Category: Politics, Religion & Money

A comparison between the newly-discovered classified documents from Biden’s time as VP, with Trump’s classified documents from his time at POTUS.

https://apnews.com/article/biden-classified-documents-trump-side-by-side-fb2c4ebccdbdbb9039c1c5e227b1da53

The two aren’t comparable but, okay, let Republicans insist there’s a double standard, and drop the docs as a basis for prosecuting Trump. Doing that will free Special Council Jack Smith to concentrate on what matters most — Trump’s attempted coup.

Wait, there’s more!

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/biden-aides-find-second-batch-classified-documents-new-location-rcna65371

The Justice Department can either stop looking into Trump’s document handling, or it can open an investigation into Biden’s document handling.

Even more! Classified documents were found in Biden’s garage! He’s stupidly handed a free ball to the Republicans, and they’re going to run with it.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/12/politics/joe-biden-classified-documents-counsels-office/index.html

I already considered Biden too old to run for re-election. In my opinion he’s been doing a good job, but he already has a low approval rating, and now his credibility is shot. The Democrats need to find another candidate for 2024, and not VP Harris, who’s been a lot of nothing.

There were multiple security failures that led to the disaster on 9/11/01. Inadequate passenger screening at Boston’s Logan Airport was one of the last of them, so now we all remove our belts and shoes for the TSA.

Before that fateful day, there was a daily intelligence briefing with a late warning about Osama bin Laden. A warning that George W. Bush chose to minimize, if not ignore.

Much earlier than that, there was an appalling lack of coordination between the FBI and the CIA. So now we have Fusion Centers, as explained last night on the PBS NewsHour.

This must be documentary week. After “The Lie Detector” on American Experience, I binge-watched the four-part Netflix series, MADOFF: The Monster of Wall Street.

The substance is excellent, but the style is annoying. I agree with everything in this review from The Daily Beast.

Berlinger… falls back on his worst habit: staging dramatic recreations that unnecessarily tip the action toward melodrama.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/netflixs-madoff-the-monster-of-wall-street-is-a-ponzi-scheme-horror-story

The narrative provided by Diana Henriques in the series has great clarity. So it’s no surprise that her book, The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust, was adapted into a movie.

This pre-existing dramatization of the Madoff story further proves the point made in The Daily Beast review of the Netflix series.

There’s little reason to have actors playing Madoff and his associates in dialogue-free sequences designed to accompany interview snippets.

The DeNiro movie is on HBO Max. I’ll get to it after watching the first part of another new documentary, Frontline’s “Global Spyware Scandal: Exposing Pegasus.”

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/global-spyware-scandal-exposing-pegasus/

What I’ve been listening to during Nordic Track exercising, and when out walking rather than running. Each podcast automatically plays the next part, or you can go the series pages.

A Freakonomics 3-part series about the father of self-interest Capitalism, Adam Smith. Series page.

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WBUR’s 5-part series on the democracy-harming monopolies resulting from Capitalism. Series page.

The rise of socialism is why “nobody works, nobody gives a damn,” Bernie Marcus said in an interview with the Financial Times Thursday. “‘Just give it to me. Send me money. I don’t want to work — I’m too lazy, I’m too fat, I’m too stupid.'”

What are Marcus’ definitions of “nobody” and “socialism?” His disdain of working people is straight out of Ayn Rand’s fantasy-romance novels. But he also distrusts the college-educated. What an attitude.

Marcus is actually asking, “Why won’t people work for whatever wages employers are willing to offer?” It’s the same, old tired party line that’s been used by conservatives for generations.

You would think Marcus admires the desperate immigrants coming from Latin America, who are willing to work hard at any job for below minimum wage. But of course he hates them too, and he supported Trump’s efforts at closing the southern border.

As successful and experienced as Marcus is, in his final years he has learned nothing. He cannot see how thoughtless, simplistic, and limiting his thinking is. Here are more parting shots from the 93-year-old crank who co-founded Home Depot.

https://news.yahoo.com/home-depots-93-old-cofounder-221522799.html

https://www.businessinsider.com/nobody-works-nobody-gives-damn-anymore-home-depot-bernie-marcus-2022-12