Miscellaneous political debris

Another Thanksgiving. Goodness knows, the tiny younglings have very little time to enjoy Christopher Robin's land of imagination. Their innocent beliefs are crushed all too quickly.

Shopping for the holiday, makes me sigh.

I still mourn the loss of Bread and Circus.

That store chain was murdered in 1992. John Mackey of Whole Foods is a greedy criminal Texas cunt that killed off good stores by illegal and un- ethical means. He was allowed to steal. He is still getting away with it. Sure, he pays fines when his private parts are in the legal wringer. Now, he runs the chain like a cult. 2007- 2008 Wall St. crash removed what options that average American citizens had. People are desperate enough to join his cult, in order to have a paycheck. Whole Foods is a mockery of what Bread and Circus was. People that worked at Bread and Circus were actually happy, because their promises were real.

What they do not say is the Ayn Rand is a roadmap to dystopia. Just another way to hide, and tell lies. $307,068.00 from Whole Foods was given to Rand Paul. John Mackey fought against Obamacare, and nearly everything that Democrats consider to be humane. Freedom and liberty for billionaires, but for average Americans, not so much. Corporations rule America, and that is so very good for John Mackey.

John Mackey Did not get around to killing off the mom and pop stores. He could not stop small farm markets.

The states affected are New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Connecticut and California. Amazon launched the Fresh delivery service a decade ago in Seattle, which was its first foray into the $800 billion grocery market and an attempt to get shoppers to buy fresh food online the same way they purchase books and electronics.

"We have made changes to our service area and discontinued delivery to select zip codes," Amazon said in an emailed statement Friday. "AmazonFresh continues to serve customers across the U.S. (Seattle, New York, Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Miami, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and more) and internationally (London, Tokyo, and Berlin)."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...hole-foods-buy


Amazon did not just buy Whole Foods grocery stores. It bought 431 upper-income, prime-location distribution nodes for everything it does,” tweeted Dennis Berman, the Wall Street Journal’s financial editor. Amazon is trying to become Walmart—not just an online megalith, but also a physical retail powerhouse with dynamic pricing and stocking strategies—faster than Walmart can become Amazon.

https://www.theatlantic.com/business...-foods/530652/


“There’s a fear of unions coming in, because employees are bitter,” the regional-office source said. “People talk about it in hushed tones.”

http://www.motherjones.com/food/2015/10/whole-foods-bob-mackey-job-wage-cuts-unions-wall-street/

Just ask a question! It is gratifying to get an answer.


OCTOBER 27, 2017 06:15 PM

In recent commentaries, former NPR CEO Ken Stern discussed his changing views after visiting with conservative evangelical Christians. His “Venturing outside of my own liberal comfort zone” appeared Oct. 26 in The Star. NPR contract reporter Brian Mann wrote this open letter in reply.

http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/syndicated-columnists/article181378321.html


Two final points: The idea that you never grasped that NPR’s editorial process is more sophisticated than the one you describe in your essays is baffling. I’m not sure how you were spending your time when you served as NPR’s CEO. But the notion that our newsrooms fell into “groupthink on what stories are important, what sources are legitimate and what the narrative of the day will be,” as you wrote in The New York Post, is pure nonsense. I’ve been part of that editorial process in various ways since the mid-1980s, and my editors have been diligent, informed and intellectually curious.



Finally, I want to call you out on your fairly blatant cultural tourism. You’re not the first one to pull this stunt. For decades city folk have been pulling on a pair of suspenders and spending a few Sundays in church with The Conservatives and then writing books in which you declare yourself shocked — shocked! — to find that they read books and talk in complete sentences and think about race in America. But the fact that you’re not the only city slicker to “spend an entire year” with “the other side” doesn’t make what you’ve done any less ridiculous.

And the fact that you dragged NPR into your pre-chewed “How I learned to love the hicks” narrative, when public radio reporters have been telling conservative America’s story with care and knowledge and intimate, deep, factual reporting for decades? That’s even more ridiculous.

Who is it, that reflects the image of Mr. Punch, today ?


Riddley Walker's post-apocalyptic Mr Punch


Deeply rooted in British culture, the anarchic puppet unsurprisingly caught the eye of American author Russell Hoban, and he gives him disturbingly vivid life


21 November 2017


The basics of Punch and Judy have remained fairly static since Samuel Pepys first saw a show in Covent Garden in 1662. But performers have always brought their own stories to it, renewing what Hoban calls the “rampant idea” of this Lord of Misrule for each generation. Mr Punch is at once timeless and flexible.

Glyn Edwards explained: “You can be incredibly earthy and primal and vulgar with the Punch character – but that’s not what you’d do for family audiences.”

He added: “It’s quite legit that Riddley Walker picks up the Punch tradition and makes it reflect his own personality and concerns.” Edwards’ own shows feature a Donald Trump puppet and he sometimes holds up a sign saying there will be “trigger warnings concerning crocodiles and strings of sausages, in case anyone’s had an unfortunate episode with those in their upbringing”.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2017/nov/21/riddley-walkers-post-apocalyptic-mr-punch

One of the characters in the book has a primal reaction to the theme of cannibalism, hinted at by Mr. Punch the puppet. This man does not possess the detachment that modern internet age children have. Did he witness the devouring of a baby, at an early age ? The developmentally delayed man seeks to save the baby from the dagger wielding Mr. Punch. Shakespeare had something to say about this phenomenon.


Jane Goodall had a terrible shock

https://www.livescience.com/1518-female-chimps-kill-infants.html


A crudely formed puppet, made to voice the inner urges of violence. When was that ? When we were nothing more, than a part of the Earth. The wildlife of the Earth could count, construct, and remember, in a limited way. It was human beings, that constructed symbols.

Trump

Inappropriately politicizing non-political events, everywhere he goes.

*disgusted expression*

Do you have to smear that garbage on everything, and everyone ?

Please don't Trump it up!

Jamelle Bouie speaks his mind

For the Republicans in opposition to Barack Obama, it was rule or ruin.

If they couldn’t advance their agenda, then they would paralyze Congress, sabotage the courts, and hold the economy hostage to hyper-ideological demands. If they couldn’t set the terms of American governance,

For the Republicans in opposition to Barack Obama, it was rule or ruin. If they couldn’t advance their agenda, then they would paralyze Congress, sabotage the courts, and hold the economy hostage to hyper-ideological demands. If they couldn’t set the terms of American governance, then no one would.

Far from paying a political price for this behavior, Republicans rode it to the trifecta of federal power: a majority in the House, a majority in the Senate, and a president in the White House. Finally, they ruled. But in forging this path to power, the GOP abandoned any commitment to the public interest. The result is rule and ruin from a Republican Party that holds power but wields it in destructive, irresponsible ways.

Pressed on why exactly they were doing this, few Republican lawmakers could even answer the question. They weren't legislating to solve problems or further the public good, they were legislating to achieve a narrow ideological goal, whatever the costs for actual, living people.

Click to expand...

This tax plan is a fix for a problem that does not exist!


gsgs comment-

It was awful to see how eager they were to free up the money used for medical care. As it is, it has been months since they let the funding for children's medical care lapse. The signs used at the protest sites listed all that would be taken away from the poor. Shelter, food, clean water, medical care, education. The money that provided the poor with the minimum.

These past ten years, cruel people, managing programs meant to help people survive, have been taking nasty in joy in denying help.

Now, the ultra wealthy are rejoicing that they will not be forced to help anyone but themselves, and those that are ultra wealthy, like themselves.

The human beings that labor to produce wealth for them, are to carry the burden by themselves. The mutual promise, is over.

Are we to return to the days of Tiny Tim, and his crutch, and the Cratchit family ?

Is this a return to people dying of "famishment."

Trump has been stripping millions away from programs that help people to survive, in order to get the false impression of numbers needed for his tax plan.

The tax cuts will inflict massive pain on the roughly 200 million Americans who aren’t part of a high-income family. The focus to date has largely been on the obvious injustice of favoring the wealthy over the poor in tax cuts. But while the legislation certainly does put its thumb in the working family’s eye in that sense, it also sets up an even more direct blow down the road.

Even if Republicans lose their majorities in Congress and let the White House slip back into Democratic hands, the tax bill effectively locks in massive cuts to programs those same 200 million Americans actually use. All told, the legislation would force $150 billion a year in spending cuts — and the Republican party is sure to safeguard the Pentagon in that bloodletting.

https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-tax-cut-is-class-warfare-51cc4bd2a00b/

The ultra rich, the very rich and the somewhat rich, poised against the middle classes, and the poor.

Congratulations, Republicans. Here is your chance to kill off Democracy. Will there be any difference between China, Russia, and the United States of America, if you are successful ?

Conservative intellectuals acknowledge the bankruptcy of Republican party

(A Republican house divided against itself, is really fucked up! Apologies to Abraham Lincoln)

from the New York Times
"How the Republicans Broke Congress"


Mann and Ornstein put full blame on Republicans

"Congress no longer works the way it’s supposed to. But we’ve said that before."

(In 2006, Mann and Ornstein published a book, that made two assumptions. That Republicans and Democrats were equally at fault, and a remedy for the problem would be easy to find. Now, Mann and Ornstein perceive their misconceptions.)

(Baby, the Republican party has turned rogue. They hijacked the plane, and they have taken hostages. They will kill every hostage, if that is what it takes. They will take everyone aboard down with them.)

"In 2017, the Republicans’ scandalous tax bill is only the latest proof that both assumptions are wrong."

(The Republican party began a war on Congress. They no longer honored the traditions. They deliberately undermined the orderly process. Thanks to Republican fuckery, the public lost trust. The signal of a complete loss of cooperative spirit, was the complete refusal to accept Merrick Garland. McConnell would fuck over everyone to serve his own purposes, at the expense of ordinary Americans. This time he went too far. Thanks to the Republican efforts to nurture racism, bigotry, and prejudice, in America, every evil was allowed. No empowered government officials stepped forward to confront the nation wide spread of Extremist Right Wing disorders. White Nationalists and White Supremacists were generously funded and encouraged. This bought an infiltration of evil into the media stream.)

(The Democrats remained in major media streams that struggled to remain neutral. Democrats had no money to fund wide- reaching, independent media outlets to directly battle against lies, disinformation, and propaganda. No one was sponsored to go head to head with the Birthers, ect. Trump exploited the political system, when he wanted more publicity. Everything could be used as a scam for Trump, and elections were no exception. Sarah Palin's excesses pointed out the way for him. Trump changed his approach. He no longer needed to court both parties. He no longer needed the veneer of a decent human being. Trump made himself prominently featured in Extremist Right Wing media streams, to support racist leaning messages. He had no squeamishness about the Southern strategy. The Trump tradition was to exploit anything for money. Break any law, abuse any convention,bypass any obligation, ignore any decency. A scofflaw, for life.)

Trump’s election and behavior during his first 10 months in office represent not a break with the past but an extreme acceleration of a process that was long underway in conservative politics. The Republican Party is now rationalizing and enabling Mr. Trump’s autocratic, kleptocratic, dangerous and downright embarrassing behavior in hopes of salvaging key elements of its ideological agenda: cutting taxes for the wealthy (as part of possibly the worst tax bill in American history), hobbling the regulatory regime, gutting core government functions and repealing Obamacare without any reasonable plan to replace it.

The failure of Republican members of Congress to resist the anti-democratic behavior of President Trump — including holding not a single hearing on his and his team’s kleptocracy — is cringe-worthy. A few Republican senators have spoken up, but occasional words have not been matched by any meaningful deeds. Only conservative intellectuals have acknowledged the bankruptcy of the Republican Party.

(Baby, who will step forward, and reclaim the hijacked plane ? The last few Republicans with brains and backbones just sold themselves out. Trump is ready to crash the plane into a side of a mountain. He fears handcuffs, and a long stay in prison. He would rather cause a crash, and make a dash for it.)


But the imbalance today is striking, and frightening. Our democracy requires vigorous competition between two serious and ideologically distinct parties, both of which operate in the realm of truth, see governing as an essential and ennobling responsibility, and believe that the acceptance of republican institutions and democratic values define what it is to be an American. The Republican Party must reclaim its purpose.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1720564

The mogwai/gremlins attached to the Republican party are wild-eyed, and are laughing with joyful hysteria. "Let the great destruction, begin," the mogwai/gremlins scream. "Let everything fall into ruin. The worst of the worst will break everything, and there will be nothing left. This is our will, this is our wish."

"Fuck you, world!"

Experiments with Proposition 2 1/2

May 21, 2008


Newton's rejection Tuesday of a $12-million property tax override is the latest of more than a dozen votes this spring on proposed property tax increases. Towns and cities are complaining of fast rising costs, but their record of persuading voters to increase taxes is decidedly mixed. Here is a quick rundown of the highlights:


COMPLETED
Newton - rejected $12-million override for schools and city services
Georgetown - Passed $91,000 override for fire department; five debt exclusions failed.
Groveland - $172,340 override for continuation of a road improvements project failed.
Hamilton - Passed two overrides: $1,288,322 for schools; $177,444 for town operating budget.
Ipswich - Passed $1,491,000 override for schools.
Rockport - Passed $2,735,000 debt exclusion for various expenditures.
Rowley - Passed $450,000 debt exclusion for pumper truck.
Wenham - Passed $601,267 override for schools; $153,000 debt exclusion for town equipment.
Brookline - Passed $6.2-million for schools and services
Canton - Passed $4.5-million override
Natick - Passed $3.9-million override for schools, library and police
Randolph -- Passed $5.5-million for schools and services
Shrewsbury - Rejected $1.5-million override
Holbrook - Rejected $2.8-million override
Chelmsford - Rejected $2.8-million override
Sudbury - Rejected $2.8-million override
Wayland - Passed $1.9-million override
Harvard - Rejected $786,000 override

PENDING
Beverly - June 3 special election - $2,500,000 override for schools
Winthrop - June 10 special election - $1,550,453 override; $996,361 for schools; rest for other town needs.
Marblehead - Town Meeting passed debt exclusions of $21.8 million and $395,000 for school projects; must be approved at special election June 17.
Swampscott - Town Meeting passed capital exclusions of $300,000 for a fire truck and $150,000 for road improvements; must be approved at a special election, date to be announced.
Franklin - Considering a $2.8-million override June 10


We bit the bullet, and said yes, we will pay more. A few dollars more, would insure that there would be money to keep the momentum forward. Either, we were a community, or we were selfish arseholes. We believed in democracy, or we did not. The wealthier communities were a thin line away from some of the most poverty stricken communities.


oooo! A lovely quote popped up.

“Libraries are the thin red line between civilization and barbarism." - Neil Gaiman.

When Wall Street threw a hysterical fit, it is as the libraries that suffered. Up and down the coast, there were closures. Some libraries closed permanently. The towns unwisely went along with Wall Street's recommendations, and ended with pig trough leavings, spewn all over their faces. Each community dragged itself upward, and plodded forward, haphazardly. Services were cut down, or just cut. The image of imaginary money evaporated. The pots remained empty. Volunteers had bills to pay. Even tiny, ancient grandmothers were told to earn their own coins.

The old line, of "how does wealthy person remain wealthy," did not change that much...


2017, and we have arrived at the same spot. The hogs are ready to feast at our expense , again.

The harvest has been good to them, yet they squeal and shriek that they are starving. The rich fat gleams on their cheeks, and their eyes are bright and intensely focused. They get what they want. They would not have chosen to give their patronage to those, that would not...

We wait for the bill to arrive at our doorstep, once, again.

The Huguenots of Spitalfields

2013


The wooden spools that you see hanging in the streets of Spitalfields indicate houses where Huguenots once resided. These symbols were put there in 1985, commemorating the tercentenary of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes which brought the Huguenots to London and introduced the word ‘refugee’ to the English language. Inspired by the Huguenots of Spitalfields Festival, I set out in search of what other visual evidence remains of the many thousands that once passed through these narrow streets and Dr Robin Gwynn, author of The Huguenots of London, explained to me how they came here.

Spitalfields was the most concentrated Huguenot settlement in England, there was nowhere else in 1700 where you would expect to hear French spoken in the street. If you compare Spitalfields with Westminster, it was the gentry that stayed in Westminster and the working folk who came to Spitalfields – there was a significant class difference. And whereas half the churches in Westminster followed the French style of worship, in Spitalfields they were not interested in holding services in English.

Huguenots were religious refugees, all they needed to do to stop the persecution in France was to sign a piece of paper that acknowledged the errors of John Calvin and turn up at church each Sunday. Yet if they tried to leave they were subject to Draconian punishments. It was not a planned immigration, it was about getting out when you could. And, because their skills were in their hands, weavers could leave whereas those whose livelihood was tied up in property or land couldn’t go.


It was such a big migration, estimated now at between twenty to twenty-five thousand, that among the population in the South East more than 90% have Huguenot ancestors.

http://spitalfieldslife.com/2013/04/...-spitalfields/

Missionaries and dragoons chased the "religionnaires


About three quarters of Reformed Church members stayed in France. In the face of the “dragonnades” and all kinds of persecution that intensified between 1685 and 1700, most of these recanted.

They officially became Catholic, as stated by King Louis XIV in the introduction to the Edict of Fontainebleau (1685) : “the best and the great majority of our subjects that used to belong to the allegedly Reformed Church (“Religion Prétendue Réformée” or RPR) have become Catholics” (« la meilleure et la plus grande partie de nos sujets de la dite RPR” ont embrassé la catholique »). They were called the New Converts (N.C.).

Refusal of Extreme Unction was considered a relapse of faith. If people recovered, men might be sent to the galleys and women to prison. In case of death, the body was dragged along the public highway and your legacy confiscated.

The churches were pulled down, pastors expelled, possessions of the consistories given away to hospitals and convents.

The possessions of those who had chosen to emigrate were confiscated. Conversely, if their heirs were obedient new converts, they could have the goods and not pay any taxes on them.



Suppression of secret meetings ("Assemblies")

Anyone considered guilty of attending a secret service or a “Church of the Desert” meeting was sentenced to imprisonment or the galleys, and preachers to the gallows. Some pastors who had emigrated put their lives in jeopardy by returning to France, answering the call of the Preachers. Six pastors were arrested in Paris, sentenced to life imprisonment and jailed in Fort Sainte-Marguerite, off the coast at Cannes.

From 1686 to 1689, “conspirators” from the Cévennes, who were on their way to secret meetings, were arrested and deported to the West Indies. About one thousand left that way. Three years later, the king abandoned this measure.

https://www.museeprotestant.org/en/n...religionnaires

Catherine de Medici had her hands full of rebellion, inside the palace, and outside the palace. Her time had passed, and inequality increased. Starvation is not a good way to test loyalty.


Come the revolution, blood flowed in the streets until nearly everyone was sickened. Is our American Anti- Revolution any less bloody ?


Here we are, in 2017 and another nation forces an Emperor upon America. Schemers and deluded followers have been persuaded to clamor for an Emperor, after the nation operated independently for so long.


The domination of nations by royalty ended long, ago. England had the wisdom to have temporary rulership when King George went mad. Yet, a separate faction places a madman on a fantasy throne, and proceeds to overturn sanity.

Ward: Just don't lose sight of whose rights are being violated!

Anderson: Don't put me on your perch, Mr. Ward.

Ward: Don't drag me into your gutter, Mr. Anderson!

Anderson: These people are crawling out of the SEWER, MR. WARD! Maybe the gutter's where we outta be.


Mississippi Burning (1988)

Why are they re- visiting the murders committed by Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, today ?

Gerhartsreiter, the German con man, was exposed as an imposter,when he abducted his young daughter in Boston, MA. He was convicted of killing John Sohus while living in the guesthouse of a San Marino, Calif., residence that the victim’s mother, Didi Sohus, owned. The body of John Sohus's wife, Linda Sohus was never found.

He had lived as an imposter for decades. He did not want to accept his birth-given life. His birthplace would never accept the absurd lies he wished to perpetuate. The people there, knew the truth. He murdered to keep his secret. Science and the law caught up with him.

We have an entity sitting in the Oval office chair. He, too, is an imposter. He, too, is a con man.

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2009/01/fake_rockefeller200901


What does the entity that is currently sitting in the Oval office chair, have in common with Salvador Dali ?

Salvador Dali had a very strange upbringing, a led a very strange life. He did the opposite of what Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, did. Chose a life that was opposite of what Gerhartsreiter had chosen.


Gerhartsreiter hid in plain sight, Salvador Dali sought to be famous as his own, bizarre self. He took his talent in his craft, and made it a vehicle for self promotion. Gerhartsreiter used the lives and identities of others, to his advantage. The people around him accepted his false identities.

The entity sitting in the Oval office, has managed to both obscure who he is really is, benefit from a false impression, and live by self promotion.

A crystal with many facets.

Gerhartsreiter tried to fit into the roles he gave himself, but reality stubbornly demanded confirmation of substance. Gerhartsreiter was shown the door, when he could not fulfill the duties of a job, and produce results.

Today, the entity sitting in the Oval office has the staff of the White House, political operatives, and the Secret Service walking on eggshells. The entity cannot fulfill the duties of the job. He cannot produce results, because he does not have the capacities, skills, or intelligence.

Americans get substitutes, for the real thing. Rome gave the public free bread and circuses. We get twitter entries, and outrages. Manufactured drama, and a cast of millions.

Christmas 1979, the film "Being There," emerged into the world. Gerhartsreiter and the entity that sits in the Oval office, did, too. 1976, the Oval office entity was through with the legal process of being charged with being a racist arsehole, and scheming thief, by method of deception.

1976, Trump bought and restored the Commodore Hotel at the corner of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue—right next to Grand Central Station.

What Trump wanted was an option to develop the site of the hotel and an unprecedented 40-year tax abatement from the city. He got them—but not without an act of deception.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/07/trump-files-how-donald-tricked-new-york-huge-deal/


A film that centers on a person, that has lived an encaspulated, limited life. He is catergorized by how the people around him, have used their inner compasses to interpret what they were judging. It does not help, when opinions are requested. Power imbalances, dependency, pollute the honesty that should have been expressed. Preconceptions contaminate clear perception. A harmless, un-informed, inexperienced, un-worldly man is suspected to be a super-spy, merely because of his clothing, and absence from any public record. A blank slate, where anything can be written. Everyone around the child-like man is too self involved to see the truth. They see what they desire to see, and hear what they want to hear.

At the last scene of a movie, a stand in for a dying President must be found. Every voice given a view, decides this man, who has only television programs and movies for reference to the world around him, is chosen.

The man who really is educated, experienced, worldly, wise, and politically informed, gives America a man who really knows nothing, as a leader. A man that mimics behavior, and is unaware, and as innocent as a child.

Does this wise man believe the machinery of politics and government will continue to function, as it always has, with a figurehead that has no aims, ambitions, and opinions of his own ?


The last scene in the film, is a mysterious one. The child-like man does not understand that you cannot walk on water. He walks across the water. He plunges his umbrella into the water, while standing on its surface. But, he still remains standing upon the surface of the water. He continues his on with his ramble, after that.


The entity sitting in the Oval office is nothing but a figure encompassing the concept of personal ambition. He wants MOAR. He will still be putting in an effort to get MOAR, on his deathbed.

I think Trump is genuine . . . a genuine mess. (But, then, so are the folks who voted for him, having every reason to know exactly what he was.)

Not to change the subject (much) but...

HP laptops found to have hidden keylogger

Hidden software that can record every letter typed on a computer keyboard has been discovered pre-installed on hundreds of HP laptop models.

Security researcher Michael Myng found the keylogging code in software drivers preinstalled on HP laptops to make the keyboard work.

HP said more than 460 models of laptop were affected by the "potential security vulnerability".

It has issued a software patch for its customers to remove the keylogger.

The issue affects laptops in the EliteBook, ProBook, Pavilion and Envy ranges, among others. HP has issued a full list of affected devices, dating back to 2012.

Click to expand...

NSA, HP, and many other Big Brothers have been watching your every move for a long time. Relax. You might as well just relax. Close your eyes and learn to enjoy it, hey? It's only a little like rape, hey?

Hypoxia said:

HP laptops found to have hidden keylogger

Hidden software that can record every letter typed on a computer keyboard has been discovered pre-installed on hundreds of HP laptop models. NSA, HP, and many other Big Brothers have been watching your every move for a long time. Relax. You might as well just relax. Close your eyes and learn to enjoy it, hey? It's only a little like rape, hey?

Click to expand...

I've got a HP printer/copier. Do you suppose they've seen pictures of my butt?

Hypoxia, if that is not politically related, I do not know what is.

phrodeau said:

I've got a HP printer/copier. Do you suppose they've seen pictures of my butt?

Click to expand...

Down to millimetric resolution, complete with dingleberries, hemorrhoids, slave tattoos, electric cattle prod burns, and whatever is crawling around down there. Or up there, depending on your posture at any given moment.

The question is, do you differ sufficiently from the general population to be worthy of notice? Many many nasty butts out there, y'know. All around you. Closing in, like pod people.

What's that smell?

The neighbors. Oy.

PS: This is my post #16616. Only 50 to go. Beware.

Say goodbye to Modern American Christmas.

Trump may yet receive his treasured Reich, a wretched horrifying German historical artifact.

How far will his regime go, to hold onto power ?


2017 -In the USA, debtor's prisons have returned. Whole cities operate on the profits of fraudulent debt.

Christmas has become a reason to be in debt. Merely struggling to keep alive, brings debt. The physical presence of money is being erased.

America is about to become one, gargantuan, Company Store.

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store!


Say hello to a Modern Dickens Christmas.

Our new unseen masters are beginning to dictate our lives.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...=.b164e0306714



Quote:
Tauriel quote from The Hobbit film series-

"Tell me, Mellon, when did we allow evil to become stronger than us?"

Why tell the truth, when you can be a member of the Disingenuous Party ?

It is so much fun! Until it isn't.

Speech Crime is not far away from Thought Crime.


The Trump administration is prohibiting officials at the nation’s top public health agency from using a list of seven words or phrases — including “fetus” and “transgender” — in official documents being prepared for next year’s budget.

Policy analysts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta were told of the list of forbidden terms at a meeting Thursday with senior CDC officials who oversee the budget, according to an analyst who took part in the 90-minute briefing. The forbidden terms are “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.”

In some instances, the analysts were given alternative phrases. Instead of “science-based” or *“evidence-based,” the suggested phrase is “CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes,” the person said. In other cases, no replacement words were immediately offered.

The ban is related to the budget and supporting materials that are to be given to the CDC’s partners and to Congress, the analyst said. The president’s budget for 2019 is expected to be released in early February. The budget blueprint is generally shaped to reflect an administration’s priorities.

Federal agencies are sending in their budget proposals to the Office of Management and Budget, which has authority about what is included.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...=.b164e0306714

gsgs comment-

Jimmy Carter struggled to change the way the United States supplied energy and transportation. He believed that another country should not dominate and threaten the United States.

Under the illusion that he was filming a television role, a senile president, is rewarded with an unearned honor. He did not free the hostages. Republican operatives had the hostages held until the new, fraudulent president took his seat in the Oval office.

/end gsgs comment

October Surprise negotiations were allegedly undertaken (a) by private citizens (b) to delay the release of American hostages, and the preponderance of evidence now strongly suggests that this is exactly what happened. At the very least, Reagan/Bush officials colluded to block investigations into the October Surprise, when they should have welcomed it if they had nothing to hide. At most, they were guilty of treason. Any way you slice it, there was an extremely wide-ranging scandal -- or set of scandals -- involved in Reagan's negotiations with terrorists, which has been virtually erased from public memory. What Obama is accused of now is utterly trivial in comparison.

https://www.salon.com/2014/06/07/ron...lly_bad_at_it/



Jan. 31, 1983
Reagan submits his fiscal 1984 budget to Congress. The recession, tax cuts and increased defense outlays are blamed for a projected $189 billion budget gap. Reagan vows to "stay the course," rejecting advice to raise taxes or cut defense.

March 8, 1983
In a speech to the National Association of Evangelicals, Reagan warns against ignoring "the aggressive impulses of an evil empire," the U.S.S.R.



Nov. 4, 1984
Reagan defeats Mondale in landslide. Reagan carries 49 states -- 525 electoral votes to Mondale's 10, and 59% of the popular vote

https://www.npr.org/news/specials/ob.../timeline.html

Breaking the law is a sin!


Do not use forbidden words of heresy!

Climate Change is a forbidden word.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/stat...e12983720.html

Blocked from saying the forbidden word in public, or informing others about the presence of Climate Change.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...=.56fa7560f399

Are we on the footpath to mono-culture ?

In this world, the top predator vampires eat the lesser vampires.

In the end, the vampires battle each other.

A living world is sacrificed to their death cult.

The last vampire dies of starvation.

How do you survive, on the husk of a dead world ?

Tuesday, Trump's Scott Pruitt was sent a message from the universe-


Black sewage reportedly spewed from multiple (drinking) water fountains at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) headquarters on Thursday morning. When word got out, the tweets poured almost as freely as the excrement.

"There's a leak at the U.S. EPA headquarters," E&E News wrote in a Thursday report. Apparently, wastewater was covering the third floor of the William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building, just down the hallway from Administrator Scott Pruitt's office.

This sort of thing isn't uncommon, E&E writes, as the EPA's Depression-era building is prone to plumbing problems.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/epa-sewage-water-fountain-scott-pruitt-drinking-12434929.php

My stomach acid is making me sick. I cried on the subway. I do not think that people, are paying attention.


This is what happens when people who don't know how to govern, and care even less about doing it right, try to pass massive legislation. Some time during conference on this tax bill, someone in either the House or the Senate put in two provisions aimed at helping far-right Christians that won't pass muster in the Senate.


The end result?


Cameron Joseph
@cam_joseph
·
2h
.@GOPLeader office announces they will indeed have to revote on the House plan tomorrow morning. Whoopsies



John Bresnahan
@BresPolitico
·
2h
House will have to RE-VOTE the tax bill tomorrow, GOP leadership says. Byrd problems with 2 provisions. Senate votes today after provisions are struck, House votes again tomorrow




Heather Long
@byHeatherLong
·
2h
Just In: the House has to vote on the tax bill AGAIN.
Why? Dems challenged 3 parts of bill on the Byrd Rule and they won.
The 3 issues are:
1. Using 529 plans for homeschooling expenses
2. The title of the bill
3. Part of criteria used for uni endowment tax

Because Republicans can't govern, the House is going to have revote on the #GOPTaxScam


2017/12/19 ·

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...use-is-going-to-have-revote-on-the-GOPTaxScam

They have to change the title to "The Cut Cut Cut Act."

The final verdict, which is approved by the full House and Senate today, is still largely the same bill that is overwhelmingly opposed by Americans as a giveaway to the rich, but provides marginally better news if you’re a New Yorker with a moderately high income, build affordable housing, or, best of all, own a pro sports team:


After the NFL publicly complained about losing the tax break (and, no doubt, other sports leagues did so privately), it was restored in the final version, meaning if the Boston Red Sox ever replace Fenway Park, Yankees fans will help pay for it with their federal taxes. (And every taxpayer in the nation will be contributing to Mark Davis’s new Las Vegas Raiders stadium.)



https://www.villagevoice.com/2017/12/19/final-gop-tax-plan-goes-easier-on-new-yorkers-sports-owners/

Sovereign Citizens Impeach Hillary Clinton For Uranium One, #Pizzagate, Cancellation Of Hee Haw

Things were already looking bleak for the presidency of Hillary Clinton this year, what with all of Fox News except Shep Smith demanding she be impeached, and now she’s been “indicted” by some Sovereign Citizen loonypantses in Pennsylvania, as reported by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The completely pretend “Sovereign Common Law Court,” which has no legal authority whatsoever, has issued a bunch of gibberish somewhere on the crazy parts of the interweb accusing Clinton and others of great nastiness:

The Pennsylvania documents, which have been ricocheting around some of the darker corners of the internet, accuse Clinton, her long-time aide, Huma Abedin, former campaign chief John Podesta and Canadian businessman Frank Giustra of conspiring to allow Giustra to enrich himself through secret mining deals.​

So there’s your Uranium One nonsense, which is nonsense. But wait! There’s more! The magical pseudolegal documents also accuse Clinton of covering up a child sex ring that also somehow involved Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey.

One of the documents, labeled “Court Decision,” says,

As such, those who conspired to carry out offenses may be eligible for execution. We order they be taken in custody[.]​

Since it’s all pretend anyway, the “indictment” also refers to a verdict that’s apparently been reached, but also sets some trial dates, just as soon as the Sovereign Citizen Pretend US Marshals take Clinton, Weinstein, et al. into custody.

Click to expand...

You're peeples, so start your own Peeples Courts; it's your sovereign right, granted by Lord {JHWH} to his self-abasing followers. Don't forget the kangaroo.

Tonald Drump's tax plan was not signed by him. Yet Tonald Drump was already blaming Democrats.


The Trump tax plan was rejected by 3/4 of America. Trump depends on false advertising. He lied.

Tonald Drump lied about his intentions. America is about to be dropped into a crisis volcano.

The purpose of his plan is to drain America of its ability to respond to crisis.


Tonald Drump and his alliance tied the legislative process in knots, by flooding it. It has been a year of attempted destruction.


Under Native Americans, Mother Nature and her body, the land they depended on were sacred. Traditions were respected for the reasoning behind it. If you live at subsistence level, you do not destroy what sustains your life.

A clear statement was made, when the invaders watched Native Americans drink from open waters and streams, with shock. The invaders had already polluted their drinking water until it was deadly. Technology combined with blind ignorance brings unintended consequences.

America was a goddess, free and generous with her gifts. She was stolen and sold as a slave. 2017, she was yet. again, sold to owners.

http://www.newsweek.com/government-shutdown-republicans-democrats-trump-congress-ryan-755756

Democrats insisted on agreements to help the needy, the poor, the disadvantaged.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has said that she wants to keep the government open, but that the responsibility is on the shoulders of Republicans, the majority party. Pelosi urged her congressional colleagues to vote no on the continuing resolution unless their needs were met. “We continue to urge a strong NO,” she wrote to them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/28/nyregion/28veto.html

How long can a crisis continue, until it results in breakdown and surrender ?

December 11, 1975

Manhattan piled with garbage

The garbagemen are on strike.

1975: A wildcat strike took place in 1975 from July 2 to 4 in the midst of a budget crisis for New York City before workers returned to work under the provision that they would put up their own money to guarantee payroll if the city legislation could not get the tax increase necessary.

New York , under the influence of corruption and pressure, succumbs


New York city was in danger of defaulting on the debt it racked up. Ford denied federal assistance to spare New York city from bankruptcy. President Gerald Ford had harsh criticism for New York city's spending habits.


President Gerald Ford did sign legislation to provide federal loans to New York city. The loans were repaid, with interest.


The Night New York Saved Itself from Bankruptcy


October 16, 2015


October 16, 1975, New York City was deep in crisis. At 4 p.m. the next day, four hundred and fifty-three million dollars of the city’s debts would come due, but there were only thirty-four million dollars on hand. If New York couldn’t pay those debts, the city would officially be bankrupt

A few months before, in mid-April, the city had run out of money for the first time. Governor Hugh Carey was willing to advance state funds to allow the city to pay its bills under the condition that the city turn over its financial management to the state. This led to the creation of the Municipal Assistance Corporation, which was authorized to sell bonds to meet the city’s borrowing needs.


On the morning of October 17th, New Yorkers woke to a series of grim headlines.

President Gerald Ford never these words.

New York Daily News headline-

“Ford to City: Drop Dead.”

Click to expand...

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-night-new-york-saved-itself-from-bankruptcy



Ford’s statement convinced the key players that no federal help would be forthcoming. Rubenstein, Koch, and others would later say that by refusing to save the city, Ford did the city a service.


And although Ford would later approve federal support for New York, New Yorkers remembered the headline. The following year, Jimmy Carter received the third-highest vote share a Democratic presidential candidate ever received in New York City, narrowly won New York State, and with it, the forty-one electoral votes that give him the Presidency—revealing the impact from one speech that wasn’t given, and one that was.

After a motherfucker-of-a-blizzard trapped passengers in a commuter train car for hours, the Boston MBTA took action. Spent money to deal with the New Normal. Deadly storms on the scale of The Blizzard of 1978.

What the MBTA did not say, is the trains would be fewer, and the wait would be longer.

Looking back at the Global Climate change disaster film, 2004’s "The Day After Tomorrow"

"It starts off thinking big, visualising the atmospheric consequences of the North Atlantic current slowing down and causing superstorms that are drawn to major world monuments. But the film’s thinking gets comically reductive, Jake Gyllenhaal’s breakneck Manhattan escape from a flash freeze boiling down to – stand back! – closing a door and fanning the fire. Fans of unsubtle political statements could also thrill to the sight of southern American climate refugees streaming across the border to Mexico (luckily for the film-makers, Trump wasn’t tweeting back then). In the obligatory narcissistic-trashing-of-LA sequence, the twister that scrubs out the Hollywood sign is perhaps Emmerich’s rebuke to his peers’ lack of faith on the climate question."


(gsgs comment-
The most fucked up coincidence- a library is where they find refuge. They burn books to stay alive.)


https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jan/18/best-top-climate-change-films

The Amazon's rainforest is rapidly getting chewed into. The world's fires burn away what natural defenses we have. The energy and fuel suppliers have been given wide ranging freedom to do what they please. The military has been encouraged by cash infusions, and dirty motives. A hundred years of science, and decisions made today, ignore the knowledge.

I hope to fuck that the loss of Spring, does not happen in my lifetime.

Iraqi Officials: 180,000 People Displaced from West Mosul Amid Fighting

MAR 21, 2017

Tonald Drump (Drumpf) met with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi at the White House Monday, on the 14th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003. During their meeting, Trump pledged continued U.S. military support for the ongoing campaign against ISIS militants, including in the city of Mosul. On Monday, the Iraqi government said as many as 180,000 people have been displaced from west Mosul amid the ongoing fighting. More than 100,000 of those who have fled are now in temporary refugee camps.

https://www.democracynow.org/2017/3/21/headlines

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/art...ing_About_the_FBIs_Probe_Into_Trump/comments/


President Trump’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Twitter day


March 20, 2017

Comey firmly rejected Trump’s tweeted claim on March 4 that former president Barack Obama had ordered wiretaps of him in the Trump Tower. “I have no information that supports those tweets, and we have looked carefully inside the FBI,” Comey said. “The Department of Justice has asked me to share with you that the answer is the same for the Department of Justice and all its components. The department has no information that supports those tweets.”


NSA Director Michael S. Rogers dismissed the White House suggestion that Obama asked British intelligence to spy on Trump — a claim already angrily rejected by Britain. Rogers confirmed that such a request would be a violation of U.S. law and that such a claim by Trump “clearly frustrates a key ally of ours.”

The Pinocchio Test

The president’s tweets throughout the day were misleading, inaccurate or simply false. The gravity of the disclosures might have called for a more restrained response, as the White House’s well of credibility is only so deep. But the president chose another approach — which clearly backfired, tweet after tweet.

Four Pinocchios

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-very-bad-twitter-day/?utm_term=.8bda9d96a79a


(the only witness was Erin McPike, from Independent Journal Review)


When Secretary of State Rex Tillerson ditched his press corps and agreed to take only one journalist with him on a trip to Asia last week, that one journalist was IJR's Erin McPike.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...spended-benny-johnson/?utm_term=.7cdd749a2476

Trumpism in Alexandria, VA ? In lockstep, all of the reality-free publications "quoted (identical) fake accounts in their articles ..."

Top political ally to Vice President Pence is an investor in the conservative news organization that was granted special access to cover Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's latest overseas trip, BuzzFeed News reported Friday.

Nick Ayers, an Atlanta-based political strategist who worked on the campaign, is a part owner of the Independent Journal Review, whose White House correspondent was the only reporter allowed to accompany Tillerson on a trip to Asia this week, according to the report.

BuzzFeed reported that there is no evidence to suggest that Ayers was behind or involved in the decision to allow the reporter to accompany Tillerson on his trip, nor is there any indication that the strategist is involved in the organization's editorial decisions.

http://thehill.com/homenews/media/3...part-owner-of-conservative-news-outlet-report



On Friday, when Tillerson stopped in Seoul, the South Korean cable TV pundits griped about the new U.S. secretary of state opting not to have dinner with South Korean leaders. They compared his visit with Tillerson's earlier stop in Japan, where his meetings with the foreign minister were not only longer, he dined with Japanese leaders.

There was never a dinner with South Korean leaders on Tillerson's schedule. He left Seoul Saturday morning for Beijing, just as planned, and not a moment earlier. But the speculation by pundits led to a Korea Herald piece that used the word "shortened," in the context of shorter meetings than in Japan.

Then, the Washington Post's fact-checker, Glenn Kessler, read the report and tweeted the Korea Herald article. In an email to NPR, Kessler explained:

The reason I tweeted that report from the Korean Herald was precisely to point out how foreign officials can spin the situation if a secretary doesn't have correspondents traveling with him.

https://www.npr.org/sections/parall...-meme-and-things-that-happen-in-a-news-vacuum

In the end, the rockiest moments of Tillerson's diplomatic trip to Asia weren't what he said or did, but rather, what he didn't say and didn't do.


Just in time for a very important observance-

A travel ban from Tonald Drump (Drumpf)


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/19/us/travel-ban-persian-new-year-celebration.html

Fuck equal opportunity, is Betsy DeVos's attitude. She purchased her public office by paying off Tonald Drump. He is letting her do whatever she wants. He is pleased that she is destroying the offices she is appointed to run.

Equal opportunity is getting shoved out of the window. The White Supremacists are pulling up the ladder, after them. Education is getting monetized. There are more wealthy people, than ever. They need a new scam to create more private wealth. Schools and universities have proved to be a great way to peel more money from the government and put it in private pockets. Lawsuits are expensive and cut into profits. If the laws are hamstrung and inefficient, or non-enforceable, or non-existent, there will not be lawsuits to deal with. Make the world safe for entitled, White Supremacists suffering from Affluenza. Youthful indiscretions, lawless blunders, and mindless criminal acts will not mar the reputations of wealthy heirs of all the "right people." There will be much less competition for positions, offices, and benefits, if all the "wrong people" are discouraged from reaching higher levels of education. This is a culture war, and the billionaires are willing to cut out the competition in any manner possible.

If you attend public school, public college, or public university, she has no use for you.


Betsy DeVos, ridding the world of feminist advances, and protections for minority students

Stalked, molested, raped ? She does not give a fuck. Discrimination, racist attitudes, bigotry ? Betsy DeVos does not care.

The Wall Street Journal reported that DeVos has authorized buyouts to 207 DOE employees. Of this number, 45 are in the OCR — the highest of any division in the DOE. When asked to explain the cuts, DOE staff responded that the OCR is the largest division in the agency and has many senior employees. However, critics responded that the cuts seem to be based on DeVos’ dislike of the agency rather than any need. Indeed, the OCR’s caseload increased significantly during the Obama era, which would seem to call for more staff, rather than a reduction in force. While the Obama administration did not increase staff, it also did not actively target the OCR for staff reductions.


DeVos’ cuts, the workload of each OCR employee will increase from 26 to 42 cases per person. An overworked and understaffed OCR will likely find it difficult to properly investigate its complaints. Indeed, Politico found that in the early days of DeVos’ tenure, the OCR closed 1,500 cases; 900 of these were closed without any proceedings. It is impossible to know for certain how many students were denied justice as a result.


DeVos has rescinded Obama-era guidance intended to make the OCR look for systemic injustice. The Obama guidance directed OCR investigators to “expand individual complaints into broader reviews of schools and colleges to look for systemic civil-rights violations.” So, for example, if an African-American student was unfairly disciplined at school, under the Obama-era guidance, the OCR investigators were charged to look for other racially charged disciplinary incidents to determine if the action was a singular incident or part of a larger pattern of systemic discrimination. As author David Tomar noted in a post for The Best Schools, “The objective of the Obama guidelines was to produce investigations that illuminated and served to dismantle systematic obstacles to equality. The objective of the DeVos revisions is to limit the scope of such investigations, ultimately giving the schools themselves decisive authority over how investigations are pursued. … If there are systematic incidences of discrimination or inequality in our schools, DeVos would rather not know about them.”

http://atlantablackstar.com/2017/12...investigates-civil-rights-violations-schools/

DECEMBER

… congressional Republicans finally manage to pass tax legislation, which in its final form is expected to be approximately the same length as "War and Peace" in the original Russian but less intelligible to the average American taxpayer. The consensus of expert media commentators is that the legislation will reduce taxes for the middle class, increase taxes for the middle class, stimulate the economy, destroy the economy, make America great again, and LITERALLY KILL MILLIONS OF PEOPLE!

(from the desk of Dave Barry, humorist)

https://www.adn.com/arts/2017/12/31/dave-barrys-year-in-review-yeah-that-really-happened/