Curiosities

[bodysong]

bodysong comment-
Thanks to vintage films and borrowed glory from the BBC,
provided by Public Broadcast Service in the USA, Americans
learned about Boxing Day in the UK.

In 2019, Americans work on Christmas and Sundays-
But, there is no Boxing Day.

article title-

Today is Boxing Day, a great idea that turned into wretched excess

On December 19, 1663 -

Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary about running an errand:
"Thence by coach to my shoemaker’s and paid all there,
and gave something to the boys’ box against Christmas."

It's one of the earliest references to the English tradition of
putting together a box of money, gifts, hand-me-downs and
even leftover food for servants who had to work Christmas
day and got the next day off to spend with their families.

Lloyd Alter
December 26, 2019

https://www.treehugger.com/culture/make-boxing-day-green-bring-back-the-original-idea.html

I've written previously: (December 28, 2009-

"It was a holiday about equity- ensuring that everyone got
a day off, even those who had to work on Christmas.
It was a real buy-nothing day; you were supposed to
use up what you had left over and give away what
you didn't need.

https://www.treehugger.com/culture/make-boxing-day-green-bring-back-the-original-idea.html

The original idea made some sense; the Victorian gentry couldn't
do anything without servants, certainly not cook up a Christmas
dinner, so all their staff worked Christmas Day and got the next
day off to spend with their families. They took away their annual
bonuses, gifts and leftovers, while gentry ate cold cuts prepared
the day before.

The churches opened up their alms boxes and distributed the contents
to the poor; there was also a tradition of keeping one unopened gift
and donating it to charity. Many people today work in food banks,
donate excess gifts to the poor and make a point of polishing off
leftovers.

https://www.treehugger.com/culture/today-boxing-day-great-idea-turned-wretched-excess.html

Today is Boxing Day, a great idea that turned into wretched excess (2019, continued)

"Now Boxing Day is an orgy of consumption that starts early
in the morning in English-speaking countries other than the
USA, and is now even called Boxing Week to keep peddling
the bargains until New Years."

"I suppose it makes good economic sense, clearing everything out
at discount after the holiday, but it does miss the spirit of the day."

"It also isn't nearly as big a deal as it used to be, thanks to the spread
of Black Friday and online shopping, which has seriously cut into it.
Why wait until after the holidays for a bargain when you can get them
any time?"

UPDATE: readers point out that the USA was not egalitarian at all:

This completely fails to acknowledge the multiple-centuries long
intentional, forced, uncompensated labor of kidnapped, enslaved
Africans in the U.S.- from which the country STILL benefits to
this day. It'd be more probable to argue that the tradition didn't
survive because white Americans didn't value the lives of their
enslaved servants enough to practice any modicum of compassion
(in the form of a "day off" or otherwise.

https://www.treehugger.com/culture/today-boxing-day-great-idea-turned-wretched-excess-2013.html

December 28, 2019

- Lisa Rein

It started as one of the worst years for federal employees in recent
memory, as President Trump’s demands for billions of dollars for
a border wall led to a historic partial shutdown of the government
that stretched for 35 jittery days.

It ended on a high note, as the president signed off on 12 weeks of
paid leave for new parents, (Democrats won this paid leave by
betraying their own values, and making a deal with Presiderp -
he got his billion dollars for his prison camps for children and
building his "fence."-

Democrats achieved their goal of a significant raise for the
workforce in budget negotiations, in exchange for White
House priorities that included border wall funding.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...135770-2102-11ea-a153-dce4b94e4249_story.html

a generous raise and a midweek vacation
day before Christmas against the recommendation of his own staff —
and as he issued an exuberant letter of thanks to
“Our Incredible Federal Workforce.”

The Budget Battle

Trump struck a deal with House Democrats weeks ago to pass
a defense bill that gives federal employees their biggest victory
in nearly 30 years, the costly parental leave benefit viewed by
many of his top advisers as a momentous concession.
The (Presiderp) however, saw a rare opportunity to win
approval for a pet project, his proposed sixth branch of
the military dubbed the Space Force, ahead of the 2020
election.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...99f55e-2677-11ea-b2ca-2e72667c1741_story.html

So no, the federal workers did not get raise or parental leave, because of Trump.

But, they did get a day off. Except for the federal services, serving The People-
The scurity guards, and the staff left work at the usual time, on Christmas eve.

 

[JackLuis]

Could we put Trumpski in a box a gift him to Vlad? Donnie is certainly and unneeded extravagance!

 

[bodysong]

Not too deep in the past, Democrats openly named
Republicans as "muppets."

Wilkins and Wontkins

The two Muppets were used in ads for Wilkins Coffee, a firm
founded in 1899 by John H. Wilkins Sr., who sold coffee, tea
and spices at the corner of 14th and Wallach streets NW.

1957 Muppets and coffee

1958, 25,000 pairs of vinyl Wilkins and Wontkins puppets were sold.

1992 Wilkins Coffee was no longer the presence it once was.
(It seems to be defunct today.) It authorized marketing executive
Brady to gauge interest in putting Wilkins and Wontkins on
lunchboxes or in cereal or snack-food ads.

Lawsuits were filed, and the copyright case was eventually
settled in the Hensons’ favor.

December 28, 2019

https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca...2c9e34-210f-11ea-bed5-880264cc91a9_story.html

Trump is Grump muppet

(30 years of mocking a swindler and a fraud)

https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/te...-defund-pbs/IwpuZjjVPWh6q9ZOT2u0hN/story.html

In 2005, his likeness returned to Sesame Street as ‘‘Donald Grump’’:
a grouch again, but now in an orange wig - and famous among
muppets for his reality show and spectacular wealth.

With a great rumble, Grump popped out of a can atop a table
strewn with Grump-branded trash.

The muppets chanted: ‘‘Grump! Grump! Grump!’’

‘‘I’m the trashiest, I’m the grouchiest Grump,’’ he sang.

And then, as he always did, Grump sowed division on Sesame Street.

He enlisted the muppets into a contest to become his helper,
making them compete with each other to perform menial tasks,
like sorting his old sneakers.

When a pair of grouches’ performance displeased him, Grump
told them to leave Sesame Street.

‘‘Don’t forget your suitcases,’’ he said.

The contest narrowed to a matchup between Elmo, Oscar and his
girlfriend, Grundgetta. But the latter two spent all their time arguing
with each other about the prize.

Elmo worked the hardest and won all the events.
In a fit of cruelty, Grump cut him anyway.

He chose as his apprentices the two other grouches.
Because, he explained, they were caustic and
ineffective at their jobs.

‘‘I’ve got a reputation to think of,’’ Grump said.

‘‘Sesame Street’s’’ parent company has not yet responded
to questions about Grump’s origins, and whether he might
return during the Trump administration.

 

[bodysong]

Daily Beast looks into the Presiderp's White House of the past

There was not much unity among Trump supporters, during the early days

Back in the early days of 2017, it was said that Trump would be
"stepping over bodies." There is a mountain of bodies that Presiderp
stepped over, and left behind him. The conspiracy theories provided
mental chewing gum for his pet crazies, but ultimately it was about the
Money.

Someone clicking like for a Chelsea Clinton tweet, was considered treason!
(One faction tried to get another Trump supporting faction in trouble ?)

A curious bit of hitory- FFS, history

"...because of the abrasive and increasingly unpredictable rhetoric
of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, the nominal head of the
NSC, who once claimed that Islam aims to enslave humanity. This week,
in his first public statement since taking office, Flynn reportedly ignored
Pentagon advice and lambasted Iran for a missile test, saying the Trump
administration is “officially putting Iran on notice.” Adding Bannon, who
has no foreign policy expertise, makes for a combustible mix in the nation’s
most vital security organization.

Even more puzzling, Trump has downgraded two key NSC seats:
that of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the director of
national intelligence. In Trump’s administration, they will only be
invited to appear when “issues pertaining to their responsibilities
and expertise are to be discussed” — a decision that former national
security adviser Susan Rice called “stone cold crazy.”

https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion...al-security/lR47iaMHeAo3S3fuGhPe7K/story.html

Steve K. Bannon proved to be the Pied Piper for "the crazies" fired up
by Presiderp.-

“Leadership are all cunts,” Bannon wrote.

“We should just go buck wild.” Then he wrote, “Let the grassroots
turn on the hate because that’s the ONLY thing that will make them
do their duty.”

Republican leaders are not the only people Bannon has designated
as cunts. He also used the term to refer to Michelle Fields, one of
his former employees—and not just any old “cunt,” but a
“fucking cunt.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trumps-new-chief-steve-bannon-called-republican-leaders-cts

“During that first year, people were constantly trying to get other
people fired; some even compiled lists of people to fire that they
would show, or try to show, to the president,” said one of the
ex-officials. “[The Chelsea Clinton incident] was another little
thing that fueled suspicions and reminded…officials in the White
House that there were a lot of people working in the administration
who clearly hated Donald Trump.”

It would hardly be the only time over the past three years
that the State Department has bent itself out of shape over
anti-Trump activity on Twitter. Early this year, Finnish journalist
Jessikka Aro reportedly had her International Women of Courage
Award canceled by State following the department's realization
that she had repeatedly bashed Trump on her personal Twitter
account.

“It created a shitstorm of getting her unceremoniously kicked off
the list,”
an American diplomatic source told Foreign Policy magazine at
the time. “I think it was absolutely the wrong decision on so many levels.”
A State Department spokesperson claimed to FP that the investigative
journalist was “incorrectly notified” that she would be receiving
a Courage Award.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump...iked-a-chelsea-clinton-tweet?via=twitter_page

 

[JackLuis]

Gwyneth Paltrow’s Candle That Smells Like Her Private Parts Is Now Sold Out

Just yesterday, though, Paltrow made headlines again after a brand new candle appeared on Goop’s online store. Retailing for $75, the product is named “This Smells Like My Vagina” and smells exactly how it says it does, being made with ingredients including bergamot, geranium and whatever the heck “cedar absolutes” are. What’s even crazier, however, is that the candle is now sold out.

Yep, you read that right. In just a handful of hours, all of the inventory was depleted and it’s no longer available for purchase. Don’t worry though; if you’re dead-set on filling your house with the smells of Gwyneth’s… particulars…you can add yourself to Goop’s waitlist to be notified when it’s back in stock. To each their own, right?

Trumpski is considering selling a candle that smells like his dick! The only problem is it's hard to light and last only four minutes!

 

[bodysong]

She said a Bethlehem church was in Palestine.
But ‘Jeopardy!’ accepted Israel as the right answer.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/01/13/jeopardy-bethlehem-church/

January 13, 2020 at 7:26 AM EST

The “Jeopardy!” category was “Where’s that Church?”

The clue, for $200, was about an ancient basilica,
“built in the 300s A.D.," in the West Bank city of
Bethlehem.

And the answer? That might depend on whom you ask.
But the one deemed correct on Friday’s episode has
plunged the TV game show straight into criticism —
and deep into the heart of debate on the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.

Just after host Alex Trebek read the prompt about the Church
of the Nativity, contestant Katie Needle was first to buzz.
Responding in the show’s standard question-as-answer format,
she said, “What is Palestine?”

But Trebek told Needle, a retail supervisor from Brooklyn,
that she was wrong.

Then, another contestant, Jack McGuire, buzzed in.
“What is Israel?” he asked.

“That’s it,” Trebek said, awarding $200 to the San Antonio
tourism consultant.

“The Church of the Nativity is in Bethlehem, which is Palestine,
NOT Israel,” tweeted Scott Roth, the publisher of the progressive
Jewish website Mondoweiss. “The woman answered Palestine
and you ruled her wrong.”

The Church of the Nativity, considered by many to be the
birthplace of Jesus, sits by a white-stoned square in the heart
of Bethlehem near the controversial concrete barrier that encircles
the West Bank. UNESCO, which considers the church to be a
World Heritage Site, lists it as one of three such locations in Palestine.

Unacceptable!! Bethlehem is in the Palestinian territories
which Israel illegally occupies
(Katie Needle got the correct answer & was robbed).
@Jeopardy owes an apology for endorsing Israel's universally-
condemned illegal takeover of Palestinian lands.

— Omar Baddar (@OmarBaddar) January 11, 2020

*tip of the hat for Code Pink

CODEPINK
Twitter › codepink

While @Jeopardy may have voided the controversial Bethlehem
clue, the show has yet to further apologize for the invalidation &
erasure of #Palestine.

Sign our petition asking Jeopardy to definitively correct & apologize for the error.

16 seconds ago

Hey Alex @Jeopardy, the correct response to the clue below
is “WHAT IS ISRAELI APARTHEID?” @Katieee817 was
correct when she said: “What is Palestine?” Bethlehem is not in Israel!
Apologize for your irresponsible dissemination of Israeli propaganda

7 minutes ago

Hey Alex @Jeopardy, The correct response to the clue below is
“WHAT IS AN ISRAELI WAR CRIME?” @Katieee817 was
correct when she said: “What is Palestine?” Bethlehem is not in Israel!
Apologize for disseminating Israeli propaganda

24 minutes ago

T-minus 10 minutes until our @Jeopardy Twitter storm starts!
If you want to help us urge Jeopardy! to correct its harmful
erasure of #Palestine, tweet at Jeopardy using one of our sample
tweets & sign our letter to the show here

41 minutes ago

 

[bodysong]

iHeart radio changing over to
automated programs, automated system-

iHeartMedia announces reorganization;
radio personalities sacked in Massachusetts, nationwide

iHeartMedia has laid off veteran radio staffers across
the country as part of a company-wide reorganization.

Billboard noted the “bloodbath” resulted in pink slips
for dozens of veteran program directors and DJs in
top markets nationwide.

https://www.masslive.com/business/2...ities-sacked-in-massachusetts-nationwide.html

Jan 15, 2020

iHeartMedia announces reorganization;
radio personalities sacked across the nation

iHeartMedia sacks over 50 radio hosts, invests in
artificial intelligence

Clear Channel did not change

 

[bodysong]

bodysong comment-

On this coming Tuesday-

Trump will be distracted from impeachment proceedings
at Le Grand spectacle-a chance to kick arses, and act out
grudges, perhaps indulge in surreptitious romance with Putin,
via go-betweens ?

Trump tossed the only observant chaperone to the curb-
(One that could identify Russian figures of intrigue, and
comprehend the full importance of interactions...
I suppose that Trump will make use of Putin's interpreter.)

/end bodysong comment

“Andrew Peek, the senior director for European and Russian
affairs at the National Security Council, has been placed on
administrative leave."

https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/tr...ave-and-escorted-from-the-white-house-report/

"World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland"

This year, nearly 3,000 people from 117 countries will attend,
including 53 heads of state or government. The wealthiest or
most important will sweep in by helicopter and private limo,
the rest will chug through snow-drenched pine forests on the
train.

Where there is discord … enter Donald Trump.

(Lately, Trump has been picking fights with the European Union.
The lastest victim may be European wines- 100% tariff)

The US president is returning to Davos with a large delegation,
including his daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner.
Trump will give the first keynote speech, on Tuesday –
a chance to brag about his trade deal with China, and perhaps
redirect his tariff aim towards the EU. But Trump won’t get all
the limelight. The climate activist Greta Thunberg is also in town,
and could unleash another death stare at the US president for failing
to address the climate crisis.

https://www.theguardian.com/busines...ravels-how-50-davos-gatherings-shaped-history

 

[bodysong]

The Derp That Would Be King

The House argues:

“The President also asserts that Article I does not state
an impeachable offense. In his view, the American people
are powerless to remove a President for corruptly using his
Office to cheat in the next election by soliciting and coercing
a foreign power to sabotage a rival and spread conspiracy
theories helpful to the President. This is the argument
of a monarch, with no basis in the Constitution.”
The House is correct in pointing out that Alexander
Hamilton, James Madison and the House Judiciary
Committee during the Watergate investigation —
not to mention the Supreme Court — all agree.

“He is the Framers’ worst nightmare come to life,”
the House concludes.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/01/21/what-house-impeachment-response-tells-us/

hmmm...

Why am I daydreaming about the A Man for All Seasons film (1966)

 

[bodysong]

North Korea abandons nuclear freeze pledge,
blames 'brutal' U.S. sanctions

GENEVA

Reuters got there first, and media outlets are using them as source

North Korea said on Tuesday it was no longer bound by commitments
to halt nuclear and missile testing, blaming the United States’ failure
to meet a year-end deadline for nuclear talks and “brutal and inhumane”
U.S. sanctions.

https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/01/22/world/asia/22reuters-northkorea-nuclear-usa.html

"...in light of the United States conducting joint military exercises
with South Korea, the country argued it is no longer bound by those
commitments."

Trump been unable to strike better deals


January 21, 2020

- Daniel W. Drezner

The hard-working staff here at Spoiler Alerts argued last week
that President Trump’s trade deals are less than meets the eye.
My Washington Post colleague Jackson Diehl noted Sunday
that the same could be said of Trump’s “maximum pressure”
campaigns against North Korea, Iran and Venezuela.

To be sure, the ratcheting up of economic sanctions against
those troika of tyrannies has increased the economic pain
they have felt. What it has not done is generate anything
in the way of tangible concessions. Diehl concludes:
“Trump’s biggest miscalculation was that economic weapons
were enough to strong-arm the likes of [Kim Jong Un, Ali Khamenei
and Nicolás Maduro]. He supposed that prosperity is their priority;
it’s not. He waxed lyrical about the beach developments that
North Korea could have. But these dictators don’t care about
glitzy resorts. Their only interests are their own survival and
that of their extreme ideologies.”

What is striking is not that Trump is imposing sanctions
on allies — it is the meager returns he has garnered from
sanctions that should have yielded more. His renegotiated
deals with South Korea on trade and security are nothingburgers.
The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement did not produce an appreciably
better bargain than NAFTA, and in terms of trade liberalization, might
have been worse. He has gotten nothing from NATO allies that was not
in the works when Barack Obama was president.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/01/21/trumps-meager-haul-economic-coercion/

 

[bodysong]

Science ranks grow thin in Trump administration

- Annie Gowen,
- Juliet Eilperin,
- Ben Guarino
- Andrew Ba Tran

January 23, 2020

"...hundreds of scientists across the federal government
have been forced out, sidelined or muted since President
Trump took office."

The exodus has been fueled broadly by administration policies
that have diminished the role of science as well as more specific
steps, such as the relocation of agencies away from the nation’s
capital.

One-fifth of the high-level appointee positions in science
are vacant — normally filled by experts who shape policy
and ensure research integrity.

Of those who departed, the numbers were greatest among
social scientists, soil conservationists, hydrologists and
experts in the physical sciences — chemistry, geology,
astronomy and physics.

Across the government, the administration is scaling back
advisory committees that offer input to policymakers from
scientists and other experts.

Last year, Trump required agencies to eliminate one-third
of their advisory panels, with a few exceptions.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/clim...22b522-3172-11ea-a053-dc6d944ba776_story.html

 

[bodysong]

Super Bowl Sunday

Sunday’s date is a rare, extra-special palindrome

It’s the only date this century that reads the same
backward and forward around the world

January 31, 2020

How’s this for a calendrical trifecta:

Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday. And it’s Groundhog Day.
And it’s a rare eight-digit palindrome when written as
02/02/2020 — the only one of its kind this century.

The previous eight-digit palindrome like this was
11/11/1111, 909 years ago. We’ll only have to wait
another 101 years for 12/12/2121, but the next one
after that comes on March 3, 3030.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2020/01/31/sundays-date-is-rare-extra-special-palindrome/

 

[bodysong]

AMY GOODMAN: Will Kaufman, talk about 1937, the turning point
for Woody Guthrie as he takes on racial issues in this country.

WILL KAUFMAN:
Yeah, he—he arrived in California, I think,
with the influence of having grown up in a state dominated
by the Klan and growing up in a family that supported the Klan.
He wasn’t all that racially enlightened when he went out to
California. There’s evidence in the Archives that he would,
you know, write these mock poems about Africans—African
Americans are bathing on the beach in Santa Monica with the—
you know, giving off the Ethiopian smell and with jungle rhythms
pounding in their veins. And he’d happily sing songs using the
N-word and words like “coons” and stuff like that, which were
part of that white mountain tradition. And so, he’s on this radio
station sometime in 1937, and he announces that he’s going to
play a song from Uncle Dave Macon on the Grand Ole Opry,
and Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers, as well, recorded it, a
lovely song called “Run, Nigger, Run.” And he announces it,
and he plays it.

And he gets a letter from a member of his listening audience
the next day.

And that letter really hit Woody like a slap in the face.

He was mortified. He apologized profusely on the air the next day.
He made a big point of dramatically tearing out the song sheet
from his notebook and tearing it to shreds and promising he
would never use that word again.

So this is the beginning of his conversion, I suppose, to eventually
becoming one of the most ardent champions and activists for racial
equality.

AMY GOODMAN:

Will Kaufman, American radical, Woody Guthrie.
Woody Guthrie, American Radical is his book.

Howard Fast said about Peekskill,
“That’s the sound of Fascism. Not in Germany, but here in America.
Remember it!”

Talk more about the red-baiting at that time and how
Guthrie responded to that."

WILL KAUFMAN:

Pete Seeger gets called to the McCarthy committee. Well, McCarthy
is gone, but the committee is certainly still there, 1955. And unlike
Burl Ives, who named names to the committee, and unlike Josh White,
who called himself a communist dupe or a dupe of the communists,
and they—Woody excoriated them in letters. I mean, some real bitchy
stuff coming out of Woody Guthrie about his former friends there.
Pete Seeger decides to take the First Amendment, not the Fifth.
He takes the First Amendment:
“You have no right to ask me these questions, you sitting up there on that—
you know, in your inquisitorial dais there.” And so, he gets slapped with
a contempt of Congress citation, and he’s convicted. And he’s looking
at 10 years in jail. And it’s not until 1961 that his conviction is overturned
on a technicality—got nothing to do with a moral standing.

In fact, ironically, the judge who overturned it was Julius Hoffman,
who sent the Rosenbergs to the chair. But—

AMY GOODMAN: Not so far away from where he was, at Sing Sing.

WILL KAUFMAN: Not so far, that’s right.

AMY GOODMAN: In Ossining, New York.

AMY GOODMAN: You mentioned that Pete Seeger went before HUAC—

WILL KAUFMAN: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: —the House Un-American Activities Committee.
Guthrie was never called before it, but he did write an impassioned
defense of Pete Seeger.

https://www.democracynow.org/2012/7/4/woody_guthrie_at_100_pete_seeger

 

[bodysong]

New Hampshire has served to reinforce or reset
the Democratic primary race over the past five
decades.

February 11, 2020 3:09 pm

Democrats are going to try again.

After the Iowa results meltdown, New Hampshire takes center
stage Tuesday night. This election is run by the secretary of
state's office and not the state party. It's also a more-straightforward
primary (with a couple kinks we explain below) rather than a
complicated, math-heavy caucus.

There is lots at stake, as New Hampshire has served to reinforce
or reset the Democratic primary race over the past five decades.

Here are some key questions, things to watch and
the stakes for the candidates:

Is New Hampshire a swing state?

First, let's set the table. Yes, in a general election,
New Hampshire is very competitive.

Why is New Hampshire first?

This question comes up repeatedly, because, like Iowa,
New Hampshire is not a diverse state. It, too, is more than
90% white. In 2016, 93% of New Hampshire Democratic
primary voters were white. It has been first for a very long time —
100 years this year actually.

Then, about 50 years ago, New Hampshire passed a law
requiring it be first and gave sole power to the secretary
of state to set the primary date. Bill Gardner is that secretary
of state. He has been in the job about as long as the law
has been on the books and has fought against efforts —
Democratic and Republican — to move it.

When is the New Hampshire primary?

Polls open at 8 a.m. ET and close, in most places, at 7 p.m. ET.
But there are 221 towns in New Hampshire, and they all set
their own times. Some scarcely populated towns famously
begin voting at midnight to gain attention.

But all polls will be closed by 8 p.m. ET.

When will we see results?

We will start seeing results after 7 p.m. ET for most places,
but there will be no calls from the news networks or The
Associated Press (which NPR relies on for calls) until at
least 8 p.m. ET. At that point, expect the Republican primary

(yes, there is one) to be called for President Trump.

https://www.vpr.org/post/bernies-my-man-ground-new-hampshire-primary-voters

 

[bodysong]

a valentine, straight from their ? ? ? ?

No, Clearview AI's creepy plan to spy on us is not 'free speech'

This mass surveillance is misguided and sinister.

We must push back before it’s too late.

Law enforcement agencies around the world are enthusiastically
adopting the services of Clearview AI, a tech company whose
powerful software scrapes several billion open-source images
for the purposes of facial recognition.

The unrestricted use of facial recognition technology is
clearly incompatible with a democratic society. The first
amendment does not give companies the unassailable right
to engage in “speech” that involves sending out the intimate
details of our lives.

Just because images or information were hypothetically
obtained from public sources doesn’t totally nullify our
right to privacy.

Web scraping isn’t always bad – academics, researchers,
and journalists all employ scraping in highly beneficial ways.
But we don’t need to totally ban scraping in order to stop
bad actors like Clearview AI.

Attempts to defend mass surveillance under the auspices
of free speech are misguided at best and sinister at worst.

- Jake Laperruque

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/14/clearview-ai-facial-recognition-technology

 

[bodysong]

Suprise!

Julian Assange never gave up his source.

(or, he is telling a lie about that...)

Julian Assange alleges Trump offered him a 'deal':

Say Russia didn't hack DNC, get a free pardon

February 19, 2020

According to Assange’s legal team, that witness will report
that Assange was approached while in exile and offered a
pardon by the U.S. government if he would claim that
Russia was not involved in the theft and release of
documents from the Democratic National Committee
during the 2016 election.

The visitor bringing this offer, according to Assange’s attorney,
was former California Congressman Dana Rohrabacher.
But the claim is also that Rohrabacher was there on behalf
of Donald Trump, to let Assange walk if he would only say
that Russia was not involved.

January 12, 2020

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...-say-Russia-didn-t-hack-DNC-get-a-free-pardon

The White House denies Julian Assange’s pardon claim.

Here’s what we know about it.

February 19, 2020

As with all claims by Assange, it’s worth skepticism
and careful assessment.

The first thing to note is that Assange’s credibility is very
questionable, and he has plenty of reason to make such an
allegation. He is fighting extradition to the United States,
and one of the ways you can beat extradition is by arguing
that you are being targeted politically. This would seem to
feed into such an effort.

The bigger point, though, is that there is a known backstory
here, and Assange’s claim kind of fits and kind of doesn’t.

Rohrabacher struggled to get a meeting with Trump to talk
about the proposal, he did actually get one before his visit
with Assange. Rohrabacher met with Trump in April 2017
for 45 minutes in the Oval Office. Trump had seen the Russia-
friendly congressman on Fox News and called him to deliver
the invitation shortly after Rohrabacher walked off set,
according to Politico.

The fact that this meeting was so steadfastly opposed
by Kelly and others is an intriguing part of this.

"...there were two other people in that April 2017 White
House meeting, according to CNN’s report at the time:
then-chief of staff Reince Priebus and then-chief strategist
Stephen K. Bannon. If Trump authorized such a deal and it
occurred at that meeting, they would ostensibly know about it.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...ges-pardon-claim-heres-what-we-know-about-it/

‘Putin’s favorite congressman’ moves to Maine

Dana Rohrabacher, who once arm-wrestled the now-Russian
president and represented Orange County, Calif., for 30 years
in the U.S. House, now lives in York.

https://www.pressherald.com/2020/01/12/putins-favorite-congressman-moves-to-maine/

Trump had his one of his communication peope lie for him.

Jim Acosta ✓
Twitter › Acosta

Grisham on Assange:

“The President barely knows Dana Rohrabacher
other than he’s an ex-congressman. He’s never
spoken to him on this subject or almost any subject.
It is a complete fabrication and a total lie.
This is probably another never ending hoax
and total lie from the DNC"

3 hours ago

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/02/wh...knows-goper-who-took-pardon-offer-to-assange/

 

[bodysong]

Donald Trump offered Julian Assange a pardon
if he would say Russia was not involved in leaking
Democratic party emails, a court in London has been told.

The extraordinary claim was made at Westminster magistrates
court before the opening next week of Assange’s legal battle
to block attempts to extradite him to the US.

Trump invited Rohrabacher to the White House in April 2017

Until he was voted out of office in 2018, Rohrabacher was a
consistent voice in Congress in defence of Vladimir Putin’s
Russia, claiming to have been so close to the Russian leader
that they had engaged in a drunken arm-wrestling match in
the 1990s. In 2012, the FBI warned him that Russian spies w
ere seeking to recruit him as an “agent of influence”.

Neither Rohrabacher, who now lives in Maine, nor his lawyer
returned calls seeking comment on Assange’s claims.

Assange is wanted in America to face 18 charges, including
conspiring to commit computer intrusion, over the publication
of US cables a decade ago.

He could face up to 175 years in jail if found guilty.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2...d-julian-assange-pardon-russia-hack-wikileaks

 

[bodysong]

A haunting look back at the Weimar Republic

- Donna Perlmutter
March 14, 2020

Love in the time of Coronavirus. Love in the time of Presidential elections.
That's all we hear about these days.

Reminders of the world's current authoritarian trend-lines, though,
were not absent from the Weimar Republic Festival put on by conductor
laureate Esa-Pekka Salonen with the LA Philharmonic. That spirit of
Germany's impending trauma of 1918-1933, a movement reflected by
Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht et al, came to Disney Hall in a brilliant
production by the brothers Simon and Gerard McBurney.

Can you revel in a stage artist's magical creation of a decadent time?
A time of raging capitalism? Of social chaos and political passions?
Of rotting morality? All as the lead-in to Fascism? Forgetting that it
came with great artistic and cultural freedom?

But of course. Just look around.

(music! voices of the chorus! artistic, dramatic, dark stage atmosphere! )

But just in case the name Weimar still does not ring bells, think,
for starters, of movieland's émigrés from the early '30s: Fritz Lang,
Marlene Dietrich ("The Blue Angel," where she strolled around
a restaurant in a top hat and tux singing and kissing women at tables) --
not to mention "Cabaret" (Kander/Ebb), based on Christopher Isherwood's
"Goodbye to Berlin."

http://www.laobserved.com/intell/2020/03/a_haunting_look_back_at_the_we.php

 

[bodysong]

The Borg/ Russia/ Trump

Otherworldly, 150-Foot-Long String-Like Organism Spotted in Deep Sea
Is Made Up of 'Millions of Interconnected Clones'

4/7/20

Resembling a long piece of string, siphonophores—a group of creatures
related to jellyfish and corals—may look like one organism, but they are
actually made up of many thousands of individual, specialized clones that
come together to form a single entity.

With the help of lasers mounted onto their ROV—known as SuBastian—
the Falkor scientists estimated that this siphonophore's outer ring measured
49 feet in diameter, suggesting that the whole organism is (roughly)
a staggering 154 feet long, or about as tall as an 11-story building.

https://www.newsweek.com/otherworld...ep-sea-millions-interconnected-clones-1496512

Check out this beautiful *giant* siphonophore Apolemia recorded on #NingalooCanyons expedition.
It seems likely that this specimen is the largest ever recorded, and in strange UFO-like feeding posture.
Thanks @Caseywdunn for info @wamuseum @GeoscienceAus @CurtinUni @Scripps_Ocean

— Schmidt Ocean (@SchmidtOcean) April 6, 2020

 

[bodysong]

Geologist Steve Weiner claimed that, according to his own tests, the structure
was not a geological formation. He was even quoted supporting one of the
most outlandish claims…

The object, Steve claimed, was made out of “metals which nature could not
reproduce itself.” Peter hoped this kind of support from Steve would solve
the mystery of the sunken “ship” — and help his team go further than ever
before with their research.

In 2019, Peter suggested that Ocean X may return to the object…
with an entire camera crew in tow.

“[There’s] something we do not usually find in nature sitting in the…
depths of the Baltic Sea,” Peter concluded.

https://boredomtherapy.com/divers-artifact-century/

 

[bodysong]

12 Shakespeare-inspired movies to stream in honor of his birthday, from ‘Macbeth’
to ‘10 Things I Hate About You’

- Sonia Rao

April 23, 2020

Thursday marks the birthday of one William Shakespeare, according to experts,who widely
agree he was born on April 23. This is also believed to be the date on which he died 52 years
later — a fitting coincidence for an English playwright who, despite being a Taurus, had a
flair for the dramatic.



‘Richard III’ (1995)

Streaming on Amazon, “Richard III” relocates to 1930s Britain, where Richard
(Ian McKellen) is a fascist trying to usurp the throne after a fictional civil war ends
with his older brother as king. The film was based on a stage production also starring
McKellan and added several notable names to the on-screen cast, including
Annette Bening, Jim Broadbent, Robert Downey Jr., Kristin Scott Thomas
and Maggie Smith.



‘Much Ado About Nothing’ (1993)

Streaming on Vudu, Kenneth Branagh’s version of “Much Ado About Nothing”
is said to be one of the most successful Shakespeare adaptations ever made —
a lengthy list that includes several others also directed by and starring Branagh.
This film benefits greatly from his chemistry with then-wife Emma Thompson,
as well as the other talents involved: Robert Sean Leonard, Denzel Washington
and Keanu Reeves.



‘Shakespeare in Love’ (1998)

Streaming on Hulu’s Showtime add-on, “Shakespeare in Love” isn’t an adaptation
but a fictionalized account of Shakespeare’s (Joseph Fiennes) life while writing
“Romeo and Juliet” that alludes to many of his plays, whether through characters
or specific lines. The film earned Gwyneth Paltrow an Oscar, which she won for
playing Viola de Lesseps, a merchant’s daughter with whom Shakespeare has
an affair.



‘The King’ (2019)

Streaming on Netflix, “The King” is David Michôd’s dour take on Shakespeare’s
“Henry” plays. While the overall film received mixed reviews, Michôd made a smart
choice in casting the very watchable Timothée Chalamet in the lead role of Prince Hal.
But the most memorable casting decision was Robert Pattinson as the Dauphin of France,
who taunts his English rival in an over-the-top accent.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts...m-shakespeare-movie-adaptation-viewing-guide/

More, at the link

 

[bodysong]

Ring in 5781 with Jewish calendar that puts an artistic spin on time

20 September 2020

https://www.timesofisrael.com/ring-in-5781-with-jewish-calendar-that-puts-an-artistic-spin-on-time/

Rosh Hashanah rolls back around and people brace themselves for the new Hebrew year 5781

Traditional calendars, both Gregorian and Hebrew, are boxy and rigid. A circular calendar,
Schutz contends, displays “an idea of wholeness” that rectangular calendars lack. The circular
Misaviv calendar is symbolic and meaningful, he says. It reflects the cycles of nature —
that is, seasons and phases of the moon — and projects a more feminine resonance.

(It is artistic and interesting.)

Meanwhile, the commercial American calendar leaves business stuck in 2020.

 

[bodysong]

8th October 2020

Nobel Prize in Literature awarded to American poet Louise Glück

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/nobel-prize-2020-winner-literature-intl/index.html

 

[bodysong]

October 8, 2020

Jim Dwyer, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist, Dies at 63

The New York Times

While working successively at New York Newsday, the Daily News and the New York Times
he also wrote six books, on subjects as varied as the city’s subway system, terrorist attacks
and a group of college students creating an Internet company — and was featured as
a character in a Broadway play by Nora Ephron.

In 1992, he and several Newsday colleagues shared the Pulitzer for their coverage of a
Manhattan subway accident that killed five people. The next year, he covered a bombing
at the World Trade Center by Muslim extremists, and then collaborated with several
Newsday colleagues on a book about it, “Two Seconds Under the World.”

1995, Mr. Dwyer won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary at New York Newsday,
a now-defunct edition of the Long Island-based Newsday

In 2000, he wrote about the killing of an unarmed Black man, Patrick Dorismond,
by an undercover police officer.

In 2001, Mr. Dwyer moved to the Times as a Metro reporter. On Sept. 11, 2001, he covered
the terrorist attack in which two jetliners were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade
Center, killing almost 3,000 people.

Dwyer’s final book, “More Awesome Than Money,” about four New York University
students creating a start-up company as a challenger to Facebook, was published in 2014.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca...78f4c2-04ef-11eb-b7ed-141dd88560ea_story.html

 

[bodysong]

"The Pope Who Would Be King: The Exile Of Pius IX And The Emergence
Of Modern Europe."

Pius became pope in 1846. He was the last pope to rule over the Papal States, which
much of what is now Italy. There was no separation of church and state until a rebellion
by Italian nationalists forced Pope Pius IX into exile, which led to the creation of modern
Italy. After the pope returned from exile without the Papal States to rule over, he was confined
to the Vatican, giving the Vatican a new significance. Pius also instituted the doctrine of papal
infallibility. He saw freedom of speech in of the press as incompatible with Catholicism.

https://www.npr.org/2018/04/24/6052...-most-important-pope-in-modern-church-history