2016 archive
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
For all practical purposes, no significant movement.
(snip)
The four-week moving average, which smooths out week-to-week swings, decreased to 270,250 from 272,000.
The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits rose by 3,000 to 2.26 million in the week ended Feb. 20. The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits held at 1.7 percent. These data are reported with a one-week lag.
Aside:
Really, Bloomberg? “Unexpectedly”? When your “experts” unexpect almost everything that the unemployment rate does?
Bitcoin: Lawyer Argues, “There’s No There, There” 0
In the Silk Road case, the defendant’s lawyer has taken a creative approach to the portion of the charges related to money-laundering. He’s arguing that, since Bitcoins aren’t legally recognized as money, they can’t be laundered, regardless of how dirty they are.
If the government doesn’t consider Bitcoin to be money, Dratel argued, then transactions conducted solely in Bitcoin don’t fall under 18 U.S.C. §1956, the US money laundering statute, which includes specific language referring to “funds,” “monetary instruments,” and “financial institutions.” For this reason, he said, the money-laundering charge against Ulbricht should be dismissed.
Follow the link for much, much more.
The Dog Whistlers 0
Dick Polman observes that Republicans are putting away their dog whistles.
(Quoting Paul Ryan) “If a person wants to be the nominee of the Republican Party, there can be no evasion and no games. This party does not prey on people’s prejudices. We appeal to their highest ideals. This is the party of Lincoln.”
I’m glad I wasn’t sipping coffee when I heard Ryan say that, because the liquid would’ve exited through my nose. I thought of Keith Richard, who wrote in his rock n’ roll memoir that life’s absurdities are best handled with “legs-in-the-air laughter.”
“This party does not prey on people’s prejudices …”
Is Ryan kidding or what? Because it’s empirical fact that his party has been preying on prejudice for the past 50 years. Donald Trump is different only in degree. He has merely ditched the dog whistle and stripped away the code words.
Meanwhile, Werner Herzog’s Bear is not optimistic; he sees a real danger of a fascist America. Here’s a bit from his latest piece on Trumpery and Republicanism.
(Continued below the fold.)
Read more »
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Another good guy with a gun . . .
(snip)
According to police, the girl suffered a gunshot wound to the shoulder while handling an unsecured firearm that accidentally discharged.
. . . and another gun that fires itself.
The owner of the gun has been arrested for “unsafe storage.” Follow the link and the reason that this was not just “another tragic accident” will be obvious.
“The Taj” 0
At the Inky, Peter Binzen and Peter Lindsay look at the history of the Trump Taj Mahal and suggest that anyone who thinks that Donald Trump has business skills should do so too.
Trump has shills, not skills.
Aside:
I once spent a night at the Taj (long story don’t ask). Goddamned ugliest hotel room I ever saw in my thirty years on the road.
The Fee Hand of the Market 0
Welcome to the “health care marketplace”:
Federal prosecutors said Tuesday it was all part of an illegal effort by Olympus Corp. of the Americas, based in Center Valley, Pa., near Allentown, to induce doctors and hospitals to buy its products: the pricey medical devices called endoscopes.
My ex is a nurse (and a damned good one, at that).
When I first met her, she was an OR nurse. The OR staff, including the doctors, at the little hospital where she worked at the time always looked forward to visits from pharma reps, because those visits meant free hoagies courtesy of Big Pharma.
This is called “unbiased evaluation of medical technology in the marketplace.”
Follow the link for the gruesome details.
Digital Piracy 0
No, no, no, not Napster-style piracy.
The traditional kind:
When one unnamed shipping company hired Verizon’s VZ, +1.14% security team to investigate, they learned the pirates had begun practicing another trade: Hacking.
The pirates are stealing computerized bills of lading so they can make sure they are hijacking the good stuff. More at the link.
Stray Thought, the Devil Made Me Do It Dept. 0
How about we all mail Donald Trump’s campaign headquarters a nice crisp white sheet to wear at his next campaign appearance?
“Heeee’s Baaaaack” 0
Bill Blum argues that, as a politician, Donald Trump is more like a remake of Arnold Schwarzenegger than he is heir to any professional politician, foreign or domestic. He points to similarities in upbringing, showmanship, ego, and tactics. A snippet:
It’s worth a read. Whether or not you find it persuasive (and I think he has accurately described at least part of the elephant), it provides a novel prism for interpreting a chilling phenomenon.
Mirror Imaging 0
Thom Fain looks at how the GOP shot itself in the foot and created Trump. A snippet:
In related news, Shaun Mullen explains that the New York Times doesn’t get it because it’s trapped in the villagers’ narrative, while E. J. Dionne points out that the secesh are still rising again after all these years.
