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Good evening!
International Developments
❖ Two communities near Damascus were bombed, with “16 people, including seven children” killed in Qatana and “eight people, most of them women and children” killed in Jdaidet Artuz. Meanwhile, “at least two million Syrians . . . have fled abroad, where they live in dire conditions”. But most are displaced inside Syria”, “sliding into starvation and medieval hunger.”
❖ Russia has acknowledged that Syrian President al-Assad’s government is “losing control”. Syria denies use of Scud missiles.
❖ The pattern of tweets since 2002 by a New York University student each time a drone strike occurred “highlights a disturbing tactic” suggesting the US has been bombing targets “multiple times in relatively quick succession, meaning that the second strike often hits first responders”
❖ “Israel will withhold tax revenues from President Mahmoud Abbas’s administration” for months, apparently due to Palestine’s statehood bid at the UN.
❖ Avigdor Lieberman, Israeli Foreign Minister, has been charged with breach of trust for “allegedly” compromising “a criminal investigation into his business dealings”.
❖ The US Congress wants to increase the $99.9 million the White House has asked ”for anti-missile cooperation with Israel” (e.g., Arrow and David’s Sling) by $100 million (Senate) or $168 million (the House). Funds for the Iron Dome range from $210 million requested (WH), to $420 million (Senate) and $680 million (House).
❖ His widow’s lawyer claims Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB spy, was “working with M16 and Spanish intelligence on alleged Russian state ties to organized crime”. Litvinenko died of polonium-210 poisoning in 2006.
❖ Ever-nimble, Silvio Berlusconi now wants Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti to agree to enter next year’s elections with a “broad ‘moderate’ alliance”. If Monti agrees, Berlusconi won’t run.
❖ The long-time copacetic community comprised of the villages of Derby Line, VT and Stanstead, Quebec is being separated by rules, fences, flower pots, arrests and $5,000 fines. Video.
International Finance
❖ 200 European banks are to be put “under the direct oversight of the European Central Bank, which will act as chief supervisor of eurozone banks.”
❖ It’s “just capitalism”, says Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, praising his company’s tax avoidance. Last year, Google had £2.5 billion in sales in the UK but paid £6million in taxes; £10 billion socked away in Bermuda, saving some £2 billion in taxes. Both G8 and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) intend to explore this.
Money Matters USA
❖ OR Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley just “blasted the U.S. Department of Justice for its policy of offering ‘deferred prosecution’ for large financial institutions that break federal criminal laws”. He called it “Too Big to Jail” and wants explanations.
❖ Since the federal deficit has decreased steadily from 10.1% of GDP in 2009, to 7.0 % in 2012, but unemployment seems with us for a while yet, the Wall Street Journal advises against “an overdose of instant austerity”.
❖ Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit, by law. Moreover, people paying into Social Security now are supporting the people collecting Social Security now, a repetitive pattern over generations, by design. If payments exceed income, other measures can be called into play, such as raising the income cap on contributions.
❖ 60% of “battleground state” voters say reduce the deficit by increasing taxes on incomes higher than $250,000; 64% say increase corporate taxes; 64% are opposed to raising the Social Security retirement age–including 66% of those 18-29 agreed.
❖ Don’t miss “A Giant Statistical Round-up of the Income Inequality Crisis in 16 Charts”. Examples: sharp drop in “median income of working-age families” from 2007 to 2010; 254.3% increase in worker productivity compared to 113.1% in real hourly compensation, 1948-2011; 240.5% increase in real annual household for the top 1% compared to everybody else (range of 11% to 71%); much, much more.
Politics USA
❖ Resurgent Republic, a GOP polling outfit, reveals that “Republicans have run out of persuadable white voters”.
❖ OR Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley has a filibuster reform proposal to end the paralysis in the Senate.
❖ Shine the light on Dark Money! NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has proposed regulations requiring “all non-profit groups that are registered in [NY] to include in annual financial reports the percentage of their spending that goes to federal, state and local electioneering.”
❖ Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) announced his Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing in 2013 “to ask the administration how it plans to handle the differences in federal and state laws on marijuana policy.”
Health, Homelessness & Hunger
❖ OR Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkeley argues “we should be ‘lowering’ the Medicare age, ‘not raising it’”. Cost to seniors of raising the Medicare age to 67: $11 billion at least.
❖ Tomorrow’s the deadline for them to officially declare their intent, but so far only 15 states have advised they will operate their own health exchanges under the Affordable Care Act.
❖ Another contentious, lengthy episode of deliberation has resulted in the publication of the American Psychiatric Association’s 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. And with that, another contentious, lengthy episode of reaction to publication of the DSM5 has commenced.
Women & Children
❖ Across the state and nation, “Women’s health advocates and pro-choice supporters are livid” and calling for MI Republican Gov Rick Snyder to veto the “anti-choice Super Bill”.
❖ MI state Sen. Gretchen Whitmer (D) takes on Republicans in the state senate for two of their wars–the War on Women and the War on Workers. Video.
❖ US Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) “lashes out at House GOP leaders on Violence Against Women Act. “ House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and House member Eric Cantor (R-TN) are holding up the bill. Cantor objects to having tribal courts try non-Native Americans accused of raping Native Americans on tribal lands.
❖ Eeeeeeeek! Planned Parenthood stole the color pink.
Working for A Living
❖ In MS, where there is much anti-labor sentiment and where so much of the Civil Rights struggle occurred in the ’60s, the United Auto Workers is saying “worker rights is the civil rights battle of the 21st century”.
❖ What happened in MI? The Charles G. Koch and the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundations provide funds to the Mackinac Public Policy Center which is connected to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) which developed the “right-to-work” and the “emergency financial managers” bills. Also, ”real estate mogul Ron Weiser”, former chair of MI’s Republican Party and self-described “full-time” pusher of “right-to-work” laws.
❖ “Oops: Michigan Republicans Have Passed a Right to Work Law that may be Impossible to Implement”.
❖ Detroit’s Democratic Mayor Dave Bing’s administration “issued bonus checks to nonunion employees last week despite the city’s unprecedented fiscal crisis.” Checks ranged from $150 to $750.
❖ Unemployment claims for the week ending December 8th were 343,000, down 29,000 from the previous week.
Heads Up!
❖ “A Eulogy for #Occupy”, moving and vivid first-hand account of a writer’s one-year involvement with Occupy.
❖ The Oakland, CA Police Department will be placed under a temporary court-appointed compliance director.
❖ Discussed in the WH in March, approved by AG Eric Holder a week later: the new ability of “the National Counterterrorism Center to examine the government files of U.S. citizens for possible criminal behavior, even if there is no reason to suspect them” and to share civilian databases with foreign governments.
Planet Earth News
❖ “Climate change: the Inuit now have words for ‘bumblebee’ and ‘robin’“. Article summarizing the rapid impact of global warming on the Arctic.
❖ The US Bureau of Land Management got bids from eight entities, “including oil companies”, as it auctioned off oil leases on “prime public lands” in rural portions of three CA counties.
❖ Meanwhile, Los Angeles and Burbank have agreed to purchase solar power from Sempra Energy in NV for 20 years.
Mixed Bag
❖ Geminid meteor shower time! This evening into tomorrow morning.
❖ Back to the drawing board: “Organisms long thought to have been the ancestors of early marine creatures may in fact have lived on land”.
Break Time
❖ Where Matt was in 2008.
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About FDL News Desk
Link for the “Derby Line, VT and Stanstead, Quebec” seems to be missing. Is it this?
Giving new meaning to, “Give me the wretched refuse of your teeming shore”:
Upstate NY might have been spared being trashed by Sandy,
but it’s not being spared Sandy’s trash from the coast.
Groatings, Dear Fatster. Great Roundup for the day! Good news today.
I bring you some fun facts:
Christmas Tree Genome Traced To Age Of Dinosaurs.
Lost Campsite Of Antarctic Explores Rediscovered Century Later.
New Poisonous Species of Slow Loris Discovered.
And a few news links too:
Senate Committee Approves New Report On CIA Torture, Revives Debate.
Crushing Kids To Death By Big-Screen TVs Up, Government Report Warns.
hi fatster, I think matt studied under
psy (Gangnam style)
darms, thank you so much for checking into that. It looked fine, but it surely didn’t work (the link, I mean). I believe it’ll work now and I hope so because the video is really neat. Thnx so much, including giving folks the supplemental link.
Please let me know if the link (I think I’ve successfully installed now) doesn’t work.
That’s quite a little nightmare, isn’t it, allan? And just in time for the holidays, too, since there’s a deadline of Dec 26th. Oh, joy. Thnx so much.
LOLOL. That’s wonderful, mafr–and Good Evening!
I’m not too thrilled with Jeff Merkeley’s talking filibuster reform. It’s not enough, and will merely take the Senate back to the days of Jesse Helms and Wm Byrd — not referring to ideology there, but process. And talk, we’ll hear. There’s no guarantee that obstructionism will not continue, which means it will.
It would be better for Reid & Co to be a hard ass about this, and geld filibuster firmly and completely. Do it with 51+ votes on the first day if need be. Just get it done.
I’m afraid Merkeley’s plan will do little more than fend off that day of reckoning. Half a loaf, etc. . .
A saucer of milk is only for the cat nowadays, not running things. If 51 senators feel they are ready to vote, let them do so, and accept accountability.
Oh, the great Gothrykke comes bearing gifts. Nice ones, too. Thank you!
So, it seems people are decorating dinosaur food for the holidays. That’s a different way of looking at it.
I do hope the campsite turns out to be Scott’s. That’d be nice all for everybody.
Now, abut that Loris. Imagine how scary it would be if it were a fast Loris. And how does it transmit the venom? Like a rattlesnake does or through its mucous or what? Actually, maybe it’d be just as well I don’t know. I’m just glad it’s slow.
That thing about children and the teevees just leaves me speechless. I despair.
You seem all chipper and feeling much better these days, Gothrykke.
It’ll be interesting to see what they do, won’t it, maa8722? Apparently, at least according to the article, Reid seems to like it. Merkley’s stepping up to the plate lately. His name just kept popping up today while I was out there searching for news items. I do hope he follows through on his recognition of the “Too Big to Jail” phenomenon. I haven’t seen any polls on that recently, have you? It’d be interesting to see how many people agree with his sentiments.
Back during my folkie days, I played the guitar a bit (we needn’t embarrass me by going into how well I played it), but I kept thinking today about having to deal with a sitar and the moveable frets. Oh, my!
I found it, allan! I didn’t mention it because I figured it was so old it wouldn’t be on the intertubes, but here it is. Enjoy.
Re #10. . .
The following is only my specualtion. . .
The sitar’s moveable frets must serve a purpose needed by its complex music, and mindful of the dearth of strings. Yesterday I recall reading that there were only three pluckable strings plus a fourth nearby (within the neck of the instrument) which would “ring” sympathetically in harmony with what was played.
The moveable frets, I think, must provide a lot of potential extra notes needed by each of the few sitar strings. That feature would not be needed on a guitar (or a lute) with fixed frets but more strings. I have seen lutes with anywhere from nine to seventeen strings (some look unplayable), and some lutes with no frets at all (guesswork galore for the player?).
I looked for sitar CDs yesterday on eBay. Lots of 60s era LPs there, and few CDs. I’m on a roll though and must look further.
I guess it’s best there are only three pluckable strings, maa8722. Imagine having to pluck even more strings–while simultaneously adjusting frets. Frenetic activity, for sure.
Glad you’re on a roll and hope you meet lots of success!
My recent musical mystery is how slide trombonists know what note they are playing. Don’t know anything about that instrument, but recently went to a concert where some played. Doesn’t seem to be any marker on slide to denote the note. My friend who attended with me conferred in my puzzlement.
Syrian humanitarian intervention–1860 version.
Note that “plan” (to divvy up Ottoman empire by European states) preceded desired outcome by 50+ years.
Heh, maybe Dinosaurs were decorating them with ancient mammal carcases for their holidays. That’s a nice, crackheaded thought.
I think it’s a case of bad taste in the mouth poisoning. The taste of sweat is terrible, imagine licking poison glands. Still, a fast Loris would scare the hell out of those scientists. Imagine them trying to catch it for study only to find themselves being attacked by the diamond back of the trees.
Why, yes, I am feeling better, thank you for noticing. Only a few scabbing scars and a little weakness left of my surgery. It’s good to be young and have the surgery, minus complications. Thanking my lucky stars is a new hobby.
Oh, I do so love youtube! Here you go, eCAHN: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0UKvxhQKCY
And remember all the fretless string instruments–violin, bass, etc. There’s even a fretless guitar, but luckily, I never met one.
O plans to recriminalize mj in CO & WA.
Many thanks. Will pass link to concert companion & her wife who was in the chorus.
Aloha, fatster, another excellent roundup…! I just posted a new MENA roundup, as I head out the door for Occupy Hilo’s weekly GA…! ;-)
Left you a comment.
LOLOL. No wonder some people prefer to just celebrate Festivus.
Thnx for the health update.
:)
:)
:)
Aloha, CTuttle, and thanks. There’s the “fog of war” and there’s the “propaganda fog of war”–one in support of the other, resulting in hell on earth for innocent persons, especially children.
Pssst! Wanna see a really cute boid?
Re: #18
I’m not sure how O plans to “recriminalize” MJ in CO and WA, since MJ was never decriminalized there (or anywhere else) in the first place — at least not in the Federal sense.
All the states did was to withdraw most of their own law enforcement efforts from the MJ regime. The Fed regime never changed one iota.
What’s significant, however, would be the level to which the Feds have relied upon the states and locals to enforce what is essentially the Fed anti-drug policy. Absent state and local involvement, what are the Feds to do to protect that policy?
I would guess O has some options, but none of them would be practical or winners politically. The Feds could curtail certain financial supports for recalcitrant states. Or the Feds could flood MJ-friendly states with Fed agents to fill in the enforcement gap. Or the Feds could federalize state and local law enforcement and force them to levy Fed policy and laws even when they are contrary to state and local law.
Maybe there are still more bad options out there for O to choose from. It’ll be interesting to watch what happens next.
“After a delay of nearly two months owing to a technical glitch, the Air Force’s secretive X-37B space plane blasted off again from Cape Canaveral, Florida, atop an Atlas rocket on Tuesday.
The launch starts the third mission in three years for the robotic X-37 fleet, assembled in Boeing’s now-shuttered Building 31 in Huntington Beach, California, for an estimated $1 billion apiece. But for all the time spent in orbit by the two school bus-size spacecraft — 693 days in all — it’s no more clear today precisely what the Air Force has been up to with the X-37s.”
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/12/space-plane-third-flight/
This is not one of my issues, so I pass along what others say.
My understanding is that mj usage
iswas a matter of states rights, and that O will overrule states rights (yet another “right” O abolishes) by making individuals subjects of commerce clause.Or something like that.
Christianity now a crime in Egypt.
Re: #27
“States rights” is a loaded term, used inconsistently, and problematic, I’m afraid. We all know how the far right uses it.
But there are other uses, which might better search out another term. Certainly the Feds have purview over MJ and “drugs” as well as proxies of such. But wherever (if anywhere) the Feds can force the states to help the Feds enforce is ultimately a political dilemma coyly cloaked in legalisms.
We’ll see how effective the Feds are in forcing all states and localities to participate in the “secure communities” immigration program. They must all participate, it is not optional, and they won’t all do so. MJ enforcement efforts should be just as interesting, however it plays out.
“Reefer madness” in the Justice Department. That’s just the ticket to attract young voters to the Democratic Party.
For the life of me, I can’t understand the Obama Administration’s obsession with MJ. It’s not like there are any votes in prosecuting co and WA. Allthe states where people really care are deep red states anyway. The only explanation I can come up with is that the resistance is coming from deep inside DOJ drom people whose careers are tied up in the ‘war on drugs’ and who have close ties with congress, close enough to blackmail the administration. Nothing else makes any sense.
Morning pups
On Stanstead QC. Our country house is in Stanstead, and I run over to Derby Line almost every Saturday to arbitrage the gap in Quebec and Vermont gas prices. The highway from Fitch Bay to the toen runs right on the line, US houses on one side of the street and Canadian ones on the other. I always wondered what would happen if someone’s dog got loose and ran across the street. Would a person be arrested for chasing it down?
There are three border crossings within 4 kilometers: a tiny one at Beebe Plain and two in Stanstead proper (formerly Rock Island). One is on I-91, which is the big one where the semis and tourist traffic goes through. The other is the one in the video. It has been recently discovered by people who smuggle illegal immigrants into Canada, which is the main reason for the uptick in security. About a month ago the Canadiangovernment put up a new barrier on the side of the road leading into the Unted States, which the smugglers would race through in the middle of the night to avoid Customs and Immigration. Otherwise the traffic seems about normal, though there are occasional ‘excesses of zeal’ on the US side.
Yes, I know states rights is a loaded term.
However, the more I get into how govts work, the more I see how much in common the lefties & the righties have.
Not going to explain it here. Have done too much useless explaining on FDL over the past 5+ years.
Just keep it in mind as your perceptions change with added information.
I also blame residual DLC thinking. People in DC think it’s still the 1980s, and suburban soccer moms are scared witless about pot turning their kids into brain-damaged slackers. (They’re more worried about their kids living at home until age 30 because they’re saddled by student loans and can’t find a better job than restocking merchandise at Kohl’s.) There’s also the problem of government admitting that it made a colossal mistake in devoting so many justice-system resources to a failed attempt to enforce marijuana prohibition.
I’m not sure what the real story is either. As I typed, not one of my issue.
One hypothesis I have is that War on Drugs (TM) is a big financier of Deep State. As is a lot of criminal activity. Think mafia & JFK assassination.
Another hyp is that O is openly financed by PhRMA, and perhaps there’s a competitive cheaper better product from mj that PhRMA is doing its worstest to make sure doesn’t substitute.
That’s part of the poppy issue in Afghanistan. Poppy opiates, I am told, are better & cheaper than fawncy high priced pain killers that drug corps make.
Can’t have that.
Here’s an idea:
To limit filibusters, invoke NFL challenge rules:
http://www.occasionalplanet.org/2012/12/05/to-limit-filibusters-invoke-nfl-challenge-rule/
The Maine-Quebec border–
An article on one Canadian jailed for getting gas at a station a few feet in Maine–which everyone had been doing for decades in the small border town, where the border office which is a long drive away anyway, and closes at 2 pm.
In the town in question, the border actually runs through people’s houses.
And the Canadian in question who was 20 feet in the US–it was partridge season, so he had a shotgun in his pickup and to add to that, he had been arrested for burglary as a juvenile. He was charged with multiple felonies, but I believe he got released after a few weeks.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/canada/1422176/Village-Customs-border-on-the-ridiculous.html
Oh, what a cutie, prostradedragon! Owl Jolson it is. Many thnx.
Surely they wouldn’t be doing this: “. . . in theory the X-37s could also carry spy sensors or gear for hacking enemy satellites.”
Interesting the two different versions of what’s happening with the North Korean satellite, too.
Thnx, mafr, and . . . Good Morning!
Don’t know if this helps any, maa8722, but here’s a report from Nov 2011, and a summary of Obama’s response in early 2012 to such reports.
It’s one of those sticky wickets, all right, thanks in large part to one Harry Anslinger.
You’ve probably already seen this, Knut, but just in case. Thnx.
What is the frigging matter with U.S.ians. The ones quoted in your link don’t really think DPRK is any threat to anyone, do they? A bomb with a return addy? Nuts. And from a country that was bombed to the stone age by the U.S. during the Korean war?
The stupidity of inside the Beltwayers is ginormous.
Many thanks for your first-hand report, Knut. The part about arresting people on the sidewalk got to me the most, I think. I just hope the people of the towns are able to keep their traditional community spirit intact.
That’s great, otchmoson! Many thnx.
It makes less sense by the day.
But at some point since O took office I think the PTB felt MJ liberalization was still a net loser — or might be. An unexpected incident somewhere could provide a “There!, You See!?” moment for O’s opponents. The risk might be a bit much for any cautious imagination to bear.
I bet that will change over the next four years, though.
Also, the old, “natural” French Horn. . . It has no valves, and is very hard to play. The pitch can only be controlled by the placement of a fist in the front of the horn and the air pressure blown through the horn. But what a beautiful sound it makes!
I suppose the valves were added at some point for the wusses who couldn’t play the old instrument.
I have a CD of the Brahms and Mozart Horn Trios using a natural French Horn. It’s among my favorites.