Merry Christmas everyone......have a great holiday!
1/ Frank Rich was most perturbed about the Sony Pictures hacking, with all of the implications for our free speech and how quickly everyone caved in to the demented threats from the crazy midget......we really are a nation of pussies.
But it's interesting that after the withering criticism of Sony and the media in general from Rich and many others including the President, the movie will be aired after Christmas.....protest works occasionally....
Every week, New York Magazine writer-at-large Frank Rich talks with contributor Eric Benson about the biggest stories in politics and culture. This week: the devastating Sony hack and our new age of cyber warfare.
Yesterday, Sony Pictures canceled the release of the Seth Rogen–James Franco comedy The Interview after hackers linked to North Korea threatened terrorism against theaters that showed the film. What do you make of Sony's decision? Was it prudent, or does it set a dangerous precedent for future controversial works of art?I think everyone knows the precedent is ominous. As Fred Kaplan askedrhetorically at Slate, “Will hackers now threaten to raid and expose the computer files of other studios, publishers, art museums, and record companies if their executives don’t cancel some other movie, book, exhibition, or album?” The short answer is yes. We are witnessing, in Alan Dershowitz’s phrase, the “Pearl Harbor of the First Amendment.”
But this story is far bigger than the threat to the First Amendment. And the vituperation being aimed at Sony for canceling the film’s release — coming from both the left and the right — is a sideshow that misses a bigger point. Before Sony capitulated, every major movie theater chain in the country had pulled out of showing The Interview. The Wall Street Journal reportedthat the nation’s largest cable company, Comcast, would have refused to show the film — and no doubt would have been joined in this veto by all the other cable and satellite providers if Sony had considered such a distribution alternative. So if Sony canceled a film that couldn’t be shown anyway, was that a cancellation or just a certification of reality? If Sony is a coward, they all are.
2/ Brrrr.....it's been a little nippy recently here in Florida, but nothing like they are having up North! Three minutes of winter fails, snow and ice, cars crashing, people falling.....the usual collection of misfortunes, without any nastiness......
3/ A challenging article from a really disillusioned Democrat......it's well written, persuasive and if you are a progressive, pretty depressing.....
Let’s abandon the Democrats: Stop blaming Fox News and stop hoping Elizabeth Warren will save us
Progressives have no power in a corporate, focus-grouped, Wall Street-leaning party. But we are the change we need
Bill O'Reilly, Elizabeth Warren (Credit: Reuters/Mike Segar/Jonathan Ernst/Photo montage by Salon)
The Democrats’ conduct since the midterm debacle is as sad and sorry as the campaign that caused it. The party’s leaders are a big problem. A bigger one is the closed system of high-dollar fundraising, reductionist polling and vapid messaging in which it is seemingly trapped. Some say a more populist Democratic Party will soon emerge. It won’t happen as long as these leaders and this system are in place.
Nancy Pelosi says it wasn’t a wave election. She’s right. It was the Johnstown Flood; as catastrophic and just as preventable. One year after the shutdown Republicans scored their biggest Senate win since 1980 and their biggest House win since 1928. Turnout was the lowest since 1942, when millions of GIs had the excellent excuse of being overseas fighting for their country.
Every Democratic alibi — midterm lull, sixth-year curse, red Senate map, vote suppression, gerrymandering, money — rings true, but all of them together can’t explain being swept by the most extreme major party in American history. Citing other statistics — demography, presidential turnout, Hillary’s polls — they assure us that in 2016 happy days will be here again. Don’t bet on it.
It took more than the usual civic sloth to produce the lowest turnout in 72 years. It took alienating vast voting blocs, including the young and the working class of both genders and all races. The young now trend Republican. Voters of all ages migrate to third parties or abandon politics altogether. It’s the biggest Democratic defection since the South switched parties in the 1960s. If Democrats don’t change their ways, their 2016 turnout will be a lot harder to gin up than they think.
4/ If you just read the above story and are a little gloomy, read this one.......there may be hope yet, if Webb stays populist.....
The Real Threat to Hillary Clinton: Jim Webb
WASHINGTON — THE conventional wisdom is that Hillary Rodham Clinton will be almost impossible to dislodge from the Democratic presidential nomination and that even if she does encounter some hiccups, they will come from her left flank on economic policy. But if Mrs. Clinton runs, she may face a serious and very different threat: her own foreign policy record. While she can pretty much split the difference with any primary opponents on economic policy, the divisions over foreign affairs could be a lot harder to paper over for Mrs. Clinton, who has been tacking to the right on Iran, Syria and Russia in anticipation of Republican assaults during the general election.
RELATED IN OPINION
This is why it isn’t really the Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren who should worry the Clinton camp. It’s the former Virginia senator Jim Webb, a Vietnam War hero, former secretary of the Navy in the Reagan administration, novelist and opponent of endless wars in the Middle East. Late last month, Mr. Webb formed an exploratory committee. “He’s a very long shot,” Leslie H. Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, told me. “He has to become a serious candidate. At that point she would find him much more complex than dealing with liberals. He’s not a liberal, but a lot of what he says might appeal to liberals. He does not get carried away by humanitarian intervention.”
Mr. Webb’s attacks on free trade and economic elites, coupled with a call for America to come home again, might well prove a potent combination in the early primaries, attracting antiwar progressives as well as conservative-minded Southern white men whom he believes the party can win back. His credo is as simple as it is persuasive: Rather than squander its power and resources abroad, America should rebuild.
5/ Some excellent Scottish humour from Danny Bhoy....giving a most unusual tourist guide to visiting Scotland.....raunchy and tongue in cheek, most amusing especially if you've been to Scotland....six minutes.....
6/ If you are getting a pension from a company, you need to read this.....in addition to bailing out the big banks when [not if but when]they tank the economy again there was a little footnote in the disgusting budget bill defunding the Pension Guarantee Board, which steps in to protect workers pensions when corporations get in trouble....
Good story from the Guardian.....again, a British paper telling us what surprises were in the budget bill.....
Do you remember where you were six years ago? Probably not. It was a long, long time ago. December 2008 is not one of those dates that gets burned on your brain, like the moon landing, or D-Day, or the end of Seinfeld.
But I remember where I was. I was at my post as the host of a personal finance show on national radio, and I was taking calls from people all over the country who were a) furious that their tax dollars were siphoned off to pay for a massive bank bailout that crashed the world economy, and b) outraged that the stock market was responding by wiping out their already-meager retirement and college education savings funds.
In December 2008, the number of jobs shrank by 533,000, the worst monthly loss in more than 30 years. Construction permits fell by more than 12% as people stopped buying houses. And retailers got a giant lump of coal from consumers, who decided that buying a bunch of worthless junk to put under a tree was probably not the best idea when their bank accounts – not to mention the country’s – were circling the drain.
“This shall not stand!” we cried, then. “We can never allow our own savings to be put at risk like this!”
And yet. Here we are again.
Congress has passed, and President Obama has said he would sign, a budget bill that allows banks to use your savings when they make giant financial bets called derivatives. Again.
And because those savings are insured by the federal government, you, the taxpayer, would be on the hook if those bets go south. Again.
7/ Jon Stewart tells us more shit the "Cromnibus" bill had in it.......it's nine minutes, and it's a sad day when our premier comedian [not our spineless corporate media] had to let us know what was in the bill and how this corruption was done......
For Tuesday evening’s Daily Show, Jon Stewart took on the $1.1 trillion omnibus, lampooning the clandestine way in which lawmakers inserted new laws and rolled back some regulations via a spending bill.
In addition to funding government expenses for the next fiscal year, the bill included non-budgetary deals like ending the ban on incandescent light bulbs, fighting the legalization of marijuana in D.C., and the rolling back of regulatory provisions in the Dodd-Frank financial bill.
How did those, and other non-budgetary items, get into the omnibus? According to CNN’s Chris Moody, lawmakers “came in, in the middle of the night, when not a lot of people are looking,” to sneak in items that would not pass on their own.
“What? They just wait until nobody is looking and slip the toxic stuff in?” an incredulous Stewart said, setting up the punch line: “The Bill Cosby of legislation.”
8/ Todays guy video - a behind the scenes look at how a Tesla is made......four minutes of looking at the future....wow.....robots!
9/ It's Christmas, so every network and lots of other channels will be running "It's a Wonderful Life", even Fox. But imagine this movie reshot the way Fox would like it to be.....here is a one minute trailer from Jimmy Kimmel.....very amusing.....
Last night, Jimmy Kimmel took Fox News’ escalated fight against the War on Christmas as an opportunity to present a new promo for the classic film It’s A Wonderful Life. In Fox News world, the story of George Bailey’s triumph over greed becomes “Mr. Potter and the Commies of Bedford Falls.”
Before Kimmel showed the updated trailer, he looked back at Megyn Kelly’‘s recent attempt to assure all the “kids” watching her 9pm show that Santa Claus — as well as Jesus — “just is white.”
After Monica Crowley said “you can’t take facts and then try to change them to fit some sort of a political agenda or a sensitively agenda,” Kimmel shot back, “You can’t? I thought that was Fox News’ business model.”
10/ Mark Bittman from the Times with a great column linking all of the discontent and protests.....it's all in the title.....people are getting really pissed, and the root causes of all of the injustice we see is the wealth gap, the gross inequality in America.....
Is It Bad Enough Yet?
THE police killing unarmed civilians. Horrifying income inequality. Rotting infrastructure and an unsafe “safety net.” An inability to respond to climate, public health and environmental threats. A food system that causes disease. An occasionally dysfunctional and even cruel government. A sizable segment of the population excluded from work and subject to near-random incarceration.
You get it: This is the United States, which, with the incoming Congress, might actually get worse.
This in part explains why we’re seeing spontaneous protests nationwide, protests that, in their scale, racial diversity, anger and largely nonviolent nature, are unusual if not unique. I was in four cities recently — New York, Washington, Berkeley and Oakland — and there were actions every night in each of them. Meanwhile, workers walked off the job in 190 cities on Dec. 4.
The root of the anger is inequality, about which statistics are mind-boggling: From 2009 to 2012 (that’s the most recent data), some 95 percent of new income has gone to the top 1 percent; the Walton family (owners of Walmart) have as much wealth as the bottom 42 percent of the country’s people combined; and “income mobility” now describes how the rich get richer while the poor ... actually get poorer.
The progress of the last 40 years has been mostly cultural, culminating, the last couple of years, in the broad legalization of same-sex marriage. But by many other measures, especially economic, things have gotten worse, thanks to the establishment of neo-liberal principles — anti-unionism, deregulation, market fundamentalism and intensified, unconscionable greed — that began with Richard Nixon and picked up steam under Ronald Reagan. Too many are suffering now because too few were fighting then.
What makes this an exciting time is that we are beginning to see links among issues that we have overlooked for far too long.
11/ And if you have doubts about the extent of how unfair our society is, look at these charts....
The bad news is that this was the lowest number of Americans who agreed with that statement in the past two decades (despite, as Gawker's Hamilton Nolan points out, its "inexcusably pro-American phrasing"):
Even near the depth of the financial crisis in early 2009, 72% of Americans still believed that hard work could result in riches.
"Things have changed a lot," Michael Herdmann, a 54-year-old retired public works employee from Fairview Park, Ohio, said in a follow-up interview. "The decks have been stacked against the lower class, but also the middle class."
The sad part is that the pessimists are actually right. Current-day America has developed an entrenched class system that hasn't existed since the Roaring Twenties. Earlier this year, the Washington Post used data from Federal Reserve Bank of Boston economists Richard Reeves and Isabel Sawhill to develop this alarming chart demonstrating that poor kids who get college degrees don't tend to do better than rich high-school dropouts.
So much for the myth of a meritocracy.
12/ We know you are under pressure to save money, so we found this story on how to fly frugally....
HOW TO BOOK THE CHEAPEST FLIGHT POSSIBLE
We’ve all experienced the tiresome, repeated searching when trying to book the cheapest possible flights to any given destination. With endless search engines and continually fluctuating prices, the approach to frugal flight booking is overwhelming. Here’s some key tips that will save you time, frustration and most importantly money when booking your next flight.
13/ How the grinning freak Voldemort got re-elected Governor is beyond me, but when he rambles on about jobs he is, as usual, lying. Florida is near the bottom in job growth....
Florida among the lowest in wage gains: Set your stun guns to "Blame Obama!"
Posted By KATE BRADSHAW on Mon, Dec 15, 2014 at 2:11 PM
Another day, another thing that's holding our state back.
The Wall Street Journal crunched numbers on changes in wages, county by county, throughout the U.S. between 2004 and 2013, and adjusted them for inflation. Surprise, surprise: Florida counties are lagging in terms of positive changes in average annual wages, and a vast majority of counties here have actually seen declines.
Nationally, one in three counties has seen a decline in wages. In Florida, though, average annual income has gone down in three quarters — that is, 75 percent — of its counties.
That means, when you hear politicians spout that worn-out catchphrase "jobs, jobs, jobs!" (by the way, 2010 called. It wants its tired populist rhetoric back), what they're really saying is, "jobs...jobs...jobs."
The Wall Street Journal crunched numbers on changes in wages, county by county, throughout the U.S. between 2004 and 2013, and adjusted them for inflation. Surprise, surprise: Florida counties are lagging in terms of positive changes in average annual wages, and a vast majority of counties here have actually seen declines.
Nationally, one in three counties has seen a decline in wages. In Florida, though, average annual income has gone down in three quarters — that is, 75 percent — of its counties.
That means, when you hear politicians spout that worn-out catchphrase "jobs, jobs, jobs!" (by the way, 2010 called. It wants its tired populist rhetoric back), what they're really saying is, "jobs...jobs...jobs."
Tampa Bay Times business columnist Robert Trigaux writes, "The map is a painful reminder that Florida's fixation simply to create lots of jobs is deceptive. While it may drive down the state unemployment rate, it does so at a cost when the average wage of new jobs is lower than the jobs they replaced."
14/ Trailer time
Can't resist this one - "Mad Max- Fury Road", coming summer 2015......lads - ultraviolence Australian style!
Remember "Taken"? Taken 2 was a bit of a dud, but "Taken 3" looks amazing - Liam Neeson goes rogue! Ahoooogah! Blowed up good, real good.......coming January 9th......
15/ Not often I disagree with Matt Taibbi, but I think we in Florida know more about Jeb Bush than he does.....his contention is the Jebster is a RINO and he'll never get nominated because the Tea Party hates him for being "squishy".......the trouble is he isn't - he is as crazy a conservative as the rest of them....
Mr. Taibbi is an excellent political journalist and it's interesting to follow his logic, even though we know he's off the mark a bit.
Andy Jacobsohn/Getty Images
Jeb Bush isn't just a Beltway insider. He's literally the biological spawn of the political establishment
By Matt Taibbi | December 18, 2014
So Jeb Bush might be running for president. The rest of the world must be howling with laughter.
Apparently, the American political establishment isn't just afraid of new ideas, it's afraid of new people. It wants things so much the same, it's seeking blood guarantees, like the old Euro aristocracies that sealed military alliances with marriages. It's pathetic, and if Bush-Clinton turns out to be the general election menu, it's going to make kleptocratic paradises like the Soviet Union or the PRC look like vibrant democracies in comparison.
And man, could anything be less exciting, less of an inspiration to get the vote out than that lineup? "Vote 2016! Nothing Ever Changes!" People will stay home and hand-remove their own moles before dragging themselves to vote in that contest.
But hoping for anything else increasingly looks like a vain pursuit, now that Jeb has just "announced" that he will "actively explore" a run for the Presidency, whatever that combination of terms means.
The news kicked off a heated debate in the blogosphere over what Bush's run will mean for conservatives, who will have spent eight painful years waiting to unseat the black Satan and probably had not planned on settling for anything short of a violent repudiation of his administration. Unsurprisingly, the reaction from the base to Jeb's announcement ranged from mild nausea to outright hysteria.
16/ I think Scott Maxwell nails it about Jeb Bush........and he's amusing too.....
Jeb Bush really wants to be president.
The pundits, however, fear he's not conservative enough — that he's too moderate.
That fear is about as legitimate as me fearing my abs are too ripped.
Jeb Bush is a union-busting, school-voucher-promoting, tax-cutting, gun-loving, Terri Schiavo-interfering, hard-core conservative.
What makes Bush different from a lot of the other candidates is that he's also sane.
And somehow, in our increasingly extreme society, sane is now mistaken for moderate.
Especially when it comes to Republican presidential campaigns.
If you'll recall, the 2012 GOP primary was like the Island of Misfit pols. Everyone ran way right and became the front runner for about 15 minutes … until people actually heard them speak.
Michele Bachmann seemed pleasant enough … until she opened her mouth and the crazy leaked out. Her suggestion that genital-wart vaccinations cause "mental retardation" made Dr. Frankenstein seem medically responsible.
The staple of Rick Perry's campaign was a three-part plan — only two parts of which he could actually remember.
And Rick Santorum told America that gay people were so scary and dangerous that their kids would be better off growing up with a dad in prison than with two loving mommies.
Sure, Jeb looks moderate next to all that.
Heck, Darth Vader looks moderate next to that.
But Jeb is no moderate — no matter what Glenn Beck (who called Bush a "progressive"), the New York Times ("Jeb Bush Stakes Out Middle Ground") or the Christian Science Monitor ("He's too moderate") try to say.
Today's slide show.......I found some pictures of your early childhood that might explain your strange personality......
Todays wrestling joke
A Russian and a redneck wrestler from Texas were set to square off for the Olympic Gold Medal. Before the final match, the redneck wrestler’s trainer came to him and said, “Now don’t forget all the research we’ve done on this Russian. He’s never lost a match because of this “pretzel hold” he has. Whatever you do, do not let him get you in that hold! If he does, you’re finished!”The redneck nodded in acknowledgement. As the match started, the redneck and the Russian circled each other several times, looking for an opening. All of a sudden, the Russian lunged forward grabbing the redneck and wrapping him up in the dreaded “pretzel hold”. A sigh of disappointment arose from the crowd and the trainer buried his face in his hands, for he knew all was lost. He couldn’t even watch the inevitable happen...Suddenly, there was a scream. Then a cheer from the crowd and the trainer raised his eyes just in time to watch the Russian go flying up in the air. His back hit the mat with a thud and the redneck collapsed on top of him making the pin and winning the match. The trainer was astounded. When he finally got his wrestler alone he asked “How did you ever get out of that hold? No one has ever done it before!”The wrestler answered, “Well, I was ready to give up when he got me in that hold but at the last moment, I opened my eyes and saw this pair of testicles right in front of my face. I had nothing to lose so with my last ounce of strength I stretched out my neck and bit those babies just as hard as I could.”So the trainer exclaimed, “That’s what finished him off!!!”The wrestler explained, “Not really... You’d be amazed at how strong you get when you bite your own testicles...”
Todays corporate Christmas joke
TO: All Employees
DATE: 4 November 2007
RE: Christmas Party
I'm happy to inform you that the company Christmas Party will take place on December 23rd, starting at noon in the private function room at the Grill House. There will be a cash bar and plenty of drinks!
We'll have a small band playing traditional carols. Please feel free to sing along. And don't be surprised if the CEO shows up dressed as Santa Claus! A Christmas tree will be lit at 1:00 PM.
Exchange of gifts among employees can be done at that time. However, no gift should be over $10.00 to make the giving of gifts easy for everyone's pocketbook.
This gathering is only for employees! The CEO will make a special announcement.
Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Pauline
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FROM: Pauline Lewis, Human Resources Director
TO: All Employees
DATE: 5 November 2007
RE: Holiday Party
In no way was yesterday's memo intended to exclude our Jewish employees. We recognize that Chanukah is an important holiday, which often coincides with Christmas, although unfortunately not this year. However, from now on we're calling it our "Holiday Party."
The same policy applies to any other employees who are not Christians. There will be no Christmas tree or Christmas carols sung. We will have other types of music for your enjoyment. Happy now?
Happy Holidays to you and your family,
Pauline
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FROM: Pauline Lewis, Human Resources Director
TO: All Employees
DATE: 6 November 2007
RE: Holiday Party
Regarding the note I received from a member of Alcoholics Anonymous requesting a non-drinking table, you didn't sign your name. I'm happy to accommodate this request, but if I put a sign on a table that reads, "AA Only," you wouldn't be anonymous anymore!
How am I supposed to handle this? Somebody?
Forget about the gift exchange, no gift exchange allowed now since the union officials feel that $10.00 is too much money and management believes $10.00 is a little cheap. NO GIFT EXCHANGE WILL BE ALLOWED.
Pauline
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FROM: Pauline Lewis, Human Resources Director
TO: All Employees
DATE: 7 November 2007
RE: Holiday Party
What a diverse group we are! I had no idea that December 20th begins the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which forbids eating and drinking during daylight hours. There goes the party! Seriously, we can appreciate how a luncheon at this time of year does not accommodate our Muslim employees' beliefs.
Perhaps the Grill House can hold off on serving your meal until the end of the party - or else package everything up for you to take home in a little foil doggy bag. Will that work?
Meanwhile, I've arranged for members of Weight Watchers to sit farthest from the dessert buffet and pregnant women will get the table closest to the toilets. Gays are allowed to sit with each other. Lesbians do not have to sit with gay men, each will have their own table. There will be flower arrangements for the gay men's table.
To the person asking permission to cross dress - no cross dressing allowed.
We will have booster seats for short people. Low fat food will be available for those on a diet. We cannot control the salt used in the food. We suggest those people with high blood pressure taste the food first. There will be fresh fruits as dessert for diabetics. The restaurant cannot supply "no sugar" desserts.
Sorry! Did I miss anything?
Pauline
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FROM: Pauline Lewis, Human Resources Director
TO: All Employees
DATE: 8 November 2007
RE: The ****** Holiday Party
Vegetarian jerks: I've had it with you people! We're going to keep this party at the Grill House whether you like it or not, so you can sit quietly at the table furthest from the "grill of death," as you so quaintly put it. You'll get your f****** salad bar, including organic tomatoes, but you know tomatoes have feelings too, they scream when you slice them. I'm hearing them scream right NOW!
I hope you all have a rotten holiday and then drink, drive and die.
Pauline, the Bitch from HELL!
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FROM: John Bishop, Acting Human Resources Director
TO: All Employees
DATE: 9 November 2007
RE: Pauline and the Holiday Party
I'm sure I speak for all of us in wishing Pauline Lewis a speedy recovery and I'll continue to forward your cards to her. In the meantime, the management has decided to cancel our holiday party and instead, give everyone the afternoon of the 23rd December off with full pay. Have a SUCCESSFUL day!
John
Todays golf joke
Three ladies are playing the 4th hole at a members-only golf club, when a naked man, wearing a bag over his head, jumps from the trees and runs across the green.
The 3 ladies look and are in shock at the size of his manhood.The first lady says, ”Well he definitely is not my husband.”The second lady looks at his manhood and says, “He for sure is not my husband.”The third lady takes a good look and says, "He's not even a member of this club!”
