Hot Air

Submitted by magiamma on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 4:12am

BLOODING THE HOUNDS
~

There is only one choice in this election. The consolidation of oligarchic power under Donald Trump or the consolidation of oligarchic power under Joe Biden. The oligarchs, with Trump or Biden, will win again. We will lose. The oligarchs made it abundantly clear, should Bernie Sanders miraculously become the Democratic Party nominee, they would join forces with the Republicans to crush him. Trump would, if Sanders was the nominee, instantly be shorn by the Democratic Party elites of his demons and his propensity for tyranny. Sanders would be red-baited — as he was viciously Friday in The New York Times’ “As Bernie Sanders Pushed for Closer Ties, Soviet Union Spotted Opportunity” — and turned into a figure of derision and ridicule. The oligarchs preach the sermon of the least-worst to us when they attempt to ram a Hillary Clinton or a Biden down our throats but ignore it for themselves. They prefer Biden over Trump, but they can live with either.

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[video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezS231Frhdc]
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It is the intentional encouragement of violence that alarms me. It is the ever so slowly ratcheting up of chaos that this administrations continues to do without the least consideration for the safety of the people of our nation, whether it is around COVID-19, around the protests, or around the election.

The state of chaos we are in now is not an accident. It was at the least hoped for, if not well researched and carefully planned. We are a country divided and at each others throats.

Where do we go from here? I am at a loss for words. If I knew a way to make an impact I would do so. I can only think of small things that make small changes. But we need a complete overhaul from the ground up. I see no way to make that happen. The sky is falling for real, and nobody is listening. As an individual I am okay. But it is not about any one person. The rules that we have played by are gone. Purposefully. Chaos has replaced them. Purposefully. What to do?

REPORT ALL INJURIES
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Report All Injuries Knives.jpg

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Embrace change
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Embrace chaos
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What can we do? What are you going to do?
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It's your open thread, now...

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Open Thread

Where Do We Go

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Comments

Submitted by magiamma on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 6:06am

Building cities with wood would store half of cement industry's

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A recent study by researchers at Aalto University and the Finnish Environment Institute shows that shifting to wood as a building construction material would significantly reduce the environmental impact of building construction. The results show that if 80 percent of new residential buildings in Europe were made of wood, and wood were used in the structures, cladding, surfaces, and furnishings of houses, all together the buildings would store 55 million tons of carbon dioxide a year. That is equivalent to about 47 percent of the annual emissions of Europe's cement industry.

'This is the first time that the carbon storage potential of wooden building construction has been evaluated on the European level, in different scenarios,' explains Ali Amiri, who is completing his doctorate at Aalto University. 'We hope that our model could be used as roadmap to increase wooden construction in Europe.

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Submitted by usefewersyllables on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 9:44am

This is an interesting

@magiamma

area for investigation. I was working on an analysis of the amount of oil burned to create the interstate highway system at one point- the amount needed to make the cement alone was really quite astonishing.

Same thing for the amount burned to keep the Chrome Dome B-52s on 24/7 airborne alert, and the amount needed to make the concrete for all the Cold War installations (from Hanford and Oak Ridge on up through the missile silos that we built and then immediately destroyed). Add that to the number of calories of waste heat dumped into the Columbia River from the Hanford reactors to make the tons of plutonium we "needed", and it isn't difficult to see how the American Cold War thermal/CO2 footprint might indeed have made a measurable impact on the planet.

I need to dust that off and work on it again. It is enlightening...

—

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Submitted by magiamma on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 2:13pm

hi ufs

@usefewersyllables
Good stuff. Cement production makes about a 4% contribution to climate warming. Unfortunately the original article is gone but here is the quote from hot air

Global Carbon Budget Summary Highlights
GCP December 5, 2018
Emissions from fossil fuels and industry

Global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and industry have increased every decade from an average of 3.1±0.2 GtC yr-1 (11.4 GtCO2) in the 1960s to an average of 9.4±0.5 yr-1 during 2008-2017 (34.4 GtCO2). Emissions in 2017 were 9.9±0.5 (36.2 GtCO2) with a share of coal (40%), oil (35%), gas (20%), cement (4%), and flaring (1%). Global emissions in 2018 are projected to increase by more than 2% (+1.8% to +3.7%) after three years of almost no growth, reaching 10.1±0.5 GtC (37.1 GtCO2), a new record high.

This study is from Hot Air a while back.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988319303913?via%...

And another article
Climate change: The massive CO2 emitter you may not know about
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46455844

Then there is all the cement that is needed to make nuclear power plants.

Do dust it off. Take good care.

—

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Submitted by The Liberal Moonbat on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 7:02am

Chaos is not the enemy; Order is

Isn't that obvious? Order is their whole goal: A prison-planet where NOTHING is beyond their control.

Daesh? The hate groups (of ALL kinds)? The political religions? Big Brother? The pseudoscientists? The fundies? The Neocons? Morgoth? All the factions presently ruining everything are motivated by the same thing: A desperate belief in the need for Order.

Order - power from an external source - is like an addictive drug; you don't really need it, but most people have it force-fed to them from birth and have no idea it's even possible to generate one's own power within. The avante-garde of the last few generations were finally beginning to figure that out - now a miraculous future is in danger of being snatched away from us in what should be its moment of victory. I was born into the dawn of that future; other people's ceiling is my floor. Most people have no idea it even happened, and now they're trying to erase it - erase ME. They have STOLEN my home, my past, my future MY Silicon Valley, and now people who weren't even there are gaslighting me about my own place in history.

The millennia-old fallacy that "Order/Light=Good/Reason" and "Darkness/Chaos=Emotion/Evil" came apart during the 20th Century; fascism proved that no, if anything it's "Order/Light=Emotion/Evil" and "Darkness/Chaos=Good/Reason" - an epiphany that, if you read between the lines of history, has been clawing its way out of the oubliette since at least the 18th Century.

We are Team Chaos; I know I am. It's always been my guiding star. Chaos, on a personal level, means power from within.

—

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

Submitted by magiamma on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 7:31am

hola tlm

@The Liberal Moonbat
My point is

There is also, under the incessant pedagogical propaganda of right-wing and corporate controlled media, a culture that has become cruel and cultivates an appetite for maliciousness that undermines the capacity for empathy, making people indifferent to the suffering of others or, even worse, willing participants in their violent exclusion.

Irish journalist Fintan O’Toole warns that fascism unravels the ethical imagination through a process in which individuals eventually “learn to think the unthinkable…” followed, he writes, “by a crucial next step, usually the trickiest of all”:

You have to undermine moral boundaries, inure people to the acceptance of acts of extreme cruelty. Like hounds, people have to be blooded. They have to be given the taste for savagery. Fascism does this by building up the sense of threat from a despised out-group. This allows the members of that group to be dehumanized. Once that has been achieved, you can gradually up the ante, working through the stages from breaking windows to extermination.12

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/neoliberal-fascism-and-the-echoes-of-h...

Have a good one

—

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Submitted by The Liberal Moonbat on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 8:03am

You describe Order in its purest, realest form...

@magiamma ...the Law of the Pack - precisely what I have stood most against my whole life.

Metaphysics aren't everyone's cup of tea, but I have reason to believe that making this jump in our language of metaphysics matters - notice how "chaos" has become the Matrix's favorite bogey-word over the past 6-ish years in a manner/at a pitch it never was before?

—

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

Submitted by Raggedy Ann on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 7:25am

Good morning, magi ~~

Things are going to get better by 2025. Look to the astrology. Answers lie there about all.

Because my life has been subjected to upheaval that I cannot escape but must live through; because I am a believer that the universe is in charge, what I will do is go with the flow. Be the water.

Enjoy the day.

—

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Submitted by magiamma on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 7:41am

hi ra

@Raggedy Ann
Hoping all is going well with the changes in your life. My new mantra is - embrace chaos. We can't control it so why not dance with it. Yes. Be water. Flows and yet is so powerful. Love it.

Just saw this this morning. Cosmic.

Ground-breaking discovery finally proves rain really can move mountains

"When a cosmic particle from outer space reaches Earth, it is likely to hit sand grains on hillslopes as they are transported toward rivers. When this happens, some atoms within each grain of sand can transform into a rare element. By counting how many atoms of this element are present in a bag of sand, we can calculate how long the sand has been there, and therefore how quickly the landscape has been eroding,"

Take good care and love the ones your with.

—

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Submitted by magiamma on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 7:29am

delete

—

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Submitted by QMS on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 7:35am

Knives in the bird cage

Glad the canary got out of the cage (to fight fires)
before the knife shower hit. Injuries reported: gazillion.
Incidents responded to: too few to matter.
At this point, I'll take anarchy for $10.

Embrace change

[video:https://youtu.be/fPr3yvkHYsE]

[video:https://youtu.be/amVCS5ttGcE]

—

question everything

Submitted by magiamma on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 7:43am

hola q

@QMS
And you will win the monopoly game. It's the only way to beat the system. No pun intended. Phoenix rises from the ashes. Bring it on.

Be well.

—

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Submitted by Lookout on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 7:53am

good morning...

Another beautiful one here. Been dry for November, but we may get another hurricane not this weekend but the next. We have been having to water the garden...odd in Nov., but everything seems odd these days.

Your take that the oligarchs win is correct in my view. Divide and conquer has been a strategy for millennia. According to wiki...

The maxim divide et impera has been attributed to Philip II of Macedon. It was utilised by the Roman ruler Julius Caesar and the French emperor Napoleon (together with the maxim divide ut regnes)

You know, MA, as well as anyone, the real demise of humans will be the climate. With that understanding, why sweat politics... when we know the oligarchs always win in this sham kabuki demonocrazy. I recommend seeing the humor of it all...

If Trump wins the election I will leave the United States.
If Biden Wins the election, I will leave the United States.
This is not a political post, I just really want to travel.

How many republicans does it take to fix a light bulb?
None. Trump tells them it’s fixed and the rest just sit in the dark and applaud.

How do you get democrats to turn out the lights?
Tell them it’s white privilege to have light and watch them break it.

Treasure your days. Laugh at the insanity. Experience nature. Enjoy your friends and family.

—

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

Submitted by magiamma on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 9:14am

howdy lo

@Lookout
yep

Climate Chaos

Should not be laughing when I type that. But sometimes, recently, I have had this perverse thought that better climate chaos take us out than continue down the path we are on. Sad. But it still makes me laugh. heh.

Beautiful here too. Fall. Chilly in the mornings and then 70s - 80s. Have a few winter veggies planted but they got in too late. Being eaten by cut worms. I feed them to the birds when I find them.

I have little emotion invested in the outcome of the election. Other here not so much. A lot of flapping of wings over nothing they can do anything about.

Thanks for the jokes. Have a very good one.

—

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Submitted by TheOtherMaven on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 8:08am

Quote is a perfect example of a Morton's Fork

and we're all forked.

—

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

Submitted by magiamma on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 9:08am

hola tom

@TheOtherMaven
.

Devil and the Deep Blue.

[video:https://youtu.be/qxsQ7jJJcEA]

I voted. Way too many issues on the ballot here in CA.

Take good care.

—

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Submitted by randtntx on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 8:22am

That is quite a phrase;

Like hounds, people have to be blooded.

The idea can break your heart.

The success of that bloody strategy is evident when you look at our foreign policy and what we do and have done in the past in our own country as well. A "cruel and malicious culture" is, I think, not what most people want but it is where we are going. We are on such a treacherous path. We can make things even more hellish than they are, or we can try not to do that. We may have no success with making things better, but it doesn't seem to me that we are even trying.

To minimize the nightmare that is just around the bend with the cumulative crises that are awaiting us, requires people to open their eyes, to wake up, and to make a choice about where they want to go.
At the very least we might react to all these impending difficulties with compassion and aim to decrease all injuries. I so just want to be surrounded by a culture that cares.

There is a poem in BAR this week that I like.
https://www.blackagendareport.com/not-question

Submitted by magiamma on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 2:18pm

hola rantntx

@randtntx
Yes, it can break your heart. People are so raw; everyone I talk to. Cagey. And the climate crisis is comin' down the track like a bullet train. This place is an oasis. Thank you for the poem from Black Agenda.

...
The question is when will the general strike
sprout wings, gliding cross country; and how
crammed Capitalist Hill and city streets get;
How surrounded the War House is—and for how
many days, weeks, months—years if necessary?
...
The question is community clinics, postal
banking, solar panels, windmills—when—
And until we’ve boned up on restorative justice—
Terre Haute or Beaumont for Boss Tweet—
Leavenworth or Lompoc for lawless low Barr?

Breathe slow deep breaths and remember who we are and that we are not alone. Take good care.

—

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Submitted by randtntx on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 2:52pm

For sure

@magiamma ,

Breathe slow deep breaths and remember who we are and that we are not alone.

Thanks for the OT and the conversation.

I imagine your garden is doing well. I've had good weather here and have been able to spend my time outside planting things etc.

Thanks for the OT and the conversation. Take good care as well.

Submitted by magiamma on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 3:23pm

the kurapia is growing roots and spreading

@randtntx
I water and talk to it each day. Battling a gopher. Weather is great. What are you planting. Winter garden?

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Submitted by randtntx on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 9:24pm

Yes

@magiamma , I'm planting a winter garden, setting up some wildflower areas, cleaning up my herb garden, and taking cuttings of herbs to propagate just in case they don't make it through our rare freeze spells. It's a pleasure to be outside in the fall, not like the endurance test during midsummer heat.

Sorry about your gopher, hope she's into sharing. One year we had feral pigs come through our garden, they ate all our onions and did not share at all.

Funny about you talking to your Kurapia. I planted a very small area of Texas native grasses last spring just as an experiment and I know they have a very deep root system as well. It makes me happy to imagine those roots going way down. They will do well in a drought.

Submitted by on the cusp on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 8:25am

Good morning, one and all.

My political conversations yesterday amounted to this: The poor black people who voted for Biden want free stuff. Texas D's failed to support Biden at the polls and should be ashamed of themselves. Oh, and Biden is a socialist.
The only sane place to discuss politics is here with you all.
Must get to court and try to keep a kid out of prison.
Find something enjoyable and comforting this day. Just look around.

—

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

Submitted by magiamma on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 1:40pm

afternoon otc

@on the cusp
Man oh man. It's not over yet. You are in the middle of it down there. Hope you kept the kid out of prison. Thanks for the on-the-ground report. Stay safe.

—

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Submitted by smiley7 on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 8:31am

Good morning, magi,

Thank you for this morning conversation, comforting to hear your voice.

Centrist are losers, again, and ironically many of them are already licking their chops, tasting their opportunity to continue feasting at the government's trough. Good governance and policy be damned.

It is precisely the opposite of what America needs right now: a White House, Senate and House working together and thinking big like Franklin Roosevelt to tackle the pandemic, rebuild the economy and reform healthcare.
[...]
When some Americans protested “This is not who we are”, Trump voters replied: “This is exactly who we are – and we’re not going anywhere.”

“The so-called moral outrage around Trump’s presidency did not produce any substantive shift in his Republican support,” tweeted Eddie Glaude, a professor at Princeton University and author of Democracy in Black. “In fact, he expanded his base among white voters. Trump continues to flourish in the intersection of greed, selfishness and racism.”

Now, if Trump wins the election, Trumpism wins. But if Trump loses the election, Trumpism wins too. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/04/trumpism-us-presidential...

Biden's electoral plan along with and the Lincoln project 'grifters,' failed miserably, more republicans voted for Trump than in 2016 by wide margins in places. So, let's compromise becomes the laughing stock phrase of the day; funny as Vaudeville's 'duck.'

What am i going to do, "take no prisoners comes to mind," fuck the racist, greedy, lying asshats.

In reality, little i can do from my perch; maybe it's best to ignore it all, try to avoid covid and find peace in nature. But, inside, i feel an obligation to our children, forsaken in all this crap.

Anyways, still involved with "real estate" transaction--to go through--and packing stuff away.

Going back down the mountain tomorrow; miss you folks.

Thanks again, magi and be safe out there.

Submitted by magiamma on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 1:49pm

hola smiley

@smiley7
Gosh golly gee whiz, it's good to see ya right here at c99. I am sure I speak for us all.

Right on

What am i going to do, "take no prisoners comes to mind," fuck the racist, greedy, lying asshats.

Yeah, me too. What can I do. Stay sane so I can be there when needed. Maybe there will be an opening and we can all move forward together. That is what is needed to "fulfill our obligation to our children. (And our dogs and cats.)

Hope all goes swimmingly with your packing and the closing of your Real Estate business. Be well, friend. Be safe. We are all thinking of you.

—

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Submitted by randtntx on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 2:57pm

Second that

@smiley7 , good to see you. Take care of yourself out there. Sending you best wishes and wishes for good results in your endeavors.

Submitted by smiley7 on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 5:00pm

Hi randtntx,

@randtntx

great to see you, too. Lots to catching up on c99 when this house stuff is done

Hope all is good in tx. Thank you for the wishes, thoughts and essays.

Submitted by randtntx on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 9:26pm

Not a problem

@smiley7 , It is my pleasure.

Submitted by QMS on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 1:14pm

Good news

The gal I stumped for this season won the race for our house district. We replaced a stalwart conservadem with a progressive voice! Small joys add up.

The wrestling match for patriarch in cheap matters little down here.
Here where people are struggling to stay alive.
Let the clowns play their drama games.

Punch up

—

question everything

Submitted by magiamma on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 1:50pm

That is great news

@QMS
Every little win is a big one. Good on y'all.

—

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Submitted by randtntx on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 3:01pm

That is good news

@QMS , Congrats.

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 6:52pm

Good evening magi. Well said. Embrace Chaos, always.

As moonbat noted, order has been the war cry of tyrants of every stripe and type since time immemorial. I have little to add but crude symbols:

be well and have a good one

—

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 magiamma on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 7:25pm

hola el

@enhydra lutris
Thanks for that wrenching comment. To achieve order, chaos. Be well.

—

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Submitted by JtC on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 9:51pm

Hey...

@enhydra lutris
...duke.

Submitted by travelerxxx on Fri, 11/06/2020 - 7:13pm

A wrench with a name

@enhydra lutris

I chuckled when I saw that monkey wrench ad, as I have one exactly like it. A TRIMO, with the date 1909 on it. It's also stamped with "U.P." That stands for Union Pacific. It belonged to my grandfather, who told me he "found" it next to some Union Pacific tracks. Perhaps he did.

It's one of the few tools - maybe the only one - I ever gave a name to. Its name is Union Pacific. Even my co-workers knew it by that name, as in, "Hey, go grab Union Pacific outta my top drawer, will ya?" They'd go get it for me.

I used it on aircraft for about 40 years. Probably good for other things, too...