1/ Good grief it just gets worse and worse. Paul Krugman points out how serious the political situation is and how the Republicans are determined to shut down the government unless they get their way. You and I, dear readers, aren't fully aware of the way politics and government work which is why we need real journalists to look at this stuff for us, but we feel the uncertainty and anger out there viscerally....this is why I'm doing this blog, because unless we the public stay informed we can't protect ourselves. But this is serious shit.....and in April it will hit the fan.....
The fact is that one of our two great political parties has made it clear that it has no interest in making America governable, unless it’s doing the governing. And that party now controls one house of Congress, which means that the country will not, in fact, be governable without that party’s cooperation — cooperation that won’t be forthcoming.
Elite opinion has been slow to recognize this reality. Thus on the same day that Mr. Simpson rejoiced in the prospect of chaos, Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, appealed for help in confronting mass unemployment. He asked for “a fiscal program that combines near-term measures to enhance growth with strong, confidence-inducing steps to reduce longer-term structural deficits.”
My immediate thought was, why not ask for a pony, too? After all, the G.O.P. isn’t interested in helping the economy as long as a Democrat is in the White House. Indeed, far from being willing to help Mr. Bernanke’s efforts, Republicans are trying to bully the Fed itself into giving up completely on trying to reduce unemployment.
2/ A frankly frightening article, and a review of the book mentioned in the story....
Some of you may see some of my commentary about the oligarchy having taken over all three branches of government and think "this guy is nuts".....if you do, read this article. It details everything in yours and my worst nightmares, how the oligarchs have been planning the takeover of the levers of power for 30 years. To make them richer and richer, at your expense. And it's not some wacky website rant - it's the St. Petersburg Times....
But I have difficulty understanding why they would take the risk of destroying the middle class and taking away even the meagre safety net for the poor we have now....the risk is riots, civil unrest and hungry rednecks with lots of guns. Unless the plan is to recreate the Russia of 100 years ago, with a fabulously wealthy elite, an upper middle professional class and peasants and serfs at the bottom.....
It's because cutting taxes for the richest Americans is the GOP's No. 1 job. Nothing else comes close to being that important, despite the campaign rhetoric of these leading Republicans. Not reducing the deficit, not supporting the troops, not cutting taxes for the middle class, not outlawing abortion, not even, dare I say it, protecting gun rights. Boehner and McConnell are the four-star mercenary generals in a war launched by America's corporate interests and superrich. This is what they were hired to do.
A new, amazing book explains. InWinner-Take-All Politics, How Washington Made the Rich Richer — And Turned Its Back on the Middle Class, political scientists Jacob Hacker of Yale and Paul Pierson of the University of California, Berkeley, detail the operational battle plan that the superrich have been implementing for the last 30 years. With piles of cash, they've built an army of beholden politicians, Republicans as well as Democrats, and an array of conservative think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute to seed ideas and feed the public their arguments.
The agenda is simple: reduce taxes for the superrich while watering down or defeating regulation that might make the economy operate more fairly.
"Winner Take All Politics".
Here's the book review review from the Economist, a fairly conservative magazine. They say "It's a pretty good book", which in Britishese is a glowing review.....
Are American executives being paid more because shareholders are getting their money's worth, or is something else going on? Here, I imagine my colleague may disagree with Messrs Hacker and Pierson's arguments. But it's definitely worth reading them. It's a pretty good book.
3/ A DDD favourite, Auto Tune the News with Antoine's story. I played this again as I haven't heard it for three months or so, and now I can't get it out of my head. It's on an endless loop in my brain.....so I thought "misery loves company", so here it is again. Go ahead, open it.....just one wafer-thin sound bite....go on.......one click.......
4/ A couple of climate change stories just in case you have been watching Fox News, both confirming we as a species are in deep shit....once the process of warming reaches a critical point it's too late to stop, and we've reached it......
This story is about China importing coal to feed their power plants.....politically difficult to stop, because the exporting countries need the mining jobs and like China paying us for imports for a change.....and China doesn't care......
The United States now ships coal to China via Canada, but coal companies are scouting for new loading ports in Washington State. New mines are being planned for the Rockies and the Pacific Northwest. Indeed, some of the world’s more environmentally progressive regions are nascent epicenters of the new coal export trade, creating political tensions between business and environmental goals.
Traditionally, coal is burned near where it is mined — particularly so-called thermal or steaming coal, used for heat and electricity. But in the last few years, long-distance international coal exports have been surging because of China’s galloping economy, which now burns half of the six billion tons of coal used globally each year.
The second is about the Siberian permafrost warming and giving off the methane gas trapped in the soil. Methane is 23 times worse than CO2.....
Gas locked inside Siberia's frozen soil and under its lakes has been seeping out since the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago. But in the past few decades, as the Earth has warmed, the icy ground has begun thawing more rapidly, accelerating the release of methane – a greenhouse gas 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide – at a perilous rate.
Some scientists believe the thawing of permafrost could become the epicenter of climate change. They say 1.5 trillion tons of carbon, locked inside icebound earth since the age of mammoths, is a climate time bomb waiting to explode if released into the atmosphere.
5/ Three Florida stories......
The first is from the Orlando Sentinel, and the BS our new Governor and the scum in Tallahassee are feeding us, which is "cut taxes and it will create jobs". Didn't work then, and won't work now - it's just their way of giving tax breaks to their corporate donors and friends....good article....
If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, then Florida politicians are downright deranged.
This state's failed economic policies have left Florida worse off than most every other state in America.
And yet, Gov.-elect Rick Scott and the simpletons in Tallahassee want to double-down on disaster.
Their plan is to cut the corporate income tax, which is already one of the lowest in America.
They claim this will help you. But it's really just part of the continuing assault on the middle class.
This state's failed economic policies have left Florida worse off than most every other state in America.
And yet, Gov.-elect Rick Scott and the simpletons in Tallahassee want to double-down on disaster.
Their plan is to cut the corporate income tax, which is already one of the lowest in America.
They claim this will help you. But it's really just part of the continuing assault on the middle class.
http://www.orlandosentinel.
This one is about how "the boys" [polluters] want our newly elected crack legislative team of Republicans to oppose any clean water regulations, so they snap to it and make "no to the EPA" noise. Disgusting, but get used to it.....these scum politicians will do anything the corporations want even [make that especially] if it hurts the disappearing middle class....
Rick Scott, Pam Bondi and the rest of Florida's newly elected Republican leadership teamed up the other day for a shameful cause — dirtier streams, lakes and drinking water. The pair joined a host of incoming Republican officeholders to blast the new clean water rules announced this month by the Environmental Protection Agency. These leaders need to get their facts — and their priorities — straight. Polluted water endangers public health, threatens the golden geese of property values and tourism and destroys the very environment that attracts residents here. The state should welcome the new standards and work with polluters to clean up the public's waterways.
OK some levity - funny column from Carl Hiaasen about Charlie Crist pardoning Jim Morrison of the Doors......so Jim writes our Charlie a letter from heaven.....
An absolutely true news item: Florida Gov. Charlie Crist will seek a pardon for the late Jim Morrison, lead singer of the Doors, who was convicted of exposing himself and using profanity during a chaotic Miami concert in 1969.
Dear Gov. Crist,
I’m writing to you from Rock n’ Roll Heaven, where I’ve been hanging out ever since I nodded off in that bathtub in Paris, way back in ’71.
6/ Flying for Thanksgiving? Get ready for TSA patting you down.......very funny skit from Saturday Night Live.....2 minutes including a commercial for Minis.....
7/ As I said above, it just gets worse and worse. Here's a story about our young people and how hard it is for them to find a job....serious stuff.....if you have teenage or 20's kids you had better know someone or have strings to pull.....otherwise they will be living with you for a long time.....
Today, the kids’ outlook is almost as bleak as the housing market; they are unemployed, underwater on student debt, and out of luck from a reluctant political system.
Currently, even after a slight boost in jobs growth, unemployment for 18-24 year olds stands at 24.7%. For 20-24 year olds, it hovers at 15.2%. These conservative estimates, using the Bureau of Labor Statistics U3 measure, do not reflect the number of marginally attached or discouraged young workers feeling the lag from a nearly moribund job market.
The U3 measure also does not count underemployment, yet with only 50% of B.A. holders able to find jobs requiring such a degree, underemployment rates are a telling index of the squeezing of the 18-30 year old Millennial generation. While it appears everyone is hurting since the financial collapse, young adults bear a disproportionate burden, constituting just 13.5% of the workforce while accounting for 26.4% of those unemployed. Even with good credentials, it is difficult for young people to find work and keep themselves afloat.
8/ New trailer for "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows".....can't wait to see it......2 minutes......
9/ TV tonight [Tuesday]. Frontline with what sounds like an excellent documentary.....
The latest “Frontline” documentary comes with a blunt, no-one-was-aiming-for-lyricism title: “Facing Death.” The name and the accompanying promotional materials, with an image of a corpselike hand on a hospital bed, suggest a resurrection of the kind of tired and unwinnable debates that surrounded the case of Terri Schiavo. But the film, produced by Miri Navasky and Karen O’Connor, who paid such elegant tribute to the grim subject of mortuary work in “The Undertaking,” ambitiously explores the complex questions that arise about extending life when a patient is not merely in a persistent vegetative state.
Twofer today - "Fantastic Photography" slideshow, and "Fox Hat" video......
Todays blonde joke
Two blonde girls were working for the city public works department. One would dig a hole and the other would follow behind her and fill the hole in They worked up one side of the street, then down the other, then moved on to the next street, working furiously all day without rest, one girl digging a hole, the other girl filling it in again.
An onlooker was amazed at their hard work, but couldn't understand what they were doing. So he asked the hole digger, 'I'm impressed by the effort you two are putting in to your work, but I don't get it -- why do you dig a hole, only to have your partner follow behind and fill it up again?'
The hole digger wiped her brow and sighed, 'Well, I suppose it probably looks odd because we're normally a three-person team. But today the girl who plants the trees called in sick.'
An onlooker was amazed at their hard work, but couldn't understand what they were doing. So he asked the hole digger, 'I'm impressed by the effort you two are putting in to your work, but I don't get it -- why do you dig a hole, only to have your partner follow behind and fill it up again?'
The hole digger wiped her brow and sighed, 'Well, I suppose it probably looks odd because we're normally a three-person team. But today the girl who plants the trees called in sick.'
Todays driving joke
I was driving when I saw the flash of a traffic camera. I figured that my picture had been taken for exceeding the limit even though I knew that I was not speeding. Just to be sure, I went around the block and passed the same spot, driving even more slowly, but again the camera flashed.
Now I began to think that this was quite funny, so I drove even slower as I passed the area once more, but the traffic camera again flashed.
I tried a fourth and fifth time with the same results and was now laughing as the camera flashed while I rolled past at a snail's pace.
Two weeks later, I got five tickets in the mail for driving without a seat belt.
Now I began to think that this was quite funny, so I drove even slower as I passed the area once more, but the traffic camera again flashed.
I tried a fourth and fifth time with the same results and was now laughing as the camera flashed while I rolled past at a snail's pace.
Two weeks later, I got five tickets in the mail for driving without a seat belt.
You know, you just can't fix stupid.
Todays golfers jokes
Golfer’s Credo
1) Don’t buy a putter until you’ve had a chance to throw it
2) Never try to keep more than 300 separate thoughts in your mind during your swing
3) When your shot has to carry over a water hazard, you can either hit one more club or two more balls
4) If you’re afraid a full shot might reach the green while the foursome ahead of you is still putting put, you have two options: you can immediately shank a lay-up or you can wait until the green is clear and top the ball halfway there
5) The less skilled the player, the more likely he is to share his ideas about the golf swing
6) No matter how bad you are playing, it is always possible to play worse
7) The inevitable result of any golf lesson is the instant elimination of the one critical unconscious motion that allowed you to compensate for all of your many other errors
8) A golf match is a test of your skill against your opponents’ luck
9) Nonchalant putts count the same as chalant putts
10) It’s not a gimme if you’re still away
11) The shortest distance between any two points on a golf course is a straight line that passes directly through the center of a very large tree
12) You can hit a two acre fairway 10% of the time and a two inch branch 90% of the time
13) Since bad shots come in groups of three, a fourth bad shot is actually the beginning of the next group of three
14) When you look up, causing an awful shot, you will always look down again at the exact moment when you ought to start watching the ball if you ever want to see it again
15) Every time a golfer makes a birdie, he must subsequently make two triple bogies to restore the fundamental equilibrium of the universe
16) Hazards attract; fairways repel
17) A ball you can see in the rough from 50 yards away is not yours
18) If there is a ball on the fringe and a ball in the bunker, your ball is in the bunker. If both balls are in the bunker, yours is in the footprint
19) A good drive on the 18th hole has stopped many golfers from giving up the game
20) A good golf partner is one who’s always slightly worse than you are
21) If there’s a storm rolling in, you’ll be having the game of your life
22) Golf balls are like eggs. They’re white. They’re sold by the dozen. And you need to buy fresh ones each week
23) If your opponent has trouble remembering whether he shot a six or a seven, he probably shot an eight (or worse)
24) It takes longer to learn to be a good golfer than it does to become a brain surgeon. On the other hand, you don’t get to ride around on a cart, drink beer, eat hot dogs and fart if you are performing Brain Surgery
1) Don’t buy a putter until you’ve had a chance to throw it
2) Never try to keep more than 300 separate thoughts in your mind during your swing
3) When your shot has to carry over a water hazard, you can either hit one more club or two more balls
4) If you’re afraid a full shot might reach the green while the foursome ahead of you is still putting put, you have two options: you can immediately shank a lay-up or you can wait until the green is clear and top the ball halfway there
5) The less skilled the player, the more likely he is to share his ideas about the golf swing
6) No matter how bad you are playing, it is always possible to play worse
7) The inevitable result of any golf lesson is the instant elimination of the one critical unconscious motion that allowed you to compensate for all of your many other errors
8) A golf match is a test of your skill against your opponents’ luck
9) Nonchalant putts count the same as chalant putts
10) It’s not a gimme if you’re still away
11) The shortest distance between any two points on a golf course is a straight line that passes directly through the center of a very large tree
12) You can hit a two acre fairway 10% of the time and a two inch branch 90% of the time
13) Since bad shots come in groups of three, a fourth bad shot is actually the beginning of the next group of three
14) When you look up, causing an awful shot, you will always look down again at the exact moment when you ought to start watching the ball if you ever want to see it again
15) Every time a golfer makes a birdie, he must subsequently make two triple bogies to restore the fundamental equilibrium of the universe
16) Hazards attract; fairways repel
17) A ball you can see in the rough from 50 yards away is not yours
18) If there is a ball on the fringe and a ball in the bunker, your ball is in the bunker. If both balls are in the bunker, yours is in the footprint
19) A good drive on the 18th hole has stopped many golfers from giving up the game
20) A good golf partner is one who’s always slightly worse than you are
21) If there’s a storm rolling in, you’ll be having the game of your life
22) Golf balls are like eggs. They’re white. They’re sold by the dozen. And you need to buy fresh ones each week
23) If your opponent has trouble remembering whether he shot a six or a seven, he probably shot an eight (or worse)
24) It takes longer to learn to be a good golfer than it does to become a brain surgeon. On the other hand, you don’t get to ride around on a cart, drink beer, eat hot dogs and fart if you are performing Brain Surgery
