May 13, 2015

With National Surplus, Shell Oil Given Green Light To Destroy Last Of Alaskan Wilderness

Any guesses as to how this is going to turn out?

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/12/us/white-house-gives-conditional-approval-for-shell-to-drill-in-arctic.html?_r=0


A view of the Kulluk aground southeast of Sitkalidak Island. The grounding was only the latest of the problems Shell has run into in seeking to drill north of Alaska. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/02/business/energy-environment/breakaway-oil-rig-runs-aground-in-gulf-of-alaska.html

May 12, 2015

NE Patriots Rumored to Tap Chris Christie as Next Cheating Coordinator

BOSTON -- With his presidential prospects completely deflated, Chris Christie is said to be negotiating with the New England Patriots for a top spot as head cheating coordinator. The position has been vacant since the Pats previous cheating coordinator was fired after disappointing 2014 season. While other candidates are still being considered, Christie's credentials are rumored to carry the most weight.

Sources close to Coach Bill Belichick say the Pats coach is impressed with Christie's consistent cheating performance on and off the field. Christie is the 2014 Detoilet Douche Award winner and the current record holder for the most cheats of any politician, previously held by former Governor of New Jersey, Jon Corzine.

May 12, 2015

TPP has strong regulations and enforcement provisions? Bullshit. Here's why...

The USA let Wall Street steal trillions of dollars through racketeering and systemic fraud. It happened right under our noses.

Who was regulating Wall Street? No one.

And ultimately, who paid the price for the deliberate neglect and incompetence of regulators? Certainly not the perpetrators of the crime. They're too big to fail.

So, then, who was punished for the criminal indiscretions of our ruling class?

THE MIDDLE CLASS AND BELOW. WE PAID WITH OUR SALARIES, JOBS AND OPPORTUNITY TO GET AHEAD.,

That's who is going to pay for TPP.

Now the same people who brought us the largest organized criminal fraud in world history are crowing about all the great regulations in TPP.

Bullshit. You can put on a gas mask and the fumes from the TPP lies will still choke you to death.

Corporations send jobs to Asia because the only strong regulations in Vietnam, China, Indonesia, Singapore, etc are those that limit wages, individual freedoms and worker's rights.

The USA cannot afford to hire food inspectors to inspect the meat we serve children in schools and patients in hospitals.

We can't afford to regulate the money laundering fueling our corrupt election process.

We can't afford to regulate our off-shore drilling, fracking and nuclear power plants.

We can't afford inspectors for our failing bridges and other crumbling components of our national infrastructure.

We can't afford oversight of our police and prison systems.

We can't afford oversight of our corrupt health care and education systems.

We can't even oversee the CIA and NSA to prevent decades of violent war.

And we can't even get our largest corporations to pay taxes.

And our trade deals in China and India? We can't afford to monitor those either.

So how in fuck's name are we going to afford the massive regulatory infrastructure needed for TPP?

OK, it's a trick question. We can't. It will never happen. Not now, not ever.

The large corporate beneficiaries WILL NOT play by any rules. They don't have to.

President Obama has shown that there is simply no incentive for any corporation to do the right thing.

A slap on the wrist, a modest fine, you fire a couple of minions, give the CEO a 20% bonus for being proactive and back to business as usual.

TPP will bury future generations in debt and lost opportunity.

Once the damage is done, it will be impossible to undo.

Shame on any Democrat who shills for this corporate gift from hell.

May 11, 2015

It isn't about education or competitiveness. TPP is about shipping jobs to Vietnam - $5/day.

That's the average salary in Vietnam.

TPP isn't about our lack of education or competitive skills.

It's about crushing our resistance to living on $5 a day.

The difference in worker salary between US and Vietnam is pure tax-reduced profit in the pockets of CEOs.

Nothing you can learn in school will explain why TPP is a good deal for anyone but Wall Street billionaires.

Perhaps that's the motive behind our corporate sponsored education initiatives.

Dumb us down to $5/day.

May 4, 2015

please take the time to listen to this...

marmar posted this in multimedia group, excellent discussion.

Authoritarianism is now the same as freedom, capitalism is now the same as democracy.

And he rightly rips into the wealth-driven, 3rd Way Democratic Party.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017263243#post2


In these two far-reaching interviews on the "Soap Box" with Eric Poulin, Henry Giroux talks about the failure of liberalism in a time of increasing violence, racism, inequality, state terrorism, and the rule of the financial elite over every commanding social, cultural and political institution in the United States. He elaborates on the failure of many liberals to move both beyond the call for weak reforms that do not challenge the fundamental structures of domination and their willingness to often align themselves with repressive policies that benefit the rich and powerful. He points, for instance, to liberalism’s refusal to name the corruption and misery produced by neoliberal capitalism and its willingness to align itself with policies of the right such as the Iraqi War, state torture, a health-care program that largely benefits big insurance companies, and the massive suffering caused by the growing inequality in wealth, income and power. He also points to the refusal on the part of liberals to protest a grotesque and dangerous incarceration and surveillance state, and the failure to address the issue of what it takes to reinvent politics so as not to serve the interests of the rich and powerful - the failure in short to name a counter-revolution politics that has corrupted both political parties. He argues that liberals are more afraid of the left than the right and have consistently, especially under President Obama, gone out of their way to compromise with the right while moving the Democratic Party into more conservative territory, all the while refusing to bear responsibility for destroying the conditions that make a real democracy possible. .................(more)

April 26, 2015

When Obama sends more jobs to Asia, how will you spend your new lost wages?

Not saving for retirement?

Skipping needed health care?

Demanding teachers be fired and schools closed because of lost tax base?

Eating more highly processed, uninspected fast foods sourced from... ????

Joining the military as a job?

Working longer hours?

Not taking a vacation?

Paying predatory lending fees?

Paying predatory municipal fines?

Enjoying more polluted air and water?

TPP is a job killing sack of shit, re-branded as a sparkle-fresh Democratic Party principal.

And it signifies that Democratic Party leadership has declared war against US working families.

We worked our asses off lifting the US out of one of the worst economic disasters in world history.

But it wasn't good enough. Now, we are being punished for our success.

Unlike the large multinational banks and the CEOs who perpetrated that disaster through systemic criminal fraud.

This is what class warfare looks like.

There is nothing moderate about TPP. It is extreme. Even for Republicans.


On edit: With job loss comes an opportunity to pay for essential government services through fees and fines so I didn't want to exclude this wonderful economic benefit.

April 20, 2015

Clinton Cash

You know when those of us sounded the alarm on Clinton this is EXACTLY what we didn't want to happen by having the Democratic Party putting all of OUR eggs in her basket.

Most of this was known well ahead of time. But no one would listen.

Now instead of focusing on the very important issues of the day, it's going to be the Bill and Hillary show from now til end times.

Do you understand the consequences of having her as the candidate? Can you understand the holy hell she is going to create for everyone?

What the hell is so hard to understand about not wanting this behavior associated with the Democratic Party?

The brainiacs behind her second coming better have a damn good plan b.

This all or nothing shit is patently idiotic.

April 20, 2015

What's a Gyrocopter?

I had an idea, but didn't know for sure, more info here:
http://pra.org/default.aspx?p=gyroplanes&i=16


Can a gyroplane take off vertically or hover?



Most gyroplanes require a runway for takeoff but can land with a zero to 20 foot (6 m) landing roll. A few custom-built gyroplanes have “jump takeoff capability,” meaning they can jump 25 to 50 feet (7.5 to 15 m) high to t ake off. No gyroplanes can hover because their rotor blades are not powered.



7. How fast do gyroplanes fly?



Most gyroplanes cruise at 45 mph to 60 mph (72.5 to 96.5 kph). Andrew Keech’s Little Wing LW-5 holds the 2006 world speed record of 168.29 kph (104.6 mph).



8. How high do gyroplanes fly?



Most gyroplanes fly under 3,000 feet above the ground because their pilots like the scenery at the lower altitudes. Specially modified gyroplanes have gone almost 20,000 feet (6,096 m) high.



9. Can gyroplanes do aerobatics?



Most gyroplane pilots fly sensibly without trying aerobatics. With a well-trained pilot, a gyroplane is capable of doing most positive-G aerobatic maneuvers. Negative-G maneuvers which can slow or stop the rotor blades should be avoided.



10. What makes a gyroplane fly?



Thrust from a propeller driven by an engine moves the gyroplane forward. Air coming in under the free-spinning rotor blades makes them rotate and produce lift. This is called “autorotation,” meaning they turn on their own.



11. What do rotor blades do?



Rotor blades are really wings that turn about an axis. Small gyroplanes have rotor blades about 20 feet (6 m) in diameter and about 6 inches (15 cm) front-to-back. When these rotor blades are turning several hundred RPM, they produce lift enough for sustained flight.



12. Are gyroplanes hard to fly?



Flying some older generation, less stable gyroplanes may be considerably more difficult to fly than an airplane or helicopter. Gyroplane models employing safer aerodynamic stability designs may be as easy to fly as an airplane or helicopter. More stable gyroplanes may be considerably less sensitive to wind turbulence than other aircraft. Gyroplanes fly differently than airplanes or helicopters, and flight training is required, whether you are a pilot or not.

April 19, 2015

The difference between yesterday and today? Corporate run government.

Even school boards are being financed by corporate interest groups. Candidates are freely bragging about how much corporate endorsement they have as a measure of merit

MBAs have taken over politics, much as they have industry. Voters play the role as expendable commodities. In the Larry Summers world of abstraction, we are no different than farm animals or natural resources. We are consumed as the market demands. Whether its war, poverty or sickness or disease, we are harvested as needed to protect/maintain the ruling class.

Profit oriented transformation has changed both parties for the worse. Viewed in context, side-by-side, both Republicans AND Democrats have never been so far (except during civil war) from the stated purpose of our national oath- liberty and justice for all. This is proven by every quality of life measure - prison population, unemployment, poverty, disparity, racism, infant mortality, etc. Every year the numbers, accumulated in total, get worse.

Why is this not just the fault of Republicans? After all, Republicans have always been on the side of the big guy.

Because the Democratic Party is run just like a for-profit corporation. I'm not going to argue the semantics of "profit or non-profit here". For example, the NFL, raking in billions per year for owners, is technically also a non-profit. Hows that for "liberty and justice"?

What people like Rahm Emanuel, Larry Summers, Wasserman-Shultz and Hillary Clinton have brought to the Democratic Party is this:

The Democratic Party corporation exists to

1 - make money to sustain and reward itself.

2 - yield results for its investors.

To the extent that the best interests of the rich and non-rich overlap, such in the case of abortion rights and gay marriage, there is an illusion that Democrats are "all fighting on the same side".

No, we aren't. Not at all.

100s of millions of people without wealth remain unrepresented. No one is fighting for them.

And least of all, Hillary is not fighting for them. Her generic deference to wealth and power avoids those important emotional issues of fairness, justice etc which interfere with corporate profits. But its our emotional senses that inform us, from an ethics and morality point of view, something is wrong and working against our collective best interests.

Take Ferguson as just one of many examples.

Thousands of lives have been ruined because of fake criminal charges in an organized crime system that should have been immediately charged under RICO (racketeer and corrupt organizations laws).

If you are a person wrongly convicted - you've paid thousands in legal fees and you will never be able to gain employment because of your criminal record. Thus starts the cycle of poverty for the current generation of your family and the next.

Now, if you've noticed a standoffish posture from the Democratic Party (about this and the never ending slaughter and violence perpetrated by police), you are not alone.

Ferguson just isn't good for Democratic Party business. And that business is getting funds from rich, mostly white, donors, the establishment elite who, to put it bluntly, despise us. They hate us.

Why? We believe in a system of basic principals that cannot be corrupted by money.

There really is an absolute right and wrong. For starters:

Starting a war based on lies is wrong.
Torture is wrong.
Stealing pension funds is wrong.
Polluting our dwindling supply of clean drinking water is wrong.
Dragnet citizen surveillance is wrong.
Sending jobs to low wage, unregulated labor markets is wrong.

Perhaps even conservative Democrats agree with these things. Where left and right differ lies in upholding these values by mandatory punishment for those who violate these principals. There must be no amnesty for wealth and/or power. This most important principal is what the right wing has no problem compromising for immediate political profit.

The MBA Democrats are winning. So much so, that a Democratic President considers torture a zealous act of patriotism, rather than a punishable criminal offense.

The growing cynicism fueled by the hypocrisy between speeches and action is corroding the nation. We lack representation. A severely compromised justice system is spreading disparity to every facet of our daily lives.

When the question comes up,time and time again, "why doesn't the Democratic Party represent us?"

The answer is rooted in the economics. Most of us can't afford to buy what they are selling - representation in Government.

April 18, 2015

Obama to US Workers: "Thanks for supporting me. Here's a bag of shit for you. Enjoy."

One of the most toxic anti-worker, anti-family, anti-student, pro-corporate laws in US history is being rushed through Congress.

Republicans love it. Wall Street loves it. The rich love it.

Known as TPP, it sends millions of additional jobs to Asia.

The bill, written and negotiated in secret by a consortium of corporations, is being framed as a humanitarian effort to "lift more deserving nations out of poverty".

It's nothing more than Obama's final stab in the back of US workers.

After working our asses off for the last 30 years, our productivity has been pegged to the maximum.

Our wages haven't budged. Our benefits have been slashed. Education and health care costs have soared.

Kids and teachers are being tortured as part of a cruel corporate designed experiment in standardized testing.

And the taxes we pay? It's become a slush fund as needed to rescue platinum-class citizens from their own fraud.

Just so you know, it isn't just our few remaining manufacturing jobs.

It's the jobs you busted your ass for and went into debt to prove you are capable of doing.

Here's a short list of new jobs being lined up for Vietnam, India and China.

Want fair wages and benefits? You are not qualified to apply.

Engineering

Architecture

Insurance

Graphic Arts and Design

Editing and Journalism

Basic Research and Development

Computer Programming.

Medical Records, Imaging and Laboratory Testing

Paralegal

Accounting

Banking/Financial/Investment

Marketing

IT Management

Education

If you want to understand the roots of apathy and lack of participation in politics, start by looking at the relentless assault against working families by corporations and their representatives in Congress and the White House.

Living in the US isn't about opportunity and an equal chance to get ahead. It's just raw survival in a class war against working families.

There must be an unwritten rule that says each president has to leave office with a giant stain on future generations.

Generations were fucked over by NAFTA and Wall Street deregulation.

Even more were fucked over with Iraq.

Now Obama seeks to soil his legacy with TPP.