PatrickforB
PatrickforB's JournalFound on Facebook - Zappa on SNL with a letter board.
OK, typing it in laboriously, working my fingers to the bone, I tell you!
Frank Zappa pointing to a letterboard that has this poem:
And eat the garbage that I feed you
Until the day that we don't need you
Don't go for help, no one will heed you
Your mind is totally controlled
It has been stuffed into my mold
And you will do as you are told
Until the rights to you are sold
Kind of prophetic, don't you think?
Let's see what 'make a link' does:
[link:https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=833040272193250&set=a.603067458523867|
Rustin on Netflix
My wife and I just watched Rustin, a movie on Netflix.
I had never heard of Bayard Rustin, but he was a major player in the Civil Rights movement, and he was the organizer of the March on DC in 1964.
The reason I never heard of him is that historians in the past downplayed his participation because he was gay. Obama gave him the Medal of Freedom in 2013 posthumously because he died in 1987.
The movie was GREAT. Colman Domingo turned in a stunning performance as Rustin, and Aml Ameen played Martin Luther King, Jr.
It was outstanding. Those people, all of them, were heroes. They really were. And now we know about Bayard Rustin.
Here's the trailer:
A thought about our culture of punching down.
Hello, all. I have just been thinking about getting kicked while you are down. Because I have been there. While the American people are generally good, we have a system - shareholder primacy capitalism - that nickels and dimes pretty much everyone to death.
For example, I pay for cable streaming. In August 2023, the company I use for high-speed internet, cable TV and yes, a land line (I know I'm a dinosaur), suddenly raised my monthly subscription price by 10.7%. I went into the soul-sucking black hole that is this company's 'customer care' system. After two marathon four or five hour sessions, I finally was connected with what can be called a 'churn manager,' which is a person who has just enough power to lower your price to where it is close to what you were paying - just a little higher, but hey, better than 10.7%.
This last month, I noticed they once again raised my price around $8 per month.
All about shareholder profits. That Wall Street bull be hungry!
My wife and I were watching John Oliver's show on student debt, and there was a young lady who had a loan balance of $80K to begin with. She has PAID ON THIS LOAN for ten years. Ten years, and she has paid in over $100K!
She still owes $76K. In the video, she asks, "How is this fucking possible?"
Oliver did a nice shout-out to Biden on that too, because he has acted to forgive billions in student debt. Biden's a good guy, and has been a really good president.
Anyway, I'm thinking about Trump. For years he has been the personification of zero-sum (for me to win, you must lose) capitalism. He has a long record of failing to pay people who provided goods and services to his business, and there are dozens, possibly hundreds of businesses who did work for Trump in good faith who are now bankrupt because he did not pay them.
He has also mocked individuals who have disabilities, incited violence and so on.
It is ironic how he now cannot come up with the money he needs for these settlements. Years of punching down, and now he is finding out what it is like to not have the money he needs.
My career life has been dedicated to bringing the peace of having enough to those who are victimized by economic violence. Because make no mistake. Poverty - simply not having enough is economic violence. Actual war accelerates this, as we see with the plight of Palestinian civilians, and the millions in Ukraine and Russia who have had their lives destroyed because of one monster.
But poverty is a slow burn. Grinding, perpetual economic violence. I'm talking about the people who are victims of poverty, hunger. People who do not have enough. Eleven people a minute on this planet starve to death. Millions of people in the US, including children, go hungry once in a while. Our kids are saddled with forever loans that keep them enslaved to predatory lenders. Like the young woman who still owes $76K after paying over $100K on a student loan originally in the amount of $80K. Old people like me continue to work because of HEALTH CARE DEBT.
This is economic violence. Working your ass off for $7.25 per hour, working two jobs because one won't do. Being a sick kid or flat tire away from losing your job. Being homeless because this country is so unforgiving to its poor. Kick 'em while they are down. Greed is good. That's the mantra. Privatize, deregulate and GUT government programs.
Anyway, the proverbial chickens are coming home to roose for Trump. No one will give him any money. I'm sure he 'went to Jared' who got $2 billion from the Saudis, but Jared isn't coming through. In fact he's been talking about expelling Palestinians from the beachfront in Gaza so he can profit off development.
Shareholder primacy capitalism is rotten to the core.
You wonder why the media is now reporting Trump is considering 'little Marco' as a running mate? Why they perpetuate the horse race narrative? Why they continue to tout poorly constructed polls that show Biden is supposedly 'deeply unpopular,' while it is their own failures in reporting the actual truth that has caused this hypothetical unpopularity.
Here's the thing to know:
CORPORATE OWNED MEDIA COMPANIES ARE PUBLICLY TRADED.
This means that their corporate officers, essentially everyone in managerial roles, including executive producers and directors have NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR TRUTH IN NEWS REPORTING.
Nope. Their ONLY fiduciary responsibility is to generate profits for shareholders. Back to my earler story about my cable company - MSNBC and NBC are owned by Comcast.
That Wall Street bull be HUNGRY, and that is why we do not get truth in news.
Punching down? Wall Street is a master at that, and we are all affected by their insatiable greed.
Oh well, rant over....
A thought about our culture of punching down.
Hello, all. I have just been thinking about getting kicked while you are down. Because I have been there. While the American people are generally good, we have a system - shareholder primacy capitalism - that nickels and dimes pretty much everyone to death.
For example, I pay for cable streaming. In August 2023, the company I use for high-speed internet, cable TV and yes, a land line (I know I'm a dinosaur), suddenly raised my monthly subscription price by 10.7%. I went into the soul-sucking black hole that is this company's 'customer care' system. After two marathon four or five hour sessions, I finally was connected with what can be called a 'churn manager,' which is a person who has just enough power to lower your price to where it is close to what you were paying - just a little higher, but hey, better than 10.7%.
This last month, I noticed they once again raised my price around $8 per month.
All about shareholder profits. That Wall Street bull be hungry!
My wife and I were watching John Oliver's show on student debt, and there was a young lady who had a loan balance of $80K to begin with. She has PAID ON THIS LOAN for ten years. Ten years, and she has paid in over $100K!
She still owes $76K. In the video, she asks, "How is this fucking possible?"
Oliver did a nice shout-out to Biden on that too, because he has acted to forgive billions in student debt. Biden's a good guy, and has been a really good president.
Anyway, I'm thinking about Trump. For years he has been the personification of zero-sum (for me to win, you must lose) capitalism. He has a long record of failing to pay people who provided goods and services to his business, and there are dozens, possibly hundreds of businesses who did work for Trump in good faith who are now bankrupt because he did not pay them.
He has also mocked individuals who have disabilities, incited violence and so on.
It is ironic how he now cannot come up with the money he needs for these settlements. Years of punching down, and now he is finding out what it is like to not have the money he needs.
My career life has been dedicated to bringing the peace of having enough to those who are victimized by economic violence. Because make no mistake. Poverty - simply not having enough is economic violence. Actual war accelerates this, as we see with the plight of Palestinian civilians, and the millions in Ukraine and Russia who have had their lives destroyed because of one monster.
But poverty is a slow burn. Grinding, perpetual economic violence. I'm talking about the people who are victims of poverty, hunger. People who do not have enough. Eleven people a minute on this planet starve to death. Millions of people in the US, including children, go hungry once in a while. Our kids are saddled with forever loans that keep them enslaved to predatory lenders. Like the young woman who still owes $76K after paying over $100K on a student loan originally in the amount of $80K. Old people like me continue to work because of HEALTH CARE DEBT.
This is economic violence. Working your ass off for $7.25 per hour, working two jobs because one won't do. Being a sick kid or flat tire away from losing your job. Being homeless because this country is so unforgiving to its poor. Kick 'em while they are down. Greed is good. That's the mantra. Privatize, deregulate and GUT government programs.
Anyway, the proverbial chickens are coming home to roose for Trump. No one will give him any money. I'm sure he 'went to Jared' who got $2 billion from the Saudis, but Jared isn't coming through. In fact he's been talking about expelling Palestinians from the beachfront in Gaza so he can profit off development.
Shareholder primacy capitalism is rotten to the core.
You wonder why the media is now reporting Trump is considering 'little Marco' as a running mate? Why they perpetuate the horse race narrative? Why they continue to tout poorly constructed polls that show Biden is supposedly 'deeply unpopular,' while it is their own failures in reporting the actual truth that has caused this hypothetical unpopularity.
Here's the thing to know:
CORPORATE OWNED MEDIA COMPANIES ARE PUBLICLY TRADED.
This means that their corporate officers, essentially everyone in managerial roles, including executive producers and directors have NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR TRUTH IN NEWS REPORTING.
Nope. Their ONLY fiduciary responsibility is to generate profits for shareholders. Back to my earler story about my cable company - MSNBC and NBC are owned by Comcast.
That Wall Street bull be HUNGRY, and that is why we do not get truth in news.
Punching down? Wall Street is a master at that, and we are all affected by their insatiable greed.
Oh well, rant over....
On behalf of my wife, my ex wives, my daughters and granddaughters, I am elated that
E Jean Carroll was awarded $83 million. She did NOT 'ask for it.' That whole assertion on the part of Trump's team was the same bullshit women have been dealing with for decades and decades. And it is just wrong. Finally, we see a woman be vindicated.
I'm glad of the verdict, and what do you bet Trumpy will not be able to shut up?
Very interesting quotation from Kurt Vonnegut.
Pretty profound if you think about it...
Chinese prisoner's ID card apparently found in lining of Regatta coat
Source: Guardian
An ID card that appears to belong to a Chinese prisoner was found inside the lining of a coat from the British brand Regatta, raising concerns that the clothing was manufactured using prison labour. The waterproof women’s coat was bought online by a woman in Derbyshire in the Black Friday sale. When it arrived on 22 November, she could feel a hard rectangular item in the right sleeve, which restricted the movement of her elbow. After cutting into the coat to remove the item, she discovered what looked like a prison identification card, with a mugshot of a man apparently in a prisoner’s uniform in front of a height chart, and the name of the prison in China. The card was found inside a plastic holder embossed with the words: “Produced by the Ministry of Justice prisons bureau.”
It is not clear how the ID card ended up in the coat or whether it was put there deliberately. Handwritten notes from Chinese prisoners occasionally turn up in consumer products, such as in 2019, when a note written in English was found by a six-year-old girl in a Christmas card sold by Tesco. The note said “We are foreign prisoners in Shanghai Qinqpu prison China. Forced to work against our will. Please help us and notify human rights organization.”
Last month, the French broadcaster Arte aired a documentary about a handwritten Chinese letter that was found inside a pregnancy test bought in Paris. The anonymous note said: “Dear friends, do you know that behind your peaceful life, there are Chinese prisoners,” according to the documentary.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/01/chinese-prisoners-id-card-apparently-found-regatta-coat-lining-derbyshire
Capitalism cares very little for labor. Prisoners here in the US are also 'worked' as slaves in the prison 'industry.'
This practice is odious, immoral, reprehensible.
I'm really sorry to post this here, but I'm not quite used to DU4 yet and cannot figure out how to send Earl a
DU email.
I was chosen to serve on a jury, but the page would not load. I tried repeatedly but could not get it to work. I think this is a bug in the platform.
Again, sorry. Go ahead and freeze this, but please forward onto the Admins.
Thanks!
PatrickforB
Middle East War Adds to Surge in International Arms Sales
Source: New York Times
The push to supply more weapons to Israel comes as American military contractors are already struggling to keep up with demand to resupply Ukraine in its war against Russia and help other U.S. allies in Europe like Poland bolster their own defenses.
Billions of dollars in orders are pending from allies in Asia, driven by the perception of a rising threat from China.
Worldwide military spending last year — on weapons, personnel and other costs — hit $2.2 trillion, the highest level in inflation-adjusted dollars since at least the end of the Cold War, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which prepares an annual tally.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/17/us/politics/israel-gaza-global-arms-sales.html?unlocked_article_code=L8NEuu3EFMn2txkDBsksVXKtvdVDBOcGukQfga5I1ZVcYGb9BztPwZx19ZSa2zFSw-s7Lw6JVFWwttVj1JGxuSwXjcMLs4mhkgMG0zyQouACkjFj_bD7IPrnLN7lUrshjpBD-OV9MjU6m1cyzzZ3pOoIDY8-dWTloIhVV3_AdDK9XSlnVlSfyjSKNXI14lWopQFA4V2Oq3cVMrc2MJsQbaR_AtYpqcRiCmkHDNnGD50ysrIpUk4yCDfojHjV3IodwAXkFjEA2TevHaKdzZT_gWv8ltz5dsS30fmVEURhKEiGy0AM4g0f7eaX0h8xuGyZx1fBJ3GPmtC3KNpYBI77zWr5i74wEfAEesAN&smid=url-share
Whoops! Here comes PatrickforB again, with the same old cui bono schtick!
But you know what? Wall Street is going to do great, and so are arms manufacturers.
That is a big part of who benefits. God knows, no one else benefits from war.
How a Big Pharma Company Stalled a Potentially Lifesaving Vaccine in Pursuit of Bigger PROFITS
Source: ProPublica
Pharmaceutical giant GSK pulled back on its global public health work and leaned into serving the world’s most-profitable market, the United States, which CEO Emma Walmsley recently called its “top priority.” As the London-based company turned away from its vaccine for TB, a disease that kills 1.6 million mostly poor people each year, it went all in on a vaccine against shingles, a viral infection that comes with a painful rash. It afflicts mostly older people who, in the U.S., are largely covered by government insurance.
Importantly, the shingles vaccine shared a key ingredient with the TB shot, a component that enhanced the effectiveness of both but was in limited supply.
From a business standpoint, GSK’s decision made sense. Shingrix would become what the company calls a “crown jewel,” raking in more than $14 billion since 2018.
But the ability of a corporation to allow a potentially lifesaving vaccine to languish lays bare the distressing reality of public health vaccine creation. With limited resources, governments have long seen no other option but to team with Big Pharma to develop vaccines for global scourges. But after the governments pump taxpayer money and resources into the efforts, the companies get control of the products, locking up ownership and prioritizing their own gain.
Read more: https://www.propublica.org/article/how-big-pharma-company-stalled-tuberculosis-vaccine-to-pursue-bigger-profits#:~:text=With%20limited%20resources%2C%20governments%20have,and%20prioritizing%20their%20own%20gain.
Because, hey, everyone knows that PROFITS are far more important than human life!
In the meantime GSK CEO Emma Walmsley took home roughly £8.45 million in 2022 (nearly $10.3 million), up from £8.2 million the year prior. That includes a £37,000 salary boost and an added £868,000 in bonus money compared to 2021, according to a recent report - Endpoints News.
Gosh, look at that high salary! I'll just bet its hundreds of times what a GSK lab tech earns.
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Gender: Do not displayHometown: Not disclosed
Home country: USA
Current location: Not disclosed
Member since: Mon Apr 28, 2014, 07:28 PM
Number of posts: 14,566