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Links, Friday, December 30th 2016.

Dec 30, 2016
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Everything you need to know about the Obama administration’s “proof” of Russian hacking…
disclaimer
“The mendacity of politics in 2016 has indeed been astonishing both in its brazenness and in its effectiveness.”

“The Free Syrian Army and the so-called Syrian rebels, who have now lost control of Eastern Aleppo, are not freedom fighters.” Ben Swann calls out the lies regarding US backed Syrian terrorists Rebels.

Economic Recovery Is Mostly A Myth For The 99 Percent.

The corrupt and bribe-ridden “red light” company, Red Flex, is let off, Scott-free by federal prosecutors.

In Japan, you can experience “Death By Overtime.”

“White working class” is a dog whistle, not a demographic.

Oliver Stone has some words regarding the whole “Russians Are Coming” kabuki of U.S. political elites..

Via kreskin: Russia sanctions ‘childish, petulant & pointless revenge for Clinton loss’ – UK’s ex-Syria envoy.

The final blow to the human race is being struck, as we sit and argue about the farcical circus that is D.C.  plutocratic kayfabe.

Bend over and kiss humanity’s ass goodbye.

 

 

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UnkaWillbur - May 26, 2017

Here' some links to nosh on, to start of your weekend. I hope everyone's weekend is great; me, myself, I'm planning on jumping out of a perfectly…

  • Your Song of the Day…

    https://youtu.be/BN-aJQWMFMA

  • 17
  • notisaidthepig

    Good morning!

    • towerofbabel

      Hey There!

  • towerofbabel

    Economics Lecture of the Day: This lecture uses animated charts to show how the process of economic and social breakdown occurs, in a condition of exponential disequilibrium (AKA capital spiraling out of control — Marx/Harvey). This is what we are experiencing right now. Keen’s charts are amazing because they show the importance of complexity theory in evaluating economics–as opposed the boneheaded simplicity of inadequate conventional models. (My theory is that these models are used not because they are sufficiently predictive but because they yield the desired results.) The animations are in the last third of the lecture.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsa8ipOdLpQ

  • towerofbabel
    • Dosido3

      Funny!

  • Shohanna

    Good Morning Lovelies!! **POUNCES AROUND THE ROOM** I am in a playful
    mood today! How is everyone? I hope your holidays were happy and joyous
    and New Years will be great! Not sure what we can do, but we will do
    something fun!

    • 17

      Glad to hear you’re in such high spirits! We gettin’ our old Sho back finally?

      • Shohanna

        With luck, yes! 😀

        • notisaidthepig

          Hooves crossed!

    • Dosido3

      Hello Sho! Glad you are feeling well! Happy new year! Can’t be worse than 2016…doing ok here.

    • FaunaAndFlora

      Sounds like you’re feeling a lot better today. Yay!!!

    • thud

      • I’ll teach your to suck eggs!

        😀

        • Edwin

          What does that mean? It’s even a Korean expression so it seems kind of universal. Never knew what it mean though.

          • Teaching grandmother to suck eggs is an English language saying meaning that a person is giving advice to someone else about a subject of which they are already familiar (and probably more so than the first person).

          • Edwin

            Okay. Thx for explaining.

            Who sucks eggs? I guess that’s the part I always found a bit weird. It sounds reptilian and a bit dirty too.

        • thud

          I’ll teach your great aunt Sally to suck eggs! !!

    • Edwin

    • Good to see you in high spirits! [cheers].

      I was trying to think of what we could do to ring in the new year, stumped.

      • Shohanna

        I have no idea.. LOL We are going to have some nice apple cider and this special recipe cocoa that you make in a slow cooker and count our blessings. 😀

  • 17

    .Booking Fees and Incarceration Costs; The Latest Revenue Generation Tools For Money Hungry Governments

    The Supreme Court is preparing to consider the legality of a couple new methods the police and courts have devised to generate revenue for the State. In several states, including Minnesota, Colorado, and Kentucky, have begun implementing fees and “incarceration cost” reimbursement charges against those who are arrested as a way to raise money for police and governmental budgets.

    http://www.copblock.org/169581/booking-fees-incarceration-costs-latest-revenue-generation-tools-government/

    • towerofbabel

      And you can do slave labor while you wait for your trial.

    • Intolerably evil.

  • towerofbabel

    Putin praised as “adult” by former UK Independence Party leader. The DNC is being embarrassed world wide. Even criticism from rightwing nuts stings.
    https://www.rt.com/uk/372267-farage-putin-diplomatic-expulsions/

    • kreskin

      Obama is looking like a fool .

  • 17

    No, California Did Not Legalize Child Prostitution

    What’s a New Year’s weekend like without a popular lie circling the internet? I ask because it doesn’t appear we’ll ever see a day like that again. Especially with sensationalist partisan rags like the Washington
    Examiner producing partisan garbage like their most recent: “California Democrats legalize child prostitution”. With cursory research, one finds that couldn’t be much further from the truth.

    http://thefifthcolumnnews.com/2016/12/no-california-did-not-legalize-child-prostitution/

    • Dosido3

      We didn’t require porn stars to wear condoms either, so there’s that. Freedom!

  • 17

    What Is Aleppo?

    The response to Gary Johnson’s gaffe captured all the hubris and faux expertise of 2016.

    https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/12/gary-johnson-aleppo-meritocracy-intelligence-politics/

    • oodaloop

      Thank you for the interesting read, 17.

      “Though I am frequently a harsh critic of the coastal striving class, this condition is not something that they’ve done. It’s something that was done to them. This condition was inflicted on them by a socioeconomic system that harms and degrades people and then tells them it’s their fault.”

      “But in being roasted not for his ignorance but for his inability to hide that ignorance, Johnson pulled back the curtain, a little bit, to show the special kind of empty that can fill a whole culture of American exceptionalism, which like a balloon waits only for the smallest tear in its fabric to expel its ephemeral contents and show the world the nothing that lies within.”

    • Jacobin is fast becoming a favorite site of mine. They know how to cut through the bullshit like a red-hot knife through butter.

  • notisaidthepig

    That goodbye world article is from September so I’m guessing we’re even more fucked three months down the timeline. Sigh.

    • Yep. It was a good clear explanation, so I regarded it as still relative.

  • 17

    Why Obama waited 8 years to take on Netanyahu

    http://mondoweiss.net/2016/12/obama-waited-netanyahu/

    • kreskin

      The loser is not a happy camper , out foxed by Yahooo and Vladimir Putin , these are parting cheap shots .

  • Dosido3

    2016 takes another legend…Pan Pan, the worlds oldest male panda 🐼.

  • 17

    Obama’s tantrum: Puerile, infantile and silly, his political epitaph

    True to form, President Barack Hussein Obama II has just thrown a monumental tantrum in public, stomping his feet and screaming because his party lost the election and Washington’s war lobby has been
    trashcanned. Now in a last-ditch hissy fit, Obama throws all his toys out the pram. How puerile, infantile and silly.

    http://www.pravdareport.com/opinion/columnists/30-12-2016/136556-obama_tantrum-0/

  • 17

    Secret papers reveal Margaret Thatcher feared Germany’s power and looked to Russia as an ally

    The power that a unified Germany might possess over Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 seemed to be of serious concern to former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. Previously secret government papers declassified on Dec. 30 showed that, to the alarm of US diplomats, Thatcher thought the Soviet Union could act as a “counter-balance” to a united Germany.

    http://qz.com/875467/the-russians-and-margaret-thatcher-declassified-papers-show-the-former-uk-prime-minister-feared-germanys-power-and-looked-to-soviet-union-as-an-ally/

    • notisaidthepig

      No doubt she was conspiring with them to prevent $hillary’s defeat. St. Ronny must have been around. Those two were tight.

    • Brits, even Thatcher were always a little pink.

  • 17

    Pentagon: US Airstrike on Hospital “May Have Killed Civilians”

    Adding to concerns about the civilian toll of the US air war against ISIS targets, the Pentagon yesterday admitted that they carried out an airstrike against the parking lot of a Mosul hospital, conceding that they “may have killed civilians” in the attack.

    http://theantimedia.org/pentagon-us-airstrike-hospital-killed-civilians/

    • notisaidthepig

      Where is the outrage?

      • kreskin

        Where is the UN and Amnesty International ? Oh , that’s right .

        • towerofbabel

          “makes damn sure that we never see the pain and suffering or the death ” That was the takeaway from the Vietnam War.

          • kreskin

            Yep

      • They clearly deserved it: If they didn’t want to get killed, they shouldn’t have been in the way of an American airstrike.

        /cries

    • Chunga

      Nothing to see here. Go to the mall, there are after Christmas sales going on. Buy buy buy, consume consume, be good Americans. Your Government is doing all this to keep you safe fellow citizens so you can acquire the latest in fashion, surveillance device and other free market minutia to keep yourselves happy and fat in blissful ignorance. The American people are soo fucking stupid. If, in the process of destroying ourselves we didn’t take the rest of the world with us I might not give a shit, unfortunately we’re gonna destroy the rest of the planet along the way.

  • kreskin

    ” Negotiating with Obama is like playing checkers with a pigeon. The pigeon knocks over all the pieces, shits on the board and then struts around like it won the game. “

    • Dosido3

      Hi Kreskin, who are you quoting?

      • kreskin

        Was one of the comments over at RT news.

        • Dosido3

          Thanks

    • 17

      Wasn’t it Putin who said that awhile back?

  • towerofbabel
    • 17

      I don’t get it.

      • notisaidthepig

        Art?

      • towerofbabel

        No underlying message. No allegory. No politics. No reason.
        The artists have an elaborate process behind it but I think it’s better to take it at face value.

      • towerofbabel

        If it stops your wifi is down.

  • 17

    ‘US policy of backing terrorist elements in Syria came unstuck’

    How much of an impact does the ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey have on the Syrian conflict and a future peace process? What could the sidelining of the US mean for future American foreign policy?

    https://www.rt.com/op-edge/372299-ceasefire-syria-russia-obama/

    • notisaidthepig

      America is in decline.

      • kreskin

        I agree , what worries me is that our wannabe world rulers know it and they are becoming more and more desperate . The more desperate they become … the more reckless and dangerous they become. .

        • thud

          And the hell of it is that America need not be in decline. If we could only learn to play well with others BUT NO we have to be the boss of everybody!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb4eZ7Z5yk8

          • kreskin

            Yep , it’s madness . All that $ , the technology and engineering , they could be doing wonderful things , but oh no , the fools gotta play God and rule the world … even as it becomes uninhabitable .

          • thud

            There’s always Mars.

          • towerofbabel

            I’ll sell it to you cheap.

          • thud

            Oh no,you can’t fool me! I know how this works. The first country that can get a flag planted in that red sand owns the whole shooting match. But,oh hell,they have cut space funding in the interest of our gynormous military surveillance state.Well,other options remain. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9ihKq34Ozc

          • towerofbabel

            Just great! I thought, this looks like a young Henry Kissinger!

          • thud

            Yeah, He does. Got that wavy hair thing going on. Isn’t it a wonderful world where old gems like this have gained relevance instead of fading into obscurity?

          • thud

            The first country assuming they are white I should have said. This perfectly illustrates our decline that I need to add that qualifier.

        • towerofbabel

          “reckless and dangerous” like obsessed villains in a comic book.

    • kreskin

      The jig is up . There’s no telling what the lunatics ( Obama included ) will do next .

      • towerofbabel

        Some people would destroy the world to avoid embarrassment. Seriously.

  • notisaidthepig

    Wow. The Oliver Stone piece was a good read. Nothing new though. But I’m glad to see more and more people calling out the bullshit the NYTimes and others are peddling. These people have badly overreached. More and more people are seeing this for what it really is: pure bullshit.

    • towerofbabel

      We watched Snowden last night. Classic O. Stone–even had pole dancing–but I think overall Snowden provides good content for movie-goers who probably know nothing about Snowden and what a hero he is.

      • notisaidthepig

        I saw it a while back and thought it was good enough for general consumption

        • Edwin

          LOL

        • towerofbabel

          And by “general” you mean the general know-nothing movie-goer. Right? Cuz as a movie it made me squirm but as propaganda, on the right side of an issue, I saw it as valuable.

          • Edwin
          • Edwin

            I thought it was well done. As Pig says, good for a general audience and also informative. I liked actually being able to visualize the work space and get an idea how these guys operate.

          • towerofbabel

            “and get an idea how these guys operate” Viewed through Stone’s very obvious moviemaking techniques. But I agree. It generated a more emotional reaction than the documentary, as I recall it.

          • notisaidthepig

            Exactly.

  • towerofbabel

    “The Free Syrian Army and the so-called Syrian rebels…”
    It’s something that we already know but we have to watch the sheeple dutifully follow along with the propaganda like zombies.

  • Edwin
    • Edwin
      • towerofbabel

        It’s eery to have this dark content with five comedians trying get laughs. They do fairly well with the irony.

    • towerofbabel

      Hillari-ous

      • Edwin

        I like Jimmy with a few cocktails. +_+

  • 17
  • towerofbabel

  • The always great Matt Taibbi has something to say…

    Something About This Russia Story StinksNearly a decade and a half after the Iraq-WMD faceplant, the American press is again asked to co-sign a dubious intelligence assessment

    This dramatic story puts the news media in a jackpot. Absent independent verification, reporters will have to rely upon the secret assessments of intelligence agencies to cover the story at all. Many reporters I know are quietly freaking out about having to go through that again. We all remember the WMD fiasco.

    • notisaidthepig

      Excellent article. Thanks, Unka.

    • kreskin

      The fact that not everyone was on board with the CIA’s so called assessment , only after some meetings , some arm twisting and , no doubt , some deal making , did the other agencies go along with it .

      The Russians are reputed to be the bets hackers in the world , they would not have left a trail , no way / no how , not on something as big as messing with US elections .

      Funny , isn’t it ? The media will not mention Wikileaks , Assange came out to say point blank that the Russians had nothing to do with it . Wikileaks has a perfect decade long record for accuracy .

      Take the CIA’s word for it ? You gotta be an idiot . This administration has been at war with Putin and the Russians since early 2014 , this is just a continuation of it . A Clinton operative is the one who started the rumor … in order to distract and take the heat off of Clinton and the DNC , who better to blame than the Russians ? Of course the media picked it up and ran with it , naturally , so did Obama and our so called intelligence agencies. .

      • ^^^ THIS! 100% ^^

        /From personal experience… Russians make great programmers, but terrible DBAs and hackers.

  • kreskin

    Who hacked the Democratic National Committee (DNC)?

    John McAfee — in an email exchange and follow up phone call just moments ago — said sources within the Dark Web suggest it was Iran, and he absolutely agrees. While Russian hackers get more media attention nowadays, Iranian hackers have had their share.

    A computer hacker briefly hijacked Twitter.com in 2009, redirecting users to a website and claiming to represent a group calling itself the Iranian Cyber Army.

    Earlier this year, Iranian hackers were charged by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) over cyber attacks.

    Why Iran? “The Iranians view Trump as a destabilizing force within America,” said McAfee. “They would like nothing more than to have Trump as President.”

    What about Russia?

    “If all evidence points to the Russians, then, with 100% certainty, it is not the Russians,” said McAfee. “Anyone who is capable of carrying out a hack of such sophistication is also capable, with far less effort than that involved in the hack, of hiding their tracks or making it appear that the hack came from some other quarter. The forensic tools used to assign culpability in a hack are well known, in the cybersecurity world, to be largely ineffective. They may, sometimes, correctly identify an unsophisticated 15 year old as the source of a hack, such as the teenager who hacked the FBI less than a year ago. But they are completely ineffective against large, sophisticated groups of hackers such as those run by the Russian State.”

    [ RIGGED ELECTION: See CSO’s package of stories challenging the validity of a hacked election ]

    When asked for his Dark Web source, McAfee replied “You know better than to ask me for a link to the Underweb. I would spend the rest of my life fighting the best hackers on the planet.”

    There’s no conclusive evidence to point the finger at Iranian or Russian hackers, but McAfee may be on to something.

    • towerofbabel

      Oh, so now Iran stole the election from Hillary?
      So this means the Canadians had nothing to do with it?

      • kreskin

        John McAfee of McAfee antivirus.

      • kreskin

        I think it was Liechtenstein .

        *s

        • Chunga

          Or possibly Freedonia or Grand Fenwick.

    • Sounds to me like he’s just riffing on the Plutocrats little fairy-tale. There was no hacking, the most likely culprit is a disgruntled/disillusioned DNC/Clinton staffer. Take your pick, several quit the party in the month or two before these emails started to appear. [shrug]

  • Edwin

    This is worth watching. ……..(paging kreskin)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4X_ozhkf-g

  • Edwin
  • towerofbabel

    We Do Not Live in “Post Truth” World, We Live in a World of Lies and We Always Have by Robert Fisk

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0c9e923998db8f420f615cfa8704bacba407a09bebb3646e52ddb62aab98a932.jpg

    “I suspect that “post-truth” has more to do with social media than mendacious elections. The use of social media in reporting the battle of eastern Aleppo has been extraordinary, weird, dangerous, even murderous, when not a single Western journalist could report the eastern Aleppo war at first hand. Much damage has been done to the very credibility of journalism – and to politicians – by the acceptance of one side of the story only when not a single reporter can confirm with his or her own eyes what they are reporting.”

    http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/12/30/we-do-not-live-in-post-truth-world-we-live-in-a-world-of-lies-and-we-always-have/

    • kreskin

      We always have , but it’s worse now than it ever was .

  • And here it goes, the Bullshit Rain begins in Earnest.

    Russia Hysteria Infects WashPost Again: False Story About Hacking U.S. Electric GridWhat’s the problem here? It did not happen.

    There was no “penetration of the U.S. electricity grid.” The truth was undramatic and banal. Burlington Electric, after receiving a Homeland Security notice sent to all U.S. utility companies about the malware code found in the DNC system, searched all its computers and found the code in a single laptop that was not connected to the electric grid.

    • kreskin

      Like Putin would be interested in a power grid in Vermont of all places . ( shakes his head )

      Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy issued a statement warning: “This is beyond hackers having electronic joy rides — this is now about trying to access utilities to potentially manipulate the grid and shut it down in the middle of winter. That is a direct threat to Vermont and we do not take it lightly.”

      We take you lightly , Leahy , you’re a fucking joke .

      These Democrats can’t get over the fact that their shitty candidate lost , fair and square , to a world class buffoon . Blame it on that Russian boogey-man !

      • Edwin

        In their present incarnation, the Dims are much worse and far more dangerous than republicans.

        • I wouldn’t bet on that. They’re the same people. Remember: Just because members of a single gang decide to wear different colored jackets, doesn’t make them two gangs!

          • Edwin

            At the moment they’re the ones banging the war with Russia drums. Otherwise same same. I agree.

      • Fights between family members are always the most bitter. Sister Dem is definitely pissed about brother Repub’s little win.

  • Edwin

    • And may your new year be filled with joy, my friend!

      • Edwin

        Thanks Unka. It’s Jan 1 here now. A dull day, but not too cold. I was in bed at 8:30 last night. +_+

        Hope you have a nice night, whatever you do!

        • I’m staying in tonight, and avoiding the crazies: The drunk drivers, the people shooting off guns, etc. etc. I’ll greet the new year when I awake tomorrow! 😀

          • Edwin

            I don’t blame you. It’s a sad excuse for a party anyway. Never been too fond of it.

          • Ann Watson

            Any excuse for a party will do, when I stay at home I end up spending all night on the phone. ; )

          • Edwin

            🙁 Poor Ann

            My party days are long over. I’m a hermit now (and love it.) Hubby was laughing about my phone bill for last month. I used my phone for 36 seconds, in total.

          • Ann Watson

            That’s the way to do it. ; )

          • notisaidthepig

            You’re my hero. (I’m not as “bad” as you but I think I’m headed that way. No worries: I like my own company. I’m awesome!)

          • Edwin

            By all means be as bad as you like. Life isn’t that long after all. And thanks for the kind words, support and friendship throughout the year. (We are awesome… all of us!!! You, just a teensy bit more than the rest of the crowd.)

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/97fb0c0ad1d87d55bd5c7477d7868dbcbfc862566a204b7341a21aa1005300b0.gif

          • notisaidthepig

            Awww. Thanks, Edwin.

          • Edwin

            ^_^

            yw

          • towerofbabel

            Me neither. Let’s hope we have a better year ahead! But if not, I’m sure we’ll manage. Salud!

  • towerofbabel

    Happy New Year everybody! We are watching The Assassin! It’s truly beautiful–intoxicating.
    See you latter!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSoXoOAY1zU

    • Happy New Years, ToB! Enjoy the movie. I agree, it’s quite a beautiful film.

  • FaunaAndFlora
    • towerofbabel

      Unka, thanks again for all the work you put in on Internal Exile. It’s been a haven for us all.
      Happy New Year!

  • notisaidthepig

    There’s been an attack in Istanbul. Many people have been killed.

    • Fuck. I hate people. Can’t they just let the change of years pass without murdering people for their religious insanity.

      • notisaidthepig

        Let’s hope sanity prevails in 2017.

  • A penguin walked into a bar.

    He asked the barman, “Have you seen my father?”

    The barman answered, “I don’t know, what does he look like?”

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