By Robert Singer

All five of my border collies have access to my bedroom. Some sleep on the bed, others on the floor and Bart always sleeps outside.

They have a morning routine that begins at a different time every day.

Therefore either they don’t know how to tell time or their routine begins when they can sense I am about to wake up.

Yes, I agree it could be a coincidence that each morning at that exact moment when I come out of a deep sleep and am about to open my eyes, the routine begins.

Bart after being outside all night comes in the bedroom. And regardless of how many other border collies are strewn about the room he makes his way to the head of the bed and puts two paws right up next to my face and makes a combination whine, howl and growl.

If I had to express the sound in words it would be: "It’s time to get up.. I am bored. How much sleep do you need?, let’s get this day going."

This morning I wasn’t ready to get up and most of the time it works to just ignore him or tell him I was up all night working on my latest article (The "ings").

I usually can go back to sleep but not today, FRIDAY.

Bart’s whinehowlgrowl is especially intense and now all of the dogs are in a frenzy.

They are all jumping on the bed and whining.

"Bart’s right, let's get going".

I now have to cover my face with the sheet or risk getting an eye gouged out with a flying paw because they are all too close for comfort.

Finally Bart gave up, left the room and the chaos subsided.

What was different?

We go herding sheep on FRIDAY.

by Stephen Lendman

In past decades, many US municipalities declared bankruptcy. Since 1981, 42 cases were filed. Ten came in the past four years.

Given hard times getting harder, what's happening now is unprecedented since the Great Depression.

Cities occasionally declare bankruptcy. In America, they're coming more often. Others in dire financial straits may follow.

San Bernardino, CA is the latest. On July 11, The New York Times headlined "Third City In California Votes to Seek Bankruptcy," saying:

Officials have no choice. They can't meet payroll obligations through summer.

"Faced with a budget shortfall of $45 million and city coffers that have already been drained, the San Bernardino City Council voted on Tuesday to file for bankruptcy."

Interim city manager Andrea Travis-Miller said:

"I am concerned about our ability to make payroll, not only in the next 30 days but also in the next 60 to 90 days. A major restructuring of this organization is needed."

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By Numerian posted by Michael Collins
Originally published in The Agonist

Is the Bloomberg news service turning into The Agonist? Or at least The Agonist, circa 2005, when what was written here was so out of the mainstream that most writers had to hide behind pseudonyms if they wanted to keep their day job? I ask this because I was surprised to see the type of article that is now passing for ordinary on Bloomberg. Here are the Top 5 most popular articles on the news service today, according to their website: “Hardheaded Socialism Makes Canada Richer than U.S.”, “The Secret Behind Romney’s Magical IRA”, “China’s GDP Hit Tells Story of Hubris Run Amok”, “Romney’s Bain Yielded Privatized Gains and Socialized Losses”, and “Do Business Schools Incubate Criminals?” (Image)

The title of that last article is pretty much rhetorical, which says a lot about how times have changed if major business publications are giving credence to claims that business schools churn out criminals. It is the two Mitt Romney articles that really interest me, given how unfavorable they are to the champion of capitalism that the Republicans have put forward as their presidential nominee.

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