreed to certain unspecified changes to the program.

                He also appointed Patrick Fitzgerald to the CIA leak investigation. And contradicted Gonzales testimony on the US Attorney dismissal scandal.

                I’m not trying to say he was a saint but (especially compared with Attorney General Gonzales, admittedly a low bar) he tended to be a bit more concerned with actual law and order.

                1. neo-realist

                  Comey could be a political tool who, at the end of the day, will chose not to indict just like the guy he appointed, Fitzgerald, who would not indict Rove or Cheney in the CIA leak case, even though there was a lot of evidence on Rove to do so.

            2. Malcolm MacLeod, MD

              Why is this suddenly so surprising? It certainly isn’t to those assiduously following
              Mrs Clinton all this time. It has been known and tolerated for some time, and now
              folks are acting shocked at this rather late “news”. Balderdash.

        2. Dave

          The main reason?

          Bumper sticker seen all over L.A.:

          “Hillary’s coronation means Trumps inauguration”

          BernieSanders2016

      1. Kurt Sperry

        So can a candidate drop out, name a replacement at will and all the primary votes just automatically transfer over to whomever they designate? That really, really makes no sense at all. What if the millions who cast primary votes don’t like the person named? What then?

        1. Antifa

          Each political party is a private party. Like the Shriners, or the Society for Putting Things On Top of Other Things. It’s not a public institution, nor is your vote for an elected official — just a Party champion. So they can change their chosen candidate, change their bylaws, their platform, their rules and policies simply by voting to do so. A whole lot of that goes on at party conventions.

          If their rule is that candidates can be replaced as needed, then that’s their business. If millions of people who spent their primary vote on someone who has now been replaced are unhappy, tough. They’re still getting “represented” — just by someone else. What’s their beef? Anyway?

          “What then?” Well, there’s another vote in November. Spend it as you please.

          1. OpenThePodBayDoorsHAL

            Yes. Then, um, remind me why we need parties?
            I like the Swiss system, they elect 6 people for 6 years, each of the 6 gets to be the top guy for one year. Then they put everything substantive up for direct decision by referendum, everyone goes to the gasthaus on a Sunday to decide what the nation does, from central bank portfolio allocations to basic income.

            1. Qrys

              “remind me why we need parties?”

              The Election of 1824.

              Else, change the Constitution to make elections more sensible.

            2. Qrys

              remind me why we need parties?

              The Election of 1824?

              Else, we need Congress to change the Constitution (again). Not a bad idea, FWIW, but no telling what scheme they’d hatch…

              1. Qrys

                Sorry for the repost — my browser did something wonky and I thought it kicked me out the first time so I wrote it twice… huhm…

    2. Andy

      Praedor-I don’t think so. Even the Republican party backed away from that. The PTB start pulling shit like that on both sides, I would hope there would be a much needed uprising. People are complacent, but “WTF” would be discussed all day every day.

      1. diptherio

        I think you overestimate our populace. Yes, a vocal minority of us would by WTFing all day, every day, but most people would just shrug, take it as further confirmation for why they don’t even bother voting anymore, and go about their day trying to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads.

        I’ve been thinking that this is a fight between Hillary and Joe, ever since since I read that the Veep’s office is in charge of the investigation.

      2. Waldenpond

        They wait until after she is official. She drops out. The party has a rule in case of the loss of a nominee (which they can suspend at any time) to have a quick convention and they select the person they want.

    1. Pat

      I realize great strides have been made in robotics, but I have a feeling that ex CEO would soon discover it isn’t the cost of the robots but the cost of renovating the existing spaces so they can work and then finding out the customer isn’t robotic enough for them to manage that soon makes inefficient but adequately paid humans cheaper.

      1. cnchal

        Ed Rensi: “I guarantee you, if the $15 minimum wage goes across the country, you’re going to see a job loss like you can’t believe. I was at the National Restaurant Show yesterday, and if you look at the robotic devices that are coming into the restaurant industry, it’s cheaper to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than it is to hire an employee who’s inefficient, making $15 an hour bagging french fries.”

        Begs the questions, are all restaurant employees inefficient, or just the french fry baggers which is a euphemism for counter help? Can an efficient employee be cheaper than a robot arm?

        I also wonder what the perception of robot ‘workers’ are? Is it a humanoid looking thing that would move and talk and take orders just as a human would or is it a series of machines that progressively hand off your hamburger until it reaches the till?

        I can see bacteria nightmares happening when these robots become dirty and due to the CEO’s quest for ultimate cheapness, themselves excepted of course, the maintenance needed to operate properly will no doubt be cut back to a less than bare minimum that ends up leaving a trail of sick customers.

        After an episode like that, the scramble is on to to get a robot cleaning robot. Or an employee.

        1. DanB

          To add to what you’ve noted: The taken-for-granted premise of the 1% is that robotics and automation essentially are one-time costs and far less “trouble” than human beings. One major error is that this assumes a cheap energy platform and the entire infrastructure to support and maintain it. That is precisely what is now passing from existence as we -at present- are in slow motion loss of the ability to maintain social and technological complexity. (Another much better known problem is who will buy in sufficient quantities to keep businesses afloat if there’s mass unemployment?) Machines eat energy and energy is less affordable as time passes. That’s why oil prices fell: people are going broke and cannot afford to drive as much -or at all in some instances. It’s also why some of our politicians are now criticizing -without being aware of underlying resource constraints- the Saudis, who have hit their peak in oil production.

          1. Left in Wisconsin

            Yes, even in factory settings where necessary movements can be few and super-predictable, installing robots in a setting where they have not been used previously involves, at best, a lot of trial and error and willingness to tolerate “errors” and “mistakes” until the bugs get worked out. There is simply no way we will see widespread use of robots at McDonalds in any near or medium term.

            So either the guy is a doofus or this is more misdirection.

        2. cyclist

          .. can see bacteria nightmares happening when these robots become dirty and due to the CEO’s quest for ultimate cheapness, themselves excepted of course, the maintenance needed to operate properly will no doubt be cut back to a less than bare minimum that ends up leaving a trail of sick customers….

          Well, since the robots would not be harmed by radiation, they could just irradiate whatever filthy crap they make and shove it out through a little lead door…..

          Wonder if McD needs any high paid consultants?

          1. Antifa

            You know how learning a new software program requires you to start thinking like the program? Well, certain service adjustments will need to be made to allow productive use of robotic servers for fast food. No customer will ever need to enter these newly renovated Mickey Dees.

            You order as usual from the window of your vehicle, and pay with a retinal scan that debits your account. Then you simply pull up to the spout — which is steam sterilized between each order — and out comes your extruded McFood product — just the way you want.

            McDonald’s already knows that what customer like even more than convenience and low prices is personal choice. “Not too much mustard, hold the onions, extra cheese, toasted, supersize me,” and so forth. People need to feel special, to stand out from the crowd.

            In our robotic future, you’ll order lunch just like you do coffee at Starbucks already, only it’s McFood!

            “Yeah, I’ll have a gluten free half beef half lamb double toasted sesame whole wheat, supersized and sugar free, with a double shot each of veggies, margarine, and cola. And psyllium seeds. Oh, and two spoons — we’re gonna share.”

            You pull up, and out comes a plate made from 100% recycled organic trees, and as you hold it under the spout a precise mix of the McFood products you ordered is squeezed out from an inch round stainless steel tube. Astronaut food! Every bite tastes just like every other bite, and best of all you got it your way!

        3. cwaltz

          I wish they would get a robotic arm to bag fries.

          My kid had a couple of second degree burns thanks to trying to bag special order “no salt fries.”
          As it is right now the cheap bastards that own the franchise are too cheap to buy tongs to get the fries from the fryer to the fry container.

          I do think it’s a trip that they think people are inefficient. When my son was bagging those fries, he was also filling drinks(when the incredibly inefficient drink system run by robotics broke). He was stocking the drink station with napkins, cups, straws, lids, ketchup, and changing out the tea containers. He was sweeping the lobby and emptying trash.

          I sure do hope they can get that much more efficient robotic arm to do all those things.

        4. different clue

          Those who would buy a robo-burger in order to dodge the higher price needed to pay the higher wage to a human maker of hamburgers . . . . deserve whatever food poisoning might result from the burger-robots being unclean and unsanitary.

      2. Katniss Everdeen

        Wasn’t it mcdonald’s that had the brilliant idea several years ago to outsource the ordering window to India and then route the order back to the store to be filled? If I remember correctly, it was a disaster on par with the stupidity of the “innovation” in the first place.

        Enough with the huffing and puffing and threatening robot replacement. If you’re going to do it, do it.

        But until then, pay a living wage so the taxpayers don’t have to make up the difference. This country doesn’t need any more “businesses” that can’t operate without subsidies to keep their employees upright.

        We can spend the money providing free tuition at public colleges and universities where students will learn that the crap you’re peddling should not even be referred to as “food.”

        1. Antifa

          Omigawd, I so miss the ordering from India thing. I never once got what I actually ordered, but all the chutney and vindaloo was out of this world!

      3. Rageon

        But how many hamburgers are those robots going to buy? As many as the workers they’ll replace?

        Apocryphal quote:

        Henry Ford II: Walter, how are you going to get those robots to pay your union dues?
        Walter Reuther: Henry, how are you going to get them to buy your cars?

        1. Katniss Everdeen

          Supposedly “supply creates its own demand.”

          The “logic” of that statement is way beyond my pay grade.

          1. Sy Krass

            Yeah if everyone is unemployed the car will cost $5 instead of $20,000. See, supply creates its own demand! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

      4. PQS

        Oh, I’m sure they’ll just pass that cost onto their franchisees. It’s well know that McD’s doesn’t own nearly as many corporate stores as they have franchises, which, I understand, they squeeze down to the ha’penny for every tiny thing.

        My question is, how are you going to keep these machines working efficiently in a greasy, wet environment? Electronics and mechanical devices don’t particularly like either. And if McD’s thinks they’re going to get mechanics to service these things for less than $15/hour, they’re delusional. But that’s already proven.

        1. cwaltz

          You don’t. They have a robotic system that fills drinks for the drive thru from what I understand, it sucks. It spends half the time broken.

      1. JohnnyGL

        I don’t believe this even for a minute.

        Has anyone seen how much labor is required to maintain the self-checkout machines and scanners at supermarkets? The constant maintenance required when the software crashes and mechanical failures that result add up. More labor time is required from the supermarket when I use the self-scanners than when I use a human scanner at the register.

        Also, I can only speculate how much additional losses from theft come from those things.

        1. Kurt Sperry

          I agree that robotics will never be economical for replacing humans in the service/retail sector, it’s just an empty threat with nothing behind it to use against giving fair wages. Where it might make more sense is in management. AI can make decisions based on rational criteria and you don’t need a lot of mechanical robot arms that break down and need regular service, electrohydraulics and closed loop control magic to implement the outputs. Middle management seems like the sweet spot for automation to me, there are high rise office buildings full of relatively highly compensated humans in every modern city that would probably be far easier to replace with automation than retail/service employees are. The problem is then, what do you do with the credentialed children of the middle and upper classes if you don’t have high rises to warehouse them in and jobs to rationalize giving them money?

          1. SoCal Rhino

            Experience in financial services offshoring demonstrates that executives believe mid-level staff are mindless automatons. Experience in what followed demonstrates that executives were mindless automatons incapable of accurately assessing complex matters. By all means, send in the robots.

      2. Christopher Fay

        How much does it cost for the AI algorithm to replace the CEO, also should be great cost savings.

  3. Adam1

    “I’m beginning to wonder if the Dem party has an alternative to Clinton up their sleeve who is not Sanders…”
    I had this suspicion as the public evidence mounted on the email scandal. What’s publicly out there already would be enough to send her to prison if she was just your everyday stiff. The question then becomes what is Obama’s and the party’s plan. While I am not a party insider, I do believe that the party position/rules would give the party bosses the ability to appoint a new candidate if Hillary had to bow out of the campaign AFTER the convention. It seems logical that if the establishment is hell bent on denying Sanders the democratic ticket at all costs, and then all they need to do is ensure Hillary makes it over the party finish line and then appoint someone else they like. Biden also seems to be in the public eye a bit more these days, could it be he’s in on Plan B?

    1. edmondo

      That worked out so well for the Dems in 1968.

      On a side note: Wouldn’t it be grand if Trump added Bob Corker as his VP? Instead of debates, the two tickets could hold investing seminars. Hillary could teach the great unwashed how to invest in cattle futures and make a killing. Corker could teach us how to make millions in short term capital gains by day trading stocks.
      http://www.wsj.com/articles/sen-bob-corker-profits-on-quick-stock-trades-1446596135

      A chicken in every pot? Nay, pheasant under class and Dom Perignon every night – after all, we’re Americans. We’re Exceptional!

      1. Barmitt O'Bamney

        Trump’s running mate will be Charlie Sheen. I have that on unimpeachable authority. WINNING! Nuff said. Hulk Hogan was runner up and could still get the nod if Sheen’s health fails.

    2. flora

      The only way the neoliberals’ hold on the Dem party gets broken is for the neoliberal DLC Dem establishment candidates to lose. I won’t vote for another establishment neoliberal Dem candidate.

      So the Dem party power brokers can withdraw Hillary and run Biden if they think that will work. I won’t vote for him, either. And if they do that the corruption in the nominating system will be unmistakable.

      1. Kurt Sperry

        Yep. I can’t vote for Trump for essentially the same reason I can’t vote for Hillary–they both represent too many political views I find completely completely abhorrent– but the problem in the US isn’t and never has been the Republican Party but instead a Democratic Party that is seemingly only in place to stymie any positive change, and perhaps more importantly, to keep the space occupied where any positive change would come from and out of the hands of those who would implement it.

        Any time I hear someone demonize the Republicans or place blame on them, I know I am dealing with either someone who is completely naive about US politics or is part of the machine consciously preventing any real progress from taking place.

        1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

          If people want a thousand-year Third Party, you have to start at some point in time.

          The ‘we can’t win this time’ reasoning has stopped that cold every single time.

          And you find the same short-term profit/loss focus on Wall Street as well.

        2. OpenThePodBayDoorsHAL

          Disagree, Matt Taibbi nails it on the Repubs, the Dems followed them with “me too” policies but the rot definitely originated on the R side:

          http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/r-i-p-gop-how-trump-is-killing-the-republican-party-20160518?page=5

          Here’s the money quote:

          If this isn’t the end for the Republican Party, it’ll be a shame. They dominated American political life for 50 years and were never anything but monsters. They bred in their voters the incredible attitude that Republicans were the only people within our borders who raised children, loved their country, died in battle or paid taxes. They even sullied the word “American” by insisting they were the only real ones. They preferred Lubbock to Paris, and their idea of an intellectual was Newt Gingrich. Their leaders, from Ralph Reed to Bill Frist to Tom DeLay to Rick Santorum to Romney and Ryan, were an interminable assembly line of shrieking, witch-hunting celibates, all with the same haircut – the kind of people who thought Iran-Contra was nothing, but would grind the affairs of state to a halt over a blow job or Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube.

          1. flora

            Well, no. The Repubs have always been the Repubs. The rot is in the Dems who decided that winning no matter what, even if it meant embracing Repub policies, was all that mattered; winning with no more purpose than collecting cash by embracing Repub policies is way more corrupt that being a Repub who embraces Repub policies.

    3. cybrestrike

      If the Democrats nominated Biden after Clinton dropped out (after the convention), I don’t think there’d be enough people who’d support him. It would probably fracture the party as the Sanders people would walk away. And no amount of fear mongering about the Supreme Court would bring enough of them back into the fold.
      Besides, I think the DNC is confident enough that Clinton will somehow get away with all of this.

      1. NotTimothyGeithner

        Biden is Hillary without the star power. Biden was the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee during the Clarence Thomas hearings. The Supreme Court argument would officially be forfeit with Biden. Yes, Biden didn’t want to hear women testify against Clarence Thomas.

        Biden was only acceptable as VP because Obama was young and it got Uncle Joe out of the Senate where he could cause less trouble.

          1. fresno dan

            WHOOPS! Freudian slip – I meant Chutzpah (thats my story and I’m sticking with it)

      2. ProNewerDeal

        I recall a newsstory that the H Clinton owners/”funders” & superdelegates, support inserting Joe The Biden, if H Clinton is indicted or otherwise considered unable to run.

        Cenk from theyoungturks mentioned in his show, that when he was in DC recently, several “D party insiders”, “off the record”, told him the same story.

        I agree that the D Party insiders forcing in Biden, would alienate (even further) many Sanders voters

        1. Jen

          And Clinton voters. Those diehards who are hanging on for the First Woman President aren’t going to accept Biden as a substitute. On the other hand, party unity achieved!

          1. polecat

            maybe Unca Joe will do a ‘Caitlyn’, and dive in for the trans vote….killing two birdies w/one stone ;’)

            I must say though…..i just can’t picture ‘josephine’ with long locks & rouge……

            ….and if he/she’s wearin slingback stilettos,…….watch your back!

          2. Antifa

            Is getting a female in the top office a worthwhile goal is the female is of questionable conduct and character?

            Isn’t that like saying, “My mother, drunk or sober?”

            1. ambrit

              “My country, right or wrong.”
              The evanglicals aren’t going to like this one bit. The last time a woman insisted on being on top, (Lilith,) the Holy Scripture had to be rewritten. (Where is east of Eden anyway?)

                1. ambrit

                  Wasn’t it H Rap Brown who said that guns were as American as Mother and apple pie? (I meant the tag to be an equivalence.)

            2. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

              If the people crave a Hindu president, anyone can convert and become eligible for the highest office.

              If the people crave an Oriental president, sorry an Asian American, sorry, an Filipino American president (I heard on the radio yesterday that in Asia, no one says he/she is an Asian, but a Thai, a Burmese, or a Korean, etc, so this Asian American term is just one more example of ignorance, out of myriad), there is no free will there. You must be born one.

              And no free will either, whether one is or is not born. Only after birth, you get free will. But why? Isn’t it better to have free will before birth (as well as after birth, I guess)?

              How many would rather they have not been born?

              But I digress

              Gender – with science, it can be a choice.

              Anyone, male or female, can become a female president, through hard work and if the desire is there. (Or so says every mother to her child).

              1. OpenThePodBayDoorsHAL

                It does lead however to reductio ad absurdem, do I now need to refer to “Cambodian-Americans” and “Korean-Americans”? We seem to be OK with “African-Americans”, not “Guinea-Bissau-Americans” and “Angolan-Americans”.

        1. Pat

          I just figure that is a requirement for any acceptable nominee as far as the Democratic Party establishment and its owners are concerned. Trade, entitlement reform, further debasement of the Post Office and public school system AND endless military interventions coupled with a continued hollowing out of the courts as far as worker, consumer and voting rights are concerned. Corporate owners demand no less.

          1. tegnost

            yep, all the things hillary talked about in her unreleased speeches but won’t admit publicly She’s going to give that uppity working class what they deserve, good and hard. As to biden i don’t understand how that works, can hillary assign her delegates to him?

        2. polecat

          Then there’s Joe’s son Hunter……the young military washout and coke-head who’s been given a cushy job position in establishing a Ukraine energy co. !!

          Life is Grand …….. if your a Biden…….Right??

    4. ProNewerDeal

      Adam1 wrote “I had this suspicion as the public evidence mounted on the email scandal. What’s publicly out there already would be enough to send her to prison if she was just your everyday stiff.”

      By chance to have an article written by a lawyer or other subject matter expert on this topic? It would be interesting to have available, when discussing the issue with SHillaryBots.

      1. Jim Haygood

        From a memo posted by 14 former intelligence professionals who had security clearances:

        If you have a secured government computer operating off of a secure server, that means that what is on the computer stays on the computer. This is not a matter of debate or subject to interpretation. Whether or not the classification is unnecessary is not your decision to make.

        The law explicitly makes it a felony to cut and paste classified information, removing its classification designation. Retaining such information on a private email system is also a felony. In one of Secretary Clinton’s emails, she instructed her staff simply to remove a classification and send the information to her on her server.

        http://tinyurl.com/zatlodg

        They observe that “the White House has made excuses for deliberate security violations by Secretary Clinton that would have gotten senior officials like us fired and probably indicted,” and demand that Obama “order Attorney General Loretta Lynch to instruct the FBI to stop slow-walking the email investigation.”

        As in the summer of 1974 when even Nixon’s partisan allies started abandoning him, now the Hildabeest is so toxic that even a lame duck White House may have to back off the untenable stance of offering milquetoast excuses for the flagrant crimes of Typhoid Hillary McPerpface.

        1. Lambert Strether

          This is interesting, well worth a read. Presumably it’s being responded to by Clinton supporters. Do you have any sense of the largetr reaction to it?

        2. Another Anon

          I have a cousin who once was a prosecutor and
          he told me recently that with out a doubt she should be
          indicted.

          1. OpenThePodBayDoorsHAL

            I sorely wish it were otherwise but I think anyone breathlessly awaiting indictments will be disappointed, we live in Jeffrey Sachs’ “Age of Impunity”. If they didn’t/wouldn’t indict the likes of L. Blankfein and A. Mozillo, the generals who slaughtered 42 in the MSF hospital, let alone BushBama for Article 8 drone war crimes…the wait for justice will be very long indeed.

    5. NotTimothyGeithner

      They floated Biden in October, but the bench is a disaster. Everyone acceptable to the Democratic elite lacks celebrity which means the will he be questioned and has a crippling liability whether it’s support for private prisons or robbing public schools.

      Over the last eight years, the Democrats have done nothing. There are no legislative champions. This is a party that would keep Pelosi and Reid in leadership positions and appoint a Senator who isn’t even a Democrat as the ranking member of the budget committee. The Democratic caucus is simply lazy. Sanders has no business being that powerful as an independent except no one else wants wants to work hard. Here in Virginia, the most powerful state legislator is an independent simply because no one else wants to learn how the sausage is made.

      Al Franken is a great example of the problem. He’s a smart guy, but in no time, he became a policy wonk despite no relevant experience. The other Senators are simply lazy interested in the fun parts. A comedy writer can be a moral voice, but there should be wonks ahead of him with the length of tenure. It speaks to the state of the Congress and what passes for competence.

    6. Katniss Everdeen

      All of this speculation presumes that the candidate the voters choose will be elected president.

      That myth was busted in Florida in 2000. And then there are the democratic superdelegates whose purpose is solely to thwart the voters if, in the opinion of the elites, they have chosen badly. Wasserman-Schultz was, apparently, comfortable enough with that idea to state it matter-of-factly.

      Plenty of people have observed that this presidential “election” ritual is merely the show that confirms for the masses that this country is a democracy. A more elaborate version of the Iraqi “purple finger.”

      The shadow government will not be denied their obedient pet without a fight. No drama between now and November would surprise me.

      1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

        It was not too long ago that the nation came close to Martial Law, but was saved by one brave man who got down on one knee.

        And once again, we are under siege by an army of bubbles.

        These are perilous times we live in.

        Forget about gluten-rich bread, but will addictive circuses distract us enough as we endure the pain of going through yet more crises? Perhaps legalized Marijuana is the answer.

        1. polecat

          addictive circuses = baubles ……..bubbles & baubles…..

          …as for the MJ……… it only makes the pain and anguish ‘slightly less’ intolerable!

    7. different clue

      Obama’s plan is to get rich after leaving office. After Inauguration Day in January 2017, he’s outa there. So he has no plan and no interest in having a plan.

      What the DLC Corruptocrat Party has planned is unknown to me. My guess is that they and their Wall Street owners would like to see all the Clinton Scandals contained until after Clinton has won the nomination and Sanders has been disposed of. The establishment does not want to see a Major Party Sanders candidacy. After Clinton has been safely nominated, then if the Clinton Scandals explode; the Inner Party Leadership can swap Clinton out and swap another nominee in. Probably Biden or something like that.

      If that happens, will the dogs vote for the dog food? We may find out.

    1. aumua

      But of course, both Trump and the Establishment, the Republican party, the Democratic party, they’re all more afraid of Sanders than anyone else. Sure, the establishment isn’t crazy about Trump, but let’s be real: he’s gotten more attention, more press than anyone else this election. It’s kind of hard to ignore the guy, I understand, but it’s like the msm isn’t even trying to give even air time to the candidates.

      1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

        Not scarred. Not afraid.

        Sanders and Trump simply tap the same energy source – anti establishment voters.

        It’s simply neoliberalism math for anyone, Sanders or Trump, to avoid too many competitors in the same market niche, unless it’s necessary, like a final showdown.

        Better it be regulated, negotiated or respected. (I will stay in my party and you stay in yours and unfortunately, it looks like the twain shall never meet in November).

        1. polecat

          To paraphrase Cole, from the film ‘The Sixth Sense’ ………..

          ……..”I see pitchfork people”…….

          1. Benedict@Large

            “The more I see the moneyed classes, the more I understand the guillotine.”

            — George Bernard Shaw

    2. NotTimothyGeithner

      Trump wins by pointing out the emperor has no clothes. Everything reasonably compelling about Trump revolves around this. He can’t do this with Sanders, a man who was criticized for not wearing a tuxedo.

      I think the debate will help Trump against Hillary by letting him either appear to hold his own because debates are stupid or set a high bar for Clinton, but a generic style Democrat could easily not campaign and win the White House against the GOP. Hillary and other DLC types are so odious they can actually lose.

      1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

        If that’s what Sanders has wanted all along, the debate should been have proposed long ago.

        This is Hillary forcing you. And you are just reacting.

        And it’s going to end up looking like two men talking behind the back of a woman.

        Trump’s strategy – I assume – is then to egg on Sanders about how much he was wronged, has suffered, let him do all the J’acuse and just go, ‘wow, wow, I can’t believe how corrupt the Democratic party is. Why don’t you leave?’

        1. sd

          I have a different take. Think about it. Trump is telling media outlets if they want to hear him debate, they have to pay him. He’s moving the goal posts to a new field. You pay him, he gives the money to charity, and everyone gets to hear what he has to say for free. You pay Hillary, she talks to you behind closed doors, no one knows what she says, and she keeps the money.

          The optics on this are insanely creative. Clinton is an absolute idiot if she can’t see the trap.

          Clinton is underestimating Trump at an order of magnitude that is mind boggling.

  4. aumua

    Donald Trump’s Energy Plan: More Fossil Fuels and Fewer Rules New York Times. Mind you, Clinton and Obama are firmly in favor of cosmetic rules.

    Yes, and I look forward to reading more of the mental contortions today of otherwise sane and rational people as they try to convince themselves that Trump is a viable option. I mean, I wish he was you know? I really do. I wish that Sanders had been given a fair shot, and I’m convinced that if he had been, that he would win. That’s not where we are though, and this election is looking grim indeed for the U.S.A.

    The only option I can come up with right now is to just sit this one out. Just not vote. Some choice quotes from another article (not ft) about Donald Trump’s “energy plan”:

    A central question confronting the next president will be how to address climate change. Mr. Trump, who has repeatedly denied the established science that climate change is caused by humans, vowed in his speech to undo many of Mr. 0bama’s initiatives.

    He did not explicitly address the scientific legitimacy of human-caused climate change, but said, “We’re going to deal with real environmental challenges, not the phony ones we’ve been hearing about.”

    In an even more potent threat, Mr. Trump declared that the United States would “stop all payment of U.S. tax dollars to global warming programs.”

    “We’re going to bring back the coal industry, save the coal industry,” he said. “I love those people.”

    Remember: this isn’t about what Obama or Clinton do or don’t do, this is about the abyss that we’re staring into with Donald Trump.

    1. edmondo

      this isn’t about what Obama or Clinton do or don’t do,

      That’s exactly what my vote will be about five months from now.

    2. Roger Smith

      We are staring into an abyss either way. Trump comes off more extreme but neither he or Clinton will actually address real issues facing our society or world. In the end Trump will be fought tooth and nail at every turn and 2018 may actually be a good year for independent minded congressional elections.

      At this point I think validating the Democrats (and duopoly at large) is far worse. For once they need to be held accountable for their selfish arrogance. They need to drown in their high-minded prestige and abysmal farce of morality and virtue.

    3. tongorad

      Remember: this isn’t about what Obama or Clinton do or don’t do, this is about the abyss that we’re staring into with _____________________.

      Insert Republican boogeyman here. I don’t think very many are buying this anymore. I’m not – Trump doesn’t scare me in the slightest.

    4. Romancing the Loan

      If they won’t let us have Sanders, they can choke on Trump. Maybe he’ll spur them to rediscover how to actually govern instead of daydreaming about their upcoming lucrative job in the private sector.

      I’d rather have an abyss that looks like an abyss – at least then people aren’t jumping in by themselves.

      1. OpenThePodBayDoorsHAL

        I love this comment, when Bush/Cheney took the country down the dark neo-fascist war road it properly did look like an abyss. Then the Manchurian Candidate came along and normalized it all and the people went “huh…if this young black guy got in there and thinks it’s all OK then we better go along”.
        We need an abyss that looks like an abyss again, so we can all step up to the edge and say: No, we DON’T want to jump down there.

    5. John Wright

      One can visualize a President Trump with his wings clipped by both Democrats and Republicans as the dormant bi-partisan political immune system kicks into action..

      A president HRC might do far more damage because neoliberal Dems and “pragmatic” Republicans will agree with her financial industry favoritism, trade policies, military actions, and regime change goals.

      HRC may provoke Russia enough to cause real problems as she attempts to prove that women can wage misguided wars as well as anyone.

      As far as climate change concerns, I believe a President HRC will speechify her climate change concerns but do nothing of significance.

      Clinton has certainly observed how well Obama’s inversion of the Theodore Roosevelt saying to “Speak loudly and carry a small stick” has worked for him and will probably behave similarly.

      As mentioned on NC, Trump might well be the “less effective evil” to have as President.

      I’m rooting for the Clinton email issues or some ethical scandal involving the Clinton Foundation to derail Clinton and force the Democrats to run Sanders.

      If this doesn’t happen, and Clinton chooses a quality VP (which I believe is unlikely) then it could make sense to vote for Clinton as an upcoming health or ethical issue might cause the VP to be installed soon after the election.

      Otherwise, a vote for Trump can be justified on “less effective evil” grounds.

      1. Brooklin Bridge

        Excellent points except for assuming Clinton’s health might fail. Her dead skeleton would hold on to that ring and find the strength to slash and hash the social programs, renege on all Climate Change issues that big oil dictates, get us into all out war with Russia, pass every trade deal that met the toxic standard, and so on. Also, she could run a gas chamber disguised as a public shower and get away with it, the email kerfuffle will be buried unless the FBI feels it doesn’t have enough “goods on her” to get what ever it wants during her reign. At this point, there is virtually no scandal the powerful can’t make go away or look like something else unless someone or something more powerful is in conflict.

        Trump is nasty but he will create deadlock and that is probably our best hope.

      2. Roger Smith

        HRC may provoke Russia enough to cause real problems as she attempts to prove that women can wage misguided wars as well as anyone.

        This is what scares me the most about her. While Willy triangulated and proved his “greatness” by besting Republicans at their own game (what kind of measure of success is that again?), I fear Hillary will play the same game, only her measure of success will be doing what no man before her could. The Clinton Warhawk (NYT) article has a childhood story that I can see as a psychological influence on this.

    6. JohnnyGL

      How is this a material difference to what we have now? Coal industry isn’t coming back. Obama sacrificed them for the frackers, but with nat gas prices so low, no one will invest in new projects. You can’t just restart coal mining projects that have been shuttered. It’s not easy to do.

      As for dumping the Paris accords, there’s nothing to dump. No one committed to do anything that they weren’t already doing.

      The only difference here is in talk and in tone. Establishment Dems say nice things, do bad things. Repubs say bad things and tell you they’re good, do bad things. This is EXACTLY like the policy on torture and killing terrorist families. We’re already doing the stuff Trump advocates, he just likes bragging about it and Dem elites like pretending they don’t want to do it but are being “practical”.

    7. aumua

      Point made, I think.

      So when this actually goes down, and we’re all going “OMG what the hell were we thinking?!” Just know that I will be back to hold you all accountable for your words here today. Oh ho ho ho yes I will, my NC family.

  5. Softie

    The AT story was tragic. If you carry a smartphone, you can easily buy a backcountry navigation app, which allows you to download maps for offline use. Or you can simply rely on Google Map’s offline capabilities but it just doesn’t have all the bells of the former.

    1. hemeantwell

      I’ve hiked in similar terrain in Vermont. When it’s fully leafed out it is very easy to get disoriented, especially during much of the day when the sun’s position is less indicative of direction. In reading the article I double-taked to see that she had a black tent, something I’ve never seen in quite a lot of camping. Most of the time tents are a bright color, almost luridly so, to make them easy to spot.

      1. petal

        NH-ite here, you are right. When it’s leafed out it’s super easy to get disoriented-frighteningly and quickly so. Everything looks the same and then panic sets in and your hole gets deeper. I read her friends were questioning her …abilities and that this AT hike was a good idea. Very sad.

        We’re about to have Hotlanta weather here in northern NH for the next few days(hitting 91F). Way too early for this, makes me concerned about the rest of the summer. Every year seems to be hotter, quicker.

        And Yves, please have a break!! Get some rest-we don’t want anything happening to you.

      2. Carolinian

        She had a compass and trail maps. Apparently technology was the thing that was her undoing as she started wandering around looking for a cell signal to call a rescuer.

    2. Bob

      As the comment at the top by “divadab” notes, “neanderthals made fire”. But this elderly woman was unable to despite having lighters. Yes, the story is clearly tragic. A fire and the smoke it generated would have led searchers directly to her. It’s also clear that she relied far too much on her cell phone instead of having even rudimentary backcountry skills like starting a fire.

      1. flora

        Yes. It’s a tragic story. I hope the search and rescue teams in the upper Adirondacks and the White Mountains have access to tracking dogs. The country is too wildly overgrown for human eyesight to penetrate more than a few feet ahead.

        1. aletheia33

          The friend who left her on the trail, allowing her to keep going on her own, and perhaps the only one who fully understood how poorly equipped she was to handle it, must be racked with guilt. Was summoned, presumably by cellphone, to leave the trail for a family emergency. Did she leave the trail literally to save the life of someone in her family? Ironic.

    3. diptherio

      NO. No, no, no! Eagle Scout here, from Montana, grew up in the backcountry. Listen up. You want to go out into the wilderness? Good for you. But guess what, Nature doesn’t care about you, so you better damn well know what the hell you’re doing. Smartphones? Dumbest idea ever. Where you going to plug the thing into when you need to charge it up? The current bush?

      The US Forest Service sells waterproof, extremely detailed topo maps. Buy one for the area you want to explore. Study it extensively. Keep it handy while you’re hiking. Buy a compass (no, not a compass app, an actual, totally mechanical compass) and learn how to use it. Stop every so often while you’re hiking and locate yourself on the sweet-ass analog map you got from the USFS. Also, always take a partner. The buddy-system has saved more lives than all the slick technology in this world put together.

      If all that sounds like too much for you to handle, stay at home and watch Nat Geo.

      1. flora

        Yes. Great advice. This story sadly read very much like a real life version of Jack London’s famous short story “To Build a Fire.”

      2. Jim Haygood

        ‘Smartphones? Dumbest idea ever. Where you going to plug the thing into when you need to charge it up? The current bush?’

        Into a roll-up solar charger — 4 ounces, under 50 dollars.

        That said, no one should venture cross-country without a topo map and compass. Cell coverage follows roads and populated areas, not wilderness back country. Carrying a phone provides a false sense of security. Where’s the Helicopter Rescue app?

        1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

          What about the guy assigned to monitor you?

          Can you call him and be rescued pronto? He knows where you are 24/7.

          One more reason to be grateful to the government and you don’t even have to pay taxes for that either.

      3. polecat

        I look at this woman’s tragedy as a metaphor to what humans, in the main, are doing to the biosphere……lost…and not groaking the danger of their folly……

        Nature truly does bat last………!

      4. Antifa

        That chalk line string carpenters use is handy for really deep woods where you have no line of sight to a distant hill or mountain. Just tie it to a bush or tree on the trail, and let it unwind behind you as you go look for a privy. Especially useful at night.

        When you’re done, reel yourself back to your starting point. Fishing line does fine, too.

      5. Softie

        The first rule of backpacking is that an item you carry need to have more than one use. Smartphone is better because it is very convenient as compass, maps, GPS, video camera, still camera, ebook reader, flashlight, mirror, entertainment and etc. What many people don’t know is that it doesn’t need any cell signal for a backcountry GPS navigation app to function because it has a built-in GPS chip, and Navi app can allow you to put entire US Forrest Service’s topo mapping data at your finger tip. Smartphone has much better user interface and easy usability than a dedicated GPS unit. But it has its downside, a shorter battery life. Yes, you need to carry either one or two small external power packs or solar panels for recharging. But AT is rarely four days away from town and one or two power packs should be perfect solution. Putting the smartphone in airplane mode and only turning on GPS will give you even more lasting battery power.

      6. Carolinian

        Those maps are now free online as pdfs. You could put them in your smartphone. Just don’t forget that solar charger.

        Personally I’d never venture into unknown woods without my handy Garmin Etrex. It runs on
        AA batteries.

  6. RabidGandhi

    Re: The one thing rich parents do for their kids that makes all the difference. Washington Post
    ___________________

    WaPo never ceases to disappoint: not just in its rabidly right wing articles and opeds; when they publish an article with decent stats like this one, the commenters pick up the slack. Here are the top 3 liked comments right now:

    1. What’s the point? People should move to “bad” neighbors for the sake of social “integration?” People should send their kids to “bad” schools for the society? The researcher and writer of this article either have no kids or no brain. This great country is built on freedom, not artificially created “harmony!” (RG: “Free to be anything you choose. Free to wait tables and shine shoes“)

    2. I work hard to afford my house, in a good town with good schools. I earn it. I resent the notion that I’m doing something that’s segregationist and bad for society. To those who would socially engineer a path for poor people to move into my town, I ask this, what rewards will you leave in society for those who work hard?
    (RG: “I earn it” Snort.)

    But the handsdown winner is:

    3. Just further evidence that our over-obsession with race in this country misses the real issue: social class. I’m perfectly willing to live near, socialize with, and work with colleagues of diverse ethnic, racial, and religious backgrounds. I have no desire to be anywhere near the social pathologies of the lower classes, whether white, black, or other. (RG: extra-credit for clarity)

    1. Softie

      If you can’t donate North of $20 million to an Ivy school that you want your kid(s) to attend, you’re still a member of lower class.

    2. sleepy

      All assume that the “right” to good schools somehow is equated to social standing.

      1. polecat

        Who needs ‘school’ now anyway, unless your a sociopath wannabe……It’s all scam all the time…..

        better to self learn IMNSHO !!

    3. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

      Are there conscientious objecting, good teachers who will leave good school districts to teach at bad school districts?

      “This war on students from poor families is immoral. I will not go. Will any parents follow me?”

      That is demanding a lot, though quite inspiring.

  7. rich

    VIDEO… MSNBC Turns On Hillary – “Stop Lying, Stop Digging”

    Things however turned decidedly worse for Hillary when even the rabidly pro-Clinton channel MSNBC decided to tear Hillary apart for what is now an insurmountable mountain of lies.

    It took place early today when MSNBC host Joe Scarborough slammed Hillary Clinton, calling on the Democratic presidential front-runner to “stop lying” about her personal email account.

    “It’s pretty remarkable,” he said on “Morning Joe” of Clinton’s response to a watchdog report that found Clinton and her top aides did not comply with policy while she served as secretary of State as cited by The Hill. “I don’t understand why you put out a statement like that,” Scarborough added. “Stop lying, stop digging.”

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-05-26/game-over-even-msnbc-turns-hillary-stop-lying-stop-digging?

    the video is good

    1. Lambert Strether

      I looked at that video. The chattering classes (including Mrs. Alan Greenspan), vile and vicious though they are, are not inside the Clinton bubble. It’s not just Scarborough, though for whatever reason the Beltway hive mind seems to have chosen his show to take point on this.

      Meanwhile, Joe Biden displays a deeply sincere, shark-like smile. About 300 people in the entire world think he ought to be President, but those 300 are Very Serious, and if they want to throw Clinton under the bus, they can Clinton discovers health problems that demand she spend more time with her family, she will.

    1. fresno dan

      Davey contacted the Odd Fellows, who agreed to supply the necessary funds. And then Davey, who works out of her office near San Diego, arranged for the body to be picked up and stored, temporarily, in a mortuary refrigerator in Fresno.

      ========================
      She deserves better than Fresno…

  8. edmondo

    Democratic Convention Hosted by Republican Donors, Anti-Obamacare Lobbyists Intercept

    In October 2015, DNC chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., reportedly huddled with dozens of lobbyists to plan the convention in Philadelphia, and provided the influence peddlers involved with a menu of offerings in exchange for donations.

    Can you just see DWS standing there selling Senators and Congressmen like a modern day slave trader? “Shumer, show your teeth (or lack thereof when it comes to financial regulation).” Sold!

    1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

      Menu of offerings.

      It’s $5.99 and all you can eat, when you don’t have a 5-star chef.

      Go for quantity; forget quality.

  9. ProNewerDeal

    USian society in general, & BigMedia in specific, has a bizarre, often back-a**wards, broken moral compass.

    ESPN radio “Mike & Mike” is demanding that the Baylor University’s President, Athletic Director & football coach get fired, for covering up some football player’s sexual abuse. ESPN defends transgender rights for Kaitlyn Jenner. These are good ethical positions.

    However, NBA broadcaster Sage Steele censors USian-born, Canadian-naturalized rock musician Win Butler for praising CAN MedicareForAll. Blocking CAN MedicareForAll is IMHO a greater moral crime, as Harvard Public Health estimates it kills 45K USians/yr, which may be decreased to “only” ~30K per year by 2022 due to the ACA.

    ESPN & other BigMedia will correctly villify the likes of the Baylor staff, or scandalous athletes like cyclists Lance Armstrong. These powerful sports people are possibly sociopaths, but they haven’t murdered even 1 human. But then BigMedia will speak on US pols like 0bama or Bush43 or Condoleeza Rice with obsequious reverence, when the likes of 0bama HAVE MURDERED countless USians via MedicareForAll blocking, some USians on non-US soil via drone dictator-murder, & countless foreign innocent civilians via drones & other warfare.

    A bizarro world morality, which is also contrary to the teaching of the claimed moral leader, J3sus of Nazareth, of the majority of USians self-identified as Chr1stians. I wouldn’t say this type of US bizarro world morality is much better than the anti-“morality” of say “honor killings” in the Middle East.

    Good morning MuricNam! Situation Normal, All F*cked Up!

    1. Lambert Strether

      “Why would a state government – the governor is a Democrat – hand out money to a hedge fund?”

      [wipes tears of laughter].

      Because they asked for it?

  10. Pavel

    I see the email hairball has been promoted to “tar baby” … congratulations!

    There is an interesting discussion of the Clinton server and its technical specs etc by the IT boffins at Hacker News today, linked to an article about possible server security issues. Many if not most of the posters slam HRC for using such an insecure system:

    Hacker News discussion: Did the Clinton Email Server Have an Internet-Based Printer? (krebsonsecurity.com)

    One comment on the original article claims that the Clinton email went through a “spam filter” service, which meant that every email sent to Clinton was checked en route on yet another server somewhere on the internetz. Others are pointing out that rebooting the box a couple of times because of suspected hacking doesn’t really inspire confidence.

    “It gets better. Do a dig mx clintonemail.com. You’ll see that the machine’s incoming email was filtered by mxlogic.net, a spam filtering service that works by received all your emails, filtering out the spam, and forwarding you the rest.”

    That arrangement appears to have only been in effect since circa June, 2013. We should think also about the time BOTH before and after that.

    ;; bailiwick: clintonemail.com.
    ;; count: 5454
    ;; first seen: 2013-06-24 21:27:43 -0000
    ;; last seen: 2016-05-26 12:57:43 -0000
    clintonemail.com. IN MX 10 clintonemail.com.inbound10.mxlogic.net.
    clintonemail.com. IN MX 10 clintonemail.com.inbound10.mxlogicmx.net.

    “This is because the hosting provider, Platte River Network, sold a package along with the hosting. The package included spam filtering and full-disk off-site backup (since then seized by the FBI).”

    Was that all in the report? I guess I’ll have to go and read that whole thing now.

    Interesting footnote: On tonight’s NBC Evening Nudes, they mentioned that the FBI had seized Clinton’s server, and also a USB thumb drive in August of last year. No mention of any PRINTERS being seized. (Typical incompetent FBI, still operating in the Louis Freeh era. The man didn’t even know how to use a computer, and didn’t want to.)

    “So every email received by Clinton was going through many unsecured places, including a spam filtering queue, a backup appliance and an off-site backup server. Which has already been documented.”

    Um, yep. You’re right. Arguably, the security of Clinton’s e-mails were even WORSE after the switch in June, 2013, than it had been before that.

    And let’s not forget that the Stored Communications Act makes it perfectly legal for any service provider who happens to have YOUR e-mails on THEIR hard drives to peek at those e-mails, pretty much as they see fit, as long as doing so is ostensibly or arguably for “technical” reasons having to do with the management of the service they are providing.
    (Google goes further and has software that looks at everything, for marketing/advertising purposes. All 100% legal, based on their end luser contracts, I’m sure.)

    So this is basically like when some NSA people got caught peeking at the NSA’s records on their love interests. When they get caught, they just shrug, promise never to do it again, and nobody goes to jail.

    How many sysadmins at MXLogic had access to Clinton’s emails? If the one lone guy who pulled the graveyard shift poked around into those e-mails, at say 3AM, would anybody even know that had happened? (Even the NSA didn’t know what Snowden had looked at until he was already long gone, and even then, they weren’t entirely sure.)

    — krebsonsecurity.com comment

    The NYT, WaPo, and the LA Times are all slamming Hillary for her evasions and lies, notable of course that “it was allowed”, and also for her refusal to cooperate with the IG.

    I suspect the FBI won’t be allowed to indict (well, DOJ won’t) but one or more FBI agents might resign and leak the findings, which would be equally devastating.

    Someone suggested the DNC choose Jerry Brown (instead of say, Biden) as HRC’s replacement — I think that would be fantastic but not much chance alas.

    1. NotTimothyGeithner

      Jerry Brown. Ah, a proponent of a flat tax and abolishing the department of education. Is Rick Perry unavailable? Between Tsongas and Brown, Bill was in many ways the reasonable candidate in 1992.

      He might lose California at this point after he’s vetoed gun control bills and supported fracking.

        1. Pavel

          I may be out of the loop here… I thought he is considered to have done a good job in his latest California gubernatorial gig…?

          1. Jess

            Yeah, you’re outta the loop. Waaay out. Gov. Moonbeam is a full-fledged neoliberal DINO scumbag. CA’s pension crisis? Reform bill cleaned up a lot of the most egregious scams. But Brownie then pushed through and signed another bill that exempted the powerful Correctional Officers’ union from complying.

            Fracking in a state with a historic drought? Jerry Baby is all for it; in fact, he asked the state Natural Resources dept to check to see if there was oil under his family farm. (Taxpayers to foot the bill, natch.)

            Ballot measure to increase taxes with the money earmarked for improving K-12 education and to avoid tuition hikes at UC. Two weeks after the measure passed, all — ALL — the money was transferred to back-fill unfunded pension liabilities for CalSTERS (teachers and administrators). Not a dime went to the classroom in any form. And, oh yeah, then the UC Regents, of which Brown is one, voted for a 4-year, 5% per year compounded tuition increase at UC campuses.

            Yeah, Brown’s a shit bag.

            1. Pavel

              Sheesh, I stand humbly corrected. I knew he wasn’t perfect but that’s quite a damning list. And don’t get me started on the “Corrections” industry!

              Thanks for the info.

          2. NotTimothyGeithner

            Being governor isn’t a hard job to screw up in this day and age. One really has to work at it, and what is the state of the media? Partisans have a habit of blaming the other side and ignoring problems when it’s done by their own guy, and they control the echo chamber.

    2. MED

      Since a Blackberry is a multifunction device, I would think the voice part should be secure as well; I have not read anything on that end.

      1. Pt

        There was an article a month or so ago where it came out that Hillary had a tantrum because the Security services refused to make her a special Blackberry similar device that was secure like they made for the President. She was told NOT to use her cell phone of any type in the State Department offices and that she was not to take one to any official meetings (on or off the record) as they could be hacked and used as a listening device without her knowledge. My interpretation of the described response was “Hillary raises her middle finger and tells State Department officials who are supposed to make sure things are secure to screw themselves she will use her blackberry, cell phone whatever she chooses wherever she chooses before huffing off while screaming at her underlings to not less those peons bother me again unless they learn to bow to my every wish.”
        Mind you it may have been worse. I’ll try to remember where that came out.

        1. Lambert Strether

          I don’t think “tantrum” is fair; it’s infantilizing. That said, for a good review of the state of play, including the Blackberry, see at NC here. For the Blackberry itself, see this from Ars Technica:

          NSA refused Clinton a secure BlackBerry like Obama, so she used her own

          Given the NSA’s refusal to give Clinton what she wanted, the secretary apparently decided to continue to use her personal e-mail server for State Department business, while her staff was fully aware of the security risks associated with using her BlackBerry.

          One notable feature of this campaign is that only candidates who are wholly themselves have been left standing. In Trump’s case, “Let Trump be Trump” really is the best rule — as shown by results! — and whenever the pros try to domesticate him, it goes wrong. In Sanders’ case, he’s a 72-year-old Socialist running the race of his life by saying what he’s been saying for 40 years, but now to huge crowds, who chant his “white paper with elbows” talking points back at him (!). And in Clinton’s case, she’s gonna do exactly what she wants, giving zero f*cks about anything anybody else says (and if I’d been through what she’s been through, I’d probably feel just the same). In this case, she wants the Blackberry, she uses the Blackberry, and gives zero f*cks about what the IT and security people think and say.

          1. Pat

            I would say that taking no reasonable consideration of why she was being told no, but just doing what she wanted is pretty juvenile behavior regardless of what she has been through. Especially for one of the so-called smartest people in the room. In this case there are very specific security reasons she should not use her Blackberry, and no adequate reason for her to be given an expensive special one no matter what she thought.She was also being shortsighted personally, we know the whole email thing was to shield her actions from examination, but what would having a hacked Blackberry mean if suddenly some faction of her enemies had access to every conversation she had within microphone distance of that device? It wasn’t just national security she should have been concerned with. But she couldn’t get beyond her own desires to consider any of the ramifications – for this or the email server.

            1. Archie

              “But she couldn’t get beyond her own desires…”

              She and Bill are alike in that regard.

          2. VietnamVet

            This is the crux of the problem. Hillary Clinton is out of control in a protective bubble. Who is going to parachute in? Not an old smiley white male. Women won’t accept having their Presidential candidate yanked away this close with the majority of the votes. She will have to be terminally ill to withdraw. There is no chance that she will be indicted with billions of dollars of graft tying the elite tightly to each other. In addition, there is no one in the bullpen. Bernie Sanders is not acceptable. He will jail them all.

            The Trump presidency will destroy the corporate controlled wing of the Democratic Party. The Clinton Presidency will be the status quo; silence and death.

        2. Yves Smith Post author

          I may not have seen the same article, since the one I recall ran earlier, but there was a long story that included the Blackberry and she was clearly told just because Obama got one didn’t mean she was entitled to one.

  11. optimader

    I hope/anticipate there will be some inflection point where enough blood has dripped into the water where there will be a feeding frenzy. Don’t confuse sycophants with friends. When the worm turns and HRC has her Caesar moment her back will be a pin cushion.

    1. Jim Haygood

      HILLARY

      Et tu, Barack? — Then fall, Hillary!

      Dies.

      CINNA

      Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead!
      Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets.

          1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

            Just one more.

            The fault, Brutus, is not in our stars.

            But ourselves.

            We should have left the party that had abandoned us long ago.

    2. Brooklin Bridge

      I think we will be treated to watching virtually any size fire being extinguished. The alternatives are simply not workable at this point.

      Note that many articles that give good information are like fire lines being created to stop the spread. Subsequent silence will be deafening.

  12. dcblogger

    I’m beginning to wonder if the Dem party has an alternative to Clinton up their sleeve who is not Sanders
    the talk in Versailles is to subsitute Biden for Hillary at the last minute. But I don’t think that Clinton’s pledged delegates will go along with that.

        1. Optimader

          Alot of rain here and my hugelkultur sprouted a bunch of little mushrooms, i decided to take thr day off and i ate them this morning in an omlete

          Just a few minutes ago, a tree in the back yard asked me for a treefood spike, and in return told me it is interconnected to an all things past present and future ultra low frequency communication network through it’s roots that we mere mortals are not allowed to be privy to.

          Soanyhoo, the tree goes on to tell me the Rs wil ditch Trump and draft Romney, the Ds will ditch Hillary and draft Trump. After a late and bloody failed convention night with $hill, Huma, a bottle of Ruffies and a quart of vodka, Bill will announce from his hospital room the next day that he will hence forth be use the name: Chelsea. the POTUS formerly known as Bill

          So, ok the tree claims to be connected, but since when can you trust a Blue Spruce?

          Maybe its time to go walk in traffic

          1. polecat

            oh man! ….those mushrooms really are…magical …

            ………….Just stay off the white line…..;’)

          2. Brooklin Bridge

            That was brilliant. It’s hard to see any trees at all from my street corner, but at least the cars are starting to listen to me when I shout at them with my voice pitched just so; I can tell. Did you save any mushrooms?

          3. Brooklin Bridge

            Just a quick glance at the splash page on HuffPo and the effects of your mushroom omlette pale by comparison. Bernie splashed on the page with the title: BERN IT DOWN: SANDERS’ ‘SCORCHED-EARTH’ STUNNER This is the gentle way they refer to letting the rest of the states vote in the primaries.

            The comments by Hillary bots are no less hallucinogenic. As if Email Gate had never happened.

            Shouting at passing cars is soothing by comparison.

            1. ambrit

              I start to worry when the passing cars begin to shout back; not the drivers, the cars. Parenthetically, I’m sort of confused as to why the ‘foreign’ automobiles do not speak with accents appropriate to their places of origin. (I do not count hip hop or conjunto blasting from car radios as “speech.”)

          4. Brooklin Bridge

            I have a comment that got swallowed, and will try and repeat:

            HuffPo has a splash page that puts your communication with Blue Spruce to rest as anodyne by comparison.

            BERN IT DOWN: SANDERS’ ‘SCORCHED-EARTH’ STUNNER

            Clinton has Emailgate and Sanders gets blasted for wanting states to be able to vote in the primaries. The comment section is little better as far as the hallucinogenics Hillary bots toil under morning to night – no need for mushrooms – there is simply nothing that would cast “Slithery Hillary” in a bad light.

      1. NotTimothyGeithner

        Warren has the same problem as Sanders. She will likely rock the boat at some level.

        Even if Sanders became a do nothing President, he would have demonstrated much of the Democratic establishment is a waste of money and that running to the left can be a viable political strategy. The vaunted Democratic strategist class would be out out of work or put to work at reduced pay.

        People like Begala and Brazille would be out of jobs. David Brock? He will never work again except for used car dealers. The Democratic courtesans are afraid of a number of a real Democratic. Dean was basically a right wing nut, but he demonstrated organizers being paid a pro rated 40 or 50k are worth more than any ad campaign because the media does most of the heavy lifting for the general. If Hillary spent 5 million she paid Mark Penn on organizers, she would be President today with 100 more organizers.

        Biden isn’t a threat to take away the courtesans patronage.

        1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

          Probably it will be Biden at the top, with Bill Clinton as the VP, just to make sure the program is implemented the right way.

          Bill, of course, has to sign a waiver, giving up the right to replace Biden, since he has served two terms already.

    1. rich

      maybe…..?
      KING: Hillary Clinton should quit presidential race as email scandal engulfs her campaign

      What could and should have been a very manageable problem to own, has now become a full-fledged scandal for Hillary Clinton and her campaign. Earnest observers, including Mika Brzezinski herself, believe that Hillary Clinton lied, repeatedly, to all of us. When pressed on whether or not Clinton was lying. Andrea Mitchell’s answer was the one I just couldn’t shake. You can see that she wanted to make sure she said what she had to say with respect and ultimately declared that what Hillary Clinton has told us just “doesn’t hold up.”

      Hillary Clinton broke email rules: State Department report

      How are we to process Chuck Todd saying that he seriously doubted Hillary Clinton could even be confirmed as Attorney General at this point because of the scandal? If someone lacks the integrity and truthfulness to serve as Attorney General, then they certainly lack what it takes to be President of the United States. This scandal is not going to go away. In fact, it will probably get worse as the FBI continues its investigation.
      Hillary Clinton should remove herself from contention from the Democratic nomination. Had the American public known a year ago what we know now, it’s possible that Clinton would have never made it this far. That she refused to be interviewed for the investigation and that she refuses to release the transcripts from her speeches to Goldman Sachs, suggests that she is prepared to win by any means necessary, even if it means denying the voters in her own party the information they truly need to make an informed decision about who she truly is.

      When respected members of the press are utterly flabbergasted by the lies that were told sometimes directly to their faces, this has crossed over into something else – something far more nefarious.
      http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/king-clinton-quit-presidential-race-email-scandal-article-1.2652342

      1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

        If she makes it past the convention, everyone’s legitimacy is compromised.

        Clinton – charges of rigged votes and the FBI investigation.

        Any replacement by the party leaders – Not elected by party members.

        Sanders – no majority pledged delegates, no majority of the popular vote. Coming in second does not equate to legitimacy. Should the replacement for a sitting president be the vice president or the guy who came in second in the election? If no one gets 270 electoral votes, why isn’t the top guy automatic, but the House decides? First or second place guarantees no legitimacy, much less victory.

      2. Buttinsky

        In February, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the retired chief of the Defense Intelligence Agency, made the same call as Shaun King:

        “If it were me, I would have been out the door and probably in jail,” said Flynn, who decried what he said was a “lack of accountability, frankly, in a person who should have been much more responsible in her actions as the secretary of state of the United States of America.”

        http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/12/politics/hillary-clinton-michael-flynn-email-fbi-investigation/index.html

    1. nowhere

      Not to entirely disagree, but hasn’t change and flux always been a part of urban life? Harlem was largely Jewish and Italian, until it wasn’t.

      When I lived in Chicago it was in the South Loop, an area that historically comprised (merchants and financiers during the late 19th Century) what the Gold Coast is now. Then it became a largely poor and industrial area. It has recently (~last 15 years or so) seen a great influx of the usual gentrification indicators: condos, town-homes, trendy restaurants, Whole Foods, etc.

      This seems to be a pretty common pattern throughout US urban areas. It also seems to be a common pattern throughout US urban history. The only constant is change.

    1. nippersmom

      That was fun. I really need to work on my photoshop skills so that my cats, too, can be on synthesizers in space.

    2. inode_buddha

      …. thank you SO much for that, you have truly made my day. Andf thank goodness for the internet some days…. that was the best antidote for me!

  13. Ivy

    How soon will it be until the groundswell of negative Killary articles is met with lashing out at the conspiratorial anti-everything cabal, shades of her prior they’re anti-Arkansas phase? That lashing out would be true to form for one so imbued with an above-the-law sense of entitlement.

  14. LMS

    After some surprising and uncharacteristically accurate reporting on Clinton’s emails, the NYT seems to have gone back to its usual tone, calling the indictment some Sanders supporters are hoping for ” a 11-th hour miracle” and “divine deliverance at the hands of the F.B.I.”
    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/28/us/politics/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-fbi.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
    No acknowledgement that there has been enough information made public to know that she violated the law. It would only be a miracle because the rule of law doesn’t seem to apply to the rich or connected.

  15. Timothy Hagios

    Considering how much money the CIA and co. throw at deciding elections in other countries, I find it unlikely that the presidential election here will go to anyone other than the one they want. That’s what makes the E-mail scandal so fascinating–there’s several things that just don’t add up. If everyone at the top wanted Hillary to be president, there would be no E-mail scandal; the media would be just as quiet about it as they are about the “moderate Syrian opposition” and the next dozen scandals. However, if they were just as determined to keep her out, they could have arrested her a year ago before the election season began. It’s almost like they want her to win the nomination before pressing charges, throwing the whole thing to Trump. This would mean either that 1) Trump is a neocon plant, or that 2) the powers that be have realized that the neocons will get us all killed, and are trying to clean house. Or perhaps different factions are fighting each other.

    1. sd

      That’s assuming that Washington is filled with the best and the brightest and not the slimy sycophants that’s closer to reality.

      Think of all those dead celebrities with pill pushers in their midst. Why would Washington be any different? Good lord, Hillarys top aide Huma Abedin is married to a known pervert. Bill Clinton, pervert. Half of Washington is a bunch of sadists. The other half worship Ayn Rand whose perfect man was a sociopathic serial killer. A small core go to Washington actually hoping they can make the world a more fair and dignified place but the vast majority are just creeps.

  16. petal

    I know it’s the Daily Mail, but there’s an article/vid about Terry McAuliffe and a fundraiser at HC’s house. Donations were also made to the CF. It all stinks to high heaven. They’re all in on it.

    1. Jim Haygood

      “Both men can be seen walking up to the front door of Hillary Clinton’s home off D.C.’s Embassy Row on September 30, 2013.”

      Reportedly this “home off Embassy Row” in Washington D.C. is where Hillary has actually lived since 2009, when she became Sec State and needed a pied-à-terre in the capital.

      Even after leaving her cabinet post in early 2013, Hillary had no desire to return to “Bill’s” clarty midden of a man-cave in Chappaqua.

      So goat-boy “Bill” has the run of the Chappaqua house, with his concubine “Energizer” and any random Lolitas he encounters (“Sure, darlin’, I’ll buy some girl scout cookies. Why don’t you just step inside?”)

      Apparently the constitution has no provision for a resident of D.C. (rather than one of the states) to be elected president. But at this late date, that technicality is like citing a murderer for jaywalking.

      Let us savor the last days of Typhoid Hillary McPerpface.

    2. Lambert Strether

      Planting a narrative in the British press so taht “it’s out there” and becomes a story in the US press has been a well-known ploy for years… Ah, the video:

      The footage, obtained by anti-Hillary opposition research group America Rising, shows the two men arriving separately to attend the big bucks fundraiser.

      Sadly, the Clinton hairball provides so many targets of opportuntity that America Rising — which is Karl Rove — may actually have stumbled on the truth! Scary thought.

    1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

      Express voting lanes.

      You pay a little more, so you don’t have to wait in line.

      1. OpenThePodBayDoorsHAL

        Or, coming soon, you didn’t pay so you can’t vote. I seem to recall a similar system in medieval Europe.

        1. ambrit

          I thought that the striking down of “Poll Taxes” of various sorts was settled law.
          I’ve often said that “…it’s not race, it’s class.” Here, we have an example of class based Jim Crow laws.

    1. Lambert Strether

      Thank you. As a very small crew, we are to some extent media-driven; what is in the flow has a larger chance of being selected than what is not in the flow. And there are a ton of stories to cover, so we make no commitment to or pretense of being exhaustive. This may help with your sense of surprise.

      However, we do pay attention to links in comments, so thanks for this one. (The same applies to Nuit Debuit, with the added barrier, to us, that not all the sources are in English.)

    1. jrs

      Not very convincing. I mean yes it’s all true that there are a million and one things wrong with the U.S. political system. But no sorry it has still not convinced me this direct voting for President in the face of all that works. It seems rather than to counteract to magnify everything else that is wrong. It has left us with Trump and probably Hillary, two more loathsome figures of which it is hard to think of.

      It’s his argument not Sullivan’s that is Platonic. His argument is in a better world (money out of politics, fair media etc.) this voting for President would work. Well yes maybe, but woop de doo, very very Platonic indeed, because we don’t live there, and it’s not working in this world. I don’t deny we need money out of politics, a decent media etc.. But being we don’t have them, I don’t consider solutions that only work in idealized conditions to be solutions at all.

      if I could wave my magic wand and instantly make the U.S. a parliamentary system, I would do it.

      Or how is U.S. democracy like self-driving cars. They both seem to only work in idealized conditions that don’t occur in the real world.

  17. Jim Haygood

    Mike Krieger plunges a harpoon into the radioactive carcass of the Hildabeest, flopping on the shore of a desolate tar pit:

    Trump understands that debating Sanders in California ahead of the primary presents a once in a lifetime opportunity to embarrass and belittle Clinton in front of the whole world before the general election even begins.

    As the largest state in the union heads to the voting booths, Hillary Clinton can’t be bothered to have a discussion with Bernie Sanders, yet Donald Trump is more than willing.

    Trump will appear presidential, while Hillary will look like a discredited Goldman Sachs crook hiding from a 74-year-old socialist. Which, by the way, is exactly what she’s doing.

    http://tinyurl.com/hb2hf23

    ‘Tin Ear’ Hillary has finally made a show-stopping error. Who lost California?

  18. Jim Haygood

    From our Telesur “alternate universe” department:

    Venezuelan women are the focus of a new government program launched on Wednesday aimed at increasing employment and financing opportunities for female-run small business ventures in the South American country.

    Under the banner Soy Mujer, or I am Woman, the program consists of 100 initiatives, including urban agriculture, textiles and footwear projects among others, that are part of the push to create jobs and offer credit for women.

    http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Venezuela-Launches-Massive-Campaign-to-Liberate-Women-20160525-0034.html

    How are Venezuelan women going to start small businesses, when they’re standing in queues five hours a day to buy a pitiful random selection of consumer staples at a tenth of the market price?

    1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

      When finally liberated, they will be free to migrate and out-work the natives here in America.

      It’s a wonderful, universal human trait – the ability to endure adversity in order to avoid starvation.

      The more crises you create, the more opportunities you have for that amazing human quality to shine.

  19. Brooklin Bridge

    Like I said, Hillary could be running a gas chamber dressed up as a gym shower and HuffPo would blame Sanders as in: BERN IT DOWN: SANDERS’ ‘SCORCHED-EARTH’ STUNNER. It’s their splash page for the afternoon.

    It is impossible for sane people to grasp the scope of what the powerful can get away with. Humans have limits on cynicism.

    1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

      Leave the party and officially declare war.

      Then, Sanders can say, “It’s my job to burn it down.”

  20. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

    UMass endowment…to divest direct fossil fuel holdings.

    Do they still have a petroleum engineering department at UMass? I hope not.

    Otherwise, shutting that down will definitely hurt revenue.

  21. Qrys

    The world’s worst superbug has made its way to the US [Business Insider]

    A misleading headline to say the least. Since it’s a single gene pair mutation, it’s fairly probable (and early evidence seems to support) this is happening independently in multiple places due to common environmental factors, like widespread unregulated overuse of antibiotics!

    Another article about this, because … Science!: https://www.statnews.com/2016/05/26/superbug-resistant-last-resort-antibiotics-found-us/

  22. Ray Phenicie

    I don’t know if this has hit NC yet but it’s pretty big-
    A Harvard MBA Guy Is Out to Bring Down the Clintons
    The article reports on one Charles Ortel who has proof that the Clinton Foundation is mainly a Slush fund for the Clinton’s. Surprise! As in sing-songy voice heard at birthday parties. I keep saying the facts about the Clinton Foundation would show it is filled with enough scandal material to bring the Clinton Campaign to a screeching halt. Maybe now this will get more traction. Ortel’s website is not responding at this time probably due to all of the requests to serve.

  23. optimader

    Neanderthals built mysterious cave structures 175,000 years ago Guardian (Jeff W)

    What the structures were for is far from clear. “At this stage, all options are open,” said Soressi.….
    https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/may/25/neanderthals-built-mysterious-cave-structures-175000-years-ago#img-2

    Not an unreasonable scale representation of the Main Injector Ring and the Tevatron Ring plan view at FNL

    Just Say’in…

    http://scienceblogs.com/brookhaven/wp-content/blogs.dir/357/files/2012/04/i-14758d5ebb95624427ae4004a12bd167-Google_Fermilab.jpg

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