Zelensky; the kind of leader who doesn't wince at the rattle of a machine-gun

What a Churchill! None other than Alan Dershowitz nominated him for the Nobel PP. But then Al had to go write an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal calling out the Z-man for his claims that the Ukrainian nation "saved Jews" during the Holocaust. Ya, Zelensky was a comedian before he was a Churchill. How about that Dershowitz, eh? I'd thought he'd lowered his standards when he joined the Trump defence team, but I just took a gander at his Wikipedia page, and the guy's been defending world-class shit-bags his entire career! Everybody from Leona Helmsley to OJ Simpson! And he's pretty good at it too! But I digress. Suffice it to say, if Zelensky wins this war, the Dersh-man will be on Putin's defence team at the war crimes trials. If Putin wins this war. the Dersh-o-nator will be on Zelensky's defense team at the war crimes trials. Either way. he's gonna be in the headlines for years to come. So who is winning this war? Zelensky has been pushing the Russians back since February. Putin is losing so bad he just held bogus referendums and annexed 100,000 sq. km. of Ukraine. But the forces of GOOD are forcing the bad guys back all over the place. With just a few more months and a few more billions in weapons, victory is assured! Weapons weapons weapons!!! Billions billions billions!!! Sure glad I bought into that Carlyle Group Defence Portfolio when I did!

The difference between Chinese billionaires and American billionaires

In China, the billionaires function at the pleasure of the state. If and when their interests are deemed incompatible with the interests of the state, bad shit happens. Check out this story from the Wall Street Journal; China hands death sentence to hedge-fund manager. 

In America, on the other hand, government functions at the pleasure of the billionaires. When is the last time you heard about a corrupt "asset manager" getting a death sentence in the USA?

The next time will be the first time. 

Who do you trust more, communists or billionaires?

Dragoon Ride divides Europe

According to CNN, the so-called Dragoon Ride, a convoy of US military vehicles doing a show and tell across eastern Europe, it's all cheers and tears of joy as the locals greet the only thing keeping them out of the clutches of Putin.

Oddly enough, you don't have to go any further than the Wall Street Journal (of all places!) to find out that's not the whole story. In the Czech Republic a law has been hurriedly passed to criminalize protest against the display of American military might. There may be more jeers than cheers.

It's worth reading what Finland's Foreign Minister, Erkki Tuomioja, has to say about the American muscle-flexing.

"This is very sad..."

Stop reading that senile liar Seymour Hersh and get the truth from the NYT and Wall Street Journal!

I was somewhat taken aback by Louis Proyect's character assassination of Seymour Hersh.

In fact, I had to read it a couple of times just to make sure I wasn't missing a level of irony or two, but no, Proyect seems to be serious.

Proyect styles himself "the unrepentant Marxist." Fair enough, I suppose, but it's a strange sort of Marxism that turns to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal for its truths.

What we know for sure is that regime change in Syria is something that has been on the agenda of The Empire for many years. Many of the details of how that is playing out have been obscured by the fog of war.

I am reasonably confident that the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have spread far more fog than Seymour Hersh.

And as for senility, Proyect's not that far behind Hersh in that trip down the Alzheimer highway.

How to work 82 hours a week for less than minimum wage

Become an "independent owner-operator!"

That's right folks. You too can steer that big rig from coast to coast and hardly even get paid for doing it!

Let's visit with Richard Allen, who is featured in this WSJ article about new trucking regulations that will limit drivers to a 70 hour workweek.

Richard and his wife are owner-operators. They seem like law-abiding folks, so let's assume they only work the legal max of 82 hours per week. For that they each take home $25,000 per year.

That's under six bucks an hour!

That's what over-the-road Teamster's guys were making fifty years ago - without adjusting for inflation!

Anyway, that was then, this is now.

Modern America isn't about unions.

America today is about independent businessmen like Richard Allen.

Canada compromises FBI terror investigation so Harper gang can make the evening news

According to this story, the Harper government threw a spanner into an FBI investigation by arresting a couple of alleged terror suspects last Monday.

As you will recall, that is the sensational case that not only claims to have uncovered the first al-Qaeda plot in North America since 9/11, it also ties Iran to al-Qaeda!

That's big news indeed!

I'm certainly not the only observer who found the timing of Monday's arrests cuter than cute. The Vancouver Sun, leaning heavily on an article in The Wall Street Journal, is making essentially the same claim today that was made here a few days ago.

But the Sun ups the ante exponentially. The Harperites weren't just manipulating Canadian police with the timing of these arrests and the ensuing press conference. They were effectively scuttling an FBI investigation into the US contacts of the two guys they arrested, even after the FBI asked them to hold off.

I guess that's one way for Harper to prove he's more than a US bumboy.

Pot addled hillbilly notices Samsung making Apple sauce months before Wall Street Journal

Recently there's been a flurry of debate over whether Apple is losing their coolness factor. Ian Sherr and Evan Ramstad triggered the debate with this article in the Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago.

That's almost six months after Falling Downs raised the same question.

C'mon boys, if you're reading this blog, give credit where credit is due!