Slouching Towards Oblivion

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Mr Paul Mooney


hat tip = Facebook pal DR

And whatever else you do, don't go watch Spike Lee's Bamboozled.

Today's Quote

"Calling a liar a liar isn't an opinion if you can prove it. That's what we call a fact. The idea that news network executives traded their balls for ratings, that's just my opinion." --Samantha Bee

Part 1

Part 2

Where To, Bub?

Hillary went out of her way to assure us that she's not dead.  Of course, we all know what a liar she is so I guess that means we'll have to stay home and let that orange Nazi guy win it.

 

Today's Olbermann

In the debut episode of his new series, “The Closer with Keith Olbermann," GQ's Keith Olbermann tallies the most outrageous of Donald Trump's offenses in what is now his 15-month assault on American democracy.

Monday, September 12, 2016

A Razor Blade In The Apple

Buzzfeed:
The secretive private legal system written into many international trade treaties is the epitome of a “rigged game,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren told BuzzFeed News. But it is not set in stone, she said. In an interview in her office on Capitol Hill, she outlined three steps that could get rid of it entirely.
This legal system, which empowers foreign businesses to sue entire countries for hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars, was the subject of an 18-month investigation by BuzzFeed News published last week. Among the findings: Executives convicted of crimes have used the system to avoid punishment, and companies have used the mere threat of a lawsuit to gut a country’s laws.
Warren described a case, highlighted in the investigation, that she said “really jumped out in front and put the human face on what this obscure clause can actually do”: A court in El Salvador found that a factory had poisoned a village with lead, failing for years to take government-ordered steps to prevent the pollution. But by threatening to take the matter to this global super court, lawyers for the company helped it avoid a criminal conviction and the responsibility for cleaning up the community and providing needed medical care.
“The company that damaged so many people just gets to slip away,” Warren said of the case. “This is a reminder how the game is rigged.”
If there's something like "the other side" of this one, I haven't heard much of it yet. My main thing is that the ISDS thing wreaks of privatization and corporatocracy.  Too much power in too few hands.

Hillary has made some noise about swinging around in opposition to TPP, even tho' her buddy, Virginia Gov Terry McCauliffe says she'll swing right back once she's been sworn in - so we just don't know.

All the more reason to find out as much as possible about any given candidate's leanings on something like "Free" Trade.  Guess it's time to email Jane Dittmar on this one.

It might be nice if a Press Poodle or two got up on their hind legs and started asking real questions, specific to things like ISDS.

PS) Elizabeth Warren - please come to my house so I can hold you and pet you and call you George...

HRC's Episode

Some tweets:






I'd rather they just come out and tell us what's going on. I think I understand that they don't wanna make her the center of attention in order to countervail the fact that Trump superimposes himself on everything in sight; and they believe they always have to protect her from the shit that everybody throws at her every minute of every day and blah blah blah - but she's gonna catch that shit either way, so I think she's better off if they stop trying so hard to be cute with it and just let her own it.

"Yeah - I tho't it was just the usual allergies that bother me this time of the year.  Turns out I have pneumonia.  And then I did a coupla campaign stump speeches and a fund-raiser or two, and a buncha other work-type stuff, and then I sucked it up on a Sunday and went to a 9/11 memorial and I started feeling really bad and I had to take a little break - because pneumonia, bitches.  Do ya think Presidents get to call in sick every time they feel a little funky?  I'm gonna do this job, and I'm gonna keep on doing this job, and they're gonna have to carry me out in a fucking box before I stop doing this job.  Hear what I'm sayin'?  Good - what else ya got?"

Today's Meme