Waging WAR on Ignorance, Intolerance & Injustice!
“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.” — Charles Dickens
(I think we’re seeing some kind of charitable theme here, folks! Definitely not a problem. I think we all could stand to be a little more charitable. Be well and do good, friends.) — YUR
Image courtesy of Google
Happy birthday to Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran! I’m not really a big fan, but my niece, Nina, is a huge fan. So, this is for her.
Do you guys think dogs should be left chained up outside, in ALL kinds of extreme weather, day and night? Well, the House Agriculture Subcommittee in Virginia thinks it’s just fine! They refuse to vote on a bill (SB872) that would prevent this type of abuse. Allegedly, “they’re in bed with the hunting lobby and the dog breeders; they are corrupt; their votes have been purchased.”
If you’ve got the time, and the inclination, give these guys a call, and give them a piece of your mind. (Or, write them an email.)
Knight, Barry D. (Chair)
(804) 698-1081
Poindexter, Charles D.
(804) 698-1009
Orrock, Robert D., Sr.
(804) 698-1054
Morefield, James W.
(804) 698-1003
Bloxom, Robert S., Jr.
(804) 698-1000
Their email addresses can be found here: https://virginiageneralassembly.gov/house/members/members.php?subcommittee=H01001
Thank you for your kind indulgence! — YUR
Susan Anton at The Follies (Photo credit: The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies)
“When you walk into a room, a healthy, beautiful smile is incredibly important.” — Susan Anton
(People react so positively to someone who enters smiling. Smiling has a contagious effect on people. Let’s infect the world with the beauty of our smiles. Be well and do good, friends.) — YUR 🙂
afghanistan (Photo credit: The U.S. Army)
By: Henry A. Giroux
“Those governing the United States no longer have a moral compass or a democratic vision, nor do they have a hold on the social values that would engage modes of governance beneficial to the broader public. Governance is now in the hands of corporate power and the United States increasingly exhibits all the characteristics of a failed state. As many notable and courageous critics ranging from Sheldon Wolin to Chris Hedges have pointed out, American politics is being shaped by extremists who have shredded civil liberties, lied to the public to legitimate sending young American troops to Iraq and Afghanistan, alienated most of the international community with a blatant exercise of arrogant power and investment in a permanent warfare state, tarnished the highest offices of government with unsavory corporate alliances, used political power to unabashedly pursue legislative policies that favor the rich and punish the poor and perhaps irreparably damaged any remaining public spheres not governed by the logic of the market. They have waged a covert war against poor young people and people of color who are being either warehoused in substandard schools or incarcerated at alarming rates. Academic freedom is increasingly under attack by extremists such as Rick Santorum; homophobia and racism have become the poster ideologies of the Republican Party; war and warriors have become the most endearing models of national greatness; and a full-fledged assault on women’s reproductive rights is being championed by the current crop of Republican presidential hopefuls and a not insignificant number of Republican governors. While people of color, the poor, youth, the middle class, the elderly, LGBT communities and women are being attacked, the Republican Party is supporting a campaign to collapse the boundaries between the church and state, and even liberal critics such as Frank Rich believe that the United States is on the verge of becoming a fundamentalist theocracy.”
For the complete article go to:
“There are few men who do not love better to give advice than to give assistance.” — Henry David Thoreau
(You’ll never break a sweat, or pull a muscle, by only giving advice. Be well and do good, friends.) — YUR
Image via Wikipedia
AKA: JUST MORE WALL STREET SHENANIGANS!
Hopefully, you haven’t been running around with your hair on fire, screaming THE SKY IS FALLING, THE SKY IS FALLING!!! Because, guess what? It ain’t! Standard and Poors is just another Wall Street “institution” that says, and does, what it wants to, in order to suit their own – and certain benefactors’ – needs.
A great article on AlterNet explains:
“Most people believe that the ratings agencies base their analyses on some set of cold, objective criteria, but that’s not the case. A group of Wall Street analysts . . . get together and discuss various factors, including, in this case, the political scene, and come to a consensus.”
And, that: “According to a Senate investigation concluded earlier this year — a probe that was greeted with a collective “ho-hum” by the corporate media — S&P and Moody’s, another leading agency, “issued the AAA ratings that made … mortgage backed securities … seem like safe investments, helped build an active market for those securities, and then, beginning in July 2007, downgraded the vast majority of those AAA ratings to junk status.” And when they did, it “precipitated the collapse of the [mortgage-backed securities] markets and, perhaps more than any other single event, triggered the financial crisis.”
So, some of the same guys who told all of us that everything was A-Okay with those (questionably) mortgage backed “securities” – because it benefited their golf buddies – are now telling us that The U.S. might not be able to meet it’s future obligations??? They have already proven to be un-objective, untrustworthy charlatans, but most of us were unaware of the Senate investigation’s findings. And, our collective memories are so short these days, that even those of us who were in the know have either forgiven or forgotten.
This is all politically motivated by the big HAVES, at the expense of the rest of us, the have NOTS. But, I think that all of you are better off getting the full benefit of the article by . . . reading the article.
So, here it is:
Don’t knee jerk. You’ll only regret it, while someone – who was already much better off than you – laughs all the way to the bank!
— YUR
“Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all.” — George Washington
(Boy, has this country strayed since its “Father” wrote/spoke these words, at his Farewell Address! The U.S. is still a great nation. We’re just not what we profess to be, nor are we what our founding fathers envisioned. The frustrating thing is . . . we still could be. We’d have to overthrow the Corporatocracy that has hijacked our government and kidnapped our national spirit, but the possibility does exist. Far too many of us suffer from a kind of “Stockholm Syndrome“, where we relate and even revere our corporate captors. It’s a kind of co-dependency. Those of us who do see what has happened, and what continues to go on, need to approach this situation as a relative, or other loved one, would of an alcoholic or other addict. Because we do care we cannot just ignore it, and pretend that it will go away on its own. We need to orchestrate a national intervention. If we don’t, then these unfortunate addicts are just going to drag us all down with them. Oh, yeah. Happy President’s Day.) — YUR
Image via Wikipedia
History keeps repeating itself, and our *empire* refuses to learn from it. Why? Because empires feel they are ABOVE such things. We like to think we’re the great puppet masters, but ultimately our control in these matters is limited, in time and in scope. We propped up the Shah for decades, but we couldn’t stop the Iranian Revolution. Saddam was “our boy” for decades, and when we were done with him we tried to spur unrest/revolt, to have the Iraqi people ” take him out”. That didn’t quite work out so well. So, we finally did it ourselves. But, the people??? Last week, Zine in Tunisia. Now, (maybe) Mubarak in Egypt. How long before Yemen dumps Saleh? Can Morocco be far behind? The world is becoming a much smaller place all the time, and much less naive.
The actions of the U.S. simply do not match our words. Democracy? Human rights? How does Hu Jintao keep a straight face, when Obama brings these issues up? Our *foothold-friend*, who the U.N. established – at the U.S. and Britain’s direction – back in 1947, is losing its strategic value. Their human rights record is atrocious. Our original *nation building experiment* was, arguably, very successful. But, just look at the cost! The West Bank is now like the Warsaw ghetto, and the situation in Gaza is even worse. How many Trillions in aid have gone to the blue and white in the past 60 + years? And, I’m just talking about direct aid. How much has gone to the so-called “friendly” Arab states, to mollify them? We now have next to zero credibility in the Muslim World. And, for very good reason. In the long run, the crusades didn’t work during the middle ages, and – despite our pretty packaging – they are not working today.
I’m not sure of the etymology (I wouldn’t be surprised if it originated in the Middle East), but there is an old saying that goes: If you lie down with dogs, you will wake up with fleas. Looks like we’re going to be scratching for quite a while! There are plenty of others, too. We made our bed, now we have to sleep in it. And: The chickens are coming home to roost. We ignored all the warning signs – and believe me there have been plenty over the years – because *arrogance* does such things.
YUR
Image via Wikipedia
Today is a very solemn day of remembrance. 120 years ago today, the U.S. 7th Calvary Regiment, commanded by Colonel James W. Forsyth, massacred perhaps 300 Lakota Sioux men, women and children, near Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota. It was clearly one of the darkest days in U.S. history.
There are conflicting stories as to how the massacre unfolded. The 7th Calvary had surrounded the encampment of the Lakota Sioux, for the purpose of disarming them. Some say, during the process of “disarming” the Lakota, a deaf tribesman resisted having his prized possession – his rifle – taken from him. There was a scuffle, and somehow a shot rang out. From here the 7th Calvary opened fire on the entire surrounded encampment, killing just about anyone, and anything, in the line of fire, including a number of soldiers. A few warriors, who hadn’t yet been disarmed, fought back in defense of their people. But, they were quickly killed, and likely heightened the chaos and mayhem on the part of the troopers. There were some who initially survived the “battle”, but as they attempted to flee the troopers pursued and killed many of them. The vast majority of the Lakota who were killed that day were unarmed.
Regardless of how the events that day unfolded, it demonstrated a total lack of respect and compassion – on the part of representatives of the U.S. government – for the lives of Native American people. This will live on as truly one of the darkest days . . . of infamy, in all of American history.
YUR
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Unclerave's Wordy Weblog 
Jumble Spoiler – 09/12/20 (Of Course)
Published September 12, 2020 Commentary , Current Events , Government , History , Observations 10 CommentsTags: 9/11, Black Lives Matter, COVID-19, Military-Industrial Complex, World Trade Center
It was THE most implausible chain of events that has ever happened in the history of the world. But, instead of wondering, and then INVESTIGATING, the who and hows of such monumentally catastrophic events happening, to THE most powerful, technologically advanced nation in the world, we were immediately fed a ridiculous string of fairy-tale like lies. And, because the country – and most of the world – was in a complete state of shock, sadness and anger . . . we (the vast majority of us at least) were all too eager/gullible to believe what those in – what should be – trusted positions of authority were all too eager – and READY – to tell us.
Why bother investigating any of it, when they got so many of us to believe this amazing story? Of course it was 19 Arabic men with box cutters who hijacked the planes. Of course they had knowledge of all the military exercises – that only the military would know of – that were happening that day. And, of course 4 of these loathsome 19, who could barely fly a four-seat, single-engine, high wing, fixed-wing, propeller aircraft were able to masterfully fly large, sophisticated, commercial jet airliners into both of the World Trade Towers, and also into the 5 story Pentagon, which was very likely THE most secure/protected building, in THE most secure/protected city, in the entire world. And, of course both Trade Towers collapsed, in under two hours, one in 1 hour 42 minutes and the other in just 56 minutes, “due to the heat of the jet fuel” – which burns at a max of 1500°F – melting the the steel support beams, which would have required temperatures of 2750°F to do so. And, of course neither of the towers toppled over, but they both came straight down, in their own footprints. And then, at 5:20PM of that fateful day, of course the World Trade Center 7 building, which had NOT been hit by a jet, but had sustained some damage, due to the North Tower’s collapse, at 10:28AM, came down in its own footprint, allegedly because of internal fires. So, despite the fact that NO skyscraper – in the history of skyscrapers – had EVER collapsed before – or since – due to fires, including fires that have burned for days . . . of course three of them did that terrible day.
Oh, but our government wouldn’t have been complicit in the deaths of nearly 3000 people, most of them American citizens! Really? With the kind of money and power involved with our military industrial complex, and the destabilization of these oil producing countries??? It’s been said that the U.S. could have saved 36,000 lives if social distancing had been implemented one week earlier, in this battle to contain COVID-19. How many more lives, had President Trump not publicly downplayed the disease’s severity back in January and February? I really don’t like apples and oranges types of comparisons, but I think that this demonstrates that the lives of everyday people is NOT the #1 priority of our government.
If you made it this far, friends, you can all go back to your idyllic dreamlike existences, where the U.S. is that bright and shiny city on a hill, and the bastion of both racial equality, and equal justice for all. “They hate us for our freedoms.” Really? — YUR
Image courtesy of Reddit