By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
TPP/TTIP/TISA
“EU READY TO GO ALL THE WAY: The European Union is ready to make difficult concessions to conclude talks on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the United States by the end of the year, despite the uncertainty thrown into the negotiations by the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the EU, European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström said Wednesday” [Politico]. Yikes!
“The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is pushing full steam ahead on TPP-related requirements despite the possibility that Congress might not act on the pact this year or possibly for several years, depending on who wins the White House” [Politico]. It’s almost like they feel TPP passage isn’t impossible at all, which seems odd, given Clinton’s declared opposition to it.
“Investor-to-state dispute settlement is a rigged system” [Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure]. The US controls the appeals process:
The appointment of arbitrators is not neutral. One arbitrator is appointed by each of the disputing parties. In which supreme court can parties bring their own judge? The third arbitrator, the presiding arbitrator, is appointed by agreement of the disputing parties.
The US appoints the president of the World Bank. This president
– is ex officio chairman of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) Administrative Council,
– proposes the ICSID secretary-general,– appoints all three the arbitrators in appeal cases under ICSID rules.
The secretary-general of ICSID
– appoints the third arbitrator if the parties can not agree on the third one,
– will decide over conflicts of interest. (ICSID, articles 5, 10, 38, 52 and Commission, 2014b, Table 8, article x-25.10)
The ISDS system gives the US an unfair advantage. Adjudicative processes have to be free of reasonably perceived bias. This is not the case with ISDS.
Great! You might say. But a rigged system is easier to delegitmize than a system perceived to be fair.
2016
Policy
“So far, Sanders has been effective in influencing the writing of the Democrats’ 2016 platform, and Clinton’s forces, by past standards in these matters, have been remarkably accommodating to his wishes” [E.J. Dionne, RealClearPolitics]. “Sanders did not get everything he wanted. There was no call for a ban on fracking, no endorsement of a Medicare-for-all health care system, no backing for a carbon tax. The drafters also declined to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but its silence represented deference to President Obama, whose administration negotiated the trade deal.” I don’t believe that “deference” crapola for a minute; the body language of official Washington is entirely different. I want receipts; Dionne, a liberal goodthinker, says, once again, “trust us!”
“GOP National-Security Experts Are #ReadyForHer” [Daily Beast]. No doubt!
Our Famously Free Press
“Bernie Sanders just gave an amazingly condescending interview about Hillary Clinton” [Chris Cillzza, WaPo]. “That’s a stunning answer from Sanders. What he’s saying — if you read between the lines — is that the ball is in Clinton’s court when it comes to winning his endorsement.” That’s only “condescending” if you think (a) the left has no muscle and (b) should never exercise the muscle it was. Cilizza needs to wake up and smell the smoking brake pads on the Acela.
Conventions
“Cleveland quintuples RNC ‘protest insurance’ coverage to $50 million, citing increased risk concerns” [Cleveland Plain Dealer].
UPDATE “Black Lives Matter leader warns Clinton of convention protests” [USA Today]. A remarkably swift decapitation.
The Voters
Leadership and the underpants gnomes [Stumbling and Mumbling].
This messiah complex is what I’ve called cargo cult thinking, the sort of thing that goes like this:
Leadership
?????
Success.
People don’t fill in the ?????. They assume that the new messiah will perform some ju-ju and success will follow. They don’t ask the question which the late great Andrew Glyn drummed into us: what’s the mechanism?
Lest it be thought I’m picking sides, I’d call Clinton’s approach “????” (“details” to be worked out), and Trump’s approach “_____” (“deals” to be made).
“PPP’s newest national poll continues to find the Presidential race shaping up pretty similarly to how the 2012 contest played out, with Hillary Clinton holding a 4 point lead that matches Barack Obama’s final margin of victory last time around” [Public Policy Polling].
The Trail
“Trump rips Clinton, courts working-class voters in Bangor” [Bangor Daily News]. Readers, I attended. I’ll have a report soon.
“As with the past few elections, we can expect that Trump to carry most counties in western and central Pennsylvania by healthy margins. The problem isn’t in the west among blue-collar workers who have Democratic roots. The problem is in the east among voters with Republican roots, especially women” [RealClearPolitics]. Especially professional women in the Philly burbclaves?
Wowsers: “My new favorite political image is of Hillary Clinton sighing, in a speech at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds. And I don’t mean sighing like you or I might when letting go of a long audible breath to express sadness or relief. But actually reading the word ‘sigh’ off her teleprompter” [Boston Globe]. That’s as bad as Bush the Elder reading “Message: I care” off a cue card. Some things even the best advance team can’t fix. How long before we start hearing about “Scripted Hillary”?
“[W]hen the wily Vermont Senator announced his presidential bid, he never thought in the microscopic terms of White House or bust” [CNBC]. “Up against the entire national, state, and local Democratic establishment, Sanders knew toppling the Clinton machine would be a Herculean accomplishment that might not be reached. Now he’s ready for the real campaign—one that has nothing to do with becoming president. No, this is about paving the road for the return of Senator Bernie Sanders, a much more influential—and potentially threatening—force who’ll serve as a quasi-check and balance once Clinton shifts from the “progressive who gets things done” back to her natural neoliberal, neocon self.” I like “wily Vermont Senator.”
“Bernie Sanders inspires challenges to Democratic incumbents” [McClatchy]. “I’m a big Berniecrat,” [challenger Andrew] Maguire said. “But I can’t say I’m part of the political revolution if all I’m doing is sitting at home sharing posts on Facebook.” But: “The group Rhode Island Progressive Democrats of America is endorsing 18 people seeking legislative seats, 12 for seats already held by Democrats. The group’s aim is to upend the state’s Democratic leadership, which it considers too conservative on issues including abortion and guns. Some of its candidates were involved in the Sanders campaign.” Eesh. Why not challenge Rhode lsland Governor Gina Raimondo as the corrupt tool of private equity, of the billionaire class? It would be a miracle if BernieCrats cleaned up Rhode Island, but they’ll never do it with this flaccid “progressive” framing.
“Sanders doesn’t seem to be doing much beyond sending an email to his donors, though Weigel and Wagner report there’s talk in his campaign of setting up a way to do more” [WaPo].
“First Read: Breaking Down Trump’s Brutal June” [NBC]. Yes, Trump had a rotten month. And he’s still within striking distance. To me, that is the story.
Alert reader Pat sends this email from Democrats.org. From Democrat operative James Carville:
I didn’t think it was possible, but it looks like Trump might be pulling a real campaign together.
First, he fired his campaign manager, then he brought on a bunch of new staff, then I’ll be damned if he didn’t (supposedly) manage to raise $5 million in two days last week. Last Thursday, he even went almost 12 hours without sticking his foot in his stupid mouth — mostly because he was in an airplane, on his way to putz around a golf course in Scotland for the weekend, but still.
If this is a sign of things to come, then Trump is going to be a tougher opponent than anyone thought, and I’ll guaran-damn-tee you that we all better take that seriously.
Of course, the Rice-Davies Rule applies. That said, Carville, for a Democrat operative, is a straight-shooter, and this is certainly a more creative approach then the “ZOMG!!! Trump e-e-e-v-u-l-l-l-l!” pitch (though possibly optimized for Pat, if the list thinks she’s a political dweeb). I don’t know if Carville and his Republican operative spouse discuss mailings during pillow-talk, but if they do, it’s unlikely she’d let him embarass himself…
UPDATE “Naked man screaming about Donald Trump shuts down half of Times Square” [McClatchy]. Gaslighting affecting the marginalized?
UPDATE “British Man Indicted In Botched Attempt To Shoot Trump In Las Vegas” [Talking Points Memo]. Despite Democrat liberal goodthinkers clutching their pearls about violence, we have seen that the only documented cases (Ralson’s fake airborne seating story aside) are by Clinton supporters against Sanders supporters, or (as here) against Republican candidates. I think there’s a lot of projection going on here, since liberal conventions of civility preclude the overt expression of hate (except on Twitter, of course). (I’m leaving aside gatherings and protests as a separate category distinct from one-on-one stuff discussed here.)
Clinton Email Hairball
“FAQ from Guccifer 2.0” [Guccifer 2.0]. With more documents.
“Citizens United is slated to receive all e-mails sent to and from Lona Valmoro, Clinton’s State Department scheduler, in the two-week periods before each of 14 international trips Clinton took during her four years in office. David Bossie, president of Citizens United, hopes to confirm suspicions that Clinton maintained an off-the-books schedule, meeting with Clinton Foundation donors on the taxpayer’s dime. ‘Citizens United wants to know how many overseas dinners Secretary Clinton attended with Clinton Foundation donors that didn’t make it on her schedule,’ he says” [National Review (Jim Haygood)]. Clever FOIA!
“‘I have just realized I have no idea how my papers are treated at State,’ Clinton wrote to Abedin in March 2009. ‘Who manages both my personal and official files?'” [Bloomberg]. I hate to be cynical, but this reminds me of Nixon saying “It would be wrong” — for the tapes — while discussing how to pay off some blackmailers. Clinton and her crack staff are famously detailed and effective. How can Clinton not know this?
Stats Watch
Jobless Claims, week of June 25, 2016: “One step backward following however two steps forward! Initial claims in the June 25 week did rise 10,000 to a slightly higher-than-expected 268,000 but follow a downwardly revised decline of 19,000 to 258,000 in the prior week” [Econoday]. “The 4-week average is unchanged in the latest week at a 266,750 level that is roughly 10,000 below a month-ago in what is a favorable indication for the June employment report.” And: Rolling averages unchanged [Econintersect].
Chicago PMI, June 2016: “Volatility is the name of the game when it comes to the Chicago PMI which surged in June to a 56.8 level that is far beyond expectations and follows a sub-50 contractionary reading of 49.3 in the May report” [Econoday]. “And there was no indication in the May report of the strength to come as both new orders and backlog orders were in outright contraction. But that was for May! For June, new orders are suddenly at their best level since October 2014 while backlog orders are rising at their fastest pace since May 2011… A negative in the report is employment which is at its lowest reading of the recovery, since November 2009. Yet should the strength in orders extend to a second month, employment is bound to get a boost.”
Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, week of June 26, 2016: “The first glimpse of an indication of a Brexit effect on the U.S. consumer is marginal, as the consumer comfort index for the June 26 week edged 3 tenths lower to 43.9” [Econoday]. “This report next week may offer more telling signals on initial Brexit effects at the consumer level. ” A “Brexit effect”? Are they serious? “Honey, let’s buy a cheaper brand of charcoal for the grill this month. I’m worried about Brexit.” Seriously?
Consumer spending: “With income rising at a relatively modest pace (as personal disposable income rose 0.2% m/m), the rise in spending was underpinned by a further drawdown in savings, pushing the saving rate down to 5.3% m/m from 5.4%. Real disposable income advanced at a slightly more modest 0.1% m/m pace, marking the slowest pace of advanced in this indicator since March last year” [TD Securities, Across the Curve].
Honey for the Bears: “Econintersect’s Economic Index continues marginally in contraction but insignificantly improved. The index is slightly above the lowest value since the end of the Great Recession. Although Econintersect does not buy into proposition that Brexit is bad for the global economy, the financial markets do – and their reaction may cause a recessionary dynamic. For those alive in 1973 will remember that the oil embargo triggered a recession. Global events can contract the USA economy” [Econintersect]. “Reflecting on the potential that a recession is underway (or soon to be underway) – I find the prospect unlikely (but far from impossible). It is more likely the economic dynamics have slowed from “muddling along” to a “snails pace”. The only group forecasting better economic growth is the self serving forecasts of the Federal Reserve (as they are held accountable for monetary policy) – as well as the components of GDP which do not translate to a better world for those on mainstreet. For the near future, one will need a microscope and a micrometer to measure any improvement.”
Supply Chain: Amazon is rolling out private-label packaged foods [Wall Street Journal]. “The launch into the business is starting quietly with coffee and baby food, allowing Amazon to test new products that generally come with high profit margins. Such in-house brands can be lucrative for manufacturers and retailers because of lower development and marketing costs. And they allow Amazon to design packaging to reduce shipping costs. Amazon certainly seems to want the private-label goods embedded in its logistics business: the labor for its new Happy Belly coffee says it’s part of AFS Brands Inc.—AFS, for Amazon Fulfillment Services.”
Supply Chain: “[Adrian Gonzalez, president of consultancy Adelante SCM] said Amazon is focused on owning the supply chain ‘ecosystem’ by providing an end-to-end shop of commerce in much the same way Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple Inc. built a closed-loop network of software, hardware, and services” [DC Velocity]. You can’t own an ecosystem.
Shipping: “China Cosco Shipping has claimed the Piraeus port sale submitted to parliament in Athens is not the same as what was originally agreed” [Splash 247]. “China Cosco Shipping had planned to make the largest foreign direct investment in Greece ever by taking over the country’s top port for EUR368.5m, however the move has faced huge opposition from dockworkers to politicians – and even Greece’s own shipping minister.”
Shipping: “For the first 25 weeks of this year, U.S. railroads’ total combined traffic was 12,479,028 carloads and intermodal units, a decrease of 7.8 percent compared with traffic during the first 25 weeks of 2015” [Progressive Railroading].
Telecom: “A 9,000-kilometer (about 5,600 miles) high-speed, trans-Pacific submerged cable connecting the U.S. West Coast and Japan entered service Friday. Called the “FASTER Cable System,” the six-fiber pair cable delivers 60-terabits per second of bandwidth across the Pacific Ocean” [ 24/7 Wall Street]. “Partners include [Alphabet, Inc.,] China Mobile International, China Telecom Global, Global Transit, KDDI, and Singtel. The cable itself was built entirely by Japan’s NEC corporation.
“Spanish officials raided Google’s Madrid offices on Thursday in a tax probe, authorities said, barely a month after the internet company had its headquarters in France searched on suspicion of tax evasion” [Bloomberg].
“U.S. President Barack Obama says he will quickly sign the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA) before the U.S. territory faces a possible default on July 1 on $1.9 billion worth of debt payments” [Futures]. “While the government of Puerto Rico says it cannot honor all of its debts, and will likely default for a fourth time in the last year on some of its bonds, some creditors could get their payments via insurers or reserve funds.”
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 58, Greed (previous close: 58, Greed) [CNN]. One week ago: 75 (Greed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jun 30 at 11:55am. Mr. Market seems to be unwilling to jam his foot on the accelerator. Looking nervously in the rear-view mirror?
Corruption
“Every enforcement portfolio comprehends a multitude of discrete decisions: bringing an enforcement action or deciding not to bring an action, putting extra resources into investigating a target or pursuing a complaint, adding charges designed to increase pressure on the enforcement target or compromising or dropping an action. Each of these decisions is to some degree discretionary, necessarily guided by something other than black letter law” [RegBlog]. “The ‘regulatory capture’ thesis is that in exercising this discretion, officials too often take steps that benefit well-placed entities and individuals. For example, the frequently voiced complaint that no Wall Street executive or bank official has gone to jail for conduct linked to the economic recession of 2008 to 2010, is commonly joined with the assertion that this shows that these business interests have outsized influence over government officials.”
Enforcement decisions that appear questionable might reflect regulatory capture, but that is neither obvious nor easily encapsulated in a simple story line of who is doing the capturing. Yet, in a system that, intentionally or not, confers enormous discretionary power on enforcers, any potential source of bias merits scrutiny. Whether enforcement decisions are products of reasoned choice, mere chance, or administrative chicanery, scholars, businesses, politicians, and citizens should look for ways to limit enforcers’ discretion. Paring back the range and complexity of the rules to be enforced is an excellent place to start.
Here one might compare the simplicity of Glass-Steagal to the complexity of Dodd-Frank.
Class Warfare
“Unlike the effect of offshoring, with its relocation of jobs and plants abroad, economists know relatively little about the extent and effects of decades of subcontracting production and services to third parties in the U.S. But what research has been done suggests the practice has played a significant role in the nation’s troubling trends of stagnating wages and rising inequality” [Los Angeles Times]. Well, yeah. Otherwise, the credentialing process in the economics profession might reward research that could help working people, and who wants that?
“What we have observed in Britain and what we are observing in the U.S. with Trump is a growing mistrust of voters toward experts” [Pro-Market]. “My ancestors in Sicily did not go to doctors because they mistrusted all experts: they thought they were all just trying to cheat them. They suffered the health consequences of this decision. Today the consequences would be much worse. In a world that is increasingly dependent on technical expertise to function, we cannot afford to mistrust most experts.”
News of the Wired
“When we talk we take turns, where the ‘right’ to speak flips back and forth between partners. This conversational pitter-patter is so familiar and seemingly unremarkable that we rarely remark on it. But consider the timing: On average, each turn lasts for around 2 seconds, and the typical gap between them is just 200 milliseconds—barely enough time to utter a syllable. That figure is nigh-universal. It exists across cultures, with only slight variations. It’s even there in sign-language conversations” [The Atlantic]. Cultural universals are hard to find, are they not? Fascinating article, well worth a read.
“An extreme method for breaking your bad habits” [Medium].
“What to Make of Finnegans Wake?” [New York Review of Books]. Try reading the famous first sentence — “riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle & Environs” — in the voice of Paul McCarthy’s grandfather. It will make a lot more sense.
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 (RH):
Readers, if you want to send me some videos of plants in whole systems (bees and blossoms, for example, or running streams) — I can use them to practice with FFmpeg and hopefully post them. Because of download times, they’ll have to be measured in seconds, rather than minutes. Thank you!
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You forgot the snark tags.
Click through.
Thanks. My coworkers just enjoyed that rim shot. ;)
Not unusual me thinks- they “own” Clinton and can simply give her orders….
From the article: ” It is certainly one of the most progressive platforms in the party’s history.”
So no universal healthcare, no opposition to the TPP, no fracking ban, no carbon tax. If this is “one of the most progressive platforms in the party’s history” it just goes to show the Dem party is very far from the party many of those who vote Democratic THINK they are voting for. And it shows the Dem party as a right wing party of course.
Dionne is not a bad man from my years of reading him but he is a captive of “the possible” as it is understood in DC. The fact that he gives a nod to Debs places him way out of the MSM narrative of Sanders as quixotic curmudgeon. And we have to admit that 1) TPP is still an “inside baseball” subject and one the party wants to fudge in order to keep its funders happy 2) universal healthcare is distrusted by millions, including millions of working people 3) pledge to ban fracking and you lose several swing states right away (Penn, Ohio, WV for sure) and a carbon tax would not exactly survive long under the full court press of Trump’s denunciations (“a bunch of tree-hugging yuppies taking away your money and telling YOU how to live”). I’d put them in there for aspirational purposes and as a means of nailing my flag to the mast, but then I’m overwhelmingly likely to vote for the Greens so winning isn’t exactly my highest priority.
I’d love to see if the Republican platform has an anti-TPP plank. It sure as hell isn’t going to propose banning fracking, creating universal healthcare, or instituting a carbon tax.
I am not so sure about that. Any polls to support that? Lots of grass roots concern about environmental impact, especially on water supplies, from my personal conversations.
A carbon tax should be offset with a massive tax cut at the bottom end of the income scale, like zero tax on the first $50,000. Why make poor people even file taxes. It would benefit the middle class, too. For the rich it wouldn’t even be drop in he bucket.
Not so much the Great Society as it is the Grim Society.
With its newly cannonized parameters, “bullshit” is more usefull but less universal. Someone should set about defining “horseshit” with similar rigor and specificity.
“It is certainly one of the most progressive platforms in the party’s history,” seems like as good a place as any to start.
According to one book on beef cattle, a cow pie weighs seven pounds on average. Since the horse biscuits I’ve encountered are somewhat smaller than a cow pie, “horseshit” could well describe violence against a single descriptor, the stripping of its established connotations and historical context away leaving nothing but an ear tag. “Progressive” seems as good place as any to start.
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
Apple patents technology to block your phone camera [CNN]
Imagine trying to record Police Brutality in the future… “sorry this feature is temporarily unavailable”.
If non-Apple companies make non-blocked or non-blockable spy-eye phones, those phones will become the choice of more and more people. Certainly of more and more political-cultural activist or engaged people.
I wonder how much money poured in from the MPAA and RIAA for this project. I expect Android will be shipping with this ‘feature’ in future releases too.
More to the point RS makes, any bets on whether this will get a sales/ export restriction? Arab springs should happen (unless HRC says they can’t), so we have to limit ‘bad’ régimes from getting this tech right??! Mere peasants should also not have the ability to keep tech savvy futurists from recording everything they want (google glass debacles), so we can’t sell it to them either!
Ugh.
From the patent text:
In fact, camera 107 can include whatever I dangwell want to put on it: peanut butter, Vaseline [1], a 9.5mm or so short-pass/IR-cut filter, like one of the many available on eBay for $3 + shipping, or, in the event that avenue closes, telescope filters for astronomy. And there’s not a lot Apple can do about that.
[1] Old photographer’s trick for soft-focus such as in wedding portraiture.
If you happened to be away for a week, then returned and checked the markets today, you might not realize that Brexit ever happened. It’s been a classic mini-crisis cycle:
The S&P 500 is less than 2 percent below its record high … just as it was last week. Two of its nine sectors (soon to be ten, as REITs are hived off into their own sector in August) are at record highs: Utilities and Consumer Staples.
Yield-oriented Utes benefit from crashing bond yields. Whereas Stapes have busted out huge thanks to tobacco and soft drinks.
Evidently, Mr. Markey thinks consumer-depositors will continue self-medicating with sugar, nicotine and alcohol to make the enveloping malaise recede to a distant grey buzz. Comfortably numb …
“America and the stock market is already great. Let’s make it whole again.”
Maybe we see an all-female cabinet…too many men.
Has there ever in history been so many people who have been so wrong so much so assuredly as TV stock market prognosticators? Of course, people watched Seinfeld, but it proudly proclaimed its raison d’etre as “the show about nothing”
I love classic mini-cycle….
That said, we’ve got a constitutional crisis in both the UK and the EU. How does Mr Market price that in? Or has he just slumped back on the couch after his dose?
Politics are irrelevant, as long as central banksters stay easy.
I can’t figure out whether Mr Market thinks i) that there will be a Regrexit, or ii) that regardless, corporations are still sitting in the catbird seat. I guess i) and ii) are not mutually exclusive. So I think Mr Market’s verdict is that corporations (hence oligarchs) are still in control.
The truth will out, eventually. Rotten to the core:
http://bawerk.net/2016/06/30/off-target/
Precious metals are still up, though; silver, the one I follow, is still climbing – not a panic, but definitely upward.
Buy low sell high. Ain’t volatility grand?
…I would have thought it was in the best interests of “the powers that be” for Brexit to trigger some major fallout.
But if it ultimately is an event with little or no market consequences, other countries are bound to think, “see its not so bad to opt out!” and actually incite other countries to think more seriously about it.
As a very proud Canadian, I have to put out a link for this beautiful NYT piece:
Refugees Encounter A Foreign Word
Happy Canada Day, people!
From an American neighbor: congratulations!
I hope the celebrated Canadian passive-aggressiveness will engender an appropriate response when your home and native land begins to experience the same sort of thrilling cultural interactions that the rest of the West has been recently enjoying.
Best wishes and, in the words of you national anthem: Stand on Guard…
Oh, it’s you, the Taker of Forks! No worries, we Canucks can take care of ourselves, eg (1) and (2). BTW, I am one of Toronto’s foreign-born. Born, as that Bruce guy sings, in the USA. Moving here 30 yrs ago was the best decision I ever made.
So, yeah, we’ll be fine, but us settlers should always remember whose land we are living on and be respectful.
You mean the wonderful interactions that was caused by Iraq War 2003 and the follow up meddling in Libya while propping up Saudi Arabia. I mean things are going so well in the Middle East that we are currently in a proxy war with ourselves in Syria.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/america-is-in-a-proxy-war-with-itself-in-syria/5510015
On the entry “Investor-to-state dispute settlement is a rigged system”, Lambert comments: “But a rigged system is easier to delegitmize than a system perceived to be fair.”
So, I guess a system that actually IS fair is way too much to expect ;-(
Oh — I forgot myself. We’re not talking about trade, we talking about world government by multinational corporations. What was I thinking???
DCCC refuses to back progressive primary victors: Mary Ellen Balchunis, Tom Wakely, Wendy Reed & now Zephyr Teachout.Who’s side are they on?
But you can’t argue with a proven formula for success.
The DCCC: No worse friend, no better enemy.
That just proves that the DCCC is smart, and you’re stupid. Now send the Democrats some money, they really need it.
I can’t believe I still get snail-mail correspondence from the DCCC and DSCC, even though I reply to every one with nasty comments about how much I hate them. And still they send me stuff. More opportunity to educate them.
Per other readers, put something heavy in the return mailer so as to increase the cost of dealing with you.
I don’t think the un/underpaided drones who open the envelopes read anything you send. They look for cash or a check, and throw the rest out. I’m sure there isn’t even a system in place to note comments.
You’re probably on multiple mailing lists, and I bet they haven’t merged them all. So first they mail to the Kos list. Then MoveOn, Then Democracy for America, Then whatever Facebook sold them…
Koku @ dnc snail mail…Less than 5% of population ever responds…that you regularly respond tells the computers you engage and they just need to figure out what it will take to drain your wallet…
just ignore them…they will eventually find a different mark..
The D party is less reformed today than it was a year ago (or so it seems to me).
You think that bcz we’re actually seeing how they really feel about us lefties.
The party was pretty damn good at pulling the wool over Dem voters’ eyes, but now they need to be a bit more brutal and that makes their real ideas and intentions so much more visible.
As in the old “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” Pretty soon only the completely unobservant will believe anything the Dem Party puts out.
Unless the Bernie Revolution comes to fruition….
Sounds like these primary victors deserve hardest-possible support from Berners and others. The DCCC could be viewed as a fortified position currently in possession of the enemy. The progressive Democrats could view the DCCC as one of the enemy positions in need of eventual conquest, occupation and disinfection.
“Occupy the Democratic Party.” “Occupy the Democrats.”
It’s more like the English monarchy.
Today’s pilgrims are better off seeking a new world.
Nobody’s!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Re the idea that Hillary didn’t how know State dealt with her email and files. The evil vs stupid dichotomy comes up so often with Hillary. Go to the most prestigious law school in the land, take the bar and then trade random livestock futures but only end up with winners. What a great world!
“I am stupid but not evil. That’s why you want me in the White House.”
To be fair, chess grand masters can only picture the board 7-8 moves in advance before genius level memory and imagination lose track.
The “tangled web we weave” effect is definitely in play for Team Hill. With what seems like a pathological practice (“sniper fire” screams off-the-cuff-oh-jesus-christ-why-in-f***’s-sake-can’t-I-open-my-mouth-without-lying-just-to-impress-these-f***ing-LESSERS?!) they actually do pretty good covering her ass. It’s just impossible with her and Bill insisting on biting off bigger and bigger chunks of dishonesty than anyone could hope to chew.
They did just fine with the collections through Canada scheme and dropped the ball on the server. Win some lose some.
To be fair, she flunked the easiest bar exam in the nation.
Re the USA Today article about Black Lives Matter and Hillary: DeRay McKesson is a proxy for Teach For America (aka neoliberalism in the schools run amok), and it’s Overclass backers, so this piece suggests the Big Money is tightening her leash. Even more.
Civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson to join new city schools cabinet
Baltimore Sun 6/28
Looks to me like pay for performance is moving right along!
Human capital…
E. J. Dionne is a schmuck of the first order. Best to ignore him until it’s time for the second round the Guillotine Games.
Most of my friends think voting for the not-Republicans and the not-Trump is self-evident and you’re completely whacko if you’re even contemplating doing anything else. They also believe Obama wanted to do more if only the evil Republicans had let him. They are liberal goodthinkers like EJ. I am lonely.
And now lots of those same Republicans are endorsing Clinton. Do they have a coping strategery for the cognitive dissonance?
Only my experience with the folks Steve talks about:
They take Republican endorsements as validation of Not-Trump.
“Trump is so evil that even the racist, sexist, Texas-Taliban repugs want to keep him out of office!” (Actual statement made to me at a social gathering last weekend)
What… they all woke up one day and looked in the mirror… only to find themselves staring at Clayton Bigsby…
Disheveled Marsupial… some stuff is supposed to stay within the family compound… appearances must be maintained… !!!!
Oh man! ….soooo many un-thinking people running around with ,,,,, with their hair-on-fire !!!
They ululate in the privacy of their own showers.
The patronizing, snarling Sanders-trolling continues at the NYT, now in the Opinion Letters section: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/30/opinion/dear-bernie-sanders-what-you-didnt-say.html?src=me.
(Just in case you thought they’d let up on him.)
They truly cannot help themselves I think. This Sanders-bashing has long since ceased to be beneficial to Democrats’ chances in the 2016 races. What’s driving it now are the wounded, febrile egos of the Democratic, “liberal” elite. He embarrasses them. His words, his public acclaim, and very existence highlight how far they are from what they claim to be, and what the Democratic Party once was. They just fucking despise him for drawing back their modesty curtain so completely, and for failing to draw it closed again (promptly!) on their demand.
That is certainly part of it, for those ‘progressives’ in the DP who have some capacity for consistency.
Of course there are many liberal pundits like Joan Walsh who just feel that Hillary is a true progressive.
+++ for your comment.
Counterpunch’s Paris correspondent, Diane Johnstone, has some interesting things to say about the EU and Brexit
She also talks about how the EU is often defended as a humanist project designed to break down borders and prevent wars–the main cause of war under this near religious belief set being Hitler style racism and xenophobia. This theory
So for the gallic intellectuals at least the lines are drawn: Utopia versus the “nation of shopkeepers” and their old fogey bigots. Should be interesting.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/06/29/european-unification-divides-europeans-how-forcing-people-together-tears-them-apart/
Utopia versus the “nation of shopkeepers”
As Shakespeare would put it, Brexuent. [Brits leave the stage]
Pursued by a bear?
Pursued by a Beare of Maine and Anjou no less.
Jim, I love your work. Your comment here is another sharp classic. Sorry to be the pedant. All that having been said, it should be “Brexeunt.”
Due to economic constraints, Flourish and et have been laid off.
Flourish can be heard trumpeting the discretely voluntaries charms of Madame Chairman ‘H’.
Even though the British media paid attention, it is still odd.
It’s odd because letting people vent, and thus dissipating the energy that might explode any time, was supposed to prevent a vote like that.
In a totalitarian state, where the energy is not dissipated, you get Tiananmen.
Perhaps the lesson here is more freedom of speech, let more people speak…simultaneously and vociferously, so loud that no one can hear anyone else.
I think people are conflating the symptoms with the disease, the disease is the utter failure of all of the institutions the billionaire war elite Panama Papers crowd control: the Congress, the Fed, the IMF, the press, the political parties, and of course the EU. The symptom is racist xenophobia, cure the disease and the symptoms will abate. I don’t think people naturally hate The Other, but I think they quickly learn to hate them when it looks like their kids will starve “because” of them. There is plenty of money for a rising standard of living for all but it is sequestered with the top .01%.
As useful as these percentages–1%, .1%, .01%–are (demagogically speaking, at least), it would be better to have a function. By which I mean, a mathematical function: something written in terms of a value beneath of the curve of the ownership percentage of overall wealth, one that usually lies just above the point on the curve that the writer of the post occupies. Perhaps something like this: f(x)=limit of readability as writer approaches infinite self-indulgent resentment.
Surely all the experts in economics here have some kind of background in math, and would work this out for me in terms that even a trust-fund boomer can understand?
Because, as a member of the .1%, I can tell you frankly it disgusts me that my friends ride around in Gulfstreams, when all I can afford is first class. Think of their carbon footprint! So irresponsible!
Like all of you, I feel strongly it is time to tax my richer friends at substantially higher rates than I am taxed. At least that way, my social life will improve: their jets will go on sale to rich people elsewhere, and we Americans can all ride in first class together, where the champagne and caviar are still entirely adequate, at least to my unschooled palate.
I will quote a signature line that I read on a car forum that I used to frequent: “Everyone who drives slower than I do is an idiot. Everyone who drives faster than I do is a maniac.”
I always thought that it was a wonderfully insightful observation about human psychology.
Carolinian,
Thanks for this link to Diana Johnstone’s post at CounterPunch. I dropped it into a comment thread following a post over at Sic Semper Tyrannis, The MSM in the US Are Actually an Arm of the Clinton Campaign, as the parallels between elite reaction to the Brexit vote, and to the populism of Trump’s campaign which the elites similarly despise, seemed worthy of note.
“In a world that is increasingly dependent on technical expertise to function, we cannot afford to mistrust most experts.”
This Zingales pensee, supposedly on the British referendum, is one of the more self-damning and flatulent I’ve run across in oh, a day or two. It really evinces an existential fear that credentialed elites (and others) have that their specialized talents and rent-seeking behavior are either or both socially worthless in the present or likely to become so in exchange value when there is a phase change in the economy and society that brings about demand for different skills and qualities. Non-market values can’t return to us soon enough. There is also doubtless an especially large number of folks in the economics profession who surely must realize that what they do is a joke.
Bernie Sanders is “condescending”?!? These big time reporters (WAPO in this case) betray their low intelligence level by exhibiting their stupidity in articles like this. He’s assuming Bernie NEEDS to be accepted by the DNC. Wrong, very wrong. (1) Bernie’s not even a Democrat. (2) He’s just run a campaign constantly castigating HRC and the dem establishment. Wasn’t the reporter observing this? (3) He has a good job–US Senator from Vermont—–that he can keep as long as he wants. I hope Bernie never gives a full-fledged “endorsement” of the Hildabeast. Why should he? Why would he? Actually Trump is a better candidate than Hill on trade and war, the two most important issues. This is actually psychotic projection by the Chris fellow. He figures because he’s “in” with some of Hillary’s underlings he’s a much better, wiser, and more powerful person than Bernie. Chris, the reporter, is the one who is condescending (def’n: having or showing a feeling of patronizing superiority.)
My only problem with your comment is that I think climate change is a bigger issue than trade, and Trump may prove slightly worse on this. I also think that we can guess pretty confidently that Clinton 3 will be a ramped up Obama 1 or a slightly less feral Bush 2 1/2 (because she’s not sailing on the winds of 9/11 and a compliant Congress). What a Trump presidency will look like is harder to discern, although I, for one, believe a lot of wishful thinking is involved in surmising it is going to be all that different than Bush 2 1/2. To confidently tell us that “Trump will do X” or “Trump is for Y” is a little too close to 2008 for my taste. If you are prepared to vote lesser evil, and you acknowledge that, then, hey, it’s your vote, do as you see fit. You sure as hell could be right, although I don’t think so. Then again, I’m not voting for Clinton, either, so I’m neither fish nor fowl.
Like Obama, what will really clinch this is who Trump picks to do all the dirty work while he hunts for cheering crowds and public acclimation. If Obama was mostly lazy and passive-aggressive, then Trump almost certainly lacks an attention span and is impulsive. His inability to stop tweeting demonstrates this tendency, as did his overhasty reaction to Orlando. Clinton is manically driven to win and to dominate. I’m not too sure we can say that Trump doesn’t have the same character flaw, but it may not be as manifest or toxic as it is in Hillary.
I agree with you on climate over trade and Trump being worse on that metric.
However when you factor in effectiveness, of which he stands to have very little, the Dems will be as vociferous in opposing his environmental policy as they were in opposing Bush2s wars.
Its only Republican climate change they oppose just as its only Republican war Presidents they oppose.
Forced Free Trade causes a lot of the climate change. Abolishing Forced Free Trade, restoring Protectionism (for all countries) and bringing back our industry-in-exile would remove that part of the carbon skydumping which Forced Free Trade has caused.
There was an article linked to here on NC a while back describing how the washington politicos/journos were judging Sanders’ motives and success based on their own washington court world view(i.e. machiavellian power plays). In other words, they see Sanders as a pretender to the throne who lost – simple. He should get over it, submit, concede, endorse, scram, period.
Whereas, Sanders himself has hightlighted over and over that his campaign should not be seen as a simple win-lose story in terms of the democratic ticket nor is it all about him. Sanders breaks the mould of acceptable politicking and they’re so morally bankrupt that they can’t actually comprehend/accept this. So, of course Cizilla thinks he’s a condescending loser (and should obediently swear fealty to his Queen).
People like Cizilla and other main stream media people are also laboring under the misapprehension that what they put on the printed page is going to sway people’s opinions. That day is over. If anything people will read the WaPo opinion pieces and believe the opposite.
Those who have no honor cannot imagine the trait existing in another.
Absolutely, they just can’t get past the idea that its all about the Democratic Party. Bernie needs to endorse and disappear for the sake of the party. I hope a large number of Bernie supporters see through that.
You think Apple or Amazon, 100% (as in, all of it), will ascend to Mars?
“Today is Apple Ascension Day. No school today. And there is separation of Church and State.”
What a whirlwind of news today! Also, I just wanted to thank you for the thank-you e-mail Lambert; I’d reply via e-mail, but then that entails logging in and so on…
Re: Guccifer 2.0
There’s a tell here in the article that shows some insight as to how it got pulled off:
The phrase itself is probably the most uttered IT-related phrase regarding security ever. Given the relative lack of security over on the DNC’s end/HC’s server, I wonder what the weak point truly was. A password that was simply “password1”? He also mentions that he was waiting to be discovered, so given that, he was
probablymucking around in there for weeks/months before the discovery.Another major tell for the “bezzle” is as its called, is when an organization tells you to “remind people of the good that we do”. If you consistently do good, then there’s no need for a reminder nor would you have ended up under scrutiny.
Very good, sir or madam. Good point on the bezzle.
TTIP.: My question is whether this is just more talking it up in an attempt to make passage inevitable, blame shifting, or deck clearing by the EU. Because there is the potential that in a short period of time the EU is going to want all of its trade negotiators free for Brexit talks.
Here’s a suggestion for the ‘Class Warfare’ section. Very disconcerting read. http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/06/28/its-time-for-the-elites-to-rise-up-against-ignorant-masses-trump-2016-brexit/
Great antidote! A delicate moment perfectly captured. Thanks.
“Michael, don’t eat the figs.” Also, Jo Cox died for nothing. I have a bet with a friend Cameron doesn’t resign after Brexit rescinded. It’s a dumb money bet, but so far….
Probe of Clinton’s email driven by facts, not politics: White House
Which is just like the White House’s reaction to Chelsea Manning. Or not:
Obama says Manning ‘broke the law’ [pretrial, 2011]
Still chuckling…
“wake up and smell the smoking brake pads on the Acela.”, I agree, one of the best snappy comments I’ve heard from Lambert ever…
The Thomas Palley link from this morning also had an article on Brexit directly under the article linked. The final paragraphs were these:
—
“Racism, immigration and nationalism may be the match for the anti-establishment fire: wage stagnation and off-shoring of jobs are the fuel.
As regards the Obama administration, the lesson concerns the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). On all sides, the US electorate has rejected the TPP, but the Obama administration keeps pushing it. That further discredits the establishment and benefits Trump who is the outsider candidate. Clinton is the insider who has openly touted her links to President Obama, and she still lacks credibility on her opposition to TPP because of her past endorsement.
In this environment, the Obama administration’s pushing of the TPP is recklessly irresponsible politics that send us nose down, into the eye of the maelstrom.”
—
It’s pretty obvious that acrid smell of brakes has reached Mr. Palley’s nose, now if only Hillary and the rest of ’em would take off their painter’s masks when hobnobbing with the great unwashed between NYC and DC…
[lambert blushes modestly].
For Clinton, tiny fundraisers equal big campaign money [AP]
As people who care about the planet, shouldn’t we be favorably impressed that
Clinton’s fund raising events have such small carbon footprints?
Would love to see the $27 per person fundraising scale or spread like wild fire.
If not, then, sadly, it might be ‘crisis contained.’
They’re doubling down, aren’t they?
Zero Hedge on Rasmussen poll showing Trump leading Clinton “In First Post-Brexit Poll” for what its worth:
It’s going to be interesting the next few months…epoch making maybe.
The EU
The stock market
Expiring bubbles
Other surprises
Sitting in a Dunkin Donuts on free WiFi waiting for the return bus. A news spot interrupts the muzak:
Story #1: Bill Clinton’s cute meet with Loretta Lynch. CBS legal correspondent calls it “shocking”
Story #2: Poll (unnamed) shows Clinton and Trump tied…
And that’s it. Back to the music.
Hmmmmm. There has been some speculation here (and elsewhere) that part of the reason that Bill seems to fuck up during both 2008 and the current campaign is not that he is losing his political chops (although that may be true), but that consciously or sub consciously he really doesn’t want Hillary to get the Presidency. Now there is no question that both Clintons are arrogant and that arrogance enables them to behave stupidly quite often. Still this would seem to be in the top ten of things not to do when under investigation. Especially when the candidate/suspect is already deeply distrusted by almost half the country…
You know it would be irresponsible NOT to speculate that both Bill and Lynch have deep doubts about a Clinton Presidency surviving the email scandal and wished to derail the candidacy BEFORE it became official and they could not longer wait on the FBI. Especially since all the real dirt on the Clinton Foundation was settled between them using trusted surrogates previously, like banks do it. Just saying.
Or will Loretta Lynch be Hillary Clinton’s running mate? Bill killed two birds with one stone: recruited a candidate who fills the identity politics requirement and put the kibosh on any DoJ indictment of either him, his family or his foundation.
Lynch Clinton in 2016! :-)
That was a good one, Jim Haygood.
Best bumper sticker, from Ronald Reagan days:
“Give Hinckley a Second Chance”
For his 1984 campaign:
No mo’ Ron for president
Hinkley was successful, at least, Dr. Chapeau de Tin avers.
Most of Ronnies’ two terms were done by a Disney Animatronic Robot.
“Better politics through science!”
Yes yes yes
Did you get a donut? If so, what kind?
I am sorry to report that I bought a maple-frosted with sprinkles along with a mango smoothie.
I hope those were organic locally grown mangoes.
I knew a wonderful citizen like you would not just free ride on a WiFi network even though it was run by a large corporation!
Millionaires seen fleeing London after the referendum. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Excellent post that, among other things, suggests that political-party leaders value personal power over party or nation. Clinton would rather lose to Trump than give anything to Sanders. Concludes that the left’s greatest enemies are liberals:
https://benjamindavidsteele.wordpress.com/2016/06/15/what-liberalism-has-become/
Hillary will not give anything to anyone.
Sanders has to take it from Hillary.
Not just Sanders, but in life, that fact of life goes for everyone.
A must-read, chock full of astute connections and trenchant characterizations. If people have been wondering what I’ve been on about whe comparing the Democrat Party to a church, and liberalism to a totalizing ideology, I shall direct them to this article.
The D party…church
The government, the Fed…omnipotence, religion.
I wrote that post. It’s taken me years to come around to this view. For most of my adult life, I’ve identified as a liberal. I always wanted to believe the liberal rhetoric and I felt the Democrats were at least better than the alternative. But the contradictions and hypocrisy became too much for me. I’m not sure where that leaves me now.
That leaves you sadder but wiser. Thanks for taking the time to point it all out.
One crappy aspect of living under a corrupt government in a declining society is the waning of possibility. What used to be feasible morphs into ‘pie in the sky’ and sometimes one feels foolish for having held on.
As eg, Clinton supporters label Sanders’ modest New Deal proposals as ideological bilge, and that works as an insult because the New Deal is long gone from our lives.
But there is a freedom in having no tribe and anyway, since there are now more than a few people floating around loose, loneliness isn’t inevitable.
Politico: State Department seeks 2-year-plus delay in suit for Clinton aides’ emails
Emphasis added
Pray that Guccifer or Putin or Anonymous or somebody has a copy of all these emails too, and releases them all near-immediately.
They’ve got to kick it past the 2018 mid-terms?! That seems a little excessive. Is my math correct?
10/20/2018 – so just in time to help lose in the mid-terms maybe?
We’re all learning that, as far as this lot is concerned, there is no such thing as ‘excessive.’ Add in a little pettifogging and you’re well past the 2018 mid term elections.
“Hist! Comest thou here,”
“Bend knee and lend ear.”
“Be not dismayed to see,”
“A raft of excess.”
“Thou canst but flee,”
“This season of regress.”
“Burma Shave.”
First self-driving car fatality. Hoodathunk?
I see what you did there.
The late owner, who, according to a Tesla press release, ‘‘spent his life focused on innovation and the promise of technology and who believed strongly in Tesla’s mission,’’ ran a wireless mesh ISP in Columbus. There is a quote attributed to the Moustache of Understanding on his company’s home page:
Full Speech: Donald Trump Holds Huge Rally in Bangor, ME (6-29-16)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AETqlPPKgwI
The speech is 50 minutes long.This is unfiltered source material.
Well as expected, nothing incriminating on Guccifer 2.0.
Gold, comrades: its 24% gain in the first half of 2016 is its best first half gain since 1H 1980.
What’s it mean? Evidently, the old yellow dog sniffs more monetary disorder dead ahead. For instance, this rather shocking confession:
Eh? Authorized on Sunday, but not disclosed till today? Smells funny.
The first rule of Bailout Club is that you don’t talk about Bailout Club.
Greece is not thinking about Grexit now.
Otherwise, it would have been even more show of omnipotence from the European Big Brother.
” You can’t own an ecosystem.”
Unfortunately you can. As the primary medium of the planetary ecosystem is water, the primary medium of the economic ecosystem is money, through the circulation pathways of finance. Which is why the next great step for humanity will be to turn finance into a public trust, as it did with government.
When you own the playing field, you win whoever wins on the field.
Many people say the creation of the Federal Reserve was an abdication of government to finance and while this is true, it made responsibility for maintaining the value of the currency public and that will prove to be the foot in the door to a fully public banking system. The bankers outsmarted themselves.
“What to Make of Finnegans Wake?”
Hopefully nothing. Like all of Joyce’s longwinded crap. I’ve been mulling getting one of the fancy Easton Press editions of Ulysses just so I could deface it by turning it into a hollow storage compartment.
“Dubliners” was good…
“Dubliners” is my favorite writing of his. I think a lot of Ulysses doesn’t hold up outside its own sense of audacity and is both too self-referential and too self-congratulatory in its intellectuality. But I was young when I read it; I might try it again some time.
That line from Finnegan’s Wake scans badly, as a matter of poetics. If you’re going to violate basic rules of grammar and vocabulary, you’ve got to least deliver pleasure.
yes ‘dubliners’ (‘i imagined i bore my chalice safely through a throng of foes’) and ‘portrait of the artist as a young man.’
‘carry me taddy like you done through the toy fair’
“An extreme method for breaking your bad habits” was interesting, but it seemed to me to be hard to implement. Unfortunately, for motivation in taking it seriously, it also turned out to be just another advertisement.
Even as a child I’ve always liked egg beaters. :-)
Fish School Us on Wind Power
Egg beaters sweep less air per length of rotor, and were looked upon as less efficient. Scientist may have found a path to turn it into a strength. Vertical turbines have a large advantage in construction and maintenance costs, because the generator is located close(r) to the ground, below the rotating mass. This also has the potential to allow other prime movers, such as compressed air motors (energy storage) or gas turbines (stand-by) to be clutched to the other end of the generator, a significant savings on infrastructure to support redundancy against windless days.
Obama Recruits Goldman, Google, Others to Resettle Refugees [Bloomberg]
Punchline:
Given the well-documented effect of Airbnb units reducing the rental stock and thereby driving up rents in many locations, file this under a new heading, New Economy Syraqistan Class Warfare.
I’d expct that soon we’ll hear Disney and Dole have join the effort.
Great, more incentives to push for war.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/japans-gpif-had-portfolio-losses-of-over-dollar50-bln-last-fy-source/ar-AAhPxoR?li=AA4Zjn&ocid=spartandhp