tdog

It’s a nice day; let the President play golf, says I (after we lay out our preconditions to talks with Iran presumably to assure that there won’t be any.) Sadly, long-time CBS news staple Mike Wallace passed way, though at 93, he certainly had a nice run. Of course, given the reports of the potential for the spent-fuel rods at Fukushima , Japan to discharge perhaps 85 times the radiation released from Chernobyl, and likely take out much of Earth’s life… he may be among the luckier ones. Also, the fact that their home might soon be uninhabitable should give...

Obviously, since this is my April 1st edition, everything I write here is some kind of April Fool’s joke. That’s how it’s been pretty much through the run of this blog. But I’m not going to go give you, say, a blockbuster April Fool’s Day interview, like I have in the past with, say, Rumsfeld, Cheney or Palin. Just, you know… interviewed out. So this year… I’m going to “keep it real,” and just give you April Fool’s Day… straight up. So, for example, the [hilarious!] idea that it would be House Republicans trying to curb the terms of the...

Just as the Constitution-shredding NDAA, rushed through Congress and signed just hours before midnight on New Year’s Eve formally codified the de jure dismemberment of the Bill of Rights (essentially using unilaterally declared “military emergency” as a justification to kill or en-dungeon anyone, anywhere at the President’s sole whim), we now get an executive order (the “National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order”) that, in any circumstance in the mere “interest of national defense” authorizes the President to enslave anyone and commandeer all property, including food and water. I’m more sanguine about all of this than others because, well, I’ve been...

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. Alrightie then. Those who don matador outfits and take out red capes to go bull-fighting against sacred bovines would do well to recognize the risky nature of the business. When doing so under the seemingly protective cloak of “big media” legitimacy, sacred-cow-fighters must realize the possibility that Money will fight back– and let’s face it: Money fights dirty. Remember that Money liked George W. Bush, a lot. Bush repaid them with tax cuts, 99% of which pretty much went to the 1%, the deficit went to the moon, and the rest takes us to where we...

Here’s the thing: I’m having a hard time determining which is the parody— this, a resignation statement from a former senior manager for an economy-destroying empire… or this, a resignation statement from a former senior manager for an economy-destroying empire. Honestly– honor and integrity from someone who spent twelve years at Goldman Sachs? Please, Greg. At least Lord Vader presents the genuine possibility of burnout… that sentiment, at least, has a shred of credibility to it.

Oh, let’s all hail Rick (the P is silent) Santorum for his primary wins in Alabama and Mississippi, proving I suppose, that really hateful and reactionary rhetoric sincerely expressed is still appreciated in some circles of hell parts of the US of A. Hateful and reactionary policy, however, whether directed at reporters or whistle-blowers of any kind, or of course, the usual suspects (those poor bastards at GTMO) … well, those ill-feelings are wonderfully bi-partisan. I realize I’m a broken record. No one is listening– or wants to. The country’s attentions will now turn to “March Madness,” as even what...

Haven’t had too much chance to blog… but how ’bout that Eric Holder and the new “Liquidate enemies of the state? Trust us.” Honestly– it’s the logical next step after being able to throw anyone we want into a dungeon without any semblance of legal or constitutional rights (and btw, this is “citizens or anyone else”)… why NOT target assassinations? Greenwald rightly decries Democrats for their ominous partisan silence on this– even as Republicans have the intellectual honesty to laud Obama for embracing policies they like. Yes… that’s where we are. Another third world dictatorship, only with better drones (and...

And so we come to a once-quadrennial event, February 29th. I spent the early part of it convalescing in a big city emergency room, following up on an ailment that has plagued me much of this month; to my immense relief (and that of TD-Mom, who stayed with me, Mrs. TD and the Pup, and the rest of TD Famiglia… and hopefully, but not necessarily, TD World), I’m told that things are improving, and neither a multi-day hospital stay (as happened a fortnight or so ago) nor surgery is required. At least for now. And so, as I approach my...

Thousands braved the Russian winter to protest the inevitable election of Vladimir Putin back to the presidency of Russia in Moscow, forming a near human chain along that city’s Garden Ring road. Where was the pepper spray, the sonic weaponry or the tear gas and flash grenades? It’s about confidence, in some sense… the Russian people are confident that their government won’t open fire on them, and Mr. Putin is reasonably confident, he’ll win his election even without [the inevitable] fraud. In the US of A, by contrast, the status quo senses its grip beginning to slip, and hence, it...

That’s pretty much the only thing you can say about insistence by the Germans European financial authorities that already depression-ridden Greece lower its minimum wage some more and other pointlessly draconian austerity measures in order to secure yet another bailout (of mega-banks, of course). Of course, there are those who contend that this is about actual sado-masochism— German popular insistence that other (swarthier) people suffer as a price of German taxpayer bailout while Greece itself (its elites, anyway) enjoy the pain of still being in the euro, when pulling out and just defaulting would, in the end, result in far...