The Weekly Watch
by Wendell Berry
When despair grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
I hope you all have somewhere outside you can go for solace...a park, yard, or trail. My grandfather had an hypothesis that when people are away from growing living things, they lose their empathy and humanity. I wonder when was the last time T-rump took a walk in the woods? Seems a long time ago. Guess we better enjoy the wild places while we can...they want to auction them off and they introduced a bill to do so, but the bill has been withdrawn because of public outcry. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/feb/02/republican-selling-p...
The reason we have so much public land in the west is largely due to John Wesley Powell. He was the second head of the USGS. He worked to ensure there were many acres of public land because he had the foresight to recognize there simply isn't enough water in the west to sustain large populations. The railroad companies did not agree with Powell's views on land conservation. At an 1883 irrigation conference, Powell would prophetically remark: "Gentlemen, you are piling up a heritage of conflict and litigation over water rights, for there is not sufficient water to supply the land." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wesley_Powell
We still have the need for water protectors. Seems we face the same fights over and over again...age after age, and like every week there were successes and failures and everything in between. ACLU had some success in court with the Muslim ban. There were protests around the nation at airports against the “Muslim ban”. Many water protectors were arrested in Standing Rock. T-rump continues his fire hose of executive orders supported by out right lies. They are beating the war drum, fabricating alternative facts to create the need for conflict with Iran.
Let's open more pipelines when we should be getting off of fossil fuel. Let's build a wall to keep out immigrants when most illegal immigrants overstay their green card (in other words a wall won't help). Let's stack the cabinet with people dedicated to destroying their department. Let's put Bannon, propagandist in chief, on the NSC – that way he will have plenty of material for blackmail and misinformation. May as well nominate a fascist for the supreme court while we're at it....and on and on. It is a little overwhelming just to collect all the weeks news. But here goes my best effort....
The ACLU asked a federal judge to intervene in the case of two Iraqis detained at JFK airport. Last Saturday night, U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly in Brooklyn ordered the men released as part of a nationwide stay on part of Trump’s executive order. (5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWTKG5eK87c
A federal judge in Seattle has lifted the ban that blocks travelers from seven countries from entering the United States. (2 min) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7atRCPZsDo
San Fransisco airport was shut down for 36 hours. (2 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36Vez2ViMQk
The rallies throughout the South have continued this week, a powerful rebuke to recent arguments dismissing public protest as the leisurely purview of coastal elites.
https://theintercept.com/2017/02/01/trumps-muslim-ban-galvanizes-civil-r...
Taxis help with the airport protests (6.5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9v0ialDbcc
This is a little funny: Trump’s executive order appears to brazenly violate another executive order about how the government should issue executive orders.
https://theintercept.com/2017/02/03/trump-muslim-ban-executive-order-vio...
Why those seven countries? Lee Camp explains (10 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=We3eu7eoCkc
How these orders effect people -Nisrin Elamin, a Ph.D. student in anthropology at Stanford University and a Sudanese citizen, describes her detention (5.5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcuM-6OAXIw
Some protest got out of hand. Berkeley protesters became violent, forcing the cancellation of an appearance by Milo Yiannopoulo, a far-right Breitbart News editor. (30 sec)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDwxJvuPVic
Iranian Americans have been disproportionately impacted. We speak to Trita Parsi of the National Iranian American Council. (9 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STMEzuimcrk
Start with sanctions (3.5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qVJNFGdNjg
Using outright lies about attacks to work for a war with Iran.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/01/iran-trump-michael-flynn-o...
Just lie about Iran...kinda reminds me of Iraq
https://theintercept.com/2017/02/02/press-secretary-sean-spicer-falsely-...
http://corporatecabinet.org/
http://billmoyers.com/story/trumps-corporate-cabinet/
The DeVos nomination is hanging by a thread. They won't vote on Sessions for AG until the cabinet positions are filled...they need his vote. With Republican Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski coming out Wednesday against DeVos, one additional GOP opponent could block her nomination, making her the first of Trump’s nominees at risk of being defeated. https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-02-01/two-gop-senators-...
Big oil is at the heart of the new cabinet. Jamie Henn of 350.org says we can't just fight Trump; we also must challenge the political power of the fossil fuel industry (15 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iFiHJ73kJc
Jim Hightower discusses T-rump's oily cabinet (15 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX1SwH3OFhY
Tillerson voted in thanks to some Democraps
https://theintercept.com/2017/02/01/four-democratic-defectors-join-gop-t...
Glenn Greenwald's piece on the new head torturer
https://theintercept.com/2017/02/02/trumps-cia-chief-selects-major-tortu...
Jesse Jackson's take on Jeff Sessions (5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9FOisPh_aE
How was T-rump elected anyway? He was more popular in McDowell County, WV than anywhere else in America during the Republican primaries. Listen and learn. (10 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqceHviNBC4
It is brand new information...the Bowling Green Massacre...another alternate fact. (8 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw47rbFHU8Y
Josh Harkinson, senior reporter at Mother Jones, discusses Bannon. His recent article is "The Dark History of the White House Aides Who Crafted Trump’s 'Muslim Ban." (13 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-47CQotpMw
Movie review of a film called Occupy Unmasked, written and directed by one Stephen K. Bannon. https://washingtonspectator.org/trump-bannon-occupy-unmasked-perlstein/
Even republicans are worried about Bannon The bill is a direct response to a Trump order appointing Bannon to the National Security Council’s “principals committee,” giving the right-wing ideologue a permanent seat at the table — while excluding the director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
https://theintercept.com/2017/02/01/in-response-to-steve-bannons-appoint...
Want real information?
The Intercept has a new weekly podcast https://theintercept.com/podcasts/
They also recommend the podcast https://www.maeveinamerica.com/ focusing on immigration issues.
Chris Hedges and an excellent interview with Cartoonist Mr. Fish (26 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzvRQ8p_SpE
Trans-reporter Lewis Wallace discusses his recent firing and approach to journalism (25 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piLQFCwoFbg
Richard Wolff discusses Marxism, Capitalism, Corporations, Alternatives & Solutions (25 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENsAZgnjZP4
Want to understand the state of urban schools? Listen to this interview with a Baltimore City teacher (20 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6ROl_KAMTo
Oh boy, a fascist on the Supreme Court. We're living the authoritarian dream...
https://theintercept.com/2017/02/01/supreme-court-nominee-neil-gorsuch-i...
Ian Millhiser, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund and justice editor of ThinkProgress. We also speak with Nan Aron, president of the Alliance for Justice. (10 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4vEEVJccJQ
We face the challenge of our time at Standing Rock. It is the nexus against big oil, climate change, environmental destruction, genocide, inequality... Can we stop the black snake?
They won't quit lying...here they are saying they have final approval to drill under the river https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OObmUa4nkqs (45 sec)
Pipeline accidents are more common in the US than you might think (30 sec)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPdi2Nu19V8
Terrific interview with Ted Gleichman about the new Oregon Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline and Jordan Cove Energy Project – learn about fracking, pipelines and natural gas. (16 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDqpjjkcBjI
A 16-year-old has been arrested - after chaining herself to a bulldozer in protest against the construction of the Trans-Pecos Pipeline in Texas, a sister-pipeline to North Dakota Access. Destiny Willcuts explained her motives for protest. (3 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFdn2I2uwZg
Water protectors are being arrested. Morton County Sheriff: 701-667-3330 (9 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njW9JAAWlsw
Jordan (TYT) has several pieces from standing rock this week including interviews with Chase Iron Eyes from 3 min to 15 min
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqSpk99bLYIRhTrDy1WU4xR5xqTDT4KCP
Chase is asking people to return and stand with the protectors (15 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOXEf4jX-F0
LaDonna Brave Bull questions why the tribe would enter her land (17 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgvW1io7DIc
People are ready to have the roads opened and so it seems deals are being cut to let the police close down camps in exchange for opening the roads. The tribal council is asking protestors to leave.
http://catchtherays.com/?p=157
https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/opinions/standing-standing-rock/
Michael Wood, a leader of Veterans for Standing Rock, says his commitment to opposing the $3.8 billion dollar pipeline is rooted in his experience as a former Baltimore Police Sergeant and Marine Corp Veteran (10 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1uofQTG9TA
Canadian documentary - a good introduction to the Standing Rock struggle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38rl_kSvfrs (part 1 - 45 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbQP7Z2t0hs (part 2 - 1 hour)
Standing rock ready to resist (1 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SDUnLk9xIo
Indigenous people around the world are fighting to protect the Earth...and some are being murdered https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/indigenous-peoples/isidro-bal...
In 2015, 185 environmental activists were killed around the world, 60% more than the year before. Their enemies are countless and include the mining industry, wood smugglers, corporations and even governments (6 min) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqNWssLdAu0
As if we needed something more to scare the bejesus out of us. How about T-rump rewriting the constitution? It would be great....really great (wealth for me). May be we should get ahead of this cart and write our own?
http://inthesetimes.com/article/19811/constitutional-convention-of-state...
The FBI revealed – an array of articles full of information on the operation of the agency...now under T-rumps control. https://theintercept.com/series/the-fbis-secret-rules/
Yemen
Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of The Intercept; Pardiss Kebriaei, staff attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights; and Baraa Shiban, the Yemen project coordinator (24 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga_bBCsxQCE
T-rump's first military venture didn't go well (9 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8JHNsWthtE
Ukraine and Russia have conflicts
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/01/ukraine-fighting-flares-eastern-to...
Other international issues
The elections in France explained (2 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DA70X-_NVA
Germany's Social Democrats have nominated Martin Schulz as their candidate to take on Chancellor Angela Merkel in September's federal election (3 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCRhmRWij-k
Turkey’s president has said taking issue with Angela Merkel’s use of the phrase "Islamist terrorism,” during a joint press conference with the German Chancellor in Ankara.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwxhGI9thnc
Trumps phone call didn't go well...(50 sec) spoof cartoon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cml78dSpVGo
The climate is very capable of changing to another stable state unfavorable to the human species, and this is a real danger of our global experiment with unmitigated greenhouse gas emissions, says Arctic ice specialist David Barber (13 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-Y2IjMrgf8
Michael Mann discusses the doomsday clock in relation to global warming (11 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYfMacoZaVA
Oil spill due to collision of two ships in India (5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVzMg_E2MqE
In the Mayan language, ‘Guatemala’ means ‘Land of Trees’. But now less than a third of the country is covered by rain forest, while sugarcane and palm oil plantations eat away at what’s left. One movement is doing something about it. (8 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY2pcgYLiVo
Seeing Earth from space expands our humanity and changes our brain (5 min)
So that's my take for the week. I know I missed some pertinent stories (like how crummy the democraps are). I hope you'll chime in with comments and let us all know the stories that spoke to you. Have a great Sunday!
Comments
and for those....
who like the tribal American gladiators, I hope you will enjoy the stupid bowl this evening. It is odd being from Alabama and not being a fan....maybe because it is so important to so many people around here, and I never could see how running a ball from one end of the pasture to the other without being knocked down or stepping in something was important. However, I can understand those who are entertained.
Here's Andy's take on the game (5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xus57BaY3hI
Have a good evening no matter your activity!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
a couple of cute skits from SNL
the White House press conference (8 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWuc18xISwI
and then T-rump's call to Australian PM (6.5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZOF9q5fzfs
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Thanks for posting those SNL videos!
I can't stay awake for the show, so this was great! How long before the show is censored by Herr Drumpf or President Bannon? In three...two...one...
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
I loved Bannon...
as the grim reaper! Seems appropriate.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Absolutely appropriate!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Good morning, Lookout!
Another fine roundup you've got for us this Sunday mornin'. I just heard Andy's take on football and that accent is rollin' around in my head and comin' outta ma fingers! I won't be takin' in that game of punkin today, either!
What a challenge it must have been to gather the news this week. You've done a commendable job. Hang onto your knickers because we've only just begun.
I'm a triage nurse in this sea of Drumpf-syndrome illnesses. I actually have friends starting to become physically ill. One of them went to the doc on Friday and was told she had anxiety and panic, nothing more. I told her she has Drumpf-syndrome and needs to let go because he is not worth compromising her health over. Unfortunately, I think more of this is yet to come.
Get back to nature, folks. This is the correct advice. Get outside and breathe while you still can. Oops, it's hard not to "go there," if you get my meaning. Stick together and act in community. It's the only way to overcome.
Have a beautiful Sunday, everyone. Take care of your soul in spite of this madness.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Panic is counter-productive
The corporate media is still racking up profit with "tiny hands". The more they can freak out Americans... the more views and the more money. Let's not get caught in the trap.
I just wish we had somewhere to put our energies, since we've been deserted by the Dems people like us are in political limbo. That leaves us with movements like standing rock, the fight for $15, BLM, and so on. Time for teach-ins like we had in the 60's and 70's.
Thanks for dropping by RA!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
@Lookout
Exactly! Since the Two-Faced Corporate Party has so clearly revealed its devotion to those working against the public interest, people are now free to fight unimpeded by co-opting/re-direction into further dead-ends and propaganda for the public interest.
This likely has been previously posted on C-9, as I can't watch videos at night and miss quite a number, but I, at any rate, hadn't seen this before - it's over an hour long, but inspirational. Perhaps especially interesting starting about 3/4's through, but even the repeated stuff matters because it's so freaking important to overcome the Big Lie endlessly repeated corporate/military/Greed propaganda and it's just so nice to hear other people saying this stuff out loud, lol.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGjQ1PaJ5ek
Real Progressives LIVE with Debbie Lusignan, The Sane Progressive, talking about the road forward!
Real Progressives
Published on 31 Jan 2017
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.
I received a nasty surprise in the mail: my 15 day-car insurance
has been Declined. Due to Points. Which I do not have. SO I go online to check my driving record with backgroundchecks.com and I am not in the national system. Different riverlovers? I know there used to be a firstname-lastname match in Syr. I have to scan in my DL and a utility bill in my name. Have I been that good at flying under the radar?
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.
Often people are lost...
From the records after their spouse passes. I'm sure someone will sell you insurance...because at heart they are greedy! Just a hassle. Hang in there and best of luck.
Did you plant your spruce tree? Your soil may be frozen? If not it is a good time. I think it would be fun to have a c99 gardening/nature series, but I'm not sure of the best format.
Any ideas?
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Ground is buried by snow.
But the Spruce is budding in the house! I may try later this week in the rain. Desertification in the kitchen, and sprained foot 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.
In case you know someone. If not, pass the word.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Thanks for the link
I might call the bartender in Cleveland - - - just kidding.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Richard Wolff may well be the only political economist
employed in a large university that used Marxian analyses. I have found his work to accurately describe the workings of the political economy.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Me too
I'm a fan.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
There has been a concerted, and successful, effort to
keep radical economists out of American academia. In contrast, Piketty is a member of the French academy and has a better handle on affairs here then a whole pile of Krugmans.
It's been a conspiracy for decades for the ultra rich and RW to fund chairs in Econ Dpts and get to pick the professor who staffs that chair. Hayak/Friedmanite loons are picked for the most part.
Free marketeers have a long history of being wrong on major issues and their theories do not lend themselves to further research unlike good theories - see Darwin or Marx or Einstein whose theories provide avenues for current and future research - and have done so for over a century. Radical economist have been correct in predicting the financialization of capital; sectarian stagnation; and the series of bubbles, the bursting of which causes widespread pain and misery for those of modest means.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
As you know...
the Koch Bros have been buying colleges and departments.
http://www.alternet.org/education/koch-brothers-fsu
Here in Alabama they bought a department at Troy State and have gone after our pension program. The .01% don't want teachers to have pensions. And they were successful with new hires having IRA rather than a defined pension. They are evil!
– Troy University: The Charles Koch Foundation, along with the Manuel Johnson and the BB&T Foundation, provided Troy University, a public university, a gift of $3.6 million to establish the Center for Political Economy last year. The Center’s stated goal is to push back against the belief following the financial crisis that markets need regulation. Notably, the entire Advisory Council for the Center is made up of Koch and BB&T-funded professors at other universities, including Russell Sobel at West Virginia University and Peter Boettke at George Mason University. Currently, the Center’s only staffer, Professor Scott Beaulier, is a board member of the ExxonMobil-funded attack group, American Energy Alliance, and a former staffer for Koch’s think tank at George Mason.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
George Mason U in VA was one of the first to hire no one
but the most abject apologists for capitalism. Years ago I think that professional academic organizations would have worked hard against these directed "donations" and may well have succeeded.
Today, with the proliferation of adjunct faculty, those who are tenured are fat and sassy and look down upon those academics less fortunate than they are.
We are in a greed-all-the-time society and things like an honest pursuit of knowledge are regarded as naive when indoctrination is the order of the day.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
I left University research...
and went to the classroom. Ag research is a game where you have to hustle money from mainly chemical companies - and your work better show the benefit of those chemicals or no more money. Then you better write several papers about you studies in the publish or perish university setting.
If you want to do work on sustainable ag or agroecology - you try to siphon off a little of the corporate money to do some real research. Universities have become foundations with a school attached to it. And as you said the big trick is hire adjuncts with no benefits or rights.
They are working to destroy the rest of the public schools with privatized charter schools. Our education system is failing us all...top to bottom.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
My research career was stillborn.
I was promised lab space and a few amenities. After five years and still no lab even though I had acquired most of the necessary equipment even I had to admit that this institution had no interest in fundamental (id est not sexy) research. Did you know funding agencies actually expect grant receiving institutions to support funded research? Who would'a thunk it?
I am not bitter, but I am disappointed in that lack of understanding on the part of the university "leadership". After years of teaching overloads without compensation, all's well that ends well: I now have the free time to do what I could not do before. I still have the equipment, and I get to take it with me to set up my lab on my own property under my own terms.
Now you can do the work that interests you
My science these days is mainly anecdotal...I try growing this or that...no more replicated studies. Although I've been trying to develop a more scientific study on the American Chestnut despite my age and lack of funds.
I like doing science for fun now. All the best in your research efforts!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I will be living in a natural laboratory.
Radioactive samples are all over the place in Oregon. The geology is a mashed together hodgepodge of geological layered cake. So, I will do a lot of environmental monitoring. My talent is for digging signal in a very noisy environment, so I might even be able to work out a way of detecting bound state beta decay. Okay, that last bit might be a bit of a dream, but at least I will not be interrupted while trying to tweak the equipment.
@duckpin
Wasn't the initial big factor the corporate-serving reduction of public funding of higher learning and research, forcing universities to depend upon corporate funding and introducing a profit motive in that institutions once conducting research in the pursuit of knowledge (and, OK, perhaps of completing that 'publish or perish' imperative) by researchers being able to patent - to potentially profit from - the results of their research? (Not that various corporations didn't rip them off as freely as they were allowed to...)
The more these corporations and billionaires are permitted to drain out of society and the environment, the more their power grows and the more they are permitted to drain out of society and the environment... If I still had any money, I'd be boycotting so many products, lol.
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.
All media outlets are susceptible to RW money influence
One example, in reference to what you're talking about, is a feature on the iTunes store, where you go to download podcasts, music or audiobooks. They offer something called "iTunes U," as in university. There's some good historical lectures here and there, but disconcertingly there are enough RW mine traps of propaganda, under the guise of "education," to raise eyebrows. Lots of Hayek/Austrian School of Economics tripe, under "politics" and "economics."
Some of it is more hidden. I once came across a podcast from a Christian divinity school or something, while searching for Occupy Wall St, that really brought home to me how corrupted our institutions truly are, as you were getting at, duckpin. It was a priest who started off with praise about the movement for calling attention to the economic inequality of the moment. But as it went on he started softening up his views about the bankers. Until by the end he was, to coin the great Thomas Frank, pitying the poor billionaires who don't deserve to be so picked on. That he believed in the goodness of a "free market" and all this other bullshit. I was livid. Aghast, that this clown was given the powerful position of impressing into young people's minds, especially that he was a priest, and was abusing it to dole out total RW propaganda malarkey, instead of calling out how anti-Christian Wall St and Big Business is. Chris Hedges wrote an entire book about to what length and how our institutions, from higher education to the media to government have flown the coop by making the Faustian bargain of Neoliberalism and its attendant demand to abandon any and all radical and dissenting voice, which effectively dismantles the heart of liberalism.
Richard Wolff's excellent weekly program "Economic Update" comes on WBAI live every Fri morning at 9am, right after Amy Goodman's "Democracy Now." Usually I think I'm going to move on, having just fed the Boy while listening to DN, but it's almost always very interesting right away and I wind up staying. He's a wonderful professor who can break down stories in laymen's terms and always apply concepts to everyday situations which bring clarity to a lot of what people are going through or wondering about. Highly recommended for everyone here (the link is listed on the side bar under "Blog Roll").
Thanks as always, lookout. Your Sunday installments are very appreciated.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
Thanks for this - RW influence is like dust mites - everywhere
but you can't see them.
If I could listen to Wolff on the radio, I'd turn it on. I bought a little short wave set years ago but it's still a lot of hate radio and bible jockeys & the BBC doesn't broadcast to N.A. anymore - ot I can't find it anyway.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Excellent Lookout.
I want to take these bastards down. Is that too much to ask? Maybe the only demand we need is to demand the ruling class steps down and gives us the keys.
Where are the pitchforks?
It is past time to charge the gates of the empire. Of late I'm ashamed to be a citizen of the evil empire we've become!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
thanks for the poem
and the view from space video.
Geoengineering the atmosphere appears to be their strategy to mitigate fossil fuels. Too bad everybody lives downwind and walls will not work on air or water.
One bit of good news- the small band of activists who were arrested while protesting the christening of a warship at Bath Iron Works (MIC of Maine) went to trial last week, jury found guilty, but the judge sympathized with the 'need to protect the earth' defense, and, instead of jail, sentenced them to short community service. Well attended courtroom.
Football is certainly the direct descendent of the gladiators, and we are on a similar trajectory as the Roman empire, but sports is the only teevee that is to some extent live and uncensored, and therein may be a crack that lets some light in.
bygorry
Hi bygorry
Glad you liked those. Mitigating climate change with sulfur aerosols or Mylar films in space or using iron to fertilize ocean plankton or there is even talk of carbon sequestering factories... all seems a little silly when we have the ability to get off of fossil fuels and move to clean renewable energy today. All we lack is the desire. Of course one good volcano could mitigate the warming, but you have to be careful what you wish for.
Thanks for the good news about the Bath ship works. Nice to see the injustice system occasionally be just. Hoped you dropped by last week when I took your advice and moved the planet to the top. Kinda started and finished with it today.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
worse than silly
such mitigation is dangerous and, as you say, unnecessary. But I think it is being developed to keep the oil flowing. I did notice the change in last week's format, and I guess I'm trying to keep notice of the veneer of air that the space video brings to mind. Thanks for your postings. When all the outrage is over the top priorities are impossible.
and last week gov. le Page and friends made solar installations more costly for Maine homeowners.
bygorry
@Lookout
Geoengineering: spewing toxic industrial waste over the entire planet and all within it at great profit to corporate polluters and to corporate food-monopolists who just happen to be holding patents on plants genetically altered to be resistant to various of the spewed toxic metals (which they'll nonetheless soak up with which to 'nourish' ever-more-poisoned consumers already perpetually eating, breathing and drinking ever-increasing amounts of these, of course) and these plants perhaps also able to better survive increasingly reduced sunlight for a longer period? Never hear anything about them being genetically altered for that, though - in fact, the (increase in the already) reduced sunlight tends not to be mentioned at all, despite this being disastrous for life in this way as well...
Edit: how come this went through every time, when all I got (repeatedly) was a very slow-moving page with an error message? Apologies for the multiples, at any rate!
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.
@Lookout
Geoengineering: spewing toxic industrial waste over the entire planet and all within it at great profit to corporate polluters and to corporate food-monopolists who just happen to be holding patents on plants genetically altered to be resistant to various of the spewed toxic metals (which they'll nonetheless soak up with which to 'nourish' ever-more-poisoned consumers already perpetually eating, breathing and drinking ever-increasing amounts of these, of course) and these plants perhaps also able to better survive increasingly reduced sunlight for a longer period?
Never hear anything about them being genetically altered for that, though - in fact, the (increase in the already) reduced sunlight tends not to be mentioned at all, despite this being disastrous for life in this way as well...
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.
@Lookout
Geoengineering: spewing toxic industrial waste over the entire planet and all within it at great profit to corporate polluters and to corporate food-monopolists who just happen to be holding patents on plants genetically altered to be resistant to various of the spewed toxic metals (which they'll nonetheless soak up with which to 'nourish' ever-more-poisoned consumers already perpetually eating, breathing and drinking ever-increasing amounts of these, of course) and these plants perhaps also able to better survive increasingly reduced sunlight for a longer period?
Never hear anything about them being genetically altered for that, though - in fact, the (increase in the already) reduced sunlight tends not to be mentioned at all, despite this being disastrous for life in this way as well...
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.
Football may be live,
but I maintain it is scripted. Remember how upset all the Granny's were fifty years ago when they found out pro wrestling was fake?
I had to quit going to football games in high school. Whenever a great play was run I'd cheer and shout. Unfortunately, it was as frequent for the opposing team as for ours. Didn't sit well with my tribalist classmates.
Once had an old man tell me football was the sport of republicans. A handful of grossly overpaid people in endless conference to accomplish little or nothing. And it still takes four hours to do twelve minutes of work.
There is no such thing as TMI. It can always be held in reserve for extortion.
the games may well be scripted
or just plain thrown, and the owners are subsidized by the taxpayers, and violence, and injury, and inanity and propaganda and....but sometimes there is a human in the crowd, a Kapernick or (switching sports) an Ali, or some crack in the edifice. Grasping at straws, I know.
bygorry
There was a banner unfurled
A few weeks ago
http://www.mprnews.org/story/2017/01/01/pipeline-protesters-unfurl-banne...
Karl Mayo, 32, and Sen Holiday, 26, unfurled a banner from the rafters in U.S. Bank Stadium with the bank's logo and the message, 'DIVEST and #NODAPL.'
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Trump tells the truth
a Biden gaffe
Who's a killer?
We are ...oops. I also thought ...it will be a better contest than the super bowl...was a pretty funny comment too. Thanks for the clip.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
@gjohnsit
Video no longer available because the Youtube account associated with the video has been closed.
Seeing a lot of this lately...
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.