As many of you already know, I enjoy watching birds come to my bird feeders. I maintain two hanging seed feeders, two pole feeders, and one hummingbird feeder. My two hanging feeders are suspended from the eaves of my house. To fill them, I must lower them to the ground via the lines that suspend them. Generally, these feeders are relatively secure from the squirrels. For a squirrel to raid either of them, it must make a major leap from a nearby tree.

My Weird High School.

I attended High School from 1968-1972 in a small town (about 30,000) in northern Illinois. The Dennis Hastert incident brought this to mind as the school I went to is only about 40 or 50 miles from Yorkville.

Good Morning 99percenters!
Morning news dump and music from REO Speedwagon.

This Saturday morning Open Thread slot is open if someone would like to fill it.

Current NSA Officials Admit Agency Is Drowning In TOO MUCH Info
The Problem Isn’t Too Little Spying … It’s Too Much

Former top NSA officials have repeatedly said that the NSA is collecting TOO MUCH information on Americans to be able to stop terror attacks.

It's Friday!

I have to admit, I have been having difficulty knowing which day of the week I occupy. Leaving the work force is both liberating and disorienting.

Today is one of those special Fridays, the eagle flies today.

Prior to my recent hiatus, I had been posting a series of diaries on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as part of the Wednesday Open Thread. I had intended to post at least one more diary in that series, and will do so as a stand alone diary later this week. Instead I am going to keep this week's Open Thread relatively light as you will read below.

Blog participation and the 90-9-1 rule. -OR- How I learned to quit worrying and embrace the participation inequality.

This isn't my first time for this rodeo. About 10 years ago I created and ran a blog/forum for the Home Owners Association that I lived in. I was the Association President at the time and if you've ever lived in a Association and involved in the politics then you are well aware of what I call the "big fish in a little pond" syndrome and the "I, me, mine" factor. Those darling human traits certainly were not only expressed in the politics but also spilled over into the blog/forum as well as I had to deal with an over abundance of city folks transplanted to the country life that had a hard time making that adjustment. It was then that I researched and became aware of the community participation ratio and learned to quit worrying and embrace the participation inequality.

Summary: In most online communities, 90% of users are lurkers who never contribute, 9% of users contribute a little, and 1% of users account for almost all the action.

Source

Good morning 99percenters!
Morning news dump and music by Lucinda Williams.

As Spying Foes Look to 'Sunset' Patriot Act, White House Turns up the Pressure
Justice Department memo reveals pressure campaign as two competing spy bills head to vote

With key provisions of the Patriot Act set to expire at the end of the month and congressional in-fighting over the legality of government surveillance continuing to rage, the National Security Agency (NSA) will reportedly begin "winding down" bulk surveillance operations this weekend.

Good morning 99percenters!
A morning news dump and music from The Band.

How America’s ‘News’ Media Killed America’s Democracy: TPP & TTIP

by Eric Zuesse
“TTP & TTIP will produce ‘a dystopian future in which corporations and not democratically elected governments call the shots.’”

A deal was worked out in the U.S. Senate on the early afternoon of May 13th to "Fast-Track" through to approval U.S. President Barack Obama’s proposed trade deals, TPP with Asia, and TTIP with Europe. (It should have been reported on the nightly TV news programs, but most of them ignored it then, and reported the news only the next day when the Senators made it official.)

Good morning 99percenters!

Chris Hedges: “Why should we be impoverished so that the profits of big banks, corporations, and hedge funds can swell?”
Jeremy Hammond's a hero who exposed surveillance-state secrets. His excessive prison sentence should terrify us all

I sat in the front row of a New York federal court in November 2013 the day Jeremy Hammond was sentenced to 10 years in prison for hacking into the computers of a private security firm that works on behalf of the government, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Marine Corps, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and corporations such as Dow Chemical and Raytheon.

Good morning 99percenters!

'Paddle in Seattle' Protesters Welcome Shell Drilling Rig with Two Words: Go Away
Thursday's protest comes ahead of a larger sHell No! demonstration—including mass flotilla and direct action—planned for the weekend

Paddling activists rolled out the un-welcome mat as Shell Oil's hulking 'Polar Pioneer' drilling rig—whose presence is opposed by many local citizens, environmentalists, and city officials—pulled into the Port of Seattle on Thursday afternoon.

About 20 kayakers met the 307-foot-tall, 400-foot-long rig in the waters of Elliott Bay, singing, chanting, linking arms, and bearing a banner that read, "Arctic Drilling = Climate Change." Among the group were members of the Duwamish Tribe, who paddled through the waves in a long wooden canoe and led the group in chanted songs, according to the Seattle Times.

The Times adds:

Law-enforcement officers were on the water and overhead to enforce a 500-yard safety zone while the Polar Pioneer was in motion. Coast Guard officials warned the activists beforehand that any disruption of safe navigation could result in arrests.

But the authorities allowed the activists relatively close to the rig when it briefly stopped, and there were no disturbances of note during the afternoon demonstration.