Okay Yeah, I’ll Click on That Link
People are still sending emails like this? Really? That means people — HELLO! — are still stupidly clicking on the links. (From my inbox this afternoon via someone named “Karen.”)
(Image via TurboSquid.com)
I have decided to will my estate to you for the work of humanity, for more info contact Attorney Raymond Thompson on email: newtonblackwel@admin.xx.th
Wow. Karen from who knows where is going to will me her estate “for the work of humanity.” Yahoo!
Too bad I don’t have a category titled: Blind, mindless greed.
No Vacation Nation
This is a mind blowing chart. Don’t miss it — the USA is waaay over there on the right with zero mandatory paid vacation days or holidays.
(Image via CEPR.net)
The corporate lobby wins again!
(Via.)
Get Ready for More Collapsing Bridges
Have you seen this headline yet?
Cars, Drivers Plunge Into River After Wash. I-5 Bridge Collapse
Three people were rescued from water after a bridge along Interstate-5 in Washington State collapsed on Thursday evening, plunging cars into Skagit River below, according to Washington State Patrol.
This could be just the beginning. Check out the collapse in public infrastructure spending over the last five or six years:
(Image via BusinessInsider.com)
This is the reality of putting two wars on the credit card and cutting taxes on the rich (thanks George). I.e., we don’t have money to make sure our bridges are safe.
What a way to run a country, huh?
New Hope for Treating Staph Infections
About 20 years ago a co-worker acquaintance of mine died very, very suddenly of sepsis, which is caused by the Staphylococcus bacteria. So when I see the words “staph” or “sepsis” they tend to leap out at me. Thus this good news:
(Image via DecodedScience.com)
In an age when microbial pathogens are growing increasingly resistant to the conventional antibiotics used to tamp down infection, a team of Wisconsin scientists has synthesized a potent new class of compounds capable of curbing the bacteria that cause staph infections.
Writing online in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, a group led by University of Wisconsin-Madison chemistry professor Helen Blackwell describes agents that effectively interfere with the “quorum sensing” behavior of Staphylococcus aureus, a bacterium at the root of a host of human infections ranging from acne to life-threatening conditions such as pneumonia, toxic shock syndrome and sepsis.
The Tyrannical Rahm Emanuel
Geezus. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D in name only) is nuts. Get a load of what he’s up to these days:
(Image via FrontPageMag.com)
It all starts with the person who seems committed to win the current spirited competition as the most loathsome person in American political life: Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The same Mayor overseeing the closing of fifty-four schools and six community mental health clinics under the justification of a “budgetary crisis” has announced that the city will be handing over more than $100 million to DePaul University for a new basketball arena. This is part of a mammoth redevelopment project on South Lakeshore Drive consisting of a convention center anchored by an arena for a non-descript basketball team that has gone 47-111 over the last five years. It’s also miles away from DePaul’s campus. These aren’t the actions of a mayor. They’re the actions of a mad king.
I mean, it’s just unbelievable.
Police Protecting Banks, Not We the People
(Image via TheContributor.com)
We the People think we’re paying the police out of our tax dollars and that they work for us but gosh golly gee wiz, something happened along the way:
As Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has said, the nation’s biggest banks have essentially gained “too big for trial” status, and the federal government has failed to prosecute any executive at a Big Bank for financial fraud.
While Wall Street has escaped prosecutions, thousands of Americans have been arrested in the course of protests against the banks. As of May 2013, that number is 7,736 — according to the website Occupy Arrests, which tracks arrests.
On Monday, dozens of homeowners who have faced abuses by Big Banks rallied outside the Department of Justice (DOJ) in Washington, D.C. They demanded that the agency finally prosecute Wall Street banks who have become, as Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has said, “too big for trial.”
[...]
The demonstrators marched to the Department of Justice, where they rallied outside the main entrance. At that entrance, several police armed with pepper guns and other crowd control weapons at first pushed the demonstrators back, and began arresting several activists. But they soon abandoned the entrance and retreated inside; this prompted protesters to place tents outside the door marked, “Foreclose on Banks.”
Protesters split up and blockaded all three major entrances of the Department of Justice building, and at least 17 – mostly homeowners who had lost their homes thanks to abuses by the Big Banks — were arrested by police, who utilized tasers, batons, and other weapons on the protesters.
Do policepeople join police departments these days because they want to “serve and protect” the people who pay their salaries or do they join because they want to be thugs who protect corporate money and power?
Are our neighborhood cops working for us, again — to serve and protect — or their corporate masters?
Just asking.
Gay Hate Up 100% in NYC Thanks to Hate Radio and TV
My Tweet of the Day. Oh, and I’d add “Christian” hate groups (What would Jesus think?) to the folks who are fomenting this:
