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Diaries

Be very wary if growing a business based on on-line auction sites.

Like so many abuses committed by large corporations, you don't hear or read much about arbitrary banning by on-line auction and selling sites. Like many vile deeds that don't hit home until they hit home.

But if you are investing your time and money hoping to grow a revenue stream or earn a livelihood using on-line auction sites you should educate yourself about the likely fate of your business should your account become the victim of a witch hunt.

Corporatocracy and the Rise of Corporate Republics

Corporatocracy (/ˌkɔːrpərəˈtɒkrəsi/, from corporate and Greek: -κρατία, romanized: -kratía, lit. 'domination by', short form corpocracy, is a recent term used to refer to an economic and political system controlled by corporations or corporate interests. It is most often used as a term to describe the economic situation in the United States.

Zelensky won the run-off election for President of Ukraine


Or as Bernhard at MoA puts it‘Ukraine Election – Voters Defeat Second Color Revolution’, July 22, 2019, moonofalabama.org

He begins with a fairly concise version of the Western-orchestrated revolution in 2014 in which Victor Yanukovitch failed to sign the EU Association deal that would bind Ukraine not only to the West, but to NATO.  Russia had countered with a better deal:

“It offered billions in investments and long term loans. Much of Ukraine’s industry depends on Russia and Russian gas was offered to the Ukraine for less than the international market price. Yanukovych, who originally wanted to sign the EU association, had no choice but to refuse it, and to take the much better deal Russia offered.”

Tuesday Open Thread ~ The It's Too Hot Edition


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It’s a sure sign of summer if the chair gets up when you do. ~ Walter Winchell

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smoothie summer heat.jpg
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Good Morning Fellow Caucusers!

Welcome to the It's Too Hot Edition of Tuesday's Open Thread. How hot is it? Hot enough for me to brave L.A. traffic this past weekend and head to the beach where I sat at the waters edge enjoying the sea breezes while sipping a pineapple and coconut smoothie. Ah, yes. The smoothie. Fruity, chilly, and refreshing! Can you guess where I might be going with this?

What one single photo might prove

Several communitarians have published photos or other visual material with request for captions. Fun and cross-cultivating. Ah, intellectual pollination. I love c99 (as some suspect) because so many of MoFo's are fucking knowledgeable--often;
and quite well-educated (which does not refer to their opinions but reflects well upon a fund of knowledge backed by a fund of intelligence, admixed with humor (including the blackest).

Citizen Nader, what have you done for me lately?

If you're like me, you've taken a lot of flack for not following in line during recent political campaigns. The bad news is that we're gonna catch hell again this time. The good news is that we're not alone. We've got good company. So, please, take heart.

Ralph Nader ran for president four times, but most people only remember when he ran against Al Gore and George W. Bush in 2000. As the Green Party nominee Nader got nearly 3 million votes, 97,421 of them in Florida — a pivotal state where, after a contentious recount and a Supreme Court decision, Bush beat Gore by 537 votes. Democrats excoriated Nader, calling him a spoiler. He lost many friends. Even Public Citizen, the advocacy group he founded in 1971, distanced itself from him. Nader has no regrets about running and has remained steadfast in his belief that democracy requires multiparty elections: it is not good enough to have people cast votes for the candidate they find less distasteful than the other one.

Before that election, Nader was among the most trusted people in the U.S. To some he was known as Saint Ralph. A ubiquitous consumer advocate, he’d gained a reputation for being a vigilant citizen. His coworkers remember the copious amount of mail that poured into his D.C. office: letters from fans and admirers; desperate pleas for help. Someone sent the driveshaft from a car, asking if it was defective; someone else sent a box of dry ice containing one of his lungs. Deemed cancerous, it had been surgically removed, and the man wondered if the operation had been necessary. But all that was forgotten.

Superman.jpg

Consider this letter to the editor:

It was difficult to read David Barsamian’s interview with Ralph Nader, not because of what was said but because of who said it. Though I agree with Nader, I couldn’t help but remember that he was instrumental in helping George W. Bush get elected president: had Nader not been on the
ballot in Florida, Al Gore would have won the state, taken office, and most likely never ordered the invasion of Iraq. Gore would also have led in the battle against climate change. Yet Nader states he has no regrets. I take this to mean that, knowing what we know now, he would have run anyway. Rather than put a presidential spoiler on the ballot every four years, a viable third party should focus on
local or statewide elections. Unfortunately we saw key states go to Donald Trump in 2016 because of a third-party candidate. I wonder how a man who says the things Nader says can support third-party politics upending elections.

A second subscriber echoes the sentiment:

I am impressed with Ralph Nader’s lifelong service to society, but as someone who sees climate change as a top priority, I find his good work pales in comparison to the harm he caused
in the 2000 presidential election. Two points are undeniable: he had no chance of winning the election, and in a razor-thin race between a Texas oilman and one of the first major-party politicians to recognize the urgency of climate change, Nader swung the election to the former. This set the planet back considerably, which will cause the death and displacement of millions of people
and the loss of thousands of species. I appreciate Nader’s work on auto safety and many other things, but on balance, his reckless foray into presidential politics makes him an unmitigated disaster for humanity.

Read Nader's response below the fold.

I am the very model of a fucked up individual

I am the very model of a Fucked up individual,
I've digested all the blogs, and read the tabloid residual,
I know that England's screwed up, and the Brexit issues's historical
From Washington to London, to say other is heretical; (Breath...)

I frankly do not give a crap about matters mathematical,
Never mind equations, both the simple and quadratical,
As far as I'm concerned you can rant about your interest rate...

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