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Much as it may sadden starry-eyed believers in Russian conspiracy mumbo-jumbo, it's quite possible that the Orange One's election owes more to a last-minute injection of "dark money" from American fat cats than commies-under-the-bed meddling. So argues Thomas Ferguson, who studied the funding patterns [Vice].

Also, if Trump is a Russian agent, why did Congressional Dems just pass a FISA bill giving him unbridled powers to spy on American citizens without a warrant?

Posted a new music release -- embeds to follow. Have been "promoting" these on twitter but feel increasingly uncomfortable doing that. One, because twitter is a horrible cluttered mess of photos, media and ads these days, swallowing up expression. Two, because twitter is becoming "Orwellian," or more Orwellian, as discussed by comedian/commentator Jimmy Dore: [hooktube video]

As Dore notes (quoting Mark Ames), anyone to the left of Hillary Clinton could qualify as a Russian disinformation agent, so Twitter may be arbitrarily suppressing legitimate dissent. Who wants to be in that environment? Mark Ames, obviously, but who else?

Certain friends and former friends believe that (i) the US had no problems under Obama, (ii) Hillary Clinton was an acceptable alternative to orange cheetoh-head, (iii) all the problems in the US began with the Orange One's election, (iv) the Deep State is our friend because it wants to depose Orange Cheetoh-head, (v) allegations of Russian disinfomation are good, noble, and true, because they serve the cause of deposing the orange one. These people are to be pitied; some may still be friends when they come to their senses and quit parroting CNN talking points.

Friendly, funny ol' Uncle Joe (who wants to be President) isn't much of a friend to American millennials. David Sirota has a detailed account of Biden's efforts over the years to make student debt survive bankruptcy, by (among other things) pushing the myth of epidemic strategic defaults by college graduates.

Biden helped the banking industry promote the negative portrayal of debtors. During [a] 2000 [Senate] debate, he said the goal of the bankruptcy bill he was backing was “to assure that those who have the ability to pay do not walk away from their legal debts.”

Various bills attempting to protect banks from these nefarious cheats (in reality about 1% of loan defaulters) floated through Congress over the years. Finally, with Biden's pushing, student loans were excepted from bankrupty protection. Writes Sirota,

In 2005, though, lawmakers and financial industry lobbyists resurrected a new version of the legislation -- one that included provisions to make it more difficult for students to get bankruptcy protections not just for their government loans but also for the loans they received from private financial firms. This time around there was no [Paul] Wellstone, a liberal icon who had died in a 2002 plane crash, to lead the Democratic opposition to the initiative. With Biden’s support, the bankruptcy legislation sailed through the Senate in the first few months of the new congressional session. In April, it was signed into law by President George W. Bush, whose top campaign contributor had become MBNA [credit card company and Biden backer].

Q. Oh, sure, a new platform can enter the market—but until it gets access to the 480 million items Amazon sells (often at deep discounts), why should the median consumer defect to it? If I want garbage bags, do I really want to go over to Target.com to re-enter all my credit card details, create a new log-in, read the small print about shipping, and hope that this retailer can negotiate a better deal with Glad?

A. Yes.

The question is from Frank Pasquale's essay [Naked Capitalism] which is critical of Amazon but takes the viewpoint of the "median consumer" for rhetorical purposes. Let's try it another way:

Q. Knowing what you know about Amazon's appalling labor practices, do you use Amazon for price comparison and then buy the product at another online store, as a way of saying "FU" to Amazon?

A. Yes