The "Arab Spring" -- Isn't!

There has been a lot of nonsense about the "Arab Spring" being this "new awakening of democracy" and other bull___t written and spoken over the last couple of years.  Unfortunately, it has largely become a replacement of US-installed and supported dictators with a different set of dictators.  Not supported as lavishly by American $$$ - but still pretty reprehensible individuals.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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Another Good Wrap Up

I got busy on Friday and Saturday so I just got around to watching the Shields and Brooks segment recorded on a very weird news day Friday when Boston was still locked down. 

Their comments on the defeat of the gun control background checks though are what really interested me -- I don't think it was 'political structure' as much as it was floods of NRA money to certain pockets.  Since the Senate just voted against the wishes of 90% of the American people so the Senators could keep their place at the pig trough....I don't think this is over yet.  Particularly since we should start seeing some hard facts from the Centers For Disease Control (CDC)  now that President Obama has restarted their research into one of the biggest health plagues in the US (other than health insurance companies) -- guns.

Watch Shields and Brooks on Resilience During National Trauma on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

Facebook That!

One of the items about the Boston Marathon bombing and ensuing investigation last week that is only now coming to light was just how badly the vaunted "social media" world botched it.  I am one of the minority who think that Facebook is pretty much for idiots, and Twitter for those who can't rise up to the low level of Facebook standards. 

However the botched mess that Reddit users and others made and the possibly significant damage they caused to the investigation is only now coming to light.  Ironically, the 'information should be free' folks may have done more than enough to assure that will be less true in future high-profile investigations.

Deficit Cutting Takes A Hit

In the interest of giving you food for thought (assuming you are a thinker and not a politician) Paul Krugman (a mostly-Keynesian economist, and a Nobel Prize winner) had a column that points out some very serious problems in an economic paper whose conclusions have been used verbatim and with almost no analysis by the extreme 'cut deficits at all costs' gang - Republicans in the US who want the money to resume flowing to their "one percenter" benefactors, but also other political types around the world as well.

Me?  I'm mostly with George Bernard Shaw on this one - "If all the economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion.".

Keep on thinking!

I Knew the Republicans Were in Trouble..But Really?

This is a little extreme even for them.  

They have plainly shown their utter contempt and outright disdain for the working middle class American over the last several years and demonstrated again and again their childlike fealty toward mega-billionaires and job-destroyers as well as the operators of our national disgrace - the death panels we call health insurance companies.  And of course they profess surprise when their party approval rating spirals ever lower.

But today they openly declared their dedication to the continued ability of the domestic violence perpetrators, murders, rapists, child molesters, criminally insane, and just plain convicted felons to continue to obtain weapons of any caliber and capacity at will...just by going to a gun show or finding a willing (or even unwilling if they can bully them) "private seller". 

That's getting a little desperate for people to say nice things about the Repubs.

No wonder the rest of the world is increasingly convinced that the US is populated only by the insane!

Surprise, Surprise...Not!

I think the US needs one big "do-over" for the incredibly ham handed, pratfall beginning it made to the 21st century.  A report from a diverse and non-politically influenced commission has been issued that basically says what anyone with any sense of what was really going on at that time knew. 

The Bush administration discussed, endorsed, and practiced every low form of torture and other mutilations of due process that it could possibly come up with...all while talking nobly out of the other sides of their slimy mouths about "exporting democracy", "making the world safe for democracy" and "if you aren't for us, you are against us (or we'll torture you until you can't think straight)".

   

US Education - Wake Up!

If your school board or the state school administration is still murmuring into its collective navel about how much to expose our kids to sex ed or which 'version' of the Civil War to teach or which books need banned....better walk right up to them and slap them....HARD!

While Michelle Rhea and other US reformers of education have part of the equation right, it is not the whole story.  If you don't know who Michelle Rhea is, here is a well-done PBS Frontline piece on her and her reform efforts:

The first thing about Tom Friedman that got my interest and attention is his early (before almost everyone else) realization that the world is flat after all in some very important ways. This recent column talks about how progressive school districts and teachers can make a difference by acknowledging this fact and comparing themselves to the world education systems at large.  It is no credit to US education (or to those who blame environment for everything) that middle class US students are pretty resoundingly whipped in all categories by the Shanghai, China lower income students. 

It is possible to do better -- but US educators and the public in general have to give up this inane, outdated idea of local control of everything.  The countries that are whipping our _ss educationally all share one common trait -- they have a centralized set of educational standards and criteria that must be met everywhere, partly for world competitive reasons, but also to insure that you don't have a bunch of little fiefdoms running off in different directions creating their own little islands of incompetence.

One (Of Many) Ways We Manage to Justify Wars

In my lifetime, the US has fought and lost at least five wars (Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan 1, Iraq 2, and Afghanistan 2).  More if you count the Iraq 1 stalemate as a loss, which it was by any lasting, reasonable criteria.  They get justified by any number of lies or other shenanigans by Washington DC, aided and abetted by the laughingly badly named (if it wasn't so expensive) "defense" industry.
 
One of the more egregious ways is either believing what politicians tell us (i.e. George II) or believing that the government has 'classified' documents to prove everything.  This interesting series shows that the 'legal justification' used by LBJ to justify the Vietnam War was in reality just so much puffed-up Texas hooey......

http://nuclearrisk.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/fool-me-once-avoiding-needless-wars-part-1-the-first-gulf-of-tonkin-incident/

http://nuclearrisk.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/avoiding-needless-wars-part-2-the-second-gulf-of-tonkin-incident/

"A Republic .... If You Can Keep It"

That is all the Founding Fathers gave to us...and it is depressing to realize how far we have drifted from it.  The core of the problem has no political ideology (the founders hated the thought of political parties after all) but instead is a result of the corrupting power of money (capitalism at its finest). 

When only 132 Americans gave 60% of all the"SuperPac" money that financed candidates in the 2012 election...something is very, very, wrong...

This TED Talk by Lawrence Lessig is well worth listening to --- and I am thinking the Supreme Court justices who gave us the abomination of the "corporations are people" stance might benefit most...hearing what the founders REALLY intended.).

Just Where is the Lowest Common Denominator, Anyway?

It has been awhile since I have posted one of these....and this particular polling company seems to seek out the fringe, but if their polling methods are accurate Jay Leno will have no trouble filling out his remaining "Jay-Walk" sequences....

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/2011/PPP_Release_National_ConspiracyTheories_040213.pdf

...and then, of course, they voted!

The Insane NRA

The NRA continues to blast away at any chance they have of being considered even remotely sane...but then that is what people with high-capacity mags do right?   After this little soiree at the National Press Club, it is apparent that they think that the second half of the Second amendment to the Constitution trumps the First and Fourth amendments completely.....

http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2013/04/the_nra_deploys_its_muscle_at.html

A picture (or a well-crafted editorial cartoon) sometimes says more than a lot of words:

http://www.gocomics.com/signewilkinson/2013/04/03

Unfortunately, the general public (who can barely stand to wait for the next brainless Tweet to appear) are demonstrating the typical waning interest that allows our elected political idiots to ignore anything that might cost them money.  From a high of 60%-65% in favor of harsher gun laws, it is down now to a more 50/50 split according to latest polls.  Still....that is a longer attention span than Americans usually demonstrate on anything.....too bad about the next mall, theater, concert, football or baseball game that falls prey to someone taking advantage of that second half of the Second amendment....

Keystone Pipeline - Are We Sure???

There has been a lot of hoopla over the Keystone Pipeline  permitting through the US (despite the fact that almost none of the oil is destined for the US, but the much more lucrative "world market" via our Gulf ports and refineries).   

This report gives yet another reason to be a bit careful --- this crap flowing through the pipeline is not healthy in any sense of the word:

 

Watch Weighing Risks of Keystone Pipeline Extension After Spill on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

Attention Congress!

I have been busy with work and a technical course I have been taking online, so haven't had much time to post.  But I couldn't resist when I saw this item.  

THIS Washington DC....is what the people you are reputedly representing want...and this is HOW YOU GET THINGS DONE!