Open Thread - Friday, April 12, 2019

open thread.jpg
How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From every shining flower!
- Isaac Watts -

The North Carolina weather is absolutely splendid. Too funkin' nice to spend time ruminating about the current state. Plus, it's Funk Friday!

Spring is here, full force. The pollen is ubiquitous. Pollen accumulation is in the 0.25"-0.50" range. Before driving, it is necessary to use dry windshield wipers to move the accumulated pollen.

Funk the bourgeoisie pigs, join me reveling with the proletariat!

Time to spice things up.

That's it for me, see you out there.

Have a great weekend! The thread is OPEN.

Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

lotlizard's picture

Parody:

How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!

How cheerfully he seems to grin
How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in
With gently smiling jaws!

— Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Original:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Against_Idleness_and_Mischief

———

Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations. —George Orwell

up
0 users have voted.
NCTim's picture

@lotlizard

up
0 users have voted.

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

lotlizard's picture

https://www.gregpalast.com/chelsea-manning-the-deepwater-horizon/

This article was first published by VICE on April 3, 2013. If the the U.S. jails Julian Assange, they should jail me, and my colleagues at The Guardian and New York Times. We all used the Manning / Assange / WikiLeaks emails, as I did in this story. Shame on The Times for taking awards while applauding prison terms for their sources.
— Greg Palast, April 11, 2019

up
0 users have voted.
Raggedy Ann's picture

The spring wind has been on a mission to out-perform itself this year. In the process, it is spreading pollen far and wide. I'm already sneezing and sniffling this morning, but, hey, it's not forever!

Looking forward to the weekend! I've lots to do so it will scream by.

Have a beautiful day and weekend, folks! Pleasantry

up
0 users have voted.

"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

NCTim's picture

@Raggedy Ann Our wind is yellow.

I just finished baking cookies. A friend decided to grill and pot luck tonight.

up
0 users have voted.

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

Raggedy Ann's picture

@NCTim
Enjoy the BBQ! Any of these folks gonna be there?
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ubTQfr_tyY]

up
0 users have voted.

"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

Raggedy Ann's picture

@NCTim
I see you need face masks! Pleasantry

up
0 users have voted.

"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

thanatokephaloides's picture

@Raggedy Ann

The spring wind has been on a mission to out-perform itself this year. In the process, it is spreading pollen far and wide. I'm already sneezing and sniffling this morning, but, hey, it's not forever!

Fucking (literally!) vegetation.....

Wink

up
0 users have voted.

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

I hope every had a good weekend last week, and will have one this week that is a s good or better.

up
0 users have voted.
NCTim's picture

@HenryAWallace

up
0 users have voted.

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

thanatokephaloides's picture

@NCTim

And the grandchild of that Stax album:

[video:https://youtu.be/fkbwNnc7NEY]

Wink

up
0 users have voted.

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Lookout's picture

The dogwoods have been beautiful this week. This is one of their best blooms in the last few years.

Get ready for the XR (extinction rebellion) action in the UK (and around the world) next week. They plan to shut down London on Monday...
XR is planning a global week of direct action beginning on Monday, April 15, as a first step toward a coordinated worldwide grassroots rebellion against the system that’s destroying hope of future flourishing. It might just be the beginning of another of history’s U-turns.
https://extinctionrebellion.org.uk/international-rebellion/

Give 'em hell before earth becomes hell.

Have a great weekend!

up
0 users have voted.

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

NCTim's picture

@Lookout I am slated for jury duty.

up
0 users have voted.

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

lotlizard's picture

https://jackpineradicals.com/boards/topic/a-great-blow-has-been-struck-t...

As at c99%, JPR posters seem to be mostly for Assange, while the regulars at SV* are, as at TOP, mostly against, to the point of celebrating Assange’s arrest and bloodthirstily anticipating his impending doom.

* SV = “Site Voldemort,” which is how posters at JackPine Radicals refer to the forum “Democratic Underground” from which many of them fled and/or were banned.

Also:
Ecuador arrests Ola Bini, Swedish software developer

Jeremy Corbyn, Labour shadow home secretary Diane Abbott oppose Assange extradition

And, in German:
Merkel cabinet committee approves resuming arms shipments to Saudi Arabia

Well, the Khashoggi official indignation period didn’t last long. The literal kings of fossil fuel literally get away with murder.

up
0 users have voted.
earthling1's picture

@lotlizard @lotlizard
commentary at Breibart and Zero Hedge are in support of Assange, while those at TOP not so much.
Markos and his minions painting themselves into a corner labled "fascist".

up
0 users have voted.

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

detroitmechworks's picture

Therapy has been interesting, to say the least. One of the things I have a nasty tendency to do is to put my own wants and needs LAST. There's a lot of things I can blame, but I'm over blame. It's frankly BORING, and I want to get things going.

So, taking a look at my backyard, I've been doing some initial plotting out of my Forge. Looks like I need to get an awning of some kind, but I do have enough SPACE to do some basic work, so that's good. Now putting it out to the universe that I'm looking for a FORGE. Ideally either a Rivit Forge or a Gas Forge. (Don't need more than 2 burners right now. I'm not doing anything BIG, and my anvil's pretty small, so I'm keeping it realistic. Longer term I'll want to upgrade, but with a basic forge set up I might be able to start building the larger stuff myself.)

And I'm getting the shot at getting promoted in Judo as soon as my arm heals. Been doing it long enough that I'm finally getting decent. I admit I like fighting. It's just something I enjoy. I like it MUCH better when the other person also enjoys it, and we respect each other and obey proper protocol before even stepping on the mat. The last thing I ever want to do is get in a fight with somebody who doesn't want to. Course if they are a sneaky asshole who tries to pretend they aren't fighting as they throw punches, All bets are off.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv8ZaD_oFpE]

up
0 users have voted.

I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

NCTim's picture

@detroitmechworks Sometimes, when somebody asks, "How's it going?". I reply, "Right, left, right, left.".

The moral of the story is to just keep moving forward. If you stand still, something could sneak up on you.

Wear your PPE.

up
0 users have voted.

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

enhydra lutris's picture

cool (currently a bit overly so) day. Good for getting stuff done or at least not getting too much further behind. Sadly, the socio-political script continues to play out exactly as expected, making it ever more tempting to mentally wall it off as some separate perverse universe.

Pollen load, fwiw, has been high for weeks, but seems to last year round in this area, even when it is rainy. Now is particularly bad, but since there is no solution, it just becomes part of the background, sort of like government assholery and the mass acceptance of the propaganda narratives spewed by same. Thank the Tao for music.

On that note, thanks mucho for the OT and today's tunes, Tim,.

Everybody have a great one.

up
0 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 --

NCTim's picture

@enhydra lutris

up
0 users have voted.

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

enhydra lutris's picture

up
0 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 --

lotlizard's picture

material, deeming it “terrorist” content . . .

https://boingboing.net/2019/04/11/one-hour-service.html

French officials call Project Gutenberg archive, 15 million ebooks, Grateful Dead recordings and Prelinger Archive “terrorism,” demand removal from Internet Archive

The takedowns come in just as the EU is getting ready to vote on a proposal that will force platforms to remove “terrorist” content within one hour or face censorship through national firewalls, fines, and criminal sanctions.

Even if it was possible for the Internet Archive to sift through tens of millions of documents in a collection targeted by one of these takedowns in one hour to figure out if the takedown notice is valid, the timezone problem means that they would have to be ready to do this in the middle of the night in San Francisco, when the EU agencies most typically send their demands.

Even without this absurd law, the situation is dire. The French authorities gave the Internet Archive 24 hours to comply with its demand or face a nationwide block.

Sometimes it’s not such a mystery why people regard the idea of the EU as a federal superstate with dread — already at the national level, too much of officialdom is totally out of touch with reality and can’t be trusted to behave in a sane manner.

up
0 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

@lotlizard
prove or so much as attempt to demonstrate that the material is in violation, they just hurl seemingly drunken assertions out there with no basis that, because there is zero due process regarding things internet, must be respected. The archive should demand that they take down the take down letter because it is extortion since it demands a behavioral change to stay penalty free without any basis in fact.

up
0 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 --

spring weather. Winter in WI will just not let go. Monday was wonderful sunny and mid-60s. Now back to snow, slush and gray.

Anyhoo enjoy the weekend! We've earned it!

up
0 users have voted.

O.k. When is the next meeting for the revolution?
-FuturePassed on Sunday, November 25, 2018 10:22 p.m.