Denmark again takes top spot in UN’s world happiness report Associated Press
Florida cop dies in car wreck protecting woman from speeding wrong-way driver New York Daily News (alex)
Fast and Furious Iceberg Scares Horse to Death Iceland Review (aet) :-(
Climate Change and Conservative Brain Death New York Magazine (resilc)
Internet trolls are psychopaths, says expert Thai Visa (furzy)
Financial Times’ response to ad-cutting threat from HP is great BoingBoing (resilc). Somehow missed this from February…
If Google and Facebook can flip elections does code now rule the real world? New Internationalist (furzy)
China?
Weak Japan wage demands deal blow to Abe Financial Times
Refugee Crisis
‘Many issues’ in way of EU migrant deal BBC
EU leaders meet to offer migrant deal to Turkey Reuters
‘Illegal, immoral & inhumane’: Thousands protest in Spain against EU-Turkey refugee deal RT
Makeshift shelters cleared from Calais refugee camp Guardian
Greek Pensions: Tsipras’ Last Ditch Fight Versus Troika Social Europe (Sid S)
Syraqistan
Russia’s Military Aims Achieved, Putin Switches to Diplomacy Paul Craig Roberts (Wat)
Story of cities #3: the birth of Baghdad was a landmark for world civilisation Guardian. Margarita: “It is a very sad, tragic irony that the US embarked on the destruction of what was the cradle of civilization”
2016
Fox News cancels GOP debate after Donald Trump pulls out CNN
With Marco Rubio Out, Ted Cruz Confronts a New Foe in John Kasich New York Times. Funny how Kasich who is clearly a long shot is getting much more generous treatment from the Grey Lady than Sanders ever did.
Trump’s Advantage: 55% of remaining Republican delegates winner-take-all Spread An Idea
Donald Trump’s War on the First Amendment TruthDig
Rich donors have blown $200 million on failed candidates so far Yahoo (furzy)
Trump predicts ‘riots’ if not nominee BBC
The Republican National Convention Could Be a Perfect Storm for Militarized Police Violence Gawker
Republicans are practically handing Hillary the presidency New York Post. But if the parallel is McGovern 1968, the Republicans produced Watergate…
Trump ad: Clinton not tough enough to face Putin, ISIS The Hill (resilc). Trump is going to goad Hillary into being more macho? Spare us…
IT’S ON! Trump takes aim at Hillary: ‘Embarrassment to our country’ American Mirror (resilc)
How the ‘New York Times’ Sandbagged Bernie Sanders Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone. Lambert featured this in Water Cooler yesterday, but worth making sure readers don’t miss it.
Snake Oil Biotech CEO Will Fundraise for Hillary Gawker (resilc)
Clinton vs. Trump: The Worst of All Worlds in a Broken Political System Atlantic (resilc)
Wall Street Goons Are Coming for Senator Professor Warren Charles Pierce, Esquire (Randy K)
Mining Companies Pay Far Less Than They Should For Taxpayer-Owned Coal Huffington Post
“There Is Regulatory Capture, But It Is By No Means Complete” ProMarket (sherry)
Black Injustice Tipping Point
Black Lives Matter Victory as Chicago’s Top Prosecutor Ousted teleSUR
Homebuyers Are Getting Around the 20% Down Payment Requirement. Here’s How Yahoo
Rich countries have a $78 trillion pension problem CNBC
The Fed caused 93% of the entire stock market’s move since 2008: Analysis Yahoo (furzy). I am sure the Fed would be pleased to hear that.
Robots are better investors than people Financial Times. By the same logic, I would assume robots are better central bankers than central bankers….
Class Warfare
These Are the 10 Most Racist Cities in America, According to Twitter Alternet
The End of Automatic Tipping Has Devastated Restaurant Paychecks Gawker (resilc)
Antidote du jour. @marcuschown via Richard Smith:
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
242 comments
Comments are closed.
IME, the best explanation for how Trump got to be a serious candidate comes from this piece in Mediate, shared by Bruce Bartlett, on how the economic incentives for Conservative news outlets pushed many towards hyping Trump:
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/how-and-why-the-conservative-media-sold-its-soul-to-facilitate-trumps-nomination/
Dikaios Logos
March 17, 2016 at 7:10 am
Very good point DL – the other link in today’s link about FAUX News canceling the debate because Trump won’t participate just proves the point – as I’ve always said, with Faux it is first and always about the money – other than the principal of making money, there is no “conservative” principals at Faux.
Sure, those poor conservatives have to fight so hard to be heard… always the victim. These guys have me rolling on the floor…
All the recent media handwringing about Trump’s lack of foreign policy advisers is Imho a move by the neocon establishment to have their people and views firmly planted in his campaign. No independence or foreign policy “realism” allowed.
They’ve already got Hillary of course.
++++++++++++++++++++++!!!
Apparently, quagmires are good for some people!
You see a quagmire, they see a self-licking ice cream cone…
Instead of the NYT changing headlines on Bernie Sanders stories to make them less favorable,
maybe they should focus on headlines like this one:
Eurowings, Lufthansa’s Budget Service, Is Off to a Rocky Start
The families of the 150 victims on the flight that a Eurowings first officer crashed into the Maritime Alps
might not be too happy if they saw it.
that was a germanwings plane
From the article:
Eurowings:Germanwings :: AirTran:Valuejet
But if the parallel is McGovern 1968, the Republicans produced Watergate… You’re just too funny Yves
Who is the Hubert Humphrey this cycle?
We’ve already seen Muskie (Boehner) cry (Watergate) in ’72 and endorse Speaker Ryan over the Gray Lady’s favorite democrat, The Esprirt de Corps of 1994’s Contract with America John Kasich ….
Don’t know if it shows that way for everyone, but the dimensions for the anecdote on the main page seem way off.
Looks more like a sheep, too. I think photoshop was at work.
I don’t know if its true or not, but I get vertigo just looking at the picture (fake vertigo?)
I’m not personally afraid of heights, but the pic does make me anxious for the sheep. I prefer to believe it’s photo-shopped.
First of all, it isn’t a goat, it’s a sheep. And it looks like a garden variety sheep, not a mountain sheep. Finally I strongly suspect it’s Photoshopped. Note that the lower part of the wedged in rock is in shadow, meaning the light must be coming from directly above. Yet the sheep casts no shadow. I really hope it’s not for real because that poor animal would have been doomed to a long and painful death.
It is better to live one day as a sheep … a very adventerous sheep.
no way. if it were photoshop, they would have taken some pounds off of that rock.
Sheep and goats are both classified as Bovids. There is a large variety of body shapes in the classification. While the low pixel photo appears to show what appears to be what some would call a sheep, it just as likely may be a goat.
Not sure if the sheep is photoshopped but this place exists.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kjeragbolten
The sheep is not photoshopped, I know her.
I checked. That’s the largest image we have.
Hi there, the preview image on the front page is amusingly messed up. It looks like it was sized wrong. It made me laugh.
Regarding the story of Google or Facebook being able to flip elections…it doesn’t mean that CODE rules the world, it is the people/creature wielding the code that does: corporations. OR single powerful (psychopath) corporate execs who make the decision to wield the code in such a way.
The latest season of the Netflix version of ‘House of Cards’ delves into this admirably.
The opening credits of that show are superb. The music, how the imagery is used, has great integrity in reflecting the subtext of the series.
youtube.com/embed/U3UdeaZAKWs
I hated the portrayal and take they had on Putin.
PREE-cisely.
I would add, though, that part of the problem is the presumption that coded frameworks/algorithms are neutral arbiters, that they are without biases, when in reality they simply codify the biases of those who develop them. The difficulty, then, lies in getting people to see how algorithms function as a set of judgments which reflect certain (class) values and not as “natural.”
Today’s Antidote du jour.
I have a new mind image when I hear.
…….a rock and a hard place.
For those interested, the picture is from “Kjeragbolten” in Western Norway. A photo-op almost as popular as “Trolltunga” a bit to the north.
Re: Antidote du jour: I was immediately reminded of the highway through the Sinclair Canyon leading to the Radium Hot Springs (in BC) where we used to go to swim.
Over the years the rocks were whittled away until they were no longer so dramatic. I could easily imagine the goats using that egress.
re: Our nominee is a disaster: Time may be running out, but Democrats will come to rue Clinton over Sanders (Salon)
B/c it’s hard to believe anyone could be worse than Trump. But of course, then there is Hellery. It has all the key Hellery
smearsfacts supporting this axiom.Author says he’s writing in Bernie regardless of what happens — me too.
I’ll decide at the actual voting machine whether to write in Bernie or vote Jill Stein. I could even decide to go Trump in an effort to destroy both the GOP AND the Democraps. Both parties need to be gutted, cored out, and the ick flushed down the toilet.
I’ve been forced out of the Dem party first by disgust, resentment, disillusionment. Now I am actively ANTI-Dem party (goes without saying I’m rabidly anti-GOP).
Good points. The author agrees…
Ahhhhuuumm…HRCwill fight for you?..and stuff..
The risk/reward matrix is an interesting one, a lot of unfilled check boxes, just none of them are potentially advantagous to HRC
This morning im thinking in the event of a Trump nomination, he will shove the tiller over to the less bombastic.
He can “change his mind” and walk back anything he’s said, and it can be attributed to a mercurial and unorthodox nature. His stage persona has that precedent.
In the event the RNC decides to commit party sabuku with an “open convention” and nominate a retread, this could play to Trump’s advantage in yet another “reverse control” scheme, allowing him to run as the jilted anti establishment candidate , which has been a winning formula for both him, and less effectively, for Sanders.
Bottom line HRCbots can furiously wave their HRC will fight for you signs and dutifully march to their designated polling place to fulfill their Eloi-Morlock compact with HRC on election day, but i just dont see her garnering enough of the pissed off Sanders supporters, thinking small d voters and undecided swing voters to not get dismembered if Trump has a mind to trim the crazy knob a bit in the general election, with or without RNC support.
The problem with Hillary isn’t losing Sanders voters who will likely vote against Trump. This is reality despite what we might say now. The issue is the Hillary supporters will only wave Hillary signs which doesn’t identify the unregistered, people who need rides or absentee ballots, and low info voters who need their hands held to bother to vote.
No one will work on behalf of Hillary. She can do all the TV appearances and dap the campaign away, but sometimes voters won’t vote. The real secret of the 50 state strategy was the recognition Democrats were leaving votes on the table by playing footsie with swing voter unicorns instead of focusing on registration.
Plenty of voters who are under 45 or even recently downsized and moved to condos will not have registered. The average Hillary supporter wont hit the street to do this because it means rubbing shoulders with people they blame for not voting in their best interests. The Republicans hound their voters about this.
Fear of Trump wont motivate the kind of action necessary to win especially since everyone expects Hillary to fund raise her way to victory.
I think you are making a faulty assumption when you say Sanders voters will vote for Clinton against Trump. The powers that be want apathetic, they get apathetic. I will not vote for a horrible candidate even against another horrible candidate.
I think most will vote for Hillary, maybe 60% or so. But 40% either not voting, voting 3rd party or write-in, or voting for Trump spells disaster for her.
Combine that with low turnout/overall dem voter ambivalence about her, and it doesn’t look really good.
There’s a very real chance she’ll lose and I have little to no doubt that the bullies of the Democratic Party will try to blame Sanders supporters.
However, you can’t rewrite history and this election cycle the DNC was even more blatant in their contempt for “activists.” If Hillary loses it will be because the DNC is not democratic, not because activists chose not to vote for the DNC candidate of choice.
They always blame the dogs when the dogs won’t eat the rancid dog food.
NTG
I am probably an atypical primary voter, but I pulled a D ballot in a heavily R County specifically to vote against HRC, basically writing off my down ballot influence.
My sensibilities today are that in the case HRC is nominated D candidate, I will vote against her as effectively as possible. If that means I have to vote for Trump, so be it. Put me firmly in the perceived lesser of two evil column in this POTUS election. I was truly hoping HRC’s candidacy would have been taken out at the primary level, but this probably wont happen, short of an indictment –and I’m pretty sure the fix is in on that not happening.
unregistered, people who need rides or absentee ballots, and low info voters who need their hands held to bother to vote.
Here in Illinois it was an unprecedented voter turnout ~45%… In Chicago I believe even closer if not exceeding 50%, or apprx twice modern historical standards for voter turnout in Illinois and Chicago.. I have not heard that this was a result of any extraordinary effort to shag out people to vote, more a case of self-actualized voters.
How did all this extra voter participation work out for HRC? Unremarkably, I would even say poorly considering the mumbo-jumbo about this being her ‘”birth state” and all of the media coverage contrasted to Sanders essential blackout, or if any, downbeat impressions tossed out by the Organs of Media.
She beat Sanders by 34,290 votes in Illinois, or 50.4% vs 48.7% , well within my perception of the tolerance for vote fraud, if it occured.
So what does it mean?
If I have the numbers right from recollection, in the end she scored 68 delegates and Sanders scored 67 delegates. There are 47 super delegates, of which she has 21 pledged, whatever that actually means, so 26 still in play, (in reality all in play).
Based on the Illinois and Chicago results, which arguably should be a stronghold for her, HRC is a tepid candidate.
I keep waiting for the Clinton Foundation, essentially a money laundering for access operation, to be exposed.
I imagine there is evidence of that in the emails too.
Also, someone has to be ready to release those Goldman Sachs speeches that will no doubt provide endless material for dark humor.
That’s exactly what he will do. Trump only wants one thing which is to be called President Trump. The NYT had a story saying Trump’s run is really all about making himself respectable. This is patronizing but rings true. Who knows whether he has any ideology at all? One of the main attack lines used by his even worse rivals was that he is a closet liberal.
Or not. But Trump does seem to put a big store by “loyalty” so he might not be as eager to throw his voters under the bus as Hillary would be. Or Obama was. Therefore he may stand by those promises to leave SS alone and, to left dismay, crack down on immigration. But it seems obvious that should he get the nomination you will see are more high toned version of the Donald, if that’s possible.
??!!! Please tell that to the suckers that he left high and dry each of the four times that he used clever bankruptcy lawyers to keep his money and let his “partners” lose theirs!
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trump-filed-bankruptcy-times/story?id=13419250
It seems the taxpayers are the only people who can’t discharge their debts.
The Tsarist regime could go away, and a new nation forged, but the debts remained for the people…
And the governments or their leaders? Those who escaped executions could go in exile or enjoy life in the new government.
That’s why all freebies, like fiat money, should go the to the people.
But that’s different–“the art of the deal.” People who vote for Trump are contributing to the greater glory of Trump and giving the kind of loyalty he obviously craves. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see that this is someone who takes everything personally..
Plus he’s a 69 year old guy with plenty of money. Unlike grifters like Obie and Hill he has no need to screw over his supporters in the name of future fortune seeking. He might prefer to be loved by large masses of the public.
Or this could be completely wrong. Trump hysteria brings out the worst in certain quarters but there’s no doubt that what Trump is up to is still a bit of a mystery.
Haven’t read really much on his bankruptcy history yet (I will), so I don’t know how clever it actually all was, or if it was basically legally formulaic.
The Rubicon crossed IMO is when one actively pursues fraudulent/illegal strategies to secure/cloak ill gotten wealth. Don’t know if anyone has accused him of that?
Is Trump altruistic in his business dealings? I don’t think anyone will accuse him of that.
Which, if true, would be a disappointment to all those who hoped who would go after Hillary fiercely.
not caring (as opposed to being aggressively against) liberal issues doesn’t quite make trump a liberal
How the Democrats Have Helped Wall Street, Not the Middle Class…audio
Despite the fact that Democrats have served in the White House for 16 of the last 24 years, economic inequality is at an all-time high, and the middle class continues to decline. Former Wall Street Journal columnist and author Thomas Frank discusses his latest book Listen, Liberal: Or, Whatever Happened to the Party of the People? which takes a critical look at why the Democratic Party hasn’t done more to advance the values and causes they purportedly stand for, including expanding economic opportunity and fighting for social justice.
http://www.wnyc.org/story/democratic-party-still-peoples-party/
The Middle Class, and the poor, can help themselves by self-empowering.
Then, when the people are healthy, strong and able, the people can even help the Party or the government if and when the Party or the government needs help.
The People (collectively) are inherently charitable.
The People will make sure the government or the charity does not starve.
“Despite”?
Actually this cycle has been good for one thing, it exposed the fact that we do not have a democracy.
The reality is yesterday a GOP official parroted the exact same thing DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said.
http://news.yahoo.com/choose-nominee-not-voters-senior-115420994.html#
Essentially what is being said is we have an oligarchy. The party elite get to decide who the rest of us get to support whether we feel they are good representation of us or not.
cwaltz
March 17, 2016 at 10:57 am
EXACTLY
You are free to eat anything you want, as long as its served at the restaurant I decide we are going to…
There’s a local comedy/news show here (Australia) that has a segment entitled THIS IS WHAT YOU THINK
It’s hilarious.
In my mental catalog of factors causing the disaster that is our society today I keep ratcheting up the role of the corrupt media (including Google search manipulation). It is refreshing to see Trump at least thumb his nose in their direction.
Political parties are private organizations – they are of course free to use any convoluted, antidemocratic means they want to arrive at a nominee. The big question is why the electorate tolerates two such organizations having a duopoly over the electoral process. Both legacy parties need to go into the dustbin of history along with the Whigs and the Know-Nothings.
Neither legacy party is an advocacy group for much of anything: they’re both fund-raising organization run by and for the benefit of an army of professional “political consultants” who make their living skimming from political contributions and media buys.
Propertius
March 17, 2016 at 2:27 pm
Exactly right
I beat this to death, but it so explains politics
http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2015/02/01
“I can’t vote for a third party because I would be wasting my vote”
‘No, your wasting your vote if you vote for one of the mainstream parties…’
Well, although I understand your sentiment, the United States is not a Democracy.
It is a Representative Republic and a Federation of States. Representing who, that would be a good thread.
Feel bad about it now, consider if it were ruled by a simple majority, and I mean simple .
http://www.thisnation.com/about.html
I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that it’s unreliable to judge people’s driving on a steering wheel with two manufacturer-supported positions both of which turn right. Perhaps direct democracy, biased toward inaction, with a supermajority threshold for action, would encourage people to treat the machine as if it functioned. If the conservative Swiss can do it, so can we.
I’ve actually come to the opposite conclusion. I’ve thought for a long time that the US no longer has a true democracy, because I didn’t think anybody could muster the resources necessary for election without selling out. But Bernie has proved that you can do it. Even if he doesn’t win the nomination, he came close enough and reached enough people that it’s not difficult to imagine somebody going one better, especially if major party disillusionment continues to rise. So for me this election cycle has proved that American democracy is not dead, even if it might be on life support.
In theory you could offer Trump in evidence as well, but I don’t believe for a minute that Wall Street is scared of him. This is a man who has built a career on telling people what they want to hear and screwing the little guy while personally enriching himself. His book is called “The Art of the Deal”. If I was Wall St. I would be very confident that we could come to some kind of ‘arrangement,’ even if there isn’t one in place right now. It might mean Trump selling his supporters down the river, but look at his career record – that’s never seemed to be a particular problem for him.
” I didn’t think anybody could muster the resources necessary for election without selling out. But Bernie has proved that you can do it.”
Exactly. And notice that nobody in the political class seems to be mentioning that at all. I wonder why?
I’m torn between writing in Sanders or voting Stein (assuming Clinton is the nominee). If the polls look to be close where I live (considered to be a swing state, by the way), I might write in Sanders. The reason for that is, if Clinton loses my state, I want to be able to rub it in the faces of the MFers at the DNC.
I wish the D party would actually learn the lessons the voters teach them, but all they have to do is wave their hands, say “Nader” three times, and the lesson is obliterated… until the next time it happens.
That’s the tried-and-true playbook. I’m hoping that, at some point, the angry peasants with the pitchforks and torches will finally catch up to to them. This can’t go on forever.
WE ARE THE ANGRY PEASANTS WITH PITCH FORKS. WHEN ARE WE GOING TO BEGIN ACTING LIKE IT?????
We need no pitchforks or torches. Is all that even worth it? Sure, the Terror was cathartic for the French peasantry, but did it really accomplish anything, apart from sullying the reform effort?
We do need to revolt, but it needn’t look like your typical armed insurrection. Withdraw consent in all possible ways from the corrupt power structures and focus at home, on things you can actually effect. Tending your garden, in times like these, can be a revolutionary act…(and besides, the Feds can’t tax your vegetables)
Exactly.
Also remember that bartering veggies for other stuff can help you and a neighbor.
I’d go tell all the homeless I see on a daily basis to go tend their gardens but … I think they would settle for a mere roof at this point, never mind a garden.
Let people who want to occupy abandoned buildings and cultivate abandoned lots and I’d bet you’d see a lot more urban gardens. Google “Fireweed Community Detroit” for one example.
Speaking of homeless people doing for themselves, a recent episode of the Laura Flanders Show featured some grassroots homelessness activists:
http://www.geo.coop/story/doing-it-ourselves
Let people who want to occupy abandoned buildings and cultivate abandoned lots
admirable but operationally challenging. Buildings may be abandoned but someone still owns the property which is a straight line to liability implications.
Football stadiums make good very good terrace vegetable gardens.
The ownership is usually quite clear – a stadium is usually owned by a city or a county.
As the ‘Chicago School’ acolyte, Pinochet discovered; sports arenas also make good killing grounds.
Well, one thing was worth it. The peasants went into the chateaux and set the records on fire. So the data (paper-based at that time) of feudal obligations went up in smoke.
Ordinarily, I would agree with you. In 2006 – 2010 I said more or less the same thing (“Il faut cultiver notre jardin”). I think the key difference is that a decade or so, we’ve got a lot more organizers, and organized. The times are different now.
also, sometimes the gains take a long time to manifest, and maybe not even where you’d expect them. europe’s social democracy and relatively humane work laws are built on the fear of 1917 repeating at home.
I wish we were, but we’re not, the angry percentage has not yet passed the tipping point.
4 more years of corporo-fascist Permanent War business-as-usual billionaire financial strip mining of the peasantry (Hilary) should do the trick.
But the tipping point can only be recognized in retrospect. The French revolution began, after all, with people who wanted to save the system, not destroy it.
What lessons? Oh sure, Pelosi isn’t speaker, but she still gets security to rough up the plebes, TV time, and a nice office, and here is the best part, she no longer has any actual responsibility.
Harry Reid is retiring, not being voted out of office as he rightfully deserves.
In conversation I have found it effective to point out that Nader was making the same points fifteen years ago that Sanders is making now. Had the Dems learned the lessons of that election, they would likely not have lost all of those state legislatures, governorships and majorities in Congress, nor would they be worried now that the Party will be split. Nader is no longer the boogeyman he once was, he is now an object lesson that makes them look bad.
Those who cannot learn the lessons of history…
Timing may not be everything but it certainly helps.
My new answer to this is fuck the Nader comparison. I liked Gore, I voted for Gore, but Gore lost for a lot of reasons, not Nader. If Clinton loses it is because she is a piss poor candidate. She runs lousy losing campaigns. She has negative ratings that most Presidential candidates never see unless they get elected. And for specifics, there is no doubt that if the GOP holds the House she will spend her entire term under investigation and facing impeachment. It is likely she will get impeachment. There is an actual FBI investigation into her actions at State, whether or not anything comes from it. And despite your denials her record as a Senator is mediocre and her term at State was equally as hideous as anything during the Bush 2 era. She should be disqualified for both her unseemly reaction to Qaddafi’s death and for the fact that the policy choices that led to that have been a utter bloody disaster for the region.
If Clinton loses it is because unlike Gore but like Romney, McCain, Bush 1 and so on people didn’t vote for her. You picked the wrong candidate.
I disagree on the GOP comparison. Short of Hillary being on the ballot, I don’t see how any Democrat could lose to the GOP anymore. The GOP without major changes should be locked out of the White House, but the Democrats will nominate the one candidate who might lose. The GOP don’t have a choice which is the appeal of Trump I suppose. He might activate non voters.
Kerry’s campaign was 10,000 votes away after running the worst campaign in history outside of Gore 2000.
I didn’t use Kerry in the didn’t get the votes list because I am not sure of that. I have great doubts about the vote count in Ohio. And I probably should have used both Carter and Mondale.
Sadly I can see ways a Dem does not win besides it being Hillary on the ballot. Economic crashes and major terrorists attacks for example. I also have some pretty deep fears that rather than accept that the party is going to have to change and the gravy train is going to disappear a whole lot of the Clinton acolytes that now run the various parts of the Democratic machine would manage to kneecap Sanders.
The GOP wins when disgusted Dem voters stay home.
Good. I would rather they win than have more right wing democrats.
Is the “you” in “your denial” meant to be a general one? because I have not nor would I ever defend Hillary Clinton… I have voted Green in the general election every year I could, since 2000, and intend to do so again this year, even if Sanders is nominated (full disclosure – I caucused for Sanders in Iowa).
The point was more about how D voters tend to get mesmerized by the so-called Nader justification for Gore’s loss when the more obvious explanation was the Supreme Court stopped the recount and thereby handed the election to Bush.
It was also an allusion to how D voters would much rather scapegoat than take a hard look at how terrible their candidates are. If Hillary is to lose the general, I can guarantee the first excuse trotted out will be how Sanders “weakened” her in the primary.
No. The you in my statement is for the many people of my acquaintance who inform me that I must vote for Clinton and that by voting third party or write in, I am not only wasting my vote and I am pulling a Nader.
I’m beyond sick of both the misrepresentation of what happened in 2000 (there were a buttload of issues, and beyond that Gore won but didn’t actually fight appropriately to prove it). And I’m beyond over the idea that someone who does not represent me, my ideals, my issues or my stands deserves my vote because of her party registration.
Gore lost Florida because 306,000 Democrats voted for Bush. (“How Florida Democrats torpedoed Gore,” Jim Hightower.)
One thing a political party has to do is get its members to vote for its candidate; that’s basic blocking and tackling. Blaming Nader for the loss is a Big Lie, pure and simple. And in the 16 years since then, I have yet to see any Democrat apparatchik look in the mirror and take responsibility for it. Nothing in it from them, I guess.
C. Northcote Parkison (upon whom be peace) has a chapter on “Injelitance” in Parkinson’s Law. Here is the first paragraph:
And the last:
All of which is too bad; I have always thought that the Dems had assets worth seizing. Perhaps not?
Bush won by getting the African American vote in 2000. Clarence Thomas.
Ha!
Pat you need to work on stating your thoughts alittle less ambiguously !
I agree on your HRC analysis. Who she picks as a running mate would be important because i expect it a very good chance she would br impeached after a great waste of time and resource.
Corey Booker is as much as shouting “Pick me! Pick me!” but I doubt she will. The Dem hive mind will want a Hispanic for 2024.
In some states in order for a write-in vote to be counted candidates must file paperwork stating intention to be considered as a write-in.
Well if writing-in Bernie is not possible, I’ll vote Jill Stein. I will never vote for either of the two sociopaths, Trump or Hellery.
This, exactly. Still have a functioning conscience, and will not be part of electing Trump, or Hillary. Lesser Evil is not Lesser…only evil.
BTW, I am pushing 60 and I am a Bernie supporter.
Unfortunately I think this year is “vote to keep the greater evil out” on steroids.
My pivotal issue is “which candidate is less likely to start (continue) WW III?” By my calculation “carpet bomb” Cruz was at the bottom; then Rubio, then Jeb, then Hilary, then Trump, then Bernie.
Right now that means it’s Trump, but after they take the nomination from him at the convention it may be a horse race again, depending on whom they put up.
I think to myself: what a vile act, in our “representative democracy”. And I revisit my own personal history of nose-holding lever-pulling: Mondale, Dukakis, Kerry, Obomba…sigh
I agree, i see Hrc as a clear and present danger and Trump a throw of the dice in a dark room at this point. Some one stated it elegantly last week
Clinton is a neocon, so far I don’t think Trump is
Yeah, Im glad I couldn’t vote in 2008, because I would have voted Obama and regretted it. I knew better by 2012 and voted Jill Stein.
If HRC gets the nomination and then loses the general election (the most likely scenario), there will be no post-mortem, no soul searching by the Ds. The wailing HRC cultist hypocrites will blame it on the BernieBro Sandernista Crybabies who wouldn’t contain their misogyny and vote for the Inevitable One. The left wing of the D party will be forever banished to the kids’ table where they belong. (I hesitate to use the terms “progressive” and “liberal” as they’ve been thoroughly co-opted by the establishment mythos.)
They can blame who they want. But it sems to me that for all the money those consultants get, they should be required to win an election or two for their clients.
It’s not my job to convince myself to vote for someone. It’s their job to convince me.
Oh… And the candidates history has a lot to do with it too.
Honestly. How fid we fall for the lie that we are responsible for the Democrat losses?
Turn it over, and assume we are. Our attitude becomes: “Nice little election you’ve got here. It would be a shame if something happens to it.” Or as I used to say: “And we get?”
The fact that nothing like an answer to that is coming from the Clinton camp is very telling. As I keep saying, she wants the moderate Republican vote. Notice how Obama’s Supreme Court pick fits directly into that.
Please consider voting Green to help the Greens retain ballot access. We desperately need 3rd, 4th, 5th parties.
My dear ma’am,
I was happy to vote Jill in the last little dust-up. The vote totals were — what is the word, humiliating? pathetic? But I have to point out that after that election I heard not a peep from her, as I never heard a peep from Greens on the ground before the current election. Perhaps that is my fault, that I didn’t know where to collect the peeps? Or something? I still think that she is a nice lady, would make good president, and that the Greens have helped to make this moment in 2016. That is far from nothing.
However, that said, there is now a candidate who has a hope in hell. Which the Greens never managed to make happen for their candidates, m’kay? Bernie did an end-run, got on the Dem ballot in 50 (I’m pretty sure) states plus several territories and roused a ton of supporters to knock on doors, phone bank, Instagram, reddit, tweet, text, FB and just plain send him $$$. The Greens, much as I like the idea and the platform, have not managed anything close.
I will use my vote as I please, if you please. Bernie S — climate change, yes; income equality, yes; diplomatic means, yes;, Medicare for all, yes; free college tuition, yes; $15 minimum wage, yes.
And, did I mention this, he has a hope in Hell? You need to vote as you need to vote, but this is why I won’t vote Stein (although I really, really like her and in 2012 worked hard for her and Cheri H).
Clinton is NOT the nominee (yet) and Sanders while down is definitely not out. The delegate math is daunting but it’s still possible for Sanders to clinch the nomination, and of course there is still the tiny matter of the FBI, state secrets, songbirds with immunity, Clinton Foundation as a pay for play scheme, the list goes on.
Chin up Clinton haters! The day is dark, but the hour is not late!
…and send Bernie some love, by donating to his campaign. I want to see lots of Bernie ads here in California. (And Washington State, Oregon, New York, PA.)
re: write-ins and 3rd party support
What is the potential risk of write-ins ending up as disqualified votes?
In my state, I use the paper mail-in ballot, which has a fill-in-the-bubble-completely format. Fortunately, Jill Stein was on my 2012 ballot, so I didn’t have to write-in. IIRC, that ballot wasn’t formatted for write-in and I don’t know that I’ve seen space on my ballot for it since the early 90s.
Must one go to their polling station for a ballot that accomodates either of these options? It would be distressing if well-intentioned votes are dismissed on technicalities.
Kasich! would be a viable alternate to Hillary. The Republicans could run him as an Independent, now that they’ve been kicked out of their party. He’s a good “man”, but could run as a woman too, if he had to. Some cross dressers can look pretty convincing, with makeup and all. I don’t doubt the Rs can find a Kenyan grandparent in his family tree as well, so he’s a black dude or dudess too – which is always a plus. Rubio for VP, but that goes without saying.
So the Democrats can always vote Independent, if things turn out to be all screwed up with Hillary.
Samantha Bee: “In the nauseating bus terminal restroom that is the Repub primary, John Kasich initially seems like the least disgusting stall. ” Hahaha.
The Real Kasich | Full Frontal with Samantha Bee
youtu.be/p6y_AeJXUdM
They don’t call him “Wide Stance John” for nothin’ …
Sorry, just kidding.
YeeHaw! Could be Our first Bow Legged President. Indeed historic. Hahaha
I think that was Teddy R…….rough riders and all that…
Thanks for this. One advantage if Kasich becomes president: it’ll get him the hell out of Ohio for a few years. We sure need the break, but I’d hate to inflict him on the rest of the country.
Llewelyn Moss
March 17, 2016 at 10:27 am
Why O why must people besmirch the sterling hygienic attributes and good character of the interactions that occur therein of bus terminal bathrooms with the depravity of political nominations?
Porcelain heads of necessity weep at the McCarthyism tactic at equating them with the degeneracy of the repub party primary….
Heh. And then, having done one’s business, one walks over to dimly-lit bus terminal cafeteria that is the Dem primary, only to find that the (roach-infested) kitchen is closed, and only “Clinton-brand”™ custard is on offer, fly specks and all.
Kasich is a big supporter of the TPP, just like Hillary. The NYTimes likes him, too.
Kasich is an abomination too from interviews I’ve seen.
Very militaristic, wants to confront Russia in Europe etc., sounds like he too wants to evicerate Social Security Medicare (in stages) and social programs.
After all, the budget for quadrupling US NATO forces has to come from somewhere and no doubt why women required to register with draft is bandied about.
He always looks like he’s about to have a heart attack. His VP choice would be important.
Yes he’s very militaristic, they all came across as horrible in the Republican debates (and Kasich was always pushing war, although less than the completely insane Fiorina, who I am very glad we have seen the last off forever I hope).
Really if anyone bothered to find out about any of the Republican candidates, they are all horrible (although whatever his other flaws Rand Paul at least made good points in the debates but was out very quickly – the remaining ones are dreadful). But facts seem a very slippery thing in this election, frankly the worst I have ever seen it, and so noone is actually aware of anyone’s positions when hyping some Republican candidate or other. And mostly they are out in the open about how bad they are – except Cruz who is super slick – a reasonable if naive person could be fooled by the Cruz oil spill.
Reagan proved [facts] don’t matter.
Kasich appears to have a cleaner blade to stab us with than the other candidates, but its still a blade.
seen on twitter: “If there are 4 dragons in a room, the one breathing the least amount of fire is STILL A FUCKING DRAGON”
Seen on tile setter’s old pickup truck on freeway a couple days ago.
Home made bumper sticker written with a magic marker on duct tape.
“Bernie or Trump”
McGovern ran in 1972, not 1968.
mcgovern showed up towards the end in 1968 campaign and took the anti war argument and split it with mccarthy with the split helping humphrey to steal the nomination at the democratic convention in chicago…
or did you just focus on the trust fund baby (whethered) underground with the made for tv protests…
you do realize bill ayers father was the head of the major utility in chicago and his son and his other trust fund baby friends who had invested money in suburban land were all going to lose their investments if those not too smart inner city residents did not just choose to learn to commute…hmmm…now lets see…if we create this noise and convince people that they Need to move to the suburbs for “safety” and law and order stuff…oh whats a few fire crackers among trust fund baby friends…the truth is hardly ever what it appears to be…
Determining racist cities based on language usage on Twitter, are you f***ing kidding me?
I’ve been out of the restaurant business in New Orleans for almost 15 years, but I remember quite a bit of casual usage of the N word by African-American coworkers during the twenty years I waited tables or washed dishes. However, I still hear a good deal of it when I ride the bus on rainy days, and it hasn’t been very long since I last came across an article in which African Americans debated whether it was acceptable for Blacks to use terms that Whites shouldn’t. I’ve also read that twitter usage is slightly higher among Blacks than Whites.
Yet, the study doesn’t attempt to to tell us who’s posting the offending tweets or use context to determine intent of the tweets.
Not trying to deny widespread bigotry among white New Orleanians, but stupid methodology is stupid methodology.
I was wondering why the most “racist” cities are also some of the blackest cities. I assume there’s a similar dynamic vis a vis Las Vegas and transexuals.
It also overlooks cultural norms in places where it’s considered uncooth or unseemly to publicly air your political opinions. I can bet very few people in Iowa or Minnesota would go out of their way to spew racist bile on social media, but you still see all the same racist behaviors in these states: skewed incarceration rates, de facto segregation, income disparity, etc.
There is a saying, barking dogs never bite.
And let’s hope that’s the case with some politicians.
The reserve is that biting dogs don’t bark.
That’s something we have to be aware of, be vigilante about, as well.
I notice that they did to charts for language against women the second chart shows the results with the b-word omitted, likely for similar reasons as you mention. also, I noticed that Baltimore Maryland is really high in the racism category. This makes me wonder if this is due to local events in the area more so than racist tendencies in the population
Does that mean my liberal bastion of Bernie support, Madison WI, gets a pass on its #10 ranking?
its ok for the oppressed to use terminology as a diffuser…just like many of my friends with beni fembotz use the bee-atchee and kun(*) word towards other females…that does not allow me to use that term towards them…use of the N word as a cathartic term among those whom it is used against is not the same use of the term by someone who might resemble david duque…or his former wife who hangs out in the everglades…
Yeah, but the study said nothing about how the words were being tweeted or by whom. It assumed that the words were always being used by David Duke types.
True. I wonder if the study included the entire 985 area code, which includes the Northshore and Laplace etc., or truly Nawlins. (Methodology again.)
I worked in restaurants in the Quarter back in the seventies and found your observations concerning ‘appropriateness’ of language to be true.
What’s a “cathartic term”?
greeks have karagiozis…who was the turks attack on the serb new royals…which basically means someone who is a bit don quixoteesque(is that even a word) with a twist of lazy…often the term is used as to blowing off steam…hey there lazy king/bum…also greeks have a tendency to call each other “wankers” as in good morning wanker…see you later wanker…or if you say something outrageous…a reply might be to go and shag yourself…cathartic…blowing off steam…my experience around the “n” word is it comes out more often in conversation as a form of stress releaser…cubans may say something to the effect of taking a dump in your mom…when something is not quite going as planned…cursing out loud…
i’m hoping there is an exit readily available off to the left. or the sheep has one of those ever reliable acme parachutes.
maybe a bat-winged wolf in sheep’s clothing?
– The Fed caused 93% of the entire stock market’s move since 2008
“Scouring hundreds of different factors, Barnier ultimately whittled it down to just four factors: GDP data five years into the future, household and nonprofit liabilities, open market paper, and the Fed’s assets. At different stretches of time, just one of those was the single biggest driver of the market and was confirmed with regression analyses.”
Those who know more than most, does this pass the sniff test?
I think global warming has caused the entire bull market since 1982. The correlation is 0.89. When global temperatures flat-lined over the last decade, the market also flatlined. If we’re heading for a mini ice age, as I expect, the markets will probably go down. But it might not be right away.
The other interesting correlation is with time. As time passed and years went from 1982 to 1992 to 2000, stocks went up! Once it got to 2001, it went down and then up and down. Time may no longer explain things. But if time keeps passing, then stocks may resume the trend and go up more.
craazym, you were the one suggesting principal components analysis.
Also, core elation hasn’t been going up recently. The 1% has been doing well, but that’s outlier elation.
I think global warming is a trailing indicator, so the market has to go down from here, otherwise at DOW 36,000 we are toast!
seems like “19” is the most reliable cause of increasing stock prices or “20” is the most reliable indicator of stagnant stock prices!
I say we get in a time machine and go back to the 1980’s – I’ll buy Cisco, Microsoft, Walmart, and Home Depot and be very content that Hillary is the nominee….(everything is better with money!!!) – of course, I will have to get the winning lottery numbers prior to the drawings, so that I have money to buy stocks…
He did miss population growth going from 200 million to 300 million in the US (and 4 billion to 7 billion globally) as GDP drivers and also explosive debt growth at consumer, corporate and guv levels. But other than that, I thought the analysis looked pretty believable. The Fed provided enough money for all, even tho it didn’t distribute that way.
open market committee spreads fertilizer, disease grows, crops fail. More fertilizer. Water goes bad, can’t start new crops. More fertilizer. Air goes bad. More fertilizer
The fed committee can’t tolerate the market doing what it does organically. It would demonstrate they can only print our way to disaster, and that the words coming from the mouthpiece are not as fun as Lewis Carroll, but far more meaningless.
I would suggest you dispense with the euphemism of “fertilizer” and call it by the term used in high finance and proven to be the more accurate and technical term….bullsh*t
“Rich donors have blown $200 million on failed candidates so far”
Also remember the chart from a few weeks ago showing expenditures versus change in poll numbers.
So how big a deal is Citizens United?
Failed? Those ‘failures’ maintained the kettling of the collective d vs r, lessor evil, status quo hive mind for over a year. Considering reports of teh Donald receiving over two billion in free media publicity so far, 200 million kettle maintenance is trump change (tm?).
Failure is success.
Buying 500 congress people is easier than buying presidents?
Still a big deal. Money is proving less effective than normal in this election, but it’s long-term results over time that matter. Citizen’s United still skews the field towards the uber-wealthy. Just imagine how much better our insurgent candidates would be doing if there wasn’t any corporate money floating around.
Uber money ruled before Cit U. This is so very important to remember because of the tendency for advocates to just think merely reversing Cit U would accomplish much if anything.
If anything up until now Sanders plight has demonstrated mega media slant/blackout has proved to be a greater obstacle.
Think of all the state and local pols they can buy. Those guys are really cheap.
Citizens United is a huge deal. Maybe not the biggest deal, but drawing the conclusion that CU doesn’t matter because of the Trump effect is missing the point.
At my local level, really bad incumbents stay in power largely because of the costs and organization needed to run against them. Gerrymandered ‘safe’ districts give the seat to the party. CU gives the party seat to the incumbent. The only time CU is less of a factor is when there is an open seat – as we are seeing in the GOP race for the Pres nomination.
Perhaps not Citizen’s United per se, but its weakening of the campaign laws have certainly helped Clinton. And I don’t just mean fundraising. Her PACs and the Clinton Foundation have been as responsible for her establishment support as anything else. From the donation to Matthews wife, to the various donations to the Black misleadership class, you can almost trace the lines of corruption.
It is not just the big spending by the Wealthiest that is the legacy of Citizen’s United, it is the tacit corruption codified by the transactions now allowed that insure that our elected officials largely no longer work for the people, even if they get a tax payer funded salary from them.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!!
Climate Change And Progressive Brain Death
https://lokisrevengeblog.wordpress.com/2016/03/17/how-to-lose-friends-and-interrupt-people/
If your goal is genuinely to educate people about life-cycle analysis of technologies you’ll get much further if you can learn to manage the condescension in your writing. Showing up at progressive blogs and saying, “You’re all a bunch of idiots and here’s why” is naturally going to result in a huge amount of hostility. Leading people to conclusions slowly may seem ineffective, but it’s a lot faster than the alternative of never getting your ideas through.
ok…….”You’re all a bunch of idiots and here’s why”—————————————————-*
*THIS IS ONLY A TEST….HAD THIS BEEN A REAL INSINUATION…YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN ADVISED TO PRODUCE, AND USE, THE LONG BLOG KNIVES………
The one I loved was the study they made of micro-plastics in ocean life, you know, the little beads in shower scrub that Obama banned.
They went looking for the beads in the tissues of fish. They found them, but what they found in much greater quantities was plastic fibers. These fibers because of their surface area can store and deliver even greater loads of toxic chemicals and metals than the beads.
They traced the source back to washing machines that were washing clothing made with synthetic materials. The biggest culprit by far? The “eco-fleece” fabrics made from recycled polystyrene bottles.
So the point remains: there is no free lunch just because somebody is yelling “but oh it’s green!”.
Workers At Florida Polls Caught Hiding Democrat Ballots In Closet And Turning Away Voters
I went to a Bernie barnstorming rally in Seattle last night (standing room only) and someone yelled out “how do we know that the Dems won’t discount or lose our vote?”
It’s really disgusting and disturbing to know our “democracy” has fallen so low that our own people do not believe in a free and open election.
In that remark, ‘Dems’ likely was shorthand for ‘Cthurlary and her consort Billzebub.’
The lesson these charming grifters learnt from Bush v. Gore is that pre-emptive fraud is a winning strategy.
And it takes money to do it.
…but encouraging to know that more people are being realistic about the situation. You don’t solve a problem by denying it’s existence.
Did Bernie have an answer?
We are a sovereign nation and will defend ourselves against China sending any election observes over here.
It doesn’t matter if she is one of the five permanent members of the Security Council.
Is it a hypothetical question? Hypothetical questions are a waste of time, I think it should be asked as a 100% serious question, of how to safeguard the election from fraud. I’m sure it could be done. Exit polling or backup voting. Independent bodies to monitor U.S. elections? Etc. Even solutions that fall short of entirely fraud proof are probably better than nothing.
We need paper ballots, hand-marked, counted in public. Nothing else will do.
Flint Whistleblower: Health Impact of DC Water 20-30 Times Worse than Flint
The United States is nice, but if you go there don’t drink the water…
I kinda cringe now when one of those commercials for bringing drinking water to third world countries come on.
We might want to start sending our own localities a mere $15 a month so they can be clean drinking water to Americans.
But … but … we’ve had a federal law called the Safe Drinking Water Act since 1974. Contaminated water would be illegal.
Amendments added in 1996 (just before the internet launched on a large scale) require water systems to snail-mail annual Consumer Confidence Reports, whether you want them or not.
Yet another example of the hollow, feckless charade of local micromanagement by Kongress Klowns who think dihydrogen monoxide sounds like a deadly poison.
I recall friends from England visiting me in New Orleans in the early 70s, looking around at the general decrepitness of the city–at least compared to tidy Kent–and asking me several times if it was safe to drink the water.
Which is a real shame since New Orleans had the worlds best water purification system back then. Turning the lower Mississippi water into potable stuff is a real challenge.
If you go to American city
You will find it very pretty.
Just two things of which you should be ‘ware:
Don’t drink the water and don’t breathe the air!
–Tom Lehrer
–Gaianne
NYT public editor Margaret Sullivan discusses
Were Changes to Sanders Article ‘Stealth Editing’?
Opinions of `realistic chances’? From people who have misjudged the race on both sides from the beginning?
So the ‘paper of record’ keeps changing the record.
maybe we should get judith miller’s take on this.
the editors also thought it should have highlighted bernie’s ties to josef stalin and mao zedong.
The editors felt that there wasn’t enough speculation in the piece…
‘misjudged’??………..hardly!
I agree with the Sullivan’s take, for the most part, but she appears to be covering up for the editor’s here:
BS. As she states herself just a few sentences later
Yes, it can. And it doesn’t appear that the Times editor’s are overly concerned with protocol. Is there some official process for adding rank speculation about the future to a story about a politician’s past accomplishments? Me’thinks not. And the fact that they did this without any prompting from Hill’s campaign doesn’t do anything to reassure me about the purity of their motives, either.
Sullivan is right in the technical sense that there’s no editorial format for such a change. An update in the case of an error is one thing, but there’s no process bucket for “We decided to make a wholesale change to the tone and content of a story while leaving it nominally the same.”
If pressed, Trump will claim he merely “predicts” riots if he is schlonged out of the nomination. And he does so with deepest regret and with a heavy heart.
I wonder who the StormTrumpers will riot against if they feel they have been schlonged out of a Trump nomination. Will they riot against the Republican Conventioneers? Will they riot against local Republican Party offices? Will they riot against mystified bystanders? Who will they riot against?
In America, we outsourced all our rioting to China. The Chinese are the only ones that know how to do it anymore. :(
You have to admit, it would be a highly entertaining spectacle at the convention for Trump’s leather-clad hooligans to beat the sh*t out of midwestern Rotary club members representing the McKinley wing of the party.
Let’s rumble!
Skinheads can’t afford leather. Most likely they will be in flannel and trucker hats.
Sounds like outlaw Canadians to me.
Those would be Cruz’s people.
don’t forget about the Hellbots, on the side-lines, attempting to whip everyone with limp barbed spaghetti !!
One easy thing to do would be to trash a hotel and/or take over a meeting room.
The Maine delegates to the RNC in 2012 were Teapartiers, and had some sort of procedural brawl with the establishment Republicans. They ended up printing up their list of greivances, and then slipping them under the doors of the hotel.
Well, there are other things that might be done in a hotel.
Don’t lose faith in a Sanders victory, the coming states are mostly all his.
The MSM is seriously trying to bury him now, don’t pay any attention to those HRC goons.
Yes, I was at a Bernie event last night in Seattle and it was standing room only. In addition, I received the notification that morning! So, it appears WA will be a Bernie state for certain.
when I came down to so cal from seattle earlier this year it was a major shock because he’s very popular in seattle, even among the spokane crowd, likely i’ll guess because the imcome disparity issue is right there in everybody’s face, groups of friends are being disbanded as the non professionals are priced out of housing, it’s real there, while in san diego, the working class was long ago replaced by mexican labor so the impact on people is different here. The wealthy already were the only ones other than highly motivated immigrants who could reasonably live here. I’ve got family here and come down most winters, and have warned off many a working class dude, it’s brutal unless you are a used car salesman style construction manager. So QE forever has worked fantastically for those wealthy here, for them it’s the recovery that’s real and HRC is thus popular also. Should be back to Washington before the caucus yay.
Here in Tucson, we just got word that he’ll be speaking at our convention center tomorrow evening. And guess what: It may be a free event, but it’s the hottest ticket in town.
If he could nail NY and CA, I’d really start believing in spite of the super delegates.
I have higher hopes for CA. But as far as NY, too many Black misleadership types and entertainment figures are in thrall of Hillary as well as the more conservative upstate leave me in a little doubt.
In 2008 Clinton won the nomination in California by 51% to 43% for Obama. However it’s important to note that that primary took place on February 5th.
If Hillary can’t defend Wall-Street hosting New York, that would be a defeat heard around the world.
And as the drought so far has not turned CA into a dust bowl, thought imports continue to pass through the state, the worst Clinton expects is probably a narrow loss and then, she can run the clock out.
I’m not sure about upstate New York. Clinton’s for fracking, and upstate New York vehemently resisted it.
I’m thinking that Teachout v. Cuomo would be a good proxy for Sanders v. Clinton. Here’s a map:
(Blue is Cuomo, yellow is Teachout. The deeper the color, the more votes.)
Teachout, with no money and an anti-corruption message, got IIRC ~30% of the votes. One would expect Sanders to do much better.
maybe the sheep is pondering which forbidding wall of rock to try to jump to, or possibly just jump period.
Its of course an allegory of the American people. The sheep can jump right towards Trump or left towards Hillary.
I look at the sheep and wonder if the sheep is not saying to itself, “I should have lost a few pounds.”
Looks to me like there’s a path onto the rock, and one going off. So don’t worry about the sheep. I also don’t think it’s a photosheep.
Ooooh! I love baaaaa-d puns!
Shouldn’t it be right towards Hillary and FARTHER right towards Trump?
Nevermind, it’s a Sheeple…
Not only did the New York Times‘ heavy editorial hand transform a pro-Sanders article into a hit piece, it also solicited a contrasting op-ed celebrating Clinton’s “bold agenda, hidden in plain sight.” The front-page tagline for this article calls her “bipartisan” governing style “highly effective.” The body of the article, however, never bothers to cite a single example of this “highly effective” governing style delivering a legislative accomplishment of any kind:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/17/opinion/campaign-stops/clintons-bold-vision-hidden-in-plain-sight.html?_r=0
The Democratic Establishment frames Republicans as fascist morons, and then argues the only way to make progress is to seek bipartisan deals with them. That’s the actual platform Obama ran on in 2008. How’d that work out?
For Obama, it worked great. For DNC, lesson learned…
I would say, it worked out beautifully, for Obama…so lesson learned for DNC.
“Bold” is another word to watch out for. Anything that a Times editor, or the empowered members of the political class, thinks is “bold” probably ranges somewhere from barely adequate to outright scam.
ACLU on legality of rally protests
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/03/16/it-okay-kick-people-out-campaign-rallies-depends
In some countries, law enforcement help is offered without asking.
“The state gladly will gift your party’s gathering a large group of KGB agents. You don’t even have to beg.”
Don’t think the KGB still exists. Isn’t it the ‘FSB’ now?
Sorry consumer, it’s now Homeland Security.
If gold is the mirror of the dollar, crude earl is at least the solar reflector of the dollar.
After J-Yel’s “tears of a dove” word salad yesterday, the USD is down and April crude has motored up to $39.67, its highest level since the first trading day of 2016.
Round numbers are important in the gnarly thicket of human psychology. In the oil patch, crude over $40 would be like “beans in the teens” to sodbusters.
But doesn’t fracked/tar sands oil still need to above 90ish in order to even be viable? Not much consolation in that particular round number…
Sure. Keeping those marginal supplies off the market is part of the capacity withdrawal needed to hike prices.
Meanwhile, April crude is at $40.02 as I type. Wall Street loves this even more than the Oil Patch does. Emerging markets are celebrating too.
hard to listen to yellen yesterday when everything pointed to rate hike they held back, cheap financing for failed companies and higher oil prices. Remind me again who the”the Fed” serves? And correct me if i’m wrong but doesn’t increasing rates make money for banks in the same way mechanistically that negatives rates do, by increasing the spread? As someone else pointed out, blowing and harvesting bubbles seems to be their whole game. The benefits to the larger economy such as pensions from raising rates is not the kind of benefit they have in mind apparently.
What alarmed the Yellenites is that longer-term Treasury yields (over which they have only tenuous control) plunged after their Dec. rate hike, cutting the spread and injuring the banks.
Ten-year T-notes yield only 1.90%. Year-over-year CPI rose only 1.0%. Until inflation starts pushing those long-term yields higher, J-Yel can’t raise short rates without the risk of crunching the spread and sending us spiraling back down into deflation.
Crude will tag $16, but gold may “catch down” with the rest of the commodity complex as it continues to trade schizophrenically: is it stuff or is it money? It’s the Emperor’s new clothes: everyone blinded to the obvious fact that debt-based money is near a singularity point of exhaustion. 25% of government debt trades with no coupon and matures below par, doesn’t that break “money” as a dual-entry accounting entity? Munich Re ($253B) announced they would hold physical cash in a vault, oops there goes the idea that paying people to borrow was somehow not just a twisted and delusional joke.
Seismic monetary changes like these can take decades to play out but to my mind the Emperor is quite evidently and obviously sans clothing.
I see, the paradox of the flat curve
Prescription medicine bottles (made of plastics) will be probably more expensive.
Never mind huge new resin plants around the world will be operational soon this summer (I am told).
“Well, oil is going up.”
After reading the Esquire story about Rep Luetkemeyer’s hideous comments regarding Sen Warren, my hope is many NC readers will call that douchebag’s office and let him know how wide and devout our support for Liz’s efforts really are:
Rep Luetkemeyer 202.225.2956
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/03/16/more-than-12-punished-for-mistaken-hospital-attack-in-afghanistan.html
WASHINGTON – More than a dozen U.S. military personnel have been disciplined — but face no criminal charges — for mistakes that led to the bombing of a Doctors Without Borders hospital that killed 42 people in Afghanistan last year, U.S. defense officials say.
yeah…typical wet-noodle military/security state disciplinary bullshit !!
Oh, but wait to see how wet the noodle for Bowe Bergdahl.
We saw how wet the noodle was for General Petreaus.a few months ago.
“”Under the clear presumption that a war crime has been committed, MSF demands that a full and transparent investigation into the event be conducted by an independent international body. Relying only on an internal investigation by a party to the conflict would be wholly insufficient. the main hospital building, where medical personnel were caring for patients, was repeatedly and very precisely hit during each aerial raid, while the rest of the compound was left mostly untouched.”
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/article/statement-kunduz-hospital-bombing
The Deep State has just announced a brilliant twofer of a tactic. They call it Democracy Spring, and it’s said to be a project of the Soros-funded Moveon.org. It’s a ten day, multi-state march to DC followed by a seven day sit-in. The ostensible purpose of the project is to demand “a Congress that will take immediate action to end the corruption of big money in our politics and ensure free and fair elections in which every American has an equal voice.” * But one effect it will have will be to suck the free media attention away from Trump during the upcoming primaries, and by billing this feature is probably how the organizers got a number of the usual progressive suspects to sign on. However, it will also attract Move On bots who might otherwise be doing GOTV work for Bernie. Of course it’ll have no immediate effect on the Best Congress Money Can Buy. As usual it’s billed as “non-violent,” but you can bet there will be agents provocateur aplenty to keep the TV camera folks busy.
http://www.democracyspring.org/
Anyone have ideas for taking the wind out of its sails?
* From the Democracy Spring website
Well, it looks like the Dems are going to need (a) Trump, (b) “Democra
tSpring,” and (c) the battle to place a white, male moderate on the Supreme Court to drag Clinton over the finish line. And of course breathless press coverage of same.That implies an impressive degree of mobilization — and, as usual, MoveOn sucks — but who exactly is being mobilized? Much of this is looks like more rice in the rice bowls for the political class in DC, and how much of it has any connection to facts on the ground?
NOTE One of the many problems with the “Deep State” formulation is that it treats the state as monolithic, and cannot provide an account of elite factional conflicts and coalitions. The old stand-by, ruling class, does this, albeit without the faux air of profundity.
Ton of Interesting articles today! (Yes, I am going to hit up the tip jar)
I wanted to comment about one article, about hate speech on Twitter, with its fascinating maps and bar charts. I notice that my California is the seventh worst state, and Vermont, Bernie’s home, is third best. (This could be why he’s not as tuned in to the racial stuff as some would like)
I also noticed there’s two charts for gender discrimination against women, the the second one excluded the term “bitch”, I am guessing that is because it could be used as slang and not gendered hate speech. Interesting to look at how that states change position when the word is eliminated…
Anyway, I’m feeling really good about my decision to emigrate to Uruguay. :)
The global village is a small one, so Uruguay could still be like home…
And so, one might be tempted to ask, why not Denmark?
And if millions of American refugees fleeing a Sanders defeat (like the samurai who fought on the side of Hideyoshi and lost, ending up, finally, in Thailand) show up at Copenhagen, will that state dare to turn them away?
From the CNBC article on rich countries’ underfunded pensions:
No wonder even Draghi’s negative rates are having no apparent effect on Eurosclerosis.
At the macro scale, why would anyone want to invest in Europe, when it’s stone obvious that confiscatory taxation will be necessary (but likely not sufficient) to bail out the unfunded promises of the tertiary-stage welfare state?
Faced with this unappetizing prospect, younger cohorts have gone on strike by declining to reproduce, deepening the vicious spiral.
Unfunded benefits are a multi-generational Ponzi scheme, which is now undergoing a slow motion train wreck. Europe is the pilot project. Unfortunately, when Europe hits the wall, the contagion will spread to the rest of the rich world in a hurry.
Why would anyone want to invest in Europe?
I think many older, not-so-rugged-anymore Americans might contemplate life as refugees besieging or investing in a socialist, humanistic Europe.
“Take the northern route, now that the climate is warmer. You can paddle from New England, to Greenland, then Iceland, then Denmark, the happiest place on Earth. Summer months are favorable. Go in groups, so everyone can take turn paddling.”
So is doubling down on austerity the answer Jim? While I have little respect for the world view of Allister Heath, this assessment, in the Torygraph, of the likely result for investors of such misguided persistence, seems right on target:
Inflationary collapse or deflationary collapse?
In real terms (correcting for the veil of monetary illusion), it works out about the same.
“There would be calls for wage and price controls, punitive, ultra-progressive taxes, a war on the City and arbitrary jail sentences.”
What’s not to like about that? Sounds good to me!
Or you can just slaughter the pensioners and eat what’s remaining.
Speaking of prosecutors being ousted with the help of activists over questionable police behavior, it also happened in Cleveland too.
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/03/cleveland-prosecutor-who-cleared-cops-in-tamir-rices-death-defeated-in-dem-primary/
High drama in Brazil today:
Brazil Fund (EWZ) has cranked nearly 8 percent higher today, on the happy prospect of ousting the country’s corrupt leadership, starting with Lula and President Dilma.
Fixed. No thanks necessary.
Trade Lessons for Thomas Friedman
Getting more money for Microsoft and Merck is of course good news for shareholders of Microsoft and Merck, but it’s bad news for the rest of us. As the Peterson Institute’s new study of the impact of the TPP pointed out:
“The model assumes that the TPP will affect neither total employment nor the national savings (or equivalently trade balances) of countries.”
If the trade balance of the United States does not change, and we get more money for Microsoft’s software and Merck’s drugs, then we must get less money for everything else. It is hard to see why most people would be celebrating a rise in the U.S. trade deficit in manufactured goods and other items that is offset by higher royalty and patent fees for our software and drug companies.
It is also really neat how Freidman, who spends much time wringing his hands over rising inequality, is touting a deal which is explicitly designed to raise inequality. The sort of longer and stronger patent protection in the TPP means more money for stockholders and highly educated workers at the expense of everyone else.
A simple way to combat inequality is to stop making trade deals that redistribute income upward.
http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/trade-lessons-for-thomas-friedman
Re the end of automatic tipping. What can you do to help working folks?
Tip generously when they deserve it and have earned it.
However, a friend pointed out to me that the IRS assumes waiters/waitresses get 8% tips on the value of all the food and drink the server has handled as reported by the restaurant.
They add that sum to the day’s wages as though it were salary.
Paying cash may allow nothing to show in mom and pop places that don’t report, but what if one pays with a credit card? 100% of tips on the card are taxed.
His solution? Tip only 8% on the credit card that is automatically taxed, and tip the rest in cash.
I mostly agree, but this sentiment does bug me a little, having done my time in food service:
They should be earning a decent wage because they are working. They shouldn’t have to do anything special to earn that. And yet, in some places, food service employees can be paid less than minimum, on the assumption that tips will make up the difference. Everywhere, they are paid crap, on that assumption. Tip your servers because our current labor laws and wage scales are unjust. Don’t punish them just because they’re not smiling and pretending like they’re having a good time.
OK, I’ll clarify. Having worked as a waiter in everything from chain restaurants to high end places, I know what good service is and isn’t.
Unless they spit in my face or spill something on me, bad waiters get at least 10%.
Normal service is 15%.
Really attentive, funny and great waiters/waitresses get 20%.
Sometimes if the bill is small, say less than five bucks, and they really are nice, 60%.
When we have big long dinners out, I always tip the busboys as well. Sometimes they share waiters’ tips, but not always.
Why is it that you only see your mistakes after you hit Post Comment?
“They add that 8% sum to the day’s wages and withhold and tax it”
Reg : Rich donors have blown $200 million on failed candidates so far
Bwahahahahhahaha ! “If only private sector could run everything…..”
The squillionaire marks and the grifters who stole from them; neither seem like especially likeable characters.
o Re. Donald Trump’s War on the First Amendment | TruthDig — no small amount of irony in that headline, given that the First Amendment has been effectively a dead letter for years. Designated ‘Free Speech Zones’ and requirements for protest permits, anyone? (Just ask the Occupy movement). Similarly for the USgov spying on AP which broke a few years back. By my count, a full six of the amendments [1,4,5,6,8,9] constituting the Bill of Rights are similarly dead, two [7,10] are very iffy, and only two [2 and the historically-least-conroversial-of-the-ten, 3] are alive and well. #2 is in fact alive and thriving, even expanded beyond its plausibly inferrable original intent, which framed things in the context of a well-regulated militia. So it seems quite clear how well the “we need guns to protect ourselves against government tyranny” crowd has fared in its stated aim.
o “There Is Regulatory Capture, But It Is By No Means Complete” | ProMarket — Right, because when it comes to increasing the regulatory burden in the lives of hoi polloi, things are going swell!
p.s. And a happy St. Paddywagon’s day to my fellow lapsed Austrian-American-Irish-one-day-a-year-ers! [‘Austrian’ is a geo rather than an econ reference, to be clear. Although it is in fact true that years ago I was a big follower of Mish’s blog, our views have diverged greatly w.r.to domestic economic policy, while still generally agreeing on FP.]
It’s hard to work out exactly what is being bargained between the EU and Turkey, but visa-free access to the EU for Turks looks like a key Turkish demand. That would lead to a fat flow of remittances to Turkey from the EU, something the Turkish Govt. would, I suspect, very much like.