Evening

Evening 8 July 2010

Posted by marisacat in Europe, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter.
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A woman feeds pigeons in a park, Ljubljana, Slovenia [Srdjan Zivulovic/Reuters]

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1. marisacat - 8 July 2010: moved from the tag end of the last thread…. in relation to the Big Ol’ Drug War headed to the coasts of Costa Rica:

BHHM comment

Jeezis.

Just a few days ago, Hugo Nationalized 11 oil rigs owned by Helmerich & Payne an Okie firm And they and the rest of the OilCo’s are going apeshit about it. Seems like a staging operation to me.

Who knows what our overlords are up too. Petraeus talking victory in AfPakIraq. Barry just sucked BiBi dry. Hillary still selling Iran. McCain, interestingly in a gotta be bullshit way, trotted out to sat Israel would NOT be attacking Iran. Open talk of us invading Mexico going on for how long now? Talk about a bad trip, sheesh..

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mattes - 8 July 2010: I have so much to say….but then I think why bother.

There are more US ships heading to the Indian Ocean…and all the ships in or by the Persian Gulf, including Israeli ship. What’s up with that….can be too much of a surprise attack…several people talking about it on net.
There is one more thing….the sanctions.

False flag coming? Capturing an Iranian ship?? Israel just showed what it was capable of with the aid ships. And then they send bibi to lie with a straight face to the american public. This country has no shame.

This resolution comes 18 months after Obama promised to deliver ‘tougher’ sanctions on Iran, and his Secy for State ran around negotiating with Russia, China, and Turkey et al to back them in sanction. While Turkey and Brazil voted against the sanction, probably due to their impending deal with Iran under which Iran had agreed to send abroad large amount of its low enriched Uranium to in return for higher-enriched fuel rods Iran needs to replenish an ageing medical-research reactor. This deal prima facie seems to resemble the one it had made last October with America, Russia and IAEA, but had backed off at the last moment. The Turkey-Brazil-Iran agreement is alleged to be risky business as under the agreement the low enriched Uranium stocks to be supplied by Iran have to be enriched to 20%, a level from which it is not tough to enrich it to the threshold of making a bomb. Asserting its Right to Energy all along, Iran, led by Mr. Ahmadinejad, has once again, as with previous sanctions, has rejected this fresh round of sanctions too.

http://www.legallyindia.com/1072-unsc-sanctions-on-iran

Maybe they are going after all the oil left on land. Anyone seen Collapse by Michael Ruppert?

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2. marisacat - 8 July 2010: The protest is picking up in Oakland… many more have gathered and thre is a “rushing” effect going on, “thousands”rush at the police, or the media… and some windows (gee are any unboarded?) being broken…

I think it will disperse and fritter… the police are breaking t up actively now… declaring unlawful assembly.

My own opinion is that where it plays out is inside the prisons…

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3. Madman in the Marketplace - 8 July 2010: Freelance Photographer: ‘I Was Followed by BP Security and Then Detained by Police’

Freelance photographer Lance Rosenfield was working on assignment for ProPublica in Texas City, Texas, last week, when a BP security guard began following him. Rosenfield was later detained by police after taking photos for two ProPublica stories. One revealed that BP’s Texas City refinery had illegally emitted 538,000 pounds of toxic chemicals into the air in April and May. The other reported that the Texas City refinery continues to have serious safety violations five years after an explosion at the plant killed 15 workers.

What follows is Rosenfield’s account of what happened on Friday night after the police, accompanied by the BP security guard, stopped him at a local gas station.

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4. mattes - 8 July 2010: Too hot to sleep….

Trust? For the people that sank the Liberty??

Obama: Israel won’t surprise me on Iran

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/07/08/2739977/obama-israel-wont-surprise-me-on-iran

Our leader speaks:

“We will use every means that we have to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear power, through economic and diplomatic sanctions if we possibly can and through military action if we must,” Lieberman said.

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/07/08/2739960/senators-say-strike-on-iran-is-an-option

But of course:

In his letter sent to members of the General Assembly, Ali Abdussalam Treki said, “After consulting with member states I have decided not to hold an interactive thematic debate of the General Assembly on the situation in the Middle East as previously envisaged for July 8, 2010. I will continue to consult with member states on the issue and will keep you informed of further developments.”

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/07/08/2739968/general-assembly-session-on-flotilla-cancelled

What’s next?

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5. mattes - 8 July 2010: I hope I am horribly wrong on this one….but has the IDF called in their reserves?

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6. mattes - 9 July 2010: Everyone seems to be repositioning their pieces:

China flexes its naval muscle

China this week again used the East China Sea as a setting for military maneuvers and exercises that it knew would rattle the United States and its allies.

snip

… “national interests could be damaged” if the US proceeds to deploy a US carrier during a joint exercise with the South Korean navy later this summer.

“Under current situations, relevant parties should exercise restraint and refrain from doing things that may escalate tensions and harm the interests of the countries in the region,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang.

Having this floating symbol of US military might deployed so close to China is perceived by Beijing as more than a very unfriendly gesture on the part of the US. Another US aircraft carrier has just passed through the Panama Canal and will soon transit the Pacific Ocean – something else that Beijing must keep in mind.

Simply put, seldom have so many warships been exercising all at once in the Pacific. A large fleet of US and allied warships are engaged in the RIMPAC exercise off Hawaii, and the Russians are conducting a very large exercise in the western Pacific region.

snip

Russia’s presence cannot go unmentioned. Despite the intense focus on the PLAN and the whereabouts of a US aircraft carrier, Russia quietly assembled several warships in the Sea of Japan from its North, Black Sea and Pacific fleets in order to conduct its largest naval exercise in many years. With Russian President Dmitry Medvedev looking on, Russian battle cruisers and destroyers that had arrived in the region weeks earlier fired anti-ship missiles over long distances, and performed other anti-carrier maneuvers in the Sea of Okhotsk earlier this month

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/LG09Ad03.html

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7. marisacat - 9 July 2010: The plane carrying the so dangerous 10 versions of Boris and Natasha has landed in Vienna.

We can all share in the relief that we are free again.

Can things get sillier? Or worse?

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brinn - 9 July 2010: Yeesh, Mcat, don’t you know better than to ask THAT question!?!
8)

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marisacat - 9 July 2010: snicker snax … 😆

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Madman in the Marketplace - 9 July 2010: why yes, yes they can!

Mention the new “tan tax” in a major news outlet and cries of discrimination and reverse racism often follow.

The complaint surfaced on reader comment boards to blogs and news Web sites back in December, when it became clear that the levy — a 10 percent surcharge on the use of ultraviolet tanning beds — was likely to be included in the new health-care overhaul bill. Since then, it’s been repeated by conservative commentators such as Rush Limbaugh and Doc Thompson, a fill-in host for Glenn Beck who intoned in March, “I now know the pain of racism.”

When an article about the fallout from the tax — which took effect last week — appeared on the Washington Post’s Web site Wednesday, dozens of commenters questioned the tax’s legality.

The case can seem deceptively simple: Since patrons of tanning salons are almost exclusively white, the tax will be almost entirely paid by white people and, therefore, violates their constitutional right to equal protection under the law.

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brinn - 9 July 2010: Oh for fuck’s sake — and they’re trying to be DARK!

Thanks, madman, I know, knew and always will, that the answer to MCat’s question (regardless of who asks it), is as you say:

“Why yes, yes they can!” and I’ll add …and WILL! just wait a sec!

😉

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Madman in the Marketplace - 9 July 2010: Louis CK “Being white”

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brinn - 9 July 2010: Nice!

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marisacat - 9 July 2010: what a stretch!

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8. mattes - 9 July 2010: M K Bhadrakumar Has new article, looks like we are still printing money:

The fact that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced the dispersal of a US$14.9 billion loan for Ukraine the very same day Clinton landed in Kiev carried a compelling message for the Ukrainian leadership. Washington has virtually slammed shut the door that Moscow held open for Ukraine to join a customs union with Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. In a sign of US diplomacy shifting gear, Clinton will be co-chairing another meeting of the Strategic Partnership Commission – for the second time this year – in Washington.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/LG10Ag03.html

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9. Madman in the Marketplace - 9 July 2010: “Feminist”

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10. Madman in the Marketplace - 9 July 2010: Americans are morons

Have months of Fox News hyperventilating and right-wing fear mongering over our supposed socialist-in-chief finally paid off? A majority of voters now think President Barack Obama is a socialist, at least according to one new poll.

The poll (PDF) from Democracy Corps finds that 55 percent of likely voters believe that the word “socialist” describes the president either “well” or “very well.”

Too bad that he’s not, and also too bad that people don’t know what “socialist” means.

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brinn - 9 July 2010: Eugene Debbs is rolling over and puking in his grave…..

Though, as always, the report on the poll doesn’t say whether or not the people who responded think that’s a good thing or a bad thing…I’m not quite sure who the morons are, but I’m thinking that I’m gonna go with the pollsters and the media on this one…

‘course they are Americans too….

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Madman in the Marketplace - 9 July 2010: they didn’t need to ask that … EVERYBODY knows that socialist = evil.

Jeesh.

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brinn - 9 July 2010: DOH! You think I could spell Debs’ name right, at the very least…

*sigh* about the equation, maybe the word itself, yes, but even here in Tejas, most people, especially these days, when confronted with the actual tenets of socialism, without all of the scary (stupid) connotations that the word itself seems to evoke, are not as vehemently opposed as the media would make them out to be…

I think we all just need to start talking with each other again and stop letting the media speak for us…they really do a shitty job of it.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 9 July 2010: agreed, but every avenue people try to use to do it gets co-opted or turned into a branded profit-making enterprise.

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brinn - 9 July 2010: agreed right back, but there’s got to be a way…..messages in bottles? tin cans on strings? smoke signals? semaphore?

….telepathy! that other 90% of our brains must be good for something!!

damn, madman, come to Austin and visit! or, let’s go hang out with Mcat! I just wish I could see you all FtF…especially on a Friday night when the boys are with their dad…

Ah, well, I’ve got Metallica singing Unforgiven…suppose things could be worse! i swear, I remember having a life at some point!

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Madman in the Marketplace - 9 July 2010: great song.

I’d like to see Austin someday. SF too, for that matter … I”ve never been to either city.

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brinn - 9 July 2010: You’re welcome anytime! Anywhere I might be! SF is an incredible city tho I haven’t been there since the 90s…it sure as hell feels weird to write that! 🙂
11. Madman in the Marketplace - 9 July 2010: Oscar Grant, a Victim of American Fear

I want to focus for a moment on the distinction between voluntary and involuntary manslaughter. To convict on the higher charge of voluntary manslaughter, the prosecution would have had to prove that Mehserle’s fear of Grant and his friends was “unreasonable.” It decided the crime was involuntary. In other words, Mehserle’s fear? That was reasonable.

America remains in the thrall of this ever-present fear, even in the aftermath of the Mehserle trial, as the media concerns itself not with the verdict or with justice but with the potential for more violence from the black community in Oakland. Fear is always the enemy of justice. Today in America, the former threatens the latter like never before. Forget what you see on your TV screen — Oscar Grant isn’t the only victim, and the people who share Grant’s skin tone or hair texture aren’t the only ones who should care.

War on Drugs, War on Crime, War on Terrorism. There’s always another War. The question is, when will we stop being afraid?

Never have, in the whole history of this country … why stop now?

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12. Madman in the Marketplace - 9 July 2010: It’s An “Unprecedented” Oil Blowout–Just Another Lie

What will we do about it?

The minimum ought to be dumping the feeble “moratorium” on deep water drilling and replacing it with an outright ban, until such time as the government and/or industry has a solution that doesn’t require leaving the spigots wide open for months at a time while a cretinous circle jerk ensues.

Here’s another question for those who are not fed up already with this same-old-crap Administration in D.C.: If you just found out about Montara, do you think that’s also true of your Hero President? And if he didn’t know, is that better or worse? After all, he hired the people that didn’t tell him.

You ought to have the same reaction to this as you would have had if the Bush-Cheney gang had been peddling similar lies.

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brinn - 9 July 2010: Yepper — all a buncha BS, day after week, after month, after year, after decade….

Oh, and, these are new, even for Galveston…the one and only time I swan there, and this was back in the mid 90s, I thought I would throw up….

I actually hears some media moron “report” on TV today that if the sheets were from the BP spill, they just couldn’t figure out how they had traveled so far….

REALLY!?!? I mean fucking REALLY?!?! You can’t figure it out. Jeebus.

It’s gonna be such a fun fun fun hurricane season.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 9 July 2010: the amount of damage done by avoiding education, science or reality does pile up on the newsdrones.

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marisacat - 9 July 2010: Over and over the story is … It came in on a boat, musta. “Not ours!”

As BP actively works the stock market with their headlines. It will be all capped off, no oil leaking, by next week (they say). It will be shut down on July 27, whoopee, the day they release profit numbers.

And so on.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 9 July 2010: nobody is ever responsible for anything, unless they’re poor and/or powerless, then they’re responsible for EVERYTHING, even things over which they had no control.

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marisacat - 9 July 2010: ain’t it the truth… I sit in “liberal” San Francisco, and listening to the local call in talk radio……… somehow the breakdown of the family (which tonight is all about Oscar Grant, tho he had a lot of family in evidence) is blamed on feminism. And the argument feminism fought for, he says, that women had a right to have children with or without a husband.

Lordy. Complex fundamental (surely it must b, this is the “family” here) societal breakdown blamed on “single mothers”, who come into being in all sorts of ways.

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brinn - 9 July 2010: Yep — all my fault! I’ve come into single motherhood in two different ways…..

and been hearing this shit since the 70s when my 3rd grade teacher (American, we had just moved back from Germany) asked me if being from a “broken home” was affecting my schoolwork — I had to ask my mom what the hell that meant, since from my 9 year old perspective, our home looked just fine.

I am so sick and fucking tired of the media and the pols trying to define family — if they’d ever had a functional one, I suppose they wouldn’t worry so much about making it all one way. Feel sorry for them really.

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marisacat - 9 July 2010: Here is the chuckle…. it came from the 68 year old host of the 7 – 10 pm talk program, who is a deeply closeted gay. In SF, in 2010.

HE’S got problems…

snicker.

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brinn - 9 July 2010: More than a chuckle, that’s a damn belly laugh! Really, what the hell?!?

So when can madman and I come visit? 8)
marisacat - 9 July 2010: ….anytime…. 😉
13. Madman in the Marketplace - 9 July 2010: Grace Lee Boggs: Requiem for Detroit

This documentary is the odyssey of how a mode of production and transportation, once celebrated as the height of human creativity, morphed into dehumanizing consumerism at the expense of human beings and other living things.

A number of Detroiters, black and white, comment throughout. But the only named cast members are white-bearded John Sinclair, poet, former MC5 manager and White Panther Party leader; Martha Reeves, Motown’s earthy, gospel-infused singing star; Heidelberg Project community artist Tyree Guyton; and me.

John Sinclair recalls the glories of the last century as he drives through disintegrating neighborhoods. An exuberant Martha Reeves helps us understand how the distinctive Motown sound emerged from the “this is my country” euphoria of blacks who had left the sharecropping and lynching culture of the South behind them. Tyree Guyton explains that he created the Heidelberg Project to depict the destruction of his neighborhood. He also describes the rising hope of today’s Detroit as neither a white or black thing but “I” becoming “We.”

My closing comments make clear that the new American Dream emerging in Detroit is a deeply-rooted spiritual and practical response to the devastation and dehumanization created by the old dream. We yearn to live more simply so that all of us and the Earth can simply live. This more human dream began with African American elders, calling themselves the Gardening Angels. Detroit’s vacant lots, they decided, were not signs of urban blight but heaven-sent spaces to plant community gardens, both to grow our own food and to give urban youth the sense of process, self-reliance, and evolution that everyone needs to be human.

That’s why growing numbers of artists and young people are coming to Detroit. They want to be part of building a City of Hope that grows our souls rather than our cars.

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14. Madman in the Marketplace - 9 July 2010: The Rich Got Rich And The Poor Got Poorer. But Ain’t We Got Fun?

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brinn - 9 July 2010: You’re on a roll today, madman!

And, fun? We’ll depends on who you mean by “we” I’m supposing…

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Madman in the Marketplace - 9 July 2010: good links floating around today.

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15. marisacat - 9 July 2010: hmmm Sentencing in the Oscar Grant death has been postponed, no date as of yet.

Been catching the legal analysts… it seems likely the verdict on “gun enhancement” will be thrown out… and the INvoluntary manslaughter can, in any case, be probation….

So…………….. my guess is a few months, less than a year. Less than a year in Cali is misdemeanor, iirc.

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16. marisacat - 10 July 2010: new

LINK

………………… 8)

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