Open Thread WE 20 JAN 21

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 01/20/2021 - 3:00am

Welcome to Wednesday. Today we witness another political charade.

Had something more to offer in this OT, but the dog ate my essay. Poof! into the ether.
Oh well.

Since this is written to include a wide audience,
and the innaug will probably take up most of the oxygen in the hallways,
have fun posting away...

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Submitted by mimi on Wed, 01/20/2021 - 4:48am

Just wanted to see if I can still post a comment here

I had a nightmare to not be connected to a network, some stupid server was not available, we gor annoying weirdo ringings of our phone system. Did I say that I hate stupido IT technology? Ok then, I repeat, I hate stupido IT technology.

So, all I had the whole night is CNN TV.

Ok, you dog lovers out there, what does a dog do, if he has been beaten up and pinches up his tail?

oh, and I have sound back again. So, things to be learned last day, if something goes wrong and you have no clue why, just wait and sit it out and it will correct itself. Ha.

I guess I will catch up on the last EBs I could not read.

Have a good inauguration day, folks. At least for one day, we can exhale and feel a kind of relief, or not?

—

https://www.euronews.com/live

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 01/20/2021 - 7:32am

Hey mimi

@mimi

glad your internet connection is working again. Sometimes dealing with all of this technology is
frustrating. Seems way more complex than it needs to be for this old dinosaur.

Viel Glück!

—

question everything

Submitted by lotlizard on Wed, 01/20/2021 - 6:08am

“Wikipedia: the overlooked monopoly” (Michael Olenick via YS@NC)

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/01/wikipedia-the-overlooked-monopol...

And:

The new domestic war on terrorism is coming (Glenn Greenwald)

Baghdad on the Potomac: welcome to the Blue Zone (Pepe Escobar)

Media cheers D.C. under military occupation (Michael Tracey)

Perhaps it will be possible to evade repression somewhat by switching where possible to so-called “alt-tech” (right-leaning for the moment, but hey, any old port in a storm) and away from monopolists and oligopolists, no matter how “progressive” and “woke” the latter are trying to brand themselves. I myself have now stopped using Mozilla Firefox and Safari and have switched to the browser Brave.

And: Like the similar slogan “The only democracy in the Middle East™” as an epithet for Israel, “The world’s largest democracy™” as an epithet for India continues to deflate and lose any remaining connection to reality.

Mahatma Gandhi’s killer venerated as Hindu nationalism resurges in India

Is anyone keeping an eye on the “Indian mafia” phenomenon in the C-level suites and human resources departments of American firms, particularly those in IT and Silicon Valley, and its possible links to Hindu nationalism and caste discrimination?

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 01/20/2021 - 7:39am

morning (here) lotlizzy

@lotlizard

Thanks for the links. Would be curious to know how you like the Brave browser. Have gone thru google, safari, duck duck and firefox already. They all seem about the same anymore. Looks a bit tekkie for me, but always looking for something better.

danke

—

question everything

Submitted by lotlizard on Wed, 01/20/2021 - 7:59am

One thing I miss in Brave is Safari’s “Reader View” feature…

@QMS
I very much like the built-in advertising and tracker suppression, though Apple / Safari is also making great advances in that direction, to the dismay of Google and Facebook.

Submitted by Lookout on Wed, 01/20/2021 - 7:06am

Good morning...

How abut laughing about the old and new?

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjSoVLsIKPc]
(8 min)

nothing like a good rant from Jonathon Pie...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvcwMcGWf-w]
(12 min)

I wish I could feel hopeful about the transfer of power, but ...

I finally learned not to assign homework to 8th graders...there was a rash of dogs eating it. Well, really it is because the wealthier kids had help at home, but the poor kids had no resources...so I depended on classroom learning. I recommend all teachers get rid of text books (except as reference books) and learn from real sources...from the web to magazines to writing letters and making phone calls. Sure made for more authentic (lifetime) learning.

Have a good day. Some sun expected so I'm doing a load of wash to hang out. Just 2 more holes to dig for the chestnut trees and I'll be ready for next months planting. Hope to wrap that up today too.

—

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

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 01/20/2021 - 7:52am

HA! Jonathon Pie is hilarious

@Lookout

Takes a brit to dissect the trumpet properly.
He expresses my sentiments quite well.

Good luck with the digging!

—

question everything

Submitted by randtntx on Wed, 01/20/2021 - 8:54am

It's gray,

rainy, windy, and on the cold side here today.

I've set myself the task of going through massive amounts of paperwork and hopefully will be able to throw a massive amount of it away. That's the goal anyway. Not fun, but better than watching the "news".
It's one of those days where if I had had homework, the dog would have eaten it.

Ian Welch has a nice column that may apply to a day like this:
https://www.ianwelsh.net/staying-happy-in-self-isolation/

Take care QMS and all, have a good one.

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 01/20/2021 - 9:04am

Same here, snowing but not blowing yet

@randtntx

Dealing with the year-end paperwork filing thing
tax prep, 1099's, etc. It's OK being quiet. May still
try to go to work but then again...

[video:https://youtu.be/3N1vN5wKIxw]

Cheers!

—

question everything

Submitted by TheOtherMaven on Wed, 01/20/2021 - 9:12am

Too bad it isn't pouring rain in DC

@QMS

That's about what this perverted sick joke of an "inauguration" deserves.

—

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 01/20/2021 - 9:24am

guess we are lucky it isn't

@TheOtherMaven

raining bullets and bombs
"greatest democracy evah"

beyond barbed wire

—

question everything

Submitted by TheOtherMaven on Wed, 01/20/2021 - 2:21pm

Snowed here this AM

@QMS

I told the clouds to take it off to DC, but I don't think they listened.

—

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 01/20/2021 - 3:28pm

You could try the Uncle Martin trick

@TheOtherMaven

Remember My Favorite Martian?

He would squint his eyes and wiggle his finger
and things would move!

—

question everything

Submitted by randtntx on Wed, 01/20/2021 - 9:49am

Thanks

@QMS , for the nice piano music. Interesting title. Like calm before a storm.

Submitted by randtntx on Wed, 01/20/2021 - 9:54am

This

is happening in NYC? https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/01/20/groc-j20.html

Submitted by Granma on Wed, 01/20/2021 - 9:56am

Very col and clear here

And California is the site of a new Covid variant. They were doing virus sequencing to learn if the English or South African variants were present and found a new mutation they were able to determine originated in CA. They don't know much about it yet other than specific mutations in the virus's genome.

Submitted by Marie on Wed, 01/20/2021 - 11:52am

Apparently the testing for

@Granma
SARS-CoV2 variants in the US is far more limited than in other countries.

Much too dry in CA this season. On the plus side that means less scrub to burn later in the year. On the downside, it means tinder dry scrub.

Submitted by mimi on Wed, 01/20/2021 - 11:05am

I for one am glad and relieved that somehow

American Democracy "hat die Kurve gekratzt" *(leave the translation up to those who are better at this than me)

At least for a couple of hours I would like to enjoy "The American Dream".

You will have enough days ahead of you to be cynical. Not today. well, I hear Bidens speech right now. hmmm ... ok .... sigh ... I wait for the day when Americans don't have to hide behind masks, literally and metaphorically.

Good luck to all. Stay confident.

—

https://www.euronews.com/live

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Wed, 01/20/2021 - 11:32am

Good morning QMS et al, Excellent essay. After all,

is not brevity the soul of wit? One hopes that the inauguration doesn't suck too much oxygen out of the hallways because that would be a worse omen than it already is. I mean, look at the word:

inauguration (n.)
"ceremonial investiture with office; act of solemnly or formally introducing or setting in motion anything of importance or dignity," 1560s, from French inauguration "installation, consecration," and directly from Late Latin inaugurationem (nominative inauguratio) "consecration," presumably originally "installment under good omens;" noun of action from past-participle stem of inaugurare "take omens from the flight of birds; consecrate or install when omens are favorable," from in- "on, in" (from PIE root *en "in") + augurare "to act as an augur, predict" (see augur (n.)).

INAUGURATIO was in general the ceremony by which the augurs obtained, or endeavoured to obtain, the sanction of the gods to something which had been decreed by man; in particular, however, it was the ceremony by which things or persons were consecrated to the gods .... If the signs observed by the inaugurating priest were thought favourable, the decree of men had the sanction of the gods, and the inauguratio was completed. [William Smith (ed.), "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities," 1842]

https://www.etymonline.com/word/inauguration

So, a magikal mystical ceremony in which the seers and shamans try to call down the blessings of the ineffable giant nothing in the sky on the feeble and confused doings of we mere mortals.

It seems that, sadly enough. that is exactly what it ws, with the incoming bozo's forst act is el Presidente was to launch into prayer and ask everybody to join him. Sorry dude, can't do that. Big waste of time, but, given that there is a desperate need for help of some kind from somewhere and that this country rejects, at every turning, logic, reason and science, fitting, I guess. So, let us pray - Ah Hummmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Chanting and humming
gongs immerse
the green valley
in cool waves of air
~~ kyorai ~~

Cool air, ok, damnit, not hot air, but, sadly, the norms seem to prevail.

Ah well, 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 QMS on Wed, 01/20/2021 - 12:20pm

take omens from the flight of birds

@enhydra lutris

in this case the birds are drones

thanks EL

is not brevity the soul of wit? One hopes that the inauguration doesn't suck too much oxygen out of the hallways because that would be a worse omen than it already is. I mean, look at the word: inauguration (n.) "ceremonial investiture with office; act of solemnly or formally introducing or setting in motion anything of importance or dignity," 1560s, from French inauguration "installation, consecration," and directly from Late Latin inaugurationem (nominative inauguratio) "consecration," presumably originally "installment under good omens;" noun of action from past-participle stem of inaugurare "take omens from the flight of birds; consecrate or install when omens are favorable," from in- "on, in" (from PIE root *en "in") + augurare "to act as an augur, predict" (see augur (n.)). INAUGURATIO was in general the ceremony by which the augurs obtained, or endeavoured to obtain, the sanction of the gods to something which had been decreed by man; in particular, however, it was the ceremony by which things or persons were consecrated to the gods .... If the signs observed by the inaugurating priest were thought favourable, the decree of men had the sanction of the gods, and the inauguratio was completed. [William Smith (ed.), "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities," 1842] https://www.etymonline.com/word/inauguration So, a magikal mystical ceremony in which the seers and shamans try to call down the blessings of the ineffable giant nothing in the sky on the feeble and confused doings of we mere mortals. It seems that, sadly enough. that is exactly what it ws, with the incoming bozo's forst act is el Presidente was to launch into prayer and ask everybody to join him. Sorry dude, can't do that. Big waste of time, but, given that there is a desperate need for help of some kind from somewhere and that this country rejects, at every turning, logic, reason and science, fitting, I guess. So, let us pray - Ah Hummmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Chanting and humming gongs immerse the green valley in cool waves of air ~~ kyorai ~~ Cool air, ok, damnit, not hot air, but, sadly, the norms seem to prevail. Ah well, be well and have a good one

—

question everything

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Wed, 01/20/2021 - 2:37pm

So true, so very, very true

@QMS @QMS

in this case the birds are drones

edited to put the quote from QMS into blockquotes

—

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 lotlizard on Wed, 01/20/2021 - 12:45pm

I keep saying German Greens are now 80% U.S. Deep State puppetry

because they keep doing things like this.

https://taz.de/Gruene-und-transatlantische-Beziehungen/!5745530/

Given the possibility of a Christian-Democrat / Green government coalition after the federal election in September, one question is of particular interest: what military posture would it take in its foreign policy? The Greens haven’t been a pacifist party since the Social-Democrat / Green coalition era [1998–2005]. Even so, they still find it hard to come to a decision on the details — which missions abroad, which compromises re combat drones, what future for atomic bombs?

The Green-party affiliated Heinrich Böll Foundation, a think tank that provides intellectual models for Green policymaking, has put forward a position paper worth noting. To mark the inauguration of the new US President Joe Biden, foundation chair Ellen Ueberschär has penned an appeal “for a new agreement between Germany and America” — together with representatives of transatlantic think tanks and lobby organizations such as the Atlantic Bridge, the German Marshall Fund, and the Aspen Institute. The paper will be presented on Wednesday afternoon at an event organized by the Böll Foundation.