Shouldn't they tell them by example, then? Claiming the biggest crowd ever when it's clearly not, and attacking truthful reporting? The press secretary needs to fly straight first, so far the only thing he's done is lie and lie again.
Today he's lying about illegal voting costing Trump a win by 3000000+ votes, with absolutely zero evidence and contrary to investigations by election officials and any rationality, 3-5000000 votes they claim were frauds all cast for Clinton, zero for Trump, 3-5000000 more than ever before. If true, we need to disqualify the results and hold another election, because 5000000 illegal votes is significant enough to invalidate the whole election. I'll give them the benefit of a doubt....it's true....time to hold a special election in April.

No, the time stamp shows it's exactly the same time....well, 2 minutes difference. Both at noon.

Funny, they blamed everything but the rain...magnetometers slowing the crowd (that weren't actually there), public transport records (that showed there was much lower than previous inaugurations), grass covers making empty space stand out (that were used before), intentionally misleading angles (from exactly the same place as the comparison photos), etc. Each one a proven lie.

Trump and his press secretary have had numerous damaging public tantrums over just dumb minutiae like his small crowd size and spouted numerous verifiable lies in the first few days, and been sued for unconstitutional actions.
Flying straight?
Yeah....great.

let's see the mass protests and mass arrests then; she admitted herself that there was noone else in the paddy wagon that took her to the detention center; and if they are bringing people in, then there is some sort of record of this even if they weren't technically arrested (right???)

I'm not sure if she's for Black Lives Matter, but she should be more sympathetic to their cause at this point

She stood up on her own this morning and "walked"...dragging her back feet, but not her belly! WOO HOO! Huge improvement. Another laser treatment around noon for her. They seem to be helping, but who knows? She might have gotten better just as fast without it, there's no way to know.

Good questions. My family operates farms for wheat and corn, and I've been involved in that process, so I can take a stab at answering the last bit:

Corn stalks get quite tall -- 6 feet / 2 meters or so. Each stalk usually has 1 or 2 ears of corn. On our farm, the experience I had suggests that each plant needs quite a lot of healthy leaves for Photosynthesis as well as quite a lot of available ground water. Irrigated corn often produces 2-3 times as many bushels per acre as compared to "dryland" / non-irrigated corn.

So the issues I can see potentially clashing between corn production and vertical farming are:

1) You'd have a greater space requirement for layers of corn since you'd need probably 8-10 feet per layer, as compared to what looks like 2-3 feet per layer for leafy vegetables in the video. Approximately one story per layer wouldn't allow for the massive footprint savings like in leafy plants without getting extremely tall, which would be expensive for water pumping etc.

2) Corn root systems are pretty deep to support a tall and relatively bulky stalk. Getting that to bite into a thin layer of fabric / recycled plastic to provide structural support for the plant would be difficult. I think you'd need to have a thicker bottom layer *and* to manually place further support lines on the stalks as the plants grow, which would get very labor intensive and therefore expensive.

3) The vertical nature of a corn stalk suggests that the overhead motion of the sun might be pretty important for getting light exposure onto all of the leaves. Fixed overhead lights might mean that the top leaves get plenty of light but the ones lower on the stalk would be shaded by those above and get nothing -- which isn't a problem if the sun progresses through low angles at sunrise/set to overhead at noon throughout a day. So you might have to have lighting that hits from all sides to account for that with corn, which would again add expense.

4) To maximize the output, corn needs a LOT of water. Pumping that up the vertical expanse to get lots of levels could easily get problematic. Corn will grow without optimal / abundant watering, and their misting system would likely be more efficient than irrigating to add ground water, but the main benefit of vertical farming seems to be high output in a small land footprint on the ground. So without LOTS of water, you'd be limiting that benefit.


So basically, my guess is that vertical farms are a fantastic idea for squat, spread out plants like lettuce, but a lot of the advantages disappear when you're talking about something tall like corn. I could easily be wrong about any/all of that though.

You would be correct, but that's not what happened.
Yes, many independents didn't register as Democrats by October, but many more were removed from the rolls or had their party affiliation changed without their knowledge...and many 'new' voters were sent official notices that the primary is in November! THOSE are what people are outraged about, that people didn't register in time, that's just disappointing and a terrible system.
That many didn't vote, that is conspiracy not lazyness, because so many didn't vote because their polling places didn't open until noon, or closed all together.
It's the DNC and Clinton's fault if she and the DNC collude to secretly remove thousands of NEWLY REGISTERED DEMOCRATS from voting rolls, or change their party affiliation so they can't vote in the primary, close polling places in 'Sanders strongholds' like Brooklyn, and cut the hours that others are open by 1/2....which is what happened.
It is clearly and definitely a conspiracy....just POSSIBLY not one Clinton is personally responsible for (although that's incredibly unlikely). It is POSSIBLE that the DNC is doing all this underhanded voter suppression themselves in order to ...I just can't figure it out...to throw the election for Trump? That's what is likely if they continue this shoving Clinton down our throats...she won't be getting independents votes and they know it. I can't fathom why they want to lose the election so badly.
What's been reported, the DNC putting a Clinton campaign worker in charge of the 'voter suppression investigation', is also TERRIBLE and smacks of conspiracy. OF COURSE they aren't going to find any issues, since all inconsistencies have benefited Clinton.
In open primaries (the only ones that come close to mirroring an actual election), Bernie does quite well. He's also probably going to take California by a landslide, which is a good reason they haven't reported a single poll from here. If he wins there (here) like he did in Alaska, he wins, unless the 'super delegates' steal the election for her...which is a likelyhood.

EDIT: I suppose you don't think THIS is an underhanded conspiracy either?
http://videosift.com/video/Hillary-8482-s-Paid-Trolls-Take-Down-Bernie-Facebook-Pages

F*ck that. I see some douchebag in my yard swing a wrench at my dogs, he's never leaving the yard. I don't care a whit if he has a reflective vest on. I don't even care if he has a gun and a badge, it'll be high noon at the OK corral and we'll see who aims better.
That guy damn well better be fired, and the gas company sued.
I would like to see his name and address posted. He needs to lose a few teeth and an eye himself.
If you go into someone's yard unannounced and they let the dogs attack you, that's 100% YOUR fault. I don't think that's what happened here, the dogs seemed to already be in the yard and NOT attacking until he swung the wrench, but even if it was what happened, the guy and gas company are still 100% in the wrong....and the guy is really damn lucky to be alive.
I shouldn't have watched. This kind of crap boils my blood.

Assange says he'll accept the outcome of tomorrow's ruling. So either he'll be taken into custody by the British police at noon tomorrow or... what? I don't see them returning his passport, no matter what the UN says.

Does noone realise that Gavin McGuinness is a comedian..?
I'm pretty sure hes just doing this to get a rise.

Hes the co-founder of Vice....that fairly left leaning media organisation. Who here HONESTLY thinks this guy...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL61JreooRk

..actually believes the shit he was saying here...?

Anyone notice that some conclusions of the basic premise were drawn from the behavior of rats? It's kind of interesting how we all just kind of nod and smile when a scientist or psychologist draws conclusions about us from rodents. The reason that the rat is happy in rat happy land is because that is all the reason the rat is here; to be a rat. If a rat is getting his senses stimulated, physically and socially, he is going to be happy because there is nothing more to his life. There is more to our lives than having our senses stimulated by physical pleasures and social interactions.

We, unlike rats or any other animals, were created to have a relationship with our Creator. Existence in the material world will never fully satisfy anyone, because our hearts are longing for eternal, and not temporal satisfaction, which only God can give us. Our happiness on Earth is largely dependent on our conditions, and if our conditions are bad, happiness and peace are fleeting. Real life with God brings a lasting satisfaction and peace which transcends every circumstance of life, and a living hope which buoys the spirit and brings unending joy.

I agree with the idea of the cage, and that cage is the prison of sin. it has nothing to do with social connections, or lack thereof. Some of the most famous people on Earth, who have the whole world as their oyster, are addicted to drugs, depressed, disillusioned, and grasping for meaning in their lives. Sin is a spiritual prison which brings only death and destruction. In this life you reap what you sow, and the wages of sin is death. A seed thrown into dry ground, cracking under the noon-day sun, is not going to bear any fruit. So it is when people go into the desert of sin looking for paradise; the illusion will occasionally be dispelled by a mouthful of sand, but like a rat they keep going back to the trap.

There is a way out, because although we cannot pay for our own sins and escape the trap, the Lord Jesus Christ took the punishment for our sins so that we could be set free. On the cross, He paid the price for our sins, yours and mine; when we begin to trust Him as our Lord and Savior, He will give us a new life, and a new heart with new desires to turn away from sin and live according to His will. We are set free from the bondage, not only of addiction, but sin and death. He heals our deepest wounds and comforts us, he heals deep seated habits, depression and mental illness.

When you open the cage of sin and let the Lord in, this scripture begins to operate: 2Cor3:17 Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty

Yeah, what the hell is that all about? What time are they starting these days - noon? Ring my doorbell before dinner and you get nada. And what happened to Hallowe'en being scary ... if you want to dress up your kids in cute costumes and parade them in front of judges / closet pedophiles, then enter them in Universal Royalty beauty pageants and stop screwing it up for the rest of us who like the tradition of witches, ghosts, goblins and zombies. Would have been pretty easy to show Goose with a good spinal compression fracture and bone sticking out of his neck or a cracked skull or something. Sheesh.

Something I meant to write the other day: the IMF dilemma has become quite intriguing over the last couple of days.

The latest IMF report, though still based on outlandish assumptions, marks a sizeable debt restructuring as a requisite for further involvement of the IMF in Greece. Germany, on the other hand, rules out debt restructuring of any kind, and haircuts in particular. However, Germany also insists on the IMF's continuing participating in the Troika, because a) noone else has the capacity to provide Orwellian monitoring of a countries' financial actions and b) to provide economic credibility. Of course, having a non-European patsy is always a good idea.

Nevermind the fact that the report was available prior to the last deal and held back intentionally -- I'm curious who's going to give way in this matter.

The IMF cannot back down much further without its members going apeshit at this disaster. They want no share of the blame that will inevitably be thrown around in good amounts once Greek reaches the end of the road. And Germany... well, constant propaganda has pretty much made sure that neither public nor parliament will accept any restructuring, unless it is plastered with a whole lot of make-up and maybe a Sideshow Bob hairpiece.

Pure quality by John, as usual.

There are a few points I'd like to add, in order of appearance.

5:10 – Greek default or Grexit could be manageable by the rest of the EZ, economically. Italy looks a bit shaky and Spain still looks like shit, so things could spiral out of control, but chances would be better now than they were in, say, 2010.

However, Grexit would be a political nightmare. EZ membership is supposed to be irreversible, so Grexit would reduce the Euro from a common currency to a peg when viewed from the outside. That's open season on the rest of the PIIGS. If Greek then rebounds, other people might very well decide to give Germany the finger and leave as well. If Greece fails, you have a NATO member turn into a failed state, which not only gives NATO the shivers, but also buries any notion of solidarity within the EU. This union survives because of the promises it makes, which include increasing standards of living and solidarity among different peoples. Without it, we're left with... what exactly?

And nevermind the humanitarian catastrophe taking part in Greece. We've conditioned ourselves to block out the pain and suffering of people in Africa. We even manage to shrug at the cesspool of corruption that is Kosovo. But if we do that to Greece as well, what little moral authority Europe might still have left would be gone then.

5:32 – The last payment Greece received was in August, long before Syriza took over. The previous government was in disagreement with the Troika and therefore transfers were frozen.

5:57 – Troika payments are required to service previous debt obligations. They are separate from what the Greek banks require to maintain their liquidity. That would be Emergency Liquidiy Assistance (ELA) from the ECB, which is a different thing entirely, even though it comes from a member of the Troika.

The ECB is bound by law to maintain and ensure the stability of the banking system(s) within the EZ. If a bank runs into liquidity problems, support is provided by the national bank of the respective country, which funnels funds from the ECB to the troubled bank. That's ELA, and a limit on ELA is a limit on the amount of funds that banks can draw from through this process. If an illiquid bank is cut off from ELA, it goes belly up. Bad idea.

Some argue that the ECB should not provide ELA to those Greek banks anymore, since they are insolvent, and ECB rules forbid ELA to insolvent banks. But as Varoufakis said, even the ECB's own Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) department, which is the new banking oversight, declares the four large Greek banks to be solvent. So there is no reason for the ECB to cut ELA to Greek banks. It's all political, and the ECB is designed to be outside of politics. That's also a reason why its membership in the Troika is so controversial.

The political argument for cutting off ELA is that Germany et al. are on the hook for the total amount should Greece itself go belly up. Somewhere along the line, someone made the glorious decision to install the ECB as a currency issuer without providing it with the attributes of a regular currency issuer. If the Bank of Japan or the Bank of England racks up losses, noone cares. They issue their own currency, they cannot go bankrupt, whatever debt they have in their books is irrelevant, for this discussion anyways. But the ECB has to balance its books, it has to receive funds from its members to balance losses, and in proportion to their economic size.

They made sure that politicians can scare the demos by pointing out how they have to foot the bill for this shit, even though it's the one entity where debt truly doesn't matter at all.

By the way, the funds that Greece is hoping to acquire are meant, primarily, for two purposes: making debt payments and to provide financial room to convert ECB(?) debt into EFSF debt (4% interest down to 1%). That's all. No spending.

6:54 – "Printing" money is generating demand out of thin air. There is a shortage of demand throughout the entire continent. So yeah, if the folks at the ECB could type in a few numbers, that would be swell.

Even Germany has a shortage of demand. We are merely hiding it behind the €200b+ of demand that we steal from other countries, i.e. our current account surplus. But the infrastructure and investment spending over here is at all time lows. We'd need an additional €200b+ just to get the infrastructure back to the state it was in a decade ago.

There is no productivity growth in Europe. The UK actually lost a lot of productivity by its introduction of zero hour jobs and other forms of slavery. Without sufficient demand, there is no need to improve production capacities – they can't even sell what they could produce right now.

First of all, Flassbeck is the only(!) prominent economist in Germany arguing strictly against the madness of austerity. But he's living in the border region between France and Switzerland, so he's a European more than a German.

Among all the economic think tanks in Germany, only the union-sponsored IMK makes a credible case against this madness. Everyone else is more or less in line with the neoclassic perspective. Not a Keynesian in sight, much less a post-Keynesian group.

But now to the meat of the issue. There will be no major political shift in Germany in the near future. As Flassbeck stated, only a single party opposes the financial inquisition commonly known as the Troika. Unfortunatly, it's the socialists, and despite overwhelmingly popular policies, they are still an absolute no-go for large swaths of the demos thanks to the authoritarian regime in East Germany. Sucks, but it is what it is.

So it's up to the French people once again to save the continent from itself. Noone else has the balls or the influence to put an end to this misguided union. How likely is it for the French government to openly challenge German hegemony soon? I wouldn't bet on it. Which means the Greeks are fuuuucked².

In any case, what would it take for Greece to stabilise? And by stabilise I'm talking about a return to a manageable level of unemployment, a working healthcare system and social safety net. A conservative guesstimate would be a public deficit of ~10% of GDP for at least 5 straight years. Alternatively, the EIB would have to prop up Greece with €50b a year for the same number of years. To get a working bureaucracy, to undo four decades of nepotism, Greece would basically need a generation to reestablish itself as a state – and it would require appropriate financing.

Now remember which of Syriza's demands is painted as most controversial right now: debt restructuring. Debt restructuring, while neccessary at some point, is entirely pointless as long as the fiscal policy remains contractionary. Greece needs austerity to stop, right the fuck now. Greece needs to provide income-generating jobs for its people. All the talk about debt is utterly pointless, because at 25% unemployment, we're looking at permanent damage in every way imaginable. The social toll alone should be completely unacceptable within Europe if we truly gave two shits about human dignity.

So, even if Syriza get their way tomorrow, Greece would still be flushed down the shitter. Syriza's proposal is contractionary. Any primary surplus in this situation is contractionary.

Greece is done within the Euro. The use of a foreign currency makes it impossible to use appropriate fiscal policy on their own. Unfortunatly, but also intentionally, the currency issuer, the ECB, is placed outside the democratic control of the European Parliament, or any national parliament for that matter. Fiscal policy within the EZ was taken out of the control of our elected representatives to ensure that the neoclassic/neoliberal approach was irrevocably built into the system. We can thank Germany for that, by the way.

There is a shortage of spending in Greece. There is a shortage of spending in Spain. There is a shortage of spending in Portugal, Ireland, Italy, France. There is a shortage of spending in Germany, for fuck's sake. Put the ECB under control of the EP, add full employment (2-3% unemployment) to its mandate, and have them finance the appropriate programs at the national level. The output gap in Europe is so massive, the un(der)employment so vast, they could spend a trillion Euros and inflation would still not reach the agreed upon target value of 2%.

All it would take to change the rules is consent from every national parliament in the union. Might as well go skinny-dipping instead.

I suppose you've come across the Sunday Times junk piece on Snowden?

As if that wasn't frustrating enough, all the major news outlets over here picked it up and ran with it, without any hint of double checking. Front fucking page, everywhere. Made me lose my shit when I read most of it this morning. Made me lose my shit again when all of them dropped it without a peep around noon.

Some quality journalism... they don't even get pissed anymore when they're being fed propaganda.

At least folks in the comment sections called them out on their shit right from the start.

Edit: https://twitter.com/NewsRevo/status/610118694241497088

Jesus fucking Christ...

NOONE IS DENYING RACISM EXISTS.

The problem under discussion is CULTURAL APPROPRIATION, which is not actually a racial issue, but a cultural one. Yes, there's a difference, even though they frequently overlap.

Ugh, at this point, it feels you're just wilfully misunderstanding. @JustSaying thinks you're better than that and not a troll. I used to agree with him, but it's getting more difficult.