1/ A most insightful article about the #1 problem facing the US, but the one problem our corporate media doesn't talk about at all - corruption. It's everywhere, often invisible but completely pervasive in every level of our society. As this story says it's the one issue Bernie Sanders should seize and run with, because even the Tea Party crazies would agree with him.....
Fascinating, and also frightening because the rot is so institutionalized how do you make a dent in it?
Bernie Sanders, HIllary Clinton (Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin/Reuters/Carlo Allegri/Photo montage by Salon)
After one of many trips to sub-Saharan Africa, Bono recalled that on his first visit there he thought its biggest problem was AIDS. Later, it seemed it was poverty; after many visits over many years he at last saw that it was corruption: the problem that kept all other problems from ever being solved.
Corruption is hard to unmask, and harder to measure, but we know its cost to Africa is truly staggering. One study puts it at a quarter of the continent’s total GDP, itself a paltry 2.4 percent of world GDP. Another says it slashes growth by 20 percent every year. It was long hoped that the sale of Africa’s vast trove of natural resources would generate the investment capital necessary to move its people out of poverty and into the modern age. Instead, the money is siphoned off by corrupt elites who blow it on lavish lifestyles, park it in Swiss banks or invest it in high-end Paris or London real estate. It’s the world’s most common form of treason and goes largely unpunished.
We live amidst a global pandemic of corruption. It ravages Asia, Latin America and the Middle East and devours Africa. It was the issue at the heart of every uprising of the Arab Spring. It has spurred riots in India and Brazil, struck fear into the hearts of China’s leaders and contributed mightily to the warping of Russia’s politics as well as its economy. It tops liberal agendas everywhere in the world — everywhere, that is, but here.
America has not had a full-throated debate of political corruption since Watergate. In that scandal’s immediate aftermath Congress enacted sweeping campaign finance reforms (struck down by the Supreme Court in its vile Buckley v. Valeo decision). In the mid ’70s, states passed a flurry of reforms, establishing what were often their first ethics, campaign finance and freedom-of-information commissions. But politicians have chipped away at those reforms ever since. Few commissions have anything like adequate enforcement staff. Most states lack the civic self-respect to enforce their ethics laws, preferring to leave the job to overburdened federal prosecutors.
Some say the reason our politicians talk less about corruption is that we have less of it, but it’s a hard point to prove. How much money do we lose to corruption each year? Our government goes out of its way not to know.
2/ Frank Rich with a political look at the week's news - Jeb, Hillary and the Clown.....
Most weeks, New York Magazine writer-at-large Frank Rich speaks with contributor Alex Carp about the biggest stories in politics and culture. This week, the magazine asked him about a slew of presidential hopefuls: Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton, and, yes, even Donald Trump.
Jeb Bush officially entered the presidential race running both for president and away from his family. His campaign logo includes his first name only, and Bush 41 and 43 were both absent at his launch. How much will the memory of his brother's administration, and the threat of a GOP family dynasty, weigh down his run?No one in America remembers anything, but surely our national amnesia doesn’t extend to Jeb’s lineage no matter how much he tries to bury it. Not to mention that the exclamation point in the Jeb! logo makes one feel that the whole enterprise is as contrived as a musical comedy.
3/ And having mentioned the Clown, aka "The Donald", Jon Stewart gives thanks for the comedic windfall.....a funny 9 minutes.....
As we all hoped and prayed he would, Jon Stewartopened The Daily Show Tuesday night with the “gift from heaven” that is Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential announcement. But before the delicious dessert, Stewart decided to feed his audience some “spinach” in the form of Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush’s campaign launch speeches that occurred in quick succession over the last few days.
“Pick up the pace, there’s a crazy person running for president!” the host screamed at Clinton as he attempted to get through a quick clip of her remarks.Without much further delay, Stewart moved on to the moment he and his audience had been waiting for. “A billionaire vanity candidate taking the escalator to the White House!” he said. “Let’s dance, Clownstick!”
4/ If you want to know the story behind any story, the smartest thing to do is "follow the money".....it's always true. This interesting story looks at two countries in the news, Greece and Ukraine, and makes sense of what is going on by looking at the winners and losers.....and it's the banks that are usually the winners....
It ties back to the first story - corruption, and how the big boys always protect their interests and how dare the common people try to do something about it. Even the NYT toes the corporate line where reporting on the banks is concerned.....
Lawrence Summers, Timothy Geithner, Christine Lagarde (Credit: AP/Reuters/Molly Riley/J. Scott Applewhite/Ruben Sprich/Photo montage by Salon)
Fascinating to watch the International Monetary Fund as it fronts for the U.S. Treasury and international lenders in the Greek and Ukrainian debt crises. In the former, the fund pins the Syriza government to the wall because it dares to represent its electorate. In the latter, it stands by the Poroshenko government because it has no intention of representing anybody other than banks, corporations and the global strategy set.
“Fascinating” is one word for this and it holds. “Greed in action” is three but they do a better job.
Coincidentally enough, both the Greek and Ukrainian cases now near their respective denouements. Miss this and you miss a singularly plain display of power, the way it works and what it works for in the early 21st century.
5/ The Democrats in the House finally found their spine, and handed the President and his Republican allies a defeat on the TPP Bill, a blatant corporate giveaway......good stuff from Paul Krugman.....
On Friday, House Democrats shocked almost everyone by rejecting key provisions needed to complete the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an agreement the White House wants but much of the party doesn’t. On Saturday Hillary Clinton formally began her campaign for president, and surprised most observers with an unapologetically liberal and populist speech.
These are, of course, related events. The Democratic Party is becoming more assertive about its traditional values, a point driven home by Mrs. Clinton’s decision to speak on Roosevelt Island. You could say that Democrats are moving left. But the story is more complicated and interesting than this simple statement can convey.
You see, ever since Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980, Democrats have been on the ideological defensive. Even when they won elections they seemed afraid to endorse clearly progressive positions, eager to demonstrate their centrism by supporting policies like cuts to Social Security that their base hated. But that era appears to be over. Why?
Part of the answer is that Democrats, despite defeats in midterm elections, believe — rightly or wrongly — that the political wind is at their backs.
6/ Another very good comedic commentary on a serious subject from John Oliver - one of the many ways the justice system screws the poor.....bail. The system is completely obsolete, but has the effect of keeping poor people in jail for trivial misdemeanors because they can't raise the money to get out.
An excellent story with some pretty good zingers......16 minutes......
John Oliver (Credit: Last Week Tonight)
John Oliver took on the U.S. bail system on Sunday’s “Last Week Tonight,” pointing out that it has increasingly become a way to lock up the poor, regardless of guilt.
To make the case, the “Last Week Tonight” host turned to the state of New Jersey where nearly 40 percent of the jail population is being held in custody solely due to its inability to meet the terms of bail.
Oliver explained that there are only three options a person has upon arrest — “go to jail, plead guilty to avoid waiting in jail for a trial, or pay a bail bondsman to front the bail costs” — which has led many innocent people to just bite the bullet and plead guilty. For many poor inmates, even a short stint in jail can result in losing employment or a spot in public housing, one public defender says.
“Poor people are regularly choosing to admit guilt just to get out of there and that isn’t good,” Oliver said. “The only time that’s appropriate is in a Catholic confessional.
7/ The Rachel Dolezal story has had the media [especially Fox News] in a frenzy so it's a relief to get some perspective on this from Jon Stewart.....a very funny 8 minutes, and note the Fox News smackdown.....
Since he doesn’t tape on Fridays, America wasn’t treated to the Jon Stewart take on the Rachel Dolezal incident. But because this bizarre story of a white Spokane NAACP leader pretending to be black has become 24/7 cable news fodder, Monday night still felt timely for The Daily Show to weigh in with a segment of “WHAAAAAAAT?”
Many pundits have tackled the story from a race/social standpoint: Namely, the question of whether race, like gender, is a social construct and therefore Dolezal could conceivably be “black” if she so desired. But as Stewart pointed out, many other pundits — particularly those of the right-leaning, Fox News type — have turned the Dolezal story into a tirade against “liberal culture gone amok” or suggestions that racism is, in fact, dead.
Conservative talk radio host Larry Elder made that latter point, going as far as to suggest that Dolezal’s actions show that being black in America isn’t such a bad deal as it’s made out to be.
“All because of one singular white person,” a befuddled Stewart pointed out. “If being black is such a sweet deal, why are millions of white people ignoring such a sweet opportunity?”
He continued mocking the punditocracy: “Clearly liberal culture has reached its nadir… all because a german lady got a weave.
8/ Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is "unfit to serve" is the conclusion of this interesting article.....from interviews and his public statements he appears to be a religious crazy who rejects science and bends the law to fit his right wing mission......and you will learn about a new medical condition - called FDS - Faith Derangement Syndrome...
The story is persuasive, and convincing if you can fight your way through the authors penchant for using obscure words and complex phraseology....
Antonin Scalia (Credit: Reuters/Brendan Mcdermid)
Readers of this column already know that faith-derangement syndrome has stricken the highest levels of the executive branch of government, afflicting President Obama and virtually all his potential successors. Now we have evidence that it has spread to the top organ of the judiciary, the Supreme Court.
But first, a clarification. Sufferers of faith-derangement syndrome (FDS) exhibit the following symptoms: unshakable belief in the veracity of manifest absurdities detailed in ancient texts regarding the origins of the cosmos and life on earth; a determination to disseminate said absurdities in educational institutions and via the media; a propensity to enjoin and even enforce (at times using violence) obedience to regulations stipulated in said ancient texts, regardless of their suitability for contemporary circumstances; the conviction that an invisible, omnipresent, omniscient authority (commonly referred to as “God”) directs the course of human and natural events, is vulnerable to propitiation and blandishments, and monitors individual human behavior, including thought processes, with an especially prurient interest in sexual activity.
Secondary symptoms exhibited by sufferers of FDS comprise feelings of righteousness and sensations of displeasure, even outrage, when collocutors question, reject or refute the espousal of said absurdities. Tertiary symptoms, often present among individuals self-classifying as “evangelicals”: Duggar-esque hairdos and Tammy Bakker-ian makeup, preternaturally sunny dispositions and pedophiliac tendencies, sartorial ineptitude and obesity.
Back to FDS and the Supreme Court. Last week, Justice Antonin Scalia delivered a commencement speech at an all-girls Catholic High School in Bethesda, Maryland. He warned the assembled, “You should not leave Stone Ridge High School thinking that you face challenges that are at all, in any important sense, unprecedented. Humanity has been around for at least some 5,000 years or so” – sic, italics mine – “and I doubt that the basic challenges as confronted are any worse now, or alas even much different, from what they ever were.”
9/ You may remember the wonderful JC Penney commercial about a month ago called "The Doghouse"....they did a follow up called "Return to the Doghouse" which is even funnier.....a great three minutes.
Required viewing for all husbands, and ladies you wouldn't find it funny at all....no siree Bob.....
10/ Hmmm.....most interesting piece from the NYT about how the older boomers, between 65 and 75, are doing just fine in this economy while almost everyone else is struggling.
Is this you? And if so, is this true? I would have to say from both experience and observation, it is.....
It's ironic isn't it. You could argue that older Boomers have had the best of times of any generation currently living, but in doing so screwed up the economy and the world. Even in retirement we are still politically powerful enough to keep our privileged position......
WAXAHACHIE, Tex. — Most Americans suffered serious losses during and after the recession, knocked off balance by layoffs, stagnant pay and the collapse of home values. But apart from the superrich, one group’s fortunes appear to have held remarkably steady: seniors.
Supported by income from Social Security, pensions and investments, as well as an increasing number of paychecks from delaying retirement, older people not only weathered the economic downturn that began in 2007 but made significant gains, a New York Times analysis of government data has found.
As a result, America’s middle class is graying.
People on the leading edge of the baby boom and those born during World War II — the 25 million Americans now between the ages of 65 and 74 — have emerged as particularly well positioned in the nation’s economic timeline. While there are plenty of individual exceptions, as a group they are better off financially than past generations and may well enjoy a more successful old age than future ones, even those merely a decade younger.
“These are people who have been blessed with good economic circumstances, especially those who were able to ride the wave of postwar economic growth,” said Gary V. Engelhardt, an economist at Syracuse. “They’re definitely in a sweet spot.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/
11/ I think we can guarantee you haven't seen this before, because Lady Gaga performed this in Azerbaijan at the European Games.....it's her version of "Imagine" by John Lennon....listen to the words again, and marvel at her voice and range - wonderful!
Lady Gaga took the stage last week for the opening ceremony of the European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan, and stunned the audience. Wearing all white and surrounded by flowers, she accompanied herself on piano and sang an emotional rendition of John Lennon's 1971 song "Imagine." The performance was another reminder that Lady Gaga is not only a pop star but also an incredibly talented singer.
12/ Interesting story about what seafood to eat, and why.....he has boiled it down to three rules to follow.....
NEARLY a decade ago, the writer Michael Pollan advised: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Ever since, a certain kind of progressive supermarket aisle has emerged: “Real” foods, calorie-limited portions and vegetarianism (or at least Meatless Mondays) have become culinary aspirations for millennials and boomers alike.
Mr. Pollan’s advice is sound. But what about the 71 percent of the Earth’s surface that provides humans with 350 billion pounds of food every year? How do you make rules for our oceans and freshwater ecosystems, whose vast production is, even in this increasingly mechanized world, still more than half wild?
Since I first read Mr. Pollan’s haiku-like dictum, I have been trying to be like Mike — i.e., to work out a seafood three-liner that would be as concise, elegant and free from exceptions as his. I can’t say that I have been entirely successful. No sooner do I present a draft idea at a local seafood forum than I get shouted down by a New England dragger captain whose cod doesn’t fill the bill.
13/ Mount Dora's own State Rep. Jennifer Sullivan is the subject of Tampa Bay Times columnist John Romano's rant about her abortion bill......and in case you were wondering, I haven't had a reply to my letter to her........but see below......
This is not a column about abortion, contrary to its appearance.
Mostly, it is a column about hypocrisy.
If you have not yet heard, your state Legislature passed a bill a couple of months ago that requires women to show up for two separate doctor's visits and endure a 24-hour waiting period before getting an abortion.
Gov. Rick Scott signed it into law a few days ago, and the ACLU has already joined a lawsuit seeking to have it ruled unconstitutional.
Those are the barest of facts, and you are free to applaud or condemn the wisdom of this law depending on your personal views on abortion.
Just so long as we agree this particular point is not up for debate:
Florida politicians are pathetically two-faced.
You cannot get through breakfast in Tallahassee without hearing some lawmaker bellyaching about smaller government.
14/ One of our alert readers was moved enough by my letter to imagine a reply from Ms. Sullivan, that might go something like this:
Dear David,
Thank you for writing! As your representative I want to share your vision. As a man you may not understand what happens with pregnancy. As a woman by a loving Christian family, let me share with you how I am working to attain the vision of you and people like you who elected me to represent you.
You see, an expectant mother blessed with a pregnancy wants her baby! It is natural as G-d intended it to be. By empowering women to have a 24 hour period to think about it, we give her the opportunity to let her heart counteract what the people making money by selling abortion tell her.
Rather than the government providing services through Medicaid, poor women can avail themselves of churches who offer relief, and guidance towards having their children. Women then have the opportunity to become functioning members of society as members of a church, and raise their children as G-d intends. Welcomed into the church, she has the opportunity to find a good Christian man and form a normal family.
It is this overall vision that I know that you share, eliminating government run services, and access to evil abortion clinics, letting G-d's natural ways guide these unfortunate women into churches where they can experience true love, reform their ways and build a traditional family.
It will be hard on women who fail to follow the path of Jesus, but they are destined for hell anyway, so who cares?.
Your Representative, in the Lord's name,
Jennifer
15/ You know we have a lying weasel as a Governor when even a Fox TV station is noticing his scumminess......three minutes of Voldemort on camera, lying and evading - from the Tampa Bay Fox station.......
Maybe I'm biased, but he looks like a freak in these clips.....look at the eyes! How did you ever vote for this asshole?
16/ Marco Rubio is getting star treatment from the national media, but experienced reporters in South Florida know this asshole a little better......good story from Carl Hiaasen.....
Marco Rubio has a good backstory, and he enjoys telling it.
Hardworking immigrant parents, humble beginnings in South Florida — and now he’s a U.S. senator running for president at age 44.
It’s a stirring, up-by-the-bootstraps tale, if you leave out the credit-card mix-ups, unpaid mortgage and $80,000 fishing boat.
On the campaign trail, Rubio promises in scolding tones to rein in government spending, yet in his personal life he has displayed absolutely no talent for managing money.
The idea of him sitting in the Oval Office with billions at stake is a little scary. To believe that prudence and competence will suddenly bloom when he gets a crack at the federal budget is optimistic in the extreme.
Rubio’s struggles to handle his own checkbook have been well chronicled by this newspaper and other Florida media. A few years ago he was caught nicking the state Republican Party’s American Express card for more than $16,000 in personal expenses, including travel to a family reunion and a paving job at his home.
Rubio said he accidentally took out the wrong credit to pay for the stone pavers, and that a travel agent mistakenly billed the GOP account for the reunion charges. All the money was repaid after reporters started asking questions.
While in the state Legislature, where he eventually became Speaker of the House, Rubio set up political-action committees. One of them gave him thousands of dollars in reimbursements for auto expenses, gas and phone bills. That PAC was, on paper, run by his wife.
Todays video - a three minute look at the Andromeda galaxy, our closest neighbor in space.....gets it all in proportion......
Have you seen the largest picture ever taken? For the record, it's a mammoth 1.5 billion pixel image (69,536 x 22,230) and requires about 4.3 GB disk space. Oh, and it'll take your breath away.
On January 5, NASA released an image of the Andromeda galaxy, our closest galactic neighbour, captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The full image is made up of 411 Hubble images, takes you through a 100 million stars and travels over more than 40,000 light years. Well, a section of it anyway.
Prepare to feel extremely tiny and insignificant as you marvel at this fly-through video created by YouTuber daveachuk and make sure you stick around till the end. Seriously.
Todays clever jokes
The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again invited readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.
Here are the winners:1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
2. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.
3. Intaxicaton: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
5. Bozone ( n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high
8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
11. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.
12. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
13. Glibido: All talk and no action.
14. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
15. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
17. Caterpallor ( n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.
Todays medical joke
A male patient is lying in bed in the hospital, wearing an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose. A young student nurse appears and gives him a partial sponge bath.
"Nurse,"' he mumbles from behind the mask, "are my testicles black?"
Embarrassed, the young nurse replies, "I don't know, Sir. I'm only here to wash your upper body and feet."
He struggles to ask again, "Nurse, please check for me. Are my testicles black?"
Concerned that he might elevate his blood pressure and heart rate from worrying about his testicles, she overcomes her embarrassment and pulls back the covers.
"Nurse,"' he mumbles from behind the mask, "are my testicles black?"
Embarrassed, the young nurse replies, "I don't know, Sir. I'm only here to wash your upper body and feet."
He struggles to ask again, "Nurse, please check for me. Are my testicles black?"
Concerned that he might elevate his blood pressure and heart rate from worrying about his testicles, she overcomes her embarrassment and pulls back the covers.
She raises his gown, takes a thorough look and says, "There's nothing wrong with them, Sir. They look fine."
The man slowly pulls off his oxygen mask, smiles at her, and says very slowly, "Thank you very much.. Now listen very, very closely: Are . my . test .results . back?"
Todays golf joke
A foursome of men waited at the men's tee while a foursome of women was hitting in front of them -- taking their time.
When the final lady was ready to hit her ball, she hacked it 10 feet. Then she went over and missed it completely.
Then she hacked it another ten feet and finally hacked it another five feet.
She looked up at the patiently waiting men and said apologetically, "I guess all those fucking lessons I took over the winter didn't help."
One of the men immediately responded, "Well, there you have it. You should have taken golf lessons instead!"
He never even had a chance to duck. He was only 43.
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