2:00PM Water Cooler 6/6/2016

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Readers, my piece of **** browser loses its mind with 30 or so tabs open, so I’ll have more 2016 material shortly.

TPP/TTIP/TISA

“[Jeremy Corbyn] has promised to stop the adoption of the deal if he is elected prime minister before it is completed. And he will also attempt to lead a rebellion in parliament, alongside dissident Tories and the Scottish nationalists” [Independent].

“The USITC report joins reports from think tanks, the European Commission, an economic institute at Tufts University and the World Bank in predicting that TPP will deliver either no benefit, very little benefit, or real costs to the economies of the nations involved” [Boing Boing]. “But the agreement will deliver power to a few influential multinational corporations — the same ones who were allowed to participate in the TPP negotiations even as elected members of the US Congress and European Parliament were frozen out of any information on the proceedings, and even threatened with jail time if they pierced TPP’s iron curtain of secrecy.”

2016

Policy

“Sanders movement will go on as ‘People’s summit’ is planned” June 17 to 19 in Chicago [McClatchy]. “The event is a ‘declaration of independence from establishment politics’ that’ll address the current ‘repture [sic] in the political fabric of this country,’ said RoseAnn DeMoro, National Nurses United Executive Director. The group has endorsed Sanders and is a lead summit sponsor.” NNU doesn’t crap around, so it will be interesting to see how this feeds into the Philly convention. And beyond.

“You may have heard about Hillary Clinton’s “major national security speech” the other day. She said nothing new. In fact, a main motivation for her speech actually concerned two words she declined to utter: Bernie Sanders” [McClatchy]. (On “nothing new,” recall we flagged hawkish Foreign Policy publisher David Rothkopf, a Clinton supporters, saying the same.) And then: Then came a Clinton dagger for the Democrat president and whomever was his secretary of state for those first four long years: “We need a real plan for confronting terrorists.” Apparently drone strikes aren’t enough, then? And then there’s this:

Sanders has tapped into the same anti-establishment anger and anxieties as Trump, feeding off the constipated economic recovery and failed foreign policies of Obama’s reign of error.

Sanders has redefined winning. Nomination is not victory. Voicing populist anger is. Shaping the political debate. And the party platform. And for this, Sanders has already crossed the finish line.

(On redefining victory, see here. To me, victory is a standalone, policy-focused, self-funding organization that owns the Sanders list and platform. Someplace for the 99% to go.)

“Even [after California], Sanders’ crusade won’t be completely over [not dead, dead, dead!] – because his campaign was never solely about winning the nomination” [Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times]. “[Sanders] top priority all along has been laying the foundation for what he calls a ‘political revolution’ by rallying progressives and pushing the Democratic Party to the left. He has a wish list for the party platform: a $15 minimum wage (Clinton supports $12), opposition to a proposed trade pact with Asia (Clinton initially supported it, but now says she wants changes), a strong plank on campaign finance reform…. And he wants to use next month’s convention in Philadelphia as a vehicle for changing the face of the party – even though that may mean some noisy floor fights…. ‘We’re going to have 2,000 Sanders people inside that room,’ the [Sanders] advisor added. ‘These people have been in fights with the political establishment for a long time. There’s a natural inclination on our side to go to battle.'” As I keep saying, the Sanders base is organized and self-organizing. Let’ see how much.

Corruption

UPDATE Sanders on CNN: “Do I have a problem when a sitting secretary of State and a foundation run by her husband collects many, many dollars from foreign governments — governments which are dictatorships?” [The Hill]. “Yeah, I do have a problem with that. Yeah, I do.”

The Voters

“According to the Tufts analysis, in 2008 Obama defeated Clinton among under-30 voters by a 60-35 margin. So far Sanders is beating Clinton by a 71-28 margin” [New York Magazine]. Of course, the online Obama campaign wasn’t actively seeking to drive them away.

“In November, Maine voters will decide whether they want to become the first state in the U.S. to implement ranked-choice voting. If a ballot initiative is approved, future Maine voters in primaries and general elections will be allowed to rank their choices for governor, Congress and statehouse races instead of voting for just one” [Time].

UPDATE “Bernie Sanders and Rigged Elections: Sometimes You Just Lose” [New York Times]. A compilation. I’d be interested to know what readers think.

UPDATE A takedown of Nate Silver’s tendentious “They voted together 93% of the time” talking point [Counterpunch].

California

“Was California The Last Weekend At Bernie’s House Of Hope?” [NPR]. The Sanders campaign is dead, dead, dead!

Clinton’s many appearances included one at West Los Angeles College, a two-year community college not far from the LA airport.

At this event, she was introduced by no fewer than 17 preliminary speakers, all of them women. They included several members of Congress and an array of Hollywood actors such as Sally Fields, Elizabeth Banks and Mary Steenburgen. The crowd lasted throughout the preliminaries to cheer lustily for Clinton herself. One of those cheering and waiting for a handshake was Sarah Griebe, an events planner who lives in Los Angeles.

“I understand where Sanders supporters come from,” said Griebe, who supported Clinton in 2008. “It’s hard when you invest so much time and energy in a candidate and they don’t win. But Sanders and Clinton are pretty much on the same side. It’s most important for us to continue movement forward and for the progress we’ve made in the last eight years to continue.”

For some definition of “us.”

“Among [California] voters who are supporting Sanders in the primary, only 65% said they would support Clinton in November” [KMBC].

UPDATE “The Daily 202: Bernie Sanders bets a Latino generational divide can win him California” [WaPo]. Oddly, or not, no mention of California’s strange balloting procedures, which have the effect of suppressing the votes of new, independent registrants.

The Trail

“Hubris syndrome: An acquired personality disorder? A study of US Presidents and UK Prime Ministers over the last 100 years” [Brain].

Clinton: “After Tuesday I’m going to do everything I can to reach out to try to unify the Democratic Party, and I expect Sen. Sanders to do the same. And we will come together and be prepared to go to the convention in a unified way, to make our case, to leave the convention to go into the general election to defeat Donald Trump” [RealClearPolitics].

“As the Democratic primary approaches its final contests, aides to President Barack Obama say the party’s top surrogate is eager to quickly step into what he sees as his chief role heading into the July convention: uniting the supporters of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders” [Wall Street Journal, “Barack Obama’s Chief Campaign Mission: Uniting the Democratic Party”]. Putting Medicare for All back on the table would do it…

“Iowa Poll: Clinton-Sanders brawl still splits Iowa” [Des Moines Register]. “”What’s interesting is that after an entire Democratic race, it hasn’t shifted one way or the other,’ said Democratic strategist David Axelrod, a former adviser to President Barack Obama. ‘You’ve got two candidates who basically are evenly matched and evenly regarded.'”

“When party leaders, even President Obama, talk about “pragmatism” and “incremental change,” they’re using code words; ones that rationalize the revolving door between corporate America, Wall Street, K Street, and Washington, D.C.—the one they’ve been complicit in swinging wide open” [CNBC]. “But that sales pitch has been rejected by the voters the party needs to survive into the future—millennials, young African Americans and Latinos, and the working class. And from the hundreds I’ve met and interviewed on the campaign trail, they are for Sanders and don’t give a damn about Democratic Party unity.”

“So as Trump’s team begins to ready the candidate for the fall debates and drafts a series of speeches, including one on the U.S. economy, the New York businessman with no elected experience is cramming to get up to speed, consulting experts, asking questions and refining his ideas in anticipation of certain assault by Democrats” [Los Angeles Times]. “The crash courses in foreign and domestic policy are a rite of passage for virtually every presidential candidate. But they carry even greater importance for Trump, who has mocked the Washington establishment as overcomplicating problems and won over many voters with simple ideas that often lack details: build a wall to stop illegal immigration, defeat Islamic State, bring back jobs, make America great again.” Adopting the Clinton “details” frame…

Gingrich: “If a liberal were to attack Justice Clarence Thomas on the grounds that he’s black, we would all go crazy'” [WaPo]. Newtie, consummate grifter and opportunist, hopping off the Trump campaign bus as nimbly as he hopped on it? (And establishment Republicans rebuke Trump on Hispanics.)

“Mr. Trump is not running a campaign in the modern sense — or what was the modern sense until about yesterday. Rather, he oversees a prolific content production studio that has accomplished what every major media conglomerate is trying to pull off with mixed success” [New York Times].

Niall Ferguson: “Trump has a pretty close to 50/50 chance of winning this election, especially since Hillary Clinton is, let’s face it, not a very strong and attractive candidate” [Bloomberg].

“Trump will likely keep insulting Hillary. He will likely keep raising issues of ethnicity, race and gender. He will lash out at opponents and shrug off specific plans. Hillary, having found her voice, will pound on the Commander-In-Chief issue, and the economy. Her own unpopularity will recede. Undecideds will break toward Hillary. Republicans will stay home in droves. Trump will win the Old Confederacy and a few Rocky Mountain states, but not by a lot. Hillary will win comfortably elsewhere. And the Senate and the House? Gone” [HuffPo]. “This inevitability of this outcome is dawning on Republicans everywhere. What you are smelling is primal fear. They can see it coming, an inevitable tidal wave sweeping them from power. The Senate: Gone. The House: Gone.” Senior Fellow at Demos.

“[Psychological reactance is] the feeling you get when people try to stop you from doing something you’ve been doing, and you perceive that they have no right or justification for stopping you. So you redouble your efforts and do it even more, just to show that you don’t accept their domination. Men in particular are concerned to show that they do not accept domination” [New York Magazine].

Clinton Email Hairball

UPDATE “The Clinton Email Scandal Timeline” [Thompson Timeline]. An excellent resource.

“Oh dear. After being in the public sphere for decades and running for president since 2006, what we all know is that nothing escapes thought in Hillaryland. Not one thing. Aides may not have objected to her reckless idea of a rogue server, but surely every little thing they do is thought through. And through” [The Hill]. “Why are Democrats squirming, why are Clinton and Podesta lying and why is Mills playing dumb? Perhaps because the OIG report reveals there truly is no good answer for what Clinton did.” From an Associate Editor of The Hill. What’s remarkable is that Clinton’s (at the very least) procedural violations don’t resonate with Clinton’s core base of support among professional women. Can they not imagine what their CEOs, or boards, would do, faced with a similar situation?

Stats Watch

Gallup US Consumer Spending Measure, May 2016: “[C]onsumer spending remained elevated after an uptick in April but did not increase further” [Econoday]. “The May results reflect two larger trends: generally higher spending in the spring months than in the winter months, and higher spending in recent years than from 2009 through early 2012…. Gallup has yet to see an increase in average spending from May to June in any of the prior eight years that it has tracked consumer spending. Thus, if history is a guide, one would expect June spending this year to be at or below May’s level.”

Labor Market Conditions Index, May 2016: “Last week’s employment report was very weak and is reflected in May’s labor market conditions index which came in at minus 4.8 for the fifth straight negative reading and the lowest of the economic cycle, since May 2009” [Econoday]. “These readings point to a fundamental shift lower for the labor market and are not consistent with a rate hike anytime soon. The index, experimental in nature, is a broad composite of 19 separate indicators and, as yet at least, is rarely cited by policy makers.”

Honey for the Bears: “Something looks wrong. Just as consumer spending picks up, business investment is headed in the opposite direction: It’s down now for two straight quarters, which typically has happened only in a recession” (charts) [Wall Street Journal, “Post-Recession Rethink: Growth Potential Dimmed Before Downturn”].

Shipping: “[W]arehousing and storage companies… added 3,000 jobs last month. Warehouse operators have added 15,600 jobs this year, remaining resilient as retailers get more inventories in position for e-commerce deliveries. The overall transportation and warehouse sector has added 52,000 jobs in the last 12 months, with just about all of that coming in warehouses: railroads have slashed 30,000 jobs and trucking is up less than 5,000 from a year ago” [Wall Street Journal]. “Perhaps more significant is the cloud coming from the supply side, with goods-producing companies cutting 36,000 jobs last month.

Real Estate: “Far Fewer Low Credit Score Applicants Than Before Housing Crisis ” [Econintersect]. “[T]he observed decline in originations could be a result of potential applicants being either too cautious or discouraged from applying, more so than tight underwriting as the culprit in lower mortgage activity. Consumers are cautious more than they have been in the past and thus self-sidelining of cautious/discouraged consumers makes it appear as if credit is tightening. The policy prescriptions are quite different if the drop in originations is attributable to a lack of demand more than to tight underwriting.”

Real Estate: ” It is hard to believe that based on a couple of commercial real estate trackers, commercial real estate is even more inflated than residential housing. In a widely tracked index, according to the Moody’s/REAL CPPI index commercial real estate values are up by close to 100 percent only since 2010″ [Dr. Housing Bubble]. “[T]his is a bubble especially in commercial real estate. It is a bubble because the Fed needs to manipulate rates as much as possible to keep prices where they are (in other words, you need artificial support to keep this game going). Just because no-income/no-doc loans are not used in mass, doesn’t mean that 3% down mortgages are any less dangerous. ”

The Bezzle: “The Decentralized Autonomous Organization [DAO] is a venture capital firm, like Andreessen Horowitz or Kleiner Perkins. It chooses new ideas and businesses to invest in. But the DAO isn’t run by rich white Silicon Valley dudes. It’s run by a network of machines that operate according to the same basic principles that drive the bitcoin digital currency” [Wired]. By the time the deadline for investing in the DAO arrived late last month, about 10,000 people had anonymously poured more than $168 million into this new online creation. That makes it the largest crowdfunded project ever. Now, it’s time for the DAO to start accepting pitches for all those anonymous people to vote on, bringing a new kind of democracy to the iconic flavor of capitalism that delivers so much modern technology. Just one problem: So far, all the pitches are suggestions for changing the DAO.” So meta! And read the whole thing for how the voting works, and the pitch rules/

The Bezzle: “[James Nord, co-founder of Fohr Card] says founders in companies backed by traditional venture capital are like politicians who spend much of their time fundraising. “I probably wasted six months of my life trying to raise money,” he says.r. Roberts thinks traditional venture capital may have hit a “natural limit” and wants to explore other funding schemes” [Wall Street Journal, “Venture Capital and Its Discontents”]. Taking the “founders” buzzword for granted, of course.

ETF: “Analysts’ Disappearing Edge” [ETF.com].

“Banks known as primary dealers, which trade directly with the Federal Reserve and bid at U.S. debt auctions, have bought just 30 percent of the new securities this year, the smallest share on record, data compiled by Bloomberg show” [Bloomberg].

“Lurking in the bond market is a $1 trillion reason for the Federal Reserve to go slow on interest-rate increases” [Bloomberg]. “That’s how much bondholders stand to lose if Treasury yields rise unexpectedly by 1 percentage point, according to a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. estimate. A hit of that magnitude would exceed the realized losses since the financial crisis on mortgage bonds without government backing.”

The Fed: “Bond traders are looking for certainty in an uncertain world, so it’s comforting for them to think the Federal Reserve has some secret trove of economic data or corner on wisdom that it uses to make Important Decisions, like the timing of interest rate increases” [Bloomberg]. It would be simpler, faster, and cheaper to return to haruspication. (Not that, in regulating the economy by throwing people out of work, we don’t practice a form of haruspication already.)

“Global protein demand is exceeding all but the most optimistic projections for this year” [Futures].

“Both Airbus and Boeing Co. are trying to boost production to meet higher airline demand. But speeding up the supply chain for complicated aircraft components has been challenging, and similar questions are looming for Airbus over its A350 long-range jet-liner” [Wall Street Journal]. No word on quality….

“How Mark Zuckerberg Led Facebook’s War to Crush Google Plus” [Vanity Fair]. Hagiography/industrial romance, but the anecdote about Facebook programmers sleeping at their desks while the Google parking lot was empty at 5:00 is interesting.

Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 79, Extreme Greed (previous close: 77, Extreme Greed) [CNN]. One week ago: 77 (Extreme Greed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jun 6 at 11:35am. Knocking at the 80 psychological barrier again…

Imperial Collapse Watch

“5 factors that could turn America into another collapsed empire” [MarketWatch]. “Millions have decided they just don’t care much for the idea of showing up for work in the morning and staying on the job until the end of the day. To prod the unemployed back to work, I propose they receive a signing bonus if they accept a new job before their unemployment compensation payments run out.” From a hedgie.

Class Warfare

“Imagine a world without sex and disease, and where all of our brains are networked. It sounds wonderful, but it will bring a new set of moral questions” [The New Scientists]. “Researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle have already demonstrated a human brain-to-brain interface. Rajesh Rao wore a sensor-studded cap to measure his brain’s electrical activity, while Andrea Stocco sported a device that stimulates brain regions using targeted magnetic fields. By imagining moving his hand, Rao was able to send a signal to Stocco’s brain, causing him to move his finger.” Just imagine a future where you can do that to your Uber driver! Or your maid… (“Your” in ironic quotes, of course.)

“Safely Interruptible Agents” (PDF) [Intelligence.org].

Reinforcement learning agents interacting with a complex environment like the real world are unlikely to behave optimally all the time. If such an agent is operating in real-time under human supervision, now and then it may be necessary for a human operator to press the big red button to prevent the agent from continuing a harmful sequence of actions—harmful either for the agent or for the environment—and lead the agent into a safer situation. However, if the learning agent expects to receive rewards from this sequence, it may learn in the long run to avoid such interruptions, for example by disabling the red button—which is an undesirable outcome.

William Gibson, Neuromancer:

See, those things, they can work real hard, buy themselves time to write cookbooks or whatever, but the minute, I mean the nanosecond, that one starts figuring out ways to make itself smarter, Turing’ll wipe it. Nobody trusts those f*ckers, you know that. Every AI ever built has an electromagnetic shotgun wired to its forehead.

So AIs are really slaves, aren’t they?

“A recent White House report outlined the discriminatory potential of big data. To make sense of data, someone must categorize and profile it. Technologists and designers could be feeding existing prejudices and structural inequities into how the AI thinks” [Wired]. ” Google’s ad-delivery algorithm sent more ads for higher-paying jobs to men than to women. And ProPublica recently reported that judges who made sentencing and parole decisions relied upon AI systems shown to be racially biased in making risk assessments.” Those aren’t bugs. They’re features.

“An unclassified 2016 Department of Defense (DoD) document, the Human Systems Roadmap Review, reveals that the US military plans to create artificially intelligent (AI) autonomous weapon systems, which will use predictive social media analytics to make decisions on lethal force with minimal human involvement” [Medium]. “[T]he documents show that the DoD believes that within just fifteen years, it will be feasible for mission planning, target selection and the deployment of lethal force to be delegated entirely to autonomous weapon systems in air, land and sea.”

“Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, recognizing the future of job displacement in the artificial intelligences they are creating, are eager to maintain the basic engines of capitalism and keep the pitchforks and torches at bay. Conservatives want to reduce wasteful and overlapping bureaucracies. And many progressives would like to see a universal expansion of the safety net, and a gradual move away from they see today as late stage capitalism: a doomed economic model based on consumption and asset bubbles in the face of structurally declining wages” [Washington Monthly]. Meanwhile, capital accumulation and allocation are carefully spirited away from the table. Liberals are happy with that; the left is not; and so the weasel word “progressive,” which conflates the two, is deployed.

“Chicago is MacArthur Foundation’s home. Chicago is also ground zero for violence and murder in the United States. As one of the wealthiest foundations in the world, MacArthur ought to be at the forefront of reducing Chicago’s violence and murders. Yet it is not even at the table. In Chicago, over 70 percent of its 2015 grantees were arts, culture and research organizations” [Crain’s Chicago Business].

News of the Wired

“Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter and Pinterest password was ‘dadada'” [The Register]. Surreal.

“Facebook adds new ad options as people complain that they have been signed up by default” [The Independent]. They opted you in. Of course.

“Safe VSP” (in the Commodore 64) [Linus Akesson]. The post ends: “The latter is assigned randomly at power-on, by the way, which could be the reason why a power-cycle sometimes helps.” Of course, that could never happen nowadays.

“Two-hundred-terabyte maths proof is largest ever” [Nature]. “Three computer scientists have announced the largest-ever mathematics proof: a file that comes in at a whopping 200 terabytes1, roughly equivalent to all the digitized text held by the US Library of Congress.”

“Why Society Needs Historians” [The Social Historian]. “Historians are essential. And I reckon we’ll be here long after university managers have joined the ranks of astrologers, alchemists and pardoners as relics of a distant age.” But not Oxford comma advocates!

* * *

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 (Rainbow Girl):

poppies

I love poppies!

* * *
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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.

194 comments

  1. Jim Haygood

    ‘Trump will win the Old Confederacy and a few Rocky Mountain states, but not by a lot. Hillary will win comfortably elsewhere.’

    Utterly delusional. The strongly entrenched eight-year alternation pattern already pointed toward an R-party win with about 90% probability, regardless of the R nominee’s identity.

    To overcome this pattern, the D party would need either a highly popular departing incumbent or a highly appealing replacement. It has neither.

    Hillary will go down in an epic defeat in November (if not sooner) while the R party retains both houses of Congress. Can we induce the Huffpo to file for intellectual bankruptcy then, after it is proven empirically to be spectacularly wrong, biased, and useless?

    1. Lambert Strether Post author

      Well, it’s Demos, the think tank that fired Bruenig (and has Warren’s daughter on their board). Trump could lose. But to say he’s not going to win any states in Kochistan? That seems a little far-fetched.

      1. Steve C

        Unless things turn around in June, the May jobs numbers on top of April’s, mean the Democrats are toast in November.

        1. Jim Haygood

          Double-digit premium increases for Obamacare (though only 4 percent of the population is enrolled in it) will be used as a bloody flag to beat the D party like a broken-down mule.

          This theme works even better at the Congressional district level than at the national level. Seal the deal for Obamacare repeal!

            1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

              Voters can’t throw out bums who are not there to be defenestrated.

              They just look at the increases and that’s enough to prompt them to exercise.

    2. sleepy

      The strongest pattern I see is that every four years someone is elected president who fails to represent the interests of the vast majority of citizens.

      1. John k

        Insightful.
        One might project this trend into the future unless Fbi does something useful. And soon.

        1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

          The FBI has never decided an election.

          They probably assume the voters will let the politicians know who is in charge.

          “Don’t vote for any crook.”

          Though, come to think of it, it’s easier said than done.

          1. jsn

            Ex con, Ed Edwards won against David Duke in Louisana with the slogan “Vote for the crook, it’s important!” It could work for Hillary too!

            1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

              We don’t grade elections.

              If that’s what people want, that’s the correct choice.

          2. craazyboy

            I’ve been wondering if the FBI may need to be concerned about some sort of blowback or revenge if the Clintonistas get in office at this point. They’ve proceeded with the investigation to the point where they surely have been scratched from Hill&Bill’s Christmas card list. I just don’t know how difficult a Prez plus Congress friends can make life for the FBI? They may be very well aware they’ve thrown a punch they can’t pull.

            1. Lambert Strether Post author

              Looks like some of the bodies must have been buried in the TPP email, given that State will be holding onto them until after the election. Wonder if that figured in the conversations that Obama has been having with Clinton and Sanders? Not that I’m foily.

              1. craazyboy

                That is sounding pretty bizarre. Like they’re classified, and the FBI can’t have them?

      2. Emma

        A startling observation Sleepy!
        Particularly in light of the AP announcement this afternoon regarding Hillary Clinton being the nominee. Do note the cosy relationship between APs’ Chairman Mary Junck, who is also Chairman of another media company, Lee Enterprises, which is backed by none other than Warren Buffet/Berkshire Hathaway……

        1. craazyboy

          I guess that means we’re down to 48 states now? Cal-eee-for-ni-a always wanted to secede anyway. Dunno if New Joisey minds.

    3. tony

      Especially this:

      [Trump] will likely keep raising issues of ethnicity, race and gender. He will lash out at opponents and shrug off specific plans.

      Assuming Trump wants to win he will shift he rhetoric. Say what you will about him but he is the best persuader of the lot. He needed to say crazy stuff to get the attention, but now it’s time to shift gears. Although I’d still bet on Hillary.

      1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

        The average, typical reaction is that the other side is always scarier, more likely to win and the consequence of that more dramatic.

        It’s quite universal, though there are many exceptions.

      2. Montanamaven

        Not according to Senator Bob Corker. Very interesting interview with him on ABC’s “This Week”. Corker says that Trump foreign policy views “have a degree of realism…and maturity”. Libya was “one of the most immature excursions” in our history. Trump is a “disrupter” of the status quo and that’s a good thing. He says we have neo cons on one side and liberal intereventioists on the other side. We need “Selective engagement”…
        a href=”http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/sen-bob-corker-trump-change/story?id=39611502”

        1. different clue

          Interesting that Senator Corker, of all people, has mentioned this. Apparently Trump has opened a breach in the NeoCon/NeoWil/R2P lines which a few wannabe-Realist Senators are daring to tiptoe through.

          1. Montanamaven

            I thought calling out the neo cons and the R2P Dems was a pretty big deal. If he indeed is a pick for VP, he will be a quite an addition to the ticket. I found him careful and articulate and quite straightforward. Secretary Baker must be advocating for a realistic foreign policy in respect to Russia and China.

            PS. Can somebody tell me what I’m doing wrong with the link. I’ll try again.

            1. diptherio

              You need brackets around your a href=”…”

              Use the link button and it will do it for you.

      3. craazyboy

        Agreed that was Trump’s strategy the whole time. He didn’t even need to raise money until he had wiped out a pack of 18 or something of the Rs finest. There should be a Guinness Book Of World Records category for that!

        However, I have less than zero confidence in my ability to predict elections. Especially one where we may not have even met the new Commander-in-Chief yet.

    4. PWC, Raleigh

      I’m going to cite Lambert Strether here: “Republicans – always more feral.”

      It’s going to get feral, which favors Trump, IMHO.

  2. flora

    “A recent White House report outlined the discriminatory potential of big data. To make sense of data, someone must categorize and profile it. Technologists and designers could be feeding existing prejudices and structural inequities into how the AI thinks” [Wired]. ”

    ah. Digital redlining.

  3. EGrise

    In West Virginia, only half of working-age adults have a job.

    I respectfully suggest you climb out of your hedge fund bubble, go to West Virginia and see a) how many jobs are available, and b) what sorts of jobs they are.

    To prod the unemployed back to work[…]

    Wow. Reading stuff like that makes me want to run through the streets with a hammer and sickle, smashing things.

    1. Steve in Flyover

      Typical of the Republican/”Producer” class

      Do your level best to eliminate/export/offshore jobs in the USA.

      Then bitch about “Lazy Americans”

      As people continue to run out of money, the often bragged about “mobility” of the US workforce is/will disappear. It’s just common sense, really. Nobody is going to blindly relocate to “where the jobs (supposedly) are”, and abandon their family/neighbors/relatives/’network” unless it’s a sure thing, and pays significantly more (after expenses).

      Especially now that “relocation packages” are a thing of the past, at least for the wretched refuse.

      Makes me want to slap upside the head all of these “Born on Third base, and think they hit a homer” types who moved from BFE to the NE corridor, then proceed to tell us how effed-up we are.

      1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

        If a job is not worth it for Americans, it’s not worth it for workers elsewhere or from elsewhere.

        So, if it’s not safe, it’s wrong to ship the job overseas.
        pOr if it’s too back-wrenching for American farm workers in the field, it’s the same for others (they are not capable of taking more physical abuse than Americans).

        Also, the pay for a foreign worker here is often not the true wage he/she will accept. Often, the foreigner workers will discount (in various forms, such as more subservience or longer unpaid hours) for possible residency and citizenship.

        How can American workers compete with that discount?

        The discount is even greater when they face imperial destruction of their home countries.

        But that’s all good, but the refugee workers will contribute to the GDP, by discounting their own worth.

    2. jrs

      Yea noone cares much for modern labor, it’s why they had to eliminate the commons to create it, because the current structures would never evolve naturally by equals trying to solve the problem of production. And if that was really the cause the “job creators” could try improving working conditions to make work more appealing. But unfortunately that’s not why people in the current U.S. have declining labor participation rates, I mean that jumped greatly since 2008, oddly coincident with the start of the Great Recession.

      And while a few people might abuse the system disability is mostly serving as a not very good and certainly not universal guaranteed income if you will for those who society has decided it has no need for. Since it’s hard to qualify for it’s hardly a good or a fair solution. But in a society with no other income sources until age 62 and yet surplus people relative to employment needs – there is no alternative. Cut it and see a jump in homeless, hunger and other real desperation which are already quite widespread.

      1. JTMcPhee

        “Equality” = not exist. Not possible. Not even “equality of opportunity.” But they are such nice pear-shaped, pure-440 notions, aren’t they?

        And maybe it’s not “society” that decides who are surplus population? Maybe it’s the self-appointed “thought leaders” who understand the accumulation of money, wealth and power?

        Though we all have our part at least, in ensuring that ice floes are no longer conveniently to hand…

        On the other hand, it seems FIRE has become aware of the potential profit in death: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/business/hospice-for-profit-business-of-dying-is-booming/nL25c/, and https://www.franchisegator.com/franchises/clearpath-hospice/, and for those doing due diligence on possibly picking up a franchise, there’s this: https://thehospiceinsider.com/press-room/response-wall-street-journal-article-hospice/

        The next trick will be finding a way to monetize the corpse by removing saleable parts and setting up a supply chain for them… and the remaining meat can maybe go into the vats of the Soylent Company, or whatever the entity calls itself these days, after appropriate focus grouping… http://rachelaaron.net/soylent/contact.html

  4. NeqNeq

    Re: Honey for Bears

    Which comes first: business investment or consumer spending?

    Inquiring Minds want to know!

  5. diptherio

    haruspication – n. A form of divination from lightning and other natural phenomena, but especially from inspection of the entrails of animal sacrifices.

    Don’t know where I found this (might have been here), but I love the title:
    Meaningful work not created, only destroyed, by bosses, study finds

    And speaking of the destruction of meaning, John Oliver and company started their own medical debt purchasing biz and pulled a StrikeDebt: buying a bunch of debt and then forgiving it:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxUAntt1z2c

    Also, Bernie is gunning hard for the LGBTQI vote. A friend from LA-la land shared this over the faceborg:

    http://www.buzzfeed.com/claudiakoerner/bernie-sanders-went-to-drag-brunch-in-west-hollywood

    When in WeHo, do as the WeHoians…

    1. JM

      Oddly or not (I think not), of the drag queens I am familiar with, they all support Bernie and see straight through Clinton. In fact, some of the most hilarious and insightful pieces on this election have come from popular drag queens.

      https://www.facebook.com/notes/divine-grace/here-it-is-the-divine-graces-take-on-this-gotdamned-election/10153881528528300

      And Lady Bunny, one of the most famous drag queens ever, is a huge Bernie supporter who uses her Facebook feed to promote Sanders and call out Clinton.

      1. DJG

        Lady Bunny is so left that she should be writing for Jacobin. And while we are on entertainers for radical change, there’s Colby Keller, the porn-artiste self-avowed-communist gay activist.

  6. msmolly

    Lambert, I’m curious why you use the Republican slur “Democrat” instead of “Democratic” in your posts (which I read faithfully). For example, “Then came a Clinton dagger for the Democrat president and whomever was his secretary of state for those first four long years:”

    It’s jarring to see this repeatedly on a supposedly progressive “lefty” blog. I’m not a Dem supporter, but it’s surprising every time I see it.

    1. pretzelattack

      i think the idea is that the democrats are a supposedly progressive “lefty” party. it highlights that.

    2. knowbuddhau

      It’s been asked and answered a few times, in a way I agree with, so in presuming to speak for our host, I’m also speaking for myself.

      The Democrat Party is in no way small-d democratic. To call them by a name they don’t deserve reinforces a Big-Lie-type misrepresentation. So until they earn the name, Democrat Party it is.

    3. Lambert Strether Post author

      When, through their behavior, the Democrat Party earns the moniker “Democratic,” I will be happy to restore that usage.

      That behavior would include making voter registration drives a basic party function, funding IDs in states where they are required, and eschewing Establishment-favorable tactics like long lines, confusing ballots, distinctly odd voter purges, rigged debate schedules and (while we’re at it) abolishing caucuses and superdelegates. Oh, and paper ballots, hand-marked, counted in public. That’s a short list, but it’ll do to go on with.

      1. Jeff W

        I think it would be better if you chose something that is not used by the right-wing. Something else (e.g., anti-Democratic party or “Democratic” party) might get the point across without the other connotations that are associated with that term (e.g., attacking from the right) and the concomitant confusion or disorientation.

        1. Roger Smith

          I don’t understand why this bothers people so much. Sometimes Democrat is the formal way to refer them: “Longest serving Democrat in…” There is nothing wrong with the term and it is the simplest way to wash it of democracy connotations.

          Now if “Demoncrats” was the right term I could understand the worries.

          1. marym

            “Democrat” is a noun, “Democratic” is an adjective, so in that example “longest serving Democrat” and “longest serving Democratic Senator” would be grammatically correct and also respect the official name of the party, if one still thought they merited respect.

            1. polecat

              I prefer the usage ‘Demoncrat’……..more apt to how I now feel towards the Big D scumbags !!

              1. crittermom

                I, too, like ‘Demoncrat’, after what has taken place so far in this ‘election’.

          2. NotTimothyGeithner

            The Democratic Party isn’t a political party. It’s a sports team with its fans. “Democrat Party” bothers them because it distracts from their real behavior. The comedian, Patton Oswalt, starred in a movie called the The Fan” about sports Fandom, but I think there are parallels between Oswalt’s character and modern members of the Democrat Party.

            Being crushed by their own party isn’t offensive because their sense of self worth is wrapped up in the party’s brand. Beyond that, it’s a amoral organization for them.

          3. different clue

            It may bother people because the “Democrat” party type formulations are borrowed Republican party language . . . introduced when the Democratic Party really was Democratic. So I myself would use other language to name the current Democratic Party . . . Establicrat, Corrupticrat, etc.

            Fightin’ Democrats would say “Repuglan” every time a Republican says “Democrat”. My Repuglan colleague, the Repuglan Party, etc.

            If we keep calling the Democratic Party the Democrat Party, confusion will reign if the Sanders movement decides to leave and form its own party and call that party the Real Democrat Party. “We are the Real Democrats”.

        2. Lambert Strether Post author

          I never concern myself with what the right-wing does. So many “progressives” have a little Republican in their heads, saying “I’ll say this if you say that” and they get all confused.

    4. Carla

      I’m a registered Green Party member.

      It’s the Democrat Party to me.

      The Republicans tell us they’re going to f**k us over and then they f**k us over.

      The Democrats tell us they’re going to help us, and then they f**k us over.

      Different flavors; same poison.

        1. sid_finster

          I use the phrases “Team D” and “Team R”. Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

          Honestly, I’ve heard sports fanatics give better justifications why they support a given team.

    5. tegnost

      I can’t speak for the brain trust of NC, but from my own personal angle…
      you’re not a dem supporter (funny, you use slang while scolding slang) but it’s “jarring” and “surprising” when you see it,, which sounds like it disturbs you viscerally. The democrat who is president is obama thus he is the democrat president. How would you allow it to be phrased?.Personally I say democrat because they’re like a bunch of street thugs saying my way or the highway, see the link about bill intending to get even with democrat bernie sanders’ supporters. Also it’s an economics blog not a “supposedly progressive “lefty” blog” . I would argue that republicans get a better reception here than supporters of the democrat hillary clinton., as long as they offer a defensible argument. More of a debate club than a political thing, a place where words and what they mean matter. In short, one who wishes to be referred to as democratic should behave democratically. They’re the democrat party because they demand that we be democrats, either just because, or because republicans, or because (choose your identity issue and insert here), but not in any way because they intend to represent a plurality of their intended voting bloc in a democratic manner, the opposite of having a private server so you can tell the people what you’ve decided they have a right to know, that’s more like a ruler than a representative.

      1. Jim Haygood

        Change the ‘c’ to ‘n’ and it’s ‘demonrat’

        Ever seen their beady little red eyes glowing in the dark?

    6. JerseyJeffersonian

      Msmolly,

      This has been explained by Lambert, and bruited about on this board before. Not to put words in Lambert’s mouth, but since there has been very little recognizably democratic about the so-called Democratic party for many years, perhaps even for decades, either in its lack of accession to the will of the supposed base, nor more broadly for the interests of the demos, their right to being thought of as a democratic party is seriously in question. Maybe if they stop with the voter suppression directed against the left in primaries, and if they more closely pattern their policy positions on the wishes of these same voters whose votes are being suppressed, then the issue could be revisited. It will depend.

      For my own part, I mentally denominate that party as the Whig party v.2.0, another party that failed to follow the wishes of its voting members, and well, failed. This took a while, but the current Democratic party elites seem bound and determined on achieving a similar outcome.

      In short, if they don’t earn it, they don’t get to misapproriate the name.

    7. optimader

      It’s jarring to see this repeatedly….
      picking fly shit from the pepper relative to what should be jarring, no?

    8. marym

      Back when I still bothered with cable news when there were both an R and a D politician or strategist or whatever, and the R referred to the Democrat Party there was rarely pushback from the D – like maybe twice that I ever saw. This was MSNBC and CNN, not Fox. The D’s just let this happen to their own party name, that’s how much they care about it.

      1. different clue

        Yes, I noticed that too. Never once did any Democrat say “my Repuglan friend” when the Republican said “my Democrat friend”, for instance.

  7. wbgonne

    “the OIG report reveals there truly is no good answer for what Clinton did.”

    No good answer, perhaps, if one elides the obvious: Clinton hid her emails because she didn’t want people to know what she was doing and she didn’t want people to know what she was doing because what she was doing was breathtakingly corrupt even in a Neoliberal Amerika that has nearly defined political corruption out of existence. The key to this matter will be what the FBI finds in those 30,000 emails Clinton unilaterally deleted as personal messages purportedly relating to yoga routines and Chelsea’s wedding. I’d wager that many of those emails actually concern matters of state and show how the Clinton Global Grift Foundation was a clearinghouse for bribery and money-laundering.

      1. wbgonne

        Yes, that Common Dreams piece shows what we are up against: our entire federal government — Democrat and Republican alike — supports all the chicanery Clinton’s emails will demonstrate (with some envy, perhaps, that that they aren’t under the Clintonian Golden Shower themselves!). It’s the New World Order of “public-private partnerships” being facilitated by fixers like the Clintons (who take their cut, naturally). Our government doesn’t want us to see these things and will try to prevent us from ever seeing them. The real questions will come if and when the FBI decides Clinton has engaged in criminal conduct. At that point, they will recommend indictments and Obama’s Department of Justice will either accede or decline to prosecute.

        1. flora

          A quibble:

          Please do not conflate the elected D’s & R’s and their appointed cabinet directors and secretaries with the entire federal government, which includes career civil service grade employees who are hired based on qualification, and are primarily interested in doing job correctly without fear of political pressure. That is the whole point of the civil service; to protect basic and important govt functions from corruption and damaging political influence. Career civil service employees are, for the most part, more interested in doing a good job than in being “yes men” for a “here today, gone tomorrow” politicial appointee. That’s why many politicians, in both parties, hate the civil service, and promise to “shrink the size of govt” by eliminating the civil service jobs where ever possible.

          The institution of the civil service, which came slowly and state by state over 70 years, is a progressive achievement. It’s not perfect, but it shouldn’t be automatically lumped into the ‘corrupt’ category.

          Outside of this quibble I agree entirely with your statement.

          1. flora

            shorter: the politicians and their patronage appointees are not the entire federal government. I agree that many of the politicians and their appointees are corrupt.

          2. wbgonne

            Fair enough. My imprecise langauage was intended to convey: 1) the bipartisan nature of the corruption; and 2) the point that, since neoliberalism is now dogma, even relatively apolitical government workers — like most other Americans these days — have come to see neoliberal principles as self-evident. But that doesn’t cover everyone. I’d say the FBI generally fits nicely into the category of government service workers who are not politically corrupt. Comey, of course, is a political appointee but seems to have the true-believer sincerity of many career law enforcement officials. That’s why I think a schism is a real possibilty over the Clinton Investigation, where the FBI and Comey are appalled by what they find while Obama, Lynch and DOJ view Clinton’s grifting as unseemly but essentially benign.

              1. tegnost

                It’s like a louis lamour book where the banker and a couple of scoundrels have a corner on the railroad deal. all they need is flora’s ranch and it’s done.. Everyone in town knows it’s wrong, but what can they do? They’re too powerful and they hold grudges, and they don’t mind a little dry gulch now and then if you won’t toe the line. Storm clouds crowd the horizon when in out of the wasteland walks a wild haired 74 year old jewish gunslinger. We all know how the story ends….

            1. JTMcPhee

              As a former US EPA enforcement attorney and assistant regional counsel who worked there from late Carter through most of Reagan including the Reagan Coup, 1978-1991. might I offer that rank and file civil servant classes have been filled over the years with people who adhere to the neoliberal franchise, many of whom were just getting their tickets punched and resumes buffed to move on over to where the real money was, or who don’t know any better, or who cynically just go along to hold on to the job. That includes the few FBI types I encountered in some criminal cases I worked on, staff and bosses in several US Attorneys’ offices, and of course the people at Main Justice (sic) and EPA’s headquarters, staff and executive both . It’s go along to get along, mass behaviors reinforced by subtle and not so subtle messaging.

              A friend and former colleague recently presented information to an EPA Regional health and safety management about pesticide overspray and contaminated-dust effects on people living around Big Food fields. He was told that the Region did not want to rock the boat at this time, that the regional administrator had a bad experience the last time such issues were raised (interestingly, this is well after the former Region V administrator got to be the sacrificial corpse for the EPA’s defalcations in the matter of Flint, Michigan, not even a very smart stance to take if the people affected can find their Erin Brockovitch), and interestingly that there supposedly was no money for field studies (billions for Superfund and “compliance assistance” to corporations, nada for health and safety) and besides, the EPA Regional lab supposedly did not have the capability to detect the toxics in air and dust and such (which my friend independently confirmed was false.) I got plenty more examples of corruption of the neoliberal, go-along kind that I observed and resisted in my own tenure, or from subsequent information.

              And yes, it is “bipartisan” in the sense that there’s been a continuum, through Red and nominally Blue periods, of filling the ranks with neoliberal senior and mid-level and even lower level executives running EPA and other federal agencies, all part of the big game of regulatory capture. One early Reagan-Revolution scam was to say that all regulations, old and new, had to be based on “good science,” the kind, it turns out, provided by corporate ‘scientists’ and a carefully vetted ‘Green Book’ of reliable spokes-shills for the neoliberal Narrative. That is still going on.

              There’s been enough shown about “misbehavior” from the FBI, ask Dr. Martin Luther King and Mark Clark and Fred Hampton how it worked, or the OWS people, and the heritage of J. Edgar Hoover and the behaviors he touted are both patently alive and well. http://opencda.com/?p=12184, and http://abcnews.go.com/US/whitey-bulger-trial-details-fbi-corruption/story?id=19510081, and a host of other examples if you search on “corruption in the fbi.” There are good people who work for the public good in all those agencies, but they tend to have to work sub rosa, infiltrator-style, and so many of them get the boot, or a trip through Obama’s Whistleblower Re-Education Camps…

              It’s patent, it’s perverse, and it’s pretty universal. At least, so far, they let us kvetch about it among ourselves.

              1. aletheia33

                thank you for this inside report. invaluable.

                seems to confirm tom frank’s thesis in “listen, liberal”: the shared ideology of the Democratic professional class holds across a wide swathe of our society, the 10 percent. they have taken over. as i read it, they are blind to their own self-regard and self-serving rationalizations of their “success”. they believe they are destined to be in charge of everything because of their self-ascribed intelligence. they do not realize that such intelligence as they have is paper thin, good only for self-advancement and “expertise”. there are no great minds there.

                perhaps there is a blessing in disguise in that such a shrinking number of the new college graduates will be allowed to join that class and thereby will be forced to invent alternative ways of living out their lives.

    1. harry

      No, not necessarily corrupt, but definitely not something she wanted exposed to the disinfectant properties of sunlight. To my mind this was team Clinton’s response to the FOI laws and as far as I can tell it was a smart move cos there are no specified penalties for these kinds of infractions (feel free to correct me). Sadly she may have accidentally fallen afoul of other laws regarding security etc.But really we don’t know what she put into those emails and I’m not sure how we will ever find out. Thats the whole point of it being her server.

      But think of all the fun we may have with a Clinton nomination. Can you think of any other candidate that could gift Donald Trump a comparison with the “Gipper”. James Baker pointed out that Ronny was a “come from nowhere” candidate too. And while Trump is no Ronny, there is a delicious irony in that if HRC loses she will gift him that kind of narrative.

      1. wbgonne

        But really we don’t know what she put into those emails and I’m not sure how we will ever find out. Thats the whole point of it being her server.

        Sometimes the crime is worse than the cover-up. My understanding is that the FBI has all those emails, which they recovered during the investigation. Whether we (the people) get to to see them may be another matter, however.

      2. Amateur Socialist

        When I reflect on the respective primary campaigns of HRC vs. The Donald I see Mondale vs. Reagan. Who won 1 state, his home plus DC.

        If anything The Donald may prove to be more coherent than Ronnie in his re-election campaign.

      3. craazyboy

        This seems to be part of the FOIA stuff – it’s running parallel to the FBI investigation and I wouldn’t think it slows down what the FBI is doing.

        It’s about TPP, so a 3rd grader would probably assume Hill’s emails on the subject probably don’t match up well with her newly constructed “messaging” to voters on the subject.

        But maybe it’s something juicier. The Rs would like some impeachment fodder next year, I’m sure. Well, I’ll take that back. Maybe next year we find out Hill is a Republican. It’s so hard to keep track anymore.

  8. readerOfTeaLeaves

    Oxford comma advocates.
    Do they also get a carried interest discount of 20% per year on their taxes?
    If so, can I do it from home, 2 hours a day, at $1,200/hr?

    Social historians: necessary.
    Every tribe had a social historian, although they were called ‘bards’, IIRC.

  9. Anne

    Clinton: “After Tuesday I’m going to do everything I can to reach out to try to unify the Democratic Party, and I expect Sen. Sanders to do the same. And we will come together and be prepared to go to the convention in a unified way, to make our case, to leave the convention to go into the general election to defeat Donald Trump”

    I have a lot of problems with this comment.

    First, “After” Tuesday? She has to wait, or is the real problem that Clinton has alligator arms that can’t or won’t “reach” voters who aren’t already on her side?

    Next, I hate when people say they’re going to do everything they can to try. Why not say, “I’m going to do everything I can to unify the party?” Is she planning to fail at trying, or what?

    And what does that mean, anyway? She’s going to convince the Sanders voters to vote for her? What’s she been doing up til now, then? Shouldn’t she have been doing that all along?

    One thing’s clear: she does not want the DFH’s spoiling the optics of her coronation.

      1. polecat

        “Reach out, reach out and cluch someone…..”

        …Just like that Alien queen from LV-426…….

        …..complete with the hissing and drool…

      2. crittermom

        To me, it sounds typical Hellary, by leaving herself a ‘back door’ to escape by saying “try”.

        Just like her answer regarding Wall St. “I told them to stop that!” ie: “I tried, but they just wouldn’t listen”.

        If she fails in her run for prez she will then blame it on those Bernie supporters who refused to support her to beat Trump. “I tried, but they just wouldn’t support me.”
        Nothing is ever her fault, because, after all, she “tried”.

        Just more thinly veiled wording from the cover-up queen, IMO, by laying the groundwork to put the blame on anyone but herself if she doesn’t get coronated.
        To her, it’s shame on us if we don’t get behind her.

        Sorry Hellary. We “tried” *wink, wink*, but it just didn’t happen.

    1. NotTimothyGeithner

      It’s past June 1st, and my guess is a panic is setting in between candidates and state party officials.

      The very public discussion of Hillary’s strategy to appeal to “moderate Republicans” is likely scaring Democrats, even elite morons who won’t be the beneficiaries of down ticket voting if Hillary is successful which is extremely unlikely.

      Democrats won on turnout and have promised turnout was the key to victory, but Clinton Inc wants to actively bring Republicans angry at Trump to the polls instead of the disaffected who are more likely to sympathize with a generic Democratic candidate.

      1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

        Down ticket voting…

        Turnout…

        These are the things the remind us of Clinton’s loyal voters in the South.

        “We know if you come out, you will vote for us – there is no way you come out and not vote for us…it’s automatic, regardless how qualified we are.”

        That’s loyalty.

    2. Benedict@Large

      It’s really amazing how deeply these beltway types bury their heads in bubbles of exclusion. Do they really have no idea how of rotten they’ve treated the left all of these years? Or is it just that they think they are so superior?

      1. NotTimothyGeithner

        It’s a mix. There are many sycophants in the world. Take Barbara Boxer. She holds statewide office in California. She could meet new people constantly who only want to tell her how great she is for the rest of her life. There are plenty of donors who just want a photo taken with the Senator and will pay through the nose to get it, enough to prevent a primary challenge.

        Then of course, the perception of the economy matters. The political elite have lied about the economy for so , on they started to believe it especially with the sycophants. Here is the basic problem. The economy isn’t good for the bulk of 300 million people, but the rich are doing fairly well where they don’t have to see the poor. The Democrats as a whole are running as if there is a great economy. They simply aren’t ready to face voters. Trump isn’t as scary as how one is paying the rent this month.

        One of the Democratic candidates in Virginia is apparently running on improving Internet access and saying, “business.” She is campaigning in one of the most impoverished districts. Judging from her efforts on her website and Facebook, she appears to be way behind sacrificial lambs offered up by the Democrats between 1998 and 2006 for the same district.

          1. jrs

            does it matter, they only needed enough Dem votes for Fast Track to get it through and they got that without more having to sell themselves (I believe they got Feinstein). I have been writing Boxer and Feinstein for years, they are both terrible, Feinstein is worse.

            1. polecat

              In my state (Washington) both senators Cantwell (a super delegate) and Murray Voted fast track, as well as my representative Kilmer! I will NEVER vote for these people again…..

              They are killing the geese that used to lay the golden eggs!

    3. edmondo

      The odious part to me is that she “expects Sen. Sanders to do the same”. Is he some kind of recalcitrant schoolboy who got caught carving his name into the desk and the teacher “expects” that his behavior would soon improve? Just who the hell does this woman think she is that she can dictate what other people do and when they do it?

      1. Anne

        That part of her comment hit me the same way. Apparently, she has decided to fake it until she makes it, and so has embarked on a strategy of just “being” an authority figure and ordering people how to conduct themselves.

        Obama deciding to come out and endorse her in the next few days is just going to make that worse; if the economy continues edging toward recession, his endorsement may turn out to be more of an albatross – but then, she has so consistently and at every opportunity invoked the Obama years as the blueprint for a Clinton administration, that endorsement or not, she has effectively velcro’d him to herself, and she’s stuck with him.

        I wonder if she has any idea that not everyone finds her endorsement of all-things-Obama to be a reason to buy into her candidacy.

        1. Katniss Everdeen

          ….expects Sen. Sanders to do the same…..

          This is the “parental” version of a demand for “unconditional surrender.” The non-sexist version is “just wait until your MOTHER gets home!” americans are still figuring out how it works when “momma” is in charge.

          And, btw, “trying” is, by definition, not “doing.” A pledge to “try” is a pledge to not “do,” and be forgiven for it. See obama, guantanomo and/or public option.

          It’s the political win-win.

          1. aletheia33

            she uses “try” all the time. she says it earnestly. apparently she has never heard the saying “there is no try.”

            also, she uses “i have tried” –to always tell the truth, etc.

    4. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

      There is not one word that she can use that is not provocative.

      Every word is cause for rebellion.

      Or so it seems.

      1. JerseyJeffersonian

        The music to which she enters at the Democrat convention?

        I have a suggestion. Pop Goes the Weasel.

        Evocative of Her Nibs’ character, and at the same time well-suited to the occasion, as it can be played over and over, what we sometime pit musicians call a vamp. A term with is itself an appropriate word for how these people operate. Weaseling and vamping. Stringing us along until they’re good and ready to bring the kayfabe.

        1. Optimader

          That woild be a good choice.
          Money by PFloyd comes to mind but then i would end up hating the song like FMac’s Dont Stop…
          (Fwiw i thought it should hve bee rephrased as Dont!!!,,, STOP!!! I’m thinking about tomarrow… But that cows long out of the barn)

  10. flora

    Thanks for The Hill link. Important, and not going away.

    “Though she has insisted this was all “above board” and “allowed,” she never sought permission for her server, nor would she have received it had she done so, according to the report. …

    1. nycTerrierist

      In a word (ok, two): she lied.

      To any Hillboughts out there: How is this ok?? (rhetorical question)
      Does lying display good judgment?
      If lying was the ‘pragmatic’ choice, what is she hiding?

  11. jo6pac

    More on that so-called progressive meet up.

    http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/06/06/what-happens-next-peoples-summit-fortify-sanders-political-revolution

    “Workshops and speakers will address topics such as:
    • the Fight for $15;
    • mass incarceration and criminal justice reform;
    • voting rights and expanding democratic participation;
    • a tax on Wall Street speculation to fund human needs and jobs;
    • climate justice toward a sustainable economy;
    • improved Medicare for All;
    • the fight for free and debt-free higher education;
    • secure retirement through expanding social security;
    • ending HIV/AIDS;
    • achieving Constitutional pay equity for women; and
    • ending deportations and support for DREAMers, among others.

    I guess they couldn’t be bothered about finding some one wants to stop the endless war machine?

    If you live in Calli here’s list for Greens running.

    http://www.cagreens.org/elections/2016-spring

    1. aletheia33

      i don’t like the title “people’s summit.” especially the term “summit”. it has bad connotations from government usage. and it suggests a final word will be issued from the top of some expert organization or entity.
      i’m not enamored of some of the speakers who will be there.
      and frankly i have no patience for listening to so many speakers repeating the same points for hours.
      forming any kind of broad left coalition is incredibly difficult.

      on the other hand:
      some of the speakers have my respect.
      occupy, black lives matter, national nurses, and other dedicated, non-coopted activist groups will be there.
      anyone at all can attend, and there are scholarships.
      getting together and debating and networking is necessary.

      i’m going to speculate wildly and predict that this conference, which will be important in SOME way, will not be the source of the spark that will ignite the next great surge that will arise after the bernie campaign is over.

      i’m convinced there is an already gathering movement that will continue to grow and strengthen after the conventions and the election. but where the next spark will come from that will ignite it the way sanders’s campaign has is impossible to know today. and somehow i doubt it will be this people’s summit. nonetheless it will help to prepare the ground.

      the next spark will occur in the course of events not foreseeable–an impeachment, an atrocity beyond any pale yet seen, activists risking their lives, or who knows what. and it could come this year or 2 or 3 years from now.

      1. Lambert Strether Post author

        >will not be the source of the spark

        I feel that way, too. I could be recalling this wrong, but IIRC there were two parallel occupation movements, one started by Zeese and Flowers, and a second by AdBusters. For whatever reason, the AdBusters went first and caught fire, and it caught fire exactly because a cohort broke away and seized some territory, instead of doing another march with a megaphone. (That’s why there were two DC occupations at the same time.) It’s been a long while, so please correct me on the players!

        “You know now the day nor the hour,” as the Bible says somewhere. If all those well-intentioned leftists can unsilo themselves, maybe. If not, then another day.

        1. B1whois

          Perhaps the spark will come when the TPP goes before Congress in the lame duck session?

      2. JacobiteInTraining

        “…an atrocity beyond any pale yet seen, activists risking their lives…”

        This is what keeps me up nights: With the militarization of local/regional police forces across the country, fusion centers demonizing dissent, and the proliferation of ‘loose nuts’ with bloody axes to grind on all sides, combined with clever agent provocateurs from the oligarchs and/or rogue Fedgov elements, I fear there will soon enough come a protest that ends in a slaughter.

        Think, Ferguson or Baltimore, where ‘one lone crazy person’ pops off a few rounds into the police lines, the police respond in kind, and poof…we have dozens of dead and wounded protesters.

        Anyone who doesn’t think an event like that will NOT light the powder keg that is Civil War 2.0 is deluding themselves. Seriously deluding themselves.

        The times they are indeed changing, and as opposed to the protests of the 60’s/70’s (and Kent State et al) I really wouldn’t be surprised to find that its 1854-1861 ‘Bleeding Kansas’ all over again…with all that implies for the future….

        Keep your powder dry, people. Either that, or practice your ‘proning out’ and obsequiousness skills for use when the heavy hand of the law comes to stamp their boot into *your* dissent…and *your* neck.

  12. harry

    “An unclassified 2016 Department of Defense (DoD) document, the Human Systems Roadmap Review, reveals that the US military plans to create artificially intelligent (AI) autonomous weapon systems”

    You mean there will be no perp when they break the law or kill the wrong guy?

    They should do that for front running stocks – oh they already did and its called “high frequency trading”.

  13. Emma

    Re The Hill and Hillary c/o Lambert
    “What’s remarkable is that Clinton’s (at the very least) procedural violations don’t resonate with Clinton’s core base of support among professional women. Can they not imagine what their CEOs, or boards, would do, faced with a similar situation?”
    Interesting question Lambert.
    But there’s more cause for concern via Europe. A couple of American professional women (one banking, the other FMCG) I know successfully working in Europe, informed me they’re already having to distance themselves from Hillary in a similar way they did with Bush and his antics years ago. Hillary Clinton, as the role model in chief of American women, a future POTUS and wife of POTUS, clearly doesn’t resonate well with some professional women with admirable qualities – whether American or not.

    1. Pat

      Interesting. I’m sure they cannot get into the reasons for this but I would love to know the why. What concerns European professionals? Is it the war mongering? The constantly changing positions? Or something else?

      1. Another Anon

        Pat,

        I lived overseas during the Bush years, and
        I also felt the need to distance myself from
        Bush which was easy since I despised
        him and his administration. The anger
        colleagues and friends had for Bush was not just
        for his policies like the Iraq war, but that their politicians
        said that their country had to get involved since it was a US ally.
        So their anger was more for being told their national sovereignty
        was limited, than it was for a policy they just disagreed with

        Getting back to Hillary, what may be going on is that these European women
        fear that Hillary is not just going to do crazy things, but that they know that despite public opinion, their governments will take part in the craziness either willingly or by force.
        For your friend not to distance herself from Hillary could be seen as her as being OK with this.

  14. dk

    To me, victory is a standalone, policy-focused, self-funding organization that owns the Sanders list and platform.

    Eventually, sure. But there’s something to be said for trashing and gutting the DNC along the way there.

    The list is probably a core issue for the DNC. The refusal to share it may explain some of the hair-pulling histrionics coming out of the DNC/ClintonCamp during the convention run-up.

    1. edmondo

      I couldn’t care less if Bernie goes to the convention and tries to redeem these neo-liberal, corporate whoring, war-mongering zombies of the Democratic Party. Better he should just walk away and let them all burn in hell.

      It’s a Martin Luther moment. Let Hillary be the Pope. She and Bill can sell all the indulgences they want. I need a new religion.

      1. NotTimothyGeithner

        Martin Luther’s 95 Theses were from a private letter between Luther and the Pope. They were Intercepted and publicized. Does anyone have the emails?

      2. dk

        Not redeem, disrupt. The Sanders fundraising effect is completely undermining the DNC money model.

        This is a street fight, not a ring match. Don’t miss an opportunity to damage an opponent while at close range.

        And look what happened to Martin Luther’s revolution; co-opted by opportunists and ideologues within the century. No church can house the spirit; that idea is one of the core lies.

  15. Jim Haygood

    Stocks, comrades: today the S&P 500 closed one percent below its last record high set on May 21, 2015.

    This occurred after the Yellenites backed off from their June rate hike fantasy, in light of Friday’s weak job report.

    But today, while released from her cage for exercise, J-Yel warned, “I’ll be back.”

      1. Jim Haygood

        Not till there’s some animal spirits again.

        You still see ten “imminent crash” warnings for every “melt-up ahead” tout.

        And forecasting recession is still a way to get your name in the news.

        If the market does rise from here, Trump will claim he made it happen.

  16. Plenue

    “Millions have decided they just don’t care much for the idea of showing up for work in the morning and staying on the job until the end of the day. To prod the unemployed back to work…”

    Ohhhhhh, you colossal piece of crap. People don’t have jobs because they just don’t feel like working? The true sign of imperial collapse is that garbage like you is in charge and treated as respectable. The collapse will stop when your head is mounted on a pike and displayed outside the New York Stock Exchange.

    1. crittermom

      I’ve no doubt their take on the greatest economic fraud in the history of mankind was because millions of us “just quit paying” our mortgages, too.
      Yep. About 9 million of us all woke up one morning & decided we wanted a free house.
      Uh, huh.
      Wrong!

  17. allan

    Obama preparing to endorse Clinton [AP]

    White House officials say the announcement could come within days, although not before Democrats in New Jersey, California and four other states vote Tuesday in contests expected to solidify Clinton’s claim.

    The timeline is likely to hold regardless of how Clinton rival Sen. Bernie Sanders reacts to the Tuesday outcome, the White House said Monday.

    One final lashing of the sanctimonious purists of the professional left.
    Why bother with a convention?

    1. Roger Smith

      Mea Culpa, Mea CULPA!!

      Going back to a statement discussed here before: HOW DO THESE PEOPLE LIVE WITH THEMSELVES??

    2. nycTerrierist

      The Dems’ arrogance and contempt a huge swath of their party is tempting me to vote for Trump.

      In fact, I just might.

      That is if Sen. Sanders doesn’t run as an Independent or on the Green ticket!

      1. nycTerrierist

        whoops, should read:

        The Dems’ arrogance and contempt for a huge swath of their party is tempting me to vote for Trump.

        In fact, I just might.

        That is, if Sen. Sanders doesn’t run as an Independent or on the Green ticket!

    3. harry

      Why am I reading that last WH announcement story as “Obama dares the people of California to tell him to go and f*** himself to his face”?

      I think its must be a bad reaction to the atorvastatin. I should probably just go vegan.

  18. NeqNeq

    Maine Rank Choice Voting referendum:

    Neat! I find RC voting interesting and potentially more “fair”, I was a unaware anyone was considering its use in elections at the state/national level. Can locals post updates about this come November?

    I had to laugh at this part of the piece:

    Another risk is that instead of solving the problem of independent candidates, ranked-choice voting could make it worse by encouraging more to run.

    Damn you independent candidates!!

    1. jrs

      Actually electoral reform like this is probably about the only real hope for reform WITHIN the political system. Reform outside of the political system might be possible of course.

    2. Terry Flynn

      Ranking is a double edged sword – not that I condone the current first past the post (FPTP) system endemic in the US and UK (it’s the worst of all worlds) – but people should first look at what oddballs have ended up in the Federal Senate in Australia. Plus that awful Pauline Hanson may be about to make a comeback there.

      Ranking has proven very very difficult to properly axiomatize – i.e. in practice, there are a whole load of assumptions that must hold for the typical “elimination from the bottom” (or any other vote aggregation method) to properly reflect the strength of preference in the population. For instance:
      (1) Not everybody ranks in the same way (top-bottom / bottom-top / top, bottom, then middle, or any other of a huge number of methods);
      (2) An individual can give you different rankings depending on how you ask him/her to provide you with answers (again, ask ranks 1, 2, 3, etc,…. 9, 8, 7, etc, 1, 9, 2, 8 etc ….)
      (3) People have different degrees of certainty at different ranking depths – they are typically far less sure about their middle rankings than their top and bottom choices.

      Unfortunately, where academic marketing, psychology and economics studies have been done properly, these kind of problems have proven to be endemic….furthermore they often matter to the final outcome, which is worrying. It’s why gods of the field of math psych (from Luce and Marley in the 1960s onwards) were very very cautious in condoning ranking as a method.

      Statement of conflict of interest: Marley and I are co-authors on the definitive textbook on an alternative method called best-worst scaling….it asks people for their most and least preferred options only. The math is much easier and I’d be very very interested to see what would have happened in both the Rep/Dem primaries if it had been used – generally you subtract the number of “least preferred” votes from the number of “most preferred” – so people like Clinton and Trump with high negatives get into trouble….

  19. Steve in Flyover

    “…..speeding up the supply chain……”

    Once again, our business elite is bitching about chickens they created coming home to roost.

    The trend in aerospace for the past 20 years has been:

    -Become a “Single Source” supplier, by eliminating competitors one way or the other

    -Then beating up your customers, because they can’t go anywhere else

    Boeing’s problem is that all of their vendors are working the same playbook as they are. They are going to do what’s the most profitable thing for THEM, not what Boeing desires. They have hedgies and venture/vulture capitalists to answer to as well.
    Especially since the vendors can play off Boeing vs. Airbus vs. Bombardier. They all need the same parts from their vendors.

    If maximizing profit means limiting production/maximizing efficiency, or spending the money to increasing production to fill a (probably temporary) backlog, they will all be told to pound sand.

    And we won’t mention that all of the manufacturers in aerospace and similar businesses still standing are maxed out as it is.

    As related to me by a purchaser for new products at one of the aerospace OEMs, most companies won’t even talk to you about projects unless you are talking 40-50K pieces. Ask them about ordering 500 shipsets of expensive to engineer and build parts, with huge liability exposure, and the will laugh in your face.

    I hate to tell the haters this, but there are reasons airplane toilet seats cost 900 bucks. In fact, the way things are getting to be, don’t be surprised if that same seat doesn’t cost $2000 now.

    1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

      Care giving to one’s own family is not a job.

      You are not paid. You do it for love (and lack of choice, for some, I guess)

      And it’s not counted in the GDP.

      If anyone in Switzerland deserve basic income, it’s those people.

  20. DJG

    “Chicago is MacArthur Foundation’s home. Chicago is also ground zero for violence and murder in the United States. As one of the wealthiest foundations in the world, MacArthur ought to be at the forefront of reducing Chicago’s violence and murders. Yet it is not even at the table. In Chicago, over 70 percent of its 2015 grantees were arts, culture and research organizations” [Crain’s Chicago Business].

    There are several issues here. One is that the MacArthur loves high-profile granting. If they don’t get publicity out of it, they don’t do it. Hence the “genius” grants, which are good for a couple of nationwide stories a year.

    The irony of MacArthur giving to cultural and arts organizations is that Chicago is still a city in which it is nearly impossible to make a living as an artist. So: much of the money going to arts organizations is sucked up by their extensive and burgeoning bureaucracies. (Much like universities and the growth of administration.) Someone has to be in charge of outreach to the junior board. Someone has to find restaurant “partners.” Someone has to hire the p.r. firm. No wonder we are seeing revivals of such absurd chestnuts as The King and I (now playing in Chicago, on a national tour of Orientalism Lite).

    Nevertheless, because most arts organizations in Chicago are strapped for cash, there is very little art here that addresses the decline of the city, the violence, the destruction of public space. The arts organizations (in the form of theater, satire, comedy, painting poetry) do not take the mayor to task. Again, it has to do with how little artists are paid. It also has to do with the corruption and stagnation of the art world. There may be Molly Crabapple, but most young artists are hoping to be Damien Hirst. Younger playwrights seem to be more attuned to who can pull down the big monetary awards rather than who has an audience.

    I have worked with more than one theater. My motto (and I think that I invented it after a brush with the MacArthur) is that I will listen to private grantors when artists are paid as much as the staff of the private foundations is paid. (Another minor scandal: Foundation administration for fun and profit.)

  21. Starveling

    A world where our brains are all networked sounds like a god-forsaken nightmare. Who would consider such a thing a -positive-? A world without sex or disease sounds awful. Yes, disease isn’t fun, but I don’t think I want to live on a decrepit tomb world without true life and death.

    Who benefits from all of this networking, anyhow? I don’t quite understand the people who enjoy these sorts of things… I’d say they are all liars but I think they are all hypocrites who want connectivity for thee but not for me. They force your kids into classrooms full of screens and send their kids to learn as an elite, for whom the planet is patrimony.

  22. local to oakland

    Re the San Jose Trump speech, I’ve changed my mind. The Trump fans are whipping themselves into a frenzy in response, see for example various Trump forums on reddit. Someone wanted that or something like that reaction. It would not have been at all hard to instigate, and whatever planned provocation would then have spawned organic reaction as well.

    All I want to keep of my original assessment is that the insults to immigrants and promise of a wall are not producing happy Latino communities. Especially in California where land grants from Mexico still have a favored grandfathered status for water and other property rights, people are ready to fight about all of this.

    1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

      We have seen enough of that in the last few months, this one or the Vegas incident.

      Who started what? Was it pre-planned?

      Trump fans are in a frenzy. Sanders supporters were (and probably still are).

    1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

      You would think voters would study the issues and make up their own minds.

      No need for campaign ads, endorsements, or reminders to vote.

      We don’t live in a perfect world, and while not adequately informed, easily swayed voters voting and deciding the fate of the nation is evil, it’s the lesser evil than trying to eligibility-test them for their understanding of issues.

      1. jrs

        Actually good endorsers could and probably should do a lot of the legwork for people, especially down ticket. League of women voters, if we had other real public interest groups representing labor, the environment etc.. We did once. The problem is presently everything is for sale to the highest bidder, everything is corrupt, no big NGO is untainted.

        But I don’t think it was always this bad. It’s another case of the individual being made responsible for everything themselves, I don’t deny that’s how it is now, but I’m not so sure that’s how it should be. Individuals capable of critical thinking is all well and good but some trustworthy guidance is as well.

  23. Synoia

    The documents show that the DoD believes that within just fifteen years, it will be feasible for mission planning, target selection and the deployment of lethal force to be delegated entirely to autonomous weapon systems in air, land and sea.

    At the same reliability level as the F35? If so then it will be truly fearsome. I wonder if it will get pissed off at the boss….

  24. allan

    AP calls the race.

    AP count: Clinton has delegates to win Democratic nomination

    Hillary Clinton has commitments from the number of delegates needed to become the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for president, and will be first woman to top the ticket of a major U.S. political party. An Associated Press count of pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses and a survey of party insiders known as superdelegates shows Clinton with the overall support of the required 2,383 delegates. Now the presumptive nominee, she will formally accept her party’s nomination in July at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

    So all you hippies should just stay home tomorrow.

      1. Old Hickory

        Unreal. Last week, some MSNBC hack let slip that the networks were going to call it after the NJ voting closed. I had no idea that the NYT, LAT, and AP would call the f***ing thing before the polls opened. They’ve taken voter suppression to a whole new level.

          1. craazyboy

            “They all know what to do without being told”

            They all have two small, furry antennae sticking out of their foreheads and communicate securely that way.

        1. MtnLife

          With any luck it’ll backfire and Hilary’s people will sandbag it thinking she has it in the bag.

          1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

            You are correct.

            This is doing Clinton no favor, especially if Sanders is leading with early voters.

            Occam’s razor would assume they KISS (keep it simple) till tomorrow.

      2. mparry

        Isn’t it?

        Admittedly my perceptions are affected by not getting all my news filtered through the MSM, but the combined message I’m getting from this and the article about Obama supposedly being about to endorse her is that they must be terrified. Of something: whether it’s Trump, tomorrow’s results, the FBI, or some combination is anyone’s guess. But the sudden chorus of, “It’s over! Didn’t you hear us?? It’s OVER, damn you!” on the eve of the final set of primaries doesn’t exactly read as serene confidence.

        Confidence speaks softly, after all. It can. Puffing yourself up and making a lot of noise is a tactic for the weak. I’d love to know what exactly it is that’s frightened them this much.

          1. mparry

            We tried garlic. We tried roses. We tried the stake through the heart. We tried beheading. Why isn’t it working?

            No, they’re not dead, they’re not even lying down. Can we get some silver bullets in here? . . . Die! Die!!

        1. Anon

          I’d bet it is a combination of things. Her numbers have been dropping. This is probably continuing despite all the declarations about what a game changer last week’s speech was. I’m pretty damn sure she has not spent so much time in CA because she was sure she had it, even with all the tricks meant to depress the vote. I hope the latest internal poll was their worst nightmare. There is also the chance they misread NJ and it won’t be the primary that puts her over that imaginary top they decided to use this time around.

          But one I haven’t seen being brought up is money. If she hasn’t run through all that money the Hillary Victory Fund got the states to launder for her, I’ll eat my hat. Her big donors are done until the general. The Republican money people have blown her off as far as we can tell. She doesn’t begin to have anywhere near the numbers of passionate low donation donors that Sanders does AND she needs those kind of numbers to fund an over bloated campaign organization, and she has been spending she didn’t count on in CA. Remember when her campaign was set up she was going to have to do some work in a couple of early states and then everything was done. Her top heavy campaign was not going to be a problem because she wasn’t going to have to spend anything to get the nomination. But even with multiple super pacs it hasn’t quite gone that way. Consider the meme that a favorite neoliberal tactic is to accuse or claim their opponent/enemy is doing something or in the same condition as they are. And back in late April and May there was all that Sanders is running out of money reporting. Then he once again out raised her in April (maybe not by much, but he did it). The last thing the campaign probably needs is for Clinton to look like a loser as it tries to convince people to part with their money to fund the private planes and multitude of consultants and whatever without any real commitment to those donors for them. All to keep going until the convention and the general.

          They need Sanders to leave so they can get the spigot turned on with some kind of force. Or at least be in a real position to pretend that they are now in the general election campaign for the same reason.

      1. JTMcPhee

        Who elected AP and MSNBC to be the Electoral College?

        Oh, Fokk it — the game is rigged, must be some other way to accomplish the decent things that Sanders has said he was committed to…

        1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

          What to do?

          Those who can, do, and those who can’t, write…or something like that.

          The thing to do is to vote tomorrow.

      2. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

        This could be a blessing in disguise.

        Think about it – only Clinton voters watch MSNBC.

        They are likely to get lazy and stay home.

        Sanders voters don’t watch that. With internet, they can be informed to stick to showing up to vote.

        I think his campaign should keep silent and not fall for another trap by issuing statements like above.

      3. Pat

        With any luck that we are looking at the ‘Dewey Beats Truman’ egregiously wrong press moment for this century, or at least the first half of it.

        The Universe may not love me enough for that, especially since Sanders has pretty much captured half the vote, beyond my early expectations. And that is even though I knew he would do better than the usual suspects thought. But then again, Sanders has exceeded expectations all along (except in a few states where the election could be hacked) so why not this time as well.

    1. Jim Haygood

      This is the last desperate Hail Mary pass from the Clinton racketeers and their journo-ho lamestream media.

      Smash the Clintons, smash the MSM.

      We will overcome.

      1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

        One overcomes with Judo.

        Turn it against them MSNBC watchers.

        I happen to think this is the best Waterloo moment of the whole campaign.

        Need to work overtime tonight.

        1. Jim Haygood

          Who are AP’s members?

          AP’s members are U.S. newspapers and broadcasters. There are currently around 1,400 U.S. daily newspaper members and thousands of television and radio broadcast members.

          http://www.ap.org/company/FAQs

          ————

          Lying hos. There aren’t 1,400 independent daily newspapers and “thousands” of independent broadcasters.

          Here’s betting that 80 percent of AP’s members are subsidiaries of the half dozen mega media conglomerates. Yet they have the nerve to pose as if they are a “thousand points of light.”

          Lying liars of the MSM, unite. We are not fooled. Smash the MSM.

          1. Pat

            Not a bad bet since IIRC 5 entities and their subsidiaries hold over 80% of the press and media outlets in this country. And that was a year or so ago before the death of even more newspapers and Al Jazeera America…

  25. Cry Shop

    Shipping: “[W]arehousing and storage companies… added 3,000 jobs last month. Warehouse operators have added 15,600 jobs this year, remaining resilient as retailers get more inventories in position for e-commerce deliveries.

    So, when do we hear about the old fashion street/mall retailers closing yet more store-fronts and firing more staff? e-commerce deliveries have to be eating someone’s lunch.

    1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

      Another 15,600 human workers that can be automated with self-driving or self-propelling warehouse robots.

      1. craazyboy

        “Warehouse Automation” is a mini industry that started in the late 80s, I recall. They use computers to keep track of stuff too!

        1. JTMcPhee

          I worked for Culligan for a while after undergrad, in the warehouse, waiting for admission to law school. This was in 1972. The Corp had installed a “stacker crane,” a computerized (punch cards, but still) steel grid of pallet shelves that covered about 20,000 sq. ft., 30 feet high. Pretty automated, still required a human to count parts from stored stock pallets that the crane on rails, a kind of 3D fork lift, would pull and deliver to the packaging and distribution station.

          Opportunities for sardonic humor: sometimes a tiny misalignment would cause a pallet loaded with a few big heavy or thousands of small to tiny parts to jam and tip, sending parts water falling down the stacks. Humans playing “52,000 pickup.” Or when the clumsily designed crane loved up, or lost its mind and position and jumped the track or ran off the end, requiring humans to dangerously brachiate to the trouble spot through the Matrix and try to set things right. Or when gaggles of stereotypical Japanese business people and engineers would troop through to study the technology, then marshall in front of it so each one in turn could take a picture of the rest of the group and the device. Tours squired jointly by Mulligan and Interlake Steel, the manufacturer. How many of us perceived something dangerous to laboring mope-dom and the US economy happening there? ( Modestly raises hand…)

      2. fajensen

        Usually, they make the humans into robots and drive their movements through wearable terminals with a “dumb AI”.

        It’s cheaper.

        Robots need a clean environment, service, maintainance and capital investment. Humans are almost free and when they break or wear out society picks up the tab.

        The main advantage to workers that robots provide is cleanliness. One could probably eat off the floor in a highly automated factory. If it’s a real shithole, like a steel mill, or garbage sorting, it’s all people.

  26. Pat

    It is great to see Sanders putting the spotlight (as much as will be allowed) on the Foundation. That might also be one of the driving forces behind the leap to declare this all over. Stop it getting any traction. Because we all know the last thing they want is people to start putting two and two together and realizing the major charitable outlet of the foundation was the Clintons themselves and they did not care where that money came from or what they had to do for it.

    And that Counterpunch commentary on Silver is truly an iron fist in a velvet glove punch. Nice.

  27. YY

    This email thing isn’t going to go away. Not being indicted is not the same thing as being exonerated. Not being able to come to a settlement means no burial of an issue. There need not be any further leaks from disgruntled agency/s persons or other sources since the factual outlines are pretty clear. So it is really up to whether or not the issue is kept publicly alive. This is sort of like W being AWOL from the national guard, except the wrong doing is more recent and better documented. In W’s case it took a sacrifice of a noted journalist to put to bed finally the something that refused to die, even though it wasn’t a huge deal when it was reported. With the ridiculously rare exception of morning joe, the media isn’t all that keen on pursuing the issue, maybe because reporters feel like not becoming sacrificial goats.

    But if one were a political opponent, would it make sense to ignore this useful line of attack? And if not why not? It certainly has a lot less made up stuff about it than Bengazi. Have the Dems really thought this through?

    1. NotTimothyGeithner

      Of course, the Dems have thought this through. They are an extreme right wing party who depend on center left voters not recognizing what they are. If Hillary decided to spend time with her granddaughter, who would be the standard bearer? Biden? No.

      Who could get away without doing a presser for nine months? The answer is no one. Hillary is the only candidate who can run as a successor to Obama without being questioned.

  28. Dave

    Gee, what a coincidence, they just happened to do the survey and found that Clinton has won enough delegates to be the nominee–the day before the California primary which she probably would have lost. Sanders voters, get to the polls tomorrow and vote up to 8 PM when they close. The one advantage of this premature election, is that many Clinton voters may not bother to vote, but Sanders voters are more enthusiastic, so it will make it better for Bernie.

  29. hunkerdown

    “The latter is assigned randomly at power-on, by the way, which could be the reason why a power-cycle sometimes helps.” Of course, that could never happen nowadays.

    Ichinichijuu !

    Bearing in mind that the “Safe VSP” demo pushes the C64’s video hardware in directions it wasn’t designed to be pushed, by deliberately causing glitches at times and places glitches aren’t supposed to happen… we don’t design video adapters as DRAM controllers on acid anymore, so probably not. On the other hand, glitching (from outside) is still a very important dark art. There is a tool called the ChipWhisperer that enables the engineer/hobbyist to perform and evaluate real side-channel attacks against microcontrollers and to likewise defend against them.

    Åkesson’s done some a-mazing things with computers… his winning 2015 Underhanded C Contest entry showcased a most subtle and elegant implementation of control fraud, on the topic of nuclear arms reduction.

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