Thursday, May 31, 2012

Things to Know - El Primer dia de Junio

Stuart Carlson

1.  William Rivers Pitt looks back at the sum and substance of Willard Mitt Romney's sum and substance after his eons-long quest for the nomination of the Republican Party.  Can't even  spell the name of the country he would like to lead:

2.  If you've seen Cardinal Timothy Dolan on TV, he seems to be a very articulate , jolly, and joyful spokesman for the Catholic Church.  He came across like a real nice guy on the 60 Minutes interview.  However, information has come forth that he is less than truthful and lacking in candor in dealing with the issue of pedophiles in his roost.  Lots of hush and payoff money has been cast about to quiet his PR problem:
http://truth-out.org/news/item/9494-head-of-catholic-bishops-paid-pedophiles-to-disappear

3.  North Carolina does not want to be left behind in the strategic moves that the South is noted for in taking it backwards in time.   In this case, if there is an environmental alarm that there is a problem in our midst, you pass a law that it does not exist, and science is banned from trying to prove that it exists.  The South - where Ignorance and Intolerance is an Enduring Tradition:

4.  There is a recall election next Tuesday in Wisconsin to recall the sitting governor - Scott Walker.   The Koch Brothers and every available Tea Party wingnut is being bussed in to fill the doorsteps, airwaves, and advertising media with everything they have to prevent the abuses to democracy that the GeeOpee has done.  Bill Clinton is going up there now to get out the vote for Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.   This is a very big and pivotal moment:

5.  Here's a refreshing view from someone at the WashPost who is tired of right-wing and MittBott Teachers' Union-bashing.   If you share the same distaste for the constant bashing, you just might enjoy this:

6.  Paul Krugman points out a very obvious ruse that the Austerity Programs of Europe and the bone-headed right-wing is trying to pull off right now.   The spread of fear and panic to cut back on anything of social programs and anything that benefits anyone but the upper 1% is in super over-drive motion.  My thinking is that the Right-Wing extremists know that they may never ever have this chance again, so they are pouring all the money they have in order to do it all right now.  Dismantle it all now - Voters Rights, Unions, Medicare, Obama Care, Food Stamps,, etc. and on and on --- purge it all!.  Krugman presents a more measured view than mine:

7.  David Brooks seems to offer no hope, along with Krugman, on our present and future.  What he is talking about is the distrust between nations in Europe, which is the real issue surrounding the collapse of the Euro Zone - not debt.  Here, on this side of the Atlantic, you've read that I refer to us as the States of America - because we are divided and splintered; we have very little unity:

8.   The "once-presumptive" nominee of the GeeOpee, is now in the position as the guy who is presumptively supported by the Republicans.  He may have delegate votes, but does he have the support?   He's running on a platform that his business experience is really the reason why he should have the job.  You can flatly state that he is presuming that he has the qualifications.  His presumptions just don't quite cut the mustard, per Timothy Egan:

9.  Michael Dukakis is hanging around UCLA as a Professor of Politics.   Here is an interesting interview with him as he looks around at the state of politics in this nation and the State of California:

--
Juan

"Math was always my bad subject. I couldn't convince my teachers that many of my answers were meant ironically."
       -- Calvin Trillin
"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office." 
       -- Aesop
"The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory." 
       -- Paul Fix
"Boys will be boys, and so will a lot of middle-aged men." 
       -- Kin Hubbard
"I am just going outside and may be some time." 
       -- Captain Lawrence Oates


Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Things to Know - 31 May

Tony Auth

1.  This opening piece honestly puts this election in its truthful construct.  There is just a whole lot of hate and denial by many that there is actually a Black president.  To capture that emotion and supposed voting block, we have all of the subliminal hatred, bigotry, and bald-face lying to support any falsehood that remotely touches them:

2.  The Thom Hartman daily news by someone who is not Thom Hartman:

3.  Here is the duplicate between 1 & 2 from yesterday.  That should clean up my mess from yesterday's inattentiveness:

4.  It is now official.  FOX "News" is now producing and broadcasting its own particular political ads in favor of one specific candidate.  To be clearer and more specific, they are political ads that are Anti-Obama:

5.  From the Salt Lake City Tribune we have this story of Mormons, about 100 of the LDS faithful, will be marching in the Gay Pride Parade in that city.  Very interesting:

6.  George Will argues that there is nothing really wrong with the Supreme Court Ruling on Citizens United.   What George seems to be missing is the Anonymity Loophole in the ruling that allows unaccountable and untraceable piles of money from whatever source to pack the coffers.  First of all, corporations are not people, and anonymity is a cover for abuse of our electoral system:

7.  Lots of interesting concepts and observations by Nicholas Kristof and Michael Sandel in this piece.  It concerns the selling of our soul and dignity in the free-market of laissez faire, and the abuses and corruption the too much money on one side affects the decline in values and acceptance of really becoming cheap and sleazy on the other:

8.  Not having enough arms, back and hands to pick the crops is the usual cry from Gig Agriculture, particularly in California.  The growers and their lobby want a steady and reliable flow of docile and quiet field workers to pick and pack the crops with an ongoing "guest-worker" program.   The truth is, there are enough workers already here, and in abundance (high unemployment), and they are all legal citizens.  It's just that the growers do not want to engage in the free-market labor industry and offer competitive compensation and benefits.   Folks, this crap has been going on year after year and political cycle after political cycle:
--
Juan

"If you think something is boring, try doing it for two minutes. If you still think it's boring, try it for four. If you still think it's boring, try it for eight, then sixteen, then thirty-two, and so on and so forth. Soon enough you'll find that it's really not boring at all." 
       -- John Cage
"The only sure thing about luck is that it will change." 
       -- Bret Harte
"The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking." 
       -- A. A. Milne
"Let not the sands of time get in your lunch." 
       -- National Lampoon


Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Things to Know - 30 May


mike053012

1.   This has been around a week or two, but it has now raised an editorial concern by the NY Times.  Wisconsin gov. Scott Walker and big corporate cash to crush unions:

2.  It must be said that the gaffe-prone Romney will accidentally blurt out the truth, much to his own detriment, and to the horrors of his presumptive supporting political party:

3.  The "Latino" vote is very much in the discussion this election year.  So much so, that it is now pedestrian news for CNN:

4.  The Fundamentalists who craft the bible to speak hatred and fear of people who are not of their approval is the basis for the dissolution of the soul of our existence:
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/9428-the-war-on-gays?tmpl=component&print=1

5.  The news with Thom Hartmann:

6.  There is a movement afoot to require proof that Willard Mitt Romney was not born a Unicorn.  The demand has been placed on the doorstep of the Arizona Attorney General:

7.  A documentary on the creation and work of Paul Simon and South African musicians working through apartheid and producing the album Graceland is featured her by Thomas Friedman:


--
Juan

"I have suffered a great deal from writers who have quoted this or that sentence of mine either out of its context or in juxtaposition to some incongruous matter which quite distorted my meaning , or destroyed it altogether." 
       -- Alfred North Whitehead
"If scientific reasoning were limited to the logical processes of arithmetic, we should not get very far in our understanding of the physical world. One might as well attempt to grasp the game of poker entirely by the use of the mathematics of probability." 
       -- Vannevar Bush
"Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable." 
       -- John Kenneth Galbraith
"Assuming either the Left Wing or the Right Wing gained control of the country, it would probably fly around in circles." 
       -- Pat Paulsen
"I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them."
       -- Isaac Asimov


Monday, May 28, 2012

Things to Know - 29 May


Tom Toles
1.  Robert Reich offers a pint-sized column on Romney's proposed budget:

2.  Romney's gaffe prone.  He is awkward in social and group settings. He's a lot of weird things.  However, one thing he could control is a habit of not telling the truth, but he does not.  It would be kind to call him disingenuous, but it is really more like shameful:

3.  Richard Cohen of the WashPost on bigotry and how things are different than a long time ago:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-united-states-has-come-far-in-ending-bigotry/2012/05/28/gJQA6vRTxU_print.html

4.  David Brooks gives us a history lesson while he presents a description of a role for our system of government.   Folks, there is not a lot of news today, so you have to settle for stuff like this:

5.  Super PACs, anonymous contributions, and now the Chamber of Commerce are really testaments to the fact that wealthy big business concerns are interested in keeping their Republican legislators in charge of the store.   Another way to look at it is that these organizations are depending on the lazy and uninformed to buy into their political ads just like Proctor and Gamble has an ad campaign that is going to sell you a bar of soap so that you can smell good;...really ...really good.    That is what we have become.  So sad:

6.  In the same vein as #5 above, which is critical of the election process that has become the cookie jar of the wealthy corporate structure, this article gets even deeper into the discussion.   It is a quick view of the dysfunction of our Constitution and the branches of government that it defines:

7.  I pass this article on to you for its ability to let you see how the diversity within an ethnic group is quite relevant and important to understand.   For example, the standard white community in any state can be made of of Brahmin's, West Coasters, Scots-Irish, White Trash, and Rednecks...for example.   Well, the same algorithm of example exists in any minority community.  Here, for example, you get acquainted with the Mexican-American community in Oxnard, California, which is primarily involved in agriculture.   In this group, there are people from the state of Oaxaca.  They are placed on a lower scale by their neighbors, and it causes the same found in other communities :

8.  This is a nice piece on how presidents act toward each other, both before, during, and after the change of power:

--
Juan

"I have the worst memory ever so no matter who comes up to me - they're just, like, 'I can't believe you don't remember me!" I'm like, 'Oh Dad I'm sorry!'" 
       -- Ellen DeGeneres
"Indecision may or may not be my problem." 
       -- Jimmy Buffett
"There it was, hidden in alphabetical order." 
       -- Rita Holt
"A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers." 
       -- H. L. Mencken

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Things to Know - Memorial Day 2012

Tony Auth

1.  Let me start of by correcting a duplicate from yesterday; #2 and #3 were the same.  This should have been the correct link for #3:

2.  The Post Office is alleged to have a myriad collection of problems.   Upon a close look by this article, it is Congress that cleaned out its piggy bank, and Congress that is to blame.  Where are all these flimflam schemes coming from?:

3.  George Will, at least he can be considered one of the anchors pillars of the real Conservative wing of the old Republican Party, has no idea why Romney is cuddling up to the Birther-Trump in public.  "Bloviating Ignoramus" is about as gentlle 
as Will can be in describing Trump:

4.  School is out for the summer.  The job market is bad.   Students from previous graduations still have no jobs.   The next few months are going to get warmer, and the political climate in an election season will be particularly charge.  Law enforcement is aware of the potential issues.   Not much is in our media about the student protests in Mexico or Canada.   However, armed with a sub-cultural communication system of social networking that the sedentary city fathers do not understand or appreciate, there just might be a convergence of NAFTA ideas, but it does not involve manufactured goods.  It could bring together an amalgamation of frustrations, failed dreams, and activism in response:

5.  Robert Samuelson questions whether having a college education is over-rated.  He presents some disconnected statements and presents some that make sense, and then weaves back and forth.  He, however, ends it with a short paragraph that really makes sense, and puts to rest the questions that I was having during the reading:

6.  Bill Keller analyzes the Supremes on how the upcoming rulings on same-sex marriages will be decided, ignored, or compromised.  Key to the outcome is Justice Anthony Kennedy, and how he has ruled in the past is revealed:

7.  Renewable energy has taken hold in most states.  Standards are in place, and year by year, we are less dependent on petroleum, and that is a good thing.  The biggest thing holding us back is the Republicans in Congress who are obviously infected with Big Energy Oil lobbyist cash, and fossilized brains:

8.  Paul Krugman calls NJ Gov. Chris Christie a BIG phony.   He explains why:

9.  Steve Lopez brings us up on the issues of immigration reform, agricultural labor needs, and the politics of both and why the GeeOpee plain refuses to do anything in an election year:

10.  This LA Times editorial is warning, asking , telling, or whatever term you want to use, to tell John Boehner and his gang to avoid the same debt ceiling stunt that it pulled last year:

Juan

"What is life but a series of inspired follies? The difficulty is to find them to do. Never lose a chance: it doesn't come every day." 
       -- George Bernard Shaw
"Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity." 
       -- Unknown
"When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading." 
       -- Henny Youngman
"Nobody can be exactly like me. Sometimes even I have trouble doing it." 
       -- Tallulah Bankhead
"Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight."
       -- Phyllis Diller


Things to Know - 27 May

Matt Bors

1.  Please spend the 23 minutes to absorb this 23 minute video.  It is a classroom lecture type of presentation on the Evolution of Society.  Sounds like something you just want to blow on by....but please don't.  I would not be sending this to you unless I thought there was some value in it.   David is a friend of mine, and we went to college together.  He lives in the South Bay of So. California, and has retired from the Rand Corporation:

2.  Student protest movements in Canada and Chile should be acknowledged for what they are - a movement based on the Networking (see above #1) of similar frustrations with their lives.  Mexico, as read yesterday, is going the same route.   So, what is going on?  If the Occupy movements and students in the States of America regroup and continue, a new-age of this young century is about to take hold:

3.  This appears to be a tongue-in-cheek confession, but it does amplify the feeling that our current hell-bent consumerist behavior is no different than that of a serial criminal in the destruction of our resources (both natural and human):

4.  The States of America is one of only Three countries that do not offer paid maternity leave:
http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Maternity-leave-chart-final.png

5.  The Texas system of justice seems to be tone deaf on the intent of the law.  An honor student, having to work two jobs to support the family left behind when the parents divorced and split the scene, is tossed into jail and fined for missing too many classes:

6.  It is in the behavior and ethos of political leaders to prove that they are bold and decisive, and that they campaign and demonstrate their backbone.   This can and does border on being nasty and unmerciful.  Is this who we are.  It certainly has been proven by past behavior:

7.  "Home" is where they let you live, not where your identity and soul is imagined.  An immigrant is homeless and without a country when tripped up in the legal definition of the ICE bureaucracy and what one feels in the heart:

8.  This article is about the no-mans land for men without a home, as well.  Most of had left the central cities of Mexico decades ago, made it to the US, and got into trouble with the law in some way, lost their jobs, and got pounced on by the Border Patrol and sent back to Mexico.   Many have ended up in this really shitty place in Mexicali called the Hotel of the Deported Immigrant.  It reads like a dark and sad short story about people living in the shadows of what used to be home, but away from their dreams.  They really are stuck in no-mans land, and they will probably all die there:


--
Juan

"Boyhood, like measles, is one of those complaints which a man should catch young and have done with, for when it comes in middle life it is apt to be serious."
       -- P. G. Wodehouse
"People want economy and they will pay any price to get it." 
       -- Lee Iacocca
"Men are generally idle, and ready to satisfy themselves, and intimidate the industry of others, by calling that impossible which is only difficult." 
       -- Samuel Johnson
"Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship." 
       -- Harry S Truman
"I'd like to live as a poor man with lots of money."
       -- Pablo Picaso


Friday, May 25, 2012

Things to Know - 26 May

lucko527



1.  Some of you may have already seen this subject on TV, but here it is in print.  It's about airline personnel (pilots mainly, and others) who have been shuffled around with flight and maintenance bases for various airlines being closed, along with compensation reductions.  They live in mobile homes in airport parking lots.  Here's one short story about a United pilot in Los Angeles:

2.  The current situation with our state of political gridlock amidst all the problems we have, both home and abroad is that there is a small animal in the room that is growing larger each passing Spring - and will soon be the Elephant in the Room:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/05/25-2?print

3.  When the Anglo Right-Wing extremists of Arizona take control and actively seek to suppress the teaching of ethnic history (Mexican culture) as it pertains to the state, raw emotion is stirred in the local minority population.   This emotion is released and is presented in this article:

4.  Student protests in Mexico are taking shape in a very unusual way.  The protests are over the media's lack of coverage on the political uprising of those who are not the PRD or PRI or PAN.  The media's refusal for what is deemed appropriate coverage of the students is turning heads and taking on the political structure and power brokers who own the national media.   In some ways, this movement is showing others in Latin America that it can be done:

5.  Here is a very short and clear message on what the Facebook IPO, and its collateral creation of damages to itself and Wall Street has done:

6.  For those of you who have no understanding of the correctional system in certain parts of this country, and where "correcting" is not the mission - just plain warehousing prisons is more like it - meet the State of Louisiana; the #1 prison factory in the world:

7.  Gail Collins takes a look and writes about Romney's venture into the land of education reform.  Turns out that its like his other misadventures he gets into when the previous adventure does not go well for him:

8.  This is probably a news items that tops anything the political debate could stir up in a month of press releases.  A new coating inside containers that allows all of the ketchup, honey, mayonaise, and all other similar gooey stuff to ALL slide out of the bottle opening when inverted.   This is really big news:



Juan

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye." 
       -- Miss Piggy
"If the fans don't wanna come out to the ballpark, no one can stop 'em." 
       -- Yogi Berra
"If at first you don't succeed, find out if the loser gets anything." 
       -- Bill Lyon
"The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found." 
       -- Calvin Trillin


Thursday, May 24, 2012

Things to Know - 25 May

lk052512_color-blog



1.  A very significant change has occurred.  After Obama came out and announced his support for marriage equality for same-sex couples, the State of Maryland polling showed that approval by the African-American community had a 36-point positive surge on the same issue.  Nothing changes 36-point in such a short period of time.  Does this signify a national pattern, that leaves Romney in the dust?  Who knows - we will see?

2.  Colin Powell is open and candid about shouting out some of Romney's foreign policy behavior:

3.  Romney continues to display is tone-deaf connectivity with the "common folks" by going to a school in West Philadelphia.  He had to open his mouth and pour out proof that he does not get it.  So much for his change in talking about the Economy, and switching to Education.  So much for his venture into Education.  He's got nothing to take to the bank:

4.  In Massachusetts, Lizzie has evened up with her opponent for Senator, and things are looking up once again

5.  This is a beautiful story of David vs. Goliath.  JPMorgan Chase bank and CVS Pharmacy are wading in to the little town of Sebastopol, California and using their heft and leverage to blow through the zoning permits and get their way in building what they want, where they want.  Not to be outdone, the locals are taking the shyster performance of JPMorgan and the toxic behavior of CVS to deny them the zoning and building permits necessary.  I wish the good people in this small Sonoma County well, and hope it works:
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print/43374/

6.  EJ Dionne displays a pillar of strength in defining the decline of Conservatism to what has resulted in a vicious war on anything that it resembles the extremist's positions.  This is a must-read for all:

7.  To add diversity, and to prove that the South does not have a lock on Looney-Tunes governance, we give you Arizona, which has some association in the States of America.  This story is no joke.  It is about the Jokesters who have created Arizona into their own image:

8.  Paul Krugman has no sympathy for the bruised feelings that the scions and Greedmeisters of Wall Street feel for the bad things people say about how they conducted and immoral and shameful game of bringing upon the decline of a once-great system.  No, Krugman tells it like it is and lets the poor bastards suffer in their piles of money:

9.  I recall when the LA Times was a crappy newspaper.   When red-car lines got yanked out of the streets by Big Auto and Big Petroleum had selfish urban planning designs.  That was over 60 years ago.   Los Angeles has matured.  It used to be the rude, crude, and gaudy step-brother to the classy and sophisticated San Francisco, up north.  Well, times have changed.  In many ways, and it is slowly evolving (sometimes violently) but evolving into something like New York, but with the potential of even greater diversity.   Here, Hector Tobar captures some of the DNA that goes into the creation of a diamond in the rough - its poetry and music:
--
Juan

"Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one." 
       -- A. J. Liebling
"What others think of us would be of little moment did it not, when known, so deeply tinge what we think of ourselves." 
       -- Paul Valery
"The only people who find what they are looking for in life are the fault finders." 
       -- Foster's Law
"Television has proved that people will look at anything rather than each other." 
       -- Ann Landers
"Golf is a good walk spoiled."
       -- Mark Twain


Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Things to Know - 24 May

lucko524-bl

1.  Touchy, Touch....Touchy.   That's the response one gets when you criticize the silver spoon that provides the backbone of Mitt Romney.  Take away that spoon, and you have the backbone character of a wet noodle:

http://www.nationalmemo.com/gene-lyons-sir-mitts-very-thin-skin/


2.  Thom Hartmann and his easy to take format in the news stories:

3.  Robert Reich is urging Obama to take on JPMorgan and the Bain's venture capitalism on as prime examples of what is wrong with that sector of our economic system:

4.  China's booming economy is unable to sustain it rate of growth.  As such, perhaps the central political machine is unable to deliver, and the rising expectations from within are in conflict.  This could put China in a comparative recession. and cause problems for other nations.  I guess they need Paul Ryan to run the place:

5.  Alan Simpson is out calling a bunch of folks "greedy geezers".  He's not on the A-list for AARP socials and meet-and-greet events any more:
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-alan-simpson-pens-scathing-letter-to-greedy-geezers-retiree-group-20120523,0,7804950,print.story

6.  As you read through this Steve Lopez column, keep in mind that the LA City Council today has banned (on a 13-1 vote) the use of plastic bags at supermarkets.   The biggest city so far to do so:

7.  Charles Blow has some voter reactions to questions on which political party is more accepting than the other on some major issues, most of which are bad news for the Republicans:

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/23/g-o-p-nightmare-charts/?ref=opinion

8.  The Economy promises to be a factor in the main issues in the campaign.  So will the perception that the Republicans are against the civil liberties and most things in general towards women.  The so called Hispanic vote will probably be more in play this time, than ever before.  Here are four debaters on the trends and where the Latino vote will find itself come November.   I can hardly wait to see MittBott wearing a sombrero, munching a taco, and mouthing something stupid in his best Spanish:

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/05/23/securing-the-hispanic-vote/?hp

Juan

"No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." 
       -- Edward Abbey
"Money doesn't always bring happiness. People with ten million dollars are no happier than people with nine million dollars." 
       -- Hobart Brown
"Somebody has to do something, and it's just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us." 
       -- Jerry Garcia
"I'm too shy to express my sexual needs except over the phone to people I don't know." 
       -- Garry Shandling


Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Things to Know - 23 May


1.  Going back to the race-bating and hate-filled political campaign that the Chicago Cubs owner was contemplating, and how it fizzled out, check in here to see how saner minds in the Republican Party squelched it:

2.  The Birthers in Arizona are really nuts.  The arrogant sheriff of Maricopa County is sending a team to Hawaii to check out Obama's birth certificate before that state can qualify his name on the ballot.  I am trying to think of an appropriate action to put upon that state to see if they qualify for federal funding.  Can you think of something?:
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/05/22/488323/sheriff-joe-arpaio-uses-taxpayer-funds-to-pursue-birther-conspiracy-probe/

3.  Here are two pieces of evidence at what the Democrats are running up agains the anonymous pile of Super Pac Money, and it portends what may happen in November.  So it is going to take more than just money to make things happen:

4.  Is this country the greatest in the world or what?   Justice?   WTF?   Boston University student illegally downloads 30 songs and the Supreme Court rules that he has to be stuck with a $675,000 fine.  Now if you are a bank employee and illegally create documents to foreclose on home buyers and kick them out on to the streets...what do you get?   A bonus:

5.  Here is a somewhat detailed picture of Newt Gingrich's financial empire and ventures going broke.  The store is bankrupt.  The arrogant hot air that kept it going for so long has all gone flat.   In my humble opinion, it could not have happened to a nicer guy:

6.  Reading articles like this is like reading a George Orwell novel on how the pigs run the government.  It is so blatant and comically tragic that you really wonder where or when this country will wind up:

7.  The economic situation in Europe precipitates this article.  The unilateral imposition of austerity without adhering to maintaining the infrastructure of the social structure and the related services has proven to be a disaster.   The governments (read the Euro Zone) cannot ignore what has traditionally kept the citizenry in harmony.  There is much to learn from Europe for the States of America:

8.  Gregory Rodriguez and his personal story of what it means to have an immigrant history, in a changing city, and how the interpretation of "immigration" morphs through the ages.  Gregory is a Los Angelino:

--
Juan

"If we have learned one thing from the history of invention and discovery, it is that, in the long run - and often in the short one - the most daring prophecies seem laughably conservative." 
       -- Arthur C. Clarke
"People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one." 
       -- Leo J. Burke
"Ahhh. A man with a sharp wit. Someone ought to take it away from him before he cuts himself." 
       -- Peter da Silva
"It is the final proof of God's omnipotence that he need not exist in order to save us." 
       -- Peter De Vries

Monday, May 21, 2012

Things to Know - 22 May

Stuart Carlson

1.  If there is any doubt in your mind that North Carolina is the warm and human-loving society that Christians espouse, get a load of this Baptist preacher from his pulpit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=d2n7vSPwhSU

2.  It's a shame that the Chicago Cubs owner has revealed himself to be one of those billionaire fools who support snarky attacks at the same time requesting demanding that tax payers support the renovation of his baseball park.  Good reason to boycott his game and the Chicago Cubs team:

3.  This is an interesting tid-bit of a story about the level at which the education and communication of members of Congress operate:

4.  The rush to the exits seems to be affecting the obnoxious bloviator after his snarky attack on Sandra Fluke:

5.  A few things here: (1) Renouncing one's citizenship to avoid paying taxes (2) Grover Norquist suggesting that anyone who supports legislation to #1 is a Nazi, and (3) Boehner criticizing Norquist.   Is this the first sign that the Republicans are breaking with Grover?:

6.  Piggy-backing on the last item, here is something that really reveals the unpatriotic tax-dodging ultra-rich look really bad.   And, they take a pile of their tax cheating money to slam politicians demand that they pay their fair share:

7.  Richard Cohen of the WashPost speculates how MittBott would behave if he were to win the presidency.  It's a fairly insightful reality on the guy:

8.  How the Gates Foundation is working to improve the education system in an experiment.  Using one school district and the cooperation with all involved, including the Teachers Union, to see if the experiment works for a better solution:

9.  David Brooks offers up his opinion that attacking Romney's track record at Bain is wrong, and should not be the focus of this election.   Well, EXXXCUUUUSE   MEEEE.  It is Willard Mitt Romney who is running around claiming that his record at Bain is what has proven him as knowledgeable in getting this country back into fine financial fettle.   So, I think it is fair to go after his displayed record.  It is also a forum to put private equity ventures and Capitalism itself on the spot.  Brooks argues that the companies that Bain blew out of the water actually got rid of old inefficiencies and opened up new companies in other areas where some jobs were created.   What is missing from this cavalier observation is that the companies that got blown out of the water, put those employees out of work, and were never able to find new employment.  The private equity investment money that was made went to the partners and investors in Bain, and never were shared with the unemployed left behind Bain's predatory actions.   This is not the way the government works.  Government is there to serve the people - Protect and Serve is the usual motto.  So, while there was change and money made - the change left shuttered companies and permanently unemployed in its wake, while the money went to Romney and his off-shore accounts:
-- 
Juan

"I'm a jerk to everyone. Best way to protect yourself from lawsuits." 
       -- David Hoselton
"Those who agree with us may not be right, but we admire their astuteness." 
       -- Cullen Hightower
"It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations." 
       -- Walter Bagehot
"I was going to have cosmetic surgery until I noticed that the doctor's office was full of portraits by Picasso." 
       -- Rita Rudner


Sunday, May 20, 2012

Things to Know - 21 May

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1.  Bayer makes a pesticide that has been linked to a depletion of bees in Europe and the States of America.  So, what does this have to do with politics and stuff?   Check it out:
http://blacklistednews.com/?news_id=19574&print=1

2.  It is highly unlikely that Bill Maher will be called upon to deliver any commencement addresses at a certain "school of learning".  But then again, he would not consider this a school of learning anyway:

3.  So, what has the visionary Newt Gingrich been up to lately?:

4.  Romney is having a difficult time finding traction on any issue.  He can forget the equality of marriage vote - the immigration vote - the women's vote, etc.   So, he is going to bank on his experience in business.   Well, think again old Mr Etch-a-Sketch.   You really don't have anything well going for you there either:

5.  Paul Krugman puts the JPMorgan problems into perspective in view of the very recent history of Wall Streets failures.  Nothing has changed, and the idiots who caused the problems are demanding to be free to do the same all over again:

6.  Another idea on preserving the financial support for Medicare and Social Security - graduated eligibility:

7.  This is a great and informative column on the unity, or lack of unity of the "Latino" or "Hispanic" bloc of voters.  It has relevance as it pertains to any GOP thoughts on Rubio for VP.  Mostly, it offers a lesson for many on the diverse feelings of allegiance amongst a bloc of voters that is often just taken for granted by many:

8.  To further alienate and confirm their stupidity, the House GeeOpee adds a provision to the Defense Budget that would prohibit same-sex marriages from being performed in military chapels.   In addition to this being unconstitutional, what does this have to do with our military preparedness?:

Juan

"According to modern astronomers, space is finite. This is a very comforting thought, particularly for people who cannot remember where they left things."
       -- Woody Allen
"Music is the only language in which you cannot say a mean or sarcastic thing." 
       -- John Erskine
"The will to be stupid is a very powerful force, but there are always alternatives." 
       -- Lois McMaster Bujold
"Education is a state-controlled manufactory of echoes." 
       -- Norman Douglas
"There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot." 
       -- Steven Wright


Things Corrected - 20 May

The Albany News Bureau alerts to a dupe.   So, here is a correction to #5:

5.  The writer here suggests that the Conservative Brain of many politicians is the result of the same trauma that professional football players suffer.  He suggests that Romney and others suffer this from constant bashing of their skulls agains the wall of Progressive Thought and Ideas. It's gotta be that:
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print/43275/

  

--
Juan

"Idealism is what precedes experience; cynicism is what follows." 
       -- David T. Wolf
"Life is a fatal complaint, and an eminently contagious one." 
       -- Oliver Wendell Holmes
"Gratitude is merely the secret hope of further favors." 
       -- Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"I don't know anything about music. In my line you don't have to." 
       -- Elvis Presley
"There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full."
       -- Henry Kissinger