Links 10/26/15

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The Caffeinated Lives of Bees New York Times

‘Zeno effect’ verified: Atoms won’t move while you watch Cornell Chronicle (furzy mouse)

A Tower of Molten Salt Will Deliver Solar Power After Sunset IEEE Spectrum (furzy mouse)

New York launches probe into speeds at major Internet broadband providers Reuters. This is SO OVERDUE! I can tell you I routinely get much less than I pay for (of course, the contracts are misleadingly worded).

Researchers Test Rapamycin in Dogs, a Possible Step Toward Human Trials of an Anti-Aging Drug MIT Technology Review (furzy mouse). You know, just to help save the planet, we could all do more undereating as opposed to more pill-taking….

A Bad Bet on Synthetic Biology Project Syndicate (resilc)

Industry set to reject WHO’s processed meat carcinogens ruling Financial Times. Wow, this is astonishing. My understanding was that it was already well known that eating lots of cured meats and/or smoked fish considerably increased the risk of stomach cancer, which is pretty much not treatable (more accurately it basically has a Stage IV survival rate, meaning only around 20%, by the time it is typically detected). I thought the only open question was at what level of consumption do the foods pose a risk, and not the underlying risk per se.

China?

Hello IMF, the yuan is pegged MacroBusiness

China economy: Manufacturing slump creating ghost towns Nikkei

Who’s Afraid of China? Bloomberg (resilc)

The UK’s deals worth billions with China: what do they really mean? Guardian

China’s companies are a snake eating its own tail Reuters. Um, as if the Chinese are the only ones playing this game….

Five Things You Need to Sort Out in Five Years If You Run China Bloomberg (resilc)

China Wants Thailand to Pay for Its Silk Road Thai PBS. Donald D: “Sounds like China did learn a thing or two from American Imperialism.”

Refugee Crisis

Slovenia sees end to EU if leaders fail on migrant plan Reuters (resilc)

Migrant welcome centres to be boosted BBC. The lack of agency in the headline is not exactly encouraging. It reflects a lot of national and international agency moving parts, which means in some (many?) cases, state-level legislation.

Germany considers charges against Facebook for hate speech McClatchy (furzy mouse)

Jeremy Corbyn just found a way to get Scotland to vote for Labour again Business Insider

Trudeau Is Less Liberal Than You Think The Daily Beast (furzy mouse)

Starving Irish people pleading for food from soup kitchen as last resort Independent

Grexit?

Greece Overhauls Licensing of Private TV Broadcasting Wall Street Journal. Good that this is finally happening, but this was the most obvious way for Syriza to show it was serious about taking on the oligarchs when it came into office in January…and it sat on its hands when the media barons initially made nice in their news coverage.

Ukraine/Russia

Russia Presence Near Undersea Cables Raising Concern in U.S. New York Times. While Russia may indeed be being “provocative,” didn’t it occur to anyone that putting critical infrastructure in international waters was a source of vulnerability? Or is this just scaremongering to make sure the DoD gets all of its budget approved?

US escalates Deutsche Bank probe into Russian trades Financial Times

Syraqistan

House Intelligence chairman calls for plan to defeat ISIS The Hill (furzy mouse). Revealing the lack of one….

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

Court Chooses to Ignore Overwhelming Evidence of NSA’s Mass Internet Spying American Civil Liberties Union

Imperial Collapse Watch

These Irish Antiwar Protesters Are Sick of Having the US Military in Their Country War Is A Crime (resilc)

2016

Biden would have run if he thought he could have won The Hill

Jeb Bush Having Trouble Tapping Family Donor Base Wall Street Journal

Some other presidential candidates likely to drop out soon Yahoo (furzy mouse)

Republican leaders struggle to find votes to up debt limit Associated Press

Hillary Clinton, Trey Gowdy, and the True Victims of Playing Politics with War The Daily Beast (resilc)

President Obama compares Republicans to Grumpy cat CNET

Wave of litigation hits Obama climate rule The HIll (furzy mouse)

New York man creates ‘sovereign nation’ in Utah Associated Press. This seems to be a legal version of performance art.

Trade Traitors

An Analysis of the Final Intellectual Property TPP Chapter Leak FreezeNet (furzy mouse). Important. Take note of the TPP Commission.

How Big Oil investors were robbed of a great opportunity MarketWatch

Private Equity

Alternative Investment Funds Get a Second Bite at Prime Manhattan Real Estate Eileen Appelbaum, Huffington Post. On Stuyvesant Town being sold to Blackstone.

California Pension Politics: John Chiang Steps Up! CityWatch. Tony Butka, who had written a blistering letter criticizing Chiang’s inaction on private equity, applauds his reversal.

Dutch pension fund plans PE push Financial Times (Paul J). Notice PGGM making good use of its bully pulpit. A striking contrast with CalPERS!

The Myth of the Disappearing Free Checking Account Adam Levitin, Credit Slips

Class Warfare

As Bad as You Think Inequality Is, It’s Worse! Alternet. Well, NC readers will hopefully guesstimate better than the public as a whole.

New study finds state subsidies go overwhelmingly to large companies Angry Bear

Antidote du jour (@planetpics):

cranky lion cub links

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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153 comments

  1. RabidGandhi

    Re: A Tower of Molten Salt Will Deliver Solar Power After Sunset IEEE Spectrum
    _________
    Link didn’t work for me for the molten salt tower article; this one did:

    http://spectrum.ieee.org/green-tech/solar/a-tower-of-molten-salt-will-deliver-solar-power-after-sunset

    And this seems like Columbus’ “discovery” of what already existed. Spain has had 3 projects on line starting in 2011 (Gemasolar). Of course the since in the US they are doing it on a larger scale, it is suddenly an innovation.

    1. PlutoniumKun

      Yes, but to be fair, as there are several different designs and approaches to what is a very new technology, it could be that they are doing something quite different from in Spain, and more recently, Morocco is doing.

      It did seem that the drop in price for PE solar had killed off CSP, but its beginning to dawn on a lot of providers that molten salt CSP can provide the most valuable electricity of all – ‘on demand’ power. Even if its pricer than PE, it is competing with the most expensive gas powered plants, not with nuclear or coal, so it may be viable. A lot depends on local power demand – in much of the US, peak power demand is around lunchtime, due to air con use, so PE is excellent for delivering power then – in other regions (especially in more humid climes), the peak may be in the evening, so CSP would be more suitable – it can store it up during the day, then release it for the 6-9pm peak.

      Actually, a combination of the two is ideal – PE for daytime, CSP for the evening.

      1. PlutoniumKun

        And another point – one of the interesting advantages of molten salt technology is that it can be piped to existing thermal stations, using their turbines to produce power. In other words, costs can be cut by using an existing infrastructure network, gradually off-setting the fossil fuel. For countries with power stations away from cities, in open areas, this could be a very good cost effective way of rapidly cutting back on CO2.

      2. RabidGandhi

        Oh I agree, and in this sense, I don’t care so much as to who gets credit; It’s more important for the technology to become known. Last month I was speaking to a colleague who works on Eolic in the UK and when I mentioned the Andalucía molten salt projects he didn’t even believe me that they exist. This is someone in the industry forcrissakes!

        That said, it would have been nice for the article to at least recognise some of the trajectory of the technology instead of depicting it as “Eureka ex nihilio!”. For example, the project you link to in Morocco is another Torresol energy project designed with the same engineering firm’s technology.

        1. theinhibitor

          Tech’s been around for decades, but material engineering has made it viable only in the last 5-6 years.

          Still not nearly as great as the article would have you believe. Might work in a hot, sunny, warm, dry desert but in other areas absolutely not.

          Biggest challenge to solar panels isn the panel themselves, or the fact that they don’t produce electricity during the night. Its the transformer. Currently, transformers account for about 20-30% energy loss in solar derived energy. Another significant loss is in the wires.

          Material science/nano tech will solve this problem. Just give it another decade or so.

          1. HotFlash

            Yes, it’s the damn transformers. So, when will we get over AC and get to DC? Yeah, yeah, transmission losses .. but if energy is produced locally (and there are rooftops and cartops and windows on skycrapers, not to mention currently totally wasted parking lots) we would only need. Trying to replicate the cheap-energy style with renewables is a dumb as the early computers, that looked like a cross between TV and a typewriter. That was a failure of imagination, not technology. Start over — want light? We have this big round thing in the sky that provides it, directly, free and in the spectrum that we actually evolved for.

            Just ystrdy had

          2. Gio Bruno

            If by “transformers” you mean the inverter that converts the DC power of a PV panel into AC electricity for home equipment use, efficiency is a variable number. It depends on the type of inverter (sine wave, mod. square wave) and the proper matching of inverter qualities (size, load compatibility, “sleep” modes). Efficiency of some inverters is in the mid-90%.

            As for transmission (line) losses, they are negligible for rooftop PV (proximity) and residential power uses (again, proximity). A more important element in PV implementation is CONSERVATION of energy. Using high efficiency lighting (LED), eliminating “ghost” draws by flat screen TV’s, and using hydronic heating, instead of forced-air central.

            That brings me to a topic that is related to the molten salt article. Phase-change salts are now readily available for installation in standard residential construction (placed behind sheetrock) and modulate heating/cooling (temperature) in a home. Material engineering has advanced, indeed! (In the past it was thermal mass (water, masonry, etc.) that was use to store latent heat; no more.

  2. paul

    Jeremy Corbyn probably has not found a way to win back Scotland.
    Unless Labour in Scotland becomes a completely separate entity it can’t legally campaign for different policies in different parts of the UK.
    The electoral comission’s view is that the scottish branch is merely an accounting unit of the labour party.
    So no westminster candidates could campaign against the policies of the registered party, UK labour.
    For the hapless Kezia Dugdale, this would mean she would have to form a new ‘holyrood scottish national labour party’.
    As it would have no organisational,financial or popular base, I think that looks a little too much like hard work for the likes of Kezia.

  3. financial matters

    I think Bill Mitchell nicely lays out what a minimum wage/living wage should represent.

    I think that for a mixed economy, public/private, to exist there needs to be a strong amount of social protection.

    Minimum Wage

    “I consider that no worker should be paid below what is considered the lowest tolerable material standard of living just because some low wage-low productivity operator wants to produce in a country and make ‘cheap’ profits.

    I don’t consider that the private ‘market’ is an arbiter of the values that a society should aspire to or maintain. That is where I differ significantly from my profession.

    The employers always want the wages system to be totally deregulated so that the ‘market can work’ without fetters. This will apparently tell us what workers are ‘worth’.

    The problem is that the so-called ‘market” in its pure conceptual form is an amoral, ahistorical construct and cannot project the societal values that bind communities and peoples to higher order considerations.

    The minimum wage is a values-based concept and should not be determined by a market.”

    1. financial matters

      It’s also worth noting that this minimum/living wage could be lower if we had an underlying BIG, socialized medicine and more affordable housing and education.

    2. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

      Most Americans are sleep deprived.

      With Basic Income Guarantee, we can look forward to a Minimum Leisure Time.

      It will do wonders for productivity.

      The first goal of education is to teach students how to live a healthy life, not algebra nor programming.

      The first goal of one’s daily activities is, again, one’s health, not how one contributes to the GDP.

      1. Nigelk

        The time for the Universal Basic Income is long past.
        Guarantee housing & health care, and a UBI need not be more than $1200-$1500/month.

          1. Procopius

            Reding Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.’s “The Coming of the New Deal.” In 1933 Roosevelt brought Harry Hopkins to Washington to set up the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. Hopkins did it, but reluctantly. He wrote, “I don’t thing anybody can go year after year, month after month, accepting relief without affecting his character in some way unfavorably.” So he created the Civil Works Administration, and in a couple of months he had created four million jobs. There were no “shovel ready” projects, he had no planning staff, no pre-formulated program, but he did it, which is one reason I am so resentful of the timid failure in 2009-10. Men cried tears of joy when they were accepted, which is why I think there is going to be great desire to work even with BIG.

    3. Watt4Bob

      I have had a couple of interesting conversations with close friends whose politics, I would usually describe as lying firmly in the T-Bagger spectrum.

      One was about what you might call minimum wage/living wage issues and the other about healthcare reform.

      The first friend stated flat-out, at the conclusion of our conversation, that;

      “Anybody who shows up for a full -time job, 40 hours a week should get $20/hr.

      The other guy, talking about healthcare, shared a piece he had written that spelled out a completely sane and compassionate system that amounted to single-payer, universal coverage. (without the label)

      Neither person was at all aware that their opinions would be embraced by the “liberals” they profess to hate, and who they blame for this country’s problems, and both seemed genuinely surprised that I totally agreed with their ideas.

      1. cwaltz

        The one person I know in the Tea Party category also embraces the idea that labor market is getting a raw deal and wants fairer wages and seems to be able to wrap his brain around the idea that if businesses were fairer in their compensation that there would be less need for social programs. He’s a small business owner. It’s actually quite funny because he usually sneers liberal and entitled in the same breath. That always makes me laugh a little when you consider our kids. My grown children have literally been handed nothing- they didn’t get cars, school, or any of those other things paid for. I required them to pay(with the caveat they did get to live at home rent free until 23 and they would put $400 in the bank instead of rent.) His, on the other hand, had college, cars, downpayment on house all paid for by dad. He grumbles because they are always asking him for money. Which one of us raised the “entitled” kids? He doesn’t seem to understand that the playing ground isn’t fair for kids who don’t have parents like him. And parents really are something of a lottery. Heck, even my kids to some extent realize they are lucky to have parents that covered housing costs for them or have parents that have insurance for them to stay on. It meant they could bank money and save it for their priorities. My heart breaks a little bit when they tell me how so and so is struggling and stressing because they took out student loans or that their friend needed to borrow money because they didn’t allow in their budget for getting sick and they have no paid time off and kids to budget for. Little things like being able to take a sick day or not having to come up with the equivalent of a rent check to learn, in my opinion, should be fixed. It might not completely level the playing ground but it would help.

        1. tiresoup

          IMHO your own sneering comes through loud and clear. They are probably just as surprised as you are that someone on the other side has something to offer …

            1. cwaltz

              And?

              For the record, I definitely don’t apologize for being liberal and I’m happy that my convictions are strong enough that I’m not afraid to go toe to toe with someone who thinks my side of the aisle lies about global warming and wants to make this country like communist Russia. When someone bleats socialism at me I’m not going to cower in a corner or change my position based on namecalling(and that goes ditto for being accused of tribalism) I’ll defend my viewpoint and raise it by pointing out that capitalism doesn’t appear to be working out particularly well for over half of us.

          1. cwaltz

            There’s no sneering involved at all. It’s called defending your belief system.

            I suspect you think I should sit quietly by while someone disparages liberal ideals as everything wrong with the country? Yeah, not going to happen. The reality is the only way to break down misconceptions is to show people where their thought process veers from reality.

            And let’s be clear if you believe that the problem with the country is liberals with an entitlement mentality who want everything from free college to free Obamaphones then you are veering from reality.

          2. Lambert Strether

            In fact, the comment that starts this thread gives two examples of “the other side has something to offer,” with which cwaltz does not disagree. So I’m not sure where you hear the sneering coming from.

        2. Christopher Fay

          Which is why Bernie Sanders, warts and all, is our strongest candidate as he has the message that transcends party lines. If only the professional dinos would stop shouting he’s unelectable. I’m voting Trump before I vote Hillary. And if our peoples’ representatives vote to continue the charade that is Washington and defund Social Security, I will more actively work to de-seat any dino from Massachusetts.

          1. different clue

            Their goal is to MAKE him unelectable by calling him unelectable enough times that the suggestible parts of their audience will vote against him out of the injected belief that he is unelectable. The professional Dems hope to make him the loser that “nobody wants to go with” by calling him loser enough times.

            Their long-range game is to get him defeated in the election if they can’t prevent his nomination. They want to get him defeated in the election because they know that if he wins the nomination AND the election, he and his movement will be in a position to purge all the mainstream Democrats out of the Democratic Party.

      2. Massinissa

        We need to return to old style Populism, like Populist Democrat William Jennings Bryan did a hundred years ago. That way the left could get the white working class to help us out, just like back then!

        Lets get Kansas back for the left! (Not necessarily the Democrats. Theyre the ones that abandoned places like Kansas in the first place, sooo…)

        1. different clue

          I have heard of the theory that the Populists built up their movement to the point where a carpetbagger like Bryan could run in its name with no help from the Democrats or Bryan or anyone but themselves. The populists took a major gamble on deciding to suborn their independent existence to the Democratic Party and its Bryan. They gambled and they lost.

          Or am I wrong?

    4. ShamanicFallout

      However, here’s something I saw in FB (sorry) that I really have trouble understanding. It’s a picture of a fast food worker leaning out of the drive thru window with a bag of food in hand. The caption is something like “She wants $15 an hour but can’t even remember to put the straw in my bag”. And I know that the person who posted this has a low paying service job. What is this telling us?

      1. low_integer

        It tells me that neoliberal politics is succeeding in its war on compassion and making people’s default reaction to others cynical, even when the other party faces the same daily struggles that they do.
        Imo, defaulting to cynicism should be reserved solely for those who embrace the shortsighted selfishness of neoliberalism.

        1. low_integer

          Make that: Imo, defaulting to cynicism should be reserved solely for instances in which one must deal with, or interpret the actions of, those who embrace the shortsighted selfishness of neoliberalism.

      2. Christopher Fay

        It’s telling us we need a picture of Hillary with the caption, she’s worth $2.5 billion in a special tax treatment that escaptes taxation?

  4. allan

    Class Warfare, Hong Kong Edition:

    Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah is courting controversy with his latest blog warning that “soaring” wages for low-skilled jobs need to be monitored because they are making it difficult for owners of small businesses.

    In his Chinese-only message posted online yesterday, Tsang wrote that workers such as dish washers might be making a better living these days, earning up to HK$12,000 a month, but that was putting pressure on their employers running small to medium-sized enterprises.

    HK$12,000 = $1550. This is in a city with some of the most unaffordable real estate prices on the planet.

    1. James Levy

      When cheap labor is the goose that lays the local golden eggs, expect the owners of the bird to fight fanatically to protect that goose! The fallout is just written off as collateral damage in the struggle to save the goose (“our way of life is non-negotiable” say the rich everywhere).

    2. Christopher Fay

      Those are the legendary small business owners who are on point with the most unaffordable real estate prices on the planet. They have to pay to keep their little place running. It’s much different sitting after work, if you hit the office at all, in the Cohiba room at the Mandarin Oriental. Then, it’s you who supports the most unaffordable real estate on Earth.

      Try, try, to up the price of a bowl of noddles for the office workers coming out of those well-priced towers

      1. lord koos

        In Thailand a few years ago when the price of a bowl of noodles went up from 30 Bhat to 40, about a 30 cent increase, the protests from the people were loud and long.

      2. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

        People should have at least two hours to prepare each of their three meals every day…for those eating three times a day, that means six hours.

        It would do wonders of people’s health.

        And, along with emphasizing personal health in student-oriented (instead of producing more machine parts) education.

  5. abynormal

    Mass circulation daily Izvestia quoted an unnamed source in the Russian government as saying that the cabinet had already given a preliminary approval to the budget plans for the next three years. If this draft is passed, up to 21 percent of all state money would be spent on defense in 2017. https://www.rt.com/politics/173548-russia-military-budget-boost/

    Primarily, Washington focuses on to the long-term, steady growth of China’s defense budget. From 2004 to 2013, the annual increase in China’s official defense budget averaged 9.4%. China currently ranks second in the world in defense spending, coming second only to the United States, but significantly exceeding its neighbors. What’s more, gross figures of China’s military spending show that it increased faster than that of the other Asian countries: from 2010 to 2014 China’s share in the overall volume of military spending in Asia grew from 28% to 38%. http://journal-neo.org/2015/09/16/the-us-and-china-s-military-budget/

    “Monotonous talk of the end of American hegemony, the universal cliché of the period, is mostly a way of avoiding mounting a serious opposition to it.”
    Tariq Ali, The Obama Syndrome: Surrender at Home, War Abroad

  6. James Levy

    On the wave of litigation on the climate rules, this takes us back to a discussion a few days ago wherein I pointed out that if this really has become Lifeboat Earth, this kind of crap has got to be suppressed. Call me an evil authoritarian, but at some point it’s either freedom to file law suits to protect my imagined future profits or its hundreds of millions of people dead and they’ll be machine gunning refugees at the borders or Europe and Australia. I can’t tell you if the point has been reached where that is inevitable, but if it has then many of our American concepts of “personal freedom” are going to have to go the way of the Dodo. I wish we had the wisdom to delineate which freedoms must be protected and which must be abandoned, but if we were that wise we wouldn’t be having people fight for every nickel in a world facing calamitous climate change. All I know is we need an answer to this, and we need it fast. We can either collectively shoulder the burdens and rise to the occasion, or the government will impose some set of “solutions” on us via Mr. Market and then martial law. Readers here can tell me whether I’m being too alarmist, but I don’t see any alternatives to collective action or a pointed gun in our future.

    1. Nigelk

      To those who imagine themselves your betters, none of the horrific contingencies you’ve described are off the table. They’ve got gates, walls, and private security. Good luck to the rest of you. “Elysium” starring Matt Damon comes to mind.

      HG Wells said “For humanity, the choice is the universe or nothing.”

      Right now we are choosing ‘nothing’.

      T: @RadicalPopulist

  7. Ian

    I love reading about science and the advances being made. But it scares me, with what we have in power and that they are the ones that will be utilizing it.

  8. Brooklin Bridge

    Cute antidote. What does that sour face mean? “Ouch! I hate it when she does that?” or “I DON’T want to go to bed now?” or”I’m one tough mean hombre?” or ???

      1. Jagger

        Mother cats carry kittens by the nape of the neck. You will notice that vets will often control cats by the nape of the neck as well.

          1. Jagger

            At first glance, I assumed the mother was going for the nape of the neck but I am not sure now. Hard to say from the angle.

  9. John Zelnicker

    Yves – You might want to edit the first link under China?, the article about the IMF and the yuan. The underlying url is correct, but you have the link for the freezenet article as the title.

    Also, my check is in the mail.

  10. Ignim Brites

    The Mike Barnicle, Daily Beast, piece, “Hillary Clinton, Trey Gowdy, and the True Victims of Playing Politics with War” contains this gem “The United States of America, justifiably and proudly, went to war in Afghanistan in early winter of 2001.” Does that mean that Obama unjustifably and shamefully lost the war in Afghanistan? Or should adver to the ancient aphorism: Pride cometh before the fall? Or perhaps it is just a matter that if retreat is the most difficult military operation it is doubly so in a democracy. The whole idea that the invasion of Afghanistan was unquestionably justified needs to be examined. Maybe one of the questions back then and now should have been could we actually achieve our objectives.

    1. different clue

      Well, if the objective had been to get the Taliban defeated and Afghanistan set on a non-Taliban course, then the war actually won that objective at the time. Every leader/thinker in Afghanistan took it for granted that the old exiled King, Zahir Shah, would be invited back to take a symbolic caretaker role over a series of local and regional councils ending in a Grand Council of the tribal and etc. leaders throughout Afghanistan to select and organize a government.

      But then the US and European powers short-circuited that Loya Jirga process and engineered the selection of Hamid Karzai at a big meeting in Bonn, I believe, to be the “President” of Afghanistan. And thereby very deliberately and on purpose threw away and burned down the victory which American bombing had helped the Northern Alliance win against the Taliban to begin with. And this was all of a piece with the US very deliberately letting Pakistan organize rescue flights to save all its ISI personnel from Mazar e Sharif, instead of keeping all the ISI scum filth garbage grounded and held in place long enough for the Northern Alliance to catch them and kill them all in detail. And it was also all of a piece with the Bush Administration deliberately on purpose arranging for bin Laden and al Zawahri and the other major al Qaeda figures to escape at Tora Bora so they would all live to fight again another day.

      It makes you wonder what the real Cheney Bushite agenda really was. ( Or should I say the Pelosi Cheney Bushite agenda? Because this may have been part of what Pelosi was rewarding and sheltering Cheney and Bush for when she said “Impeachment is off the table”.)

  11. rich

    Psychologists charged in $25 million nursing home fraud scheme

    Two psychologists were charged for billing Medicare $25 million for psychological tests on nursing home residents that were either unnecessary or never provided.

    Beverly Stubblefield, Ph.D., and John Teal, Ph.D., owned two psychological services companies that contracted to nursing homes in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

    Stubblefield and Teal, along with other clinical psychologists employed by their companies, allegedly provided psychological tests and other services to nursing home residents that weren’t necessary, and in some cases, never provided.

    Between 2009 and 2015, the companies submitted more than $25.2 million in claims to Medicare, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Medicare has reportedly paid $17 million of those claims.

    Stubblefield and Teal, along with two other defendants, were charged with conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and conspiracy to make false statements related to healthcare matters. The case is being handled by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force.

    http://www.mcknights.com/news/psychologists-charged-in-25-million-nursing-home-fraud-scheme/article/449170/

    there’s so much fraud in the system that anyone that blames current costs on patient’s is a fool.

    1. abynormal

      Thursday, June 18, 2015
      11 Individuals Operating 14 Companies Charged in New Orleans Fraud Schemes Amounting to Almost $110 Million in Fraud
      Charges Part of Largest National Medicare Fraud Takedown in History
      Including today’s enforcement actions, nearly 900 individuals have been charged in national takedown operations, which have involved more than $2.5 billion in fraudulent billings. Today’s announcement marks the first time that districts outside of Strike Force locations have participated in a national takedown and accounted for 82 defendants charged in the takedown.
      http://www.justice.gov/usao-edla/pr/11-individuals-operating-14-companies-charged-new-orleans-fraud-schemes-amounting

      NHPS and PCS
      …“They safely cured the world of sadness, wiser the Pfizer for it?”
      Brian Spellman

    2. Nigelk

      You guys, you guys! Fraud is part of the cost of doing business…What are we supposed to do, enact single payer and make helping the suffering of other human beings a non-profit exercise?

      1. cwaltz

        *gets out calculator*

        So what’s the discounted rate for committing multiple counts of fraud these days?

        I sure do hope it’s like labor violations where you can plead down the 75 counts to 8 counts and still make money off the 2.5 billion you took in.

        *dials the number for local lobbyist who negotiated with Obama for health care*

  12. fritter

    Researchers Test Rapamycin in Dogs, a Possible Step Toward Human Trials of an Anti-Aging Drug MIT Technology Review (furzy mouse). You know, just to help save the planet, we could all do more undereating as opposed to more pill-taking…

    If long term thinking will convince people to behave as better citizens of the planet then the only chance the Earth has is extending human lifespan really. Its a lot easier to be a psychopath if you don’t have to live with the consequences of your decisions. I’d argue even the Koch’s would worry about climate change if they thought they would be alive to suffer through it.

  13. Llewelyn Moss

    Nice propaganda piece on 60 Minutes last night. Inviting us in to see the Death And Destruction Command Center for bombing the crap out of Iraq and Syria. And when asked how long it will take to finish ISIS, the Air Force general says it will take more than a dozen more bombing raids [paraphrased]. No seriously, he alluded to a dozen rather than 1000 dozens. Yes, Mr AF General, the Merican people are as stupid as you think.

    Reminded me of the heady days of the launch of the Iraq War. I can still picture see Donald Rumsfeld’s Cheshire Cat smile introducing us to the term Shock And Awe. Ah but that was 12 years and many $Trillions ago. Long live the MIC. In related news, mose parasites end up killing their host.

    1. James Levy

      They’ve been bombing the crap out of the Taliban for a dozen years and they are still in the field, not only active but so potent that we can’t withdraw our troops on schedule because they’d seize most or all of the country if we left. The Soviets killed upwards of a million Afghans and still had to withdraw as they were not prepared to kill the several millions left and that was the only real option for “victory”. The irony is that people who are completely content killing tens of thousands of innocent people shrink from committing genocide and “getting the job done.” I guess we are fortunate for this, but it’s hell on the tens of thousands.

      1. Llewelyn Moss

        Yeah but in Afganistan this Next Decade WILL BE DIFFERENT. This time we’ll succeed in Ridding Afganistan of Evil. hahaha.

        Meanwhile back in Syria, all will be well once we remove the evil dictator. Just like Iraq was fixed by removing Saddam. Just like Libya was fixed by removing Muammar. Just like…

        1. OIFVet

          Well it can be different. See the Guardian article I linked to below. If we take refugees they will serve as a bridge to the folks back home, clearing up the unfortunate misconceptions that the folks have about the US. Now, the article talks about Syrian refugees, but the fact is that a large part of the refugee wave consists of Afghans, and Germany is about to begin sending them back posthaste. So bring them to the US too, and watch how in a few years all will be well and folks will stop resisting our civilizing mission.

            1. OIFVet

              Yeah, it’s snark. But I do think that the US should take a million or more refugees from Syria and Afghanistan. Someting like the Berlin Airlift in reverse. And settle some of them in Chappaqua, Crawford, Preston Hollow, Hyde Park, and particularly in the Clinton, Bush, and Obama presidential libraries. Martha’s Vineyard and Obama’s favorite golf course clubhouses would be a plus.

        2. andyb

          We will be in Afghanistan as long as the CIA needs to fund black ops and political bribery through heroin sales, using its masters’ banking cabal to launder the proceeds.

        3. different clue

          If the R + 5 are able to help the legitimate government of Syria, currently presided over by al Assad, to exterminate every trace and member of the head-chopping cannibal rebel armies and movements in Syria before the US/Europe/Saudi Arabia Axis of Jihad can get them sufficiently supported to keep fighting, then the “Evil Dictator” will get to help set the terms of what comes next. That might well involve driving ISIS back into Iraq where it got started, and where it will continue to survive and flourish unless and until the Shia Supremacist Baghdad Regime does a 180 and offers the Sunni Arabs of Iraq a “fair deal” socially/politically/economically. The Shia Supremacist regime in Baghdad won’t offer the Sunni Arabs any such deal unless the Iranian government is able to change its mind with enough assassinations and kidnappings and terror-torture of all relevant Baghdad Shia regime-figures to get the survivors to change their mind about how to deal with the Iraqi Sunni Arabs. The Baghdad Shia regime certainly won’t change its mind on its own.

      2. fresno dan

        Reminds me of the body counts in Vietnam, where we had killed the north Vietnamese 5 or 6 times over. Apparently, though, North Vietnamese are actually composed of cats, and therefore need to be killed 9 times. As soon as someone informs our intelligence agencies of this, I’m sure everything will be straightened out…

    2. MikeNY

      most parasites end up killing their host

      It’s a race between the MIC, Wall Street, and our for-profit healthcare system.

          1. Nigelk

            Isn’t Big Ed just a subsidiary of Wall Street at this point?

            I’m splitting hairs. Hang ’em all high.

    3. curlydan

      I just saw a snippet of the promo for the piece while watching football. I immediately and snarkily added a disclaimer at the end of the promo: “This report brought to you by the never-erring Department of Defense”.

    1. James Levy

      American foreign policy “players” have this down pat. If those dim foreigners would only comprehend why what we are doing “for” (i.e. to) them is for their own good, we’d have no problems. But by the very act of “not getting it” they prove that they do not know what is in their own best interest and thereby justify whatever it is we are doing. This mentality is impenetrable and adamantine.

      1. JTMcPhee

        …if they would only learn to “say Uncle…” That’s all it took back when I was a schoolyard kid being pounded by my elders…

    1. Eureka Springs

      Ha! It’s been well over a year since I had enough verizon unlimited wireless speed to be able to complete one of those tests.

      doG bless America.

    2. grayslady

      It doesn’t matter what the speed test says. What matters is the language in your contract with the ISP. A number of years ago I received approximately $10 as my part of the settlement in a class action suit against AT&T for not providing the speeds we were paying for. The settlement amount wasn’t small, but there were so many of us who were being cheated. The result of the lawsuit: the AT&T contract now specifies a speed range instead of a set speed; and the range is very wide. Previously, the lower end of the range would have cost less money. The current contract says that if AT&T provides you speeds at the low range, it’s all okay, even if the company is charging you twice as much as you used to pay. The telcos never lose, regardless of the legal action.

      1. Christopher Fay

        So our internet coverage is somewhere between North and South Korea but tending more towards North Korea?

  14. allan

    After a few glitches, window shopping for 2016 on healthcare.gov is finally up and running on fumes . Enjoy.

  15. DJG

    TPP report and leaked provisions:
    –Not much on patents here, except for a discussion of drug companies. But there are gazillions to be made off the drug patents. More coverage is needed. Patents are conveniently mystified in the TPP, it seems. Will all countries now adopt roughly the same patent law?
    –Trademarks? More on trademark enforcement would help, although I can’t tell if that is avoided in the TPP or by a misstep by the analysts. Again, there are loads of money to be made off trademarks.
    –Copyrights. The lengthening is from 50 to 70 years after death, which will affect a number of countries. Yet: The peculiar clause is to allow exceptions–that’s the Mickey Mouse rule in the USA. I thought that treaties were supposed to smooth down exceptions. Except when you’re Disney.

  16. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

    Atoms won’t move while you watch.

    Some sort of staring contest, I suppose.

    “I won’t.”

    It was a vastly different world, before humans arrived at the scene.

    1. Jagger

      That is very, very weird. There must be some pretty mind numbing implications there but I haven’t been able or willing to go there yet. Funny how something like that gets into your mind and you can’t stop thinking about it.

      1. giantsquid

        Indeed, very weird as it seems to violate Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. Hence the (quantum) paradox I suppose.

        1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

          It’s weird.

          I guess because we are only able to think with words and numbers, when acting scientifically (one can comprehend intuitively without words, react without thinking with words, as in an emergency, for example), existing words and numbers limit what we can handle mentally. No new words so far to remove the weirdness.

          And we struggle to describe reality with inadequate words like apparatus, human, observer, observee (one under observation), observation and interaction, etc.

          1. Joe Renter

            You don’t have to think scientifically to be intuitively. Be it that those who are in that mind set have opened up the mysteries not yet know or manifested.
            Observe the observer. Reading Krishnamurti can help fire the synapses.

    2. Jake Mudrosti

      In quantum mechanics, the word “observation” has been historically abused. Science journalists get even farther from the mark by sloppily using the word “watch.” This is clarified in modern quantum field theory where the objective term “interaction” is used in particle processes, and the word/concept “observation” isn’t. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/quantum-field-theory/

      Even Heisenberg’s original interpretations are widely misreported today. Entrenched errors spread just like playground chatter, because this historical material is seldom read even by most physicists.

      From Heisenberg’s article in “Niels Bohr and the development of Physics”, 1955, p.22: “Of course, the introduction of the observer must not be misunderstood… it does not matter whether the observer is an apparatus or a human being.” From p.26: “…for the observer himself does not produce the transition…” He’s trying to explain that particle interactions (as understood in the modern sense) are the things that matter, not the “conscious human cognizance” grafted on through various people’s interpretations. Where Heisenberg mentions human cognizance, it is entirely in the context of epistemic knowledge of the system’s state — a point which he clarifies on p.138 of his book “Physics and Philosophy.”

      But hey, why let a few pesky facts get in the way of a good story, amiright?

        1. craazyman

          another apparatus.

          It’s apparatuses all the way down.

          Did Shrodinger’s cat get to page 138 of Heisenberg’s book? I doubt it.

          The cat is toast no matter what.

          1. Jake Mudrosti

            Since you ask the question, the answer is: ‘the cat agreed with it.’

            Schrodinger’s famous 1935 “cat” paper rejected the von Neumann/London/Bauer “conscious cognizance” interpretations. Following von Neumann’s 1932 mathematical treatment, Schrodinger’s 1935 paper specifically asked us to consider a cat as a particle detector apparatus, in place of the usual gauges and dials. In Schrodinger’s description, he took it as a given that a “smeared-out” alive/dead cat was patently absurd. He even included many italicized words when he summarized the meaning of his cat example:: “For *this* reason one can *not* put the wave function directly in place of the model or the physical thing.”

            Schrodinger’s cat paper referred to his own wave function as a “catalog of expectations.” Or, to quote Heisenberg again from p. 28: “…into the details of atomic events, the contours of the ‘objectively real’ world dissolve — not in the mist of a new and yet unclear idea of reality, but in the transparent clarity of a mathematics whose laws govern the possible and not the actual.” As before, the meaning of these words is clarified through modern quantum field theory. But on the other hand, yeah, whatever, and stuff, amiright?

            1. craazyman

              I don’t think anyone can understand quantum theory without understanding the math. I just don’t think it translates from one language to another, from math to words. I just doubt it does.

              Anymore than a Rembrandt painting can be translated into words. Or a novel translated into a movie. It can be a separate thing, but it can’t ever re-create the reality of the original thing. It can only translate that reality into a parallel but quite different language of expression.

              I relatively recently discussed quantum theory briefly with a Quantum Chemistry PhD. He said “all the paradoxes make perfect sense mathematically”. I’d have to trust him on that, since I don’t myself know the math well enough to follow it.

              But I quite agree with your general mistrust of conventional narratives. I don’t think a translation from math to language is even possible. And if one is attempted, the best it can do is find metaphors that convey something striking and profound, but what that will be is not likely to be what the math conveys.

  17. participant-observer-observed

    Wage Gap Alternet piece is very helpful as an awakening tool.

    I thought my guess was pretty decent (~75/1) and it is an order of magnitude off.

    It seems what I thought was a “large” corporation is merely a small-medium one, lol!

    I wonder how it breaks down by industry; it is a bit tricky since they are asking about average pay and not median.

    1. cwaltz

      I thought I had read somewhere that it was 300 to 1. My very high guess could still have been doubled.

      Oddly enough I leaned closer to the GOP when it came to what I thought it should be. I thought a new executive should make 10 times what an entry level employee makes. Of course, “entry level” means different things for different jobs but I would expect someone expected to oversee anywhere from dozens to hundreds of people to be compensated more than someone whose primary job is just being responsible for himself, even if that job is skilled.

      1. JEHR

        My guess for pay for CEO vs. factory worker worked out to 333:1. In Canada, the ratio for 2014 was 206:1. At best, the ratio should be 14:1 or CEO gets $1m and factory worker $70,000. Of course, factory jobs are few and far between and bonuses and owning stock make the differences even greater.

  18. Jim Haygood

    Argentina’s presidential race becomes a runoff:

    Daniel Scioli, a former vice president supported by Mrs. Kirchner, took 35.7 percent of the vote with 84 percent of balloting stations tallied, against 35.3 percent for Mauricio Macri, the mayor of Buenos Aires.

    The votes obtained by Mr. Macri, a former president of one of Argentina’s most popular soccer clubs who ran to the right of his rivals, upend a race in which Mr. Scioli was viewed as a strong front-runner.

    Sergio Massa, a former ally of Mrs. Kirchner’s who moved into the opposition, could find himself in the role of kingmaker after securing 21 percent of the vote in the partial count, with analysts questioning whether he will forge an alliance with Mr. Macri.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/26/world/americas/argentina-presidential-election.html

    It’s an interesting illustration of the international study linked here last week, which showed that an incumbent not eligible for re-election needs about 55% popularity for his party’s new candidate to win. A 35.7% vote share for the Widow K’s designated successor Daniel Scioli is underwhelming.

    Hillary and Barack take note. With Obama’s approval at 46%, what is the likelihood of voters electing a successor who resembles him on so many points (Chicago roots; a lawyer; a former community organizer; different from white male demographic; etc.)? Somewhere between dim and none, I reckon.

      1. Jim Haygood

        By early afternoon BsAs time, Argentina’s Merval index had soared 4.5% on the prospect of the long national nightmare of default and runaway inflation ending.

        http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=%5EMERV

        Two of its main internationally traded bonds jumped to record or near record highs.

        The country’s defaulted dollar Discount bonds, which mature in 2033, rose 3.48 points in price to a bid price of 108.586, yielding 7.296 percent on Monday morning, according to Reuters data.

        They led a broad-based rally across Argentine assets, with the price of the euro-denominated 2038 par bond up 1.4670 points in price to 63.467, yielding 7.370 percent.

        http://finance.yahoo.com/news/argentine-assets-surprise-gains-pro-155333608.html

        1. cwaltz

          *shakes dice* c’mon lucky number seven, c’mon lucky number seven

          I can’t wait to see if the Wall Street gamblers will be rewarded for betting on defaulted dollar bonds.

          I’m sure it will be all everyone else’s fault if they don’t. Risk is so passe’

      2. Jim Haygood

        More:

        Macri is seen by international investors as the candidate most likely to negotiate with a group of “holdout” hedge funds whose suit over bonds defaulted on by Argentina in 2002 caused a new and ongoing default last year.

        Expectations the new government will devalue the peso have pushed it 21 percent lower on the black market since June.

        If Macri ditches the idiotic parallel exchange rate (a ludicrous idea that the Widow K. got from Hugo Chávez) and settles the default, Argentina will boom again like it did in 2002-2007.

        1. RabidGandhi

          This is a hilarious comment.

          So Argentina boomed from 2002-2007 when it was in actual default and at odds with creditors like the IMF and the Paris Club to the tune of USD $260 billion.

          Now that the current administration has settled with the Paris Club and paid back the lion’s share of the debt, but refused to pay USD $1.3 billion to vulture funds, suddenly it’s shackles on the confidence fairy?

          Dejame de joder.

          1. Jim Haygood

            Post-2002, the expectation was that Argentina would offer a settlement on defaulted bonds. The first settlement offer was announced in January 2005.

            Under the Widow K, default and a dysfunctional dual exchange rate were frozen in place. A new president will dispose of these old issues and move on. That’s how the markets see it.

            1. RabidGandhi

              Let me see if I understand your argument.

              So Mr Market doesn’t care that the current government paid off more debt than any other government in Argentine history;

              and Mr Market doesn’t care that the current regime reached agreements to settle all outstanding debt [except for 0.005% still disputed with vulture funds];

              but Mr Market does hate the CFK admin because it kept the previous government’s capital control policy in place, which as you said, was part of a huge boom in growth.

              Mr Market doesn’t seem to care much for the facts.

              1. Jim Haygood

                ‘Mr Market doesn’t seem to care much for the facts.’

                Mr Market doesn’t necessarily interpret facts as you or I would do.

                What he wants is (in the classic sell side formulation) ‘a good concept and a good story,’ with the possibility of some upside.

                By that logic, after the tender ministrations of CFK, Argentina may be effed up enough to buy. :)

                1. RabidGandhi

                  It sounds like exactly that: a story.

                  It may be a cute fairytale for both her supporters and detractors to think that CFK is some kind of economic Maoist, but a look at the actual data tells a complete different story altogether.

                  Under both her’s and her husbands mandates, direct foreign investment was higher (in both real USD terms and in %GDP) than it was in the neoliberal 90s under Menem or under the “pro-freemarket” govts of Frondizi and Ilia.

                  But whatever. The fairytale helps her and the Macri faction win elections, Mr Market notwithstanding.

                  1. cwaltz

                    *puts quarter back in her pocket

                    So I’m guessing Mr Market isn’t going to be able to sell you this awesome scratcher card that just might make you rich, rich, rich?

                    :(

  19. frosty zoom

    “Moreover, it’s extremely difficult to see how this is a trade agreement because there’s very little about this chapter that has to do with international trade. Instead, it seems to be more of a method to import undesirable laws from an international body, circumventing the standard methods of lawmaking (namely governmental representatives of the people writing the laws).”

    from the linked tpp analysis.

    justabout sums it up..

    seems to me that explained so consisely, this provides a quick, convincing explanation to voters with little time to think because they have to fix their lawmowers and make sure the cheque clears before the car insurance is due.

    1. Chris in Paris

      Well…international treaties actually do have to be harmonized into national law by (captured?) legislatures, which is a “standard method of lawmaking”. So the summary is just a little off. On timing, mostly.

      On the actual content posted, the IP section pretty closely tracks current US law but with some slight edits that seem to come from civil law countries’ negotiated changes.

      The frightening part for me is the TPP commission since we have no definition of what that is. I would imagine that it’s something like the WTO court since these guys love to just copy/paste from their previous masterpieces. …

  20. optimader

    New York launches probe into speeds at major Internet broadband providers Reuters
    The instantaneous connection speed is already monitored on end user computers, I have thought for a while that a killer app would be a bandwith upload/download speed datalogger running it the background 24/7, which then coughs up the a monthly prorated backcharge to the ISP for less than contracted bandwidth.

      1. optimader

        Dandy tool! Needs a monthly up/down Mbps totalization against the contracted values and calculate a backcharge

  21. fresno dan

    Caffeine improves learning and memory in bees, as it does in people. Scientists know that. But, one might wonder, what do these laboratory findings mean in terms of the actual lives of bees? It’s not as if a flower meadow is sprinkled with coffee shops.

    Except that it is, in a way. Up to 55 percent of flowering plants are estimated to have caffeinated nectar. So any meadow or forest is going to have lots of places to stop by for a jolt.

    =================================
    Wow.
    Now I know why those hummingbirds are zipping around all the time – they need some decaf nectar…

    1. fresno dan

      Oh, and I have bees buzzing around my hummingbird feeders – I have read that to distract them place a bowl with more concentrated sugar a few feet away. I’m going to start adding some starbucks to the sugar drink….
      Hmmm, but are the hummingbirds attracted to caffeine???

      1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

        It’s interesting that every hummingbird has a job.

        Even baby hummingbird, whose job is to grow up.

        And every ant.

        Every sloth, doing nothing, is doing his job. And has a job.

  22. Daryl

    > Industry set to reject WHO’s processed meat carcinogens ruling Financial Times. Wow, this is astonishing.

    The headline is pretty galling, it’s not like industry gets a veto over regulatory rules just because they’re inconvenient or potentially financially damaging.

    Or, at least we’re not supposed to say that out loud.

      1. Joe Renter

        Being vegetarian is our future. Or those who follow us. Respect for all the Kingdoms. Or something like that. I found it interesting in reading that Benjamin Franklin was a vegetarian and took a air bath (standing naked in front of an open window) when starting his day). A black eye on the map of being a veggie of course goes to Hitler. Pass the carrots.

    1. dk

      The experiment indicates that the rate quantum tunneling decreases when the medium is bombarded with photons. The researchers called the photon bombardment “process of measurement”, which is misleading enough to confuse science-writers, and possibly themselves.

  23. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

    Slovenia, end to EU, refugee crisis.

    In the draft statement, the leaders seek to speed up repatriations of people from South Asia, namely Afghanistan and Pakistan, whose asylum requests are rejected because they are simply seeking a better life and not fleeing war or oppression.

    Oppression – oppression by economic means, via neoliberal policies, is still oppression.

    In fact, neoliberal oppression is just another form of war.

    But no, seeking a better ilfe is not fleeing war or (political) oppression, according to them.

    1. OIFVet

      So what is Europe, a social-democratic paradise? Yes, Europe is better for the time being. But it can’t handle the massive influx and maintain what remains of the welfare state. And that’s part of the intention, perhaps.

      1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

        I think no more global adventures and eradicating neoliberalism, in parallel, would do nicely.

  24. troutcor

    Love NakedCap, but please no more prefacing comments with “um, . . . ”
    This now-ubiquitous tic does not make anyone sound smarter, does not make any foe sound more gormless, and it has become pervasive enough on FB.
    Keep up the good work, but no more gratuitous “um.”

    1. Clive

      Erm… am I to be permitted to keep using “erm…” ? It is, I believe, how we British pronounce “um…” (which I cannot help but agree is some rightly frowned-upon colonial contrivance and probably what “erm…” became once the sorts of people who live in Newark had got their hands on it) and as such, retains a refined, cultured connotation. Anything said with a sufficiently plummy British accent automatically sounds intellectual no matter how dumb it is. Just ask that David Cameron.

      1. optimader

        Ahem, the queen is not amused.

        Like going forward I will try and embrace using “like” rather than “um” It like has more intellectual gravitas

    2. Gio Bruno

      …umm, I use the term occasionally. It’s actually a mild warning that what is to follow may be unsettingling, diffident, and possibly sarcastic.

      Feel free to ignore my comments.

  25. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

    New York Man…sovereign nation in Utah.

    From Wiki, Tribal Sovereignty In the United States:

    It may be noted that while Native American tribal sovereignty is partially limited as “domestic dependent nations,” so too is the sovereignty of the federal government and the individual states – each of which is limited by the other. The people’s sovereignty underlies both the U.S. federal government and the States, but neither sovereignty is absolute and each operates within a system of parallel sovereignty. According to the reservation clause of the Tenth Amendment, the U.S. federal government possesses only those powers delegated to it by the states or the people, while other aspects of the people’s sovereignty reside in the individual states. For example, the individual states hold full police powers. On the other hand, the individual states, like the Indian tribes, do not print currency or conduct foreign affairs; and the individual states are constrained by federal authority under the U.S. Constitution and are bound by the Bill of Rights. Viewed in this light, tribal sovereignty is yet another form of parallel sovereignty[1] within the U.S. constitutional framework, constrained by but not subordinate to other sovereign entities.

    The People’s sovereignty underlies…I take it to mean that it is more basic, more fundamental.

    That would mean, the people’s monetary sovereignty overrides/suprecedes the government’s monetary sovereignty.

    Inject new money from the bottom up. Budget government spending. As much money as it’s needed for the ‘aggregate demand lacking’ people.

  26. optimader

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1014763/
    Child 44
    A disgraced member of the military police investigates a series of nasty child murders during the Stalin-era Soviet Union

    Good movie from a better book, (but that’s usually the case) w/Thomas Hardy, Gary Oldman and Noomi Rapace (Girl w/a Dragon Tattoo)

    Loosely based on Andrei Chikatilo ( the Rostov Ripper)

    1. Joe Renter

      …like Dude, it only got 2 stars on Rotten Tomatoes.
      I saw it. I would give it 3 stars. Tom Hardy is a favorite actor of mine though.

      1. optimader

        Like, watched it last night –thought it was pretty good, gritty film. Might help if you read the novel but I’ll watch anything w/ Noomi Rapace. Hardy or Oldman.
        For me, not much regard for website movie ratings perse, that said a 4 of 6 on IMDB, what that actually mean? not sure. Audience that didn’t get it mixed with audience that got it?
        I did look at Rtomatoes, insufficiently ->”thrilling” for a thriller, which for me is potentially an endorsement. Maybe the American audience would have given a bump if cast w/Tom Cruise for sufficient thrillability.?

  27. craazyman

    Banner Ad Alert!

    Not everybody gets my ads. Some probably get hemmoroid cream ads or ads for time share vacations in Puerto Vallarta. Or ads for private wealth management services that make it seem like you’re a surfer ho just sold his business for $38 million dollars and need some sober advice and ass kissing,

    Those aren’t useful ads. They’re just junk. This is useful . . . .

    Joseph A. Bank has a men’s Executive Full Length Double Breasted Camel Hair Topcoat on sale for $139!

    I think i’m going to get one. It looks pretty good in the picture! Yet one more example of banner ads working for the peanut gallery. What is there to complain about? Nothing. That’s what. If you can’t make the ads work for you, you need to work on yourself. Are you really a surfer? No. Do you have hemmoroids? Maybe. Do you need private wealth maagement services? Not the kind they’re selling. Those are the kind of services that make the posts here!

    It looks like its full length too. Not one of those petticoats that stop mid-thigh that guys wear these days because they don’t know any better. Those are girlyman coats and the guys don’t even realize. Dudes, get your sartorial act together before your pull a Bruce Jenner already.

    1. craazyman

      here’s the description

      ‘Warm and handsome in any setting. Impeccably tailored of pure camel hair with double-breasted button front, center vent and side-entry pockets. Full length. Dry clean. Imported.”

      That is not bad writing. People who write ponderously wordy invective-filled sleeping piils for their peanut gallery comments that nobody wants to read — even their own mothers would fall asleep — they can learn from a descriptive phrase even as simple as that one.

      I know some people might think “it’s gotta look cheap and baggy. Nobody could buy a topcoat for $139 and look good. It’s the kind of thing you put on a scarecrow in a corn field, not on a man in New Yawk. They would’t even wear that out at night in Indianapolis. Who is this guy kidding?”

      One word. Tailoring. You can tailor it and have it look much much better than even a $13,900 designer camel hair coat that would make you, honestly, look like a flaming psychotic freak of human nature. You’d wear something like that and (unless it was a Saville Row bespoke coat cut by a man who knows classic gentleman’s attire) you might be mistaken for a space alien. Who wears those freaky things designerss make and sell for 13,800 in places like Barney’s and Bergdorf’s. God some of them are horrible. Im just being honest.

      1. optimader

        CM,
        A point of curiosity, where is the hair shaved off the camel for the $13,900.00 vs the $139.00 coat? Or maybe the difference is the camel, I imagine the $139.00 coat hair donor camels are from the rougher side of town? Imagine.

        I think for anything over …say $500.00, I want belly hair from a milk fed Vicuna .

Comments are closed.