July, 2012 archive
Hidden Assets 0
The Guardian reports that the amount of money hidden in places like the Cayman Islands (aka Romney’s Reward) exceeds the combined GDP of Japan and the United States. A snippet:
(snip)
“These estimates reveal a staggering failure: inequality is much, much worse than official statistics show, but politicians are still relying on trickle-down to transfer wealth to poorer people,” said John Christensen of the Tax Justice Network. “People on the street have no illusions about how unfair the situation has become.”
It’s not the Laffer Curve.
It’s the looter’s curve,
Open Season in Florida 0
The Tamba Bay Times analyzes Florida cases in which the “stand your ground” defense has been successful and finds that it seems to have backfired like a cheap gat (follow the link for examples and statistics and the full-sized chart):
The gun nuts’ dream:
Every outing, a joker’s joke; every city, Dodge City; every hill, Boot Hill.
Don’t Even Think about It 0
Not if you are a student in Texas.
The Texas Republian Party opposes teaching “higher order thinking skills.” A nugget from Leonard Pitts, Jr.; click to read the rest:
Never mind. The Texas branch of one of our two major political parties opposes teaching critical thinking skills or anything that might challenge a child’s “fixed beliefs.” So presumably, if a child is of the “fixed belief” that Jesus was the first president of the United States or that 2+2 = apple trees or that Florida is an island in an ocean on the moon, educators ought not correct the little genius lest she (gasp!) change her “fixed belief,” thereby undermining mom and dad.
Guess they have figured out that “higher order thinking skills” are inimical to Republicanism.
Twits on Twitter 0
Can you buy your own twits-to-go?
(George Smith’s experience leads him to believe so. See his comment here.)
We Need Single Payer 0
Arizona death panel Republican state legislature at work:
The elected officials who control the state say we can’t afford to expand coverage.
The flaw in that logic is that taxpayers wind up picking up the tab anyway.
Republicanism, your choice for governance with a mean streak by persons with mean streaks on behalf of persons with mean streaks.
More like This 0
The scams won’t stop till the scammers go to jail.
Phillip D. Murphy, former head of Bank of America’s municipal derivatives desk, was charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S., wire fraud and conspiracy to make false entries in bank records, according to the indictment filed yesterday in federal court in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Misdirection Plays, Look over There! Dept. 0
Chauncey Devega predicts the pontificating. Here’s a nugget; click to read the rest:
Instead, James Holmes’ apparent killing of a dozen people, and wounding 59 others as he was channeling the Batman character The Joker, who is not coincidentally “The Clown Prince of Chaos,” will prompt a moral panic about popular culture, comic books, movies, and violence. This is an old and tired script.
Dustbiters 0
Yesterday’s tails of fail. One would think that, eventually, there would be no more banks to blank.
Here is yesterday’s crop of responsible fiscal fatalities. Note that Georgia increased its lead in fast and loose:
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Second Federal Savings and Loan Association of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Heartland Bank, Leawood, Kansas
First Cherokee State Bank, Woodstock, Georgia
Shots Fired 0
I stayed away from the Aurora, Colorado, shootings yesterday, having learned to avoid jumping to conclusions. And, really, what could I add?
If you want to read about it, your best bet for the latest is their local rag.
I suspect that, as the smoke clears, it will turn out to be just another nut with guns exercising his Constitutional right to nuttery, inflicting pain and suffering on anyone in range just because he can.
For another view on gunnuttery and how we talk about it, I recommend this.
Mitt the Flip the Fabrications 0
Rachel Maddow parses the prevarication.
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Via Raw Story.
TSA Security Theatre 0
There are seven million stories in the naked airport: Alyona reacts to this story. Also, in part two, the there’s one born every minute dept.
Facebook Frolics 4
Like, no likes, dude. OhMyGov! reports on, like, like botnets:
According to Cluley, most suspect accounts are usually run by a single person operating thousands of profiles via specialized computer software. Most of the fake accounts appear to come from the Middle East and the Pacific Rim.
For corporations, the revelation that most of their social media fans don’t exist may mean a redesign of their social media strategy with more sophisticated media analytics. For government agencies like the U.S. Department of State and Defense–the notion the citizens they serve may also be fake poses a problem for agencies that measure success based on only Facebook.
