Political Packrat

As Floodwaters Recede in Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia, Twitter Saves Lives and Unites People.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 22 May 2014 13:49:00 +0000

Volunteers sandbag the river Sava near Belgrade

If you thought Twitter was only for internet marketers, sports nuts, and celebrity hounds who keep up with the Kardashians and their ilk, think again. During the past week's horrific, once in a century, floods in Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia, Twitter has been the vehicle that has saved lives,organized volunteers, and gotten everything from baby food to helicopters to where the need was. According to Serbian news sources, Twitter is responsible for saving at least 1500 lives. I, for one, am not surprised.

Twitter has fueled everything from flash mobs to the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street; not to mention putting the word " hashtag" into the English language. Twitter has changed the world, a fact which my generation seems largely unaware of, but which the Millennials have embraced wholeheartedly. It seems that the young people of the former Yugoslavia have united on Twitter to face this current emergency together. When you consider that just a generation ago, their parents were killing each other wholesale over territorial boundaries and religious beliefs, while littering the countryside with landmines, this is an absolute miracle. The children of war are saving their parents and grandparents and they are doing it on Twitter. They are an example to the world.

Andrej Nicolaidis put it rather lyrically in his excellent article for the Guardian. He's worth quoting here:

Yugoslav solidarity worked just fine for 45 years. Then the fairytale slid into another genre and ended with solidarity being eaten alive by the beast of nationalism. Wars have cleared the path for our crony capitalism with its ideology of social Darwinism: those in need were treated like social parasites and a barrier on the path of "dynamic development" of Balkan states.

Now catastrophe in the former Yugoslavia is in the headlines once again. But this time, we are not killing each other. We are helping each other instead.

There is nothing like Mother Nature flexing her muscles to remind us all of our shared humanity.

Twitter helps those of us who are far away follow the news too. Just check out #FloodSerbia on Twitter and you will get an idea of what people in the Balkans are going through. Much of this feed is in English and there are lots of photos as well. There are also a number of entitiies tweeting about collecting funds for flood victims, but personally, I am too cynical about internet scams to trust everything I see on Twitter so I am sticking with the ones listed below.

How to Donate to Balkan Flood Relief

A Paypal account set up by the Serbian Government has already raised over $150,000 in just one day. You can read about it and donate here This is perhaps the quickest way to make sure your donation gets to people who need it PDQ.

UNICEF has also started a fund to help children affected by the flood. This is what I am going with.

The British Red Cross has a special fund for the Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian Floods that you can donate to. I am sure the American Red Cross will get there soon. But at the moment, no special fund exists.

Lastly, thoughts, prayers and good wishes don't cost a penny and mean the world.

Donald Sterling, American Media, and The Racist Ravings of an Aging Douchebag

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 10 May 2014 13:47:00 +0000

Donald Sterling meme from Heavy.com

In a world where African terrorists are kidnapping, raping and selling innocent schoolgirls into slavery, and entire countries are going up in flames with body counts that boggle the mind, it amazes me that American attention is riveted on pathetic billionaire narcissists like Donald Sterling.

It always amazes me that what is happening to real people in this world, is always trumped in the mainstream media (left, right and center equally) by what is going on with the Kardashians or Donald Trump, and their ilk. There is something obscene about the superficiality of it all.

But, there it is. I turned on CNN, CBS, NBC and Fox this morning-- channel surfing as I drank my Saturday morning mug of coffee and found that all the talking heads were talking about Donald Sterling's latest tape : anonymously recorded and sold for big bucks, no doubt, and now going viral . I cannot believe that legitimate commentators are sitting around a table discussing whether or not racist remarks about people of color are acceptable as a pick up line. I am also stunned by the narcissism of an aging douchebag like Donald Sterling thinking that explaining that his racist remarks were made only because he was jealous of the other men his girl was seeing and because he was horny and trying to get into her pants.... oh well, that makes it OK then, right? Say what? How can you imagine that insulting a woman's racial heritage would make her want to fall into bed with you? Does he really think that a girl like V. Stiviano, who has some pretty good gold-digger credentials in her background, is going to be attracted to an old goat like him as a lover? Listen up Donnie boy-- it's all about the Benjamins. Got it?

It's an old and very sad story, but not a very interesting one in terms of world affairs. (to coin a phrase). As I write, the media feeding frenzy is still going on. Fortunately, it is waning, as these things don't have a long shelf life. Now, they are all into discussing Monica Lewinsky's new article in Vanity Fair about her life since her affair with Bill Clinton.... yawn. Monica who? Monica wants to bury the blue dress and move on... Do it, Monica. Lord knows I already have. I am not about to pay $12 to scale Vanity Fair's online paywall to read yet another tell all piece.

Hey, maybe Monica and Donald Sterling should get together. Seems like they have a lot in common. Maybe Donald Sterling can sweet talk her into the sack. I mean any port in a storm, right Donald?

Putin vs. Stalin: Memories of My Cold War Childhood

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 15:29:00 +0000

image via flickr.creative commons;DonkeyHotey

I know I said I was through with political blogging, but watching Russia's President, Vladimir Putin, zero in on Ukraine like a schoolyard bully going for the new kid, got me thinking about my Cold War childhood. Somehow all the doublespeak and propaganda seem very ominous and very familiar to someone who learned to " duck and cover" in grade school.

If Putin wants to bring back the USSR, he's doing a pretty good job of channeling Josef Stalin, and I am far from the only person to have noticed. First we got an updated version of what Stalin did at Yalta, when Russia grabbed most of Eastern Europe and half of Germany while Churchill, and a dying Roosevelt believed, and just let it happen. In 1947, after Yalta, Churchill coined the phrase " Iron Curtain" and it was definitely appropriate until the fall of the Soviet Union.

Now, in the wake of Putin's Crimea annexation,a crackdown on the press and limitations on personal freedom in Russia have begun. It's all being sold to the public as a return to empire and glory. Me? I'm not so sure. I remember the bad old days of the Cold War all too well. I don't relish a return to the constant fear of Russian military aggression that marked those days in America. I remember having to swear that I had never been a member of the Communist Party in order to get a passport when I was 20. Though I was a child at the time, I also remember McCarthyism and the anti-communist xenophobia of the '50's. I don't relish seeing history repeat itself.

According to today's Washington Post in an article titled' In Russia, A Soviet Revival Grips Leadership:

"The State Duma gave a final reading Tuesday to a bill that, as part of an “anti-terrorism” package, would require any blogger who gets 3,000 or more visitors a day to register with the state and be subject to state regulation. Other legislation before the Duma would make it a crime punishable by five years in prison to take part in an unsanctioned protest or to publish information that puts the government or military in a negative light. Members also are considering a bill that would add a course in political instruction to the school curriculum"

So much for freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. Oh, did I mention that the article also says that all members of Russia's police force, and possibly also their families, are now unable to travel abroad? The ruling clique is dancing with joy and counting its money. Now that the boy oligarchs have privatized everything and have all of what used to belong to the Russian State in their own pockets, they are ready to flex their egos and play bigtime war games with the west. You know how it is, boys will be boys and it's all about mine is bigger than yours.

The sabres are rattling as Putin plays schoolyard bully, first with Crimea, and now with Eastern Ukraine. Will Russia invade Ukraine? Not in the conventional sense, I am sure, but Russia will manage to destabilize it, doing its own little " death by a thousand cuts" number, while China watches in the background, and Europe and America sharpen their economic tools. You can bet there will be some guys from Texas showing up in Western Ukraine real soon to show the homeboys just how fracking is done and plans for an Eastern European " Oil Lift" ( kind of like the Berlin Airlift) are no doubt on the drawing board.

As John McCain observed so trenchantly, " Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country" That is to say, the 2 trillion dollar Russian economy is based almost entirely on oil and natural gas reserves, and if Eastern Europe stops buying; well, you get the picture. Russia cannot hope to win economically or militarily over the West, and I don't see China getting involved(but you never know, especially with China). If the egos get big enough, and the desperation is great enough, I can see Putin and company going for the nuclear option... and that scares the living, you-know-what out of me. I grew up with that possibility and I don't want to go back to it. I'm too old to " duck and cover"

I leave you with a little ditty written in early 1960's, at the height of the Cold War which epitomizes how my generation felt about the whole thing. Anybody else remember Tom Lehrer?

Senate Fail. We the People Are Not Amused

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 12 Apr 2014 19:02:00 +0000

So in the wake of yet more gun carnage in America, there was yet another bill in Congress with a loophole for gun purchasers carefully crafted in to protect the rights of gun owners. It was authored by two legislators ,vetted and given an A+ by the gun lobby, and in spite of all that it failed to pass.

I don't know about you, but I am absolutely stunned that the bi-partisan bill to close the background check loophole could not pass the senate. In spite of phone calls and cajoling by both the President and Vice President, and most of all, in spite of the emotional appeals made by the parents of Sandy Hook Connecticut, the bill did not garner the 60 votes necessary to pass the Senate.

The score stands Gun Lobby 1 and the people of the United States a big, fat zero. Yes indeed folks, here in America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, we have the best Congress money can buy. RIP dead children of Sandy Hook.

A Zombie Halloween for Tea Partiers

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 31 Oct 2013 16:49:00 +0000

Yes, I know this cartoon is snarky, but then I am a liberal. As a self proclaimed liberal, I have become used to being called a moron, Fascist, Commie idiot, tree hugging, latte drinking jerk and worse by rage filled right wing trolls, so it's about time I descended to the Tea Party level and stopped trying for civilized discourse. Whatever happened to real political discussion with people who don't bellieve the way you do? It seems to have disappeared forever from the American political scene .

Its disappearance is the reason I've basically stopped writing here and stopped watching all TV news. The "one from the right and one from the left" talking head formula leaves me less than satisfied and stimulates an awful, mud-slinging attitude rather than a spirit of compromise. Add to that all the doomsday, conspiracy theory stuff and I have just about had it.

But here it is, Halloween, and why not take one last swipe at Fox News and the Tea Party before I exit stage left. ( notice I am exiting stage left and NOT stage right) Don't get me wrong..... I'm not taking this blog down, I just don't have the stomach to post here these days. I may get my groove back and find myself impassioned about the American political scene once again. You never know. In the meantime, thanks to everyone who has read and commented and been generally supportive over the years. I'm getting offline and going out to go trick or treating..... I may be gone till Christmas or the New Year, who knows. I'll let you know if and when I come back..... meanwhile, enjoy Halloween and don't eat too much candy.

Daniel Ellsberg Publicly Supports Edward Snowden

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 12:22:00 +0000

Daniel Ellsberg Time Cover, back in the day

Did we all see the Op-Ed piece in Sunday's Washington Post by Daniel Ellsberg? Well, if you haven't read it, you should, and just in case you are one of the few people on the planet who has not heard of Ellsberg (because Snowden is constantly being compared to him), let someone who is old enough to remember Nixon and Watergate and the Viet Nam War tell you that he was some kind of hero. I'm impressed that Ellsberg spoke out in favor of Snowden. Here's a quote:

Many people compare Edward Snowden to me unfavorably for leaving the country and seeking asylum, rather than facing trial as I did. I don’t agree. The country I stayed in was a different America, a long time ago.
After the New York Times had been enjoined from publishing the Pentagon Papers — on June 15, 1971, the first prior restraint on a newspaper in U.S. history — and I had given another copy to The Post (which would also be enjoined), I went underground with my wife, Patricia, for 13 days. My purpose (quite like Snowden’s in flying to Hong Kong) was to elude surveillance while I was arranging — with the crucial help of a number of others, still unknown to the FBI — to distribute the Pentagon Papers sequentially to 17 other newspapers, in the face of two more injunctions. The last three days of that period was in defiance of an arrest order: I was, like Snowden now, a “fugitive from justice.”

Like Snowden, Ellsberg leaked damaging information about how the government lied to the American people. In 1971 Ellsberg, a former military analyst at the Pentagon, gave classified information in the form of " The Pentagon Papers" to influential news media and was promptly arrested under the espionage act for doing so. He too was called a patriot by some and a traitor by others. The protest against the Viet Nam War was gaining ground at this time and exposing the way the government had lied to the people in order to get Americans to fight this war was fueling public fury. The government was highly embarrassed by Ellsberg's revelations. He was charged and put on trial, facing the possibility of up to 115 years in prison. In 1973, during the depths of the Nixon Administration's Watergate debacle, the trial was suspended and all charges eventually dropped. Oh, and just by chance, guess who had influence and got started in government during the ill fated Nixon Administration? If you guessed Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney you would be right on the money ( to coin a phrase). Just thought I'd mention it.

There is no question that Edward Snowden has technically broken the law by revealing classified information to the public, but like Daniel Ellsberg, he has done so for patriotic reasons. The government is trying to paint him as an egotistical high school drop out who somehow got hold of government secrets and who deserves to be punished. I see a tech saavy dedicated young man ready to sacrifice his life to get a much needed conversation about personal privacy vs. government control started. His actions are already having an international effect. Whatever you think of Edward Snowden, he is not the first whistleblower to be relentlessly pursued for embarrassing powerful people. Daniel Ellsberg is only one who went before him. Three highly placed technical officials at NSA Thomas Drake, William Binney and J. Kirk Wiebe have been trying to public attention to the NSA and the extent of government surveillance on private citizens since 9/11.

Snowden is following in the footsteps of some very brave and patriotic people. He has opened a door to the secret doings of an agency that few of us even knew was there. Like Ellsberg, Binney, and Wiebe before him, he is a man who knows that " sunshine is the best disinfectant" The " secrets" he is divulging to the public ( not selling to a foreign government) may end up sparking a very important discussion that can save our democracy in this electronic age. Only time will tell.

How Edward Snowden Woke Up America, Got the Left and Right to Agree, Screwed the NSA, And the Irony of It All

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 23 Jun 2013 22:17:00 +0000

image credit

Are we all following the narrative of Edward Snowden, super-techie and former CIA computer security wizard? Depending on who you talk to, he's either a modern day Danial Ellsberg or worse than Benedict Arnold. Nobody is luke warm, but necessity is making for some very strange bedfellows. Both liberal Democrats and conservative, small government Libertarians are, ironically, united in their support of Snowden. Geeks and Techi-types who understand what the rest of us don't are also on the Snowden bandwagon. The majority of rank and file Americans either reflexively revile him as a tattletale or buy the party line that he is a spy and a traitor. One way or another,I think we have all heard of him by now.

Personally, I can't take my eyes off my twitter feed and the TV screen as the action heats up today, even though with the post election deadlock in Washington, I have sworn off politics, particularly political blogging, as too depressing. But, this is just too much. It is a fascinating situation worthy of Dan Brown or John Le Carre. I have to say a few words. There are so many ironies here that I hardly know where to start and I certainly don't know what is going on.

When Edward Snowden made his initial revelations to Glenn Greenwald via The Guardian earlier this month, I was interested but I only really started listening once the reactions started. On the internet, sentiment among my fellow Democrats was basically pro Snowden. He wasn't peddling miltary secrets to foreign governments. He was sounding a warning to the world about the scope of American government surveillance out of a sense of moral indignation. He was a GenY activist and collegial idealist trying to improve the world in the time honored American tradition of civil disobedience. An equally vocal group(including much of the media following what I believe now were government talking points) felt he was a self important petty bureaucrat crying wolf, betraying the country and possessing ulterior motives for making classified information public, not to mention breaking the law. On the playground of life, nobody likes a tattletale, especially not those being tattled on.

By last week Snowden had gone to ground in Hong Kong and all the TV talking heads had their marching orders. They were in rare form. General Alexander, head of the NSA and President Obama and a bunch of others assured us all that nobody was reading our email or listening to our phone calls. They were only collecting something called " metadata" in order to protect us. They patted us on the head and told us not to worry. The metadata they had collected had saved us from 50 terrorist attacks, they said. Privacy was valued and could not be violated without a court order.

I'm usually not much of a Fox News fan, being liberal and all, but the video below which offers a lot of comment on General Alexander's testimony was quite interesting. Even Fox found the General evasive about what the NSA could and could not do. At last, an issue both right and left wingers can unite on.

Imagine how shocked I was when I found out about the scope and the very real dangers of government surveillance. There was no mistake. The powers that be had lied. First I saw a video of a roundtable done by USA today featuring three former NSA employees who have been trying for years to go through channels to blow the whistle on the agency's un-constitutional activities. These are highly trained computer scientists, not low level people.William Binney worked for NSA for 30 years,eventually becoming the technical director of the of the world geopolitical and military analysis and reporting group. He was pressured to retire in 2001, but he never stopped talking and trying to get somebody to pay attention.

All three men support Edward Snowden and say he was able to do what they wanted to do. i.e. let the American people and the world know just how much secret government spying is going on. Please watch the video. It shook my tree and I hope it makes you ask some questions as well.

Next I read an article in The Guardian by James Naughton that explained it all to a non technical, liberal arts major,like me. He explained why "metadata" was not innocuous. Indeed, it is how you or I could end up on a "no fly" list or indeed even a secret kill list by mistake and never know about it. It is the stuff that databases are made of. It is about patterns and mathematics not people. And this is how the government can go back and assemble anything it wants about you anytime. Here's a quote: Please follow the link above to read the entire article. It is very enlightening.

... Of course there's no content involved, for the simple reason that content is a pain in the butt from the point of view of modern surveillance. First, you have to listen to the damned recordings, and that requires people (because even today, computers are not great at understanding everyday conversation) and time. And although Senator Feinstein let slip that the FBI already employs 10,000 people "doing intelligence on counter-terrorism", even that Stasi-scale mob isn't a match for the torrent of voice recordings that Verizon and co could cough up daily for the spooks.

So in this business at least, content isn't king. It's the metadata – the call logs showing who called whom, from which location and for how long – that you want. Why? Because that's the stuff that is machine-readable, and therefore searchable.

Then came today and a whole new raft of Sunday talk shows. Edward Snowden left HongKong in the spotlight. He sure knows how to take advantage of a slow news day. He hopped a plane for Moscow while Hong Kong authorities did the Pontius Pilate thing and washed their hands of the whole affair via a CYA press release.The release went viral on the internet as it gave Washington a very polite, diplomatic middle finger salute.

Then came the bombshell. Snowden was headed for Moscow. You could hear them screaming in Washington. As I write he is bedded down in the airport in Moscow, ready to leave for Ecuador in the morning. Let's see what happens. He also , I am told, has four laptops full of official secrets in his possession. He's a valuable commodity. Uneasy lies the head etc. etc. I bet there is a whole lot of scrambling going on in the Kremlin.

Now here is another irony. Snowden, the champion of freedom and government transparency, is being aided by Moscow to get to Ecuador. Let's see, the freedom fighter has been helped by two totalitarian, communist countries, China and Russia, and is going to Ecuador, countries not exactly noted for their positive human rights policies or their open governments. How ironic is that? You just can't make this stuff up.

Meanwhile, President Obama' s approval rating is tanking. Left, right and center are all displeased with him. Libertarian Senator Rand Paul is hailing Snowden as a hero and criticizing Obama. New York Senator Chuck Schumer thinks Snowden is a traitor and is furious at Obama.This issue could really be a tipping point for the administration. Welcome to your second term, Mr. Obama. Enjoy the ride.

Me? I think that attempting to corral and control internet transparency is futile. In the long run it just won't work. The old paradigm is over. It's the 21st century. I'm not sure what I think of Edward Snowden, but I know that he has started a conversation that needs to be had, not just in the United States, but all over the world. I think charging him with espionage is ridiculous. He's not selling secrets to foreign governments. He's telling the world what it needs to know. Something for which he is likely to suffer greatly in the end. I know it won't happen, but I think we should just say thank you and deal with it.

Mothers Day and Ariel Castro

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 10 May 2013 15:16:00 +0000

52 year old Ariel Castro is fast becoming known as the Cleveland monster for good reason. He's not exactly the son a mother can be proud of. As the details of his life, and what he did to the three girls he kidnapped a decade ago become better known, his mother has made no secret of her revulsion and her heartbreak over the situation she finds herself in. She must have known something was wrong years ago, but not been able to speak out.. Perhaps she was unwilling, or in denial. Whatever her story is, it hides a great deal of pain. Family secrets and lies are an old and sad story, and the bigger the secret the worse the pain when it is revealed.

Lillian Castro, the monster's mother, is quoted by the BBC as saying: "I have a sick son who has committed something very grave. I'm suffering very much,...May those young ladies forgive me." Not exactly a fabulous Mother's Day for her this year, and knowing maternal guilt as I do, I can imagine she feels plenty bad,though her grief can do nothing to help the " young ladies" she is apologizing to and few in the general public will shed a tear on her behalf. Still, I cannot help thinking about her as Mother's Day approaches. What a bummer.

Then there is the pain of Castro's oldest daughter, the one he had with his common law wife ,Grimilda Figueroa. Grimalda, it seems,left Ariel Castro years ago and died last year after a long illness.She too was beaten, tortured, and subjected ( with her two children) to nightmarish abuse.

The couple's daughter was interviewed by CNN in the wake of her father's arrest. Seems she had some vague idea that all was not right, but never put two and two together. Check out the video below. It just blows my mind that all this information was around and nobody was on this guy's case before now.

This Mothers Day lets give some thought to how abusers like Ariel Castro can get away with their heinous crimes for years, even decades, before anybody blows the whistle on them. Crimes against women are still crimes and they cast a long shadow over generations. If Amanda Berry had not managed to call 911 Ariel Cstro would still be running his House of Horrors.

I wonder if he sent his mother flowers last Mothers Day?

" He's Dead To Me" Says Castro's Daughter

The Tsarnaev Brothers Are Losers Not Terrorists

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 13:26:00 +0000

Let's get something straight. Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the brothers responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing and 176 casualties including 3 deaths and 17 critical injuries, are punks or, as their Uncle said in the video below at a press conference yesterday, " losers who couldn't fit in". To call them " terrorists" elevates their status to something approaching heroic as in, warriors, idealists giving their lives for a cause greater than themselves, or something other than narcissistic cowards. Let's not romanticize these guys. They were indeed losers, punks, misfits and just the sort of young, testosterone-fueled guys Islamic extremists encourage as canon fodder and nothing more. These guys are to Islam, what The Westboro Baptist Church is to Christianity--LOSERS! ( thank you @Yasira jaan)

Let's review a few facts. The SUV the boys took off in a day after the bombing while Boston was crawling with police was track-able by GPS. With the cops in hot pursuit, they threw home made grenades out the windows(not great military tactics) until there was a stand off. When cornered,Dzokhar gunned the SUV, ran over his brother, and dragged him to his death. Then, he took off to hide in a boat in a backyard in Watertown. Oh, did I mention that what started the chase was the boys trying to hold up a convenience store and shooting an MIT campus cop to death? Not the actions of well disciplined trained guarillas wishing to avoid detection, are they?. Like I said-- punks and losers.

It may be true that the older brother went back to Russia and tried to connect with Chchen rebels, but I bet they didn't want anything to do with such a loose canon and I also bet the bulk of his radicalization took place in Boston, online and in his own mind. Surely, Boston was where he was when he was posting jihadi videos on YouTube and bitching all over Facebook about how he didn't have any American friends.

On the other hand, he seems to have married an American girl and has a three year old daughter. And, he seems to have had trouble finding a career path or even a job. Obviously he was a troubled dude, trying to make it on his own and not doing very well. I am guessing that his wife threw him out as I read somewhere that he had an arrest for domestic violence. That would explain why, if he was a husband and father, he was living with his brother in a squalid, ramshjackle apartment instead of with his wife and child.

What better way for a self hating, self pitying piece of human garbage to try and make himself feel heroic than to see himself as a martyr for Islam? The reality was,he did not fit in, either in Russia or America. To avoid this painful reality, he projected his anger onto his adopted country, took his kid brother along for the ride and ended up basically committing suicide by cop. Tamerlan is not someone mothers hope their sons will grow up to be like. No sireee, not by a long shot.

I feel sorry for the family. My prayers are with them as well as the real victims of this atrocity. But I do not feel sorry for these two misguided young men. Don't give them the dignity of calling them " terrorists" They are nothing but a couple of punks. The older one is dead. The younger one will recover, will be tried as an American citizen in an American court and will do lots of time in an American prison if he is lucky. If he is not so lucky, and is tried in Federal Court, he could end up dead too. We have the death penalty here in America, you know. And from time to time, we use it.

Waiting for the Chinese Smackdown on North Korea

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 12:17:00 +0000

China and North Korea

It's going to happen soon. China is going to rein in its "Mini-Me",,North Korea. The storm clouds are brewing, and I predict that next week will tell the tale. Traditionally, China has sat on the sidelines and just watched tensions between North Korea and the United States, but as North Korea's young dictator, Kim Jong Un, gets whackier and whackier, China seems to be shifting its position. In actuality, it has little choice. The new North Korean regime is so unpredictable and dysfunctional that putting it in a straight jacket or destroying it altogether may be the only logical possibilities for China.

Where China is concerned, Kim Jong Un has made some bad mistakes. Since coming to power after his father's death last year, he has failed to pay proper respect to China (especially stupid in the part of the world that invented the concept of " saving face"). Most importantly, it's dumb to ignore the country which provides you with food, fuel, and the parental protection of a bigger, stronger Communist power.... talk about biting the hand that feeds you ! Now, having taken his bellicose outbursts to a new level that really begs for intervention from the West, Baby Kim is just asking for trouble with China, the United States and EU.

Why China Doesn't Want War in Korea

The last thing China wants is for North Korea to go to war ,or for the United States to get more involved militarily in Asia. In addition, with its own domestic troubles China certainly doesn't need waves of North Korean refugees pouring across its borders. It also fears a re-united Korea with the South in the saddle.

So, the winds of change are blowing in Beijing, and Baby Kim better wake up and smell the coffee or he is going to get himself, and possibly his whole nation ,bunker busted back to the stone age. Unfortunately, he probably won't stop, as he is young, callow and responding to immediate domestic concerns. He is on a collision course with China and the West. Looks to me like China is doing a rapid about-face.

For starters, Secretary of State, John Kerry has stopped off in China this week-end, on his way home form a well publicized visit to South Korea. While in Seoul, he pointedly announced in no uncertain terms, that the United States will protect its allies in case of nuclear attack from North Korea. It has also been reported( though not officially confirmed) that last week China was massing troops at its North Korean border. In the end, my money is on a pincer movement between China and the United States working together to snuff out the crazy one way or another.

Listen up, Baby Kim and start behaving, or China may have to spank you with Uncle Sam standing by.

cartoon source

Idiots With Guns by Zina Saunders

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 13:02:00 +0000

The Constitution of the United States not only guarantees the right to bear arms to intelligent, sane ordinary people, it also promises that any nut with a trigger finger has the right to own an assault rifle. Some of us think this philosophy is absolutely crazy, but every time we citizens try to make our voices heard in Washington, we get drowned out by the NRA and the folks who make big bucks from selling guns and ammo to folks who should not even be allowed to play with matches.

Only in America, my friends and fellow-countrymen, where in the name of freedom we give any crackpot the right to pack heat, do we have the most gun related murders and suicides in the world-- but Yeeee Haw we got our freedoms, yessirree. The freedom to feather one's own nest with big $$$$ at the expense of the nation seems to trump everything else-- at least in Washington. We are, after all, the largest munitions manufacturer and have the largest war machine in the world. There are lots of profits to be made and many hungry political mouths to be fed.

Zina Saunders does wonderful satirical videos. You can check out her YouTube Channel for others, but here's one on America and the attitude of at least some of its gun owners.

The Lies That Took Us Into the Iraq War

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 14:26:00 +0000

cartoon source:

The Iraq War was not a war of self defense no matter what anybody says. It was an aggressive attack on the part of the United States(and a few allies who were taken along for the ride) and it furthered the interests of a small group of people at the expense of millions of Iraqi civilians, the American public and the soldiers of every nation who lost their lives and souls in it. It may have changed the political landscape of the Middle East, but, it was definitely NOT about democracy, freedom or even the attacks of September 11th.

It was about a small but powerful elite, manipulating public fear after the terrorist attack. It was, like all wars, about power and money, in this case, spelled "o-i-l." Fear and anger over the attacks of September 11th were skillfully diverted into the sideshow of attacking Iraq. The excuse was that the attack was to neutralize the threat of weapons of mass destruction that even the UN weapons inspectors could not find.

Kudos to Mother Jones for exposing the truth in a detailed timeline showing how we the people were totally jerked around. You would think that after Viet Nam and the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, we would have learned our lesson, but no. It seems we have not. Here's a teaser. Follow the link at the end of the quote for some eye opening week-end reading.

"The blame for Iraq does not end with Cheney, Bush, or Rumsfeld. Nor is it limited to the intelligence operatives who sat silent as the administration cherry-picked its case for war, or with those, like Colin Powell or Hans Blix, who, in the name of loyalty or statesmanship, did not give full throat to their misgivings. It is also shared by far too many in the Fourth Estate, most notably the New York Times' Judith Miller. But let us not forget that it lies, inescapably, with we the American people, who, in our fear and rage over the catastrophic events of September 11, 2001, allowed ourselves to be suckered into the most audacious bait and switch of all time." To see the complete article and the timeline follow this link to MotherJones.com

The GOP Clown Car Is Back at CPAC 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 17:34:00 +0000

photoviaDonkeyhotey, flickr

CPAC2013 or for those of you who reside on planet earth and don't follow the GOP lunatic fringe very closely, the Conservative Political Action Conference, has drawn to a close and this year's event seems to have been a reprise by the crazy GOP clowncar we all remember from the 2012 Presidential primaries. CPAC2013 was run by folks who not only invited Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, and even Donald Trump to speak from their podium, but also snubbed the most bi-partisan, most popular Republican of them all, New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie. It seems Christie spent too much time congratulating President Obama on his handling of Hurricane Sandy instead of indulging in pointless name calling. Yes sireee, the inmates are still running the asylum and losing the Presidential election didn't teach them a thing.

Speaker after speaker got up during the three days of CPAC and made stunningly clownish comments. Lets' see--Donald Trump basically called the Republican party a bunch of idiots for losing the Presidency.( well I have to admit that wasn't so crazy) but then he went on to tell the crowd what a clever boy he is, implying that he would have made a much better candidate (yawn). Sunday keynoter, Sarah Palin, trashed President Obama while drinking a soda and making jokes about New York City Mayor Bloomberg's ban on sugared drinks-- classy Sarah at her best. These two are just highlights but there was much more, with jaw dropping comments by the likes of Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich. . Comedian, Bill Maher, referred to the three day event as " the open mic from hell" -- a good description IMHO.

Sarah Palin's Complete CPAC Speech

On the last day of CPAC they traditionally take a straw poll to find out who conservatives like as a Presidential candidate for the next election. This year the honors went to Senator Rand Paul of filibuster fame with Florida's Senator, Marco Rubio, coming in a close second.

Interestingly enough, Chris Christie, even though not even in the room, came in number four. Looks to me like the clown car just might be running into some engine trouble and we may see a swing in the Republican party back to sanity, especially if the economy continues to improve and unemployment goes down.

Meanwhile, bring in the clowns.

Waiting For The Other Sequestrated Shoe To Drop

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 12:02:00 +0000

The endless game of chicken just seems to go on and on. Sequestration Day has finally arrived and there is still no derth of predictions for the future. Personally, I don't think the scenario of either party will come true. It has been my experience in everything from stock market predictions to marriage and child rearing that what happens is almost never what you think is going to happen and the real bone crunchers in life are never the things you worry about. They almost always come out of left field and smack you upside the head.

So hang on to your crystal balls my fellow Americans. We've all just been sequestered. Now lets see what happens next. One thing is for sure. Congress has proven to be completely useless on BOTH sides of the aisle.

Vatican Gay Sex Ring? Why Am I Not Surprised

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 15:32:00 +0000

It seems by what I read online, that in addition to all the priest pedophile revelations, the ongoing scandal of theVatican Bank , the crimes of the pope's butler, and this pope's seemingly unending series of ineptitudes and out of touch gaffesl, there's yet another issue surfacing in the Vatican today.

According to a number of sources this morning, including an article that caught my eye in The Guardian, the pope's retirement is not just about failing health ( I never believed that anyway), it is also linked to a network of gay prelates in the Vatican, some of whom are being blackmailed by outsiders. I guess that was the straw that broke the camel's back and left God's Rotweiler shaking in his little red Prada shoes.

The allegation originally surfaced in a major Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica yesterday, and today, it is all over the internet.

According to the article, after the butler was arrested, the pope designated three Cardinals to look into the whole " Vatileaks" thing and report back. Here's a quote from The Guardian :

"The paper( i.e.La Repubblica ) said the pope had taken the decision on 17 December that he was going to resign – the day he received a dossier compiled by three cardinals delegated to look into the so-called "Vatileaks" affair.....According to La Repubblica, the dossier comprising "two volumes of almost 300 pages – bound in red" had been consigned to a safe in the papal apartments and would be delivered to the pope's successor upon his election.

The newspaper said the cardinals described a number of factions, including one whose members were "united by sexual orientation". In an apparent quotation from the report, La Repubblica said some Vatican officials had been subject to "external influence" from laymen with whom they had links of a "worldly nature". The paper said this was a clear reference to blackmail."Personally, I don't know or care what the Pope's personal sexual orientation is. It really doesn't matter. What does matter is the obvious dysfunction, corruption, and organizational hubris that is now being spotlighted. It is becoming more and more obvious to all with eyes to see, that the government of the Church is an edifice built on centuries of lies. Constantine told that whopper about seeing a cross in the sky, legitimized Christianity and an unholy bargain between church and state began.

The Medievil Church is the one organization that contributed to keeping the Dark Ages dark as long as possible. More people were burned at the stake by the Inquisition than were martyred by Roman Emperors. I'm not even going to mention the Renaissance with its parade of perverted popes. It is no accident that the pope carries the ancient Roman title of Pontifex Maximus. Is it any wonder that such an ancient and secretive organization would host a gay sex ring? I find it sad, but not at all surprising.

Evangelical Protestants who have always considered the Roman Catholic church the great whore of Babylon referred to in the book of Revelations must be crowing as they get ready for the Rapture-- although they have nothing to brag about when it comes to sex, secrets and sin.

But back to the main event. I'm not surprised at today's revelations( to coin a phrase) and as the days go on I'll be looking for more. Looks to this sinner like Vatican Inc is in crisis and is going to do what it can to save itself. I only hope it does not destroy the rest of us in the process. Whoever the new pope is, I will be interested to see what he does with the information contained in that hot 300 page dossier of Vatican sex and blackmail left for him by Benedict XVI.

Pass the popcorn and let's get on with the show.

The Papal Retirement

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 14:53:00 +0000

He's the first Pope to actually retire in more than 600 years, It's ironic that Pope Benedict XVI who was, in so many ways, an academic intellectual, more at home arguing fine points of doctrine in the safety of the Vatican, than dealing with political and social realities in the outside world, should actually be the person to make early retirement a possibility for future popes, thus significantly changing the very nature of the job.

The man who in his salad days was called " God's Rotweiller" by the liberal wing of his church, for his traditional views, has with one stroke, brought the concept of " retirement" or dare I say even " corporate downsizing"to the Papacy, thus changing it from an absolute, lifelong calling to just another job. It's like the difference between the " divine right of kings" and election to the presidency of a modern nation state.

On February 28th, Pope Benedict XVI will,once again, be Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, a prince of the church still, but no longer its supreme pontiff, whose mystical touch can heal the sick and who speaks with the authority of God when he says something "ex cathedra". My suspicion is he will welcome the change. As for his billion plus flock all over the world, I'm not so sure.

During his reign he's managed to make many mistakes, from angering American nuns to horrifying the Muslim world with his narrow ideological views, and I'm not even going to mention his breathtaking ignorance and denial of the priest pedophile debacle and the sangfroid with which he sacrificed so many innocent children to sacerdotal lust before he became pope. That's a whole story just in itself.

I don't think he is a bad guy, just someone who was promoted beyond his level of competency. Actually, I feel a bit sorry for him. Here he is at the end of his life, trying to stave off the knowledge of what a mess he's made of things and not understanding the world as it is outside Vatican walls.

I suspect that failing health really is a problem as well, but the real issue here, is that Joseph Ratzinger is an old man trying to navigate a modern world of which he has very limited knowledge. His denial of the reality of the priest pedophile situation is so total and so horrific, I don't think he will ever be able to grasp the evil that has been done in God's name. Perhaps that is just as well.

I bet he will be happy to lay down the burden that was clearly too much for him and finish out his days back in his monastic library, reading, writing,and praying, as we all must, for forgiveness. Popes, after all, are people too.

America's Craziest Sheriff Joe Arpaio Is At It Again

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 13:31:00 +0000

Yes folks, according to an article in yesterday's Chicago Tribune, America's craziest sheriff, Joe Apaio, has hired a burly martial arts instructor turned actor to train his three thousand person plus " posse" to respond to possible school shootings in his Maricopa County, Arizona district. Don't you just feel safer already? No? Why not, I wonder.

According to the article the training takes place in actual schools with real teachers and school children participating in the mock up. Most recently, according to the Tribune article, Arpaio enlisted actor Stephen Seagal to train his Maricopa County posse members at a school in Fountain Hills, a suburb northeast of Phoenix, with children used as stand-ins for scared students.

Now THAT should make the little tykes sleep better at night, don't you agree?

Really. You just can't make this stuff up. I don't know whether to laugh or cry at the antics of Joe Arpaio, his Hollywood sidekick and his crazy volunteer deputies. Personally, I think they should all be arrested for child abuse and the kids should be given psychiatric counseling and milk and cookies.

Training a gun toting posse in a local elementary school may make Sheriff Arpaio feel like a big man, but does it make children safer? I don't think so. Do you?

The Elephant At The Obama Inauguration

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 14:39:00 +0000

The GOP Congress just can't seem to make up its mind, can it? Seems like only yesterday the newly elected President Obama was trying the bi-partisan approach and getting stonewalled everywhere he went on Capitol Hill.

Remember the summer of the healthcare debates,when gun toting tea partiers showed up at astro-turf rallies funded by big insurance and pharmaceutical interests? Remember the outrageous lies about death panels and such? Remember Sarah Palin ( Sarah who?) and the shenanigans of the Republican candidates during the primaries?

Make up your minds Pachyderms. They say an elephant never forgets, but the Republican elephant seems to have a very selective memory these days. Time to face the reality that the voice of the people has spoken and even if it is not the voice you want to hear, in a democracy, it is the voice that prevails.

Second Amendment Rights Gone Wild.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 14:59:00 +0000

Tell me the part again about how requiring stricter background checks, re-instituting the assault weapons ban, and making at least some effort to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill is a violation of the second amendment to the Constitution of the United States. I just don't get it-- especially when I watch videos like the one below.

It would be funny if it weren't so shocking. Guns DO kill people, especially in the hands of people who don't know how to handle them. You really need to watch this video, share it around and think about it. Then think about all those dead little kids in Connecticut and the dead and injured from Columbine to Aurora, Colorado, to Virginia Tech and beyond and tell me you still think that stricter gun laws are not needed in this country.

Today is Gun Appreciation Day in America

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 18:04:00 +0000

In the wake of President Obama's swift action to require background checks and tighter gun safety laws, pro-gun activists have declared today, January 19, 2013 the first annual Gun Appreciation Day all across the land. No, I'm not kidding. It took my breath away too. Gun fanciers are planning demonstrations, protests and rallies in 49 states. They predict it will all be a " bang-up" success ( their words not mine)

I predict that this is another caper by big, corporate money disguised as grass roots gun owners. Wolves in sheep's clothing, so to speak. I also predict that Gun Appreciation Day will be more popular in some places than in others and that in the places that find such a thing disgusting, it will further divide an already divided and angry nation.

Listen up, you gun toting morons. Liberals do not want to take away your hunting rifles and shotguns. We just don't want our children(or yours) blown to bits by weapons of war designed for shooting nothing but human beings.

But never mind. The corporate wolves don't care as long as the guns keep getting sold, the money keeps rolling in and the shareholders are happy. God's in his heaven and all's well on Wall Street. Pass the ammunition.

H/T to Mike Thompson

UPDATE: Would you believe that on the first Gun Appreciation Day, 5 people were shot at 3 different gun shows? Check it out.

Now, THAT is what I call gun appreciation and it is not what I want for MY America

Malala Yousafzai Honored With French Womens Rights Prize

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 11:29:00 +0000

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl, whose fight for women's education in Pakistan became an international cause after the Taliban pumped her full of bullets, was honored earlier this week with the prestigious Simone de Beauvoir Prize for Women's Freedom. Malala's father,Ziauddin Yousafzai,accepted the award on his daughter's behalf at the annual award ceremony in Paris.

Ziauddin Yousafzai's pride in his daughter was evident in his moving acceptance speech.

"She fell but Pakistan stood up. And the whole world — north, south, east and west — supported her,” he said. “God protected her and protected the cause of humanity and education " (read complete article here)

Malala's father went on to observe:

“In my part of the world, fathers are known by their sons. Daughters are very much neglected. I am one of the few fortunate fathers who is known by his daughter.”

The world is,indeed,standing up with Malala-- especially the world's women,. She is an ornament to her gender, her nation and her faith The Taliban definitely overplayed its hand this time.

How ironic, that an organization of extremists that tries to impose its Nihilistic view of the world on others by creating " martyrs" in the form of suicide bombers, has managed to create a positive figure of hope for human dignity and women's rights in Malala Yousafzai..

God works in mysterious ways for sure.

Photo source: Daily Times, Pakistan

Sunday Thoughts on Gun Control and Armed Teachers

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 17:11:00 +0000

Source: liberalscienceguy.tumblr.com via Sandy on Pinterest

So, according to Wayne La Pierre, erstwhile head honcho over at the National Rifle Association, " the best defense against a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun" That's what he really said at his December 21st press conference, in answer to the Sandy Hook massacre. I couldn't believe it either. The guy is nuts, because he also advocated armed guards in schools and arming teachers and staff as well.

Oh yeah, sure--armed teachers are the answer-- that's REALLY going to make kids feel safe in school.

It is against the law for a teacher to hit a child with a ruler and caning went out with Charles Dickens. But now, LaPierre thinks we should arm teachers.What's wrong with this picture?

Bye Bye 2012 and Happy New Year 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 21:17:00 +0000

image source

2012 was quite a year, what with the Mayan Calendar, Hurricane Sandy, the longest ever Presidential Primary season(not to mention the nastiest election ever) and I'm not even going to get into the Christmas season topper of the massacre of little children in Newtown, Connecticut.

Of course, there were some wonderful moments too, like the London Olympics, but this year, all the good things seemed accompanied by explosions of violence and suffering both at home and abroad. I'm not really into those looking back on the year that was posts, so I'll just say that the over-riding feeling of 2012 was not unbridled optimism of any kind.

No, I won't be sorry to see the backside of 2012 disappear into the history books. I cannot wait for 2013 to begin, because I am ever the optimist and I just know that 2013 is a blank page, just waiting for all of us to write on it. I'm feeling like a new beginning is just what we all need so Happy New Year everybody and let's celebrate.

I leave you with a lovely little New Year's ditty that sums it all up rather nicely-- courtesy of The Daily Monster.

lyrics and credits

This year... has had its run.
This year... is all but done.
Can't wait to see what's 'round the bend!
So here we go! Happy New Year!

Don't fear... as it draws near.
Let's cheer... the future's here!
May jet packs fly in crystal skies
Good times for all in the New Year!

We all have made mistakes.
Next year we'll do it right.
It's clear we'll sort it out,
though perhaps not overnight.

Last year... is history.
What's next... a mystery!
'cause who can say what's yet to come?
So here we go, Happy New Year!
Here we go! Happy New Year!

Music by David Norland
http://generatorstudios.com

Lyrics and everything else by Stefan G. Bucher
http://dailymonster.com

Happy Holidays from Political Packrat

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 18:29:00 +0000

Thanks to The Witch Within Us All's Facebook page for the graphic

A Message for Today in Charlie Chaplin's Great Dictator Speech

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 14:09:00 +0000

When Charlie Chaplin wrote, directed produced and starred in his most successful commercial film, The Great Dictator, in 1940, Hitler was busy ravaging Europe, Benito Mussolini had just aligned fascist Italy with Nazi Germany and The United States was dithering on the sidelines.

While the news reports from Europe shocked many Americans, most were just going about their daily lives and wanted no part of what they considered a European war. Americans watched uneasily as Hitler spread his excesses and poisonous anti-Semitism across Europe, but in 1940, they were not prepared to get involved. That would not happen until the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December7,1942.

Against this backdrop, Chaplin created the character of " The Great Dictator" and made a film that in terms of human, as well as artistic values, still resonates today. In a pivotal soliloquy, The Great Dictator, played by the great Charlie Chaplin, himself, offers a defense of individual freedom and human dignity that is, if anything, more important in our post Hiroshima, post bunker buster, and post 9/11 world than it was on the cusp of World War II in 1940.

The dream lives on in spite of everything. Watch the video. You'll see what I mean

H/T Ole Olson