Thursday, November 27, 2014

I'm thankful for Hypocrisy

And self-delusion. Because as a middle-aged white guy I can imagine that everything is hunky-dory, because I've got it pretty sweet. I can walk out the door 365 days 24/7 and not worry about being sexually harassed or killed by a "peace-officer".
Wilson said the incident with Brown was the first time he'd ever used his gun. When Stephanopoulos asked if there was any way the incident could've been handled differently, Wilson replied, "no."

Wilson said he has a "clean conscience" about the way he handled the incident with Brown. ...

"The reason I have a clean conscience is because I know I did my job right," Wilson added.
You did your job "right" alright.  Enjoy that show you co-host on FoxNews with Mark Fuhrman in the next six months.

And THAT is a reflection not just of modern America, but the entirety of American history in a nutshell.

Have some more white-meat America...you're choking on it.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

If there's one thing that is true

Being "calm" is for others with respect to the haves.
















Because staying calm has truly always been the avenue to justice.

Why, remember the time Martin Luther King stayed home rather than march?

[Cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

"Smartest" of bombs

The never ending line of "immeasurable" successes in America's War on the ill-defined and renewable "enemies" is its own reward...or something.

The drones came for Ayman Zawahiri on 13 January 2006, hovering over a village in Pakistan called Damadola. Ten months later, they came again for the man who would become al-Qaida’s leader, this time in Bajaur. Eight years later, Zawahiri is still alive. Seventy-six children and 29 adults, according to reports after the two strikes, are not...

... A new analysis of the data available to the public about drone strikes, conducted by the human-rights group Reprieve, indicates that even when operators target specific individuals – the most focused effort of what Barack Obama calls “targeted killing” – they kill vastly more people than their targets, often needing to strike multiple times. Attempts to kill 41 men resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1,147 people, as of 24 November.
We are terribly sorry for any inconvenience.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Monday, November 24, 2014

How thoroughly and completed unexpected

I mean all us anti-interventionist peaceniks predict stuff like this every time, and every time we turn out to be right...because every time nobody listens.

Damn us and our non-existent patchouli-loving stereotypes.

US air strikes in Syria are encouraging anti-regime fighters to forge alliances with or even defect to Islamic State (Isis), according to a series of interviews conducted by the Guardian.

Fighters from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and Islamic military groups are joining forces with Isis, which has gained control of swaths of Syria and Iraq and has beheaded six western hostages in the past few months.

Some brigades have transferred their allegiance, while others are forming tactical alliances or truces. Support among civilians also appears to be growing in some areas as a result of resentment over US-led military action.

On the other hand, it does guarantee perpetual war and unending military expenditure.   Which is probably the point.

Huzzah!

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Friday, November 21, 2014

Well...that sucked

Over the years I've posted pictures of my long-time long-shedding companion of more than 15 years.

Sadly, yesterday was the day I held her as it ended.

And that is the terrible price of having a pet.

You were one hell of a dog ol' girl, but an even better companion.






If you can read this

Then despite the latest forecast of Obama unleashing hell by doing what Reagan once did the world did not end last night. 

Though if you live in Buffalo, perhaps you wish it had.

We cannot recognize the basic humanity of immigrants apparently...or for a few, anybody at all.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Just below a gathering of Juggalos

What good is being in the ol' Confederacy without a gathering of dunces?
The nation’s Republican governors gathered at a Florida resort Wednesday for talks, celebrations, and looking ahead to 2016 – because a lot of these governors have their eye on the White House.

The most anticipated event of the event at the posh Boca Raton Resort Club comes later Wednesday.

A discussion of “The Road Ahead” features most of the 2016 hopefuls, including Govs. Mike Pence of Indiana, Rick Perry of Texas, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Scott Walker of Wisconsin and John Kasich of Ohio. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will get other time in the spotlight
Oh the "most Christian fellowship" of a prayer-breakfast filled with knives just aching to see a back.

I do not know where the Democratic dunces are gathering this year, but undoubtedly they do not need as much room.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Compromise

The Discovery Channel has engendered controversy by planning to broadcast a guy (wearing a special suit) getting swallowed by a python.

Apparently this most fetishy of stunts is a bad idea for a number of reasons, but one is that it is not surprisingly very unhealthy and dangerous for the snake to swallow a full-grown human being (that isn't say, Sean Hannity -- which would be unhealthy and dangerous but still a positive for non-snakes).

But this is the Discovery Channel, which is owned by the same people that own TLC, which specializes in exploiting human flesh.

So in the spirit of compromise and consistent with their oeuvre, why not offer to have the python swallow a little person, or the latest little termite to ooze out of a Duggar womb -- you know they'll get crankin' on another?






#badtaste...but not as bad as TLC's badtaste


White Stuff

There are times when some places in the United States get worse weather than others...such as Buffalo.
The unrelenting lake effect storm that pummeling everything south of Walden Avenue today already has dumped an astonishing 48 inches of snow on Lancaster. Similar totals are being reported in West Seneca, Alden, Depew and parts of South Buffalo and Orchard Park. It may turn out to be a six footer.
Any more snow and we may have to send this to western New York.
The probe that landed on the surface of a comet has discovered organic molecules, the most rudimentary building blocks of life, according to the German agency involved in the mission.
[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Billionaire Sports Ownership...not just for getting the taxpayers to build 'em stadiums anymore

Nothing begats success more than owning an unsuccessful franchise, A few months ago Steve Balmer purchased the Los Angeles Clippers (lifetime .379 winning percentage) for $2 billion or so.

What's he get out of is other than being a dancing fool?

More than you may realize.

Buying a team isn't like buying a factory full of machines; Ballmer got few physical assets for his $2 billion. Instead, he paid top dollar to join a successful league and acquire the rights to a star-studded roster.

The IRS offers specific tax breaks to any business loaded with such intangible assets.

So, in addition to taking a normal deduction for Paul's annual salary, Ballmer could claim the point guard is worth additional millions in terms of selling tickets and driving broadcast revenue.
This added value, he could say, was part of the original purchase price. The IRS would then allow him to amortize a significant portion of the $2 billion over 15 years in much the same way a factory owner depreciates aging machinery.
Must be tough making such a sacrifice.

Monday, November 17, 2014

Once again, I think the people that were ALREADY HERE might have a comment to make...

Oh the joys of somewhat pointless debates (but hey, he didn't mention the Armenian Genocide).
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has claimed that Muslim sailors reached the Americas more than 300 years before explorer Christopher Columbus. Speaking on Saturday at a gathering of Muslim leaders from Latin America, Erdogan said contact between Islam and Latin America dated back to the 12th century.
If they did...I hope they made it all the way to Tennessee and built a latrine. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Friday, November 14, 2014

Seems familiar

The perpetual knocking off of "Number Threes" goes on though.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State (Isis), has apparently surfaced alive after he was rumoured to have been killed in a US air strike last week, calling for attacks in Saudi Arabia and for “volcanoes of jihad” across the world.
He is certainly looking more lively than his rhetoric. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Mission "Accompliced"

Thank goodness for the many bounties of our spread freedom through bombs policy.
Afghan opium cultivation again reached a historic high in 2014, United Nations officials reported on Wednesday. And in a sign of how deeply entwined drug trafficking and the Afghan political system have become, the officials said the protracted elections this year were at least part of the cause.

“With the presidential election ongoing there was a huge demand of funding,” said Jean-Luc Lemahieu, a senior official with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. “And that funding is not available in the licit economy, and that money has to come from somewhere, so they turned to the illicit economy.”
Thanks in no small part to America, Heroin may be cheaper this Christmas.  It's like there's money in it or something.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Monday, November 10, 2014

"Alright everybody, let's take off our suitcoats, roll up our sleeves and get down to fucking this up again"

The only question will be who's turn it is to pull the football away at the last moment.
With only two weeks to a deadline for a breakthrough deal, senior envoys of Iran, the United States and European Union met in Oman on Sunday to try to advance efforts to defuse a standoff over Tehran’s nuclear programme. Reiterating Iran’s official line, Ali Akbar Velayati, a top aide to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted by Iranian media as saying the Islamic Republic would not abandon its nuclear “rights” but was committed to the negotiations under Khamenei’s leadership.
Iran is purportedly sending Khamenei's most trusted associate...no word whether that means he's more a Fredo or Tom Hagen.

Meanwhile, we sure have an awful lot of potential Sonnys and Carlos out there hoping for the "Best Thanksgiving" ever.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Thursday, November 06, 2014

Engaging

It was an off-year election .... which means the usual:

Low youth voter turnout in midterms has parties pondering new ways to engage

Four Words:

Mitch McConnell Grindr profile.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Wednesday, November 05, 2014

Make 'em hate stuff so much they just don't take part

It's hard to claim a tsunami with so little participation...but it IS a strategy to make sure as many as possible are turned off.

Congrats on your 36.6% turn-out Election 2014.

A special "shout-out" to Ol' Dixie and their participation rates.

Texas 28.5%
Mississippi 29.7%
Alabama 33.5%

And I didn't miss out on Indiana's nation-leading apathy of 28%

Well...

That kind of sucked.

And so they turned out to vote en masse for those who support that idea...

Except, of course, they did not.

Most voters, regardless of the party they support, said income inequality was increasing, including 79 percent of those voting for a Democrat and 63 percent voting for a Republican. Democratic voters, though, overwhelmingly supported a federal minimum wage increase, while just 25 percent of GOP voters wanted one. More than half of Republican voters also said income inequality has received too much attention, compared with just 4 percent of Democratic voters.
Because who is more likely to support a minimum wage hike than the Republican Party?

Oh, yeah, I guess everyone else.

 [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Tuesday, November 04, 2014

Makers and Takers

Here is the kind of situation Mitt Romney could vote for:
...the United States Department of Labor just caught EFI red-handed in an investigation, which found that "about eight employees" were flown in from India to work 120-hour weeks for $1.21 per hour. EFI apparently thought it was okay to pay the employees the same wages they'd be paid in India (in Indian rupees). Here's the unbelievably crazy sounding quote EFI gave to NBC's Bay Area affiliate: "We unintentionally overlooked laws that require even foreign employees to be paid based on local US standards."
"We didn't know an American company was supposed to follow the law!"

In their defense, I imagine that is a common refrain on the rare occasions they are busted.

Meanwhile...
The company earned $109 million last year and awarded CEO Guy Gecht with a pay package valued at nearly $6 million, including more than $1.2 million in salary and bonuses.
[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Monday, November 03, 2014

Chris Christie, et al, approve

When it comes to disinformation and paranoia it's hard to tell where America starts and North Korea ends.
Young children sit on the laps of medical staff, watching intently as a briefing describes the dangers of Ebola. Foreigners and citizens arriving at the capital’s airport are held in quarantine for weeks. Tourists are banned outright. The world’s most draconian measures against the disease have been imposed not in the worst-affected west African countries, nor their neighbours, but in North Korea, thousands of miles from the outbreak. They are increasing the isolation of a country already known for its tight controls on contact with outsiders, and risk damaging its fragile economy.
Yeah, the world's most "open" society...just ask any North Korea leader, they may answer you seconds before you disappear. But, as they say, tragedy is just another name for opportunity.
Each night, the country’s television news broadcasts a lengthy section on the disease, filling the screen with images of grieving families, ailing patients and medical workers in protective gear – as well as some coverage of its own measures, including footage of the session at the children’s hospital.
I do believe that could have been any news clip on any American broadcast or cable news program the last two weeks. But by all means lets ignore that and talk about those wacky North Koreans some more. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]