Saturday, January 23, 2016

SAR #16023


D-E-S-P-E-R-A-T- I -O - N : A flock of second-tier Clintonian operatives and fellow-travelers has begun calling Bernie Sanders a communist, claiming he wants to dismantle Obamacare, warning that he would sacrifice Israel to ISIS and proclaiming that he does “not believe in capitalism.” None of this is true, but repeated often enough, but given the trends in the polls, she's got to do something.
Budget Cuts: Governor Snyder has released his (totally redacted) emails in an attempt to prove that poisoning the people of Flint was supposed to be a temporary measure that would save about $5 million over two years. That it has killed at least 10 people and loaded the blood and brains of 10,000 children with lead was collateral damage that should not be viewed as environmental racism and should not be taken into consideration when looking at the overall budget savings and ideological purity. Besides, Snyder explains, it was those damned lazy civil servants... and the (unelected) political hack he let run the city.
Protecting & Self-Serving: A bill pending in New Jersey would keep the public from accessing police videos from body and car cameras, as well as 911 calls. Because what we don't know won't hurt them.
Theory of the Crime: California's AG is investigating Exxon Mobil to see if its decades of lying about the dangers of global climate change and the degree to which petroleum products were responsible constitutes fraud under various securities laws requiring full disclosure of all relevant information concerning the current and future prospects of the company. Such as reducing the value of its reserves...
Mattress Stuffing: Why are American corporations sitting on $1.9 trillion in cash – after all, traditionally corporations were massive borrowers, not gargantuan hoarders. But then, corporations used to be optimists, ever looking for new and better products to bring to market in order to make profits for the stockholders instead of trying to find tax-efficient ways to buy back their own stock as a way to feather the CEO's retirement. But to be fair, maybe all these senior executives are reluctant to invest because (1) they know the economy sucks and will continue to do so as thus there are no profits to be made and/or (2) they are sure the whole thing's going to come tumbling down and “cash will be king.” Then there's the possibility that it is just the herd instinct they are all following each other's lead assuming that the guy in the lead knows what the hell is happening. He doesn't.
Submit: Eleven-year old girls must be taught to stay “pure” until they trap a man, they must turn to their fathers whose job it is “to protect their purity” and teach them to be subservient. Or so emails from the Mesa Valley School District in Colorado claim, while directing the young girls to a Wake Up Ministries website where they could learn about the “gag reflex” that tongue-kissing prompts and sign up for an indoctrination meeting. The school system said it had reviewed the material and did not find it to be demeaning nor religious propaganda.
Porn O'Graph: Full and frank disclosure, or water, water everywhere...
The Parting Shot:

5 comments:

McMike said...

Re desperation. Flashback to the treatment by the establishment Dems of Ralph Nader. I recall attacks on him as grumpy, and that he was worth, gasp, ONE MEELION DOLLARS.

Re Flint. And thus we witness privatization advocates using every failure of privatization as an excuse to double down on privatization.

Re cash is king. I think this is also evidence of the notion that business is no longer about business, but instead about finance. The companies no longer need to invest much in making widgets. If they were banks, that cash would be in derivative schemes. Non-bank companies are kind of stuck between the two worlds at the moment. It's also a tax dodge, and the money is stuck.

Re life. So science has got it figured out after all. Awesome. ;-)

Actually, watch out, because this line of reasoning may one day accidentally validate ESP, pre-cognition, psychokinesis, and all sorts of whacked-out stuff. Once you acknowledge that life refuses to sit still and be counted - and that us creatures are no more solid and permanent than a river that you can't cross twice - all kinds of weird possibilities arise.

Demetrius said...

But where is the picture? It jogs the memory.

Charles Kingsley Michaelson, III said...

The picture is from Tuscany, Radda in Chianti. Or possibly Casatellina. Or perhaps San Gimignano...

kwark said...

Re "Desperation": Desperation indeed. What brainiac on her strategy team thinks "not believe in capitalism" is a potent argument AGAINST Sanders? Did she hire some Republican consultant? Oh wait, she is pretty much a Nelson Rockefeller Republican so yes, she probably did.

Re "Theory of the Crime": For 25 years Exxon Mobil successfully dithered and appealed jury decisions over their oil spill in Alaska - eventually paying 500 million-ish in punitive damages (in 2008 dollars). The deity only knows how much extracting even that much cost the public in court costs for what was clearly an open-and-shut case. So, as odious a corporate villain as Exxon Mobil is it seems unlikely that California's AG could hope to prevail (in this century) on so nebulous an assertion as lying to shareholders over the impacts of climate change. Honestly, I wish the AG would focus on something more likely to result in a positive outcome, like investigating and jailing members of Bundy-esque ten-gallon hat terrorist groups that are active in California too.

McMike said...

re kwark. As much as I'd like to see corporations and their executives actually get held accountable for their crimes, I suspect this suit is an exercise in extorting a little windfall for the state treasury, under the pretense of justice, not unlike the tobacco settlement.

The amount won't add up to much in terms of the company's revenues, no one will go to jail, and Exxon will march on lying and poisoning the earth. The fine will be tax deductible, reduced on appeal, and partially offset with some bullcrap in-kind provision.

The attorneys will make money, and the AG will get to claim a scalp, and the state will get at least a small bump in revenues, which it can use to subsidize Exxon some more.