The Watering Hole: June 19 — Forest Park

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Photo by Zooey

This is our daily open thread — Sorry it’s late!!

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122 thoughts on “The Watering Hole: June 19 — Forest Park”

  1. Happy Juneteenth, everyone! (When I grew up in Texas, this was a pretty big deal.) After the Emancipation Proclamation, Texas wasn’t very quick to free their slaves…So….

    Juneteenth commemorates June 18 and 19, 1865. June 18 is the day Union General Gordon Granger and 2,000 federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to take possession of the state and enforce the emancipation of its slaves. On June 19, 1865, legend has it while standing on the balcony of Galveston’s Ashton Villa, Granger read the contents of “General Order No. 3”:

    The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.[12]

      • I haven’t lived there in awhile, but 40 other states have adopted this as a day of recognition. (I forgot to note, that the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in Sept. 1862 and enacted in Jan. 1863…it took 2.5 more years before slaves were liberated in Texas… that’s why it was a big deal.)

    • The blueprint crafted by former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) would achieve $4 trillion in savings over 10 years through spending cuts and tax code reform.

      If it were up to me, I’d save FIVE trillion in ten years with one, single stroke of the pen: my signature on a document that decreases “defense” spending by no less that $500 billion per year for ten years. Then, of course, after I raised taxes on the filthy and the rich to what they were in 1945, we’d be out of the woods completely, could probably even afford universal health care coverage.

      It’s so simple, really. Don’t need no Simpson-Bowles, no Paul Ryan, no blue dogs, … don’t need nothin’ but some common sense and clarity of purpose.

      Dream on.

      • Simpson-Bowles also gets rid of all deductions for the middle class… mortgage interest included… the single biggest tax break that the common people enjoy.

            • the fuckheads don’t realize the middle class drives 70% of the economy, and we don’t have the cash nor can we borrow like we used to….

            • We’re all supposed to end up like the surface dwellers while the 1% party in the skies in Life the Universe and Everything!

  3. An old friend (and once more than friend) lives in Hawaii and creates a lot of digital photographs. She recently earned another prize with this

    I’d encourage you to look through her other work at that link.

  4. It would be simpler and fairer to let the Bush tax cuts expire for all brackets. I prefer that to keeping them and paying down the debt with policies decided in backroom deals between lobbyists and sellout politicians.

  5. Not a badmoodman level QOTD, but succinct nonetheless:

    “Life’s a Tripp” stumbles blindly over the ghostly rubble and ruined format of what was once commonly known as a reality show: There are sport utility vehicles in which to ride; boutiques in which to shop; Starbuckses in which to argue. There are microphone packs clipped to waistlines and bra straps. There are staged conversations during which one idly examines one’s split ends while the other person is talking. There is the furnished Beverly Hills mansion, redolent in its “Bachelorette” and Simpson-Lachey decor, smelling faintly of failed enterprises, pool chlorine and compromised souls.”
    Hank Stuever, reviewing Bristol’s reality show for the Washington Post

    • Really cool. I think there’s value is just taking shots of “everyday” things and scenes. Someday (if the photos survive) they’re a great time-capsule.

  7. Texas.

    Picasso Painting Vandalized in Houston | ABC News Blogs – Yahoo!

    Police are using security and cellphone video to locate a man who vandalized Pablo Picasso’s famous painting, “Woman in a Red Armchair,” at a museum in Houston.

    A fellow museum patron’s cellphone camera caught the moment when a man at Houston’s Menil Collection, which hosts nine Picassos, vandalized the 1929 painting. The painting was doused with gold spray paint in the image of a bull and the word “conquista,” according to police, who said the vandal then fled.

  8. TerrytheTurtle
    on June 19, 2012 at 11:26 am said:
    We’re all supposed to end up like the surface dwellers while the 1% party in the skies in Life the Universe and Everything!

    Reminded me of The Cloud Minders .

    • Even a second grader knows about trees being beneficial.
      Compared to DeWeese Bachmann comes across as a Mensa member!

      • Actually, Bachmann has also said that CO2 isn’t a poison and once argued that the Caribou of the tundra enjoy leaning against the nice warm pipeline.

        • I rescind my comment.
          Bachmann is on par with DeW – each living in a world apart from reality.

          • To be fair, they are both off the scale in stupidity so it becomes a moot point. I just don’t think that anyone can make Batscat look like a Mensa member.

        • I think that Palin touted the warm pipeling helping the Caribou thrive at the same time she was paying big money for wolf paws because the were decimating the Caribou population.

    • Tom, your biology teacher called.
      You never turned in your homework. Your grade has been changed from a D to an F minus.

    • Update:

      Phil Christofanelli [said] “there’s nothing offensive” about the video and discussed how gun control may have led to slavery in the United States too…. “Well, blacks weren’t allowed to own guns in the south, that’s a historical fact as well,” said Mr. Christofanelli. “So, it would seem that the argument would apply there as well.”

      If only the Africans had been allowed to stockpile muskets there would never have been slavery in the (oops, this precedes the United States) southern part of the continent. Looks like Joe found a spokesman at his local bar. Probably picked him up off the floor.

  12. I don’t know what I find most disturbing, the fact that the SamJoe the non-plumber has a spokesman, or the fact that the spokesman said this:
    “Well, blacks weren’t allowed to own guns in the south, that’s a historical fact as well,” said Mr. Christofanelli. “So, it would seem that the argument would apply there as well.”
    via TP

  14. BREAKING NEWS:
    Egypt’s state news agency MENA reports former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is “clinically dead.”

    Much like Mitt Romney’s personality.

    • “Clinically dead” as in Ken Lay dead? As in we’ll never know he was really dead?

    • And then she keeps defending her position. Like we’d know she is right if we read the definition of monkeys. The GOP won’t be happy until they start an all out race war. Now they’re lynching Eric Holder placing him in contempt. I’m so sick of it. I’m fighting with the people of color.

    • And the really disgusting part is that, if she actually suffers any consequences, the Reichwhiners will constantly bleat that “the libruls are attacking her 1st Amendment rights”.

    • Besides calling the President a monkey she iterates the callers

      The guy with rabbit ears in the White House.

      I voted for the white guy myself.

      Yet she isn’t racist. Shhhesh the stupid is thick.

      • I can’t believe she has a radio program…I take that back, here in AZ, yes, I can…

  18. Aw crap! I have lousy timing.

    I had just finished drinking a nice big cold glass of water when I noticed a piece of paper slid under my door. The city has informed the property management that they are concerned that the water supply is contaminated “with bacteria that may include E-Coli” and we shouldn’t use the water for 24 hours. I’m in pretty damned good health at the moment so I’m not terribly worried but does anyone out there know what early symptoms I should be concerned about?

    • Escherichia coli (E. coli)

      ..The main symptoms of an E. coli O157:H7 infection are:

      Bloody diarrhea.
      Stomach cramps.
      Nausea and vomiting.

      Some people do not notice any symptoms. Children are more likely than adults to have symptoms. Symptoms usually start 3 or 4 days after you come in contact with the E. coli.

      • Thanks, Ebb. I think I’ll just get drunk for the next few days. If I’m going to get sick I at least want a good hangover to show for it!

    • I used to do water testing for municipalities in TX in the 80′s, most “contamination” was usually just a false positive test. Sometimes it’s just a single colony on a agar plate. I wouldn’t worry too much.

      But if you are getting a notice about it, then it’s best to boil your water before using it to be sure.

      Children and the elderly tend to be affected more quickly than others. BMM and Ebb are correct, intestinal discomfort is the primary concern, if you are affected at all.

    • Oh my, he’s answering questions without a teleprompter and like he knows what he is talking about….Swoon. Not too shabby for a “monkey.*”

      * see above post about the racist AZ radio host

  21. The Education Deficit and the New Authoritarianism
    Tuesday, 19 June 2012 09:24 By Henry A Giroux, Truthout | Op-Ed

    The American public is suffering from an education deficit. By this I mean it exhibits a growing inability to think critically, question authority, be reflective, weigh evidence, discriminate between reasoned arguments and opinions, listen across differences and engage the mutually informing relationship between private problems and broader public issues. This growing political and cultural illiteracy is not merely a problem of the individual, one that points to simple ignorance. It is a collective and social problem . . . One of the major consequences of the current education deficit and the pervasive culture of illiteracy that sustains it is what I call the ideology of the big lie – which propagates the myth that the free-market system is the only mechanism to ensure human freedom and safeguard democracy.

    [...]

    There is little distance between what I am calling an education deficit and the reigning market authoritarianism, with its claim to be both synonymous with democracy and unquestionable in its assumptions and policies. The education deficit, a hallmark achievement of neoliberal capitalism, has produced a version of authoritarianism with a soft edge, a kind of popular authoritarianism that spreads its values through gaming, reality TV, celebrity culture, the daily news, talk radio and a host of other media outlets now aggressively engaged in producing subjects, desires and dreams that reflect a world order dominated by corporations and “free markets.” This a world that only values narrow selfish-interests, isolated competitive individuals, finance capital, the reign of commodities and the alleged “natural” laws of free-market fundamentalism. This type of turbo capitalism with its crushing cultural apparatuses of legitimation does more than destroy the public good; it empties democracy of any substance and renders authoritarian politics and culture an acceptable state of affairs. As the boundaries between markets and democratic values collapse, civil life becomes warlike and the advocates of market fundamentalism rail against state protections while offering an unbridled confirmation of the market as a template for all social relations.

    Notwithstanding the appeal to formalistic election rituals, democracy as a substantive mode of public address and politics is all but dead in the United States. The forces of authoritarianism are on the march and they seem at this point only to be gaining power politically, economically and educationally. Politicians at every level of government are in collusion with corporate power. Many have been bought by industry lobbyists. This despicable state of affairs was particularly evident in the 2010 elections. . . .
    [snip]

    Amen, amen, and AMEN.

    • I don’t disagree with the premise even a little bit but I’m not sure that we really have an “education deficit”. I think that most of our educators are doing all they can, and doing it well, but so many of the other forces in society counteract their best efforts. Just as a single example; it’s hard for a science teacher to make much of an impression when his/her students come into class already indoctrinated with so much bullshit. Whether it’s religious claptrap, bigotry, political dogma, blind nationalism, or even a heartfelt belief in Santa; our children are so filled with untruths that teachers are basically helpless in all too many cases.

      My parents didn’t take me to church and didn’t even introduce me to Santa. There were still surprise gifts under the tree on Christmas morning but I knew that my parents had bought them and spent all of Christmas Eve assembling said gifts. Mom would even gift-wrap individual batteries for electric toys and used them as stocking-stuffers. They also explained to me that I shouldn’t tell my friends that there was no Santa because it was a harmless story that made children happy.

      I’ll never forget the day, when I was 11 or 12, that I asked Dad why we didn’t go to church. He said; “your mother and I decided that we would never lie to our children”. Santa fell under the same edict. I still think I was extraordinarily fortunate to be born to my parents and, when I see a story about a little kid singing “ain’t no homo gonna get into Heaven” to a mob of fundies, I feel even more fortunate.

  22. Zooey on June 19, 2012 at 5:13 pm

    pachy
    on June 19, 2012 at 5:24 pm

    petelngh
    on June 19, 2012 at 5:46 pm

    Excellent!

    • Mittens could select a republican woman if he could find one that seemed to be at least normally intelligent. (not dissing the ladies from ME, I suspect they no longer really fit in with their party)

    • Or, he could channel his inner Caligula and nominate the dancing horse.

    • caption contest…

      “Oh look, a yard sale! I didn’t really want to hang around waiting for Mitt to call anyways…”

  24. Facebook post tonight from my daughter:

    Earlier today was at the SC (Santa Cruz) Toys R Us. They don’t have a “books” section, but they DO have “Jersey Shore Trivia Game” in the children’s game section. Failure, thy name is Toys R Us.

    • Jersey shore trivia question:

      At what National Wildlife Refuge do bodies from Atlantic City wash up on?

      (This not a trick question, or a joke…)

          • Wild guess on my part! I don’t really know the eastern seaboard, but I think the currents flow north.

            • Very, very good!
              Brigantine lies just to the north, at the southern end of Long Beach Island.
              The high rises of AC could be seen, seeming to rise up out of the ocean.

          • Heh indeedy… :)

            Brigantine NWR.

            I spent a couple years in Jersey back in the early 80′s.
            Along with impersonating the Jersey Devil by running across the Garden State Parkway at night timed just right to get caught in the oncoming headlights, I had some good times on Long Beach Island.

  28. Some ‘awwww‘ factor! We featured this Oystercatcher a couple of weeks ago as it was nesting in the most unusual of spots – in small depression in the top of a strainer post! Yesterday, Hugh and the pho-tour group were delighted to see two tiny chicks appear…

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