How to Tell a Sociopath from a Psychopath Alternet. News you can use!
New treatment for depression shows immediate results Harvard Gazette
S&P 500 Caps Worst Week Since 2012 as Crises Offset Data Bloomberg
Job Market Shows New Gains, but Pace Eases Times
The ‘meh’ economy: What it means for 2014 Politico
CORRECTED-UPDATE 1-U.S. Treasury unveils delayed know-your-customer rule Reuters (RS) and Don’t be misled by Vince Cable’s talk of corporate transparency The Conversation (RS)
Wall Street Faces New U.S. Scrutiny of Derivatives Tactic Bloomberg
Regulators worry that the asset-management industry may spawn the next financial crisis Economist. “The worry is that herding among fund managers might lead to a general sell-off.”
The hare gets rich while you don’t. Back the passive tortoise FT
Exclusive: JPMorgan’s proposed $4.5 billion deal to be accepted for most trusts Reuters. 5:00 Friday: “Trustees representing investors in JPMorgan Chase & Co’s (JPM.N) $4.5 billion settlement over money-losing mortgage-backed securities are expected to accept the bank’s proposal for the vast majority of their trusts.”
A bubblegum fix for banks will make finance safer Gillian Tett, FT. “Legal Entity Identifiers” will, hilariously, be treated as “public goods.”
Of Course Argentina Defaulted Foreign Policy. “In 2005, Argentina passed a law forbidding policymakers from renegotiating with the holdouts.” So settling with Singer would expose Kirchner and Kicillof to criminal prosecution….
Central America Crisis Belies CAFTA’s Empty Promises Eyes on Trade
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
Obama Expresses Confidence in C.I.A. Director Times (some history).
Obama adds fuel to CIA controversy by saying agency tortured terror suspects McClatchy. Obama: “We did a whole lot of things that were right, but we tortured some folks.” I have always hated the Beltway locution “folks,” but rarely more than at this moment. And the faux reasonableness and studied informality of “We did a whole lot of things that were right, but…” makes me want to throw up.
It’s About the Lying Dan Froomkin, The Intercept. It’s not the crime, but the cover-up? Nevertheless, good to see Froomkin, a forgotten hero of Bush-era blogging.
‘We Kill People Based on Metadata’ NYRB (PT)
Sneaky broadband data caps imperil the Internet’s future InfoWorld
Andrew Cuomo hires criminal lawyer to represent governor’s office as scandal over Moreland anti-corruption commission grows: sources Daily News. Pass the popcorn, Hillz!
ObamaCare
Suddenly, Obamacare is more unpopular than ever WaPo. “Kaiser pollsters said it’s not clear what drove the change in opinion this month.” Heaven forfend that anybody and especially HHS should investigate “customer” satisfaction with the policies.
Average California Obamacare Rate Increase Only 4%––Success!!! Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review
CDC: Avoid non-essential travel to Ebola nations USA Today
Ukraine
Pentagon sends more equipment and aid to Ukraine USA Today
Readout of the President’s Call with President Putin of Russia White House
A Russian soldier’s ‘Ukraine selfies’ are not evidence, they’re war art Guardian
The hidden hands behind East-West tug of war in Ukraine Al Jazeera
Gaza
Israel bombards Rafah after soldier disappears amid Gaza ceasefire collapse Guaridian
Qatari and Turkish roles in Gaza talks coloured by regional power play Irish Times
The Gaza war’s violence has put Israel’s soul in the balance Daily Star
With Syria buried in the news, hopes fade for ending world’s bloodiest war Al Jazeera
Open Letter Condemning the Thai Junta’s Interim Constitution New Mandala. “We regard the Interim Constitution as Thailand’s most anti-democratic constitution in half a century.”
Coup as counter-insurgency in Thailand Asia Times
Thitinan Pongsudhirak: Geopolitical ripples from Thailand’s coup Nikkei Asian Review. Thailand not a sideshow, people.
Changing Asia: China’s high-speed railway diplomacy The Strategist and Thailand’s ruling junta approves China rail links worth $23bn Guardian. Pivot toward Isaan?
Driverless Cars on UK Public Streets Starting January; Transforming Personal Mobility; Taxi and Truck-Drivers Targeted Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analyis
The Other Aging of America: The Increasing Dominance of Older Firms Brookings. “[I]t has become increasingly advantageous to be an incumbent, particularly an entrenched one.”
Gloomy Pageant LRB. Don’t say “privatization.” Say “marketization.”
Antidote du jour:
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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life’s a beach.
The white one is saying to the brown one, “race ya’ to the other side of the pool.”
Couldn’t agree more with the grating sound of “tortured some folks.” What is this, The Andy Griffin Show? Maybe he should have accompanied himself on the banjo.
It’s Obama’s favorite word. Later in the press conference
http://news.antiwar.com/2014/08/01/we-tortured-some-folks-obamas-glib-admission/
Up next: we droned some folks.
“Sanctimonious”
Great word.
And now that the president has so casually admitted, in public, what everyone already knew, maybe we should not “feel too sanctimonious” about those “folks” who outed the torturers before it became a “golly, gee” punchline. Like John Kiriakou, who is currently in prison for some trumped up “classified information” plea deal.
“”Even if torture works, it cannot be tolerated — not in one case or a thousand or a million. If their efficacy becomes the measure of abhorrent acts, all sorts of unspeakable crimes somehow become acceptable. I may have found myself on the wrong side of government on torture. But I’m on the right side of history. …There are things we should not do, even in the name of national security. One of them, I now firmly believe, is torture.” – John Kiriakou Portrait of John Kiriakou by Robert Shetterly”
Liars “apologize.” Truth-tellers, not so much.
http://www.defendjohnk.com/wordpress/
Aw, shucks, we slipped up. Our bad. But hey, have you heard any good drone jokes lately?
Psycho fits better than sociopath.
“The Jonas Brothers are here; they’re out there somewhere. Sasha and Malia are huge fans. But boys, don’t get any ideas. I have two words for you, ‘predator drones.’ You will never see it coming.”
http://www.salon.com/2010/05/03/obama_drone_joke_jonas_brothers/
‘No drama Obama’ = minimize and deny when you’re called out on something…
They got something very wrong about that sociopath/psychopath thing, that I can see. Psychopaths are the well organized, extremely good at deceiving, completely amoral ones, but every credible source Ive seen says that for them it is nurture, not nature as they say. Basically, I am talking about NPD, or narcissistic personality disorder. Most of them have a very distant relationship with at least one or often both parents, and at a critical point in their lives – between three and around six or seven, they are unable to develop the part of the mind that feels empathy. Sometimes its because they were sent away to boarding school, or because a parent just wasn’t there for them. Lots of wealthy people have NPD not because they were wealthy, its because of their parents unavailability at a critical juncture.
So, this important thing never occurs when it needs to. Then, for the rest of their lives, they really cannot get that missing quality. However, since that really makes them a lot different than other people they become really good at hiding it. A very large number of politicians and others who seek out certain “important” professions seem to have NPD.
Anyway, I think NPD is a better, more specific term, and I think if one can understand the fact that it exists and that this fairly large percentage of the population (my guess is around 10%) have NPD (however, a much higher percentage of some professions have it) then after you have been hurt or deceived really horribly a few times by these people, you start recognizing it some of the times you see it.
People who have it often have this kind of dismissive quality of others. But, sometimes they hide it really, really well and it doesnt come out almost ever. At least in public. But, if you talk to their “friends” (or – often they are more like “admirers” – not close friends, because thats what they crave) you’ll realize that they don’t form really close relationships, ever. They can’t. Also, some of them are always looking for new friends and sort of tossing off the old ones. That should be a red flag. Another thing that should be a red flag are people who seem to copy certain things about other people without understanding those things intrinsically. Its like in their quest to seem more human, they literally borrow other people’s look, habits, external appearance on multiple levels, but, its fake.
They aren’t all bad people,there is the one in a million who knows they have it and who try to overcome it, (often quite late in life when they are diagnosed with some terminal illness.) But thats rare.
NPD’s are the people who really should never be put into positions of power, because the illness is inherently delusional.. however, they often are the ones in power because they are the ones who WANT it. (Most normal people don’t.)
See the problem?
One excellent thing about Andy Griffith is he never wore a gun. He was an example of what low-key, community-friendly law enforcement could be.
It was fun to watch him keeping his one man SWAT team, Barney Fife (Don Knotts,) on such a short leash too. (Barney was allowed one bullet, and not in the gun either.)
“one man SWAT team,Barney Fife (Don Knotts,) on such a short leash too. (Barney was allowed one bullet, and not in the gun either.) ”
The most idealistic representation in the program
Sherriff Andy as Philosopher King?
probalby meant idealized.. the cretino with an unloaded gun
“Sherriff Andy as Philosopher King?” Indeed
Although Obama’s a human bug-splatter type of folk himself… he sure identifies with the torturers and wants us all to do the same. I wonder if slave owners called their property folks after a good whipping?
This sorry excuse for a human being is the perfect American… sell anything with little to no regard for the product. His crapification of America, once again, seeks deeper hell holes than Bush Cheney…. and nary a Demophant says a word.
“The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted.”
— D.H. Lawrence
The one thing you must never mention when the US military is getting mightily stroked for the umpteenth time is that American soldiers are so good because so many of them are such cold, hard killers. Weapons and tactics are nice, but what counts the most is the man (or woman) ready, willing, and able with no hesitation or second thoughts to “mark the target” and pull the trigger. In a fire fight, Americans have proven since colonial times to be well above average in doing just that (thus the fetishizing of aimed fire, the rifle, and the sniper over volley fire and shock action). This does not mean Americans are more likely to lose it and massacre people (they do from time to time but no more, and frequently less, than soldiers from other countries do), but it does say something about the veracity of Lawrence’s claim.
The forewords to that quote fit our Democratic President, and those who went before him, to a tee.
“Democracy in America was never the same as Liberty in Europe. In Europe Liberty was a great life-throb. But in America Democracy was always something anti-life. The greatest democrats, like Abraham Lincoln, had always a sacrificial, self-murdering note in their voices. American Democracy was a form of self-murder, always. Or of murdering somebody else…”
In Obama’s defense, he’s at least admitting sins that should have been confessed by the perps in the Bush administration. Not that it makes any difference to the tortured…
He was forced to admit it after his administration tried to keep the lid on it for years and it was revealed that his CIA spied on Congress.
“Just a lacky” and “just taking orders” is no excuse. He has no ‘defense’ for his massive betrayal. His Constitutional Law degree and Nobel peace prizes are cruel jokes. And the joke is on YOU.
People really have to stop making excuses for this sell-out!! Open your f*cking eyes. The hopium high was a smoke and mirrors. You’ve been had.
PS Lordy, you been reading NC long enough to know the truth.
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H O P
Well, mistakes were made.
He works to impunify, immunize, and normalize torture. That is his goal on this subject. He calls opposition to supporting torture by immunizing torturers and their order-givers to be “sanctimonious”
because he supports torture and wants to retro-“legalise” it and keep it “legal” going forward.
Is Obama an obsequious jerk, or what?!
“tortured some folks”?… What if those *folks* were your relatives? (Daughters,even.)
And this torture isn’t just against “our values”, it’s ILLEGAL. The US has signed treaties saying it will prosecute violators. … Not Likely.
Don’t plan on traveling the world after the lame duck years, BO!
Whether he gets to travel the world or not is entirely up to his megarich owners and sponsors. If they want to see him at Davos; he’ll make the scene, man.
You big silly! Treaty violations only count if you’re Russian. If you’re the US government you get to call them quaint and violate the crap out of them.
late here, but…andy griffith crossed with dick cheney maybe…
Andy Griffith + dick Cheney = Obama? or actually, a more insidious dick Cheney with a faux progressive intellectual face, toss in a bit of phony folksy shtick…
and it’s the folksy shtick together with the torture (even murder- some died!) that is beyond despicable. “We did a whole lot of things that were right, but we tortured some folks.” minor little negative, that torture.
way beyond grating.
and someone tell me the whole lot of things that were right.
Noam Chomsky said that when you hear a politician use the word “folks,” it’s time to brace yourself.
I can’t stand the fake folksiness of it either. And isn’t it usually reserved for people in our own tribe (the “volk”), or to beckon to a wayward ally? Using the term to refer to people who are otherwise defined exclusively as heartless enemies sounds downright creepy.
CDC: Avoid non-essential travel to Ebola nations…’American Woman, Stay Away From Me’
“Psychopathy is the most dangerous of all antisocial personality disorders because of the way psychopaths dissociate emotionally from their actions, regardless of how terrible they may be. Many prolific and notorious serial killers & [POLITICIANS], including the late Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy, and Dennis Rader (“Bind, Torture, Kill”) are unremorseful psychopaths.”
“I repeat, I have full confidence in John Brennan… uh, Is the red laser dot still on my forehead?”
Yeah, if this were baseball, it would be “the dreaded vote of confidence.” But it isn’t.
Thanks for that “news we can use.”
Confirms that Obama is a psychopath, and not a sociopath. I’ll be correct in my future references.
The writer may have been correct about the difference between a psychopath and a sociopath, but I disagree with the nature/nurture analysis. I know one psychopath well enough to think that the cause is more nurture than nature.
The nature/nurture debate is nonsense. It probably depends on the individual.
to say one or the other is…always different degrees of both.
In which case the person you know is not a psychopath.
From a letter with 24 signatories, published in medical journal The Lancet:
We are doctors and scientists, who spend our lives developing means to care and protect health and lives. On the basis of our ethics and practice, we are denouncing what we witness in the aggression of Gaza by Israel.
Gaza has been blockaded by sea and land since 2006. Any individual of Gaza, including fishermen venturing beyond 3 nautical miles of the coast of Gaza, face being shot by the Israeli Navy. No one from Gaza can leave from the only two checkpoints, Erez or Rafah, without special permission from the Israelis and the Egyptians, which is hard to come by for many, if not impossible. People in Gaza are unable to go abroad to study, work, visit families, or do business. Wounded and sick people cannot leave easily to get specialised treatment outside Gaza.
Entries of food and medicines into Gaza have been restricted and many essential items for survival are prohibited. Before the present assault, medical stock items in Gaza were already at an all time low because of the blockade. They have run out now.
Likewise, Gaza is unable to export its produce. Agriculture has been severely impaired by the imposition of a buffer zone, and agricultural products cannot be exported due to the blockade. 80% of Gaza’s population is dependent on food rations from the UN.
Much of Gaza’s buildings and infrastructure had been destroyed during Operation Cast Lead, 2008-09, and building materials have been blockaded so that schools, homes, and institutions cannot be properly rebuilt. Factories destroyed by bombardment have rarely been rebuilt adding unemployment to destitution.
We see the complicity of our countries in Europe and North America in this massacre and the impotence once again of the international institutions and organisations to stop this massacre.
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)61044-8/fulltext
————
They could have added that the ‘impotence of international institutions’ is solely due to the U.S., which blocks every Security Council resolution aimed at holding Israel accountable.
Why do I keep getting the feeling that Gaza is some sort of test-bed?
‘Sources familiar with conversations between Netanyahu and senior U.S. officials say the Israeli leader advised the Obama administration “not to ever second guess me again.”
http://tinyurl.com/ngx8mlg
We pay $3.5 billion a year for this insolent lip???
That’s an exercise in Hubris, which Bibi seems to be confusing with Chutzpah. (Which, the wiki on Yiddish words asserts, is not a complimentary term.)
We pay in more ways than one. Ever try to have a crooked Israeli “businessman” served or charged in Israel for “questionable” financial dealings here in America?
Our congress has Bibi’s back. He should make them all honorary Israeli citizens.
The Israelis use Palestinians for local day labor. Congresscritters are Washington day labor. Why buy the cow when you get the milk for cheap?
The US Congress on Friday approved $225 million for Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile defense system. The House of Representatives approved the funding by 395-8 in a late Friday vote. The Senate earlier approved the measure unanimously before the start of its five week summer recess.
The measure now awaits President Barack Obama’s signature. Congress appropriated $235 million to Iron Dome last year.
http://www.firstpost.com/world/gaza-live-israeli-troops-withdraw-from-parts-of-gaza-1644365.html
————
Eight of 535, willing to say ‘no’ to aggression:
Keith Ellison (D-MN); Zoe Lofgren (D-CA); Beto O’Rourke (D-TX); Jim Moran (D-VA); Justin Amash (R-MI); Walter Jones (R-NC); Thomas Massie (R-KY); Mark Sanford (R-SC).
Plus the stupid Iron Dome doesn’t even work and is little more than a placebo and a makework project for Raytheon and its Israeli partners. NC had a link about this, but here’s an excellent Democracy Now interview with the author of the Atomic Scientists article.
http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2014/7/31/part_two_theodore_postol_asks_is
They don’t get too technical but the reason it doesn’t work is that the interceptor has to explode in front of the Hamas rocket in order to trigger the rocket’s own detonator. Otherwise the warhead will still fall and explode. Most of the interceptors seen on video are in chasing mode from the side or behind.
http://maxspeak.net/zionist-style-guide/
i wish people would stop calling him bibi. it carries a too friendly and familiar connotation, making him sound like a fun uncle rather than the genocidal war criminal he is. if you wouldn’t call a certain 1930’s and 40’s german leader dolphie, then please don’t call netanyahu bibi.
No worse than Corinne “Cokie” Roberts. Cute nicknames like these are supposed to convince the rest of us that serial-killing liars (aka “statesmen”) and their apologists are jest plain folks.
Adolph Hitler’s nickname was Adi!
Cute, but doesn’t seem to have caught on in the media vernacular like Bibi has for some reason
Dear vidimi;
That was an example of irony vid. There was an English “domestic comedy” recently about two thirty somethings with three hyperkinetic kids. One of the ‘jokes’ was about the oldest referring to Hitler as Adi, as he had lost the sense of history so many of us commenting here seem to have internalized during our development. That and the loss of rigour in primary education I assume.
As for our favourite Crypto Fascist Middle Eastern Furher, I know next to nothing about his private life. Could that be by design? Even the original Furher was a vegetarian, and liked kids and dogs. Humanity is a mixed bag.
And the benefit to us of deferring to what they want to be called is what, now?
Uri Avnery suggests it’s the Israelis who are going to have to change their minds before there can be an end to this.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/08/01/meeting-in-a-tunnel/
Hard to see that happening. Indeed, as many around here have suggested, accomodation with the Palestinians has never been a goal even under the “good” Labor governnents, Likely that only outside pressure, as in the BDS movement, will ever show any results. In my own region it was the business people, the “New South,” who often led the way–understanding that segregation was bad for business. Much the same happened, I think, in South Africa. But in both of those cases the news media were instrumental.
At any rate I’m not sure the UN–always scorned by the Israelis–is going to be able to help. A boycott however, cultural, economic, is something the Israelis fear.
“Uri Avnery suggests it’s the Israelis who are going to have to change their minds”
He’s absolutely right as far as that goes. I’m unaware that he has ever suggested compensating them for theft of land and property that had clear Title and ownership, then herding them in concentration errr.. “refugee” camps.
He is the “reasonable Zionist” voice that wants the Palestinians to have their own autonomous “State”. Just make it the bits that Zionists least want… or make that the bits they would be begrudgingly dragged kicking and screaming from.
Back on that are we? Perhaps you could link to some article where he
“wants the Palestinians to have their own autonomous ‘State’. Just make it the bits that Zionists least want”
Because my recollection is that he wants them to have the land beyond the 1967 green line, the traditional two state solution. And for all I know he might be amenable to the one state solution as well. Of course it’s not likely at this point that Uri Avnery is going to have much influence on any of these outcomes. He’s 90 years old.
“He’s 90 years old..”
He’s blessed to have the opportunity to live that long. Age is an continuum til it ends., but that’s really not relevant.
You may do your own research on the subject of UA’s preferred disposition of the Palestinians, and the deeper Zionist position regarding occupied real estate appropriate for repatriation to the owners.. I think you really don’t get the bigger picture.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/last-palestinian-family-vows-remain-israel-gentrifies-historic-haifa-neighborhood/13053
Accomodation was becoming a goal under the evolving Rabin government. That is what the Likudists assassinated Rabin to prevent.
Interesting to see if any of the MSM pickup on the IDF’s “Hannibal Directive”—unlikely I’d say.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2014/08/gaza-hannibal-directive-kills-50-palestinians-after-israeli-soldier-captured.html
Not just the US–every other power ever to sit on the Security Council. Under the “Uniting For Peace” SC Resolution of 1950, those SC vetos can be overridden by the General Assembly, but no country–not one!!–has ever appealed a US veto to the General Assembly.
This Chicago parking meter story reminds me of some of the apparent clauses in the new ‘free trade’ agreements as well as superpriority and other fine print in the dazzling world of derivatives and privatization..
“”The deal, you see, is structured like this. Not only does CPM get the money its meters hoover up from the fine upstanding citizens of Chicago. It gets money even if the meters are not used. Each meter has been assigned a “fair market valuation.” If the City takes what is called a “reserve power adverse action”—that can mean anything from removing a meter because it impedes traffic flow, shutting down a street for a block party or discouraging traffic from coming into the city during rush hour—“CPM has the right to trigger an immediate payment for the entire loss of the meter’s fair market value over the entire life of the seventy-five-year agreement.””
http://www.thenation.com/blog/176043/privatizations-cutting-edge#
The Chicago parking meter fiasco is the TPP in microcosm–paying for lost economic opportunities whether or not they existed in the first place.
I wonder if our fearless leaders understand that they are selling their legitimacy along with our infrastructure?
I wonder if they care. I wonder if they would find the whole question risible.
That’s the cute thing about representative government: the fact of its existence legitimizes it in its own eyes. Who needs legitimacy when you have a monopoly on force?
Daley.. A real D-bag. It is sooooo absurd. The municipal juggernaut in Chicago is a long standing professional debacle.
Daley is pleading a bad ticker to avoid a subpoena to testify about a sweetheart restaurant concession in Millennium Park.
He was a below average sperm w/ the right name who matured into nothing more than a serial unprosecuted felon.
“The municipal juggernaut in Chicago is a long standing professional debacle….”
Most Americans will refer to their own local governments at being bad or the Worst. One never sees any actual measurement of corruption/patronage/government White Collar Crime. Just the names of these cities conjure up bad images of corruption: Miami, New Orleans, Chicago, Boston (Whitey Bulger), NYC, Vegas, etc. Somehow it seem to have escaped the Crime Beancounters to ever publish a ranking of State/Municipal Government Corruption in the US, including all those Stadium Deals, Bond Issues, etc. counting the Big Stuff in with the penny ante traffic ticket fixing.
Come on, Criminologists, what City is Number One?
“Mayor Richard M. Daley in 2008 struck a deal with the investment consortium Chicago Parking Meters LLC, or CPM, that included Morgan Stanley, Allianz Capital Partners and, yes, the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Abu Dhabi, to privatize our meters. …he won’t say anything too bad about CPM, because that would discourage investors from buying up other chunks of the city—like the deal to lease the digital billboard concession along the Dan Ryan Expressway for twenty years, which reform alderman Bob Fioretti points out was about as much of a rip-off for the City as the parking meters, not least because no one knows what kind of technology for advertising will be in use twenty years from now.”
Rahm Emanuel is a funny guy. He loves to simultaneously take credit for things and evade responsibility for them.”
Mor eto the point Emmanuel is the fox in the henhouse, a shill that the finational sector already bought and paid for.
“….After serving as an advisor to Bill Clinton, in 1998 Emanuel resigned from his position in the Clinton administration and joined the investment banking firm Wasserstein Perella, where he worked until 2002.[41] Although he did not have an MBA degree or prior banking experience, he became a managing director at the firm’s Chicago office in 1999, and according to Congressional disclosures, made $16.2 million in his two-and-a-half-years as a banker.[41][42] At Wasserstein Perella, he worked on eight deals, including the acquisition by Commonwealth Edison of Peco Energy and the purchase by GTCR Golder Rauner of the SecurityLink home security unit from SBC Communications.[41]
Emanuel was named to the Board of Directors of Freddie Mac by President Clinton in 2000. He earned at least $320,000 during his time there, including later stock sales.[43][44] During Emanuel’s time on the board, Freddie Mac was plagued with scandals involving campaign contributions and accounting irregularities.[44][45] The Obama Administration rejected a request under the Freedom of Information Act to review Freddie Mac board minutes and correspondence during Emanuel’s time as a director.[44] The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight later accused the board of having “failed in its duty to follow up on matters brought to its attention.” Emanuel resigned from the board in 2001 before his first bid for Congress”
Some insight of the caliber of integrity Chicago is dealing with.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-04-30/news/chi-former-city-comptroller-ahmad-arrested-in-pakistan-20140430_1_arrest-warrant-fraud-case-passport
Former city comptroller Ahmad arrested in Pakistan
Former Chicago Comptroller Amer Ahmad has been taken into custody in Pakistan, where he apparently fled ahead of his sentencing in a federal fraud case in Ohio….
The U.S. Marshals Service announced last week they were looking for Ahmad on an arrest warrant for violating terms of bail in the case, in which he pleaded guilty to participating in a kickback scheme during his time as deputy state treasurer in Ohio prior to being hired by Mayor Rahm Emanuel as Chicago comptroller in 2011.
Asked about his former aide’s arrest Wednesday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said he has been too busy with other issues to spend much time thinking about it.
“I’ve got to be honest, sorry about this, but let me give you this sense of reaction: I was thinking about plastic bags before Amer. I was thinking about petcoke regulations before Amer. I was thinking about how proud we all are of the Whitney Young basketball team, of their accomplishments on the court and in the classroom,” Emanuel said. “That all came before that, so, gives you some sense of perspective on it.”
This is all excellent stuff, so if Chicago is destroyed in some natural catastrophe or a nuclear exchange for instance – which of course would impede the “fair value” assigned to each meter, rent extraction must still continue even as the corpse putrefies. Talk about having your cake and eating it, all with no risk whatsoever.
Christ, they can even bundle these types of deals up and sell them as triple A rated securities to our banks in order that they comply with Basel III and its new liquidity requirements. Here’s the crunch, had not realised a single parking meter had a life of 75 years, and that’s before we get on to the issue that by the middle of the century there will be no cars because we have run out of petroleum and electric vehicles did not pan out as planned!
So, whose responsibility is it to feed the meter in a “driverless” car?
Do they even HAVE to “park?” Or can you just use your “smartphone” to either keep it circling the block until you need it again, or send it back home to your driveway, and call for it to come and get you when you’ve finished your “business?”
I can’t believe they are serious about this driverless car stuff.
What could possibly go wrong?
a terrified pedestrian
The driverless car will be designated a supreme corporate person… the pedestrian will be shunned for not paying to be under the corporations protection. The pedestrian and human drivers, no doubt, will be deemed uninsurable.
And parking meters will just read driverless cars bar codes.
This is the kind of deal that Al Capone and his ‘competitors’ would be in awe of. “The noive of dem guys! Boss! Dis Government swindle is amazin! We gotta get a piece of dis action! Dis is goin legit? Sheesh.”
I am actually very surprised the parking meters aren’t subject to widespread vandalism as a non violent public response. This is the essence of rent extraction in so far as the funds are removed from the local economy. The tragi-criminal aspect of it was that it was a fire sale just to cover up a lack of fiduciary responsibility. The money was spent on current account deficits , I think in one or two years it was gone rather than the traditional use funding long term investment into infrastructure and such.
Cutting down parking meters was what got Cool Hand Luke sent to the chain gang.
Ah, it’s so nice to see the classics are still venerated.
The two ObamaCare titles are a treasure trove of fun when we put then together. Start with “Average California Obamacare Rate Increase Only 4%––Success!!!” Well, I wonder why. How about back about 6 months or so ago when the CEO of Aetna said the industry wasn’t too worried about low enrolments (back when that was the rage topic) because they had used more conservative estimates than the government did? (Of course they did. That’s how insurers are.) But what does that really mean? It means they were overcharging. (Duh, that’s what conservative means in insurance-speak.) So now they only need a 4% increase (which is still more than inflation, BTW). Makes sense. Those super rate increases they were scaring us with? (Of course they did. That’s how insurers are.) They were already built in to last years prices.
So then we also get the headline “Suddenly, Obamacare is more unpopular than ever”. Well, I wonder why. Maybe consumers figured out the insurers were charging too much for too little coverage?
They looked up what “deductible” and “co-pay” mean…or, Goddess forbid, they found out the hard way…
“Goddess forbid”
EXCELLENT. May I use it sometime?
As long as you don’t come carousing down our street with a group of Bacchante friends next Saturnalia.
Of course. I’m sure that’s not original to me…and besides, what right have I to impede someone from calling on the divine feminine? We can use all the divine feminine we can get, Goddess knows. And not just the touchy-feely divine feminine either, but the wrathful, justice-bringing divine feminine as well.
Team Kali!
I used “goddess forbid” in the 1970s, and it was common then. It’s fully in the public domain–I hope.
There is another version of that: Doggess Forbid. As in The Great Doggess.
Her Ladyship, I presume?
http://funny-wall.com/animals/funny-bossy-dog
Many people also found out how narrow the networks are, and that they not only couldn’t keep the doctor they had, or get the doctor they wanted, but that they couldn’t get any doctor at all. And they discovered that if they had to have surgery, they had to check that each and every person treating them was part of the network, or face paying the full amount for that practitioner. This would be difficult in ordinary circumstances, but when you face a serious operation, it would be a major burden.
None of that will matter because to the people who buy ACA plans, they will never have any other choice. Things can only get more profitable for the insurers, never less. The FTAs don’t allow any adverse regulation by governments, only deregulation, so things can only get better for the insurers. The “insured” are self employed and poor or middle class, or formerly middle class (exactly the kinds of people who the donors to the campaigns believe should never have good health insurance, now that environmental and chemical standards are being harmonized downward.)
Only around the richest seven or eight percent of the country can afford ADEQUATE non-group coverage, so for the other ninety three percent, its ACA or nothing. And many of the things that were used to sell ACA are going to be struck down, but none of that matters, its what we wanted, and its orreversible because of the trade deals.
TiSA, TTIP and TPP all give entitlements to companies to stay in markets so no single payer ever, the FTAs bar it. The people have chosen, privatize everything, right?
Slick, huh?
I wonder if there is a figure like “average time from purchasing insurance to getting the first bill,” and whether that correlates to the drop in the polls. (Serious question for insurance gurus.) Because we do have a cohort of people entering the system at more or less the same time, and then sharing a common reaction, more or less at the same time. And if you assume the pool of enrollees is sicker than usual, then you would also assume they would use the care immediately, and then get a bill more or less at the same time. Reasonable?
I don’t know the time line involved, but perhaps a check on medical bankruptcies correlated with initial claims on ACA policies would help. Does this figure match earlier medical bankruptcy rates? Deviation would tell the tale. I know that I’m going to pay the penalty this year because the policies offered by the single company offering policies in my part of the Deep South are, to be brief and to the point, S–t.
Lots of people never make it into a hospital until they’re dead. Its costly. So, America seems healthier. People live their lives and then they die. Earlier and earlier, but in perfect health. Never saw a doctor!
“I wonder if there is a figure like “average time from purchasing insurance to getting the first bill,” and whether that correlates to the drop in the polls”
Your gonna have to add:
average time from purchasing insurance to getting the first DEDUCTIBLE
average time from purchasing insurance to getting the first CO-PAY
average time from purchasing insurance to getting the first NOT COVERED BY THIS POLICY
What are they going to do, get another policy? *wink*
Seriously, wouldn’t all these things happen at the same time, as “billing events” or some jargon like that?
Maybe.
But speaking from my own experience (this was in Maryland, now that I am in CA it seems better – probably because I see a Sutter medical associated doctor) but it was common for me to get 2 o 3 adjustments for whatever procedure was “covered” by insurance that I was suppose to pay, and FUNNY, the adjustments (from the doctor, from the lab, from the hospital, from the plumber….OK, I’m kidding about the plumber) were always for me to pay more money – insurance never ever covered it all. One time, I got a second adjustment for 40 CENTS…seems not worth the postage, but hey, they wants they money!
Re: Bubblegum fix for the banks(ters):
I may be wrong about this, but if I recall my highschool German correctly, in the case of words with consecutive vowels, it’s the second one that gets pronounced (Dieter is “dee-ter,” etc). While reading this article, I couldn’t help but pronounce LEI as “lie” in my head. I think NC has biased me…
Anywho…
Hahaha! Not in our lifetimes, sister. There’s a better chance that I’ll produce gold from my rectum than that the Masters of the Universe will lift the veil on all the “god’s work” they’ve been doing (notice Lloyd never said which god he was working for…I think it’s probably Moloch).
Seeing as how complexity and opacity are major parts of any control-fraud, and seeing as how control fraudsters are still running the show, the foot-dragging will surely continue apace, just in a slightly different guise. Be assured that whatever the results of this “barcode revolution” turn out to be, ending (needless) complexity and opacity will not be among them…well, if the past is any guide…
Any system that labelled transactions to track them, would most certainly have the effect of increasing the use of alternate digital currencies.
Ditto for Toni Blair – psycho not socio. W, I suspect, was neither: just a foolish fellow who did a wicked thing.
I don’t suppose it matters: none of them will swing.
How dare you cast aspersions against the UK’s most successful Prime Minister for a century, a man who’s worth and drive are worth millions, a man who has done more for Middle East peace than anyone with the exception of God himself.
A man with millions of deaths on his saintly hands who sleeps fine in bed with his most wonderful wife. My only negative opinion about the masterful Blair is that he and his wife are greedy buggers who deserve to be hung, if not for crimes against humanity, then at least for crimes against the UK’s working classes. And to think Michael Foot campaigned with this piece of excrement during the 1983 general election.
…yeah, that whole stopping-the-sun-in-the-sky so Joshua would have more time to slaughter the area’s previous inhabitants, children and all, was probably a bad precedent to set, in retrospect. I think it might have given people the wrong idea about acceptable ways to settle our differences… :-/
At the time there was a battle going on between armies at Beth Horon. And the disruption to the Earth’s rotation was accompanied by a meteorite (barad-stone) storm that killed more of Joshua’s enemies than were killed in the battle itself. Of course the Biblical reteller of the event was careful not to tell us how many of Joshua’s soldiers were themselves killed by THE LORD’s barad-stones!
Well, what’s a few casualties from friendly fire when you’re doing god’s work?
I’d never heard that interpretation before. I always just figured they made it up out of whole-cloth. As John Shelby Spong once quipped, “the first recorded instance of daylight savings time.”
It couldn’t have been friendly fire. All those stones just hit non-believers on their own side. You can’t criticize God’s aim. That’s Un-American.
I repent! I shall now make a contribution to the NRA as a sign of my repentance!
I’ve always just assumed the term “friendly fire” was a CIA mind control concept intended to make use believe “friendly fire” is something similar to “casual sex”.
But I never did fall for the ruse.
To cherry pick 3 of Murphy’s Military Laws (all of which are applicable to my previous snark-casm): Friendly fire – isn’t. Incoming rounds have the right of way. The only thing more accurate than incoming enemy fire is incoming friendly fire.
That being said, friendly fire during casual sex tends to end the casualness quickly. Doubly so when accompanied by the phrase “I think the Kevlar just broke”. This is how many a light skirmish has turned into years of prolonged conflict.
Yes, broken Kevlar. In one case there is one survivor, in the other case there can be three survivors.
This analogy just doesn’t seem to hold up.
fofforos;
I assume you are referring to Velikovskys theory?
Thanks for the link on CAFTA-DR. Back in 2009, I wrote THIS for a local newspaper:
“New treatment for depression”: just today I saw the claim that, at least for fifty year-old women, the answer is a red convertible.
A candy flake red Miata for the ‘ordinary’ people. A lipstick red ’65 Mustang for the comfortably secure. A Shocking Pink Cadillac for the First Wives Club. A Maroon PT Cruiser for the married with children cohort. And for all the “I’ll make them notice me now” crowd, (men and women,) the 1960 Thunderbird. http://www.remarkablecars.com/main/ford/ford-00018.html
Red convertibles ares strictly for men over 60 – that’s why they come with Viagra bumper stickers.
And some curiously shaped hood ornaments.
“Don’t say “privatization.” It always was a stupid word to choose for the process of turning a government-owned business into a public company.
I believe “theft” is the correctly terminology for the financialistion of the commons, and everything else, including fire, air and water.
Throw in Earth and you have the Four Elements. The term Cosmic Evil just scratches the surface here.
Great, now we have the propertarian right wing trying to newspeak the word “public”. If we were in the same room I’d probably be yelling extremely loudly in your face right now.
I strongly suggest you rescind that bad-faith linguistic manipulation posthaste.
That should of course read “correct.”
RE Obama’s fondness for the word, “folks,” Susan Jacoby refers to the use of this word by politicians as a “debasement of public speech.” She says to imagine this: “We here highly resolve that these folks shall not have died in vain; and that government of the folks, by the folks, for the folks, shall not perish from the earth.”
I notice that he’s also fond of droppin’ his Gs when usin’ gerunds, especially when talkin’ about the GOP. I suppose this also makes him feel folksy.
Obama using “folks” way back in ’06 to describe Bob Rubin and Pete Peterson:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-5Y74FrDCc
Also from Jacoby re: use of the word “folks” at your link:
“Casual, colloquial language also conveys an implicit denial of the seriousness of whatever issue is being debated….”
And Obama seems to be doing it more and more lately.
It’s maybe also a way to sound “black” . . . to show he has a “blaccent”. He reminds me of when I saw Patrick Buchanan on CSPAN giving a speech in Louisiana one time. Buchanan was speaking in a semi-realistic Southern accent. I remembered the old saying ” in politics sincerity is everything. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”
I suspect he’s contractually barred from calling us a “people” because that inspires a sense of solidarity that simply isn’t appropriate for an atomized consumer society.
From Pentagon sends more equipment and aid to Ukraine
——–On Thursday, Sen. Carl Levin, D.-Mich., the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Ukraine’s military needs weapons. Russian aggression must be confronted in the wake of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in eastern Ukraine last month, Levin said. Almost 300 people died when it was blown from the sky with what U.S. officials have said was a Russian-supplied surface-to-air missile.———
So is Levin an idiot, a sociopath, a psychopath or a typical lying senior level US congressman? So is he stating or just implying Russia shot down that plane or maybe an unfortunate just-a-position of wording? I would like to see his proof because I just can’t take his word for it.
—The gear includes armored personnel carriers, cargo and patrol vehicles, binoculars, night vision goggles and small patrol boats,—-He called on the White House to authorize shipments of anti-tank weapons.—-“These are defensive weapons, not provocative weapons,” Levin said.—-
Good thing we have money to throw out the window. All is good in the USA of today. Levin is a senior democrat right? Wonder what his position is on Gaza? Also wonder when he traded off his humanity for power.
“On ,Thursday, Sen. Carl Levin, D.-Mich., the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Ukraine’s military needs weapons……..The gear includes armored personnel carriers, cargo and patrol vehicles, binoculars, night vision goggles and small patrol boats,—-He called on the White House to authorize shipments of anti-tank weapons.
On WEDNESDAY, Sen. Levin, all members of his extended family, his neighbors, dry cleaner and staff had purchased large blocks of stock in the companies that manufacture armored personnel carriers, cargo and patrol vehicles…small patrol boats…and anti-tank weapons etc.
Sen. Levin denied any wrongdoing, since insider trading is “legal” for members of congress and anyone else they can think of to tell. He did, however, apologize to his dog groomer for failing to alert her to the investment opportunity before it hit the tape.
“So is Levin an idiot, a sociopath, a psychopath or a typical lying senior level US congressman?”
He’s afraid that Russia is going to invade Ukraine.
Ho, ho, hey, hey,
How many false flags you buy today?
Hey, hey, ho, ho,
Biden Burisma has got to go
More and more I’m beginning to think that the Malaysian airliner shoot-down was a false flag. Too bad about those Dutch folks but the end justifies the means — bringin’ freedom to the Crimea.
Yes, they will shower our troops with rose petals when they march into Simferopol to topple Putin’s statue!
Pepe Escobar at Asia Times:
“…the MH17 tragedy is undergoing a fast metamorphosis. When the on-site observations by this Canadian OSCE monitor (watch the video carefully) are compounded with this analysis by a German pilot, a strong probability points to a Ukrainian Su-25’s 30 mm auto-cannon firing at the cockpit of MH17, leading to massive decompression and the crash.
“No missile – not even an air-to-air R-60M, not to mention a BUK (the star of the initial frenetic American spin). The new possible narrative fits with on-site testimony by eyewitness in this now famously “disappeared” BBC report. Bottom line: MH17 configured as a false flag, planned by the US and botched by Kiev. One can barely imagine the tectonic geopolitical repercussions were the false flag to be fully exposed.
“Malaysia has handed out the flight recorders to the UK; this means NATO, and this spells out manipulation by the CIA. Air Algerie AH5017 went down after MH17. The analysis has already been released. That begs the question of why it is taking so long for MH17’s black boxes to be analyzed/tampered with.”
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/CEN-02-010814.html
At least Malaysia was smart enough to hand the flight recorder to the winning side of WW3.
Disturbing how pursuit of the truth takes such a low priority in all this, however.
One small consolation is now we have HFT trading bots to take care of the stock market for us while the nuke ICBMs go off all around the world. I’m sure the government has a plan to relocate all the HFT bots to a nuke proof bomb shelter. Maybe next to the snoop bots in the brand new place in Utah. This will take market concerns out of the government’s decision making process and allow them to focus on whatever it is they are focusing on.
Then postwar, Arnold will arrive from the future and assassinate Art Cashin and all the other bears. Financial stability will be enhanced even more without those naysayers cluttering up the media.
I suspect Levin is neither psycho/sociopathic nor lying. I suspect he is sincerely dislead and disinformed. He clearly hasn’t been reading Sic Semper Tyrannis or NaCap.
BAE Systems built a huge new office building in Sterling Heights a year or two ago, and General Dynamics has facilities all over the Detroit area.
I suspect he is “managing the discourse” like any other old-school aristocrat who knows where his bread’s buttered
Antidote: How about some dog tips.
http://www.mnn.com/family/pets/stories/11-things-humans-do-that-dogs-hate
According to my dogs those tips are not entirely accurate.
Were the poor guys medicated? Because if they move a muscle to do anything dog-like, they’re guaranteed an immediate and total chlorinated baptism.
I’m not sure about the advice in your link against hugging —
dogs were cave dwellers. A gentle hug at the right time should feel protective, reassuring and comforting. Squeezing is another matter.
Also, the dog in the picture doesn’t seem upset about the little girl’s cuddle — he looks like he knows that the grinning photographer he’s facing is about to inflict a searing flash of light upon him.
This sounds like valid dog behavior given my experience. You have to bear in mind that dogs see us as oversized dogs on two legs, not themselves as little humans. Given that we’re smarter it follows that we are the ones who should use our imagination and think like dogs, not the other way around. I mentioned before in comments that there’s a good Nova program called Dogs Decoded. You may be able to google it up since many of their shows are on the web. Of course most dogs will tolerate things they don’t necessarily like because we feed them.
That’s actually a very good and interesting article.
Yes, it is a very good article. It helped me understand why a dog we fed and cared for over six months suddenly bit me, rather savagely. I had placed my hand on his head, at night, as we were about to go out for the evening.
Great commentary!!
Al Jazeera article on Ukraine was very informative. We hear so much about the industrialized east Ukraine, but nothing about the economic importance of agricultural exports. U.S. politicians have truly become water carriers for Monsanto. No European country would insist that as part of a financial aid package Ukraine needs to agree to use of GMO seeds.
Hillary: fun to be around.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2713591/Hillary-told-one-agent-f-suit-looked-cheap-Secret-Service-agents-say-guarding-former-First-Lady-wasthe-worst-form-punishment-author-reveals-explosive-new-book.html
“Arriving at a 4-F Club in upstate New York while campaigning, she saw cows and people in jeans. She was enraged”
I’d join the 4-F club.
This story is a replay of ‘His Cheatin’ Heart,’ the Arkansas state troopers’ story about life in the Clintons’ governors mansion in the 1980s, published in January 1994 in the American Spectator.
Nothing has really changed in Chappaqua, except they have a lot more money, and Secret Service instead of state troopers.
Ah, the American Spectator. Was that the one funded by Scaife? Or was it run out of the Arkansas bait shop by the “folks” who hated it when Little Rock’s schools were integrated? It’s been so long the mind blurs….
Still in retrospect the rightwingers may have had a point about the Clenis (tm Atrios). His personal smarminess could be related to his willingness to sell traditional Dem constituencies down the river. Many of us defending him at the time didn’t realize what a mess he and his financial advisers were creating.
Yep. It took me a long time to work out that just because impeachment — really a slow-moving, media-fuelled coup that culminated in Bush v. Gore, with reporting from both the Times and WaPo providing material aid — was a scam, and the Republican grifters running the scam were so noxious, that didn’t make the Democrats the good guys. Sometimes the enemy of my enemy is my enemy.
Wonder if that was the trip when her and Bill stopped by the NYS Fair in Syracuse. They must’ve really enjoyed full-on bleach soaks after that experience. I bet she could hardly contain herself while shaking the hands of the poor while smelling cow and horse poo. And I’d love to know where that 4-F club was-I would’ve joined that instead of 4-H!
Don’t you mean 4H club?
Growing up I went to a 4H summer camp near Watkins Glen. It was awesome: archery, canoeing, horseback riding, agricultural ed., and forestry!!
Planting oppo in the British press is a part of a very wellworn playbook. “Use every man after his desert, and who should ‘scape whipping?” Just saying.
So the USDA is overhauling poultry inspections. Inspectors will get to walk around, inside the poultry processing plants, instead of just standing in one place while the birds go by on a belt. They will get to actually choose bird carcasses to be pulled to test for pathogens. Also, the number of inspectors will be reduced, so that’s a win win, increasing safety and saving money at the same time! Actually, I would prefer fewer such win wins. How about permitting the inspectors to walk around inside the poultry processing plants, because that is common sense, pull birds for testing, because that is common sense, and then not reducing the number of inspectors at all? Because reducing the number of inspectors reduces the number of qualified processing plants, does it not? Then the birds have to be shipped farther to centralized locations, and only the biggest companies will have qualified plants. Or how about licensing private inspectors, who could work part time in smaller, local markets on contract, so small farmers could stand a chance in the marketplace?
Remember, we don’t NEED as many inspectors as we used to. We’re now shipping American grown chickens to China to be processed. Chicken inspectors in China (if there are any) work for a much lower hourly wage than American inspectors, and are not subject to expensive food safety regulations. This keeps the price of McNuggets low, which benefits the low income residents of food deserts where McNuggets substitute for actual food.
The Medicaid expansion that is one of the major accomplishments of Obamacare provides no-cost “healthcare” for any consequences of this arrangement. Provided the food desert dwellers are not also “healthcare” desert dwellers.
I can get up to irony, but you summon passion. So, an unanswered question is how the imported packages of chicken get a USDA inspection stamp. I would guess that the investment in cutting and wrapping the chicken in China is a prelude to actually growing the chickens in China, of course. There we go with reverse merchantilism at work again. The idea of imported Chinese chicken makes me shudder, but then I read that Ebola came back from West Africans eating fruit bats, which were carriers of the virus. I should be consider myself lucky not to have to eat bat McNuggets. Someone would sue when they found a piece of blackbird in one.
The Chinese processed “chicken” doesn’t come back in packages. It’s canned or in soup (Campbell’s) or in processed chicken products like nuggets and pot pies.
So it may not be infected, just poisoned?
Or, it may not be chicken.
Or bird flu = McSniffles
To save this thread from the depressive facts about McNuggets and Chinese chicken products, I remember when Christopher Kimball tried to make homemade McNuggets in America’s Test Kitchen. Since the original product is only half chicken, with phosphate salts and silicone defoamers, and the rest being obscure ingredients utilized apparently to accelerate the passage of the material through the digestive tract at maximum speed, understandably ATK couldn’t reproduce the nuggets using real food. So Kimball created a recipe for bite-sized pieces of breaded, boneless, skinless chicken breast. Here is a link for the Kimball recipe at a non-ATK site:
http://chicgeekery.blogspot.com/2012/08/crispy-chicken-nuggets.html
Looks like a yummy recipe, if you use real, American chicken.
Chicken is one of my last remaining protein sources. Gave up fish and shellfish for obvious reasons. (it was the post Katrina pics of the three eyed scrimp that did it, then Fuki didn’t help much) $10/lb and up steak got ZIRPed outta da budget. Whenever I read something about pork, I start believing the Jews were right about the stuff. That leaves hamburger for variety, but there I have to convince myself that pink slime didn’t get into it somehow. Lastly, whey protein is out because if you want the digestible kind, (and who wouldn’t) that goes for upwards of $30/lb.
So this is going into my folder of chicken recipes, and now I know to look for the “Made In America” label on my grocery store purchases.
McDonalds can go McF*ck themselves.
P.S. Pass on the Thailand shrimp too. Tilapia doesn’t sound Chinese, but it is. Nay to the $100 Kobe beef. And if you take vitamin pills for some odd reason, know that Japan has a large vitamin and supplement export industry. For instance, 97% of the Co10 supplement sold comes from Japan.
The best investment is a freezer. I buy bread, 20 loaves at a time, and decent meat on sale prior to holidays. I buy frozen vegetables at a dollar a bag and real butter on sale and fill the thing. Tillamook cheese is my perishable, staple protein source.
water or fuel?
https://www.facebook.com/cityoftoledo/posts/738905586173078
(sorry for the facecrook link)
well, at least pop-tarts are cheap.
and this:
“By 2012, agricultural practices along the Maumee River were responsible for phosphate levels in Lake Erie that cause yearly, deadly algae blooms in the lake, which in turn greatly threaten the lake’s ecosystem. The Maumee supplies only about 5 percent of Erie’s water, but half its phosphorus. And while algae struggle to digest ordinary phosphorus — only about 30 percent gets taken up — fertilizer phosphorus is designed for plants to use instantly.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maumee_river
It was the first official, if informally delivered, admission of the use of torture; and to mark the occasion President Obama announced a new standard of office conduct known as “Casually Fascist Fridays.” Flip flops were now allowed, and no ties to bind the necks of hardworking (ex-)torturers and secret policemen. There were free donuts with icing, sprinkles and fancy cream fillings, which all the staffers, stabbers and spooks enjoyed, and everyone expressed hope that they would become a permanent C.F.F. fixture, much as the trays of breakfast burritos on “Kill List Tuesdays” have been.
“Casually Fascist Fridays” You are indeed a genius!! The truth is that we need to hear more clever mockery of the kleptocrats. The people can’t afford to hang on to the respect that they would like to feel for those who have chosen not to represent their interests. We need to laugh the kleptocrats off the stage.
RE: A Russian soldier’s ‘Ukraine selfies’ are not evidence, they’re war art
Social media is where SIGINT converges with HUMINT. The pictures by themselves are not concrete evidence of Russian military involvement in Eastern Ukraine. The geo-location data is fairly reliable though. If a satellite or two was tasked to follow the movements of these idiotic Russian soldiers it would only further confirm their assertions. This is probably why the Europeans agreed to increased sanctions considering this involvement represents a dangerous escalation.
The official Russian response would have been hilarious if the situation wasn’t so close to spiraling out of control. IE; The US shouldn’t rely so much on social media, and my personal favorite, the soldiers social media accounts were hacked.
War art? Sure bro, tell us another one.
So the Russians show satellite data showing Buk locations in Ukraine held territory and the US relies on Social Media? The aircraft was instructed by Kiev to fly through the dangerous airspace at a lower height than scheduled. An ATC controller was also monitoring military aircraft trailing MH17. He has since disappeared. Ukraine has confiscated the voice data between ATC and the aircraft. Russian civilian radar detected an unidentified aircraft (typically means military) rapidly climbing from altitude below radar visibility up towards MH17 then turning away and rapidly descending – a classic attack profile against an undefended target. The photographic evidence from debris suggests that MH17 was hit either by cannon fire or shrapnel from an air-to-air missile. The US won’t release its satellite imagery, which we know exists because they admitted detecting the 4 ballistic missiles (each with a 500 kg he warhead) fired by the Ukrainians at who knows what – the crash site? These missiles were shot down by Russia, as were the two missiles launched in the Mediterranean as an attempt to frame Syria. The whole Buk thing is a deception to make a superficially plausible case that the federalists did it. As always Means, Motive, Opportunity and Cui Bono are good guidelines. I suppose the only real question is the degree of US involvement. Were they the originators of the plan (e.g Operation Northwoods) or mere facilitators in the cover-up?
There are Polish mercenaries in Ukraine acting as close-quarter protection for the Ukraine general and probably Poroshenko too. 180 US military ‘advisors’ have been sent to Ukraine. 4 of those have been killed, one recently by sniper fire whilst he was bathing on a beach. US Huey helicopters have been filmed flying through Dnepropetrovsk. A Predator drone was filmed flying in the same area in April 2014. A US military transport plane was filmed at Kiev Borispol airport, etc, etc.
As ever, control of energy resources plays a significant role. As soon as Slavyansk was cleared, civilian contractors moved in to start the fracking process. They are guarded by Ukraine military. There are two oil corporations involved – Burisma Holdings (with Biden’s son as an executive) and Shell.
Buddy, I didn’t say a word about MH17. The neurotic obsession and rampant speculation over the incident is part of the reason why. The other reason is that both sides have something to hide hence all the propaganda and misinformation surrounding the matter. At least in the Russian case I have a good idea what they’re trying to hide without relying on media and authors who’ve sacrificed their impartiality a long time ago.
Here’s a follow up to yesterday’s ebola discussion. It says you can only get the disease by blood or fluid contact with an actively infected person (who won’t be walking around with this disease). Therefore there’s little danger to bringing infected persons here.
http://m.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/08/01/why-youre-not-going-to-get-ebola-in-the-u-s/
11/2012: Canadian scientists have shown that the deadliest form of the ebola virus could be transmitted by air between species.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-20341423
Thanks for link. However that story still discounts a virus like spread.
“if it was really an airborne virus like influenza is it would spread all over the place, and that’s not happening.”
wasn’t happening at the time it came out of his mouth. compassionate leaders need to educate us on the particular strains flying around.
Not sure why this is not being printed anywhere else (perhaps it’s false?): but basically WikiLeaks is alleging corruption on the part of previous Malaysia prime ministers. Not surprising really.
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/najib-pak-lah-mahathir-named-banknote-graft-case-093221151.html
RE: Ebola
Here’s a very short primer, courtesy of Yahoo, on America’s infectious disease quarantine system/stations. The “system” appears to be organized around preventing an infected traveler from ENTERING the country. Their are 20 stations in the continental US, Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. All in major population centers.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ebola-fear-increases-heres-map-153900672.html
As for Atlanta:
“Emory University Hospital has a specially built isolation unit set up in collaboration with the CDC to treat patients who are exposed to certain serious infectious diseases. It is physically separate from other patient areas and has unique equipment and infrastructure that provide an extraordinarily high level of clinical isolation. It is one of only four such facilities in the country.”
http://www.businessinsider.com/report-at-least-one-ebola-patient-is-headed-to-atlanta-hospital-2014-7
Now and then I drive by the old tuberculosis sanitarium in town. It is enormous, with the old Federal architecture. Then there are all the walking wounded, still around, who had polio. How do they know Ebola won’t have a Typhoid Mary, a living carrier? I would submit they don’t know. There have been too few survivors. Does it survive on a surface? For how long? Does bleach kill it? Is it in contaminated feces like hepatitis? I’m going to guess, the only valid reason to violate the principles of quarantine and bring victims to this country, is if those in the know are so terrified that they judge it to be essential, implying they think it will get here eventually anyway.
“CDC: Avoid non-essential travel to Ebola nations…”
You mean Georgia?
Batman: Sociopath.
Joker: Psychopath.
Robin: Empath?
Sidekick.
Robin:Batman::Bush:Cheney::Netanyahu:Joker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efHCdKb5UWc
SOME MEN JUST WANT TO WATCH THE WORLD BURN
The article on Sociopathy vs. Psychopathy seems confusing. It starts by describing sociopaths as “nervous and easily agitated. They are volatile and prone to emotional outbursts, including fits of rage” while later it characterizes psychopaths as “very manipulative” and “When committing crimes, psychopaths carefully plan out every detail in advance and often have contingency plans in place. Unlike their sociopathic counterparts, psychopathic criminals are cool, calm, and meticulous.”
But several paragraphs later it says, “Psychopathy is related to a physiological defect that results in the underdevelopment of the part of the brain responsible for impulse control and emotions.”
So, wouldn’t the psychopaths with underdeveloped impulse control be the ones prone to emotional outbursts and rage while the sociopaths would be the controlled type?
Anyone? Bueller?
That article is a
jokebook advertisement.Partially truncated limbs are underdeveloped, too. Doesn’t mean you get half-fingers at the elbow.
That piece is probably
the single worst article on psychopathy ever writtenone the most pathetic attempts at self promotion I’ve ever seen.Odd thing in the real estate listing.
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/4750-E-Michigan-Ave_Fresno_CA_93703_M26373-22355?row=1
and
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/2535-N-Marty-Ave_Fresno_CA_93722_M23001-77374?row=4
Odd thing about Fresno, Ca real estate listing recently that I noticed – so much wet pavement!!!! Is it because they want to convey, “Hey – plenty of water here!!!!” in drought stricken CA???
For those unfamiliar with Western weather patterns, it NEVER, EVER rains in the summer in Fresno
At a convention a year or two ago, a presenter was engaging in colloquy about house stagers. One of their tricks of the trade is to pump the lawns full of nitrogen a few days before showing a home. The grass just about glows green for the next few days. Another is to put a pie in the oven a few hours before the showing to scent the home. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the local house stagers in Fresno also water the pavement, or maybe the sprinkler systems just happen to do that. ;)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-will-sherrod-brown-is-the-odd-man-out-with-democrats/2014/08/01/92e2d35e-18f0-11e4-85b6-c1451e622637_story.html
Is that meant as the kiss of death, or has Will actually gotten so disgusted with cronyism and corruption in the republicrats that it needs someone who is really willing to stick it to them? Has Will come to praise or bury Brown???
Looks like he’s trying to bury Brown for both parties and validate the dynamic of There Is No Alternative. You know, if the opposition party likes anything about an official, the Good Guys should run away from him.
A first step towards justice in the Eric Garner case? HOMICIDE: Medical examiner says NYPD chokehold killed Staten Island dad Eric Garner Or will the get the same backlash as for the ending of
Harass and IntimidateStop and Frisk? Because we all know that without being free tobrutalize the oppressedpatrol the streets as they see fitthey won’t have a release for all their roid rageboogeymen of all sorts will rise up to defile you child and the terrorists will win.“The Gaza war’s violence has put Israel’s soul in the balance” – Daily Star
As if there was one. It’s a vicious apartheid state, eagerly committing war crime after war crime.
And it gets away with it thanks to our funding and diplomatic protection.
100-0 vote in the Senate, not mentioning these war crimes?
Hell, the U.S. doesn’t have a soul. That’s the headline.
~