The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    jollyroger's picture

    Short G4S stock! Orlando shooter unleashed by same people who set dogs loose at Standing Rock

    Call it a bad week for G4S.

     

    G4S is one of those companies generally called "contractors" when private security behemoths are referenced.

     

    In a really, really bad, terrible no-good week for their Vice President for Public Relations, G4S employees made the news for two reasons.

     

    jollyroger's picture

    Instant Karma bites Trump campaign braintrusters. Good for a handshake? Count your fingers afterward

    A delightful bit of instant karma has been visited upon the "ideas-for-sale" cohort of thinking humans (to which category of the population Deadbeat Don has been obliged to outsource his forebrain functions), viz.

     

    As if they ought  by now not know better, they agreed on the basis of verbal contracts made with Trump's agents (in the legal sense..) at the very highest level, to work up foreign policy briefings in prep for the (now immanent) debates.

     

    Richard Day's picture

    THE AMERICAN DREAM

    WORKIN ON THE RAILROAD
    150 years ago a strange type of caste system was created.


    The railroads needed engineers as well as hard working men to keep the engines running as well as look-outs making sure that the rails were cleared and many other positions related to a new tech that shrank America in terms of trade.

    Blackmailing Big Brother?

    It's hard to see why Assange's current approach to Hillary's records isn't illegal - the emails were obtained illegally, the material isn't presented as news but as a threat, a form of harassment and libel. He'll be putting out "teases" and it could have a "significant impact" on November. He's trading in stolen information to harass a candidate for our highest office - behind his walled protective space in a London embassy with no repercussions. It's a kind of pain free extortion or blackmail or simply a peculiar gaming site on the hill with ability to target characters and sling fireballs and explosives at them one by one. Julian at 13, forever and ever.

    barefooted's picture

    @!*#$"%#&

    Once upon a time, I lost a post and blogged about it.  This is not that.  I spent hours writing about Trump and Clinton, including everything anyone would possibly want to say but simply couldn't in so eloquently a fashion, only to have it wiped away in one painful swoop.

    I will go on.

    Pay Equality

    So Gretchen wassername has now earned about 50% more than Hillary's speeches over 5 years through a harassment suit, and Ailes has earned twice that amount for quitting. Shame they're not demanding his transcripts. But thebiggest scandal remains the Clinton Foundation, where unlike Fox they trade non-access for non pocketed money. Why do they do it?

    OK Guys read E-Ghazi

    that's the title of a article/blog in Daily kos by Armando.

    The FBI has released a report on Hillary's email "scandal". Armando goes through it point by point and comments.

    If you're going to comment read that first. I haven't included a link- it's easy enough to go to Daily kos and I'm not sure about the propriety of linking to other paddlers in the Internet puddle.

    It's on the opening page, on the right a few clicks down  under recommended

    Read it and draw your own conclusions.

    I was pleased.

     

    jollyroger's picture

    Prez to Duterte: "I crap bigger than you..."

     

    The new  president of the Phillipines, in asserting his prerogative to violate generally accepted standards of due process within the boudaries that define his rule, has referenced President Obama in pungent terms...

     

    Houston, we've got a problem

    On August 1 we knew all we were going to know about Trump and Hillary. And she had a comfortable lead.And Roger Ailes was running Fox.

    On September 1 we knew the same things,  538 showed her lead had dropped to an uncomfortable level. And Roger Ailes  had fully joined the Trump team

    jollyroger's picture

    Dear Hillary: "You talk like a lawyer" is only a compliment among lawyers...

    The latest FBI docdrop references 36 repititions of the old "I don't recall" answer from HRC.

     

    As, I believe, no less an icon of sincerity than Richard Nixon once deconstructed, it is a statement about one's inner condition, and is not susceptible to contradiction by direct evidence.  

     

    Thus ending the inquiry without creating exposure to a perjury beef.

     

    jollyroger's picture

    Get. Off...My...Plane....

     

    An iconic moment has just arisen in China which, I fear, cuts against the prospects of the sanity caucus of the electorate going forward...

     

    On the fucking tarmac (where, in case you weren't watching, the Teabaggeristas are ever vigilant for insult) under the very wing of Air Force One,the following:

    The press pool was brought under a wing of Air Force One where the pool was supposed to stay behind a blue rope. However, a member of the Chinese delegation began shouting at White House staff, demanding the pool leave the arrival scene.

    tmccarthy0's picture

    TrumpPence2016: The Long Con

    It's weird to watch the extreme double standard when it comes to everything Clinton.  While I do believe that HRC and WJC must step away entirely from their foundation, because if they do not, the right wing will destroy it, with help from liberals.  Something must be done to save it.  

    It is amazing how much Trump gets away with, and there are articles about these scandals, but they aren't indicative of the nature of the Trump campaign, so the press moves on. How much time has the national news spent discussing this Pam Biondi scandal? This is a real example of the quid-pro-quo everyone wants to the HRC to be guilty of, even though no evidence to date has been presented to prove the assertions. It is a double standard to spend endless, breathless moments on non-scandals ignoring real financial shenanigans.

    jollyroger's picture

    Joe Scarborough, all is forgiven!

    Because you deserve a break today...

     

     

    Richard Day's picture

    A PHILOSOPHICAL TAKE ON THE ELECTIONS

    Always do right, you will gratify some and astonish the rest.
    (M. Twain)

    The issue that Mr. Clemens is referring to deals with the definition of 'right'.

    Any tome discussing the topic of 'ethics' must refer to the axiom:

    Always avoid the appearance of impropriety.

    Appearances will always trump any concept of 'real' impropriety because of evidentiary concerns.

    Wild and Wilder

    Since everything must be about Trump these days, and I've previously compared Trump to some kind of Willie Wonka (though more the bizarre psychically-damaged Johnny Depp version), the passing of Gene Wilder is a sad moment. I remember my joy at being able to turn my kids on to the original Willie Wonka, and his role in Mel Brooks' absurdly popular farting, Cole Porter tap-dancing, German kvetching deconstructionist comedy about the Wild Wild West, after too many billion movies applauding the destruction of a civilization with hardly a moment of second thought or self-doubt. It was arguably part of our national turn in the 70's - Jimmy Carter's "malaise" tied to Taxi Driver and Nixon's resignation and other signs that something wasn't quite right even in Tinseltown, that our 60's celebration was off the rails.

    Orion's picture

    Right about the Alt Right

    I had quite a few adventures with Dagblog. My most personal moments were shared here - my drug withdrawal, the loss of my wife and my warning, which was very much validated, about the rise of the Alternative Right.

    I first started here, nearly six years ago, warning about the Alt Right - a movement of well dressed, charismatic and angry white men - ranging from Alex Jones to Richard Spencer to Augustus Invictus (a Senate candidate in Florida). I have fortunately never met the former and I have spoken to the latter, the most latter of which called me "a piece of shit."

    I postulated their rise after working for conservatives in Washington D.C. and encountering casual racist comments that shocked and surprised me (remember 2009 and 2010 were a more innocent time). This was before Black Lives Matter, police shootings, mass shootings or the decline of the American empire in full display. I responded to these comments by researching white supremacy and finding, to my disappointment, a growing and energized movement of white reactionaries fueled with all of the old hatreds - anti-black racism, xenophobia and, of course, anti-Semitism.

    Bernie or Bust Going Bust

    What many said would happen with the Bernie Revolution.

    Bernie a loner, doubts he can keep it going, hold it all together.

    Some said the Berners can't be counted on. Won't compromise even with other liberals. Won't stick around. The Bern will fade.

    Gloomy forecasts by some the revolution wouldn't make it to the midterms.

    Now it seems Our Revolution is foundering before making it to its first general election.

    Open thread

    • Anything from anybody any time, any length, any subject, any format, and no rules beyond those set by the site managers but at the same time encouraging the interactive tone they strive for. I will probably often use this space as a link dump as there are many articles on the net which I find both interesting and informative but shouldn't push links off the "In the News" section.  Also, I often am inclined to post some short comment that fits nowhere in particular and which I don't want to invest in a separate blog post to express, so I will just put it here but it will remain an open
    Richard Day's picture

    IT'S A HARD RAIN GONNA FALL!

    There evidently is nothing but T's in the Trump Team.

    It is extremely difficult for me to become surprised over anything involving this campaign.

    Even the KO's announce that the Onion is receiving way too much competition of late.

    http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/22/1562656/-Trump-doing-what-he-d...

    But when I heard that Michele Bachmann was back in the news, we....

    Richard Day's picture

    PICNICS

    WHAT I WAS THINKING

    I am so damn sick of the political mess.

    I could not stand it anymore.

    I began working on this blog and the word thingy was not working and I was about to lose my thoughts.

    hahahahaha

    like, I never have the opportunity to lose my thoughts.

    EU Olympic President Hickey in Rio Prison

    The European Olympic Committee President, 71 year old Pat Hickey - also head of the Olympic Council of Ireland, has been with the EU Olympic organization since 1995, has been arrested and locked up in Rio's Bangu prison complex for a purported scheme to scalp over 800 high value Olympic event tickets through a front company called THG and another called Pro 10 Sports Management.

    OpenThread: hacktivism, Soros...

    Ironic that the new hacktivism is taking on Open Society, the one that did so much to promote transparent organizations after the wall. But the target seems to be Soros' promotion of arguments for the Ukrainian protesters in Maidan - a rather contentious issue that pitted the US left against US government actions as rather colonialistic (unlike Russia's continued influence over Ukraine, which is simply

    barefooted's picture

    Trump Is Right!

    Turns out Trump may not be the psychopathic liar we all (mostly) think he is.  I know!  SAD!  According to a secret investigative report by the New York Magazine, Obama and Hillary did INDEED found ISIS.  We can, of course, expect the journalists involved in the article to turn up missing in the coming days ...

    Read this AMAZING work by previously sad losers from a failing rag while you still can!!

    http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/08/night-that-obama-and-hillary-founded-isi...

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