Open Thread - Friday, May 17, 2019

open thread.jpg
Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.
– Sun Tzu

How are y'all?

I have been agitated and restless.

Nothing to say.

Musical attitude adjustment.

Enough said.

Have a great weekend! The thread is OPEN.

Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

NCTim's picture

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 -

mimi's picture

don't imitate that. Waiting for you in the Alps doing your motor cycle tour. Hmm, I am so restless I don't even know if I still could advise you to take the trip.

Be well, no matter what.

up
0 users have voted.
NCTim's picture

@mimi … can be debilitating. My words, "Adopt a funk you, attitude".

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

The times, they are agitating. Are the times a changin’?
[video:https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e7qQ6_RV4VQ]

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 My question: Will corruption win?

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 -

mimi's picture

Scratch one-s head

up
0 users have voted.
NCTim's picture

@mimi A group know as The Federalist Society used The Powell Memo to conduct a soft coup.

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 -

mimi's picture

@NCTim

up
0 users have voted.
mimi's picture

Shok

up
0 users have voted.
NCTim's picture

@mimi The plutocrats and oligarchs need their levers of power.

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 -

mimi's picture

making the tours in Germany to talk to his friends.
Diablo

See, they want the Nazis to win in Germany, so that they have a reason to make war against us.

up
0 users have voted.
NCTim's picture

@mimi … and joke of a pseudo intellectual. Steve Bannon is the poster boy for white male privilege. A whiney sack of shit, he is.

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 -

mimi's picture

@NCTim

up
0 users have voted.
mimi's picture

... God willing ... as they say in your parts of the world, right?

up
0 users have voted.
NCTim's picture

@mimi Go hang out where people gather.

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 -

@NCTim @NCTim
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t27f9g2EyI]

up
0 users have voted.

The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

Lookout's picture

Hope you're all doing well as we slide toward the Eve of Destruction. My little corner of the world has exploded in the green of spring. There are positive things happening that are easy to overlook as we beat the war drums and continue our coups around the world.

Check out all the activities of XR around the world...
https://rebellion.earth/2019/05/16/newsletter-21-the-new-normal-eco-acti...

I read somewhere about a proposed general strike in the US this fall.

Have a good weekend!

up
0 users have voted.

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

NCTim's picture

@Lookout

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 -

Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt. – Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu (/ˈsuːnˈdzuː/;[1] Chinese: 孫子; Pinyin transliteration Sunzi) was a Chinese general, military strategist, writer and philosopher who lived in the Eastern Zhou period of ancient China. Sun Tzu is traditionally credited as the author of The Art of War, an influential work of military strategy that has affected Western and East Asian philosophy and military thinking. His works focus much more on alternatives to battle, such as stratagem, delay, the use of spies and alternatives to war itself, the making and keeping of alliances, the uses of deceit and a willingness to submit, at least temporarily, to more powerful foes.[2] Sun Tzu is revered in Chinese and East Asian culture as a legendary historical and military figure. His birth name was Sun Wu and he was known outside of his family by his courtesy name Changqing.[citation needed] The name Sun Tzu by which he is best known in the Western World is an honorific which means "Master Sun".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Tzu

Well, that certainly explains Tzu's proclivity for darkness, secrecy and the sudden deadliness of a thunderbolt. Now (as then), we also have political strategists, a profession that seems to share Tzu's attraction to those things. And, political strategists, too, often claim their love of secrecy, deception, feints, etc. is all about national security. However, Surprise! They are often lying about that--and almost everything else.

The general citizenry, however, should vastly prefer something ironically related to the English transliteration of Tzu's given name, "namely," Sun. We even have a foundation for that.

A remarkable Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Louis D. Brandeis, namesake of Brandeis University, whose nomination, perhaps ironically, was met with anti-Semitism from the American Bar Association of his day, said and wrote many profound things, including...

Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.

Sadly, most of the American public is too busy trying to earn a living and raise the next generation of Americans, or just survive, to devote considerable amounts of money, energy and time insisting upon sunlight. ("Time is money," too.)

Ironically, federal and state governments, which passed various state and federal Freedom of Information Acts, often doggedly resist attempts to shine sunlight by using those Acts. And governments and politicians usually have bank to hire lawyers trained to do so. (Ironically, their bank usually is the money of most of the American public, obtained by donations and/or the taxing power.) Most Americans, however, do not have the resources to pursue their right to know. So, we must depend upon organizations like the Sunlight Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union and, more recently (and more partisan), "watch dog" organizations like Judicial Watch.

Ironically, freedom is far from free: Defending the rights that the Constitution (ironically?) "gives" us costs a lot: Maybe that's why it's called the Bill of Rights? Anyway....a rich guy used to provide a lot of the funding for the ACLU, but that's over. So, the ACLU now depends upon the rest of us more than ever.

For many reasons, popular causes need much less financial support from the private sector. The ACLU champions Bill of Rights causes that are highly unpopular in their time and place, like Nazis seeking a parade permit after World War II (and forevermore), Communists wanting almost any job at all during the McCarthy Era (and forevermore), hippies during the Sixties (and forevermore), etc. However, the holdings of the cases won by the ACLU redound to the benefit of every American trying to exercise his or her Constitutional rights, regardless of color, political or religious belief, gender, orientation, etc.

The ACLU is laser focused on "protecting and defending" the right, not the person who has been deprived of the right. In that way, it is different from, for example, organizations focusing upon one of the following: people of color, immigrants, Jews, Catholics, Muslims, reporters, etc. And being non-partisan differentiates it, IMO, from the conservative Judicial Watch.

So, donate, if you can. https://action.aclu.org/ That way, when NCTim does have something to say, he will likely have a legal right to say it. And, if government agents or those acting "under color of law" interfere with his legal right, the ACLU will be there to fight for his right.

Ironically, Tim's having nothing to say inspired me to say quite a bit in reply. When I began this "ironic" reply, I had no clue whatever it would turn out to be a plea for donations to the ACLU. It's been stream of consciousness, start to finish. But, ironically, sorry, I ain't sorry.

[video:https://youtu.be/0mH23CAV7jE?t=59] (From the iconic musical Hair, whose rights of "free" expression under the Bill of Rights had to be defended all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States against charges of being anti-war, pro-hippie, etc. pornographic. Other nations censored Hair as well, but not all of them prided themselves on protecting their citizens' freedom of expression.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwmUMvhy-lY]

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pojL_35QlSI]

As always, TGIF and have a great weekend, y'all.

Edited to clean up numerous errors and to add: Does my ADD look fat in this post?

up
0 users have voted.
NCTim's picture

@HenryAWallace

Well, that certainly explains Tzu's proclivity for darkness, secrecy and the sudden deadliness of a thunderbolt. Now (as then), we also have political strategists, a profession that seems to share Tzu's attraction to those things.

Thanks for the content. The thread was a play on the instrumental music, plus a coded message about attitude adjustment.

I still belong to ACLU, but mostly I am lucky to be a white male with enough money to live on. And feisty.

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 -

@NCTim

this thread from your other Funkin' Friday threads how? (-;

The thread was a play on the instrumental music, plus a coded message about attitude adjustment.

Well, actually, I take that back: I've always seen your weekly musical selections as a play on the coded message of the thread.

Potato, potahtoh, or all the difference in the world?

Only you know.

I would never associate you with the Twitter Man! Or with any war monger, either.

Surely, my friend, we know each other better than that by now? (And don't call me Shirley!)

Have good one, NCTim!

On edit: The only two not for profit organizations that I have ever had on my credit card for recurring donations are the ACLU and Amnesty International. (And with that revelation, ya got me dead to rights: I like freedom and hate torture and other violations of international law.)

up
0 users have voted.
lotlizard's picture

@HenryAWallace  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morse_v._Frederick

up
0 users have voted.

@lotlizard

Even though the SCOTUS says things like "First Amendment protection does not stop at the schoolhouse door," somewhat different rules apply. There is more deference to school personnel in loco parentis trying to administer a school than there is to prosecutors or police or whomever trying to make a criminal case of pornography against a play or film with so much valid and timely political and social content as Hair contained.

Of course, the Supreme Court ultimately threw up its hands and gave up trying to decide what was or wasn't "redeeming social content" and created the "community standards" standard.

I disagree that the Framers ever intended or contemplated that First Amendment would mean one thing in Manhattan and another in Savannah, but no one asked me. AS it happens, not asking me is very common among government officials in all three branches.

up
0 users have voted.
WoodsDweller's picture

Pennsylvania Democratic Presidential Primary dated 15 May by Quinnipiac. Biden 39, Sanders 13.

Looking at the cross tabs here: https://poll.qu.edu/pennsylvania/release-detail?ReleaseID=2620

Age in years: 50+ shows Biden 47, Sanders 4. Ouch.
Age in years: 18-49 shows Biden 29, Sanders 27.

That's a pretty sharp pivot.

up
0 users have voted.

"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

lotlizard's picture

@WoodsDweller  
Young people are a bellwether of sorts . . .

I seem to recall that seeing the youngest groups break especially strong for Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election helped cement my decision not to return to the U.S. and instead stay in Germany as an expat for good.

I was like, “Hmm — it doesn’t bode well when the younger people are, the more against hippies, against the counter-culture, and against ‘liberals’ they are.”

up
0 users have voted.
The Aspie Corner's picture

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCPdYa0N9jI]

Having trouble in Austria and can't reach the 'Murican embassy? Go and get a Hamberder from one of Donny Tinyhands' mini embassies. /headdesk

up
0 users have voted.

Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

Good luck.

up
0 users have voted.
janis b's picture

What a lot of dynamic energy in Squawkin’ and Tele Kinesis. Thank you.

up
0 users have voted.