If you have the time read #8 about what is happening in Australia.....wow......
Thought for the day.....
Did you know…for every $100 spent in independently-owned stores~ $68 comes back to the community.
For every $100 spent in a national chain ~ only $43 comes back to the community. Spend it online and nothing comes back to the community.
1/ Paul Krugman's commentary on the reactions in the conservative media and the oligarchs on the "Occupy Wall Street" movement.
Tomorrow the New York Police, on orders from billionaire Mayor Bloomberg, are going to try to clear the square....should be interesting.....
It remains to be seen whether the Occupy Wall Street protests will change America’s direction. Yet the protests have already elicited a remarkably hysterical reaction from Wall Street, the super-rich in general, and politicians and pundits who reliably serve the interests of the wealthiest hundredth of a percent.
And this reaction tells you something important — namely, that the extremists threatening American values are what F.D.R. called “economic royalists,” not the people camping in Zuccotti Park.
Consider first how Republican politicians have portrayed the modest-sized if growing demonstrations, which have involved some confrontations with the police — confrontations that seem to have involved a lot of police overreaction — but nothing one could call a riot. And there has in fact been nothing so far to match the behavior of Tea Party crowds in the summer of 2009.
Nonetheless, Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, has denounced “mobs” and “the pitting of Americans against Americans.” The G.O.P. presidential candidates have weighed in, with Mitt Romney accusing the protesters of waging “class warfare,” while Herman Cain calls them “anti-American.” My favorite, however, is Senator Rand Paul, who for some reason worries that the protesters will start seizing iPads, because they believe rich people don’t deserve to have them.
Michael Bloomberg, New York’s mayor and a financial-industry titan in his own right, was a bit more moderate, but still accused the protesters of trying to “take the jobs away from people working in this city,” a statement that bears no resemblance to the movement’s actual goals.
2/ You have to hand it to Bill O'Reilly - he takes some risks with his guests, because the more articulate ones will make him look stupid....
A wonderful segment from the Factor with Bill interviewing Tavis Smiley and Professor Cornel West, who is a real character.
Eight minutes of good lively discussion....and you judge the result....
3/ Bill Keller, former Editor of the NYT now has a column, and in this one he opines it's too early to count Rick Perry out no matter what the conventional wisdom or the TV pundits say....he's the darling of the Tea Party and he's still in the race.....and he's not Mitt Romney.....
Breaking news today [Thursday] is that Herman Cain's 9-9-9 economic plan is from the video game SimCity....so he's toast.....
This was supposed to be the Tea Party’s time. The incumbent president the rebels despise so much seemed vulnerable. The Republican establishment was AWOL, leaderless or intimidated. So the angry, God-fearing, government-loathing populist insurgents rushed into the vacuum, fired up the town halls, helped put a halt to any compromising in Congress and basically commandeered the national debate.
Then, for much of this year, they dominated the auditions for a presidential challenger.
In a spectacle about as deliberative as speed-dating, candidate after candidate tried out for the role of Not Mitt Romney — including, at times, Mitt Romney. We had the Sarah Palin tease, replaced by the short-lived Michele Bachmann infatuation, after which everyone swooned, briefly, for Rick Perry. Herman Cain is having a little fling now, though even voters who like his style don’t think he can win. Rick Santorum, who is in some ways the moralizing social conscience of the Tea Party, and Ron Paul, who plays its geeky libertarian id, have settled into single digits and bit parts as debate foils. Newt Gingrich is the class cutup, blowing raspberries at journalists.
4/ A mountain biker hit by an antelope.......great "holy sxxt" video....one minute......
5/ This is the new casino game the Big Banks and Hedge Funds are playing with our money - ETF's. There are trillions in the funds daily, but when it all goes wrong we'll be bailing them out again.....
Did you watch the markets on Monday? In the last 18 minutes of trading, the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index jumped more than 10 points with no news to account for the rally. If you were left scratching your head, you were not alone.
Almost every day there is an article in the newspaper trying to explain the stock market’s wild swings, or volatility, and often the explanation is inconclusive, involving everything from Europe’s banking problems to new fears of recessions.
Through the summer and into the fall, I, too, have been pondering the gyrations in trading, especially the late-day sell-offs and rallies that seem always timed perfectly to coincide with the closing bell. Rarely do the rallies or sell-offs, which invariably start after 3 p.m., justify 3 to 4 percent moves in the indexes. The swings have a deleterious effect on the markets because they undermine confidence and investors start sitting on the sidelines.
And then I started talking with investors like Douglas A. Kass, a longtime Wall Street denizen who is the founder and president of Seabreeze Partners Management.
He says he knows the culprit behind the late-day market swings: leveraged exchange-traded funds or E.T.F.’s.
These funds, which allow investors to bet on a certain basket of stocks, commodities or an index, are perhaps the hottest rage in investing, with some $1 trillion invested. E.T.F.’s are particularly attractive to some investors because you can bet long or short — and you can leverage your bet. And you can hop in and out within the trading day to lock in gains, just as with stocks.
6/ Brooke Alvarez from Onion News, on how to look your best for the end of days....if you like sarcastic wit, she's your girl.....1 minute.....
7/ Thoughtful article on how the Republican candidates agree on quite a few issues, and they are all "anti" something. All negative stuff, and hardly any proposals or real plans.
For example, they all want to repeal Obamacare, and replace it with what? Do you know?
By the very nature of political journalism, the attention of those covering the 2012 Republican presidential nominating contest tends to be focused on areas of disagreement between the candidates, as well as on the policy positions and messages they are eager to use against Barack Obama. But there are a host of other issues where the Republican candidates are in too much agreement to create a lot of controversy during debates or gin up excitement in the popular media. Areas of agreement, after all, rarely provoke shock or drive readership. But the fact that the Republican Party has reached such a stable consensus on such a great number of far-right positions is in many ways a more shocking phenomenon than the rare topic on which they disagree. Here are just a few areas of consensus on which the rightward lurch of the GOP during the last few years has become remarkably apparent:
8/ An eye-opening article on how climate change is affecting Australia - I had no idea this was happening to their weather, but the story from Rolling Stone is excellently done.....
It's a long read, but well worth it to see what's in store for us unless something happens . Australia has the same political problems - their coal companies dominate the discussion of climate change, and own the politicians just like here......
By JEFF GOODELL
OCTOBER 3, 2011 5:43 PM ET
The floodwaters of the Castlereagh River surround the township of Coonamble in Central West NSW.
Wolter Peeters/The Sydney Morning Herald/Fairfax Media via Getty Images
It's near midnight, and I'm holed up in a rickety hotel in Proserpine, a whistle-stop town on the northeast coast of Australia. Yasi, a Category 5 hurricane with 200-mile-per-hour winds that's already been dubbed "The Mother of All Catastrophes" by excitable Aussie tabloids, is just a few hundred miles offshore. When the eye of the storm hits, forecasters predict, it will be the worst ever to batter the east coast of Australia.
I have come to Australia to see what a global-warming future holds for this most vulnerable of nations, and Mother Nature has been happy to oblige: Over the course of just a few weeks, the continent has been hit by a record heat wave, a crippling drought, bush fires, floods that swamped an area the size of France and Germany combined, even a plague of locusts. "In many ways, it is a disaster of biblical proportions," Andrew Fraser, the Queensland state treasurer, told reporters. He was talking about the floods in his region, but the sense that Australia – which maintains one of the highest per-capita carbon footprints on the planet – has summoned up the wrath of the climate gods is everywhere. "Australia is the canary in the coal mine," says David Karoly, a top climate researcher at the University of Melbourne. "What is happening in Australia now is similar to what we can expect to see in other places in the future."
Mentioned in the story are the Toowoomba floods - here is a five minute video that shows how the flood waters rose incredibly quickly.....
9/ A classic SNL skit "Schweddy Balls" with a young Alec Baldwin.......absolutely wonderful smutty humour from the 80's.....very funny indeed......5 minutes.....
10/ Even though this is a story on how Karl Rove's group and the Koch Brothers are having disagreements about policies and strategy this shouldn't give the President any joy - they just disagree on how badly to smash the democrats and the middle class.....since they both have hundreds of millions to spend on TV ads it certainly will be lively next year.....
Karl Rove’s team and the Koch brothers’ operatives quietly coordinated millions of dollars in political spending in 2010, but that alliance, which has flown largely under the radar, is showing signs of fraying.
And with each network planning to dwarf its 2010 effort, Republicans worry that the emerging rivalry between the two deepest-pocketed camps in the conservative movement could undercut their party’s chances of taking the Senate and White House in 2012.
http://www.politico.com/news/11/ And for more on Karl Rove, Steven Colbert issued a rare apology [sort of] to Rove after he implied Rove was money laundering and got a severe letter from his lawyers......
Very funny, edgy and timely......6 minutes.....
12/ Wonderful review of the 2011 Bentley Mulsanne, the oligarch's car of choice......
The reviewer is quite amusing......
THE Bentley Mulsanne, it turns out, is a pleasant car to drive.
I can hear the snorts already: “Excuse me? Bentley’s flagship costs $330,000. I should hope it’s pleasing.”
Yet there’s a reason the movie wasn’t called “Drive, Miss Daisy”: movable penthouses like the Bentley are usually best experienced from the back seat. The idea is to leave the driving to the guy in the funny cap while the owner peruses his Davos itinerary.
In the fragrant bellies of these behemoths, the world outside is silenced and the ride is like clotted cream. But again, the word is “ride,” not “drive.” Traditionally, the indentured pilot feels as disengaged from the road as his boss.
While this new Bentley would still seem misplaced on the Mulsanne for which it is named — the straightaway on the Le Mans racing circuit — its surprisingly able handling and top speed of 184 miles per hour make it the rare ultraluxury chariot that encourages you to drop the Champagne flute and grab the reins.
The Mulsanne is an enormous car, weighing almost 6,000 pounds and measuring nearly 220 inches in length, some seven inches more than the aging Arnage it replaces. That’s more than a foot longer and roughly 1,500 pounds heavier than a Mercedes-Benz S-Class.
The Bentley manages to look richly imposing, yet tasteful, avoiding the chromed-Panzer strut of the Rolls-Royce Phantom and the soulless-limo look of the Mercedes Maybach. Crisply tailored shoulders and flowing haunches evoke Bentley S-Types of the ’50s.
13/ Just an awful story of how our political process works in Florida, completely blatantly. Big casino companies want to open large casinos in South Florida, so they show up with checks. The scumbag we have a Governor says he's going to privatize Medicaid, so there's Blue Cross doling out the cash.
Hopelessly corrupt........and nobody cares......
TALLAHASSEE – With billion-dollar resort casinos and health-care privatization efforts up for grabs, major gaming and insurance interests are dominating the political money chase in Florida, new state fundraising reports show.
Florida Republicans, who control the Legislature, governor's office and virtually all state agencies, are lathering themselves in cash from interest groups at the expense of out-of-powerDemocrats, who posted their worst fundraising quarter in at least six years.
Reports filed with the state this week show the Republican Party of Florida raised $5.5 million during the fundraising quarter running from July through September. Meanwhile, Florida Democrats managed to gross only $986,000 – their worst showing since the last three months of 2006, when gubernatorial nominee Jim Davis was trounced by RepublicanCharlie Crist..http://www.orlandosentinel.
14/ It didn't take long for perky Pam Bondi, Florida's Attorney General, to become corrupted. Remember the two investigators who were let go? Here's the background to the story, and it's not pretty reading. The AG's office constantly caves to corporations and big money....
Among some of those who have recently worked in the state attorney general's office, such complaints seemed only to confirm the ways of the institution as they knew it -- one vulnerable to the influence of politically-connected outsiders.
"They don't want to be aggressive toward corporations," said a former assistant state attorney general who asked not to be named because of concerns about his current job. "If they were as aggressive as they could be, or wanted to be, they would double the size of the economic crimes division,” he added, noting that the division is funded by recoveries from its cases.
15/ Remember this great clip [tailgating] from a movie I didn't know the name of?
One of our alert readers informs us the movie is "Lost Highway", directed by David Lynch [1997].....the driver of the car is Robert Loggia.....
Todays video
One of the most original and smartest ads for a beer we've yet seen - Carlsberg's guerilla marketing campaign.....very good indeed.....
Todays British jokes
I was devastated to find out my wife was having an affair but, by turning to religion,
I was soon able to come to terms with the whole thing.
I converted to Islam, and we're stoning her in the morning.
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The wife suggested I get myself one of those penis enlargers … so I did.
She's 21, and her name is Lucy.
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Went to the pub with my girlfriend last night.
Locals were shouting "pedophile" and other names at me, just because my girlfriend is 21 & I'm 50.
It completely spoiled our 10th anniversary
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The thing I love most about this hot weather is the short skirts & low cut tops ...
Although they do make me look a bit gay.
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Following the tragic death of the Human Cannonball at the Kent Show, a spokesman said,
"We'll struggle to get another man of the same caliber."
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My son was thrown out of school today for letting a girl in his class give him a hand-job..
I said "Son, that's 3 schools this year. You'd better stop before you're banned from teaching altogether."
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Q: What's the difference between a blonde & a brick?
A: The brick doesn't follow you home after you lay it.
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Remember the 7 qualities for the perfect girlfriend ...
Beautiful, Intelligent, Gentle, Thoughtful, Innocent, Trustworthy, Sensible.
Or, in other words … B.I.G.T.I.T.S.
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Just been to the gym. They've got a new machine in.
Only used it for half an hour, as I started to feel sick. It's great though.
It does everything … Kit Kats, Mars Bars, Snickers, Potato Crisps, the lot."
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Question - Are there too many immigrants in Britain?
17% said ‘yes’ & 11% said ‘no’.
The remaining 72% said "I am not understanding the question, please."
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On my Census form there is a question "Do you have any dependants?"
Apparently putting "Hundreds of Africans, Pakistanis, Somalians, single mums, Romanians, loafers, smack heads
& non-English speaking people" isn't the right answer.
They've sent my form back.
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The cost of living has now gotten so bad that my wife is having sex w/me because she can't afford batteries.
Todays church joke
Cussing in church
A crusty old man walks into the local Catholic church and says to the secretary, "I would like to join this damn church."
The astonished woman replies, "I beg your pardon, Sir. I must have misunderstood you. What did you say?"
"Listen up, damn it. I said I want to join this damn church!"
"I'm very sorry sir, but that kind of language is not tolerated in This church."
The secretary leaves her desk and goes into the priest's study to inform him of her situation.
The priest agrees that the secretary does not have to listen to that foul language.
They both return to her office and the priest asks the old geezer, "Sir, what seems to be the problem here?"
"There is no damn problem," the man says. "I just won 20 million dollars in the damn lottery and I want to join this damn church to get rid of some of this damn money."
"I see," said the priest. "And is this bitch giving you a hard time?
And another religious joke
First Day in Heaven
When everybody on earth was dead and waiting to enter Paradise, God appeared and said, "I want the men to form two lines.
When everybody on earth was dead and waiting to enter Paradise, God appeared and said, "I want the men to form two lines.
One line for the men who were true heads of their household, and the other line for the men who were dominated by their women.
I want all the women to report to St. Peter."
Soon, the women were gone, and there were two lines of men.
Soon, the women were gone, and there were two lines of men.
The line of the men who were dominated by their wives was 100 miles long, and in the line of men who truly were heads of their household, there was only one man.
God said to the long line, "You men should be ashamed of yourselves; I created you to be the head of your household! You have been disobedient and have not fulfilled your purpose! Of all of you, only one obeyed. Learn from him."
God turned to the one man, "How did you manage to be the only one in this line?"
The man replied, "My wife told me to stand here."
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