1/ Politics today is getting crazier and more corrupt and it just keeps getting worse, but in the back of your mind you think it's going to get so bad people will wake up and it will all get better. What if it doesn't? What if the erosion of the middle class and the impoverishment of the working poor becomes the new normal, fuelled by big money propaganda from the likes of the Koch Brothers and the oligarchs?
Thomas Frank has written a provocative article suggesting just this scenario......it's excellent, and scary, and if you are at all interested in keeping your middle class life you should read it......
I’ve been writing about what we politely call “inequality” since the mid-1990s, but one day about ten years ago, when I was traveling the country lecturing about the toxic curlicues of right-wing culture, it dawned on me that maybe I had been getting the entire story wrong. All the economic developments that I spent my days bemoaning—the obscene enrichment of the CEO class, the assault on the regulatory state, the ruination of average people—were very possibly not what I thought they were. When I talked about these things, I assumed they were an outrage, an affront to the affluent nation I still believed we were; once the scales fell from our eyes and Americans figured out what was happening, I argued, we would yell “stop,” bring this age of folly to a close, and get back to middle-class prosperity as usual.
What hit me that day was the possibility that my happy, postwar middle-class world was the exception, and that the plutocracy we were gradually becoming was the norm. Maybe what was happening to us was a colossal reversion to a pre-Rooseveltian mean, and all the trappings of ordinary life that had seemed so solid and so permanent when I was young—the vast suburbs and the anchorman’s reassuring baritone and the nice appliances that filled the houses of the working class—were aberrations made possible by an unusual balance of political forces maintained only by the enormous political efforts of its beneficiaries.
Maybe the gravity of history pulled in the exact opposite direction of what I had always believed. If so, the question was not, “When will we get back to the right order of things,” but rather, “Would we ever stop falling?”
Today, of course, the situation has grown vastly worse. The subject of inequality is discussed everywhere; there are think tanks and academic conferences dedicated to it; it has become socially permissible for polite people to wonder about the obscene gorging of those at the top. Sooner or later the question that everyone asks, upon discovering just how much of what Americans produce goes to the imbeciles in the penthouses and executive suites, is this: How much further can this thing go?
2/ "Corporations are people, my friend".....remember this statement from the Mittster? The Supreme Court is poised to go one step further, and endow corporations with religious beliefs and consciences.....
An excellent McFadden cartoon from the Times says it all.......
3/ Wow. Wow. An acapella version of "Hotel California" from a Latin flavoured six man group, and they nail the song you remember even though every note is from these musicians's mouths. If you aren't a fan of the Eagles you have still heard this song hundreds of times in Muzak, elevators, restaurants, offices etc. etc., so subconsciously you know every note.
The lead guitarist is incredible, especially the solo at the end....
4/ Did you see the equivalent of this two minute clip about the IPCC report on climate change on your mainstream media news? Of course not......
From UK Sky News.....
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released a report stating that the impact of global warming is now irreversible.
According to the report, rising carbon emissions will increase the threat of war, hunger, floods and mass migration this century. Without immediate action, greenhouse gas emissions could drive costs into the trillions in damage to property and ecosystems, as well as the cost for shoring up climate defenses. The report warns that the impact will increase with each degree of rise in the global temperature.
Set up in 1988, the IPCC provides neutral, science-based guidance to governments to approach the problem of climate change and the effects on world economies. The report, the second chapter of the fifth assessment of the panel, paints a dire picture for conditions on the planet if carbon emissions are left unchecked.
The summary sent a sobering message to world leaders. “Increasing magnitudes of warming increase the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts.”
5/ Stephen Colbert got into a media firestorm last week after a tweet from his show was labelled racist by an Asian-American activist......here he responds in his usual way - clever, witty and totally in character.....
Two clips - a one minute dream sequence, and a six minute segment......
Stephen Colbert returned tonight with an epic rebuttal to the #CancelColbert trend that inspired such fierce debate over the weekend, starting out with a dream sequence cold open in which Twitter activism actually did cancel his show. Colbert went on to defiantly proclaim, “The dark forces trying to silence my message of core conservative principles mixed with youth-friendly product placement have been thwarted.”
Colbert, who said “the interwebs tried to swallow me whole,” explained that it wasn’t him, but the “brain trust” over at his network that put out the offending, out-of-context tweet in question. He assured viewers he’s not a racist, that “people tell me I’m white and I believe them because I just spend six minutes explaining how I’m not a racist!”
6/ A reasoned, sobering article about the drought crisis in California and how not just their lives, but the entire country's habits will be changed.....it's coming folks, but as the article says not necessarily for the elites......
This is the way the world ends: Once-in-a-millennium drought a wakeup call
California is buckling under the strain of an environmental catastrophe — and it's only going to get worse
KATHLEEN SHARP
A firefighter watches for spot fires during a burnout operation while battling the Rim Fire near Yosemite National Park, Calif., Aug. 25, 2013. (Credit: AP/Jae C. Hong)
In a 90-year-old mansion built of hand-carved stones, my host lamented the dire water situation in Montecito, the millionaire’s haunt near Santa Barbara, Calif.: All of the Golden State was in a mega-drought. Things were so bad that not even the State Water Project, which serves 25 million people in Southern California, would deliver a drop for the first time in 54 years. Things were so bad that 17 small cities of field hands and trailer-park residents will have to truck in water by Thanksgiving. In fact, it was so bad that in Montecito — a lair of hedge fund managers, corporate tycoons and Hollywood producers — there may be no water come July. As our host went through this litany, my dinner companions picked at their food and politely murmured assents. Yet we all avoided the issues staring at us in this quasi-desert.
Finally, someone blurted. “Did you know that three mansion owners in Montecito use as much water as 300 homes in Goleta, a middle-class suburb 10 miles away.”
“We should print the names of those people,” said one woman.
“Yeah,” the man next to me agreed. “Shame them publicly.” Clearly only our host lived in this picturesque hamlet but the rest of us looked at one another in horror while trying to keep our jaws from smashing into our plates.
Was water about to become the next status symbol of the uber-wealthy?
* * *
There’s an old saying in the West. “Whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting over.”
7/ The final installment of "mcconnelling", setting music to a video of Mitch McConnell and much more......you can tell Jon Stewart really got into this......very funny indeed.....four minutes....
Earlier this month, Jon Stewart introduced the world to #McConnelling, an insane viral trend involving Kentucky senator Mitch McConnell b-roll. And Tuesday night, Stewart trotted out even crazier McConnell memes for people to roll with.
The first one is #meconnelling, in which you insert yourself into any of McConnell’s scenes yourself, just for sh*ts and giggles. The second one is #mitchtake, so that you can splice in video of other things that McConnell can be seen reacting to. (This one will be the weirdest, I guarantee it.)
But the third and final meme Stewart announced was #McConnellhey, in which you take video of Mitch McConnell and audio of Matthew McConaughey and do whatever the hell you want with it.
8/ The Supreme Court did it again this week - another blow for ordinary people, and great news for the oligarchs - now they have unlimited funds to buy our political process and this article from the New Yorker says this is the Chief Justice's dream. John Roberts first became high profile in 2000, arguing before the Supreme Court to throw the election to George W. Bush over Al Gore, and his reward was to be appointed by W to Chief Justice. He has served the oligarchy well - almost every decision coming from this court has been pro business, and the four other right wing toadies on the court are his allies.
The one part of our gumment that should be impartial is now as corrupt as Congress......
If you think that the Supreme Court’s decision in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission was bad, just wait: worse may be on the way.
The issue before the Court was fairly narrow, even a little obscure. Congress bars individuals from contributing more than fifty-two hundred dollars to any candidate for federal office in any election cycle. It also bars individuals from contributing more than a hundred and twenty-three thousand dollars, in total, to multiple federal candidates in a cycle. In the McCutcheon case, by a vote of five to four, the Court struck down the overall hundred-and-twenty-three-
So why is the case important? Because the language of Chief Justice John Roberts’s opinion suggests that the Court remains committed to the project announced most prominently in the Citizens United case, four years ago: the deregulation of American political campaigns.
The court, and Roberts in particular, has been very clear that regulation of campaign contributions is allowed under a single rationale. As he wrote in McCutcheon, “It is not an acceptable governmental objective to ‘level the playing field,’ or to ‘level electoral opportunities,’ or to ‘equalize the financial resources of candidates.’” Rather, Roberts wrote, “Congress may target only a specific type of corruption—‘quid pro quo’ corruption.”
But what is “quid pro quo” corruption, and what can Congress do about it? Roberts is clearer about what “quid pro quo” corruption is not than about what it is. In the key passage in the opinion, he writes:
Spending large sums of money in connection with elections, but not in connection with an effort to control the exercise of an officeholder’s official duties, does not give rise to such quid pro quo corruption. Nor does the possibility that an individual who spends large sums may garner “influence over or access to” elected officials or political parties. And because the Government’s interest in preventing the appearance of corruption is equally confined to the appearance of quid pro quo corruption, the Government may not seek to limit the appearance of mere influence or access.
In other words, Roberts is defining “quid pro quo” corruption almost as outright bribery, which Congress can outlaw. But the implication of what Roberts is saying is that anything short of outright bribery is protected by the First Amendment.
9/ Here is an interesting insight into the struggle for the soul of America.
Remember the Cadillac ad from the Super Bowl? Probably not, but even if you did you didn't absorb it fully watch it again, and listen to the words, because if you are following what is happening politically and economically to the middle class, it sends a clear oligarchic message.....n'est ce pas?
Listen to the words......
Then watch the wonderful response from Ford, with the same format but a completely different message.....
Why do we work so hard? Cadillac and Ford have very different answers.
For those shouting about the crumbling middle class, stagnant wages, and the death of unions (shh, Kevin Drum!), here’s the real answer: Stuff. Beautiful, beautiful stuff.
After arguing back and forth for control of the conversation, an obviously flabbergasted Hayes asked her how anyone could have an issue with an extension and how that could have anything to do with a woman losing any choices.
Robert H. Richards IV
http://www.latimes.com/books/
"Each one takes what one doesn't have", responded Gandhi indifferently.
Mr. Peters, hysterical, writes on the exam sheet the word "idiot" and gives it to Gandhi. Gandhi takes the exam sheet and sits down. A few minutes later, Gandhi goes to the professor and says, "Mr. Peters, you signed the sheet, but you did not give me the grade."
But if you can take a break from gently cradling and kissing all of your precious stuff instead of the children you never get to see, you’ll want to see Ford’s wonderful response to it.
Side note - Neal McDonough was on "Desperate Housewives", and played a great villain on "Justified" last season.....
10/ Lovely video of a group of Dutch tourists on safari in Kenya filming a group of elephants having a mud bath, with a baby having trouble getting out of the mud.....a nice four minutes......
11/ Chris Hayes guested Jennifer Stefano, regional director of Americans For Prosperity [Koch Brothers funded], and it's one of the most amazing interviews ever. This lady goes ballistic with fury, won't answer any questions and just goes on and on......six minutes of right wing outrage.....
All-In With Chris Hayes took a turn for the stupid on Wednesday night when conservative guest Jennifer Stefano went nuts hollering about Obamacare and accusing Hayes of trying to “undercut the voice of a woman.”
A clearly stunned Chris Hayes fought back virtually driving Stefano, the Pennsylvania state director for Americans for Prosperity, nearly insane with rage.
Stefano started her rant saying: “As a mother, I take real offense that women are being forced to have no choices that can cover their children!”
“Why does extending the deadline for two weeks take away the choices that you have for your children?”
That’s when the fireworks began with both Hayes and Stefano trading attacks back and forth for the next several minutes.
12/ Ahoooooooooggaaaa.....todays guy video is a machine that grinds up cars, car engines etc. into tiny bits.........watch the "Red Giant" work for two minutes - feel invigorated! Better than a "Low T" pill!
Woop woop!
13/ If you ever needed confirmation there are two Americas, one for the 1%, and "the system" for the rest of us, read this horrific story of how a Dupont heir got off without any time in jail for child molestation, the nasty kind that screws up the kids for their lifetime.
This is a country where if you have a child porn picture on your computer you get jailed and put on the sex offender list, but this monster did awful physical things to two children.....but since he had a great lawyer, and the fix was in for the judge, he got "treatment".
This was blatant corrupt "justice" for the wealthy, and happened six years ago without fuss or publicity....it's only come out now because of a lawsuit filed by his ex-wife. There's a different set of laws for the 1%......
Robert H. Richards IV
Six years ago, Robert H. Richards IV pleaded guilty to fourth-degree rape of his daughter. Though the offense carried a potential sentence of up to 15 years, he has not served time in prison for his actions. In sentencing him, Judge Jan Jurden instead ordered him to participate in a treatment program for sex offenders but reasoned that the “defendant will not fare well in Level 5 [prison] setting.” The judge’s order also included the urging that “Treatment needs exceed need for punishment.” The child, by the way, was 3 years old at the time of the offense.
If “probably not going to do well in there” is the benchmark for getting out of prison sentences, I wonder who then ought to be left to dwell within our nation’s overflowing penal facilities. But to be fair, Robert H. Richards IV is a pretty special guy. In addition to being a convicted child rapist, the Delaware man is the great grandson of Du Pont family patriarch Irénée du Pont. He is listed as the owner of a 5,800-square-foot, $1.8 million homenear the Du Pont family’s Winterthur Museum, and another near Rehoboth Beach. He lives on his trust fund. So, yeah, you can see how a man like that couldn’t possibly have been subjected to the rigors of a correctional center.
The case has only come to public attention this week because Richards’ ex-wife, Tracy Richards, has come forward with a Superior Court lawsuit “seeking compensatory and punitive damages for assault, negligence, and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress on his two children.” Mrs. Richards says that her daughter, now aged 11, was assaulted several times by her father when she was a preschooler. Horrifyingly, the lawsuit, which includes information from the original criminal case, says the he “entered her bedroom at night while she slept and penetrated her with his fingers while masturbating.” The incidents came to light when, her grandmother says, she told the woman she didn’t want “daddy touching me anymore.” The suit also alleges that Mr. Richards hinted in 2010 that “he sexually abused his son. Those assaults began around December 2005, when the boy was 19 months old, and continued for about two years.” A probation officer’s progress report notes “the possibility of sexual contact” with the son, though police who investigated the case said at the time they didn’t have sufficient evidence to charge him of any wrongdoing toward the baby.
14/ A nice cuppa guv'nor?......don't mind if I do as long as it's Earl Grey.......this is from the conservative British newspaper the Daily Telegraph.....
A cup of Earl Grey 'as good as statins' at fighting heart disease, study finds
Scientists believe bergamot, a key ingredient in Earl Grey tea, can significantly lower cholesterol
Drinking Earl Grey tea could help guard against heart disease, it has emerged, after a study found that bergamot extract - a key ingredient in the hot drink - is just as effective as statins at controlling cholesterol.
Scientists believe bergamot, a fragrant Mediterranean citrus fruit which gives Earl Grey tea its distinctive flavour, can significantly lower cholesterol.
They say it contains enzymes known as HMGF (hydroxy methyl glutaryl flavonones) which can attack proteins in the body known to cause heart disease.
If you take statins, get into the tea habit after watching this 13 minute clip from the movie "Statin Nation", and then ask yourself if you want to continue with this awful drug.......
15/ Matt Taibbi has a new book out, "The Divide", and per this review in the Los Angeles Times sounds like a must read. He is writing as an observer, chronicling the splitting of the country into the haves and the have nots.....
Doesn't sound like a kneeslapper, but if you want the truth about what is happening to our system you need to read authors like Taibbi.....you won't get reality from the mainstream media.....
The cover of "The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap" and author Matt Taibbi. (Robin Holland / Spiegel & Grau)
|
- By David L. Ulin, Los Angeles Times Book Critic
March 27, 2014, 11:40 a.m.
Matt Taibbi begins his sixth book, "The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap," with a simple formulation: "Poverty goes up; Crime goes down; Prison population doubles." It's a snapshot, a way to represent what Taibbi sees as the through-the-looking-glass reality of contemporary America, where rule of law has been subverted by, on the one hand, corporate greed and, on the other, a kind of institutionalized abuse of the poor.
Such a landscape, he suggests, brings to mind the last days of the Soviet Union, which operated out of a similar sort of mass hypocrisy until, in 1990 and '91, "people were permitted to think about all this and question the unwritten rules out loud, [and] it was like the whole country woke up from a dream, and the system fell apart in a matter of months."
Not that Taibbi is particularly optimistic about such a revolution (of either justice or perception) happening here. Rather, he feels "like I'm living that process in reverse, watching my own country fall into a delusion in the same way the Soviets once woke up from one."
"The Divide," then, is — like other recent books, including George Packer's "The Unwinding" and Thomas Pikkety's "Capital in the Twenty-First Century" — an attempt to map the slippage, to identify, through reporting and analysis, just what has happened to America and how it operates. Taibbi is well suited for such an endeavor; a longtime contributor for Rolling Stone — he left this year to start an online magazine for First Look Media — he's been writing about American political and economic life for better than a decade, especially the 2008 financial meltdown and its aftermath.
Todays video - the chest hair wax scene from "The 40 Year Old Virgin".....oh, the pain, the pain.......funny pain! Note - salty language......
Todays Ghandi joke
When Gandhi was studying law at the University College of London, there was a professor, whose last name was Peters, who felt animosity for Gandhi, and because Gandhi never lowered his head towards him, their "arguments" were very common.
One day, Mr. Peters was having lunch at the dining room of the University and Gandhi came along with his tray and sat next to the professor. The professor, in his arrogance, said, "Mr Gandhi: you do not understand... a pig and a bird do not sit together to eat ", to which Gandhi replies, "You do not worry professor, I'll fly away ", and he went and sat at another table.
Mr. Peters, green with rage, decides to take revenge on the next test, but Gandhi responds brilliantly to all questions. Then, Mr. Peters asked him the following question, "Mr Gandhi, if you are walking down the street and find a package, and within it there is a bag of wisdom and another bag with a lot of money; which one will you take?"
One day, Mr. Peters was having lunch at the dining room of the University and Gandhi came along with his tray and sat next to the professor. The professor, in his arrogance, said, "Mr Gandhi: you do not understand... a pig and a bird do not sit together to eat ", to which Gandhi replies, "You do not worry professor, I'll fly away ", and he went and sat at another table.
Mr. Peters, green with rage, decides to take revenge on the next test, but Gandhi responds brilliantly to all questions. Then, Mr. Peters asked him the following question, "Mr Gandhi, if you are walking down the street and find a package, and within it there is a bag of wisdom and another bag with a lot of money; which one will you take?"
Without hesitating, Gandhi responded, "the one with the money, of course".
Mr. Peters, smiling, said, "I, in your place, would have taken the wisdom, don't you think?"
"Each one takes what one doesn't have", responded Gandhi indifferently.
Mr. Peters, hysterical, writes on the exam sheet the word "idiot" and gives it to Gandhi. Gandhi takes the exam sheet and sits down. A few minutes later, Gandhi goes to the professor and says, "Mr. Peters, you signed the sheet, but you did not give me the grade."
Todays Medicare joke
The phone rings and the lady of the house answers,"Hello.""Mrs. Sanders, please.""Speaking.""Mrs. Sanders, this is Doctor Jones at Saint Agnes Laboratory. When your husband's doctor sent his biopsy to the lab last week, a biopsy from another Mr. Sanders arrived as well...We are now uncertain which one belongs to your husband. Frankly, either way the results are not too good.""What do you mean?" Mrs. Sanders asks nervously."Well, one of the specimens tested positive for Alzheimer's and the other
one tested positive for HIV. We can't tell which is which.""That's dreadful! Can you do the test again?" questioned Mrs.Sanders."Normally we can, but MEDICARE will only pay for these expensive tests
once.""Well, what am I supposed to do now?""The MEDICARE Help desk recommends that you drop your husband off somewhere
in the middle of town. If he finds his way home, don't sleep with him
Todays courtroom jokes
These are actual statements made
during court proceedings.
ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning?
WITNESS: He said, 'Where am I, Cathy?'
ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you?
WITNESS: My name is Susan!
_______________________________
ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Are you sexually active?
WITNESS: No, I just lie there.
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: What is your date of birth?
WITNESS: July 18th.
ATTORNEY: What year?
WITNESS: Every year.
_____________________________________
ATTORNEY: How old is your son, the one living with you?
WITNESS: Thirty-eight or thirty-five, I can't remember which.
ATTORNEY: How long has he lived with you?
WITNESS: Forty-five years.
_________________________________
ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget..
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
___________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
____________________________________
ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the 20-year-old, how old is he?
WITNESS: He's 20, much like your IQ.
___________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS: Are you shitting me?
_____________________________________
ATTORNEY: She had three children , right?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: How many were boys?
WITNESS: None.
ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?
WITNESS: Your Honor, I think I need a different attorney. Can I get a new attorney?
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated?
WITNESS: By death..
ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated?
WITNESS: Take a guess.
___________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual?
WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard
ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female?
WITNESS: Unless the Circus was in town I'm going with male.
_____________________________________
ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
______________________________________
ATTORNEY: Doctor , how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people?
WITNESS: All of them. The live ones put up too much of a fight.
_________________________________________
ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
WITNESS: Oral...
_________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 PM
ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS: If not, he was by the time I finished.
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
WITNESS: Are you qualified to ask that question?
______________________________________
And last:
ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No..
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.
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