Open Thread - Friday, September 18, 2015
Submitted by NCTim on Fri, 09/18/2015 - 6:43am
Autumn arrived. The last few days have been absolutely beautiful.
I look forward to the change of seasons. October is a wonderful month.
I have found some solace not keeping up with the news.
Things have been going very slowly around casa de Tim. Sweetie has rapidly lost her ability to speak intelligibly. There is allot of frustration and anxiety.
I am having to dig a little deeper to keep everyone together. My youngest (22F) is really struggling with the whole ordeal.
This one is for my Sweetie and baby.
I hope everyone has a wonderful autumn weekend.
Comments
Good Morning Tim and 99%'ers
I just got in from my morning walk and the temperatures were wonderful, in the low 50's. It actually made me feel a little more energetic as a result. October is my favorite month also.
Stay away from the news. It is better for your mental health. Take care, my friend.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Japan military vote creates a brawl in parliament
link
A peace brawl....
Too bad none of our congress critters will not 'obstruct' any military,security state and international conflicts that the masters of war cook up. Carly Fiorina is chest thumping with the best of the lunatic war monger's . Would be ironic if we end up with a choice between two glass ceiling breaking women who are mad killers. All the 'likely' voters who are into self identify would rationalize this surreal electoral contest by pushing their female candidate as the biggest bad ass ever. Maybe Carly would lose as she actually did bust HP's ceiling.
I shudder to think
of that matchup.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Big Mistake, not having more women in government
So what do you get in Japan's parliament, lax nuclear industry regulation, more militarism and actual violence within parliament. Grow up Japan!
To thine own self be true.
Iraq shia militia leader: Turkey is Iraq's biggest enemy
Things are complicated
Interesting how he points out the Kurds.
Good morning everyone
So it was a good day until I did my morning visit to dkos with my coffee. I am such a glutton for punishment.
Anyway, I ran into this. It was DBAD at the very least. I HR'd it and walked away. However, the more I thought about it the more irritated I got. His comment, obtusely ignoring the sarcasm, became as allegedly racist against AAs as the sarcasm I dropped out there and got a week in the corner for. So I decided to send it to elfling and complain - bitterly. This poster has been there less than 90 days and has racked up more HRs than I accumulated in 10 years. If you read his/her sig line, it is apparent s/he is looking for a fight in the Bernie diaries. If I do nothing else, I hope I wreck her day too. There is no way the new "secret" moderating system can possibly be any better than the current one.
So I am going to breath deeply, relax, and get back to work. We have a rainy day, and it is welcome after the last few hot and sunny days. Hopefully, we don't have to water the garden today.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
when you return to the dump it's still a dump
Armando must be the worst lawyer in the world. I wonder if he's ever won a case since his logic is terrible!
That place is as much of a clown show as the Republican Party that they like to talk about. The front page is disturbing. Who made that decision? And the commenters are biters, as in "I'm gonna bite you and call it discourse"
PPPPPPPPPPPPPP UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU eom.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
I had to laugh at the discussion on community niceness
initiated by the owner of the blog. They discussed all the disgusting things like hr pile-ups, stalking etc. And those leading the discussion were the WORST offenders.
One in particular who was promoting decorum had previously entered the comment section of a GMO diary when her buddies asked her what kept her. She said "the crew" (her words) was in another GMO diary. "The crew" also defend nuclear energy and are in almost every pie fight.
The most frequent FP writer seems to be digging deeply into the Tabloids for his cut and paste "essays."
It's a dump alright.
To thine own self be true.
OMG - he's on a timeout....
Do you think I did that? To release my inner child, fair is fair, but I totally expected to be dismissed.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Your link is working so I don't know what
crime you committed to get a timeout.
To thine own self be true.
Several months ago,
I was sarcastically taking a swipe at all Hillary supporters and added a snide remark about Hillary "providing". The black kos group decided I called AAs something akin to welfare queens. They HR'd me to high heaven, accused me of being a racist, complained to elfing, and she put me in the corner for a week. I tried to explain it was sarcasm. She said it was the writer's responsibility to communicate what they meant. Couldn't argue with that, so I shut up and did my time. All pretty silly really.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
All white people are
racist according to two front pagers. Even if we never say or write a word, we are "unconsciously racist." What a joke this is to my black friends and relations.
To thine own self be true.
Good morning 99%er's
So sorry about yesterdays OT that wasn't there. It's supposed to be my OT day but Shahryar has been pitch hitting for me which has made it even easier to forget it's time to do the OT. We had a crazy stressful week work wise, home wise, health wise and even cat wise. Wednesday crept up unnoticed and not until Thursday did I even know what day of the week it was. Everything cleared up sort of, including the cat, as they usually do in life. I will resume the OT on next Thursday. Shahryar is crazy busy with new clients and work so I won't wheedle him into doing the OT for a good while.
I didn't turn on the computer for a couple of days and enjoyed the break from the horrific news and politics. I'm going try and keep my nose to the grindstone work wise and limit my netting to you guys and thenews to reading Guardian. Thanks dmitch for jumping in with an OT, I appreciate it. Today is Friday so at least I'm back to knowing what day it is. Amazing how the computer has become even my clock and calendar, kind of scary that. Thanks Tim for the OT love the music.
I sorta wish I could turn it off for a few days...
but I can't. I am tethered by my obligation to that Snowden group, and I feel like Edger left it with me because he knew I would be. And I still write a little something once a week for ek and momcat over at SHG, so I sit with my clipboard propped against the laptop, dabbling in this or that waiting for the colors to spark some inspiration. I don't think I would be able to cut myself off entirely--my kind are not to be found in this town.
I shave my legs with Occam's Razor~
What a trooper you are.
Do you publish articles at the Snowden group? I don't FB, so I cant go look.
I have several Snowden essays that are unpublished on the Internet at this time. Still timely. One of them, about the future repercussions that will impact the US as a result of the criminal NSA cartel, was among the top ten all time hits at DK. (I carefully removed all my Diaries before I had to say goodbye.) You're welcome to any of those.
Also, anything I write or publish here, you may freely use all or part, at ek's sites.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
If you publish it here...
I will post it there for sure. I can publish it there without it having been published elsewhere first, but it would be unusual, not that that would stop me. hahaha. I am the last word on what gets posted there. I've been pretty fair minded, even when it's damn near killed me.
I shave my legs with Occam's Razor~
I follow Snowden's group.
Edger picked well when he asked you to mind the store.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Thank you! That really does mean a lot to me.
It's hard to believe it'll be a year end of November. I've had my moments of doubt, more times than I care to admit, and my frustration level runs high at times, but...I can't walk away. I still get over a dozen requests to join every day.
I shave my legs with Occam's Razor~
We're laying a wood floor today
I am laying out the pattern and my husband nails it in using a floor nailer. Mr. Handyman cannot stop improving. He does beautiful work, but we are always in a state of renovation. I have suggested that he buy an old house and fix it up as his hobby so I can have some peace here from the dust and nailing.
We have back to back house guests next week. I am going to feel as though I am running a B & B. Nowadays I have ask if there are dietary restriction of anyone who comes to visit. One guest eats no dairy, but I can deal with that. I have had worse stay with us or come to dinner. One time I had a dinner with eight guests and I had a vegetarian; one who did not eat seafood, chicken or pork, but did eat beef; one who was gluten free; and one who could not eat onions. It was tough figuring out who could eat what, so I made two separate dinners.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
He would have
a field day with our 101 year old money pit of a house. The latest thing to go berserk is our doors to the outside. They don't close right and the lock on the original beautiful front door stopped working because the frame has dry rot and the screws were loose. We fixed that but it still doesn't close right. I think that the extreme heat warped the old wood and the ancient weather stripping is falling off the bottom. The back door is newer and Shahryar planed sanded and rasked the top and now it shuts. The front door a huge tall 7+ ft. number with a heavy leaded glass panel. It needs to be taken off the hinges and laided down in order to deal with the bottom. It's going to take a another big strapping person to lift it back up to the hinges once we fix the bottom.
We've owned this house for 25 years and have put a lot of money and sweat equity into it over the years. We have kept the original 1914 woodwork and built ins, we have also have in most rooms lath and plaster and even some of the wavy glass old windows. I found a old school plasterer who redid the plaster walls. We remolded the kitchen 4 years ago and living in a construction zone with no kitchen was a nightmare. I'm good with surface, painting, sanding, stripping prepping mudding, filling, plastering and I'm even a decent tile setter. Shahyrar is definitely not a DIY handy guy. He does okay with basic repairs but neither of us good at carpentry or anything major.
I'm at an age where I do not want to do it myself and also don't want to live in the chaos and dust and dirt that remolding consists of. We've come full circle as the upstairs hall and stair well needs major prepping and painting again. At least we seem to have the basic infrastructure like plumbing, wiring and furnaces and chimneys etc. finished. It's an endless process and an expensive one to boot. We kept the 'character' of this old house but I worry that if we decide to sell it most buyer's will not like the fact that we restored it rather then remolded it. I had to laugh at your comment about your husbands obsessive renovation as it made me think be careful what you wish for as far as having a handy husband.
This house is over fifty years old
And we could have probably built a new one for what we have done to it. Unfortunately, my husband likes to saw and hammer so he is always finding something new to do. The dust drives me crazy. I have allergies and there are times when I just break down and cry. I could handle this if I was not living in it.
We went through a kitchen remodel here but I refused to camp out for months on end like we once did. The one we did in Florida, we ended up hanging cabinets ourselves and I am not the strongest person in the world. This time we had someone do it for us.
The floor is looking good. I hope we can finish tomorrow. My back is killing me from bending over and laying the wood strips. Old age and it sucks. Then we can start cleaning the house and I need to get my meals planned and ready. MIL and SIL come in on Wed. and friends arrive on Friday, so it is going to be a very quick turn around stripping beds, washing sheets and towels, etc on Thursday.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Chinese build 3D printed villas in 3 hours.
Chinese company ‘builds’ 3D-printed villa in less than 3 hours
I'm in the midst of remodeling, too. And house flipping.
I used to love stuff like that. But I like the idea of it better than the execution.
I think a lot about printing a brand new house in just a few hours, while I'm doing it….
In China, just a few workers can print 10 houses in 24 hours.
[video:https://youtu.be/SObzNdyRTBs]
To put this in the social spectrum:
We need to start talking now about the Human Right to a living stipend for every human on earth to cover food and shelter, health and communications. Because, in the very very near future, we will not need many workers to sustain complex life. Perhaps less than one-quarter of a population needs to work in order to sustain everyone. Art, innovation, creativity, science, education, and entertainment will occupy most human time. That means we need new ways of looking at monetizing necessities, and brand new ways of forming communities, in order to create a happy, harmonious planet.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
A living stipend, yes!
This country, the way we measure success, what we value...it's not sustainable, it's damn near obscene. We don't see each other as brothers and sisters of the human family or know that we're all each other's keepers, and that saddens me down to my bones. But just on a pragmatic level, just as a practical thing, the great omnipotent "they" ought to wise up and realize it's not good for them to leave too many of us without means either.
Lately, I've been (and maybe irrationally)spending every spare cent I can on decent art supplies, so that me and my kids will have them for now and for when the time comes when there are no spare cents for anything. I think, at least we'll have that, and with that we can make and do and we will not miss the teevee or movies or whatnot.
I shave my legs with Occam's Razor~
Is Ignorance "Bliss"? Is it even Ignorance?
not watching the news....
I think (and I'm probably not alone) that what we hear about and read about is not actually the news at all but some megaphone blaring a message that works to the advantage of those who pay for it.
The idea behind "dropping out" way back when was that the world that most people were wrapped up in was phony. It still is! So turning it off for however long is actually a return to sanity.
The consequences of the Fed's ZIRP
Video: "In the long run, Everyone knows it's the entitlement
game . . ."
Yeah, it happens to be a Repub saying this, but this is EXACTLY what the Democrats have been angling for, for almost eight years now--a "Grand Bargain."
And this dude, Cantor's replacement, I believe, could not have spelled it out any better.
I may repost, or link to this brief video clip in the comment section of EB this evening, so that EB'ers don't miss it, since I'm pretty sure that many of them are concerned about the upcoming fiscal negotiations/faux crisis.
Please take a moment to watch this 2 minute video clip.
I'm debating posting this at DKos, today or tomorrow. Problem is, I am concerned that many bloggers over there would never believe/understand that what this Republican Representative is talking about IS the Grand Bargain, and/or the President's own Fiscal Commission's proposals.
Notice that Representative Brat didn't stop at mentioning the "Chained CPI," but included raising the Social Security retirement eligibility age AND means testing.
It's coming this year, I feel certain.
And, hey, with such willing partners from the corporatist/neoliberal (so-called) Mainstream Republican side of the isle, it should be a cakewalk!
This is serious business, now. It's truly time to quit mincing words.
I just hope that it is possible to alarm the progressive blogging community to what is getting ready to happen.
Here's the full video interview, below.
Mollie
"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart."--Helen Keller
"Every time I lose a dog, he takes a piece of my heart. Every new dog gifts me with a piece of his. Someday, my heart will be total dog, and maybe then I will be just as generous, loving, and forgiving."--Author Unknown
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
OMG!
The smile plastered on his face as he tells us how meaningful it is for him to be working those long hours to screw us over. Poor baby. These people. These soulless, empty people.
I shave my legs with Occam's Razor~
I dread national election cycles
for this very reason. Every time there is a changing of the guard coming they start reforming and passing all the nasties that will set up the next administration. TPP is another thing that is looming on the horizon. When they start talking reform, deficits or legacy you know we're about to get screwed. Then it's not either party's fault as Clinton did it or Bush did it and the DC partisan kabuki show is back on stage for an 8 year run. This guy went full bore fear mongering with his 'then we're Greece'. His economic pie chard is laughable considering the amount of the pie that goes into national defense as they like to call their endless bloody wars.
I made a comment over at EB about this.
I will copy it for here.
Dave Brat is the super right winger who defeated Eric Cantor. This guy is Tea Party I believe. I love how these people talk about how we must cut the entitlement programs under the guise of saving them. These are the same people who refuse to increase revenues in any shape or form.
There are several none painful ways to beef up Social Security and Medicare both. Lifting the caps on Social Security would go a long way to improving it financially. But raising the minimum wage and getting people back to work would increase the payments into the fund. The reason the Republicans keep attacking Social Security is it is the single largest holder of US debt because the money in the fund was required to be invested in treasury bills. Raising the retirement age is not a good idea because the very poeple who need to retire no later than 65 are those who often have worked at manual labor jobs. This is just in humane to make these people work into their 70's or later when they are not physically able. Expanding Medicare to make it Medicare for all (ie, US healthcare under a single payer Medicare umbrella) will do a lot to help Medicare by increasing the number of younger and healthier people paying into the system.
What Mr. Brat seems to conveniently forget is that we the people pay into both Social Security and Medicare. Now if we want to look at the real 800 pound gorilla in the budgetary process, we need to look at the discretionary budget. Over 50% of the discretionary budget goes to the military. Until Mr. Brat and his fellow inhumane creeps in Congress can justify the bottomless pit that is our military budget, they have no right to complain about Social Security and Medicare.
The number I throw out over and over is $4.5 to $6 Trillion is what the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were estimate to end up costing us long term as calculated by Harvard researcher Linda J. Bilmes in early 2013. Afghanistan is our longest war ever and Iraq is our third longest war ever. Both wars were begun and continue to be fought after Bush cut taxes. That is the first time ever in the history of the US that we have entered into wars without creating additional funding to pay for them, usually a war tax.
up
- See more at: http://caucus99percent.com/content/evening-blues-9-18-15#comments
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
FYI. The real budget number for "defense"
…excluding war spending (special situation) — is about $1.6 trillion per year. This does include care for the damaged people who we train to be serial killers. The total was about $1.1 trillion in 2007 and $1.3 trillion in 2011. You can add your war spending to that. Most of it goes straight to debt.
USAians refuse to grasp that half of government revenues fall down the black hole of corruption and death, in the Neocon pursuit of global EMPIRE. In all other countries, including China and Russia, defense spending is about 5 percent instead of 50 percent. They are not chasing Empire.
Personally, I think it is pointless to resist and fight incrementally — meal by meal — on this issue — year after year. That's what keeps people in ignorance or denial, as greater chunks of the middle class continue the slide into poverty.
In New York City, over eight percent of kids in elementary school are homeless on any given day. In 2014, there were 77,915 homeless students living in shelters or staying with friends or extended family. That number is racing higher. The number of homeless New Yorkers sleeping each night in municipal shelters is now 78 percent higher than it was ten years ago. Many more sleep unsheltered on the streets. A far larger percentage of families are homeless now than were homeless during the Great Depression.
But, Americans continue to be skeered of muslims coming to git them, and they vote for more war and bigger defense spending. And, as long as they do so, they should experience the results. Otherwise, they cannot evolve.
Obviously, this problem cannot be fixed from inside the US.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Afternoon, Tim, busy and late, as usual. Hang in there -
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Good Afternoon, NCTim, we all should stand by you,
but other to sing the song and put in the word "you" instead of "me" I don't know how.I hope someone will counsel you, because you will need help yourself.
You are an *angel*.
Sorry Tim about your circumstances
you have a herculean job and I wish you could get some respite from it. Have you looked into what's available in your area?
To thine own self be true.
(Requeued--Fixed Link.) I remember that it was a dual
between professors for Cantor's seat. Duck Duck Go turned up some interesting stuff.
Most articles say that while he had the enthusiastic support of some Virginia rank-and-file Tea Partiers, he was not funded by the (formal) national Tea Party organizations. Here's what Salon (Digby) had to say about him.
He ran on an anti-corporate welfare, anti-crony capitalism platform--apparently against bailing out the banks during the financial meltdown, etc.
According to most pieces, he's generally considered a libertarian a la the billionaire Koch brothers, and/or Pete Peterson. The Kochs being the Repubs "guy," and Peterson being in bed with the Dems, especially with Bill Clinton. Which makes sense, since the President's Fiscal Commission's "Grand Bargain" proposal (The Moment Of Truth) is basically a libertarian screed, aimed at eliminating "transfer programs," or redistribution.
Anyhoo, here's a couple of passages about Brat's economic and Social Security views/agenda:
My Note: Are we supposed to be 'grateful' for that?
Taxes Edit
Brat advocates for an end to tax credits, deductions and loopholes, and calls for a flatter and more efficient tax code.[72] (Bowles Simpson)
Interestingly,
What he did this morning was to make plain is that he wants to 'strike a deal' on entitlements. He sounds almost identical to fiscal hawk Rep Chris Van Hollen (MD), and many of the other deficit-obsessed Dems and Repubs.
As an aside, I finally broke down and resubscribed to The Financial Times. I did it because our own national papers are full of so much propaganda.
I figure that by doing so, I'll have the opportunity to actually find out "what is contained in the upcoming omnibus/cromnibus bills." Time will tell if my calculation was correct. (Fingers-crossed!)
Mollie
"Every time I lose a dog, he takes a piece of my heart. Every new dog gifts me with a piece of his. Someday, my heart will be total dog, and maybe then I will be just as generous, loving, and forgiving."--Author Unknown
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Sorry. Should read "it was a duel between . . . " N/T
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.