Villains, Heroes, and the rest of us.
Hey, g'day fellow C99%'rs. Welcome to the Tuesday edition of "open threads for open minds". While I try to keep this a positive essay, if you don't mind, today is veering off into the hinterlands.
Watching the villains becoming more exposed with each new revelation is awakening. What the greedy power mongers have to spin in all directions to deflect attention to their global crimes is not as secret as they wished. Thanks to the Snowdens and Mannings of the world, we are becoming more informed of the dastardly deeds perpetrated against the rest of us.
Whistleblowing tradition in the United States started with Benjamin Franklin leaking a few letters Hutchinson had written to Thomas Whately, resulting in the American Revolution.
Being treated as a commodity to be exploited by the multinational corporations with the help of monetary monsters such as the IMF, WTO, US Treasury, World Bank, etc. gives one reason to be skeptical of our future well being. Our elected officials have sold out and do not represent "we the people", from which their powers are derived (constitutionally). But then I see champions in the fight for rights and resistance in local pols like Ginger Jensen in Minneapolis and Kshama Sawaht in Seattle making a difference.
A big eye opener for me was a recent visit to Michigan. It is like the global plague being acted out in a microcosm. Extrajudicial emergency managers, austerity measures cutting social services, privatisation, outsourcing, budget cuts and infrastructure collapse to pay for damages caused by crooked pols (see Flint) motivated by greed and backroom deals. Who benefits by this sell out? Not us!
Some of the trees I admire survive civilisation. I hope we can too. Branch out into the topics that you are rooted in, by all means. Namaste
Comments
Another day of 40% POP (redundant?)
I think I had about 3 hours of sleep, a recent record. Still watching House of Cards reruns, enough to make anyone cynical. They all have drivers in there. The elites' life. Two steps removed.
Today is General Election in NY. A good Samaritan neighbor has volunteered to bring accumulated deliveries to my porch tomorrow. He is given permission to hunt here. Bow, rifle and black powder.
I now have 7 y/o cordless phones crapping out with batteries. I need to find the two backups to the set or install several new ones. I can't sleep in my bedroom due to phone beeping. Now sleeping on a sofa. I have yet to coordinate clocks. A nice Tuesday to all, slipping into dementia is not a destination I ever considered.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
disappeared elections
We have no elections scheduled for today. I can think of a bunch of referendums that should be voted on like ranked choice voting, $15 minimum wage, marijuana legalisation, clean energy incentives, etc.
Iceland had a recent election. Unfortunately the Pirate Party lost a few seats. But the number of parties there is enlightening: Icelandic parliamentary election, 2017 - Wikipedia
Hope you feel better RL.
If Cuomo was up, I would vote against
But he is not. There was a Green running last time. I voted for her. Or "voted". So cynical now. The two parties sure know how to disenfranchise.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
@riverlover
Sending hugs and hopes for improvement such as my mother experienced when variously eliminating damaging and contra-indicated/unnecessary drugs (OKed/removed in consultation with a doctor, of course) from her system; with IV sodium and other electrolytes in hospital; and better nutrition, especially involving naturally sourced B-vitamins, since dementia can be caused by many deficiencies and toxicities. Not to mention bladder and other infections. Even a change to the wrong type of blood meds had disastrous effects, which everyone had assumed was low blood sugar without even checking! - I had to monitor her and look up everything she took, for a drastic improvement over time. She'd go within days from not knowing me, her caregiver or any of her kids or where where she was, to discussing philosophy or some radio program she was listening to, with the right doctor/treatment. Never lose hope for improvement!
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
There is a really important
There is a really important issue on the ballot today in New York State. It is a ballot question about opening a constitutional convention to re-write the state constitution. It is imperative that this "con-con" does not take place at this time. The powers that be have been waiting for decades to rape the public employees retirement fund. It currently has constitutional protection against use for anything other than retirement. They are drooling over this large pile of money that they could get their hands on with a change to the constitution. A no vote on question one blocks a constitutional convention at this time.
The prehistoric thinking PTB have counted on political
ignorance and apathy since the dawn of recorded history. Good Luck jbob on that ballot amendment. Rec'd!!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
The prehistoric thinking PTB have counted on political
ignorance and apathy since the dawn of recorded history. Good Luck jbob on that ballot amendment. Rec'd!!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
And just a thought...
what happens if most people say hell no to a constitutional convention, and they have it anyway?
That's the way you whip up a civil war in one easy step.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
NYS con. con. can't be convened without a winning poular vote
The way it is set up there can't be a constitutional convention in New York State unless the voters first approve.
Just another Tuesday here, though some neighboring areas have
elections. We have a name and are a "census designated area", but no government of our own. We are instead simply a part of Alameda County, and there is no countywide county-centric election at this time this year. Though developers and their ilk disagree, this is actually a good thing. It is harder to buy a county board than it is to buy a city official.
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 --
Crucial vote for
Vancouver Port Commissioner today.
Don Orange running on anti coal terminal at port. Nobody wants hundreds of coal trains rumbling through the historic Columbia Gorge. Has even come to my door and engaged me, as he did the whole neighborhood. Personable and friendly.
Went unopposed for weeks, then big money found someone to run against him.
You woundn't believe it, his name is Kris Green. He never mentions the coal terminal but says he is "environmentally conscious". Has put out tons of hit pieces on Orange questioning his environmental bonfides.
These people are dispicable and will stoop to any low, Green. Seriously, they found some jerk named Green. Out of the woodwork.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
It is the biggest mix-up that you have ever seen.
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.
I love that song...
Satirical music needs to be back in vogue. Nothing pisses off oligarchs more than the peasants mocking them in song...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qqs4EbU02As]
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Meanwhile, in Wisconsin our legislative bodies are working
hard this very minute to make sure that the only women who can have abortions are women who can afford to leave Wisconsin to have abortions.
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.
Something interesting.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odhhGmwxZ5I]
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.
Very nice find, Aspie, thanks mucho.
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 --
Thanks Aspie
he's a funny guy. I needed a good chuckle!
It's flurrying.
First of the season. 39 now.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.