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Online Reputation Clocaa n' Dagger:
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipulation/

[Junkenstein]

Very odd.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-republicans-lost-their-mind-democrats-lost-their-soul-and-washington-lost-its-appeal/2014/02/28/2ef5429c-9d89-11e3-9ba6-800d1192d08b_story.html?tid=pm_pop

It's an odd sensation, leaving the town I'd lived in for most of my 70 years, ending my 50-year career at The Washington Post, turning my back on the political circus that enthralled me for so long. But a more honest answer would have been this: I don't miss Washington, and I don't expect that to change anytime soon.

Why? Because for me, the fun has drained out of the game. So has the substance. I used to get excited about the big issues we covered — civil rights, women's liberation, the fate of the country's great cities, the end of the Cold War. I loved the politicians who brought those issues to life, from Everett McKinley Dirksen and Howard Baker (Dirksen's son-in-law, curiously) to Russell B. Long and Edmund Muskie, from Bob Dole to George Mitchell — all people who knew and cared a great deal about governing. Watching them at work was exhilarating. Watching their successors, today's senators and representatives, is just depressing.

I have never, ever, found anyone who would refer to Bob Dole as "Exhilarating". "Excruciating" maybe.

Either way, you've got to take it as a pretty damning indictment when the shadow of Bob Dole is held up to be better than you.

[Junkenstein]

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-topeka-20140225,0,5976472.story#axzz2utYa5fRp

Wolf, a radiologist, is a Tea Party candidate hoping to dislodge Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) from his senate seat. Among his claims to fame is that he's a distant relative of President Obama. Thanks to Carpenter, he's now famous for something else: posting horrific X-ray images of gunshot victims on his Facebook page, accompanied by jocular repartee. Next to a posting of an image of a person decapitated by gunfire, for example, Wolf wrote: "What kind of gun blows somebody's head completely off? I've got to get one of those."

Carpenter's article about Wolf's behavior is here. In this accompanying eight-minute video you can watch Carpenter confront Wolf with the images and home in for his explanation.
This is how a real journalist goes about his job. It's the most professional, effective interview of a politician we've witnessed in our decades in the business. No histrionics, but brutal in its impact. It should be screened for every journalism class in the country, as well as every newsroom and not a few writers' rooms in Hollywood. (Are you listening, "House of Cards"?)
Pay special attention to how Carpenter hauls Wolf back to the subject at hand when the candidate tries to distract him with baloney.

Stunning lack of sense but nice to see actual journalism at work.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-topeka-20140225,0,5976472.story#axzz2utYa5fRp

Wolf, a radiologist, is a Tea Party candidate hoping to dislodge Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) from his senate seat. Among his claims to fame is that he's a distant relative of President Obama. Thanks to Carpenter, he's now famous for something else: posting horrific X-ray images of gunshot victims on his Facebook page, accompanied by jocular repartee. Next to a posting of an image of a person decapitated by gunfire, for example, Wolf wrote: "What kind of gun blows somebody's head completely off? I've got to get one of those."

Carpenter's article about Wolf's behavior is here. In this accompanying eight-minute video you can watch Carpenter confront Wolf with the images and home in for his explanation.
This is how a real journalist goes about his job. It's the most professional, effective interview of a politician we've witnessed in our decades in the business. No histrionics, but brutal in its impact. It should be screened for every journalism class in the country, as well as every newsroom and not a few writers' rooms in Hollywood. (Are you listening, "House of Cards"?)
Pay special attention to how Carpenter hauls Wolf back to the subject at hand when the candidate tries to distract him with baloney.

Stunning lack of sense but nice to see actual journalism at work.

That was a nice piece of journalism. Hopefully, that guy's political aspirations are over.

Interesting little window into the mind of a Tea Partier, though, don't you think? These people really don't give a shit about anyone but themselves.

[Cain]

Not verified, but interesting if true

http://prorevnews.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/how-americans-views-vary-from-leaders.html

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[Junkenstein]

Not verified, but interesting if true

http://prorevnews.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/how-americans-views-vary-from-leaders.html

There's two subjects in that list particularly notable by it's absence. Crime and guns.

I've a suspicion that the facts and polls here have been carefully cherry picked and seem to be pushing a certain ideology. Abortion isn't in the mix there either. This too:

64 percent believe job creation should be the top priority. Only 33 percent said deficit reduction
55% want too big to fail banks to fail

This whole concept of job creators is settling into the political landscape now. Just like how Austerity became a new norm, protection and beneficial laws for "Job creators" are being pushed here. Do I need to state who this would benefit in reality? Because it's not anyone working at said jobs.

and 55% probably don't understand the personal consequences of letting said banks fail. I doubt any old northern rock customers feel that the best thing for it was going bang.

[Cain]

It actually probably would have been.

Deposits up to 80k are backed by central government.  In the event of a bank collapse, you get up to that amount back.  Do you know many people with 80k in a personal bank account?

Instead, we expensively propped up the bank and sent a message to other banks that, should they gamble recklessly and lose, the state will rush in to help.  We also fired over 2000 bank employees, and had to pay legal fees when hedge funds invested in the bank challenged the legality of the takeover.

[Junkenstein]

Fair point, for most customers it may have worked out better. The consequence however is that the rest of the sector would shit itself due to this. I doubt that would encourage fair and accountable practices. I'd suggest it would make them much more likely to conceal any fuckups at all costs.

Extend that further and allow all the banks that needed assistance to fail. The end scenario I see here would be something like a cartel at best. By which I mean even more so than how they currently operate.

[Reginald Ret]

Fair point, for most customers it may have worked out better. The consequence however is that the rest of the sector would shit itself due to this. I doubt that would encourage fair and accountable practices. I'd suggest it would make them much more likely to conceal any fuckups at all costs.

Extend that further and allow all the banks that needed assistance to fail. The end scenario I see here would be something like a cartel at best. By which I mean even more so than how they currently operate.

Are you seriously saying stealing should be rewarded because otherwise they will steal more? That only works for those people that steal to support a drug habit. Not the same situation at all.

[minuspace]

Fair point, for most customers it may have worked out better. The consequence however is that the rest of the sector would shit itself due to this. I doubt that would encourage fair and accountable practices. I'd suggest it would make them much more likely to conceal any fuckups at all costs.

Extend that further and allow all the banks that needed assistance to fail. The end scenario I see here would be something like a cartel at best. By which I mean even more so than how they currently operate.

Are you seriously saying stealing should be rewarded because otherwise they will steal more? That only works for those people that steal to support a drug habit. Not the same situation at all.

Which is why said habit is only abusive when demonstrated in a manner that is either conspicioisly self-limiting, or incompletely moderate.

[Reginald Ret]

Fair point, for most customers it may have worked out better. The consequence however is that the rest of the sector would shit itself due to this. I doubt that would encourage fair and accountable practices. I'd suggest it would make them much more likely to conceal any fuckups at all costs.

Extend that further and allow all the banks that needed assistance to fail. The end scenario I see here would be something like a cartel at best. By which I mean even more so than how they currently operate.

Are you seriously saying stealing should be rewarded because otherwise they will steal more? That only works for those people that steal to support a drug habit. Not the same situation at all.

Which is why said habit is only abusive when demonstrated in a manner that is either conspicioisly self-limiting, or incompletely moderate.

I just realised i logic failed in that sentence. Even junkies don't get rewarded for stealing, they get the reward regardless of their stealing habits.

[Junkenstein]

No, I was more implying that they will steal regardless so the best options likely to be presented are just ways to moderate the overall rate of theft.

How well do you think the world will work with one big bank? I'm guessing very, very well. For a few folk. 

[minuspace]

I think that instead of adjudicating some degree of punitive damages, their culpability would be best served by an authentic dose of repentance, in it original sense of metanoia.  I'm just an incurable idealist 

[Reginald Ret]

No, I was more implying that they will steal regardless so the best options likely to be presented are just ways to moderate the overall rate of theft.

How well do you think the world will work with one big bank? I'm guessing very, very well. For a few folk.

Almost there, let's try it without banks for a while. We don't really need them to keep money functional. A fiat currency is maintained by the faith people have in it. So all you need is a crowdfunded marketing department that has as only goal making their currency look good. The technical details of distributing and storing money can be handled by much smaller organisations.