Sunday, December 31, 2017

Well, Hasn't Civil Justice Become A Big, Commodity Business, Like Most Everything Else?


FEMINIST WINS DON'T JUST TRICKLE DOWN

Despite the #MeToo movement, poor women often find that speaking out against abuse at work is too costly.

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DEAR SISTERS

Shonda Rhimes, Reese Witherspoon and 300 other prominent women in the entertainment industry have launched an initiative dubbed Time's Up aimed at protecting women who are facing sexual harassment in all sectors of the workforce.







I Can Only Wish The Idiot Would Take Me On

I'd really like to know who he thinks is the Sugar Daddy, and who he thinks is the Bitch. Whatever trouble this might cause me, perhaps the publicity would shed some light on how the two leaders see themselves, now that we know just what a bumbling mess the idiot and his entourage of fellow clown car followers have created (like getting drunk and bragging to Australian officials for instance) . Wouldn't that just be a lively debate.

Putin may know a lot about power and trade craft, but he obviously doesn't know just how demented a clown car president can be; or how extensive the collateral damage can be in the idiot's wake.


IS THERE A CHARACTER ASSASSINATION LIMIT?


Five Americans named by the president on social media talk about the experience.






Saturday, December 30, 2017

We Shouldn't Fear Russia

The leadership that has lead them into their version of Criminal Capitalism Inc. is, however, another matter altogether.

Russia itself. It's great technical capability. It's great ability to work stoically through tremendous adversity. That we need very much. Just as we need the abilities of the Chinese, the Europeans, the countries of the Pacific Rim; the Indians, the countries of Central and South America, and Africa and all the rest (and please folks, lets not let an arbitrary listing, or its order, suggest anyone less, or more than anther).

The real irony here, of course, is that we have our own branch of Criminal Capitalism Inc. to deal with as well. That's a big part of what makes this so difficult, and why, to what should be our everlasting shame, so many of our own are ready to make common cause with the corruption, abuse of power, and outright evil, that Criminal Capitalism Inc. does willfully, and with great resolve .

Then you have the fundamental obsolescence of Capitalism on top of that to deal with as well. So you can see we have a lot on our plate with which we must attend. And either we deal with it or, as the old street saying goes, it will deal with us; and not at all to our liking, or long term interests. Something that we have in common with our planet as well, as is only too painfully obvious.

This is why we must begin to prepare ourselves for the need to take more direct action. Because it may indeed come down to us; all of us working, hourly wage people, as well as the salaried who represent the low, and mid level management class, and the still true to the entrepreneurial spirit entrepreneurs. All of us must prepare to take the direct action of work stoppages across as much of this nation as we can possibly muster. Because that may ultimately be the only way we will make them listen. That this old, toxically mutated form of economic operating system has had its day and must be replaced if we are to continue on as a species, on a living planet.

I can only hope that the people of Russia can see this as well; the people who once, at least pretended to think, quite highly of the working people not only in their own country, but in the rest of the world as well. Time will tell as always but I remain hopeful with the same resolve as those who who seek to crush all sense of hope.


U.S. needn’t fear Russia, RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan says



See Also:
MIGHT BE EVEN WORSE THAN 2016'S RACE

Russian interference, obsolete voting machines, and tight races — lots of them — could be a chaotic combination.





Friday, December 29, 2017

And Speaking Of Something Else Not Absolute

Isn't interesting that, as we make do, in our various situations, day to day, trying not to worry too much about the fragile balance between what we bring in, and what it takes to keep a place to bring it all too in the first place (little though that may be), and wondering why nobody seems to have any real answers to why things are so out of balance (in a material sense, and in a spiritual sense), that a lot of the problem is that most of us (including the leadership, and commentariate elites) don't really know what this country, as a whole, is capable of.

I've posted on this before, and I thought I ought to give it one more go before the year ends.

And I mean we don't know in a very literal sense because so much of what we could do is locked up in the ownership of both material capability, and applicable knowledge; locked up in all of the laws concerning patent, license, and the basic idea of "proprietary." A good deal is also locked up in the assumption creating mind sets that automatically (without necessarily even thinking about it) make one not consider large arrays of ability because you already know you can't afford it. And pertinent though that might be ultimately, it's not the aspect I want to focus on  here.

No, what I am talking about is having an, as complete as could be practically obtained, inventory of what we could do if all that capability were in the hands of the working majority of this country to do with as they saw fit. Limited only by the practicalities of energy, basic raw materials, people power, and the ability of command and control to flow effectively, within the ongoing process of a Democratically maintained, working consensus.

We also don't know what we are capable of because so much of what we utilize now wouldn't be needed if we all made our own end use products (which we could do if we changed the definition of work to be sharing all of the tasks it takes to keep a City State going). And you need only think about this for a minute to realize what a horrendous amount of not only real, material resource, is locked up here, but also incredible amounts people power.

Just consider a brief list: Unnecessary packaging. Unnecessary everything in all of the process we have called advertising in the past. Unnecessary transportation of things not made locally. And last, but not least, all of the unnecessary occupation of everything in the creation, movement, and preservation of money.

Think of all that would be freed up if we no longer had what was requiring all of this waste anymore. If you don't think that would be one pretty frigging big pile then you have been drinking far too much of somebody's message kool-aid. Food for thought as you contemplate what you won't be able to afford next year.








Behold Our New Lord Of The Absolute

And behold his new realm, of a fantasy world, where to investigate crimes makes you look worse than actually committing them; even if you, and your fellow travelers, in the demented clown car that this fellow motivates with, have bungled almost every aspect of the crimes they've committed. No, none of that makes you look bad. Just continuing with finding out about it does.





Donald Trump: I Have 'Absolute Right' To Do What I Want With DOJ | The Last Word



See Also:

Ex-Bush ethics lawyer: Trump is not king




THE MATCH THAT STARTED THE BLAZE


During a night of heavy drinking at an upscale London bar in May 2016, George Papadopoulos made a startling revelation to Australia's top diplomat in Britain: Russia had political dirt on Hillary Clinton.




Analysis: Trump’s ‘America First’ foreign policy isolates U.S.



Thursday, December 28, 2017

If We Are In The New Environment Of Permanent Instability

What makes these developers think markets are going to have any less uncertainty than that which has already wrought apocalypse on the last mix of commercial enterprises. And more to the point, if people already have barely enough to spend for food, shelter and healthcare, even after working their asses off (often with more than one job) what makes these guys think the future is going to be any different.

Remember, turbulence is entering every system we deal with now, whether it is geophysical, atmospheric, commercial, community, or government in general. Turbulence that is the result of so many situations that are themselves the result of the collateral effects of an economic operating system that has never been able to price the true costs of commoditization into its operations at the point of sale. The upshot of which is that a limited few have been able to gain much (benefiting from the ownership of property -- both tangible and knowledge based -- without being made to bear much of the responsibility), while societies as a whole have been left to deal with the ever increasing shortfall.

All the while, the means by which we can do things, our instrumentality, changes at an ever increasing pace; fueled now mostly by the insane global competition of commercialism; which is now mostly about accumulators trying to make sure other accumulators don't find a way to leathaly undercut them with the new, game changing tech. A mind boggling process in itself as game changing tech is now a howling blizzard of new elements hardly anyone can effectively keep track of any more. And so they turn to AI.

That this might be quite problematic for what ought to be human driven considerations, for human needs, ought to also be quite clear, but is, evidently not. And so the mavens of commercialism continue down the same path of mistakes that has already made things so chaotic. And the clock is ticking with all of these increasing, and overlapping, areas of turbulence. As a result of that, the desperation the majority players in this game also increases. And so we see this expressed as ever more crazy in world events, at every intersection of human endeavor. And it most assuredly will not hold indefinitely.

AMBITIOUS DEVELOPMENT






Where suburbs see dead malls, developers see condos, megachurches, and paintball parks.

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MORE LIKE A NOT BOMB CYCLONE


The most severe winter weather will assault the area late this week.



BURIED ALIVE


Nick Mullins didn't plan on working in the mines. But the industry was nearly impossible to escape


IT'S NOT THEM, IT'S US


Public anxiety over the automation of the workplace reached new heights in 2017, making clear that humanity isn't ready for the coming revolution.



'CHILL OUT' ISN'T REALLY AN OPTION






The past year was one of the worst on record for natural disasters. Blame greenhouse gases, and start planning for a hotter future.








THE FUTURE... DOES NOT LOOK BRIGHT


The world is on edge. North Korea is threatening war. No one knows what Donald Trump will do next. And deeper forces of disruption are at work, from fake news to cryptocurrencies.


Harvey-hit Texans still struggle with recovery amid housing challenges





Volatility Will Likely Pick Up In 2018. Here’s How Investors Should Prepare | Trading Nation




VALUING VISION











Some blind people are questioning how the first gene therapy to treat inherited blindness has been valued.





Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Here Is What I Recall Of The Promise Of Social Security

Back from the seventies on, it was clear to me, as a young worker, that the guy, or gal, ahead of me, then collecting SSI hadn't paid in enough to pay for what he was getting then. The promise from Congress was that if I continued paying for the guys that came before me, I would get my turn in having the people who came after me, to pay for mine, as is the case now. And on that basis they would then have the right to expect those following them would do the same. And I have to tell you, that made sense to me at the time, and it still does.

And let us not forget that that system worked quite well for many decades; that is, unfortunately, until members of both parties (although it was primarily a GOP empetus) decided that it was a neat trick to use former SSI surpluses to mask the fact that they lost the ability to pass balanced budgets. This instituted, in effect, Congress writing IOU's to SSI that, as far as I am aware, were never paid back.

And now that the masters of money have figured out that it is so very easy to convince people that cutting taxes is good, and raising them the highest evil (even though they love spending tax dollars on their favorite forms of public subsidy), suddenly the promise that was SSI is now some crafty plot by lazy, layabout old people to be "entitled" to something they shouldn't be.

Talk about creative redefinition.

In any case, however, it has always seemed to me that a very important contract was implemented by Congress with the American people after we began paying into this "you pay for the current old population so that the next group will pay for you" system. In my book, since consideration was given, and received, for a specific arrangement, basic Tort law says the government has to continue to follow through on the arrangement.

Put in simple terms for the contract challenged This Is Not Entitlement Charity You Idiots, it is a legal obligation the government entered into knowingly. An obligation that would still be working today if certain parties had had the courage to conduct their various "Wars on" in a fiscally sound way. Which means, by the way, for those of you who are also balanced budget challenged, that you actually pay for the things you claim the country should be doing.

So let's cut the crap now and be honest. We are in the position we are in now because the masters of money want their cake (the very best cake of course; the cake that nobody else could possibly get) and not have to pay for it in any way, shape, or form. And they can continue to do this because they have, apparently, figured out that your short memory, and propensity to have the flimsiest of lies believed as truth, allows them to.

It also, of course, doesn't hurt their cause, having the very economic system we all rely on here, being turned into a mutated monster that just excels in making lies in the most high fidelity way technology can create; and is always involved in an insane competition to make the lies even more high fidelity yet.

It also doesn't help that, in order to do aid for anyone, old, young, or in between, that a profit has to be made at every turn; because not only is everything a commodity, money people do not seem to have any moral, or even a sense of system limits, in what they feel they can keep asking for in increased profits, or their accumulation of same; and any sense of what is in the "public good" just gets continually redefined by the same "creative redefinition" process already mentioned, to be what is good for the masters of money.

So that is where we are actually at, and if you are arguing differently your are either a money master dupe, or a card carrying member just trying to protect your right to the very, very best cake you can get. And of course the devil can do what he pleases to the simpleton mases.







A PRIMER


We shouldn't let Republicans get away with using terms like "entitlement reform" when talking about cuts to Social Security. It would be more useful — and factual — to say that they are "taking away money that old people need to live."


See Also:


THE AMERICAN DREAM HAS RETIRED


Tom Coomer has retired twice: once when he was 65, and then several years ago. Each time he realized that with just a Social Security check, "You can hardly make it these days."


BUST OUT THE GUILLOTINES


The richest people on earth became $1 trillion richer in 2017, more than four times last year’s gain, as stock markets shrugged off economic, social and political divisions to reach record highs.