Open Thread 5-11-21

Good morning folks. Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal because of technical difficulties has asked me to publish a placeholder open thread for her today.

Consider this a truly "open" thread or an essay about nothing if you will. I will try to add some content as time allows. Until then does anyone really know what time it is? If so please clue me in.

Share
up
16 users have voted.

Comments

mimi's picture

If I am not logged in to C99p, right now it seems to be 7:30 am, May 11. If I am logged in, it is 2:52 pm (here in Germany), in Washington DC 8:55 am May 11th and in Hawaii it is 2:57 am May 11th.

So, wherever you fell asleep, I don't know. Texas? Arizona? in any case, the best time is always your own. And don't ask me for the time in New Zealand, they are always way too fast, they have already May 12th 1 am.

So get back to sleep. We will wake you up, when the earth stops turning around. Would be so nice if she did, right? We wouldn't bother about clocks and times ... Smile

up
10 users have voted.

@mimi
Although the phrase "does anyone really know what time it is?" is open to interpretation, to me, in this instance, it means: Does anyone really know what's going on? It's a question pertaining to the current political zeitgeist.

up
13 users have voted.
Dawn's Meta's picture

@JtC

up
10 users have voted.

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.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

up
4 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Dawn's Meta's picture

up
4 users have voted.

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.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

mimi's picture

@JtC
seems to have a lot of Zeit (correct translation of the German word 'Zeit' would be time), but not much Geist (correct translation of the German word 'Geist' would be 'spirit' or 'mind' or 'intellect')

So, I have to check the news to tell you what the current Zeitgeist is in Germany. Lots of fights going on within each of our parties. Lots of lies been told. Not much different than in the US. Too bad that I am on the wrong blog, at the wrong place with a wrong Zeitgeist and the wrong language. But honestly it is pretty much the same political 'Geist' (correct translation for the German word 'Geist' is ghost, yes there are too meanings for Geist.)

Ghosts haunt me badly now. Sorry to have annoyed you with my anti-Zeitgeist. You see here in Germany for the time being the real left and the real right, they start flirting with each other. That's not mindful but madness. Some think it is smart.

Beyond my paygrade.

up
13 users have voted.

@JtC but some of us are less confused than others. Clarity does not provide comfort. At least not for me.

up
5 users have voted.

NYCVG

Dawn's Meta's picture


We were visited last week by a Eurasian Hoopoe. They are truly remarkable birds. Here is an email Mr. Meta sent out about our encounter:

So, when we moved to France, we really wanted to see one. For those of you following this saga, when we lived in the rental house near Charolles, twenty miles north of where we live now, we looked out the front window one day and there was a hoopoe walking up the driveway! It was like, “I heard you guys wanted to see a hoopoe, so I thought I would introduce myself.”

That was April 3, 2016. We always keep our eyes and ears open for these guys. They have a very distinctive call, usually in threes, “Hoop, hoop, hoop”. I guess it would have been awkward and undignified to call them “oop-oop-oops”. It is bad enough already. English: hoopoe, French: huppe, Latin: Upupa epops. You can read all about this, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoopoe. They can smell really bad, but we haven’t experienced this. Good thing. We are trying to stay on good terms.

This year, we have heard one or two, across the valley, but had not seen one yet. This morning, I am sitting in our upstairs living room and hear a tap, tap at the window. Teddy, lying at my feet, gives a muffled woof, but does not open his eyes—his typical response when he is on break from guard dog duty.

It was a hoopoe! He was looking at me through the window, twelve feet away! I totally freeze for ten minutes, not wanting to scare him away. No need, he wasn’t going anywhere. In fact, he stayed an hour before flying away. We thought he might be injured or somehow distressed, but he seemed fine. I was able to go get the iPhone and make a video. Here you go:

https://youtu.be/L4DD-lKjYzI

He did not fly away until he heard the neighbor park across the valley.

We will keep you updated on all hoopoe news. He is in the tree by the front door right now!

Here is a very good site with information plus the call which we used to get our Hoopoe to up his game: he went from two oop - oops to four.

Hoopoe Information.

We are worried as the weather has really changed and the only reason our visitor came was because it has become too wet and cold, like a winter when it should be Spring. Happening more each year. Gardening good for salads. This weekend would normally be put your tomatoes in. But the high is 13°C, very wet and cold.

up
13 users have voted.

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.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

dystopian's picture

@Dawn's Meta Hi DM, GREAT Hoopoe story! How awesome! If I can't see one at least I can read of others' experience doing so! Thanks! It's a bucket list bird for lots of folks!

up
10 users have voted.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

Dawn's Meta's picture

@dystopian and a Cuckoo. They are searching for mates. We hope they will be found. The weather is a real problem.

Did you see the way he dips his head before he sounds? He is scooping air like a Grouse would so he can force out the sounds. There is also a hard to hear kind of a hiss. He makes the sound near the beginning two times.

They eat on the ground. My cats are a worry but so far not interested much in birds, just mice. I throw out any grubs I find for the Hoopoes.

up
9 users have voted.

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.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

enhydra lutris's picture

@dystopian extreme crop or something because so small.

be well and have a good one

up
4 users have voted.

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 --

@Dawn's Meta Thanks for this video

up
5 users have voted.

NYCVG

peace freaks were everywhere, this I know as fact. What happened to all of those people?

up
15 users have voted.

@JtC @JtC Some of us still are, it's just not very fashionable anymore.

EDIT: for what it's worth, I've been thinking about this a bit recently and it was Gulf War I which radicalized me. I was middle school aged at the time and bought the lie that we were going in to liberate the people, etc. When we scooted as soon as the oil fields were secure, it led me to where I am today. I grew up in the shadow of Vietnam and between that and the disgusting display that was Gulf War I, I became a peacenik.

up
18 users have voted.

Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

@Dr. John Carpenter
it dawned on me in '68 when I was 14.

up
16 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@JtC
but mostly I think people would have said that I was anti-American back then. Which couldn't have been correct, because I didn't know ANY American, but we were against American politics.

How it came about that I came into the US, is another story. I started to like and love Americans, but never liked their politics.

up
8 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@JtC

At least I think that was a big part of it. Let the poors fight our inane wars.

However there are still some peaceniks around...
https://www.codepink.org/
https://www.antiwar.com/
https://popularresistance.org/
all come to mind, as I'm sure you are aware.

Thanks for covering the OT! Have a good one.

up
18 users have voted.

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

enhydra lutris's picture

@JtC
Reagan, aka "the me generation". A goodly percentage of peaceniks and other activists were youth, especially college kids. Suddenly in the eighties vast swaths of that general age bracket fully bought into the "greed is good" ideology and everybody's "utopia" shifted from peace and equality to being successful in business and beemers and houses in the suburbs or condos in the city. Not just the anti-war movement, but pretty much all movements took a hit, civil rights, prison reform, unionization, etc., etc.

up
17 users have voted.

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 They merely follow the fashionable trends. Those radicalized by the Vietnam War, with a lot of help from WWII resistors and post-WWII peaceniks, have easily seen through the webs of lies by the masters of the US war machine ever since. And the most astute among them were able to perceive the secret hand of the US war machine in other conflicts. But the vast majority of Americans are totally gullible and never able to acknowledge their gullibility after the fact when the facts become irrefutable.

up
11 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

possibly 11/8. Talk about writing about nothing, if anything is nothing, it is time, that's for sure. It's either slippinto the future or long lost in the pasture.

For what it's worth, I dunno if one can write about nothing. The empty set should be the epitome of nothing, but it has a name, so it must be something, just like nothing has a name and hence must be something. You did reference placeholders, and thr greatest placeholder of them all, zero, also has a name.

I have a lot scheduled today, such as making the dough for tonight's pizza early in the morning, which would be right about now, and I can't imagine doing it in 11/8, so here's some 5/4, which should make it 1959.

be well and have a good one

up
11 users have voted.

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 --

We currently have 2,740 registered members here at c99. But the UID (User Identification) is up to 57,269. Why the discrepancy?

Spammers. Spam accounts even though deleted still retain a UID, therefor over the years I have deleted 54,529 spam accounts. So if we were a bit disingenuous we could claim that we have 57,269 members making it seem that we're much larger than we really are.

Sound familiar?

up
18 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

@JtC
among sites that take advertising. It was a game in the old days with newspaper circulation, they would give the newsies excess and not count the returns. Mags would also give promo and extreme discount subs because the revenues were in the ads and not in the subs. Fun city.

be well and have a good one

up
15 users have voted.

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 ..

making it seem that we're much larger than we really are.

Sound familiar?

Uh-huh yeah, but then again most things do make that sound lately. It is age time related I think, the familiarity.

Peace and Love

up
13 users have voted.

@JtC There's a message board I am familiar with that is rather famous for this. The people who run it brag of a gigantic membership. It's been around for a long time so once you filter out the spammers, the banned members, the dead accounts, etc., the active membership is a fraction of that number. And when you look at post counts, it becomes obvious there's a small, core membership responsible for most of the posts (some members post counts are into the six figure range!)

They never actually remove any of those dead accounts, even the spammers. It makes looking up a member frustrating because there's so many garbage accounts. But when they run their fund drives, I guess it gives them some sort of justification for the large numbers they throw out for operating expenses, which always seem inflated to me. I can't think of any other reason why they keep the accounts. They have more than enough moderation to take care of it (the place is over moderated really.) I guess if you want to win an internet dick contest, that's the way. lol

up
12 users have voted.

Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

Time for me to get up and get ready to go on a walk with a friend. That sounds like good time for me. Of course we have rain forecast but should not stop us.

Time on the world front is much more grim and hard to fathom. Do the people in the United States ever wonder why the U.S. Coast Guard is in the Persian Gulf? Even try to understand the complexity of the situation Israel and Palestine? Random free flowing thoughts running through my head and so will now move myself away from the breakfast table and get moving toward the nicer things for me today.

On a lighter note, there is a large tiger loose in a Houston neighborhood. Hope the animal can be rescued safely and would love to see it returned to the wild.

OK enough for the thoughts, and now action!

up
15 users have voted.

Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.

This ain't no dress rehearsal!

Thanks JtC. Here's hoping Can't Stop is not ransomwared by some real life Macedonians and back online soon. Speaking of Windows(TM), I finally changed my PC clock to UTC after running Linux for twenty+ years I stopped thinking like a Windows imperialist. Hah! -7 MATH

"Good morning bruh" is what Always Talking Man the crazy unsheltered guy yelled speeding by the dirt patch this a.m.. I was out there watering @ 13:00 UTC, first light. F-bomb! I thought it was too early to be seen but no, there he was announcing his presence before arrival at the top of his lungs "GOOD MORNING EVERY THING!" exactly like Adrian Cronauer.

It helps keep my walls covered in red yarn because I was just reviewing Robin Williams' life before going out there... we lived in the sames places, went to the same high school, six years apart. (looks at watch) Oh well. Another funny coincidence. Mental illness and depression both suck, until they don't. same same
Erin go Bragh
Éirinn go Brách

make peace with dirt
do not forget the rock
music goes here

Bruce Springsteen with the Sessions Band - This Little Light of Mine (Live In Dublin)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0qAYq1GVec width:500]

Peace and Love

up
11 users have voted.

after my move here about a year ago.

Welp, it sure is a bit different than Illinois.

up
12 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

@JtC

be well and have a good one

up
11 users have voted.

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

up
10 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

@JtC

would he? [looking for Kinky Friedman album]

up
8 users have voted.

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
Believe it or not also an ex rodeo cowboy.

up
6 users have voted.
travelerxxx's picture

@JtC

More specifically, he's from Klein, Texas. Which is where I live (even though my mailing address is Spring). Not that I know jack about Mr. Lovett, because I don't.

up
1 user has voted.

@JtC

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWcBfTuek6A]

up
9 users have voted.

@Blue Republic
Nope, just an unfortunate armadilla [spelling is correct here in Texas].

up
7 users have voted.

Around about 2013 or so (please correct me if I'm wrong) I joined up with a like minded Google Group created by our own Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal. She had noticed that many lefties were leaving or were being pushed away from Daily Kos, most never to be heard from again. DKos had yet to become the total flying monkey domain that it is today, but it was well on its way. In an effort to catch these folks before they drifted away she started a Google Group with the intention of eventually forming our own blog. This Google Group was appropriately thought of as The Lifeboat.

The group went through many iterations before it became what it is today. The basic premise and trajectory of c99 was formed at this time. I consider CStMS the ideological progenitor of c99. She brought the core group together and put us on a common path.

I'd be happy to answer any questions along these lines if anyone has any. Or maybe we can get CStMS to chime in if she drops by later.

up
17 users have voted.
Granma's picture

@JtC I know I had high hopes for some much needed changes to happen. There is so much bad news now that I hope for an un-foreseen happening that will create change.

up
17 users have voted.
dystopian's picture

Hey JtC,

Does anybody know what time it is?

I think it is 25 or 6 to 4. Peak Terry Kath

IMHO folks would do well to watch this whole Tanglewood show, they were awesome...

The powers that be have fairly well excised those who do actually have a clue from the conversation. I was a peacenik at 15 in 1970, now am one at 65. I never changed in that
regard, the world did. Now the Dems are a war-mongering primary cheatin' party of Wall St. Where are the Tom Lehrers, Shel Silversteins, Mark Russells, George Carlins, etc. ad. infinitum? We see what they do to whistleblowers now... has chilling effects.

Hope all are well!

edit, removed errant apostrophe, but not the Frank Zappa album.

up
18 users have voted.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

usefewersyllables's picture

@dystopian

his last words are some of the most poignant I think I've ever read. Always loved their stuff...

up
5 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

these open symposiums seem to generate a life all on their own, thank dawgs
I canna barely cough up a decent one anymores owing to my fates and such
speaking of dawgs, where did snoops go? lost in the great salt lake with the new
puppy perhaps .. oh whell peeps comes and goeth, dawgs just run

cheers!

up
12 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@QMS
as I knew she still follows things on dailykos sometimes. I tried to ask her about Sarah R., because Sarah R did a lot of good to me. She told me the sad story that Sarah R was very sick with cancer.

I hope snoopydawg is ok and healthy. Then I thought may be some empire morons may have threatened her and she decided to not speak anymore.

Hope dies last ... so let's wait and see, may be snoopydawg jumps in here.

up
8 users have voted.

@QMS
taking a break from things for a while as far as I know.

up
10 users have voted.
Granma's picture

That civil war may break out. Macron was furious about that. If anyone here learns more of that subject, please post here.

(Read it in the Guardian yesterday, I believe.)

up
13 users have voted.
Dawn's Meta's picture

@Granma If the Telegraph is to be believed, it is a creation of the French right.

UK Telegraph

Looks like the cause of the 'civil war' will be Islamic fundamentalists.

News in France

up
12 users have voted.

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.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

Granma's picture

@Dawn's Meta

up
6 users have voted.

up
12 users have voted.

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

up
11 users have voted.

@JtC Wow.

up
6 users have voted.

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

mimi's picture

Mitch McConnell proposes amendment that FAILS

[video:https://youtu.be/evD8Riqjsl4]

up
5 users have voted.

@mimi

Hi, Mimi -

The Senate is considering a bill that would radically affect election law/rules in the US.

What they are discussing in the video is the Federal Elections Commission which, as it is set up now, is supposed to have six members - no more than three can be from one political party. The new bill would keep that rule, but reduce the number of members to five.

The duties of the commission are:

The FEC administers federal campaign finance laws. It enforces limitations and prohibitions on contributions and expenditures, administers the reporting system for campaign finance disclosure, investigates and prosecutes violations (investigations are typically initiated by complaints from other candidates, parties, watchdog groups, and the public), audits a limited number of campaigns and organizations for compliance, and administers the presidential public funding programs for presidential candidates.[8]

but they cannot agree on much of anything and are pretty dysfunctional.

What McConnell was proposing was to keep the number of commissioners at six.

While there are a few worthwhile things in the bill, there is a lot of criticism (it's a disaster as far as I'm concerned) also.

Such as from the Heritage Foundation:

H.R. 1 federalizes and micromanages the election process administered by the states, imposing unnecessary, unwise, and unconstitutional mandates on the states.The bill interferes with the ability of states and their citizens to determine qualifications for voters and to ensure the accuracy of voter registration rolls.

But also criticism from progressives as it would limit minor parties in various ways (and the system already works against them). I think Snoopydawg has written about this.

The American Civil Liberties Union (which used to be fairly non-ideological but has become blatantly leftist in recent years) is also opposed to many provisions of the bill that:

"unconstitutionally impinge on the free speech rights of American citizens and public interest organizations. They will have the effect of harming our public discourse by silencing necessary voices that would otherwise speak out about the public issues of the day."

H.R. 1 has already passed the House and unless a Democrat Senator switches to oppose it, the Senate vote will likely be 50-50 which would allow Kamala Harris - as V.P. - to cast the deciding vote for it.

Hope that clarifies things.

"Vaccination Macht Frei"

up
5 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@Blue Republic @Blue Republic
before I say or think anything about it. So far I don't understand why reducing the FEC's number of commissioners to five, would be good? Wouldn't it create a majority of one side versus the other by default then?

Kamala Harris being able to cast the deciding vote on it? Oh lord, have mercy. I am now with Mitch McConnell. Who would have thought that could happen to me?

Your comment is superbly clarifying the fog in my brain, just one little criticism. I feel very enslaved not being vaccinated.

I am glad I can claim slow moving dementia in my brain for my lack of understanding the world in these times.

Thank You. I will have to have more time to read, that's for sure. You have a big heart to explain this to me. Sigh. We need more big hearts, right?

up
3 users have voted.

@mimi

The FEC and US voting laws are pretty complex.

The argument against having the commission have six members it that
nothing ever gets done. With five, at least some decisions would be made
but probably on a partisan basis.

Of course part of the problem is that only major party members have been commissioners until now. If the number of commissioners was made odd - five, for example - and each no party could have more than two members - then there would have to be one position for a minor party.

But neither Democrats or Republicans are eager to make things fairer for third parties...

About the vaccines, I suggest you do your own research and give the matter thought.

I'm going to post an essay a little later, but you might find this video interesting. It is an interview with three woman healthcare workers who have all suffered severe reactions after getting Covid vaccinations (Pfizer and Moderna) in January. None can now work and they have been getting no help from vaccine makers, the government, insurance companies, etc.

I can't embed it, but it you can access it here (on Brighteon.com)

up
3 users have voted.
Bollox Ref's picture

according to Joe McPhee

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0ItcjG3BgY]

up
7 users have voted.

Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

I like to work at my office, but coming here to eat and have an internet connection sort of sucks.
At least we didn't have a tornado touch down, or hail. So far!
Texas is having some bad ass weather events!

up
7 users have voted.

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