England win Cricket World Cup after super-over drama against New Zealand Guardian. What a match!
An Unsurpassable Sterling Record of Stamina! Counterpunch. Ralph Nader confesses his long-standing support for the New York Yankees – a sentiment I, a third-generation fan, also share.
Friday earthquakes on a crustal fault show it’s not only the ‘Big One’ we should fear Seattle Times
Could the Apollo 11 moon landing be duplicated today? ‘Lots of luck with that’ LA Times
On Myra Breckinridge and the Life of Gore Vidal Literary Hub. Camille Paglia.
Page through computer history with this complete scan of NeXT’s Fall 1989 catalog The Verge (The Rev Kev)
l’affaire Epstein
Alex Acosta Resigns To Probably Go Make Millions Because There Are No More Consequences Above the Law
Inside the Victoria’s Secret pipeline to Jeffrey Epstein NY Post
Judges Attending FedSoc Are Almost Certainly Committing Ethical Violations, But What Else Is New? Above the Law. Note that the Code of Conduct for United States Judges doesn’t apply to the Supreme Court.
Democrats in Disarray
Support for impeachment falls as 2020 heats up NBC
Nancy Pelosi’s renewed attacks on AOC aren’t just disrespectful, they’re dangerous Guardian (UserFriendly)
Scaling Wokeback Mountain NYT. MoDo stirs the pot.
Nancy Pelosi Emerges As Unexpected Villain At Netroots Nation Huffpost. UserFriendly:”those roses all wilted.”
Sanders says Pelosi is being ‘a little’ too tough on progressives like Ocasio-Cortez NBC
UserFriendly: “Loving every minute of Pelosi going down in flames!”
Make no mistake: Nancy Pelosi’s dogwhistling snipes at @AOC, Ilhan Omar, @RashidaTlaib and @RepPressley helped pave the way for this vicious, racist attack from the president. https://t.co/zdvpo23gtr
— Karen Attiah (@KarenAttiah) 14 July 2019
Trump Transition
Few ICE raids, but much-hyped plans stoke fears in immigrant communities San Francisco Chronicle
UserFriendly: “No really, we’re against the concentration camps and deportation raids. So much so that we figured why translate this to spanish?”
❗#KnowYourRights pic.twitter.com/ShzGA6VBsa
— House Democrats (@HouseDemocrats) 13 July 2019
2020
Mike Gravel: Why the American People Need Their Own Legislature Fortune (UserFriendly)
Approval Numbers Now Untethered From Economy Cook Political Report. UserFriendly: “or it could just be that the economy has done nothing but suck for most people since obama.”
Big Brother IS Watching You Watch
Instagram’s anti-bullying AI asks users: ‘Are you sure you want to post this Guardian. UserFriendly: “If this works at all it’s because people will be afraid that zuck has a database somewhere that tally’s how many times you’ve bullied someone and that it might get out, which I’m sure it will with the next teen suicide lawsuit. The rare case of our orwellian surveillance state doing the slightest little bit of not evil while being very evil.”
How much is your data worth to tech companies? Lawmakers want to tell you, but it’s not that easy to calculate The Conversation
300 Californian Cities Secretly Have Access to Palantir Motherboard
Health Care
Syraqistan
Strait of Hormuz: The Most Dangerous Place on Earth American Conservative. Scott Ritter.
China
Anti-extradition Hong Kong protesters march in Shatin Asia Times
Manufacturers Move Supply Chains Out of China WSJ
China economy reports lowest GDP growth on record for second quarter as US trade war bites SCMP
India
A Man, His Oxygen Tank And India’s Growing Spectre Of Death India Spend
Quick Fixes Are Worsening Chennai’s Water Crisis The Wire
India, Turkey have always been against unilateral sanctions Economic Times
Chandrayaan-2 mission launch called off today due to technical snag Times of India
France: President Emmanuel Macron announces creation of a new space force command Scroll
Class Warfare`
Good New Idea London Review of Books. John Lanchester.
Why “Incremental Change” Is Worse Than No Change At All Caitlin Johnstone
Terri Sewell, the Worst of the Black Caucus, Subverts $15 Wage Bill Black Agenda Report (UserFriendly)
Waste Watch
Lawsuit over Keurig coffee pod recyclability moving forward Waste Dive
Kids ask McDonalds to ditch plastic Happy Meal toys TreeHugger
David L:
WHEN CATS ARE SAD
Bartender: What’ll ya have?
Cat: Shot of rum.
[Bartender pours it]
[Cat slowly pushes it off the bar]
Cat: Another.— phil (@PhilJamesson) March 17, 2015
Antidote du Jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
160 comments
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On the AOC et. al./Pelosi-Trump spat. Pelosi might be the most corrupt Speaker of my lifetime not so much because she is an evil person though she comes close but because Congressional Democrats are, in the main, more corrupt than their predecessors. It has only been in the last election that some honest members, or who at least seem to be honest, were elected and are causing dissatisfaction within the ranks and that naturally irks Pelosi. AOC, for some reason, has an outsize personality that attracts the press and is leveraging that power to change the mood of Congress and, of course, irk Pelosi and her gang of corrupt politicians in the leadership.
The question we face is whether or not we the people can dramatically change our political culture in the upcoming election season. Will Democrats choose Biden/Pelosi/Schumer and all the rest of them or will they choose a reformist candidate like Sanders? So much depends on the media, so much depends on the honesty of the primaries and in both those areas I think Sanders et. al. may lose out. This primary season voters have a chance to choose or oppose corruption. That should be an issue all our tribes could agree on.
The problem as I see it now, is less the corrupt and bankrupt establishment Democrat leadership (corrupt and bankrupt as they certainly are) but the 10%ers who have benefitted from the policies of that “leadership.
The media, the parties, the money…yeah, big problem.
The tribalists who follow their lead?
The bigger problem.
I’m over people being outraged by Trump’s tweets, calling them “weapons”, and yet still on Twitter.
The thing you do in this instance is to continue talking about the policies that are going to improve people’s lives AND GET OFF TWITTER.
That’s all any one needs to do to counter Trump’s tweets.
Trust me. Do it…yesterday.
No.
Twitter, for all its discontents, can still be a useful organizing resource.
Instead of getting off of Twitter, why not simply refuse to retweet any Trump tweet and (this might be the hard part) also refuse to tweet anyone who is retweeting Trump, even if they are only pointing and laughing at him.
It is not necessary to get off of Twitter. Better to simply NOT chase the “Trump tweeted something stupid ” soccer ball when some blue-checked media personality kicks it.
YMMV
I was surrounded by twitter feeds in the forest for the trees yesterday, most less than 10 characters in verse.
Other ways to organize.
The only message that needs to be sent is cancelling the Twitter account.
Or you’re headed for the day you realize that was the only real course of action.
Time to make some power plays in addition to organizing.
“Instead of getting off of Twitter, why not simply refuse to retweet any Trump tweet and (this might be the hard part) also refuse to tweet anyone who is retweeting Trump, even if they are only pointing and laughing at him.”
And none of that is “organizing.”
You’re right about organizing. First step is to get everybody off of Twitter and start organizing.
Not “tweeting” about “organizing” for the press to see.
The time for Twitter is once you have an actual organization worth tweeting about.
Your second para is true.
But your third isn’t.
These things are not one-or-the-other.
The words matter, because ignoring the words has the power to legitimises them (there’s a reason why autocratic regimes try to control them).
Get off of Twitter and watch the effect…
Cant’ get off Twitter, because am not on it. Tough luck.
If there was no Twitter (and FB, Instagram and what have you), do you really believe Trump would have no other way to scream his random (or not) thoughts to the rest of the world?
Sorry, but no. You don’t have to follow anybody; you can just trawl if you’re so inclined. There is a lot of news that’s deliverd on Twitter long before it pops on the mainstream – if indeed it ever appears there.
> There is a lot of news that’s deliverd on Twitter long before it pops on the mainstream
Yep. “Twitter” isn’t just one thing.
Correct BAR link: Terri Sewell, the Worst of the Black Caucus, Subverts $15 Wage Bill
Thank you. The thought of giving Microsoft my data to access that article was incredibly off-putting.
Fixed it – thanks!
Asia’s got a pirate problem
Systemic, Low Profile and facilitated by Government officials
“Southeast Asia has long had a piracy problem, and it’s a well-reported one: according to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), nearly 60% of all maritime incidents between 1993 and 2015 occurred in Southeast Asia, with more than 20% of those incidents taking place in Indonesia alone. By contrast, the Somali pirates – who attained worldwide renown for their deadly hijackings in the 2000s – accounted for only 17% of pirate activity in the same 22-year period.”
https://southeastasiaglobe.com/black-spots/
And many more worthwhile articles at the same site
https://southeastasiaglobe.com/
Alex Acosta Resigns To Probably Go Make Millions Because There Are No More Consequences Above the Law
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Putsch yourself in his position…
“Inside the Victoria’s Secret pipeline to Jeffrey Epstein
“I just grabbed the vibrator and threw it at his head” Elisabetta Tai said.”
Elisabetta Tai’s only mistake was that she threw the vibrator at the wrong head.
an interesting legal analysis by Andrew McCarthy:
https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/07/jeffrey-epstein-case-double-jeopardy-rules/
If you shoot somebody, and fed prosecutor let’s you plead to lesser state charge, you will be subject to new prosecution if you shoot more people. So charges with new victims couldn’t be included in a past deal, and they seem to have plenty new victims… doesn’t seem to be a case where the perp changed his ways.
The old victims rights were violated thru lack of notice… perp wanted this result, must have known it was illegal when pleading to lesser charge. Woulda thought he could be re tried on fed charges, maybe not.
Trump of course knew he what Acosta had done, that he was hiring a swamp creature… nothing new there.
I was under the impression that these are new cases and victims. While the crime may be the same (rape, etc) the charges are new.
New victims, so new crimes
It looks like it was “heading” that way!
Some of your readers may be familiar with John Michael Greer at Ecosophia and formerly at The Archdruid. Here is a link to his Long View article.
p.s., I see my cat is picking up tips from NC, lol, and seems to have worked out a partnership with the dog.
Great essay – TFTL!
Do they play together .. with poker faces ? And if so, when do they finally show their ..er .. paws ?
They indulge in some inter-species hide-and-seek, with rules and attention spans known only to them.
This from the article:
I agree with much of this but don’t agree that technological breakthroughs had and will not happen. We have the technology we need to move towards drastically reducing environmental degradation–we just choose not to use these techniques/technologies. Or at least the official media, academia, private industry, politicians and so on choose not to innovate in that area because they want to keep things just as they are. As we can see with Congress and past few Presidents–the policy if that there be no policy just business as usual. No policy for peacetime matters, no policy for war other than continue to have them. “The people” lack an interest in the environment so the oligarch class feels no pressure. If worse comes to worse, they are quite happy to retire to their bunkers in New Zealand or wherever because they’re only interested in their own affairs not ours.
One thing illionaires are probably not aware of in NZ
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tall_poppy_syndrome
Also, most of those NZ bunkers probably don’t exist. Big estates owned by overseas investors? – yes. Underground complexes imported from the States? – No.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018695996/new-zealand-s-billionaire-doomsday-preppers
That being said, if collapse happens I totally plan to get together with my friends and meet the arriving Lear gets at NZ’s regional airports with torches and pitchforks. Eat the Rich.
> the grand apocalyptic catastrophes were not going to happen
Forgive me for being blunt. Archdruid is an old man and has very good odds of dying before “the apocalypse” happens. We humans are so stupefied by the apparent normality of our dying world that we may not even recognize apocalypse for what it is — the seas turning red, mass die-offs of species including insects and pollinators and fish and mammals and amphibians, deoxygenated oceans, death of the Great Coral Reef, mass clearance of the Amazon. All these things are apocalyptic. But people just yawn and toddle along their business and write smug blog posts about alarmism.
Our planet has experienced multiple devastating mass extinctions. And they didn’t take thousands of years to occur. To claim otherwise is remarkably blinkered.
A shorter long look:
Overall, people’s behavior is well described by something that James Schlesinger said, “People have only two modes of operation: complacency and panic.”
https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2019/07/a-rare-glimpse-of-how-elite-think-what.html
I think Greer draws too much of his analysis from the past and ignores too many features of the present. History may be repetitive but I do believe this time is different. Our Empire reaches further and deeper than that of Rome or any past Empire. Its fall will reach further and deeper as well. We don’t have barbarians at the gate. If we rhyme with past collapses I think the doggerel best matches to the collapse the Greenland colony as described in the book “Collapse” or perhaps the collapse of the Mayan Empire. Neither collapse was sudden, nor was it a long descent — depending of course on what you might regard is ‘long’.
Greer asserts “the neoliberal era is dead”. I haven’t noticed its demise. It appears as healthy and strong as ever to me. He asserts many people cannot imagine “a future that isn’t either perpetual progress or overnight apocalypse.” I suppose that is true, although Chris Cosmos clearly disagrees. The problem with this either-or Greer which proposes is his tacit assumption the alternative to perpetual progress or overnight apocalypse is a slow descent. I hope he is right about that. I suspect a very “bumpy-ride” is more likely. The US has experienced several disasters in the last few years. What happens when those disasters run back-to-back and one of top of the previous disaster spread nicely across every region of this country? Suppose that happened year-after-year and the frequency and magnitude of disasters grew worse at an accelerating rate with each passing year. That’s not exactly an apocalypse but the result isn’t a slow descent either. I don’t think Climate Chaos is the only source for these disasters. All it took to shut off electricity to the East Coast in 2003 was two tree-falls in the Midwest and a computer race condition in the software at one utility station in the Midwest.
I agree with Chris Cosmos we have technology [breakthroughs?] with which we might “move towards reducing environmental degradation”, but “business as usual” remains the watchword. When Greer talks about technological breakthroughs he usually follows that with the list of energy technologies developed or in perpetual development as hoped for means for producing energy to replace — perhaps surpass fossil fuels. I think Greer is right about these ‘breakthroughs’. They all promise far more than they have or can deliver. The manifold complex technical issues these technologies have met appear to require knowledge and capabilities far beyond our current Science — or the remaining resources with which to build them. The current status of our Science and research as handmaiden to and wholly owned subsidiary of Neoliberal Commerce — which appears far from dead contrary to Greer’s assertion — makes me pessimistic about any true breakthroughs being discovered or if discovered, developed to application.
The past can and must inform the present and aid prediction of the future. But our Empire is not Rome and when it collapses — whatever rhyme it has with the past — the meter will be much more staccato and the climactic ending a much more resounding discord. I hope he clarifies what Peak Oil means in his next post — although I am not hopeful about that if he intends to discuss “the imminent return of peak oil.” How can it return? It never left.
In defense of Greer, he has often argued for what he calls “punctuated descent”. Multiple stair steps of swift fall, with a slow recovery that never gets back to what it was before the next fall occurs.
The cover of one of his books is exactly that.
Maybe what he means by the neoliberal era is dead is that it is no longer viable, it cannot continue. It is intellectually bankrupt.
It is past time to reduce environmental degradation, it is now time to actively participate in the restoration of ecosystems and the web of life. Agricultural man has shredded it wherever he has been. So I don’t see much happening on that front.
I believe the inertia is too great. The problems with our way of life have been known for decades and there hasn’t been any significant progress in dealing with them; it seems to me that the problems have only gotten worse.
The developed world is possessed by petroleum. We are its slaves, striving to create the conditions for more petroleum formation, massive ocean die-offs will do the trick to get the process started. I doubt humans will be around to do its bidding again.
Mass extinction is just that, I don’t think people get the significance of it. Seventy-five to ninety percent loss of species is like a reset button for life on this planet. The diversity and interconnections of life is what makes this planet habitable for larger life forms (regardless of its other fortunate aspects, like the magnetosphere, distance from the sun, geologic crust recycling, etc.)
RE Peak Oil. The prediction for US production was that it would peak around 1970 and it did, that is until 2014 when production shot past 1970 levels. This graph implies that peak oil might have been reached again.
“What happens when those disasters run back-to-back and one of top of the previous disaster spread nicely across every region of this country?” There are at least three strong possibilities, all geological:
The Cascadia Subduction Quake. Magnitude 9, with giant tsunami. Much of the Left Coast would be devastated, the interior as well as the coast itself. The New Madrid Fault, along the Mississippi in the center of the country. Almost as big, surrounded with major cities; would rearrange the river again, interrupting navigation. And, on an even larger scale, the Yellowstone supervolcano, which would pretty much eviscerate the country. Even a merely large eruption would be devastating. The two earthquakes are due, as far as geologists can tell; reports on Yellowstone are mixed. The US has enough trouble coping with hurricanes.
“Lawsuit over Keurig coffee pod recyclability moving forward Waste Dive”
Excellent find, those pods represent for me peak capitalism. Not as good as grinding yourself and using a French press, wrapped in plastic, with a million artificial flavoring choices.
Too bad the terms of the lawsuit probably don’t include “Keurig must agree to accept all waste generated so they can figure out how to recycle it themselves”
Nothing like a no-responsibility “externality”.
The Cricket bit – it was definitely a drama. Last over was nailbiting, with Kiwis conceding a six when it could have been a wicket (and I’ll point here that Kiwis very sportingly called it themselves!), and then extremely unlucky another six (which a former international umpire, five times “ICC’s Umpire of the year” says it should have been five, because Stokes did not cross which the video replay confirms). The outcome of the normal time wasn’t decided until literally the last ball (where 0 = NZ win, 1 = Super Over, >2 = England wins).
Same in SuperOver, England scored 15, NZ had 14 out of five balls and .. (go watch it.. ). Even if NZ made it 15, then it would go to England on the random fact that they scored more sixes during the match.
TBH, it’s a great pity that the SO was introduced only in this year, as any other year both teams would have claimed the cup – and I believe that would have been a fair result that absolutely no-one would have had a problem with.
The more people explain cricket the more I don’t understand it. Come to think of it, starting with I don’t even know why it would, or any sport would, be called “cricket”. In American that’s a small insect that you never see… ok, well the “never see” part is appropriate I guess. :)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sluggerotoole/153603564
The first time I visited NZ was in the aftermath of a rather infamous ‘underarm’ incident in an Aussie/NZ test match.
NZ needed a 6 (a home run, if you will) to tie the match and the Aussie bowler did something decidedly underhanded, that’s not cricket!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtaWtAxHVsw
That was so embarrassing that – and so unnecessary. It would have been more acceptable if he had dropped his daks and taken a dump on the Pitch itself. This was all about winning at any cost and I have seen this attitude permeate the game over the decades.
It was my first exposure to cricket and crikey, what had I fallen into, a sport along the same lines as baseball where messing with the ball before the pitcher let loose with it was a given, rubbing it against your pant leg or how about a spitball?
I always found it interesting that the West Indies were really good @ cricket, similar to Caribbean baseball players being top notch.
I read a while back that the ” Windies ” have suffered something of a decline in tall fast bowlers, as there is much more money in basketball.
When I first moved to Australia I lived next door to Ian Chappell (internationally-famous announcer and brother of the underarm bowler).
Every time I’d see him I’d say “Cricket. That’s the sport with the flat bat, isn’t it?”
He would always fume, his face reddening. But he also understood the spirit of my ribbing, and enjoyed it too.
He told me about taking a limo to the airport to fly to England to see The Ashes series. The limo driver complained that he had also booked tickets but his mate had decided not to go with him. Ian said to the driver “give me the bloke’s phone number, I’ll have Warne-y call him”. So Ian called cricket legend Shane Warne and told him the situation. Warne called the recalcitrant bloke and browbeat him until he agreed to go.
First I heard of cricket was in Douglas Adams’ books.
First I saw a game was when more than two decades ago I arrived in New Zealand who were just playing a Test match against Australia, and was pretty much the most interesting thing on th daytime telly (tells you something!) while I waited for my job interview.
I do not pretend to know much about it, TBH, but yesterday’s match (the end of it) was really a very dramatic sports event. For soccer, think of World Cup final, where one team leads 3-nil 10 minutes before final whistle, the losing team scores two unbelievably lucky goals in the last 3 minutes [including one own], and the leveling goals is scored literally with the last kick before the whistle, then goes to a penalty shootout, through all the players down to keepers, and the winning goal is the scored because the player in the goal slips.
This is for a sport that’s normally associated with picknicking and occasional glance towards the field is sufficient to be well informed of what’s going on.
As an aside, believe it or not, cricket is techically one of the most popular sports on earth, because in India/Pakistan/Bangladesh it’s sport no 1, and is also reasonably popular in other commonwealth countries (and draws total blanks outside) – although I was very surprised to see it in NC links.
Actually, it seems that New Zealand were robbed: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jul/15/england-ben-stokes-mistake-umpire-cricket-world-cup-final-six-runs-new-zealand – I think there is a parable somewhere there about Boris Johnson……
it’s like baseball, but good and interesting ;)
hey!
Different (cricket) strokes for different folks!
I’m with you. I read some of the cricket coverage and although it was vividly written I couldn’t understand a thing.
the game, especially the end, was b o n k e r s. Unbearably exciting. I was hoping for a kiwi win and they were desperately unlucky. I also didn’t know until reading your comment that that fluke 6 should’ve been a 5! Surprising they missed it if that assessment is correct, because the umpires took their sweet time confirming the score
I totally agree, Basil Pesto, in fact I would go further and say that the umpires consistently ruled against the Kiwis and the latter were too nice in accepting everything meekly, but that is their modus operandi and I don’t fault them for that. Too much of the game is now Aussie macho style, and this was going to be a Brit win no matter what – the NZ commentators went with a count of more boundaries by England – a rule that apparently holds for the 20 overs each game, as was the super over stuff, which was totally wierdly foisted on us listeners in during the last two overs – “This is what’s going to happen” said Jonathan Agnew, the Brit commentator at the BBC (in a voice to my hearing more high pitched than his usual modulated tone.) What?
Here’s what Andrew Miller had to say about that extra run given by the umpire in an article titled “Should England have got Five and not Six for Overthrow?” at espncricinfo.com:
“…according to Law 19.8, pertaining to “Overthrow or wilful act of fielder”, it would appear that England’s second on-field run should not have counted, making it a total of five runs for the incident, not six.
The law states: “If the boundary results from an overthrow or from the wilful act of a fielder, the runs scored shall be any runs for penalties awarded to either side, and the allowance for the boundary, and the runs completed by the batsmen, together with the run in progress if they had already crossed at the instant of the throw or act.”…”
In other words, they hadn’t already crossed at the instant of the throw. In fact all were puzzled by the umpire’s call. And in ruling correctly, that would have ultimately meant that New Zealand actually won by one run in the normal course of play. No last minute super over needed.
Also, this from leading cricket article at radiosport.co.nz:
“…Leading Australian bookmaker Sportsbet has refunded those who put money on the Black Caps to win the Cricket World Cup final against England, describing the fashion in which the match was decided as an “absolute disgrace”.
The company said it had refunded 11,458 people a total sum of $426,223 after the host nation won the final on a controversial boundary countback rule following tied scores after 102 overs of cricket.
According to AAP, Sportsbet spokesperson Rich Hummerston said it wouldn’t be fair to take money off New Zealand fans after the Black Caps technically didn’t lose…”
Re: Cricket. How English sports look to non-English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_6d3JBBo4s
And how some English reacted to the win-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXK5nenmgxw
People may remember this kid,Thogden, and his dad doing those series of videos at the 2018 FIFA World Cup last year in Russia.
It seems like Trump’s comments toward The Gang is an excellent opportunity for the Democrats to rally together and mend some fences. I guess not everyone got the memo.
Trump made the comments to take the heat off Pelosi. Pelosi is useful to Trump (he was explicit in his preference for her as Speaker), AOC et al. are not.
That’s funny you suggested that. I thought the same thing. How convenient of Trump to drop the dog-whistling and just bring out the racist bullhorn.
It gave a nice convenient excuse for the establishment dems to change the subject when they were catching some heat and pretend to defend their colleagues.
AOC is very popular with certain Republican types. Gives them lots of ammo. To a typical Rush listeners, Pelosi is a beyond the pale lefty. So if you can get somebody attacking her from the left, it is gold.
Trump seems to have been responding to what he views as a lack of patriotism. Since his whole deal is making America great again, any criticism of the United States, is a default criticism of him.
I am very sympathetic to the idea that Pelosi, Clinton, etc. has done nothing for the common man or woman. But I am suspicious that AOC isn’t going to be anymore helpful getting anything done. And it doesn’t help that Trump has been able to steal so much of what should have been the Left’s populists message.
The other day I remarked that AOC may be little more than “fly paper,” and she is certainly useful in that way, or similarly as the focus of a regular Two Minutes Hate for the right and center. My point about Pelosi is that Donald Trump wanted her as Speaker (I believe his statements to that regard), so I reckon she is actively useful to him.
The Center (center-right) must hold, and if AOC et al. gain traction, that may come into doubt.
Trump and Pelosi have WAY too much in common NOT to get along. They each make a perfect foil for the other. Obama and McConnell didn’t really hate each other too much, either.
There’s a lot of pro-wrestling type play-acting going on in DC.
All these people, pelosi, Clinton, McConnell, Obama, share the same donors, explaining their collective policies. The donors hate the left because policies, explaining why all of the above hate and belittle the left.
It’s a mistake for the dem and rep tribes to think their leaders identify with the followers. The leaders, and the 10%, are all secret members of the small corporate tribe.
This. The goal of both right wings of America’s One Party (Dem and Repub) is to maintain the status quo. Think about it: from the point of view of the 1% this is the best of all possible worlds. Any change would be a negative. They have a two-step program and it’s going exceedingly well:
Step 1: Steal from the poor
Step 2: Make sure everyone is poor
In 2007 (prior to the crisis) America had 267 billionaires. Today there are 607. Those are the only two numbers you need to know as you try to figure out what’s happening.
Bank Robbery 101 teaches that the first thing you do to hide your crime is to set off some distractions. Epstein, RussiaGate, the border, #MeToo, LGBT bathrooms, impeachment, Trump tax returns, AOC/Pelosi feud, the “election”. Perfect.
“MAGA” is a criticism of the United States and it’s not populist if by “the people” we mean all of us.
“responding to what he views as a lack of patriotism”.
Funny, so why does he says “who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all)” when all but one of the originally came from the US (Trump mother and grandfather were migrants. Oh, and out of his three wives two were immigrants. Pressley and AOC are at least as American as he is on that count. Maybe Trump should ask Germany and Scotland if they want him to show them how the proper governmnet is run?)
I thought he described his government pretty well in a moment of lucidity.. Although he lost it in the scond part telling them to go and fix it, w/o realising that’s what AOC (can’t speak about others) seems to want to do…
It is a lack of patriotism today.
Other times, it’s divided loyalty, or dual citizenship.
Does it matter where one (or one’s parents, grandparents, etc) migrated from – the land of milk and honey, or elsewhere?
There is an internet meme that Trump is a multi-dimensional politcal chess player. (Roll eyes if you’d like)
But Trump shakes the bee hive and what happens? The bees swarm amongst each other. Wow, just wow.
Fact is stranger than fiction
Nancy, The Squad & Trump:
Trump campaigned on ending some of Bush’s and Obama’s Forever Wars.
Why didn’t Pelosi put that Trump position front-center and say she will work with Trump to end these wars and cut off their funding? And then take those funds and provided healthcare for all American? It would have either worked or called Trumps bluff (if it was one), or failed and put a lot of Congress people on record where they really stand.
And it would made some issues stand out instead of being ignored with media drama and gossip distractions.
Instead we get this oxygen sucking drama and the Establishment Policies remain on auto pilot.
Thanks Nancy
I follow mainstream celebrities barely it at all, but when Pelosi and her daughter were a thing recently in the media I got weird flash back of Joan Rivers and her daughter. LIke a bad dream type feeling.
For the same reasons, Pelosi assisted Shrub and Obama in continuing the Forever Wars. This is her second stint as Speaker after all. She was a member of the infamous Intelligence Gang of Eight and was likely briefed on torture in the early days. Pelosi’s token status protected her for a time, but she’s, to keep it simple, a very bad person.
As we should know the reason Pelosi doesn’t do as you suggest is that it would be undermining the interests of her clients the oligarch class. As long as Pelosi and her gang of corrupt politicians hold power there is no chance for any kind of reform no matter who is the POTUS.
Pelosi’s just working for her owners. And they ain’t us.
The only thing that keeps me going is working on systemic change:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-joint-resolution/48/text
Pramila Jayapal is the lead sponsor of HJR-48 in the 116th Congress. Since she introduced it in January 2019, we have gained 54 co-sponsors. Check the link above to see if your Congress critter has signed on. If not, bug ’em til they do.
Great link, thanks!
So glad you liked it. Please share!
Thanks for the link. And what kind of ‘boss’ scolds ’employees’ in public? A very bad ‘boss’.
I had the opportunity a couple of months ago to ask my local Democratic Congressperson in person whether or not she was planning on co-sponsoring Jayapal’s bill on Medicare for All. Her response was swift and immediate: “I don’t like to call it ‘Medicare for All’, I prefer to discuss improving ‘access’ to healthcare. Plus, Rep Jayapal’s bill takes away private health insurance. People like their private health insurance!”
In other words, no way in heck will she touch that bill. With friends like these…
With a Congress critter like that, I might have been forced to respond:
You, Madam, are full of shit.
Well, at least I would have wanted to respond that way.
Yeah, I came back with a lame retort about how the current system puts far too much power in the hands of companies, but by that time it was obvious which side her bread was buttered on. Blech.
Thinking about Pelosi and her disrespect for and animosity towards AOC. Yes, AOC is calling out the hypocrisy of Pelosi. Yes, she is going against Pelosi and the old guard. Never underestimate the sheer toxicity of the green monster of jealousy: AOC is young, attractive, intelligent, articulate and seems to have integrity. Look at Pelosi.
Sure. They like to pay more money and get less, right?
I like her bill and her medicare for all bill which is quite comprehensive, unlike Sanders’,
Could the Apollo 11 moon landing be duplicated today? ‘Lots of luck with that’ LA Times
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Similar to the music of the 60’s when troubadours pushed one another to create masterpieces, having the USSR as a friendly adversary in the pursuit made all the difference.
It’s fitting that the Moon will be full tomorrow for the launch, 50 years ago.
Last week’s excellent multipart PBS show made clear just how controversial the program was in the 60s as well. Not many Americans knew about Von Braun’s Nazi past, but there was considerable pushback against the program’s cost versus spending that money on social needs. Frank Borman says that after his triumphant first circling of the Moon he toured college campuses where he was verbally assaulted and comically pelted with marshmallows. In truth the USG was sending very mixed messages by going to the Moon–to “come in Peace for all mankind”–while conducting an imperialistic war in Southeast Asia. The Moon attempt itself was part of the Cold War since a top goal throughout was to “beat the Russians”–to score a propaganda victory.
The program was a great triumph and as the LA Times points out a diversion of high tech and aerospace from traditional military uses. Perhaps that above all is why this time is different given the MIC hammerlock of our national policies. Is it time to “get back to the garden” with our ever more sophisticated technical abilities? A new space program would be expensive but still a drop in the bucket compared to current endless wars.
The military benefited a great deal from the space research and technology that was developed, but then so did the general public. After all, the space program gave us Tang, the instant fake orange drink.
Just found out that Tang was around before NASA was created in 1957 and was initially a poor seller. Like you I thought it was a space program product.
https://groovyhistory.com/do-you-remember-tang-the-groovy-drink-mix-of-the-american-astronauts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goh2x_G0ct4
The recent movie First Man features a version of it as well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_Fjnwe2xv4 and doesn’t actually even try to make a case that the poem/song was wrong. I think the intent is that the audience’s sympathies should be with the space program, but…um…they don’t actually do anything to make a case for why that should be.
A lost of NASA functions were internalized back then and not outsourced as now.
And the aerospace industry in the 60’s was much more fragmented, not the hyper-concentrated like today.
See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Launch_Alliance
Back then we still knew how to do engineering and manufacturing. In our modern finance-and-software-driven American dystopia, it’s all about rent extraction and gratuitous complexity in furtherance thereof. Even our budget-bloated military is afflicted by a severe case of Wall Street greed-itis, as the recently-linked piece in The American Conservative, America’s Monopoly Crisis Hits the Military, detailed. BTW, an interesting “where have I heard that name before” in that article, in the section about the US offshoring its global leadership in rare-earths processing:
Archibald Cox … where have I heard that name before? Ah yes, it’s the son of the Archibald Cox of Watergate-era Saturday Night Massacre fame, a bit confusingly because both father and son bear the same “Jr.” after their surname. From the Wikpedie entry on the “senior Jr.”:
So a family-level version of the blight caused by financialization of the America political economy – father was a famously old-fashionedly-ethical constitutional lawyer, son became a ‘successful’ Wall Street parasite.
Somehow, I also view lawyers as parasites!
Oh, no doubt there are plenty of parasitical lawyers … but Cox the Elder to me represents the best of said profession, a Perry Mason versus the Saul Goodmans of the profession to whom you allude.
i met archibald the elder once in a law library, some years after watergate. a humble man: i thanked him for helping protect the Constitution, and he was surprised that anyone would recognize him.
Maureen Dowd’s pro-Pelosi hit piece on AOC may increase her access to Pelosi, but it is still a hit piece that supports the Olde Guard of the DNC. That Olde Guard is not only NOT woke, it probably never was. It is still too chummy with the rentier monopolies that are crushing the middle class and Democracy along with it. They hold the reins to our Foreverwars as much as Trump – more so given their jingo support for DOD.
We need a Ross Perot today who can educate America regarding stuff Hudson has been writing about for years as the cause of most US economic ills – war. His writings explain why MMT is not fiction but merely a description of how finance really works. Clearly, most Americans are clueless about money and readily queue up to self-indenture the first shiny new pickup they see in the driveway across the street. Only Warren articulates this message, but she is an elite – and the MAGA heads do not listen to any elite but Trump.
It is sadly ironic that so many writers bemoan that Americans no longer sacrifice to support US overseas wars without even realizing that the current generation has the biggest investment in war ever – the National Debt.
– the National Debt. Tomonthebeach
The debt of a monetary sovereign, including account balances at its Central Bank, is inherently risk-free and should return at most ZERO percent MINUS overhead costs.
If so priced, the National Debt of the United States would be self-extinguishing and a revenue EARNER, not a revenue CONSUMER.
Sadly though, we persist in Gold Standard thinking wrt fiat and our banking model.
The fact that she turned to Rahm Emanuel for commnents about AOC needing to learn from and be nice to Pelosi speaks volumes. Rahm is a gold medalist hippie-puncher. Not exactly a sympathetic ally.
When I heard about Trump dumping on the The Gang, I wondered if it might not have been a tactical move on his part – in his own obnoxious, ignorant, blustering manner that is. Consider. The Stage was set for Pelosi and the squad to have a show-down and to maybe work out some sort of compromise this year. It would have been a real donnybrook. But now Pelosi and the other democrats have been forced to paper over their differences in response to Trump’s attack. Thus the democrats will be going into 2020 with all these differences unresolved and still simmering. It will be a fracture point that Trump will be able to take advantage of next year during the real campaign. Just a possibility.
Trump? Seriously? No.
He’s a brawler, and throws his punches when he thinks he sees an opening and no more planning than that. Like the rest of America’s elites, and he is certainly an elite whether billionaire or no, he doesn’t think much past the next quarter.
This election will be, as always with a 2nd term Presidency, a referendum on the incumbent. The Dems know this, thus “RussiaRussiaRussia” because it’s the only thing they can think of to hang on him, as he is generally more to the left than they are.
While the Dems are not left, I don’t see where Trump is more to the left of the dems in any way at all—On civil rights? Abortion, with all those Federalist Society Nazis getting confirmed to the courts? Overt racist attitudes, unlike the subtle racism his party normally engages in? Absolutely. Putting people in charge of agencies who serve the public that oppose the mission of the agencies? Trump may be expert at employing populist rhetoric when engaging with his lemmings, but in no way is he left of anything.
I have a hard time believing the President has that kind of Machivellian foresight. I think twitter fights like that are just chum in the water for him.
One thing is certain – whether by design or accident the Democrats are heading into election season with divisions that will depress turnout just like in 2016. Why would all the progressives come to vote for “BlueNoMatterWho” if it’s clear they will never get what they want out of the arrangement? Every time Pelosi, Biden, and others crap on their goals they get a little more distant.
I think it’s good that the Pelosi and company are being exposed for what they really are – Right winger monsters who work for their corporate
bribersdonors. The fissure in the Dimrat party will awaken more people and hopefully will lead to a splinter where a real left wing party will be born.Trump’s tweet about “the squad” is distraction and provocation that the media always falls for. The Epstein story is the real juice:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/07/15/jeffrey-epstein-and-the-collapse-of-europe/
“Epstein subscribes to a scientistic worldview, which sees not politics, economics, or religion as a driving force of history but, rather, evolution. He spoke fondly of E.O. Wilson’s famous evolutionary determinist theory of “sociobiology” in 2002 and founded the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics the following year. What is the cause of Epstein’s attraction to evolutionary thinking about human social development? In a word: money.
Epstein stated, “If we can figure out how termites come together, then we may be able to better understand the underlying principles of market behavior – and make big money.” For Epstein, markets are the product of human creation but, instead, evolutionally hard-wired systems that can be understood in terms of biology. This is all, of course, malarkey, but demonstrates that financial capitalists like Epstein see science not as a way of expanding human knowledge for the good of all; rather, it is, at best, an outlet for bogus theorizing about the so-called natural laws of the economy and, at worst, an unabashed intellectual justification for the wealth of key market players like himself.
This brings us to Epstein’s generous funding of top AI research scientists, with whom he has enjoyed close personal relationships. In 2013, he was reported to fund “the first humanoids” and “first free thinking robots,” which are designed to move beyond robots as “clunky machines that relied on deterministic algorithmic pathways” toward emotional human-like creatures with “responsive facial expressions, synthesized rubber skin, called frubber and delicate features.”
One of the recent products of this “radical emotional software” was the Little Sophia robot marketed to girls “ages 7-13.” It is worth asking why a convicted pedophile is funding the development of robots for young girls that promise to go on the market at the end of this year. Epstein has clearly not understood what it means to be human, yet he believes that AI scientists like self-described “hard-core transhumanist” Ben Goertzel—whose precursor to Little Sophia, Sophia, was granted Saudi citizenship in 2017—will pave the way to a new and better world by bypassing the human.”
These are reminders that scientific research and technological development are not separate from politics. Indeed, Epstein has not only served on the boards of numerous science institutes, but also on those of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission. The Council on Foreign Relations was founded in 1921 to advance US foreign policy interests in the wake of World War I and the Russian Revolution. Later on, the Council’s study groups developed the Cold War doctrine of “containment” and laid the foundations for NATO.”
This is long and lots to consider.
There is an article on The Atlantic – The Metamorphisis that has Eric Scmidt and Henry Kissengers as contributers. The worst actors are planning for your future…
Goertzel, Wexner, Dershowitz, Barak, Maxwell etc
What are the chnces Epstein was also friends with Weinstein or the Kushner family.
Birds of a feather!
I think this is correct.
“a different Chris” and “Chris”, respectfully, I think you’re underestimating Trump. He’s got decent political instincts, and yes, he does lots of dumb stuff, but his close associates have been on record saying that sometimes he gets the media riled up to distract them. As Lambert points out, he ran through a parade of Koch approved Republican candidates to win the nomination and took down the Bush and Clinton family dynasties. He shouldn’t be underestimated.
I think he was doing Pelosi a solid by changing the topic of conversation. He gave her and the establishment the perfect opening to show how loyal they are to the theme of ‘unity’ against Trump. It fits perfectly into team dem’s preferred narrative.
Youve committed one of the classic blunders. Never go in against a Chris when death is on the line! :)
You could be right about Trump.
My personal belief with respect to the President is that he is some kind of political mutant along the lines of Phillip K. Dick’s “The Golden Man.” The establishment can’t kill him, and doesn’t understand him, but he’s full of instincts that allow him to persevere without any deep thinking. And his kind will proliferate. In this case, as in the story, evolution has not produced a better result, just a more brutal and successful one.
My read of how many Koch funded and think tanker backed pols has aced has more to do with how out of touch they were than how brilliant he is.
Maybe he doesn’t think brown and black people can ever be Real Americans™ and sees the Pelosi rift as a timely opportunity to stir up some white supremacy in preparation for this:
Trump immigration change would all but end asylum requests for Central American migrants
“sidesteps” US law….
considering that u.s. law is persistently “sidestepped” in regard to immigration of low cost labor I wonder why you are surprised/disturbed by this…
I’m not the one who’s been undisturbed by employers exploiting undocumented workers
Making President Trump’s Bed: A Housekeeper Without Papers
At the president’s New Jersey golf course, an undocumented immigrant has worked as a maid since 2013.
or who thinks e-verify may make things too “tough” for them
though I do prefer a path to citizenship for people who have been working here a long time, rather than mass raids and deportation, and policies that encourage hiring US workers at a living wage rather than issuing H2-B visas.
While there’s an argument to be made that restricting immigration will help US workers, it would be more plausible in a context of actually helping US workers.
I’m with you on path to citizenship, and for the benefit of those new citizens we need to put an end to selective enforcement of laws regarding immigration as they ever and always benefit the bosses.
This would also follow international agreements.
thanks for the Latimes NASA story.
it is a point of pride for me that my dad worked at JSC south of Houston from Apollo 12 through Skylab.
Watching the Tom Hanks movie, Apollo 13 with him is about as cool as anything, because he was there, in the room, throughout the ordeal.
He also had the foresight to divert piles of pictures and other materials from the dumpster to the back of the green station wagon…I’m now the curator of all that, including actual Nasa pics of Neil and Buzz, each taken by the other, in the LEM, just before stepping down the ladder.(none of this stuff is currently “worth” anything, but I’d bet it will be some day, if we don’t off ourselves)
I was 7 when we landed on the Moon, and should I live to a ripe old age of say 99 or so, i’ll be one of the last witnesses of that event and just the right age @ the time to have been able to comprehend it all.
Wow – that is sooo cool! Those pic’s & stuff are priceless.
We ski with a brother & sister whose father was highly placed in the Apollo program, and they were sitting in the VIP section for the launch of Apollo 11. They were around 10 years old at the time, and showed me photos of them with Wernher von Braun.
In terms of collectibles, Anything flight-flown from Apollo 11 is worth a large fortune, Apollo 12-17 is ho hum and worth some cabbage, but nothing close.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEJ9HrZq7Ro
Perhaps I should have used the word ‘invaluable’ rather than ‘priceless’.
Value sometimes cannot be expressed in terms of $$$.
I knew an auction house in L.A. that auctioned off space collectibles, and one of the wags there told me once, that if all the stuff that Buzz Aldrin had consigned to them was actually flight-flown, Apollo 11 would’ve had problems leaving the gantry, ha ha.
You may want to contact someone like the Image Permanence Institute (IPI) at Rochester Institute of Technology[https://www.imagepermanenceinstitute.org/resources/related-sites] or one of the sites linked to in the link above. Photographs and paper do not keep well.
cool and dry and dark and relatively airtight is what i settled on as doable.(currently in a safe i inherited)
real nasa prints…and others, from Mercury, etc, that are similar to my hard copy MRI’s of my hip.
the paper stuff, to my surprise, seems to be acid free.(mostly promotional material from lockheed or grummann, and a few mysterious logbooks, and a bunch of stuff that looks like it could maybe be things prepared for congress, etc)
none of it has perceptibly changed in the 40+ years I’ve had it in my possession.
(aside from a few thumbtack holes from pinning them to 12 year old amfortas’ wall)
I’ve been as careful as i could be, overall, and lucky that they spent money on quality stock back then.
…and that’s a useful site, for amateur/guerilla librarians like me.
about half my library is sourced from garage sales and library sales…which means that a bunch of it won’t last because of cheap paper.
One does one’s best.
(when i was deep into Doomerism, I planted bamboo and learned to make paper…thinking about monks and scriptoriums and a Canticle for Liebowitz,lol. and preservation, for TEOTWAWKI(Vellum is a pita, and mice like it))
The George Eastman House is in the link list there-they might be a good place to start for photographs.
Wear clean cotton gloves, if at all possible, to keep the oils from your skin from transferring to the image surfaces. Lets hope that really IS acid-free paper they’re printed on.
All good points. It couldn’t hurt just to drop a line to an archive describing the material to see if they would like it. Those “mysterious logbooks”… Hmmm!
p.s.
This is one of my favorite Apollo images released a few years ago with a huge swath of them, I call it:
Crescent Earth
https://www.flickr.com/photos/projectapolloarchive/21912132615/in/photostream/
Earthrise. One of the highlights of the Apollo program-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlV2YtCUnpg
I remember the space race. I remember attending college after it was over and sitting in one of the 6-person suites in my freshman dorms each with a large white board where I was told groups of engineering or science students of the previous generation had gathered to work through their assignments together. I worked with a team of engineers who were on one of the teams that worked on the LEM vehicle. I am old enough to remember the political squabbles reported in the news of the time [we actually had something approximating news then] over the NASA budgets, over the Nazi ties of many of the German rocketeers, and over the place the space race had in the Cold War and as a part of DoD planning for the future — while the Vietnam War ground on-and-on. But from my perspective the thing I most remember was the very real sense of mission, of doing something transcendent that I felt imbued some dying spirit haunting my dorms, and in the unmistakable enthusiasm the former LEM engineers felt for the work they did. Perhaps it was just my youth at the time — I remember a sense optimism, hope, and a feeling that almost anything was possible and could be done by the kind of people and effort NASA assembled for the space race. Star Trek came out around in the middle of the space race.
I also remember the layoffs after the NASA Moon Walk entertainment was over. Layoffs that left entire neighborhoods empty as scientists, engineers, technicians were laid-off and had to move away to I’m not sure where. I had a job pumping gas at a service station a cast-off aerospace engineer bought with money he saved and heard stories of Engineering PhD. owners of convenience stores. I remember the hollow feeling as I grew aware of what ‘We’ were so causally dismantling and discarding. Years later I could still marvel at the very large numbers of technical books written and purchased in the 1960s that I found in college libraries and the company libraries [yes companies did keep libraries at one time!] at many of the places where I worked. I was still working at one of these companies when the order came down to close the company library and get rid of the books and journals.
There was Watergate, the Oil Crisis, Stagflation, and then we had Morning in America — and the skies for the future of this country grew dark.
when i was in first grade, we went on a school trip to JSC.
met Gene Cernan and Gene Kranz, who happened to be hanging around…the latter gave us an impromptu tour of Mission Control(kids could actually sit in the seats, then. now it’s all behind glass)…and dad was still working there, so we got to look at the bottom floor of the building where the giant mainframe was housed(the computing power of which was easily eclipsed by the most rudimentary free bank calculator, 20 years later), and other neat things….climbing all over the big Saturn V out in the yard…
..this was way before it was disneyfied and security theatered like today.
and yes, that sense of purpose and the roddenberrian ideal of Further!(ad astris incrementa!)
that was in the air, back then, even to a child—dad has always been rather aloof and distant…one must pry things from him—but that zeitgeist(?) sure came home with him anyway.
when we took the boys on the JSC disneyish tour with dad several years ago, eldest asked why we stopped going.
dad said simply, “because there was no money in it”
I think that’s an incredibly sad encapsulation of where we’ve come, since. we are instead petty and grubbing hind-brained creatures, bereft of such purpose or vision.
Many companies offered tours to help visitors understand and appreciate the work and works for which they were justifiably proud. Such offerings were early casualties in the face of the ‘no money was in it’ questions.
Glad I got those field trips and enrichments (read, most any extracurricular or cultural activity) back in the day before they got cancelled, and now I can reminisce and tell the offspring.
Epstein’s corrupting influence extends beyond personal morality. I was not aware of his extensive sponsorship of scientific research outlined in this article. One implication, I am reminded of all the Cold War cultural and scientific institutions surreptitiously funded by US intelligence.
Jeffrey Epstein and the Collapse of Europe CounterPunch:
Jeffrey Epstein figures prominently, and quite weirdly in a book about science, in Martin Nowak’s 2011 “Super-Cooperators”.
It appears Nowak at Harvard was one of the scientists Epstein bought in order to give himself more elite-style gravitas. Nowak dedicates a few paragraphs of nonsense about deep conversations with Epstein on his… private island. Guess who flew him to the island on her helicopter?
Larry Summers, by the way, figured prominently in the discussions with Epstein. Looks sort of like Nowak did indeed find himself among some super cooperators!
Martin, hope you didn’t have to give Jeffrey a ‘massage’ for that grant.
> Larry Summers, by the way, figured prominently in the discussions with Epstein
Oy. Everybody knows…
looks like Mike Gravel has been reviewing Henry George and the history of Rome(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribal_Assembly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plebeian_Tribune )
I’m all for it, of course…but the obstacle to the first is already entrenched parasites owning everydamnedthing(including the media and “our” governments).
the obstacle to the second is the rampant(and, IMO, largely engineered) Division.
with the ontological confusion all around, as well as the confusion regarding Class, it’s all but impossible to have an effective General Strike(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secessio_plebis ) which is about the only thing I can think of that might get their attention and do any good, going forward.
Bartender: What’ll ya have?
Cat: Shot of rum.
[Bartender pours it]
[Cat slowly pushes it off the bar]
Cat: Another.
As someone pointed out here some time ago, proof positive if there ever was a need that the world is round. If it was flat, cats would have pushed everything off the edge long ago.
Okay, i haven’t lived with cats since childhood (allergies) and admire from afar instead. I’ve never known this pushing was a thing since reading it here at nc. Cats push things around?
It reminds me of one of my favorite children’s books, The Stories Julian Tells, and the story Catalog Cats. In the story dad tells julian and little brother huey that they can get started on the garden as soon as the catalog arrives in the mail. Little huey asks julian what a catalog is, and julian decides to mess with him, and says that’s where you get the catalog cats from, and they help in the garden, brown cats push things with their noses, black cats dig little holes with their claws, white cats roll on the dirt to plant the seeds (somehow:)).
Anyway, the catalog eventually arrives, julian’s LIES are exposed :), hilarity ensues and dad puts things to rights – great story
but i never knew the kernel of cat pushing truth until recently
perhaps we could use this somehow?
Putting things we want to be pushed off tables in front of them and just casually walking away?
la di da
i am sure many, many things need to be pushed off tables
Oh yes, they will push things off tables. Sometimes they will stare at you directly in the face as they do it-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlyxi-MsvVo
Many years ago, GF had a cat who “owned” the coffee table.
I had to go out of the room, and set my plate of spaghetti on the table…
Multi-hours of cleanup. Carpeted apt.
Same cat unscrewed the lampshade every night, by rubbing against it.
One of our cats when I was a kid (I got to name her: aphrodite!) used to ruin bananas by licking all the way through the skin, in the dead of night, when no one was watching. She didn’t like to eat bananas, of course, because duh, cat. But ruining them touched a special place in her cat heart.
cats could teach revolutionary humans a lot about asymmetric warfare:
passive resistance
guerrilla actions
sit down strikes
go slows
resisting by not doing anything
I mean, granted
there is some overlap
my artist girlfriend’s cat pulled pulled pushpins out of her bulletin board and put them in my shoes in the night.
I think this goes under Waste Watch (not just below,, or follwing it, spatiallly)….wasting rum, and a good glass cup, maybe (a steel cup would not be a problem).
The Adventures of Business Cat:
https://www.businesscat.happyjar.com
Taking care of cat business. It’s my experience that things on tables, or even on walls, do need to be pushed off.
yes they do, and follow me like a leopard here, for what I want to suggest is that we begin putting other things on tables, things that could do with a good push, and just letting the cats have at it. Here is a short list to get us started:
1) eggs (gotta break a few of them now and again)
2) hearts of some people
3) treaties we don’t like anymore
4) someone’s sense of complacency
I’m sure the cats will help us as long as we’re cool about it, and don’t push them or anything
Still, even a glass of water (clean, potable) would be wasting.
In some drought stricken areas, the owner (of the table, etc) could be in trouble.
I have lived with 10 cats over my lifetime and for the first time ever I have a pusher…..it took me a while to figure out why all my sewing supplies were on the floor until I saw him in action. What can I say “he’s so cute”
The Terri Sewell Bar report is lining to an outlook mailbox.
https://www.blackagendareport.com/terri-sewell-worst-black-caucus-subverts-15-wage-bill
https://www.npr.org/2019/07/08/739603781/which-u-s-wars-were-justifiable-tulsi-gabbard-names-only-world-war-ii
NPR is it’s usual annoying self. The same batch of smear questions. Tulsi keeps her composure, as usual.
I dunno, the economy sucked for me after the tech bust that 9/11 coffin nailed. Obama? He didn’t help other than getting me pre-existing condition health insurance for a few years, a gift from heaven while it lasted, the same amazing coverage Fed employees get. But that was a limited lottery, I was lucky, wifey no. Now some of you really lucky folks had a few good years between 9/11 and the bank bailout, perhaps FIRE types? I don’t begrudge you for it.
Thanks for Paglia on Vidal link. Great stuff. Her windup explains why he was not just (or even primarily) about sex or about Myra Breckinridge–one of the few Vidal books I haven’t read (need to correct that).
Iconoclasm may be in short supply during our current age of anxiety but figures like Vidal or Pauline Kael represented an age when giants of nonconformity roamed the earth. One was gay and the other the daughter of a Jewish California chicken farmer. In truth to think outside the box you have to be outside the box.
Yes, I appreciated it, too. Vidal was one of my favorite authors, and this is Paglia at her best.
Excellent analysis by Helena Cobban
https://lobelog.com/global-power-shifts-sparked-in-syrian-hornets-nest/
There should be a word for blow-back in Turkish
Really great read. Lays it out simply (for simpletons like me) and concisely.
Yes, that’s a very clear analysis, well worth a read.
Reform public housing…
“Fighting for Our Right to the City.”
Does he mean building more housing projects with an inter generational life estate for residents?
Examples from San Francisco:
“Late last year, the John Stewart Co.[private manager of the twice rebuilt Valencia Gardens Housing projects built in late 1940s] began eviction proceedings for 18-year-old Terrance Hall from the complex after his grandmother died. The company alleged “criminal activity” was taking place in the apartment, though Hall was not accused of participating in it. Hall is still in the apartment, but the eviction proceedings have not resolved.”
https://missionlocal.org/2019/03/third-attempt-to-evict-teenager-terrance-hall-fails/
“At Thursday’s trial, an attorney for the property management company argued that McClendon was misleading about her income and how many people lived at her apartment. Information about who’s living in a unit and their income are critical details that help determine the monthly rent for people and families in public housing, laid out by federal and state law.”
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/I-m-scared-Single-mother-of-five-fights-14090056.php
Just for fun, anyone else see The hubbub around Kamala Harris blaming the Colin Kaepernick controversy on Russian Bots? If Rudy Giuliani was “a noun, verb, and 9/11”, Kamala and the Dems have become a noun, verb, and Russia.
“Many smart people have said…”
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5d2a97f0e4b0060b11ed9cad
“The straight of Hormuz”
I remember when it was just called the Persian Gulf…
The straight is the chokepoint of the gulf where national waters overlap across its recognized international channel. It’s the easiest place to make a big mess (in self-defense /sarc).
The strait is actually anything but straight.
My favorite Los Angeles song involving margaritas, the potential of California sliding into the ocean due to an earthquake, and the D.T.’s.
Desperadoes Under The Eaves by Warren Zevon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NFDgl8TnUE
Approval Numbers Now Untethered From Economy Cook Political Report. UserFriendly: “or it could just be that the economy has done nothing but suck for most people since obama.”
Or since Reagan, but who’s counting?
From “Nancy Pelosi’s renewed attacks on AOC aren’t just disrespectful, they’re dangerous “:
” her repeated insinuations that the Squad are rabble-rousing upstarts who are undermining the Democratic party” (as Pelosi knows it) – are correct. That’s exactly what we like about the squad, and the reason for her attacks. It’s revealing that Pelosi’s behavior is so un-strategic; it’s uncharacteristic, a sign that either she’s losing it under the stress or she feels seriously threatened. Seriously threatened by, as she says, 4 freshmen would be strange; something is going on under the surface.
One factor may be that the Dems should not have re-elected her as Speaker; her previous record was devastating for the party. They were running on automatic when they did that, or she was the only compromise candidate. Not a sturdy foundation for her position.
Re Motherboard Article
The article in today’s links indicates that Palantir’s tech, “Gotham is one of Palantir’s two services, and the other service is Palantir Foundry. These 300 police departments could request data from Palantir…Per this arrangement, none of these departments have to disclose the fact that they have access to Palantir.”
On July 14, 2019, Palantir CEO Thiel spoke at a conference tossing some not-so-nice words towards Google’s work with China’s big brother apparatus.
From the following link:
“Thiel said there were “three questions that should be asked [of Google]…Number two, does Google’s senior management consider itself to have been thoroughly infiltrated by Chinese intelligence?”
https://usbreakingnews.net/2019/07/15/facebook-board-member-accuses-google-of-seemingly-treasonous-acts-calls-for-investigation/
So we just accept that Palantir’s mousetraps are for the good of society and not suffering some level of infiltration?
In a 1998 article for Vanity Fair Gore Vidal posited that, “The state of the art of citizen-harassment is still in its infancy. Nevertheless, new devices, at ever greater expense, are coming onto the market.”
The New York Yankees Are a Moral Abomination
By David Bentley Hart, from NY Times last summer.
Money can buy many happy fans (often enough).
Other than the fact that the Yankees have a terrific farm system, I have to knock their interest in denying their players the right to wear long hair and facial hair–a legacy of illegal Nixon campaign contributor and irascible authoritarian George Steinbrenner. Besides, long hair, funny mustaches and beards didn’t hurt those Charlie O’Finley championship A’s teams of the 70’s.
I also have the feeling that being a Yankee fan (coming from a Met fan) is in the words of Joe E. Brown, “like rooting for U.S. Steel”. Rooting for the team that has as much money as it ever needs, and identify with its establishment power and prestige like the baseball version of Gucci.
Re: Apollo 11
No, it won’t work. We’re out of Nazis here in Germany. Last bunch went to the US in ’45. And the A4 Test facility is out-of-order, nowadays.