Monday Morning Open Thread, 10-12-2015

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 7:00am

Monday Morning Open Thread, 10-12-2015

On this day in 1692, the Salem witch trials are ended by a letter from Massachusetts Governor William Phips. The curse of western "civilization" in one word.

Meanwhile, on this day in 1875 Aleister Crowley was born, This dude:

My first experience with electoral politics was some volunteering I did for JFK in High School. Back then one had to be 21 to vote, for me, 1967. By then it was obvious to me that we needed pressure from the left, a third party, and I worked to get the Peace and Freedom Party on the ballot. Their candidate at that time, born this day in 1932 was Dick Gregory. I remember telling somebody in reference to today's plethora of pundits that we had no pundits, not like today, instead we had Mort Sahl, Dick Gregory & Lenny Bruce. Comedian, sage & activist

And then, on this day in 1971 Gene Vincent died.

For me, it is hard to listen to the illustrious Mr. Vincent without hearing from one of his contemporaries:

which brings us to these guys:

And thus to todays news

So, uh, more coffee anybody?

Tags:

Open Thread

music

community

Aleister Crowley meets Annie Lennox

Vote

Comments

Submitted by gulfgal98 on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 9:08am

Good Morning Mr. Sea Otter and 99%'ers!

What a nice Morning Open Thread today. Just right for those of us who are still mellowing out this morning.

Today we walked the dogs over at the college and it was very pleasant with temps in the low 50's and a shroud of fog. It looks like the students are on break so it was very quiet today. The trees are starting to turn and lots of the maples planted on campus were bathed in glowing oranges and yellows. It is amazing how quickly the leaves change in just a day or two.

Wednesday at noon, we are planning a climate vigil downtown in front of the local courthouse.

—

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 9:47am

Well thank you. Last night's effort, of course.

We have to run up to Sonoma to take a friend out for a celebratory lunch, and it looks like we will have nice mild weather for it. Allegedly it is 55 here, but feels warmer, and nice and clear.

—

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 --

Submitted by gulfgal98 on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 9:58am

One of these days

I will learn to spell enhydra lutris without looking.

—

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 11:12am

Well, there's always copy & paste, of just e.l.,

(or e l) as some style 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 --

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 11:34am

Good to hear about the climate vigil, btw.

—

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 --

Submitted by dancingrabbit on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 10:57am

g'morning, all

Surprised again by the mail not being
delivered today because ... Columbus
Day! This has to be the most forget-able
of US federal holidays.

I wonder if we'll ever see an Indigenous
Peoples Day in the US. Now that could
be a really fun as well as educational
holiday, celebrated in almost infinite
variety in small and large venues
throughout the entire country.

Oh, well, one can wish.

—

Only connect. - E.M. Forster

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 11:17am

A few cities do, but I fear that the nation never

will. It used to be easy to remember here, because it triggered the last week that Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite was open, and we used to go with a group of friends, grab the group camp, and close it doen with proper enthusiasm and celebrations.

—

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 --

Submitted by shaharazade on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 11:51am

Portland and Seattle

have declared today Indigenous Peoples Day. I think it's kind of insulting to use Columbus day to honor indigenous people. Maybe they should declare Thanksgiving, Indigenous Peoples Day. Thanksgiving is such a reverse perverse mockery of history. I never liked the pilgrims even in elementary school when we drew, colored, cut out and made decorations of the scary looking pilgrims in severe dour clothes with their wicked hats and blunderbusses. The Disneyfied version of American history needs to go.

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 11:53am

I belive that the idea is to eliminate the

Columbus Day celebration and holiday by co-opting 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 --

Submitted by shaharazade on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 12:53pm

Co-opting Columbus Day would

be a good thing. I would just like to see a day reserved for honoring indigenous people that wasn't hooked up to the US bloody history of killing, destroying and removing the tribes from the land that the US decided was by manifest destiny theirs. A celebration of there culture. I looked up Chief Seattle and found there is a festival in August called Chief Seattle Days. I read the story of the Suquamish Tribe and Chief Seattle and it made me sad. Seems even Chief Seattle was 'co-opted' into signing a 1855 treaty in order for the settlers to get their land and civilize this tribe.

http://www.suquamish.org/HistoryCulture.aspx

Chief Seattle witnessed the transition of his people from their ancient aboriginal life ways to a new one brought by the arrival on non-natives and imposed on them by the United States Government. The Suquamish had to adapt their culture based on fishing, hunting, berry and root gathering and traveling by canoe to accept a new economy and lifestyle forced upon them by religious, social and political institutions. Missionaries, fur traders and finally, permanent settlers brought new technology, a currency system, disease and the concept of private property to the Puget Sound.

The change was destructive and disruptive. The United States had already freed land up for settlers by allowing non-natives to claim Indian lands under the Donation Land Claim Act, angering many of the Tribes. The United States wanted to clear the land of Indian title to allow for settlement via a new transcontinental railroad. The federal government accomplished this by signing Treaties with the Indian tribes. Fearing a military conflict that could not be won in the long term, Chief Seattle signed the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott with the U.S., agreeing to live on the Port Madison Indian Reservation and give up title to the remainder of Suquamish lands. The U.S., led by Governor Isaac Stevens, agreed to provide health care, education and recognize fishing and hunting rights.

Chief Seattle Days seems like tourist event which I suppose is a good thing for the Suquamish reservation money wise. I guess I'm being a bit of a purist but it seems to me that indigenous people should have a day that focuses on their own history and culture and is not tied to the US history of slaughtering people, destroying their culture and stealing the land. We're still at it at this late date only we now call this 'foreign policy' and the new barbarian's we're civilizing are in the ME.

Submitted by gulfgal98 on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 1:36pm

In the state of Florida

Columbus Day was never a holiday, so if it were to become indigenous peoples' day, it would simply be a holiday unto itself. I am not sure how many other states do not observe Columbus Day.

—

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Submitted by shaharazade on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 3:40pm

Are the banks and the Federal

and state offices open for business? I think in the UK they just declare certain days Bank Holidays and official business's close up shop. Seems a more honest way to have a holiday. Here we arrange our holidays to suit business as when they combined Lincolns and Washington's birthdays to make presidents day and move the dates to create 3 day weekends. Do all states recognize MLK's birthday, is there a difference between federal and state holidays? Here in OR all state businesses post office DMV etc. close down on MLK's holiday but I believe the banks stay opened. I wish we didn't tack on tacky patriotism and war veneration to our holidays. Thanksgiving for instance is a good time for a harvest feast but too it is hooked into indigenous people and whitewashed US history.

Submitted by gulfgal98 on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 4:03pm

Back when I was working,

city and state offices were open. I did not know anyone who worked for the feds, but I would guess they may have closed and probably the banks too.

I am not marginalizing what Columbus Day stood for especially in relation to indigenous peoples. I was just saying that we did not have Columbus Day or President's Day (for that matter either) as a holiday in Florida. M L King's birthday (or the nearest Monday) was a holiday.

—

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Submitted by MarilynW on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 4:24pm

Thanksgiving here in Canada is a celebration of the

harvest. It has nothing to do with the invaders of North America. I hope the US moves away from involving the invaders who exploited native peoples and then killed them when they didn't need them..

—

To thine own self be true.

Submitted by dancingrabbit on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 12:04pm

What does Columbus Day really mark?

Jon Schwarz has a good piece up at
The Intercept positing Why Columbus
Day is the Most Important Day of Every
Year.

https://theintercept.com/2015/10/12/columbus-day-is-the-most-important-d...

—

Only connect. - E.M. Forster

Submitted by shaharazade on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 1:29pm

Great article thanks

Calling our current global war on terra by and for the interest's of 'transnationals' humanitarian intervention is sickening. It's even scarier to see a large swath of ordinary people in the US cheer this on and patriotically flag wave because the people in the ME are a threat and our enemy cause they are extremist's and 'terrist's are gonna kill yer family'. How can they not connect this global genocidal colonizing with the racism, violence, and extremist's here in der Homeland? Scary to watch as the would be rulers of the world have successfully removed all of the human and civil rights and any checks and balances that people have developed throughout history to keep these monsters in check. The chickens of vicious imperialism have come home to roost and in the US a lot of people think it's patriotic and call for more blood. Think of the ME women and children who are being abused they say as we bomb, maim, torture, destroy and kill. Axelrod called this 'the world as we find it'. It's not it's a world that has been created over and over by human psychopath's with power, weapons and money.

Submitted by mimi on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 11:03am

Good Morning, caucus99ers, when it comes to spells

I am getting nervous. Thank you to cover this subject in such a comforting way, enhydra lutris. It helps me to distance myself from those "spelling" people.

I kinda was suffocated by spells in my life. That's why I don't say anything about 'em.

My Sunday wasn't that bad, for a change. I happened to drive around restlessly and ended up to in our last independent bookstore in DC looking for the Kissinger's Shadow book and I happen to sit in for a representation of Daniel Levitin's book: The Organized Mind. It was funny and my very unorganized mind at least got so organized immediately to think that I definitely should read this book. Too many little remarks he made about the book that were caught by my hippocampus straight, which, I learned, is a relatively rare incident.

So, I am going to read now. In an organized fashion. I "calendered" reading time with a pencil on a piece of paper. That's the way to to do it, outsourcing what you want to memorize on a device in longhand. Sounds familiar to you?

Have a wonderful day, all.

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 11:15am

I have so many lists and even lists of lists

that I sporadically collate them into one to no avail.

—

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 --

Submitted by shaharazade on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 11:28am

the trouble

with list making is you feel like you have accomplished something other then procrastinating.

There was once an old sailor my grandfather knew
Who had so many things which he wanted to do
That, whenever he thought it was time to begin,
He couldn't because of the state he was in.

He was shipwrecked, and lived on a island for weeks,
And he wanted a hat, and he wanted some breeks;
And he wanted some nets, or a line and some hooks
For the turtles and things which you read of in books.

And, thinking of this, he remembered a thing
Which he wanted (for water) and that was a spring;
And he thought that to talk to he'd look for, and keep
(If he found it) a goat, or some chickens and sheep.

Then, because of the weather, he wanted a hut
With a door (to come in by) which opened and shut
(With a jerk, which was useful if snakes were about),
And a very strong lock to keep savages out.

He began on the fish-hooks, and when he'd begun
He decided he couldn't because of the sun.
So he knew what he ought to begin with, and that
Was to find, or to make, a large sun-stopping hat.

He was making the hat with some leaves from a tree,
When he thought, "I'm as hot as a body can be,
And I've nothing to take for my terrible thirst;
So I'll look for a spring, and I'll look for it first."
Then he thought as he started, "Oh, dear and oh, dear!
I'll be lonely tomorrow with nobody here!"
So he made in his note-book a couple of notes:
"I must first find some chickens" and "No, I mean goats."

He had just seen a goat (which he knew by the shape)
When he thought, "But I must have boat for escape.
But a boat means a sail, which means needles and thread;
So I'd better sit down and make needles instead."

He began on a needle, but thought as he worked,
That, if this was an island where savages lurked,
Sitting safe in his hut he'd have nothing to fear,
Whereas now they might suddenly breathe in his ear!

So he thought of his hut ... and he thought of his boat,
And his hat and his breeks, and his chickens and goat,
And the hooks (for his food) and the spring (for his thirst) ...
But he never could think which he ought to do first.

And so in the end he did nothing at all,
But basked on the shingle wrapped up in a shawl.
And I think it was dreadful the way he behaved -
He did nothing but bask until he was saved!

The Old Sailor AA Milne

Submitted by mimi on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 3:54pm

lovely, thanks Shaharazade, no trouble at all

with procrastinating. But deciding something ... uuh, horrible.

Submitted by gjohnsit on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 11:16am

When failure is an option

link

Last year’s National Defense Authorization Act allocated half a billion dollars to train “vetted,” “moderate” rebels to attack ISIS in Syria and also to overthrow the country’s sovereign government. This schizophrenic policy goal not surprisingly produced a total (after the others were killed, captured, or willingly gave their weapons to ISIS) of four or five fighters. Even this micro force of five ultimately found itself in the depths of embarrassment as it was carjacked by al-Qaeda. Half a billion dollars to have five guys carjacked! Put ten plumbers in a room and they could craft a more workable foreign policy than the entirety of the US foreign policy establishment.
So how does Capitol Hill respond to such a total failure? Reassess the policy and cut the losses? Welcome the Russian entry into the fight against ISIS and al-Qaeda in Syria? Look at Iraq and Libya and decide that regime change is just an illicit fantasy of the perpetual adolescents of the neoconservative movement?

No!

Currently sitting on President Obama’s desk is the National Defense Authorization Act of 2016 that, as could be predicted, doubles down on a bad bet and…wait for it!…authorizes $600 million for the mythical anti-ISIS/anti-Assad fighters. As it is not their money, why not open the national credit card wide to pursue a failed policy.

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 11:39am

National Defense Authorization Act of 2016 needs to be

strangled.National Defense Authorization Act of 2016

—

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 --

Submitted by shaharazade on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 11:58am

I saw this over at dkos last night

it pretty much sums up the news even though it's mocking the UK news. I was surprised it made the top of the wreck list.

Submitted by mimi on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 4:00pm

I so much wanted to hear that once in my lifetime, thanks :-)/nt

Submitted by MarilynW on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 4:29pm

LOL! I'm sharing this, it's satire but it's too TRUE.

—

To thine own self be true.

Submitted by gjohnsit on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 11:27am

Turkish police attack mourners of bomb victims

link

Scuffles broke out Sunday in the Turkish capital Ankara as police used tear gas to prevent pro-Kurdish politicians and other mourners from laying carnations at the site of two suspected suicide bombings that killed 95 people and wounded hundreds in Turkey's deadliest attack in years.
Police held back the mourners, including the pro-Kurdish party's co-leaders, Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, insisting that investigators were still working at the site.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), a major presence at Saturday's march, said in a statement that police attacked its members, and some were hurt in the melee.

Submitted by gjohnsit on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 11:37am

Iraqi Kurds turning on themselves?

link

Kurdish security forces stopped the speaker of parliament in Iraq's Kurdish north from entering its capital on Monday in an escalating political crisis destabilizing the region at war with Islamic State militants.
Speaker Yousif Mohammed's personal assistant said forces loyal to the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) had turned him back on the road from Sulaimaniyah to Erbil, where the regional parliament is located.

The KDP, which controls Erbil, accuses the Gorran party to which the speaker belongs of provoking violent protests in which five people died.

"He has been prevented by KDP forces and he's now returned (to Sulaimaniyah)," said the speaker's personal assistant Daroun Rahim. "It's a very dangerous development."

The move came after protesters attacked and torched several offices of the KDP in Sulaimaniyah province in the worst unrest the relatively stable autonomous region has seen for years.

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 11:54am

Well, I've got to run, back later.

—

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 --

Submitted by gjohnsit on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 2:42pm

A couple economic charts

Milestone ahead.
Wealth Distribution_0.jpg

This isn't how its supposed to work.

Submitted by gjohnsit on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 2:45pm

Shales producers are in trouble

link

Last week, the average price for all 2016 contracts on the U.S. WTI benchmark - known as the "strip" - rose more than 7 percent to above $53 a barrel, near its highest since late July. Apart from a fleeting price spike in late August, it is the broadest gain since April. The 2017 strip traded above $55 a barrel.
"What we're seeing now is one of the better opportunities for producers to hedge," said John Saucer, vice president of research and analysis at Mobius Risk Group, which advises firms including producers on energy hedging strategies.

Urgency displayed by producers in locking in present prices may be due in part to timing. Some firms are still engaged in the bi-annual process of reviewing, or 'redetermining', credit lines with banks. Lenders are under pressure to cut back on funding as falling oil and gas prices have slashed the value of reserves that serve as collateral.

If $53 is a price they are rushing to "lock in" then the price will probably go a lot lower.
And $53 is too low for a lot of them to stay in business.

Submitted by mimi on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 4:01pm

can't help it, I am having a Schadenfreude attack/nt

Submitted by gjohnsit on Tue, 10/13/2015 - 1:08pm

Shale producers have already cut to the bone

Now the saw has come out

As layoffs become the energy industry’s main response to low oil prices, a handful of producers are aiming to trim personnel costs without pink slips by spreading the pain among their employees.
Companies including Occidental Petroleum Corp. and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.are employing hiring freezes, caps on bonuses, and even across-the-board wage cuts to preserve jobs. They and others that already have reduced payrolls—including many drilling and well servicing firms—are reluctant to slash further, say energy-industry experts.

In part, they’re trying to avoid the type of skilled worker shortages that followed mass job cuts in prior downturns. But it’s also because their businesses can’t succeed without sufficient staff, especially if the downturn in oil prices reverses course.

“There’s no more fat to be cut,” said Deborah Byers, a partner at consultants Ernst & Young in charge of its U.S. oil and gas practice.

More than a year after oil prices began their descent to under $50 a barrel from over $100, the number of energy-company layoffs world-wide has topped 200,000, says Graves & Co., a Houston consulting firm. More cuts are expected because crude shows little sign of rebounding soon

Bankruptcies are next.