Papa prophylactics!

Papa prophylactics! 25 September 2011

Posted by marisacat in Germany, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Total fucking lunatics, UK, Viva La Revolucion!, WAR!.
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Vestments

Clergy members protect their robes from the rain as Pope Benedict XVI arrives for the celebration of the Eucharist at the Olympic stadium in Berlin on September 22, 2011. TIME Mag:

Pope Benedict XVI Visits Spain

Isn’t it cute how they need each other to get a fucking rain condom on? (moiv sent me this spectacular photo…. )

****

John Halle, one of the poster/blogger/commenters that I really like over at corrente, was at the Wall St Occupation protest….

Report from the front

[A]s a parent of a small child who I was considering bringing along to this, but thankfully did not, I wasn’t sure how to respond to what seemed to be an act of almost insane recklessness. Initially, I was was appalled, but in retrospect, in revisiting the mental image, I couldn’t help but be moved by the commitment and courage displayed, and by the recognition that finally the stakes of our confrontation are becoming clear. As Marx said “we are now required to compelled to face with sober senses, (our) real conditions of life, and (our) relations with (our) kind.” While few of us will find ourselves capable of this man’s courage, this is the kind of reaction which will be required of us when we face up to the realities we are encountering with sober senses.

A description of the remainder of the march requires the trite but, in this context, altogether accurate phrase, “violently dispersed by the police”, though this is, of course, usually applied to various third world dictatorships. One block south the police began to erect a second set of barriers with the purpose of dividing the march into smaller groups, separated by a block or so, arresting those who refused to get out of the street, and who resisted. The arrests were undertaken with considerable brutality which I was a direct witness to, and almost a victim of. . . . . .

******

Madman posted this wonderful link on the last thread and it is well worth carrying over…. a talented and imaginative paper artist is quietly, secretly (til they are found in the stacks or resting upon a far away, forgotten window sill) and anonymously gifting various Edinburgh places dedicated to books, art, cinema etc. with beauteous paper sculpture….

I enjoyed this interesting literary/sculptural mystery … a nice break from all of the depressing stuff. Linked via Balloon Juice.

Comments»

1. marisacat - 25 September 2011: hmm over at corrente again, danps has a diary on Wall St occpation also… and this is tucked away, down in comments:

Today Shopkeepers pulled #occcupywallstreet medics and victims away and hid them in closets. Gave milk for mace.

#USDOR #takewallstreet
about 15 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone Reply Retweet Favorite

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Madman in the Marketplace - 25 September 2011: oh, that’s heartening.

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2. ts - 25 September 2011: The new link link is broken on the last post.

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marisacat - 25 September 2011: ooo thanks I will fix it….

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3. Madman in the Marketplace - 25 September 2011: both the report from NYC about the marchers and the link of mine you reposted show some of the things most beautiful about the human spirit.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 25 September 2011: Last graph in his piece at Corrente:

Finally, a post-script: I’m writing this as the police prepare for what may be a final-and likely, if today’s events were any guide, intensely brutal assault on the encampment in Zuccati Park. As I have been posting on Facebook, this appears to me to be a Martin Niemoller moment for us-one where they are coming for a marginal clique, one which is the butt of jokes (including my own above) and regarded as absurd and insignificant by all but a few. Today’s NYT’s coverage of the protestors, predictably contemptuous and dismissive, sets the stage perfectly for this crackdown-and provides grounds for all the right thinking people who are the Times’ primary demographic to avert their eyes. The few decent people who find out about this may get on the subway and head to Wall Street to bear witness, and maybe even act. But I can’t say I’m in the least optimistic that anything like this is in the cards-certainly nothing approximating the display of force which we must martial to make a difference. All this is only further confirmation of Niemoller’s dictum: when they come for us there may very well be very few left to speak up.

I think we’re already past that, with the vast numbers of people locked up for minor drug crimes, where they’ve tested out a lot of the methods they’re using in NYC.

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marisacat - 25 September 2011: I agree….

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Madman in the Marketplace - 25 September 2011: it was a very good piece, though.

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marisacat - 26 September 2011: I so enjoyed both entries, from danps and from john halle….

Our local news here did pick up some film coverage, and saw a little on the overnight CBS news, but little little….

There was a sympathetic or related protest demonstration here, that also got some coverage, most of it took place in front of City Hall.

And Slobster met what I think is a contingnt of soft edge Tea Partiers down in Atherton, a subset of grandmothers, but it had a whiff of tea party.

Hey fine with me… and some silly whtie people down in Atherton (very wealthy enclave odwn on the Peninsula) who are wealthy Democrats chastised the demonstrators for not understanding Obby.

Fuck ”Understanding”. Geesh.

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4. marisacat - 25 September 2011: So…. now that total fucking luntics from Staten Island have anti aircraft capacity, shall we just call Manhattan and maybe all 5 boroughs, Little Israel (as in dying for warwarwarwarwar)?

New York Police Department Commissioner Ray Kelly revealed on CBS’s 60 Minutes that the department has the ability to take down aircraft posing a threat to the city in a “very extreme situation.”

Discussing the department’s counterterrorism bureau, the largest of its kind in the nation, Kelly said after 9/11 the city realized that “we couldn’t rely on the federal government alone.”

Kelly would not go into detail on the department’s capabilities, or even who would give the order — but for a police force, even the NYPD, to possess such authority is unprecedented and certain to draw scrutiny.. . . . . . .

Well One hopes it owuld draw scrutiny. I think it speaks to the emergence of full capacity City States. Which certainly suits BloomB

Read more: Link to Bus Insider

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Madman in the Marketplace - 25 September 2011: it suits Wall Street, since they need to be protected from threats, as they turn the rest of the country into just another exploited colony.

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marisacat - 25 September 2011: agree…

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5. marisacat - 26 September 2011: Oh well…. this columnist t LAT never could stand Obby…. but it’s true, his gaffes get overlooked…

“We’re the country that built the Intercontinental Railroad,” Barack Obama.

That’s what the president of the United States flat-out said Thursday during what was supposed to be a photo op to sell his jobs plan next to an allegedly deteriorating highway bridge.

A railroad between continents? A railroad from, say, New York City all the way across the Atlantic to France? Now, THAT would be a bridge!

It’s yet another humorous gaffe by the Harvard graduate, overlooked by most media for whatever reason. Like Obama saying Abraham-Come-Lately Lincoln was the founder of the Republican Party. Or Navy corpseman. Or the Austrian language. Fifty-seven states. The president of Canada. Etc.

If you talk as much as this guy likes to talk instead of governing, if you believe you are a Real Good Talker as much as this guy does, you’re gonna blow a few lines. But this many? . . .

However, I still think the BEST (worst) gaffe of the 2008 cycle was Biden… saying:

when FDR was president at the time of the crash, 1929, he immediately took to the TV screens to reassure the people

Think of it. And Biden seems not to know bedrock Democratic bible passages. Aside from other messes in that mess.

Apart from all of that, hidden way down in the Andrew Malcolm post at LAT is this:

“His Hollywood bundlers had trouble selling out the POTUS fundraisers in L.A. next week.”

Whoops.

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6. BooHooHooMan - 26 September 2011: trouble selling out the POTUS fundraisers in L.A. next week
Oh come ON! Don’t you all see?
The double triple decker reverse sandwich checkmate that Obby and Co have tucked up their sleeve? – A netted sleeve at that – WITH, I might add, a rather interesting butterfly stole ala fillet’d Silence of the Fatted Lambs -.

Lady Gaga Attends Obama Fundraising Event

Lady Gaga was among the guests at a $35,800 per couple Obama fundraiser tonight at the home of Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and David Goldberg in Atherton, Calif.

At the event, which took place under a tent in Sandberg’s yard, Gaga reportedly wore ™ a black dress scalloped high plunge back and high heels. Her blond hair was upswept, with black flowers and black veil sweeping down back of hair.

Bingo! Now THERE”S his brilliant handlers in action again!!
GONNA BE HUGE IN THE SOUTH! Anyways.

According to a source present in the tent fundraiser, Gaga asked a question during the Q&A. She first thanked the president for what he’s accomplished, then read from what she said was a letter from a fan about the suicide of another fan who had been subjected to bullying.

She thanked Obama for hosting his anti-bullying conference

with Michelle Obama

who, oddly enough, has been bullying , noted the First Lady, (Secret Service Code Name : “Fatty Basher”)

~~“” Untold TONS that have been hectored right off America’s LARDASS children throughout The Pepsodent’s first term! “”~~ ,

… and then Miss Gaga made a general plea to everyone in the room, including the president, to do what they can to prevent bullying.

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BooHooHooMan - 26 September 2011: Anything under “Bullying” cover raining death upon civilians via robotic buzz bombs, cruise missiles, and gunships?
Anything on Indefinite detention rape torture and murder?
Is that a Peace Prizewinning yes or no, Miss Gaga?
How pathetic and OBvious attempt at marketing synergy – trying desperately to extend (along with Barry) one’s flash-in-the-pan fame to the children…..

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marisacat - 26 September 2011: Welll… we tape red white and blue flowers to our bombs. That changes everything.

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BooHooHooMan - 26 September 2011: They really need a dramatic campaign makeover with their optics and messaging. Something subtle, without eroding the whole “no-drama” value of the Ob Brand. LOL. ( G L ! )
But it’s gotta be BIG.
Personally I’d suggest, one big , oh I dunno - We Are The World
televised orgy, no-no – I mean a real, live ORGY/ Benefit Concert for OFA. Interspersed with healthy eating tips mixed in.

Something for the whole family carried on , MTV, The Food Channel , Nickelodean and a pay per view channel like Hustler or the Catholic Channel.

They’re considering it, I gather….

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marisacat - 26 September 2011: Maybe they could just live stream one of the famous! 5 dollar donation win-a-dinner with Obby. Hell that ought to shut down this side show immediately.

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diane - 26 September 2011: And today, it was off to neighboring Sly[Solar]Con Valley’s, Mountain View (Google/NASA/Moffet Field/Singularityburgh), Cali LinkedIn [NYSE: LNKD] ™ ] Town Hall ™, ….where GovCORP LinkedIn’s ™ multinational products (well okay, it isn’t a “Town,” or a “Hall”…. they’re not citizens, they are “product,” ….and yes, …non-suckers needn’t bother), were allowed to submit jawbs questions for the Obamessiah (though only if they removed their bedroom slippers first, in proper respect), which would then be selected by unnamed, pertinent question selection wizards employed under the watchful obscenely burgeoning wealth of:

LinkedIn [NYSE: LNKD] ™ Founder Papa!!!!, Reid Hoffman:

…founder of popular site LinkedIn Reid Hoffman on Thursday urged the US Congress and the Obama Administration to remove the cap on H-1B visas, which enable foreign nationals to live and work in the United States.

[more]

and LinkedIn’s [NYSE: LNKD] ™ CEO, Jeff Weiner (no, not Chuckie’s Weiner, but still …a weiner.):

…there’s another massive labor imbalance in the country that rarely gets attention. According to the most recent report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are over three million job opportunities going unfilled in the U.S. right now, the highest level in three years.

How is that possible? Simply put, companies can find workers; they just can’t find the right workers. The CEO of Siemens’ (SI) U.S. subsidiary says that his company has at least 3,200 open jobs it’s trying to staff. Everyone from industry giants like Microsoft (MSFT) [Yes, regarding that last link, it’s true, this asshole, Mr. Weiner, can’t be bothered to tell the difference between a Siemens link versus a Microsoft link, yet he’s one of those: WELL PAID and PONTIFICATING WHITE BOYOZ ™ about the highly skilled and capable ™ (see below) for jawbs - diane] to small- and medium-sized businesses like Begal Enterprises, a disaster-cleanup company in Maryland, are struggling to find qualified employees for their open jobs. [1 - diane]

yeah, right around the bend, as increasing stench precedes it .. just a few paragraphs down, and there it is, THE JAWBS SOLUTION – WTF!!!!!!! ™:

• Free the H1-B. There are highly skilled individuals working outside the U.S. who are capable of filling today’s vacant, yet critical jobs — jobs that may be at risk of being shipped overseas. Yet these people can’t work in the U.S. because of limitations on the number of available H1-B visas.

Opening the doors to such professionals would not only increase the productivity of their new employers, but fuel job creation domestically as these same individuals earn wages that will be spent in the U.S. economy. Additionally, these talented engineers, scientists and other highly skilled workers are the same people capable of starting companies that generate exponentially more economic opportunities for others.

[more]

[1] Ya gotta fuckin love this, on so many levels, and I’m not even going to speak to the Siemens’ and Microsoft utter bullshit, because anyone with any sense knows it is a nasty lie (as Marisa noted a short while back, the multinational corporations merged with the educational system in the US, quite some time ago), but what about this:

….Begal Enterprises, a disaster-cleanup company in Maryland, are struggling to find qualified employees for their open jobs

Yes, apparantly, looking at what’s implied by the funk ridden, linked Bloomberg piece, Begal… supposedly can’t find qualified Sales or Admin people (more like: it refuse to, or is unable to, pay a liveable wage) and therefore, Free the H1-B!!!!!!. From http://www.housekeepingchannel.com:

Begal Enterprises, Inc. is a full-service, emergency and restoration company with a 24-hour response team trained to quickly and efficiently mitigate damages from water, fire, storm, mold and vandalism. Our services include emergency board-up, cleaning, water extraction, structural drying, fast drying carpet cleaning & odor removal. By reacting quickly, we have been able to assist countless individuals and corporations . Getting them back to business and a normal schedule and routine, saving time and money. We are the only local company to provide drycleaning and laundry services on site, which means clothing or apparel can be returned within a day. Our experts clean rugs, leather and fur, and repair electronics & furniture. We also offer packing and moving services as well as security storage. No job is too large or small for Begal Enterprises.

[link]

(bolding mine)

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marisacat - 26 September 2011: (though only if they removed their bedroom slippers first, in proper respect

wasn’t that disgusting? If the black congresscritters had an ounce of self respect they would have walked out.

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diane - 26 September 2011: the comment pretty much equaled that venal remark about his power to drone his daughters suitors. I’m imagining he’s made quite the number of righteous enemies with that one; and so close to the assassination of Troy Davis (which I think was some chilling, thoroughly hideous, apples and oranges, tit for tat about that racist who was just executed.)

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Madman in the Marketplace - 26 September 2011: And Waters, after initially slapping back at him, has already backed down …

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marisacat - 26 September 2011: anyone in congress that long is criminal.

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7. Madman in the Marketplace - 26 September 2011: NYPD officer who maced female protesters at Occupy Wall Stret identified, and d0xed by Anonymous

The NYPD officer caught on video macing peaceful female “Occupy Wall Street” protesters at close range, then “slinking away,” has been identified. And doxed by Anonymous. “Before you commit atrocities against innocent people, think twice,” the intro to “BadCop D0x” begins. “WE ARE WATCHING!!! Expect Us!”

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8. Madman in the Marketplace - 26 September 2011: Anthony Bologna, NYPD officer accused of pepper-spray incident, is accused of civil rights violations at the time of the 2004 Republican national convention protests

A senior New York police officer accused of pepper-spraying young women on the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrations is the subject of a pending legal action over his conduct at another protest in the city.

The Guardian has learned that the officer, named by activists as deputy inspector Anthony Bologna, stands accused of false arrest and civil rights violations in a claim brought by a protester involved in the 2004 demonstrations at the Republican national convention.

Then, 1,800 people were arrested during protests against the Iraq war and the policies of president George W Bush.

Alan Levine, a civil rights lawyer representing Post A Posr, a protester at the 2004 event, told the Guardian that he filed an action against Bologna and another officer, Tulio Camejo, in 2007. The case, filed at the New York Southern District Court, is expected to be heard next year.

Levine said that when he heard about the pepper spray incident “a bunch of us were wondering if any of the same guys were involved”.

The lawyer said Posr was arrested on 31 August 2004, after he approached the driver of a Volkswagen festooned with anti-abortion slogans.

His arrest was not directly related to the protest against the Republican convention, but was at a time of heightened tension in the New York.

Levine said: “Police contend that Posr hit the man with a rolled-up newspaper. He said he was just talking to the guy. Bologna ordered another officer, Camejo, to arrest Posr.”

Posr was charged with two counts of disorderly conduct and one count of second degree harassment, and held until September 2. On November 8, all charges against him were dropped.

Levine said that, in a departure from normal police procedure, his client was held in a special detention facility, at Pier 57, where he and others arrested were held until the protests were over.

One protester, Jeanne Mansfield – who said she was standing so close to the women sprayed in the face that her own eyes burned – claimed other NYPD officers had expressed disbelief at the actions of the senior officer.

In a vivid account of the incident in the Boston Review, Mansfield said: “A white-shirt, now known to be NYPD Lieutenant Anthony Bologna, comes from the left, walks straight up to the three young girls at the front of the crowd, and pepper-sprays them in the face for a few seconds, continuing as they scream ‘No! Why are you doing that?!’”

Despite her attempts to turn away from the “unavoidable” spray, Mansfield, who took part in Saturday’s march with her boyfriend on a whim after “stumbling across” it, said she suffered burning and temporary blindness in her left eye and tears streaming down her face.

She continued: “In the street I shout for water to rinse my eyes or give to the girls on the ground. But no one responds. One of the blue-shirts, tall and bald, stares in disbelief and says, ‘I can’t believe he just fuckin’ maced her.’”

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marisacat - 26 September 2011: Oh but they are automatic Heroes!!!

Such bullshit we exude.

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9. Madman in the Marketplace - 26 September 2011: Striking California nurses return to work as patient death raises tensions

Thousands of Californian nurses will return to work on Tuesday morning after a four-day lockout by hospital management during which a patient died having been mistakenly given a lethal drug dose by a temporary replacement carer.

Judith Ming, 66, died on Saturday morning at Alta Bates Summit medical centre in Oakland after being given what police say was a “non-prescribed dosage of medication” at lethal levels. The drug was administered by a stand-in nurse brought in from Louisiana by the company that owns the hospital, Sutter Health, following a one-day strike organised by California nurses in protest at cuts to hospital services, benefits and working conditions.

About 23,000 members of America’s largest nurses’ union National Nurses United went on strike last Thursday, intending to return to their positions after 24 hours. Of those, 17,000 were allowed back by the health giant Kaiser Permanente, but 6,000 nurses were locked out for a further four days by the hospital chain Sutter Health and the independent Children’s hospital in Oakland.

Martha Kuhl, one of the locked-out nurses, said the union had given two weeks’ notice to employers before the strike began to allow them to assemble suitably qualified replacements, “but apparently that hasn’t happened”. She said the lockout had been unnecessary and regrettable.

“Qualified nurses were available to work, but management prevented them from returning. So, yes, I believe that the blame for the patient’s death lies with them.

“Nurses with 24 years’ experience were showing up for work, but were denied entry by security guards.”

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ts - 26 September 2011: I really hope Sutter gets the shit sued out of them for that. Nothing worse for the bottom line than a multi-million wrongful death suit.

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marisacat - 26 September 2011: For 10 years Sutter Health has done nothing but buy up and consolidate and close hospitals, at least that is the MO here in the Bay Area, East Bay, South Bay, San Francisco and North Bay……. with everything going downhill.

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marisacat - 26 September 2011: They are saying tonight that she was fed a nutrient intravenously rather than thru a feeding tube.

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10. Madman in the Marketplace - 26 September 2011: America’s barely tamed brutality

Not according to the two white-shirted senior NYPD officers captured on video. The film shows a small group of women protesters, who are doing nothing menacing at all, having been kettled by police. As they stand there fenced in and defenceless, the two white shirts walk up to them, hold out a pepper-spray canister and zap them straight in the face.

It’s the officers’ insouciance that is most shocking. They engage the pepper spray as calmly as if they were handing out parking tickets, then turn and just as calmly walk away.

The video reminded me of another recent event at which I was present: last week’s execution in Georgia of Troy Davis. The case drew international attention because there was no forensic evidence and seven out of nine key witnesses had recanted their testimony.

But it was the incidental details outside the prison that caught my eye. An impassioned but entirely peaceful crowd of protesters had gathered to make the pretty reasonable argument that states should not go around killing innocent people. Georgia’s response was to line up a Swat team in black riot gear like extras in a Batman movie and fly police helicopters with spotlights overhead. Add to that the balmy night and the loud buzzing of the crickets and it was like stepping back in time into a pastiche of the old Deep South.

It would be tempting to blame the extraordinary cruelty of that night on residual southern racism. But the most gruesome element of the proceedings had nothing to do with Georgia. Rather it came from the highest court in the land, the bastion of American justice, the US supreme court in Washington. It was the supreme court that kept Davis waiting for four full hours, not knowing whether he was about to live or die, and then announced the execution could go ahead. Calmly, insouciantly, just like those New York cops.

The combination of pepper spray, Swat teams and judicial torture – for that is what it was – underlined for me a strain of American life that is forever present but rarely makes itself so boldly visible as it has this week. You find it nostalgically glamorised in westerns and Coen brothers films – rough justice, primordial morality, the cold hard logic of the gun. It’s a barely tamed brutality that sits oddly with America’s claim to be the standard-bearer of civilisation in the world.

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11. Madman in the Marketplace - 26 September 2011: a report in the Boston Herald by one of their reporters, who was in the march and got some of the collateral mace:

At this point, the crowd of twenty or so caught in the orange fence is shouting “Shame! Shame! Who are you protecting?! YOU are the 99 percent! You’re fighting your own people!” A white-shirt, now known to be NYPD Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna, comes from the left, walks straight up to the three young girls at the front of the crowd, and pepper-sprays them in the face for a few seconds, continuing as they scream “No! Why are you doing that?!” The rest of us in the crowd turn away to avoid the spray, but it’s unavoidable. My left eye burns and goes blind and tears start streaming down my face. Frank grabs my arm and shoves us through the small gap between the orange fence and the brick wall while everyone stares in shock and horror at the two girls on the ground and two more doubled over screaming as their eyes ooze. In the street I shout for water to rinse my eyes or give to the girls on the ground. But no one responds. One of the blue-shirts, tall and bald, stares in disbelief and says, “I can’t believe he just fuckin’ maced her.” And it becomes clear that the white-shirts are a different species. We need to get out of there.

The other end of the street is also closed off, and we are trapped on this one block along with about twenty frustrated pedestrians. My eye is killing me and I’m crying, partially from the pain and partially from the shock of the violence displayed by these police. A shirtless young “medic” with ripped cargo shorts, matted brown hair, and two plastic bottles slung around his neck runs up to me and says, “Did you get pepper sprayed? Okay here, tilt your head to the side, this isn’t going to feel great,” at which point he squirts one of the plastic bottles of white liquid into my left eye, then tilts my head the other way and does the other eye, then repeats with water. Then he unties the white bandanna from his wrist and wipes my eyes with it saying, “You’ll be okay, this is my grandfather’s bandanna, he got through Korea with it, and if he got through that, then you’re going to get through this. Just keep blinking.” Thanks to the treatment—liquid antacid, pepper-spray antidote—the burning behind my eyes subsides.

A woman with two little girls in tow walks up to a cop at the end of the block and explains that they just need to get to ballet, but he won’t let them through. The woman seems to accept this, turns to the girls, thinks for a second, then marches straight to the edge of the fence at the corner of the building. A different officer sees them coming and, understanding their situation, lets them through. So Frank and I bolt for the same opening and escape.

The farther away we get, the more normal everyone starts to look. People clearly have no clue at all about what’s happening just five or six blocks down. Frank and I say maybe two words to each other the whole five-hour bus ride home.

Just for the record, I love cops. I do, my mother worked in the justice system for 30 years, and I’ve known a lot of really good cops, really good honorable people just doing their jobs. I’ve never agreed with the sentiment “Fuck the Po-lice,” and I still don’t. But these guys are fucked up. There was an anger in those white-shirt’s eyes that said, “You don’t matter.” And whether they were just scared or irrational or looking for a target for their rage, there was no excuse for their abuse of authority. I had always thought that people who complained about police brutality must have done something to provoke it, that surely cops wouldn’t hurt people without a really good reason. But they do. We were on the curb, we were contained, we were unarmed. Pepper spray hurts like hell, and the experience only makes me wish I’d done something more to deserve it.

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marisacat - 26 September 2011: I had always thought that people who complained about police brutality must have done something to provoke it, that surely cops wouldn’t hurt people without a really good reason. But they do.

Golly. Good of him to get over that wasted energy of ALWAYS buying into what the cops say..

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Madman in the Marketplace - 26 September 2011: middle class delusions die hard

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marisacat - 26 September 2011: And the Boston Herald is he Republican paper there, iirc.

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diane - 26 September 2011: speaking of Republican Newspapers, and the Wall Street Occupation, I noticed that the hardcopy San Francisco Chronicle front paged a teeny Vallejo Protest against Prostitution instead, the day after the mass arrests and the macing.

I didn’t read it, but I highly doubt there was even any discussion of the age old, historic link between female unemployment/discriminatory unlivable wages and prostitution or strip clubs among young women.

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12. BooHooHooMan - 26 September 2011: Oh my fuckin word. SiLOs of Popcorn now.
With a little carved Bologna for a family snack.
A shout out with kudos to , shall we say, rogue photags everywhere, BTW.

Poor Bloomberg and the global boiler-room protection crew…. really freaked out that certain disinclined-to-the veal-pen anonymous citizens decided to tour some of the UES and UWS finer doormanned buildings.
Diversion. ~Henh~.
Not just for the benefit of Pols and Banksters anymore.

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BooHooHooMan - 27 September 2011: Welp,, they should have a helluva time on their hands this Friday in New York. Halloween, …merrymakers everywhere…
Could be more engaging than a Kabul Policeman’s Ball.

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13. BooHooHooMan - 27 September 2011: And LULZ @ Obama , his on-demand accent and AA pulpit ministrations before the CBC minstrel show this weekend…
Anybody catch the performance?

Yeh throw that in with in with a Pledge of Allegiance to Israel in the next bridge-selling swing thru Kentucky…Top it off with Lady Gaga and the anti-bullying message and you have a completely coherent campaign.

I tell you one thing: They better HOPE Christie doesn’t get elevated. (Not an endorsement!)

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BooHooHooMan - 27 September 2011: sorry for the double clutched typos,
(plently of LULZ lately).

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14. BooHooHooMan - 27 September 2011: Well, for anyone needing a clear flowchart of what’s going on in the whole globo-econ thing, here it is.
I particularly enjoyed finding out about Goldman’s getting money from the Uranians. As in really offshore, as in Uranus.
Hell, they’re into everybody else, that’s for sure…

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15. marisacat - 27 September 2011: Madman sent me this:

NYT

September 26, 2011

Wall Street Demonstrations Test Police Trained for Bigger Threats

By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN

When members of the loose protest movement known as Occupy Wall Street began a march from the financial district to Union Square on Saturday, the participants seemed relatively harmless, even as they were breaking the law by marching in the street without a permit.

But to the New York Police Department, the protesters represented something else: a visible example of lawlessness akin to that which had resulted in destruction and violence at other anticapitalist demonstrations, like the Group of 20 economic summit meeting in London in 2009 and the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle in 1999.

The Police Department’s concerns came up against a perhaps milder reality on Saturday, when their efforts to maintain crowd control suddenly escalated: protesters were corralled by police officers who put up orange mesh netting; the police forcibly arrested some participants; and a deputy inspector used pepper spray on four women who were on the sidewalk, behind the orange netting. . . . .

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marisacat - 27 September 2011: And madman sent this too

Alternet

With No Future Visible, Young Activists Have Few Options but to “Occupy Wall Street”

By David Graeber, Comment Is Free

Posted on September 26, 2011, Printed on September 27, 2011

Alternet reprint of a Guardian Comment is Free posting

Why are people occupying Wall Street? Why has the occupation – despite the latest police crackdown – sent out sparks across America, within days, inspiring hundreds of people to send pizzas, money, equipment and, now, to start their own movements called OccupyChicago, OccupyFlorida, in OccupyDenver or OccupyLA?

There are obvious reasons. We are watching the beginnings of the defiant self-assertion of a new generation of Americans, a generation who are looking forward to finishing their education with no jobs, no future, but still saddled with enormous and unforgivable debt. Most, I found, were of working-class or otherwise modest backgrounds, kids who did exactly what they were told they should: studied, got into college, and are now not just being punished for it, but humiliated – faced with a life of being treated as deadbeats, moral reprobates.

Is it really surprising they would like to have a word with the financial magnates who stole their future?

Just as in Europe, we are seeing the results of colossal social failure. The occupiers are the very sort of people, brimming with ideas, whose energies a healthy society would be marshaling to improve life for everyone. Instead, they are using it to envision ways to bring the whole system down . . . . . .

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16. marisacat - 27 September 2011: A really great piece at Cpunch on the big health care strike out here (lock out officially over this am at 7, btw)

[I]t is difficult to exaggerate the significance of these strikes. In the face of a deafening chorus preaching austerity, of the near universal demand – from corporations to politicians – for concessions, these workers have said no; no they will not give back what they have fought for years to win, and they are not willing to give up what other workers should have. And certainly not give up to these grotesquely wealthy hospital chains and their millionaire managers.

Let’s get right to the point. Kaiser has made $5.7 billion since 2009; $1.6 billion since the beginning of the year. Kaiser CEO George Halvorson was paid more than $8 million in total compensation in 2009 alone. Sutter sits on $11.6 billion in assets. It has recorded S3.7 billion in profits since 2005. It has twenty top executives who receive more than $1 million each.

Yet, of course, Kaiser is trying to force deep cuts in workers’ healthcare and retirement benefits. Sutter RN’s are protesting no less than 200 sweeping company demands. . . . . .

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Madman in the Marketplace - 27 September 2011: fucking SEIU sellout asshole lapdonks …

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marisacat - 27 September 2011: yeah … pretty clear…

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17. marisacat - 27 September 2011: Nader seems to have re-found his brain… an article on the proliferation of drones.

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18. Madman in the Marketplace - 27 September 2011: Two Hundred Years of the War on Terror

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19. Madman in the Marketplace - 27 September 2011: Stephen Fry and Brit talk-show guests marvel at American prison system’s brutality

The looks of horror on the guests’ faces as Fry recites the stats is really telling …

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ts - 27 September 2011: At they end they have a contrast – the US bans any goods imported into the US made through slave labor, yet 93% of military helmets are made by prison industries…and they go on for about 30 second with the various goods effectively made through prison/slave labor.

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20. marisacat - 27 September 2011: peachy keen. LOL we shoulda kept Bush. elections are so much stress and strain.

The supercommittee has become supersecret about most of what it’s doing.

On Tuesday, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) encapsulated the attitude of the members of the Joint Deficit Reduction Committee: “I don’t want to discuss what we discussed.”

As 12 lawmakers tackle the historic task of slashing at least $1.2 trillion from the nation’s deficit, they have spent lots of time behind closed doors, speaking almost nothing of their proceedings while leaving behind little more than a trail of sandwich wrappers and unanswered questions.

It’s a remarkable show of secrecy after an election year that ushered in nearly 90 new Republicans who rejected the idea that sweeping legislation would be authored outside the public view. . . . . .

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BooHooHooMan - 27 September 2011: Like cousin Cheney never left…

CIA, Pentagon fight to keep Osama bin Laden death photos secret

Photos and videos of Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden after he was killed in May in a U.S. military/Central Intelligence Agency raid in Pakistan should not be released publicly because they would reveal military and intelligence secrets and could lead to violence against U.S. personnel, the Obama administration argued in papers filed in federal court in Washington late Monday night.

The new filings from the Justice Department provide scant details about the imagery, but CIA National Clandestine Service Director John Bennett wrote that the CIA has “52 unique….photographs and/or videorecordings” depicting bin Laden during or after the May operation. Bennett did not break down the tally further, but said all the imagery is classified “TOP SECRET,” meaning that disclosure of the material could lead to “exceptionally grave damage” to U.S. national security.

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marisacat - 27 September 2011: I say bring them back!!

why fuss with Il Mannequino

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BooHooHooMan - 27 September 2011: You’d have to give up Biden, you know…

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marisacat - 27 September 2011: Oh big snicker!

I’d steel myself to bear the loss… probably need pain meds. too….

I saw a headline today, maybe at Politico, not sure, how he “romanced” the wimmens on The View today…. I almost gagged.

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21. marisacat - 28 September 2011: New

LINK

………

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Marisacat