1/ Our media is full of the posturing from both Presidential candidates, and your TV is getting full of misleading and hate-filled attack ads, but the reality in Washington is that they want to fool you enough in November to get your vote - after that it's back to business as usual, and you will go back to invisibility.....
Face it - we don't really exist to the oligarchy....we're just background noise......
Good news! The economy added 163,000 jobs last month, just a bit over the level required to keep up with population growth. A return to a free fall now seems less likely. On the other hand, there is the small footnote that the return to full employment is nowhere in sight. The recovery looks safe for those of us who are not already screwed. That, sadly, has come to be the primary focus of our economic policy.
In the years since the collapse of 2008, the existence of mass unemployment has stopped being something the economic powers that be even pretend to regard as a crisis. To those directly impacted, the economic crisis is an emergency, a life-altering disaster the damage from which will endure for years. But most of those in a position to address it simply have not seen it in such terms. History will record that the economic elite has viewed the economic crisis from a perspective of detached complacency.
Two events from the last week have underscored this disturbing reality. The most widely covered was the Federal Reserve’sannouncement that, despite a weakening economy, it still would not take steps to stimulate growth. The Fed may not like mass unemployment, but it dislikes inflation even more, and in its calculus, the hypothetical prospect of the latter outweighs the immediate reality of the former.
Here’s a second case, smaller but even more telling. The Obama administration has tried to prevail upon Edward DeMarco, the acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to offer lower mortgage rates to underwater home owners through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which he controls. What interests me is not the proposal itself, nor even DeMarco’s obstinate refusal, but aneditorial in the Washington Post applauding DeMarco for refusing to implement the program.
2/ In case you missed it Mr. Bean [Rowan Atkinson] had a spot in the Olympic opening ceremonies.....amusing as always - 3 minutes.....
You may note the obscure website - this is because NBC is restricting any footage or videos from the Olympics....
3/ Some good news for our younger readers, and a few older ones as well - three states have the legalisation of marijuana on the ballot in November.....about bloody time......
But as long as Rick Scott is Governor of Florida don't expect any progress on weed being decriminalised here - about 40% of inmates in our jails are in for possession of pot, and legalisation will be a blow to the privatisation of the prison system because it will mean fewer prisoners.........
Interesting article from Rolling Stone.......
At least some able-bodied Americans may soon be able to score a bag of weed legally without having to fake a knee injury. In November, voters in three states could approve ballot measures to legalize marijuana, and not just for medical purposes – for getting-high purposes. Then again, they might chicken out, like California voters did in 2010. But sooner or later, and probably sooner, a state will go green.
About half of America will be fine with that. Support for legalization is (no other way to put it) higher than ever, and rising. That's partly demographics – the young are more into pot than their elders, who aren't sticking around. But it's something else, too: The status quo, people are starting to notice, is a total disaster.
The prohibition on marijuana – a relatively benign drug when used responsibly by adults, and a teddy bear compared to alcohol and tobacco – has done an impressive job of racking up racially-biased arrests; throwing people in jail; burning up police time and money; propping up a $30 billion illegal market; and enriching psychotic Mexican drug lords.
But it hasn't stopped Americans from smoking a ton of weed. We're up to 20-30 million users, 6 billion joints a year – and rising. And teenagers, who ideally shouldn't be toking up on a regular basis, say pot is easier to get than beer. "There's that Talmudic principle that a law that's not obeyed is a bad law," says Mark Kleiman, a drug policy expert at UCLA and co-author of the new book Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know. "And I think we're pretty much at that point."
So, let's try another approach, right? Legalization could come in many forms, but all would involve tradeoffs. And no doubt there are all sorts of ways to screw it up. But more power to the first state to give it a shot.
http://www.rollingstone.com/
4/ A classic video of the closing of the border ceremonies between India and Pakistan, and this is the two minute version you have already seen.....good photography, but minimal commentary......
Michael Palin, the former Monty Python alum, has had a new career doing travel documentaries and here he looks at the same border closing at Wagah, and explains the meaning behind this ritual........it's interesting to get the background - 4 minutes......
5/ Sometimes the Letters to the Editor in the Times are revealing - Sanjay Gupta wrote an article on medical intervention, but this letter from a Doctor in response to the story got to me......read it, and I'll tell you why I was disgusted.......
To the Editor:
Reading Sanjay Gupta’s article, I was reminded of a patient I had seen recently. She was a middle-aged woman with months of tailbone pain. She had three M.R.I.’s and multiple, ineffective steroid injections, leading to failure of her adrenal glands.
Thankfully, I had a bit of extra time that day to take a good history. “What do you do for exercise?” I asked. “I bike religiously after work for several miles every day,” she told me. “And no one told you to stop doing that?” I asked her, likely ascertaining the cause of her pain. “No one ever asked me,” she said.
As long as doctors are paid many times more to order tests and perform procedures instead of being compensated to talk to patients and think about their symptoms, too many tests and procedures will be what Americans get, to their great disservice.
DAWN HARRIS SHERLING
Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., Aug. 1, 2012
Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., Aug. 1, 2012
The writer is an internist.
It got to me because I don't understand how people are so stupid - your lower back hurts enough to go for MRI's and risky steroid treatments, but it never occurs to you it might be your bike riding that is the cause?
The lesson here - it's your body, take responsibility for your health. The medical system doesn't care about you, it loves it when you are sick because they only make money giving you treatments.....and get a better seat for your bike.....
6/ Last week's news, but still funny - Stephen Colbert explains what happened with Mitt Romney's visit to London and the Olympic gaffe......excellent 2 minute Colbert.....
7/ This is one of the most annoyingly-written articles I have ever posted, and yet it has a clear message to us all - if you can fight your way through the cobwebs of ornate language that he uses......
The story is about climate change, and our refusal as a nation to accept it......it's worth reading....
This is not gray beard, flapping in the meaningless breeze, prophecy; this is verifiable, peer-reviewed science. The time for discussion and debate has passed. Only fools, cranks, and greed-besotted psychotics doubt the effect that trapped greenhouse gasses are reaping across the planet. We no longer have the luxury of indulging their corporate age form of blindness and insanity.
America, take a look out the window…risk taking in the passing scene.
However, rather than doing so, we draw the curtains tight and reach for the TV remote or a host of other insulating electronic devices that serve to circumvent self-examination. We turn away in denial or rage in belligerent ignorance, because we see the world moving on, and we cannot control the situation…no matter how many predator drones we have scouring the globe. Increasingly, we feel uneasy, for we see events are changing fast -- and, as the momentum of events propel us through time, we are not yet ready to accept the fact, but know deep within us, that we cannot remain the people that we are.
Grasping the reality of one's situation can be painful. Those in the U.S. still clinging to the tattered myths of late stage capitalism would be hurt and angry, if they came to realize the amount of corporate state propaganda that they have internalized...that has allowed for their exploitation by a ruthless, unaccountable few e.g., the fairy tale of upward class migration. Ergo, the relentless, all-pervasive manner in which well-funded operatives of the rightwing wage class warfare. For example, the noxious canard asserting welfare layabouts have sponged up your fair share of hard wrought earnings. In this way, the bigot whispers of the capitalist state have created a mean-spirited, punitive cosmology that serves to emotionally displace anger. And these tropes of demagogic displacement are quite lucrative to its accomplished practitioners e.g., Rush Limbaugh.
8/ On August 1st all health plans had to cover women's birth control pills, and Colbert had a field day with this one.....one of his funniest ever.....3 minutes of hilarity......
Thanks to Obama's contraception mandate going into effect, American women are now on the "loose lady express to bone town junction."
But House Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has an ingenious plan to save us: Repeal Obamacare!
Good plan, Mitch. Why hasn't anyone thought of that yet? You'd think there was some sort of court of law -- like, a superlatively great court, some kind of supreme court -- that could definitively "strike down" Obamacare and stop the government from paying women to have sex on the taxpayers' dime.
Stephen Colbert wants no part of this outrage. However, since being named toMaxim's list of the 100 hottest women in the world he's bound to abide by the law until McConnell's master plan reverses it. Which means he has no choice but to down an entire month's worth of birth control pills.
9/ Are you retired? Or stopping work soon? This is an excellent article from the Times on the awful way Americans plan for retirement.....we don't! The reality is 75% of Americans risk poverty in their old age....
Excellent, excellent article and should be read by everyone over 40.......
I WORK on retirement policy, so friends often want to talk about their own retirement plans and prospects. While I am happy to have these conversations, my friends usually walk away feeling worse — for good reason.
Seventy-five percent of Americans nearing retirement age in 2010 had less than $30,000 in their retirement accounts. The specter of downward mobility in retirement is a looming reality for both middle- and higher-income workers. Almost half of middle-class workers, 49 percent, will be poor or near poor in retirement, living on a food budget of about $5 a day.
In my ad hoc retirement talks, I repeatedly hear about the “guy.” This is a for-profit investment adviser, often described as, “I have this guy who is pretty good, he always calls, doesn’t push me into investments.” When I ask how much the “guy” costs, or if the guy has fiduciary loyalty — to the client, not the firm — or if their investments do better than a standard low-fee benchmark, they inevitably don’t know. After hearing about their magical guy, I ask about their “number.”
To maintain living standards into old age we need roughly 20 times our annual income in financial wealth. If you earn $100,000 at retirement, you need about $2 million beyond what you will receive from Social Security. If you have an income-producing partner and a paid-off house, you need less. This number is startling in light of the stone-cold fact that most people aged 50 to 64 have nothing or next to nothing in retirement accounts and thus will rely solely on Social Security.
Even for those who know their “number” and are prepared for retirement (it happens, rarely), these conversations aren’t easy. At dinner one night, a friend told me how much he has in retirement assets and said he didn’t think he had saved enough. I mentally calculated his mortality, figured he would die sooner than he predicted, and told him cheerfully that he shouldn’t worry. (“Congratulations!”) But dying early is not the basis of a retirement plan.
If we manage to accept that our investments will likely not be enough, we usually enter another fantasy world — that of working longer. After all, people hear that 70 is the new 50, and a recent report from Boston College says that if people work until age 70, they will most likely have enough to retire on. Unfortunately, this ignores the reality that unemployment rates for those over 50 are increasing faster than for any other group and that displaced older workers face a higher risk of long-term unemployment than their younger counterparts. If those workers ever do get re-hired, it’s not without taking at least a 25 percent wage cut.
10/ On a similar note, if you are part of the 25% of Americans who have saved or are putting away enough for retirement and are fed up with our plutocracy and the way they are screwing up this country - what investment strategy should you pursue? The big boys dominate the stock market, and you as an individual have zero chance.....
To survive, you have to put your money somewhere.......here is some great investment advice for our new millenium......
The deck is stacked. The game is rigged. The system is unmanageable.
With each passing scandal, it gets a little bit harder to ignore this refrain from individuals who have had it with traditional financial services companies. Perhaps it’s because the unfortunate events seem to be happening with increasing frequency.
This week, the funky trading programs at Knight Capital sent many stock prices scattering. While most individual investors were not hurt, the company, a major player in stock trading, is reeling.
The breakdown at Knight comes on the heels of — well, take your pick. The trading debacle at JPMorgan? The Libor-fixing scandal? The Facebookinitial public offering? The customer restitution that Capital One is paying for what the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said was deceptive credit card marketing?
It’s enough to give credence to the people who want nothing to do with the profit-making players of the American financial system.
I’ve heard from some of them of late, and they are not fringe characters living in fantasy land. They know they need to continue to save 15 percent or more of their income and invest it in something that earns a reasonable rate of return if they’re going to have any hope of retiring. But they don’t want to own stocks or do business with traditional financial players to achieve their goals.
Are they crazy even to try? This week, I took up the challenge of creating a financial plan for people like this — including the beginnings of a model investment portfolio — to see if such a goal was even remotely possible.
11/ Very clever young British lady with 21 different accents from all of the English-as-a-native-language countries.........her name is Amy Walker.....
Amusing and very impressive......about 2 minutes....
12/ This is a list of the top 10 GMO foods to avoid.....which is difficult in our busy lives, but doable if you are careful......
I read this week WalMart has agreed to carry the new GMO corn from Monsanto - Whole Foods, Trader Joes will not......
Having just come back from France where GM foods are banned, I can also say from personal experience the vegetables in Europe taste better. Here's another clue - if you buy a lettuce in France you need to eat it within a couple of days, contrasting to US lettuce which is eatable after two weeks or more in your frig.....
Genetically modified foods have been shown to cause harm to humans, animals, and the environmental, and despite growing opposition, more and more foods continue to be genetically altered. It’s important to note that steering clear from these foods completely may be difficult, and you should merely try finding other sources than your big chain grocer. If produce is certified USDA-organic, its non-GMO (or supposed to be!) Also, seek out local farmers and booths at farmer’s markets where you can be assured the crops aren’t GMO. Even better, if you are so inclined: Start organic gardening and grow them yourself. Until then, here are the top 10 worst GMO foods for your “do not eat” GMO foods list.
Top 10 Worst GMO Foods for Your GMO Foods List
1. Corn: This is a no-brainer. If you’ve watched any food documentary, you know corn is highly modified. “As many as half of all U.S. farms growing corn for Monsanto are using genetically modified corn,” and much of it is intended for human consumption. Monsanto’s GMO corn has been tied to numerous health issues, including weight gain and organ disruption.
13/ Kylie Minogue with "Timebomb", a dance music video with Kylie being naughty, strutting, in a Porsche and being sexy.....set in a city with double decker buses [not London].....good song too......
14/ Want to know which corporations are contributing to the secret SuperPacs that are polluting your TV? Here are some of them, some surprising names......
Have you eaten at White Castle recently? Or caught a movie at Regal Cinemas?
If so, you may be unwittingly helping finance right-wing attack ads.
That’s because many of the country’s most common brands are run by rich conservatives who are using their personal wealth to bankroll outside spending groups that are running attack ads smearing progressives. From Marriott Hotels to Brawny paper towels, and from the Los Angeles Lakers to the Coachella music festival, corporate executives at these organizations have given millions of dollars to groups like Mitt Romney’s Super PAC Restore Our Future.
Some corporations, like Waffle House, give direct donations to conservative attack ad groups like Karl Rove’s American Crossroads.
The following list of consumer brands either have leaders who wrote checks to outside right-wing attack ad groups or gave money directly from the corporation. Only entities that gave $25,000 or more were included in this guide.
15/ Steve Frayne is a British magician who does some mindblowing effects - here are three of them.....you may have seen the one of him walking on the Thames in London before......5 minutes.....
16/ In case you haven't noticed, Florida is in the forefront of trying to suppress the vote, using voter fraud as an excuse to bring in voter ID laws and targeting alleged illegal aliens. In addition Florida is the worst in the nation in restoring voting rights to anyone with a conviction......
Just by coincidence the groups who are losing their rights to vote, the old, minorities and the poor all tend to vote Democratic.....
It's noticed in the UK.......
Voting rights groups are struggling to hold back a tide of new laws that are likely to make it harder for millions of Americans to vote in the presidential election in November and could distort the outcome of the race for the White House.
Since January 2011, 19 states have passed a total of 24 laws that create hurdles between voters and the ballot box. Some states are newly requiring people to show government-issued photo cards at polling stations. Others have whittled down early voting hours, imposed restrictions on registration of new voters, banned people with criminal records from voting or attempted to purge eligible voters from the electoral roll.
The assault on voter rights is particularly acute in key swing states where the presidential race is likely to be settled. Five of the nine key battleground states identified by the Republican strategist Karl Rove have introduced laws that could suppress turnout – Florida, Iowa, New Hampshire, Ohio and Virginia.
Today's video - the apology bot.....
Todays cowboy joke
The old fellow in the big cowboy hat got a standing ovation The Sierra Club and the U. S. Forest Service were presenting an alternative to the Wyoming ranchers for controlling the coyote population. It seems that after years of the ranchers using the tried and true method of shooting or trapping the predators, the Sierra Club had a "more humane" solution to this issue. What they were proposing was for the animals to be captured alive. The males would then be castrated and let loose again. This was ACTUALLY proposed by the Sierra Club and by the U. S. Forest Service. All of the ranchers thought about this amazing idea for a couple of minutes. Finally an old fellow wearing a big cowboy hat in the back of the conference room stood up, tipped his hat back and said, "Son, I don't think you understand our problem here. These coyotes ain't fuckin' our sheep; they're eatin' 'em!" The meeting never really got back to order. |
Todays biker joke
There I was sitting at the bar staring at my drink when a large, trouble-making biker steps up next to me, grabs my drink and gulps it down in one swig.
"Well, whatcha' gonna do about it?" he says, menacingly, as I burst into tears.
"Come on, man," the biker says, "I didn't think you'd CRY. I can't stand to see aman crying."
"This is the worst day of my life," I say.
"I'm a complete failure. I was late to a meeting and my boss fired me. When I went to the parking lot, I found my car had been stolen and I don't have any insurance. I left my wallet in the cab I took home. I found my wife with another man . . . and then my dog bit me."
"So . . . I came to this bar to work up the courage to put an end to it all, I buy a drink, I drop a capsule in and sit here watching the poison dissolve; and then you show up and drink the whole damn thing! .........
But hell, enough about me, how are you doing?"
Todays ladies joke
A man came home from work and found his 5 children outside, still in their pyjamas, playing
in the mud, with empty food boxes and wrappers strewn around garden, The door of his wife's
car was open, as was the front door to the house and no sign of the dog.
Walking in the door, he found ...an even bigger mess. A lamp had been knocked over, the
throw rug was against one wall.
In the front room the TV was on loudly with the cartoon channel, the family room
was strewn with toys and various items of clothing. In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink,
breakfast food was spilled on the counter, the fridge door was open wide, dog food was
spilled on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand was spread by
the back door.
He quickly headed up the stairs, stepping over toys and more piles of clothes,
looking for his wife. He was worried she might be ill, or that something serious had happened.
He was met with a small trickle of water as it made its way out the bathroom door. As he
peered inside he found wet towels, scummy soap and more toys strewn over the floor. Miles of
toilet paper lay in a heap and toothpaste had been smeared over the mirror and walls. As he
rushed to the bedroom, he found his wife still curled up in the bed in her pyjamas, reading a novel...
She looked up at him, smiled and asked how his day went.
He looked at her bewildered and asked, 'What happened here today?'
She again smiled and answered, 'You know every day when you come home from work and you
ask me what in the world do I do all day?...
''Yes," was his incredulous reply..
She answered, 'Well, today I didn't do it.’
Todays bonus ladies joke
Two wives go out for girls night. Both got drunk, started walking home and had to pee.
They stopped at a cemetery but had nothing to wipe with. One used her panties, and the other grabbed a wreath off a grave.
The next morning one husband called the other and said, "No more girls night out! My wife came back with no panties."
The other husband said, "You think that's bad? Mine came back with a card in her crack that read, "From all of us at the fire station -- we'll never forget you!"
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