Here's the next piece from Nader. He seemed to be taking sides in the election yesterday. Today, not so much.
Leanderthal
Friday, September 28, 2012
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Nader Taking Sides
Here's a surprise for you. Ralph Nader is actually taking sides in the election.
His free gift to Obama of a letter to Romney is welcome.
Leanderthal
His free gift to Obama of a letter to Romney is welcome.
Leanderthal
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Any Problems Reading My Blog?
I received an anonymous comment about text on this blog running past margins, or something like that.
Please let me know if anyone else is experiencing a problem. This is the first I've heard of it.
Leanderthal
Please let me know if anyone else is experiencing a problem. This is the first I've heard of it.
Leanderthal
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Why I read Kevin Drum at Mother Jones
Here's why.
In watching some re-runs of 911 today I can still not say that I believe the official line. Those who observe that the collapse of the twin towers look awfully like a controlled demolition make me wonder about the truth.
Those who initially reported that a bomb had gone of around the heliport at the Pentagon, and sketch physical
evidence of the remains of an airliner, make me wonder also.
Like the Kennedy assassination and the follow up killing of Oswald, it's likely that we will never know the truth.
People of the ilk of Dick Cheney don't inspire my confidence that they are without guilt for 911.
Leanderthal
In watching some re-runs of 911 today I can still not say that I believe the official line. Those who observe that the collapse of the twin towers look awfully like a controlled demolition make me wonder about the truth.
Those who initially reported that a bomb had gone of around the heliport at the Pentagon, and sketch physical
evidence of the remains of an airliner, make me wonder also.
Like the Kennedy assassination and the follow up killing of Oswald, it's likely that we will never know the truth.
People of the ilk of Dick Cheney don't inspire my confidence that they are without guilt for 911.
Leanderthal
Saturday, September 8, 2012
The Map of Where We Stand
Here's another map of the U.S. which reveals, by color coding, how divided we are as a people.
This map is about how the electoral college stats look now.
There have been similar maps depicting how the country is divided in other ways. One was about education, as in completing high school or not, and earning a college degree or not.
What has struck me though, regardless of what the maps were depicting, was the consistency of red state, blue state grouping. Red states predominate down the middle of the country, and in much of the southeast. Blue states seem to group along both coasts, Atlantic and Pacific.
It's tempting to try to draw conclusions, or at least make broad generalities based on these visuals. Both the West Coast and the East Coast are where many of our largest cities are located, in which its citizens are acutely aware of the distinctions between the haves and the have nots, perhaps more so than in the more rural states, especially in the middle of the country, and where the values might be more oriented around individual hard word, as in farming for example, and being successful as defined by individual effort, and where the minority population might be smaller than in the large cities. In the southeast the states are likely to be more concerned with the influx of immigrants from south of the border, as in Florida, Texas and New Mexico.
As I write this I am acutely aware of how easy it is to debunk this generality. The Koch brothers are Californians for example.
I'm also aware that I am, by nature, one who likes to focus on the big picture, the forest, and can easily overlook or at least not pay much attention to the individual trees which make up the forest.
Nevertheless, when one looks at these maps it's hard not to see that red states and blue states seem to be grouped in a rather obvious way. Blue states on both coasts and red states in the middle of the country.
Why does this matter? Perhaps it matters when one reads the Republican Party platform, which is all about
individual hard work, not depending on a government financed safety net. What is so obvious about this is that such a value system is at the heart of how this country has been so successful.
What is less obvious about this however is that this system of values is wonderful as an abstract ideal, but when the individuals who have espoused such ideals find themselves in deep shit, often in spite of doing all that they could, they are at the mercy of those who, immune financially to the possibility of ever being in such dire straits, used their deep pockets, like the mafia, to threaten their senators and representative that they will withdraw financial support unless they tow the line dictated by their corrupt patrons.
The Republican Party, as it is constituted today, is anathema to any and all who have a care for the disadvanged, those who honestly, as best they could, tried to make it on their own, but were thwarted by
things like devasting health care costs, disabilities which prevent one from holding a job, and earning a living, or perhaps just having grown old, and experiencing all that goes with growing old.
One needs only to drive around the hometown and make note of where the GOPher signs are displayed. My experience has it that I find signs for Republicans in front of properties which clearly are worth millions in the marketplace, and also in front of properties whose known owners have consistently thwarted any and all attempts to pass regulations designed to protect endangered species, and/or ridicule scientists who are crying in the wilderness about the long term effects of climate change on our home planet.
Leanderthal, One Voice Crying in the Wilderness.
This map is about how the electoral college stats look now.
There have been similar maps depicting how the country is divided in other ways. One was about education, as in completing high school or not, and earning a college degree or not.
What has struck me though, regardless of what the maps were depicting, was the consistency of red state, blue state grouping. Red states predominate down the middle of the country, and in much of the southeast. Blue states seem to group along both coasts, Atlantic and Pacific.
It's tempting to try to draw conclusions, or at least make broad generalities based on these visuals. Both the West Coast and the East Coast are where many of our largest cities are located, in which its citizens are acutely aware of the distinctions between the haves and the have nots, perhaps more so than in the more rural states, especially in the middle of the country, and where the values might be more oriented around individual hard word, as in farming for example, and being successful as defined by individual effort, and where the minority population might be smaller than in the large cities. In the southeast the states are likely to be more concerned with the influx of immigrants from south of the border, as in Florida, Texas and New Mexico.
As I write this I am acutely aware of how easy it is to debunk this generality. The Koch brothers are Californians for example.
I'm also aware that I am, by nature, one who likes to focus on the big picture, the forest, and can easily overlook or at least not pay much attention to the individual trees which make up the forest.
Nevertheless, when one looks at these maps it's hard not to see that red states and blue states seem to be grouped in a rather obvious way. Blue states on both coasts and red states in the middle of the country.
Why does this matter? Perhaps it matters when one reads the Republican Party platform, which is all about
individual hard work, not depending on a government financed safety net. What is so obvious about this is that such a value system is at the heart of how this country has been so successful.
What is less obvious about this however is that this system of values is wonderful as an abstract ideal, but when the individuals who have espoused such ideals find themselves in deep shit, often in spite of doing all that they could, they are at the mercy of those who, immune financially to the possibility of ever being in such dire straits, used their deep pockets, like the mafia, to threaten their senators and representative that they will withdraw financial support unless they tow the line dictated by their corrupt patrons.
The Republican Party, as it is constituted today, is anathema to any and all who have a care for the disadvanged, those who honestly, as best they could, tried to make it on their own, but were thwarted by
things like devasting health care costs, disabilities which prevent one from holding a job, and earning a living, or perhaps just having grown old, and experiencing all that goes with growing old.
One needs only to drive around the hometown and make note of where the GOPher signs are displayed. My experience has it that I find signs for Republicans in front of properties which clearly are worth millions in the marketplace, and also in front of properties whose known owners have consistently thwarted any and all attempts to pass regulations designed to protect endangered species, and/or ridicule scientists who are crying in the wilderness about the long term effects of climate change on our home planet.
Leanderthal, One Voice Crying in the Wilderness.
GOPhers' Alternative Universe
Dear Reader,
Mind boggling, idiocy, lunacy, unhinged from reality, hateful comments: that's all I can think of to say which is printable in a publication intended for thoughtful and decent people.
The following links take you to two examples of publicly made comments coming from some of the most obviously unhinged GOPhers, as they begin to realize that the speakers at the DNC convention are making it clear that the speakers at their own GOPher convention, whom one would assume were chosen because they were thought to be good spokespersons for their approach to governing, bombed.in the minds of almost everyone, including those, who like me, had held out hope to now as Republicans, let alone that Cloud based, amorphous non-constituency, euphemistcally called Independents.
Click here and here to read examples of what I came across in the public sphere in just the last few days , that which has been reported by some element of the media with which we are which qualifies for my including their authors in my list people who are idiots, lunatics, hateful and unhinged.
Mind boggling, idiocy, lunacy, unhinged from reality, hateful comments: that's all I can think of to say which is printable in a publication intended for thoughtful and decent people.
The following links take you to two examples of publicly made comments coming from some of the most obviously unhinged GOPhers, as they begin to realize that the speakers at the DNC convention are making it clear that the speakers at their own GOPher convention, whom one would assume were chosen because they were thought to be good spokespersons for their approach to governing, bombed.in the minds of almost everyone, including those, who like me, had held out hope to now as Republicans, let alone that Cloud based, amorphous non-constituency, euphemistcally called Independents.
Click here and here to read examples of what I came across in the public sphere in just the last few days , that which has been reported by some element of the media with which we are which qualifies for my including their authors in my list people who are idiots, lunatics, hateful and unhinged.
When Will They Ever Learn?
Here's the most recent piece I've come across regarding the threat of Global Warming which grabbed my attention enough to share it with you.
The answers to the title of this post include, but are not limited to:
Not until those of enormous wealth wake up to the reality that their good fortune has been built, not only on the backs of those they could intimidate, but on their own tragic denial of what they know to be true.
Not until the Koch brothers generation has passed on.
Not until it's no longer true that the sins of the fathers are passed on to the next generation.
Not until all human beings understand that they should all use their brains.
Not until the climate of the Arctic and the Antarctic becomes rain forest.
At least that gives us some hope.
Leanderthal
Leanderthal
The answers to the title of this post include, but are not limited to:
Not until those of enormous wealth wake up to the reality that their good fortune has been built, not only on the backs of those they could intimidate, but on their own tragic denial of what they know to be true.
Not until the Koch brothers generation has passed on.
Not until it's no longer true that the sins of the fathers are passed on to the next generation.
Not until all human beings understand that they should all use their brains.
Not until the climate of the Arctic and the Antarctic becomes rain forest.
At least that gives us some hope.
Leanderthal
Leanderthal
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