If you are interested in politics, #3 is a must read.......
1/ Frank Rich with his take on the week's news, fascinating as always.......why we collectively could care less about Iraq, Al Malaki and Hillary's outburst of hawkishness.....naughty Hillary!
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 U.S. launches new airstrikes in Iraq, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki faces the end of his reign, and Hillary Clinton lashes out at Obama's foreign policy.
President Obama has launched a new phase in America's involvement in Iraq, ordering air strikes on ISIS positions to prevent the slaughter of religious minorities, halt the invasion of the Kurdish territory, and protect Americans living and working in the country — most perilous, those at the consulate in the Kurdish capital of Erbil. Did the president do the right thing?The answer is yes. But before I explain why, let’s take a brief pause to remember Robin Williams. In particular, to remember this: His tragic death is the No. 1 preoccupation in the nation by far, not the plight of thousands of starving Yazidis on Mount Sinjar. Even if we are sliding back into combat in Iraq — a highly debatable point — most Americans are oblivious to it. They have turned the page on Iraq. They have turned the page on foreign policy. They don’t give a damn. It’s against that cultural-political backdrop that the president’s actions in Iraq must be seen.
This gives Obama a lot of leeway for now, and in my view he is exercising it properly and coherently. From on high, he is taking out ISIS warriors, a vicious cadre that makes Saddam Hussein’s old Republican Guard look like the Peace Corps. Obama is also arming the endangered Kurds, as always the one sane and functioning enclave in Iraq. And he is trying to rescue the Yazidis before more die from violence or starvation. Why undertake this humanitarian mission as opposed to others in the same neighborhood?
2/ Robin Williams.......an amazing comedian.....this was his first appearance on the Tonight Show with host Johnny Carson.....two minutes of zany comedy, and very funny indeed.....
3/ Thomas Frank is a world class commentator on our political culture, and in this article he points out the obvious - it's easy and amusing to poke fun at some of the idiotic things the extreme right wing do and say, but it's not enough. There is no real debate, discussion or answers to the very real problems in this country, and the fault lies with both sides. This article will make you think, which is high praise indeed......
Excellent.......
Jon Stewart is not enough: The curse of centrism, and why the Tea Party keeps rolling “Daily Show” Democrats
It's easy to take shots and laugh at the know-nothing right. But our smirks let complicit Democrats off the hook
THOMAS FRANK
Jon Stewart (Credit: Comedy Central)
I have spent many years deriding the right, and I have to admit, it has been a hoot. The conservative world is an endless shooting gallery of hypocrites, con men, narcissists, and walking examples of this or that species of cognitive malfunction. In fact, whacking the wingers is such a fun pastime that it is ballooning in popularity these days: The crazy right now furnishes reliable material for our generation’s best comedians, and laughing at the benighted japes of the GOPers is, for many of us, the closest we come to real political involvement.
Today let’s try a little introspection instead. What does it mean when being “on the left” is defined as being a fan of extremely partisan entertainment? What does it do to our larger political vision when we confine our political thinking to the crafting of hilarious put-downs of Tea Partiers and right-wing reality-doubters?
The answer is simple: We miss a substantial chunk of political reality ourselves.
Let me explain what I mean by reminding you of one of the most disturbing news stories to come across the wires in the last month. In a much-reported study, the Russell Sage Foundation discovered that median household wealth in this country fell by 36 percent in the 10-year period ending last year. Wealth for people at the top, as other news stories remind us, has continued to soar. These things are a consequence of the Great Recession, of course, but they are also a reminder of the grand narrative of our time: The lot of average Americans constantly seems to be growing worse. The Great Depression of the 1930s was awful, but it set America on the path toward a period of shared prosperity. Our bout of hard times has had the opposite effect. It has accelerated the unraveling of the middle class itself.
Now, you can blame the risible, Ayn Rand-reading Tea Party types for this if you like, and you can also blame the George W. Bush Administration. They both deserve it. But sooner or later you will also have to acknowledge that there are two parties in this country, not just one; that the Democrats held significant power during the period in question, including (for much of it) the presidency itself; and that even when they are not in the White House, these Democrats nevertheless retain the capacity to persuade and to organize. For a party of the left, dreadful news like this should be rocket fuel. For the Dems, however, it hasn’t been. Why is that? Well, for one thing, because a good number of those Democrats have not really objected to the economic policies that have worked these awful changes over the years. They may believe in the theory of evolution—hell, they may savor the same Jon Stewart jokes that you do —but a lot of them also believe in the conventional economic wisdom of the day. They don’t really care that union power has evaporated and that Wall Street got itself de-supervised and that oligopolies now dominate the economy. But they do care—ever so much!—about deficits and being fiscally responsible.
4/ Paul Krugman is a voice of sanity in the world of our corporate media, which has faithfully decreed inequality is no big deal - but it is. It's dragging this country down the toilet.....
Excellent column......
For more than three decades, almost everyone who matters in American politics has agreed that higher taxes on the rich and increased aid to the poor have hurt economic growth.
Liberals have generally viewed this as a trade-off worth making, arguing that it’s worth accepting some price in the form of lower G.D.P. to help fellow citizens in need. Conservatives, on the other hand, have advocated trickle-down economics, insisting that the best policy is to cut taxes on the rich, slash aid to the poor and count on a rising tide to raise all boats.
But there’s now growing evidence for a new view — namely, that the whole premise of this debate is wrong, that there isn’t actually any trade-off between equity and inefficiency. Why? It’s true that market economies need a certain amount of inequality to function. But American inequality has become so extreme that it’s inflicting a lot of economic damage. And this, in turn, implies that redistribution — that is, taxing the rich and helping the poor — may well raise, not lower, the economy’s growth rate.
You might be tempted to dismiss this notion as wishful thinking, a sort of liberal equivalent of the right-wing fantasy that cutting taxes on the rich actually increases revenue. In fact, however, there is solid evidence, coming from places like the International Monetary Fund, that high inequality is a drag on growth, and that redistribution can be good for the economy.
5/ Another excellent John Oliver story, this time on how our media has been compromised by the realities of making a profit, and how "news" is often laden with advertising.....and very, very funny too!
Eleven very good minutes.....
In this brave new world of media, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference between actual editorial content and “native advertising” — i.e. the practice of ads being disguised to look like articles and listicles on sites like BuzzFeed. This makes John Oliver very, very angry.
Luckily, Oliver’s show is on HBO, which means he can freely tear native advertising a new one without the fear of alienating the show’s sponsors (which he quickly does to Mountain Dew Code Red). But while he acknowledges that everyone wants free journalism, journalism needs money — illustrated by a lovely comparison of Paul Krugmanto a porn star — and to get the moneys, they’re willing to disguise their ads as clicky listicles and sponsored “articles.”
While executives at BuzzFeed and Time, Inc. claim that it’s a perfectly legitimate way to make money, Oliver cites a study that showed that “less than half” of readers could tell the difference between native advertising and actual news articles. “You’re like a camouflage manufacture saying, ‘Only an idiot could not tell the difference between that man and foliage.’ I mean, look — the camouflage clearly states ‘Not Foliage’ on the collar.”
“I’m sure the deer know the difference between the two things,” he added. “Deers are so smart.”
6/ A SNL classic - Tina Fey in Airport Boarding procedures.......3 minutes, quite amusing.......
Two gate agents fall in love as they board every type of traveler.
7/ You may have read how an oligarch is causing a medium sized country [Argentina] to default on it's debt, but this could be avoided by the President with a stroke of his pen..... this story says the reason he hasn't done so is that the oligarch, Paul Singer, is totally evil to anyone who crosses him and that the White House is intimidated.
If you ever had any doubt that we are living in a full blown plutocracy, this article should get the message across.....
How Barack Obama could end the Argentina debt crisis
US president need only inform a federal judge that vulture fund billionaire Paul Singer is interfering with the president's sole authority to conduct foreign policy. He hasn't. But why not?
Paul Singer of Elliott Associates. Barack Obama has already capitulated to him in a 2009 battle. Photograph: Lucas Jackson / Reuters
The "vulture" financier now threatening to devour Argentina can be stopped dead by a simple note to the courts from Barack Obama. But the president, while officially supporting Argentina, has not done this one thing that could save Buenos Aires from default.
Obama could prevent vulture hedge-fund billionaire Paul Singer from collecting a single penny from Argentina by invoking the long-established authority granted presidents by the US constitution's "Separation of Powers" clause. Under the principle known as "comity", Obama only need inform US federal judge Thomas Griesa that Singer's suit interferes with the president's sole authority to conduct foreign policy. Case dismissed.
Indeed, President George W Bush invoked this power against the very same hedge fund now threatening Argentina. Bush blocked Singer's seizure of Congo-Brazzaville's US property, despite the fact that the hedge fund chief is one of the largest, and most influential, contributors to Republican candidates.
Notably, an appeals court warned this very judge, 30 years ago, to heed the directive of a president invoking his foreign policy powers. In the Singer case, the US state department did inform Judge Griesa that the Obama administration agreed with Argentina's legal arguments; but the president never invoked the magical, vulture-stopping clause.
8/ Sometimes we look at some interesting music videos, but the EDM DJ Avicii has made one of the strangest we have ever seen......an office drone is infected with something.....rhythm?
The video also has some zombie-like undercurrents, and is actually a little funny at the end......song is good too!
9/ The very impressive Elizabeth Warren and a lobbyist for the student loan industry at a Senate hearing, and I am delighted to report it didn't go well for the lobbyist. Seven excellent minutes of hopefully our next Vice President?
10/ Todays nice video - some scenes of people doing wonderful things for people and animals........four minutes of weepies......
11/ A most interesting story from Al-Jazeera on how the Israeli lobby's iron grip on American foreign policy may be slipping, in part to some of the coverage of the Gaza conflict. Public opinion is becoming less sympathetic to israel, but it's also generational and weighted by religious factors. Bottom line - older people [Fox News viewers] and evangelical Christians strongly support Israel, but younger people don't as much.
Our politicians? Same old, same old - they are to a man scared shitless of the Israeli lobby.......
Why the Israel lobby’s grip on US politics may be waning
August 10, 2014 6:00AM ET
“There is nobody we hated in the White House more than Benjamin Netanyahu,” a former staffer for President Bill Clinton once told me, referring to the Israeli prime minister. The staffer then went on to explain that though this was the case, Clinton never publicly rebuked Netanyahu because he was afraid that hawkish Jewish donors to the Democratic Party would pick up the phone and give him an earful.
Perhaps more than any other issue, when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, politicians rarely say what they really think and (regardless of party) are likely to align their views with a hard-line position. Notice, for example, that despite contentious negotiations in Congress over immigration, the Affordable Care Act and other hot-button issues, there has been zero debate over the latest Israeli offensive in Gaza. Both the House of Representatives and the Senateunanimously passed resolutions placing all the blame on Hamas and none on Israel.
Some observers have theorized that this lockstep support for the Israeli government is due to the pro-Israel attitude of the American public. It’s true that the majority of Americans are sympathetic to the Israelis. But public opinion polling also shows that a significant portion considers the latest Israeli assault, touched off after Netanyahu struck at Hamas officers in the West Bank, is unjustified. A Gallup poll published on July 24 found that Americans are about equally divided on Israel’s assault, with 42 percent finding it justified, 39 percent finding it unjustified and 20 percent having no opinion. It also showed that a plurality of Democrats — 47 percent — felt it was unjustified. Breaking down the results by age yields an even starker result, with Americans ages 18 to 29 finding the offensive unjustified 2 to 1 and a plurality of Americans ages 30 to 49 opposing the assault. A more detailed Pew poll released a week later found similar results, with a plurality of both Hispanics and African-Americans finding Israel more to blame in the conflict than Hamas.
Why then, given the raging debate among Americans over Israel’s actions, is Capitol Hill so unified? It goes back to the Clinton staffer’s comment: fundraising.
12 We have commented before on the Miami boom in building more and more tower blocks of condos, and according to this article it's all fueled by South American money, some of it almost certainly illegal and they are buying real estate in a city that probably won't exist in 50 years, but they don't care.
Love the title.......
Something very strange is happening in Miami
Florida's biggest city is undergoing a real-estate boom stemming from an unexpected source. But is it a bubble?
(Credit: Richard Cavalleri via Shutterstock)
At the core of a global city, like London or New York, a local might look askance at the skyward hulls of new buildings, knowing that these residential projects, with striking designs by prize-winning architects, do not fulfill traditional notions of housing.
These apartments aren’t places to live, even a few months out of the year, or to rent. They are simply unusually shaped deposit boxes where several million dollars (or pesos, or rubles) can be left in security and secrecy. Economists and elected officials hold that the “safe haven effect” can secure a city’s financial future; critics say it contributes to the irreversible erosion of a city’s character and drives up the cost of housing. Either way, in an era of worldwide turmoil, the phenomenon is on the rise.
The mind-boggling home prices of global finance capitals have so far hogged the headlines. But to really see the power that foreign direct investment can exert on a city’s skyline, you need to go to Miami.
Over the past quarter-century, the Miami skyline has grown at a cornfield pace, fueled largely, realtors say, by buyers from South America. This trend is more natural here than in cities like Vancouver, where mainland Chinese are big condo buyers, or Paris, where Americans, among others, trade chic pied-à-terres. After all, most Miami residents speak Spanish at home, and the metro area has the highest share of immigrant business ownership in the country, at 45 percent. This is why the city is sometimes called the “Capital of Latin America.”
Whether or not Miami deserves that moniker, it certainly attracts another kind of capital from Latin America.
13/ The House going off on vacation without any action on immigration was a disgusting act, but not a surprise........a decent Jon Stewart commentary....5 amusing minutes....
Jon Stewart wasn’t too hopeful that Congress would actually get anything done on immigration, and therefore wasn’t completely let down to find that the Senate accomplished nothing while the House pushed a “draconian” bill of its own.
He was particularly shocked by the KKK’s “shoot to kill” proposal, and by default had to go with the House GOP proposal as the less horrible option.
Stewart suggested if the House really wanted to up its game, Republicans would propose ridiculous ideas like “minors must be deported via circus cannon” or “dress the border patrol up as Mounties so they think they’ve come too far and turn around.”
But what really set Stewart off was John Boehner saying President Obama could act unilaterally on immigration without Congress, because he’s “pretty sure there’s a guy right now suing the president for that.”
14/ Onion News Network with a breaking story, very similar to every single story you see on local news.....watch this two minute clip, then watch your favourite "newsperson" sound just like this.....
15/ Mount Dora's State Senator is in the news again - no it's not him getting angry at buses stopping for poor people, it's him going to introduce a bill in the Senate mandating that every Florida student be forced to watch a right wing propaganda movie, Dinesh D'Souza's "America".......
This asshole is an angry old white man, the very definition of a crazy Tea Partyite......
Florida Lawmaker Pushes Bill Mandating Right Wing Conspiracy Film Screening In Public Schools
The Huffington Post | By Shadee Ashtari
Posted: 07/30/2014 4:24 pm EDT Updated: 07/30/2014 4:59 pm EDT
Print Article
Florida state senator Alan Hays (R) is working on a bill requiring students in Florida’s 1,700 public high schools and middle schools to watch conservative author Dinesh D’Souza’s right wing conspiracy docudrama "America: Imagine the World Without Her."
"I think the educational system failure is the biggest reason that the current occupant of the White House sits there. I think his occupancy of the White House is an indictment of our educational system all across America and we need to get back to teaching the truth," Hays argued during an interview with Newsmax Wednesday. "We need to remove politics from the educational system, we need to teach history as it happened and teach it truthfully showing the whole story, and that’s what this movie does quite well."
The film, a sequel to D’Souza’s 2012 anti-Obama film "2016: Obama’s America," accuses liberals of re-writing America's history in an effort to "convince a nation to author its own destruction" and "unmake the America that is here now."
The documentary attempts to debunk several historical fabrications, according to D’Souza, including the genocide of millions of Native Americans during the acquisition of their land and the exploitation of slave labor as the engine of American economic growth.
Salon’s Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig criticized D'Souza's reasoning as "laughably bad" in a review of the film last week.
"The argumentation itself is bad, laughably bad," Bruenig wrote. "Native Americans were bad treaty-keepers who were already killing each other, the brutes, a claim D’Souza curiously follows up with the assertion that they all died of disease anyway -- just naturally, just like that, out of nowhere."
If you are interested, here is Roger Ebert's review of this awful movie......
Todays video - some really good commercials I've never seen before.......six different ones, about four minutes.....
Todays British jokes
The human body has 7 trillion nerves. My wife manages to get on every bloody one of them!
Teacher says, "OK class, I'd like you all to tell me what you need at home.
Teacher says, "OK class, I'd like you all to tell me what you need at home.
Susie says, "We need a computer".
Wendy says. "We need a car".
Johnny says, "We don't need anything Miss".
Teacher says, "Come on Johnny, everyone needs something?"
"No Miss, my sister came home with her new African boyfriend and my Dad said 'That's all we bloody need!"
Essex girl in bed with her boyfriend says, "How dare you call me a slapper. Get out of my bed right now and take your friends with you!
Just seen a Dyslexic Yorkshire man wearing a cat flap!
I said to the wife, "Get me a newspaper".
Essex girl in bed with her boyfriend says, "How dare you call me a slapper. Get out of my bed right now and take your friends with you!
Just seen a Dyslexic Yorkshire man wearing a cat flap!
I said to the wife, "Get me a newspaper".
"Don't be silly", she said. "You can borrow my iPad".
That spider never knew what bloody hit it!
The 200 Polish fans arrested after yesterday's game have been found guilty of violent disorder and been deported back to England!
A big row has broken out in the Irish Olympic Synchronised Diving Team after Paddy accused Mick of copying him!
English Stiff Upper Lip:
The 200 Polish fans arrested after yesterday's game have been found guilty of violent disorder and been deported back to England!
A big row has broken out in the Irish Olympic Synchronised Diving Team after Paddy accused Mick of copying him!
English Stiff Upper Lip:
On a train from London to Manchester , an Australian was berating the Englishman sitting across from him in the compartment.
"You English are too stuffy. You set yourselves apart too much. You think your stiff upper lip makes you above the rest of us. Look at me... I'm ME! I have Italian blood, Greek blood, a little Irish blood, and some Aborigine blood. What do you say to that?
The Englishman replied, "Awfully sporting of your mother, old chap!"
Todays WalMart joke
My one day of employment after retiring!
After landing my new job as a Wal-Mart greeter, a good find for many retirees, I lasted less than a day ......
About two hours into my first day on the job a very loud, decidedly unattractive, woman walked into
the store along with her two kids, yelling obscenities at them all the way through the entrance.
As I had been instructed, I said, pleasantly,
"Good morning and welcome to Wal-Mart."
I then said, "Nice children you have there. Are they twins?"
The ugly woman stopped yelling long enough to say, "Don't be fucking stupid. Of course they aren't twins.
The oldest one's 9, and the other one' s 7.
Why the hell would you think they're twins? Are you blind, or just stupid?"
I replied, "I'm neither blind nor stupid, Madam.. I just couldn't believe someone fucked you twice.
Have a good day and thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart."
My Supervisor said I probably wasn't cut out for this line of work.
After landing my new job as a Wal-Mart greeter, a good find for many retirees, I lasted less than a day ......
About two hours into my first day on the job a very loud, decidedly unattractive, woman walked into
the store along with her two kids, yelling obscenities at them all the way through the entrance.
As I had been instructed, I said, pleasantly,
"Good morning and welcome to Wal-Mart."
I then said, "Nice children you have there. Are they twins?"
The ugly woman stopped yelling long enough to say, "Don't be fucking stupid. Of course they aren't twins.
The oldest one's 9, and the other one' s 7.
Why the hell would you think they're twins? Are you blind, or just stupid?"
I replied, "I'm neither blind nor stupid, Madam.. I just couldn't believe someone fucked you twice.
Have a good day and thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart."
My Supervisor said I probably wasn't cut out for this line of work.
Todays Florida joke
A widowed Jewish lady, still in good shape, was sunbathing on a most deserted beach at Ft. Myers.
She looked up and noticed that a man her age, also in good shape, had walked up, placed his blanket on the sand near hers and began reading a book.
Smiling, she attempted to strike up a conversation with him. "How are
you today?"
"Fine, thank you," he responded, and turned back to his book.
"I love the beach. Do you come here often?" she asked.
you today?"
"First time since my wife passed away 2 years ago," he replied and turned back to his book.
"I'm sorry to hear that. My husband passed away three years ago and it is very lonely," she countered. "Do you live around here?" She asked.
"Yes, I live over in Cape Coral ," he answered , and again he resumed reading.
Trying to find a topic of common interest, she persisted, "Do you like pussy cats?"
With that, the man dropped his book, came over to her blanket, tore off her swimsuit and gave her the most passionate lovemaking of her life.
When the cloud of sand began to settle, she gasped and asked the man, "How did you know that was what I wanted?"
The man replied, "How did you know my name was Katz?"
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