2:00PM Water Cooler 5/19/2016

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

TTP/TTiP/TISA

“New study ‘Model clauses for the exclusion of public services from trade and investment agreements'” [European Public Service Union] From the PDF of the study:

This study therefore develops and explains model clauses which could be used in international trade and investment agreements to exclude public services from the scope of these agreements in their entirety in a legally reliable manner. The study is based on the assumption that it would be best for the protection of public services if trade and investment agreements – or the most contentious parts of these agreements – would not apply to public services. It will be shown that the major challenge is the definition of the notion of public services in a manner that does not preclude the future development of new public services and new models of providing or organizing them.

If the language holds up, the left should adopt the concept (although liberals surely will not, because markets).

“The Commission used a dynamic computable general equilibrium model to determine the impact of TPP relative to a baseline projection that does not include TPP. The model estimated that TPP would have positive effects, albeit small as a percentage of the overall size of the U.S. economy” [United States Interational Trade Commission, “Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement: Likely Impact on the U.S. Economy and on Specific Industry Sectors” (PDF)].

2016

Policy

“[B]order walls and fences are currently going up around the world at the fastest rate since the Cold War” (maps) [The Atlantic].

Philadelphia Convention

“Unconventional #15: How Democrats — not Republicans — could wind up with this year’s most chaotic convention (and more!)” [Yahoo]. Of course, the press does love themselves a “Democrats in disarray” narrative. But this one is being spoon-fed to them by the Clinton campaign, as the sourcing shows.

“Civil war for Democrats? Wasserman Schultz vs. Sanders” [McClatchy]. “As the large, boisterous crowd booed at his mention of party leadership, Sanders added: ‘[The Democrat Party] can do the right thing and open its doors and welcome into the party people who are prepared to fight for real social and economic change. . . . So I say to the leadership of the Democratic Party: Open the doors, let the people in!'” Hmm. Anything’s possible, I suppose.

“1912 Republican Convention” [Smithsonian]. A possible parallel?

Memories of the Republican National Convention in Philly, in 2000 [Philadelphia Magazine].

As one might expect for a Republican convention held in a Democratic town, protests were a big deal at the 2000 RNC. Thousands jammed the Parkway the day before the convention began. Perhaps in response to the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle, cops posed as activists and infiltrated groups planning to protest the convention. “It’s worse than sleazeball,” Stefan Presser, then the Pennsylvania ACLU’s legal director, told The Inquirer. “This is an outrage.” Four state police posed as union carpenters from Wilkes-Barre a week before the cops raided the puppetmakers’ workshop on August 1st, the second day of the convention.

One account of the arrest said it was quite the show of force:

At 2:05 PM, Tuesday, August 1st, over 180 police officers and three helicopters lay siege to a warehouse on 41st and Haverford on Philadelphia’s west side. When we looked through a mail slot to survey the situation, the police sprayed mace at us. They tried to barge in through a hole in the roof and, failing that, videotaped, tape recorded, and spit at us through a skylight. All 75 of us inside the warehouse were detained for over two hours before any search warrant showed up. We would become known as the “Haverford 70.”

It was later revealed in state police affidavits that the cops believed the protesters were communists: “Funds allegedly originate with Communist and leftist parties and from sympathetic trade unions. Other funds reportedly come from the former Soviet-allied World Federation of Trade Unions.”

Perhaps the Philadelphia police will do better with Sanders socialists than they did with putative Communists. If they don’t, it will be fun to watch liberals surrender more of their principles, and one might almost imagine the airborne seating meme manufactured in Vegas was designed to help that doublethink emerge.

Our Famously Free Press

“‘This has been an all-time low by mainstream corporate media,’ says media scholar Robert McChesney, who joins us to discuss how the media is covering the race for the White House. ‘What we’ve seen is the Sanders campaign has been largely neglected … And the coverage and the framing of it has been largely through the eyes of the establishment for the Hillary Clinton campaign’ [Democracy Now].

“Bernie backers get violent: Now it’s the Democrats facing a civil war” [Howard Kurtz, Fox]. It’s interesting, in a clinical sort of way, to see the Nevada airborne seating Big Lie propagate itself through our famously free press. Although it’s handy to be able to cross off any pundit who retails it.

“As the fallout from last weekend’s Nevada Democratic convention spreads, sharply critical pieces about the White House hopeful and his campaign have appeared in progressive outlets such as Mother Jones, Talking Points Memo and Daily Kos within the past 48 hours.” [The Hill]. Read for some Ninja-grade concern trolling. My favorite includes the phrase “the full sense of moral leadership.”

Corruption

“Activists noticed around midnight last night that the certified election results had disappeared from the NYCBOE website” [Medium]. Gee. That’s odd.

The Trail

“From Minnesota to California, Sanders has met privately with Native American leaders from dozens of tribes in the past four months and spoken publicly, at each of his campaign stops, about the hardships their communities face” [Yahoo News]. ” His effort has not gone unnoticed, especially in the remaining primary states out West, where “Natives for Bernie” has become a visible and vocal part of the senator’s coalition.” I hate to cite Rove, but at this point….

“Senate Democrats discussed how to handle Bernie Sanders and his supporters at a private caucus meeting on Tuesday” [The Hill]. “Reid has some credibility as a fair broker because he stayed neutral [snort] in the primary race until after the Nevada caucuses in February, when he endorsed Clinton. Many of Sanders’s other Democratic colleagues backed the former secretary of State immediately after she announced her candidacy.” I’d say Sanders had better prepare a flucht nach vorn on the Budget Committee front…. “A senior Democratic aide said that thinking reflects an acknowledgement among the senators that Reid is the one member of the caucus who “has an actual relationship with him.'” Which would be how Sanders passed all those amendments. The herd closing up…

UPDATE “A fractured Democratic Party threatens Clinton’s chances against Trump” [WaPo].

Sanders himself has made harder-to-argue cases [as opposed to election fraud] against the Democratic primaries. The truncated debate schedule struck supporters of both candidates as unfair, something the party seemed to acknowledge by tacking on more of them in March and April. Although Clinton is on track to win a majority of pledged delegates, Sanders has suggested that early support for Clinton among superdelegates, the party leaders and elected officials who get an automatic convention vote but are not bound by their state’s popular vote created a barrier no candidate could scale.

This reminds me of Albert O. Hirschman’s “Exit, Voice, and Loyalty” formulation. The Democrats have given Sanders supporters zero to no reason for loyalty, so the remaining options are voice and exit. Can the Clinton camp craft a deal that will allow Sanders voters a voice within the party? I think they neither wish to, nor can (vague noises about platform wording are to “voice” as watching a meeting is to chairing a meeting). Hence, exit. Here, the classic Democratic response has been “They have no place to go.” However, Sanders has funding independent of the Democratic Party, and he also has his “list” (assuming the Democrat insiders using NGP VAN haven’t stolen it). So for the first time, there’s a real chance of creating a place for the left to go. The new situation Sanders created has impaled the Democrat establishment on the horns of a big dilemma: Craft a deal with a party faction they despise (a deal which, more to the point, will break some important rice bowls if it’s any kind of deal at all), or craft no deal and go for moderate Republican votes; I argue the Iron Law of Institutions — not to mention neoliberal ideological compatibility and class interest — will impel the Democrat Establishment to do the latter; hence, exit for Sanders. Nevertheless, the Establishment’s dilemma causes them genuine pain, and hence the sudden spittle-flecked explosion of Acela-riding, loyalist rage, none of which takes account of the realpolitik, or resolves the situation in any way.

UPDATE “Does Bernie Sanders want to be the Ralph Nader of 2016?” [Dana Milbank, WaPo]. The insurgent Sanders couldn’t, even if he wanted to be. The insurgent Nader commanded what, 4% of the vote? Sanders commands 45%, after a process skewed against him, whose views point to a possible future for the Democrat Party. Incidentally, there’s a message in an order-of-magnitude growth in support for Democrat insurgents, if the party Establishment would open its ears. (And don’t talk to me about Florida: 306,000 Florida Democrats voted for Bush. Democrats lost election 2000, and nobody else.)

“After winning more than 60 percent of the pledged delegates through March 1st, Clinton is now likely to lose the majority of pledged delegates awarded between March 2nd and June 14th — a two and a half month period that makes up roughly the final two-thirds of the Democratic nominating process” [HuffPo]. Why those favorability ratings are important…

Clinton Email Hairball

“An indictment of any higher-up in Clinton World would produce a royal mess for Democrats. You can bet there are wise strategists in a backroom somewhere gaming this out, just in case” [Karl Rove, Wall Street Journal].

UPDATE “At least five other officials [besides Lewis A. Lukens] — including two of Mrs. Clinton’s top aides at the State Department, Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin — are also scheduled to testify in the [Judicial Watch] lawsuit over the next six weeks in what promises to be an unwelcome distraction for the Clinton campaign” [“Ex-Aide to Hillary Clinton Testifies About Email Server”, New York Times]. “The last deposition is set for June 29 — less than a month before the start of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.”

Stats Watch

Jobless Claims, week of May 14, 2016: “Initial jobless claims are down a sharp 16,000 in the May 14 week to 278,000 but the 4-week average is up sharply, 7,500 higher to 275,750” [Econoday]. “The May 14 week is the sample week for the May employment report and comparisons with the sample week of the April employment report point to easing strength in the labor market.” Verizon strike could be a “hidden wildcard”?

Chicago Fed National Activity Index, Aprl 2016: “The economy grew at a slightly higher than average pace in April” [Econoday]. :”April was definitely a good month for the economy, justifying the FOMC’s outlook for improvement in second-quarter growth following an unusually soft first quarter.” But: “The economy’s growth declined based on the Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) 3 month moving (3MA) average – and remains well below the historical trend rate of growth (but still above levels associated with recessions)” [Econintersect]. And: ” Up this month but it’s volatile month to month so best to look at the 3 month average which went more negative” [Mosler Economics].

Philadelphia Fed Business Outlook Survey, May 2016: ” After popping higher in March the Philly Fed index has been dead flat since, at minus 1.6 in April and now minus 1.8 for May to point to slight contraction in the Mid-Atlantic manufacturing sector” [Econoday]. “But the bulk of this report is a disappointment and follows even greater weakness in Monday’s Empire State report. The factory sector continues to stumble along, not yet showing much benefit from the falling dollar, which boosts exports, nor the rebound in oil prices which should eventually boost energy spending.” And: “The new orders, shipments, and employment gauges were all slightly negative, within a few points of zero, consistent with my view that the manufacturing sector is largely dragging along the bottom” [Amherst Pierpont Securities, Across the Curve]. And: “Back into contraction after a blip up in April” [Mosler Economics]. But: “A very noisy index” and sentiment-based [Econintersect].

Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, May 15, 2016: “bounced sharply back from two weeks of weakness” [Econoday]. “till, the index is running about 1/2 point lower over the last month which is not a positive indication for the consumer spending and employment outlooks. ”

Shipping: “Total carloads for the week fell 11.4 percent” [Progressive Railroading]. “Among commodity groups, coal — down 30.8 percent to 64,800 carloads —led the pack of those that declined. Other commodities that logged decreases were petroleum and petroleum products, down 19 percent to 11,727 carloads; and grain, down 8.5 percent to 18,373 carloads” (note that Econintersect’s rail methodology backs out grain and coal).

Leading Indicators, April 2016: “The index of leading economic indicators shot up 0.6 percent to confirm that April was a solid month for economic data” [Econoday]. “This is the first gain for this index, which has been very flat, since November.”

Shipping: “3D printing supply chains are edging ever closer to the mainstream after UPS announced it would connect a network of printers across the US with its delivery network and an online order platform” [Air Cargo News]. “The express firm said the type of companies that will benefit from the network are manufacturers wanting to reduce inventory of parts that take time to be shipped, manufacturers with short production runs where the cost to create the mould or tooling is too much, manufacturers of custom/semi-custom goods, designers that want to quickly develop a prototype and entrepreneurs that don’t have access to 3D printers.”

“Chinese overseas investments have been growing by about 30% a year for the past decade but jumped abruptly in the last 6 months as jitters about a volatile domestic stock market as well as China’s slowing growth made overseas acquisitions very attractive” [Forbes]. “As Chinese companies ramp up their overseas investments, they are also targeting a larger variety of sectors. Real estate, financial services, technology are among the most popular sectors… Notably, the increasing number of greenfield projects by Chinese buyers is increasing. Though mergers & acquisitions remain the most common way for Chinese companies to enter the U.S. market, greenfield projects are becoming more common as companies mature and gain confidence.”

Concentration: “Takeover deal, which could be valued at $42 billion, would create world’s largest seed-and-pesticide company” [Wall Street Journal, “Bayer Proposes to Acquire Monsanto”].

The Fed: “The central message of the minutes was that financial market participants were too complacent in their expectations that the Fed would stand pat in June. The Fed clearly made no such decision in April. Instead, meeting participants hotly debated the likelihood that a rate hike would be appropriate in June” [Tim Duy’s Fed Watch].

The Bezzle: “Goldman Sachs’ tangled relationship with Tesla draws fire” [MarketWatch]. “Tesla Motors Inc. announced late Wednesday that Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is one of the lead book runners on the electric-car maker’s $2 billion secondary offering of shares. That news arrived just hours after Goldman analysts upgraded the stock to buy, predicting….”

“Zombie foreclosures — properties in the foreclosure process that have been left vacant — are down 30% in as of mid-May compared to the same period a year ago, data provider RealtyTrac reported Thursday” [MarketWatch]. “There are 19,187 such “zombies” now, representing 4.7% of all properties in foreclosure, and mostly concentrated in states that require court approval for the foreclosure, known as judicial states. Those with the most zombies are all judicial states.”

Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 47, Neutral (previous close: 54, Neutral) [CNN]. One week ago: 61 (Greed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated May 19 at 12:00pm. Big drop. And I think I’m getting the fear…

Our Famously Free Press

“MacArthur Foundation’s $25M Big Bet on Nonprofit Journalism” [Nonprofit Quarterly].

Health Care

“The Neoliberal Model Comes Home to Roost in the United States—If We Let It” [Monthly Review]. A superb, must-read article on ObamaCare.

Gaia

“Portugal kept its lights on with renewable energy alone for four consecutive days last week in a clean energy milestone revealed by data analysis of national energy network figures” [Guardian].

The Jackpot

“Retrotopia: A Distant Scent of Blood” [The Archruid Report]. This terrific series resumes.

Class Warfare

I seem not to have any class warfare links, odd for a Thursday. Readers?

News of the Wired

“Going dark: online privacy and anonymity for normal people” [Troy Hunt]. Interesting tips!

“Federal Judge Says Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine A Perfectly Legitimate Source Of Evidence” [Tech Dirt]. “It’s nice to know that what many of us have considered an independently-verifiable source of evidence is also acceptable in federal courts. It’s more than just a handy way to preserve idiotic statements and potentially-illegal customer service policies. It’s also a resource for litigants who might find their opponents performing digital cleanups after a visit from a process server.”

“Skin In the Game” [Nassim Nicholas Taleb]. Selected chapters for review. See “The Skin of Others in your Game,” with “How to be a Whistleblower.”

“Is this the end of sex?” [New Statesman]. “Thanks to advances in reproductive and genetic technologies, [Henry Greely] predicts that PGD [pre-implantation genetic diagnosis] will become the standard method of conception in a matter of several decades. (Recreational sex might nonetheless persist.)”

“Former college football players at Penn State, Auburn, Georgia, Oregon, Utah and Vanderbilt are suing the NCAA, their former conference and — in some instances — their former school over how their concussions were treated” [CBS].

I don’t know what this means, but…

“These are just a few of the many words in English that have two or more meanings that stem from a single historical root. Here are a couple more connections for your consideration. What word links a hot broth with a supply of goods for sale? How about a candle and a gradual narrowing? Or courage and a sharp tug? And, lastly, what is the connection between a swathe of cloth, an arrogant gait, and a heavy sack of loot?” [Oxford Dictionaries].

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Readers, feel free to contact me with (a) links, and even better (b) sources I should curate regularly, and (c) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi are deemed to be honorary plants! See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. And here’s today’s plant (Portia):

clearing

This picture says a lot…

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About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

179 comments

    1. Lambert Strether Post author

      118 West 76th Street, sold by a Republican on the Board of Elections, bought by the daughter of a Democrat.

      The Republican was suspended for the ballot purge of 100K (?) Brooklyn Democrats, the Democrat is a Clinton superdelegate.

      Seems a little cozy.

      1. Ivy

        In true NY fashion, Goldman could profit from both sides of an asset parking transaction via finder and other fees, including provision of funds to the “buyer”. That could be a fashionable new type of repurchase agreement.

        What is the over/under on the resale/return of the house after the convention?

        How many other BOE folks picked up some Memorial Day cash using similar tactics?

      1. Left in Wisconsin

        Nita Lowey’s daughter, an apparently competent developer, overpaid for a dilapidated brownstone owned by the chair of the Brooklyn board of elections, in apparent exchange for the latter looking the other way as D functionaries purged Sanders’ supporters from election rolls in Brooklyn. In addition, Lowey’s daughter got mortgages for the property in excess of the already exorbitant purchase price, for not obvious reasons. Speculation: perhaps HRC or cronies helped with mortgage or are in fact paying off mortgage, so that Lowey’s daughter is not really on the hook. Nita Lowey is a D congresswoman and close Clinton ally.

        1. DrBob

          http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/118-W-76th-St-New-York-NY-10023/2113210349_zpid/

          118 W 76th St,
          New York, NY 10023
          12 beds 9 baths 2,043 sqft

          FOR SALE
          $18,000,000
          Zestimate®: $7,104,349
          Est. Mortgage: $64,486/mo

          “All new south facing state of the art renovation, sun flooded, 20 ft. wide 5 story townhouse plus penthouse plus fully excavated 9.5 ft. ceiling cellar, 6 bedrooms plus maids room, 7 full baths, plus 3 powder rooms, elevator that services cellar to penthouse, 11 zone CAC, gym, temp controlled wine cellar, state of the art ELAN controlled smart house operating lighting, music, heating, cooling and security, 2 laundry areas, 4 outdoor spaces including a south facing garden, 2 terraces and 2 roof… More

          FACTS
          Baths: 7 full, 2 half
          Lot: 5,018 sqft
          Single Family
          Built in 1910
          9 days on Zillow
          Cooling: Central
          Price/sqft: $8,811
          MLS #: 1340265

          1. Jim Young

            Wow, and Bernie made less in a whole year than Hillary’s average speaking fee.

  1. Jim Haygood

    ‘the airborne seating meme manufactured in Vegas’

    … and inspired by Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Seating. :-0

    1. Robert Hahl

      I think the chair-throwing “incident” was meant to be a Dean scream or Muskie cried moment. Didn’t work.

      1. JTMcPhee

        Anyone got any substantive evidence of any chair throwing? Or Chaos!? I’ve looked around, not exhaustively since there is so much dreck, but I don’t see anything of the sort. One of many posts that claim to have the “video,” has this, which is bupkis and misrepresentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rArpYQOr8hE

        As to it “not working,” the commentosphere “weight of the evidence” would indicate otherwise. So too the MSM and even a lot of the “alternative media” outlets.

        1. RUKidding

          So far, I haven’t found anything substantive, but when I suggested this on a different blog yesterday, I was duly adjured that I was totally “supporting violence.” I keep hearing it said on the media, so it MUST BE TRUE!!

          This from so-called leftists, who point out how biased Fox is, but I guess NPR isn’t? even though NPR employs Fox “noozcasters”??

          People believe what they want to believe.

        2. TomD

          There was a guy who lifted a chair, and then someone came by and set it down. There was lots of booing. I think that’s about it.

      2. cwaltz

        You’d think if you were going to cheat that you wouldn’t want to draw attention to it.

        The DNC must be borrowing Bush’s strategery.

  2. Rojo

    What word links a hot broth with a supply of goods for sale? How about a candle and a gradual narrowing? Or courage and a sharp tug? And, lastly, what is the connection between a swathe of cloth, an arrogant gait, and a heavy sack of loot?”

    I’m going “soup” and “soupcon” for the first. “Taper”‘ for the second. I don’t about courage and sharp tug. Yank? The swathe of cloth is probably “bolt”, “strut”, “boodle”? I have no idea.

    1. Elizabeth Burton

      First one is “stock.” Second is “taper.” Third is “pluck” (had to look that one up). Last one is “swag/swagger”. I will leave the derivations up to those with a bit more time. ;-)

      1. clinical wasteman

        Also interesting how the connotations of broadly single meanings shift according to the sentence or example. I defer with admiration to Misanthrope and Elizabeth; just saw this now and immediately saw ‘taper’ and ‘swag’ but ‘stock’ passed me by because of associating it with the solid flavouring that goes into the water to make broth (‘stock cube’ etc), and it didn’t occur to me to think of a small hand movement like a ‘pluck’ as a ‘tug’, which evoked a rope, maybe with a small boat on the end (no, not a ‘tugboat’). My memory lapses are of no interest at all, but I’m curious as to whether the differences are geo-historical (is a tug more like a pluck in North America than in NZ/Babel of London? Do others who are younger or even older, somewhere or everywhere call the broth the stock?) or purely personal/momentary/trivial.

  3. Watt4Bob

    re “Bayer Proposes to Acquire Monsanto”

    At its peak in the 1930s, the German chemical conglomerate IG Farben was one of the most powerful corporations in the world. To this day, companies formerly part of the Farben cartel―the aspirin maker Bayer, the graphics supplier Agfa, the plastics giant BASF―continue to play key roles in the global market.

    IG Farben itself, however, is remembered mostly for its infamous connections to the Nazi Party and its complicity in the atrocities of the Holocaust. After the war, Farben’s leaders were tried for crimes that included mass murder and exploitation of slave labor.

    Why does this seem to me a match made in Hell?

    Maybe it’s because one of Bayer’s former chairmen was convicted of mass murder?

    But hey, let’s look forward shall we.

    1. ambrit

      I G Farben isn’t alone in Holocaust related evilness. Check out IBMs’ part, through their German subsidiary, in making the efficiency of the “Final Solution” feasible. Figures for the liquidation of “undesirables” were available to the New York headquarters of IBM in nearly real time. As the war wound down, special units attached to the U.S.Army secured and protected IBM ‘assets’ in Germany, mainly the hardware and specialists who ran things.
      See: http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/documents/pdf/HistoryofIBMDataProcessing.pdf
      The best source I find is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust

      1. RP

        Ford werke built trucks for the Germans up until the end of the war. And Prescott Bush (father and grandfather to POTUS 41 & 43) had his assets frozen and seized for trading with the enemy.

        But what do I know, I’m just a little prole with no Ivy league credentials. I should just trust my betters.

        By all means, go ahead, coronate another .01%er Oligarch to be President. Worked great so far.

      2. Reify99

        It has been some years since I read it but “IBM
        and the Holocaust” (Edwin Black) is riveting. The beginning of the book tells the story of the author’s father who was among the American soldiers liberating a Nazi concentration camp. He was walking past a pit of naked, dead victim’s bodies
        when he saw a hand move. He pulled on the hand,- and a woman emerged. She would become the author’s mother.

        This is a meticulously researched (and foot noted) indictment of IBM, and by extension, the entire corporate machine spanning continents which is still allowed to run amok. They used punch cards, (remember hanging chad?) to catalogue and pin point the location to the exact address of the members of the groups they wanted to eliminate.

        IBM made this precision possible.

    2. HBE

      Nearly all German corporations/large companies (they funded the parties rise) were complicit with the Nazi war and Holocaust machine and received the benefits of free (to them) slave Labor (reminds me of the US prison Labor system) and the seizure of capital assets in conquered countries.

      What happened to them and their leaders. Not much, some were broken up (IG farben) some leaders spent a short stint in prison (alfried Krupp) but nearly all of the largest were allowed to immediately or eventually (Krupp) go on their merry way, so we could “stop communism”.

      So the very people that funded and were integral to the Nazi party having the funds and ability to rise and benefited most, were slightly scolded at most.

      Being and oligarch or a faceless Corporation certainly has it’s benefits, especially if there are any “scary” communists (or terrorists) around.

  4. polecat

    ‘Is this the end of sex?’ [New Statesman]

    ……gee…who knew that the film ‘GATTACA’ was an instruction manual……

    1. cwaltz

      The only people who are going to be able to afford the designer babies are the ones already buying them-the Kim Kardashians and Chrissy Tiegens.

      The idea that in a couple of decades that the same people who can’t even afford lifesaving medical care now are going to be paying the geneticists to design their babies is a bit laughable to me.

    2. Alex morfesis

      Is this the end of sex…hmmm…doubt henry greely has kissed too many pretty girls along the way to be giving an opinion on what women are going to want to do with their bodies…or have any idea about the thought process women go through today…but stanford needs the press and publicity…

      Oh…never mind…just listened to parts of two videos…

      MacArthur foundation funding some neo-eugenix guy…

      people born with bad brains that need to be cured…

      bad brains…the new triple speak for neo-eugenic bad genes….

  5. August West

    Ugghhhh. Did anyone see the CNN interview with HRC? Clinton to Sanders supporters: Get over it, it’s over. I will be the nominee so get in line. She also talked of how she fell in line for Obama but what most don’t know is what motivated her to fall in line was an offer to become Secratary of State!! I don’t think she is offering Bernie a damn thing. I have got to get away from the boob tube and the Internet.

      1. Paul Tioxon

        You don’t watch TV? How can you keep up with the day to day experience of the rest of the population not on Facebook or Tweets or Instantcoffeegram? I put in plenty of face to face time TV watching. Face to boob tube or flat screen or whatever! It’s how I keep my edge.

              1. clinical wasteman

                Case closed! Prevailing ‘logic’ described in its full self-devouring circle. (By J.H. I mean, not that I see any slouches around here). The forthcoming, multi-volume History of the Begged Question would seem to have found its epigraph.

            1. Roger Smith

              I purposefully avoid all network/broadcast TV because of ads. I cannot understand how that is such a lucrative industry. Does talking down to people really work that well?

            2. MikeNY

              LOL. So true. But now I’ll NEVER suffer from opioid-induced constipation or painful sex during menopause.

              Ask your doctor…

        1. fresno dan

          How in the world can someone know what reality is, if not by watching the TV, and concluding the exact opposite???????????

          1. RP

            I find it is important to check in with the Establishment narrative periodically to understand how to refute their propagandizing of low-info TV-only voters (which currently skew almost 100% as 50y/o-and-over (average age of cable news is 65+ IIRC).

            I talk to my parents (70s), their friends (60s, 70s, 80s), and I’ve got facts to easily refute their assigned talking points from Limbaugh, Fox, MSNBS, NPR, etc. Their responses usually range from “Wow I have hope for the country if people in their 20s & 30s are so engaged” to “Are you a wizard?”

            No, mom & dad, I just have a better bullshit filter than you do.

            1. RP

              P.S. Reading NakedCapitalism has served me better than my years at university. My schooling always did get in the way of my education. Thanks Yves & Lambert, Gaius Publius, & all contributors from within and without.

              Oh, and one of the best comment sections on the internet. The day hasn’t begun until I have my Morning Links.

        1. Lambert Strether Post author

          I can’t find a transcript, so relying on CNN’s paraphrase:

          Clinton wouldn’t say whether Sanders was being considered for her running mate and said the Vermont senator needs to “do his part” to unify the party going into November.
          She highlighted her role in unifying Democrats — including the 40% of Clinton supporters who had said they wouldn’t support Barack Obama if he won the party’s nomination — in 2008, the last close Democratic nominating contest.
          “That’s why the lesson of 2008 — which was a hard-fought primary, if you remember — is so pertinent here. Because I did my part, but so did (then-)Sen. Obama,” she said. “We went to Unity, New Hampshire, together, appeared together, spoke together, and made it absolutely obvious that I was supporting him, that he was grateful for that support.”

          Everybody over the age of six knows that Obama was “grateful” for Clinton’s support in 2008, and he expressed his support in very tangible ways: The offer to Clinton of the Secretary of State position, and supporting Clinton in 2016. (Note that the policy differences between Obama and Clinton were not insignificant, but were marginal. The policy differences between Clinton and Sanders are much greater, making a deal harder to reach.)

          In other words, there was a deal. What deal is Clinton offering Sanders?

          1. August West

            I love how she says she and Bernie are following the same rules just like she and Obama did only she has 3 million more votes than Sanders. Uh, I would argue the point that her and Bernie have followed the same rules!! Isn’t this the whole point of NV? That the same rules don’t apply because voting shenanigans, election fraud with pre-programmed vote counters, rules being changed last minute ….the list goes on and on.

          2. nippersmom

            Sanders supporters are also not like Clinton supporters. She may have been willing to take the “deal”, and her supporters may have been willing to fall in line because they like being told what to do, and hey, he was still another corporate Democrat anyway, so no bigs, but that’s not the situation this time.

            Even if Sanders is offered a deal he is willing to take (and I think that’s a fairly big “if”) his supporters are not likely to fall in line just because he tells them to. Most of the people I see online who claim to be Bernie supporters but say they will vote for Clint0n if she is the nominee use language or tactics suggestive of trolls, not of actual Sanders voters. The “typical” Sanders voter (to the extent there is one) does not react well to the “shut up and do as you’re told” approach. They are issues voters, not party voters (many only joined the Democratic party-if they ever joined at all- in order to be able to vote in the primaries), and appeals to “party unity” will not sway them. Nor will the “lesser evil” argument, since Clinton has demonstrated a tremendous capacity for evil in her decades in the public eye. Comparisons between 2008 and 2016 simply aren’t valid.

            1. aab

              It’s also relevant that it is always going to be easier to get authoritarian followers to back a a change agent if their leader says to than it would be to do the reverse.

              I know Obama wasn’t ACTUALLY a change agent. But a very sizable majority of his voters thought he would be. The fact that he positioned himself as a soft, cuddly non-boat rocking change agent made it all even easier. (Yes, I do feel like an idiot now having volunteered for him, why do you ask? But until very recently, even after I realized I had been deceived by him, I still thought, “Well, at least he kept Hillary Clinton out of office.”)

              But I am pretty sure that most Sanders voters are not the “either’s fine” types. I know there was polling at the beginning of the race indicating there were a lot of Sanders voters who would also be fine with Clinton. But I haven’t seen reliable recent polling on the issue (I think that CBS poll is off because of sampling errors), and I think Clinton campaign tactics and messaging have hardened more Sanders’ voters distaste for her. Some people who have voted for Sanders will certainly “return” to Clinton, especially older Democratic voters. But no matter what Bernie says or doesn’t say, does or doesn’t do, this isn’t going to be like 2008. Even if Hillary campaigned on every single one of his policies, it wouldn’t get everybody, because distrust of her is so high. Because she’s demonstrably, on video, such an incredible liar.

          3. Lambert Strether

            I found a transcript. In relevant part:

            CUOMO: So, you get into the general election, if you’re the nominee, for your party.

            CLINTON: I will be the nominee for my party, Chris. That is already done in effect. There is no way that I won’t be.

            CUOMO: There is a Senator from Vermont who has a different take on that…

            CLINTON: … well…

            CUOMO: He says he’s going to fight until the end. And, there seems to be a change here as Donald Trump is trying to galvanize his party. The Democratic party seems to be going the other way. His supporters have become more aggressive, feeling that the system is rigged against the Senator.

            We saw what happened in Nevada. When you saw that did you believe that Sanders responded the right way to that situation?

            CLINTON: Well, I was very disturbed by what went on there, but I am confident…

            CUOMO: With him, or with the supporters?

            CLINTON: … well, what we saw, what we saw there…

            CUOMO: … the supporters?

            CLINTON: What we saw was disturbing. I have every confidence we’re going to be unified. I understand…

            CUOMO: … where does that confidence come from?

            CLINTON: Well, in part from my own experience, you know? I went all the way to the end against then Senator Obama. I won nine out of the last 12 contests. Back in 2008 I won Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, so I know the intense feelings that arise, particularly among your supporters as you go toward the end. But, we both were following the same rules, just as both Senator Sanders and I are following the same rules.

            I’m three million votes ahead of him, and I have an insurmountable lead in pledged delegates, and I am confident that just as I did with Senator Obama, where I said, you know what? It was really close — much closer than it is between me and Senator Sanders right.

            CUOMO: Votes-wise?

            CLINTON: Yes, vote-wise and delegate-wise. I said, you know, in fact, it depends on how you evaluated it, I had more popular vote but I had fewer delegates, and the name of the game is how many delegates you have, right? So, when I came out and withdrew and endorsed Senator Obama, about 40% according to polls, about 40% of my supporters said they would never support him.

            I worked really hard to make the case, as I’m sure Senator Sanders will, that whatever differences we might have, they pale in comparison to the presumptive nominee of the Republican party. Name an issue you care about, domestic or international, and clearly we are much closer — Senator Sanders supporters and mine, than either of us is with Donald Trump.

            CUOMO: Why don’t you reach out directly to Senator Sanders and do the work of reunification, of unification of the party, however you want to see it.

            I ask this because Senator Sanders has said to me in the past, and to many others, it’s not my job to get my supporters to vote for Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton has to make the case to these supporters, and given what you’re saying with this increase in hostility and antagonism towards the process within the process of the primaries on the Democratic side, should you reach out to Bernie Sanders and say let’s start doing this the right way? Let me start talking to the supporters, from your perspective? Have you done that? Have you thought about doing that…

            CLINTON: Well, I certainly said many times what I’ve just said to everyone, including his supporters, and I am absolutely committed to doing my part, more than my part. But, Senator Sanders has to do his part. That’s why the lesson of 2008, which was a hard fought primary, as you remember, is so pertinent here because I did my part. But, so did Senator Obama.

            He made it clear. He welcomed people who had supported me. He made it very clear. We went to Unity, New Hampshire together. Appeared together. Spoke together, and made it absolutely obvious that I was supporting him, he was grateful for that support.

            I was reaching out to my supporters, he was telling his…

            CUOMO: … You nominated him Senator Obama at the convention…

            CLINTON: … I did.

            CUOMO: Bernie Sanders is saying he’s going to fight all the way through the convention, it’s different…

            CLINTON: … Well, he has to do his part to unify. He said the other day that he will do everything possible to defeat Donald Trump. He said he’d work seven days a week. I take him at his word. I think the threat that Donald Trump poses is so dramatic to our country, to our democracy, and our economy, that I certainly Sanders to do what he said he would.

            CUOMO: Any thought to your making the first move, and reaching out to make that process happen now as opposed to months from now?

            CLINTON: Well, we’ve had lots of conversations between people who know me well, and support…

            CUOMO: … But, not directly?

            CLINTON: He know exactly what I’m saying. He hears it all the time because I have said the same thing. I respect him, I understand the very passionate advocacy he feels for the issues he’s been really pounding away at for years…

            CUOMO: You Know what would bring you together very quickly?

            If Bernie Sanders became your Vice President. Is there any chance of that?

            CLINTON: Well, I’m not going to get into that. That’s something down the road…

            CUOMO: Where better? We’re in your hometown, make some news, make it a historic place…

            CLINTON: …I think what brings us together is Donald Trump. I think that’s what brings us together.

            So, no voice for Sanders and Sanders supporters. Loyalty or exit.

            UPDATE Hillary Clinton sent a very clear message to Bernie Sanders today: Enough is enough Chris Ciliza, WaPo

            Later in the interview, Clinton reiterated that Sanders “has to do his part to unify. He said the other day that he’ll do everything possible to defeat Donald Trump. He said he’d work seven days a day week. I take him at his word.”

            Message sent. Now we wait to see how Sanders and his loyal supporters react. My guess? Not well.

            In my experience, “I take him at his word” is irony; I don’t think Clinton takes Sanders at his word at all.

            It would be fun if Sanders worked to defeat Trump by helping down-ticket Democrats — harmed by Clinton’s Victory Fund — and especially down-ticket Democrats the DCCC and DSCC are trying to destroy.

            1. polecat

              Did some Japanese science/tech corp. build a life-like robot in the image of H. Clinton, adding a kind of hybrid Dem/Repub speachifying algorithm, ……to try to pull the faux wool over the realists eyes??

              1. ambrit

                Disney Animatronics have the competition beat, beginning with their Reagan Robot from 1981 and on.
                ‘Insiders’ say that Misses Abden and Mills are really repair techs for the Hillary Dissimilation Unit. Nothing sinister going on at all.

    1. Anne

      “Get over it – it’s over – get in line” is apparently the new talking point; it is not one that signals a willingness to acknowledge the platform of her opponent, much less offer him a prominent role of any kind in the campaign or any future administration. The last thing she – and her Dem establishment cronies – wants is to crack open the door to the kingdom and let any of the great unwashed in to ruin the ambiance.

      What’s sad is that the planning that seems to be going into the political equivalent of pest control seems to be at the expense of grasping just how poorly Clinton’s fortunes are beginning to look in a Clinton v. Trump contest. They still seem to believe that winning the nomination makes winning the WH a slam dunk – and it’s far from being so.

      The current Democratic power structure seems genetically unable to see the forest for the trees, but then their hold on power is under threat and that just will not stand. They really do not believe Clinton can or will lose, so cannot and will not game plan for any scenario that even acknowledges that’s a possibility, even it it would work to head off a loss.

      It would be nice if the only consequences of losing would inure to the detriment of Clinton and her establishment cabal, but we all know that those people will land on their expensively-clad feet; most of us would survive a Trump presidency, but there are so many people who are just barely hanging on who are going to tumble into the abyss – and that’s the part that just frosts my cupcakes.

      1. NotTimothyGeithner

        Many Hillary supporters in Washington are terrified for this reason. If Hillary can’t win, what good is a Clinton acolyte? Bill and Hill won’t go broke, but what is a Marcotte going to do? Or everyone who bought a house they can’t afford for appearances expecting to work forever. If Hillary loses again, the Clinton brain trust won’t look too good. Corporate board jobs don’t go to losers.

        The Clinton Global Slush Fund won’t get another cent going forward.

        Sanders and Trump have demonstrated that the underling class of the political structure has no real value, especially going forward.

      2. polecat

        It took only ten years to go from ‘Impeachment’s OFF the table’…….to ‘Get over it”…….

        A moral descent of epic proportions—————————————–

      3. Yata

        That’s exactly the point, there is nothing to offer Sen. Sanders, less some ridiculous token of appreciation, but she owes so much at this point given the support she’s been able to acquire, there is nothing of subsatnce to share – in a policy sense – that would be equitable in trade for Sen. Sanders lending his endorsement.

    2. RUKidding

      I keep thinking about those Hilbot PUMAs (Party Unity My Ass), some of whom vowed they didn’t vote for Obama. Sure Barry Zero made an offer to Hilbot that she couldn’t refuse, and Clinton did pull many of her fans over to vote for Obama. Those voters probably would’ve voted for Obama anyway.

      Now Clinton’s in the catbird seat, and she conveniently forgets her PUMA pals, all of whom are busily out there dissing the so-called dismissively name “BernieBros” for not “getting in line NOW.”

      Hypocrite much?

      The past few days I’ve made what I felt to be some pretty low key comments that highlighted some issues around the tactics of dissing Sanders. Frankly, I’m not totally sure whom I’m voting for. But I’ve been barraged with name calling posts back (not here; elsewhere). I’ve been told to stop thinking I’m a “special snowflake,” to “grow up,” and similar. And someone pretty much digitally shouted at me for “supporting violence.”

      Nice. Those kinds of comments really make me feel all warm and cozy about voting for Clinton. Seems more like what we associate with Trump voters. I keep thinking along the lines of: the fish is rotten from the head down.

      1. Jonathan Holland Becnel

        I’ve been receiving the same responses.

        “Put on ur big boy pants”
        “Former Ron Paul Supporter”
        Fuck Off
        Idiot
        Moron
        Misogynistic Violent Racist

        Oh and “grow up”

          1. Jim Haygood

            Sometimes you have to break a few omelettes to make an egg, as G. W. Bush might say. :)

      2. pretzelattack

        i’ve seen the “special snowflake” phrase used in reply to sanders supporters at the guardian. so far i’m not one, but i live in hope.

      3. cwaltz

        I was a PUMA. and no I did not vote for Obama even as Clinton threw her lot in with Obama.

        I would bet I’m not the only Sanders supporter who was a Clinton supporter in 2008 either.

        I think you are underestimating how many people choose Clinton in 2008 because they felt she was better on issues and some of them are NOW BernieBros. So not all PUMAs are dissing BernieBros. Some of them actually ARE BernieBros.

        Why?

        He’s the better candidate with the better ideas. If you are an “issues oriented” voter than that matters. Additionally it still annoys me that Clinton chose not to fight for her voters and instead chose a deal for herself. It essentially showed me exactly how important she felt the voters are and how much she was willing to fight for them. Hint: not at all.

    3. Roger Smith

      Side note: Did Clinton get some face work done? She looks incredibly chiseled and smooth in comparison to other times I have seen her. Or maybe I am just crazy.

      1. RUKidding

        Possible. Public figures often do. it’s the way things are. I don’t blame anyone for getting plastic surgery, if they are in the public eye. but I have no idea vis Clinton.

      2. Gareth

        Plenty of makeup and soft lighting. Hillary looks her best on a network set-piece, on the road not so much.

        1. Qrys

          “I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.”

    1. allan

      Class Warfare, Part Two

      Two-thirds of US would struggle to cover $1,000 crisis
      [AP]

      Two-thirds of Americans would have difficulty coming up with the money to cover a $1,000 emergency, according to an exclusive poll released Thursday, a signal that despite years after the Great Recession, Americans’ finances remain precarious as ever.

      These difficulties span all incomes, according to the poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Three-quarters of people in households making less than $50,000 a year and two-thirds of those making between $50,000 and $100,000 would have difficulty coming up with $1,000 to cover an unexpected bill.

      Even for the country’s wealthiest 20 percent — households making more than $100,000 a year — 38 percent say they would have at least some difficulty coming up with $1,000. …

      Surely there must be a fintech solution.

      1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

        That’s why very few can afford to see the bubbles that are around us burst.

        You have to be very courageous to say 236% or 266% duty on some steel imports is long over due and extend that to other dumping items, maybe instant noodles, that people actually need to survive.

        Or to turn away foreign looter-investors who are fleeing and injecting money into your neighborhood.

      2. inode_buddha

        I think the real issue isn’t so much about being able to come up with $1000 as it is the reasons why: the lower and working classes never had that much to begin with, any increase was swiped by the upper class. And the upper class is in a Deathrace 2000 to out do each other, keeping up with the Joneses via corporate methods.

        I have known personally some of those types; they tend to be all about winning at all costs, and then act all surprised when the game is ruined for everyone else. Generally they call it “sour grapes” instead of considering their own behavior.

  6. Jim Haygood

    A Twitter war erupts between Venezuelan president Maduro and Luis Almagro, head of the OAS (Organization of American States):

    During a three-hour long news conference on Tuesday, Mr Maduro justified his declaration of a state of emergency by saying Venezuela was under attack from imperialist forces led by the CIA.

    He then told journalists: “Almagro, just give up. He has been a traitor for a long time … At some point I will tell his story, I know his secrets. The Americans, the CIA, have played a master move using Almagro as their agent.”

    Linking to his open letter to Mr Maduro, Mr Almagro said: @NicolasMaduro I’m not a traitor either to my ideas or my principles BUT YOU ARE A TRAITOR to your people.

    In a series of 12 tweets, he also told the Venezuelan president that “you will NEVER be able to undo so much suffering, intimidation, misery and anguish you’ve created for your people”.

    He also said Mr Maduro would “NEVER be able to bring back to life the children who’ve died because of lack of medicine”.

    Mr Almagro said that not letting the [recall] referendum go ahead made Mr Maduro “another petty dictator”.

    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-36330920

    Twitter — making flame wars into global entertainment.

    1. Alejandro

      In your judicious opinion, is “it” “screaming” or already hoarse? AND is there a correlation with “Think fifty dollah …”?

      Apparently Mr. Almagro has been told that he does not have the capacity to help and is not authorized to interpose in their internal affairs.
      http://www.telesurtv.net/news/Rechazan-nueva-injerencia-de-Luis-Almagro-contra-Venezuela-20160510-0050.html

      Others were less cordial, referring to him as empires b*tch:
      http://www.telesurtv.net/news/Canciller-venezolana-Almagro-solo-repite-libretos-de-sus-amos-20160518-0053.html

      1. Jim Haygood

        A rising crude price helps Venezuela. But it’s probably too late to save Maduro.

        A recall petition probably has enough support to succeed, unless Maduro thwarts it (also likely).

        If that occurs, it’ll be a preview of Philly 2016 in Caracas, with more than chairs being thrown.

        1. TheCatSaid

          For another perspective on the Venezuelan opposition’s attempt to recall Maduro, see this recent article on venezuelanalysis.com

          Their reporting is more in-depth than MSM reports.

        2. Alejandro

          “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

          The “pivot” may have been to Asia, but the full-court press seems to be in the “backyard” and soon in the “homecourt”.

          Can’t remember who said-“if it can be weaponized, it already has been.”

          1. Yata

            The idea of soft-power is certainly showing it’s cracks in the facade.

            Commandment XI – Thou shalt not snub a Boeing contract
            Commandment XII – Holdout creditors wilst be made whole on demand.

  7. tegnost

    Call me crazy, I still think she’s going to lose…yes, blow up your tv., better to recycle it probably, they’ll need the components for the robots

  8. justsayknow

    “The model estimated that TPP would have positive effects, albeit small as a percentage of the overall size of the U.S economy.”

    Gee, I wonder what value was attached to sovereignty.

    1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

      Never mind the particulars, just positive effects —- how many people will have to suffer to benefit the majority (if in fact it is so)?

      And what about the model? One can set up a model to conclude that without the Roman Catholic church, there would not have been a masterpiece like the Sistine Chapel…therefore, the church has been a good thing (not that it has not been). It all depends on what is ‘positive’ for you.

  9. Nick

    Re “Although it’s handy to be able to cross off any pundit who retails it.”

    For years to come, this primary will be a very helpful way of vetting journalists. If you read something that sounds fishy, just google the name of the author and Sanders and see if they were on Team Hillary and you’ll know whether or not you should even bother to continue reading. Thanks, pseudo-journalists!

    1. tommystrange

      That’s what I’ve been doing and advising facebook friends to do when they ask ‘how do you find all this stuff? what journalists/outlets can you trust anyway?” , as so many even conservative high school friends from 30 years are even veering ‘left’ a bit…I just say, look up the writer and see what they said about the Iraq invasion, or, if in 2007 they said things ‘were fine’ , or supported overthrow in Libya…supported Obama’s speeches and ignored his real actions…etc etc.

    2. aletheia33

      hey, how about here on nc we put together a list? for immediate use? and the outlets that publish them. we could even ask yves and lambert to set aside a special press section in links and water cooler just for them.

      1. Jonathan Holland Becnel

        Allow me, if I may be so bold:

        Pro-Sanders:
        Democracy Now
        Truthdig
        Salon (mostly)
        Hamilton Nola @ Gawker
        Vice
        The Intercept
        Naked Capitalism :)
        Counterpunch
        Truthout
        Alternet
        Raw story

        Pro Clinton
        MSNBC
        Cnn
        NYT
        Balloon Juice
        Daily Kos
        Talking Points Memo
        Slate (mostly)
        the guardian
        Vox
        Huffington Post

        We need to come up with some sort of acronym as well.

        I kind of like the phrase “Dead-Enders” cuz it sounds like “Death Eaters”!

        1. DG

          Pro Clinton
          Washington Post (absolutely against Bernie)
          Mother Jones
          The Daily Beast
          Jezebel
          Time Magazine
          New Yorker magazine
          Newsweek
          Rolling Stone (except Matt Taibbi)
          …and on and on

        2. JaaaaayCeeeee

          The first week of May, when when pro-Clinton media was aghast at Jane Sanders, for saying that she didn’t think Krugman’s critical thinking was the best, I remember some Sanders supporters on twitter brainstorming a list of economists they felt they could trust. I am familiar with (trust) most of the first half of the list:

          @DeanBaker13,
          @WilliamKBlac,
          Jamie Gailbraith,
          @PikettyLeMonde,
          @StephanieKelton,
          Simon Johnson,
          economists at CEPR and EPI,
          Nancy Folbre,
          Mark Thoma,
          the UMass kid who caught the spreadsheet error,
          Joseph Stigliz,
          Michael Hudson,
          @MarkWeisbrot,
          @BrankoMilan,
          @yanisvaroufakis,
          @JeffDsachs,
          @UKLabour
          Ha-Joon Chang,
          @ptcherneve,
          @Econ_Marshall,
          @JWMason1,
          @arindube,
          Uwe Bott,
          Bob Pillin,
          Jerry Epstein,
          Laura Carvalho,
          Lance Taylor,
          Duncan Foley,
          Peter Dorman,
          Michael Reich,
          Suresh Naidu,
          @PERIatUMass (James Boyce, Gerald Epstein, Bob Pollin)
          @UMassEcon,
          @urpe1968,
          @shaikhecon,
          @wbmosler,
          Amartya Sen,
          Ann Arbor Fabio,
          @ProfSteveKeen,

    3. DG

      This is so messed up! My entire worldview of liberals and the Dem party collapsing in front of my eyes…I need a media cleanse for 6 months.

    4. hidflect

      I’m doing exactly this. My bookmarks folder has needed culling for a while and now I’ve found the perfect mechanism. Balloon Juice – gone. America blog – gone, NYT-Kruggie – gone. etc.

  10. Tertium Squid

    Theranos is getting negative news today, but at least they still have the $$$ to hire a “Personal Assistant to the CEO” AND and “Executive Assistant to the CEO”.

    https://theranos.com/careers/corporate/personal-assistant-to-the-ceo/palo-alto-ca

    personal errands, managing household staff, conducting household purchasing, procuring meals, couriering

    https://theranos.com/careers/corporate/executive-assistant-to-the-ceo/palo-alto-ca

    Promote corporate image by professionally representing the CEO and Theranos internally & externally.

    It’s good to be queen, until it isn’t.

  11. Goyo Marquez

    Re: Airborne seating meme. So who was the guy holding up the chair? A plant? Maybe he was supposed to throw the chair and that plan was the basis for the eventual story. This is politics my friends not bean bag.

    1. Elizabeth Burton

      I doubt there’s any way to tell other than to track down one of the people in the video and ask. He may have been about to throw it and was talked down by clearer heads. He may have been moving it and had to lift it over his head to get it over the heads of the people around him.

      Of course, none of the media has attempted to do that. And Rolling Stone is “proving” all the people who sent texts and emails and voicemails were “Berniebros” by using the private phone numbers the Dems posted on the internet (because apparently they have a doxxing license) to call them. It apparently goes over their head that the narratives that follow prove zip, other than that people were watching, got pissed off, and did something they readily acknowledge was stupid. Well, except for the tech-kiddie, who is so totally clueless about how real relationships work and exhibits all the “I can do it, so I did” attitude we’ve all come to know and love.

    2. Lambert Strether Post author

      Nah. If he had been a plant, he would have gone through with it. I’ve lifted some seating myself, back when I was young and foolish.

      (Incidentally, it’s not clear to me what kind of traction all this gets beyond the Beltway. It could be that most voters have no problem with people yelling at politicians at all, and wish there were more of it.)

      1. shinola

        “It could be that most voters have no problem with people yelling at politicians at all, and wish there were more of it.”

        Don’t know about “most voters” but I sure do. As a Boomer this carries a certain tinge of nostalgia.
        Stick it to The Man!

        1. RUKidding

          I’m not for throwing chairs or anything else, but really, I have no problem with people yelling at politicians. It is obnoxious, but so what? Goes with the territory. My mother, may she RIP, was noted for yelling at pols when she had a chance. Sometimes over the top; sometimes merited.

          I’ve read a number of hand wringing posts and comments about how horrid it was that someone yelled at – I guess it was Boxer? – and I was all, like: gee wish I’d been there. I would’ve yelled at her too!

          Death threats? Not good. Chair throwing (IF it happened, which is questionable)? NO. Yelling at a politician? Yeah, why not? No big.

          1. Massinissa

            Im still not convinced the death threats are real. Or if they are I wonder if they were by Trump supporters.

            1. Jen

              Surely if there were actually death threats there would be accompanying reports to law enforcement, no?

              1. RUKidding

                I believe the threats were via Twitter but not sure. Supposedly they were “traced” back to Sanders supporters. It’s unclear to me how accurate that is. But that’s the rumor mill, and some Clintonistas are running with it.

            2. crittermom

              Every fiber of my being tells me that any supposed death threats were generated by the Clinton camp or DWS (same thing) to make Bernie’s followers look bad, just like the “reports” of chairs being thrown.

              Show me the proof of the flying chairs or indisputable evidence of any threats being traced back to Bernie supporters.
              There obviously is none or it would have been exposed in a second by DWS.

              I believe it all to be more (blatant) hogwash in continuing attempts to knock Bernie off the campaign trail. I think it only proves the Clinton camp (which includes DWS) is growing more concerned by Bernie’s support & going even further below the belt in their attempts to coronate the queen.
              The way DWS went on & on about it convinces me, even more, that’s true.

              HRC is SO hated, however, that I can very well see Trump winning if she gets the nomination.
              Those who back Clinton are so blinded (by the sun gleaming off their bars of gold?), that they refuse to acknowledge the obvious. We the citizens are not happy.

              It wasn’t all that long ago (hey, I’m a “senior” now), that JFK said, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”

              As much as DWS wants us to believe otherwise, it has yet to come to that & I hope it doesn’t.
              But with the obvious crap going on this election year anything could happen (like a “President Trump”. Aackkkkk!).
              And the DNC would have no one to blame but themselves, by expecting us to all fall in line behind them & HRC.

              Bernie needs to be cloned & brought back at every election until they “get it”. It would help keep the new-found awareness alive.

            3. different clue

              Or by false-flag Clinton supporters, to fake a picture for the developing fake narrative.

      2. Massinissa

        I really enjoyed that one time some guy threw a shoe at GWB. I kinda wish people would throw shoes or old fruit or whatever at politicians more often.

        1. Jim Haygood

          If only there were a “safe harbor projectile” (pies? marshmellows?) that wouldn’t bring felony charges.

        2. RUKidding

          Ah yes. That was a good moment in history.

          A repeat not recommended but sometimes one can dream…

      3. polecat

        I’m waiting for the flying rubbish ….

        ….rotten cabbages anyone ??…

        ..at least they’re a ‘soft’ throw :’)

      4. Ulysses

        “It could be that most voters have no problem with people yelling at politicians at all, and wish there were more of it.”

        Important point! I overheard some people the other day who were all jazzed up by the video they had seen– of people contemptuously throwing dollar bills at the HRC limo, en-route to the Clooney fundraiser.

        We need more (non-violent of course!) open mockery, jeering, and taunting of our failed elites– and not just those running for office.

      5. aab

        I assume that some of this is being pushed out to hold onto the supporters she has, to keep them from being pulled into the vortex of all the big, happy rallies, positive messaging about what government can do, etc. Bonus points for demonizing progressives to set the stage for justifying the violence sure to come in Philly, thinking (I believe wrongly) that this will drive moderate Republicans to her.

        But I would not be shocked if the fundamental thing driving this is an intense desire to punish people who are “disobeying” her. I do think she’s a real, honest to God reactionary who enjoys hurting people she deems “beneath” her. She scares me.

  12. C

    Lest we forget the “City of Brotherly Love” was one where the police ended a standoff between themselves and 11 people (including children) living inside a commune by dropping a bomb on the house. This bomb started a fire that took out 65 homes. The case was finally settled (the police had to pay for the burned houses) in 1996.

    Given that still very living memory and the nature of the Pennsylvania Democratic Machine I would not bet on a peaceful convention.

    1. ewmayer

      …the police had to pay for the burned houses…

      You inadvertently fall into the same rhetorical misdirection the MSM deliberately use over and over w.r.to such stories, which I pointed out in yesterday’s links with my ‘take it out of the police pension fund’ comment — hint, ‘the police’ paid not a dime for the burned houses except insofar as they were city residents and taxpayers.

  13. C

    “A senior Democratic aide said that thinking reflects an acknowledgement among the senators that Reid is the one member of the caucus who “has an actual relationship with him.’” Which would be how Sanders passed all those amendments. The herd closing up…

    I find it telling that these stories do not mention Wyden who actually endorsed Sanders as a figure. One would think that if they were serious about reaching out to him they would use someone who has a relationship that is actually publicly acknowledged rather than someone who sat it out, supported his opponent, and then backed the “reject your extremists!” meme.

    If, that is, they were actually serious.

    As to the prospect of uniting with Sanders versus going for the moderate Republicans I would say that they have already committed to the latter path. Clinton has been actively raising money from moderate Rs for some time now and has publicly spurned everything Sanders has proposed. The only demonstrable point at which she committed to anything he has pushed for was when she grudgingly and entirely unhappily claimed not to hate the idea of a raise in the minimum wage if, that is, someone else did all the work to get it past the house.

    They slammed the door on Sanders supporters a long time ago on the assumption that triangulation would work. Unless Trump melts down and actually eats a Mexican between now and election day they will find that a tough sell. My prediction is some tentative back door feelers that will fall because they can’t bring themselves to give a damn thing followed by a desperate grab at the end.

    1. NotTimothyGeithner

      As in Harry Reid, the guy who is only in the Senate because the GOP pretty much revolted against Sharon Angle after she called for the return to a barter economy. 2010 featured candidates as John Runyan. Sharon Angle was the Ollie North and Harry Reid was the Chuck Robb of that election. The GOP in wave years managed to lose against the weakest candidates.

    2. grayslady

      Jeff Merkley is the Senator supporting Bernie, not Ron “Mr. Nike” Wyden. Merkley opposes the TPP. Wyden is one of the fast trackers.

  14. C

    The Smithsonian article makes for amazing reading. To just quote two paragraphs:

    Tensions deepened in 1912, when Roosevelt began advocating the recall of judicial decisions through popular vote. With the courts tamed as an enemy to reform, Roosevelt then would press forward “to see that the wage-worker, the small producer, the ordinary consumer, shall get their fair share of the benefit of business prosperity.” To enact his program, Roosevelt signaled that he would accept another term as president and seek the nomination of the Republican Party.

    These ambitions revealed, Taft and his fellow conservatives deemed Roosevelt a dangerous radical. Once in power for a third term, they said, Roosevelt would be a perpetual chief executive. Roosevelt had become the most dangerous man in American history, said Taft, “because of his hold upon the less intelligent voters and the discontented.” The social justice that Roosevelt sought involved, in Taft’s opinion, “a forced division of property, and that means socialism.”

    I could see Bernie Sanders repeating Roosevelt’s words with relish. And I cannot imagine either Hillary Clinton or many of her surrogates such as Paul Krugman agreeing with Taft’s. Indeed Krugman said much the same thing in his last few blog posts.

    1. C

      Oops I meant that I cannot imagine either hillary Clinton or many of her surrogates disagreeing with Taft’s words.

      My bad.

    2. RabidGandhi

      That’s the first time I’ve ever thought of a parallel between TR and Hipólito Yrigoyen. The rhetoric and the elite reactions are almost identical.

    3. fresno dan

      +++++++++++++++++++++++++

      The more things change, the more they stay the same. Civilization – where those with the most stuff get yours too because…..socialism!

    1. JTMcPhee

      One should take a look at the “substance” of the TPP-TTIP proposed carve-outs for “excluding publice services from” the corporate takeover. First, I don’t find any substantive language, just a couple of ideas about “what’s wrong” and little sets of what might be excluded. And anyone who has ever played with lawyers, particularly where stakes are really high, and believes that if the “regime” of TTIP-TTP gets “legitimized” by getting the bought-and-paid-for legislatures and executives of what used to be called “nations” to sign on the dotted line, that somehow a few particles of language that attempt to make exclusions from the general corporate coup for ANYTHING that could “turn a profit,” is just off the beam.

      Who will interpret and apply those “exclusions?” What “sovereignty” will stand up and fight, in what forum, to repel the large and small assaults that the corporatists will mount on any resistance to their “full-spectrum dominance?” The imposition of the new regime will be complete, and there is no way to “exclude” any of the stuff that the nice Powerpoints say can somehow be protected.

      It may not be possible to avoid a complete corporate takeover of all governmental functions, patently or covertly. It’s largely accomplished already, by people a little more subtle than the Titans of Industry that tried to pull a coup on Roosevelt in 1934. The powers that be are persistent and patient… The rest of us are soft targets, taken as individuals or small groups.

        1. JTMcPhee

          “public.” Does that scan better for you? I’ve looked again, and do not find any language that would serve to insulate all those sovereign government functions from the predations of our corporate overlords…

  15. Vatch

    306,000 [sic] Florida Democrats voted for Bush.

    I wish someone would tell us where the figure of 308,000 Florida Democrats comes from. It’s plausible, and I’m not arguing against it, but it really appears as though Tim Wise made it up here:

    http://www.timwise.org/2000/11/no-more-mister-fall-guy-why-ralph-nader-is-not-to-blame-for-president-bush/

    Or consider Democrats, thirteen percent of whom voted for Bush. In all, Gore lost 308,000 voters from his own party to W., while losing 24,000 Dems to Nader.

    What’s the evidence for that? What am I missing?

    Later, Jim Hightower also published an article about the 308,000, and he gave credit to Tim Wise. But where did Time Wise get the number?

    1. C

      When discussing Florida in 2000, this should also be recalled:

      Diebold Memos Disclose Florida 2000 E-Voting Fraud

      The short version of the story is that Gore was leading then someone uploaded a duplicate memory card with results from an completed precinct that gave gore -16,022 votes as well as apportioning several thousand votes to Bush all from a single precinct with at most a thousand voters. This card passed all security sweeps and was uploaded in a secure area only accessible to select staff. The results were then “fixed” later back to their original totals but only after Gore had dropped out.

      The sequence of events described, and backed up in the Diebold memos are ludicrously unlikely on their own suggesting that figures out of Florida should all be treated as suspect.

      That said I also agree that the Democrats also did a lot to lose that election having chosen to run Al Gore and then to focus group him into a lightweight while declining to take Bush (or rather Rove) seriously.

      1. pretzelattack

        and up to 90,000 black votes disallowed because their names resembled those of felons, though they were not felons.

        1. Vatch

          Yes, Greg Palast has written a lot about that.

          Nader wasn’t responsible for Gore’s loss in 2000. I just want to know what the evidence is for the 308,000 number.

          1. Jeff W

            I’m not sure if this answers your question:

            In Florida, CNN’s exit polling showed Nader taking the same amount of votes from both Republicans and Democrats: 1 percent. Nader also took 4 percent of the independent vote. At the same time, 13 percent of registered Democrats voted for Bush! Again, Gore couldn’t hold his own base and because of this, he lost. The Democrats don’t say one word about the fact that 13 percent of their own party members voted for Bush.

            I haven’t found the actual CNN exit polling that shows that 13% of registered Democrats voted for Bush but, if that is the case, that would be the source.

            And several sites (including this one) refer to this:

            “Twelve percent of Florida Democrats (over 200,000) voted for Republican George Bush”
            -San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 9, 2000

            but I am not able to check the actual Chronicle article (if there is one) to see where it got its figures.

            1. Vatch

              Fantastic! One of your links directed me to this PDF file:

              https://www.vrdc.cornell.edu/info4470/projects/~bap63/pdf/florida2000.pdf

              My interpretation of this exit poll might be erroneous, but it looks like line 48 shows 753 declared Democrats, 580 declared Republicans, 320 independents, and 52 “something else”. The Democrats clearly outnumbered the Republicans, although the combination of independents and Republicans outnumbered the Democrats. Either the independents overwhelmingly chose Bush, or a significant fraction of the Democrats voted for Bush.

              Thank you very much.

    2. voteforno6

      Even more than that, what about all the eligible voters, who didn’t vote? My guess is that the number is a heck of a lot higher than 308,000. All those votes sitting out there, if only there was some organization whose sole purpose is to get people to vote.

      1. Vatch

        Yes, I’m aware of that article. He doesn’t provide data or calculations. He just cites Tim Wise, but Tim Wise doesn’t provide data or calculations, either. If either Jim Hightower or Tim Wise shows how 308,000 is derived, I can’t find where that is. I would love to read such a source.

        Please note that I do not blame Nader at all for what happened in 2000, and I think it is almost certain that more Florida Democrats voted for Bush than for Nader. I just want to see some substantiation of the number 308,000.

  16. NLK

    I was going to sit this one out before the Vegas convention. Now I’m going to vote for Trump and actively participate in the effort to destroy the Democratic Party. Bernie is weak as hell and this isn’t about him anymore.

    1. mk

      It’s not Bernie who is weak, it’s that media is strong and not supporting him. It’s that his supporters are not strong enough to figure out how to make him a winner. Bernie is very strong, has more integrity than any politician, proven by his track record over his lifetime.

      None of this was ever about Bernie, it’s about issues and Bernie has been the only one strong enough to tell Wall St. and Corporate America to EFF OFF!

      How many who could have supported Bernie decided to “sit this one out”?

      If the millions of American citizens would decide to participate fully every single election NO MATTER WHAT (vote by mail makes this easy), we wouldn’t have this problem with politicians only representing the interests of Corporations, Wall St., 1%, etc.

    1. reslez

      Mish and his buddies have a knee-jerk Calvinist belief in the power of suffering to turn the economy around. Note that the only kind of suffering that works is that of the middle/working class. Rich people paying their own way or parting with some fraction of their loot, in Mish’s view, would immediately crater the economy.

      He lists “Four Likely Consequences” of the overtime rule change, none of which is “More Pay”. According to Mish there can be absolutely no positive effect from expanding overtime eligibility. More pay for workers is actually less pay, somehow. So say the Austrian scriptures he quotes from daily.

      He further quotes his own tweet: “It seems to me, wages would keep up with inflation. if there was no inflation”. I thought the lesson of the last 16 years was that wages don’t keep up with inflation. They have in fact decreased. If there were no inflation, wages would simply deflate even more. They would not magically stay the same. Yet this is presented as some sort of self-evident wisdom, instead of a moronic tautology contradicted by the facts.

      I would find it amusing were someone to duck their head into his comment board and yell out the word “Government!” and watch the denizens scramble for their favorite right wing buzzwords

  17. Sammy Maudlin

    Federal Judge Says Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine A Perfectly Legitimate Source Of Evidence

    I know the attorneys that got the Wayback Machine evidence admitted in federal court very well. If there are any lawyers out there who want further information on the underlying matter and the arguments around admissibility of the evidence, let me know.

  18. ewmayer

    These are just a few of the many words in English that have two or more meanings that stem from a single historical root — another example I came across just today: freebooter and filibuster. [Over the past several years I’ve found myself using my Mac dictionary app more and more, one major reason being the ability to trace such interesting linkages, and moreover be able to do so in battery-life-conserving offline mode.

  19. steelhead23

    “1912 Republican Convention” [Smithsonian]. A possible parallel?

    Who knows what the future may bring – but I like the fact that you are drawing a parallel between Teddy and Bernie. Makes me smile. Note also that while Obama seems free to deny habeus corpus and to murder Americans without any kind of open process, the SCOTUS yawns, but when Teddy tried to rein in the robber barons, they slapped him down. Kind of suggests that the wrong kinds of people tend to populate the bench.

    1. Massinissa

      I don’t think its the people on the bench that are the problem. I think its the way the Supreme Court is set up was always meant to be anti-democratic just like the Senate.

  20. Kim Kaufman

    Sanders voters being undercounted:

    Thousands of presidential primary votes already cast are not being officially counted

    http://www.opednews.com/articles/Thousands-of-presidential-by-Scott-Baker-Presidential-Campaign_Presidential-Campaign-Democratic_Presidential-Candidates_Presidential-Primary-Elections-160519-885.html

    Debunking Hillary’s Specious Winning the Popular Vote Claim

    http://www.opednews.com/articles/Hillary-and-Her-Surrogates-by-Rob-Kall-Hillary-Clinton_Popular-Vote_Surrogates-160511-219.html

    1. grayslady

      Thanks for the links. The second one is particularly important since it shows that all the voters in the caucus states (won by Bernie, primarily) aren’t being individually counted in these phony numbers Hillary keeps referring to as her lead in total votes.

      1. different clue

        Perhaps caucuses are a deceit-based system and approach. Perhaps caucuses should be abolished by the citizens of every state where they exist.

      1. flora

        Primaries. Primaries are paid for by state tax dollars. (Caucuses aren’t paid for by state tax dollars.) How do you have a primary paid for by tax dollars and exclude independents?

        1. Jim Haygood

          It’s a Depublicrat club … and you ain’t in it.

          Just be glad independents don’t automatically get added to no fly lists (for now). :)

          1. ambrit

            A lot of us Independents cannot afford to fly. Even flying “between the buttons” is expensive now. (I opt for the Seeker Fare on Shaman Air.)

        2. cwaltz

          Is this the part where I get to insult you by saying that you should know the rules and the dates that you need to be registered to a party you may not want to even be affiliated with or you don’t belong participating in a process that your tax dollars paid for?

          (tongue in cheek because I’m not a Democrat and I honestly think everyone should get a say in who our Presidential candidates are.)

            1. Left in Wisconsin

              This is what is behind my argument that the left has a better chance of winning by taking over the D Party than by supplanting it. At both the state and federal levels, the gov’t defers much about our electoral politics to the two parties, who jointly scheme to screw over the voters.

              It took the Progressive Party challenge to Republicans in the early 20th century to get Wisconsin to pass its very progressive voting laws (same-day registration, no party affiliations, open primaries). But because we have one-party R control now, they have been able to roll back some of this.

              As Lambert says, “Two parties, one system.”

    1. aab

      I would love it if someone more knowledgeable than me re: polling science looked at the sample details. My bias is that I believe Clinton is already weaker than that, and want her to be. But it did look funky to me in a couple of different ways. One I remember is that it seemed like the entire sample was significantly more affluent than the electorate.

  21. flora

    re: our famously free press.
    ” My favorite includes the phrase “the full sense of moral leadership.” ”
    That’s the modern version of a stuffed shirt.

    Shorter liberal press: ‘we were willing to go slumming and report on the Sanders’ campaign for jollies and liberal cred, but now that it looks like his platform represents the views of a large number of voters, views which are *not* our “liberal™ ” views, (gawd forbid we miss a meal), we are now obliged by the machine to take Sanders down.’

  22. Alex morfesis

    The goldwater conspiracy…what if she never stopped being a republican…she loves dr strangelove from her days trying to get nelson rock the nomination in 1968 against nixon (who actually ended up losing the voter count to ronnie raygun in the primaries)…

    has she ever worked on any hardcore democratic issues…

    there are probably c.r.e.e.p. Alumns who might argue her work on watergate eventually opened the door for nelson to become vp…

    it is my turn is not a reason to let her take the mantel…if she keeps this up she will lose to el donaldo and the democratic party may end up breaking up…

    If sanders edges her out on actual voter delegates by california he should fight in philly…if he doesnt…

    He should hold his own event and call it…

    bernie 2018…the counter coup…

    do as $hillary complains about…find ten senatorial seats and 25 house districts and gather a million hippies…old and new…maybe get cute and do it at old yasgurs farm…or somewhere in white lake or bethel…plenty of land around woodstock or across the river on the east side of the hudson to allow train access…

    Too many things can go wrong in philly to expose the bernie or bust yunginz to the stalinist diktats of the current democratic party plutonomists…

    If you dont pass her ex superdelegates, take your toys from the sandbox bernie and focus on 2018…

    1. different clue

      I wonder if her work on Watergate helped her learn how the Nixon coverup failed and helped her think through in very granular detail how to make a coverup succeed.

      Trump: more fun than a barrel of monkeys.
      Clinton: more trick than a bucket of Nixon.

    2. ambrit

      This is getting to be like a soap opera. Trump is putting the finishing touches on a hostile takeover of the Republican Party while the Democrats hurtle headlong towards Chapter 11.

    1. aab

      That sounds about right (just skimmed). Votes held back, announced there was a mistake, Sanders votes wiped out, just enough to give her the “win” — I think that’s solid reporting.

      The FBI convicted a bunch of Kentucky pols and Board of Election officials in 2009 for systematic election fraud which included voting machine rigging, going back YEARS. So, I think it’s reasonable to assume Grimes stolen Kentucky for her patron. Of course radio silence from the national media.

      https://www.fbi.gov/louisville/press-releases/2010/lo032510.htm

  23. allan

    WaPo:

    Even with the committee assignments, Sanders plans an aggressive effort to extract platform concessions on key policies that could prompt divisive battles at a moment when front-runner Hillary Clinton will be trying to unify the party. Among other issues, he plans to push for a $15 national minimum wage and argue that the party needs a more balanced position regarding Israel and Palestinians, according to a Sanders campaign aide who requested anonymity to speak candidly.

    `Aggressive’. `Divisive’. If they ever used those words to describe Clinton, or another female politician,
    it would be pegged as sexist. But it’s apparently perfectly OK for the Bezos Neoliberal Daily to use them
    to describe someone to the left of center-right.

  24. Another Gordon

    USITC study: “The Commission used a dynamic computable general equilibrium model to determine the impact of TPP relative to a baseline projection that does not include TPP. … ”

    Translation: ‘we assumed a can opener’. It works every time.

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