The pitfall of the ad based journalism model

Yesterday I went to Politico’s front page and got a pop up ad for GE appliances on sale at Home Depot for Memorial Day.

What are the odds given that was the only advertising on the front page of Politico that they would criticize/investigate/cast negative light on either General Electric or Home Depot?

Pretty slim.

What’s the cumulative effect of all the papers and major news sites taking advertising dollars and then not criticizing the actions of their advertisers?

They roll over and you get a corporate based society instead of a human based society.

If GMO seed is safe why does Monsanto seek legal protection?

From here:

The so-called “Monsanto Protection Act” — a bill that protects genetically modified seed manufacturers from litigation in the face of health risks — sneaked into law with the passing of spending bill HR 933.

GMO seed must not be safe, so it should be labelled as GMO and maybe even taken off the market.

Oh! PBS goes down on the Koch brothers. Nasty!

From here:

A New York public television outlet, WNET, went to great lengths to placate conservative industrialist David Koch as PBS aired an Alex Gibney documentary on income inequality that focused on the conservative billionaire. The president of WNET called Koch and offered to let him film a roundtable discussion that would air after the documentary, among other conciliatory gestures. The controversy reportedly also prompted PBS to back off another Koch-focused documentary in the pipeline. All the placation didn’t work: Koch resigned from his position on WNET’s board and reportedly canceled a large donation.

Not surprising, but I wonder if the PBS president feels like he did his best to blow Moneybags Koch and it didn’t work.

Overall, a cheap and tawdry affair.

I can’t wait for the Koch brothers to die — the world will be a much better place when they do.

 

Bloomberg company policy easily explains stop and frisk policy of its founder

From here:

Many current and former Bloomberg employees say they have been told the company keeps a record of every action taken on a terminal, whether by staff or outside customers, in a practice known as keystroke logging. The data are closely held within the company but can be used for everything from assisting customers with their machines to investigating employees for violations of their confidentiality agreement.

I’m not sure if you could call this anything but social control.

The sad bit is that the 9/11 attacks and fearmongering has made this sort of social control acceptable with parts of our population asking for it!!

And has been repeatedly pointed out, the Bloomberg ‘thesis’ that stop and frisk makes New York City safer has not been confirmed by data.  It’s just the hot air from a short, controlling, municipal dictator.

 

 

All the big, powerful dudes cover for (and blow) each other

From here:

As JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)’s Jamie Dimon prepares for a vote tomorrow on whether he should keep his chairman and chief executive officer titles, he may take comfort knowing most of his biggest shareholders are led by men with the same dual role.

Let’s all be grown up and speak openly about the corruption of corporate America.

If I lost $6.5+ billion I would expect to be thrown out on my ass.  The idea that King Dimon, narcissist to end all narcissits, doesn’t just take his ass whoopin’ like a man and go get a job somewhere else is beyond me.

 

Rent is too damn high guy should follow Bloomberg!

From here:

“I said, ‘Wow! That’s amazing! All these people gonna be eatin’ me,’” he said to the camera. “Oh that’s so hot! A hot dog with mustard and relish! That’s better than Anthony Weiner!” he added, making a pun on one of his potential rival’s names. “Hey–I didn’t say that! I love you guys!”

In a letter to Mr. McMillan, Papaya King’s Blake Gower stressed just how much the hot dog shop has in common with the perennial candidate and activist who shot to fame following his unforgettable appearance during the great 2010 New York gubernatorial debate, where his slogan, “The Rent is Too Damn High!” made waves.

I think ‘The Rent is Too Damn High!” guy would be perfect as the next mayor of New York City.

Bring it on.

 

Drone karma total bitch for Obama

From Washington Post:

He (Drone-bama — my add) will deliver the speech amid criticism over the Justice Department’s move to secretly obtain the phone records of Associated Press journalists as part of a federal investigation into national security leaks within the administration.

The Justice Department was looking for  sources who were leaking info about our righteous, patriotic, and illegal drone program.

Karma is a biatch!

Now usually if you have nothing to hide and you’re doing good work you don’t have to hunt down sources like this, but I guess Obama and his murderous drone team feels like they are doing great work creating new terrorists, I mean protecting America, AND they need to hide everything because we don’t understand.

I don’t understand how killing people, including women and children helps improve America’s image abroad, but I’m not very bright.

Collapsing factories keep workers on toes, increases productivity

From here:

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — The ceiling of a Cambodian factory that makes Asics sneakers collapsed on workers early Thursday, killing two people and injuring seven, in the latest accident spotlighting the often lethal safety conditions faced by those toiling in the global garment industry.

Folks don’t understand if the building is shaky the workers are working hard and quickly so when the factory does collapse they’re ready to bolt out.

It’s not a tragedy it’s a corporate strategy.

In this case, the sneaker company gave all the employees free sneakers, told them the building was shit and then let them work in there and sprint out when it finally started to collapse.

Our corporate kangaroo Supreme Court

From here:

In an unanimous ruling written by Justice Elena Kagan, the court ruled that the farmer, Vernon Bowman, had infringed on Monsanto’s patent for its GM soybeans when he bought some of those seeds from a local grain elevator and planted them for a second, late-season crop. Monsanto sued, arguing that Bowman had signed a contract when he initially bought the Roundup Ready soybeans in the spring, agreeing not to save any of the harvest for replanting. The seeds are genetically modified to be resistant to Roundup Ready weedkiller.

God bless this unanimous verdict!

I think it’s great one company wants to control all our seeds.  It keeps things more organized and it’s very profitable.

I get worried about nature’s ability to keep the seeds floating around and propagating themselves as they have for however many hundreds of millions of years they’ve been at it.

Sloppy ass, unprofitable nature, Monsanto is gonna take care of you.

 

This should drive the stock market through the roof!

From here:

…unemployment is nowhere close to getting back to normal. The current level of claims is typically associated with a level of unemployment about 4 million workers lower than it currently is, or an unemployment rate of about 5 percent, instead of 7.5 percent.

That suggests that employers aren’t firing people any more. But, they’re not hiring people, either, according to Tuesday’s JOLTS data.

“There are no positive trends here for the job picture,” independent economist Robert Brusca wrote in a note.

Shitty job prospects, lower wages, more human misery, corporate profits higher, go stock market!!!