Open Thread Monday 07-20-2015

Good morning good people

Monday day morning poem:

Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear,
Thy dial how thy precious minutes waste,
These vacant leaves thy mind's imprint will bear,
And of this book, this learning mayst thou taste.
The wrinkles which thy glass will truly show,
Of mouthed graves will give thee memory,
Thou by thy dial's shady stealth mayst know,
Time's thievish progress to eternity.
Look what thy memory cannot contain,
Commit to these waste blanks, and thou shalt find
Those children nursed, delivered from thy brain,
To take a new acquaintance of thy mind.
These offices, so oft as thou wilt look,
Shall profit thee, and much enrich thy book. ~ W Shakespeare

Monday morning headlines: Diplomatic relations open today between Cuba and the U.S., fifty years in the wilderness, Viva the revolution; NYT ledes with Murder at Sea, Trump and McCain sharing the headlines, still. Can't find this headline: Bernie proves that Texas is big as in big energetic crowds in Dallas and Houston.
Greeks can get money again as banks open, but they can't gamble yet as markets still closed. Kerry says "No alternative to Iran nuke deal." War everywhere, Afgan soldiers still dying and the emergence of militants in Afghanistan claiming allegiance to Islamic State guarantees Halliburton shareholder dividends; surprise, 3-D printed missiles are on the way.

Apparently, the Chinese are enamored by having sex in dressing rooms.

"The Human Beings"

I love this photography: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sight/wp/2015/07/17/japanese-snow-...

Have a great Monday.

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No sympathies here

Adultery website AshleyMadison.com has been hacked, potentially exposing names, addresses, and sexual preferences of millions of would-be cheaters just as the site’s owner was preparing to go public....
“We will release all customer records, profiles with all the customers’ secret sexual fantasies, nude pictures, and conversations and matching credit card transactions, real names and addresses,” the hackers wrote, according to Krebs. “Avid Life Media will be liable for fraud and extreme harm to millions of users.”

While the company says it has closed the security holes and erased the hackers’ message and any personal information about users, it will do little good if the hackers have transferred the data elsewhere, said Rik Turner, an analyst at technology researcher Ovum in London. That, he said, would leave users open to extremely uncomfortable questions from spouses if the information is made public.

“For Christ’s sake, if you’re going to cheat don’t do it online and leave yourself open,” Turner said. “Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past few years and not reading a paper or receiving any TV signal, it should be obvious that everything is hackable.”

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they had something like 37 million members. WTF?

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hecate's picture

in your lack of sympathy, you are as one with Sean Klannity, who regularly brings Madison people onto his radio show so he can wag his Calvinist finger at them. Each time I wonder why, if they so offend him, he gives them the air.

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shaharazade's picture

private dressing rooms or public ones? This congers up exotic pictures of the Forbidden City's Hall of Union palace.

....the Palace of Heavenly Purity (乾清宮), Hall of Union, and the Palace of Earthly Tranquility. Smaller than the Outer Court halls, the three halls of the Inner Court were the official residences of the Emperor and the Empress. The Emperor, representing Yang and the Heavens, would occupy the Palace of Heavenly Purity. The Empress, representing Yin and the Earth, would occupy the Palace of Earthly Tranquility. In between them was the Hall of Union, where the Yin and Yang mixed to produce harmony.

Great OT to start the day and week off and wake up to. Love the Mozart and the Shakespeare. I found that in my half awake state reading him was a joy as my minds language filters are still off so his writing flowed right in. Off to get coffee and read the news. The days heat hasn't begun it's accent so it's very pleasant and cool this morning. Makes me feel like being productive. Good morning everyone hope you all have a great day.

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smiley7's picture

with sex and adultery leading the way.

6 arrested in China after dressing room sex video goes viral http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-five-arrested-china-uniqlo-sex-v...

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hecate's picture

references this story:

Four people have been detained in connection with a sex video purportedly taken inside a Uniqlo fitting room that spread rapidly online, Beijing police said.

They were detained on suspicion of spreading obscene content, according to a police statement late Sunday. Police said they were still investigating the couple who can be seen in the cellphone video apparently having sex in the Japanese retailer's flagship Beijing store.

Uniqlo has denied any involvement in the video which spread widely online last week and gave rise to jokes about fitting rooms becoming the latest make-out spots.

Like Americans, the Chinese have a prudery problem:

In China, people convicted of disseminating obscene books, films, pictures and videos face up to two years' imprisonment, while those who make obscene products for profit face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

The Chinese government is also busy heaving lawyers in jail.

The government propaganda orifice People's Daily thunders that those detained are "troublemakers" who were "polluting the internet" and "disturbing order." Some of these people face decades in prison for their Evil Intertubular Disorder.

The Chinese authorities have ratcheted up their crackdown against human rights lawyers and activists, using draconian state security charges to detain at least three people, Amnesty International said today.

Lawyers Xie Yang, Sui Muqing, and activist Gou Hongguo are being held on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power”, which could carry a prison sentence of up to 15 years.

“The scale and severity of this crackdown is unprecedented. The authorities appear intent on destroying the growing network of human rights lawyers and activists, and on spreading fear among those willing to stand up for human rights.”

The move by the authorities raises fears that many of the 31 lawyers and activists still detained or missing since the crackdown began last Thursday are likely to face similar state security charges.

Nearly 200 individuals have been questioned or detained by police in the nationwide crackdown over the past week.

The crackdown has been accompanied by a smear campaign in state media, with lawyers and activists accused of being part of a criminal operation to “undermine social stability.” The People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s newspaper, has claimed that in order to build a society that uses the law to resolve problems, the police need to “strike hard against illegal lawyers according to the law.”

The Beijing-based Fengrui Law Firm has been singled out as being at the center of a “criminal gang.” The law firm has defended individuals in high-profile human rights cases, including prominent Uighur academic Ilham Tohti, who is currently serving a life prison sentence, and the victims of the 2008 tainted milk powder scandal.

After a week in custody, one of the bad elements has "confessed."

The lawyer provided legal aid to families of children poisoned by milk powder from a powerful dairy firm, and this year defended an 81-year-old writer detained for criticising the ruling Communist party.

Zhou has reportedly not been able to meet with a family-appointed defence attorney. But the official Xinhua news agency said late Saturday that he "admitted guilt," and pleaded for a "second chance."

"Some things about my actions at the law firm were illegal... my mistakes were serious," the report cited Zhou as saying, apparently while in police custody.

What were the crimes of he and the other attorneys?

The detained lawyers "gave interviews to foreign media, spreading opinions attacking the party and the government, slandering the legal system and other such negative views," it added.

Those detained include female lawyer Wang Yu, known for defending poverty-stricken victims of forced demolition, sexual assault, illegal detention and other abuses.

As in America, the Chinese have a problem with their cops shooting people down in the streets:

The activists being held include attorney Xie Yang, who sought compensation for the family of a man shot dead in May by police at a train station in northeast China, sparking an online outcry about violence by law enforcers.

China's courts have a near-100 percent conviction rate. State media said last year that police using torture to extract confessions was "not rare" in the country.

Indefatigable multimedia Chinese activist Wu Gan is meanwhile revolving in and out of the pokey again. His penultimate crime? He "set up a mock grave and shouted." Then it was determined he had allied himself with the roiling snakes-nest of criminal lawyers:

“The police uncovered that Wu Gan, the ‘Super Vulgar Butcher’ leading the charge in many sensitive incidents, was an administrative assistant employed by Zhou Shifeng, the head of the Beijing Fengrui Law Firm. Although he was not a lawyer, he has a special ‘status’ in the firm, and in addition to a monthly salary of more than 10,000 renminbi, he received ‘activity funds.’

Wu Gan is regularly thrown in the slammer on such charges as "picking quarrels and provoking trouble." This involves activities like traveling to "Jiangxi to join a protest by four lawyers over a rape and murder case, which allegedly involved the torture and jailing of four innocent people." He first became an Agent of Evil when "in 2009 he reached out to meet Deng Yujiao, a pedicurist who was arrested on murder charges for stabbing to death a government official who was trying to molest her. The outrage generated online turned her case into a national cause celebre and she was eventually released."

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shaharazade's picture

telling it's customers to “abide by social moral standards, maintain social justice, and use the fitting rooms properly." What a bizarre world we are living in. I'm a avid mystery book reader and one of my favorite mystery writers is Qui Xiaolong who lived in shanghai and is now living in St.Louis. His Inspector Chen series are set in modern Shanghai with historical ties to the past, mainly the cultural Revolution and the strange place of the Party in the new China's burgeoning capitalist class featuring Red prince and princess's. This LA times story is straight out of one of his stories. I've read all of his novels and even some of his poetry. I have placed his latest book, Shanghai Redemption on my hold list at the library. Seems like his portrayal of China's political and social is right on the money. He's a great writer without being preachy politically and I've learned a lot about contemporary life in China.

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

Qiu Xiaolong (Chinese: 裘小龙, /ˈtʃuː ˌʃaʊˈlɒŋ/; born Shanghai, China, 1953) is an English-language poet, literary translator, crime novelist, critic, and academic,[1] currently living in St. Louis, Missouri, with his wife Wang Lijun and daughter Julia Qiu. He originally visited the United States in 1988 to write a book about T. S. Eliot, but following the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 a newspaper reported on his previous fundraising efforts for Chinese students, and he was forced to remain in America to avoid persecution by the Communist Party of China.

He has published nine crime-thriller/mystery novels set in Shanghai in the 1990s at the point when the People's Republic of China is making momentous changes. These include Death of a Red Heroine, which won the Anthony Award for best first novel in 2001, and A Loyal Character Dancer. All books feature Chief Inspector Chen Cao, a poetry-quoting cop with integrity. But the main concern in the books is modern China itself. Each book features quotes from ancient and modern poets, Confucius, insights into Chinese cuisine, architecture, history, politics, herbology and philosophy as well as criminal procedure.

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Turkey will not be happy

A Syrian Kurdish militia said Monday it was in near full control of the northeastern city of Hassakeh, expanding its sway at the expense of the Damascus government in the wake of an ISIS attack in the area.

Full control of Hassakeh - which was split between the Kurds and Damascus until last month - would be a major gain for the autonomous Kurdish administration that is fighting ISIS in Syria in partnership with Washington.

ISIS launched a major attack on the city on June 25, focusing initially on government-held southern Hassakeh. The ensuing battle drew in the YPG, which held northern Hassakeh, resulting in the U.S.-backed Kurds fighting ISIS in close proximity to government forces shunned by Washington.

Hassakeh is a provincial capital, and one of the last cities in eastern Syria where the Assad government has any forces.

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Why not?

Heading to Israel today, Defense Secretary Ash Carter once again talked up the idea of the US, having reached a nuclear deal with Iran, just up and attacking Iran out of nowhere, saying that’s one of the best things about the nuclear deal.
“One of the reasons this deal is a good one is that it does nothing to prevent the military option,” Carter insisted, saying the US and Israel could “agree to disagree” about the merits of the plan, but that the planning for an aggressive war against Iran would continue.

Carter’s comments were largely the same as the ones he made Tuesday, the day the nuclear deal was reached. He insisted then that the US has tens of thousands of soldiers in the region and would keep moving military assets along the Iranian frontier to facilitate a future strike.

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MarilynW's picture

I watched the video in the NYTimes, so you don't have to. People struggling in rough water apparently unable to swim being shot from a ship at sea. They are refugees and or stowaways who are being murdered from the ship in the Indian Ocean. The video was posted to a cell phone that was found in a taxi in NYC. It shows the shooters celebrating on board the ship after their killing spree. Then I read on about a ship that has spilled more oil at sea than Exxon & BP combined. And no one has been tried and convicted for these crimes.

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To thine own self be true.

hecate's picture

The video, which includes people speaking Chinese, Indonesian and Vietnamese languages, shows three large vessels circling the floating men. A banner that says “Safety is No. 1” in Chinese hangs in the background on the deck of one of the ships. A fourth vessel, which maritime records indicate is a 725-ton Taiwanese-owned tuna longliner called Chun I 217, passes by in the background.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

Vivaldi and Mozart!

Wink

So hot here (we're still on the road, but can barely stand to be outside), that I'll cut this short.

A while ago, we heard Mark Halperin (he has a Bloomberg weekday program called With All Due Respect, which is simulcast on the Bloomberg TV Channel and on XM Radio) give the top three on a just released poll (did not catch which one, though--sorry).

Trump came in first place at 24%, Walker second place at 13%, and Jeb Bush, third place at 12%.

It was a just released poll, but Halperin didn't say (that I heard) when it was conducted--meaning pre- or post-McCain comment. Thought that would be some [unsettling] news to chew on

~~~~~

We're still chuckling over civil wingnut's 'Giraffee Video' from last Friday or Saturday. For those who haven't watched it--you really should.

I've bookmarked it, to have it handy on those few occasions when all the 'bad political news' really gets me down. A nice break from it all--sorta like the video of the little 6-year-old girl lip syncing and dancing to an Aretha tune during her dance recital.

Wink

Hey, Everyone have a good evening, and stay cool!

Mollie


"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart." --Helen Keller
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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

MarilynW's picture

In this diary comments: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/07/20/1403942/-False-Alarm-No-reason-...
Those on DKos who approve of the above, claim that they alone are on the side of SCIENCE, as if science is totally right and good.

There seems to be a common thread among these progressives on DKos, those who defend GMO foods, mega-farming, Monsanto also approve of nuclear energy. That's their right of course but they denigrate those of us who do not approve of the above as believers in chemtrails, anti-vax, climate denial, junk science, etc.

In the comments there is praise for MarineScientist who assures us repeatedly that there is no danger from Fukushima affecting us. But his project at UVic is funded by Marine Environmental Observation Prediction and Response Network or MEOPAR. The Director of MEOPAR is also the CEO of Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (formerly Atomic Energy Canada).

(ps, I am not qualified to debate the content of the diary written by a biologist with 30 years experience, I'm referring to the comment section.)

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To thine own self be true.