Link Dump (Equinox Edition)

Love-ly...UK and Saudi Arabia 'in secret deal' over human rights council place.  In which the UK manages to look equally filthy with Saudi...Yah.

Slate: Donald Trump Steals Jeb Bush’s Tax Plan, Makes It Classier, More Luxurious

Daily Mail: Car industry is accused of burying report claiming that U.S. vehicles are much less safe than European ones.  Because the evil bastards were terrified of the impact of said report on the lunatic TTIP trade-deal, natch.

Twitter considering greater than 140-character posts...  Which will fix everything...

Ban on short sentences sought under Scots law.

Britain borrowing from China to build the most expensive power-station in history.

That long-overdue (partial) victory on the 'Happy Birthday' song.

A cure for (some age-related) blindness.

Vox on the 'Shirley Card' & racial bias in the development of colour film.

How Britain's GCHQ tracked(/s) the behaviours and habits of 'every visible user on the internet' across multiple platforms and technologies.

BoingBoing: Carly Fiorina boasts: I sold the NSA its mass-surveillance servers.

The Right-winger in the US calling for a two-state solution between 'liberals' semi-rational human beings and 'conservatives' delusional radical religious extremists.

Independent: Selfies are killing more people than shark attacks.
                                                                                     
The 'Cannabis Forest' found growing in London.

May not have looked it recent nights, but the moon is in fact...shrinking !  Oh noes...

The Redhead driven to terrorism by anti-white, anti-ginger prejudice.  Apparently.

How those who fidget live longer, even if sitting for long periods of time.

Not entirely above the law after all ?  Mirror: Saudi prince arrested on sex crime charge at £24m Beverly Hills mansion.

Pamela Geller declares victory in the war over the so-called 'Ground Zero Mosque'.  And so ends a sad sad episode in American history.

BBC: Hospital apologises after moving RAF man because of uniform.  Can't even...

I shouldn't laugh...but I will anyway....  Alternet: Kids Who Use Computers Heavily in School Have Lower Test Scores, Major Worldwide Study Finds.

The alleged embezzler of millions who disappeared to hike the Appalachian trail for six years.

How some smokers maintain 'healthy lungs' after a lifetime of smoking.  Genetic 'innit.

The (relative) recovery of the the North Sea cod.

World Report Now: Global warming started 75 years ago.

How Donald Trump made his fortune off government's back.  New York Times: Donald Trump and the Art of the Public Sector Deal

The Indiana couple stopped/arrested at gunpoint on the way to give birth at the hospital.  Basically for pissing off the cop by not pulling over immediately, though the DM's article doesn't make that clear.  Oh yeah, and the cops were heard on tape suggesting destroying the videographic evidence.

RIP Baseball-great Yogi Berra.  RIP also Twin Peaks' 'Log Lady', Catherine Coulson.

Shell halts drilling in the Arctic...until the price of oil rises again, and all political barriers fall before the...inevitable...and...necessary...rendering of our G-d-given resources...

Reason: Man Jailed for Traffic Ticket Dies in Cell After 17 Days of Torture. Officers Watched It Happen.

PETA wants apes granted copyright protection for fotos...G-d help us...PETA wants court to grant copyright to ape that snapped famous selfie

Martin Shkreli: The evil shit who raised the price of an essential drug by thousands of percentage-points.  And why he's not so remotely abnormal in this lunatic culture of ours.

Rare good tech-related news for the US: Ars Technica*: Broadband is a “core utility” like electricity, White House report says.

Ars': Forcing suspects to reveal phone passwords is unconstitutional, court says

The BBC's celebration of classic train-stations...and, via Phil Burrowes, Carparks...


* Not to be an arse, but when your name on the Internet consists of multiple words distinguished only via graphics and/or fonts, how is one supposed to render said name in plain text ?  'Ars Technica', 'arstechnica', or, WTF ?

So, We Support the Guys in Green, Right ?

Via an article on the Beeb re-assuring us on Obama's behalf that '"Assad must go" to ensure IS defeat'.  I might cry if I were still capable.

And we'll give them arms and train them, only for that materiel & those (very very) few personnel to end up on the other side fighting against us.  I can see now why the UN gave Obama a pre-emptive Nobel Peace Prize.

The Real Tuesday Weld: The Life And Times Of The Clerkenwell Kid

With a few tweaks, wouldn't be a bad official vid.

Traditional Values

Of all the subjects for Berke Breathed.  I have no opinion on this of course.*


 * Because, fuck readability.  No-one does any more than scan the written word any more, so who cares whether everything blurs into a solid wall of text or not.

Kirsty MacColl: Days

Because We Need to Laugh at ISIS

Organisers of an art exhibition celebrating freedom of expression have found themselves removing one of the exhibits after police raised concerns it was "inflammatory" and warned it would cost an extra £36,000 to secure the event.

The artwork in question was a series of tableaux entitled 'Isis Threaten Sylvania' that used children's Sylvanian Families dolls to satirise the Isis terrorist group.

In the work Sylvanian Families dolls are seen enjoying a picnic or a day on the beach, while other black-clad dolls, some of them armed, one carrying a black flag, gather on the sidelines.

In each piece an otherwise tranquil scene appears set to turn violent.

This needs a GoFundMe ASAP.  How can the world continue to be denied such brilliance over £36,000 security-costs ?  Satire is power peeps.

Some more background on the artist & her intent from the Guardian:

Mimsy said she had adopted a pseudonym because, as the daughter of a Syrian father whose Jewish family had to go into exile in Lebanon when he was a child, she was acutely aware of the potential risk of speaking out.

“I love my freedom,” she said. “I’m aware of the very real threat to that freedom from Islamic fascism and I’m not going to pander to them or justify it like many people on the left are doing.”

She added that the idea of using Sylvanian Families “just popped into my head” as a way of demonstrating that fanaticism was not a question of race. Though the jihadis in the work are called “MICE-IS”, some are clearly cats or koalas and others have rabbits’ ears popping out of their masks. “I’m sick and tired of people calling criticism of fanatical Islam racist, because racism is about your skin colour and radical Islam is nothing to do with that. There are millions of Muslims who are shocked by it too,” said Mimsy.

She added that she had made the tableaux between December 2014 and May 2015 and had looked on in horror as, one by one, her imagined scenarios came true. In one scene, jihadis lurk outside a schoolroom, while a class of girls sit at their desks; in another, gunmen bristle on the horizon as holidaymakers sunbathe on a beach. “It was creepy, because each time I imagined a scene it happened in reality. I made the beach scene before the Tunisian massacre and the schoolroom scene before Boko Haram abducted the schoolgirls in Nigeria,” she said.

We need this.

Let This Be the Last Word on PigGate

Took me a moment...

Manspreading*

So...came across this picture of two major world-leaders whilst writing the previous piece.  And...uh, it wasn't a good look for Dubya.  It's no better a look for Bibi & Vlad.  In fact, these two have never looked more childish.**  We get it arseholes, now can we discuss actual policy whilst you for a moment at least pose like statesmen ?


* Not that this phenomenon amongst say male riders on transit in any way inherently justifies legal penalties.  If there's room for all, and you're comfortable with that pose, and not a fucking politician having pictures taken for global media, then hey, go for it.

** Hee hee hee...my balls are so big...In case you actually needed this idiocy spelt out.

Our Allies and Enemies

From an article in the Graun. on the continuing disarray (never mind possible first step towards dissolution) of the European Union over the 'refugee crisis'.*

Merkel singled out Turkey as the key to a crisis management strategy and Juncker said the fund-raising would include a billion euros for Ankara.

But Tusk, just returned from Turkey, said money “is not the big problem. It is not as easy as expected.”

Ahmet Davutoğlu, the Turkish prime minister, wrote to the EU leaders on Wednesday demanding bold concessions from the Europeans as the price for Turkey’s possible cooperation. He proposed EU and US support for a buffer and no-fly zone in northern Syria by the Turkish border, measuring 80km by 40km.

This would stymy the Kurdish militias fighting Islamic State in northern Syria and would also enable Ankara to start repatriating some of the estimated 2 million Syrian refugees it is hosting. The militias are allied with the Kurdistan workers’ party (PKK) guerrillas at war with the Turkish state for most of the past 30 years. Ankara reignited the conflict in July after the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) lost its parliamentary majority in a general election.

“There are many people who doubt the sincerity of their motives,” said a senior EU official. “They’re not offering too much.”

Ah, our good friends in Turkey.  Not ones they to let a crisis go to waste.  Why not use the situation with the refugees as an excuse to further their military-campaign against the Kurds, to date, one of our few effective allies in the fight against ISIS ?  It's not as if the warzone in question were the source of most of the refugees in the first place, after all...Not as if undermining the Kurds would strengthen ISIS and help prolong the fucking war.  And a chance to bully the members of the union they so desperately want to one day join themselves into the bargain ?  Genius.

Er, we did check with the Russians didn't we about where they are operating in the country ?**  Might be good to know before we start trying to enforce a no-fly zone.  Oh, that's right.  We're not talking with Russia...or Iran...or Assad.  'Cos we don't like them.  They not nice.

Fucking grow up already.  Okay, so we have to work with Turkey, because they're 'our ally'...supposedly...not that that should extend to militarily supporting their ongoing efforts to deny the Kurds an independent state.  But just how many countries and factions are fighting in Syria now ?  Just how much more complicated is this likely to become ?  And whilst we are flinging bombs back and forth with abandon, then feigning surprise when vast swaths of the country become depopulated, who are the players on the ground here ?

• Pro-government forces ('Our Enemy')
• ISIS & related jihadist groups ('Our Enemy')
• Iran ('Our Enemy')
• Russia ('Our Enemy')
• The Kurds (Would-be allies, except that we'll sell them out to Turkey)
• Some random rag-tag non-jihadi anti-govt. forces.

No-one see a problem here ?  Not even a little bit ?

Psst...Kerry & Co...So this strategy of yours of not talking to forces we don't like...I'm not sure it's working out so well.  I'm not sure in the context of the current conflict that it isn't in fact totally fucking insane.

Ask yourself these questions: Is getting rid of Assad more important than defeating ISIS ?  Is constraining Russian or Iranian influence more important than defeating ISIS ?  What are our priorities here amidst the rise of this incredibly radical violent group that wants to establish an Islamic Caliphate, and amidst the biggest refugee-crisis since the Second World War ?  And would you not acknowledge that an end to this bloody war in which somehow you a) Limit Iranian & Russian influence in the region, b) Forcibly remove Assad, and c) Defeat ISIS, whilst d) Avoiding US so-called 'boots on the ground' is ever so slightly un-fucking-likely ?

Never mind the inherent lunacy of having the US & Russia acting in the same theatre of war without the strictest cooperation, without clear shared goals.

Admit you fucked up already.  Then get over it...and get serious.  We need pragmatism here, not pride.

* Not to say that there isn't a refugee-crisis, just that what European countries refer to with that phrase, is more to do with the hundreds of thousands crossing European borders, as opposed to the overall crisis to which everyone simply turned a blind eye, so long as it was occurring somewhere else.

** Rhetorical question

*** Feel obligated to include an image of some kind, if only for the mobile version of Blogger.  And that 'toon is Rall at his edgiest best.

Same As It Ever Was

But tell us again why we can't deal with the monstrous Castro brothers.

Camera Obscura: If Looks Could Kill

Link Dump (Everything is Bonkers Edition)

As the ongoing 'War on Drugs' in the US plumbs new levels of insanity, a sixth-grader is suspended from school and charged with possession of marijuana, because he brought a maple-leaf to school.

And three negative tests on the leaf later, he's still under probation, prohibited from returning to his old school, and will be searched for drugs twice daily.  Because the 'stringent anti-drug policies in school districts in Virginia and elsewhere consider "imitation" drugs to be identical to real ones for disciplinary purposes.'  Wow.

Fan of 'Das Auto' ?  So, apparently VW is under investigation, for rigging some of their diesel-driven cars such that they would detect the presence of emissions-tests and enter a special low-emissions mode, whilst the rest of the time, under normal operations spewing out up to forty times the permissible levels of nitrogen-oxide.  Eco-friendly, huh ?

Reuters: London fifth-priciest city in the world but earnings lag behind.  Hmm.  Wonder why that might be...

The toy-panda sent on the 'Dambusters'-raids in the Second World War.

The 'pseudohermaphrodites' or 'Guevedoces' of Salinas in the Dominican Republic.

Richard Dawkins gets involved in the debate over whether teen Ahmed Mohamed 'invented' his clock or not.

Telegraph: Sex does not trigger heart attacks even after health scare.

That story about David Cameron's alleged relations with a dead pig while at Oxford.

Japan votes to allow its military 'Self-Defense Forces' a greater role operating overseas.  But only after this happened:

The Irish Times: Whitney Houston’s hologram is going on a world tour. Is nothing sacred?  Evidently not.

'Super-gonorrhoea'.  'Nuff said.

Another case of someone arrested (and tased) for 'walking while black'.  As pointless and depressing as you might imagine.

Ukraine pissed as Silvio Berlusconi & Vladimir Putin drink 240-year-old bottle of wine whilst visiting a winery in Crimea.

Laws...are for little people.  BBC: Qatari sheikh leaves US after Ferrari race through LA.

Guardian: Boris Johnson speaks out against government plans to cut solar subsidies.  Got to differentiate himself somehow.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet, seems Malcolm Turnbull may be moderating the anti-environment excesses of former-PM Abbott.

BBC on the bleeding obvious: One in three councils 'not replacing Right to Buy homes'.

Independent: The NHS could collapse within two years, former health minister Norman Lamb warns.  Whatevs.

Missed this last time: The cop accused of planting cocaine in someone's car, because they wanted 'to “show off” for the cameras in an episode of “COPS” '.

Oh, and this also.  Notice the trend over time ?

Theocracy Now

So, here's the two men who prior to the recent debate were the frontrunners (with about half the votes between them) for the Republican nomination to be President of the United States, on the question of a Muslim president.

Ben Carson:

Chuck Todd: Should a president's faith matter...to voters ?

Ben Carson: Well, I guess it depends on what that faith is.  If it's inconsistent with the values and principles of America, then of course it should matter.  But, if it fits within the realm of America, and consistent with the constitution, no problem.

CT: So, do you believe that Islam is consistent with the constitution ?

BC: No, I don't, I do not.  I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation.  I absolutely would not agree with that.

And would his answer be any different if he were asked about an Atheist or Agnostic ?  Well, see how he (fails to) answer the straightforward question* 'Does the Bible have authority over the constitution ?' for a clue.


Donald Trump:

Chuck Todd:
Can you imagine supporting or being comfortable if a Muslim ever became President of the United States ?

Donald Trump:
I can say that y'know it's something that at some point could happen.  We'll see.  I mean, y'know, it's something that could happen.  Would I be comfortable ?  I don't know if we have to address it right now.  But I think it is certainly something that could happen...I mean some people have said it already happened, frankly, but of course you wouldn't agree with that.

That was a bold statement, right there, alright.  I'm convinced that Trump isn't biased against Islam, and all Muslims.

For that matter, I'm convinced that the entire spectrum of Republican candidates, from Huckabee to Rand Paul aren't all theocrats and/or fascists at heart.**


* The answer is No.

** </Lie-mode>


Update: Carson doubles down on his comments, even managing to mention 'Taqiyya'.  Someone been reading Geller & Spencer ?

Jackie Collins

RIP

Artefact: Morrigan

Overall reminds me of Siouxsie & the Banshees circa 1980 or so, but if they were fronted by Clare Grogan of Altered Images.  Which is not such a bad thing.


Via Adam Walton, tho' not sure if the version he played was a more recent edit.

Dave Brown Does Corbyn à la van Gogh

You Don't Say

John Kerry softened America’s demand yesterday that Syria’s dictator must step down, declaring that the timing of Bashar al-Assad’s departure was open to negotiation.

The US secretary of state retreated from the earlier US position that Assad’s removal must be the first step towards resolving Syria’s civil war.

He spoke as the regime carried out a series of air strikes near the ancient city of Palmyra, which has fallen into the hands of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil). The Syrian air force flew as many as 25 sorties, killing perhaps 26 people on the ground, including Isil fighters.

Assad has been emboldened by Russia’s decision to provide direct military support. In recent weeks, Russian tanks and troops have been deployed in Syria, along with a small number of advanced jet fighters.

Russia’s goal appears to be to prevent Assad from suffering more battlefield defeats while also complicating any escalation of America’s air campaign against Isil targets in Syria....

Just admit you fucked up already.  Overplayed your hand.  Turning against Assad so soon was a mistake.  And the notion of democracy easily sweeping the Middle East folly.  It's not too late.


And, while we're on the subject of your ineptitude, about Ukraine...

I'll Take This as a Good Omen

A Year Already ?

Prob'ly won't have many more till the eventual divorce.  Thanks DC.

Link Dump (Croatian Navy Day Edition*)

The sick details of how Argentine troops in the Falklands War were tortured and abused by their own side.

On the subject of the same war, the Beeb on Will Kevans' graphic novel My Life in Pieces.

Speaking of sick, what the hell ?  Migrant crisis: Smugglers 'deliberately holed boat', says survivor.

What climate-change ?  BBC: The next two years could be the hottest on record globally, says research from the UK's Met Office.

Science magazine: U.S. Navy to limit sonar testing to protect whales.

Gaius Publius on Joe 'Bankruptcy Bill' Biden and the crisis in student-debt in the US.

Two prisoners charged with...making a rap-video in their prison-cell.

'Rainbow Doritos' ?  The politicisation of the rainbow continues apace...as does the inevitable right-wing backlash.

So, that library that the DHS intimidated into shutting down its Tor exit-node ?  Voted to turn it back on as other libraries indicated their support in also hosting exit-nodes.

Part-time Mayor of London, Boris Johnson in hot water after calling London cabbies luddites.  Hmm, wonder what the Deputy Leader of the opposition might have to say on the same subject.

Trump's campaign interpreted thru the lens of professional wrestling.

Matt Bai makes the case for John Kasich as the alternative for the Republican establishment to faltering Jeb Bush.

How (some of) the Republican candidates in the last debate fared via the Flesch-Kincaid Test:

Well it's a start...Elizabeth Warren wants to prevent the use of credit-checks prior to employment.

Bees' needs: US bans new neonicotinoid sulfoxaflor, whilst allowing most other neonicotinoids, suspected for their role in the collapse of bee-colonies.  European Union meanwhile has approved sulfoxaflor, whilst banning most other existing neonicotinoids.  Confused ?

AllDay: The Flying Railroad Between London And Paris That Almost Happened.  (Clickbaity ads. galore too...so be warned)

The call for banning trans fats in the UK.

Nate Silver's visual representation of Hillary Clinton's coverage in the US media:

I'm guessing there will be no forthcoming graphic for the coverage of Chafee, Webb, or even O'Malley, because for the most part, the media doesn't cover (or even acknowledge) them at all.

The Clinton Super PAC allegedly** attempting to link Bernie Sanders to Hugo Chavez, and, via Corbyn, to bin Laden & Hezbollah.

BBC: Nicola Sturgeon: David Cameron 'living on borrowed time'.  I've nothing to add to what I said here & here.

In defence of political correctness on campus...Sarah Silverman.  Critiquing the same...President Barack Obama.  Huh.

Boing Boing: Crown shyness - when trees don't like to touch each other.

Awesome.  Apparently, you have the right to reply to a speeding-ticket...thusly:

The eight Mexican tourists mistaken for terrorists and killed in the desert by Egypt.

In case you've been living under a rock, the student in Texas arrested for bringing his homemade clock to school.  Islamophobia ?

The call for a ban on sex-robots.

Better battery-life with iOS9 ?  Colour me sceptical.

MediaMatters: Watching GOP Debate Was Like "Watching 11 Rush Limbaughs".

And finally, the countries of the world as sized by their stock-markets:

* Why the fuck not ?

** Don't have any reason to doubt it, but why aren't they publishing the actual e-mail ?  With redactions if needed.

RT Trolls the Republican Debate

Some brilliant assholery here from the former Russia Today.  Love Matthews at 1'05.

The Eagles: Journey of the Sorcerer

Aw. shit...


* To the supposed civilised world, the theme to some random long-forgotten sci-fi show.  Not as if the arseholes would have tried to remake it since...

Dusty Springfield: You Don't Have To Say You Love Me

Can't say why, or why now.

À Propos of Nothing

I can just about accept Reagan pronounced as Ray-gun, and Cheney as Chainee, but Koch is not pronounced 'Coke', Boehner is certainly not pronounced 'Bayner', and Loesch sure as fuck is not pronounced 'Lash'.  At least the latter admits it.  When the hell will Republicans/Right-Wingers own up to their actual names and stop mispronouncing them ?

* Yes, I could just respect people's choices to pronounce their names as they see fit.  In the case of the right-wing scum aforementioned though, fuck that.  I'm not sure I can manage any respect for even the star of Bedtime for Bonzo**, never mind those other arseholes.

** By which, I mean Ronnie obviously.  Totes respect the chimp.

A Calm and Considered Request for Closure

Had a post half-written a fortnight back on my attempt to re-watch the first episodes of Nu-Who (G-d it was awful), but thought better of posting it.  But with the news that Jenna Coleman is finally (two years too late) leaving Doctor Who, I just have one thing to say to Steven Moffat:

CLARA OSWALD MUST DIE !

No seriously, give us a death-scene.  Something horrific preferably.  It's the least you can do.

Possibly an even worse contribution to canon than the 'Time-War'.

* I suppose it's theoretically possible that the character will improve with the new series.  But I can never un-see that last squandered soap-opera of a series*.  Such a waste.

** Check out that original title in the URL.  Drama-queen much ?

The Nightly Show on Fox News' Phoney War on Cops

Shit, Balko made it on to the Nightly Show.  Mentioned this nonsense earlier here.  Meanwhile, notice that Fox has apparently modified this particular story...

Police officer reported as killed "execution-style" may have actually staged own suicide: http://t.co/xBJqZIsxWt

— Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) September 15, 2015

Chloé Lacasse: Quidam

Your Completely Insane Baseless Headline of the Day

Courtesy, of the Independent no less...

The changing nature of the British jobs market has broken the link between unemployment and crime, according to new research.

The phenomenon – which saw rising joblessness matched by increased burglaries, thefts and robberies during the Thatcher years – ended in 2005, according to an analysis of crime and employment statistics.

The latest research suggests that growing trend of employers to adopt part-time working and zero-hours contracts has meant that communities are less blighted by mass unemployment and less likely to resort to crime.

The findings explain in part why Britain was not hit by a crime epidemic following the 2007-8 financial crisis which led to unemployment rising above eight per cent for the first time in more than a decade but saw a continuing long-term decline in crime.

Here's the link to the full story.  See if you can find anything there to support that supposition.

The story does mention the likely role in preventitive technology in reducing crime, though that only addresses the question of means.

Here's a hint from the other side of the Atlantic at a more likely causative factor:

But no-one seems to want to take that line of enquiry seriously, and we're going to be still debating this shit for decades to come, and still pushing Dirty Harry-style get-tough rhetoric on crime even as London sinks into the Thames and DC & NYC into the Atlantic.


Quick Update: Oh yeah, here's this from the Independent in 2007: Ban on leaded petrol 'has cut crime rates around the world'

Banning lead in petrol is responsible for declining crime rates in Britain, the United States and other countries, startling new research suggests.

The astonishing conclusion threatens to overturn current thinking on crime and punishment....

Published in the peer-reviewed journal, Environmental Research, the study reports a "very strong association" over more than 50 years between the exposure of young children to the toxic metal and crime rates 20 years later when they are young adults.

And it says the association holds true for a wide variety of countries with differing social conditions, law and order policies...

Britain – one of the last to get rid of the toxic metal – is one of the latest to enjoy a decline in crime.

But, someone seems to want to tell a very different story today, and link falling crime-rates to zero-hours contracts of all things.  Ladies & Gentleman, your Independent newspaper.

Toles on National Geographic under Murdoch

Bernie at Liberty U.

Got round to watching this speech by Bernie Sanders at Liberty University, and it's pretty impressive.  Both as a speech generally, and given the nature of Sanders' audience.  Not all* seem as enthusiastic as the few screamers when the camera pans out, and granted, this is the same school which forced their students to attend Ted Cruz, but this seems a pretty positive reception for what the media would paint as a far-left radical message, in anything but ideologically friendly territory.**

I especially like the willingness to 'go there' on actual New Testament-principles, and to call out, if only implicitly the utter hypocrisy of the political and religious elites.  Most establishment-politicians couldn't pull that off.  Trump could almost, but he's an evident self-serving egomaniac whose every other word is a lie.

And this is the speech almost of a general election-campaign, with the primaries months away, and the party in question being largely ignored by the media, outside of the faux-controversy over Hillary's e-mail-server.  Bernie may or may not actually think he could go all the way (as may not Trump, as may not have Corbyn), but he's evidently embracing the moment, and making the most of the spotlight, to get his economic message out.  I approve.

Now, he just needs to get some non-pasty white folk on side.  I don't see any movement on that front sadly.


* To say the least, skimming a second time over.  Quite Nixon/Kennedy in the dichotomy between audio & video.****

** I almost wonder if some of the current upheaval in Western politics is generational, and if the media tends to underestimate the millennials, given what just happened in the UK.  If I ignorantly attribute the attitudes of my generation and similar to millennials, and assume incorrectly that past experience justifies current cynicism.  Almost.***

*** Evidently no-one knows a damn thing with our current political swings, myself included.

**** And then after I finish writing all this, I hear that they intentionally positioned some of Bernie's supporters up front near the mics.  Well, fer...


Update: Full video here from C-SPAN, including the warm-up, if you give a crap about that, and the post-speech Q&A.

Clearly Nothing But Nothing Is Sacred in Hollywood

Disney is set to make a new Mary Poppins film, over half a century after the strict, yet much-loved, nanny first appeared on the silver screen.

The celebrated movie character will make her return in a live-action musical, Entertainment Weekly (EW) has reported.

Set in London during the Depression some 20 years after the first movie was set, the new film will also take from P. L. Traver’s children’s books where the character originated. However, the film will not be a sequel, according to EW.

...

The details of who will take on the iconic role of Mary Poppins are yet to be revealed. However, the chosen actress certainly has big shoes to fill, as Julie Andrews earned an Oscar for her depiction as the magical, singing nurse.

No creativity, no courage, and no class.  Just shameless corporate greed in pursuit of the dollars of the gullible.*


* Yes I know it's not strictly speaking a remake.  Neither is Rogue One a remake of the film we somehow insist on calling 'Episode IV'.  Fuck You Lucas.

Tony Abbott

The man will be missed.*


* For his comedic genius, obviously.

Link Dump (Post-9/11 Edition)

The Times, The Sun, the once-respected Wall Street Rag...Somehow the loss of none of these publications quite compares with Murdoch acquiring fucking National Geographic...and turning it into a for-profit.  One and a quarter-centuries of journalistic and scientific excellence gone in an instant into the black-hole of media that is Rupert Murdoch's gaping maw.  RIP

Said publication recently provided a look at the primitive new hominid* species found in South Africa.

Independent: Scientists to wake up 30,000-year-old 'giant' virus.  Insert your own plot for sci-fi horror flick.

Meanwhile, 32,000 years ago or earlier, humans appear to have been making porridge.

So, resveratrol, the compound also found in chocolate & red wine may help in preventing or at least slowing Alzheimer's.  The dosage in question ?  About that of one-thousand bottles of red wine...a day...

Charging a thirteen-year-old student with second-degree assault, because he...kissed a fourteen-year-old girl on a dare.  Shit, at least he's not being charged as an adult, as almost seems the norm. these day in the US (for anyone over say seven or so).

The aforementioned 'Rag on Amazon's new $50 tablets.

BBC's Peston gives what could be considered a positive spin on the collapse of British manufacturing.

CNN: Elon Musk's new idea: Nuke Mars.  No, really.

Independent: Stop using difficult-to-guess passwords, UK's spying agency GCHQ recommends.

Despite the obvious inferences, to this being suggested by GCHQ of all people, there is actually a point to using simpler...but longer passphrases, rather than the complex passwords to which we have become accustomed...or rather accustomed to writing down on sticky pads.  Unfortunately, we have a gazillion different passwords to manage, and no-one setting rational standards for password-requirements across all the different organisations with which we interact.

Rick Perry's floundering campaign for the presidency finally fizzles out.  Any bets on the next joke-candidate to fall ?

Guardian: Poll finds almost a third of Americans would support a military coup.

Flag of as-yet non-existent Palestinian state to fly in front of the UN.  So the flag of Kurdistan will also be flying alongside it soon one would hope.  And soon after, that of the Free Republic of Liberland.**

First library to support 'anonymous' browsing via Tor successfully scared out of it by totalitarian Bush-era 'Department of Homeland Security.'

Quartz: New York’s Tribute in Light to 9/11 is stunning to both people and birds.  Shame, they are beautiful.

First conviction in the US under laws banning 'crush'-videos.  Woman in question tortured, mutilated, and killed small animals in pretty horrific ways.

Elton John: I want to meet Putin over gay rights.  Uh, going to resist the obvious...

Film Truth debuts at Toronto International Film Festival.  The subject, an episode involving one Dan Rather who was tricked into airing faked memos regarding the service (or deficit thereof) in the Texas Air National Guard of one George W Bush.

The episode, as you might recall, ended Rather's decades-long career with CBS News, and by removing all attention from the actual story of Dubya's military-service (of lack thereof) at the same time that the very real service of one Purple Heart-winner and presidential contender John Kerry was being viciously smeared, may well have helped swing the election and lumber the United States and the world with four more years of Bush & Co.****

AlterNet on US Congress blocking labelling by states of GMO-products, whilst meanwhile California becomes the first state to label Monsanto's pesticide Roundup as carcinogenic.

BBC: Travelling to work 'is work', European court rules.

War is Boring on the de Havilland Vampire, first jet to take off & land from an aircraft-carrier, and on the continuing history of Iran's fleet of F-14 Tomcats.


* Fuck the NatGeo's 'Style Manual'.  Might as well be written on TP now.

** Hell, while we're at it...***

*** Too offensive for the main post perhaps, but anything goes in the footnotes I always feel.

**** Description of said sordid affair mine, not that of the filmmakers.  The, ah...truth will out eventually.

Jethro Tull: Minstrel in the Gallery

Some might say it was all downhill from here.  But for a moment at least, they still rocked.

Let It Be

Jimmy Kimmel on the New iPhone

This is telling.  Though...a little lazy to recycle your own jokes.

FWIW, they're right on the form-factor.  Who the hell can fit those things in a pocket ?

Wuerker On Civil Rights Martyr* Kim Davis

* Well in her head no doubt.

Corbyn

He may never be prime minister...and nor would I particularly want him to be.  But if Corbyn's victory helps reorient the overall spectrum of British politics (back) leftwards, that's something I celebrate unequivocally.  Labour has a leader again.

9/12

So, another '9/11' has passed us by with no major drama, that I noticed anyway, and no major terrorist-attacks, bar of course those that are now routine across parts of the Islamic world thanks in large part to the destabilising efforts and warmongering of lunatic politicians in the West.  Whatever.

I've always held that the twelfth of September, not the eleventh, should be a national day of mourning and remembrance for the United States.  Not so much for the day itself, or any specific events thereof, but as a general symbolic signifier of all the insanity that proceeded from America's reaction to the traumatic events of the day before.  The Patriot Act.  The War in Iraq.  Extraordinary Rendition.  Illegal (for some of which retroactive amnesty was had to be later granted) spying on Americans.  Secret intelligence-deals with European countries.  The constant fearmongering.  The indefinite detainment in Guantanamo Bay of civilians without trial, often on the basis of mere hearsay; of individuals, many of whom were later found to be completely innocent.  The torture of inmates in prisons in Iraq.  The extrajudicial executions by drone.  The 'Axis of Evil' rhetoric and subsequent toxification of what had been thawing relations with Iran.  'Homeland Security.'  'Enemy Combatants.'  'With us or against us.'  'Old Europe.'  'Freedom Fries.'  The trillions of dollars wasted.  The Dead.  The Displaced.  The countries utterly demolished.  The encouragement and inspiration given to a whole new generation of would-be jihadis and extremists.  The rise of ISIS.

I was as horrified as anyone to see those towers fall.  To see the smoke rising from the Pentagon.  To think of the last moments of Flight 93.  To imagine what it would be like to be driven to jump from the windows of a fucking skyscraper, out of desperation to avoid the smoke and the flames.  Bodies falling from the sky on live television.

Today, I feel almost nothing when I think of '9/11.'  A numbness perhaps.  A cold emptiness ?  But mostly, nothing.  It happened.  It was horrible.  What came after, what was done in the name of that tragedy, that outrage, was infinitely worse.  And is with us still.  And in the name of the so-called 'War on Terror' that by definition can never end, perhaps with us always.

We need a name for the day perhaps.  Something to match the Orwellian monstrosity of naming the 11th 'Patriot Day.'  Something to memorialise the moment that the United States collectively lost its shit.  Abandoned perhaps forever the values that had made it the greatest beacon of liberal values in the world for over two-hundred years.  Shit, something, if nothing else, to remind us that there was a time when we weren't always at war.  When we didn't routinely give away our liberties without question and without protest in the name of 'security.'

We have a whole generation coming into voting-age who have never known anything else.  For whom the police-state and the endless war of the post-9/11 era is 'normal.'  Well, for my own part, fuck that.  No, it will never be normal.  It will never be right.

Ted Rall on his Favourite* Subject

* For obvious reasons, may not actually be his favourite subject.