I with my son at a Cubing competition at the Chesapeake Science Point School, and I just realized something: this is one of the few places where asking the question, “What lube are you using?”is not considered rude.
That is all.
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Author: Matthew G. Saroff
I Miss Calvin and Hobbes
The interesting thing is that you run the numbers, the cartoon ended in 1995, he would be about this old now.
I feel so old.
It’s Jobless Thursday
Initial claims were much better than last week, down 42K to 346,000, not surprising, as last week’s numbers were horrible.
Whiny Bitch of the Day
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard is mad as hell about the Eu’s proposed financial transaction tax.
Oh the horror of a tax of one tenth of 1% on stock trades, and one one-hundredth of 1% on derivatives will destroy all life as we know it on the planet.
His argument is that it will crush the speculative arbitrage that is the meat and potatoes for Wall Street and the City of London, causing a shrinkage of the financial industry.
He says that it “has the character of a pogrom.”
Well, I got your “pogrom” right here.
Randall Munroe accurately reflects my feelings on this in this cartoon:
Excess financialization of our economy is not productive, nor is it symbiotic. It is a parasitic drain on society, and a source of instability.
It needs to be ended.
My Bad
For some reason, my cell phone app did not post the image.
Our other cat, Meatball (or Mousetrap, she does not answer to either) is freaking out.
I think that this little fluff balls scares her.
Light Posting Tonight
We just got a kitten.
We never found Hummus after she ran away.
This is an as yet unnamed male, about 3 months old.
The runt of the litter.
Posted via mobile.
Fabulous!!!
The French upper house has passed the same sex marriage law:
Following months of protests both for and against the measure, the French Senate on Tuesday night passed an important provision in a package of laws that would legalize same-sex marriage in the country. The vote is a political win for embattled President Hollande.
French President François Hollande has had precious little to celebrate since he was elected last May. His country’s economy has refused to ignite, unemployment is nearing record highs and his government has been rocked by recent corruption allegations.
But this week, Hollande was finally able to take a key step toward fulfilling a major campaign promise. After months of passionate debate both among lawmakers and on the streets of Paris, the French Senate late Tuesday passed a key provision of the package of laws that would ultimately place same-sex marriage on par with heterosexual marriage in the country.
Following a 10-hour debate, the Senate voted 179 to 157 in favor of an article allowing gay and lesbian couples to wed. The law will only go into effect once the Senate approves all of its component parts. A further article still pending approval would allow gay married couples in the country to adopt. The first article passed on Tuesday, however, was the most important and virtually assures the legalization of gay marriage in the country.
It could still take several weeks before all of the provisions of the law are passed in the Senate. France’s lower house, the National Assembly, passed the law in mid-February.
Good for them.
4 Million People Wrongful Foreclosures
A 30% error rate.
Some of these were foreclosures on active duty servicemen, which is a felony.
But no prosecutions.
Why are Lloyd Blankfein and Jamie Dimon not in jail awaiting trial?
Coddling banksters just makes them more brazen in their fraud and deception.
If You Claim the Right to Kill Anyone You Want, You Will Kill Anyone You Want
It turns out that Obama’s claims that drone strikes are exclusively made against senior terrorist figures are a lie:
Contrary to assurances it has deployed U.S. drones only against known senior leaders of al Qaida and allied groups, the Obama administration has targeted and killed hundreds of suspected lower-level Afghan, Pakistani and unidentified “other” militants in scores of strikes in Pakistan’s rugged tribal area, classified U.S. intelligence reports show.
The administration has said that strikes by the CIA’s missile-firing Predator and Reaper drones are authorized only against “specific senior operational leaders of al Qaida and associated forces” involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks who are plotting “imminent” violent attacks on Americans.
“It has to be a threat that is serious and not speculative,” President Barack Obama said in a Sept. 6, 2012, interview with CNN. “It has to be a situation in which we can’t capture the individual before they move forward on some sort of operational plot against the United States.”
Copies of the top-secret U.S. intelligence reports reviewed by McClatchy, however, show that drone strikes in Pakistan over a four-year period didn’t adhere to those standards.
The intelligence reports list killings of alleged Afghan insurgents whose organization wasn’t on the U.S. list of terrorist groups at the time of the 9/11 strikes; of suspected members of a Pakistani extremist group that didn’t exist at the time of 9/11; and of unidentified individuals described as “other militants” and “foreign fighters.”
In a response to questions from McClatchy, the White House defended its targeting policies, pointing to previous public statements by senior administration officials that the missile strikes are aimed at al Qaida and associated forces.
Micah Zenko, an expert with the Council on Foreign Relations, a bipartisan foreign policy think tank, who closely follows the target killing program, said McClatchy’s findings indicate that the administration is “misleading the public about the scope of who can legitimately be targeted.”
Gee, you think that they are lying to us?
Hoocoodanode?
You remember what they say about absolute power.
And Cue the Republicans Accusing Obama of Throwing Grandma Out on the Streets in 3 … 2 … 1 …
Because offering cuts that Republicans are afraid to mention in public work so well
Well, right now:
Appearing on CNN, the National Republican Congressional Committee chairman accused Obama of “trying to balance this budget on the backs of seniors” and signaled Republicans may try to use the changes against Democrats in the coming election.
Walden’s comments come even as key Republicans have embraced Obama’s “chained CPI” proposal to cut Social Security benefits.
“I thought it’s very intriguing in that his budget really lays out kind of a shocking attack on seniors, if you will,” Walden (Ore.) said. “We haven’t seen all the detail yet, so we’ll look at it. But I’ll tell you, when you’re going after seniors the way he’s already done on Obamacare, taking $700 billion out of Medicare to put into Obamacare, and now coming back at seniors again — I think you’re crossing that line very quickly here in terms of denying access to seniors for health care…”
Not only is this mind-blowingly bad policy, it is mind-blowingly bad politics.
And let us remember something important: Social Security contributes nothing to the deficit, and it will not for decades.
Once again, we have Obama playing the Manchurian Democrat.
Unfair to Circus Clowns
Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy just described Wayne LaPierre, NRA’s CEO and poster child for the batsh%$ insane as a circus clown:
Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy (D) tore into the National Rifle Association during an appearance on CNN’s State Of The Union on Sunday. The NRA this week introduced its legislative response to the massacre in Malloy’s home state. Its plan focuses on arming school staff.
Malloy specifically called out NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre for his absolute opposition to commonsense gun regulations, including the new gun law just enacted by Connecticut. After watching a clip of LaPierre mocking Connecticut’s new law, Malloy shot back, “Wayne reminds me of the clowns at the circus. They get the most attention”.
If I were a circus clown, I’d be pissed off at this characterization, and I would not want to deal with a pissed off clown:
Clowns scare me.
Jeebus
The Obama administration has revealed what policies it wants changed under the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement.
What do the Obama administration oppose?
They oppose things like:
- Requiring that meat packing plants have separate spaces for halal and non halal slaughter.
- Restrictions on pork and alcohol importation for religious reasons.
- Better capital requirements for banks.
- High taxes on cigarettes and alcohol to discourage their use.
- Personal data privacy protections.
- Regulatory actions to control pharmaceutical costs.
- Objecting to a fee (all of $21) to file a copyright complaint.
- Public ownership of energy resources.
- Patent policies which prohibit evergreening (renewing patents ad infinitum).
- Comprehensive food labels.
- Buy local military procurement. (which the US has)
- A publicly owned post office.
- Requiring that cheese be made from milk.
Seriously, this is a neoliberal (free market mousketeer) wet dream.
Yes, Republicans are Classy People
In a meeting with between Mitch McConnell and campaign aides, they talked about using her religion, and her depression in 6th grade against her in the campaign:
On February 2, Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the US Senate, opened up his 2014 reelection campaign headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky, and in front of several dozen supporters vowed to “point out” the weaknesses of any opponent fielded by the Democrats. “They want to fight? We’re ready,” he declared. McConnell was serious: Later that day, he was huddling with aides in a private meeting to discuss how to attack his possible Democratic foes, including actor/activist Ashley Judd, who was then contemplating challenging the minority leader. During this strategy session—a recording of which was obtained by Mother Jones—McConnell and his aides considered assaulting Judd for her past struggles with depression and for her religious views.
Read the whole thing, and you will find a fairly repugnant bit of immature locker room talk that sounds like your worst stereotypes of drunk College Republicans.
It gets even better, because McConnell called in the FBI, and accused people of bugging his office, though he has walked it back a bit.
Originally, he accused ProgressKY, and now it’s the nebulous “political left” that he is accusing of wiretapping him.
In any case, calling in the FBI has turned this from being a minor embarrassment into a case of his being a whiny bitch. Heh.
Here’s a hint mother f%$#er, there is something called a cell phone, and many of them can make audio and video recordings.
Just ask Mitt Rmoney about the 47% video.
Here is hoping that whoever runs against you kicks your butt.
What is Wrong With Democratic Political Class in One Phrase
It appears that they think that the biggest strength that a candidate can have is he or she, “doesn’t have particularly strong views.”
Because, I guess, nothing always beats something:
Democratic Party officials believe that Kevin Strouse is exactly the kind of candidate who can help them retake the House next year.
He’s a smart, young former Army Ranger — good qualities for any aspiring politician. But what party leaders really like is that Strouse doesn’t have particularly strong views on the country’s hottest issues.
Immigration? Tax policy? “Certainly I have a lot of research to do,” Strouse acknowledged in an interview Thursday as he announced his candidacy in a suburban Philadelphia House district.
Strouse’s candidacy reflects an emerging Democratic strategy for taking back the House from Republicans after the tea party takeover of 2010.
The best way to defeat the conservative, ideologically driven GOP, Democrats say, is to field non-ideological “problem solvers” who can profit from the fed-up-with-partisanship mood of some suburban areas. These districts will offer some of the few competitive House campaigns in the country.
“You pick your strategic high ground and force them to fight on it,” said Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), who as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has begun a particularly early effort at traveling the country and working the phones to lure Strouse and others like him into races.
(emphasis mine)
Steve Israel was, until he wanted a leadership position, he was a one of the Quisling Blue Dog Caucus, and his goal is to restore the decimated Benedict Arnold Blue Dog Caucus, because the f%$#ing Blue Dogs were so good for the party in the past.
In any case, be aware that this sort of mind bogglingly stupidity is from the person trying to pick and choose Democratic Party nominees for the US House of Representatives, and he is bragging about this bit of lunacy.
Choose your own candidates. Don’t give to the DCCC, because they will waste your money on bullsh%$ like this.
It is Called Fraud
When lenders lose original loan documentation, and their response is to fabricate documents that have nothing to do with reality, it is not a business plan, it is criminal fraud:
It is hard to credit, but lenders routinely mislay the card and loan agreements their customers originally sign. But even more astonishingly, if there has been a dispute later on, the lenders have used computer software to ‘ recreate’ the original documents, sometimes with less than accurate results.
Being able to recreate agreements in this way helps banks pursue borrowers over debts, but there is growing evidence that when lenders ‘recreate’ contracts they often do not stick to the original terms.
The result is that borrowers who are often already in financial trouble are left in worse difficulties.
Document ‘recreation’ is in the spotlight after a court case last month involving a number of borrowers with credit cards issued by HBOS, Barclaycard, MBNA and HSBC. Part of the case, heard in the High Court in Manchester, was to assess the circumstances in which banks could ‘ reconstitute’ lost agreements.
Judge David Waksman concluded that in future, lenders would have to explain why they did not have the original agreements. He said they would have to prove that the recreated document was a true copy of the original contract.
This is in the UK, not the US, that this is happening in right now.
There should be arrests and criminal charges, but all they are getting is a slap on the wrist from the Office of Fair Trading guidelines.
The UK is like us in this way, and it is a pity.
Just In Case You Wondered if Obama Didn’t Want to Gut Social Security
Notice his shout out to Bob (Rubin) who wants to privatize Social Security
This is Obama at the opening meeting for the Wall Street driven “Hamilton Project”, and when he says, “too many of us have been interested in defending programs the way they were written in 1938, believing that if we admit the need to modernize these programs to fit changing times.”
Notice how he is enthusiastic about the idea of cutting Social Security.
He knows that it involves “throwing momma from the train,” so when he says, “This is not a bloodless process,” (7:56 in the vid) it ain’t his blood, or Bob Rubin’s blood that he is talking about.
This is not eleventy dimensional chess. Obama sees gutting cutting Social Security as a potential bipartisan legacy.
This is what he wants.
H/t Naked Capitalism.
Margaret Thatcher, Dead at 87
There is an argument that one should not speak ill of the dead, but Margaret Thatcher was a public figure, and her supporters are using this as an opportunity to shape her legacy, so I feel that speaking the truth is essential at this juncture in any public forum except for her funeral or wake.
In my case, I will start with a list of positive things about her:
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That is all.
Off to have a birthday date with Sharon.*
We are going to a newly opened kosher middle eastern restaurant, Easta La Vista.
If you are ever there, get the silk soup (Charira), a Moroccan Chick Pea and herb soup. It is sublime.
No blogging, because I hope to be busy doing other things.
*Love of my life, light of the cosmos, she who must be obeyed, my wife.
The Non Farm Payroll Numbers Sucks
Only 88,000 Jobs were created:
American employers added an estimated 88,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, compared with 268,000 in February, according to a Labor Department report released Friday. It was the slowest pace of growth since last June, and less than half of what economists had expected.
It also was the start of a third consecutive spring in which employers tapered off their hiring after a healthy start to the year. Slowdowns in the previous two years could be attributed to flare-ups in the European debt crisis, but this time the cause is less obvious. The recent payroll tax increase or other fiscal tightening in Washington could be partly to blame for the sudden retreat in hiring, but neither seems to be showing up much yet in other relevant economic data.
“People were starting to believe the economy was really picking up steam, and desperately wanted this report to be better,” said Joshua Shapiro, chief economist at MFR Inc. “But that didn’t happen.”
Paul Krugman understands what is causing this:
That deficit has declined from 5.6 percent of potential GDP in 2011 to 2.5 percent in 2013 — that’s 3 percent of GDP, which is a lot of austerity. Not all of that cut has even hit yet — the sequester isn’t in the macro numbers yet — but the rise in the payroll tax is very clearly driving the latest bad numbers, which show big declines in retail.
This is Obama policies that we are talking about largely. Notwithstanding the posturing by Republicans, all they really want is to cut the social safety net and cut taxes for rich guys.
Obama is the one who really wants to cut the deficit in the middle of a recession.
His “Grand Bargain” is all about balancing the budget in the relatively near future while bridging the difference parties.
It is a dangerous delusion.
High Tech Eutopianism Fail
The fact that the Silicon Valley icon Michael Arrington’s behavior towards woman has been ignored and covered up for years puts the lie to the idea that somehow the culture of high tech will in and of itself to create a better world and a better workplace:
Everyone knows Silicon Valley is a boys’ club. The needs of women are often ignored when it comes to business, but the story developing around the alleged rape and brutalization of a girlfriend by a Silicon Valley hotshot indicates that lack of effort carries into the personal realm as well.
Michael Arrington, tech magnate and founder of TechCrunch, has long been known for temper tantrums. His former girlfriend, Jenn Allen — the CEO and founder of the start-up RTist.com — recently took to Facebook to accuse him of some nasty stuff. Allegedly, he was constantly violent, raped her and another woman, and threatened to “murder” her if she told a soul.
That is disturbing, yes. But what is most disturbing is that many people in Silicon Valley had heard about his alleged violent tendencies towards women for years and never said anything, fearing repercussions by the constantly angry man who controlled so much in the land of tech.
Arrington’s legendary temper and deep connections in Silicon Valley and the most powerful media outlets earned him the ability to do whatever he pleased with no fear of being confronted. While this apparent bully might have been stopped years ago, bystanders preferred their comfortable lives in Silicon Valley while others suffered terribly at Arrington’s hand.
This is not surprising.
The difference between the Silicon Valley and any other industry is simply the technology they use.
The underlying human aspects are the same as in any other industry.