Striking a blow against fascism with commentary on current events, finance, economics, politics, music, art, culture and how to deal with our economic lives being bartered away by the elites who have our financial future all figured out: We'll be paying off their debts forever.
Cirze's World
Translate
Conservative Animus
_________________
Conservatism is the theoretical voice of this animus against the agency of the subordinate classes. It provides the most consistent and profound argument as to why the lower orders should not be allowed to exercise their independent will, why they should not be allowed to govern themselves or the polity. Submission is their first duty, agency, the prerogative of the elite.
- Corey Robin
The Conservative Mind
_________________
“Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never — in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense.
Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”
- Winston Churchill _________________
“Imperial privilege is this strange ability on the part of the U.S. public to ‘shrug off’ the consequences experienced by people impacted by the direct and indirect result of U.S. militarism.”
— Ajamu Baraka
_________________
Current Readers
Politicus USA on GOP Fascism
_________________
The entire GOP apparatus is slipping toward fascism and millions of Americans have been indoctrinated to believe that the Bible none of them have read takes precedence over the Constitution none of them have read.
Eco Farm Shitakes, Squash, Kale - Cindi, Nicole & Eddie
Ukraine Disinformation Battle: Little Green Men, Hamsters and the Fog of War
________________
There has always been a gap in how media on both sides of the former Iron Curtain have reported world events, and it’s growing as the crisis in Ukraine escalates. It has become increasingly difficult to obtain reliable information from any side — west, east, or further east — about what is going on in Eastern Ukraine.
While powerful propaganda machines fill the public space with smoke and mirrors, one of the few facts that can be positively established in Eastern Ukraine is that the body count is steadily growing: a testament of just how easy it is for self-interested foreign powers to start, either intentionally or recklessly, a civil war in the heart of Europe. Continuing coverage is available at this link and this link.
Cirze's World
Red Roots Farm - Kristen & Jason - No Sprays/Delicious Veggies!
Fukushima, Japan Disaster Worsens and Spreads
________________
While the American reactor industry continues to suck billions of dollars from the public treasury, its allies in the corporate media seem increasingly hesitant to cover the news of post-Fukushima Japan. Continuing coverage is available at this link, this link, and this link.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Cirze's World
Paradox Farm - Goat Cheese Louise!
Blog Against Theocracy
(h/t Darkblack)
Cirze's World
Red Wolf Organics - Jordan & Sylvan sell basil, chard, peppers - 10% of Profits Support Syrian Refugees
My Blog Fights Climate Change
Cirze's World
Working hard at the Farmers' Market - Grand Hope Farm
Animal Rescue - Click Everyday!
Cirze's World
Paul Krugman:
I don’t think many people grasp just how raw, how explicit, the corruption of our institutions has become.
Yesterday I had a conversation with someone who, like me, spent most of the Bush years as a voice in the wilderness. And he pointed out something remarkable: although those of us who said the obvious — that the Bush administration was fundamentally monstrous — were ridiculed by all the respectable people at the time, at this point our narrative has become everyone’s narrative.
Cirze's World
Paul Craig Roberts:
_________________ US Media
_________________
"Anyone who depends on print, TV, or right-wing talk radio media is totally misinformed. The Bush administration has achieved a de facto Ministry of Propaganda."
"The uniformity of the US media has become much more complete since the days of the cold war. During the 1990s, the US government permitted an unconscionable concentration of print and broadcast media that terminated the independence of the media.
Today the US media is owned by 5 giant companies in which pro-Zionist Jews have disproportionate influence. More importantly, the values of the conglomerates reside in the broadcast licenses, which are granted by the government, and the corporations are run by corporate executives — not by journalists — whose eyes are on advertising revenues and the avoidance of controversy that might produce boycotts or upset advertisers and subscribers.
Americans who rely on the totally corrupt corporate media have no idea what is happening anywhere on earth, much less at home."
_________________ War On Terror
_________________
Roberts asked "Is the War on Terror a Hoax", and claims it has "killed, maimed, dislocated, and made widows and orphans of millions of Muslims in six countries". Roberts called the attacks "naked aggression" on civilian populations and infrastructure which constitute war crimes.
_________________ Republican Party
_________________
Roberts is seriously dismayed by what he considers the Republican Party's disregard for the U.S. Constitution. He has even voiced his regret that he ever worked for it, avowing that, had he known what it would become, he would never have contributed to the Reagan Revolution.
_________________ American Democracy and Oligarchy
_________________
Roberts has been increasingly critical of what he deems as the lessening of democracy in the U.S.; instead accusing it of being run by oligarchs by stating:
"The west prides itself that it is the standard for the world, that it is a democracy. But nowhere do you see democratic outcomes: not in Greece, not in Ireland, not in the UK, not here, the outcomes are always to punish the innocent and reward the guilty.
And that's what the Greeks are in the streets protesting. We see this all over the west. There is no democracy, there are oligarchies, some of these smaller European countries are not even run by their own governments, they are run by Wall Street... There is probably more democracy in China than there is in the west.
Revolution is the only answer... We are confronted with a curious situation. Throughout the west we think we have democracy, we hold ourselves up high, we demonize China, we talk about the mafia state of Russia, we talk about the Arabs and so on, but where is the democracy here?"
Roberts effectively announced his journalistic retirement. The article, published at Counterpunch.org, begins:
"There was a time when the pen was mightier than the sword. That was a time when people believed in truth and regarded truth as an independent power and not as an auxiliary for government, class, race, ideological, personal, or financial interest."
It proceeds to a bitter chronicle of the demise of American intellectual integrity, particularly that of financial journalists and economists. These have been thoroughly corrupted by monetary inducements to misrepresent and ignore what has been, in effect, the systematic dismantling of the nation's productive life, in the name of globalization.
He holds the members of his own journalistic profession largely responsible for abetting relentless outsourcing of American industry, thereby gutting the American middle class and effectively dooming the nation's future.
He describes his own ostracism from mainstream media access, the consequence of his relentless and unflinching criticism of the demolition process over the past decade. His column ends, "The militarism of the U.S. and Israeli states, and Wall Street and corporate greed, will now run their course. As the pen is censored and its might extinguished, I am signing off."
_________________
Cirze's World
Liberal?
"If by a 'Liberal' they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties — someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a “Liberal,” then I’m proud to say I’m a “Liberal."
John F. Kennedy, 1960
________________
Citizen's United
"[T]his Court now concludes that independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption. That speakers may have influence over or access to elected officials does not mean that those officials are corrupt. And the appearance of influence or access will not cause the electorate to lose faith in this democracy."
The DOGE Deaths
-
We’re less than two months into Trump’s second term, and “worst president
of the 21st century” is not longer a remotely open question: The New York
Times...
Man set on fire in New York’s Times Square
-
Victim, 45, hospitalized and in stable condition as police unable to say if
attack was random or targeted
A 45-year-old man was set on fire in the middle...
New Study: Highways Block Social Connection
-
A new study confirms what urban residents and advocates have known for
decades: that America’s urban highways are barriers to social connection.
The rese...
Oracle Is Frontrunner to Run TikTok
-
Politico: “The software company Oracle is accelerating talks with the White
House on a deal to run TikTok, though significant concerns remain about
what ro...
I’m with Rat on this
-
(Pearls Before Swine) I too refuse to go along with this affectation. I
avoid Starbucks as much as possible but on the rare occasions that I go to
one, I o...
Taxes are for the little people
-
From an article in the NY Review of Books: “ . . . the 94 percent marginal
tax rate [Reagan] was theoretically subject to an income above $200,000,
thoug...
The Isolation
-
The way things are going, you'd think donald trump doesn't want any foreign
policy at all. he's burning nearly every bridge the United States has to
the ...
IF YOU'RE A DEMOCRAT, STOP PUNCHING LEFT
-
I'm back. Thank you, Yas and Tom, for some urgent posts while I was away.
Right now, I don't understand why any Democrat is talking about anything
apart fr...
King Stupid the First
-
Law Dork reports… “A little before 7:00 p.m. Saturday, a federal judge
issued an order temporarily stopping deportations set in motion by
President Donald ...
FOMC Preview: No Change to Fed Funds Rate
-
Most analysts expect no change to FOMC policy at the meeting this week,
keeping the target range at 4 1/4 to 4 1/2 percent. Market participants
currentl...
The Velvet Touch (1948)
-
A backstage film noir starring Rosalind Russell, Leo Genn, Claire Trevor,
Sydney Greenstreet, Leon Ames, and Frank McHugh. Directed by John Gage.
Screenpla...
Open Thread March 16 2025
-
Yesterday, the radio opera was Beethoven’s “Fidelio.” You are welcome to
skip the details, although I hope you’ll give it a chance – I am going into
more d...
Ron Johnson: F**k The Veterans
-
After President Elmo and Felonia took their chainsaws to the Department of
Veteran Affairs, it didn't take long for the effects to be felt at the
Zablock...
Sunday Reading
-
Chuck Schumer Needs To Find A New Gig — Charles P. Pierce. Chuck Schumer is
done like dinner. His announcement on Thursday that he is surrendering to
the H...
The Conversation -- March 16, 2025
-
*Maria Sacchetti*, *et al*., of the *Washington Post*: “A federal judge
barred ... *Donald Trump* on Saturday from using a wartime powers act to
deport a...
The Phony Ceasefire
-
Knowing well in advance that Russia would reject it, the U.S. and Ukraine
announced with fanfare that its ceasefire deal was in “Russia’s court” in
what wa...
Links 3/15/25
-
Links for you. Science: New human coronavirus detected in infant with
pneumonia, for 1st time in Korea 1 in 22 COVID survivors develop
debilitating chronic...
McCarthyism at Yale, Then and Now
-
At the height of the Second Red Scare, Yale University covered itself in
glory when Yale president Charles Seymour declared, “There will be no
witch-hunts ...
This Week In Techdirt History: March 9th – 15th
-
Five Years Ago This week in 2020, the DOJ ended up with a mistrial in its
first attempt to prosecute an accused leaker, and also proposed some
Section 230 ...
Weekend links 769
-
Araki Street in Yotsuya (1935) by Tsuchiya Koitsu. • “Cambridge, home of
analytic philosophy, was also a hotbed of psychical research. How did this
spooky ...
SATURDAY: Lawrence O'Donnell's mental health!
-
*SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 2025*
*The commander's alleged "broken brain:"* We'd like to be mad at Lawrence
O'Donnell. On the other hand, we understand what he'...
Moons Under Water: The Iconography of the Pub Sign
-
In an exclusive extract from his new book for Bloomsbury's Object Lessons
series, Cambridge Historical Geography professor Philip Howell explores the
lo...
The Four Golfcartmen of the Apocalypse
-
In Biblical contexts, War, Death, Pestilence and Famine. Well, with the
Trump administration, check, check, check, and check! War? Trump set the
stage for ...
Free Mahmoud
-
"It's part of a wider strategy to obfuscate MAGA antisemitism and an
increasingly fascist regime Gift link to the piece.
Somebody I respect, I don't ac...
Weekend long read
-
1) At the INSS, Kobi Michael and Yoel Guzansky analyse ‘The Language of the
Arab Initiative for Gaza’s Reconstruction’. “An analysis of the official...
T...
Weekend long read
-
1) At the INSS, Kobi Michael and Yoel Guzansky analyse ‘The Language of the
Arab Initiative for Gaza’s Reconstruction’. “An analysis of the official...
T...
Dreams from the Third Reich
-
"I dreamed that the milkman, the gas man, the newspaper vendor, the baker,
and the plumber were all standing in a circle around me, holding out bills
I owe...
Spring's Frightful Awakening
-
“The notion that Europe is able to pose a military threat to Russia does
not even qualify as trashy propaganda for sub-zero IQs.” — Pepe Escobar
Doom TV Binging
-
There are only so many hours of doomscrolling social media or watching
Lawrence O’Donnell find new ways to call Trump “stupid” in a given week I
can hand...
Cut the Senate Democrats Some Slack
-
Democrats have reasons to filibuster the Republican bill that keeps the
government open without restraining mass government worker layoffs. But if
they ...
Black Agenda Radio March 14, 2025
-
Black Agenda Radio March 14, 2025
Authors
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
bareditors Fri, 03/14/2025 - 04:55
Black Agenda Radio · Black Agenda ...
Roaring 20s or Great Depression 2.0?
-
*The binary ahead is the result of a simple law of Nature: adapt or die. *
*Will we revel in a New Roaring 20s of exhilarating expansion, or will we
suffe...
on the Palestine Exception
-
It would be a mistake to see the attempt to deport Mahmoud Khalil for his
political views in relation to Palestine as an authoritarian aberration
on...
The Speech Police
-
OK, this one is for all the professional “sensitivity editors” out there,
and for the US Department of Homeland Security, and President Donald Trump,
and t...
Jocko Told a Joke and Has Been Dead Since May
-
Ebbing compulsion to grid the clusterfuck, not worry I'm anybody the
muskgestapo tracking (despite the tens of thousands of pings daily by
googlebots and ...
No Sympathy For the Devil
-
"You should get it into your head, and pass it on to whoevr needs to know
up above, that your power depends on not taking absolutely everything away
fro...
Weekly Review
-
A group of Swedish citizens announced that they would protest U.S. policy
shifts against Europe by boycotting Netflix. “I had to,” said the
organizer, “d...
Cartoon: Taking Away His Incentive To Work
-
This cartoon is by me and Becky Hawkins. Becky writes: In some circles,
Portland’s claim to fame, aside from “burned down by Antifa in 2020,” is
the large ...
"State of the Union causes State of Confusion"
-
The state of this fragile American union is not good. It's not good because
the leader is intentionally trying to divide us and destroy it. I am not
...
People tell me I'm lucky
-
I don't think I've mentioned her paintings of New Orleans before, but Diane
Millsap is an artist I've long enjoyed. This one is Old Absinthe House. You
can...
Vets Lives Are Being Destroyed By Federal Cuts
-
Chelsea Milburn, a disabled Navy vet, was fired from her job because of
sweeping cuts to federal agencies. But her story won’t be on Fox “News”
When I sa...
Attn E. Musk
-
Elon Musk sent an outrageous, degrading, disturbing, and ominous email to
federal employees with the subject line, *“What did you do last week?”*
*...
The Euro-American Split (I): Dread Possibility
-
*THERE ARE DECADES WHEN* possibility is constrained in a narrow frame. The
terrain has been surveyed, boundaries have been laid, and rules have been
establ...
Trump and Elon Musk: Policy at Home and Abroad
-
This is an open thread for all things related to Donald Trump's second
administration, including Elon Musk, his non-elected co-leader, and Stephen
Miller...
Bigotry, Hatred, Authoritarianism and War
-
Monday was International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a date chosen based on
the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camps. It's an appropriate
time to...
Esther Kinsky’s Lyrical Elegy for the Movies
-
In Esther Kinsky’s fiction, landscapes write and speak. Across her novels
we find “waters sighing,” “shadows of leaves scribbling notes,” the Oder
drawin...
The Meaning of Trump’s Victory
-
This was a change election that was made amazingly close by voters wanting
the middle class to govern, not the richest and for women to have equal
rights. ...
It Can't Happen Here
-
Trump has made his repeated promise to deport 20,000,000 minorities and
foreigners a central feature of his campaign. What does Trump intend to do
wi...
Maybe Not So Fast
-
I just got the estimate for the hosting on my other Blog,
Bustednuckles.com, for one year. With Wa state tax? A little over $900. I
can’t afford that so I ...
Clock
-
Guest post by Sander O’Neil https://sanderoneilclock.tiiny.site/ This is a
follow up to this post
https://mathbabe.org/2015/03/12/earths-aphelion-and-perih...
We Don’t Need A New Theory Of EVERYTHING
-
Though things have indeed changed since this video was produced, it still
makes the infinitesimally tiny point! “Luminous beings are we; not this
crude...
-
Hello all,
It is with great sadness that I share with you the passing of our beloved
sister, Mother, and Grandmother, the individual that you all knew ...
4 bienfaits de l’huile de CBD
-
L’huile de CBD, issue du cannabis, est devenue un sujet de discussion
croissant dans le domaine de la santé et du bien-être. Ses propriétés
thérapeutique...
In Memorium
-
Tom Degan
1958-2023
To all Tom’s faithful readers of the Rant, we are sad to announce that he
passed away on December 7th, 2023. Thank you so much for th...
Shadowproof Is Shutting Down
-
After eight years, we have decided that it is time to shut down
Shadowproof, but that does not mean that the independent journalism that we
fostered is c...
I Have Been To Heaven and Back
-
OBS chimed in on my post about mobility impairment. And therein my
capybaras, lies the tale. For early in fall, I had a swelling in my leg,
that I thought ...
Last Post, Please Read
-
Good morning. This is Zandar's Dad. I am sorry to tell you that he passed
away over the weekend, peacefully in his sleep. Fortunately, his computer
was on ...
Media Say ... Gloom And Doom In China
-
The New York Times, and other western media, are running a 'doom and gloom
in Xi's economy' campaign. The latest entry is this piece: China’s Economic
Pain...
A Few Quick Announcements
-
By James As I wrote a couple of years ago, I don’t post here anymore. I
just have a couple of updates for people who subscribe and may be
interested in my ...
This feed has moved and will be deleted soon. Please update your
subscription now.
-
The publisher is using a new address for their RSS feed. Please update your
feed reader to use this new URL:
*https://www.alternet.org/feed/*
Happy 2023 To All Of You
-
I have often come back here to try to write some sort of a conclusion to
the years of activity on this site, but have not figured out what, exactly,
to s...
November/December 2022 issue
-
Our November/December 2022 issue has been printed and is going out to print
subscribers very soon, and e-subscribers have already gotten their
electronic c...
END TIMES
-
Half of yesterday's content was suppressed before it existed. There is no
point in producing content under such conditions. I Quit.
This post was unpubl...
Intersectional Pride Day
-
Today was Pride Day in NYC, and for the first time in two years, the march
was packed with participants... people were confident to step out during
this ...
What Is a Bayonet? Or, Who Wins & Who Loses?
-
WD Ehrhardt: So I signed up, only to discover that being a man wasn’t all
it was cracked up to be, that men who are horribly mangled in battle really
do ...
Colin Kidd: Green Pastel Redness
-
With six conservatives on the nine-person court, Chief Justice John Roberts
knows that another prudent defection on his part will not be enough to save
Roe...
Trump = Roadkill
-
Surely the facts are not in dispute A New York man upset with what he
perceived as Donald Trump’s threats to democracy was criminally charged on
Monday wit...
The War on Terror Is a Success — for Terror
-
Terrorist Groups Have Doubled Since the Passage of the 2001 AUMF Nick Turse
It began more than two decades ago. On September 20, 2001, President George
W....
Merry Christmas! We Got You Some Fauxmosexuals!
-
Happy holidays, everyone. People seemed to enjoy last year's riff of D.W.
Griffith's 1909 silent melodrama, *A Trap for Santa*, so we did it again,
with ...
Test Article
-
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Curabitur interdum
libero pulvinar pretium sagittis. Nulla at sem sollicitudin, blandit neque
nec,...
Have You Heard Has a New Website
-
TweetHave You Heard has a new website. Visit us at
www.haveyouheardpodcast.com to find our latest episodes and our entire
archive. And be sure to check out...
Whether (and how) America can survive Trumpism
-
Georgetown Professor Thomas Zimmer joins us to talk about polarization and
extremism, and what insights American and world history provide as to
whether ...
Goodbye, Little Macho
-
Saturday was a year since my mom died from COVID. My sister and I got Macho
in the car, and we drove to the cemetery for the first time since her
burial. W...
Big Government Handouts
-
Recently, Elon Musk beat out Jeff Bezos for a 2.9 billion contract from
NASA to fly one of his magnificent exploding rocket ships to the moon. In
true Am...
Cancel Yourself
-
At this point we find ourselves confronted by a very disquieting question:
Do we really wish to act upon our knowledge? Does a majority of the
population t...
American Carnage
-
And crows will eat your eyes. -- Motörhead, *Traitor *
I promise that I don't intend to make a habit of breaking radio silence,
especially just a couple ...
Weird Op-Ed of the Day
-
Today's weird op-ed comes from DNI John Ratcliffe via the Murdoch-owned
Wall Street Journal.
China Is National Security Threat No. 1Resisting Beijing’s ...
‘Test & Trace’ is a mirage
-
Lockdown II thoughts: Day 1 Opposition politicians have been banging on
about the need for a ‘working’ Test & Trace system even more loudly than
the govern...
Saturday Emmylou Blogging
-
Note: Blogspot has changed its template for posting and I can't make any
sense of it so this may be my last post. Sorry. Adios. Thanks to Fuzzy
Legends Arc...
Outbreak: Anatomy of a Plague
-
[ by Charles Cameron — scientific [precision meets human error in cases of
outbreak — with links to a terrific science thread by Palli Thordarson
@PalliTho...
Over-the-air television and the other America
-
If you’re an OTA viewer you’re feeding on cultural leftovers, quite
literally. If you’re not, your baseline cost of living is poverty line
times 1.5 or som...
The Immaterial Physical World
-
For centuries the prevailing western worldview has been built upon the
materialistic, mechanical model of Isaac Newton - a clockwork Universe
composed of...
They can save the world by @BloggersRUs
-
*They can save the world*
by Tom Sullivan
Climate activist Greta Thunberg, Time magazine's 2019 Person of the Year
has called on German industrial giant...
Stop the Madness! Sign this Petition!
-
Hello, fellow outraged citizen. Are you as outraged as we are? Have you had
enough? Are you one of those astute, sentient, breathing persons who has
not...
More Shoes More
-
So, like, always, because this is forever the only relevant part of the
shtick:
Yesterday was the last day that neither of us was 60 fucking years old. O...
Open Thread
-
[image: image of a purple sofa]
Hosted by a purple sofa. Have a seat and chat.
[*Note:* Liss is currently on hiatus for health reasons. There will be an
Op...
apologies for my absence
-
skippy, his co-bloggers and his followers are among my favorite people in
the world. real life has been challenging for me these last few years but i
got m...
Site Announcement
-
Hey, folks. So, we've passed the Rubicon on this site. We've done the final
migration of posts. This includes over 18,000 posts I've written over the
las...
Membership Drive
-
The Office of Strategic Services during World War II included in its
training courses for agents so-called OSS Steps to Recruitment, which
detail import...
The Fossil Fuel Globalists Ruining our Lives
-
Are You Ready for an Epoch Fail? Globalists Really Are Ruining Your Life
By John Feffer You know the story: the globalists want your guns. They want
your d...
Armistice Day...Every Family Has a Story
-
*[Gary Note: Blogging, of late, has been taking a back seat to life...which
is as it should be. But today **you're getting a pair of posts!**]*
==========...
Attacks on Afghan security forces kill at least 10
-
*Attacks on Afghan security forces kill at least 10: *
*In northwestern Badghis province, five officers were killed, including
Abdul Hakim, the police co...
Meanwhile in bizarro world…
-
This is a take so hot, it’s officially 2 Hot 2 Touch, by one Douglas Heye:.
Trump is uniquely positioned to cut a deal to prevent school shootings
Wait, do...
Savage Minds is dead! Long live anthro{dendum}!
-
This will be the last post on the domain savageminds.org, but the site will
live on. It will live on both at this address (savageminds.org) where there
wil...
Trump-Branded Shit
-
From our partners at DownWithTyranny! -by Dorothy ReikNever one to bypass a
branding opportunity, Donald Trump has decided to increase and extend his
prese...
Bezmenov- West Capitulated to Communist Subversion
-
Communism is the Protocols of Zion in action. This excerpt from a crucial
1985 interview with KGB Defector Yuri Bezmenov throws our predicament into
stark ...
Day 166 and Counting
-
Source: Getty Images Well, it's been a long 8 months since the election,
and an even longer 5-1/2 months since Trump officially became president.
It's be...
This blog is now closed...
-
...and I'm now blogging at http://www.ecosophia.net. All of the posts that
appeared here during the eleven-year run of *The Archdruid Report* will be
issu...
Love And Money: Marriage The McArdle Way
-
It's Valentine's Day and Megan McArdle's thoughts naturally turn to love,
which means money. Join me as I mock the woman whose rat-fucking is
screwing ...
When Scalia Beamed up!
-
by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy
These flights are critical to the the government's crumbling cover up!
Without those flights, Bush and his murderous...
Surging
-
*We're Number One*
*"A major military-led surge in U.S. aid to fight"* Ebola in West Africa
will soon begin. 3000 soldiers and probably more than $500 mill...
Occupy The Banks
-
I am so pissed off about what happened to the protesters UC Davis Police
Pepper-Spray Seated Students In Occupy Dispute (VIDEO) (UPDATES)
and the absence o...
Nickel and Dimed (2011 Version)
-
On Turning Poverty into an American Crime By Barbara Ehrenreich I completed
the manuscript for Nickel and Dimed in a time of seemingly boundless
prosperity...
Damon Galgut: The Impostor
-
Damon Galgut is one of those authors who justifies the existence of
literary prizes. Without its multiple shortlistings – Booker, Impac,
Commonwealth Write...
You have to see this "Wall Street Journal" headline from late last week:
"Hillary Clinton Begins Shift to the General Election"
Unfortunately for the Clinton campaign's plans, voters got in the way. We've won six of the last seven contests, and took 82% of the vote in Alaska, 73% in Washington, and 70% in Hawaii.
Here’s the truth: the Clinton campaign and their allies in the financial and political establishment are desperately trying to write us off.
Their goal is to get you to stop fighting — to stop volunteering, to stop donating — because they know that if we continue to stand together, we can win.
Jeff Weaver
Bernie Sanders Campaign Manager
Friends, let's thank our Facebook fans for this Birdie True Vote Count video.
Watch it!
And, no, I haven't seen Bernie dance like that before.
emocratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders easily won nominating contests in Alaska, Washington and Hawaii on Saturday, chipping away at front-runner Hillary Clinton's commanding lead in the race to pick the party's candidate for the White House.
Sanders still faces a steep climb to overtake Clinton but the big victories in the West generated more momentum for his upstart campaign and could stave off calls from Democratic leaders that he should wrap up his bid in the name of party unity.
. . . "We are making significant inroads in Secretary Clinton's lead and ... we have a path to victory," Sanders told cheering, chanting supporters in Madison, Wisconsin. "It is hard for anybody to deny that our campaign has the momentum."
Clinton, the former secretary of state, has increasingly turned her attention toward a potential Nov. 8 general election showdown against Republican front-runner Donald Trump, claiming she is on the path to wrapping up the nomination.
. . . Sanders has repeatedly said he is staying in the race until the convention, pointing to big crowds at his rallies and high turnout among young and first-time voters as proof of his viability. After raising $140 million, he has the money to fight on as long as he wants.
He has energized the party's liberal base and young voters with his calls to rein in Wall Street and fight income inequality, a message that resonated in liberal Washington and other Western states.
"Don't let anybody tell you we can't win the nomination or the general election," Sanders told supporters in Wisconsin, which holds the next contest on April 5. "We are going to do both."
. . .After Wisconsin, the Democratic race moves to contests in New York on April 19 and a bloc of five states in the Northeast, led by Pennsylvania, on April 26.
This Presidential Primary runs for 134 days, (Feb 1st to June 14th.) It's criminal that the Dem Party would allow the Owner Media to report superdelegates who have not yet Legally Voted. .. No Election should ever be held with a Phantom Lead that serves as a Finger on the Scale..
The District of Columbia votes on June 14th. They have 672,228 total residents. Arizona has 6.83 Million residents and 917,411 Registered Democrats. The District of Columbia, was awarded by the Dem Party 26 superdelegates, and Arizona was awarded 10.
I believe, the time is more than ripe for each one of us, to have a conversation with each of our State Democratic Parties. .. And, ask them, just why Super Delegates - who can Still Legally Change Their Vote - Are Being Reported Today.
.. Also, ask them - if they would publicly state that the superdelegate votes are "Too Early To Report (Estimate)" until, the remaining States and Dems have voted, or maybe even until the Convention itself, where they can consult with their Pledged Delegates.
Everyone who lives in a state where Bernie has won a primary by a yuuge margin should contact their state's Superdelegates and ask why they are supporting Clinton if their state is strongly for Bernie??
The voters can put pressure on them. I've noticed that no additional superdelegates have pledged support for her for about a month so I think the tide may be turning.
#Radscal2016-03-27 09:28 In Pledged (won) delegates, HRC now has just 22% more than Sanders. (1243 to 975).
But once again, voting "irregularities" that favored HRC were legion in AZ.
There were some Exit Polls taken during the voting, and they had Sanders up 60% to 40% and 70% to 30%. But, with 1% or 2% of the precincts reported, the corporate media announced HRC the winner!
And mind you, due to the long lines (and FOUR FAKE BOMB THREATS that closed polling stations while the bomb squad checked them out), there were tens of thousands of voters still waiting in line when those "results" were announced.
Remember that Republican tactic of scrubbing eligible voters from the rolls in FL in 2000?
Well, an unknown number of thousands of registered Democrats showed up to vote, but were told they were NOT registered.
Most were given provisional ballots, but I'm not holding my breath to read the new results once all those provisionals have been verified and added to the vote tally.
And the AZ Sanders campaign reported a possible hack of their data base the week before the Primary.
If you care about election integrity, please sign the White House Petition to have the AZ primary investigated:
#BernieOrBust pledge-takers in caucus states are encouraged to hand out a flyer to people in line going into caucus. It reads:
Attention: genuine progressives across the nation are pledging to either write in Bernie Sanders or vote Green in the general election, unless he's the Party nominee. 14% in our party refuse to support another Wall Street-backed Democrat. As much as we’d would like to see a woman in the White House for a change, Hillary is not a change from the hawkish and pro-corporate government we are all weary of. We can't risk a repeat of 2000 and end up having a Republican appoint the next Supreme Court judges. If we want to win in November, we need to unite behind Bernie, not candidate Clinton who is under FBI investigation.
Yesterday afternoon along with with millions of like minded Americans I shared the excitement and optimism of Bernie's landslide victories. Today I expected to see banner front page headlines about the amazing and important margins that demonstrate the ever growing momentum of Bernie's popularity.
I eagerly opened my SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE (the main Northern California paper) looking for those headlines.
NOTHING!
I finally found this AP story on page 6with a headline "Sanders wins Alaska and Washington state" nowhere in the article were the enormous margins of Bernie's victories even mentioned.
Rather the focus was slanted with statements like this opening paragraph of the piece:
"Bernie Sanders scored a duo of wins in Western caucus contests Saturday, giving a powerful psychological boost to his supporters but doing little to move him closer to securing the Democratic nomination."
Thank goodness we have the internet which has become the real source of information.
Traditional media is dying and they deserve that fate as the reward for the slanted and biased propaganda that they inflict on their readers and viewers.
WE CANNOT ALLOW THEM TO SINK OUR POLITICAL REVOLUTION!
Clinton bragged about the U.S. role in Moammar Gadhafi’s death, and her emails leaked by Wikileaks show the race to claim Libya’s resources in the aftermath.
An email sent on Sept. 16, 2011 to Clinton, then the U.S. Secretary of State, from journalist and family friend Sidney Blumenthal, shows that French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron each traveled to Tripoli about one month after Moammar Gadhafi’s government fell in order to assert their claim on Libya’s energy reserves.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
Max and Stacy are still the most articulate reporters on the national and international economic issues that are killing us:
We ask not what corporations can do for you, they, instead, ask what you can do for your corporations. We look at how multinationals and giant corporations like Pfizer and AT&T ‘lobby’ politicians to increase costs to consumers and restrict competition.
In the second half, Max and Stacy continue their talk with anthropologist and LSE professor, David Graeber, about his latest article, Despair Fatigue.
If you work for Corporate America in a managerial or professional capacity, you know all about burnout, because you see it all around you or are experiencing it yourself. Readers describe what they are seeing in the top ranks of S&P 500 corporations, and the stories (anonymous because everyone knows the truth will get them fired/blacklisted) are all about the high personal costs of earning big paychecks by making the numbers–not just revenue but the all-important profits that power the multi-trillion-dollar valuations of U.S. corporations and the stock market that glories in their magnificent and ever-growing profits.
Corporate America depends on this class of workers to reap its stupendous profits: the attorneys, physicians and nurses who churn out the billable work; the CPAs who either cook the books or look the other way when others rig the books to make the company look more profitable than it actually is; the managers who squeeze the line workers to produce more; the software engineers and project managers who are always under deadline and always pressured to use cheaper temps; the Wall Street work-hounds who have to use uppers and other dangerous stimulants to function for 70-80 hours a week, week in and week out; the multitudes addicted to painkillers or other prescription drugs to manage their psychological and physical pain; the working parents whose family life is imploding under the demands of their employers; social workers burdened with ever-larger case loads–the examples are endless.
Even if you don’t work in this class, you see burnout all around you: people burned out by crushingly long commutes, by juggling two jobs, or small-business owners resorting to self-exploitation, i.e. working ridiculous hours for little or no pay, just to keep their enterprise (and dream of self-employment) alive.
What no financial analyst dares confess is the corporate profits they cheer every quarter have come at a cost that many Americans will soon be unable to bear. Millions of highly experienced, essential employees of Corporate America, from physicians and nurses to top managers and technologists are either planning to quit, retire, cut their hours or file a workers compensation claim for stress related to their work.
A growing body of evidence suggests that burnout is clinically and nosologically similar to depression. In a study that directly compared depressive symptoms in burned out workers and clinically depressed patients, no diagnostically significant differences were found between the two groups; burned out workers reported as many depressive symptoms as clinically depressed patients.
Many people are lauding corporate efforts to ease stress at the workplace with onsite yoga classes and the like. I call B.S.–what people want is less pressure, more time with their families, and to be treated as human beings rather than interchangeable units of production. Yoga classes and the occasional corporate party don’t provide these essentials.
Check out the burnout rate in the most profitable sector of the economy, finance and financial services:
Though no one dares connect rising workloads and corporate profits, isn’t it more than coincidence that U.S. corporate profits soared not just when production was offshored and financialization took off, but when workloads increased and “work-life balance” became a buzzword for what was no longer possible?
Guess what happens when corporate profits tumble: all the wealthy people at the top of the pyramid lose a lot of money: the executives counting on huge gains from stock options, hedge funds who’d bet the farm on this corporation’s “outperformance,” and the big institutional owners of the company’s stock. No wonder the pressure on the managerial class is so unremitting and intense: the whole rickety structure of wealth in the U.S. stock market is poised to collapse once profits crater. There are a couple of ways out for burnouts fleeing Corporate America, but each has its own trade-offs and costs. One is early retirement, another is early retirement plus a low-paying, low-stress part-time job. Another is self-employment in the cash-only economy (One Part of the Economy Is Booming: The Underground/Cash-Only Sector October 9, 2015) or in other sectors open to self-employment. Financial independence is the American Dream because it gives us the freedom to say Take This Job And Shove It (2:31, Johnny Paycheck). Unfortunately, the costs of starting and operating a small business are risingdue to junk fees imposed by local government, higher taxes, soaring healthcare insurance costs, etc.: The Troubling Decline of Financial Independence in America (August 28, 2015) The Fading American Dream of Working for Yourself (October 2015) Many refugees from Corporate America would love to quit tomorrow but as they explore the alternatives, they find that their income will drop from $90,000 or $100,000 to $30,000 or less outside the fortresses of Corporate America and Government. That means completely reworking the cost structure of one’s household: paying off all debt, downsizing expenses not by hundreds of dollars but by thousands, and figuring out ways to develop multiple income streams that the household owns and controls. It can be done, but it requires a revolution in understanding and financial arrangements. Longtime readers know this is what I have written about for ten years in the blog and in books like Get a Job, Build a Real Career and Defy a Bewildering Economy, which can also be read as a primer for those seeking self-employment.
Read the entire article for the charts and graphs.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
And the Donald Trump virus is no surprise.
Not to those of us who've been watching the onslaught of fascist Trumped world for the last two decades.
Recently, U.S. Reaper drones and manned aircraft launched a set of strikes against what the Pentagon claimed was a graduation ceremony for "low-level" foot soldiers in the Somali terror group al-Shabab. It was proudly announced that more than 150 Somalis had died in this attack. In a country where, in recent years, U.S. drones and special ops forces had carried out a modest number of strikes against individual al-Shabab leaders, this might be thought of as a distinct escalation of Washington’s endless low-level conflict there (with a raid involving U.S. special ops forces following soon after).
Now, let me try to put this in some personal context. Since I was a kid, I’ve always liked globes and maps. I have a reasonable sense of where most countries on this planet are. Still, Somalia? I have to stop and give that one some thought to truly locate it on a mental map of eastern Africa. Most Americans? Honestly, I doubt they’d have a clue. So the other day, when this news came out, I stopped a moment to take it in. If accurate, we killed 150 more or less nobodies (except to those who knew them) and maybe even a top leader or two in a country most Americans couldn’t locate on a map. I mean, don’t you find that just a little odd, no matter how horrible the organization they were preparing to fight for? 150 Somalis? Blam! Remind me: On just what basis was this modest massacre carried out? After all, the U.S. isn’t at war with Somalia or with al-Shabab. Of course, Congress no longer plays any real role in decisions about American war making. It no longer declares war on any group or country we fight. (Paralysis!) War is now purely a matter of executive power or, in reality, the collective power of the national security state and the White House. The essential explanation offered for the Somali strike, for instance, is that the U.S. had a small set of advisers stationed with African Union forces in that country and it was just faintly possible that those guerrilla graduates might soon prepare to attack some of those forces (and hence U.S. military personnel). It seems that if the U.S. puts advisers in place anywhere on the planet -- and any day of any year they are now in scores of countries -- that’s excuse enough to validate acts of war based on the “imminent” threat of their attack. Or just think of it this way: a new, informal constitution is being written in these years in Washington. No need for a convention or a new bill of rights. It’s a constitution focused on the use of power, especially military power, and it’s being written in blood. These days, our government (the unparalyzed one) acts regularly on the basis of that informal constitution-in-the-making, committing Somalia-like actsacross significant swathes of the planet. In these years, we’ve been marrying the latest in wonder technology, our Hellfire-missile-armed drones, to executive power and slaughtering people we don’t much like in majority Muslim countries with a certain alacrity. By now, it’s simply accepted that any commander-in-chief is also our assassin-in-chief, and that all of this is part of a wartime-that-isn’t-wartime system, spreading the principle of chaos and dissolution to whole areas of the planet, leaving failed states and terror movements in its wake. When was it, by the way, that “the people” agreed that the president could appoint himself assassin-in-chief, muster his legal beagles to write new "law" that covered any future acts of his (including the killing of American citizens), and year after year dispatch what essentially is his own private fleet of killer drones to knock offthousands of people across the Greater Middle East and parts of Africa? Weirdly enough, after almost 14 years of this sort of behavior, with ample evidence that such strikes don’t suppress the movements Washington loathes (and often only fan the flames of resentment and revenge that help them spread), neither the current president and his top officials, nor any of the candidates for his office have the slightest intention of ever grounding those drones. And when exactly did the people say that, within the country’s vast standing military, which now garrisons much of the planet, a force of nearly 70,000 Special Operations personnel should be birthed, or that it should conduct covert missions globally, essentially accountable only to the president (if him)? And what I find strangest of all is that few in our world find such developments strange at all. A Planet in Decline? In some way, all of this could be said to work. At the very least, it is a functioning new system-in-the-making that we have yet to truly come to grips with, just as we haven’t come to grips with a national security state that surveils the world in a way that even science fiction writers (no less totalitarian rulers) of a previous era could never have imagined, or the strange version of media overkill that we still call an election. All of this is by now both old news and mind-bogglingly new. Do I understand it? Not for a second. This is not war as we knew it, nor government as we once understood it, nor are these elections as we once imagined them, nor is this democracy as it used to be conceived of, nor is this journalism of a kind ever taught in a journalism school. This is the definition of uncharted territory. It’s a genuine American terra incognita and yet in some fashion that unknown landscape is already part of our sense of ourselves and our world. In this “election” season, many remain shocked that a leading candidate for the presidency is a demagogue with a visible authoritarian side and what looks like an autocratic bent. All such labels are pinned on Donald Trump, but the new American system that’s been emerging from its chrysalis in these years already has just those tendencies. So don’t blame it all on Donald Trump. He should be far less of a shock to this country than he continues to be. After all, a Trumpian world-in-formation has paved the way for him.
Yesterday afternoon I saw on the internet that Hillary said she would not debate with Sanders unless he changed his "tone". There were many comments on it, all teed off at Hillary and the comments were from New York. I looked on the TV news, both NBC and ABC, neither one mentioned it and both networks are owned by corporations and billionaires. It wasn't like the subject was too late to put it on the 6:30PM network news. I'm a Trump man but I cannot stand Hillary and it really is bad that corporations and billionaires control what is on the news shows. If they put on all the crooked deals Hillary and her husband were involved in no one with a little intelligence would vote for her. She makes Donald Trump look like an angel, So, that's why it was not on the network news.
This Presidential Primary runs for 134 days, (Feb 1st to June 14th.) It's criminal that the Dem Party would allow the Owner Media to report superdelegates who have not yet Legally Voted. .. No Election should ever be held with a Phantom Lead that serves as a Finger on the Scale..
The District of Columbia votes on June 14th. They have 672,228 total residents. Arizona has 6.83 Million residents and 917,411 Registered Democrats. The District of Columbia, was awarded by the Dem Party 26 superdelegates, and Arizona was awarded 10.
I believe, the time is more than ripe for each one of us, to have a conversation with each of our State Democratic Parties. .. And, ask them, just why Super Delegates - who can Still Legally Change Their Vote - Are Being Reported Today.
.. Also, ask them - if they would publicly state that the superdelegate votes are "Too Early To Report (Estimate)" until, the remaining States and Dems have voted, or maybe even until the Convention itself, where they can consult with their Pledged Delegates.
# DrD 2016-03-27 13:20
Here is the list of Superdelegates and who they have committed to.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Democratic_Party_superdelegates,_2016
Everyone who lives in a state where Bernie has won a primary by a yuuge margin should contact their state's Superdelegates and ask why they are supporting Clinton if their state is strongly for Bernie??
The voters can put pressure on them. I've noticed that no additional superdelegates have pledged support for her for about a month so I think the tide may be turning.
# Radscal 2016-03-27 09:28 In Pledged (won) delegates, HRC now has just 22% more than Sanders. (1243 to 975).
But once again, voting "irregularities " that favored HRC were legion in AZ.
There were some Exit Polls taken during the voting, and they had Sanders up 60% to 40% and 70% to 30%. But, with 1% or 2% of the precincts reported, the corporate media announced HRC the winner!
And mind you, due to the long lines (and FOUR FAKE BOMB THREATS that closed polling stations while the bomb squad checked them out), there were tens of thousands of voters still waiting in line when those "results" were announced.
Remember that Republican tactic of scrubbing eligible voters from the rolls in FL in 2000?
Well, an unknown number of thousands of registered Democrats showed up to vote, but were told they were NOT registered.
Most were given provisional ballots, but I'm not holding my breath to read the new results once all those provisionals have been verified and added to the vote tally.
And the AZ Sanders campaign reported a possible hack of their data base the week before the Primary.
If you care about election integrity, please sign the White House Petition to have the AZ primary investigated:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/investigate-voter-fraud-and-voter-suppression-arizona-3222016-democratic-party