Leave it to the establishment media to never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

Calling someone a champion of human rights while showing a picture of them next to a Neo-Nazi - that's classless.

https://fair.org/home/john-mccain-human-rights-ukrainian-nazi-photo-washington-post/

August 29, 2018

WaPo Uses Photo of John McCain Next to Nazi to Praise His ‘Human Rights’ Work

 

You know how they say 'Democracy Dies in Darkness'? They turn out the light! (thank you Jimmy Dore). 

Couple of odd things have happend to me this week that reinforce my belief that double standards exist.

Because of my new schedule, I'm required to ride a shuttle from a train station to my office. As well, I'm supporting not just the regular team I work with, I've been tasked with supporting another team as well.

In regards to the first ... I got on the shuttle the other day and managed to find a seat. There are two seats in each row and I got a seat near the aisle. As always the shuttle gets full and other riders end up in the aisle. This particular day was like the others, except for this one woman who when in the aisle, proceeded to rest her buttocks on my shoulders for much of the ride. And yes I did my best to keep my shoulders hunched and as low as possible, but to no avail. This woman kept resting it there. Maybe she was expecting I'd lift my shoulders up or look her in the eye or something (the paranoid side me of believes if I did that, she'd call me out as some sort of pervert or scumbag). And it wasn't as though the shuttle was crowded - she had some space in front of her. And it wasn't just her hip touching my shoulder - no. Her ass crack was on my shoulder, and there wasn't anything I could do about it.

The second case is even more messed up. As stated, I've been helping another team with their work, and the program manager was apparently so thrilled, she came up behind me and ran her hands across my chest, all the while caressing my back with her breasts. And thsi happend right in front of a director. She then 'thanked me' for making her day - a reference to the work I've been doing. What else was I do to - except say 'you're welcome'?

Now let's be clear - it's not like I'm sort of stud or have some sort of complex where I think I'm some sort of hot attractive guy. And I'm not a prude - but I don't like people touching me without my permission. Nor do I think either of these women likely saw me as such either. I think more than likely they were situations where these two women saw me as some sort of useful idiot they could take advantage of and that there wasn't much I could do about it. In other words, both situations were about power more than sex.

In both cases, I felt ashamed to be used. And while truly nothing serious in terms of trouble came out of either situation, it's a stark reminder to me that a double standard does sadly exist. Were the situation reversed and I did something like to two women, I'd be fired on the spot and rightfully so. But both were allowed to do what they did and get away with it. Sadly in a couple of years, both will likely be considered leaders - yay me.

That which controls one key aspect of the global establishment?

Namely the millionaires and billionaires?

https://projectcensored.org/product/giants-the-global-power-elite/

This is an interesting book for sure.

Disappointing statements about Senator McCain.

The praise for McCain by Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders is a calculated political decision. It reveals everything about the politics of the Democratic Party and the particular role played by these figures and the organizations that promote them.

On the part of Sanders, his declaration of solidarity with McCain is in continuity with his own Democratic Party election campaign in 2016. Sanders proclaimed his support for the foreign policy of the Obama administration, including its wars in the Middle East, and said that a Sanders administration would utilize Special Forces and drone strikes—“all that and more.” After losing the primaries, Sanders endorsed Hilary Clinton, seeking to channel the social opposition reflected in support for his campaign behind the candidate of the military-intelligence establishment.

As for Ocasio-Cortez, her evolution is an example of the general rule of bourgeois politics that the deeper the crisis, the more rapidly political tendencies and individuals are exposed for what they really are. It is only two months since Ocasio-Cortez defeated incumbent Democrat Joseph Crowley in the primary election for the 14th Congressional District of New York.

Context here - https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/08/28/pers-a28.html

A more nuanced view here - https://consortiumnews.com/2018/08/27/the-other-side-of-john-mccain/

Closer to home - teachers in WA state prepare for strike.

I support them.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/08/25/wash-a25.html

"Teachers in Longview went on strike Thursday after rejecting an insulting pay offer of 6.9 percent, while teachers in Battle Ground, Washougal, and Vancouver overwhelmingly approved strike action by more than 90 percent after similar intransigence on the part of their respective school boards. "

Hmm, guess I'll revisit getting any John Deere products going forward.

John Deere is an example of why corporations cannot and should not ever be trusted. They are the best combination of stupidity, greed, and danger.

https://fair.org/home/the-locks-they-put-on-dvds-now-are-in-tractors/

Of course, it's not just them ...

JJ: It’s not insignificant that automakers are prominent here. How do you think that this story relates to, for example, what happened with Volkswagen?

KW: Yes, it’s interesting. So before the Volkswagen case came out, I was actually arguing for an exception to the copyright law to be able to do repairs on vehicles. And the Association for Global Automakers, which included Volkswagen, was at the table across from me negotiating, and they said that the automakers were the only ones that should be trusted to manipulate emission settings on vehicles, and that no one else should have access to the software. And then three months later, we found out that they’d been manipulating the emissions readings.

It’s the same things with TVs. Samsung and LG were caught cheating on energy efficiency ratings in TVs the exact same way that Volkswagen was: When it read that the test code was being played, they had different energy outputs than the rest of the time.

Why Senator Warren has zero credibility to me now.

It isn't just her 2016 caving-in to endorse a former member of the BoD of Sprawlmart, no.

It's things like this - https://consortiumnews.com/2018/08/22/the-limits-of-elizabeth-warren/