Read Entire ArticleAre the Dems willing to learn something from the disaster that has overtaken the U.S. economy, and get behind financial reform?
……what happened last Friday in the House of Representatives, when — with the meltdown caused by a runaway financial system still fresh in our minds, and the mass unemployment that meltdown caused still very much in evidence — every single Republican and 27 Democrats voted against a quite modest effort to rein in Wall Street excesses.
uncertaintimes, umanesimo: shacknoir: miguelinreallife: kateoplis:
Anonymous | Enigmatic Images from Unknown Photographers: Japan, 1930
From the private collection of Robert Flynn Johnson, Curator in Charge of Achenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
This is a great example of the exciting advancements in technology going on right now. What a great time to be alive.
Drugs and crime chief says $352bn in criminal proceeds was effectively laundered by financial institutions
From:Drugs money worth billions of dollars kept the financial system afloat at the height of the global crisis, the United Nations’ drugs and crime tsar has told the Observer.Read Entire Article
Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said he has seen evidence that the proceeds of organised crime were “the only liquid investment capital” available to some banks on the brink of collapse last year. He said that a majority of the $352bn (£216bn) of drugs profits was absorbed into the economic system as a result.
Could anyone be surprised that the corporate lackeys parading around as Senators have dropped the public option? Should anyone believe that this is simply because the notorious Joe Lieberman couldn’t support the pathetically watered down excuse for a public option, the one held up as both significant reform and meaningful compromise? It’s a lie that they have no choice: this is what they choose—a massive give away to the insurance companies that continue to deny coverage and increase premium costs to extort every last cent out of us (my copays and emergency room visits just doubled). The bill reminds me of the food in Brazil, the disgusting mush accompanied by images of delicious dishes. The scandal is that the charade proceeds as if something important were at stake, when that was ditched long ago, by Obama himself when he took single-payer off the table.Jodi Dean of I Cite continues read entire post.
According to her biography, Beautiful Shadow, Highsmith’s personal life was a troubled one; she was an alcoholic who never had a relationship that lasted for more than a few years, and was seen by some of her contemporaries and acquaintances as misanthropic and cruel. She famously preferred the company of animals to that of people, and once said, “My imagination functions much better when I don’t have to speak to people.”
“She was a mean, hard, cruel, unlovable, unloving person,” said acquaintance Otto Penzler. “I could never penetrate how any human being could be that relentlessly ugly.”Gary Fisketjon, who published her later novels through Knopf, said that “she was rough, very difficult… but she was also plainspoken, dryly funny, and great fun to be around.”
Well, I’m fascinated.
Highsmith’s Ripley Series are among of the best crime, pulp “literary” fiction I can think of, Tom Ripley is so much more than a bumbling Matt Damon.. If you can’t find the time to read the books watch these two film adaptions, The American Friend and Ripley’s Game
Portishead - Chase the Tear
Portishead have released a new track, “Chase the Tear,” for Amnesty International. It’s available as an exclusive download single from 7digital; all proceeds to AI’s human-rights work. The release coincides with international human rights day Dec. 10.
Via: The Stranger
