Friday, April 07, 2017
Thursday, April 06, 2017
Tiny Desk
Maren Morris
Set List
Rich
I Could Use A Love Song
My Church
Musicians
Maren Morris (vocals, guitar)
Rich
I Could Use A Love Song
My Church
Musicians
Maren Morris (vocals, guitar)
Bennett Lewis (guitar, vocals)
Annie Clements (bass, vocals)
Seriously - there's something pretty great about lady bass players
Welcome Back, My Friends
...to the show that never ends.
The Nation:
The University of Chicago Stigler Center’s three-day conference asked: “Does America Have a Concentration Problem?” A sufficient response to this could be “go outside.” Virtually every major sector in our economy has been whittled down to a few major players. Two companies produce nearly all of America’s toothpaste. One, Luxottica, produces nearly all the sunglasses. There are four cable and Internet providers, who have divvied up the country and rarely compete. There are four major airlines. There are four major commercial banks. There are four major Internet platforms—Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Google—controlling your information flow, your data, and your virtual life.
These markets are shrinking further, thanks to a continuing wave of mergers. Bayer is buying Monsanto to control a significant section of the agricultural seed market. AT&T and Time Warner’s combination would tie a content distributor to a content provider. The Walgreens–Rite Aid deal would narrow major chain pharmacies down to two (three if you’re generous and include Walmart). Platform monopolies like Google are buying a firm a week; it’s become a large part of their research-and-development strategy to acquire ideas and market share simultaneously.
And the slide backwards to the 18th century continues.
The Nation:
The University of Chicago Stigler Center’s three-day conference asked: “Does America Have a Concentration Problem?” A sufficient response to this could be “go outside.” Virtually every major sector in our economy has been whittled down to a few major players. Two companies produce nearly all of America’s toothpaste. One, Luxottica, produces nearly all the sunglasses. There are four cable and Internet providers, who have divvied up the country and rarely compete. There are four major airlines. There are four major commercial banks. There are four major Internet platforms—Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Google—controlling your information flow, your data, and your virtual life.
These markets are shrinking further, thanks to a continuing wave of mergers. Bayer is buying Monsanto to control a significant section of the agricultural seed market. AT&T and Time Warner’s combination would tie a content distributor to a content provider. The Walgreens–Rite Aid deal would narrow major chain pharmacies down to two (three if you’re generous and include Walmart). Platform monopolies like Google are buying a firm a week; it’s become a large part of their research-and-development strategy to acquire ideas and market share simultaneously.
And the slide backwards to the 18th century continues.
BTW: Try not to think too hard about the striking similarities between what's happening here right now and what started to happen a few years after the USSR fell apart - in about 1991-92, when Poppy Bush sent his old pal Bob Strauss to teach the Russkies how to retool their economy according to Freddy and Milty's Unfettered Free Market Capitalism.
This mess didn't get all fucked up yesterday and it won't get unfucked by tomorrow.
hat tip = J Gorman
It's Who We Are Now
From deep in Real America, we get the story of another 45* voter, learning that selective thinking can easily end up looking a whole lot like bad karma.
Buzzfeed:
A Mexican man who spent almost two decades living in the United States was deported back to his home country late Tuesday, separating him from his US-born wife, who voted for President Donald Trump.
Roberto Beristain, 43, had been in custody since he was detained on Feb. 6 during a routine check-in with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. After spending almost two months in detention centers across six states, the Indiana resident was suddenly taken alone to Juarez, Mexico, late Tuesday night, he said in a statement released by his attorneys, who had filed legal petitions requesting his release.
- and -
For many years, ICE agents took no action against Beristain, despite the order of removal against him. As he bought a local restaurant in Granger, Indiana, he checked in annually with officials, and was even able to obtain a driver's license, social security card, and work permit, according to his family.
Under Obama-era directives, ICE had concentrated mainly on deporting criminals and those who posed a threat to public safety. However, following President Trump's signing of an executive order in January on immigration, emboldened ICE agents have been detaining hundreds of undocumented immigrants, including those not charged with any crimes.
Helen Beristain told Indiana Public Media she voted for Trump, believing he would not deport "good people."
Buzzfeed:
A Mexican man who spent almost two decades living in the United States was deported back to his home country late Tuesday, separating him from his US-born wife, who voted for President Donald Trump.
Roberto Beristain, 43, had been in custody since he was detained on Feb. 6 during a routine check-in with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. After spending almost two months in detention centers across six states, the Indiana resident was suddenly taken alone to Juarez, Mexico, late Tuesday night, he said in a statement released by his attorneys, who had filed legal petitions requesting his release.
- and -
For many years, ICE agents took no action against Beristain, despite the order of removal against him. As he bought a local restaurant in Granger, Indiana, he checked in annually with officials, and was even able to obtain a driver's license, social security card, and work permit, according to his family.
Under Obama-era directives, ICE had concentrated mainly on deporting criminals and those who posed a threat to public safety. However, following President Trump's signing of an executive order in January on immigration, emboldened ICE agents have been detaining hundreds of undocumented immigrants, including those not charged with any crimes.
Helen Beristain told Indiana Public Media she voted for Trump, believing he would not deport "good people."
A Look Inside
Sean Spicer treats the WH press corps like a bunch of kindergarteners pic.twitter.com/skjUKe4lJK— Mдтт Иegяiи (@MattNegrin) April 5, 2017
And again - why do we get better insight from half-hour comedy shows than we get from the Press Poodles?
Today's Tweet
Current scotus ruled 8-0 against Judge Gorsuch's legal theory concerning children w/ disabilities. He's out of the mainstream. #StopGorsuch— Senator Bob Casey (@SenBobCasey) April 6, 2017
We have to push back against what seems like a constant pressure to move us further towards a system that predicates the value of a human being almost solely on the potential for that human being to put money in somebody's pocket.
Keith
Nobody thinks it thru quite like this guy.
NEW: So - New Election? pic.twitter.com/1LVp7BFKWt— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) April 6, 2017
Get together
Get to work
Get shit done
Wednesday, April 05, 2017
What A Yahoo
Meet the newest member of 45*'s National Security Council.
Gov Perry's in charge of the US Nuclear Arsenal, and now he gets to help make the decisions on what we'll be using them for.
Yeah - that fuckin' guy.
Less Than Likely
By my count, there are now four grounds to impeach Trump, and the fifth appears to be on its way. Our latest video explains: pic.twitter.com/K08kTMj9wj— Robert Reich (@RBReich) April 4, 2017
Sec'y Reich makes points that are valid and commensurate. Unfortunately, the stuff of which Articles of Impeachment are made usually sound unsexy, which lets the great unwashed consider them unimportant; no big deal.
The tax accountants at the FBI are the ones who nailed Capone. We should try to remember that one. And we should be pushing that one hard every chance we get.
Today's Tweet
Get together
Get to work
Get shit done
Get to work
Get shit done
Winning only blue districts won’t get Democrats the House — they’ll have to pick up some red seats, as well. https://t.co/7DcdrOovpz pic.twitter.com/ZrsBleu1Eq— FiveThirtyEight (@FiveThirtyEight) April 4, 2017
Tuesday, April 04, 2017
Curiouser
"I’ll beat your goddamn ass." Alex Jones went off on an unhinged rant, even by his standards, against Adam Schiff: https://t.co/NUxzo4J1mx pic.twitter.com/adty7sUA6w— Media Matters (@mmfa) April 4, 2017
Uhh - was Mr Jones threatening a US Congress member with bodily harm?
Today's Tweet
Lot's of truth here. pic.twitter.com/9XvTbLSybp— 🖕🏻Aunt Crabby 🖕🏻 (@DearAuntCrabby) April 3, 2017
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