Weekend Economists' Bad Boys' Review: Benedict Arnold July 18-20, 2014

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So, what was the story with the Egg Man? (Eggs Benedict is my favorite breakfast, with the exception of chocolate waffles...)

Benedict Arnold (January 14, 1741 {O.S. January 3, 1740} – June 14, 1801) was a general during the American Revolutionary War who originally fought for the American Continental Army but defected to the British Army. While a general on the American side, he obtained command of the fortifications at West Point, New York (future site of the U.S. Military Academy after 1802), overlooking the cliffs at the Hudson River (upriver from British-occupied New York City), and planned to surrender it to the British forces. After the plan was exposed in September 1780, he was commissioned into the British Army as a brigadier general.

Born in Connecticut, Arnold was a merchant operating ships on the Atlantic Ocean when the war broke out in 1775. After joining the growing army outside Boston, he distinguished himself through acts of intelligence and bravery. His actions included the Capture of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775, defensive and delaying tactics despite losing the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain in 1776, the Battle of Ridgefield, Connecticut (after which he was promoted to major general), operations in relief of the Siege of Fort Stanwix, and key actions during the pivotal Battles of Saratoga in 1777, in which he suffered leg injuries that ended his combat career for several years.

Despite Arnold's successes, he was passed over for promotion by the Continental Congress while other officers claimed credit for some of his accomplishments. Adversaries in military and political circles brought charges of corruption or other malfeasance, but most often he was acquitted in formal inquiries. Congress investigated his accounts and found he was indebted to Congress after spending much of his own money on the war effort. Frustrated and bitter at this, as well the alliance with France and failure of Congress to accept Britain's 1778 proposal to grant full self-governance in the colonies, Arnold decided to change sides and opened secret negotiations with the British. In July 1780, he was offered, continued to pursue and was awarded command of West Point. Arnold's scheme to surrender the fort to the British was exposed when American forces captured British Major John André carrying papers that revealed the plot. Upon learning of André's capture, Arnold fled down the Hudson River to the British sloop-of-war Vulture, narrowly avoiding capture by the forces of George Washington, who had been alerted to the plot.

Arnold received a commission as a brigadier general in the British Army, an annual pension of £360, and a lump sum of over £6,000. He led British forces on raids in Virginia, and against New London and Groton, Connecticut, before the war effectively ended with the American victory at Yorktown. In the winter of 1782, Arnold moved to London with his second wife, Margaret "Peggy" Shippen Arnold. He was well received by King George III and the Tories, but frowned upon by the Whigs. In 1787, he returned to the merchant business with his sons Richard and Henry in Saint John, New Brunswick. He returned to London to settle permanently in 1791, where he died ten years later.

Because of the way he changed sides, his name quickly became a byword in the United States for treason or betrayal. His conflicting legacy is recalled in the ambiguous nature of some of the memorials that have been placed in his honor....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedict_Arnold

And as for the egg dish:

There are conflicting accounts as to the origin of eggs Benedict, including: In an interview recorded in the "Talk of the Town" column of The New Yorker in 1942, the year before his death, Lemuel Benedict, a retired Wall Street stock broker, claimed that he had wandered into the Waldorf Hotel in 1894 and, hoping to find a cure for his morning hangover, ordered "buttered toast, poached eggs, crisp bacon, and a hooker of Hollandaise." Oscar Tschirky, the famed maître d'hôtel, was so impressed with the dish that he put it on the breakfast and luncheon menus but substituted ham for the bacon and a toasted English muffin for the toast.

Refuting the claims of Oscar Tschirky/Lemuel Benedict, prior to serving as Maitre d’hotel (1893 to 1943) at the Waldorf, Tschirky was "on the staff of the old and famous Delmonico’s," along with the renowned Chef Charles Ranhofer.

This reflects an earlier claim to eggs Benedict as evidenced in Chef Ranhofer's 1894 cookbook, The Epicurean which includes "a selection of interesting bills of fare of Delmonico's from 1862-1894", in particular a recipe for eggs Benedict (Eggs à la—Benedick / Eufa à la Benedick):

Cut some muffins in halves crosswise, toast them without allowing to brown, then place a round of cooked ham an eighth of an inch thick and of the same diameter as the muffins on each half. Heat in a moderate oven and put a poached egg on each toast. Cover the whole with Hollandaise sauce (No. 501).

During Chef Ranhofer's Delmonico years (1862-1899), Captain and Mrs. Le Grand Benedict (born 1843, Emma Frances Gardner) were frequent diners. Five generations of Benedict family history, including Mabel C. Butler (descended through Mrs. LeGrand Benedict's daughter Florence), author of a 1967 letter to the NY Times, and great-great-granddaughter Emily Benedict (born 1962, descended through Mrs. LeGrand Benedict's son Harold) independently cite similar stories from the late 1860s, that frequent patron Mrs. Benedict became uninterested in the usual Delmonico menu offerings and inquired for the Chef to create "something new". He replied asking if she had any ideas, to which she suggested what is now known as eggs Benedict (although her original version included a truffle on top.) Thereafter the creation made its way into Chef Ranhofer’s The Epicurean.

Oscar Tschirky quite possibly learned of eggs Benedict from Chef Ranhofer during their crossover Delmonico years together. While Lemuel Benedict may indeed have requested the egg concoction from Tschirky at the Waldorf in 1894 as a hangover cure, in that same year, the recipe was already printed in Chef Ranhofer's The Epicurean.

Further reading in line with Mrs. Le Grand Benedict's story - as retold by her descendents - can be found in "More New York Stories: The Best of the City Section of The New York Times".

A third claim to the eggs Benedict fame was circuitously made by Edward P. Montgomery on behalf of Commodore E.C. Benedict. In 1967 Montgomery wrote a letter to then NY Times columnist Craig Claiborne and included a recipe he claimed to have received through his Uncle, a friend of the Commodore. Commodore Benedict's recipe - by way of Montgomery - varies greatly from Chef Ranhofer's version, particularly in the hollandaise sauce preparation - calling for the addition of "hot, hard-cooked egg and ham mixture."

I like to use hash browns instead of English muffin, and a shot of lemon juice in the hollandaise...and now, I'm hungry....National Eggs Benedict Day is celebrated on April 16!


Was He the Eggman?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/08/nyregion/thecity/08eggs.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

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1. Of course, we need a theme song

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3. BUT, WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

...Lennon received a letter from a pupil at Quarry Bank High School, which he had attended. The writer mentioned that the English master was making his class analyse Beatles' lyrics (Lennon wrote an answer, dated 1 September 1967, which was auctioned by Christie's of London in 1992). Lennon, amused that a teacher was putting so much effort into understanding the Beatles' lyrics, decided to write in his next song the most confusing lyrics that he could.

The genesis of the lyrics is found in three song ideas that Lennon was working on, the first of which was inspired by hearing a police siren at his home in Weybridge; Lennon wrote the lines "Mis-ter cit-y police-man" to the rhythm and melody of the siren. The second idea was a short rhyme about Lennon sitting in his garden, while the third was a nonsense lyric about sitting on a corn flake. Unable to finish the ideas as three different songs, he eventually combined them into one. The lyrics also included the phrase "Lucy in the sky" from "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band earlier in the year.

The walrus is a reference to the walrus in Lewis Carroll's poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter" (from the book Through the Looking-Glass). Lennon later expressed dismay upon belatedly realising that the walrus was a villain in the poem.

The final catalyst of the song occurred when Lennon's friend and former fellow member of the Quarrymen, Peter Shotton, visited and Lennon asked Shotton about a playground nursery rhyme they sang as children. Shotton remembered:

"Yellow matter custard, green slop pie,
All mixed together with a dead dog's eye,
Slap it on a butty, ten foot thick,
Then wash it all down with a cup of cold sick."

Lennon borrowed a couple of words, added the three unfinished ideas and the result was "I Am the Walrus". The Beatles' official biographer Hunter Davies was present while the song was being written and wrote an account in his 1968 biography of the Beatles. Lennon remarked to Shotton, "Let the fuckers work that one out." Shotton was also responsible for suggesting to Lennon to change the lyric "waiting for the man to come" to "waiting for the van to come"...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_the_Walrus

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2. We lost a bank in Georgia--didn't know there were any left!

Eastside Commercial Bank, Conyers, Georgia, was closed today by the Georgia Department of Banking & Finance, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Community & Southern Bank, Atlanta, Georgia, to assume all of the deposits of Eastside Commercial Bank.

The two branches of Eastside Commercial Bank will reopen as branches of Community & Southern Bank during their normal business hours...As of March 31, 2014, Eastside Commercial Bank had approximately $169.0 million in total assets and $161.6 million in total deposits. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of Eastside Commercial Bank, Community & Southern Bank agreed to purchase approximately $104.7 million of the failed bank's assets. In a separate transaction, the FDIC will enter into an agreement with State Bank and Trust Company, Macon, Georgia, to purchase $42.6 million of Eastside Commercial Bank's loans. The FDIC will retain the remaining assets for later disposition...

The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $33.9 million. Compared to other alternatives, Community & Southern Bank's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. Eastside Commercial Bank is the 13th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the first in Georgia. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Sunrise Bank, Valdosta, on May 10, 2013.

SOUNDS LIKE THEY HAD TO DO SOME FANCY FOOTWORK

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4. Cherchez la femme!

The Traitor's Wife: The Woman Behind Benedict Arnold and the Plan to Betray America
by Allison Pataki, is https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18143995-the-traitor-s-wife

A riveting historical novel about Peggy Shippen Arnold, the cunning wife of Benedict Arnold and mastermind behind America's most infamous act of treason . . .
Everyone knows Benedict Arnold--the Revolutionary War general who betrayed America and fled to the British--as history's most notorious turncoat. Many know Arnold's co-conspirator, Major John Andre, who was apprehended with Arnold's documents in his boots and hanged at the orders of General George Washington. But few know of the integral third character in the plot: a charming young woman who not only contributed to the betrayal but orchestrated it.

Socialite Peggy Shippen is half Benedict Arnold's age when she seduces the war hero during his stint as military commander of Philadelphia. Blinded by his young bride's beauty and wit, Arnold does not realize that she harbors a secret: loyalty to the British. Nor does he know that she hides a past romance with the handsome British spy John Andre. Peggy watches as her husband, crippled from battle wounds and in debt from years of service to the colonies, grows ever more disillusioned with his hero, Washington, and the American cause. Together with her former love and her disaffected husband, Peggy hatches the plot to deliver West Point to the British and, in exchange, win fame and fortune for herself and Arnold.

Told from the perspective of Peggy's maid, whose faith in the new nation inspires her to intervene in her mistress's affairs even when it could cost her everything, The Traitor's Wife brings these infamous figures to life, illuminating the sordid details and the love triangle that nearly destroyed the American fight for freedom."

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5. She was his second wife...only 18 when they married (he was 38)

After the British withdrawal from Philadelphia in the spring of 1778, Washington appointed Arnold military commander of the city. There, Arnold met and married Peggy Shippen, the daughter of a Loyalist sympathizer. Peggy had met British Major John André during the British occupation, and had developed ways of maintaining contact with British soldiers across the battle lines. Arnold and André began a correspondence, sometimes using Peggy as an intermediary. By the following summer, Arnold was providing the British with troop locations, as well as the locations of supply depots.

Arnold gained access to even more sensitive information when he assumed command of West Point, in August of 1780. He began systematically weakening the fort’s defenses, refusing to order necessary repairs and draining its supplies. At the same time, Arnold began transferring his assets from Connecticut to England.

Arnold and André met in person on September 21, to discuss the operation. Several days later, André was captured. Papers exposing the West Point siege plot were found and sent to George Washington, revealing Arnold’s role.

Learning of André's capture, Arnold fled downriver, sending a request to Washington that his family be given safe passage to Philadelphia. André was hanged at Tappan, New York, on October 2. Although Washington sent men into New York to kidnap Arnold, the effort was unsuccessful.

Arnold soon began openly fighting for the British. In December of 1780, he led a force into Virginia, capturing Richmond and destroying supply houses, foundries, and mills. Arnold commanded the army until May, when Lord Cornwallis assumed control. Arnold later devised and led an attack on New London.

http://www.biography.com/people/benedict-arnold-9189320#revolutionary-war-and-betrayal

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6. One has to wonder why Arnold was treated so shabbily by his peers

Politics makes strange bedfellows, and stranger enemies.

Early life

Benedict was born the second of six children to Benedict Arnold (1683–1761) and Hannah Waterman King in Norwich, Connecticut, on January 14, 1741. Like his father and grandfather, as well as an older brother who died in infancy, he was named after his great-grandfather Benedict Arnold, an early governor of the Colony of Rhode Island. Only Benedict and his sister Hannah survived to adulthood; his other siblings succumbed to yellow fever in childhood. His siblings were, in order of birth: Benedict (August 15, 1738 – April 30, 1739), Hannah (December 9, 1742 – August 11, 1803), Mary (June 4, 1745 – September 10, 1753), Absolom (April 4, 1747 – July 22, 1750) and Elizabeth (November 19, 1749 – September 29, 1755). Through his maternal grandmother, Arnold was a descendant of John Lothropp, an ancestor of at least six U.S. presidents.

Arnold's father was a successful businessman, and the family moved in the upper levels of Norwich society. When he was ten, Arnold was enrolled in a private school in nearby Canterbury, with the expectation that he would eventually attend Yale. However, the deaths of his siblings two years later may have contributed to a decline in the family fortunes, since his father took up drinking. By the time he was fourteen, there was no money for private education. His father's alcoholism and ill health kept him from training Arnold in the family mercantile business, but his mother's family connections secured an apprenticeship for Arnold with two of her cousins, brothers Daniel and Joshua Lathrop, who operated a successful apothecary and general merchandise trade in Norwich. His apprenticeship with the Lathrops lasted seven years.

In 1755, Arnold, attracted by the sound of a drummer, attempted to enlist in the provincial militia for service against the French, but his mother refused permission. In 1757, when he was sixteen, he did enlist in the Connecticut militia, which marched off toward Albany and Lake George. The French had besieged Fort William Henry in northeastern New York, and their Indian allies had committed atrocities after their victory. Word of the siege's disastrous outcome led the company to turn around; Arnold served for 13 days. A commonly accepted story that Arnold deserted from militia service in 1758 is based on uncertain documentary evidence.

Arnold's mother, to whom he was very close, died in 1759. His father's alcoholism worsened after the death of his wife, and the youth took on the responsibility of supporting his father and younger sister. His father was arrested on several occasions for public drunkenness, was refused communion by his church and eventually died in 1761.

Businessman

In 1762, with the help of the Lathrops, Arnold established himself in business as a pharmacist and bookseller in New Haven, Connecticut. Arnold was hardworking and successful, and was able to rapidly expand his business. In 1763 he repaid money borrowed from the Lathrops, repurchased the family homestead that his father had sold when deeply in debt, and re-sold it a year later for a substantial profit. In 1764 he formed a partnership with Adam Babcock, another young New Haven merchant. Using the profits from the sale of his homestead, they bought three trading ships and established a lucrative West Indies trade. During this time, he brought his sister Hannah to New Haven and established her in his apothecary to manage the business in his absence. He traveled extensively in the course of his business, throughout New England and from Quebec to the West Indies, often in command of one of his own ships. On one of his voyages, Arnold fought a duel in Honduras with a British sea captain who had called him a "damned Yankee, destitute of good manners or those of a gentleman". The captain was wounded after the first exchange of gunfire, and apologized after Arnold threatened to aim to kill on the second.

The Sugar Act of 1764 and the Stamp Act of 1765 severely curtailed mercantile trade in the colonies. The latter act prompted Arnold to join the chorus of voices in opposition to those taxes, and also led to his entry into the Sons of Liberty, a secret organization that was not afraid to use violence to oppose implementation of those and other unpopular Parliamentary measures. Arnold initially took no part in any public demonstrations but, like many merchants, continued to trade as if the Stamp Act did not exist, in effect becoming a smuggler in defiance of the act. Arnold also faced financial ruin, falling £16,000 in debt, with creditors spreading rumors of his insolvency to the point where he took legal action against them. On the night of January 28, 1767, Arnold and members of his crew, watched by a crowd of Sons, roughed up a man suspected of attempting to inform authorities of Arnold's smuggling. Arnold was convicted of a disorderly conduct charge and fined the relatively small amount of 50 shillings; publicity of the case and widespread sympathy for his view probably contributed to the light sentence.

On February 22, 1767, Arnold married Margaret Mansfield, daughter of Samuel Mansfield, the sheriff of New Haven, an acquaintance that may have been made through the membership of both Mansfield and Arnold in the local Masonic Lodge. Their first son, Benedict, was born the following year, and was followed by brothers Richard in 1769, and Henry in 1772. Margaret died early in the revolution, on June 19, 1775, while Arnold was at Fort Ticonderoga following its capture. The household, even while she lived, was dominated by Arnold's sister Hannah. Arnold benefited from his relationship with Mansfield, who became a partner in his business and used his position as sheriff to shield Arnold from creditors.

Arnold was in the West Indies when the Boston Massacre took place on March 5, 1770. He wrote he was "very much shocked" and wondered "good God, are the Americans all asleep and tamely giving up their liberties, or are they all turned philosophers, that they don't take immediate vengeance on such miscreants".

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7. in Early Revolutionary War

Arnold began the war as a captain in Connecticut's militia, a position to which he was elected in March 1775.

Following the outbreak of hostilities at Lexington and Concord the following month, his company marched northeast to assist in the siege of Boston that followed. Arnold proposed to the Massachusetts Committee of Safety an action to seize Fort Ticonderoga in New York, which he knew was poorly defended. They issued him a colonel's commission on May 3, 1775, and he immediately rode off to the west, arriving at Castleton in the disputed New Hampshire Grants (present-day Vermont) in time to participate with Ethan Allen and his men in the capture of Fort Ticonderoga.

He followed up that action with a bold raid on Fort Saint-Jean on the Richelieu River north of Lake Champlain. When a Connecticut militia force arrived at Ticonderoga in June, Arnold had a dispute with its commander over control of the fort, and resigned his Massachusetts commission. He was on his way home from Ticonderoga when he learned that his wife had died earlier in June.

When the Second Continental Congress authorized an invasion of Quebec, in part on the urging of Arnold, he was passed over for command of the expedition. Arnold then went to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and suggested to George Washington a second expedition to attack Quebec City via a wilderness route through present-day Maine. This expedition, for which Arnold received a colonel's commission in the Continental Army, left Cambridge in September 1775 with 1,100 men. After a difficult passage in which 300 men turned back and another 200 died en route, Arnold arrived before Quebec City in November. Joined by Richard Montgomery's small army, he participated in the December 31 assault on Quebec City in which Montgomery was killed and Arnold's leg was shattered. Rev. Samuel Spring, his chaplain, carried him to the makeshift hospital at the Hôtel Dieu. Arnold, who was promoted to brigadier general for his role in reaching Quebec, maintained an ineffectual siege of the city until he was replaced by Major General David Wooster in April 1776.

Arnold then traveled to Montreal, where he served as military commander of the city until forced to retreat by an advancing British army that had arrived at Quebec in May. He presided over the rear of the Continental Army during its retreat from Saint-Jean, where he was reported by James Wilkinson to be the last person to leave before the British arrived. He then directed the construction of a fleet to defend Lake Champlain, which was overmatched and defeated in the October 1776 Battle of Valcour Island. However, his actions at Saint-Jean and Valcour Island played a notable role in delaying the British advance against Ticonderoga until 1777.

During these actions, Arnold made a number of friends and a larger number of enemies within the army power structure and in Congress. He had established decent relationships with George Washington, commander of the army, as well as Philip Schuyler and Horatio Gates, both of whom had command of the army's Northern Department during 1775 and 1776. However, an acrimonious dispute with Moses Hazen, commander of the 2nd Canadian Regiment, boiled over into a court martial of Hazen at Ticonderoga during the summer of 1776. Only action by Gates, then Arnold's superior at Ticonderoga, prevented his own arrest on countercharges leveled by Hazen. He had also had disagreements with John Brown and James Easton, two lower-level officers with political connections that resulted in ongoing suggestions of improprieties on his part. Brown was particularly vicious, publishing a handbill that claimed of Arnold, "Money is this man's God, and to get enough of it he would sacrifice his country".

Saratoga and Philadelphia

General Washington assigned Arnold to the defense of Rhode Island following the British seizure of Newport in December 1776, where the militia were too poorly equipped to even consider an attack on the British. Arnold took the opportunity while near his home in New Haven to visit his children, and he spent much of the winter socializing in Boston, where he unsuccessfully courted a young belle named Betsy Deblois.

In February 1777, he learned that he had been passed over for promotion to major general by Congress. Washington refused his offer to resign, and wrote to members of Congress in an attempt to correct this, noting that "two or three other very good officers" might be lost if they persisted in making politically motivated promotions.

Arnold was on his way to Philadelphia to discuss his future when he was alerted that a British force was marching toward a supply depot in Danbury, Connecticut. Along with David Wooster and Connecticut militia General Gold S. Silliman, he organized the militia response. In the Battle of Ridgefield, he led a small contingent of militia attempting to stop or slow the British return to the coast, and was again wounded in his left leg. Arnold continued on to Philadelphia, where he met with members of Congress about his rank. His action at Ridgefield, coupled with the death of Wooster due to wounds sustained in the action, resulted in Arnold's promotion to major general, although his seniority was not restored over those who had been promoted before him. Amid negotiations over that issue, Arnold wrote out a letter of resignation on July 11, the same day word arrived in Philadelphia that Fort Ticonderoga had fallen to the British. Washington refused his resignation and ordered him north to assist with the defense there.

Arnold arrived in Schuyler's camp at Fort Edward, New York, on July 24. On August 13 Schuyler dispatched him with a force of 900 to relieve the siege of Fort Stanwix, where he succeeded in the use of a ruse to lift the siege. Arnold had an Indian messenger sent into the camp of British Brigadier General Barry St. Leger with news that the approaching force was much larger and closer than it actually was; this convinced St. Leger's Indian support to abandon him, forcing him to give up the effort.

Arnold then returned to the Hudson, where General Gates had taken over command of the American army, which had by then retreated to a camp south of Stillwater. He then distinguished himself in both Battles of Saratoga, even though General Gates, following a series of escalating disagreements and disputes that culminated in a shouting match, removed him from field command after the first battle.

During the fighting in the second battle, Arnold, operating against Gates' orders, took to the battlefield and led attacks on the British defenses. He was again severely wounded in the left leg late in the fighting. Arnold himself said it would have been better had it been in the chest instead of the leg. Burgoyne surrendered ten days after the second battle, on October 17, 1777. In response to Arnold's valor at Saratoga, Congress restored his command seniority. However, Arnold interpreted the manner in which they did so as an act of sympathy for his wounds, and not an apology or recognition that they were righting a wrong.

Arnold's Oath of Allegiance, May 30, 1778

Arnold spent several months recovering from his injuries. Rather than allowing his shattered left leg to be amputated, he had it crudely set, leaving it 2 inches (5 cm) shorter than the right. He returned to the army at Valley Forge in May 1778 to the applause of men who had served under him at Saratoga. There he participated in the first recorded Oath of Allegiance along with many other soldiers, as a sign of loyalty to the United States.

After the British withdrew from Philadelphia in June 1778, Washington appointed Arnold military commander of the city. Even before the Americans reoccupied Philadelphia, Arnold began planning to capitalize financially on the change in power there, engaging in a variety of business deals designed to profit from war-related supply movements and benefiting from the protection of his authority. These schemes, although not exactly uncommon among American officers, were sometimes frustrated by powerful local politicians, who eventually amassed enough evidence to publicly air charges. Arnold demanded a court martial to clear the charges, writing to Washington in May 1779, "Having become a cripple in the service of my country, I little expected to meet {such} ungrateful returns".

Arnold lived extravagantly in Philadelphia, and was a prominent figure on the social scene. During the summer of 1778 Arnold met Peggy Shippen, the 18-year-old daughter of Judge Edward Shippen, a Loyalist sympathizer who had done business with the British while they occupied the city. Peggy had been courted by British Major John André during the British occupation of Philadelphia. Peggy and Arnold married on April 8, 1779. Peggy and her circle of friends had found methods of staying in contact with paramours across the battle lines, despite military bans on communication with the enemy. Some of this communication was effected through the services of Joseph Stansbury, a Philadelphia merchant.

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8. A new American political order? By Burkely Hermann

http://zcomm.org/zblogs/a-new-american-political-order/

Recently, pollsters found out, via ‘We Need Smith,’ which is a self-declared “movement of Americans who believe we need new leaders because our country is badly headed in the wrong direction” and not relying on the “usual politics,” what they called the “battlelines of a new political order.” I’m not sure how I feel about this whole ‘We Need Smith’ movement, and as a result I will continue to be critical. This article will not only debut my new chart, the ‘People Policy Counter,’ but it will include charts and data on overarching views of the American public presented by the said pollsters, and other polls. And if you have any suggestions, please share them below.


The People Policy Counter

Basically, the People Policy Counter is a list of 100 issues that a majority of the American people believe, which is then compared to the positions of politicians (hopefully) and political parties. From my tabulations, I found that (numbers ordered by amount of agreement with the American people):

1. The Green Party agrees with the American people 79% of the time
   
2. The Justice Party agrees with the American people 61% of the time
   
3. President Obama agrees with the American people 28% of the time
   
4. The Democratic Party agrees with the American people 25% of the time
   
5. The Libertarian Party agrees with the American people 24% of the time
   
6. The Constitution Party agrees with the American people 21% of the time
   
7. The Republican Party agrees with the American people 6% of the time

These results are not trying to advocate for any of the said parties, or President Obama. I tried to take my bias toward certain issues out of the equation, and I mostly just searched on the Gallup website, snatching up poll results as I went. Rather, taken from a number of polls (probably over 50), it is meant to show how in line these political parties are with the opinions of the American people. As it turns out, only the centre-left Justice Party and the Green Party agree with the American public most of the time, more often than most. There were also a number of issues that I did not know the opinions of the said parties, so I did not fill them out, meaning that the percentages came out of the total of 100 issues. Hopefully, I can expand this to other politicians in the future. Here are some interesting positions that NONE of the parties took (to my knowledge) but the American people believe:

• national referendum on key issues if voters request it
  
• shorten primary season to five months
  
• have a nationwide primary election, not individual state primaries
  
• term limits for politicians in US Senate and US House
  
• Super PACs should be illegal and there would be less corruption in the political system if there were limits on how much could be given to Super PACs
  
• attack social problems as a way to lower the crime rate

Before I get to the polls conducted by ‘We Need Smith,’ here are some polls which I didn’t use in my People’s Policy Counter but are still interesting, adding questions about a ‘new political order’ emerging in the United States:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/145871/Majority-Wants-Less-Corporate-Influence.aspx

Results from a recent poll by Rasmussen, which is usually a conservative polling organization:



Here’s a graph from Gallup showing Americans are losing confidence in ALL branches of federal government:



Polls by ‘We Need Smith’

Now for some of the polls from ‘We Need Smith’ which I turned into a graphic:



Further analysis

Yet, while these poll results are encouraging, one must remember that it is only applying to American voters. What about the Americans who don’t vote! That’s what makes this polling troubling. Americans in general, one should not forget still view socialism negatively, even though 36% view it positively, including a good amount of liberals, and even some conservatives and moderates. Still, as Gallup notes,

“Socialism” is not a completely negative term in today’s America. About a third of Americans respond positively when they hear the term. Some of this reaction may reflect unusual or unclear understandings of what socialism means. Reaction to the term is not random, however, as attested by the finding that positive images are significantly differentiated by politics and ideology.

However, what Gallup says about an “unusual and unclear understanding” of socialism is silly as they provide no evidence to back up that claim, and criticizing those who think of the word positively just reinforces their moderate position as a polling organization.

There is more. It is clear that Americans are wary of Big Business and rightly critical of it. After all, US banks and financial institutions are trusted more than two times less than small business, as noted in a Gallup poll. Similarly, Americans do not have a great of confidence in other parts of American society as well: big business, the U.S. Supreme Court, the criminal justice system, the medical system, newspapers, the presidency, the healthcare system, public schools, television news and news on the internet, and Congress. Even organized religion/the church does not have a great deal of confidence from the American people. Sadly, there is low confidence in organized labor while there is high confidence in the military (74% have confidence) and a majority having confidence in the police (53% have confidence).

With the American people having a great deal of confidence in the military and the police, two of the institutions in established society which work to maintain the existing order, makes me question that we are on the “battlelines of a new political order.” Yes, the American people clearly believe in policies which I would say are overwhelmingly social democratic and yes, this is a basis for a transpartisan coalition (a ‘left-right coalition’) against the powers that be. After all, Americans do in some sense or another constitute a “silent radical majority” compared to those currently in power. But, this does not mean that Americans want to overturn the existing system and put in something like, say ‘modified socialism’ as Martin Luther King mentioned once. Rather, the people want reforms that would tweak the existing system. There are definitely some ideas that should be pushed forward, like single-payer healthcare and ending the wars (and general anti-interventionism) that the American people definitely support. However, no one should be fooled into thinking that these polls evidence a new political order, but rather that they show the need for the removing of the shackles of capitalists in order to confront the climate catastrophe and capitalist system itself.

[bread_and_roses]

66. Fascinating stuff ...

I have read many instances of polls showing voters to be far more "liberal" than their so-called "representatives..."

[Demeter]

9. Japanese Prime Minister Abe Vows to Conclude TransPacific Partnership by Year End. Should We Worry?

I'D LIKE TO SEE SOMEBODY TRY TO STOP ME FROM WORRYING....IT WOULD TAKE A SERIES OF MIRACLES AND CHANGES OF POLICY AND DIRECTION.


http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/07/japanese-prime-minister-abe-vows-conclude-transpacific-partnership-year-end-worry.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29



Last week, I came across an article in Japan Times which gave the impression that the TransPacific Partnership was being revived from the dead. From the article:

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has a “strong intention” to conclude the TransPacific Partnership talks by the end of the year, TPP minister Akira Amari said Friday as the U.S. pork lobby pressured Japan to make concessions, but added that the free trade deal cannot be struck without a commitment from all sides.

“Political leaders should show their strong will” to achieve agreement on the U.S.-led pact to reduce barriers to trade among the 12 countries this year, Amari said in Tokyo.

Abe is eager to wrap up the TPP talks early because the pact is a “pillar of Abenomics,” Amari said, referring to his deflation-battling economic plan centered on aggressive monetary easing, massive fiscal spending and vows of structural reform.

Now as convincing and worrisome as this might sound to English-speaking readers, a lot gets lost in translation, both linguistically and culturally, in dealing with the Japanese. For instance, “I will try” is pretty much tantamount to “no,” as it usually really means “I’ll do what I can, but I can’t deliver this on my own.” Now Westerners might assume that a Prime Minister is a powerful leader and can make commitments that he can complete, but Japanese organizations don’t operate that way, save for owner-controlled companies. In fact, the typical gaijin impulse to see the head man to work things out is proof that they haven’t studied the basics of Japanese culture. Decisions are made much further down in the organization and are passed to the top in an almost ritualized manner. Thus, the nominal leader’s authority is considerably constrained by the need to work through getting the cooperation and support of the constituencies that are seen as having the right to influence the decision.

But one can hardly conclude much either way from an English translation of some upbeat remarks by an official spokesman. So I turned to NC’s favorite Japanese-reader and cultural interpreter, Clive. From his e-mail:

Yes, there are apparently no limits to the number of times that USTR Froman and the US TransPacific Partnership negotiating team can try to get a momentum play going where Japan is concerned. I’d call Froman a one-trick pony but that’s insulting to the pony because at least with a pony you can put a straw hat on it and it’ll look cute.

I’ve been diligently following the Japanese press, well, as diligently as my patience allows because in the past couple of months or so absolutely nothing, not one iota, of new news has emerged. The main news outlets (Asahi Shimbun, Nihon Keizai and suchlike) periodically trot out TPP stories, all along the lines of “Japan re-considering US pork tariff concession proposals” or “US urging Japan to go further on rice to re-energise TPP” and so on. I was thinking of churning out translations of these, but while I like to think I can turn a phrase to make interesting copy, there might be a limit to what NC readers can tolerate in hearing the same old Froman/Amari (Japan’s TPP negotiator) rhetorical re-treads before they say “enough already” !

I had thought after the conclusion of President Obama’s state visit to Japan (which, as far as the TPP – and pretty much everything else for that matter – went was a complete failure) that what would happen is that Japan and the US TPP negotiating team would tread water with these sorts of go-nowhere discussions and both sides would play for time until after the Autumn’s mid-term elections had completed. Then Japan could see what the Washington political landscape looked like and take it from there. If Obama gets a good result, then he could stand a chance of getting Congressional approval for a TPP treaty. If not, Japan will know not to throw any political capital into TPP because even if Republicans are all for it in principle, they aren’t going to lift a finger to give Obama any successes. Everyone the whole world over knows how US politics works (Japan especially so) and that the Republicans are quite happy to cut off their ideological noses to spite Democratic faces.

If anything, the populist Japanese press is now writing off even that possibility (of getting back to TPP negotiations in earnest once the US midterms are out the way). For example, the Mainichi Shinbun (one of Japan’s better attempts — quite a breath of fresh air compared to the stuffy uber-mainstream titles and more willing to go out on a limb) had this story on the 11th July which is expressing the idea that even with the midterms over and assuming an Obama-loyalist Congress (a big “if”) then all that will do is merely get one blocker out the way and make room for the next one – fundamental TPP disagreements about pretty much everything.

The headline reads:

TPP Conclusion Will be After the End of the Year…

Selected sections:

It’s now certain that conclusion of the Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) negotiations will be delayed until the end of the year at the earliest. Resolution of issues in the areas of tariffs and intellectual property rights remain. Resolving these issues by the chief negotiators in Ottawa, Canada, of the 12 participating TPP countries was a pre-requisite to holding a further Ministerial (level) meeting….

Mid-term (congressional) elections are to be held in the United States, which is leading the (TPP) negotiations, this November and will have a big – delaying – impact.

The Mainichi Shinbun’s article then goes on to report that the Amari had said after a cabinet meeting that he didn’t think the negotiations would conclude until after the mid-term elections.

The situation is so obvious isn’t it? Why would Japan — or any of the TPP participating countries — negotiate on a TPP deal which USTR Froman may never be able to get through Congress? Of course, Japan’s Prime Minister Abe will in public keep talking about how keen they are to conclude a deal. What else could he possibly say? “Take a vacation Froman, let’s all get together again at the end of November, we’ll check our diaries, but with the holiday season coming up then… might be better to make it next year…”. Being fair to Froman, he can’t exactly ‘fess up that he thinks it’s all a huge waste of time too. Going through the motions is part of politics. It’s worth here a brief cultural observation. Traditionally in Japan (as you know from working there) there’s a big psychological push to concluding business by the end of a year. A desire to clear away anything outstanding from the previous year before the start of a new one. But if the Japanese negotiators reckon that a TPP agreement is impossible in 2014, they’ll conversely give it little attention and instead mentally move it into the folder labelled “2015″.

As for any sign of potential sweeteners from the US to help Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP) get popular support for the TPP (sentiment in Japan about the TPP is very, very negative), there has been absolutely nothing reported in the Japanese press. US options are very limited, but there are things such as the closure of the disliked US military base in Okinawa which are in the US’ gift. But the US — along with Prime Minister Abe — wants to keep a military presence in that geographical location so the “solution” is still a movement of the base to a more depopulated area rather than a closure — and even that has stalled due to internal Japanese political resistance. Apart from an initial test of mettle of China’s air defence identification zone (ADIZ) shortly after its announcement by China in 2013, there have been no further US actions and the instructions to US commercial flights to obey ADIZ protocols indicates, if anything, the US’ tacit support for it. And there’ve been no US initiatives to help resume the 6 party talks on North Korea’s nuclear disarmament. In the end, I suppose, military priorities trump economic ones for both the US and Japanese governments.

If I’m right, the next few months will be nothing but going through the motions. If the US TPP negotiators seriously believe that they can induce some sort of unilateral concessions from Japan, they’re deluded. If these are genuine negotiation tactics, they’ve elevated them to the level of performance art and if their careers in politics flounder, ones in Hollywood surely beckon.

Yves again. One thing that is striking is the assumption in the Japanese media that “Democrats doing better in the midterms” increase Obama’s odds of getting Congressional support for the TransPacific Partnership next year. But the degree of rebellion among Democrats hasn’t been often enough mentioned for word to get across the Pacific. Senate majority leader Harry Reid has said he won’t table a bill. Over 140 House Democrats have signed letters against the TransPacific Partnership, and whip counts showed at least another 20 Democrats opposed. Speaker of the House John Boehner has said he doesn’t have the votes. So even if the Democrats manage to pick up seats, as in Japan, there does not seem to be anything at work to shift the well deserved, widespread antipathy to this toxic trade deal.

THAT MIGHT BE A MIRACLE, A BONAFIDE MIRACLE, FOR THE 99%, RIGHT THERE

[antigop]

10. But, but, but, Hillary says the TPP "holds great benefits for Japan's economy"

Clinton: U.S.-Japan relations 'secure'

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/01/29/Clinton-US-Japan-relations-secure/UPI-97681359514680/

The U.S.-Japan relationship is a "very secure one," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, adding the Trans-Pacific Partnership would enhance the ties.

Speaking from Washington to an international group of students, Clinton was asked by a Japanese student about the future of bilateral relations since their economic ties appeared to be getting weaker. She was also asked about the TPP, a U.S.-led free-trade zone initiative that currently includes Australia, New Zealand, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

Japan wants to join the talks but there is much opposition in the country because of concerns among certain sections that the TPP's tariff-eliminating clauses would cause cheaper foreign goods to flood Japan, threatening its highly protected farming and agriculture industry.

Clinton said the relationship between the two countries "is a very secure one, and what we want is to look for new ways that we can work together on behalf of our common values and our hopes for the future."

She said she certainly believes "the Trans-Pacific Partnership holds great benefits for Japan's economy,"....

[Demeter]

11. Definition of an honest politician applies here:

An honest politician is one who, when She is bought, will stay bought.

Simon Cameron

alternate citations:

Honest Politician (when bought, stays bought)

http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/honest_politician_when_bought_stays_bought

In politics, an “honest man” is often described as someone (a politician or a voter) who, when bought, stays bought. A “dishonest man” is someone who sides with the person who buys him last.

Various people have been given credit for this saying; Simon Cameron (1799-1889) is often given credit, but no historical printed citations can confirm this. An 1884 source (below) credits Tom Ochiltree. The saying appears to date from the 1850s.

The Quotations Page
An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought.
Simon Cameron
US financier & politician (1799 - 1889)

29 September 1856, New York (NY) Daily Times, “Buying up Pennsylvania,” pg. 4 col 3.
If they are to be bought up so cheaply they will not stay bought long enough, we imagine, to do any good to their purchasers.

5 December 1865, New York (NY) Times, pg. 4:
FRIENDS IN NEED.—HECKER’S radical organs began to hedge yesterday. His morning organ, leaving HECKER out of account, proceeded to adjure the electors to vote for the man they thought most likely to render faithful service to the city. The evening Hecker organ occupied itself with a defence of Mr. ROBERTS against the aspersions cast on hischaracter by Copperheads, and closed with the announcement that “the best experts predict confidently the election of Roberts.” This, we supposed, is what may be called backing one’s friends. POOR HECKER! Doubtless, he pays enough for friendship. But the trouble apparently is that his friends wont stay bought. He will go to bed to-night a wiser, if not a happier man.

8 September 1866, New York (NY) Times, “An Astonishing Display of Corruption,” pg. 4:
“I call a man honest,” said a New-Jersey politician, “who when he is bought, stays bought.” Most of these voters were “honest” within the New-Jersey definition.

20 October 1875, Inter Ocean (Chicago, IL), “Daniel Dougherty—He Delivers an Eloquent Lecture on American Politics,” pg. 8:
The politician sells himself over and over again, and it is a difficult matter to know when you have got him. The definition of an honest politician has been given as a man who will “sell himself and stay bought.”

19 September 1884, Kansas City (MO) Star, “Saving Broadwy,” pg. 2:
The New York aldermen are honest politicians according to the definition once given by TOM OCHILTREE. That is to say “when they are bought they stay bought.”

10 December 1884, Kansas City (MO) Evening Star, “Some Honest Politicians,” pg. 2:
They are an honest lot of politicians, those New York aldermen. According to a distinguished authority, an honest politician is one who, when he is once bought, stays bought.

18 June 1885, San Francisco (CA) Bulletin, pg. 2:
It has been given by a famous lobbyist as the definition of an honest official that he is “the rascal who will stay bought.” Even this is a standard of integrity not always obtainable.

23 January 1890, Worcester (MA) Daily Spy, ‘Standards of Honest,” pg. 4:
In an official inquiry into certain election frauds in New York some years ago, one of the witnesses, having used the phrase “an honest man,” was asked to define it. “Well,” said he, “I should say—an honest man—is one—who will stay bought.”

3 February 1891, Daily Nevada State Journal (Reno, NV), pg. 3, col. 1:
The Chronicle says a Carson lobbyist’s idea of an honest legislator is “one who will stay bought.”

23 September 1892, Reno (NV) Evening Gazette, pg. 3, col. 2:
Nevada lobbyists want none but honest men elected to the Legislature this fall—that is, men when they buy them once will stay bought.

6 February 1893, Janesville (WI) Gazette, pg. 4, col. 2:
A local politician defines “an honest man” as one who can be bought and who stays bought.

Google Books
If Christ Came to Chicago!
By William T. Stead
Chicago, IL: Laird & Lee
1894
Pg. 184:
Boodlers, according to the dealers in boodle, are divided into two categories, the honest and the dishonest boodlers. The honest boodler is the Alderman who, when bought, “stays bought,” and does not sell out to the other side; the dishonest boodler is perfectly willing to take money from both sides and dispose of his vote, not according to the first bid, but the last.

18 July 1894, New York (NY) Times, pg. 4:
The House conferrees have found these dealers in concessions as firm as the everlasting rocks, answering to that description of the honest man who says that he is the man “who will stay bought.”

Google Books
The Leg-Pullers;
Or, Politics As She Is Applied
A tale of the Puritan Commonwealth by one who has been there (E. B. Callender—ed.)
Boston, MA: Pemberton Square Publishing Co.
1895
Pg. 8:
In politics an “honest” man is one who will stay bought; an “approachable” man is one who entertains no special channel for the receipt of customs, but may be offered financial consideration by anybody.

25 March 1896, New York (NY) Times, “‘Band-Wagon’ Campaign,” pg. 1:
If there is anything at all in the political adago that “the honest man is the man who stays bought,” it does not find any application at Republican National Conventions. The bought delegate pretty nearly always will vote for the man who buys him last.

30 January 1897, Daily Huronite (Huron, SD), pg. 2, col. 1:
The editor of the Howard Press is evidently an honest man, according to Ben Hoover’s definition at least, which is that an honest man is one who stays bought.

8 February 1898, Daily Oklahoman, pg. 3:
SUNDAY-SCHOOL Teacher.—What is your definition of an honest man, Johnnie? Johnnie (whose father is a First Ward politician)—A man who stays bought when he’s bought.—Philadelphia Record.

OF COURSE, I PREFER TO CALL AN HONEST POLITICIAN ONE WHO, HAVING MADE A PROMISE TO THE NATION, KEEPS IT. ESPECIALLY IF IT INVOLVES PUBLIC HEALTH, MONEY OR PEACE.

[Crewleader]

15. Another Protrait of Benedict Arnold! Thanks for the history of him Demeter.

And enjoy those eggs my friend!

[antigop]

12. NAFTA, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Clinton Global Initiative

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michele-swenson/nafta-the-transpacific-clinton_b_5523327.html

"Free Trade" Advocates Convene at Clinton Global Initiative

Echoing promises of lowered trade barriers, improved labor conditions and environmental protections made by NAFTA advocates two decades earlier, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Hanoi, Viet Nam in 2012 promoted the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the most far-reaching trade agreement ever, encompassing 12 Pacific Rim countries. Secretary Clinton stated support for free expression online, and pronounced, "Democracy and prosperity go hand-in-hand," even as the backroom dealings of hundreds of corporate lobbyists have engaged in writing the TPP to challenge everything from Net Neutrality to democratic process and state sovereignty. An amplification of NAFTA provisions, leaked segments of the secretive treaty reveal that wholesale powers granted by the TPP to corporations would permit them to sue governments for alleged lost profits in special international tribunals that bypass the U.S. court system, and to advocate overturn of regulatory laws intended to protect people and the environment.

As the Clinton Global Initiative convenes in Denver June 23-25, it brings together some of the same financial hard-hitters who cheerleaded NAFTA into being, and seek to do the same for the TPP. Among them, Robert Rubin, chief economic advisor to the Clinton White House, is listed as a participant in a panel discussion "Exploring what it will take for the U.S. to retain a position of global economic leadership in an increasingly complex world."

Noble Energy, engaged in worldwide oil and gas exploration and production, is co-funder with Anadarko Petroleum of whitewashed pro-fracking ads under the acronym "CRED" (Coloradans for Responsible Energy Development). At the CGI event, Noble's CEO is scheduled to host a discussion of "the ways in which the North American energy revolution is altering the geopolitical, economic, and energy policy landscapes," seeking reexamination of "the traditional social and regulatory frameworks in which energy is produced, consumed and exported," while touting the "low-carbon profile" of natural gas (no doubt minus consideration of externalities of hydrofracking -- the overall costs to taxpayers and the environment).

[Demeter]

13. Everybody I know is on Food Stamps. by Puck Goodfellow

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/07/16/1314457/-Everybody-I-know-is-on-Food-Stamps?detail=email


...Everybody I know is on Food Stamps. We have jobs, but the jobs pay so low that we still need help. We stock shelves, pump gas, and cook your food. Stuff that needs to be done, but is somehow not "Real Work" or a "Real Job." Let's not even go into the fact that a good chunk of us went to college so we could have a "Real Job" but when we finished those "Real Jobs" turned out to be as mythical as the Yeti or Brownies.

For some strange reason, people who don't get Food Stamps think that it's easy to get them. That all you have to do is walk down to the office and get instantly approved. There are long complicated forms to fill out, interviews to go through, and endless appointments. Then when you do have them, they don't automatically continue forever. For one thing, you have to recertify for them every year. Also, DSS keeps track of things like how many hours you work, who lives with you, how much they make, how many kids you have. If you don't work enough or at all they send you to job education classes where you are treated like a complete moron, and make you put something like 20 job applications a day in.

Then there are the jobs that exist. First off, corporations seem to resent having to pay people to work for them. Which is why we have a minimum wage in the first place. Everywhere I've worked, the managers were constantly being harassed by corporate because payroll was too high. As it is, I'm just glad I don't work as a food server. The 0.00 pay checks would drive me nuts....As a bonus there is the fact that you will get hired for only part time. Not because the place doesn't need full time workers, but because of some mythical beast called benefits. I don't know when, but at some point the Corporate world decided that paying benefits to the average worker was evil. So they will do everything in their power to avoid it....Some people can't work, they just medically are incapable of it. Or they have those little beasts called "Children." Which means at least some of the time they have to spend time with them. Or else CPS gets involved. But, you have to have full availability, or else you're going to get crap for hours. Which means someone has to stay home with the children... Which isn't something you can always afford.

I could go on for hours about what life is really like at the bottom, but I have a few points I'd like to make. One, life is already hard enough for those of us on public assistance, don't start trying to add onto it because of some sense of moral superiority. Two, we need to raise the minimum wage because people actually have to live off it.

[bread_and_roses]

67. Oh amen (n/t)

[Demeter]

14. BENEDICT ARNOLD: Plotting to change sides

As early as 1778 there were signs that Arnold was unhappy with his situation and pessimistic about the country's future. On November 10, 1778, General Nathanael Greene wrote to General John Cadwalader, "I am told General Arnold is become very unpopular among you oweing to his associateing too much with the Tories." A few days later, Greene received a letter from Arnold, where Arnold lamented over the "deplorable" and "horrid" situation of the country at that particular moment, citing the depreciating currency, disaffection of the army, and internal fighting in Congress for the country's problems, while predicting "impending ruin" if things would not soon change.

Sometime early in May 1779, Arnold met with Joseph Stansbury (whose testimony before a British commission apparently erroneously placed his meeting with Arnold in June). Stansbury said he then "went secretly to New York with a tender of {Arnold's] services to Sir Henry Clinton." Ignoring instructions from Arnold to involve no one else in the plot, Stansbury crossed the British lines and went to see Jonathan Odell in New York. Odell was a Loyalist working with William Franklin, the last colonial governor of New Jersey and the son of Benjamin Franklin. On May 9, Franklin introduced Stansbury to Major André, who had just been named the British spy chief. This was the beginning of a secret correspondence between Arnold and André, sometimes using his wife Peggy as a willing intermediary, that culminated over a year later with Arnold's change of sides.

Secret communications

André conferred with General Clinton, who gave him broad authority to pursue Arnold's offer. André then drafted instructions to Stansbury and Arnold. This initial letter opened a discussion on the types of assistance and intelligence that Arnold might provide, and included instructions for how to communicate in the future. Letters would be passed through the women's circle that Peggy Arnold was a part of, but only Peggy would be aware that some letters contained instructions, written in both code and invisible ink, that were to be passed on to André, using Stansbury as the courier.

By July 1779, Arnold was providing the British with troop locations and strengths, as well as the locations of supply depots, all the while negotiating over compensation. At first, he asked for indemnification of his losses and £10,000, an amount that the Continental Congress had given Charles Lee for his services in the Continental Army. General Clinton was pursuing a campaign to gain control of the Hudson River Valley, and was interested in plans and information on the defenses of West Point and other defenses on the Hudson River. He also began to insist on a face-to-face meeting, and suggested to Arnold that he pursue another high-level command. By October 1779, the negotiations had ground to a halt. Furthermore, Patriot mobs were scouring Philadelphia for Loyalists, and Arnold and the Shippen family were being threatened. Arnold was rebuffed by Congress and by local authorities in requests for security details for himself and his in-laws.

Court martial

The court martial to consider the charges against Arnold began meeting on June 1, 1779, but was delayed until December 1779 by General Clinton's capture of Stony Point, New York, throwing the army into a flurry of activity to react. A number of members of the panel of judges were ill-disposed to Arnold over actions and disputes earlier in the war, yet Arnold was cleared of all but two minor charges on January 26, 1780. Arnold worked over the next few months to publicize this fact; however, in early April, just one week after Washington congratulated Arnold on the March 19 birth of his son, Edward Shippen Arnold, Washington published a formal rebuke of Arnold's behavior.

The Commander-in-Chief would have been much happier in an occasion of bestowing commendations on an officer who had rendered such distinguished services to his country as Major General Arnold; but in the present case, a sense of duty and a regard to candor oblige him to declare that he considers his conduct [in the convicted actions] as imprudent and improper.

— Notice published by George Washington, April 6, 1780

Shortly after Washington's rebuke, a Congressional inquiry into his expenditures concluded that Arnold had failed to fully account for his expenditures incurred during the Quebec invasion, and that he owed the Congress some £1,000, largely because he was unable to document them. A significant number of these documents had been lost during the retreat from Quebec. Angry and frustrated, Arnold resigned his military command of Philadelphia in late April.

Offer to surrender West Point

Early in April, Philip Schuyler had approached Arnold with the possibility of giving him the command at West Point. Discussions between Schuyler and Washington on the subject had not borne fruit by early June. Arnold reopened the secret channels with the British, informing them of Schuyler's proposals and including Schuyler's assessment of conditions at West Point. He also provided information on a proposed French-American invasion of Quebec that was to go up the Connecticut River. (Arnold did not know that this proposed invasion was a ruse intended to divert British resources.) On June 16, Arnold inspected West Point while on his way home to Connecticut to take care of personal business, and sent a highly detailed report through the secret channel. When he reached Connecticut, Arnold arranged to sell his home there, and began transferring assets to London through intermediaries in New York. By early July he was back in Philadelphia, where he wrote another secret message to Clinton on July 7, which implied that his appointment to West Point was assured and that he might even provide a "drawing of the works ... by which you might take West Point without loss".

General Clinton and Major André, who returned victorious from the Siege of Charleston on June 18, were immediately caught up in this news. Clinton, concerned that Washington's army and the French fleet would join in Rhode Island, again fixed on West Point as a strategic point to capture. André, who had spies and informers keeping track of Arnold, verified his movements. Excited by the prospects, Clinton informed his superiors of his intelligence coup, but failed to respond to Arnold's July 7 letter.

Arnold next wrote a series of letters to Clinton, even before he might have expected a response to the July 7 letter. In a July 11 letter, he complained that the British did not appear to trust him, and threatened to break off negotiations unless progress was made. On July 12 he wrote again, making explicit the offer to surrender West Point, although his price (in addition to indemnification for his losses) rose to £20,000, with a £1,000 down payment to be delivered with the response. These letters were delivered not by Stansbury but by Samuel Wallis, another Philadelphia businessman who spied for the British....

[Demeter]

16. I can't post any more tonight, sorry

See you all Saturday.

[antigop]

17. Musical interlude: "Don't Break the Rules" from "Catch Me If You Can"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_Me_If_You_Can_%28musical%29

Catch Me If You Can is a musical with a libretto by Terrence McNally and a theatrical score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. It follows the story of con artist Frank Abagnale, Jr.[1] A majority of the plot is borrowed from the 2002 film of the same name, which in turn was based on Abagnale's 1980 autobiography.

[Demeter]

29. Spectacular!

An FBI chorus line and Big Number!

Thank you from the bottom of my music-and dance-loving heart. I'm going to have to see this show, somehow, somewhere. I may even go to NYC if necessary!

[antigop]

51. I saw it on Broadway. It was quite a number! Norbert Leo Butz won a Tony for that role.

I think it currently may be on national tour.

[Demeter]

54. Looks like the tour ended last year

It will revive, I am certain. Good new musicals are not that common.

[Fuddnik]

18. Crabcakes Benedict.

There's a wonderful place in Myrtle Beach SC. that makes crabcakes benedict. Substitute the english muffin with crabcakes, and you're in heaven.

[Demeter]

48. Sounds divine!

[xchrom]

19. US STATES WITH HIGHER MINIMUM WAGES GAIN MORE JOBS

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_STATE_JOBS_MINIMUM_WAGE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-07-19-03-01-18

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Maybe a higher minimum wage isn't so bad for job growth after all.

The 13 U.S. states that raised their minimum wages at the beginning of this year are adding jobs at a faster pace than those that did not, providing some counter-intuitive fuel to the debate over what impact a higher minimum has on hiring trends.

Many business groups argue that raising the minimum wage discourages job growth by increasing the cost of hiring. A Congressional Budget Office report earlier this year lent some support for that view. It found that a minimum wage of $10.10 an hour, as President Obama supports, could cost 500,000 jobs nationwide.

But the state-by-state hiring data, released Friday by the Labor Department, provides ammunition to those who disagree. Economists who support a higher minimum say the figures are encouraging, though they acknowledge they don't establish a cause and effect. There are many possible reasons hiring might accelerate in a particular state.

[Demeter]

30. It's Called "STIMULUS" for the 99%

and it's what this country needs...NOT Austerity! NOT more Bucks for the Obscenely Wealthy.

[xchrom]

20. China Deploys Spy Ship Off The Coast Of Hawaii

http://www.businessinsider.com/china-spy-ship-hawaii-2014-7

China sent an electronic surveillance ship to keep an eye on the multinational Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) naval exercise, Sam LaGrone at the U.S. Naval Institute reported Friday.

"The bottom line is that we're closely monitoring it," Capt. Darryn James, a spokesman for U.S. Pacific Fleet, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. "I think it's important for us to say that we can assure the public that we've taken all precautions necessary to protect critical information. We're not surprised that it's there."

The appearance of the spy ship does raise questions, however, as the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) already has four ships taking part in the exercise at the invitation of the United States. Beijing's participation in the exercise is a first, although legal barriers have precluded its sailors from being in drills that would reveal U.S. military secrets, according to the Wall Street Journal.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/china-spy-ship-hawaii-2014-7#ixzz37uEe2rw5

[xchrom]

21. Microsoft Has Also Laid Off Some Of Its High-Powered Lobbyists

http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-lays-off-lobbyists-2014-7

Microsoft's shockingly huge 18,000-employee layoff announced on Thursday also includes cutting the jobs of some of the Washington, D.C., lobbyists working for Microsoft and Nokia.

Nokia lobbyist Leo Fitzsimon and Microsoft lobbyist Rebecca Mark were given pink slips, as were Microsoft policy counsel Eric Wenger, Senior Director Betsy Brady, and Nokia Director of Regulatory Affairs Industry Jeanette Kennedy, Politico reports.

Rebecca Mark joined Microsoft in 2013. In her farewell email to staffers, she praised her time with the tech company and how she learned to "fight the good fight for technology policy," Politico reports.

In recent years, Microsoft has been considered a "heavy hitter" corporate lobbyist by an organization that tracks lobbying money spent, OpenSecrets.org.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-lays-off-lobbyists-2014-7#ixzz37uIKO9SK

[xchrom]

22. These 2 Brilliant Charts Show How Stock Market Returns Become More Predictable Over Time

http://www.businessinsider.com/stock-market-returns-become-more-predictable-over-time-2014-7



One of the most common ways to measure stock market value is to take the price and divide it by earnings. This is the price-earnings, or P/E, ratio.
Trading at a P/E of around 16 times expected earnings, the S&P 500 appears to be expensive.

But this is not to say that investors should dump stock because a sell-off is imminent.

In fact, history shows that these P/E ratio will often drift away from long-term average for long periods of time.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/stock-market-returns-become-more-predictable-over-time-2014-7#ixzz37uJXErrZ

[Demeter]

31. Only to "crashing" back to earth

somehow, I am NOT reassured...

[xchrom]

23. NAFTA Advocates Continue to Make Misleading Claims

https://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/07/18-7

In an effort to defend NAFTA and promote similar agreements, the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) – Washington’s most influential think tank on international economic policy – had a full day of events Tuesday. The program highlighted one of their recent publications [pdf], which seeks “not to rehash old claims that may have been overstated but to clear the air so that the benefits and challenges of trade can be examined in an objective light.” In spite of this disclaimer, the authors grossly overstated the benefits of NAFTA for Mexico, and put forward a number of misleading claims, including a particularly egregious bait-and-switch used to justify a rant against the economic policies of the “Andean-3” aka Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela. It is a good example of how ideology can trump facts when it comes to commercial agreements made in Washington.

Earlier this year, CEPR published a paper giving an overview of the Mexican economy in the NAFTA era (“Did NAFTA Help Mexico? An Assessment After 20 Years”), so I will focus here on the claims made about Mexico by the PIIE economists. In terms of their bottom line for Mexico, the authors’ findings concur with our conclusions. They say that “Mexican growth in the NAFTA era has been disappointing.” But they also argue that without NAFTA Mexico’s economy would be $170 billion smaller. In other words, they attribute half of Mexico’s (per capita) growth rate to trade in goods and services stimulated by NAFTA (see table below.) Given Mexico’s population (about 118 million), this amounts to a payoff of $1,441 per person, or about $4 per day. In a country where over 27 percent of the population lives on less than $4 a day – in rural areas it is over 48 percent of the population – this would be very significant. In reality, results such as these are produced by economic models that are highly sensitive to parameters which the researchers themselves determine, so it is easy to end up with results that corroborate one’s worldview.



According to Hufbauer’s estimations (above), Mexico’s growth performance – which ranked 18th out of 20 Latin American economies during the past 20 years – would have been less than half its actual abysmal performance without NAFTA. This is a bit tough to swallow. How badly can an economy like Mexico’s perform, when the rest of the region, including the U.S. economy is growing? And if that is the baseline, what does it say about what else is wrong with the Mexican economy? After all, NAFTA was mostly a continuation of policies adopted in the decade prior to the agreement.

The author of these conclusions is Gary Clyde Hufbauer, a name with which anyone who has done research on NAFTA will likely be familiar. For example, in 1993 he wrongly predicted that NAFTA would expand the U.S. trade surplus with Mexico. At the time, he was widely cited in the news media and by those who supported signing the deal. Under NAFTA, the opposite happened as the U.S. surplus turned into a growing deficit. He also said that NAFTA would “lead to long-term growth in Mexican per capita income,” eventually reaching “half of the U.S. level, a gain that substantially would ease illegal immigration to the U.S.” Instead, Mexico’s growth rate slowed, its unemployment level worsened, and immigration soared in the years following NAFTA (until post 9/11 border restrictions and two recessions, including the Great Recession, dampened it).

[xchrom]

24. Christine Lagarde warns against stockmarket optimism

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-28372744

IMF head Christine Lagarde has warned that financial markets maybe a little too upbeat given the persistently high levels of unemployment and debt in European economies.

She also warned that continuing low inflation could undermine growth prospects in the region.

But she did say the European economy was recovering and interest rates should stay low until demand picks up.

Last month, the European Central Bank cut its main interest rate to 0.15%.

[Demeter]

32. Christine sounds worried

very worried. It's gonna be one of those Falls that lives up to its name....

[xchrom]

25. Espirito Santo International Asks for Protection From Creditors

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-18/espirito-santo-international-seeks-protection-from-creditors.html

Espirito Santo International SA, which roiled global markets this month after it missed some payments on commercial paper, asked for protection from creditors under Luxembourg law.

“ESI currently isn’t able to meet its obligations, due to the maturity of a significant part of its debt,” the company said last night in an e-mailed statement. It provided no numbers on its debt.

Espirito Santo International is at the top of a chain of holding companies tied to the biggest stake in Portugal’s Banco Espirito Santo SA. The bank said in May that accounting irregularities had been found at ESI, which had an “extremely negative financial situation.” The lender last night said it hired London-based law firm Linklaters LLP to defend its interests in the procedure sought by ESI.

“The controlled management regime will allow the company to defend the interests of its creditors in a transparent and orderly way under the control of the courts and nominated officials,” Espirito Santo International said. That will allow “a process of managing the value of the assets for creditors that is more adequate than a rapid and massive liquidation,” it said.

[xchrom]

26. Blackstone, KKR Said to Discuss Settlement in LBO Collusion Case

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-18/blackstone-kkr-said-to-discuss-settlement-in-lbo-collusion-case.html

Blackstone Group LP (BX) and KKR & Co. (KKR), defendants in a lawsuit alleging a group of private-equity firms colluded to keep leveraged-buyout prices low, are in talks to settle with the plaintiffs, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Lawyers for the New York-based firms, which are among the biggest alternative-asset managers, are assessing whether they can reach settlement terms before the lawsuit is set to go to trial in Boston federal court in November, said the people, who requested anonymity because the case is ongoing. Blackstone and KKR may negotiate a joint settlement, the people said.

Peter Rose, a spokesman at Blackstone, and KKR spokeswoman Kristi Huller declined to comment. Dow Jones reported yesterday that the two firms are in talks to settle the case, citing unidentified sources.

A settlement by Blackstone and KKR would leave two remaining defendants, Carlyle Group LP (CG) and TPG Capital, in the seven-year-old case. A federal judge dismissed suits against defendants including Apollo Global Management LLC (APO) and Providence Equity Partners Inc. over the past two years. Silver Lake Management LLC, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s private-equity unit and Bain Capital Partners LLC settled in the range of $29.5 million to $67 million in the past two months.

[xchrom]

27. Christie’s Economist Quits After Faulty Revenue Forecasts

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-18/christie-s-economist-quits-after-faulty-revenue-forecasts.html

Charles Steindel, whose three straight years of optimistic revenue projections influenced six New Jersey credit downgrades, is resigning as Republican Governor Chris Christie’s chief economist.

New Jersey is seeking a replacement with a July 30 deadline for applicants, according to a job posting by the office of Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff.

Steindel, 62, of Glen Ridge, told Christie’s administration several months ago that he would leave at the end of August, Christopher Santarelli, a spokesman for the Treasury Department, said today by telephone. Steindel said he had accepted a job as resident scholar at Ramapo College in Mahwah, according to Santarelli.

Steindel, a former Federal Reserve Bank of New York senior vice president who joined the administration in November 2010, didn’t immediately respond to a phone message left on a number listed for his home. An e-mail to his office account bounced back with a message that he is out of the office.

[xchrom]

28. Payrolls Rose in 33 U.S. States in June, Led by Florida

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-18/payrolls-rose-in-33-u-s-states-in-june-led-by-florida.html

Payrolls rose in 33 states in June and the U.S. unemployment rate fell in 22, adding to signs the labor market was making progress in the world’s largest economy.

Florida led the nation with a 37,400 increase in payrolls, followed by California with 24,200 more jobs, figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington. South Carolina posted the biggest 12-month decline in the jobless rate -- to 5.3 percent from 7.8 percent.

Advances in hiring across a broad swathe of the country help lift consumer confidence and spur household spending, which accounts for almost 70 percent of the economy. Growth is poised to accelerate in the second half of 2014 after payroll gains exceeded 200,000 in June for the fifth straight month and the jobless rate fell to an almost six-year low of 6.1 percent.

“We can’t keep getting numbers like these and not admit that the labor market has healed,” said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York. “States with higher unemployment are seeing steep declines. Big-number declines equal big progress on putting America back to work.”

[Demeter]

33. The labor market has healed, has it?

How about the wage market? The consumer demand market? The tax revenue markets?

I scoff at his "healing". It's Faith Healing, at it's best, delusional by definition.

[xchrom]

34. Forbes Said Valued at $475 Million in Sale to Foreign Group

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-18/forbes-magazine-sells-controlling-stake-to-hong-kong-based-group.html

The Forbes family, an emblem of American wealth and pioneer of business journalism, is giving up control over the media empire it cultivated for almost a century by selling a majority stake to a Hong Kong-based group.

The transaction valued Forbes Media LLC at $475 million, said a person with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because the terms are private. The agreement, announced today, will hand over Forbes magazine and its widely followed ranking of the world’s richest people to a collection of investors led by Integrated Asset Management (Asia) Ltd., founded by investor Tak Cheung Yam, Forbes said in a statement.

Steve Forbes will remain chairman and editor-in-chief, and the Forbes family will hold a minority stake. While the handover is bittersweet, he said it allows the business to move forward.

“Companies should always remind themselves what their purpose is,” he said in a brief interview. “The buyers are entrepreneurs, and they understand entrepreneurial capitalism, and they have a vested self-interest in not messing with the editorial.”

[Demeter]

35. Lawsuit: Madoff sons knew of fraud, deleted emails

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/lawsuit-madoff-sons-knew-fraud-223303877.html

The trustee trying to recover money for victims of Bernard Madoff says in a new lawsuit that Madoff's two sons knew of the Ponzi scheme and sought to cover up the fraud by deleting emails during a Securities and Exchange Commission probe. The lawsuit filed Tuesday seeks to recover $153 million from the brothers for using their father's business as a "personal cookie jar," including millions to buy two apartments in Manhattan. The lawsuit says the money came in the form of sham loans and fictitious trades and deferred compensation. The lawsuit names Andrew Madoff and the estate of his elder brother, Mark Madoff and Mark's widow Stephanie Mack. Mark committed suicide in December 2010.

"The new allegations are unfounded and false," said Martin Flumenbaum, a lawyer who represents Andrew and Mark's estate. "As we stated from the outset, neither Andrew nor Mark knew of, or knowingly participated, in their father's criminal conduct. It was Andrew and Mark who informed the authorities of their father's fraud, and put an end to it."

The lawsuit relies partly on testimony of Frank DiPascali, Madoff's former finance chief who pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors. The suit says that DiPascali testified that he worked with two Madoff brothers, among other employees, to delete emails that they did not want the SEC to review.

Bernard Madoff was arrested in December 2008 after he ran out of money. He pleaded guilty and is now serving 150-year prison sentence. At the time he said he acted alone, but since then juries have decided otherwise. In March, five former top Madoff employees were convicted of helping in the Ponzi scheme.

Madoff clients lost nearly $20 billion. A court-appointed trustee, Irving Picard, has recovered much of the money by forcing those customers who received big payouts from Madoff to return them. When the fraud was revealed, Madoff admitted that the nearly $68 billion he claimed existed in accounts was only a few hundred million dollars.

[xchrom]

36. Common Minerals: Lifeblood of the Economic System, Disappearing Along With Fossil Fuels

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/25024-common-minerals-lifeblood-of-the-economic-system-disappearing-along-with-fossil-fuels

The following is an interview with Ugo Bardi, professor at the University of Florence and the author of Extracted.

Shay Totten: Which of the rare earth minerals that fuel our industrial system are most likely to be depleted first (at current mining levels)? Are there any resources that we’ve already depleted beyond acceptable levels?

Ugo Bardi: We need to understand that "depletion" is a relative term. Nothing ever disappears from the Earth's crust: everything we extract still exists, but once extracted it is widely dispersed - in products, in waste streams, and even in our land, air, and water. The problem that we are facing is that most minerals become gradually more expensive to extract because high-grade ores are progressively depleted. The final result is that we are entering an age of diminishing returns in the production of mineral commodities. So, within some limits, running out or not running out of something is a problem that has to do with what we choose to extract. When we deal with "critical" minerals, such as rare earths for magnets, platinum group metals for catalysts in chemistry, gallium for LED and other applications in electronics, and others; they are so important that we'll probably choose to pay almost any price for continuing to produce them - as long as it will be possible (and even that won't be forever).

So, a more pressing problem is with relatively common minerals, which are the lifeblood of the economic system: for instance metals such as copper, chromium, nickel, zinc, and more. They must be cheap to extract to be affordable, but they are not cheap any more and will never be cheap again. The problem is especially critical for the minerals that are the true "Achilles' heel" of the industrial society: oil and gas. They are relatively common minerals in the Earth's crust, but their extraction is becoming more and more expensive and that's setting up a vicious circle of diminishing returns. That is placing a heavy stress on the world's economic system, and it is likely that, in the future, we won't be able to produce fossil fuels at the same rates as we are today. This is the essence of the concept of "peak oil."

Speaking of "Peak Oil," will we experience such a thing as "peak metals" or "peak minerals"?

Yes, absolutely, there is such a thing as "peak metals" and, in general, "peak minerals." As with peak oil, the production peak of any mineral commodity is generated by the increasing costs of exploiting resources that are becoming less and less concentrated and more expensive to extract. Right now, the main factor in these costs is energy; The more dispersed the metal, the more energy it takes to extract it. So, the prices of most mineral commodities follow the trend of increasing oil and gas prices. So far, we can still afford to keep production stable for most (but not all) minerals. But all the fossil fuels are peaking. That's driving energy costs higher and, as a consequence, we are facing a general problem of diminishing returns for the extractive industry.

[Demeter]

42. Dumpster Diving; Landfill Mining

no biggie. Would help the environment AND the job market, too.

[Demeter]

37. Henry A. Giroux | Thinking Dangerously in an Age of Political Betrayal

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/24869-henry-a-giroux-thinking-dangerously-in-an-age-of-political-betrayal

Thinking has become dangerous in the United States. As Paul Stoller observes, the symptoms are everywhere including a Texas GOP Party platform that states, "We oppose teaching of Higher order Thinking Skills because they have the purpose of challenging the student's fixed beliefs and undermining parental control" to a Tennessee bill that "allows the teaching of creationism in state's classrooms."

At a time when anti-intellectualism runs rampant throughout popular culture and the political landscape, it seems imperative to once again remind ourselves of how important critical thought as a crucible for thinking analytically can be both a resource and an indispensable tool. If critical thought, sometimes disparaged as theory, gets a bad name, it is not because it is inherently dogmatic, jargonistic or rigidly specialized, but because it is often abused or because it becomes a tool of irrelevancy - a form of theoreticism in which theory becomes an end in itself. This abuse of critical thought appears to have a particularly strong hold in the humanities, especially among many graduate students in English departments who often succumb to surrendering their own voices to class projects and dissertations filled with obtuse jargon associated with the most fashionable theorists of the moment. Such work is largely rewarded less for its originality than the fact that it threatens no one.

At the same time there are many students who find the esoteric language associated with dangerous thinking and critical thought to be too difficult to master or engage. The latter points to the fact that some theories may be useless because they are too impenetrable to decipher or that there are theories which support bad practices such as high-stakes testing, creationism, faith-based evidence, the spanking of children, incarcerating children as adults and other assumptions and policies that are equally poisonous. Theory is not inherently good or bad. Its meaning and efficacy are rooted in a politics of usefulness, accessibility and whether it can be used resourcefully to articulate frameworks and tools that deepen the possibility of self-reflection, critical thought and a sense of social responsibility. For instance, a theory is bad if it inadequately grasps the forces at work in the world and simply reproduces it as it is. Theory is also injurious when it is used to legitimate modes of inquiry and research that are bought by corporations, the military and other state and private institutions to legitimate dangerous products, policies and social practices.

Theory has no guarantees, and like any other mode of thought, it has to be problematized, critically engaged and judged in terms of its interests, effects and value as part of a broader enhancement of human agency and democratization. At their best, theory, thinking dangerously and critical thought have the power to shift the questions, provide the tools for offering historical and relational contexts, and "push at the frontiers . . . of the human imagination." (1) Moreover, theory functions as a critical resource when it can intervene in the "continuity of commonsense, unsettle strategies of domination" and work to promote strategies of transformation.(2) As Theodor Adorno observes, "Theory speaks for what is not narrow-minded - and commonsense most certainly is.&quot 3) As such, theory is not only analytical in its search for understanding and truth, it is also critical and subversive, always employing modes of self and social critique necessary to examine its own grounds and those poisonous fundamentalisms in the larger society haunting the body politic. As Michael Payne observes, theory should be cast in the language of hints, dialogue and an openness to other positions, rather than be "cast in the language or orders.&quot 4)



TOO BAD THAT SUCH AN IMPORTANT, PRAGMATIC SUBJECT GETS MANGLED BY SUCH A WOOLY-HEADED, MEANDERING "INTELLECTUAL"...

[Demeter]

38. Obama Sounds a Warning to Wall Street by RJ Eskow

http://billmoyers.com/2014/07/09/obama-sounds-a-warning-to-wall-street/

It was good to hear President Obama say that reining in Wall Street’s high-risk behavior is an “unfinished piece of business.” It would be even better if this observation were quickly followed by action — the kind of concrete action he can take immediately, with or without Congress’s cooperation....

DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH, ANYBODY. IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN. HOLDER WILL SEE TO THAT.

[Demeter]

39. Most of the World Doesn’t Like Our Unaccountable Flying Death Robots By: Jon Walker

WELL, I NEVER! (LIKED THEM MYSELF)

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2014/07/14/most-of-the-world-doesnt-like-our-unaccountable-flying-death-robots/



Amazingly, American flying robots that can rain death down on almost anywhere on Earth, with very little accountability, are not popular among the people forced to live on Earth. From Pew Research:

Widespread Opposition to Drones



Nothing wins hearts and minds like flying death machines.

[Demeter]

40. COMIC COMMENTARY FOR THE WEEKEND

[MattSh]

41. Ukraine, Arab Spring, Cold War II, is about gas and profit.

Just going to link to what I posted over in GD...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025261506

[Demeter]

45. What is your best guess as to who shot down the plane, Matt?

[MattSh]

55. I didn't want to reply right away (though I had my suspicions).

I wanted to see what "The Saker" had to say.

Well, I smelled false flag from the beginning, just like I smelled a dirty rat in the first week of the EuroMaidan protests. But in the end, I want an explanation that makes sense, I want evidence, from multiple sources, whenever possible. Who benefits from such an action, what motivations might there be. And this guy has it, in spades…

http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/2014/07/evidence-continues-to-emerge-mh17-is.html

http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/2014/07/memories-recollection-guesses-and.html

Now, some of what he mentions is really out there, but I feel that the only way to make sense of events like this is to look at all possible theories, no matter how extreme. Looking only at rational theories ignores the fact that there’s plenty of irrational people in the world, and many of them are in a position to create havoc.

The comments are definitely worth perusing too, but be aware. You could end up spending hours at this site.

[Demeter]

59. I already have when you cited it previously

False flag and suicidal, with the incompetent, wasteful, purposeless petulance that is the hallmark of the Obama administration.

I have passing familiarity with SAM missile defense from my youth trying to make my way in the MIC. It didn't take, needless to say.

[MattSh]

43. M of A - U.S. "Intelligence": Nothing For Something

Where $72 billion per year is the something that gives nothing:

In the same briefing, the [senior U.S. intelligence] official [who briefed reporters this week] disclosed that U.S. intelligence did not know who controlled Iraq’s largest oil refinery. And she suggested that one of the biggest sources of intelligence for American analysts is Facebook and Twitter postings.
The U.S. spent nearly $72 billion on intelligence gathering in 2013, ...

That is quite a lot of money for looking at amateur porn and digesting unintelligible short messages.

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2014/06/us-intelligence-nothing-for-something.html

[MattSh]

44. Ukraine TV Industry Shrinks as Advertisers Pull Out

MOSCOW — As Ukraine's TV industry continues to be hit by the political and economic turmoil and armed clashes between government forces and separatists in the country's southeast region, networks are stepping up in-house production in a bid to save costs.

"Since the beginning of the year, [the Ukrainian TV industry's] ad revenues have declined by about 30 percent, compared with the corresponding period of 2013," Alexander Tkachenko, general director of 1+1 Media group, told The Hollywood Reporter.

According to Yevgeny Bondarenko, COO of StarLightMedia, the beginning of the year was relatively good, but in February, advertisers began to cancel their requests and asked about revising their contracts as ad budgets were being curtailed.

"Among the reasons for the decline are the political crisis, which is ending only now, following the successful presidential election; the military aggression on the part of Russia; the devaluation of the national currency by more than 30 percent; and the fact that the majority of transnational corporations' Ukrainian offices are run from Moscow-based regional offices," Bondarenko said.

Complete story at - http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ukraine-tv-industry-shrinks-as-713628



More to come later. Probably... Maybe...

[Demeter]

46. So glad to hear that Ukraine's political crisis is declining

truth, or fiction?

[MattSh]

47. That's their take on it.

My take is that it's only just begun.

[Demeter]

49. We are in agreement, there.

Are you all eating and such? Need anything not locally available?

[MattSh]

61. Ibuprofen

Ridiculously hard to get here in quantity. You can get blister packs of 25-30 at a time, but they're sourced from India, and the quality of some drugs on the local market is questionable. Though I can't imagine someone counterfeiting ibuprofen when there are things a whole lot more profitable to counterfeit. Like Viagra and such.

Food is definitely no problem, being my wife's family has a summer house outside of the city and we grow our own. Her father, born 3 months before the Nazis came to town (1941) definitely has a shortage mentality, so he planted 55 tomato plants for the 4 of us. Some of them are 6 foot tall! One year he planted over 100. We just took 100 of them or so today and made some juice for the winter months. Also have zucchini, eggplant, cucumbers, beans, should have corn by the end of the month.

My American diet was killing me, with the HFCS, trans-fats, artificial this and thats, and GMO's. You see a whole hell of a lot less of this crap around here, though I'm sure the new government will be more than willing to sell out to Monsatan, whether the price is right or not.

I wouldn't be surprised to see shortages of some foods this winter though. Crimea to Ukraine was similar to California to the USA. Have a lot of favorite Crimean wines too, but will they still be available? Time will tell...

[Demeter]

50. I suppose I'd better do something useful with this day

or at least, get some breakfast. Staring at those Eggs Benedict is torture.

[antigop]

52. Musical Interlude II: " A Little Upset" from "Cry Baby" (look closely)

At the 1:30 mark, they tap dance with license plates strapped to their feet.

(The only part of this show worth seeing, imo.)

[antigop]

53. Layoff Happy Companies Thrill Investors

http://americasmarkets.usatoday.com/2014/07/17/layoff-happy-companies-thrill-investors/

Really bad news for workers appears to be good news for investors. On average, the shares of companies that announced the largest mass layoffs in U.S. history are blowing away the market.

Microsoft’s (MSFT) layoff of 18,000 announced Thursday doesn’t rank in the top largest mass layoffs, but the market reaction is a classic example. Shares of the software giant are up 0.6% to $44.35 on the news. Shares of Microsoft have gained 6.5% from the month before the layoff was announced.

And that’s just a small illustration of what’s been a pattern between mass layoffs and stock prices.

The seven U.S. companies that announced the largest mass layoffs in history are up 247% from the month before the layoffs were announced on average, trouncing the 130% average gain of the Standard & Poor’s 500 during that same time, according to a USA TODAY analysis of layoff data from WESH-TV and market data from S&P Capital IQ.

The biggest reason why the average gains of layoff companies are beating the market is International Business Machines (IBM), which announced the granddaddy mass layoff of them all in July 1993. That month it said it would eliminate 60,000 jobs. Since the month before that announcement, shares of IBM are up 1,477%. During the same time, the S&P 500 is up just 338%.

Is this a great country or what?

[Demeter]

56. What

[MattSh]

57. Russia’s Unemployment Plunges to Record Low as Wages Grow - Bloomberg

Russia’s jobless rate fell to a record in May as businesses raised salaries faster than economists predicted, helping stem a three-month slowdown in real-wage growth.

Unemployment slid to 4.9 percent in May from 5.3 percent a month earlier, the Federal Statistics Service in Moscow said today in an e-mailed statement. The median estimate of 16 economists surveyed by Bloomberg was 5.2 percent. Wages adjusted for inflation grew 5 percent after a revised 3.2 percent gain in April, topping the median forecast for a 1.5 percent increase in a separate poll.

“Such low unemployment while the economy is stagnating is caused by the worker deficit,” Oleg Kouzmin, an economist at Renaissance Capital in Moscow, said by e-mail. “We see a lack of employees even in sectors with high productivity.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-20/russia-s-unemployment-plunges-to-record-low-as-wages-grow.html

And hey, I'm not ashamed about a bit of goofiness every once in a while...



Damn, better be careful. I'm going to piss someone off real soon...

[MattSh]

58. Capitalism’s Deeper Problem | Perspectives | BillMoyers.com

Recent press reports refer to troubling price increases for such assets as real estate, government bonds, companies targeted for acquisition and artwork. A New York Times front-page headline read “The Everything Boom, or Maybe the Everything Bubble.”

Yet while asset prices soar, the production of goods and services, employment and workers’ incomes are not recovering and resuming growth. Instead, Western Europe, North America and Japan are stuck in a longer, deeper crisis than almost anyone expected. Millions have left the labor force. Wages, benefits and job security are declining; the so-called “middle classes” are evaporating. Having promised “recoveries,” desperate governments inject massive new quantities of money into their economies. What they accomplish most are fast-rising asset prices.

Given their persistent economic problems, consumers cannot borrow or spend more. Businesses neither borrow nor productively invest all the new, cheap money because they could not sell the extra output to distressed consumers. Instead, the newly injected trillions enable the speculation that drives up asset prices. The owners of those inflating assets celebrate a “recovery” that bypasses most of their fellow citizens. The Great Recession lumbers on.

To understand this puzzling and dangerous situation requires digging deeper than most current discussions of our economic problems. The global crisis since 2007 has captivated discussion about capitalism as a system. Yet we are faced now with more than just this latest of capitalism’s endlessly recurring “downturns” (or recessions or depressions). We see combined an extremely serious downturn in most of capitalism’s old centers, extremely unequal growth in its new centers and a resurgent global speculative bubble. This points to a deeper, worldwide problem that now challenges and threatens contemporary capitalism.

From its beginnings as the emerging, dominant class structure in 18th century England, capitalism concentrated production geographically in what were or became urban areas. This persisted as capitalism spread through Western Europe, North America and Japan. Capitalist growth in urban areas not only drew food, raw materials and laborers from the surrounding countryside, it also generated deepening divisions between town and country. The workers who gathered in industrial towns eventually mobilized and fought successfully for rising wages rarely matched by rural incomes. Urban laborers became an organized, disciplined, productive and relatively well-paid working class.

http://billmoyers.com/2014/07/15/capitalism%E2%80%99s-deeper-problem/

[Demeter]

60. And then....Ronald Reagan undid it all

And Clinton, W and Obama followed suit, each trying to outdo his predecessor.

[MattSh]

62. The 4th Media » Faced with the US-led Western Freeze-Out, BRICS Bank Is a Coup for Russia

Top of the agenda at the sixth summit of the BRICS developing nations beginning Tuesday is the founding of two multilateral financial institutions designed to erode the dominance of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund as arbiters of the global economic system.

For Russia, the creation of a $100 billion BRICS development bank and a reserve currency fund worth another $100 billion is a political coup. Just as the West freezes Russia out of its own economic system as punishment for its politics in Ukraine, Russia is tying itself into the financial superstructure of the next generation of economic heavyweights: India, Brazil, China and South Africa.

The World Bank and the IMF have come under criticism from the rapidly developing BRICS, who together account for 20 percent of global GDP and 40 percent of the world’s population. In their view, the two financial institutions are dominated by the rich nations of the G7 and attach stringent conditions to their lending that impinge on the economic sovereignty of its members.

Far from assuaging their complaints, efforts to reform the 70-year-old institutions have stalled. Proposed updates to the IMF that would grant increased influence to developing economies have been languishing in the U.S. Congress since 2010 and were blocked once again in April.

If the framework agreements due to be signed at the BRICS summit in Fortaleza, Brazil, are ratified at home, the new bank and the reserve fund could ease some problems for the BRICS countries. U.S. tightening of the dollar supply starting last year has caused a wave of crises in developing nations as the cash inflows of the past decade begin to reverse themselves.

Meanwhile, the World Bank estimates the annual need for infrastructure investment in low- and middle-income nations at $1 trillion dollars and rising — far beyond its own capacity. The World Bank reports that it gave out $52.6 billion in 2013, not all of which went to infrastructure projects.

http://www.4thmedia.org/2014/07/faced-with-western-freeze-out-brics-bank-is-a-coup-for-russia/

[xchrom]

63. EU Urged to Revise Russia Stance as Cameron, Rutte Discuss Crash

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-19/eu-urged-to-revise-russia-stance-as-cameron-rutte-discuss-crash.html

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron and his Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte urged the European Union to revise its stance on Russia as evidence mounted that pro-Russian rebels brought down a passenger jet over Ukraine.

Cameron and Rutte in a telephone conversation yesterday “agreed that the EU will need to reconsider its approach to Russia in light of evidence that pro-Russian separatists brought down the plane,” according to a statement from the U.K. government.

Since a Malaysia Airlines jet crashed on July 17, EU leaders have been divided over what actions they should take toward the Kremlin. Germany sought an impartial probe of the downing of the plane, Poland demanded a harder line while Italy signaled no shift from its opposition to more biting sanctions. EU officials gave priority to enacting penalties that were sketched out at a summit last week before the crash.

Rutte, who also pressed for an independent investigation into the cause of the crash, hardened his stance as rebels hindered access to the site where 193 Dutch perished out of a total of 298 victims.

[xchrom]

64. Germany Poised to Join 1% Club

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-07-18/germany-poised-to-join-1-club

Germany looks set to join Switzerland and Japan in the club of countries able to borrow for a decade at yields of 1 percent or less. Switzerland, though, has almost no debt, while Japan has had almost no economy in recent years, so what gives?

Here's a chart of the yields of selected countries, showing Germany's 10-year borrowing cost has dropped to 1.15 percent from almost 2 percent at the beginning of the year:



Germany, though, has total debts of about $1.5 trillion, according to Bloomberg data. Switzerland owes just $107 billion.

The willingness of investors to lend 10-year money to Germany for such a negligible return is worrisome. It suggests that the German bund market still has haven status, which in turn may reflect investor concern that the euro area debt crisis has paused rather than ended.

[xchrom]

65. Money Managers Aren’t Ready for a Bear Market

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-16/money-managers-aren-t-ready-for-a-bear-market.html

The people and companies who manage the world’s assets are flush with cash, for now. Asset managers brought home $93 billion in profit last year, according to a new Boston Consulting Group report, up 17 percent from 2012.

In a world where banks routinely pay multi-billion-dollar fines, asset managers’ growing profits are one of the few bright spots in the financial industry, says BCG Partner Gary Shub.

Except that those profits are almost entirely based on rising markets and not organic growth. Very little net new money is turning up in investment accounts. Net flows into U.S. investment accounts were just 1 percent last year. That could create problems when, inevitably, stocks cool off. And if a bear market comes along, managers of funds may face a true reckoning.

The hardest hit will likely be traditional active money managers. They’re being underpriced by cheap passive strategies that hold stocks and bonds based on indexes in mutual funds or exchange-traded funds. Managers of mutual funds are also getting squeezed by a variety of new, more sophisticated strategies, which BCG calls “solutions.” These are options like target-date funds, income funds and global asset allocation funds that operate pretty much on autopilot.