Interesting News, Articles & Stuff

[macbill]

'Remarkable' Alzheimer's drug reduces cognitive decline, study shows

US pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly on Wednesday announced its experimental Alzheimer's drug significantly slowed cognitive and functional decline, results hailed as "remarkable" by experts despite some patients experiencing serious side effects.In an analysis of nearly 1,200 people in the early...

www.rawstory.com

 

[CANtalk]

Clarence Thomas Secretly Accepted Luxury Trips From Major GOP Donor

Island-hopping on a superyacht. Private jet rides around the world. The undisclosed gifts to Thomas have no known precedent in the modern history of the Supreme Court. “It’s incomprehensible to me that someone would do this,” says one former judge.

www.propublica.org

Harlan Crow Bought Property from Clarence Thomas. The Justice Didn’t Disclose the Deal.

The transaction is the first known instance of money flowing from Crow to the Supreme Court justice. The sale netted the GOP megadonor two vacant lots and the house where Thomas’ mother was living.

www.propublica.org

...

More

Clarence Thomas Had a Child in Private School. Harlan Crow Paid the Tuition.

Crow paid for private school for a relative Thomas said he was raising “as a son.” “This is way outside the norm,” said a former White House ethics lawyer.

www.propublica.org

 

[florduh]

More

Clarence Thomas Had a Child in Private School. Harlan Crow Paid the Tuition.

Crow paid for private school for a relative Thomas said he was raising “as a son.” “This is way outside the norm,” said a former White House ethics lawyer.

www.propublica.org

Man, no wonder Clarence wants to destroy public education in this country. He has a billionaire sugar daddy paying for his kid's $6k per month private school bill.

Time to shove a microscope up every Supreme Court Justice's ass. I want to know just how many of these seats were straight up sold to a billionaire.

For example.... I'd like to know who paid off Brett Kavanaugh's six figure gambling debt and country club fees. And what business they may have had in front of the Court. Someone paid off Brett's million dollar mortgage as well.

 

[florduh]

The same corporate news media that lied us into Iraq and the Financial Crisis has been lying to Americans about why they are paying higher prices for everything.

How Pundits’ Inflation Myth Crushed The Working Class

After corporate media lied America into a war and a financial crisis, data show they lied about a main source of price hikes — and brutal policies followed.

www.levernews.com

In March, UBS Chief Economist Paul Donovan released a revealing commentary concluding: “Recent inflation has been driven by an unusual expansion of profit margins.”

He explained: “Profit margin-led inflation is not caused by a supply-demand imbalance. Profit margin-led inflation is when some companies spin a story that convinces customers that price increases are ‘fair,’ when in fact they disguise profit margin expansion.”

The people who have been most loudly crying about FAKE NEWS over the past few years bought the corporate media's lies about INFLATION hook, line, and sinker.

And even if I was gonna buy the lie that "printing money" is the sole or biggest reason for higher prices... the obvious solution there is to tax the fuck out of the wealthy. That's the fastest way to get money out of the system. Especially since the extremely wealthy got like 80% of the COVID cash we printed.

 

[Timps27]

It’s almost like they are recouping the pay increases they were forced to offer during the great resignation. I have cut back to only essential purchases for the time being, use your elasticity!

 

[florduh]

It’s almost like they are recouping the pay increases they were forced to offer during the great resignation. I have cut back to only essential purchases for the time being, use your elasticity!

Nope. Their price increases are outpacing wage increases. And their profit RATE increased since 2019. They passed along the mild increases in wages to consumers, yes. They also passed along the extra costs caused by supply chain disruption. But then they gouged even further to pad their after cost profits.

When every news channel is screaming "INFLATION!!!!" 24/7, no one is gonna complain about you padding your prices. You'd honestly be stupid NOT to gouge. This is a transparent scam, and I'm shocked people fall for it.

 

[cybrguy]

Whether we fall for it or not we still have to contend with it. Saying "I see what you are doing" sadly doesn't make the prices go down any more that it makes Clarence Thomas act morally.

 

[Timps27]

\

Nope. Their price increases are outpacing wage increases. And their profit RATE increased since 2019. They passed along the mild increases in wages to consumers, yes. They also passed along the extra costs caused by supply chain disruption. But then they gouged even further to pad their after cost profits.

When every news channel is screaming "INFLATION!!!!" 24/7, no one is gonna complain about you padding your prices. You'd honestly be stupid NOT to gouge. This is a transparent scam, and I'm shocked people fall for it.

Yep. Having to increase pay to the plebs (middle and upper middle are still plebs to them) really pissed them off. Use your elasticity to crater as much demand as you can.

 

[cybrguy]

You'd honestly be stupid NOT to gouge.

Isn't that like Trump saying that people who pay their taxes or join the military are "suckers"?

 

[florduh]

Whether we fall for it or not we still have to contend with it. Saying "I see what you are doing" sadly doesn't make the prices go down any more that it makes Clarence Thomas act morally.

How we're contending with it is by the Fed raising interest rates until there are mass layoffs. Newly unemployed people will be forced to accept new jobs with lower pay. Plenty will lose their houses. But at least Blackrock will increase their property portfolio.

If corporate price gouging is the largest cause of current inflation, forcing a recession to battle inflation makes little sense. But invading Iraq to get WMD's the UN told us weren't there didn't make sense either.

Isn't that like Trump saying that people who pay their taxes or join the military "suckers"?

Yes. Kinda. We incentivize both tax evasion and price gouging. This is a failure of government. For example, since Saint Regan we've completely abdicated our anti-trust responsibilities. If there was less corporate consolidation, it would be much harder for corpos to price gouge.

Free Market Fundamentalists hate free market competition though.

"Competition is for Losers"
- Peter Thiel

 

[cybrguy]

How we're contending with it is by the Fed raising interest rates until there are mass layoffs.

I'm talking about consumers, not the Government. As far as I can tell the govt is in on the "fix". The republicans in office are willing to do whatever they can to make Biden fail, and if that screws the consumers and the country so be it. An angry fearful populous will historically "throw the bums out" because they will blame "those in charge" even if it is a small corrupted segment of them and not the top of the ticket. They make democracy the enemy because if everyone gets to vote, they lose.

 

[florduh]

I'm talking about consumers, not the Government. As far as I can tell the govt is in on the "fix". The republicans in office are willing to do whatever they can to make Biden fail, and if that screws the consumers and the country so be it. An angry fearful populous will historically "throw the bums out" because they will blame "those in charge" even if it is a small corrupted segment of them and not the top of the ticket. They make democracy the enemy because if everyone gets to vote, they lose.

The Republican doing the most to damage the economy is Jerome Powell.

The Fed Chair’s November Surprise

Jerome Powell is preparing to crash the economy days before the midterm elections, hurting workers and ushering his fellow Republicans into power.

www.levernews.com

Who told Biden he had to reappoint Trump's Fed Chair? How dumb. Also that story is from last year. They've been doing these rate hikes for a while. I don't see prices going down.

Voters had the chance to throw the bums in charge out last November. The economy sucked then too. But the GOP fumbled the bag by spending the entire campaign telling voters they were gonna do pussy inspections on high school girls basketball teams.

Is it possible the economy will get bad enough that voters will finally say "fuck it, let the freaks who can't shut up about drag queens be in charge"? Sure. Jerome is trying his best. But I kinda doubt it.

Gary Kasparov said the most important factor to success in chess is "to be lucky in your enemies". The current Democratic Party is so fucking lucky in their enemies. It is wild.

 

[florduh]

That time a very stupid billionaire asked Carl Sagan if he's a dirty, pinko, socialist.

Sagan is such a gem. Btw, everything he talked about decades ago has only gotten worse. For example:

US Has Highest Infant, Maternal Mortality Rates Despite the Most Health Care Spending

The United States possesses the highest infant and maternal mortality rates compared with any other high-income country, even though it spends the most on health care.

www.ajmc.com

 

[Grass Yes]

That time a very stupid billionaire asked Carl Sagan if he's a dirty, pinko, socialist.

Sagan is such a gem. Btw, everything he talked about decades ago has only gotten worse. For example:

US Has Highest Infant, Maternal Mortality Rates Despite the Most Health Care Spending

The United States possesses the highest infant and maternal mortality rates compared with any other high-income country, even though it spends the most on health care.

www.ajmc.com

Sagan mentioned Star Wars in that clip. I suspect that many folks today think he is talking about the film series. He was actually talking about the wild Regan boondoggle to put weapons in space. Sadly many dipshits pick up other versions of this grift occasionally.

 

[florduh]

Sagan mentioned Star Wars in that clip. I suspect that many folks today think he is talking about the film series. He was actually talking about the wild Regan boondoggle to put weapons in space. Sadly many dipshits pick up other versions of this grift occasionally.

Yeah. We spent billions on Saint Regan's Star Wars stupidity. But we spent over 14 TRILLION on Bush's dumbass wars of choice.

Sagan was right then and he's right now. America has the resources to solve literally all of our problems. We just allocate our resources into billionaires' yachts and vaporizing children overseas instead.

 

[macbill]

Real Life Resurrections: Worms Frozen for 42,000 Years Come Back to Life

Pleistocene age worms found in Arctic permafrost are alive and eating well after being defrosted some 42,000 years later.

interestingengineering.com

 

[cybrguy]

Amy Coney Barrett Pissed She’s Been Doing Whatever Conservative Donors Want For 30 Bucks

WASHINGTON—Expressing annoyance for failing to ask earlier what her colleagues were receiving from benefactors, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett was reportedly pissed Friday that she’s been doing whatever conservative donors want for just 30 bucks. “I can’t believe no one told me that I...

www.theonion.com

 

[florduh]

George Lucas explicitly tells James Cameron that the Rebel Alliance in Star Wars is based directly on the Viet Cong. The Empire is The American Empire.

This isn't the only time this goddamn Commie has mouthed off either.

Here he is telling sex pest Charlie Rose that filmmakers in the former Soviet Union had more freedom than filmmakers in the US.

According to George: In the USSR, filmmakers had to be careful about criticizing the government. But other than that they could do anything they wanted. In America, filmmakers can only make a narrow range of movies. Namely: only movies that can guarantee studios a massive return on investment.

Yeah.... ok buddy . How many Fast and The Furious movies did the Commies have? Because America has 12!

 

[florduh]

Every Labor Union should hire Adam Conover to do their messaging.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1654330994600685568

Adam says they can "stop Teamster trucks". What he means is, Teamsters can't be forced to cross a picket line. And it takes two picketers to create a line.

There's something very heartwarming about this. While the union will always have their backs, it's ultimately up to the individual driver. And generally.... they'll refuse to cross the line. They risk getting chewed out by their bosses, all to help workers they'll probably never met.

Hollywood CEO Pay: Big Checks, Ugly Optics Amid Strike

No, there weren’t any nine-figure payouts this time. But the top executives who steered into layoffs and cost-cutting didn’t see big pay declines in most cases for 2022 compensation.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

 

[cybrguy]

the right-wing hate machine created a monster and handed him a weapon of mass death

they taught him well and then they set him loose

www.jefftiedrich.com

 

[florduh]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1655781888190038019

The actual FBI put out this PSA on how to survive a mass shooting. One of the most dystopian things I've ever seen.

And I really love the message here. Incredibly Ameri-brained. YOU need to stop having a Victim Mindset™. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, follow the rules, and maybe you'll survive going out to eat in the United States of America.

 

[GetLeft]

And generally.... they'll refuse to cross the line.

I was a union member when a strike was called at my place of employment around 8 yrs. ago. It was a very empowering experience as well as a bonding one. And it was indeed special to receive the direct support of other unionized workforces doing business with where I worked. Teamsters who had no idea who we were or what we were striking about routinely pulled up, took note of what was happening with the picket lines etc., and turned right back around. Solidarity. Unions work.

 

[Timps27]

On the topic of unions, Jon Bois’ treatment of the NFLPA lockout of ‘87 is an entertaining watch:

 

[florduh]

I was a union member when a strike was called at my place of employment around 8 yrs. ago. It was a very empowering experience as well as a bonding one. And it was indeed special to receive the direct support of other unionized workforces doing business with where I worked. Teamsters who had no idea who we were or what we were striking about routinely pulled up, took note of what was happening with the picket lines etc., and turned right back around. Solidarity. Unions work.

I truly believe that the only road to a decent future involves a reinvigorated organized Labor Movement. Especially with all this AI bullshit.

I remember when the John Deere strike was happening recently. The bosses tried to end the strike by promising the older guys better pay and benefits, but cut younger guys and new hires out of the deal. The old guys told the bosses to fuck off with that.

They literally went longer without pay to help out their fellow workers. The opposite of the Ameri-brained "fuck you, I got mine" mentality. Solidarity.

Money speaks for money
The Devil for his own
Who comes to speak for the skin and the bone?

Starbucks Is Closing All Stores in a Main Union Stronghold

The corporation’s union-busting efforts are escalating.

newrepublic.com

What a bunch of scumbags. Union busting is disgusting.

 

[Knewt]

Starbucks Is Closing All Stores in a Main Union Stronghold

The corporation’s union-busting efforts are escalating.

newrepublic.com

What a bunch of scumbags. Union busting is disgusting.

I am not a numbers guy, but I don’t think this strategy will work for very long.