He also went on an epic rant in favor of a public option in his special comment. Too bad its months too late.

KO special comment at Dkos

He addresses this issue.

This segment was frankly baffling. I say that as a big fan of Olbermann.

Although calling O’Reilly ‘the Frank Burns of news’ was pretty funny.

True.

See, it’s true. Now they have Keith actually complimenting O’Reilly.

As a fan of Olbermann, I wasn’t as baffled as I was pleased to see someone – anyone – pulling out the flame thrower on these cretins. I admit to that bias, and will take the appropriate lumps. They conspired nicely to give him major tie-ins.
Bravo NYTimes and Faux.

“Frank, you’ll never be known as the Ugly American. You’re overqualified.”
–Hawkeye

I did like his “Special Comment” calling out so called representatives of the people that have already sold out to their corporate masters of the health care system on both sides of the aisle… They are just fuckers every one of them. They could care less about the everyday man, woman, and child!! “Hey they can’t afford to pay OH Well”.

Having worked in the BigMedia, and often having experienced commands from “Corporate” before on how and what to cover, I’ve been telling people about this process Greenwald spells out for many years.

People usually just call me a conspiracy theorist and dismiss my assertions. Perhaps people will get it and rise against this cesspool now…

Just re-connected with some old friends and they were shocked anyone would say the BigMedia isn’t Librul, and in fact is extremely slanted toward conservative interests. It’s so blatant now and I can’t believe people cannot see it for themselves. Gotta keep spreading the word.

Plus, when have any of the journalism scandals (Armstrong Williams, Richard Wolffe, etc) ever had a Liberal interest involved? It’s always a “reporter” providing cover for BigMoney.

It’s always a “reporter” providing cover for BigMoney.

That is what our corporate media do. It is their primary job, witness their coverage of the health care debate.

Worked late and didn’t catch anything but the rant at the end. I haven’t seen him this angry but for a couple of rants at Bush.
Doesn’t look to me like he just got off of a relaxing vacation. Just to speak to this past week’s speculations.

Seems like all modern communication is controlled by or dependent upon nefarious corporations. I’m just about ready to pull the plug on everything and communicate solely through the use of smoke signals.

‘evening, all-
As I see it, the corporate media functions to shape and channel opinion, not inform it.

This is completely off-topic, but it’s been running through my mind all day.

Could we arrange (and pull off) simultaneous demonstrations at all the home offices of the Senatorcritters and Congresscritters? I’m not talking about one or two people per office, I’m talking 3 or 4 hundred per office.

Do we have that kind of reach? Would the message get back to the critters?

Damn you, you corporate slave of Kingsford!

Part One (at the end of which Olbermann literally dismembers BlueDog Mike Ross)

Part Two, In which Olbermann closes the deal.

Really? Should I wonder who pulled the strings on your comment, or did you mean everything but here?

Have a cookie.

Just do it down wind from us here in Montana. We are already getting plenty of smoke from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. No really big fires of our own yet. *knocks wood*

Fortunately, RF, smoke signals seem to travel very well through the intertubes.

They are one mechanism by which our economic elites exercise their hegemonic control by controlling the discourse and the allowed opinions.

While your determination to use the Internet is admirable, I must say that print media has one advantage: you can wipe your ass with it.

Tomorrow should be an interesting day.

I thought it was odd that Olberman chose not to mention GE or Newscorp in his KOS post when he referred to the “deal” even though Greenwald specifically talked about both when referring to the “deal”.

Primarily, there is no “deal” between MSNBC and Fox over what we can and cannot cover.

What about between GE & Newscorp?

But there is no “deal.” I would never consent, and, fortunately, MSNBC and NBC News would never ask me to.

Yeah? What about GE?

And what the heck does this mean?

I honor Mr. Greenwald’s insight into the coverage of GE/NewsCorp talks, and his reporting on Richard’s other jobs.

Did the Greenwald story cause GE to back off?

Comcast has an effective monopoly on broadband in this area and when I say “broadband,” I am using the term loosely. We pay through the nose for internet service that is barely faster than ye olde cup and string protocol. I’d gladly trade them for a reasonable alternative but the powers that be do not allow actual competition.

I basically only subscribe to the local newspaper to provide my bird with a toilet.

OMG, hoo wow doogies. You’re trying to make me fat. Can I have just four very small bites?
And, Thank You.
(This comment is, for all intents and purposes, corporate-free.)

Kinda like a bong?

Leaves a nasty black streak and the inks are toxic (though less so than the content).

Was it thune he flat out called a liar? Watched it live but dial-up = no vid viewing to check for an answer to the question.

Just one more thing, along with healthcare, that is more efficiently run by the government (look at Europe).

Satellite?

Cellular?

While other people are cruising the internet for porn I’m oogling pictures of desserts. Does that make me weird?

Bong? You’d have to as the Doctor about that.

Yes.

This has been another edition of simple answers for silly questions.

It’s interesting how little meaningful competition there is in many sectors of American capitalism. The free-market flagwavers just don’t seem able to admit that the logical outcome of their favorite economic style defeats its own ostensible purpose. And they probably don’t care, as long as it’s them raking in the bucks.

I should investigate satellite. There are other options here, just not competitive cost or speed-wise. Mind you, I live less than a mile from one of the purported supercomputing meccas of the universe but they can’t provide real broadband to we the lowly, unfortunately.

Dude! You’re supposed to mention the bong Before you bring out the chocolate chip cookies.

It is inherent in the system. There is an innate tendency toward monopoly or oligopoly over the long term (think the rule of competitive exclusion in ecology). Eventually one or a few companies out compete and eliminate their rivals. It always happens (look at the 1890s).

satellite & cellular = cellulite.

One of the useful myths the corporations perpetuate is that America has a free market and that regulation discourages competition. There is rarely any actual competition, the fix is in.

I can plug my computer into a cheek and get the toobz?
Live and learn.

The economic history of the United States is very much the history of efforts to achieve effective monopolies.

The first great robber barons were Andrew Carnegie and U.S. Steel. They enabled the second rank of great robber barons, the railroads. The biggest shame about that was the complete lack of humor on the part of the Stanford University trustees. The student body voted to change the mascot from Indians to Robber Barons, but the trustees overturned the vote in favor of the second place finisher, The Cardinal (the color, not the bird).

And on, and on.

All those “regulations” they complain so much about are largely efforts to artificially create competition (or mitigate the worst effects of its lack) after the Robber Barons of the late 19th century pretty much gutted the system.

Alas, to return to the carefree days of my youth when there were bongs and chocolate chip cookies aplenty.

He didn’t call it “entertainment” but has a new word for it. As long as we understand it is a synonym, fine.
I hope that what he says is true, but the why would his bosses care one way or another if he doesn’t get them sued when he gets them ratings?

It is inherent in capitalism and is far from unique to America. It is a feature, not a bug. Adam Smith was modeling emergent markets, which are competitive. Mature markets are not.

Funny, the Bible mentions fatted calves but seems to overlook the fatted thigh.

Thanks for making another connection between things I hadn’t really thought about. (Ecology and economic structures in this case.)

That’s exactly it.

Constantly people respond to me that BigMedia “reports” about Michael Jackson incessantly because that’s what people want. It’s always sad to me when seeing how easily swayed people are, and then how set they become in their incorrect opinions.

There’s a burning desire in the public for every little detail about Gatesgate? About Sayrah Paylin? About a made-up Birther story that’s on par with anything Charles Manson would say? Funny…every single person I’ve ever talked to in my life about this says that BigMedia is horrible and doesn’t cover what’s important.

Ya know what the public would’ve really been interested in? A gay male prostitute who becomes a White House “reporter” regularly asking questions of the President, with all sorts of unusual visits to White House with some apparently being overnight, and with lots of “proof” to these iassertions (ahem). That would’ve really gotten people buying papers, but yet the BigMedia said, “move along, nothing to see here” lmost immediately on this actual story.

As you said…they exist to push a certain ideology onto the electorate. Nothing else.

There should be a Carnegie Hall of Shame.

gas powered toobz?

That reminds me of the most important thing I learned in gradual school.

All models are wrong, however some models are useful.

I originally trained as an ecological anthropologist before turning to the dark side and embracing Uncle Karl.

I’m willing to cut Andrew a little slack, because he did dump a lot of money into public libraries.

As I said above, the primary purpose of our corporate media is to protect the interests of our financial elites. One important way they do that is by distracting us from what really matters.

Aha. If I’d gone the anthro route (I gave it some thought) I’d have gone physical. My undergrad degree was in biol. and math.

Which is what the anti-science types cannot understand and would be horrified by if they did. We deal in imperfect approximations of reality, not absolute truth. What is important is not whether it is true, in some absolute sense, but whether it works (to predict the behavior of some part of the universe).

Yah, Carnegie was ruthless in business but did give some back.

Alfred Nobel probably contributed more to the advancement of modern warfare than any other individual but had enough of a conscience to attempt to atone for it (somewhat).

I think his Catholic upbringing got the best of him late in his life when he contemplated meeting his maker.

I think he answers it in his blog post. There was pressure from above to be light on Fox, so he made glancing blows. (I.E. there was a deal between Murdoch and Immelt) but he was not party to that deal.

My guess is that the deal fell apart when Newscorp leaked it to the Times, removing the corporate pressure, and freeing Olbermann’s hand.

Better to base theories on recorded observation than simply pull something out of one’s ass and proclaim it “Truth.”

I enjoyed the physical sciences a lot. Social too, just in different ways. When I drive places on vacation, I like knowing what I’m looking at and wonder what affect the land had on the social structure and relationships of the people who live/lived there. BTW, I live on an alluvial fan. Right down at the end of my street are some arroyos.

As long as their heroes give them permission, they will ignore the empirical at their whim. It is the very definition of the modern Republican.

Afraid that I always was more fond of live people and fascinated by the bewildering cultural diversity of humanity. How such very similar people (we are one of the least biologically diverse animal species on earth) can find so many radically different ways to live, be, and think.

Guilt is good. Greed, not so much.

I was watching a Brit Science documentary on the LHC at CERN. The handsome young physicist talked (at length, unfortunately not in math) about how our theory of the very small (quantum mechanics) and our theory of the very large (general relativity) both work exceedingly well, but are incompatible with each other.

I shouted at the set, “All models are wrong!”

Yep.

Aw, you’re just being sedimental.

I think I saw that one. About the only thing I watch on TV except the evening news and the Food Network.

You’re giving them too much credit.

They pull their theories out of someone else’s ass. The real shame is that in most cases, the ass the theory was pulled from is long since recycled into the ecosystem.

Break it down then, please.

It was pretty good. It reminded me how much I like physics, and how little physics likes me.

Ditto.

‘cept contemporary rethugs don’t believe in efficient, mature markets or in true capitalism for that matter. They believe in the loaded dice, the knife in the back and the sordid bribe of crony capitalism. They don’t want a level playing field. They want a board rigged for undead white men.

You’re being funny. You know what? Sentimentally speaking, thinking fondly of my youth, as in 20’s, the only thing that goes better with a bong than chocolate cookies is…the desert. Layers and colors and Big and wow.

Which is in fact exactly what you get in truly “free” markets (absent efficient regulation). We normally refer to those as “black” markets.

Also, Looney Toons and breakfast cereal.

Ah, Rat. I was being all poetic and shit.

And Orange Crush soda. Maybe Strawberry Crush.

I really don’t have a license to speculate, but if I were going to speculate I’d say the following:

(1) Perhaps gravity is an emergent phenomenon like temperature or pressure, that is, it isn’t applicable to matter in micro quantities. (I don’t think I believe that.)

(2) Quantum mechanics is a discrete theory, general relativity (gravity) is a continuous theory. That suggests that perhaps quantum theory is “more correct” and general relativity is “wrong”, being a continuous approximation to a discrete universe. (I think that this is probably closer to what is happening, not that I’m really entitled to an opinion in the matter.)

Did you know that you have a really huge fan in China?

Do you still get Strawberry Crush in MT?

Also good on cereal when you run out of milk.

oh I don’t think they have any problem at all with “market” regulation. Using regulation to suppress competition and ensure monopolies and oligopolies (like that of the health insurance industry) works very well for ‘em. Even using government to start wars designed to benefit their buddies. They don’t want to corner markets with thngs they can make or extract, unlike the robber barons. They just want to rig government to shake a few golden crumbs out of their constituents/subjects/marks.

In my limited capacity for physics, I had a similar idea I think – that gravity is not a part of the ‘other forces’ – EM, strong and weak – but like Hawking suggested a while back, was a consequence of both the quantum state and the expansion of the universe. Since we live in a ‘gravitational state’ – that is subject to gravity, whatever it’s foundation, we are unable to comprehend the quantum state.

Are you suggesting that living in a gravitational state makes it impossible to correctly perceive quantum states, allowing for inherent unpredictability? Because I could buy that.

Have no idea as I no longer drink pop. I do remember it fondly from my youth in Oklahoma.

I agree with number two.

Time for me to toddle off. Take care all.

I can remember getting frosty glass bottles of pop from vending machines for 10 cents. Damn, that makes me feel old.

Time to wind it down. Splendid nighters to all.

All True. Teh myth of free markets is pablum for fools who believe that they too can win by simply pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps. It doesn’t occur to them that they can’t afford to attend junior college and work full time without the aid of others.

The righties eat this shit with relish as it is served daily by Limbaugh, hannity, Beck, O’Reilly, Kudlow and the financial guru’s of CNN, Fox etc.

I’m basically out of touch with television, broadcast or otherwise. That world was basically shut out after Clinton left office. About a week ago, I happened to be sitting in a car dealership shop waiting room next to a receiver blasting Faux news talking head blowhards. I was astounded at what I heard — full-tilt non-stop utter bullshit that just seemed to never end. I turned down the volume so I could finish my sudoku and crossword in peace. Nobody else in the room seemed to be bothered or offended by the gesture. I thought that was interesting.

I’m not sure mine is that spectacular.

It has become white noise.

When I get the bugs worked out of my unified field theory I’ll let you know (damned insects).

Not really. I was thinking more about the mathematical formalisms.

But Hawking’s idea could explain it, in fact, if the LHC fails to find the Higgs boson that may be where the cosmologists start to look next.

where did you get that image?

Here ya go.

That reminds me of something I read recently by EL Doctorow. He said some way out shit about that. Talk about Context.

Got it.
Your statement that “all models are wrong” results from lack of quantum perspective, correct?

No, it reflects the fact that all models are simplifications of reality. Since models are abstractions from reality, they are necessarily wrong.

That is so cool. So alluvial.

No, it reflects the fact that all models are simplifications of reality. Since models are abstractions from reality, they are necessarily wrong.

That is beautiful.

It is.

I was trying to figure out if that bright red in the upper left region is real or some photographic artifact? Doesn’t look natural, perhaps the color saturation is a tad exaggerated.

I’m going to retire now. Mary, keep these commenters going, would ya?
(One quick swing around the dance floor?)

Maybe that has something to do with the camera being so far away and some weird refraction. The water isn’t “right” either.

Come closer darling.

As humans we all employ subjective models of reality in order to function in the real world, despite the fact that none of us perceive more than an infinitesimal amount of it at any given time.

Okay, leaving for real now. Night all.

Smooch. I forget whose turn it is to lead.
Wish I could stay. Didn’t get to sleep until 2 last night. Humidity. Waxing moon. Either one too many or one too few glasses of shiraz.

Slept tight. Slept Kool.

Good night, RF.

The only answer to that is one more glass of Shiraz.

nite demi
nite rat

nightie night Rat, Newt, mare-mare, tenor, dick..and all un-named and lurking puppies.
big hugs to all.

A waxing moon helps me sleep. Fretting about unsightly moon stubble would keep me awake.

I know know your gender. Well, I sort of did before. Or you told us. Then I forgot. Now I know again.

You’re a riot. My spouse asked me if the gender clarification made me “see” you differently. I thought about it and said Nah. Rat’s Rat.

‘nite, demi.

Amazing. I go read for awhile and come back and you are talking about alluvial fans. What a place the Lake is.

You missed the discussion of theoretical physics.

OH, lordy. Would you repeat it, please. :)

News Corp. and GE don’t care if Olbermann bashes O’Reilly once in a while. What they will not stand for is if Olbermann attacks News Corp. or if O’Reilly attacks GE.

No doubt, sometimes think I could drive the post there more quickly. It’s terrible.

Actually it all started with a bit of epistemology I picked up in gradual school: All models are wrong, but some models are useful.

And it devolved from there.

It was a beautiful thing to behold. He finally said what needed to be said out loud and in front of millions. Your congress has sold you out, and they don’t care. Now, it’s on the public record for all eternity. Its going viral baby!

If that’s the case, Olbermann is pushing on the fence hard. Rupert-the-Pirate Murdoch was this evening’s Worst Person in the World.

Heck, if it were just the models that are wrong, that would be understandable.
Current thinking after recent observations is that Einstein was perhaps correct when he postulated a cosmological constant when trying to create a static (non-expanding) model of the universe. Now physicists observe regions that are expanding FASTER instead of slower. WTF.
2 steps forward, 3 steps back.

Maybe KO didn’t get the memo.

The facts are the same for everyone, which is what the Regooplicans refuse to acknowledge.

The problem is to figure out a set of rules that explain those facts. But if some parts of the universe are expanding faster than others, and in a way that isn’t smooth?

That’s ugly, and it calls even the weak anthropic principle into question.

That’s basically what Olbermann said in the Worse person in the world. It went to that NYT writer who broke the story that Olbermann and O’Really had been muzzled.

capitalism unchecked doing its thing

even with the sick and needy

bet you money most of those yelling the loudest call themselves christians. wanna bet

christianity died on the cross

the end is near as soon as the dollar is no longer the world currency.

and who do we blame but politicans and corporations

the capitalism system is designed by its very nature to make profits at any cost look at history

child labor, forced labor, slaves, imperialism, wars for profits, it is all there for the world to see but the world does not want to see it

the capitalist agenda a society of haves and have nots’

soon coming to america

watch the gated communities come on big time

and lots of security

and lots of prisons full and overflowing

but there is always hope :-)

Yep. They are heading back to Andrei Linde’s ideas about energy states diverging slowly in the early universe due to spin-zero fields. Although no one is suggesting that the universe IS NOT expanding. All well beyond my comprehension.
Or so I am told.

It is always fun to speculate about cosmology. I would say that just as mass and energy are equivalent but not the same, mass-energy and space-time are equivalent but not the same. At a fundamental level, space-time is both quantized and continuous, a sea of probability wave functions that can coalesce and collapse into the singularity of a particle which can still influence the waves functions in its vicinity, and act cumulatively with other singularities on space-time more generally essentially to infinity.

I’ll take your word for it.

I got through a year of Physics for Scientists and Engineers. We learned the basics of QM and SR and GR, and it just about wrecked my brain.

It did come in handy (well, the QM did) when I took PChem a couple of years later.

Hell, I’m still trying to wrap my head around the uncertainly principle.

I have a lot less that one year.

You have to remember that in the early universe during the period of cosmic inflation, the universe expanded at billions of times the speed of light. So even early on the expansion of the universe was not constant. The surprise has been the acceleration. The prediction would have been over time, the mass in the universe would slow or balance out the acceleration until some constant velocity was achieved. The observed acceleration indicates the universe is more interesting and that gravity is not the only game in town.

Right. As I said earlier, it ‘feels’ like gravity is more a product of the expansion and not simply another companion force to the other 3.

Just delve into volume one of Capital chapters 26-33 on primitive accumulation of capital.

Gravity is just the interaction of mass on space-time, or of space-time on mass, or of one aspect of space-time on itself. I have never been completely comfortable with trying to force gravity into the same theoretical structure as the other forces. This may not be because there isn’t an underlying symmetry but just that our current conceptualizations fail to capture it.

Unless one of the more exotic (or as-yet undiscovered) string theories is found and explain it, I agree. And even then, we are still a long way from being able to perceive quantum states from an observational standpoint.

Well, you always have Bose-Einstein condensates. But in another sense not because all of this stuff in terms of space-time is happening below the Planck limits so the laws of physics which operate above this level don’t apply.

If we should ever begin to understand neutrinos, seems like we will be in the ballpark. I do not expect to be around for that. And that is beyond the limits of my understanding now.

“I frankly think Olbermann raises more questions than he answers.”

Given who controls it all, the corporate feudalists and the 1%, Mz. Hamsher, I think I’m a bit skeptical too.

And frankly, nothing much can likely change how I feel . . . unless it’s proven truth. But we can’t count on THAT, from ANY media sources, can we . . . .

Bless ya for all ya do . . . ;-)

Erm, yer source of the smoke? The combustation able part? *G*

Where’s there’s fire, there’s ’sposed to be smoke?

*G*

Kingsford?

What fuckery is that?

Mesquite, hoss, pure mesquite . . .

Don be killin me, now , , , , *G*

*G*

Corporate feudalist overlords?

*G*

Damn I love the smell of truth in the late evening . . .

Thanks.

Hoss, others elsewhere have suggested those of us who think the MSM is bought and paid for and KO was muzzled, well, they say we’re nuckin futz.

And that KO is flyin free.

Yeah. Shure.

No one in KO’s company (MSNBC), that’s owned by GE, that’s been held hostage by bad news from Murduch about GE’s foreign interests, has been shut down or censored. Not even KO.

The MSM allows pure journalism, and free criticism of the powers that be, because they are still the 4th Estate and serve the public’s interest . . .

Yeah. Shure. ;-)

And KO would NEVER cave in to the pressures of his overlords, to keep his job, and shut his mouff.

Nope. Could NEVER happen in the game to play ad buys, and amongst corporate feudalism, that KO would be shut up and censored . . . . less there were ratings and ad buys or LEVERAGE involved.

Geebuz . . . . simple is as simple does . . . bought and paid for, and shut up or lose yer job . . . *rolleyes*

SImple.

Hmmm . . . condidering it’s AUGUST, this is really really intriguing . . .

Man I’d LOVE to go head to head with the birther loons bused in by the brainiacs.

I’d really love the challenge . . . . what’s a bullhorn cost to rent in Sacto, CA?

Mary? *G*

Yer bird can sing with other less expensive paper, can’t it? *G*

Goes back further n that, hoss . .

Cotton gins.

Light bulbs.

Any other inventions and patents post 1776 . . . maybe Europe and Industrial Rev?

Or since dawn of man? lol

And I know, light bulbs were after cotton gins . . . ;-)

Hey I SAW Nathan Hale’s hanging . . .

Late 50’s in SE Asia . . . Nehi . . . Strawberry Soda . . . best evah,

NO, what’s at stake and what’s this shit is all about is who had leverage on the other.

GE has overseas interests, that FUCKS and Murduck threatened to expose unless KO shut his mouff.

That they are all owned by corp feudalists should be the ONLY point being discussed . . .

Alas . . . bright shiny shit to distract . . . . alas.

Twiggy? *blink*

I”m alone.

It’s teh cosmos . . .

Sigh . . .

What these discussions seem to be missing is the degree to which KO, Rachel, and Ed are exploring how they can push the envelope to get real information and progressive opinion into the mainstream.

Of course bosses are dictating to Ed Schultz that he have Michael Medved and Tom Tancredo on. Of course Rachel has to be very diplomatic in the way she handles hostile guests. Of course, KO can’t get into a food fight with Fox (that btw O’Reilly created to avoid being caught in lies). Of course David Shuster cannot admit to Charles Pierce MSNBC’s complicity creating and Idiot America.

But all of these do what they can do, just as Edward R. Murrow in the midst of McCarthyism did what he could do.

The are going to dodge some issues until they can convince the boss that the reputation of the network and the parent company is on the line. I think the publication of the idea that GE was muzzling KO kept it from being carried off completely but KO knows that he is being successful and there are some folks at FoxNews who are worried. Let’s celebrate what we can.

We don’t have a mainstream progressive media yet but with Comedy Channel and MSNBC we have a toehold.

Good Morning to you both…So sorry I missed the dance, in case you check back. Should I say…how typical. Ughhh

TarheelDem- you express so powerfully what I planned to say. Yes corporate news is disgusting but I remember very well what TV was like in the years before KO,Rachel and Ed. They are better than nothing and will be remembered for what they have done.
I refuse to fall for that old idea that less than perfect is beneath consideration- that way of thinking destroyed any movement by the Left. We need to support rather than pull down those who express our side. Having an alternative point of view anywhere on TV will help in the long run.

Contrary to your rant, KO sure didn’t seem to get the memo on keeping his “mouff” shut, did he? Anyway you want to slice it, the piece aired.

And just an observation: this all seems very cozy, but I’ve never seen a discussion on an important topic devolve into such inanity. Jeez, get a room.