Saturday, June 20, 2015
Is It That Hard
I get that conservatives want to downplay the existence of racism, but is it really that hard to admit that in a country of 320 million there might be a few homocidal racists? I haven't even seen many liberals (or others) try to link the Charleston shootings to mainstream conservatism in any way, whether or not that's valid (ok, it's valid, but it's slightly complicated). It'd be one thing if the mainstream discourse was filled with people blaming Rush Limbaugh and conservative politicians for what happened, but I haven't even seen that really. It's as if the simple existence of racism is an indictment of brand conservatism. And, you know, it probably is, but it isn't as if that many people with prominent platforms are actually making that case. Defensive much?
Lon Gisland
I'm not exactly uninterested in the ways the Clintons have earned their money, but they get scrutiny for the ways they spend it in the way that no Republican candidate ever does.
Bush had his Crawford Ranch, the "Western White House," which was sold 5 seconds after it ceased to be a prop. Back in the day it was a big deal that ZOMG the Clintons vacationed in Martha's Vineyard!!! Whatever else one can say about them, they really didn't have any money when Bill was president (not President Level money). The Vineyard is a weird place, not cheap in season, but not really the luxury resort the press likes to pretend it is. Clinton didn't have a vacation home and the Vineyard is a pretty easy place for the Secret Service to deal with security. Also, too, long time vacation place for relatively well-off African-Americans, which makes it elitist because reasons.
Post-presidents need a place that allows for relative privacy and security. I don't really know why most of the people who go to the Hamptons do. Sounds like Teh Suck to me, but I get why the Clintons would.
Bush had his Crawford Ranch, the "Western White House," which was sold 5 seconds after it ceased to be a prop. Back in the day it was a big deal that ZOMG the Clintons vacationed in Martha's Vineyard!!! Whatever else one can say about them, they really didn't have any money when Bill was president (not President Level money). The Vineyard is a weird place, not cheap in season, but not really the luxury resort the press likes to pretend it is. Clinton didn't have a vacation home and the Vineyard is a pretty easy place for the Secret Service to deal with security. Also, too, long time vacation place for relatively well-off African-Americans, which makes it elitist because reasons.
Post-presidents need a place that allows for relative privacy and security. I don't really know why most of the people who go to the Hamptons do. Sounds like Teh Suck to me, but I get why the Clintons would.
Friday, June 19, 2015
Accidents
One issue is that many gun "accidents" like car "accidents" really aren't, or at least not in the way that I think of accidents. At some point the behavior is clearly negligent, whether we're talking about "accidentally" ramming a pedestrian with the clear right of way, or "accidentally" having your gun go off and kill your own kid because you dropped it with the safety off. Just such a tragedy, you know, can't be helped. Somehow for individual behavior this reasoning only seems to apply when guns or cars are involved (excuses for corporate behavior covers just about everything, of course).
Waste, Fraud, And Abuse
It exists, just not usually where conservatives pretend it exists.
And in Michigan, another physician allegedly prescribed unnecessary narcotic painkillers in return for the use of his patients’ IDs to generate additional false billings. When they tried to escape the scheme, authorities say, he threatened to cut off the medications, to which his patients were addicted.
What To Do About The Guns
As I have written many times before, when I am your benevolent dictator, I will in fact take all of your guns away. But absent that, count me as one who just doesn't think there's much we can do that would be deemed to be constitutional by the people who decide such things that would even help. Also it is the case the the gun control laws we do have are primarily used as an excuse to harass young black males with things like car searches and stop and frisk policies. What little gun control we do have in my glorious state is essentially limited (by the state) to the city of Philadelphia because you can guess why.
I can see why people like to hunt and shoot targets occasionally. The people who carry or stash them in their homes for "self defense" are, except for special circumstances, basically bonkers to me. The people who collect big semi-automatic guns or whatever we're supposed to call those big things that go pew pew pew really fast (gun nuts get really pedantic about this stuff and I don't give a shit), because it's a fetish or because they're planning on winning their standoff with the guvmint, are dangerous.
And, yes, guns kill people. Take away the guns and there would be fewer "accidental" deaths and fewer murders. All those stories of courageous people using their guns in genuine self defense never really seem to make it into the media for some reason. I blame this censorship on libturds.
I can see why people like to hunt and shoot targets occasionally. The people who carry or stash them in their homes for "self defense" are, except for special circumstances, basically bonkers to me. The people who collect big semi-automatic guns or whatever we're supposed to call those big things that go pew pew pew really fast (gun nuts get really pedantic about this stuff and I don't give a shit), because it's a fetish or because they're planning on winning their standoff with the guvmint, are dangerous.
And, yes, guns kill people. Take away the guns and there would be fewer "accidental" deaths and fewer murders. All those stories of courageous people using their guns in genuine self defense never really seem to make it into the media for some reason. I blame this censorship on libturds.
Thursday, June 18, 2015
Taste the difference
When Bernie met Hillary
Two different ways of looking at the world. In one, you try to change things for the better. In the other, you just assume the 1% will win and do nothing to fight them.
The Talking Points Arrive Quickly
Despite common sense, the things he said while he was killing people, and the things his roommate has claimed that he said, the most likely motive for the murders in Charleston is a hatred of Christians.
Makes sense.
Makes sense.
Too Early For Happy Hour Thread
enjoy
...and another.
...and another.
A major water main break in Northwest Philadelphia flooded a busy shopping center and forced some to be evacuated from stores using an inflatable raft.
The 48-inch main broke open around 3:30 p.m. Thursday at the Bakers Square shopping center at Fox Street and Roberts Avenue in the East Falls section of Philadelphia, water department officials said.
Not A Drop To Drink
Shit's getting real.
But now, an upscale master-planned community of 15,000 residents in San Joaquin County is facing the loss of all water supplies within days — prompting a frantic search for new sources.
Find Him
This is terrorism.
CHARLESTON, S.C. — A white gunman opened fire Wednesday night at a historic black church in this city’s downtown, killing nine people before fleeing and setting off an overnight manhunt, the police said.
Scroogled
The guy who ran a can't lose political campaign and didn't know how candidates actually won delegates? Let's hire him.
American meritocracy is a funny thing.
American meritocracy is a funny thing.
Just a small country
The "centrist" push-back against the story of Iceland's recovery is that it doesn't count because it's such a small country.
Of course, the same solution was tried in a much bigger country and worked fabulously well, making it the richest country in the world even though they were in the midst of a great depression.
That country, of course, was the United States of America, and that solution gave us The New Deal.
Which worked. And worked. And worked.
Until the GOP and the "centrists" started to dismantle it.
And now things bite, so SOMEBODY PLEASE MAKE THEM STOP.
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Upper Class Twits
I saw Boris Johnson at the theatre once. Stephen Fry was there too. Quite the exciting night! Anyway, his look and demeanor are an amazing affectation. He does genuinely ride his bike, wearing his ill-fitting suits and his too-small backpack. It's sort of quaint, except for the fact that he's an asshole.
Trash
Indeed.
(Some) people in South Philly still go nuclear if you even suggest it. It's nuts. Recognize that if they aren't willing to move their cars during the work day (for most people) it means that they don't need those cars to commute. They just like the almost free long term car storage they have access to.
Residents angry about having to move their cars caused city officials to shut down citywide street sweeping, according Democratic mayoral nominee Jim Kenney.
“I went through this with [former Councilman] Frank DiCicco as a South Philadelphia resident. He had a very intense street sweeping program. It was only once a week but he took so much grief for it, he stopped the program by fear of not being reelected,” Kenney said in a recent interview with Philly.com. “I can’t see why everybody should suffer as a result of the selfishness of some people that just don’t want to move their cars for a couple hours one day a week.”
(Some) people in South Philly still go nuclear if you even suggest it. It's nuts. Recognize that if they aren't willing to move their cars during the work day (for most people) it means that they don't need those cars to commute. They just like the almost free long term car storage they have access to.
You Have One (Important) Job
Well I guess they should just be bailed out again.
The great casino is much more fun than processing silly disability allowance payments.
About 600,000 payments due to customers of Royal Bank of Scotland have failed to turn up in accounts in the latest technology failure to hit a UK bank.
Payments that the bank initially described as missing included tax credits and disability living allowance.
The great casino is much more fun than processing silly disability allowance payments.
The Kids Today
Total slackers who can't save for their retirement, save for a downpayment, and pay for college/pay off their student loans just like I did in the era when we all pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps with no help from anyone at all nosiree.
"Keep in mind that three out of four college students today are in public universities, but they’re paying far more than they did a generation ago," Warren said. "Adjusted for inflation, somebody going to college today to a state university, is paying about 300 percent of what her mom or dad did just 30 years ago."
They Really Get In The Way Of The Cocaine Parties And Orgies
It's true that I don't have children because of TEH HEDONISM.
Anyway, make up your minds. Having children is THE GREATEST THING EVER or it's a SELFLESS ACT THAT SELFISH NON-BREEDERS DON'T DO BECAUSE THEY'RE SELFISHLY SELFISH.
You can't have both. And you don't have to, because who cares? Do what you want. Have them, don't have them, who gives a shit?
The obsession with the fertility decisions of other people is so weird. Everybody should have kids, except poor women who should be chaste and childless. Poor men can do what they want, and we feel for their feefees when they're forced to pay child support because it's a great injustice, just those bitches having their babbies so they can steal the money from the menz.
Anyway, make up your minds. Having children is THE GREATEST THING EVER or it's a SELFLESS ACT THAT SELFISH NON-BREEDERS DON'T DO BECAUSE THEY'RE SELFISHLY SELFISH.
You can't have both. And you don't have to, because who cares? Do what you want. Have them, don't have them, who gives a shit?
The obsession with the fertility decisions of other people is so weird. Everybody should have kids, except poor women who should be chaste and childless. Poor men can do what they want, and we feel for their feefees when they're forced to pay child support because it's a great injustice, just those bitches having their babbies so they can steal the money from the menz.
Nothing To See Here
And why isn't NASA working on important things, like how to download my immortal soul into a robot, or creating a pleasure colony on Jupiter?
The world’s largest underground aquifers – a source of fresh water for hundreds of millions of people — are being depleted at alarming rates, according to new NASA satellite data that provides the most detailed picture yet of vital water reserves hidden under the Earth’s surface.
Bygones
Sorry for all that stress and the whole thinking your life was ruined thing. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
In late May, about 35 technology employees at Disney/ABC Television in New York and Burbank, Calif., received jarring news. Managers told them that they would all be laid off, and that during their final weeks they would have to train immigrants brought in by an outsourcing company to do their jobs.
The training began, but after a few days it was suspended with no explanation. In New York, the immigrants suddenly stopped coming to the offices. Then on June 11, managers summoned the Disney employees with different news: Their layoffs had been canceled.
It's Always Two Years Away
The "American Dream" is always 4 FU's away. Amost exactly a year ago:
And now:
Heckuva job, Chris Christie. A megamall that will likely never open (and will eat it soon after if it does) is your grandest legacy.
But the project’s developers and state officials say the long-stalled rebirth of the shopping and entertainment attraction remains on target for a fall 2016 opening – and work will be visible at the site soon.
And now:
Part of the financing for an unfinished megamall in East Rutherford took another step forward on Wednesday, as a state finance board approved the borough's plan to sell up to $675 million in bonds for American Dream Meadowlands.
An official with the developer of the project, meanwhile, said the entire complex is expected to open in the summer of 2017.
Heckuva job, Chris Christie. A megamall that will likely never open (and will eat it soon after if it does) is your grandest legacy.
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Trans Fats
This is good. A lot of "healthy alternatives" that were pushed on us as alternatives to the disgusting stuff that was a bit more natural (margarine over butter) were probably killing us.
Austin's Traffic Problems Will Be Solved!
Haha just kidding.
Just a few more lanes...That's all we need...
Interstate 35 through the middle of Austin would get an additional free lane in each direction, including adding a lane to each side of the upper decks, as well a toll lane on both sides as part of the Texas Department of Transportation’s $4.3 billion, 10-year plan for the expressway as it passes through three Central Texas counties.
That plan in its revised form, to be unveiled Monday in a speech by state Sen. Kirk Watson to Austin business leaders, includes depressing I-35 about 25 feet below the frontage road level throughout its downtown Austin stretch, from south of Cesar Chavez Street to north of 15th Street.
Just a few more lanes...That's all we need...
Don't Know Nothing
When Washington Consensus policies are put into place, they don't actually have to work. We don't need to look at any data to determine if they worked. We just know that they worked, because they did, because of course they did, because all the Very Serious People say they did.
On Earth 2, where Applebees has a salad bar:
Here on good old regular Earth:
And what about that "sneak into the US stuff" after the glorious NAFTA (1994) economic boom? From Pew:
On Earth 2, where Applebees has a salad bar:
The North American Free Trade Agreement, for example, probably didn’t affect the American economy too much. But the Mexican economy has taken off. With more opportunities, Mexican workers feel less need to sneak into the U.S.
Here on good old regular Earth:
Washington, DC – A new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) finds that 20 years after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) took effect, Mexico’s economic performance has been dismal compared to the rest of the region. The report, “Did NAFTA Help Mexico? An Assessment After 20 Years” examines official data sources to track Mexico’s progress under NAFTA and finds slow growth, stagnant wages, and nothing to show in the way of poverty reduction.
“Of course it’s possible that Mexico could have done even worse without NAFTA, but looking at the data it’s tough to see how,” CEPR Co-Director and lead author of the report Mark Weisbrot said today.
Among the paper’s findings:
- Mexico ranks 18th out of 20 Latin American countries in growth of real GDP per person, the most basic economic measure of living standards.
- From 1960-1980, Mexican GDP per person almost doubled, growing by 98.7 percent. By comparison, in the past 20 years it has grown by just 18.6 percent.
- Mexico’s per capita GDP growth of just 18.6 percent over the past 20 years is about half of the rate of growth achieved by the rest of Latin America.
- If NAFTA had been successful in restoring Mexico’s pre-1980 growth rate – when developmentalist economic policies were the norm – Mexico today would be a relatively high income country, with income per person significantly higher than that of Portugal or Greece. It is unlikely that immigration reform would be a major political issue in the U.S., as relatively few Mexicans would seek to cross the border.
- According to Mexican national statistics, Mexico’s poverty rate of 52.3 percent in 2012 is almost identical to the poverty rate of 1994. Meanwhile, the rest of Latin America saw a drop in poverty that was more than two-and-a-half times as fast as that of Mexico.
- Real (inflation-adjusted) wages for Mexico were almost the same in 2012 as in 1994, up just 2.3 percent in 18 years, and barely above their level of 1980.
- Unemployment in Mexico is 5.0 percent today, as compared to an average of 3.1 percent for 1990-1994 and a low of 2.2 percent in 2000; these numbers seriously understate the true lack of jobs, but they show a significant deterioration in the labor market during the NAFTA years.
And what about that "sneak into the US stuff" after the glorious NAFTA (1994) economic boom? From Pew:
The Kids Today With Their Urban Living And Their Ipods And Their Hippity Hop
It's impossible to dislodge this attitude, even from many people who run the dam city.
Yah, yah, of course some people will move to the suburbs. And some people will move to California. And some more people will move in. I don't know anyone who is planning to move out as soon as they have kids. I know people with kids. All the local playgrounds (and we have a lot) are jammed with them on nice days.
Plenty of "olds" were living here before this latest recognition that people actually live here. Aside from the actual kids growing up on my block, I'm on the younger side of the age distribution.
Target, meanwhile, clearly sees the smaller-store format as a way to initiate contact with those apartment dwellers, many of whom may migrate to its traditional suburban turf as their families grow, Flickinger said.
"It's giving shoppers in high-opportunity markets like Philadelphia a good experience with TargetExpress, which ultimately will translate successfully to the suburban stores over time," he said.
Yah, yah, of course some people will move to the suburbs. And some people will move to California. And some more people will move in. I don't know anyone who is planning to move out as soon as they have kids. I know people with kids. All the local playgrounds (and we have a lot) are jammed with them on nice days.
Plenty of "olds" were living here before this latest recognition that people actually live here. Aside from the actual kids growing up on my block, I'm on the younger side of the age distribution.
Monday, June 15, 2015
biddi-biddi-biddi-biddi
Well hello there little guy.
After a seven-month slumber, a European spacecraft that landed on a speeding comet last fall has awakened from hibernation and phoned home, the European Space Agency said on Sunday.
Don't Nominate A Total Fuckup Like Me
I don't really get this message from Mittens. It seems to be "I would have won if not for you crazy right wing assholes, so let's continue garnering the support of all the people who supported the crazy right wing assholes."
Maybe it's just "Not my fault - love, Mittens."
Maybe it's just "Not my fault - love, Mittens."
The Applebees Salad Bar Is A Flat Circle
Poor BoBo's humility has given him the power to make shit up.
Morning Thread
I'm reading How Policing Works in a Privatized City, the city being Atlanta Station, a small area in the big city of Atlanta. Somehow I'm betting the feeling that things aren't quite as rosy as the author presents.
Sunday, June 14, 2015
Assholes With Money
Special rules for special people.
Haha. Bring it!
RANCHO SANTA FE, CALIF. — Drought or no drought, Steve Yuhas resents the idea that it is somehow shameful to be a water hog. If you can pay for it, he argues, you should get your water.
People “should not be forced to live on property with brown lawns, golf on brown courses or apologize for wanting their gardens to be beautiful,” Yuhas fumed recently on social media. “We pay significant property taxes based on where we live,” he added in an interview. “And, no, we’re not all equal when it comes to water.”
Haha. Bring it!
“I call it the war on suburbia,” said Brett Barbre, who lives in the Orange County community of Yorba City, another exceptionally wealthy Zip code.
Barbre sits on the 37-member board of directors of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, a huge water wholesaler serving 17 million customers. He is fond of referring to his watering hose with Charlton Heston’s famous quote about guns: “They’ll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands.”
Inland Empire
I lived in Southern California in the early stages of the housing bubble. And while Orange County wasn't my cup of tea, I understood why people liked it (sort of). Nice weather, close to the beach, not too far from the mountains, etc. Fine, worth those big prices. The big mystery to me was the Inland Empire. It wasn't as expensive, but at that time it actually wasn't that much cheaper. I didn't get why people were paying "California prices" to essentially not live in "California." Of course it was California, but it wasn't nice weather, close to the beach California. It was hot and not close to the beach and not very near other amenities. I'm not questioning why people lived there, I'm questioning why it was so damn expensive. It really hasn't recovered from the bust.
Prosperity awaits.
Of the 100 biggest cities in the U.S., San Bernardino, 60 miles east of Los Angeles, was ranked the second-poorest in the nation in the 2010 census, behind Detroit. Two years later it filed for bankruptcy. Last month the City Council approved a 77-page plan that it hopes will move the city toward solvency, in part by making residents pay higher taxes and fees while further cutting their services.
Prosperity awaits.
If Only There Were Some Shovel Ready Projects
Can't find them over here...
Approximately 10-million gallons of water gushed out into the street, sinking cars and flooding homes in the process.
“My basement is flooded,” said one neighbor. “The water is from, when I went down to my basement it was coming up to (my neck).”
Shouldn't They Be Rolling Coal?
I think it's over-acknowledgment of extreme tribalism to be "surprised" that conservative Texans might enjoy a little AC power from wind. Sure that tribalism is real, and some people will roll coal and deep fry their twinkies in actual oil just to stick it to the libturds, but most people don't care. Sure they don't want the UN black helicopters forcing them to turn their thermostats up to 87 degrees in the summer, but otherwise most people don't really care as long as they don't think their bills are going up.
So, Two Tongues Then?
Those things are massive.
A slaughterhouse has recalled 529 pounds of beef tongue sent to retail locations in New York and Pennsylvania.
The products, from Larry's Custom Meats Inc. in Hartwick, N.Y., might have been shipped to the outlets with lingual tonsils still attached, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service announced Friday.
What Could Go Wrong
Really can't think of anything.
RIGA, Latvia — In a significant move to deter possible Russian aggression in Europe, the Pentagon is poised to store battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and other heavy weapons for as many as 5,000 American troops in several Baltic and Eastern European countries, American and allied officials say.
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