Daily Review 06/09/2016

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, September 6th, 2016 - 33 comments
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Daily review is also your post.

This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

33 comments on “Daily Review 06/09/2016 ”

  1. Colonial Viper 1

    Maybe Hillary needs to take a breather from the campaign trail to recover

    “She had quite a coughing fit,” MSNBC anchor Ari Melber remarked. “That’s one of the worst coughing fits I have seen from her.”

    http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/09/05/hillary_clinton_starts_speech_with_massive_coughing_fit_every_time_i_think_about_trump_i_get_allergic.html

    • joe90 1.1

      RWNJ’s now furiously searching WebMD and alternative health sites to discover what ails Clinton. Prize for the most obscure remote diagnosis.
      //

    • This entire narrative of “Hillary is old and sick therefore shouldn’t be President” is yet another example of the weird fringe attacks mounted against Clinton, which do literally nothing except make the people screaming “gotcha” look ridiculous, and making it much, much easier for Clinton’s campaign to brush off *serious* criticisms of her politics and background.

      We could talk about her corporate donors, her role entrenching the school-to-prison pipeline, drone strikes. We could demand answers about what she’ll do as President to address police violence, voter disenfranchisement, abortion access, the TPPA. Relevant issues. Serious issues.

      Or, you know. Keep with the sad little nudge-nudge “she coughed a lot, she must be hiding something” own-goals.

      • Colonial Viper 1.2.1

        just watch the video and see how Hillary struggles to catch her breath and find her voice for several minutes.

        Surely you understand the relevance of that to the reality of the 24/7 physical demands of the Oval Office.

        You might like the idea of President Clinton; but are you as enamoured with the idea of President Kaine?

        • Bob 1.2.1.1

          That cough looks and sounds like she inhaled some of the water she tried drinking right at the start of the clip.

    • McFlock 1.3

      So how’s the coverage of the trump foundation making donations to one or two state attorney generals who contradicted advice from their departments and made no charges relating to trump university? Seems like it might have legs.

      • Colonial Viper 1.3.1

        Sure, that sounds like it’s on a par with Clinton taking million dollar donations from Saudi and Russian businessmen while she was in public office as Sec State.

        • McFlock 1.3.1.1

          Indeed. But she didn’t, no matter how much you say it. Whereas Trump most definitely did

          • Colonial Viper 1.3.1.1.1

            Really McFlock?

            Cash flowed to Clinton Foundation amidst Russian deal.

            PS that’s not my wording, that’s the headline in the New York Times.

            http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/us/cash-flowed-to-clinton-foundation-as-russians-pressed-for-control-of-uranium-company.html?_r=0

            • McFlock 1.3.1.1.1.1

              Yeah.
              And it turned out that almost all of the donors no longer had any interest in the company when the deal finally went through.
              Nor was Clinton anywhere close to being able to take part in the decision about the deal when the donations were made.
              Nor is there any evidence that Clinton or anyone pressured the other seven or eight USgov departments that also okayed the deal.
              Nor is there any indication that the State Department would have or should have opposed the deal when it finally came up for consideration.

              BTW, regarding speaking fees for former US presidents: it’s good work if you can get it.

          • Colonial Viper 1.3.1.1.2

            Of course, more detail might be found if the eight Blackberries that Clinton used for emails during her time as Sec State could be found.

            But apparently they are all conveniently missing, and cannot be examined or searched by authorities.

            And Bloomberg reports that the FBI says that at least one of her mobile devices was “destroyed with a hammer.”

            • McFlock 1.3.1.1.2.1

              Really? Are the people who handle the Clinton foundation funds the same people who run her personal finances? Because that’s how trump rolls. Hell, Clinton had no involvement with cf while she was sec state. Trump apparently personally directs every tf payment.

              as one tweet put it, the scandal you and your mates are trying to invent around Clinton is actually well documented about trump.

              which makes me wonder what the same crowd are trying to hide about his health.

              • Colonial Viper

                Oh yes, the US$250K cheques that Hillary picked up on the investment bankers speaking circuit all go towards charitable purposes, I forgot.

                As did all the generous charitably minded foreign business interests who put millions down on her and Bill.

                • One Anonymous Bloke

                  If you get money on the lucrative US lecture circuit or accept political donations, you must be a criminal. I seen it!

                  Whatever the Clintons are, this sad sack of vague smears and movable goalposts says a big fat nothing.

                  • Colonial Viper

                    Bill Clinton got paid US$750,000 for a speech to European telecoms company Ericsson during Hillary’s term as Sec State. The Clintons also raised over US$20M in donations in Sweden, where the Swedish govt was lobbying on behalf of Ericsson.

                    Ericsson was subsequently left off US sanctions lists against Iran, and Ericsson allowed to continue its in roads into the massive and fast growing Iranian market.

                    • One Anonymous Bloke

                      Had Ericsson actually faced sanctions that might be true, no matter how much you parrot Trump parroting Schweizer.

                      Why do you tell so many lies?

                    • McFlock

                      Clinton did not receive official advice to place Ericsson on the sanctions list.

                      Pam bondi declined to pursue trump for fraud despite advice from her officials. I’m sure his direct donation to her election fund was purely coincidental /sarc

              • One Two

                Is it of such importance that you are mounting a rear guard action on behalf of The Clintons?

                Does The Clintons modus operandi appeal to you?

                • McFlock

                  Not really.

                  But Trump’s is fucking insane as well as blatantly and outrageously corrupt.

                  Whereas Clinton is rational, and not nearly as corrupt as you guys want to pretend. I hesitate to say “not at all corrupt”, but probably nothing objectionable.

            • alwyn 1.3.1.1.2.2

              “destroyed with a hammer”.
              I had to use a Blackberry for a few days once.
              I entirely sympathise with her if she took to it with a hammer.
              Shows a great deal of sense on her part.

  2. Draco T Bastard 2

    Researchers Confront an Epidemic of Loneliness

    Kay M. Tye and her colleagues found that when mice were housed together, dopamine neurons in the D.R.N. were relatively inactive. But after the mice were isolated for a short period, the activity in those neurons surged when those mice were reunited with other mice.

    “This is the first time we’ve found a cellular substrate for this experience,” said Dr. Tye, an assistant professor at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at M.I.T. and a senior author of the paper. “And we saw the change after 24 hours of isolation.”

    This is why society exists – because people are a social animal.

    “We have this kind of male pride thing,” said Mike Jenn, 70, a retired charity worker who lives in London. “We say, ‘I can look after myself. I don’t need to talk to anyone,’ and it’s a complete fallacy. Not communicating helps to kill us.”

    And the cult of individualism strikes again.

  3. rhinocrates 3

    Grauniad Long Read

    “Does the Left Have a Future?” Expect parliamentary Labour UK and parliamentary Labour NZ to learn absolutely nothing.

    This is not fundamentally about the party’s current internal strife. Labour is engulfed by the same crisis facing its sister parties in Europe. Political commentary tends to focus on politicians, and describe the world as if parties can be pulled here and there by the sheer will of powerful individuals. But Labour’s problems are systemic, rooted in the deepest structures of the economy and society. The left’s basic ideals of equality, solidarity and a protected public realm should be ageless. But everything on which it once built its strength has either disappeared, or is shrinking fast.

    And:

    Listening to Blair describe his vision of the future – in which one’s duty was to get as educated as possible, before working like hell and frantically trying not to sink – I was struck by two things. First, the complete absence of any empathetic, human element (he mentioned the balance between life and work, but could only offer “affordable, wraparound childcare between the hours of 8am-6pm for all who need it”), and second, the sense that more than ever, I had no understanding of what values the modern Labour party stood for.

    If modern capitalism was now a byword for insecurity and inequality, Labour’s response increasingly sounded like a Darwinian demand for people to accept that change, and do their best to ensure that they kept up. Worse still, those exacting demands were being made by a new clique of Labour politicians who were culturally distant from their supposed “core” voters, and fatally unaware of their rising disaffection.

    http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/sep/06/does-the-left-have-a-future

    • rhinocrates 3.1

      And:

      The stakes, then, are unbelievably high: if the left cannot speak for the people it once represented as a matter of instinct, much more malign forces will.

      • Colonial Viper 3.1.1

        which could be reworded:

        “The stakes, then, are unbelievably high: because the left no longer speaks for the people it once represented as a matter of instinct, much more malign forces are.”

        • rhinocrates 3.1.1.1

          My thought too. Both the far right / “alt right” and social-darwinist capitalism that want an atomised populace and sees every anxiety as another vulnerability to exploit.

  4. mac1 4

    “Lay about, Nick? That’s not what they meant when they said there was a cushy little consulate number for LA about to come up.”

    Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully has named Maurice Williamson New Zealand’s next Consul-General in Los Angeles, replacing Leon Grice.

    • North 4.1

      Maurice…….you lusty no taste great big rainbow you. Poor Nick ! Is that a police van in the background ? Public resource applied to ‘protect and serve’ tomfuckery from these two troughers ?

  5. swordfish 5

    >

    YouGov (August 25-29)

    >

    UK Media biased against Corbyn ?
    (% saying “True”)

    Corbyn supporters among Selectorate … 97%

    Labour Selectorate as a whole … 78%

    Labour Voters … 69%

    British Adults as a whole … 51%

    Smith supporters among Selectorate … 44%

    >

    PR agencies orchestrated Labour Leadership Coup
    (% saying “True”)

    Corbyn supporters among Selectorate … 90%

    Labour Selectorate as a whole … 64%

    Labour Voters … 56%

    British Adults as a whole … 45%

    Smith supporters among Selectorate … 24%

  6. swordfish 6

    Bloody hell, we’ve all got new Identicons … like a new suit of clothes … transformed image … altered personalities … All very confusing.

    Reminds me of …

    Blackadder: Don’t even try to work it out Baldrick. Two people you know very well have exchanged coats and wigs and now you don’t know which is which.

  7. ianmac 7

    Are we all off line? Nothing on for today?

    PS. Ooops. We are now back in business.

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