(The following New Year information was mostly gleaned from wiki)

For much of time, the New Year began in March around the vernal equinox. The fact that the New Year once began with the month of March is still reflected in the names of the months. September through December, our ninth through twelfth months, were originally positioned as the seventh through tenth months (septem is Latin for "seven," octo is "eight," novem is "nine," and decem is "ten.")

The American colonies celebrated the New Year on March 25 in 1751, after which we adopted a new calendar which started the New Year on January 1. Mesopotamia (Iraq) instituted the concept of celebrating the new year in 2000 BC. They also celebrated New Year around the time of the vernal equinox, in mid-March. The early Roman calendar designated March 1 as the new year.

The original Roman calendar is believed to have been a lunar calendar, which may have been based on one of the Greek lunar calendars. As the time between new moons averages 29.5 days its months were constructed to be either hollow (29 days) or full (30 days). The regular calendar had only 355 days, which meant that it would quickly be out of phase with the solar year, causing agricultural festivals to occur out of season. The Roman solution to this problem was to periodically lengthen the calendar by adding extra days to February.

The new year was celebrated on January 1 in Rome by 153 BC, and Julius Caesar reformed the calendar in 46 BC. Caesar added days to the end of the month, so as not to disturb the dates of festivals in those months. Notice that the month's named for the Caesars Julius and Augustus (July and August) both have 31 days.

The Gregorian calendar is now the most widely used civil calendar. It is named after Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced it in October 1582. The calendar was a refinement to the Julian calendar involving a 0.002% correction in the length of the year. The motivation for the reform was to stop the drift of the calendar with respect to the equinoxes and solstices—particularly the vernal equinox, which set the date for Easter celebrations. Transition to the Gregorian calendar would restore the holiday to the time of the year in which it was celebrated when introduced by the early Church. The reform was adopted initially by the Catholic countries of Europe

During the Middle Ages in western Europe, while the Julian calendar was still in use, authorities moved New Year's Day variously, depending upon locale, to one of several other days, among them: 1 March, 25 March, Easter, 1 September, and 25 December. These New Year's Day changes generally reverted to using January 1 before or during the various local adoptions of the Gregorian calendar, beginning in 1582. The change from March 25 – Lady Day, one of the four quarter days – to January 1 took place in Scotland in 1600, before the ascension of James VI of Scotland to the throne of England. In England and Wales (and in all British dominions, including Britain's American colonies), 1751 began on March 25 and lasted only for 282 days because of the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750, with 1752 beginning on January 1. The last European country to adopt the Gregorian reform was Greece, in 1923.

Gregorian calendar begins the year on 1 January (New Year's Day), today!

Alphalop did a series of the T-rump as Calvin cartoons...pretty funny

What's the deal with New Year resolutions?

Babylonians made promises to their gods at the start of each year that they would return borrowed objects and pay their debts.

The Romans began each year by making promises to the god Janus, who is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, doorways, passages, and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces, since he looks to the future and to the past. It is conventionally thought that the month of January is named for Janus.

In the Medieval era, the knights took the "peacock vow" at the end of the Christmas season each year to re-affirm their commitment to chivalry.

At watchnight services, many Christians prepare for the year ahead by praying and making these resolutions.

The tradition of New Years resolutions has many other religious parallels. During Judaism's New Year, Rosh Hashanah, through the High Holidays and culminating in Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), one is to reflect upon one's wrongdoings over the year and both seek and offer forgiveness.

People can act similarly during the Christian liturgical season of Lent. The practice of New Year's resolutions came, in part, from the Lenten sacrifices. The concept, regardless of creed, is to reflect upon self-improvement annually.

Resolutions or not, let's all hope for a ...

Hogmanay is the Scots word for the last day of the year and is synonymous with the celebration of the New Year in the Scottish manner. It is normally followed by further celebration on the morning of New Year's Day (1 January) or, in some cases, 2 January—a Scottish bank holiday. Customs vary throughout Scotland, and usually include gift-giving and visiting the homes of friends and neighbors, with special attention given to the first guest of the new year.

The roots of Hogmanay perhaps reach back to the celebration of the winter solstice among the Norse,as well as incorporating customs from the Gaelic celebration of Samhain. The Vikings celebrated Yule, which later contributed to the Twelve Days of Christmas, or the "Daft Days" as they were sometimes called in Scotland. Christmas was not celebrated as a festival and Hogmanay was the more traditional celebration in Scotland. This may have been a result of the Protestant Reformation after which Christmas was seen as "too Papist"

The Hogmanay custom of singing "Auld Lang Syne" has become common in many countries. "Auld Lang Syne" is a Scots poem by Robert Burns, based on traditional and other earlier sources. In 1788 the Robert Burns sent the poem ‘Auld Lang Syne’ to the Scots Musical Museum, indicating that it was an ancient song but that he’d been the first to record it on paper. The phrase ‘auld lang syne’ roughly translates as ‘for old times’ sake’, and the song is all about preserving old friendships and looking back over the events of the year.
http://www.scotland.org/features/the-history-and-words-of-auld-lang-syne for all the words and history

Auld Lang Syne

Should Old Acquaintance be forgot,
and never thought upon;
The flames of Love extinguished,
and fully past and gone:
Is thy sweet Heart now grown so cold,
that loving Breast of thine;
That thou canst never once reflect
On Old long syne.

CHORUS:
On Old long syne my Jo,
On Old long syne,
That thou canst never once reflect,
On Old long syne.

(2.5 min)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bzu_5esx6pg]

Just when you think you understand the calendar....

The Year of the Monkey started from Feb. 8, 2016 (Chinese New Year) and will last to Jan. 27, 2017. The Year of the Rooster starts from Jan. 28, 2017 (Chinese New Year) and lasts to Feb. 15, 2018.

So like Janus, let's look back over the last year and look forward to the upcoming one.

What is the big story of the 2016.? I'm sure the lame stream corporate media will say T-rump....after all he is Time magazine's person of the year (really it's T-rump inc, corporation of the year). We all know how much coverage they devoted to him, and we remember why..

CBS chief executive Leslie Moonves in an astoundingly evil admission about Trump, said:

“It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.” Moonves called the campaign for president a “circus” full of “bomb throwing.” “Man, who would have expected the ride we’re all having right now? The money’s rolling in and this is fun,” and "this is going to be a very good year for us. Sorry. It’s a terrible thing to say. But, bring it on, Donald. Keep going,”

But it's not T-rump that is the story of the year. The big story that is screaming out to me is the silence... (3 min)

Yes, silence...

The silence of all the nations of Earth as they gathered for the Olympics in Brazil as the rightfully elected president was being displaced by a corporate coup.

Here's Glenn Greenwald on Democracy Now as the coup was starting (19 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bA01ddqUHQ

More from Journalist Shobhan Saxena on the legislative coup against Dilma Rousseff (11 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNYky1YruJ0

Rousseff was ousted to shift economic policy towards neoliberalism, and now Temer is rewarding the banks and financial investors for backing the legislative coup, says SOAS Professor Alfredo Saad-Filho
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS7RkemSJqM (13 min)

The silence about the number of wars we have instigated and in which we remain involved.

Can you guess how many countries the United States is currently bombing? (4.5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNIKQM6E4pk

A short history of post WWII wars involving the USA showing why the USA got involved and the horrific casualties it caused (20 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cIMYbdbQgA

How many wars..with Jimmy Dore (6 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG76dPe4hRU

Yes, we are addicted to war. http://www.addictedtowar.com/ There is a new 2015 edition. You can read the 2004 edition online for free http://www.addictedtowar.com/atw1a.html

The silence in our nation as we foment revolution in Syria against a duly elected president.

It all about a pipeline, and that is rarely ever reported
http://www.ecowatch.com/syria-another-pipeline-war-1882180532.html
and an interview with RFK (12 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRB2pqiKhGg

Follow the weapons to see who created this war
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-22906965

Our role in creating ISIS
http://theantimedia.org/retired-us-general-admits-militarys-role-in-crea...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6kdi1UXxhY (12 min)
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-27/erdogan-says-he-has-confirmed-e...

The silence as we indiscriminately drone anyone whom the president deems offensive...including US citizens.
Jameel Jaffer, founding director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. His new book is titled "The Drone Memos: Targeted Killing, Secrecy, and the Law." (12 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GNEbNFZXR0

Great overview of our drone program from the intercept
https://theintercept.com/drone-papers/

The silence (and outright obstruction) of the democrats when they had a true democratic candidate.
Bernie inspired many people (including me)

Bernie's speech in late November (30 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN7v544Fd4k

But Dr. Cornel West says the Democratic Party can’t be reformed. (5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iyyrs5q333I

Jimmy Dore on the low point of the DNC (7 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yLr8nAZD5A

The silence of the content of emails obscured by yelling about the source. It is the new McCarthyism.

What is the source? It probably wasn't Russia, I may have been born at night, but not last night...
A DNC staffer was murdered but not robbed this summer in DC.
http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Man-Shot-Killed-in-Northwest-DC-...
Assange and wikileaks offered a reward.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-08-10/wikileaks-assange-hints-murdere...

The Podesta leaks could have been a phishing scam
http://nypost.com/2016/10/29/heres-how-hackers-stole-50000-of-john-podes...
or could have been accessed when he lost his phone
http://www.inquisitr.com/3628787/wikileaks-clintons-campaign-chairman-lo...

Red baiting is a useful silencing tool that goes way back. Michael and Robert Meeropol are calling on Obama to posthumously exonerate their mother, Ethel Rosenberg. She, along with their father, Julius Rosenberg, was charged with conspiring to share nuclear secrets with the Soviet Union and executed on June 19, 1953 (11 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMW5mfNRAsE

Why does Obomber attack Putin? This is a good piece with nice cartoons. Hat tip CB
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-25/losers-malice-whats-behind-obam...

Edward Snowden suggests the NSA has a way of collecting evidence of Russian hacks
https://theintercept.com/2016/12/29/top-secret-snowden-document-reveals-...

The silence of why we need a black lives matter movement in the time of our first black president....a president that supports private prisons and the privatization of public schools

Ava DuVernay’s recent Netflix documentary, "13th," chronicles how the U.S. criminal justice system has been driven by racism from the days of slavery to today’s era of mass incarceration.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nP9E8oeW6o (6 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3U9-KlO2F4 (11 min)

There has been minimal media coverage of the Black Lives Matter movement as it spreads around the globe. (12 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXdR_8nFEG8

If the underlying sentences were senseless and cruel to begin with — and if clemency is the only way to grant relief — why has the White House made it so hard for these same people to get out of prison?
https://theintercept.com/2016/12/24/obamas-clemency-problem-and-ours/

In September, after months of organizing via smuggled cellphones and outside go-betweens, prisoners across the country launched a nationwide strike to demand better working conditions at the numerous facilities that employ inmate labor for little or no pay.
https://theintercept.com/2016/12/28/california-blames-incarcerated-worke...

Communist autoworker explains capitalism and racism (5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixo0gtLIuLk
from the film “Finally got the news” (1 hour)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgJd_MvJVzg

FreeAlabama Movement FAM (3 min)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ytsoWKOp30]

If you have the heart – you can listen to several cell phone interviews from inside Alabama's prisons.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC88hK0WZ7PKGaTMPpLMTA_w

The silence about the failure of capitalism

Lee Camp explains how we are a corporate state (6 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnpSMrpgjEU

Economist Mark Blyth, who accurately predicted both Brexit and Trump, explains in clear language how globalization and capitalism are failing people throughout the world – with analysis by Jimmy Dore (16 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K8bf6dbYt4
Here's several of Mark's discussions https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mark+blyth

The fossil fuel industry is interconnected with the banks as a powerful economic and political force on the planet. How did it happen? Economist Richard Wolff gives us a great explanation (19 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ChsQAx2j6Q
Here's most of Richard's videos https://www.youtube.com/user/democracyatwr

The silence about climate change.

This is a thoughtful piece with Guy McPherson, a biology professor at the University of Arizona, about the dire situation we face with climate change. Great music to relieve the bad news. Guess what? We're bound for extinction sooner rather than later. Worth the watch. (1.3 hours)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYlRk377Wq0
or a short version Guy says the human destruction of our own habitat is leading towards the world's sixth mass extinction. Humans are heading for mass extinction. (10 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqIt93dDG1M

All the silence has led to blindness
How can citizens be informed when we have a state of silence?

How to overlook the blindness of the narrow minded people...(3 min)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX63u9LEhdQ]

You would have to be blind to miss the outright purchase and ownership of the US government by corporations...big banks, big oil, big pharma, big media, the Koch bros,...and since corporations are people, we've got T-rump inc as president surrounded by his dark horsemen profit mongers. (At least Obummer got his cabinet as a secret email from Citigroup). Check out the future cabinet and their corporate ties...
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/us/politics/donald-trump-adminis...

Blind to the genocide of our own first nations peoples as we support Israel's genocide of the Palestinians.
Relegate them both to reservations and treat them as less than human. These two pictures look pretty similar.

Palestinian attorney Diana Buttu and Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, a Haaretz columnist discuss Israel and Palestine (30 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnwtKL4yF98

The blindness of the media itself explained by Glenn Greenwald
https://theintercept.com/2016/12/29/the-guardians-summary-of-julian-assa...

But don't worry, the Ministry of Truth will sort things out as Lee Camp explains (9 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyPk5VMNYhA

Yes, we are blind and deaf to so much...

Where is our Anne Sullivan? She taught a deaf and blind girl to communicate, and helped the first deaf-blind person to earn a bachelor of arts degree. Helen Keller went on to become a member of the Socialist Party of America and the Industrial Workers of the World. She campaigned for women's suffrage, labor rights, socialism, antimilitarism, and other similar causes. Anne was her teacher and lifelong companion.

Maybe there is hope.

We need to show the world that real change is still possible, and that even when conventional public input like voting and attending hearings is inadequate—and on climate change, it has been profoundly inadequate—we can be effective, creative, demanding, and inspiring. We can refuse to give our consent. http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/12/24/fossil-fuel-industry-needs-...

https://ourfuture.org/20161215/beyond-resistance-the-story-of-2016

The history of strikes from our own gjohnsit
http://caucus99percent.com/content/trouble-help
workers and soldiers unite!
http://caucus99percent.com/content/pro-war-lies-built-upon-more-pro-war-...

Will we stand up to corporate and fossil fuel interests in 2017? Will we see a general strike? We will have to wait and see.

So, as I close my thoughts on 2016 and this theme of silence (and blindness), I would remind you of the silence that led many of us to c99. An imposed silence...when the DailyLost decided for their participants who they should support as the democratic nominee. What a breath of air to arrive at c99 with no dictated agenda. Where the goal is to promote free and honest conversation among the 99%. Where the purpose is to promote people and the planet not a party. Where ads and dictates are not imposed. As we arrive in the New Year let's remember to support JtC and this community.

So before this thread opens up for your thoughts and comments (on any topic), let me wish you peace and friendship as we continue around the sun...

(A shot from the western most part of Europe last fall)

What's on your mind? I know you have many more examples of the silence and the blindness.