Tuesday Open Thread ~ 13 AUG 19 ~ Last Blast

Submitted by QMS on Tue, 08/13/2019 - 4:05am

It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.

Isaac Asimov

Welcome to today's open thread. Offering no heavy political discourse today. Am off to London town disguised as Popeye to do battle with Brutus Bo Jo. Taking no prisoners.

This will be my last Tuesday OT for awhile. Anja will still be doing her every-other food extravaganza. So the commitment is every-other week. Having fun with this community is an open opportunity for one (or more) of you to explore. Please contact JtC for details. Will still maintain the Member Contact Project. So caste your latent writing fears aside and give it a go!

[video:https://youtu.be/mSu3xGmB-i0]

Any and all are welcome to multiply the fruits of your thinking here.

Credits
Apple Scruffs - George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
Graphite portrait by Japanese artist Ozabu via Colossal

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Submitted by lotlizard on Tue, 08/13/2019 - 4:53am

Roundup of links posted by me to Evening Blues in the wee hours

• Establishment war-party drum-beater strategists zero in on China:

https://presentdangerchina.org/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_on_the_Present_Danger#Fourth_CPD...

• Epstein was a central figure in a Ponzi scheme, Towers Financial.
Yet somehow Epstein was able to have his name entirely removed from the case, while his partner Steven Hoffenberg got an 18-year prison sentence.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/jeffrey-epstein-death-...

• What Raúl Ilargi Meijer wrote back in January 2018, marking 10 years of his news aggregator site The Automatic Earth:

https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2018/01/10-years-automatic-earth/

What has changed, and increased, a lot over the past decade is the media. They have moved, more than before, into a kind of la la land where narratives are invented and presented with the express intention of keeping people feeling good about themselves in the face of all the distortion and disasters they face.

The big move in energy is not so much peak oil, but a meme of moving away from oil. “Renewable energy” is all the fad, and it works, because it holds the promise that we can maintain our levels of energy consumption, and our lifestyles in general, pretty much up to some undefined moment in the future. For all you know, a seamless transition.

It’s a nonsense narrative, which originates not just in wishful thinking, but much more than that in widespread ignorance about what energy actually is and does, and what qualities oil and gas bring to the table that no other energy source can.

We must have written a hundred articles about such themes as energy return on energy invested (EROEI), and that the EROEI on renewables doesn’t allow for our present complex societies to continue as they are. Renewables are not useless by any means, but switching to them from oil will mean a huge simplification from our present lives. More than anything, probably, we have to ask if that would be such a bad thing.

• This website’s entire focus seems to be Chicago crime statistics:

https://heyjackass.com/

Submitted by Cant Stop the M... on Tue, 08/13/2019 - 7:25am

I'm glad they don't go where I thought they were going.

@lotlizard

A lot of petroleum/methane defenders say shit like "Renewables just won't work! We can't store the energy efficiently enough! They can't produce enough energy!"

• Establishment war-party drum-beater strategists zero in on China: https://presentdangerchina.org/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_on_the_Present_Danger#Fourth_CPD... • Epstein was a central figure in a Ponzi scheme, Towers Financial. Yet somehow Epstein was able to have his name entirely removed from the case, while his partner Steven Hoffenberg got an 18-year prison sentence. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/jeffrey-epstein-death-... • What Raúl Ilargi Meijer wrote back in January 2018, marking 10 years of his news aggregator site The Automatic Earth: https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2018/01/10-years-automatic-earth/ What has changed, and increased, a lot over the past decade is the media. They have moved, more than before, into a kind of la la land where narratives are invented and presented with the express intention of keeping people feeling good about themselves in the face of all the distortion and disasters they face. The big move in energy is not so much peak oil, but a meme of moving away from oil. “Renewable energy” is all the fad, and it works, because it holds the promise that we can maintain our levels of energy consumption, and our lifestyles in general, pretty much up to some undefined moment in the future. For all you know, a seamless transition. It’s a nonsense narrative, which originates not just in wishful thinking, but much more than that in widespread ignorance about what energy actually is and does, and what qualities oil and gas bring to the table that no other energy source can. We must have written a hundred articles about such themes as energy return on energy invested (EROEI), and that the EROEI on renewables doesn’t allow for our present complex societies to continue as they are. Renewables are not useless by any means, but switching to them from oil will mean a huge simplification from our present lives. More than anything, probably, we have to ask if that would be such a bad thing. • This website’s entire focus seems to be Chicago crime statistics: https://heyjackass.com/

—

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Submitted by Cant Stop the M... on Tue, 08/13/2019 - 7:23am

You will stick around on the site, though, won't you?

Don't make me miss you.

—

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Submitted by detroitmechworks on Tue, 08/13/2019 - 7:56am

Ack... here I am in a writing eruption...

but I wouldn't want to take on the job because I am notoriously unreliable.

Yep, I'll be fine for a while, then a bout of depression will hit, and nobody will hear from me for a couple months. So... Probably not a good idea for me to start up openly eccentric again.

On the plus side, 575 subscribers to my writing right now on my fiction, so that's fun! (Smut. Not gonna lie. Romantic and fairly creative smut, IMHO but admittedly, smut.) Only been back at it for about a month, and really enjoy the work I do here too, but no idea how long the rainy season will last. Thanks to all the muses who are blessing me right now.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaHDBL7dVgs]

—

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

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Tue, 08/13/2019 - 9:04am

Good morning QMS. Have a good and safe trip and battle. Do

drop in, often. After all, one should be able to ping London from Sam Francisco in under 200 milliseconds, so .... .

—

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 --

Submitted by k9disc on Tue, 08/13/2019 - 9:44am

Information Is Slowing Down...

Just had this idea running through me and thought I'd share it.

It went something like this:
First thought:
Sound is just like wifi with less density. It is an information medium. Arrange the sounds appropriately and you have music that has meaning and creates affect. As does light. Bounce it appropriately, and you have a picture that communicates meaning and creates affect.

Poof!... mind blown, an easy thing too, and it's even an idea I had before, it just didn't hit me.

2nd Thought:
Information is about to get really slow for us, I think. YT just changed shit up - removed categories (and spatial awareness and conceptual control) and that's never good - having some issues finding things over the last couple weeks.

I think things are getting locked down as we speak.

—

“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

Submitted by k9disc on Tue, 08/13/2019 - 9:56am

... and on the FB, I Got a Personalized "Ad", Naming My Alma

mater (Hawaii Pacific University) for a debt forgiveness program.

A bit too personal for my tastes, and it's going to get much more invasive.

Another interesting thought... Personal vs Private...

Looks like the very idea of privacy has been overtaken by the concept of personal. I think that you have to have a corporate veil and a LARGE IT budget to exercise privacy.

@k9disc

—

“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Tue, 08/13/2019 - 10:09am

Look into clliqz by the makers of ghostery. I'm running a beta

@k9disc
because ubuntu, and using it for all searches I can. So far no targeted ads in my other browsers, or cliqz, from any cliqz sites and searches. Then all yu need to do is scrub your history, and there is stuff for that. The info on scrubbing is buried in this article:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-08-08/i-tried-hiding-from-s...

—

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 --

Submitted by laurel on Thu, 08/15/2019 - 1:35am

I've been sensing it too,

@k9disc . It's like they're slowly tightening the screws. I get the impression that they're desperate to get on with their project, and I hope it's because they fear their opposition or even "us." They're kinda scary, but that doesn't mean we don't have options to resist, elude, or even eventually overcome them.

—

Lurking in the wings is Hillary, like some terrifying bat hanging by her feet in a cavern below the DNC. A bat with theropod instincts. -- Fred Reed https://tinyurl.com/vgvuhcl

Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 08/13/2019 - 10:06am

Ya think?

Katy gun store faces backlash over back-to-school sale sign https://t.co/kT4QvcSmrR via @ABC13Houston

— Charly Edsitty (@CharlyABC13) August 12, 2019

Something cheery

Not something you see every day in Australia. Kangaroos in the snow.#Wildoz #Kangaroos #Snow pic.twitter.com/ospCngUa98

— Stephen Grenfell (@stephengrenfel1) August 11, 2019

Submitted by Anja Geitz on Tue, 08/13/2019 - 10:17am

Please pop in from time to time

I will miss your charm and gentleness more than I can say. Don't worry about the OT, if no one else steps up I can pick up the slack.

Have fun in London, but stay away from the Marmite.

—

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Submitted by lotlizard on Tue, 08/13/2019 - 10:38am

Success in your mission and stay safe, QMS !!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/ce73e14rlz3t/london-violence

Submitted by HenryAWallace on Tue, 08/13/2019 - 10:41am

Thank you for having done this and for continuing with the

"how to contact me in case the NSA shuts down the internet" effort. Although....inasmuch as we gave you our email addys, I guess we will not be reachable if things actually get that far.

Meh. Annoying and creepy internnet advertisers would never allow government to shut down the internet. and government will obey them.

never mind

Brutus has been spoiling for a thrashing for a long time, so good on you. Are you moving to London for the foreseeable future, or is this an extended vacation? If this is classified info, or just none of my business, I'll understand.

Whatever your purpose, enjoy London!

Submitted by lotlizard on Tue, 08/13/2019 - 11:11am

Germany: civil disobedience for a car-free future

Anti-car climate activists chain themselves to tracks, delay train carrying cars built at Volkswagen HQ in Wolfsburg
https://taz.de/Protest-fuer-Verkehrswende/!5618170/

And:
Green politician switches sides: Kerstin Andreae, Green party economic expert, to take post as head of the BDEW (German Association of Energy and Water Utilities)
https://taz.de/Gruene-geht-zu-Energieverband/!5614873/

And:
Meal delivery service Deliveroo throws in the towel, leaving German market to larger (and sole remaining) competitor Lieferando. Article imparts a lesson from Karl Marx about the inevitability of monopoly and oligopoly formation under capitalism, due to economies of scale.
https://taz.de/Aus-fuer-Essensdienst-in-Deutschland/!5614864/

Submitted by eyo on Tue, 08/13/2019 - 11:19am

Bon voyage QMS

Are you really going across the pond? right on Now I want to plant spinach, so thank you for that and everything else. Will gladly pay you Tuesday... wimpy rocks

I have reverted to being a public/private bitch 'cause the clampdown is too quiet outside my head. You still have my going postal address I hope, I bought four cards for a dollar at the senior store the other day, was gonna send one your way with some sunflower seeds hidden inside, from that yellow head with the funny leaf face. The very first harvest out of the dirt patch to the power of flower. bird seed

From Trump to Boris Johnson... omg wtf Question Military Spending! indeed

PEACE
Edit to add: Tuesday morning cartoons from the commons:
Popeye the Sailor 1933-1938 (Complete Cartoon Collection)
https://archive.org/details/PopeyetheSailor19331938/Popeye+the+Sailor+19...
NP: 36. Let's Get Movin'
heh
Thanks

Submitted by gjohnsit on Tue, 08/13/2019 - 11:11am

Bolsonaro = Trump of Brazil

moron

Bolsonaro is not someone who cares about the environment. He is someone who is in fact accelerating the deforestation of the Brazilian rainforest, and who says crazy stuff just to get the attention or cause distraction.
Bolsonaro’s comment was the result of a reporter asking him about whether Brazil can simultaneously grow more food while protecting the environment. And this question is the crucial context to understand Bolsonaro’s reply: “It’s enough to eat a little less. You talk about environmental pollution. It’s enough to poop every other day. That will be better for the whole world.”

Reacting to the statement, Cal Perry, a correspondent for NBC News International, tweeted a link to a BBC article on Bolsonaro’s statement, arguing: “And people say world leaders are out of touch on climate change.”
...
Indeed, Brazil’s own National Institute for Space Research has reported that 870 square miles of the Amazon were clear-cut last month — an astounding 278% increase from a year ago. The Amazon rain forest helps combat climate change by storing vast amounts of carbon in its soil and vegetation.

On top of that, as the BBC noted, on August 2 the Brazilian president “sacked the head of the agency that reported the increase” (emphasis in original).

And like Trump, Bolsonaro has appointed pro-industry, anti-environmental types to run his environmental policy.

Submitted by dystopian on Tue, 08/13/2019 - 11:18am

Thanks for your work here, and have a great one

Hey QMS! Dang man, gonna miss your stuff... Are you taking the Gulf Stream across the pond or winging it? Safe travels, have fun, and be well. Keep in touch.

—

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

Submitted by wokkamile on Tue, 08/13/2019 - 1:39pm

Saw this

very interesting news item a few days ago and found the hypothesis intriguing. This mostly helpful article on Sax's findings comes at it from a somewhat skeptical MSM pov. I don't find the attempts at debunking entirely satisfactory.

And it is interesting, if true, that Hitler ordered that small town in Austria -- where his paternal grandmother lived and allegedly gave birth to his father via the teen son of the owner of the establishment where she worked -- razed to the ground after the bloodless German annexation of Austria.

Supposedly too, and worth considering, is the gallows confession of AH's former lawyer, who in his final months upon being tried at Nuremberg and sentenced to death had a change of heart, and began talking about his early 1930ish investigation into this Jewish blood question for his client. Apparently he found some there there.

Be sure to watch the imbedded video at the link. Sax may not be a professional historian, but we know how the professionals can get the story wrong or hold onto old paradigms like religious relics. It just takes an intelligent and curious mind to uncover the truth, no matter his/her credentials.

Submitted by lotlizard on Tue, 08/13/2019 - 2:22pm