The_jackalope
The_jackalope's JournalMy take on the reason Trump is banging on the 14th Amendment
He knows he can't change it. But changing it isn't the point. The point is to raise the resentment level of his base. And when he can't change it, especially if his attempt is shot down, the base will take it as yet more evidence of an anti-Trump, anti-Amerika, pro-invasion conspiracy. So moar gunz!
San Diego Union-Tribune staff, others evacuate after suspicious package spotted
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
he San Diego Union-Tribune and other businesses were evacuated Wednesday morning after a stack of suspicious looking packages was spotted in front of the building they all share in downtown San Diego, police said.
The discovery comes the same day the Secret Service intercepted a series of suspicious packages containing potential explosives that were sent to Hillary Clinton and President Obama. CNN also reported a suspicious package was sent to its building in Manhattan.
A police lieutenant reported the boxes, which were situated on top of a trash can in front of the 600 B Street building about 8:15 a.m., San Diego police Officer Billy Hernandez said.
Reporters at the paper said they were told by Jeff Light, the editor-in-chief, about 8:35 a.m. that police were asking them to evacuate.
Read more: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/public-safety/sd-me-suspicious-package-ut-20181024-story.html
Soros, Clinton, Obama, CNN, Wasserman Schultz, and now the Union-Tribune. I'm sensing a pattern here...
157 of World's 200 Richest Entities Are Now Corporations, Not Governments
This should hardly come as a surprise, modern global techno-industrial civilization is a fundamentally a resource extraction and power-concentration machine. Corporations are the mechanisms that do the work. Governments of all types simply guide the process and ensure that corporations can operate as efficiently as possible, despite the citizen-friendly noises that some of them make regarding the regulation of corporate excesses.
Given the underlying assumptions and operating principles of modern civilization, including its self-protective legal structures, I can't see how it could be otherwise. That is a deeply dispiriting realization, because it implies that effective large-scale change will not be possible until after the machine of civilization breaks down.
Measured by 2017 revenue, 69 of the top 100 economic entities in the world are corporations, GJN found in its report, which was released as part of an effort to pressure the U.K. government to advance a binding United Nations treaty that would hold transnational corporations to account for human rights violations.
"When it comes to the top 200 entities, the gap between corporations and governments gets even more pronounced: 157 are corporations," GJN notes. "Walmart, Apple, and Shell all accrued more wealth than even fairly rich countries like Russia, Belgium, Sweden."
In a statement accompanying the striking new figures, GJN director Nick Dearden denounced Britain's Tory government for eagerly assisting this "rise in corporate power—through tax structures, trade deals, and even aid programs that help big business."
"The vast wealth and power of corporations is at the heart of so many of the world's problems—like inequality and climate change," Dearden noted. "The drive for short-term profits today seems to trump basic human rights for millions of people on the planet. Yet there are very few ways that citizens can hold these corporations to account for their behavior. Rather, through trade and investment deals, it is corporations which are able to demand that governments do their bidding."
Looking out over the wider world
Global civilization appears to be going down the rabbit hole. As more countries freak out over refugees, etc, they get more fascist and xenophobic. Democracy is on the defensive in many places. It's all just in time for climate collapse and massive global refugee problems due to water and food issues. The dystopians may be right - we may be at the brink of the cliff.
America under Trump is moribund. If the Republicans hold on to congress in 2018 and 2020, that's it. America as we knew it will be dead.
The convergence amazes me, but I have to admit, it's exactly what my research over the last decade indicated would happen. Accumulating stressors cause people to turn to authoritarians for protection. It's very similar to what triggered the emergence of patrist "civilization" 5,000 years ago according to anthropologist James De Meo in his book "Saharasia".
If it's not this election, it will be in one of the next few. The global social/biophysical stressors aren't going to go away, they're going to keep on getting worse. We're probably hooped.
If there is to be any hope for the world, it starts with keeping Republicans out of government.
http://www.paulchefurka.ca
Turks say they have audio and video of Khashoggi's murder.
The Turkish government has told U.S. officials that it has audio and video recordings that prove Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul this month, according to U.S. and Turkish officials.
The recordings show that a Saudi security team detained Khashoggi in the consulate after he walked in Oct. 2 to obtain an official document before his upcoming wedding, then killed him and dismembered his body, the officials said.
The audio recording in particular provides some of the most persuasive and gruesome evidence that the Saudi team is responsible for Khashoggi’s death, the officials said.
This could turn into a big deal, depending on who does what with it.
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