Warning: There is More News of Importance in a Single Post Here Than in the Average Big Media Outlet!

To be who one is, is not to be someone else. /.

It’s a recession when your neighbour loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose yours. – Harry S. Truman

Possibly the Greatest Scientific Breakthrough Ever!!!!

A win for the good guys in the real War Against Freedom. And another win here!

Fail: Big Media Journos who either still don’t know what’s going on with the financial crisis or just don’t care to report  what’s actually going on. Latest here. And here. So again, if most of these over-leveraged ineptly-managed “outlets” went out of business tomorrow, the harm to society again (other than increased unemployment, of course) is exactly what? Can’t exactly call the ineptitude essential…. And the next generation of journos show their societal irrelevance.

When the mainstream press is dead, I hope we have a couple dozen of these.

Here’s what I’d like these essential journos to tell me: What’s the projected ten-year cost for the Afghanistan and Iraq military irrelevancies/failures? More or less than the “cost” of real healthcare reform (of course, that deficit would be balanced by taxpayer savings.)

What I’d also like to know is why these over-leveraged newspapers can’t file for bankruptcy instead of just cutting, cutting, cutting staff as well as editorial standard.

Part of the problem is that news media never figured out the web. Rupert Murdoch has been lucky in some regards (although the WSJ purchase doesn’t seem to be working out) and seems to be determined to fail big.

Here, journos: Show your importance by running with this. And Reader, don’t hold your breath waiting — it’s never going to happen.

More misses by the mainstream press here.

And something of a an obit or guide for the future of journalism is here.

Someone else* thinks journos should actually report stuff of, you know, actual importance. (*more famous than I)

Reminder: A toothless public option and mandatory purchase of insurance is not reform. Does this do that? What’s in the House bill that makes things better? It restricts abortion, so it clearly shows that an actual improvement of the system is not the aim of the bill. And the Senate version is worse. And a GOP blowout in 2010? Failure like the healthcare reform debacle certainly makes it possible if not likely. When your incumbent so clearly proves he doesn’t give a fuck about actual reform, why re-elect him, why think the other candidate would be particularly worse? On the other hand, how many races will actually be contested…?

Wait, I see; the reform is to make it easier to be insured, not to actually get affordable care. So it really is just a healthcare insurer windfall bill and no more. Here’s an autopsy of the House bill — oops, no important reform!

And the bill essentially restricts abortion (if the provision survives the House-Senate conference), so it’s already pretty much a failure at, you know, reform. Thank God we elected a pro-choice president!

It takes dozens or more sick minds to come up with something as disgusting as this. And they are our leaders. Where are you, mainstream journos?

Speaking of which, I marked the decline of CBS News starting with Cronkite’s retirement followed by the hiring of this douchebag who is the antithesis of responsible journalism.

Another great journalist whose loss can only help.

Stupidity and dishonesty rule.

The GOP leaders: Making America less safe.

The Times thought this idiocy required two reporters and was worthy of the front page?! And this is almost as stupid.

Fail: Our allies, making our world more dangerous.

Lying thieves: Micro$oft.

Only with Windows: Machine hacked, uploaded with child porn…. What sucks most about the crappiness of Windows? Keeping a PC safe and working is a part-time job.

Obscenity of the day. Obscene in the deepest, most profound way. Hello, Big Media, journos? Another one you stupid, lazy fucks missed. And here’s another — also missed by mainstream journos.

And here’s another obscenity.

A thought: See how the Teabaggers get incited with bullshit, one can fully understand how the “good” Germans could so easily and freely support the Final Solution. (Your call whether I’m equating the Teabaggers with Nazis, though.)

You’re no longer allowed to own what you buy?

God bless wingnut moral paradigm/hypocrites. They so love to talk the talk and never, ever, walk the walk. Disgusting. As is the media who give them any play. Vile. And here’s another, lovely paradigm.

Assholes and worse: Cops just so love to make fun of rape victims. Another paradigm. I know, they’re just a couple of bad apples but to me, their representative of a defect, as it were, in rightist culture. It’s not just the hypocrisy but the feeble-mindedness (of the actor and the supporters) that enables it.

Exercise is no way to lose weight

Good news for us speeders.

Bad news for that sick fuck, Glenn Beck. Now, if only he and all his supporters could be locked away or shot….

What an awesome waste of time!

Invention of the day.

Eschaton

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What Do You Get in a two-Party System Where One Party Hates Democracy, Gets Support From Big Media, and the Other Party Doesn’t Like Democracy Enough to Defend it? 21st Century America

It is our responsibilities, not ourselves, that we should take seriously. – Peter Ustinov

No man is useless who has a friend, and if we are loved we are indispensable. — Robert Louis Stevenson

Death panels:

Speaking of which: The sickness of modern America explained?

Be grumpy; it’s good for your health! (Working for me so far.)

Stop the presses! Guitar goddess!!

Okay, okay, I admit it: Venezuela is about as fucked up as any nation, no more, no worse, just differently.

Really, doesn’t corporatism make you puke?

Oh, damn! Ronnie Raygun did not unleash an era of unparalleled economic growth and prosperity. An era of debt and speculation and other stuff, yes, prosperity, of course not.

Rudy and Beloved Leader’s BFF headed to the slammer for awhile…. And no, it is not a tragedy. The guy was an inept scumbag who rose by brown-nosing and asshole, an opportunistic liar and thief. Tragedy, like Greek drama, where destiny is inevitable but actually tragic? More like earned…. The standards of the HuffPo are now almost low enough to let me in.

Failure of hubris and stupidity and arrogance, failure in Afghanistan. If you cannot succeed, retreat is a honorable option. Or at least a sensible one.

Teacher of the day. Lesson learned: Being a stupid idiot isn’t a guarantee of success.

PSA of the day: Google Dashboard.

Obama fail — the latest. (Must remember presidents McCain and Palin would have been far worse.) Ooh, and another Dem fail here! More fail here.

Who you gonna believe? The guy with a guilty conscience, who has a “public safety” job and is soon to be sued or someone with nothing really at stake?

“[D]ata at AT&T has grown 4,932% over the last 3 years.” It’s easy to have a great 3G network when none of your customers use it. That is not a test or proof of the quality of the network, Verizon.

Success! Enjoy!

I remember fallout…. It was big in the 60s….

(More here and here.)

GOP Election Victories Clearly Begin a New Golden Age!

There are many ways of breaking a heart. Stories were full of hearts broken by love, but what really broke a heart was taking away its dream – whatever that dream might be. – Pearl S. Buck

In real life, unlike in Shakespeare, the sweetness of the rose depends upon the name it bears. Things are not only what they are. They are, in very important respects, what they seem to be. – Hubert H. Humphrey

All things appear and disappear because of the concurrence of causes and conditions. Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else. — Buddha

The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits. – Albert Einstein

“Passions are the only advocates that always persuade. A simple man with passion will be more persuasive than the most eloquent without.” – Rene Descartes

So once the grasshopper has been consumed, he isn’t coming back. Get it?

Goodbye, freedom!

Watch some oppression of expression here.

A little more freedom to be lost to corporate interests?

How we got to the Global Economic Meltdown: brainless, overriding greed.

See how good things are(n’t) here.

What we’ve deteriorated to.

How stupidity works.

And people listen to the idiot written about here.

Right-wing intellectual is in fact a contradiction in terms as it’s actually based on lies and deliberate ignorance. And look, yet another example of the depths of the rightists’ stupidity. And look, an example of intellectual dishonesty right here!

Obama’s next fail?

Obama succeeds — in re-empowering the GOP!

This is incredible, worthy of the Times’ front page: The paper of record has found a businessman who promotes public policies which enables him to receive federal funds. Clearly, the Times is on to something. This man must be stopped before others do the same thing. Assholes.

Asshole: Ed Rollins: GOP operator believes we have to pay more in taxes so he doesn’t have to. Hey, Ed, drop dead and do something really good for the one and only time!

Asshole tax cheat: How the rich get rich: By refusing to pay taxes, their fair share or less.

Apparently, the Gray Lady is just another Big Media Whore. I know I can’t wait to here what feeble excuse Pinch or Keller will spew in the defense of the indefensible. And when they’re not whores, they’re just the dumbest idiots you can’t imagine. And imagine if Big Media whoring and fawning isn’t what put Bloomberg over in his reelection? Two big ones for the Times’ Public Editor to ignore or try and defend….

The greatness that is President (“Rogue”) Sarah Palin:

Have a goddam laff while staring at some attractive young women!

Good news from Micro$oft: Win7 runs almost as many viruses as older versions of Windows!

A parable about America today?

My favorite song at this moment (there is never accounting for taste):

This is cool…

 

...not at all evil.

 

 

Near-Paradise Forever Lost?

In science, ‘fact’ can only mean ‘confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.’ I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms. – Stephen Jay Gould

Time as he grows old teaches all things. — Aeschylus

Obama and the Dems’ latest fail. Yes, things probably would be worse had Presidents McCain and Palin but not by so much. (That said, the linked piece also alludes to GOP fail: the party’s fiscal irresponsibility.)

Shame on Eliot Spitzer: S.C. GOP Ass. A.G. bangs an 18 year old stripper. Guy’s such a creepy pathetic loser, the 18 year old stripper isn’t enough to obviate the need for Viagra.

Lost: A real hero.

If I wasn’t an anti-capital punishment absolutist, I would be happy to see this utterly worthless person (actually, I don’t like believing anyone is absolutely worthless) executed. (Actually, the preceding isn’t quite true. I would love to see everyone responsible for the global financial nightmare dead. And look; Team McClatchy has read and processed Matt Taibbi’s Goldman Sachs bashing and having done so, found some merit. So let’s starting offing GS. More execution-worthy sins of Goldman here.)

How Big Banks will deal with their failures: Penalizing customers with good credit. And here I have already gone and taken my business away from Citi….

And if this guy kills himself, it wouldn’t overly bother me. Even Rudy G. wouldn’t care (or at least he’d be limited in expressing his grief after he already left the jerk to hang).

Life-endangering idiots. I forget: Can someone tell me again how so many people can be so stupid?

I am again amazed. On one hand, you have the RIAA lawsuits. On the other hand, all the empirical evidence shows that all the illegal downloading is a net plus. The latest: Illegal downloaders spend the most on music. The obvious fallacy with RIAA is the unsupported claim that any, let alone all, of the music would have been actually purchased as opposed to given a pass. Then of course, there’s the bootlegs that, in some cases, the RIAA members, if they gave a crap, should be producing and selling in the first place.

Obama’s next fail.

A thought: It’s easier to get new infrastructure built than old maintained. And of course, the former is itself pretty difficult these days.

Oooh, look, someone has noticed the crapification of the Wall Street Journal by Murdoch. It’s no longer very much of a quality publication. By the time it goes out of business, it’ll be no loss.

More quality journalism we need here. When the press doesn’t care about facts, why would anyone care about the press? No one expects perfection, of course, but the Big Journos have reached a tipping point where the necessary crap is no longer sufficiently balanced by what could be referred to as competent, important journalism. Balloon Boy, anyone?

And here is someone I would characterize as typical of Big Journalism’s failure. That is, I think he is typical of the modern journalist: stupid, lazy, ignorant and/or dishonest. Of what societal value does crap like this play other than keeping a small number of people employed? Certainly, they fail society.

I’m really not sure about this or whether I agree with it or what. I must note though that we used to have radio, where we could hear everything, and libraries where we could research and read about stuff, so I’m not too sure about the point….

The real Hal9000! Not in 2001 but….

An Enabler of the Global Economic Disaster Cries and Whines

That this woman has no business complaining doesn’t make her completely wrong.

Peggy Noonan from behind Faux Bidness Journal’s pay-wall*:

The new economic statistics put growth at a healthy 3.5% for the third quarter. We should be dancing in the streets. No one is, because no one has any faith in these numbers. Waves of money are sloshing through the system, creating a false rising tide that lifts all boats for the moment. The tide will recede. The boats aren’t rising, they’re bobbing, and will settle. No one believes the bad time is over. No one thinks we’re entering a new age of abundance. No one thinks it will ever be the same as before 2008. Economists, statisticians, forecasters and market specialists will argue about what the new numbers mean, but no one believes them, either. Among the things swept away in 2008 was public confidence in the experts. The experts missed the crash. They’ll miss the meaning of this moment, too.

The biggest threat to America right now is not government spending, huge deficits, foreign ownership of our debt, world terrorism, two wars, potential epidemics or nuts with nukes. The biggest long-term threat is that people are becoming and have become disheartened, that this condition is reaching critical mass, and that it afflicts most broadly and deeply those members of the American leadership class who are not in Washington, most especially those in business.

It is a story in two parts. The first: “They do not think they can make it better.”

I talked this week with a guy from Big Pharma, which we used to call “the drug companies” until we decided that didn’t sound menacing enough. He is middle-aged, works in a significant position, and our conversation turned to the last great recession, in the late mid- to late 1970s and early ’80s. We talked about how, in terms of numbers, that recession was in some ways worse than the one we’re experiencing now. Interest rates were over 20%, and inflation and unemployment hit double digits. America was in what might be called a functional depression, yet there was still a prevalent feeling of hope. Here’s why. Everyone thought they could figure a way through. We knew we could find a path through the mess. In 1982 there were people saying, “If only we get rid of this guy Reagan, we can make it better!” Others said, “If we follow Reagan, he’ll squeeze out inflation and lower taxes and we’ll be America again, we’ll be acting like Americans again.” Everyone had a path through.

Now they don’t. The most sophisticated Americans, experienced in how the country works on the ground, can’t figure a way out. Have you heard, “If only we follow Obama and the Democrats, it will all get better”? Or, “If only we follow the Republicans, they’ll make it all work again”? I bet you haven’t, or not much.

This is historic. This is something new in modern political history, and I’m not sure we’re fully noticing it. Americans are starting to think the problems we are facing cannot be solved.

Part of the reason is that the problems—debt, spending, war—seem too big. But a larger part is that our government, from the White House through Congress and so many state and local governments, seems to be demonstrating every day that they cannot make things better. They are not offering a new path, they are only offering old paths—spend more, regulate more, tax more in an attempt to make us more healthy locally and nationally. And in the long term everyone—well, not those in government, but most everyone else—seems to know that won’t work. It’s not a way out. It’s not a path through.

And so the disheartenedness of the leadership class, of those in business, of those who have something. This week the New York Post carried a report that 1.5 million people had left high-tax New York state between 2000 and 2008, more than a million of them from even higher-tax New York City. They took their tax dollars with them—in 2006 alone more than $4 billion.

You know what New York, both state and city, will do to make up for the lost money. They’ll raise taxes.

I talked with an executive this week with what we still call “the insurance companies” and will no doubt soon be calling Big Insura. (Take it away, Democratic National Committee.) He was thoughtful, reflective about the big picture. He talked about all the new proposed regulations on the industry. Rep. Barney Frank had just said on some cable show that the Democrats of the White House and Congress “are trying on every front to increase the role of government in the regulatory area.” The executive said of Washington: “They don’t understand that people can just stop, get out. I have friends and colleagues who’ve said to me ‘I’m done.’” He spoke of his own increasing tax burden and said, “They don’t understand that if they start to tax me so that I’m paying 60%, 55%, I’ll stop.”

He felt government doesn’t understand that business in America is run by people, by human beings. Mr. Frank must believe America is populated by high-achieving robots who will obey whatever command he and his friends issue. But of course they’re human, and they can become disheartened. They can pack it in, go elsewhere, quit what used to be called the rat race and might as well be called that again since the government seems to think they’re all rats. (That would be you, Chamber of Commerce.)

We are governed at all levels by America’s luckiest children, sons and daughters of the abundance, and they call themselves optimists but they’re not optimists—they’re unimaginative. They don’t have faith, they’ve just never been foreclosed on. They are stupid and they are callous, and they don’t mind it when people become disheartened. They don’t even notice.

***

And here is the second part of the story. While Americans feel increasingly disheartened, their leaders evince a mindless . . . one almost calls it optimism, but it is not that.

It is a curious thing that those who feel most mistily affectionate toward America, and most protective toward it, are the most aware of its vulnerabilities, the most aware that it can be harmed. They don’t see it as all-powerful, impregnable, unharmable. The loving have a sense of its limits.

When I see those in government, both locally and in Washington, spend and tax and come up each day with new ways to spend and tax—health care, cap and trade, etc.—I think: Why aren’t they worried about the impact of what they’re doing? Why do they think America is so strong it can take endless abuse?

I think I know part of the answer. It is that they’ve never seen things go dark. They came of age during the great abundance, circa 1980-2008 (or 1950-2008, take your pick), and they don’t have the habit of worry. They talk about their “concerns”—they’re big on that word. But they’re not really concerned. They think America is the goose that lays the golden egg. Why not? She laid it in their laps. She laid it in grandpa’s lap.

They don’t feel anxious, because they never had anything to be anxious about. They grew up in an America surrounded by phrases—”strongest nation in the world,” “indispensable nation,” “unipolar power,” “highest standard of living”—and are not bright enough, or serious enough, to imagine that they can damage that, hurt it, even fatally.

(*I break through the pay-wall in protest to Murdoch’s crapification of the Journal and his piggish pricing policies. Yes, yes, I know piggery is how businesses will prosper in the Global Economic Meltdown. That, however, does not make it right.)

The America I Grew Up With is Long Dead; What More Can I Say?

An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex. – Aldous Huxley

It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument. – William G. McAdoo

To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection. — H. Poincar’e

Proof: The GOP is made of partisan ignoramuses. And look! Here’s their ignorant, partisan definition of bravery: partisan ignorance is an act of bravery!

Why no Verizon iPhone? ‘Cause if you think ATT sucks, a Verizon iPhone would actually be worse.

Here, now, your treats:

The greatest Valentine’s Day or wedding gift ever??

Boo! Not One Day a Year, but 365/24/7

The purpose of all this, this blog, I mean, isn’t to show that the world sucks but just to shine a light on bad behavior (and some cool stuff, too). Just a reminder or clarification….

Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach. – Aristotle

Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. — Buddha

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. – Henry Ford

It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong. – Voltaire

A reminder how the Bushies mishandled the Wall Street bailout in 2008.

Amazing: A success despite being constantly wrong.

By God, cleanliness is next to Godliness — and the proof is here!?

Micro$oft in fact innovates — in everything except tech. Like tax cheating and other dishonest behavior. And look, the leader in innovation just discovered what kind of show “Family Guy” is! This, after spending millions for a special Win7-selling episode. Genius! More about that here. The truth about Win 7 is here.

The CIA’s favorite Afghan drug “dealer” is the brother of the US puppet!

Again, why does Joe Lieberman matter? And besides irrelevant, isn’t he a little crazed, too? (In his defense in this case, his backers are large insurance companies so of course he has to do their bidding and follow their orders, not do what his voters want.)

Asshole: Jamie Dimon.

The medical malpractice crisis, hallucinated by the rightists: another reality check.

Maybe President McCain selected Sarah Palin not just because she’s so damn hot but also because maybe she’s the only pol so stupid as to make him look… less stupid than he is:

How Beloved Leader brought us global fiscal disaster. Well, yeah, fiscal irresponsibility is pretty much never a good thing.

Latest example that the failure to provide actually of, you know, relevance to the audience, news of, like, reality, that the audience wants, results in a lost audience.

And what is the necessity of paying one irrelevant idiot to right about a radical nutjob? Other than showing the irrelevance of the magazine so as to continue the collapse of its circulation….

Sorry, corporatist lying whores and those who believe their bought lies: Global cooling does not exist. (A partial but significant, easy solution is described here.)

Torture victims are all guilty. Sort of.

Help for underwater homeowners: The lenders’ greed.

The Hall of Assholes!

Early bestiality?

I was going to pass on this because there’s “bad apples” everywhere; to a degree, it just happens, pretty much. But this stinking pervert teacher worked at a Christian “academy” so that’s a double negative, so to speak. So it runs.

Liberalism and grinding poverty clash, and it ain’t pretty….

To Fox Bidness Journal, this is funny. Like 10% unemployment. Millions of homes underwater or worse....

(More about that last one here.)

Yes, there is good news (at least, may be news to some).

Inside Beloved Leader’s brain:

Hips Don’t Lie: Shakira’s Sexiest Moments : Photos : Rolling Stone

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Is America Dead?

I bet my signal to noise ratio whomps Big Media’s!

Obama will do nothing to get a public option passed.

Future commentary: If we get a public option of any robustness, I now apologize in advance for my cynicism and hopelessness while others never, you know, surrendered. That said, query whether whatever P.O. we get balances the vile aspect of “reform” that is in no way in doubt, to wit, the mandatory purchase of insurance.

Meanwhile, document the the successes of the Insurers’ death panels here. Another example here.

Watch this, seemingly the only senator (Al Franken) that genuinely gives an honest shit:

In a real democracy, the Democratic leadership would be worried about this and do something about it.

Read this and weep if it doesn’t make you kill yourself first. Can we say now the spirit of 1776 is completely dead? Modern America has no substantive connection with its founding?

We financed Big Finance’s recent profits. That is, Big Financed profited by essentially stealing from us. Is this a great country or what?

But maybe, help for underwater home owners isn’t sooo necessary because many lenders have, in their greed, made it impossible to actually foreclose. Read why here — it may be your relief.

The U.K.’s National Health System works.

Just a thought while printing out pieces of Barron’s: Even if Big Banks refuse to deal with the overhang of crap debt, why would that mean people who need their money for food and shelter and stuff follow the banks’ example and fail to get their finances in shape even if it means paying down debt instead of buying more unnecessary stuff?

Another newspaper deliberately and knowingly spreads lies. So who needs it??

And that whiny little AIG fuck who cried on the op-ed page of the Times: did he actually give back his bonus or only cried because he was supposed to?

Good question: What are the ethics and morality behind a Faux News, the Times’ running Judy Miller’s and others’ lies pushing the Iraq war, the failure to report on the demented economy of the past few decades that got the world where it is now (latest example here, albeit published by one of the fiscal fuck-ups), a day spent on crap like “Balloon Boy”, and so on and so forth? What professional standards allow this?

Our The GOP’s America: If the Republicans are anti-Semites Jew Haters, then it must be a good thing. </sarcasticsnark>

Sickos! I know we have nutjobs on the “left” but any as sick as these, in such numbers or prominence??

Actually, the GOP’s support of the wingnuts makes perfect sense. Getting to actually vote the last untapped bloc of the electorate. Normal Republicans should their loyalty in 08 but the crazies would be dependable if they actually voted.

Oooh, 25 stories the media missed. And their flat-out inept, dishonest coverage of the Clinton presidency. And here’s a couple of just run-of-the-mill screw-ups that happen when you focus on the sizzle instead of the steak, as it were.

And here’s a round-up of the failures of the D.C.-centric GOP bitches of the punditocracy.

Is this how we get and stay stupid?

Chamber of Assholes Commerce.

Assholes: The lying opponents of the public option.

Assholes: Private security play-cops and the bigger assholes who provide them and retain them.

Asshole: President “Know-Nothing” McCain comes out against net neutrality. His basis? He’s paid to. (All about the whoring here.) That’s leadership, being an unthinking whore.

Assholes: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce. (Click the links; I am not being repetitive.)

Assholes: Big Media Liars united.

Assholes: The producers of “Law and Order”.

Junk Nikes!

Yeah, this time it’s different. Taking on excessive debt for no good reason is accepted as something normal. So: How do you make money paying too much and over-leveraging a rental development? By illegally boosting rents and still going broke on the deal. It’s a new era and the old rules don’t apply til they bite you in the greedy ass.

Nikke’s right (yet) again. Bye, Soupy!

8, 9 years to get a possibly decent upgrade to WinXP. That’s technology leadership, for sure.

Offensive -- or freaking awesome??