Openly Eccentric (The RETURN)- Open Thread 7/31/2016
Good Sunday Morning, and Welcome To Openly Eccentric, your Sunday Morning News show of no consequence whatsoever, in which I detail the stories that I personally find important, and rant and rave about things that are on my mind. 
First Off, It's TIME again for the Portlandia C99 meetup. We said we'd have another one after the convention, and the convention is OVER, thank GOD. I swear if I had to watch any more ass-kissing, I should have just turned on pornography and fast forwarded through the dialogue. At least then, somebody might have had some actual pleasure, because watching those fake smiles was like trying to sit through the eventual Funeral of George W. Bush. Everybody will pretend they're wild about him, because they must not speak ill of the deceased. In fact this works pretty well for Hillary's campaign in general. It's a Zombie from the 90's that everybody seems to think if we humor won't start munching brains. And we don't even have a great Actress like Patricia Tallman to give the proper response. Which would be of course "Is it dead? You're ALL seeing this! Is IT DEAD?" (Sorry, pre-Clinton Movies are on my brain today.)
So, My vote Returns to Jill Stein. She had it from the start, but Bernie was the Democratic Party's last chance to get it. I don't regret it for a second. I can think of exactly ONE topic I might have a quibble with Dr. Stein on, and it has nothing to do with ideals or values. It only has to do with the across the board cut to the military, because of the way that the DOD makes cuts when they are given the power to do so. Any Budget cuts have gotta be run through a Civilian agency, IMHO, preferably one that consists of advocates for military families. Because Fuck You Contractors and Defense Profiteers.
I may have gotten a little off topic. Meetup! Lucky Lab in Portland was a blast last time, and if folks are good to go, we can meet there again. Personally, I'd like to make it closer to the start of the month, just because I'm almost always FLAT broke at the end of the month. (Like this month, think I have .11 in my bank account) 6th and the 13th are both good days for me, and anything later risks me having to politely decline. However, I want this to happen again, mainly because I want to start channeling some of our indignity and and righteous feelings into action.
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Moving on to the news,
Turkey's Going to Hell. This has been pushed down the news a bit by the latest stupid statement by Trump, but there's a goddamn Civil war going on in the country, and nobody seems to care. We of course don't CALL it a civil war, because apparently countries don't have wars at ALL anymore. We have Police actions, insurgents, terrorists and the like, but no armed conflict anymore, because that would require people to actually fight by some rules.
Flint is going after the Little fish. As usual, the big boys avoid all prosecution, and they go after a few peons who were just following orders. If anything, this teaches a very important lesson for everyone. DON'T FOLLOW ORDERS. Your boss promises to have your back, he's fucking lying. The Organ Grinders have plenty of money to buy new monkeys.
Looks like the Russians are doing what they do best. Grind down the opposition. Syrian Rebels are being starved out, and families are being transported elsewhere. This is the disaster area that our PTB think we should get involved in. And they think we should take on Russia too, because apparently Nukes are back on the table because somehow IQ's have dropped sharply.
And for a laugh, apparently a Mural in Australia is offensive. Artist has been appropriately punished, because Clearly they did no research whatsoever on what Hillary Clinton would ACTUALLY look like in a Bathing suit. Course the artist has mocked NUMEROUS targets before, with much worse and viscous images, but somehow THIS one is the one that gets attention. Remind me to mock Hillary more often Publicly.
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And for your Sunday Morning Music, I decided to go with songs I would like to see politicians use in the next 20 years. Because I'm really sick of seeing great tunes from the 80s turned into political pablum, and would like to see some folks from MY generation get the exposure they deserve.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEU_jnf4uis][video:https://www.youtube.c...
Comments
Last time I didn't follow orders was my last paying job
so that definitely works. And I feel righteous but poorer.
If I thought I would look like that in a "swim" suit, I would take all the ca$h stuffed in the side. Just sayin'. A new job.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
My response to the
statement in the article about not following orders was, of course,
it's easy to say that, but your choosing between being fired now, or maybe prosecuted later. Saying it that way, it doesn't sound too hard. But you don't really know about the consequences. And what will look so terribly wrong later, is something that everybody surrounding you thinks is right.
Its hard to have the vision to see past that some times.
I like the Hawkeye Pierce approach
if you're good at your job you can get away with more honesty. Of course he's fictional and even the made up character was drafted.
Throughout my career, I expressed my thoughts, but sometimes did things I thought were stupid to follow procedures. I would never do things I thought were harmful no matter who yelled. Never got fired either...just reprimanded a few times.
You gotta do what you gotta do.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I've been fired for doing the right thing.
And was honest and open about it.
Course that was when I was just starting out at TOP, and blogged about the fear that people were feeling about Medicare Part D. Course I got fired when they started looking for the perp, but DAMN it felt good.
So, yeah, easy to say it, and hard to do, agreed. But SO worth it.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
So Hillary Clinton is our
Prophet Mohamed? Charlie Hebdo, don't even think about it!
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Pretty much. It's practically turned into a cult.
Complete with sacraments, articles of faith and anti-prophets.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Well I got
five and a half hours of sleep last night without taking any medication to aid my sleep. That is my glorious new record. Now I'm going to see how much work I can get done in a day based on that. (For awhile, I could get fours of sleep without medication.)
I'm going to go through my past accounts and find blogs I've written and archive them into my core (which is where I store mesh data for animations, generally speaking). Text articles are so small by comparison that they don't take up a meaningful amount of memory, and it means that every time I back up my core they are getting backed up as well.
I'm planning on altering a few core articles, and turning it into a series on the red scare and hollywood, and how a lot of people were prevented from working and in a few cases jailed for their political beliefs. It had a massive impact on our popular culture and has shaped the kind of messages put into movies to this day. Which of course, was always the point. They didn't go after those people because they wanted to destroy their lives. They did it because they wanted to scare everyone around them into not taking principled stands on things.
Mostly, it worked.
My favorite story about the Red Scare times was the creation of
the Robin Hood TV show in England. Great, funny story about how those Commies managed to sneak in subliminal Commie messaging
Robin Hood was a Red?
I thought he was a Green!
There is no such thing as TMI. It can always be held in reserve for extortion.
Robs the rich to give to the poor? Communist! :-O
That's probably why Ayn Rand had a particular hate on for him - anything that even smacked ever so faintly of "Communism" was anathema to her.
Well, the joke's on her - the world is collapsing into neo-feudal chaos, and the standard of living is swirling the toilet, but it's not her abominated "Communists" and "Socialists" who are causing it. It's her adored Capitalists run amok that are doing worse than even she could imagine.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
My only problem with the story of Robin Hood...
Is the co-opting of the legend by the rich into a atta-boy for themselves. Robin First became a Noble, then became a freedom fighter fighting for the restoration of the TRUE KING... Who was the fucking asshole who raised the taxes in the first place. (Richard I was an AWFUL king, who saw England as his personal piggy bank for his wars in the Middle East. He was the Cheney of his day, complete with a dupe to blame it on (John)...)
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Many of the writers of that Robin Hood show were blacklisted
US writers, directors and producers:
"Executive producer Hannah Weinstein was an American and left-wing political activist who moved to Europe in 1950 when politics at home were turning against her. She assembled a number of left-wing writers who had been blacklisted in the United States to craft episodes under pseudonyms. According to Lardner, they had to often change pseudonyms to avoid having too impressive writing track records in case "the network people in New York might ask to meet one of us for the prospect of other work." (Lardner, p. 142) Lardner was one of the few who actually served jail time because of his Communist Party connections. Unlike later blacklisted writers, Lardner defended himself based on the First Amendment rather than the Fifth. When Congressman J. Parnell demanded that Lardner answer the famous question if he had ever been a member of the Communist Party, Lardner replied with wit worthy of Robin Hood himself. "I could answer it, but if I did, I would hate myself in the morning." Other blacklisted writers included Ian McLellan Hunter, Robert Lees and Waldo Salt. These writers also went on to create The Adventures of Sir Lancelot and The Buccaneers.
Lardner concludes "Robin Hood ran for four years, generating profits for everyone concerned and perhaps, in some small way, setting the stage for the 1960s by subverting a whole new generation of young Americans." Many children of that generation would be inspired by this series. One professor remarked that show formed the basis of her morality."
http://www.boldoutlaw.com/robspot/greenerobin2.html
Another great piece with more info on those times, well worth
reading:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/oct/07/books.featuresreviews1
Zero Mostel comes to mind as a great example...
of how to deal with those charges. IIRC, he told the HUAAC to go fuck themselves, and was blacklisted for years. Then came back in the late sixties as one of the greatest comic actors ever, because he turned his anger and bitterness at the injustice into humor with shows like "A Funny Thing Happened to Me On The Way To the Forum" (IMHO, one of the greatest indictments of America ever, wrapped in a comic format that the critics didn't realize was mocking THEM as well)
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
The problem with Turkey is isolating what is the problem
with Turkey. It seems like forever that Turkey proper has been harassing, attacking and warring upon the Kurds who, in turn, sporadically ramp up their separatist offensive to the point of insurrection, which, or course, the usual suspects decry as terrorism. Then there is Turkey the opportunist meddling in Syria (and poking at long-time arch foe Russia) which also enables some profitable graft and corruption with ISIS on the side. Meanwhile, Erdogan's march to strongman-cum-dictator-cum-sultan, the repression of the press and all that good shit before the freaking failed coup, the question of the extent to which said coup was maybe a false flag operation, or at least the use of provocateurs to goad and entrap potential anti-fascist insurrectionists into revealing themselves so that they can be taken down. This of course, whatever it was, is leading to the massive purges that will clearly further, strengthen, empower and exalt Erdogan. In the end, however, we will support him no matter what, just like we supported Franco, for the same reason, strategically situated airbases abroad. We are the enablers of his imperial dreams because he is yet another enabler of our imperialist forward basing conquest readiness scheme.
In the end, we are the problem with Turkey. Oh, and BTW, read up on the history of the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline, and for a really good backgrounder on Caspian geopolitics, all of the articles by Pepe Escobar dealing with "pipelineistan" and everything you can find on the development of the Kazakh oil fields.
edited to fix typo.
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 --
Just more proof that America has ONE standard:
Win at all costs. Doesn't matter about your soul, who you hurt, or who you support. If they're willing to fork over the green, they have the seal of approval.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Forgot my manners - good post there, detroitmechworks,
glad to see you back.
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 --
Glad to be back!
Full explanation and apology was published a few days ago.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Yeah, I saw it, but I don't think I commented at the time.
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 --