You know, when a comedian loses it in front of the audience, it’s not a proud moment for him, so I felt the need to share it with all of you.
He starts to lose it at about 4:30.
I blame the Republicans.
And you are President of the United States of America, you have really f%$#ed up:
More than 250 of America’s most eminent legal scholars have signed a letter protesting against the treatment in military prison of the alleged WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning, contesting that his “degrading and inhumane conditions” are illegal, unconstitutional and could even amount to torture.
The list of signatories includes Laurence Tribe, a Harvard professor who is considered to be America’s foremost liberal authority on constitutional law. He taught constitutional law to Barack Obama and was a key backer of his 2008 presidential campaign.
Tribe joined the Obama administration last year as a legal adviser in the justice department, a post he held until three months ago.
He told the Guardian he signed the letter because Manning appeared to have been treated in a way that “is not only shameful but unconstitutional” as he awaits court martial in Quantico marine base in Virginia.
I don’t think that Barack Obama understands just how profoundly repulsive his staunchest supporters find his support for torture to be.
I don’t think that Obama wants to be a torturer, but he is constitutionally* unable to challenge his subordinates who are, which does not bode well in budget negotiations with the Republicans.
*Pun not intended.
The Japanese have just raised the nuclear alert level of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant to 7, the highest possible level, and only reached once before, at Chernobyl:
Japan is to raise the nuclear alert level at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant to a maximum seven, putting the emergency on a par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
Nuclear safety officials had insisted they had no plans to raise the severity of the crisis from five – the same level as the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 – according to the international nuclear and radiological event scale.
But the government came under pressure to raise the level at the plant after Japan’s nuclear safety commission estimated the amount of radioactive material released from its stricken reactors reached 10,000 terabecquerels per hour for several hours following the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the country’s northeast coast on 11 March. That level of radiation constitutes a major accident, according to the INES scale.
This ain’t an attempt to corner the market on glow in the dark watches, this is serious.
Courtesy of Paul Krugman, aka the Shrill one:
But if you ask me, I.d say that the nation wants – and more important, the nation needs – a president who believes in something, and is willing to take a stand. And that’s not what we’re seeing.
Word!
Not as funny as the other one, but far more profound.
From a discussion thread on Matthew Yglesias post:
Jasper_in_Boston 1 day agoMatt: the president’s rhetoric about the economy has been off key since, er, February 2009. This is nothing new. Instead of conservatives worrying that he’s a secret Kenyan Shariast, I think liberals should be worrrying he’s a Grover Norquist deep implant.DonxWilliams 1 day ago in reply to Jasper_in_Boston
Not really — there are strong differences between Obama and Norquist.
For example, Grover Norquist thinks we have too many black people locked up in prison:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/04/08/MNVK1IS92I.DTL
Heh.
Notwithstanding their coverage of the foreclosure crisis, and the malfeasance of the mortgage services, which has largely focused on the hardships of the well to do (unsurprising given the nature of the New York City real estate market), the editorial board understands that there has been fraud and bad behavior all around and they understand that proposed settlements are sellouts to the big banks that service mortgages:
Americans know that banks have mistreated borrowers in many ways in foreclosure cases. Among other things, they habitually filed false court documents. There were investigations. We’ve been waiting for federal and state regulators to crack down.
Prepare for a disappointment. As early as this week, federal bank regulators and the nation’s big banks are expected to close a deal that is supposed to address and correct the scandalous abuses. If these agreements are anything like the draft agreement recently published by the American Banker — and we believe they will be — they will be a wrist slap, at best. At worst, they are an attempt to preclude other efforts to hold banks accountable. They are unlikely to ease the foreclosure crisis.
………
But the gist of the terms is that from now on, banks — without admitting or denying wrongdoing — must abide by existing laws and current contracts. To clear up past violations, they are required to hire independent consultants to check a sample of recent foreclosures for evidence of improper evictions and impermissible fees.
The consultants will be chosen and paid by the banks, which will decide how the reviews are conducted. Regulators will only approve the banks’ self-imposed practices. It is hard to imagine rigorous reviews, but if the consultants turn up problems, the banks are required to reimburse affected borrowers and investors as “appropriate.” It is apparently up to the banks to decide what is appropriate.
While it appears that the OCC, which has a history of acting on behalf of the finance industry rather than the public,has been at the core of the most egregious giveaways, it is also clear that the most of the machinery of the federal government, at least those portions directed by Ben Bernanke and Timothy Geithner, are doing their level best to ensure that there are no real consequences to what in a sane regulatory environment would be felonies involving people being sentenced to extended stays in “Club Fed”.
Instead, it increasingly appears that the Feds will be negotiating a sweetheart deal that will include provisions to make actions by the state attorneys general, and possible private torts difficult, if not impossible.
It’s nice that the “paper of record” has finally noticed this. People like Yves Smith have been screaming about this for months.
I really wish that I had half his wit.
I guess that this bit of genius is all about the fact that they are dealing with a very real sadness: Glen Beck could make their writing a lot easier.
When Beck was on a roll, they could finish writing the script by lunch, and adjourn to a coke infused orgy with transsexual prostitutes in the afternoon.
Or maybe they just played games on their iPhones in the afternoon.
Both kids went to the Kings Dominion amusement park on a USY junket.
We had a date to get some coffee at the now re-opened Java Mamas coffee house, went to Barnes and Nobel to pick up some books for the kids, and then she went shoe shopping with a friend.
Gawd, we are dull.
We have now become a place where 1st world nations send their manufacturing to in order to avoid regulation.
Case in point, Ikea’s factory in Virginia pays ⅓ as much and engages in policies at its US plant that are scandalous in Sweden:
When home furnishing giant Ikea selected this fraying blue-collar city to build its first U.S. factory, residents couldn’t believe their good fortune.
Beloved by consumers worldwide for its stylish and affordable furniture, the Swedish firm had also constructed a reputation as a good employer and solid corporate citizen. State and local officials offered $12 million in incentives. Residents thrilled at the prospect of a respected foreign company bringing jobs to this former textile region after watching so many flee overseas.
But three years after the massive facility opened here, excitement has waned. Ikea is the target of racial discrimination complaints, a heated union-organizing battle and turnover from disgruntled employees.
Workers complain of eliminated raises, a frenzied pace and mandatory overtime. Several said it’s common to find out on Friday evening that they’ll have to pull a weekend shift, with disciplinary action for those who can’t or don’t show up.
………
Some of the Virginia plant’s 335 workers are trying to form a union. The International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said a majority of eligible employees had signed cards expressing interest.
In response, the factory — part of Ikea’s manufacturing subsidiary, Swedwood — hired the law firm Jackson Lewis, which has made its reputation keeping unions out of companies. Workers said Swedwood officials required employees to attend meetings at which management discouraged union membership.
………
The dust-up has garnered little attention in the U.S. But it’s front-page news in Sweden, where much of the labor force is unionized and Ikea is a cherished institution. Per-Olaf Sjoo, the head of the Swedish union in Swedwood factories, said he was baffled by the friction in Danville. Ikea’s code of conduct, known as IWAY, guarantees workers the right to organize and stipulates that all overtime be voluntary.
“Ikea is a very strong brand and they lean on some kind of good Swedishness in their business profile. That becomes a complication when they act like they do in the United States,” said Sjoo. “For us, it’s a huge problem.”
Laborers in Swedwood plants in Sweden produce bookcases and tables similar to those manufactured in Danville. The big difference is that the Europeans enjoy a minimum wage of about $19 an hour and a government-mandated five weeks of paid vacation. Full-time employees in Danville start at $8 an hour with 12 vacation days — eight of them on dates determined by the company.
Additionally, there are allegations of racism at the plant, claims, “That black workers at Swedwood’s U.S. factory are assigned to the lowest-paying departments and to the least desirable third shift.”
This sounds an awful lot like the textile plants in Bangladesh where the exits are chained shut, and workers die when a fire breaks out, doesn’t it.
You set up a factory, and you bring in local managers, with the local attitudes, and then you push them to meet difficult numbers, and surprise, they revert to the standard labor behavior that you see in south central Virginia, only worse, because they know that their bosses will not feel any blow-back, because they are thousands of miles away.
Elon Musk, is claiming some mind boggling figures for SpaceX’s new heavy lifter:
Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, plans to build a commercial heavy-lift rocket that will carry more than twice the payload of existing large rockets at one-third the cost. That would lower the price of delivering cargo to low-Earth orbit to the long-sought, and so far mythical, $1,000-per-pound range, the company’s founder and chief designer announced today.
Speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the Falcon Heavy–made up of three Falcon 9 core stages powered by 27 upgraded Merlin engines and generating a combined 3.8 million pounds of thrust–will be ready for its initial test flight from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., late next year or early 2013.
So he is claiming that his launcher will have a cost per pound to LEO ⅙ that of existing systems, and that he can have it ready for launch next year.
If you look at the prices quoted, they simply do not make sense internally either.
A quick perusal of the Wiki reveals that the Falcon 9, which is basically the Falcon Heavy core less the strap on boosters, puts 9,900 kilos into LEO for 44 to 49.5 million dollars, while the Heavy will put 53,000 kilos in LEO for 55 and 95 million dollars.
How do you manage to put 5½ times as much payload up for only 10-90% more? My guess is that you don’t.
The answer is you don’t, not unless you come up with a way to bend the laws of physics or of manufacturing.
The Falcon Heavy will have 30 engines, 9 on each strap-on, 9 on the 1st stage, and 1 on the 2nd stage, so even if ¾ of the cost of a launch (the number is typically well under half) would be those 30 engines (it’s probably less), the cost per engine would be on the order of 1¾ to 2½ million dollars each, which is very cheap.
I don’t see how these cost targets can be met.
Demonstrator
Commercial variant
Assault and utility
Search and rescue
Attack
The award of what is arguably the most prestigious award in aerospace is well deserved.
They have validated that their advancing blade concept helicopter can work, and work without the workload or vibration issues that bedeviled its predecessor in the 1980s, and they have done so on a relative shoestring.
It appears to have most of the advantages, and none of the disadvantages of tilt-rotor technology.
In the grander scheme of things, this may not count for much, but start seeing the phrase “combat proven” in future PR for the diminutive fighter.
And here they are, ordered, and numbered for the year so far.
And here are the credit union closings:
Well, things seem to be slowing down, which is a good sign.
So, here is the graph pr0n with last years numbers for comparison (FDIC only):
So they managed to cut a “deal”, where he made bigger cuts than Boehner originally wanted, forbade abortion funding in Washington, DC, among other idiocies, including high speed rail. (You can see a more complete list and an impassioned critique here)
Seriously, how can someone be such an incompetent negotiator (Reid and Obama together, but Obama is where the buck stops) that you give more than he initially asked for?
Ian McKlellan, backed up by the Fleshtones, reciting Shakespeare’s Sonnet 20.
This is trippy.
Dumbledore Gandalf doing sonnets.
H/t Susan D.
Well, the good folks at Google™ Adsense™ have done it again.
The put up an ad from right wing lunatic asylum Newsmax, redirecting to a poll asking what the reader thinks about the concept Donald Trump as president.
Somehow or other, I do not think that my blog is fertile ground for the brain damaged hackery that is Newsmax, but to the degree that I get paid (a fraction of a penny) for someone seeing the ad, better my pocket than Joseph Farah’s.
Of course, if they did something better suited to my rantings, I might get a few more click throughs, and hence a bit more filthy capitalist lucre.
In any case, my apology to my reader(s) for your having to see “The Donald” and his hair.
My standard Google™ Adsense™ disclaimers below:
Please note: once again, that I do not vet, nor do I endorse any ad that appears on my site, and I reserve the right to mock both the ads that appear on my site, as well as the advertisers.
Also, please note, this should be in no way construed as an inducement or a request for my reader(s) to click on any ad that they would not otherwise be inclined to investigate further. This would be a violation of the terms of service for Google™ Adsense™.
The Feds and the state Attorneys General have separated their settlement talks with mortgage servicers and banks:
Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller said the reported side settlement between mortgage servicers and federal regulators will in no way affect the ongoing investigation he is leading along with 49 other state attorneys general.
Several media outlets are reporting that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Federal Reserve are engaging in talks with mortgage servicers and that agreements could be signed as early as next week.
“A separate settlement by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency will not affect our investigation,” Miller said in a statement. “The settlement neither preempts, nor impacts our efforts. State attorneys general will continue to work together unabated with a broad coalition of federal partners.”
My guess here is that, notwithstanding AG Miller’s attempt to come up with a weak deal, see Yves Smith’s coverage for more information, is that the OCC’s proposed deal is too weak for even him to follow up on.
Additionally, they may be attempting to distance themselves from the manufactured sh%$ storm about Elizabeth Warren advising them.
Of course, if you are an optimist about this, and I am not, it could be that the AGs realized that the two efforts were incompatible, since a federal settlement is primarily about looking at future behavior, while the Attorneys General are charged with investigating and pursuing prior and ongoing wrongdoing.
My guess is that there is some political heat being generated, both from the teabaggers who are crying, “leave Britney the big banks alone,” and people interested in property rights and the rule of law, who want criminal prosecutions of what is fraud and theft an an almost unimaginable scale.
H/t Yves Smith.
One of the things that gets turned off if there is a government shutdown is FHA loans:
I was hoping not to have to write this particular piece, but it seems I may have no choice, so here we go with housing.What happens to today’s housing market without FHA loans?
Right now FHA loans are about 20 percent of the overall mortgage market (purchases and refis) and 40 percent of purchase applications.
Compare that to around 11 percent of the overall market during the last shutdown in 1995. For the nation’s big public home builders, it’s far more of an impact, according to analysts.
This basically means that the housing market shuts down for the duration, because if 40% of home buyers can’t buy, the remainder will be able to extract even more in the way of lower house prices.
House prices have fallen 7 straight months, but prices are sticky in the short term, so you will have the housing market freeze.
He would use what now appears to be the inevitable government shut down to show people just what they would be missing if the federal government went away.
My guess is that he will instead choose to make sure that the brunt of any shutdown falls on the poor and minorities, because that’s how he rolls.
I understand how this can be done cheaply with modern video editing software, but I don’t get why.
H/t Neo at the Stellar Parthenon BBS.