Links 10/21/2016

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Meet Mike Lanza, the anti-helicopter parent of Silicon Valley Treehugger

How Necking Shaped the Giraffe Nautilus

Posthumous pardons law may see Oscar Wilde exonerated The Guardian

New species of giant long-necked dinosaur discovered by farmer on outback sheep station in Australia Daily Telegraph

Goofiest Excuses For Calling In Sick: How About ‘I Have To Be A Pall Bearer At A Funeral For My Wife’s Cousin’s Pet’ International Business Times

Bottled Water or Tap: How Much Does Your Choice Matter? NYT

Good Grief: MetLife Will Be ‘Navigating Life’ Without Snoopy, Peanuts Characters The Independent

2016

Debate Moderators Under the Spell of Deficit-Obsessed Billionaire Pete Peterson The Intercept

That’s 4 straight debates without a single question on climate change. Good job, everyone. Vox

Things got uncomfortably awkward after Trump jabbed Clinton at a swanky New York charity dinner Business Insider

Donald Trump Reserves Right to Contest Election Outcome WSJ

How to Rig an Election LRB

Hillary Clinton vs Donald Trump on science, energy, and the climate Ars Technica

A bitter Donald Trump must not poison US democracy FT. Classic example of the burgeoning election pearl-clutching genre.

Will 2016 Mark the Return of the Blue Dog Democrat? New Republic. Dems willing to do anything but look left for support.

Foreign journalists on 2016: ‘Is this the demise of objective American journalism?’ Columbia Journalism Review

HARD-LINE PROSECUTORS FACE REJECTION FROM VOTERS IN ELECTIONS ACROSS THE U.S. The Intercept

Government alleges former NSA contractor stole ‘astonishing quantity’ of classified data over 20 years WaPo

Police departments are thinking about using drones armed with stun guns Business Insider

Populism on the March Foreign Affairs. For your shredding pleasure.

Agents of influence: How reporters have been “weaponized” by leaks Ars Technica

Brazil prosecutors file homicide charges over Samarco disaster FT

Trade Traitors

Flemish nationalists hamstrung by Belgium’s trade fiasco Politico

Behind the Scenes of the Legal Group That Could Change America’s Definition of Sexual Consent Vice

California promised public employees generous retirements. Will the courts give government a way out? LA Times

Changing course: a harder sell for MBAs FT

Ministers order HMRC crackdown on ‘gig economy’ firms The Guardian

Grisly Halloween display in Detroit decries US violence Aj Jazeera

Where Has the Waste Gone? Fracking Results in Illegal Dumping of Radioactive Toxins Truthout

SEC preparing large-scale review of exchange traded fund industry FT

Takata Air Bag Recall: US Confirms 11th Death Over Defective Inflators International Business Times

Brexit

Why we lost the Brexit vote Politico

Hollande warns May to expect tough Brexit talks FT

May’s Ministers Rush to Smooth Bankers’ Ruffled Brexit Feathers Bloomberg

Hugh Bennett: The House of Lords again flexes its muscles on Brexit – but peers should be careful about trying to frustrate the will of the people Brexit Central

Theresa May slams Moscow’s ‘sickening atrocities’ as Russian warships steam into British waters The Independent

Stop this stupid sabre-rattling against Russia Spectator

‘We’re neighbours and blood brothers’: Xi tells Duterte as firebrand leader announces ‘separation’ from US South China Morning Post

Syraqistan

Iraq: Explosions, gunfire rock Kirkuk AL Jazeera

Against the No-Fly Zone Jacobin

Trump and Obama agree on one thing: Aleppo is a lost cause WaPo

Syria and the Left: Time to Break the Silence Counterpunch

WHEN THE GENIUS MEN OF SILICON VALLEY SUDDENLY DON’T SEEM SO SMART The Intercept (Resilc)

More on 2017 US recession risk Macrobusiness

Why Can’t Economics See Race? INET

Antidote du jour:

male_wood_duck_waterfowl_bird

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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206 comments

  1. BDBlue

    Lanza’s view on not micromanaging children is refreshing. His view that the reason for micromanaging is essentially bad mothers allowed to run over “passive” dads, is not. There is nothing new about blaming any ills with American family life on mothers. It’s sexist garbage (not exactly a surprise out of Silicon Valley, but still).

    1. BDBlue

      It’s also classist garbage since young children are usually not roaming the neighborhoods because Mom and Dad are both working and the kids are in aftercare. And, of course, poorer Americans live under the threat of losing their kids should they let their kids “roam” free because that isn’t seen as part of some empowering trend, but is another way to blame poor people for the difficulties that come with trying to work while poor.

      Here’s a radical thought – if we gave parents more support and better paying jobs, kids’ lives would be better.

      1. Sandy

        It seems like a Suburban Privilege problem. Much of this has to do with the poor planning and design behind most American suburbs. Car first, trapping people into their homes if they are not in a car. Kids get bored of the yard and need to explore, and more importantly, need to feel independent. If American suburbs were less sprawling, with more public parks instead of so much private space, with footpaths and central strips of shops with a train station or other safe, reliable public transport connecting to a real city, this would not really be an issue.

        Here in NYC, the children are always surprising me with their independence. The other day I saw a pair of ~10 year old girls sitting at the patio of a sushi restaurant alone calmly enjoying plates of sushi over mature conversation. Schoolkids ride the train or walk themselves to school and back, grabbing a pizza, or catching up at a coffee shop alone after school. Here’s a timely video and article in NYT today about NYC kids: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/10/20/nyregion/nyc-kids.html

        Interestingly you can see several kids mention that busy streets, density, and noise make them feel safe. This is an important point. There’s a difference to setting a kid out to navigate busy streets full of people and open shops and police stations etc versus making them navigate winding cul-de-sac roads with no footpaths, sprawl and no people in sight for miles.

        Ultimately children growing up with autonomy and independence *generally* grow up to be more confident, less anxious and less uptight as adults. Moderation in all things, though. I probably won’t raise my kids in NYC — while it seems to be good for children, it’s very stressful for their parents (unless they work at Blackstone) — but I will ensure that I select a place to live that allows them access and mobility at a young age. If you deny children that independence they will immerse themselves into their phones/tablets to navigate virtual worlds instead.

        1. PlutoniumKun

          Bad planning is often central to the problem, although it feeds in a negative loop in with helicopter parenting. I’m astonished at how reluctant my peers are to let their kids roam free on streets like I did as a kid (and I wasn’t a particularly brave child). I walked alone to school from 5 years old, cycled from about 10, wandered and played in waste ground. It was entirely normal for me and my peers. It certainly is more dangerous now, as streets have become far more car oriented, but there is more to it than that. I’ve heard parents say they prefer their kids to play video games than be out and about because ‘at least I know where they are’. And as for the constant cramming of extra classes and sports…. its just ridiculous, and as that article points out, there is plenty of evidence that it is counterproductive.

          But a societal start of course is a simple one – make streets safe for kids to be out and about on foot and on bikes, and make sure there is plenty of safe and adventurous open spaces for them. Once you have that, you can start working on parental attitudes.

          1. hunkerdown

            ‘at least I know where they are’. Good attitude for a jail warden. Not such a good attitude for someone who is ostensibly supposed to be creating independent, functional people that adjust as well as should be expected to the society they ruined.

            The middle class just plain needs to stop breeding. Their “innovative” ideas of children’s relationships to the world are not-even-wrong.

            (I grew up with lots and lots of yard, with grandparents who appreciated the needs of children to navigate for themselves. I fear for a world run by hot-house tomatoes.)

        2. Bugs Bunny

          I rather enjoyed growing up in suburban sprawl. Once outside the subdivision there were farms and woods and parks to explore and golf courses to caddy in. For a kid in the 70s it wasn’t bad at all. A bicycle was all we needed.

          1. Optimader

            Likewise. Grew up in a villiage with sidewalks 25mph speed limits on the roads, a downtown area, and associated similar towns and villages all along a commuter rail line to the city. Free to roam at a young age empowered with a bike.
            Suburban ssprawl occured with contractor spec home planned urban developments that were plugged into farm land like islands with no associated “downtown” areas that could be naturally accessed by foot or bike without being confronted with busy streets.

        3. neo-realist

          In NYC, parents are so busy that kids have no choice but to force feed themselves into independence—cooking, public transportation use, connecting w/ peers w/o adult guidance.

          1. Binky

            why not?
            http://slowroll.bike/index.php?bypassCookie=1
            http://www.tour-de-troit.org/
            http://detroitgreenways.org/top-5-detroit-bike-and-trail-projects-for-2015/
            http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20140821-cycling-detroit-makes-too-much-sense-to-ignore
            The last article makes me want to move there. If buy low, sell high makes sense there is a ton of opportunity and the geographic reasons for Detroit still exist. No where else in the US can you buy land as cheaply and no where else is as eager to adapt to your needs in the hopes that you will be part of a comeback.

        4. Skippy

          I blame the back of the milk box….. and friends….

          Disheveled Marsupial…. is hyper vigilance a good indicator of some kind of pathology or personality disorder…. should I reference some dudes on the utilization of irrational fears…. ummm…. Bernays or Hayek or ilk – Halp i afrade….

          1. Optimader

            I had a hypervigilant kat, he was a serial mouse killer… The other gregarious one was the lover

      2. Emma

        What Lanza does with his kids doesn’t match up with what I’d do, but in this case, it’s his ‘business’, not mine. I don’t , and in no way whatsoever, should have a full picture of his life. So, rather than criticizing or resenting the very small window into his life presented here, I’d much rather choose to focus on making improvements in the life of my own family.
        What I will however say in general, is that before even becoming a parent, it would be wonderful if more people thought more carefully about what it is they really wish to give their potential kids. And perhaps more importantly, what appropriate ways exist in which they can provide this for their kids.
        There’s no perfect way I expect, but there are undoubtedly some decent things parents can do to encourage their kids to ultimately steer themselves in the right direction towards well-adjusted adulthood. So, I wish anyone out there presently grappling with such a challenge, the very best of success.

        1. a different chris

          >what it is they really wish to give their potential kids

          The kids don’t want you to “give” them anything. They want you to be there in the odd moments where they do come looking for you.

          1. Emma

            ‘Giving’ is not just about the material, but also about for example, the generosity of mindfulness

              1. witters

                Never met a “mindfulness” person yet who wasn’t a self-fascinated dork. Probably just bad luck.

        2. hunkerdown

          The other 3/4 of a kid’s life is an externality that parents impose on society for the selfish pleasure of 18 years of smugness and privilege.

          No few parents don’t want autonomy. They want to stunt their children from ever growing up, from becoming their peers. What they want is, frankly, irrelevant to society, and they should keep their little power games inside their own bedrooms and off of the children.

          1. Jeremy Grimm

            Sorry — I beg to differ. I can’t speak for others … only myself. I wanted my kids to find a passion in their lives and follow that passion. I can’t give anyone passion — that is a gift they must discover on their own. My gift — really all I can do — is to make that discovery possible.

            I wanted to give my children the kinds of help and opportunity for growth which my parents gave to me. I very deliberately chose to have children and have never regretted this choice — though it has cost me. My children and the care with which I raise them are my gift to the future and to my parents.

    2. voteforno6

      That’s funny, because my mother certainly allowed us to roam around, and engage in all sorts of free play. Or, as they called it back then, just play. I think some of this is dependent on the part of the country that you’re in as well, though there is certainly a classist argument wrapped up in that, since I grew up in one of those so-called flyover states.

      1. Charger01

        I shared a similar experience in deep blue Washington state, but I heard similar advocating at Mr. Money Mustache and other FI websites. I’m raising two girls (with my lovely wife at home!) and they regularly will visit the neighbors/neighborhood on their bikes. We are lucky to be positioned to for childrearing compared to our peers.

        1. LifelongLib

          Me too. Grew up in 60s and early 70s in what was then a small town suburb of Seattle. Early on there were still so many trails thru vacant lots we kids could ride our bikes to downtown without going on a paved road. Outside of school we could play without supervision until dinnertime. Any yard where a friend lived was open territory. Glad I was a kid then and not now.

    3. Eclair

      Reading about a white privileged parent building an artificial ‘playground’ for his kids to have fun in … whatever happened to climbing real trees and building forts from discarded bits of lumber scavenged from construction sites or garages? …. immediately after reading Nick Turse’s description of the life, and early death, of children in the killing fields of South Sudan, left me a bit disoriented.

      One image from Turse’s essay stays with me: the location of the mass graves revealed because the grass grows greener and thicker, fed by the bodies of the dead. A metaphor perhaps, for the way in which the more fortunate of us are allowed to flourish, nourished by the misery of people in areas of the planet unfortunate enough to be rich in the mineral and natural resources coveted by those who feed our lifestyles.

      Sorry to start the day with such morbid thoughts. This election is getting me down.

    4. Katharine

      Sounds like an upper-middle-class solution to an upper-middle-class problem, but one that has arisen in the last couple of generations. I hear so many stories of kids who are never really off their leash from dawn to dark. It’s sad, and highly unnatural. This is one area where working-class kids may still be a little better off than their wealthier contemporaries.

  2. Free Market Apologist

    Saw this today (via the Abnormal Returns blog), and thought it well worth forwarding on.

    “Women are taught to follow trends — celebrity, makeup, etc — and those bros I laughed at were taught to follow MONETIZABLE trends.”

    Entire post is 1 paragraph, and stay for the last sentence, which is good advice for everybody.

    https://medium.com/@lolololori/i-used-to-scoff-at-the-bros-in-college-whod-follow-the-stock-market-like-sunday-night-football-aef94a6fd9dd#.42afccd30

    1. hunkerdown

      Women are taught to follow MONETIZED trends. In terms of gender as a power relation, I think that key polarity is notable by its absence.

    2. Plenue

      Shame she didn’t also come to the realization that fashion, makeup, etc are deeply stupid and shallow. She’s lamenting that she only followed those things, not that she followed them at all in the first place. It’s insane to me that 50% of the human race feels compelled to slather a bunch of crap on their faces every morning.

  3. voteforno6

    Re: 2016

    I was out for drinks last night with some friends, one of whom is a lobbyist for a major corporation. He mentioned that he went out on a date with a lawyer working on the Clinton campaign. So, naturally they talked some politics. At one point he asked her about the email server, and she said that it was about evading FOIA. So, if this is what they’re thinking in the campaign…

    1. craazyboy

      no,no,no. Theft of information is a terrible thing, an act of war, even, and we also cherish the privacy of our information in this country, unless of course someone can obtain it and either sell it, or it’s necessary to insure our national security. It’s a complex issue, but the DNC and Hillary understand complex.

      1. Hierophant

        Wouldn’t it be considered theft to take classified government data and place it on a private server in your basement? Clinton doesn’t own State department information.

    2. Sandy

      Shows what luddites these boomers are. Why didn’t they just carry a smartphone and install an app like Telegram? They could setup various group chats across the campaign. Email has its own baggage and connotations (one has an email “address,” there are “servers” …), whereas nobody would even know if they had Telegram going.

        1. Katharine

          Certainly not! Periodic nostalgic comments about clay tablets should not be equated with a willingness to smash the computer.

          1. ambrit

            The threat of Luddism ‘looms’ large on NC! We must not allow malcontents to ‘warp’ our perceptions or ‘weave’ a false narrative!

              1. ambrit

                Strange you should mention that. Due to health reasons, we are simplifying our diets here Down South, so this might be an artifact of caffeine withdrawal. More apropos would be those mornings when I forget to take my calcium, magnesium and zinc along with the lithium orotate.
                As Phyllis tells me, I would be dangerous if I knew what I was about.

          2. ambrit

            So, smashing computers would be a form of “Crypto Luddism,” would it not?
            Also, Cuneiform would be the original version of “Feat of Clay.” The jokes and puns are ‘baked in’ the Akkadian Archives.

  4. craazyboy

    “How Necking Shaped the Giraffe – Nautilus”

    Seeing as how the giraffe evolved ending up with permanent “hickies” all over it’s body, I think the “necks for sex” hypothesis may have legs.

    1. ambrit

      That entire “Necks for Sex” thing is a bit of a stretch. Sort of a “La-mark of the Beast” if you will.

        1. ambrit

          After a bit of dialectic exchange, (or, if you prefer strictly economic phraseology for this blog,) dialectic bourse, oddball commenters on this trading pit develop “heard immunity.” ‘Moderate’ commenters are a variety of Unicorn, much beloved of ‘elites’ but seldom if ever seen in the wild.

  5. Jim Haygood

    Huge tobacco merger proposed:

    British American Tobacco Plc offered to pay $47 billion for the 58 percent of Reynolds American Inc. that it doesn’t already own.

    The cash-and-stock proposal values each Reynolds share at $56.50, London-based BAT said Friday, a 20 percent premium to the last closing price.

    BAT rose as much as 4.2 percent to 5,003 pence in London trading, boosting the company’s market value to 93.3 billion pounds ($114 billion). Reynolds shares rose 17 percent to $55.20 before U.S. exchanges opened, valuing the company at $78.7 billion.

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-21/bat-plans-to-take-full-control-of-reynolds-in-47-billion-deal

    Calpers, whose public equity strategy is guided by a custom tobacco-free benchmark, can only watch enviously through the shop window.

    Tobacco — essentially a legally-sanctioned oligopoly, thanks to a halfwit “justice dept” lawyer named Joel Klein in the late Clinton administration — has outperformed every other industry in the 21st century.

    Now the last US player other than Altria looks set to go out in a blaze of glory, showering riches on RAI shareholders.

    1. curlydan

      Death pays a nice dividend, too. $2.44 per share for Altria (symbol: MO). No wonder Greenspan was loaded up on Phillip Morris stock back in the day.

    2. paul

      The FDA whose head, mitchell zeller, was a key player (as GlaxoSmithkline lobbyist) in shaping the Tobacco control act AKA the ‘marlboro protection act’

  6. temporal

    Marching Populism

    “Populism sees itself as speaking for the forgotten “ordinary” person and often imagines itself as the voice of genuine patriotism.” Yep, genuine patriotism, as everyone knows, is in doing what is best for those that control the state and it’s corporate agencies. If you can’t vote for the betterment of the elite, who have sacrificed so very much, you shouldn’t be allowed to vote. It’ll all come trickling down if you just do the right thing. If it doesn’t it’s because you didn’t do enough of the right thing.

    I looked up a few other things written by this self-appointed promoter of neoliberalism. Reading this stuff is a truly irritating experience. Democracy is good so long as people vote correctly, which means supporting the proper, elite and corporate selected leader. Fortunately, the author does make it clear that all populists, from the left or the right, are bad. So he is completely consistent with the neoliberal agenda. Didn’t sign up for the one free article because scanning the beginning of his other forms of tripe made it clear that he’s a one trick pony and this is his trick.

    Hey Rocky! Watch me pull a rattlesnake out of my hat.

  7. lyman alpha blob

    RE: the election pearl-clutching genre

    Barry is adding his $.02

    ‘He said Trump didn’t offer a “shred of evidence” to prove rigging or fraud, and called the claim “more than just the usual standard lie.”

    “That is dangerous,” Obama said. “Because when you try to sow the seeds of doubt in people’s minds about the legitimacy of our elections, that undermines our democracy.’

    Trump may not be offering much in the way of evidence but that doesn’t mean there isn’t any. And I’m sure even some of the millennials can remember all the way back to 2000 when the Supremes selected Bush over the guy who received more votes.

    Elections are contested all the time in every election cycle. Isn’t the bigger threat to our democracy putting out trust in fallible machines and human beings and blindly accepting election results no matter what the circumstances? Or trying to crown one candidate before the results are even in as was done by the media in the Democratic primary and now again in the general?

    1. temporal

      The DNC and their fellow travelers in the FBI hinting that the elections could be tampered with had better be watching over their shoulders because 0bama is watching their campaign of doubt sowing with eagle eyes. For that matter ole HRC repeating these malicious lies had better be concerned as well.

    2. Roger Smith

      ” Isn’t the bigger threat to our democracy putting out trust in fallible machines and human beings and blindly accepting election results no matter what the circumstances?”

      No of course not! It is only a threat when the candidate we favor and want to force you to vote for is threatened. The other guy is a fascist.

      From the article: Obama urged Floridians to take advantage of the opportunity to vote early, beginning on Monday.

      Nothing says democracy like “early voting”….

      $100 to NC says that if Trump pulls out a win, Clinton and the Establishment go full “it was rigged [by Russia]”.

      1. NotTimothyGeithner

        My suspicion is this is the excuse for not winning the Senate in a year where Team Blue was favored (2010 was a huge wipe out) and dumping on state parties.

        Candidates will be hard to recruit going forward.

    3. tgs

      ‘Because when you try to sow the seeds of doubt in people’s minds about the legitimacy of our elections, that undermines our democracy.’

      And that is exactly what Hillary, the Democratic party and the MSM have been doing with their evidence challenged accusations that a foreign power is manipulating our system. Would the powers that be accept a Trump victory given that they believe it is certain that Trump is a stooge for that foreign power?

      1. Yves Smith

        And that’s before you get to the elephant in the room: that many citizens are well aware that our political system is less and less a democracy and more and more a plutocracy with every passing year.

        1. Dave

          A whole generation of voters have grown up with Bush v Gore as a historical background. They and their children, especially in California, have seen what happened to Bernie. Americans are slowly getting more like Russians, skeptical of everything and lashing out at each other in road rage incidents as one of the only means of dissipating their anger as the magic carpet of middle class life is pulled out from under them.

          Thank you Yves for raising the bar on information and economic education.

          1. hunkerdown

            But as long as we still try to bend the definition of “democracy” to fit the corporate hierarchies that pass for government today, anything is “democratic”.

            Words mean things, as Rush Limbaugh believed for about a season.

      2. WJ

        No no no no. The way this works is, it’s okay if you suggest that a FOREIGN government is trying to undermine democracy, our way of life, whatever. That just gets the team pumped up to burn off some slack productive capacity with the next war! What you CANT do is suggest that our democracy is itself a farce not to be taken seriously.

      3. Jeremy Grimm

        I listened to NPR to keep awake on a long drive to … and from. I heard over and over again about Trump refusing to accept the outcome of the elections, capped by a quote from Hillary about how it undermined faith in American democracy and threatened the long long tradition of smooth transfers of power.

        I used to send money to NPR, though years ago. Now I regret every penny I sent them.

        1. BecauseTradition

          But truth be told, I started listening to NPR as an occasional change of pace from the Bach I listen to constantly. Morbid curiosity is only partly the reason.

    4. voteforno6

      Well, he’s offered just about as much evidence as the Democrats have that Russia is trying to hack the election.

        1. Dave

          Poor Hillary, one one side you have a vast right wing conspiracy to defame her. On the other the Comintern II is hacking her life. What’s next, the Girl Scouts attack her?

          1. ambrit

            There are some puns that even I approach with trepidation. One such is a sally concerning Com-Intern 1.

            1. Ulysses

              “There are some puns that even I approach with trepidation.”

              I’d like to believe that, lol.

    5. jrs

      Democracy something to have “faith” in, rather than real election monitoring. Never mind that U.S. election procedures are not ranked very high on a global scale.

      They could actually make the system more reliable, but no instead they call us names for not trusting it. Maybe they are scared. Good.

      1. Bev

        Green Dogs!

        Since Clinton is preemptively blaming Russia for any election hacking, and Trump is saying a Rigged Election is possible, then they both should openly call for following solution:

        http://trustvote.org/latest-updates/the-solution-to-vote-fractionalizing/

        A few days ago, we told you about the problem of fractionalizing votes. I mentioned that we would be sending you a letter with a really good solution that has worked once before and could work again. Although votes can be fractionalized while adding them up, the ballot images (pictures taken of the ballots) can not be reduced to fractions. The solution is to issue temporary restraining orders in swing state counties so that the ballot images can be preserved. The act of issuing TRO’s will also be a deterrent in itself to fractionalizing votes in an effort to steal the election. This process could apply to all elections, presidential, state and county elections as well as bond issues and propositions. 

        If you are interested in getting involved in making this happen, if you are a lawyer and if you know a lawyer or lawyers who might also be interested in preserving ballot images using TRO’s, please contact us at TrustVote.org as soon as possible, as we will need to issue these TRO’s for the most part BEFORE the election. And, as you might expect, organizing this effort will require money. So please DONATE WHATEVER YOU CAN to support to fight election fraud in our country. THANK YOU SO MUCH on behalf of TrustVote and our challenged democracy!
        ………..

        Bev Harris has been studying how votes are fractionalized. She call it “Fraction Magic” When adding up votes, the tabulator can fractionalize the votes if it is programmed that way. She has been working with John Brakey on how to PRESERVE BALLOT IMAGES. Bev Harris has happily discovered that images of the ballots CANNOT BE FRACTIONALIZED. That is why they must be preserved. Please read more by clicking on the following link:  http://blackboxvoting.org/fraction-magic-part-6/  
        ……..

        In any election where scanners are used, these systems could create a higher level of transparency and reliability if we prevent the ballot images from being destroyed and prevent the audit file system called Cast Vote Record (CVR) from being disconnected. Many states currently have these systems, now capable of capturing ballot images and numbering ballots. This leaves an opening for easier verification of election results. States that have these ES&S scanners in some of their counties include Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming and others.  California has some Dominion scanners that take ballot images.These scanners are also approved of by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC).

        To find out what type of voting equipment your county is using, click on “The Verifier” and find your county: https://www.verifiedvoting.org/  Please note, that information is over a year old. To be certain of the machines used in our own back yard, call your election department to find out what machines are being used in this election cycle.
        ……….

        WHAT CAN VOTERS DO TO RECTIFY THESE PROBLEMS:
        Election activist John Brakey and attorney William Risner assert that destroying ballot images is against Federal law: Federal law 52 U.S.C § 20701 requiring retention of federal election materials, provides a penalty of up to $1,000 fine and one year in jail for premature destruction of that material (was formerly 42 U.S.C § 1974).

        For the November elections, Brakey and Risner recommend the following strategy:

        • File a public record request (ASAP) asking for ballot images for the last and the next election. The request should include other critical documents like the Cast Vote Record (CVR). We can provide a draft of what to request.
        • If ballot images are or have been destroyed then file a special action Temporary Restraining Order (TRO), which is usually easy to request.
        • If they refuse your public records request for “ballot images,” then file another special action in the form of a Mandamus Act. When you win they have to pay all expenses and legal fees.

        Additional efforts that may be necessary and are suggested by AUDIT-AZ member Mickey Duniho, a retired former NSA Cryptologist for 37 years. His recommendations are being added to our TRO. 

        • Do not transfer results from the DS850 to the central count computer until election day; 
        • Print the cast vote record serial number on each ballot so that an audit can link back to the original ballot as per how the system was federal certified by EAC; 
        • Mark every storage box containing ballots with the range of serial numbers contained in the box, so that an audit can easily find the box containing a ballot of interest.
        There is a lot of reliable evidence if ballot images are not destroyed and if recounts are initiated using the ES&S audit file. With respect to this election, there are many of these scanners in the swing states.

        In the interest of fair and transparent elections, it is our hope that citizens and interested attorneys will call upon their states to retain the ballot images and invite citizens and interested election officials to do recounts when they are concerned about their results. 

      2. BobW

        “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Heb. 11:1 KJV – Nailed it.

  8. DorothyT

    Re: Debate Moderators and Pete Peterson (Blackstone)

    Ethics: Pete Peterson headed Blackstone when the then world’s largest junk bond portfolio was up for grabs. Executive Life Insurance Co. had been seized in 1991 by CA’s then insurance commissioner, now congressman, John Garamendi. Garamendi hired Blackstone to consult on how to handle the enormously promising portfolio, paying them $250K per month for their expertise. Blackstone soon after created BlackRock, which could invest in the portfolio unlike Blackstone, which appeared to be conflicted.

    The portfolio created billionaires (starting with Apollo’s Leon Black and his deal with Garamendi) in short order while the 360,000 policyholders lost billions in their account values and contractual benefits. The CA Attorney General’s office commissioned an investigation and report that has never seen the light of day, FOIA requests be damned. Garamendi still claims 95% of policyholders were made whole: one of the most audacious and successful political robberies.

    Pete Peterson et al aren’t worried about deficits but their own rise within the 1%. Nor are they worried about all the maimed and injured people who relied on their court-ordered ELIC structured settlement annuity benefits that were cut in half. Garamendi lost his race for governor but is making do in Congress. Leon Black (Apollo) appears on this website regarding CalPERS these days.

    ELIC’s portfolio was sliced and diced after being sold for a song to Black and his partners. Enormous fortunes have been made, beginning early on, giving lie to Garamendi’s claim that the insurance company was ever insolvent. And Garamendi knew better. As did Leon Black who created the debt as Michael Milken’s #2 at Drexel and then gobbled it up after an insurance “insolvency” and questionable “auction” was declared. You see the names of many of those companies in the finance columns to this day..

    1. craazyboy

      Also too, Peterson and Milken ultimately avoided paying taxes on much of their stolen billions by creating “Foundations” which presently have major influence on foreign policy, domestic economic policy, social security and other government programs, and how finance is done. This has earned them the moniker “philanthropists”. It’s a wonderful world.

  9. craazyboy

    Theresa May slams Moscow’s ‘sickening atrocities’ as Russian warships steam into British waters The Independent
    —————-

    This should make anyone older than 1 years old vomit.

    1. sleepy

      Russian warships steam into British waters

      Yeah, the warships are traversing the world’s most heavily trafficked waterway, the English Channel off the coast of Dover, contrary to the fear-mongering headline.

      1. craazyboy

        Prolly sailed thru the Norway Sea and Sea of Finland too! Appeasement is what gave us Hitler! When will the world ever learn????

  10. Roger Smith

    Not sure if it is just me but something funky is going on with the link to the Oscar Wilde article. It appears to be clickable but nothing happens when you click on it (no browser pop up indicating where the jump takes you either)

  11. HBE

    Foreign journalists on 2016: ‘Is this the demise of objective American journalism?’

    A little late to the party, I’m fairly certain its been dead since at least 2003.

    Did they forget American papers championing the Iraq war on clear falsehoods, against millions who were against it.

    Or how about sitting on warrantless surveillance stories until after the election in 2004. So objective.

    Those are two major ones that mark the death of their objectivity more than a decade ago, off the top of my head. I’m sure I missed many more.

    1. Waldenpond

      I find it weird that media people think there won’t be consequences for colluding with corrupt politicians. Lying to the public about criminal activities is not going over well. I consider the actions (along with e-mails, articles) subject to the guillotine watch.

        1. Waldenpond

          Sorry, you lost me. I am referring to the reaction of the public so I don’t understand your reference to the ‘WH.’ The current Person imprisons actual journalists and drones them in other countries so I don’t understand the reference to reasonable either.

              1. ambrit

                No problems mate. As me dear old dad would say; “If you can apologize, you obviously have not had too much to drink.” This is also known as the “Add Hock” fallacy. (A little paleo humour there…)
                I’m going to have to dig out my Logic 101 textbook and re-read it yet again.
                Cheers!

                1. Ulysses

                  “This is also known as the “Add Hock” fallacy.”

                  Still not seeing much evidence of “trepidation!”

                  1. ambrit

                    Alas brave Ulysses! I cannot, as your crew once did, “wax the poetics” to resist the Siren’s lure. The Internets do not bind us, as once Fate did you, or Prometheus, so bind, to suffer out the portions meted to you both.
                    Fallen am I, my fate is dust and ignomy.

                2. Skippy

                  Nay good Sir….. !!!!!

                  I was only reinforcing the perspective forwarded – “reasonable person > WH” is AHPH…

                  Firstly in this reality a person is more likely to be a C-corp or a C-corp conglomerate w/ human[s being[s only a marketing interface w/ the pubic [animal brain] wrt any thing WH [psychological architecture]….

                  Therefore the whole reasonable (emotive) “person” occupying an object [WH] is a AHPH or Galactic cornucopia of logical fellatio served up @ the MSM ‘fellatio cafe’ [look it up].

                  Dishevled Marsupial…. drink is in ref to logical hic up…. why are not the natives revolting…. types furiously at keyboard…. chortle….

                    1. Jeremy Grimm

                      Wow Skippy! How did you manage to remove the ability to reply to your comments. That kind of action seems almost magical — although — the ways of SkyNet are mysterious.

                      A) — sweet but not carbonated — and alas not sufficiently aged to clarify past the point of minimal palatability — but good and still effective!

                      B) So far about A and B but what about C?

                    2. Skippy

                      “A) — sweet but not carbonated — and alas not sufficiently aged to clarify past the point of minimal palatability — but good and still effective!”

                      Mirthfully your are a glutton for lack of virtue in seeking clarity by times passing…. may the specters of such transgressions pass but briefly….

                  1. ambrit

                    Oh, sorry!
                    The ‘natives’ are revolting, in their supinity.
                    And, and, if we’re including historical references, the W Clinton administration qualifies as a “Global pornucopia.” To paraphrase Mz Palin; “If you put a blue dress on a naive young woman, she is still victimized, even when she thinks she has agency.” After all, in Bills day, having a policy ‘c–k up’ was considered an opportunity for further advances towards one’s agenda goals. I think that H Clinton, if she steals the show, will take to heart those immortal words attributed to Lyndon Johnson: “When you have ‘them’ by their balls, ‘their’ hearts and minds will follow.” We all know how well that philosophy worked out for the ‘Best and Brightest.’ Does H Clinton suffer from such a poverty of historical knowledge that she cannot see through the fallacies, not to mention the fellacies, of neoliberal ideology?
                    Why oh why couldn’t Bill have been as considerate as Faure was in 1899?

                    1. Skippy

                      “Does H Clinton suffer from such a poverty of historical knowledge that she cannot see through the fallacies, not to mention the fellacies, of neoliberal ideology?”

                      Surely you jest you over edumcated cracker….

                      Did you not know that in H’issssss cognitive reality [path dependent groupthink] neoliberalism supplies or is filled with all the knowlage of the Universe…. its like Manna from Heaven ™ [AKA the infamous air diet] see –

                      “Praxeology rests on the fundamental axiom that individual human beings act, that is, on the primordial fact that individuals engage in conscious actions toward chosen goals. This concept of action contrasts to purely reflexive, or knee-jerk, behavior, which is not directed toward goals. The praxeological method spins out by verbal deduction the logical implications of that primordial fact. In short, praxeological economics is the structure of logical implications of the fact that individuals act. This structure is built on the fundamental axiom of action, and has a few subsidiary axioms, such as that individuals vary and that human beings regard leisure as a valuable good. Any skeptic about deducing from such a simple base an entire system of economics, I refer to Mises’s Human Action. Furthermore, since praxeology begins with a true axiom, A, all the propositions that can be deduced from this axiom must also be true. For if A implies B, and A is true, then B must also be true.”

                      http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Austrian_school

                      Disheveled Marsupial…. for a good time whack on some weapons of maths destruction and physics which would invalidate what we commonly call our Universe… but hay I’m not an econnomist… what do i know… and the rhetoric is religious in its iconography… i must obey…

                    2. Jeremy Grimm

                      Further reply to Skippy – just above
                      C) I thought that sometimes people just did shit without thinking about the consequences. Isn’t that recent theory of criminal behaviors?

                      AND I think I too have found the non-reply magic!

                      SkyNet looks upon us both with favor — or not.

                    3. Jeremy Grimm

                      Alas! Gifted with comment without reply — without contest — without denials or contradiction … I can think of nothing to say.

                      How like the reach of Tantalus or the truth of Casandra.

                    4. ambrit

                      Gadzooks Skippy! Those Austrian Economixts all base their philosophies upon the ever shifting bedrock of Phenomenology! (Could Husserl have known Mises or Hayek in a previous life?)
                      Mr Grimm, pray to Latis, the Celtic goddess of mead. In the sacred intoxication, true wisdom will spring to your aid.
                      If that avails you not, surely Niobe will weep for you.
                      “Et in Austeria ego.”

                    5. Skippy

                      @ambrit…

                      AET is just a manifestation of what Toynbee alluded too…. the creative class looking for a paycheck and health care package… such is their muse or want….

          1. HopeLB

            And lately this same person is proclaiming media to be like the “Wild West” perhaps meaning, “the internet needs to be reigned in” unless he means the Wild West was inhabited by Government Propagandizing/Reality Making gunslingers.

      1. hunkerdown

        “Consequences?! Get me rewrite!”

        What consequences do you expect might be inflicted on the servile media, short of Hebdoing? The journalism “profession” follows the money and serves its clients, as bourgies do. They, having rhetorically slipped for the moment into their more comfortable walking shoes and proletarian solidarity, are simply making their way in the world.

        The problem with attempting to speak on a historical level is, future generations will get the same self-promotional load of “curated” BS because a) the historical record is exactly as obsequious and megalomaniacal as any other “leadership” organ and b) that’s what Prussian education is designed to do. Descartes is too big to fail, and can only be failed by the bad bad mean things attacking what is holy and good and right.

  12. Carolinian

    The Ars Technica article is a joke. Since the author is so concerned about the finer points of journalistic ethics perhaps he should consider whether columnists affected by “state actors” and who then make unsubstantiated charges against Russia are acting ethically by uncritically passing on this propaganda. In a current media environment where journalists seemingly have no ethical boundaries whatsoever to quibble about what Assange is doing seems quite silly.

    1. NotTimothyGeithner

      Assange is like Nader, even Trump* to a degree, in that they both expose the utter malfeasance and incompetence of the uni-party or journalism if they are heard. Back in 2004, Nader had a 20 issue campaign platform. They were all clearly written, and I loved 18 of 20. One, I didn’t agree was a problem, a day the other I thought was a social change that could not be legislated away.

      What did I agree with Gore and Kerry on? Not stealing from Social Security in the case of Gore and I certainly didn’t agree with Kerry’s “smarter war” stance. He was a dip back then too. Sure they were better than Shrub, but it’s such a low bar.

      *The Democratic hand wringing over how Trump doesn’t respect McCain, the Bushes, Graham, and so forth is a sign they don’t like Trump because he is an outsider by their standards. His policies are every bit as deranged if not better than the average Republican.

      1. Carolinian

        Nader is still around on his somewhat stodgy podcast/radio show. The other week he had on Chomsky who said the atrocities and press suckuppery of our current era still pales compared to the Vietnam time when napalm and agent orange were seen by much of the press and public as a matter of course in the great capitalist struggle against the commies.

        Still that will be cold comfort if HRC has us all fleeing to the now nonexistent bomb shelters.

        1. Jeremy Grimm

          Can’t we just crawl under our desks and wait for the “all clear”?

          One slightly crazy Global Warming doomer speculated there may be some among our elites who believe a little Nuclear Winter might take the edge off Global Warming and enable a longer run before the climate shit really hits the fan — [sorry — no I don’t have a link — may have been McKibben or McPherson or another].

      2. craazyboy

        With Trump, his one platform policy, tax cuts for large corporations (as always, they’ll keep the 35% marginal rate for small-mid size biz intact) and the rich, including lowering/zeroing estate taxes, will flow thru the establishment congress like shit thru a goose.

        The only thing left to hope for is gridlock on the Grand Bargain, Trade Deals, and maybe avoid military escalation with the ME & Russia, but even so, we will need lotsa defense spending to make the Pentagon great again. Also, too ISIS. But I’m not even so sure we’ll get that. The Wall is too stupid/ineffective to really happen, but I could be wrong there too.

        Or Hillary.

        Or Obama does an FDR and declares himself a 3rd term ’cause war with Russia and the American peanut gallery can’t be trusted to vote when important stuff is going on.

        What a bunch of crap.

        1. Optimader

          I think bho would be less interested in a third term which delays his opportunity to get out there and suck up his “fair share”.

          It will be interesting to see how that works for him as i dont think he has structured a follow on play like the clintons did. Michelle for POTUS? I dont see that in my wildest Machiavellian dreams.

          OTOH, the financial sector can drop a life style insuring nut on him that is a trivial amount in industry context that will provide the object lesson continuity and modivation for future Pay to Play centric “civil servants”.

          1. NotTimothyGeithner

            The Clintons were relative paupers until Kerry lost. Clinton didn’t put his office in Harlem to be trendy. It was the closest to Wall Street he could afford. Finance is a short term industry. The individuals who make decisions don’t care if Obama serves as an example.

            1. optimader

              We will see who if anyone pays up for his speechifying “annuity”, board positions, foundation underwriting. I will say he is much less opportunistically positioned that the Clintons. BHO only has potential payoff for past benefit, Clintons of course offered future benefit.

              Finance is a short term industry.
              The transaction scalping may be short term, the modus operandi of operators like Dimon, Blankfein, Schwarzman and other similar CEO’s is persistent. As well the heads of the health insurance industry deriving benefit from legislated sausage of the ACA

          2. ProNewerDeal

            IIRC a few months ago there was a newstory on poll results of approval/disapproval of FedGov politicians. Trump & HClinton had a massively bad disapproval differential. In contrast, Michelle 0bama had the best approval differential, Sanders was #2, both were ahead of B0bama, who at least still has an approval differential.

            M0bama seems to have the B0bama 2008 “blank slate” profile. Her focus as 1st Lady is on innocuous programs, like nutrition/veggies are important, exercise is good, girls in poor countries deserve primary/secondary education as a human right. Only Rush Limbaugh type halfway open racist rightwingnuts take “outrage” at such policies, what is that, 20% of USian voters?

            If M0bama wanted to run, it presumably would not be until 2024 at the earliest. By 2024, the voter population will be both more Millenial’d & nonwhite, which might boost her approval differential above her already high 2016 differential.

            If M0bama wanted to run, she would have a chance IMHO. Perhaps I am naive, but I’d guesstimate that M0bama may not be a pure sociopath & sellout like the other 3: B0bama & the Clintons. Presumably the oligarch owners/funders may hire a psychologist to intelligence-agency-style profile M0bama, & have similar doubts that she would not be a pure willing oligarch tool like the Clintons & B0bama have been.

              1. Pat

                If by interesting you mean vomit inducing. Mind you Michelle Obama has at least shown a level of competence I have yet to see from Chelsea Clinton. Although I do have to give Chelsea a small prop in that the Podesta hack shows that at least for a short period of time she really did believe that her parents foundation was about charity and was upset that they weren’t doing what she thought they were supposed to do.
                Michelle, well the more you know…

          3. Bugs Bunny

            He’s spoken about getting a job in private equity.

            I guess that’s what Nobel Peace Prize winners do now. Deals.

    2. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

      Do robot journalists act more ethically than human ones?

      If they do, neo-Luddites may have to go with ‘progress’ for once.

      1. ambrit

        I dunno MLTPB. You never have exhort a robot to “get with the program.” It’s kind of taken for granted. I’d look very closely at the cult of the “Master Coder” to gain insight into robot souls.

  13. allan

    SAG-AFTRA goes on strike against video game companies [LA Times]

    he largest actors union in Hollywood officially called a strike early Friday morning against several prominent video game companies after the two sides failed to reach an agreement on an increase in compensation for performers who do voice-over and motion-capture work for popular games. …

    Members of SAG-AFTRA are planning to picket one of the companies, Electronic Arts, at its location in Playa Vista on Monday.

    Other companies affected by the strike include some of the largest names in the industry — Activision Blizzard, Take Two, Disney and Warner Bros.

    The union was asking for a new compensation structure that would allow actors to start receiving residual-like payments based on a game’s commercial success. They were also asking for improved safety conditions for voice-over and motion-capture performers. …

    Surely one way to burnish the legacy would be to put on those walking shoes and head out to LA.

    1. Alex morfesis

      The serfs shall be further motivated by increased lashings…one penny for every 20 games sold, with the lifetime cap of a grand…the game owners/developers are demanding this “lock out” as ever SAGgy AFT(e)RA is wanting it called a “residuals” buyout and the owners insist on calling it zakat…although they really would prefer the serfs return to the caves and go back to siyam…but owners will never say the word…residual…even with the lifetime amount capped at less than the cost of one moderate weekend in LA….

      Because neo(feudalism)liberalism…

    2. jrs

      Obama will be in L.A. on Monday. To raise money in Beverly Hills not to march with striking workers. You can judge a man by the company he keeps.

  14. jsn

    California Pensions:
    My theory of post 2000 (judicial coup) US contract law, “A contract is only as good as the intentions of the richer party to it.”

    And richer, in our plutocracy, is a stand in for “more powerful”.

  15. BecauseTradition

    re: Debate Moderators Under the Spell of Deficit-Obsessed Billionaire Pete Peterson The Intercept

    I suspect hypocrisy is at play, i.e. a higher deficit would tend to mean a lower price and thus a higher yield for the new sovereign debt – thus decreasing the value of existing sovereign debt. So someone should ask Peterson if he owns US Treasury Bonds?

    Not that sovereign debt should ever pay positive interest since that constitutes welfare proportional to wealth, not need.

    1. NotTimothyGeithner

      Let’s not blame the messengers. The debate commission is a bipartisan effort of the Democratic and Republican parties. If they wanted better and more relevant questions, they would be asked.

      1. Katharine

        After all, once you’ve said you believe in science, you shouldn’t have to explain what you meant by saying climate activists should get a life.

  16. jsn

    WaPo on Aleppo is mind boggling.

    Aleppo is the second city of Syria, it’s government is the Syrian government. Parts of the city have been occupied by foreign fighters, many known to be Al Qaeda or it’s known successors with numerous foreign press reports of occupiers using local population as human shields. These head chopping, human shielded occupiers are supplied by US and our allies, KSA, Israel and Turkey.

    With Russian help, the Syrian government, who legally speaking (as if law matters in post 2000 US, see theory of contracts above) govern Aleppo are pounding what remains of the occupying forces in the now largely depopulated pocket those forces “control”: it is refugees from this portion of Aleppo that have driven much of the influx to Turkey and from there the EU. The Syrian govt held portion, the majority of Aleppo, has had no such massive refugee out-flow.

    Yes Putin and Assad are creeps, but they’ve leveled far fewer nations recently or in their careers to date than our home grown creeps. The WaPo attacking Trump for inaccuracy or untruthfulness with untruth piled high on top of untruth is the pinnacle of irony. Or more likely simple bad faith.

    1. ambrit

      Agree fully. That WaPoo article is a ‘ripe’ candidate for Lamberts ‘Magic Markers.’
      What is scary about such an obvious bias in “reporting” is the fact that many people do not see the bias. That is the mark of successful propaganda.
      So, as if anybody here needed reassuring, WaPoo proves yet again that it is a fully partisan arm of the ‘Washington Consensus.’
      How would WaPoo or it’s fellow cabalists react if those insidious Quebecois were to occupy the Upper Peninsula in pursuit of a “New France” in the New World? Has anyone encountered a “moderate” Quebecois lately? (Look for the dandy riding a unicorn.)

      1. craazyboy

        Or if Putin helped Texas secede from the Union and we lost the George W. Bush Presidential Library? There would be hell to pay.

        1. ambrit

          Wait! I for one would heartily endorse the secession of Tejas. Add Oklahoma and New Mexico and you have a viable nation. (Which might promptly devolve into a civil war between the Evangelistas and the Catolicas.)
          Where’s Sam Houston when you need him?

          1. Ché Pasa

            Oklahoma and Texas, fine. You leave NM out of it. Bad enough we have to live next door to those people, it’s inconceivable that we would want to join them in their fantasy of Re-Independence. Let them go, please. But leave the rest of us to our own devices.

            Thanks in advance.

            1. ambrit

              So, New Mexico joins up with the Rocky Mountain States of America, or Chihuahua and Durango? What’s going to drive the wars of conquest in the Southwest for the next century or two will be access to water. New Mexico is roughly the top half of the Rio Grande watershed. Many future want-to-be Hegemonistas will eye New Mexico’s water assets with avarice.

              1. craazyboy

                3 million potential troopers in the greater El Paso/Juarez area, most of ’em heavily armed already.

                I think that’s more than the entire population of N.M. and they’ll be comin’ for the water.

                N.M. will stay with the Union, but can the Union help?

                P.S. I think this could be a new strategy game. Water Wars – were to go, how to win – or maybe just survive them.

              2. Ché Pasa

                Half and half. The Rio Grande likes to dry up south of Elephant Butte, and tejanos whine and cry because they don’t get all the river water they say they’re due. Right.

                I say just build a wall. Keep them Texans away from the River.

            2. optimader

              They will be able to apply for foreign aid. The sticky part will be water supply contracts that will have to be negotiated.

            3. Jeremy Grimm

              Let Red and Orange fight with clubs but leave New Mexico out of it! New Mexico is nothing like Oklahoma or Texas.

              1. ambrit

                Next thing we know you are going to be telling us that the Sangre de Christos aren’t just any old mountains. Cue up Hovhahness’ “Mysterious Mountain.”

                1. Jeremy Grimm

                  Interesting references and interesting response to a defense of New Mexico.

                  My grandparents moved from Gordon, Texas to Clovis, New Mexico as the Dust Bowl hit and later moved to California during the war. My favorite aunt lived in Clovis until her death some years ago. I used to visit her over the holidays when I lived in Fort Worth.

                  I recall being warned not to wear red or orange if I went anywhere during the big football game between Texas and Oklahoma. One of the memories that solidified my impressions of Texans was hearing some Texans at work refer to a co-worker from Macon, Georgia as a Yankee.

                  So — no need to cue up “Mysterious Mountain” — unless you know of other reasons to defend New Mexico — or not.

                  1. ambrit

                    Thanks for the reminiscence. The outright ‘tribalism’ exhibited at sporting events is wonderous and frightening to behold. For you it was Texas and Oklahoma. For me Miami and Georgia Tech. When we had first come to America in the late fifties, one of Dad’s coworkers in Miami gave us tickets to go see the University of Miami play Georgia Tech, (the Rambling Wrecks.)
                    So, this innocent young English family sits down on the forty yard line in the old Orange Bowl, waving our Miami Hurricanes pennants. How were we to know that Dad’s “friend” had sat us down in the middle of the Georgia Tech ‘Rooting Section!’
                    I was about six years old and I can still sing parts of the Georgia Tech ‘Fight Song.”
                    The chorus was:
                    “I’m a rambling wreck from Georgia Tech and a hell of an engineer!”
                    You sit inside a group of a thousand people singing that in unison for ten minutes, much less three hours. No wonder your aunt warned you off.

      2. cocomaan

        Josh Rogin is not in Aleppo, so anything he says is just information filtered through Obama’s Legacy Machine.

        The fact of the matter is that WaPo doesn’t have anyone on the ground in Syria. Period. Fareed Zakaria, who wrote an OpEd the other day? Not in Syria. The only WaPo person even close is Loveday Morris, and she’s in the green zone Baghdad.

        Until a paper is sending dispatches from the ground, don’t believe anything they say about a war. Wars are messy and there’s very little truth moment to moment. In Studs Terkel’s “The Good War”, he talks with someone in intelligence who says they used to hold soldier letters going back home for about a month in a warehouse, because by the time the month passed, whatever accidental intelligence they might have given out was useless.

        1. Plenue

          Yeah, a lot of it isn’t straightforward lying. Propaganda is easy to push when the ‘journalists’ you’re manipulating literally don’t know anything. Before the Washington Post it was the New York Times ‘fact-checking’ on Syria and Aleppo. They kept getting things wrong and had to edit their story at least four times. And in the end they were still wrong more than they were right.

          On the subject of Aleppo, the evil war criminal Russkies just extended the ceasefire an additional 24 hours. The Syrian Army also flee a helicopter with a loudspeaker over the city, announcing a final chance for the militants to withdraw (not necessarily surrender; they have the option of keeping their small arms and being given transport to Idlib). The response was further artillery bombardment of one of the humanitarian corridors. Meanwhile the militants outside the city are attempting another offensive to punch through, which the Russians knew about in advance, down to the number of fighters. What a freaking joke.

      1. kgw

        The author of the Counterpunch article appears a bit(!) confused…Perhaps instead of whirling around like a dervish, he should sit down and practice mind-fasting.

    1. Roger Smith

      I wish these people could start a free word press and work on carefully organizing their findings. This is a gigantic mess, which doesn’t help whatever evidence may be present.

    2. Waldenpond

      Poor O’Keefe. Everything he’s done to date has been a scam so even if info on Black (and whatever else he calls himself) is true, it’s ignored.

    3. Portia

      I remember way back to the Vietnam War protest groups and the shenanigans that went on there. back then it was CIA–think Aaron Black is a spook, or is the DNC that depraved these days, or all all those guys just working for the same boss these days? It reminds me of my Dad always poking and snooping through my stuff in my room when I wasn’t home, and grilling my friends about me. pathetic.

  17. L

    This may have been mentioned here but Clinton’s allies are now public about the fact that she wants to reward tax blackmail (and substantial donations) by cutting overseas earnings in exchange for a return.

    See The Register and The Intercept.

    This, of course, runs counter to what she has said publicly, particularly when scolding Donald Trump for dodging taxes. But it is perfectly consistent with what she said in her private speeches with donors:

    “A number of business leaders have been talking to my husband and me about an idea that would allow the repatriation of the couple trillion dollars that are out there. And you would get a lower rate — a really low rate — if you were willing to invest a percentage in an infrastructure bank.”

    “I would like to find a way to repatriate the overseas earnings and I’ve read a really interesting proposal. … John Chambers and others … basically have said they would be willing to invest a percentage of their repatriated profits in an infrastructure bank … I thought that was a really intriguing idea.”

    See here.

    I think that The Register sums it all up nicely:

    In the meantime, technology companies are constantly complaining that they aren’t getting smart enough American engineers trained in STEM skills. Getting a cash infusion of billions that could fund US schools might be one solution, but not a popular one with Cook and his associates.

    1. jsn

      This is the issue that flipped me back to thinking Trump has always been a stalking horse for Clinton: his failure to point out that every tax benefit he had exploited was purchased by people like him from people like Clinton.

      1. Optimader

        I think Trump actually pointed that out a few times in the second debate–paraphrasing: “you wrote the laws for any legal tax advantages i’ve used blablahblah.”

        I think you mistake a mediocre candidate for a stalking horse. If Trump were the latter, he certainly is gut punching her for no reason.

        1. jsn

          I am open to the possibility that he can’t fully control his mouth in front of a microphone, too invested in a persona he’s spent decades building, but I’ve seen him in person make very articulate points. He is most of the awful things people say about him, but he is not stupid or inarticulate which is how he paints himself on TV.

          This mediocre candidate leveled the Repugnican field. It would destroy his brand if my suspicion caught on.

          1. optimader

            He is most of the awful things people say about him, but he is not stupid or inarticulate

            From day one , I never said he was stupid or inarticulate, just a mediocre candidate. The strategy that chewed up and spit out the R field, as it were, is not necessarily the strategy to win an election, not to say he hasn’t reeled it back in where he can strategically.
            I don’t think he is used to not being able to loose his temper or at least not in public. It might be a tool in private/negotiation, doesn’t serve him in a public political forum.

    2. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

      Smart enough American engineered trained in STEM skills???

      That’s why more money for US schools?

      1. craazyboy

        Anyone with half a brain or more is getting into finance or law. If you have a liberal arts degree, you can skip work altogether and proceed straight to running the world. [But you need an Ivy League School degree for that]

        Everyone knows that if you major in a STEM field, there is now an 80% chance you’ll get transferred off to a STEM sweatshop in India or China with a junior STEM starting salary of $2000/year. But the cost of living is lower.

        1. integer

          Those with half a brain or more
          are getting into finance or law,
          while those with less than half a brain
          just look for ways to ease their pain.

          1. integer

            while those with less than half a brain
            just look for ways to ease their pain.

            while those with half a brain or less
            are simply sick of all the stress.

            (When it comes to brains, do we really want more?
            Note: the “smartest” in the room are always pro-war.)

      1. pretzelattack

        who i recently learned is related to amy schumer (2d cousin or something).
        big clinton supporter. maybe clinton can give her an ambassador’s post somewhere.

    3. KurtisMayfield

      In the meantime, technology companies are constantly complaining that they aren’t getting smart enough American engineers trained in STEM skills.

      Everytime I see this it makes me vomit. I work with three ex engineers. They are ex engineers because they can make more money in other industries. The tech companies want US engineers that work for asian salaries.

      1. Jeremy Grimm

        What work is there for ex engineers and what industries pay more money? I’m retired but I could try for a comeback if there were reason ($$$$$$$$$$) enough.

  18. Optimader

    Re wsj
    Has there ever been a POTUS candidate (candidate for any office?) that preemtively surrended the right to contest an election outcome?

    I happened to hear the subject line soundbite and it was newyork tounge in-cheek.

    Of course the MSM pearl clutches w/ illogic concern.
    Has an election winner ever contested the result of the subject election?

  19. Dave

    Besides water bottles, it seems that the commercial hustlers are now helping to pollute our planet with yet more needless plastic. I have in my hand a gift card sent to me by Wine.com It came in a large paper envelope with literature. Goggle articles about them and their hiring practices. The code on the back of my “gift card” is my “limited time offer”. it’s printed on an unrecyclable credit card sized throwaway piece of plastic.

    When one goes online to redeem, “your valuable offer,” that completes the trifecta of datamining. Now they have your name and address they sent the plastic pollution to and your i.p. address.

    Why couldn’t they print these on paper or card stock? Of course, it makes some recipients feel important
    to get this valuable credit card like thing in the mail. Screw these companies, I’ll never do business with either one of them if they are that blind to what their marketers are doing. Comcast sends them out too but since they are a monopoly, I have no choice but to use them.

    1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

      Those plastic prescription medicine bottles – should seniors and everyone else bring them back for refills, so they are not ‘one use’ containers?

    2. kgw

      And, another reason to wean oneself off of Amazon, the inflated plastic balloons of air that cushion the contents of boxes. I use community newspapers that I find in the driveway for many things after perusing them.

      1. Dave

        Those are far better for the environment than styrofoam peanuts. When we order things on the phone, we tell the merchant that if there is one foam peanut, not the cornstarch ones of course, we will return the order. There’s enough plastic in the ocean already.

        1. kgw

          A few years back, I used to get packages that had peanuts made out of some kind of cellulose: throw one into water and it instantly dissolved…Where did they go? As in, I haven’t seen them lately.

  20. Douglas P. Miller

    Would it be to much to ask that the antidote Du Jour be identified?
    Today for example, you have a nice picture of a duck. A duck I’ve seen before, but I can’t remember if it’s a wood duck, Harliquin duck or maybe something else. Figuring this out wouldn’t be to hard.
    Sometimes you have pictures of animals where I have very little idea what they are other than so bloody cute I have to find out what they are, where they live and how close we are to destroying them, as we are doing with all of nature. It would all go much quicker if I could start with a name. Then I’ll have more time to read your fine work.

    1. Yves Smith

      Most of our antidotes are submitted by readers, who seldom identify the pictures. And most readers don’t need to know what they are to enjoy them.

    2. Jeremy Grimm

      Why remove the mystery? Some of the most interesting and entertaining comments result from the combined efforts to identify the antidotes. That is part of what makes them antidotes and it is an element of the magic which binds the many commenters on this website.

      1. OIFVet

        Freeland: “It’s become evident for me, for Canada, that the European Union isn’t capable now to have an international treaty even with a country that has very European values like Canada. And even with a country so nice, with a lot of patience like Canada.

        Awww, the poor dear. That lofty Canada-nice contemptuousness really grates.

  21. Skip Intro

    The Politico pice on the Walloon’s blocking CETA is full of hand wringing about ‘Free Trade’, while it shows huge volumes of existing trade between Belgium and Canada. They don’t manage to see a disconnect between the evidence and the claim of a need for a treaty to allow ‘free trade’. Fortunately they end with a line that nails it from Flemish Socialists’ president John Crombez:

    “People pleading for the importance of trade could be right, but that’s really not the point. It’s the clauses,” Crombez said about CETA’s mechanisms for companies to sue governments. “Get those clauses out if you’re really serious about trade.”

  22. allan

    AT&T in advanced talks to buy Time Warner [Reuters]

    AT&T Inc (T.N) is in advanced discussions to acquire media conglomerate Time Warner Inc (TWX.N), and a deal could come as early as this weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

    The talks have come together quickly and revolve around a cash-and-stock deal which would be one of the largest in the sector in recent years as telecom companies make a grab for media providers to acquire content, the Journal reported. (on.wsj.com/2eOTDjH) …

    Time Warner, which has a market capitalization of about $65 billion, is an attractive target for AT&T, which has a market capitalization of about $238 billion, because of its premium cable channel HBO, the CNN news network, film studio Warner Bros and other media assets.

    AT&T, which sells wireless phone and broadband services, has already made moves to turn itself into a media powerhouse, buying satellite TV provider DirecTV last year for $48.5 billion. …

    Like globalization, the ZIRP that makes these megadeals possible
    is an economic experiment that will never be undone.

    1. Alex morfesis

      Hopefully some currently not so rich consumer atty will go dust off a copy of the att break up and read the fine print and move for a mandamus order to not only stop this foolishness but rebreakup this mess of an enterprise…justice filed its suit in late 1974 after nixon was gone and the final(ish) $ettlement in 82 led to 1984 official break up…and hence sledgehammer thru telescreen shown(globally) one time for the superbowl…although ibm was the purported enemy…the cost of communications was the real enemy of the new universally adopted tcp/ip for arpanet…(sidebar disclosure…my first wife was good friends and worked for bill mcgowens wife sue ling though they lived separate lives)

  23. Milton

    Major DDOS attack today affecting on the servers of Dyn, a major DNS host. Sites such as Okta, Twitter Reddit, Github and Spotify were down this morning. Use any search engine.

  24. rich

    Video of the Day – A Real Journalist Describes Life in an Industry Filled With ‘Glorified PR People’
    by Michael Krieger

    In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve become a big fan of The Young Turks’ Jordan Chariton as of late. In this latest video, he provides viewers with a behind the scenes analysis of his recent viral interview of DNC interim chair Donna Brazile, which I highlighted in yesterday’s post, Video of the Day – Watch Donna Brazile Squirm When Asked About DNC Rigging of Democratic Primary.

    Trust me, this is an absolute must watch.

    http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2016/10/21/video-of-the-day-a-real-journalist-describes-life-in-an-industry-filled-with-glorified-pr-people/#more-38770

    1. Jeremy Grimm

      I watched the video you linked. Sorry — why was this an absolute MUST WATCH? This video was long and discursive. It wasn’t funny or in any way satirical — but it could have been — and I think should have been. It sounded like Donna Brazile’s performance struck a nerve in your Young Turk whose lengthy monologue fills this video. I can’t speak for others — those nerves are thirty years dead in me.

  25. Katharine

    The article on the revision of the Model Penal Code does not indicate whether proposed revisions would delete the phrase “other than his wife” from the definition of rape. I was surprised to see that that anachronism was not explicitly addressed, but only various behaviors.

    1. hunkerdown

      It almost shocked me to see that these two “reporters” were using PUA tactics to try to badger their standard of consent into law.

  26. Steve H.

    Is there any way to check reports that :

    “the Bank For International Settlements (BIS) registered a $1.8 billion transfer from the Clinton Foundation (CF) to the Qatar Central Bank (QCB) through the “facilitation/abetment” of JP Morgan Chase & Company”?

    Source is suspect but its a falsifiable claim.

  27. john

    Hillary and Trump appeared last night at a charity dinner.

    Trump roasted Hillary.

    The audience wore their regalia.

    The king is naked.

  28. Portia

    as part of the pearl-clutching, Conde-Nast got in on the act with their article “President Trump’s First Term”, quoting Roger Stone, etc, and my eyes popped when I saw this lecture on “conscience” by Chertoff:

    Michael Chertoff served both Bush Presidents—as a U.S. Attorney in Bush, Sr.,’s Administration, and then as Secretary of Homeland Security under George W. Bush. He was one of fifty senior Republican national-security officials who recently signed a letter declaring that Trump “would be the most reckless President in American history.” Chertoff told me that he has been approached for advice by younger Republicans who ask if joining Trump, after he has already been elected, would be regarded as patriotic, rather than political. “I think anybody contemplating going in will have to have a very serious look in their own conscience, and make sure they’re not kidding themselves,” Chertoff said.

    http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/09/26/president-trumps-first-term

    Kidding themselves?

  29. rich

    Welcome to Neocolonialism, Exploited Peasants!

    This traditional model of colonialism was forcibly dismantled in the 1940s-1960s. Former colonies established their political independence, a process that diminished the wealth and global reach of former colonial powers.

    In response, global financial powers sought financial control rather than political control. This is the key dynamic in the Neocolonial-Financialization Model, which substitutes the economic power of financialization (debt, leverage and speculation fueled by globalized mobile capital) for the raw power of political conquest.
    The main strategy of financialization is: extend cheap credit to those with limited access to capital. Those with limited access to capital will agree to penalties, high interest rates, etc. because they have no other way to acquire a university degree, a mortgage, a vehicle, etc.

    These tactics have been well-documented in books such as The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism and Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.

    But the economic pillaging of former colonies has limits, and as a consequence the Imperial financial powers developed the Neocolonial Model, which turns these same techniques on their domestic populations.

    Note how little of the Greek “bailout” actually went to the citizenry of Greece and how much was interest paid to the financial powers.

    This is not just the perfection of neocolonialism but of neofeudalism as well.
    In the U.S., the Neocolonial-Financialization Model now dominates the U.S. economy.

    No wonder the Ruling Elite Has Lost the Consent of the Governed. http://www.oftwominds.com/blogoct16/consent-of-governed10-16.html

    The U.S. peasantry has been stripmined exactly like the powerless colonial peasantry in the old colonial model, and they are finally identifying their oppressors: the ruling Elite of the U.S.

    http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2016/10/welcome-to-neocolonialism-exploited.html

    good luck after the election….

  30. Financial Technicians

    The FT tend to make fools of themselves when they take their green eyeshades off. Now these bean-counting ignoramuses fret about poisoning some notional ‘democracy’ that fails to meet the minimal legal standards of the civilized world. The supreme law of the land requires that US elections guarantee the free expression of the will of the electors. The FT staff has no idea what that means, but can any anyone maintain US electoral pageantry meets that test? No adult can say so with a straight face. US democracy’s a joke. The FT should shut up and attend to their own fake democracy, which has failed, in an amusing fluke, to thwart the popular will in the case of Corbyn.

  31. ewmayer

    o “Posthumous pardons law may see Oscar Wilde exonerated | The Guardian” — I’m sure he will be very pleased at being able to live out his days out from under the shadow of this legal cloud! Oh, wait…

    o “Good Grief: MetLife Will Be ‘Navigating Life’ Without Snoopy, Peanuts Characters | The Independent” — I always hated that Charles Schulz agreed to allow his characters to be used to shill for MetLife. Did ya really need the money that badly, Chuck? Now we just need to convince Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek to stop shilling for Colonial Penn Insurance. Again, how much money do you need?

    o “A bitter Donald Trump must not poison US democracy | FT” — US democracy … assumes facts not in evidence, your honor!

    o “Foreign journalists on 2016: ‘Is this the demise of objective American journalism?’ | Columbia Journalism Review” — objective American journalism … your honor, once again I repeat my previous objection!

    o “Government alleges former NSA contractor stole ‘astonishing quantity’ of classified data over 20 years | WaPo” — And how does that compare to the likely-astronomical volume of classified data stolen by NSA over the years?

    o “” — “…for the past four years the Institute has been working to produce a new model law, one that would criminalize non-consensual sex in cases where neither force nor explicit threats were used.” This is obviously pointing toward the concept of an “implicit threat”, which is sensible enough on its face but instantly leads into a nigh-impenetrable legal thicket. He: “We were just having a few drinks and necking, and at no point did she ask me to stop.” She: “I was afraid to say ‘no!’ because I felt threatened.” Jury: “Good grief – we’re gonna be here for awhile.” I can see why the ensuing debates have gotten heated.

    o “Changing course: a harder sell for MBAs | FT” — Any sign that the grifting life is becoming more difficult for these Useless Eaters is welcome, I say.

    o “SEC preparing large-scale review of exchange traded fund industry | FT” — I’m sure the movers & shakers in the ETF industry are quaking in their tasseled loafers at this latest attempt by the SEC to try to demonstrate its non-less-than-uselessness.

    o “Theresa May slams Moscow’s ‘sickening atrocities’ as Russian warships steam into British waters | The Independent” — To quote from Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, “Englishmen … you’re all so fvcking pompous”.

    1. Jeremy Grimm

      Hem — looking down the menu — hm — I’ll try the new law for non-consenual sex …
      Other commenters have suggested the need for some kind of population control whenever Global Warming issues come up. I think a new legal view on what constitutes non-consensual sex combined with Draconian punishments is just what the doctor ordered. Consensual sex should require that both parties sign and exchange consent forms while providing proper identification and proof of age before continuing beyond second base (or first base — second base may be too far). Both parties should also provide evidence — this calls for a secure breath analyzer with a personal bio-ID and printout capability — along with a notarized statement by each party that they are NOT under the influence of any drug legal or otherwise which might impair their judgment. [When available — a certifiable method for verifying their non-intoxication might be substituted for this certification].

      Some further extensions of these consent laws combined with harsher punishments will work wonders to improve the relations between sexes.

  32. ewmayer

    o “When the Genius Men of Silicon Valley Suddenly Don’t Seem So Smart | The Intercept” — Repeatedly and uncritically quotes a fellow using the Trump-is-Hitler card. E.g. “What possible justification is there, critics are asking, for Y Combinator to retain as a partner a person who not only served as a delegate and Republic National Convention speaker for a presidential candidate associated with white supremacy, misogyny, xenophobia, and fascism…” — Yah, as if Hillary has never been ‘associated’ – classic legalistic weasel-word, BTW – with any of those things. Racism: ‘superpredators’, check. Misogyny: Publicly smearing Bill’s “variety of women … a vile set of acts” accusers, check. Xenophobia: How much more xenophobic can one get than a person who has gleefully participated in the wanton destruction of multiple sovereign nations posing no credible threat to the US? Check. Fascism – depends which definition one uses, but by any reasonable definition of the word Hillary is much more deserving of the epithet. To borrow her latest inane campaign slogan, deeds trump words. Agian, check.

    None of which is to say that Peter Thiel is any less appalling a person. Hillary got more than a few of those in her high-profile fan club, too – Henry Kissinger and most of the worst Bush-era neocon warmongers to the white courtesy phone, please.

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