text:
Donald Trump today said, "Either we build (finish) the Wall or we close the Border."
Here is my question: If Trump can close the border why do we need a wall?
Steven C. Sorensen – Photography and Blog
Donald Trump today said, "Either we build (finish) the Wall or we close the Border."
Here is my question: If Trump can close the border why do we need a wall?
Kevin Drum from Mother Jones posted on his blog a call to boycott companies that advertise on Fox News. I'm glad to see that there is something that you and I can do to fight Fox News. Drum's post contains a list of the top ten advertisers on Fox News.
I've been swamped in pessimism lately; pessimism that threatens to become cynicism. The problem is that I don't want to be either a pessimist or a cynic, but I thought that all the evidence I was seeing or hearing about the world today suggested that pessimism was justified. Is it? Even if it is justified, would it be possible to somehow escape the clutches of pessimism?
I talked to my good friend Nick, the potter and bartender. He wisely pointed out that pessimism leads nowhere and produces nothing except despair. He helped me realize that even though intellectually I was wallowing in pessimism, I'm living as if I were an optimist – doing new things, seeking new challenges, always trying to develop my skills and educate myself.
Then, I stumbled across three things this morning.
First was Andrew Sullivan's weekly long read in the New York magazine, "Trump's First Year Has Been a Disaster. Here's Why I Have Hope." Sullivan points out that "so many . . . indicators in the world are remarkably good right now."
In a similar vein, Kevin Drum, who blogs for Mother Jones, posted this morning: "I'm Just a Big Ol' Optimist About the Future of America Under Donald Trump." Kevin starts
I've been meaning to weigh in on the latest raft of pieces about the decline of American democracy, the decline of Western liberalism, the decline of globalism, and the decline of everything else in the era of Trump. In a nutshell, I'm far more optimistic than most of the people writing about this. Unfortunately, I haven't really thought the whole thing through rigorously enough to make a little essay out of it.
Actually, you might consider that good news. However, I do want to lay down a few markers. Here they are:
Read both these articles for welcome counterbalance to the doom and gloom in much of today's news. (Note that neither article is by a Trump or Republican loyalist.)
My other stumble this morning was on YouTube where I stumbled on The Artist Series, videos produced by The Art of Photography. They are each about fifteen minutes long and are interviews with outstanding photographers. I watched the one with Keith Carter. Carter talks about the death of his wife at the end of an illness. Her last words after looking out the window of their home from her death-bed were "What a Beautiful World This Is."
After watching that video, how can one possibly remain a pessimist, much less a cynic?
Easy to tweet, hard to have an ideology, a political will, an interest in anything but winning, or the frontal lobes of a burnt tuna casserole*!
As stated by a portrait of President Obama in a cartoon conversation with Li'l Trumpy, a recent, new character in the Zippy the Pinhead comic strip by Bill Griffith that's appeared in the St. Paul Pioneer Press for years. The strip was never overtly political until Donald Trump somehow became our president. (Oh, did I say Donald Trump instead of President Trump? Sorry, I meant to say The Big Cheeto**.) Now the strip regularly features new characters like L'il Trumpy and Steve Bunion. Many of these strips end up comparing Li'l Trumpy to a burnt tuna casserole, a perfect simile.
In one strip, Li'l Trumpy is said to have the attention span of a burnt tuna casserole. This is the strip in which Steve Bunion says
Let's ban all climatologists! Let's lock up David Brooks! Let's invade New Jersey!
I think I'm going to have to start checking in regularly on what's going on with Zippy.
* from Zippy the Pinhead "Dropping an O Bomb" by Bill Griffith, 05/02/2017
** from Candorville by Darrin Bell, 05/02/2017
The United States recently dropped an enormous bomb, one of the biggest non-nuclear weapons in existence, in Afghanistan. We dropped it apparently on ISIS fighters. So why in the world are we in Afghanistan?. What is our purpose there? We've been there since 2001, we've spent billions of dollars. We've lost soldiers. Afghani civilians have died. We don't seem to be any closer to leaving or having a plan or date for leaving.
To what purpose all the sacrifices? As far as I can see, all that we've done is ousted the Taliban and Mullah Omar from the central government and put in place a central government that is shaky and still needs our presence. That might have felt good in 2001 (revenge is sweet), but it's sixteen year later and the Taliban is still there and is still fighting. Now there's a third force in the mix, ISIS, and apparently ISIS and the Taliban fight each other. If the enemy of our enemy is our friend, does that mean we're now chums with the Taliban and should fight on their side? It's all too confusing. I wish someone could tell me what our objectives there are. Is it to reduce terrorism? To create a stable, democratic government in Afghanistan?
Whatever our objectives were or are, we have failed miserably. We keep coming up with new plans, new strategies for continuing to fail.
Perhaps it's time to put up or get out.
Some statistics on Afghanistan:
Coalition deaths of 01/10/15: 3,407
U.S. deaths of 01/10/15: 3,424
During the war in Afghanistan (2001–14), over 26,000 civilian deaths due to war-related violence have been documented; 29,900 civilians have been wounded. Over 91,000 Afghans, including civilians, soldiers and militants, are recorded to have been killed in the conflict, and the number who have died through indirect causes related to the war may include an additional 360,000 people.
Direct costs of the war, FY2001 – FY2016 – $783 billion
The war in Afghanistan has so far cost $33,000 per citizen, as of 01/10/2015
I stole the title of this post from Kevin Drum who posted today [not today; I forgot to publish this on the day of Drum's post] about theEssential Health Benefits (EHB) that the Republican health plan (ill-health plan would be a more apt term) would have taken away. Here is what he says about EHBs:
Essential Health Benefits. These are things which every health care plan is required to cover, and Obamacare spells out ten of them:
- Doctor visits
- Emergency room visits
- Hospital visits
- Prescription drugs
- Pediatric care
- Lab services
- Preventive care
- Maternity care
- Mental health care
- Rehabilitation services
The Republican health care bill is still having trouble getting enough votes to pass, so Paul Ryan is thinking about placating conservatives by repealing all of these EHBs. This means that a health insurer could literally sell you a policy that didn't cover doctor visits, hospital visits, ER visits, your children's health care, or prescription drugs—and still be perfectly legal.
What it means to me is that conservatives and Republicans do not want you to have any health care at all if you can't afford it on your own. You can just die or go into bankruptcy. Who cares? You got cancer because you're a bad person.
Check out Kevin's blog. He is posting a storm about the farce that the Republicans are trying to foist upon us all. Hopefully, they will fail miserably [they did!!!], thus preserving the status quo that is far, far better than anything the Republicans have been able to come up with even though they've had at least eight years. More like 70 years if you go back to Harry Truman's attempt to implement health care that was, of course, foiled by the Republicans.
America has never seen a party less caring than 21st-century Republicans
– Lindy West, The Guardian, 03/29/2017
This is the headline of an opinion piece in The Guardian. Ms West's article contains many spot-on quotes describing today's debased version of the Republican party. I will provide a few but suggest that you read the article in full.
I don't know that America has ever seen a political party so divested of care. Since Trump took office, Republicans have proposed legislation to destroy unions, the healthcare system, the education system and the Environmental Protection Agency; to defund the reproductive health charity Planned Parenthood and restrict abortion; to stifle public protest and decimate arts funding; to increase the risk of violence against trans people and roll back anti-discrimination laws; and to funnel more and more wealth from the poorest to the richest. Every executive order and piece of GOP legislation is destructive [emphasis added], aimed at dismantling something else, never creating anything new, never in the service of improving the care of the nation . . .
[There is a] void at the heart of the [Republican] party, that loss of any tether to humanity . . .
I got an e-mail today from the Southern Poverty Law Center. Below is the meat of the e-mail. Note that every statement of fact is well documented.
The fear of foreigners, the belief that refugees and immigrants are dangerous, the desire to keep them out — none of these things are new. But as our Teaching Tolerance project wrote this week in an updated post, these fears are often based on misinformation and lies.
It's a myth, for example, that immigrants don't want to learn English. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 56% of first-generation immigrants speak English "well" or "very well," and the demand for English instruction actually far outstrips supply.
It's a myth that immigrants are violent or criminal. According to a new report by The Sentencing Project, immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than native-born citizens. Higher levels of immigration may even have contributed to the historic drop in crime rates, researchers say.
In the run-up to both Muslim bans, perhaps the most widely circulated myth has been that refugees are not screened before entering the country, that banning them will keep the U.S. safe from terror.
But we know that refugees undergo more rigorous screenings than any other individuals the government allows in the U.S., and we know that no deaths in the U.S. have been attributed to people from the countries covered by either executive order in the last 30 years.
All of these myths, however far-fetched, are based on the same dangerous falsehood: that immigrants and refugees are somehow not like us. That they're not students in search of an education. That they're not families trying to make ends meet. That as "somebody else's babies," they don't belong here.
Some of my own thoughts: We Homo sapiens have been moving, migrating, traveling, wandering, fleeing since we became Homo sapiens. Migration and movement are among the most fundamental currents in human history. Migration has never been stopped in spite of numerous attempts to do so. Migration will never be stopped. The Romans tried. The Chinese tried. We Americans have tried in the past. These attempts have never been successful. It looks like we're about to embark on an expensive, foolish, futile attempt to do so. An attempt doomed from the start to failure.
Why not tear down the walls? (Didn't a Republican president say something like this?) ACCEPT immigrants and allow them to become a productive part of our society instead of condemning them to be outcasts on the peripheries.
Well, I'm not an immigrant, but all of my grandparents were. All Americans can make a similar statement. Even Native American ancestors came from Siberia.
The great Barbara Kingsolver, author of The Poisonwood Bible and The Bean Tree books, published an article today in The Guardian – a call on everyone to marshal their talents and decency to fight the onslaught of hate, fear, all sorts of phobias, lies, and bad government. I quote at length, but please read the entire article.
. . . we can't hole up for four years waiting for something that's gone. We just woke up in another country.
. . . Losses are coming at us in these areas: freedom of speech and the press; women's reproductive rights; affordable healthcare; security for immigrants and Muslims; racial and LGBTQ civil rights; environmental protection; scientific research and education; international cooperation on limiting climate change; international cooperation on anything; any restraints on who may possess firearms; [any] restraint on the upper-class wealth accumulation that's gutting our middle class; [any] limits on corporate influence over our laws.
. . . We're in new historical territory. A majority of American voters just cast our vote for a candidate who won't take office. A supreme court seat meant to be filled by our elected president was denied us. Congressional districts are now gerrymandered so most of us are represented by the party we voted against. The FBI and Russia meddled with our election. Our president-elect has no tolerance for disagreement, and a stunningly effective propaganda apparatus. Now we get to send this outfit every dime of our taxes and watch it cement its power. It's not going to slink away peacefully in the next election.
What is to be done?
. . .wear something on our sleeve that takes actual courage: our hearts.
I'll go first. If we're artists, writers, critics, publishers, directors or producers of film or television, we reckon honestly with our role in shaping the American psyche. We ask ourselves why so many people just couldn't see a 69-year-old woman in our nation's leading role, and why they might choose instead a hero who dispatches opponents with glib cruelty. We consider the alternatives. We join the time-honored tradition of artists resisting government oppression through our work.
Kingsolver continues with what to do for journalists; consumers of art, literature, film, TV and news; teachers; scientists; women suffering from sexual assault or body image disorders; Facebook users; workers.
As she says we must all
refuse to disappear. We keep our commitments to fairness in front of the legislators who oppose us, lock arms with the ones who are with us, and in the words of Congressman John Lewis, prepare to get ourselves in some good trouble.
Trump's election is not the continuation of normal American politics. We all need to step up. I can do my part, even if it is a small part, by writing more regularly in my blog about politics and current affairs. Today, for example, I can write about and link to Kingsolver's article.
Andrew Sullivan writes that Donald Trump is a "unique and unprecedented threat . . . to liberal democracy and constitutional order."
Sullivan has been live-blogging both the RNC and DNC conventions. Sullivan, who produced the blogs The Dish and The Daily Dish from 2000 until 2015 when he retired from full-time blogging, considers himself a traditional conservative. He does not at all support American conservatism as embodied in the Republican party and adamantly opposes Donald Trump. I think Andrew has been spot on about the importance of defeating Trump. He says it better than anyone else. This is some of what he wrote on day one of the DNC convention:
[Trump,] a candidate who openly called for mass deportation, war crimes, disbanding NATO and a trade war is now ahead in Nate Silver's "now-cast" of polling results. The great unknowable about America is what would happen if fascism were actually on the ballot. It's never happened before. But if you thought fascism would be taboo, the American people are proving you wrong.
So the Clintons have a real task ahead this week. They have to keep the focus on the unique and unprecedented threat that Donald Trump poses to liberal democracy and constitutional order.
On day four of the Republican convention, Andrew Sullivan wrote that
This [Trump's speech] is a very new departure for politics in a liberal democracy. We've never heard an appeal from a major party platform to junk traditional democratic norms, and cede power to a new tyrant, whose magical powers will somehow cause almost every problem in the country to disappear. In this election, the very basis of liberal democracy is on the ballot. . . . fears . . . about the popularity of tyranny in a late-democracy have, I'm afraid, only been fanned by events since.
The speech is entirely about fear, to be somehow vanquished by a single man's will to power. Its core message is what America was founded to resist. Its success would be an abolition of the core promise of this country for two centuries – that self-government is incompatible with the rule by the whims and prejudices and impulses of a man on a white horse.
It can happen here. It is happening here. No election has been more important in my lifetime.
Nor in mine, which goes back to seeing I Like Ike buttons while riding the bus to grade school in the 1050s. Ike and Ronald Reagan are both probably turning in their graves because of what their party has become.
This is from day three of the DNC convention.
I've never felt this way about a president, so I might as well admit it. Against hideously graceless opposition, in the face of extraordinary odds, facing immense crises, he [Obama] stayed the course and changed this country. This election is, at its core, about not letting a bigot and a madman take that away from all of us.
It is an election to keep the America that Obama has helped bring into being, and the core democratic values that have defined this experiment from the very beginning: self-government, not rule by a strongman; pluralism and compassion rather than nativism and fear; an open embrace of the world, and not a terrified flight from it.
There you have it. Remember to vote for Hillary come November!
I posted a few days ago regarding the mainstream media's reluctance to use the word "liar" to describe Donald Trump. I since have noticed with pleasure that the editors of The Huffington Post have started adding the following note to their posts about Trump.
Editor's note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.
Kevin Drum writes that the media is finally standing up to Donald Trump. I don't disagree, but I noticed the words "lie" or "lying" never appeared in the quotes used by Drum. Drum himself describes "Trump's tsunami of lying. . .", but the media quotes use various euphemisms:
"Falsehoods" comes close but is still more passive than "lying". I suppose the media prefer to use long words. "Lie" must be too short; it's only three letters.
Drum concludes "the job of the press is to tell the truth. They should do it, regardless of whether it makes much difference or not."
How can you argue with that?
According to Bernie Sanders in an article on Huffington Post,
Our job is not to think small. It is to think big.
Bernie starts his article with a list of questions all Americans should ask. A key segment is:
We have more billionaires in this country than any other nation on earth. We also have more child poverty than any other major industrialized nation. We have the highest rate of student debt. We have more prisoners, more homeless people and more economic inequality.
It doesn't have to be this way. These conditions are the result of deliberate policy decisions. We provide outrageous tax loopholes for billionaires and large corporations. The top tax rate is less than half of what it was during the postwar economic boom. The real minimum wage has fallen dramatically since the 1960s.
We can make better choices.
After listing the questions, Bernie describes the better choices. I am not going to try to reiterate what Bernie says so well. Please read the article yourself, especially if you are not yet familiar with Bernie's views.
Live blogging – Dana Milbank on CBS this morning. Says that the Sanders campaign is "not about Bernie Sanders." Bernie is simply filling a niche. Progressives are looking for a candidate with progressive views, and Sanders has stumbled into the niche. He dismisses Sanders as a candidate with no charisma. If that is true, then there are a lot of people who don't seem to care about charisma. Does the media and Milbank think that the crowds showing up to see Sanders are meaningless?
What pure s##! Sanders is charismatic because he tells the truth. Sanders is charismatic because he speaks up to power. Sanders is charismatic because he never tries to be charismatic. Sanders is charismatic because he addresses the issues seriously without depending on dumbed-down talking points. Sanders' charisma is a completely new kind of charisma that the media doesn't seem to understand. It owes nothing to hyperbole, sound bites, pandering, tailoring his message to his audience, etc.
Here is another questionable item in the media. Yesterday the St. Paul Pioneer Press ran a small item from the Associated Press (AP) headlined "Sanders draws big crowds in Madison". I will quote from the article and then change the quote a bit to show how the words used by the media to describe Sanders are biased. The bias may be intentional, but it is there and it is damaging.
The AP version:
Sanders . . . is trying to appeal to the most liberal Democrats with his message of raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, bridging the gap between rich and poor, criminal justice reform and raising taxes on the wealthy and Wall Street.
My version:
Sanders . . . is trying to appeal to Americans with his message of raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, bridging the gap between rich and poor, criminal justice reform and raising taxes on the wealthy and Wall Street.
Successful presidential candidates do not try to appeal only to a section of their own party. If they do, they are not serious and won't succeed. Sanders is serious. He is speaking to everyone. He can succeed even if the media still seem unable to avoid labeling him. Polls show that majorities of Americans agree with his proposals. So how is it that the media still insists on describing him as a radical?
My niece commented on a post of mine a few weeks ago. I don't remember the exact words. They asked what can we do to make people understand what's happening in our country. How can we wake up those who support the likes of Scott Walker and Sam Brownback and Rick Scott who are destroying their states in furtherance of a fundamentalist ideology that seeks to privatize everything. I was thinking about pulling together my thoughts on the subject and writing a post, but this morning I heard Hedrick Smith on PBS. He has set up a website, Reclaim the American Dream, that answers the question much better than I can do. Check it out if you want to get involved. Also, look into Hedrick Smith's biography to ensure yourself of his top-notch credentials.
It's fun brainstorming how to describe today's Republican Party: dumb, silly, heads-in-the-sand, regressive, really dumb, mean, pandering, allergic to facts and logic, really really dumb. The list can go on and on. I look at Scut Walker and his pals in Wisconsin and "mean-spirited" comes to mind. Let's micromanage the diet of food stamp recipients even if it costs money and puts the state further in the red. Thom Hartmann says
It's actually more expensive to stop poor people from eating shellfish than to just let the food stamp program go on as normal, but Republicans are all on board because it punishes and stigmatizes low-income people. (See the whole post)
The Republicans base their world view on anecdotes. A woman with an iPhone was spotted using food stamps thus all food stamps users are abusing their stamps.
Too bad that the true picture is lost – to Republicans – beneath such anecdotes.
If they would bother to look a bit deeper they would see that:
We need a new name for conservatives. Many of their proposals are actually reactionary and dangerous. They are nineteenth century. They are supported by Fox TV. They are the Nineteenth Century Fox movement.
We need something funny yet descriptive. One idea is to change the symbol of the GOP from an elephant to an ostrich. After all, they are the head-in-sand party. How else to explain their refusal to accept facts, logic, reason except that they consciously refuse to listen? Instead of referring to the states that vote Republican as red states, how about we call them yellow states. Yellow because Republican politicians are terrified of offending their tea-party base and their deep-pockets donors like the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson and the Menard dude in Wisconsin who secretly funded Scott Walker with over a million dollars. (By the way, I am now boycotting Menards in addition to Wal-Mart.)
The editors at The Daily Kos posted a diary today that has this to say:
Julian Sanchez, a CATO Institute [a conservative think tank] fellow who specializes in the areas of privacy and surveillance, was perhaps the first to concisely distill the alternate reality that has been created by the continuously cross-referencing circle of conservative media outlets. Conservatives live in a bubble of epistemic closure in which narratives and ideas that feed a particular narrative are introduced, reinforced and then judged to be accurate simply by virtue of having been presented by the correct media authorities. It doesn't matter if whatever is being claimed has an actual basis in objective reality: once an idea that pleases the conservative id has taken root, it is mighty hard for truth to pierce the bubble of fantasy.
This is why President Obama can in the conservative mind be a Kenyan, a Muslim, a socialist, and a black liberation theologist all at the same time. It's why no amount of evidence can ever convince conservatism the climate change is real. It's why they view it as a fact that Obama is killing jobs and exploding the deficit, even as the facts are exactly the opposite on both counts. And it's also why the Affordable Care Act is simply known to be a disaster that is ruining lives, damaging employers, and constraining freedom, even as in reality it is reducing costs, saving lives, and making health insurance affordable for people who have gone far too long without it.
Read the diary in full if you want to find out what happens
when conservatives are forced to venture outside the circle of epistemic closure and actually confront the world outside the bubble, the results are hilarious. . .
What can we use as a substitute for Grand Old Party (GOP)? How about God Awful Party (GAP)? Party of Idiots (POI) seems too obvious and not especially clever. How about the POOL Party – Party Of Obstruction, Obfuscation, and Lies?
If I think too much about what I'm trying to do with this post, I get sad. It's hard to be funny about something that has brought our country to ruin. Where else to turn but to humor? Perhaps humor is the best defense against today's GOP. They do so many laughable things. How can one take them seriously? Let's use the humor that the GOP seems so willing to deliver while remaining oblivious to how they open themselves to ridicule. When Senator Jim Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, produced a snowball on the Senate floor as evidence that climate change is a hoax he actually seemed serious. Why didn't Senate Democrats simply laugh him off the floor? Their laughter would have been justified.
Let's all join in and start laughing at these fools. Laughing is much better than despairing or crying.
I am once again going to be quoting extensively from Dog-Whistle Politics. This is a book to read if you want information to counter the cant and hypocrisy spewed forth by today's conservatives and Tea Partiers.
Something that came as a surprise to me is "that 'illegal' is a misnomer: crossing into or remaining in the United States without proper authorization is not a crime, but rather a civil matter." A Supreme Court ruling stated that "as a general rule, it is not a crime for a removable alien to remain present in the United States."
Lopez goes on to write:
On the more fundamental question of assimilation, scholars recognize that today's immigrants from Latin America (and also Asia), no different from the generations of European immigrants before them, are "being successfully incorporated into American society"; indeed, studies find "great continuities between the experiences of earlier European immigrants and current, predominantly non-European immigrants." Moreover, the notion that crossing the border without authorization generates a pervasive disdain for the law is demonstrably false. Research shows that undocumented immigrants from Latin America commit far fewer [emphasis mine] depredations, not far more, than citizens. Evidence shows too that undocumented immigrants are far less likely than others to use expensive social services, including hospital emergency rooms. Indeed, unauthorized immigrants pay considerable more in taxes – typically through payroll withholding – than they receive in social services.
If illegal immigration is actually not a big problem (or not a problem at all), why all the furor stirred up by the right?
. . . the "illegal alien" rhetoric is highly popular with racial demagogues. Stressing illegality provides a way to seed racial fears without directly referencing race. . . . By constantly drumming on the crises posed by "illegals", the right fuels a racial frenzy but can deny its intention to do any such thing.
This illegal-alien demagoguery started back as least as early as the time of (guess who?) the god-king Ronald Reagan.
In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan had warned that migrant workers from Mexico, as well as war refugees from Central America, constituted a potentially traitorous group in the nation's midst [did Reagan actually believe this?] To many this suggestions seemed farcical.
Get the book and read it. We progressives and liberals need to fight back.
I've seen quoted a number of different estimates of how much the US plans to spend fighting the Ebola epidemic in west Africa. The highest I've seen is $100 million.
The cost of the fight against ISIS?
Gordon Adams, the go-to guy in Washington on DOD's budget, previously told The Fiscal Times that the mission to stop ISIS would cost between $10 billion and $15 billion each year. Now that more details of the plan are known, Adams has revised his estimate — up. "I estimate $15-20 [billion] for the operation, on an annual basis,"
This doesn't make sense. Why are we spending so much more on the war against ISIS than we are on fighting the Ebola epidemic that rages unabated? Why does America fear ISIS much? Why do not Americans fear Ebola as much? I don't know. Perhaps it is because of the brutal videos of the beheadings by ISIS of American journalists? The pictures I see coming out of Africa are of people who are obviously sick. But a video of a beheading trumps a picture of a sick person or videos of people walking about in moon suits.
Read this:
House Republicans indicated Tuesday that they will provide less than half of the White House's funding request to fight Ebola in the next government spending bill.
According to a source familiar with the negotiations, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) agreed as of Tuesday morning to spend a total of $40 million to fight the epidemic in the 2015 spending bill. [thehill.com]
Is that not shameful? The Gates Foundation has pledged $50 million. Republicans don't even want to spend as much on Ebola as does a private foundation. They sure are willing to spend money on endless wars in the Mideast, but not much on impoverished, black Africans.
I've been reading Andrew Sullivan's The Dish since it was part of The Atlantic magazine – it is now independent and supported by subscribers so there is no advertising on the site. Two noted guest writers are contributing this week. One, the environmental activist and writer BVill McKibben, writes
Climate change is no longer a future threat—it's the single most distinctive fact about our time on earth
The other, Ann Helpern from The New York Review Of Books and McKibben's wife, writes
Over those same years, though, I've found that my "belief" in politics, has diminished. If, before, I thought that electoral politics mattered—and I did; I was the one going door-to-door in swing states—now I have a hard time holding on to that belief. If I thought that government, our government, because it is of and by and for the people—that is, because it is us—existed to make our lives together more tenable, well, let's just say that with my tax dollars going to support Gitmo, the militarization of the police, subsidies to oil companies, and on and on, I've become much more cynical. Wouldn't it be nice if, when we paid our taxes we could tell the government where we wanted our money to go—to the National Parks, say, and not to those oil companies—but of course that's not the nature of democracy.
Andrew Sullivan is a conservative, but not of the type that has driven the Republican Party so far to the right. If he is a conservative then I must be, in part, a conservative, although I like to think of myself as a progressive libertarian. I agree with libertarian views on individual rights, but their believe in free market economics is wrong. The freest markets exist when government at least attempts to ensure a fair and safe market. Regulated capitalism is the route to the greatest freedom as long as the regulations aren't devised or implemented to benefit big business at the expense of individuals and the country at large.
Whatever your political persuasion, check out The Dish. It is information and fun.
Most of us have heard of the idea that there are large corporations (Wall Street banks, General Motors . . .) that are too big to fail because their failure would seriously disrupt the world's economy. Matt Taibbi in The Divide: American Injustice In the Age Of the Wealth Gap writes that the executives of such firms are too big to jail. From his introduction:
. . . at the end of a long evolutionary process, in which the rule of law has been replaced by giant idiosyncratic bureaucracies that are designed to criminalize failure, poverty, and weakness on the one hand, and to immunize strength, wealth, and success on the other.
We still have real jury trials, honest judges, and free elections, all the superficial characteristics of a functional, free democracy. But underneath that surface is a florid and malevolent bureaucracy that mostly (not absolutely, but mostly) keeps the rich and the poor separate through thousands of tiny, scarcely visible inequities.
If you grew up well off, you probably don't know how easy it is for poor people to end up in jail, often for the same dumb things you yourself did as a kid.
And if you're broke and have limited experience in the world, you probably have no idea of the sheer scale of the awesome criminal capers that the powerful and politically connected can get away with, right under the noses of the rich-people police.
Massive frauds and swindles by Wall Street executives that "cry out for jail terms" if investigated at all end up with "no-jail financial settlements in which the money doesn't come out of any individual's pockets". On the other hand, in neighborhoods of the poor and disadvantaged "failure to follow a police order, no matter how stupid or unreasonable, is cause for arrest or a summon [does this remind you of the goings on in Ferguson, Missouri?], prosecutors can turn any misdemeanor case against almost anyone into a de facto conviction simply by filing charges and following through long enough with pre-trail pressure to wrest pleas out of the accused." In these neighborhoods, police use methods that rely "upon thousands of arrests for trivial offenses, real and imagined."
What about too big to bail? Anat Admati and Martin Hellwig in The Bankers' New Clothes: What's Wrong With Banking and What To Do About It write that
The traumatic Lehman experience has scared most governments into believing that large global banks must not be allowed to fail. Should any of these large banks get into serious difficulties, however, we may discover that they are not only too big to fail but also too big too save. There will be no good options.
So, what is to be done? The wisest course might be to break up the large banks, but I don't think – given current politics – that will happen. Tougher regulation? Also politically unlikely. Are we stuck with the risky status quo? Afraid so!
I write daily Morning Pages, usually, but not always, actually in the morning, late morning. I learned about Morning Pages in Julia Cameron's book. I sometimes find them a chore when I am at a loss words or energy. Eventually I manage to finish and find that writing the pages helps me make decisions and plans, although that is not necessarily the goal. Like meditation, writing Morning Pages is best approached without any concrete goals. One simple writes what enters one's head and comes out at one's fingertips. Julia Cameron says that you should write three pages a day. I've translated that in Penzu.com to 600 words. I remember from my high school typing class that one typewritten page is 200 words. Am I right about that?
This morning I had a mini-writer's block. Below is what I wrote.
And now what do I write about? Yada Yada Yada. The beat goes on. Keep on the sunny side. Don't stop believing. Carry on. Full speed ahead. Damn the torpedoes. All men on deck. Hurrah. Man your battle stations. Do your best. Nuts! Put your best foot forward. Never say die. Red sky at night, sailors delight. A stitch in time . . . Let's all pull together. We shall overcome.
What did Tom Joad say in The Grapes of Wrath when he finally left his family? (I just Googled it. Sometimes the internet and search engines come in handy).
Wherever you can look – wherever there's a fight, so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there. I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad. I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry and they know supper's ready, and when the people are eatin' the stuff they raise and livin' in the houses they build – I'll be there, too.
This is what Henry Fonda says in the movie. I don't know if it is a direct quote from Steinbeck.
Interesting; I start with not knowing what to write and end with quoting Steinbeck. The quote is one of my favorites. Stirring. Makes me think about getting involved; more than just signing online petitions and writing a small check now and then. I suppose I could join the Democratic Party and become active. I certainly would never even consider the Republicans – the party of ostrich-like denial, but I also am not enamored with today's Democratic Party. My qualms with the Dems are more tactical than ideological. The Dems don't know how to fight the right-wing. They don't know how to get their message out. They don't know how to talk to people and drum home a few basic points. They don't know how to answer the no-new-taxes mantra. They are even in too cozy with big business. Both parties have been captured. Big business, with the aiding and abetting of the government, has become too strong. What's an individual, a very introverted individual, to do? What is to be done? (Now I'm quoting Lenin, or at least the title of a piece he wrote around 1902.)
Democracies that are under the threat of destruction face the impossible dilemma of either yielding to that threat by preserving the democratic niceties, or violating their own principles by curtailing democratic rights.
The Atlantic Monthly posed this question to its readers and posted some of the answers in the March issue: "What was the worst year in history." One of the answers – " 2001, the worst year in U.S. History; we lost our Constitution."
The destruction of the two towers in New York in 2001 was certainly a catastrophe. Our nation was not "under threat of destruction" from terrorism and is not today, but our Constitution was and is. We have violated our constitutional principles, and since it appears that we are in an unending and undeclared war against terrorism we may never get them back. Take, for example, Amendment IV:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons,houses, papers, and effects , against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be Violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Can anyone read the Fourth Amendment and not come to the firm conclusion, regardless of what the courts and the executive branch say, that NSA surveillance is unconstitutional? Does NSA surveillance particularly describe the persons, places, or things to be searched? No.
The quote at the beginning of this post is by Richard J. Evans in The Coming Of the Third Reich, the first in a three-volume history of Nazi Germany. At the end of the book, he sums up the factors that paved the way for the coming of the Nazis. (Interestingly, Evans describes the twelve-year Nazi reign as a "permanent state of emergency that was more fictive than real"; not much different from our seemingly permanent war on terror.)
The death of democracy in Germany was part of a much broader European pattern in the interwar years; but it also had very specific roots in German history and drew on ideas that were part of a very specific German tradition. German nationalism, the Pan-German vision of the completion through conquest in war of Bismarck's unfinished work of bringing all Germans together in a single state, the conviction of the superiority of the Aryan race and the threat posed to it by the Jews, the belief in eugenic planning and racial hygiene, the military ideal of a society clad in uniform, regimented, obedient, and ready for battle – all this and much more that came to fruition in 1933 drew on ideas that had been circulating in Germany since the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Some of these ideas, in turn, had their roots in other countries or were shared by significant thinkers within them . . . they came together in Germany in a uniquely poisonous mixture, rendered all the more potent by Germany's preeminent position as the most advanced and most powerful state on the European Continent.
The purpose of Pity The Billionaire is to
explain hard-times conservatism, to understand the enthusiasm for an anything goes economic arrangement that persists in spite of all the failures and bank-breaking catastrophes that our previous effort to achieve such an arrangement have inflicted upon us.
The economic arrangement described by Thomas Frank is based on a fundamentalist, free market ideology and its "holy trinity of deregulation, prioritization, and free trade."
As he points out, how in the world has it happened that
Wall Street had gambled with the world's prosperity; Wall Street had brought about a financial catastrophe; and yet Wall Street was to get the kind of government help that you and I will never receive.
And Wall Street now is only a bit more regulated than before the Great Recession. The big banks have gotten bigger and pose much more of a too-big-to-fail risk than before 2008. What gives? I think the obvious answer is that Washington does not want to limit the big-business fat cats' opportunities to cash in. Republicans and Democrats alike seem unable to rein in corporate misbehavior – many probably don't want to. Who would fund their campaigns if not big business? Not the unions. Corporate interests have managed to just about emasculate the union movement in the United States.
' . . . our leaders allowed the biggest banks to get even bigger. They offered the banks an open-ended guarantee against failing without really restricting their activities – a guarantee that might well encourage them to bet on the riskiest propositions available, secure in the knowledge that the taxpayer would make good their losses.
Lest you think that this book is a partisan screed, the author does not hesitate to criticize the Democrats.
the Democrats tried to have it both ways: to deliver the occasional liberal measure here and there while studiously avoiding traditional liberal rhetoric.
The bailouts, the stimulus, the health-care debate: with each of these issues, the path of expertise led the Obama administration toward compromise with the power of wealth.
. . . each time political adversity has come, the Obama team has compromised in the direction of Wall Street, as though that was who needed to be mollified.
There are many more pithy and cogent passages in Pity The Billionaire that I could quote. I suggest that you pick up a copy and read it for yourself. There have been dozens of books on the Great Recession; its causes and its aftermath; this is one of the more enjoyable that I've read.
Given the unique power of the state, it is not enough for leaders to say: Trust us, we won't abuse the data we collect. History has too many examples when that trust has been breached. Our system of government is built on the premise that our liberty cannot depend on the good intentions of those in power; it depends on the law to constrain those in power.
I found the above lines of Obama's speech of yesterday compelling because I feel that there is already too much "trust me" in government today, even in the Obama administration. There was a lot of "trust me" in Obama's speech, although if the initiatives he suggests are implemented our privacy will be greater than it is presently. Our Founding Fathers were not trusting people. They thought that no one individual should be entrusted with unrestrained power. That remains the one of the key foundations of a society that abides by the rule of law. Stalin's solution to the trusting of individuals was to execute, deport, or imprison anyone who he thought threatened his power. He did his best to concentrate all power in himself. In our system, power is dispersed widely and I think it has always been seen as a threat to our way of life when one sector grabs too much power, whether government or business.
. . .the challenges to our privacy do not come from government alone. Corporations of all shapes and sizes track what you buy, store and analyze our data, and use it for commercial purposes; that's how those targeted ads pop up on your computer and your smartphone periodically.
Again, I am glad to see this stated by Obama. But at the same time I read of the idea of allowing private organizations like Google to store metadata about our phone conversations instead of the NSA or other government organizations. I would much rather trust the government not to misuse such metadata than I would trust a large corporation.
I listened to the speech with mixed feelings. Still too much "trust us", but moving towards a better situation than exists today.


text:
At Old Orchard, we believe that a strong primary, elementary and middle school education is an investment in your child's future. We also recognize that investing in a private, independent school education is an important family decision that requires careful consideration and planning.
We do our utmost to seek and admit talented and motivated students, regardless of family resources. If an Old Orchard education is not within your means, we encourage you to explore our tuition assistance program.
Old Orchard does offer several standard discounts, which are described below.
Half Day: $12,240
Full Day: $20,400
There is a $2,500 Enrollment Fee due at the time of enrollment. This one time fee is rolled over from school year to school year and will be credited toward the student's final tuition payments at Old Orchard School per the terms of the Enrollment Contract.
Before and After School care is available on a drop-in basis. After School Care is not included in tuition. Students may be dropped off as early as 7:30 a.m. and picked up as late as 6 p.m.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Theme Park
Universal Studios Hollywood
846 íbúar mæla með ·
Af hverju heimamenn mæla með þessu
This is a must-visit if you've never been. The Harry Potter World is crazy! Buy tickets ahead of time online and make sure to get there early to give yourself enough time to see everything.
Ábendingar heimamanna
Universal Studios Hollywood is a film studio and theme park in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles County, California.
Universal city walk is about a 12 minute drive away! There are a million restaurants, a movie theater, lots of shopping, and of course Universal Studios theme park! Great for kids and grown ups alike!
Great Way to Spend a Day! I love this place. so many great memories with so many wonderful people. Learn about movies and spend the day getting to know each other better.
Yet another amusement park in SoCal let you go he sing the scenes of a working movie studio. Feature rides and themes areas like the wizard of world of Harry Potter
Easy access by bus and metro! You can also enjoy the Citywalk outside of Universal Studios for shopping, people watching, lots of restaurants to try also!
Very close to the guest home and a must see while in Los Angeles. Citywalk is also next door .
Famous Universal studios has a great tour along with restaurants, shopping & movie theaters
FREE FUN STUFF TO DO Universal Studios City Walk The Village Warner Center The Japanese Garden ( Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area) Los Angeles Farmers Market Griffith Park (Train town) Griffith Park, Griffith Observatory Calabasas Old Town Zuma Beach (Malibu) Venice Beach Hollywood and Vine
Fun rides and shows all Hollywood based. City Walk is fun for restaurants and shopping.
Universal Studios - fantastic theme park with a new Harry Potter installation. City Walk is a large walkway of stores and restaurants located just outside the Universal Studios park, and can be accessed for free. Fountains surround both ends of the Walk, with tall buildings such as the Hard Rock…
Einstök dægrastytting í nágrenninu
Gististaðir í nágrenninu
Heimafólk mælir einnig með
"Iconic LA landmark. Parking can be tricky though so easier to catch an Uber or Lyft!"
- 1642 íbúar mæla með
"You have to book this way in advance, but its worth planning ahead. They've got a great range of music entertainment, and everything from box seats with dinner served to you to bench seats and BYOB."
- 551 íbúi mælir með
Almenn afþreying
"Free! Just pay for parking. Majestic hilltop buildings, the art is Ok, the traveling collections can be great, but the real attraction is the space and gardens themselves. Must not miss!"
- 807 íbúar mæla með
"An always-evolving collection of permanent and featured exhibits in a constantly changing compound of art and activity. Enjoy spectacular dining also on the premises."
- 1031 íbúi mælir með
Point of Interest
"Great place to see the famous Walk of Fame of every star who has graced Hollywood. Enjoy exploring and learning more about the world's most famous sidewalk and the celebrities it honors! "
- 307 íbúar mæla með
100 Universal City Plaza
Universal City, CA 91608
Sími+1 800-864-8377
Já (þ.m.t. American Express og MasterCard)
Keyrt af Foursquare


text:
A wonderful dress!
What a lovely dress! So pleased!! Fits really well and looks great - better than it looks on photos 😊
Effortless chic
Add a polished Parisian touch to your wardrobe with this stunning tweed dress. Elevated by signature frayed details and faux pearl buttons, it masters desk-to-dinner dressing with ease. Throw on the matching longline topper for added style points.
- Shift silhouette
- Split V-neck
- Fringe detail
- Pockets
- Centre back zip
- Non-stretch fabric
- Fully lined
- Pearl button detail
Size + Fit
Model wears: UK8/EU36/US4
Model height: 184cm/6'
Length: Above knee, 100.0cm (39.0")
Sleeve Length: Sleeveless
55% Polyester, 32.5% Cotton, 8.2% Rayon, 2.2% Nylon, 2.1% Acrylic
What a lovely dress! So pleased!! Fits really well and looks great - better than it looks on photos 😊
Great fit
Very nice business dress, I pair it with a black Long Tall blazer which looks great.
Great fit all round, comfortable. I will be wearing this alot.
Love love love this look . Easy to wear but stunning cut and fit . Love KL and LTS partnership
Lovely quality but not very flattering. I have slim hips but I looked very wide. Also size at least one size up.
Purchased to go with the matching coat, nice quality, and detail in the, fabric. Warm for autumn/winter/spring weather. Nice detail with the pearl-button pockets. Slightly expensive so I hope it lasts. I'm only 5ft10 but is a few inches above the knee; I'd thought it might be longer.
I was given this dress as a gift and immediately fell in love with the beautiful fabric and cut. Unfortunately for me, the pockets hit just at my thighs and, with my natural 'pear' shape, gives me too much bulky material right at the hips. I was so disappointed to have to exchange it, but the look was not flattering with my 'holster hips' so I wish they would have either eliminated the pockets or place them a tad more strategically for the Size 12 pear shaped ladies.
This is an absolutely beautiful dress and returning it was difficult for me, but it was not flattering. It made me look thick through the middle which I am not (according to my husband). It may not have fit properly or it might be that the white lines in the plaid go horizontally at the waist. I was afraid that taking it in would ruin the pocket line so I just returned it. If it fits you, you have a winner.
Classic beautiful, little shorter on me than model. Able to put a turtleneck shirt under it and looks great that way too. Would buy again.
Very classic- great look!
Awesome dress. Such high quality fabric. I feel privileged to get this much fashion for a reasonable price. It's so beautiful. You can't see online, but the fabric has red and blue threads among the black and white. I'm wearing this dress as often as possible.


text:
Best Place to Sell iPhone
Are you asking where can I sell my iPhone because you have a used iPhone that you want to let go of so that you can buy the latest iPhone model? Do you have an old iPhone that you no longer use? Then you need to sell it quickly while it still has value. Your old iPhone will continue to depreciate in its value. This means that the earlier you sell it the better. This means that there is no need for you to continue holding on to your old iPhone or throw it away. You need to use the best iPhone sale service to make extra cash from the old iPhone. If you sell your used iPhone with us, we will make you the best deal for it.
Best place to sell used iPhones
There are several places where you can sell your used iPhone. The internet brings buyers and sellers of used iPhone together. Nevertheless, you need to be careful when selling iPhone. Choose an iPhone sale service that is genuine and capable of giving you the best deal on your iPhone. Obviously, many people are eager to sell their old iPhones any time Apple announces the release of its latest iPhone model. If you want to be one of the first people to sell your broken iPhone, at the same time see the people who will purchase the broken iPhone wisely and quickly while the demand is still high.
Consider price
You want to sell your used iPhone at the best price possible. Even if you already have the latest iPhone, you still want to squeeze more money from your used iPhone and use that money to buy something else. The amount of money that you will get from your iPhone will partly be determined by the place where you sell it. For instance, while some iPhone sale services will charge you, others will not charge you when you choose to use them in selling your iPhone. As such, choose an iPhone sale service that enables you to make more money from the sale of your used iPhone.
How to receive your payment
Some iPhone sale services will enable you to get cash for your used device while others will give you credit. Most people want cash while selling their iPhones. It is important that you consider what is best for you before you choose an iPhone sale service. Making extra cash from the sale of your iPhone is an obvious benefit. Most people sell their used iPhones to make extra cash from sale of iphone.
Terms and conditions
You want to sell your iPhone conveniently because time is important when it comes to selling a used iPhone. The best iPhone sale service enables you to sell your iPhone quickly and without stringent conditions.
Still asking where can I sell my iPhone? Then use our iPhone sale service. Our service enables you to sell iPhone 5 at the best price and with ease.


text:
By Alhaji Kamara and Tony Bee: APC Australia National Publicity Secretary 1&2
As the Sierra Leone Peoples Party concludes its chaotic delegate convention, it is crucial to reflect on their present political inefficiency and in-built destructive practices during the past decade.
The practice of identity politics has been entrenched in the core principles of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party. Rather than bonding over a common political objective, SLPP leaders primarily focused on exploiting tribal devotion to promote patronage, cronyism and personal interests.
Due to such factionalism, the party has struggled to resolve internal conflicts and to promote political cooperation. The defection of numerous senior SLPP members in Kono, Freetown and the resignation of KKY shouldn't be a shell-shock to people of Sierra Leone. The dogmatic and closed-minded attributes of SLPP, forced them out of the party. It will take a real polling catastrophe to convince SLPP elders that Bio's leadership and political approach (characterise by tribal alliances) has fundamentally undermined the party's existence.
With the increasing threats of violence from Bio's supporters, it is essential to discuss some of the cold-hearted hostilities carried out in the name of tribal synchronization. Tribal phenomenon have played a heightened role in shaping the geopolitical landscape of Africa and the widespread armed conflicts across the continent. The perpetuation of extreme violence in Somalia and South Sudan, the 2007-08 post-electoral violence in Kenya and the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, have revealed how tribal politics undermined liberal democracy and endangered the lives of innocent civilians.
Although the decade long civil conflict in Sierra Leone cannot be exclusively characterise by tribalism, tribal practices occupied the vacuum created by the deficiency of robust democratic institutions in the country. This was evident in the establishment of numerous ethnic auxiliary forces such as; the Civil defence forces or Kamajors during the civil conflict.
The scale of brutality and vicious atrocities carried out by the warring factions, are still lingering in the minds and souls of many Sierra Leoneans. Therefore, the threats of violence from Bio's supporters and the chaotic SLPP Delegate Convention, may have negative impact on the chances of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party in the 2018 National Election.
By examining the present political trends in Sierra Leone, it's rational to profess that the SLPP might be heading for its worst performance at a general election. As a main opposition party, SLPP has been crumbling and too weak for any chances of replacing the Powerful ruling APC Party. Although according to my Radar, they are seemingly depending on the NEC Chief Alie Conteh for their overnight miracle of wining the elections because he is their Kenema brother at the expense of the nation.
One of the semblances of such hope is that, the SLPPers who are well known for their cry-babies, especially for certain political ISSUES which they normally think they are not in their favour you always hear them crying all over the country and on to international level. But this time around is not the case one hardly hear them crying. Instead they are praising the NEC Chief Alie Conteh with all the heavy state election data blunder. Because they seemed to have hope through the NEC Chief to declare them winner of the upcoming 2018 elections which they might NOT deserved.
Whiles for the interest of efficient democratic principles, good governance and human rights, Sierra Leone requires an active opposition party. Opposition parties have to be the voice of broader segments of society, thrive as political watchdogs to foster transparency, accountability and to wipe out administrative red tape, in order to effectively participate in a liberal democratic process. But not with the self-destruction toothless SLPP opposition in the country that depend on overnight miracle and violence to win the elections.
In view of such impotent attitudes and behaviours, how can the SLPP ask Sierra Leoneans for a vote of confidence, when the party has been toothless for the past decade and incapable of demonstrating the abovementioned attributes of an active opposition party? The in fighting for political supremacy, tribalism, regionalism sentiments' attitudes and behaviours have completely made them to become impotent for the past 10years. A good decade gone they cannot function as a formidable opposition in the country because of self-destructive interest.
According to my observations, the resurgence of SLPP, as a Party capable of competing for political influence and control will be based on a fundamental socio-political transformation. These include:
- The prerequisite to resolve existing conflicts amongst party hierarchies and thrive as an active opposition party.
- Acknowledge internal political competition as a resourceful democratic means of resolving political problems, not as a blood sport.
- A radical shift from tribal and regional sentiments identity politics to the adaptation of conventional standards that allows integration of tribal diversity, ideologies and political visions.
- Form a political environment that is driven by modern ideals, economic and infrastructural development. But not self-destruction development
- Gain the trust and confidence of all Sierra Leonean.
A prosperous political transformation process is traditionally slow and methodical. As a result, the SLPP should expect some difficult challenges ahead. For the next couple of years, All SLPP members must get use to the echo of the APC Party Victory Song.


text:
If you thought Americans were war-weary after the Korean War…
And if you really thought we were done with combat overseas after Vietnam…
Well, today the anti-war sentiment in the U.S. has never been higher. The numbers aren't even close.
According to a Pew Poll in December, Americans are more apathetic about any kind of military intervention than ever before. For example, in 1976, after years of fighting in Vietnam and nearly 60,000 American casualties, 42 percent of Americans agreed that "the U.S. should mind its own business internationally and let other countries get along the best they can on their own." Today, that number is 52 percent, marking the first time since the poll was first taken in 1964 that a majority of Americans have felt this way (for context, that number was only 30 percent in 2002).
Of course, members of both parties in DC talk to their constituents and know the feeling out there, which is why we don't hear a thing about military options when it comes to stopping Vladimir Putin taking over Ukraine and Crimea like he's playing a drunken game of Risk.
Critics of the President's handling of the Russia's aggression are justified when stating his strategy is incoherent and inept. The problem is, while there isn't a shortage of the usual amount of complainers, seemingly no one has a solution of their own with any real teeth. We've seen this movie before when in Iran, Syria and now Ukraine; Mr. Obama has few options outside of threatening sanctions and talking tough, with the latter action being seen as a punch line by the macho Putin more than anything else.
Conservatives, of course, are enjoying seeing the President get bullied by the Russians, while Democrats are just happy the conversation isn't about Obamacare for five minutes. Either way, there are no winners when it comes to the situation in Ukraine. It's like Syria on steroids; a messy state of affairs in a part of the world few Americans could find on a map, let alone articulate how it affects our national interest.
So war-weariness from Afghanistan and Iraq has more of us singing Give Peace a chance, right? Yes…but it's not just those two wars that have us beaten down from banging the war drum. When you think about it, we haven't had a conclusive war with a definitive, positive end since World War II. Whether it was Korea, Vietnam, Black Hawk Down/Somalia (not a war, of course, but a big black eye in terms of U.S. pride), then Afghanistan and Iraq. All had mixed to poor results. All were without a clear objective and conclusion. All, unfortunately, resulted in plenty of loss of blood and treasure…
As for objective, the old rule is action should only be taken when our national interests are at stake. And more Americans just don't see—in Syria and Ukraine, for example—anything in those places that truly (or at least, immediately) affects their daily lives. It's also why ratings haven't really spiked on the cable news front on the Ukraine story (CNN saw a modest bump last Friday). The media wants us to care, but those sitting at home are more interested in selfies by Ellen than something as mundane as an unwarranted invasion by a superpower wannabe of a sovereign nation.
Another factor in this malaise? The sluggish U.S. economy: More folks are leaving the workforce than ever (102 million Americans are currently not working, according to Forbes Magazine) and a sluggish recovery in general has more citizens preferring we concentrate on our domestic issues instead of helping other countries solve theirs.
Fifty-two percent of Americans want us to mind our own business.
They say stay out of Iran.
Steer clear of Syria.
And leave Ukraine and Crimea to fend for themselves.
President Obama's foreign policy may be feckless, but he won't get too much flack for it.
Intentionally or not, the Commander-in-Chief—by not entertaining the thought of military intervention—is simply reflecting the opinion of a majority of the country.


text:
Monday, October 20, 2008
Gossip Girl Jewelry
Miss the Rachel Leigh sample sale on Gilt.com on Friday? We did--and we were pretty bummed about it. Her flirtie, girlie pieces add the right punch of color to many a JSG outfit. This fall, we've been wearing our custom made ribbon wrapped bangles in gold, brown, red and black that were a gift from Clairol back in our beauty editor days (Get it? Each bangle represents a hair color.) Her Audrey enamel bracelet was featured on Gossip Girl--of course Audrey Hepburn-fanatic Blair wore it.
Alas, we were on our way to a lunch date on Friday and not near a computer at the noon-time start time. When we got home post-lunch, we looked over the offerings and were depressed that nearly every piece of her funky, wearable jewelry was sold out. Fortunately, JSG is not that easily deterred when we want something.
Instead of lamenting about what could have been: Rooster charm necklace,
jet and crystal square pendant
and chain bangle
We googled Ms. Leigh and were happy to find she's having a sample sale on her very own site. And some of the prices are even better! Compare $35 for the chain resin bracelet (above) on Rachelleigh.com to the $65 it sold for on Gilt.com. You could almost buy two for the price of one. Which is exactly what we did. See, everything really does happen for a reason.
Now get yourself on over to the Rachel Leigh site and find out what goodies await! And remember, it always pays to shop around!
Looking for a black lace bangle? We found the prefect one--and it only costs $20!
Posted by The Jet Set Girls at 4:30 AM
Labels: Accesories, Gossip Girl, jewelry
2 comments:
dig the rooster!
- October 20, 2008 at 10:00 AM
- eye4style said...
Awesome find on her sale! thanks!
- October 20, 2008 at 10:50 AM
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
Sometimes a design is too complicated to simply explain. One can better visualize the product through a scale model rather than a 2D drawing. In cases like this, 3D Scale Models can help.
3D Scale Models are used for a range of purposes:
-Models can be use to examine the interaction between features.
-Models can be used as show pieces at trade shows or sales presentation.
-Models are an effective way for you to exhibit and sell your design/product.
Scale models are used in a number of different fields which include engineering and design, architecture, military, sales, and hobbyist.
A lot of 3D Scale models are fabricated in plastic from a number of additive manufacturing and 3D printing processes. Additive manufacturing and 3D printing are popular scale model processes because they can accurately fabricate the small details and interactions that a model portrays.
CLICK HERE to learn more about Scale Models.


text:
Ngahere Rewarewa Table Runner
Ngahere is the Maori word for bush. The red background is a cherry red and the ferns are a soft gold. It is a wonderful festive colourway that brings warmth and celebration to the table setting.
Makaka, a New Zealand maidenhair fern thrives in the native bush. It is found close to running water and bathed in the dappled light created by the forest canopy. The Ngahere (bush) design features Makaka delicate heart shaped pinnules.
Designed, printed and made in New Zealand.
145cm x 45cm
100% Pre-shrunk cotton canvas.
Screen printed.
Heat-set with good light-fastness.
Nice draping quality.
Tablecloth Care
Gentle machine wash with mild detergent and line dry.
We do not recommend tumble drying or dry cleaning.
Hot iron.


text:
Traditional fest for the Day of Saint Konstantinos and Saint Helen at Soroni.
The cultural club of Soroni "Ampirnalli" invites you to a traditional fest with live music and dancing. As every year and invited by the church of Soroni, on Tuesday 20 May 2014,the day before the celebration of Saint Konstantinos and Saint Helen, we organize a traditional fest at the church of saint Konstantinos and Helen and George.
The evensong will start at 18:30 and after 20:00 the dance will start with the show from our juvenile dancing group.
8 & 11 of May 2014 events
- EUTHITA RHODES-Observation Post for Road Safety
- Club of Blood donor "Brotherhood of Blood Rhodes"
- Greek Red Cross, annex of Rhodes
- Club of Thalassemia patients
Christoforeia 2014 – European Day for road safety:
We honor the protector of Euthita Rhodes snt. Christopher: Protector of the drivers.
The message " Everyone drives… Everyone is in danger… Donate blood… Save a life…
International Day of Thalassemia
Voluntary blood donation from 9:00-13:30 at the entrance of the Town Hall in collaboration with the club of blood donor " Brotherhood of blood Rhodes".
International Day of the red Cross
First Aid and rescue exhibition at the square of the Town Hall from 15:00-22:00, by the club of volunteer Samaritans, Rescuers and Lifeguards of Rhodes.
European Day of Road Safety
Sunday 11 May 2014 (2nd Sunday of May) International mother's day.
All the mothers of Euthita Rhodes invite you on Sunday at 11:30, to the ceremony at the inner garden of the General Hospital of Rhodes, in order to honor the memories of the casualties of car accidents, the administration of the General Hospital of Rhodes, the employees of the G. Hospital, to everyone of us…
We are looking forward to meeting you… Be there…
7th strawberry festival on Sunday May 11, 2014
The cultural club of Paradisi "Villanova" invites you at the 7th strawberry festival on Sunday May 11, 2014 at 12:00 at the Paradisi's High school yard (Snt. Marina's church), in order to promote the local strawberry production.
The visitors will taste a variety of strawberry dishes and they will also have the opportunity to watch the local cultural clubs who will present traditional dancing from all over the country.
There will be live music from a folk band.
Thank you all.
Song of May of May & Celebration 1st May in St.Georgio Pastidas
The Cultural Association of Pastida Rhodes "Kamari" in the constant effort made to preserve and maintain the customs and traditions of our country for one more time will hold the "Song of May" in Pastida and celebrate May 1st Day in the fascinating area, where is the monastery of St. George in our village.
The eve of May 1st Day and more particularly at 23:15 we will gather at the Cultural Center of Pastida excluding members of the Association and of course everyone is welcome.
On 12 midnight will begin to sing accompaniment of musical instruments Singing May and throw flowers in the streets and courtyards. A custom that has existed for many years in our village and revived by our Association. This unique way our ancestors welcomed May.
MAY 1st DAY IN ST. GEORGIO PASTIDA
As old so now we call once more around the world on May Day to give this to the monastery of St. George, where apart from our orchestra will entertain us, toys that have passed the oblivion of history, make dynamic again significantly their presence and waiting children and adults to have fun and simply beautiful as is pulling the rope, the sack, the egg game etc.
The Association will operate a canteen with all required.


text:
July 13, 2016
In July 2014, Deputy Assistant Secretary Robin Lerner arrived at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, Colorado as part of the Department of State's Route J-1 road trip program. Spirit J-1 participants working at various locations in Estes Park gathered together for an international fair, where they created booths about their home countries for their American coworkers, visitors, and residents to enjoy and to learn more about the participants' different cultures. Robin Lerner gave a speech and participants loved being able to share their home countries with everyone involved!
Robin Lerner's Visit


text:
As the Soviet Union approached breakdown, its borders became inflamed with former republics trying to find their place in the new political scenario, some struggling to escape from Russian surveillance-Baltic Republics-, others conspiring with it to seek greater independence-South Ossetia, Abkhazia-. This was particularly true for the Caucasus, a region of major strategic importance that has been a constant focus of destabilization and unrest during the last three centuries where it has served as battleground for confrontation between Russia, former Ottoman Empire and the West. Among the bloodiest recent conflicts, the carnage of Chechnia, a dramatic and brutal showdown that Vladimir Putin eventually sorted out by shattering the region to pieces with little distinction between civilians and combatants. In Georgia, transition has been smoother so far: a corrupted government led by former Soviet Union Foreign Affairs minister Edward Shevernadze collapsed in 2003 and a new young leader emerged from the Rose revolution, the pro-western and urbane Mikhail Saakashvili. After a landslide victory in general elections in 2003 (96.2% of the vote), he built up a government of extremely young ministers and officials determined to root out widespread corruption and embarked on a series of liberalizing reforms that have yielded impressive, sustained double digit growth during last years -though unevenly distributed and with inflation getting out of hand. That is why news from last week came as a shock: after six days of massive demonstrations organized by all opposition parties in the capital Tiblisi (estimates of more than 50.000 in a country of less than 5 millions), Saakashvili imposed state of emergency and shut down private TV stations, on grounds-not yet proved- that opponents backed by Russia were plotting a coup. The day after, he called for early elections on the 5th of January.
What brought Georgia to this point? How can a president take office with overwhelming support and end up being forced to clampdown demonstrators and to modify his agenda in order to content the opposition, barely 4 years later ? It all started with a government cabinet rearrangement in 2006. Irakli Okruashvili ,then Minister of Defense and originally a close ally of Saakashvili, was appointed Minister of Economic Development, resigning a week afterwards. He then founded a new political party, heavily criticizing the president and his practices, but in 2007, he was arrested on charges of extortion, money laundering and abuse of office while Georgia's Minister of Defense. Okruashvili, a controversial character, has been playing with fire retracting and unretracting from heavy accusations against Saakashvili: he has accused him of planning to murder the Georgian Tychoon Badri Patarkatsishvili, now a possible candidate in elections next January. But this crossed fire, together with growing divide between rich and poor, seem to have helped gathering non negligible support against Mr.Saakashvili, erupting in the demonstrations last week.
Why does Mikhail Saakashvili, already an arch-rival for Moscow, have so many powerful internal enemies? Russia does not seem to have much to do with it all, at least until the contrary is proven. In fact, if a new president emerges from the opposition campaign, chances are that he will not be Pro-Russian. Just to give an example: after the ominous and shameful-because unjustified and evidenceless in a global scale- Russian ban on Georgian wine and water in 2006, Georgia admitted some falsified wine had been exported in the past to Russia, but not to other countries-which never complained of low standards-, because, then Defense Minister Okruashvili stated, some producers "were able to export wine there which would never be sold, for example, in Europe because even if you export – excuse me for this expression – feces to Russia it can be sold there". Anti Russianism seems to be a cohesive force rather than a dividing drive in Georgia.
Saakashvili's task is surely no easy one. Leading a country under constant strain to escape long-lasting Russian interference, while at a time having to quell internal centrifugal turmoil from breakaway regions as Abkhazia-where about 200,000 Georgians are waiting to return home after civil war in the nineties, see outrageous demographics – and South Ossetia, in addition to pushing through an ambitious agenda of economic reforms, can be too much even for the stakanovist, ambitious, multi lingual current president. The mystery, even after reading western-minded reports, is why and how he managed to generate such a fierce opposition in so short a time, and why so many people believe the apparently dodgy Okruashvili. A close analysis of Mr.Saakashvili recent statements may help shedding light on it: he has repeatedly insisted that one of the main principles of his life is the fight against corruption. It is notorious that leaders or officials who make the uprooting of corruption their first priority often risk ending up tearing the country in two-like in Italy, for instance-, and even more dangerous, winding up themselves into privileged ruling and enclosed radicalism and sectarianism. This web page makes no secret it considers battle against corruption one of the most important and decisive tasks in politics, one of those driving principles applicable everywhere, every time. The problem is, as ever, how to better tackle the issue: there approaches may vary quite significantly. Fighting against corruption –especially in countries transitioning from controlled markets to free ones-always involves structural elimination of old, die-hard habits which might have convened a significant part of the society. The funambulist's skills are much required in convincing or forcing this old guard to step down, but also in deterring new tycoons from proliferating like locusts seeking for quick enrichment. It is the task of a responsible governor to make this transition as smooth as possible while, at a time, showing sufficient assertiveness to be able to push through actual, measurable reform.
Also the fact that Saakashvili's government was constituted from the very beginning with extremely young members may have played an important role: ambition is known to itch harder among people who have yet to face major defeats throughout their political life and are still seeking their limits, and it is also often incompatible with patience and moderation. A 96.2% victory is necessarily dictated by temporary euphoria and it should not be forgotten that Shaakasvili was elected as consensus candidate for all opposition parties after the Rose revolution.
Europe again, pushing in favour of Georgia's candidacy to NATO-top priority in Saakashvili's foreign agenda-, could give a hand. Russia is essential in terms of energy policies-and therefore many in Europe do not want to anger it too much-, but also moral principles should be at the core of the strategy.
The president must have felt the breath of his opponents very close, according to the aggressive response he inflicted to demonstrators. He must have had the impression that the situation was getting out of hand and this is indeed a worrying precedent.Also Human Rights issues are far from being fixed -but let us remember that Saakashvili started his career as a Human Rights lawyer. Decolonization processes -Russia has still military basis in Georgia- are never solved in just one political term, and reforms necessarily anger those who do not directly benefit from them and rather feel their downsides. Saakashvili needs to build greater consensus around his presidency: on one hand such early election may limit the opposition's ability to campaign properly; on the other too divided a vote may weaken the country's ability to operate in such troubled waters. What sometimes Western Countries fail to grasp is the sheer complexity of breaking away from assertive colossus like Russia, obsessed with the constant weaving of security webs around its borders, regardless of the methods employed –like issuing a massive number of Russian passports to citizens of breakaway regions-. In such scenarios, skilful and moderate, transition-minded leaders are certainly needed, but at a certain point, courage and determination become the paramount ingredients, in order to get through as the decisive gamble with history approaches.


text:
Wildwood to prune their fruit trees this year.
It had been some time since the trees were pruned in a prudent manner. The espalier apple and pears were losing their form, the citrus were weighed down with fruit, and the large apple was a cobweb of branches.
After a day of work, the trees regained some recognizable form. Hopefully they will produce a bumper 2016 crop!


text:
14 hours ago
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Visit my new website
I am setting up a website devoted to my collection. It is not complete yet, but I have some pictures and links in place for now. To visit it, click on this link http://www.dollhousesantiquetomodern.com
Please note that you can ask me to post things you have for sale. Just email me a picture, description and your contact info and I will post them. Responses will be slow at first, but as people find the site it will be come more popular. I will be defining the website over the next couple of months and adding to it. Once I have established the format I will add to it regularly.
Your input will help. You are welcome to email me pictures, questions, dollhouse stories at email@example.com.
Spread the word.
Hugs from Susan
Posted by Shale at Saturday, November 26, 2011 4 comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)


text:
Knitted Hat "Michel"
This knitted hat has Thinsulate interior fleece, is windproof and breathable.
- 100% Acrylic
- 11 Grey
- One size fits all
For more information visit the FHB website:
There is hardly any clothing where the quality is as critical as it is for work clothing.
It is usually worn more than 40 hours per week. Sometimes, it even has a protective function. And no matter what, it helps with the work. Besides good production and convincing functionality, the basic materials and accessories are the critical factors for ensuring their robust nature and long life.
That is why we have opted for zip fasteners from YKK, thread from Amann and fabric from Kindermann in Ibbenbüren or Kettelhack in Rheine. Quality is critical.


text:
Lessons take place in the student's home.
We offer piano lessons, guitar lessons, voice lessons and violin lessons.
We teach in all areas of Edmonton, Sherwood Park, and St. Albert, provided that there are teachers available.
Tuition for the first month, plus a $25 registration fee (per family) must be paid before the first lesson takes place. Payments may be made by MasterCard or Visa.
Learning an instrument is a truly rewarding experience that will help your child build motor skills and increase their self-confidence. A great deal of research has found that playing an instrument helps to develop the part of the brain used for mathematics, critical thinking, and problem solving.
Our teachers go to great lengths to keep this process fun and rewarding so that their students will continue to play throughout their lives.
We recommend that students are at least five years old to begin lessons. Guitar lessons are best when children are a bit older.
Yes! We have many adults who are beginners at playing a musical instrument or singing.
A Spring Recital is held in May of each year. Participating is not mandatory.
That will depend on the child and the expectations of the parents and teacher. As with anything in life, the more you put into it, the more you get out of it. Your teacher will discuss practice expectations with you.
An acoustic piano is a huge investment, and certainly not needed for beginning lessons. Many parents purchase keyboards to use during lessons and for practicing. When purchasing a keyboard, be sure to look for one with 88 weighted keys. If you purchase an acoustic piano, please be sure that you get it tuned regularly.
Lessons can be 30, 45 or 60 minutes in length. 30-minute lessons, once a week, is a good way to start. Lessons can be extended if needed, and be arranged by talking to your teacher and the Key Mobile Music office. Extra fees apply when lesson times are extended.
Copyright © 2020 Key Mobile Music - All Rights Reserved.


text:
When it comes to commercial type environments one simple way to help the tile and grout when cleaning is by changing the mop water more frequently. If dirty mop water is put back down on the floor once the water evaporates the dirt and mildew soak into the grout and cause some stains that may not come out. However by having your tile and grout cleaned and color sealed you can have a brand new looking floor that will be easier to clean moving forward by practicing the proper cleaning procedures. Here is a commercial building in Billerica ,MA in need of grout cleaning that had a tile floor that was not really properly maintained but we brought it back to life with our tile and grout cleaning and color sealing process, and worked with our customer to keep it looking good In the future.
Before our tile and grout cleaning and color sealing process
After our tile and grout cleaning and color sealing process


text:
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Review of Texas Authors Day
15 comments:
Lovely blog Celia! Thanks for sharing the table with me. I enjoyed spending the afternoon with you!ReplyDelete
Phil and Bill were very sweet. Maybe we'll get to see them again. :)
DIANA--thanks! I love to meet people who are a little out of the norm. Yes, both of them were sweet, just as kind as can be. Thanks for being my table-mate. CeliaReplyDelete
Thanks for inviting me to drop by, Celia. Lovely library and interesting group of people in the photos. I feel as if I've been there with you.ReplyDelete
There's my Texas lady Celia! That looked like a lot of fun - and how lovely to see Diana Castilleja again, we used to 'see'each other regularly on chats, but not for ages! Glad to see you're doing great, Diana! thanks for sharing the photos, Celia!ReplyDelete
Jane x
Sounds like a fun day with exciting people. It's always been my dream to visit Texas. Maybe someday soon.ReplyDelete
Sounds like you had a wonderful day. I enjoyed the pictures and meeting some new authors.ReplyDelete
Thank you, Linda Swift, for stopping by--You alwasy make my day. CeliaReplyDelete
JANE--Hi, and thank you for the sweet comments.Diana was also one of the presenters. She really knows the business. CeliaReplyDelete
Linda L. and Loretta--I do so appreciate your stopping by. CeliaReplyDelete
Now that looks like fun to me!!ReplyDelete
Celia, thanks so much for sharing your pictures with us. It looks like it was a real special day. I can tell you guys had a lot of fun. It's events like this I would think all authors find the most rewarding about being an author.ReplyDelete
MARY AND STEPH--it was fun. It's different from a book signing because (1) there were so many authors--44. (2) All genres and categories were represented. there were only three romance authors there. Me, Diana, and a woman who wrote for Bethany House Inspiraitonals. Wonderful stories.CeliaReplyDelete
Celia, thank you for sharing the pictures. You have a lovely library. I am so happy to see a picture of Diane who was so gracious at posting my books and excerpts. It looks like you had a great day.ReplyDelete
MONA--we did have a good time. I roamed around some, and my dh sat at my table with Diane. Now he knows more about her than I do. CeliaReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 2, 2011 at 3:01 PM
The Ford workstation brings your office to your vehicle, making it easier to conduct business in Houston than ever before. Ask your Houston Ford dealer about the options available. rn rnWith an in-dash computer in your Ford pickup or van, you drive around Texas without having to back track to your office in Houston to fill out a form or submit a work order. Simply logon to your computer from your Ford and check e-mails, fill out spreadsheets and log information. Your Ford dealer Houston can discuss further with you the benefits of the Ford workstation.ReplyDelete
[url=http://motoreviewnow.info/sandberg-volvo/]Sandberg Volvo[/url]


text:
Clear Ethnic Skin Treated to Perfection
A variety of treatments designed for Caucasian, Asian, African-American and Latino skin types with methods formulated specifically for each skin type and condition. We use medical products to prep the skin prior to any procedure, helping to ensure perfect results in fewer treatments. Our most challenging skin is the Ethnic & Mediterranean skin tones. Our talented skin care professionals have practiced for many years and have mastered the perfect formula for the fastest results to achieving clear and smooth skin.
- Basic Facial
- Acne Facial
- Peels
- Laser Hair Removal & Preparation
- Bump & Rash Elimination
Facial Treatments
During a facial the esthetician begins by evaluating the skin using various masks, steam baths and extractions. The esthetician may use products to reduce the surface of dead skin cells, soothe or hydrate the skin. Your esthetician may also recommend products for at home use like cleansers, toners and other treatments that will not aggravate the skin.
Laser Treatments
The YAG laser has been proven particularly effective for the darkest skin tones. This new generation of lasers has been developed so that it generates less damaging heat (long pulse lasers) and that efficiently cool the skin (sapphire cooled tip, cryogenic spray, or cold air flow).
This laser is most appropriate for African, Asian and Latina skin. Our policy is for you to come in and meet our laser technicians to discuss your choices and advise you how to prep the skin for your treatment giving you the best results!