November 12, 2014

A Day Late & a Dollar Short: Obama & China agree on Languid Climate Goals

but it will be a good trade for a pipeline approval for his most avid supporters. It's obscene how the dem leaders coincidentally and in a very timely manner decide to use that pipeline in an effort to save a "liberal/progressive", no?

It is a sad commentary that this agreement is actually an improvement on previous goals of the two countries. And it is better to have an agreement with firm dates and targets than to have the two carbon monsters take turns hiding behind each other at climate talks. But this agreement isn’t a commitment to reduce carbon emissions on a timescale appropriate to the magnitude of the crisis. It mostly kicks the ball down the road.http://www.juancole.com/2014/11/dollar-languid-climate.html

November 5, 2014

The new loss is the same as the last loss, ain't it

in terms of demographics?

2010 http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/44802.html

yesterday http://crooksandliars.com/2014/11/wave-65-voters-put-wingnuts-control-senate

a failure to sell the product sufficiently to the customers most likely to show up, as well as lacking in inducements for the younger crew to come out? Gee, who do you suppose a chained cpi proposal motivated? http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCYQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.salon.com%2F2013%2F04%2F05%2Fnew_poll_shows_many_hate_chained_cpi%2F&ei=XEBaVMPdLYq5yQSmzIGoCg&usg=AFQjCNESOMlhHhOFrXG4oS4WMyFAFFwz1w&bvm=bv.78677474,d.aWw http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=7&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CFAQFjAG&url=http%3A%2F%2Famericablog.com%2F2012%2F12%2Fpelosi-caves-on-chained-cpi-i-consider-it-a-strengthening-of-social-security.html&ei=XEBaVMPdLYq5yQSmzIGoCg&usg=AFQjCNHwmp3GOvtBTssFfUd1v4zhnXzVfw&bvm=bv.78677474,d.aWw

Personally I blame this guy http://crooksandliars.com/2014/11/nader-time-clean-out-top-dems-and-start who in many ways popularized the criticising of our leaders (from the left) that according to some is the real if not sole cause for the losses, which is why it has so stridently been discouraged.

The bewildering part about all of this is what's the difference between all the criticisms that has led to a dem schism involving complaints about thirdwayisms and a lack of liberalism/progressivisms or too much rightwingnut that carries with it, and whines about how the dems that lost being attributable to their cutting the tether between themselves and all the alleged liberal/progressive accomplishments outta DC in the last few years. Aren't they both whines about losses that a lack of liberal/progressive policy advocacy?

It seems to me that this election has made ______ of us all, no?

October 31, 2014

a successful experiment in bad compromises

likely intended from the start to be little more than a brake on the inevitable, and to facilitate the continuing growth in income/wealth inequality. The larger both are when a reversal occurs, the bigger it will be when the dust settles so to speak, leaving them (the 1%) still kings of the mountain of cash and influence. http://blogs.rollcall.com/beltway-insiders/billionaires-dominate-campaign-spending-crp-reports/?dcz= http://truth-out.org/news/item/27154-in-depth-how-big-business-buys-state-courts

For the American people, the moral of this story couldn’t be clearer: If we don’t get money out of politics, we’ll lose our democracy altogether. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article40105.htm

Is there any doubt that the creators of the Saint Raygun revolution were far from clueless about the result of their work product we see all around us today?

I've long thought and argued that the reason for the uptick in rightwingnut extremism in recent years, e.g. the creation of the Pea Party, has more to do with the preservation of wealth and therefore political power accumulation and preservation than anything else, with an eye towards the likely major erosions that AGW is likely to result in given the "socialistic" solutions it is gonna require. All the recent "I'm not a climate scientist!" BS http://eclipsenow.wordpress.com/2014/05/31/if-your-local-politician-says-im-not-a-scientist/ coming from their pols and pundits is nothing more than the first pillow being tossed down to cushion the fall for themselves and to prepare their frothing minions for the costs and offense to the ideolological mandates their Frankenstein Monsters have lapped up like poisoned Ambrosia in relatively recent years. Put simply, imo AGW is inevitably gonna compel/be the end of modern rightwingnuttery as we know it. It's not a question of if but rather when...

The simple fact of the matter is however, unless and until the moral of this story is accepted and acknowledged and acted upon, and money taken outta our politics, they are still gonna wield the most influence and be in a position to slow the reduction in human misery and worse that remedial actions on AGW will result in. This is not to say of course that they wouldn't have followed the same course absent AGW, just that AGW represents a foil to their desires of keeping all of their ill-gotten gains, and one they have long been acutely aware of. That's why they've been so shamefully dishonest in their anti-climate science efforts -- it's a threat to their trillions still in the ground, as well as the MIC that is geared towards pumping it out. One of the most bewildering things to me is how the DoD for years has been sounding the alarm on climate change, and yet they are used for little these days but expanding and perpetuating the empire that requires Texas Tea and more.

All of this is of course why so many of us see all the recent NSA revelations as being more about efforts to quell the equally inevitable social unrest that AGW will bring with it, as opposed to the "keeping us safe/phony war on terror" BS it is justified by.

The turdway has been nothing more than an addition of sprinkles to the rightwinger turd that has made it palatable to millions lacking the figurative olfacory sense to smell it, or that like the sprinkle icing enough to eat the turd cake too. The baubbles/icing they've provided along the way have placated and produced enough supporters to allow the robbery like that which has occurred during the last "recovery".

How much solace should be taken in or praise offered for the fact that we didn't go off the cliff with the knowledge that the 1% is the one holding the rope representing their gains that we're all effectively lassoed by, now and into the future as long as the money is speech doctrine survives, given that their political survival is every bit as dependent on it as is their rightwinger cousins? To their monied masters, the rightwingnuts are their warriors, and the turdwayers usefull and expendable idiots when their need for votes requires requires stepping into lefty territory bearing gifts. In this cneter-left country left we live in though, it's rather clear at this point that the monied masters woulda never been successful but for the good cop/bad cop game the turdwyaers have played an intergal role in foisting upon a far too ignorant or distracted public, much as they wouldn't have without the "liberal" media.

This is why turdwayers are often as immune to facts and logic as their rightwing cousins -- to accept and acknowledge their role in our current plight is to drown in the Sea of Shame...

September 30, 2014

How the U.S. Concocted a Terror Threat to Justify Syria Strikes, and the Corporate Media Went Along

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/9/29/how_the_us_concocted_a_terror I think DemocracyNow and all of its personalities should be thrown under the bus and ran over a few times for a headline like that, no? They are obviously in cahoots with that villian Glenn "the chameleon" Greenwald.

MURTAZA HUSSAIN: So, in the days leading up to the attack, several anonymous sources suggested that an attack was imminent. They suggested that there were a threat against airliners using toothpaste bombs or flammable clothing. And they said that, like Barbara Starr mentioned, they were in the final stages of planning this attack. After the strikes were carried out, several U.S. officials started walking back that estimation quite far and saying that the definition of "imminent" is unclear, and when we’re saying is a strike about to happen, we’re not sure what that means exactly. So, in retrospect, this definition of a strike being imminent and this characterization of a threat coming from this group, which is very definable and very clear, became very unclear after the strikes, and they suggested through The New York Times the strikes were merely aspirational and there was no actual plot today existing against the United States. So, the actual justification for the strikes was completely negated after the strikes ended, which was something quite troubling.

AMY GOODMAN: Explain what you mean, negated right after the strikes began, right after the justification worked.

MURTAZA HUSSAIN: Right. So, after the strikes happened and there were statements saying that people were killed and the group had been scattered, James Comey and many others within the U.S. establishment started saying that, "Well, you know, we said the strikes were imminent from this group, but what does 'imminent' really mean? Could be six months, could be a year.’" And other anonymous officials started saying there was not any threat at all, there was not any plan in the works to attack the United States. And then, further it came to light that the Khorasan group itself, which we had been hearing about in the media was a new enemy and was a definable threat against the United States, did not really exist per se; it was simply a group of people whom the U.S. designated within a Syrian opposition faction as being ready to be struck. So, the entire narrative that had been developed, and within the media developed, was completely put to a lie after the strikes. And it was interesting that Ken Dilanian reported the story first in the Associated Press, saying that this was a new threat and a new group, and he was one of the first people to break the story afterwards saying that U.S. officials are now adding more "nuance," is the word he used, to their previous warnings about the group. So, it was kind of a really egregious case of media spin, whereby the media had taken up this narrative of a threat from a new terrorist, and then, after the strikes had been conducted which justified this group, they immediately took the opposite tack, saying that in fact there was no threat that was imminent and the group itself did not exist per se. So, it was really quite a failure of the media, which we’ve seen several times in the past, as well.

I suppose the doves turned into hawks due to the influence of that dastardly GG should be happy for this BHO failure http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/2014/09/obama-justifying-syria-strikes-with-same-law-he-sought-to-repeal-in-january.html/ and the way he successfully brought the two parties together so as maybe they can be droned at the same wedding party some day. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=16&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CG0QFjAP&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fworld%2F2014%2Fsep%2F28%2Fisis-al-qaida-air-strikes-syria&ei=uCIrVJK6FsK3yASBxoDAAQ&usg=AFQjCNFcF28D42qTii-xG0iE0KyBf_OT6Q&bvm=bv.76477589,d.aWw

September 15, 2014

What's The Matter With The Democratic Party?

I think the majority of us here can answer that question, and think it's more about intentions and design than the happenstance some excuse it with.

Allow me to drop a single, disturbing data point on this march of science. You might recall that Democrats controlled the House of Representatives from the early 1930s until 1994 with only two brief Republican interludes. What ended all that was not an ill-advised swerve to the left, but the opposite: A long succession of moves toward what is called the “center,” culminating in the administration of New Democrat Bill Clinton, who (among other things) signed the Republicans’ NAFTA treaty into law. Taking economic matters off the table was thought to be the path of wisdom among expert-worshipping Washingtonians, but it had the unforeseen consequence of making culture that much more important for a large part of the population. Democrats were eventually swamped by all the crazy grievance campaigns of the right, which has splashed back and forth in the mud of the culture wars ever since. http://crooksandliars.com/2014/09/thomas-frank-whats-matter-democratic-party

The recent rise in rightwingnuttery imo, and most notably that of the Tea Party, has served this cause by pushing the already well off center ideological dividing line in DC further to the right, and increased the dread on both sides of that line over the alternative. The so-called centrist dem now looks more like a saint and savior than the sinner they often are in terms of lefty causes. That's the primary motivator so many balk at -- "Vote for us, or suffer through the alternative!!!".

That's the kinda stuff enthusiasm is made of, ain't it?

September 11, 2014

The crazy things "racists" will say to cover their tracks

Moore praised Django Unchained, tweeting that the movie "is one of the best film satires ever. A rare American movie on slavery and the origins of our sick racist history."[62] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Moore#cite_note-62

maybe it was simply an unintentional/undeliberate/oblivious acknowledgement of his awareness of the origins of his own deep rooted personal problem with racism that a single comment recently illuminated, no?

that's the first step towards his recovery, ain't it? I'd say he deserves some kudos for shining the spotlight on his kind http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCkQtwIwAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DbyiJ3pN86MM&ei=1NURVOD-JcW3yAT0lYGABg&usg=AFQjCNEpJ38Ar6QvzilfoHpqBVpXWCqVYA&bvm=bv.74894050,d.aWw even if has yet to finish all the steps necessary for his recovery or "evolving" on the issue, even though his recent comment evidently gives him at least vicarious ownership of all things racist, despite his clever ways of hiding it in the past.

He's fooled a lot of people http://www.blackbottom.com/watch.php?v=GpxPKORVC3D in the past in the past, but I guess the "truth" has finally prevailed with his finally being caught. Whatta figurative and literal Jekyll/Hyde the cad has been, no?

How sad. Just when you think you know a guy as a champion for the truth, justice, and the way America should be, that belief is shattered with a single utterance. It only goes to show you, only the shadow "knows"...

August 9, 2014

It's time to decriminalize the buying and selling of sex

as the victimless crime that it is.

There are of course "invisible" victims of such business relationships, as there are other of the now legal and illegal kind. Take those victims the bartender never sees, or the local drug dealer for example. The former is no longer a crime, and the latters "victimless crime" designation applies ONLY to the participants in the deal, because it's mutually beneficial.

It's really as simple as doing a pro/con list on the matter. This of course requires objectivity that moral purists http://legalize-prostitution.com/benefits-of-legalizing-prostitution lack, who should be excluded from the discussion or debate if that's all they can bring to the table.

Imo the benefits of legalization outweigh the drawbacks of maintaining its illegality. Feel free to argue with the authors here http://www.liberator.net/articles/prostitution.html#effects http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/04/19/is-legalized-prostitution-safer/legalizing-prostitution-brings-protection-and-better-care http://www.liberator.net/articles/prostitution.html#effects for starters, and concluding with

The researchers warn that due to the clandestine nature of both trafficking and prostitution markets, their analysis had to rely on the best available existing data on reported human trafficking inflows. That legalised prostitution increases human trafficking inflows is likely, but cannot be proven with available evidence. The researchers also note that other reasons might speak against prohibiting prostitution despite its impact on human trafficking.

The article concludes: “The likely negative consequences of legalised prostitution on a country’s inflows of human trafficking might be seen to support those who argue in favour of banning prostitution, thereby reducing the flows of trafficking. However, such a line of argumentation overlooks potential benefits that the legalisation of prostitution might have on those employed in the industry. Working conditions could be substantially improved for prostitutes—at least those legally employed—if prostitution is legalised. Prohibiting prostitution also raises tricky “freedom of choice” issues concerning both the potential suppliers and clients of prostitution services.”

http://www.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/news/archives/2012/12/Legalised-prostitution-increases-human-trafficking.aspx

given that the increase in trafficking appears to be what seems to be of most concern to those not the simple moral purist who has trouble with sex outside of marriage period, whether paid for or not. Legalizing prostitution doesn't legalize human trafficking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_trafficking much as legalizing alcohol as an intoxicant didn't legalize a host of other intoxicants or spare them from criminalization. It became legal again because the pro-list outgrew the con-list where the HT consideration resides in this controversy. HT and prostitution similarities begin and end with the sex that they share, other than the similar conditions that a pimp might subject his "victims" to that legalization would go a long way towards eliminating.

Just don't mention the facts about teenage, etc, prostitution, http://www.counterpunch.org/2008/08/02/teen-prostitution-in-america/ because one of them might mistake you for a participant in such, because as we know, to the dishonest and desperate merely noting the facts in this particular matter, as it has been in others, is tantamount to support, advocacy, if not being guilty of the crime of being involved in such. But quite frankly, I think all the issues involved are too many and complicated for that type to wrap their little minds around, so they too should be excluded from this "debate". What many of would consider common knowledge , like this

In some ways, it's simply part of a kid's natural journey toward independence. But child development experts say that physical and behavioral changes that would have been typical of teenagers decades ago are now common among "tweens" — kids ages 8 to 12.http://www.nbcnews.com/id/15905527/ns/health-childrens_health/t/new-kids-grow-faster/

they remain ignorant of. Once upon a time I had a particularly stupid person charge me with pedophilia advocacy for merely suggesting that this might lead to some confusion on the part of the non-pedophile as age limits define pedophilia legally, and who mighta thought they were merely soliciting an underage teenage girl. Both of these things are of course unacceptable, and are two slightly different things as well. How keeping prostitution of the "Pretty Woman" kind illegal is gonna end or deter pedophiles or human trafficking remains a mystery to me. It seems to me that freeing the police from the time consuming affair of chasing pimps and their prostitutes would give them more time to pursue the other separate and distinct crimes of pedophilia and human trafficking.

As far as I am concerned, the increased potential for catching and punishing those things alone is sufficient justification for leaving Ed AND Vivian alone.