Chelsea Clinton, Ace Reporter

Add her to those other journalism graduates now working in the media: Sarah Palin, Jenna Bush, Meghan McCain.

I really don’t understand what those angry, lazy losers in the Occupy movement are so upset about. America is a meritocracy; if you work hard and prove your skills, you get ahead. The winners deserve what they have because they have earned it. And when all else fails, we have a media filled with insurgent outsiders who will be relentless watchdogs over those in power because that’s what our media outlets are: true outsiders there to check the most powerful factions.

Even more encouragingly, we have a media that ensures that diverse views are heard; Chelsea Clinton previously worked at a $12 billion hedge fund and her former-Goldman-Sachs-banker husband earlier this year launched his own hedge fund with “two guys from Goldman,” so she brings a depth and diversity of perspetive that is sorely lacking in our news (true, CNN boldly features Erin Burnett — the former Goldman, Sachs employee and current fiancé of a top Citigroup executive — but nothing can compete with Chelsea Clinton’s rich, impressive journalism background).

  Glenn Greenwald

And here’s Fox News bashing NBC for hiring Jenna Bush and Chelsea Clinton as “the celebrity factor” - “this isn’t really journalism, it’s celebrity news – it’s ridiculous.” Fox News, who hired Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

And One MORE Thing

(Speaking of the Trans-Pacific "Partnership")

And has there ever been such a gaggle of fourth-rate poltroons, of shallow, witless, gormless goobers as the leaders of the "developed" world these days? Sarkozy, Cameron, Merkel, Berlusconi [ed:one down], Obama ....? It's like the last tribal council on Easter Island.

  Chris Floyd

Bank of America - Coming Around for Seconds

In the recent Wall Street collapse, B of A took advantage of the crisis to bulk up its empire. Using $45 billion in bailout money from us taxpayers, the giant gobbled up two troubled financial powers, investment house Merrill Lynch and mortgage hustler Countrywide Financial. It is now choking on these mergers, as well as its own executive incompetence. Its credit rating has been downgraded, its stock price has plummeted, its CEO is desperately trying to raise cash (and save his job) by firing 36,000 employees, and it has infuriated its own customers by trying to impose a $5 monthly fee on debit card users.

[...]

[CEO Brian Moynihan is] trying to transfer a mess of bad investments now held by the Merrill Lynch subsidiary into B of A's consumer banking unit. Why? Because that unit has about a trillion dollars in customer deposits that are insured by Uncle Sam. So, if Merrill's sorry investments cause the banking unit to fail, the feds would be there to rescue it.

[...]

Why should we let these failed capitalists turn into corporate socialists every time they get in trouble?

  Jim Hightower

Uh…they own us?

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

USA! USA! We're Number ONE!

Uh…number 27?

A foundation in Germany has analyzed the social justice records of all 31 members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, ranking each nation in such categories as health care, income inequality, pre-school education, and child poverty rate. The overall performance by the U.S. – which boasts of being an egalitarian society – outranks only Greece, Chile, Mexico, and Turkey. Actually, even three of those countries performed better than ours in the education of pre-schoolers, and Greece did better than the U.S. on the prevention of poverty.

[...]

[Our] nation is fabulously rich, ranking well ahead of nearly all OECD members in national wealth, so there is no excuse for us sitting at the bottom of the list in education, health care, poverty, and other measures of a democratic and egalitarian society.

  Jim Hightower

Yeah, Jim? Who’s saying we’re democratic and egalitarian?

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

You Cannot Compete

Seriously. Cannot. Here's an interesting story about how healthy-food vendors are shut down in order to favor corporate food sellers and business interests.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Brave New World

Interesting encounter near Zuccotti Park.

From what I’ve seen, it’s a society in which a somewhat surly, armed man sitting 25 feet up in a little metal box spying on people, protected by a similarly armed, perhaps slightly confused, young man in a car, would be considered odd and unnecessary. The fact that New York City is now a place where you’re not supposed to notice such things, much less question them (and, if you do, you’re questioned for it), says a lot about where the United States is as a society and why, perhaps, there are hardy souls braving the cold in Zuccotti Park to build a new one.

  Nick Turse, Alternet

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Supply Your Own Comments

For years, Palestinians have complained about the use of force at roadblocks by the Israel Defense Force. This week a tragedy has highlighted those concerns for the Israeli populace after the IDF killed a 55-year-old Israeli rabbi and settler, Dan Mertzbach, after he failed to stop.

[...]

Soldiers opened fire after he failed to stop at a temporary checkpoint in the southern West Bank. The roadblock was set up after reports of a suspicious car on the road. The two passengers were wounded. In addition, the soldier who fired the shots was injured when he ran toward the car and was hit by a passing Palestinian truck.

[...]

Notably, according to reports today, “[t]he Defense Ministry announced to the National Insurance Institute on Friday that Mertzbach will be recognized as the victim of a ‘terror event.’”

The designation of the victim of a “terror event” will allow payment to the family.

  Jonathan Turley

Not to mention add to the inflated list of "Palestinian" terrorist attacks they use to whine about being overrun by a ruthless enemy.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Okay, sorry, that was my comment. Not your own.

No Wonder Liquor Is So Popular

It was possible, once, for communities to experiment with everything from free love to an end to private property. But nowadays even the palest federalism is swiftly crushed. If your state tries to place tariffs on companies doing business with some notorious human-rights-violator state – like Massachusetts did, when it sought to bar state contracts to firms doing business with Myanmar – the decision will be overturned by some distant global bureaucracy like the WTO. Even if 40 million Californians vote tomorrow to allow themselves to smoke a joint, the federal government will never permit it. And the economy is run almost entirely by an unaccountable oligarchy in Lower Manhattan that absolutely will not sanction any innovations in banking or debt forgiveness or anything else that might lessen its predatory influence.

[...]

We're all born wanting the freedom to imagine a better and more beautiful future. But modern America has become a place so drearily confining and predictable that it chokes the life out of that built-in desire. Everything from our pop culture to our economy to our politics feels oppressive and unresponsive. We see 10 million commercials a day, and every day is the same life-killing chase for money, money and more money; the only thing that changes from minute to minute is that every tick of the clock brings with it another space-age vendor dreaming up some new way to try to sell you something or reach into your pocket. The relentless sameness of the two-party political system is beginning to feel like a Jacob's Ladder nightmare with no end; we're entering another turn on the four-year merry-go-round, and the thought of having to try to get excited about yet another minor quadrennial shift in the direction of one or the other pole of alienating corporate full-of-shitness is enough to make anyone want to smash his own hand flat with a hammer.

  Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

We MUST Stop Iran!

Israel is waging an intense campaign to drag us into war [against Iran] on their behalf, and they aren’t trying to hide it. What they are intent on hiding, however, is the way in which our Congress, our public officials, and our political culture are being bought off by their proxies. We ship billions to Tel Aviv, and they ship it back to us in the form of propaganda and relentless pressure to bend the White House and Congress to their will.

That’s what’s so “special” about the “special relationship” – the same relationship a tapeworm has to a stomach.

  Justin Raimondo

A series of news reports linking Israel's intelligence agency the Mossad to a blast at a military facility in Iran, in which 17 people were killed and a further 15 wounded, has gained widespread coverage in the Israeli media on Monday.

While Iranian officials insist the explosion at the Bid Ganeh base was accidental, caused by the movement of ammunition, claims from anonymous western and Israeli officials that Saturday's blast was a covert Israeli operation have gained momentum.

  UK Guardian

Hmmmm…If Iran is so hell bent on destroying Israel, as we are constantly being told, then why would they deny that Israel was responsible for the blast?

Leading Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot picked up a post by US blogger Richard Silverstein claiming [unsubstantiated] the Mossad had teamed up with Iranian militant group Mujahideen e-Khalq (MEK) to execute the alleged attack.

Ah, the MEK – the terrorists group that is being supported and defended by many a leading US official? Which makes the denial by the Iranian government all the more at odds with the idea that Iran wants to wipe Israel off the face of the earth, since Iran is currently claiming that the MEK is behind the recent fool’s errand regarding the supposed attempt to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the US.

Leftwing broadsheet Ha'aretz also led with reports that a western intelligence source quoted in Time magazine had claimed the Mossad carried out the attack in an attempt to stall Iran's development of a nuclear weapon.

[...]

The blast at the base, which is reported to have been a storage facility for long-range missiles, was so powerful that it was said to be felt 30 miles away in the capital, Tehran.

Among those killed was Major General Hassan Moghaddam, the Revolutionary Guard Commander charged with "ensuring self-sufficiency" in armaments and described by Iranian media as a pioneer in Iranian missile development.

Israel's Defence Minister Ehud Barak responded to news of Moghaddam's death saying: "May there be more like it."

And Iran wouldn’t take this opportunity to use against Israel? I thought they were hot-headed, blood-thirsty devils.

The Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's office refused to comment on growing speculation of the Mossad's involvement. Ilan Mizrahi, former head of the National Security Council and former deputy head of the Mossad, also would not be drawn into substantiating the claims: "I have no idea whether this blast was accidental or whether it was sabotage but I will say God bless those who were behind it because the free world should be doing its best to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear military capability."

Amen. They’re hot-headed, blood-thirsty devils.

Israel has been linked to several previous incidents in Iran similar to Saturday's explosion, including an explosion at a Shahab facility in south-western Iran in 2010 and a bomb attack earlier that year in Tehran, in which Iranian physicist Masoud Ali Mohammadi was killed.

What? And Iran hasn’t retaliated?

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Coming Soon to an Occupy Near You

So far, there have been few clashes between the Occupy forces and the police, although Oakland and New York have both seen some dramatic confrontations and the events at the UC campus in Berkeley last week were downright brutal. There have been many arrests, however, and some of the communities are starting to react unfavourably to the demonstrators, demanding that the occupations disperse. The big question for everyone is what will happen if they don't.

[...]

Reporter Ando Arick analysed the new generation of weaponry in an article in Harper's called "The Soft-Kill Solution - New Frontiers In Pain Compliance". He recounts a 60 Minutes investigation into a new weapon to be used for what the military said was "crowd control in Iraq".

Yet in military exercises in Georgia, soldiers were dressed as protesters, carrying signs that say "world peace", "love for all" and "peace not war" for some reason. In what was presented as a choice between backing off and shooting into the crowd, the audience was then shown that a "ray gun" was on top of the Humvee.

"An operator squeezes off a blast. The first shot hits them like an invisible punch. The protesters regroup, and he fires again, and again. Finally they’ve had enough. The ray gun drives them away with no harm done."

Except for the repeated "invisible punches", of course. But like the Taser, the whole point of this "pain compliance" is to inflict short-term physical agony on human beings to "induce behavioural modification".

They have developed plans for a flying drone that fires stun darts at suspects, a "Shockwave Area-Denial System", which blankets the area in question with electrified darts, and a wireless Taser projectile with a 100-metre range, helpful for picking off "ringleaders" in unruly crowds.

Would the public balk? Probably not. After all, they've accepted the Taser to such an extent that it's now a staple of movie comedies and viral YouTube videos. The ground has been well-prepared. And after all, just as the government has expanded its police powers and built up its arsenal of "pain compliance" weaponry, the broader culture was lifting the centuries-old taboo against torture.

[...]

We have essentially normalised torture and created a high-tech police apparatus with more capability than any military in history. Human nature suggests that if you build it, they will use it.

alJazeera

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

The Latest Commercial Entertainment

Or as the networks like to call it: the debates.

Ron Paul says waterboarding is torture, illegal under international law, and immoral, and uncivilized, and doesn’t work. Huntsman agrees.

  WIIIAI

So, they’re out, then. No self-respecting GOPer would vote for a weenie.

Can a president simply order the killing of an American citizen suspected of terrorism? Absolutely, says Romney. [...] And a couple of seconds after that he said, “And I will stand and use whatever means necessary within the law to make sure that we protect America’s citizens and Americans’ rights.” Law? Rights?

And this is the GOP nominee. Who else have they got? Bachmann the Nut? Cain the Who-Knows-What? Gingrich, whom nobody even wants to hear any more? Santorum? Yeah, right.

Romney calls for a trade war against China, because there’s a trade war going on now.

Everything has to be a war. There can be no peace. Only the pretended desire for it.

And where the hell are the Democratic presidential hopefuls? Why is it that once a party is in office, they simply presume that the same guy will stand in the following cycle? This isn’t a team sport. Right? Ha. You know darned well that there are bookies for this just like in any other sport.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

And One More Thing

The United States has not explicitly ruled out China’s entrance into the TPP, but Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has linked the “21st century” trade agreement to fundamental values including openness and labor standards.

Obama, seeking re-election next year as many heartland Americans think they lost their jobs to lower-wage China, told Hu on Saturday that Americans were “impatient” for a change in Beijing’s economic policy.

Raw Story

He thinks Americans are antsy for a change in China’s economic policy? Surely he jests. Or I suppose that’s the “royal” use of “Americans?” He really means himself and his handlers.

I have a question. Why do “heartland Americans” think they lost their jobs to lower-wage China? Because China is fundamentally evil? Could they possibly wrap their heads around the fact that it’s the corporations running things here in this country that resulted in the jobs going to China? Maybe if Faux News would tell them that truth they could. They’re like pitchfork mobs; they’ll swarm around whatever idiot shouts the loudest and dangles a light in front of their eyes.

Obama scrapped the tradition of kitting out APEC leaders in local costume for the obligatory end of summit “family photo.”

“I got rid of the Hawaiian shirts because I had looked at pictures of some of the previous APEC meetings and some of the garb that had appeared previously, and I thought this may be a tradition that we might want to break,” he said afterwards at a closing press conference.

Okay, which country is he dissing?

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

PS..what's with the guy in the back? The only guy who's in reality world and refuses to listen to the smarm and foolishness? Lalalalala...I can't heeeeeeear you.