Thursday, August 6, 2015

SAR #15218


Markets are about power, not price.

Balance of Power: President Obama is right, if we do not act quickly to stop spewing carbon into the atmosphere, the effects of climate change will be horrific. As is the amount of money the carbon-burners can pour into Congress to make sure that day comes. 
 
Mistaken Identity: The 1% think they are investors. They are not, they are pickpockets.

Well, Damn: An APA study has concluded that teen marijuana use does not lead to depression, lung cancer, other health problems. The kids turn out just fine. Mine did, and so did I.

Bring Back “The Club”: In addition to certain Chryslers, hackers can also use GM vehicles on-board computer systems to locate the car, unlock it, and start it. Gone, as they say, in 60 seconds.

Misdirection: As Greece shows, squashing the use of cash and 'encouraging' the use of credit cards allows those in power to not only monitor what you are doing, but to limit the cash market and increase their tax take. And teach you docility. 
 
Cheap Shot: A decade ago the National Cancer Institute urged physicians to immediately adopt an inexpensive treatment for ovarian cancer that had proven remarkably effective in prolonging patients' lives. Today fewer than half of ovarian cancer patients are receiving that treatment. Not because a better treatment has been developed, but because more expensive – and thus more glamorous (to the doctor if not the patient) – ones have been.

Dumb & Dumber: The South Bend, Indiana school board – claiming that “If we can keep another student from dropping out because of sports and academics, then that's helpful for South Bend Schools," has lowered the academic minimum average for athletes to continue to participate in sports to 1.5. Well, schools have other things to offer than just sports and academics, right? 
 
Post-It Note: When reviewing the increase in your medical insurance premium next year, bear in mind that the year/year increase in “personal health care services” - which is what your health insurance covers – was only 5.4%. All the rest of the increase in premia goes to the executive wing.

Minority Report: In Pennsylvania you will soon be sentenced not only for the crime you have committed and been convicted of, but also for the crimes you are deemed likely to have committed in the future if you were not already in jail.

Barn Door: A federal appellate court has ruled that Idaho's ag-gag law that prohibits secretly filming animal abuse at commercial facilities is unconstitutional. It would be nice to see these laws repealed across the land as fast as the bans against gay marriage were.

Sportsmanship: A superb basketball team from Charlottesville, VA, which had completed a five game winning streak at a national tournament in Myrtle Beach, was disqualified and sent packing because one of its players was a girl. Was... A... Girl.

First Step: Under current Oregon law all eligible voters are automatically registered to vote unless they actively opt out. Now to make voting mandatory...

Sonderkommando: In detention facilities where unauthorized immigrants are incarcerated pending whatever fate eventually descends on them, some inmates are paid between $1 and $3 a day to keep order and make the facilities function. Other than the pay rate, the Nazi's did pretty much the same thing.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ballance of Profit:

As Klein puts it, Obie-wan is a master of the right word, but when you look closer, there is a load of filth behind his action.

Chicago's Excelon knows they struck pay dirt when they purchased Obama all those years ago. A further gutting of the NRC so their aging nukes can run without the expensive safety upgrades necessary, and Obama killed the Chyiane central repository, so Excelon get's back it's deposit, and can keep storing the fuel in unsafe dry casks in exposed areas around it's plants. Then again Excelon also comes out ahead with all it's natural gas fired combined cycle plants, which are thermally more efficient, but leak methane and other combustion products which are several hundred fold more destructive than CO2.

8 years ago it might have matter, but it's all too little, too late, and it's actual worse than too little because Obama's pet Sec. of the Interior, picked for him by Exxon Mobil and Shell, Sally Jewell, the fracking queen, has given permits to Shell to drill the Arctic. All this drilling would not be possible if it was not for the climate change Shell helped along thinning the Arctic iceshelf, making the waters passable for their rigs. Shell doesn't even expect these fields to come on line until the 2030's which says something about how Obama is concerned about combating long term climate change.

He's just using a good line to line his pocket.

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/08/04/naomi-klein-obama-beginning-sound-climate-leader-when-will-he-act-one

Anonymous said...

Fosque is quick to talk about drinking and the life choices that landed him in jail. But he also feels he owns the responsibility and effort it has taken to stay sober. He hadn’t heard of risk assessment, but after he was told that the tools were used to determine which facility he served time in and what level of supervision he received on parole, he looked them up online. “You mean to tell me they’re using statistics to determine what’s going to happen to me?” he asked. “That ain’t right.”

Wait til they explain insurance of any type (including PP-ACA), "community policing", etc. It's not the tool, but the fools who wield it.