Roll Back to the 1880s

In other news, as I just cannot keep track of who's getting bombed this time? -- after all it's "9/11, 9/11 9/1l" and I don't know yet whether Rudy Giuliani has seen his hairline yet and has proclaimed six more wars. So today in other iniquities. Last year, the heirs to the Walton empire...who have accomplished nothing in life so much as surviving birth...each accumulated another $3.3 billion in wealth. Or as some call them, makers. Meanwhile, how is it going for the people propping them up on their medically uninsured backs?

Richard Reynoso, a Walmart employee working in a southern California store, sent a letter to Walmart’s corporate headquarters on Monday, claiming that he couldn’t afford to comply with a new company dress code that takes effect on September 29. It was written on letterhead with the logo of OUR Walmart, a union-backed organization advocating for Walmart workers. Under the new code, workers will have to a wear a collared blue or white shirt and black or khaki pants, along with a Walmart vest the company will provide. Employees can use clothes they already own or buy new clothes anywhere they want, but they have to pay for the shirts and pants out of their own pockets.

Seems fair. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Class with a big "C" instead of three "Ks"

Luol Deng...a man with more than just a "little African" in him...along with a lot of class.

You cannot beat a good P.R. campaign

Is Qatar taking advice from FIFA as well as the NFL?

Krishna Upadhyaya and Gundev Ghimire, the two British human rights researchers detained in Qatar for almost nine days, have reportedly been released from custody, but have not yet left the country.

There have been myriad reports on the virtual slave conditions foreign workers have suffered as blood money for the wealthy crooken financiers and FIFA officials (redundant?) behind the 2022 World Cup. So you know where this is going.

Upadhyaya and Ghimire went missing in Qatar on 31 August. After almost a week without any official statement on the men's whereabouts, the ministry of foreign affairs in Qatar announced on Sunday that the men had been arrested and were "being interrogated for having violated the provisions of the laws of the state of Qatar". According to their employer, the Global Network for Rights and Development (GNRD), the men were in Qatar researching a forthcoming report on the working and living conditions of Nepalese migrant labourers.

If there's video of their findings, Sepp Blatter has as strong an interest in not knowing about it as his American counterpart Roger Goodell. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Let's not go to the videotape

Remember ladies and gentlemen, If you are a prominent person, admitted domestic abuse only goes so far...without the videotape. And God forbid you are not a prominent person, and especially a non-prominent person of color -- because then you cannot ever see the videotape...unless the guy who got you killed gets to interpret it for you.

When Ronald Ritchie called 911 from the aisles of a Walmart in western Ohio last month to report that a black man was “walking around with a gun in the store”, he said that shoppers were coming under direct threat. “He’s, like, pointing it at people,” Ritchie told the dispatcher. Later that evening, after John Crawford III had been shot dead by one of the police officers who hurried to the scene in Beavercreek, Ritchie repeated to reporters: “He was pointing at people. Children walking by.” One month later, Ritchie puts it differently. “At no point did he shoulder the rifle and point it at somebody,” the 24-year-old said, in an interview with the Guardian.

And there's a videotape...but TMZ is not on the case.

They have pleaded with Mike DeWine, Ohio’s attorney general, to release the store’s surveillance footage of the shooting to the public. Having viewed it, they say that it disproves Ritchie’s version of what led to the deaths of both Crawford and a 37-year-old woman who collapsed and died in the ensuing panic. “It was an execution, no doubt about it,” alleged Crawford’s father, John Crawford II. “It was flat-out murder. And when you see the footage, it will illustrate that.” DeWine has said that releasing the footage would be “playing with dynamite”

Guess who DOES get to play with dynamite?

Ritchie told the Guardian that he, too, was shown the surveillance footage by officials in the attorney general’s bureau of criminal investigation, who are investigating the shooting. “That is very improper,” said attorney Michael Wright, who said that Ritchie’s statement on what happened should have been based only on what he remembered seeing. Ritchie said that he had also become aware of past criminal allegations against Crawford, which were dropped. He declined to say if he had learned this from DeWine’s officials. Asked four times by the Guardian whether they had told the witness about Crawford’s court record, a spokesman for DeWine declined to comment.

Under any reasonable standards, Mr. Ritchie should at a minimum be ashamed of playing the part in getting an innocent man murdered. But this is Mike DeWine's Ohio, and the Ferguson Playbook is in full-effect. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Let me guess

He wanted to draw the line at Ass-Kissing for access, while the remaining sycophants were for complete full-service rim-jobs?

Politico executive editor Rick Berke announced Sunday evening that he is parting with the Beltway-centric outlet, a surprise resignation that comes less than a year after his hire. In a memo sent to staff, and obtained by the Huffington Post, Berke said while he was leaving on amicable terms, he no longer saw eye-to-eye with Politico's co-founders John Harris and Jim VandeHei. "While our overarching goals are similar, Jim, John and I have agreed to disagree over the strategy for achieving those goals," he wrote in the memo.

Yep, time to taste the tainty-tang of John Boehner. "Mmmmm, that's a smokey oriface...both ends!"

Apparently, you can never dig deeply enough

FIFA, sure it's corrupt.  After all, it let itself be bribed into placing its biggest event consecutively in a place notable for invading other places (but not the U.S., trick question I know) and a place notable for modern slavery.

But fortunately for FIFA it has no conscience...and a penchant for ironic comedy.

FIFA's financial monitoring panel has asked one of its members to explain his arrest in a corruption case.


Canover Watson was detained in his native Cayman Islands on Aug. 28 by police anti-corruption and financial crime units.


Local media reported that Watson was quizzed about alleged money laundering and abuse of public office.

News story should come with laugh track.

Oh, and speaking of corrupt people.

 Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said that Iran "is a bigger problem than ISIS."

So many targets, so many bombs, so many assholes willing to drop them.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Meanwhile Politco requests -- nay, DEMANDS! -- you consider Glenn Greenwald as a big ol' meany!

It's about the important things people...you know like how Benghazi relates to this?

The Justice Department released two decade-old memos Friday night, offering the fullest public airing to date of the Bush administration’s legal justification for the warrantless wiretapping of Americans’ phone calls and e-mails — a program that began in secret after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The broad outlines of the argument — that the president has inherent constitutional power to monitor Americans’ communications without a warrant in a time of war — were known, but the sweep of the reasoning becomes even clearer in the memos written by then-Assistant Attorney General Jack Goldsmith, who was head of President George W. Bush’s Office of Legal Counsel.

“We conclude only that when the nation has been thrust into an armed conflict by a foreign attack on the United States and the president determines in his role as commander in chief . . . that it is essential for defense against a further foreign attack to use the [wiretapping] capabilities of the [National Security Agency] within the United States, he has inherent constitutional authority” to order warrantless wiretapping — “an authority that Congress cannot curtail,” Goldsmith wrote in a redacted 108-page memo dated May 6, 2004.

"Please do not think me irrelevant"

Oh the plight of the former person to be feared, but now sliding to irrelevance as a cartoonish villain.

But enough about Dick Cheney, he can still get on "Meet the Press"

No, this guy.

Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaida, has announced the formation of an Indian branch of the extremist organisation, calling on Muslims across the subcontinent to join the "caravan of jihad".

"Caravan of jihad"?   Nice little title, but the lyrics are pretty bad.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

9th or 10th verse, same as the first

Well, looky here, self-proclaimed genius Donald Trump has managed to unleash that brilliant "I inherited at least a quarter billion from my dad...making me a GENIUS at BUSINESS!" mind and have another enterprise go belly up.

Atlantic City's Trump Taj Mahal warned in a recent financial filing that it was in danger of running out of money to pay its bills and make debt payments.

Trump Taj Mahal Associates L.L.C., the legal name of the entity that owns the 24-year-old casino, said in the filing August 22 that it needed to borrow more money or restructure the existing $232 million in debt it had on June 30.

Can you please stop torturing your tortured analogies?

Why always he?

David Cameron has told European leaders that the west risks making similar mistakes in appeasing Vladimir Putin over Ukraine as Britain and France did with Adolf Hitler in the run-up to the second world war.

And David Cameron officially becomes the one millionth political leader since 1938 to make this analogy...and I think Putin becomes approximately the 10,000th political leader compared to history's greatest asshole.

They each should get something in celebration, maybe a case of Budvar or some other quality Czech product.

Can we not get better and more educated bad analogies from history from our political leaders? What's wrong with comparing Putin from land-grabbing war lords of the past? A Napoleon, Tamerlane, Genghis Khan or Pompey?

Have some imagination in your accusations people.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Touchy and Feely

And all of them, rather inappropriate. Anthony Mozilo spent much of the 1990s and early 2000s building up Countrywide into being the nation's number one Ponzi Scheme subprime lender...(strike the strikeout). So, on reflection how's he feeling? One would think if he is not a sociopath, sort of bad. So you know how this will go.

Six years after he lost control of the largest mortgage lender in the U.S., and days after news that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles plans to sue him, the Countrywide Financial Corp. founder is baffled by a new effort to punish him, proud of past triumphs and incensed by criticism.

Oh those accomplishments.

He remains a defender of Countrywide, even after Bank of America Corp., which bought it in 2008, agreed last month to pay more than $16 billion to end probes into mortgage-bond sales on top of about $55 billion in fines that came before. Mozilo doesn’t understand why he and his firm, blamed by lawmakers and authorities for lax underwriting and predatory lending, have been seen as villains. Photographer: Jay Mallin/Bloomberg Angelo Mozilo, former chief executive officer of Countrywide Financial Corp. “No, no, no, we didn’t do anything wrong,” he said

Yes, he didn't do anything wrong...and never earned a dime he doesn't think he deserved.

Mozilo's compensation during the United States housing bubble of 2001–06 has come under scrutiny. During that period, his total compensation (including salary, bonuses, options and restricted stock) approached $470 million.

But still what a guy.

Two of his friends, former Countrywide director Robert J. Donato and fellow mortgage-industry veteran Howard Levine, praised his spirit. Levine, a friend for at least 50 years, said Mozilo gives a $5 bill to each homeless person he sees on New York’s Fifth Avenue when they visit from California.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Allow me to summarize the sophisticated advice of our nation's Congressional "leadership"

BOMB SHIT, THEN RE-BOMB THE SHIT WE'VE BOMBED!

By my observation, Barack Obama has bombed a lot of shit in his tenure.

There's not a wedding or funeral in the general area of The Levant that is not potential drone-bait. I'd put him up there in the top-six of bombin' Presidents, right behind the Bushes, LBJ, FDR, Nixon, and Truman -- but ahead of Reagan and Clinton. Y'know right on the mid-level of the distribution of sky-borne murder-boners we have come to expect from our modern Commander-in-Chiefs.

Nonetheless, in modern parlance, no matter how much you make the rubble bounce, there are always almost universal calls four our "serious" 535 or so aspirants for the White House to bomb until the rubble turns to sand...and then glass...and then sand again...just for good measure.

Barack Obama was on Sunday urged to take a tougher approach towards Russia and Syria, as Republicans and Democrats returned from their summer vacations in confrontational mood.

Oh those "moods" without consequence...a summation of modern American Foreign Policy.

A sophisticated people who elect the sophisticated leadership we deserve...even if the rest of the world does not.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Don't worry we're good for it

There is something missing to add context to this story.

Israel has been presented with a hefty bill for 50 days of war in Gaza, as the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, moved to slash government spending by 2% this year to offset the $2.52 bn (£1.51bn) cost of the conflict. With only the Israeli military and domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet exempt from the sharp spending reductions, the area to be hit hardest emerged as the Israeli education system, with critics – including members of Netanyahu's cabinet – predicting that the poorest Israelis will feel the brunt of the cuts.

Of course they will. You cannot have the wealthy ever have a burden...as Israel knows, that's Un-American!

But in lieu of this, how will these expenses on a debatably over-reaction be borne?

I have an idea...well, less an idea, than a notion of history.

The FY2014 Consolidated Appropriations Act (P.L . 113-76) provides the President’s full $3.1 billion request in FMF for Israel. In addition, it provides another $504 million in funding for research, development, and production of Israel’s Iron Dome anti-rocket system ($235 million) and of the joint U.S.-Israel missile defense sy stems David’s Sling ($149.7 million), the Arrow improvement program (or Arrow II, $44.3 million), and Arrow III ($74.7 million). For FY2015, the Administration is requesting $3.1 billion in FMF to Israel and $10 million in Migration and Refugee Assistance. The Missile Defense Agency’s FY2015 request for joint U.S.- Israeli programs is $96.8 million. The Administration also is requesting $175.9 million for Iron Dome.

Why should the Israeli poor have the burden, when American poor will do?

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

I dunno...maybe men should be more intelligent?

Ugh.

The former president of The George Washington University on Tuesday joined the chorus of individuals telling college women to simply drink less in order to avoid sexual assault.

During a discussion of Greek life at U.S. colleges on The Diane Rehm Show, Dr. Stephen Joel Trachtenberg weighed in on the issue of sexual assault, Jezebel noted on Wednesday. Trachtenberg tried to hedge his remarks on drinking and rape by first noting that sexual assault victims should not be blamed, but he still asserted that women really need to learn to drink less.

Double ugh.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R) thinks his state should reform its liquor laws. That way, he argued, women would have an easier job making dinner.

But don't drink any of that liquor ladies...that liquor is for dudes, enabling sexual assaults...just water for you, as to stave them off. 

 Oh and...

USA!   USA!   USA!

Hard to believe such a typically classless organization

Would exercise poor taste...

Less than two days after a 9-year-old girl in Arizona accidentally shot and killed a gun range instructor who was showing her how to fire an Uzi, the National Rifle Association on Wednesday touted new ways for children to "have fun" at shooting ranges.

Shoot gun nut somehow not one of the examples.

Not looking too good for the 20th or earlier Centuries

A three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit heard arguments of the conservative Attorney's General of Wisconsin and Indiana Tuesday as the latter sought to forbid same sex marriages from occurring in Madison or Indianapolis.

This is clearly not 2008 anymore.

Judge Richard Posner, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, was dismissive when Wisconsin Assistant Attorney General Timothy Samuelson repeatedly pointed to ‘tradition’ as the underlying justification for barring gay marriage.

“It was tradition to not allow blacks and whites to marry – a tradition that got swept away,” Posner said. Prohibition of same sex marriage, he said, is “a tradition of hate ... and savage discrimination.”
Posner frequently cut off Indiana Solicitor General Thomas Fischer, just moments into his presentation and chided him to answer his questions.

At one point, Posner ran through a list of psychological strains of unmarried same-sex couples, including having to struggle to grasp why their schoolmates’ parents were married and theirs weren’t.
“What horrible stuff,” Posner said. What benefits to society in barring gay marriage, he asked, “outweighs that kind of damage to children?”

The answer has to do with “procreation,” Fisher answered.

Yes...that's all they have left now...sex just isn't sex if a baby isn't made.

That's some powerful logic.

And Posner is THE conservative on that panel.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Way to take Irony right to the grave

The Second Amendment, is the Darwin Award catch-all for the illiterate Amendment reader (who needs an opening clause anyway?).

Anyhow there's this.

And ALSO this.

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"We're not going to repeat the mistakes that led to World War Two!"

And engage in appeasement. No instead we're going to have a series of actions that repeat the mistakes that led to World War One! This one's for you Franz Ferdinand!

Nato is to deploy its forces at new bases in eastern Europe for the first time, in response to the Ukraine crisis and in an attempt to deter Vladimir Putin from causing trouble in the former Soviet Baltic republics, according to its chief. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former prime minister of Denmark, said that next week's Nato summit in Cardiff would overcome divisions within the alliance and agree to new deployments on Russia's borders – a move certain to trigger a strong reaction from Moscow

I'm sure this will all work out just dandy for everyone. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Hobbies

Aside from being rather creepily obsessed with his female producers, middle-eastern grains, and killing people...I mean especially the latter, Bill O'Reilly styles himself as the premier old white guy expert on all things African-American (or as he says "Negro"). It gets rather embarrassing...this embarrassing.

Bill O'Reilly brought Megyn Kelly on his Monday show to have a discussion about the concept of "white privilege."

He asked Kelly if she believed it was real. "There's a lot of evidence behind it," Kelly said. No, this wasn't a rift in the space-time continuum.

Nostradumbass

One could literally put up post after post on the tragic stupidity of Paul Wolfowitz (still getting paid to utter his ever-erring pie whole)...and I guess I will take part.

There has been a good deal of comment—some of it quite outlandish—about what our postwar requirements might be in Iraq. Some of the higher end predictions we have been hearing recently, such as the notion that it will take several hundred thousand U.S. troops to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq, are wildly off the mark. It is hard to conceive that it would take more forces to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq than it would take to conduct the war itself and to secure the surrender of Saddam's security forces and his army—hard to imagine

And...of course, in spite of that little thing known as reality...Paul Wolfowitz declared "VICTORY!" (and HE went home). Behold the fruits of the easy victory.

The United Nations said on Sunday it had evidence that fighters from Islamic State (Isis) had killed as many as 670 prisoners in Mosul and had carried out further abuses in Iraq that amounted to crimes against humanity.

And least we can take comfort in Wolfowitz's other prediction that the Iraq War would pay for itself...at least if you are ISIS.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]