Sunday, November 5, 2017

Sunday Papers

Reading Second Section,

Almost half a million fewer Americans had a job at the end of October than at the beginning, but that's OK, because almost a million were declared to be "no longer in the labor force", so unemployment officially decreased. Fixed!

Stockman noticed that sleight of hand with the jobs numbers, too, and others, and points out that the Trump tax plan is best for Donald Trump, who will pay less. The one year of tax returns leaked show Trump paying $38 million, of which $31 million was due to the Alternative Minimum Tax, which is being eliminated. Everybody middle class pays more tax, while the wealthier pay proportionately less and less, but the real windfall goes to corporations. "Same as it ever was..." (Oh, nobody working means no real economy to support ageing boomers. Enjoy your virtual economy!)

Eleni sends this analysis from the parsimonious analyst, Golem XIV, author of the Trillion-dollar-platinum-coins-to-pay-off-federal-debt idea, a few years ago.
The massive flow of goods and services into the US, from the rest of the world, is paid in dollars, which are needed to buy oil and pay off dollar-denominated debts, accrued over the past 45 years or so. Nixon arranged the petro-buck regime when he had to withdraw gold-backing for the $US, after LBJ spent so much on guns-and-butter. That regime is nearing it's end, obviously, and factors are arising to accelerate that end. China, Russia, Iran and the US are working together to make other trade currencies more appealing than the $US. (The US role in that is from using the $US as a weapon against those who use it and American banks. Works great until it suddenly doesn't.)

Pepe Escobar writes about the possibilities for cooperation between Trump and (freshly empowered) Xi Jinping over North Korea, which is not a satellite of China, when all is said and done. there is room for agreements to be reached, which will improve the security of all of the involved countries, within a framework of multilateral guarantees. There is nothing insurmountable here, but it will involve a sharp change in course for the American ship of state (sooner is better, y'all).

The US Navy released the findings of it's investigation of the nocturnal gorings of the USS Fitzgerald and the USS John McCain on Wednesday. The Captain of the McCain, noticing that the young helmsman in some of the busiest waters in the world, was having trouble controlling speed and direction at the same time, ordered that the control of speed function be transferred to another console, so somebody else could split the work. Captain went to bed. The transfer did not work right, and the first helmsman was left with no steering at all. The ship drifted off course. Nobody was aware that there was about to be a collision (Wow! Still not credible!) because neither ship signaled with a loud horn. By the time it got all sorted out and control of navigation was restored, the collision was imminent. (This is the least-humiliating explanation the USN can concoct.) Thanks Eleni.

In what may be the most damning indictment yet, senile butt-grabbing-wheelchair-bound-murderer, President George H. W. Bush confirms that he voted for Hillary Clinton.

Inside Hillary Clinton's Secret Takeover of the DNC, Donna Brazile 

"Felt like Patsy the slave": In one detail printed today by WaPo, Brazile recounts how Clinton’s top aides repeatedly disrespected and demeaned her, which she equated to being treated like a slave.

But even more than the Russians, Brazile says she feared possible retribution from shadowy elements within the campaign and the Democratic Party who might blame her for the leak. Her fears only intensified, she says, after the mysterious shooting of former campaign staffer Seth Rich, who the authorities said was killed during a robbery, though many so-called conspiracy theorists have speculated about a possible Democratic plot to kill Rich for his role in leaking the stash of DNC emails to Wikileaks. Brazile's anxiety eventually spiraled out of control, to the point where she feared for her own life while serving as interim chairwoman of the DNC.

Even as Elizabeth Warren comes out saying that the Democratic Primary was rigged against Bernie Sanders, and Donna Brazile, who helped rig it her own self, says Darth Hillary was controlling everything, there is enough of an echo-chamber to support millions of Clinton-faithful in the belief that Russia rigged the election for Bush, and Democratic voters believed in Hillary enough to nominate her in a fair primary. 
It's actually taken many years for Soros & Co. to put this echo-chamber together. These emails from John Podesta completely confirm that "conspiracy theory". Now what?

Robert Mueller's FBI actively suppressed evidence about Clinton Foundation corruption and influence pedaling during the Uranium One deal with a Russian company, while Hilary Clinton was Secretary of State. The whistle-blower was silenced under a restraining order when he sought to reveal the information to the press. Gosh, that sounds like a cover-up in real time, "a conspiracy to commit fraud". Some people think that this compromises Robert Mueller as Special Investigator of the Russian rigging of the election for Donald Trump, which dirt he continues to seek diligently. Can he cover up Uranium One for Clinton, and still dig up dirt on Trump? Sure he can. No compromise at all.

America was built upon slavery and debt. First imprisoned debtors from England and Europe were brought to these shores to labor 20 years and be given some land and money at the end of that. Yes, it was OK to whip and beat them. No, not more than 20% of them survived the 20 years, and no, most never collected what their contracts entitled them to. They were just let go. The black slaves never got to go, and their children were slaves from birth, slaves for whatever the master wanted. At the same time, the West was being pioneered by people promised free land, if they would just turn it into valuable farms. Banks gave little loans to help with that, and usually took the whole finished farm a few years later. Native American genocide was an externalized cost in this process. The banks didn't have to pay for it. 
The latest business model for lifelong debt slavery is explained here by Matt Taibbi. It is deeply revolting, yet we are unperturbed by the student debt situation, because it all seems so benign in our memories, we who are not slaves. We don't feel like helping our families out by committing suicide, after paying 3 times what we borrowed and still owing 5 times what we borrowed. Fine journalism. Read...

Cat alerted me to this video of muzzle flashes from the air in Las Vegas, as the massacre was in progress below. This sure looks like shooting a machine gun from a chopper, but anything might be simulated on such a video, might it not? Look anyway. Computer synthesized voices have gotten better, I notice. This is not long.

Here at Intellhub, is an analysis of the FAA flight records for the space over Las Vegas the night of the massacre, with special attention to 8 privately owned and quiet helicopters, a smallish fraction of a lease fleet in business there. This is impressive expert analysis. How does this happen to come to us? I'm impressed, but this is extensive and expensive, and somebody had to know what to look for and where. The above video is also embedded toward the end. Again, who is the white-knight providing this?

I've heard more and more reports of people who were in the Vegas massacre and reporting in public that there were multiple shooters firing at them dying-funny since then. This man was shot to death silently, and only his last moans were heard as a neighbor called 911. He's number 5. That's too many.


Missing the Funnies

No comments:

Post a Comment