The Evening Blues - 9-17-15
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features blues steel guitar player Freddie Roulette and r&b singer Tyrone Davis. Enjoy!
Freddie Roulette - End of the Blues
"The process of transformation [of the military], even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event––like a new Pearl Harbor."-- PNAC, Rebuilding America's Defenses
News and Opinion
Oh looky, the government's sick, evil bastards are at it again. I wonder how large a "catalytic event" they are hoping for this time.
Top Intel Lawyer Says Terror Attack Would Help Push for Anti-Encryption Legislation
The intelligence community’s top lawyer, Robert S. Litt, told colleagues in an August email obtained by the Washington Post that Congressional support for anti-encryption legislation “could turn in the event of a terrorist attack or criminal event where strong encryption can be shown to have hindered law enforcement.”
So he advised “keeping our options open for such a situation.”
For the State Blowback Is a Feature, Not a Bug
Every year, we’re subjected to another round of mawkish, smarmy 9/11 memorial ceremonies whose main purpose is to maintain loyalty to the very national security state whose aggression brought the terror attacks of September 11 on us in the first place. It’s all part of an endless cycle, repeated over and over, dating back to the late ’70s. 1) Criminal, aggressive intervention overseas by the American national security state; 2) the ensuing destabilization from that intervention results in terrorist blowback to the people of the United States; 3) the leaders of the American state take advantage of the terrorist attack by waving the bloody shirt to manipulate the public into supporting a new wave of criminal aggression; which leads to 4) more blowback. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Al Qaeda came into existence in the first place because the United States, under President Jimmy Carter and his National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, supported an Islamic fundamentalist uprising that destabilized the pro-Soviet government of Afghanistan, and the Reagan administration subsequently backed the Mujaheddin guerrillas against the Soviet invasion. All this was for the sake of bogging the Russians down in their own “Vietnam” – a move in the “Great Game” that Brzezinski, even after 9/11, said was worth it.
Another contributing factor to 9/11 was Operation Desert Shield/Storm – a war entirely engineered by the Bush’s quiet encouragements to Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait – which outraged many in the Islamic world by bringing American troops on the soil of Saudi Arabia, home country of the holiest sites of Islam.
9/11 was, in turn, a bonanza for the U.S. national security state. Using the terror attacks as a pretext, the American leadership was able to stampede Congress into rubber stamping the USA PATRIOT Act (a grant of police state powers comparable to those granted Hitler under the Enabling Act passed after the Reichstag Fire) and two foreign wars, along with a blank check to initiate other wars at will (used to legitimize Obama’s interventions in Libya, Syria and Kurdistan, among others). Right up to the present, anyone opposing new military actions by the United States, or suggesting that terrorist attacks of the past were blowback from previous US interventions, is labeled a defeatist or worse. As antiwar blogger Jennifer Abel put it (“Your Annual 9/11 Memorial Riddle,” Ravings of a Feral Genius, Sept. 11): “Q: What’s the difference between 9/11 and a cow? A:
The government can’t milk a cow for 14 years and counting.”
This is the kind of society the government's sick, evil bastards are creating for us:
Irving MacArthur student arrested after bringing homemade clock to school
There are sprawling industries and self-proclaimed career “terrorism experts” in the U.S. that profit greatly by deliberately exaggerating the threat of Terrorism and keeping Americans in a state of abject fear of “radical Islam.” ... The U.S. government just formally renewed the “State of Emergency” it declared in the aftermath of 9/11 for the 14th time since that attack occurred, ensuring that the country remains in a state of permanent, endless war, subjected to powers that are still classified as “extraordinary” even though they have become entirely normalized. ...
What happened in Irving, Texas, yesterday to a 14-year-old Muslim high school freshman is far from the worst instance, but it is highly illustrative of the rotted fruit of this sustained climate of cultivated fear and demonization. The Dallas Morning News reports that “Ahmed Mohamed — who makes his own radios and repairs his own go-kart — hoped to impress his teachers when he brought a homemade clock to MacArthur High,” but “instead, the school phoned police.”
Despite insisting that he made the clock to impress his engineering teacher, consistent with his long-time interest in “inventing stuff,” Ahmed was arrested by the police and led out of school with his hands cuffed behind him. When he was brought into the room to be questioned by the four police officers who had been dispatched to the school, one of them — who had never previously seen him — said: “Yup. That’s who I thought it was.” As a result, he “felt suddenly conscious of his brown skin and his name — one of the most common in the Muslim religion.”
There’s absolutely no evidence that this was anything more than a clock, nor any indication of any kind that the talented and inventive freshman built it as anything other than a school project. But even now, “police say they may yet charge him with making a hoax bomb — though they acknowledge he told everyone who would listen that it’s a clock.” According to the BBC, “police spokesman James McLellan said that, throughout the interview, Ahmed had maintained that he built only a clock, but said the boy was unable to give a ‘broader explanation’ as to what it would be used for.” ...
The behavior here is nothing short of demented. And it’s easy to mock, which in turn has the effect of belittling it and casting it as some sort of bizarre aberration. But it’s not that. It’s the opposite of aberrational. It’s the natural, inevitable byproduct of the culture of fear and demonization that has festered and been continuously inflamed for many years. The circumstances that led to this are systemic and cultural, not aberrational.
Brits appear to have developed some sort of Giant Bomb, possibly attached to rocket. #IStandWithAhmed via @rupagulab pic.twitter.com/1F4MfOp19q
— Saral Patel (@iSaralPatel) September 17, 2015
Heh, It looks like this instance is so egregious that an American community is going to step up and denounce racism and bigotry:
Facebook, Google roll out welcome mat to Ahmed Mohamed
Ahmed Mohamed, the 14-year-old Muslim student who was detained after he brought a homemade clock that a teacher mistook for a bomb to his Texas high school, is receiving an outpouring of support from Silicon Valley, including an invitation to visit Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook.
Facebook's chief executive and founder was among the powerful voices speaking out for Mohamed on Wednesday. Zuckerberg publicly defended and praised Mohamed in a post on his Facebook page.
"Having the skill and ambition to build something cool should lead to applause, not arrest. The future belongs to people like Ahmed," Zuckerberg wrote. "Ahmed, if you ever want to come by Facebook, I'd love to meet you." ...
Google invited Mohamed to take part in its science fair, urging him: "Bring your clock!"
Twitter even offered Mohamed an internship.
Best one I've seen so far. @IStandWithAhmed #IStandWithAhmed pic.twitter.com/PKnM43RQSh
— Xopher SJW ½tongue (@Halftongue) September 17, 2015
This is an interesting, if somewhat longish read. Here's a taste [bolding is my emphasis -js]:
Hitler’s world may not be so far away
It was 20 years after I chose to become a historian that I first saw a photograph of the woman who made my career possible. In the small photograph that my doctoral supervisor, her son, showed me in his Warsaw apartment, Wanda J radiates self-possession, a quality that stood her in good stead during the Nazi occupation. She was a Jewish mother who protected herself and her two sons from the German campaign of mass murder that killed almost all of her fellow Warsaw Jews. When her family was summoned to the ghetto, she refused to go. She moved her children from place to place, relying upon the help of friends, acquaintances and strangers. When first the ghetto and then the rest of the city of Warsaw were burned to the ground, what counted, she thought, was the “faultless moral instinct” of the people who chose to help Jews.
Most of us would like to think that we possess a “moral instinct”. Perhaps we imagine that we would be rescuers in some future catastrophe. Yet if states were destroyed, local institutions corrupted and economic incentives directed towards murder, few of us would behave well. There is little reason to think that we are ethically superior to the Europeans of the 1930s and 1940s, or for that matter less vulnerable to the kind of ideas that Hitler so successfully promulgated and realised. A historian must be grateful to Wanda J for her courage and for the trace of herself that she left behind. But a historian must also consider why rescuers were so few. It is all too easy to fantasise that we, too, would have aided Wanda J. Separated from National Socialism by time and luck, we can dismiss Nazi ideas without contemplating how they functioned. It is our very forgetfulness of the circumstances of the Holocaust that convinces us that we are different from Nazis and shrouds the ways that we are the same. We share Hitler’s planet and some of his preoccupations; we have perhaps changed less than we think. ...
Hitler’s alternative to science and politics was known as Lebensraum, which meant “habitat” or “ecological niche”. Races needed ever more Lebensraum, “room to live”, in order to feed themselves and propagate their kind. Nature demanded that the higher races overmaster and starve the lower. Since the innate desire of each race was to reproduce and conquer, the struggle was indefinite and eternal. At the same time, Lebensraum also meant “living room”, with the connotations of comfort and plenty in family life. The desire for pleasure and security could never be satisfied, thought Hitler, since Germans “take the circumstances of the American life as the benchmark”. Because standards of living were always subjective and relative, the demand for pleasure was insatiable. Lebensraum thus brought together two claims: that human beings were mindless animals who always needed more, and jealous tribes who always wanted more. It confused lifestyle with life itself, generating survivalist emotions in the name of personal comfort.
Hitler was not simply a nationalist or an authoritarian. For him, German politics were only a means to an end of restoring the state of nature. “One must not be diverted from the borders of Eternal Right,” as Hitler put it, “by the existence of political borders.” Likewise, to characterise Hitler as an antisemite or an anti-Slavic racist underestimates the potential of Nazi ideas. His ideas about Jews and Slavs were not prejudices that happened to be extreme, but rather emanations of a coherent worldview that contained the potential to change the world. By presenting Jews as an ecological flaw responsible for the disharmony of the planet, Hitler channelled and personalised the inevitable tensions of globalisation. The only sound ecology was to eliminate a political enemy; the only sound politics was to purify the earth; the means to these ends would be the destruction of states.
How Yarmouk Came About: Israel’s Unabashed Role in the Syrian Refugee Crisis
When Zionist Haganah militias carried out Operation Yiftach on 19 May, 1948, the aim was to drive Palestinians in the northern Safad District outside the border of Israel, which had declared its independence a mere five days earlier. The ethnic cleansing of Safad and its many villages was not unique to that area. In fact, it was the modus operandi of Zionist militias throughout Palestine. Soon after Israel’s independence, and the conquering of historic Palestine, the militias were joined together to form the “Israel Defense Forces”.
Not all villages, however, were completely depopulated. Some residents in villages like Qaytiyya, near the River Jordan, remained in their homes. Living between two tributaries of the Jordan – the Hasbani and Dan rivers – the villagers hoped that normality would return to tranquil Qaytiyya once the war subsided.
Their fate, however, was worse than that of those who were forced out, or who fled for fear of what terrors the future might hold. Israeli forces returned nearly a year later, rounded the remaining villagers into large trucks, tortured many and dumped them somewhere south of Safad. Little is known about what happened, but many of those who survived ended up in Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria. ...
When the Syrian uprising-turned-civil-war began in March 2011, many advocated that Palestinians in Syria should be spared the conflict. ... Yarmouk used to have over 200,000 inhabitants, most of whom are registered with the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA); the population was reduced to less than 20,000. Much of the camp is in total ruins. Most of its residents who have neither starved to death nor been killed in the war have fled to other parts of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Europe.
The most natural order of things would have been the return of the refugees to Safad and villages like Qaytiyya. Yet, few made such calls, and those demands raised by Palestinians officials were dismissed by Israel as nonstarters. In fact while countries like Lebanon have accepted 1.72 million refugees (one in every five people in Lebanon is a Syrian refugee), Turkey 1.93 million, Jordan 629,000, Iraq 249,000, and Egypt 132,000, Israel has made no offer to accept a single refugee. ...
Europe is both morally and politically accountable for hosting and caring for these refugees, considering its culpability in past Middle East wars and ongoing conflicts. Some governments are doing exactly that, including, for example, those in Germany and Sweden, while others, like Britain, have been utterly oblivious of and downright callous towards refugees. Even so, thousands of ordinary European citizens, as would any human being with an ounce of empathy, are volunteering to help refugees in both Eastern and Western Europe. ... The same cannot be said of Israel, which has alone ignited most of the Middle East conflicts in recent decades. Instead, the debate in Israel continues to center on demographic threats, with rhetoric loaded with racial connotations about the need to preserve a so-called Jewish identity.
Russia Urges Talks With US on Cooperation Against ISIS in Syria
In comments today, Secretary of State John Kerry reported that Russia has approached the administration about holding talks on military cooperation in the war against ISIS in Syria. The US has not responded, and officials are only “considering” the matter.
Kerry suggested it would be a “military-to-military” conversation meant to avoid the two nations coming into conflict with their respective efforts against ISIS. Kerry once again insisted that Russia’s involvement “undermines” US goals in Syria.
US says anti-ISIS campaign effective, Iraq invasion a success
Centcom Chief Denies Ordering Intel Edited to Sugarcoat ISIS War
Faced with questions during his Senate testimony about an ongoing Pentagon investigation into intelligence tampering by Central Command (Centcom), Centcom commander Gen. Lloyd Austin refused to discuss the matter directly, but did deny that he’d ever ordered any “skewing” of intelligence reports. ...
Centcom is struggling to figure out what their official stance on this is, initially defending the skewing of the intelligence as totally within their purview as the ones managing the war, and now insisting that the edits they made were totally innocuous and that the reports remained pessimistic.
Gen. Austin insisted that he would take unspecified “action” if the allegations turn out to be true, but Centcom’s narrative on the matter suggests that they consider anything they did to manipulate intelligence as totally their call, and they seem to be viewing the probe as an unwelcome intrusion.
US threatens North Korea with 'severe consequences' if it flouts nuclear ban
North Korea would face “severe consequences” if it continued with its announced decision to restart a nuclear reactor, the US secretary of state, John Kerry, has said.
Pyongyang has said it is restarting the long-mothballed Yongbyon reactor, which is capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium, and has threatened to launch a rocket, a move seen internationally as a test of ballistic missile technology. ...
Asked what the US could do if North Korea continued to flout bans on its nuclear and missile programs, Kerry said Kim Jong-un’s regime was already experiencing growing diplomatic isolation.
“China for instance has taken serious steps in the last year, year and a half, since we engaged China on this subject specifically to encourage them to do more, and they have,” he said.
He had also spoken to his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, about North Korean defiance.
Ukraine’s President Imposes New Sanctions on East for ‘Illegal Elections’
Speaking to the press today, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko angrily condemned an announcement out of the breakaway east to hold “fake illegal elections,” which he insisted threatened to start a new round of wars against their territory, and justified a dramatic widening of sanctions.
The new sanctions will hit over 400 people and 90 different companies. Many of the companies targeted are Russian, and seemingly targeted just for the sake of going after high profile Russian companies, though Ukraine’s collapsing economy and hostility toward Russia as a matter of course means that many of the companies targeted will not experience any real impact by the move.
Among the people targeted, however, include a large number of foreign reporters, including many from around Western Europe, who will subsequently be banned from the country for providing coverage which the government considers unfavorable.
Counterintelligence Agency Shrugs Off Responsibility for OPM Breach
The nation’s top counterintelligence agency is ducking responsibility for failing to identify or help address the Office of Personnel Management’s poor cyberdefenses before the massive data breach ascribed to the Chinese government, saying that wasn’t its job.
In response to a letter from Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who asked what the National Counterintelligence and Security Center had done to help OPM secure its systems or root out counterintelligence vulnerabilities, director William Evanina wrote that existing laws governing his office “do not include either identifying information technology (IT) vulnerabilities to agencies or providing recommendations to them on how to secure their IT systems.”
On Wednesday, Wyden blasted the agency for its officious response: “The OPM breach had a huge counterintelligence impact and the only response by the nation’s top counterintelligence officials is to say that it wasn’t their job,” he wrote.
One Percent or Workers: Who Will Fed Serve with Today's Rate Decision?
Progressives are cautioning the U.S. Federal Reserve against slowing the economy by raising interest rates "prematurely"—a decision the Fed will announce Thursday.
As CBS Moneywatch notes, "[t]he decision affects everything from the returns people get on their bank deposits to how much consumers and employers pay for credit cards, mortgages, small business loans, and student debt." That's because a higher rate makes it more expensive for individuals and businesses to borrow, with rising bank lending rates shrinking the nation's money supply and pushing up rates for mortgages, credit cards, and other loans.
Just before the announcement, the advocates, economists, and workers of the Fed Up coalition will be joined by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) at a rally outside the Fed, calling on the central bank to keep interest rates low to allow for more jobs and higher wages.
"The point of raising rates is to rein in an overheating economy that is threatening to push inflation outside the Fed’s comfort zone," explained Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. "But inflation has been running below the Fed’s target for years—and its recent moves have been down, not up."
Furthermore, wrote economist Joseph Stiglitz at the Guardian earlier this month: "If the Fed focuses excessively on inflation, it worsens inequality, which in turn worsens overall economic performance. Wages falter during recessions; if the Fed then raises interest rates every time there is a sign of wage growth, workers’ share will be ratcheted down—never recovering what was lost in the downturn."
Irish Anti-Austerity Groups Form New Party for 'Genuinely Left Government'
Two Irish anti-austerity groups are joining forces to galvanize a new left political party in Ireland ahead of the country's upcoming general elections, which are set to take place before next April.
The Anti-Austerity Alliance (AAA) and People Before Profit (PBP) announced Wednesday that the groups were establishing a new parliamentary group for Ireland's chamber, known as Dáil, with plans to run up to 40 candidates in the election and launch a new party focused on empowering communities and unions through grassroots action.
"With the backdrop of a radicalization in Irish society, a growing rejection of the traditional establishment parties and, in particular, the active movement against water charges, the left can make gains in the upcoming general election," the group announced in its statement Wednesday morning.
British PM David Cameron Says Jeremy Corbyn is a National Threat
That's "Right-Wing Prime Minister" to You, Says Growing Chorus of Corbyn Fans
In just ten hours, over 30,000 people signed a petition calling on the BBC to exercise a measure of "fairness" and begin identifying David Cameron as "right-wing Prime Minister"—just as the news organization leads any mention of the newly-elected Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn with the "left-wing" descriptor.
"Every time Jeremy Corbyn is mentioned in a news report on the BBC he is referred to as 'the left-wing Labour Party leader,'" the petition states. "In the interest of fairness and un-biased reporting, David Cameron should also be referred to in terms of his place on the political spectrum—'the right-wing Prime Minister.'"
One signatory, Fred Robinson from Norwich, said he signed "because I don't want our Beeb to become Fox," adding that the left-wing preface is likely used as a smear "because the Tories have threatened [BBC] with massive cuts."
Varoufakis to Corbyn: 'Don't Fear the Media'
Hillary pledges unconstitutional war with Iran
Hillary Rodham Clinton hoped to bolster her presidential campaign last week by promising to initiate war against Iran as president if she became convinced it was pursuing nuclear weapons. Speaking at the Brookings Institution on Sept. 9, Mrs. Clinton bugled: "The United States will never allow [Iran] to acquire a nuclear weapon. As president, I will take whatever action is necessary to protect the U.S. and its allies. I will not hesitate to take military action."
The U.S. Constitution, however, prohibits Mrs. Clinton's planned offensive use of the military to attack Iran. Only Congress can authorize belligerency. And Article II, section 1 requires the president to take an oath to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, not to sabotage it. Mrs. Clinton is thus unqualified for the office she craves.
At present, nine nations sport nuclear arsenals: North Korea, Pakistan, India, Israel, China, Russia, France, Great Britain, and the United States. Nuclear weapons have been used only twice at Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States. No theory of international law makes the mere possession of nuclear weapons an act of war. ...
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton championed an unconstitutional presidential war against Libya's Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 after he abandoned weapons of mass destruction. The war occasioned Gaddafi's murder and vivisection of Libya into hundreds of tribal, ethnic or sectarian militias and a blossoming of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) there.
Presidential wars are crimes against the Constitution constituting impeachable high crimes and misdemeanors under Article 2, section 4.
The Constitution's architects entrusted to Congress in Article I, section 8, clause 11 exclusive, non-delegable authority for deciding whether the United States should cross the Rubicon from a state of peace to a state of war. ...
Mrs. Clinton has been complicit in these evils by participation in the crucifixion of the Constitution on a cross of Empire.
She deserves political oblivion.
Former Occupy Wall Street protesters rally around Bernie Sanders campaign
Protesters say movement’s unorthodox style has laid groundwork for Sanders’ success, while its network of activists are proving a major boon to campaign
On 17 September 2011 a group of protesters occupied Wall Street. Their unpolished campaign sought to draw attention to financial inequality. To healthcare issues. And to the problem of student debt.
If that sounds familiar, it is because four years on, Bernie Sanders’ own campaign has highlighted many of the same grievances. It is no coincidence. In 2015 many of the protesters who cut their teeth in the Occupy encampments are now campaigning for the Democratic candidate.
“There’s 50 million people who are impoverished here in America,” said Stan Williams, an Occupy Wall Street stalwart who is now co-organiser of African Americans for Bernie.
“He talks about the 99%. He talks about the 1%. So a lot of the things he talks about resonate with me.” ...
At the time, Occupy protesters were criticised by some sections of the media for their lack of specific demands. But four years later protesters say the movement’s unorthodox style of campaigning has laid the groundwork for Sanders’ success, while Occupy’s network of activists are proving a major boon to what is a relatively impoverished campaign.
“He doesn’t have a big staff. He can’t afford to have the staff Hillary Clinton has,” Williams said. Williams was living in Alabama in September 2011 and moved to New York to be part of the movement. Williams now uses some of the skills he learned as an occupier to reach out to ethnic minority communities in a bid to spread Sanders’ message.
“The grassroots groups have far surpassed what he and his campaign could ever do. And since people who are involved in Occupy are leading the biggest group for Bernie Sanders, our fingers are all over this.”
The Evening Greens
Tim DeChristopher on the Demand to End All New Fossil Fuel Leasing on Public Lands and Oceans
1 million evacuated as Chile hit by magnitude 8.3 earthquake
Eight people have been killed and 1 million evacuated from their homes after a magnitude 8.3 earthquake struck just off the coast of Chile, sending powerful waves flooding into its coastal cities.
Coastlines on both sides of the Pacific had braced for possible tsunamis after the quake, although a tsunami alert originally issued for the entire Chilean coast was later lifted.
Chile’s ministry of the interior and public security said 20 people have been injured, but phone networks remain down in parts of the country so the full extent of damage and injury is not yet known. ...
A tsunami hit the coastal Chilean city of Tongoy at about 8.20pm local time, a little more than 25 minutes after the earthquake. Pictures appeared to show the city of Concón, popular with tourists, being deluged by waves. ...
The quake also sparked fears tsunamis could surge across the Pacific Ocean, with countries as far away Japan, New Zealand, Russia and the US states of California and Hawaii issuing warnings.
'Creation Care' May Make Environmentalists Out of the GOP
When US Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell announced Friday the successful conservation of a threatened species — the little-known, unglamorous New England cottontail — it was the culmination of a bipartisan effort on the environment. ...
The story of the rabbit's conservation is, according to those on the religious right and the liberal left, representative of common ground the political parties have found on environmental issues, which could lead to greater cooperation in the future, even on seemingly intractable battles such as climate change.
Following the announcement that the rabbit species' numbers had rebounded significantly in the past decade, a coalition of environmental religious groups including evangelicals, Catholics, Protestants, and Jews boasted of their support of conservation efforts and work in "protecting God's creation" — or, in the vernacular of the faith-based environmental movement, creation care. ...
Rob Sisson, the director of ConservAmerica, a conservative environmental group urging the GOP to reclaim its historical roots as conservationists, ... noted that the religious base of the party, along with hunters, fishers, and residents of Western states where debates over public land management resonate strongly, may very well be the best hope for achieving environmental protections.
He expressed hope that the visit of Pope Francis to the US at the end of September would result in news coverage and national discussion of the Pope's climate change encyclical, Laudato Si, that would help engage religious Republicans in more environmental issues.
"The general public, not the angry right or angry left, are taking notice and talking about it. People in pews around the country, in synagogues are talking about it, and I think after the Pope's visit at the end end of this month … I think we'll see it pop up in the public's mind pretty significantly," he said.
Republicans to break rank with party leaders in call for climate change action
Nearly a dozen Republican members of Congress will break ranks with leaders of their party on Thursday, and call for action against climate change.
The mini-rebellion a week before the pope visits Congress appears timed to ratchet up the pressure on Republican presidential candidates and congressional leaders to soften a party line of casting doubt – or simply denying – the existence of climate change.
So far, at least 10 House Republicans have signed on to the resolution acknowledging that human activity contributes to climate change, and calling for actions to respond to the threat of climate change.
The resolution was drafted by Chris Gibson, a former US army colonel and congressman from New York who is not seeking re-election.
The resolution, calling for “conservative environment stewardship” was endorsed by representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Carlos Curbelo of Florida, Robert Dold of Illinois, Dave Reichert of Washington, Pat Meehan, Ryan Costello, and Mike Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, and Richard Hanna and Elise Stefanik of New York, according to the National Journal.
A number of those representatives are also not seeking re-election or are from moderate districts.
Governments and Homeowners Are Burning Through Cash Due to California's Devastating Wildfires
The rampaging wildfires in the West are also burning a hole in the wallets of governments and homeowners.
Amid a deep, multi-year drought that has left forests tinder-dry, 2015 is on track to be among the most destructive years for wildfires. California alone has had to battle more than 5,000 individual blazes, while across the West, nearly 9 million acres have burned.
"We're all sort of astonished at how expensive it is," said Cassandra Moseley, director of the Institute for a Sustainable Environment at the University of Oregon. "We're in these stages now where it's really hard to get enough people and enough resources to all of the fires when they're all burning at once." ...
And the costs of containing those fires are mounting, topping $1 billion in every year since 2006, according to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC). A single fire in 2014, the 97,000-acre King Fire in California, cost almost $120 million to bring under control. ...
The US Forest Service recently complained that half its budget now goes to firefighting, squeezing out money for other projects—like preventing new fires. Thanks to climate change, a typical fire season is nearly three months longer than it was in 1970, and there's less water available to fight a blaze, the agency said.
Between 1985 and 2000, there were only four years when wildfires burned more than 5 million acres, according to NIFC statistics. Since 2000, only five years have seen fewer than 5 million acres burned.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
With Virtual Machines, Getting Hacked Doesn’t Have To Be That Bad
The history of anti-Islam controversy in Ahmed Mohamed’s Texas city
CIA declassifies trove of Cold War-era intelligence memos
Google forges ahead with data encryption despite FBI warnings
#DebateWithBernie: The 'Hands Down' Winner of Second GOP Presidential Debate
U.S. Wrongly Argues Verizon Wireless’ Participation In NSA Program Is Classified
The Dirty Politics Behind the Syrian Conflict
A Little Night Music
Freddie Roulette - The Thrill Is Gone
Tyrone Davis - If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time
Tyrone Davis - Can I Change My Mind
Freddie Roulette - Killing Floor
Freddie Roulette - Lucille
Freddie Roulette - Need Your Lovin'
Tyrone Davis - Mom's Apple Pie
Freddie Roulette - Got My Mojo Workin'
Comments
What Syrians think
Much different view
Iraqis are much more negative of ISIS, but have a similar view on U.S. bombings.
interesting polling results...
i suppose that they are somewhat skewed in the sense that the group that remains in syria to answer questions probably represents a different range of opinion than if one were to be able to include a representative sampling of syrians that were living in syria prior to when the us and its allies commenced their destruction of the state. i would expect that sampling would even more strongly prefer life as it was when they had an intact state.
it's a shame that the opinions of syrians themselves mean nothing to the nations which have "liberated" them.
Nice to get my favorite radio station back, joe!
Hell, I was jonesin'. Hilary keeps cooking her own goose; doesn't she know it's been overcooked for quite a while. She might as well pick bush the younger as her running mate; he does need to stay away from painting...SSK
afternoon ssk...
glad that you could join us!
while things could change, it appears to me that hillary has already been marginalized beyond what even massive infusions of cash can provide for her. it looks like the money-people may be able to smear and bring down the fortunes of her competitors but it looks to me like her moribund campaign is toast.
Marginalized among Dems?
At the moment, she still beats every potential Republican candidate. I would expect that to hold.
(This is a built-in flaw of a binary two-party system. Very, very easy for the propaganda monopolies to select the winner.)
You know, it just dawned on me — in a total awareness state — that the US doesn't hold Federal elections. And the people do not select the nation's President.
The 50 states pick the President. As the obsolete Constitution rapidly degrades over time, new processes, technologies, finance, and demographics (like gerrymandering or the vast misinformation industry without such checks as the fairness doctrine) render its original intentions meaningless. The people are increasingly separated from the Federal legislature. In an un-nuanced non-parlimentary system, one is left with only singular fascism. (Would-be leaders are highly compromised. Or dead.)
Anyway, I read an interesting logic piece on the states role in the 2016 elections. The bottomline is, it doesn't matter who votes for what. In 2016, there is only one state that matters. Florida. No one can win the Presidency without Florida in 2016.
Which explains, I suppose, why the ticket still looks like Clinton v. Bush. So far, that is, and consistently since 2012 among pragmatic prognosticators.
Unless Trump really is a Black Swan.
I only know what I read and synthesize, however. What do you think?
Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange
my instinct is that she is floundering...
and the party elites are worried. the push to get biden into the race and hillary's desperate use of her proxy david brock to try to smear sanders tell me that the polling that we see in the papers is not what the candidates are picking up. hillary's trajectory is headed down and her negatives are rising.
this is really early in the horse race, but i'm not accustomed to seeing this sort of desperation this early.
the only thing that hillary really has going for her is the inability of the rethugs to field a decent candidate.
I've made different assumptions.
I assume Hillary has two more aces up her sleeve, at least:
1. Donald Trump, one of her more supportive donors over the years.
2. The Bernie Sanders round-up.
As you say, it's really early in the campaign. Ridiculously early. But from the beginning, I see both those men working on her behalf.
Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange
trump does seem to be working for hillary...
on the other hand, i keep asking myself - what's in it for sanders? he's going to retire comfortably anyway, his senate seat is secure, what could they possibly be offering him to roll over? he is doing a pretty good impression of a guy who would like to be president.
HRC is a sweet talker
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
heh...
My assumptions are along the same lines (as yours), Pluto. It's
so clear that most of his life Trump has supported much more 'progressive' policies, than have most of his opposing Republican candidates--fiscally and/or socially.
Trump and Bill Clinton refuse to divulge the subject matter of their recent documented phone conversations.
Regarding Senator Sanders, numerous articles quote him as saying that he will support whomever the Democratic Party nominee is.
And I've quoted him saying that [here], from the transcript of a Sunday political talk show with George Stephanopoulos.
So, to some extent, I'm "guessing" that they (Dem Party Leadership) have Senator Sanders in a real tight spot. Could it be that it's not so much what they would give Sanders for trying to help, or at least not hinder, FSC--it might be what he would lose if he doesn't play nice with the Party Leadership. For instance, would they take away his plum Committee assignments/Chairmanships?
Certainly, I don't know the answer to that. But having seen them [Leadership] go after other Dems who displeased them, I couldn't honestly rule out the possibility that Leadership would make life miserable for any Dem, or Caucus Member, who doesn't play by their rules. Also, remember Kerry's and Gephardt's part in going after Howard Dean.
Of course, we'll likely never know what is/has happened behind the scenes. So, it's all just speculation with the exception of the fact that Sanders has verbally committed to support whomever wins the nomination. And help fund raise for them, and for the Party in the General Election.
(The point is not to disparage Bernie. Nor am I meaning to imply that he isn't running for President to win. It is to say that the Leadership 'may' have him over a barrel, if he wants to run as a Democrat.)
Anyway, IMHO, we need a complete overhaul of our political system. And it's hard to believe that the status quo of either Party will go along with that agenda, anytime soon.
*Sigh*
I didn't know until I went to research HR 676--Conyers' bill mentioned in the WSJ piece that Joe posted the other day--that the proposals for "Expanded Medicare For All" would actually dismantle all the Title XVIII programs (Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare). Also, the CHIPs program.
Some proposals also dismantle the Native Indian Health Services, but leave the VA Health Care System intact. Not sure that really matters now, since they the privatization of that program began last year.
I've been on board with the opening up of Medicare, to Everyone--not the complete dismantling of our current Medicare program, and all the other Title XVIII health care programs--only to replace them with some completely unknown and untested system.
I'll post excerpts and links to these bills when we get closer to the mid-October Dem Party Primary debate.
I plan to look into these proposals very carefully. And hope that others here will join me.
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.
I should add, Medicaid is Title XIX program-not Title XVIII. NT
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
I am a simple minded person
who goes a lot by intuition, but...
Here is my take on the Democratic run. For Clinton, the party establishment as been pushing her inevitability. If you had looked at the polls even over one year ago, two things stuck out. First Clinton had an overwhelming lead among Democrats. But also, as early as over one year ago, her negatives among all voters were already close to 40%. I made a comment to that effect over at dkos way back then and if anyone wants me to research it, I will try to link it.
So over one year ago (June 2014, if I remember correctly), there was a Democratic front runner with a huge war chest who had what appeared to be an insurmountable lead both among Democrats and the overall electorate. But I have always believed negatives are the red flags. It is very difficult for a candidate to overcome negatives, but far too easy to lose from the positive category. This was the great weakness of Hillary Clinton.
Second, one only has to look at trendlines. IMHO, this is what is spooking the establishment. And the establishment is pushing for Uncle Joe to come in and save the establishment from Bernie Sanders or even the Republicans. At the rate that the Clinton campaign is going, there is a distinct possibility that Clinton could even be beaten by a Republican.
She is floundering and timing is everything. So right now, the key is how does the Democratic establishment counter that? Apparently personal attacks upon Sanders are not working, so they are looking very hard at Plan B (Joe Biden).
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
I follow a different tract when predicting outcomes.
I've come to believe that the "situation" determines the outcome of the election, and not anything that the candidate does or does not do. I picked that up from Allan Lichtman, a Professor of History at American University. He presents 13 true/false questions that are conditions that favor reelection of the incumbent party candidate. When five or fewer are false, the incumbent party candidate wins. When six or more are false, the other party candidate wins.
He calls it the "13 Keys to the White House". On July 12, 2010, the "Keys" guaranteed that Barack Obama would win re-election in 2012. Everything else was just noise. Several months ago, Lightman announced that Hillary would win the 2016 election, no matter what.
The Keys have worked flawlessly for 150 years.
Although the low-info US public views politics (and murderous wars) like a spectator sport, Presidential elections are not the SuperBowl.
Now, I suppose a truly disruptive Black Swan could change the outcome. That's never happened before. But I suppose it could. Something truly amazing from "outside" the United States….
Link: https://www.informs.org/ORMS-Today/Public-Articles/June-Volume-38-Number...
Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange
i've heard of lichtman before...
but had forgotten about him. it struck me when i heard about him that his theories were in a way consonant with sheldon wolin's theory of managed democracy.
i guess, down at the bottom of it, i'm hoping that a disaffected people might reject both of the candidates of the corporate parties, if only by accident of the media whipping up tea party-type discontent with the system.
I agree with your analysis, Nancy. I can't imagine that
a "Plan B" with Biden would save the day for the Dem Party Leadership.
I think that this mistaken notion demonstrates just how disconnected they are from mainstream Americans, not to mention their own Activist Base.
When did corporatist VP Joe Biden become a 'populist?'
What the h*ll am I missing?
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.
"Bankruptcy Joe" Biden? . . . Really?
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2015/09/bankruptcy-joe-biden-really.html
That the Democratic party bigwigs would even entertain the notion of putting up Biden when the winds of history are blowing populist — that really shows how out of touch they are.
I agree, but
To me, here are the key paragraphs
It is about who the establishment wants to foist upon the voters should Clinton stumble badly.
I have been predicting for over a year, that she would implode for two reasons. First, she is not that good a candidate. What she has going for her with the voters are two things: name recognition (hence inevitable) and identity politics (it is time for a woman President). The problem with all of this is that second, she is not a very good campaigner. She comes off as arrogant and aloof on the campaign trail. Plus she is burdened by her coziness with Wall Street. All of this would probably be overcome by her identity politics if she was running against only other establishment candidates. Then her name recognition and especially identity politics could carry her through and they might still do so. But to me, there are serious questions about the viability of her campaign, particularly against an establishment Republican.
Bernie Sanders' candidacy has presented a terrible problem for Clinton. His out front, get down in the mosh pit campaign style of telling it like it is without equivocation, and supported only by small donors and a huge army of unpaid volunteers has made a huge contrast to the cloistered, jet setting, large donor, private fund raising of the Clinton campaign. It is authenticity versus triangulation. And it is starting to show up in the polls of the early states.
So here is where Plan B comes in. Joe Biden stands for the very same establishment politics that Clinton does, but he has cultivated a personality of the average Joe or uncle Joe. In other words, he is what the establishment wants with a more affable facade if her campaign starts cratering.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
You put it really clearly. That's a better way to think of it.
I was buying into the framing that they're "out of touch" — but they're not out of touch, are they?
They know exactly what they're doing: continuing the charade, selling the same old package of falsehoods to the American people, etc.
Welcome Santa Susanna Kid!
It is so cool that you decided to join us here. I hope to see you posting often.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Ditto! A hearty welcome to you, SSK. Great to see
you here!
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.
Hey SSK...
glad you made it, pard!
Hey SSK
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Yep!
Good evening folks . . .
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uUpRCKtAw8 width:420 height:236]
The big Valley fire is nearly out because it rained yesterday. They found a couple of bodies yesterday but haven't been able to identify them yet.
Hey
Glad the fire is waning. I saw a picture from the people they found. Fire scares me. When I was young and foolish enough to go to the very crowded bars, I was always aware of my best egress.
Unless a bunny eats your stash.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
afternoon crider...
great tunes!
Canada's Leadership Debate Tonight
sponsored by the Globe & Mail, our national newspaper has eliminated our only Green MP, Elizabeth May. She is not just any MP, she won Parliamentarian of the Year because of her hard work. She would stay up nights reading through omnibus bills so she could critique them and warn us about them. She has done a great job for the environment in Canada. 80% of respondents in a poll want her to be on that stage.
So we will have
Liberal Party is not that different from Conservative Party.
I'll be watching the Blue Jays' baseball game.
To thine own self be true.
evening marilyn...
i'm glad that you've got some alternative viewing for the evening. i couldn't bring myself to watch the spectacle of the rethugs last night. judging by the clips that have been playing today, i missed nothing.
i hope it's a good game tonight.
How 'bout it, ladies ...
We sometimes hear that there would be fewer wars if we put the women in charge of things. They're less violent, the reasoning goes, and, after all, they're the mothers and grandmothers of the boys we send over to get shot up. It doesn't work like that in the US though, does it? We have two female presidential candidates and both of them are more bellicose than their y-chromosome counterparts. I suppose they must prove to a violence-addicted electorate that they can be just as "tough" as a male president, but both Hillary and Carly really seem to enjoy the threats and sabre-rattling.
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
margaret thatcher, golda meir...
predecessors with more than just sabre-rattling skills.
Nice to see you, Azazello.
With the destruction of the nation and people of Libya, and the arming of al Qaeda to continue the slaughter in Syria, Hillary has already proved her murderous Neocon street cred as a war criminal.
Carly still has to prove herself, but she did a pretty good reenactment of GI Jane last night, grabbing her balls and spitting out the demographic dogwhistle-identities of those who she promised to personally kill with her bare hands — her face hot with bright hope of genocide. She repeatedly interrupted the other candidates, growling for more money to build an even larger, more deadly Navy.
Those two harpies are grandest sociopaths among all women. Off stage, Hillary shrugged. Since they are both clearly capable of heinous atrocities, Hillary says her position on Planned Parenthood makes her the winner. That's probably true, given the women's vote.
Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange
The most cut throat boss
I ever had was a woman. But that is anecdotal, so I am not sure exactly how it carries over. To be honest, I do not believe that the gender of the person in charge is the key. Instead, it is how deeply that person is embedded within the corporatist system that dictates our government.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Evening all
Thanks joe for tonight's news and blues. I am really enjoying tonight's tunes.
I couldn't watch the debate either. I just knew there would be nothing redeeming about it.
evening janis...
good to see you! i'll probably watch the democratic party debates, even though watching hillary posture and tell us all who she is hot to kill will be an awful thing to watch. hopefully bernie will make them a bit more interesting than previous years' yawn festivals.
I'm pretty sure he'll present a formidable challenge
to Hillary. I just hope she is not too dismissive in her approach. It would be good to hear a debate of some substance.
Stopped by to say hey
Does The Evening Blues have a new post time?
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Not to be confused with Brother Tyrone
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Hey stranger...
Hey
The degree of difficulty has increased and I have a hard time getting things done or following a schedule. A dreaded step change has manifest itself.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Sorry...
to hear that brother. We are all here for you, you have my email.
Peace...
Thanks
I need to suck it up an keep on keeping on. I thought having the 22 year old back home was going to help. Now that she is back in the house, I have come to the conclusion that being around is bad for her. I am working on getting her back out of the house. I don't want her to have to watch her mother waste away.
I will be around, whenever I can. Maybe later, when things resolve, we can have a tribal council.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
I am so sorry Tim!
I wish I could find the right words...but I hope you know where my heart is for you both.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Thanks GG
After this, I should be able to handle anything that comes my way. I am determined not to let this take me down too.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
we went through something similar
with my father and his Alzheimer's. It was devastating to my mother because no one is closer than a spouse and for years, she was his primary caregiver. I understand what you are going through, within my own limited ability. What does not kill us, makes us stronger.
I am sending my best karma to you for strength, but do not be afraid to have some help too. The best advice I can give you is that every caregiver needs a break, even if it is for one or two hours. My heart goes out to you and to your sweetie. You both are very brave people. (((virtual hugs))) Nancy
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
i'm terribly sorry to hear that...
i hope that you're holding up well and getting the help you need from others. if there's anything that can be done to help, please let me know.
Thanks Joe
I am rolling with the punches. You keep doing your thing and I will tag along.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
So sorry to hear it.
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 --
Thanks EL
This has really solidified my absurdism.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
I've very sorry, too, Tim. My thoughts are with you both.
As Nancy said, be sure to take care of yourself. Hopefully, respite caregiver services are available to you.
I hope that Sweetie is as comfortable as possible. My best to your two children. This is all so sad.
Mollie
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Thanks
The degeneration of her speech has been particularly difficult. She is still learning to use the text to voice apps and still tries to talk. Sometimes you can understand, but mostly not. She gets frustrated and you can tell she is frustrated and upset, but don't know what she is saying/asking/telling.
The paradigm for dedicated communications devices is even more nonsensical than the pain management paradigm. Justification requires an extensive report. The devices are typically some kind of tablet, with apps like dwell to click, on screen keyboard and a text to voice app. The law requires the devices be locked and not able to access the Internet. Must have been those free market and too many regulation conservatives. The law is evolving and I think some of the US House has realized that it is stupid legislation.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Well, I hope that she gets the communication devices
that she needs. Probably, a little of what you said is 'over my head.'
I've seen a couple of pictures of devices that might be similar to the kind you're using for her--the ones that are used for people whose motor activity has mostly ceased (in some cases, for paraplegics, for instance). But that might not even be the same thing, at all.
I hope that Medicare is as straightforward a health insurance plan today, as it was when I helped file our parents' claims, etc., and that they don't impose a lot of ridiculous demands on you (or hoops to jump through). And I know that you mentioned that you have another insurance through Sweetie's former employer. That's good.
Hope you continue to check in when you get a chance. Even a little break can often do one good.
Take care.
Mollie
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
My blind friends in the USA & the Netherlands say it's so stupid
They say that Apple's builtin accessibility features for blind people are the biggest advance in their lifetimes. Never before could blind people buy the same stuff sighted people buy and have it work for them right off the shelf, without any expensive add-ons and modifications.
But lawmakers, regulatory agencies, and insurance companies are still refusing to cover blind people's outlay for general purpose technology like Apple Macs or iOS. Yet at the same time they're willing to waste huge amounts subsidizing crippled single-purpose devices using obsolete technology generations behind the state of the art.
Insurance or government will only pay for technological aids if they're so awful no one uses them unless they absolutely have to.
The principle seems to be, clunkier is actually better because otherwise everyone would start pretending to have a disability to save money on computer stuff.
evening tim...
how's it going?
i've been posting eb here whenever i get finished filling it up with news. that's usually sometime between 2 and 5, though occasionally when life interferes it has been down to the wire.
Works for me
I am now asynchronous with the rest of the world. Afternoon reading is better than middle of the night reading.
The care taker responsibilities are basically full time now. Sweetie can not talk intelligibly. She has lost so much core strength that she can not sit up straight or get herself up from bent over. I can not leave her alone during toileting or showering. She is not down to only having use of her right hand. When that goes, I will have to feed her.
The neuro-muscular degeneration is advancing at a very brisk pace, faster than other ALS patients we have met.
I am already exhausted and dread the coming months.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Damn!
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
wow...
i don't know if it helps, but your dedication, kindness, decency and steadfastness are an inspiration. thank you.
^^^truth^^^ (n/t)
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
My pleasure
If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
I don't have words, just in my imagination a hug
and those images that I found in my helplessness to replace the lack of words
We try to not make you feel alone. I think you have friends here, Tim.
So much sympathy, so much difficulties for honest empathy...how could we walk in your shoes right now. I am so sorry.
And this for good night.
Hang in there. I wished there would be anything we could help with.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Good evening, Joe.Thanks.
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 --
evening el...
have a good one!
your comments the other day about the movement reminded me of better times:
Yes. Excellent quote. We need to try it again.
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 Evening Joe, I "enjoyed" the article
"Hitler's world may not be too far away".
Don't we all dwell in the imagination while reading about most grave atrocities done in wars in victim's autobiographies, how we ourselves could have perhaps rescued ourselves in such situations or how we would be "the moral, courageous" one to be the better one and a mini hero. At least I realized that often, when I read as a teenager and also when I discussed books with my sister. We were always in our imagination the ones who would magically survive and rescue the ones we most identified with.
The article is indeed long and I gave up after a while. But it is an interesting way to look at the holocaust in relation to agricultural technology as a possibility to replace the instinctive desire for Lebensraum by providing livable "lebensraum" by enhancing agricultural technology. Have to read more and twice to be able to formulate anyting else, but it seemed to me a analysis I haven't read before.
Yes, perhaps ...
...
Well, the article is rambling along and a bit hard to follow through. But I thought it was something unusual to read.
Thanks and good night.
https://www.euronews.com/live
evening mimi...
i'm glad that you "enjoyed" the article. i was thinking that it might attract your attention for obvious reasons. i recognize, though that the language in some sections (particularly later in the article) might be difficult for you to apprehend.
i think that it's an important article, though and there are some significant insights in it, especially for people who find themselves frequently in opposition to the state and its institutions. i'm still pondering some of the author's ideas, it may take me a couple of days to fully digest it.
me too - hard to digest - I think I don't get everything -
I am not so sure what to think, but I try to read it several time. Some correlations he drew were pretty foreign to me and I thought at first, may be a bit volitional, but then it was interesting to read. May be somethings will crystallize out of it that I can really agree with.
https://www.euronews.com/live
I'm interpreting "volitional/willkürlich" as meaning "arbitrary"
Is that okay / what you meant?
Sort of, but no, I use www.leo.org as my online dictionary
and put in the German word "gewollt" or "willensmäßig", which would mean "that you put something in words in a manner that you want them to mean exactly what you think they should mean and not what may be others think they would mean" or it would mean that you say something that forces your own will on the interpretation of those words. Have really difficulties to translate it.
The leo dictionary gave me "volitional" as translation and so I used it. Google translates "gewollt" as "willed" and
"willensmäßig" also as "volitionally".
May be what I wanted to indicate is that his interpretation is a bit enforced by his own will into a certain direction or so. Sigh. Sorry.
https://www.euronews.com/live
leo.org uses British English for their translations, may
be that's the reason they didn't translate volitional as arbitrary/willkürlich.
May be like you come up with an interpretation or analysis that imposes your own will more than one would think the facts or context would allow for.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Evening Joe, all,
The 9-11 Memorial Riddle brings to mind the timing of the much publicized ISIS be-headings. For any one wanting to squelch what appeared to me to be the long overdue re-awakening of anti war sentiment in the US, the be-headings were certainly convenient. Just sayin......
All I want is the truth. Just give me some truth. John Lennon
I used to think
... that thoughts like that made me (or you) cynical. But as I age, I realize, that I (we) see through the crap.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
There comes a time when the bullshit they force feed us
becomes just too hard to swallow.
Tim, so sorry to hear what life's thrown at you. Wish I could find the words to express it better but just know that you and Sweetie are in my thoughts and I wish you both the best. Wish I had more to offer.
All I want is the truth. Just give me some truth. John Lennon
Thank you
I feel fortunate that we have health insurance and very little debt. I sometimes contemplate the future, but I am unsure how I will seek solace.
I appreciate the sympathetic souls @ C99.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Pick up...
your axe and let your heart flow through the strings.
Good advise
I wish my wrist didn't hurt. Moving Sweetie between the bed, wheelchair and toilet is a handful. Getting her dressed involves bunches of physical exertion. My left wrist got tweaked pretty good during a try to stand, pin her against the wall, to pull up pants and almost fall/miss the wheel chair. But, I made the save!
My good fortune. So far, I have not had to sell a guitar. I'd fess up to how many, but some people just wouldn't understand.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
I'd understand, my friend...
evening bo...
yes, the beheading propaganda was quite timely. on the other hand, what the media didn't mention is that our great ally, saudi arabia has beheaded far more people this year than isis. any serious examination of the human rights record of saudi arabia will show that they are as bad or worse than isis - considerably better armed and not shy about using the weapons, training and military assistance that the us gives them for despicable purposes.
Amnesty International Capital Punishment Report
From a few years back: Top three countries that kill their citizens, China, Saudi Arabia and USA. Saudi Arabia is number 1 per capita. USA is number one for incarceration. To be fair, there are a few countries that do not report. So the USA is not ony like China and Saudi Arabia. We are also like Iran, Pakistan and Burma.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Apropos Burma: Obama and fake reform (November, 2014)
http://www.irrawaddy.org/commentary/obamas-second-burma-visit-falls-flat...
Yep, and the media that couldn't wait to tell us in great detail
about the ISIS be-headings is the very same media that ignores what goes on in saudi arabia. So there's that too.
All I want is the truth. Just give me some truth. John Lennon
A new meme regarding Syrian Kurds