Meanwhile, inside the Olympics, the London Organizing Committee is trying to quell public outcry over the empty seats at Olympic venues. Thousands of fans told the Games were sold out for years, while prime seats reserved largely for sports federations and corporate sponsors have remained empty. —- Moody’s gave a really clear answer to that question in the lead-up to the Games, when they issued a report that said, actually, there’s really not going to be any long-term gain for Londoners from hosting the Olympics, but in the short term, Moody’s said, that the beneficiaries would be what they call “corporates.” —- Now, to be sure, Romney has attacked something that they’ve invested a lot of their political capital in, but also it just points to how far right the political center of gravity in the United States has shifted, where conservatives here in the U.K. really feel no responsibility whatsoever to support the conservatives in the United States. —- Atos, the French IT firm that is responsible here in the U.K. for putting forth this work capability assessment, which basically assessed whether people who are on the rolls for being disabled or sick could actually get out there and work. Their work capability assessment has led to tens of thousands of sick people and disabled people being kicked off the support rolls here in the U.K. —- The security forces here—and any host city, really, who hosts the Olympics—the security forces have used the Olympic Games as their own private ATM, allowing them to get themselves whatever weapons they’ve always wanted but have never been able to get. But in this sort of state of exception that the Olympics bring, they’re able to get all sorts of stuff. —-