Readers, I apologize for the excessive number of links, but it’s like the world is running a spread offense on your humble aggregators.–lambert
Yves: Apologies for lack of original posts. I had a computer mess last night which was not as alarming as it looked but did lead to an emergency visit of my tech guy, which chewed up part of my day. Plus got bogged down in a longer-term story.
The Great Cold Spot in Jupiter’s upper atmosphere Geophysical Research Letters. A second “great spot”!
Antarctica’s sleeping ice giant could wake soon Nature
Should You Be Worried About Political Risk? (Hint: Insurers Are) Bloomberg
Trump sends dollar down with warning it is ‘too strong’ FT
Fischer’s secret speech shows the Fed has learned nothing from its leak scandal Business Insider
Rachel Whetstone leaves Uber because of “lack of appetite for… drama” (LOL) Pando Daily (Hubert Horan). “Head of Communications and Public Policy.” Additional to FT story in Links yesterday.
How Uber conquers a city in seven steps Guardian. Shout-out to NC!
Fears mount over US construction boom FT
People Love Talking About Bitcoin More Than Using It WSJ
The De-Electrification of the U.S. Economy Bloomberg
Brexit
The power brokers behind Brexit: Martin Selmayr and Nick Timothy FT
Syraqistan
US Support for Syria Strikes Rates Low in Historical Context Gallup. Too bad. And Democrats were working so hard to bring those numbers up!
Syria war: Anger after Russia vetoes resolution at UN BBC. China abstained.
* * * Assessment of White House April 17, 2017 Intelligence Report of April 11, 2017 Theodore A. Postol
White House “Intelligence Assessment” Is No-Such-Thing – Shows Support for Al-Qaeda Moon of Alabama
Trump Withholds Syria-Sarin Evidence Robert Parry, Consortium News
* * * Here’s Why Russia’s Not Going To Dump Iran And Syria Anytime Soon Buzzfeed
Q&A: Why Unseating Assad Risks Unleashing Even More Chaos Bloomberg
Syrian refugee girl Bana Alabed announces book deal with Simon & Schuster CBS
North Korea?
In Pyongyang, plans for founder’s birth anniversary on track, no fear of US strike Asian Correspondent. I don’t set much store by the interviews with minders near, but I’m guessing a city that believes itself about to be assaulted feels one way at street level, and Pyongyang doesn’t feel that way.
Trump has promised to consult Abe before moving against North Korea: sources Japan Times
China warns against force as North Korea prepares celebration Reuters (SF).
China
Trump, Unorthodox as Ever, Offers Grand Bargain to Beijing Voice of America
New Cold War
Tillerson and Putin Find Little More Than Disagreement in Meeting NYT
Trump on NATO: ‘I said it was obsolete. It’s no longer obsolete.’ WaPo
Putin vows he won’t allow color revolutions in Russia TASS
Six Things I Think: Masters of War Edition Nina Illingworth
Diplomatic Breakdown Rattles Western Law Firms in Russia Legal Times
Trump Transition
White House ends hiring freeze, mandates workforce, mission restructuring Federal News Radio. Important.
Donald Trump says Janet Yellen ‘not toast’ after her term expires Australian Financial Review
Trump Threatens to Withhold Payments to Insurers to Press Democrats on Health Bill WSJ
Silicon Valley is beginning to fight the Trump administration’s net neutrality plan Recode
Betsy DeVos reverses Obama-era directives aimed at protecting student loan borrowers NYT (Furzy Mouse).
Scott Pruitt Requests Funds For a 24/7 Fleet of Bodyguards Government Executive
Being Anti-Trump Isn’t Enough Jacobin. Berlusconi comparison.
Our Famously Free Press
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Sees a “Russia Connection” Lurking Around Every Corner The Intercept. Ka-ching.
(Scorn) So You Read It in the Newspaper Ian Welsh (MR).
Russian Journalists Say One of NYT’s Pulitzer-Winning Stories Was Stolen Global Voices
Is the United Airlines man being smeared in the media even the right David Dao? It shouldn’t matter Independent (FluffytheObeseCat). “There is presently confusion about whether the man on the United flight was actually David Thanh Duc Dao, quite possibly another person entirely to David Anh Duy Dao, the man with the criminal records.”
Oh. “Confusion.” What the heck’s happened — I’m speculating freely that a United PR effort planted the stories — to corporate PR these days? You’d think if they’re going to smear a guy, they’d at least make sure to smear the right guy. And you’d think they’d have staffers who don’t get confused by those tricky Asian names. And then there’s the press, who eagerly lapped up the scandal that — still speculating — they were spoon-fed, “confusion” or not. And if the brainiacs at Google had their groupthink-optimized algo flag this story as legit, will they now unflag it as fake?
United Removal Fiasco
The United Flight Was Not Overbooked, CEO Admits Forbes
2 more aviation cops on leave after United doc-dragging incident Chicago Sun-Times. “‘We have to more deeply embed a concept of caring, a concept of trust, a concept that large corporations do have a heart,’ [United CEO Oscar] Munoz said.”
United Airlines Is Not Alone NYT (Furzy Mouse).”Well, most of us don’t encounter the government on a daily basis. We do, however, live life as consumers.” Not, apparently, as citizens?
Airlines Can Treat You Like Garbage Because They Are an Oligopoly Fusion
Turns Out That A Lot Of People Kind Of Liked Kendall Jenner’s Pepsi Ad Buzzfeed
Guillotine Watch
Aga app ‘could let hackers turn off oven’ BBC (Clive). The pictured Aga stove looks like it goes for $13,999. You’d think for that kind of money you could escape the Internet of Shit, but n-o-o-o-o-o. “The AGA Isn’t An Appliance. It’s a Way of Life!” Indeed….
Why I won’t date hot women anymore New York Post. Put down your coffee….
Class Warfare
Can universal basic income counter the ill-effects of the gig economy? The Conversation
Appeals Court Rules Against San Diego Unions: First of Many Court Victories to Come MishTalk
Yale refuses negotiations with Local 33 Yale News
How the Government Is Turning Protesters Into Felons Esquire
More than 100 Sri Lankan peacekeepers had sex with children in Haiti, internal UN report reveals South China Morning Post. That, and introducing cholera. Plus the Clintons.
Amid allegations of unpaid taxes, neo-Nazism, and sex offender, Denver furry convention canceled Denver 7
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
213 comments
Comments are closed.
Maybe you should correct the date in the links header? This is 4/13!
Oh no, Friday the 13th!
On a Thursday too!
https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2017/04/13/2187474/computer-says-no-united-edition/
Shout out to NC too..
Didn’t get chance to add this yesterday https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Idd32nyf1pc
Thanks for a laugh!
Need every bit we can get
.
Clive
April 13, 2017 at 8:08 am
didn’t quite catch who is the vendor? Well, it goes without saying it probably is Amazon…but this guy didn’t look affiliated…..;)
He said the lifevest is available on the 10 minute subscription model. I would assume Microsoft Store.
The full video, Ep. 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUiuQt-07so
Clive, that was brilliant! Thank you for helping me laugh today!
Six Things I Think: Masters of War Edition
Solid coverage here, would be a must read if more of it hadn’t already been covered here on NC. Takedowns of Spicer, Ivanka, Gingrich, the Dems. No punches pulled.
Handing over policy to the “We don’t win wars anymore” crowd.
I like Illingworth quite a bit, but she badly misrepresented the Gingrich. All he was saying was that the US has subs that could nuke all of North Korea on standby, which is true. And that the threat of total destruction is about as much “deterrence” as is possible, so the Carrier Fleet isn’t really going there to provide deterrence, but to send a message. He also said that a nuclear attack would be horrible. I’m no fan of Hannity and Gingrich, but I can’t really argue with any of those statements.
Whether this is a state of affairs that should exist was, unsurprisingly, not a conversation Hannity and Newt decided to have.
I think the essence of her spray at Gingrich is captured here
It’s a reasonable objection. The current move to advertise and normalise a US first strike nuclear policy is extremely dangerous. And provocative. AFAIK, even the DPRK has only ever thretened to use nukes in retaliation. The latest example being:
Also, I can’t quite see how she misrepresented anything Gingrich said.
Perhaps “called for more strikes against Syria” is a stretch, “threatened …” would be better.
Agreed, pretty good round up. I especially appreciate the inclusion of number 6 (Sanders’ unacceptably poor response).
Yes, glad to see Sanders called out on it. Reprehensible.
Just say “no” to sacred cows.
“[NATO] made a change — and now they do fight terrorism,” Trump said. “I said it was obsolete. It’s no longer obsolete.” — WaPo article above
This is historical revisionism on a scale way beyond Soviet-style airbrushing of purged comrades from photos.
NATO is a defensive alliance. That’s what its treaty says. NATO is authorized to fight terrorists if they cross the border into its territory, not to go chasing them round the world.
“Out of area” [i.e., illegal] operations for NATO began with Bill Clinton’s aerial attacks on Yugoslavia [not a NATO member] in 1999. About 500 civilians were killed.
Clinton’s depraved innovation in turn paved the way for NATO’s 15-year [and counting] quagmire in Afghanistan. And on it goes.
NATO represents everything that is wrong, obsolete, and destructive about the US empire and its European poodles. With constitutional government but a memory in the US heimatland, NATO writes its own ticket these days, much as militarist generals in Japan did in the 1930s. “Little people” [voters] are merely along for the ride. Kongress Klowns are on vacation.
what’s not to love about Illingworth? Nina is wonderful. more please.
If you love Nina, please go visit her site and tip her. She and I don’t chat the way we used to, but I know she’s been struggling to keep going as an independent voice. Twitter shadowbanned her numerous times because she’s a leftist, which interferes with her ability to promote her articles and get the contributions she needs to survive.
I thought that AGA s were designed so that you never turned them off…
Yes, that’s the way natural gas ones operate. Unfortunately electric ones (and a lot of the target market here in the U.K. which is the Just Landed Gentry don’t have a gas grid connection so have to go for electric models) would be ruinously expensive to run all the time. So you either have to go for a thermal storage version or else go for the “total control” one which allows you to pre-heat the ovens and hot plates. Pre-heating is fine, if you’re there to set the pre-heat. But if not… hence the IoT enabled feature. Which would be fine, if it had been designed properly.
Imagine that some of the locals want those Just Landed Gentry to go through customs, and perhaps more inquisitive processes, prior to further integration with the community. ;p
Clive,
I’m old enough to remember that stunning, smart, disruptive, innovation called the oven timer. Two knobs – one for start time, the other for duration. Later the knobs became digital, but that’s just UI sugar.
So I’d query what the IoS “feature” offers beyond that ? Just cover for the times you’ve forgotten to twirl those knobs (*) and now face the social disaster of cold plates at that dinner party in the Cotswolds.
‘scuse the /sarc but almost anything to do with IoS is driving me up the wall at the moment. Seems to consist of nothing more than spraying a bit of WiFi on common household objects that have been “sorted” for decades, plastering them with an IoT label, adding 50-100% to the price, then going looking for the dumb money.
Exhibit A: The internet connected hairbrush for IIRC ~$200, followed rapidly by the IoT dildo. Its at that point I think that, to use the old News Of The World phrase, “I made my excuses and left …”.
(*) or should that be nobs given the Aga’s cultural demographics.
Yes, I remember as a small boy being fascinated by the “clock” (and it was a real, actual clock too, with moving hands) on the Clive family oven. More than once, I got a telling off from Mum about not fiddling with it. Worked just fine, too. Well, until I’ve got my hands on it and adjusted the time.
The problem with these blasted Agas is that they need constant heat input so they can’t have ordinary timers. Their design principle is that they just sit there, guzzling whatever their fuel source is. The IoS models attempt to optimise the runtimes to ensure that they don’t get too cold but don’t sit there staying hot if not needed. But it’s like the cooking equivalent of going back to the stone age. People who buy them want their heads examining.
make Aggravation Grate Again …
About the United scandal and the race to the bottom: Major airlines have been wanting a return to aviation as a regulated business for years. (Well at least up to 2013 when I left the FAA.) There was an op-ed by the CEO of American Airlines in Aviation Week around 2008 that was pretty good at laying out the reasons. (I tried to look it up in their archives but the interface is buggy and I gave up. Perhaps another would have more luck.)
It’s not Aviation Week, but The Case for Re-Regulating The Airline Industry from Wired in 2008 seems close.
The Esquire piece on the J20 demonstrators is a canary in the coal mine warning. The demonisation of dissent is “authorities'” predictable next step in the struggle for dominance over the populace. Not to be too alarmist but this blanket arrest and charge idea is another attempt to “kettle” the First Amendment. What the authorities do not accept is the point that a certain percentage of the affected demonstrators will always go on from the frustrated desire to have their voices heard to more energetic forms of dissent. Most revolutions may call themselves “popular,” but a core cadre of true believers motivate activists and guide events. As “regular” dissent is defined down, expect wilder and larger outbreaks of real insurrection.
If “they” knew what they were doing, they’d be dangerous.
I hope the juries acquit everyone for whom the evidence amounts only to having been present. Better yet, I hope judges rebuke prosecutors for pursuing such flimsy cases.
I hope so too. Unfortunately, the judiciary is a part of the “status quo,” and as such, is the usual mixed bag of people. It takes courage to stand up to your peers and tell them that they are wrong. This is why I worry about the “kettling” of the Internet. The Internet blogs are the “vanguard of the proletariat” in a very real sense. The “fake news” witch hunt brings to mind the locuition from our long suffering comrades Down South: “The Official Version.” The MSM has become that “Official Version” of history, past, present, and future, while the Internet is now the true wellspring of the “ferment of history.”
I have been on juries and can attest to the fact that it takes brave people to question the prosecution’s “official version” of the case. Group think and admonitions, both overt and covert, from the Prosecution to the jury to maintain the status quo often limit the options that the jury even considers.
This is an important case.
Actually like this line of thinking by the persecutors and former stalag 13 commandant newsham ( new sham…some evil genius sits in hr & decides who gets a promotion…)…a group hiding their identities, working together to damage private property and colluding and ignoring the opportunity to disengage from the group causing damage and disturbing and disrupting the commonweal…
Where have I seen this before…
I seem to remember you traitorous colonists engaging in such anti-imperial behaviour once before…
I thought the whole point of an Aga was absence of controls including on and off, suited to the kind of climate that would allow for a heated hunk of iron in even the summertime. What I know of it (not from a point of view of a user), though from 30 years ago, is not something that would have had electronic controls let alone the yet available IP address. Some things should not have IP addresses, including components of the power grid, nuclear weapon systems, and slow cook ovens.
So, large corporations like United Beat-down Airlines have a heart? Does that mean that they are people?
Didn’t Romney-robme already settle that question….?
Absolutely, my friend!
Maybe legally being person’s under the law can be extended to include legally having a heart under law.
Doubtful. Sir Edward Coke, quoted by Blackstone, said they don’t have souls.
‘have a heart? ….’
Yeah, about 6-squared sizes too small !
…. but what do I know … ? I’m just an Eloi, like the rest of us in Whooville !
If only Democratically run cities like Chicago didn’t let airlines run the airport police agencies…..
Postol’s report in a downloadable pdf (no scribd account needed)
Postol asserts that an artillery shell was the source of the chemical attack.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_Vs2rjE9TdwR2F3NFFVWDExMnc/view
Assessment of White House April 17, 2017 Intelligence Report of April 11, 2017 Theodore A. Postol
Why is this dated April 17, 2017?
Having said that, I think one thing should be completely obvious–there is no interest, at least in this country, in ascertaining the truth about what happened and who was responsible, just as there is no interest in correcting the record about the 2013 incident, which is actually being used as “evidence” against Assad / Putin in assigning current blame.
Unfortunately, it seems that the warmongers have found the sweet spot, having turned Trump against his own campaign promises in less than 100 days with these latest videos of dead, suffocating and writhing children, and it’s hard to believe that more won’t suffer the same fate if this one doesn’t persuade him to give the ghouls the war they want.
What is so maddening is that these great humanitarian warriors are willing to turn an entire country over to people for whom such means justify their desired ends.
Katniss Everdeen
April 13, 2017 at 9:35 am
When one considers how much the media condones and supports misinformation (LYING) it makes me wonder WHY the truth about the lack of WMD in IRAQ actually saw the light of day.
Incompetent Shrub spinning??? Maybe having embedded journalists wasn’t such a good idea – from Shrub’s perspective.
Because it obviously doesn’t matter if the truth comes out later. Whatever they say to get the “Mission accomplished” now can be exposed as lies after the damage is done and can’t be undone. How much is full disclosure of the Iraq war lies stopping the current incarnation? It’s not, because people don’t remember. It’s been 14 years since we invaded Iraq on the pretense of banned weapons. Part of the problem is that no matter what lessons we learn, there is always a new green crop of suckers coming up who haven’t been fooled yet.
These days the attention span is shorter than ever. Rinse and repeat.
John Lennon said: “War is over, if you want it”
We just don’t want it.
We like war, we like to kill people. If we didn’t the streets would be full of protesters and the politician’s phones would be ringing nonstop.
https://www.beatlesbible.com/1969/12/15/john-lennon-yoko-ono-war-is-over-poster-campaign-launched/
Because “Tiger on the Potomac”…. Shrub was popular (and so amazingly was Cheney) so “WMD in Iraq!! News at 11!!!”.
Eventually Shrub, and especially Cheney, become unpopular and so it became “No WMD in Iraq!! News at 11!!!”. Like the BS guys says, truth or falsity are not important, it’s just attention that is.
There is a need for a story line about Trump, he’s “just a moran that we need to endure” is certainly not going to get eyeballs. So “he’s great, he was awful but look at that speech” then “complicated” (hah) then bad tempered then magnanimous… they just create a storyline and cram Trump into it. The worst thing about Trump is that he’s a natural for this type of treatment. Bill Clinton was a natural too. Shrub, especially when combined with Cheney, could be worked with and add bombing brown people and yea! Eyeballs!
They hated Al Gore because he was just always Al Gore. They saw 8 years of essentially consistent vanilla, and how does that get page hits.
Ugh. Ok I feel better now having vented. Don’t think I said anything most people on here don’t know.
Trump made the cover of Puck this week:
Nice ‘Jared’ button ….
… no drones or flies though !
well, hey – they’re just off by one tuesday
On our recent screw up relationship with Haiti, “Plus the Clintons” link. Chelsea gets a good rap in this as her memo to mom is a realistic assessment of the situation, foreigners rushed in aren’t helping or worse, locals, the Haitians were organizing themselves as quickly as possible. Any shine on Chelsea is probably misplaced. Her minders in Haiti were people from Partners in Health which has been working at the local level since forever. It was the PIH workers undoubtedly who showed Chelz the actual situation. The New Yorker published a profile on Paul Farmer, the founder of PIH, in 2000 written by Tracy Kidder. I was highly impressed by Farmer’s integrity when I read it back then. There was a follow up by Kidder in NY’er in 2010 which I’m not familiar with about the earthquake.
I don’t want Chelsea to have any future in politics, in fact I would like to never hear her name again, but I’m not going to complain if she apparently actually listened to people who know WTF they were talking about and provided a clear report of such.
Farmer has been writing about Haiti since, I think, the Duvalier(s)’ era. the local population organizing itself in the face of disaster has been noted many times before. The local organization is normally replaced by authoritarian misrule and made criminal by military minions of the oligarchies. It was no mistake that the US sent in the army before any aid, closing airports to prevent supplies arriving from such unwanted helpers as Cuba and Venezuela.
I believe Rebecca Solnit wrote about the same feature in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. A Canadian political writer, Yves Engler, has written extensively about the Canadian complicity in the overthrow of the elected government, and the subsequent further impoverishment of the Haitian population for the benefit of sweatshop owners out of Quebec.
It just occurred to me that Trump has one characteristic that he shares with Wash D C creatures, while Fed reserve economists, DNC affiliates or Wall St paper asset speculators, no matter how many times he should have been fried, he always comes back. Trump has come up to total bankruptcy in 1990, 2000, 2008, but no matter how bad his financial position was, we don’t know the extent of it as he’s private equity, banks always lended to bail him out. The funny theory that I read in the early 2000s was he was on Sorcerer’s Apprentice because he needed the million dollar pay day. His track record of success in failure is matched by our neocons’ success in foreign adventures, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Honduras.
Love the typo, “he should have been fried“.
It was a typo, wasn’t it??
>banks always lended to bail him out.
Living proof of “if you owe the bank a million…”
Wouldn’t it be great if we could all go down to Uber Spin where the exercise bikes are powered by Tesla power units with Ivanka and Chelsea and just sweat things out?
Where are you?
“Trump has promised to consult Abe before moving against North Korea: sources”
——-
Trump to Abe: “Abe, friend. Are you OK with the US causing the N. Koreans to take out Samsung, LGI, Hyundai and Kia? Just askin’.”
hahaha. Life can be fair if you’re on Team Uncle Sam.
Trump has apparently now decided that cruise missiles are a negotiating tactic (or as someone called it, a 59 Tomahawk tweet). Some of us may have to finally admit that the man is not very smart and gets all his info from cable news or whatever latest stooge he has hired to advise him. People who lack self doubt (and that includes Hillary) are dangerous. What’s especially bad about the Syria attack is that Trump will now never back down from his mistake.
But it does seem unlikely that Pence or McMaster will encourage him to destroy Korea. Perhaps even the NYT and WaPo will object since it’s nowhere near the Middle East.
Well, don’t forget GM, Ford, and Apple will weigh in too. Plus the US solar industry.
Ya, Tweetihawks! Scary, those are.
I think things have gone all the way to willful ignoring of plain and simple proven facts. The Sryian airfield was repaired in 24 hours and the Syrian air force still fries. Among other “facts” deserving of serious doubt.
craazyboy
April 13, 2017 at 9:34 am
I was thinking toma-tweets….
“….the Syrian air force still fries”
Until we reduce the Syrian FRENCH fryers to PATRIOTIC America Freedom fryers, the US can not waiver in its quest to liberate the world from the gruel the world consumes and replace it with delicious, nutritious US fast food.
Not to imply our Tweetihawks may well be shock and awesomely Snowflake terrifying bargaining chips if used in a different strike scenario. [maybe with nuke warhead]
But when taking out airfields, we have “bunker busting” bombs for that purpose. The idea is they strike with high kinetic energy, then have a delayed fuse which gives the bomb time to burrow unground a good amount before the fuse goes off and then the bomb makes a much, much larger crater.
You have to pick the right tool for the job.
“unground” s/b underground. But you knew that already.
Carolinian
April 13, 2017 at 9:24 am
http://thehill.com/policy/international/328592-trump-on-north-korea-china-relations-i-realized-its-not-so-easy
“President Trump acknowledged the complexity and political sensitivity of the relationship between China and North Korea this week, after China’s President Xi Jinping explained the countries’ relationship to him.”
===========================================
Now, if we could only get Assad to appear on Tucker Carlson (FOX) maybe Trump could learn about false flags and that not everything is as it appears….
And I didn’t want to overdue the links to the Hill, but apparently Trump policies are like Chicago weather – if you don’t like it, wait 10 minutes and it will change….
The soft racism of American Exceptionalism is at play. Obama suffered from this too, but the U.S. foreign policy Borg is packed full of people who feel the burden of the “white’s man burden.”
“But I never learned this in my U.S. history class…”
One of the other recent incidents was the Administration’s call for Russia to realign to the 90’s as if that would play well with the Russians. The basic reasoning is a McDonald’s opened, so the 90’s must have been awesome. The idea other people and places exist is simply baffling to these people.
“White man’s burden”–Kipling back in style. But maybe it’s just that our ruling class likes to see themselves as the indispensible rulers of the indispensible nation. The whole bunch needs to be put on the couch and particularly Trump if he indeed fired off his missiles because his daughter was upset.
We likely shouldn’t assume that because of what happened in Syria DT is going to start blowing people up willy nilly. Patrick Cockburn says it was probably a one-off since there’s little the US can do to get rid of Assad (short of actually killing him of course).
To me what’s most galling is Trump’s lying about the attack–the reasons, the results. It makes you question whether there’s anything real about him at all.
Until the next time Al Qaeda or ISIS needs some air support.
This is what happens when a newcomer with no real intellectual core falls under the hypnotic sway of the Military-Intelligence shadow gov which has been ruling the country for the past 15-1/2 years.
Now they dropped a MOAB bomb on Afghanistan to attack “ISIS tunnel networks.”
Winning? No. More like firing a .50-caliber elephant gun randomly into the darkness around your campfire at the distant footsteps that won’t go away.
The US government now meets the clinical definition of delusional insanity.
Not just the government. The political class (with a few individual exceptions). It’s quite remarkable. Worse than the run-up to Iraq.
“now”?
Yep.
The only encouraging thing is that more of us commoners seem to be catching on to this.
Xi explained, just like Big Pharma executives explained.
Why can’t someone explain to him Free Medical For All?
“Government or people (if they can) paying for health care is complicated. Free, for all, is much simpler. Let me explain.”
Hire Tusi.
Or she can be a volunteer in the White House, after the Democrats have successful challenged her.
>Perhaps even the NYT and WaPo will object since it’s nowhere near the Middle East.
Wasn’t there somebody whose future looked bright until he decided to war on two major fronts? Kitler, Hilster, what was his name again?
That upstart corporal!!!
Trump to Abe: “Abe, friend. Are you OK with the US causing the N. Koreans to take out Samsung, LGI, Hyundai and Kia? Just askin’.”
Because you know that is EXACTLY what is going to happen.
Trompe has promised the South Koreans to consult them too. Abe seems to be doing his best to exploit a proven formula for justifying a strike.
North Korea ‘could target Japan with sarin nerve gas missiles’, says Shinzo Abe
This also plays well with his domestic audience because of the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attacks.
Sarin nerve gas…
That should play well in China too…’guests’ of the infamous unit 731.
Xi will demand Kim’s departure now. For sure.
Seriously?
For some people maybe, if they had lost family members during WWII, to gas, in any theater, European or Asian.
I guess the point is that China won’t dump Kim just because Abe runs a scare story to encourage/justify a US strike. Many in China, not just those with relatives victims of unit 731, might not be unhappy to see Tokyo being gassed, as the main users of chemical warfare in WW2 from 1938 onwards were the Imperial Japanese army, against the Chinese army. (Nazi use in the camps was against civilians.)
my thought was how nice of trump to move all those ships to where china can so easily sink them
I came across the description of it as an “Armada.”
Those patriotic North Koreans must have hacked the article.
A lot of us might be OK with Samsung at this point (joking, joking)
Strewth, that antidote goat is magnificent. It’s described at the source as intensely angry, but it struck me as serenely poised, though its body language does convey intensity. Reminiscent of this guy.
Dear Yves and Lambert –
IMHO you need not apologize for short links or long links or late links or anylinks. Thanks for all you do. :-)
Yes!!! Exactly…. I am so happy they do this every single day. Plus all the subject specific posts. I don’t know how they do it.
Naked Capitalism is my newspaper.
Ditto (and not sure how you manage it all)!
Hear, hear! May Yves and Lambert’s best days of their past be their worst yet to come!!
+1000 queen bee yves, lamberto & co provide more daily original informative links and more column inches then the entire staffs of nyt or wsj or ft or wapo…blah blah blah…yes those acela vanity press vehicles cut and paste a huge amount of prepackaged pr and present it as “news”…but this small team of rabblerousers gets more organic food on the plate than those bloated cut and paste pr re-editors at the “approved” free press
http://www.clickorlando.com/news/florida/north-miami-police-officer-charged-in-shooting-of-charles-kinsey
NORTH MIAMI, Fla. – A North Miami police officer who shot an unarmed man last year has been charged with attempted manslaughter and culpable negligence, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office announced on Wednesday.
Cellphone video shows Charles Kinsey lying on his back in July 18, 2016, with his hands in the air in the area of Northeast 14th Avenue and 127th Street. Sitting next to him was an autistic man holding a toy truck.
…
Meanwhile, prosecutors said last August that a North Miami police commander accused of giving conflicting information in the case would not face charges.
Sources told Local 10 News that Cmdr. Emile Hollant was the voice on the police radio telling dispatchers and other officers that someone had a gun. They said he then lied to investigators, telling them he wasn’t at the scene when the shooting happened.
According to the close-out memo, Hollant provided a voluntary statement to prosecutors and said that he was at the scene of the shooting and “engaged to some degree in the incidents that led up to the shooting and those that followed.”
==============================================================
Tropical Chicago…
It is the right David Dao and references to the alleged name confusion have apparently been scrubbed from the Independent story (and caused me to turn to Google).
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-united-david-dao-20170412-story.html
And yes of course the man’s history has nothing to do with United’s misbehavior. The latimes says Dao’s past was originally dug up by the Louisville Courier-Journal.
The LCJ piece is where I originally saw it as well. It seemed to be shared around from there. I asked a similar question as Lambert, how much did United’s PR team pay for this?
The Independent article was scrubbed. It has significantly changed from what I read last night. And I couldn’t find any notice of the alterations.
This entire incident is related to the fact that we have accepted being treated as potential criminals, not customers, not citizens by out of control corporate and government authoritarianism.
Exactly!
http://www.salon.com/2013/06/17/were_all_terrorist_suspects_now/
“Our Constitution and democratic system demand that the government be transparent and accountable to the people, not the other way around. History has shown that powerful, secret surveillance tools will almost certainly be abused”
https://www.aclu.org/issues/national-security/privacy-and-surveillance
Today’s WSJ story on Dao’s injuries has NO mention of the earlier drug allegations and medical license suspension, just said Dao was reprimanded once by one of his former employers for an anger issue.
The US media is about as trustworthy (Maybe a little less) than the Soviet media was in the early 1970’s. And if you are what is usually called a “Citizen” of the USA and think of yourself as having “Rights” you need a reality check.
We live in the most effective surveillance state in world history with a governing class that is not just totally corrupt but arguably clinically insane.
And it will come apart, slowly at first and then all at once.
Having read Soviet press in the 1970’s, I can tell you that they did not lie nowhere near as much…. we only thought they did, being under the propaganda spell of the western press… (except, perhaps, those cheery harvest numbers).
The key to the Soviet press was it was also a measure of the temperature of the street for the Politburo too. If Pravda was too crazy, the Politburo might wind up on the gallows.
That’s the big thing here, I think. A press captive to a comfortable elite just leaves out things. A desperate elite feels it has to push lies out there.
Indeed. History affords no example of a military empire that held onto its power.
The economics of force projection onto foreign cultures simply do not work, even if the costs are offset by
lootingextracting resources from the Untermenschen. Iraq and Afghanistan serve as perfect examples of the general principle.Until it imploded, the Soviet Union’s GDP was notoriously estimated at twice its actual size by the CIA. With all the leeches sucking blood out of the US economy — the military-intelligence complex, the health care cartel, the underfunded public pension time bomb — this may well be true of the Heimatland as well.
Bubble III is the last hurrah of wealth illusion. $200 trillion negative net worth, and we’re partying.
force is deaf, dumb and blind. question: how did “force” become a guiding principle? I dunno. Possible guess: We needed to cover our ignorance? Real answer: We needed control. But now we can find the right answers by testing what works (without faking it).
Know Your Rights – same as it always was
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e004RHFIxLg
Trump Flips On Five Core Campaign Promises In Under 24 Hours
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-04-12/trump-flips-five-core-key-campaign-promises-under-24-hours
Looks like the man dressed in a black suit entered the Oval Office, showed Trump the briefcase with the horse’s head in it, and walked silently away.
One wonders what they have on him.
Without being a fly there, we can venture guesses.
If they go after you for being an agent of Tokyo, you will have to fight Japan to prove you’re not.
If they go after you for being an agent of the Third Rome (First Rome = Roma, Second Roma = Constantinopole, Third Rome, when a Byzantine princess was married off to a rule in the north, = Mockba; not to be confused, as Spicer did, with the First Empire, the Roman Empire, the Second Empire, the Holy (but not really) Roman (not that either) Empire (questionable here too), and the Third Empire which was to last 1,000 years founded by an Austrian corporal), you just have to go after them to prove your innocence.
If they go after you for being an agent of Tel Aviv, they are bigoted.
If you go after you for being an agent of Beijing, you have to be prepared to take down the Bamboo Curtain.
It’s all covered there in the field manual.
In this way, Trump has been cornered: Either make a I’m-an-agent confession, or show your patriotic leadership; he was thus cornered by the MSM, by the IC, and by every Senator and congressperson, except maybe Tusi, who spoke up lately, but was not heard when Russian election interference was the theme 24/7 everywhere, and for sure Kucinich, but not Sanders. He joined the mob.
He was thus cornered by …
Yes, I agree. But you leave out the Israel Lobby.
See for example Philip Giraldi, APAIC Is Back in Town
http://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/aipac-is-back-in-town/
It’s either what they have on Trump AND/OR what they threatened him with.
Fully captured. That didn’t take long.
On with the show. Trump will now dutifully toe the bog standard rightwing NeoCON/NeoLib conservative line. His “constituents” are effectively screwed, along with the rest of us.
We should have had a betting pool to see how many days it takes DeepState/MIC/the Oligarchs to break ’em down and put the bridle on them. Nice poodle!
“But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.”
― George Orwell, 1984
i think the far simpler and far more likely explanation is that he never had any convictions in the first place and is just going where the wind blows. the man has never shown to have any principles on anything, so why do some still expect him to hold a principled stand on syria?
yea just as likely at least. But people will insist on making martyrs out of Trump, he meant well, he’s really a great guy, he was just threatened. Funny you don’t hear the same excuses for Obama and what a disappointment he was.
But if I was going to bet who if any of them (and I’m doubtful) might have started out a decent guy once upon a time long ago before “the deep state/the system etc. got to them”, my money would be on Obama over Trump.
Disagree. By most accounts Obama was a phony and a climber going back to his college days. While he was and is certainly intelligent enough to recognize that certain leftist causes are the right choice and socially beneficial, he was never going to let that stand in the way of the greater glory of Obama. Perhaps his only real contribution was in liberalizing attitudes toward people of color, something that is true even where I live–perhaps especially where I live.
Trump on the other hand is much more transparently what he is. Everyone knew he was going to be mystery meat in the WH and so his current erratic course is hardly surprising.
But it is deeply disappointing, even for the cynical. The country has to find some way out of this empire madness.
“I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.” -Barack Obama “The Temerity of Dope” I mean the “Audacity of Hope”
The guy even bragged about it. Obama was transparent, but he was simply the cool black friend whites wished they had as most of his voters will never meet him. Of course, he defeated towering political figures such as Jack Ryan, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain. Given Trump, defeating Clinton just doesn’t seem like the accomplishment it once was.
Exactly. Trump is a master manipulator and an inveterate liar. ‘Campaign promises’? Did anyone here actually believe that Trump was making campaign promises he intended to keep? He said what he thought would get his name back into the news, and it turned out that some of the things he said also resonated with much of the Republican base (and many others it turned out). Combined with the fact that his brusk authoritarian personality also appealed to many of those same voters, and here we are: a President who has the personality of a glorified used car salesmen and the intellectual curiosity of a cocker spaniel. He wasn’t (isn’t) the lesser, or less effective, evil. He’s the bumbling, incompetent evil. I’ve never voted for Hillary Clinton and I never will, but perhaps with a Republican Congress in place she would have been the less effective evil.
Are you FAMILY BLOG kidding me?
No. Let’s not let nonsensical, counterfactual mythology about Hillary Clinton take root. She was TRYING to get a Republican Congress. She WANTED a Republican Congress. Obama threw his Democratic majority away.
With a Democratic majority, a Democratic President has to go to enormous trouble to create a theater piece justifying why the Ds won’t do anything their voters want and need. With a Republican Congress, that Democratic President can run the wars their donors demand, continue to nibble away at Social Security and the rest of the Democratic legacy programs and blame the Republicans for all of it.
Hillary Clinton plus a Republican Congress would have been so much worse than this. Women would have been draftable by Inaugeration Day. I know it was the Rs that blocked it this time, but it was queued up already, under a Republican controlled Congress. The “Go Girl” Feminists of the elected Democrats would have combined with the “all war all the time” Republicans to pass it. Because they need a draft to keep the wars going, and adding girls is how you get more healthy, decently educated soldiers while making the forced requirement more palatable. The TPP would the law of the planet. We’d be in a land war right now, on both the Russian and Syrian fronts. She would already be rolling out the plan to privatize Social Security. Only a woman could pass a law starving all the elderly women who chose not to marry ambitious rapists from criminal families in their youth.
No, Hillary + Republican Congress would not be better, in any way. Despite her personal incompetence, her bloodthirsty nature and hatred of the non-wealthy would have allowed the brutality free rein. Look at how hard the embedded forces of internal colonization and external empire had to work to bring Trump to heel. Hillary would have been out in front of that parade, if anything pulling it even harder towards murder and exploitation.
Yes.
So you believe that a Republican Congress would have been happy to embrace Clinton with open arms. As they did with Obama? Really who is kidding whom? Women would have been draftable by Inauguration Day? In what country, cuz it ain’t this one. Republican misogyny and us versus them mentality would have prevented them from supporting almost any policy HRC put forward. In fact, we’d most likely be focusing on the impending impeachment hearings. As far as the TPP, it was already cooked, Trump just stuck a fork in it, and if you’ve been paying attention then you know that the trade pacts he eventually will be no better, and likely worse, than the abominable TPP. Trump is all the things HRC would have been plus, rather than the world having to deal with her ‘bloodthirsty’, yet highly predictable, nature, it now has to deal with the extraordinarily capricious, and similarly violent, policies of another clueless psychopath. Don’t tell me you actually believed Donald’s campaign promises. However bad HRC would have been, and I believe she would have been horrible, Trump has proven that he is no better already and probably worse: in Yemen, in Syria, and now in Afghanistan. Not to mention that his environmental policies have about closed the door on any hope at all of avoiding an extreme climate catastrophe in the coming decades.
to be fair, there is no indication that clinton would have been any better at all in yemen, syria or afghanistan. i think we’re headed towards the same destination, just taking a slightly different route.
Have on him ?… He is them…always has been…resorts international peepz…the mary carter paint company of new jersey…the trump org began its life as…oh never mind…
honey..can you pass me that guitar pick…yeah the blue one…
Hubert Horan, thank you for the unlock of the Whetstone exiting Uber article. Fascinating!
Why I won’t date hot women anymore New York Post. Put down your coffee….
“I could have [anyone] I wanted,” says Rochkind, now 40 and an Upper West Sider with a muscular build and a full head of hair. “I met some nice people, but realistically I went for the hottest girl you could find.”
He spent the better part of his 30s going on up to three dates a week, courting 20-something blond models, but eventually realized that dating the prettiest young things had its drawbacks — he found them flighty, selfish and vapid.
“Beautiful women who get a fair amount of attention get full of themselves,” he says. “Eventually, I was dreading getting dinner with them because they couldn’t carry a conversation.”
According to new research, Rochkind’s ideas about sexy bikini babes are correct.
=============================================================
Hmmmm….kinda reminds me of rich people saying money doesn’t buy happiness…..yet they keep the money. Just let me have a billion dollars and make up my own mind about money, same thing for blond bikini models….
I do have all my own hair and have been told its magnificent. Of course, the face could stop a sundial…..
Still, I remain hopeful that hot, gorgeous bikini models will go out with me….after all, I’m flighty, self centered and vapid as well – we have something in common!
Robots mating. Should there be a tax for that? I wonder if a human wrote the dang article.
That’s just mean and groundless…generalizing based on his own one person sample size.
20 something blond models can be kind, compassionate, understanding, yoga-practicing, environmental conscious, dog-meat abstaining, yearning for the first female American president, etc.
And smart, capable of designing a radio guidance system. working on Fermat’s Next-to-Last Theorm, etc.
You just have to be open-minded, you narrow minded male chauvinists.
(Hopefully, by denouncing my fellow competitors, I am moving up the queue. This is a technique I’ve learned from a quite a few modern day Don Juan’s…No need to be a true believer, but denouncing your competitors works great).
Ya, kissing butt can lead to more kissing butt…
Especially in Santa Monica, where all future movie stars hang out.
“Yes, yes, I am very progressive. More progressive than the Arnold-look-a-like there.”
Thanks for the “put down the cup of coffee” warning…aside from the fact he confused women telling him they were “models” with them actually being models, he probably got tired of having to reach up for a good night kiss…models in the real world are usually in the near six foot range…and that’s before heels…unless he has spent his life carrying a step stool with him on dates…he ain’t dated any “models” whose “@gent” wasn’t named rocko and didn’t still owe money from the modelling school in the mall they “graduated” from…
but this story is just an article to promote his mother in law to be…a self proclaimed matchmaker for kings…
I dunno…new york has certainly gone down hill…with well quaffed fours imagining themselves nines and tens…and matchmakers with tattoos…and “studs” drinking a beer at a burgahjoint, imagining a comb over means you have a full head of hair…
Ok…Enuf love…
hopefully they live happily ever after…or at least stay together and kvetchingly ever after…
MyLessThanPrimeBeef
April 13, 2017 at 10:11 am
e.g., Hedi Lamarr will do nicely – and actually, I don’t care that much for blonde hair anyway….
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hedy-lamarr-movie-star-inventor-of-wifi/
Maybe it’s because he’s now 40 and he’s starting to fear people are snickering at him behind his back when he’s seen with the 20-something models?
With this grand declaration any woman he shows interest in from now on is well warned. He’s not attracted to her. I hope he meets with all the dating success he deserves.
My cloudy crystal ball says he is likely to get an epiphany, and becomes a spiritual teacher one day.
“There is no there there. I know what I am talking about. Life is a big delusion. Void is form, and form is void….What! You think I’m sexy???? Hmmmmmm….”
Alas, it’s just a dream by this butterfly. The guy is not like that at all.
Maybe it’s because he’s now 40 and he’s starting to fear people
When he turns 60, then he wont even give a sht if ppl are snickering about his niece
“I used to only date super beautiful model-types, but I gave that up and chose you instead.”
Gee, thanks. Well, take this, dickhead:
“When men get to a certain age, they realize that it’s important to meet a life partner that they connect with,” she says. “Looks fade.”
Sounds like a marriage made in heaven. Paging SNL.
But one thing’s for sure–a ripped guy playing the violin shirtless and with his jockeys hangin’ out should be considered universally radioactive. Something is seriously wrong there.
“I used to only date super beautiful model-types, but I gave that up and chose you instead.”
I like
“You are Beautiful!…. to me” HAHAHA
I have dated models, and a 21-year old Bulgarian who was super-model attractive.
Some fit the stereotype less than others.
And pick up your flamethrower.
Are we absolutely certain this is not a NYPost cutout by The Onion, or The Daily Mash?
As a certain tennis brat used to say ‘You cannot be serious’!
fresno dan … have you tried to impress you dates wearing your russian-red bunnie slippers while offering up those awesome fair burritos ( that you have packed to the gills in your double-ceramic sand-packed ‘ground freezer’)…?? .. you just might get a yuuuge reaction … ‘;]
inquiring minds, and all that …
uh … excuse me mr. dan .. I meant so say double-ceramic ‘San Joaquin Valley’** sand-packed ‘ground freezer’ ……
cuz not just ANY sand will do …
** pulverized hardpan
polecat
April 13, 2017 at 11:35 am
“Have you tried to impress you dates wearing your russian-red bunnie slippers …”
Alas, the salary of a underground cellar dwelling clandestine Russki commie agent does not impress the nubile young bikini models I have ventured to come across….apparently, bikini waxing and sundry related exertions requires far, far greater remuneration than I ever imagined and consequently boyfriends of a certain income strata – and far, far, FAR more rubles than this member of the proletariat has possibility of obtaining…
You might wanna quit holding out on those precious bodily .. uh .. fluids !
I know there’s been a drought and all … but still ….
… and while your at it just give her some cheap zircons … and call them ‘rubys
“Where we’re going, we won’t need …”
ChrisAtRU
April 13, 2017 at 12:23 pm
How many women who SOUND like Scarlett Johansson LOOK like Scarlett Johansson???
My experience, when I was growing up, is every female DJ who SOUNDED oh so sexy, when you actually saw them….was anything but.
“Kid, ya gotta face for radio”
surprisingly, this is true of male DJs as well.
A lesson for many unemployed workers – moar education (NATO got educated?) and you’re no longer obsolete???
It’s a cruel world, and who knows, tomorrow you may be obsolete again.
What is a “moar education”?
Remember I am forever trying to keep up myself. I think ‘moar’ is the new spelling for ‘more.’
FDR talked down the dollar in 33 or 34, blowing up the London Monetary Conference, at which global elites, including Secretary of State Hull, were trying to figure out how to prop up major currencies.
I naively longed for similar ballsy action from Obama. So it falls to “Killer” Trump. But it won’t last. The blob will assimilate him on economic policy, just like they have on foreign policy.
When a conflict breaks out, the Yen usually go up, with the dollar down. I’ve noticed the pattern a few times.
But if war broke out in the Korean peninsula, I don’t know if the Yen would go up this time. The dollar might go up. For a weaker dollar, does Trump stay put on Mr. Kim?
yen is popular as a funding currency. borrow yen, buy risky stuff.
when things get uncertain, sell risky stuff, pay back your yen loan….before mr. wanatabe does the same
RE: The United Flight Was Not Overbooked, CEO Admits Forbes
The very weekend of Dr. Dao’s unfortunate brush with too many passengers and too little seats, another trending story detailed the case of a family traveling to Florida who were offered so much money to voluntarily give up their seats, they made $11,000 and canned their plans to travel.
If you’re curious about how a family–three people as it turns out–got $11,000 as I was, here are the details:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurabegleybloom/2017/04/09/why-delta-air-lines-paid-me-11000-not-to-fly-to-florida-this-weekend/#62c3f62f4de1
PS. Every time I see it noted that “regulations” provide that the maximum compensation for bumped passengers is $1350, I have to laugh. As if offering $1351 will land you in Guantanamo. I swear, I don’t think I’ve ever seen corporations express more respect for regulations than they have in this instance.
I’ve tried a number of ways to be able to read this article , but, have failed. I remain skeptical as some comments at other sites explain that this amount was “about” $11,000 and that this was after the airline had offered for the third time (on separate occasions?) to this family unit for their vacation travel.
The fact that this positive PR article appears is also of interest.
Tepid article that the Forbes allowed to be printed
The very weekend of Dr. Dao’s unfortunate brush with too many passengers and too little seats,
There were in fact EXACTLY enough seats for the passengers, the issue is that four employees were not given keys to a rental car.
As a friend points out, this would have never happened before all this militarization of LEO’s post 911.
Whoever at the CPD is in charge of Community Relations has a Sisyphean task.
How do you inculcate good judgement?
When to call a supervisor??
Since when is it the role of CPD to remove a passenger that is not doing anything wrong?
What was the rush to get him off the plane, should the CPD give a sht about UALs “ontime departure” metric (that is, pushing off the gate)?
This reminds me of a conversation w/ a woman who after a few glasses of wine was rolling out entertaining City of Chicago Dept of Sanitation war stories. She was at the time the Dept of S&S attorney.
After several “events” she finally informed all garbage truck drivers that SHE is to get a call first in the case of any unusual development in the course of the job.
She got the call: …”hey, we just flipped a dumpster into the truck and there was a body in it. Do you want use to finish the route (run the blade)? “ahhhhh.. nooo, get in the cab and lock the doors, I am on my way…”
So China says to North Korea: “You keep firing those damn rockets and talking about nuclear war, and we’re gonna play this tRump Chump for all he’s worth, and you’ll get half of all the take”
Is Shedlock just trolling us? Or is this idiot really serious?
This should be filed under Neanderthal Watch.
Enforce collective bargaining for private sector unions
Pass national right-to-unionize legislation
Pass student loan bankruptcy laws allowing student debtors to declare bankruptcy
I love how the libertarian has zero problems using the Federal Government to enforce his worldview. 3 out of four of those suggestions would need Federal legislation to accomplish, and not just removal of current legislation but shaping the society to fit his idea of a “libertarian paradise” What happened to the sanctity of the contract and private agreements that the Mises folks always tout?
“If only the government would write the laws that allow my libertarian paradise to flourish!”
Mish is always good for a laugh about “the sanctity of contracts” when it comes to welshing on agreements with “labor”. I don’t think he’s be so blasé about a corporation welshing on the options owed its executives. That would be property theft, I’m sure.
Wondering idly about the lack of any real news out of Ukraine, I just made the mistake of reading a USA Today article, and my double standard detector went through the roof. It starts with the head
We can’t let Trump use force to make America great again would be more apropos for 2017.
The western MSM has no news on Ukraine because all the news is bad, and the result of our puppets’ corruption, brutality and incompetence.
Looks like another power plant is being taken offline because the junta cannot pay for coal.
Junta however has voted to increase pensions for WWII Nazi volunteers.
The fact that Putin gets stronger with every US move against him proves that he is using his puppet Trump’s Syria attack to strengthen his position in Ukraine, just as he formerly used his puppets McCain and Bush in Tbilisi and his puppets Clinton and Nuland in Kiev.
Only Neera, Bono and Joy Reid are free from his nefarious manipulations.
Don’t forget Putin’s puppets #BlackLivesMatter!
it’s sad to see greg palast, whom i really admired as a journalist, lose his head in this whole russiamania.
The Alt Right is realizing that Trump betrayed them:
http://www.unz.com/article/god-emperor-no-more/
Trump is doing to the Alt Right what Obama did to the Left I am afraid, a total betrayal.
At least they are willing to admit that they’ve been played.
When tribal identity is at stake, lots of folks prefer to double down and justify their heroes in any way they can.
There are entire religions based on this kind of cognitive dissonance.
I forget which John Dean book it was in (probably “Conservatives without Conscience”), but Dean claimed conservative followers would obey the dictates of the leader as long as they didn’t cross certain lines. He proposed those were taxes, admitting to global warming, and (I forget, so make up one. It was probably about Team Blue hence the Party of No strategy), but one explanation is the line Trump crossed is either aligning himself with the Hillary position or a visceral reaction to regime change proposals. There is a great deal he can get away with, but regime change in Syria is very much a Hillary Clinton position.
There was a great two week firedoglake book salon on CWC back in the day. Greenwald hosted it. The comments were best, but, sadly, fdl comments have not been archived along with posts at shadowproof.
Anyway, after all those Obot years I think the thesis of the original Canadian study and the book was flawed… we watched lefty/liberals follow authoritarian Obama and Clinton blindly much the way the GOPers did during Bush.
I think the estimate of a “small non zero number” on the “left” was wrong. He was trying to sell books to read perpetually smug audience. The dichotomy of left and right was likely too limited.
I do think the relationship is fairly correct between authoritarian leaders and followers. Of course, I believe the Republican Id is dedicated to disdain of Team Blue.
The alt-Right, in general, is hoping Trump is playing 4D chess and the rest of us just don’t understand just how bigly it’s going to turn out. From here, it looks more like 2D moves in a 3D world but what do i know.
Besides, if they do turn on him, where are they going to go besides back to their snark on obscure web-sites? It wasn’t news before Trump and probably won’t be, during and after.
so you mean pretty much exactly where the left is
Being Anti-Trump Isn’t Enough
An astute article. There are many details of Italian political history since 1945 to plow through: The gist is that Italy’s political system isn’t that abnormal, much as Americans are conditioned to believe so. Further, by understanding the rise of Berlusconi, it is much easier to understand the rise of Trump. Instead of dealing in American-style offendedocity, in which everyone makes claims of being a victim, in which psychobabble is given instead of political analysis, the Italian situation shows what happens when the left fails and when the left adopts the political program of neoliberals. Blair and the Clintons have ruined the U.S. Democratic Party and the Italian Partito Democratico, too.
Yesterday somebody here linked to a Jimmy Dore Show where he has a Democrat operative on. This Sally woman epitomizes what is wrong with this party. She keeps babbling over and over that she is a “process person” not a policy person. Her job is to open the lines of communication between the leaders of the party and people who don’t vote because they don’t have a voice. “The leaders of the party are overworked and so they need better customer service.” “It’s about listening.”
“But what is the Democrat message?” he asks over and over. He finally gets her to say, “Democrats are here to help people.”
Then he lays into her again, but to no avail. She simply repeats, “We need a strong value based message.”
“What?”
“It’s about process. I’m an organization person.”
Clueless and not very bright. And what, pray tell, is a “communications degree?” It sounds similar to a Masters in B.S. degree. We need to go back to core studies like philosophy and rhetoric rather than these bogus studies that teach “organization” which means putting names in some data base.
Jimmy Dore
“Front row kids” is a great description for the forces at play.
The smart kids are sometimes front row kids, but the front row kids seem like what society wants the smart kids to look like.
The Democratic Party is dominated by kids who went to decent or good schools but made careers out of repeating what the professor had just said for brownie points (amazingly this is the scuttlebutt on Obama’s academic career). The “front row kids” don’t necessarily know anything or have real skills beyond brown nosing.
Once the “front row kids” are out of their safe place, they are often exposed. Too many people lack the confidence to expose them publicly. Look at the brilliant Democratic strategy to win “moderate suburban republicans.” For many, it comes down to this every Republican flipped is two votes. It’s like how winning a division game matters more than winning a non division game. It’s a great plan if it works. What do they do if it doesn’t work?
I like that description. Sally did not seem to be able to articulate any policies. Even when Dore gave her a list like “single payer health care, decreased military spending and involvement, free education including college, a healthy environment,” she couldn’t even repeat them. So it’s as though, as you say, she couldn’t think on her own. But then a comedian has to think on his own. And Dore uses logic as his mode of satire. She is in way over her head.
Accounts of a young Obama paint him as one of the finest “front row kids” in American history.
The hallmark of “front row kids” is the lack of intellectual curiosity and critical thinking and the devotion to conservative (not necessarily political) cultural norms and authority. They aren’t rebels. They like to claim credit after the fact, but incrementalism is the best they will call for because they desperately want to please the proper authority figures.
Take Obama’s evolving views on gay rights. He was abhorrent, but when the gays in suits threatened to pull funding and a federal judge hit back, Obama changed his tune and endorsed “states rights.” He cant even make the leap from his parent’s marriage and Loving v VIrginia to the idea of two dudes doing it.
Sally Albright?
This Sally Albright?
am i correct to recall that the united states, particularly the cia, pretty much BUILT italy’s political system after 1945?
United Discovers Its Heart, Still Loves Its Gershwin Music, and Publicly Smears Passengers:
Too soon? Or is it time for the National Conversation on just how bad basic services are in the U S of A these days? In a civilized country. Dr. Dao would have had an option of a functioning train system that could have gotten him to Louisville in three hours.
And don’t get me going about the lack of receipts, the inaccuracies in billing, the confusing use of information, the refusal to display prices (and I’m writing about going to the grocery store…).
Dr. Dao’s lawyers beginning a televised presser (msnbs) as of right now. One of Dr. Dao’s five children, a daughter, will speak.
“Unreasonable force and violence.” “Bullied.” “Extraordinary” mistreatment. “United in particular.” “Common decency.”
Munoz being singled out. Hope he has a change of underwear in his desk drawer.
It seems that Dr. Dao is being set up as a champion for the abused flying public.
Oops.
One couldn’t ask for a better reinforcement of the narrative: Minority American abused by big business capitalists and out of control police at the same time.
The Dao is the Way.
The Dao that can be expressed is not the eternal Dao.
Re: United Airlines
I’d have to giggle if in the future I heard: “Thank you for flying Dao Airlines…”
or anther version …
‘Fly The Friendly Daoist Skys United’
A Daoist (or not), Huizi, once said, I left Chicago today and arrive at Kentucky yesterday.
Chinese have long puzzled over him.
I think the simplest Occam explanation is Huizi was an ET, time traveler at that…maybe he descended from Hong Shan culture people (Google Hongshan jade alien).
Many people from Illinois have said, I left Illinois and it was today, and Kentucky is like yesterday, especially the creationist museum.
Little did I know that I have learned the action in non-action.
As Mark Twain is reputed to have said:
Now Kentuckians, no need to get your panties twisted up. My wife is from KY and I was born in TN. We call each other hillbillies all the time.
She ain’t your sister, is she? (Sorry.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvIUnYMtG3s
Redneck Family Tree
also, sorry in advance
AHHHAHAHAHAHA!
They all be rednecks!!!
well then: the end of the world IS coming, and i DO want to be in kentucky. how bad is the madness and trouble back in those woods? is it worse than out here, comparatively speaking?
‘Hong Shan’
pre’ Warring states’ period ?
Bronze Fist Flying …. ‘;]
Another United story where a seated first class passenger gets bumped to make way for a “more important” passenger.
So not even the first-class status and expensive ticket protect one from United’s stupidity… good to know.
‘Fly the Stinging Skys’
Latest on United and Dr. Dao: broken nose, sinus injury, and two lost teeth.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/ct-united-dragged-passenger-dao-0414-biz-20170413-story.html#nt=oft03a-1gp2
Excessive force seems well documented.
Rochester co-op program launches first startup
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2017/04/12/city-co-op-program-launches-first-startup/100369258/
Excellent! Thank you!
Well, I am always amazed at the amount of work Yves Smith and Lambert Strether turn out. It’s mind blowing to me. It’s all I can do to keep up and I’ll admit I can’t even do that. No apology ever needed from either of you. Thank you very much.
MOAB dropped in Afghanistan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-5WVzBG1vM
The expectation the Russians would back down hasn’t come to pass, so its time to waste $16 million dollar bombs on sheep herders to assure everyone in Versailles Trump is all man.
….. just don’t hit the POPPIES !!
another day, Trump gets even worse, so it has been for awhile. Still don’t have info that it caused many casualties though. I think states that are under agreement not to build nukes should all build these.
“Why I won’t date hot women anymore New York Post.”
Because he’s getting married – to a very hot woman.
Actually, it’s interesting to see people being utterly crass in public. I thought they’d avoid saying some of that.
My husband says on at least a weekly basis that the most amazing part of our culture now is what the elites are willing to say out loud publicly that they used to have good sense to say only in their own quiet rooms.
I didn’t look at the Post piece, so I have no idea if this idiot could be considered “elite.” But I’m guessing UWS + “I dated lots of models” is at least elite wannabe.
He’s in finance, so yes.
‘He’s in finance ….’
that pretty much says it all !
From “How the Government Is Turning Protesters Into Felons “:
“then-assistant police chief Peter Newsham (the current interim police chief) ordered the arrest of roughly 400 people during an anti-World Bank/IMF demonstration in Pershing Park. The dragnet arrest included both peaceful protesters and bystanders walking to work, and led to years of litigation and an $8.25 million settlement on the part of the Justice Department and Department of the Interior.”
So Newsham costs them $8.25 million, then is made interim chief – and goes right back to violating the policies that resulted from his prior abuse. Do we see the essence of the problem?
Still, the real problem here is the prosecution, once again. However, the article makes the case that essentially all of those charged have an extremely strong case; they’ve been overcharged, and it should let them off. Still scary, though. And also again: black bloc tactics.
Stanley Fischer’s stuff is in the wind. His 3/23 speech to a private audience on Fed Policy. Naughty. “Fed officials should never speak in private.(?)” Maybe that private audience had the wherewithall to control the flow of money to prevent an infarction of the economy… but that is such an indirect and dishonest way of doing things. Policy can keep the sewer flowing much better.
“Why I won’t date hot women anymore New York Post”
You know there might be just the tiniest little chance that there are a lot of “hot” women out there who are intelligent, kind and deeply interesting – but they would be far too smart and self-respecting to date this buffoon.
“We have to more deeply embed a concept of caring, a concept of trust, a concept that large corporations do have a heart.” – Munoz
Yep, that thought will rattle around in his head until his next conversation with his CFO about quarterly earnings. Then it will be back to reality.