The Watering Hole, Saturday, April 30th, 2016: The View from Outside

We’re all tired of the U.S. media’s love/hate minute-by-minute coverage of The Donald, so I thought that ThinkProgress’s article on Trump’s international coverage might be interesting.

Occasionally humorous, i.e.:

MEXICO: “…the man who managed to make us miss the Bush clan” and “El Deforma, a satirical news site similar to The Onion…has included articles about Canada building a wall in case of a Trump victory and Pink Floyd building the wall if Mexico doesn’t pay for it.”

SOUTH AFRICA: “South Africa’s the New Age called Trump “arguably the most successful internet troll in today’s political spectrum,” noting that much of his social media commentary “reads like a laundry list of troll tactics.”

Sometimes insightful:

CANADA: “…the Globe and Mail’s conservative columnist Margaret Wente noted that a majority of Americans “would rather swallow arsenic than vote for Mr. Trump” and predicted his fall. “If Donald Trump were a stock, my advice would be to sell it now,” she wrote. “The one thing that has to happen is that Mr. Trump will have to change. And he can’t. His most deadly foe is himself. Mr. Trump has no situational awareness. He has no ability to take advice, or build bridges, or learn from others, or direct a team.”

Some surprisingly self-serving and hypocritical:

ISRAEL: ““As an Israeli Who Loves America, I Am Worried by Trump,” wrote Ari Shavit in the liberal publication Haaretz after a series of Trump victories in February. “After the astounding victories of the vulgar populist in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, it is clear to all that America is no longer the country we have known. It is no longer a nation with a prudent economic establishment, a contented middle class and a stable political system. It is no longer a nation confident in itself, its identity and its future. It is a frightened, angry America. An America that has lost its way,” he wrote. “To an Israeli who spends considerable time in debates about Israel between Boston and San Francisco, Trump is a relief. Suddenly Israeli politics seem a little less embarrassing.”

“…in March, Naomi Zeveloff published a piece in the Forward on how Trump’s offensive style was actually winning many Israeli admirers. “If America elects a person who advocates discrimination and condescension and even resentment toward minorities, maybe we won’t be so criticized by the West,” Yaron Ezrahi, a professor emeritus of political science at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, explained to Zeveloff regarding Israeli right-wing thinking on Trump.”

The TP article is very long with loads of links, and overall it’s pretty disturbing. But I recommend wading through it.

This is our daily Open Thread–okay, it’s the now-usually-Late-Afternoon Saturday edition. Go ahead and talk about stuff.

The Watering Hole; Friday April 29 2016; Nutso Factoids

The Wingnut World gets more nutso every day.

This factoid just in: Removing Jackson From Currency Shows ‘The Leftists Are Not Different From The Islamists’

[That’s the premise of] Joel Gilbert, the right-wing filmmaker who promotes the alternative birther theory that President Obama’s “real father” was labor activist Frank Marshall Davis; [Gilbert] joined far-right radio host Rick Wiles on his “Trunews” program on Monday to discuss what Wiles called the “cultural cleansing” taking place with the removal of President Andrew Jackson from the front of the $20 bill.

Gilbert took offense at the very idea of removing Hero Jackson from the twenty and putting up a black former slave woman! in his place. He found that whole notion to be as offending to white racists everywhere as are all those efforts to  get rid of the Confederate flag. In his mind, all that subversive stuff is nothing more than the effort of Liberals to, in effect,

“. . . change everything and pretty much apologize and condemn the greatness of America and the history and judge it according to current value standards of the media and condemn American history, apologize for American history and then cover it up.”

He further points out that

“The leftists are not different from the Islamists. Don’t forget the Islamists, when Islam burst out of Arabia in the sixth century, seventh century, they came to Jerusalem, they renamed it al-Quds. Several centuries later, they took over the Christian city of Constantinople. Now it’s called Istanbul.

“This is a way of changing the history to accommodate the new ideology in town, and changing the currency to wipe out the founding fathers from our consciousness, their principles and their ideals that created a nation of individual free markets and free speech, that is a way to achieve their long-term goals.”

Right. Because this here’s Amurkkka, dontcha know, and only us white male asshole bigots have any meaning at all. And wimmin, ‘specially black wimmin, ain’t got no business havin’ there pitcher on are money!

Something like that.

And remember, them damn Islamists changed the name of Jerusalem to al-Quds and the name of that Christian place called Constantinople to Istanbul., right? Right. And them Islamists are the same as our are Leftists, right? Right. So I’m guessing what that all means is that Leftists are gonna pretty soon start changing names of places in this here country. It figgers, right? Right.

So with me being a Leftist and all, I think it’s only fair that I git get that process underway by proposing we change the name of our Capitol from Washington to something that more closely recommends right wing Republican ideas, ideals, and their “principles.” With that in mind, here’s my suggestion:

WASHINGTON ➤ WASHACHTUNG!

Seems apropos, somehow.

That’s not likely to ever happen, of course. And there’s a really big reason for that:

Rick Wiles Warns Target Restroom Policy Will Spark Nuclear War

After reading from a statement about the bathroom policy from Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder, Wiles bellowed, “How about if I just urinate on your floor? How about that, Molly? Because you’re defecating on this nation. . . .

“God is going to use the Russians to bring down Sodom and Gomorrah if there’s no repentance in this land,” he said. “Listen, these freaks are going to get us all killed. They’re going to get us all killed. When there is a nuclear war, we all die.”

Oh well, so who cares. We’ll all be dead, right? Right. Yeehaw.

OPEN THREAD

The Watering Hole; Thursday April 28 2016; “Oh ICK!”

Oh ICK!!
(Radar O’Reilly)

In the aftermath of Tuesday’s five primaries, it now seems a safe bet that Bernie will not overcome Hillary, the Republican Establishment will not overcome Drumpf,  and November’s electoral choice will reveal whether the next President will be the first woman — or the first squirrel pelt — to ascend to the Oval Office.

So far I’ve noticed that Trump has at least one Republican Establishment figure that enthusiastically “supports!” his probable candidacy. That would be former Reagan and Poppy Bush staffer Bruce Bartlett, who has shown no hesitation in his backing of Trump and even voted for him in the Virginia Primary.

Former Reagan official Bruce Bartlett on why he backs Trump

Here’s a summary of Bartlett’s views, in his own words:

• I think the Republican Party is sick. It’s dying, it just doesn’t know it. And I think anything that speeds up its demise is to the good, because then it can reinvent itself and return as something healthy. . . .
• I think that Trump is a symptom of a disease of rampant stupidity, pandering to morons and bigots and racists and all the sort of stuff that defines today’s Republican coalition. And I just think it’s awful. . . .
• So I think that giving Trump the nomination is the surest path to complete and total destruction of the Republican Party as we know it. And I look forward to him getting the nomination for that reason. . . .
• I think he will have a historic loss. . . .
• But . . . my hope is, at least, that he will lead to a really serious assessment of the problems of the Republican Party, and lead to some opening of thought, opening of discussion, conversation among groups that have been sidelined for quite a long time. Mainly moderates and people of that sort who have been just pushed to the sidelines in favor of ever more rabid, nonsensical, right-wing authoritarianism.
• But . . . I also don’t think it really makes all that much difference whether Trump gets the nomination, because he’s already succeeded in destroying the Republican coalition as far as the general election is concerned. . . .
• So either way the party is looking at historic losses, historic defeat. And I think that is really, really a wonderful thing.

Bartlett may well be the first Republican I’ve run across in decades who has managed to summarize the past-due fate of the Republican Party’s crackpots-for-fifty-years-and-counting dilemma. Given his past associations I’m surprised it took Trump’s Primary successes to flip on all the lights, but what the hey, any port in a storm is better than continuing to ride the bouncing waves!

In any case, I have to go along with all of Bartlett’s notions, and given that TRUSSTED just selected Snarly Fiorina as his VP running mate, I’m hoping for results to come in sooner and not later. Meanwhile, Any enthusiasm I might have had for the other party has pretty much dropped off the map at about the same rate as Bernie has, given that I’m much more of the Democratic-Socialist persuasion than I am a DINO-Warhawk. What’s left, in other words, isn’t all that much, at least insofar as I can tell.

So I’ve decided to take a different tack this election year. I’m surely not interested in helping Drumpf “Make America Great Again;” also not particularly intrigued with what amounts to a neocon (lady, this time) warhawk in the Oval Office. I’ve seen the consequences of all that stuff way too often over the years and have gotten way too old (and wise) in the process. So I’ve come up with what I consider to be a genuinely intriguing alternate goal.

EDEN!

From all the things I’ve heard and read over the years, Eden be THE PLACE!! NO Republicans! NO Democrats! NO Commies! NO Fascists! Nothing but Peace and . . . well, you know. 😀 Clearly the search has got to be invariably tricky, but still, there are CLUES which will lead the way! Emily Dickinson pointed out the obvious:

Not seeing, still we know —
Not knowing, guess —
Not guessing, smile and hide
And half caress —
And quake — and turn away,
Seraphic fear —
Is Eden’s innuendo . . .

So I’ve set out on the quest, and may well be getting closer — In fact I do think that I have indeed stumbled upon the Seraphic fear of Eden’s innuendo!

I’m well on my way! And the best part is that all I have to do to assist Bartlett in his goal to destroy the Republican Party is to bring Drumpf, Cruz, Snarly, et al. and introduce them first hand to what I’ve found, and then, after their freak-out passes all the gas that inflates their non-resilient egos, the rest of Eden — the really good parts —  will magically show themselves and . . . well, you know! We won’t even need (or miss, for that matter) Hillary; only patience and determination, and all will be well!

Rowing in Eden —
Ah, the Sea!
Might I but moor — Tonight —
In Thee!
(Emily Dickinson)

Indeed. And today, even snakes be cool — compared to Drumpf (et al.).

OPEN THREAD

TWH, 04/27/2016: DC Circuit Court Upholds Deportation Law

A little noticed provision slipped into the latest military funding authorization bill survived judicial scrutiny last week. While the provision only affects residents of Washington D.C. it could have ramifications nationwide.

 

The anti-immigration provision was allegedly added by Mitch McConnell in an effort to appease the Tea Party caucus. It reads, simply enough, “All non-native people residing within the boundaries of Washington, District of Columbia, shall be deported to their country of origin.”

 

A legal challenge to the provision went before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals where it was upheld. The Court noted Congress had the power to make laws affecting Washington D.C. The Court further ruled that the language “non-native” was not ambiguous – that the statute applied to any individual whose ancestry did not include the indigenous peoples of the North American Continent before the arrival of peoples of European descent. The Court also interpreted “residing” to mean individuals with permanent, seasonal, or temporary residence within the District of Columbia, and excluding those who visit, staying in the nation’s capital two weeks or less in any given year.

 

With its ruling, the temporary stay on enforcement will expire in 30 days, barring intervention by the Supreme Court. Given the 4 – 4 split on the Supreme Court, it is highly unlikely the matter will be taken up for review. By the end of May, 2016, virtually all Senators and Representatives will be deported back to their ancestor’s country of origin.

OPEN THREAD

The Watering Hole, Tuesday April 26, 2016 – Environmental News and Food Politics

Which trees face death in drought?

Some species succumb more readily than others. Mass die-offs have happened in several western states in the past few years.

The Forest Book of the Dead

 

In other news, Pennsylvania MD and CONN all have primaries today. Can Sanders cut in to Hillary’s lead?

Open Thread

 

The Watering Hole, Monday, April 25th, 2016: Take a Deep Breath

Old orchard in spring

I know that I’ve trotted out this photo a few times over the years, at least in springtime. But it is one of my favorite pictures, and, well, it’s Spring. Although the apple blossoms are barely budding yet, lots of other flowering trees are blooming and the air is fragrant in the warming sunshine. The first of newly-mown lawns add their evocative scent. Bees are humming and I saw my first butterfly of the spring on Thursday. Of course, this also means that there’s a pollen alert every day, and this spring for the first time my allergies have escalated to the “burning eyes” level. But as long as I can breathe through my nose, even a little, I still want to stick my head out the car window like a dog and drink it all in.

Breathe in the springtime – it’ll do you good.

This is our daily Open Thread–what’s on your mind?

Sunday Roast: Let’s Go Crazy

The year 2016 has been pretty rough on the music world.  It’s too depressing to make a list of the amazing artists who’ve slipped the mortal coil…

Let’s Go Crazy is my favorite Prince song; it’s just SO perfectly Prince.  Purple Rain is the iconic Prince song, but Let’s Go Crazy — to me — is Prince & friends having a shitload of fun making great music.

Speaking of Purple Rain, Bruce Springsteen opened his most recent show with a tribute to Prince Rogers Nelson.

I truly hope that Prince made arrangements for his unreleased music to come out over the next few years.

This is our daily open thread — Post your fav Prince music, if you can find it!

BREAKING GNUS: SCOTLAND SOLVES THE TRANSGENDER BATHROOM CRISIS!

The Watering Hole; Friday April 22 2016; Eternity

I’ve dropped my Brain — My Soul is numb —
The Veins that used to run
Stop palsied — ’tis Paralysis
Done perfecter on stone
(Emily Dickinson)

I spent WASTED about five minutes yesterday, briefly watching Matt Lauer’s “interview” (yeah, right) of Donald Trump in a Town Hall, somewhere. My response, having shut the damn thing off as soon as I could find the remote, was to IMMEDIATELY thank Emily Dickinson for those four lines. Why? Because as a result of that momentary indiscretion on my part, I’ve dropped my Brain — My Soul is numb — eight words that have actually become the most able summation of my reaction to this year’s political asininity that I’ve run across to date.

And, as if Drumpf wasn’t bad enough, here are a few additional tidbits that induce even more dropping of the brain, more numbing of the soul:

Oath Keepers Website Warns Clinton Victory Could Lead To ‘Outright Civil War’

Pamela Geller: Obama Is Enforcing Sharia

David Kupelian: The Left Is Driving ‘Good Decent Christian Patriotic Americans’ Insane

And finally this nugget — the approximate equivalent of accidentally stepping in a pile of cow shit whilst enjoying a morning walk in an otherwise pristine forest or meadow:

Pat Boone: Those Behind SNL’s Christian Movie Parody Are Going To Hell

“When you speak against God and his purpose, we don’t have to ask for an apology. We need to stand up for what’s true and right, but then step aside because they’re answering to Him, not to us. That’s outright sacrilege and, as you know, I don’t think people will be offended by this, Jesus said that every sin a man can commit can be forgiven except against blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Well, the Holy Spirit is God and that sin is not to be forgiven in this world or the world to come. So my feelings now are not so much anger as sadness for what I fear is ahead for the people that are doing these things.”

Conclusion: Jesus H. Christ and Goddammit! I’m apparently doomed to the worst hell I can imagine — spending eternity as Pat Boone’s eternal roomie!

OK. I give up. Hell with politics, hell with religionistas, hell with their subterranean level of brainpower, of eternity. As Voltaire put it, Écrasez l’infame. ‘Crush the infamous.’ I couldn’t agree more. Amen.

Here’s my better idea; explore — again and always — THIS eternity! A new and fresh one begins and ends EVERY DAY! Examples:

▲Sunrise, Lake Beckwith Colorado, 2014▲

▲Sunrise, Wailua Bay Kauai, 1978▲

▲Sunrise, Cabo San Lucas, 1983▲

▲Sunrise, Sonoran Desert Arizona, 2001▲

▲Sunset, West Maui, 1978▲

There. Soothing. Gentle. That’s what the world could easily be . . . sans that unbelievably immense pile of subhuman dregs and their ever-boisterous advocates; learn from them, once again, that ancient lesson, and note that — indeed — some things never seem to change:

“Zapata . . . took to preaching God in all simplicity.
He announced to men the common Father, the rewarder,
the punisher, and pardoner. He extricated the truth from the lies,
and separated religion from fanaticism; he taught and practised
virtue. He was gentle, kindly, and modest; and he was
burned at Valladolid in the year of grace 1631.”
(Voltaire)

Take instead that other path — Wander. Observe. Enjoy.

And tell Drumpf, et al., to SHUT UP!

******

OPEN THREAD

RIP Prince

This one hurts, too.

The Watering Hole; Thursday April 21 2016; “Divine Insanity”

Conversion of the Mind
Like Sanctifying in the Soul —
Is witnessed — not explained . . .

I’ve long admired those lines by Emily Dickinson. They so perfectly summarize just about everything we’re seeing these days, both in Republican Politics and in Wingnut Christerism (assuming there’s any significant difference between the two). The fact that she wrote them more than 150 years ago suggests that not much has changed over that span of time, that this country has long been roughly as nuts as it seems today. I could fill pages with the inanities and insanities of just the current day, but rather than write an encyclopedia, I’ll limit this exposition to a pair of pertinent explorations. But wow. Just wow. Well, you’ll see.

Mark Taylor’s “amazing 2011 prophecy that Donald Trump has been marked by God to lead America”

Taylor explained [to Rick Wiles] that God told him that Donald Trump will be the next president and that anyone who criticizes him will be struck down, explaining that God has been preparing Trump for his entire life to become an extraordinarily successful president who will fight Satan. . . .

Taylor also alleged that God made Fox News host Megyn Kelly “violently ill” for asking Trump “gotcha” questions at the first GOP presidential debate: “God was firing a warning shot: Don’t attack my anointed. Period.”

“The kingdom of darkness is attacking this man like never before,” Taylor said. “God is using this man — he’s not rattling the gates, because when you rattle the gates you don’t make entry — this man is literally splitting the kingdom of darkness right open.” . . .

“God is using him to literally split hell right open and stop this New World Order,” he added.

Taylor then compared Trump to Jesus Christ and said that he is “absolutely” sure that Trump will be elected president in November.

OK, so that one’s bad, really bad, maybe even a little on the bizarre side. I mean, God chooses Drumpf? Even if there be a god out there somewhere, It would only choose Drumpf if cosmic insanity had set in somehow, which in such case would signal yet another cosmic dilemma such as the one that we see every day in our political world, the one where Sanctifying in the Soul — Is witnessed — not explained.

Then there’s this, a “brief” excerpt from a more complete expression and exposition of a Divine Insanity:

Steve Quayle and Tom Horn: Giants, demonic portals, and the return of the Nephilim

Deuteronomy 3:13 And the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, being the kingdom of Og, gave I unto the half tribe of Manasseh; all the region of Argob, with all Bashan, which was called the land of giants.

These passages have left many questions, such as: Where did these giants come from? What was their connection with ordinary humans? What happened to them? And is it possible they could return? Quayle and Horn have spent most their adult life searching for the answers to these mysteries, and believe they not only can, but have returned.

Over the years, every interview Rick Wiles has conducted with both Horn and Quayle has exposed an encyclopedia of knowledge and insight. Today’s interview lived up to that expectation.

During the interview Steve Quayle, Tom Horn and Rick Wiles discussed:

• The satanic plan to genetically manipulate the human race.
• Evidence that we are coming into the Days of Noah.
• The Vatican observatory called the Large Binocular Telescope Near-infrared Utility with Camera and Integral Field Unit for Extragalactic Research (LUCIFER), located on Mt. Graham in Tucson Arizona.
• The real reason the Apache indians filled [sic] a lawsuit to stop the Vatican, NASA, and Arizona State University from building on Mt. Graham.
• The American Indian’s drawings on Mt. Graham depicting a great flood, giants cannibalizing humans, and evil entities coming through “star gates”.
• The origins of sorcery, magic and medicine men in the American Indian culture, and its historical parallel to biblical scripture.
• Pope Francis’ secret meeting with an “entity” who came through a dimensional portal at Mt. Graham.
• Zecharia Sitchin’s work, who funded it, and why.
• The origins of Giants, their characteristics, and evidence of their existence throughout documented history.
• The red haired giant a US special forces unit killed in the mountains of Afghanistan.
• The coinciding trips Barack Obama, Pope Francis, and Patriarch Kirill took to the Antarctic, and the secret importance of the region.
• The reason God instructed the children of Israel to kill all men, women, and children in the Land of Canaan.
• What Jesus said about the Nephilim, and the biblical evidence of their existence.
• Rick Wiles’ dream of an underground ‘hybrid’ army preparing to invade the world.

So there you go. God wants Drumpf as Amurkkka’s POTUS, even as It creates an underground ‘hybrid’ army preparing to invade the world. Makes me sorta happy that I’m a non-theist and not a member of that ‘other’ tribe.

‘Twas a Divine Insanity —
The Danger to be Sane
Should I again experience —
‘Tis Antidote to turn —
To Tomes of solid Witchcraft . . .
(Emily Dickinson)

‘Solid Witchcraft’ indeed. So . . . I give up. I surrender. As Judy Woodruff likes to say,

“We’ll have to leave it there.”

OPEN THREAD

TWH, Hump Day, 4/20. Need I say more?

So, yesterday Hillary Clinton notched a victory in Wall Street’s home state. She now has 1893 delegates to Bernie Sanders’ 1180. Ms. Clinton only needs 490 delegates out of the remaining 1704 delegates still available to clinch the Democratic nomination. If not for the wisdom of the upper echelons of the Democratic Party, it would be a much closer race: 1424 to 1149. But Democratic Superdelegates have thrown their weight behind Wall Street’s choice and they will not be dissuaded by popular opinion. That’s what makes them so “super”.

On the other side of the political spectrum, Trump trounced the opposition in New York. He walked away with 60% of the vote to Cruz’s 15%. The Republican delegate count now stands at Trump, 845; Cruz,559; and Kasich, 147. Trump needs 392 out of the 734 still available to have the nomination locked up. If he keeps picking up delegates at the rate he did in New York, Trump will walk in owning the Republican Convention.

Now, while you, gentle reader, are digesting the ramifications of the above, for something completely different:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/20/420-meaning-the-true-stor_n_543854.html

OPEN Thread

The Watering Hole, Tuesday, April 19, 2016:

Political Genetics

gene

[jēn]

 

NOUN

1. (in informal use) a unit of heredity that is transferred from a parent to offspring and is held to determine some characteristic of the offspring:

   “proteins coded directly by genes”

   • (in technical use) a distinct sequence of nucleotides forming part of a chromosome, the order of which determines the order of monomers in a polypeptide or nucleic acid molecule which a cell (or virus) may synthesize.

Powered by Oxford Dictionaries · © Oxford University Press ·

 

I never knew this until recently, but a grain of rice has more genes (50,000) than humans (about 25,000). You would think a more advanced creature like us would have more, but scientists theorize that rice has been around longer, and had had to make more adaptations, thus creating more genes. An organism can never reduce its number of genes, but they can be added over time but the influence of environmental factors. Genetically the two fish below are brown trout. The first one has evolved in the environment of northern Europe.

The second has evolved in Italy.

There are many more isolated populations with color morphs more drastic, but they are all salmo trutta. The color morphs reflect the effect local environments have on the species. When they reproduce in the isolated rivers where the morphs are distinctly different, the offspring resemble the immediate parentage, that is to say they are evolving in to a very different sub-species.

Can the same be said to be true for humans political evolution? Has our species had enough time in the environment of democracy to take on unique characteristics? The politics of Iceland, or Sweden seem so very different from Italy or the US. In politics, as in the animal world, do superior traits win out? Or asked this way, will the US ever get to the point of being close to the Nordic countries? Are they on a different evolutionary path?

Open thread.

The Watering Hole, Monday, April 18, 2016: Why Democracy Doesn’t Really Work For Americans

America is supposed to be a Democracy. It’s supposed to be a country with a government of the People (according to the dictionary), and by the People and for the People (according to President Lincoln.) Let’s face some cold hard Truths. It isn’t. Any of those things. The few rich and powerful in this country (and Donald J. Trump is one of those rich and powerful people) really do control things beyond what the People want to have happen. I’m not so naive as to think that isn’t a cold hard Truth. I know. It sounds conspiratorial. Bitter. Even a tiny bit ignorant. Oh, sure. They hold these annual or semi-annual events they call “elections,” but it’s not like we have the greatest of choices for which to cast our ballots. We get the choices the folks running the show want us to have. They decide who the parties will put up, and we get to pick from the choices we’re given. But are we really fit to be doing that?

Bill Moyers sat down with Rick Shenkman, the author of Political Animals: How Our Stone-Age Brain Gets in the Way of Smart Politics (and Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of History News Network), to talk about how and why someone as clearly unqualified to be President of these United States (as opposed to the United States of Mexico, I suppose) could be so apparently close to achieving that office as is Trump. It all comes down to this: as a species, humans have not sufficiently evolved to the point where we are able to make rational decisions based on facts no matter how unpleasant, and not on gut instincts that tell us to make quick decisions about how to respond to the danger we perceive. Humans are still easily manipulated into feeling we’re in danger, and when people are afraid, they do not take the time to make well-thought out decisions on how to proceed. Instead, they go with what experience (even experience without proper training) tells them to do. When they feel safe enough to stop and assess their situation, they may find the danger was not as great as they were led to believe. They may also come to realize that had they known then, when they were being told of the danger, what they know now, they might not have done the same things they did when they thought they were in greater danger (like knock that old lady down who was taking too long at the pharmacy counter.)

The cold hard truth is that though we humans have evolved over the hundreds of thousands of years, we still have brains hard wired to look for dangers in our environment that are no longer there. In many places, we have built civilized societies, free of the dangerous roaming predators that once hunted our ancestors. You may look around and see buildings made of wood, steel and concrete, but your brain is still going to look for the hidden tiger waiting to pounce from…well, from somewhere. The amygdala in our brains looks for things that have caused us harm before and sends warning signals to our prefrontal cortexes. It’s the prefrontal cortex that does the actual analysis on what you’re encountering and decides what, if any, action you should take. Is that a snake? No, it’s a garden hose, so I don’t have to do anything to protect myself. Later, when you walk past it again, your amygdala is still going to send that danger signal to your prefrontal cortex, but this time your prefrontal cortex will tell you you’ve already determined it’s nothing dangerous and will ignore the danger warnings. The key to not panicking every time we think we’re confronted by danger is in how much thought we put into analyzing what w’re being told is dangerous. The less time your brain spends thinking about something, the more likely it will produce a conservative outcome. And Conservative politicians (mostly Republican, but some Democrats, too) have learned this, and so they constantly try to tell you that you’re in great danger, and that you should do what they tell you if you want to survive. (Yes, some even say your survival is at stake.) And what they want you to do is, of course, one of the worst things you could do if you really want to look out for what’s in your own best interests. And they tell you this because they know if you’re too scared, you won’t think and realize you’re being lied to. And you’ll do something thoughtless, like voting for a Conservative Republican.

Thanks to the destruction of our public education system by conservative ideologues, Americans lack the critical thinking skills needed to address the growing dangers we actually face – like the fact that our planet’s temperature has been steadily rising (do not believe anyone who tells you differently) and the ripple effects of that temperature rise will be dramatic changes to our overall climate. Landlocked ice will start to melt in larger amounts, causing the sea levels to rise. (The ice already in the water will not do anything to make the water level go up when it melts, just the added water from the snow and ice that melts off land surfaces into the oceans.) Nearly two out of every five Americans lives in counties directly on a shoreline. But rising sea levels won’t affect just Americans, a study found, “As of 1998, over half the population of the planet — about 3.2 billion people — lives and works in a coastal strip just 200 kilometers wide (120 miles), while a full two-thirds, 4 billion, are found within 400 kilometers of a coast.” It’s an extremely serious problem, but judging from what Americans seem to find important, it’s not one we’re prepared to address anytime soon. On account of how ill-educated and fearful we are. And because we don’t seem to want to be put people in charge who are capable of doing what needs to be done to fix it. Not when there are so many votes to be had by making people afraid of it.

Daily open thread. Don’t be afraid of it.

Sunday Roast: Vivaldi Spring

Well, it’s acting like Spring more and more around here — gorgeous sunny days, rain, hail, overcast, wind, flowering trees, sneezing, more sun, more sneezing, etc — so I thought I’d post the definitive music of Vivaldi’s Spring.

Feel free to post your own Spring-ish music or photos in the comments section.

This is our daily open thread — What are you doing today?

The Watering Hole, Saturday, April 16th, 2016: This Day in History

History.com lists various events that occurred on April 16th in history, some of which have continued relevance these days. For instance:

– In 1943, Albert Hoffman, a Swiss chemist, “accidentally consumes LSD-25, a synthetic drug he had created in 1938 as part of his research into the medicinal value of lysergic acid compounds.” Hoffman’s notes on the experience state:

“Last Friday, April 16, 1943, I was forced to interrupt my work in the laboratory in the middle of the afternoon and proceed home, being affected by a remarkable restlessness, combined with a slight dizziness. At home I lay down and sank into a not unpleasant, intoxicated-like condition characterized by an extremely stimulated imagination. In a dreamlike state, with eyes closed (I found the daylight to be unpleasantly glaring), I perceived an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors. After some two hours this condition faded away.”

Since that discovery, efforts by (most famously) Dr. Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey to promote LSD as a recreational drug eventually led to the drug being banned even for medicinal use in the U.S., and later by the United Nations. Research on the drug became nearly impossible, but a recent study explains a bit more about how LSD affects/stimulates parts of the brain:

“A team at Imperial College London says they found it broke down barriers between areas that control functions like vision, hearing and movement. The study was with a small group – 20 subjects – but the researchers say it could lead to a revolution in the way addiction, anxiety and depression are treated.”

– In 1947, Bernard Baruch coined the term “Cold War.” In a speech he gave at the unveiling of his portrait in the South Carolina House of Representatives (in which he also discussed industrial labor problems, in part calling “for longer workweeks, no-strike pledges from unions, and no-layoff pledges from management”), Baruch stated:

“Let us not be deceived-we are today in the midst of a cold war. Our enemies are to be found abroad and at home. Let us never forget this: Our unrest is the heart of their success. The peace of the world is the hope and the goal of our political system; it is the despair and defeat of those who stand against us. We can depend only on ourselves.”

– Also in 1947: while loading ammonium nitrate fertilizer, along with tobacco and “government-owned ammunition” onto a freighter in Texas City, Texas, a massive ammonium nitrate explosion killed 581 people as it blew the freighter to smithereens.

Coincidentally, on April 17th, 2013, the West Fertilizer Company in West, Texas, exploded, killing 15 people and injuring scores more, and caused massive damage and destruction of nearby property. Apparently in 66 years, Texans hadn’t learned that ammonium nitrate is dangerous.

– In 2007, a disturbed student who should never have been able to own a gun killed 32 fellow students and faculty at Virginia Tech. According to History.com:

“Two days later, on April 18, NBC News received a package of materials from Cho with a time stamp indicating he had mailed it from a Virginia post office between the first and second shooting attacks. Contained in the package were photos of a gun-wielding Cho, along with a rambling video diatribe in which he ranted about wealthy “brats,” among other topics…
The public soon learned that Cho, described by ex-classmates as a loner who rarely spoke to anyone, had a history of mental-health problems. It was also revealed that angry, violent writings Cho made for certain class assignments had raised concern among some of his former professors and fellow students well before the events of April 16.”

Uh, yeah, so what have we learned from that, what has changed to prevent a similar disaster? ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOTHING.

– And on this day in history in 1956 – 60 years ago – my oldest friend, Laurie Miles, was born. We’ve been friends since we were about 4 years old, beginning soon after our families moved to North Road in Brewster Heights, a brand-new development (aka subdivision) set on top of a hill overlooking the Middle Branch Reservoir.

Top Photo: the Sechny ‘homestead’ ; Bottom: Laurie’s dog Winnie

Everyone should have a friend with whom, even through time and distance, one can just pick up and continue that friendship, wherever/whenever. Laurie and I enjoy that kind of friendship, wherein we’ve been connected for so long that it’s wired into our DNA.

So Happy Birthday to my oldest and dearest friend, Laurie.

This is our daily Open Thread–better late than never!

BREAKING GNUS: North Carolina Republicans Double Down on Bathroom Bill

GNUS reports the news

THIS JUST IN: North Carolina Republicans introduce new bathroom bill in State Legislature. New Bill said to prevent gays and lesbians from using bathrooms that correspond to their gender at birth.

The Watering Hole; Friday April 15 2016; Climate Change: Is It Visible?

“Nature is always presenting us with surprises.
And perhaps we are surprised only because we are ignorant.”
(John C. Van Dyke)

I’ve been wondering if/when some signs of climate change and global warming are going to become visible via a quick glance out of my (or most anyone’s) window. In that regard, in fact, I have to wonder if maybe I might have spotted one of those local indicators, and maybe even managed to record it digitally for posterity — last month, March 2016, globally the warmest March since records have been kept.

Below is a series of five photos of the same basic scene (Rocky Mountain Front Range, the series of peaks called the Sierra Mojada, or the Wet Mountains) taken from the same spot (my tee-tiny office’s window). The dates begin in September 2009 and end just last month in March 2016, and each one shows the mountains on the morning after a heavy snowfall. I should note that the four main snow-clad peaks are, l. to r., Greenhorn, North Peak, Mt. St. Charles, and Round Top (clipped, not fully shown). Each peak stands above the timberline and ranges in elevation from 11,750 ft. to 12,350 ft., and all are typically white with snow from late September thru mid-May. Till this year, that is.

The first photo is the ‘oldest’ and shows three of the four peaks noted above, and each of the mountains are snow-clad from summit to base (approx. 7000 ft.). The pair of pines in the foreground stand a block from my window at roughly 6000 ft. and about 7 miles from the base of the mountains. The Mojada are about 5000 ft. tall, i.o.w.

▲1. September 2009▲

The second photo mainly focuses on North Peak and Mt. St. Charles (with portions of Greenhorn and Round Top, l. and r., resp.). Note that the pines in the foreground are free of snow but the peaks and the heavily timbered mountain slopes are covered with the white stuff.

▲2. April 2010▲

Photo number 3 shows the result of a heavy snow from the summits to below 6000 ft, foreground pines included.

▲3. October 2011▲

Photo 4 shows Mt. St. Charles the morning after a heavy snowfall that once again coated the pines at 6000 ft. Note the date.

▲4. February 2015▲

Finally, the fifth photo shows one of the strangest snowfalls I’ve ever seen. Note that the summits of both North Peak and Mt. St. Charles are far less snow-clad than is typical — lots of bare spots — and the 6000 ft. foreground pines are also clear of snow. The only fresh snow is in the band from the mtn’s base (around 7000 ft) to the cutoff point about halfway up the slope, or around 9500 ft. The date is 13 months beyond number 4 above — March 2016, the “hottest” March since records have been kept.

▲5. March 2016▲

Is that weird snowfall pattern a ‘symptom’ of climate change as seen through my window? I have to wonder how often, historically, mountain snows have made it a point to avoid the summits and instead go for the mid-range elevations elevations only. First time for everything, I suppose, especially on a world in which the most intelligent species consistently performs (and then ignores the consequences thereof) the role of what could easily be viewed as LEAST! intelligent.

I should check with James Inhofe, maybe? Or Trump? Is what I’m seeing happening because of something the Chinese are doing in their effort to sabotage the world economy? Something like that?

If I do hear back from them, I’ll make sure to spread the word. Meanwhile —

“If we but knew our facts, they would point their own conclusions,
and neither theory nor argument would be needed.”
(John C.Van Dyke)

Yeehaw.

******

OPEN THREAD

The Watering Hole; Thursday April 14 2016; Public Lands

More than a decade ago, I penned the following in my attempt to summarize the fears of environmentalists everywhere concerning the future of public lands — courtesy of right wing politicians — in this country:

It’s a non-arguable fact of life, so to speak, that the earth’s environment, especially the biosphere, the earth-atmosphere interface in which life exists, is critical to . . . well, it’s critical to the existence of life itself. That is, of course, unless one happens to be a Bush Republican, at which point the biosphere becomes little more than just another big word, one that sounds like something a tree-hugger might speak in the same breath as ‘ecology’ or ‘endangered species’; tree-huggers: you know, those weirdos that think trees and owls and undeveloped land are worth more than the money they can bring in.

I would only wish that last statement be hyperbole and not an understated fact.

[. . .]

In any case, the environment is under attack by this administration. Whether one speaks of global warming, or destroying wilderness, polluting the air and water, strip mining, logging, the further endangerment of endangered species, “junk” science (altered) in order to justify/sanctify misdeeds, drastic reductions in Super-Fund appropriations and hence in cleanups, or just plain selling out to business, to corporate campaign contributors – the verdict is guilty, guilty as charged, guilty before all the gods that be or don’t be.

Sadly, the current destruction is only the half of it; it’s very likely that the other hammer will drop one day in the not too distant future. The ultimate atrocity remains: the conversion of public lands into saleable assets, into that single most valuable of all earthly commodities, money. All arrows are slowly beginning to point in that general direction. Could it really happen? Could the Grand Canyon be sold and opened for development? Sadly, the answer is very likely ‘yes.’ Consider:

There are upwards of 100,000,000 acres of wilderness set aside in the United States, along with hundreds of National Parks and monuments which protect and preserve tens of thousands of square miles of the nation’s most awe-inspiring lands. From the Grand Canyon to Yellowstone and Glacier, from Yosemite to Zion and Rocky Mountain National Park, places unlike anywhere else in the world are protected for perpetuity – or so we’re told. Denali, Big Bend, Petrified Forest, Haleakala – each and all are jewels in the American crown. And we must not forget, too, the National Forests, National Grasslands, wetlands, wild rivers – the list goes on and on and on – multiple-use lands which themselves enjoy at least a modicum of protection from private business interests. Altogether, the dollar value of America’s public lands must be nearly inestimable, and to think said lands are not coveted by speculators and developers, both foreign and domestic, perhaps even by other nations as the most solid possible investment, would be naive to say the least. As Will Rogers said, “Invest in land, they’re not making it anymore.”

[. . .]

At one time, the American currency was the world’s standard, backed by the word, the resources, and the robust economy of the United States. For foreign investors, the dollar was as safe a haven as a mother’s arms. But no longer; today it is not. Today the dollar is a risky investment at best, and apparently is destined to become riskier and riskier with every passing month. What if America has one last asset, and it’s a big one. Imagine the boom if:

✓ Wilderness areas were offered for purchase by private developers?
✓ National Parks were sold to the highest bidder?
✓ Forests were to become the property of timber companies and/or land developers?

Those are just three aspects of what may well become a reality, a way to bail out an otherwise heavily indebted America, plus a way to spur development (read: create jobs) on prime and pristine lands especially across the west and in each Alaska and Hawaii. The travesty is unimaginable – perhaps that’s why it just may happen, why it may even be part and parcel to an already-existing plan. “Starve the beast” – turn America over to the private sector. Could this be what George Bush means when he speaks glowingly of his “ownership society”? A nation where even that which we today call Public Land is destined for private ownership? Remember, today’s current head of public lands is a mining industry lobbyist who believes that public lands are unconstitutional.

We can hope for sanity to reappear, but dare we hold our breath in anticipation?

That was written WAY back in April 2005, just months after G.W.Bush began his second term as the POTUS whose aberrant first term fiscal policies had already completely reversed the financial debt-reduction progress his predecessor had initiated. Bush had also made it clear that land preservation and environmental issues including designation of wildlife refuges, of Wilderness, of National Monuments would not be on his docket because, after all, there’s no money, no profit, in ANY of that, so why the hell bother? And as Reagan’s Interior Secretary (and fundamentalist Christian) James Watt reportedly once noted, “God gave us these things to use. After the last tree is felled, Christ will come back.”

So that was then. THIS is NOW:

Tea Party Wave Washes Up ‘Anti-Parks Caucus’ In Congress

A group of 20 senators and representatives has formed a de facto “anti-parks caucus” in Congress and is waging the most significant legislative and ideological challenge to America’s national parks in decades, says a new report released Monday by the Center for American Progress. The analysis finds that this anti-parks caucus is composed of less than five percent of Congress but is responsible for introducing dozens of bills to block the creation of new national parks, end America’s most effective parks program, and sell off public lands.

Eight anti-parks caucus members also participate in the Federal Land Action Group, a group formed last year with the sole purpose of developing land grab legislation that would transfer federal land to state and local control.

[. . .]

Such partisan politics ring true with the 20-member anti-parks caucus which includes Reps. Rob Bishop (R-UT) and Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), and Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Ted Cruz (R-TX).

Surprise surprise. Right? Yeah, right.

I personally find that to be the most vividly disgusting anti-intelluctual and anti-American Congressional premise I’ve run across in the roughly 64 years I’ve been paying attention to their collective nonsensicals, and I find it to be insurmountably incomprehensible that ANYONE would ever vote FOR such a treacherous and treasonous voice for ANY elective office, POTUS and DOGCATCHER included.

I’m reminded of the words of Author John C. Van Dyke who, more than a century ago, wrote this excellent summation:

“…with the coming of civilization the grasses and the wild flowers perish, the forest falls, and its place is taken by brambles, the mountains are blasted in the search for minerals, the plains are broken by the plow and the soil is gradually washed into the rivers. Last of all, when the forests have gone the rains cease falling, the streams dry up, the ground parches and yields no life, and the artificial desert – the desert made by the tramp of human feet – begins to show itself, Yes; everyone must have cast a backward glance and seen Nature’s beauties beaten to ashes under the successive marches of civilization…”

When, I wonder, will enough people figure all that out and take steps to curtail the greed and idiocy that’s come to define this country?
Not until it’s too late, I’d guess.

OPEN THREAD

TWH, 4/13/16, Hump Day

Tired of politics as usual? Then sit back, take a break, and enjoy the scenery.

No rain, no rainbows.

A Bird of Paradise taking flight.

Banyan tree, Lahaina, Maui

 

Water spraying out of a blow hole in Maui’s most recent lava flow.

 

Cinder cone at Maui’s most recent lava flow.

 

Ocean spraying about 100 feet into the air at the Nakalele Point blow hole, Maui.

 

Aloha and mahalo, Maui.

 

All photographs © Briseadh na Faire 2016

All rights reserved.

OPEN THREAD

The Watering Hole,Tuesday April 12, 2016 – Environmental News and Food Politics

Six to 10 million years ago: Ice-free summers at the North Pole

Finally, Republicans can tout real science that global warming is not a man-made event. It happened before millions of years ago.

See, it happened before, when man was not around in sufficient numbers to eff things up.

Open thread.

The Watering Hole, Monday, April 11, 2016: I’d Vote For This One

This ad has no demonizing, no demon sheep, no end-of-days predictions if the other candidate wins, and it’s not set to “Il Fortuna.” What’s not to like? One thing’s for sure, I’d vote for the “Generic” candidate over Trump or Cruz any day!

 

~~~~~~~

This is our daily Open Thread–go ahead, open up a discussion.

The Watering Hole, Saturday, April 9, 2016: David Barton – What a Fool Believes

I know you’re at least a relatively intelligent person. I know some of you are at least as intelligent, though nowhere near as vain, as I. I know you’re not incredibly stupid, because you wouldn’t even be trying to read this blog if you were. You’d be perplexed by the preponderance of polysyllabic put downs pointed at perennially petrified prevaricators of poison posing as presidential possibles as you probe your proboscis with a pinky. You poopy-head. So I know you’re not so foolish as to believe what self-titled “historian” and delusional snake oil salesman David Barton had to say about the relationship between how one reads, interprets, and understands The Bible (specific edition and reasons why it’s better than the other versions unknown) and the Constitution of the United States (the one that makes no mention of The Bible or God, and which even says you can’t require a religious test for any public office in the United States, including Chaplain.) Barton’s been known to say ridiculous things many, many, many, many times before, but this recent one was a real head scratcher. Even scratching someone else’s head didn’t help.

“If your religious faith is such that it doesn’t connect you to God, you’re not going to be good for the country. How they look at the Bible will tell you how they’re going to look at the Constitution. I’m not saying the Bible and the Constitution are the same thing, but I’m saying you have the same view toward authority, you have the same view toward there are absolutes, there are standards that should be followed and must be followed.

He continued…

“The fervency with which someone follows their religious faith, a biblical faith, is nearly always a direct indicator of how well they will follow the Constitution. If they don’t respect the Bible, they won’t respect other firm, fixed documents like the Constitution, so we, as citizens, ought to engage in that type of personal religious test for our president.”

Didn’t someone just mention how the Constitution prohibits any kind of religious test to hold public office in the US? Oh, yeah! It was me, just a few sentences ago. My how time flies. And my how wrong he is. So very, very wrong.

If your religious faith is such that it doesn’t connect you to God,
There are thousands of variations of what are legitimately called religious belief systems practiced, for good or for evil, throughout the world. Many of them involve no gods of any kind, but instead promote a spiritual connection to the planet and all life on it, especially your fellow human beings. Atheism is not one of the religious belief systems, because Atheism is not a religion. It’s simply the belief that there are no such things as gods. Any other beliefs about the Universe, its origins, and whether or not you should work with your fellow human beings to make life better for all of us or be a selfish conservative jerk are entirely separate.

you’re not going to be good for the country.
I’m going to stop you again right there, Davey. There is this false conceit among Evangelicals that it is impossible to have a moral center without a belief in, and fear of, one or more gods. Nothing could be further from The Truth. People can be and are good without God. No matter which God you believe will punish you or reward you after you die, that God still wants you to follow one rule above all others that even the people who don’t believe in that God follow: Treat other people the way you would like them to treat you. It’s so simple, and there’s no argument against it. Human beings are social creatures (not me; I am a creature, just not a very social one), and in order to both survive and prosper, we depend on other people. No matter how much of a rugged individualist you might think you are, you cannot prosper alone. You might be able to survive, but you won’t be able to do more than that. And you probably won’t smell too good, either. We need the help of others, so it makes sense to treat others the way we’d like them to treat us. You don’t need to fear an eternity of pain and suffering after you die on this plane of existence to understand that. So why bother fearing it?

How they look at the Bible will tell you how they’re going to look at the Constitution.
How I look at a work of pure fiction, put together for the sole purpose of controlling people’s lives through fear and intimidation, will tell people how I look at the founding document that guides how my country will govern me and treat me as a citizen? Even when the founding document makes no mention of the work of pure fiction, or whether or not I have to believe it? Not sure how they’re the same.

I’m not saying the Bible and the Constitution are the same thing,
Good, because it would prove you’re an idiot if you did.

but I’m saying you have the same view toward authority,
No, you don’t. The Bible commands the People to obey the ones in authority; the Constitution commands the ones in authority to obey the People. The Bible is not for people who want to be free, it’s for people who want to be authoritarian followers.

you have the same view toward there are absolutes, there are standards that should be followed and must be followed.
I don’t want to digress into an area in which I’m not well educated, that of moral absolutes, but I will say that throughout human history there have been people who have found excuses to commit the most heinous of atrocities against other human beings, and often those excuses had their roots in religious beliefs.

“The fervency with which someone follows their religious faith, a biblical faith, is nearly always a direct indicator of how well they will follow the Constitution.
That would mean the reverse is true, too. That how well they follow the Constitution is an indicator of the fervency with which they follow their biblical faith. There is absolutely no connection between the two. Virtually every president in our nation’s history, from all parties, has to a certain extent violated the Constitution. Some did it to test principles, and some did it because didn’t know any better. But all of them (to date) claimed to be Christians. I can only name one president who I know practiced what his faith taught him to do, who actually did what his religion said he should do for people less fortunate than himself, and to this day he continues to be vilified by the very people who claim if you’re not Christian, you’re not worth public office in the United States. And that man is President James Carter. The Religious Right wanted to deify Ronald Reagan so much that they had to make the political opponent he defeated, Jimmy Carter, out to be the most evil human to walk the planet. If Ronald Reagan was going to be a saint, then Jimmy Carter had to be the devil. Does anybody truly believe that Jimmy Carter would deliberately violate a law passed to ban him from giving money to certain people by trading arms for hostages? Religious Conservatives is so nutty.

If they don’t respect the Bible, they won’t respect other firm, fixed documents like the Constitution,
There is absolutely no truth to this statement, and it’s a mighty huge insult to anyone who does not consider him or herself a Christian, to suggest that you must respect the Bible in order to be able to respect the Constitution. BTW, Barton is also promoting the staunchly held but wrong conservative belief that the Constitution is fixed, with only one correct interpretation. To believe something like that, you would have to think the Framers had no intention of the government having a say in how things like electronic communication devices could be regulated or used. Or in how huge multi-national oil companies (which they would have objected to being allowed to exist in the first place) could exploit our habitat without concern for anyone telling them how they can run their business in the US. Such things did not exist 230 years ago, so by conservative logic, nothing in the Constitution should apply to those things.

so we, as citizens, ought to engage in that type of personal religious test for our president.”
Except for that no religious test thing again. If only the Constitution didn’t keep getting in the way of forcing everyone to follow the Bible, they could turn this place into Hell on Earth. And then they’d put Ted Cruz in charge of it. And Life as we know it on this planet would come to an end.

And then a few million years from now, asteroids carrying various minerals will crash into what’s left of the Earth. The minerals they bring will combine with amino acids to form new lifeforms, just as they did here billions of years ago. And Evolution will kick in as more and more life forms develop so that the ones most suitable to the environment as it will exist then will prosper the most, and pass on their DNA to their offspring, some of whom will be slightly different from their parents. And before you know it, Jesus will be saying, yet again, “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.” That is, if you’re a Christian who claims to believe in Evolution.

Daily open thread. From whom do you buy your snake oil?

The Watering Hole; Friday April 8 2016; Grand Irony of The Week!

“For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest
are these, ‘it might have been.’”
(John Greenleaf Whittier)

******

Irony: the humorous or mildly sarcastic use of words to imply the opposite of what they normally mean.

Just a wild guess on my part, but I suspect when Pat Robertson publicly discussed his thesis that Islam is a Dangerous Infection That Must Be Eliminated, he wasn’t aware of the grand irony implicit in what he had to say. I seriously doubt, too, that he was trying to be humorous or mildly sarcastic in his use of words, but suffice to say, he accomplished it anyway, and with grandly ironic panache!

Robertson: No society should allow some alien body to come to its midst that preaches terror, preaches overthrow, preaches violence and preaches another form of government. We shouldn’t have that.

Now, that’s what is being allowed in Belgium and France and other parts of Europe in the name of political correctness. And the so-called socialist liberals think, ‘I want to be open and I want to be welcoming to these people who come in.’ Okay, a few of them, fine, assimilate into the society, learn the language, learn the customs and be Belgians. But these people are not. . . . they’re in the middle of Belgium and they’re growing and metastasizing and it won’t be long before they overwhelm the healthy body. Here in America and other places, we can only stand so much infection before it overwhelms us.

Robertson rambles on, then finally sums it all up.

That’s the problem. You don’t want to, you know, it seems like you’re violating people’s civil rights, you don’t want to take away their liberty and violate the thing you are, but people have got to stand up and recognize the threat and if they don’t do it the society’s doomed. That’s what’s happening.

Correction: That’s what happened.

It was way back in 1620 when North America’s First People really messed up and allowed some alien body to come to its midst, and several years did indeed pass before those white-skinned new arrivals managed to prove themselves to be of the type that preaches terror, preaches overthrow, preaches violence and preaches another form of government. The problem the North American aboriginals faced was that when you’re parcel to a culture composed of people of good spirit, you really don’t enjoy being nasty to visitors, to new arrivals, and you don’t want to take away their liberty and violate the thing you are. Problem is, it wasn’t long before they — the new arrivals — overwhelm[ed] the healthy body. The rest is, as they say, History; sadly, the First People failed to learn in time that in order to survive and prosper, people have got to stand up and recognize the threat and if they don’t do it the society’s doomed.

They’d likely have been better off had they done this:

Yes indeed. Instead, they allowed the Christians to come ashore and settle. It’s likely that their leader, their Chief, was one whose attitude was something like ‘I want to be open and I want to be welcoming to these people who come in.’ A more reasonable approach would likely have been to say, Okay, a few of them, fine, assimilate into the society, learn the language, learn the customs . . .

But no, that wasn’t the case, and now the rest is history, sotospeak. Oh, and feel free to check with Pat Robertson and maybe mention to him that Islam and Christianity are a lot more similar than he’s ever been willing to admit! And while you have his attention, maybe ask him about his impressions of Grand Irony!

“And we have a president here in America who refuses
to name it, refuses to identify it and refuses to give us
what’s needed to kill the infection. As a matter of fact,
he wants to take more of them and bring them into
the country. It’s crazy.”
(Pat Robertson)

Yep. ‘Crazy’ is the perfect word. 🙂

OPEN THREAD

The Watering Hole; Thursday April 7 2016; Wage Peace, Not War part II — “Defense” Budget;

“We’re run by people that don’t get it. I don’t know, it’s a lack of street smarts,
it’s a lack of intelligence, to be honest with you, but it’s just a horrible situation.”
(Donald Trump)

A revolting statistic: The US military outspends the next 13 top-spending nations combined.

(▲Courtesy Washington Post▲)

Not sure why it is, really, but stats like that MAKE ME MAD!!! Can anyone come up with a better and more efficient means for a nation to piss away its wealth and sustenance than blowing the better part of a trillion dollars on its war machine? What exactly has that philosophy bought us US since, say, Sept 2 1945, aka the end of the last truly defensive war in which the US (necessarily) engaged? What’s been our gain in Korea? Vietnam? Grenada? Panama? Bosnia? Kuwait? Afghanistan? Iraq? And today, Syria? How many global “friends” have we acquired courtesy of our military adventurism? None? How many enemies have we made? Lots? To what end?

Are we safer now? Is the M.I.C. better off?

The answers to those last two questions are, of course, NO and YES, resp.; and therein lies the rub: it’s the MONEY, stupid.

Here in Amurkkka we loves us some military. Cuz there’s MONEY in it, dontcha know! OK, so there’s also wanton death, destruction, murder, insanity, etc., but what the hell, the MONEY trumps all of that, right? Right. So we continue on our wayward path of always spending more, more, more! on war (aka, to the uninformed, “Defense”) than the rest of the civilized world COMBINED! — and we leave nothing but death, destruction, and insanity  — and hatred of us — in our wake even as we accomplish only what the billionaires want most: more MONEY handed them by we the people. Conclusion: as a nation, we ain’t worth — to the rest of the world — much more than the powder it would take to blow US all to hell.

No worries, though; I have an idea. 🙂

We currently spend $711 Billion per year on what we call “defense.” The world’s second biggest spender on “defense” is our (arch enemy?) China who spends, according to the chart up top, around $145 Billion (make it $146B for easy figuring). Suppose we, US, would agree, in the interest of global sanity, to spend no more than that on our war machine. That would leave $711B minus $146B, or $565B that could be invested elsewhere, maybe even on PEACEful enterprises!

Wow.

Think of it. More than half-a-TRILLION bucks left over! Half a trillion bucks once allocated for ‘defense’ but no longer wasted on bombs and bullets and stuff. Is it really necessary that our “leaders” forever continue to presume that their own reality must remain focused on and be governed by that line from Herman Wouk’s masterful tome The Winds of War, words attributed to Adolf Hitler?

“. . . I have never stopped building planes, planes, planes, U-boats, U-boats, U-boats! . . . I have piled bombs, bombs, bombs, tanks, tanks, tanks to the sky! It has been a wasteful, staggering burden on my people, but what other language have great states ever understood? It is out of a sense of strength that I have offered peace! I Have been rejected and scorned . . .”

That’s an able summation of what’s defined the US “defense” prescription for the last 70 years at least, but a quick look around serves to dismiss the thesis that a great state and its sense of strength can collectively serve to support peace anywhere among us before its leader(s) become rejected and scorned. So why do we continue to follow that self-destructive path? Why do we so love war? What’s so wrong with peace and with caring for others? What is it that forces us to insist on the always-failed military non-solution?

Simple. It’s the MONEY.

So, OK, we in the US currently piss away budget $711 Billion annually for “defense,” and a handful of “important” people (see Dick Cheney, e.g.) get rich off the process even as millions around the world suffer and/or die in result. That essentially spells out, seems to me, what could be described as an able summation of a genuinely nasty setup and policy.

I recommend a few simple changes; here’s a quick summary:

1. Reserve $146 billion for “defense” in order to keep us on par with China.
2. Of the (annual!) remaining $565 Billion, we can begin by allocating $100 Billion (annually!) to assist and provide for the needs of refugees who are fleeing the explosive (thanks mainly to US) Middle East — Syria, Iraq, etc.
3. Of the remaining $465 billion, allocate $75 Billion (annually!) to assist and support refugees(?) from Central America and Mexico, also to enable each and all to obtain legal assistance that enables them to apply for and gain US citizenship, should they so desire.
4. $390 billion remains. How about $100 Billion (annually!) to be invested in the maintenance and rebuilding of infrastructure here at home?
5. Of the $290 Billion remaining, $75 billion could be invested (annually!) in anti-poverty programs/initiatives in cities and states everywhere across the country.
6. Next, apply $100 Billion (annually!) on scientific program(s) designed and developed to help SOLVE the human-caused global climate change dilemma/crisis, both here at home and around the world.
7. Invest $75 Billion (annually!) wherever needed in domestic Public Education.
8. Invest $35 Billion (annually!) in a rejuvenated Peace Corps, dedicated to helping the needy in countries everywhere.
9. And finally, use the remaining $5 Billion (annually!) to pay the salaries and office costs required by those who will work endlessly to devise the mechanisms of forever CLOSING and inverting the tax loopholes that benefit Corporations and billionaires everywhere!

There. A skeletonized recommendation of the means to relieve this country of its never-ending (annualized) planes, planes, planes, bombs, bombs, bombs, tanks, tanks, tanks piled to the sky (!.!.!.) philosophy, and to erect in its place a series of well-financed (each and every year!!) programs that will benefit people both at home and the world over; programs that will reduce (rather than accelerate) hatred of the US by people both at home and the world over. Consider all of this to be the latest incarnation of the

WAGE PEACE, NOT WAR!

domestic and global MOVEMENT!

Or —

We can go the other way, elect Donald Trump as our President, and wallow in the swill that his tremendous acumen on all such matters has already suggested:

I know how to fix it, so easy, that aspect of it. And even, you know, the nuclear.
I am doing so good on nuclear by people that are fair. What’s happening now is
we’re paying for the world’s — we’re like the world’s policeman but they don’t
pay us for it. We lose a fortune on the military. You know, our military budget is
phenomenally higher than any other budget but it’s not for us, we’re protecting
everybody else and we lose a fortune.
(Donald Trump)

Nice choice, right?

OPEN THREAD