May 27, 2015

It's long since time the press gave Bernie Sanders the respect he deserves.

In democracy, the voters decide who wins a presidential election. But the media has great influence over which candidates get serious consideration. So when it comes to Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and the 2016 race, it's clear that he's getting a raw deal. It's long since time the press gave him the respect he deserves.

Jay Rosen, the New York University journalism professor, has a useful concept for describing the ideology of journalists: nested spheres of legitimacy. These have to do with the way ideas are presented in a piece of journalism. The idea of women's suffrage is presented as non-controversial, thus placed in the "sphere of consensus." The idea that aliens control the government, say, is presented as nuts, thus placed in the "sphere of deviance." The latter ideas are openly presented in the news as illegitimate or insane, if they are not ignored altogether.

What ideas go in which sphere is an inescapable part of journalism, though most reporters don't acknowledge they're doing it. And at the moment, the idea of Bernie Sanders as a candidate is getting placed in the deviant sphere

........

The constant presumptions about the electoral viability of some candidate amounts to an attempt to influence the outcome of the election, whether it's intentional or not. That might be a justifiable enterprise with someone like former Rep. Ron Paul, who has an extensive history of racism, homophobia, and anti-Semitism. But while Sanders has odd hair, and can be grouchy at times, he's not some random nutter from the Prohibition Party.


the rest:
http://theweek.com/articles/556667/bernie-sanders-totally-legitimate-presidential-candidate-time-press-started-treating-likehttp://theweek.com/articles/556667/bernie-sanders-totally-legitimate-presidential-candidate-time-press-started-treating-like

May 26, 2015

To ensure quality at a low price, Walmart shrimp is harvested by slaves held captive on Asian ships.

A six-month investigation has established that large numbers of men bought and sold like animals and held against their will on fishing boats off Thailand are integral to the production of prawns (commonly called shrimp in the US) sold in leading supermarkets around the world, including the top four global retailers: Walmart, Carrefour, Costco and Tesco.


The investigation found that the world's largest prawn farmer, the Thailand-based Charoen Pokphand (CP) Foods, buys fishmeal, which it feeds to its farmed prawns, from some suppliers that own, operate or buy from fishing boats manned with slaves.

Men who have managed to escape from boats supplying CP Foods and other companies like it told the Guardian of horrific conditions, including 20-hour shifts, regular beatings, torture and execution-style killings. Some were at sea for years; some were regularly offered methamphetamines to keep them going. Some had seen fellow slaves murdered in front of them.

Fifteen migrant workers from Burma and Cambodia also told how they had been enslaved. They said they had paid brokers to help them find work in Thailand in factories or on building sites. But they had been sold instead to boat captains, sometimes for as little as £250.

"I thought I was going to die," said Vuthy, a former monk from Cambodia who was sold from captain to captain. "They kept me chained up, they didn't care about me or give me any food … They sold us like animals, but we are not animals – we are human beings."

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/jun/10/supermarket-prawns-thailand-produced-slave-labour
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/jul/30/supermarkets-thailand-prawn-slavery-seafood

May 26, 2015

Not sure how the precious dears get through the day.

So Scary

“The world is a very scary place right now, especially for people of means; they feel cornered and threatened,” said Tom Gaffney, the president of Gaffco Ballistics, which has installed a number of safe rooms around New York City. “When you have so much to lose, and you can afford to, you put a premium on your safety.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/26/nyregion/still-secret-and-secure-safe-rooms-now-hide-in-plain-sight.html

http://www.eschatonblog.com/

May 26, 2015

Bernie Sanders to titans of business: "Sorry, You're All Going To Have To Pay Your Fair Share"

Bernie Sanders - speaks with abandon to the visceral concerns of Democratic liberals about some titans of business and finance:

"These people are so greedy, they're so out of touch with reality," he said. "They think they own the world. ... I'm sorry to have to tell them, they live in the United States, they benefit from the United States, we have kids who are hungry in this country. We have people who are working two, three, four jobs, who can't send their kids to college.

"Sorry, you're all going to have to pay your fair share of taxes," he asserted. "If my memory is correct, when radical socialist Dwight D. Eisenhower was president, the highest marginal tax rate was something like 90 percent."

Sanders doesn't condemn Clinton for having earned vast sums delivering speeches since leaving the State Department. But he cautions that it could leave her insensitive to the concerns of working-class voters.

"When you hustle money like that, you don't sit in restaurants like this," he said. "You sit in restaurants where you're spending—I don't know what they spend—hundreds of dollars for dinner and so forth. That's the world that you're accustomed to, and that's the world view that you adopt. You're not worrying about a kid three blocks away from here whose mom can't afford to feed him."

"So yes, I think that can isolate you—that type of wealth has the potential to isolate you from the reality of the world."



http://www.cnbc.com/id/102694355

May 25, 2015

The bad intelligence (This Modern World Toon)

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May 25, 2015

Bernie Sanders warns Democratic rivals for presidency: don't underestimate me.

Bernie Sanders warns Democratic rivals for presidency: don't underestimate me
The Vermont senator – a ‘badass leftwinger’ – may scoop up Warren supporters and his personal style is likely to play well in neighbouring New Hampshire


...........

He rejects the notion that he’s simply in the race to shape the debate.

“Hillary Clinton is a candidate, I am a candidate,” Sanders said. “I suspect there will be other candidates. The people in this country will make their choice.”

...........

If Sanders is the underdog, that’s fine by him. During the 1970s, he lost four statewide elections as a third-party candidate, and then narrowly defeated a Democratic incumbent in 1981 to become Burlington’s mayor.

...........

The lessons, he said, are clear: “Don’t underestimate me.”



the rest:
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/25/bernie-sanders-warns-democratic-rivals-underestimate-me

May 25, 2015

George Bush Ranks Above Stalin And Genghis Khan In World’s Most Hated People

Bush is more hated than Stalin, while Einstein is a bigger inspiration than Jesus: Study reveals history's heroes and villains
Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden top the villains list
Albert Einstein beat Mother Theresa and Mahatma Gandi as biggest hero
This is according to the opinions of almost 7,000 students from 37 countries including Argentina, Pakistan, South Korea, Italy, and the US



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3090109/Bush-hated-Stalin-Einstein-bigger-inspiration-Jesus-Study-reveals-history-s-heroes-villains.html

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3090109/Bush-hated-Stalin-Einstein-bigger-inspiration-Jesus-Study-reveals-history-s-heroes-villains.html#ixzz3b9iwAo00
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May 25, 2015

I didn't serve in Vietnam for freedom...

by Z. Woof

I didn't serve in Vietnam for freedom...

or liberty, or the flag.

I didn't serve for the reasons people think of when they tell me, "Thanks for your service."

I knew that this war was not about any of that stuff.

I served for 365 days and a wake up, as we called it.

I served so I would not be imprisoned by my government.

I served because my father asked me to. Later, he admitted he was wrong and apologized.

I served with these guys.



I served to save them and myself for 365 days and a wake up.

I failed.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/25/1387471/-I-didn-t-serve-in-Vietnam-for-freedomI failed.

May 25, 2015

Memorial Day

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May 25, 2015

Jeb Bush has released his official campaign slogan.

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