Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue
Something Old
My Something Old today is this immortal sequence from Harvey, starring Jimmy Stewart, one of my favorite Republicans:
That's all? Just Akron, cold beer and poor, poor thing for two weeks?
Something New
This is not a picture of it, as I don't currently have a camera, but I have a new banana blossom on the tree outside my bedroom window! Mine is smaller and not quite as far along. But I have hopes that we may actually get bananas this year! Last year, as we had just bought the house, there was a tropical storm that came through. A branch fell and destroyed a banana stalk that had a perfect bunch of bananas. While I knew how lucky we were to take so little damage, I was sad about the bananas. It would be great if we got some more this year!
Also New: I'm finally going to try to play Lord of the Rings Online with my family and their guild, after years of attempts to persuade me.
I'm not big into MMOs. I get very stressed about learning the interface, the key map, and especially manipulating the camera angles and movement. I tried years ago to play WOW (World of Warcraft) and kind of hated stumbling around trying to manipulate my character, but I tried to be a good sport and put in the effort--and one member of our kin wouldn't play at the rest of our pace. He wouldn't keep one character at our level. So that effort basically ended--and I wasn't sorry.
Since, I've had little desire to try MMOs again. I'm more the single-player strategy game type. Or, if you're doing board games, a multi-player strategy game (cooperative or competitive). But I'm giving it a try. We're going to try to teach me the interface and teach me to steer before I start trying to quest and kill things.
Something Borrowed
In this abysmal age, I find that looking at other cultures and other parts of history, and how they managed politics, to be helpful. In particular, I'm finding the Spanish Civil War to be instructive, because that was pretty much the last time there was a major effort, that looked like it might succeed, to change things in a direction I like. It is true that some countries, like Iceland, Venezuela, Brazil, and especially Bolivia, have done reasonably well for themselves and managed to preserve some sovereignty and use it to head in a generally reasonable direction rather than into further blind defense of entrenched and concentrated power. I am not entirely sure about Cuba, but I've got to give them at least two cheers for being able to preserve their sovereignty so close to the United States. I hear their healthcare is better than ours, too, meaning that they still give a shit about their people rather than just profits. Other significant movements include the Zapatistas of Chiapas and the Kurds in what is now called Northern Syria (they removed the word "Rojava" from the name to indicate that their project is not merely for the Kurds, but intends to show equality and fairness to all ethnicities.) I shouldn't forget to mention what's happened in Jamaica:
So it's not like nothing has been happening since the brutal end of the Spanish Civil War. Hell, some cool things have happened in Spain:
The squatters' movement and Podemos both intrigue me.
That said, I think things have gotten a lot more difficult, and successes a lot more sparse for the political viewpoints I espouse, and the policies I desire, since 1939. Thus my interest in the Spanish Civil War.
This is a fascinating video. Particularly I like the interview with the woman at 1:40. She was an anarchist orator during the 30s. Here she explains why they did not do in Spain what Lenin and Trotsky did in Russia.
People in this video say the most amazing things:
"At that time, it seemed impossible to solve those initial difficulties. But looking back, people really showed a lot of common sense. Everything was improvised. You could call it a miracle, despite the religious meaning of the world. It was a miracle achieved by the ordinary people."
Something Blue
Look what I found!
A North Central Florida Blues Society. That's something I want to get involved in! I don't play, but I'm a great audience, and I'm willing to cook for hungry musicians! And I love the blues. I was taking a few tentative stabs at jazz, which I know very little about, but blues is an older friend.
Comments
Another scrumptious essay! Thanks.
Jimmy Stewart's wiki is very impressive. Ironic that the guy who played George Bailey in star It's a Wonderful Life was a lifelong Republican, isn't it? Was Lionel Barrymore a liberal?
Enjoy pursuing your new interest! You have some great resources right on this board. Joe Shikspack seem as knowledgeable as it gets about blues and jazz. NCTim, too.
There used to be liberal Republicans....
Michigan had a liberal GOP Governor that was widely popular. He is responsible for all kinds of environmental protection legislation.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
@dkmich Mark Hatfield. A better
Mark Hatfield. A better friend to the peace movement than most of the current Democratic party.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
John V. Lindsay was a liberal Republican mayor of New York City
In Lindsay’s re-election battle in 1969, having lost the GOP nomination to a conservative, he won return to office on the Liberal Party line alone. (The Liberal Party was a New-York-State-only party that up until 1980 or so was quite influential in city politics.)
@HenryAWallace I have always loved the
I have always loved the blues. Jazz is a little more intimidating, but I am intrigued.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@HenryAWallace It's strange that he
It's strange that he could be a Republican. Someone like Gary Cooper, I can see it. But not Jimmy Stewart.
Of course, it wasn't impossible back then for the business world to respond favorably to the very argument George Bailey makes. Even the Republicans weren't always dedicated to the zero-sum game:
Look at the difference between Potter and the other businessmen. And the argument Bailey is making is the argument for traditional American capitalist democracy. There was a time when the entire business, political, and media world didn't agree with Potter.
Too bad Potter won.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal That's why capitalism
That's why capitalism has lost its credibility. Because Potter's capitalism is self-serving tyranny that creates social blight, and that blight, eventually, will spread worldwide.
If Potter capitalism is the capitalism they want, almost nobody is going to believe in that. That's the reason for their twin obsessions with security and propaganda.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
“We need a public inquiry into the economics profession”
https://renegadeinc.com/brexit-2/
Also, this:
Leading the multipolar revolution: how Russia and China are creating a new world order
It's pseudo-science, and they are quacks and cranks.
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 --
@lotlizard This is some great stuff,
This is some great stuff, lotlizard.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@lotlizard Thank God somebody said
Thank God somebody said this!
How can we trust economists at the Treasury not to impose more disastrous policies?
This is what I was saying to Brits online that I was talking to about Brexit: I said, sure, leave the European Union if you want--I can see why you would--but I fear you are falling into blaming Europe for what is really the fault of bankers. What are you going to do about the City of London?
They mostly didn't get what I was saying, though a few did. The irritation at the international banking industry had gotten transferred onto the Continent itself and its cultures, as if native-born Brits, even those who have white skin, could not create incredibly nasty policy that hurt their fellow Brits.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
Well, these are just my rather uninformed and belated thoughts, but we all know the problems with distant CEOs making decisions for businesses elsewhere while having no understanding of local conditions or concerns for local workers or customers, being focused mainly on personal profiteering by any means possible and too-often draining the businesses themselves to achieve higher bonuses for themselves.
Distant, unaccountable management ruling over countries once having had local government, whether actually accountable or not, at the least have lost the inhabitants even the hope of ever having that accountability or any concern for the local area and public now turned into a trading bloc filled with potential corporate assets possibly required for labour.
As far as I'm concerned, each country belongs to the people living there, as does their right to self-government, to a government serving the public interest, and the whole concept of any corporatization of democracies does not appeal to me. Actual trade agreements of any kind should benefit all while dispossessing none of the citizenry in order to be worthy of the name, in my estimation. And sacrificing the rights, health, ecology, economy, natural resources and power of the people to benefit investors/off-shored management at the cost of the people and country is something I'd consider that nobody has any right to do or to try to con people into accepting.
Just my opinion, of course, but I'd note the tendency to 'austerity' for the increasingly poor, industrially polluted and poisoned people denied protections they once may have had while some few start working on that first trillion with what's been drained from the miserable rest indentured under trade law and subject to their demands, being denied the right to defend themselves from industry demands.
The European Union does not appear to me (admittedly seeing only some of the results, rather than, perhaps, the finer points) to have been designed with democracy/the public interest in mind - quite the reverse. What's being done to the people of the poorest countries as they sink under imposed financial crushing is criminal, as is what's being done to once-generally more widely-prosperous countries such as England and France, toward bringing them into such an abject fate as Greece now suffers. What kind of a Union not only fails to aid its brothers and sisters but acts to torture them to death? Other than one united to supply insatiable corporate/billionaire greed, rather than to improve life for the non-controlling human members.
So, I think I see your point, especially the part about fellow-Brits potentially inflicting nasty policy on them as well. But while local politicians may be difficult to reach, only the ones who cheat will claim that they don't need your votes. What leverage can the public even hope to exert upon those heading the European Union?
Edit: actually think I missed rather a lot of your actua;l point, but will leave this anyway, as the thread's sure to be dead by now anyway. We have a cat gone missing...
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
@lotlizard More goodies from that
More goodies from that article:
while there is truth in the story that international co-operation and co-ordination is vital to economic activity and stability, there is no sound basis to the widely espoused economic ‘religion’ that markets – in money, trade and labour – must be unfettered, detached from democratic regulatory oversight, and must be trusted to ‘govern’ whole countries, regions and continents.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@lotlizard Damn. This lady is
Damn. This lady is awesome:
the Chancellor (backed up by New Labour’s Alastair Darling, the Treasury and the Financial Times) threatened the British people with an intensification of austerity – a punishment budget. One in which public spending would be further slashed and taxes raised – the most punitive and counter-productive economic strategy imaginable. And in doing so, they, and the economists that advised them, affirmed once more their contempt for ordinary voters, and their irrelevance to serious economic analysis.
Above all, economists failed the British people by “pressing on with austerity”. They stubbornly refused to once again promote the subordination of the finance sector to the role of servant, not master of the British economy, and to use governmental monetary and fiscal powers to alleviate the impact of a crisis made in the City, on the majority.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Man, I know I'm old when I see the
Aqualung LP described as "Old." Don't mean to pry, but are you from north central FL? Rec'd!!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
@orlbucfan I know just how you feel
I know just how you feel orlbucsfan!
And yes, I absolutely am from North Central Florida. Gainesville.
We've got a lot of Floridians on here; we need a Meetup something fierce. I'll put out something about that later this week.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Sense8
We are watching Sense8 and really enjoying the show. Today I googled a link to add here, and I found out Netflix did not renew it for a season 3 - too expensive. With 8 stars and being shot around the globe, I imagine it is - but... every time we like a series, Netflix cancels it. Pissing me off.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
@dkmich Pissing me off too. There
Pissing me off too. There was apparently a great outcry over its cancellation. LGBTQ people are taking it personally. They cancelled it on the first day of Pride week, which was, at least, very bad PR.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
See the bold and feel my pain
Out here in Kompletely Korrupt Kalifornia. But first: Gov. Jerry Brown and California legislators are granted pay raises by citizens panel, because of course. Continue to fail upward why not, don't say homeless or hungry.
Republican Karen Handel wins special election for hotly contested Georgia House seat (52% to 48%)
Wowee proximity alert! Someone call 911 (emergency) because 211 (shelter emergency, lol) does not even have a 411 (information). Robots for the win. lol, they can't do sh*t for humanity but go on keep deploying, as if.
Elections as investment tools, what a cesspool. Needs remediation stat! Votes ain't gonna cut it, I don't know what will. Benevolent billionaires? hahahaha... times infinity. There ain't no such animal, that is the truth in my face right now.
...
Happy Solstice
https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/summer-solstice.html
welcome the coming darkness, so mote it be
peace
edited to add descriptive video link K? K. K! uh
p.s. 'new' youtube interface sucks. again. mofos
@eyo Oh my god, that's so
Oh my god, that's so disgusting. Donations as investments? Filthy.
Happy solstice to you as well. It's nice to see some pagans around here.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Morning CStMS
Rainy here this morning in Cuenca. At least it's not the US.
Changed my sig to reflect yesterday's results.
I want a Pony!
@Arrow Fiddlesticks, I knew I'd
Fiddlesticks, I knew I'd left someone out of my list of nations that had done OK for themselves in this awful age. Ecuador is another.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Ministry of Mother Earth
thanks, I remember when Ecuador made Rights of Nature part of their constitution. Whilst looking it up to jog my memory I found the Ministry of Mother Earth down there in Bolivia. Making America Great Again
The Law of Mother Earth: Behind Bolivia’s historic bill
Solidarity.
peace
Good morning CSTMS. Blues is good.
The Barcelona video reminds me of the stories of one of the more successful IWW strikes where necessities were distributed by the union despite the strike.
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 --
@enhydra lutris Or a little like Occupy
Or a little like Occupy Sandy.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Quite so.
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 --
TOP finally wakes up to the Syrian crisis
after weeks of being oblivious
The spin: It's all Trump's fault
Meh. Better that half-truth spin than ignoring it.
Uhg! The comments are totally ignorant.
@gjohnsit I am sort of overdosing
I am sort of overdosing on the stupid. I've started writing ranty essays here because I have to let off steam somehow, and my poor family doesn't deserve the constant "This is so fucking stupid and illogical" speeches.
IMO, we need to keep an eye on what they're saying and what narratives they're deploying, but sort of like someone walking out in a clean suit into a radiation-poisoned area to scout around and get information. We shouldn't stay in that environment for too long at a time. We desperately need places to get away from it.
Honestly, the propaganda feels like the goddamned London blitzes to me. Except without the breaks.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
The KSA just switched crown princes
and MBS looks like a war-mongering stooge from central casting. He's a sockpuppet.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
This is behind a paywall at Haaretz
but try it, I got through on another device.
Saudi Arabia's New Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Is Good News for Israel and U.S.
It mentions that the Saudi blogger, "mujtahid" has said that, among other things, KSA and UAE were trying to sponsor a coup in Qatar, using Blackwater mercs to depose Tamim by force. The new crown prince is this guy. We're headed for trouble.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
Practice acts of loving kindness
I think the old sticker said random acts, or something like that. Used to give me the shivers, seeing it plastered everywhere yet nothing tangible. Anyway, it is a thing I can still do even though I have no money I still have shelter so Peace Pilgrim did stay the night here before heading off to Hopland. I hope Rand is staying cool, all the way to Oregon. We had two "constructive monologues" rather than one "constructive dialogue" but oh well. All one people, many differences, that's how I see it. My world is one where shelter is shared freely no matter who you are, that is the community I imagine, make it so.
Good energy came back yesterday, someone stopped by and we visited the farm market downtown. It was 103 F, not too bad. The mushroom guy said "you look underfed, so let's add some more" as he piled on another half basket of Baby Portabellos. The egg lady had fresh spinach too, really really fresh. The omelettes will be epic, I think. Thanks goodness I can eat well, not make myself sick with bad food. Thanks.
Peace & Love
pass it on
edited: spell check grammar
@eyo I am still cogitating on
I am still cogitating on a food security essay, but it occurs to me that if you felt comfortable doing it, it would be highly appropriate for it to be you to write it. I'd also be willing to write a dialogue with you, if you like.
If none of this appeals, I'll bring it up myself.
As a related note: I was thinking this morning about something my grandmother said. She was afraid of what would happen in the next great depression, because during the Great Depression, most people had gardens and even hens, even in the cities, so while a hell of a lot of people were going hungry, a lot fewer people starved than would have otherwise. She said "People don't have that anymore, and I don't know what they're going to do if it happens again."
It's good to have a potential source of vegetables and eggs right outside your door. We have been economically maneuvered out of that, and a lot of us bought into it hook, line, and sinker. It's the same mentality that objects to clotheslines because they look low-class. But, although I'm embarrassed that so many of us bought into the "you don't want to look poor" bullshit, it's also true that the real reasons we don't have vegetable gardens and chickens is partly that nobody has time to keep the gardens or look after the chickens, because the wage scale is fucked. Also, the way our culture handles real estate has, h'rm, changed since my grandmother's day. People often don't have access to land either.
We need to change these things as much as possible. If I were a billionaire, I would absolutely hire long-term unemployed people to put in community gardens and henhouses and keep them up. Though it would be better to have the people who work in the garden and eat off it be the actual owners, but that can be trickier in the current environment.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Food security essay
thanks and please do it.
I don't know how it looks everywhere else except what others write online, and I am curious to know how different communities deal with hunger, especially agriculture based areas. Charity is part of the problem I think, not the solutions. In California there are so many distressed citizens, non-profit charities have become yuge industries with lobbyists of their own now. Retail labor might be the largest SNAP users, why not just make BigMart pay wages? duh
Back to food, for me food safety is a big concern and I cannot believe I have to say that out loud in California year 2017. The distribution system keeps deploying poisoned food they have to "recall", WTF? I don't know who to trust anymore, some packaged stuff off the shelves literally makes me sick to my stomach. Why? Too much salt and crap I guess, or too much GMO corn has changed my gut DNA. Haha just kidding but not really. It's genetically designed for pesticide that rots out butterfly guts, why not mine too? Just because Monsanto does no official testing directly on humans doesn't mean their products aren't poison. Corrupt political system is how they roll, pisses me off. Let's talk about Bezos buying Whole Foods, what a disaster that will be.
What I like about the farm market is the actual real live farmers, their food has never once made me feel ill, only makes me feel better. What I don't like about the farm market is it's one day a week, on Tuesday between 3 and 6pm. That is almost the worst possible time slice so I often miss them.
peace
@eyo BTW, I had an awesome
BTW, I had an awesome spinach and mushroom "buster" at our local diner. Shrooms, spinach, onions on top of brown rice with scrambled eggs on top. Excellent food.
My partner can't abide mushrooms, so I don't eat them as often as I would if I lived alone.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@eyo You know, that bumper
You know, that bumper sticker always bothered me. So does the "if anything can go well, it will" bumper sticker.
I understand that focusing on the negative can create more negativity, and even mire one down, but I just can't abide the baseless and apparently blind Pollyanna stuff.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
SF Bay area writer Anne Herbert came up with the phrase in 1995,
her original wording being:
Originally published in the Spring 1995 issue of the Whole Earth Review, it was the second-to-last sentence of an essay called “Handy tips on how to behave at the death of the world.”
Handy tips on how to behave at the death of the world
Hello, guys!
I had insomnia last night and was up till almost 3 a.m. On the computer, because what's the point of lying in bed awake?
But of course that meant I slept till 10 this morning. Here's hoping my anxiety gets less. Actually, having insomnia because of anxiety and then talking about politics on the internet as a result might be an illogical thing to do! It's probably amazing I ever went to sleep.
Britain is getting hammered; I wonder if it's partly in response to the rise of Corbyn.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal Holy shit. The terror
Holy shit. The terror attack on the mosque was in Corbyn's district.
Maybe just coincidence, but...
it could have gone much worse; an angry crowd seized the man who drove into--and over--a crowd of Muslims emerging from prayer. But an imam and a few others prevented them from hurting him. So the narrative today is different than what it otherwise would have been, because of a few people who kept their heads.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Drag a book to bed, e-reader or paper.
Even an awful boring one will make one's eyes shut. Or something. I still abide by the rule that even in an empty house it's not permissible to vacuum at 3 AM. Upsets the raccoons.
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.