Interesting News, Articles & Stuff

[florduh]

They donated mega bucks to elect Biden and the Executive VP of Blackstone personally hosted multiple fund raisers for Joe and is expected to join his administration later this year. By some weird coincidence it now appears they have the contracts to rebuild the Ukraine. Nothing to see here, move along.

I think you're getting confused with BlackROCK, another dystopian sounding private equity firm. BlackSTONE, the child labor folks, mostly donate to Republicans.

Blackstone Group Profile: Totals

Blackstone Group organization profile: contributions by party of recipient, by source of funds, and affiliates.

www.opensecrets.org

Blackstone generally does a 60/40 split between Republicans and Democrats. Blackrock goes the other way, 60/40 between Democrats and Republicans.

BlackRock Inc Profile: Totals

BlackRock Inc organization profile: contributions by party of recipient, by source of funds, and affiliates.

www.opensecrets.org

You're correct that the Brandon Admin has a cozy relationship with BlackRock though.

Joe Biden’s BlackRock Cabinet Picks Show the President-Elect Is Ready and Eager to Serve the Rich

Joe Biden’s choice to install two former BlackRock execs in his cabinet is a major signal of his deference to Wall Street and the superrich. But it’s also a sign of the times: the world’s largest asset management company is revolutionizing finance by investing in capitalism itself.

jacobin.com

Fun fact: BlackRock is one of the major owners of Norfolk Southern.

 

[Babylon Drifter]

I think you're getting confused with BlackROCK, another dystopian sounding private equity firm. BlackSTONE, the child labor folks, mostly donate to Republicans.

Blackstone Group Profile: Totals

Blackstone Group organization profile: contributions by party of recipient, by source of funds, and affiliates.

www.opensecrets.org

Blackstone generally does a 60/40 split between Republicans and Democrats. Blackrock goes the other way, 60/40 between Democrats and Republicans.

BlackRock Inc Profile: Totals

BlackRock Inc organization profile: contributions by party of recipient, by source of funds, and affiliates.

www.opensecrets.org

You're correct that the Brandon Admin has a cozy relationship with BlackRock though.

Joe Biden’s BlackRock Cabinet Picks Show the President-Elect Is Ready and Eager to Serve the Rich

Joe Biden’s choice to install two former BlackRock execs in his cabinet is a major signal of his deference to Wall Street and the superrich. But it’s also a sign of the times: the world’s largest asset management company is revolutionizing finance by investing in capitalism itself.

jacobin.com

Fun fact: BlackRock is one of the major owners of Norfolk Southern.

Nope, not confused at all.

Blackstone’s Tony James Hosts Fundraiser for Biden:
"James is seen as a potential member of a Biden administration"

Blackstone’s Tony James Hosts Fundraiser for Biden

Blackstone Group Inc. Executive Vice Chairman Tony James hosted a small, high-dollar fundraiser for Democratic nominee Joe Biden on Wednesday.

www.bloomberg.com

 

[florduh]

Nope, not confused at all.

Blackstone’s Tony James Hosts Fundraiser for Biden:
"James is seen as a potential member of a Biden administration"

Blackstone’s Tony James Hosts Fundraiser for Biden

Blackstone Group Inc. Executive Vice Chairman Tony James hosted a small, high-dollar fundraiser for Democratic nominee Joe Biden on Wednesday.

www.bloomberg.com

Fair enough. But if you click on the OpenSecrets disclosures you’ll see that Blackstone donated many millions more to Republicans than they did to Brandon.

Like I’ve said before, we don’t have a real choice in our political system. And voting for the Red Team because you want to stick it to the capitalist/private equity class would be very silly.

'You burned me:' Norfolk Southern CEO blasted by East Palestine residents in CNN town hall

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw and U.S. EPA Administrator Michael Regan appeared along with East Palestine residents.

www.dispatch.com

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1628611629347643392

It's satisfying to see victims having the opportunity to tear this CEO a new asshole. But we really need to bring more of a Chairman Xi energy when dealing with criminal executives. Time for executives and Corporate Board members to see jail time for this shit.

 

[darkstar72]

Yeah, I doubt jail time happens for executives. There is just no political will to hold them accountable. It is our one party system which represents the business class that's the problem... as you've pointed out.

 

[florduh]

Yeah, I doubt jail time happens for executives. There is just no political will to hold them accountable. It is our one party system which represents the business class that's the problem... as you've pointed out.

You’re right. I’m just making a wish I guess.

The entire idea behind criminal penalties is to discourage criminal behavior. Slapping a 1 million dollar fine on a trillion dollar company isn't going to discourage their criminal behavior. It will do the opposite.

 

[florduh]

Why we need to Nationalize the railroads.

Basically every other modern country has nationalized railroads. It wouldn't even be the first time for America.

"And on the sixth day, The Feds said 'Let There Be Conrail'. And it was good..."

 

[Babylon Drifter]

Why we need to Nationalize the railroads.

Basically every other modern country has nationalized railroads. It wouldn't even be the first time for America.

"And on the sixth day, The Feds said 'Let There Be Conrail'. And it was good..."

While the RR is fucked up the only way to make it worse is to let the government run it. Anyone who has ever worked for the government can attest to the fact the government doesn't do anything better than the private sector except lie, cheat, steal and kill. Veteran health care? Fucking deplorable. The military? Stunning lack of leadership and massive overspending in an organization that coined the term Situation Normal, All Fucked Up. Who actually believes government controlled entities are anything but a clusterfuck? People who have never dealt with DMV, the post office, or the Veterans administration that's who.
Maybe talk to people who were "rescued" by FEMA after Katrina, check thier opinion of how great it is when the government steps in to fix things.

Ronald Reagan said it best: The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, "I'm here from the government and I'm here to help".

 

[florduh]

Ronald Reagan said it best: The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, "I'm here from the government and I'm here to help".

Ronald Reagan was a fucking idiot.

Anyone who has ever worked for the government can attest to the fact the government doesn't do anything better than the private sector except lie, cheat, steal and kill.

You're saying this as is a for profit railroad company didn't just drop chemical weapons on a rural town. Why did they do this? Because it isn't profitable to pay what is necessary to safely operate the rails.

Shareholders and executives would rather just pocket the cash. Then dumbfucks like Ronald Reagan will turn around and call them EFFICIENT for doing so.

While the RR is fucked up the only way to make it worse is to let the government run it.

You're simply wrong here. Every other modern country has some form of nationalized rail. They all outperform our for-profit trash system on any metric you choose.

People who have never dealt with DMV,

I'd rather deal with the DMV than Spectrum Cable any day of the week.

 

[Babylon Drifter]

Ronald Reagan was a fucking idiot.



You're saying this as is a for profit railroad company didn't just drop chemical weapons on a rural town. Why did they do this? Because it isn't profitable to pay what is necessary to safely operate the rails.

Shareholders and executives would rather just pocket the cash. Then dumbfucks like Ronald Reagan will turn around and call them EFFICIENT for doing so.



You're simply wrong here. Every other modern country has some form of nationalized rail. They all outperform our for-profit trash system on any metric you choose.



I'd rather deal with the DMV than Spectrum Cable any day of the week.

You don't have to deal with spectrum cable, that's your choice, find another way to watch your favorite TV shows, you can make a difference by not doing business with a bad company. You have zero options when getting your driver license that don't nclude dealing with the clusferfuck that is DMV.

You crack me up, it's like you believe free enterprise is the most evil thing on the planet and the government is our savior. According to your post history private enterprise is full of crooks and degenerate billionaires while the government is full of honest hardworking people who just want to make everyone's life perfect. You seem to believe Politicians are poor folks just like the rest of us and only do what's best for the people . The government does no wrong ever, it loves all its people and always puts the American people before profit or agendas.

In case you missed reality the US government is pretty much bought and paid for by the billionaires who are making the politicians you put on pedestals into millionaires. Once they are nationalized you can't sue them or have them prosecuted but they will still be fucking you because the same idiots will still be in charge.

Our government/system is corrupt and until that is corrected putting them in charge isn't going to make anything better, they won't hire the most capable individuals in fact theyll do the opposite they'll hire the most controllable and unqualified personnel they can find to be inclusive . Your qualifications won't matter its how many diversity and inclusive boxes your application has checked that will decide who gets the job.

 

[darkstar72]

I like @florduh's Chomsky bent since Chomsky is a genius. I get @Babylon Drifter's point that government leads to bloat and inefficiency. I think nationalizing the railroad system is a good idea though.
Anyway the Ohio accident is a shame. Life is getting more complicated, polluted, resource starved, etc. I don't know what is in store for the future. I worry that our opinions, thoughts, solutions are really limited and our egos deceive us into thinking we have far more wisdom and foresight than we do.

 

[florduh]

You don't have to deal with spectrum cable, that's your choice, find another way to watch your favorite TV shows, you can make a difference by not doing business with a bad company. You have zero options when getting your driver license that don't nclude dealing with the clusferfuck that is DMV.

Spectrum is the only cable/internet provider in my area. And even if it wasn't, I've never heard anyone praising their internet or cable provider. What nonsense.

You seem to believe Politicians are poor folks just like the rest of us and only do what's best for the people .

Yeah, you're right. That sounds exactly like me. I'm always out here glazing politicians.

In case you missed reality the US government is pretty much bought and paid for by the billionaires

Yep. The government is corrupt. Because it's bought by billionaires. So we should just save billionaires the trouble and privatize everything. Hand total control of society over to billionaires. Problem solved.

Our government/system is corrupt and until that is corrected

There you go! Now you're getting it. The solution is to demand a government that prioritizes working people over billionaires. Not to throw up our hands and let corporations have their way with us.

I get @Babylon Drifter's point that government leads to bloat and inefficiency.

I mean I've worked for lots of Fortune 100 companies. They have shit tons of bloat and inefficiency too. All large organizations do. The difference is, I can't vote for the CEO of Blue Cross/Blue Shield or Norfolk Southern.

And I don't want to hear about "voting with your dollars". Since Saint Reagan, corporate consolidation has been out of control. You're giving your money to the same handful of private equity firms no matter what,

 

[florduh]

Ok, I guess railroad policy is too controversial for this forum. Which is a shame cuz trains are fuckin cool.

Lots of shenanigans on Earth lately. But it looks like Outer Space is back on its old bullshit too.

Webb telescope spots super old, massive galaxies that shouldn’t exist

In a new study, CU Boulder astrophysicist Erica Nelson and her colleagues spotted six "fuzzy dots" of light in images from the James Webb Space Telescope. The candidate galaxies may have existed just 500 to 700 million years after the Big Bang and contain almost as many stars as the Milky Way.

www.colorado.edu

“If even one of these galaxies is real, it will push against the limits of our understanding of cosmology,” Nelson said.

This discovery might turn our entire understanding of the early universe upside down. Here's the accepted chronology right now.

This is a timeline after the Big Bang. So how are there MASSIVE galaxies forming BEFORE we believed it was possible for even tiny, weak-ass galaxies to exist?

 

[Babylon Drifter]

Spectrum is the only cable/internet provider in my area. And even if it wasn't, I've never heard anyone praising their internet or cable provider. What nonsense.



Yeah, you're right. That sounds exactly like me. I'm always out here glazing politicians.



Yep. The government is corrupt. Because it's bought by billionaires. So we should just save billionaires the trouble and privatize everything. Hand total control of society over to billionaires. Problem solved.

There you go! Now you're getting it. The solution is to demand a government that prioritizes working people over billionaires. Not to throw up our hands and let corporations have their way with us.




I mean I've worked for lots of Fortune 100 companies. They have shit tons of bloat and inefficiency too. All large organizations do. The difference is, I can't vote for the CEO of Blue Cross/Blue Shield or Norfolk Southern.

And I don't want to hear about "voting with your dollars". Since Saint Reagan, corporate consolidation has been out of control. You're giving your money to the same handful of private equity firms no matter what,

Over and over when presented with corruption of our political system you bave advocated defunding, socialism and nationalization along with gun control. If that isn't glazing the politicians I don't know what is. When our system is broken and run by criminals the solution is certainly not to give them more power while reducing your own ability to protect yourself and your family. Time and time again you bash the police and have called for defunding them leading me to explain reducing training never improves performance, remember?

I recently went.back to work training gang task force and SWAT units from around the country. Not because I think they are doing a good job but quite the opposite. I failed EVERY officer from the first class. The majority were diversity hires, a third were scared of thier firearm, none of them understood deescalation or respecting the citizens rights and all of them were too scared to think clearly under duress. Worse when put in small groups to work together they began to rely on bullying instead of procedure. I could have stayed on the sidelines and bitcbed or I could try to do something about it.

The hiring process and the group think of those entrenched in the job are completely compromised its a shit show that will only get worse. The entire system needs a reset but I have no idea how that is even possible. We can't pull them all off the streets nor can we replace them all. Not a single officer was able to cuff me when I resisted by turning my body and folding or following their energy. I didn't scream at them, spit on them, bite them or strike them and NONE of the Swat officers could cuff me. I am not superman, I am also closer to 70 yrs old than 60, I am however well trained, clearly the current officers lack the training and psyche for the job.
I dont have a solution except to advise people to get some training of thier own and be prepared to protect yourself and your family because calling the police is likely to further endanger you and yours.


This is similar to our government right now, I don't know what the fix is, but I know it isn't giving them more power and control over more aspects of our lives to abuse than they already have. If we were starting from scratch maybe socialism and nationizing our railroads and such might help, so too might a better gun ownership policy. However in our current state of massive corruption all of those ideas will be abused by the same corrupt politicians working the present system. Giving up and accepting socialism/nationalized industry isn't going to magically turn our criminal leadership into the type of leaders you want to have.

 

[florduh]

Don't worry bud. The corrupt politicians you're bitching about WILL NOT nationalize the rails. Specifically BECAUSE they're bought off by billionaires. They'd rather hand over the rails American taxpayers built to those billionaires. In other words, the corrupt politicians agree with you (And Saint Ronnie). Not me.

Every other modern government on earth has some form of nationalized rail system. They all outperform ours.

What you’re saying is our government is incapable of doing what every other modern country is able to do successfully. If that’s the case, yes. We need a new form of government.

 

[macbill]

 

[florduh]

Dear Space Aliens: Hello! Love, Jimmy Carter

The Vault is Slate's history blog. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter @slatevault, and find us on Tumblr. Find out more about what this space is...

slate.com

Three weeks after Star Wars first released in theaters, Jimmy Carter wrote a letter to Aliens. It's the longest message from a single human being contained on the Voyager spacecraft.

No letter in human history has travelled farther. The Voyager is currently 14 billion miles from the Earth. Interstellar space.

Where Are They Now? - NASA Science

Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 have reached "interstellar space" and each continue their unique journey deeper into the cosmos.

voyager.jpl.nasa.gov

 

[Madtater]

This isnt a political article, but i am sure someone will turn it into one in this thread. Posting here because i thought it was cool.

The Pininfarina Battista Just Smashed Two More Speed Records

The all-electric Pininfarina Battista just set the record for the quickest quarter-mile and half-mile times by a series-production vehicle.

robbreport.com

The youtube video is cool

 

[macbill]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1629195412036014080

 

[florduh]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1629195412036014080

oh cool! We're just doing Anti-Floridian bigotry now!

Mycultureisnotyourentertainment!

 

[vapviking]

oh cool! We're just doing Anti-Floridian bigotry now!

And now Florida is jailing fetus' against their will!

Florida court denies habeas corpus petition for fetus of jailed woman

Although the case was decided on a technicality, a dissenting judge on panel said the court should have rejected the claim on its merits

www.theguardian.com

 

[florduh]

These fish can recognize themselves in photos, hinting at self-awareness

Cleaner fish recognize themselves in mirrors and photos, suggesting that far more animals may be self-aware than previously thought.

www.sciencenews.org

In a new study, cleaner fish that passed the mirror test were then able to distinguish their own faces from those of other cleaner fish in still photographs. This suggests that the fish identify themselves the same way humans are thought to — by forming a mental image of one’s face, Kohda and colleagues report February 6 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

 

[macbill]

 

[Babylon Drifter]

oh cool! We're just doing Anti-Floridian bigotry now!

Mycultureisnotyourentertainment!

Your culture? LMAO. Just because a cat has kittens in the oven, that doesn’t make them biscuits.

 

[pakalolo]

@florduh and @Babylon Drifter: just cut it out. If you want to snipe at each other, use PMs or find somewhere else.

 

[macbill]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1630965257479892993