https://twitter.com/AwayDayBible/status/926861823864864768

Doesn't happen everyday that a longstanding apparatschik of a major party throws her predecessor (DWS), her party's former Presidential Nominee (HRC), and a former President (Obama) under the bus like this. I like it. Smells like rats leaving a sinking ship.

Money laundering is the cherry on top, really.

Even Donna Brazile finds proof that the DNC rigged the primary in HRC's favour, that HRC's campaign used the DNC to circumvent donation caps, and that HRC's campaign vacuumed-up funds meant for the state parties: Inside Hillary Clinton’s Secret Takeover of the DNC

Looks like an attempt at white-washing her own complacency in the rigging, but it's juicy info nonetheless.

Dredd's been one of my favorite flicks of all time, ever since @enoch recommended it to me. Urban and Headey played their parts disturbingly well.

12 years ago...

Politico has a long piece on Boehner. It includes this little gem:

On Sunday, July 17, it appeared they had a deal. Boehner and Virginia Representative Eric Cantor—whom the speaker had reluctantly brought into the negotiations, knowing the majority leader’s distrust of Obama could poison the talks—worked out some final details that morning at the White House. When the president returned from church, Boehner says, he invited them both into the Oval Office and shook their hands. Some fine-tuning remained, but in Boehner’s mind the so-called grand bargain was done. The framework included reforms to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security; $1.2 trillion in cuts to discretionary spending; and $800 billion in new revenue. “I was one happy son of a bitch,” Boehner tells me.

The next 48 hours changed everything. On Tuesday morning, the so-called Gang of Six—three senators from each party who had been discussing their own sweeping fiscal agreement—announced a briefing for their colleagues at the Capitol. They unveiled a separate framework, totally unaware of what Obama and Boehner had agreed to. This deal included significantly more revenue. Chambliss, by then a senator, was one of the GOP Gang members and had no idea—because Boehner had been negotiating with the president in private—that their announcement would kill the speaker’s deal with the White House. Obama saw that Republican senators were endorsing a deal that included far more revenue, and knew there was no way he could sell the grand bargain to his liberal base. When he came back with a counteroffer, seeking a higher revenue number, it validated Cantor’s warnings about not trusting the president. And by that point Boehner’s members had heard enough about the grand bargain to know they didn’t like it—with the $800 billion revenue figure, much less something higher.

So the deal fell apart, and the two sides peddled their competing versions of events: Boehner’s team said the White House moved the goal posts, while Obama’s allies said the speaker couldn’t sell his own members on the deal.

https://twitter.com/CalebJHull/status/923249329338507264

"Indecency of our discourse"... his voting record is as indecent as it gets. And that includes his vote to shred the CFPB's arbitration rule six(!) hours after this speech. Same for Corker. As much as they seem to be aghast at what a dumpster fire the current administration is, they sure don't have mixed emotions about getting in line when it's time to cast a vote.

Real champions of the common folk, these two.

The extremeties on the back are the moth's version of a peacock's plumage if I'm not mistaken. Attraction, maybe a bit of sedation -- you know, the usual.

A different type, but yeah, they can be found under just about every pot these days. Every somewhat covered crevice seems to harbour some, really.

I had only seen singular examples in damp corners until maybe 3 or 4 years ago when they started popping up in ever increasing numbers. Nowadays, go outside and lift any pot, you'll find 5+ of them scrambling. When I pulled up the edge of an old sheet of rolled roofing the other day, there were dozens of them.

The data of the study came out of Germany, where the effects of a change in temperature are much more moderate than in many other areas. Basically, this decline is attributed mostly due to farming, the saturation of everything with pesticides, and, generally speaking, the destruction of the ecosphere. Even worse, this is in a country with comparably extensive regulation on all these matters, unlike, say, India.

As you say, this really is no bueno.

Driving past fields of rapeseed in the late '90s meant a windshield full of bugs. We used to head into the fields wearing yellow shirts just to see who can get the densest armor of bugs. Now, I can walk past the very same fields outside the town I grew up in with less than 5 bugs on a yellow shirt.

Or how about another anecdote: when I grew up, barbecue in my (grand-)parents yard meant paying attention to all the wasps, so that you don't swallow one by accident. I haven't seen a single one over several barbecues this year. Bees and bumblebees are still around, though less plentiful, but wasps are a complete no-show. Haven't seen a hornet in two years.

Texas City Tells People No Hurricane Harvey Aid Unless They Promise Not to Boycott Israel

Say what now?!

Verification not to Boycott Israel. By executing this Agreement below, the Applicant verifies that the Applicant: (1) does not boycott Israel; and (2) will not boycott Israel during the term of this Agreement.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/18/warning-of-ecological-armageddon-after-dramatic-plunge-in-insect-numbers

Well... fuck.

https://twitter.com/HerthaBSC_EN/status/919199084354949120

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/10/14/german-soccer-team-takes-a-knee-before-bundesliga-game-for-a-tolerant-berlin/

Earlier today, I was sent a link to an article in Bloomberg titled Why Workers Are Losing to Capitalists. Marx in Bloomberg? Impossibru!

But nevermind Marx. That opinion piece is 800 words, give or take, on labour's share of income. Yet it doesn't mention policy once. Not a single time. It's automation, it's globalisation, it's Gremlins. But not a single peep on policy.

Nothing on union busting. Nothing on taxes on capital vs taxes on labour. Nothing on minimum wages. Nothing on welfare. Nothing on the public sector.

If you read about inequality and related issues in these papers, there's rarely any agency. It's always something abstract like market forces, globalisation, innovation, etc. Nothing on decisions made by people in power, parliament first and foremost, that often had the explicit aim of reducing wages to "increase competitiveness".