What Freedom Could Look Like for SeaWorld’s Killer Whales EcoWatch (furzy)
Second Assailant Drains Ethereum Funds From The DAO NewsBTC (Dan K)
‘I am not a lizard’: Mark Zuckerberg is latest celebrity asked about reptilian conspiracy McClatchy
Big Tech Squashes New York’s ‘Right To Repair’ Bill Huffington Post
China?
China’s ‘Land Kings’ Return as Housing Prices Rise Wall Street Journal
Massive Protest on Okinawa Opposes U.S. Military After Killing Bloomberg
Refugee Crisis
Shot Syrian refugees at the border? Accusations against Turkey Tagesschua (guurst). Germany original here. Based on Human Rights Watch report.
Brexit?
Stocks Surge With Pound as Brexit Chances Decline; Naira Tumbles Bloomberg
Brexit opened Pandora’s box – and it could destroy Britain Daily Mail. Richard Smith: “I never expected to recommend a link by Dan Hodges. Strange days.”
Britain’s Elites Can’t Ignore the Masses Bloomberg. Resilc: “And why not? When do they not ignore them?”
Nobel prize-winning economists warn of long-term damage after Brexit Guardian (JTM)
Brexit: How Brits of all shapes and sizes say they will vote in the EU referendum Quartz
Debullshitifying the Brexit numbers BoingBoing (resilc)
Lord Ashcroft: My final referendum focus groups. “I can’t make my mind up. It’s a lot of responsibility, and I really want to get it right.” Conservative Home
Please Vote Leave on Thursday, because we’ll never get this chance again Telegraph. Remember that Boris Johnson comes out a big winner if Leave prevails. I know some people who regard that alone as reason to vote Remain. As bad as Cameron is, they regard Johnson as a vastly worse potential replacement.
Brexit could have domino effect in Eastern Europe Reuters
Cornish pasties: the tastiest victims of a Brexit? France24. Dunno. I’ve had pasties (in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan) and only one was any good. But was that a function of the dish or the lack of authenticity?
The Brexit vote could cause a huge buying opportunity: Wells Fargo CNBC. Furzy is skeptical.
Brazil eyes long-term budget freeze Financial Times
Venezuelans ransack stores as hunger grips the nation New York Times (furzy)
Ukraine/Russia
Grandmaster Putin (Grandiose multi-step operation lasting 16 years) Vineyard of the Saker. Chuck L: “A good backgrounder on Eurasian events over the past twenty or so years from a Russian perspective.”
Ukraine Seeks to Eliminate Rampant Corruption Der Spiegel. Resilc: “Our allies.”
Syraqistan
Israel approves extra $18m for West Bank settlements Guardian
U.S. will seek billions more to support Afghan military efforts Washington Post (resilc)
Uranium Provides New Clue on Iran’s Past Nuclear Arms Work Wall Street Journal
America’s Many Mideast Blunders Veterans New Now (Judy B)
Imperial Collapse Watch
We Buried the Disgraceful Truth New York Review of Books (resilc). Important.
The Case for Offshore Balancing Foreign Affairs (Kevin C). Free registration required.
The State Department’s Collective Madness Robert Parry, Consortium News (furzy)
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Intel x86s hide another CPU that can take over your machine (you can’t audit it) BoingBoing (guurst)
2016
Hillary Who? Progressive activists at People’s Summt not ready for Clinton CNN (resilc). So NC readers are not the only Bernie supporters who are dubious about Clinton.
US State Media Runs Hit Piece On Bernie Sanders MintPress (Wat)
Stanford Study Adds To Election Fraud Scandal While Media Falls Flat YouTube (furzy)
Hackers targeting Clinton aides struck across US Bloomberg. Again pushing “Russian hacker” meme.
Dan Rather: I can see Trump winning, and Clinton should be really worried CNBC
Ted Cruz pokes GOP establishment with return to campaign trail CNN. Lambert: “So Trump gets to beat him again.”
Trump hits a Mormon wall Politico (furzy). Fails to mention that Romney is actively undermining Trump.
Donald Trump calls profiling Muslims ‘common sense’ Washington Post. Note what he said was more nuanced, but Trump never gets credit for nuance when he attempts it:
“Well, I think profiling is something that we’re going to have to start thinking about as a country,” he said when Dickerson asked Trump whether he still supports the idea, which he has floated before. “And other countries do it; you look at Israel and you look at others and they do it and they do it successfully. You know, I hate the concept of profiling. But we have to start using common sense, and we have to use, you know, we have to use our heads … we really have to look at profiling. We have to look at it seriously.
I wonder whether his wannabe minders approved or not.
Did Donald Trump self-fund his way to the Republican nomination? Not exactly CNN (furzy)
Trump in the Dumps Maureen Dowd, New York Times
End of conservative Supreme Court: Clarence Thomas may be next to leave | Washington Examiner
Gunz
Why this Economy Feels Even Crummier than the Data Wolf Richter (EM)
Economists Scramble to Reassess Recession Odds Michael Shedlock
How the Government Hides Inflation, as Housing Costs Soar Wolf Richter
The State of American Retirement: How 401(k)s have failed most American workers Economic Policy Institute (resilc). Important.
Class Warfare
Basic Income: A Sellout of the American Dream MIT Technology Review (David L). Today’s must read.
Teens should have summer jobs, the less glamorous the better Quartz (resilc). I sold newspaper subscriptions door to door. And you?
Antidote du jour. From John M at his farm:
And a bonus! Raccoon problem-solving (@QuickTempa via Lambert):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
270 comments
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Skeptical about the NYT story on hunger in Venezuela, because my husband’s family lives there and say that there is certainly food, though not all of the items people want. People are buying up and hoarding essentials and that can create pressure, and the mafia is out in force which makes everything very dangerous. But the article makes it sound like there is widespread chaos and hunger, and from what I hear that’s not the case.
Thanks, appreciate the read from someone who is there.
Thanks for the alternative viewpoint. Remember that the NYT has become the mouthpiece for the .01% establishment, and that the establishment types in the U.S. government have never forgiven Venezuela for Chavez.
The NYTimes is surely globalized in its work to further and enhance the power of the One Percenters.
Well, I’m sure the US is not involved in any way.
does your husband’s family live in or near any of these X marks?
http://www.argentinaindependent.com/socialissues/development/caminos-de-la-villa-putting-bas-impoverished-neighbourhoods-map/
thorn in the side for those with tomorrow in check: “The belly is an ungrateful wretch, it never remembers past favors, it always wants more tomorrow.”
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Victoria, Lambert:
Victoria, here’s an account published in the Christian Science Monitor of a shopping trip for a family of four, in a supermarket in Eastern Caracas:
Available: fruits, vegetables, cheese, yoghurt, lunchmeat, sausages, bacon, pasta, bread, crackers, cookies, nuts, wine, beer, soy oil. They picked up a nice pork loin and some smoked pork chops.
Not available: chicken, beef, milk, coffee, rice, sugar, corn oil, laundry soap, dish soap, paper towels, toilet paper.
(A Venezuelan market researcher told the writer that scarcity of basic goods is 40% in the stores but more like 10% in the average home because of the “supermarket tour” [visiting several markets over several days and buying what you find], and buying on the informal economy [black market] at higher prices.)
The writer figured that their purchases, about ten days’ supply, cost about four months’ worth of the Venezuelan minimum wage. He said that if you have enough money there’s a good variety of food available but that the poor are dependent on basic goods at controlled prices and must take the supermarket tour.
The people buying the smoked pork chops are not the ones in the long lines for goods at controlled prices, I’ll bet.
Lambert:
C S Lewis pointed out that it’s much easier to sound knowing than to be knowledgeable (which requires effort.)
You have to give the Venezuelan government credit for tanking the economy pretty much on its own without need for much meddling by the US. At one time the country was self-sufficient in food but switching to cash crops to supply Western markets harmed that just as it has in many other countries. Western governments with that of the US looming large among them played a big part in that, even with Venezuela’s history of democratic government, because, you know, businesses respond to profit opportunities and governments can help those businesses. Oil certainly supplied plenty of those opportunities, and successive governments took the country to the point where 95% of export income came from oil and oil products, with lots of money going to those at the top, so let’s look at oil.
Again, give credit where credit is due: when the leader of the Bolivarian Socialist Revolution nationalized the oil industry the writing was on the wall. Venezuela’s oil industry was part of the global oil industry but Chavez seemed to think that he had that global industry over a barrel (no pun intended), so he could throw out existing contract terms and dictate new ones that operator companies would have to accept. He was wrong–some did but some didn’t, and some even sued–and won. Some left.
Worse, though, was that he viewed PDVSA, the Venezuelan oil company, as a piggy bank he could pull as much out of as he wanted to take. That gave him funds for many social projects that helped, especially, poor Venezuelans (Yay!) while taking no notice (oops) of the need of PDVSA for continuing investment for maintenance and expansion (oil wells don’t last forever, you see.) The result was year after year of declining production, and declining funds available to keep those social programs going.
Chavez’s response was the one we have seen over and over (and over) from authoritarian governments: “Foreign elements”, many no doubt acting under orders from the US, were responsible for sabotaging the government’s efforts to work in the interests of the people. More government control, in particular in the oil industry, was needed to safeguard the revolution! The term in the Soviet Union for the political personnel installed throughout the economy was “commissar”, I believe, but I might be wrong about that; the result in Venezuela, though, was the loss of experienced and skilled personnel, critical to the functioning of the economy and particularly the oil industry, and their emigration to where they could work without political interference. It was quite a diaspora and it isn’t over, and the government of the country would deny that its actions had any part in bringing it about.
You know, Venezuela’s huge oil reserves are mostly heavy oil sands, just like those in Canada but a lot of the stuff is deeper and thus harder and more expensive to obtain. Once you’ve got it out of the ground you have to thin it in order to do even the level of processing for export that’s done in Venezuela, and that requires diluent that the country cannot supply for itself, which must be imported. That’s what is in those BP tankers that couldn’t even dock a couple of weeks ago because Venezuela couldn’t pay for the cargoes. The less diluent you import the less of your own production you can process for export in order to earn the money to keep pumping the heavy oil you then need the diluent to process…
To finish the shine on the apple, the two biggest oil-service companies, Schlumberger and Halliburton, have curtailed operations in Venezuela because they aren’t being paid–and it’s the oil-service companies that actually keep the industry running. (Last week there were reports that Schlumberger had come to an agreement with the government to keep working; there was speculation that the company was to be paid in oil, which I can’t think would be welcome.)
You know, Lufthansa suspended its flights to Venezuela because the country owed them $100 million for ticket sales. So did LATAM, Latin America’s largest carrier, and those are just the two most recent. Venezuela owes 24 airlines about $4 billion dollars, and it can’t pay, and many of those airlines have suspended or curtailed flights to the country. Wouldn’t you?
Even China has given up, it seems; no more loans in the billions of dollars. China has lent Venezuela about $50 billion dollars so far, much, at least, to be repaid in oil, and there’s still $10 billion dollars outstanding–and declining production to produce the oil to pay back the loans. Shed a tear for China, who built at least one refinery able to process Venezuelan extra-heavy crude. By the way, the US has always been the main refiner for Venezuelan oil; even while Chavez fulminated loudly about the evil empire the oil flowed to the US. Citgo is Venezuelan, and has refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast.
So, Lambert: Is the US part of this saga? Sure. Is there reason to single that out for comment with a snid-ish tone to it? Well, that seems to fit in at NC, but I do wonder what it contributes to any discussion.
Agree. USA is a big part of Venezuela’s problems but a big part is due to internal problems. In the last third of this article there’s excellent discussion of the various ways businesses and people use what I’ll call soft corruption to exploit the situation.
Then there’s the severe high-level-official hard-core corruption that Chavez seemingly tolerated and never cleaned out. In some cases these can be linked back to USA forces introducing the corruption, as has happened with colonial powers corrupting African countries, but even so too much corruption was tolerated. Reminds me of the PLO corruption.
Summer jobs: I did night shift cleaning at the JCPenney store in the strip mall. Not glamorous, but quiet.
I’m 65. When I was a kid, everyone had some menial summer job no matter the family income. For young men at least, working in construction as a laborer or some other physical work was considered expected and sort of a rite of passage.
My first job at 16 was working maintenance and doing landscaping at a public golf course. It was $1.60/hr, but outside and away from parents, and the money was fine. Keep in mind, in 1968, a minimum wage at 40 hrs. per week meant you took home about $60. Although I was a high school student living at home, you could rent an apartment for c. $65 a month. Try renting a place nowadays on a week of minimum wage.
My summer jobs in the 70s put real money in my pocket that I saved, some of it was turned into spending money through the school year. My parents weren’t going to give me an allowance.
friday, an acquaintance told me her jobless wayward teenage daughter wanted to rent a dive hotel studio apartment for $1200.00 (atlanta, ga). teen embellished an amount of entitlement to ask mom for financial help…
My dad, farm raised, thought teens should work. First job was picking cherries in nearby mountains with my younger brother at a ranch. The rancher put us up in his house, as drive was too far. Work was sunrise to sunset, we worked with migrant laborers, who stayed in other housing on the ranch, received the same pay they did. Novelty of all the cherries you can eat soon wore off.
I had a sweet gig working for an old lady with a white 1964 Studebaker Avanti, she had me drive her to the drug store and then do some hedge trimming.
Then I had a gig at a plastic injection molding factory, pulling red hot dog dishes out of the machine, ouch.
Then I was a Teamster, moving furniture.
And how many hours did I spend pushing a lawnmower around.
Deck hand on a fishing boat
A job working a jig that made little curvy metal hooks, you had to walk around the machine pushing the lever, it was like something out of the Middle Ages, pre-Industrial Revolution, I was paid per thousand hooks.
A rich brew of activities that convinced me I didn’t want to do any of them long term.
I worked at a factory that made those 3-D coins that went in the bottom of 7-11 Slurpees. when I was 16.
They were printed on giant sheets. I was too young to work the cutter, so I had to wipe the sheets with alcohol to remove anything left over from the printing process.
$1.75 an hour in a hardware store in 1971. After school and weekend job. Enough to help pay the half the rent.
Two summers in a row way back when I worked in a factory spot welding parts for construction staplers. It was a good job and we were paid well, considering. Now those same staplers are made in China, but they’re junk compared to what we proudly assembled.
stacked hay bales in forms of 6 in the fields, hauled said bales onto lorries, then unloaded bales onto elevator into hayloft. Sisyphus had nothing on us Shropshire lads. In between, backbreaking hoeing the weeds out of rows of sugar beet.
Cue Monty Python…..you lived in boxes ? Luxury !
How are L-4,5 S-1W
I did the morning paperroute from 8-14 with my siblings. We had to go collect the subscription fees which i wasn’t too good at – my sister was the enforcer
Tried caddying ,hated it and have an aversion to golf to this day.
Worked at a marina-joint for a while til the boat prep guy gave me very general instruction where to drill a 6″ dia hole in the deck for an anchor line.
Someone needed to be sacrificed….
Then my duration of HS job was at a local hotel first in restaurant as a flunky clearing tables and then as kitchen flunky and additionally as shift porter and van driver(!?!). Hard work but good job. Wow did i see stuff doing latenight food delivries to rooms i learned to make portion uncontrolled wild-ass desserts. Bring them up and the atmosphere of Venus would roll out the open door.. Duuuude….always was the formula for a big tip! (I figured the hotel recieved the benefit of legendary goodwill in lieu of direct profit.)
At age 17 they gave me keys to the “church bus” Econline shuttle bus and i would drop hotel guests off locally, as well as latenight “mercy flights” down to Rush Street to pick up stranded drunk and cashed out guests. Sending a 17yo w a freshly minted licence in a corporate hotel van into Chicago’s late night epicenter of vice and perdition to pick up hotel guests! Heady days those were, before the innoculation of this country thousands of liability attorneys looking for fresh meat.
My brother did RR track work in a switch yardand before ubiquitous hydralic tools. Incedibly hard work in summer heat.
Whomever up thread mentionrd guys gravitated to hard laborjobs is spot on ifor my peer group at the time . Those were the jobs that paid big dough.
Now when i see soft young guys tatted up with hair they spent way to much time on to make look like a vole chewed off the bangs, aspiring to wotk at coffeeshops i realize how very much things have changed.
Where i live you never or at best rarely see kids doing lawn work, let alone the seemingly now extinct “College craft” house painter crews. That was a great paying gig moderated by how fast and efficiently you could paint.
Summer job – When I was 15, I drove a beater wrapped in chicken wire picking up the golf balls in the field at a driving range. $15 a day, under the table. Spending a summer as a human golf target meant that the next summer, I stepped up my game and got a clerical job at a law firm. Good experience.
One summer I babysat 5 days a week, 8 hours a day for the whole summer. Hated it and never did it again. I worked sometimes at my mom’s beauty salon, cleaning up mostly, sweeping, cleaning brushes, gowns, coffee cups. I also cleaned houses and apartments, not just summer but all year. That was better; more control over when you worked, and if you did a good job you got recommended. I had at least 4 regulars (all policemen!), and 4 sporadic. It was good to have one’s own spending money.
Two summers and after school during the year as motorcycle courier in DC. Before fax, so a routine run would be to the Pentagon to pick up the daily casualty list (Vietnam) and bring it across the bridge to the National Press Building. Going to K Street picking up a heap of pharma PR envelopes taking them to capital hill to slide under the doors of the congressional offices. Occasional ball games to retrieve film from the cameraman to deliver back for next day’s papers. Odd jobs as going to a door in Georgetown where J Alsop would hand a few books to return to the Library of Congress. Rare job of being in spitting distance of Nixon as the photographer hands over the film to bring back to WaPo. Best job I’ve ever had…
I cleaned up the amphitheater at Jones Beach State Park at night and swept up trash during the day for two years. The next year I was a farm-hand ($17/week plus Room and Board) on a dairy farm.
And do you prefer working with all the corporate BS, like you do now, or did you prefer the real deal? ;-)
Summer jobs: other than non-stop babysitting, my first “real” summer job was as a floater among the various counters at department store, to cover for regular workers who were on vacation. Lunch with those folks was an education.
Even though this was in Houston in the 50’s, on the weekends I mowed neighborhood lawns in as skimpy an outfit as I dared, to “get a tan.”
All proceeds went to savings for college.
Ran the concession stand at Lake Elmo, selling candy and soda to kids and renting paddleboats. After that it was working on staff (or “staph” as our crew shirts read) at a United Methodist owned summer camp in the Absorkee Beartooth mountains. Those were the best summers. Room and board was part of the deal, and there wasn’t a thing to spend your wages on, so it all went into savings…plus, surrounded by mountains, and some awesome star-gazing…good times
Had i known at the time I would have bern preappkying to work sumners at any and all National Parks.
Missed opportunity due to ignorance/lack of awareness
Yep…
Two summers at Six Flags in St Louis working in F&B, the hour and a half drive was worth the 12hr shifts…. girls – girls – girls…. !!!!!
Disheveled Marsupial…. equally offset by long dry spell after joining the military… training – training – training… noone knew who I was after that…
Standing on blazing asphalt to 10C swims! yeeaaaa!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gu%C3%B0laugur_Fri%C3%B0%C3%BE%C3%B3rsson
Yeah you got to keep the excursion up…
Disheveled Marsupial…. those that come out of winter ranger school have a modified core body temp…
Retirees are also national park workers!
I worked for the Grand Teton Lodge Co 2 summers in a row. Waitressing. Best summers of my life.
I also worked as a cashier at Newberry’s (like a KMart). Worked making donuts for $1.50/hr. Waitressed at Bob’s Big Boy all through high school. Babysat. I never was just playing video games like I see lots of my friend’s kids doing now.
But, then again, if kids worked, where would we be able to make our $12/hour work that keeps food on the table now?
I delivered the afternoon newspaper, (remember those?,) seven days a week, for three years as a kid.
My first “summer job” was with Sears downtown Miami as the keymaker droid, packed up under the escalator.
“Summer jobs” were a way to introduce the neophyte to the ‘wonderful world of work.’ It was also, I’m suspecting, a way of introducing new lower level managers to the trials and travails of actually ‘managing’ employees. So, a dual purpose training exercise. One cannot learn management skills in a classroom, just methodologies.
Your dad didn’t put you on the pipe threader??
Yep. Did that, and a lot of hand digging on underground installations.
Dad was usually a “one horse” outfit. He’d ‘man up’ for big jobs, but often, I was the ‘unpaid help.’ (Also the ‘odd hours’ service and repair man.)
From all of this I learned the valuable lesson: Never work for family.
and a lot of hand digging on underground installations
that is hard labor…
Oh yeah.
Remember the first time you saw someone using one of those mini excavators to dig the trenches inside the form? Seeing that, I just had to learn how to do it myself. One foreman I worked under would have the crew come in on a Saturday and “borrow” another crews backhoe, usually for a few cases of beer to the right person. The money he saved the company in not renting their own backhoe made them view him as one of the “signs of the second coming.”
Worship at the feet of the merciful God Hydraulic
would have the crew come in on a Saturday and “borrow” another crews backhoe
..and that how stuff gets done
I have a friend in San Antonio who just completed a hand dug French Drain.. I told him he’s nuts
“..hand dug French Drain..” In San Antonio? Wow. Now that’s tough!
If his patrons needed a French Drain, does that mean the rainfall patterns are shifting to ‘wetter’ over there too? (We are having stronger wet periods here in the Deep South.)
Mowed lawns, caddied (it was just like the movie, I’m not kidding), worked in a darkroom (do those exist anymore?), call center selling A/C!
First I worked as a page in the public library after school and in the summer (one of the few jobs then available for those under 16), and later as a sales clerk in a rather upscale independent childrens’ wear store at the local mall. And babysat of course.
My widowed mother, who taught piano at home, had started saving for my and my sister’s college educations when we were born, and she let me know that my earnings were my own to save or spend.
Accounts payable clerk for a construction company.
Things sure have changed – I’ve finished three years of a Bachelors in Business Admin focused on accounting (taking classes when I can get them and afford them) and have been completely unsuccessful at getting even a part time job such as AP/AR clerk as an adult. In fact I’ve noticed that most of the jobs that seemed to be done by teenagers when I was a teen are now fought over by desperate adults like myself, including paper delivery. Perhaps that has more to do with the general crapification of our economy than it does with those darn kids with their weird hair, loud music, hula-hoops and fax machines being too lazy to work?
Yeah, I sure hope the Boomers (and possibly Xers) around here, who are always talking about how trashed our economy has become through various Neoliberal and other political means, aren’t suggesting that the kids are on the same level playing field today.
The Boomers are the ones who dropped the fuckin ball if you ask me. You guys had a chance to change something. Growing through my teenage years in the 80’s.. what chance did I have for any kind of revolution? I had jobs, yeah I worked at McDonalds. It sucked. I’m starting to think I’m with the millenials, it’s time for you to move out of the way now.
Fourth Turning – ?????
Academic response to the theory has been mixed—some applauding Strauss and Howe for their “bold and imaginative thesis,” and others criticizing the theory.[5][6] Criticism has focused on the lack of rigorous empirical evidence for their claims,[7] and a perception that aspects of the argument gloss over real differences within the population.[6]
The theory has been influential in the fields of generational studies, marketing, and business management literature. However, it has been criticized, by several historians, and a few political scientists and journalists, as being overly-deterministic, “non-falsifiable,” and unsupported by rigorous evidence.[46][47][48]
One criticism of Strauss and Howe’s theory, and the field of “generational studies” in general, is that conclusions are overly broad and do not reflect the reality of every person in each generation regardless of their race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, disability, or genetic information[67] For example, Hoover cited the case of Millennials by writing that “commentators have tended to slap the Millennial label on white, affluent teenagers who accomplish great things as they grow up in the suburbs, who confront anxiety when applying to super-selective colleges, and who multitask with ease as their helicopter parents hover reassuringly above them. The label tends not to appear in renderings of teenagers who happen to be minorities, or poor, or who have never won a spelling bee. Nor does the term often refer to students from big cities and small towns that are nothing like Fairfax County, Va. Or who lack technological know-how. Or who struggle to complete high school. Or who never even consider college. Or who commit crimes. Or who suffer from too little parental support. Or who drop out of college. Aren’t they Millennials, too?”[6]
Skip here…. nice big compartmentalization project based on a wonky base line…. but hay… marketing, and business management bloody love it – !!!!! – Neil Howe in 1988 coauthored On Borrowed Time with Peter G. Peterson – too….
Disheveled Marsupial…. Ummm free market sociology is so religious… oops… meant rigorous…. no wonder all the boomer ™ and generational finger pointers all take their cues from [neo]libertarian F’wits like Peterson and assorted Cato – Heritage like think tanks…
Yeah, you know, of course. Point taken. I been sitting on that on for while. Just had to let it out. Sorry about the stink.
No dramas ….
I was born in 1970. I live in Canada where we seem to be doing a little better than the U.S. with regard to minimum wage, tuition etc. and I’ve certainly found it damn difficult to train for and get a good paying job. As I said, most of what used to be “teenager’s jobs” back when I was a teen are now fought over by adults such as myself who have lost our old jobs and find it difficult to impossible to get them back or get trained and hired in a new career. The accounting education is my second serious attempt after spending two years full time training to be an aircraft mechanic. In that program I graduated at the top of the class but never even got an interview. No one else that graduated from the program got one either so at least in that case I know the lack of success isn’t my fault. The lowest mark I’ve received in any of the accounting related courses has been an A- and I’ve never managed to get a reply to any of my applications so far. I would be fine with entry level part time, irregular, minimum wage work too so it’s not like I’m holding out for some sort of dream job either.
I worked at McDonalds in high school in Westerly, RI for several months in 1980 (or so), and I thought it was great (I’m not being ironic). I would have loved more hours making french fries and working the register. But the economy was so bad that I could only get a few hours a week; the competition for hours was fierce. Fortunately I was able to get a PT job washing dishes and peeling potatoes at the Dew Drop Inn right in town where I lived. The money went for a trip to Europe, so I wasn’t suffering, but I really was happy to earn it.
Oh, and I worked as a waitress doing catering for rich people’s events, in an obnoxious black dress with with a frilly white apron, and felt great class resentment. And babysitting; ugh.
We had two paper routes (for four kids) throughout my childhood (year-round delivery). Also took many summer jobs. The most interesting one involved doing yard work and general cleanup projects for old folks in the community. This was funded by the local government (probably with some state funding as well). Plenty of strange experiences (along with lots of bee stings and poison ivy).
Oddly enough, the most popular summer job in my area (northern CT) was picking tobacco. I never did it myself, but knew many teens that did. I haven’t lived in that area for decades, but I’m guessing that migrants from Mexico are now doing all that kind of work. Heck, even the newspaper delivery routes were taken by adults (with cars) last time I checked (back in the 90’s).
My first job was as a bank teller. I lost that job after a thanksgiving weekend where my drawer came up short. I wasn’t good at making change! After that I spent years in the food service industry, which eventually motivated me to go to college. I like to joke that I became a civil engineer because I couldn’t cut as a waitress (ADD, always forgetting the ketchup, the drinks, the whatever…)
What decade was that, DrBob? In the 70s (when I grew up in SE CT) I heard of tobacco picking, but I never saw any done; it was referred to as a job of the past.
I nannied one summer for a 10 year old (parents were insufferable jerks), but most summers were spent as a farm hand and also doing yard work on the side for various people. Grew and picked vegetables, took stuff to market, picked strawberries and peaches, and then brought in the apple crop with the migrant workers from south of the border that didn’t speak English. Tough work picking and schlepping apples. Things got worse after the market was flooded by the Chinese- 2 cents a pound for juice apples. Stories, stories. Cheers!
Many summer jobs as a teenager (in rough order from 13 to 19):
Retail store (hobby shop) – also during school year
Busboy (weekends and summers)
Call center (doing surveys)
Camp counselor
Ski shop – weekends during school year
Bank relief teller (first summer in college)
Learned something of value in every one.
I have worked jobs in construction, forestry, cleaning, bartender, waiter, market research, mail man, but I never felt as dirty after a day’s work as I did doing an internship in private wealth management.
Agreed! Who in their right mind considers an ‘internship’ as a ‘real’ job anyway? A ‘real’ job, to my mind, pays actual money.
Summer jobs: washing dishes, prep cook, bussing and waiting tables (something I think everyone should do), working for a lawn service and painting houses.
None glamorous but all valuable in their own way.
Shoveled pig sh*t for a summer, a hot summer.
I think that tops it for worst summer job!
The second I passed the proficiency exam in my mid-junior year and left high school and a thousand shallow weenies to their own devices, I had the good fortune to be putting my electronics hobby to work for a friend’s dad, a municipal contractor, for $7.50/hr (early 1990s). The string of Taco Bells after that ran out was probably more effective at inculcating the proper station of
a servantan employee.Fewer teens being successfully indoctrinated into the Protestant submission ethic gives me hope that they’ll come up with their own, less pathological work ethic.
I worked part-time through 11th and 12th grades washing dishes and delivering Chinese food for $1.65, because dirt bike.
And I think the arguments against a basic income in “Basic Income: A Sellout…” are bs. Fiat money can afford the hit. The real economy will benefit across the spectrum, and I won’t quit my job. I’ll have extra $.
http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2014/01/16-reasons-matt-yglesias-wrong-job-guarantee-vs-basic-income.html
I bagged groceries at HEB in south Texas for $3.35/hr in the summers of ’88 and ’89. I thought the wages stunk, the heat was brutal, and unionization was virtually non-existent even then.
P.S. Getting a job while at college is a good idea, too. My freshman year I had no job and spent my days wasting huge swaths of time. Finally, I was forced to get a job (with “work-study” being part of my financial aid). Getting a job on campus seriously helped me organize my time and get better grades.
In Idaho Falls before the combines became the norm for harvesting potatoes, after the first freeze of the fall class was let out for a couple of weeks to pick spuds. Younger ones (like me) in middle school worked as a team to pick the spuds into wire baskets and then dump into a gunny sack. The older students lifted the gunny sacks onto a low trailer to haul them to the cellar. Those jobs disappeared with the combines.
Throughout high school in Oregon, I worked on a blueberry farm earning $1/hour. I built a lot of muscles and saved a considerable amount for college.
Today, I am an engineer that doesn’t get enough exercise and never regret working as a youth.
Myself: typical gigs (paper route, life guard, best by far was 2 summers during college years mowing grass at a state office building in Albany for $7.70/hr in 1979!! – first experience with union wages).
Older kids this summer: one is hostessing at an upscale pizza joint – yes there is such a thing in yuppie land; the other scoops ice cream at a touristy ice cream/chocolate shop(pe).
BUT THAT ARTICLE IS A 100% LIE. My two that have gone through the college thing have both under-placed in the college sweepstakes for not having helicopter parents who arrange and, of course, pay for exceptional pre-college experiences (not that I am super unhappy about that). The college admission people quoted in that article are flat out lying. Maybe if you fit a preferred income/ethnic demographic and your minimum wage work history is evidence of such authenticity… But if you are a typical middle class high performer, doing the summer gig at Harvard (5K per wk) or in Africa (same or more) scores you many, many points that scooping ice cream locally does not.
My first summer job was washing dishes in a cafeteria at Oberlin College (circa late 1980s). It mostly involved pulling trays off a conveyer belt, rinsing stuff, and loading in dishwashers. It was good experience, but it turned me into an arrogant prick w.r.t. dishwasher loading style.
I think actually, that I first played Tetris that same summer, and the process of arranging cups, dishes, etc. for the dishwashers became a Tetris-like meditation. To this day, I won’t let my wife, or anyone else who visits our house, near the dishwasher. It’s a job better left to professionals.
Teenager mid to late 70s in Alabama, dad hard core military lifer then retired who considered his kids his personal workforce basically since we could walk. Did roofing, construction, moving 80 lb. bags of onions from unrefrigerated trailer to refrigerated trailer at a trucking company. 4 or 5 guys working 3-4 hours to do that, made about enough each to score a couple six packs. Remember my dad picking me after junior high school to go work refurbishing someone’s blazing hot attic, dad made $3/hr, I made $2. Still, age 16 bought my first car, a VW beetle for $2000 cash I saved from all this meagerly compensated work. Good times! Learned how to work and save if nothing else.
I learned a lot about how NOT to treat people by working at a Taco Bell. Plus I had a special dish that I used to make for my dinner. That was before pink slime.
But anyway, the thing is the neo-liberals, with their “meritocracy” delusions, have devalued this kind of work. Sad. Whole generations have been lost.
Re Trump: that you find “nuance” in his statement betrays your priors.
that you can’t betrays your own. I would recommend you watch his recent speeches with an open mind if you can get the incessant tinnitus of npr and pbs out of your ears. What you’ll potentially hear there will be things that should scare the bejeesus out of any of the many cloistered hillary supporters (oh and by the way feel free to list some of the reasons you have for supporting clinton, but spare us the trump trump trump, it’s monotonous and shallow)- prophylactic, I’m voting stein but having listened to donald and listened to hillary, and even donald has a more more rational view than honest hillary does, but like I said, feel free to parse in detail.
The ONLY thing I think Trump is offering is a willingness to say anything and call bullsh*t where he sees it, the lies and the sh*t are piled so high these days it’s fish in a barrel. If we aren’t even allowed to name our problems how will we ever solve them?
But in the end I’m a single issue voter, whichever of these ridiculous fascists who present the slightest marginal reduced probability of all-out WW III will get my vote.
One candidate wants to talk, the other…well, we’ve seen what the other one does.
Personally don’t care what Trump says at this point. He said enough with “Fat. Pig. Dog. Slob. Disgusting animal.” as synonyms for women and “criminals and rapists” for Mexicans as well as the “profiling and total and complete shutdown” for Muslims. The endorsements from the KKK and Right-Wing Extremists tell me what I need to know about his views, his policy and his priorities. And, he lies so carelessly that I don’t care to hear more. He’s a moron and his main (and possibly only) appeal is to White-Supremacist males.
The more people here insist we attempt to dress this pig for the prom, the more I wonder why? What’s your animus against the rest of us non-white, non-male, non-pro-gun, non-anti-abortion, non-Christian, non-heterosexual, right-to-(still)be-(elfin)unemployed Americans? Does our presence offend your privilege or something?
And… the more durable and profound question…
Are accusations of a National Public Radio/Public Broadcasting Service fetish going to continue this entire election cycle? If so, I’m thinking of designing a t-shirt for the meme.
——-
Right-Wing Extremists hail the ascension of ‘Emperor Trump’ as GOP Nominee
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/05/06/right-wing-extremists-hail-ascension-‘emperor-trump’-gop-nominee
Hillary is determined to escalate in the Middle East and get us into a hot war with Russia. That could even be a path to nuclear war. Trump if he manages to be elected will be a weak President and will get little done, and will preside over big losses to the Rs in the 2018 Congressional midterms.
I’m sorry, at this point I cannot see any rationale for voting for Clinton when you combine her belligerence with her record of policy failures, her and Bill’s selling favors out of their various offices, and her fealty to Wall Street, Google, and the fracking industry (among others) when she tries to posture otherwise.
Yves – It’s your first 2 sentences that scare the bejeesus out of me. I’m old enough to remember how close we came to nuclear annihilation in the ’60’s and Hillary does seem hell-bent on bringing us there again. With Obama proposing a $1 Trillion upgrade of nuclear arsenal and talk of battlefield tactical nukes being developed, it is truly frightening to contemplate a Hillary presidency. And I agree that Trump will be a very weak president, if elected. I still haven’t decided how I’m going to vote, but it won’t make any difference here in Alabama. The state will certainly go for Trump, especially if he chooses Jeff Sessions for his VP.
OT, but it seems you have completed your project of reviewing your moderation rules. Since about 2 weeks ago, for the first time since last October, my comments are not all going to moderation. Thank you.
We should be thinking about who’s the more effective evil here (genuflects to BAR) Clinton has the party apparatus united behind her, along with the media, in spite of an ongoing fbi criminal investigation. This should frighten people that clinton will be emboldened to think of what else she can get away with.
She turned the sec of state job into an atm machine and still…the party remains united behind her!
Who’s the more effective evil?!???!!
Look, I am no Trump fan, but I am bothered by these exaggerations of his already large character flaws. He does not like being pinned down on anything save his wall (and the media has airbrushed out that Hillary advocated a border fence, so how is this different?), being against the TPP, and wanting to pull back big time from our military adventurism overseas.
That leads him to say things that are all over the map, and gives the media the right to flay him him for the worst things he has said, meaning his rank political amateurism and trying to appeal to too many audiences at once (well, he has alienated some that deserve to be marginalized, namely the Evangelicals). He has to clean that up and start being more consistent and way way less rude and mean-spirited, and he may not be able to change. He has to clean up his act in a big way by the Republican convention if he is to have any chance.
He is being held to account for his stupid and reckless remarks, but he should also get some credit for the sensible things he has also said, like saying we’ve spent $4 trillion in the Middle East, killed millions, and have nothing to show for it.
BTW this all bad/alll good thinking is deemed to be a cognitive bias.
Maureen Dowd over the weekend had it right: he’s a boor and full of bluster, which is not the same as having an extreme right wing objective.
And how do you reconcile your charge of Trump sexism with the fact that he has a woman construction manager? That is a huge and well paid job that is never given to women. He helped break an important glass ceiling for non-elite women but you reject that because it does not fit your tidy picture of who he is.
An ad hominem attack in lieu of an argument. The headline overstated what Trump said, but it’s fine by you since you hate Trump. Well, it’s not fine for those of us who noticed that the same techniques were used to marginalize Sanders and the press has gone into full “WMD in Iraq” mode with Trump.
Still waiting for Lambert’s full analysis of Trump’s security speech. It imagine it’s pretty hard to do one without raising your eyebrow up fairly high. It might not jive very well with the “Trump’s an all right choice” thing we got going on here lately.
Yet another builder of scarecrows for nonexistent cornfields.
There is no massive “Trump’s all right” “thing…going on here.” Analyzing Trump — like any candidate — based on facts rather than manipulative propaganda makes sense, doesn’t it? Those of us who have evaluated the situation and believe Clinton is the greater evil and that voting for a third party not strong enough to take states in the electoral college aren’t advocating voting for Trump because we think he’s hunky-dory. I continue to read fact-based analysis about Trump from people like Lambert is precisely because this is difficult, and I do not want to vote out of mere anger. I consider my vote in this election, as poisoned as it is, as potentially futile as it is, possibly the most important vote of my life, precisely because I recognize the depths of the corruption, and the magnitude of the horror either candidate’s ascension potentially boxes us into. The easy choice, for me, would be to wash my hands of the two party system. But since that would very likely hand the election to Clinton, the greater evil, I feel constrained not to do that, unless the electoral landscape looks very different in late October. But I’m not popping popcorn and laughing about Trump. This is a terrible situation. Snarking about it is unhelpful, and claiming there’s some robust “pro-Trump” contingent at NC is dishonest.
1) I didn’t say massive.
2) Why is ‘hunky-dory’ a thing all of a sudden?
3) I mean it when I say that I look forward to Lambert’s analyses, because I find them to be spot on and generally fair.
4) I agree, it is a terrible situation, and a total non-choice, and I refuse to choose either one. Easy choice.
Is “doesn’t jive” an American phrase or a recent thing? I’ve always heard it and seen it written as “doesn’t jibe.” Whenever I read “jive” it always makes me think of Barbara Billingsley in Airplane: “Oh, stewardess? I speak jive…”
First, Lambert never promised that.
Second, I have not read it, but I know two sane, DC savvy, and progressive people whose opinion I respect who have and both thought it was a good speech. One described its main arguments to me at length and they seemed very sound. The reason the media went batshit is that it was at 180 degree odds with neocon orthodoxy.
Did I say he promised? No, but he did mention it as a possibility.
I don’t know about the media, Yves. I don’t follow the media narrative. I watched the speech on NC’s recommendation, it was the first Donald Trump speech I had ever watched. I have no idea how the media reacted to it, but my reaction was that the hair on the back of my neck stood up. Maybe I’m just nuts then, huh? You know it’s kind of disturbing to see you jumping to Trump’s defense these days. Is that your default position these days, to defend poor Donald from the horrible horrible media?
also: obviously I have the phrase ‘doesn’t jibe’ mixed up. Sue me.
The link to “America’s Many Mideast Blunders” is missing the initial “v”.
http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2016/06/17/1007267-americas-many-mideast-blunders/
Where does an 800 pound gorilla sleep? Anywhere it wants.
The reason house prices in countries like Canada and England are exploding is because climate chaos will hit the tropics in just 5 years and the rich are leaving first..
A team of 14 climate scientists have surveyed the data and concluded that permanent catastrophic consequences will affect the area between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer by 2020. Their findings will soon be published in the journal Science.
https://lokisrevengeblog.wordpress.com/2016/06/20/tropics-to-explode-in-4-years/
Teens should have summer jobs, the less glamorous the better… Agreed!
I mowed lawns and fixed sewing machines from when I was 12 to when I dropped out of high school at 16. Mowing lawns taught me a lot about how to plan work: trim the edges first, then do the large areas, which are smaller after the edge trimming. Also, doing the edges is an opportunity to scope out the larger areas, pick up debris etc… then you can concentrate on speed for the large swaths. Also my first exposure to dead-beat clients…
I still uses some of the same ideas today as a programmer/data wrangler; look at the edge casesfirst, so you know how/where to handle the exceptions. Check data for uniformity, and clean it up before you start the big crunches. And those “awww, cut me a deal” clients? Only worth the effort if you’re penetrating a new market; once you’re in, they’re out… pro bono is for good works, not grifters.
Truly hate the framing of that summer job article: the benefit of work as mainly the increased chance of admission at selective colleges it brings.
I worked all year from age 16, back around 2000, and the main lesson I can remember was how everyone made too little to get by. Not just the dilettantes like me but full timers as well.
Somehow I think if drudgery work becomes the new hot credential for upper class high schoolers we’re not going to see wages driven up….
Agreed. A bunch of puritanical nonsense. I worked in high school AND college at an auto supplier and by complete chance the pay was VERY good. Looking back I SHOULD have spent MORE time and energy finding a better school and getting better grades. For many lower and lower-middle class kids that job is not just a necessity but a wasteful distraction to quality higher education.
My HS and College jobs gave me a big leg up w/ my first professional employment.
At that place and time Grades were less important than getting the degree (in my case) and going forward. it was all about OJT and work ethic. Yea ok, you have an ME degree, check.. door on he left, go read those manuals, old contracts and sink or swim.. next..
Some sank some swam. The ones that swam best (most resourceful) invariably had practical job histories.
Ultimately you never know about the alternative Universe, but a few kids I did know that didn’t have to do the parttime jobs/summer jobs, did not move too seamlessly into their professional lives. .Much of it I think was about learning how to productively interact with other people even if you might prefer being somewhere else.
I will also add in the division of the Corporate entity I started with, without exception the Ivy league (Harvard, Yale, U of C) educated guys were practically speaking, absolute duds!. Some of us project management grunts wondered whether that was intrinsic or possibly they were sent to the Corporate Colonies as an elephant burial ground? (the Corporate mother-ship was being in CT)
I had the best job ever. For three summers I traveled in the carnival, working various county fairs and the Ohio State Fair. I made enough to pay for my (state) college education, rent and some good pocket change. However, whatever I earned can’t compare to what I learned. The work was hard, the hours endless, the conditions filthy and I slept in a different spot every night. I wouldn’t trade the memories, people I met and lifelong lessons learned for anything!
Don’t even like the framing of the raconteuring in comments. What is this, nostalgia for the temporary bottom position in the race to the bottom? Cred claiming, a la Horatio Alger? More evidence of how deeply the neoliberal messaging has penetrated? “You get what you earn/deserve”?
I emptied fly traps at a grocery store, worked a garbage truck, paper route for six formative years. Bought a couple of shares of AT&T and Wrigley stock, collected some dividend checks, and what does that count for? I still face along with a couple hundred million fellow Americans and billions of other humans a bleak, maybe a dead end future. Or Just Die….
This strikes me as more of the faugh-Puritanism that has us mopes concerned about the inroads and tax burdens imposed by the “undeserving poor.”
But we all want to share our stories… very human…
+15. I yearn for the days when people would work only enough of the month to get what they needed from the money economy and then return to whatever actually satisfied their needs.
I don’t know how far back you go, but the ‘earn enough meme’ was a dead letter by my formative years, the 60’s and 70’s. The exhortations to ‘plan ahead’ and ‘save for the future’ were bedrock social concepts by then.
“jobs like scooping ice cream or flipping burgers, where no kid is too special, they actually earn money, and they get to see life through a radically different lens.”
That lens leads them to demand the end of capitalism. Well one can dream …. But of course that is unlikely except for the most empathetic because they know they aren’t stuck there. But the middle age person working Micky Ds or Walmart KNOWS THEY ARE STUCK THERE forever or until the body wears out from a life of brutal work or death finally comes. So no the former experience can never be the same as the latter. The way they view the world, no it can never truly be an at the bottom and stuck there view, but maybe she goes into sociology and writes the next Nickle and Dimed, well then that would be worth it.
There is some debate on whether people should label themselves progressive or liberal or left. Why not just anti-capitalist as all the label one needs? I’m an anti-capitalist, that’s what I am period. One may not have a fully formed utopia in mind … but basically be an anti-capitalist. I am against society and work and life and politics and all existence being driven by the rule of capitalists and a system that glorifies production long after everything anyone needs has already been produced (except for a few things that are uncompensated). It doesn’t mean one doesn’t favor some reforms to capitalism if it’s the best that’s on offer (of course in reality even that’s not on offer as we see from Bernie’s losses).
“A job is an opportunity for a kid to have exposure to something they won’t at any other time in their life,” said Harvard’s Weissbourd.”
Uh @#$# most people will have exposure too it the next 40-50 years of their life. I think THERE IS some value in working summers but it’s mostly a value in showing kids how bad it is out there so they will do anything to escape it (of course sometimes what they do to escape it will lead to legal and ethical breaches which is not so desirable but …). But it really would have been helpful to know how terrible work was at an early age, it would have been easier to avoid the worst of it.
The Dan Rather remarks are interesting. But then I think that he generally recognizes that CW is wrong before many of his fellow news talkers.
There is also a link at the bottom of that to another CNBC opinion piece stating that the ONLY VP choice is Warren because that will address Clinton’s problem that ideology now is more important than identity in the party. While I do appreciate that the writer has grasped that policy is key, I think he has failed to grasp that a ceremonial post that sidelines someone who might be able to push that ideology more where they are is not the winning chess move he thinks. Or that for many nothing Clinton can do will solve the problem with those who have already rejected her ideology.
Donald Trump calls profiling Muslims ‘common sense’
The problem with profiling is, do you want more false positives or false negatives? False negatives are a tough sell on a panicked population, false positives … well just keep it to the already disenfranchised and your golden (gold being Trumps favorite color).
Reminds me of the chicken coop. The farmer razes 40 more acres of forest to plant on, and wonders where all the foxes came from… having just wiped out their regular hunting ground. Invests in dogs… who end up eating some of the chickens, too. But, they’re my dogs! *facepalm*
Stability, environmental or social, at some point it comes down to foregoing some of the profit opportunities (that, and not doubling your population in 50 years).
Profiling is cruel and unjust.
Isn’t profiling what led to Orlando being blown up into a “terrorist” event in the first place? Unhinged, sexually frustrated, US born citizen with a history of antisocial behavior breaks, kills many. But because he is brown, of Afghan descent, and called/shouted (what was most likely ironic) something about ISIS that turns into UNITED STATES ROCKED BY TERRORIST MASSACRE!!!!!
I’d say we are already pretty good at profiling, which means we are terrible with reality.
Also, when did the death count change from 51 to 49… and how?
I believe the media subtracted the shooter’s death from the total, so as not to imply that he was a “vicim.” Don’t know about the other one.
The shooter doesn’t count and never should. Also, the number should also be broken down further to count friendly fire deaths. Gunfire was EXCHANGED during the episode. No way the return fire was magically sure and true so only bad guy bullets hit anyone.
The totally unsubstantiated number I’ve seen is 20 deaths from the shooter and the rest from the “rescuers”. Who felt they had no choice because they thought he had a huge bomb.
THAT is awful BUT also a huge difference in meaning and take on the episode. Thus far, ALL the deaths are directly attributed to Mateen which is being used for political games.
No matter what, I ALWAYS prefer facts as they are rather than “fact-ish” served up to server a greater political purpose.
Yes, it makes so much more “sense” to just suspect everyone.
As when the tsa “alerts” on babies with loaded diapers or eighty-year-old, wheelchair-bound women with colostomy bags.
If Trump says we ought to ship all the Muslims to camps in the Utah desert, will you think that’s just honkey-dory too?
Depends. Will they be safe there from HillaryDrones?
I’d say so. Salt Lake City is all Mitten’s supporters – Hillary’s new adopted base.
Yeahhhh, we’ll see about that. Utah antipathy towards the Clintons is pathological. Bill came in third there in 1992.
It’s HUNKY-dory. “Honkey” is………..oh, never mind.
Geez, as if we don’t already do massive amounts of profiling across the society as a matter of public policy already, from “driving while brown” local police checks to much more nefarious activities based on what religion you happen to be and what websites you happen to visit.
Trump just airs subjects “polite company” would rather not face up to. “I think we should kill the families of terrorists” UTTER OUTRAGE, Obama doing exactly that each and every day, “oh, it couldn’t be helped and I’m sure he didn’t mean to”.
Two points: Obama sucks; Trump should get a pass on everything because he isn’t Hillary Clinton. So, if Trump argues for some terrible policy that Obama illegally performs daily, it’s now OK, because Hillary.
Great logic and even better morality.
El All has been doing behavioral profiling for decades and it works a treat.
How much subconscious profiling does each of us do everyday?
“He looks like a Hillbot.”
“I bet she is a Berner.”
“That long legged actress is so cute. I read his mother is Russian.”
“What’s your ethnicity?”
“Mr. Wu, so, are you from China, Taiwan or Singapore?”
“I thought he could really jump. What a shame.”
“Of course, he would exact a pound of flesh from you.”
Sure. And Tulsa International Airport was safe as houses right up to the TSA takeover with a few dozen cameras and a handful of rent-a-cops. El Al is no good reason to start taking security lessons from an aparthied state that can’t keep rockets off its capitol.
Probable cause is a more useful standard than some security guy’s instinct. The evidence is overwhelming, from the Stanford study to stop and frisk to Abu Grahib, that when you give someone with physical authority soft parameters for exercising that authority, bad things happen. Trump’s “well you hate to do it, but it’s complicated and plus you can do it smart” is the same bulls*** “nuance” the Clint-bots are spinning to bomb people who never did anything to anybody.
I can stomach “he’s probably not as bad as Clinton,” because it’s patently true. When the discussion starts spinning into “hey some of his ideas make sense,” take a look down and see if you’re jumping the shark. An NC post nailed this guy early on and nothing has changed: He’s a full employment candidate who wants to leverage police power to suppress wages. Profiling, whether by behavior, culture, race, gender, religion or class, serves that agenda by expanding police power.
Using what they learned from South Africa in the Apartheid days.
I was a janitor at Macy’s in Huntington NY from the age of 16. Went I went to college I worked all four years in the cafeteria. What did I learn from these jobs? That cleaning toilets and washing pots and pans was not exactly my passion. A couple decades later, I found myself in the wine business, cleaning up broken bottles and washing wine glasses, and thought that was really okay. Go figure.
babysat till 13…then lied about age (easy enough w/o 70s background cks) trained as cook at a Coco’s. growing up in a 70s single parent unit, i contributed to annual surprises…car taxes, home maintenance and sibling (fuckups).
at the start, i was proud to help but for some sadistic reason i was blamed then ostracized from the family unit. today, i continue to fill family gaps…dang if i aint still the pivot for gossip, character bashing and more blame. some day’s its a compliment…mostly my stomach hurts and and shame rides roughshod.
life’s a peach.
Also came from dysfunctional family, Aby. Babysat starting at 8, of 2 and then 4 sibs (because oldest). Worked summers in berry fields In Pacific NW ages 13-16, and an azalea greenhouse Sept til Christmas (after school and weekends). (Now there are laws in place against too-young workers.) Worked at nursing home, throughout. Had to give all monies to father (not because of poverty) and received no allowance.
Sadism at work, yeah. Two useful things learned: 1. what NOT to do for the rest of my life. 2. staying altogether away from such types of people. Really.
Hat Tip for accomplishing 1) & 2)
“I don’t fuck much with the past but I fuck plenty with the future.”
― Patti Smith
Cornish pasties have protected geographical indication (PGI) status? Will Glaswegians get similar status for the Munchy Box?
Are significant parts of the State Department cadre “insane?”
I kind of got the impression that insanity is defined largely against what the “norm” is. (Yah, the DSM-5 categories “establish scientifically” that apparently EVERYONE is “not normal,” so what is the standard of “normalcy,” again?) So if Neo-Neo-ism is the neonorm, how can the people who are cheerleading and conspiring to do all that “democratization” be considered or, dkosians take note of the horrific profiling and categorization going on here, labeled as “insane?”
While looking for particles of hope in All This is hopeful, it seems even the critics have inhaled the heady fumes of hegemony (if one can extrapolate from one tiny bit of bolded prose in the article, that might just be some syntactical tic and not a true indicator of mindset):
The State Department now seems to be a combination of true-believing neocons along with their liberal-interventionist followers and some careerists who realize that the smart play is to behave toward the world as global proconsuls dictating solutions or seeking “regime change” rather than as diplomats engaging foreigners respectfully and seeking genuine compromise.
Even some State Department officials, whom I personally know and who are not neocons/liberal-hawks per se, act as if they have fully swallowed the Kool-Aid. They talk tough and behave arrogantly toward inhabitants of countries under their supervision. Foreigners are treated as mindless objects to be coerced or bribed. Ibid. [ed. note: that shit has been going on since before the Empire was anything more than conflicted colonies.]
Maybe it’s just an editing oversight, that little lapsus keyboardia, or maybe it’s what happens to “embedded”
journalistswriters over time. Stockholm syndrome? Stockholm used to be held in the common mind, as I recall, as a “place of diplomacy…” It’s a “calling,” i understand (irony alert): http://diplomacy.state.gov/discoverdiplomacy/, and of course http://tedxstockholm.com/, and of course, direct from Baal’s Mouth, https://careers.state.gov/work/opportunities/available-jobsOr maybe I’m just insane…
Maybe I’m just too willing to give the benefit of the doubt, but after that phrase leapt out at me I went back and read it again. Are we looking at two distinct descriptions there? Is Parry really trying to say those residents are under their supervision or that this a country where they are considered to be the manager of American foreign policy interests? IOW is the first part a description of their attitude and the second part a badly phrased job description, or is it a singular description of attitude regarding both the residents and the country?
You may be right, or it might just be bad wording and editing.
That is what I was trying to straddle. Not clear, but possibly indicative…
Of course if one looks more broadly at how the State monstrosity’s actors have acted, Nuland and Dulles and such, it sure seems like that’s the interior attitude. And as I said, that attitude goes way back. And can I add that of course the British imperial management patented the approach, for “modern states,” and of course our Founding Fathers learned at the knee of the Monarch…?
I really wish the so-called Best and Brightest/Smartest People in the Room really were half as smart as they are portrayed. If only because they might have been able to learn from history and get that even at the height of the British Empire, the colonial policies were overall losers that guaranteed the Brits were going to be kicked out, oh and that we don’t begin to spread Democracy well, either by force or intrigue, and have the same thing happen to us. Oh, and that war with Russia is ALWAYS a loser.
But no…
I really wish the so-called Best and Brightest/Smartest People in the Room really were half as smart as they are portrayed.
no kidding.. It’s a big scam. I get suspicious when things are seemingly more complicated than otherwise necessary. Big tables with many people daydreaming about the catering menu….
But they are smart enough to be born to parents who could get them into the “good” schools, how much smarter do you need to be? Smart enough to use the family connections they inherited, sounds plenty smart to me.
The danger is when the neocons succeed in provoking war with Russia, what the domestic response will be in America. Will the majority, out of ignorance, fall into line and support the truly insane notion of a “winnable” war. Or will events finally force an awakening to the horrors of the current system. Either way, dissent will not be tolerated.
Like Carl Rove said, we are just all along for the ride.
I was shocked to learn that most people I work with have no understanding of the Nuremberg trial. No knowledge of that history or the conclusions drawn about the evils of offensive war. It is no wonder that current events are unfolding as they are.
What is worse, the corrupt politician advocating war, or the the person behind, cheering them on?
It is a thankless task advocating for peace in the current climate, but it must be done. The current system needs violence to survive. Violence against the environment. Violence against workers. Violence agains other peoples and nations.
Engaging fellow citizens to reject that violence is key. Civil disobedience is the only way to fight insane public policy.
i think parry is just calling an empire an empire. if you’re the empire, you only vassal suzerains and enemies.
My mom did the Peace Corp and worked for Boeing in a position where she worked with State, and my Godfather was a CIA agent in Africa. They worked with State at about the same time in the late 60’s and 70’s. My godfather has major issues with the CIA, largely believing it suffered from information overload and could be replaced by people collecting the wire service reports. All in all, he largely respected the majority of his CIA colleagues despite his views on the organization. He has nothing nice to say about State.
Both, my mom and godfather, tell stories of how grossly incompetent and often vile people (ugly Americans isnt just about tourists) at State were. My Dad reminded me Mom and my godfather as working class Catholics probably didn’t care for the WASPS at State. Modern information sources provide confirmation into what my mom and godfather said growing up. I suspect State has always been a disaster, and unlike Defense, they aren’t tested. State’s failings fall on Defense or on the President as he doesn’t need the State Department the way the President once did since phones were invented, and State never faces scrutiny. We auction off ambassadorships. Hillary Clinton became Secretary of State despite no relevant experience and a partial term as Senator as she ran for President. Lavrov isn’t a politician. He’s been a loyal and high ranking diplomat since the Soviet days.
Both, my mom and godfather, tell stories of how grossly incompetent and often vile people (ugly Americans isnt just about tourists) at State were.
Hardly surprising, since the book The Ugly American is about how grossly incompetent American diplomats (particularly in SE Asia) were and has nothing to do with American tourists. Plus ça change, as it were.
My friends at one of the three-letter agencies frequently refer to State as “the disloyal opposition.”
Maybe you’re just totally unfamiliar with the work of Robert Parry. He’s anything but embedded. Since he’s been around a long time and was once an MSM journalist he does have sources.
The way to tell for sure is to get a business card. If their title is “Country Supervisor”, then we know.
I’d say the ncons are all “above average” crazy. There are no “below average” crazy ncons. Sometimes a statistical approach is useful. I’d venture a guess, until we get more data, is that they are top quintile crazy.
I think the core problem is they’ve been hiring the wrong kind of liberal arts majors from Ivy League schools. If we’d limit it to art majors and French philosophy majors, things would be different.
“As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed.” ~Vincent van Gogh
(pay mind, rise above, move along aby)
Uh, I guess but following the life advice of Vinny Van Gogh seems a bit sketchy.
PS: latest research seems to indicate that he did *not* cut off his own ear, he was covering for a friend with which he had a quarrel, but everybody is still sure that he did off himself at the ripe age of 37.
Actually, there is recent speculation that he didn’t shoot himself either ,but rather that he was shot (accidentally?) by a neighbor boy. It’s not the majority opinion by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s by no means certain that he committed suicide.
Someone threw a shoe at Hillary.
http://dailybail.com/home/female-protestor-throws-shoe-at-hillary-during-speech.html
My god… that pose is ripe for the meme-ing. Good quality too. Sad this was more recent. How much money was she being paid to speak here? If she is making hundreds of thousands of dollars, I think viewers ought to be able to hurl shoes at her.
*said it WASN’T more recent*
*sad* this wasn’t… thought I’d help before you Van Gogh’d yourself over it :)
if the shoe cost 12 thousand bucks, it was an homage.
The auction value is much higher than that.
ha! I was thinking if it was a Manolo Blahnik or whatever, HC would’ve kept it and thanked the thrower for the lovely shoe donation and asked thrower privately afterward what she(HC) could do for thrower. However, if the shoe/s were from Payless, the thrower obviously has to get taken away immediately by police and have life ruined.
She is an awful speaker, all right. But, in this economy, who can afford to take a shoe off and toss it at the stage?
If you can get it past security, bring one. I’m thinking perhaps a quick trip to Goodwill to ask if there are any single shoes that have been donated by mistake? I’m sure they would let it go cheap.
Get two shoes to throw!
One for range, one for target, bingo. Better yet, practice in the yard
Poor Pat. Haven’t encountered the ‘new and improved’ Goodwill, have we? If something is messed up a bit, or missing a piece, or just plain cheap, into the dumpster it goes! (Comes from personal experience.) Pricing depends on how well you know the cashier. (It’s not what you know; it’s who you know.)
There is an ‘upscale’ Goodwill near me which appeals to the more upscale nature of much of the neighborhood. I do avoid it. But one farther away isn’t quite that bad yet. Still has mismatched cutlery and old books. Although I’m not so sure they keep those around long.
No, Hillary. That was not a Bat. You’re not in Bat Country. It wasn’t a little bird either, trying to land on your podium. That is reserved for candidates who have a soul, and heart.
from ‘basic income: a sellout of the american dream’:
who’s ‘we’? define ‘jobs’. what am i reading?! (love the ‘tremendous boost to wealth creation & prosperity’ part :) )…
i liked the part warning about the moral hazard of supplying people with a basic income. cause working 2 or 3 jobs and eating crappy food and never seeing your family is morally uplifting.
It builds character!
What I would like to know, at what point do we start recognizing depression as a symptom of society/culture and not a personal, hereditary affliction? (as with other things, I do think biology plays a role in predisposition).
I am studying the issue of depression being a symptom of society right now. After contemplating suicide for the last few years I decided to leave the US to look for a new home, and my research led me to Uruguay. I have been here since February and don’t return to the US until September. My mental health is much improved. Back home I smoked marijuana everyday, as a coping mechanism against the pain I felt watching the mistreatment of homeless people and young people in Sacramento California. Sometimes I would not even be able to go to my job with out first getting baked. Marijuana is legal here in Uruguay, but guess what, I go weeks without smoking and now only do it for recreation. I can hardly remember how depressed I used to be. Also, I am not working at all, but I don’t find that it has caused a redepression, yet. I just study spanish, meet people, tour free museums, take pictures of things I find beautiful and eat out a lot. Obviously this cannot continue.
Hang in there, bro, life still has interesting and satisfying things to show you.
Depression is most definitely a symptom of this society.
There is a vast literature on this topic linking depression and anxiety to SES.
Some very poetic writing I recall about how the scary shadow cast by the projects is a projection of our own dark demons (i.e., the aggression flows in the other direction)
In the hood lots of folks have PTSD from the streets
If an employed populace is so morally important to people in power (either reality or bully pulpit) perhaps they need to work toward real regulations regarding employment in the US:
Minimum wage is determined in any region as being the living wage where one week’s pay at 35 hours will pay for the average market rate rental for a one bedroom apartment no smaller than 400 square feet with no greater than an half hour commute to the metropolitan center using public transportation. All jobs in America come with two weeks paid vacation (average hours worked) and 6 six sick days after one months employment – regardless of full, part time or seasonal status.
There is no limit on income for ACA subsidies. Anyone buying an ACA policy on the exchange is eligible for a subsidy so that the median cost Silver policy in their region and age range costs them no more than 8% of their income. Cost being defined as the combined amount of the yearly premium AND deductible.
Productivity increases must be shared equally between management and labor.
Top management wages (including benefits and perks) greater than 125 times the hourly rate (including benefits) of their lowest paid employee times 35 are subject to employer taxes of 40% and will be taxed for the employee at marginal income tax rate of 90%
Moving a plant, office, factory anywhere in the US does not negate the Union contract.
Closing a plant, factory or office and opening one outside the US puts an immediate penalizing tariff on any products or services offered by the company.
When point one becomes the standard for work in America, and the others are considered serious proposals by most of the elite, I’ll listen to sanctimonious lectures from assholes about the value of work. You value it, you pay for it. Until you are willing to pay for it, the rest is just trying to make sure the desperate scrabble to work for less than they are worth merely to survive the next few days which keeps the owners in mansions and their children idle.
Nice… uh, howbout “8 % of their income”, no more and NO LESS?
If an employed populace is so morally important to people in power (either reality or bully pulpit) perhaps they need to work toward real regulations regarding employment in the US:
To continue Pat’s proposals. Let’s make sure the entire populace is employed. That means, 100% estate tax so people can’t inherit the means not to work. End intellectual property; so you wrote a popular song or invented a useful machine or whatever — you shouldn’t then be able to sit back on a money stream that allows you not to work. Tax away most investment income — again, it’s just a money stream that allows you not to work. And not only would these policies not cost money so as to doom the society. We’d save lots in areas that wouldn’t need to be policed and we’d also enjoy the fruits of the taxable income.
The release of productivity and prosperity that would come from a completely employed populace would be awesome. Until the anti-basic income crowd supports employment for everyone including the rich, I’ll have suspicions about their moral concern for the rest of us.
While it is clear that this writer is in a bubble about the availability of jobs, I think that the basic income people really do gloss over the importance of work to one’s sense of purpose and direction. Furthermore given the extent of our infrastructure decay, I find it very strange that resurrecting the works program to fix parks, maintain roads, start food forests isn’t being proposed. Especially if the works program came with fully paid health insurance and a living wage for the area. Giving people money feels like charity, give people a job that improves their community and they not only can stabilize and grow, but we can force better treatment of workers across the board by having a viable alternative.
Simple answer to a rhetorical question…
Sensible jobs programs attached to infrastructure repair is impossible because the owners of Congress (and our President) would rather they spend the money on worthless air planes and expensive military adventures since they profit more from those. AND if the money is there for domestic items like infrastructure it ends up making it clear that the idea that the government is broke and needs to cut out SNAP, Unemployment, Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security to smithereens. The fact that all of their policies are destructive to the economy in general and ultimately even to them having passed them by somehow.
That “sense of purpose” or “value” from work is a holdover of brainwashing to accept the drudgery of the Puritan Ethic. The Puritan Ethic is wrong and needs to be buried along with its long-dead nasty creators. Life is NOT work. Value is NOT work. One’s value to self and society is NOT via work and the extent of the bank account.
I have to agree, see my comment above
There is a certain sense of shared sacrifice that comes from shared labor, I suppose. But we do way too much of the stuff for no good reason at all, other than the preservation of the subordinate mass (which was Protestants’ more likely object). Arbeit macht Freier. “Work makes you a sucker.”
“One’s value to self and society is NOT via work and the extent of the bank account.”
I think this is how most people ACTUALLY live especially those that don’t have ideal career jobs but just the endless array of boring and sometimes BS jobs, working for economic reasons, but never confusing it will one’s actual life which mostly takes place on the weekends, maybe the evenings.
I don’t agree. I think the Stoics had it right and happiness lies in doing your duty.
Moreover, I never would have become a reasonably proficient writer or analyst if I had not had to do that to make money. I don’t have any artistic skill or inclinations. So if I didn’t work, I would definitely would become depressed and probably an addict of some sort.
That sucks. I’d travel. Tinker. Relax. Play. Read. Volunteer at an animal/wildlife rescue (because lots of free time available and not weary from work all day every day). Wouldn’t have to worry if I’ll ever be able to retire. Never have to think I would HAVE to work until I died of old age on the job, etc.
Regarding basic income, when do politicians/gov’t. give ANYTHING with NO STRINGS ATTACHED?
The string is the people, given basic income, must use that meager amount of money to avoid starvation.
The side effect is that it will stimulate the economy.
Here, we can call it ‘rabble stimulus,’ and distinguish that from ‘government stimulus.’
social security doesn’t have many strings for instance, you just need to have paid in and be a certain age. It really is a guaranteed income program for a certain demographic.
““It may be that many job seekers aren’t located where most of the jobs are, or lack the training to hold them.””
but why assume relocating is always feasible, much less desirable, maybe their spouse has to work there or they are divorced and their kid(s) is there or their aging parents are there. Sorry your view of endlessly mobile people doesn’t match our lived reality.
Apparently some are skeptical of the People’s Summit, even the article linked by Yves quotes Jill Stein as saying it’s an exercise in keeping the faithful within the Dem party
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/06/17/peop-j17.html?view=article_mobile
Socialists evidently down on Bernie…
Most of the comments at common dreams said the same thing because only the serious people are invited to talk. It’s just another name for the third way.
Most of the people’s summit wasn’t livestreamed—only a few of the headliners.
Some sessions were people bringing up local concerns and asking for support from whomever was willing. There were story sessions simply relaying situations/concerns. I would like to know how they went.
Bill Black and Stephanie Kelton gave a talk with lots of Q&A, and people started to get their brains around the contours of national currency (I listened to it, nothing new for us). Naomi Klein talked about the Leap Manifesto, how that is going in Canada, and there were break-out sessions on that for the US.
We have no idea how this is going to proceed. It might be another penning or become what we need. Likely some of both. I find it odd that people slam it before it’s anything. I expect it from Common Dreams but dang…seems we’ve become so familiar/comfortable with being trashed and losing that we do it to ourselves before others can. Yeah, it’s hard to maintain hope, but couldn’t we at least remain open to it?
This isn’t the only venue/vehicle needed. Surely socialists/greens who feel uncomfortably compromised can find ways to create loose relationships and take advantage of this rare momentum. They will be needed, if we are to get somewhere.
+1
It is clear that the Bernistas and Sanders himself believe that the political structure of the USA should be managed by two parties, one to represent ‘capital’ and one to represent ‘labor’. The Bernistas and the ‘left’ are attempting to push the Clinton’s and 3rd Way folks into the Republican party, but at this point the left and the 3rd Way are in a struggle of who should own the brand “Democrat”.
If Clinton finds a way to seduce Republicans and other groups who own capital to vote for her cause, it will leave the Evangelicals and small government Republicans/Libertarians/Tea-Party factions without a home.
Jill Stein (who I happen to support) has been trying to create a space in the Green Party for the left, but will have only limited success because the environment has precedence over the economy. This is anathema to the left and especially with unions whose industries -coal, oil, steel, nuclear, defense- and whose middle income wages would be under threat by the Green Party.
I believe the citizens would be better served by allowing a structural change in the voting system through Rank Choice Voting (aka: Instant Run-Off voting) as the voters of Maine might choose this November. If offered this system could allow for more political parties to arise which would better serve factional interests (identity politics under an old moniker).
I have yet to see any large support of a fully parliamentary system in the US which comes with it own set of democratic headaches. As much as I might bridle under laws promulgated under a Tea-Party regime, I still think that as a faction their ideas do deserve political representation in some rough proportion to their population. The Green’s, as my wife points out, are the Revelationists of our age. They are always reminding us that, “the end is near!”
Yup. Summit of the professional Dem left, anyone serious about breaking away is not invited. Seems similar to the PDA of Howard Dean fame. Not worth taking seriously until a faction seriously considers an open split.
From the Hilary Who? link:
DeMoro described her part in the discussions between party moderates and the “Berniecrats,” including Dr. Cornel West and Rep. Keith Ellison, as being “extremely contentious,” and accused players on the Democratic party’s platform drafting committee of “trying to box me into saying that the Affordable Care Act is essentially good enough. And that we ‘really can’t get to single payer.'”
When you make a compromise in health care,” she added, “you’re basically issuing a death sentence because what you’re saying is that lives don’t matter.”
“Let’s not be afraid to admit that we come here wounded and that we also come here in pain,” the progressive author and journalist Naomi Klein said. “And that pain feels very close to the surface. We are grieving political losses. Dreams tantalizingly tasted but ultimately unrealized.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ this is a good description of how I’m feeling – Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign woke me up to the real possibilities obtaining single payer health care, reasonable college tuition for granddaughter, reigning in the TBTF banks and sending banksters and fraudsters to jail~~~~
The closest the panelists came to an overt condemnation of Clinton, though, came in their discussion of “neo-liberalism,” a less labor-friendly strain of the traditional ideology — and one often seen to be embodied by the Clinton wing of the party.
“Neoliberalism lost the argument,” Klein declared. “They lost the argument to the extent that Bernie was out there, calling himself a socialist, not apologizing for it.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~What a weak response!!!!!!!!!!!!~~~~~~~~~~~~
DeMoro is exactly right:
But the 10% disproportionately goes to HappyVille, and the 90% to Pain City, so there is really no issue. On this issue, there is more that divides Clinton and Sanders than unites them.
Teens should have summer jobs, the less glamorous the better Quartz (resilc). I sold newspaper subscriptions door to door. And you?
~~~~~~~~~~ Thanks for asking!! I worked as a file clerk for a medical clinic for the summer when I was 15 years old for $2.65/hour (or whatever minimum wage was at the time, my tax refund for that year was $33). Eight hours per day, Monday through Friday from June through September. When the assignment was done, they asked me to return and I broke down and cried. What they didn’t know was that I was so miserable, doing the same task over and over again, it was driving me insane, but I sucked it up until the end. Just couldn’t control myself when they asked me to return.
Goodness, I had no idea Russia was being so aggressive in hacking every concievable electronic device in the US Government except Hilary’s private server…
Despite all of my ire at Clinton for not following security procedures, the reason I’m amused by all this is that I’m pretty damn sure that China has had a back door into every conceivable electronic device and computer system in America for a long time, and that Russia is not far behind them. (Building pretty much everything hardware everyone uses gives China the head start.) But in their desire to blame Russia for this the smartest people in the room are telling the public that everything is insecure (including every American’s cell phone AND the damn private server).
I think Russia probably has better (more clever) computer scientists/hackers that China.. China may have a larger head count, and operate a lot of silicon foundry slave labor camps, but I never have been too impressed w/ there ability to innovate, at least from the venue of process and process control, unless some great behavioral change has occurred in recent history?
And make no mistake, it is their absolute rights as sovereigns to hack away (same with us).
‘but I never have been too impressed w/ there ability to innovate’
Things change.
‘China Tops List of Fastest Computers Again’
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/21/technology/china-tops-list-of-fastest-computers-again.html?_r=0
I also note that quite a few Chinese-born scientists show no inability to innovate when they get over here. e.g. Feng Zhang and his instrumental role with both CRISPR and optogenetics
“Over here” is still operative..
In China, assume a long line of people standing behind the failed innovator. Admittedly, my last 1st person feedback I have is 3years old but I was hearing some pretty darn lame experiences from the process (instrumentation side) licensing business trying to get things up and running autonomously in China.
I’m not a computer geek, so I actually don’t know the significance of the “fastest computer”claim… Is it a massively parallel lego set? As well, who actually knows if it is indeed the fastest? I am guessing there are government/private sector entities that are not forthcoming on that sort of operational information.
From the WTF where you thinking file…
http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/woman-convicted-for-conspiring-to-export-american-milit-1782063184
Last week the Department of Justice announced the conviction of Wenxia Man by a federal jury. The crime? Conspiring to export military jet engines and drones to China. Not plans. Not components. Entire jet engines and drones.
Wenxia Man, also known as Wency Man, was found guilty of “conspiring to export and cause the export of fighter jet engines, an unmanned aerial vehicle – commonly known as a drone – and related technical data to the People’s Republic of China, in violation of the Arms Export Control Act,” according to the release from the Department of Justice.
Man was convicted at trial of conspiring to export and cause the export of defense articles without the required license.
According to evidence presented at trial, between approximately March 2011 and June 2013, Man conspired with Xinsheng Zhang, who was located in China, to illegally acquire and export to China defense [equipment.]
During the course of the investigation, when talking to an HSI undercover agent, Man referred to Zhang, as a “technology spy” who worked on behalf of the Chinese military to copy items obtained from other countries and stated that he was particularly interested in stealth technology.
The defense equipment mentioned in the report included:
·Pratt & Whitney F135-PW-100 engines used in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter
·Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 turbofan engines used in the F-22 Raptor fighter jet
·General Electric F110-GE-132 engines designed for the F-16 fighter jet
·the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper/Predator B Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
The conspiracy also included the technical data relating to the equipment involved.
According to the report, sentencing will take place in August with Wenxia Man facing a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Considering the importance of the equipment involved and the consequences of it falling into the hands of U.S. adversaries, 20 years maximum seems a little light.
Actually, Moscow announced some months ago that it had about 20,000 Clinton emails directly taken from her private e-mail server. They openly expressed the likelihood of releasing them to the American public by some means before the election. The most recent Hillary hacker, Guccifer 2.0, has released a huge chunk of Hillary emails to Wikileaks, which should become public this week. No one knows who he is or where, but Washington, DC is just sure he’s Russian.
The much more dangerous response to all the hacking going around is that NATO just announced (on June 14th) that they were adding cyber attacks against any NATO member as an act of war, just like an attack by sea, by land, or by air. Hacking just became grounds for launching ICBM’s.
An incident of hacking of a NATO member’s government or any corporate computers by a foreign government can now be legally used as just cause for a war of all NATO members against the attacker. Every NATO member has to join in, although in practical terms it’s really a decision totally made by the US President, since we’ve got the biggest military.
No word on whether our listening in on Angela Merkel’s cell phone for years would now count as cause for NATO fighting NATO. The NATO spokesman made it clear that if Russia is ever blamed for hacking, that counts big time. Madagascar . . . not so much.
This is meant as a direct threat from NATO to Russia, but what it really does is place the power to start WWIII in the hands of any script kiddie who can breach the Pentagon’s security, or Goldman Sachs, or Sears Roebuck or MasterCard.
If he says he’s Russian.
You are right. This is scary. Largely because it is just one more thing to enable the war so many seem to want. Hard as it is to believe they are that delusional.
Plus it’s such a “slam dunk” to determine the true identity of “hackers”.
Spector, Chaos and Hydra will have a field day with that.
Hydra Hillary???
Where’s a real American hero when you need one?
the US and lapdogs are mounting an intense-pressure campaign to intimade russia from releasing those clinton emails. they are absolutely terrified of them getting out into the public. i only hope that the toothpaste can’t be put back into the tube and we’ll see them soon.
however, i worry that they will succeed through threats of NATO article 5 to keep them from seeing the light of day. that’s why i so despised the earlier threats of releasing the information. it gave the enemy time to react and we now risk never knowing what was in them.
Alas, they could release video of Hilary in bed with Yoko with Bubba and Pappy Bush snorting coke while watching the festivities…and it wouldn’t make a damned bit of difference
Psychopath/Sociopath gets flung around here pretty liberally, but in the case of HRC, go figure how she seems so unperturbed knowing several 800lbs email gorillas of her own creation are looming in the wings?
No perception of consequences? A Clinton hallmark.
Because the Clintons have never experienced any consequences!
Well, they have if they were actually normal human beings, but they don’t seem to be.
I would be personally humiliated to be either of them.
The USA soccer team has done well in reaching the Semifinals of Copa America, against Argentina on Tuesday 8p in Houston. Copa America is a tournament of the 10 South American national teams, which in this edition hosted in US stadiums is also including 6 North American teams.
I like the nickname Spanish-language TV station Univision gives to the USA team, “El Equipo de Todos”, the Team of Everyone, where the Everyone is ALL people living in USA. The USA team itself is diverse racially. The team has many dual citizens that chose to play for USA instead of their other nation, there are many dual German citizens (recruited by the German Coach Klinsman), but off hand I recall there are also dual citizens of Colombia, Mexico, Haiti, Iceland, Croatia, Norway, Liberia, Ghana, & Vietnam. Many of the dual German citizens are possibly the only good thing to ever be produced by the US MIC: good soccer players that are the son of an African American father working on the US base in Germany who met a German mother while working there.
If some Trump-esque bigot were the US coach, & restricted the team to solely White & non-immigrant players, there would still be some good players like Clint Dempsey & Michael Bradley, but the team would definitely be much weaker.
It is heartening to see this Team of Everyone spirit in this year of Trump’s blatant racist bigotry, & other USians’ racial, poor, or “other” bashing.
It is also rare to see the USA in the underdog role, having to play the soccer power Argentina, who has one of the best current players on Earth in Lionel Messi.
I don’t. Frankly, knowing that it’s just the cynical sort of Pier 1 bourgeois unity nonsense that would come out of a ($3 million) Clinton backer’s TV network, I spit at it.
iceland with 300,000 citizens managed to field a team that tied portugal with ronaldo. the whole of the usa can’t manage to find a team that isn’t made up of dual citizens? pretty shabby.
What the Iceland team has done is amazing. But that’s no reason to celebrate some notion of national purity. Even the best teams grab the talent as they can, and my top-of-the-head guesstimate is that maybe a third or more of top players have the option of playing for multiple countries based on varying national definitions of citizenship.
i’m hardly ‘celebrating some notion of national purity.’ jes making fun of team u.s.a.
Sometimes a writer will use a phrase or a sentence that belies the rest of the good they are trying to present.
I call these things “Clunkers.” This is in reference to thinking of reading as clicking along as you read the words giving meaning that washes over you and then suddenly there is a, “Clunk” that stops the process as you think, “That is really stupid.”
RE: The MIT sourced article on basic income.
I was reading this bit on the problem with a basic income and this sentence clunked.
“Then there’s the question of whether such a program might disconnect large swaths of our population from the positive aspects of working for a living—a potentially toxic side effect.”
This person has NEVER been a production worker trying to make rate or a person cleaning up something disgusting or working for assholes who ride you constantly.
I am pretty sure that anyone doing these jobs would gladly forfeit their “positive aspects of working.”
I like “clunker.”
I also think that people who confuse “work” with “wage work” have a serious category error problem.
I would urge that the central, Abolition-level issue of our time is not consumption but “human rental” (i.e., wage labor). The income guarantee leaves human rental in place.
Extremely well said! And how odd is it (or not) that these sorts of warnings about “moral hazards” never consider what would be possible if we destroyed the parasitic rentier class and took back the wealth they’ve stolen.
HA .. indeed. I was going to say “I like that expression”..
How often have I been reading something thinking, “I know who would find this thought provoking”, then it goes off the cliff and I do a mental WTF!?! and click the x
Yes abusive workplaces with verbal abuse seem fairly common, unethical workplaces seem fairly common where your are asked to do unethical and sometimes illegal things or at least overlook them, workplaces breaking labor law or at least abusing it via the salary designation seem fairly common – so people are allowed no time for life but made to work long hours 6-7 days a week, contact work where you have no job stability is common, and then there are some caught in the gig economy. I wonder how many people in those situations see the positive aspects.
Yves, what was your favorite pasty? The big ones right now seems to be Dobber’s and “The Pasty Man”. I used to like Dobber’s best, but now I prefer the latter. Actually I sort of avoid them both now, since they are pretty high in fat.
I’m sorry, you MUST mean “pastries”. A “pastie” or “pasty” is a nipple cover on exotic female dancers.
nosir, the link above: http://m.france24.com/en/20160620-cornish-pasties-tastiest-victims-brexit
When did “pasties” become something to eat vs something to cover nipples on otherwise topless waitresses/dancers?
Must be a British thing. Like “jumper” meaning a SWEATER instead of some toddlers onesie.
The clue is in the word “Cornish”.
Since they started making edible pasties.
Since tin has always been a major item of trade from Cornwall, this is what you might be thinking of: http://sophisticatedpair.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Madonna.jpg
Pasty rhymes with nasty. I’ve had good ones and bad in the UP.
No-no-NO! It’s a PAH-stie!
(Yours Truly is of Cornish descent.)
i think he’s correct. pah-stie rhymes with nah-stie. of course, not if you pronounce it neh-stie.
http://etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=pasty
It was decades ago, so I doubt they are still being made there the same way. But it was in dining room of a Victorian hotel in Houghton, Michigan, in the Upper Peninsula, in the Copper Country (Houghton was once a boom town and had shrunk to 1/5 of its peak population, but still had some pretty buildings from its heyday). The crust was really good (flaky rather than being dough-y) and the filling had a lot of onion in, way more than others I’d had. That’s all I can remember as to why it was better.
re: summer jobs – in 1988, I got a job learning a programming language that I still program in today! At the time, it paid $3.50/hr (min wage was $3.35 at the time)
This is not the first time that this has come up, and in fact similar things are already widespread.
Several years ago IBM became a big proponent of the Trusted Platform Module a separate subprocessor that is locked away from the user and is supposed to provide basic cryptographic and key protocols. Like Intel’s subprocessor this is accessible only to the manufacturer and runs code that can neither be altered nor examined. Unlike the Intel chip it isn’t really intended for remote management but the fact that it exists and is inaccessible to the end user still represents a major security question.
Despite some initial public opposition IBM continued pushing it. They have since backed off from being its proponents but TPM chips are now present in systems sold by Google, Acer, Microsoft, Oracle, and VMWare. Any flaws in those implementations would be huge problems.
And you know there are…
IBM doesn’t have to push it anymore. DoD procurement regs mandate one in every computing asset they buy.
TPM is just a crypto processor and key store. Use of the TPM is totally optional, so long as the boot ROM (UEFI/BIOS/IPL) will boot untrusted code and none of your apps demand access to it.
Also, Intel Macintoshes have much the same functionality built into their system management controllers, along with various hardware management sensors and controls. The FakeSMC kernel module emulates this hardware transparently to applications, thus allowing OS X to run on any suitably similar Intel motherboard.
Concerning the Okinawa protests…I have to wonder why we never hear such issues around US troops in Europe. Surely rapes and murders by US servicemen magically fail to occur there…or is there really something about servicemen in Okinawa that makes THEM rapey-killy?
The other article against Basic Income…those who argue against it always come off to me as fools pushing the Puritanical myth that work is NECESSARY and “holy”. I disagree. The Puritan philosophy is well past its prime. The OPTION to work or not must NOT be left to the idle do-nothing rich. It THEY get to choose whether or not to actually work, then EVERYONE should have the same option. There is virtually no real upward mobility and the “American Dream” has ALWAYS been a myth, but is more so in modern neoliberal times than any time in the past. It also ignores the fact that the government do this without worrying about taxes. It can simply print the money and give it out as Basic Income. Debt is irrelevant and made up nonsense.
Basic Income also offers the beneficial pressure on employers to HAVE to pay better to attract workers. They SHOULD have to keep bumping up pay and benefits in order to attract workers. Of course, the corporate tax system should also be altered to punish high disparities between top exec pay and average worker pay too but Basic Income is definitely a part of package to FORCE worker wages up against the desires of the do-nothing looter rich.
Another economic fact supporting basic income is that most jobs in America mean working for national monopolies. In 1916, most every American town had an independent mechanic, grocer, mortgage lender, used car dealer, textile mill, tailor, tinkerer, inventor of mad things like refrigerators and airplanes and zeppelins, you name it.
In 2016, all such businesses are property of national chains, and the way the patent system works, you could invent time travel and promptly be sued for patent violation by some corporation who claim they had the basic idea first, and now want to see if you have the money to outlast their team of lawyers. Before you get that settled, the Chinese will have stolen your patent, come up with a cheaper, mass-produced version of it, and be selling it all over the world.
With robotic automation, national or even global monopolies will only become more the case, because they are more efficient and cheaper. To suit robotic skills, everything will gradually become highly modular. If your car or water heater is on the blink, a robot will come pull out the defective module and stick in a new one. Human ingenuity and inventiveness is not needed to do such work.
If it’s food you require, simply step over to your refrigerator and say, “I need a head of lettuce.” In ten minutes, a drone will appear at your door carrying one head of cold, crisp Romaine. You will bitch about not getting the iceberg lettuce you had in mind, but then you didn’t ask for iceberg now, did you?
Bwa-ha-ha-ha! Where’s your work ethic now?
Technological triumphalism vs. actual control over wages and working conditions (i.e., the creation of capital).
That is the BIG vs. JG distinction in a nutshell. One sees why the crooks in Silicon Valley support it.
If I may Lambert….
MACRO ISSUES
1. Yglesias may not realize it, but all serious academic support for BIG is based on the idea that many people will quit working (this is considered desirable in order to eliminate bad jobs and ultimately ‘decommodify’ labor; e.g. here and here ). So the goal is to reduce the supply of labor and reduce production.
2. JG provides a “good job” alternative to people who work in “bad jobs”. When private employers want them back, they have to provide at least the same or better living wage-benefit package and work conditions offered in the JG. JG sets the labor standard.
3. Under BIG, production drops, consumption rises, and so do prices. Suddenly, the value of the BIG grant has been eroded. Great success: the poor are still poor.
4. Under JG, employment rises, socially useful production rises, and (as we have argued many times) some of that production is dedicated to the benefit of the poor, providing goods and services at the local level that the private sector has not provided, and thus it absorbs part of the wage. In other words, both supply and demand rise.
5. Coupled with its countercyclical mechanism, JG is an inflation stabilizer (not an inflation generator, like BIG). We’ve modeled this many times (see here, here, here). Inflation from other sources is, of course, possible (runaway bank lending, speculation, oil shocks etc.—all are separate issues.)
6. BIG is not countercyclical. It’s universal, unconditional, but does not fluctuate with the business cycle. JG is a direct response to recessions and expansions.
7. There is no mechanism by which BIG can ensure full employment over the short or long run. Only the JG can.
8. In short, BIG doesn’t deal with price (or currency) stability, useful output, or any of the negative externalities from unemployment.
POVERTY
9. As Amartya Sen taught us, poverty is not just a function of lack of adequate income. Providing income alone does not eliminate poverty.
10. The poor and the unemployed want to work (here, here). And as my work on Argentina showed (9m14s), receiving income is the fifth reason why the poor wanted to work! Why do BIG advocates presume to know what’s better for the poor than the poor themselves? BIG does little for those who want to work.
11. There is almost a ‘neoclassical market equilibrating assumption’ behind most BIG analysis that says: “as long as people have cash, the market will magically provide the goods for them, allow them to acquire assets, provide them with the freedom to do what they please, etc. etc.” If the market hasn’t solved these problems now, why would it do so just because people get cash? All structures that marginalize, reduce opportunities, and discriminate remain. JG is not a panacea for all these problems, but it deals with one crucial and systemic aspect of marginalization – the absence of guaranteed decent work.
12. Amartya Sen also taught us that what matters is not just freedom, but substantive freedom. That is, policy has to 1) recognize what individuals themselves want and value; 2) it must provide these opportunities; and 3) it must remove obstacles from taking advantage of these opportunities.
13. The JG does precisely that: recognizes many people want paid work, provides the job opportunity, and removes obstacles from taking the opportunity by targeting the jobs to the communities, and providing the very services that one might need in order to take care of these opportunities (education, transportation, care etc., etc.).
14. BIG may lull the recipients into a false sense of security. Once the BIG grant proves inadequate to liberate the poor from their poverty, and the poor decide to search for better paying jobs and opportunities, they will not be there. Just like they aren’t now. As research has shown the mark of unemployment is devastating and unemployment breeds unemployability.
15. Again, many BIG bloggers are not familiar with even the basic BIG literature. There is such a thing called ‘participation income’ and ‘civic minimum’ in serious scholarly work (Atkison 1995 and White 2003, respectively)—an idea that society is built on the principle of reciprocation. Society provides you with a basic income; you reciprocate by participating in socially-productive activities. This is exactly what the JG does. No matter what Yglesias says, it is not based on the coercion principle of workfare, but rather on the principle of participation.
16. I find it ironic that we have to debate each other. BIG and JG stand on much the same principles. Let policy provide an opportunity to all to perform socially useful activities on the ‘participation principle’ through the JG, while supporting those who cannot (the young, retired, disabled, with onerous care burden) and we have a stronger, more stable economy that creates socially useful activities that serve the public purpose.
Yes, sending a check to people is not as “messy,” but let’s stop pretending that it’s a panacea for the fundamental problem of economic insecurity.
http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2014/01/16-reasons-matt-yglesias-wrong-job-guarantee-vs-basic-income.html
Disheveled Marsupial…. its disconcerting that some forward policy which mobs like Cato and Heritage support…
If I opposed every social program that isn’t a panacea, I’d have to live outside all society. “It isn’t a panacea,” isn’t really a reason.
While I know there have been jobs bills in economic down times since the New Deal conservation corps, the only implemented real job guarantees that I know of were in the military or in the self-styled socialist countries, the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, China, and the like. Do the really existing job guarantees figure in the research at all?
Firstly, the major numero uno economic change under a JG would to bin the neoliberal NAIRU labour cram down w/ utilizing more specific and targeted tools for adjusting to economic fluctuations.
As far as your inference to socialist – communist style make work programs that’s a definite – NO – JG would preferably be a regional affair under democratic guidance. Its not like we don’t have decades of work just to clean up past mistakes, as well, as prepare for the challenges of the future [known knows].
Disheveled Marsupial… don’t see the need for a national level top heavy authoritarian approach, other wise its back to mega / strip malls, nail and hair, truism [for those that can afford it], build more urban sprawl [infrastructure black hole] or never ending leveraged consumerism…. you know all the things that did not work over the last few decades….
I take it the answer to whether there have been actually existing JGs which figure in the research is “no”.
Any decent JG would be an improvement over the current situation, but I am put off by the implicit moralistic agenda in most of the arguments for it that I see — “most people would lead lazy unhappy low-worth lives unless they have to submit to the discipline of the wage which will convert them into a happy, fulfilled workforce.”
Maybe my doubts would be alleviated if someone could point me to something resembling the totally awesome democratically controlled job guarantee that some of its more visionary advocates say will come about.
Incidentally, it’s hard for me to see the Soviet system as “make work programs” when it took Russia from being an absolute economic and social basket case in 1917 to space age superpower in one generation, despite its land and population being devastated by a world war. There was lots and lots wrong with the system, but it wasn’t “make work”.
Its not – forced – so the moralistic heavy brow is unnecessary, but, if you like NAIRU I can think of quite a lot of ethical and moral reasons to ascribe to it… especially the forced bit…
Not that you actually delved into the points of order anyway…
Disheveled Marsupial…. methinks I smell Free Will ™
great post
You underestimate how difficult it is to have the drone fly up to your door, and miss the tree branches, power lines, telephone poles, etc…and stop, in the wind, and keeping a good GPS signal the whole time. Before the batteries go dead and need to be charged for an hour. At the charging station that’s at 60% battery charge distance away.
Not to mention the price of lettuce is going waaaaay up.
It will be more distributed than that. The Romaine came from your nearest neighborhood Uber-farmer, who bought some gardening land, bought all the soil amendments, pays water bills for watering his crop, pays property taxes, rents the drone from Uber-farm, charges it on his own wall plug, and refrigerates it in his own fridge.
You place an order, and she or he sends the drone the few blocks to your house, and they get to keep 10% of every sale. Until they go broke. Then some other sucker tries to make money in the gig economy.
but okinawans aren’t ‘white’ like europeans. u.s. troops have been raping okinawans for years and nothing is done about it. read Chalmers Johnson’s ‘The Sorrows of Empire.’
The poster has a point.You have to wonder though if part of the problem is the culture. Particularly since this particular region favors submissiveness in females and prostitution, while technically illegal, is a problem.
http://www.japansubculture.com/sexnomics-japans-billion-dollar-sex-industry-and-the-pink-zone/
Speaking as someone who has spent a fair amount of time on Okinawa and has quite a few Okinawan friends, I would be a bit cautious about uncritically extrapolating home island Japanese culture to the Ryukyus. Consider, if you will, the notion of onarigami:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onarigami
I apologize in advance for the snark but in reading the article on “Expert Economists” urging people to vote against leading the EU, two things jumped out at me:
To my mind this amply illustrates the chasm between the stay and leave camps. To stay in the EU means preserving the EU institution and Britain’s “alternative future trading arrangements” which may matter a great deal to the economists of the world but I find it unlikely that the average Brioton will give a tinker’s cuss about that. To listen to the leave proponents is to hear about Sovreignity, Democracy, and Jobs, none of which appear in the article.
Indeed the closest the “experts” seem to get to the concerns of most people is when they talk about holidays becoming more expensive as the Pound gets weaker. But when you are unemployed or under-employed, who cares about the cost of a ticket to Paris?
That statement may be as close as I have ever heard an economist get to admitting some flaws in their magic models, and it doesn’t go very far. Ultimately all that this letter says is that a self-selected group of self-interested people says that Britons should do what they want and that people should be more concerned with “alternative future trading arrangements,” and the cost of a vacation home in Nice, rather than say, self-determination or jobs.
L
June 20, 2016 at 10:30 am
Oh, I agree.
Now, I think economists may be right that GDP could go down. But one thing economists fastidiously, religiously, obsessively, NEVER EVER talk about is the DISTRIBUTION of all that GDP from the EU. I guess its that Harry Potter and he who can never be named kind of a thing….
Of course, I am just an ultra cynic, so there may be 1…or 0.38 of an economist that isn’t a complete toadying sycophant that knows which side of his scone is buttered….
I wish it were about self-determination and jobs, because those are real issues and EU membership impacts them negatively. But over time all self-restraint has eluded Parliament so today it is a barely responsive dictator with no real oversight; an overweening Executive tacked onto a rubber-stamp Legislature presiding over an ultra-secretive security apparatus that is itself barely under the control of the elected politicos. And one that doesn’t give a toss about jobs for the yobs.
That doesn’t negate in my mind the argument for leaving, but it does sober one and make the choice less appealing.
M5S won mayoral elections in rome and turin over the weekend. M5S is one of the more positive political movements in Europe, and these wins will give it better familiarity and legitimacy. Rome’s new mayor is also rome’s first ever female mayor, for those who care about identity politics.
wish them both success.
Donald Trump calls profiling Muslims ‘common sense’ Washington Post. Note what he said was more nuanced, but Trump never gets credit for nuance when he attempts it:
From an Intercept article
https://theintercept.com/2014/07/23/blacklisted/
“The Obama administration has quietly approved a substantial expansion of the terrorist watchlist system, authorizing a secret process that requires neither “concrete facts” nor “irrefutable evidence” to designate an American or foreigner as a terrorist, according to a key government document obtained by The Intercept.
The “March 2013 Watchlisting Guidance,” a 166-page document issued last year by the National Counterterrorism Center, spells out the government’s secret rules for putting individuals on its main terrorist database, as well as the no fly list and the selectee list, which triggers enhanced screening at airports and border crossings. The new guidelines allow individuals to be designated as representatives of terror organizations without any evidence they are actually connected to such organizations, and it gives a single White House official the unilateral authority to place entire “categories” of people the government is tracking onto the no fly and selectee lists.
…..
Over the years, the Obama and Bush Administrations have fiercely resisted disclosing the criteria for placing names on the databases—though the guidelines are officially labeled as UNCLASSIFIED. In May, Attorney General Eric Holder even invoked the STATE SECRETS privilege to prevent watchlisting guidelines from being disclosed in litigation launched by an American who was on the no fly list. In an affidavit, Holder called them a “clear roadmap” to the government’s terrorist-tracking apparatus, adding: “The Watchlisting Guidance, although unclassified, contains national security information that, if disclosed … could cause significant harm to national security.”
……
……
The rulebook, which The Intercept is publishing in full, was developed behind closed doors by representatives of the nation’s intelligence, military, and law-enforcement establishment, including the Pentagon, CIA, NSA, and FBI. Emblazoned with the crests of 19 agencies, it offers the most complete and revealing look into the secret history of the government’s terror list policies to date.***
….
This combination—a broad definition of what constitutes terrorism and a low threshold for designating someone a terrorist—opens the way to ensnaring innocent people in secret government dragnets. It can also be counterproductive. When resources are devoted to tracking people who are not genuine risks to national security, the ACTUAL threats get fewer resources—and might go unnoticed.
The fallout is personal too. There are severe consequences for people unfairly labeled a terrorist by the U.S. government, which shares its watchlist data with local law enforcement, foreign governments, and “private entities.” Once the U.S. government secretly labels you a terrorist or terrorist suspect, other institutions tend to treat you as one. It can become difficult to get a job (or simply to stay out of jail). It can become burdensome—or impossible—to travel. And routine encounters with law enforcement can turn into ordeals.
===========================================
The above provides much amusement to me when I hear that:
A. Obama is much better on civil liberties than Bush
B. Bush was much tougher on watching terrorists
(Branding, i.e., parties – a great example of why I hate them. It would go against the repub brand to even hint that repubs are better at civil liberties, – – soft on crime/terrorism – – and of course, repubs can NEVER EVER acknowledge that a dem is just as willing to shred the constitution as they are)
And the “categories” versus “profiling” is also amusing when I hear people go on and on about profiling. However, I could be wrong and categories is nothing like profiling…..but we will never know, will we, because now even things not classified are secret from the citizenry……((what was that about Obama having the most transparent administration in history???))
Like calling torture “enhanced interrogation” the use of “newspeak” has rendered the English language another mechanism of oppression.
*** As someone who has worked in the Federal Bureaucracy, if your in this multiagency taskforce, you can bet your career depends on you getting something into the final “workproduct” (i.e., document) – – it doesn’t matter if what you add improves it, or more likely, makes it worse, you absolutely, positively, cannot be seen not to have contributed something (and the more the better – undoubtedly why its 166 pages long). And it had better not be a page if everybody else has contributed 10 pages….
But the best press money can buy will yammer about how bad Trump can be, and ignore how bad the government is NOW…
Most all LDS I know, left and right, inside and outside of Utah, loathe Donald Trump. Beyond what the article described, I think it’s the combination of his east coast brashness and public romance scandals.
I still think they’ll line up behind him in November though, if the Democratic alternative is someone from the Clinton dynasty. I despair of my Mormon friends and family supporting a third party candidate.
My LDS friends and family hate both Trump and Clinton with a passion. Who knows how that will shake out.
Pretty hysterical anti-NRA article. Is this the high quality article we expect at NC?
Miller’s sawed off shotgun ban could conceivably be overturned because they were used as weapons of war in Vietnam.
The writer apparently agrees with Miller, thus she should welcome weapons now used by the military invented since 1934. She does, right?
So, I suppose we should allow civilian possession (use) of grenades, mortars, rocket launchers, attack helicopters, etc.?
They were used as weapons of war will before Miller, they were known as “trench guns”, and were effective enough that the Germans tried, unsuccessfully, to get them banned under the Geneva Convention. Of course, Supreme Court justices weren’t of the social class that fought in trenches in WWI. Also, Miller is a pretty weak precedent, Miller had skipped bail before the case reached the Supreme Court so there was no arguments for the defense.
Summer Jobs….
Mostly worked in offices – at the big company where my mother worked or on base when we lived overseas. Also worked in fast food and at a pizza place. Kept the fast food job my senior year in hs because I got out of school by 1 p.m. or so every day.
Restaurant work is hard labor. FF even more so. The only payoff is free food. Closing was fun because the doors were locked so we could goof off while cleaning up. So. Much. Cleaning. And the smell of grease just never went away until I quit working there. Showers didn’t help.
As sleepy noted, you could actually pay bills on low wage jobs back in the 1980s. I worked for $250/week in the late 80s and paid $275/mo for a studio apartment by myself in the Southwest. Rented a two Br/two Ba with a roommate for about that and got a lot more room. Now even the tiniest apartment is over $1000/mo, plus credit checks, plus tons of deposits and hassles. Corporate ownership of apartments is a large part of the problem, I think.
And a bonus! Raccoon problem-solving (@QuickTempa via Lambert):
racoon at the top – would you hurry up – you weigh a ton! Maybe, just maybe, you shouldn’t eat every pastie you find….
Yeah, if they’re so smart, why wasn’t the biggest one doing the holding???
Little one was more agile and thus was the one that was able to get to the top by himself, I’m guessing. Fat one couldn’t.
The b*tching still sounds about right, though. :) What are friends for if not to help you whilst pointing out your flaws?
Teens should have summer jobs, the less glamorous the better Quartz (resilc). I sold newspaper subscriptions door to door. And you?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo
I worked at the bottom of a volcano, using my bare hands to sculpt molten lava into miniature volcano curios, and ate poison for lunch…and it was mighty small portions. And at quitting time, I was eaten by dinosaurs….and than pooped out in the morning to do it all over again….and I didn’t get paid, I had to pay them!
I started to laugh until I realized that my daughter literally has to pay for (one of her) summer jobs. It’s a necessary “internship” for her degree and she has to pay for the credits, the employer gets her for free and her college does absolutely nothing, not even as much as giving her a list of d*amn jobs to apply to.
If Dan Rather can see Trump winning he hasn’t been paying attention. She’s going to run the table. Flip, switch and fractional vote counting will take care of everything. The rest of this election is a charade. The establishment is all in for Hills. We know that. Payments have been made long ago. She’s awaiting delivery of the office. She’s looking forward to taking possession of best global Presidency money can buy.
Possibly. But I think you may be overestimating the willingness of some of the Republicans, establishment and/or tea party, to put another Clinton in office. It is all about who counts the votes, and they control a whole lot of the machines which would have to be programmed for all that. They don’t do it, or do it another way (and/or hackers don’t correct their hacks) she very well could lose.
And if there is financial crash between now and the election she is toast regardless. As Trump noted, it is much harder to steal if the numbers are overwhelmingly for the guy they are trying to steal the election from. And if you think the guy who wrote The Art of the Deal is going to be close enough for them to steal it from him for the author of Hard Choices and a member of the administration that let the economy crash you aren’t paying attention.
More states controlled by Republicans than Democrats…and I ran swing states down too, and more in electoral college vote terms are controlled by Rs.
Dems can cheat only in states they control
Yeah, but this year the Rs may cheat to thwart the Trumpmeister (or because Hil is the wingnuttier of the two)
On “The Disgraceful Truth”:
“…seeks accountability but feels helpless about how this might be achieved, practically and fairly.”
This helplessness is also felt with regard to bringing the financial criminals to justice.
At this time, denying Clinton the presidency is the single greatest step towards achieving accountability, justice, satisfaction, whatever. It won’t be much. But it will be a step in the right direction. The NeoCons are frantic to get back into power and will throw in their lot with Clinton. For me, this fact alone makes support for Clinton unacceptable.
However cartoonish a one-term Trump Presidency might end up being, if we as a people can end 2016 having destroyed both the Bush and Clinton dynasties, we may in hindsight be able to call it a good year.
Worked for the parents on the farm from pre-teens to mid twenties. Pay was spotty. Held onto the farm, with a sister, after the parents passed though. Picture the antidote.
I had the best summer job ever. For three years I traveled in the carnival, working various county fairs and Ohio State Fair. I made enough to pay for my (state) college education, rent and some good pocket change. However, whatever I earned can’t compare to what I learned. The work was hard, the hours endless, the conditions filthy and I slept in a different spot every night. I wouldn’t trade those memories and life’s lessons learned for anything.
More Guns/Happy Father’s Day:
“The city recorded its 300th homicide this weekend and went on to record six others over a 60-hour period that saw 55 people shot, 13 fatally, from Friday afternoon through early Monday morning.
So far this year, about 1,800 people have been shot across the city and more than 200 of those wounded have died of their wounds, according to records kept by the Chicago Tribune. A total of 306 people have been killed this year by shooting, stabbing or other means, Tribune records show.”
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-12-dead-at-least-41-hurt-in-weekend-shootings-20160620-story.html
Dear Editor
For many years I believed The Economist brought new and different insights into my understanding.
However, over approximately the last 10 years, I believe The Economist has descended into repeating neo-liberal orthodoxy.
This is believe is a correct reflection of you current beliefs:
“The Economist is convinced that a decision to leave would be bad for Britain, Europe and the world.”
To me that is no surprise. I suspect the wry observation that one can have only one of the two: Sovereignty or A Global Economy is correct.
Without Sovereignty, one also does not have a Democracy, and thus no representation of the people, however poor.
How does the Economist feel about loosing Sovereignty and Democracy? Or let me ask that question in another manner: Who is The Economist’s owner?
I chose Sovereignty, however badly implemented.
This essay misses the point:
But, as my Member of Parliament, or Representative or Senator you are required by your Duty to care about your constituency, including me, than “some random stranger.”
In addition, there is no discussion in this essay about root cause of massive waves of refugees – Misadventures in the Middle East and the effects of Climate Change in Africa, or the causes of misery at home by the deliberate policies of Austerity designed to depress demand and further the affairs of the United States in an efforts to forestall its mistakes of “free trade,” in both enabling and abetting, China’s rise as an Economic powerhouse, so challenging the US’ supremacy
Let me repeat that: J’accuse:
The Policies of Austerity are designed to depress demand and further the affairs of the United States to forestall its mistakes of “free trade,” in both enabling and abetting, China’s rise as an Economic powerhouse.
>US State Media Runs Hit Piece On Bernie Sanders
“As is characteristic of Kirchick’s polemical style, the piece includes numerous misleading and malicious claims, such as Senator Sanders has “scorn for basic democratic procedure,” and that Sanders “has spent his entire life extolling the virtue of left-wing dictatorships.”
“Senator Sanders, according to this story in a US state media outlet, has been a “shill” for undemocratic regimes, with the conclusion being drawn that Sanders does not really believe in democracy, despite his own proclamations of being a democratic socialist.”
Because the Contras were the very poster child of democracy, right?
I wish when confronted with his support of the Sandinistas during one of the debates Sanders had doubled down. Yes, he did support them, because they were good people doing good work. They ended an actual dictatorship and the highest ranks of the US government illegally sold weapons to pay for far-right terrorists without Congressional approval in an attempt to destroy the Sandinistas, killing hundreds of thousands of people in the process. Sanders supported the Sandinistas? You’re goddamn right he did! He should have embraced it, owned his support entirely and gone on the offensive in regards to Iran-Contra. Maybe tied it into our current attempts to destroy Syria.
It’s a sad commentary on the times we live in that someone so restrained and timid can genuinely be considered a radical threat to the establishment…
Mowed grass. Threw the Macon Telegraph, morning route. After school tube tester for Guy White Radio & TV, where I got to meet James Brown, Arthur Conley, Little Richard, Joe Tex, and many others, including a rock band called the Allman Brothers, which showed up one day and rented the upstairs ball room for practice space. All sorts of farm work. Fished rivers with trotlines to supply local catfish houses. Line cook for The Varsity.
Tech grad?
Very cool article, and videos about whale releases. I wasn’t sure I would see whale captivity end in my lifetime, but it begins to seem that that was a fad that is finally, finally coming to an end. People get immersed in this and spend decades to get these animals free. Just fantastic.
Summer jobs … Like many I did the paper route thing from 10ish to my early teens, odd jobs during HS, but my most interesting summer jobs were as a college undergrad in the mid-80s. Family is originally from Austria (Niederösterreich / Lower Austria, the province just north of Ahhhnoldistan, erm I mean Steiermark / Styria), and summer of ’83 I resolved to spend there with relatives and work locally so as to brush up my rusty language skills and hopefully make some money to put toward school. After working through the local want ads and going to a bunch of “recruiting meetings” for seriously dismal jobs (e.g. going door-to-door selling travel insurance for joke-comissions) and coming within a whisker of landing a night-porter gig at one of the fancy Vienna hotels, ended up finding work as a waiter at one of the local Weinkeller in the wine-growing region south of Vienna. Saved bus money by cycling the 5 miles through the vineyards at the foot of the low mountains that rise out of the plains there at the far eastern edge of the Alps … every afternoon cycled there, changed into long trousers and long-sleeved shirt, working ’til midnight doing the “Herr Ober” thing. Pay was lousy and tips only so-so, but got a good hot meal every evening, and met lots of interesting people. Weirdest incident was the time this tour bus full of Texas retirees pulls up – they’d reserved the entirety of the hewn-from-the-living-limestone arch-roofed 10th-century cellar. Once they found out (my accent-free english gave me away) their waiter was actually from the US they insisted I join them in a rousing chorus of “God Bless America”. Not an überpatriot by any stretch, but a lot of WW2 vets in the crowd, so they were of a generation of Americans truly worth blessing for their deeds and sacrifice. Just after midnight cycle home through the now-dark vineyards and several sleepy small towns along the route. Next day have the morning free to do whatever, spend early afternoon at the local Strandbad, then get on my bicycle again. Also helped out the relatives kind enough to put me up in whatever way I could, chores around the house and 2-man-requiring gardening work, climbing tress to pick fruit from their semi-wild mountainside orchard plot, and such. Good times.
The following summer I found myself deep in tuition arrears – my scholarship/grant package had been heavily front-loaded, family was of modest means and Dad was already paying $ through the nose to send my HS valedictorian older sister to an expensive eastern school, only able to scrape up around $2000/yr to pay towards my schooling (I was out-of-state student at UMich Ann Arbor, a public U. but with fairly pricy-for-the-day tuition for out-of-staters). So me and a school buddy decided to take the “high-paying fishing jobs in Alaska!” gamble. In mid-May borrowed his parent’s little VW campervan and drove it from NE Ohio where both our families lived and drove it to Seattle. Not without incident – stopped for a scenic lunch in still-snowy Yellowstone and when we went to pull out of the Old Faithful parking lot the engine caught fire, park FD put it out within 10 mins but had melted every plastic and rubber thing in the engine compartment. Spent the next week in spare bunks in the trailer one of the Rangers kindly offered us use of (his ranger bunkmate had not yet arrived), hitchhiking into West Yellowstone to buy parts (hoses, belts, new battery) and burned through our meager funds doing same. But the folks at the park vehicle maintenance shop took pity and kindly did a huge amount of labor for free – including a complete bare-bones electrical rewiring of the engine compartment – so 10 days after the fire we limped into Seattle, where we left the van at a local AAA garage and loaded up our backpacks instead, first ferry (sleeping in the “cheap sets” out on the floor of the open-but-roofed rear sundeck … I seem to recall it cost $120 each for the 3-day trip that way) to Haines, then 3-day hitchhike NW through the lower Yukon and then left at the Tok highway junction and SW to Anchorage, from whence we made our way down to the Kenai peninsula where we quickly were hired on at a land-based fish processing plant, and pitched our 2-man pup tent in the nearby woods along with a dozen or so others like us. That was a stinky but fun job – I started out in te lowest spot on the “slime line”, yanking guts out of thousands of fresh salmon, then up one slot to slitting bellies, eventually as result of my mad skillz with a knife worked my way up the primo spot at the head of the slime line, chopping heads off the fish and passing them on to the next spot, the belly-slitter one. We were all putting in half-days or an occasional 12-hour shift waiting for the “peak” of the season, when you worked insane hours and made most of your summer money, but that year’s fish run was weird and fish & game shut down the fishing in our area instead. Spent a couple more weeks having salmon-BBQs and hitchhiking around the peninsula, then got word that a similar bust had occurred on Kodiak island, causing most of the transient laborers to leave in search of somewhere-where-the-fish-were-running, when all of sudden the Peak hit Kodiak, 2 weeks late. Flew a twin Otter down, got hired at a plant called Kodiak Kind Crab more or les immediately, after a quick casing-the-joint walkaround. Started at $5/hr, within a week had earned ourselves a 10% raise. Spent 4 straight weeks putting 120 hours a week, and that was on the timeclock, mind you. So middle of day 3 of each workweek we’d hit the magic 40-hour mark and the remaining 80 hours were time-and-a-half. I recall calling home midway through and telling my Dad (a professional engineer) “hed, Dad, guess what? I’m making more than you!” Of course the hours were insane … the kind of thing you can pull off when you’re young and indestructible. 3 days prior to start of classes repacked out backpacks and also took along three 80-lb boxes of frozen fish, flew Kodiak-Anchorage-Seattle, picked up the now-repaired van from the AAA-approved garage, wrapped the fish boxes in our sleeping bags so they’d stay frozen and drove in shifts 48 hours straight back to Ann Arbor. Next day took my accumulated wage checks and turned them directly over to the cashier at the UM student payments office – along with around half of the roughly $1000 bucks I’d save from the Kenai packing-plant job sufficed to pay my back tuition bill, leaving me with a few hundred bucks to ut toward my senior year. Ended up with a similar balance due from that year, but after that grad school was paid for and I found good-paying work with a local property manager as a half-time side gig during the school year and full time in summers, so my chronic money worries were at last at an end.
And I see what was intended to be a short missive has turned into a rather lengthy one … apologies for rambling on so!
Those were wild stories. Thanks!
The progressive argument for leaving the EU is not being heard
“…the referendum has been a contest between two wings of the Conservative party, neither of which has any great love for the EU…
…Europe’s growth performance since the launch of the euro has been pitiful.
The structural adjustment programmes forced on those countries that have required financial bailouts have involved savage attacks on workers’ rights, including collective bargaining.
The EU has not taken the fight to multinational capital. Rather, Brussels has become a honeypot for corporate lobbyists demanding deregulation and the transatlantic trade and investment partnership (TTIP).
One of the great ironies of the UK’s referendum debate is that Europe, with its austerity programmes and its drift towards neoliberalism, has been moving in a direction that rightwing Conservatives would tend to support…
…Europe’s economic model isn’t working and hasn’t been working for a long time.”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jun/19/progressive-argument-for-leaving-eu-is-not-being-heard-referendum-brexit
It is the US’s preoccupation with Russia that is giving China an opportunity to gain ground in Asia because China knows full well the US can’t fight both Russia & China simultaneously.
That Cornish pasty shop in Traverse City is dreadful. But I’ve had delicious pasties in the US.
Anyone know the latest on the Cornish separatist movement? I have to admit I chuckled when I first heard about it. 500+ years and they haven’t been effectively assimilated. Good on them.
I didn’t totally mind my high school job and many of my more or less working middle class peers had similar, but to be honest with you, working until 11pm on a school night is not such a great gig. Sorry.
Ohh, you meant “summer jobs.”
That’s cute.