Thanks, SD. Israeli settlers aren’t immune to charges of terrorism? Maybe that’s illegitimate violence even in Missouri.

Mornin’, pups

Regarding the first bullet, decades ago, I used to spend more than an hour in class lecturing on the imperfections of GDP.

The US actually acknowledged a terrorist acts on the part of israeli settlers?!?!

Ah, but only published in the foreign press or on backpage filler.

And the Israeli’s (except Bibi) are starting to calculate how much a strike on Iran will cost them. That’s gotta be a scary number. Tel Aviv will be flattened by missles, never mind the price of eggs. They’ll lose billions in economic activity and have to spend billions (most likely from the US treasury) to rebuild.

Still not seeing any attempt to go beyond 20% enrichment. Not seeing any attempt to move their current stock of 20% beyond international monitoring. Not seeing any intelligence agency (even Israel) that says they’re doing so.

Boxturtle (I think Bibi would hit even if all he does is put the screws to Obama)

We spent an entire week on gdp and other govenemnt stats in Econ 201. Basic conclusion: All are flawed to varying degrees and you use them at your own risk. They are more political tools than economic tools.

Boxturtle (So we spent a week or so studying economic fiction)

The ad overrides all comments this morning.

I’ve gotten auto dealer ads like that, and they’re locally generated. Of course, you can’t read this.

Good morning everyone.

Thank you for the post SouthernDragon.

Ruth, can you believe that idiot in Missouri.
I read somewhere that the conservatives have until this Tuesday to get him to resign and take his name off the ballot because the statutes say that he cannot be removed nine weeks before the election.
Please,oh please let him stay on the ballot.

Based on the TRNN story on the vast costs to the Israeli public of an Iran attack, the attack sounds like a plot to crush the 99%. Netanyahu, it must be remembered, is a rabid right-winger on economic policy akin to Romney and Paul Ryan.

Hopefully, it will not be time enough to remove him, but I understand that gobs of PAC money is directed toward the effort to turn MO into another wingnut province, so legitimate rape may be coming to MO anyway.

Just returned from the other planet, thanks for the link to Assange, SD.

I’ll be off to visit another world this evening. Local water quality issues being discussed at a nearby township and the first item on the agenda after the call to order is the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by a short meet and greet where any non-conformist will get to self ID.

Let me see, be rude and arrive late, or be rudely honest and remain silent and seated. Hmmmm.

I hate to keep beating a very ill horse, but Firefox or Chrome with AdBlock Plus installed takes care of the ads.

Good morning, everyone. Another nice sunny day here in NW Indiana!

I’m still wondering how Assange will get to Ecuador.

I guess it depends on what you want to accomplish by attending…

That idiot in Missouri has been all over my Facebook news feed. I have been trying to stick to my “no political posts” vow (I do comment on others’ posts, though), but it was difficult not to reshare that one. What an idiot.

ac2 @ #8

rest assured that he’ll remain on the ballot and will “win.” remember alvin greene?

I like the suggestion of sending Assange via diplomatic pouch, but that’s just me.

Get him to resign? I think they’ll double down, point out how the liberal media that supports his opponent is either taking out of context or not noticing his correction.

It used to be the standard for “legitimate rape” was based on how the provocateer was dressed!

Boxturtle (Notice I said “provocateer” not “victim”. I’ll get my tea party membership card yet!)

He won’t, and he wouldn’t be safe there if he did. Not as long as Obama is in the WH.

Boxturtle (I’m not sure he’s safe in the embassy. I wish Obama was as eager to prosecute banksters)

Oh, that’s a good one!

Seriously, I really wonder how he’s going to get out. He’ll be a moving target no matter how he is transported, and apparently the UK doesn’t mind violating all of the diplomatic rules. And even if he gets to Ecuador he’ll be a sitting duck.

That guy on UP Saturday managed to turn that part of the show into the kind of shoutfest I hate, even though he was defending Assange and had interviewed him. The other panelists weren’t attacking Assange, just asking questions, but the guy was a boor and interrupted constantly.

I believe I heard him last night saying that the innocent baby shouldn’t be allowed to suffer. However, suffer was no further defined. I envision giving the baby resulting from rape, and the mom, a home with luxurious advantages, say in a Rmoney complex, what a good idea!

Looks like we sorta owe each other beverages, BT.

That’s “provocateur” — you gotta get your hoity toity French down if you want that membership card. LOL.

GDP is an accounting concept that is linked to Marshall and Pigou’s concept of the ‘National Dividend,’ which was a rough approximation to the quantity of goods and services available for investment, exports, government purchase and consumption. The actual implementation of the national accounts in the 1930s and 1940s was designed to track cash flows in order to predict movements in aggregate demand. It was never intended to be a measure of welfare. That came later.

The idea that real (i.e. price-deflated GDP) measures welfare rests on the common-sense (but false, as common-sense often is)notion that more is better than less, because it is what people would naturally choose when presented with the alternative. The weakness of this choice-based construction has been pointed out countless of times by economists like Gunnar Myrdal and Tibor Scitovsky and philosophers such as Ian Little (not to mention Hegel, who got it right the first time). But it would be hard to find an academic economist who does not believe that choice (which reduces to the criterion of logical consistency) is the only objective measure of what people want, and that what people want is what will make them better off.

If this were true, there would be no need for advertising and propaganda.
Hope this isn’t all too obscure. And good morning to all the pups.

Mittens is polling R women in MO to see how many believe in Immaculate Secretions.

Good morning msmolly,

Thanks for that sage question. The agenda fails to list, approval of the posted agenda, (state statute) where one could request an agenda change. So I could be a bit Robert’s Rulesy and state a point of order and start a buzz. 15 years volunteering for a town government position, I’ve successfully diffused some vociferous public input and turned it to meaningful discussion.

I am merely going to judge my physical and mental alertness at the time, get a sense of the crowd, if there is one, and likely just silently sit. Priority is the water issue.

I don’t imagine he proposed putting the little ‘bastard’ out of its misery.

Good comment Ruth.
I really hope this character survives until Wednesday and then they cannot remove him, but he has said some really dumb things.

Thanks, that is quite clear and a good piece of information. I suggest that the ‘need for advertising and propaganda’ is to counter choice.

He appears to be a woman-hater just by all the comments about birth control, rape, etc.
Another man trying to tell a woman what to do with her body.

In accordance with the belief system the candidate supports, into its misery would seem more the plan, in which the proposed baby would benefit from the challenges of a life of poverty without benefit of a support system.

To create the illusion of …

Last night in one of the Kos sidebar posts it was mentioned that the Missouri papers were silent most of the day on his stupid comments so we have hope he stays on the ballot.

I just got a call and have to leave to help a friend.
Thank you for the great conversation and have a great day everyone.

I am shocked. Bill Press on his radio show said:

“FREE BRADLEY MANNING, YOU BET!”

Thanks. I am still hoping voters can see through the barrage of lies, and truth about their revolting beliefs, from the right.

That really sounds like the best plan. Not that you want to sit silently in the face of political nonsense, but I personally am trying to learn that “in your face” is not the way to be most effective sometimes. You can just get tuned out.

That is quite clear, Knut, and thanks.

Thanks for the links SD.

Found this translation of the Russian punk band’s church protest song (translated from Russian to English by Carol Rumen at The Guardian).

Art has a way of synthesizing protest into concise messages, uncompromisingly truthful:

HERE.

It used to be that men believed that a woman could only get pregnant if she had an orgasm. This was, oh, for most of the last 2500 years or so, but esp in the Middle Ages.

I think we can clearly see that’s where these Christians are wanting to take civilization back to…at least in terms of women being baby-making factories.

Atkin meant what he said, but he’s trying to walk it back now. Even self hating women will not like this one

I’m just gonna start picking up your check on my way out.

Boxturtle (Bookies are saying 5-1 against Britan violating the embassy)

I can’t spell worth a damn, I’m dyslexic, and the company blocks prevent the spell checker from working. I’m lucky to get close enough for most people to decypher what I mean.

Boxturtle (spelling nazi!)

If some entity (using the term carefully) takes him out, it will cause an international uprising, I think. “Hoocoodanode?” won’t be a satisfactory response.

Oh I was just messin’ witcha. But your spell checker is blocked? That’s bizarre.

Some of the discussion on this has included the information that this was actually taught in Catholic schools/liturgy. Dunno, but seems that ‘legitimate’ rape is the stuff misogynism is made of.

Mitt has already issued a statement of disagreement, to try and avoid getting tarred with this.

He had to state that his admin would not ban abortion for rape cases. Wonder how long it will be before he has to walk that back.

Boxturtle (Imagine what a messed up mind a child of rape could have if they knew)

Last fall, squatting a building and fixing it up for use was a major violation of property rights causing the Oakland PD to forcibly evict and arrest people trying to put a community center back to use as a community center. A similar thing happened in Olympia WA at a community center.

Now, volunteers are seizing and reopening closed library buildings as free libraries with donated books and volunteer staff.

And the squat and repair housing movement is beginning to deal with the fact that there are more empty houses in the US than there are homeless.

When supply-and-demand is rigged by the financial establishment, this is what happens.

I don’t know. USA isn’t the only country embarassed or potentially embarassed by wikileaks and he probably has a lot fewer friends than he thinks.

I think if they violate the embassy, a lot of countries will sever diplomatic relations. I don’t know if any UNSC members or nato members will do so.

Boxturtle (Honestly, I think the Brits were bluffing)

Off to swim in the great capitalist cesspool.

US KIA Afghanistan; 2,100

Afghan, Iraki, Yemeni and Pakistani casualties: estimates vary to over 2M

US MBS 2010: 28,768 and counting

No war but class war

Used to Rule the World

Be good to yourselves, and all other living things

Namaste

Never. Give. Up.

Too heavily scripted, it makes the security program nervious.

Boxturtle (I’m gonna write a script to post spellchecked comments via Word)

Well, yeah, because “organ-ized religion” is, of course, always on the side of the man, so they fold, bend and mutilate the truth to fit their agenda.

This has been going on since Gilgamesh slew Tiamaat and we wonder why the human species has gone so far off track that the equivalent of ET must come and save us from ourselves!
That’s sort how I view avatars, they’re ET.

But since Gilgamesh, they’ve never let women rise from our knees. and still, they want Eden back while destroying the Good Mother Earth.
We went crazy a long time ago with this disenfranchisement of the female counsel and wisdom.
How to get back in balance before the boyz destroy civilization and the Earth? More important than jobs; less chance of being discussed or even recognized.

We don’t have much, if any, time left either

Would love to see Occupy make offers of taking vacant buildings that now are costing municipal bodies money, and using them for presently municipal task of housing the homeless, outlining the benefits to all concerned. As it is, expecting rational action from municipalities denies evidence they are under the control of the mindless reactionary element which composes the right wing.

Whoooo! It’s that big! GOOD!

“Violence by Jewish settlers has been cited for the first time in a US state department list of ‘terrorist incidents’, as Israeli political leaders condemned a string of recent attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem.”

Results in AIPAC sympathizers labeling President Obama “an anti-Semite, just like Jimmy Carter”.

Def. “anti-Semite US President” – a US President who in a polite letter to a Likud prime minister of Israel mentions UN Resolution 242 and the billions of dollars in US aid to Israel within three paragraphs distance.

Time I got stuff done legitimately – thanks for good conversation.

Have you ever seen the Damnyouautocorrect website? It is hilarious!!

Speaking of Isreal and Republicans acting badly, I wonder what the political fallout of this story will be?

Seen it?!? It’s the reason I don’t use autocomplete!

Fortunately, I’ve never quite had one embarassing enough to post there.

Boxturtle (Kinda expected M$ to shut it down by now)

The difficulty with a lot of the property is that it is either in bank hands from foreclosure and unsaleable or ownership is so divided by inheritance that no one can get a decision from the heirs. And in both cases, interest in the property would immediately elevate the price and make it much more difficult.

The blunt fact is that legal procedures and free markets have failed to create a valid market price (near zero) for most of these properties. And the cost of improvements and cooperative sweat equity to fix these properties is a high enough price for homeless to pay to get shelter. There would be not way that one could massively come up with an owner’s asking price for many of these dumps; that’s why they have been abandoned to begin with.

And in Chicago, Detroit, and other cities, there are massive acreages of vacant (cleared or partially cleared) land where buildings were destroyed during the 1968 riots and never rebuilt or buildings that were hazards were torn down and never rebuilt. Some of these might look like grassy parks now, but they are essentially unused. A Google street-view tour of these areas of cities is very instructive as to what is out there. These can be squatted and used for urban agriculture (Will Allen’s Gowing Power movement uses a two-foot deposit of compost and topsoil to seal off any heavy-metal contamination in the projects–on leased or donated land that he is doing. The same agricultural techniques would work on squatted land and allow for rapid meeting growth in this form of agriculture, which is hamstrung by land acquisition dickering.)

beautiful comment,thank you

Since I got my iPhone 4S, I’ve discovered I can dictate instead of type almost anywhere – emails, text messages, notes – and it’s usually very accurate. But occasionally it can’t understand a word, no matter how often I repeat it, and sometimes each repetition produces a different word, some quite amusing. I usually give up after a couple of tries and just type in the word.

Good morning firedogs. Thanks for the post and host SD.

I’m taking my kids bowling this morning, so I’ll see you all later. Just wanted to drop in and wish everyone a wonderful day.

Hiya Kris. Have a great time with your kids! I am outta here, too.

The problem is the same in rural areas. Research on a nearby farm that will be in a sheriff’s sale later in Sept. shows that the owner took out numerous liens on the land’s value, never repaid, at the time when real estate was being mortgaged without processes that establish actual value and repayment probabilities. The farm is then part of many liens/mortgages bundled up and sold off to the institutions that now are using those toxic assets to establish their own value – which is visibly less than on paper. Still, the empty property can be used to offset present expenses that local governments could meet if that were done, lowering huge problems with out of work and homeless victims of that same mess. It can happen through actual rational action, or it can wait until the local gov’ts are bankrupt and potential workforce completely prostrat

Good point.

Nekkid junk in the Sea of Galillee!! Wheeeee!

Mornin dinerzenz.

Morning, all. I have been running like crazy for the last few weeks and I start again tomorrow. I confine myself to very short threads because I like to read through them and the Diner is usually well attended. Anyway, lots of good comments here. It is so “comforting” to see that nothing is really changing: the dominance of the rethugs and the attack on the 99% continues apace. By the time the majority awakens the fascists will be firmly fixed in place, children will be encouraged to inform on their family members, full time work will generally be a relic for most of us, there will be little food, the countryside will barren, and wildlife will be a thing of the past (zoo residents at best). I can’t help being so optimistic with a nobel peace prize showing us the way here.

Good morning pupses, and thank you, SD.

Really late today. Just finished washing up, everything is put away, and there is a new puzzle in the corner booth just waiting for tomorrow morning.

Like BearCountry, lot of things going on at home, so if I don’t see you pupses for a while, hold down the fort :) Houseguest coming tomorrow and things to do to help get ready for the Lentil’s arrival, so I’ll be in and out.

You guys are the best. Safe travels and safe home is wished to everypup by your

ohmmmm

Take good care of your sweet self, Omi.
I’m still in Tomato Hell mode, picking, chopping and grinning and making and freezing tomato sauce.
Have home grown green bells, basil and thyme, so good eatin’.
Just bought a nice large package of five cheese ravioli to go with the latest batch.
Hugs.