Soon-to-be-released study documents some of the ill effects of our use of depleted uranium weapons in Iraq. You won't like the pictures. The study concerns the relationship between how far Iraqis live from the Tallil Air Force Base, which has been burning waste in open-air pits since 2003, and the rate of birth defects and levels of uranium and thorium found in local Iraqi citizens' hair. Surprise, surprise, the close you are, the sicker you are. No use chalking this up to "the horrors of war," because this was a shitty war propping up a shitty President. Vanity always has a price, but too often the vain don't pay it.
Ho hum, the Washington Post writes articles about Uber without disclosing owner Jeff Bezos's massive investment in Uber. And note well The Artist Formerly Known as Jane Galt writing that we shouldn't ask Uber and Lyft to treat their workers right because those corporations are "hemorrhaging money," which not only obscures the fact that their investors somehow get richer while these corporations hemorrhage money, but is what, class? That's right, a manufactured hostage crisis -- "don't make the corporations treat the workers better, or the corporations get it!" Although that's "the genius of capitalism," isn't it -- that a corporation dies when it doesn't make money? Not when your boss has sunk $400 million into the corporation in question, I guess.
Speaking of America's Soon-to-Be Least Popular CEO, we learn that Mr. Bezos's recent move to stop covering health care for Whole Foods's part-time workers wound up saving him a total of six hours of pay. This is what monopolies do to people! This is why we shouldn't let tycoons buy up as many corporations as they can! Some fools will say that's a drop in the bucket to Mr. Bezos, but it ain't a drop in the bucket to any of his workers. Also, too, Amazon doesn't pay any taxes.
It's time for another important reminder about Presidential drama! When you witness things like our President fighting with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) about whether we should bomb the crap out of Iran, keep in mind that you're looking at a "fight" that makes our President look rational and makes Republicans look like they have significant disagreements about policy, when he's not and they don't. As I always say, it's drama, and it's not even particularly good drama.
Good news, good peoples! Federal District Court Judge blocks enforcement of South Dakota law that would put pipeline protestors in jail for 25 years. Judge Piersol is right to suggest that a "Riot Boosting" law could have put Dr. King in jail for decades, too, but I have to say how gobsmacked I am that governments are going so far out of their way to protect the investments of private corporations. It sure doesn't seem like the "spirit of capitalism" in which conservatives supposedly believe. In fact, it seems a lot more like corporate welfare.
Finally, Christina H at Cracked tells us all about "6 Famous 'Frivolous Lawsuit' Stories That Are Total B.S." I have never, not even one time, heard a story from the tort "reform" crowd that didn't devolve into these-aren't-all-the-facts or the-system-did-actually-work. And generally half-told anecdotes are what you get, because tort "reform" proponents aren't going to cite very much actual science in a country where corporations, not people, file four out of every five lawsuits. So when someone says I'm gonna tell you a story about frivolous lawsuits, either be on your guard or walk away.
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