Obituary: Donald Ainslie (“D.A.”) Henderson, eradicator of smallpox Economist
Death Toll From Italy Earthquake Rises to 247 Wall Street Journal :-(
What Were Blogs? New Republic. And how many times has blogging been declared to be dead? And calling Gawker a blog is a category error. As the Columbia Journalism Review pointed out, what matters is the activity, not the platform. Journalism is journalism whether done in print, on television, or on blogging software. Gawker was a celebrity/gossip magazine on blogging software. It was managed on old media lines with some new media tweaks (editors, even famously fostering intense competition among writers by tracking how many reads an article and IIRC tying pay to traffic).
Vice chief predicts old media ‘bloodbath’ Financial Times
Big Banks Want to Use Digital Cash to Cut Costs and Speed Transactions Bloomberg. Note this is to advance a pet bank objective: “freeing up capital” so they can go leverage themselves in other ways. Also note banks want to minimize float now that ZIRP makes it worth nothing to them. And logically, if this makes transactions clear faster, how does this help regulators exactly? That would seem to make it harder to intercede in the event of money-laundering.
Brexit
Brexit costs will be felt soon enough Financial Times
US Treasury slams EU tax probes ahead of possible Apple verdict Politico. Get a load of this, quoted from a Treasury blog post:
Furthermore, it is possible that the settlement payments ultimately could be determined to give rise to creditable foreign taxes. If so, U.S. taxpayers could wind up eventually footing the bill for these State aid recoveries in the form of foreign tax credits that would offset the U.S. tax bills of these companies.
As if the EU should be in business of worrying about US tax law, particularly since the US is virtually the only country that takes the position that it can tax income on a worldwide basis? A Politico daily e-mail also points out:
One of the U.S. Treasury argument is that the Commission “should not seek retroactive recoveries under its new approach.” This is the Treasury wanting to have its cake and eat it. By definition, all Commission state aid cases are retroactive — because they deal with past behavior.
Treasury to EU: Back off on tax probes of US companies CNBC (furzy). Here is the Treasury paper.
France’s Sarkozy brands burkinis a ‘provocation’ Associated Press (furzy). Lordie. It used to be that “provocation” referred to wearing too little. Burkinis got a following in Oz among non-Muslims when they were introduced there. And I so hate how I look in a swimsuit that I’d much prefer to wear a dive suit if/when I ever went to the beach, and burkinis would make that choice look less odd.
Brazil to finalise Rousseff impeachment Financial Times
Syraqistan
Turkey makes first major foray into Syria with assault on IS Associated Press (furzy)
Syria regime, Kurds blast Turkish incursion Middle East Online (resilc)
Kurds Lose Out As Neo-Ottoman Turks Steal Syria’s Jarablus Moon of Alabama. Wat flags the comments.
US to Send More Troops to South Afghanistan to Resist Taliban Gains Antiwar (martha r)
Scottish football fans raise over 100,000 pounds for Palestine following flag controversy” Mondoweiss (Judy B). One factor may be at the beginning of every soccer game in the UK, they read out the names and ages of young men who’ve died recently in the Middle Eastern wars.
Diaspora Jews Are Joining Palestinians in Nonviolent Resistance to the Occupation Defend Democracy
Imperial Collapse Watch
Summer Study on Autonomy Defense Science Board. Martha r: “June. The Pentagon’s plans for robotics.”
2016
Bernie Sanders’ new ‘revolution’ rocked by revolt of its own as top staff head for the exits Independent (resilc)
Clinton Foundation Investigation Update: Key Details About Financial And Political Dealings International Business Times (martha r)
Protests Target Clinton Fundraiser at Hollywood Home of Pro-Israel Mega-Donor Alternet. Small potatoes as far as numbers go, but in a wealthy enclave, small crowds are so unheard of as to seem more significant.
How to Save the Clinton Foundation New Yorker (resilc). Since when should someone care to “save” a cancer?
Why The Clinton Foundation Is Gross American Conservative
Stoking Russia Panic for Partisan Gain Will Have a Long-Term Price for Peace FAIR (martha r)
As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton Hosted at Dinner a Ukrainian Donor to Family Foundation Wall Street Journal. So Hillary is a Putin stooge too?
Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson says most of GOP right now ‘is me’ CNBC
Farage’s Brexit message woos Trump fans Financial Times. A contact gave the Trump/Farage combo high marks. The MSM also seems to be missing an obvious reason that Trump is making a tour in red states: he’s testing his revised messaging before low-risk audiences. Also see FT commentariat hatred for Farage, who is a rank opportunist. But so are the pro-City Labour MPs but they carry it off with much more finesse.
Obamacare
The Obamacare Death Spiral PopularResistance (martha r). A very pointed, high-level critique. Worth circulating to Obamacare defenders (particularly those who have employer-provided insurance).
Public Option Would Fix Health Insurance Marketplace American Prospect. Help me. So the Vichy Left is reviving a negotiating ploy as if it was a serious idea? Resilc: “10k a year cost+deductibles for someone making 10-20$ an hour=worthless.”
EpiPen Uproar Highlights Company’s Family Ties to Congress Intercept
Police State Watch
NYPD won’t share actions against disciplined cops New York Daily News (martha r)
Howard Johnson’s restaurant to close, leaving only 1 more Washington Post (resilc). OMG, these were icons when I was a kid! When on road trip (and those were the norm, flying for vacations was expensive for families in the 1960s), HoJos were the highway purveyor of reliable middle America food. But as standards improved, HoJos stayed in a time capsule.
Commission to look at fees Virginia Retirement System pays managers Roanoke.com (DO)
Class Warfare
As Santa Ana gentrification hits their pocketbooks, immigrants turn to co-ops to help make ends meet Los Angeles Times (JTM)
Paid Sick Leave Reduces the Flu Rate ‘Significantly,’ Paper Says WSJ Real Time Economics (martha r)
Vietnam woman ‘cuts off limbs for insurance payout’ BBC (Dan K). A really horrible variant of the neoliberal principle, “Die faster”.
An Arkansas Judge Sent A Cancer Patient To ‘Debtors’ Prison’ Over A Few Bounced Checks Huffington Post (Bill Black). Overlaps with Black Injustice Tipping Point. The man profiled in the article is black and the practices are similar to Ferguson, so one wonders if a black or largely black community is the focus of a shakedown.
Private Prisons Are Not the Problem: Why Mass Incarceration Is the Real Issue Salon
Great Minds Think Alike Corey Robin (Randy K). On organizing by adjuncts.
Unpaid, stressed, and confused: patients are the health care system’s free labor Vox (Dan K). From June, but still important. Nowhere does it say single payer is the solution.
Antidote du jour (Barbara B):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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This should get you to the Defend Democracy piece about diaspora Jews joining Palestinians in resistance to the occupation:
http://www.defenddemocracy.press/diaspora-jews-joining-palestinians-nonviolent-resistance-occupation/
no other animal can relax like cats. it’s performance art.
“performance art”
Well put. I like that.
Cats being non-conformists, perhaps non-performance art?
Re: Scottish Football Fans.
Its nothing to do with reading out ME casualties. The money was raised by Glasgow Celtic fans, who have always prided themselves on a politically radical left wing stance. The club was founded by Irish catholic immigrants to Glasgow as a response to open sectarian discrimination – and as counter to the establishment, protestant and generally right wing Glasgow Rangers. Support for various causes from Irish republicanism, Catalonian/Basque nationalism and the Palestinians has long roots within the club’s supporters. The context was a threat of fines by UEFA for the flying of Palestinian flags during a match against an Israeli club (which wasn’t actually a particularly nice thing to do, as the Israeli club is known as a non-discriminatory one).
It’s ok to display Israeli flags though? I take much pride in my Catholic Northern Irish roots.
At least they stick up for those murdered and beaten by the british, american and israeli forces through out the world. Go to Derry some time and see all the incredible murals. Screw uefa.
From the Huffpo article about the debtor’s prison conviction mill in Sherwood, Ark.:
A Star Chamber — that’s incredible (and unconstitutional on its face). Not that we have a constitution anymore. But occasionally the elites decide on a discretionary basis to enforce some random provision of it.
Glad the Arkansas Civil Liberties Union is challenging this outrage. I served on its board while a student.
Sherwood is a suburb of Little Rock, located about six miles north of the “Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport,” a name change that occurred in 2012 (its real name is Adams Field). Makes me as sick as the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.
Naming public facilities for living politicians is a vulgarity that started about fifty years ago, and has spread like wildfire. A “Kardashian International Airport” cannot be far behind.
Jim Haygood
August 25, 2016 at 8:03 am
What does it say about “America” that such an institution operated openly (for how long?)
What did the “judges” learn in “legal” school? Not one person participating in this understood how unjust, how wrong this was?
How many who participated have been debarred? OUCH! I hurt myself laughing….
At some point law, rules, regulations, words on paper must be recognized as not protecting us. There has to be a de minimis level of ethics and character – and it seems to me that minimal standard is not met.
The constitution – the supreme “law” of the land. Ignoring it brings no real sanctions, penalties, or even significant disapprobation other than occasionally for show. Undoubtedly, fantasy sports league arguments are taken more seriously…
It is astounding that this conviction mill shook down thousands of defendants over a period of years, without one of them hiring an attorney to challenge the prima facie unconstitutional “waiver of counsel” rule.
That ought to be a slam-dunk, even in Arkansas. But when you’re already bouncing checks at the grocery store, how you gonna pay an attorney’s retainer?
And, remarkably (or maybe not so much), as Donald Trump reaches out to the “minority voter” with the line, “What do you have to lose?” many of the minority mouthpieces are taking “offense.”
“Not all of us live in poverty or fear of being shot as we walk down the street. Many of us are doing pretty ‘well,’ ” they whine.
It would appear that abominations like this or Ferguson are only salient when they can be hung around “racist republican” necks. And grave, pained discussions of “the talk” that all black parents, even the Pulitzer Prize-winning Eugene Robinson, MUST have with their sons about the perils of “driving while black,” have vanished as quickly as discussions of Epipen price-gouging by the daughter of a democrat senator have.
Yes, I’m sure the misleadership class is doing just fine.
That’s it essentially. JJackson et al pulls up in the Jag to get a little media impression face time, collecting his equivalent of vitamin D from the MSM klieg lights, and then slips away back to where ever the heck he hangs these days.
My reaction to Clinton’s “ignorant” comeback, was that the only thing ignorant about that speech was anyone looking at it and not realizing he was telling the truth. Instead it was portrayed as a brilliant comeback. Bizarro World.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ285DglGc0
Yvette Carnell gave an enjoyable rant on just this topic the other day. She’s got references to a DemocracyNow piece, too.
This. Was. Amazing.
JohnnyGL
August 25, 2016 at 11:32 am
thanks for that – it was great. Which is in a way too bad, because the woman is merely pointing out reality, and what logically follows from reality.
Its funny how its OK to point out what is wrong with Kansas (i.e., poor whites fail to vote their economic interests – which I note, while voting repub is bad, it is not at all true that the dems offer a real alternative that would be in fact better).
Which only goes to show that the dems are just much more subtle (better?) at convincing people who they are screwing that they (dems) are on the side of the screwees.
Dems – we are so sorry police abuse blacks in cities run exclusively by us. We can’t and/or won’t do anything about, but man, we are sorry.
A FYI extra on the Prison-Industrial Complex, you can’t turn in any direction w/o being shocked. And, it all starts in the Clinton years, the (self) righteous defenders of blacks and women.
http://www.wnyc.org/story/new-research-growing-rate-women-behind-bars/
Here in DC, many of us still make a point to call it “National Airport.”
Either that, or DCA. I still haven’t forgiven John McCain for that hissyfit he threw in the ’90s, about having to fly out of Dulles to go home.
Somebody here (ambrit? can’t remember) said he and his wife refer to it as Voldemort National, which is what we use in our family now.
We are returning to the use of “law” as it was used by the landed elites of the old regime. Taking too much firewood from a forest on a noble estate, poaching, etc., were mostly overlooked when practiced by people that the gentry regarded as reliably loyal. Yet these, and even lesser “crimes” could be the pretext for torture, and even death, when the gentry wished to make an example.
What next? …the sentencing of the lowly miscreants and political rabble with ‘transportation’ … to the Martian Antipodes …??
The other is naming public facilities like baseball stadiums, etc. after corporations.
Looking forward to the Flying Pigeon Velodrome, the Long March arena, etc.
Ha! When my son was working in China twenty years ago, he had an old Flying Pigeon bicycle that he used for transport; built to last, one could probably haul a small refrigerator on it.
David Foster Wallace took this to its logical, absurd end in _Infinite Jest_ by giving corporations buying naming rights to years. So, we got – The Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment.
Last year the Minnesota Vikings sold the naming rights to their new stadium (dubbed by the governor as “the peoples’ stadium” and built with $500 million in public funds) for $220 million. The state/taxpayers got nothing in the deal.
As a former small retail business owner in Little Rock (’90’s) I used to thank Goddess for Sherwood’s pursuit of hot checksters. Of course I didn’t know the details… just that I got my money. That said, this has been going on for decades and it still hasn’t reduced the problem. I cannot imagine being in retail and taking a check for any reason today. The transaction/verification price is too high even if all else works out well.
The Obamacare Death Spiral PopularResistance (martha r). A very pointed, high-level critique. Worth circulating to Obamacare defenders (particularly those who have employer-provided insurance).
The scam of Obamacare was that its main purpose was to ensure, or at least “move toward” healthcare coverage for everyone. Its real primary purpose, however, was to protect and extend the healthcare “market”—the for-profit private health insurance industry and its co-dependent for-profit health delivery system.
Obamacare was not designed to, and does not, provide healthcare to anyone. The subsidies it pays go to health insurance companies; not to doctors or patients. It does not, and cannot, ensure universal healthcare coverage. It can only enhance “access” to healthcare—which means actually forcing everyone to purchase whatever profitable insurance plans the private companies decide to provide, at whatever price they decide to charge.
Of course, this set of priorities is justified, in the minds of neo-liberal elites, by the self-satisfied embrace of the capitalist ideology that “markets” are the best way to provide healthcare (and everything else) to—well, kinda-sorta, asymptotically-approaching, “everyone.”
=====================================================================
REFUTATION: Epi-pen
Addendum: CEO is the daughter of a US Senator*
*OK, I’m being cynical – anyone with big money can get “access” to someone high up in the government to assure monopoly profits.
“Meanwhile, the insurance companies and the business press focus on what was always the real measure of Obamacare’s success: whether it can provide sufficient profitability. The defection of large insurers means that Obamacare is failing in this, always its prime, objective, and, as Sally C. Pipes puts it, for CNBC: the “death spiral” has arrived. It is not—It was never going to be!—the objections of liberal or conservative critics, but the objections, and ultimately the withdrawal, of its founding business partners, that would put an end to Obamacare. The point of this program is to allow the private health insurance companies to make more profits. If they don’t, it fails, in its own real capitalistic (as opposed to its ostensible humanitarian) terms. That day has come.
The inevitability of this failure was inscribed in the program’s fundamental contradiction: It is impossible to provide universal, affordable, quality healthcare on the condition of satisfying the profit demands of capitalist corporations. The logic of social health and the logic of the market are irreconcilable. As many “retarded leftists” pointed out.”
====================================================
As I’ve said before, “reform” in America is:
1. all problems are caused by the rich not making enough money (just not profitable in its current incarnation)
2. all solutions consist of making sure the rich get much, much more money
3. occasionally, reforms have to be amended to make sure that the huge increases in money to the rich are revised to make sure ginormous increases in money to the rich are guaranteed….
We are at phase 3 because Obama”care” did absolutely nothing to lower prices (which is one of those bizarre aspects of people who incessantly bleat about the wonders of the “market” which also need government MANDATES CONTROLLING the Market to succeed – so many contradictions with “free market”). It doesn’t do anything to try and make people healthier, or to reduce expenses, to increase competition. Just a funnel of money, which never satisfies the people who are gulping down the money….
Too many great quotes in this EXCELLENT essay to pick just one, and not only with regard to obamacare. One of my favorites:
This is the liberal fiction of the Democrats, generated to maintain their support among left-liberals: that politicians like Obama and the Clintons, no matter what terrible policies they actually institute, are deep-down, forced-into-hiding, progressives, frustrated by Republican intransigence. Whether it’s about the ACA or the “Grand Bargain,” it’s hogwash………. The Democrats don’t refuse to fight for single-payer because they can’t win it, but because they oppose it. They fight doggedly to win all the time, against strong opposition (usually from the public and the left, whom they consider “fucking retarded”), for the programs they do support, like the TPP or the war on Syria.
PS. Gotta love the imagery of the phrase ” kinda-sorta, asymptotically-approaching, ‘everyone.’ “
Asymptotically is a great word.
Not to be totalistic, but when applied to Democrats, it’s spelled ASSymptotically. ;-)
Jim Haygood
August 25, 2016 at 10:17 am
Its funny cause its true!!!
Katniss Everdeen
August 25, 2016 at 9:44 am
I was going to post that two, but I knew my comment was close to being overweight, and I was perilously close to moderation sinking.
Really glad you posted it, as it is just a great point. The dems fight effectively, without regard to repubs or their pseudo constituency of minorities, poor, and dispossessed, which are all merely brand totems that have nothing to do with what they really want to accomplish.
The truth about the Epipens and about how Heather Bresch was behind so much of it infuriates me.
She was responsible for the company’s inversion merger, contributed to the Medicare prescription bill that doesn’t allow the govt to negotiate prices on our behalf, and was key in the Generic Drug User Fee Act, with all of those things ‘foaming the runway’ for Mylan to gouge those most in need, which apparently she was also behind.
Even Martin Shkreli (of all people!) called the company ‘vultures’.
My words for them–and her, especially–are far worse.
I’m glad to read that her dad is getting blasted on his FB page for her evil deeds. He ‘produced’ her.
Gads. I’m already on my second cup of cocoa after reading that article.
It’s also becoming apparent why I don’t have all my firewood needed for winter. I’m using too much of it erecting those guillotines in the front yard. A neverending job as more truth comes to light about those in ‘power’…
Save wood for the tumbrils, too.
Crittermom, good for you. Guillotining isso much more wood-efficient than, say, burning at stakes. And produces far less greenhouse gases.
I think Martin Shkreli meant it as a compliment…
I really think you should consider burning at the stake….hopefully, not nearly as quick and much, much more painful…i.e., just.
Actually, some aluminum foil and cardboard from a couple of refrigerator or big screen TV boxes and a little innovation or just application of techniques readily learnable from you tube makes a very efficient scalable solar oven that can reach 400 degrees.
And the roasted meat can have multiple secondary uses…
Innovation?!?!?! You’re a witch!!
Ahem…. a “cough” ‘Democrat’ US Senator “cough” at that……
Please stop using or even linking or quoting without at least a /sarc tag, the phrase “health delivery systems?” Every repetition bolsters the underlying fraud. As said of the Holy Roman Empire, each word in the phrase is a lie.
They never said good health!
Syraqistan
The contrast between reality (M of A) and US. Propaganda (AP) is insane, it’s too bad it’s effective.
Try to bring up reality to a regular consumer of propaganda, and it’s blank stares or incredulity all around. The two foundations of knowledge/background are so divergent (propaganda and actual info), that you might as well be speaking an alien language.
“the NYT says…” if I hear that phrase much more I’m going to lose it! Since when has the NYT been a reliable source, Iraq?
The same is true of MSM comparisons with Sic Semper Tyrannis. Pat Lang is on a posting hiatus until early September, but “The Twisted Genius” put a post up yesterday in a similar vein to MoA’s.
.
Here’s a well written piece on Syria and the propaganda war.
https://consortiumnews.com/2016/08/23/propaganda-for-syrian-regime-change/
“Eradicator of Smallpox”
That sound you hear is the camel club spooks sniggering like Beevis and Butthead as they burn the midnight oil.
http://www.anthraxinvestigation.com/hcourant.html
https://www.propublica.org/article/secret-reports-with-security-spotty-many-had-access-to-anthrax
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2002-01-21/news/0201210015_1_anthrax-spores-fort-detrick-specimens
http://www.omicsonline.org/evidence-for-the-source-of-the-2001-attack-anthrax-2157-2526.S3-008.php?aid=10614
Ah, yes. Bush Intercontinental. Where I gave GHWB’s statue a piece of my mind.
Did security notice? Yup.
Did I care? Nope.
At least when visiting Houston you can fly into Hobby Airport instead.
In Little Rock, you’re stuck with the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport.
Sadly, Little Rock’s airport is not yet equipped with a statue of the beloved couple.
still collecting donations to buy enough brass to cast her ass?
Wichita Mid Continent Airport (Identifier: ICT) to Wichita Dwight Eisenhower National Airport.
Add US Navy aircraft carriers to the list of “public assets named after sleazy politicians”
With a few exceptions, they used to be named after “battles” (Lexington, Yorktown, Antietam, Midway) or early US Navy ships (Enterprise, Hornet, Independence, Ranger).
The first exception was USS Forestall, after the deceased sec of Defence. Non-controversial at the time.
Then evidently, Congress got pizzed when the Navy named the first of the new class of aircraft carriers the USS Nimitz. (IMO, a well deserved exception)
At which point Congress took the responsibility for naming them from the Navy. And started naming them after recent US Presidents (but not all of them…….Jimmy Carter and LBJ are conspicuous by their absence, although Carter did get a submarine named after him…….. Because the boat is submerged/hidden in shame most of the time?)
Another long tradition in the Navy is giving ships nicknames: “The Big E”, “Connie” “Bonney Dick” (my personal favorite, for USS Bonhomme Richard)
The “USS Clinton” or “USS Trump”…. Can’t wait to see what nickname that US Navy sailors come up with for that.
Don’t forget the USNS Harvey Milk, symbolizing our LGBT-friendly force for global domination.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/08/20/how-the-us-navy-named-a-ship-after-harvey-milk-to-show-its-lgbt-pride.html
Nicknamed the Egg Cream :p
My dad’s WWII Naval ship was the USS Tranquility, named after a future Star Trek vessel?
I kid with him that tranquility has to be the most sublime Navy ship name in the history of Naval warfare
I believe Carter was on the original carrier list, but the admiral in charge of submarines threw a fit for obvious reasons in regards to Carter.
Nice interview with Mariana Mazzucato promoting her new book Rethinking Capitalism.
She emphasizes that the financial crisis was due to private debt and we are now wrongly focusing on public debt.
Also gets into our investment problem. Businesses are spending money on share buybacks, dividends, executive compensation rather than wages, skill development of labor and productive capital development.
Mazzucato
She also mentions the need for “change in corporate governance…new relationship between capital and labor…we need a symbiotic relationships between workers, managers, financial markets…stakeholder capitalism..”
Tend to agree with most of what she presents, and as Diptherio and others have shared, there are existing alternative efforts that directly confront these very issues. But without extricating the domineering power of transnational banks and corporations, these efforts tend to be limited in scale. A legitimate use of state power could be to ratify universal rights that address basic needs of real human beings, in clear and unequivocal language.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_and_the_Debt_Trap
Re blogging/The New Republic: the article ignores the real significance which is not the decline of personal blogging–on some level always just a fad–but the degree to which blogs and social media have changed the mainstream media. After all scanning the WaPo or NYT mobile sites with their endless screeds against Trump and prominence given to opinion pieces you might as well be looking at blogs–albeit ones run by the establishment. And when you read stories by writers like David Sanger you have to ask yourself whether these august institutions have editors themselves. Of course putting out a newspaper is expensive and the owners doubtless feel the pressure to embrace the latest trends. But one would hope that in our national capital cities accurate information would be important enough for the two bigs to cling to some semblance of their former standards. The NYT was always a voice of the business establishment but some of us feel considerable nostalgia for the good gray Times of yore. And so we turn to the internet for information–not opinion and gossip as the New Republic seems to think–and are grateful for what we get.
Carolinian
August 25, 2016 at 8:54 am
They used to say there are 2 sides to every story. After years of getting 0.5 sides of a story, I am glad I can get a diversity of views on the internet. If it weren’t for the innertubes, I’d still believe the dems and repubs are mortal enemies that disagree about more things than they agree on….
As well as the fact how all encompassing, uniform and pervasive the “establishment” view is.
I always wonder if the old days were better, or was it just that I came of age at a very rare moment in US history where the culture rebelled against the Vietnam war and the “best and the brightest” and challenged the domino theory….
Re blogging/The New Republic:
OTOH, does The New Republic still exist as a print magazine?
Bloomberg – Uber Loses at Least $1.2 Billion in First Half of 2016 http://bloom.bg/2caeRHM
Bring on the robots
And that is with transferring a significant portion of their costs onto their employees.
What are they going to do when they are totally responsible for maintenance, upkeep and insurance. Robots are not the answer.
They will make the employees/chumps buy and maintain the robots.
They’re working on Uber 2.0 – an app with a monthly charge that will direct the user to local new and used car dealers (though only to those businesses which pay Uber an annual fee for being included) using the phone’s GPS. It will then connect you with car loan and insurance providers (also connected to Uber) so you can buy and insure the vehicle, a small service fee will be paid to Uber of course. Then the app will remit 15 cents to Uber for every mile you drive in the car. If the car is used it must meet age and condition restrictions to be eligible of course but Uber will be happy to have a contract employee check out any car you may want to buy for a mere $50 – of which Uber gets $30 of course. It’s all delightfully disruptive, smart, organic and revolutionizes the whole personal transport ecosystem!
I’ve been around sign-up events for potential Uber drivers. And, let me tell you, that company is preying on the down and out and desperate. In a BIG way.
I hope that the drivers unionize. Because Uber SO deserves it.
Laborers 91 in WNY (western NY) would represent them I am sure. It would be funny to watch tho.
I gather one real problem is Uber pressing the drivers to get subprime-style auto loans so they have an appropriate car to drive. In other words, people who don’t have much money to begin with (ergo working for Uber) are saddled with a loan they might not be able to pay back. What could go wrong?
i have heard from multiple sources that when a poor person tries to buy a used car they found out that their credit is not good enough. Their only choice for transportation is then a new car, which has lower standards for the credit score. Can’t make this stuff up.
That can only means their IPO valuation has to go up! They need to do some Pentagon style accounting in the meantime.
Yup, Bernie’s “revolution” group seems to be nothing more than another Democrat front org. Local Green candidates that asked to speak at a meeting have been excluded. So much for fostering all independent progressives.
Incidentally I live nearish to the last HoJos and passed by the 2nd last one many times but haven’t ever been in to them. Maybe I should make a pilgrimage before it’s too late?
I wonder if Stein should have run as a Democrat in the Democratic primary, because the Green Party never has any chance, on its own.
Could she have foreseen the rigging of the last 6 months?
In my view — it’s much better for Stein that she did not run as a Democrat. I believe Sanders has better speaking skills and greater political acumen and connections than Stein. The way Sanders was treated in the Democratic Primary by both the DNC and the MSM and the outcome of the Republican Primary tell me any progressive running as a Democrat would gain as much from running as a Republican. The outcome for Sanders suggests to me Stein would have been eaten alive.
The two parties are the same — Depublicrats (sp?) using Jim Haygood’s coin. After anointing Hillary the Democrats dropped all their faux progressive garments and tried to herd progressives back into their pen. After the Republican primary the Republican big money supporters gave their support to Hillary repudiating the Republican candidate. Never has it been more clear there’s only one major party in America. [The Depublicratic color is purple and their animal is a porker hog.]
Many political analysts and sociologists argue [see Domhoff — I can’t duplicate his argument w/o digging his book out of storage] that a winner-takes-all voting system — like we have in the US — strongly tends toward a two party system — two major parties. We only have one major party as made plain for all to see. This moment offers the Green Party its best opportunity to make an approach toward becoming the new second party. I was mystified by the selection of Baraka as Stein’s running mate — until I looked a little deeper into his background. The Green Party is offering Black Voters an option besides a robotic vote for Democrat. The Green Party is offering Sanders progressives an option besides a robotic vote for Democrat. This moment the Green Party offers Jill Stein the best opportunity as a candidate. At the least I can hope the Green Party might get enough votes and credibility to qualify for matching funds and begin filling the gaping hole in our two party system.
Depublicrants (sp?)
“The Depublicratic color is purple and their animal is a porker hog.” (my emphasis)
That statement caused me to spit out some of my cocoa.
This is a perfect race for 3rd parties to get the necessary % to get matching funding.
So you hate Trump and Clinton … vote 3rd party and Libertarians and Green, Constitution candidates will start to get on the radar. How better to bust up the Bush/Clinton/Obama Crime Family 2 party scam
There you go. You asked for my vote!
Brand New Congress appears to be much more open–and Zach Exley impressed a lot of people during the campaign. I’m not totally sold, but way more hopeful about this development than the other.
I’m on the BNC mailing list. And I’m planning on attending the 100 Cities Tour, Tucson edition.
If, for nothing else, the opportunity to ask pointed questions.
If they’re really good for something, they should welcome that.
Aw, darn. I missed last night’s kickoff of Our Revolution.
I was having a nice evening meeting with my bicycle. IMHO, that was much more important.
re: Big Banks Want to Use Digital Cash…
This takes check kiting to a whole new level.
per Wikipedia:
‘Check kiting is a form of check fraud, involving taking advantage of the float to make use of non-existent funds in a checking or other bank account. In this way, instead of being used as a negotiable instrument, checks are misused as a form of unauthorized credit.’
Presumably token issuance would require central bank involvement i.e. a participant bank would ask the relevant central bank to swap its cash deposits for tokens that could then be traded (among bank participants, who may or may not cash them in). Or am I missing something?
Re cutting off limbs for insurance money, there’s a quaint US example, larger scale, in the little town of Vernon,FL: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernon,_Florida
Re Trump/Farage — I just watched the Farage clip via Zero Hedge. There’s a lot to dislike about Nigel (just as there is with Trump) but I confess I was impressed how forthrightly he was attacking “the banks and multinational corporations” and stirring up “the people who are ignored by the elites” (my paraphrasing). I guess that’s “populism” but it’s a far cry from fascism in my book, and thoroughly to be encouraged.
Trump really packed them in in Mississippi; I guess that may not be a surprise but when was the last time HRC gave a speech in front of a huge *real* crowd? (I am not counting the DNC.) She seems to go to high school gyms and the like… but no stadiums as Trump and Bernie have done.
The other big news of course is Assange’s interview on Fox threatening another big anti-Hillary leak. Let’s hope he has the goods. I’d advise him to stay out of small aircraft but in his case that isn’t necessary.
We are to understand, to know and to see it this way*: Hillary is too far ahead in the polls to respond to all these allegations.
*If you don’t see it this way, you just need to read more news.
whats wrong with populism if its true? Populism, strikes, clashes with authorities, these are all the things that led to vision that trump is holding in front of his supporters. Well that and the second world war is what gave america its golden age.
This question gets to the heart of understanding today’s political economy. When you ask people the question, “does our system work?” only wealthy elitists can truthfully answer yes. Their answer isn’t a complete lie, because the system does work— for them.
Populism is “true” for the vast majority of people for whom the system doesn’t work. Yet beyond the broad truth that the system doesn’t work for most people, there are fundamental disagreements as to why this is the case. Marxists, Paleo-Conservatives, White Supremacists, Wahhabi Fundamentalists, Libertarians, MMTers, old-school New Dealers will all have different diagnoses and prescriptions for what ails us.
“Populism” by itself doesn’t mean much except a rejection of the dominant elitist narrative.
“ because the system does work — for them. ”
Yes, it does. And govt’s got the numbers* to prove it works.
*See 2008 Kevin Phillips article in Harpers. Even more relevant today.
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/05/numbers-racket/
Basic populism is enough income, from decent work that doesn’t loot and extract and prey on others, to be able to eat to a reasonable hunger and drink to an honest thirst. With some way to de-fang and disable the predatory types and teach against the impulses to accumulate and buccaneer. And a roof and walls that can’t be stolen with a pen or keyboard…
Too bad there’s no durable organizing principle that might undergird and direct that kind of outcome. We got Cheneys and Blankfeins and Shkrelis and gag— Clantons galore, who know how to organize, uninhibited by conscience or “law”, to do any old thing, like Cirsei in Game of Thrones, just “because it FEEEELS good. ” Just unzip your pants, right, Bill? And there’s a billion dollar wire transfer on its way to the Foundation, Hillary — what can I get for that – Ambassador to the Bahamas?
Pleasure and its corollary, domination… a really tough tag team to overcome, particularly over the long haul. Pleasure drive, particularly all the forms of self-pleasure, trumps anger, especially righteous anger, over the long haul.
At this point, additional Wikileaks seem pointless. What has been leaked so far should have been enough to keep her permanantly away from Washington, if not under indictment.
Both Clinton and Trump make me want to vomit. The fact that a scumbag like Clinton got the nomination, instead of Sanders says volumes about the Democratic Party.
In the meantime, there is Trump, who perfectly illustrates the moral and political bankruptcy of Republicans.
Whatever happens, we are going to end up with the leadership we deserve.
“The fact that a scumbag like Clinton got the nomination,……..”
————————————————————————————-
but, not necessarily the votes; remember what “Papa Joe” told us:
“It’s not the people who vote that count. It’s the people who count the votes.”
Nice chiasmus.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.
No, the leaks do serve a purpose. Keep reminding the people how corrupt Mrs. Clinton is.. once a month. Keep it in the news cycle. Do not let the voter forget how corrupt she is. Make them really think about the tripe before they swallow it. If it ended now the memory would fade. I want to see 3-4 more leaks so that there is truly no doubt how corrupt she is.
Uncooked and uncleaned tripe, with the turds and pathogens still stuffing the tract…
Assange has to stay away from the windows in the Ecuadorean embassy as an attempted intrusion got foiled there recently.
I saw a bit of Farage on msnbs this morning and I agree–he was impressive. Something about his self-assured, fiery, stammer-free style combined with that accent.
Meanwhile, although hillary is giving a “speech” today in Reno, NV, she has literally been phoning it in for the last couple of days. The cable news networks have been airing audio of a somewhat disembodied voice on the phone while showing a picture of her accompanied by captioning of her words.
Kind of big brotherish.
I’m waiting for a cartoonist to draw huma holding the phone in front of a wheelchair-ensconced hillary, as she lifts up the oxygen mask to croak about Trump’s “spewing” of clinton foundation “hate” and her “healthy as a horse” medical history in response to remote journalists’ questions.
As the handler with the syringe hovers nearby.
you mean ,,,,,,
http://dcwhispers.com/tag/ben-garrison/
Another possibility being discussed by campaign insiders is for Hillary to make her remaining campaign “appearances” via hologram projection. The idea is edit together sort of a “best of” compilation of her best speech and rally moments into one really powerful performance that can be repurposed city by city. So far, the “best of” compilation is still only 1 1/2 minutes long, but staffers are hopeful they can cobble together enough material to take on the road soon.
Is it that hard to find a non-technology solution – that is, find a human double?
Her body shape so unique that it’s almost impossible?
The old body double routine would be very old school, so it would fit the Hillary M.O., but how about a compromise — Max Headroom-like appearances by Hillary, complete with her stuttering, distorted, electronically sampled voice. Don’t forget to v-v-v-v-v-o-t-e-!-!-!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvQ1oH0AWZ0
Hitler is informed Hillary opened a jar of pickles on Jimmy Kimmel
Farage is a good and witty speaker, but he is truly a nasty piece of work in every other way – much worse than Trump. His entire political career consisted of thinly veiled race baiting. His economic proposals are not ‘populist’ right wing – they are straight out libertarianism free market – his party proposed privatising the NHS. He is a pure opportunist who sees politics as a fun way to make money. His confidence was expensively bought in private schooling.
… and started his career as a commodities trader on the LME (that well known haunt of leftyism). First job was with Drexel Burnham Lambert, nuff said. O.k this is damning someone by association but it does make his politics predictable.
Regarding Farage: Listening to him at the Trump rally, it’s clear he’s got the same tiger by the tail as Trump does. People in both countries are fed up, tired of being lied to, tired of hearing the same excuses, tired of the rigged game that favors the elite and connected and are ready to burn the motherf*cker down. I don’t know much about Farage, but I think part of Trump’s appeal is that not only does he directly promise he will upend the status quo — he actually seems crazy enough to do it!
Listening to Hillary try to make the same assertions in front of her tiny, less-than-enthusiastic crowds sounds like a pale, washed out version that convinces no one.
And — as you heard — Farage points out how nobody expected the Brexit vote result, down to the last day. HRC is leading in the polls, but her voters may not go out to vote, whereas Trump’s probably will. There are a lot of angry people out there, and they may not be willing to tell pollsters that they want to vote Trump.
Many voters are undecided right now. The debates will help them decide. Hill is a pretty good debater. She does have a huge staff of smart politicos to help her try to score points against Trump. The debates will have many spectators and people will decide which is the less evil. The polls right now are meaningless.
Awww, stretching in the sunshine. I will be revisiting that antidote several times today (and being glad it is digital because that belly is irresistible.)
Re: Immigrant co-ops
While I’m always happy to see coverage in the MSM, I worry that people might get the wrong idea about worker co-ops, not from the journalist, but from the developers they interview:
Newsflash: there are already a ton of people in the worker co-op movement who know how to run a business and how to train people up in the skills that they need to run one. The problem, generally, is that academic and other non-co-op organizers try to help some people start a co-op but for whatever reason, don’t reach out to the existing co-op community (personally, I think it’s an ego thing: developers don’t want to admit that they need training too).
California has one of the most sophisticated (if not the most sophisticated) network of worker co-ops in the nation, in the form of the Arizmendi bakeries in the SF Bay area. The Sustainable Economies Law Center in Oakland specializes in business training for worker owners (among other things). There is really no shortage of training and support resources for worker co-ops — but you have to engage them.
(Here’s some detail on Arizmendi, for those interested)
Re Blogs
Blogs are where the real “social” is at.
A well monitored comments section on a blog makes for a much better social experience than, Facebook, where you’re interacting with people with whom you share few common interests so conversation is either banal or turns into flame wars, black lives matter/all lives matter etc. Or, Twitter, where you’re basically on some famous guys RSS feed and are expected to join in the group think or else.
Naked capitalism is where the Internet is going. Can I participate in the IPO.
Googol +
Finance, economic, power, etc.
AND tips on healthy eating and living.
“Tell me, where can you get all that, plus nice hosts and commenters?”
– Summer Study on Autonomy Defense Science Board.
“Enabling autonomous swarms…………………………………………………………………………………… 83”
I believe this is what John Robb was working on when he was out of sight a few months ago. Robb, like NC, has a habit of being ahead of the curve on what then surprises folks who don’t pay attention.
UPDATE: MYLAN goes on the defense LIVE
CEO Bresch told CNBC that the healthcare system is in crisis, causing the patient to pay for full retail prices at the drug counter and rising premiums on their health insurance, noting that “only in healthcare” you could have paid $25 yesterday at a pharmacy counter one day and up are paying $600, $1000, $2000 the next day.
“No one’s more frustrated than me,” she said, and then she made a stark warning going to the heart of the problem: stating just how broken the US healthcare system – which allowed Mylan to charge as much as it did in the first place – truly is:
“My frustration is, the list price is $608. There is a system. I laid out that there are four or five hands that the product touches, and companies that it goes through before it ever gets to that patient at the counter. Everyone should be frustrated. I’m hoping that this is an inflection point for this country. Our healthcare is in a crisis, it’s no different than the mortgage financial crisis back in 2007. This bubble is going to burst.”
__________________________________________
STAB ME IN THE EAR WITH AN ICE PICK: Bresch – whose compensation has increased by 671% from $2.5 million in 2007 to $18.9 million in 2015
I went to one of the house parties to hear Bernie launch his new Our Revolution organization. I was hoping for specifics, but it seems the only organizing principle is supporting “progressive values.” That term has little value since Hillary calls herself a progressive. Bernie also thinks that if Democrats controlled congress most of our problems would be solved.
Earlier this year I attended a meeting of Kshama Sawant’s (Seattle’s surprisingly effective Socialist city council member) Socialist Alternative party. It reminded my of a fundamentalist church service. They are organized around a strict set of dogmas and often contrast themselves with other less pure socialist groups. Socialism seems to be mostly just criticism of capitalism. If socialists won the presidency and the control of congress what policies would they propose?
The left needs a set of ideas to coalesce around. I think that ideas coming from heterodox economists, like Steve Keen’s debt jubilee, and MMT’s critiques of austerity, could provide a set of organizing principles that would be more enduring than Our Revolution’s nostalgia for Bernie’s failed presidential run.
I agree with you 100% and I think “values” is hogwash (though I ramping up an organization instantly isn’t the best way to develop the strict set of “dogmas.” We’ll have to see on that).
I disagree on “dogma,” however, unless we define “dogma” as concrete material benefits from programs designed to benefit the working class (and see here for my dogmas).
Agree w/a few ideas/goals to coalesce around, disagree that OR is doing such a bad job of that. I went to one of those last night too, and much like Bernie’s campaign, he’s still stressing improved pay for the working class, single payer, fighting climate change and somehow getting bribery & financial threats out of politics as his primary issues, on a more short term single issue goal stopping the TPP.
But yeah, I would be more happy if the group seemed a little less big D democrat. Still undecided, but there were some good things there. Bernie’s anti-TPP comments were GREAT. Giving the Phillip Morris suit against Uruguay as an example of what this could lead to was good, too.
And I’m very pleased to hear a focus on the ISDS, since national sovereignty ought to be a right wing hot button, and the Dem regulars aren’t pushing it.
Yes! And he picked two really good examples of where this could go–bringing up Phillip Morris suing Uruguay for their “smoking is bad for you” campaign and TransCanada suing the US for stopping Keystone, since most people on the left already aren’t Phillip Morris fans and most of us already aren’t fans of Keystone.
Specifically called out Obama for being “dead wrong” on this issue, and used the words “crazy” and “insane” when describing how this let corporations sue sovereign governments for passing laws or regulations they didn’t like.
And for those who know about it ISDS is a right wing hot button–my House of Rep guy is a Republican, and he opposed fast track quite vocally after initially being undecided, citing an unprecedented # of citizens speaking up against it. At this point, his democratic challenger hasn’t taken a position (likewise no position on Bernie vs. HRC), and he’s got some other important good points and she’s got some other important bad ones (essentially giving a work visa to anyone who wants to come over to the US; I think this is one of those well intentioned ideas that is very very bad in practice), so there’s a near-certainty I’ll wind up voting for him over her. Would be my first R over D vote since the 80’s (84 was my first election, and I apologize to the whole world)(my only other R vote since then was also for this guy; in Cali’s open primary runoff it was him vs. one of the leaders of the Minuteman movement last time; I make no apologies for that vote whatsoever, the Minutemen really were what the DNC crowd wants to portray Trump as, and then his coming out in vocal opposition to the TPP reaffirmed my good feeling, plus my general pleasant dealings with his staff).
HEY OPTI….Gift: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KU2E8ECbN0E
the Bliss Project has to be my fav!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG4G8crGQ34
#s 8 & 22 ou la la
Hotel Le Sirenuse, Amalfi Coast, Italy would be my choice.
8 reminds me of FLWright’s Falling Water
http://fallingwater.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallingwater
…Fallingwater inspired the architecture and the “carrot juice” waterfall of Bugs Bunny’s mansion in the 1979 compilation film The Bugs Bunny Road Runner Movie.
i do have a cave fetish…only spulunked 4x…never enuff
caught WideSpredPanic playing in a cave N.GA (waywayCOOL)
every one of those is pretty darn cool.. I think I like the horses running through the water in the plaza. Pony trying to keep up.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/citigroup-trump-victory-november-could-150204216.html
“A Trump victory in particular could prolong and perhaps exacerbate policy uncertainty and deliver a shock (though perhaps short-lived) to financial markets,” writes a team led by Chief Economist Willem Buiter. “Tightening financial conditions and further rises in uncertainty could trigger a significant slowdown in U.S., but also global growth.”
I actually used to like Willem Buiter’s writings back in 2007-9ish. I think Yves used to feature him from time to time.
But wow….the global elites have really learned nothing from Brexit, have they? They’re going to drive me up the wall until I vote Trump, but I’m still holding out!!! I won’t be able to live with myself if I do it!!!
Living with oneself.
Or just living.
“They” are waiting for all those who have actually experienced and can still recall driving up to an airport the last minute, buy a ticket and could fly to anywhere in the world without all the waiting, screening and searching.
No one will be around, in a few more years, who remember what cash was.
“You must be an old geezer. What is that, cash?”
“Mrs. Robinson, what is Mars?” “Benjamin, it’s what we call Planet Soylent today. The corporation the feeds us bought the name right a long time ago.”
Driverless taxis in Singapore – with government investment:
I remember another disruption. In Taiwan, when I was in Vietnam, the Kuomintang occupation government forced all the cyclo and rickshah drivers to switch to little Honda taxi cab vehicles. To get the man-powered vehicles “safely” off the road, ka-Ching.. The resulting traffic conflagration was wondrously amazing– the new drivers knew horn and accelerator, in that order, crashes all around. I went there twice on R&R (the Troops called it “I&I,” for Intoxication and Intercourse) and in addition to the free condoms, the NCO indoctrinating us on how to comport ourselves with military honor “on the economy” told us that if we rode in a cab and the driver crashed it, we should get out and runn like he77– the “law” stated that’ll the PASSENGER was liable for all damages and injury, and that the residents were as inventor as Chicago El riders at feigning injury.
Wonder how the front-running for algorithm-driven (these are NOT “driverless” machines, folks) vehicle liability is going to play out…
The whole racket makes me think of the enormous planet-changing scam pulled off by big oil, big rubber and big and planning to get bigger auto, when they “allegedly” conspired to buy up and rip up the trolley and inter urban rail lines back in what, the ’20s and ’30s. Get in fast, force the New Reality, but the rules you want, then collect the rents free of consequence…
So, I am flipping through the channels last night, and I stopped dead in my tracks. Megyn Kelly (by the way, isn’t that kind of “liberal” spelling Megan – Megyn??? hmmmmm …. just sayin RUPERT….by the way, what kinda name is RUPERT, seems kinda gay or even transsexual…….just trying to get myself in the Fox innuendo frame of mind…..)
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/292547-assange-grants-megyn-kelly-interview-on-fox
So, I guess Hillary hatred trumps (Ha, Ha….Trump) Fox hatred of the guy who empowered Snowden….Wiki leaks leaks are ONLY OK if they go after Hillary. ((FOX: we should be in the middle east…and everything Hillary and Obama do is wrong, including being or not being in the middle east….and THERE is no contradiction – those who say so are LIBERALS!!!!!! Na, Na, Na – I can’t hear you!))
It really was kind of jaw dropping.
But here is my problem with FOX and MeGYN – so Megyn is talking to her two Fox correspondents, and all is rosy when they are talking about Assange’s not liking Hillary. But when one of them gets into WHY Assange dislikes Hillary more than Trump, i.e., because Hillary is such a mideast warmonger (as well as general warmonger), and Trump appears to be considerably less so – than Megyn ended the conversation in mid sentence. FOX cannot ABIDE having a repub nominee who appears less militaristic than a dem, damnit!!!!!
There is such an agenda pushing, and it is just so naked and clumsy, and for an agenda that is so incoherent, I also wonder if FOX is a Clintoon foundation plant……
RE:Howard Johnson’s demise
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/28/opinion/howard-johnsons-adieu.html
An older piece by J. Pepin who learned industrial size food preparation while in the employ of H Johnson. Pepin declined the offer to be WH chef, in the Kennedy Admin to work for Johnson.
I too remember the ubiquitous hojo’sas a kid. But we would invariably drive by them on our epic shoestring budget cross country summer roadtrips .
Instead we’d dine at picnic tables located at the various “Scenic Historic Landmark Rest Stops instead, to enjoy the delight of a slice of bologna with a slice of munster cheese and yellow mustard on white bread (what l learned later in life was the standard lunch fare, with a slice of deluxe cheese, in prisons across the country :oO ) and off-brand carbonated flavored sugar beverages from the bounty of the iced down trunk cooler. Personally, I prefer the way we did it, so I wont really miss Hojo’s, other than for the drive by Americana Roadtrip iconism.
scroll above…sent you some very cool places ta hang
Roadtrip iconism…miss hell outa those!
I remember the fried clams, little gnarly twisted strips of deep fried dough with a rubber band (clam) inside.
I think about Howard Johnson’s clam strips when I order them now at White Castle.
Optimader, are you my long-lost brother? You are describing our family vacations to a T. Do you remember the place in South Dakota where we finished the grapes?
We did go the HoJo’s once in New England, I had the clams. Sorry, OTPBDGAL, I liked them. Only seafood I had til then that wasn’t canned tuna, canned salmon or canned shrimp. And only on Fridays, of course.
Yes! HoJo’s! On our yearly pilgrimage to the grandparents in Topeka (from Maryland or later, Ky) the HoJo’s in central Missouri was an oasis of air-conditioned comfort in a sea of heat (didn’t have an air-conditioned car till 1959). We, too, ate sandwiches at roadside picnic tables in dusty Indiana/Illinois towns. How did we survive??!!
HotFlash
remember all the billboard pollution up to Mt Rushmore? A classic was at Yellowstone with the man running out of marsh mellows feeding the black bear. My parents didn’t allow us to stickaround to see how the end of bag negotiation worked out.
Evodevo
Survived well! Great times..One of the memorable road trips was to Arizona in August. No AC of course.
My prized little handheld Sony AM transistor radio with the mono earplug melted into a red plastic lump in the rear window deck.
On burkinis: “Muslim people shouldn’t “impose their differences on the majority,” he said.”
That’s an interesting twist on letting women go out in what they feel comfortable in. Fashion has a long history of dictating to women what they should wear. I’m not sure Western culture is the expert on freedom from this.
It’s all about who owns the Freedom ™…
Just saw the press secretary of the about-to-be anointed empress of the United States tell the world that the Clinton foundation couldn’t be shut down because then the 3rd world would die of aids….
Can you USians PLEASE do something to raise the bar? Please…
Russian gas pipeline ‘bad’ for Europe: Biden.
There, fixed it for ya, Joe.
From “The Department of Noticing” TM:
Apple/EU/Treasury
I think in some alternate universe we can believe there are actually US government employees who are genuinely trying to unwind the whole corporate tax haven/transfer pricing bezzle.
But out here in the real world we have the Head of the US Treasury putting extreme pressure on the EU to ensure that a US corporation can continue to stash money offshore and away from any taxing authorities.
Re: Obamacare death spiral: It seems to me, and I could be wrong here, but couldn’t an individual or group sue the government under the ‘unfunded mandate’ argument ? There is a large body of precedent here and Ive never understood why the ‘unfunded mandate’ has not been argued or addressed. I’m not an attorney but i did study law as a paralegal, so I may be way off here. Anyone?
The antidote: cats sleep belly-up when it’s hot – at least, mine did. Very cute, though.