Sunday Night

My Gawd....

Presidential Medal of Freedom’ — Miriam Adelson

Not only is Trump NOT draining the swamp, he’s giving the swamp the highest civilian award in the nation.

The Election

Why Aren't Democrats More Excited About the 2018 Results - Easy,... the same old D leadership.


Israel vs Palestine

Israeli Snipers Shoot 6 Children, 9 Women & 22 Other Unarmed Protesters in Gaza


Trump and Jeff Sessions.

We should not be giving Trump hell for firing Sessions. Sessions is a conservative dick who would take this country back to the 1850s if he could. Firing him was a good thing, we should be celebrating. Still, we should be giving Trump hell for the temporary appointment who seems to be a corrupt, right-wing dick in the Fox/Hannity/Tucker mold.


The World Order

THE LIBERAL INTERNATIONAL ORDER

I’m not saying that reform in Ukraine is a bad idea. But you can’t preach freedom, democracy, and all the rest of it, if what you  practice is something very different. When ‘liberal international order’ is just code for ‘bash her on the head’ till she does what we want, the liberal international order is in trouble. But the root of the trouble doesn’t lie without; it lies within.

Thursday

Propaganda

It's November 8th and I notice Fox doesn't have anything about the immigrant caravan on the front page of their website?  Imagine that, it's just dropped from the front page. Well that's Fox, Authentic Fake News.


Countries

Richest countries in the world - Maybe we're not so great


Elections

On Trump politics… I don’t really blame Trump so much as I blame Fox-type media who’ve spent the last 20 years filling their audience with Trump-like beliefs. The Great Divide

Comparing our election process to Brazil’s

AI

What you really have to fear about AI.

The Election

The Election

Somehow I feel like a 12 year old kid at Christmas, all excited to unwrap a great big present, only to find it holds the same present as last year, three pair of socks and an ugly sweater.

This was buried in the comments [here].

Yeah, but Pelosi and Hoyer are still there and they are just not that good.

Instead of Medicare-for-all we get a promise of an attempt at bipartisanship.

At least they might throw some sand in the gears of the more radical R agenda.

Also,.. The Resistance Is Not a Call for Restoration -  After the midterms, Democrats must embrace the insurgencies that have reenergized the people and the party.


Trump, Full of Shit, All the Time

Last week Trump tweeted "If you want your stocks to go down, Vote Democrat".

Yesterday most of the country did and this is what the market did today.

Election Day

The Election

I agree - Go Time!


Health Care Spending

Mainly Macro: Health spending over time

In 1970 health spending was between 4-6% of GDP in these 5 countries, but by 2016 it was between 9-16% of GDP. (There is a definitional break in the UK series in 2013: there was no leap of spending in 2013 as earlier graphs show.) If there is any organisational lesson here, it is not to run a health service in the way they do in the US. It is indicative of the mess the world is currently in that politicians are busy trying to dismantle the positive recent reforms in the US and key politicians in the UK have once talked about making the UK health system more US like.

Propaganda

Fox News Is Poisoning America. Rupert Murdoch and His Heirs Should Be Shunned.

The question now is whether America’s great and good, having deplored the rising tide of far-right violence, are willing to confront the family that controls the largest platform of intolerance.

Trump

A pretty good summary of the US by Barry Ritholtz, inspired by Trump. Trump the Revealer


TeaBagistan

The Southernization of the Midwest


Capitalism - Socialism

The Scandinavian Style of Capitalism -  Every person in the "liberal" media should read this. Right-wingers and Fox don't care to.


Private Armies

Paper Cuts: The American President and the Prince of War: Relentless war privateer Erik Prince won’t stop until he persuades President Trump to let him take charge of U.S. operations in Afghanistan. - be sure to browse the embedded documents.

Weekend

Dicks

This administration is just full of dicks - John Bolton just gave an “Axis of Evil” speech about Latin America: The US will now go after a so-called “Troika of Tyranny”: Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.


Showing the world they don't give a damn about human rights. - Netanyahu Asked Trump to Stick With Saudi Crown Prince After Khashoggi Murder Citing U.S. officials, Washington Post reports Netanyahu described Mohammed bin Salman as a 'strategic ally' in the Middle East -


That Liberal Media

USAToday tries but fails. - Seema Verma of the Trump administration says about Medicare-For-All

It’s a multi-trillion drain on the American economy that will bankrupt future generations," she said in the statement.

The article disputes that at the very end with this.

Politifact found that Americans in the aggregate would pay more to the government to fund health care but less overall than they pay now. The fact-checking site also noted the study forecast that total health care spending would drop by about $2 trillion over 10 years.

That's it. No other comments.  Seema Verma says something that is complete BS and we get a couple of lines at the end of the article, sort-of calling it out. 

The proper way to handle Seema Verma's BS would have been to call her out in the headline. "Seema Verma lies about Medicare for all: Should she resign?"

NPR on Thursday, November1 - (I'm not linking to this because it was so crappy and i was in my car at the time and can't find it now.)

NPR had a 2 or 3 minute conversation about Trump's tweet - "If you want your stocks to go down, I strongly suggest voting Democrat" that was just horrible. The end result was a list of possibilities, most not even remotely possible, that could, maybe,.. make your stocks go down. Stupid shit like "they could eliminate the tax cut" or "future tax cuts", etc. Basically a list of bullshit R talking points having very little to do with reality. It sounded like Fox segment.

Anyway the right answer would have been.....

Trump Lies again: The Market does better with Ds in power.

Then include these two charts.

The Week

Cults

Cult leaders pushing their followers to violence

Juan Cole: Suggestive Terrorism

Shooting up a Synagogue

......[conservative cult leaders] stick with conspiracy theories after mail-bomb suspect’s arrest

Bill O': Tiller the Baby Killer

This Dismal Week in American Politics. Or Turning and Turning in the Widening Gyre


Trump and Israel and anti-semitism 

US support for Israel eroding, but not among Trump voters, poll finds. Trump speaks to American evangelicals who love some imaginary "Biblical Israel" and to anti-semites and racists who hate non-white, non-christian people just-because.  Less-religious, more educated Americans are tiring of the Israeli Likud Party's violent oppression of Palestinians.


Boycott the Cult's Advertisers

Is It Time For A Boycott Of All Fox News Advertisers? Yes, We Think It Is.


Fuck-ups

The Criteria For Forgiveness Of Public Policy Mistakes


Billionaires and Electricity

A Nevada ballot measure over a utility monopoly has drawn more spending than the state's Senate race.


Unions

U.S. Labor Markets Aren’t Truly Free: Greater competition for workers would lessen employers’ power over wages.


Back to Cults and Propaganda

The Fox front page Monday morning after the bombs and Synagogue shooting.

Also, Migrant Caravan

the first thing I heard on NPR this morning was about the god-damned "Migrant Caravan". Can we just shut the fuck up about it.


Medicare for All

Look through these, [ACA FAQs], then think about the FAQs for "Medicare for All", a true, no supplemental insurance, Medicare-for-All that covers everything.

Republicans used to have a health care plan. Now all they have are lies.
Why Republicans can’t tell the truth about their health care plans.



Four Roles for Artificial Intelligence in the Medical System - I'd guess this would apply to AI and most professions.

End-o-Week

Cool Stuff

Database of paper airplane designs


Politics

Gin and Tacos on Independent voters - Almost every person I know who claims to be "independent" left the R party and moved right when the more traditional R business-types didn't match the radical views of Fox, Rush, and talk radio.

Lawyers, Guns, and Money: The Hack Gap. Normal media tries to be Refs while Fox and wingNut media play for their team. The real left wing media are our late night comics,.. and reality.


Israel and the Media

An opinion piece in Haaretz, one of Israels main news organizations, that could never, ever, ever appear in any US media.

The World Zionist Organization’s Land Theft Division: It’s time to investigate, and then shut down, this quasi-governmental agency, which steals both state and private Palestinian lands to realize its sacred goal of settlement construction


Life

Worth reading - Stumbling and Mumbling - OUR FEEBLE INTELLIGENCE

So Far This Week

Medicare For All 

Majority of Republicans supports 'Medicare for all

Middle East

Under Public Pressure to Cancel Peace Treaty with Israel, Jordan ends Annexes - It'll be interesting to see how Israel responds.


Rs vs Ds

In Bad Faith

"The candidates themselves should talk about nothing but 1) a policy agenda that doesn't require white papers to understand and 2) a vision of where the country needs to go that doesn't refer to policy. Do that and focus on getting more people who are predisposed to vote for you to turn out. Attempting to rebut Trumpian accusations is pointless because nothing will dislodge them from the minds of people inclined to believe them and anyone inclined to believe things Donald Trump says absolutely is not going to be reached with some fact checking."

Tax Cuts

Trump's growing deficit

Drug wars don't work.

UN's 10-year plan to tackle world's drug problem has been ‘spectacular failure’ as production and consumption soar

October Surprise 1

The best way to unite people is to give them a common enemy attacking the homeland. 

Queue-up the Migrant Caravan, about 1000 people on the South border of Mexico supposedly heading our way. The last caravan started out with 1200 and ended with 200 people making it to the California border. But,....  it makes front page of propaganda outfits and multiple tweets from the idiot trying to rally his voters. 

I'd guess we'll see some articles about "Iranian terrorists included with the migrants", have to have some Mooslims to scare the poor white folks.

Update: Since I wrote this, I saw a tweet with a Pence comment on "people of Middle East descent in the caravan".  

October Surprise 2 

Count on Hillary Clinton running again in 2020 - It ain't happening. The author is Michael Goodwin a Fox News rabble-rouser.   This is just to get a headline out there to enrage the rubes and push them to vote.

Saudi Influence in DC?

WP complains about Saudi lobbying but One-issue guy, Sheldon Adelson give the R's another 25 billion. His one issue? Israel.

Saturday Morning

Deep Fakes

Disinformation on Steroids: The Threat of Deep Fakes - A decent summary of the issue but this seems out of place in the article, almost like someone wanted to plant a seed of doubt.

Other examples could include deep fake videos depicting an Israeli soldier committing an atrocity against a Palestinian child, 

.... Also, you don't really need fake video of that. It's happening every day in Gaza. Why go fake when you can have the real thing?


Health Care

The #1 issue for people is health care. The D's need to stop talking about goofy shit like Trump, Russia, Ms Warren's DNA, and just go full healthcare. That is what the people care about

Also,... The R's are lying about their stance on "Pre-existing conditions"

Republican Doublespeak on Health Care Starts at the Top

Fuck the R's,... and the D establishment, fuck the health insurance companies, support... Medicare for All !!


Hillary

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Hillary? - The easiest way for Hillary to help the D's would be to become a Republican-Teabagger. Fox Propaganda heads would explode.

Thursday

Tech

Supercon Badge is a computer




Buying Them Off

100 Million seems to be the going price for US support.

U.S. got $100 million from Saudi Arabia on the same day Pompeo was in Riyadh - imagine that.

The R's got 100 million from Sheldon Adelson, a one issue guy.... that one issue? Israel.

Also, The US mainstream media is ignoring the Israel-Saudi Arabia de facto alliance.


Health Care

It's a mess [BBC: Healthcare in US: The big election issue that's not Trump]

Ms Daly tells me "nobody" she knows can afford healthcare anymore.

Most patients at this clinic are like Ms Daly - America's working poor, who find themselves with nowhere to go and no money to spend when they fall ill.

We pay way too much.

Vote "Medicare for All" !!

Wednesday

Oppressive Regimes

Saudi Arabia Begins Internal Probe Into Khashoggi Disappearance - I'm sure this will help.


Fun

Hitch Hiking


Big Fall

Facebook shareholders back proposal to remove Zuckerberg as chairman - It seems like just a few months ago he was running for President.



The Dollar

How Trump Could Fatally Weaken the Dollar - Another article on Trump weakening the dollar over the long run.


Brazil

Brazil: the First Republic under threat - It looks like the economy did pretty well under the left-winger Lula (President from 2003-2011). So,.... They lock him up, Lock up his #2 and are now about to get a hard-core military right-winger elected.

Healthcare

Don't vote for anyone who doesn't support "Medicare for All".


The Financial Crisis and the Great Recession

According to Perri (2013), income inequality increased during the Great Recession: Top-earner income declined by 4 percent, median household income declined by 9 percent, and bottom household income decreased by 20 percent (due to a large rise in long-term unemployed members). [link - St. Louis Fed]

I remember right after the market crash the wingers were claiming inequality had improved because the rich lost a lot more in the crash than the poor. I guess that was a bit premature.

The Painting

Soon to be available on velvet, and available in needle-filled parking lots of empty strip-malls all across the Midwest [Link Here].

Really though, With today's radical Republican party, TR, Lincoln, Eisenhower, Ford, and Bush Sr. couldn't get out of the R primaries. They'd die in Iowa.

Propaganda

Fox in the process of transferring the Hillary Hate to Ms. Warren.

Over The Weekend

Tech

Why you have (probably) already bought your last car - I don't think so. Maybe your last combustion engine car.


The Truth

The Onion does it better. Trump Administration Urges Saudis To Stick To Killing Random Yemeni Civilians


Trump and the Dollar

The Dollar and its Discontents - Yet another article warning that Trump's bull-in-a-china-shop policies are driving the world away from the dollar.


Privacy

You can't hide - ‘Everyone Will Be Potentially Identifiable’: Booming DNA Testing Means No Identity Is Hidden on the Web

"Consumer DNA testing -- and the mountain of data it has generated -- has become pervasive enough that it’s possible to identify about six of every 10 people in the U.S. who are of European descent, even if they’ve never given a sample."

Propaganda

Fox fueling the rage against possible D candidates

Israel vs Palestine today

Palestinian woman killed by stone. Haaretz says "stone" another article said "brick". Hard to tell what really happened but it sounds like Israeli "settlers" stoned the car the people were riding in and eventually one stone got through a window and killed the Palestinian woman. I'd like to see a picture of the car. Haaretz

Seven more Palestinians killed by Israeli forces for protesting being locked in an open-air prison.

Israel cuts fuel supplies to Gaza. Haaretz. I think they'd cut off the air to Gaza if they had the ability.

Medicare for All

Bernie in USA Today: Trump lies about 'Medicare for All' and he's made health care worse.

“Trump claims that Medicare for All is not affordable. That is nonsense. What we cannot afford is to continue spending almost twice as much per capita on health care as any other country on Earth. We can’t afford the $28,000 it currently costs to provide health insurance for the average family of four. We can’t afford to have 30 million Americans with no health insurance and even more who are under-insured with high deductibles and high co-payments. We can’t afford to have millions of Americans get sicker than they should, and in some cases die, because they can’t afford to go to the doctor. Here is the bottom line: If every major country on earth can guarantee health care to all and achieve better health outcomes, while spending substantially less per capita than we do, it is absurd for anyone to suggest that the United States of America cannot do the same.”

End-o-Week

Medicare for All

The response to Trumps Medicare for All Op-ed


Shysters

ADAM SMITH'S TWO ECONOMIES

" .. [the] further up the hierarchy one goes, the longer it takes to identify merit, and so the more chance shysters and bluffers have of thriving."

Also, from Wikipedia ... "The Dilbert principle is a concept in management developed by Scott Adams, creator of the comic strip Dilbert, which states that companies tend to systematically promote incompetent employees to management to get them out of the workflow. The Dilbert principle is inspired by the Peter principle, which holds that employees are promoted based on success in their current position until they reach their "level of incompetence" and are no longer promoted." 

Politics

On the guy that owns the Republicans: Sheldon Adelson. He admits he's a one issue guy, Israel but the article drones on about casinos.

I guess he's pumping even more to the R's. From Politico yesterday. Adelson drops tens of millions more to save the GOP Congress


Brazil

Brazil is looking at a scary future. Imagine the US being run a mix of Trump and this guy.



I guess it's not much worse than the most powerful nation on the planet being headed by this group. 

I wonder who will be responsible for more death and destruction over the next few years?

Also this from the BBC.  Donald Trump and a world of disorder


Propaganda

From Fox Propaganda's front page on 2018-10-12. This alone should end Marc Thiessen's career.

Once were good

Now we're complicit in the the murder of a journalist.

To Wednesday

Brazil

Brazil’s Bolsonaro-Led Far Right Wins a Victory Far More Sweeping and Dangerous Than Anyone Predicted. Its Lessons Are Global. -  It looks like the far right is set to take over in Brazil.

Using the lame-duck session as way to ram through unpopular agenda items is nothing new in Brazil. While the corrupt, not-so-far right work against the people.

Stripped to its essence, the Brazilian presidential elections represent a direct clash between democracy and an early 21st Century, neofascism, indeed between civilization and barbarism.


American Democracy

Senators representing less than half the U.S. are about to confirm a nominee opposed by most Americans

Kavanaugh, though, has a distinct honor: He will be the first justice nominated by someone who lost the popular vote to earn his seat on the bench with support from senators representing less than half of the country while having his nomination opposed by a majority of the country.

Sound's like normal US politics to me.

Israel vs Palestine

Historic Maps of Palestine