We will be traveling for a few weeks, so DDD may be delayed a bit, or maybe quicker....who knows! But have a look at #1 - one of the best articles I have read in a long time......
1/ For our regular readers, does the constant flow of overwhelmingly negative articles about our society, government and institutions get you down? Make you depressed?
It also got to the Editor of Alternet, and he has written an amazingly good summary of where we are, where we are going and all of the dark forces that affect our lives that every thoughtful American should read. As I went through this piece I related his logic to many if not all of the big news stories of the last year, and indeed decade, and as a summary of the problems we are and will be facing, it's excellent.
So, dear depressed reader, digest this article....it won't make you feel better, but you will at least realise you aren't alone in thinking we are in deep trouble.....and let's all do what he says in the last few paragraphs.....
The 4 Plagues: Getting a Handle on the Coming Apocalypse
In an environment of confusion and despair, it helps to understand the forces at play, how they operate, and why they feel so overwhelming.
Photo Credit: f9photos/ Shutterstock.com
June 4, 2013 |
Every day, thousands, probably millions of people ask their family, friends, neighbors and colleagues similar and increasingly familiar questions: What has happened to our country? How did we get here? Isn’t it scary? Can anything be done about it?
There is an abundance of evidence that there are forces tearing apart the U.S. economy and society, causing increasing levels of fear, anxiety and trauma for large numbers of people. Many people are mystified as to the specific causes of their fears, with a mass media system that constantly broadcasts propaganda about how great America is and a new digital media system that may be exacerbating the problems for a society under immense and unprecedented duress.
There is the added problem that the theories and the means of social change we are familiar with, and to which we still turn, are not remotely up to the task we face, and have mostly proven to be inadequate. Virtually every problem we face has gotten worse over the past 40 years, and heavily sped up since 9/11 and the economic crash of 2007.
In an environment of confusion and despair, it can be helpful to name the beast—essentially to understand the forces at play, how they operate, and why they feel both intractable and overwhelming. So, what follows is a kind of "Users' Guide To What Is Freaking Us Out.”
What Has Happened to Us?
So the big question is: what is the “it” that has happened to us? Depending on your vantage point and the myriad problems in front of us, “it” can be any number of causes and factors.
2/ Paul Krugman has been on a roll recently,and this column about the obstructionism of the Republicans in Congress with Obamacare is a classic.....he concludes they are tring to block any implementation of better medical care for millions of Americans out of spite.....
I believe it, having recently seen the reaction locally from our local Florida reps Senator Alan Hays and Representative Bryan Nelson....spiteful describes these two turkeys.....
House Republicans have voted 37 times to repeal ObamaRomneyCare — the Affordable Care Act, which creates a national health insurance system similar to the one Massachusetts has had since 2006. Nonetheless, almost all of the act will go fully into effect at the beginning of next year.
There is, however, one form of obstruction still available to the G.O.P. Last year’s Supreme Court decision upholding the law’s constitutionality also gave states the right to opt out of one piece of the plan, a federally financed expansion of Medicaid. Sure enough, a number of Republican-dominated states seem set to reject Medicaid expansion, at least at first.
And why would they do this? They won’t save money. On the contrary, they will hurt their own budgets and damage their own economies. Nor will Medicaid rejectionism serve any clear political purpose. As I’ll explain later, it will probably hurt Republicans for years to come.
No, the only way to understand the refusal to expand Medicaid is as an act of sheer spite. And the cost of that spite won’t just come in the form of lost dollars; it will also come in the form of gratuitous hardship for some of our most vulnerable citizens.
Some background: Obamacare rests on three pillars. First, insurers must offer the same coverage to everyone regardless of medical history. Second, everyone must purchase coverage — the famous “mandate” — so that the young and healthy don’t opt out until they get older and/or sicker. Third, premiums will be subsidized, so as to make insurance affordable for everyone. And this system is going into effect next year, whether Republicans like it or not.
3/ A bit of nostalgia - Johnny Carson and Dom DeLouise with the egg trick on the Carson Show.....a wonderful 3 minutes from another time.....
4/ The Bradley Manning trial is under way, but the coverage it is getting in the media is predictably awful, all focusing on the young man on trial and nothing on the alleged "secrets" he exposed. This is what Matt Taibbi does - cuts through the spin, and focuses on the facts.....of course now this trial will be totally ignored because of the Edward Snowden NSA revelations......
Excellent story in Rolling Stone......
Well, the Bradley Manning trial has begun, and for the most part, the government couldn't have scripted the headlines any better.
In the now-defunct Starz series Boss, there's a reporter character named "Sam Miller" played by actor Troy Garity who complains about lazy reporters who just blindly eat whatever storylines are fed to them by people in power. He called those sorts of stories Chumpbait. If the story is too easy, if you're doing a piece on a sensitive topic and factoids are not only reaching you freely, but publishing them is somehow not meeting much opposition from people up on high, then you're probably eating Chumpbait.
There's an obvious Chumpbait angle in the Bradley Manning story, and most of the mainstream press reports went with it. You can usually tell if you're running a Chumpbait piece if you find yourself writing the same article as 10,000 other hacks.
The CNN headline read as follows: "Hero or Traitor? Bradley Manning's Trial to Start Monday." NBC went with "Contrasting Portraits of Bradley Manning as Court-Martial Opens." Time magazine's Denver Nicks took this original approach in their "think" piece on Manning, "Bradley Manning and our Real Secrecy Problem":
Is he a traitor or a hero? This is the question surrounding Bradley Manning, the army private currently being court-martialed at Fort Meade for aiding the enemy by wrongfully causing defense information to published on the Internet.
The Nicks thesis turned out to be one chosen by a lot of editorialists at the Manning trial, who have decided that the "real story" in the Manning case is what this incident showed about our lax security procedures, our lack of good due diligence in vetting the folks we put in charge of our vital information.
"With so many poorly protected secrets accessible to so many people, it was only a matter of time," Nicks wrote. "We can be grateful that Bradley Manning rather than someone less charitably inclined perpetrated this leak."
5/ "People Are Awesome" is a great video series of athletes doing incredible things, and this new 7 minute clip is exhilarating.....didn't care for the second sound track, but "oh well".......
Skydiving anyone?
6/ How happy are you with Comcast?
Thought so......I don't think there is a more hated company in America.....with good reason. They are expensive, awful to deal with and there is no alternative to their gouging. So much for capitalism.....and how come the Tea Party fanatics don't protest this monopoly?
Price-gouging cable companies are our latter-day robber barons
Monopolistic cable providers make internet access an unaffordable luxury for tens of millions of Americans
One percent of American households cancels internet service every year – largely because of its artificially high cost. Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex Features
Last year, about 1% of American households cut off their internetservice. That's not as surprising as experts may suggest.
The internet – which promised to connect all Americans with everything from educational opportunities to Facebook status updates – has become, unfortunately, a luxury even for the middle class. Cable companies that have functioned as oligopolies have made it that way.
Naturally, more Americans would cut off internet service considering how absurdly expensive it has become to pay to stay connected. The median income for a household in the United States is just over $50,000, which has to support a family with basics like food, mortgage or rent, a car and gas. Inflation has steadily driven up the price of food and gas, which has meant that American wages have actually dropped since the recession. School costs, healthcare and other costs mean many families depend on credit cards on occasion. That doesn't leave a lot of room for splashy purchases.
Yet, strangely, internet access – which is a necessity in homes where children get their homework online and parents may telecommute – has become the splashiest purchase of all. In many big cities, internet access can easily become a budgetary sinkhole for families. Think of $100 a month for cable and internet, another $50 a month for a smartphone, $40 a month for an iPad or a similar device; if you travel, add $70 a month for some kind of wireless hotspot like Verizon's Mi-Fi.
Competition drives down prices, and the world of cable and internet access has largely done away with the threat of competition. At home, if you don't like Time Warner's prices, you can't turn around and getComcast; you'll have to spring for satellite service or hope Verizon FiOS serves your area. And once you have those, there's no guarantee they'll suit you or that their billing will be any better.
7/ We all love a "star" moment, and this is one for two fast food workers on Britains Got Talent with beautiful voices......even Simon Cowell applauded.....
8/ Medical Marijuana - legal in 7 states, and coming soon to New York and Illinois.....here is an article from Rolling Stone [of course!] about how the quasi legalisation of pot is proceeding in Colorado.....
I'm sure there's a downside to making weed legal, but can't think of one right now......
June 5, 2013 11:00 AM ET
Even if you didn't know that Denver has become America's undisputed stoner capital, there are clues. Like the two Jerry Garcia-themed bars. Or the 24-hour-a-day stand-up-comedy radio station. And the too-perfect-to-be-a-
Follow the scent to the industrial zone of Platte River Valley, where vast, anonymous warehouses hide more than 250 high-octane, connoisseur-grade weed operations. Or as one grower says, "Platte River Valley – highest concentration of marijuana on Earth." If your nose is Snoop Dogg-calibrated to sniff out only majorly primo herb, you just might end up at Gaia Plant-Based Medicine, a booming high-end cannabis enterprise with big-time ambitions. There, in an unmarked 40,000-square-foot warehouse across the street from a police station, 15 or so gardeners tend to an indoor jungle of artisanal weed worthy of a Peter Tosh album cover, which the company sells in its three medical-marijuana dispensaries.
Last year, Colorado voters passed Amendment 64, legalizing recreational marijuana. Starting early next year, anyone over the age of 21 will be able to walk into a weed store in Colorado – the first will be current dispensaries – and buy up to an ounce of stonier, tastier pot than whatever they've been getting from their dealer at home. There will be giddy, effervescent sativa-leaning varieties like Bubbleberry Haze; couch-lock-inducing indica-heavy ones like Purple Urkel; and everything in between. In shops with names like the Clinic and Pink House, you'll find all kinds of pot candies and cookies and cakes and sodas, and stuff you probably haven't even heard of yet, like butane-extracted hash oil, which can top 80 percent THC and get you so ripped you might as well be tripping. If Tolkien-level geeking out about "juniper notes" and "optimal cure times" doesn't sound mind-numbing, this will be the vacation spot of a lifetime, my friend.
But it's not just the next generation of obsessive weedophiles who have reason to be psyched. The referendum passed because it appealed to libertarian-leaning conservatives as a states-rights issue. Soccer moms and legislators alike were enticed by the high rate at which pot will be taxed (somewhere around 25 percent), with much of that revenue going toward school construction – a precedent that can only tempt cash-strapped states from Michigan to Florida.
9/ Stephen Colbert is shocked, shocked that in the new Superman movie the Man Of Steel isn't wearing the usual red underwear.......a very amusing three minutes.....
And here is the trailer for the movie, opening June 14th. It looks much darker, more brooding.......directed by Christopher Nolan....
10/ I am sure the angry old white men that run the Republican Party aren't worried about their research into how Millenials view the party, but they should be.....another very good story from Rolling Stone......
The College Republican National Committee has commissioned a report examining the party's dim prospects with millennials, who gave Barack Obama a five-million-vote edge over Mitt Romney in the 2012 election. The focus-group reviews are in – and they are brutal. Here are the 10 most scathing quotes from the admirably frank report, titled "Grand Old Party of a Brand New Generation."
1. "Young 'winnable' Obama voters were asked to say what words came to mind when they heard 'Republican Party.' The responses were brutal: closed-minded, racist, rigid, old-fashioned."
2. "Asked which words least described the GOP, respondents gravitated toward 'open-minded' (35%), 'tolerant' (25%), 'caring' (22%), and 'cooperative' (21%)."
3. "For the GOP, being thought of as closed-minded is hardly a good thing. But if the GOP is thought of as the 'stupid party,' it may as well be the kiss of death."
11/ This is one of those vids where the faces morph into one another, and this one is of all 44 Presidents. What surprised me was the number of Presidents I didn't remember.....mostly in the last century, but still.....
About 2 minutes.....
12/ Getting a little paranoid now that it's out in the open that the gumment is watching every electronic move you make? Here are some suggestions on how to protect yourself and your data......
Of course the easiest way is to vote these bastards out of office and get someone back in control of the military-industrial complex....
It Won’t Be Easy, But Here’s How You Can Keep All Your Conversations Private
- BY ROBERTO BALDWIN
- 06.06.13
- 7:31 PM
Someone’s listening. Photo: US Army
Your private conversations aren’t that private. In fact, the government is tapped into the servers of the top technology companies.
The NSA was granted carte blanche to the metadata of millions of Verizon phone calls. Current laws allow cops to access your email without a warrant if that email is stored in the cloud at least six months. Someone, somewhere could potentially be listening or reading your conversations. You can fight it, but it’s not easy.
If you’re not concerned about the government, hackers are out there ready to dox (display all your personal information online) you if they deem you important enough or for the fun of it. So how do you communicate without the whole world finding out that you’ve visited the doctor 12 times in the past six months for a mysterious rash? Well it’s not easy, but there are ways to keep your correspondence off the grid.
13/ The "Eye On Miami" blog with a follow-up to the Times story on Apalachicola Bay.......it's very clear Florida just doesn't care about our environment....
NY Times focuses on Apalachicola Bay: in fact, no different from Biscayne Bay or Florida Bay. Once gone, it's gone ...
The state of Florida is ringed in a sea of pollution. In Miami-Dade elected officials, having shoveled under the carpet adequate pollution infrastructure until a lawsuit by Biscayne Waterkeeper (and, now, a $1.5 billion sewerage fix that is inadequate to the tasks), ignores its own staff acknowledgement of sea level rise associated with global warming.
Pollution could be tamed. We could be taking steps to reverse the massive changes to the atmosphere by carbon dioxide. Natural resources and our quality of life could be protected. Civilization doesn't have to be on a collision course with the kinds of stark, bleak choices on the horizon. The problem is politics.
In particular, the overwhelming influence of elected officials for whom protecting the environment is on the scale from; doing nothing at all, to, the path of least resistance. In the first case, "doing nothing", accurately characterizes the Republican approach to environmental protection. In the second case, the path of least resistance describes the aversion of Democrats to taking hard positions on rules and regulations, for fear of further inflaming campaign contributors and ideologues on the radical right.
The GOP mantra is, in brief, there is nothing government can do that industry can't do better -- and even if this argument falls flat with its own middle -- the GOP shrugs that China and India are the problem. The Democrats can't summon the enthusiasm for the environment, or for federal regulations like those that might be imposed by the EPA, because the Beltway game fills its roles with lobbyists and the revolving door with regulators. William Butler Yeats described it well, "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are filled with passionate intensity."
Pollution could be tamed. We could be taking steps to reverse the massive changes to the atmosphere by carbon dioxide. Natural resources and our quality of life could be protected. Civilization doesn't have to be on a collision course with the kinds of stark, bleak choices on the horizon. The problem is politics.
In particular, the overwhelming influence of elected officials for whom protecting the environment is on the scale from; doing nothing at all, to, the path of least resistance. In the first case, "doing nothing", accurately characterizes the Republican approach to environmental protection. In the second case, the path of least resistance describes the aversion of Democrats to taking hard positions on rules and regulations, for fear of further inflaming campaign contributors and ideologues on the radical right.
The GOP mantra is, in brief, there is nothing government can do that industry can't do better -- and even if this argument falls flat with its own middle -- the GOP shrugs that China and India are the problem. The Democrats can't summon the enthusiasm for the environment, or for federal regulations like those that might be imposed by the EPA, because the Beltway game fills its roles with lobbyists and the revolving door with regulators. William Butler Yeats described it well, "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are filled with passionate intensity."
Todays video - the Tug Toner from Jimmy Kimmel......a little rude......
Todays Minnesota joke for guys
Todays jokes - a pun collection....a little different because it's a link, and visual.......
Todays Yorkshire joke
Bill and his wife Blanche go to the Yorkshire Show every year,And every year Bill would say," Blanche, I'd like to ride in that there 'elicopter "Blanche always replied," I know Bill, but that 'elicopter ride is twenty quid,And twenty quid is twenty quid! "One year Bill and Blanche went to the fair, and Bill said," Blanche, I'm 75 years old.If I don't ride that there 'elicopter, I might never get another chance "To this, Blanche replied," Bill that 'elicopter ride is twenty quid, and twenty quid is twenty quid "The pilot overheard the couple and said," I'll make you a deal. I'll take the both of you for a ride. If you can stay quiet for the entire ride and don't say a word I won't charge you a penny!But if you say one word it's twenty quid. "Bill and Blanche agreed and up they went.The pilot did all kinds of fancy maneuvers, but not a word was heard.He did his daredevil tricks over and over again,But still not a word...When they landed, the pilot turned to Bill and said," By golly, I did everything I could to get you to yell out, but you didn't..I'm impressed! "Bill replied," Well, to tell you t'truthI almost said something when Blanche fell out,But tha' knows,twenty quid is twenty quid! "
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