How's your blood pressure today? Cuz if it's on the high side, I recommendNOT reading this: Mitt Romney’s opposition to the auto bailout has haunted him on the campaign trail, especially in Rust Belt states like Ohio. There, in September, the Obama campaign launched television ads blasting Romney’s November 2008 New York Times op-ed, “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.” But Romney has done a good job of concealing, until now, the fact that he and his wife, Ann, personally gained at least $15.3 million from the bailout—and a few of Romney’s most important Wall Street donors made more than $4 billion. Their gains, and the Romneys’, were astronomical—more than 3,000 percent on their investment. Yup, you read that right. A THREE THOUSAND PERCENT RETURN on their investment. But see, it's okay, you aren't authorized or experienced enough to responsibly deal with or really understand a bailout...see for him, it's all right...for those people...well...those people just aren't capable enough or even able to understand! But Mitt is...and Mittens and Ann just adore a good bailout..... Right Luvey?
This is the personal Linkedin page for a fellow named Colin Small. Colin was arrested last night for attempting to destroy voter registration forms which he was subcontracted to collect and deliver in Harrisburg,Virginia. The voter registration forms in question were all from citizens attempting to register as Democrats. Small was identified as a Voter Registration Supervisor employed by Pinpoint, an independent private organization contracted by the Republican Party of Virginia for purposes of general voter registration. Now, it turns out that Mr. Small is a self identified employee of the Republican National Committee out of Washington, DC. He lists his position as a Grassroots Field Director.
The Republican seem dead set on proving their outlandish claims of voter fraud in America even if they have to do it themselves, which they are on a massive level in an ongoing multi staged initiative to seize power in America by what ever means they can. Dishonest voter information from Republican State Governments is a problem all over the country. The promotion of highly flawed hackable electronic voting technology is a Republican priority and a money making business for the corporations which get the contracts. Over and over again, on this blog and everyday in the news, the attempts of Republican State Administrations to disenfranchise and deny the right to vote to any segment of the population they deem as a potentially Democrat voting bloc is an ongoing theme of this election cycle. .The super pac money pumped into conservative initiatives by corporate America is so out of proportion to the money that can be raised by citizens donating to progressive candidates is mind boggling. We are getting dazed and inured to the daily desperate requests to chip in 5 bucks here, 30 bucks there...to support Democrats.
Then there is the level of propaganda....FOX NEWS is not a news network, even CNBC Business News is now a totally Conservative Noise Machine. Corporate CEOs are now threatening employees jobs and attempting to create real fear with their workers to try to coherce them to vote Republican.
The hierarchy of the Catholic Church, the Evangelical Protestants all have stepped over the constitutional limit of the separation of church and state in a blatant challenge to influence their parishioners with eternal damnation if they don't vote Republican.
With this background, we can safely assume that Colin Small is not just a rogue operative, but the one that was simply dumb enough to get caught.
This is not new. History does repeat itself. But it is up to us to pay attention. I have written about how the Socialist Popular Front Government of Leon Blum was destroyed in the 1930's in France by the financiers and corporations who destabilized the economy by moving industry and capital out France to Nazi Germany. Is it any surprise that Prescott Bush, the Grandfather of George Bush Jr. was trying to do the exact same thing along with the major financial players at the same time in America to destabilize and destroy the Roosevelt Government? Preston also moved money and invested in Hitlers Germany.
Let's look at real American history from 1933 and try to discern the parellel with oligarchic attempts of the conservatives to usurp the constitution and destroy our democracy to preserve what they perceive as their class perogative:
A Democratic president rushing into office after the miserable failure of the preceding Republican with the shadow of economic Armageddon looming across the land. Thinking of the Tea-baggers of today reminded me of the Business Plot of 1933. In the summer of 1933, shortly after Roosevelt's "First 100 Days," America's richest businessmen were in a panic. It was clear that Roosevelt intended to conduct a massive redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor. Roosevelt had to be stopped at all costs. The answer was a military coup. It was to be secretly financed and organized by leading officers of the Morgan and Du Pont empires. http://www.huppi.com/... Smedley Darlington Butler (July 30, 1881 -- June 21, 1940), nicknamed "The Fighting Quaker" and "Old Gimlet Eye", was a Major General in the U.S. Marine Corps and, at the time of his death, the most decorated Marine in U.S. history. In 1934, Butler came forward and reported to the U.S. Congress that a group of wealthy pro-Fascist industrialists had been plotting to overthrow the government of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a military coup. Even though the House Un-American Activities Committee corroborated most of the specifics of his testimony, no further action was taken. http://en.wikipedia.org/... For every action there is a reaction. So, the Right Wing feels as though it must react to the new direction that this nation has set its course to. There is an army of self righteous dupes out there working as the foot soldiers, stealing voter registration forms, attacking honest voter registration initiatives, working as operatives hacking voting machines. They are cutting their own throats, but, they would never admit to being one of the downtrodden masses, just temporarily financially embarrassed wannabee millionaires.... All this has happened before and so goes the old saying that the more things change the more that they say the same. But, you say, It can't happen here? It is happening and it has already happened. It's up to us to become and remain pragmatically mobilized, because out future vitally depends upon it. Here is the link for a very good History Channel program of the Business Plot video...
Thursday, October 18, 2012
A Day Of Power Outages Big Storms Out Here In The Country The Electricity Has Been Out Almost All Day Please Stand By
Mitt Romney has rocked the political world with a five-point program of how he will improve customer satisfaction. Speaking to a closed meeting of consumers, he said instead of creating another government agency, he will personally oversee his Customer Satisfaction Plan.
Pundits are amazed and stunned by Romney’s plan. Traditionally political candidates avoid talking about customer satisfaction. Bringing that up is a turn-off to leaders of industries like telecoms, telemarketing, insurance, financial services, health care, airlines and agriculture. Any hint a candidate might put consumer concerns ahead of corporate has never been welcomed in the corporate world.
Unlike other proposed programs by Romney, he spelled out the details of what he would do for consumers. A confidential source has given The Consumerist Manifesto Blog the details of what Romney said:
1-Talk to CEOs: I will convene a meeting of all the corporate CEOs I know. They are people just like me. I know how to talk to them. I will tell them I want them to do something for consumers.
2-Go Grocery Shopping: Each quarter I will go grocery shopping to see how my policies are affecting food prices. I am not talking about fly-overs. I’m talking about pushing one of those grocery carts I have seen and buying stuff like bread.
3-Enforce Do Not Call Rules: If a telemarketer calls any of my phones in the Oval Office, I’ll have the FTC collect the $16,000 per call fine. If they call on the Red Phone, I’ll send in a drone.
4-Use the ER: If my physician is taking care of other patients, I will go to a local ER to attend to medical needs that come up.
5-Measure Results: When I make promises, I have someone report results to me. I will personally stay on top of how you are treated by corporations. That’s one promise I intend to keep.
This is the future. South Africa, where everything falls apart and comes together at the same time. Let's take a bright and colorful African adventure with Die Antwoord, complete with wild animals, zef savages singing and dancing in the streets and a special appearance by a sneaky little prawn star. The latest single and video from their latest release, TEN$ION!
I lived in the Toledo area for 10 or so years and have many friends and family still there. I have been known to actually physically visit from time to time and am struck by the deterioration and rapid changes as the city decays and neighborhoods were almost abandoned during the Bush years. The inner city has become a legendary scary place for the fringe dwelling predominantly white suburbanites. With a disproportionate amount of evangelical and conservative protestant churches, suburban Toledo is a fertile field for the seeds of Tea Party Behoodlement to be sown and take root. Late last month, conservative media lit up with a video of an African-American woman excitedly praising President Barack Obama because he supposedly gave racial minorities in Cleveland free telephones. The video received prominent placement on the pro-Romney Drudge Report and spawned a popular #Obamaphone hashtag on Twitter. Although there is indeed a federal program which provides low-income people with free or reduced-cost cell phones, it began in 2008 under President George W. Bush. The idea of providing subsidized phone service to low-income individuals originated with a program started under President Ronald Reagan. Now, the “Obamaphone” woman is the star of an ad sponsored by the Tea Party Victory Fund suggesting President Obama’s policies have “enslaved Americans“:
It’s difficult to view this ad as anything other that an appeal to the visceral reaction its very enthusiastic star is likely to inspire in a certain kind of voter. The ad will run in three Ohio counties — Lucas, Summit, and Mahoning — all of which are predominantly white. I know many of my friend will be subjected to this lying racist propaganda. How do you fight the behoodlement? It can't happen here? But it has, my friend, it is happening here...Please Vote! No matter what you think, your vote really matters....I already voted.
Todd Akin, the self proclaimed expert on Feminine Reproductive Science, further expounds on what he considers science and the intellectual process that he utilizes to simulate he would like us all to believe is "logic", or something like that, in regard to Evolution versus Creationism. Todd is a master of behoodlement and I do believe the good ole' boy has truly behoodlerized his own self..... AKIN: I don’t see it as even a matter of science because I don’t know that you can prove one or the other. That’s one of those things. We can talk about theology and all of those other things but I’m basically concerned about, you’ve got a choice between Claire McCaskill and myself. My job is to make the thing there. If we want to do theoretical stuff, we can do that, but I think I better stay on topic.
Actually, Todd, evolution does indeed qualify as science. In fact, it’s a perfect example. “Creationism” does not qualify as science and should never be taught as such. It’s an example only of blindered faith. You were wise to steer the discussion away from that. The more you say about science, the dumber and more ignorant you reveal yourself to be.
Science: knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method.
Scientific Method (concise version): principles and procedures for the systematic pursuit of knowledge involving the recognition and formulation of a problem, the collection of data through observation and experiment, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses.
Scientific method (verbose version): Mathematical and experimental techniques employed in the natural sciences. Many empirical sciences, especially the social sciences, use mathematical tools borrowed from probability theory and statistics, together with such outgrowths of these as decision theory, game theory, utility theory, and operations research. Philosophers of science have addressed general methodological problems, such as the nature of scientific explanation and the justification of induction.
Example: Hypothesis: Todd Akin is totally clueless about science. Evidence to test the hypothesis: written statements plus video and audio recordings of Akins’s own comments re science. Analysis of evidence: analysis – conforming to “best practice” criteria – is ongoing, since evidence continues to emerge. Conclusion: Again, premature to draw a conclusion. Nevertheless, you should know, Congressman, that data are trending toward confirmation of the hypothesis with a very high degree of statistical confidence. Recommendation for further research: Please, please, Congressman! Keep talking!! Based on that talk future research will expand beyond just science to help build a full picture of the total cluelessness of the creature known as “Todd Akin.”
Sometimes I have the overwhelming need to hear the voice of Cesaria Evora...sometimes you just need to hear a few notes to make you feel that it's alright. The greatest barefoot diva of our time, she was the voice of Capo Verde, Angola. This is a music that spans all cultures. The language of Capo Verde is Portuguese. The music is somehow african, somehow Brazilian, but 100% Angolan...a style called "moma" which is like the Spanish Fado style, but so much softer, so much more rhythmic. This is an almost hour long convert recorded in 2001 in Paris.
In my post on Wednesday, I referred to my visit to the Chateau Fort de Roquetaillade. This remarkable structure and it's domain have been in the hands of the same family for over 700 years. I gave a little of the history, but if you'd like a better glimpse of this place, I found an entire series of videos, a virtual tour, narrated in English by the Vicomtesse, who still lives with her family in the chateau. I have a friend who knows the Vicomtesse and told me that she was rather startled, after having to deal with her for while, learning who she actually was. The Chateau Fort de Roquetaillade is in theGraves wine regionSouth East of Bordeaux and has an large working vineyard. They have produced a very nice not very pricey white wine for a few hundred years. A very refreshing flavor, hints of melon and apple, I do believe it is available in the USA.
We picked up a few bottles for our personal enjoyment back at Vieux Chevrol. The virtual tour is in 4 parts. If you'd like to see the entire tour, Here are the links forPart 2,Part 3, andPart 4....just click on them to go to the video.
How else to explain this? If this was a black and white 1950's horror film, I'd look at the back of the crazy white lady's neck to see a parasitic mind eating leech from Mars implanted suckin out her brains through her spinal cord. That would make more sense, I think. I'm beginning to think that the entire concept of belief is actually the first sign of incipent insanity. There is a difference between believing and knowing. Belief is wanting to believe that you believe in something. An absence of thought, a vacuum of reality that has to be filled by some kind of quick set anti sanity cement. A Nation in sheer behoodlement, America has been behoodlelized. How else to explain a political party that counts on sheer ignorance and prejudice to gain power? Oh, yeah, I guess history is repeating itself. You say, it can't happen here, but it has. I mean, what is insanity? If I sat in a chair and pissed my pants, because it was too inconvenient to get up and go to toilet and it felt good now, but in a few minutes, I know I would feel wet, stinky, cold and uncomfortable, you'd say I was mad. Isn't climate denial much the same? Fuck up the planet now because it's just too damn much of a bother to change, even though, you know in reality, things are getting more uncomfortable and down right toxic by the minute? That's not sane...but well, then... Mitt Romney counts on the fact that the electorate is so dumbed down and has such a short attention span that he blissfully will publicly change his position on any given issue a few times a day to accomodate his perceived view of who ever is asking the question. By the time anyone notices, we're off to the next 12 hour news cycle. Paul Ryan lies. But Paul Ryan knows that nobody really pays attention to facts. They're much more obsessed with his jock posing photo shoot in Time Magazine which he conveniently scheduled to be released the day of yesterdays vice presidential debate. It doesn't seem to phase him a bit as he creates aggrandizing myths about himself and borrows anecdotes from other peoples lives to make himself appear sort of "human". So, in case you need to be reminded of the facts because you've been behoodled by Lyin' Ryans freaky eyebrows in the Time Mag photos of him posin and pretending to press....here's the 24 lies and the rebuttals that he told in the 40 minutes he spoke in last nights 90 minute VP Debate...you got that? 24 lies in 40 minutes: 1) “It took the president two weeks to acknowledge that [the Libya attack] was a terrorist attack.” Obama used the word “terrorism” to describe the killing of Americans the very next day at the Rose Garden. “No acts of terrorwill ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for,” Obama said in a Rose Garden statement on September 12. 2)“The administration was blocking us every step of the way. Only because we had strong bipartisan support for these tough [Iran] sanctions were we able to overrule their objections and put them in spite of the administration.” Even the Israeli President haseffusively praised President Obama’s leadership on getting American and international sanctions on Iran, which have significantlyslowed Iran’s progress. 3)“Medicare and Social Security are going bankrupt. These are indisputable facts.” [T]he possibility of Medicare going bankrupt is — and historically has been — greatly exaggerated. In fact, if no changes are made, Medicare would still be able to meet88 percent of its obligations in 2085. Social Security is fully funded for another two decadesand could pay 75 percent of its benefits thereafter. There isalsoan easy wayto ensure the program’s long-term solvency without large changes or cuts to benefits. 4)“The vice president was in charge of overseeing this. $90 billion in green pork to campaign contributors and special interest groups.” Multiple reviews, including an independent review of all Department Of Energy loan programs by Herb Allison –- finance chair for McCain for President 2008 –- havefound no “pork”in the stimulus’ funding of green projects, concluding that the loans were not steered to friends or family, as Ryan claims. 5) “Was it a good idea to spend taxpayer dollars on electric cars in Finland, or on windmills in China?” As PolitiFact haspointed out, the money for electric cars in Finland did not come from the stimulus. Rather, it originated with the Energy Department’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program, which predated the Obama administration. The claim about “windmills in China” is alsoinaccurate. 6)“When they see us putting – when they see us putting daylight between ourselves and our allies in Israel, that gives them encouragement.” The Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, told CNN, “President Obama is doing …more than anythingthat I can remember in the past [in regard to our security].” 7) “You see, if you reform these programs for my generation, people 54 and below, you can guarantee they don’t change for people in or near retirement.”Here is how the Romney/Ryan Medicare plan will affect current seniors: 1) by repealing Obamacare, the 16 million seniors receiving preventive benefits without deductibles or co-pays and are saving $3.9 billion on prescription drugs will see a cost increase, 2) “premium support” will increase premiums for existing beneficiaries as private insurers lure healthier seniors out of the traditional Medicare program, 3) Romney/Ryan would also lower Medicaid spending significantly beginning next year, shifting federal spending to states and beneficiaries, and increasing costs for the 9 million Medicare recipients who are dependent on Medicaid. 8) “Obamacare takes $716 billion from Medicare to spend on Obamacare.” Ryan is claiming that Obamacare siphons off $716 billion from Medicare, to the detriment of Medicare beneficiaries. In actuality, that money is saved primarily through reducing over-payments to insurance companies under Medicare Advantage, cutting waste fraud and abuse, and eliminatinginefficiencies in the system. Ryan’s budget plan keeps those same cuts, but directs them toward tax cuts for the rich and deficit reduction. 9) “And then they put this new Obamacare board in charge of cutting Medicare each and every year in ways that will lead to denied care for current seniors.”The Board, or IPAB is tasked with making binding recommendations to Congress for lowering health care spending, should Medicare costs exceed a target growth rate. Congress can accept the savings proposal or implement its own ideas through a super majority. The panel’s plan will modify payments to providers but it cannot “include any recommendation to ration health care, raise revenues or Medicare beneficiary premiums…increase Medicare beneficiary cost-sharing (including deductibles, coinsurance, and co- payments), or otherwise restrict benefits or modify eligibility criteria”(Section 3403of the ACA). Relying on health care experts rather than politicians to control health care costs has previously attracted bipartisan support and even Ryan himselfproposed two IPAB-like structuresin a 2009 health plan. 10) “7.4 million seniors are projected to lose their current Medicare Advantage coverage they have. That’s a $3,200 benefit cut.” Enrollment is actually projected to increase by 11 percent in Medicare Advantage (MA) in 2013. Since the Affordable Care Act was enacted in 2010, Medicare Advantage premiums have decreased an average of 10 percent and enrollment in these plans hasincreased 28percent. 11) “This [Medicare premium support] plan that’s bipartisan. It’s a plan I put together with a prominent Democrat senator from Oregon.” Wyden not only voted against Ryan’s budget, he also called the idea that he supported it “nonsense.” 12) “Eight out of 10 businesses, they file their taxes as individuals, not as corporations.”Far less than halfof the people affected by the expiration of the upper income tax cuts get any of their income at all from a small businesses. And those people could very well be receiving speaking fees or book royalties, which qualify as “small business income” but don’t have a direct impact on job creation. It’s actually hard to find a small businesswho think that they will be hurt if the marginal tax rate on income earned above $250,000 per year is increased. (read more after the break)
Okay, so I missed the debate when I was working back the middle ages last week. I tried to get some news from BBC4 the next day. I realized things had gone terribly awry for Barack....there was some strange email from Al Gore attempting to explain Obama's lackluster performance on not having time to aclimate himself to Denver's altitude, while Romney had been there for a week practicing. The most interesting part of the BBC4 analysis wasn't about the debate at all, but talking about how the international perception of a candidate can influence an election. They gave an analysis of how Nicolas Sarkozy was perceived and said most Americans saw him as a character that should have been played by Joe Pesci...I thought that was fairly apt.
Needless to say, the British, Liberals and Conservatives, do not have a very good opinion of Mitt Romney and the same goes through out Europe. I believe that if he is elected, we have to brace ourselves for an even bigger financial debacle than occurred under Bush. His plan to save the American economy is to just keep on fighting more wars...simple eh? Well, the calculated stoopification and impoverishment of the American population will create an expendable cheap labor work force so we can bring back those jobs which Mittens and his cronies have sent over seas....
So, perhaps this deconstruction of the debate by dudes at Bad Lip Reading is perhaps nothing short of absolute genius.....
This was our very nice apero at Chez Paret in Montagne, France on Saturday evening. The Paret family invited the entire equipe working on the vendange atChateau Vieux Chevrol. The two Paret sisters, Celine and Isabel, are in the picture. They served us a Muscat sec, which I had never tasted before and opened a few bottles of the local white and rose cremeaux....sparkling wines made right there in Montagne with the champagne technique. In case you are wondering where in France we are, Montagne is not so far from Libourne. We are in theLalande-de- Pomerolregion and this was the 10th year I worked for Chateau Vieux Chevrol as a porteur. It only rained a bit and the temperature was pretty nice for the hard work. As a porteur, I often carry my own weight in grapes on my back and we have determined with the aid of GPS device that porteurs walk on the average of 24 kilometers a day. The vendange lasted 12 days with a one day break when we all went on a nice excursion arranged by Jean-Pierre Champseix to Barzac, which is the center of theSauterne regionand enjoyed a very nice sampling of Sauternes, then off to lunch in a very beautiful town, Bazas which has a 13th century cathedral and was the seat of power for the first of the Avignon French popes, Clement V. After a great lunch of the famous Bazacois beef, we visited theChateaufort Roquetaillade, which was built by Pope Clement VI for one of his sons...yes, he had a few sons and they became cardinals. Amazingly, Roquetaillade has remained in the hands of the same family since the 1300's. During the time of Louis Napoleon, in the 1860's it was "restored' by the French architect/historian,Viollet-Le-Ducwho has been accused of cultural vandalism in many of his restorations of the period...but Le-Duc was reimagining the middle ages through his sense of Art Nouveau esthetics. He created something fantastic. The privately owned chateau does not allow pictures to be taken of the interior. The family still resides there but it is open to guided tours. During the time I was working, I was usually too tired to try to listen to the radio at night. I listened to French news, and sometimes when the reception was good enough, BBC4 Longwave. Very few of my coworkers speak any english at all, so I essentially speak and think French and the occasional Dutch phrase, but I do not speak Dutch. What news I did get from America was pretty depressing. Sometimes I think The USA is willfully suffocating itself by putting a plastic bag of willful ignorance over its head and breathing the fumes of its own stupidity. I try to remain positive, but lately America has never failed to disappoint me. I got back home, here to La Sechere to find absentee ballot waiting for me, which I filled out and mailed this morning! J'ai Votez! That made me feel fairly positive....then I saw this:
