Sunday Open Thread 04-26-15

Good morning 99percenters!
Hope you all are having a fine Sunday.

I finally got tired of the site slowing down and hanging so the aggregator was totally disable and it is running much smoother. I have heard no one complain so I don't think it is missed by anyone. The site is running very well and I think it was worth the trade off.

By now you've probably noticed that we've added a front page with featured diaries. The URL for the front page is caucus99percent.com and the URL for the community diaries page is caucus99percent.com/diaries which is different than what it used to be. You may want to reset your bookmarks by going to the page you use most often, which is probably the community diaries page for most, and bookmark (favorites for IE) it. Also for those members that have diaries featured on the front page you may want to occasionally check them as they have been getting additional comments from the extra exposure.

The c99p site has been very good at covering a wide variety of issues, but there is one, and some would argue the most important, issue that we have been lacking in, green and environmental. A great addition to the site would be a section dedicated to green news with links pointing to it specifically. If anyone would be interested in heading up a greens section please let me know and if anyone knows a writer or writers who may be interested in authoring some green diaries and contributing to that effort please let me know. I have one person in particular that I plan on discussing this with. I believe it would be a worthy and much needed addition to the site.

I want to take a little time to explain how the scheduler works as I've noted some confusion. A scheduled diary is triggered by a program called cron that runs silently in the background. Think of cron as an updater, it runs and scans the site for any job that has been set to engage at a certain time. The cron program runs at a minimum of once every hour. What this means in relation to the scheduler is that the time you set for your diary to publish wont be triggered until cron runs. So if you set the scheduler to publish at 7:00 AM it wont actually publish that diary until cron runs sometime after 7 o'clock. To be safe if you want a diary to publish at 8:00 AM then set the scheduler for 7:00 AM and that will assure that it triggers sometime before 8.

Any more ideas about a new site name. Citizens99 seems to have been fairly popular. I'll ask a few more times and then list the suggestions in a future Open Thread and we'll finalize it. If there is a name that seems perfect but is already taken there is the option of using a different Top Level Domain, which is the last 3 digits of the URL (i.e.--.com). For example if citizens99.com is already taken there is also the .org, .net, etc. extensions that could be used.

We added 11 new members over the last week:
blueoasis
divineorder
jakkalbessie
thanatokephaloides
LamontCranston
sagansong
cynnymynn
wendy davis
Bruce Webb
Johnny Q
JekyllnHyde

Welcome to all.


When Will Obama Apologize for All the Other Innocent Victims of Drone Strikes?

In the fall of 2013, Rafiq ur Rehman, a school teacher from the remote tribal region of North Waziristan, in Pakistan, stood with his 12-year-old son, Zubair, and 9-year-old daughter, Nabila, in Washington, D.C., preparing to challenge one of the U.S. government’s most secretive means of killing.

The Rehmans say a missile fired from a U.S. drone killed 68-year-old Momina Bibi — Rehman’s mother, and grandmother to the two young children — in an October 2012 airstrike. Both Zubair and Nabila were present when the attack happened and suffered injuries. The missile had struck their grandmother straight on, obliterating her completely. There were no others killed in the attack and no substantiated reports of terrorists at the scene.

According to the family’s account, Bibi was killed tending okra while her grandkids played nearby.

The family came to the U.S. to demand answers. They were treated as honored guests among the human rights community in New York City, but when they met with lawmakers on October 20, 2013, a total of five members of Congress showed up.

What’s Obama Up to, with His TPP & TTIP?

The motivation behind U.S. President Barack Obama’s trans-Pacific trade-deal TPP, and his trans-Atlantic trade-deal TTIP — the motivation behind both of these enormous international trade-deals — is the same, and Democratic U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown are correct: it is not at all progressive. It is instead to transfer political power away from the public in a democracy, and for that power to go instead to the international aristocracy (i.e., to go as far away from any national democracy as is even possible to go). This is to be done by switching the most fundamental thing of all: the global power-base itself. Instead of that power-base being democratic votes of the national publics, who elect their political representatives who determine the laws and regulations, that national democratic political system becomes instead the exact opposite: the global aristocratic stockholder votes of the international aristocracy who elect the corporate directors of international companies, who will, in their turn, then be selecting the members to the international-trade-panels which, in TPP and TTIP, will, in their turn, be determining the rules and enforcements regarding especially workers’ rights, product-safety, and the environment. 

The international aristocracy’s weakening of these national rules will enable lowering wages of the public, who are the people who don’t control international corporations but who control only their own personal labor, which goes down in value to the lowest hourly wage in the entire international trading-area. This new system will also enable minimizing regulation of the safety of foods and other products and thus maximizing the ability of international corporations to avoid any expenses that companies would otherwise need to devote to raising the safety of their products. Those expenses (the liabilities of dangerous products) will thus be increasingly borne only by the products’ consumers. Risks to investors (which is the thing that aristocrats seek most to avoid) are consequently reduced — shifted more onto the public. It will also enable environmental harms to become virtually free to international corporations that perpetrate them, and to become likewise costs that are borne only by the general public, in toxic air, water, etc. Thus, yet another category of risks to investors will be gone. This will increase profit-margins, which go only to the stockholders — not to the public. Profits will thus become increasingly concentrated in international corporations and the families that control them, and losses will become increasingly socialized among consumers and workers — and just generally to livers and breathers: the public. ‘Government’ will increasingly be merely the spreader and enforcer of risks and penalties to the public; and, this, in turn, will enhance yet further the ‘free-market’ ideal of there being less and less, or ’smaller,’ government; i.e., of there being less and less of ‘democratic’ government. That’s what the aristocracy’s ’small government’ jag has really been all about: it’s about cost-shifting, from aristocrats, to the public. Thus, the maximum percentage of the costs — for product-safety, workers’ rights, and the environment — become borne by the public, and the minimum percentage of costs become borne by the stockholders in international corporations. In turn, aristocrats will be able to pass along to their designated heirs their thus ever-increasing dominance and control over the general public. Thus, the concentration of wealth will become more and more concentrated in fewer and fewer families, a gradually smaller hyper-aristocracy. This is what’s happening, and it will happen now a lot more if TPP and TTIP pass. (According to the most detailed study of the matter, as of 2012, the “World’s Richest 0.7% Own 13.67 Times as Much as World’s Poorest 68.7%.” So: the world is already extremely unequal in its wealth-distribution. TPP and TTIP are designed to increase that inequality.)

Furthermore, President Obama and the Republican Party in Congress (which support him on this, and on all other matters that are of highest concern to America’s aristocracy, such as the defeat of Russia, China and the other BRICS nations — for example, by Obama’s yanking Ukraine away from Russia’s aristocracy and into control instead by America’s aristocracy) are ensuring that America’s aristocracy will be increasingly on top internationally, and these trade-deals are additionally taking advantage of America’s being the top power across both of this planet’s two major oceans: the Atlantic, and the Pacific.

Jackson Browne - Running On Empty

Jackson Browne - Doctor My Eyes

Jackson Browne - The Pretender

Jackson Browne - Stay (Just a Little Bit Longer)

This is an Open Thread so talk the talk. Peace.

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Roger Fox's picture

Good morning everyone !!

I used to be in the golf course business, went to Rutgers to study golf turf management. My carreer went sideways and I left. I had risen to the 2nd position, Assistant Golf Course Superintendent. 20 years later I thought I'd get back in, working in ones field of academic endeavor can mean more earning power. So in 2013 I got a job at a local course for $10 per hour, after 2 years it was clear it was a horrible fit. I have been offered the 2nd Assistants position at a course in NY for $16 per hour, paid health and dental.

I recently replaced my 19 yr old Minivan with a vastly more reliable 2005 Nissan Altima, which recently got 35 mpg on my round trip to interview for this job. By the way, its was a 3 and a half hour interview... which ended with a job offer.

At age 57 I have fought the trend, persevered and appear to be bucking the trend of being over 50, losing a job and never earning what I used to. I'm too old and have been away from the business too long (20 years), HA - whatever. Aint no quite in me.

I thought I'd share this tidbit of personal good news, in this age of depressingly horrid news we face each day. I'm carving out a pocket of personal goodness, improved mental health, in the face of the crazzyness that would drive any normal person into Fox news fear driven depression.

Plus I got AngieinWAstate some contacts for her upcoming Congressional race, Some field ops people, A direct mail & Web site guy and 4 Camp Wellstone political training Alumni from the Seattle Washington area.

With so many positive vibes how can we possibly lose?

Donald Sutherland from Kellys Heroes reference.

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FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.

Roger! Man, do I love golf, haven't played for a few years though. When gas went to almost $5.00 a gallon a few years ago I gave it up to make ends meet. Living out in the middle of nowhere it was costing quite a bit of money with the gas to drive there and back, green fees and cart, snacks, balls, etc. and since I was playing 3 or 4 times a week it was the natural thing to eliminate to make up the difference in extra gas outlays. But, man, that jones was hard to give up, but the habit is broken now.

I'm really glad you've gotten this opportunity, good for you! Plus, you probably get free rounds too, right? Woohoo!

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Roger Fox's picture

Driving range too. I'm real rusty, played a bit last year & decided to keep it on the range. Last time out on the range (last fall) I started to see some progress. One cool thing is working on a course you find lots of very good balls, so I have a gallon bucket filled. Lord knows I'll lose a few...dozen. This is a short course only 6019, narrow tree lined fairways and smaller greens. But its in Westchester County, the heart of golfdom in the US. All the great architects built courses here.

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FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.

narrow tree lined fairways are real ball eaters, I can attest to that. The narrow fairways and smaller greens should make up for the shorter course, put the driver away and rely on the 3 wood and irons. Man, now I've got the urge to go knock a couple around! It was sure great to see that youngster win the masters a couple of weeks ago

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Roger Fox's picture

I have a 1 thru 9 irons, cavity back, 2 wedges and a putter in the bag. When I played a lot my 1 iron was good for 200-225 yards, once in a blue moon as much as 245.

Narrow tree lined fairways are certainly ball eaters. I'll stay at the range for a while.... LOLz.

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FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.

with a 1 iron, you animal, what can you hit with a driver?

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Roger Fox's picture

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FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.

Do you have to relocate for the job? Hope it is just the beginning.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Roger Fox's picture

North Yonkers. Only $650 a month, about a 25 minute drive to work. Decent area, view of the Hudson River, single family homes, some split into Mother Daughter types.

I'm hoping too, keep your fingers crossed. Thanks. This is a step up in position at a moderately competitive salary. I'll be applying for Golf Course Superintendents jobs come this October. With 7 years as an Assistant in my previous iteration and making it back in management this year, many starter jobs will be within my reach. The Average Super with my education makes 86k. SO I'm swinging for the fences........ LOL

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FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.

Unabashed Liberal's picture

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

gulfgal98's picture

It is always great to near good news. Good

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Shahryar's picture

haven't gone in several years because the cost kept rising.

also, my golfing friends always (and I mean always) wanted to play 18 holes. If the course were crowded (often was) the round itself would take 5+ hours. Add an hour getting there, an hour coming home, 30 minutes waiting to tee off, that's 8 hours. In other words, a full day.

If I ever get back into it I'll go play the close by local muni, go 9 and see if I can still break 50. I used to be somewhat decent with a goal of 39 for 9, would settle for 42-43 but like I said, that was a few years back.

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pretty good scoring, Shah. When I quit a few years ago I was consistently in the low 90's and in the 80's every once in a while. I really miss it, what an addictive sport, and frustrating!

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Roger Fox's picture

has been partially responsible for 900 golf courses closing in the US since 2008. Many public courses have chosen to chase the high end golfer, offering championship conditions, Fast greens, rough cut higher. And for the average golfer that makes the course too hard, resulting in 5 hour rounds. In this regard the industry has fucked itself. Being able to play in no more than 4 hours, not having to look for your ball that rolled off the fairway only 15 feet into the rough and paying 40 bucks is a good thing. But much of the industry has chosen to chase high end dollars, the result has slowed play and reduced the fun quotient.

Shah, When I played a lot if I broke 100 I was happy, I shot an 85 one time. One time I punched out and dropped 3 balls on the par 3 tee next to the shop and played those 3 balls thru 3 holes (16, 17, 15 back to the shop) , for a "quick" 9 holes in 55 minutes. LOLz. I was racing vs the sunset.

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FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.

best was an 84 on a tough course, but that turned out to be a bad thing because after that I wanted to shoot 84 every time and got pissed and frustrated when I didn't, I ended up not enjoying the game as much as I did before in my quest to better that score. That made it easier to quit when the economy tanked. A good walk spoiled.

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Shahryar's picture

and managed that several times but.....and this is a big but!...it cost me. When I started playing, after lessons (because before lessons I'd swing and maybe move the ball 5 yards), I would go and play 9 whenever I could. That is, if I didn't have work in the afternoon I'd go play, so I was going a lot. And that's a problem. It meant I didn't have enough work! So after 3 months of going out nearly every day I could shoot in the low 80s with an occasional 79 and I had no money.

I should have been concentrating on business and drumming up more work instead of whacking the ball around the course.

One other problem I had was playing with cheaters. I recall a round with my neighbor who hit his tee shot out of bounds but went and played it anyway. He pretty much whiffed on his first try, eventually holed out on this par 5 and told me he got a 6. I'm pretty sure it was 9. Why would anyone do that? Or the golf trip to central Oregon where this other guy hit his tee shot into the trees, decided to throw it back into play and rolled it about 80 yards down the fairway, counting it as no stroke.

Oh...oh yeah, another amusing golf story...I'd go out by myself to the city course and get paired up with whoever was there. I was playing with these two suburban ladies of the posh sort. They were friendly enough. At one point one realized she'd left a club several holes back and fretted that it was gone because the riff raff wouldn't return it. Two holes later the group behind us gave her the club that had been picked up by a different group and passed ahead. But the funny part of this is that on that central Oregon trip to fancy golf courses, where people had a lot of money to spend, I left a club behind and nobody turned it in. Because they're special, those 1%-er golfers. Screw them!

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mimi's picture

I write stuff as drafts, drop in links, I want to keep, and schedule everything to be published in 2016. It's just a great tool to have.

Such a good OT on Sunday Morning. I am going in the sun. It's beautiful around my neighborhood today. Have a good one, everybody.

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gulfgal98's picture

Thanks for the laugh. Wink

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

When I see save as draft, I will use it. When I see 2016, I know I have a draft. I really like the scheduler too. I have never been anywhere where posting is so easy.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Roger Fox's picture

commented on your comment?

Am I missing something? At the gos it was easy.

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FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.

I struggle with that too. Perhaps those that have figured out a system that they like would share it with the rest of us.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

mimi's picture

and clicks on my comments to have for each comment listed the number of responses to that comment. But I think that's something for JtC and may be it's hard to do?

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Roger Fox's picture

Great to see him here. Hes my go to guy on Social Security.

Welcome Bruce !!!!

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FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.

Welcome and make yourself to home.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

mimi's picture

The horrors of the Mediterranean

migrant_82521256_624xbbc11.jpg
An exhausted migrant crawls up the beach in Fuerteventura

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