Elections do not resolve social issues, they simply record the current score.
Greek Chorus: The Greek government's racist crackdown on illegal migrants is an outgrowth of the latent xenophobia that a few decades of prosperity has masked in Europe – masked, not removed. At base the beautiful idea of a united Europe is a lie.
Say Good Knight, Gracie: The catastrophic collapse of the markets previewed for us by Knight Capital last week is inevitable. Pretending that the global financial system will continue to muddle along indefinitely is just that, pretense. “The international banking system is being kept afloat solely by political lies, stupidity, corruption, greed and, most of all, egregiously misplaced confidence.” To date we have survived the de facto bankruptcy of Europe; a US budget deficits that exceed a trillion dollars a year, the housing collapse, high unemployment throughout the industrialized world, and enough austerity to push Europe and the US back into recession if not depression. And yet the US stock market climbs on the hope that Draghi's drivel has some magic.
Blasphemy: Newt Gingrinch says that there is no proof to support Romney's claim that Obama had scrapped work/welfare rules. He has not. Romney's claim is a lie. Not a misstatement, not a difference of opinion. It is a lie.
Liberal Science: A Stony Brook University study reports that “Current wastewater disposal methods for water used in hydraulic fracturing could put nearby drinking water in the Marcellus Shale at risk . . ..”
Finally, Someone Goes To Jail: For the financial crime of grabbing an old lady's purse, a man in Texas was sentenced to 45 years in prison.
Brother, Bigger: NYC, with the help of Microsoft, is trying to out London London – integrating 3,000 cameras (to start with, more coming) with all the information computers can dig up on everyone the cameras picture, - maps, city records, phone records, license data, criminal records, facebook profile, anything and everything. Live. In real time. And stored forever, of course. Just in case.
Takes One... Ann Coulter says that Obama's political base is "stupid single women".
What Part Of Fuck Off 'No' Don't You Understand? When asked whether he would want to see five years of financial information for a firm in which he might invest, The Mitten replied “I’m not a business.” Which, by the way, did not answer the question.
Sacré Bleu: Socialized medicine has controlled costs in France better than insurance company looting in the US has.
Forward March! Years of research data shows that US health problems caused by antibiotic resistance can be traced in large part to the rampant use of antibiotics to grow meat. And this is not news: the FDA's original findings on the dangers dates back to 1977. But changing their practices would impose large additional costs for the producers, so they have managed to keep the FDA sitting on its hands for decades. Finally a judge has ordered the FDA to do its job - sometime in the next few years.
Starting Over: Completed foreclosures have been falling, but foreclosure starts have increased for the last three months after 27 consecutive months of declines. Is the tide changing?
One Good Reason: White men with college degrees live about 12 years longer than those who do not finish high school. They have to, to pay off the loans.
Where Do These People Come From? video recently uploaded to YouTube, tea party activist and author Jerome Corsi said there was evidence that President Barack Obama was married to another man before he married Michelle. Republican Todd Akin, candidate for Senate in Missouri, says that emergency contraceptive pills should be outlawed, because abortion is abortion and is wrong – except that the contraceptive pills do not abort anything. The Romney campaign thought it would be a Good Idea to buy a few hundred thousand 'followers' for The Mitten's twitter account. Fox news moderator Greg Gutfeld says that “Obama is now out of the closet … he's officially gay for class warfare….”
The Parting Shot:
Weekend retreat.
5 comments:
re antibiotics in meat - just another reason to switch to a plant-based way of eating - see the website of physicians committee for responsible medicine
Take a deep breath...hold it...now let it out slowly.
I feel your frustration! As we draw nearer to the drain, the jumble of flotsam starts to boggle the mind!
Dunno how much comfort you can draw from the words,'this too shall pass.'
Sadder is the question of what will replace it?
Brother, Bigger:...
Action, Reaction: Any self-respecting criminal will just work around these data captures. Meanwhile, the system becomes dependent on this data collecting and can't respond to Crimes which do not fit their mold.
By the way, does any self-respecting Wall Street Criminal use the regular communication system when all communications may be recorded and stored? For example, UBS sent their financial criminals undercover when they traveled to the US to encourage and set up US tax evasion.
There certainly are, now, criminals (entrepreneurs) hard at work figuring out ways around the surveillance state; in the end it will be the dumb and the relatively innocent who are snared.
Gegner,if I didn't feel frustrated with our general stupidity, what would I have to write about? As for the future, that's been spent already.
ckm
Re: Finally, someone goes to jail
CKM, have you read "The Rich Get Richer and the Poor get Prison"? It's a criminology text which ponders why petty thieves get heavy punishments and larcenists largely go free.
If we scale the $99 theft = 45 years (1 year per $2) to the $300 million stolen by two Tyco execs about ten years ago, this would imply prison sentences of about 75 million years each...
http://eclecticlip.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/on-theft-and-punishment/
(disclosure: my own blog)
M
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