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Up top for today’s entry, Joe Bageant offers a way out of the zombie food court, the consensual hologram mediated by television, and the illusion that America is the best country in the world, looking for meaningless enlightenment by stripping away the conditioning of modern society and connecting with the underlying reality. Which may make the rest of this following pointless.
Nonetheless, here’s the news.
Most people will have scrambled to postmark their tax filings by the end of today, which means they’re probably not in the right mind to read Ron Paul's critique of the income tax. Especially not if they’ve been out being teabaggers in protest today. Mr. Reynolds says its good that these mobs organize without the need for an organization, but bad that they're hostile to Democrats and Republicans alike. (I suspect the Republicans were hoping to exploit that anger and set the teabaggers squarely against the Democrats while hiding their own role in the fiasco.) The WSJ laments that Oregon will raise taxes on beer, figuring it’s a way to soak Joe Six-Pack for more of his money.
Moving on. More interestingly today, Same Sex Kiss Day was today, so you may have been at a Starbucks and seen a lot of public affection displays between people. Continuing in the tradition of awful naming conventions, (and following on Ms. Maddow, who covered this a week or two ago, I’m sure) The National Organization for Marriage is launching Two Million For Marriage - 2M4M for short. Which leads into another set of dirty jokes that I’m sure Ms. Maddow had to stifle so she could keep her demeanor on screen. And, their Gathering Storm ad? Could they try for any more melodrama about the evul gays, and base a one mniute ad on three sound-bite items with no context just for good measure?
The Gates Foundation has been working with your favorite television shows to develop storylines that will get people working for causes. Propaganda, in a sense, but instead of consumerist propaganda, propaganda to tackle social issues. In a word - interesting.
Internationally, more restrictions on Cuba were rolled back by the Obama administration, with the idea of getting Cuban families able to support each other, rather than the enforced chill between the two countries.
I think we’re going to see Somali pirates in the news for a while. The whole revenge thing, plus further interactions, means that it will stay hot for a while, at least until someone decides to kill the story by stomping on the pirates. We've already got people tying Somali extremists to al-Qaeda, the boogeyman of boogeymen.
Iraq's marshes are suffering from severe drought, including the area that would correspond to the biblical Garden of Eden.
The American journalist charged with espionage for America has had a one-day trial, an abnormally quick sequence for a serious charge (10 years is a likely sentence), with a verdict expected in the next two to three weeks.
Domestically, business is bracing for an EPA announcement on climate change, which may result in several heavy changes and regulations to clean up the air.
This will either be a “we clearly need to help people” or “damn illegals, shoot ‘em all and deport the lot“ story, but The Pew Hispanic Center says more illegal immigrants are having children in the United states, most of which will live in poverty, because the parents have to take low-wage work that is okay with not having documentation. If it becomes more ”damn illegals“, it may be heartening or interesting to know The Departmetn of Homeland Insecurity released a report expressing concern about the increasing ranks of right-wing extremist groups. (In the article, they note that DH(i)S releases reports like these for both sides of the ideological spectrum, lest anyone think partisanly about the matter.)
In the opinions, The Washington Times editorializes about the lack of transparency and accountability regarding the financial bailouts by the current administration, saying the taxpayers deserve to know how their money is being spent and what the results of bank stress tests are. The WSJ suggests that The Market (all hail its holy name) decide who can rate bonds, rather than the government giving that power to a select few.
The WSJ tut-tuts Goldman Sachs, praising their want to pay back the TARP money, but noticing that they benefited a lot from having the access they did to the government and its money. Good for them to get out, says the WSJ, but can they stay out without going bust?
Mr. Hawkins says China is making a power play to become the world's dominant economy, but that the U.S. can stop them by discrediting the way they do business. And there are still all those human-rights concerns about China and the way its government didn't hesitate to dispatch tanks to deal with protesters.
If you take the premise that we are going to slide hard into a long-term depression, as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bradhicks does, then taking advice on what not to do, namely, don't stockpile food or guns&ammo will be solid advice. What he does recommend buying are tools, especially tools that will help you fix things in the coming years - if you’re handy with tools and can repair essential things, you should be okay with getting food even if the inflation gets really bad.
Ah, and then Fox News may have poisoned Pastor Warren some, insisting on a new varnish coat for his lectern before hey would carry his Easter services, which might have contributed to his canceling appearing on the View. He's still trying to say he is both for and against marriage for homosexuals, eventually coming down on the ”against“ side if pressed to choose.
Science and Technology: another way of getting proteins to line up nicely so they can be studied, using nanoparticles to keep tabs on cancer cells, Mediterranean diets getting thumbs up, with starchies and trans fats getting thumbs down for healthy living, The EPA holding a summit on stopping the resurgence of bedbugs, a drug that would help speed up bone healing, neutron stars' crust is way tougher than steel, and a person who successfully uses echolocation to navigate, having lost his sight at a very early age.
Last for tonight, Seven people who attempted to sue in court claiming that science, or its methods, are wrong and should be stopped, as a prelude to the runner up for today’s stupid people contest, where the Texas governor throwing his lot in with the teabaggers and suggesting that Texas could secede from the United States. Today’s winner of quiche for sheer stupidity, however, is someone suggesting that the people convene Grad Juries of their own, create indictments against Barack Obama and file them, expecting the authorities the follow through on them and try him for various crimes, including many counts of treason, it appears. They also want to indict him for being a non-native citizen holding the office of President illegaly (yes, the ”birth certificate“ flap). Well, one good nut deserves another, and the General comes through in fine form.
Nonetheless, here’s the news.
Most people will have scrambled to postmark their tax filings by the end of today, which means they’re probably not in the right mind to read Ron Paul's critique of the income tax. Especially not if they’ve been out being teabaggers in protest today. Mr. Reynolds says its good that these mobs organize without the need for an organization, but bad that they're hostile to Democrats and Republicans alike. (I suspect the Republicans were hoping to exploit that anger and set the teabaggers squarely against the Democrats while hiding their own role in the fiasco.) The WSJ laments that Oregon will raise taxes on beer, figuring it’s a way to soak Joe Six-Pack for more of his money.
Moving on. More interestingly today, Same Sex Kiss Day was today, so you may have been at a Starbucks and seen a lot of public affection displays between people. Continuing in the tradition of awful naming conventions, (and following on Ms. Maddow, who covered this a week or two ago, I’m sure) The National Organization for Marriage is launching Two Million For Marriage - 2M4M for short. Which leads into another set of dirty jokes that I’m sure Ms. Maddow had to stifle so she could keep her demeanor on screen. And, their Gathering Storm ad? Could they try for any more melodrama about the evul gays, and base a one mniute ad on three sound-bite items with no context just for good measure?
The Gates Foundation has been working with your favorite television shows to develop storylines that will get people working for causes. Propaganda, in a sense, but instead of consumerist propaganda, propaganda to tackle social issues. In a word - interesting.
Internationally, more restrictions on Cuba were rolled back by the Obama administration, with the idea of getting Cuban families able to support each other, rather than the enforced chill between the two countries.
I think we’re going to see Somali pirates in the news for a while. The whole revenge thing, plus further interactions, means that it will stay hot for a while, at least until someone decides to kill the story by stomping on the pirates. We've already got people tying Somali extremists to al-Qaeda, the boogeyman of boogeymen.
Iraq's marshes are suffering from severe drought, including the area that would correspond to the biblical Garden of Eden.
The American journalist charged with espionage for America has had a one-day trial, an abnormally quick sequence for a serious charge (10 years is a likely sentence), with a verdict expected in the next two to three weeks.
Domestically, business is bracing for an EPA announcement on climate change, which may result in several heavy changes and regulations to clean up the air.
This will either be a “we clearly need to help people” or “damn illegals, shoot ‘em all and deport the lot“ story, but The Pew Hispanic Center says more illegal immigrants are having children in the United states, most of which will live in poverty, because the parents have to take low-wage work that is okay with not having documentation. If it becomes more ”damn illegals“, it may be heartening or interesting to know The Departmetn of Homeland Insecurity released a report expressing concern about the increasing ranks of right-wing extremist groups. (In the article, they note that DH(i)S releases reports like these for both sides of the ideological spectrum, lest anyone think partisanly about the matter.)
In the opinions, The Washington Times editorializes about the lack of transparency and accountability regarding the financial bailouts by the current administration, saying the taxpayers deserve to know how their money is being spent and what the results of bank stress tests are. The WSJ suggests that The Market (all hail its holy name) decide who can rate bonds, rather than the government giving that power to a select few.
The WSJ tut-tuts Goldman Sachs, praising their want to pay back the TARP money, but noticing that they benefited a lot from having the access they did to the government and its money. Good for them to get out, says the WSJ, but can they stay out without going bust?
Mr. Hawkins says China is making a power play to become the world's dominant economy, but that the U.S. can stop them by discrediting the way they do business. And there are still all those human-rights concerns about China and the way its government didn't hesitate to dispatch tanks to deal with protesters.
If you take the premise that we are going to slide hard into a long-term depression, as
bradhicks does, then taking advice on what not to do, namely, don't stockpile food or guns&ammo will be solid advice. What he does recommend buying are tools, especially tools that will help you fix things in the coming years - if you’re handy with tools and can repair essential things, you should be okay with getting food even if the inflation gets really bad.Ah, and then Fox News may have poisoned Pastor Warren some, insisting on a new varnish coat for his lectern before hey would carry his Easter services, which might have contributed to his canceling appearing on the View. He's still trying to say he is both for and against marriage for homosexuals, eventually coming down on the ”against“ side if pressed to choose.
Science and Technology: another way of getting proteins to line up nicely so they can be studied, using nanoparticles to keep tabs on cancer cells, Mediterranean diets getting thumbs up, with starchies and trans fats getting thumbs down for healthy living, The EPA holding a summit on stopping the resurgence of bedbugs, a drug that would help speed up bone healing, neutron stars' crust is way tougher than steel, and a person who successfully uses echolocation to navigate, having lost his sight at a very early age.
Last for tonight, Seven people who attempted to sue in court claiming that science, or its methods, are wrong and should be stopped, as a prelude to the runner up for today’s stupid people contest, where the Texas governor throwing his lot in with the teabaggers and suggesting that Texas could secede from the United States. Today’s winner of quiche for sheer stupidity, however, is someone suggesting that the people convene Grad Juries of their own, create indictments against Barack Obama and file them, expecting the authorities the follow through on them and try him for various crimes, including many counts of treason, it appears. They also want to indict him for being a non-native citizen holding the office of President illegaly (yes, the ”birth certificate“ flap). Well, one good nut deserves another, and the General comes through in fine form.
