Two videos worth watching...#8 and #10.......
1/ The BS the 0.1% superwealthy try to sell us is that they deserve their fortunes because they are the "job creators", but the reality is, as Paul Krugman points out, that they get their riches by rigging the game.....
Another excellent column......and a great title - "We Are The 99.9%"
“We are the 99 percent” is a great slogan. It correctly defines the issue as being the middle class versus the elite (as opposed to the middle class versus the poor). And it also gets past the common but wrong establishment notion that rising inequality is mainly about the well educated doing better than the less educated; the big winners in this new Gilded Age have been a handful of very wealthy people, not college graduates in general.
If anything, however, the 99 percent slogan aims too low. A large fraction of the top 1 percent’s gains have actually gone to an even smaller group, the top 0.1 percent — the richest one-thousandth of the population.
And while Democrats, by and large, want that super-elite to make at least some contribution to long-term deficit reduction, Republicans want to cut the super-elite’s taxes even as they slash Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in the name of fiscal discipline.
2/ And leading on from that article is an analysis of the myth of the 0.1%........actually the successful corporate executive is possibly a psychopath who is more than willing to pillage the worlds resources for his own personal gain.....
Really interesting article....and having survived the corporate world for many years this story rings true.....
If wealth was the inevitable result of hard work and enterprise, every woman in Africa would be a millionaire. The claims that the ultra-rich 1% make for themselves – that they are possessed of unique intelligence or creativity or drive – are examples of the self-attribution fallacy. This means crediting yourself with outcomes for which you weren't responsible. Many of those who are rich today got there because they were able to capture certain jobs. This capture owes less to talent and intelligence than to a combination of the ruthless exploitation of others and accidents of birth, as such jobs are taken disproportionately by people born in certain places and into certain classes.
The findings of the psychologist Daniel Kahneman, winner of a Nobel economics prize, are devastating to the beliefs that financial high-fliers entertain about themselves. He discovered that their apparent success is a cognitive illusion.
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Reading their work, it seems to me that if you have psychopathic tendencies and are born to a poor family, you're likely to go to prison. If you have psychopathic tendencies and are born to a rich family, you're likely to go to business school.
This is not to suggest that all executives are psychopaths. It is to suggest that the economy has been rewarding the wrong skills.
3/ Gail Collins looks longingly at the Republican debates and reflects on the incredible banality of it all.......also quite amusing as always......
But about the debates. My favorite this week was the Thanksgiving Family Forum, in which everybody in the race who isn’t a Mormon went to Iowa to compete for the love of the Christian right. This was the one in which Rick Perry assured the audience that because of his strong anti-abortion stance he would immediately end the policy of sending China “billions of dollars” in American foreign aid.
Who knew? Truly, it was the most interesting TV moment since I watched somebody bid way too much money for an abandoned storage locker containing fake leather furniture and a portrait of cats with big eyes.
4/ A town in Alaska overrun by elk.......a BBC documentary clip.....2 minutes......
Wouldn't happen in the South........gud eatin' them elks......Bubba go git wun fer dinner........
5/ "Up With Chris Hayes" had an exclusive this week - he has a memo from a Wall Street lobbyist firm discussing counter -measures to "Occupy Wall Street".....the oligarchs are beginning to get alarmed.....a great four minute segment.......
WASHINGTON -- A lobbying firm has prepared a memo offering advice to its Wall Street clients to help them manage any political fallout from Occupy Wall Street, warning that Republicans may turn on big banks, at least in public, altering the political ground for years to come. It is one of the first clear signs that the movement may be starting to trouble the moneyed elite.
The memo, first reported by MSNBC's Chris Hayes, host of the show "Up with Chris Hayes," was written by the firm Clark, Lytle, Geduldig, Cranford and addressed to one of its Wall Street clients. It runs four pages long and is set to be sent on Thanksgiving.
6/ Megyn Kelly, the beautiful but really vicious host of a Fox news show has some Thanksgiving hints on how to prepare a turkey......2 uncomfortable minutes.......
7/ Heard of a Pentagon organisation called CNTPO? Thought not, and noone else has either, but they hand out billions to private security firms worldwide to combat......
bad[?] stuff......barrowloads of cash to fine upstanding companies like Blackwater, DynCorp etc etc....
And you still hear the whining when anyone complains about the bloated defense budget - the Pentagon is full of these cash bleeders...
n obscure Pentagon office designed to curb the flow of illegal drugs has quietly evolved into a one-stop shop for private security contractors around the world, soliciting deals worth over $3 billion.The sprawling contract, ostensibly designed to stop drug-funded terrorism, seeks security firms for missions like "train[ing] Azerbaijan Naval Commandos." Other tasks include providing Black Hawk and Kiowa helicopter training "for crew members of the Mexican Secretariat of Public Security." Still others involve building "anti-terrorism/force protection enhancements" for the Pakistani border force in the tribal areas abutting Afghanistan.
The Defense Department's Counter Narco-Terrorism Program Office has packed all these tasks and more inside a mega-contract for security firms. The office, known as CNTPO, is all but unknown, even to professional Pentagon watchers. It interprets its counternarcotics mandate very, very broadly, leaning heavily on its implied counterterrorism portfolio. And it's responsible for one of the largest chunks of money provided to mercenaries in the entire federal government.
8/ It's a holiday week, so here's a gooey one - "The Jack Buck Story".......should bring some moisture to your optical area......
Five minutes and an excellent story......
9/ A reasoned and fair analysis of Mayor Bloomberg's conflicted response to Occupy Wall Street - in many ways the Mayor is a very good leader for New York, but he is still a prisoner of his wealth when it comes to the reasons behind the movement......he is, after all, a perfect symbol of how the system benefits the ultra wealthy and at $20 billion net worth he is definitely an oligarch.....
Good article from New York Magazine......
On September 16, Mayor Bloomberg did his weekly radio show with John Gambling. The Friday-morning chats are usually fairly sedate. But this time, when Gambling asked Bloomberg about a historic rise in the national poverty rate, the mayor made headlines. “You have a lot of kids graduating college who can’t find jobs,” he said. “That’s what happened in Cairo. That’s what happened in Madrid. You don’t want those kinds of riots here.”
The remarks seemed a little off on the facts—leaving out decades of political repression in Egypt, for instance—and were mostly ridiculed as alarmist. Even a mayoral aide tried to turn down the volume by explaining that Bloomberg’s choice of words was a “euphemism.” The next day, though, Occupy Wall Street moved into Zuccotti Park. Soon the mayor’s comments looked as if they’d been informed by an advance warning, maybe good intelligence from the NYPD.
Which would make for a nice, tidy narrative. The reality is that the timing was merely a coincidence. Even if Bloomberg was proved prescient about the darkening mood, he was just as surprised by the encampment’s arrival as everyone else. In the two months since, there have been miscalculations, accidents, and revelations (who knew from the quirky rules of a public private space?) as the movement spread nationally, even internationally, and was stirred last week by the predawn raid ordered by the mayor that recaptured Zuccotti Park.
10/ An astonishing mini-doc called "The Beauty Of Pollination"......
Ho hum you say? Been there, seen that?
No you haven't .....I will guarantee you've never seen a nature video like this....five minutes of amazing and beautiful footage.....
11/ If you haven't seen the UC Davis pepper spray incident Matt Taibbi has it here.....but he then discusses how our society has become one where our individual rights are ignored by the state .....which then leads to paramilitary police pepper-spraying defenceless students.
He has hope in this discussion - the elites are lost, and have lost. Real strength is with the kids who were abused.....
For thinking readers......Taibbi nails it as usual.....
To recap for those who haven’t seen it: police in paramilitary gear line up in front of a group of Occupy protesters peacefully assembled on a quad pathway. Completely unprovoked, police decide to douse the whole group of sitting protesters with pepper spray. There is crying and chaos and panic, but the wheezing protesters sit resolutely in place and refuse to move despite the assault.
Finally, in what to me is the most amazing part, the protesters gather together and move forward shouting “Shame On You! Shame On You!” over and over again. You can literally see the painful truth of those words cutting the resolve of the policemen and forcing them backwards.
12/ If you are on any of the right wing email lists you may wonder where this stuff comes from, but in this insightful story from the Washington Post we learn that the vast majority of internet rumours and hate mail is right wing.....
My opinion - the Koch Brothers have set up a sort of think tank to make this stuff up and send it out......and there are also separate groups that call in to radio shows and put comments on website stories....so all you hear and see is hate filled discussion.....
Will Medicare premiums go up nearly 2 1 / 2 t imesover the next two years in order to pay for the health-care legislation signed by President Obama last year? Well, no, they won’t. But you might think an increase is coming if you read a chain e-mail that has spread across the country in the past few months. “Send this to all seniors that you know,” it says. “So they will know who’s throwing them under the bus.”
Will Americans be subjected to international gun-control laws under a new U.N. treaty signed by Hillary Rodham Clinton? Is the president honoring Jane Fondaas one of the “women of the century”? Was suspected Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan an adviserto the Obama administration?
Like the Medicare story, these claims are demonstrably false, too. Nevertheless, they are popular on the thriving underground e-mail circuit, a carnival of nonsense whose star attractions have included the canard that Obama is a secret Muslim and variations on the “birther” claims about his origins.
Grass-roots whisper campaigns such as these predate the invention of the “send” button, of course. No one needed a Facebook page or an e-mail account to spread the word about Thomas Jefferson’s secret love child or Grover Cleveland’s out-of-wedlock offspring (both won elections despite the stories, which in Jefferson’s case were very likely true).
But it has become a truism that in their modern, Internet-driven form, these persistent narratives spread far faster and run deeper than ever. And they share an unexpected trait: Most of the time, Democrats (or liberals) are the ones under attack. Yes, George W. Bush had some whoppers told about him — such as his alleged scoffing thatthe French “don’t have a word for ‘entrepreneur’ ” — but when it comes to generating and sustaining specious and shocking stories, there’s no contest. The majority of the junk comes from the right, aimed at the left.
13/ This photo collection reminding us of the holiday your scribe missing was a little painful.....but funny.
Check out the frozen smiles and awkward poses.....and companies used this stuff......
Love #14.....
http://www.happyplace.com/
14/ A delicious story of how a German Mercedes Benz senior manager was pulled over by a cop in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and arrested under their new draconian law giving police the powers to arrest illegal immigrants......MB has a huge plant in Alabama and executives from Germany obviously come over to visit it.....
This one went up to the Governor......
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — A German manager with Mercedes-Benz is free after being arrested for not having a driver’s license with him under Alabama’s new law targeting illegal immigrants, authorities said Friday, in an otherwise routine case that drew the attention of Gov. Robert Bentley.
Tuscaloosa Police Chief Steven Anderson told The Associated Press an officer stopped a rental vehicle for not having a tag Wednesday night and asked the driver for his license. The man only had a German identification card, so he was arrested and taken to police headquarters, Anderson said.
The 46-year-old executive was charged with violating the immigration law for not having proper identification, but he was released after an associate retrieved his passport, visa and German driver’s license from the hotel where he was staying, Anderson said.
The length of his detainment and the status of his court case weren’t immediately known.
Mercedes-Benz, which is a division of Daimler AG, builds sport-utility vehicles at a large plant in Vance, about 20 miles east of Tuscaloosa. The automaker’s decision to open a factory in Alabama in 1993 was considered a major coup for the state’s economic development efforts and launched a trend of other foreign automakers and suppliers who opened major factories in the state, including Honda, Toyota and Hyundai.
15/ Scott Maxwell with a hard hitting column about the pond scum that rule our Florida lives.....
In today's Friday Files, we are talking about the wrongfully convicted and broken campaign promises.
But first, I think I've finally figured out what Florida is in the eyes of corporate America: a John.
But first, I think I've finally figured out what Florida is in the eyes of corporate America: a John.
Why do I say that? Because Florida has essentially given up on trying to be a state where businesses want to come. Instead, we keep trying to lure them with cash.
The latest news has Gov. Rick Scott wanting to more than double his incentives bankroll — we're talking $230 million of your tax dollars to throw at companies next year.
Sure, some states attract companies with an educated workforce, good transportation and a high quality of life.
And then there are states like Florida that rely on corporate welfare.
Unfortunately, we're not even very good at it.
Not only is Florida's economy still worse than most states, but as the Sentinel's Aaron Deslatte has been reporting, many of the jobs we've tried to buy never even materialized.
Yep, even when we pay for it, we don't always score.
16/ A movie that came out last week, "The Descendants", sounds pretty good......
In a voice-over at the beginning of “The Descendants,” Matt King (George Clooney) challenges the myth, endemic among mainlanders, that Hawaii, where he lives, is a paradise on earth. His brief rant is buttressed by images of poverty and grime that are powerful but also slightly misleading, since Matt’s story is not — or at least not explicitly — one of deprivation or social inequality.
Though he is a bit uncomfortable about admitting it (and though he tries to live a life of low-key, middle-class normalcy), Matt, a real estate lawyer, is as close to an aristocrat as it is possible for an American to be. His family tree stretches back to the earliest white settlers in Hawaii and includes indigenous royalty as well. This bloodline has devolved into a gaggle of pale loafers in loud shirts and sandals — Matt’s cousins — who own a pristine and picturesque tract of land on Kauai. Matt, the trustee of this precious birthright, is in charge of selling it off to developers.
This land deal is big news locally, but it is in some ways the least of Matt’s problems, a reminder of the burdens of an identity he both takes for granted and wishes he could shed. His wife, Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie), lies in an irreversible coma in a Honolulu hospital after a boating accident. Shortly after Elizabeth’s doctors inform Matt that he is about to become a widower, he learns that she has made him a cuckold.
Her impending death and the revelation of her past infidelity send Matt into a tailspin. The double wound also establishes what would seem to be Matt’s unshakable claim on the audience’s sympathy, which Mr. Clooney’s self-effacing charm helps to secure. But Mr. Clooney and the director,Alexander Payne (working from a script Mr. Payne adapted, with Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, from Kaui Hart Hemmings’s novel), proceed to shake up our expectations all the same.
The way Matt’s predicament plays out is surprising, moving and frequently very funny. Mr. Payne — immeasurably aided by a dazzlingly gifted, doggedly disciplined cast — nimbly sidesteps the sentimental traps that lurk within the film’s premise. He somehow achieves the emotional impact of good melodrama and the hectic absurdity of classic farce without ever seeming to exaggerate. There are times when you laugh or gasp in disbelief at what has just happened — an old man punches a teenager in the face; a young girl utters an outrageous obscenity; Mr. Clooney slips on a pair of boat shoes and runs, like an angry, flightless bird, to a neighbor’s house — and yet every moment of the movie feels utterly and unaffectedly true.
And the trailer for "The Descendants"....
Todays video - "Stinky" from the Carol Burnett Show....should appeal to Brits everywhere with her awful impression of the Queen......8 minutes......
Todays Barbie joke
One day a father gets off from work and on his way home he suddenly remembers that it's his daughter's birthday.
He pulls over to a Toy Shop and asks the sales person, How much for one of those Barbie's in the display window?'
The salesperson answers, 'Which one do you mean, Sir?
We have: Work Out Barbie for $19.95, Shopping Barbie for $19.95,
Beach Barbie for $19.95, Disco Barbie for $19.95, Ballerina Barbie for $19.95, Astronaut Barbie for $19.95, Skater Barbie for $19.95,
and Divorced Barbie for $265.95'.
The amazed father asks: 'It's what?! Why is the Divorced Barbie $265.95 and the others only $19.95?'
The annoyed salesperson rolls her eyes, sighs, and answers:
The amazed father asks: 'It's what?! Why is the Divorced Barbie $265.95 and the others only $19.95?'
The annoyed salesperson rolls her eyes, sighs, and answers:
'Sir... Divorced Barbie comes with: Ken's Car, Ken's House, Ken's Boat, Ken's Furniture, Ken's Computer, and one of Ken's Friends .
Todays word game joke
AMAZING WORD GAMEDid you know that the words "race car" spelled backwards still spell "race car"? And that "eat" is the only word that, if you take the first letter and move it to the last, spells its own past tense, "ate"? And that "strengths" is the longest English word with only one vowel?
And that if you rearrange the letters in "Tea Party Republicans," and add just a few more letters, it spells: "Shut the fuck up you pathetic, progress-blocking, benefit-grabbing, obstructionist, out-of-the-closet-racist, resource-sucking, anti-tax, homophobic, violent hypocrites and mindless non-compromising unrealistic fools; and deal with the fact that you've nearly wrecked the country and that our president is black, so get over it."Isn't that interesting?
