Playinghardball

Playinghardball's Journal

June 2, 2015

Elizabeth Warren won’t be president. But the Senate may not be her final destination.

Even the Draft Warren folks now accept it: Warren won't run. But she may have a new job come 2017 anyway

Several months ago, supporters of an Elizabeth Warren presidential candidacy detected some glimmers of hope in their bid to convince the Massachusetts senator and liberal favorite to take her fiery brand of progressive populism to the national stage. Though Warren insisted she wasn’t seeking the nation’s top job, political grammarians couldn’t help noticing that Warren spoke only in the present tense. Sure, Warren may not have been “running for president” in October 2014, but who knew what mid-2015 held in store? While Warren was remarkably disciplined in sticking to her pat “I’m not running for president” response, she even spoke, rather cryptically, of “amazing doors that could open” down the road. Moreover, Warren’s pre-midterm campaign swing — notably including stops in Iowa and New Hampshire — stoked speculation that it was the prelude to something larger.

But it was not to be. Even as organizers of the Draft Warren campaign raised funds and set up shop in early primary states, Warren herself never took any serious steps toward mounting a presidential run; she did not set up anything resembling a national campaign infrastructure, nor did she make any additional forays into early-voting states. In recent months, she became more emphatic in spurning entreaties to enter the race, even going so far as to couch her answers in the future tense. On Tuesday, the Draft Warren folks conceded to reality, with the campaign’s leaders announcing that they would end their efforts next week, after they delivered one last plea.

For some of Warren’s most ardent fans, this turn of events isn’t quite as unwelcome as you might think. To be sure, many progressive activists dissatisfied with Hillary Clinton saw Warren as their only viable hope of dislodging the Democratic frontrunner. But amid the Draft Warren push, many of the senator’s devotees maintained that she was right where she belonged — holding bankers’ feet to the fire, sounding the alarm about soaring income inequality, and holding presidents from her own party to account from her perch in Ted Kennedy’s old Senate seat. Much like the late liberal lion, who represented the Bay State for 47 years, Warren could demonstrate that you don’t need to be president to prove an effective agent for progressive change.

More here: http://www.salon.com/2015/06/02/elizabeth_warren_wont_be_president_but_the_senate_may_not_be_her_final_destination/

June 2, 2015

Dumbledore and Gandalf to marry in front of gay-hating church

Wizard wedding set for Sunday following JK Rowling’s war of words with Kansas group

JK Rowling’s dream of a marriage between wizards Dumbledore and Gandalf, embraced by the author on social media following Ireland’s same-sex marriage referendum, will soon become a reality.

US equality group Planting Peace plans to hold a wedding between the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings characters in front of the anti-gay hate group, the Westboro Baptist Church, in Kansas this weekend.

Ms Rowling, known for standing up to online trolls, and the Topeka-based church, engaged in a war of words on social media after she applauded the Irish people for passing same-sex marriage, the first country in the world to legalise gay unions by a popular vote.

Responding to a meme posted on Twitter, Ms Rowling suggested that if Dumbledore, the headmaster of Harry Potter’s wizarding school Hogwarts, and Lord of the Rings wizard Gandalf, were to wed, they could marry in Ireland following the referendum.

The Westboro Baptist Church tweeted last month that if the two fictional characters were to marry in Ireland, they would picket the ceremony.

“Alas, the sheer awesomeness of such a union in such a place would blow your tiny bigoted minds out of your thick sloping skulls,” the Harry Potter author tweeted in response to the Kansas-based group

The church may not have too long to wait, or indeed too far to travel for an opportunity to protest.

Aaron Jackson, founder of Planting Peace, who bought and established “Equality House” opposite the Westboro Baptist Church to counter its anti-gay campaigning, said that the group would host the marriage of Gandalf the White and Professor Albus Dumbledore at the house on Sunday afternoon.

More here: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/us/dumbledore-and-gandalf-to-marry-in-front-of-gay-hating-church-1.2233853

June 2, 2015

Rachel Maddow: Hillary Clinton Better Watch Out For Bernie Sanders

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow on Monday railed against conventional Beltway wisdom that Bernie Sanders doesn't stand a chance for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.

“The Beltway media has been thinking of Bernie Sanders as an asterisk in this campaign, right? As kind of the Dennis Kucinich character this year,” Maddow said on her program. “But he has not been functioning that way at all.”

Maddow, who has chastised Washington, D.C.-based media for dismissing Sanders' candidacy in the past, went on to describe the grassroots support Sanders has generated since he launched his campaign. Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont, has attracted oversized crowds in Davenport, Iowa, as well as in Ames, Iowa, and Minneapolis. He also has performed well in fundraising.

The New York Times described Sanders' event in Davenport as the “largest rally in the state for any single candidate this campaign season.”

“Ever since Bernie Sanders has gotten in, it’s been good news for Bernie Sanders after good news for him after good news for him,” Maddow said.

Hillary Clinton has been treated as the presumptive Democratic nominee, but Maddow posed the question: “What does it mean if Bernie Sanders continues to do as well as he has been doing? … What do you think the message of that is for the Hillary Clinton folks?”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/02/maddow-bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton_n_7489670.html

June 2, 2015

Larry, Moe And Curley Investment Brokers

Larry, Moe and Curley were sitting in their favorite restaurant just off Wall Street having their usual 3 martini lunch and were discussing the day’s events and their client portfolios.
Larry:”I had 12 calls this morning from customers wanting to know why the market was going down”.
Moe: What did you tell them?”
Curley: “Yeah, what”, taking another gulp of his libation.
Larry: “You know, the usual. This is a normal correction and not to worry. I am watching your account. The market always comes back.”
Moe: ”That’s the same BS I tell them.”
Curley: “ I have more than 300 accounts and I can’t watch them except my 5 big traders. Who cares about the others anyway? My company won’t let me tell them when to sell their stock if it starts down and they believe the old saw about ‘hang in there for the long haul’. I
blew out of all my stocks last week. Thank goodness. The market has dropped 300 points since then.
Moe: “It would be better for the customers if our company would let us tell them to use stop loss orders."
Larry and Moe, shouting in a single voice: “Don’t say that or we’ll get fired”. They both bonk him on the head spilling his drink.
“Nyuk. Nyuk.”
Yes, it may sound funny, but there is more truth than fiction in that imaginary conversation.
Why don’t brokerage companies tell their customers to sell when the market is declining?
There are two reasons. First any large brokerage does not want to get on the bad side of a company. That company might have a public offering later on and they will definitely not be asked to sell any of the stock or bonds. This is where the big money is on Wall Street. The second reason is they don’t want the customer to have cash in his account. He might take it out. Brokers make money even if you do not trade. It is not much, but it does keep the pilot light lit.
Brokers also discourage customer stop loss orders because it is more paper work for them and then they do have to watch your account. Unless your account is high 6-figure or 7-figure
you are not on the radar screen. Mr. Broker (an appropriate name for what he does with your money) has an average of 300 accounts and many have 600 or 700. As new guys come into their office they give them the little accounts.
When a broker passes his securities license he is given two manuals. One is SEC regulations that must be followed and the second is how to open accounts. There is no third manual on how to protect customers’ money or trade. Brokerage companies want their salesmen to follow the company line and push certain products. There is no thought of customer protection.

If your broker is Larry, Moe or Curley it is time to find a new one.

http://www.articlesfactory.com/articles/finance/larry-moe-and-curley-investment-brokers.html

June 2, 2015

These Are the Planets We Could Move to Once We’re Done Completely Destroying Earth

If you attend any climate change protest these days, you're bound to see a sign that reads, "There is no planet B." Even UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has adopted the slogan. "This is our planet Earth. This is a very small planet, if we consider the vastness of the universe," he told an audience at Climate Week in New York City last year. "There is no plan B, because we do not have a planet B."

It's self-evident that the solution to man-made climate change is not packing ourselves into a space ship and heading off to colonize far-away galaxies. Curbing carbon pollution and developing low-carbon energy sources are the generally agreed-upon solutions to help slow global warming.

But, in the distant future, if we really had to leave our broken home for better climes—and we possessed the technology to catapult ourselves to solar systems that are light-years away—where could we go?

More: http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/06/video-exoplanets-climate-change

June 2, 2015

Your Toothpaste May Be Loaded With Tiny Plastic Beads That Never Go Away

These microbeads, less than one millimeter wide, were found in face scrubs.

California is the latest state to consider banning products with microbeads, the tiny pieces of plastic, often less than a millimeter wide, that have become a popular addition to cosmetics and personal care products. Usually made of polyethylene, microbeads primarily serve as exfoliants in face washes and body scrubs, but also add color and texture to toothpastes, lip balms, moisturizing creams, and makeup. A single tube of face wash can contain more than 300,000 of the plastic beads, which are cheaper than other common natural exfoliants like apricot seeds, coconut husks, or diatomaceous earth. Here's a primer on which products contain microbeads and why consumers and politicians are concerned about them.

What's the environmental impact of microbeads?

Microbeads are so small that they aren't caught by most water treatment plants, so they wind up in lakes, streams, and oceans. According to a report by New York's attorney general, as many as 19 tons of microbeads could be discharged into the state's waterways each year. Assuming all Americans are dumping microbeads at that rate, 300 tons per year end up in US waterways.

The beads, which can resemble fish eggs, are mistaken for food and ingested by fish and other marine animals. The plastic also acts as a sponge for toxins, soaking up pesticides, phthalates, and heavy metals and carrying them through the food chain. Tuna and swordfish are turning up with microbeads in their stomachs.

What's the health impact of microbeads?

The movement to ban microbeads has really gathered steam because of concerns about their effects on human health. In March 2014, dental hygienist and blogger Trish Walraven sounded the alarm with a article about how she was finding "bits of blue plastic in my patients' mouths every single day." The plastic, she wrote, came from Crest toothpaste, and it was getting stuck in patients' gums. Now, dentists are concerned that the microbeads trap bacteria, possibly causing gingivitis. Procter and Gamble, which makes the toothpaste, insists that microbeads are safe, but has pledged to rid Crest products of plastic microbeads by next March.

There are other concerns about ingesting microbeads—both from products like toothpaste and from eating fish containing the plastic bits. The Environmental Working Group notes that the plastics that make up some microbeads are suspected to be hormone disruptors, so "eating them at your fish fry would not only lend an unpleasant texture to your beer-battered fish but could also add an unhealthy dose of estrogen-mimicking chemicals."

More here: http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/05/microbeads-exfoliators-plastic-face-scrub-toothpaste

June 2, 2015