Extinct elm tree rediscovered at queen’s Edinburgh residence Mother Nature Network (J-LS)
Tick bites that trigger severe meat allergy on rise around the world Guardian (Selva). Hah, the planet strikes back! Meat consumption is a big factor in species die-off and global warming (cow farts).
‘We’d have to finish one new facility every working day for the next 70 years’—Why carbon capture is no panacea The Bulletin (J-LS)
Liquid assets: how the business of bottled water went mad Guardian (resilc)
Surprise! Soda Companies Are Paying Experts to Oppose Soda Taxes GrubStreet (J-LS)
Link between tech and productivity is elusive Financial Times
Brexit
Russia considers military bases in Vietnam and Cuba: agencies Reuters
Government bars foreign academics from advising on Brexit Guardian (J-LS)
Tony Blair says his return to British politics is an open question Guardian (J-LS)
Satellite images show activity at North Korea nuclear test site: report Reuters
Disclosure of Beneficial Ownership After the Panama Papers Harvard Law School
Ukraine/Russia
Banner of Russia’s Putin hung from New York City bridge Reuters. EM: “Ha, the article actually uses ‘the Putin’, as in ‘…featuring the Putin dressed in a suit in front of the Russian flag with the word “Peacemaker” in capital letters’ … paging the late Sen. Joe McCarthy, we have a fifth-column crisis! I blame the Donald for mollycoddling evil commies like the Putin.”
Syraqistan
In Israel, seeing a female combat soldier is not all that unusual, women are eligible for 92% of the IDF’s jobs. Jerusalem Post (JTM)
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Joint Declaration for the Export and Subsequent Use of Armed or Strike-Enabled Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) Slate. JTM: “More meaningless BS from our imperial masters… Classic 0bomba-ism.”
Yahoo didn’t install an NSA email scanner, it was a “buggy” NSA “rootkit” Boing Boing. Chuck L: “The Yahoo clusterf**k just gets worse.”
Baltimore Police took 1 million surveillance photos of city Associated Press
Imperial Collapse Watch
HARPER: DR. STRANGELOVE RIDES AGAIN Sic Semper Tyrannis (Glenn F)
A terrible warning from US Generals Defend Democracy. “Any future war with Russia or China would be ‘extremely lethal and fast’ and produce violence on the scale not seen for 60 years…”
The US Chain of Command Sic Semper Tyrannis (Glenn F)
Needed Now: a Peace Movement Against the Clinton Wars to Come Counterpunch (J-LS)
2016
U.S. Says Russia Directed Hacks to Influence Elections New York Times. As Lambert said, “Always good to see Democrats taking responsibility. And tossing the entire American intelligence apparatus into the giant sucking pit of need that is the Clinton campaign. Officially, I mean.”
Obama DOJ drops charges against alleged broker of Libyan weapons Politico (Glenn F). Subtitle: “Arms dealer had threatened to expose Hillary Clinton’s talks about arming anti-Qadhafi rebels.”
Excerpts of Hillary Clinton’s Paid Speeches to Goldman Sachs Finally Leaked Intercept
WikiLeaks Appears To Release Hillary Clinton’s Paid Speech Transcripts Buzzfeed
Clinton email reveal: Strategist suggested she run for Obama’s VP in 2012 Politico
The corruption at CNN is nearly unbelievable. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154555067016419&set=a.10150153976066419.339760.549801418&type=3&theater …
@SeanJKerrigan (rich). One of my friends calls CNN “Clinton News Network”.Who’s Demanding to See Hillary Clinton’s Birth Certificate? Baffled Astrologers Wall Street Journal (Li). Why is a birth certificate time dispositive? The hospital staff are pretty busy getting that baby out. And a lot of hospitals mark the time only to the nearest half hour.
Where Clinton Is Setting Up Field Offices — And Where Trump Isn’t FiveThirtyEight (J-LS)
Donald Trump’s Lewd Comments About Women Spark Uproar Wall Street Journal
Trump hits back after crude tape emerges Financial Times
The real problem with Donald Trump’s tax avoidance? It’s perfectly legal Guardian (resilc)
Donald Trump Has Totally Upended Conservative Media, and It’s Beautiful | Vanity Fair. Resilc: “And Clintoon will destroy the Demo/ corp/Wall St party”. Moi: If we are lucky….
The Way We Were and Will Be Counterpunch. An imaginative election scenario.
Obama envisions America’s economic future and defends free trade Guardian (resilc)
Sure, Christie Belongs In Prison For The Bridge Coverup– And So Does Cuomo DownWithTyranny
New Jersey train engineer applied brakes just before crash: NTSB Reuters. EM: “This needs a closer look, IMO: ‘When interviewed by investigators, Gallagher said he conducted various procedures, including checking the train’s speedometer, and put his cellphone away during the trip, NTSB said this week.’ I hope NTSB is scouring those cellphone records which they should have already obtained from his carrier – right, NTSB?”
Dozens arrested at India call center linked to IRS scam calls ABC (Timotheus)
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer led illegal purge of male employees, lawsuit charges Mercury News (Lulu). On the one hand, all performance reviews are subjective. On the other, the raw data looks pretty compelling, as well as the re-grading of reviews.
A woman had a baby. Then her hospital charged her $39.35 to hold it. Vox (J-LS)
New Mega Oil Discovery In Alaska Could Reverse 3 Decades Of Decline OilPrice (Chuck L)
Wells Fargo banking scandal a financial crisis we can finally understand Guardian (resilc)
Robert Rubin, Genius of Capital Markets, Missed Both the Stock Bubble and the Housing Bubble Beat the Press
Class Warfare
‘Glass Cliff,’ Not Just Ceiling, Often Impedes Women Rising in Politics New York Times (Li)
On Corporations, their Minions and the Perversion Called ‘Mandatory Arbitration’ Tony Butka, CityWatch
Walmart warns of flat earnings and slows US store openings Wall Street Journal
Antidote du jour (@CTVNews, via Richard Smith). “Stork hunkers down in bathroom to avoid Hurricane Matthew.”
And a bonus video, from Frosty Zoom:
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
362 comments
Comments are closed.
Love your website. THANK YOU so much for the Elm tree link among all the other great stuff.
On Trump’s secretly recorded lewd sexual comments: I’m sure that we’re all stunned to know that he’s a crude neanderthal.
Regarding Hillary’s leaked emails (paraphrasing) (accurately): It’s necessary to have both a public position and a private position, because Lincoln and sausage making and stuff. Also, I really think the best regulators for banks are banks since they understand how things work best. It’d be awful if some darned populists got in there and mucked things up. My dream is to have 100% open borders and open trade–It’s my dream damnit! My dream!
…
Two big stories of yesterday will perfectly cancel each other out. And if they don’t then CNN, Washington Post, Bloomberg, MSNB et al, as the official spokespersons of the Clinton campaign that they are, will make sure of it.
Recall Arnold Schwarzenegger groping women—or so publicized.
Strongman.
Gathered Latino vote. (Latina vote probably not so much)
All in “progressive” California.
yeah arnold and bill clinton both did that. i think one woman accused trump of that; in the case of arnold and bill clinton and bill cosby, there were many. one is one too many, if true, but we don’t know it’s true, and we do know trump is a bullshit artist.
Brilliant parody ad: “Powerful! Hillary Clinton’s New Ad that will change the Election ”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPrt9GkaQNQ
It wasn’t just groping. The extent of Schwarzenegger’s sexual harassment was not publicized. When a small craft service company has to move out one of their best employees because the star won’t take no for an answer and it is so bad her fellow employees are ready to quit, it is not just groping.
With none of these men was it just groping.
we don’t know that about trump. schwartzenegger may have been the ringleader in a group rape, though i don’t think the woman elected to go through the traumatic process of bringing charges and a trial. clinton improperly used his position and influence to initiate an affair with lewinski, and then used his national pulpit to smear her, and no doubt is as crude as trump. there is reasonable doubt imo about how aggressive he was physically. bill clinton is a weasel and a liar, but so is richard mellon scaife (assuming he’s still alive).
schwartzeneggar is a sexual predator. i’m not sure where clinton lies on that scale, but we can’t reasonably say that about trump, at this point, imo–i have faith in david brock’s oppo research. if more women come forward, that’s another story.
Juanita Broadrick and Paula Jones and Kathleen Willey will tell you about Clinton.
The Paula Jones motel room incident was sexual assault by our modern, more enlightened understanding of boundaries and consent. I’m old enough to have a vague memory of how badly Ms. Jones was treated by Clinton supporters and the media at the time. Her looks were denigrated, she was called white trash, and as in other cases the Clintons claimed she was just an obsessed groupie. Hillary does not stand on the high ground here, and I do not for a second believe she is concerned misogynistic treatment of women.
Paula Jones was such an “obsessed groupie” that IIRC she got a payment of $800,000 or so from Bill Clinton. Nice work I guess if you can get it.
As stated elsewhere, I am absolutely baffled by the hypocrisy regarding Trump’s vile sexisms (voiced) vs Bill Clinton’s actual behaviour, which has been well documented.
The MSM may get their wish of having HRC elected, but they should be wary of reaping what they sow — complete disillusionment with their credibility.
An HRC Presidency will be the most dysfunctional administration ever. It will be paralyzed by non-stop accusations, investigations, and, stonewalling.
Her only, almost, unfettered authority will be with/over the military. (CIC, and, all that.) But, that wet dream was always her main goal, “forever war.” She hasn’t even been sworn in yet, and, WW3 is already Job #1.
Why this hasn’t been a campaign issue is a real mystery. I can’t believe that the image of this mean, angry, and, vindictive psychopath taunting, and, provoking Russia (and, Vladimir Putin) wouldn’t scare the crap out of America’s, and, the world’s, citizens.
was there in fact a paula jones motel room incident? i share your cynicism about clinton, but retain my cynicism about richard mellon scaife and some (not all) of the fruits of the arkansas project. there was in fact a right wing smear machine, and still is, it’s just that now it’s working for the clintons instead of against them. david brock for example.
those are the people i’m talking about. jones got some of her legal expenses paid, but clinton could have fought it longer. ken staar didn’t think kathleen willey was credible, and i don’t believe broadrick was credible either. there was an arkansas project, and it uncovered lies as well as truth; the point was bringing down clinton, not ascertaining the truth. both clinton’s lie, and both are corrupt. that doesn’t mean everything they are accused of by their opponents is true. for example, i think hillary is an awful candidate, a corrupt politician who could take us into a hot war with russia, but i don’t think she murdered vince foster to cover up her affair with janet reno. many of us defended the clintons at the time, and bought into the narrative that they were innocent victims of the right wing smear machine. now i think there is the opposite tendency, to take as given all the accusations of the time, because we feel so betrayed by them, and the rest of the elite democrats. in a way it’s like defending hitler from a charge that he hated dogs, but from what i’ve read he liked dogs. a genocidal mass murderer, but he liked dogs.
I don’t rely on Ken Starr’s judgment. Those flight records of Bill on the Lolita Express without his Secret Service protection haven’t been disproven. I have no reason not to believe Juanita Broadderick, who told people at the time that it happened, and is still saying so today. If you accept that Bill rapes women, why disbelieve ANY of these victims? Seriously.
Nate Parker (elite wrestler at the time, now director of Oscar bait movie) led a gang rape on an unconscious fellow Penn student and got off because he had previously coerced her into sexual contact. That is the ONLY reason he got off. His friend, who raped her as well at Nate’s urging, was convicted. I bet Ken Starr would have also found that victim less than credible, if it was her word against Parker’s.
It is hard to accuse men of rape. It is hard now, and it was harder in the ’90s. It is much, much harder to accuse a men with power and social status. And you want me to believe that all these women were bribed by right wing operatives to make false accusations against THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, knowing it would be a shit show, knowing none of these other accusations had stopped Bill? How dumb do you think women are? I’m not saying it’s not possible that one or more of the accusations against Bill are exaggerated, but that seems less likely than the simpler probability that they’re all telling the truth.
Bill’s whole “defense” comes down to “attacking me is attacking all those who voted for me. Are you gonna attack all those who voted for me? Well, hell, if you’re gonna attack *them* you must be some sorta awful person.” Notice how Bill hides behind his voters and plays one set of his voters off against another set of his voters. Third Way indeed.
So are women supposed to be a special, fragile protected class that needs protection from nasty men by other men?
Isn’t this the opposite of the meme that women are just as capable as men, can handle what men can and therefore deserve the same opportunities, jobs and pay as men?
I know women that mock men, call them useless males and hang out with their girlfriends in book clubs and make fun of men often in crude psychological terms.
Should all these women be disqualified for ever holding public office because of this?
If Bill Clinton–scheduled to return to the White House as part of her cabinet, by Hillary after her supposed inauguration, couldn’t be impeached and run out of town for getting blowjobs from an intern in the White House, then Trump’s guytalk is irrelevant.
I’ll vote for Trump on issues like avoiding nuclear war, trade, jobs and the economy, not on old personality traits, thank you.
I was not referring to Trump or his conversation. I was objecting to a portrayal of someone else, Schwarzenegger.
Being threatened with job loss or violence if they don’t s*ck someone’s d*ck or more is not something that anyone should have to face alone regardless of gender and is not in any way indicative of their capabilities, abilities, or job performance. And as such should never determine anyone’s opportunities or pay. Anyone who says otherwise apparently has some problems recognizing what is a job and what is not.
I guess you are also okay with getting rid of harassment and discrimination laws for everyone.
Elderly people, you’re on your own, you should be just as capable of protecting yourself from harassment and discrimination as women are.
Disabled? That’s just too bad. The world is tough and cruel.
AAs there is no such thing as discrimination.
Or is the argument that only women are supposed to be able to rise above years and years of societal behavior?
Oh and yes, if I heard a woman refer to a man like he was a piece of meat and bragging that she made unwanted advances on men and expected them to put up with it because she was rich and famous I’d be repelled and would disqualify him from office.
Of course, we don’t have that case. The woman you are referring to is fictional. Donald Trump is very real. But hey, fiction is totally the same as reality.
You go ahead and vote for Trump and don’t worry about discrimination, it’s not like the Hispanics, muslims, AAs, or women of this country didn’t know that many people are okay with discrimination or harassment as long as the behavior isn’t happening to them.
And yet Hillary is married to a man who has done just as much as Donald Trump and possibly even worse……doesn’t that kind of hypocrisy bother you – even a little bit?
And then there’s the fact that good ole Bill lied and lied about what he did – but Trump hasn’t…..really, which is worse in your mind?
Thank you. And Trump didn’t drag the nation through 6 months of turmoil by lying about the blowjobs in the Oval Office.
And don’t forget how Bill Clinton sought to distract from Monica’s Blue Dress by bombing a pharmaceutical company in Sudan:
Bill Clinton Bombs an Aspirin Factory
Do Bill & Hillary think we don’t forget these events? Do the Sudanese?
how do you know the decision was made in response to the lewinsky investigation. the history of america is replete with unjustified attacks; it’s certainly arguable that the nato intervention was one. and within that war, the attack on the chinese embassy. both clintons are not shy about using military force, in general.
If Bill Clinton was on the ballot you might be able to call it hypocrisy.
He isn’t.
I’ve officially been on the record for years calling Bill a philandering dirtbag.
We could argue that Hillary’s comments towards women like Lewinsky were crass and I certainly wouldn’t argue. They’re excuse making of the first order for her spouse.
They might matter if I were voting for her. I’m not though.
I’m not playing the lesser evil game and I feel sorry for those of you that are choosing to when there aren’t only two options on the ballot in any of the states.
I strongly disagree with you. She facilitated and covered up his rapes and assaults for decades, to further her own rise to power. If she had walked out on him early on, when they were still in Arkansas, she would have some claim to moral authority. She personally threatened some of these women. What she did to Lewinsky via the press was disgusting.
She is STILL relying on Bill for her power and wealth. She could have divorced Bill in 1999 and sought out a Senate seat entirely on her own. She did not. She has said Bill will be handling the economy for her. It is still a two-fer.
Bill and Bill’s sexual predation are on the ballot. She has been his accomplice their entire marriage for her own purposes. At least you could argue he has a compulsion. What’s her excuse?
Are all wives responsible for philandering husbands or just Hillary?
Wives who involve themselves in the public smearing, slut-shaming and degradation of women seduced by their powerful husbands deserve to be held accountable for those actions. It is hard to know to what extent she may have enabled him beyond that.
Looks like the lesser predators have found a point of attack they can get their pointy little teeth into, and are they on the point of hamstringing and gutting the Orange Beast now? To ensure the apotheosis of their “we know she’s bad, but we’ve seen worse” hag?
All that’s left is the masochistic pleasure of hoping the cackling mother truckers get incinerated along with the rest of us?
Maybe the mopes who offer here that “we deserve what we the voters get” have it right, in s manner of speaking…
Effing stupid species.
If Bill Clinton was on the ballot you might be able to call it hypocrisy.
You dont think he is????really???
She said he is baked in to run the domestic economic afdairs, or do I have that wrong
The Clintons are a package deal, always have been. They have too much on each other not to be.
Thank you all for elaborating on this topic.
Many years ago, there was a job offer I didn’t take partly because the woman boss made me very uncomfortable. These things can work both ways, even if they’re pretty one-sided in practice.
Which is good: it means there are hard calls we don’t have to make. Harassment is harassment, regardless of gender; as you say, these are behaviors nobody should have to deal with. Threatening your job is completely abusive. So the laws can be written largely gender-free, if there are to be laws.
There are potential dilemmas, though. The Women’s Liberation movement pointed out that special protections (for any class, but in this case women) can be part of the oppression. For instance, they can make women much less desirable employees, interfere with advancement, etc. So it’s important to be prepared to tough out any adversity that’s actually part of the job (and/or work to improve conditions for everybody). But that hardly covers the sort of thing Trump was boasting about.
There is also a danger of whining, and I’ve seen some complaints that worried me. Again, the Women’s Lib movement took a warrior attitude, and changed things because of it. A “delicate flower” pose isn’t very feminist. But you have to call out injustice to change it, so this is a difficult call that outsiders can’t make.
jgordon is right about one thing: we already knew Trump was a jerk, so this revelation doesn’t add much. It did serve to obscure the revelations of Clinton’s Wall St. speeches, though. Of course, they weren’t exactly surprising, either.
FWIW, I was just surveyed by NBC/WSJ, clearly trying to figure out the impact of that tape. I got a chance to add to Jill Stein’s numbers, and refused to answer the “only two” question – said I wouldn’t vote in that case. It’s unrealistic, anyway; Johnson is on every ballot, and Stein on most.
If you want to be polled more go sign up at YouGov, I get polled all the time.
“hang out with their girlfriends in book clubs and make fun of men often in crude psychological terms.”
I don’t see women doing this, but this is not job discrimination, or a threat of sexual assault, or an act of one.
Right, but nor is what Trump said.
“What Trump said” is a bare-faced description of himself committing workplace sexual harrassment and assault.
I didn’t bother to listen to the tape (because I already accept that he committed marital rape and is not a man I personally admire or whose private behavior I consider honorable), but I thought the key Democratic line on Trump was that he’s a liar. Are we now taking at face value his statements to a younger, better looking male celebrity as being truthful?
The Bushes, Cruz and the Clintons have got to have been beating the bushes looking for his victims. Women were willing to come forward against Bill Clinton when he was already President. So where are they?
Again, I am not defending the statements. I am a rape and sexual harassment survivor. But either Trump is unreliable narrator of his own life, as per the Clinton campaign and elite media for months now, or he is not.
I was just about to write similar about all the people that don’t believe Trump’s lies and bragging but choose to cherry pick this one example, surely it must be the truth.
Yes, the subject is a very strongly emotional matter but let’s not dispense with critical thinking. He is like that kid back in high school that swore he would show up to prom with Christie Brinkley. Yeah, that guy.
So why believe him now?
He said he was hitting on “beautiful women”.
The Apprentice did not have any regulars. It had competitors who were NOT employees and were only on as long as they lasted in a season.
So there’s no basis from his remarks about the advantages of being a star to leap that he was getting aggressive with subordinates. This looks much more like hitting on models that would get invites to places where he’d hang out, like Mar-a-Lago to the extent that this was anything more than male preening.
sexual assault is a bit more than a personality trait. to the extent that it does implicate the donald’s character, he doesn’t appear to have mellowed given time.
but who has he sexually assaulted?
according to him?
He depicts the women as consenting, even if he made an aggressive first move. You may not like what he said, but what he described if you read his words is not abuse. There is a whole genre of trash women novels (called “bodice rippers” in the trade) that feature men conquering women. A man taking a woman by surprise isn’t just a male fantasy. It’s also a fantasy for a lot of women.
So the issue is:
1. Is what Trump described made up to show off to another man?
2. If not, did he judge correctly that the woman would be receptive, or did he force himself on her?
No not the issue. The guy doesn’t rate the benefit of the hair splitting and equivocating. He is, and his behavior is, beneath contempt and he is not fit for office.
To be sure, as much can be said for his democratic opponent. I believe a vote for him might still be considered strategically more appealing. That however, cannot be a reason to fail to speak clearly about what is unacceptable in a person and in a candidate.
*Sigh*. What you call “behavior” is words. I’m sorry but as a woman who has worked in male dominated environments, I can tell you first hand they are full of men who regularly try to one-up each other about their conquests. I regard this sort of thing as pathetic rather than a source of outrage. My observation is the more men talk about how much they are getting laid, the less sex they are actually having.
His “behavior” that everyone is so upset about is trash talk. The media is full of an uproar about words, not action. And if you bother to read what he said, even if what he said was true, as opposed to male chest-thumping, the women consented.
Now you can say this is unfit for public office, that we can’t have men with so little discretion in a position of authority. That’s a reasonable argument but not the argument I’ve seen made.
The Clinton campaign has very successfully orchestrated a leap to judgment, of equating a boastful claim of aggressive but consensual sex with predation. If you’ve bothered listening to Howard Stern, Trump has been carrying on about his success with women for years. This is priced in for those who have been following him.
If and when women come forward saying that Trump forced himself on them despite their objections, that’s a different matter. And as I said, we’ve had months of well funded Rs and now Clinton doing oppo, and the best they have so far is a ten year old tape of male preening. If anything will flush women out to make claims against Trump, this would be it. If nothing new surfaces in the next two weeks, this will have proven to be a PR master stoke by the Clinton camp.
according to a woman who was assaulted by him, if such a woman exists.
Well the thing is he was an ok governor for all that. So at least he wasn’t bad at governance (and you’d have a hard time arguing Jerry Brown is better especially on the environment where he is almost certainly worse). More than I can say about our sorry Presidential picks.
No. You can’t be good at governing women if you don’t respect them. This is not a sub-category. Women are more than half of the world’s population. Schwarzenegger was a national figure and what he taught us was that a man in his position could ruin women and laugh it off. We should demand better than this in our political figures.
This +100
I’m happy someone gets it.
Donald Trump’s behavior does not cancel out Hillary Clinton’s corruption, nor does Hillary Clinton’s corruption cause the treatment of women by Donald Trump to be less horrendous.
We should be demanding more from our political figures and our leaders. We should be bravely saying no to both of these options.
Trump’s only hope at this point is to say the following:
“I wanted this campaign to be about the serious problems that confront our nation, like jobs, endless wars, and corruption in our highest institutions where breaking the law goes unpunished because the fix is in.”
“But instead if we want this to be about airing dirty laundry, OK then here goes:
Hilary Clinton sold the business of our government to the highest bidder for immense personal gain through her tax-free foundation. She then repeatedly lied about it to Congressional committees and to the American people. She takes money from the biggest of special interests and does their bidding in direct opposition to what is right for our citizens and our nation. She has a track record that goes back decades of lying about and covering up wrongdoing, from Travelgate to Whitewater to Benghazi. She says you must have two positions: your public position, in other words what you tell people you’re doing, and your private position, in other words what you’re actually doing behind the scenes that is the opposite of what you told the American people. And she has presided over 8 years where Americans have less security, less money in their pockets, and where special interests in everything from health care to Wall Street have run roughshod over the American Dream”.
Then on November 10 we can on with impeachment, I hope all Hilary voters have had a good long look at Tim Kaine because that’s who we’ll get: a sweaty and ignorant frat boy with zero leadership skills.
Spaced out, or what?
Part of the time partisans behave as if we get a dictator (who contrawise is somebody who gets nothing done). So we get in depth ever lasting personality profiles. . .
refrain
What this country needs is a discussion of what power a president has. What powers in the light of likely control of the other branches of government and recent history. (Not to mention cabinet members)
Now look at Pod Doors’ peroration,
And she has presided over 8 years where Americans have less security, less money in their pockets, and where special interests in everything from health care to Wall Street have run roughshod over the American Dream”.
We have lift off!
Sure, sure, Obama really wanted to do lots of good stuff but all those evil Congressmen always thwarted him, I hope that helps you sleep at night as you try and reconcile the reality of Bush Terms 3 and 4 with the smiling smooth-talking brother who said he was going to champion “Change”.
And you might review Dear Leader’s hammer fist on the Legislative Branch whenever his protected friends (Wall St, Big Military, Hilary) need a hand. Would that a private citizen could get a quick meeting on the tarmac when their crimes need to be forgiven.
+100
The speech making artist also crushed occupy in the middle of the night.
Obama wanted to do all that “good stuff” like closing Gitmo, prosecuting torture/war crimes in the Bush administration, getting a decent agreement for the Palestinians, stopping the NSA spying… but he was too busy out on the golf courses and trying to get TPP passed.
Not even “so publicized”. He admitted to it, apologized, said he was young and stupid then and knew better now. The scandal was over in 24 hours. I remember because I thought he was over when the women came forward (IIRC it was three) and saw his brief press conference at some point on the innertubes.
I’m glad you brought up Arnold. You’ll particularly enjoy the irony here:
http://deadline.com/2016/10/donald-trump-arnold-schwarzenegger-isnt-voting-for-gop-candidate-1201833389/
The MSM outlets are already all over this. If it wasn’t for hurricane Matthew, Trump would be the only headline this morning. They have only today and tomorrow to HAMMER, HAMMER, HAMMER this story before the debate tomorrow night. You can be sure there will be more than one question from the audience about this latest scandal.
The Mrs. & I have discussed Trump’s exit strategy for some months now. He was the Clinton’s sheep dog all along, not Bernie Sanders. The problem for Trump was he could not seem to say anything crazy enough to ruin his chances of beating Clinton in the GE. This could be it.
Could Trump still win? Possibly. Many people will still vote for him because the Clintons must be stopped. Johnson may siphon off some votes, which is good news for Clinton. The march to WWIII looks inevitable.
Uh, no. If Trump was the sheep dog then that is some awesome serendipity, because that way we’ll finally get a president who didn’t want the job to start with.
Trump has spent all of this time doing his damnedest to lose–but he’s still going to win anyway because even a dog turd could win against Ms. “I have a public position and a private position” Hillary. How funny is that.
The Clinton strategy to win had to involve wrecking the Republican Party. Trump accomplished that.
Then, they needed to get the Republicans to vote for her. The Republican nominee (Trump) is so antithetical to the main stream of the party that the party leadership (such as it is) endorsed Clinton. Trump accomplished that too.
Clinton needed to secure Republican endorsements because they alienated the left-wing of the Democratic Party. Having done that, she would not be able to pull off a win in the GE. Besides, the Democartic Party is absolutely not interested in any of the left wing’s agenda, beyond what talking points it can use to bamboozle the rank and file into voting for Clinton.
Bernie was just a speed bump in the primaries. We know now from all the leaked emails the party had already decided it’s Clinton before any other Democrats announced a candidacy. And they set out to tamp down and/or destroy any challenge from with the party.
I agree a dog turd could win against Clinton. “Could” is not the same as “will”. Donald the sexist, msogynist pig meme will be hammered for everything it’s worth. And even if he prevails in the GE despite the latest scandal, the “Russians are hacking the election” meme will be deployed to delegitimization a Trump victory. That meme is already being deployed.
I have a large and diverse family who are mostly lifelong Republican voters. Every last one of them has told me they plan to hold their nose and vote for Trump. If this really was her strategy, her campaign has embarked on a fool’s errand, imho. She has the support of much of the Republican establishment, however, the Republican voters hate their establishment almost as much as they hate Hillary.
interesting point, the elites of both parties (assuming there is a difference between them) are badly out of touch with the voters.
I had a guy come up to me at the gym today. He’s a 40ish metrosexual and talked maybe six months ago with the guys at the gym about his last breakup (which older guys never do, this is to say that his manner is more like that of the sensitive man that is now held up as a cultural model. It’s actually interesting to see a group of guys at my gym who are in their 40s and 50s regularly engage in what would be considered hen talk 30 years ago). We’ve also chatted some about politics.
He said he couldn’t believe the firestorm over the Trump tape. To him, this was obviously locker room talk and tons of men talk like this.
He didn’t make lewd comments, he said essentially that he assaulted women. Or more accurately, he did both – he made lewd comments and then also said he assaulted women and could get away with it because he as famous.
I’m not making this post because I care so much about the election, but I do care about the erasure of bad acts by the elite through the MSM’s language.
Let’s just trivialize this for maximum political impact, shall we?
I’d say, and I’m just spitballin’ here, that a real assault victim, if given the choice, would choose bad words over what actually happened every time.
Last time I heard of trash talk causing a black eye, broken collar bone or brain damage was, well…..NEVER.
Spot on.
You are talking about a known blowhard with both no history of actual physical violence. Let’s compare that to Bill and Hillary now shall we–the first is a known physical predator of women, while the latter is a known psychological predator.
Bill’s Iraqi sanctions — supported by HRC and her BFF Albright — killed 500,000 children. Is that considered “physical violence”?
By the way, a few of those 500,000 might have grown up to be women.
There have been plenty of allegations of physical and sexual violence against Trump over the years. For example, against his ex-wife Ivana (as reported by Harry Hurt III in his 1993 book Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump.
There’s an incomplete collection of these incidents at http://qz.com/804486/the-women-whove-accused-donald-trump-of-sexual-assault/.
I hate to tell you, but Ivana isn’t credible. She was trying to break a pre-nuptial. That’s really hard to do.
Other allegations are a different matter.
I hate to tell you, but Ivana isn’t credible. She was trying to break a pre-nuptial. That’s really hard to do.
And I also hate to add, there is a lot of ambiguity in sex. If a couple engages in rough sexual play now and again, and they haven’t agreed on a “no means no” word (something you’d never normally use while having sex, like “rutabaga”), it’s not impossible that there was an actual miscommunication. Members of the BDSM community are much better about this that regular couple since it’s accepted there that the submissives are in control of how much pain and humiliation they want (as in the dom/domme really is not in charge, the dom/domme’s job is to play along to the limit of what the submissive wants).
Mind you, the caveat above depends entirely upon whether rough sex was unusual for them or not, and the problem with courts in the US is that they can’t/won’t press for details on that front.
Obviously, other allegations are an entirely different matter.
I doubt it is worth arguing the semantics here, since what it amounts to so far is simply chauvinist bluster. That said, Trump claimed that beautiful women usually consented to being touched by him because of his fame, not that he touched them against their will.
No. “Grabbing them by their” whatever isn’t consent. It’s assault.
No, it depends on the situation. And if it actually happened unwillingly I’d expect a long history to come out, like with Bill and Hillary. Instead, there is nothing despite all the oppo research being done.
Funny that they found an audio clip of him blowharding about but–unlike with Bill–didn’t find any evidence of him doing anything. It’s a good thing that Hillary and hrr dysfunctional campaign doesn’t have enough sense to leave this one alone; it’ll be like walking into a bear trap for them.
so true.
Only in America folks, Only in America. Does imagination become reality before it becomes reality. I bored myself to listen once to the video and I think he said “I could’ not “I did.”
I’d say at least 30% of the male population has talked like that — not in those exacty words but in that spawts locker room yada — but usually when they’re in their 20s.
next topic please! This one’s a sleeping pill.
No to your no – “Grabbing them by their ***” against their wishes is assault. Believe it or not, there are people in this world – and not a tiny minority, I’d wager – who like their sex a bit (or very much) on the rough side. I’m not saying that’s what’s happened in the case of the Donald, but please let’s not engage in straw-manning by way of bogus faux-legalistic “definitions”, eh?
You left out the “they let me” part which implies that he was aware of their agency.
Also, I agree with the below comment that this part of his brag doesn’t ring true. It sounds like something a sexually inexperienced teenage boy would say. Maybe this was some failed attempt at humor? Maybe Billy Bush talks this way and Trump was trying to fit in? Trump is a vulgar jerk, but that doesn’t rule out more innocent explanations.
You left out the part where he says he doesn’t wait for permission before he starts kissing.
You might want to read the whole thing where the “they let me” shouldn’t imply consent as much as it is Trump saying that his fame insulates him from even bothering with the niceties.
Kinda in the same way it was his “right” to go backstage while contestants were naked.
“Well, I’ll tell you the funniest is that before a show, I’ll go backstage and everyone’s getting dressed, and everything else, and you know, no men are anywhere, and I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant and therefore I’m inspecting it. You know, I’m inspecting because I want to make sure that everything is good. … You know, the dresses. “Is everyone okay?” You know, they’re standing there with no clothes. “Is everybody okay?” And you see these incredible looking women, and so, I sort of get away with things like that. “
So how do you feel about women guards in men’s prisons and vice versa?
Read the transcript. He said he let them do that. But it’s so not credible, as in any woman who was grabbed in her crotch, no matter how hot she is for the guy, is likely to reflexively slug him. This is why this tape comes off as locker-room one-upsmanship.
We’ve had 16 R and now the Clintons doing oppo on Trump. He’s known to have too much libido for his own good. So far, all we have is a recording, no victims. If there are any, this will flush them out.
What makes this sound like braggadocio is his claim that he could do anything, including grabbing a woman’s genitalia. That does not ring true. Even if a woman was hot for a man, having him grab your crotch is unpleasant, a huge turnoff. That’s likely to get a spontaneous slap or a “WTF are you doing?!?!”
There’s an actual scene in Mad Men where Draper does it, and it’s clearly a threat on his part. I have never forgotten it.
Theres a scene on startrek where ppl dematerialize and then reappear! I havent forgotten that either. Im not even going to get into what i remember from The Adams Family and Looney Tunes!
The sausage-making metaphor is particularly repulsive. I’ve been in meetings with “frank” discussions and invariably the “frank” elements lead to outcomes that are a disservice to the public.
I know that people generally buy into this notion that our betters need to be able to speak freely to get anything done, but it doesn’t work to the public’s benefit in practice. Hillary Clinton and the Wall Street-beholden Democratic Party are good examples of why we need open meetings with full accountability.
The argument is not that our betters need to speak freely to get anything done but that they will not engage any topic that is contrary to the interest they represent if it is done in a way that the public can hold them accountable. It means that the policy is either supported of their special interests or it does not happen. If it does not happen, it never appears in a way that the public can put pressure on the policy-makers for a direction that serves the public interest at the expense of their special interests.
That is, it is not about speech but about being pressured to do the right thing by the public. It is the reason so many public bodies hide behind “executive session” within public meetings.
Anyone remember the liberal outrage when Bill Clinton was impeached ‘for a mere blow job’?
Bingo! Everybody, pay attention here!
Those too young to remember where ‘move on’ comes from need to be schooled.
tgs: Monica Lewinsky was a conniving bitch, doncha know?
None of this excuses the behavior of these guys who think that they are the Big Dog. But now we face Trump (who also likes water boarding) and Clinton, Bill (who will fix the economy) having chances to be in the White House.
Meanwhile, Boris and Natasha have infiltrated the DNC.
The reason for all of this is that the elites have no intention of discussing economic policy, race, foreign policy, or trade. So it’s going to be innuendo, sexual titillation, red-baiting, Muslim-baiting, and shrieking. And yet, and somehow, the American nation, such as it is, truly doesn’t deserve these berserkers.
No, he was impeached for lying. If the bar is at that level either candidate should be impeached immediately after the oath.
Thank you for actually citing what he was actually impeached for.
he was impeached for lying under oath and obstruction of justice–i think there were 4 counts but at any rate it wasn’t for lying per se.
Sigh. I knew some dude in the comments would characterize bragging about sexual assault as “crude”.
I posted the article yesterday and the ensuing conversation has been both disheartening and illuminating on how the male half of the species views male -female interaction.
I get that appearance is a part of attraction. However, this idea that it should be “common” or not inappropriate for men to spend their time rating women’s appearance and then bragging about groping and grabbing the ones they find attractive, is disturbing to say the least.
It’s going to be heartbreaking when the first “transformational” woman gets sworn in and then we can declare misogyny dead because ……Hillary Clinton
Clearly it’s alive and well.
I’m sorry but every straight male with a sex drive does rate women by appearance. That’s hardwired into the DNA of our species.
Culture can have a significant impact on attitudes, but in general it’s not as significant or long lasting as social justice warriors are hoping for and culture gone too far is prone to causing vicious backlashes. I would point to the nascent right wing reactionary movements that are on the rise among the youth for an idea of how the social atmosphere will be turning soon.
I doubt that a regressive, right wing–and I mean real right wing, not the corporatist shills pretending to be right wing that we have today–misogynistic regime is what feminists are aiming for, but that seems to be the most likely result of the current social dynamics in America.
I am going to do a sharpie on cardboard sign and hang out at Madison and Wells at noon next week and bring back a report
FREE GROPES, $1.00
(Women Only PLS)
…OK, everyone else, $5.00,
Heh, I’ll have to save my allowance that way I can bankroll a cultural sensitivity exercise and let men have the opportunity to examine how it feels like to be groped.
You can bet that ‘everyone else’ has been socialized to find this much more acceptable than the women and thus be the more willing participants.
$5.00 for you
Here is the Full 80 page report on stupid shit Clinton has said to rich people for money:
https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/?file=HRC+paid&count=50#searchresult
The Ruskies are behind #NoDAPL too!!!!!
The Villagers are running out of smelling salts. From last night’s PBS Newshour:
Because the US has never, and would never, do that to another country, amirite?
I watched Woodruff and Gerson too, and thought of how this really furthers the delegitimization of mainstream media. This “the Russian did it so don’t believe what’s in the emails” diversion was again offered by a panelist later that evening on PBS’s Washington Week.
Not only did the Russians do it, its largely lies and Podesta can’t be bothered to sort out truth from fiction.
Assange with the subtweet for the win.
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/784549506750742528
Nice takedown of that disingenuous deflection…
I don’t know about the later panelist, but let’s be clear: Gerson said “Americans have to discount this” because it was from a foreign power. Nothing about the truth of falsity of the document dumps.
Also note Russia is hardly a power really. 14th GDP just edging out Mexico.
Remember when HRC as Secretary of State authorising the bugging of the entire United Nations?
Or the NSA (under Obama) spying on just about everyone in the world?
ah, but that was for freedom. and keystone is for freedom, too. usa!
I’ve been saying this to people for months… Clinton and these elitist hacks are the authoritarian fascists. This crap is sickening. “Oh yea Martha, discount this because a Uncle Sam loves you!”
This message was brought to you by the closest legal thing to state run media your failing democracy can get, oligarchy of friends and associates!
Both/and.
Putin can be an authoritarian and so can our elites.
Ah, so Measured & Balanced. But he is wildly popular and, on all the evidence, sane. (Try out your balance, and listen to him speak, and then compare… )
It’s one thing to be authoritarian about your own nation, our authoritarianism however extends to the entire globe. Submit or die, you little brown and yellow fellows.
In response to this quote referenced by allan–
“This is an attempt to hijack and change American democracy by a foreign power. It can’t be accepted.”
Democracy? In this election? Ha!
If we’re not in the Clinton camp, we’re the ‘foreign power’ to the Demoncrats (as in those nasty ‘berniebros’), so ‘it can’t be accepted’.
As I’ve said before, these hackers are becoming my new heroes, as it seems to be the only way we can get the TRUTH.
Absolutely, who has the medals?
The only way this could “impact the national elections” is by revealing the truth… which is not meddling. It is ridiculous that what the emails actually say is being attempted to be swept under the rug. I welcome all helpful hackers.
Yes, only sanctioned hijackings allowed here. Roll the tape of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who after resigning over it was hired by Clinton approximately 45 seconds later.
It is worth noting that in the accusation that the hacks were Kremlin approved, no evidence whatsoever was offered to back up the claim – unless you already believe that Russia is dedicated to destroying our way of life in general and our democratic system in particular.
Hard not to see this ‘stunt’ as an attempt by the Obama regime to discredit the Wikileaks release.
At what point do they disqualify Trump on the grounds of his being a Kremlin stooge?
Please, it is already happening among some of the voters trying to convince themselves that their vote for Clinton is not a vote for another unjustified war.
Her weak spot is that Syrian no fly zone.
Syria is a sovereign nation. She doesn’t get to tell them how to control the air space over their country.
There is no way to enforce that no fly zone without starting a war.
You get that and I get that. Unfortunately the person who threw out the line that they would rather have someone in office who wants war with Russia than have Putin able to run our country because the President owes them so much money to me may not.
Just in case they were attempting to troll me, all I needed to do was point out if you need to worry about the influence of foreign powers the record of Clinton’s State Department approving desired policies including arms sales for various countries after they gave to the Clinton Foundation, make it clear that policy is for sale to the highest bidder with President Hillary Rodham Clinton.
You act like new war is a bad thing in Hilary’s eyes, au contraire she is the Queen of War. Maybe she can go on CNN with Assad’s head in a box and cackle “I came, I saw, he died”.
Someone, (Cenk? Nakedcapitalism?) should invite the Third Party Candidates to a televised/streamed debate in which the MSM debate is transcribed and then read aloud by an actor and actress, one in a clown suit, the other in Queen/War Lord/Bankster outfit and at the other podiums you have the real Stein and Johnson replying. We should crowdfund this.
Getting the Word Out
Good one. Reminds me of my idea of employing soap opera actors (who do quick turnaround) to dramatize the Ollie North Iran Contra hearings—back then.
Ollie was a great player.
Democracy Now did this with the vice presidential debate. It was epic—the only adult in the room wasn’t even in the room!
We need to get all of the deflated Bernie Supporters to back this on reddit. Maybe Jeff Weaver and Our-Revolution would sponsor it?
Wow. I wish I had gotten some of the Russian cash for my environmental work that I volunteered to do.
Nice try, Comrade Titus. Since no real American would ever do any tree-hugging or anti-fracking or pipeline protests without a steady infusion of rubles to sustain them, your statement simply “cannot be accepted.” America is a get-rich-quick country — what’s the short-term profit motive in protests if it isn’t big bundles of Russian cash? It’s the only explanation that makes any sense.
The environmentalists are always claiming they do their work by donations from the public. Now we know which public.
Remember, anything and everything imperfect about America is directly caused by the Russians, so our discussions must focus on what to do about them going forward, not on what’s imperfect. To paraphrase Stalin — no Russians, no problems.
I see we’ve reached that moment when we add comrade to our names Comrade Antifa.
“Comrade”
The worst part is they copied this behavior from us (technically the French copied us first). The languages are too different, but comrade much like “mister surname” was once reserved for social superiors. Here in the colonies every free man was a master. The commies and other reformers thought it was a good idea.
comrades…real russians never use the term “comrade”…it is an A-O invention soon after the war…your failure to use tovarishch is quite telling dear “citizen”(citizen in a stalinistic way)…perhaps we shall further investigate your claims…
I should note the concept of whites calling blacks “boy” or “sonny” or even by first names (ex. Big Jim) despite no familiarity is a call back to pre-1789 values that were applied to slave/non-slave relationships.
French visitors were astonished by the egalitarian social constructs in the colonies and former colonies outside of slavery, and the idea of a formal construct applying to everyone was carried back a day spread.
So the Russians hacked the Judiciary in 2000….. check….
And we would all be totally cool with NSA surveillance if we just understood it better…
‘It’s not in context and it’s not clearly explainable or understood.’
The scum better hope that nobody ever puts everything in full context, explainably and understandably.
In both the cases of NSA and the Total Information Awareness project the initial technology was developed to do surveillance with full anonymization of individual US persons’ data and full audits and safeguards to monitor against any officials who went into the data below that level.
In both cases, the TPTB did their utmost to destroy those particular technological projects and the people who led them — in NSA’s case, William Binney. TPTB wanted the ability to trade that data back and forth without accountability between different agencies and power centers, while people like Haydon at NSA wanted the payoffs that the contractors involved would pay them for building the surveillance systems their way.
And handing our nation’s highest spying capabilities to a political campaign so they can use them to discredit their opponent:
http://magafeed.com/was-a-super-hillary-pac-hacked/
Look up “FoxAcid” sometime.
[6:30]
Get those files together.
ekim [6:30 AM]
I’m on it. Do you know what brock is going to do with them? I do kind of want to know, sir.
efink [6:31 AM]
google Seth Rich and shut up about it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Seth_Rich
This has to be the third time you’ve posted that item. That site is not reliable and there is no other reporting on that. There is no info on reddit.
She is still deluding herself about what actually happened in Haiti.
People in NYC, Arkansas, and Albuquerque all die differently; that’s why we don’t have single payer.
I’ve been in hospitals in both Albuquerque and NY, and have to wonder what the he!l she thinks she is talking about. I could see perhaps a case that there is a subset of health challenge differences between rural and urban areas, but cancer, diabetes, respiratory problems, arthritis, infectious diseases, and on and on are pretty universal.
I think it’s perfectly clear: New York cancer responds to single payer, but Albuquerque cancer requires the intervention of a trained insurance agent and large doses of premiums. Because freedom.
I thought everyone knew that.
What she probably really means is NYC has more HIV patients than Albuquerque, and anywhere outside blue cities where being thin is a status marker and residents spend time and money trying to achieve that, has more people who are overweight and therefore have diabetes. When I fly to the South, there are way more people getting wheelchair service than when I fly to CA, for instance. But yes, that’s still irrelevant as far as her argument is concerned.
Even if it were true, in some bizarre alternate universe, that people somehow die of completely different causes in different places that has nothing to due with the single payer. All sorts of animals die from all sorts of causes but that doesn’t have anything to do with how insurance is used to pay when various problems occur. Single payer, as every nearly intelligent person knows, is insurance not medicine.
Hillary is bizarrely arguing that you can’t have insurance policies by a national entity because, for instance, the kinds of problems that might happen to a house in Montana are completely different from what might happen in Florida. This because it’s too complex to do different actuarial tables for different locations.
On the medical side the coin Hillary appears to be trying to say that veterinarians could not possibly exist because there are just too many causes and effects from treating all of those diverse animals and the costs would differ from animal to animal. Oh, and blaming and shaming has something to do with something.
Perhaps she just thinks that those outside her circle are not even from the same planet. Which come to think about it, just might be true.
There are claims about Hillary’s intelligence, but unlike Bill, no one has brought up her NYT crossword prowess.
I would classify her the way I do most people, largely reactionary, reliant on childish beliefs, and abhorrent of critical thinking.
The system totally isn’t rigged.
Decades later… it is the insiders that are strangling Democracy, go figure!
But the deck is stacked against them….
‘the divestment of assets, the stripping of all kinds of positions, the sale of stocks. It just becomes very onerous and unnecessary.’
Save the Clinton Foundation! ;-)
The bias against rich guys is soooooo staggering, especially the recent rash of officer involved shootings of wealthy denizens of the Hamptons and Jackson Hole…
…said nobody ever.
and don’t forget the tax free part dear fearless leader…$hillary “sort of”(goodness…she says that a bunch) forgot to mention all these wonderful people who go thru the revolving door get to sell their positions basically tax free…
oh the suffering of those “noble” klownz that be…
That is a shock. I guess the rumor isn’t true that Hillery wants Leonard Cohen to play for her Inaugural Ball — with the theme song “Everybody Knows”.
Let’s be clear. The “we” and the “us” that Clinton refers to does not include 99% of Americans.
This should have fooled no one, she is against pot. Too bad for all those super predators.
Pot is opposed by health industry. Nuff said.
There is way too much pro free trade to post but this one should set off Trump’s people the most.
I’m starting to think Clinton and Putin have some kind of kinky relationship going on…
And this one on the Budget is just too depressing for a joke.
This is a good mental image, too bad she didn’t let it sink in.
Huh, you mean if she let it sink it she would get that what she was doing was admitting that the aftermath of the crash was all about saving the institutions whose actions caused the crash and the governments that allowed it, but that was a public relations mistake because no one had the impression that they had any say about what went down? Oh, and stop picking on the US financial industry because it is all a misunderstanding…
At least that is what I get from that word salad.
last week when Bill Clinton told his audience that the banks are not responsible for the GFC – but capitalism itself is to blame, I nearly fell off the couch. Bec. that is what I think too. Capitalism always spins out of control ala Minsky/Steve Keen. So why in hell don’t we fix it?
I think that’s rubbish, capitalism is fine, it’s rigged crony reverse-socialism that sucks.
And a better definition of what we have is “inverted totalitarianism”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
OpenthePod, Thanks for the link! I’m reading the Wolin book now.
AAB, you had a terrific comment in yesterday’s water cooler That I would like to share (in the form of a couple of quotes and a link back to your full comment) …. Would that be OK with you?
Thanks for pointing that out I would have missed it!
katiebird
October 8, 2016 at 8:03 am
Thanks for pointing that out – I didn’t spend any time on NC yesterday, but it sums up my view of the situation as well
From me also. Thanks. Aab’s comment was spot on.
The Water Cooler comments were wonderful yesterday. Several long and thoughtful exchanges.
I always read the Water Cooler comments first thing in the morning (to give the new Links thread a chance to warm up) and today it took over an hour — almost an hour and a half — to get through them all …. there were that many replies to even the early comments!!
Yes, thank you for flagging that katiebird!
That’s what’s been bugging me — I’m supposed to be shocked that Trump used course language 10+ years ago? Even Amy Goodman covered a story like this the other day, about the journalist who said that Trump called her the C word to her boss — in the 1980s! On what Disney planet is this news? You need the sensibilities of a small child to play along with this game — it’s the opposite of empowering, which I guess is the whole point. I’m so out of patience with the whole stupid spectacle
All the pearl clutching over Mr. Trump’s latest bout of verbal diaheria is awful. For goodness sake, Mark Leibovich went on podcasts and wrote articles about Trump where Trump used the same language. And now it’s too much? Now they’re acting like it’s a big deal? Give me a blue pill, I want my illusions back. It’s too much to know how corrupt all of our institutions really are…
Thank you for summing it all up aab.
I am so upset at the state of things. I can’t believe we’re here right now. I know if the RNC doesn’t drop Trump after this debate, team Hillary is going to dig up or manufacture something else, anything else, to drag their chosen queen across the finish line.
What scares me about all this is that Trump was pretty much the last attempt by the electorate on the red side of the country to elect someone who represented them. Having seen their candidate destroyed while no one paid attention to all of Mrs. Clinton’s many issues, I’m sure their next option is open revolt. I am afraid we’ll fall into civil war before our country devolves into a 3rd world banana republic. God help us all.
I wasn’t aware until after I wrote that comment that the entire elected elite of the Republican Party joined in on the, “he’s too terrible for us to support!” meme yesterday.
I haven’t stuck my toe in any news today. Trump’s still running, yes? What’s interesting is that the alt-right media (I’m calling Cernovich that because he seems no more or less a journalist than Maddow at this point) had already been pushing the line that the Republican party is out to get Trump. If he does somehow win (I know, huge long shot with the rigging and propaganda, but the fundamentals are still on his side) it will be ideal for those of us who think both party’s elites need to be crushed. No way is Trump the “dead man signing” Ryan wants now. I already thought he wasn’t likely to be THAT malleable, but now? If he gets in, there is absolutely no way he will do what they want. Even more reason to cheer if he actually gets in. Hey, I can make a delicious beverage out of ANY sour fruit!
That’s an interesting point.
Trump has come to an almost milquetoast standard R position on many things in the last two months. With the exception of trade he’s not really talking like he did at the start. If he goes back to the old approach, I wonder how much of the damage from the last bit could be undone? And it would absolutely motivate him to do whatever he wants with no pretense of party loyalty. But it’s a long shot now.
I forget who said it, but several months ago some said the only person Hillary could beat is Trump. And the only person Trump could beat is Hillary. I still think that’s true. But the pile on from the last month has shown me no one other than Clinton was ever going to be allowed to win in the eyes of the media establishment. They’re in her pocket. So much so that I wonder how many of my opinions and perspectives from earlier in my life were crafted based on similar agendas.
Is anyone starting up a preemptory peace movement to block our incoming president’s agenda? I think Hillary in the White House is a foregone conclusion at this point.
They can’t get rid of Trump if he does not want to go, and he said in an interview in the WSJ today that he is not quitting. It was feistier than that.
So they can huff and puff all they want.
What one observer said, which I found interesting, is that her reading of the downticket Rs is that many don’t know how to position themselves re Trump, when that’s their job, to read the mood of their electorate. That is another confirmation of how Trump and Sanders have exposed how much simmering discontent there is in the heartlands, and the pros don’t know what to do.
For them to read the mood of their electorate they would need to actually spend time with the unwashed masses. Something their completely sanitized campaign stops would never allow for. They take all their cues from the press, who take all their cues from polls. Questions as asinine as ‘Who do you plan to vote for in November?’ being used to divine absolutely everything in political discourse is just as futile as every squillionaire wants it to be.
Give me control of a respected polling company and I can change the direction of this, and any other election, to be something that could actually help people.
Of course it’s okay. I’m flattered.
That comment went into moderation, so I’m thrilled anybody read it at all.
Yes, it was good. The choices are pre-selected by the wealthy and are terrible. I cringe at the gimmicky millenial vs boomer, white/hisp/asian/black, students v labor talk. Everyone has bias, everyone is subject to propaganda, everyone has tried to manuever in a rigged system. Maybe, just maybe, the 90% will stop playing by the elite’s rules and stop attacking each other.
Re: Who’s Demanding To See Hillary Clinton’s Birth Certificate
If the time on a birth certificate is on the half hour, it’s a good bet that it’s approximate. But they’re often given to the minute. The time on Obama’s BC is 7:24 p.m. Chelsea Clinton, 11:24 p.m. Trump, 10:54 a.m. Tim Kaine, 7:59 a.m. You do have to wonder why they didn’t just make it 8.
The reason astrologers want her birth certificate — and I wouldn’t say they are “demanding” it — is that there are so many conflicting reports, some alleged to have come from Herself, that only a BC will settle the matter. Two astrologers I know of managed to talk to her at book signings back when she still deigned to mingle with the little people, and they said she told them it was a few minutes before or after 8 a.m. Another said she answered 8 p.m. Talk about flip-flopping.
An astrologer in the 1980s (I think) came up with a reliability rating system for birth times, ranging from AA for having a copy of the BC in hand to C for accuracy in question, X for a date with unknown time, and DD for “dirty data” in the case of conflicting reports. As there is no FF for flip-flop, Hillary gets a DD.
Perhaps she wasn’t born, but rather, hatched?
(I was going to make reference to fork-tongued snakes—but I like actual snakes).
Who cares, anyway?
I’m more interested in their actual policies (and don’t like either’s, the more I find out).
Years ago, one of my best friend’s mother was a professional astrologer. Quite uncanny things that she said – like nailing the sudden death of a parent several months in advance. As a result, I like to keep an open mind. Astrologers need the birth time to find the rising sign and planetary aspects and then dissect the birth chart looking for events.
Here is a recent take on Trump:
http://darkstarastrology.com/2016-presidential-election-usa/
Isaac Newton was a serious student of alchemy and the occult. Those who don’t know laugh and those who know, they often don’t say a word.
“Newton’s scientific work may have been of lesser personal importance to him, as he placed emphasis on rediscovering the occult wisdom of the ancients. In this sense, some[1] believe that any reference to a “Newtonian Worldview” as being purely mechanical in nature is somewhat inaccurate.” -Wikipedia
The Ascendant (rising degree and sign) is one of the four “angles” on a horoscope which circle the sky about once every day, advancing one degree about every four minutes (on average, wider excursions near the poles and near solstices). The angles are important points on a horoscope, and planets in the sky transiting those angles often herald participating by presence in sign and in aspects with and transits from other planets, and the rising sign in particular provides insight into one’s presentation and body shape (and one’s mental blind spots) — a real cracker-jack of an astrologer can often tell your rising sign just by looking at you..
There is a technique called progression, in which one slows down the chart’s advancement by an appropriate factor of time per time (a day for a year is common), and a similar technique called direction in which one advances planetary positions some angular distance per time (a degree for a year is common). In either case these slowed down charts have a sort of sub-harmonic relationship with the passage of time for that native, with aspects within the slowed-down chart, and transits to its planets from the present sky, often signifying and characterizing (and sometimes timing) life events, especially when several influences combine to present a richer, more dynamic picture of the spirits, moods and tendencies of the time. (There are systems in which each of the 360 degrees of the zodiac has an associated symbol which provides additional insight into the native under consideration, but I’ll skip those.)
Arabic astrology offered new imaginary points called “parts”, which are generally calculated by translating the angular distance from one point to another, to a third point on the circle of the zodiac. e.g. the Part of Fortune is the angular distance from the Sun to the Moon (reverse for night births), translated to start at the Ascendant. Arabic parts are quite important to some predictive practices, and most or all of them involve one of the angles.
That fine-grained timing prediction is why minutes matter when casting horoscopes, especially for Great Persons.
A kicker: It is possible to work backwards from life events to a birth time (“rectification”), but with all the beatific chaff surrounding Hillary and her “career”, the exercise would be 95% investigative journalism, 4% politics and 1% astrology. What’s more, having established a working birth time, against which the better attested events of her life can be correctly “postdicted”, one could support (to those not prejudiced) any claims of truth and identify, perhaps even characterize, tendentious or systematic fabrication.
Donald Trump Has Totally Upended Conservative Media, and It’s Beautiful | Vanity Fair. Resilc: “And Clintoon will destroy the Demo/ corp/Wall St party”. Moi: If we are lucky….
But let’s look on the bright side, since bright sides are becoming harder to find. Perhaps Trump’s greatest act of division is the tribal war he’s triggered in the conservative media. Bitter fratricide has broken out between the pro-Trump zealots and the anti-Trump stalwarts, pitting talk-radio gasbag against gasbag, pundit against pundit, blogger against blogger, online trolls against byliners. I cannot tell you how much joy this has given me. “Schadenfreude” doesn’t begin to cover it. I keep hoping that it will escalate into the local-news teams’ free-for-all rumble in Anchorman, with George F. Will spearing Bill O’Reilly with a trident—that is my dream for America. If Trump belly-flops on Election Day in bitter defeat, costing Republicans the Senate, the postmortem could provide the perfect bonfire for roasting marshmallows. Let the recriminations begin! The post-Trump conservative landscape will be a charred, feudal battlefield, the survivors fighting for the paltry remains of a party too dumb to live.
…..
Fox News is the Death Star of the post-Reagan Republican Party, and disaffected conservatives are decrying its hegemony. In National Review, David French, who flirted with running as a third-party Trump alternative, pointed out, “Fox News went on the air in October 1996. Since that time, the GOP has won the popular vote for president exactly once: in 2004, by a whopping 2.4 percent. . . . In the six presidential elections before Fox, the GOP won four landslides.” French concedes that it isn’t a simple correlation, lots of other factors are involved, but contends that the obsession with appeasing and appealing to the Fox News miniverse has created a megaphone for politicians that is more like a funnel: they keep talking to the same pond of true believers and credulous saps, ignoring the general votership. ((there is no better reason to vote for Trump than to give French apoplexy))
….
The only sunny contribution to come from the circular firing squad on the right has been a bopping new podcast called Radio Free GOP, created and hosted by longtime Republican strategist Mike Murphy, who took his lumps on Twitter and elsewhere for his part in the failed Jeb Bush campaign. He ran Bush’s $100 million Right to Rise super-PAC. Only a person with battle-tested buoyancy and an ability not to take himself and others seriously could have come up with a podcast devoted to the “Republican resistance,” broadcasting from an undisclosed location after his party nominates a madman as its standard-bearer. Host and interviewer, Murphy conducts a weekly inside-baseball bullpen conversation about polling, tactics, and candidates’ foibles so funny and informative that even a dyed-blue liberal Dem such as myself is addicted. Murphy’s session with Mitt Romney was the most humanizing I’ve heard—Mitt, we hardly knew ye! If (dreaded thought) Trump wins, a lot of us may be joining our Republican brethren in the wine cellars of the resistance. Have your berets ready, just in case.
=======================================================
I’m feeling “Super-duper Schadenfreude.” It is amusing to see the repub anti Trumpers welding that old fashioned technique, that oratorical method that utilizes words formed into sentences, than paragraphs, that are….TRUE! Consistent with reality! Constrained by their images and audio on videotape, and raised in an old fashioned era of logic, this group has a difficult time winning arguments when their Trump opponents simply refute arguments by denying what they said that is on videotape, or sometimes, by stating that they are obviously not serious and are just kidding around.
The only problem with the article is the idea that the repub base is NOTHING but racists and neo-nazis, instead of acknowledging that all the old line repubs endorsing Hillary just shows that the parties are only delivery vehicles for the plutocracy. And what makes it especially delicious is that Fox, the network most aggressive at breaching the ramparts of sexual propriety and normal manners on TV, has fronted the logical outcome of this, in now having a repub frontman that really doesn’t pay any attention to the repub hypocrisies of decorum, propriety, modesty, and church on Sunday, and has done the most to drive a stake through the “moral majority.”
You know, on PBS Gwen Ifil’s Washington Week in Review, a woman correspondent ACTUALLY quoted the audio tape that has Trump saying he grabs women “P” – except she SAID a woman’s “kitty cat” – (I spit up my Cabernet) apparently because this was better than using the “P” word!!! Language – funny how the common name we use to name that small mammalian predator, star of countless Youtube videos, that we keep as pets also refers to womens’s sexual organs – except apparently the other name we use for the small mammalian predator can also be used, but isn’t as DIRTY…
(hmmm, I thought you could only say kitty cat if you were actually referring to a….”cat”)
“If (dreaded thought) Trump wins, a lot of us may be joining our Republican brethren in the wine cellars of the resistance.” Actually, I’ll be sipping my Gallo burgundy in front of my BIG screen (as it is the only thing going down in price) watching Fox news singing the phrases of our GREATEST, YUGEST new ally, Vladimir Putin, who came to America to sign the treaty of the “Trump Taj Mahal” which allows for the construction throughout all of Russia a string of casinos, with weekly mandatory attendance by everyone within the borders of Russia, and in exchange we will unilaterally disarm. And the biggest PUBLIC Works program in America (millions of repubs fall down dead at the thought of a massive public works program) implemented in the good ole USA will be TWPA (Trump Works Project Administration), cause building casinos and gambling is great for the economy! And all the cocktail waitresses will be topless, cause our president loves him some big boobs (and its good for business)…
hmmmm…. so a vote for Trump is a vote for no war with Russia…
Only $39.35? What’s she complaining about? She’s lucky they didn’t charge her $3,935.
I am wondering how many people interviewed by Billy Bush over the years are wondering if Billy caught anything good on a hot mike before/during/after an interview.
He might have a very comprehensive library and rich source of blackmail and extortion.
Or was it Billy who released that tape? Where did it come from?
Wherever the tape came from, I was tremendously gratified that the gnome, billy bush, took immediate, vehement umbrage at Trump’s scurrilous locker room bloviating and defended his female co-host and “colleague,” thus demonstrating that this reprehensible behavior is not common among showmen, but peculiar to the psychotic Mr. Trump.
Wait. That DIDN’T happen? bush did not stop Trump dead in his tracks, vociferously admonishing him about the misogyny and absolute unacceptability of his comments? bush played along and kept the conversation going, you say?
Oh. Never mind. (h/t Emily Litella.}
That too. In fact I thought I caught a couple of appreciative chuckles from him in the background. Which made me wonder what was edited out of that clip
This whole thing is being ginned up now in an attempt to influence tomorrow’s debate.
It is a “town hall format” with some of the questions coming from the audience. If you remember, the “commander-in-chief forum” several weeks ago was the same format, although the candidates were not on stage together. hillary didn’t perform too well when challenged on her emails, and was judged to have lost the encounter.
If you can’t handle the “issues,” substitute something you CAN handle. Better yet, the ONLY thing you can handle.
I have no idea who will ask Trump about this “issue,” but I’ve no doubt she’ll be straight out of central casting, thanks to hillary’s Hollywood connections, and maybe even a card carrying SAG member. It wouldn’t be the first time.
Que a ‘child actor’ in audience asking ‘damaging question’ from some ‘script’ …..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDuF7pr2pno
HILLARY CLINTON USING CHILD ACTORS TO SMEAR TRUMP
“At a town hall in Haverford, Pennsylvania, Hillary Clinton appears to have used a child actor to ask the Democratic nominee a pre-arranged question she was reading on a piece of paper, smearing Donald Trump; the kind of malice question a child, whose father conveniently works for the Democrat party, would never come up with on her own in a million years. Hillary Clinton thanked her for her question; but in reality, she was teaching that little girl the principles of dishonesty in politics and managing to corrupt the youth at the same time, while the usual paid seat-fillers at her tiny rallies applauded her.”
The big reveal that Town Hall type questions are almost always plants is shocking? I just assumed most people knew this.
There is no reality in reality tv, there is no reality on tv. It is all about actors, by actors, for actors, that shall not perish from the screen.
Yes the fact that Billy Bush also behaved like a pig totally excuses the fact that Trump behaved like one.
The fact that you all are calling this “common” should make any male ashamed to be a male.
Yes. Two wrongs don’t make a right. You’ve got to say something is wrong when it is, even if it “weakens” your candidate’s image. All these guys who behave like this need to lose their power, but Trump is the one we are about to vote on.
What bothers me most about Trumps statements is that they are being paraded around to further promote the stigma of sex in this ridiculously Puritan country. Everything has to be hush hush, closeted, don’t talk about that! Gross!!
Sure Trump’s comments are (insert buzzwords), but imagine if we had open sexual dialogue and normalization of sex in this country. That might help alleviate this kind of stuff.
Instead we have to suffer a world where everyone is supposed to be an amorphous asexual blob (part of why Clinton has zero personality) like or a lovely Christian home mate. How quaint… I actually like that Trump has had multiple marriages. He is more like normal people, struggling with the imposed constructs of Christianity (or others before it). And I say that generally. I am not commenting on the specific context of his romantic endeavors.
Bill on the other hand, one marriage, and tons of self serving predatory activity. But one marriage, there is hope for his soul!
Honestly, from all the sanctimonious Trump castigations from the MSM press, you’d think they’d never heard this kind of trash talk before, or never actually did some of it themselves….
Seriously, the perverted Puritanism of the US is the gift that keeps giving, politicians and priests always trying to tell us sex is bad bad bad while out back they’re tapping their shoes in the men’s room or asking that choir boy to stay late for some “counselling”.
But I don’t recall ANY liberal outrage when the president sexually assaulted an intern, or jetted off to a Caribbean underage rape island.
Both Trump and “Bill,” one suspects, are products of the Playboy philosophy. I never actually got past the pictures to the text. But a Sunday school teacher, of all people — who presumably read it for the highbrow articles whilst primly averting his gaze from the racy photos — claimed that ol’ Hef had a well-developed libertine philosophy, which he had set out at length in a series of learned essays.
In the 20-year post-Pill, pre-AIDS interlude, the consensus of pop culture was that life would be an endless smorgasbord of variegated sexual delights: no harm, no foul. For the generation of male politicians who grew up during Playboy’s high tide, their libido may be fading, but their wealth and power means they are still chick magnets to nubile young
gold diggerspartners. Accordingly, some of them haven’t really evolved in their attitudes toward mating, from when they were 25.Cherchez les femmes!
Jim, the Playboy reference made me chuckle. A lot.
For the generation of male politicians who grew up during Playboy’s high tide, their libido may be fading……….
Au contraire–there are a couple of cheap pills for that, as we are relentlessly reminded by some pretty “suggestive” and annoyingly ubiquitous TV commercials. Just ask your doctor if your heart is “healthy enough” for sex and mind the nitroglycerin. 70 is the new 16. Better living through chemistry.
And they’re covered by “health” insurance. Unlike birth control under “health” insurance provided by the bible thumpers at hobby lobby or the catholic church.
That’s one reason I don’t watch TV, Katniss. Nobody’s gonna hard-sell me nothin’ in my own living room.
A story the press supposedly is withholding until both parties are deceased is the identity of Nelson Rockefeller’s mistress, in whose arms he died in flagrante delicto.
The glowworm was willing, but the heart was weak. :-(
So it wasn’t Megan Marshack? And I admit I had to look up to confirm the name.
The useless trivia I carry about , but still I thought her identity was outed once the PR story about dying at his desk fell apart. Are you saying she was the front young partner?
Jim Haygood
October 8, 2016 at 2:17 pm
“Nobody’s gonna hard-sell me nothin’ in my own living room.”
Uh, they’re not hard-selling, they’re selling hard…uh, things…
Don’t let anybody fool you. 70 isn’t even the new 68.
Re the “little blue pills” mentioned above: I’m still waiting for a detailed explanation of exactly what medical personnel do when someone “seeks help for an erection that lasts over 4 hours.”
A quick Goog suggests ice packs, vasoconstrictive medications and “cavernous aspiration” (how much fun that part is will be left as an exercise to the reader).
Simple — the victim is shown this photo:
Unfortunately it can cause permanent untreatable impotence.
Both Trump and “Bill,” one suspects, are products of the Playboy philosophy. . .
Remember Jimmy Carter’s interview with Playboy in 76?
Carter admitted in an unsolicited comment to two Playboy freelance writers that he had “looked on a lot of women with lust” and had “committed adultery in my heart many times,” strange revelations all the more damaging because they appeared in a soft-porn magazine.
A separate New York Times Magazine interview with Norman Mailer, also published during the general election campaign, added fuel to the frenzy’s fire thanks to Carter’s impolitic remark, “I don’t care if people say f—.” The press had a field day with Carter’s oddball offerings, but some journalists correctly saw the controversy as a warning sign of the future direction of American politics.
As the New York Times editorialized, the erosion of “the legitimate boundaries of [politicians’] private lives and intimate feelings” had begun.
The erosion is complete.
the nyt was an elite propaganda organ then, as now. they briefly imitate journalists at times. carter was the guy they were interested in smearing, then.
what’s really amusing is picturing the RNC around the table discussing the word pussy.
I love talking about pussies and playing with them. I am owned by three of them and by my wife.
Only one former male pussy in my life but he is the boss.
I wonder how the RNC would take the antidote video where that ram is totally owned by the pussy.
For the record, I laughed out loud at this.
Clarence Thomas confirmation hearing and its hullabaloo, huh?
There should be a stigma attached to the idea that as long as you are rich and famous you can grope people and treat them as if they are objects placed on earth for your sexual gratification.
Additionally, the fact that Bill Clinton behaves like a pig in his marriage and simply ignores his vows doesn’t make the fact that Trump behaves like a pig and then revokes them for his own convenience better.
Marriage isn’t just about sex. It’s an aspect of it, not the whole enchilada. His disregard for the marriage of other people (in regards to who he hits on) doesn’t speak well for his respect for the institution at all(not a shocker for me.)
cwaltz, while I agree with the first part, you persist in policing vows to which you are no party and under which the parties may have a side agreement. How right-wing “liberal” of you.
Monogamy is dead as a social norm. Get over it, unless you want to discredit the institution of marriage and all its status benefits, and chase them down the chute after monogamy. The post-nuclear family has no room for childish attachments.
How fascist “liberal” of you declare how others should or should not conduct their personal relationships.
You’ll have to forgive me if I don’t run out and cheat on my spouse and destroy the trust in our relationship as a result of you declaring monogamy dead.
You can argue that Bill and Donald had “open marriages” however that doesn’t reflect the facts on the record. Donald was divorced because he cheated on Ivana with Marla Maples and Donald himself is on the record of admitting he destroyed his marriage to Maples because he stepped out on her with other women. Those are facts, not some made up fairy tale concocted to excuse bad behavior.
As far as Bill goes I see nothing to suggest they have an open relationship either other than Hillary Clinton’s choice to remain with him despite his perpetual philandering. Her marriage, her choice.
My choice to be faithful to my spouse is a reflection of the words I willingly chose to make 23 years ago. While I do not believe monogamy is necessarily a natural state for humanity, I do believe it is a choice and a valid one. Going outside of my marriage without a discussion with my spouse on what my needs are and if and how he can meet them would reflect a lack of respect for him and for our relationship. It would be a reflection of my failure to communicate. It would be like taking a wrecking ball to the trust he has built in my character and his belief that I believe in matching my deeds to the words I chose to speak years. Marriage is about intimacy and doing the deed but it’s also about trust, respect, and communication. It’s about considering another person besides yourself. It isn’t selfish or disrespectful.
I do appreciate your little hypocrisy though where you tell me to stop persisting in policing vows in which I have no part in and then where you then argue that anyone who believes in monogamy and makes the choice to be monogamous is discrediting the institution of marriage. How incredibly “right wing” of you! My marriage, my choice.
cwaltz, dead as a social norm is not the same as “dead”, the latter which declaration, even on my most megalomaniacal days, I recognize as well and truly beyond my ambit and concern. Please understand the distinction. I carefully described Clinton’s sex life in terms of private family arrangements that conflicted with the norm, in which (even with me as President of the Galaxy) you and they are most welcome to indulge if all involved are competent to do so and there are no particular externalities impinging on others’ agreements. My expectation is that private arrangements in personal spheres to which one is not party ought to be strictly respected, and that, as in same-sex marriage, judging others on standards from which they have opted out and which exemption damages your relationship in no way is disrespectful and threatening to them — reason enough for them to stay closeted about it if they do have such an arrangement. They are far from the only people who would have lost their jobs at the time for openly practicing ethical non-monogamy, insofar as they are capable of ethical dealing in any case, or indiscreetly practicing a marriage of convenience, and what, lowering property values I guess? If one doesn’t look up to celebrities as role models, one doesn’t have that problem.
To reiterate, I am in absolutely no way proclaiming the practice of monogamy dead. As anyone can see, it remains quite popular, in no small part because it’s easier to maintain and makes for better, more poignant media. The practice of judging others’ personal affairs according to your own ideals — which I point out are not costing you anything but pride, absent the fiduciary duty factor of the Presidency and the subordination attendant in that relationship — isn’t looking so well. As a general matter, all I expect is for a halfway graceful “I’m flattered, but I’m not available”, in response to a halfway graceful expression of interest, to be respected as a firm no, and to gracefully excuse myself from badgering about it or thinking less of them and to expect likewise. Which, in the present context of protocol “upgrading” (with no teleology intended in this term), satisfies the robustness principle and allows us to respect one another’s agreements, which is probably about the closest thing we have to a basic social principle for a steady-state society.
Your marriage, your choice. 200%.
Adding, not to say that the conduct in Trump’s case isn’t, er, “deplorable”, but in Mr. Clinton’s case it’s easier to be bothered by him leveraging his superordinate public position to private ends (as it were) — a perfect fit for the Founder’s classic definition of corruption — and his rides aboard a vessel with at best dubious age of consent policies. He or they can go to key parties with any other consenting adults every weekend on their own time for all I care, and in doing so renounce that part of any previous vow before relevant witnesses (with bells on). But, esprit de corps notwithstanding, grab-azz is not a legitimate part of “other duties as assigned” in any case — if that’s part of the job, that needs to be up front in writing, and if there’s a possibility of private gain from it, it needs to not be part of the job. It makes no difference to me whether bezzle is paid in cash or kind(ness).
New York is not a no-fault divorce state.
http://www.lawny.org/index.php/family-self-help-140/other-family-law-self-help-75/103-new-york-state-grounds-for-divorce
My understanding from a woman friend who separated as amicably as she could from her husband (she kept getting overseas assignments and he didn’t see the point of staying married to someone he was no longer living with) said it took the better part of three years and despite their efforts to keep it friendly, still found it got ugly at points.
I’m not saying The Donald didn’t cheat. But it’s probably faster to get a divorce alleging adultery. And Marla had a really really stingy pre-nup. It was sort of shocking to see how little she was willing to take to marry him. She should have recognized that was a message his exit costs would be low and he’d be more likely to act accordingly. She might have been hoping to get a better settlement by making a stink.
Trump has a 30 year history of publicly humiliating women as part of his p.r. He did this because he was rich. What part of that is cool? Look at him. What part of “amorphous asexual blob,” are we supposed not to see in him?
He’s horrible — pond scum.
But what do you think about Bill Clinton’s behaviour towards women over the years?
A pox on all their houses. Vote elsewhere.
A big sex scandal in New Zealand this week!!!!!!!!
‘Rampant temptation’ in the All Blacks arena says former player’s Luke McAlister’s ex-wife
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11724319
She told Story, in an interview aired on TV3 yesterday evening, life as an All Black’s wife was not all roses and sunshine.
“It wasn’t, it was sh*t.”
Daji said even having a ring on her former husband’s finger did nothing to keep the fan girls away – with some having the gall to propose indecent acts right before her.
“So much so, I probably should have started charging for it,” she told Story. “Girls act crazy when it comes to famous boys.”
> What bothers me most about Trumps statements is that they are being paraded around to further promote the stigma of sex
That’s absolutely not what most people on the left are objecting to, and if you think it is you’re probably blind to the real issue yourself.
The issue is lack of consent and abuse of power, not “graphic sex stuff”. And Trump’s failure to see anything wrong with that continued in his apology.
Of course it’s certainly easier to apologize for “graphic sex stuff” than to apologize for thinking assault and workplace harrassment is okay. It’s easier to manage that message. But that’s not the real problem with his remarks.
The behavior of Trump is fairly common among most American males in male company.
I know, which is why all the pearl-clutching is driving me crazy. The people who are so offended (aside from Dem operatives fanning the flames) must lead very cloistered lives. Show me an actual object of unwanted Trumpian aggression, which there are with Bill Clinton a-plenty. Until then, words are wind.
What gets me is how ‘stupid’ those propagating this anti Trump morality play think the ‘average’ voter is. This borders on hubris, and might be appropriately rewarded.
> Meat consumption is a big factor in species die-off and global warming (cow farts).
The amount of methane coming from the Arctic, now, makes this somewhat meaningless. The real problem is industrial agriculture that sees cow poop as waste and not as a beneficial input. The methane from cow farts and poop can be accounted for by using their waste as an “input” and allowing it to feed green plants. Of course, you then have to compost the inedible parts of said plants (or use them as feed for said cow or other barnyard animals).
I’m not disagreeing that this is a true fact, but it is symptomatic of industrial agriculture. It’s one of those facts that obscures the real issue, which is that monoculture-types of agriculture have been and are a net negative in terms of carbon sequestration. Cows, chickens, pigs etc. have a long history of being useful for many agricultural needs beyond meat production.
Cows, chickens, pigs etc. have a long history of being useful for many agricultural needs beyond meat production.
Waking up farmer Jones!
How Wolves Change Rivers
National Geographic Documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQzVkOC6XF8
“This may be one of the most important conservation concepts to come out of natural science in the last half century. The thing about this case study is that the same can be applied to apex predators around the world: lions in Africa, tigers in Asia. Sharks, bears, and wild dogs are all species sitting at the top of their respective food chains, creating stability amongst the species they prey on and maintaining the health of plants and animals right down the trophic ladder”.
“Stability” … “maintaining health” … “down the trophic ladder.”
Sounds like the cocktail party chatter at Davos and Bilderberg and Goldman Sachs.
it’s good to be an apex predator. :-)
Given that most of the apex predators listed in that quote are in the process of being hunted out of existence by humans, I think the more accurate statement might be, “It’s good to be THE apex predator.”
Closing my eyes and imagining hunting Davos Man for sport is becoming increasingly enjoyable.
I’ve seen that doc. And another by the BBC. The thought occurred at some point: if Yellowstone is supposed to be just what it was like hundreds of years ago, all natural and “unspoiled” (read: no Euro-American settlers), then where are the people?
Wouldn’t the logical conclusion be, if we really want to see trophic cascades, to allow the return of that other “top predator,” conspicuously absent from the recap? Namely, the Shoshone, Bannock, Crow, and Nimi’ipuu. (Nez Perce was given to them by a French-Canadian interpreter of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Never mind that they don’t do nose piercing.)
Also too, “food chain” and “trophic ladder” — such atavistic phrases. I prefer Indra’s Net. A web of interdependencies, in which each dew drop reflects and is reflected in every other, doesn’t privilege us, or make it seem like we’re at the “top” by divine right.
“The Russians did it” article in NYT.
As was mentioned yesterday it appears more and more NYT readers are refusing to drink their full dose of kool-aid.
The article is the expected speculative BS, but many of the readers picks weren’t having any of it which is great to see (of course comments were quickly shut off, when this became apparent).
A great side affect of the massive amounts of propaganda spewing forth in support of Clinton appears to be diminishing returns as more and more is pushed out. People appear to me to be calling out the BS more than ever before.
I believe a large and growing segment of the population, especially Bernie supporters. Will be vaccinated against blatant propaganda from the likes of the NYT for some time to come.
In desperation the establishment may have just destroyed the effectiveness of one of the most useful tools.
Today’s media reminds me of Howard Smith’s descriptions of German internal propaganda and its declining effectiveness on citizens as it was used too much, and people began to question it and seek other sources of information. I highly recommend “The last train from Berlin” (written 1941) many of the present parallels in media are striking.
Thank you for mentioning the content of the comments. I see three main reactions, OMG Russians, the content is more important than who did it, and propaganda with no evidence. Funnily both Times comment picks are from the last category. I am sensing a little rebellion on the part of some editors.
Well Trump managed to destroy the Republican Party, and although HRC will probably win — though who knows, with all her skeletons in the closet? — she has destroyed the MSM’s credibility, pissed off the progressive wing of her party, encouraged more people to consider third parties, and opened various cans of worms that the Repubs will investigate until the cows come home.
If 50% of the voters (not the electorate, mind you) end up thinking she rigged the November vote as she did the Dem primaries, the mood in January could be very ugly.
I’d feel a bit happier but I watched clips of the VP debate, and that Kaine is a pretty creepy guy himself.
Kaine is my evidence that no one should ever imagine that her picks will be anything other than conservative Republican wet dreams. I occasionally throw Salazer and Nuland in there as well, but especially with the SCOTUS argument my line is if a liberal court is so important to Clinton why did she pick someone who is going to pick a Scalia light if he succeeds her? And see his record as Governor if you don’t think that.
TerryMac is a better governor than Kaine. Let that sink in. Mark Warner was light years better. Heck, Taliban Bob was better in transit and voting rights than Kaine, even passing legislation to make sure there was never another Kaine situation.
Kinda like in that film scene from ‘V for Vendetta’, where the public isn’t buying the High Chancellor’s bullshit anymore ….
VOTE BULLOCKS !
Re Banner of Russia’s Putin hung from New York City bridge
Why do I picture Obama muttering “Putin!” under his breath every time he hears mention of him…like Seinfeld with “Newman!”?
Just seems so appealing an image.
President of City College Quits Abruptly Amid Scrutiny of Her Finances [NYT]
Dr. Coico [and it is Dr. – what is up with the NYT?] is probably going to find out that she’s not far enough up the food chain to escape what passes for justice in this country. She’s no David Petraeus.
She’s no Hilary Clinton either.
Re: HARPER: DR. STRANGELOVE RIDES AGAIN Sic Semper Tyrannis (Glenn F)
This is sheer madness coming from the mouth of Ashton Carter. Does he even know what it is that he is proposing? America won’t be safe if he gets his nuclear war and our cities will feel the same pain that Aleppo is feeling right now. Is THAT what Obama and Hillary really want – just to protect their lies?
Sorry, but given the choice between the nasty groper and the jingoists, I’ll chose the nasty groper……
I must say these “October Surprises” have really clarified how I now feel I HAVE to vote….
Dr Strangelove is a “she” now:
Thanks Frosty Zoom for that Antidote. I love how the ram stops and looks at the camera like a model showing off an accessory.
with headlines like these appearing on one of the most liberal mainstream news sites in the past 24 hours, i think a war is inevitable. these may be the last days of civilisation, so enjoy what’s left.
US officially accuses Russia of hacking DNC and interfering with election
Russia and Syria must face war crimes investigations, says John Kerry
Russia moving nuclear-capable missiles into Kaliningrad, says Estonia
Is there some kind of specialized training US officials like Kerry and Powers et al go through to be able to make statements like that without having there heads explode, seriously. Weaponizing your cognitive dissonance 101 or something.
How anyone from a country that funds violent extremists, aids the bombing of hospitals and schools in Yemen, regularly celebrates double tapping wedding parties, and has been responsible for the deaths of over 21 million civilians post WW2. Can state with a straight face that another country should face war crimes investigations is beyond me.
That’s besides the fact that the US has a policy of “looking forward” when it comes to war crimes, I’m sure if Russia just made it clear they intend to do the same the US would understand and drop the issue. /S
HBE, yes, it’s called the Ivy League.
Ha, so true, I almost laughed out loud to myself in public at that.
We have Nobel Prize winner now spending a trillion dollars on more nuclear weapons. Still trying to figure this one out. If the US were to join the World Court, the US would face so many charges on war crimes.
Pardon, but those are three completely impotent statements. Mr. Kerry is shooting blanks.
* Russia’s diplomatic response to all hacking charges? “Nonsense.”
* For Russia and Syria to face war crimes investigations, the UN Security Council must speak as one. Both China and Russia sit on that Council, and will veto any such proposal. There’s nothing to be done here.
* Russia is moving nukes into Kaliningrad. So? It’s Russian sovereign territory — they can put nukes anywhere they please. They have probably had nukes in Kaliningrad for decades. It’s not like moving nukes closer to Estonia makes it easier to hit Estonia, or makes Russia appreciably ‘faster on the draw.’ ICBM’s from Russia can hit any spot on the planet.
Each day for the last few weeks I start the day by reading links and posts here at NakedCapitalism. I may have to stop.
Each day the news seems more and more like I woke up in a very bad ‘B’ movie with a plot pastiche from old disaster movies but updated with a modernized set of plot twists. We have a phony Gathering Storm leading us into Nuclear War, an economy like a drunk in a kiddie car weaving along the edge of a cliff, Global Warming mixed with news of a big new oil discovery in Alaska, a Presidential Election at an extremely critical moment in our history dominated by a race between two evil clowns — one of whom seems determined to end the world as we know it. We have government agencies and our “news” media pushing outrageously bad lies and exaggerations and those same government agencies and “news” media seem to expect we will continue to believe them.
I keep thinking I need to go back to bed — get a little more sleep — and maybe when I wake up the nightmares will go away.
Stay engaged, comrade, we are not as helpless as they want us to think we are. Our purchased democracy only works if we buy what they’re selling, so vote with your cash. Get good information and pass it to others, we can turn this thing around.
Good advice. Must confess feeling the same as JG a lot lately. Just the other day, had a great dream, of truly mythic proportions, the kind that make you feel thrilled to be alive, only to read “We’re Past the Point of No Return on Climate Change.” Oh reality, must you harsh my every buzz?
Not so sanguine about turning this thing around, myself. But living like we can sure beats throwing ourselves into the depressing abyss of resignation.
Nothing lasts forever. So stay focused.
The US admitted having nukes in Turkey when the nominal putsch occurred and caused a bit of a stir. Our nuke placement, which in relation to Russia would be like them having nukes in Mexico, is supposed to be reasonable. But Russia having nukes in Russia is clearly an act of aggression. Darn Ruskies anyway.
The US DNC hacking, even if there were some possible way to prove true (which there is not), would be no different than creating the CIA and NSA for the explicit task of finding out every secret possible from every other nation in the world. Or are those just empty buildings and the employees all sitting home on the couch watching reality TV? I’m outraged that you would even consider defending yourself from what I’ve publicly admitted I have already done!
Our Strangelove government and the water purity MIC leaders appear to believe that spending more than everyone else put together means we have to win. Too bad Reagan’s senile fantasy of a missile shield forgot to take into account that even if all of the US is temporarily unscathed all those bombs going off will pop the cork on total ecological disaster. But at least they get a checkmate for the game.
I figure that if just one bunker buster nuke makes it to Yellowstone we’re all a smudge. Maybe that’s where they put the shield – right over Old Faithful.
RE: Wells Fargo banking scandal
I am so sick of the reporting that those 5,300 employees were fired for cross-selling!
The firings began years before the truth came out about cross-selling.
They weren’t fired for doing it.
They were fired for not doing enough of it.
Gotta love this quote from the article:
“But it only works well when it’s done carefully and on a customized basis.”
Ha! It only ‘works well’ when they’re not caught!
Contractor we know was contacted by a Wells Fargo representative and told he needed to close his commercial account and open a new account due to fraudulent activity at the bank. He’s fairly certain now that it was a ruse to get him into new “products”
Love both of today’s antidotes. Thanks!
The first is clearly photoshopped, if that matters to anyone.
Some stories are too good to check.
A damn talented Pelican!
it’s a marabout stork
The Quartz article’s title and link:
Europeans don’t have true citizenship. They have a second-class status dating back to Ancient Rome
It links to a sample test for British citizenship in which I got 60%. Looks like I’ll have to remain a loyal subject of HRC.
The all-new British citizenship test – take the quiz
Kerry is calling for a UN resolution to investigate Russia and Syria for war crimes. He cited evidence as another purposeful Russian/Syrian attack on a hospital. Only problem is that attack did not happen. The French tweeted a picture of a destroyed hospital. However, it turned out to be a picture of a hospital in Gaza.
Given what the US has done with invasions and drone strikes, what the Israelis have done more than once to Gaza and what the Saudis are doing right now in Yemen, hypocrisy seems too weak a word. Much of what is coming out of Washington about Syria etc., is just bullshit – and I am using that word in the technical sense, ie., indifference to how things really are.
I, for one, am enjoying all the schadenfreude. Any UN resolution that Kerry and Co. proposes is a worthless gesture that will be vetoed by Russia. That “journalist” Jurgen Todenhofer was browbeaten by Reddit into admitting he had no idea where his fake interview took place. (“Geolocation, maps, and terrain don’t lie. People do.“) While the last urban stronghold of the jihadi-rebel side who are under the command of al-Nusra, or whatever they call themselves these days, in East Aleppo will fall.
Finally, the most important development of all. By trying to regime change Syria to prevent the Shia Crescent from forming they’ve made Syria even more dependent on Iran. At some point the dipsh– imperialists in Washington will realize that Russia is the only countervailing power to Iran in Syria.
It’s gonna be hilarious when the full implications of that sets in.
Obama DOJ drops charges against alleged broker of Libyan weapons: Extraordinary, truly, how the DOJ is actively covering up criminal activity.
Lest we forget:
In July 2013, the Joint Chiefs found a more direct way of demonstrating to Assad how serious they were. . . By then the CIA-sponsored secret flow of arms from Libya to the Syrian opposition, via Turkey, had been underway for more than a year (it started sometime after Gaddafi’s death on 20 October 2011).The operation was largely run out of a covert CIA annex in Benghazi, with State Department acquiescence. On 11 September 2012 the US ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, was killed during an anti-American demonstration that led to the burning down of the US consulate in Benghazi; reporters for the Washington Post found copies of the ambassador’s schedule in the building’s ruins. It showed that on 10 September Stevens had met with the chief of the CIA’s annex operation. The next day, shortly before he died, he met a representative from Al-Marfa Shipping and Maritime Services, a Tripoli-based company which, the JCS adviser said, was known by the Joint Staff to be handling the weapons shipments. [Seymour Hersh]
And here‘s an interview with Turi from last year.
There is no evidence supporting the claim that there was an anti-American demonstration outside the US consulate in Benghazi before it was attacked.
integer, that video was published Aug 31, do you know when that testimony took place?
Looks like this testimony was given on or around the 8th of May, 2013. As you probably know, this investigation also ended up uncovering Clinton’s private server, marking the beginning of the ongoing email saga.
Thank you.
From the DownWithTyranny Bridgegate story:
Prosecution witness Wildstein has pled guilty, in exchange for a sentence reduction for his testimony in the current trial of two Christie aides, Bill Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly.
Wildstein has explicitly described his conversations with Christie:
Talk about a smoking gun! Why is it that “no reasonable prosecutor” would bring charges against former prosecutor Christie and his co-conspirator across the water, Cuomo?
That’s a rhetorical question. With Attorney Gerbil Lorenta Lynch in charge, we know exactly why not.
That’s why some folks might vote to clean out the Augean stable of D-party corruption in the imperial capital. Christie and Cuomo on trial would be a better show than the Scopes Trial and OJ Simpson combined. Bring it, Lord!
This is a 20 years old, but brilliant. And shows the more things change, the more things stay the same.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v18/n11/christopher-hitchens/a-hard-dog-to-keep-on-the-porch?utm_source=themed+email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20161007+president+themed&utm_content=ukrw_nonsubs
Thanks for the link. A great read.
“Tick bites that trigger severe meat allergy on rise around the world Guardian”
I’ve had this allergy since 1985. I’m allergic to the flesh of all animals that have hooves and go into anaphylaxis if I eat enough. A hamburger’s worth of meat will do it. A few bites doesn’t trigger it. When anaphylaxis sets in, watch out! It’s a wild ride.
I don’t miss red meat at all. I’m healthier without it and have a reduced carbon footprint to boot.
And another one from 2005 about women in politics. Remind you of anyone?
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n18/jenny-diski/i-blame-foucault?utm_source=themed+email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20161007+president+themed&utm_content=ukrw_nonsubs
+100. Thanks Windsock. These are both excellent.
Save the skunk!
No wonder they call it “skunk weed.” ;-)
One minor quibble within the article. The skunk is tamed not domesticated. Cats and dogs can be feral but aren’t wild except in rare instances where they became wild again such as dingos.
I’ve said for this entire election season that Donald Trump is disgusting. I base this on having been around him. It was in a situation where there were many beautiful women and yes he came on to them despite being in a well publicized relationship. He was tenacious and lewd and entitled in the worst sense of the word. Mind you these were women who were used to being around men who thought they were god’s gift to women because they had big bank accounts and could give expensive gifts. Still despite avoiding him because he was boring and tedious, none of them had any fear of him or thought he was any kind of a threat.
I don’t excuse Trump for being disgusting and misogynist. I really don’t. And no, I don’t think having someone who thinks like he does and is as thin skinned as he is should be any where near high public office, or any public office. But I can and do say that from personal experience he still scares me far less then Clinton. It isn’t just the war mongering, although that is terrifying. It is also the culture of corruption that is part and parcel of everything the Clintons have done, the one that has and continues to spread like an out of control cancer. And the lack of respect for ALL people who do not have enough money to appease their voracious need for wealth and power.
Neither of these candidates have any respect for most of the population, America and the world. Both are greedy. Both are venal. Both are thin skinned and vindictive. Both are despicable.
2016 – we are screwed no matter how it goes. I’m voting for Stein. Not because I think she would be a great President, although compared to…No, I think opening the doors for the Libertarians and the Greens also opens and widens the policy discussions, something that the major parties want to remain limited and closed.
+100
A new wrinkle in Syria — China is establishing closer military support of the Syrian government, quite along the lines of Russia’s support. It is pertinent to note that China and Russia are charter members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and both Syria and Iran are in the process of joining the SCO. Both India and Pakistan are SCO members as well.
China’s military assistance for the Syrian Army is quite in keeping with the SCO’s primary goals of combating terrorism, separatism and extremism. The SCO is also big on cooperatively fighting cross-border drug trafficking.
Having both Russian and Chinese advisors intermixing freely with the Syrian Army wherever they may be on any given day makes it really hard to go in and bomb them without raising serious risks of nuclear war. Syria might be the high water mark of the American Empire.
Maybe it’s time to re-read ‘Alas, Babylon’ …… as a primer.
‘Syria might be the high water mark of the American Empire.’
Or the high water mark might be in the rear view mirror, about fifty years back.
Who lost Camelot?
I agree Jim, in part because I was there. But the Vietnam War cost us dearly, the solution to our unending trade deficit became the Petrodollar and the financialization of our economy. Though the trend to increasing civil liberties for the previously marginalized has been positive…it pales before the gradual destruction of the American economy. I doubt there was any one villain, but a lot of complicity in the process. Few Empires stay on top for long, their internal dynamics doom them. We see the increasingly absurd players strut and fret their hour upon the stage but the play was written long ago.
It’s what usually happens when you plunge headfirst into a bellum sacrum. The religious wars in Europe pretty much broke the dominance of the Habsburg empire too. A majority of Americans aren’t even aware that the Vietnam War was in part a religious war between a minority of Vietnamese Catholics and the majority of Taoist/Buddhists. The Saigon regime was filled with Catholics. some of whom were actually from Hanoi, and contained more than a few Imperial Japanese collaborators. Which probably inspired a lot of confidence in the populace.
You would think that our glorious leaders would hesitate to involve themselves in a war against a wartime field ally who the OSS funded and armed to combat our enemies. Particularly in a country with a long history of xenophobia, fighting invaders, and who maintained an experienced guerilla army in an unending and ultimately futile struggle.
Hey, why does that sound familiar?
it was a holy war in the more meaningful capitalism vs communism or, more accurately, imperialism vs self-rule way as well
This isn’t exactly a new development. China has quietly been supporting Damascus since the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War. They’ve had a destroyer or two visit Syrian ports but other than that they’ve been pretty low key about their approach.
The goal of the permanent state and Obama was Chinese containment, but they can’t really portray China as the enemy for American and Western audiences. They have to attack asymmetrically.
-Russia is key to a Chinese century. China is far too large to be allowed in, but Russia is large enough to serve as a mediator in a way post colonial France and the UK weren’t to the U.S.
-TPP is about cutting out China, but that argument can’t be made out loud, so deals have to be struck with local players in each state.
I believe the goal is to either make Russia over react or even to make the Chinese over react to create anti Chinese sentiment or prevent Russia from being a balance to China for states in Africa, South America, and so forth. The hope is smaller states will accept the devil they know rather than embrace China and Russia especially on the commercial side.
A relevant question is if a state has no interest in launching attacks against neighboring states why would a state buy an F- 35 when an S-400 system can protect the airspace. The answer is one wouldn’t.
Job hunt substantial part of Bayh’s last year [AP]
Bayh is one of the DSCC’s all-star line up to put Chuck Schumer [D-Wall Street] into the majority leader’s seat.
And the AP’s punchline:
Also too:
‘self-policing rules’ ……..
…Works for the U.S. Senate Scum
…Works for Wall Street Titans
…Works for Big Multi-Corporates
………While control-freak dominant policies are enforced on the rest of us !
Air strike ‘kills 82’ at Yemen funeral [BBC]
Surely John Kerry will call for a war crimes prosecution of the people responsible for this atrocity, amirite?
Surely John Kerry will call for a war crimes prosecution of the people responsible for this atrocity, amirite?
Kerry couldn’t call for prosecution in this case even if he wanted to. We are selling the Saudis weapons for these crimes and I believe are providing some ‘intelligence’ cooperation as are the Brits. Since our allies are involved then by definition mistakes may be made but certainly not war crimes.
Kerry could ask our heroes to do a ‘double tap’ when the Red Cross gets there, though.
USA!
John Kerry and the entire administration and alums from 0bama on down belong in the Hague. Same for the Bush administration. Same for the Blair regime.
“Foreigners love us for our jazz. And they don’t hate us for our purported liberty and justice for all. They hate us now for our arrogance.” Kurt Vonnegut.
Maybe Hilary can round up her lovely pals and top contributors the Saudis and do a victory lap in Yemen, have them line up the heads and body parts of the women she killed at the wedding today and put them on display while she screeches about her opponent acting so beastly towards women.
That way she can gather up some real skeletons to adorn her overstuffed closet.
For what it’s worth, I just now finally got an email from the HRC campaign. I never signed up. I wonder if Sanders finally gave up his list?
I went to unsubscribe and there’s a wall of small text at the bottom. I had to hunt for the link. The unsubscribe page makes you type your email in again, then pick that you want no emails rather than fewer.
The most hoops I’ve ever had to go through. I guess they really want to get me to donate so they can hit my CC illegally a few times. Classy crowd there.
Whatever organization got your email address, from whichever online petition you signed, just got a decent payday from Hillary for America.
I’ve gone through the DCCC small type labyrinth several times, trying to be removed from their list. It doesn’t work. The e-mails keep coming. I’ve also replied with disparaging comments about the DCCC’s choice of Republican-lite candidates and opposition to liberal Democrats. No response.
Just send them to spam. Clinton doesn’t deserve the courtesy of an unsubscribe.
Wells Fargo Isn’t the Only Firm That Needs a Lesson
Consider a case involving Apollo Global Management, the private equity giant overseen by Leon Black. In late August, the Securities and Exchange Commission brought an enforcement action against the firm, contending that it had breached its fiduciary duty to investors by not disclosing specifics on fees it was extracting. The suit followed other improper fee cases filed by the S.E.C. against the Blackstone Group and KKR.
In settling the case, Apollo agreed to return fees of $40.3 million to clients. By contrast, Wells Fargo returned improper fees of $2.6 million.
Apollo has many public pension funds as investors, including California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the Teacher Retirement Systems of Texas and the Oregon State Treasury.
I asked Apollo if it had received flak of any kind from its public pension fund clients after the S.E.C.’s findings. Charles Zehren, its spokesman, declined to comment.
But in an Aug. 23 letter to clients, Apollo played down the S.E.C.’s action. It said the problematic practice was common in private equity and that it had disclosed fee specifics to advisory committees at each fund. “It is important to recognize that Apollo did not admit to any wrongdoing in this settlement,” it said.
I asked this of the 13 public pension funds that, like Calpers, had invested at least $100 million in the Apollo VII portfolio. That list included funds benefiting teachers in California, Illinois, Ohio and Texas; public employee retirement systems in Colorado, Florida, Maryland, New York state, Oregon and Wisconsin, and funds benefiting firefighters and police officers in New York City.
Some funds didn’t respond; one declined to comment. And some said they had responded to the S.E.C. case by increasing their demands for fee transparency from Apollo and other investment managers. That’s not enough to move the accountability needle.
Others like Calpers and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System told me they were monitoring the Apollo situation. Fine, but isn’t that their job?
Matthew Sweeney, a spokesman for the New York State comptroller and overseer of the Common Retirement Fund, seemed to indicate that assessing an investment firm’s potential return took a higher priority than weighing a manager’s integrity.
The view these fiduciaries took on Apollo’s breach could not be clearer: There’s nothing here. Move along.
Puzzled by this passivity? So is Lynn Turner, former chief accountant at the S.E.C. and a board member of the Colorado Public Employees’ Retirement Association. He stressed that he did not speak on behalf of the Colorado pension, which holds the Apollo VII Fund.
He said, “When a firm such as Apollo acts in a manner that violates a fiduciary obligation a pension fund has to its investors as well as securities law, the pension fund trustees need to find a new asset manager who puts the interest of those investors ahead of lining their own pockets.”
http://nyti.ms/2dLe4MY
Meet Leon Black.
RNC halts Victory project work for Trump [Politico]
Sorry, Reince. Pottery Barn rules.
Might this just be a stealth tactic for fixing the election outcome? Trump should NOT resign.
If so, the GOP is playing with fire:
Ryan greeted with some boos from Trump backers [AP]
Who could possibly have predicted that a quarter century of poison* from
Radio Rwandatalk radio and Fox would have created a rabble that won’t take no for an answer?* In no way letting the elites on either side of the aisle off of the hook for what has happened economically in that time.
Even in 2008, the GOP candidate was once a major Shrub opponent. The distance between the GOP rank and file and the old establishment is stark and was apparent in 1980. Nothing has changed. Shrub brought the sides together because of his loser status, but he’s gone from the scene. Reagan was a crazy outsider for the GOP back in 1976.
Romney lost to Obama despite Romney not being particularly popular. The GOP elites are seen as not having supported Trump when the GOP rank and file supported Romney. My guess is by Tuesday Paul Ryan is shining Trump’s shoes.
Who were the GOP frontrunners this cycle? Carson, Fiorino, Trump, and even Cruz. The GOP voters have wanted blood for a while, and they correctly saw a field of Jeb and Jeb’s sheepdogs. Then when Jeb was clearly not doing well, Jeb henchmen started to say voters were being conned.
If we are to believe that the Russians are trying to mess with our political process by web based hacks — does that mean the Department of Homeland Security is ready to step in and fund the return to paper ballots and public hand counting of ballots and turn our voting machines into boat anchors?
But that would be anti-market! Premier Election Solutions, formerly Diebold, has undoubtedly marketed their expertise for producing desirable election outcomes. Going to public hand-counting of paper ballots would guarantee legitimate elections and destroy an entire industry thriving on manipulating returns. Have you no pity for those who will lose their jobs? Think of their children! This would be just one more case of the government getting in the way of free enterprise.
BTW, I doubt the hack attempts were by Russian security. They, the Chinese, and probably the Indians, would be skilled enough to leave no fingerprints. OTOH, some second- or third-tier group who might be noticed would likely use a proxy in Russia just to deflect attention. With this practically public server, I bet schoolkids in the Kalahari were trying their hand to see how far they could get into H’s cyberpants. (Pardon the crude metaphor; already, my public discourse is slipping and Trump hasn’t even been elected.)
“Missile gap”
The Democrats are old and decadent and are simply going to an old tactic.
Judith Miller is transcribing the war party’s propaganda yet again. Only this time, the villain we need to shock and awe is named Putin, and his target is nothing less than the West’s vaunted “liberal democracy.” The nerve of that guy! Clearly we need to march on Moscow immediately and hang the bastahd from the nearest onion dome!
On the chance of going full conspiracy theorist has anyone been thinking North Korea’s nuke program might be getting set us as a patsy for Russia….. damned if I know why but too many nuke stories to close to each other.
Re Trump et al.:
I can’t seem to find the passage, but I recall references to an observation in the Federalist Papers to the effect that morally depraved leaders sometimes governed well, and morally upstanding leaders sometimes failed. (I’d be appreciative if someone can confirm, or contradict, this memory). In any event, my political decisions aren’t governed by a candidate’s personal pecadillos, but on whether he/she might govern prudently.
I feel Hillary has disqualified herself, not by her Iraq vote; not by her hypocracy on woman’s issues; not by her flip-flops on trade policy; not by her political trickery nor deception; not by demonstrations of her disrespect for the rule of law; not by her her contempt for the nation’s citizens. To myself, the problem is that she has demonstrated incompetence as a ruler. She accepted large donations from foreign actors, which appears to be correlated with actions contrary to American self-interest; she practically put out a flag on her cyberspace address saying FREE SECRETS HERE! (How could any nation with a security department worth its salt resist a trial hack?); she wreaked pointless destruction on Iraq, Libya, Ukraine, Syria, and Yugoslavia, creating long-term problems without solutions.
Did any of these actions arguably benefit the United States? Did long-term benefit accrue to America as a result of this destructive mayhem and cavalier irresponsibility? Quite the contrary. In case you haven’t noticed, folks, she’s an F-Up. Trump may be as well, but in her case, it’s a certainty.
“It is necessary for a prince wishing to hold his own to know how to do wrong, and to make use of it or not according to necessity.
“Something which looks like virtue, if followed, would be his ruin; whilst something else, which looks like vice, yet followed brings him security and prosperity.”
Sounds like it was written by Kissinger, don’t it?
Talleyrand was fabulously corrupt (took bribes, loved gambling, and was a stock-jobber, which in those days was about as sordid as dealing drugs), had a relationship for decades with his niece (in addition to lots of other affairs) and was almost singlehandedly responsible for the post 1815 redrawing of boundaries and allocation of who got what. His priority above all in all his statesmanship was promoting peace, and Europe had a century of it afterwards.
Double standards, in general, make me angry.
When I look at people I try to look at the complete picture. The way I do that is I look at what they are saying and doing now and then I look at their past actions and words. I try to find patterns and things that indicate who a person really is, how they’ll act, what they bring to the table.
In Clinton’s case I see people here doing that. Clinton’s positions on policy like health care and her behavior in the State Department are being examined despite the fact that it is considered past behavior. What she is saying now is being reconciled with what she has done and then being examined further to determine who she is.
In Trump’s case, I see this less so. I hear people making comments like, “the comments were made during the 90s, the comments were made in the 2000s.” “They are only words.” We don’t know that he actually groped someone he could be just bragging(as if lying about something like this would somehow be acceptable)” The list of reasons people are being told they should ignore HIS past behaviors is long and quite frankly disheartening. It’s also a double standard. His past actions matter just as much as hers, it tells us who he is
Clinton has a public record. How she acts is largely on display despite her attempts to paper over them. As a public servant her record is there. Trump has it a little easier. His records on how he has treated people aren’t public, they’re private. He’s operated in the private sphere. However, there is a record there. People shouldn’t paper over it.
Anyway people are going to do what people are going to do. I just think that if they do it that they should be aware of the fact that they are doing it.
“…they should be aware of the fact that they are doing it.” Agreed.
“Double standards, in general, make me angry.” They used to for myself, too, but not recently, possibly because I happen to be re-reading Machiavelli. Funny, M only seems to elaborate on Obama’s “Don’t do stupid s**t.” Too bad H doesn’t take this advice. On the national stage, she’s saved by wholesale crony corruption, but in the international arena, it’s a different story.
Don’t do stupid s**t, is easier said then done. :)
I say that not as an excuse for anybody but as a reflection of my own journey as a human being. I think what probably matters more to me is what we do after we make mistakes. Do we learn from them? Do we just carry on as if it is business as usual? Do we place the blame on others or accept responsibility and consequences? How we answer those questions also are a reflection of who we are,
I suspect in an international arena he might end up being pretty horrible too. He lacks respect for other people(and not just women….Hispanic, AAs, the muslim community, his commentary on them also reflects a lack of respect for people that aren’t like him.) . As I said above, he’s a little harder to read in terms on how he’d handle conflict since his record is private, not public. He hasn’t had to deal with international conflict before. However, his behavior in the private realm with conflict has not been overwhelmingly reassuring. He name calls, blusters and rarely backs down. He digs in his heels and makes excuses for himself, even when he is clearly in the wrong. He appears to equate showing softness with showing weakness. He’s been that way for years and I see no evidence of anything to suggest he’d be different when it comes to dealing with foreign nations. While he might be able to have a conversation with Putin about all the “hot” women they bang I cringe to think of how he might treat a female dignitary, how he might offend someone who subscribes to the idea that women aren’t objects to be discussed publically or even someone who might have interests that are different from ours(in this respect he’d be carrying on the proud tradition of American foreign policy where Amerlca’s interest always supersedes any other nations.)
Perhaps he’d be different from what his past actions reflect, perhaps I’m missing his growth curve, however if I use that as my criteria I’d have to apply that to her too. I’m not convinced it’s true in either case. I don’t see either of them learning from mistakes as much as I see them repeating patterns over and over.
I agree, let’s not have a double standard. Trump said bad things about women, Hilary killed tens of thousands of women. Now if Hilary had said bad things about men, and Trump had also killed tens of thousands of women, things would be even. They’re not.
Trump hasn’t had an opportunity.
Hillary has.
What’s your point?
Trump likes p***y. So does Bill. So does Hillary.
What’s all the fuss about?
Bill and Donald don’t particularly seem to respect the women attached to those sex organs.
I have no idea about Hillary considering I’ve experienced more than my own fair share of men who called me a dyke because I tend to be a strong and opinionated woman and I’ve never been afraid to call a guy out for acting like a jerk or saying no to them.
Bill is quoted by Gennifer Flowers as saying, using the “p” word, that Hillary has had more pussy than he had, at least as of when they had their affair. So Haygood is not making this up out of whole cloth.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2424555/Bill-Clintons-mistress-Gennifer-Flowers-Wed-today-wasnt-Chelsea.html
Since Trump is a pig and a Putin stooge, clearly our best option is to cut out the middleman and write Putin in. Putin forgot more international law than Clinton ever knew and he’s incorruptible. Now that US threats have led Putin to ally with China, he could pick Xi for his Veep. That would be great. When the Chinese catch a kleptocrat like Dimon, or Clinton, they try her and shoot her. The SCO is going to divide the country into zones of occupation anyway, when they get fed up and kick’s the Pentagon’s ass in this war and hold the war crimes tribunal that we need. So let’s give the cleanup crew a head start.
The thought that scares me most is, What if today’s West won an easy victory in a war with Russis?
Let’s suppose that the surveillance and BMD systems all worked as advertised, and the Russians were completely knocked down before they ever had a chance to fight. Putin gets completely humiliated and ousted. A crowd of neoliberal globalist meatpuppets takes over Russia again.
Let’s say we get the funnest days since Yeltsin. Party like it’s 1996!
Can you imagine how limitlessly arrogant the Beltway and Wall St. overclasses would become? They’re out of control and past the bounds of humanity and rationality already.
Can you count how many more places they’re going to bomb and intervene? Imagine Bush/Cheney all over the world, forever and ever! We make reality! Our God is bigger than their God!
How Cuba Deals with Hurricanes, Before and After.
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=121429&print=1
A much better community-oriented approach than ours .
[Re-posting my 2nd comment at the right place.Sorry for the repeat comment.]
This one from UN Sec General :
http://www.un.org/press/en/2016/sgsm18177.doc.htm
One reason for the weak home structures in Cuba is the embrago enforced the US Empire because of which the materials required to fix them costs a lost, if they can acquire it.
Really? We get lots of our stuff, including structural materials, from China. Certainly Chinese steel costs less than ours, were protesting dumping. Forest products from Canada cost less than from the US. We don’t compete at all with small cars on price or quality… Rent a car anywhere in the Caribbean and its Japanese.
Couldn’t Cuba Buy elsewhere? What, exactly, is embargoed from the US that they can’t get just as cheap and maybe better from somewhere else, maybe beyond auto parts? Wait, they don’t export much to pay for imports, not even sugar, previously a big export because their collective farms are not competitive, even with their third world wages.
What has hurt, beyond their economic total lack of incentives (can’t even start a restaurant!) is that our tourists are have been embargoed, and this because they confiscated properties belonging to US interests and then refused any compensation.
Lots of positives in Cuba, but they’re just as good at shooting themselves in the foot as anybody… Well, excluding us, of course.
o “In Israel, seeing a female combat soldier is not all that unusual, women are eligible for 92% of the IDF’s jobs. | Jerusalem Post (JTM)” — Nice to hear that the pro-apartheid pogrom is gender-progressive! They should consider extending the rainbow coalition™, say via a tastefully deployed “IDF Schutzstaffel welcomes LGBT!” PR program.
o “Robert Rubin, Genius of Capital Markets, Missed Both the Stock Bubble and the Housing Bubble | Beat the Press” — But I bet he somehow managed to profit handsomely from both. Cluelessness pays! Of course here the cluelessness is of the elite-looter faux variety.
This one from UN Sec General :
http://www.un.org/press/en/2016/sgsm18177.doc.htm
One reason for the weak home structures in Cuba is the embrago enforced the US Empire because of which the materials required to fix them costs a lost, if they can acquire it.
WTF does hemispheric even mean Hills?
North/south, East/West ?
Or does she dream of excluding half the planet from her Utopia?
She can’t even dream without prevaricating.
PANAMA PAPERS Disclosure of Beni ownership-NOT. wowzerz…”disclosure fatigue”…”policy makers and regulators do have a role to play”…Prof McCahery and his friend/colleague from his amsterdam univ. who wrote the report for IFC/Worldbank seem to have an interesting notion of how the world works…he likes the ISDS type courts in amsterdam and the Delaware chancery courts…where only the rich can play…
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2664621
in the actual IFC report he is leading us into and for which he wrote the forward…we are told how tragic it was that in Iceland PM “Sigmundur” had to go, since that little BVI vehicle his spouse and he had purchased bonds and claims of the 3 large Iceland banks…and how he actually lost money…or actually not if one bothers to look…
certainly with Glitnir we know that the citizens of iceland put up 600 million plus a backstop for what “was” to have been 75% of the bank, and then end up reducing the citizens ownership stake to 5% and the other 95% went to the creditors on Oct 15, 2009…those creditors including the partner/wife of PM to be, Sigmundur…and on Dec 31, 2009, he decided he might just “officially” remove himself from the “Wintris” enterprise in BVI…
Glitnir is an odd duck…it was owned (?nominally?) by the Baugur Group that had gotten into some ugliness with the govt over taxes…in BVI, PO Box 3186 on Tortola has various enterprises tied to it in the ICIJ Panama Papers database, but not the mystery “russian” ties to Glitnir via Baugur…
PO BOx 3186…Starbrook, Waverton, Birefield, Shapburg and Quenon do not seem to have been enitites formed by the Monsak, etal groups from Panama
so…not sure why there is this chorus of how poor Sigmundur lost money when he and his wife end up as part of the creditor group that ends up with Glitnir, and the citizens of Iceland end up paying for it…not sure how that is not a “problem” or how he is found to just be an innocent bystander..without asking what he did when his party was involved in the negotiations for the transition despite public funds…seems no one has asked in a way worth printing anywhere…
as to the idea he is preaching about the wonderful dutch and american Delaware courts designed to only “correct” the corporate governance problems and not financially punish…because major enterprises around the globe are just ever so correct and truly care about equity and rule of law…
https://www.oecd.org/daf/ca/corporategovernanceprinciples/37188750.pdf
the vail is pulled back…toto has shown us the wizard in all his glory
http://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/62d48198-f722-48f0-80fc-172e68649bdd/Focus-14.pdf?MOD=AJPERES
mind you, the associate/colleague of Prof McCahery who helped write the IFC/Worldbank piece works for some little outfit named Philips….have heard that name before…lightbulbs and a few other shiny trinkets at the bazaar, if my memory serves me…
McCahery seems to be thinking that touching the cloak of Ceasar (buffett and Bezos) is the optimal way of living and it is “no longer feasible to expect to keep negative information secret”…right…the internet of rinky dink things will fix it all…just like the issue with UBS and its role as a currency custodian….remember that 650 million in american currency found in Saddams palaces…turns out that they had wrappers from the Federal Reserve…and…drum roll please…Saddam had gotten them from IRAN…
http://blogs.reuters.com/alison-frankel/files/2014/11/Rothstein-v-UBS-AG.pdf
page 5 number 3…read the fine print…
oh…and it seems no one has asked who bought the only Toyota Dealership in Iceland, which is where this money to buy bonds via Wintris came from….with the Iceland stock market having lost 50% of value, and the world going into a recession, who would have bought something from a highly placed politician and his babe…?? has anyone asked where the funds came from for that sale and if the funds were from one of the big 3 Iceland banks the citizens of Iceland had to be responsible for ??
detail details…
the truth is hardly ever what it appears to be…
Much of this was covered in the Icelandic press. The problem of course is that most of the world doesn’t speak Icelandic. Sigmundur David just went down in flames this week as he tried to resume the party leadership. Needless to say, he did not win and he left in what can only be called a hissy.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Political_Revolution/comments/56ddlx/the_democratic_party_is_screwing_over_zephyr/
Apparently the duopoly is hard at it. Heaven forbid that we actually get another representative that might put people over corporate interests.
Shorter DCCC game plan: Fewer and worse Democrats.
But they’ll make up for it at the midterms.
Heh, the strategy of challenging the Democratic elite with primaries is going swimmingly.
It’s too bad that they won’t support a competitive activist choice during the general.
>In Israel, seeing a female combat soldier is not all that unusual, women are eligible for 92% of the IDF’s jobs. Jerusalem Post
What a pathetic attempt at propaganda. The article frames the prevalence of female army members as a counter to the flotilla of women protesting the siege of Gaza.
“According to the IDF, in 2014 roughly 40% of the army was made up of women, including 4% serving in combat roles.”
I’m pretty sure 4% constitutes ‘unusual’. Everything I’ve ever seen about women in the IDF shows that’s in large part a PR exercise; women are conspicuously discouraged from anything that would actually put them near a fight. They’re also given a lot of training on things like grooming and makeup, and often expected to be the ‘mattress’ for the men they’re assigned to work with.
haha! Our media: Clinton gets a Fri data dump and gets 6 items and all but one item (clowns) at memeorandum is about (gasp)Trump.
withdraw, quit, punch in the face, over, call on Trump to quit, unacceptable and offensive, options for replacing Trump, breaking with Trump, lewd, breaking point, Trump just lost, withdraw support, Rs reeling, I’m out, destiny, shocked, dumped, piece of ass, crashing down, couldn’t be president, withdraw endorsement, shrug (evangelicals), campaign over,
Clinton: bombshell, Bernie was right, Clinton ease with WS, most revealing, closed door remarks, WL dump dreams. One racist.
I wonder if WL will keep doing Fri dumps that media can coordinate a Clinton piece with.
To say that this election fills me with disgust would be to vastly understate the matter. With every passing day I become more content with my decision to sit this one out. I only wish I could learn to avert my eyes from the massive train wreck. This can’t end well.
Don’t you know
Talkin’ ’bout a revolution
It sounds like a whisper
Poor people gonna rise up
And get their share
Poor people gonna rise up
And take what’s theirs
‘Cause finally the tables are starting to turn
Talkin’ bout a revolution
Yes, finally the tables are starting to turn
Talkin’ bout a revolution, oh no
Talkin’ bout a revolution, oh
While they’re standing in the welfare lines
Crying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvation
Wasting time in the unemployment lines
Sitting around waiting for a promotion
– Tracy Chapman
“‘We’d have to finish one new facility every working day for the next 70 years’—Why carbon capture is no panacea The Bulletin (J-LS)”
Good point. However, our collective behinds are already in a crack: the amount of CO2, to say nothing of CH4, already released will do far more damage than we already see. We desperately need a good way to put it back in the ground.
There actually is such a way: regenerative farming. That is, farming practices that maximize soil storage of carbon, with the large bonus of improving both fertility and drought resistance. There’s an excellent book about it: “The Soil Will Save Us,” by Kristin Ohlson. Some of it is pretty surprising; for instance, grasslands do extremely well at soil storage, IF they’re managed properly. A link to one of her articles: https://orionmagazine.org/article/dirt-first/. I doubt she’s the only source on the subject, just the one I know.
Not saying it’s easy, the organizational capacity to change the way most farms operate doesn’t presently exist. But given the benefits to farmers, it’s probably more doable, and has a far better carbon footprint, than a vast industrial enterprise.
“No matter how cynical you become, it’s impossible to keep up” – Lily Tomlin
Panel Discussion on Hillary Clinton
Panelists talked about Hillary Clinton and the controversy over her e-mails. Panelists included Peter Schweizer, author of Clinton Cash; Jerome Corsi, author of Partners in Crime; and Tom Fitton, author of Clean House.
Airing Details
Oct 08, 2016 | 6:55pm EDT | C-SPAN 2
Oct 09, 2016 | 10:30am EDT | C-SPAN 2
Oct 10, 2016 | 1:30am EDT | C-SPAN 2
https://www.c-span.org/video/?416055-1/authors-discuss-democratic-nominee-hillary-clinton
If you can’t watch video, this segment by DiGenova on Comey is quite impressive :
https://youtu.be/KsgapaYCs40?t=43m52s
“…re-framing of the debate from “mandatory disclosure” to “open communication” and focusing on “nudging” firms to acknowledge the business case for a more open and personalized approach to disclosure and communication.”
Haha, is this actually from the Harvard Lampoon?
Finally an actual apology-
“I’ve never said I’m a perfect person. I’ve said and done things I regret, and the words released today in this more than decade old video are one of them. Anyone who knows me knows these words don’t reflect who I am. I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize.”
Poor Melania, they actually had her make a statement too
“The words my husband used are unacceptable and offensive to me. This does not represent the man that I know. He has the heart and mind of a leader. I hope people will accept his apology, as I have, and focus on the important issues facing our nation and the world. ”
Now the question becomes can they keep Trump on script? Does he have more revelations(according to the media the Apprentice vault is should be called Trump behaving badly but it is sealed due to nondisclosure agreements)? Can he keep his ego in check and pivot to things like Syria where Clinton might lead us to war or use the Wikileaks to point out that Clinton is officially on the record as saying that her public opinion might not reflect what she’d say and do behind closed doors(TPP segue)? Or does he keep making this into a contest of who is worse with him and Bill’s behavior?
Clinton is a weak and flawed candidate. The question becomes is Donald a stronger and less flawed one?
http://www.aol.com/article/news/2016/10/08/melania-trump-husband-s-words-unacceptable-and-offensive/21577392/
Hmm… an actual apology. That’s unusual. If he can respond with ‘I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize” does that work in a debate?
Actually it does, and on this the briefer he is with acknowledging it and moving on the better.
It’ll be interesting if Trump can control his ego and resist his natural inclination to share with us what Bill has said and done on the golf course etc, etc.
If he wanted to go there instead of using Bill’s behavior, he might stick to Hillary’s own words where she berated Paula Jones or Monica Lewinsky, in her version of stand by your man. Hillary has not always been an advocate of women when those women were standing between her and power.
He’s got to thread the needle carefully there though. I think many women might find it forgivable for a spouse to be angry at a mistress(even though the mistress is not technically the one breaking a vow) and say some not so nice things about them.
I’m not convinced he’ll be able to control himself though. I’ve seen nothing to suggest Donald Trump has ever been asked or told that he has to exercise discipline. Based on his statements most people seem to have allowed Donald to be Donald and the guy is his own worst enemy.
The WaPo does not think Trump can keep on script.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/10/07/donald-trump-finally-said-something-so-bad-he-had-to-apologize-kind-of/
First was a non-apology:
[“This was locker room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago,” Trump said in the statement. “Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course — not even close. I apologize if anyone was offended.”]
Then an actual apology with WaP addendum:
[“Anyone who knows me knows these words don’t reflect who I am. I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize,” he said in a video, adding: “I pledge to be a better man tomorrow, and will never, ever let you down.”
But then, the Clinton stuff: “I’ve said some foolish things, but there’s a big difference between the words and actions of other people. Bill Clinton has actually abused women, and Hillary has bullied, attacked, shamed and intimidated his victims. We will discuss this more in the coming days. See you at the debate on Sunday.”]
http://www.mediaite.com/online/to-think-after-all-this-it-may-be-a-member-of-the-bush-family-who-undoes-trumps-candidacy/
I will never forget thumbing through the pages of New York Magazine in April 2015 and stumbling on a spread by Matt Giles called “The Branches of the Bushes: A Family Tree.”
The feature was thoroughly researched and published at a time when the rumor mill surrounding Jeb Bush was heating up that there may actually be a third Bush president, and months before Donald Trump would take his infamous escalator trip to casually slam Mexicans as rapists.
Giles, in no uncertain terms, referred to the Bush family as a “sprawling political dynasty,” but the reason that the information stuck with me so strongly was an exclamation I made out loud to no one in particular when I got to the second page:
“Billy Bush is a Bush?!”
……
Billy Bush is the son of Josephine Bradley and Jonathan Bush, a banker in Connecticut, one of the leaders in the second generation of the family tree. Jonathan Bush, born in 1932, is the brother of William H.T. Bush (a banker), Nancy Walker Bush, Prescott Bush Jr. (an insurance executive with a failed Senate run to his name) and George Herbert Walker Bush himself.
If you’re following along, this makes Billy Bush the first cousin of President George W. Bush and Jeb Bush, the first cousin once removed of Jenna Bush, and the nephew of Poppy Bush.
===============================================
Am I the only one who didn’t know that Billy Bush was a “Bush?” Man, this is some heavy duty Karma…
Or one incredible network – the Bushs got their fingers in everything…no wonder the Clintoons want to be friends with them…
It’s going to be ironic if Billy Bush loses his job over this.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/trump-tape-fallout-concern-over-billy-bush-grows-at-today-show/ar-BBxbc2r?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=iehp
This Jonathan Bush?
Guess Who Else Was Partying in Paris at a Hillary Fundraiser?
There has been considerable reporting on the fact that George W. Bush’s daughter, Barbara was spotted at a Hillary Clinton fundraiser in Paris.
CNN, for example, writes:
Barbara Bush, a daughter of former President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush, attended a Hillary Clinton fundraiser in Paris Saturday night, according a source familiar with the event.
Bush posed for a picture with Huma Abedin, the longtime Clinton aide who was hosting the fundraiser with Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour.
Interesting, but is appears there was a much more significant Bush operator at the fundraiser.
Here is a known picture of George W’s uncle, Jonathan Bush:
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2016/10/guess-who-else-was-partying-in-paris-at.html
Amazing coincidences, eh? It’s like one big party but we weren’t invited.
Sanders supporters seethe over Clinton’s leaked remarks to Wall St. [Reuters]
Sorry, Berniebros, let me Drum-splain to you why these transcripts will be a snooze:
Everyone Knows Why Hillary Clinton Won’t Release Her Goldman Sachs Speeches [MoJo back in April]
But then Drum went on to make the following prediction:
Or vice versa.
Well technically she didn’t release it. Wikileaks did. And yes, I believe the media was yet again playing their own retarded version of fair and balanced when they came up with the Access Hollywood tape. It doesn’t excuse the behavior we heard though, nor does his immediate response to it lead me to think he has the temperament to be a good leader. It does quite the opposite for me. It shouldn’t have taken him this long to apologize for being a pig. In my opinion mature and responsible adults own their behavior and take responsibility for the consequences(instead of trying to come up with excuse after excuse as to why what you did was okay and there should be no consequences.
If the campaign is smart they should be brainstorming ways for the Trump campaign to show that Trump is not the cartoon character that he often makes himself out to be. Supposedly he’s promoted women and he’s not a sexist all the time. Surely they can find one or two female Trump executives that can relate how Trump took them under his wing and how he did it without ogling their boobs. Those women should be out there campaigning for him.
Don’t you think that perhaps you’ve beat that dead horse enough today? After all, in the scheme of things, it is only a tempest in a teapot. There are far more important issues in this election to consider…..
I’m female, so I tend to think how men treat females is an important issue(and judging by the reaction I’m far from alone.)
Your welcome to feel differently but please don’t tell me what I should or should not consider important.
Well, how about that!! So am I! So what? If your world is so wonderful that the only thing that could possibly rock it is locker room talk – which is no doubt an excellent opportunity to exude some more of that NYT style sanctimonious outrage – have at it! But I’m far more concerned about the 1%’s control of our economy and Hillary’s baiting Russia and perhaps starting a war that our children and grandchildren will fight and die in. But that’s just me, I guess….
From that Reuters piece:
How nice that the Goldman Sachs lobbyist is threatening us with the ‘no where else to go’ line.
And his brother Doug was the head of the Congressional Budget Office, 2009-2015, marching it to a neoliberal tune. When politically expedient scoring on bills was needed, he came across. Currently dean of the Harvard Kennedy School. As rich says above, it’s one big party and we weren’t invited.
St. Augustine, FL. I wonder how old IOTBP has fared, as well all the rest et al Warren etc….
From Robert Rubin, Genius of Capital Markets, Missed Both the Stock Bubble and the Housing Bubble:
“Today, it gave a column to two of the leaders of the Wall Street-funded group Third Way.
The column was a warning to Hillary Clinton not to fill her cabinet with progressives. ”
Third Way Has PEU Odor
Centrist think tank Third Way has a PEU Board Chair, John L. Vogelstein. Vogelstein served as President of Warburg Pincus for 34 years. He’s now Chairman of New Providence Asset Management, LLC and Senior Advisor to Warburg Pincus, LLC.
Also on Third Way’s board is David A. Coulter Managing Director and Senior Advisor at Warburg Pincus.
Third Way’s Vice Chair is David B. Heller an ex-Goldman Sachs executive, who started as an equity derivatives trader. Before he left in 2012 Heller was mentioned as a possible successor to Goldman chief Lloyd Blankfein.
Since then Heller put his money to work by investing in the Philadelphia 76’ers. The team received an $82 million public subsidy from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for a practice facility in Camden, New Jersey. This gift came after Christie cut funding for policing in crime ridden Camden.
Heller also invested in Standard International, a hotel chain which just paid $1.2 million per room for a NYC hotel. He sits on the board of Acumen which combines philanthropy with equity/debt investing. Not only do they teach a man to fish, they loan money to buy the fishing pole and bait.
Other Third Way board members have these names in their employment, current or past:
Apollo Global Management
Arrowgrass Capital Partners
BlueCrest Capital Management
BlueMountain Capital Management
Bingham Consulting Group (which helps hedge funds assess political risk)
Bohemian Companies (a group of family-owned real estate and private equity holdings)
Chiron Investment Management LLC
Citadel (a giant hedge fund)
Dyson-Kissner-Moran Corp (a privately owned, diversified investment holding company)
Former partner of Apax Partners & Co. Ventures and Warburg Pincus
Fortress Investment Group LLC
Goldman Sachs
GPS Investment Partners LLC
J.P. Morgan
Mesirow Financial Holdings Inc
Mesirow Advanced Strategies, Inc. (one of the largest fund of hedge funds in the world)
Millbrook Capital Management
Morgan Stanley
MSD Capital, L.P. (the private investment firm founded by Michael Dell)
Pritzker Innovation Fund
One Third Way board member conducted the first ever leveraged buyout in 1964. LBO’s got rebranded private equity to take away the stain from Michael Milken’s junk bond conviction. Another board member is “one of the country’s leading private equity law practitioner.”
There’s a clear theme running through Third Way. It’s the PEU Way. The greed and leverage boys have had their way long enough.
http://peureport.blogspot.com/
Can you hear the knives being sharpened?
Sen. Bernie Sanders reacted Saturday to a hacked batch of emails from the campaign of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton which appeared to reveal excerpts from Clinton’s private paid speeches to Wall Street by reaffirming his support for her party’s agenda.
“Whatever Secretary Clinton may or may not have said behind closed doors on Wall Street, I am determined to implement the agenda of the Democratic Party platform, which was agreed to by her campaign,” read the statement provided to NBC News by Sanders’ spokesman Michael Briggs.
“Among other things, that agenda calls for breaking up the largest financial institutions in this country, re-establishing Glass-Steagall and prosecuting those many Wall Street CEOs who engaged in illegal behavior,” the statement concluded.
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/bernie-sanders-affirms-support-democratic-platform-after-clinton-speeches-linked-n662601
Weak tea, Bernie. Small beer.
This was your chance. You blew it.
Pretty much.
The DNC wasn’t going to let him be a revolutionary though so I am unsurprised.
I thought the salient bit was –
“I am determined to implement the agenda of the Democratic Party platform”
“Among other things, that agenda calls for breaking up the largest financial institutions in this country, re-establishing Glass-Steagall and prosecuting those many Wall Street CEOs who engaged in illegal behavior,” the statement concluded.
And not whom said it, now if one want to quibble about veracity….. there is none… and has not been for some time…. moot…
Disheveled Marsupial… I’ve been getting the feeling that the comments section and media at large has devolved into some hyper Pavlovian response mechanism…. where tropes memes and dog whistles all collide as the maniac with the Bernays signal clipper suffers convulsions….
More like a crypto Pavlovian meme generation system?
The exposure of the underlying ‘values’ systems is fascinating. Learning how not to be ones own worst enemy is an uphill slog.
Also, “I am determined to implement…” as if he had magical powers. This looks like an accomplished ‘insider’ determined to do battle with an unscrupulous Dragon Lady. Dragons, as anybody with any sense should know, are notorious liars. Else, why all the hoarded gold?
Still, good luck to him. Shame we are the ones who will suffer the hard landing.
I can imagine the eyes fluttering going almost white whilst gritting teeth… sigh….
Grabs ankles and thinks of “The Bank of England?” How quaint.
For myself its the MPS posse which provides the best TV Tropes dressed up as Science or something else said on shiny brass plaques [electroplated imo] too equally suspect fascias … funny the plaque seems a mental phenomenon like cardiovascular dramas…. too…
Such ‘collegian’ connections hold together the skull and bones whilst the bands of pewter linings drag down fluffy dark clouds of unreason. Flying horses and unicorns swing round endlessly while the brass ring is cunningly held just out of reach. Each ride costing more than the previous. When the plaque breaks loose, the circulation suffers an infarct. The Fed stents not and the drama resumes until the next EPNS lining is promoted.
The lesion is the lesson. Base indeed are the fundamentals.
All that glisters could be gold. If you act now!
Re link: ‘We’d have to finish one new facility every working day for the next 70 years’—Why carbon capture is no panacea The Bulletin (J-LS)
I’ll only add that this model only looks at human released C02, it does not look at methane a far more powerful green house gas, nor does it look at C02 releases from “natural sources” initiated/accelerated by human induced climate change. If they are added, we’ll probably need to multiply that build number by 5 or 10 times.