Open Thread 3 FEB 21

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 02/03/2021 - 3:00am

How to make 'the wall' less important.

The teeter-totters represented the kind of balance necessary for any two people, two nations, to achieve equality, with the understanding that the actions on one side have direct consequences on the other. The teeter-totter is the physical manifestation of the Golden Rule—treat others as you would like others to treat you—a maxim that is shared by all cultures and religions. To experience joy on a teeter-totter, you must allow the other person to experience joy as well.

Rael and San Fratello spent a decade working on “Teeter-Totter Wall” before its installation at the border during a particularly divisive time under the Trump administration. Although it was in use for less than an hour, the interactive work intended to foster and display unity between children and adults from both countries as they physically lifted each other up.

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
― Albert Einstein

[video:https://youtu.be/rAn-AWXtHv0]

We all have something to bring to the table. Something to consider by the community. Here is an idea of breaching the walls for the sake of humanity. Please share what you have for us.

Credits

Pink Teeter-Totters by Real San Fratello

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2021/01/us-mexico-teeter-totter-design-aw...

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Comments

Submitted by Dawn's Meta on Wed, 02/03/2021 - 6:11am

Good morning. Carbon sequestration via Regenerative

agriculture/farming/gardening. Everybody can do it. Plant locally, eat locally.

I have questions:

- Can reconciliation really only be used once in a session or calendar year? Is that why there is a huge bundle of items in the COVID Relief bill?

- Somewhere I read something would be automatically triggered if reconciliation is used. Anybody know about this? The thing I do remember (not the thing, but reaction) is that Dems/Left/Liberals wouldn't like whatever it is. Anybody?

These kinds of things will come back to me days after I read something, which I should have bookmarked.

Thanks for the OT. Love the teeter-totters.

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A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

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Submitted by QMS on Wed, 02/03/2021 - 7:02am

Good Morning (here)

The idea of local produce is a good one.
Wish I could answer the Reconciliation q's
sounds like rules designed to prevent
effective governance?

Enjoy your day!

Profitez de votre journée

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question everything

Submitted by Lookout on Wed, 02/03/2021 - 7:16am

Good chilly morning

Hope all in the great white north have stayed warm and are managing the snow load. At least we've got a sunny day. Highs headed to the 50's.

Teeter totter is pretty descriptive of the world's over all situation. Eventually we will see-saw the future. Building walls seems to me a fear based reaction to OTHERS. TPTB seem so afraid others might benefit instead of the way they think it should work...others benefiting them (with cheap labor which they can exploit).

Little seedlings are growing well. Still a few weeks till planting them out. Good thing since it has been a little colder then average. We direct seed lots of things here in late winter....from lettuce to various greens. Should time about right to plant starts and seeds about the same time. Also have trees arriving soon to set out. It's nice to have things to do and a sense of productivity.

We're still awaiting our jabs. We're on a list, but no telling when it will happen. Next couple of weeks I expect, but time will tell.

Hope you are all doing well. The groundhog saw its shadow here yesterday so 6 more weeks of winter as the myth suggests. One thing is for sure. We've past mid-winter and are now in the last half.

For those stuck inside or just bored, caught a good Hitchcock like movie the other evening you might enjoy, Mirage. I may have seen it decades ago but I didn't remember the details for sure.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTY-L-l3KN8]

Have a good one and thanks for the OT, QMS.

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

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 02/03/2021 - 7:33am

Icicles

Good to hear the seedlings are popping up.
Here we grow Ice from stone

cheers

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question everything

Submitted by Raggedy Ann on Wed, 02/03/2021 - 7:34am

Good morning, QMS ~

Albert Einstein was well aware that we are all one - there is no separation between us and anything else - ANYTHING ELSE. For humans, they imprison themselves thinking they are separate from EVERYTHING ELSE. What a conundrum for most people to reconcile.

The universe is in charge of everything. We are mere energy blips in that universe - helping to shape all. Get out of your prison and enjoy your place in this human experience.

Enjoy your day!

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"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 ovals49 on Wed, 02/03/2021 - 7:58am

My favorite Einstein quotes...

@Raggedy Ann

Now he [Michele Besso] has preceded me a little by parting from this strange world. This means nothing. To us believing physicists the distinction between past, present, and future has only the significance of a stubborn illusion.

and

The strange thing about growing old is that the intimate identification with the here and now is slowly lost, one feels transposed into infinity, more or less alone, no longer in hope or fear, only observing.

(1953 letter to Queen Mother of Belgium)

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“The story around the world gives a silent testimony:
— The Beresovka mammoth, frozen in mud, with buttercups in his mouth…..”

The Adam and Eve Story, Chan Thomas 1963

Submitted by Raggedy Ann on Wed, 02/03/2021 - 8:28am

Thanks for the quotes,

@ovals49 !

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"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 QMS on Wed, 02/03/2021 - 7:40am

We are mere energy blips...

That is a great image.
Thanks RA!

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question everything

Submitted by lotlizard on Wed, 02/03/2021 - 9:34am

Wow, talk about “fake news”—pro-India propaganda on a huge scale

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-55232432

Some non-existent “Potemkin” news outlets used to spread disinformation serving Indian foreign-policy aims:

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 02/03/2021 - 10:21am

Yes, you too can become a propaganda outlet!

@lotlizard

Just name it the someplace Sun, Star, Times or Post
and the CIA will handle the details. Maybe get bought
out by Murdoch. Big bucks.

schönen Tag

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question everything

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Wed, 02/03/2021 - 11:12am

Hilarious section of the linked article/report:

@lotlizard

"You need more than a few computers to plan and sustain such an action," he said.

The researchers cautioned against "definitively attributing Indian Chronicles to some specific actors such as Indian intelligence services" without further investigation.

Ben Nimmo, a disinformation network expert, told the BBC the uncovered network was "one of the most persistent and complex operations" he had seen, but he too was wary of attributing it to a specific actor.

Mr Nimmo, who is director of investigations at digital monitoring firm Graphika, cited previous examples of privately-run large-scale troll operations. "Just because they're big, it doesn't necessarily mean they're directly run by the state," he said.

Especially the bit I put in bold italics, heh, ~~Maddow, Maddow, Maddow~~ oops, Russia, Russia, Russia.

So when will they expose all the US and NATO mainstream press as a similar op targeting RussiaRussia and China?

be well and have a good one

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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 --

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Wed, 02/03/2021 - 11:37am

Good morning QMS. Thanks for the column and OT, the picture

and history of the teeter-totters and the music video. Great assemblage of content.

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, 02/03/2021 - 12:21pm

Thanks for the heat

@enhydra lutris

canned or otherwise
be needing it today.

Boa sorte!

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question everything

Submitted by snoopydawg on Wed, 02/03/2021 - 1:37pm

Can you find the flaw in this statement...

In the same vein, Dennis Laich, a retired US Army major general with more than 35 years of service, writes in The Military Times that “America has been involved in endless wars for 20 years. And today, 330 million Americans lay claim to rights, liberties, and security that not a single one of them is obligated to protect and defend. The all-volunteer force has granted all Americans an exemption from this obligation.”

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Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.

Submitted by Bisbonian on Wed, 02/03/2021 - 9:16pm

@snoopydawg 20 years? 240 years.

@snoopydawg 20 years? 240 years.

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Wed, 02/03/2021 - 9:46pm

It presumes said rights (assuming arguendo that they actually

@snoopydawg

exist) have needed to be defended and protected and that having a standing army and interventionist policies actually somehow protects and defends them.

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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 --

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 02/03/2021 - 2:43pm

Yes snoop, actually several

If the 330 million 'muricans include the 500,000 conscripts serving uncle sam, perhaps not so voluntarily, and if you include the 400,000 people employed by the war machine, perhaps because there is no other work to be found, and then throw in the 200,000 homeless vets, this sounds like another psy-ops mission to convince the masses the obscure concepts of "rights, liberties, and security" are obligation free. Except for the multi-trillion dollar budget that is sold as an obligation.

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question everything

Submitted by smiley7 on Wed, 02/03/2021 - 4:13pm

Sunset greetings, QMS,

Beautiful thinking in your OT, thank you.

Reconnected to an old friend today, a pleasure.

Blue skies and sun, little cold. Making money on pot again these five decades later funny how life stays the same.

Listening to Cohen.

Have a wonderful evening.

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 02/03/2021 - 4:58pm

Cool man

@smiley7

rediscovered MJ as a way to cope a few years ago
pleasant antidote to current schisms
enjoy the long rays in the setting sun

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question everything

Submitted by randtntx on Thu, 02/04/2021 - 6:09am

I missed the boat

on this conversation but really appreciate the playground equipment. What we could do with all that material and potential energy. We could slant that structure in a different direction and make solar panel supports. The longest running solar panel installation. We could use them to shade picnic tables to boot. We could alternate picnic tables with other things...more playground equipment, food trucks, etc. . It could be a skinny long playground oasis from Texas to California. The kids would like it.

Thanks QMS, cheers.

Submitted by QMS on Thu, 02/04/2021 - 6:22am