Welcome to Saturday ...

open thread.jpg


The temptation to be uncivil grows as public discourse gets nastier and more aggressive. Can rudeness ever be righteous?~ Amy Olberding


Truly righteous incivility would issue from a deeply moral wish against its own necessity. It would come about as forced, a sorry step one feels reluctantly obliged to take. Morally good people want to respect others – they want a world in which we can, in all good conscience and effect, treat each other humanely and kindly. They do not want to signal disrespect even when they see they must. They are people who perceive a moral need to be rough and inconsiderate as distressing or at least a disappointment. Perhaps my disappointment in myself, in my too-eager impulse for the punch, can be used to turn me toward this better form of disappointment. https://aeon.co/essays/whats-the-difference-between-being-righteous-and-...

New music to my ears this week to yours, hope you enjoy ...

Morning's long reads


At its best, Hollywood had audiences streaming out of theaters with a reassuring sense of communal recovery and solidarity.

In the still-open case of the American way of life, the fancied populist embrace of politics in angry tantrum—the disregard for truth as concept as much as fact, and the grasp for instant gratification—represents an effort to replace two-and-a-half centuries of moralistic self-confidence that, even at shameful ebbs, had necessarily acknowledged that everybody was involved and that quite a few of them didn’t believe the sun circled the earth. But that vision of the all-inclusive had more than one person in mind when it trumpeted the often gravely flawed virtues of individualism. Whatever else Destutt de Tracy had been thinking of, it wasn’t an anti-science of ideas.https://hedgehogreview.com/issues/the-meaning-of-cities/articles/the-ide...

Land Without Bread
The Green New Deal forsakes America’s countryside

Days after the heart-stopping Notre-Dame Cathedral fire in April, Swedish schoolgirl Greta Thunberg trained her eyes on the United Kingdom’s parliament and chastised its meager response to climate change. “I want you to panic,” the baby-faced sixteen-year-old quietly instructed the adults in the room. “Avoiding climate breakdown will require cathedral thinking. We must lay the foundation while we may not know exactly how to build the ceiling.” https://thebaffler.com/salvos/land-without-bread-tumber

Nobody understood her cruelty to herself. In this life, cruelty
begets cruelty, and, before long, one would have to chop off
one's own hand to end the source of self-torture. Yet, we
continue. Sister Mortar pounding on Sister Pestle. The hand
refuses to retreat, as if to retreat would mean less meat on
the table.


She, Mortar, the presentable one: clean, well kept, jade cross,
white colonial pinafore, shiny knees and elbows, straight As,
responsible hall monitor, future councilwoman. She is Yang:
heaven, sunlight, vigorous, masculine, penetrator, the
monad.

She, Pestle: disheveled, morose, soft spoken, a fearful dark
crucible. She is Yin: heaven's antithesis, moony, fecund,
feminine, absorption, the duad.

The outer child had everything to live for: tenure, partnership
in the firm, shapely breasts, strong legs, praise from a few
key critics, the love of a good man.

The inner child was denied food, yet food was ample. She
was denied sleep, yet darkness descended as day.

Justice was the hateful stepfather. His voice was loud, trucu-
lent in their ear. If you succeed there would be no applause;
if you fail, there, too, would be silent reckoning.

Listen to that serious pounding of the ages . . . not nocturnal
lovemaking of the muses, but the bad sister pounding the
good. Somewhere in the scintillating powder we grind into
light.

~ Marilyn Chin, The True Story of Mortar and Pestle

Dear baby, welcome to the magic.

Thrilled you’re here

I know your Mom

She’s my friend, a guide to living

Each hour of breathing brings you closer to language

we share, each step closer to beauty in air

i know this, as witness,

you’ve come to us with the gift of a good heart,

evolved

Deep from the primal, with love

which can't be denied, you will take flight, grow,

and someday, when you read this,

you will already understand

The heart knows first.

~~~

Today's Art displayed from WikiArt, Fair Use ~ Eileen Agar: Lewis Carroll with Alice. Three Symbols, An Exceptional Occurrence and The Autobiography of an Embryo

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smiley7's picture

across our mountain vistas this time of year; leaves beginning to change, sun's heat at perfect sky angle, heaven in Carolina Blue.

Going to be a good day, feeling 'pert'- even a little sassy.

Celebrating the recent birth of my pulmonologist's daughter, seven pounds of joy. Open to ideas for a simple, special gift... which can be easily mailed. Been a while since i cared for little charlie.

Wonderful weekend to everyone.

edited comment

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Lookout's picture

Just back from Trade Day...a pleasant morning and nice time visiting friends.

Lovely OT, art, and music this AM Smiley.

Almost completed my big projects...still lack all my gates, but hope to wrap that up this week. Slow and sure is the way... says the tortoise.

queen of hearts.jpg

Hope y'all are not running around too much today. All the best!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

smiley7's picture

I take it from your writing that one could say that you are almost fenced in, :). Congrats on near competition of the project.

Turtles gave me hours of playing pleasure on the farm with caution to beware of snapping ones as "they don't let go until lightening."

All friends and relatives on the NC coast, safe from the passing storm, wish it were true of thousands without homes and missing loved ones on the islands.

Another home football game today, so town will be packed with revelers, plan to hide away doing something yet to be determined.

Happy you enjoyed today's OT and music and hope you've a wonderful weekend on the mountain.

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Lookout's picture

@smiley7

in answer to your comment...

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLoYFvbR0XY]

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

smiley7's picture

@Lookout
and the song, not since childhood, Don't fence me in. Love it.

A btw, had a conversation about our mutual friends with my landlord, buddy, this week prompted by the fact that they have leased the old ski shop to a new Orvis flyfishing dealer. Being a local guide, of interest to me, although i don't appreciate Orvis nor their incredible mark-ups on sometimes shoddy workmanship. Anyways conversation lead to our shared old acquaintance and funny and fond memories.

Keep you shoes in a safe place. Smile

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Thank you for the art, thought and music to start the weekend.

Maxine Bernier labeled Thunberg "unstable," shortly before calling Thunberg "brave." That kind of swing seems to me like an indisputable indicium of instability. Also, Bernier said that he never meant to denigrate Thunberg. https://globalnews.ca/news/5857679/maxime-bernier-greta-thunberg-mentall...

Sure, claiming that a teen who speaks out is "unstable" isn't any kind of denigration at all. /s

Sounds dishonest and cowardly to me.

So, I'm unsarcastically labeling Maxine Bernier an unstable, dishonest coward.

Of course, I intend no offense to Bernier, so nothing is wrong with calling him names. Diablo

Yeah, that's right: I signaled disrespect of Bernier, which apparently means that I lack morals. Nonetheless, sorry, not sorry for that serving of unrighteous rudeness. I admit it: I don't deserve to post on smiley7's open threads!

All the above may or may not beg the question, "Who the eff is Maxime Bernier? Seems to be a conservative Canadian politician who recently decided to seem more populist. (I guess conservatives can get away with starting a political party called "People's Party." Anyone else would be labeled Communist while being tarred and feathered. Then again, Canada does have that patently Communist single payer thing, which is supposedly inconsistent with a capitalist economy.)

Inasmuch as we're talking Lewis Carroll (who, btw, may or may not have been a pedophile Anglican deacon, among other things), here's another kind of mushroom song.

Alice Liddell, age 6, as the beggar maid from the story, The King and the Beggar Maid, as photographed by Lewis Carroll. It's the story of a king who is famous for lack of sexual desire...until he encounters the beggar maid and decides that he will either have her as his wife or kill himself. Had Alice Liddell been my child....

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smiley7's picture

@HenryAWallace

Always a pleasure. Don't know for sure why our featured surrealist Eileen Agar named her painting Lewis Carroll with Alice. Guesses run from sending him up ... to 'likeniing her work to a surreal wonderland?

I don't deserve to post on smiley7's open threads!

Ain't it a shame to not qualify, Henry? Huge smile and chuckles as i write; you do understand, don't you?

Conversation starters for those with extra time on their hands. So much verbiage to arrive at "don't be rude, just say fuck off" if you think them morally wrong. Smile

Love your wit, my friend and you're being here. Have a wonderful weekend.

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@smiley7

Went for a haircut yesterday. I mentioned that I would be welcoming someone important into my life later in the day and was not sure how to act. My Delilah, whom I 'd never met before, said that I was such a pure soul, all I had to do was be myself.

I have no idea what led her to such a flattering conclusion. However, I am not ashamed to acknowledge that you are obviously a far better person that I am. At least I am honest enough to recognize and acknowledge that. So much for my "pure soul." On the other hand, your goodness shines from every post you make (and every post you don't make).

I am very grateful for your Saturday open threads and I feel certain we all are.

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smiley7's picture

@HenryAWallace
chose material for today's enterprise, hoping to compliment the thinking, good vs bad, in poetry, prose, politics and everything, even nature.

No saint or angel am i, Henry, nor moralist, either; just a wayfaring soul traveling along moved by mostly circumstances beyond my control since birth, making good choices and bad ones along the way; hoping to arrive at a better place and challenged as we are by leaders of our great societies behaving like the devils they are leading us into hell and we equipped with only fingers for the Dike.

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TheOtherMaven's picture

@HenryAWallace

Taking pictures of children, especially little girls, en deshabille or even in the nude, was quite a thing among the monied classes (the ones who could afford cameras, glass plates, and leisure). It was all thought to be quite innocent, because children were "innocent" and "pure" (Freud was still formulating his ideas and wouldn't turn them loose on the public for a while yet).

For that matter, did any of you not have parents who took at least one picture of you as a child in an embarrassing situation (such as sitting on the pot)?

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

@TheOtherMaven

by most moderns, the question being whether he ever manifested it physically in any way.

That photo I posted is a photo of a six year old whose body and clothing are arranged in a certain way. And only heaven knows how he elicited that expression on her face! It's not only the photo, either, but the character he chose for her to portray.

It's not at all comparable to say, a nude infant on a bearskin rug or a toddler or the potty. (And, no, I never did anything like that to my son, nor have I ever seen anything comparable to that photo of my sister or me.)

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TheOtherMaven's picture

@HenryAWallace

the governess.

Something one has to remember about Victorian photography is that it was not the simple point-and-shoot affair we are so used to. There was all kinds of fuss and bother getting set up, and then the exposure time was MUCH longer, and holding a serious expression was easier than trying to keep a constant smile (why so many 19th century portrait photos look so grim). For all we know, she could have been thinking, "How much longer do I have to hold still like this?" (Alice is reported to have been much more interested in the development process than the actual posing.)

Photography was not an incidental pastime for Carroll - he's sometimes given credit for being one of the prime movers behind the "art photography" movement. And he photographed everything - landscapes, still lifes, dogs, cats, fossils and of course people. Especially people he knew, and whichever famous people he could talk into holding still in front of his lens. He cornered poets (Alfred Lord Tennyson), artists (W. Holman Hunt), and at least one Royal (Fredrik, Crown Prince of Denmark). He photographed them in everyday dress, and in costumes, and in academic robes.

The logical culmination of the movement was Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966), who was well known for planning his paintings using "art photography" of subjects carefully posed and costumed. (Interestingly, and considering how very many of his paintings include scantily dressed - or even undressed - barely pubescent figures, no one seems to raise an eyebrow about him.)

As a side note, I've worked with 19th century photographs in the Archives, and being photographed in costume was very much A Thing - mostly adults, but not exclusively (these days one has to consider the "Fauntleroy Look" as borderline - it was "Sunday best" back then, but went out of fashion quite abruptly before 1930).

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

@TheOtherMaven

have had a thing for Alice, though. That photo just struck me. And again, what struck me was not only the photo itself, but the character Carroll chose for Alice to portray--that of the girl who besotted someone theretofore not interested in sex. But that, too, is only me. Scholars think Carroll was in love with Alice and not because of the photo that struck me.

What also struck me: By Carroll's own words, he far preferred the company of little girls to that of anyone else. I think he said something like he preferred the company of children (but not little boys!) to that of adults. And again, that's only me. I have not made a study of this.

I'm not sure what Parrish has to do with Carroll or with Carroll's feelings for Alice, but Carroll and Parrish led very different lives.

I know it's very unpleasant to contemplate, especially for those of us who were/are fond of Alice in Wonderland. But, it is what it is.

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Anja Geitz's picture

Watching the newest season of The Great British Bake Off on Netflix while still in bed. Cats want to be fed and are sitting in different places around me staring me down. I guess I'll have to get up soon Smile

Gift ideas for babies...since everyone usually gives new parents clothes, I tend to give babies their first picture book. They may not be able to use the book now, but what a lovely way to begin their library for the eventuality of when Mom and Dad will be reading to them. It's easy to mail and you can write something in the book, speaking directly to the baby about whatever you'd like!

Have a great day!

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

smiley7's picture

@Anja Geitz

May the morning find your pace today.

Great idea, a picture book, as you say, i can put the poem inside and easy to mail. Fantastic.

Don't have a TV or cable, have seen a youtube clip or two of the bakeoff. Love all things cooking or baking. Collected a huge bag of apples, yesterday, fridge is filling up with late varieties; will freeze and dry some for pies in winter, usually make some apple juice and occasionally butter.

Like to think my apple pie is to die for, having more than fifty years experience perfecting my secret recipe.

Thinking about old lazy days in Sherman Oaks, a long stroll in the park with carriage and son or a longer walk east to the outdoor hotdog place.

Thanks for being here and happy day to you.

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Anja Geitz's picture

@smiley7

in a melange of warm sweet buttery goodness conjures up some of my fondest memories of childhood. Also it's really the only thing, apart from my Mother's peach cobbler, in the baking arena that I make well. It would be fun if we could have our own bake off, eh? What is the secret of your apple pie? Mine is apple brandy and achieving a beautifully flaky crust.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

smiley7's picture

@Anja Geitz

Ah, hah, yes when on hand. Tips, too much butter and the crust will flake, too little toughens it--i can feel it now when making dough just the right moisture. After coring apples, place cores and peelings, if you peel, in pot and simmer down; after adding apples, before placing top crust, strain and pour the juices over, dot with flour, butter, lemon zest, lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg and Calvados, no sugar.

YUMMY.

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Anja Geitz's picture

@smiley7

You sound like someone with a lot of apple pie baking experience. Please tell me you like to serve it warm with ice cream too?

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

smiley7's picture

@Anja Geitz
is very popular, especially at the old family-owned diners, we used to frequent. But, don't usually keep ice cream on hand. I forgot to add a splash of vanilla, didn't I?

The apples coming in now makes perfect pies, hardy, rock solid and sour; they also keep longer than summer varieties we have. i raid old abandoned trees, in a twenty-mile area, beginning the middle of June.

Must have been a sight to see yesterday, in the sugar mtn, community as i perched precariously on a granite slab, portable oxygen machine around my neck and cane in hand, manipulating the reachable branches, to pick them one by one.

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Anja Geitz's picture

@smiley7

Like ice cream on a warm pie with your apple picking portrait.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

snoopydawg's picture

@Anja Geitz

Cats want to be fed and are sitting in different places around me staring me down

I used to catch my cat looking in the mirror practicing her different types of stares to get what she wanted. She then taught my first dawg how to do that and she then passed it on to her puppy who then passed it on to the next dawg and down the line so I will never escape the different types of stares from my fur faces. The only way to stop this is to make sure that they are never alone together so they can pass this on. Good luck, Anja....

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Anja Geitz's picture

@snoopydawg

When I leave, or one of the cats starts blogging online. Curses like a sailor, gossips about the neighborhood cats, and exaggerates about how strict I am when it comes to putting them on a diet. Cats these days, eh?

Smile

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Wally's picture

I don't see how Bernie's GND "forsakes America's countryside." I see AOC's GND proposal as a preliminary proposal that at least started the dialogue.

https://berniesanders.com/issues/the-green-new-deal/

I like turtles, too.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMNry4PE93Y]

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@Wally @Wally

He proposed it, using that title, years before anyone heard of AOC. His version became the Green Party's Green New Deal. https://gpus.org/organizing-tools/the-green-new-deal/

IMO, it's unfortunate. and a bit dishonest, that no Democrat, including Democrat when convenient, Sanders, gives either Hawkins or the Green Party even a sliver of a nod when touting his or her "own" Green New Deal.

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Wally's picture

@HenryAWallace

It took someone who was actually elected, though, to give it some real traction in terms of it being widely discussed.

Then again, if Bernie doesn't get nominated and elected, I doubt there will be any traction towards a GND at all.

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smiley7's picture

@Wally
you good folks are making my day, smiling from ear to ear. Great find. Reminds me of me, duh.

As to the GND, all in for whatever, in agreement with you; i think the article wishes to push the importance of the structural change needed in our shepherding of land. Were i capable, i would add a complete overhaul of corporate charters across the world; and the one candidate calling out corporate fascism for what it is, a great obstacle to change, is and has been good Bernie. Onward ...

Thanks for being here, Wally and the good thoughts and humor; have a wonderful weekend.

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enhydra lutris's picture

today, thanks. Fall festival here this weekend, must rush out to farmers' market, purchase necessaries and get the hell back home before the town becomes impassible. Will probably walk down later to pick up a pound of Peets and peek at the festivities without vehicular encumbrance.

Hope you have a wonderful day and weekend.

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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 --

smiley7's picture

@enhydra lutris
same here, crowds in area for university football, band's morning practice greets me through my windows, okay, except when the snare drummers practice the same marching rhythm over and over and over again.

Trade you fresh from Hawaii Kona for some Peet's?

Easy day as beginning tomorrow, i've much to do, including going down the mountain first of the week, long drive to take care of business.

Thomas Hardy we will play today, avoiding the throngs.

Have a wonderful weekend.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@smiley7
if it is mailable. Had a college buddy with an in at Kona, good times Wink

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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 --

smiley7's picture

@enhydra lutris

Fortunate, my oldest friend from Chapel Hill, traveling partner, sends me gracious supplies of Kona coffee monthly. I don't recall Peets in my San Fran days, but those were really nights working in theatre and going out afterwards, most mornings came too late for coffee and that was decades ago.

Perhaps, we can meet there, someday. Smile

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I will finish packing for a trip to Ecuador and Peru. The temperatures will swing from freezing to 95 degrees. Interesting.
I have been there, will not likely see or do anything I have not done before, but none of my companions have been, so it will be fun to see them take goofy selfies straddling the "middle of the world" equator landmark, and to see their jaws drop when they see Machu Picchu.
I look forward to hiking in the rainforest, rafting in the Amazon.
My friends have said they would raise $250,000 for my ransom, should I find myself kidnapped.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

smiley7's picture

@on the cusp
vicariously with you, OTC? Fabulous. What a treat. Please send updates if you've time.

I'm in on the ransom or can do a rescue mission; have cane will travel. Smile

Sincerely, enjoy the hell out it, be thinking of you on top of the world.

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@smiley7 forgetting that the tap water in the 5 star hotels should not be used to brush one's teeth, it is the altitude that generally makes half the people on the tour very ill.
The recommend precautions are to drink lots of water, eat light, avoid alcohol, and rest.
I do as I damn well please. After all, beer has lots of water in it. And nobody overeats airline food, do they? And isn't sleeping a few hours on a plane "rest"? Certainly, sitting in a hotel bar is restful! lol!
Transit from my home to the hotel in Quito will be at least 17 hours. Last trip I took to Georgia and Armenia was a 38 hour transit, so this is a piece of cake.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

smiley7's picture

@on the cusp
Hear, hear!

Indulge away, my friend, only once do we pass this way--at least we are conscious of anyways.

Bucket list for my old Hawaii friend and I, if and whenever, until then, thanks for letting us share in the splendid.

"keep your eyes on the horizon and your nose in the wind"

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enhydra lutris's picture

@on the cusp

Thermas Papillactas (just south of Papillacta Pass)
Please note that the gnomon of the armillary sphere is perfectly horizontal

IMG_0187

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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 and such an interesting story about the first people to hack through the jungle and use primitive devices to locate the equator. They actually missed it by a few feet. But only a few. An incredible feat.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

snoopydawg's picture

Pakalolo has an excellent write up on this on DK. The death toll stands at 30, but there are still thousands missing. A cruise ship is offering to take people to Florida, but only if they have the correct paperwork such as a passport. I have seen some photos on the Guardian where many houses are utterly destroyed and they look like huge toothpicks. Hopefully the people there will be treated better than Puerto Ricans were. Many people there still don't have water or electricity. We must do better.

As a gift idea for Charlie I always give babies a snoopy toy. One can't start too early on getting to know this fabulous dawg....

Enjoy your day Smiley.

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smiley7's picture

@snoopydawg

Relocating all those folks appears to be the only solution i can imagine, not being there, not sure, but those horrific photos show total destruction. Strange world isn't it, one day alive in paradise, next day alive in hell. Poor folks.

Snoopy toy, cool idea, thanks.

Good to see you, hope all is well, the dawgs in good health and spirits. Looking forward to a two-week dogsit for granddog Jackson, Son and daughter-in-law going on vacation. Jackson, as you probably recall grew up with me as my son lived with me before marriage.

Jackson's cool, a red, water-loving Golden, around eight years old, now; talk about staring, from the get-go at eight weeks, sits staring at you constantly. He loves to talk. Never had or known a dog to react so joyouesly when we used to get close to a river or stream as i took him fishing with me all the time-- absolutely go crazy, making those fast figure-eight-circles dogs do.

Hugs to you and critters.

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snoopydawg's picture

@smiley7

paradise one day, hell the next. I read that a famous chef is providing 10,000 meals a day and is increasing it to 20,000 and onward as donations come in. I suggest that the rich people who vacation there help rebuild if that is the plan. But since it is in the path of climate change would it be best if people relocate? There were not many higher places people could have gone to, but even if they did they would still have no homes to come back to. I am seeing a lot of victim shaming because people didn't evacuate. Poor people have no real options.

Thanks for the dawg well wishes. Sadly Abby is sliding away from us and has been for two weeks now. Good days and bad days, but I feel she will be leaving us soon. I am very sad, but thankful for the long goodbye. We still go out every day and she sits and enjoys her time there, but has decided not to walk with us at night.

Enjoy your time with Jackson. The joy that dawgs brings us is something to cherish. We are off to sit in the sun. Have a great day.

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mimi's picture

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smiley7's picture

@mimi

Good to see you. Wonderful video, thank you for sharing.

I'm escaping watching Mrs. Wilson on Masterpiece Theatre, and so far, it's pretty good. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/episodes/mrs-wilson-e1/

Will probably miss your timezone with this comment, but hoping your evening is good.

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lotlizard's picture

and now the other cat has gone missing.

Friend reproaches herself, thinks she made a mistake advising her mom (in her 80s) to leave first cat’s body at vet and not to bury him in back yard. Her theory is that the other cat didn’t know where first cat went so she went to search the neighborhood for him.

Helping friend remotely because Dutch site for reporting missing and found pets is too hard to use for a blind person.

Forcing self to function, sadness.

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snoopydawg's picture

@lotlizard

I have always brought my other dawg in to see that their friend is gone just for that reason. When Abby did it with Bailey she turned to me and put her paws on my shoulders like she wanted a hug. Animals need closure just like we humans do.

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Deja's picture

@lotlizard
That's probably what happened. It's out looking for it's buddy. I have a friend who had to put down one of his dogs, but buried it in the backyard. For weeks and weeks, the remaining dog went out and laid on the hump of dirt where his buddy was buried. They love their four-legged buddies as much as they love us.

Sending positive thoughts and energy to your friend!

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kharma's picture

It's good to see so many from days gone by.

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There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties.. This...is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.--John Adams

smiley7's picture

@kharma

Great to see you, welcome.

Have a wonderful day and week.

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magiamma's picture

A day late but not short - of much of anything important.

Thanks for the great art and the food for thought. r e s e p c t. That's the ticket. A couple of hard lessons I have learned - one is that I did not get into political organizing to have people like me. And much to my surprise some people do not. Right. Of course they don't. Even those on 'my side'. (I read this great Caitlin Johnstone article: https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/01/18/fight-the-establishments-narrati... that helped set me straight.) So first my first big realization was that I just didn't need people to like me.

But respect is good. I prefer civility. Which brings me to the other lesson which I have had a harder time with, but I am on it now. And that is that even when people are not civil, which is *not* often, I don't react. I know that we need to focus on the goal not the personal. Drama only distracts us from our work. We loose. Humans are animals and so it goes. heh.

On the Trippy front, not much but hanging out is happening and I presume transformation. I check regularly to see if anything interesting is going on. I will have to take her over to the Monarch center to have her tested for parasites when she emerges or maybe sooner. I have to check on that.

Thanks again for the great thread. Have a good one...

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smiley7's picture

Civility works; don't often follow twitter, but followed Dorian this week and among all the painful humanity were scattered vile comments, disgusting ones and i happened upon Olberding's piece about rudeness bringing awareness to this new social media construct where anonymity apparently releases the little devils in people's heads; devilish thoughts hardly ever spoken in public, except, maybe emotionally, between friends and family.

I can imagine Sigmund lying awake at night contemplating this in today's social media very unfortunately lead by the so-called leader of the world.

Being mean for mean's sake in a soured juvenile insecurity rues the day and i fear may be a path to greater violence.

Paraphrasing Mumford, millions bled across centuries to establish good values already a constant battle to keep alive and improve upon in our societies. Recall when TV was promoted to be the new tool for building civilization?

Adding: In the still-open case of the American way of life, the fancied populist embrace of politics in angry tantrum—the disregard for truth as concept as much as fact, and the grasp for instant gratification—represents an effort to replace two-and-a-half centuries of moralistic self-confidence that, even at shameful ebbs, had necessarily acknowledged that everybody was involved and that quite a few of them didn’t believe the sun circled the earth. But that vision of the all-inclusive had more than one person in mind when it trumpeted the often gravely flawed virtues of individualism.

In all, good to know i don't sleep alone with these contemplations.

So cool of you to take care of Trippy and friends.

Never knew i had so many enemies which i discovered as an investigative journalist. Complete strangers taking offense personally. Hurt my feelings and at times threatened my being, complete strangers.

Choices, we people make?

As always, good to see you and hoping you've a wonderful week. Onward ...

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