The
rich don't just think they can get away with it, they know.
Clash
of Civilizations:
A
French diplomatic dinner for Iran's Hassan Rouhani was canceled when
the French refused to remove wine from the menu.
Good, it
was bad enough that Italy
put bras on Rome's statuary to protect Hang 'em High Rouhani's
delicate sensibilities.
Behavioral
Analysis Units:
Political campaigns - just like banks, health insurers and the NSA –
know far more about you than you think they do. They know that if
you like canned asparagus you probably oppose abortion... and so on.
They know what you buy and where you shop and what restaurants
you go to and what car you drive and the put all this together to
figure out how you will likely vote and how to capitalize on this, to
get you to vote for their doofus rather than some other doofus. But
they all are doing it, so relax and enjoy the attention.
Infrastructure:
The
top US Army General in Iraq says that the collapse of the Mosul Dam
is likely and will be “catastrophic”. What do you think will be
fixed first, the Mosul Dam or the Flint, MI water supply?
Best
Friends For Never:
The US government has reluctantly concluded that sentencing a
journalist
to life in prison for reporting on a regime's secret and illegal
arms supply to jihadists is reason to question that nation's
“commitment to democracy.” There
should be no question that Erdogan's Turkey is committed to to
ending democracy as fast as possible and letting Erdogan rule as an
absolute monarch, with no input from the masses. The
US should wash their hands of Erdogan and let him get back to killing
Kurds.
Progress:
Ecuador is auctioning off one-third of its remaining rainforest to
Chinese oil companies.
Very,
Very Secret:
The claimed ISIS
super-duper Android based encryption system for exchanging messages
and instructions on how and when to destroy the west turns out to be
vaporware at best and most likely a hoax.
Good
Question:
Jeremy Corbyn asked
David Cameron if ordinary people can pay the same rate of tax as
Google and Apple.
Robin/Spring:
Caterpillar, generally taken to be a good indicator of the global
economy's health, reports that its Q4 retail revenues fell by 23%
leading to a 111% collapse in operating profit – if profit is the
right word for a $114 million loss.
Hang
'Em High: The
governor of Maine, citing a constitutional right to carry arms, is
encouraging his citizens to “Load up and get rid of the drug
dealers.”
Horse/Cart:
In that China gets most of its electricity from incredibly dirty
coal-fired plants, using an electric car is up to five times worse
for the environment than driving a gas guzzler.
Short
On
The
Basics:
A group of ranchers in Utah have denounced federal control of their
lands. Actually, it's federal control of our lands; they are
supposed to be renting them
from us.
Circus,
No
Bread: Some
wonder if our freedoms will survive the current political season –
which assumes we have any such things left. Truth: your vote does
not matter. Hasn't for several decades. We do not have a democracy,
nor even a democratic republic. What we have is a choice of front
men (mostly men) chosen by and answerable to the economic élite.
But the entertainment beats
the tedious work involved in self-government.
Noted:
According to the IMF and World Bank, “these are bad times for oil
producers and their creditors.” Ah, understatement.
The
Parting Shot:
3 comments:
{Wild Applause!} Hit it all right on the head but that's nothing new, SAR is a remarkable resource for unvarnished information. It may not be pretty but it's all the truth.
Thank you CKM for all you do!
Rich and White: As this editorial by Cenk of TYT goes toward, it's rich and white. Those morons out in Washington State may be stupid, but their leaders have enough brains to pick the pocket of the US public by squatting on huge amounts of Federal Capital and not paying rent for using our land, managed for the benefit of a few by our Federal Government.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy9iqJugsxs
As he pointed out in an earlier editorial, that land use is very exclusively for whites. He has not paid his million dollars in rent, but the Feds are not offering any refund to the Dann Sisters for what they did to them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4iQhPDl5xg
«your vote does not matter. Hasn't for several decades. We do not have a democracy, nor even a democratic republic. What we have is a choice of front men (mostly men) chosen by and answerable to the economic élite»
In representative democracy the biggest factions of the elite have each the right to nominate the government they want in power, and the voters have the right to *veto* those they don't like. This has two positive consequences over masses rioting against the elites or elite factions having shooting wars to decide which has power:
#1 Giving voters the right to veto the elite faction(s) they most dislike means that the remaining one at least is the least disliked by them, and the majority feels implicated in the election of the winning factions, preventing much cause of riot and revolution.
#2 Giving to voters the choice of winning (least disliked) elite faction means that fights among the elites don't need to become violent. The factions of the elite have agreed that campaigning is physically safer for them than shooting wars, plus has the advantage of #1.
Of course #1 and #2 are valid only as long as voters elections determine which faction of the existing elite gets power; attempts to change the elite wholesale are countered with as much brutality as possible.
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