June 26, 2013

Another good one from back then...

Les McCann (piano) and Eddie Harris (sax) at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1969, "Compared to What."

"Possession is the motivation that is hangin' up the goddamned nation.
Looks like we always end up in a rut."

No matter how much you like (or don't really care for jazz), wait a couple of minutes, through the instrumental
intro, for the words:

Has anything really changed since then?

Trying to make it a real Compared to What?

May 9, 2013

Worst EVER 'Politi-Fact' "In Context" analysis

And a good candidate for the worst reporter ever to be entrusted with the responsibility for providing "balanced and fair, in depth" analysis of complex issues.

....Please, take a minute to click the links on this one.

Even though I'm a big sports fan -- and the coverage in this paper's Sports Section is generally very good -- here's a set of articles that are proof that I can't even consider the possibility of becoming a subscriber again. (With Packers rookie camps and stuff coming up, it's a sacrifice but in good conscience, how do you support deliberate distortions of black-and-white facts, terribly lazy research and one-sided grand-standing for GOP petty, mean-spiritedness?)

Here's the sequence. The rag published this initial (also skewed) report:

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/odd-coalition-opposes-wisconsin-bill-limiting-junk-food-purchases-qu9re45-206318501.html

Sounds like a (possibly?) well-intentioned effort to keep borderline or morbidly obese people in line ahead of you in the grocery store from adding chips and nachos and other junk food items that could slow your checkout -- and improve the overall health of the community at the same time. Not unlike that whole "no Super-Size" soda in NYC Bloomberg thing.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The "fast-moving" Republican bill is not being rammed through the Assembly for anything to do with nutrition, or getting more people to make better or healthier shopping decisions in the checkout line.

Here are the guidelines for what is Allowed and what is Verboten:

http://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/publications/P4/P44578.pdf

Among the recommendations:

• No bagels, pita bread or english muffins,
  
• no white rice or wild rice or rice mixes
  
• no plain-white flour tortillas or hard shell tacos,
  
• no canned peas, soup or chili,
  
• no tuna in a pouch or low sodium,
  
• no organic anything,
  
• no frozen fruit bars or popsicles,
  
• no frozen french fries or hash brown potatoes,
  
• no potatoes of any kind,
  
• no salsa,
  
• no salad bar items,
  
• no dried fruit or fruit/nut mixes,
  
• no spaghetti or pizza or lasagna sauce
  
• no shredded or pre-sliced cheese except American cheese (pre-sliced, only),
  
• no pickles,
  
• no pork and beans
  
• no sauerkraut,
  
• no ketchup,
  
• no black-eyed peas or pinto beans in a can,
  
• no beans, peas or lentils with added "seasoning or meat" or in bulk,
  
• no bread with double fiber or flaxseed.
  
• no anything that has the word "yogurt" or "organic" or "low-sodium" or "low-carb" on the label.
  

It's an extremely arbitrary list that has one purpose only; to punish, humiliate and inconvenience Food Share recipients as much as possible. (And remove all those "useless eaters" from the social safety net toot sweet.) Add in that many of those Food Share recipients may have health problems or aren't the best cooks in the world. The approved list of foods is heavy on items that require a lot of preparation and cooking knowledge, and the NOT-approved list is equally heavy on easy-to-make or quick-to-eat stuff. The kind of menu favored by elderly widowers, for example, or other folks who might be less adept or capable in making their own food behind a stove.

You'd never know any of that by going to the Politi-FACT "In Context" analysis:

http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/article/2013/mar/21/lawmaker-explains-his-proposal-limit-food-stamp-us/

The whole article is a little bit of explanation of the issue, a one sentence paragraph and a second, two sentence paragraph, that characterize the negative reaction as some loons from Twitter, in order to provide extended time for the bill's author to be quoted. (From an interview with a right-wing AM Squawk Radio host, who is totally behind the whole effort and wouldn't ask an embarrassing or pertinent question in a blue moon.)



That's it.

That's the whole sum of the "In Context" analysis. A little straw canary and a big soap box for the bill's sponsor and his paid right-wing P.R. on-air fluffer.

But it's the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

A quick search turned up the same reporter, blogging on his own, using this kind of graphic imagery to "discuss" the exchange between Wisconsin Senator Dumbass (the place-holder in the Upper House who replaced Russ Feingold) and Hillary Clinton:

/pictures/40500/Hillary-Clinton-With-a-Huge-Mouth--40906.jpg

Edit -- I took out the http:// and the website: www.freakingnews.com ...in that weblink (above) so the image wouldn't pollute this post. Add http://freakingnews.com/pictures..... back in if you want to see it and paste to a new browser window.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=84f_1368067352

But that graphic is all that's missing from the same article, on the Journal-Sentinel website:

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2013/may/08/context-hillary-clintons-what-difference-does-it-m/

May 2, 2013

Ho-lee cash register, Batman. Senator Dumbass cleaned up.

No wonder Dumbass found the Obama-supported background check bill to be "fatally flawed." (Without any specifics or the least hint of a reason.)

Check out how much his own campaign accounts have benefited from the association with N.R.A. lobbyists:



That's Senator I-Married-the-Boss's-Daughter in 3rd place there, with close to 1.2 million to 'the good' on deposit.

(Tip o' the hat to anonymous poster at Cognitive Dissidence blog earlier today...

http://cognidissidence.blogspot.com/2013/05/our-dumb-senators-murica.html

That thread includes a video of Wisconsin's Republican place-holder in the Upper House, opining that 'insurers and private medical businesses should have life-and-death power over other Americans,' cuz, you know, it's all about making those cash registers sing. Screw the poor, the sick, and anyone who the health care system might have already bankrupted.)

April 16, 2013

I'm not an economist. If someone were making a film, that all would probably be part of the story.

As summed up at the end of the article.

If you're talking about "self-proclaimed geniuses" there were all those 'financial engineers' who thought they had a blueprint for the economic equivalent of cold fusion. They went down to some Florida or Caribbean resort (okay, maybe there was a pharmaceutical angle) and they were going to teach everybody else their revolutionary theories, and take the "less advanced" financial theorists to school. (Can't remember the book, a Brit. writer for the Financial Times. Brown cover. I picked it up for 10 minutes at a friend's house.)

But from what I recall, it wasn't just a real estate/mortgage/derivatives bubble. The price of a barrel of crude was up over 150 bucks. Then those prices just totally tanked. Down to 35 or 40 for a time? That index that measures orders for international container shipping, ocean freight. It had gone off the rails and tanked, signalling a crash, even before the rest of the economy did.
The cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars was still "on the credit card," not on the books. Instead of taking their earnings and putting them back into some kind of productive activity, the war profiteers were making bucket shop bets.

How much money is still hidden away in off-shore accounts? 30 trillion? Did you see the reports about the size of the money pile that's in "private" banks?

http://campaigns.dailykos.com/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=365

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/exposed_a_global_offshore_money_web_20130404

As much as anything, sheer avarice, arrogance and unrestrained financial piracy brought the house of cards down five years ago. Too many people taking advantage of unsustainable, paper-chit-from-a-crooked bookie, big and quick pay offs. Like Tony Soprano in cahoots with the regulators and at the end, they make sure they've pulled all the copper pipes (and every other asset) from the ruins of all those HUD-approved buildings.

The Libor scandal, everything Matt Taibbi has written about the vampire squid, HSBC paying the 1.9 billion "fine" for laundering drug money and nobody goes to jail?

People took to the streets to protest. (There was that whole "occupy" thing.) Then it just kind of goes away, and people go back to paying attention to which Kardashian is doing who.

...Maybe it's all of us, regular average citizens, that have some kind of pharmaceutical issues.

February 19, 2013

K n R One of the best summaries I've seen here in a while. There is actually...

a wiki page on that term, "reality-based community."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality-based_community

FWIW