Commodity brokers.. 3 April 2009
Posted by marisacat in 2010 Mid Terms, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, WAR!.trackback
Guards of honor from the South Korean Army performed at the War Memorial of Korea in Seoul. Photo: Lee Jae-Won/Reuters/NYT
hmm Spiffy unis, epaulets, caps… weapons… flags, martial, institutional, vaguely fascistic building… all the makings.
We’ve all got to keep up… make sure weapons are loaded on to the next Ark. Old grievances too… we will always be making new ones, but to be certain, load the old ones, just in case.
Other than that… Our Leader told the assorted CEOs (well, they say he said this… ) that …
“My administration,” the president added, “is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.”
Which means what?
They will open fire on the bonus marchers (so to speak)? .. to protect the business class? ( 🙄 as if they would not)
Dear CEOs, I’m your Daddy… Love Barry ???
Something along those lines.
Marisacat 
Something is Rotten at PBS
I saw it, I thought it was poor. As I recall, and it set the tone, they OPENED with a mangled retelling of how Switzerland converted to a form of single payer (but iwth an entirely different, I would add, regulatory relationship to insurance cos) but tailored to suit themselves and that we should do that do. A sort a sotto voce, well the Swiss are almost the Swedes, what could be wrong.
Ignani, who has been around for years, played way too big a part… and was allowed to be portrayed as her newly shellacked sympathetic self. Gah. She so understands as she suffers from asthma and would be denied coverage, so she is there! She knows, she cares!
it was a sell out, with a few good stories of suffereing thrown in.. and a too light coverage of MASS FAILURE.
Mandate was totally misrepresented as the reality that will play out. but then people elected a Black John Edwards (car salesman with law deg) with a Hillary heart.
sad … Frontline used to be so straightforward.
Ben Smith
I dropped in the embedded link Ben Smith used… to Pam’s House Blend. I was surprised at her sharp reaction (snip bwlow). AND I am really happy to see that “God is in the mix” pisses her off (and probably more) as it does me.
Wellllllllllll just because you have taught Con law, in the end does nto mean much. He is noticeably mush mouthed on RIGHTS.
I think it is a pretty clear cut case…. maybe it moves the whole issue forward. Last I heard they got a three week stay… but the responses from ICE were harsh, as of a couple of days ago.
hmm from the Pam’s Blend thread… I am with Lurleen. All the way… 😆
Bold is mine…
flying firarms! that’s quite a pic – here’s a rhyme:
Bill Conroy – Legal U.S. Arms Exports May Be Source of Narco Syndicates Rising Firepower:
Troubling, but not surprising
Killing Joke
I see Perrin opened with this…
I have been noticing that Angry Arab never lets a chance go by to say I TOLD YOU SO as he passes on some crushing tidbit of what Obstruction is really up to. Esp with regard to the ME.
I’ve embraced “I told you so” and taken it as a release from paying quite so much attention to electoral politics. Not that I don’t, but nowhere near as much as I did, and I’ve abandoned the idea that people want to/are willing to actually change the murderous, nasty, hateful, dishonest,self-deluding nightmare that American society is.
I’m personally embracing “I told you so” and trying to enjoy the show as best I can. What else is there to do?
Israel Expected Stronger Hamas
In a bizarre , historic reversal, Tel Aviv cites “weak knee’d Slavs” and “pussy-ass Poles” as “just asking for it” wrt Hitlers real estate investment “hobby”.
Marisa last thread
Very sorry, I misread the “way too many of them” part of this, should’ve been clued in by the full text part, but the venom I had stored up over tejano’s dead trees remark sent me in a space of oh nooooooo, where I should’ve known better…………….
However, Europeans, way too many of them, still read papers and read full text of speeches.
yolk dripping along with gooey clear stuff ………….
No need to say sorry…. I realised I sort of cranked out the comment about “way too many”…
I think I read the tejano piece you mention (I try to get to FSZ a few times a week). he really is a dumb jerk.
well really, I should have thought on it longer
and tejano..fairly young and cocky seems fitting also…of course if he’s older than he seems..he may well be hopeless…………………
his nastiest meanest stuff at Peeder’s was … erased.
What a shock.
of and yeah the era of
….epaulets……
and never, ever,….. forget those snow white gloves……
the better to see the blood with…………….?
Speaking of which I read somewhere that SF’s dear Willie the Ascotted Grinner Brown matter of factly informed that the Police are (and implied – should be) a Paramilitary organization ….. buck up and quit whining about race..Jesama and I have………………………..did you clarify the rumor that you dumpety dump dumped your first wife the dance teacher who was said to be a tad bit too dusky for your goals Willster?
17
Did you notice that Peeder (user id 7) made a rare appearance the other day, right after beach returned?
everyonce in awhile, I wonder if Jack’s place is actually another Peeder antfarm site experiment …the same “assword” insult one has to repeatedly accept in order to log on…………oh well……probably not…or?
Ya know, I’d like to think it’s because His Obamic Majesty is busy with the Great Work of bullying Europeans right now, that he can’t attend to making any pithier statements about today’s mass shooting, but…
… the victims of this shooting couldn’t have been more representative of everything that Cult Obama supposedly stood for. How much more multicultural and global and hopeychangey could you get than a polyglot of global citizens believing in the dream of America? (have you seen the photos from the evening vigil in the Binghamton church?) How much more tragic and wrong – from an allegedly Obamist view — of an example can you get of a nation awash in guns for all the wrong reasons?
I hate to turn this into politics, because it’s so much deeper and sadder than that (though not much is sadder than politics). But it all just strikes me as either just a little unlucky, or just more evidence of his money not being where his mouth was.
I haven’t seen those photos. Do you have a link? Not to be ghoulish, but I would like to see a HUMAN reaction, not just pics of militia surrounding the building. Just to reassure myself that people were involved, and not just men with guns.
And not that there is anything wrong with being political, but his mouth has never been where the money is … he’s about speaking FOR the money while pretending to care about people.
19
linkster pinkster from the Soapster Front Page.do…
http://www.freespeechzoneblog.com/userDiary.do;jsessionid=4D7CB63101848EF248F18FF56ADE987E?personId=7
NYCO
so much deeper and sadder than that…
seems like the unbeckoned urge to weep is the most consistent emotion discernable at the end of the day among anyone who has an ounce of humanity…..
21. Some photos of humans:
Pic 1
Pic 2
Pic 3
Pic 4
others here.
thanks for those. I had no idea how diverse that area of the state is.
So sad.
Thanks for posting those NYCO…
***
Just FYI…
having computer problems all day… ugh among other problems… trying different things but in case I disappear for a bit… just to let you know…
BTW
Moyers has a good show, starts out with Black who has been around since the Savings and Loan mess… Calls Paulson a filure and Geithner a failure and that (as we know) the game is to hide and cover up.
Wham bam thank you ma’am. NEXT!?
COVER-UP… he is really pushing that (tho hegives them an out from complicity and crimality, saying they are full on panicked).. he says they are afraid of the total collapse.
Geesh, we can see it.
Anyway if I get back on will post the transcript… (later he will have Amy and Greenhoohoo from Salon, forget his name)
Thanks for that. I’ll record the replay early Sunday morning. I missed it last night.
wow Black just finished. Pretty blunt… and took a swipe at Geithner at the end. Eventually he will come back, my guess would be, and be blunt about Obster (Moyers said he voted for him… )
I am back on and I think i jiggled or goosed the computer a little… gah. It is owrking a bit smoother. We’ll see…
Moyers:
That was a damn good interview and it’s actually being debated on dkos’ wreck list. Ouch.
SMBIVA…
The photo of DiFi is with Bill C. 😆
And of course there is another wrinkle or two.
CHANGE! LOL
Maybe if the NYT hadn’t wasted copious amounts of money on so-called “reporters” like Judith Miller and neocon “editorialist” (pffft) Kristol, this wouldn’t be happening.
Camo costs for Judeeeeeeee. Champagne in her water bottles. All expenses paid vaca at a spa when she gets out of jail (which PinchPunch whatever the son is called did pay for)
I thnk these days she contributes (dully… and in a pretty dull place, so the bar is lowlowlow) at Daily Beast.
Bizarre. There are reports in various international papers that Pakistani Taliban are claiming responsibility for the Binghamton shootings.
The Binghamton gunman was apparently depressed about his poor English skills and lack of job prospects, according to the latest reports. His relative (Henry Voong) worked for IBM, not him.
One of the foreign students who got out alive says that many of the non English speakers didn’t know what was going on, and that her teacher, after being informed by the police via cell phone and telling the class they were locked down, simply went on with the English lesson as gunshots were heard from above.
Now I’m reading that the police scanner says there’s a gunman on the loose in a neighborhood across town here.
And that 3 police officers in Pittsburgh have been killed.
CNN just reported that the gunman gave himself up.
oh see the news report here did not specify what state.. I assumed Pittsburg over in the East Bay…
Thanks for the update NYCO.
Here is AP:
Police official: 3 officers killed in Pa. shooting
Another detail from the Pittsburgh Trib:
That last tidbit will be allowed to quietly go away.
🙄
Snuck into the middle of Tapper’s report on the post NATO meeting presser:
Oh I am sure of that…
And this at the end…
A few hits at Sarko in the short report too…
Frankly anytime they want to stop touring the secondary cities and get to work, would be fine. I realise it won’t be happening.
***
First thing I heard today when I awoke was that 5 cops have been shot, responding to a domestic call, in Pittsburg over in the East Bay. Apparently all 5 are critical.
Some further thoughts on Binghamton shooting and maybe I will finally get them out of my system…
I’m trying to overcome my personal bias since it’s just down the interstate from me, but something about this one feels different. It’s to do with the locale. The vast majority, if not all, of these rampage killings have happened outside the Northeast. But in the Northeast, there simply aren’t the political structures that the NRA is used to hiding behind when it comes to fighting the gun wars. (And I suspect Gillibrand is going to swerve from her gun stance so fast that the skid marks will be a mile long.) There isn’t a gun culture in the Northeast similar to that elsewhere in the country. There aren’t fundie religious overtones to it here.
The specific location of Binghamton within the state also seems important: it’s only 140 miles from NYC, and it’s the first Upstate city that downstaters hit when they’re coming up Route 17, which is a major trunk road linking the two regions. Reporters from the huge media center of NYC can get up there more easily than they could to a place like Buffalo or Rochester. It seems to me that the NYC-centric media seems much more interested in debating gun control now; last night’s 20/20 dealt with it tying in to the Binghamton shooting.
Lastly, the Binghamton victims resonate in a peculiar way: it is both a “small town America” crime and a “diverse immigrant nation” crime and in that way, seems to potentially touch many more people. (Although Binghamton is being somewhat misleadingly portrayed as a “small town” – it’s a small, working class, rather blue city, with urban populations such as blacks and Hispanics who are the usual victims of whatever gun violence they’ve had. It is probably more accurately characterized as a miniature Scranton or Syracuse.)
Of course, things have been leading up to this: a Dem president, the bad economy, and a string of shooting upon shooting which continues even on this day. But I do think yesterday’s shooting in Binghamton represents a subtle change in the game. The NRA is going to find it tougher going from now on, I suspect.
add to that all the publicity of US guns crossing the border into Mexico and all of those murders. The only bad thing is that the donks are such cowards and they’re ALWAYS fighting ten year old campaigns.
They’ll run against Bush for a couple of decades. Or the memory of Palin. Or the latest comment from Michelle Bachman. Or Cheney ‘latest big breaking news’ from Sy Hersh. Or if pushed they will say, Crucify La Nan… she is a dominatrix anyway.. have at it. I may have stopped voting for Nancy years ago, but it is joke she is actively pilloried and Reid is not.
Enough people will fall for it, I assume.
Gabor in Spiegel:
Geithner’s dirty little secret By F William Engdahl
Famed Gitmo Lawyer Facing Six Months in Prison For Writing Letter to Obama Detailing Torture of Client
If a letter passed to the High Holy Pretzelness is redacted then he is NOT COMMANDER IN CHIEF. Nor does he command the DOJ nor the DOD etc.
just a mere salted pretzel.. and kinda stale and limp in fact.
I found that to be pretty telling too.
From the other Pittsburgh Paper (Not that you would’ve known off hand Madman, but dick mellon scaife owns the Tribune, this piece spells out the McCain supporter part):
Officers killed, wounded in Stanton Heights standoff
Saturday, April 04, 2009
By Michael Fuoco and Jerome Sherman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“At least three Pittsburgh police officers were killed and possibly two others were wounded after a heavily armed man began firing at them as they responded to a domestic call this morning at a home in Stanton Heights.
The gunman, identified as Richard Poplawski and who told friends he was wearing a bulletproof vest, surrendered to police about 11 a.m., more than three hours after the standoff began at 1016 Fairfield St. His condition was not immediately available, but he told friends who spoke with him by telephone that he had been shot.
The names of the officers were not immediately released. At least one wounded officer was treated at a hospital and released. Shortly after 1 p.m., city 911 dispatchers announced that flags in the city would be lowered to half staff and officers were to place black mourning bands over their badges “in honor of our deceased brothers . . . lest we forget.”
The incident began around 7:30 a.m. after officers went to the address and the suspect opened fire, police said.
Police Chief Nathan Harper said four officers initially were wounded when Mr. Poplawski fired an assault rifle from a window. A fifth officer was wounded in a later burst of gunfire, the chief said.
For much of the morning, the standoff forced police to lock down the neighborhood as scores of officers converged on the house, where Mr. Poplawski had barricaded himself with at least one family member.
Some of the wounded officers remained for a time where they fell because other officers could not reach them because of the continuing fusillade, according to Diane Richard, Pittsburgh Police spokeswoman.
A state police helicopter hovered overhead as more than 100 officers from Pittsburgh, the state, the district attorney’s office and the Port Authority converged along with neighbors and other onlookers.
Authorities as well as members of the suspect’s family were in contact with Mr. Poplawski by phone. Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl was among the officials at the scene.
Mr. Poplawski is in his early 20s, according to neighbor and longtime friend Joe DiMarco. Mr. DiMarco and his mother, Darlene, said they spoke to Mr. Poplawski on the telephone this morning.
“He told me he loved me and that he’d been shot in the chest and leg,” Ms. DiMarco said.
She also said Mr. Poplawski’s mother and possibly his grandmother were in the house with him.
Another neighbor, Brian Merlina, said he was getting out of the shower at 7:30 a.m. when he heard rapid-fire gunshots. About 30 minutes later, he heard at least two dozen more shots fired.
Shortly thereafter, the state police helicopter landed in a field near his house. He said he drove a trooper who got out of the helicopter to the scene.
Utility crews cut off power to the house at 10:45 a.m. because they believed Mr. Poplawski was monitoring media reports. He surrendered a short time later.
Drew Stadler, 34, who lives nearby on Oglethorpe Street, said he heard loud bangs around 8 a.m. From his window, he saw Mr. Poplawski pointing what appeared to be a semiautomatic rifle and shooting at officers from a window above the garage of the Fairfield Street house.
SWAT officers were pinned down, with their protective shields up, at an adjacent house.
At one point, the SWAT officers pulled away a wounded officer and dragged him down the street, Mr. Stadler said. He also said he heard potentially hundreds of shots fired throughout the incident.
Other friends said Mr. Poplawski had several guns, including an AK-47 assault-type rifle, a .357 Magnum revolver, a .380-caliber handgun and a .45-caliber handgun. They also said they believed he had not been getting along with his mother.
Mr.Poplawski called Edward Perkovic, a longtime friend and former classmate at North Catholic High School, on a cell phone around 8:30 a.m. Mr. Perkovic said Mr. Poplawski told him he’d been shot in the chest and leg, but that the bulletproof vest he’d been wearing had shielded him.
Mr. Perkovic also said Mr. Poplawski told him: “Eddie, I’m going to die today. Tell my mother and friends I love them. This is probably the end.”
A burst of gunfire followed, and the call ended, Mr. Perkovic said. A short time later, he said, a city 911 official telephoned him and asked him to come to Fairfield Street and help to negotiate a surrender with Mr. Poplawski.
By the time he arrived there, however, the standoff had ended.
Mr. Perkovic and other former classmates said they were surprised by this morning’s events. Mr. Perkovic said Mr. Poplawski was opposed to “Zionist propaganda” and was fearful that his right to own weapons would be taken away.
Another friend, Aaron Vire, 23, said he’d helped Mr. Poplawski and Mr. Perkovic with a radio show they’d broadcast on the Internet, discussing “girls and life.”
Mr. Poplawski had supported Republican candidate John McCain in the presidential election and had “very spirited debates” about Democratic candidate Barack Obama, Mr. Vire said.
Mr. Poplawski was opposed to Mr. Obama’s election, which he thought would result in the loss of his rights, Mr. Vire said.
“He wasn’t a racist but thought some of his amendments were overlooked,” Mr. Vire said.
Mr. Poplawski told him he bought his guns “because he felt the quality of life was being diminished,” Mr. Vire said.
“He said he’ll be ready if there’s ever an invasion of the United States and that he had stockpiled foods and guns for that eventuality.”
More details in tomorrow’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
First published on April 4, 2009 at 9:59 am“
Very familiar with that kneck of the woods in my younger years. Very tragic. And of course I’ll have to LOUDLY qualify that I don’t hate all cops, and certainly don’t think anyone should be shot down, but it certainly must not have helped that the Police Departments in Allegheny County are loaded with corrupt cops with Belgian Shepards, who in one 2003 incident near ripped apart a very young (7?) black child in his front yard which bordered perimeter of a crime scene.
In another incident that year a young black man in his preteens I wan to say was shot in the back by a black police officer while jumping a fence to run away from a crime committed (as I recollect the young man was part of a theft crime). One of my memorable Cop moments was being stopped for running a stop sign I didn’t run, because the cop wanted to neck right around the corner at Highland Park and the Highland Park Zoo (same Stanton Heights neighborhood).
As I see it we have all been pitted against each other, and some really hideous things are happening to Innocent people.
In another incident that year a young black man in his preteens I wan to say was shot in the back by a black police officer while jumping a fence to run away from a crime committed (as I recollect the young man was part of a theft crime).
IIRC that case came up in the confirmation of Alito. The case had come before a lower court he was on. He had had no trouble, at all of any kind, with the shooting.
Thanks for that.
I wonder, over time, if we’ll be presented with more of an attempt to humanize this shooter, as opposed to how the guy in Oakland was portrayed as some kind of rabid monster.
I didn’t know it was a Scaiffe paper.
well nto much can be done for Mixon… Think I read that the definitive DNA testing came back, from samples taken from the body, and he is the rapist of the 12 year old in February. They have not offered proof on any of the other rapes they say they suspect him of doing.
The problem as I see is his extended family is being actively demonised. And a story has come out but is not pushed much that his wife ( they do live separately she is in Newman CA and seems not involved at all at this point, might be divorced) had servied in Iraq. There si some indication he got weapons experience thru her/others. Some indication he may hve had the SKS on a tripod in the sister’s apt where he took on the SWAT team. I mean he did lead a hunting party to an apt with two women and a child living there… The sister whose place it was has now been picked up on an old drugs warrant… after she had been questioned and released on the day of the killings… much is made of a spontaneous comment she made when the media got ot the family, paternal g-mother, uncle cousins and her… she said her brother “is not a monster”. That is being used against her.
I’d rather they determine how much she knew of the weapon/s he had at her house.. but it is clear what is happening.
Lost in all of this is any real look at utter lack of political leadership in Oakland. And it will be used in the coming Oakland mayoralty election, the CA gubernatorial. And so on. Cops will use it for a lot of wrong… (thi is not an endorsement of Mixon who was a killer, tho obviously the story is complicated.) Nor have cops released any worthwhile information on the SWAT team actions that day or even why a second patrol cop showed up at the traffic stop.
All I can say to Pittsburgh is prepare for a big funeral.
And it is a foregone conclusion that Mixon si being conflated with Oscar Grant who died New years day… the bullet in the back at BART… and a foregone conculsion that Mehserle the BART cop (he resigned) will be tried out of town, somewhere white and conservative. And so on.
Famed Gitmo Lawyer Facing Six Months in Prison For Writing Letter to Obama Detailing Torture of Client
not only no pretense of justice apparently, but worse our masters our maliciously highlighting our lack of justice…can almost hear the giggling…….
evil fuckin people…..just can’t understand why folks are goin so nuts….oops gotta run …loud banging on my door…..
kidding (this time)
48 Marisa
…just another worthless child……….
and sorry I see my post was alittle unclear here:
In another incident that year a young black man in his preteens I wan to say was shot in the back..
Should have read:
In another incident that year a young black man (in his preteens I wan to say?) was shot in the back
Was definately shot and the back, and most definately is physically dead.
“Stanton Heights” is in the same vicinity, that saw so very many young young people with barely any hope dying like flies from China White and jumping off high bridges to end their lives in pieces on the cement below.
At least when I lived their the area borders/ed immense wealth.
Somehat of an anology I could think of for Cali Marisa, would be Atherton and East Menlo Park.
53
jeez…still unclear….and I haven’t even had anything to drink (would like something about now though, with all of this unrelenting tragedy)
want, not wan
and: shot in the back.
..going to momentarily break my “un nesting” commitment because I don’t want to detract from Madman’s poignant post below…..just thinking about fate…and how just a mile or two further and the shooting would have been in OAKLAND, home to Pitt, The Cathredal of Learning, CMU, Carnegie Museum and Library……………………………
gotta run..have as good a day as you can all………………..
Artist in residence
The Outsiders
very interesting, thank you.
Bankruptcy as an aid to recovery?
Escape from the Zombie Food Court
well more children will be on Ritalin. Or Adderall or whatever. I am sure it has helped some very small sampling, somewhere, just as with anti depressents, they too help SOME. But Ritalin is speed and given to small children, how does anyoen know what the effect is. I was on it from about age 4 – 7 and in my case I just went into a bubble. I must have been in teh very first wave or shortly thereafter to be prescribed Ritalin, in the mid 50s. One doctor, a young and still alive and spontaneous entity, told me that drs and shrinks think that young children who were on Ritalin really know what being ‘on drugs’ is. Pretty much, I’d say…
And you know I am pretty much “pro drug”, Pro opiate pain treatment, opposed to prohibition and all of that… partly because the way we are doing it deals with nothing.
“Holy Hell Has Broken Loose”: Controversial Obama Intelligence Official Blocks Efforts to Release Torture Memos
A senior national-security aide named John Brennan is leading the effort to block the release with the backing of people at the CIA.
Oh I think they picked Brennan on purpose… in fact iirc they wanted him for a spot that would require confirmation.. and he is too intertwined with our recent (as different from our old and usual) torture history. So they shoved him in somewhere else, pronto. (Like Summers)
I think it was convenient. Will be convenient.
I see in graph 2:
What is most disturbing is the role of Brennan who Obama considered as agency director. Brennan was blocked by critics who rightly saw the former senior CIA official as too close to past officials involved in such programs as the torture program.
And then of course Panetta. Such a pick.
agreed … part of the deal for his elevation is to continue the cover-ups.
Guess who?:
US Border Authorities Detain German Political Leader and Undermine American Brand
Poor Steve doesn’t understand … that IS the American brand. Fear and distrust and simple-minded profiling and rude aggressive policing. That IS this country.
Fighting Demons, Raising the Dead, Taking Over the World
A half-hour radio interview with Joseph Tainter, author of The Collapse of Complex Civilizations.
Whoops, that’s The Collapse of Complex Societies.
Bullets from the Drug War
It goes on for a bit.
Preserving Our “Freedom”
if we want a new New Deal, we have to do it ourselves.
A comment over at Open Left in response to a diary about the Moyers/Black interview:
LOTS of tension over at dkos this weekend after that interview. Not to mention justifications for Summers and Geithner.
There are none so blind…
gnu thred…………..
LINK
……………. 🙄 ……………