Quote of the day - 06-29-2017.

A very telling comment in an article from Ray McGovern -

Handpicking analysts is a time-dishonered method used by unscrupulous intelligence managers to get the answer they want. Parry is right; it started BIG-TIME with Bill Casey and his windsock protégé Bobby Gates. I was there; I watched it, and then left.
It takes about 20 years to put enough malleable managers in place to corrupt an entire institution — like the Analysis Directorate of CIA. But sycophants are not hard to find, even in the best of institutions.

Twenty years after Casey/Gates prostituted the ethos of speaking/writing the truth without fear or favor, politicization reached its apogee with the thoroughly dishonest preparation of the NIE on Iraq WMD issued on October 1, 2002. The chair of that estimate, a tried-and-tested-by-Rumsfeld charlatan, was actually coached behind the scenes by none other than Dick Cheney. Indeed, Cheney in effect wrote the estimate’s terms of reference in a speech including all kinds of exaggeration on Iraq on August 26, 2002. Hundreds in the inside knew about the fraudulent process and product on pre-Iraq War “intelligence.” But NO ONE, NO ONE spoke out.

It's amazing how true this is in just about every facet of life. Even in large corporations, there's always someone somewhere (usually of a toxic personality or with a deep psychosis) who's willing to be a yes-person and advance up the ladder while spouting bullshit and shitting on others to get there.


https://consortiumnews.com/2017/06/29/nyt-finally-retracts-russia-gate-canard/

Never trust columnists who can't be bothered to read up on what they are supporting.

Armchair warriors, and Monday morning quarterbacks.

Case in point -

http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/thomas-friedman-whines-about-his-lost-tpp

(Thank you FAIR)

How tired life can be.

No I don't mean boring.

I mean days where work starts the moment I get up, and ends the moment I climb into bed.

I mean when the day begins with one's heels sore, and ends with the whole foot numb from running around.

Sore fingers from typing. Sore shoulders from driving.

Sore mind - too many assholes in authority that I have to be subservient to.

Too many times stuck in the van listening to the white people go on and on about all sorts of shiny penny things I don't give a fuck about, while your's truly hauls their fat asses to and from work.

What happened to my life?

How did it all go astray?

No it's not a mid-life crisis if one has been feeling this way since I was 25.

There's got to be a better way. Maybe when the new one is born, I'll have a different perspective.

We'll see. It's only 2 weeks away.

The lies of capitalism.

1) Wealth will “trickle down”  

2) I took all the risks
3) I could pay you more if there were less government regulations
4) If you work hard, one day you can be rich like us (We live in a meritocracy)
5) This is as good as it gets (there is no alternative, TINA)
6) We give back to the community
7) The system (and economic theory) is rational and takes into account social and environmental costs
8) The future will be better
9) It’s Just Business
10) Financial markets & debt are necessary


https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/06/26/lies-that-capitalists-tell-us
   
 

A basic income experiment to watch.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-neoliberal-writing-on-the-wall-ontarios-basic-income-experiment/5596243

Something telling -

The above cited CUPE Ontario memo gives an indication of a very striking feature of the pilot. While people will face fewer conditions, many will also lose supports and services they currently rely on. People presently on social assistance who go onto the pilot will no longer have caseworkers and will be expected to ‘self navigate’ when it comes to accessing sources of assistance they would previously have obtained with the help of those workers. Moreover, a whole range of supplementary benefits will be lost, such as the Special Diet that provides additional income on the recommendation of medical providers. Medical transportation assistance and mobility devices will also become the responsibility of those who shift to the pilot. Disabled people, especially, might find, despite the additional BI income, that they are actually far worse off than if they had stayed on the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP).

The point that emerges here is that even as they roll out their showpiece test run that provides income to just a few thousand people and enables them to be far more generous than they would be if they were setting up a widely available programme, they are cutting back on other entitlements. I think it’s clear that the Ontario Liberals are establishing a model for a low paying, means tested income support system that is primarily concerned with subsidising low paying employers and that would be paid for by cutbacks in other areas of social provision.

More Scamazon shit.

Here's some additional info -

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/americas-amazon-problem_us_59443b5be4b06bb7d2731cba

"This statement and the amount of power in Bezos’ hands should frighten all Americans. Bezos meant that Amazon will soon be so good for consumers that it would just be folly not to be a member. But what he unwittingly implied is that as a citizen, you will have no choice but to interact with his institution to buy and sell key goods that everyone needs — on his terms."

Oh the irony.

1880 – "O Canada", today the national anthem of Canada, was first performed in Quebec City, during a Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day banquet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Canada

I've said it before, and I think it bears repeating.

In an election contest between yourself and right-winger, if you pass yourself off as right-wing 'light', you'll always lose.

Why?

Because voters may not like the right-winger, but they absolutely hate someone pretending to be something they're not.

Case in point -

https://shadowproof.com/2017/06/21/jon-ossoff-campaigned-message-medicare/

Let’s consider the issue of health care, a supposedly high-ranking concern for “reluctant Trump voters.”
What would have happened if Ossoff came out for a national Medicare For All program?
In a suburban red district, what if he appealed to Republicans who dislike the Affordable Care Act? What if he adopted a message like Senator Bernie Sanders and National Nurses United that addressed the very real defects in the ACA?

What if he made the case that beating back the GOP’s cold-hearted health insurance bill—which not one state supports—was only possible with Medicare For All?

Instead, Ossoff ran with a health care message Clinton pushed. Ossoff said he would fight for “quality, affordable health care.” But what do these buzzwords mean in terms of policy?
Is it any wonder Republican voters tune this out? It is a vapid message. On the other hand, a message about workers saving thousands of dollars on premiums and employers saving more than $10,000 a year might intrigue voters.

Love that corn tray!

Charcoal or gas?

Love the sound of that harp guitar.

Nice cover -

Who objects to an increase in Minimum Wage?

Why, those assholes at ALEC:

“The only wages ALEC seems to like are the $1 an hour wages paid in countries like Vietnam,” said Mary Bottari, deputy director of the Center for Media and Democracy. “ALEC was a huge backer of the Trans Pacific Partnership and every trade agreement that has shipped US jobs overseas.”

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/06/16/alec-and-the-minimum-wage/

Well look who's been hacking into routers for years?

http://www.zdnet.com/article/cia-has-been-hacking-into-wi-fi-routers-for-years-leaked-documents-show/?loc=newsletter_small_thumb&ftag=TREc64629f&bhid=21455359243242794221985792139624

Why the CIA! You know that paragon of truth about such McCarthy- like things like Russia did it

Attempting to smear Sanders' supporters.

"Since Hodgkinson’s political leanings are being probed as somehow responsible for the shootings, it’s curious why the New York Times decided to highlight his pro-Sanders stance and not his obsession with Trump as treasonous pro-Russian agent—an accusation that Sanders has not aggressively pressed and, indeed, has sometimes been on the receiving end of. Why “Attack Tests Movement Sanders Founded” and not “Attack Test Democrats’ Trump-as-Russian-Agent Inquiry”? Why note Hodgkinson’s support for Sanders but not his love for Rachel Maddow, more than half of whose show, one study found, is dedicated to the Russia/Trump story?
The answer is that the former is easy—and convenient—to smear, whereas the latter implicates a whole host of powerful institutions: the Democratic leadership, most major media and, above all, the New York Times itself, which has published, and thus legitimized, the most extreme and irresponsible fringe of the Russia/Trump dot-connectors in the form of Louise Mensch (FAIR.org, 3/31/17)."

"Of course, neither Sanders nor Trump-as-Russian-agent media personalities are responsible for what Hodgkinson did Monday, but it’s notable that only one is being blamed."

More here - http://fair.org/take-action/action-alerts/action-alert-with-sleazy-innuendo-nyt-lays-virginia-attack-at-bernie-sanders-feet/

Good news for some

http://earthjustice.org/features/faq-standing-rock-litigation?crm

A victory for sure. However ...

This is just the beginning.

Double Pendulum

I could watch this for a long time -

 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Double-compound-pendulum.gif
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_pendulum

The Wonderful World of Glyphosate.

http://sustainablepulse.com/2017/06/07/as-you-sow-glyphosate-poses-threat-to-human-health-and-the-food-system/

"Available online, the new report, titled Roundup Revealed: Glyphosate in Our Food System, consolidates years of glyphosate research and cuts through the controversy over glyphosate. One key finding: glyphosate is increasingly being sprayed on crops just before harvest to dry out (“desiccate”) the plants so harvest operations can be sped up; this practice results in greater residues of glyphosate in foods."

Opiates and HFCS.

https://www.thefix.com/parallels-between-synthetic-opiates-and-high-fructose-corn-syrup

Talked about fucked up.

Say it ain't so Glenn.

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/ted-rall/73383/cartoon-for-june-12-2017-et-tu-glenn-greenwald

I'm not sure he can.

Leave the establishment media to their own devices ...

... and they'll excel in propoganda, while conveniently missing that pesky thing called reality.


Case in point -

"The capabilities shown in what WikiLeaks calls the “Vault 7” trove of CIA documents required the creation of hundreds of millions of lines of source code. At $25 per line of code, that amounts to about $2.5 billion for each 100 million code lines. But the Deep State has that kind of money and would probably consider the expenditure a good return on investment for “proving” the Russians hacked into Democratic Party emails.
In other words, it is altogether possible that the hacking attributed to Russia was actually one of several “active measures” undertaken by a cabal consisting of the CIA, FBI, NSA and Clapper — the same agencies responsible for the lame, evidence-free report of Jan. 6, that Clapper and Brennan acknowledged last month was not the consensus view of the 17 intelligence agencies."


This is what gets missed by establishment personalities with all the sharpness of a plastic spoon.

When my son makes pizza ...

He makes the crust REAL thick.

Manufacturing Consent.

The five pillars of control -

Curious to know ...

... How much the Jun-9 British elections will be fixed in favor of the Tories?

The Six-Day War - of choice.

"For Israel, the Six Day War was a war of choice. It did not have to fight it. The main reason that Israel went to war was the incessant pressure that the general staff applied on the cabinet. Israeli generals sensed the enemy’s immense weakness and wanted to use this opportunity to strike a deadly blow. For over a decade, the Israeli army had perfected plans for a swift offensive that would allow it to conquer significant chunks of Arab territory. Another key aim of Israeli war plans was to trap Egyptian forces in northern Sinai and turn that area into a killing zone. Peled, the Israeli general, let the cat out of the bag four decades ago when he wrote: “When we were mobilizing all out forces… this power was necessary to eliminate definitively the Egyptians.”

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/06/06/was-israel-under-existential-threat-in-june-1967/

From freaked.com

Though not sure how.

Oh well - enjoy.

Trump withdrawing the US from the Paris Accord ISN'T a bad thing?

Really?

http://inthesetimes.com/article/20184/Trump-climate-scientist-paris-obama-emissions

Hillary Clinton - lying through her teeth again

"Clinton said, “We’ve got two very good political strategists running the Senate and the House for Democrats, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. They know how to win elections.”
Pelosi has led the Democrats in the House since 2006. In that time, the Democrats have lost over 1,000 seats at the federal and state level. This is not the outcome one would expect from a “very good political strategist.”
“I’m going to keep writing and keep talking and keep supporting people who are on the front lines of the resistance,” Clinton declared, as she was asked about people who want her to simply go away."

The reality -

"In other words, Clinton and her most loyal supporters in the Democratic establishment will continue to frustrate efforts to build a grassroots resistance that can take power and enact policies that serve poor and working class Americans over corporations and the wealthiest one percent.

If she is going to keep insisting Russia and WikiLeaks are why she is not president, there is no reason she should be taken seriously at all."

https://shadowproof.com/2017/06/01/hillary-clintons-post-truth-claims-lost-trump/