Wednesday, March 30, 2016

From Oil to BPA via Finland and the Great Barrier Reef

World's biggest bribery:
In the list of the world's great companies, Unaoil is nowhere to be seen. But for the best part of the past two decades, the family business from Monaco has systematically corrupted the global oil industry, distributing many millions of dollars worth of bribes on behalf of corporate behemoths including Samsung, Rolls-Royce, Halliburton and Australia's own Leighton Holdings.
When in doubt, move to Finland.

Arizona, what is going on with this election? Election fraud?

Whee. Carbon dioxide isn't going to kill us, methane will.

Sad rape girls forever.

Hearst's vendetta against Orson Welles is revealed.

The bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef.

BPA is in a lot of our canned foods.

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Josh Marshall is right

(My bold)

 As the Trump rally antics and violence have grown they too have taken on an increasingly ritualized form.

1. Protesters disrupt Trump rally and create disturbance as angry Trumpites gather around to express anger at caricatured versions of 21st century loser class who threaten their inheritance.

2. Trump engages in brief parley with protesters before calling for them to be ejected with now trademark "Get'em outta here!" (Sort of the paramilitary version of the once iconic, corporate "You're fired!")

3. Crowd ecstatic as security guards escort protestors out through a sort of Tea Party walk of shame, eventually along an aisle which is actually a gauntlet of jeering and taunts.

4. Self-selected Trumpite assaults protester being led out of arena, bringing the ritual to a conclusion.

So, parodic left-wing protester, fight, ejection, ritual violence, symbolic confirmation of Trump's role as destroyer of bad guys and losers.

Trump's rallies too are quickly becoming as ritualized as pro-wrestling.

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Donald Trump's brown shirts


This is something potentially very bad. Trump has already told his supporters that he wants them to use violence at his rallies against people with whom they disagree. Now, he is threatening to organize them and send them to his opponents rallies, ostensibly, to use violence. That would mean Trump is starting to think of his most ardent supporters as a radicalized force he can use to silence his opponents with the threat of violence. People told to prepare to use force and go to a specific place to take action against the political opposition--this is a next level scenario that would suggest Trump sees violence as a tool for gaining office, which would mean he is having thoughts akin to someone planning not to win an election, but to seize power. He hasn't done all this yet--but that seems to be how his mindset is evolving. If this happens, it would definitely be time to take legal action to end his campaign. ‪#‎notgood‬

Sunday, March 06, 2016

A Sunday slurry

A completed survey of the southern hemisphere's Milky Way.

A solar farm built over a large reservoir... clean drinking water, solar energy... what's not to like?

Dick wars in the GOP.  Because being a large dick matters apparently.

An environmental activist Berta Cáceres murdered in Honduras.

The return of DIY abortions.

A Tudor vegetable.

Still fucked at Fukushima.